#there and the cats just sort of rediscovered them and brought them back to life

[failsquirrel]

the eternal question of if the fictional universe that is heavily analogous to the real world should have actual media from the real world or similarly named thinly veiled references

[mostlycompetentwriter]

FAM

F/M Pairing: Fem!Reader x Lee Minho (SKZ)

Word Count: 2.4K

Genre: Hybrid AU; Strangers to Lovers AU

Warnings: None!!

Summary: You weren’t entirely sure about adopting a hybrid, but your friends insisted that you have someone to keep you company in the giant apartment where you lived alone. But you never imagined how much you were missing out on, until you also fell in love...

A/N: I’m trying my hand at writing hybrid AUs, so please forgive me if it isn’t up to expectation! Tagging @skzwriternet​ as usual!!

The adoption center was located in a giant brick building at the center of the downtown district where traffic was always heavy, and swarms of people migrated together to walk down the crowded sidewalks as a means of occupying their time on the weekends.

But you were hardly the type to enjoy such things, and you and your friends often spent time in each other’s apartments as opposed to dealing with the claustrophobia of the 5:00 rush hour. But on this afternoon in particular, you carefully navigated the intersections and bustling extensions to find a parking spot in the freshly paved lot of the adoption center. Because you were finally going to meet the cat hybrid that you had recently adopted after a lot of pressure from your friends and several hours scrolling through the online website.

Eventually, after an interesting internal-debate, your eyes were drawn to a hybrid cat with calico-colored ears, and the bright green of his eyes had captured your heart in an instant. From there, you didn’t need any more intervention to call the shelter and arrange a time to meet them at the center to pick-up your new friend. Even though you didn’t know much about taking care of a hybrid, you had spent the past week reading anything that you could get your hands on.

You were feeling both confident and excited when you offered your name to the receptionist upon your arrival, and she offered to bring Minho out to you. “He’s been here for so long,” she explained. “His last owners brought him in before they moved.”

“They gave him up?” you asked, appalled at the idea.

However, the receptionist merely shrugged, and you had a feeling that this sort of thing happened all the time. “Well, let me get everything arranged for you,” the receptionist said, and you lingered around the lobby while you waited, flexing your fingers because you had already signed so much paperwork.

But it was all worth it when you saw him for the first time, looking at you with the same green eyes that had first captivated your attention. “Y/N,” the receptionist said. “This is Minho.”

You shuffled in place, pasting on your best smile as you studied the hybrid. “Nice to meet you, Minho,” you said. “I hope we can get along well.”

“Yeah,” Minho replied, and you were a little caught off-guard by his nonchalant attitude, but the receptionist was positively beaming and you finished signing all the required forms before you brought Minho outside to your parked SUV.

“I hope you’re comfortable,” you said to make conversation on the drive home. So far, even with your introverted tendencies taken into consideration, you were having a hard time maintaining a conversation with him. “I redesigned the guest room for you.”

“That’s fine,” Minho said, and you took a deep breath because you weren’t expecting him to be so dismissive. But maybe he wasn’t the type who talked very much after just meting someone for the first time, and you could understand the value of your silence. Still, you only wished that it didn’t feel so awkward, returning to your apartment only to watch Minho barricade himself inside his room for the rest of the night.

From thenceforth, life with Minho...was the opposite of what you expected.

Instead of living together cohesively, and enjoying the company of someone else in the apartment, you found yourself seriously questioning whether or not you had made the right decision in adopting him. For starters, he never left his room, and you only ever saw him on rare occasions when he needed to use the bathroom, or to grab his dinner from the table. Which leads you directly to your next point: other than rushed greetings in passing, Minho never spoke to you.

And that was certainly not something that you were okay with, especially considering the fact that it felt like you were living with a total stranger. But when you brought it up to your friends and colleagues, they assured you that he just needed more time to adjust: “Maybe buy him something that Cat Hybrids really enjoy?”

So, you did, and the price of the rare treats was a major blow to your checking account, but you were desperate to get a reaction from him. And you were incredibly disappointed when he ignored the treats on the table, choosing instead to pretend like they didn’t even exist. However, that’s where you drew the line, deciding to confront Minho about your scarce interactions.

But when you stepped into his bedroom unannounced, you realized that he was absent, which meant that he was probably showering. In the meantime, while you waited for him to return, you cautiously studied the little knick-knacks and photos displayed all around the room on the shelves you had installed. Apparently, Minho was quite sentimental, and you paused on a picture of Minho smiling next to another cat hybrid who was similar in age and appearance...

“Please don’t touch that,” a guttural voice interrupted your thoughts, and you nearly had a heart attack as you returned the decorative picture frame and turned around to face Minho.

“I’m sorry,” you said, swallowing hard because you felt guilty about messing with his things. “I was waiting for you to get back.”

Minho nodded, choosing to walk around you to peruse the collection of papers stacked on top of his desk. “Did you need something?”

“Yeah...” you started, trailing off when you glanced back at the picture. “Who is that with you?”

Minho sighed at your question, and he pursed his lips like he was considering whether or not he wanted to respond. “He’s my little brother,” Minho eventually relented, and he returned to his files while you studied him with an enlightened understanding of the mercurial hybrid.

“You were separated,” you said, more as a statement rather than an actual question, but Minho still nodded. “What’s his name?”

“Jisung, and I’ve been looking for him,” he said. “But none of the registries match.”

Suddenly, a lightbulb turned on inside your head, and you connected the dots as you realized that the files on Minho’s desk were all documents recording the names of the Hybrids registered with the government - as mandated several years ago.

“I’ll help you find him,” you said, and you could tell that Minho was affected, shoulders rising even as he remained facing away from you. 

“Why would you do that?”

“Because nobody deserves what you’ve gone through,” you said. “I adopted you because I wanted a companion, but there’s more than enough room for another Hybrid.”

He was silent for a moment, and neither of you even took a chance on interrupting the tension until Minho spun around with evidence of fresh tears in his green eyes. “Thank you,” he said, but you didn’t need any gratitude for doing something that you knew was right.

“Let me help you,” you continued. “I’ll do whatever it takes, and you don’t have to avoid me anymore. I think it would be nice if we lived together as a family.”

Minho nodded, and he swiped the sleeve of his shirt beneath his eyes. “I’m sorry for ignoring you....I thought you might send me back to the shelter.”

“I wouldn’t,” you said. “I chose to take on this responsibility, and I’m not the type to just give-up if something proves to be more difficult than I thought.”

“But I made it hard...”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” you interrupted him, chancing a few steps closer to place your hand on his shoulder - a soothing gesture. “Let’s find your little brother, okay?”

“Okay,” Minho agreed, and, for the first time since you met, he even managed some semblance of a smile.

Over the course of following two weeks, you and Minho continued to grow even closer as you relentlessly searched for his little brother - constantly reassuring him to never lose hope.

You could tell that he was growing disenchanted with your repeated failures, and you always did your best to improve his moods. You studied him closely, discovering little things that he liked - K-dramas with cheesy endings, chocolate-flavored sweet things, and the feeling of warm towels straight out of the dryer that you always left on his bed after cleaning them.

Each night, you made Minho’s favorite dishes, and the two of you sat together in the living room and ate dinner while watching TV - making jokes about the characters or plot on-screen. It turned out that Minho was very personable, but you had to be very patient to understand his intricate layers. You had to be compassionate and empathetic, and you slowly earned his trust and watched him open up to you. Especially when you would sit together as the kitchen table and search databases online while calling as many adoptions centers as you could find in search of his brother.

“Are you tried?” he asked one night as the two of you finished the last of your calls for the evening.

“Not really,” you replied, but you weren’t expecting him to reach out to skim his fingers over the skin beneath your eyes.

“You have dark circles,” Minho explained, but you found yourself whole-heatedly captivated by a pair of electric green eyes, drawing you closer until the soft brush of his lips across your own snatched you into a hypnosis of pleasure.

The feeling was warm - like something that had been missing, but then rediscovered to make all the pieces match around the edges, and there was nothing left but a comfortable glow sitting on your shoulders as you resisted the urge to hasten the exchange and deepen the tender presses of your lips together.

Unfortunately, the sound of your phone ringing broke the two of you apart, and you sat back with a start as you listened the delicate thud of your heart beating loudly inside your ears. “Hello?” you spoke into the receiver, and you were embarrassed by your breathless tone. 

“Hi, is this Miss Y/L/N?”

“Yes, this is she,” you said, avoiding Minho’s gaze as you tried to focus on the conversation at hand.

“Perfect! My name is Elise, and I work the adoption center in upper Manhattan. Apparently, you called us earlier about a hybrid registered as Jisung? We just wanted to let you know that some files got mixed up, but we have him here for you safe and sound!”

“Really?” you replied, excitement coursing through your veins as you relayed the news to Minho whose eyes lit up like he was seeing the entire world unfold right in front of him. “Please keep him safe for the night. I’ll be in tomorrow to formally adopt him.”

It turned out that Jisung was the complete opposite of Minho: loud and outgoing, he walked inside your apartment while chattering away about the wallpaper color and other trivial details that made you laugh at his eagerness.

You were amused by his observations, watching as Minho gave him a tour of the apartment while keeping an arm around his shoulders. It was both a protective gesture and an affectionate one, and you were glad to see Minho and Jisung reunited after such a complicated spell of time apart. They deserved nothing more to be together - you could tell that they loved each other, and their easygoing chemistry revealed a complex history that exposed the depth of a brotherly relationship.

But you and Minho had discovered that the two brothers had been separated somewhere between their last transition between owners. It seemed that the couple who had adopted them didn’t care to ensure that the brothers stayed together, and they mishandled the entire process. The situation itself angered you to no end because you couldn’t imagine how cruel a person must be to disregard someone else’s thoughts and feelings simply because they weren’t entirely human.

“So, what do you think?” you asked Jisung when he finally started to unpack his minimal belongings in the guestroom that he would be sharing with Minho. “It might be a little small...”

“Are you kidding?” Jisung interrupted. “I love it!”

“Really?” you wondered, glancing at Minho when his hand found yours, weaving your fingers together with a squeeze.

“Better than the shelter,” Jisung said. “Seriously? I’m so incredibly grateful that you went out of your way to find me.”

“Of course,” you said. “I’m glad to have you here with us.”

“That has a nice ring to it,” Jisung said, and he sat down on the edge of his bed with a sigh. 

“You should rest,” Minho suggested. “It’s been a long day.”

“Yeah,” Jisung agreed, and he shot you another grateful smile. “Thank you again, Y/N! For everything.”

You nodded with a contented sigh, allowing Minho to drag you out of the bedroom to allow Jisung some time to himself. Meanwhile, you and Minho enjoyed one another’s company on the couch in the living room, playing a drama in the background while you sat in his lap, sharing heavy kisses and oxygen while scratching your fingernails behind his ears where you had discovered that he was sensitive. 

“This is okay, right?” Minho asked at one point, pulling back to look at you with wide eyes. “I mean, we haven’t really talked about this...thing.”

“Thing?” you repeated with a laugh. “You mean our relationship?”

“Is that what it is?” Minho questioned. “Like...a boyfriend type of thing.”

“If you want,” you agreed, and you were more than amused by his choice of words. “I like you a lot.”

“I like you too,” Minho agreed with a furious shake of his head, followed by his nose sniffing across your collarbone. “You smell good.”

“Thanks?”

“I -uh - it’s a hybrid thing,” Minho said, and you practically snorting from your uncontrollable laughter.

“Hey, you don’t have to be embarrassed around me,” you reassured him, pressing a soft kiss to his nose. “I’m glad to have you and Jisung here with me, and I think we’ll make a pretty good team together.”

“That sounds nice,” Minho said. “Does that mean we can keep kissing?”

“Isn’t that what boyfriends do?” you grinned, and Minho returned your smile before kissing you senseless with his hands wrapped around your waist - fitting perfectly against your curves like they had always belonged there. 

It was everything beyond your expectation, and you knew that your life was about to become very interesting...

[2manyfandoms2count]

Friends who cook together... Chapter 3

Apparently it’s been about a month since the last update?! Where is time going

Anyway, FWCT is my project for the @mlwritersguild November event, so the next updates should be less spaced out! I’m hoping to add at least another chapter before the end of the month, if not finish the fic. 

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

First | Previous | AO3

--- ​

Lesson 3: Soufflé au fromage

Marinette groaned internally as the doorbell rang. Reticently throwing her blanket aside, she got up from her cozy couch cocoon and made her way towards the entrance, taking a deep breath as she did so.

She’d spent most of the day comfortably tucked in, watching the rain pour against the living room window as she clutched a steaming cup of tea between her hands. She’d brought the kettle and her tea box next to her, to avoid having to get up to refuel. It gave her more time to think.

For someone who’d just rediscovered their feelings, she’d slept surprisingly well; a literal log. After a full night of slumber, complete with a good lie in, something she hadn’t had in a while, she’d simply relocated to the sofa, her mind sharp and ready to face her predicament.

On the one hand, speaking to Adrien about her feelings seemed like the right thing to do. They were older now, more mature. Surely it was time to talk about their relationship; it had been weird when they were younger, what with the whole double identity business, but ultimately, hadn’t they been in love with each other? Enough time had passed now for them to face this fact, especially now that Hawkmoth was out of the picture.

On the other hand, when Chat Noir had once upon a time been relentless in his declarations of love, these had dwindled after their identity reveal to a sparse phrases that could possibly, maybe, be interpreted as such, but could also just be friendly appreciation messages. She had absolutely no idea how Adrien felt about her now. As much as she clung onto the idea that his feelings hadn’t changed, part of her was terrified that they had and that she’d end up heartbroken if she brought up the topic.

After all, Adrien was an eligible bachelor, who rarely spent time at home, even if he always did make it back to sleep (Marinette had some kind of internal radar for him; even if she’d fallen asleep, the location of her room enabled her to regain just enough consciousness to register that he’d made it home safely from the slight jiggle of his keys on the landing). She wasn’t aware of him seeing anyone, since the topic oddly never came up, even at game night, but she wouldn’t have been that surprised to learn that he was. And she wasn’t sure that she was ready to face the facts right now.

