#the doctor is out (samson)

[broadcaster-red]

Awh man I was really hyped to watch Venture Bros and to its credit there is some really clever writing but uhhh 2 seasons in and it's HORRIFICALLY transphobic :/ guess I should've seen that coming from an adult swim cartoon from 2006.

[getreadytosmash]

🍰 1 For Samson

@awkward-snake-girl

what’s my character’s favourite dessert?

Samson really likes ice cream and gelato, neat desserts that he can eat easily and neatly. He doesn't like anything that can be too messy or that's sticky. Usually it's a tub of strawberry ice cream.

[idolomantises]

I’m Ngl. I think the reason why I’m having trouble doing plague doctor stuff is because I was just making up shit on a whim and now I want better established characters so I kind of want to… soft reboot them I guess.

Like Violet and Lucy have a budding relationship, Ezra has her loyal work buddy Angelica are weird fucked up partners, and Atlus, Samson and Azalea are all platonic work partners.

But it feels wrong to sort of scrap old ideas and make up something new without creating a completely new and separate series. But then again. These are my OCs. Oh well, I’ll figure something out.

[linkspooky]

Dr. Venture vs. Enji Todoroki: How to Write Bad Dads

This is a post comparing two shows about two abusive dads who are the main characters instead of their children. My Hero Academia is a Shonen jump manga that takes inspiration from American comics and shonen manga. Whereas The Venture Bros is an adult swim cartoon that started out as a parody of Johnny Quest, and grew into a seven season long character study of former child star Rusty Venture.

The idea for this post came from the fact that I've noticed a common hot take from MHA fans that Endeavor's redemption arc is bad because it's wrong to make an abuser the main character.

I've always disagreed, and used The Venture Bros as an example of a show where making an abuser the main character works. Rusty is actually a well-liked character in the venture bros fandom. So my question is if these characters are both abusers why is one of them generally accepted and the other one so controversial?

Before we begin I want to say this is a story with fictional characters. Don't bring real life into the equation. We are doing literary criticism here and only talking about the events that happen in the story.

Anyway, My Hero Academia and The Venture Bros seem like the weirdest shows to compare but they are actually pretty similar. They are both comic book shows that are commentating on the comics they're inspired from.

What My Hero Academia is to Spiderman and Dragonball Z, Venture Bros is to Tom Swift Novels, the Hardy Boys, and old Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. They also make the decision to focus on the characters as people rather than heroes. They are telling the stories of real people that exist in a world overflowing with both heroes and villains.

1. Meet the Venture Brothers

If you've heard of the Venture Bros then you've probably heard of the premise that it's an adult parody of Johnny Quest. Johnny Quest for those of you who have a life and therefore haven't seen every old Hanna-Barbera Cartoon like I have is a show where eleven year old Johnny Quest travels around the world with his super scientist father Dr. Benton C. Quest and their bodyguard Race Bannon, going on adventures in Jungle Ruins or fighting villains.

In the Venture Bros the main character Dr. Thaddeus Venture is an emotionally abusive and neglectful father who constantly exposes his sons to danger in his trips around the world. Their bodyguard Brock Samson is a ultra violent and is basically a thirteen year old's idea of what a cool manly man is. The titular Venture Bros, Hank and Dean Venture are sheltered children who are constantly being chased around by men in costumes trying to kill them.

So the basic premise of the show lies in it's dark deconstruction of shows like Hardy Boys, Johnny Quest, these Tom Swift-esque stories where young boys go on adventures by showing the real dangers that children would be exposed to in that kind of life.

Between Johnny Quest, the Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift, what is up with these pie-eyed youths chasing pirates and international diamond thieves and stuff like that? They would get their throats cut the minute that stumbled upon a hideout. And that would be the gag. - ART AND MAKING OF THE VENTURE BROS.

The show does explore Hank and Dean's trauma, but despite the title of the show they are not the main characters. The protagonist is Doctor Thaddeus Venture who himself is other victim of the Boy Adventuring Lifestyle.

Dr. Venture: "Who was, for 43 years, the only son of Dr. Jonas Venture? Who, from the ages of 3 to 17 accompanied him on hundreds of adventures the chilling memories of which rouse him from sleep in a cold sweat to this day?"

Thaddeus used to travel around the world with his father the super scientist Dr. Jonas Venture who was a far more successful super scientist and hero. He's the former star of the "Rusty Venture Show" a cartoon based off of his travels with his father.

Jonas who continually neglected and gaslit him throughout his childhood to the point of not allowing him to go to therapy. He gaslit him so hard there's a scene where he literally pretends to be Rusty's therapist to tell his son to stop complaining.

Rusty: "So I don't know. Sometimes I wish I could just be a normal kid and go out and play with kids my own age and stuff. The only people I get to hang out with are grown ups. The only time I get to leave the compound is to go someplace creepy, like the Bermuda triangle, and then I get kidnapped, by grown ups. And I'm not even sure I want to be a super scientist when I grow up anyway, but I feel all this pressure because of my fa-It feels weird telling you this stuff." Jonas: "Remember Rusty, in here I'm your doctor not your father. Now let's get back to it shall we. You were telling me how you're ungrateful for all the opportunities your father's given you and you blame me for all your problems."

Rusty is both a washed up child star, and a faiilure to his father's legacy. He never formed an identity outside of being the star of the Rusty Venture show or the son of Jonas Venture. He drags his kids all around the world on crazy super science adventures because that's what he knows.

The central premise of the Venture Bros is that Rusty is basically stuck and cannot meaningfully grow up into an adult and his own person, despite the fact he is now a single father trying to raise two sons. The central theme is about three generations of one family, and what it says about the complicated nature of family itself,

As Rusty is both the victim and the perpetrator of the abuse it makes sense he is the main character the story centers around because he's the central link between Jonas and the Twins.

The themes can be summarized in one line said towards the end of the show:

BEN "Just a watch. Tells the time in two time zones. That fourth hand there? Little date window? Those are called complications. Complications make a watch special. More complications the more value. Read the engraving Jonas put on the back there. Elige Tua. It's Latin for Choose your family. Blood doesn't make a family, love does. Choose your family and remember that complications make it special."

In other words it's a seven season long show on how family is complicated.

2. Keeping up with the Todorokis

My Hero Academia is about a lot of things, but the central premise is that in a society where he quirk you were born with can determine a lot about your life, one boy without a quirk sets out to prove that anyone can be a hero.

If Complciations make it special is the central theme of Venture Bros, then the central theme of My Hero Academia is two sentences. "All People are not created equal" and "Anyone can become someone's hero" both said at different points in the story. The story itself is about Deku's attempts to overcome the first statement, that he was not born equal but he deserves to be a hero as much as anyone else because he represents the true spirit of heroes. That heroes don't just show up to beat the big bad, a hero saves people.

The story isn't just about Deku though. We're not even going to talk about Deku in this post, but rather the Tritagonist Todoroki Shoto.

Todrooki is introduced as a foil to Deku someone who is born with an extremely powerful quirk, but who's been groomed from childhood to be a hero.

Shoto's father Enji Todoroki is All Might's ultimate rival. In the world of MHA hers are highly commercialized and ranked by popularity and achievements and Enji has been number two his entire life. He decided to conceive of an heir that could surpass All Might instead.

He purchased a wife with an ice quirk for an arranged marriage to selectively breed for a child with a fire and ice quirk. When Shoto was born he raised Shoto up as a hero, forcing him through grueling training sessions from a young age, and beating his wife when she tried to intervene for Shoto's sake.

That's a lot and I didn't even cover all of it. After this reveal of Shoto's backstory, Enji seems like he's only going to be a one note abuser to give Shoto a tragic backstory to angst over.

However, later on in the show Enji ifinally becomes the number one hero only to realize how empty his lifelong dream has been. He feels remorse for the family he destroyed in pursuit of that dream and starts wanting to make ammends. After this , Enji basically becomes the second most important character of the "Todoroki Family" arc. . A lot of focus is put on Enji's attempts at atonement to the point where some accuse him of stealing the spotlight from his victims.

These two families have a lot in common. They are basically families who are not allowed to have normal lives because the patriarch of the family is a costumed hero. The hero is also someone who is generally well-respected and is considered extremely successful in their chosen career, but are terrible to their family members. They are a hero to the world and a villain to their own family.

If there is a central premise to the Todoroki Family outside of MHA's analysis of what exactly makes a hero, it's this:

Todoroki Shoto: "As a hero this endeavor guy is pretty darn amazing. But it's just like Nasu said. I'm not ready to forgive you... for abusing mom. So, heroics aside. What sort of dad are you going to be? That's what I want to find out?"

The challenge is if Endeavor can choose his family over being a hero.

You can se the parallels in Venture Bros, as Rusty's main struggle is to try to be a father to his twin sons and help them grow up while at the same time struggling in this dangerous worlds of super science. Rusty is a super scientist constantly getting chased around by guys in costumes, but he's also a normal father trying to raise two sons into adulthood with basically no idea what he's doing because he doesn't have a frame of reference for how fathers are supposed to act or what a normal childhood would even look like.

The comic book super scientist, and the comic book hero are expected to act like real fathers to their sons.

However, as I said above in Rusty's case it's pretty uncontroversial that he is the main character of his story, whereas Enji starts fights within the fandom very time he appears onscreen.

Why is this exactly?

It's not because it's offensive to have an abuser be the main character, but rather how these characters are written and how well they fit into their stories. As I said Rusty is naturally the main character of his story because he's the central link in the chain of abuse, but should Enji be the main character of the Todorokis? Does he fit as well as Rusty?

3. Who's your Daddy?

So as stated above Enji and Rusty simultaneously exist in worlds where heroes exist and yet they are also normal people who are expected to provide for their families and raise their kids. They both exist in what is basically the marvel universe, though in the case of Venture Bros it's the Marvel Universe fused with old Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Because of this world some of the things both Enji and Rusty do are things that have no real life parallels. For example Rusty once created a machine using the soul of a dead orphan as a power supply. You can't do that in real life so I'm not going to use that as an example.

Both of these stories are drawing on real life parallels of parental abuse I'm going to be talking about those to tell what kind of neglectful parent each is.

Rusty raised Hank and Dean Venture as a single parent with the assistance of their body guard Brock Samson. They live on the Venture Compound and only leave when Rusty needs to take a trip around the world. Obviously, there's not many real life examples of parents taking their kids into egypt to fight mummies.

However, Rusty's main flaw as a parent is how much he shelters his children not allowing them to make their own choices. They are homeschooled until they are eighteen and almost never allowed to leave their home unsupervised. Rusty could be compared to a helicopter parent that feels the need to micromanage every aspect of their child's lives, sheltering them so much they're unprepared for the real world.

Rusty is a weird combination of controlling and neglectful, because while he doesn't let either of his childre go to public school aor interact with kids their own age, he constantly exposes them to danger. He is often disinterested in his kid's lives and puts most of the burden of protecting them and raising them on his bodyguard Brock, while he chases after whatever super-science project is occupying him at the moment. He's neglectful to dangerous extents too considering they're always getting cahsed around by crazy men in costumes.

Also, he lets them die a lot.

Hank and Dean have died several times over, only to be replaced by clones that Rusty grew in a lab with all the same memories. Once again there's no real life parallel to this, but it's interesting in the context of the show itself.

How do these children survive being chased by villains and constantly kidnapped? The answer is, they don't.

They die, and then Rusty just clones a new pair of boys. That in itself should make Rusty irredeemable but the show presents it in a more ambiguous light.

Dean: "You're telling me I'm a clone, that I'm not even Dean, that I'm some stupid science experiment." Ben: "No, no, no. You're Dean. There's no other Dean, you're it, flesh and blood. Look I was conceived in the back seat of a packard, you were conceived in a tank. So what?" Dean: "So I have no mommy? No nothing!?" Ben: "Dean, you have it all wrong. You have a mommy, and your dad is your dad. They made you by getting drunk and forgetting to wear a condem like everybody else, and your dad loved you so much that when you got a boo-boo, he kissed it and made it all better and made it go away." Dean: "You brought me back to life." Ben: "Yeah okay, well you and your brother had some pretty big boo boos. Have a kid one day, Dean. Hold it's lifeless body in your arms, and then tell me how wrong it is. Jonas, me, and yes your dad, saw it as nothing more than a fucking band-aid for a really big boo boo."

In the story itself it brings up the argument that if any parent was holding their dying child in their arms they'd want to bring them back somehow. That in the logic of the show it's the same as using magic to revive someone from the dead. At the same time it's not because Rusty's let his sons die multiple times and never changed his lifestyle because he can just keep replacing them with clones.

Super-science aside, it is kind of a metaphor for Rusty's parenting as a whole that his sons have been cloned and replaced so many times they're perpetually sixteen and never allowed to grow up. Rusty's so neglectful he's never taken an interest in raising them and this is the result, they literally do not grow up.

It's also probably relevant to mention that Rusty himself is a clone and died and was replaced multiple times much like his sons, and the technology for cloning Hank and Dean was invented by his father Jonas.

However, after season 3 the cloning lab gets destroyed, and the body guard Brock leaves the family. With the safety net removed Rusty actually starts taking a more active role in both of his child's lives. This is basically a mirror to Endeavor's moment of realization after getting number one hero that his entire family has grown up without him and they all resent him.

Season four onwards Hank and Dean develop into their own people outside of Rusty. He responds to them in different ways but he's actually parenting them this time instead of shoving them away like annoyances. Hank becomes rebellious and fights back against Rusty for a long time after Brock leaves because he no longer has a role model and Rusty's response is to always get strict and punish him.

Whereas when Dean rebels not only does Rusty tolerate it, he also spends a lot more time in Dean's life trying to push him into the direction of being a super-scientist like him, supporting his efforts to go to college, while basically ignoring Hank. It's a running gag in the show that Dean is obviously Rusty's favorite, but even when playing favorites Rusty by this point in the show has reasons for why he's making those parenting choices.

Rusty: "Dean believes in this crap! He should have been Rusty Venture, Boy adventurer. Hank got this life thrown at him. And he fights against it. Just like I did."

Rusty playing favorites comes from an attempt to overcorrect for both children. He rejects Hank because he believes Hank doesn't want to be a boy adventure and therefore pushing Hank away from his family and the Venture lifestyle is what he needs. Whereas, he believes that Dean embraces the super scientist lifestyle and he tries to mentor Dean into another scientist like himself therefore he gives Dean most of his attention because he thinks Dean needs that guidance from him.

Of course, Rusty is totally wrong about his sons. If anything Hank is the one who wants to be an adventurer whereas Dean just wants a normal life away from his crazy family but parents often misunderstand their children. He's not actively malicious, he's just misguided in what he thinks is best for each of his sons. He's not really even playing favorites in this case he's choosing to parent his sons differently based on what he thinks is best for each of them, it's just in this case father doesn't know best.

Rusty isn't a stagnant character, but also there's no big redemption arc for him the way there is Endeavor. Rusty never narrates about how he needs to atone for his past mistakes. The result is Rusty is a far more amoral character than Endeavor because he's not trying to atone but the narrative also isn't trying to spin Rusty in any way. It's just showing you Rusty as he is, and with all the bad things he does he's still capable of loving his sons.

The question isn't really "Is Rusty redeemable?" but "When is Rusty gonna grow up?"

Then there's Endeavor (everyone starts booing) who is simultaneously a much better, and far worse person than Rusty.

Enji is honestly more comparable to Jonas, an incredibly successful hero who built a career and an empire in heroics and fame and then tried to force his son into that same lifestyle.He's the exploration of that same idea a supposedly great man with skeletons in his closet. Enji technically has saved thousands of people (such as Hawks one of the other main characters). A person who is so good at playing the role of a hero no one would ever expect there are skeletons in his closet.

"Rusty's father was more successful than you could ever imagine. Jonas Venture Sr. was a manipulative narcissist admired by the world for his scientific accomplishements and his hyper-masculine James Bond meets Doc Savage public persona. He's a geniuine villain who was able to take everything he wanted from the world by seamlessly fitting into the role of everyone's hero." [Source]

Jonas is like showing everything nasty about using someone like James Bond as a male power fantasy. He treats women like objects, he thinks he's aboe good and evil, he's effortlessly charming and suave and uses that to get what he wants out of people. Enji similiarly is everything that is wrong with the ideals of hero society. A society that glorifies flashy, strong quirks that are the best for taking down villains. The only person who even seems to care that he's number two is Enji himself, beause Enji is otherwise rich and succesful, a pillar of the hero community, and allowed to get away with a lot because of his position and influence.

Enji is at least a better hero than Rusty, because Rusty is an incompetent mad scientist who does stuff like mutate college interns into four armed freaks and build death rays.

However, as a parent strip away his status as a hero and Enji is little more than a show parent, pushing his children into a life they don't want in an attempt to live vicariously through them. Once again, resembling Jonas more than he really does Rusty. As Jonas forced Rusty to be a boy adventurer, and then made a cartoon out of it to make money like any show parent.

It's also the idea that generation put that kids into films and it was a very horrible selfish thing to do, they were doing trying to live out their own lives through their kids. That didn't exist before that was something that boomers brought to the world. "Oh I can't be these fun new things I'll make you be it." I think Jonas was a pioneer of throwing his kid at the world. I think Jonas was something of a boy adventurer himself, and made his kid be it. But also put his kid on TV to cash in the residuals. Jackson Publick, DVD Commentary

As stated above Enji gave up on his ambition to be the number one hero and so he decided to create a son with the right quirk to surpass All Might. He then pressured a woman into an arranged marriage, basically purchasing her from her parents and conceived four children until he got his designer baby.

Chapters 301-302 the wrong way to put out a fire, detail the slow descent of the Todoroki Household from Enji entering an arranged marriage with bad intention to create an ideal child to be heir to his legacy, into a full on child abuser. Enji is written like a normal person falling into a cycle of abuse, he never intended to hurt his children at first. Abusers aren't evil monsters, they're just people. Most abusers don't even think of themselves as abusers.

In fact he's shown positively bonding with his first born son who seems eager to learn to use his fire based quirk. He even mentions that he was alright at the time with the idea of Toya being the one to succeed him and letting go of his quirk experiment.

Enji only had kids to carry on his legacy, and only bonded with Toya because Toya was eager to participate in the training and become his heir. However, to give Enji some backstory it's quite clear the death of Enji's own father at a young age left him with no idea on how a father should act.

At a young age Enji witnessed his father attempt to save an innocent girl only to end up a burnt up corpse, and probably at that point conflated strength with being a good father. If his father had been strong enough he would have survived and continued to be a father to young Enji. At that point it's almost understandable that Enji thinks in his mind that earning his keep as the patriarch of the family, and being a powerful hero who will come home alive is the same thing as being a good father.

So Enji conflates masculine ideals of strength and heroism with being a good father, all the while not actually showing up to parent his kids. When Toya seemed like he could live up to Enji's expectations and be strong as a successor everything seemed fine.

However, Toya turned out to be disabled at which point everything in the household began to spiral out of control. After learning Toya could not use his quirk without burning himself, Enji tossed Toya aside and left raising him entirely up to Rei and then pressured her to have more children until one with his ideal quirk would be born.

Toya did not like his father ignoring him and began acting out for his attention. The response of everyone in the household was to politely tell Toya to shut up, because Enji while not being a parent is the money maker and authority in the household no one can stand up to him. When Toya's acting up got too out of hand, Enji would even hit Rei instead of just personally dealing with his son.

At the same time Shoto was finally born and being given his perfect heir after four attempts, Enji eagerly began training him. When Shoto resisted him, Enji stepped up to threats of physical violence and long grueling training sessions to force him to learn. All the while Toya continued to mentally spiral.

