#then after a while of being friends with Andrew Norman starts getting feelings

[theitalianscribe]

Norman headcannons

In life, Norman was good at doing impressions. This carried over into his cyborg/android design with a program that lets him perfect replicate people's voices.

Building off the above point, Norman wasn't originally the one doing the company tapes. That person asked too many questions and thus were needed... elsewhere. Since he already was discreet and okay with all the shady stuff, Norman was put on voiceover detail.

Norman has/had a bird.

Norman having a bird probably works better in an au, but he has this bird, maybe a parrot, maybe a budgie, and it has a yellow head and its wings and chest are the same color. I picture them as pink or purple, but I'm having trouble finding birds with that coloring. When he meets the bird, Andrew/Morris is chuckling because Norman is wearing a jacket that happens to be the same color as the bird's and they look identical.

Just. Let Norman have a pet bird!

Also I have an AU where everyone is alive and in highschool. In that one, Watchful Eye Toys exists as a research company headed by Norman's parents and he is expected to take it over. (I wanted to ramble about this in the tags but I reached the tag limit so I am adding this back here as an extra bullet point.) He gives off heir to a big company and kind of sheltered vibes.

[thenamessparkplug]

The Bad, The Worse, and The Downright Idiotic

A Wiatt Nicholson Analysis

YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I HAVE WAITED TO VERBALLY KILL THIS DUDE. I HAVE BEEN STRANGLING HIM WITH MY MIND SINCE THE COLLAPSE OF THE BUILDING. AND THIS IS WHY.

DISCLAIMERS!! : One, I have absolutely nothing against any of the writers on this show! You all are doing a fantastic job for how small this series is and I do genuinely adore the work you guys do < 3. Second, I want to make it clear that I do not condone anything Sara has done on her own terms. And she has done bad things on her own terms. She has done horrible things and I do not think that should be brushed under the rug. I do, however, believe her to be redeemable. 

(side note I did get a lil sidetracked when talking about sara, whom I also have strong feelings towards and'll prolly get her own rant in the future)

What has Wiatt done?

Now Wiatt seems to have his heart in the right place, however good intentions hardly amount to much when your actions directly cause death, suffering, and irreversible damage.  

He can’t tell that so much of what’s going on is because Litho knows he’s going to lead people directly into his own plans. This especially became evident in the last episode. Did he not remember the risks of anything relating to Litho?? Why on earth would he think it was safe for Pen, Lisa, or even Hayden whom narrowly survived? 

I know by this point to take everything character’s say with a grain of salt (and I know this isn’t directly Wiatt’s fault either), but I really wanna get into what Hayden said while yelling at Wiatt. He states that since he arrived at dreamworld, someone has gone missing every week. Wiatt has worked here for at least a year. Even considering taking a month off for the collapse fiasco, that is 47 weeks. 47 people. THAT IS INSANE. Even cutting that number in half for hyperbole’s sake that’s still 23 missing people since Wiatt started. Jesus christ man. 

What else has he done? He broke Starlight after recklessly jumping into a hole, got wtdw!rainbott seemingly mindwiped, recorded entirely private and frankly unrelated moments and UPLOADED them, been responsible for the deaths of his coworkers (to name a few anyways), and what does he have to show for it? A police station that thinks he’s insane. He couldn’t possibly have been more tactless trying to convince them to begin an investigation. 

It seems he thinks that because the people he’s against are bad, that automatically makes him good - in the right - but he is so blinded by his sense of a binary wrong and right he fails to see the horrible things he himself has caused. 

Against the Antagonist

I wanna talk about Sara for a second. From what we’ve learned thus far, and I know we haven’t gotten all that many Sara scenes, almost all of what Sara does seems to be attempting to clean up a mess she made many years ago, in comparison to Wiatt who does absolutely nothing but stir the pot.

Sara is stuck here; she is bound to Litho and cannot escape no matter how hard she wants to. She had friends. She’s doing what Litho wants because she has to. We saw what happened when she tried to defy him. Wiatt is only here because of one connection, but could literally leave whenever he wants no harm no foul.

Now the Norman thing I am curious about, because so far, I can’t figure out why 1. she killed him in the first place and certainly 2. why she kept the footage of it. She never seemed to hate Norman, if anything she would be against him for clearly being infatuated with Andrew, and I can’t really blame her for that? I mean nothing is enough to justify murder, but it wouldn’t be in cold blood. I’m also assuming this is before Dreamworld Entertainment due to the fact that Norman seemingly had no involvement. Another odd thing not only was he rebuilt to look exactly like he did when he was alive, but he retained all of his memories as well, and was given a higher power among the staff of Watchful Eye Toys, with memory control himself.

Whatever happened during his death must have been important.

But back to Wiatt. All of Sara actions, albeit terrible, were calculated and she did what she believed was necessary. Wiatt has no concept that his actions have consequences, so all he does is messy things up, making everything far worse than it needed to be.

Why should I care? (Comparison to Eric)

At the very beginning when Eric is first introduced, we are given no reason to care at all about him. I mean, we know he was friends with Lewis but that’s not enough to really grow any attachment to him. We start learning little facts about him, but when it really clicks is during the secret tapes.

Seeing Eric outside of the main plot, his real personality, his hopes, his dreams, his struggles starting from a young age up until how he is today. We’re given the chance to build connections with him and see him as a real person, a character with depth. Knowing his motivations and what built him makes it so easy to grow extremely attached, making any horrific things hit much harder.

Now moving back to Wiatt, we really don’t get to see the real him. We see him once interacting with Lewis, but even that was simply for plot relevance. We really know nothing about him. Even his transition, which would be so easy to capitalize on seeing as the viewership of Dreamworld is highly LGBTQ+, and many people would relate. But we get more about Mike’s transition than Wiatt, and he’s only ever had one real scene as himself.

That’s not even dipping into who Wiatt is as a person. What are his passions? Who are his loved ones outside of just Lewis? What was school like for him? What got him into the mechanic business? Who took care of him after his parents died? I understand this can be hard to smoothly integrate into a story but look how well it worked with Eric’s tapes.

Now this is getting much more into the writing side of the show, but I think something that's kind of lacking is character building filler. As much as having a concise plot is nice, without scenes or even full episodes dedicated to fleshing out our cast, it makes it really difficult to connect.

There’s so so much of his character to explore that we just never get into, and it kinda makes it hard to root for him when there’s nothing backing his character. Just like, a few more tapes of Wiatt would be plenty, something outside of Lewis. I would love to see his relationships with other characters (you cannot build a sense of character off one single relationship), how he views himself, just anything.

Its incredibly difficult to analyze a character when they seemingly have no depth.

In Conclusion

I am not a fan of Wiatt as it currently is (understatement of the year), but good god am I persuadable. I just want Dreamworld to give me a reason to root for him. Something to sympathize with, relate to. Have him improve. Allow him to realize his mistakes, and become a better person for that.

I don’t think he’s a lost cause.

But give me a reason to believe that.

[auxiliarydetective]

Love and War, Chapter 8

Goodbye

i. | ii. | iii. | iv. | v. | vi. | vii. | viii. | ix. | x. | xi. | xii. | xiii.

AO3

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And so, Anita ended up staying with Easy Company. Starting the next day, they would be moving again. It was a welcome change of pace, especially compared to sitting around and freezing. After Bastogne, they were now in the area of Foy, a town fast in the Germans’ hands. As the days went by, Anita found herself getting more and more accepted into Easy. She made new acquaintances like Garcia, Andrews, Miller and Hashey and deepened her relationship with people like Buck Compton, Frank Perconte, Joe Toye and Donald Hoobler. First Sergeant Lipton was kind to her too, as he was kind to anyone. Even Lieutenant Dike sometimes talked to her, though the conversations were always very short and awkward. The poor man, “Foxhole Norman”, who seemed like he was in over his head. Either way, those little conversations with friends and acquaintances made the icy cold weather just a little easier to deal with. If you were complaining about the cold, at least you could do it together. But there were also moments that made cold showers, colder than the snow, run down Anita’s spine. Moments like the death of Donald Hoobler. It had been a single shot in the distance. Just one. Only a while later had she learned what had happened. Hoobler had been shot in the leg by the thing he had gone around bragging with to everyone, by his most prized loot, his luger. It had hit the main artery, leaving him to bleed out in panic and pain. But that was far from the worst. The worst was yet to come.

The day had started with Easy returning to its old position overlooking Foy, just at the edge of the woods. What had greeted them were shattered trees everywhere, a foreboding message of what was to come. That was artillery. Whatever Anita had believed to be artillery fire before had been nothing compared to the shellings here. The images of the trees around her made Anita think of her cheek wound. Splinters from these explosions wouldn’t have simply pierced her cheek, they could take out her entire leg.

Foxholes were being dug, an activity that Anita could almost say she enjoyed, simply because it made her feel the most useful. This time, she was helping Guarnere, gathering branches for his cover.

“Thanks Anita," he said and took back his little axe. “You’re a quick lumberjack.”

“It’s not like a had to chop down a tree, the Germans already did that for me," Anita explained. “I just had to chop off the branches. Do you need any more?”

“No, I think that’s enough.”

Together, they started arranging the branches to cover the foxhole, weaving them together to create a little wall.

“Hey, how’s your face?” Guarnere asked. “Is it healing well?”

“Well, I haven’t had any complaints yet," Anita said. “Probably gonna leave a scar though.”

“Eh, don’t worry about that. Scars don’t make you any less beautiful.”

“You’re always a charmer.”

“Of course. Gotta make sure you don’t regret stayin’. You ever miss bein’ a rigger?”

“Sometimes," Anita confessed. “But I miss Aldbourne for a different reason.”

“Bars? Warmth?”

“Showers. God, I would die for a shower right now. I feel so yucky.”

“Eh, you’re fine," Guarnere told her. “But if you ever wanna shower and you need someone to stand guard, ya let me know, alright?”

“Sure," Anita chuckled.

That was when an explosion went off, closely followed by another and another and another. The Germans had started firing on their position. Yells filled the air, barely audible over the noise. Guarnere pulled Anita into his chest as they cowered in the barely finished foxhole. In the middle of the chaos, Don plopped down next to them, covering his head. The shelling seemed to go on for hours, smoke clouding the skies, snow being whirled around, splinters flying through the air. When it was quiet again, it was almost haunting. Slowly, Guarnere let Anita go and gave her a pat on the back. The three of them, Anita, Don and Guarnere, looked over the foxhole like cautious rabbits.

“Maybe we should see if anybody’s hit," Don suggested, giving a voice to Anita’s thoughts.

“Eh, Malark, that’s what they want," Guarnere said. “The Krauts are trying to draw us out in the open.”

Anita’s ears were still ringing with the sound of the explosions when she heard a voice. It was pained, distorted, sending shivers down her spine.

“I gotta get up… I gotta get up…”

“Does anyone else hear that?” she gasped.

Both Don and Guarnere nodded.

“Is that Joe?” Guarnere asked.

For a few seconds, they all listened in silence.

“Yeah, I think that’s Joe," Don confirmed.

Anita remembered something: She still had one first aid packet left. Doc Roe had given it to her, along with schooling her once again that she should never put herself in danger to help another person. She should leave that up to the medics. But if the opportunity ever called for it, he had said, she could use the packet to save a life. It seemed that time was now. Joe Toye was out there, not too far away, sounding like he was in shock. He needed her help. Quickly, Anita got up but was immediately pulled back down.

“Stay," Guarnere said curtly, then hurried into the snow and the smoke to where the voice had come from.

“Stay in your foxholes!” another voice shouted further away. “Stay in your foxholes!”

Anita looked after him, clenching her gloved hands into fists. She wanted to be the one out there. She needed to know if Toye was okay. Her mind trailed back to the story about Hoobler. Joe Toye was probably in a similar state he was in, scared and in pain. At least Hoobler hadn’t been alone, but Toye was. He was all by himself. Or he would be until Guarnere reached him. Hopefully, it would all be okay.

“You alright?” Don asked, placing a hand on Anita’s arm.

This snapped her out of her thoughts. “Yeah, yeah… I’m just…”

“Worried about Joe?”

“Yeah. I feel bad just sitting here.”

“Bill’s gonna take care of him. He’s gonna be okay.”

Anita nodded quietly. She leaned against Don and closed her eyes, hoping to find a calmer piece of mind. But that attempt was cut short by another explosion. Another shelling. Immediately, Anita’s heart beat faster than machine gun fire. Toye and Guarnere were still out there! She tried to peek over the top of the foxhole, but Don pulled her down. This barrage was torture. It went on for what felt like hours, leaving Anita panicking inside over whether her friends were okay. They had to be okay. They had to have made it to a foxhole. Finally, the noise died down again. Anita looked around, trying to spot movement in the smoke.

“They’re okay, Annie," Don assured her. “They’re-“

“MEDIC!”

That was Buck Compton’s voice, but distorted and shaky. Immediately, Anita hurled herself out of the foxhole. This time, there was no stopping her. The call had come from the direction Joe Toye’s voice had also come from, from the direction Guarnere had run to. She could hardly see, hardly breathe in the smoke, but she kept going. Finally, she broke through the trees. Before her stood Buck Compton, his helmet in the snow next to him, his hands shaking. He was blankly staring at the ground in front of him. What he was looking at made Anita’s heart stop and shatter. On scarlet-colored snow lay her friends, Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye, unconscious. Both of them had been hit in the leg, but it was no ordinary wound. No. Toye had had his leg blown off, a large, bloody flesh wound right where a leg should have been. Guarnere’s leg was completely mingled, like a wild animal had torn it apart. The sight made Anita nauseous, but she could hardly feel it over the pain in her chest, the urge to scream and cry. But she didn’t. She knew she had to do something.

“Buck," she said softly, carefully approaching him. “Buck.”

He looked at her with widened eyes, his breathing shallow.

“You need to sit down, okay? Come on.”

She picked up his helmet from the floor and took him by the arms. It took some effort to turn his frozen body around, but finally he let himself be moved. Slowly, she guided him to a fallen tree nearby and sat him down.

“Drink some water," she suggested. “You’ll feel better. Everything is going to be okay. They’ll make it.”

She didn’t know if she believed what she said, but she told herself she did. Once he was safely settled down, she headed back to where Toye and Guarnere were, taking a deep breath. Who to help first? What could she even do for Guarnere? That was not a wound for first aid, that was- Oh god, it was awful. Quickly, she squatted down next to Toye, took off her gloves and pulled out her first aid packet. Where was that medic? What was taking him so long? Finally, right at that moment, Doc Roe came. Anita made space for him, letting him do his work. That was when Toye’s eyes fluttered open. Immediately, he started to breathe rapidly, pained groans escaping between each gasp for air.

“You’re okay, Joe, you’re okay," Anita told him, taking his hand. “You’re going to be okay.”

“I don’t want this anymore," Toye whimpered.

“You’ll be okay. Hang in there, Joe.” She ran her fingers across his cheek. “Just breathe.”

“Shit," she heard a groan behind her.

She turned around to see that Bill Guarnere had propped himself up. He was now wriggling around, trying to move. It reminded her hauntingly of Toye’s words. I gotta get up. I gotta get up.

“Hey, Bill, don’t move," she gasped.

She left Toye in the hands of Doc Roe and rushed to Bill’s side. Carefully, she wrapped an arm around him, giving him stability. He leaned against her limply, his breathing shallow from the pain.

“Somethin’ tells me I won’t recover from this too easy," he groaned.

“No, this is your ticket home," Anita said softly.

Steps approached in the snow and Don came out from behind the trees. His eyes were widened in shock. Quickly, he scrambled to the floor next to Joe Toye and helped him stay upright.

“What can I do?”

“You got a smoke?” Toye asked through gritted teeth.

Quickly, Don shook off his glove and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.

“Jesus, what’s a guy gotta do to get killed around here?” Toye moaned.

Whatever the cigarette Don gave him would do to help, Anita hoped it had the effect he wanted. Maybe, just maybe, it would distract him. From behind the trees, two men with a stretcher arrived.

“Bill, you’re going first," the medic said.

“Whatever you say, Doc," Bill groaned. “Whatever you say. - Hey, Anita?”

“Yes?” Anita replied, squeezing his shoulders.

“How about you kiss me goodbye?”

A chuckle escaped Anita from somewhere deep down, despite her feeling nothing like laughing. Before the two men came to pick him up, she pressed a kiss on his cheek and ran her fingers through his hair. When he was lifted onto the stretcher, Bill cried out in pain at the sudden movement, sending shivers down Anita’s spine.

That was when Lipton arrived.

“Hey, Lip. They got ol’ Guarnere this time," Bill announced as if apologetically.

Lipton just stared, then looked around as if trying to assess the situation.

“Hey, Joe," Bill said as they carried him off, “I told ya I’d beat ya back to the states.”

That was the last Anita heard from him. She stared at him for a few seconds, then forced herself to look away. Her eyes wandered around as if she had been taken out of a trance. Then, she saw Luz coming towards the group from where Compton still sat, his head in his hands.

“Hey, Lip," Luz said somberly, as if to announce something. But when he saw Joe Toye, whimpering and gasping for air on the ground, his leg missing, he froze.

“How’s Buck?," Lipton asked. But he got no response. “Luz! How’s Buck?”

“He’s fine," Luz replied quietly.

“You sure?”

“Yes, he’s fine. … You should probably go talk to him now, huh?”

“Alright.”

So, Lipton left to go see Compton. Luz stood there for a while, looking like any gust of wind could knock him over. Then, he headed off. Anita watched him leave, nausea twisting her insides. She took one more look at Joe Toye on the ground. He was in good hands, she told herself. Don and Doc Roe would take care of him. Buck Compton had someone to look after him now, too. But there was one person who had nobody. So, Anita followed Luz through the trees. She found him sitting in a foxhole, all by himself.

“Hey," she said softly.

“Hey," he replied, trying to force a smile.

She sat down in the foxhole next to him and looked him in the eyes. They were empty, hollow. Their usually warm and lively brown had turned cold.

“How do you feel?”

“Peachy," he said. “Never been better.”

With shaky hands, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a cigarette pack. His eyes fixated on something in the distance, he popped it open and fished around inside, only to find out that it was empty.

“Shit," he murmured.

Quickly, Anita opened her bag and pulled out her own, still full pack of cigarettes, offering it to him. That got his attention. Finally, he looked her in the eyes.

“I thought you didn’t smoke," he said as he took one of the cigarettes and started searching his pockets for his lighter.

“I don’t. But they gave me a pack when I left for Bastogne, just like everyone else got one," Anita explained. “Figured I might as well keep it. You never know when someone might need a smoke.”

That was when George Luz smiled again, even if just a little. It was the faint hint of a smile, but it was enough. As he fumbled with his lighter, just a little of his usual self was back.

“Here, let me help you," Anita offered.

She took his lighter and lit his cigarette for him. The smoke that now started to fill the air made her feel at home. In a way, she had started associating it with Easy Company. Those nights in the pub at Aldbourne. It reminded her of Don, Luz… but also of Bill. Her body tensed up at the memory, making her want to puke out her intestines.

“Hey, where’d you leave your gloves?” Luz asked, taking one of her hands and puffing a cloud of warm smoke onto it.

Now it was Anita whose hands were shaking. One was occupied by Luz, the other she used to cover her mouth to muffle a sob. She had left her gloves with Joe Toye.

“Come here," Luz said softly and pulled her into his arms.

She let him, unable to resist anything and yearning for human touch as some sort of remedy to her pain. Her whole body shaking with her sobs, she clung on to him like a lifeline.

“It’s okay," Luz told her, rubbing his hands across her back. “Let it out. It’s gonna be okay.”

They stayed like this for a while. Over and over, he told her that it would be okay, comforted her, made her feel safe, understood. Slowly but surely, Anita’s breathing calmed, her sobs faded away, her thoughts stopped spinning. Finally, she took a deep breath and pulled herself out of Luz’s comforting arms.