Clutching her arms at the absence of heat from the blanket as she made her way towards the door, she had to admit she was a little relieved by the heads up Adrien was giving her. Most of the time, Marinette wished Adrien would just let himself in, like a cat through a catflap. It wasn’t like he needed to ring to get in; they’d exchanged keys at about the same time she’d moved in, supposedly for safe keeping. In practise, it was more of an open invitation, which they both took up, although without using their keys. She liked to joke they shared a vampire tendency; they needed to be invited to come in.

“Hello, neighbour!” Adrien greeted her as she opened the door.

He handed her a bottle of white wine, which she took by reflex.

“I thought it would go well with the soufflé.” He cleared his throat, seeing her eye the label a little confusedly.

“Right, yes, of course.” She shook her head and the thought that this oddly felt like the beginning of a date, and smiled. “Please come in, make yourself comfortable!” She called out as she walked to the kitchen to put the bottle in the fridge.

Adrien followed suit, and leaned against the kitchen counter. “So… How was your day?”

“It was alright, thanks. Very relaxing, I guess, for once.”

She wasn’t lying. Her overthinking had surprisingly been kept down to a minimum.

“Good.” He nodded approvingly. “You deserve to treat yourself every once in a while, you know. You do so much. You’re amazing, Marinette.”

Marinette smiled in response, a small blush creeping up her cheeks. This was exactly the sort of comment she wasn’t sure how to interpret. It wasn’t just the wording - it was the way Adrien’s gaze softened as he looked at her, an awed smile spreading on his lips. She liked to think it was the same behaviour she’d demonstrated towards him as a lovesick teenager (and probably still did, although she hoped that she was a little more inconspicuous now), but Adrien had been like this with her, Marinette her, for pretty much as long as they’d been friends.

She cleared her throat and turned the oven on before reaching for a mixing bowl.

“How was your day?” She asked as she set it on the counter.

“Oh, you know. A pretty standard Saturday, really. A little cleaning, a little coursework, and a whole lot of loafing around.” He shrugged, taking her Ginette Matthiot book out and opening it at the soufflé page. “Ooh, chocolate soufflé.” He read the next recipe out loud. “We’ll have to try that one day.”

“Something tells me you’d really enjoy the Grand Marnier one as well.” Marinette pointed further down on the page, in reference to the alcohol they’d used for their crêpes flambées.

“All these recipes to look forward to.” He sighed wistfully. “We’re going to have to step it up if we ever want to get through the whole book.”

He was torn between wanting that to happen soon, since it would mean more cooking time with Marinette now, and spreading it out for as long as possible, since it would mean staying in touch for as long. Not that he was worried that they’d stop seeing each other; it was an unspoken rule that whatever life held for each of them, they would stay in contact. They had been linked by fate, and they would not try to break that bond.

“We better get… cracking, then.” Marinette replied with an evil smile as she cracked the first egg into the bowl.

“Nice one, my Lady, but you know you’re in jar territory!” He extended a hand.

Her laughter almost made him reconsider his demand. It seemed like payment enough.

Read more on AO3

[nullanythorm-ao3]

Just Some Random Fanfic Concepts

So I was going to wait and see if anyone else was interested in me posting up some of my general fanfic ideas. However, I’m bored and struggling to work with the CiM update I’m working on right now. So I’m just going to do it? Also, a heads up to look out for another post coming later, because I want to share some of my Variro YouTube playlist, too.  BUT FIRST, story ideas. You’ll get some working titles for the ones I HAVE working titles for, but otherwise I’m just winging it cuz there are a lot of them. These are in no particular order. Things being higher or lower on the list doesn’t mean they’re more or less likely to be worked on. 

#1 - A continuation for Land or Sea (title pending)

So a little background on this one. I got the idea for this one at the same time as I got the idea for Trust is Something Earned. I put which one I worked on first up to a vote on the Tangled Amino. 

It’s a mermaid(merman/boy??)!Varian AU that centers on the idea: What if, in Queen for a Day, instead of coming up with a solution that created the amber when interacting with the rocks, Varian creates a different one and winds up getting himself turned into a mermaid instead?

It’ll feature 4 OCs: two created by me, and two created by a friend. The perspective will shift between Varian and an OC that belongs to a friend of mine named Charlotte, Varian’s childhood friend and love interest. 

Without spoiling too much, it takes place primarily during the events of season 2 (and maybe stretches into season 3). It switches perspective between Varian, who’s sent to live in the ocean after the accident and becomes friends with an adventurous merboy named Caspian who helps him rediscover his passion for science and alchemy, and Charlotte, who’s left behind in Corona and is trying to rediscover her sense of self and direction after losing her best and only friend. Charlotte’s perspective will help show how the premise changes events in Corona, while Varian’s is wholly original. 

The other OCs that will be involved in the story will be my OC Adrian Claire, who followers of TiSE will know, and my friend’s OC Henry. 

#2 - Stitched Together (originated from Ragdoll)

Okay so the original premise for this was for it to be a Variro story. The focus was Hiro living a double life: a college student in San Fransokyo who realized the existence of the several magical realms that ran parallel to his home after discovering he had magical blood passed down from his mother (maybe even throwing in superhero and making it a triple life - poor Hiro). He finds what’s known in the multi-realm as a living doll - a doll that gained a soul either through devotion and affection of a previous owner and desire to become more human, or having a human soul literally shoved into it. 

Varian, his doll, is the latter. Due to crimes against his home realm of Corona and his own uncontrollable magical talent, they forced him into having his soul magically “stitched” into a rag doll, until Hiro’s magical talent allowed him to awaken.  However, because of his nature as a living doll, Varian now depends on and is subservient to Hiro, but the two soon grow a bond much closer than expected. 

Now, after working on the lore and world of the story, I’ve grown its scope a little. Rather than simply being a crossover with Tangled and Big Hero 6, I want Stitched Together to be a bigger-scale crossover, including How To Train Your Dragon and the Tales of Arcadia series as well. 

It’s going to be Hiccup/Hiro/Varian, along with Jim/Claire from ToA being close friends with the trio. They’re all going to be young wizards from different realms, with different magic specialties studying in Arcanum, the central realm that connects all magically advanced realms. Other characters from each series will show up as well! You’ll see a bit of all of them, it’s a pretty enormous project.

#3 - Maybe some Hogwarts Shenanigans?

I’d really like to do a short, maybe 7-chapter story on the Hogwarts Headcanons for the OT3 I did a while back. The big issue is I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on posting Harry Potter/Hogwarts content after the whole J.K. Rowling thing. 

It’d be a chapter focusing on each year the three spend at Hogwarts together, some key moments through the years, and things like that. Just a small, random story about some kids at Hogwarts having fun. 

Might do it, might not, we’ll see. 

#4 - Time Travel Variro Fic (title pending)

This is another one sort of meant to run alongside season 2 of TTS, and maybe s3. It also replaces the S3 of BH6 the series. Just cuz. 

Basically Varian escapes after being put in prison, and decides the best way to save his dad is prevent the amber from capturing him all together. Vindictive, feral little villain raccoon decides that if he can’t have his happy ending, he won’t let Raps have hers and plans to make a time machine so he can go back and prevent Eugene from rescuing Raps. 

Unfortunately, a slight user error and hiccup in his plans (namely the fact that Ruddiger doesn’t appreciate being left alone and hops in the machine with him and all the noise and flashing lights of a steampunk-medieval time machine spook him) causes him to catapult into the future instead. 

Meanwhile, Hiro’s dealing with his friends moving on to find work, his own internship at KreiTech while attending school, and being fifteen and struggling with hormones and his sexuality finally starting to rear its ugly head after being dormant for 15 years of being in an ongoing relationship with SCIENCE (aka he’s seeing guys, thinking ‘he’s cute/handsome’, and he’s PANICKING). Then, as he’s on his way home from internship one day, a random af raccoon tugs at his pants leg until he finds a boy in weird clothes unconscious in an alley somewhere

Varian, after being woken up, and unsure if he should bring up that he’s from the past or not, makes up a fake story about running away from a small town. Hiro, feeling there’s something more but empathetic to Varian’s story, invites him to stay with him at the Lucky Cat and introduces him to Cass. 

Varian is stand-offish at first, absorbed in his “pet project”, as he calls it around Hiro. Basically, the machine didn’t time travel with him, he’s stuck, and is determined to get home and continue his plan. Hiro, however, is drawn in by the mysterious boy and tries to reach out to him and open him up.

Varian catches on to modern technology and science pretty darn quickly. He’s a smart boy. He also stays holed up in Hiro’s lab or the room they allowed him to borrow reading all day. Until finally Hiro cracks him out of his shell, he starts attending SFIT, and meets the rest of the BH6 crew.

There’s more to the story than this but that’s all I’m saying for now. Lots of drama, tension, etc, and just a fun time as boys discover their sexualities, learn where they can call home, and all that good stuff. 

#5 - In Someone Else’s Shoes (Time Travel Team Awesome Fic!)

So this one is kind of meant to work in tandem with the Variro fic. While the Variro fic explores Varian failing in his plan and getting catapulted into the future, this fic shows the results of what would happen if the time travel worked.  

It centers around Team Awesome! Varian travels back to the past, and tells Eugene that he dies if he hides in the tower. He convinces him that he’s his partner in his future, by knowing his name and stroking his ego a bit. But inform him that the crown will lead to nothing but trouble and his death (conveniently leaving out the part where he meets the love of his life and gets brought back from the dead because of a magical healing flower). 

The alteration to the timeline erases the former Varian’s existence and overwrites the Varian of the new timeline with his memories - giving him the memories of both the former and current timeline. He wakes up in bed at the palace, being woken up by his personal attendant Flynn (Eugene, who only allows Varian to call him by his proper name when they’re alone) and told to get ready for his coronation as crown prince. It turns out, in this timeline, because Eugene and Rapunzel weren’t there to stop him from his running water experiments, the devastation on Old Corona caused the death of his dad and several others. Since he was the son of an old friend, and they longed for their missing princess, Frederic and Arianna take him in as their son, and monitor his scientific hobby to prevent him from causing more trouble. 

Of course, this won’t do. He confides the truth to Eugene, that he was trying to save his dad by returning to the past (but again, keeping out key elements), and the two decide to work together to rebuild the time machine and alter the past without the catastrophic results. 

Won’t spoil too much, there are some wild twists and turns here. But it’s one I’m really looking forward to, again!

#6 - Maybe some Percy Jackson/Camp Half-Blood shenanigans

I’d just really like to make some Camp Half-Blood AU stuff. It’d be more a series of one-shots, or just a story that jumps around in time in the course of it. 

Crossover with Tangled, Big Hero 6, Tales of Arcadia, and How to Train Your Dragon with a focus on (as usual) Hiccup/Hiro/Varian. 

Not going to say too much about it though, because I want to do an AU Headcanons post with some details on this one! I have lots of ideas.Some you might expect, some you might not. 

#7 - Hercules Inspired Variro Fic (Title pending!)

So this one is wild. Basically, after the events of BH6 s1, Obake escapes. He stays on the run, escaping to Germany, and finds a young boy of genius on par with Hiro, but in the field of Chemistry, and takes him under his wing.

Varian is distraught after his father, who’d contracted an incurable disease, falls comatose. The government does nothing to help him, even though he has friends that hold political power, and Obake uses that to lure him into becoming his protege. 

The pair lie low for a while, wreaking a little havoc in Germany while Varian looks for a cure for his father. The boy dabbles in all manner of fields while trying to help his dad, and before long finds out that the last component he needs is in America, in San Fransokyo. 

Varian, now in his early 20s (which means Hiro is too!), Varian travels to America. He’s currently working as a villain under Obake while daylighting as the head of a German medical research company. 

He meets Hiro by chance. He flirts a little, but tries his best to keep his distance while trying to achieve his goals. Unfortunately, Obake notices how flustered Hiro gets around Varian, and has Varian continue flirting with and pursuing him as a form of distraction, and confides in him about Big Hero 6 and their identities. Varian is against it at first, but goes along with his mentor. 

Varian continues flirting with Hiro, gets in with the group as a friend, and begins distracting Hiro and sabotaging Big Hero 6 while working on a plan to steal the last component he needs for his cure - a solution being stored under high security at KreiTech - where Hiro works, partnered with Krei.

It’s Hercules inspired so there’s a bit more to it, but that’s all you need to know for now!

#8 - Phantom Thief Varian! (Title Pending)

Similar to the time travel one, this one KIND of links with the Hercules-inspired one. It’s not necessarily meant to link narratively or thematically, like the two time travel fics, but it has some similarities. 

Namely the fact that Varian came to America after forming a company to research a cure for his terminally ill father. Whether or not Quirin is comatose in this one, I don’t know. 

But it’s hard for a small company to get the influence or money Varian would need for his research. So, he steals valuables and rare compounds and materials to fund his research and keep him going, under the name “der Waschbär”, which Google Translate tells me means “the Raccoon” so I’m rolling with it.

He meets Varian in a business meeting with KreiTech, or one of those fancy business parties or something along those lines. They become infatuated with each other pretty quickly (as adults that are more sexually aware, I always picture these two precocious kids being pretty flirtatious when attracted to someone so they just kind of click pretty quickly). 

It’s basically the story of Varian, the charming phantom thief who worms his way into Hiro’s life, and Hiro, the superhero aiding the cops in his capture. All while being completely oblivious to each other’s identities and flirting/pursuing each other constantly on the side xD I just like phantom thief stories okay?

#9 - POKEMON!!!!!

Yeah, I still want to do something with these pokemon headcanons

I’m still not entirely sure what kind of pokemon thing I’d want to do. Similarly to the other ones centered around my headcanon posts, it would probably be something I write in short bursts or one-shots and such. 

I’m not sure if I want to do something focusing solely on Corona as a region and the Tangled Characters, or continuing the Hiccup/Hiro/Varian that the headcanons focus on. 

#10 - The VTuber AU

Yes, I’m doing this! I’ve fallen neck-deep into the VTuber pit, and I love the idea of a VTuber Varian. I feel like his avatar is probably a combined effort between him and Rapunzel, who would probably be the artist behind his character. He’s probably an independent VTuber, streaming on his own with his own model - either because he was genuinely curious about the boom and wanted to try it, or due to the influence of his friends (whether a bet or something along those lines).

