#sleeper hit tv shows

[katerinathesaint]

stanford!subby!art x f!reader blurb? (probably too long to be a blurb)

warnings: smut, comfort, aftercare!!, slight dumbification?, handjob😁, pet names (sweet boy, baby), slight au bc art and reader live a nice apartment together and it has a spare bedroom that patrick uses sometimes, sub and dom themes, art being sad (the usual), arts foot catching strays, bad writing.

synopsis: arts having a rough day and just wants to relax:((, which you gladly help him with.

a/n: guys this is so rushed i know it’s bad please don’t yell at me or ill cum and cry at the same time please spare me there’s a reason i don’t right long blurbs or fics😖😖😖

Art should’ve just stayed in bed that day. It started off blissfully; he woke up, his arms wrapped around your waist and his nose nuzzled into your neck whilst you slept peacefully. His favorite place to be.

From there, it just all went down hill. When he got out of bed to head to the large bathroom you shared, he stubbed his toe on the doorframe, immediately letting out a quiet grunt of pain and a nearly silent ‘fuck’ and ‘god dammit’.

A little later, after his morning shower and such, he tried making breakfast; tried. His hand reached for the pan he was going to use to cook some eggs for breakfast; some protein before a long day of practice sounded good.

Except, the handle slipped from his fingertips and the pan immediately fell onto his foot, then slammed onto the hardwood floor. He leaned against the kitchen counter for stability, as he cradled his now injured (a small bruise formed later) foot.

Art had prayed that the loud ‘BANG’ didn’t wake you. Sometimes, you were a deep sleeper, other times you weren’t. Luckily, it didn’t seem to have waken you; not enough for you to walk in, at least.

Arts day went on that way for the next 10 hours. Once he made it to the courts, after almost being hit twice while driving there, his coach immediately made him warm up.

The practice that day was grueling, Art wanting to do nothing except to pass out in your arms. It was obvious his coach had a stick up his ass and decided to run all the players of their energy, including Art. Not that he had much energy to begin with.

Finally, after a long ass day of shitty luck, Art made it back to your shared apartment. Patrick’s car wasn’t there, meaning he was probably at some girls place for the night; shocker. He prayed you were still awake. Considering the time, you should be, but every now and again he’d come home to you napping peacefully.

Art walked in, the bag on his shoulder immediately dropping to the ground by the door. He walked a little further, his spirits lifting when he sees you wide awake, watching some tv show.

You turn your head when you hear the shuffling, lighting up at the sight of your boyfriend, and your facing curling in worry after clocking the dejected look on his face.

Art plopped down on the couch, his body slotting in between your legs as he snakes his arms around your waist, letting out a sigh.

You knew Art needed you. You could just feel it. You carded your fingers through his curls softly; the tenseness leaving his body slowly.

“What’s the matter, sweet boy?”

Art lifted his head, locking his gaze onto yours. You could see the exhaustion in them. Poor baby.

“Jus’ need you,” He slurred.

Figures. Too dumb to do anything. He needs you to do it for him.

“Tell me what you need, baby. Use your words.” You encouraged.

Arts brows immediately scrunched together, as he slowly shook his head, “I don’t know, I jus’ need you s’bad.”

Usually, you would push for more, knowing he can use his words. But you couldn’t help but pity him.

“C’mon, up.” You sit up from your spot, Art reluctantly lifting up as well. You drag him by his hand to the bedroom, leaving him standing by the bed as you lay back against the pillows and headboard. Art awaited your instruction.

You speak a quiet ‘c’mere’, Art immediately understanding your minimal language. Art layed himself against you between your legs, your chest against his back. You helped Art tug his shirt off, your hands quickly finding themselves running up and down his toned chest, your lips leaving soft kisses and nips at his neck.

He tilted his neck to side to give you more, letting out soft whimpers at the feeling. He bucked his hips, the boner in his shorts now extremely obvious. You nipped at his ear, the bucking becoming more frequent as he tried to gain some type of friction. Your fingers met the waistband of his shorts, lifting it before letting it snap back against his skin.

“Take them off,” You purred into his ear, his hands quick to move his shorts and boxers off. You remove your shirt that you had been wearing, no bra underneath. Your perky nipples met his back when he leaned against you again, his throat bobbing as he let out a soft moan.

His pretty dick, hard and leaking, was in need of attention, that much was obvious. “What do you say, Artie?”

“Please, please,” The boy was nearly in tears, his body squirming under you as your hand got closer to his throbbing cock. “Please, i’ve been so good, i’ll be good, just- please.”

How could you ever deny him after that? Your cold hand grasped his cock at the base, slowly sliding it up until it reached the tip, where you squeezed a little, just for the already leaking tip to leak a little more. Art threw his head back against your shoulder, letting out a loud moan.

You spread the pre over his tip, his moans getting louder. The noises he let out were just so pretty, you could listen to them 24 hours straight if you wanted.

Your hand found a quick rhythm, languidly sliding up and down his pretty cock, as you whispered sweet praises into his ear and soft kisses to his neck.

“You’re doin’ so good f’me, baby.”

Art was getting closer to his release the harder and faster you stroked, his grunts and moans getting louder. You knew for fact your panties were soaked under your shorts.

You could feel Arts body tensing up, his cock throbbing in your hand, “It’s okay, baby. Let go f’me. Let go.”

That’s all he needed to hear from you before letting out a pornographic moan, his back arching as his cum shot out onto your hand and his stomach. It went on for a few more seconds; Art always had big loads.

As he came down from his high, you peppered sweet kisses along his neck and up his jaw, before moving his body to the side.

His hand snatched your wrist as you lifted yourself from the bed, “Please, don’t go. Please,” He begged.

“Just gonna clean you up, baby.” You pressed a soft kiss to his head before grabbing a clean washcloth and running it under warm water. You brought it back, cleaning up Art and your hand before throwing it in the hamper.

Art didn’t care to get dressed after any type of intimacy, as he claimed it would break said intimacy. You slipped your shorts off and changed into a clean pair of panties, as your other ones were soaked.

You climbed into bed, dragging Art under the covers with you.

“Feel any better?” You asked.

Art simply looked at you and smiled before pressing a long kiss to your lips.

“I feel perfect.”

Good. That was your goal. You and Art feel asleep peacefully, cuddled up into each other’s arms. Thank god you helped him relax.

[blckbrrybasket]

RAHHH i loved the odd!reader piece you posted!! i would love to see more, only if you want to write more, no pressure!! <33

ahh im so happy that you like it!! i love odd!reader so much <3 so so sorry this took a bit to come out

if you or anybody has any ideas for odd!reader plssss send them my way i would love to write more for them!!

have some headcanons and a lil something 💫

- When in public there are times where they’ll never touch their boyfriend or stand so close next to him that their face is in his side.

- It’s become a bit of a one-sided competition for their boyfriend to try and fuck them dumb (quickly mentioned in the blurb but he does take it as a challenge)

- They’re very clumsy. It’s not very noticeable to them anymore. Elbows knocked on door frames, tripping, miscalculating how far away something is, is all common to them.

- Surprisingly not queasy to most things, sees it as a part of life.

- That being said, the most horrendous thing could happen to them and they’d shrug like “:/ what can you do?” While their boyfriend is staring at them in horror.

- Knows way too many random facts. Makes it interesting to watch shows or movies when they randomly drop facts about the filming process or the lore.

- Bounces their leg like nobody’s business. Has spilled things by hitting their knee on the table.

- Egregious sleeper. Why can they fall asleep to the sound of gunshots outside, but if something interrupts their rain sounds they can’t sleep.

- Knows whats best but doesn’t know how to express it so they’ll just say “yes” or “no” and expect everyone to understand why.

The girl on screen pressed herself against the side of the house, panting as she tried to find a good moment to run. You and your boyfriend were watching a horror movie as you squirmed in your seat. Your legs were laid out over his lap, draping over the armrest of the couch.

“She actually called 911.” You muttered, popping a piece of popcorn into your mouth. “Well yeah-“ He started. “No like the phone was still connected. When filming she accidentally called 911 multiple times.” You finished the thought.

He raised his eyebrows at you, not questioning, only turning his head back to the screen when a blood curdling screen was ripped from the actor. “Yeah?” You smiled contently. “Mhm!” A few moments passed by quietly, aside from the gore on the TV.

Your eyes trained on the screen as the girl ran around the house only to be met with the slasher. The knife stabbed into her, a small grimace finding itself onto his face at the forced angle of the cut. “Do you think it would be cool if the cloak was white instead of black?” The question pulled him out of watching the movie and he glanced at you. “Huh?”

“Well originally the cloak was going to be white and if it stayed that way it would be covered in all the blood stains. It’d look cool.” He slowly nodded, “But the black looks cooler in the night.” You paused before a smile spread across your lips. “Yeah. You’re right.” His hand wrapped around your ankle and his thumb slid back and forth over your skin, both of your attentions falling back to the film.

[jinxxsims]

Hoo-boy. 500 Followers. When I made my first conversion and started this blog a little over half a year ago, I never really expected to hit this milestone ever, much less this quickly. Thank you for following. Thank you for downloading. Thank you for still keeping this community alive a million years after the game came out. This download is for each and every one of you... I hope you find at least a thing or two to add to your game.

So... what is it you get? 

• Chaise Magnifique Chair (Base Game, Seating > Dining Chairs) • Table Magnifique (Base Game, Surfaces > Dining Table) • From Your Not-So-Secret Admirer Flowers (Base Game, Decorative > Plants) • Groovy Times Barstool (Base Game, Seating > Miscellaneous) • Hungry Like the Duck (Base Game, Decorative > Sculptures) • Saught Drafting Chair (Base Game, Seating > Dining Chair) • Sitting Pretty Chair (Base Game, Seating > Dining Chair) • Cloud Cutie Mirror (Base Game, Decorative > Mirror) • The Commissioner Chair (Base Game, Seating > Dining Chair) • Fobbs 500 Placard (Get to Work, Decorative > Wall) • The Diligent Doctor’s Desk (Get to Work, Surfaces > Desk) • The Plainly Perfect Pedestal (Get to Work, Surfaces > End Table) • Firmith Sculptih (Get Together, Decorative > Sculpture) • High Ground Barstool (Get Together, Seating > Miscellaneous) • Monument Plaques (City Living, Decorative > Sculpture) • Brindleton Bay Model (Cats & Dogs, Decorative > Sculpture) • Man’s Best Friend (Cats & Dogs, Decorative > Sculpture) • The End to End Table (Cats & Dogs, Surfaces > End Table) • Typical Nautical Divider (Cats & Dogs, Decorative > Miscellaneous) • Holla Lava Dining Table (Island Living, Surfaces > Dining Table) • Frat House Frolicker (Discover University, Surfaces > Dining Table) • The Whole Truth Mirror (Discover University, Decorative > Mirror) • Bougie Burlap Chair (Eco Lifestyle, Chair > Living) • The Mark of the Plaque (Eco Lifestyle, Decorative > Sculpture) • Snail’s Pace Fireplace (Cottage Living, Appliances > Miscellaneous) • Yore and Yesteryear Fireplace (Cottage Living, Appliances > Miscellaneous) • Faceted Lotus Ceiling Lamp (High School Years, Lighting > Ceiling) • Rustic Sleeper (Outdoor Retreat, Seating > Bed) • Ill-oooominate (Spa Day, Lighting > Ceiling) • Scientific Sprout (Dine Out, Decorative > Plants) • Vampire Monument (Vampires, Decorative > Sculpture) • Brick Fireplace (Parenthood, Appliances > Miscellaneous) • Camade Ensueno (Jungle Adventures, Seating > Bed) • Unidentified Lamp (Strangerville, Lighting > Ceiling) • Light of the Marasenna (Realm of Magic, Lighting > Ceiling) • Tactical Screen (Journey to Batuu, Electronics > Miscellaneous) • S.I.Mac P.R.O. (Dream Home Decorator, Electronics > TV & Computer) • Seven Years Unlucky Mirror (Werewolves, Decorative > Mirror) • Swooning Grand Piano (My Wedding Stories, Hobbies > Creative) • Coolala The Defender Stage Prop (Get Famous, Decorative > Sculpture) • Freezer Bunny Stage Prop (Get Famous, Decorative > Sculpture) • Meduso Stage Prop (Get Famous, Decorative > Sculpture) •

Some notes: The Saught Drafting Chair had been converted before by TNW​, but it was just the mesh. I went ahead and re-converted it and included all the recolors. The vampire statue was previously converted by @kalimero78 as a fountain. My conversion is strictly a statue. The Monument Plaques from City Living were each individual objects. I converted one and made the rest recolors. I had previously converted the Freezer Bunny stage prop, but it was my first ever conversion... and it had more than one mistake. I’ve reconverted it and the other stage props and made slaved clones at 75%, 50% and 25% size. The ridiculously huge full-size is the master for each, so you must have those for the smaller ones to show in game. 

If it was at all within my ability to make something functional, I made it functional. All fireplaces light, as do the lights. The laptop works. The tactical screen is decorative. The grand piano is cloned with Argon’s hack and is functional. 

All recolors are included. Each object is in an individual folder containing swatches of each recolor, so you can pick and choose what you want to keep. Files are quartertile enabled. Files are compressorized. 

Download the 500 Followers Gift

[summerlinenss]

out of curiosity, if Max doesn’t release its metrics, then what metrics are you actually using to make these statements about the show’s popularity? what does “it’s currently in the 99.7th percentile of the comedy genre, meaning it’s in higher demand than 99.7% of all comedy series in the u.s.” even mean? How are you measuring what’s “in demand” - by who? Where? It’s bold to claim that this show was wildly popular (despite the fact that I never hear about it outside of tumblr, tho that’s a personal anecdote) but cancelled just for being queer, so I would be really interested to know where you’re getting all these numbers from. Thanks!

hey anon! first of all i am so sorry for the delayed response. i started typing something up and then i got distracted with something else and totally forgot about this in my drafts.

sure, i have no problem citing sources. i probably should’ve linked some in my original post, that’s absolutely fair.

this ended up way longer than i planned so bear with me, but a quick overview of what i’ll be going over:

1) what are the stats/where did they come from?

2) how is the show so popular?

3) was it really cancelled for being queer?