One day after his flames turned blue Toya asked his father to meet with him on Sekoto Peak. However that day Enji didn't show up, and Toya lost control of his flames starting a massive forest fire that killed him. Rather than changing anything after his firstborn's death, he doubled down and pushed Shoto even harder.

While being a far worse person, as a parent Rusty is far less malicious. He neglects his kids similarly to Enji at first, but when the safety net is removed and he can't keep cloning them anymore he actually does start taking a personal interest in their lives. Maybe it's too little too late because it's the 14th version of Hank and Dean but he does hear the wake up call and change his ways as a parent.

Enji always doubles down on ignoring his sons in favor of heroics when given the chance to be a father.

Even post redemption arc Enji behaves in the same way. There is no point in the story so far where Enji actively chooses to help or be a parent to one of his sons, when he can choose to be a part of a big important battle instead. Let me break out the list:

In the Pro Hero Arc Shoto sets the challenge for Enji to show what he can be like as a father rather than a hero.

In the internship arc Enji trains Shoto up as a hero but not a father. When he brings the family home to dinner they're attacked by a villain and Enji stands and watches as his son Natsuo gets kidnapped y a villain because he felt like it would be too awkward if he saved Natsuo because then Natsuo might feel inclined to forgive him.

In the War Arc aftewards Toya is revealed to be alive the entire time, and when given the chance to see his dead son come back to life, Enji not only does nothing but he sits and watches as his oldest son tries to kill his youngest without trying to talk to or appeal to Toya.

After the war arc, Enji doesn't bother looking for Toya and goes back to his job as a hero hunting down AFO. He also makes a promise to Shoto that they'll search for Toya together, only to break that promise multiple times.

In the second war arc, when Enji is given a chance to face Toya face to face, he instead sends his other son Shoto to fight him, while Enji fights against the big bad instead as the number one hero.

When Toya is literally dying and about to burn himself alive in front of him, Enji who has chosen to run away from Toya too many times by this point picks the murder suicide option and chooses to try dying with his son in a heroic sacrifice.

Every single chance he is given to act like a father, he acts like a hero instead. Enji Todoroki never steps out of the role of the hero Endeavor. Internally he's changed, yeah. He's remorseful now and realzies what he's done wrong. However, externally he hasn't. He doesn't do anything different. He neglected his family for his job his entire life so his way of making it up to them is... to keep going to his job.

The problem isn't whether or not he deserves to be redeemed, but rather that there's no change in his actions. Endeavor at the beginning of the story would have shown up to fight AFO in the war arc too, because being the hero is what he does. It's the only thing he does. The story never asks him to be anything other than a hero.

Which is I think a fundamental difference in Rusty and Enji in how they're written. Rusty is a flawed parent, but he's still a parent.

He does favor Dean over Hank, but that favoritism takes the form of him giving Hank more chores when Hank acts out, but when it's time for Dean to rebel giving him space and letting him have his own separate room in the attic. It's Rusty letting Dean have access to the family checkbook so he'll have spending money at college, but cutting Hank off from the checkbook because they agreed if Hank didn't want to go to college he needed to find a job to support himself.

Rusty is parenting these children. He's parenting them very badly, but he's still their parent. Enji never wanted to be a parent to begin with, he wanted to be his kid's abusive gymnastics coach. He wanted a prodigy that he could push and push until they won gold at the Olympics.

If you ignore the fantasy elements then you're left with how these men are shown interacting with their kids in their day to day lives.

Rusty has absolutely no idea what he's doing, so even when he has good intentions he screws up. However, he is making an effort to guide these kids.

Enji was an intentional manipulator more in line with Jonas. He controlled everything in the household, and was actively trying to groom Shoto into someone who would obediently carry on his legacy. He made the choice to isolate Shoto from his siblings so he'd have more control over him. Rusty keeps Dean and Hank away from kids their own age and from having a normal life because he never had a normal life. He doesn't even know what a normal life looks like.

Enji for most of his life didn't want kids, he wanted heirs. He even purchased a woman so his heirs would turn out with the right genetics, and tossed aside the ones that were disabled or born with the wrong quirk.

Rusty made the decision to become a parent on his own. In the last twist in the series it's revealed Dean and Hank had no mother. They were conceived in a test tube, raised in an artificial womb by Rusty himself. He is both their father and their mother. Kids were a deliberate decision on his part. He wanted to have a family, probably because his own childhood was so deprived of any familial love.

Dean: Okay, so who is our mom? Rusty: Seriously, Dean haven't we had enough family history for one day? I don't even know who my mom is. All you need to know is that the person who gave birth to you. I promise they do.

Remember as stated above the central thesis statement of Venture Bros is "Elige Tua - Choose your family". Rusty chose to bring those kids into the world because he wanted to be a father, it's an active choice his character makes.

Whereas the central statement of Endeavor's arc is "So, heroics aside. What sort of dad are you going to be? That's what I want to find out?" but we never witness Enji doing anything outside of being a hero.

Even post-redemption the only time he ever spends with Shoto is when they're either doing quirk training or working as heroes together. Toya as a character presents this challenge to him, because he's Enji's son, but he's also a villain who's killed innocent people. If he's acting as a hero he has to put a stop to Toya, but a father is supposed to put the safety and well-being of their children above everything else.

We never see Enji make that choice to be Toya's father over a hero. Which is why in story he comes off as a worse father than someone like Rusty, because he never makes any attempt to emotionally bond with his children.

Rusty will sit Hank and Dean down and tell them stories from his childhood. He'll find common ground with his sons to bond over because they've both been subjected to the boy adventurer lifestyle.

Rusty: Dean what are you doing? Dean: Hyperventilating into my knees. That smell a little like spit up... because I spit up a little. Rusty: Dean, you just baby burped onto a speed suit. Not a super scientist alive that hasn't coughed a little acid onto his speed suit. Dean: Really? Rusty: Why do you think these things are like 95 percent polyester? You can clean off fear-vomit with a wet nap. Dean: I thought you were used to this. Rusty: Dean I remember when the action man would wake me up with a gun pointed at my head. He'd just hold it there and pull the trigger. I'd hear the click really loud because it was right against my forehead. Dean: So it echoed. Rusty: Right, it sounded like he snapped one of my teeth out. Click! Then he'd go, "Not day Rusty. Not Today." Dean: Golly, and you took it because you had to? Rusty: No Dean, I took it because I was Rusty Venture. Boy adventurer. I didn't ask for this life, Dean, but it's mine. Sure, I fall down in the Speed Suit but I get up and Wet-Nap my puke off.

We never get any moments like this with Endeavor and his kids.

He only goes so far as apologizing for his past abuse. Yes, maybe it's cathartic hearing an abuser apologize for what they've done but that's not the question the story was asking. It wasn't asking "Can Endeavor be forgiven?" It was asking "What sort of dad are you going to be?"

The narrative challenged him to learn to act like a father to his family, and he never did. He stayed in the role of hero from beginning to end. It might be cathartic for his victims to hear him say sorry, but it's not good for Endeavor as a character because he hasn't changed and we've learned nothing about him. We already knew he was sorry at the beginning of the arc. Endeavor is sorry and knows he's done something wrong has already been established, but by Endeavor stepping out of the role of hero and acting like a father we could have learned something new about him or his character but no he stays the same from beginning to end.

They're both awful people but at the end of the day Rusty is a father, and Enji is not.

Stories are kind of like essays your English teacher used to force you to read. You need to make a thesis statement in the story itself, and then have evidence to support that thesis statement. The theme of Venture Bros is choose your family, and family is complicated, and in support of that theme we have Rusty choosing to connect with his sons. Jonas is basically nothing more than Rusty's biological father. Rusty's chosen a different way to connect with his sons, and he is their dad, and they can bond about the complicated lifestyle of being a Venture together.

The actions Enji takes in his story don't line up with his thesis statement. The Todoroki Family subplot is supposed to be about how one family was messed up because Enji only chose to have a family to further his career as a hero, and choosing his career again and again made things worse. The thesis statement was that Enji needed to choose to be a dad, but he's never shown doing that in the story.

So Enji as a character seems like he doesn't fit in with his narrative. Which is what I said at the very beginning about Rusty and why he works as a main character. Rusty is the center, because he's had this horrible life inflicted on him by his father, and he's in the process of raising his sons but he still has a chance to choose to be better.

Enji could also work as the center of his story, he has a chance to choose his family over his work as a hero, but he's ultimately not the one who does that, it's Shoto. Which yes Shoto is the main character of the Todoroki plotline, but by the end Enji's gotten as much screen time as his son. If the plot was going to focus on Shoto and his choices to begin with then he should have been the central point. You spent a lot of in story time asking this question with Enji on whether or not he's going to be able to choose to be a father over a hero, and who Enji is outside of being a hero only to not give the audience any answeres.

This again has nothing to do with Enji the person and whether I think he's likable or not, because Enji's a fictional character. He's an idea. If writing is communication, then a writer is trying to communciate some idea with every character in their novel. We're asking what is the author trying to say with Enji, and do they do a good job of getting that message across?

4. What's the Big Idea?

So the above section was mainly about the personal arcs of each characters: How do both of them fail at fatherhood and do they learn to be better fathers over the course of their narratives?

However, these characters are part of a much bigger world. How a character interacts with both the world around them, and the extended cast of characters is another way a story relates it's theme.

Venture Bros and My Hero Academia both exist in comic book worlds. There are people running around in costumes calling themselves heroes and villains and fighting each other on the streets.

In My Hero Academia heroes are basically professional athletes who sell sports drinks and pose for ads and compete for rankings on a big board, and heroics for the most part has been reduced to a day job for people with particularly powerful quirks. Heroism is an entire industry that's for profit, and run by the shadowy hero council who has far more power over their society than they let onto. You could compare Endeavor being the top hero to him is like a combination of being the best pro athlete, and also the best salaryman ever.

Ironically, the worldbuilding of Venture Bros is pretty similar. In Venture Bros. the villains are all unionized. There is a super villain trade union. It's a secret organization known as the guild of calamitous intent, which makes villainy into a bureaucracy.

All villains in the world have to register with the guild. If you're a part of the guild you receive the protection that the guild offers, as long as you follow the guilds rules and regulations. There's lots of small rules, like you can't torture someone who's having a medical issue, and if you're fighting a good guy and they have a doctor's appointment you have to let them go.

They even rank heroes and villains by their threat levels called "EMA LEVELS (equally matched aggression) and then assign you a hero who's about your equal so you won't get killed by someone way stronger than you. The guild basically decides who you're allowed to fight as a villain and picks a hero for you. The act of being someone's arch villain is called "arching" you show up to harass them once a week like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, fight them, then do it again next week. You're not allowed to kill your hero and you're supposed to follow specific rules. The tradeoff is the heroes won't kill you either, because you have guild protection.

The Monarch: I don't know, just keep it cat and mouse not cat and missile. JJ:: So it's a game? We fake fight? That's ridiculous. The Monarch: No, it's like fencing, it's about the art of the fight. JJ: Well, I'm about to deliver my killing stroke. Then what? Dr. Girlfriend: Then the guild steps up their game. You throw a rock, they throw a knife. You throw a knife, they come to your house when you're sleeping and murder your family. The Monarch: Look Dr. Venture you call the guild and you get the damn rulebook, I'll be waiting.

The justification for why the guild exists is that in world if you didn't give the villains a system with a bunch of rules, then you'd have a bunch of crazy people in costumes running around causing havoc.

Brock: You wanna what? Shoot him? And all his men and his wife? You could steal his cattle, too. Maybe burn his village down? JJ: It's an antiquated system. I mean my father did this fake arch enemy nonsense in the sxities. Maybe my brother is good with this namby pamby guy in a costume chases you around nonsense, but I'm not. Brock: Hey no disrespect Jonas, but it isn't so easy. These guys like their system. It's what they do. You take that away and you're looking at a bunch of pissed off nut bags with ray guns, and giant -- i don't know, a giant octopus / tank with laser eyes.

The villains and the OSI (who are like the GI JOE) of this world have signed a very long and detailed treaty that keeps both sides in a cold world stalemate and lets them fight every week like how the good guys and bad guys fight constantly while maintaining a status quo where neither side wins.

In MHA heroics is a commodity. It's commercialized and sold to the public. Heroes are like professional athletes selling you sports drinks, it's a spectacle to the public, and it's even intentionally made to be that way by the Hero Commission who use heroes as a bright shining light to distract the public while they do shady things like assassinate antigovernmental protestors from behind the scenes. The entire of hero society in MHA is built on the spectacle of heroes.

In Venture Bros heroes and villains are a spectacle too. It's just a job to them. Heroes and villains both show up to work, get in their costumes, fight each other and then go home. In Season 6 of Venture Bros, a parody of the Avengers is actively charging people to provide their services as heroes in the city of New York and you have to sign up for a protection plan if you want to get saved. Then the local mob boss takes a cut of the protection money they're charging.

In both settings the ideas of heroes exist, comic books exist, but the heroes themselves are incredibly mundane, they're just people showing up to jobs and making money for the most part. The only difference really is that in MHA the villains are societal rejects and trauma victims, whereas in Venture Bros they've unionized. In Venture Bros the villains and heroes basically fake fight under strict rules. Even in MHA though the villains need to exist in order to give the heroes someone to fight in front of the public. "Villain" is an actual legal term for a certain kind of quirk criminals with more than three strikes who gets sent to a super max prison if they're caught.

Both of these works are making comic book heroes and villains seem a lot more mundane by deconstructing them with this layer of realism. By making the roles of "hero" and "villain" seem much more mundane, and therefore more human, it also asks us to look at the characters who call themselves heroes and villains as human beings.

The Venture Bros like many richer takes on superhero stories really likes to play with the concept of identity. It's the idea that Good and Evil, Heroes and Villains, are just roles we play. They're not something fundamental or innate they're constructed by the world around us. In the show the main villainous organization the GCI is really just a bureaucracy of larpers sustaining their violent rolelplaying through organized crime. Rich and powerful lunatics who built the world around a game they wanted to play. There's really nothing of substance keeping Rusty on the "Good Guy" side. The good guys are also a mix and match. Shield, GI JOE, FBI. Another exmaple of people who never grew up. Only these people are running things, playing out their childhood power fantasies. They're barely less insane and blood thirsty than the bad guys. So what's even the point of being a good guy in the first place? That's the world Rusty is caught between...[x]

MHA and Venture Bros are both works that feature societies that divide people into two distinct categories "hero" and "villain" and then go on to show that these two categories are not as black and white as they would like us to believe.

Venture Bros features Brock Samson, a character who is ostensibly on the side of the good guys who also highest body count of nameless henchman who we see him gleefully kill onscreen over and over again. There are members of the OSI who are just as trigger happy as the guild so what's the difference between them besides what they've decided to personally identify as? On one side you have the Larpers who are roleplaying villainy, and on the other you have the military soliders who think they're real life GI JOES.

In My Hero Academia you have heroes who are essentially state sponsored peace keepers who suppress anyone who disrupts the status quo with violence, and villains who are rejected from that status quo who eventually turn into violent terrorists. While yes heroes have the responsibility of protecting innocent civilians, most of what heroes do is fight villains, in fact heroes with quirks suited to rescuing people aren't nearly as famous as ones with flashy violent quirks like Endeavor.

You have two sides and one calls themselves villains and the others heroes, but they both use extreme violence as a way to accomplish their goals.

Rusty and Enji are two characters who are caught between these two categories which aren't as distinct and separate as we'd like to believe they are.

Enji is basically the first deconstruction of heroes in MHA. He's a hero who's not interested in saving people, but instead wants to be the strongest and does everything in pursuit of selfish glory.

He's simultaneously the hero with the single most resolved cases in history, but at the same time he's always number two to All Might because he's not "super" enough of a super hero. In a manga where Deku's natural desire to save others make him a candidate to b ahero even without a quirk, we have a character who's a hero for purely selfish reasons. One that only cares about having the strongest quirk because being the best is all that matters to Enji.

In many ways the way Enji treats his family is more like a villain than a hero. Main villain AFO himself comments at one point he wasn't able to manipulate Toya, because his father did too good of a job manipulating him already. In fact you can draw a parallel between his actions of manipulating and grooming Shoto to be his heir, to how AFO raised orphaned child Shigaraki Tomura as his successor.

This is a good use of Enji's character, because making it hard to label him as hero and villain makes us think about who he is as a person instead.

There's an entire episode of Venture Bros dedicated to a villain Mentor named Dr. Henry Killinger, showing up and basically mentoring Rusty Venture when he's at a low point. He gives Rusty money, workers, gets his business up and running again and at the very end reveals that he's setting Rusty up to be a villain to arch his brother as a hero. Rusty is tempted with the idea that he'd make a much more successful villain than he ever would be a hero (because as a hero he's kind of just a loser) but he still chooses to be a hero at the end of the story because he doesn't want to fight his brother.

At which point his mentor, all his hired men, all just walk off and he loses all the money he would have gained and he goes back to being a mediocre super-scientist.

"Doc has the whole thing laid out for him clear as day. This role is here for you. Waiting for you to claim it. You have your nemesis. You have your means. You have the ability and the pain. You can do this and you'd be good at it. And Rusty can look at all of that, everything he's been through and say, "Yeah... but I don't wanna be evil." [x]

Rusty walks away from the chance to be a villain, but he's not exactly a hero either. He runs illegal cloning farms, he does lots of unethical scientific stuff and he's not even remotely the hero his father was considered to be.

Because he doesn't fit well into the category of hero or villain, the show instead asks you to evaluate who Rusty is as a person. He's one of the few characters in the show that's capable of stepping out of those categories.

"That's the great thing about him. Sometimes being disillusioned just means you can see through the whole thing. Sure the whole super science villain game feels stupid. It's not going anywhere. No one's accomplishing anything. It's all violence and roleplay. But at the end of the day it's still real. And it still means something to us. Choosing to be a villain means choosing to be a bad guy. It means relinquishing the premise that you could ever do better, ever actually help anyone. And that's not who Rusty is. He's a scum-bag, but he's a grown up. Even in a show with brilliant characters, old pros, and actual supermen, Rusty is the adult. And adults don't put on rubber masks and terrorize people for fun because that would be fucking silly." - [x]

Rusty spent his entire childhood being terrorized by guys in costumes, so he's now the cynical straight man pointing out how ridiculous this all is. He's the one normal person among the crazies.

Rusty is just too incompetent to ever be like his father. Jonas Venture is scum bag, but he's also a well-respected scientist and a world wide hero. Everyone in the scientific community thinks that Rusty is a joke, and his friends just barely put up with him

Jonas gets away with it because he perfectly fit what society's idea of a hyper masculine strong hero was, and no one questioned it or how he treated his son, whereas because balding, impotent, pathetic Rusty falls so short of toxic masculinity's standards he doesn't get the same respect or leeway that Jonas did. Jonas Venture continually got away with murder, and Rusty can't get away with anything.

He's a pill-popping, middle aged man who ran his father's business empire into the ground who continually gets laughed out of any scientific conference he tries to attend.

He can't be a hero. He can't be his father. He fall short of toxic masculinity's standards. He falls short of everyone's standards. The only way in which he's better than Jonas is that he's a much better father to both of his sons. His greatest triumphs as a character come from bonding with Hank and Dean. Jonas for all his accomplishments wasn't capable of bonding with Rusty because he didn't really care about anyone but himself. Jonas Venture is someone who perfectly fit society's standards of toxic masculinity, but he wasn't a person outside of that.

"Jonas Sr realized this too, but to him, it was a joke. To him it meant being above everyone. Rusty can't be above everyone so he has to meet them at eye level. Part of the bitterness of growing up is realizing that we're all just chidlren who got old. No one knows what they're doing and when you come to terms with that you can look down on people or give them the respect everyone deserves. How you treat children says a lot about how you treat people which in turn says a lot about you." [x]

Now returning to Endeavor we run into the same problem that we did earlier. This whole post is comparing Rusty and Endeavor because they are the protagonists, but Endeavor is far more like Jonas. He's someone who sees through the hero system and only cares about climbing to the top out of his own self interest. He knows it's a game, but he wants to win at the game.