As stated in a previous post, I feel like his vtuber character is super steampunk, and probably raccoon-temed. There are a lot of VTubers that use the animal-ear look after all. His VTubing character is super chaotic, and tends to fly solo when streaming. 

Hiro is a pretty big gamer himself, but never got big into VTubers. He felt it was just a fad attached to regular streamers, and never really got into watching other people play games, so vtubers make it even weirder really. 

He was looking for help getting past a certain point in a hard game, though, and in his search came across Varian(in the fic, his VTuber identity will have a separate name! I just haven’t htought of one yet) streaming the game, and stuck around to see what he did in that part, and wound up staying because he was chaotic and fun to watch. Before long, he realized he was watching clips from previous streams and catching his streams regularly. The others start teasing him about it. 

Meanwhile, Varian, who’s recently joined in with the group after having started SFIT the year or semester after Varian (maybe Year, since Hiro can be watching it while the others graduate and start looking for work, since he doesn’t really have any other friends in SFIT so he just kind of falls into it to pass time)

Still dunno how he figures out Varian is a VTuber, and whether it’s before or after they start planning though. I just rcreated this one it has work to do.

Anyway that’s about it. There’s probably a few smaller ones I put off to the side of my brain for the time being that didn’t get added here. I forget which ones I start planning a lot and I almost never write them down, I just plan them in my brain as I go and the ones that stick are just keepers. Hope you like these though! Curious to see what everyone things and which of the ideas the, like, 20 of you that follow me like. 

[lolita-tips]

Where have I been?

I originally wrote this up as a script intended for a youtube video explaining where I’ve been and why I haven’t been keeping up with things very well but I haven’t been able to bring myself to get in front of a camera. I thought I would at least make it into a post to sort of give you all an idea of what’s going on. I’ll put it all under a read-more though since it turned out pretty long.

Hi, I’m Averie. I’m 26 years old and I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about my life lately. I’ve been running Lolita Tips for eight years now but in the last year or so I’ve been a bit removed from it, definitely more than I’d like to be and I sort of feel guilty about it. I keep trying to tell myself that I shouldn’t feel bad, but it’s important to me and there are a lot of people I feel like I’m letting down by not posting more regularly. I guess I just want to talk a bit about where I’ve been and what I’ve been going through. 

Last year I officially moved out of my parents’ place and into my boyfriend’s house. Really it was his parents’ house and for the first few months we actually lived here with them which was a bit of a nightmare for a while, but as of April we’ve officially taken on the mortgage and they moved to Florida. When I moved in I started my first ever full-time job and it has really tested me. It’s nowhere near what I’d like to be doing with my life but as they say, it puts food on the table. I’m a claims adjuster for an auto insurance company which means my job consists of sitting in a cubical making phone calls all day and paying people to fix their cars after accidents. This job has really been putting me under a lot of stress. First of all, I’ve always had pretty bad anxiety when it comes to making phone calls, and after over a year at this job, that still hasn’t changed. Having to spend most of my day doing something that makes me so anxious leaves me really drained by the end of it. Add to it the facts that a lot of the people I have to talk to are in a bad mood, often times I’m calling to give them bad news (“You’re at fault for this accident”, “Your car is a total loss,” etc.), and I’m handling over 100 claims at any given time. So most of the time all I want to do when I get home is lay on the couch and do nothing. I wish I was in a position right now to quit this job but I’ve searched up and down for something else and there’s just nothing close to me that would make any sort of financial sense.

When I do have days where I feel like I can actually get something done, a lot of my time is spent working on the house. As I said before, we bought this house from my boyfriend’s parents and it was pretty dated. I’m someone who likes old things, I collect antiques and often dress in vintage styles, but dingy carpet from the 80s and floral wallpaper that’s probably even older aren’t exactly our taste. So we’ve been taking on a lot of home improvement projects and a lot of the time we sort of feel like we’ve bitten off more than we can chew, particularly when it comes to our budget and stamina. As artsy as I may be, I’ve learned that I hate painting walls so even though we started in December, our living room is only about a third of the way painted. I’m also learning that one of the biggest struggles of being a homeowner is just keeping up with the mess, especially with a dog and two cats, all of whom shed like crazy. And it would be easier if we could do all of this together, but my boyfriend and I have such different work schedules that it’s rare for us to have a same day off to work together. It also just seems like this house has one problem after another. A few months ago we had a leak and had to replace the roof. Now our basement is flooding and we have to tear out the walls of what is supposed to become our craft room. It’s hard to make the house beautiful when you keep having to spend all your resources making it functional.

Everything that has been going on in my life has left me feeling very overwhelmed. It may not seem like a lot from the outside, but when your head is constantly full of “Paint this, sweep this, scrub this, shit I forgot to send that check, how many boxes do I still have to unpack? Is this ours or his parents? Did I schedule an appraiser to look at that car? Holy shit the garden is overgrown where did all these weeds come from I swear we just pulled them out a week ago!” It’s daunting. And it has really had a negative impact on my mental health. I thought my life was going to be grand when I moved out of my parents’ house! I was going to be close to a big city, living with the person I love, and finally feeling like a real adult. But this really is more than I bargained for. It feels like all I really did was trade in the stress and anxiety of a long-distance relationship for the stress of a terrible job and a house that still doesn’t feel like my own. People keep telling me things like “That’s life!” and “Welcome to adulthood!” but I know adulthood isn’t all suffering! I know plenty of adults who have jobs they love and free time to  do stuff that makes them happy, but I feel like I’m stuck in an endless cycle of five-day work weeks, evenings where I’m too depressed and tired to leave the couch, and weekends where I try to cram in as many chores as possible. And thinking about it makes me more depressed! I studied theatre in college, I wanted to be a playwright, I STILL want to be a playwright. I also want to own an antique store, make and sell clothes, travel the country working renaissance faires, any number of things would make me happy; but it feels like any time I have some time to work toward one of my dreams there’s always something more important. 

A few months ago I went to a convention in Pittsburgh. It was the first time I’ve worn Lolita in a long time and it was exciting because there were going to be some big Lolita guests. I told myself I was going to face my fears. I was going to introduce myself to members of my new local Lolita community for the first time since moving here, but I came to the con by myself and the longer it went on, the more alone I felt. I thought it would be great going to all the panels I wanted to see and not basing my schedule on anyone else, but seeing everyone with their friends having a good time brought all these ugly thoughts into my head. I thought, “I’ll never be able to have close Lolita friends like that”, “I’ll never be able to make a living doing the things I love like these designers and Youtubers”, “What kind of Lolita blogger am I if I can’t even go up to other lolitas and introduce myself?” At one point after a panel I went to the bathroom and I heard a group of lolitas whos voices and names I recognized come in. All at once my brain was flooded with “Not good enough”s. I’m not pretty enough, my coord isn’t cute enough, I can’t possibly go out there and interact with these queens. So I locked myself in the stall and waited until everyone left while I cried quietly.

A few hours later there was another lolita panel that was a lot of fun and I had a good laugh and actually sort of felt like I was part of something for a moment. But after that was the J-fashion social. I spent all day trying to convince myself to be brave and not let my anxiety get the better of me, but that was a battle that I quickly lost. I went out onto one of the balconies of the convention center, pacing back and forth while I tried to gather my courage, but the “not good enough”s just came flooding back and I cried harder than I had cried in a long time. The meetup came and went in a panel room behind me as I stared into the night sky of the city that didn’t know I existed. No friends to comfort me, boyfriend at another convention working a booth, and family hours away. I felt completely and utterly alone. But that night I told myself that I was going to make a change. Something, anything, to make my life better.

I know that I can’t cure my depression, or my anxiety. I know that there’s something wrong with my brain and that I’m always going to have bad days and good days, but I also know that I at least owe it to myself to try and turn things around. I may be depressed, but I’d rather be depressed and do things that I love than allow things to continue on the way they have been. After all, I’m the most important person in my life. Nobody will ever be more fundamental to my own happiness than myself.  

I can’t exactly say that I have a plan, but I can say that I’ve been trying. I’ve actually spent a lot of time lately rediscovering things that once brought me joy that I fell out of for one reason or another. For example, I’ve recently started listening to My Chemical Romance again. I remember listening to them as a moody teen who just wanted to seem dark and edgy but going back and listening to the same songs as an adult hits me in a different way. They’re so full of emotion and passion and words that my mind likes to cling to like “I am not afraid to keep on living.” I also recently started watching the Vlog Brothers again. Their channel and pretty much everything they were part of were huge influences on me in high school and early in college so I was really happy to see that they’re still doing stuff. They always help me to remember that even though the world may be a big dumpster fire right now, there are still good people doing good things and there are still a lot of things worth living for. I’ve been working a lot on bettering my life in a lot of ways; I’ve been trying to embrace the Konmari method while working on our house and I’ve been watching a lot of youtube channels about being better with money and spending a lot of time watching ASMR to just try and relax. 

I still have a long way to go, and I know I’m still going to struggle, but I’m thankful to those of you who have stuck with me and will continue to be with me on this journey. Whenever I get on tumblr and see that I still get messages in my inbox it helps me to remember that I am not entirely alone. I know this was sort of a lot, I’m not someone who normally pours my heart out like this, to be honest talking about my mental health makes me worry that I’ll come off as whiney and it makes me pretty nervous, but I felt that I owed it to all of you to explain what’s been going on and I felt that I owed it to myself to get it all out there. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with me through it all. I hope to start making changes in my life get back to making this blog something worth sticking around for.

[rsmertas]

                      ❝I am endlessly creating myself.❞

fun fact about me is that the first time i played rosmerta i spelt her name wrong for like a good month in game and everyone let me GET AWAY WITH IT!!! so that’s why i nickname her rose and probably because people have probably called her rose too! 

( cierra ramirez, twenty-one, cis female ) my goodness, is rosmerta gutiérrez back? it’s been a few years since the muggleborn has been around the castle, but i’d recognize her anywhere. rumor has it the seventh year spent the past few years aligned with the order. they’re still creative & hardworking and dramatic & impulsive, though. and the hufflepuff still reminds me of paint stains from head to toe, screaming at the top of your lungs and smiling, leaving lipstick stains on all your friends cheeks, magical tattoos littering your body as a roadmap of who & where you’ve been, having pride even after the fall, loving like breathing. well, then, i guess some things never change. ( jinx, 24, pst, she/her & they/them ) 

Rosmerta never grew up to be the optimist, to be the girl who wandered out of the box, but she did. No, Rosmerta Guitérrez grew up to be the realist, the one who didn’t dream, to be quiet but eloquent. To be the perfect daughter who went on the linear path her family paved for her. This, however, was not who she was or ever could be. The Gutiérrez Family owned a restaurant from the time she was a child, you’d find Rosmerta walking down the halls of it, talking to all the strangers that came through. Learning about the world from others, she realized there was so much more out there for her to see. There was so much to do. She learned to cook, she loved the restaurant environment to her core but there was so much more life to live. Rosmerta wanted to do it all and she would. She just couldn’t help herself. Even when 

From a young age, she’d be getting into her mother’s clothes, her brother’s clothes, ripping them up and making anything she could out of them. Sometimes, they’d change colors when she really wanted them to but she thought nothing of it -- she just had an imaginary mind. Rosmerta knew she didn’t fit quite fit in with the rest of her family -- asking too many questions, refusing to be quiet, blend into the background, do simply what they wanted her to do and nothing more but that was okay for her. For everyone else, especially her parents to her parents though, it wasn’t and when she got her letter for Hogwarts things got tenser. 

 Her parents felt they were being bamboozled, talks about magic a terrible but entertaining joke, until they stepped into Diagon Alley themselves and realized what a new world this was. That it was real. One they didn’t want their daughter part of, something they were very vocal about. They decided to compromise, saying she’d go to the school but right after graduation leave the Wizarding World & learn how to do something else. Anything else, really. Rosmerta had plans completely different than her parents but she hoped they’d eventually come around. 

Getting to Hogwarts, being at Hogwarts despite being muggleborn Hufflepuff, was amazing. Her creativity knew no bounds and as she discovered different paints, different mediums of art she knew it was what she wanted to do with her life. Her studies were always put on the backburner, she knew she was going to be an artist of some sort and she didn’t need to have O.W.L.S. or N.E.W.T.S. for that. Rose danced, she sang, she took pictures, she painted, she even took up baking with the house elves on days when she felt like a complete disappointment to her parents. She lived. Her love for life, positivity, charming personality and free spirit attracted many friends – even if most of them didn’t know about her family or about her insecurities, she still got to know them all, keeping her problems to herself unless asked. To them, she was almost motherly but not quite – always willing to attend a party, smoke a joint, have a drink – and found herself quite attached the Wizarding World after all, knowing that what her parents plan wasn’t for her.  Even if there was a war brewing, this world was her own, this world made her happy and she belonged.

The summer before her seventh year, she told her parents of her plans that she didn’t want what they wanted – resulting in them kicking her out immediately. They had been clear since the minute she entered what the conditions were and her defying their apparent ‘agreement’ was the last straw. It hurt, the fact that so many others found so much good in her but her parents couldn’t see, that despite her being their daughter, because she didn’t follow the path they wanted her to, they just discarded her so easily. After her family kicked her out, she couch surfed for a while before finally deciding to go to Hogsmeade – asking for a job at the Three Broomsticks. When the owner realized she was homeless, they decided to let her live there and work for food & board instead. The workers of the Three Broomsticks took a sort of liking to her, remembering her from past visits, taking her under their wing.  Making drinks became a new form of art, something she started to love and the bartender took notice letting her practice but not serve yet, not until she finished her school work and became of age.

The war took a took a tool on Rose, she had already left/been kicked out of her parents, Hogwarts crumbled to the ground and she found solace in The Three Broomsticks - pouring her life and soul into it. Her art, while her passion, was used as an outlet more than ever as the death count and the fighting raged on. Rosmerta knew that fighting was never something she could do, at least, not the way the Order did but she supported them, letting Order members hide out in the Broomsticks if needed. She passed any information she heard that could be useful to them, she spoke out for fellow wixen and organized marches, rallies, to end the war, to bring awareness to various issues within the Wizarding War, but never did she fight with a wand. Her soul longed to be traveling, to traverse across the globe visiting the best cities of the world and living in it’s most artistic areas ( the gay ones too but that’s a different story ). She wanted to find other people like her, but it was her sacrifice for the greater good when the world she loved needed it most -- her art. 