“I’m sorry," she mumbled.

“Don’t be," he replied.

“You keep having to deal with my emotions. That’s gotta be tough.”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for.”

“You’re a good friend.”

“You too. Anyone who offers me smokes is a good friend.”

“I take it back, you’re awful.”

“There’s the Anita I know.”

“You want another smoke for later?”

“Always.”

So, Anita once again pulled out her cigarette pack and took out a few cigarettes, transporting them from her pack into Luz’s.

“And when you light it…”

“I’ll think of my favourite wacko, the pinup angel who gifted it to me.”

“That’s the spirit.”

They stayed in silence for a while, watching the grey skies. Anita rubbed her hands together, trying to somehow keep them warm. She breathed in the smoke as Luz took the last drag of his cigarette and watched as he threw the remains of it away with a light flick of his hand. That was when Don approached from behind.

“There you are, Annie," he said and came down into the foxhole. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Sorry, sorry," Anita said. “I had to make a social call.”

“Those are your gloves, right?”

Anita looked at the black woolen gloves in his hands, then at her own hands, reddened with the cold.

“Yeah," she said a little faintly. “Can’t go too long without 'em in this god-awful weather.”

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

Curiosity Killed The Cat | Owen Patrick Joyner

Requested: Yes/No

Hi! I was wondering if you can do an Owen imagine kinda based off his Instagram story of him finding a cat. I was thinking he’d actually find the missing cat though and come ring your doorbell at 4am bc he’s chaotic. You can decide everything. Thank you in advance!!!

A/N: The cat doesn’t actually die in this, it’s just a saying that i liked for the title, so don’t worry! It’s got a happy ending!

Pairing: Owen x Fem!Reader

Song(s) used: none 

Warnings: none

Words: 3,949

A week. It had been exactly one week since y/n last saw her cat, Tunabean. The white, grey striped Ragamuffin cat had been absent from y/n’s apartment for way longer than she normally would be and it worried y/n to the point where she’d be out looking for the little rascal every night after work. 

“Found her yet?” Jamila asked as she entered y/n’s apartment after coming home from work. 

Jamila was y/n’s roommate and best friend since college. The two had lived together through their college career and decided to be roommates after too, as long as neither had significant others to go live with. 

“No,” y/n’s lip stuck out into a pout as she feverishly reposted the message on all her social media platforms. “People have been tearing down my posters as well. Did you see the ones near Andrews Park? They were torn to shreds!” 

Jamila pulled her lips into a tight smile before putting her bags on the dining room table and joining y/n on the couch. “Yeah, I saw. I’m really sorry, y/n. If you want, we can go and put up some more posters? Exchange the torn up ones with some fresh ones?”

“You’d do that for me?” 

“Of course! Sweetie, I’d do anything to get little Bean home, you know that, right?” y/n nodded her head in response, though she wasn’t sure if she knew that. 

Jamila wasn’t the biggest fan of Tunabean at first. She hated cats. Growing up, she’d always had a dog but never a cat. She didn’t trust the little rascals for one second. So, when y/n showed up with little Tunabean after having had what felt like the worst week of her life, Jamila was a tiny bit angry. But eventually warmed up to Tunabean when the little kitty seemed so placid, you could easily cuddle up to it on the sofa. 

“Let’s go find Zach at his work, bribe him to print me more posters for cheap, hang ‘em up around town and then maybe Tino’s?” Jamila’s eyes lit up at the mention of her favorite restaurant. 

She snapped her fingers and pointed finger guns at her best friend. “Sounds like a plan!” she said and wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck. It was a cold November day and no person could leave their house consciously without being bundled up into layers and layers of clothing.  

“I hope Bean didn’t hide under a car and the owner didn’t tap the hood before getting in…” y/n muttered, her voice thick with worry, as they exited the apartment building and stepped into the blistering cold. 

“I’m sure she just found a few boyfriends and is spending her time with them,” Jamila tried to reassure her, but knew all-too-well that Tunabean wouldn’t stay away this long, even if she had a lover cat to make little kittens with. She loved Jamila and y/n’s home too much. 

“Are you slut shaming my cat right now?” 

“Our cat,” Jamila corrected, causing a smile to find its way to y/n’s face, “And no, I am not. I’m just trying to be optimistic here, y/n.” Jamila tucked her cold hands into the pockets of her tan peacoat. “I’m sure Tunabean is alright.” 

“What if she isn’t though? What if she’s like meowing somewhere in the middle of Norman and no one to hear her pleas?” Jamila rolled her eyes at how dramatic her best friend was being.  

“Norman ain’t that big, sweetie. I’m sure if she’s meowing somewhere, we would’ve heard her already.” 

“Exactly! Which means she’s either dead or god knows anywhere! She could be in Oklahoma City! We don’t know that!” y/n exclaimed loudly, using excessive hand gestures more so to keep herself warm than emphasis. 

Jamila stopped in her tracks and grabbed y/n by the shoulders, stopping her too. “Stop being such a drama queen, y/n! I’m sure Tunabean is fine. Maybe she’s on an adventure or making new friends, you don’t know that!” 

“You don’t care about our child, admit it,” y/n muttered. This rendered Jamila silent. “Admit you don’t care about our child, Jam!” Passer-byers shot them a weirded out glare, which Jamila sent right back. 

“Oh, please! Don’t pretend there are no lesbian families in Norman too!” she yelled at them. The comical side of the whole situation made y/n laugh a tiny bit. “There’s that smile I like to see.” Jamila softly touched y/n’s chin with her knuckle before grabbing the girl’s hand in hers. The warmth of Jamila’s hand radiating through to y/n’s made her feel all toasty. “Let’s go print some posters!”  

The girls reached a one-storey building with red decrepit letters stuck to the roof. 

HOOPER PRINTING CO. 

As y/n opened the glass door and held it for Jamila to walk in, the smell of ink reached her nostrils. Though not a very traditional scent to love, it reminded y/n of one of her best friends. It was like  her brain just knew that the muscles in her cheeks would soon start to hurt thanks to Zachary. A boy the girls had met in college as Xana. 

Jamila spotted the bleached blonde mop of hair immediately and signaled to y/n to sneak up to him. On their tippy toes, the two approached the tall slender man, and when they were close enough, they took in a deep breath and-- “Don’t even think about it,” Zach mumbled without even looking at them. 

Jamila and y/n glanced at each other, cheeks puffed out from the breath they were holding. “How’d you--?” y/n didn’t even finish her sentence as she looked past Zach and her eyes landed on a tiny tv screen. Cameras, of course. 

“Since when do you have security cameras?” y/n asked as she hopped onto the counter Zach was sorting invoices on. 

He shrugged, “Sometime this week, I think.” His bright blue eyes met y/n’s as she sheepishly looked at him while kicking her legs. The boy sighed exasperated, knowing all too well what the girls are here for. “No. Not again.” 

“Please, Zachy! Tunabean is still missing and her posters have been ripped down!” Her eyes teared up at the thought of her kitty being out there all by herself in Norman. All she could hope was that the creepy dudes from Doyle’s didn’t get their filthy paws on her little princess. 

“Come on, Zach. You love that cat too!” Jamila chimed in, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at him knowingly. 

“Fine, come here,” he reached out his hand and y/n handed him the thumb drive on which she kept her self-made posters. “You’re gonna have to buy me Tino’s though.” 

“We were going there afterwards, if you wanna join?” y/n’s voice was teasing and sly. 

“I’m off at five,” he simply stated before pressing a few buttons on his desktop and waking up the printer closest to them. “How long has she been gone for?” he then asked after a few beats of silence. Y/N dropped her head and stared at her still moving legs for a moment. 

“About a week,” she replied. 

Zach pulled his lips into a tight smile. He reached his hand out and placed it gently on top of hers. “She’ll come back.” 

“How can you be so sure? She might be hurt somewhere or dead and I won’t even know. I won’t even be able to say goodbye to her.” Tears pooled in y/n’s eyes as she thought of the sweet little kitten she had found in a ‘take one for free’ box on a curb one day. She was the last one left. 

“I’m not sure, y/n. But I’d like to be optimistic. Besides, Tunabean is resilient and the most independent kitty I’ve ever known. She’ll survive. She’s probably out adventuring with some friends.” 

Though the words weren’t very reassuring and y/n knew she had every right to be worried, they did calm her down a little. Tunabean was resilient and extremely independent. She’ll find her way back home.    

*

“I’ll see you guys later, bye!” Owen waved at his friends as he stepped into the cold November night. It was 4 am and he was just returning home from a day spent with friends. He had fallen asleep during the movie, only waking up in the middle of the night, realizing his parents were probably worrying about him, seeing he’d told them he’d be home by midnight at the latest. 

He softly hummed along to the song that was playing in his head as he walked down West Main Street, his hands tucked deep into his pockets to try and keep them warm. He should’ve brought a thicker coat or a thicker jumper. 

“Ah, mister Joyner!” a familiar voice with a thick accent made him shake out of his train of thought about the cold. The friendly face of the robust Italian greeted him in the dim light of the restaurant behind him. 

“Still working, Tino?” Owen asked as he stopped in his tracks to talk to the man everyone in Norman, Oklahoma loved. 

“Already back at work, ragazzino!” he replied in his thick Italian accent. Owen always thought it was fake and just for show to lure clients, so that they knew he was a pure Italian man, sharing his love for the Italian cuisine in his restaurant. 

“At four in the morning?!” Owen exclaimed, stunned at the man’s determination for his job. 

“Deliveries don’t wait, signore.” His laugh boomed into the empty, dark streets of Norman. Owen couldn’t help but let out a laugh too while his eyes averted and landed on a poster in the window. A black-and-white picture of a small cat stared back at him.  

MISSING: TUNABEAN

Grey-and-white striped ragamuffin cat, listens to the name Tunabean. 

“She’s been missing for a week, the poor girl who owns her is worried sick,” Tino told Owen when he noticed what he was looking at. The blond twenty-year-old pressed his lips together. He only ever had a dog that had never run away, but he could imagine what it would be like to not know where your pet is. He would totally lose it if Bindi ever went missing. 

“I feel sorry for her,” Owen said, unsure of anything else to say. 

“Yeah, me too,” said Tino. “Keep an eye out for Tunabean, yeah?” 

“I will.” 

And with that, Owen continued his walk back home. The cat on the poster kept haunting his mind. Those big eyes were something he wouldn’t forget anytime soon. Thanks to said image plastered in his brain, he even started hearing meowing when he got to Andrews Park. It was a soft, fragile meow that had to echo through his brain for a few seconds before he realized it actually came from the bushes he was walking past as he passed through Andrews Park. 

Curiously, and kind of feverishly, Owen started to dig into the shrubbery until he found a tiny cat. “Oh, don’t worry, little one. I got you.” He said as he carefully detangled it from the branches. As he held it up to his face, he found the big, round eyes from the poster staring back at him in real life. “Tunabean?” he cooed, and the cat tilted its head ever so slightly. 

He stroked the cat’s head and scratched behind her ear before pulling it closer into his chest. She was shivering, but Owen wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or the fear. If she’d been missing for a week, God knows how long she must’ve been stuck in there. 

“You hurt, little one?” he mumbled to it as he absentmindedly made his way to the one person he knew could help. 

“Owen,” Emmy groaned when she’d opened the door to find him standing on the curb with a pout on his face. “It’s four in the morning, I have to be up in an hour for work.” 

“That’s why I’m here,” he said and showed her the cat he had tucked in his jacket to keep it warm. “I found her in the bushes near Andrews Park. Can you check if she’s okay?” Emmy’s eyes darted from the cat to Owen and back. “Please, Emmy? You’re the only one I know could help her out.” 

“Come on in,” she sighed, clearly disgruntled at the early wakeup call. But she couldn’t say no to a little kitty in need. She’d been rescuing animals since she was a little girl, she wasn’t going to leave this one in the dust. 

Owen placed the cat on the table as it meowed and nudged Owen’s hand with her head. “It’s okay, Tunabean, Emmy here is gonna make sure you’re okay.” 

“Tunabean?” Emmy asked as she put on latex gloves. 

“Yeah, I think it’s the cat from the missing posters you see all around town?” 

Emmy gingerly took the cat in her gloved hands and started her check-up. “Ah, yes! My brother and his buddies took some of them down, thinking they were ‘rebellious’.” She rolled her eyes. “You gonna bring her back?” 

“Of course, Tino said the owner was worried sick about her.” 

Emmy smiled at this. Owen had always been the compassionate one in their friend group. He’d only act upon things if he was sure it wouldn’t hurt anyone else. Though, sometimes that compassion vanished when they were with their friends and he got a ‘brilliant’ idea, which was most likely kind of dangerous. 

“Oh, look,” Emmy whispered as she showed Tunabean’s paw. There was a thorn stuck in the little pad. “Poor thing! Hold her for a second, please? I’m gonna get my tweezers to get it out.” Owen placed a hand on the cat’s stomach, his fingers lightly scratching at the white fur. 

Emmy returned with everything she needed, and within a few seconds, Tunabean was freed from the thorn in her paw and back on her feet. She suddenly seemed a lot more peppy than she was before. 

“Let’s get you home, yeah?” Owen said as he scooped the kitten back up into his arms, holding it close to his chest. Emmy took her gloves off and scratched the cat’s head. 

“Goodbye, Tunabean,” she cooed, earning licks from her rough little tongue. “Ooh, I think I got the girl’s address here somewhere. Tunabean is Anna’s client and we’ve got them in the system.” 

As quickly as she’d said it, she’d handed the address over to Owen. After thanking her profusely, Owen went on his way with the cat tucked safely in his jacket for warmth. 

He was nervous as it was already five in the morning and the woman most definitely was still asleep. But he didn’t want to keep her in even more suspense and worry about her cat as she already was. 

“Hello?” a sleepy voice sounded through the intercom. 

“Hi, I’m Owen, I think I got your cat, Tunabean?” 

A silence fell, only Tunabean’s sleepy snoring disrupting the peace and quiet of the night. The poor girl had fallen asleep in Owen’s arms. He almost felt sad he had to give her away again. 

It took a good minute before the door to the apartment building opened up and a girl in red flannel pj’s opened the door. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun with big strands falling out of it. Though she’d probably rather not be seen like this out in public, Owen thought she looked breathtaking, even in the dim light from the hallway of her corridor and the street lights. 

“You really got Tunabean?” she asked as she held onto the door, squishing herself in the small opening she’d granted herself. Owen opened his jacket and carefully showed her the cat who’d woken up from her slumber. “Tunabean!” the girl exclaimed and grabbed the grey pet from the boy’s hands. Their fingers brushed ever so slightly, and though y/n was too busy with her cat, Owen felt it. He felt the spark. 

“I would invite you inside for a drink to thank you, but my roommate is still asleep and I don’t want to wake her.” Owen held up his hand, a smile tugging at his lips as he shook his head. 

“That’s okay. I don’t need a reward. I’m just glad I could reunite the two of you again,” he said, smiling at the girl and her cat. “Oh! She did have a thorn in her paw though, but my friend is a vet and I took her to her for a check-up before I came here.” 

“Aw, poor Bean,” she scratched the cat’s head before turning back to the blonde boy. “Thank you. That’s very considerate of you.” He tipped his head forward, the smile still persistent on his lips. 

“Glad I could help,” he repeated, jamming his hands into the pockets of his jacket again. “I’m gonna go though. I’m sure you’d rather go back to sleep right now than talk to a complete stranger on your doorstep.” 

“Oh, uhm, okay… Goodbye then? And thank you again for bringing Tunabean back.” 

Owen took a few steps backwards as he said, “You’re most welcome. Goodbye, Tunabean and…” 

“Y/N.” 

“Goodbye Tunabean and y/n.” His eyes lingered on hers for a few more seconds before he turned around to really make his way home now, no distractions. 

“Wait! I didn’t catch yours!” she whisper-shouted after him. 

He turned again, but kept walking. “Owen,” he said. 

“Goodbye, Owen.” She grabbed Tunabean’s paw and waved at him with it, causing a giggle to rake through Owen’s body. With his hand still in his pocket, he waved back. 

The more distance he created between them, the bigger his smile became as he thought of her. She was the epitome of a beautiful dream come to life. It made him wonder what she’d look like if she did put effort into her appearance. That could just be the death of him. 

*

After two more hours of sleep, the alarm blaring through her room woke y/n from a beautiful dream with the mysterious blonde boy that rang her doorbell very early in the morning. It caused her to wake up with the thought of him, wondering if she’d ever see him again. 

“Morning,” she greeted Jamila when she found her best friend in the living room, gathering all her stuff. “Guess who came home last night!” As if on cue, the little cat pattered across the hardwood floor towards the dark beauty that was Jamila. Her eyes widened as did her smile upon seeing the white-and-grey ragamuffin. 

“Bean!” Jamila shrieked as she knelt down to pick the four-legged friend off the floor. “Oh, baby! I missed you!” She peppered the cat with kisses, receiving the kisses back from her tiny pink tongue. “Where’d you find him?” 

“Oh, I didn’t. This guy, Owen, did. He brought her back at, like, five in the morning,” y/n explained as she absentmindedly smiled at the thought of those pretty blue-ish eyes. 

“And this Owen guy is pretty cute, isn’t he?” Jamila asked upon noticing her best friend’s flustered demeanor. “Did you ask for his number?” Y/N rolled her eyes before she started gathering her things she needed for work. 

“It was five in the morning, I had just woken up and I was too busy with Tunabean’s return to even think of that,” she explained, mostly cursing at herself for not asking his number. “Besides, I looked disgusting, I doubt he thought I was the epitome of beauty.” 

Jamila simply shook her head, debating against saying any more about it before pressing a kiss to y/n’s cheek and leaving the apartment. 

A silence fell over the space, leaving y/n alone with her thoughts. Her beautiful, yet annoying thoughts of the handsome boy at her front door. “He was handsome, wasn’t he, Tunabean?” she asked her cat, who simply tilted her head to the side as she sat in front of y/n on the floor. 

Once y/n had gathered her stuff for work today, she said goodbye to Tunabean and left the apartment. She was fumbling around in her handbag to look for her car keys when a vaguely familiar voice made her look up. 

The gorgeous blue eyes she’d been dreaming of for two whole hours were staring down at her whilst the plump pink lips curled up into a dreamy smile. “Oh, hey, Owen.” 

“I wanted to come and check up on Tunabean,” he carefully said, pointing up at the building she’d just come out of. “You know, see if she’s okay and stuff.” He suddenly seemed nervous. More nervous than he did at five in the morning. 

“Uhm, she’s okay, actually. Slept well and seemed very chipper this morning,” y/n reassured him, a smile playing at her lips as her eyes scanned his face. She made sure to make a mental note of every single detail of his face. Like how he stuck his tongue between his teeth as he smiled or how his eyes squinted slightly or the stubble faintly growing on his chin. 

“Oh, okay, good. That’s--that’s all, then…” He awkwardly coughed. 

Y/N awaited anything else, her eyes darting left and right as they just fumblingly stood on the curb in front of y/n’s apartment. “I-uhm… I have to get to work though, so…” She pointed somewhere behind Owen, indicating she needed to pass him and get going. 

“Right!” he said and took a step aside to let her through. She offered him a little wave and a soft ‘bye’ as she passed him. He watched her walk away, cursing at himself for not asking what he really wanted to ask. “Wait!” he yelled, making her stop in her tracks and turn around again with an expectant look on her face. “That’s-that’s not what I wanted to ask. I mean it was, but it wasn’t the only thing I wanted to ask.” He scratched the back of his neck as y/n’s eyes searched for an answer on his face. 

Y/N looked at him with a piercing glint in her eyes, urging him to continue. 

“Oh, right! Uhm… Would you -- would you maybe wanna go have a drink with me later today? Or something?” Her smile grew wider as she slowly nodded her head in response. 