Enji even sort of looks like Jonas.

They're both extremely bulky men at peak levels of physical fitness. Meanwhile Rusty is a balding, short and out of shape middle aged man.

In story Jonas is still widley beloved by the public and is constantly praised, while no one but Rusty is aware of his faults, but there's a reason for that. Jonas is someone who is basically allowed to do anything he wants, because the patriarchy means all of society is built around letting men like Jonas succeed.

Jonas is also someone who literally uses his position as a hero to manipulate people into getting what he wants and glorify himself.

Jonas can casually destroy people's lives, all while still believing he's the good guy because in his world being good guy is just a role to play and he plays it well. One of the best three episodes of the series is the Morphic Trilogy, the opening to season 7 where some of Jonas's past crimes are revealed.

In the past he tricked a married man into making a sex tape with him, and then when that man Don Carraldo aka the Blue Morpho turned out to regret that, he used the tape to constantly blackmail him into doing his dirty work. Killing people in secret while Jonas Venture remained Squeaky clean. After years of being forced to act as a mercenary for Jonas, the Blue Morpho died in a plane crash. Jonas then revived his best friend as a cyborg. He got bored of his new cyborg within a few months and reassigned him to babysit his son Rusty. The cyborg glitched and started to strangle Rusty and then he snaps his friends neck, and throws the cyborg away in the garbage.

Jonas can just completely destroy a man's life because he can. Because everyone around him enables him and no one is going to stop him. Because this is how people in power act when they're given too much power. Because might does not make right.

He's the gold standard. He's the ideal. Who would question him?

Enji occupies a similar position in the story, where he fits the role of a hero so well that even when his family abuse is revealed to the public basically every character and their mom is tripping over themselves to defend him.

Jonas is constantly praised in story years after his death and every bad thing he's done is swept under the rug, but that's because number one Jonas was a manipulative monster, and number two it shows toxic masculinity is a false ideal. This is how Jonas who everyone thinks is the ideal man's man, really acts. This is what he gets away with it, because the thing society glorifies are toxic and bad.

When people bend over backwards to defend Endeavor what does it say exactly? Because we're supposed to believe that Enji's willing to work for redemption even if people don't forgive him. We're not supposed to think Enji is a manipulative monster intentionally twisting people around his finger like Jonas was.

There are some ways Enji is like Jonas, especially in his backstory. He did use his money and influence to buy a woman. Rei was definitely not going to get the option of divorcing him if she actually wanted to leave.

However, in the present time we don't see Enji doing the kind of manipulation that Jonas does, because really he doesn't have to. Hawks does it for him. There is a character in the narrative named Takami Keigo / Hawks who is a little boy that Enji indirectly saved as a child by putting his father in prison. Because of this he is obsessed with making Endeavor live up to the hero he imagined him to be when he was young, and does everything he can to prop Enji up behind the scenes and make him look like that hero to the public.

Hawks is a whole other can of worms, but in effect what this means is there is someone manipulating public opinion in favor of Endeavor so he'll be able to shine in spite of the numerous skeletons in his closet, it's just not Endeavor himself. Hawks also takes away a lot of the active decisions on Endeavor's part. When Endeavor chooses to ignore Toya in the latter part of the story, it's not Endeavor's choice, he's just following Hawks plan to fight AFO. When Endeavor makes a public apology, Hawks is the one who wrote it for him.

The result is that Endeavor comes off as less of a Jonas, after all Hawks is the one manipulating his public image. On the other hand, he's also less good of a character because he's not making choices anymore. It'd be better If Enji was trying to manipulate the public into forgiving him in the wake of his scandal, because that'd be an active choice on his part. When a character makes a choice it tells us something about who that character is.

Horikoshi doesn't want us to think that Enji is the kind of selfish monster that Jonas is, but then who is he supposed to be?

The entire point of this post is to compare Enji to Rusty, but Enji's far too successful to be Rusty. Rusty is a failure in basically everything he set out to do in life. He's the butt of the series jokes. He's the victim in as many ways as he's the perpetrator. He had a lot of money and then wasted it all. None of his inventions are succesful. The scientific community thinks he's a joke, or they don't even know who he is. Women won't even go near him. No one ever defends him. At no point in the story does someone stop and say "Hey, Hank I know your dad's an asshole but he's really good at science so that makes it okay."

Rusty's such a failure at being a hero that he's forced to be a person. He's as equally narcissticic and toxic as his father, he treats women like objects for sex and comfort like his father does, he just doesn't get away with it. You can't point to some heroic feat of his that justifies his toxic behavior because he doesn't have any.

The story however can't stop singing Enji's praises for what a good hero he is. He's never forced to step out of the role of hero and be a person like Rusty is, and because of that the message of his character becomes confused.

Are we supposed to think he's a manipulative narcissist like Jonas is? Are we supposed to think he's an incredibly flawed individual trying to figure out how to be a father late into his kid's lives like Rusty?

Rusty has a clear role in his story, and what the author wants to say with Enji is unclear.

Everyone praises Jonas to death and no one can see him for the terrible purpose he is, because that's the point. Venture Bros is about failure. It's about the death of the space ag optimisme. It's about how much the boomer generation sucked.

From the Radiant is the Baboon Heart Commentary. Question: Did Jonas only keep Rusty around for the press and his cloning tech or did he actually care about him? Answer: . The show has a villain called the monarch, but if you watch all the show the villain is Jonas Venture Sr. He is a bad dad. What you need to realize is that in this kind of baby boomers gen x millenials kind of thing we are of the generation that had bad parents. For the good and the bad of it. The good was we were all left alone by our parents, and we had a freedom in our thought that I don't think the millennials have. Because we made the millennials, and we were like You know what Our parents suck and we're gonna be great parents." And they helicoptered them and they gave playdates. [...] I did hate the boomers, they were awful fathers they were terrible people they did horrible things to our world, and at the time they were celebrated as good people. They were a bunch of hippies and they failed and they did everything wrong that they wanted to fix [...]. You and I are lost people we observed our generation. We are fully aware of it. We observed our parents generation. My actual father was a classic distant father, very bright had a lot of work to do, but I observed that generation and the way that toxic masculinity was set in stone. Just branded onto their tombstone. Toxic masculinity. Our generation grew up wanting to be adults, childhood was something that was not examined. When people were growing up we wanted to be grown ups, we wanted to wear suits, it was something you guys don't have. It was a very different way to grow up. So we wanted to be like this generation that immediately we looked at and went oh my god they're monsters. So Jonas Venture Sr. is a monster.

Jonas is a commentary on how much the boomer generation is glorified, and how much they suck if you look at them critically at all. It's written by authors who were observing basically three different generations of parenting, the way boomers parented, the ways Gen-Xers did in response to that and now the way millennials act as they reach adulthood. Rusty can't escape Jonas' shadow because Toxic Masculinity is set in stone.

The role of Jonas in the story is to serve as an antagonist to Rusty and be the cause of Rusty's struggles, and also his impetus to change because Rusty doesn't want to be like his father. Rusty and Jonas both exist as characters to show the author's observations on parenting through the generations, and yeah it's a very american idea of parenting and family but it's you know... a cartoon made in america.

What is Endeavor's role of the story? If he's a criticism of toxic masculinity he's not criticized enough, because the story spends just as much time glorifying him his obsession with strength and power as it does criticizing him. There's no scenes like this for Rusty to show off how cool he is, or how determined. The story wants you to believe that there's something redeeming in the fact that Enji is always struggling to be the greatest, even though his obsession with being number one is what caused him to abuse his family in the first place

It's criticizing and praising Enji's obsession with power in the same breath, because My Hero Academia can't fully deconstruct toxic masculinity the way that Venture Bros can. It keeps trying to find something redeemable in Endeavor's toxic pursuit of power, but that's the whole point. Toxic masculinity isn't redeemable, because toxic masculinity is toxic. There's nothing wrong with masculinity itself, or the values people traditionally consider masculine but the kind of hyper-aggressive pursuit of physical strength Endeavor chases after is toxic masculinity. In Endeavor's mind men are warriors, protectors and providers and nothing else, and he never learns to be anything else either.

MHA would never treat Endeavor the way Vbros treats Rusty, constantly humiliating him or making him the butt of jokes. It would never make Enji out to be weak or pathetic the way Rusty is.

The central concept of Endeavor is struggle. His chosen hero nae "Endeavor" means to try hard to achieve something. His entire character is based around the concept of struggle. His central struggle is that he's a normal guy trying to compete with a superhero like all might, and everything he does he struggles with even if that struggle is pointless.

However, in the actual narrative itself he doesn't struggle. He definitely doesn't struggle the way Rusty does. Rusty's a lazy, incompetent, and entitled man sitting on a pile of money he didn't earn who thinks he's entitled to more who fails at all he sets out to achieve. Rusty never gets what he wants, and even when he does get what he wants like when his brother leaves him a billion dollar corporation in his will, he bankrupts that company in two seasons. Struggle means that the world isn't going to give you what you want and you keep trying anyway.

Endeavor's never subjected to nearly the same amount of narrative punishment that Rusty is. He's still well-respected. People defend him. He fights in all the major battles of the series and gets victories. No one's disgusted when they hear that he's a wife beater. We are told that he struggles, that the central concept of his character is struggle, but the narrative keeps handing him wins and cool moments.

As I've said above several times, Enji's never really forced to step out of the role as hero because he's not a failure the way Rusty is.

My Hero Academia hits some of the same notes as Venture Bros. It's criticizing apanese hegemonic masculinity, specifically that of salaryman masculinity and the way men in japan completely put their careers over their families. Read about it here in this convenient power point presentation. Enji is essentially an incredibly successful salaryman who has completely disappeared from his kid's lives in order to earn money and success and believes that he's still entitled to be a father because he's performed adequately in his role as earner of the household.

The story does show how giving too much power to the patriarch of a household can cause a house to fall apart. It shows that traditional family roles aren't all they're cracked up to be. Enji is assigned the role of father but he doesn't live up to it. The very rigid and traditional Todoroki Household crumbles because basically everyone fails to live up to their roles. The father isn't present. The mother isn't a good caretaker. The first born is defective. The youngest is given all the responsibility of the first born. No one is able to live up to those roles because maybe those rigid set in stone roles shouldn't exist in the first place.

Once again though, that's all in the backstory. Enji never changes from the Pro Hero Arc to his last showdown with Toya. The story never tells us anything about who Enji is as a person. Therefore, it also never comments on Enji's role as the patriarch. What is Horikoshi using Enji to say about patriarchy besides... it exists?

The story shows you how destructive the idea of patriarchy that Enji represents can be in the backstory, but because Enji doesn't do much for 90 percent of the story it never says anything about how Enji can learn to be a father or if it's even possible for him to be a father this late in the game. Because Enji's story isn't about fatherhood ultimately, it's about him becoming a less selfish hero.

Which might just be a problem with the whole of MHA. Venture Bros is about who the characters are outside of their identity as heroes and villains, but MHA is ultimately more about the optimism of heroes and what it means to be a hero than these characters personal lives.

Rusty is never going to be as sucessful as his father. He's always going to be mediocre, ad even if he's sympathetic he's still a scum bag. However, Rusty has one thing his father doesn't have which are his two sons who he made a deliberate decision to get closer to. Unlike a serial user of people Jonas, Rusty has the ability to actually love and care for people and he chooses to make those connections.

Endeavor never chooses to be a father. He didn't choose to go to Toya's side. He was too busy being a hero and fighting the big bad. As a result of that we never learn anything about Enji as a character outside of being a hero because he never chose to be anything other than a hero.

He also never failed. As I said the narrative kept handing him wins. You'd think never choosing to see Toya would mean he can't save Toya in the end, but in the end of the story Toya's just fine. There are no consequences to his choices. He's revealed to be an abuser to the public but he gets to keep being a hero. Enji never really fails in some big way that forces him to rfelect and change on his actions, so he just keeps doing the same thing from beginning to end.

Which is why Enji doesn't work as a character compared to Rusty. He doesn't fail. He's supposed to be a flawed protagonist struggling against himself, but he never really loses. He's too much like Jonas and not enough like Rusty.

"I think Jonas was something of a boy adventurer himself, and made his kid be it. But also put his kid on TV to cash in the residuals. He was just a shitty parent. When he went to bed he was just, he was moral, and he was fighting the good fight. When he woke up he ignored his son and made his son do terrible things. He voted for nixon like a good american. He was a winner and our show is not about winners. Our show is about losers and people we love." Jackson Publick. n

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

02/19/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Cast & Crew; Rhys Darby; Con O'Neil; Kristian Nairn; Samba Schutte; Wee John Wondays; LubeAsACrew; Stats/Trends; Fan Spotlight; Engagement Prompts; LoveNotes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika

Hey All, today's been an off day for me, so please let me know if I've missed something. Hope you all had fun!

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

== Rhys Darby ==

Well, our goofball of a captain is back with more Red Dead Redemption II, check out Part 2 below:

Rhys also did comedy at Bourbon Room Hollywood last week, and = tmiddendorfphoto on IG captured quite a lot of photos of his set. Feel free to visit them:

== Con O ' Neill ==

Whoops! I had this prepped for yesterday then completely forgot, sorry Con! Con was out seeing BettyRules in NYC!

== Wee John Wonday ==

Kristian had Samba on WJW Today! Lots of cool stuff they chatted above! If you're unable to watch right now, there's a small breakdown of various high points below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kristian Nairn (@kristiannairn)

Highlights/Things We Learned:

Samba baby's name is Ocean

Samba was kind enough to stand in for WJW when someone else had to drop off for work.

Samba loves giving Kristian middle names: Kristian Victoria Nairn / Kristian Alexander Nairn / Kristian Valaria Nairn, Kristian Venereal Disease Nairn / Kristian Damien Nairn / Kristian Nicholas Nairn / Kristian Tabitha Nairn

There were live doves that would shit on you on set, and they shat on Samson

Kristian was a professional Chef

Samba wants to do Cryptic Factor w/Rhys

Samba is big into ufo's and cryptids

Kristian is also into paranormal stuff

Kristian - In New Zealand saw weird things on the lawn of his rental place (weird creatures focused on the balcony of his room)

David Fane - ate all the cheese in Calypso's Birthday

They really appreciate all the fans trying to save OFMD and would LOVE to get a season 3, even if only for 2 hours.

Samba would like ot do a bts/blooper combo but has to get permission first

For the wrap party, the cast members got each other gifts:

Samson got everyone crocs

EDIT: David Fane gave them Samoan necklaces (ty @denizbevan)!

Kristian said his "Gifts got stolen"

Samba gave them pictures / BTS videos

Q: Who was most elusive in regards to BTS?

Joel - also Ewan

Q: Favorite Soup?

Sambas favorite Soup - Chicken Noodle (chicken soup)

Kristian's favorite Soup - Cream of Tomato

Q: Did anything change with Roach in S2?

Yes, he became softer / trusting

Q: Lots of great energy and hanging out between crew members and family, (not something often seen) what do you think led to that?

Casting director Alison Jones - awesome at casting

Energy on set was positive and acceptance from the get go that helped

Sailing training, stunt training, sword fighting together helped bonding

Everyone on the cast was odd, and people moved out together so lots of small found family situations

Long hours together

Note: Stede's story time everyone is actually asleep, cause they've been up for like 18 hrs

Q: What's your favourite dessert, that you could live off forever?

Roach - Chocolate Mousse, really fluffy and airy

Kristian - Black Forest Cake

Q: What was best part of working in New Zealand?

8 hr days instead of 18 hrs days

Nature was gorgeous

Maori Elders did a land blessing

Q: Roach played a lot of roles, what do you think was his main role?

Cook, Doctor, therapist in that order.

Q: Would Aamba release a cookbook?

If enough interest, Yes - OFMD Cast Favorite Cookbook

And Mac and cheese recipe

Cakes and desserts

Q: What's it like being a new dad?

Amazing , no time to catch breath, feeling a lot of protectiveness and excitement and energy to step up and take care of the kiddo So fulfilling, Sambas a great dad.

Original Script / Deleted Scene Stuff:

In original script: Roach was going to end up with the crew of revenge, but then changed the script cause Samba would look like a kid who stole his dads jacket, so Frenchie was cap

Originally Zheng called the crew "beta" instead of "tender" but they changed it.

Innkeeper deleted scenes:

Everyone's eating soup on deck, roach was supposed to be serving people soup, and Fang says "Ah, Leroy, I'm so glad you're alive?" and Lucius goes "I'm sorry do you think my name is Leroy?"

Oluwande was crying, Jim asks if he was, he says no he gets that thing when he's around grass, and Jim says "A yeah lots of grass around here"

Other deleted scene:

Kristian saying "its sizest" doing big guy stuff

And roach says he's stuck doing tall skinnhy guy stuff

Pete asks if he's stuck doing bald guy stuff

More Deleted scenes:

Ewan zip lines over first and yells: "I was born to fly"

Roach zip line screams quietly cause they tell him to be quiet, and then he lands and says, "why its so sticky I wanna go back", and he tries to get back on the rope but Frenchie flys in and knocks him over.

Another Delete scene:

Wee John was going to dress up as cupid, would have encouraged Stede and Ed, who would have danced to "At Last" and then when and boned.

== Samba BTS ==

In honor of Wee John Wonday's, Samba added some more BTS starring Kristian, and shared the video he talked about in WJW regarding Kristian's birthday.

== Lube As A Crew ==

Astroglide sent @Seven_Sugars a carepackage for a lovely review!

== Stats Stats Stats / Trends ==

Thank you @meowzawowza_ as usual for the awesome insight!

Trends! Thank you @merryfinches and @debphotog for catching these!

== Fan Spotlight ==

For those of you not on twitter, you may not have seen @wndrngnomad's collage's she's been doing each day for the cast members! They go back quite a while so I'll add them all to the repo, but they kind enough to give me permission to share them with the everyone outside of twitter!

== Engagement Prompts ==

Over on Instagram @saveofmdcrewmates have some engagement prompts for tomorrow: #CrossoverCruesday. Time to switch it up! What is your fantasy crossover beween another show and OFMD? Crossover AU anyone?

== Articles ==

Special thanks to @heide79728 on Twitter for sharing all these international headlines!

HBO MAX "praised the loyal audience that engaged with the series and contributed to building an interactive community around it." - Article in Arabic

"14 Recommended Series-fans are already deeply engaged in a massive campaign to encourage another network to buy the rights and produce another season to give the story the ending it deserves" - Article in Hebrew

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies.

Have you had any water lately? Did you get to go outside and take a walk? Please remember that you need breaks sometimes, even if they're only a few minutes here or there.

You deserve rest-- and when things get rough, your brain needs a couple minutes to reset. Remember to take care of yourself and practice some self-care.

Self care means fun too!

Do something you enjoy that makes you smile. I'm not a fan of sticker/sticky things-- but I know a lot of people who love googly-eyes so I figured this was appropriate.

Anyway, gnight/gday crew, have a lovely one.

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

I think I've done this Darby one on these recaps before, but I needed to have a theme tonight, and the them is well, I think you know. Yes that is Taika in the stash, from "Boy".

[imaginedreamwrite]

I’ll Get By

A/N: There are things I’m bound to get wrong about the 1940s and asylum’s, so please forgive me. There was also a lot of prejudice for people especially if they were gay, and there is a gay patient mentioned in the first chapter. If you’re uncomfortable with it please don’t read. Thank you!

