#was almost gonna shoehorn eddie in here but

[cambria-writes]

my prompt for you is: orange light!! good luck deciphering that!!

it took a few days but as soon as you said orange light i knew exactly what i wanted to include and what i wanted this to be about. this is actually a very personal and emotional piece for me, so i actually do hope you like it!

i even put this through two spell checks and a grammar check, so i made a genuine effort!

title from a novel by andré aciman called 'plus tard ou jamais', which means 'later or never' in french.

𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐝, 𝐨𝐮—

pairing: male!oc x gn!nameless!oc (barely tbh) rating: t cause i think there's swearing? warnings: nothing really, dreaming, revisiting the past, talking about feeling safe, mention of chronic illness, bitching about climate change the heat, this is just a vent piece where my boyfriend catches me at the end that's it lol

masterlist

It’s too hot. It’s been too hot for three days.

The air conditioner is barely providing any relief. In this heat wave, it would probably take three 18k BTU units to satisfy me. It’s horrible; everything is damp, everything smells like humidity and AC condensate. Every 5 hours, I have to force myself up and away from whatever I’m doing to haul The Bucket—used to be used with the mop, but since last summer, it’s exclusively used to collect the condensation from the air conditioner—to the bathroom and back again.

My fingers hurt. My head hurts. My back feels like it’s been twisted out of and back into shape too many time. Misshapen, I feel misshapen.

It’s 3:47AM and I’ve been on my back on my bedroom floor for... too long. Feels like forever, but I know it’s only been half an hour. But there’s nothing to do; I’m in between jobs, I did all the laundry in a bout of mania last night, the dishes were cleaned after I made myself dinner earlier...

There was a time when I would have known what to do with myself in a situation like this. Would have had a list of things that I could easily do whenever I happened to have the time for them. That list is long gone, though.

Maybe it's with my motivation; eloped, and forgotten about. Good for her.

Beneath me, I feel the old wooden floor shake when a loud clap of thunder sounds outside. Ah, finally, I think, something to cut through this wretched humidity and maybe return some sense of normalcy to my life. I pat my hand around on the floor to find my phone, but when I pull up the weather forecast, it’s grim.

92% humidity for tomorrow and yet more thunderstorms.

Carelessly throw my phone in the general area of the head of my bed. Miserable, this is absolutely miserable. I can’t go out like this; ten minutes in that kind of heat and nevermind heat exhaustion, I may as well just go straight to the nearest hospital for the inevitable heat stroke I’d be suffering from.

From its new place, probably half under a pillow from the sound of it, my phone dings. Probably another email to tell me that though my candidacy was appreciated and my résumé was impressive, they’ve gone ahead and hired someone else for the position.

Someone who was asking for a lower salary, probably.

Miserable.

The amount of motivation required to get myself on my feet again is gargantuan. But at this rate, I’m never going to sleep, and I’m not going to do anything productive. So I shuffle to the bathroom at the end of the hallway, pull open the mirror door, and pluck the bottle of melatonin from its shelf.

Mm. No. Put it back and grab the THC gummy bottle next to it instead. That’ll do. I only grab and pop one in my mouth to chew; I made the mistake of taking two once and only once, and I would rather lick the underside of my shoes than do that again.

I don’t both to get under the covers when I let myself fall into bed. Limbs akimbo, staring up at the ceiling, I wonder. I wonder what my life could be like if everything didn’t have to be so... this. There’s a bitter kind of resignation that sank in year ago, when my then-fiancé simply ghosted me the night before our trip to Japan.

Shit always happens. And sometimes who you are matters.

The light-headed feeling from the edible starts to sink in. I should’ve just grabbed a beer from the fridge. Or maybe made myself a rum and coke. I’m always a happy, sleepy drunk.

Forgot that I tend to get too pensive and subsequently high when I’m too baked.

Ah, god dammit.

My eyes feel dry and sore. I feel so much more exhausted than when I fell asleep. At least, I think I do. I don’t remember falling asleep. I definitely don’t remember falling asleep outside, out on the grass. But the feeling on my exposed arms and legs is unmistakeable.

Freshly cut grass that will undoubtedly make me break out in hives.

I remember this place so clearly. It’s the playground behind my old elementary school. When I sit up and twist to look around, there’s a swell of something in my chest. Some unknowable emotion that’s probably an amalgam. The unkept field is still there, and so are the woods behind it. They flattened it all out and made condos there years ago.