(also just a disclaimer that this will contain spoilers for the show)

1) first, the numbers

you’re right that hbo doesn’t release metrics to the public. in fact, ceo casey bloys tried to justify the cancellation to the hollywood reporter by saying “the numbers weren’t there,” despite refusing to say what exactly those numbers were or where they came from.

however, there are websites dedicated to researching/analyzing the data of different media. one of those is parrot analytics, who focus on industry insights like audience demand, competitive analysis, and content valuations. they’re trusted as a reliable source by forbes, the new york times, reuters, the wall street journal, and more.

this is what we can learn from them about our flag means death from a basic google search (note that all of this data is relevant to the last 30 days as of january 26 2024):

audience demand for our flag means death is now 33.6x greater than the average tv series in the united states. as explained in the “about demand distribution” section, this means it’s one of only 0.2% of all u.s. shows to fall in the “exceptional” performance range compared to the “average” demand benchmark of 64.1%.

the change in demand for ofmd in the u.s. has increased by 7.5% compared to the average tv series.

ofmd now actually ranks at the 99.8th percentile in the comedy genre in the u.s. i’m not a math person, but in basic terms, this is like a scale of measuring and comparing performances to create an average score. essentially, ofmd is performing at the very top of all comedy series in the u.s.

ofmd has 100% home market travelability. as it says above, the market of origin is always 100%, so in fairness i included the graph of international markets for comparison. some of these aren't super high, however (as explained by parrot analytics themselves) one of the key issues with the international market is accessibility to content, which has been an ongoing struggle for international fans. many people (i guess fittingly) have resorted to pirating ofmd because they don’t have access to max or affiliate streaming services in their country.

there are more stats i could have and wanted to go more in-depth into but it would make this even longer than it already is, so i’ll just leave some links you can check out if you’re interested and move on:

• comparison of ofmd's success to shows like ted lasso, euphoria, and peacemaker

• ofmd's placement as #1 most in-demand breakout series in the u.s. for 8 weeks

• ofmd's impressive 94% critics score and 95% audience score on rotten tomatoes

• how ofmd evolved from sleeper hit to a flagship series at max

• a list of ofmd's past and present award nominations/wins

• praise and recognition from news/entertainment sites: the atlantic (2022); the new york times (2023); tv guide (2023); vulture (2023); forbes (2023); the los angeles times (2022); vanity fair (2023)

2) so why haven’t you (or others) really heard of the show outside of tumblr despite all this success? likely because max did a terrible job marketing it.

ofmd first aired on hbo max (pre-merger before it was “max”) in march 2022. the entire season aired over one month, every thursday at 12am pst. season 2 followed a similar release schedule in october 2023.

season 1’s marketing was almost non-existent, pretty much relying on taika waititi’s name being attached. there was one teaser and one full-length trailer, as well as a few clips on youtube of taika and rhys darby answering pirate-themed trivia, all painting the show as a “silly pirate workplace/buddy comedy.” but hbo max didn’t put any real effort in because they didn’t care. david zaslav and the other higher-ups had no faith in the show and expected it to fail.

most people weren’t aware it was actually a romance due to the poor marketing, and although there were many romantically charged scenes between them, many were still wary to believe it wasn’t queerbaiting until ed & stede confessed their feelings and kissed.

showrunner david jenkins has said in interviews that he had no idea how deeply queerbaiting had hurt audiences and impacted their ability to trust what’s on screen without feeling like they’re being ridiculed, despite the fact that he was calling it a love story the whole time. it wasn’t until people realized they weren’t being queerbaited and that it was a funny, sincere show with a compelling plot that word-of-mouth began to spread. by the time the season 1 finale aired, there was a decent-sized fandom that continued to grow as it received more praise.

it was a fight to even get the show renewed for season 2, and david jenkins and the cast have majorly credited that renewal to the unexpected and massive fan response to the show, which basically forced hbo’s hand.

max didn’t bother trying to properly promote the series until season 2, when they begrudgingly accepted that it was one of their most profitable and successful shows. ofmd had huge billboards in times square, downtown los angeles, and on the side of hbo headquarters. they started accurately marketing the show as not just a workplace comedy at sea, but a heartfelt romcom. max began selling long-demanded merch (which became best sellers) and spent money on an FYC campaign.

i will emphasize, whether they liked it or not, they knew ofmd was their new moneymaker (especially with the recent end of succession, which was obviously a cash cow for hbo).

photo credit: @/bookishtheo

3) now if it was that successful, was it really cancelled just for being queer?

i mean, i can’t say that definitively. no one can. there are several potential factors at play that we may never know, and there have been a lot of rumours and speculation (many of which i don’t feel comfortable discussing in case they aren’t true) since the cancellation.

but do i believe the fact that it’s a queer romcom was one of those factors, especially since max has a history of cancelling and scrapping its most diverse projects? absolutely.

first and foremost, i can’t stress enough that this isn’t just a show with a few characters thrown in for token representation. ofmd is built on a diverse, intersectional cast and narratives, including:

• lgbtq+ representation: 5 main couples are explicitly queer (including mlm, wlw, nblm, and nblw relationships). multiple characters are implied to be poly, and there’s a polycule forming in season 2 that was hinted to be developed more in season 3. beyond relationships, it’s confirmed that (similarly to the way wwdits depicts all vampires as being pansexual) all of the pirates are somewhere on the queer spectrum.

• bipoc representation: the majority of the main cast are people of colour. this includes david fane, joel fry, leslie jones, samson kayo, vico ortiz, anapela polataivao, madeleine sami, samba schutte, ruibo qian, and taika waititi, as well as many guest actors (like rachel house, simone kessell, and maaka pohatu) and extras.

• disability representation: multiple characters have physical disabilities, most notably amputated/prosthetic limbs and visual impairment. a lot (actually most) of the characters also deal with mental health issues, particularly coping with severe trauma and suicidal ideation/behaviour.

• the show has been praised for addressing difficult and serious themes like toxic masculinity, colonialism, and self-discovery, all while still managing to be a witty comedy and not come across as “preachy.”

• the diversity also extends off-screen, with a team of directors, writers, and additional crew comprised of numerous bipoc, women, queer people, and trans/non-binary people.

my point isn’t just the quantity of representation, but the quality. they take great care and respect into every marginalized group depicted on-screen. the actors would often be consulted about their characters’ costumes, hair, tattoos, and the kind of language they use. it’s not a world where discrimination magically doesn’t exist, they just have zero tolerance for it. if a character does something homophobic or racist, you can guarantee they’ll quickly (and often violently) be punished.

so okay, sure, it’s got great representation. what does that have to do max cancelling it?

because they’ve been interfering with production from the start.

i already mentioned the marketing issues so i won’t get into that. it was also revealed in interviews with david jenkins after season 2 that hbo cut their budget by 40%, which is why they had to do everything they could to save money. this included letting go of some of the original cast (and even still having episodes where some of them don’t appear at all) and moving the entire production to AoNZ. the budget cuts also meant two less episodes, so they had to rush to fit an entire season’s worth of plot into eight half-hour long episodes.

but one of the biggest frustrations is hbo’s (alleged) censorship of the show. samba schutte revealed that the entire plot of episode 2x06 was completely different in the original script. before it was rewritten as “calypso’s birthday,” the episode took place during lucius & pete’s wedding and focused on the crew getting sick of the sexual tension between ed & stede and trying to get them to hook up (this aligned with lucius & pete getting engaged and ed & stede deciding to take things slow in the previous episode).

vico ortiz and writer jes tom have also commented that many scenes between jim, oluwande, and archie establishing them as a polycule were cut, including one of the three of them emerging from a bedroom in their underwear. jes has mentioned other elements of season 2 that had to be cut out or rewritten, like the implication of other poly dynamics between the crew and more sexually explicit scenarios and jokes.

considering that ofmd is an extremely sex-positive show that isn’t afraid to be raunchy or taboo, it’s clear that either higher-ups at hbo forced them to cut these things out or they had no choice but to cut them out due to tight budget/time restraints.

in addition to this, a recent article citing an “anonymous insider” has alleged that hbo was uncomfortable with and was unsure how to market the “shock violence” in the show (the same network that aired game of thrones), which david jenkins outright called out as being bullshit. ofmd is rated TV-MA and the posters and trailers all show the audience that it contains violent content. there is literally nothing more graphic in ofmd than any other pirate show — it’s probably a lot tamer than most of them, actually.

violence on the show is most frequently used in a comedic context, in the sense that it’s not meant to be seen as scary or taken seriously. the few instances of serious graphic imagery on the show are meant to invoke a mood shift, like ed’s transformation into the kraken or ned low’s murder. it should also be noted that some of the most graphic deaths are reserved for bigots, like ed snapping the neck of a colonizer who was ridiculing stede’s love letter.

it’s also most often used in a sexual context — not sexual violence, but violence as a sexual metaphor. more specifically the act of stabbing as a metaphor for penetration, as seen with both ed & stede and anne & mary. bearing all this in mind, it seems like the real issue here isn’t executives struggling to market explicit violence to a mainstream audience, but rather explicit gay content.

as much as we joke and affectionately call it the “gay pirate show,” ofmd has always been nothing more than an opportunity for rainbow capitalism for hbo (e.g. the fact that they waited three months to announce season 2 just so they could do it on the first day of pride month). like other cancelled queer media, ofmd was a way for hbo executives to show how “inclusive” and “accepting” they are when it was convenient (aka profitable) for them, but they never actually respected the show or us as a community.

it’s impossible to be certain of what the exact reasoning for cancellation was, especially when they won’t give us a clear answer themselves. and maybe it had nothing to do with ofmd being a queer romcom at all. maybe that’s all a horrible coincidence. but for hbo/max to axe a critically acclaimed and beautifully inclusive show that’s successful by every metric, with an extremely devoted fanbase, especially after casey bloys just had the nerve to ask “gay twitter” to hype up the gilded age? it doesn’t exactly put them in the best light regardless.

in summary, i’ll leave you with this editorial, which details how the campaign to save ofmd isn’t just about one show, but a fight to save the future of all queer art.

[khloeloves]

thinking abt chuuya<3

chuuya who won’t actually tell you this, but his heart aches whenever you talk about yourself in any negative way. he wishes that you could see yourself the way he sees you, because in his eyes, you are perfect in anyway, he even thinks your perfect without trying.

chuuya who loves watching random movies/series with you. you guys would be cuddled up on the sofa searching for something random to watch, he would ask stupid questions like “what was her name again?” or “if i was in this show what character do you think i would be?”

chuuya who loves to mess with you everyday all day, he puts his feet on you when you guys are in bed and he knows damn well his feet are freezing cold. there isn’t one day where you have to tell him “stop doing that!” or “get off of me!”

chuuya who makes sure you take care of yourself everyday, he’d make sure you do your routine everyday. he cooks your favorite things to make sure your eating properly, and if he notices that you’re struggling with your routine he’d do it with you and look after you more often

chuuya who is a really deep sleeper, he would wake you up in the middle of the night by kicking or hitting you in his sleep. he would also snore right in your ear when he holds you, you would have to turn the tv up higher to be able to sleep

chuuya who would take you to your favorite restaurant the day after an argument with you. he felt extremely bad that he screamed at you and threw random insults at you just because you were worried about him. he has a serious conversation with you and tells you that he really didn’t mean that and that he would do anything to make you feel better

chuuya who loves kissing you everywhere and anywhere, he doesn’t feel ashamed about it either. he wants people to know that your his and they don’t even stand a chance to be with you

chuuya who always lays his head on your stomach/chest. he thinks its the best places to sleep and it always makes him doze off

chuuya who would be an amazing boyfriend<33

[tmntheadcanons]

tmnt 2003 headcanons: sleeping

Leo:

The room needs to be pitch black, dead silent and ice cold for him to fall asleep.

And he is a very light sleeper. I feel like he was always a bit like this but also trained himself to wake up quickly and easily when he hears something.

And he sleeps straight on his back like he is in a coffin.

And he sleeps with one pillow and it's the same, flat pillow he has been using for the last 10 years.

He won't go to sleep unless he knows everyone is home.

I think the difference between him and Donnie would be that Donnie doesn't let himself sleep but Leo actually can't sleep. I feel like he's naturally a bit of an insomniac but when he tries to sleep he kinda spirals in his own thoughts and stresses himself out.

But it's not always stress that keeps him up it'll be like the song Mikey was singing the same four lines of all day is now violently stuck in his head keeping him awake and he's thinking about how he is going to murder his brother in the morning.

Mikey:

Sleeps with a minimum of 5 pillows. One for spooning, two for his head, one for his feet and one to violently throw off the bed while half asleep at 3 am.

He can really sleep anywhere though. (And he will)

He talks in his sleep. He'll mutter a lot of non-sensical stuff and also he'll sometimes just straight up laugh in his sleep. And he rolls around a lot during the night.

I think Mikey has the wackiest dreams. His dreams are very vivid and if someone shows up in his dream he will go out of his way to tell them about their guest star appearance in his absolutely off the wall bonkers dream.

Also he is the one who has the most nightmares

He likes to sleep with a little bit of noise. He likes the tv playing or music playing while he's falling asleep and if it's dead silent he'll find it a little unsettling.

Same with lights, he likes to have a lava lamp or some sort of soft light on in the room.

I think he would go absolutely feral for one of those galaxy project lights.

Also he's totally a blanket hog.

Raph:

The second his head hits the pillow he is out.

He could be mid conversation and just pass out. But it's only ever when he knows he can. He's good at staying awake if he needs to keep watch but if he's relaxed he can fall asleep in like 30 seconds.

And he sprawls out when he sleeps. He will starfish.

Or be half hanging off the bed.

And he violently snores.

And talks a little bit in his sleep too but not as much as Mikey, just every once in a while.

His dreams are super mundane. He'll come back from an absolutely wild experience, fall asleep and then dream about like doing the dishes.

But every once in a while he'll get a bad stress dream. I could see it being something social related like humans finding out about them and freaking out, or his whole family being upset with him because of something he did.

I feel like Raph would like a bit of white noise when he sleeps, like a fan or something. He doesn't need it to fall asleep, but he likes it.

Like Leo, he is also a bit of a light sleeper, but he falls asleep again pretty quickly after he wakes up.

Donnie:

He's good at staying awake for long periods of time but once he's out, he's OUT.

Must be physically shaken to wake him up.

He is frequently sleep deprived so every once in a while he will crash and sleep for like 14 hours. Most nights he goes to bed way too late especially when he's working on something but usually when he's finished he'll have a recovery day.

Like I said with Leo, his issue is that he doesn't let himself sleep. He won't actually go to bed he will just suck back coffee and keep doing what he's doing. However, I could see him having similar issues as Leo after Good Genes or SAINW, where he overworks himself at night to avoid spiraling thoughts while he's trying to fall asleep.

I feel like he's bad for being like "Okay I'm going to stop working and actually go to bed" and then instead of sleeping he sits in the dark on his computer on the internet until 4 in the morning.

He curls up when he sleeps he never sleeps just flat on his back.

But he'll always wakes up in a weird position he'll be like upside town on his bed in what looks like a yoga position and be like "How did I get here?"