“I’m off at five. Meet me at Gray Owl then,” she told him before turning to walk away. 

Owen was left on her curb, wondering if he had died. He thought she looked pretty when she’d just rolled out of bed, but now that she was all dolled up for work, she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. And that smile. That smile was killer. 

She was more than the epitome of a dream come to life. She was beauty and grace. She was a poem and the poet. She was the lyrics and the melody. She was the question and the answer. 

Owen grew more and more curious about that girl the more he thought of her. He wanted to know what she liked and what she absolutely hated. He wanted to know how she laughed and how she cried, if she sang whenever her mind wandered. He wanted to know how she liked her eggs in the morning. 

Even though he knew curiosity killed the cat, he knew for a fact the cat in this story was just the beginning of something beautiful. 

 *

*

*

JATP taglist: @hannahhistorian92 @marinettepotterandplagg @thequirkybookaholic @bookdealer5 @tenaciousperfectionunknown @hemmingsness @iainttakingshitfromnobody @ifilwtmfc @angryknightstatesmantrash @kiss-themoongoodbye @rudysbay @thedarkqueenofavalon​ @caitsymichelle13​ @calamitykaty @wiselight @kcd15​ @vicesvsvirtuesfanfic @stars-soph @kinda-really-lost @notasofti

Owen taglist: @alexpjoyner

Lemme know if you wanna be on my taglist! 

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Spider-Man Movie Villains

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, he does whatever a spider can. And what do spiders seem really good at? Amassing huge quantities of hatred and animosity! True to the wily arachnids that inspired him, Spider-Man has quite the impressive gallery of foes, one that I might say rivals Batman as the greatest in comic book history with how colorful, crazy, and creative they are. Even villains derivative of one another, like Hobgoblin and Green Goblin or Carnage and Venom, manage to carve out unique niches that help make them fun and memorable.

And thankfully, these qualities usually translated pretty well to film! I’ve talked about how good Mysterio, Vulture, Kingpin, and Prowler are before, so now it’s time to cover the others all in one fell swoop! From the Raimi trilogy, we have Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Harry Osborn, Sandman, and Eddie Brock/Venom; from the Andrew Garfield duology, we have Lizard, Electro, Rhino, and Harry Osborn again; and leftover from Into the Spider-Verse we have Olivia Octavius, Tombstone, Scorpion, and that film’s brief take on Green Goblin! Oh, and why not throw in Riot from Venom while we’re at it, because he sucks way too much to get his own Psycho Analysis.

Motivation/Goals: A lot of villains are motivated by the classic motivation: revenge. All of the Green Goblins manage to have this as a main part of their actions, making them remarkably consistent and very easy to discuss. The Norman of the Raimi films wants to take out his anger at being frozen out of his own company, and his son wants revenge for his death, while the Harry of the Garfield films wants his vengeance because Spider-Man wouldn’t help cure him of his otherwise incurable disaease that would kill him (a fact made worse because Spider-Man is his actual best friend, Peter Parker, who is coldly condemning his pal to death). The only one who doesn’t really fit is the Spider-Verse take on Green Goblin, and that’s more because he has extremely limited screentime and spends all of it fighting Peter and being scary as hell.

Eddie Brock/Venom is a very interesting case as both halves of the character are motivated by different reasons. The symbiote half is, of course, motivated by the fact that Peter has tried to rid himself of it via using a church bell to kill it. Eddie, on the other hand, has the most absolutely hilarious motivation ever: He wants Peter Parker to die because Peter exposed him for submitting fraudulent pictures to J. Jonah Jameson. Eddie literally breached journalistic ethics but apparently Peter’s to blame for exposing his literal, actual crime! And he prays to God for Peter to die! This version of Eddie is cartoonishly hilarious.Finally, we have Max Dillon, AKA Electro, who is lashing out at a world that did nothing but belittle and demean him, giving him a far more sympathetic motive for revenge.

Kurt Connors is an interesting halfway point between the Doc Ocks and the villains above, because he is not really evil and his whole transformation came about for altruistic scientific reasons, as he tested his serum on himself because they were going to test it out on the public without consent. While the serum drives him mad, he initially only goes after those who were going to use his formula with people as guinea pigs.

Interestingly, the two Doc Ocks contrast each other. While both of them are doing evil deeds for scientific reasons, Otto Octavius is being forced by his tentacles and genuinely wishes to make the world a better place otherwise. Olivia, on the other hand, is a gleeful sadist who doesn’t care who she hurts as long as she can get some sort of scientific knowledge from it.

Sandman is interesting case because his motivations are entirely sympathetic and despite being the man who killed Uncle Ben, it was entirely accidental and he always regretted it. He only ever wanted to get money to save his daughter. It’s really hard not to sympathize with a guy who turned to desperate measures because the American health care system sucks even in a universe where a dude dressed in a bright red suit swings around New York.

Then there are all the rest. Aleksei Systevich, AKA Rhino, is just a criminal, and has barely any screentime to establish a motivation beyond that. This is especially hilarious because the ads really hyped this guy up, only for him to get maybe five minutes of screentime, with most of it at the very end of the movie before the credits (we don’t even get to see his final battle). Tombstone and Scorpion are basically just lackeys for Kingpin, with little established beyond that. Scorpion almost shows up entirely out of nowhere, just popping in for the fight at Aunt May’s house and then the final battle. And then there’s Riot, who just wants to start a symbiote apocalypse on Earth.

Performance: Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Thomas Haden Church as Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Sandman in the Raimi trilogy are, in a word, iconic. Dafoe brings a gleeful, cackling hamminess to the Goblin that perfectly suits him and manages to steal every single with how delightfully, cartoonishly evil he is combined with some hilariously chummy moments with Spider-Man. Molina as Ock goes in the opposite direction of hamminess, where instead of making Octavius cartoonishly evil, he gives him this air of gravitas to the point where he somehow manages to make this villain with giant metal tentacles that are controlling his mind come off as sophisticated and serious as Hannibal Lecter. Church meanwhile just looks eerily perfect as Sandman, as if he were ripped straight from the comics and put onscreen, and then of course there’s how well he manages to sell the emotional moments of the character.

The Harrys are a rather mixed bag, sad to say. James Franco and Dennis DeHaan aren’t really bad actors, but they unfortunately have the problem of living in the shadow of the actor who played their dad (Franco) or being in a really awful movie with a terrible script (DeHaan). Franco at least makes up for this by being hilariously, cartoonishly evil to the extent of his dad in the third Raimi film, but DeHaan unfortunately falls rather flat. Topher Grace as Venom is a choice that seems baffling until you realize Raimi cast an actor like this on purpose because he hates Venom so much he didn’t want to give him any dignity.

Jamie Foxx as Electro seems odd at first, but I feel it’s actually a great casting choice, and despite how unbelievably stupid the script is, he’s actually able to do a fairly good job. If his character was in a better movie, he’d probably get a lot less flak (and he’ll be getting his chance soon enough, apparently). Overall, he’s the best part of the Garfield films. Rhys Ifans and Paul Giamatti as Lizard and Rhino are serviceable, but neither film they’re in really gives them much to work with. Giamatti at least gets to steal the show with his brief scenes by being an absolute ham, but Ifans is sadly a bit forgettable in his role (though not for lack of trying on his part).

Now onto the Spider-Verse ensemble! Considering how I gushed over her delightful performance as the Wicked Witch of Westview in WandaVision as well as the fact she is solely responsible for me resurrecting this series from its long hiatus, it should come as no shock at all that Kathryn Hahn as Olivia Octavius is just perfect. Controversial opinion, I know, might get some flak for this hot take. Jorma Taccone as Green Goblin, Joaquin Cosio as Scorpion, and Marvin Jones III as Tombstone all do well for what they’re given, but it’s clear most of the love among Kingpin’s henchmen was given to her (and Prowler, but he got his own review where I talked about how great he is).

Oh, right, Riot. I forgot about him. Riz Ahmed, who plays the human villain Carlton Drake I forgot to mention because he’s incredibly boring, is a really good (and sexy) actor. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get to be quite as good and sexy as an actor like him should be in his dual role. In an interesting subversion of how things usually go, he ends up being rather bland compared to the hammy, bonkers hero. This was Tom Hardy’s show, and no one was stealing it from him.

Final Fate: The Raimi films were all made during a time when, if your name wasn’t Magneto and you were a superhero movie villain, you were dying, a trend I’m certainly glad is finally starting to die off. Thankfully, Green Goblin manages to stick around and posthumously influence Harry, so in his case it’s not so bad. Harry and Doc Ock both manage to overcome the darkness in their hearts at the end and sacrifice their lives to help save the day, while Eddie dies after becoming such a simp for the symbiote he leaps into it while Peter is blowing it up. With Sandman, Peter actually has a touching reconciliation with Sandman at the end, forgiving him for the death of Uncle Ben before Sandman dissolves into dust and floats away on the breeze. And no, this is his power, not Thanos’ snap reaching across time, space, and dimensions; Sandman actually gets out of these films alive.

The other villains actually get off easier, as most of them go to jail. From the Amazing Spider-Man films, DeHaan’s Goblin and Rhys Ifan’s Lizard both end up in prison, and it’s safe to assume that the villains of Spider-Verse are going to jail alongside Kingpin. Octavius was hit by a bus, sure, but considering how popular she ended up being it would be really dumb to have that actually kill her. With Electro and Rhino though, it’s really ambiguous, the former because he’s made of electricity and the way he was defeated means it is possible he survived, and the latter because we never actually see the outcome of his battle with Spider-Man. If the film they were in was actually good and warranted sequels, we may have found out what their true fates were, but at the very least Electro is moving over to the MCU alongside Molina’s Doc Ock.

Oh, right, forgot Riot again. He dies.

Best Scene/Best Quote: I’m combining these this time just to make it easier on me, because in at least in a couple cases the two are the same.

Green Goblin has a lot to choose from, to the point where it’s easy to cop out and just say every scene he’s in is amazing. I’ve always been fond of his chummy chat with Spider-Man on the rooftop, or the scene where he terrifies Aunt May, or the scene where he attacks the parade and vaporizes the board of directors with pumpkin bombs.

Dock Ock is easy: the train battle. This might be one of the best action scenes in any superhero movie ever, and since he’s the villain in it, it almost goes without saying..There’s a reason this scene is singled out so often.

Eddie Brock and DeHaan Goblin actually have their best scenes also be their best lines. Eddie praying for God to kill Peter Parker and DeHaan!Harry screaming “YOU’RE A FRAUD, SPIDER-MAN!” after Spidey refuses to give him a life-saving blood transfusion are just so absolutely hilarious and memorable that you can’t hate them.

Aside from the powerful forgiveness moment at the film’s end, I think it’s really indisputable that the best scene from Sandman, and perhaps the Raimi trilogy as a whole, is the scene of Sandman’s creation. Words really can’t do it justice, so just watch:

Electro’s best moment isn’t even actually part of the movie, unless you want to count his rendition of “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.” No, his is from a Tumblr post, proving definitively that Electro’s power can not be contained.

For Olivia, I’d say either of the reveals for her are great. You can go with the twist that she’s the Doc Ock of Miles’ universe, or the twist that she might have fucked Aunt May. Either way, you can’t really go wrong.

The rest of the villains… yeah, I’ve got nothing. At least with Rhino you can say his entire time on screen was fun, but the rest? Nope. They’re kind of just there.

Final Thoughts & Score:

Green Goblin

Where to begin with this guy? He is everything I look for in a great villain: he’s hammy and cartoonish, he can be terrifying and threatening when he wants to be, he has a ridiculous yet memorable costume, every word out of his mouth is hilarious and memorable, and he’s played by an amazing actor. It’s hard to dispute that Doc Ock is the best villain in Raimi’s trilogy, but Goblin is definitely the most fun. If you thought he’d get less than a 10/10, you thought wrong.

Doctor Octopus

Aside from Green Goblin, Doc Ock is Spidey’s most iconic and memorable foe, nd this adaptation of him does not disappoint. By making him a more tragic and somewhat anti-villainous figure and putting him in the hands of someone as awesome and talented as Alfred Molina, they managed to make such a cartoonish villain retain that comic book silliness while still being a legitimately imposing antagonist. I suppose it helps that a director who knows how to balance silly and serous like Raimi helps. It’s absolutely not a shock that the MCU wants to bring Molina back, because really, I can’t see anyone making the dubious doctor nearly as cool as the 10/10 performance Molina gave.

Harry Osborn

Franco’s Harry has an interesting arc, but one that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense under scrutiny. Frankly, his descent into villain is handled well but when he actually gets to be a villain in the third film, things fall apart.. But at any rate, he gets to be cartoonishly hilarious while he pettily ruins Peter’s life, so I think a 3/10 is warranted just for how goofy he is.

Eddie Brock/Venom

For the longest time, I hated Eddie Brock, but loved the Venom symbiote for its fantastic design… A design hampered by the fact Topher Grace keeps sticking his face through the symbiote and talking in his normal voice. But then one day I remembered Eddie literally prays to God for Peter Parker to die, and I realize that as crappy as this version of Venom is, he’s undoubtedly hilarious. A 3/10 mainly because of how hilariously bad he is, though the design of the symbiote is unironically great. Shame Grace kept sticking his face through and that Raimi hates the character.

Sandman

Sandman is a villain who deserved a better movie. Sure, Spider-Man 3 is fun and funny, but a character with this much depth and emotional weight deserved a film of the caliber of Spider-Man 2. At any rate, he adds a bit of class and dignity to the proceedings, and Thomas Haden Church really nails it. He’s a 9/10 for sure.

Lizard

Lizard is just a very boring villain, which is a shame because Lizard is not a boring villain in the comics and other media like the cartoons. I don’t really know if he was the best choice for Spider-Man’s first outing; I’ll at least give him that he’s a more inspired choice than doing the Green Goblin again, but that doesn’t score him higher than a 4/10. As boring as he ends up being, that library fight was pretty cool and had a great Stan Lee cameo, so I can’t say he’s the bottom of the barrel.

Electro

Electro is a villain who desperately deserved a better movie. While his backstory as a nerdy fanboy who got kicked around by the world is nothing new, or fresh, or original, Jamie Foxx manages to make the character work fairly well even though almost everything around him is unbelievably stupid. The fact he managed to make “Don’t you know? I’m Electro” sound cool and badass is a testament to his skill, and thankfully he’s coming back in the MCU in some way, so I guess Electro’s power can not be contained to a single movie. Still, this iteration only manages to get to a 6/10, because while all the elements of greatness are there, he’s hampered by the abysmal writing.

Rhino

Paul Giamatti certainly looks like he’s having a blast here. His attitude is almost infectious, but alas, his time is too brief to bring any great joy, and his jarring appearance out of nowhere at the end of the film certainly do him no favors. Still, Giamatti keeps Rhino from sinking any lower than a 5/10.

Harry Osborn

This Harry is just a joke. His arc makes no sense, his actions are unbelievable, and he ends up looking like a really poor Warwick Davis Leprechaun cosplayer. The only thing of note about him is that he’s a Harry who becomes the Green Goblin before his father, something that doesn’t happen very often, and that’s not enough to score this loser higher than a 2/10. Not even killing Gwen Stacy makes him any more impressive, and that’s a real shame.

Olivia Octavius

Olivia Octavius is widely beloved by just about everyone who sees the film.. myself included. This is just a really fun, clever twist on Doctor Octopus, and it’s the sort of character you really hope gets a Harley Quinn-level break into becoming an iconic character across multiple forms of media. Kathryn Hahn’s fun performance and the wonderful design and fight sequences really make Olivia a 9/10.

Tombstone

Tombstone is a villain you might actually forget is in the movie, which is a damn shame. He’s an albino black man, a badass bodyguard, and has a striking design, but he gets a single line of dialogue and is tasked with bodyguarding a man who not only has cyborgs under his employ, but who murdered Spider-Man with his bare hands. Tombstone ultimately feels really superfluous, which is a shame because around the same time Into the Spider-Verse came out he had a very memorable and well-liked appearance in the Spider-Man video game. It’s a real shame but I gotta give this version of Tombstone a 2/10.

Scorpion

Scorpion has a lot of problems of Tombstone above, but he makes up for a lot of his flaws by having a really cool and striking design. Does it really make him a great villain? No. He’s not particularly well-characterized and he’s really just there to look cool and give Olivia backup. He’s a 4/10 at best, saved from being lower only by his awesome look. Looking cool really can get you far in some cases.

Green Goblin

Out of all the really minor villains in Spider-Verse, this version of Norman might be the best. His role is tiny, only appearing during the scene where the Peter Parker of Miles’ universe gets killed, but his battle with Spider-Man is what sets the entire plot in motion. His cool and terrifying design definitely help make him stand out enough to earn at least a 6/10.

Riot & Carlton Drake

Look, there’s a reason I kept forgetting these guys. They’re not memorable in the slightest. Venom may be a fantastic work of art, but that’s because Tom Hardy kills it in his dual role as Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. Drake is just a boring corporate villain, the kind I hate talking about and the kind I’d only ever even bother mentioning in a review like this. And Riot is just a generic Big Gray CGI Monster for the hero to have a final battle with. Neither of these two are particularly interesting, and neither deserves more than a 2/10.

That’s it, right? There can’t be any more villains, I must have covered them all. Well, not quite. There’s one more character who is most certainly an antagonist and who I really, really want to talk about. And you’re absolutely not going to believe who it is.

You ready?

Psycho Analysis: Emo Peter

“Now wait,” you may be asking, “Emo Peter? Really? How does he count as a villain?” Well, as Schafrillas pointed out in his video on Spider-Man 3, Emo Peter is actually the antagonist for much of the second act. Peter, influenced by the symbiote, becomes a raging jackass and hurts and alienates everyone around him by being a colossal douchebag, not to mention how violent he gets as Spider-Man. This is very much an extreme case of the hero’s greatest enemy being themselves, because literally, Peter’s enemy in the chunk of the movie with Emo Peter is his own overinflated ego

Motivation/Goals: I mean, at the end of the day, it’s still Peter. He still wants to do the typical Peter Parker stuff, he’s just a jackass while he does it.

Performance: It’s Tobey Maguire busting loose and getting to act like an absolute doofus. There is literally nothing about this that isn’t amazing and I’m sorry if you can’t see it.

Final Fate: Peter eventually comes to realize that maybe the symbiote making him act like an egomaniacal tool is not a good thing, and so rebels against it, ultimately leading him to the roof of a church where Eddie Brock is praying for him to die and, well, the rest is history.

Best Scene:

Best Dance Move:

Final Thoughts & Score: Emo Peter has gotten a bad reputation over the years, but Schafrillas’ video really made me rethink why. As he puts it, Emo Peter comes off not as someone cool, but as what a loser thinks a cool person would be (which makes him still a loser). It seems fairly likely that the audience isn’t supposed to be rooting for Emo Peter or finding him cool, but instead finding him insufferable, ridiculous, and funny. We’re supposed to be laughing at Peter’s egomania, at his absurd and hammy showboating, not cheering him on and desiring to emulate him.

And that ultimately makes it more satisfying when Peter overcomes his ego and decides to rid himself of the symbiote. It might seem like I’m giving Spider-Man 3 a lot of credit here, but even Sam Raimi half-assing a movie wouldn’t leave things completely devoid of underlying brilliance. Emo Peter isn’t a villain in the sense that he’s some superpowered antagonist, he’s a physical representation of the negative impacts of fame and ego on Peter. This is Peter letting go of what makes him a hero and just reveling in being an absolute jerkwad to everyone around him.

I love the memes as much as everyone else of course, but Emo Peter is also a pretty clever symbolic foe. But even though I’m giving him an 8/10, we all know the real reason why he’s scoring so high:

Ok, but that’s it now, right? No more Spider-Man villains? Well, maybe for now. But don’t forget:

There’s gonna be Carnage.