Part 1: An Anomaly

1946 — St. Catherine’s Asylum

The heavy coating of stagnant rain water on the streets had nearly taken you out the moment you stepped onto the stone staircase of the building. The breath had been ripped from your lungs the moment you felt your feet slip.

You squealed in surprise and if it hadn't had been for the railing, you would have fallen on your backside. After righting yourself and fixing the starch nurse’s uniform you were deemed to wear, you unfurled your nearly broken umbrella and carried on.

You were rushing this morning, rushing into the front door of the asylum with your nurse's bag bouncing against your hip. Once you stepped through the door and shook off the umbrella twice, you had blown a curled piece of your hair out of your face.

“Close that damned thing right now!” One of the patients lingering near the door smoking—seemingly unbothered by the nurse who was supposed to be watching him—barked a demand. “Don’t you know opening an umbrella indoors is bad luck, you daft girl!”

You could have responded with ire at the man wearing faded blue pinstriped pyjamas, many other nurses had. I like other nurses, you knew he wasn’t mad, you knew he wasn’t the kind of man who lost his mind over drink or injury. He was a man who was stalwart in his sexuality and attraction to men, and for that, he was committed.

“Good morning, Mr. Samson.” You closed the umbrella and folded it up, adhering to his superstitions while offering him a small smile.

Mr. Lyle Samson was a man with streaky black hair and rather odd coloured eyes—one almost iridescent blue and the other brown—a crooked nose from it being broken, and thinly pressed lips. He was a cantankerous man, one who had grown more ire-some from the treatment he had received in the asylum. The doctors held little care for the patients, even less for men like him, and as it was, he had suffered as well at the hands of his family.

“Your lipstick is a mess, girl. Fix yourself.” He lifted the cigarette to his lips, inhaling the Camel brand smoke and exhaling from the side of his mouth. He had glanced you over, once more, before he extended his hand and clutched onto your wrist. He squeezed once then relaxed and squeezed again, a telltale signal he had used when he wanted to send a message.

“There’s someone new.” He mumbled under his breath, inching forward while staring you down with his blue and brown eyes. “A famous fella.”

“Famous?” You looked past him to the first floor nurses station, toward the nurse who was disposed to be monitoring him. “Someone famous?”

“Used to be, before the damned shit-hole government stripped him of his title.” He turned his head and spat a few inches from your feet, the aftermath of sucking back a Camel cigarette. “He’s in the men’s ward, hates the doctors.”

“Mr. Samson, smoke is over!” The haughty nurse who had been on monitoring duty for the Lyle Samson started her approach. You could hear the clack of her heels on the aged and worn wood floor, the heady stride of her feet as she rushed toward him.

You knew that atmosphere wasn’t kind to men like him, men who hadn’t wanted a traditional life that fit society’s norm’s in the 1940s. He was a man who was attracted to men, and for that, he was punished by both the authorities and his family.

“He’s fine, he was telling me about a new patient—“ you rose to his defence, vocally, and had immediately been chided by the nurse.

“He is not fine.” Her voice darkened, and her eyes narrowed explicitly toward you with a tempestuous manner. “He is finished his cigarette, and you need to head to the men’s ward.”

Your breath had hitched in your throat, your hands tightened around the handle of the umbrella. Your nails dug into the varnish of the wood, though not deep enough to leave a mark, your mind immediately racing. The men’s ward was no nurses’ top choice when doing their rounds, and there was often a lack of willing volunteers. For you to be assigned to the men’s ward, you knew it was some kind of hazing because you were the newest.

They would hand you over to the men on a silver platter, leaving you to the men, who were frequently mad and violent. While there were some who were left solely on lockdown and very rarely got to spend time in the common area, others were left to roam—within reason. You had spent time in the children’s ward, which was a close second to the least desired floor, and the least amount of time on the women’s ward.

“Me—“

“I don’t have time to argue, Nurse L/N.” She cut you off with a stern and harsh bite, directing her inability to care beyond base empathy toward you. “Now.”

Your feet carried you in a rush, moving you near the staircase that led to the men’s ward. You nearly tripped over your feet before you had even taken the first step. Your hand rest upon the wooden railing that would take you up the winding staircases. You would wander through doors that were locked every night until you got to the fourth floor, which was where the men’s ward was.

The asylum was laid out in 5 massive floors that extended through winding hallways that were dimly lit by old windows. On the main floor was the receptionist’s and the warden’s office. The doctor’s offices for the children’s and men’s ward were on the main floor, unlike on the women’s floor. The doctors themselves had no special interest in spending more time than what was necessary in those areas.

The women’s unit was on the third floor above the laundry, kitchen, medical examination and treatment rooms on the second floor. Next had come the children’s floor that was not nearly comforting enough for kids left behind or admitted. The fourth floor was dedicated to the men that were admitted and held in their own contained unit, like the children.

And then there was the fifth floor that was exclusively held and dedicated to the incurables. They were the men, women, and children who were so manic and wild, deemed impossible to fix, that they should be locked away and forgotten about. Lyle Samson was unfortunately going to be moved to the incurable’s floor after Doctor Rollins had determined his sick pleasures could not be fixed, and all attempts were feeble.

“The men’s ward…” your feet carried you slowly, every step felt as if there was an ounce of lead sewn into your flesh.

You moved through the staircases from floor to floor, starting from the main floor to the fourth. You stopped at the double set of wooden doors with frosted glass. The lettering for the men’s ward was scrawled in faux painted gold—a decorative addition to make people believe that this place wasn’t as nefarious as it actually seemed. You reached up and placed your hand upon the wood and pushed slowly, just enough to be able to slip through the door and into the ward.

The door felt heavy behind you as it shut with a bang, the force tipping you forward. All the weight of your body shifted to the front of your feet, more specifically your toes. You had nearly toppled, almost flailing entirely, until you felt a steady hand on your arm acting as a support pillar. However, you were soon to learn that it wasn’t just one hand on you but another, a large warm hand on the small of your waist that was immediately followed by a voice.

“The door always sticks,” you could only describe the voice as honey-laced whiskey, something deep and smooth but afflicted with a weariness, “you’re not the first nurse it’s nearly knocked over.”

The honey-laced whiskey voice belongs to someone you’ve never possibly imagined would be in a place like this. The man whose face was plastered across magazines—who had comic books created about him and had even starred in movies to stir the morale of the country during the war—was standing so close to you, you could see the green in his blue eyes.

His blonde hair was brushed out of his face and styled like you’d seen so many times before. There was a firmness to his jaw that allocated your attention before it was quickly drawn to the rest of him. His shoulders seemed unnaturally broad, and his chest was firm, despite the starchy grey uniforms the patients wore. You could easily detect the size of the American hero who had liberated men in Europe, and saved thousands.

The hero, who had been a beacon of light and hope, was squandered after the war. The papers called him mad with grief, a man who had seen the horrors of war and lost all sense of self. It happened after he had lost one member of the unit he led. The Howling Commandos lost Sergeant Barnes, or Bucky as he was known as, and Captain Rogers was never the same.

Although standing here now, looking at him as he held you steady after you nearly fell, you see none of the madness he was accused of. There was nothing whatsoever in his blue-green eyes to make you think he was mad enough to be here.

“Thank you…Captain Roger’s…” you spoke with hesitancy and the sound of your voice was enough to break the spell he had you under. In a moments notice, you’d been called to the nurses desk, breaking the firm yet gentle hold he had on you.

You turned your back to him and fixed your nurses cap, only recognizing his eyes on you when you felt heat starting to grow in your belly.

[devilishmango]

Kenneski [UPDATE 2/10/2024]

Link to main post here Link to demo here

Hey guys! Chapter one is fully complete! 

What you can expect from the update-

Get an ominous message from Sazora

Choose a few appearance options! 

Start working in the prison 

Meet the creepy doctor of Kenneski prison

Either follow voices in a strange corridor or snoop around the doctor’s office

Choose a little bit about your childhood

Get your verdict! [Neph would like to state- THE ‘UNOFFICIAL’ VERDICT]

Have a fun little powwow with Captain Alinar. :) Hey, you get free drugs out of it!! 

Have a strange dream… 

A few things- Not all the codex entries are updated, so if you get to a part where something is mentioned and the codex doesn’t update, that’s why. But, all the relationship stats are up and running! There isn’t a reason you can’t flirt with everyone, though! Have fun with it, the ROs won’t mind all your rizz, I promise. :) Also, I will probably add a few more appearance options and whatnot. I know they are scattered around the chapter, but I THINK there are a few more I will add later on. [Like body size and whatnot] On the note of appearance options- I don’t have a non-hair or any length options at the moment, but it will be added the next time I update the game.  And, if there’s something you want to see in the ‘childhood’ option, just message me and I’ll see if I can add it. 

 Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything else to mention… Other than that it’ll probably be a while until I get chapter 2 ready and done. There’s definitely a lot more coding involved in Kenneski, so it’s taking me longer to get these updates out to you. But I am trying! And I’m still having fun, and you guys are still supportive so that’s all that really matters to me lmao 

Anyway, I'll see you guys next update!

By the way, this is very random but while I was first writing for Captain Alinar, I had a very specific guy in my head and I could not, for the life of me, figure out who it was… Until I recently replayed Dragon Age Inquisition, and remembered… SAMSON!! That is who Captain Alinar is heavily based off of lmao 

CURRENT WORD COUNT:  23,479 30,635 [+7,156]

[familyparadox]

So we all know Fitz has been in the TARDIS for all of newwho I. Propose that he has just been asleep much like how he was asleep throughout all of Eights Adventures with Samson, Griffin, Mary Shelly, Charley Pollard, Audacity and C’rizz. Now I proposes that Fitz will wake up due he the TARDIS duplicate and will walk out in to 14’s backyard talking about how he really needed that only for 14 to hug him whilst Donna looks on in shock. Fitz would recognise the Doctor but be worried about the changing face because that only happens when and things happen. Donna and Fitz would not get on.

Meanwhile in 15’s TARDIS Fitz wakes up at the same time and meets 15 and has adventures with them before they meet Ruby (Fitz has a nap whilst 15 adventures with Ruby).

That right their are now even more Fitz Kreiner’s

[ronwestbreeze]

TO YOU , WORLDS AWAY : PART TWO : CHAPTER FIFTEEN

pairing: jake sully x fem!reader

summary: in which tinkers tolerates norm...

word count: 3.6k

author's note: none! just hope you enjoy!

AO3 | prev | next

“They’re having a ceremony tonight.” Dr. Chloe told you while she was double checking one of the machines next to your hammock. “For an elder that unfortunately passed. I hear it’s really pretty. Perhaps you should see it, you know, get out of the hut for once.”

You had managed to sit up this time, though it took a lot of great difficulty. It seemed like as the days passed your body just became heavier and heavier to hold up yourself. You really weren’t even sure if you could even walk yet.

“Kind of hard to do that when I can barely sit upright.” You retorted. Unfortunately, you had found yourself disliking the doctor, mostly because she was completely oblivious to the fact that these machines she and her team had made weren’t necessarily doing much of anything but being a hindrance. Frankly, you weren’t even sure why she made it a point to check on you every single day and fill your head up with more false promises and progress.

Dr. Chloe waved a dismissive hand, “You don’t have to do much moving to see it. Technically, you can sit outside of your hut and watch from above. It’s similar to a march, you know? They walk throughout the clan’s grounds until they reach the burial site. So, you may just catch a glance at the ceremony as it passes by.”

“You sound like you’ve seen this.” You mumble offhandedly as Dr. Chloe finally stopped tampering with the machines.

“Why yes, I actually have! A few months back I was lucky to witness one. It was a beautiful ceremony, I think you might like it.”

There was really no point in responding to her as she was basically having a conversation with herself at one point. All you had to do was respond plainly until she finally made her leave.

That was when you glanced out your window for the first time that morning to see just a few miles away, a Samson landing. If you had to guess, it was probably Spider and his mother. During the past week you had been awake, Mary would always visit the Olangi Clan every other day and bring Spider along with her. It was the highlight of your day really, whenever the boy came to visit.

It was a nice distraction and good company. Better than Dr. Chloe’s that’s for sure. The one useful thing she had done was bring you a long thick wooden stick that would have been similar to a cane. She mentioned it would help with support and keeping you upright. You never admitted it out loud in front of her but yes, the wooden cane did help lots. In fact you haven’t allowed it out of your sight ever since you had gotten it.

You looked around and realized that you were indeed alone. While gripping the stick tightly in both your hands, you pushed yourself up from the hammock, leaning your entire body weight on the stick. Your legs trembled but you were able to remain standing for a few minutes until a sharp pain shot up your right leg and caused you to crumble down to the floor of the hut. Thankfully, it wasn’t that rough of a tumble with the stick catching you from most of your fall.

But you remained on the floor and gently sat the stick down next to you. Well, on the brighter side, at least you weren’t in your hammock anymore.

“Hi, Doc!” You looked up to find Spider standing in the doorway of your hut with a smile on his face. “Oh hey, look! You’re out of your hammock!”

Spider sank to the floor and crawled to sit next to you as you chuckled tiredly, “Yep. Makin’ progress each day, I guess.”

“Well, that’s good. That means you’re getting better.” Spider smiled encouragingly, patting your arm. All you could do was smile. Thankfully, Spider didn’t pick apart your expressions but instead his smile widened, “Oh! I brought a friend this time, Doc. Can he come in?”

At first you thought he was referring to another Na’vi kid that he had happened to befriend so you shrugged and nodded. Spider suddenly got up and rushed out the doorway, disappearing from your sight for a few seconds but you could still hear his voice as he said, “Okay! You can come in now!”

Spider came back seconds later and sat down in the spot he had been sitting in, bouncing excitedly.

The last person you expected to walk through that doorway was Norm Spellman.

“Norm?” You gapped up at him.

Norm looked stunned as well as he chuckled sheepishly, “Hey, Doc…long time no see.”

There really wasn’t any right way to react or say anything. Especially when it came to meeting someone you hadn’t seen…well…since after Grace’s death. It brought you back to too many memories all at once, overwhelming your senses to the point where you were just simply left speechless.

“So you guys know each other?” Spider asked, completely oblivious to the tension.

Norm cleared his throat awkwardly, “Um, Spider, why don’t you wait outside for a bit while Doc and I catch up?”

Spider frowned at him and then looked at you expectantly, almost as if he were waiting for you to give him the okay to leave you alone.

That had snapped you out of your stunned gaze long enough to give him a nod and a gentle pat on his head to reassure him further, “I’ll be fine, Parrot. I’ll let you know when you can come back, okay?”

“Okay.” Spider nodded and finally got up.

Norm watched the boy leave. The two of you were quiet for a few moments until he finally said, “Wow, you really are good with kids, huh? That kid barely listens to anyone.”

You shrugged, “Kids need someone to listen to them. It’s not too hard to do, I guess.” You couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room for much longer. Not with small talk. And you usually hate small talk with Norm. “I assume Spider told you about me—”

“Yeah, Y/N, he did.” Norm frowned. He stared at you as if it was the first time he had actually seen you. There was a look you hated that crossed his face, a look you did not particularly care for at the moment. Norm settled down on the floor but kept the space between you two as he continued in a quieter voice, “What, were you planning on staying here? In secret without anyone knowing?”

“I’m dying, Norm. What do you think?”

Norm winced, “But…Doc, we could’ve been there for you as soon as you woke up. Jake—”

“You didn’t tell Jake did you?” Was your quick response, your heart pounding against your chest in anxiety. “Norm, I can’t have him here, I can’t have him see me—”

“No, I didn’t tell him.” He stared at you in shock. “I wanted to be sure myself.  That I was about to see the Doc was actually the Doc we thought had died five years ago.” You dropped your gaze down to your bandaged knees, not wanting him to see your eyes become achy and then eventually glassy. “But now that I’m sure, now that I know you’re here…why can’t Jake know?”

You shook your head, scowling at him weakly, “I’m dying! What part of that do you not understand, Norm?”

“We can transfer your consciousness to your avatar, we’ve done it before with Jake—”

“I’m too weak—”

“No, you’re not, Y/N—”

“Grace was weak, Norm. She was dying and she never was able to cross over to her avatar!” Tears fell down your cheeks in despair. Your chest became tight and heavy at the same time.  “I can’t give him hope like that…I can’t…I can’t break his heart again…”

It was quiet once more in the hut. You could tell Norm was frustrated and this was one of the very reasons why you didn’t want him or anyone else you knew to see you. Not when you were slowly trying to accept the inevitable.

“We don’t have to tell anyone.” Norm started again, this time his voice was smaller. “I can have your avatar flown here. He doesn’t even have to know. And we can perform it here—”

“Norm—”

“They have a spirit tree or a tree of souls here too, don’t they? We could do it here and if it works we—”

You reached over and placed your hand on his shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze, “Norm, it’s okay. I’ll be fine.” Honestly, you were shocked you were able to say this despite the tears in your eyes, despite more of it falling down your face.

Norm shook his head but he didn’t respond right away. “I just…I just don’t know if I can go back and face him…knowing that I saw you.” You nodded understandingly but didn’t say anything else. And neither did he.

The two of you just sat in silence. You both were able to do that back when it was you, Norm, Grace, and Jake. Whenever Grace was busy or whenever Jake was in the link bed, you’d come out of your lab and just sit with Norm. You were either reading and he was eating something. And he never asked questions that much. It was nice. Those small moments.

Norm picked up your stick and examined it. You finally spoke, “How is he? Jake? You said…you said he was able to transfer his consciousness into his avatar.”

He chuckled, “Yeah, yeah he did. He’s also a family guy now, he and Neytiri have three kids now. It’s…it’s nice, you know, to see him happy.” Norm then looked up at you with a friendly smile, “But I think we both know it’s not the same without you, Doc.”

You chose not to respond to that, not to think about that. Because if you did, then there was no way you would ever stop crying. And you’ve already been doing a lot of that recently.

There was another pause of silence between you two. Norm handed you your stick and you took it, sending him a small smile, “I know we weren’t really close before, frankly, I don’t think I liked you in the beginning.” Norm snorted and you smiled. “But now I can say I find you mildly tolerable.”

“You find me tolerable now that you’re dying?” Norm scoffed, amusement twinkling in his eyes, “Should I be offended?”

“Don’t think about it too much.”

Norm nodded with a chuckle before standing up, “I’ll call Spider back in.”

“Hey, you can stay, you know.” You smiled not really wanting to be alone as of now. And as much as you’ve grown to love having Spider around, you would love to have another adult around—besides Dr. Chloe. “It’d kind suck that you’d come all this way just to go back in a few minutes.”

Spider came back in as Norm sighed, “I don’t know. I do have a lot of work to do at home.”

“No, stay!” Spider pleaded, tugging on the man’s arm. “You could help me with my Na’vi with Doc!”

Norm snorted, “I don’t know if I’m the best teacher to be honest.”

“What, after five years? Come on, Spellman.” You teased as Spider took his spot next to you again. “Sit with us for a while.”

There was still hesitation on his face, there was still what lingered from your conversation, Norm didn’t want to let it go, you could tell. Instead of addressing it in front of Spider, you gave him a look that told him he had to drop it. Honestly, you had forgotten how stubborn this guy was.

Reluctantly, he sighed and settled back down to the floor. “Okay, Spider. Show us what you’ve learned so far.”

And that’s what you spent most of the day doing. Spider was so excited that he was getting better at the language which meant he was steps closer. It also seemed like both Norm and Spider had a close bond with each other, which was nice to see. God, you may have hated Quaritch with all of your guts but it was good to know his son had some type of community around him, people that loved him and took care of him.

Thinking about this, it did make you wish that things were different. That you didn’t crash in that ship, that you didn’t go into cryosleep for five years, that you were with Jake…

By the time the evening came, Norm made his leave but Spider stayed with you. Since you decided to end your lessons, you let him go off about his time with his adoptive family. He mentions having a friend named Kiri who was also adopted and they were best friends because of that. You found it adorable and was happy that he had some Na’vi friends.