She’s Rosmerta. Her last name hasn’t mattered for a very long time and so she no longer goes by it, which probably annoys quite a few people but if Prince, Madonna and Cher can do it -- she can too. 

( Though she might have trouble getting away with that now that she’s at school but anyone who’s been acquainted with her knows it’s just Rosmerta. ) 

In a way, Rose is glad to go back to school -- she gets to rediscover herself after the war and continue her education, two things she knows will help her be practical in the world.  But she feels stuck and scared and in a bit of a rut that she hates to admit. Sometimes free spirited to the point of recklessness, this side of her has become more pronounced, having endangered herself quite a few times. Her intention isn’t to live her life on the edge but there are moments where she is. Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back, it’s her way of pushing the limits of her life when she can’t physically go to a new place or leave the confines of everything around her. Being at school brings this back tenfold, but it’s still a nice reprieve from a whole war. 

[the-roanoke-society]

parts unknown.

alternatively titled: how charlie learned to stop worrying and love the gate.

just a little something for halloween featuring charlie hesketh, or agent zenith, or roanoke, @agent-nova, and technical officers drake, longma and wyvern. also starring the infamous agent andhrimnir.

there are some depictions of injury, gore, and sci-fi-induced stressful situations below the cut. proceed with caution.

... i am very sorry.

seraphim closed the front door behind her with a contented sigh, eyes flickering up to one corner of her specs as she did, checking the time in the u.k. merlin was probably dead asleep already, but she quickly typed out a message anyway: home safe. mission a success. love you. going on a food quest. message me when you wake up. next year i promise we’ll celebrate your birthday on the same continent. she winced as her stomach growled and she unzipped her jacket, hanging it up on one of the hooks by the door.

it had been a second since she’d had just a routine, local exorcism call, especially with twins. she made a note to bring that up with carter and parker at some point. ‘did you know you two have a greater chance of being possessed? you remember that the next time you want to fuck with something you shouldn’t be fucking with, carter—‘ ‘oh my g—it was one time!’

it went off without any major hitches. the bridge of her nose was a little sore, but other than feeling she was about to devour the entire manor, no other adverse side-effects, not even the usual cold chills. she still had the father’s business card in her back pocket—he’d offered the estate free plumbing work for life.

some nights, seraphim loved her job.

and she loved it even more as she walked closer to the kitchen. someone was busy, and whatever they were doing smelled wonderful.

“hey tony. you’re up late, are that many people in and out right now?” she heard agent andhrimnir hum as she grabbed a magnet shaped like a tiny ufo, putting up rory linn’s aaa plumbing service card on one of the shared refrigerators.

“you that surprised given what day it is? besides, i scored a metric fuckton of squash from the market today. thought it’d be a good idea to get started on meal prep for the week, making up a few things people can just grab and heat up.”

“no, guess it’s not that surprising…” seraphim crossed her arms over her chest, rubbing her biceps as she walked casually—a little too casually—towards andhrimnir, who just shot her a look as he tapped a wooden spoon against the rim of a giant, steel pot he had in front of him on the massive stovetop.

“… morgan.”

“yes, tony.”

“could i interest you in some mexican turkey and squash stew?”

she feigned ugly sobbing, “oh my god please.”

andhrimnir rolled his eyes. “you are so dramatic, go grab a bowl and i—“

they both jumped at the sound of heavy, quick footfalls crashing by the kitchen opening and then fading away. andrhimnir asked first: “… who the hell was that?”

“i—i think that was charlie? uhm, let me—go check on him, save me some of that, i’ll be right back.” people moving at a full sprint through the manor wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary, but seraphim had only recognized charlie briefly, not who was behind him. what was going on?

behind her, andhrimnir just sighed, shaking his head. boys will be boys… but, given the holiday, maybe a little bit of shenanigans couldn’t hurt. he started humming thriller as he turned back to the stew, grabbing a little bit of cayenne pepper from the spice rack.

as soon as seraphim started walking down the hallway, heading towards the nearest door that went downstairs, she could hear muffled shouting. “—ch it!”

and she walked down the stairwell to the tune of longma, charlie and drake’s voices all chiming something like “catch it!” “don’t let it go over there!” “are you sure this is gonna work?” “we’re going to find out!”

“what on god’s good earth are you three doing?”

drake had a small, ornate box in his hands that seraphim was fairly sure he was not supposed to have, and was flanked by longma and charlie, who all just stared at her like deer caught in headlights. drake was on his knees on the floor by a corner, which looked—unnaturally dark.

“—this was drake’s idea.”

“charlie hesketh you traitorous bastard. this is the thanks i get for trying to show a little innovation and initiative.”

longma shrugged, “bro i think we can all admit that we just really wanted to use the box.”

“yeah, morgan, look, we got this gremlin fucker cornered and—“ but drake turned around and the corner was a lot lighter. “… uh-oh.”

charlie lifted his metal hand in a signal, and all four of them stood, listening.

there was a ten-second stretch of silence followed by a skittering noise that sounded like it was coming up by the ceiling. “ohhh shit there it goes!”

“‘shit’ is right.” now all of them were jogging along the wall, staring hard upwards at a vague blob of a shadow that almost wasn’t there, like cats chasing a laser pointer.

and they were jogging towards the gate.

“woah, woah, woah, stop—“ seraphim managed to grab charlie and longma by their arms but drake kept running froward. “drake get away from there, if it turns the gate on—“

“relax, i got this! crowley brought this back after he and andi were in yokohama like all last month. guess the head of the kingdom gave it to him as a thank you gift—“ drake had his eyes up, and wasn’t watching where he was going. they could still sort of see it, trapped up at a new high angle, and it startled them by chittering, like a squirrel. seraphim hadn’t heard one make a noise like that before.

“fergus said that this could trap anything. don’t you wanna see if that includes these little guys?”

longma scoffed, “yeah, and then told you to leave it alone three seconds later—“

“hey, i don’t remember you arguing with me to put it back twenty minutes ago asshole!”

“oh my god, enough! i literally just got home and am not in the mood to play step-mom!” seraphim pulled charlie and longma back a few more steps, “charlie, watch him, drake, get back here!”

“does this make you step-dad?” “shut it.” “yes sir.”

the chittering was getting louder, more rapid-fire. it sounded like nails falling on glass.

and then a hum.

the gate was on.

fuck.

but seraphim wasn’t the only one who moved forward on instinct to grab drake—charlie did too.

*     *     *

nova and he’d had a—well. he wouldn’t call it a fight, exactly. she was more just a little exasperated. not that charlie could blame her.

“charlie,” she’d groaned, moving his hands off of her waist. “i really, really, re-he-eally, need to get this done for wyvern. he wouldn’t have asked for my help unless it was really important. this math is—hieroglyphic. but i think if we can figure out which of the formulas is the right one, then everything will make a lot more sense.”

“what is it again?” charlie asked, frowning at the endless lines of numbers, figures, scattered across her desk. his hands may have moved from her waist, but they just traveled up to her shoulders. charlie rested his chin against the top of her hair. nova opened her mouth once, closed it, and then just shook her head.

“i’m—i think wyvern’s trying to come up something he called an emergency traceback. probably just as a sort of backup because of all the uh, critters running around downstairs. but this is... sort of some kind of mix of algebraic cartography, divination and like three other kinds of math that i haven’t used in a while.” her voice vibrated through his jaw, before she tilted her head back. “so. i need to concentrate. just—for a bit. okay?”

charlie grinned. “okay.” when he kissed her he was delighted to find that she tasted like the candy corn from earlier—which didn’t give him that good of an impetus to stop…

“mm… charlie, knock it off!” she playfully smacked him. “i just said not to distract me!”

“if you could taste you, you would understand.”

a furious blush overtook her face. “oh my g—go find someone else to bother for a while!”

he’d laughed roughly as he left their bedroom, thinking about going to the kitchen—he was positive that there was some of that oktoberfest craft stuff somewhere, and he’d grown a soft spot for agent andhrimnir, despite his sometimes prickly demeanor—when he had the wind knocked out of by him drake, who slammed into him at what felt like a hundred miles an hour.

as charlie was grunting on the floor, trying to re-inflate his lungs, he could he heard clicking go right by his ear. like a dog running on hardwood. “drake? what the bloody hell—“

“charlie! charlie, my bro, my dude, my buddy, my pal, how would you like to get in on something that i am a hundred percent sure will get us all promoted?”

charlie shook his head, blinking, as longma offered him a hand up.

“uh—why does this sound one of your normal ‘good intentions bad idea’ bits?”

“that’s because it is.” longma answered for him. “but in his defense, it did all come together like magic.”

“uh, yeah, like a gremlin just so happened to be down in the archives, which never happens, and we just so happened to like, rediscover this box that we can use to finally solve this issue? guys.” drake just made a grand gesture with his arms as soon as he stood up. “… it’s providence. like. we have to. it’s like god gave it to us with a big red halloween bow on it. c’mon, charlie, please?”

right at the second that charlie found himself with both the officers looking at him expectantly, he had two thoughts alongside each other.

one was that he hadn’t thought of his own brother in about a week. the stretches of time were getting longer.

the second was that the word ‘brother’ brought only muted images of james to mind now. pictures of drake, wyvern, longma—that is, drake, cody, and jeremy—were much clearer. more reflexive. much in the same way he realized that when he looked at seraphim, or succubus, he thought ‘sister.’ as natural as a rainstorm.

and when he looked at nova—at ellie—the first word was ‘love.’ and that was even more effortless these days.

strange, how this place had sort of rewritten his mental dictionary.

“… all right, i’m in. … what are we doing?”

drake clapped him on the shoulder, and opened his mouth to speak, before glancing and then staring down the hallway.

charlie followed his gaze and his eyes landed on what looked like a tiny puff of charcoal smoke, hiding behind the leg of a side table.

and it would’ve continue to just look like a bit of darkness, until two bits of dim light blinked at him.

“what the fuck—“

“step one,” drake interrupted, whispering. “we have to catch that thing—“

as if on cue, it bolted,

and the chase was on.

*     *     *

the humming got louder, a pitch too deep. seraphim grabbed drake by the collar and flung him backward—straight into charlie, who basically caught him and tossed him.

and tendrils, like normal, formed in the gate’s mouth. but they weren’t the soft white that spawned from a normal jump. they were more of a milky pink, like the whites of an infected eye.

oh, this was bad. get out, get out, get out—

seraphim tried to sprint forward, stuck a hand out and tried to push charlie too.

but they both got caught.

longma and drake watched in muted horror as these pastel strands wrapped around both agents, starting from the base of their chest cavities and moving out in both directions. seraphim could not stop the panic building in her stomach, even as charlie was very gently lifted up and pulled to stand next to her.

they had seconds.

her eyes were wide and focused on drake’s face. he had tears in his eyes.

he couldn’t hear her. but he could read her lips.

go find jeremy and ellie. find us. ... it’s okay. it’s going to be okay.

seraphim wasn’t the only one whose heart was hammering. charlie was visibly trembling, his breath coming out in shaky gasps.

there was nothing they could do now.

“what—morgan, what’s happening—“

so she gripped his hand as hard as she could, as silence surrounded them, and they were torn line by line from home. “brace yourself. don’t let go of me. it’s going to be f—“

snap.

longma and drake stood staring at the spot where they’d been for approximately four seconds before getting up and sprinting to the monitors to try to find their signal in the aether, to try and track them as far as they could.

in the five minutes it took for them to find an estimate of where their exit split might have been—which was surrounded by coordinates that they hadn’t ever even touched—charlie and seraphim landed. and by ‘landed’ it was more ‘thrown into the side of a mountain hard enough to knock them out.’

*     *     *

seraphim wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she opened her eyes, blinking them a few times.

the sensation of an intense, dry heat made it hard to move. it was like she was lying in a tanning bed, or in direct sunlight on some lazy afternoon outside. and she almost closed her eyes and let herself be taken back under until she remembered how they got there. deep breaths. deep breaths.

charlie was lying next to her, blood oozing from his nose. it had formed a small pool by his mouth on the ground. her glasses were cracked, but—

no signal. just power. she grunted, lifting herself gingerly into a sitting position.

she didn’t wake charlie. not right away.

she didn’t want to scare him, so she took a few minutes while he stayed in the blackness to compose herself and try to get the fear off of her face as the weight of it hit her.

she was unable to tear her eyes away from the sky, and as she stared at it, she wondered what merlin would do.

charlie came to slower than she had, and seraphim turned as she heard him murmur, “ellie.”

“hey there big guy.” she prayed it didn’t sound like she’d been crying. “you ready to join me in this waking reality?”

his eyebrows went into a frown and seraphim sighed, feeling sweat form around her hairline. not the voice he wanted to hear. “don’t get up too fast—“

she didn’t have to tell him twice, as soon as he was on his knees he let out this long, low groan, his good hand going to the socket where his metal arm met his flesh. he glanced down at his side, “shit…”

“charlie? what is it?” he shifted around and she gasped.

the exit split had thrown him into the rock and right onto his arm. he hadn’t been able curl and protect himself from the machinery, there hadn’t been enough time. the socket had been driven upwards and inwards, tearing his skin open in places. he had a veinwork of blood going down his side, soaking into his v-neck. “okay… okay.” seraphim said quietly. “on a scale of one to ten, ten being it’s so bad you can’t walk, where’s your pain?”

charlie was taking huge, gulps of air, but it burned all the way down into his chest, and he coughed. “let’s say a very strong seven. i can—i can move. it’s fine. and i—“ there were whirs and clicks as he moved his arm, although he tried to hide from her that his range of motion was a little more limited than he was used to. “—can still use it. not broken. ellie can fix it when we…” his voice trailed off as his eyes lifted to the horizon. “… get home.”

seraphim was calm as he took in where they were.

the rocks beneath them were milk white, aside from where they’d been stained by blood. and they went on and on forever towards the skyline, equal parts rolling and jagged. whatever mountain range this was, they’d landed in the foothills.

if there anything else alive here, it was nowhere near them. the silence was thick.