[pearlposts]

The Best of Soft Rock: More Than A Feeling

 SONG TITLE                                ARTIST       TIME

Lowdown                                     Boz Scaggs    5:18

Whenever I Call You “Friend”  Kenny Loggins    3:18

Piano Man                                    Billy Joel         5:40

Longer                                     Dan Fogelberg    3:18

Miracles                                Jefferson Starship  3:33

Lost in Love                              Air Supply          3:55

More Than I Can Say              Leo Sayer            3:39

Rosanna                                         Toto              4:03

More Than a Feeling                  Boston              3:26

Take It on the Run               REO Speedwagon  3:37

Make Me Lose Control           Eric Carmen         4:48

Total Eclipse of the Heart       Bonnie Tyler         5:35

Living Inside Myself              Gino Vannelli          4:25

The Flame                            Cheap Trick            4:50

Sara                                        Starship               4:23

SONG TITLE                                  ARTIST                   TIME

Livin’ Thing                         Electric Light Orchestra        3:34

This Is It                                   Kenny Loggins                 3:59

Africa                                                Toto                          4:59

Eye In The Sky                      Alan Parsons Project          4:35

Look What You’ve Done to Me       Boz Scaggs                5:18

You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling Daryl Hall & John Oates  4:36

All Out Of Love                              Air Supply                    4:03

Can’t Fight This Feeling           REO Speedwagon            4:55

The Search Is Over                        Survivor                       4:14

All by Myself                               Eric Carmen                    7:11

Without You                               Harry Nilsson                   3:21

Year of the Cat                           Al Stewart                        6:38

Dust in the Wind                         Kansas                            3:27

Vincent                                    Don McLean                       4:01

Please Come to Boston         David Loggins                     4:09

SONG TITLE                                    ARTIST                                  TIME

Baby I’m-a Want You                           Bread                                   2:32

A Horse with No Name                       America                                 4:09

Diamond Girl                                    Seals & Crofts                          4:04

I Saw the Light                                 Todd Rundgren                         3:01

Blinded by the Light                Manfred Mann's Earth Band              3:51

It Might Be You                               Stephen Bishop                          4:14

She’s Gone/Sara Smile/Rich Girl        Hall & Oates                           3:29

Minute By Minute                         The Doobie Brothers                     3:28

Sentimental Lady                                Bob Welch                              3:46

How Much I Feel                                 Ambrosia                                 4:44

Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime The Korgis                               4:12

If You Leave Me Now                          Chicago                                   3:57

Sailing                                        Christopher Cross                             4:17

Waiting For A Girl Like You             Foreigner                                     4:52

Against All Odds                            Phil Collins                                    3:25

SONG TITLE                                    ARTIST                                              TIME

Ride Like the Wind                        Christopher Cross                                  4:32

Saturday in the Park                          Chicago                                              3:57

Sister Golden Hair                              America                                              3:20

You’re So Vain                                Carly Simon                                            4:18

If                                                          Bread                                                  2:35

Ooh Baby Baby                              Linda Ronstadt                                        2:42

Him                                                Rupert Holmes                                         3:40

You Are the Woman                         Firefall                                                    2:45

All I Need                                       Jack Wagner                                             3:32

Walking In Memphis                       Marc Cohn                                                4:19

Making Love Out Of Nothing At All  Air Supply                                                5:01

I Want to Know What Love Is        Foreigner                                                   5:00

The Living Years                    Mike + the Mechanics                                       5:33

Drive                                               The Cars                                                   3:57

One More Night                           Phil Collins                                                   4:48

I’ll Be There                             The Escape Club                                             4:57

SONG TITLE                                                     ARTIST                                TIME

Summer Breeze                                           Seals & Crofts                             3:26

Key Largo                                                     Bertie Higgins                             3:19

Make It with You                                                 Bread                                    3:12

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?     Chicago                               3:22

Dream Weaver                                           Gary Wright                                  4:18

Hello It’s Me                                            Todd Rundgren                                3:52

Sara Smile                                      Daryl Hall and John Oates                       3:12

Chuck E.’s In Love                             Rickie Lee Jones                                  3:28

Black Water                                  The Doobie Brothers                                 4:16

Still the One                                             Orleans                                           3:56

Hurt So Bad                                      Linda Ronstadt                                      3:18

Cool Change                                  Little River Band                                      4:08

Biggest Part Of Me                            Ambrosia                                              5:27

Never Be the Same                    Christopher Cross                                       4:41

You Can Do Magic                           America                                                 3:57

SONG TITLE                                    ARTIST                                                TIME

The Guitar Man                                 Bread                                                   3:45

Tin Man                                           America                                                  3:27

Wildfire                               Michael Martin Murphey                                     4:50

25 or 6 to 4                                  Chicago                                                     4:52

Lotta Love                               Nicolette Larson                                             2:43

What a Fool Believes         The Doobie Brothers                                          2:27

Steal Away                              Robbie Dupree                                              3:31

You’re the Only Woman              Ambrosia                                                   4:22

Sexy Eyes                                Dr. Hook                                                       3:00

Kiss You All Over                       Exile                                                           3:30

Even the Nights Are Better   Air Supply                                                       3:59

Arthur’s Theme                  Christopher Cross                                             3:55

Dance with Me                       Orleans                                                         3:21

Beautiful in My Eyes            Joshua Kadison                                              4:10

Black Velvet                        Alannah Myles                                                 4:48

SONG TITLE                        ARTIST                                                         TIME

California Dreamin’      The Mamas & The Papas                                       2:54

Kokomo                        The Beach Boys                                                     3:36

Ventura Highway             America                                                               3:32

Listen to the Music      The Doobie Brothers                                               3:27

I Can See Clearly Now     Johnny Nash                                                     2:43

It Never Rains in Southern California  Albert Hammond                             3:38

Thank You For Being A Friend            Andrew Gold                                   4:45

Everything I Own                                    Bread                                           3:07

When Will I Be Loved                     Linda Ronstadt                                     2:10

I Keep Forgettin’                         Michael McDonald                                    3:41

Baby Come Back                               Player                                                2:16

Circle in the Sand                       Belinda Carlisle                                         4:27

Hold On                                     Wilson Phillips                                            3:41

I’ll Be Over You                              Toto                                                        3:50

Just the Way It Is, Baby          The Rembrandts                                           4:09

 SONG TITLE                            ARTIST                                                     TIME

We Don’t Talk Anymore       Cliff Richard                                                      4:13

Baker Street                       Gerry Rafferty                                                     2:13

When Your in Love with a Beautiful Woman  Dr. Hook                                  2:56

Fool (If You Think It’s Over)       Chris Rea                                                     3:33

You’re No Good                     Linda Ronstadt                                                 3:46

Reminiscing                        Little River Band                                                 3:17

The Air That I Breathe           The Hollies                                                       4:12

Sad Eyes                            Robert John                                                        1:55

I Go Crazy                          Paul Davis                                                           5:23

Hearts                                Marty Balin                                                           4:19

These Dreams                     Heart                                                                  4:17

Jessie                           Joshua Kadison                                                         4:22

Release Me                   Wilson Phillips                                                          3:54

The Doctor                 The Doobie Brothers                                                    3:45

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Maggie May                Rod Stewart                                                               5:15

Higher and Higher      Rita Coolidge                                                             4:01

Whatcha Gonna Do?  Pablo Cruise                                                              4:15

I’m in You                   Peter Frampton                                                           4:11

Drift Away                     Dobie Gray                                                              3:56

More Love                   Kim Carnes                                                               3:37

Babe                             Styx                                                                         4:01

Into The Night        Benny Mardones                                                            4:31

It’s a Heartache       Bonnie Tyler                                                                 3:45

While You See a Chance   Steve Winwood                                                 4:06

Show Me the Way       Peter Frampton                                                        2:30

Fooled Around and Fell in Love    Elvin Bishop                                           4:37

Lonesome Loser           Little River Band                                                     3:54

I’m Not in Love                10 CC                                                                    6:07

I Just Wanna Stop         Gino Vannelli                                                           3:37

SONG TITLE                    ARTIST                                                              TIME

Daniel                          Elton John                                                                3:53

I Need You                   America                                                                    3:07

I Can Dream About You    Dan Hartman                                                       4:11

Escape                      Rupert Holmes                                                            3:54

I’d Really Love to See You Tonight  England Dan & John Ford Coley          2:38

On and On                 Stephen Bishop                                                          3:01

Tempted                        Squeeze                                                                  4:01

The Things We Do For Love   10 CC                                                           3:31

The Best of Times           Styx                                                                      4:18

Cry                       Godley and Creme                                                          3:55

Your Wildest Dreams   The Moody Blues                                                    4:51

Higher Love                 Steve Winwood                                                       5:46

More Than Words           Extreme                                                               5:36

I’d Do Anything for Love    Meat Loaf                                                          5:17

Do You Feel Like We Do      Peter Frampton                                              7:20

SONG TITLE                      ARTIST                                                          TIME

So In to You             Atlanta Rhythm Section                                             4:23

Fly, Robin, Fly           Silver Connection                                                     3:50

Sentimental Lady        Bob Welch                                                              3:46

Show And Tell             Al Wilson                                                                 3:29

Wild Flower             The New Birth                                                             3:59

Delta Dawn             Helen Reddy                                                               3:09

American Pie          Don McLean                                                                8:35

Rock Me Gently      Andy Kim                                                                     3:29

Go All The Way      The Raspberries                                                          3:22

Mr. Big Stuff            Jean Knight                                                                 2:49

Oh Babe, What Would You Say     Hurricane Smith                                   3:26

Hooked On A Feeling     Blue Swede                                                         2:53

 Having My Baby           Paul Anka                                                             2:33

Last Song                     Edward Bear                                                          3:13

The Streak                   Ray Stevens                                                           3:18

SONG TITLE                  ARTIST                                                               TIME

Rhinestone Cowboy   Glen Campbell                                                         3:16

Too Late To Turn Back Now  Cornelius Brothers And Sister Rose             3:20

Boogie Fever             The Sylvers                                                              3:30

Reminiscing            Little River Band                                                         3:17

I Just Want To Celebrate    Rare Earth                                                      2:54

One Bad Apple           The Osmonds                                                         2:43

Have You Never Been Mellow   Olivia Newton-John                                 3:33

Magic                            Pilot                                                                      3:05

Boogie Oogie Oogie     A Taste of Honey                                                  3:38

Right Back Where We Started From   Maxine Nightingale                        3:15

Sad Eyes                        Robert John                                                        1:55

Gonna Fly Now                Bill Conti                                                            2:48

My Sharona                  The Knack                                                            4:02

You Sexy Thing          Hot Chocolate                                                        4:05

Puppy Love               Donny Osmond                                                       3:06

SONG TITLE                 ARTIST                                                              TIME

Love Train                  The O'Jays                                                              2:58

Knock Three Times     Dawn                                                                      2:55

Brandy                    Looking Glass                                                             3:04

Little Willy                  Sweet                                                                       3:12

Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me    Mac Davis                                              3:06

Take Me Home, Country Roads    John Denver                                         3:13

It Never Rains in Southern California   Albert Hammond                           3:38

Brand New Key                Melanie                                                              2:26

Come and Get Your Love       Redbone                                                      3:32

More. More, More (Part 1)      Andrea True Connection                              3:02

I Can See Clearly Now         Johnny Nash                                                  2:43

Everybody Plays the Fool     The Main Ingredient                                       3:22

Indian Reservation             Paul Revere & The Raiders                              2:52

The Cover of “Rolling Stone”   Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show                2:55

When Will I See You Again      The Three Degrees                                     3:00

SONG TITLE                           ARTIST                                                      TIME

Rich Girl                    Daryl Hall and John Oates                                        2:23

Lady Marmalade                    LaBelle                                                         3:21

Best of My Love              The Emotions                                                      3:41

Fire                             The Pointer Sisters                                                  3:28

Miracles                        Jefferson Starship                                                 3:33

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing    Leo Sayer                                            2:51

Here You Come Again         Dolly Parton                                                   2:58

Disco Lady                        Johnnie Taylor                                                  4:25

Saturday Night                Bay City Rollers                                                  2:56

Rock On                           David Essex                                                      3:26

Wildfire                  Michael Martin Murphey                                              4:50

You Take My Breath Away   Rex Smith                                                    3:15

I Go Crazy                      Paul Davis                                                         5:23

Stumblin’ In        Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman                                      3:31

Torn Between Two Lovers    Mary MacGregor                                         3:44

SONG TITLE                      ARTIST                                                          TIME

Bad, Bad Leroy Brown     Jim Croce                                                         3:00

Don’t Pull Your Love     Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds                          2:41

Love Will Keep Us Together  Captain and Tennille with Neil Sedaka        3:24

Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song  B.J. Thomas             3:22

She’s A Lady                 Tom Jones                                                           2:51

How Do You Do?       Mouth & MacNeal                                                   4:07

Black and White        Three Dog Night                                                      3:51

Escape                      Rupert Holmes                                                        3:54

Drift Away                 Dobie Gray                                                              3:56

It’s a Love Beat     The DeFranco Family                                                 3:09

I’m in You               Peter Frampton                                                          4:11

The Candy Man     Sammy Davis, Jr.                                                      3:10

Spiders & Snakes   Jim Stafford                                                              3:05

Billy, Don’t Be A Hero  Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods                       3:40

The Morning After     Maureen McGovern                                                2:20

SONG TITLE                                   ARTIST                                          TIME

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves          Cher                                               2:36

Maggie May                                Rod Stewart                                         5:15

Baby Come Back                            Player                                              2:16

I Just Wanna Stop                   Gino Vannelli                                           3:37

Jackie Blue                 Ozark Mountain Daredevils                                  3:37

Higher And Higher               Rita Coolidge                                              4:01

I’m Not in Love                           10 CC                                                   6:07

Y.M.C.A.                               Village People                                            3:45

Will It Go Round in Circles     Billy Preston                                              3:46

I Just Want to Be Your Everything   Andy Gibb                                        3:44

Do You Wanna Make Love        Peter McCann                                        4:01

Signs                            Five Man Electrical Band                                    4:02

Disco Duck                              Rick Dees                                                3:14

Montego Bay                       Bobby Bloom                                               2:55

If I Can’t Have You            Yvonne Elliman                                              3:00

SONG TITLE                         ARTIST                                                     TIME

Play That Funky Music      Wild Cherry                                                    3:16

One Toke Over the Line    Brewer & Shipley                                            3:21

Afternoon Delight          Starland Vocal Band                                           3:14

Life is a Rock                      Reunion                                                        3:31

I Can Help                         Billy Swan                                                       2:57

My Maria                       B.W. Stevenson                                                  2:31

Magnet and Steel            Walter Egan                                                     3:25

Beach Baby                    First Class                                                         2:42

The Rapper                   The Jaggerz                                                        2:45

Brother Louie                  Stories                                                               3:57

Precious and Few            Climax                                                              2:46

O-o-h Child               The 5 Stairsteps                                                      3:15

Playground in My Mind    Clint Holmes                                                     2:57

Put Your Hand In The Hand   Ocean                                                        2:53

Please Come to Boston    David Loggins                                                  4:09

SONG TITLE                      ARTIST                                                         TIME

Turn The Beat Around    Vicki Sue Robinson                                            3:24

Ring My Bell                     Anita Ward                                                        3:31

Sometimes When We Touch   Dan Hill                                                      2:22

Rose Garden               Lynn Anderson                                                      2:49

In The Summertime      Mungo Jerry                                                         3:37

Seasons in the Sun      Terry Jacks                                                           3:30

The Night Chicago Died   Paper Lace                                                       3:32

Rock The Boat            Hues Corporation                                                  3:09

Don’t Give Up on Us        David Soul                                                        3:39

Kung Fu Fighting         Carl Douglas                                                         3:17

Love Grows                Edison Lighthouse                                                  2:51

Sweet Mary              Wadsworth Mansion                                                 2:42

The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia   Vicki Lawrence                     3:36

TSOP             MFSB featuring the Three Degrees                                   3:35

Feelings                    Morris Albert                                                            3:45

[aion-rsa]

Where in Fiction Would You Spend Christmas?

https://ift.tt/34FuLCB

It’s been a staying-in kind of year. That New Year’s Resolution you made to travel more? It’s gained 20 pounds, started cutting its own hair and is now in a jigsaw club with your neighbour Ken. The only marathon you’ve completed in 2020 is a Battlestar Galactica rewatch. The only mountain you’ve climbed is the metaphorical one it takes to shower daily. That beach trip you’d planned? It went okay actually. You made some bells by selling coconuts to Nook’s Cranny and dug up a bunch of Manila Clams with a flimsy shovel.

For obvious reasons, escape is on our minds this year more than most. So we started thinking, if you had your wishing socks on, where in the collected imaginations of everyone who’s ever dreamt up a film, TV show, game or book, would you spend the holidays? On the holodeck of the Starship Enterprise or roasting on an open fire with The Simpsons, exchanging gifts with Ewoks or witnessing Scrooge McDuck’s transformation from miser to philanthropist first hand?  

To get things started, here’s what our writers picked…

Alec Bojalad would spend Christmas … reveling with the Sterling Cooper staff on Mad Men

If I’m to indulge this hypothetical in which I’m torn away from one reality and thrust into another, one thing is very clear: I will have to be extremely intoxicated to avoid my heart exploding from the stressful terror of it all. Thankfully, I know exactly where in pop culture to go to get absolutely blitzed: Mad Men. In terms of sheer debauchery, a Sterling Cooper Christmas party probably falls somewhere between a Bacchanalian orgy and Valhalla itself. As Don, Roger, Bert, Peggy, and company gather together to celebrate another successful year schmoozing clients and sexually harassing one another, I will don my finest 1960s attire and infiltrate the festive event. 

As Don Draper wonders who this soft-bodied weirdo in an ill-fitting suit is, I’ll catch up with Harry Crane about television. Then I’ll ask to see Bert Cooper’s weird tentacle porn painting. Sometime around my 9th J&B Whisky on the rocks I’ll visit the secretarial pool and beg them to demand better treatment because “you’ree ssssooo strong and eleganttt. Don’t listen to thessseee men. They’re Mad Men.” Hopefully I’ll be taken away to an old-timey hospital at that point, given electroshock treatment, and return back to my own continuity.  

Ryan Britt would spend Christmas… at Deanna and Will’s cabin from Star Trek: Picard

When Jean-Luc Picard uses the spatial projector to zap himself and Soji across the galaxy to the planet Nepethene, the result is a cozy pizza dinner with Will Riker, Deanna Troi and their daughter Kestra. For those who had been pining for more ‘90s nostalgia in this Trek series, the episode ‘Nepthene’ delivered, but with a strong shot of realism. Although Picard was written and created before the Covid-19 pandemic, the idea that Riker and Troi would leave the busy and crowded life of Starfleet, and retire in a remote cabin to protect their family is a choice many have actually faced in 2020. As people around the world have fled pandemic epicenters and tried to put shields around their own families, the peaceful and remote home of the Riker-Trois represents the optimistic ideal of Star Trek with a quiet, and very close-to-home twist. 

Spending time with the Riker-Troi family would mean great conversation, great music (oh the jazz!) and, above all, great food. I would happily put my own family in their ‘pod’ if only so Kestra could teach my three-year-old daughter the best way to construct a bow and arrow, and of course, how to learn that secret language of butterflies. 

Then, after the kids were in bed, having a glass of wine or some Romulan whiskey with Will out on the porch sounds pretty damn perfect. 2020 has been tough. A bear hug from Riker seems like the perfect Christmas gift of all. 

Caroline Preece would spend Christmas… at The Muppet Christmas Carol’s Penguin Skating Party

Ever since young-me set eyes on the ultra-festive world of The Muppet Christmas Carol I’ve wanted to visit. I can’t imagine a better way to spend Christmas Eve than in the cuddly version of Dickens’ cautionary tale, helping Kermit and his co-workers tidy up Scrooge’s office for the holidays, dancing down the snowy London streets and attending the Penguins’ annual Christmas skating party as the ultimate topper to a perfect evening. 