When the sun began to set, a horn sounded. Spider perked up both out of the sudden sound startling him and in curiosity. “What’s that?”

You remembered the ceremony that Dr. Chloe had mentioned before, “Why don’t we check it out?”

Spider nodded excitedly and helped you to your feet. The both of you slowly made your way out of the hut. It was the first time you had actually stood outside of the hut you had been staying in, only to find out that it was high up in a tree.

“Huh, that’s why the air’s always been a little bit thin.” You muttered as Spider helped you sit down on the wooden balcony with railings surrounding the hut. “Come on, let’s scoot toward the railing.”

You slowly scooted your body closer to the railing and carefully placed legs through the open spaces and you leaned your body against the bars. Spider copied you, swinging his legs back and forth.

Below you, you saw most of the Olangi Clan gather around further away from your tree. Most of them rode direhorses while the others walked next to them.

Both you and Spider watched as they moved slowly, practically gliding through the pathway of the trees. It looked as if the plants moved for them as they went or moved for the dead. Then in the middle of the long line of Na’vi, there was a large leaf that carried a single body which was also covered in leaves, and in that leaf along with the body were woodsprites.

“Look!” Spider pointed at the ones flying down and you stared at them in wonder.

You gently poked his shoulder, “What do you call them, Parrot?”

“Um, woodsprites?”

“Mhmm, but also…?”

Spider thought for a moment as one of them floated past his face. “Ooh! Atokirina'.”

He looked very proud of himself. And you laughed softly, “Very good.”

As you watched them walk, you got tired of staying upright for so long. Your body soon began to slump against the railing no matter how much you tried to stay still. “Hey, Spider, can you lean me up against the hut, please?”

Spider nodded and got up, “Are you okay?”

You nod after he helped you position yourself up against the wood of the hut, “Yeah, just a little tired.”

“Do you want me to get a healer?” Spider asked, kneeling down in front of you with a worried pout. “I can get my mom if you’d like! I know you don’t like Miss Parker.”

You furrow your brows, a smile tugging at your lips, “How do you know I don’t like Dr. Chloe?”

Spider shrugged, “You always looked annoyed whenever she came to see you. Oh, one time I even heard you say fu—”

“Okay, okay,” You stopped him. The last thing you wanted was to be responsible for turning this kid vulgar before he even reached his teens. “Yeah, go on and get your mother. Be careful while you do so, okay? We’re pretty high up.”

“They don’t call me Spider for nothing!” He grinned before running off. You watched what little you could see of him climb down the branches until he disappeared below and you couldn’t see him anymore.

For a moment, you took in the atmosphere. The peace. The night. The mourning of the dead. It took everything in you not to break down into tears yet again. God, you were such a  crybaby these days. You tried not to think about you being in that leaf instead, you tried not to think about Spider’s reaction if you were to die, you tried not to think about Jake, about whether Grace would be disappointed in you or not, you tried not to think so hard. You really did.

You hadn’t realized your eyes were closed until you opened them with a tear slipping out. Of course. So much for trying not to cry.

But your tears weren’t what you focused long on. Instead it was the woodsprite that suddenly floated down in front of you and landed on your right knee. You hadn’t seen one so up close before. From what you read about them, they are said to be very pure and scared spirits and that they don’t show up this often. So seeing one, and another float down toward you, made you begin to wonder…

Having them all around, you realized after a few seconds that a few more had landed on your body, was a bit of a bother. Especially, when it practically lit up your body for all to see. It was like it purposefully wanted you to be found or noticed by the Na’vi below.

Good thing no one was paying attention.

“Tsmuke?”

At first you thought you had imagined it. That you were just tired and should’ve been going to bed soon. But when you spotted movement in the corner of your eye, when you turned your head completely to find Neytiri squatting down on the railing, looking at you with just as much shock as you looked at her.

This had to be a dream. You had fallen asleep and you were dreaming. There was no way Neytiri was here, right now, in front of you.

You blinked when she dropped down onto the path where you sat and you muttered out, “Are you real?”

A grin broke out on Neytiri’s face as she rushed toward you and knelt down in front of you, “I prayed to the All Mother for this day! I knew you weren’t dead, ma tsmuke!” She pulled you into a tight hug. You, being too stunned to do anything else, hugged her back the best you could. “Thank you, Eywa, thank you, thank you, thank you! You’ve found her!”

All the emotions you had held back before, that you had pushed back the entire day after your conversation with Norm, came pouring out in quiet sobs that shook your shoulders. And you realized after a while of hugging her, Neytiri was crying too.

It felt…

It almost felt like being reunited with a family member you had missed. That you had lost. You never expected to reunite with Neytiri or Norm, but after you did, after you’ve hugged her, it was more of a relief than finding out that your side of the war had won.

Winning the war wasn’t worth it if you ended up alone in the end.

And god. God, you will finally admit that you hated being alone.

When you both pulled away, you found yourself speaking through your tears, “How did you…How are you here?”

“Sa’nok, the Tsahik was asked here to perform the ceremony.” Neytiri explained, placing her bow down. “She brought me here so that I can learn and be ready to become the future Tsahik…” She finally took in your current state and her smile fell slightly, “You are…”

You gave a pained smile, “I don’t really know how long I have. They, the humans, think they can heal me before I die but I don’t think they can—”

“No.” Neytiri shook her head immediately. “No. You cannot die. Not after I had just found you!”

“Neytiri—”

“What about Jake?” She whispered, tears filling her eyes. “What about Kiri? I can’t let you die, not without them seeing you.”

You shook your head, coming down from your momentary high to feel terribly exhausted. Worse than minutes before. “Neytiri it’s fine…” She helped you lay down on the floor, gently guarding your head as she did so. Your lower lip trembled, “I already know what you’re going to say and it won’t work.” You shook your head as Neytiri moved to protest, “It won’t work. I’m too weak.”

“I will not give up!” Neytiri hissed at you. “You and I…we had very little time together. But one thing I will always know, that would always be true, is that you belong with this family. You belong with Jake, you belong with little Kiri. You belong with all of us. You always have….” She sniffled, placing a hand on your forehead. “Sylwanin saw it before I did….and I am sorry it has taken me this long to realize it.”

You wanted to tell her you didn’t deserve it but something in you just couldn’t even push out the words. It just remained stuck in your throat. Stuck in your chest. Preventing the air from entering your lungs.

That’s when you realized you couldn’t breathe. That you had been trying to gasp for air.

Neytiri realized seconds after, “Tsmuke?” You felt her larger hands feel around your mask as if it had come loose. Black dots started to cover your vision. “Ma tsmuke!”

The last thing you remembered was Neytiri screaming and hands lifting your body from off the ground.

And then the world had gone dark. And you couldn’t hear her screams anymore.

taglist: @luvvfromme @sully-stick-together @jakesullylvr @s-u-t @ssc7514 @cheari @tojigirl @nyotamalfoy @perfectprofessorloverapricot @naityelen @dumb-fawkin-bitch @raggedyoldwitch @nhemmingsf @biooiuygjjgfsrb @thatsenoughformelol @thotd-f1 @beaniebeensbaby201 @theoriginalwife000 @3leni @23victoria @lovesickollie @atxara @im-in-a-pansexual-panik @ladylovegood-69 @lovekeeho @lilithmoon14512 @n7cje @fyfy-world @cleverzonkwombatsludge @goddesslilithmoriarty @itszzmoon @eternallyvenus @bajadotcom @ducks118 @alexandra-001

[blueshistorysims]

November 17, 1922, London England

Giselle set the newspaper down and turned to her lover, who was still reading it. “Why the fuck do I find out everything about my brother’s love life from the London Daily Times?! I can’t believe it.”

“The divorce or that he didn’t tell you?”

“Oh, anyone with common sense could see the divorce coming from a mile away the moment Byron became Duke of Feldsbury. I feel for Stella, but my lord, this is not something you keep secret from your own goddamn sister!”

Without a second word, she stood and marched over to the telephone, telling the operator to connect the line to her brother’s phone and waited for someone to pick it up. After several rings, the phone finally answered, and she heard a heavy sigh.

“Yes?” Her brother’s voice asked tiredly.

“Am I going to have to find out about all of your romantic excursions through the fucking newspaper, Byron?”

He sighed again. “I’m sorry. It completely blanked my mind.”

Giselle paused, her annoyance melting away from how sad he sounded. “You sound awful.”

“I feel awful too.”

“...Look, I was going to yell at you about you being a right idiot… come to London. Stay with me and Francesca for Christmas. Mama will be here, and most of the house is finished with renovations. Being alone in a big house won’t do you any good. And I won’t take no for an answer.”

Henford-on-Bagley, England

Giselle was kinder to him than he deserved. In his wallowing self-pity, he’d ignored everyone that he didn’t have to legally speak to. He moved into Walshstone Park quickly, leaving the remains of Stella’s things in trunks in the empty ballroom, gathering dust as he had yet to hire permanent servants. Someone other than his soon-to-be ex-wife would come to pick them up so they wouldn’t have to see each other. As far as he knew, she was already back in America living in her old apartment with Toussant. He missed the cat. 

The doorbell rang loudly, shaking Byron from his thoughts. He sighed and set the bottle of wine he’d been holding on one of the trunks before walking to the foyer and opening the door. He’d expected it to be a moving company or at least an acquittance of Stella’s, but to his surprise, he saw Samson Gardenhouse standing in front of him. 

“Samson?”

“Hello, Byron.” He stepped inside. “Nice house. Heard you used to be in a castle.”

He swallowed. “It was too expensive. Stella sent you to get her shit?”

He nodded. “She thought it’d be better if Thaddeus or me did it since we’re friends. …She doesn’t want to hurt you any more than she has to.”

“She should’ve thought of that when she fucked Campbell and left me,” he answer bitterly.

Samson frowned. “I’m sorry, Byron. I really am.”

“Will there be people coming tomorrow then?”

“Yeah.”

He huffed. “...Well, want anything to drink? Lord knows I have plenty of that.”

Samson shook his head, eyeing the stairs behind the Brit. “Would you rather have sex?”

Byron was quiet for a brief moment. “Yes.”

“You’re depressed,” Samson said as they basked in post-sex haze. It wasn’t an accusation or question. It was a statement.

“Who wouldn’t be in my situation?”

“Fair enough. …How does it feel to become a duke and get divorced in the same year?”

“Feels like bloody shit. I’ve been Duke of Feldsbury for about seven months, and I’ve already been in more scandals than most peers in their whole lifetime.”

He laughed. “It’s only been seven?”

“Imagine how I feel.”

“I can guess.”

Byron sighed. “I’m 27, I’m a fucking duke, I’m divorced, and I’m known to say republican sentiments in the House of Lords. No one in the hoity-toity British aristocracy likes me.”

“You’re also a decorated army captain, you hold two master's degrees, and a doctorate, and you speak almost twenty languages.  I can barely speak English.”

He leaned on Samson’s shoulder and smiled. “God, don’t with the flattery.”

“I think the problem is, Byron, is that you don’t have friends here in Britain. You’re lonely, and instead of doing the things you enjoy, you’re sulking and shut in your house.”

“I have friends.”

“Who?”

He was quiet for a minute. “...One of my neighbors’ daughter. …But I haven’t spoken to her in a few months.”

“Of course you haven’t.”

“I’m walking scandal, Samson. It’s different here in England.”

“Then associate yourself with people who don’t care that kind of stuff.”

“...You’re much smarter than me, Samson. I may have all the degrees, but my social smarts could be greatly improved upon.”

He smirked. “And what happened to the guy who went to jazz parties, screwed a new person every week while still writing their dissertation?”

“I got married,” He answered truthfully.

Byron closed his eyes as Samson looked away. 

“Byron?”

“Hmm?”

“I think this will be the last time we will have sex.”

“Unfortunately, I’m inclined to agree. It doesn't feel right.”

[kewpie-aisle]

𝕨𝕒𝕝𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕥𝕙 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕥𝕨𝕠 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕𝕤

Moving to Japan to start a new career is never an easy step. But it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, and somewhere along the way you find a spark like no other

pairing: Iwaizumi Hajime x PhysicalTherapist!Reader

notes: suggestive language, professional f!reader, formerathlete!reader, took a lot of creative liberties with the reader character, OCs included. Words in bold are inner thoughts

wc: 6288 words

I potentially may make this a series - let me know!

dividers made by cafekitsune

The soft sound of your alarm starts shifting and growing louder, as you fumble in the dark to hit the stop button. Opening one eye to see the sun’s rays lighting up the room in a low orange glow. The light breeze through the curtains and the light is enough to get you up and begin your morning stretches with a groan. The morning routine becomes a blur as you navigate through the usual of showering, getting dressed, and eating a quick breakfast before heading out to work. Most people dread the morning commute, but it’s your personal solace to tune out the world and enjoy an hour of time to yourself. Headphones on, music blasting, daydreams carrying you through Osaka as the subway zips through the city. A buzzing sensation from your pocket interrupting your peace, but you already have a guess on who’s trying to get your attention this morning. Glancing at your phone screen, you catch the message banner before your phone goes back to sleep. Exactly on time.

Coach Foster: What’s your arrival? Y/N: Take a guess Coach Foster:...Y/N. Y/N: You’re messaging me at 6:45AM, come on now. Entertain me. Coach Foster: Knowing you, you’re probably already on the train. So, about ten minutes away? Checking your map estimate, you huff out a quiet chuckle. Damn, he’s good. After a brisk jog to your destination, you’re pushing through the doors of the athletics facility Coach gave you directions for, to see the man already waiting by the inside entrance for you. 

“Are you finally going to admit that you’re my assigned FBI agent? You have to be tracking me, how else are you still this good at knowing my whereabouts Fossy” you tease as you’re pulled into a hug from the older gentleman. Samson Foster, the head coach for the MSBY Black Jackals, in his black tracksuit pulls away and looks down at you with a warm smile on his face. It’s been quite a few years since you’ve seen him, but the few greys peppered through his normally blond hair is the only telltale sign of time passing. “Let’s keep the nicknames at bay in front of the team please? I don’t need mutiny in this team too.” He shakes his head with a grimace, as he steers you inside to give you a tour of the facilities. “We can play catch up at your welcome party tonight, but for now let’s get you started on your first day.” Coach Foster begins running through the itinerary, you both make quick work of getting through the necessary formalities with onboarding. As you make your way to the medical team offices, you hear the distant shuffles of sneakers and a whistle blowing. Making a note that the courts must be closeby, Coach opens a door leading you into a room that reminds you so much of the principal’s office. Standing to the side are two individuals quietly discussing over a clipboard before looking up at you.

“There they are. You were right Foster, she’s exactly on time.” An older gentleman in a white coat looks at his watch, breathing out a laugh before bowing for introductions. “Pleasure to finally meet you, Y/N. We’ve heard only wonderful things about you from Coach Foster. I’m Dr. Preston Burke, the team physician for the MSBY Black Jackals. This here is my colleague, Iwaizumi Hajime.” You shake the doctor’s hand as you look over to the other man to his side. As you reach your hand out, the other man bows quickly before taking your hand in a firm shake. “Iwaizumi Hajime, last name comes first in many Japanese introductions as it’s standard to go by last names here. I’m the athletic trainer for the team, it’s nice to meet you.” Handshake firm, your eyes follow the hand up a strong tanned arm, to the face of a god. Ok girl, reel it in. Yes he’s good looking. The man in front of you quirks an eyebrow in reaction to a small chuckle escaping your mouth, shaking off your inner thoughts, you smile. “Thank you Iwaizumi-san, for the cultural explanation. I’ve done some prep, wouldn’t want to come into another country and disrespect anyone. Please correct me at any time if I’ve done something wrong. It’s nice to officially meet you. I’ve gotten a lot of notes from Coach Foster.” Letting go of each other’s hands, both your attention is turned to Dr. Burke’s mention of the day’s itinerary. Although the majority of the day consists of introductions, the medical staff team has some blocks to discuss structure and strategy to help you get adjusted. Thankfully a lot of the material had been shared ahead of time, so you’re able to hit the ground running today. But the introductions aren’t until later in the day, but you have a small break before the staff meetings. So you head off to your desk with Dr. Burke, to get set up. “Iwaizumi please come with me, I need your eyes on some gameplay strategies that Meian put together. He’s waiting for us on the court.” Coach Foster pats the young man’s shoulder as he nods to agree. “I promise to keep it quick so he’s back to join you both.” Coach and Dr. Burke share a quick nod before the group says their goodbyes and splits up. 

The walk is quick and short down the hall to your shared office as Dr. Burke talks more about their background. You seamlessly go through the motions, bonding over the struggles of university, family back home, tips and tricks for learning the Japanese language, all the similar snags that come with international careers. It wasn’t an easy decision to just pick up your entire life and move to Japan, but the physical therapist role was one you couldn’t pass up. Dr. Burke’s reputation precedes him, the D-1 volleyball team is one of the best, and with your prior playing experience, you would be a perfect fit. Change wasn’t something you were ever afraid of, but after all the suffering through grad school and license tests you would be a sucker to not accept the perfect job. “I’m sure you had a similar experience Dr. Burke, but Coach has the charismatic skills of a car salesman who's low on his quota. After his pitch, there was no way I could refuse.” Dr. Burke’s solemn expression with a hand on his chin in a contemplative pose has you giggling. Birds of a feather, seems he was roped in just like you. It takes a few minutes to get your desk and laptop set up, before you’re given the tour. The shared office houses two desks in the front and a recessed second office for the primary physician. The room was primarily for administrative work, but the team’s main course of work would be in the medical office. Dr. Burke brings you down the hallway where you again hear the shuffles and faint shouts from the main courts. “The main gymnasium is just around the corner. The medical rooms are situated a stone’s throw away, for obvious reasons. You have a fully furnished space further down the hall, in between the medical offices and the locker room. For added privacy for your conversations, however thanks to your added experience, you’ll find yourself here or on the court with Iwaizumi-kun.” The doctor takes you around the pristine and sterile facilities, noting the rehabilitation and care equipment set up alongside private beds. Clearly the team has been doing well, and are supported financially. It’s good to see proper facilities set up to care for the players. Majority of the work falls within the Athletic Trainer role, since you’re fully licensed for psychological evaluations you can provide an added service. But essentially Iwaizumi-san and you would be a tag team pair. The doctor runs through the standard care protocol and shares where primary care on premise ends so that serious care is provided at approved medical facilities. Your hands are already full with the players’ files as he guides you back to the shared office space. “Iwaizumi-kun took all the careful notes in those files. His attention to detail has been a gift to me, honestly. Actually he used to play volleyball throughout his childhood as well. Quit playing after high school to study abroad for college, you should talk to him about that. Something for the two of you to bond over” he gestures to the files that you’re reading through at your desk. You hum in response, taking in carefully jotted notes in the margins of player statistics. Comments on postures, dietary restrictions, even tracked personal exercise routines to know where to adjust in facility workouts. Iwaizumi-san had begun to research cryotherapy equipment for budgeting pitches to the finance department it seemed like. 

“If it’s cryotherapy, I know a guy who can help us cut some of these estimates down. In fact one of the player’s is also close with him. We’re friends from -” cut off by a knock on the door, you both turn to see Iwaizumi-san walk in with a wave. 