So this is definitely a memory, then. Probably of one of the fundraiser spaghetti dinners they would do a week or two before school let out. If I look out to the softball diamond, there’s a mountain of old wood and pallets for the bonfire that would happen later.

There’s only me here, though. There isn’t the tell-tale chatter of parents by the doors, no shrieking children, no firecrackers. I remember, being freshly eleven years old, looking at my friends and the setting sun and thinking, yes, I need to remember this. This is a moment I’m going to need to remember, someday.

Basking in the setting sun, it’s easy to understand why. Despite the lack of people, I can still smell the industrial quantity of spaghetti sauce simmering in the cafeteria kitchen. The heat isn’t overbearing; it feels comfortable, actually. I remember getting a rash on my arms and legs from the freshly cut grass. The small scar on my forehead left there by a burning ember that got blown my way.

The sun never sets, here.

Through closed eyes, I notice the shadow falling over me.

"Go away," I say quietly. There’s no bite in my voice—no one who would be here would be anyone I get angry at. "I’m trying to nap."

A scoff. Then, "The chronic fatigue doesn’t hit for another..." A brief pause, for contemplation, I suppose. "Seven years."

I shrug as nonchalantly as I can. But I recognize that voice. I didn’t know that voice when I was eleven. Wouldn’t get to know it for a few months still. I sigh anyway and prop myself up on my elbows. I keep my gaze ahead when I open my eyes. I don’t want to know which version of him is here quite yet.

"Why are you here, Michael?" I ask, leaning heavily on my hands. I let my eyes flit from window to window, pausing on the windows I know look into the library longer than the others. I can just barely make out the diaphanous curtains my mother hung over one of the couches. The sheer fabric almost glistens in the orange glow.

"I show up whenever you need a reminder," he answers as he takes a seat next to me. Our shoulders are touching. He nudges my arm with his elbow. "What have you been forgetting?"

I can’t help but laugh. What have I been forgetting? Is that a joke?

"Everything," I grunt, scooching back a bit to lean forward and pull my legs up. "A lot."

Michael chuckles good-naturedly next to me. I missed—miss him. I miss him.

"Shooting stars, sib," he whispers, and I can feel the warmth of his fingertips when he starts to dig them into the nape of my neck. "You’ve forgotten that we’re shooting stars."

All at once, my eyes burn and my nose feels hot and itchy. I reach up for the hand at the back of my neck and bring it to my cheek instead. A thumb awkwardly brushes away the first tear to fall.

"I love you though," I manage to choke out. Look up at the sky like that’ll help my eyes dry out. "I haven’t seen you in forever. Did you get married? Do you have kids? Do you..."

Michael’s thumb stills on my cheekbone. I can feel him leaning in closer.

"...do you even think about me at all?"

Micheal sighs and I feel him rest his forehead against the crown of my head. His breath feels warm there, too. I can hear him inhale to answer, but I rush to speak first.

I don’t know if I want to hear his answer.

"I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not having been a better friend to you. I called you a brother, called you family, but I—"

"It’s fine," Michael cuts me off, gently,quietly. Pulls his head up off mine and his hand away from my cheek in favour of wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me in. "We were young and stupid. You couldn’t have known. It’s not like anyone was helping."

"You did," I counter, a bit more petulantly than I’d like. "Even if you just let me get passionate about things, you—I didn’t get that from anyone else. You made it safe to like things."

Ah. There it is, isn’t it. Michael’s laughter is still so wonderfully soothing. A perfect combination with the warmth of the setting sun. The sound of his voice like perfume in the air, sparkling and sweet.

"Yeah," Michael says eventually,giving my shoulder a quick squeeze before letting go to lean back and get a better look at me.

I forgot I didn’t want to look. He’s got the braids in, like I’d done when we were kids. Otherwise looks just like he did last time I saw him nearly a decade ago; smart, dark slacks, a button-up with the sleeves rolled up with no tie in sigh, shoes shining like his eyes. I can't help but reach a hand out for his own face—to feel the thick beard he’s growing, run a hand through the hair I’d straightened and braided and put flowers in.

"He’s done a great job too, y’know," Michael says, looking away with a smirk. He doesn’t take my hand away where it’s brushing back hair at his temples. "Your husband, I mean."