As well as being super-merry and joyous (‘tis the season), judging by Kermit’s performance on the ice, they let anyone take part.

It could just be the general lack of socialising and festive frivolity in 2020, but Bob Cratchit’s hopeful walk home from the office (remember the office?!?) on the night before Christmas has always epitomised the idea that the anticipation of Christmas Day is the best part. Add to that a trip to the market to pick up some singing vegetables, or the cosy Cratchit dinner with Miss Piggy and their gaggle of pig and frog offspring, and it’s a version of old-timey festive cheer that will always hold a place in my heart.

Louisa Mellor would spend Christmas… with the strippers in Hustlers

This choice won’t reflect well on me. It’s neither edifying nor improving and has a core of savage capitalist consumerism, which is probably what makes it so Christmassy. Midway through Lorraine Scafaria’s Hustlers – a film about a group of strippers who right the wrongs of the 2008 financial crisis by drugging Wall Street guys to run up their company credit cards – there’s a scene that’d make anyone’s heart grow three sizes. 

A dozen lap dancers gather for Christmas in a high-end apartment, their daughters and a grandmother in tow. Dressed in luxe loungewear and chunky gold, their skin glowing like a sucked butterscotch, they swap gifts, smile and sing and dance and thank the lord for their sisters. Expensive elegance is everywhere. Someone gets a fur coat, somebody else a pair of animal-print Louboutins. The woman who dips the dancers’ tits in bowls of ice before they go on stage is given an iPhone 4. Mostly though, they give each other affirmation. Without a natural hair colour, nude fingernail or a man in sight, it’s a dream family Christmas. Picture a Norman Rockwell painting with Jennifer Lopez in gold lamé, a cashmere Santa hat and a balcony bra. Feel-good festive perfection. 

Michael Ahr would spend Christmas… secluded in Hogwarts

Some may have found Harry Potter’s winter holidays without his friends rather lonely, but I can think of nothing more magical than having the vast empty halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry all to myself. Why let the staff have the warm, dry, magical snow that fell annually in the Great Hall all to themselves? Not being of school age myself anymore, I might choose to share a butterbeer (or perhaps a hot buttered rum) with Dumbledore and Hagrid by a roaring fire.

I might even be tempted to make the trip to Hogsmeade to see all the shops decked out with lights and blanketed in snow. I’d still be able to enjoy the comparative solitude without all the kids running around, but I’m almost certain there would be a group of carolers wandering about the square, never mind the singing enchanted suits of armor back at the school. And of course, if I could pick a particular present, I’d choose to receive the same amazing gift Harry received that first Christmas from Dumbledore: his father’s Invisibility Cloak. I’d likewise pass it along as a family heirloom to my own children on some Christmas morning to come.

Jamie Andrew would spend Christmas… in a Deep Space Nine Holosuite

At first, I entertained the idea of spending Christmas in Baltimore with the denizens of The Wire, mainly because I liked the idea of children running up and down the streets hollering, ‘Omar’s coming!’ moments before the shotgun-wielding Robin Hood of the Hood came swaggering down the street wearing a big red coat and a white beard, tossing out bank notes and whistling ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’. Then I realised that the chances of me ending up a corpse inside a boarded-up derelict building before the turkey was even cooked were surprisingly high, so I thought I’d try Christmas with Frasier Crane and family instead. Unfortunately, my foreknowledge of Martin’s and Eddie’s deaths would cloud the occasion, and I’d probably spend all night slumped crying in Martin’s recliner, unable to tell anyone why I was so upset without violating the temporal time directive. 

Best, then, to spend Yule time on Deep Space Nine. Christianity and its associated festive traditions don’t appear to exist in the 24th Century, so after saying hello to Sisko and co., and maybe playing a bit of Dabo at Quark’s, I’d probably spend the rest of my time in a faithful Holosuite reproduction of a 1990s Irish bar on New Year’s Eve getting absolutely wasted with fellow Celt Chief O’Brien. Now THAT’S what I call Christmas. 

Juliette Harrisson would spend Christmas… in Narnia

Not, of course, the White Witch’s eternal winter, when it’s always winter but never Christmas, but a regular Christmas in Narnia. It would, of course, be a white Christmas because otherwise, how would Father Christmas come and deliver presents to everyone? So I could spend the season in a snowy woodland surrounded by magical creatures, and be in with a chance of a really good present. Or possibly a sewing machine.

Read more

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By Chris Farnell

On the first moonlit night when there’s snow on the ground, Narnian fauns, dryads, and dwarfs perform the Great Snow Dance, with the fauns and dryads dancing around while the dwarfs throw snowballs that don’t hit them (an often forgotten detail from the book version of The Silver Chair!). I would join in, although possibly not throw any snowballs as my aim isn’t that good. Then I’d go back to Mr Tumnus’s for sardines and cake on Christmas Eve and talk to him about his somewhat dubious taste in books (just what is Nymphs And Their Ways about, eh Tumnus?). I’d spend Christmas Day up at the castle of Cair Paravel, eating and drinking like a Queen, and then I’d go visit Mr and Mrs Beaver on Boxing Day for a feast of leftovers and maybe a little light ice fishing.

John Saavedra would spend Christmas…celebrating Life Day with Star Wars’ Poe Dameron 

No one has ever cared so much about Life Day, the Star Wars galaxy’s own version of Christmas, as much as ace pilot Poe Dameron does in the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special. From decorating the Millennium Falcon and choosing the right Life Day sweater to roasting the traditional tip-yip (also known as Endorian chicken), Poe shows there’s something much stronger than the Force in the Star Wars universe: holiday spirit. Who knew the Resistance hero best known for his knack at blowing stuff up had such a soft spot? 

Hanging with Poe on Life Day would mean chestnuts roasting on an open exhaust engine, drinking whatever passes for cocoa in the Star Wars galaxy, hanging out with Wookiees on their homeworld of Kashyyyk, singing festive carols in Huttese, and finding just the right Life Day tree for the Falcon. It’d also mean dancing to the hip tunes of Max Rebo’s drum (the rest of his band is unfortunately no longer with us) and partying with Lando Calrissian, Finn, Rose, Rey, Jannah, Mon Calamari, Jawas, Rodians, Ewoks, and maybe even Chewie’s son Lumpy. If you’re not sold by now, your taste in holiday parties might be bantha poodoo. 

Elizabeth Donoghue would spend Christmas…. at The Office’s Classy Christmas

Dunder Mifflin has many memorable Christmas parties, but Steve Carell’s final festive special includes some of my favourite things about The Office; weird Gabe, Michael’s enduring hatred of Toby, and Michael and Holly’s adorable relationship.

After Toby announces he is taking a leave of absence for jury duty (‘Thank you, Scranton Strangler. I love you. You just took one more person’s breath away’) Michael learns that Holly will be returning to Scranton and demands that Pam’s regular Christmas party must get classy. What makes a Christmas classy? A backwards Kangol-esque Santa hat, a red velvet smoking jacket and a quarter of a jazz quartet of course.

I would actively enjoy watching Dwight take down Jim in their snowball fight (total bully, needs to be taken down a peg or two), get drunk with Kelly and Meredith, dance with Phyllis and Erin and learn more about the enigma that is Creed. And although it is slightly more subdued than their Benihana and Moroccan Christmas parties, I’m sure we could keep the party going at a Poor Richard’s after-party.

Kayti Burt would spend Christmas … on Themyscira

The Amazons’ decision to opt out of the “Patriarch’s World” has always been a relatable one, but never so much as in The Year 2020. Historically, I’m not really a beach person, but Themyscira, aka Paradise Island, has a lot going for it: warm weather, a supportive community, and live sporting events where you don’t have to worry about some drunken dudebro spilling cheap beer on your toga. 

As far as I can tell from the Wonder Woman movies, no one (besides Young Diana, who’s usually working through some stuff) ever seems to be having a bad time on Themyscira. And why would you? The pre-Crisis comics incarnation of the island (which I am going to choose to accept as my holiday canon) includes indigeneous kangaroo-like creatures called Kangas that the Amazons ride like horses. Diana’s is called Jumpa; mine will be called Jimmy Hoppa, and we will explore the island’s cascading waterfalls and cliffside terraces together. In the evenings, I will attend performances at the Themysciran amphitheater with my new Amazonian friends or, if I’m feeling introverted, catch up on my book reading and crossword puzzles.

Listen, I wouldn’t want to spend forever on Themyscira—I’d miss my friends, family, and TV shows (Themyscira doesn’t seem to get a good wireless signal)—but a few weeks (or months, especially as I will be quarantining for my first two weeks) for Christmas 2020? Bring me to the enchanted feminist utopia.

Alana Joli Abbott would spend Yule… at the coven house from the Nightcraft Quartet

Witchkind, as presented in Shannon Page’s Nightcraft Quartet, don’t celebrate Christmas, but they do love a good Yuletide celebration. Page’s witches and warlocks are separate from humans, long lived, and magical. Young witches train in the magical arts at a coven house, living there like a dorm; the adult women of the coven (always numbering thirteen) may be involved in scientific research (like protagonist Callie), medicine and healing, or reading Tarot, and they teach their specialties to the young witches. The coven house is a central place where women gather to live, to practice magic together, to celebrate, and to honor traditional rituals. While Callie’s coven in San Francisco has their problems, the community there is caring and genuine, full of both youthful energy and centuries of experienced witchery. 

One of the perks of editing this series is that I get sneak peeks into parts of the story readers haven’t seen yet—including Yule decorations. Rather than cutting down dead trees, witches coax living fir boughs to weave along the walls and mantles, accented with red ribbon and gold—coins, beads, chains. I can imagine the cozy San Francisco coven house filled with witches all rushing to perform their tasks to make the perfect celebration, some of them convincing the fir boughs to expand in just the right ways while others brew hot chocolate or prepare the feast. I picture them eating in the large hall, voices lifted in joyful chatter, and then making their way out to the grounds beyond the house to celebrate beneath the stars, singing midwinter songs and looking forward to the next year. After months of 2020 with smaller communities and less human contact, being surrounded by such a vibrant, magical group of women sounds like just the right way to end my year.

Rosie Fletcher would spend Christmas… with the Roy family from Succession

Go hard or go home, they say, so since I can’t go home this year, I’m going round the Roys. That is, of course, the family at the centre of Succession, a show peopled by the very wealthiest and utterly worst. Festivities would be held at the home of patriarch Logan Roy. His children and their partners would be obliged to attend. Logan would hire a chef to cook, waiting staff to serve, some of whom he would abuse. I would give them sympathetic “I’m sorry” looks but do nothing, secretly thankful Logan’s ire wasn’t focused on me. 

In all likelihood I would be a figure like Greg (the egg), or Tom Wambsgans – mostly tolerated, vaguely despised and very much the second class citizens of the Roy clan, skulking on the periphery as Kendall, Roman and Shiv compete for Logan’s love and oldest son Connor comes up will another entirely ridiculous life plan – I dunno, maybe this year he’s decided that his next career move is to become Santa Claus. 

The food would be extraordinary. The booze the very finest – how long before, like Greg, I would be claiming the bottle of vintage rose champagne I had just motored through was ‘not my favourite’? And the dinner table conversation would be electric. Electric like an electric shock – sharp, painful, disorientating, unexpected. 

So Christmas has become too commercialised? Fine, fuck it. I’ll take the eye-wateringly expensive gift that’s grudgingly bestowed on me, I will gorge on the finest cheeses known to man and coat my tongue with port made from molten rubies, knowing I am on my way to moral bankruptcy and doing it anyway. Go hard or go home…

Kirsten Howard would spend Christmas… singing along in the closing moments of Scrooged 

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Christmas movie that feels as genuinely uplifting during its climax as 1988’s Scrooged. Bill Murray’s arrogant TV boss Frank Cross, having been visited by the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future, disrupts a live broadcast of A Christmas Carol to rant openly and honestly at the cast and crew (and eventually you) as he makes a passionate case for a life less invested in exploitation and capitalism, and eventually kicks off a collective singalong of Annie Lennox and Al Green’s version of ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart’.

That’s where I’d like to be this Christmas. Not just to sing along with Bill, but to be around people immediately swept along by the much-less-explored altruistic route of ‘no fucks given’. 

Also hanging out with Bill Murray, though, of course.

So much of the last few years has been a public race to the bottom of Nothing Matters Mountain, but even if it hadn’t all been so demoralising and forced so many of us to reevaluate our priorities, Frank’s message of redemption in love and living as well as we can, while shrugging off our own heavy expectations of success, still feels really special. 

This Christmas, there is light at the end of the tunnel. We may not be able to grab the nearest stranger and sing “put a little love in your heart!” at them right now, but we CAN carry that feeling with us into 2021. As Frank says: “There are people who are having trouble making their miracle happen”. We can always try and find time to stop focusing on our own for a while and to help them.

David Crow would spend Christmas… chilling with Harold and Kumar

Not many people are aware of this, but A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas is the best Harold and Kumar. It may not have the pop culture cache of their medicinal-fueled quest for mini-cheeseburgers, but it does have something very special, indeed: Wafflebot. If you’ve had the misfortune of living your life oblivious to Wafflebot’s existence, allow me to introduce you to a greater world of wonder and magic.

Wafflebot is the best Christmas present to ever come out of Santa’s Workshop. Displaying an eerily sophisticated artificial intelligence for a toy meant only to cook delicious breakfasts, Wafflebot can make you waffles any time by just popping the top and letting that batter drop. But he can also do so much more! Vaguely aware of the concept of friendship, this brunching Frankenstein can learn how to love and appreciate his owners… and defend them from any threat with scalding hot projectile syrup!

With the ability to serve breakfast, save your life, be manipulated into dangerous attack mode, and learn how to see the real you, all while playing a mean drum solo, Wafflebot would make any Christmas a sweetly warm experience. And then Harold and Kumar, and I could also steal a Christmas tree from NPH or something.

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The post Where in Fiction Would You Spend Christmas? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[bluepluto03]

mcu spiderman rewrite/au i may or may not do

ok so first quick disclaimer! i do not hate the mcu spider man movies in any way!! i actually enjoy them quite a bit and have seen homecoming like 4 times! and i absolutely adore all the actors in the movies, especially tom, zendaya, and jacob 

but the problem w/ the mcu spiderman movies is,,, they’re just not spiderman. at least from a writing/thematic perspective, which sucks bc so much other stuff about them is great! like tom holland is the perfect peter parker, which is why it seems so close to being right, but with the way the script is actually written... it’s just. not spider-man. 

i feel the need to explain all this/my problems w/ the movies b4 i get into the actuall au idea/plot, so please bear with me for a sec

for context, I’ve loved spiderman my whole life. i’d watch the cartoons when i was younger, and then went back and watched them all again when i was a bit older and figured out how to pirate stuff lol. i didn’t really know how to get into the comics, so i just kinda read wikis and got second-hand info from fanfics and the other movies

to me, spiderman, (at least, peter parker spiderman,) was always about like... a kid, who saw the world was broken and fixed it because he could. he had the power to fix stuff, so he did. 

as a kid w/ mental illness and a not so great home life... that was something really really important to me. to see another kid out there, who’s been through some shit, but finally has the power to make stuff better, so he is! and it would make me think, maybe i can change stuff for the better, someday, if i just get my chance

but,,,,, the problem is mcu peter parker isn’t that. 

instead of becoming spiderman bc he knows there’s bad in the world and wants to fix it, suddenly his motivation is impressing tony stark?? and don’t get me wrong i don’t hate tony, but the way they wrote his and peter’s relationship basically trapped peter. he could no longer be his own hero, bc he was tony’s successor. and that's never who peter parker’s spiderman was?? he was never a follower, he was a trendsetter. he didn’t become spiderman for approval, hell he had dozens of newspapers constantly slandering him. 

honestly the following in someone else’s footsteps thing was always a miles morales thing. he had to step up to the plate and fill the shoes of a spiderman who had already existed for years and was beloved by the whole city. obviously thats not all he is and simplifying his character to that is incredibly obtuse, but i bring it up bc tbh alot of stuff w/ mcu peter parker is just straight-up ripped off from miles morales. like how peter now goes to a fancy private school, is no longer poor (which is a huge thing w/ peter parker’s character in like every other incarnation), has a living father figure, and is bffs w/ ned, who is a straight-up rip off of miles’s best friend ganke. (for the record tho i adore ned and jacob i’m def keeping him in my rewrite,,,, also i’m glad he’s in the movie bc having a plus sized poc protagonist thats not constantly mocked is incredible) 

so, i’m complaining about all this stuff lol but ur probably wondering how exactly how i wanna fix it lol,,,, 

first, give peter an arc thats more than just..... i want tony to believe in me. my idea for that is basically a type of thing where he learns to rely on others! bc like... peter isn’t good at working w/ others lol, he’d much rather do it all himself so no one else gets hurt. (like in the andrew garfield movies where he just,,,, webs his gf to a car so she can’t run into danger lmao) 

the plot would start at a similar ish position to homecoming, though tony never recruits peter for civil war. tbh not sure if it even happened but we’ll disscuss that later

peter’s been spiderman for a few months, after a trip to oscorp left him w/ a radioactive spider bite. currently no one knows about it, and he’s doing a pretty ok job of dealing w/ everything on his own. until he takes down a big bad, lets say rhino for now, and gains a ton of publicity. after stooping a hudge disaster he’s suddenly in the limelight, and catches the attention of one norman osborn, aka the green goblin 

now, quick sidenote. green goblin is genreally seen as pretty goofy, but there are comic versions of him that are legit terrifying. if im being honest i didn’t even know about that version until i read aloneintherains fic birds eating other birds so ig thats kinda ish how i’m imagining this version of norman? though alot more composed, like the man who could someday turn into that 

so norman becomes intrested in my boy peter, and starts sending ppl after him. possibly the sinister 6, but uhh maybe not bc tbh i think this “rewrite” needs to be split into 2 “movies”/works and i might wanna save that for the hypothetical pt2 (btw if i write this it won’t b for a while cause i got other stuff going on but ig if ppl are intrested i might write some snippits/make more content for it) 

so basically the main plot is peter dealing w/ all these big bads on his own, doing ok at first but later getting really fucked up, and eventually revealing himself to ned and mj which ends up being the only way he can save the day in the end. by relying on others! yay!! 

thats it for the main plot, but don’t worry y’all we got other stuff going on too lmao 

so, for one. my boy peter is realizing he has a crush and just,,,, freaking tf out. (i have yet to decide if it’s on ned or mj. or both. sue me) the crush isn’t definitely resolved in p1, but i imagine there’d be some cute thing of him suddenly realizing and freaking out and almost revealing his powers. 

thing 2! tony stark! he is still in here, and still a mentor to peter, but in a pretty drastically different way. one, he doesn't know about peter being spiderman. he doesn't even suspect it lmao. he just gets involved bc of.... some sort of reason bc peter is so smart. do i know why just yet? no. does it matter? probably but i’m writing this pretty late after i had school all day so i’m too tired to care 

bc tony basically gives peter a real internship/mentorship type thing, peter now has access to all this tech!! and all these funds!! fucking lit!! so he changes from his pajama suit to the fancy one, tho he actually built it!! which i feel like him making his suit is a really big really important part of his character. so it doesn't really have all those random things tony added, tho peter might add stuff himself. he gets Karan as a like assistant ai as part of his internship but she never gets put into the suit

for the fist part tony plays a super minor role but like,,,, the first part is about osborn taking an intrest in him, and him confiding in ned and mj. the second part norman is become progressively more dangorus and peter has to fight him and stuff, kinda proving he is strong enough to be spiderman/be trusted to the whole world, beyond just ned and mj. also him actually getting together w/ either one or both of them bc...... bc i want that. 

oh btw idk if tony finds out or not in p2? if he does it’s either at the end or in a scene like the one w/ may bc like. please imagine the shenanigans of peter and ned (who both have high intellegence but low wisdom) in tony’s lab, obviously trying to hide the fact that peter’s spiderman. like he walks in on them and peter looks all frumpy bc he’s been trying to change real fast, and ned’s shirt is messed up bc he just stuffed the mask down the front of it, and mj is just. chilling behing them. so tony just like assumes stuff and is like....aight.... have fun.... 

oh btw the last big change that i didn’t really have anyway to insert natrually into this,,,, so remember how i said ned was kinda a ripoff of ganke? well, the writers claim he’s a “composite character” so i figured, why not give him traits from other famous spiderman side character so he actually is a composite character! 

so like,,,, throughout p1 it’s referenced that ned has a kinda dickish estranged ish dad that he hates and his mom doesn't really like but kinda forces him too... theres some mentions of his dad wanting him to transfer to a private school and being kinda rich, bur he dosen’t want to bc he knows his dad is a total dickead,,,, anyway end of the movie we find out norman osborn is ned’s dad, and ned hates him even fucking more bc it’s like bitch?? u tried to get my (maybe) bf murdered?? tf?? and its lowkey bc he can’t reveal peter’s id, but then in p2 after norman takes matters into his own hands and tries to kill peter on his own ned just fucking yells at him while the man is in jail and is like fuck u lmao 

soooo thats my really messy au idea!! i’m really tired sorry if this is hard to understand or rude! for the record i have nothing against the ppl who adore these movie’s, i just think they could be better! 