“Sorry about my delay, I got caught up with Meian. What have I missed?” He notices the files in your hand and nods. “Catching up on the files? I hope my handwriting isn’t difficult to read, sometimes I can’t find my notebook in time and jot down what I can wherever I can.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he strides over to your side. You breathe out a laugh, assuring him his handwriting is neat and easy to read. You’re sharing some insight on cryotherapy research you’ve done, pulling out your phone to show him a presentation deck you had put together. Ducking his head down closer to get a look at your screen, he’s amazed by the amount of detail. Even noting slides that go into the benefits per muscular function of whole-body cryotherapy. It’s not often he meets someone who’s as passionate about the science behind the body. Glancing up at a ping on your phone, he can’t help but notice your wallpaper as it flashes by while you switch apps. “Was that…Talita Antunes as your wallpaper?” He peers over at you to see your eyes widen in surprise before you flash him the world’s biggest smile. A pang hits his heart, and the hand he’s resting on your desk to prop himself up slips a bit. Not fully catching your excited explanation about how she’s your favorite player. The room around him goes silent except for the thundering of his heart as you place your hand on his arm to show him some highlight clips of hers, impressed by the fact that you know her. Internally, Iwaizumi is making a note to buy Hinata lunch as a thank you, for drilling basic Brazilian beach volleyball facts into his head. Especially if it meant getting to see your amazing smile. A dimple popping up on one side, or the way your eyes fully crinkle to show that when you smile, your whole being exudes it. The sounds of the room slowly come back to his senses as he feels you gently pushing his shoulder. “Earth to Iwaizumi-san? Have I bored you to another dimension? Come on now, she’s too cool for you to zone out on me” You shake the man one last time, although shake should be used lightly. The trainer stood solidly, a body of muscle, needing a lot more force to cause movement. You couldn’t help but admire the sturdy feeling of muscle under your touch, shaking off the unexpected thought immediately. Taking your hand off him quickly to ensure you didn’t cross any boundaries, knowing the Japanese culture is a bit more conservative about physical touch. Hearing a soft apology, the trainer quirks an eyebrow at you, a silent ask for why. When you explain your thought on potentially making him uncomfortable, you’re met with a chuckle. “I told you he studied abroad right Y/N, he’s not bothered by that. Iwaizumi-kun lived in California for quite some time for his studies and clinical practices. Not as traditional as you think.” Dr. Burke calls out, after observing you both engrossed in your own world. It’s not often he sees his younger colleague be so carefree. Iwaizumi-kun has carried a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, especially in the early days prior to the doctor accepting the full time offer. He remembers watching Iwaizumi-kun work late night after night, taking on his own load of work so that he could go back to the hospital. Despite being the age of many of the players, he’s watched the young man carry himself with a maturity beyond his years. Although the two are close, he’s unsure if that’s his natural disposition or one he was made to mold into for personal reasons. But seeing him now, geek out about sports medicine knowledge, beach volleyball, and instinctually soften around you, warmed the older gentleman’s heart. There was clearly a natural chemistry between you two, whatever direction it goes in, all he could hope for is a happy one for the trainer. He had a soft spot in his heart for the young man, and knows that the Coach cared for the new recruit. Humming to himself, he brings his attention back to you both.

“We should be continuing her itinerary for the day, you know Iwaizumi-kun.” “Oh what? You haven’t given her the 360 degree luxury tour of our state of the art office? Well who am I to deprive her of that!” The trainer looks down at you and motions his finger in a circle; telling you to take a spin. “Luxury tour done.” A smirk plays on his lips watching you seriously take a spin in mock wonder, turning into a grin as you bite down on your bottom lip to stifle a laugh. He glances at the doctor with a raised eyebrow and a hand on the hip, silently asking what’s next on the itinerary. The three burst out into a fit of laughter from an exchange of looks, the sounds bouncing off the walls to surround the three. The moment is interrupted with a knock on the door, one of the assistant coaches peeking into the room. “Sounds like you guys are having fun, hate to interrupt that, but it’s time to meet the Jackals! Iwaizumi, can you please bring her when you’re both ready? We’ll see you in the main gymnasium” and just like he’s gone as fast as he was in the doorway. You gather yourself, turning to ask the doctor if you look nice. He flashes you a sincere thumbs up before making his way over to you. The doc gives you a gentle pat on the shoulder and a whisper of good luck as you’re pushed out the door to meet the players. 

“Why are you giving me that look?” You’re able to ask over your shoulder only to hear a soft “match their energy if you can” and a laugh before the door closes.

Iwaizumi-san has a stone cold grimace etched into his face. “Do I need to be worried? You both are absolutely not setting me up for success here” you poke at the man’s shoulder to try and get more information. “You’d think I’m being sent out to war with how solemn you guys are being. Is the team rowdy or something?” This gets a chuckle out of the man as he pushes open two large double doors into the court. “Or something” he replies quickly with a small smirk that vanishes in a second. The loud sounds of sneakers squeaking and players shouting take over your entire senses. A practice match is going on, the ball is rapidly being passed back and forth across the net. A player jumps to the side before jumping up to smash down a high set. 

For a player of that stature, a jumping height like that isn’t common. As if Apollo himself graced the court and grew wings to fly up to his perch in the sky. The whistle blows and the orange haired player lands on his feet with a heavy thump. Strong thighs easily absorb the shock of the jump to allow the player to gracefully stand up. Excited high fives with a blond setter are shared, cheers for a successful play. Hinata Shoyou. Gods, the matches on tv never do it enough justice. He’s always better in person. You can’t help a low whistle, coming out your mouth as you make your way to Coach’s side, unaware of the pair of watchful eyes from your side.

Iwaizumi looks down at you to gauge your reaction to the play. He’s used to dropped jaws or people stopped in their tracks when watching Shoyo play. He still remembers his first time watching him play like it was yesterday, and not more than a decade ago. Especially for a non-Japanese native who may not be familiar with all the players, the wing spiker’s jump must’ve been astonishing. But there you are, surprising him instead. Not an ounce of shock on your face but instead a giant grin and a fire in your eyes that he often sees in the players’ eye. 

“Someone has secrets to spill later” he nudges you with an elbow before taking his spot on the other side of Coach Foster. Before you can respond to the insinuation, Coach is whistling the team over. In front of you stood all the players, with the starting 9 rotation in the front. A handful of them grab their towels to wipe sweat off their bodies, and take a much needed water break. Thank you Coach for allowing me this opportunity to enjoy this eye candy. You praise the gods above for boys teams being able to play shirts vs skins practices, before a hand comes down on your shoulder. “Say hello to our new physical therapist, Dr. F/N L/N. I hope everyone read the introductory email that was sent out. A lot more of her background details are shared there. She will be working with Dr. Burke and Iwaizumi on the medical team. Make her feel welcome, she’s traveled a long way to officially join our team.” He pushes you out a bit in front of the group. “Don’t know what more I can add after that introduction. Especially if you’ve already gotten my full government records shared via email, from the sounds of it. But if anyone hasn’t gotten a chance to read it, feel free to come ask any questions. I am an open book. I’m practicing my Japanese, so any guidance is deeply appreciated if I make any mistakes. I’m in your care, I look forward to getting along with all of you.” You smile and bow to the team. 

The team runs through introductions and begins breaking out into groups to get back into practice. A few players linger back to chat with you excited for a new face in the group.

“Finally, a friendly and pretty addition to the team. Amen!” says the blonde setter you watched earlier. “We welcome your much needed presence on the otherwise stoic and unappealing sidelines. Miya Atsumu at your service.” He reaches his hand out with a wink. You shake his hand with a chortle “Whaaat? You’re telling me you don’t enjoy Coach Foster’s dashing looks and heart stopping smile? Come on now. Or is it that you haven’t earned his infamous dimples yet?” You quirk an eyebrow at the setter who’s looking between you and Coach Foster in shock. “DIMPLES??!” He’s immediately trying to force eye contact with Coach, who’s rapidly walking away with a grumble. Snaps his head back at you “You must tell me more. The beast of the ice land giving out smiles? What is this preferential treatment and how do we enjoy this Y/N-san?” “That’s Dr. L/N to you. Some of us are just born with it” teasingly you huff on your fingers, buffing them out on your shoulder “but I can try to teach you my ways, Atsumu-san.”  “Sticking it to you on her first day. I like her” Sakusa Kiyoomi flashes you a thumbs up, while Atsumu crosses his arms pouting on the side. “I’m Sakusa Kiyoomi, nice to meet you Doctor. Good luck fixing the mental psyche that is this kid trapped in a man’s body.” He gestures to Atsumu, and before you can break up the fight to say that’s not how sports therapy works, a boisterous laugh erupts behind you. The laugh bounces off the walls, the sound registering itself in a secure corner of your brain, holding tight so you don’t forget the sound. Scratching all the right parts. Everyone turns around to see Iwaizumi with his head back laughing before calming down to a chuckle. “I like her too, especially if she can wrangle some of you idiots this quickly. Dr. L/N is well equipped to be helping with training materials and guidance as well. She’s an athletic trainer first before you have to knock on her office door. We’ll be working together on a lot, make sure to pay attention to her and don’t give her grief…” he pauses for a second to look over at you, who’s got a strong grip on the back of Atsumu’s jersey to hold him back from Sakusa who’s found himself behind Bokuto. “Or give her all the grief. She can handle it” he finishes with a smirk and a pat on your head before walking off to assist the players on court. “....are we all going to ignore THE Iwaizumi Hajime belly laughing and teasing the new girl? Like we’re all going to scream about this at the welcome party right?” The large player protecting Sakusa, points back at the retreating trainer with his thumb questioning the group. Shocked nods from the whole group before returning their attention to you. You let go of your hold on Atsumu’s jersey with a huff.

“You guys keep mentioning a party but I haven’t gotten a proper invite. Who are you welcoming if I’m not there?” you chuckle looking at the boys. 

The large player steps forward with a hand outstretched “Bokuto Koutaro, feel free to call me Koutaro! I should be surprised that you didn’t receive your invite, but considering we left that to Inu-san, it all makes sense.” The libero raises his hands in the defensive “I mixed up the order of names in the email. I forgot the first name last name thing.” Bokuto shakes his head with a chuckle “We’ll be heading out together after practice, feel free to join us. Can’t have the guest of honor not join.” “It’s time to get back to practice, boys. You can interrogate the doc later” Hinata Shoyo pipes up. He’s got a playful smirk as he rallies the boys away from you. “Take the time you need to collect yourself doctor” he sing songs while walking away. You can begin to feel the prickles of heat at the tips of your ears after the boys leave. Iwaizumi’s head pat had left you stunned, the warmth of the gesture gave you butterflies. You were not sure what to make of any of it, but wanted to make sure you didn’t give anything away on your face. You thought you got away with it, but Shoyo always notices everything. I’ll deal with him later.

It’s not often that you get flustered, let alone from someone you just met. But Iwaizumi-san’s playfulness caught you off guard. From most of the reports from Coach Foster, the trainer was described as reliable, diligent, and stern. But the man in front of you was charming, attentive, respectful, and expressive. And extremely easy on the eyes. 

Despite being surrounded by all the players, you often found your eyes peering over at your colleague. Half the fun of watching the rest of practice was watching Iwaizumi-san in action. You observed as Iwaizumi walked around the sidelines of the court observing each practice group. Helping correct posture mid play to ensure safety. Check in on stretching sessions, to help players with new stretches that would better help pains they were dealing with. Eyes drinking in the sight of the trainer showing new stretches, bending down as each muscle in his legs flex. His shorts riding up slightly from the stretch of his thick thighs having you gulping a ghost of a frog stuck in your throat. Thoughts of your hands running across the expanse of his back before wrapping around his shoulders. Pausing your court observation to physically wave away inappropriate thoughts. Crushes aren’t a new concept but this was something you hadn’t felt since you were in middle school being hit with puberty’s wrath. 

It’s not that he wasn’t all the characteristics Coach had shared, he was all that and more. Often stopping by your spot on the sidelines to point out other players and their common concerns and where additional consulting later would be beneficial. Each time, Iwaizumi-san would make some type of contact with you, that would send you into a mental frenzy. Hand on the edge of your seat, fingers barely grazing your knee as he peered over your notebook. His shoulder bumping against yours as he pointed out certain players to you. Hands grabbing both your shoulders to turn you to bring your attention to a play happening across the court, grateful for your long sleeve shirt covering the goosebumps on your arms. Stand up girl, you are a grown woman!! You’re granted a respite from the internal chaos when Coach sends Iwaizumi to the captain to talk about player rotations.

Albeit your teenage heart palpitations, the rest of practice went smoothly. Iwaizumi-san and you had fallen into an effortless rhythm. After observing group dynamics and game play, you had taken notes on a few of the players. On your way over to the trainer to get his thoughts on some workout routine adjustments, your attention is brought to the court.

The team had been caught up in serve practices which was beginning to frustrate some of the players. Coach Foster had always advocated for every player running really difficult plays or shots, repetitively. Not only to build up a repertoire of skills, but he believed that the difficulty and frustration brings out a truth in how a player handles a challenge. Today he was keen on having everyone run hybrid serves, not knowing which serve he would call out mid jump. The purpose of the hybrid serve is psyching out the opposing team, and control of the court mid air. It always starts as a jump serve, but he would then call out other styles to see how well the players can control their wrist movements. It’s an exhausting drill, especially because Coach has upped the ante and placed a water bottle along the attack lines and boundary lines of the court. He was now calling out locations for the players to aim to hit. Although there were some successes, the majority of the players were missing the targets with incomplete serves from not knowing which command the Coach would call out.

At the moment of another missed target, a loud cry rang through the court. Everyone peered over to see that the usually calm Sakusa-san was bent over muttering to himself before turning to shout. “It’s not enough time! You’re not maintaining any pattern in the serve switches and the locations. No one can serve these ridiculous plays.” He was huffing with clenched fists, wild eyes scanning the Coach’s face for any reaction. Sakusa-san had been playing calmly the entire day, but you had noticed he often went to the side for individual practice. He’d often repeat the same plays for a long time before being called for a group practice. “You’re analyzing the serve too much Sakusa-san. Listen for the location, your grip will adjust to the serve style that matches the location.” The advice had slipped out of your mouth while taking notes. You hadn’t meant to say anything and look up to the group staring at you. Coach had a small smile on his face and a glint in his eyes. Realization dawning on you on the reason he was relentless with this specific drill for the team. But before either of you could express anything Sakusa-san interrupted with a short laugh. “And what would you know about this? This isn’t a matter of an injury messing with my psyche or some childhood trauma rearing its head. This is a matter of game play. I don’t need advice from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about” he sneered. You could see a flash of regret on his face after the outburst. He was at a peak of burnout from the intense practice, but Coach Foster steps in between you both. He tosses you a ball and points to the service line. “On my whistle” he demands. Years later and you still know better than to question him when that tone comes out. With a sigh you hand your notes to Iwaizumi-san who’s failing at controlling his face, a mix of concern and confusion. “It’s been a long time you old fart…if I embarrass myself…” he hears you grumble to yourself as you get in position. Iwaizumi carefully watches as the boys on the court make way and you stand a few feet behind the serve line. Gathering your hair up in a ponytail, you stretch your arms before picking back up the ball. Your entire demeanor has changed from the contemplative and playful person he’s been watching throughout the day. He doesn’t know why, but he hasn’t been able to take his eyes off you since you walked into the office. Everything about you intrigues him, makes him want to know every detail about the person before him who’s full of surprises. Every time he thinks he understands, you shock him. 

Just like now, as he watches you crouch and nod to Coach. Launching the ball high, taking two long strides before jumping on the third step. And jump you did, pulling all the air around you, right out of his lungs, bringing the court to a still as you went up. Coach’s command for a float serve follows before the whistle shrill has fully faded. Then comes the location, left corner of the attack line. Your grip adjusts on instinct, waiting for the height to fall a bit before making contact with your palm evenly. Your eyes don’t leave the targeted water bottle as you drop down. The ball makes clean contact to topple the bottle with a reverberating smack. You land on your feet harshly, forgetting about the worn out shoes you were wearing. Losing your balance from the lack of traction, you feel yourself slip, but you feel broad hands slide under your arms catching you from the back. Back thumping into someone’s chest, you tilt your head back to see Iwaizumi-san flashing you the largest grin, lit up from the back by the overhead lights causing a light halo around him. Pretty. You can hear your heart beating in your ears from the sudden physical activity, but it picks up speed. A blush spreads across your cheeks as you slip a little and lean back into his chest for support. “Easy there tiger, I got you” he says, easily straightening you up. The casual petname sending you into an embarrassing spiral. Immediately turning your face out of his vision, you’re trying to regain composure. He’s checking to make sure you aren’t injured as you remember now’s not the time to be simping for your hot colleague. But it’s time to be pissed at a pompous old man who’s always got you marching to his tune. You scan the court finding the target for your death stare chucking on the sidelines. “A float serve you demonic maniac?! And if Iwaizumi-san here hadn’t been my knight in shining armor to catch me, and I busted my ass in front of everyone? Then what?” You’re shaking your fist at Coach, who’s chuckle has grown to a full laugh as he walks over. Despite his laughs, he makes sure to check your ok, chastising your shoe choice before turning to the shocked group of players. “Let me reintroduce her, Dr. Y/N L/N, former setter and a 2x Women’s World Championships winner. Now the Physical Therapist for the MSBY Black Jackals. My former player.” He proudly announced to Sakusa who’s gone pale. Arms crossed waiting for the shock to subside. Kissing your teeth you politely step in front of Coach to end the embarrassment, keeping at bay a swell of warmth over the pride he has in you. “Please don’t brag about me to literal Olympians and Pro players. I’m retired, rusty, not on their level and not here to teach them a lesson. But Sakusa-san, my advice was purely in reference to your exhaustion. You were overthinking. I apologize for overstepping.” You shoot him a reassuring smile and reach out with your fist as an extension of friendship. He bows and reaches out to fist bump sheepishly. “But next time you want to cut me to the core, pick something more truthful and scathing. I like a challenge.” You tease with a wink drawing a small groan from the player as he covers his face with his free hand. 

The court erupts with a thousand questions and comments all at once. A swarm of giant bodies covering you before you can step out of the danger zone. A bronzed hand wraps around your wrist, pulling you out and into a familiar chest, thumping into Iwaizumi-san with a small huff. His other hand finds your waist to balance you; eyes look up into his olive ones that flash with an expression you can’t read. Clearing your throat, you glance at both his hands holding you, before he releases you with a quick apology. Hands up in defense, but his lips curling up into a smirk as the flush on your face grows. The lingering heat from his hand on your waist has every nerve ending in your brain going off. You mutter a thank you, shy now that the object of your disturbance was back to being front and center. No longer able to stop yourself from looking at him from top to bottom. Tall, dark, and handsome to a tee. Everything about him was broad and strong. Brain short circuiting just thinking of those same hands and body fully wrapped around yours, had you not had a modicum of dignity. Dignity be damned right now, may as well shoot my shot later. Brought out of your thoughts with a small cough from the trainer. “We can look at each other all we want tonight, but it’d be nice to talk properly and learn more about you. Especially so you can share any other secrets you’re holding on to Dr. Extraordinaire” he ruffles your hair lightly with a soft smile. Whatever witty retort on its way out your lips, caught in your throat, when he leans down to whisper in your ear “Can’t say I haven’t been enjoying checking you out the whole day too”. He relishes in the deep flush across your face and the tingle on his lips from grazing your ear. But when he sees your eyebrows furrow he panics a bit. Did he cross a line while caught up in the new feeling of butterflies in his stomach? Maybe he had read the situation completely wrong and you hadn’t been checking him out. Trying to gauge from your expression if he’s about to deal with a gnarly HR complaint, he sees your bottom lip stick out in a pout.