[alwaysshallow]

coffee at midnight, part 8

John "Soap" MacTavish x f!reader

You come back to base after two months of being on medical leave. Things doesn't seem to change - at first, at least. Johnny acts weird. (5,8k)

READ ON AO3

A/N: for those who might be confused by a sudden tense change; the chapters "before" are pretty much the events before this one! hope it's not gonna be too much of a trouble for you to read </3

When you wake up, you feel different than usual. Everything feels different, out of place, but you’d lie if you’d say it’s not a good feeling because it’s the best sleep you had for months.

First, you seem more relaxed; usually, your shoulders are all tensed up. A consequence of your job, a physiotherapist once said. Not very likely to get rid of it, unless you’d feel more safe in your own home, or at least go to several massages a week, which was also unlikely given your deployments, so you learned to live with it. Pain meds, hot baths and showers became your friend quickly.

Secondly, it’s so warm. You usually get up after waking up, a habit of yours, something that you’ve developed after joining the military; after all, no need to stay longer than you are supposed to. Newspapers or books can be read on the couch, you watch TV shows in other rooms, too. 

Now, you just want to curl even more, just to consume this feeling. It’s like standing in the sun that is generous enough to shine just at you. To pick you out of all those people that want this warmness on them.

Thirdly, there’s a nice weight on you. The sun or, it would be more proper to say, heatwarmer; Johnny, as you see, when you look behind your shoulder. For a moment though, as he hugs you so tightly, so possessively that you can’t even move a little without the sense like you’re suffocating yourself or waking him up. He’s sometimes a light sleeper, and you don’t want to be the cause of that.

At least, not right now. Not when you think of everything that happened in the past, and you feel your cheeks burning up like crazy, making you even hotter than you actually are. Seventeen months ago, when the crush on Soap started developing slowly, you wouldn’t believe that you’d find yourself in a situation like this. Your head lying on his arm, his other arm around your waist, legs entangled so carefully, like a braid you’re used to doing in the military.

You try to tell yourself it doesn’t mean anything; how close you are, he could probably do this for anyone in need, and you were in need. Nightmares were something that you’ve experienced too many times in the month, and he was just in the right moment. Maybe someone else would do this for you as well, if they’d see the state you were in. 

MIserable, fragile. Simple empathy, right?

But that explanation doesn’t work very well, when he pushes more of his weight at you, murmuring something under his breath, and you automatically smile. It doesn’t work very well, when he nuzzles his nose into your hair, inhaling your scent with a satisfied groan. His hand on your waist clasps, bringing you closer to his hot, bare chest.

The explanation doesn’t work when he says, “Good mornin’,” in his deep, gravelly voice, which makes you shiver in a split second, and you need to take a breath before actually answering him. The aftermath of letting him sleep with you in your bed hits you like a train.

You still don’t regret it.

“Morning. Slept well?” you ask, still not turning back, as his grip is deadly on you. He seems to understand his mistake, as he props himself a little on his elbow, giving you the space you need to breathe. You can see his face, and he can see yours.

You think that if he would want to kiss you, he’d do it without any trouble, but you put that thought deep inside your mind - not a good moment, not with him right there. 

“Like a bairn.” He grins. Then, his smile drops a little, when he analyzes your expression. His face is the exact same as it is on the field, when he tries to cut the wire, and he needs to put two to two together in order to be successful. “You? Had a good sleep, hen?”

“Good. Don’t worry your head about it.” You smile reassuringly, patting his head. “What you need to worry about, though, is our breakfast.”

“Oh, our breakfast?” He raises his eyebrow, laughing. “So you do like my cookin’, after all? Not burned, as you like to complain?”

You know that he’s referring to your constant comments about burnt food, but it’s not like you’re complaining about little things - pointing out that he shouldn’t burn the whole chicken is something that you have to do. Especially if he’s learning, and he’s not a bad cook, if he’s only watching the oven instead of playing Candy Crush.  “I’m not complaining!” you chuckle, shaking your head. “It’s just trying to make you a better cook, you know? So you’re gonna represent yourself somehow.”

“Represent myself?” His tone is hilariously shocked.

“You know, you’re in my apartment, that comes with responsibilities,” you explain, tilting your head to the side, when you look at him meticulously. “And you have to do things, as we are roommates. Everyone has their special skills.”

“Mm. Ye might me onto something,” he hums. “But, I have other skills. For instance, I am the best at making people laugh.”

And, he is more than eager to show it, as you notice. He immediately starts tickling you, knowing how sensitive you are to them. 

Little shit.

Bigger than you, he could manhandle you into any position he’d want to, but a little shit still. 

When you try to get him off you, you can easily compare your movements to movements of people who were possessed; the intensity and using all of your power, your legs, your hands is funny, to say the least. You laugh like a madman, too.

Memories of previous tickling sessions fall at you like a waterfall. He always did it when you two were alone and he needed to get some steam off, or for no reason at all, just to rile you up. No other guy in the unit was brave enough to do that, especially when you threatened to make them regret their life choices, but Johnny? Hell, Johnny seemed to not care at all.

Not the first time, not the last.

“You’re so unserious,” you laugh, still trying to push him away; that doesn’t work, nor dragging him away from his intentions, as he leans over you, licking your cheek with a long swipe of his tongue. “Johnny!”

“Oh, c’mon, lassie. Ye seen worse. Been in my blood, can’t handle the little lickin’?” He raises his eyebrow, visibly amused at your squirms. You even ignore for a moment how his eyes sparkle, when he glances at your cheek.

“Been in your blood because I care about your well-being, dumbass.” You roll your eyes; in your mind, it’s an obvious fact. “Not because I enjoy being covered in your fluids.”

He chuckles, leaning even closer. “Covered in my fluids, eh? Ye makin’ a list, lassie? If ye want to, I have other fluids too, y’know.”

You have a smart remark in your head, but the moment you understand his words a little better, your cheeks are burning again. You could easily take the proposition, you think. It wouldn’t be that bad.

“You’re so gross.” It’s all you say, before it all falls on you. There’s no awkward silence between you two, but there’s a loud silence, where you can just hear all the thoughts; yours and his combined, making it a little harder to breathe.

He plays with your hair, curling them around his fingers, but his eyes are still on you; his sapphire, divine eyes, sparkling like a finest diamond. You think you look the same, or at least half as interested as he is, aware of the effect Johnny has on you. 

It would be easy to kiss him, you think. It would be easy to grab his neck, bring him close and then let your lips do all the talking. You’d let him know, just from a simple kiss, how long you thought of that. How long you try to ignore the rising feeling in your chest every time he gets closer, and he just gets you without even properly trying to. 

You know for certain that he’d have a laugh or two about it, but it would flatter him so much.

Yet, you don’t kiss him. You don’t tell him any of these things; just because you’re scared and anxious about friendship that could fall into pieces if something wouldn’t work. Sure, Soap is a great best friend - can listen to you for hours, has great opinions, more or less accurate, but you always feel heard. 

Not to mention, his humor can bring you out of your biggest dreariness. No matter what happens, he’d do it with ease, just because he cares. He did it multiple times in the past, and you just know for a fact that he will continue to do it in the near future.

That is holding you back - because he is a good friend that you don’t want to lose, and the chance of doing it if you’d start dating him is high. Just because you two are good friends, doesn’t exactly mean that you and him would get along on a whole situationship thingy. Not even dating, but something that would involve something different. You observed for a long time how he acts around girls, you heard multiple times his ramblings about his dates, when he looked directly at you, even if others were around too. 

You always asked, jokingly, if it’s supposed to make you jealous, but he never actually answered that. Now, you wonder if that was maybe because he indeed wanted to make you jealous.

Would make a lot of sense.

“Okay. Enough of that sleep,” you let out a slightly strained laugh, as you get up from the bed, Soap still watching you. “Gonna take a shower, and—”

“—without me?” 

You groan, rubbing your temples. Response like this from him? Absolute classic, you don’t even want to comment on that further. “Soap.” 

Your best friend laughs, as he gets up a little. “What now, lassie?”

“My shower first, then yours if you want, and then breakfast. Fine with you?” you ask, raising your eyebrow. 

He takes his time to answer you, as he drags his eyes up and down your figure, and you feel like you can melt just from that. The feeling of being observed falls hot on your stomach. “Fine. Would be more efficient if—”

Soap’s words are cut the moment you close the bathroom door - a little too hard, but he doesn’t seem startled by it. More than amused, as he laughs again.

-

It’s time to go back.

Well, maybe not like you’d want to come back to your job, but two weeks after that nightmare fiasco and sleeping with Soap in one bed, you can officially go back to base. Not on a mission, though - you can come back to test your skills, to see how everything’s healing, if you need more time and shit like that.

And, maybe even more important is the second thing - you are supposed to bond with the team that, most certainly, misses you. 

It makes you smile, honestly; the thought of seeing them all, including Johnny. His “vacation” ended a day after your nightmare. Price needed him for a big guy's job, and you couldn’t blame the old man for that. Soap already got a big break from work, and wanted at least one day to come to his mom for Christmas, so he left you (with a big sorrow, but still), promising to write to you.

And, he did. Multiple times, even right now, when you are on the road and you can’t quite answer them, if you don’t want to cause a car accident. 

Given that you started driving again a week ago, it is more possible.

yer alr in the road?

need any help? coulda drive to u.

why yer not answerin:(

probably forgot about old lad huh??

gone only for two weeks and thats what im gettin

All of those messages were sent in the span of thirty minutes - if it would be anyone else, you’d be irritated, but it was Johnny. He’s just like this: annoyingly adorable, so when you stop at the red light, you quickly text him back that you’re on the road and should be in the base soon. 

You’re not surprised when seconds later, your phone lights up again. This time, you don’t even read messages, you just laugh under your nose, knowing that your best friend starts his monologue.

Snow covered everything at this point - as you pass by little suburbs on your way to base, you can’t help but smile at this view. Christmas lights are still here, as well as other decorations, even if it’s after the holidays. From the front yards, you can easily guess where the kids are; mostly because there are multiple snowmen, bigger or smaller, but every is unique in their own way. 

Somehow, making snow figures has a special place in your mind. 

You did a lot of them in your childhood with your moms, taking pictures of them on your rusty polaroid, just to save those moments, precious and very well kept, since Kate’s job was… still is, just like yours. Dangerous, not stable at all, and in every moment you could lose her to some madman that decided to hunt her down.

Eileen, Kate’s wife, was an artist herself, painting a lot, sculpting. When she was alive, she was the one who thought of that tradition. She thought that taking pictures is savoring the moment. Something to think of, when life would give you a hard time, and with just one look, you could remember the good times, instead of completely falling apart.

Her philosophy grew into you. You still have a box under your bed with souvenirs, photos and small gifts that have no place in your apartment, but for whatever reason you still want them. They’re simply too precious to throw away, they hold memories, you even have a couple of things that boys from Task Force 141 gave you when you joined the team.

141. Base. Your home.

Home that you know so well, a home that you associate with warm feelings, with people that you just love seeing.

Well, maybe beds could be better, and furniture not from the 90's, but aside from that, it’s the best place for you to be in. You’re pretty sure that you didn’t feel more welcome anywhere else than between your comrades, on training sessions that kicked your ass, but it was family. People that you could, after some time, trust with your whole life, people that wanted the best for you.

To those people you are coming back right now, as you happily park outside the base, in a special place, reserved just for you. Somehow, that action itself makes your heart warmer.

Keys are dingling in your hand, as you play with them, making your way inside the base, while you look around. Nothing seems different than the environment; recruits work with a shovel, keeping snow away from training tracks. Their supervisors yell at them to do it faster, better, and you almost laugh at it, knowing the feeling a bit too well.

Now, you don’t do shit like that. At least not when you’re good to Price and you don’t cause that much trouble. Soap and Gaz, although, had to do the recruit’s job a few times.

They weren’t exactly happy about that, but observing them was a hilarious experience.

Before you can take your phone out of your pocket to ask Soap where they are, someone snatches you between their arms. Their grip is tight, and your first instinct is to punch whoever that is, but you know those arms. 

Not as well as Johnny’s, but you know them. You sparred with him too many times not to.

“Choking me on my first day back? Thought you can do better, Ale.” You grin, as you hear the familiar, deep laugh. 

Vargas is quick to free you from his arms, and you can see that smile is on his lips as well. Wide, warm. “Bird, it’s been too long without you, I have to express my happiness somehow, eh?”

“Too long? What, got tired of the boys?” you raise an eyebrow. 

You’re not able to grin wider, yet, somehow it feels that you do that, especially when you’re meeting such warm feelings from your comrade.

God, how you missed that.

“We all got a little tired of each other, especially when no one bossed us around.” You hear Kyle’s voice, as he approaches you with shit-eating expression. “My favorite teammate, back on track?”

“Johnny might get jealous in a minute, Gaz,” Ghost murmurs. “Better not to take chances to talk like this, if you don’t want him spirallin’ around.”

“Very funny.”

This whole situation feels like a family reunion straight up from a sitcom; everyone gathers around, just to see a member of the family that was absent for a few years. Except, it’s found family and the military. And, you were out for almost two months, trying to fit into that domestic vibe you had in your apartment, but now it’s not the time for domestic anymore.

You can’t be more excited for that. Corners of your lips hurt in an unforgiving manner, when you glance at everyone, happy that they are here. Happy that they have decided to show up. You know how it works, how busy military can be, especially when you have a mission to take care of. People to take care of, world to take care of, not to mention training ungrateful recruits that sometimes you wanted to just kick out and never look back.

A brief kiss to the top of your hand snaps you out of your thoughts; the man is Soap, of course. You wouldn’t expect anyone else to act like that.

“Yer a dummy for drivin’ here alone. I’d take some time off just to pick you up,” he murmurs, before you can even say anything to him. 

It feels like an accusation, but somehow it doesn’t bother you, like it would in the past. More than that, your stomach fills with a million butterflies, and you need to clear your throat before speaking. You don’t want to show him that even the smallest words affect you.

He’s cute, it’s a fact. Too much.

“I’ve got it covered, Soap. I have to train anyway, it’s nothing,” you explain, shrugging a little, to indicate that you do mean what you’ve just said. He doesn’t seem convinced. 

“Still. Yer wrist—”

“—It’s okay,” you say. Your tone is assuring. Warm, just like honey; you can’t stop the smile that grows a little bigger at how protective he is. In some kind of way, it’s embarrassing to have this situation played right in front of your other comrades, but you can’t care less about this.

Not right now, when he breaks that stern barrier, and smiles too. His hand slides on your waist; possessively, like he needs to mark something, and you barely contain silence. “Right. Still, could’a save me a lot of trouble, y’know?”

“You just need to believe me.” You jokingly nudge him. 