[wolfwhiteflowers]

 *i found the article with those quotes that’s going around and found it and lol omg such a pushy shippy article. I edited it a bit. (I don’t really expect so much on the romance...and I think Daryl is demisexual?)

Kirsten Acuna/Insider composite Norman Reedus tells Insider he's constantly asked about whether or not Daryl may wind up with Connie or Carol. He says he has read the character as asexual before.

“The Walking Dead” fans are a flutter over whether or not Daryl may end up with Connie or longtime friend Carol. It’s a question Norman Reedus told Insider he hears all the time at Paleyfest. So we asked him if he has ever read his character as asexual. Reedus said he has. “I’ve gotten a lot of fan mail thanking me for being asexual,” Reedus told Insider. Reedus didn’t confirm that Daryl is asexual on the show, telling another reporter on the red carpet as much when they attempted to ask more about Daryl’s sexuality. He told us if any sort of relationship is to be explored, that Daryl’s not the type of guy who’s going to have a one-night stand. Care has to be taken with the story.

If you ask Norman Reedus whether or not Daryl will wind up with longtime friend Carol or new pal Connie on AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” you’re likely to get the following response.

“Oh my God. The forever question,” Reedus playfully told Insider at Paleyfest in New York City earlier this month. “I think there’s certain things about both of them.”

“I think he likes them both for different reasons,” Reedus said of Daryl’s relationships on the show with Carol and Connie. “The whole ‘shipping’ thing, I don’t really know how to answer it. I’m not supposed to answer it, and I get asked literally every other question.”

 Reedus didn’t say Daryl is asexual on “TWD,” but he did tell Insider he has read his character that way before.

Daryl is one of the few characters on “TWD” who hasn’t had any romantic entanglements across the AMC show’s run, leading some to wonder if he’s even interested in any sort of relationship that’s more than platonic.

When asked if he’s ever read Daryl as asexual, Reedus told us, “Yeah, I have, quite a bit. I’ve gotten a lot of fan mail thanking me for being asexual.”

Reedus clarified with the next reporter on the red carpet that he never said Daryl is asexual. In 2014, “The Walking Dead” comic creator Robert Kirkman said on the series’ aftershow “Talking Dead,” the character is somewhat asexual.

“Daryl Dixon is being somewhat asexual on the show,” said Kirkman in 2014. “I think that he’s a very introverted character and I think that’s somewhat his appeal.”

Reedus hints we could see Daryl open up more this season. In the past, he hasn’t been able to because of the story line and the direction of his character.

“He’s definitely a loner, but you might see him open up a little bit,” said Reedus of Daryl on season 10. “I think he keeps getting hints of roads to go down and either they get taken away from him because of the story line or he gets the opportunity to go full throttle with them. He’s an interesting character.”

The past few seasons have had a major focus on a few big departures from the show, including two of its main stars, Andrew Lincoln and Chandler Riggs. As a result, Daryl took a bit of a back seat for a while.

Since Glenn’s death on the season seven premiere, which Daryl held himself responsible for, Reedus’ character became even more introverted, often speaking in grunts or fragmented sentences. He was also held prisoner by Negan in a cell for a time.

It wasn’t until the season nine premiere last year, in which the show jumped forward a year-and-a-half, that Reedus started getting a significant amount of dialogue on the show again. It was a change fans immediately noticed in his character and something that even Reedus acknowledged on aftershow “Talking Dead.”

Reedus said we’re seeing a very different Daryl than we have in previous seasons and that any pairing has to be done right because you only get one shot at it.

“It’s just one of those things. You do it, it’s gone. You can only do it once,” said Reedus of diving into any sort of relationship with Daryl’s character.

“Like I’ve said a million times, I don’t think he’s the type of guy that’s just going to have a one-night stand,” said Reedus.

No time was that clearer than on the season three premiere when Carol suggested the two mess around a bit after Daryl rubbed her back and he turned down the idea. Reedus agreed.

“I think [Daryl] has a lot of issues that he’s dealing with that if he’s going to go there, he’s going to really mean it, so you have to be really careful with it,” he said.

So, back to the ‘forever question.’ Should fans expect to see Daryl with Connie or Carol this season or neither?

Foto: Connie compliments Daryl on his signing on the season 10 premiere of “TWD.”

On the show’s season 10 premiere, Daryl shows a greater interest in communicating with Connie and her sister Kelly. He’s walking around with an American Sign Language book and is signing more.

But he also spends a lot of time with Carol. The two even toss around the idea of possibly running away together to New Mexico. Daryl calls Carol his best friend, but fans have often wondered if we may see something more between the two.

Foto: Daryl gives Carol a friendship bracelet on the season 10 premiere of “The Walking Dead” while the two consider running away together.

So what’s going on? Should we expect to see something with Daryl and Carol or Daryl and Connie, or are they all just friends?

“I think they have this kind of chemistry that’s really interesting and fun,” “TWD” showrunner Angela Kang told Insider of Connie and Daryl.

Kelly has certainly noticed that Connie may have eyes for Daryl. She shared an improvised eyebrow raise with her sister on the season 10 premiere as Daryl approached them, a moment Kang loved.

“The characters around them, they have their own wonderings and musings about this blossoming friendship or relationship between the two,” said Kang.

Foto: Norman Reedus told Insider that Daryl views Connie as an equal.

While the show will continue to explore Connie and Daryl, Kang promises fans will see a lot more of Carol on screen as well with the fan favorite.

“There will be a lot of Carol and Daryl this season,” Kang said. “As Norman was saying on the Comic Con panel, it’s really complicated. We’re showing a relationship that’s very deep and deep relationships can have a lot of complication.”

Foto: Fans will see Carol and Daryl spend more time together on episode three of the season.

Fans have already started to see some of those complications. Daryl upset Carol when he let a perfectly good deer go once it crossed into Whisperer territory. Last season, the Whisperers kidnapped and killed her surrogate son, Henry, and brutally stuck his head on a pike for her to find. Carol has a lot of animosity toward the group.

“When two people trust each other and love each other and care about each other so much, when things feel wrong, when somebody’s making decisions the other person is concerned about for whatever reason, that complicates the relationship,” Kang added. “There will be a lot of Carol and Daryl. In a lot of ways [they’re] at the heart of this story of the Whisperers.”

Foto: Daryl and Carol are already in disagreement over how to deal with the Whisperers. The photo above is from Sunday’s upcoming episode of the show.

When asked whether or not fans should expect them to stay friends or to have a relationship, Kang said, “People will read into it what they will. But what we know is that those two are inextricably tied to each other.”

[xladyxfatex]

Little Dove (Chapter Two)

Thank you to @neversatisfiedgirlfics and @theworldofotps for their help! _________________ Several hours later they arrived in Georgia. The flight was mostly spent sleeping giving the early morning events. Upon claiming their baggage Nicole and Norman both heard a very familiar voice shout.

"HEY! OVER HERE!" Once they looked where the shouting was coming from they found Andrew Lincoln happily waving at the pair. Both chuckled, as Nicole attempted to ask if this was a common greeting between the pair when Norman returned. Pulling up her hood Nicole and Norman approached Andrew. Nicole didn't care that others on the plane saw the cuts and bruises on her face, but she did care that someone she thought of as a close acquaintance a borderline friend saw. 

Andrew and Norman did their whole weird friend handshake thing causing Nicole to giggle. Andrew gave Nicole a huge hug and told her how much everyone had missed her. She lifted her head and blushed slightly. That was when Andrew caught some of her facial injuries. He looked at Norman with a raised eyebrow but said nothing out loud.  Andrew grabbed Nicole's duffel bags and began to lead them to the car.

"Just so you know, there are two options Nicole. The rooms were already booked, so Norman only has a king-sized bed, but there is one room left that you can take if you aren't comfortable sharing a bed with him." Andrew laughed as he spoke and Norman's eyes went wide. Nicole, however, sat in the back and scratched the back of her neck.

"I...ahh..I mean I guess me and Norman should talk about that? Though......" she trailed as she was lost in thought again. If Norman was currently unattached he would undoubtedly be picking up a female while they were here. The thought caused pain in her chest as drew in a shaky breath. "On second thought I know my best friend all too well I'm sure it won't be long before he has a new hook up, I'll the last room, thank you, Andrew." Hell, even Andrew could hear her voice break at the mention of Norman finding a hookup. 

"Of course Little Dove! I'll even help bring your bags to your room. Sound good?" Andrew glared daggers at Norman, to Andrew Norman losing any chance he had with the woman he claimed he was in love with for so long. They were going to have a beyond serious talk after he helped get Nicole settled. They arrived minutes later at the hotel each getting keys to their respective rooms.  Norman went to unpack feeling uncomfortable with the facts his best friend the girl he loved spoke on the way here. Andrew took Nicole to her room. It was on the same floor as Norman's but the opposite end.

Unlocking the door the two walked in, and without thinking much of it Nicole removed her hoodie. Andrew gasped as he saw the true extent of her injuries and she flinched when she realized her mistake.

"Oh God Little Dove, what happened?" 

And with that, she recounted the evening before, the fight, the hits, the fact that she ended up at Norman's, the phone call, the threat, how she slept in the guest room, how she gathered all her shit from her house, how she filed a police report and put the house up for sale.

"You put it up for sale? But you loved that house?" Andrew was worried he knew the time and effort Nicole had put in to make that house wonderful and hers. She simply shook her head, the reason she put it up for sale she hadn't even told Norman yet.

"Andy, if I tell you the true reason I put my home up for sale, will you please be the one to tell Norman?" Her voice soft and frail as if speaking the truth would break her into a thousand pieces. Andrew simply nodded in agreement.

"I know you know I stopped talking to well everyone including Norman 8 months ago.  Eric didn't like me having friends, to keep better control of me at least that's what I realize it was now, he moved into my home after about a month and half of being together. That's when he started insulting me, telling me you and the cast just felt bad for me you weren't my real friends, he said Norman was just using me that even though we'd been friends since childhood it was clear I was nothing to him cause I was nothing like the women he'd be with. When I told him that was all bullshit and to never speak of any of you, especially Norman that way, he began beating me. It was nearly a daily experience. But as he hit me, throw me around he always reminded me I was nothing to Norman....and I started to believe it was true. I've in love with him for as long as I can remember Andrew, every time he was with someone new I had to pretend it didn't hurt, and then when it ended when he needed someone I was always the one he'd call and I stupidly dropped everything and ran to him. It's clear I'll never be more than a friend and I need to be okay with that. But the house had to be sold, I can't live where those memories are being abused and made to see the truth I  didn't want to see." Nicole was crying she'd bared her truest self to Andrew just now. 

Andrew held her while she cried. He knew he was going to have a serious talk with Norman there was no way around it everything needed to come out. Nicole eventually let go of Andrew and apologize greatly for crying all over him. He just chuckled and waved it off. Making sure she was ok before saying goodnight Andrew left.

Walking down the corridor Andrew began formulating a plan. He now knew how both Norman and Nicole felt for each other and anyone who'd ever seen them together would know they were made for one another. But now a great obstacle other than their dammed stubbornness stood in the way, that being what Eric got Nicole to believe. Andrew groaned at how the hell he was going to fix that but realized rather quickly it wasn't him he could, it was going to have to be Norman himself. Grumbling he knocked on Norman's door. 

"You've got to be fucking kidding me! He made her believe what!" Norman was beyond outraged, and honestly now if he could he would gladly beat the living shit out of the worthless asshole. Andrew had recounted practically verbatim what Nicole told him, about why she was selling the house, how the asshat abused her on multiple levels, and how he crawled inside her head to make her believe she was nothing more than long term plaything to Norman.

"Dude, chill out. YOU can fix this, you can get the girl fuck now you know she loves you just as much! You just need to get your shit together. Start slow ease her back into herself show her.....prove to her that what she was convinced was the truth is nothing more than a giant falsehood." Andrew was trying to claim Norman down, though it seemed short of punching Eric in the face repeatedly nothing would claim him down. 

Suddenly the sound of a soft knock on the door broke the two away from their thoughts. 

"Who is it!" Norman yelled having not been expecting anyone else.

A soft voice on the side of the door replied: "It's Nicole."

Andrew placed a hand on Norman's shoulder and whispered: "This is where you start making shit better." Then he answered the door. 

"Hello, Nicole! Come in I was just leaving." Waving goodbye Andrew finally headed for his own room 

Nicole looked at feet she was nervous, and she didn't want to meet the eyes of her best friend whom now most likely knew she was in love with him. 

"Look! Before you say anything please, I know you most likely don't feel the same, and that's fine, just pretend you don't how I feel. I can't....please I don't want to lose your friendship." Nicole's voice was vulnerable and scared. Losing him again was breaking her more then she thought. 

Norman lifted Nicole's chin and looked into her eyes, he saw hurt, confusion, and fear.  He leaned over and gently spoke in her ear. " What if I don't want to forget about it? What if I want to remember? What if......what if I've  been in love with for years but never thought you'd feel the same?" He placed a soft next to ear and pulled back.

Nicole looked into his eyes searched his face for any hint of a lie of misgivings in the words he spoke. But all she found was innocence and truth. Reaching up she cupped his cheek and placed a gentle kiss on the on the corner of his mouth. 

"We've known each other forever, but could we take this slow, please?" There was no denying she wanted him in every sense of the word, but with everything that happened in the last 24 hours she didn't think starting something with her best friend was the way to go. Even if she had been waiting for years for this opportunity. 

He could understand on several levels why she'd want to take this slow, first the damage caused by the shithead ex, plus she was familiar with his own reputation, and finally, everything that had gone down in the last 24 hours. It would be wrong to force this, and as much as he wanted her he would patient, he'd prove his reputation wrong, and he'd help her heal.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of August 28th, 2019

Best of this Week: Spider-Man Life Story #6: The ‘10s - Chip Zdarsky, Mark Bagley, Drew Hennessy, Frank D’Armata and Travis Lanham

All good things must come to an end. That’s the main theme of this final issue of Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley’s phenomenal Life Story miniseries as it recounts the last adventure that Spider-Man goes on as he leaves the world free and safe in the capable hands of the new generation of superheroes.

Comic books are cyclical. For some heroes, you get a short run, 6-12 issues and then they disappear for years until they’re needed again for some big event. For the bigger heroes, there are ongoing series that last years upon years with some BIG changes that inevitably get reversed for the sake of reestablishing the status quo. It’s understandable, recognizable names draw big money, but there’s only so many times you can see a hero fight a particular villain before it becomes trite and meaningless.

The same goes for their daily lives as well. Peter Parker has been stuck as a meandering young adult for the better part of a decade since the events of One More Day and he hasn’t been allowed to grow past his immaturity, save for the few times when the situations have become desperate and dire. Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows tried to posit a family man Peter Parker in an alternate universe, but for the most part he came off as just regular Peter with a kid to banter off of. Nick Spencer and Tom Taylor are doing their best in their respective Spider-Man series to get Spider-Man back to a position where things actively change for him, but Chip Zdarsky has gone the extra mile.

The Spider-Man Life Story miniseries goes through Peter’s life if he actually aged with the decades that all of his comics took place in. He goes through the struggles of being an American citizen straddling the fence during Vietnam, the aftermath boiling to a superhuman civil war, a better Clone Saga of the 90s, Aunt May’s death, the start of the information age and finally having children and watching them grow up. Peter Parker is allowed to grow old, change with the times. He sees old friends die, new heroes emerge, give his take on current events of the time and it’s all been amazing.

I know I mentioned that fighting the same villains over and over can seem trite and meaningless, but that’s only when they’re done for the sake of being done. In this fantastic take on the Superior Spider-Man story, Peter and Otto have their absolute final confrontation with one another over the body and soul of the young Miles Morales. Peter and Miles are shot into space to stop some sort of satellite created by Doctor Doom that allowed him to fill the power vacuum left by Captain America and Iron Man’s Civil War. As the two explore, Peter is attacked by Kraven wearing the Venom symbiote, but he dispatches the villain easily and it’s revealed that the suit was just piloting a are skeleton.

Miles questions how it was possible and Peter replies that all of his old enemies are dead and rightfully accuses Miles of being Otto Octavius, Doctor Octopus. Otto reveals his scheme, but instead of fighting Pete physically, he chooses instead to go into the mindscape and have a battle of the intellect as they were always destined to do. 

Bagey pulls out all of his stops as he draws Spider-Man costumes from the various decades as well as beautifully illustrates some of the best of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery as they battle for supremacy. Set against a white background, the characters shine with their vibrant colors, dynamic posing and Bagley’s ever amazing facial expressions. I have never seen Otto look so menacingly mad and subsequently, once Peter defeats him, absolutely crushed. 

Using the only person that Peter knew Otto cared about, Aunt May, she’s able to convince Otto to let go of his hatred and rage. She tells him to let Miles live his life, to move on. I really felt this and inside, it feels like Zdarsky is also telling us that sometimes we have to let the status quo go. Spider-Man has been around for longer than some of us have been alive and will be long after most of us are gone. Do we really want him to be the same mid-20s to early 30s hero that we knew, or do we want to spend our time with someone new? Miles Morales is a little more than ten years old, he’s fairly young as a character and I wholeheartedly believe that he can carry on the Spider-Man name on his own.

As the satellite starts to collapse and there’s only one escape pod left, Peter chooses to save Miles and sacrifice himself so that the future can flourish in peace due to his heroism. It’s a true heroes death and something that we almost never see (and likely never will), but if this were a true moment of closure, then I would be happy with it. Peter Parker is known for having more guilt than a Catholic who hasn’t been to Mass for a month (or Daredevil) and as he finally closes his eyes for the final time, he has a nice conversation with Mary Jane and recounts his recurring dream of the day he truly learned about power and responsibility. The last panel is his guilt finally being washed away.

If there is one series I would recommend anyone read, hands down, without a doubt it would be this one. Chip Zdarsky has a strange yet beautiful understanding of how to tell a story with characters that some of us know better than our own family members. Mark Bagley has the art skills to make us care about them immensely as well. Putting these two together as well as their amazing inker in Andrew Hennessy and colorist in Frank D’Armata, they sell you on each decade presented and how Peter changes throughout. 

Spider-Man isn’t the same plucky youth we met in the 1960s. By the end of his story, he’s led a full life full of adventure and his time has been well spent making sure that it was a future worth living in. Isn’t that something that we all can only dream of?