"We’re not..." I start, but trail off. We’re not actually married, which doesn’t feel fair. "Yeah," I settle with. "He does, despite it all. Despite everything."

When Michael turns back to look at me, it’s a boy, and I find us sitting in his mother’s basement, on her dark green leather couch. The outro to Fortier is playing on the TV.

"He’s not the only one," Michael says, and it’s strange to hear an adult voice come from such a young face. I remember feeling that way after his voice changed over summer break in 9th grade, too. He turns to look back at the TV, but grabs the remote on the couch arm closest to him to turn it off.

I can hear his mother talking to his younger brother upstairs. I hear plates being taken out of a cupboard and pots and pans being moved.

"You were always welcome, you know," Michael says, throwing an arm over the back of the couch. His fingers just barely reach my hair to play with it. "Mom worried about you like her own."

"I felt that," I laugh, quiet and airily. "I just never wanted that kindness to be revoked."

"Dinner’s ready!"

"Come on," Michael urges me to stand up. "She made shepherd’s pie just for you."

The smell of a fresh, home cooked meal lingers in my nose when I wake up. It’s a slow process; I eventually remember that I fell asleep, and work carefully to unstick my clammy limbs from the floor beneath me.

"There they are," I hear next to me, and I can only muster the energy to hum in acknowledgement. "Floor comfier than the bed?"

"F’koff," I mutter, rolling over on the side before pushing myself up. Rub a hand down my face when I taste salt on my lips. Sniffle a few times while running my hands through my hair to try and loosen up some of the knots.

I can still feel the hand on the nape of my neck.

"Bad dream?"

I shake my head. "No, not bad, just..."

"Hmm, just maybe a bit too much?" When I don’t answer, my boyfriend—husband?—crouches by me and guides me to my feet with patient hands. Brushes the hair out of my face and kisses my forehead before pulling me in. A hand at my lower back and the other on the back of my head until I let my forehead rest against his shoulder.

"It’s okay," he whispers, kisses the top of my head. "We’ll go to sleep and you can tell me all about it in the morning."

"Even if it’s ab—about Mike?" The question is out before I can think better of it. He exhales like it’s funny.

"Obviously."

When I wake up again, the sun filtering through the thin curtains above the bedroom window make everything look like molten gold. The dust in the narrow sunbeams coming through look like glitter. Boyfriend pressed up against my back, his nose pressed against the top of my spine, a leg between mine, and a hand curled over my stomach.

I want to tell Michael that he’s right. Despite everything, I do feel safe, here.

I won’t know until I’ve had breakfast and I’ve gone down in sleep shorts and an oversized Five Finger Death Punch shirt that definitely doesn't belong to me, with a coffee mug in hand, that there’s a wedding invitation waiting for me in the mail box.

[min-yoongi-o]

Spoiler review

See I liked IT chapter two but its definitely not a perfect movie so I just wanted to write down my thoughts:

Pro's:

The acting for the most part was very good and I believed in the bond between the losers club which formed by the end when they had remembered everything they needed too.

I enjoyed the humor, I know alot of people didn't like it and thought it was a bit much but I think it worked in the context of the characters.

Richie's arc was nice I like how it was portrayed, it wasnt too cheesy or forced. I had alot of worries going in that it would feel shoehorned in and almost pushed down the viewers throat and that it would cause a disconnect with casual viewers but it was sweet and heartbreaking and worked really well.

On that note bill hader did a brilliant job and I'm not surprised at all he deserves more love.

James ransone was amazing also and was really a standout to me, he really was Eddie to me and all his moments were great, definitely deserves the love he's getting.

Isaiah Mustafa hasn't been mentioned enough, he was great as mike. I honestly felt bad for him, this character sacrificed years of his life preparing for pennywise and you can see the toll it taken on him. I was so sad for him at the end and he was trying to explain to the losers they just needed to believe, honestly was so moving and people need to talk about him more.

I feel for the little bit he got to do andy bean killed it as stan and the suicide scene was done tastefully and wasnt made into some huge horror spectacle which I feel like would have taken the seriousness away from it.

I think they handled alot of the more cosmic side of pennywise really well because all the shit from the book was always gonna be hard to translate for film so I feel like the changes they made were good and worked and kept the essence of pennywise and how larger then life he is, and how hes definitely from outside our understanding.

I loved the little homage to the thing when they were in neibolt.