It’s the intention of letting the tension go away here too, since the eyes of your captain are on you two. You just smell a conversation between you and Price, when he tilts his head, his eyes darting between you two, and you definitely don’t need it. 

Not now.

His words about “fraternization in the military” lights up a red lamp in your brain enough. He put out a whole monologue about it, when you joined the military, even made a PowerPoint presentation, and you were certain that your mother whispered the idea to him. 

Captain never mentioned it ever since, didn’t have to anyway, but with your growing feelings to Soap, with carefully testing the waters if he could feel the same…

It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Thankfully, Gaz is here to rescue you from it all - shooting range is his proposition to start training with before you’ll go to more complicated stuff; and that’s on training hand to hand with Soap. It makes enough sense for you, so you follow him, starting the chat about this girl who abandoned him back on the market. 

Apparently, he has a lot to say; he’s not upset anymore, and maybe it should be this way. Not meant to be, he tells you, and it wouldn’t be weird for you, if it wouldn’t be for his small smile that appears on his lips. You know for a fact that he has something on his mind that he doesn’t quite want to say, but you don’t pry. 

He’ll tell you the moment a drink hits his drink, as always. Besides, it’s time for training, not for gossip.

And that training is irritating for you. Garrick knows how to do his job, of course, and he expects you to observe him unload and load gun again, just for you to do the same. Swiftly - because it’s basically in your blood at this point, something that you can do with eyes closed. Yet, he wants you to do it slowly, and you do it like this, even if your need to roll your eyes is evident.

Your aim is more questionable, and you need a moment to think because you want to scream.

It’s not that bad. You’re in the military after all, it’s a muscle memory how to position the weapon and pull the trigger, it has to be, especially when you’re out in the field, drained, and the enemy is on your tail the whole way. 

The moment the back of the rifle touches your arm, your arm twitches and you miss. Bullet doesn’t land in the center like you wanted to, but at eight points which is not a bad score. You don’t think it’s satisfying either - a simple rifle shouldn’t give you that much of a trouble, you had to use it every damn day since you got to Task Force 141. It was also somehow a weapon of choice for you.

And something so simple; embarrassing to admit that you feel like you’re learning it again. Not to mention, Soap watched you for some time now, and the want of looking the best in front of him is high. Just out of simple curiosity, he said, as he leaned against the wall near you with a promise he’s gonna be quiet. 

Of course you didn't believe him. It’s Soap for God’s sake.

“A bit lighter. You feel this?” he asks, and you groan automatically. It feels like he’s babying you. You know that he wants the best, but when you know everything and you’re just unable to do basic things, it irritates you.

“I do. It’s just how I hold this,” you murmur, letting Garrick’s fingers slip under your own. He’s delicate enough to help you loosen that grip, just like you need it to be.

Funny enough, he’s mostly the one who teaches recruits how to use a gun properly, what way is most effective when, and when it’s just better to eliminate with something different than a weapon. You can’t quite imagine who could be better at his spot; Kyle is perfect with his patience, but in the past, you both laughed at the recruits.

Now, being in their position, isn’t that funny anymore. It’s humiliating, to say the least.

“I know you do, but it’s a way not to hurt yourself more. We need you out in the field in no time, Bird.”

“Oh, caring Kyle Garrick? That’s something I didn’t see for quite a while,” you tease him, laughing, as he lets out a huff. “What? Telling you what I see!”

“Suppose so. Can’t really live without you, huh?”

“Of course you can’t.”

“Miss those cookies you used to bake, not gonna lie.” He laughs and you shake your head. Your mom’s recipe; you did it with Eileen many times, and when you started living alone, you started doing it yourself. Apparently, boys loved them too, from the moment you brought them to the base. “Can’t have you out for—”

“—Can you just give her fuckin’ instructions?”

You both look back at Soap, shocked by his harsh interruption - to this moment, he was silent as a mouse, now he seems like he finally had enough of silence. Your cheek lightly grazes against Garrick's shoulder, when you try to take a better look at your best friend, and Johnny’s jaw clenches uncomfortably, his shoulders tightened; you don’t get to see him like this often. 

What is more weird though, is the fact it’s obvious that is bothering him, and yet, you can’t quite put together what, since nothing has happened. Nothing involving him, to be precise. It’s just your and Garrick’s banter, like old times. He had no objections to it earlier, why now?

“What are you on, MacTavish?” Kyle asks, his eyebrow arched; he sounds amused. This whole situation seems funny to him, as see; sheer contrast to your best friend that rolls his eyes.

“She’s wastin’ time on yer talks. Useless, she knows it.”

“I know she does. Just helping her out ‘ere, Soap,” he replies with a small smile. Smile that’s definitely too kind for this behemoth and how he’s acting; Garrick’s front touches your back more in that moment.

“Right,” he hums, eyeing you two up and down. “Do yer thing, then. If there’s anything more to do,” he murmurs the last sentence, and you automatically roll your eyes, absolutely done with his attitude.

He acts like a kid that doesn’t even know why he’s so irritated, you think. Previously, he had this behavior too, but to men that he didn’t know and Kyle? 

Kyle is like a brother from another mother, trustee of his secrets that you aren’t really aware of. Bros thing, he said once, when you confronted him about it when Kyle blabbed about a situation that you weren’t supposed to know of. Some things were just not for you, not for “lady’s ears”, and you learned to accept it over the last two years. Maybe it was even for the better because the things you once or twice heard from these two… horrendous.

That’s why this weird tension confused the shit out of you. Anyone but them.

“Ow! What for?” Soap raises his eyebrow, looking at you after you smacked him. You’re in the training room right now, twenty minutes after the end of your gun practice with Garrick, changed up and ready for combat this time.

“Stupidity,” you murmur, earning a laugh from him. “No need to cause scenes right in front of Gaz, you know.”

“Not a scene. Simple facts for him, facts that he needed to know.” He shrugs, as he “Jus’ dinnae hurt yerself on the training, yeah?”

“On it, captain.”

“Not yet, bonnie. But if ye want to call me yer captain, then I’m happy to—”

You hope he’s gonna lose his cockiness, when you hit him right in his knee without warning, swiftly backing off right after that, so he wouldn’t take advantage of your position. It takes only a moment for you to realize it was wishful thinking.

The heat in his eyes is evident after he stumbles and your eyes cross. You see this kind of expression on Johnny’s face only on the battlefield when he’s in trance, when he just fixates on something. It’s always a special sight to watch, especially in the moments you need to have his back, and he just needs to swiftly move from point A to point B. MacTavish devours adrenaline that comes with his job. 

And his devotion for the job… you could fall in love just because of that.

What comes with that devotion is the fact this man doesn’t know the difference between training and real mission; every time you fought against Soap, you knew it was gonna be a hard job. You might be quick and sly, moving like a cat, but he is the one with greater physical strength than you, he is the one who loves to challenge you and make you furious just because he pins you down every time he has the chance to do that. Mocking, maybe sometimes underestimating you. It usually leads to wrapping your legs around your best friend’s head and one of his arms, bending one knee over the other ankle. Then, you usually flip him, or just choke him, until he’ll drop the attitude.

Yet, right now, nothing like this happens. He’s as fierce, unstoppable fighter as he always is, but you can feel that he’s holding back. Doesn’t do anything particularly dangerous like he does on a daily basis, he doesn’t even try to put you in a headlock or anything. He just blocks your hits, worse or better. Nothing too fancy, nothing in his style, even if the fight is tiring and you can see droplets of sweat on his forehead.

So, you try to press him. To hassle him, get a reaction, to snap him back to that warrior he is; to warrior that doesn’t hold back just because you had an injury. You want him to test you, not to pamper you. 

You’re not a porcelain, but Johnny doesn’t think this way. You even corner him - it wouldn’t happen in normal circumstances, he wouldn’t even let you this close without a fight. Irritated by his behavior, you let out a groan.

“Come on, don’t go easy on me!” you shout angrily, shaking your head with disbelief. He never reacted like this, he was never so incoherent with his moves. Not in the battlefield, nor in sparrings. “Just because I’m after injury, it doesn’t mean you can’t fight back!”

He doesn’t react; he just murmurs something under his breath that you don’t understand. The only difference between now and a few minutes ago is the way he moves, a tiny bit more aggressive, but it’s not it. 

So, you try to rile him up for a few minutes. Go with comments about equality and shit, but he’s insensitive to everything, until you bring up others. Until you bring up Kyle and this training that you two had, implying that maybe you should’ve stayed there and practiced your shots better than play in… whatever this fight is.

Sudden power erupts in him, when he finally gives in and fights instead of pretending to do it. Those moves are calculated, precise, Johnny knows what to do to keep him off you - to make you back off and struggle, just like you wanted to from the very beginning. It’s finally fair, you finally feel like you’ve accomplished something.

Those punches are personal, though; your best friend tries to desperately show you something through them, as you block his moves, just to get to his knees again. Weak spot, you know it and you love to use it against him because it works when you’re under the wall, trying to desperately hold onto something.

Surprisingly, your technique doesn’t work this time - he grabs your foot with ease, pushing you away like it was nothing special for him. He does the same with your right hand as you throw a jab.

You want to offer a break after ten minutes, as you feel how sore your muscles are, but it’s not that easy. Not with a man like him, not with a man that wants to settle who wins this battle, and as stubborn as you are, it's a never ending cycle.

At least, feels like never ending until he pins you down to the mat.

“Johnny—” 

“Because yer after an injury it does mean,” he pants out, “tha’ ‘m not gonna go hard on you, bonnie. Understand, will ye?”

You clear your throat, looking at him. A well-known heat blossoms in your stomach, wrapping around it like an ivy, ruthlessly and quick, making it a bit difficult to breathe. He looks at you, on top, like a predator, trying to intimidate. He’s not even a bit embarrassed, there’s a different person in him right now. Person that he reserved for heated arguments, a person that you could find in him when he wanted something, badly.

His hands lock your wrists above your head, perfectly still, even if you try to move them with a hint of desperation. Position is pretty perspicuous; him, straddling your waist—

—you seriously don’t want to think about it. You prefer not to think about it.

And you try not to think how wet you currently are. 

“Understand?” His voice snaps you back to reality. Cruel one, where you can’t fantasize about possible scenarios that could take place here.

A real shame.

“I understand. Doesn’t change a thing,” you reply, your voice throaty, when he scans your face, focused. You’d kill for a scratch of his thoughts. For a mere millimeter of what is going inside his head.

Is there just as messy as it is in yours? Maybe he knows exactly what to do? Maybe he's torn between two ideas? 

Maybe he’s not affected at all?

“It does.”

“Doesn’t. I just want you to treat me like everyone else, is that hard?”

Soap barks a laugh, shaking his head a second later. “I never treated ye like everyone else. Tha’ might be a problem.”

You want to debate on that, so you try to raise yourself; and without even thinking, you move your hips, completely accidentally, as you’re crushed by his weight.

You don’t move anyway, you don’t have the power to do that. Instead, you feel hardness pressing against you. 

When Johnny locks his eyes with you, pupils dilated, you’re pretty sure you’re gonna faint from the intensity of this interaction. Of him being right there, on top of you, with a perfect occasion, when the two of you are aroused enough to initiate something.

For a minute, you’re pretty sure he’s gonna snap and everything will be different from this moment - including your friendship, but nothing really happens. He just gets up without an intention to give you a hand; he just readjusts his sweats and throws you water, leaving you absolutely confused. 

A lot of questions are going inside your head, more than it was a moment before.

“Ye did good,” he murmurs after you grab a bottle, chugging at least half of it at one sitting. You look at his back - he doesn’t seem like he wants you to see his front. 

Maybe for the better.

“Something to work on? After the injury.”

“Yer mouth, most certainly. But we’ll train ye, I guess.” He looks back at you.

And you just know you’re fucked.

[mors-neptune]

707 / Luciel / Saeyoung Choi Headcanons I Have

‼️⚠️ SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️‼️

• Has ADHD but if anyone brings it up he brushes it off because he thinks it makes him lesser. He’s not ableist he just needs to be educated :(

• I know in the official art he’s pretty pale but I hc him as having tanner skin and some freckles

• Has an undiagnosed personality disorder probably

• Too paranoid to go to church in person so he made a personal shrine in his home that he makes sure to spend time at

• Hates seeing his father on TV because it reminds him how similar they look. He’ll go into a weeks long depression every time where he’ll avoid mirrors because all he sees is his mother and father

• Loves cross dressing but is too scared to think deeply and self reflect about the gender euphoria it gives him because Korea isn’t very accepting

• Hated college because he felt like it was too structured and he doesn’t like being told what to do

• His favorite color is red (obviously)

• Doesn’t want or have any tattoos

• Most of the decor in his house was handmade impulsively and placed somewhere random

• Ultimately wants to move out of the bunker and into a more realistic house with no sci-fi-like doorbells or weapons but his paranoia stops him

• Sometimes stays up till the morning watching security cams in and around the bunker out of fear someone will try and hurt Saeran or MC

• Loves the dopamine hit that buying new cars gives him. It’s almost addicting impulse buying expensive things

• Desperately needs someone to match his neurodivergentness and thankfully his twin brother does perfectly

• His glasses are constantly dirty he never cleans those mfs

• Likes to paint his nails black but it’s always cracked and messed up

• Him and Saeran made up a secret language that they refuse to teach anyone else, even MC

• Welded flowers and spray painted them for him and MC’s anniversary (Saeran told him which flowers to make bc he knows their meanings)

• MC’s engagement ring is a Ruby (to represent Saeyoung) and whatever stone is MC’s favorite swirling together to look like a binary star system

• We know in his route that he has muscles because of his work, but after he runs from the agency, MC noticed some of his bulkiness going away

• But he still keeps a lot of his muscle, he just has some more squishiness around his torso

• Regrets his bunker not having windows because he knows Saeran loves looking at the sky

• Builds a garden in his backyard for Saeran :)

• Too paranoid to get a therapist so one of his more toxic traits is using MC as a therapist

• Goes through periods of not sharing anything emotionally with MC & sharing way too much and borderline dumping all his shit on them

• Has bad abandonment issues

• Loves experimenting with makeup and showing Saeran and MC

• Has both an inferiority and superiority complex

• Owns an obsessive amount of stuffed animals and yes, they all have names

• Idk if this is canon or not but he has curly hair

• I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this already but I hc him as bisexual (he literally mentioned at some point that V’s voice was his type)

• And since it’s basically canon he at least finds V attractive and V is more of a parental/guardian figure to him, I can conclude Saeyoung 100% has daddy issues (duh)

• Has had feelings for Vanderwood at some point

• Horrible at personal hygiene

• Doesn’t drink or do drugs (canon)

• He’s a compulsive liar :/

• Wants a cat but is so bad at taking care of himself he doesn’t trust himself taking care of an animal

• Has staff constellation, and planet stickers & posters all over his room (he’s a nerd)

• Learns sign language so when he’s mad at MC or Saeran he only communicates through sign to piss them off

• Wayyyyyyy too comfy invading people’s personal and cyber privacy because of his line of work

• Lactose intolerant because I think it’s funny

• Light sleeper because of the house he grew up in and his work at the agency

• Kind of apathetic to traumatic things other people go through if it wasn’t as “bad” as his. Not in a “I think I’m better than you” kind of way, but in a way where some issues just don’t compare to an abusive, alcoholic mother, a politician father who wants to kill him, being a secret agent made to do who knows what, and more.