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

God is Here.

Runner Up: Absolute Carnage #2 - Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin and Clayton Cowles

After the events of the last issue there aren’t enough words to describe just how hopeless things are looking for anyone who has ever worn a symbiote.

Spider-Man and venom have been backed into a corner by Carnage and his horde of infected inmates at the Ravencroft Asylum. With no other options Eddie decides it best to break out and punches a hole through the wall for a tactical retreat. Eddie is typically known for his ability to brute force his way through any problem, but Carnage is a new monster altogether and as he sees Spider-Man running out of energy, he gives into the fear that they might die.

In the past, the combined might of Spider-Man and Venom has been more than enough to combat Cletus Kasady. Even when Cletus had help, he still couldn't hold a candle to the heroes, but now, they're almost low tier by comparison.

Spider-Man notes that he's almost out of web fluid, so there's no way that they're swinging out of there, so Eddie and the Symbiote utilize one of their badass upgrades, spreads his wings and flies out of Ravencroft with Peter screaming frantically "WHATISGOINGONRIGHTNOWIHATEALLOFIT!" They then land on a roof in the city, defeated and horrified that they may not be able to stop Carnage this time.

Spider-Man says that he'll try to get a hold of Wolverine and Captain America and Eddie says that he'll go find any of the lowlifes that have been Symbiotes and the two split to complete their missions. Carnage chooses not to follow after them, instead he waits and plots. This issue then turns into a bit of a catch up game for the other tie in issues while Carnage gloats to Norman that everything is running smoothly and that the world will be painted red soon enough.

Ryan Stegman absolutely smashes the art in this issue with absolutely killer detail, expressions of fear and disgusting visuals, especially in Carnage's underground lair - The sprawling mass of symbiotic flesh that covers New York's sewage system, packed full of infected humans is a dreadful sight. In the beginning of the issue, Stegman drew a splash page of Carnage with other panels overlaid, showing one of his eyes of madness and the decayed flesh that's absolutely under the symbiote. It's an absolutely terrifying sight that set the tone of this horror show.

Not only were these shots great, but Stegman kills one of the moments that happens in the Miles Morales tie-in where Miles and Scorpion (Mac Gargan) fight off the infected hordes trying to take Gargan's spine. In the tie-in, the art is more subdued and less violent, but here, Stegman turns it into something to get squeamish over. Gargan tries to abandon Miles to fight the infected alone, but is thrown back into the fight by Venom.

Unfortunately, Carnage is there waiting to pounce. He plunges a tendril into Mac's back and DIGS around to get that spine. There's no need to leave anything to the imagination as the blood spurts out, Gargan screams in agony and Kasady looks like he's having the goddamned time of his life. Mayer and Martin's colors and inks really sell just how violent all of this is. It's almost gross just how close they get the color right and how dark the scene is. Miles swoops in to save him, but… no good deed goes unpunished.

Absolute Carnage absolutely does what it set out to do. I have never been more afraid for the Marvel Universe than I am right now. Of course, there have been universal threats, but with how close and personal this feels and the looming feeling of dread knowing that Knull is THIS close to returning is mortifying. Normally a villain will just kill a hero or destroy them and whatnot, but Carnage wants nothing but massacre. If there's not torture and blood then what is it all worth?

Everything that Cates and Stegman have been building to has lead us here. To say that it's beginning to lay off would be an understatement. The dividends of fear are fore more exponential than anyone could have anticipated and this will likely go down as one of the greatest Venom/Carnage stories ever written. Absolute High Recommend.

[tomxpayne]

some day, one day | self para.

WHO: Tom Payne. MENTIONS: Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Tiny mention(s) of; Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Katie Cassidy & Demi Lovato. WHEN: February 1st, 2020. WHERE: At one of the local bars. WARNING: Just some “light” cursing.

In a quiet night like it was tonight, the bar was definitely not the option you would find Tom to be at. He would have come home late from work, have a nice, relaxing bath and after that, he would relax in bed with Demi and their pets, maybe watch a movie or talk until after midnight, get carried away with words, memories, future plans. Tonight was not that kind of a night though. The man left work earlier than usual, leaving Lili to take care of a couple of things and close the store and he went straight to the nearest bar. It was definitely one of the nights he rarely had but definitely needed. When he walked inside it was not very busy, there were a few people there and it was decent quiet, which he liked.  The man made his ordered and when it arrived, before taking a sip he played a little with the glass on his hands, after the first sip his mind went into the future, started making different kind of thoughts. And that was the moment a familiar voice interrupted it. ➖ “Holy shit now that is someone I was not expecting to see here.”           Tom’s eyes looked up with a smirk on his lips, happy to hear the familiar voice and seen Jeffrey joining him at the bar. “I know, right? I ain’t that lame after all” the man joked with a soft chuckle before taking another sip from his drink, noticing that without even nodding the bartender had brought one for Jeffrey as well. “I see you come here often” he commented with a raised brow. “Nah,” Jeffrey said taking off his leather jacket. “I just made clear once that the moment I walk in, everyone does their job correctly” he simply explained to him and Tom nodded, not needing more information from the other man.      ➖”So, what the fuck are you doing here?” Jeffrey asked. Tom frowned a bit. Why wasn’t he home? Thinking that kind of stuff with the peace and quiet of his nice bed? He sighed before started speaking. “I have a dilemma,” he told him and Jeffrey chuckled. “Welcome to the fucking club, man” he commented with the familiar, devilish smirk on his lips. “I--” he paused not sure why he was so worried to talk openly about that. He knew Jeffrey for years and the two of them had shared a lot of things in their lives. He tilted his head on the side before taking a breath and just let it all out; “I want to propose to Demi” ➖ “Holy fuck” Jeffrey immediately replied without second thoughts. “Excuse my fucking French but Tommie boy, you are not even in a fucking relationship, what the fuck are you thinking?” he asked confused trying to understand what was going on inside his head that night. Tom sighed, he was expecting that reaction, that was the same reaction his little voice was keep saying inside his head. “Don’t you think I already know that?” Tom asked before finishing his drink and ordering another one. “I know that” he added.                             “I’ve known Demi for years, she was the first person I ever trusted after what happened between me and Jennifer” as rare as it was to talk about his past, it felt so good doing that now, maybe it was the alcohol on his system or maybe it was the need of talking to a good friend. For his own surprise though, Jeffrey was carefully listening, not interrupting, not making small, silly comments about the whole situation. So, that encouraged him more to continue. “I tried so many things since my engagement was canceled” he shrugged. “I was so lost in the beginning so I thought to change. I moved miles away from home, I changed my lifestyle and yes, I was sleeping with everything that was moving” he chuckled and so did Jeffrey. “It was not just a phase though. I liked being free but at the same time I was with someone while I was not, you know?” Jeffrey nodded positively. “It started as friends with benefits with Demi and I only wanted that because I truly believed and still believe she deserves something better than a vegan hippy who sleeps around with every female and male in town” he continued. “But I truly love her” he said while looking at Jeffrey now. “I do” he added. “She is the only one who can bright my day when everything goes shitty” he explained.  ➖ “But you are too scared” Jeffrey added and Tom nodded positively. “I am” he said. “I don’t know how she feels, I can’t just walk back home and be like, hey i want you to be my wife, shit like that don’t work like that” he sighed. “And this is why we start from the relationship” Jeffrey teased a little, trying to light up the mood a little bit. “Yeah” Tom agreed with a nod. “But it feels more than a relationship to me, you know?” he asked and Jeffrey nodded knowing the feeling all too well. “Love. It fucking sucks man” Jeffrey commented and Tom chuckled. “Tell me about it” he shook his head. ➖ “Your situation will be fine though. Now how the fuck do you fully commit to someone when you are too fucking scared for the commitment itself?” Jeffrey asked out of the blue and Tom looked at him like he was seen a ghost.                       “Are you thinking of proposing to Katie?” he asked. “No.” Jeffrey boldly replied. “Well,” he shrugged. “...No” he said again before finishing his drink.  ➖“Yeah you are” Tom commented not able to hide the smile on his lips. “Tom, no.” he said. “Ah, duh! Yes you are” Tom continued trying to make him say it out loud. “Okay fine, you fucking win, you fucking weirdo vegan Jesus” he joked with a chuckle and Tom laughed. “You cursed the shit out of me so it’s true!” he commented.               ➖ “What is holding you back”? Tom asked curiously. Maybe if he listened to Jeffrey’s story it would help him make a decision as well. Or well, not being that confused. Jeffrey sighed. “How do you marry someone without the whole marrying thing being involved?” he asked him and before he got the chance to reply, Jeffrey continued; “I was the complete opposite than you and Demi. I didn’t want someone just for my pleasure, I had that anytime I wanted to. We were friends with Katie before but the fucking spark man. That fucking awful shitty thing that is called spark. She got my attention since day one. She never was like the other women I’ve met. Never scared to take risks, fucking fearless, a badass, a woman who can stand by herself and gives no shit for other’s opinion” ➖ “You really needed a woman like that in your life” he commented with a shrug knowing that Jeffrey agreed with that. “If I ever left Katie on the alter she would have haunted the shit out of me until she found me and cut my balls off” both men laughed with that comment but also both of them knew it was the truth.  “People have a lot to say and they can think whatever the fuck they want but I’m not scared of the commitment, I have that. We have a family, she has my kids plus two adoptive daughters, she accepts and loves me for whatever the fucking reason she does it but...You know me damn well, Tom. My reactions...” He paused taking a sip from his new drink and Tom made a gesture with his hand, asking him to stop there. “You haven’t had that for so long though and yes I know what you are going to say that it’s possible to happen but like you said, you already have the commitment and you’ve been great, sometimes you could be an ass but you are making progress. Where the fuck is the Jeffrey who would have been like, nope fuck that and jump already on the next chick ruining everything?” Tom asked and Jeffrey laughed “Thank you for reminding me how much of an ass I was in the past...things I had” he joked while shaking his head. “But I know what you mean” Jeffrey nodded.              “We both are very confused and that is totally acceptable” Tom commented. “I am afraid of the rejection and Demi’s feelings towards me and also if I’m moving too fast and you are afraid...well, of yourself but both of us need to work on those things” he continued. “All I know is that you are happy and I haven’t seen you like that for a long, long time. Like, truly happy. You are not the same man I met and that is so beautiful, Jeffrey” the other man smiled. “Yeah” he agreed. “I haven’t felt like that since....Oh damn,” he chuckled. “I want to say since I met Hilarie but I left her at the alter so...” ➖ “Stop” Tom chuckled gently slapping his arm. “Stop point yourself as the big bad wolf, the awful guy that hurts people, you are not that person and yeah, you did that but it was for the best” Jeffrey looked at him a bit confused. “I know it sounds awful but it would never work out with you and Hilarie. Maybe it would have turned worse, you don’t know” ➖ “ She was pregnant, Tom” Jeffrey sighed. “And you didn’t know. Stop being harsh to yourself, stop telling Katie that I was bad once so that’s my destiny. It’s fucking not” He didn’t know what got into him but those were things that Jeffrey should have to think about it over and over again and put it inside his head and Tom was there to help him and he hoped that Jeffrey’s attitude would change and stop pointing himself as the bad guy.  “All I want to say is that it was ages ago, you changed, you grew up and you should focus on the future. For Katie, your kids and for your own sake as well” he ended his sentence there and shrugged taking the last sip from his drink.         “Is it my fucking turn to give you a wake-up call” Jeffrey joked but appreciating the honesty that Tom showed to him. Not many had the balls to do it. “Yeah I guess” Tom joked.  ➖ “Okay good,” Jeffrey said. “You are afraid of yourself too” Jeffrey threw that sentence to him and Tom looked at him confused but before he got the chance to speak, Jeffrey continued. “You are scared that your future, maybe, engagement will fail”  ➖  “That’s--” Tom trailed off but the other man continued. “Those are the thoughts of holding you back not your fear of Demi not feeling the same fucking thing, for fuck sake’s she melts every time you enter the room,” he told her and noticed Tom had a serious yet confused look on his face. “You know it’s true” Jeffrey added.  ➖  “I’m more afraid of ruining everything than myself” he confessed. “I’m scared of losing, Demi. In general” he said feeling good that he finally said it out loud. “But you fucking won’t” Jeffrey replied. “Even if it’s not a say yes to the fucking dress, she would want to be with you” he continued. “Tom, man, she has the fucking spark I have when I look at Katie” he couldn’t believe he was using terms like that, but it was the only way to throw some sense into his head.  ➖ “And you’re telling me that you haven’t changed” Tom commented shaking his head, there was a smile on his lips that couldn’t be hidden. “How did we end up like this?” Tom asked with a chuckle. “I thought we had bigger balls” he commented and Jeffrey laughed. “When it comes to love, the balls fucking disappear, you become so fragile and so many feels are hitting you, you want to do the right thing but in your fucking head you think you are doing the opposite and mess things up.” “Tell me about it” Tom nodded.  “So...What the fuck we are gonna do now?” Jeffrey asked and the two men looked at each other. “Pay the bill, go to the nearest hotel so we won’t bother our housemates and wake up the next day with an awful headache, drink some black coffee, go back to our homes and...man up?” He asked while looking at him. “Sounds good” Jeffrey agreed. “I would try to text Katie but can’t see shit” he said. “Wait ➖ “ Tom said pulling out his phone and texting her himself letting her know they are together and not in a situation to go home. “Done,” Tom said after pressing send.  ➖  “How the fuck you see what you’re typing?” the man chuckled. “Ain’t that drunk...yet” Tom laughed.  “So...” Jeffrey sighed before continuing. “That was some real talk” he added. “Yeah, it hit the feels not gonna lie” he confessed.  ➖  “Fucking same” Jeffrey agreed with a nod.  “Wish Norman and Andrew were here, they would be so proud” Tom giggled.  “Or make fun of us”  ➖  “Nah” Tom replied. “They would be proud” Tom said again. “How the fuck do you know that?” Jeffrey asked. ➖ “ Because they would know tomorrow big decisions will be made. And that we won’t see shit with the same view and eyes”.

[normanreedustea]

**Spoilers**

Daryl Is Surprisingly The Best Part Of ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 Premiere

By: Paul Tassi | Forbes

If you follow my writing here, you’ll know that at this point, I’m something of a Walking Dead skeptic as of late. I mean, I’ve watched 12 seasons of the show across the original and its spin-off, I’ve liked it when it’s good, and I haven’t liked it when it’s bad. And lately, both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead have not been great.

But that could be about to change?

I haven’t had a ton of hope for season 9 of The Walking Dead considering we know that the show is going to be losing one of its strongest assets, Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes, at some point this season, a fact that AMC is even advertising at this point, so it can’t really be considered a spoiler.

However, I’ve been granted an early viewing session of the season 9 premiere, the embargo for which lifts today, and I’m happy to say I was pleasantly surprised by new showrunner Angela Kang’s debut episode.

This is not a preview-review, which Erik Kain is doing for us, but I wanted to focus on one particular aspect of the premiere that stood out to me, or rather, one particular character, Daryl.

Daryl Dixon has had a long, arduous journey on The Walking Dead, going from fan favorite in the early seasons to someone who has felt utterly wasted for years now, pretty much since Beth died. While Daryl has always been a bit anti-social, Norman Reedus was reduced to doing practically nothing but glowering and growling for the duration of the Negan war, and the character and actor deserve better if they’re going to keep him around and possibly elevate him further when Rick departs.

And it they’re off to a pretty good start.

I’m excited to report that Daryl actually has lines in this episode. Conversations. Crazy, right? Without getting into spoilery specifics, there are a number of good exchanges with Daryl this episode.

He talks to the girl from Seaside about Merle for a spell

He talks to Rick about how he’s uncomfortable being put in charge of the remaining Saviors and how he wants to be back on the road. How things were better and simpler with a smaller group. “We could do anything,” he says.

He talks to Carol about his restlessness, and we get to remember that yes, these two are really good friends (though with Carol’s new romantic interest, this is not a good year for Carol/Daryl shippers)

Don’t worry he still shoots walkers with arrows and now has a spear mounted on his motorcycle that he throws, which is awesome

The point is that for the past two years or so, Daryl has been essentially one thing, mad at Dwight (I never really understood the Dwight rivalry, which felt like a waste of both their characters). But here in season 9, Daryl is being re-developed as a character with actual feelings and motivations. I understand where he’s coming from when he’s explaining to Rick that no, Saviors can’t suddenly open up a farm in a concrete factory after existing mainly through thievery and tributes before. I also get what he’s saying about a smaller group feeling more free and less complicated and in a way, more safe, with only trusted friends around. I actually think Rick is being a bit naive and Daryl and Maggie are being more logical in their pushback against him.

I literally have not been able to write an article about Daryl in years other than ones that were just saying “make Daryl a better character.” He’s been given almost nothing to do, and while Norman Reedus may not be quite on the level of Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira and such in terms of his performance, he can certainly do more than what he’s been given, as the premiere demonstrates.

I don’t know whether this will be a blip on the radar or a true indicator of a more well-rounded, interesting Daryl to come, but I was taken aback by how well his character was handled in the premiere, and I hope we see more like this to come. I still don’t think he should be the new Rick Grimes, as no one can really fill those shoes (well, Carl was supposed to), but I think he can be a big asset to the show rather than the liability he has been when written poorly. Hopefully this will be a good year for Daryl fans, but I’ll need more than one episode to judge.

The Walking Dead returns October 7 an 9 ET.

[boshawbearclaw]

Flames In The Ashes Chapter 6

Warning in general, smut for days bruh,

@kittywolfy

9 hours after they crashed into the wonderful world of dreams, Lucas woke up layin' in the middle of Raw dog and Randy, their limbs entangled around Lucas like a safety blanket. Lucas had his arms around each of their shoulders, subconsciously pulling them closer, he leans a little to each side to pepper kisses onto their foreheads.

For once in years, he feels content and happy, but that moment was short lived because his alarm went off, "Goddammit, fuckin' loud piece of shit." He grumbles as he reaches over to his grab his phone with his right hand, bringing it closer to his face, his eyes harshly adjusts to the screen, squinting his eyes he makes out the time, 08:00AM. he shuts that shit down by tapping the on the part of the screen where it says 'cancel'.

Raw dog burries his face into Lucas' neck, grumbling about not having the stamina to run in gym class, Randy woke up at the same time as Lucas so he was just staring at his lovers face while smiling softly and stroking Lucas' little stomach hairs.

Lucas' phone buzzed 20 times during the night but they were out like a light, as he scrolls through the texts the more frustrated he becomes with each word he reads, there is no reason as to why they need to be so damn rude to him.

Lucas huffs and tosses his phone onto a random pile of clothes, "What's wrong, Lucas?" Randy asks softly, making Lucas look at him, he leans forward and rubs his forehead against Randy's at an attempt at affection. Randy smiles then leans in closer to fill in the space between them with a chaste kiss.

"I have to go to work, I'll be back later. I love you both." Lucas states as he gets up, raw dog unwillingly detangles his limbs with soft grumbles, the man scoots closer to Randy and wrapped his arms around him nuzzling his chest. Lucas watched the display with a smirk on his face.

''S good to be back, now to get dressed'' he thinks to himself, he turns back to face his closet and grabs random shit and puts them on, a black def Leppard shirt with a worn flannel and worn jeans with holes in the knees.

Lucas shuffles tiredly into the kitchen to make himself breakfast, a simple sandwhich really, he'll eat anything he can get his hands on, the music playing on the radio in the kitchen droned on as he finished making his sandwich, he ate quickly and when he was done eating he put up his dished then shuffled to the door and put his boots on before leaving.

He jumped down his steps, grunting a little when his booted feet his the ground harder than he intended, he walked over to his truck and got into it, he grabs the keys from the sun visor and stuck them into the ignition, turning the keys to start the car.