“You’re telling me I’ve been working hard taking notes all throughout practice to share with you when I could have been checking you out openly?” You swat at his chest before turning away from the man. “Coach definitely put my information in that intro email so not really a secret to spill if it was blasted out. Can’t fault me for no one reading it.” Your shrug met with Iwaizumi gaping at you. Rubbing the back of his neck before mumbling something about skimming the email, unaware how cute the whole moment is to you. Happy to know it’s not just you feeling nervous around the man, you throw caution to the wind. “Besides, I have way more fun secrets to learn than that, Iwa-chan~” you glance over your shoulder, looking up at the man through your lashes. Lips curling up into a coy smile as a light flush blooms across the man’s face from the choice of nickname sung out teasingly. The group of players snapping you both out of your bubble with the announcement of the end of practice and hitting the showers to get ready for the welcome party. You start to walk back to the office to grab your things when his voice calls out to you. “Hajime” You turn around to look at him. “Call me Hajime.” 

He catches up with you and gently places a hand on the small of your back to guide you to the shared office. “We can walk together, don’t want to waste another minute not learning.” He glances down with a smile hearing you giggle, a sound he pockets in a corner of his brain to hold on to forever. 

But definitely one he plans to hear throughout the night if he can help it.

[companion-showdown]

Most Tragic Departure Contestant list

most tragic departure is sailing ahead, so might as well start working on the list now

note, a companion's departure is considered to be when they stop travelling (or working at UNIT) with the Doctor long term, not the last time we see them, so, for example, Rose's departure is Doomsday, not Journey's End or the End of Time, Jack's the Parting of the Ways, Martha's The Last of the Time Lords, etc

Susan Foreman (maybe she wanted to leave, but the doctor did lock her out, so we'll never know)

Katarina (dead)

Sara Kingdom (dead)

Dodo (sent to the country to recuperate from hypnotism, never seen again)

Jamie McCrimmon (memory wipe)

Zoe Heriot (memory wipe)

Mike Yates (betrayed everyone)

Sarah-Jane Smith (forced to leave because the Doctor got called back to Gallifrey, also she got left in Aberdeen, not Croydon)

Adric (dead)

Peri (???)

Ace (Ground Zero: dies in Nitro-9 explosion, Love and War: The Doctor kills her fiance)

Jack (abandonned)

Rose (stuck on parallel earth)

Astrid Peth (dead)

Donna (memory wipe)

Amy (Dead)

Rory (Dead)

River? (I guess Forest of the Dead counts as her departure, and she basically died, so...)

Clara(limbo between life and death, doctor doesn't remember her)

Nardole (would die shortly after)

Bill (cyberconverted)

Missy (came round to the doctor's way of thinking, got shot by past incarnation before she could go back and help)

Lucie Miller (dead)

Oliver Harper (dead)

C'rizz (dead)

Bret Vyon (dead)

Gillian and John (left behind)

Chris Cwej (left behind on gallifrey, memory wiped)

Roz Forrester (dead)

Fitz Kreiner (left behind)

Samson and Gemma (mind controlled and memory wiped by daleks)

Charley Pollard (going to need more context for this one)

[getreadytosmash]

🍌  :    is my muse inclined to help others,  or will they only do it when it benefits them,  if at all?  what makes them this way?  has it ever gotten them into trouble,  or inconvenienced them? For Samson and Leader

@awkward-snake-girl

While Samson isn't a good person, he does try to be. I know it really doesn't come off that way in the stuff we've written but he does try his best to be a good person, but how well his efforts are received or how Samson presents his help can be recieved in various ways. Often he might do things that her perceives as best for someone else without consulting them or makes assumptions that what he will do will help them.

Samson genuinely wants to help people and often fails to consider the fact that some people might not want his help or simply need a diffrent type of help that he, a white cisgender man who grew up with a good deal of privilege, would understand.

As for Samuel, he is for the most part selfish. This is something born out of the fact that no one really helped him in the past and he widely believes in self gratification. A lot of the time when he was a villain, Samuel would often do favours with the expectation of being repaid or given something in return, but after he becomes a person who commits slightly less terrible crimes, Samuel does often do things for others without expecting anything back and giving gifts is his love language without having to openly confront any feelings.

However, Samuel has a similar issue where often he will just...disregard boundaries if he deems it good enough. I've had threads where he's killed people for my partner's muse (WITH OOC consent of course!) Or done something else horrific purely for that other person's benefit. A good example of this is that Samuel WOULD kill Lana and choose to never tell Mattie about it or if a situation was dire enough, Samuel would choose to mutate Mattie and take the risk of her dying on an experiment than simply never trying at all. Its almost like abandonment issues give you weird boundaries. Hm.

[yanderedollhouse]

Part 2

Sunset 

Demon!Yandere OC x Suicidal!Reader Summary: Following your attempt to escape, you make an unexpected friend.   Warnings: Yandere, Suicide mentions (ideation, failed attempt, urges), Obsessive behavior, needles, religious concepts (angels, demons, heaven, hell), delusions, fantasy horror/ gore, harm and recovery, hospitals, psychiatric ward, manipulation, medical malpractice, murder, harassment, medication malcompliance, noncon, kidnapping Resources: Connect with a trained crisis counselor. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Line is confidential, free, and available 24/7/365. Word Count: 1.5k

“Now two kinds of light

From fires and fixtures

They fill the sky

It was never so bright when I was young

I was too young to die” -G. Kahane

It was much too good to be true, you would have thought to yourself. But instead, the only thing that could be found on your mind was ‘no no no bite bite’ as you were pulled away from the door. It shut with a clang. One strong hand grabbed your wrist too hard, and another clamped down over your mouth, pinning your back against your attacker. 

“Shh, calm down.” The voice behind you says. Easy for them to say. 

You’re dragged to the corner of the room and under the stairs kicking and trying to bite their hand off. You go still. A pit forming in your stomach as you hear heavy boots descending the stairs above you. Two security guards burst out your escape door, probably looking for you. Their radios are blaring with activity, and they are breathing heavily. 

After a minute, they come back through the door. You try to get their attention by wiggling around and it works. They’re staring right at you. At least you think they are. 

“We can’t find her.” The taller man says first, almost apologetically. The other one seems to squint at you, then checks his glasses. 

‘Her? But I’m right here.’ You think. 

Your blood runs cold when you hear the voice behind you speak.  

“It’s alright Samson, Graves.” The doctor from earlier tells them. “I’ll look around some more, but you guys should head back to your post.” 

“Yes sir.”

“Thanks, man.” And they both leave. 

The confusion kept you still for the most part, but now that you’re ‘alone’. You see your opportunity and bite down hard on the hand that covers your mouth. Coppery blood fills your mouth and then you’re released. He pushes you away from him and you see your opportunity to run out the door. 

A wave of fresh air and sunshine hits you first, then, as your eyes adjust to the brightness, your heart sinks down into your stomach. You’re in the middle of a courtyard. A fenced courtyard. The fence runs non-stop around the grassy area without a gate or any break and looms over you to be around 20 feet tall. 

“I thought you’d head this way.” A voice breaks your concentration, and you whip around, ready to bite and claw your way out of this, but he holds his hands up in surrender. One is clean, one is bloody. “I’m not going to fight you,” He starts, “And I’m sorry I grabbed you. I was worried about security finding you first.” 

Your eyes narrow in suspicion. “They did find me though.” You remember. “They looked right at me! Did you pay them off or blackmail them or something?” You can’t imagine when he could have done that though. 

“Come sit with me.” 

“I’m not going back to that room.”

He considers this. “That’s fine.” He takes a bag off his shoulder and sits in the grass. “Just sit here with me.” He says, patting a spot next to him. 

As much as you want to fight him, you need answers. And you really want to sit down. When was the last time you just sat in the grass? You can’t remember doing it in your entire adult life. You walk over from the fence line as he smiles at you, patting the spot next to him. But instead, you plop yourself down in the grass about 6 feet away. Can’t be too careful. If your choice affects him, he doesn’t show it. 

He takes his eyes off you for the first time to dig through the bag and you brace yourself. What does he have? A taser? A syringe? That’s what doctors carry around, right? 

Before you can get up to run, he pulls a small, brightly colored bottle out of the bag and tosses it to you. You catch it and turn it over in your hands. Orange juice. You check the seal, then open it. He pulls out another bottle for him. 

“You are still hungry right?” He asks genuinely. You nod and he pulls two packaged blueberry muffins out of the bag, offering them to you. You hesitate, but the pain in your stomach is too much and you scoot closer to accept them. 

“When you’re done, you can have a prn. I got the doctor to write you a prescription for that painkiller I mentioned.” 

You eye him suspiciously before you decide to ask through mouthfuls of muffin. “Are you not the doctor?” 

“Goodness no,” He chuckles a bit at the idea. “I’m a nurse. I don’t even work here most of the time. I travel to a handful of different hospitals when they’re understaffed to help out. Even if I had the smarts for med school, I wouldn’t do it. Doctors these days don’t get enough time with patients.”

This is maybe too much time with a patient, you think, but decide to keep that to yourself. 

“Why did the security guards act like they didn’t see me?” You blurt out instead.

He considers for a moment, when his eyes return to you, they hold an unrecognizable emotion. 

“It wasn’t an act.” He starts. “They really didn’t see you.” 

A thousand more questions form in your head, but he holds up his hand before you can ask any of them. It's got a smear of blood across the palm but seems otherwise unmarked. That’s the one you bit; you realize. 

“You see, I have my ways of helping people. I can heal some like how I healed my hand. I can control the human mind and body in many ways. You know how your vision can get worse when you expend cardiovascular effort for too long? I just convinced them that they didn’t see you because of that.” He smiles to himself. “Maybe Samson will take it as a sign to lay off the muffins here and there. He could afford it.” 

“So, you’re like a super-nurse?” You ask stupidly. What else are you supposed to say? 

“Something like that.” He says. 

“Why don’t you just fix everything for everyone then? Is keeping people sick some kind of job security?” 

“It’s not that simple. I can only affect people at the personal level. I can’t do a mass curing of everything unfortunately. It takes from me too.” He looks up at you, abandoning his grass-pulling project with the light highlighting his hair. “Y/n,” he hesitates.

“Yes?” You realize you don’t know his name. He moves a bit closer and takes your hand in his. 

“What is it that you desire the most? Would you allow me to give it to you? Would you help me help you live more painlessly than you’ve ever imagined? I know things have not been easy for you. I can fix that. Would you let me?” 

“Oh thanks, um” You wait a second and let him fill in the blanks. 

“Andreas” 

“Right. Thank you for the offer,” you take back your hand, “But the only thing I want is to die. You’re free to help me with that but I’m not sure that’s your kind of thing.” 

He looks surprised. Has nobody turned him down before? You swear you see the whites of his eyes darken. Then, he’s laughing softly. 

“You’re full of surprises.” He giggles. “And you’re right. I won’t help kill you. But maybe I can convince you another time, it’s getting dark.” He stands up, stretches a bit, and holds his clean hand out to you. 

After a moment, you realize you aren’t getting out of here without his help and take his hand. As he walks you back to your room, you learn a few more things in your conversation. His full name is Andreas Abate, he’s 28 years old, and he’s from Chicago originally but lives all over. Apparently, being a traveling nurse is a pretty good gig and he can afford to have a place to live near each hospital he works at. 

‘It must be a nice life,’ you think as he brings you back to your room, inviting you to shower and change into some spare scrubs while he washes your clothes overnight. It must be nice to have everything–looks, power, money. Maybe if you had an ounce of power in your own life, things wouldn’t have gotten so bad.

You ‘drift’ off to sleep.

As if it could be considered drifting. Actually, drifting sounds too peaceful. You’re more or less hit with a semi-truck of exhaustion as soon as your painkiller starts working. 

And for the first time you remember, you fall asleep feeling warm, comfortable, and safe from him.

[jeanniebug623]

🕸️🕷️ Weaving the Web 🕷️🕸️

Chapter 7: Familiar Territory

”Why are we out here?” Spider asked, hiding how much he was jumping for joy internally to have the warm sun on his skin and soft Pandoran soil under his feet.  No hospital room with its beeping monitors, no scratchy human clothes or bedding, no needle pricks or brain scans…just the sky above and ground below.

”Just takin’ a quick field trip, kid.” Quaritch said as he leaned against a tree with his arms crossed, watching the boy walk around not far from where the Samson had landed.  “Security for some of the agricultural science guys looking for samples of some mantis plant.  Orchid or something.”

“Fwäkìwll. ” Spider said fluently in the native tongue as he placed his hand against a tree and slowly slid its hand up his bark.  He glanced back at Quaritch with a cheeky grin, “You want to say it back?”

”I wouldn’t consider that a necessary part of the language lessons.” Quaritch replied with a partial smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.  He didn’t even mind when the kid rolled his eyes and shook his head in disappointment that the colonel didn’t want to learn about the plant.  There was an unfamiliar warmth in his chest watching Spider in his element; an even more unfamiliar feeling of guilt knowing he was the reason this boy was out of it in the first place.

Spider’s doctors, and Ja agreed, he could be discharged from the hospital wing under 24 hour supervision.  That came with its own obstacles…

~~~

”I’m going to be blunt, Quaritch, are you out of your goddamn mind?” Ardmore asked him as soon as the paperwork landed on her desk for approval for a prisoner transfer into temporary probationary guardianship.  Despite her choice of words, her tone remained collected.

Spider would go from prisoner of war to ward of the state, in a manner of speaking.  RDA administrators loved the PR image of a poor human boy orphaned by the war 15 years ago being taken into custody of an on-world hero for humanity.  If Ardmore was going to play the political game to HIDE Spider, Quaritch would use it to bring the boy into the light.  Quaritch couldn’t consider himself a sympathetic person but he knew all too well how it could be used to sway others.

”Not at all, ma’am.” Quaritch said coolly.  Submitting his request for custody of Spider was met with a lot of confusion by the RDA stuffed shirts.  Understandably so.  Why would the recombinant of Colonel Miles Quaritch want to take custody of feral sixteen-year-old boy when he also was dead set on his mission to find and eliminate Jake Sully.  When his sentimentality for the boy as his genetic predecessor’s son was brought up, the colonel let the doctors give their argument that the brain damage caused by the neuroscanner was better studied with a willing patient.

Ardmore was staring Quaritch down, despite being almost half his height.  The general could easily pull rank and deny the custody transfer.  It’s hard to say what Spider’s “official title” as a citizen would be but he would be out of the military’s jurisdiction, unless he were to act up and get himself arrested again.  That was certainly a possibility given how unpredictable the alter ego was.  For all she knew, the boy could be back in her custody in a matter of days.

”Receiving custody of this boy does not take the place of your current responsibilities, colonel.” Ardmore said sternly, hiding the disdain for being outplayed in this little power game of theirs when it came to the child.

”Of course not, ma’am, Jake Sully is my primary focus.” Quaritch said with a salute and mental grin, “Some kid ain’t gonna change that, general.”

~~~

”Hey!” Spider said, quickly jogging around the tree and out of sight.

This brought Quaritch back to the present and he craned his neck to see what had caught the kid’s attention.  Eventually,  he pushed off the tree with his shoulder and walked over to see the kid removing large purple-skinned fruit from a large blue-green plant.  Spartan fruit.  Quaritch knew that one.  He’d seen rows of it growing in the Na’vi block back at Hell’s Gate during his first tour.  Well, his HUMAN tour.

Spider dug his fingers into the thick skin near where the stem was and peeled back to reveal the bluish-purple meat of the fruit inside.  He smiled approvingly at his choice, happy that this one was especially juicy and more blue than less ripe fruit.  He immediately started painting over the extremely faint stripes on his arms.  With no access to his usual dye and regular bathing in the hospital, even HE was struggling to remember the pattern Kiri had lovingly helped him paint.

”If you don’t mind me askin’, Spider, why do you do that?” Quaritch asked with a nod.

”Cause I want to.” Spider said, shooting the race a challenging look.

”Alright then.” Quaritch said simply.  He saw the gears turning in the boy’s head as it wasn’t met with any ridicule.  The colonel couldn’t say he understood it but the kid was raised by Na’vi sympathizers.  If he wanted to paint himself blue and knot his hair in dreadlocks, so be it.  Wasn’t his kid anyways…

”I…do it because…” Spider started, unsure if Quaritch cared but continued when the recom continued to watch him and listen.  Even his pointed blue ears were perked up, showing his interest in whatever Spider had to say. “It makes me feel like I belong somewhere.  With my friends and the Omatikaya.”

”Yea, I guess your upbringing was a little messed up…” Quaritch observed, much to the boy’s scoff in response.

”At least the parts with the sky people…” Spider grumbled back and continued to repaint his stripes.

Well then…

Quaritch sighed and crossed his arms again, watching Spider meticulously paint a certain pattern.  How long did the kid spend doing this?  They only had an hour while the lab coats gathered their samples.

”How about I help you get those hard to reach spots, tiger?” Quaritch asked as he walked over, putting his hand on Spider’s shoulder to turn him and look at his back.

”No, it’s ok.” Spider said quickly, turning to face the recom, “I’ll just do what I can see today…it’s fine.”

Quaritch narrowed his eyes, appraising the boy’s behavior.  Don’t fucking touch me!  Miles’ angry words echoed in his head as if the boy had just screamed them.  He held up his hands in a placating way.

“Just offerin’, kid, I’m not going to hurt you.” Quaritch said, crouching down and his ears going back, “You know that, right…?”

Spider’s eyes shifted to the side and he chewed the inside of his cheek.  He didn’t actually know how to answer that one.  A few days prior, Quaritch came to his hospital room and explained the whole “custody thing”.  Spider wouldn’t be a prisoner of the RDA but he wasn’t going free either.  He was only allowed to go to the med bay, cafeteria, gym, and recom barracks.  And he wasn’t allowed to go ANYWHERE alone.

Though…there was one place he could be left alone.  The small bedroom in Quaritch’s apartment.  Guess even being a recom now, rank still had its privileges.  It wasn’t much but he had his own room with a much more comfortable bed than in the hospital.  Not to mention everything in the apartment was built for a recom so even a small bedroom was bigger than he was used to.  He hadn’t explored the rest of it but there was another bedroom for Quaritch, en-suite bathroom between them, a living room, and kitchenette.  Spider was pretty sure it only had a coffee maker…

”It’s fine, please.” Spider said, stepping back when Quaritch tried to help again, “It’s ok.  This is enough.”

“Alright, I hear ya.” Quaritch said, standing up to back away.  The last thing he wanted was to trigger an episode with Miles.  “Just know I got your back…when you need it.”

Spider chewed on his inner cheek again, tasting salt after a second.  He didn’t know what to say to that so he went back to finishing the stripes he could see in awkward silence with Quaritch watching over him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Don’t you look all spiffy with a new coat of paint!” Zdinarsk commented when Quaritch and Spider joined them at their table in the mess hall for dinner.

Spider just smirked and glanced down at his front, fresh blue stripes making him feel more like himself than he had in weeks.  Most of the squad acknowledged their return but didn’t engage in conversation.  In fact, it seemed like whatever they had been talking about died as soon as he sat down.  It kind of made Spider feel awkward…like he was intruding.  Which meant they didn’t want him to know what they were talking about…which was likely him.  Or maybe he was just paranoid…the recoms barely paid him any mind before.

”Take it the mission was successful, boss?” Wainfleet asked, shooting the kid a friendly smile with a wink

”Uneventful is more like it but better than the alternative.” Quaritch said, looking down at Spider not touching his food, “Eat up, kid, I swear it’s better than the grub in the hospital.”

”Or prison?” Spider asked under his breath as he picked up his fork and started moving the strips of grilled chicken and steamed vegetables around for the first bite.

Quaritch frowned as his ears went back and tail flipped in annoyance.  But he didn’t respond, glad to see the kid take a bite of chicken.  He looked up to Wainfleet and asked, “I reckon y’all were successful in your respective duties today.”  The collective murmur of ‘yes, sir’ and ‘affirmative’ sounded out from the table in unison, catching the boy’s attention.

”What did you guys do?” Spider asked suspiciously.