• Catches up on childhood by indulging in childish hobbies and interests. He’s making up for the lost time :(

• His tummy always hurts from his horrible diet

• His cologne smells like apple spice (it’s actually a perfume for women but who cares)

• But tbh on the daily he smells like a mix of his basic masculine body wash, honey buddah chips, and grease (sorry)

• Very protective. Takes on a caretaker role for those closest to him

• Sometimes very controlling. Gets anxious when he can’t control everything around him.

• Acts very parental towards Saeran. He always did because he had to in their childhood, but Saeyoing still does it. It makes him feel good being able to properly provide for Saeran.

• He mentioned in his route that he never really wanted or thought about having a family other than Saeran, and I feel like he would still think the same after meeting MC. Just now he thinks of his family as just him, Saeran, and MC. I don’t think he’d want kids

• Literally never cleans his sheets…

• Can only convince himself to clean anything in his house because he doesn’t want Saeran to have to live in filth again

My first post. I just wanted to share these :)

[namjhyun]

DRAMA REVIEW | Lovely Runner (2024)

Lovely Runner it's undoubtedly one of the best dramas of 2024.

It has all the elements that make a drama a mega hit: comedy, romance, time travel, well written characters (both leads and supporting ones) and an engaging plot line that never bores you. Starring Kim Hye Yoon and Byeon Woo Seok, adapted from the web novel The Best of Tomorrow by screenwriter Lee Shi Eun and directed by Yoon Jong Ho and Kim Tae Yub, the Lovely Runner team achieved a perfect execution in front and behind the camera.

I think the true star of this drama it's the writing and on this I can't commend Lee Si Eun enough. I had already seen her potential in dramas like True Beauty but here she really manages to shine through a well crafted, smart and cohesive story with no loose ends. I'm incredibly impressed by her talent.

The writing was perfectly complemented by the directors's outstanding work in leading a film crew that was on every detail of each part of the story, in each timeline, never missing a beat. Always delivering their A+++ game. But there was also great work done from the directors part in helping the actors get the comedic timing exactly right, the more emotional scenes to deliver and the team work among cast and crew to be flawless.

Lovely Runner might be a big hit now, but it's actually a sleeper hit. The lack of promotion this drama had was embarrassing and if it wasn't for the devoted fans, studio executives would have never realized they had a gem in their hands. So, it's not only a great drama with a super fandom that really fought for this story, it's also becoming yet another prime example in the list of films and tv that achieved all of it by themselves because artists delivered nothing short of excellence.

On this point I can't ignore the incredible performances given by the entire cast. Kim Hye Yoon and Byeon Woo Seok are definitely the standouts, they stole the show, this is their story and the actors chemistry it's electrifying. But the way supportive actors would show up in a scene and push the story forward in a coherent way and even make it better, it's wild to me. The chemistry this cast had it's a rare feat for an ensamble cast and how they managed to transition seamlessly through different phases of their characters's lives and relationships when events, in each timeline, were changing because of the things our leads did they still remain truthful. So, not only the leads are well developed in this drama but also every single character that shows up, no matter how small the role is.

The best example of this it's actor Heo Hyeong-Gyu who has been working for sixteen years, playing very minor characters, finally having a breakthrough in the industry because of his role in this drama. And while his presence was prominent and important to the story, he barely had lines. So his entire performance is mainly based on micro-expressions or physical stunts.

I also fully expect the actors like Song Geon-Hee, Lee Seung-Hyub, Song Ji-Ho or Seo Hye-won to receive a lot of what korean entertainment industry calls "love calls" aka commercials, dramas and films, among other things.

Experiencing watching Lovely Runner alongside the fandom, waiting every week for a new episode, it's a big part of what made this drama so good. Healthy and good loving fun people, clowning, poking fun at our faves and crying at heartbreak. It's been a long time since I have been able to engage in this way with other fans and I am thankful for them, the cast and crew for all these amazing weeks of fun.

Rating: 10/10

[gingerylangylang1979]

This shit is not new

This is in response to the multiple posts right now about the recent articles that have come out and just general angst about this ship in the media.

This really isn't new. It's not unique to The Bear. It's not unique to Carmy x Sydney. It's not unique to slow burns.

I do think Mulder x Scully is the best example. Why? They are the ship that modernized shipping. The terms shipping, noromo, etc. come from that ship. They pioneered the modern "why can't men and women just be friends", "platonic soulmate", "it would cheapen the show", "the show isn't about romance" arguments.

Syd x Carmy are like Mulder x Scully 2.0 (with a slightly different flavor that I will get to). The X-Files was a huge sleeper hit with a cult following. From the first episode there was speculation about romance and people raging against it. The question was brought up in every interview and denied by the show runner. The intensity kept developing until finally they went canon. And then, only then, did the show runner change tune. Shippers felt they were being persecuted for even mentioning the ship. It was super intense.

I watched the show as a teen. I low key did ship them but wasn't involved in fandom so I wasn't aware of the shenanigans. But I know all of this from first hand accounts.

And here's receipts from media:

So, I know a big element is missing in this comparison. The race element is at play here. I'm not denying that. But I will say, I started with this example just to show it isn't just interracial couples that get this backlash. I could also mention Ted x Rebecca, but I don't think I need to go into them because they are current. Mulder x Scully started this and history is important.

I do think there is a special flavor of dislike for this ship because of race. I've spoken on it. The unwarranted hate for Sydney can't be ignored. The same has happened with Richonne, Ichabbie, etc. No denial here. But if you look at the overall history of shipping what we are seeing specific to media denial, media scrutiny, antis, denial of the ship until the very end, gaslighting, etc. is slow burn and shipping war 101.

There is no agenda from cast and crew to stick it to us. Their agenda is to maintain the element of surprise and tell the story they want to tell. There is no agenda from the media to do anything but get a story that gets clicks. There is no special denial of a romance unique to this one.

This is just how a slow burn plays out.

There are no slow burns that went canon and the show runner said, oh yeah, this is the plan before the end. If there is tell me, and I'll gladly correct. But, that just isn't reality. They will say the same thing every season until it happens, no matter what happens on screen in the meantime. And there is always some lame statement made about why they "suddenly" decided to make it a thing or a lame admission that it was planned. So basically, they lie. The lies may seem cruel but it's not personal. It's not some secret agenda to deny your fave romance and happiness. It's just showbiz.

All of this can feel personal in relation to the extent a fan is personally invested. And I think that's up to each person to decide if their investment is creating too high an expectation and too much drama for regarding fictional characters on a tv show. That's not on media. It's not on the actor, creators, journalists, etc. to determine and protect a fan's level of investment or engagement. Nobody has to read the articles. Nobody has to devote their time to fandom. It's a choice. And part of that, may be understanding that all of the media around a ship isn't going to cater to what you want or see and making decisions on what you see is the healthiest, most enjoyable way to engage or not.

Because feelings have been hurt, arguments have raged, lies have been told in fandom and media and it's not new, it's not personal. It just is what it is.

Mulder x Scully walked so Carmy x Sydney can run.

[little-miss-dilf-lover]

May I please request a part 2 to “One of us”? Where she’s grappling with the weight of having killed someone (though it was out of defense), and Tangerine (and Lemon) are there for her? Y/n asking them if she’s a “bad person”, and the Twins reminding her that what she did was out of defense, whereas they kill for a living, etc? Tangerine cuddling close with her? The Twins honestly wishing they could bring the evil man back to life so that they could kill him themselves

hii, I wasn’t actually planning on making a part 2 but you made me want to. thank you for requesting, hope you like it💌

one of us (part 2)

tangerine x fem! reader

wc || 0.7k

warnings || mentions of guilt after k*lling abductor

masterlist + rules

taglist

part 1

You had now been living with Tangerine and Lemon in their home in the countryside for about two months now, and they’ve done nothing but treat you as one of their own. They’ve been so kind and considerate to you; feeding you, buying you things and just generally all round sweet.

The nights wouldn’t always be easy though, often having nightmares and awful reoccurring thoughts. Fortunately, your room was right next door to Tangerine’s and across from Lemon, so you knew that if you needed them, they’d be right there. As Tan was quite a light sleeper, he’d usually hear you stirring in your sleep, more often than not barging into your room to check on you. Sometimes you’d be too frightened to sleep, so Tangerine would make a bed on the floor beside you and talk random nonsense to help you drift off.

Not only was sleep a bit of a struggle, but you also had grave difficulty managing the guilt after the incident. It was self-defence, but you couldn’t quite grasp the fact that you had actually killed someone. You felt debilitating responsibility for taking a life, no matter if they deserved it or not.

You don’t have much to do in the day other than watch tv or spiral in thought. Tangerine and Lemon were decreasing their time at home, slowly easing you into them going black to work again. You missed their company terribly, but you knew they’ve already done so much for you and couldn’t expect them to put their work lives on hold too.

They had told you this morning before leaving for work they’d be back around noon, so that gave you some sanity.

You felt like you were wasting time, you had spent so many days held captive that it should make you want to go out and do things. But truthfully, you just didn’t have it in you, not yet anyway. Flicking aimlessly through the awful daytime television selection, randomly selecting a shitty reality show. Huddling yourself in the blanket and sprawling out on the sofa to get comfortable.

The show was so mind-numbingly boring, that your brain couldn’t stay interested and drifted off to the same thoughts that you hated.

So emerged in thought, you didn’t hear the front door open or realise the twins standing in the doorway.

“Everything alright?” Lemon quietly asks, not wanting to startle you.

Turning around, you nod once with a saddened smile.

Tangerine gently hits his brother's side, as if to communicate. “Let me get you some tea.” Lemon smiles, leaving the room.

“Still having those thoughts?” Tangerine softly asks, taking a seat beside you.

“Yeah.” You whisper, barely audible.

“Why didn’t you call?” He asks, searching for your eyes.

“I didn’t want to bother you.” You glance away.

“I don’t care what I’m doing, if you need me… you call me, right?” Cupping your cheeks.

“Am I a bad person?” You mumble, closing your eyes.

“Look at me.” He says sweetly. “You are not a bad person. What you did, that was self-defence- open them.” Warmly instructing again. “You didn’t do anything wrong… and we…” nodding to his brother who had just walked in holding a collection of mugs. “We wish that he could come back so we could kill him ourselves. Don’t we?” Exchanging glances.

“Yeah. We wished that we could do it for you… so you don’t have to feel what you feel.” Lemon says sweetly, handing you a mug.

“She thinks she’s a bad person.” Tangerine looks at Lemon as if to tell him your absurd thought.

“No.” His face full of shock and confusion. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“See? If we think that, why can’t you?”

Awkwardly shrugging your shoulders.

“It’s just gonna take time.” Lemon says, snuggling into the armchair opposite.

Tangerine sweetly looks at you, his face silently offering you comfort and security. “Let’s say we watch the rest of this shite.” He jokes, nodding to the tv.

Draping his arm over your shoulder, gently pulling you into his side as he turns the volume back up.

You knew it would take some time to manage the guilt and nightmares, but if you had the twins by your side, you were sure it would be no problem.

@tangerinesgf

@kpopgirlbtssvt

@ch3rries-n-cream

@earth-elemental18

@ashlynhasmanyhyperfixations

@idontknowwhattohaveasmyuser

@thewinterv

@navs-bhat

@ilovetangerinewithallmyheart

@theredvelvetbitch

@randomawesomeperson102

[nalyra-dreaming]

Also the only meaning of "sleeper" I know in relation to TV is "sleeper hit", so I wonder if he means that the show has grown its audience and started to become more popular over time? Because it does seem like it has become a lot more popular this year (the MTV interviewer at SDCC even talks about that, that the show is increasing in popularity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQcWlor0Lcs&t=324s), and that will hopefully only grow with netflix.

Oh it definitely has increased in popularity, so yeah, maybe he meant that?!

Either way, I think we’ll be able to tell after it hits Netflix (I only wished both seasons would hit tbh, but…. *shrugs*)

[osleeplessflowero]

L.O.VE And Justice

a somewhat satirical bad sanses reader insert fic

Chapter Three: Skeleton In Your..House.

Ao3 Link < Fic Masterpost < Previous Chapter <

divider credit in tags, this one's a bit short but the next chapter will be long again

Content Warning: Violence

With a few tugs and pulls, you've managed to drag the skeleton's body all the way over to your couch, lying him down on some pillows. You're not going as far as to put a blanket over him, he doesn't deserve that luxury. 

Rain gently begins to hit the windows of your living room as you pace back and forth, holding your hand over your mouth as you think of what to do next. You've got an unconscious murderer in your house. You have no idea when his companions will be back for him, and how they'll handle the situation. You are currently at risk, he could wake up at any time and attack you, and your gem has a cooldown so you can't transform back yet. 

Taking a deep breath, you focus. First things first, you need to disarm him. He can still use bone attacks on you, but at least you can take his knife from him. You walk over, spotting the handle in his jacket pocket. How big are his pockets?? Enough to fit a whole knife in there, apparently. You pull the knife out carefully, making sure not to wake him..must be a heavy sleeper, because you're not great at it. Then again, you did hit him pretty hard.

You take a few steps back, looking at the knife. A thin layer of dust is visible over it, obviously monster dust..you send your apologies to who lost their lives being on the receiving end of it. Knife acquired..now, what should you do? You think a moment, before realizing your identity is ENTIRELY exposed! Running into your room, you quickly look for some sort of face covering..

"There's gotta be something in here- I can't let him know who I am." You think aloud, rummaging through your closet and throwing on a hoodie pulling it up over your head and grabbing an old mask from a costume party you went to, putting it over your face. At the very least you can still hide yourself for a while. 

You walk back into your living room, moving little objects around and lighting some candles to give the room the nice scent of vanilla. The sound of voices coming from the television is comforting background noise, a warm atmosphere. It reminds you of the days as a kid where you could sit with your family, making them watch whatever show was your favorite at the time. You smile fondly as you think of them, even if it saddens a bit when you think of the later half of your life.. 