Lucas smiled at the sound of the engine roaring to life, he then took off down the dirt road towards the entrance to the trailer park, passing the gate he speeds down the road until he starts passing cars, he then grabs his phone from his pocket that he grabbed and stuffed into there before he left.

Lucas searches his texts for the directions on where the fuck to go, he grunts in annoyance when he reads the part where it says he needs to go to Atlanta for the table reading. Lucas turns on the radio and switches over to the hair bands station and turns up the volume.

As he entered city limits he was met with lots of people and cars everywhere, he was overwhelmed to say the least. Lucas sat at the first stoplight of today, the car next to him had a blonde soccer mom and her little shits in the back of her little mini van, already he was showing signs of his frequent aggressive behavior today.

He stared and rolled his eyes as she was on the phone with some fuck he didnt care about, her pink and purple yoga pants were obnoxious, his mind wandered absently as ge continues to stare. Lucas thought of what itd be like if he ate her flesh.

The rest of his thought was interrupted by the car behind him honking their horn, he retaliates by flipping them off and speeding off towards the offices, when he gets to the parking lot of the building he finds a random spot and parks there, shutting off the truck and plucking out the keys, he gets out and stuffs them in his pocket.

Lucas walks into the building and was met with a security guard and metal detector checkpoint, 'Fuck this shit' he grumbled as he walked over to the line, he stood out in this type of crowd considering everyone else wore professional clothing but he wore something a redneck would wear.

"Sir, empty your pockets and put any items in the tub then step through the metal detector, please." The guard said, Lucas snapped out of his stupor and did what the guard said, emptied his pockets then walked through the detector, beeps were heard as the guards computer monitor highlights Lucas' head, chest and crotch.

"Do you have any jewelry that cant be removed like piercings?" The guard questions, Lucas blushes and nods, "oh, ok you can head on in then." The guard motions twoards the hall just past the metal detector, "mhm." Lucas said simply, grabbing his shit that sat in the tub thing, he then head twoards the room that the table reading is being held.

"234, no, 235,no, ah 236." He knocked on the door with the shave and haircut tune, he waited there a moment before the door opened and the cute bear greeted him with a smile, "Lucas your here! Thats great, come sit down we're just about to start." Kirkman moves outta the way enough for him to get into the room, he shut the door behind Lucas, ushering him to his seat in between two guys, one guy had short curly hair and an angular jaw and the other that straight choppy hair with chin fuzz and sunglasses on.

"Everyone this is Lucas Boshaw, our own piece of Georgia history for the show, hes a little shy so be nice." Kirkman announced as Lucas got seated, they all looked at him with curious stares, the raven haired man shifts uncomfortably under the heavy gazes of the people at the large table.

"Lets get started, so, the episode starts with rick showing up at a gas station walking around, he then encounters a little girl, he calls out to her then she turns around and he finds out that the little girl was a zombie, in a panic he pulls out his Python revolver and pops her in the head, then the intro scene starts."

Everyone looked intrigued, even Lucas as he nodded his head slightly in agreement, "And then it starts as if everything was normal, Rick and his partner Shane sitting off to the side of the road eating lunch when they get a call on their radio about and hit and run turned full on high-speed chase, when they get there there's a shoot out. Then Rick gets shot, it shows him in the hospital getting visited by Shane but unbeknownst to him that a few months go by,-"

Everyone is so focused on what kirkman is explaining that theyre all staring at him like zombies looking at fresh meat, "- The camera starts at the ground following some roughed up boots, Lucas', and music starts playing, preferably something that came out before the 2000s, he continues walking when he stumbles across Rick calling for help. The music then cuts fades out when lucas takes off his head phones." The boss continues to fill everyones head with the script.

In the middle of Jon Bernthol's question about his character a ringtone shouted from someones pocket, "country roads take me home!" Some of giggled at Lucas' ringtone he rushed to answer it, "shit sorry hoss hold on, what do you want? No i havent seen him...well if i do later ill tell Stanley your looking for him,....ok Lamar, bye." Lucas shuts off his phone as he apologized for the disruption.

As the meeting went on they introduced themselves to each other, apparently the british guy on Lucas' right was named Andrew Lincoln who plays Rick Grimes, and to his left was Norman Reedus who plays Daryl Dixon, and the rest of the actors and actresses are Melissa McBride as Carol Pelletier, Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes, Steven Yeun as Glenn Rhee, Lennie James as Morgan Jones, Laurie Holden as Andrea, Sarah Wayne Callies ad Lori Grimes, IronE Singleton as T-dog, Michael Rooker as Merle Dixon, Jeffrey DeMunn as Dale Horvath.

Apparently kirkman had the whole first season written out and planned already, the actors, actresses and extras and crew already. At the end of the table reading they were told to come in tomorrow to start shooting, when everyone left to go towards the parking lot, Lucas had stopped next to his truck and sat on the hood and pulled out his virgins slims and a lighter.

Norman appeared in his peripheral vision, Lucas jumped slightly, he turned to look at the squinting man. "You're Lucas right? How You uh adjusting to your new life so far?" Norman asked as he leaned against the trucks bumper, "It's going way better than i thought it would, to be honest."

Norman nodded with a smile, scooting closer to Lucas he started whispering, "your friends with Robert kirkman right? If you tell him to not kill off my character in the first season ill let you fuck me." Norman begs, Lucas raised his eyebrows, "Really? You'll let me fuck you if i convince kirkman to not kill off your character? Christ you're bold, Mm alright I'll talk to him." Lucas said softly, Normans face lit up when the other man agreed.

The older man shot forward and hugged Lucas, he gasped softly in surprise, "Thank you so much Lucas, oh god you have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that." Norman squeaks into Lucas' stomach, "Do um do you wanna fuck me now? Or later." Norman said quietly as he let go of Lucas, the man nodded and hopped down from the hood.

Norman smiled sweetly at Lucas, "Get in Bubba, we need to make a stop before i go to town on your ass, heh." Lucas said as he rounded the side of his truck and got inside it, Norman got in the passenger seat as Lucas started the truck. They start their destination back twoards the trailer park.

A mile or 2 after they drove past city limits they stopped at a truck stop for some cigarettes and dill pickle flavored sun flower seeds, the heat of the Georgia sun showed as beads of sweat dribbles down the sides of their faces, Lucas parked the truck and got out, Norman following behind him closely.

On their way through the parking lot they spot an expensive looking green mini van, Lucas scoffs and continues on. Once they enter the shop Lucas immediately figured out who that mini van belong to, a rich suburban family wearing matching clothes were in the candy section picking out their selection of sugary snacks.

By the looks of them they're obviously tourists.

The mother with the 'may i speak to your manager' haircut turns to look at who walked in the store, once she spotted them she got uncomfortable as she stared at the tattooed man who stands over 6 feet with a muscular body and handsome but dangerous look about him.

Lucas sticks out his split tongue and flicks it lewdly in her direction, she blushes and looks away which causes Lucas to smirk, he strolled down the same candy isle, staring at the possible goodies Hangin' on the rack.

Norman scampers over to him, huddling close to him, "C'mon sweety lets see what your dad found." The mom said, Lucas glanced behind him and smirked when the mother blinked in his direction. Once they grab what they want they head over to the cash register, little goodies grasped in their hands.

They dropped 'em onto the counter with a clang, the cashier jumps slightly, the young girl behind the register starts checking out their items and puts them in a plastic bag, "Your total is $21.98." She states, Lucas nods and grabs a 20 and a 5 from his wallet that was previously in his back pocket, he waved her goodbye and leaves with the bag of goodies in his hand, Norman follows him back to the truck.

Soon the pair were on the road heading twoards their destination, 5 miles before the trailer park is when Lucas remembered that he has his best friends waiting for him, with that in mind he pulls over to the side of the road and shuts the trucks engine off. "Why are we stopping?" Norman questions, Lucas didn't say anything as he got out of the cab and rounded the side over to the passenger side.

He opened the door and pulled Norman out of the seat, using his large body to press against Normans smaller one, Lucas kisses his lips softly and nibbles on them with care, Lucas' lanky hands grasped at the mans ass. Moans escaped their throats as they hump each other feverishly, Norman undoes his own button and zipper so he could push down his pants and briefs.

Lucas stared hungrily at Norman, an animalistic look in his eyes that frightened the older man but made him even more turned on, Lucas flipped him around and undid his jeans as well, he also grabbed some lube from underneath the passenger seat and squirted some onto his aching cock, he chucks it onto the floor of the truck before he spreads the mans ass apart and slides his cock against the other man's hole.

Norman whines, "Please Lucas, fuck me already, i cant wait any longer.", Lucas smirked before sinking his large pierced cock into his winking pink hole, Norman winces a little but gets used to the fullness moments later, " Aah fuck, you're fucking cock is so big, i feel like im gonna split apart!" Norman reached out behind himself and holds open his cheeks.

Growls are heard as Lucas plunges his cock into Norman, nothing was on their mind besides the feeling of intense pleasure and heat swirling around in the pits of their gut, not even the fact that they might get caught by the highway Patrol or the families coming in or out of Atlanta, "Hnng fuck Norman, you feel so good,,." Lucas moans as he leans over the other man, biting the soft fleshy junction between his neck and shoulder.

Norman starts starts to get wrigley as he nears his climax, Lucas drools on his back as his own mouth hung open while he pounded Norman's ass, minutes of multiplying heated pleasure later, Lucas' thrusts became more erratic as he neared his own climax, "Argh fuck fuck fuck!" Lucas shouted as he came inside Normans hole.

They stayed like that for a minute before Lucas hucked his pants up and knelt down onto the dirt, he spread Norman's sore hole and started to lather the winking pink hole with his split tongue, soothing the slight bruising and miniscule tears while slurping up the cum that leaks out.

Lucas reaches through Norman's legs and grabs his aching dick, jerking him off at an agonizingly slow pace, "Aahh, fuck me, mm im gonna cum!" He yells into his fore arm, Lucas smirked before he began pushing his tongue in and out of Norman's ass.

Moments later the man was pushed over his edge, he came with a shout immediately after, his whole body shivered as cum spurted out of his cock. Lucas was done with licking him up a moment later, he got up off his knees and sucked on his fingers while Norman pulled his pants back up and buttoned them close.

Lucas stopped his finger licking to make a joke about how the mans ass is, "Finger lickin' good!" Norman turned around with a cute smile on his face, Lucas smirked at his face before kissing his lips softly while grabbing his bruised hips gently.

Lucas pulls away first and helps him into the truck before walking around the cab to get into the truck and starts the engine.

"Im gonna drop you off at the office so you can get on your bike and ride home, i don't think youd like my abode, heh." Lucas says before making his way back to Atlanta, the ride was mostly quiet save for the hair band playing on the radio, they made it back before sundown so that gave Norman to go home so he could do everything he needs to do before bed time.

An hour later Lucas was eating dinner with Randy and Raw dog, they later go to bed tangled in each other's limbs

"Sweet dreams, boys."

[thatwitchrevan]

I did see No Way Home last night, and.... It was way better than I expected, and I enjoyed it, but it was also the most surreal movie experience I've ever had because it was trying to be like. So many things at once, all while having this fanservice fest and being an mcu film.

And it worked?? Kinda? But also kinda not? Idk I love each actor's Spider-Man and each of the rogues gallery characters they brought in (particularly Alfred Molina's Doc Ock 💚), but seeing them in the MCU was so jarring. Each franchise has a different visual and tonal style and they don't blend together easily, and Disney is not especially adept at crossovers no matter how much they like doing them.

I did enjoy how it felt like a heartfelt longfic about multiple Spideys coming together but I also feel like the weirdness of it detracted from it being able to be A Serious Spider Man Film About Tom Holland. His storyline was pretty good, but everything got a little muddled there sometimes. And I felt like the villains deserved more screentime and development.

I did love seeing Tobey and Andrew come back to their roles and show off the differences and similarities in their portrayals and Tom's. I really enjoyed the rogue's gallery hanging out and working with Tom!Peter, especially Norman imprinting on him - that line where he says 'remarkable - the technology and you' absolutely killed me. I felt for Norman so much in those brief scenes. And Otto... I love him sm,, and he was so soft with Norman at the apartment, it was adorable. They are gay. Also when Tobey!Peter sees Otto and gets emotional, and Otto asks how he's been and talks about how he's grown up??? I did have emotions about it.

MJ is everything. I love Zendaya as MJ so much, she could redeem the MCU Spider Man franchise on her own. She's the funniest character but also in many ways the most emotionally mature. I love how supportive she was of Peter and Ned and eventually the other Peters, and I loved getting hints of more of her backstory and her own life. I think her not going by Watson implies she's not in contact with her birth father and that the dad her and Peter reference is a step dad, because MJ's birth father is abusive in other continuities - and if she does have a better family life than usual I love that for her. I do think it's very weird that she and May hadn't met yet because weren't Peter and Michelle friends for a little while between the first and second movie? I know they just started dating when Peter's identity was revealed but there must have been some time in there either before or after they got together when he could've introduced them. Also in most continuities May knows Mary Jane before Peter does, so to show May meeting this MJ in the middle of the chaos was just weird. And I wish they'd had more of a relationship in this one because MJ and May's relationship is incredibly important.

Matt Murdock's iconic cameo was beautiful ♥️ I love him. Ditto to Eddie and Venom, my confused bi disaster boys.

Anyway this is not at all an organized ramble but yeah this was a weird and weirdly fun movie but also my brain is confused and I have many questions and critiques. It's neither a seamless crossover or a crossover with deliberate, funky seams... It's kinda just a bunch of stuff thrown together and lampshaded a million times, mcu style.

I could see them soft-rebooting Tom's Spidey as the movie went on and I don't entirely appreciate it. Pressing undo and having Peter joke about being broke when that's never been evident in the MCU doesn't magically give him back what he was supposed to start with. If he ends up working at the Bugle in the next movie I will be zero percent surprised.

[aion-rsa]

The Walking Dead Season 11: The Commonwealth, Reapers, and What Else to Expect

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This Walking Dead article contains spoilers.

The Walking Dead season 10 is the show’s longest season to date, with 22 episodes, but the 11th and final season will take the cake. Kicking off later this year, season 11 will run for 24 episodes through 2022, concluding this chapter of The Walking Dead franchise. While we know there is more story to tell beyond the flagship series, with Daryl and Carol getting their own spin-off and a Rick Grimes movie still on the way, season 11 will mostly likely close the door on a few other storylines. It wouldn’t be surprising, for example, if the series finale was the last time we saw Alexandria.

But there are plenty of stories to tell before then and a few things left unsolved. Who are the mysterious soldiers who’ve captured Eugene and friends and where do they come from? What do the Reapers want with Alexandria? Will Maggie kill Negan?

Here are the storylines that season 11 will need to address before all is said and done:

The Commonwealth

The mystery behind the Commonwealth is hardly a mystery at all since the new faction is ripped right out of Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s Walking Dead comic book. The Commonwealth’s arrival in the comics marked the start of the final major arc in the book, so it makes sense that the TV series’ last season will focus on this group.

An advanced city-state numbering in the thousands with superior weapons and technology, the Commonwealth strives to reclaim the way things were before the apocalypse, but that means preserving the good as well as the bad aspects of pre-outbreak society. The final arc of the comic explores the deep inequality which festers within the Commonwealth’s social structure, one in which you’re assigned a job and status based on the role you played before the end of the world. For example, since Michonne was a lawyer before the outbreak, she is treated as a person superior to Eugene, who was a high school teacher. This is a big juxtaposition to how things are done in Alexandria where everyone is treated equally and every role is important to the community.

The Commonwealth storyline is perhaps the most “political” arc of the 193-issue series, with a bigger focus on social commentary and what it takes to form a truly fair and just society after so much death and destruction. This is also the arc that finally killed off Rick Grimes in the comics, although it’d be surprising if that’s how things play out on the TV series, with Andrew Lincoln off the show and about to star in his own Walking Dead movie. Of course, there’s always the possibility that AMC is saving Rick’s time in the Commonwealth and inevitable demise for said film…

We wrote a lot more about what the Commonwealth means for The Walking Dead season 11 here.

The Reapers

While the Commonwealth will likely be the major focus of season 11, that doesn’t mean the Alexandrians don’t have trouble brewing back home, both outside and within its walls. Just days after killing the last of the Whisperers, the heroes confronted a new threat hunting them in the woods: the Reapers, gun-toting baddies who like to isolate and ambush their prey as well as burn down their camps.

We know very little about the Reapers except that they’ve been hunting Maggie’s group for a while, and they’ve followed her all the way back to Virginia. They only appeared in one episode of season 10, a small tease for a group that will likely spell trouble for Maggie and friends next season.

Maggie vs. Negan

As for what’s going on inside Alexandria, the conflict between Maggie and Negan is the big ticket item. The season 10 finale ended on a cliffhanger of sorts, with Negan moving back into Alexandria after being “banished” by Carol at the start of the episode. While Negan seems defeated at the start of the episode, as he sits alone in exile in Leah’s old cabin, a rebellious smile returns to his face as he struts past a vengeful Maggie in the final moments of the finale. The message is clear: Negan ain’t leaving Alexandria unless it’s in a casket. And Maggie seems more than willing to oblige.

Season 10 devoted a lot of time to the Negan redemption tour, as we watched the villain infiltrate the Whisperers to kill Alpha and protect Lydia, but this mission was hardly selfless. After all, Negan agreed to take on the Whisperers in order to gain his freedom and curry favor with the Alexandria leadership council deciding his fate. We learn in “Here’s Negan” that, while the terrible events that caused the real Lucille’s death are what finally made him snap, he’s always had a dark, violent side, even back when he was a high school gym teacher. Despite the good that he’s done recently, it’s in Negan’s nature to be bad.

Will Negan become the villain once again in season 11 or will he figure out a way to make amends for killing Glenn? Is Maggie beyond apologies? These are questions that will need to be answered before the show ends.

Daryl and Carol

Daryl and Carol are the only two characters from season 1 who are still breathing, so it’s fair to say that they’ve been through A LOT together. And we know that The Walking Dead season 11 won’t be the end of their journey either. Their spinoff, which is slated to premiere in 2023, will see the fan-favorite duo leave Alexandria for a new adventure.

“It’s a different type of a show. It’s about the two of us going to see who’s left in the world,” Norman Reedus told Den of Geek last year, teasing that the show will see Daryl and Carol encounter new groups and characters as they travel from place to place. The actor also says that the spinoff will have a “revolving group of people” involved, which suggests the story will focus more heavily on standalone, “monster-of-the-week” episodes, a format the heavily serialized franchise has mostly avoided.

Reedus points to two Westerns from the 1970s as hints as to what AMC is doing with the new show.

“I was a big fan of TV shows when I was a kid like Kung Fu or Billy Jack, where you have a character who’s roaming the Earth and he gets into new situations, but when they leave, they change the tone of the environment by just being themselves passing through,” says Reedus.

Whatever this road trip Western has in store for Daryl and Carol, The Walking Dead season 11 will not only have to close out their story on the flagship series but also set up the spinoff. The final six episodes of season 10 began to do just that by showing how the two characters had drifted apart in the aftermath of the Whisperer War. But expect this duo to put the pieces of their relationship back together in season 11 just in time for their spinoff.

Lots of Deaths

Not everyone gets a happy ending on a long-running drama, and that’s doubly true on a show like The Walking Dead which is known for killing off fan-favorite characters when you least expect it. Finales and midseason breaks have long spelled doom for characters on this series, but we have a feeling the big deaths of years’ past will pale in comparison to the bloodshed likely waiting for viewers in season 11.

Not only is this the last hoorah for The Walking Dead but there are still SO MANY characters on this show, many of which are reaching the end of their stories. It’s reasonable to assume that not all of them will make it to that final “happily ever after” montage just before the credits roll on the series finale. Get your tissues ready.

The Walking Dead season 11 premieres on Aug. 22 2021.

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