”Security detail, kiddo.” Wainfleet answered, “Escorted a group from the old Hell’s Gate site in.

Spider shifted uncomfortably in his seat and chose to stab his next bite of food more aggressively than necessary, “You don’t say…I didn’t know people were still there…”

“Not usually.” Wainfleet answered, recognizing the look from his commanding officer to be careful with the subject given Spider’d spent most of his life there. “But sometimes it’s used as a satellite research lab by some of the…uh, former residents .”

“Yea…the people who betrayed the Na’vi…” Spider said, choosing his own words carefully.  He opted to say the betrayal was against the Na’vi, not specifically Jake.

”Yea…something like that.” Wainfleet said, moving the conversation along, “We escorted them back here, that’s all.  Easy peasy.”

Spider glanced up with just his eyes.  The cafeteria was at its busiest at dinner since much of Bridgehead City settled down at night, aside from the sec-ops unit.  The security team never slept.  He looked down, letting out a slow sigh.  Would anyone he know be there…?

”If all goes well, the next mission will have us back out tracking possible leads on Sully.” Quaritch announced the team.  This gathered a bigger response from the team, cheers and agreeing it was about time they got their boots on the ground.

It made Spider’s stomach twist up for a lot of reasons.  He obviously didn’t want the Sullys or High Camp to be found.  Hell, he didn’t want ANY Na’vi to be found by the Sky People!  But he was also afraid that, if by some miracle of Eywa they did reunite, he would absolutely lose control.  If his alter ego - Miles -  was as aggressive as Quaritch and the doctors said, how would he respond to someone he knew?

“…excuse me.” Spider said quietly when he looked again and stood up from the table.

“You good, Spider?” Quaritch asked as the kid walked behind him to get around the table.  Wainfleet also watched intently; Ja’s eyes darted in the boy’s direction as he continued to talk to Prager.

”Yes, sir…” came a low, monotone response.

“Shit, grab him.” Quaritch said quickly and quietly, a sudden alertness to danger spreading through his body like a shot of adrenaline to the heart.  He was barely up from his table as Wainfleet scrambled to turn and grab the kid but he was well out of arm’s reach.

A brown-haired man with a horseshoe mustache, blue jumpsuit unzipped down to the waist with the sleeves tied like a belt, and a lab coat with rolled up sleeves over an undershirt statin with sweat was the acquired target for Miles.  The boy had a fistful of the man’s hand before anyone else at the table recognized him and slammed the man’s face down into the table with so much force everything on the table rattled or fell over.

”MILES!” Quaritch roared as he tried to reach the kid before any other damage was done.

After effectively shattering the man’s nose with a loud cracking sound and explosion of blood, Spider tore the man back off the seat to the floor and was on top of him before the recoms could stop him getting in a few more bone-crunching punches.  The evil, satisfied grin on Spider’s face was the worst part as he fisted the man’s shirt and repeatedly punched the man in the face with increasing ferocity.  Screams of shocked pain accompanied the squelching of blood and knocking out of teeth from Spider’s victim.

The kid managed to get in three solid hits in quick succession before Quaritch had his strong arms around Spider’s middle and tearing him back off the man.  Spider kicked and flailed and laughed.  Quaritch spun him away from the man into Wainfleet’s waiting arms to try and get him under control.  Security on their dinner break were jumping in to corral the audience and attend to the wounded man.

”Miles, what the fuck are you thinking?!” Quaritch asked, holding Spider’s wrists tightly so he couldn’t try punching him.  Wainfleet was holding him from behind after forcing the kid to his knees so he couldn’t kick either.

Spider wasn’t looking back at him.  No, Quaritch knew the look in those brown eyes and the way he tilted his head to the right with evil curling the corners of his mouth into a grin.

”Goddamn it, boy.” Quaritch cursed under his breath as more sec-ops flowed into the room.  He sent a quick glance to the human officers in charge coming his way.  Looking back at Spider, who raised his eyebrow with a look of fake innocence, Quaritch had to make a decision that would satisfy them and Ardmore when this eventually reached her.  At least until he could figure out the trigger.

“Wainfleet.  Ja.  Mansk.” Quaritch barked, “Escort the boy to solitary confinement.”

Spider pouted.  Quaritch honestly wanted to backhand that disrespectful look right off the kid’s face but he knew it wasn’t Spider doing it.  The chuckles that escaped Spider’s throat as Wainfleet and Mansk held his arms twisted behind his back and left the cafe, Ja following and ready to administer the sedative he’d kept in his back pocket ever since Spider had been discharged.

Quaritch scrubbed a hard hand down his face then looked back to the man being taken to the infirmary.  His keen eyes caught the glimmer of a keycard fall from a plastic sleeve that was clipped precariously to the pocket of the jumpsuit.  Picking up the small card in his hand, his eyes roved over the name.

“N. MCCOSKER”

[hooked-on-elvis]

🥳 Happy Birthday to beautiful Jan Shepard! 🎂

Born Josephine Angela Sorbello on March 19, 1928, Jan is turning 96 years young today. ♥

Jan Shepard interviewed by Joe Krein (2007)

Joe: Can you tell me a little about yourself, where you were born and raised? Jan: I was born in a little town called Quakertown, Pennsylvania, in Bucks County. It’s about 40 miles north of Philadelphia. I had a wonderful time there growing up, it was a tiny little town and everybody knew everybody. You got to do everything when you were in high school. I was a cheerleader and a drum majorette. I was in drama. I loved growing up there.

(...)

Joe: Did you want to become an actress? Jan: Ever since I was in second grade I was Miss Cleanliness, in a way. I got up on that stage and something happened. I saw all those people and it made me want to do something nice. So I did two class plays. I did junior high and senior class plays as the leading lady. I did summer stock when I got out of high school. I did that for quite a while and that was great fun. Joe: So did you go to Hollywood and say “I want to be a star”? Jan: I went to New York first and I got a terrible cold. I had gotten a reference from Samson Raferson, who did a lot of plays. He lived in our area. He sent me to Sherill Crawford doing Brigadoon. So I went there and I could barely talk. You think to yourself once they see you that you would be in Broadway by the weekend. You just think that they are waiting for you. But she said go back home and do summer stock. Do as much as you can of that. It was one of those things that you are so eager and you had no clue as of how to become an actor. So I went back home and then I had a chance to visit some relatives in California. So I never went back to New York. Joe: So what studio did you sign up with? Jan: I did some things with 20th Century, but mostly I did television like ABC, CBS and then Paramount. So I was working all the time. The kids that were under contract with Paramount, they had a class picture taken, and I wasn’t in it because I was the only one working. Will never forget that. How I wish I was in that picture. Joe: You must see a lot of turn over, kids coming and then going home. Jan: Yeah. You know there is a lot of wonderful talent walking the street, and honestly it’s a matter of luck. Plus it helps with who you know. What helped me was I moved in with Amanda Blake from Gun Smoke. We shared an apartment and Ross Hunter had an apartment in the same building. I was working a regular job then. We would walk together in the morning to work. There was an agent that also lived in the building. I was out sunning myself one day and he came over and started talking. He said, “Do you need an agent?” I said yes. That’s how it all started. Quite by accident. Joe: You worked in television? Jan: About 500 episodes. I did so much television. I did so many pilots and series. One of my first series was with McDonald Carrie, who was Doctor Christian. I was a regular on that show. I did two soap operas. Day in Court and Clear Horizons. I did so many Westerns. Every show that was in the fifties and sixties, seventies. At least five hundred television shows.

(...)

Joe: Were you an Elvis fan? Jan: No (laughing). Joe: Don’t feel bad, a lot of people have said that to me. Jan: It was so funny because I was sitting with Dan Duriah. I was doing a two hour film. We were sitting on the set. I had the reporter in front of me and it said “ELVIS PRESLEY”. “What kind of a name is that?” He said, “I don’t know.” I said there’s some kid in the south called Elvis Presley. I said he’s never going to make it (laughing). That was the first time that I had ever heard of him. So I didn’t know who he was. I happened to like his voice. I liked his voice but I am not the kind of person who is adoring movie stars. There was maybe one or two that I adored or would like to work with, but I was never like those type of people. But once I met him, I just adored him. Joe: When did you find out that you were going to do an Elvis film? Jan: I was doing a play at Paramount, with Dolores Hart, who is my goddaughter. She is now a nun. Joe: Oh, yes, I know who she is. Jan: She used to be under contract with Hal Wallis. Dolores came up to me after work. She said, “Jan, there is a part in this movie I am going to do with Elvis Presley you would be perfect for. The part would be playing his sister.” I said, “Yeah, right, terrific.” I just let it go at that. But the next thing I know she calls me and says Hal Wallis wants to see you. “I’ve talked to him about you.” So I went up there. He said to me, “I would like you to make a test.” So they gave me the script. When I arrived at the studio, there was four other girls that were testing. I figured I would be the only one. I was in shock, I almost walked out. Peter Baldwin, who was playing the Elvis role, who was a friend of mine, he said, “Stay, stay. These other girls are no way better than you.” I was the last one to be tested. After I just went home and prayed that I would get this role. I got it!

Elvis, Jan and Dolores Hart on set during making of King Creole, 1958.

Joe: And this was for...? King Creole! That was Elvis’s favorite movie. Plus it’s the fans favorite movie. It’s also mine. Jan: Yes, it’s mine, too. But I have only seen two movies of his. I only saw them because I was in them. That’s nothing to do with Elvis. It’s just because I was working all the time. I was doing soap operas. Different scripts every day, learning new lines every day. You just don’t have the time to go out and see movies. I had no social life at all. If you do have five minutes on a weekend, you want to sleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joe: Can you tell me how you met Elvis? Jan: When you’re assigned a film role, you have to go to the doctor, because of the insurance company. They have to make sure you don’t have a bad heart, any of that nonsense. They made my appointment for me at the studio, so I was there and I had on a white shirt and these slacks my mother had made for me that were like wine coloured. I went in the office and I was waiting to be called in. In walks Elvis with two of his buddies. I looked at him and he looked at me and we started to laugh. His jacket was the identical material and colour of my slacks. He looked at me and he said, “Honey, I’m either going to have to give you my jacket or you’re going to have to give me your pants” (laughing). That was my first meeting with Elvis. Joe: Goodness. Jan: Girl scout’s honour. Joe: Did you get along with Elvis? Jan: Oh, wonderful. He said if he had a sister, he wished it would be me. We got along so great because we worked alone the two of us the whole first week of the show. I would come to work and I would find on the set a pair of earrings he put there for me that cost about ten cents that he had liberated from the set. I have a marvelous picture where we are waiting to perform and we were just sitting down at the dining room table. I handed him this jewelry and I said I can’t take these from you, Elvis, you know it’s too much. You’re the last of the big spenders. He is there laughing so hard and they snapped this picture of the two of us. It’s a fabulous picture of him. But he would do little things like that. And he would play music on his guitar. He would ask me what I wanted to hear. Elvis loved Danny Boy.

Joe: Did you ever date Elvis? Jan: No, I was married (laughing). Joe: Oh, sorry, I didn’t know that. Jan: No, I was married, honey. But the thing was: Dolores Hart gave me a surprise birthday party. All the kids from Paramount studio were there. It was a big surprise to me. I was there for about ten minutes and in walks Elvis with the boys. He had this huge stuffed tiger under his arm. He knew I loved cats, so he had this stuffed cat and he named it Danny Boy. He gave me this big box. For weeks I had been asking Elvis for pictures that I could give the kids in my neighborhood when they had heard I was doing a picture with him. They all pleaded for photos of him. So I would always ask him for pictures for the kids. “Come on, please, I need pictures.” So he hands me this box and I placed it off to the side. He said, “Oh, no, you need to open that now.” So I opened it and it was a movie camera with a light bar and film. He said, “Now you can take your pictures.” You know if Colonel Parker was there, he would not had allowed that.

Early 1958. Elvis and Jan during surprise birthday party to Jan Shepard.

Joe: Oh, you’re right. Jan: Dolores said the next day she ran into Elvis and she said, “I was so surprised that you came.” He said I had to come, “She’s my sister. I wouldn’t miss her birthday party” (laughing). I ran into him in the studio. He said to me, “I hear Elvis was at your birthday party.” “Yeah, he was”. He said, “You know he never goes anywhere, people go to him, he never goes to other people’s homes.” Joe: That’s very true. Jan: I said I think we bonded a little bit. Joe: Was Elvis a good actor? Jan: Wonderful! Oh, just marvelous! I will never forget. You know every person that sings is a good actor. Because they have the sense of timing, the sense of rhythm, a sense of what words mean. He was a brilliant actor because he didn’t need any advice. He knew automatically what to do and act, as the show was going on. I kept saying to him, “Oh, Elvis, for God sake, you’re doing such a great job.” So one day we went for lunch. We were sitting there at a table and in walks Marlon Brando. Elvis was sitting with his back towards him. There was a table right behind Elvis that was empty, so Brando saw Elvis as soon as he walked in. So Brando got into the chair right behind Elvis. I said to Elvis, “Marlon Brando is sitting behind you.” Elvis said, “Oh, my God” and his head sunk into his sandwich. I said, “Look, he wants to meet you, I saw him looking at you, just say hi to him.” Well, that’s exactly what happened. He got up and bumped his chair. Marlon stood up and the two of them shook hands. They did a little small talking. Elvis was very cool. Elvis then walked out of the café very cool. But the minute we got outside he leaped up. He couldn’t believe he met Marlon Brando. He was so excited, we just danced all the way back to the studio. Then one day after the show had been released, someone sent me the review of King Creole. The title was “Bourbon Street Brando.” I raced over to Paramount and I grabbed Elvis and I said, “Look at this.” I showed him the “Bourbon Street Brando”, he just couldn’t believe it. I said, “See, I told you, you were going to be great in this!” Joe, Elvis was!

Scene of King Creole, 1958. Elvis as Danny Fisher and Jan Shepard as Mimi Fisher, Danny's sister.

Joe: Now you did another movie with Elvis. Jan: Yes, Paradise Hawaiian Style

Note: In Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) Jan Shepard played Betty Kohana, wife of Danny Kohana played by actor James Shigeta who's a friend and eventual business partner of Elvis' character Rick Richards.

Joe: Can you tell me about that movie and how you got the part? Jan: I had gone over to Paramount to have lunch with Dolores Hart. She was getting a wardrobe fitting for some picture. I ran into Paul Mason. He said, “Hi”. He asked what was I doing there. He said, “Hey, we need a wife for Jimmie Sakita for a movie Elvis is doing. Would you be interested?” He said, “It’s not a huge part, but it’s a good part.” I said, “Yeah, ok.” He told me to go up and see Hal Wallis. “I will give him a call and tell him you’re coming.” So I went up there. Well, Hal Wallis’s office is full of art. He has originals of Remington’s and Chares Russell, all those wonderful western painters. I walked in and I said, “Oh, my God, you have a Remington!” I knew art because my husband is an artist. Hal Wallis was very impressed, he asked me if I wanted that role? Yeah, fine, that would be wonderful! That’s how I got the part. Joe: Now what did Elvis say when he saw you? Jan: Well, the minute he saw me he asked how was Dolores because now she has been a nun for the past year. And I said she was good, I’ve seen her, I’ve gone there. And Maria Cooper, Gary’s daughter and I were the godmothers for her when she went into the monastery. And I said, “I’ve been there and she’s doing great and she, you know, I said you know if they let me wear eyelash mascara, I’d go in that place and say it’s beautiful. She’s home. This is where she wants to be and he wanted to see if she was okay and how you were doing. You know, and I noticed he was not the Elvis that was the little teddy bear that would run across the stage and pick up and swing you around. He was not that anymore. Joe: He changed? Jan: He was never in his dressing room and you know King Creole. He is always out with a group and having fun and playing the guitar and, you know, just a lot of fun. And he went to his dressing room and it was closed and I noticed he was drinking a lot of water. He had lot of glasses of water and he was drinking. Also, there was an attitude that was so different. He was kind of jaded and at the movies, he and I knew Charlie Afura who did all his choreography. Charlie was showing him something on stage, some dance moves or something, and he was just looking at Charlie, like “Charlie, I’ve done this four or five times already. I know what you want,” because it was the same movie every time. Joe: Right. Jan: He was always doing the same movie and I know he was tired of it.

(...)

Joe: When was the last time you saw Elvis? Jan: I saw him in Las Vegas. We went to a Casers Palace and I was so disappointed because he was into the karate stuff and he was turning his back to the audience all the time. And I just wanted to just go up there and spank him, you know. Joe: Yeah. Jan: Because he was just not him. You know. I think that when his mom died, that was just a terrible blow and that if she had lived Elvis would still be alive today. Joe: Yeah. When you were working in the movies, did you have the chance to have one on one conversations? Jan: Oh, yeah, all the time. Especially on the Creole, but not as much on Paradise Hawaiian Style. Yeah, like on the weekend it had rained all weekend and on Monday morning when Elvis came into the makeup room and I said, “Well, what did you do this weekend?” “I was on the phone with my mom all day, I didn’t go anywhere.” He told me one time they were on the road and they stopped at a diner, this was in the fifties. This big guy came over to him and picked him up by his shirt. He said, “I don’t like you”. Elvis said, “What’s wrong?” “My wife carries your picture around in her wallet.” Elvis said, “Hey, sir, I’m sorry, but that has nothing to do with me. I’m sorry, she should do that.” He let Elvis down and they took off. He had so much of that we had to fake people out when Elvis left the studio. We would send out a limo, the fans figured Elvis was in it. But Elvis was getting shoved into a taxi in the back of the studio. Elvis would be laying on the floor. Elvis said, “I know they don’t mean to do it, but sometimes they hurt me. They grab at me, pull my hair”. They have scratched his eye while trying to get some of that beautiful black hair. “I’ve been hurt,” Elvis said. “That’s why I don’t go anywhere.” We had a lot of conversations. One time I said to Elvis, “Why don’t you record Danny Boy?” He loved that song because he would sing it to his mom. Elvis said, “They don’t want that. They won’t let me sing something like that.” It was so funny, one day Pat Boone came walking on the set. Elvis spotted him and he started singing April Love, just the way Pat would sing it. Pat just grinned from ear to ear, Pat then came over and they met. But he never had the chance to become apart of the young Hollywood scene, because he was afraid to go out with the other young people who were at the studio. If he went to go to a movie, he had to rent the whole theatre. You know, Elvis never had a dime on him, he would follow me to the apple machine. I said to him, “You want an apple, right?” “Yes, please” (laughing). He never had any money. Joe: I know that to be true all the way up to the seventies. His men would carry his money and his keys. When did you hear that Elvis had passed? Jan: I was sitting with a friend at her business. The phone rang and they asked if I was there. They asked me if I had the radio on or had been watching television. I said no, why? “Elvis died.” I just couldn’t talk. When I was able to talk, I said I was so angry at him. I was so angry I could not even cry. Because he was doing all the wrong things and he knew he was, damn it! I could see that when I went to see him in Vegas. I said to myself, “That’s not my Elvis.” Joe: But you know the man was the greatest entertainer of the 20th century. Jan: There will never be another like him. In the Creole days he was just a big teddy bear. I asked him one time, “Ok, Elvis, when did all this swinging your hips start? Why do you do that?” “I do it for fun, I know just when to break it off.” I used to watch the little negro boys in his town, how they would sit on the curbs and sing. And they would stand up and dance. He said that’s where he got that from. They would sing and move their hips.

(...)

Joe: Well, I would like to thank you for talking to me today. Jan: You’re welcome, Joe.

Phone interview with Jan Shepard, done by Joe Krein, on June 22, 2007. YOU CAN READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ON: ELVIS100PERCENT.COM

Early 1958. Home movie. Birthday party to Jan Shepard. ♡