Continuing to wander about the living room and tidy up the most random things as you ramble in your mind, you're completely unaware that the skeleton has woken up and is now silently watching you with his cheek resting on one of his palms. He's almost amused, seeing you fret over this and that. It reminds him of his late brother, in a way.. 

You pick up a box from the living room table and freeze the moment your covered eyes meet his empty eyesockets. He looks over you with a grin, seeming to be unfazed at the moment. 

"..So, you're awake." You say, sitting the box in a different spot. He hums in acknowledgement, lowering his arm so both of them drape over his legs. "I took your knife from you so good luck using that on me." 

"huh, most people don't think of that. eh, i don't really feel like fighting yet. tired." He yawns to prove his point, but he does it in a comical, almost exaggerated way. You cover your mouth as a smile tries to break out, turning towards the TV. 

"Sleep well?" You tease, putting a hand on your hip. He narrows his eyesockets in reply, earning a chuckle from you. 

"how'd you do that, anyway?" "What?"

If he had eyelights, they'd be rolling right now. "how did you knock me out so easily?"

"Well, I've memorized pressure points that can be hit to take someone down instantly. That's how." You turn on some fairy lights in the room, turning off the lamp so a faint glow is the only thing illuminating it. Killer observes you, thinking for a moment to himself. 

You managed to knock him out, yet..you didn't leave him there. You brought him into your home, despite knowing that's an insane safety risk. He could easily come back, yet you still brought him here anyway. Why? Why not just leave him at the train station for the others to come get him? Why risk your safety for a stranger you don't even know? He doesn't really understand. 

"I'm surprised your allies aren't breaking my door down to get you back." You say, interrupting his thoughts as you change the channel to a movie you like. He shifts his head a bit to the side, you can assume that's the equivalent of averting his eyes. 

"they're not..really worried, i'd say. they've probably assumed i'm still fighting you or something. ..it'll probably be a while before boss sends dust after me." "So, they're pretty confident in you?" "..i guess? i dunno. i don't really know how any of them feel about me- well, except horror. he makes his hatred of us pretty clear. oh, uh, horror's the big one."

"Ah." You reply, watering some plants sitting in the windowsill. 

"sooo i guess you're stuck with me for a while." He gives you a cheeky grin, earning an eye roll in response.  "Greeeat." You sit your watering can down as you reply, sitting down a very long distance from him. "Whatever, as long as you don't try to kill me I don't give a shit what you do." 

He chuckles, looking ahead at the TV. It's..been a while since he's last been in a cozy house like this. The decor is nice, the furniture is super soft and comfy to sleep on.. it makes him feel warm in a way, even though he technically isn't able to feel much warmth at all. Who'd have thought he'd find comfort in his opponent's home?

You open a box, taking out some chocolate hearts and biting into one. He glances over, a browbone raised. 

"special someone get you those?" He asks, intertwining his hands together and resting his chin above them.  "Huh? OH, uh, no. I bought them. The store's having a sale on Valentine's candy so I got as much as I could. ..I guess you can have some, if you want." You slide a box over, and he happily takes some. It's sweet.. 

There's..a comfortable silence. Huh, you didn't expect this. You'd expected a fight the moment he'd woken up, but..it's pretty chill, actually. You can't help but wonder why that is. 

"sooo..you do realize i know where you live now." "Yeah." "which means i could easily come back later."

You turn to him, raising a brow which moves the mask on your face up a little. "Why would you want to?"  "to mess with you, obviously." He replies, popping some more chocolate into his mouth and letting out a contented hum when he's satisfied. 

"Don't you have better things to do than that? Or are you that lonely?" You ask, a slightly teasing tone to your voice. 

He gasps, putting a hand over his chest. "ouch! the audacity.." He drops the dramatic act with a snicker, lowering his hand. "it's mostly boredom. like..if i'm not out doing whatever the fuck my boss wants me to, i get bored pretty fast. might as well spend my time doing something interesting."

"Is that why you were trying to kill that store owner? Boredom?" You ask, a tint of annoyance in your voice.  "pretty much. i would get snacks, and get to raise my LOVE. seems like a win-win for me." He shrugs.  "You're disgusting."  "better get used to it, sunshine."  "Stop calling me that-" You immediately counter, earning a grin in reply before the peace is interrupted by a sound outside. 

"what was that?" He tilts his head. You stand up, walking over to your front door, where you heard the noise from. You cautiously open the door, half expecting to see a skeleton there with a bone ready to stab you..but there isn't one. Instead, a small black cat sits in front of the door, a letter in its mouth. Upon seeing you, it sits the letter down on the ground and greets you with a "mew". 

There's a brief pause before you immediately reach down to pick up the cat. "Kitty! Oh my goodness, you're so cute, how'd you get all the way here silly?" Your voice immediately shifts to a playful one as you gush over the cat, gently petting its head and earning cat language in reply. 

You lean down, picking up the letter. A gold heart-shaped mark..you have a feeling you know who this is from. 

Opening the letter with care, you look at the words written in gold-colored ink and hold the cat close, shielding them from the rain as you enter your house. 

I trust that this letter has been properly delivered to you, and the cat has arrived at your doorstep unharmed. After observing your actions from my residence for quite some time, I've decided that having a companion may help you in continuing your heroic training. Having a little assistance is always helpful, isn't it?  You may name the cat as you wish, be sure to take good care of her. In return, she will be your most loyal companion. Do not let her fall into the wrong hands. 

- Sincerely, Your Friend

You smile, gently closing the letter and putting it in your hoodie pocket. 

"So..we're gonna be stuck together a while, huh?" You look at the cat, who promptly replies in her superior language, earning a giggle from you as you grab a towel from the kitchen to dry her off. Killer leans his head to try to snoop, but is unsuccessful, so he waits for you to return to the living room. Once you do, he stands up immediately and rushes over. 

"where did you get a cat?" He gently pets her head, smiling fondly as she turns towards him. 

"She was left at my doorstep. I guess she belongs to me now? It's kinda confusing, but..I don't mind having a cat. Cats are cute." You smile at her, before taking notice of Killer's behavior. For a murderer, he's really..gentle when it comes to cats. He must really like them. He gently takes her out of your hands while you're distracted, earning a sound from you in protest. 

"relax." Is all he says before sitting down, letting her rest on his lap. "Don't nap on the enemy!" You shout, sighing in defeat as you sit back down on the couch and taking some more chocolate for yourself. Betrayed by your new cat..heartbreaking. 

"boss doesn't let me keep my cat at the castle, so i don't get to see them much since i'm keeping them in another universe. i love these silly little guys. or, i guess i should say gals too, huh?" His voice is soft as he pets her head. Your eyes soften as you look over him. He must miss his cat a lot.. you can understand that. 

"Well..if you behave, you could spend time with her. ..I guess. Don't make me regret my decision." You avert your eyes, your focus now back on the tv. He looks over at you, a little surprised that you're okay with it. You're such a mystery.. he can't help but be a bit curious. Who are you? What are you like? Why is it that both times he's entered this universe you showed up and ruined his plans? ..Maybe he'll come back again. To mess with you, of course. 

He turns to ask you a question, when he sees that you've fallen asleep against the arm of the couch. The cat rises from his lap, walking over and lying at your side. He smiles a little, shaking his head. Not a good idea, letting your guard down around strangers.. but it's not like he's gonna do anything to you. 

He looks behind himself and grabs a blanket off of the back of the couch, laying it over you. ..He doesn't know where you hid his knife, and kinda needs it back in order to leave, so it looks like he'll be stuck here until the next morning..oh well. It's not like it's a bad place to be stuck in, the house is pretty nice. Plus, c'mon. There's a cat! He can handle this. 

He flips through the channels on the TV, watching one of his old favorite series. He'd always been a sucker for romance.. his mind begins to slip as he drifts off, leaning back into the couch and falling asleep where he sits. Some things never change..

He dreams of a happy memory. Being surrounded by everyone he cares about..without a care in the world. 

.

.

.

A good distance away, random objects begin disappearing left and right. Breaking off into bright white pixels, entering the sky..never to be seen again. 

[et-cant-phone-home-no-signal]

The Last of Us HBO - Episode 1 thoughts

Warning: Pure yapping ahead, just my thoughts and things I've noticed whilst watching, it's not serious and I don't invite arguments (fellow yappers however are more than welcome)

(these make sense in the way that i wrote this as i watched so it's all chronological, this is my bday gift to all of you lol. spoilers under the cut)

Love the opening, gives a lot of the context you'd get from the opening credits of the game in a way that's easy to follow and understand for a new audience (using my mum as an example, she knows nothing about this show other than me telling her it's a zombie show - her only experience with that is the walking dead vaguely so her expectations were mid, but even she told me it's easy to understand and actually makes more sense irl compared to TWD)

The whole pandemic stuff really just hits different after COVID doesn't it

The whole climate change thing mentioned is so real, and I know this is written for modern times by modern writers, but for them to set that idea up in a 60s show is very eye-opening

The silence + stillness of the host and audience, the camera angles chosen, it's so good and unsettling in a very inconspicuous way, bravo

I wonder why they chose to change it from 2013 to 2003. Don't get me wrong I'm okay with it, and it's fun to relate to seeing a bunch of familiar things from my own childhood (lack of smartphones, older decor, easy clothing style etc), but it's a decade difference and I wonder why? Is it to make it more relatable for us that the majority of the show is set in 2023? Are we meant to connect to that more, as we've just had our own pandemic and this is a more intense fallout that we could have had if the nature of COVID had been slightly different? Maybe I'm overthinking it

The details in Sarah's room 👌 the posters, the box TV (such nostalgia), the pictures of her and friends, of her and Joel, ribbons and trophies from winning soccer tournaments, the hung up doodle paper, fairy lights, soft pink walls, it's so comfy and lived in, girly but completely her own space :') reminds me a bit of my childhood bedroom tbh, messy but comfortably so

I love that she knows her dad won't wake up so she knocks and calls because yeah, that's what you do when your dad is a deep sleeper

The contrast with Joel's room immediately after, the details there too - the old boombox cd player, fan up and running, messy dresser with slightly open drawers, the most Texas art on the walls (come on, music, deer and a tacos and beer poster?), blue walls, a hamper filled to the brim, a fucking treadmill?? Joel, your plant on the bedside table is long deceased I'm begging you to chuck it and release it from its misery 💀

(Something my mum noted, was that Sarah is wearing her natural curly hair, which mum said "it's rare to see that, in 2003 at least", to which I replied "maybe not in America?" because fr we are European and there's many cultural differences between the USA and other countries. Mum noticed it and she grew up in the Netherlands as a 60s kid. Me personally, I didn't think too much on it because it didn't click that might be odd to see someone wear natural hair, but I also admit I grew up in small villages and towns in more rural areas of Scotland and the Netherlands, so I didn't see much diversity in people growing up until like high school, but I consumed an insane amount of media such as Doctor Who and that's always been a very diverse show. Anyway, just a little thing that was noticed, I love Sarah's hair)

The domesticity :') Joel forgetting the pancake mix (good thing too), going straight for coffee, Sarah insisting on orange juice, his utter disgust at drinking it

"Gonna have to wear diapers soon." "Who says I don't already?" 💀

IS THAT DIDO PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND??? ULTIMATE WIN (I fucking love Dido, the song playing is White Flag)

"Shell." "Calcium." *pushes egg through teeth* "Lovely." stop it oh my god

Family banter, I'm eating this shit up so bad y'all, uncle Tommy <3

The Jakarta detail 👌👌

Pedro with a Texan accent is mwah

I like the detail of Sarah's name being on her bag, I had the same as a kid but my mum would sew it into the top of my bag instead, sometimes on the outside sometimes on the inside. I feel like that's not a safe thing to do anymore but it was so normal when I was a kid

Wish I could write an essay on Joel's drawer but instead I'll just say I love that Sarah is comfortable enough at home to just, go into her dad's room and grab stuff from his dresser, and know Joel won't be mad about it :) healthy home relationship

I wonder if the knife has any crazy significance? I don't remember seeing that knife ever again, unless it's just foreshadowing to Ellie's knife

I swear, them constantly avoiding baked goods is so genius (no pancakes, no cake, no biscuits, they don't eat the cookies later, it's small and clever)

Joel throwing Sarah under the bus like that to the neighbours had both me and mum cackling

Joel "no smoking in the truck" Miller

The desert storm detail is an interesting addition to Tommy's character, and at this stage, it's open whether this is about Joel or Tommy since we don't know who's truck it is (just because Tommy is driving doesn't mean it's his, after all, Joel has a garage)

The details in the school are fun, but idk if that's a normal American school thing to have pictures of the presidents and founding father up or not, I honestly will assume it is since there's also a big ass USA flag in the corner

THE PAPERMATE INKJOY PEN!!! I USED TO HAVE THOSE!!! Damn the small details are so fucking popping

This part is wonderful - where the fuck did they source that many different and fun clocks from and where can I get them?

"20." "That's it?" "Okay, 30." "20's good."

The build up is fantastic, it works for fans and for newcomers alike - all these things like the police all day and other things previously mentioned, the lady ushering her out as quickly as possible, all the people that were outside eating and enjoying the food stands are suddenly gone and the street is silent

The whole Jesus spiel, good lord, feels very Texas in the 2000s (and still tbh, let's be real)

Sarah's face when Mrs Adler says "raisin" is SUCH a fat mood my god this kid is funny

Nanna no 💀 (that fucking grandma is FREAKY as FUCK, outstanding detail)

Mercy knows. Animals always know.