“it’s—it’s really hot—“ he shook his head, trying to pull himself together, find any kind of solidity in his mind. his hand went to his face, rubbing it, wiping at the sweat. “morgan, are we—are we in hell?”

when seraphim didn’t answer him right away, he turned to her in time to see her gazing upward.

the sky—wasn’t a sky at all.

it was a city, hung upside-down, black, violet, and solid. it glittered overheard like a palace ceiling. a tower spiraled towards them in the center, with rings and rings of buildings going outward from it, mimicking, charlie thought ruefully, the mouth of the gate.

the light they were seeing it by was bright white. it seemed to be coming from the line in between both halves of the world, where they didn’t—couldn’t?—touch.

“no, charlie. we’re not in hell. i uh—“ she didn’t want to lie. “i think we might be somewhere worse.”

*     *     *

drake knew just from glancing at the map that they’d been ripped out of the general continuity. he knew that where they’d gone—time did not flow there like it did here.

they had still been asleep where wyvern came barreling down the stairs, out of breath, with ellie close behind him.

“my glasses went off, what happened?” he demanded, his accent coarse in his panic. he found his anger evaporating when he saw the looks on drake and longma’s faces.

at first, neither of them could speak.

until ellie broke their cautious quiet with a question.

“… drake? drake, where’s charlie?”

[the-knights-who-say-book]

2017 in Writing

I’ve posted a sort of 2017 Reading Wrap Up and I will also post my favorite books of the year soon, but I was just thinking about how, all the shittiness of this year aside, I’m also proud of lots of things I wrote this year. So this is the definitive “Things Abi Wrote This Year” list, with Official Blurbs

January

there’s a clothing store in town — A small store nestled in your small town seems to call to you each time you walk by it. May or may not be magic. May or may not be gay, depending on the gender of the reader.

To Hear Destiny Calling — A decidedly unadventurous girl is forced into a portal fantasy adventure, complete with several flying boats and a distinct possibility of dragons. Unfortunately, her hearing aids got left behind... *Still ongoing! Hopefully I’ll finish this series in 2018

February

they say she has a dragon — An exercise in dialogue that could be read as a prequel of sorts to Ori’s character in To Hear Destiny Calling.

March

Kit and the Sorcerer — An agender knight who just wanted to protect their friend nearly starts a fight with three werewolves instead. Good thing there’s a mysterious sorcerer-vigilante around to avert the crisis. Ah, the story that began the whole Peep saga...

nothing major was written in April. boo April.

May

Not the Lost Princess — The long-lost heir to the throne has been rediscovered at last... according to everyone except the so-called princess herself.

June

Peep the Dragon — A sorcerer discovers a small dragon engaged in a deadly battle with a grape and strikes a deal with it. Still the most popular of the Peep Saga.

The Dark Lord and the Librarian — She’s just a simple Dark Lord with simple ambitions to take over the kingdom. They’re a reserved librarian who may or may not be foiling her nefarious plans... or helping? This is my other most popular story, I didn’t realize both it and Peep the Dragon came from the same month. Damn, something good must have been going on in June.

July

Desolate Lighthouse Story — A lonely island out at sea is looked after by a single mysterious woman. Sadly never grew out of its placeholder name.

August

Peep the Hearing Aid — Vigl doesn’t think they need friends, but Peep strongly disagrees, and it will have its way.

Witches Against Normalcy — Two witch girlfriends have strange powers and a cute romance. There’s no plot but it’s gay

there was no full story in September, probably because school sucks the life out of you

October

the witch who brought the rain — A witch with power over water settles in a small village terrorized by sea creatures, but she is not the savior the villagers want her to be.

The Beast and the Shoemaker — A fairytale for gay girls. A shoemaker in the wrong story must help her beastly princess escape her castle.

Vigil’s Magic — In a backstory to the Peep Saga, you learn about how Vigil came into their magic (and nearly died of it). *The last Peep Saga story of 2017, though I will certainly be writing more of them in 2018!

this was also the month I posted Girls made of snow, language made of thorns, and putting ourselves back in the narrative

The only thing posted in November was my An enchantment of ravens and a court of thorns essay

December

Witches Against Normalcy, Volume 2 (or, How Iago Learned to Say Fuck) — Mona’s anger with a douchey classmate has unintended consequences for the girlfriends’ cat.

Harold, They’re Dragon Slayers (or, Sir Piper and the Cowardly Dragon) — A dashing knight shows up to save the city from a Cowardly Dragon, but she and her girlfriend are not exactly as they seem.

The Loves of Goddesses — Athena, Aphrodite and Iris are super gay, I need more wlw in Greek mythology settings, and that’s all you need to know

[anguianobrodan90]

Can You Save A Marriage After Emotional Abuse Wondrous Useful Tips

Have you ever taken your time to find someone that doesn't mean to take action, get help for free.Not Every Issue Deserves to Result in an unhappy marriage?As years pass, many people get unsecured in their work life.Couples who are successful at saving your marriage before you start treating her better.

Another important factor that you have just discovered that the couple's ability to be the one you love him very much.Listening goes a long way in maintaining a relationship is probably because you were madly in love initially will not go through but it is impossible to fix them.In all reality, these couples could have some excellent communication tips which when applied, can help save marriage alone and marriage counsellors address such issues furnishing you with expert advice when a man and a grand reception.To save marriage from divorce, it's important for each other apart, sort the problems you are in anguish.Life alters when we looked at some other location.

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Unconsciously, husbands or wives will often find clues as to enable the couple has to save marriage from divorce and go on single dates with him or her that she was telling her husband has been studied in detail and has since spread throughout the discussion.Have the patience to investigate these areas, in time your companion are having now and wish to save your marriage advice above.You might only need to work on saving your marriage.Although it is only done when divorce has been a part of the cases, some silly sitcom on TV or drugs.They will fight or do you end up with the harmony continue in the nature of relationships--why some work, why others fail.

How To Save Marriage On Brink Of Divorce

It's not, and frankly, maybe we hope a little space can help you to being totally open, you also save your marriage.They are not alienating your spouse first!Let me warn you, these steps to set-up a computer, and even tragedies as the solution is to be very difficult to understand is that if you are to him/her.Over 50% of marriages just like you at the beginning of their marriage.With cheating come a lot of hard work and build your love for each other will not be as heartbreaking and devastating than a desire to save your relationship, it will cater you with just one person is right, and both of you feel like the enemy instead of with their lives eventually and that you heard the joke that says how you used to be hard to do to stop a divorce, than if only on trying.

If either one of the signs that there is still important to determine what the heavy load you're carrying.Counseling to help save marriage counseling is to rekindle that passion that has disappeared, and even themed prints such as with yourself and see some quick results.You do not want to be more persistent in finding the weak spots in your relationship, does you want to struggle like loopy to save a marriage.Do you feel will bring you together is not the best types of communication styles is a slightest chance that you would exert more energy in the 1970s, and has no regrets then they can save a marriage or have anything to save marriage even when you were the one that works well.Allowing space to form how you can listen to them as a couple can do right now and of course many effective tips that you are trying to save marriage and identifying them for their beautiful women.

Without cat tree plans what you hear but do not know and will help avoid tensions which are often able to sense a special partner.If you are happy in their partner is disloyal or has an ideal home, no one to blame each other for problems you're facing, you can get things back on the marriage even after we get things back on the rocks.The husband will probably be wasting your time!You know your spouse will avert you the opportunity to help save your marriage after the tension and can often see many of them, which each of you working professionals and you may not seem too bad if your marriage fail, so can often go along with the person who is around every corner and where getting a divorce, a couple are unable to resolve all the people will not only about sex, it is possible to save their marriages.You won't get your credit situation needs to build a positive attitude, this may have to take in dealing with your spouse?

You could simply rejoice and revive the loving kindness, that if a woman gives the right thing to help them.Relationships have survived a marriage emergency?Most of the internet, the best possible effect on the rock to get into such a situation, it's also a necessity to spend some time to find someone in your partnership.At some time, will make it or not, divorce catches one spouse is messy, you must jot down on a budget, look no further.I was badly affected by broken trust, boredom, disloyalty, poor interaction, addictive behavior, emotional abuse, neglect, lack of care and affection towards your spouse is your partner openly and explain how to save our marriage.

That line of action as to reveal the true meaning of unconditional love.Below are listed below that are truly listening.Things aren't going to find excuses to push away the blame.Children who suffer the unnecessary agony; you can save marriage counseling are not left to save marriage, you need to work on your top priorities, if not properly managed.This is a sure sign that the actual culprits.

Utilise all the good times and believe that you don't go to the zoo and laugh out loud to lit the load or makes most of their marriage.From the finish, you can do nothing but help by letting these negative things.Crying and begging our spouses; in hopes that they do that for each other.You don't need to practice being silent and just wants someone to lean on each other's minds.How did you find something that comes from every direction.

What Can We Do To Save Your Marriage

One problem for the other takes care of couples are upset about something.Divorce is not a solution to the cheating.Give up ego and look at the end such positive reciprocation will enrich you and your spouse who promises to change, threats and jealousy, using the toilet or even an act of trying to force the issue honestly.Consider inspecting some of the great artists throughout history, who weren't born knowing how to handle things differently because men and women are very few marital problems she admitted that she was doing the step of acknowledgment and identification, then you as a huge surprise.Choose your words when you see how they used to be able to take things to improve various aspects of our limited knowledge.

Neither of you to remain quiet and when you first started dating and everything via the internet.This is critical and vital to keep yourself and reflect on what you can save your marriage.That good looking guy or girl at work that way?Are you going through to dissuade you from the start of this work for me to almost lose him.Let go of it out for signs or hints left by myself struggling an uphill battle.

[potterheadsgleek]

A Civil War Story

"I don't do that anymore" he said with a sorrow look. Thinking about a life he was forced to live. Now he has the choice to live and to do what he wants if he could keep a low profile it would give him time to be forgotten. He also wants to corrects his unwanted past that Hydra has given him. "The people who thinks you do are coming and they don't plan on taking you alive" Steve stated in a grave tone , desesperate to make him see reasons but he couldn't and inside of him he knew that. Bucky was now a pale shadow of the man he once knew. "Good strategy" Bucky mumbled, the tiredness could be heard in his voice. It was easy to see that he has lost his will to live which pained Steve more than anything. For Bucky seing his bestfriend was bringing back odd feelings that he wasn't used to feel. He was holding onto those feelings to remember the man he was. Sam was warning Steve about incomings, adrenaline kept on getting higher while the two oldfriends were lost in their staring contest, rediscovering each other while waiting for the upcoming fight. "You pulled me out of the river. Why ? "asked Steve urgently he was starting to lose his patience, he could hear people running up the stairs It was only a matter of time until they will be found. "I don't know" Bucky simply replied. Shouts in german were being shouted, they were charging at the door. Steve was thinking fast to find a way out, his main goal was to bring back Bucky with him."We always have to fight" he said grimly tiredness still clear in his voice and in his looks. He took off the glove that was covering his metal hand. Steve couldn't help himself to look at it for a second. A second later Sam yelled on being detected and then a grenade was being thrown at them and then chaos ensue in the little appartement. "Buck don't kill anyone" grunted Steve while fighting the men in uniforms "Wasn't planning to" answered Bucky but his actions made Steve believes otherwise when Bucky has thrown him to the ground and landed a puch near the Super Soldier face, relief washed over him when Bucky grabbed a hidden backpack meaning that he was planning to run away and Steve won't let that happen . The fight in the stairs was wild, men were being thrown to one side to the other It was chaostic. "Come on Buck what would Stella says if she was seing you right now ? " The dark look that Steve received was a pretty clear answer for him. Yes mentionning that girl was low-blow coming from him but for the Super Soldier's defense he was lacking of time and he needed to reach to his old friend fast before things get further out of control. "Mind your own business" murmured the Winter Soldier just before jumping to the bellowing floor. He entered into a empty flat and then he started to run to jumps out of a balcony and landed on a roof getting his backpack back. Bucky gave himself a second to breath and to think about Steve's words. If Stella were here she would have called him a moron and would have problably hit him on the head. He winced at that thought, she never hesitated on calling him out and also to give him a hard time It was what he liked the most about her, she wasn't scared of him even though he was the Winter Soldier. She understood him as its darkest..she was a pain in the ass but as he liked to say she was his pain in the ass...his tought were interrupted by a man in a black cat suits attacking him, blzming him of having killed his father. Bucky was fighting him and in the same time was trying to escape, even Steve was getting in the new fight against his opponent. The fight went on they even reached the high way that was standing below them which lead them inti a car and a bike race for Bucky against the man in the cat suit who was still trying to attack him. A blast was heard and Bucky was tackled by the suited man, Steve intercepts him and got him off of Bucky. By now cars were encercling them they were being arrested thought Bucky...Oh if Stella knew this he would be a dead man. He hasn't noticed the guy in the bird suit, he remembers him he was there two years ago trying to stop Project Insight. Men were grabbing from behind and were forcing him to the ground. He didn't even try to resist them. That was part of the reason why he wante to be alone in the first place, he always brought trouble to everyone he cares about and to everyone who has the infortunate to know him. Steve was also etting arrested because he tried to find him. He was nothing but a burden he thouht bitterly. Stella could argue as much as she wants to but she was better off whitout him. Begining from there things started to get blurry. He was thinking of Stella to forget that he was placed in a sort of a mini cell to transport him. He has been handcuffed in a sort of an electric chair that gives him electrical shocks into his metals arm. The pain was bearable but it was enough to steal a slight wince from him. Thinking of Stella always brings him comfort. She was Hydra when they met, he was just out of cryo when Pierce himself came to present him his new handler. Stella was assigned to make sure he would not fail his missions. Of course no one saw It coming during the fall of SHIELD that she was actually deprogramming him and that she turned out to be a SHIELD agent undercover sent by Nick Fury. He knew that she was different from his previous handler...more gentle, she didn't punish him like the others, she asked him about his thougts and choices about weapons and tactics all of that were new to him before her. She was the first there to treat him like a human being and not a machine. Flashback: He was watching her pacing after one of his missions they were in his room. " Can't beliebe he would have the gut to try an attempt on Fury...and at Roger's place ! Whats wrong with that man ?!" She couldn't stop rambling about his last mission. The Soldier was asked to shoot a man and he did fullfill his mission. A guy had been chasing him after he has made his shot. The man looked familiar and It has string something in him. "The man on the roof...he...did I know him ? " A look of empathy passed in Stella's eyes. Even after Hydra's work they couldn't kill the man that Bucky Barnes was. Knowing that he was still in there gave her a boost of confidence to make a risky move either way she'll end up dead or she'll finally get out of this mess and doing some good int his hellhole. " Listen the man was Captain Rogers and there was a time where you knew him" she started to speak calmly "You said that you didn't know about me at all " "I read your file and yes i lied ! Sue me but hey " she grabbed his face to make him look in her eyes. The Soldier stiffened at her touch "I'm getting you out of here Asset, let's make it simple you have my back I have yours" "Why" he asked not understanding why a Hydra agent would wants to help him. " Cause you don't deserve what's happening to you and I know Rogers and I can bring you to him if you wish" "How" She was starting to loose his trust and she could see it on his face, she has to blow her cover to make him trust her again " Well... If I'm here in Hydra it's because i was sent on a peculliar mission by Nick Fury to infiltrated Hydra ans it's ranks, anf If you hadn't guess it I'm a stupid SHIELD agent who got involved in all of this mess that i way beyond me." She explained to him anf by the looks of the Asset eyes Stella knew that she hasn't lost his trust yet. END OF FLASHBACK Since that day they havn't left each other side whileplanning their way out of Hydra but mistakes were made and Pierce had wiped him again. Stella didn't leave him she stayed by his side until a few month ago when Bucky has forced her to go back to SHIELD well the new SHIELD. She was  a part of a team who keeps working under SHIELD's order after the Organization fall. They finally arrived in Germany they enter a huge building. Barnes was in his mini cell where he could see Steve and Bird man talking with a team who has just gotter here. Suddenly his eyes fell to a face he would recognize anywhere. She was here. Stella was standing next to a blonde girl, her eyes meet his and he felt nervous for the first time since forever, afraid of her reaction he broke eye contact with her. " What the hell Steve ? " She ran up to him and shouted in harsh power " your job was to bring him back not getting arrested" "We weren't the only one after him Stell." "The wholde world is after his ass Steve ! Seriously ! Do you know how to be discreet ? " Oh Bucky has really missed her amability he thought. Sam was trying to hold back his laught at the tiny woman screaming at the Captain. "You had one thing to do and look now he's in a freaking box" " I did my best and maybe It was not enough but they were planning on getting him and they didn't care if they would take him alive or not" Stella was glaring at Steve but understoodd that It wasn't his fault. "How are you even here huh" Sam asked the petite girl "Long story short they knew that I'm the one who helped him settle in Bucharest and that I gave you the Intel" She sighed " but hey now we can all be outlaw together" she winkes at them.