Thank god Joel forgot the cake

Pedros funny little facial expression absolutely kill me, adds such dimension to Joel as a father

Super satisfying to hear the game dialogue ngl, especially that funny little bit with the watch

It's so interesting to see Joel has always struggled with his emotions and verbalising them - the small "thank you", not looking at her, rather looking down at the watch itself, fiddling with it - he's trying but he's never been good with feelings

Joel SNATCHING that dvd like, damn son, it's not going anywhere 😭😂 it's cute to see him so excited about it though, Sarah knows what he likes, even if she's not interested in it at all

The instant sofa snuggle :')

"Don't fall asleep." "Of course I won't, it's too riveting." *Cuts to Sarah fast asleep*

The phone 💀 I remember us having a phone like that, whole ass protection sleeve and all

This extra detail of Joel having to bail Tommy out just adds so much more depth to the dynamic and I'm here for it, also explains why the fuck Joel wasn't in the house at 2am (that always bothered me a bit about the game)

Joel loves his daughter so much,,,, the gentle way he puts her in bed, shoes and all, covering her up with her blanket, little kiss on the head,,,,, I'm already in pain for what's to come

Mercy my sweet baby <3 what a good dog, so scared :(

The show really captured that out of sync feeling when something like this happens - nothing crazy yet, just utter confusion and mild panic creeping in because this isn't normal but nothing seems to be happening yet

Mercy said "peace ✌️ I'm out"

This girl is braver than me, I wouldn't have walked through the door - but that being said I haven't had close neighbours like this in years so maybe it's just that they're very close and she feels comfortable doing so

Oh that's fucked UP dude, Sarah downright walking into cannibal town that's so disturbing (fantastic acting and special effects all around)

The cordyceps special effects are so fucking visceral and disgusting, that out of the mouth?? Grim!! Love how they did this

Love the amount of game dialogue and referencing we get in this particular part - "You take 71-" "71, I know.", the whole car conversation, "That's Jimmy's place" (I know in the game Jimmy is the neighbour and it's Louis'farm that's on fire but the reference stands), most of the camera work being fixed on Sarah or from Sarah's perspective in the back, "They got a kid Joel." "So do we, keep driving. Somebody else'll come along.", just a fucking well done scene tbh

This whole part in the car from Sarah's POV absolutely invokes the same anxiety I felt when playing this bit of the game, totally made me feel like I'm in the truck with them and it's scary (scary good)

I was so thrown off by the fact that they avoided the car crash that I wasn't expecting the alternative that they chose instead 💀 like shit??? A whole ass plane??? Love that they did the eerie music to black thing though that was great

Nico honestly just stole my whole heart as Sarah she got all the fucking expressions down, the panic, the way she talks, the pained sounds, love it 10/10 casting imo

The instant reaction time on Joel and getting Sarah out of the way of that car was NUTS like, I rewatched that part multiple times just to see how quickly he switched them around goddamn

Pedro and Nico are a fantastic father daughter duo 👌

Joel pushing Sarah's head under his chin more so she doesn't look 🥺

The infected actors are fucking amazing, terrifying dedication to the role

Oh no I'm about to cry so hard guys

Sarah 😭😭😭 her whimpers make me so fucking upset this scene is so fucking sad

On a genuine note, Nico did an outstanding job of channeling the desperation from the game, and so did Pedro and Gabriel - Tommy's choked up "Joel" and look of utter defeat and grief is absolutely heartbreaking

Joel holding his dead daughter in his arms, rocking her like a baby, crying out for her to please please be okay...... Yeah

The set for the front of the Boston QZ 🙌

It's so telling that the first thing we see FEDRA do is lie to a child and kill her when they promised she was gonna be okay. They promised they were gonna feed her and get her toys, and that the medicine would help her. They told her that she was safe. And they killed her.

Having Joel be the one to throw her into the fire, holding her the same way he held Sarah, was such poignant choice - how a man can change over 20 years

The Boston details - the set itself, the extras, the shoelaces for ration cards, the covering up of the firefly logo, the sheer amount of FEDRA guards everywhere

Ah yes, the return of public hangings, my favourite 🫠

Interesting to see Joel "smuggler and dealer" Miller, something we didn't get much of in the game tbh

Tess <3

Robert is so slimy eugh

I love that we get to see more of Tess outside of her and Joel, it builds more of a picture of who she is besides just Joel's smuggle partner - also love the amazing bruise makeup they did for her, looks super real and painful

The fireflies actively causing mayhem in the QZ is also a great added detail! We see it a bit in game but I enjoy the constant references to it as well

Bella as Ellie is god tier damn they're so good - snarky as FUCK

Joel just, skipping the fucking line without giving a shit, no one stopping him

"When I'm sleeping, Gabriela listens, or my son. The smart one, not the other one, god bless him." 💀😂😭

I love that Joel has a secret stash in his apartment

Ah yes, drugs and alcohol, the remedy to all

The watch 😭

Liking the music and camera usage in this scene, makes me feel like I'm high myself

Tess just coming in, scooting Joel over in bed and being the big spoon 🙌 the tender way in which she slides her arm over his waist and he grabs her hand in his 😭

The jarring cut to it being day and him lying down alone, pheww

The way Joel is instantly awake and ready to fucking go when he sees Tess' face 🫠

Enjoy how we get Tess saying how absolutely terrified Robert is of Joel, that he needs to take a breath and go slow, but reassures him she still wants to fuck him up - Tess is handling Joel like an spooked animal, gently and with care

Marlene's casting is fantastic 👌 - JUST CLOCKED THAT THE REASON WHY I FELT THAT IMMEDIATELY IS BECAUSE MERLE VOICED MARLENE IN GAME, NO WONDER I INSTANTLY FELT SHE WAS RIGHT!! I recognised her voice without clocking it

I enjoy the changes made to Marlene from the game, she feels more real here, more brutal, this is a rebellion leader who is aware shit isn't going well, it's refreshing - we're seeing more of the inner workings of the firefly situation in Boston

I think it's cute that they still have shitty bars and stuff, humans desire connection and community so much they'll make the best out of whatever they got

"You tell me to 'look for the light' and I'll break your jaw." SLAY LOL

This insight into Ellie's treatment and her relationship with Marlene is really interesting - it's more context which I always enjoy

"You my fucking mom or something?" "Do I look like your mom?" "Nooo, you do not." 😂

First Riley mention, time to feel sad!

With more thought, the "he's here" is probably about Robert! Didn't think much on that before

Detail notice - love how hair and makeup department did Tess and Joel's graying hairs, it looks really good and natural. I read some comments ages ago that Joel's hair is too silver in some spots, but I raise to you my mum in defence, who went grey quite early (she started in her late 30s) and has beautiful silver highlights naturally between the darker hairs. If my mum ever finds out I've posted that online, she'll probably kill me, but then she shouldn't have genetically given me her terrible eyesight 😌 consider it retaliation

The wall body is so grotesque and beautiful, it reminds me a bit of Annihilation (if you haven't seen that movie, I recommend! Fantastic music and visual effects)

*Joel rambles about the building structure* "This has been 'Construction Corner' with Joel Miller." got me creasing lmao they're so snarky and funny

Man I wonder wtf happened, like, did Robert try to scam them so bad they had a shootout?? Crazy

"So this is who Robert screwed us over with? The Che Guevara of Boston?" tells me everything I need to know about Marlene

The shootout stance oooooohhsggsg

Kim and her missing ear 💀

I like the way they get the Ellie job in the show, it works really well

"Really? That fast?" crying lmao

There's clearly more history between Tommy, Marlene and Joel and I know it's because Tommy was a firefly but man what I wouldn't give for a series on the 20 years between this and 2003!!! I'd play a whole game of that!!! I wanna know what happened, in detail!!

Something that bothers me: they're soaked, their shoes are squelching, yet the floor is bone dry after they walk in 😭

I love how smart and inquisitive Ellie is, all the small things she notices and picks up on

Love the same dialogue but different way of delivering it from the game, refreshing as fuck

Ellie's a sassy little shit ain't she (I love her)

I find it constantly funny that cars and shit are still used after 20 years because y'all, gasoline has a shelf life of like 3-6 months and diesel about a year if they're stored correctly with stabilisers, so, why are vehicles used so much?? Where are they getting their gasoline from?? Yes I am aware you can make bio-gas out of plants but it's a complicated process and do you really think FEDRA is out here with greenhouses for gasoline? No me neither

Tess is actually so fucking lovely in regards to Ellie, like, mom mode detected - also love how it's Tess that takes the lead

I can feel my own back protesting at seeing them squat walk, yikes

Ellie gripping Tess' hand for support 😭💕

Joel's flashback due to the light - him beating that guy to fucking death because he's already lost one daughter to a soldier before, and he may not even like Ellie yet but he'll be damned if he lets another little girl die at the barrel of a gun like that

Ellie's face, like she wants to be scared of Joel but shit, that guy just killed a FEDRA soldier to protect her and you can see the admiration in her eyes, but the fear is there too

The radio at the end - we know Bill and Frank aren't alright but at this stage we don't know what exactly that means

The final shot of the iconic towers at the end, an infected screaming on the roof - fucking poetry

If you made it to the end, thanks for reading!! It's literally just my running thought process whilst watching!! Do you agree with some of my notes, was there anything you noticed that i didn't? Comments and reblogs welcome <3

Episode 2 thoughts:

Episode 3 thoughts:

[darerendevil]

For archive purposes: March, 2013

If he has one driving goal in his film career, it's to participate in a project that leaves a lasting impression. "Ultimately what I'd like to do is leave behind a movie that's a piece of art," he says. "One movie out of however many I make that influences or has an impact or someone holds up in the future as a piece of art. That's the ultimate goal."

Chaos. Blackness. Then a pair of inconceivably blue eyes burst open, filling the screen. This is how most audiences were first introduced to Cillian Murphy three and a half years ago, when the Irish actor erupted onto the scene in the post-apocalyptic sleeper hit 28 Days Later. As Jim, a bike courier who awakens from a coma after London has been wiped out by a deadly infection, the largely unknown 24-year-old found himself as the lead in Danny Boyle's poetically terrifying film. As the audience surrogate, Murphy's face telegraphed all the confusion, innocence, and wonder we would expect of a hero-in-the-making who is realizing he might very well be the last man on earth.

After the success of 28 Days Later, a career in Hollywood films was inevitable. It's not just that Murphy looks as though his face were sculpted from marble, topped off by those aforementioned stunning eyes. As he showed in 28 Days Later and subsequent films such as Girl With a Pearl Earring and Intermission, he was a chameleonic performer, a character actor trapped in a leading man's bone structure. In 2005 he found himself starring in two blockbuster hits in which he played characters that couldn't be further from the well-intentioned Jim. As Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow, Murphy's silky smooth calmness was put to villainous use in Batman Begins. He followed that with a turn as Jackson Rippner, a mysterious stranger who traps hotel manager Lisa (Rachel McAdams) into an assassination plot in Wes Craven's Red Eye. While both films were unabashedly popcorn entertainment, each transcended its genre with stellar casting and sharp direction.

After these back-to-back successes, it seemed there was only one logical step for the newly minted star. So Murphy shaved his legs, plucked his eyebrows, and gamely jumped into the role of Patrick "Kitten" Braden, the transvestite orphan whose adventures with cabaret singing, prostitution, and the Irish Republican Army don't even begin to sum up the strange and delightful world of Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto (opening in limited release Nov. 18). Written by Jordan and Patrick McCabe, on whose 1998 novel the film is based, Pluto is a loopy journey featuring Murphy in a bravura performance as the needy heroine who spends her life looking since he first auditioned for it four years ago. Jordan couldn't get the film financed at the time, but he never forgot Murphy--largely because the actor wouldn't let him. "I did a test with Cillian and several young Irish actors to see: Was the role even playable?" says Jordan. "Cillian was not well-known at all but gave a blistering performance. Problem was, after that he would never let it go. Every time we met, he'd ask, 'When do we start shooting?'"

Murphy got his wish in 2004, when Jordan got the money and jumped right into a 10-week shoot. It was sudden, but Murphy took it in stride.

Early Stages

In person Murphy speaks softly, his voice heavy with his native accent--one that has rarely been captured on film, as he frequently adopts English or American accents for roles. He speaks in simple, sparse terms of how he came to acting.Born and raised in Cork, Ireland, Murphy grew up on a diet of American TV and was interested in movies and music. At age 20 he was playing in a band, and he saw a play at the Corcadorca Theatre Company in his hometown. "I went up and knocked on the door of the theatre and said, 'Listen, if you have any parts in any plays coming up, let me know,'" he recalls. "And the guy said, 'There's this play called Disco Pigs. Come in for an audition.' I went in and got the part, and that was it, really."He may make landing the job sound easy, but anyone who saw the 2001 film adaptation of Disco Pigs can attest it was more than luck that got Murphy cast. As the violent and unpredictable Pig, pathologically devoted to his lifelong friend Runt, Murphy is a force of nature we can't take our eyes off of. Still, he admits that at times he felt out of his league. "I was going to go back to playing in a band; I was just acting as a laugh," he says. "But it didn't transpire like that. I don't think I realized it was a career until recently. But I don't enjoy anything as much as I enjoy acting. I never got a kick out of anything as much as I get out of acting when it's going well. You build up a real hunger for it."

For the next three years he worked in theatre, learning on the job while performing in such classics as The Seagull and Much Ado About Nothing. "I think that's the best place to learn as actor," he observes. "I consider it my training ground. I was very lucky to work with a lot of great directors and great plays. I went from smaller parts onstage to bigger parts onstage, then smaller parts in movies to bigger parts in movies. It was a very organic way to do it."

He landed his first agent, Richard Cook at The Lisa Richards Agency, when Cook saw him onstage in Disco Pigs; he remains with the agent to this day. Murphy has a Los Angeles agent, Darren Statt at United Talent Agency, whom he says "saw an audition tape I did for a movie and took me on based on that--which is actually quite unusual." He also has a London representative, Lou Coulson with The Lou Coulson Agency. As Murphy began landing various film and television roles, he had to adjust to auditioning regularly. "It took me awhile to realize auditioning is a different skill than acting," he says. "They're entirely unrelated skills. Just because you're a good actor, it doesn't mean you'll be good in a room with a director. I had to learn to audition."

It was the film version of Disco Pigs that caught Boyle's eye when he was casting for 28 Days Later. Surprisingly, Murphy's newcomer status worked in his favor. "We thought that it was more appropriate for the film that it should not be a star vehicle," says Boyle. "Rather, it should be a community of people we cast as equals." Boyle also felt Murphy displayed an innocent quality that would endear Jim to the audience. "The feeling of a child who is forced to become a man and, by the end of the film, be almost primal, I thought Cillian had that," Boyle reasons. Murphy rewarded his director's trust with a searing performance, taking Jim from wide-eyed youth to fierce protector in the space of 108 minutes. "I've been lucky to have support from great people like Danny," Murphy raves. "He let me carry 28 Days Later. But, ultimately, if you don't produce in the work, you won't get hired. You're only as good as your last job."

Armed with this knowledge, Murphy was selective about his projects after the success of 28 Days Later. "I'm aware of the system and how certain doors open when a film does well," he says. "A lot more people started taking meetings with me. And people began to pronounce my name correctly, that's always been a good yardstick for me." Although most people probably know by now, the correct pronunciation is "kill-ee-un."

Being Bad

Murphy claims he would have been perfectly happy to continue doing theatre the rest of his life; indeed, when he speaks of performing onstage, it's with a low-key but palpable passion. But he is also practical. "If there's an opportunity to do a good film with a good director, you've got to take it," he muses. "You'd be foolish not to. And if a bit of momentum builds up, you have to stick with it."