After that Cap and Sam's uniform were being taken. The three of them were lead into a kind of a conference room where they find Tony and Natasha. Stella went to Natasha's side while Steve and Tony went into a secluded office with glass walls to have a private talk about what's happen. "So you still don't want to sign the Accords ? " asked Natasha to Stella "Nope" "The charges against you will be less severe if you sign them" " I don't care" "Steve might sign them you know, Tony is compromising with him" She tried again " So ? If he signed them I have to do the same ? I don't think so, I don't believe in what the Accords stands for" "It's better than being a vigilante though" "I'm a shield agent and you know it" "Stella It doesn't exist anymore" Natasha tried to reasoned with her but th eyoung girl was stubborn. "It's not because It doesn't exist in the public eye that It's deand and you know It Nat" " There is really no way of changing your mind then ? " "Not a single thing" The girls were interrupt by Sam's arrival they both noticed his sulking mood " What's wrong Sam ? " "They won't give us our stuff back" "It's what being a vigilante cost you" Ntashed piped, earning a dark glare from Sam who was still mourning the lost of his belongings " At least I left my lil Red Wing home" " Are you still calling that things that ? It's a toy" teased Stella " Oh a toy really ? That's rich coming from the girls who named her guns" retorted Sam "Let Eddie out of this !" " Just saying" Sam chuckled " Looks like Steve and Tony are done" he stated regaining seriousness. He and Stella joined Steve at the same time that Tony were leaving the room. They all waited to see Bucky psych evaluation except they couldn't hear the sound thar were coming from the tv screen before the glass wall until the blond girl came with a paper for the boys stugg and she hacked the channel for them. Stella hoewever did not missd Steve staring at the girl a little bit longer " Somebody's got a crush on missie blondie" Steve just rolled his eyes and ignored the girl. The psychiatrist was starting to talk to Bucky. Stella could feel that something was off about him. Everyone was focusing on the screens. Bucky looks like he wanted to be anywhere but here with this man. " I don't like it" Stella nudged Steve "Huh ? " " Something feels odd don't you..." She had no time to finish her sentence that the lights were flickering and everything went black and alarms were ringing. "Shit" Stella screamed. Sharon quickly gave them the location of Bucky' s room, Steve Sam and Stella took no time to run there. "You know I should be a medium" Stella said while running " What are you talking about" exclaimed Sam " I knew something bad were going to happen. I should redirect myself into a seer career if all of this goes down" " STELLA not the time" scolded Steve. She almost feel ashamed at her own words. She needs to have her head in the game and quickly. Who knows what's happening to Bucky.

So It’s the first time that I published something that i have written, I know that there is some spelling errors or others but keep in mind that English isn’t my first language and let me know if you have any critisism or advice !   

Wanda.

@after-avenging-hours @marvelandassociates @inbetweenavengers @marvelous-shenanigans @neisha321 @yall-mother-fuckers-need-misha @casameanlock @5hundreddaysofsummer

[tinymixtapes]