He has collaborated with some of the most prestigious directors working today, from Anthony Minghella in Cold Mountain to Ken Loach in the upcoming The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Yet he insists there's no deliberate strategy to his career. "I want to do different things and keep myself interested and keep improving," he remarks. "Wherever that takes me, I don't know. There's no plan--it's all out of your control anyway. The only thing I've ever insisted upon is diversity. Every role you take, you have to be afraid that you can't do it. Otherwise, there's no point in doing it." The primary factors that draw him to projects are the script and the director. "It's got to be a good script to start with," he says. "If it's a bad director, they can make the script mediocre pretty fast. But the combination of a good director and good script--that's the ultimate. And I can't believe how lucky I've been to have both."

When it came to auditioning for Batman Begins, Murphy didn't look at it as a blockbuster franchise that would raise his salary quote--he saw it as an opportunity to play a well-crafted character and work with director Christopher Nolan. "I would do any movie with Chris Nolan," he says. "It was a good script and a great part. I had so much fun." Nolan originally brought Murphy in to read for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. "I saw Cillian in 28 Days Later and was struck by the extraordinary intensity of his performance," says Nolan. "We tested him for Batman, and his presence just leapt off the screen. Everyone who saw it got very excited about the idea of casting him as Scarecrow. He has a fantastic ability to project interior passions with a power that can be by turns either chilling or seductive."

As Scarecrow, Murphy proved a hero is only as interesting as his nemesis, and his cool confidence was enthralling--just listen to the way he draws out "Batman" as two words in a cruel taunt.He brought that same dangerous appeal to Red Eye, a film in which his Rippner is more or less played as the romantic leading man--until he reveals he's a stone-cold killer. "I was very careful not to come at that character as the bad guy," he explains.

"He's been chosen for his job because he has access to this charisma and approachability. For him to be revealed too quickly would be pointless." Murphy also enjoyed being the heavy, a nice respite from saving the world in 28 Days Later. "It's fun to be the bad guy," he notes. "I thought it was a great role. Just because he turned out to be bad, it didn't represent any more or less fun than playing [Jim]. It's still a great range there to convey."Murphy also wants to make it clear that playing back-to-back villains was a fluke of distribution. "I did get very frustrated with the question, 'Why are you playing the bad guys this summer?'" he says. "I guess it's an easy in. I've made 10 feature films and played two bad guys. I think anyone who's seen the rest of my work will realize that's not what I specialize in at all."

Men Are From Pluto

If Murphy had any concerns about being pigeonholed, he certainly confounded expectations as Kitten in Breakfast on Pluto. "That role was a gift," he insists. "To work with Neil, who's a living legend--he's amazing." To prepare for the role, Murphy reread the book and talked extensively with McCabe, who was frequently on-set. "The book is a masterpiece but not always conducive to the screen, and the film has to be cinematic," Murphy notes. "I used a lot of the episodes in the book that aren't in the movie as my own research." Aware that the role was "completely transformative," he also spent a lot of time getting down Kitten's gestures and movements. "It's a long process," he says. "The physical side wasn't too hard; that's just grooming, really. The clothes and hair and eyebrows--anybody can do that. It was getting the voice and the walk and the physicality." Murphy went so far as to hit London nightclubs in drag. "It's important to do that. How much of it you use or not in the end is irrelevant," he says. "It's just important to have a reference point."

While the sight of Murphy in skirts and wigs is frequently funny, his sensitive and sweet portrayal elevates the film and engages the audience in Kitten's struggles. He is boosted by a top-notch supporting cast that includes Stephen Rea as a sad-eyed suitor, his Batman co-star Liam Neeson as a priest, and his 28 Days Later co-star Brendan Gleeson as a drunken theme-park character. It's a giddy, charming work Murphy aptly describes as "an unexpected fairy-tale disco fantasy."Murphy says he can talk about Pluto "until the cows come home," a bold statement considering that he confesses to an aversion to interviews. "I don't particularly like interviews or having my picture taken," he says, somewhat apologetically. "I don't mind it as a character, just not as myself. I don't like the perceived celebrity of it. I'm not about to become a personality or go on talk shows to entertain people as me, as Cillian." He points out he has never done a talk show in his life--mention Regis and Kelly and he pauses for a moment before replying, "I don't know who those people are."Of course, with his profile on the rise, Murphy admits he has given serious thought to how to maintain a healthy career without having his private life exposed to the world. He even discussed the topic with Batman co-star Christian Bale, whom he praises as "the best Batman" and a dedicated actor. "I actually asked his advice because you don't see him in the papers," says Murphy. "He pretty much told me, 'Don't behave like a celebrity, and you won't get treated like one.' I guess if you don't go out to a lot of parties and fall down, people don't take photographs of you."

Accent on Talent

Murphy recently wrapped Sunshine, a sci-fi adventure that reunites him with director Boyle in which he is once again saving the world-this time from a dying sun. Surprisingly--considering that Boyle gave the actor his biggest break--he still had to audition for the role. "I kind of wanted to," he says with a shrug. "That's what we do; we're actors. I don't understand this thing about actors who won't read for parts. I wanted to show him I could do it. I'm playing an American, and the movies hadn't come out yet where I'm American, so I think he wanted to see me do it." Murphy notes that early in his career he encountered resistance when auditioning for American roles. "They would hear me speak and say, 'Jesus, there's no way,'" he recalls. "But once you do it well, people accept it. And after a while it becomes second nature. That's why I think actors should never be limited by their background. This is what we do: We dress up and put on voices. So people should never be afraid to cast someone because of their accent."

Murphy isn't sure what he'll do next. He mentions taking a break, having worked steadily for the last few years. He'd also love to get back to theatre and tackle some of the great roles. Point out that a website erroneously reported that he has played Hamlet and he seems wistful. "No, I wish. I'd love to," he says. "I hope they said I did a good job." He also

acknowledges the differences between film and the stage. "Obviously, it's different vocally. If you're playing to an auditorium of 1,100 people, you've got to magnify the performance," he says. "For me, film acting is when you can see what the actor's thinking. Theatre acting, you've got to get up to the gods and let them know what's going on." Murphy doesn't mind returning to small theatres-he might even prefer it. "Disco Pigs was always in tiny little sweatboxes," he notes. "As the play got more popular and moved to bigger houses, I think it lost some of its allure. I remember doing Disco Pigs in its first incarnation and turning and getting sweat all over the front row. It was so visceral and dirty and sweaty. Then, when you start playing to bigger auditoriums, it's not as sexy."

If he has one driving goal in his film career, it's to participate in a project that leaves a lasting impression. "Ultimately what I'd like to do is leave behind a movie that's a piece of art," he says. "One movie out of however many I make that influences or has an impact or someone holds up in the future as a piece of art. That's the ultimate goal."

[ltwharfy]

"Bob's Burgers" Season 4 Episode Ranking Rewatch (Long Post)

So, I've been rewatching "Bob's Burgers" from the beginning and ranking the episodes using the spreadsheet that @babsvibes created! If you want to know why I'm doing this or how I view the 1-5 rating scale, you can check out my Season 1 post! If you want to check out any of the other seasons, I've been using the "bob's burgers episode ranking rewatch" tag for all of them.

Now, on to Season 4:

Average (Mean) Score: 4.59

Mode (Most Common) Ranking: 5

Ranking Breakdown: 13 5s; 9 4s

Season as a whole thoughts:

I'm genuinely wondering if Season 4 might end up being the highest rated season when this project is all said and done. And that's interesting because it is not a season I immediately think of when I think of a season with a lot of my favorite episodes- I think of 3 and 7 first. But Season 4 is just so consistently entertaining! As I got towards the end of it, I noticed that I had not given any of the episodes a 3 yet- but looking it over again, that checks out. I'd really be happy to watch any of these episodes any time I am in the mood for "Bob's Burgers"- there isn't a "meh" or a mixed review in the bunch. And since I have already rated episodes from later seasons when I've caught them on cable, am pretty certain that this might be the only season with no 3s or lower in it.

But honestly, one of the things that really makes "Bob's Burgers" standout among TV comedies for me- and one of the things that motivated me to do this rewatch- is that I think it has been really consistently good for a really long period of time. And if Season 4 was the most really consistently good season- well, then, maybe it makes sense for it to be my (mathematically calculated) favorite! (But we've still got a lot of seasons to go...)

Some thoughts on specific episodes (and feel free to ask if you want my thoughts on an episode I didn't comment on):

"My Big Fat Greek Bob": One of the "sleeper hits" of the season- I had forgotten how much fun it was! Bob's bond with the frat guys, the kids exploring the frat house, Linda and Gretchen's "lady goods" parties- it's all a hoot! And one of the pleasures of doing this rewatch has been realizing how much I enjoy many recurring BB characters- not in a "they are my new Blorbo I must create a billion head canons about them!" way but just in a "hey, it's nice to see you in this episode!" way. So, hey, Dr. Yap, it was nice to see you in this episode!

"Turkey in a Can": One of the hardest "Bob's Burgers" questions you could ask me is to name my favorite Thanksgiving episode- making me choose between this one and "Dawn of the Peck"?! Please no! The scene in the bathroom on Thanksgiving is one of the funniest bits of chaotic humor on the show ever. If I'm not cracking up when Gayle declares "It's the end of the world!" and kisses Mort, you should check my pulse because I'm probably dead.

"Purple Rain-Union": "Won't you enter my Acropolis and make my yogurt Greek?"- how come Aunt Gayle's name never comes up when people are discussing the greatest songwriters of all time?! Also, I love the scenes with Jen (one of my all-time favorite recurring characters) in this one- especially her hilarious "pep talk" to Linda. I also love the way Louise's nonsensical "everybody gets a black eye" plan somehow works!

"Slumber Party": Yes, the slumber party plot itself is great! Yes, Jessica and all the other recurring characters who debut in this episode are great! But what I really love about this episode is the amount of screentime and dialogue devoted to Little King Trashmouth!! "It's a rac-coup d'etat!" and "Aw, babies getting rabies" are two of my favorite ever Linda quotes! Let's just say that if I lived in Seymour's Bay I would be a crazy raccoon person alongside Linda and Teddy. I love those alley rascals!

"Easy Com-mercial, Easy Go-mercial": Hey, Randy, it was nice to see you in this episode! After "Fraud of the Dead", I was thinking about Louise directing that film and also directing the Meatman film in "Ain't Miss Debtatin'" and wondering if there were any other indications in the show that she had this interest in directing. So, it was interesting to rewatch this and note that Louise not only insists that she should direct instead of Randy because she came up with the script idea, but even when Randy is directing scenes of the commercial that she is not in, you can see Louise standing next to him mimicking his actions- like, it's not just about her wanting power or not respecting Randy (although both things are true) she's genuinely interested in directing!

"The Frond Files": Our first three stories anthology! Two things I really love in this one: the way Louise writes that ridiculous argument between her and Gene at the end of her story-it's the most sibling thing ever! Also, I LOVE the coloring and designs of the "Fart School for the Gifted" segment- it's just really beautiful art to accompany a really silly story! (I also love Linda's tearful reaction to that story and Bob insisting to Frond that he ending is ambiguous). I also loved the use of black and white for (most) of Tina's zombie story.

"Mazel Tina": Another fun thing of the rewatch has been noticing story types/structures that the show reuses that I enjoy- and this is one of them, where the Belchers are go to a place together (Tammy's bat mitzvah) and then all have separate little adventures there ("Mutiny on the Windbreaker" and "Legends of the Mall", are among other stories of that type). I particularly enjoy Louise in this one- Louise talking Janet into quitting her job and following her dreams is hilarious, as is all the Tammy-Louise interaction. One of the things that makes Tammy a great recurring character is that she has her own different dynamics with each of the Belcher siblings- they all mess with her, but in completely different ways.

"The Kids Rob A Train": So, as I have written in other long posts and in fics, one of the reasons I enjoy Louise and Rudy's friendship is that we can see it evolve over time. They don't automatically become besties after "Carpe Museum"- in this one Rudy tells Beanbag that he knows the Belchers from school, not that they are his friends. And I think we see some key moments in the development of their friendship in this one- Rudy's patience with Louise's siblings during his presentation about the train, Rudy and Louise's back-and-forth as he tries to get her to hand him the chocolate through the window, and his fake allergic severe reaction and her panicked response. But even if you aren't as obsessed with that relationship as I am, this episode has tons of great things- Bob's "friendship" with "Ramon" the boy riding the bike next to the train, Gene's outfit, the thrilling musical score!

"The Kids Run Away": Another sleeper hit that I never really appreciated until this rewatch. I particularly love that Gayle is actually helpful in resolving the Louise cavity crisis in this episode. Yes, Gayle has a LOT of issues, but I think she does try to be a good aunt and a good sister.

The "How Bob Saves/Destroys the Town" two-parter: Most of the time, my ratings are mainly based on how much I enjoy the comedy, story, and character beats of the episode- I haven't really rated any episodes up or down based on how they look visually- and I readily concede that is not really my wheelhouse, I don't really know much about evaluating animation or direction in animation from a technical perspective. That being said, both parts of this two parter were probably the first episodes of the show where I repeatedly thought about how beautiful it was! There are many great shots that make the episodes seem more cinematic or theatrical (the spotlights on the singers during the musical numbers) rather than "just" an episode of television. The view of the town when Bob and Calvin are on top of the rollercoaster is particularly great. And I love how they brought back so many recurring characters, even if it was just for silent cameos (like Darryl and Logan being in the background for part of "Bad Things Are Bad")! This episode really shows how much the show had grown over four seasons- how it had developed a setting and a ton of characters, both supporting and main, so that you really cared about them. A fantastic ending for a fantastic season!

Random thoughts (stuff that doesn't affect the ratings):

-This season seems to have more plots involving Bob working somewhere other than the restaurant ("My Big Fat Greek Bob", "Bob and Deliver") and more plots about the family or members of it being in physical jeopardy (the first three episodes, "Christmas in the Car", the two-part season finale) than most seasons. I remember noticing that when it was first airing and worrying that it was a trend that might lead to the show becoming less grounded (like "The Simpsons") and that if we got to 10+ seasons we'd be seeing stories about Bob becoming a temporary chef for NASA and the family being stranded on the International Space Station or nonsense like that. Obviously, this concern was misplaced. if anything, the show has become more grounded as it's gone on, making episodes about things my retired aunt and uncle do as hobbies (birdwatching, hunting for mushrooms).

-I try not to nitpick jokes, but it bugs me in "Mazel Tina" when Gene yells "One Luftballoon!" after seeing Tina's blood red face. Yes, the English version of Nena's "99 Luftballoons" was "99 Red Balloons"- but "luft" doesn't mean "red" in German, it means "air" and "luftballoon" just means "balloon"-it has nothing to do with it being red! So, he's just saying Tina's red face looks like a balloon, which is an odd joke. Sorry, this is incredibly dumb, but y'know I took German for two years in high school and I need to use it occasionally so I don't feel like I wasted that time...

Thanks for reading! See you in Season 5!