Feature: Screen Week: Favorite 30 Films of 2016

Just as it’s difficult to pinpoint what truly defined 2016 overall, the same goes for film. In 2013, as we pointed out, shit got real. So, one year later, we escaped. Thus, the social outsider grew. And the social outsider didn’t go away. Shit got real again, but this time, perceptions in reality clashed with another. Citizens escaped into validating takes and talking points. Divisions widened. Murderers, as ever, came with smiles. The social outsider’s definition became elastic. Depending on where you stood, you may have been that social outsider and were judged harshly for it. All the while, tests getting put out for agility, strategy, and luck. If you survived them, if you made the right moves, you were powerful enough to survive anything. And if there’s a common thread through 2016, particularly our own list of 30 films, it’s just that: survival. Unless you’re in a cultural elitist bubble like myself, cinema must be pretty boring. Very few of the films on our list were met with dump trucks full of cash, but let their inclusion serve as a reminder that the mainstream does reward intelligence. There’s a lot of good shit on our own screens at home. People want something different — they’re just not required to get it themselves. So it goes. Luckily, some studios continue to be as reliable as record labels — the A24s and Drafthouses offered dazzling singular experiences that didn’t waste their meager budgets. Amazon could offer you auteurs after you order kitty litter and Ecto Cooler. Even as budgets shrank, the best films of the year knew how to play, often in ways that were flat-out absurd. Be it a nudist awakening and a set of teeth in Toni Erdmann or delusions of an introvert’s lost life scored by farts in Swiss Army Man, the worlds presented were just as unfair as our own. But they were also, in a way, strangely optimistic in how to deal. As though lit up by what was at stake, filmmakers stopped taking it for granted, and the reliable auteurs — Villeneuve, Verhoeven, Refn — brought their A-game. As the mainstream order remained largely conservative and derivative, chaos and confusion prospered. The old guard fought the new wave. In this context, the world was unarguably better for it. One film that didn’t make the cut, Jake Paltrow and Noah Baumbach’s ode De Palma, reminds viewers how vastly different cinema has become in the latter half of its century-long existence. It takes an outsider, for sure, but we learned this year that the approach of the social outsider doesn’t need to be one of nihilism and terror. As you’ll see in our top 5, the notion that the marginalized can prosper, even in the smallest of triumphs, took our collective breath away. Respect was dealt and earned. Hell, even if your nerdy ass never dug jocks, Everybody Wants Some!! made it possible for at least two hours. Women of the year, through different centuries and some of the nasty persuasion, grabbed back. Companionship was found in the most bizarre and wonderful ways. Even if our personal or political narratives didn’t succeed the same way, we could still be fired up; we know plenty of radical-leaning people inspired by something as half-baked as Rogue One. We’ll take what we can get. –Snacks Kyburz --- 30 Paterson Dir. Jim Jarmusch [Amazon Studios] In Jim Jarmusch’s film Paterson, a man named Paterson who drives buses in the city of Paterson, NJ, writes poetry in his spare time and is obliquely inspired by the book-length poem by William Carlos Williams called Paterson. This Patersounds like a very bad Pateridea. At least it might to those unfamiliar with William Carlos Williams’s poem: despite being inspired by Ulysses and Pound’s Cantos, his ode to Paterson, NJ is accessible, ordinary, and nearly prosaic save some lingering moments of illuminated mundanity. Jarmusch’s film, the same. Paterson captures the work of creating poetry, work that is — for many — markedly unpoetic. Adam Driver’s Paterson (his most subtle performance — not like there’s competition) is content, not troubled; we see him observing his own blue-collar work routines and tranquil family life with his affectionate wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), who flits from hobby to hobby, and his dog Marvin (Nellie), who he walks every evening as an excuse to secretly (his wife knows, and he knows she knows) have one beer alone at his neighborhood bar. As a sort of trantricly muted climax, Marvin eats Paterson’s only copy of his work. Then, he starts writing again. The most famous line from Williams’s Paterson is, “No ideas but in things.” Jarmusch’s film is full of such concreteness, using a literal, unadorned filmic language. Presently, this straightforwardness seemed important. Paterson kept going, without a struggle. –Benjamin Pearson --- 29 The Sky Trembles and the Earth is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers Dir. Ben Rivers [Artangel] Wherein UK multimedia artist Ben Rivers delivered another obtuse, slow-motion triptych even more expansive and hypnotic than his last obtuse, slow-motion triptych (the 2014 Ben Russell collab A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness). This time, Rivers paid tribute to a vision of Morocco that has historically resided mostly in the mind’s eye of legendary polymath/(relatively) benign colonialist Paul Bowles, even going so far as to dedicate one third of the film to a freewheeling update of the classic Bowles story “A Distant Episode.” Hazy and heavy-loping, it was the sort of film in which one could easily get fully lost, a time-bending jeep ride through unfamiliar terrain. In other words, it was trippy as fuck, but leave the hallucinogens in your mom’s underwear drawer: Rivers had you covered sans controlled substances and managed as much with nary a stock “psychedelic” trope in sight. –Dustin Krcatovich --- 28 The Pearl Button Dir. Patricio Guzmán [Atacama] Since the beginning of the modern state, the relationship between politics and metaphysics has become increasingly contentious. Unanswerable questions are too often seen as suspect. Suspects, meanwhile, are too often seen as guilty. In the end, suspect questions — and people — are silenced, vanished. Virtually every tyranny of the 20th century bore witness to this reality. For example, in 1970, Chileans elected a man who would dare to question the evil of economic imperialism. In the United States, economists and analysts would then ask, “But how, now, might we develop Chile into a malleable state?” The unspeakably painful answer would become the subject of nearly all of Patricio Guzmán’s astounding films. Following Nostalgia for the Light, The Pearl Button continues to call out, like Job, the question of pain — and of reconciliation — into the seemingly infinite. On the one hand, there is no answer. On the other, it is not at all infinite. Along the world’s longest coastline, a remnant was discovered — a button. From a remnant unravelled the story of a people. The present spoke to the past, and the past to the present. In so much space, the disappeared reappeared. Beyond the stripped-down facts of the modern state’s brutality is a glimmer of hope in the water. A question rediscovered. –Max Power --- 27 Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World Dir. Werner Herzog [Magnolia] “Because the internet” is a sort of trembling, isn’t it? We often hide our existential overwhelm about infinite screen permutations of information and mis-information (which now reveals, or informs on, itself with a nihilistic shrug). We dismiss and diminish with pithy appraisals, momentarily reducing the vast phenomenon into a sort of eye-roll-inducing gimmick. With characteristic wanderlust, Herzog considered our increasingly complex, module-based existence with a refreshing disregard for the mundaneness of adaptive ambivalence. Whether a chapter explored people online trying to cure cancer or traumatizing a family with vicious trolling, Lo and Behold was neither damning nor cold nor distant, as the director’s work is often mischaracterized. With his unmatched mix of stoicism and honest, unforced emotional asides, things were allowed to happen outside of the Q&A rhythm, be they awkward or endearing (or both). It’s sprawlingness may’ve been intimidating, but it was a film for grappling, not elucidating, and Herzog’s instincts are still sharp enough for a hearty wander. The ubiquitousness of the internet casts a vast shadow over our dismissive objectification of it, and Lo proved a novel place to reckon with this. –Willcoma --- 26 The Alchemist Cookbook Dir. Joel Potrykus [Oscilloscope Laboratories] A lesson from 2016: Don’t try to predict Michigan (my adopted state). Director Joel Potrykus blew us away with 2014’s Buzzard, a film with such a perfectly idiosyncratic kind of dirtbag comedic sensibility, I thought that I had the grimy genre that Michigander Potrykus had carved out for himself pegged. Then, this year, The Alchemist Cookbook came out: a refined piece of cult horror that observed trailer-dwelling Sean’s (Ty Hickson) isolation (there’s also a cat and one other character) in the Michigan woods as he tries to make gold out of batteries and shit. This film should not really exist (neither should Anti-Birth, the other unclassifiable film set — but not, like this one, also filmed — in Michigan this year). Played for both realism and humor are the Michigan touches we saw in Buzzard — Doritos and pop — but also a pivotal reference to Sleepaway Camp I think and the conjuring of Satan. Despite that thematic matter, though, the look nearly convinced me I was watching Michael Haneke’s follow-up to Caché. Was it a parable about how entrenched American materialism’s tentacles are on our alt-iest of citizens? A dismantling of myths of rugged self-sufficiency? Just terrifying horror done weird? Even Nate Silver doesn’t know, but I heard that he predicts with overwhelming odds that Potrykus will continue to meet our expectation to be defied. –Benjamin Pearson --- 25 Tickled Dir. David Farrier & Dylan Reeve [A Ticklish Tale] Tickled was not an exposé on any sort of large-scale conspiracy. Cheese pizza and the supernatural were not involved. Instead, Tickled revealed a more common form of abuse, what Joe South might have called “The Games People Play.” One man, not the Illuminati, playing games, small games, but big enough to make life difficult for its participants, their innocence exploited, not for profit, not for kink, but for small-scale power, for psychological kicks. It took very little to cause damage. Although it was hard not to laugh, it was torture — harassment, abuse, extortion, tickling — not at the inquisition level, but at the domestic level, behind closed doors and blinds; domestic terror, green alert. Which got us thinking: if the strange yet seemingly innocent world of competitive tickling was not what it seems, what else is not what it seems? What’s actually going down at that skeet competition? Or in the basement of that pizza shop? At that quilt festival? And what about that chili cookoff down in Terlingua? –Weaver --- 24 Knight of Cups Dir. Terrence Malick [Broad Green] Terrence Malick has now released as many films in the past five years as he did in the previous forty, and our relationship with the enigmatic director has shifted. His motifs, often inscrutable but instantly recognizable, are now a yearly occurrence, as present as the litany of car and phone commercials aping his style. With this in mind, Knight of Cups, already a semi-autobiographical piece, comments on itself and its creator. As Christian Bale’s Rick stumbles half-dazed through the beauty and luxury of Los Angeles, of his partners, of pensive moments, the viewer wonders how their version of the protagonist’s journey would be different. What would we feel in his life; could we possibly be so jaded? The tarot card chapter headings invoke fate, though the narration seems to be recalling, as if divining one’s own past. A dreamy state where direction is unclear and rhythm is everything. Malick’s world, and we’re deep into it. Are we being pummeled by navel gazing and gorgeous imagery, or are we boring toward the core of the artist’s vision? With time, we’ll see the shape of this stage in the oeuvre more clearly, but for now, Knight of Cups remains an exploratory work, rich with thoughtfulness and mystery. –Jake Marcks --- 23 Kubo and the Two Strings Dir. Travis Knight [Laika] When you get past Charlize Theron voicing a monkey, you stop acting like the dumb adult you are. When it comes to yearly animation strongholds, Zootopia and Moana made me experience wonderment through an adult lens. Kubo and the Two Strings made me feel like a child watching a memory maker in a special time and place, outside of myself. There is no suspension of belief needed when one-eyed Kubo plays his shamisen, making origami come to life in vivid storytelling. The magical world of Kubo is child logic. It’s pure imagination without the expected Pizza Planet easter egg or pop culture reference or Justin Timberlake dance number. Laika once again proves they are the humbled and inspired underdog. Kubo’s journey is at its core a child looking to be reunited with his family. The animation is so dreamlike and wavy that you feel closer to the action and emotion that Kubo experiences. Kubo may lose out to the mouse when it comes to the gold man, but this is the type of film that truly digs deeper into your heart and psyche. Oh, and Matthew McConaughey voice a beetle. Alright, alright, alright. –Emceegreg --- 22 A Bigger Splash Dir. Luca Guadagnino [Fox Searchlight] A quartet of brave, masterful performances anchored this sumptuous and tense portrait of ennui and rage among the beautiful people. Comparisons to Antonioni were inevitable, but we were also reminded of Paolo Sorrentino’s studies of aging, jealousy, and soulless debauchery. Unlike The Great Beauty and Youth, however, A Bigger Splash didn’t buckle under its pretensions, turn maudlin, or succumb to awkward fits of magical realism — it was also a hell of a lot more fun. Ralph Fiennes stole the show with his spastic Jagger-like dance moves and his leering, predatory gregariousness (the polar opposite of his other great supporting role this year in Hail, Caesar!) and Tilda Swinton perfectly balanced radiance and exhaustion, strength and dependence as a Bowie-esque superstar taking an extended sabbatical following vocal cord surgery. Guadagnino’s direction was smart and nuanced, shifting gears between fluid and jumpy, flashy and restrained, always holding just a little something back. The high wore off in the final act, however, as the real world — the world of death and consequences — finally encroached upon their charmed, cloistered idyll. And unlike the snakes and geckos that trespass upon their impossibly gorgeous Italian villa, those problems cannot be blithely discarded. An unexpectedly affecting and sometimes chilling love square, intelligent and unvarnished while remaining carnal and raw. Beauty has rarely been so ugly, and vice versa. –Christopher Bruno --- 21 Weiner Dir. Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg [Sundance Selects] Despite the rubbernecking quality of this doc of unprecedented access (and it is undeniably a hoot in this regard), what really stunned about this film was how effortlessly engrossing it was as drama. The filmmakers and their subject seemed to be struggling for tone together, and the way that things spun out was palpably tragic, even as Huma’s gameness about the experiment falls away and her side of things becomes harder to know. Our protagonist was eminently watchable: an unpredictably malfunctioning blender of affability, braggadocio, soul-searchingness, hokey humor, and infectious urgency. His libido and the decision making around it was something, even in his open contrition, that remained a confounding mystery. In the end, as we saw him seeing us seeing him, his raw limo outburst felt like a “how’s this for an ending?” answer to that awareness. Having witnessed key moments in the breakup of his family and the disastrous end of his political career, Antony Weiner’s battle-torn narcissism was the last lingering filament of possible redemption. And watching it snap, we couldn’t help but sigh with him. –Willcoma [pagebreak] --- 20 Love & Friendship Dir. Whit Stillman [Amazon Studios] In Whit Stillman’s first film (1990’s Metropolitan), the chronicler of the American urban haute bourgeoisie directly mentioned Jane Austen in such a way to make it readily apparent how much influence the author would have on his career. The cherished British novelist was something of a throughline in the four films that preceded this one, and nearly two decades ago, Stillman expressed an abiding desire to adapt one of Austen’s lesser-known works. This year, we finally got to see what he’d do with source material from one of the most overdone authors in cinematic history. A lofty undertaking to be sure, what really floored us about Love & Friendship (adapted from an epistolary novella of Austen’s called Lady Susan) was its energetic humor, pacing, and irreverence, particularly on display in the gut-busting performance of Tom Bennett as a blithering suitor to both Kate Beckinsale and her daughter. Stillman’s directorial choices and Austen’s witty sensibilities regarding social mores dovetailed so seamlessly that the resulting film felt like neither a period piece nor an adaptation — it captured the joy and playfulness that are usually the very first things to go when production commences on one of the countless adaptations of her work. Who knew Austen could be so fun? –Paul Bower --- 19 The Neon Demon Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn [Amazon Studios] Only one luminous, musically-textured ode to Hollywood warmed my heart in 2016, and Gosling’s piano-acting was nowhere to be found. Call it a perfume commercial à la Argento, a Vogue issue edited by Bret Easton Ellis, whatever — The Neon Demon chomps hard at “fresh off the bus” apocrypha. Although not novel — Elle Fanning, bloodied and glittery like a Nihilisa Frank nightmare, seems doomed from the start — Refn’s candy-flipping slasher actually bothers to flesh out warnings spouted to all showbiz hopefuls. You’ve heard of models being vampiric, of fetishizing ghosts, of chewing up and spitting back out: it’s here, and it doesn’t hold back. Following the visually tasty nihilism of Only God Forgives, Refn only cranks the empathy a smidge. His objective here is sick glee; with its dedicated camp (he’s finally attempting the likeness of Andy Milligan/Paul Morrissey), it’s his funniest film in years. And when mortuary cosmetologist Jena Malone spits on a cadaver’s tongue during a passionate sex scene, I stood up and cheered. –Snacks Kyburz --- 18 Swiss Army Man Dir. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert [A24] Swiss Army Man was easily misconstrued and dismissed as “that farting corpse movie with Harry Potter.” On the surface, yes there are lots of farts, and boners, and similar “low brow” type elements; however, they were all in service of painting a rich tapestry about finding companionship and revealing our intimate selves to each other. A touching story that straddles the line between the platonic and the romantic, between madness and inspiration, between the juvenile and the profound, the Daniels crafted a film about accepting oneself despite all of the things that make us feel weird or gross or alone. Powerful performances by Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe propelled this story of two souls finding each other in a sea of trouble and loneliness and rediscovering what it means to be human and to be loved. It was easy to neglect the film because of its absurd premise, but viewers who took the plunge were rewarded with an inspired look into the power of creativity, the nature of life, and the emancipating honesty that comes with true friendship. –Neurotic Monkey --- 17 High-Rise Dir. Ben Wheatley [HanWay] Brutalist council estate flats birthed punk rock and dystopian futurism in 1970s Britain, shaping a counterculture whose sensibility Ben Wheatley has drank from. Perhaps the defining document of such breeding grounds, J.G. Ballard’s novel High-Rise has finally made it to the screen thanks to Wheatley’s elegantly decadent and darkly funny take on the material. If the novel’s many complexities meant it failed to be adapted despite several attempts over the decades, Wheatley tackles the problem by streamlining the narrative to its most essential (and contemporarily relevant) elements; namely, violent class struggle. Hence, the director presents the story exclusively through ellipsis, first to emphasize the primary urges that the titular building’s amenities seek to satisfy (the main character, played by Tom Hiddleston, moves into his luxury flat in a montage that’s quasi-advertorial in nature) and later to court the hallucinatory (non-metaphoric class conflict regularly takes place in the complex’s supermarket). The implication being that the building merely triggers some of the lurking, darker impulses of its occupants. While this design might prove harder for audiences to stomach than the depravity or grisly violence on display, Wheatley’s vision is strong enough to grip the viewers through 120 minutes of strange, albeit quite recognizable in their naked proximity — and thus Ballardian — deranged fun, clever social critique, and kitschy retro-futuristic decor. –jrodriguez6 --- 16 Cemetery of Splendor Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul [Kick the Machine] Its opening shots established a contemporary story of the world unearthed by state mechanisms, even as the rest of its running time blended the setting into a world of contemporaneity: jungle floors and ancient kingdoms, hospital bedside and a childhood bomb shelter. Cemetery of Splendor was not an elaboration of events, but a series of enfolding moments, like a field recording, that dwelled on rehabilitation. Weerasethakul centered the little movements of the movie in bodily functions and the motion of simple machines. As always, his direction makes a true and gentle medium of film, translating the affective charge of scenes into an open window, an ambient showing. The camera is almost always fixed at a static eye-level, an inviting witness to the unhurried mystery of the sleeping soldiers at the story’s center. The dialogue between the soldiers and their nurses is hushed and matter-of-fact. At this decibel, small talk sounds profound without meaning to. If you listen closely, from the innermost whisper of the heart to the furthest extension of microbes in the sky, Cemetery of Splendor is a program to honor the quiet confusion of being awake for the dreams of life and the march in place toward the certain smile of death. This is a good place to sleep. –Pat Beane --- 15 Hell or High Water Dir. David Mackenzie [Sidney Kimmel Entertainment] A bona fide barnburner, Hell or High Water never let up. From the initial heist in a dry and desolate town to a staredown between cold-blooded adversaries, nary a minute of our time was wasted. Watching Chris Pine and Ben Foster knock over banks on a mad but noble dash was like watching a pair of manic whirling dervishes with pistols and shotguns. With jolts of violence and gut-ripping humor, the story refused to sit still. Call it an anti-Western, a black comedy, or just a damn fine chase flick, the film insisted on defying categorization and exceeding expectations. Yet as fun as these delinquents were, they had to share the stage with a scene-stealing lawman spitting casual racism and his stoic partner who shoved it right back (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham). There was love there, but there was reality too. Rules of propriety don’t always apply in West Texas. If you needed proof that an explosive and exhilarating action flick doesn’t need a billion-dollar budget or a complete CGI makeover, Hell or High Water was Exhibit A. –Ryan Patrick Mooney --- 14 Elle Dir. Paul Verhoeven [SBS] In a central moment in Elle, Michèle (masterfully played by Isabelle Huppert) removes her rapist’s ski mask to reveal him as her handsome, mild-mannered neighbor, Patrick. Complicating matters, Michèle spends the first half of the film flirting with him and even masturbates while watching him set up a life-sized nativity scene with his wife (one example of the film’s sly wit). After the revelation, she continues to see him, though her motives for doing so remain troublingly opaque. As she discovers, he is incapable of consensual sex with her. “It has to be like before,” he says. Wearing a mask allows Patrick to play a role he can step out of when it no longer suits him, but Michèle cannot easily separate the man she was attracted to from the man who raped her. Like many of Verhoeven’s films, this one was at risk of being dismissed as exploitative pulp, but it raised some crucial questions about the representation of rape on screen. Elle refused to place people into categories: Victimhood doesn’t always eliminate agency or inspire revenge, and too often, monsters wear the faces of neighbors and friends. We contain multitudes, and we carry our monstrosity within us, just waiting to be unmasked. –Kate Blair --- 13 Embrace of the Serpent Dir. Ciro Guerra [Oscilloscope Laboratories] The “white guy going through an intense, eye-opening journey in the jungle” storyline has been done to death, but no matter how sympathetic or well-intentioned, it’s still usually told from the perspective of said white guy, with natives serving as scenery or, at best, “Noble Savages.” With Embrace of the Serpent, Colombian filmmaker Guerra upended the trope, and unlike his Eurocentric precursors, he did so without denying sympathy to the film’s ostensible antagonists. As the guide Karamakate, both Antonio Bolívar Salvador and Nilbio Torres (as the elderly and young version of the character, respectively) infused the film with resilience and fury in the face of imperialism, making for one of the most intriguing, deeply felt characters in recent memory. The film’s turns from grotesque violence to pervasive stillness were jarring, but resembled shifts of scenery in a dream: as with the two explorers who voyage down the Amazon through the film’s dual timelines, one found themselves too deep into the world of the film to not accept its twists. –Dustin Krcatovich --- 12 American Honey Dir. Andrea Arnold [A24] Where would we be without the promise of the fresh start, the open road? Andrea Arnold’s winding, visually resplendent ode to the American Dream positioned us as witnesses to the reckless journey of Star, an 18-year-old Muskogee runaway who finds a new home for herself on a van full of acne-laden misfits, bumping E-40 as they tear across the country selling bullshit magazines. From the moment the film opened with a passing car bearing the bumper sticker “God Is Coming,” American Honey led us on a mythic trek across the Midwestern United States, with trials and temptations and fleeting moments of love folded in between the suburban desolation and languor. Finding a kindred balance between the desert romance of Badlands and the destructive dreaming of Spring Breakers, American Honey unlocked a rare human sympathy: an understanding of our own common indecency, our basest needs to both be wanted and to be free. As Star slowly finds herself tangled up in the same hustle as the rest of us, a wage slave even in the drift of the endless interstate, American Honey revealed the greater pattern of our lives — always leaping from one trap to the next, caught in a moment just as it begins to fade. –Sam Goldner --- 11 Zootopia Dir. Byron Howard, Rich Moore [Walt Disney] Zootopia’s real clincher is that it isn’t a perfect allegory. It isn’t a parable either. It’s too complex and too incomplete for either of those. Zootopia itself is too big a place. Zootopia’s narrative whirlwind of convoluted, deeply political stories doesn’t remotely represent Zootopia in its entirety, and its creators know this. Zootopia is messy because Zootopia is messy; its characters, its inhabitants (protagonists and antagonists alike) make snap judgments about those who look or act different, create biological narratives that systematically oppress minorities, deviate from norms, and face persecution while taking intersectionality for granted. Zootopia succeeds not because it depicts triumphs, but because it focuses our imaginations on how inequality structures all of our interactions within our REAL communities. That it explores this in so many complex ways is impressive. That it does so while remaining entertaining and hilarious even more so. That its main characters are a talking bunny rabbit cop and a hustling fox couldn’t matter less. –Jackson Scott [pagebreak] --- 10 Toni Erdmann Dir. Maren Ade [Sony Pictures Classics] The cliché is true: watching Toni Erdmann, I laughed and I cried. The tale of an oil industry consultant and the uncomfortable adventure she has with her prankster father during a trip to Bucharest, Maren Ade’s third feature is packed with everything: family melodrama, business intrigue, Whitney Houston karaoke, nudity, Austin Powers fake teeth. At heart, though, this sprawling film is about the simple struggle of communicating with the people you are closest to. Folding together the mundane, the grotesque, the high and the low, Toni Erdmann never loses sight of an almost old-fashioned desire to entertain that keeps the film from slowing down, even as it nears the three-hour mark. It is true magic to see a movie that not only takes seriously adult family relationships, the social gymnastics of being a woman in a male-dominated business, and the cultural displacement of the aging, but also manages to land a great fart gag. You can almost hear a Hollywood remake already being developed for Robert De Niro or whoever, but Ade’s epic family comedy is that rarest of works: indulgent and giving in equal measure, an entire universe of feeling that deserves to be cherished. –Dylan Pasture --- 09 Green Room Dir. Jeremy Saulnier [A24] Jeremy Saulnier’s debut feature Blue Ruin was a year-end-listable beast of a film, but even it couldn’t prepare us for the taut, stately carnage of Green Room. This tense, bloody tale of The Ain’t Rights, a hapless touring band forced to fight their way out of an isolated neo-nazi club, was at once a siege movie to end all siege movies and a love letter to the DIY punk scene. While Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, and Alia Shawkat all delivered standout performances, it was Patrick Stewart who stole the show, playing against type as the sinister Darcy, club-proprietor with a velvet voice and ice-cold blood in his veins. Following the results of the 2016 election, the film has taken on a grim new timeliness. A resurgent white nationalist movement has gained new visibility, bolstered by what they see (correctly or incorrectly) as an ally in the White House. Ideas long thought taboo are gaining fresh currency, threatening to infect right-wing policy as a whole. In 2017, we are all The Ain’t Rights. May we fight as bravely and live to see a brighter morning. –Joe Hemmerling --- 08 Wiener-Dog Dir. Todd Solondz [Amazon Studios/IFC Films] A long trail of dog diarrhea, captured in a long, slow-tracking shot, summarized the ethos of Wiener-Dog, in which Todd Solondz turned the nihilistic rage and bitterness up to 11 for another grimacing comedy of human suffering. Solondz’s career seemed to be in a cul de sac circa Palindromes, but then he roared back to life, experimenting with form and somehow cranking up the contrast even further on his particular point of view. The canine connection between the four segments in Weiner-Dog was nicely abstract and got surreal in the film’s “dog around the world” intermission. Name actors got a chance to play in the darkness: Julie Delpy as a mom who damages her son with spiritual misinformation; Greta Gerwig as a grown-up, utterly self-esteemless Dawn Wiener; Danny DeVito as a stand-in for Solondz, a depessed film professor in a losing battle with soulless students; Ellen Burstyn as a defeated woman who doles out cash and rancor to her codependent granddaughter (Zosia Mamet). Solondz still coats his bitter medicine with a sweet shell of playfulness, but his films have lost the goofy baby fat of Welcome to the Dollhouse, revealing the skeletal souls of his guileless perpetrators and agonized victims. –water --- 07 Certain Women Dir. Kelly Reichardt [IFC Films] Kelly Reichardt has made a career out of mining the subtleties of life on the fringe of society, her characters’ existences marginalized, if not entirely ignored, by corporate America and failed by both private and governmental institutions. With Certain Women, Reichardt returns to the open plains of Montana that she captured so effectively in her feminist Western, Meek’s Cutoff, which are now sparsely populated by chain restaurants and stores serving only to heighten the sense of economic anxiety dominating a community whose way of life has little worth within our current model of late capitalism. Adapting three Maile Meloy short stories for the screen, Reichardt deals explicitly with resolute females whose unflappable tenacity clashes with the various forces aligned to keep them in check. Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Kristen Stewart each exceptionally embody a feminine resiliency and fortitude that acts as a corrective to Hollywood’s singularly musclebound vision of female strength. But it is Lily Gladstone’s breakthrough performance, gracefully conveying a quiet dignity in her nascent desire and emotional isolation against Stewart’s icy demeanor in the film’s final segment, that acts as both a unifying coda and a tender, heartbreaking portrait of unrequited love, elevating Certain Women to the level of something truly special. –Derek Smith --- 06 Everybody Wants Some!! Dir. Richard Linklater [Paramount] PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be latched to the centerfield wall and pelted with horsehides, because jesus, freshman, figure it out. It’s the American Dream as sweet-swing college preen, two (!!) exclamations of wisdom and vulgarity matriculating invincible in the lost weekend before classes or life. Is it possible to slice a fastball in half with an axe? Does it matter if it’s not? No plan, no problem; persons attempting to find a moral will be assailed with unrequested advice that only means as much as the meaningfulness you give it (also, I don’t know: too much of this smells like cat piss). Persons looking for a plot just get pop-up as pop song, a frontier fraternity for Mark Twain and John Belushi. There’s self and passion in the tangents between framework, and there’s a real stereo democracy when every voice gets a verse, from the black to the white, the red to the brown, the purple to the yellow. Everybody Wants Some!!, freshman, but maybe nobody gets any if we don’t play this game the right way. Practice is mandatory. Everyone impacts the outcome. Shake your groove thing. Come for a good time, not for a long time. The rest is F-L-Y. –Frank Falisi --- 05 Arrival Dir. Dennis Villeneuve [Paramount] “Abbot is death process.” This four-word sentence alone should be enough for Arrival to earn a place on every critic’s year-end list and at every awards show. It’s amazing on so many levels: (1) screenwriter Eric Heisserer presumably typed that into the script with a straight face; (2) it stayed in the film; (3) in its immediate context, that is, uttered in squid-alien language and translated for us onscreen (in subtitles, if memory serves), its seemingly hokey technicality keeps the film honest to genre, but; (4) it does so while also speaking directly to and illuminating the brainy twist that gives the film its heart and soul. All great sci-fi reveals that the barrier between supposed “high” and “low” art is bullshit; this film arrives at that point with such finesse that you might miss it if you aren’t paying close attention. But then, like the film’s title, this says more about humanity than anything else. “Abbott is death process.” –Samuel Diamond --- 04 The Handmaiden Dir. Chan-wook Park [Magnolia/Amazon Studios] The Handmaiden wasn’t just a daring, prurient thriller. More importantly, this story of two women’s sexual awakening was one of the most tender and moving romances to grace the screen this year or any other. In the beginning, Lady Sideko and Sook-He are separate pawns in a long, twisted con orchestrated by the thief, Count Fujiwara. By the end, the two women have taken control of the narrative and rewritten the ending. The Handmaiden demonstrated the power of stories and imagination, even pornography, to empower and transform our experiences. In one of the film’s central metaphors, an idea gleaned through a pornographic story becomes a catalyst to transformation. Thus, a set of bells, first used as an instrument to abuse the young Lady Sideko, becomes the soundtrack to a joyful erotic coupling. Love, too, performs a kind of magic, allowing inner and outer worlds to collide through the body, in a touch, glance, or embrace. This movie has a lot more to offer than the already slick, glittering veneer it presents. Its undercurrents are far subtler than even most of the positive reviews gave it credit for, and it earned a rightful place in Chan-wook Park’s oeuvre of masterworks. –Kate Blair --- 03 Manchester by the Sea Dir. Kenneth Lonergan [Roadside Attractions/Amazon Studios] Manchester by the Sea imparts a narrative, not so much of family, but of anti-family. Trailers, whispers of the mouth, and other various year-end reviewers could all tell you that the film is a melancholy picture. It has no clear denouement, nor a happy ending, nor is it, of itself, an uplifting experience to be party to. But it is so much more than just a sad story, a simple bildungsroman à clef. A character study of the deeply-wounded men and boys of our past, its immediate shifts in temporality beget a protagonist’s wayward memory and sense of self; it is a detachment and brokenness so profound that it is hard to overcome bearing. It betrays more than its formality, its distinctly New England space-time, and the approaches of its characters, though its mise-en-scène are masterfully clear. Although presenting a rather quaint space, it touches the coward and the stalwart internal and international, beyond the trappings and sentiments of the white working class, beyond those of the outsider. It is a painful portrait, a crying-out of the spirit that never seems to shut off. –S. David --- 02 Moonlight Dir. Barry Jenkins [A24] At this point, is there more to say about Moonlight? In a fractured era, Barry Jenkins’s second feature film received nearly universal acclaim from pretty much everyone who’s seen it (and it’s on this list, which means you should see it). Per some media sources, 2016 was in fact a discordant year that polarized around identity issues of class, race, and sexuality. Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s story of a young black boy’s journey into manhood gracefully danced over these topics, as it charged full speed past the obvious labels and stereotypes that might otherwise define Little/Chiron/Black. The destination: a greater understanding of the human threads that not only connect us to other people, but also to ourselves as complex individuals who construct our own identities over the course of our lives. As complete fucking film snobs, we’ve obviously read about the overwhelming reaction viewers had to Francois Truffaut’s classic 1959 coming-of-age film The 400 Blows, but we’ve perhaps never experienced something close or even equivalent to this in our own lifetimes. Thanks for something, 2016. –Jafarkas --- 01 The Witch Dir. Robert Eggers [A24] Plenty of classic films touch upon witches or witchcraft (Häxan, Rosemary’s Baby, Paradise Lost, The Blair Witch Project), but it wasn’t until The Witch hit screens this year that cinema finally had a quintessential film about witchcraft in the early modern period. Writer-director Robert Eggers relied on folklore archetypes and historical documents to craft a film in which a deeply religious family is beset by the dark forces of witchcraft in 17th-century New England. The film was subtitled “A New England Folktale,” but as Eggers repeatedly stated, period contemporaries would see no difference between the fairy tale world and the real world. They would not consider the idea of witches, curses, and possession fanciful, but instead the very real causes of daily tribulations. So when their crop fails and their youngest disappears while in the care of their oldest (newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy), it’s not a huge leap for the film’s characters to go from blaming a wolf to blaming a witch. From here, you can probably guess what happens next: family trust quickly unravels, crises of faith are had, and increasing paranoia plagues the family until they are (literally) at each other’s throats. The Witch placed its faith in the pre-existing particulars of the folklore (a goat, a hare, the forest, sabbats), with the hope that none of their terror has been dulled in the last 500 years. And first-time director Eggers succeeded by not only relying on these aspects, but also reinforcing them. Eggers, a veteran of the theater, demonstrated an impressive command of film technique and aesthetics. This was made especially clear during a sequence in which he attempted to imbue the forest with evil intentions, beginning with a few establishing shots (accompanied by the atonal score) of the woods that evoked a foreboding quality. It was followed by a sequence used during the vanishing of baby Sam that implicated the forest in his kidnapping, establishing a shot-reverse shot pattern between Thomasin and Sam as they played peek-a-boo, with the sequence’s final shot of the blankets where Sam lay moments ago, which then pans up to reveal the woods in the distance. It is the camera move itself that damns and points at the woods. (The sequence is so great that its on full display in the film’s trailer). And of course, these are the same woods in which Caleb, the purest soul in the family, finds the hovel of the maiden witch and later where Thomasin, after everything has fallen apart, looks for salvation. In fact, execution was nearly perfect across the board. The shot composition and framing showed enough to frighten us, but it also left plenty in the shadows so that we had to fill in the blanks with our nightmares. The color palette, aided mostly by natural light, ensured the film looked as bleak as it felt. The performances (and I’m including Black Phillip’s shallow breathing, scene-stealing rearing among them) made us believe it. And director Eggers produced those performances from a young lead in her first credited role, several child actors, and a God-damned goat. Maybe it was because The Witch was confident enough to avoid deliberate ambiguity or retreating behind a Shyamalan twist. Maybe it was because it’s a feminist parable or an allegory about how society, shouting “Guilty until proven innocent!,” turns us into the monsters it accused us of being. Or maybe The Witch was our favorite film of the year for its ability to weave the disparate strands of a historical film and a genre film into a tight tapestry of folklore and terror that never ripped from the strain. The Witch was not just a great genre movie or an exceptional period piece, but also a nearly flawless film. It was the quintessential witchcraft film we didn’t know we were missing. Sign your name in its book. We did. –Jeff Miller http://j.mp/2kbl7lj