Eddie and richie during the death scene was great, I really enjoyed it and found it very emotional.

I'm glad that they didn't try to bring manturin the turtle into it because I feel like it would have been too much.

I really enjoyed how they made pennywise look in the final battle, I think they pulled it off well and I enjoyed how the deadlights looked.

I liked how the losers were separated in the final battle and all their little individual struggles were great, not gonna lie eddie and richie at the three doors was great.

I enjoyed that they remember each other this time at the end, a pleasant change.

The first scene with adrian mellon and don hagarty was done brilliantly. It was played very realistically and it made you feel disgusted and tense as it should, I honestly had to look away. I'm sure it hit a bit harder being a part of the LGBTQ community.

Cons:

I felt like at points the movie was getting repetitive due to how they laid the scenes out, the whole second act was heres a loser, heres their flashback, heres them now dealing with pennywise...and it does it with each character so it does get a bit long.

I know people are gonna hate me for saying it but I feel like there were too many flashbacks. I've read the book and I know that's the layout but the first movie was strictly the kids so I feel like there should have been less flashbacks, some flashbacks were necessary but others weren't and probably could have been cut.

Henry Bowers felt pointless and I feel like he had scenes cut so maybe in the super cut he'll feel more necessary

Ben, bev and Bill's love triangle was not interesting to watch and I got bored when it came up. I feel like there was to much emphasis on that poem and near the end it just felt like they were really shoving down your throat that they're in love and the poems super important.

Speaking of I found jessica Chastain, james McAvoy and jay Ryan's performances a little lackluster, like their acting was good but it wasnt super engaging but I dont know if that's because the other three shined so much.

I didn't like the cgi on some parts , especially in the mrs Kersh scene, it took away from the moment cause it looked silly, the scene was saved by bill skarsgard tbh.

Favourite scenes:

The jade of the orient scene

Any of the native American flashback scenes because I found the lore interesting and the animation for it looked cool

Richie's whole little mini search for his token was great

Eddie and the leper scene was also brilliant

Mike pleading with the losers about believing and that's why he lied

The little girl victoria under the bleachers

Dean and bill in the funhouse

For some reason I really enjoyed when richie got caught in the deadlights , there was something really cool about it

Eddie and Henry Bowers in the bathroom

Eddie, bill and richie in the kitchen with stans head and the moment afterwards when bill is shouting at eddie

Stans letter

Eddie leaning over richie all excited because he thought he'd killed it and then getting impaled. Eddie and richies faces were just perfect

Eddie's death scene

The quarry scene

Overall I really enjoyed the film even with its flaws although I'm aware some people will probably be disappointed, I think if you're going into this film for just a horror film you wont like it but it's got an interesting story with brilliant characters and I found it a great companion to the first film, and I definitely want to binge both films in one day because I feel like the emotional payoff will be even better.

[johnnyutah]

top five fictional characters? 🤔

OOF. OF ALL TIME???? ok theres no sort of order but here’s “five” and that’s generous

5. amanda brotzman from dirk gently’s holistic detective agency. not including amanda on this list would be criminal because despite max landis being the devil, dirk gently is possibly my favourite television show and i cannot watch amanda’s arc without being floored every time. i would struggle to think of another show that displays pain/illness in the way that dirk gently’s handles amanda! i also LOVE ken and bart.

4. maeve millay and dolores abernathy from westworld. including them both because i have such a deep attachment to dolores but maeve is genuinely one of my favourite fictional characters of all time. also elsie hughes and hector escaton get honourable mentions because i love them

3. is it cheesy if i say jim kirk … i just love him a LOT in the original series and aos. he’s greatly affected how i view characters that are good despite everything, or who are kind/brave above all else. other examples that fall into this category would be the baudelaire orphans, marta cabrera, and rey, and i think a lot of other star trek characters fit this type. oh fuck and baby driver!!! just gonna shoehorn him in here

2. possibly gary king from the world’s end, for making me look inwards and suffer. i have watched that movie while sober and i have watched that movie at the lowest times of my life and it has hit differently but impacted me so much every time. i feel similarly about camille preaker but maybe that’s just because amy adams is ridiculously talented at making me cry (note: arrival). (i feel similarly about comics tony stark but that’s because i have bad taste and depression)

1. it has to be a tie between kaidan alenko and garrus vakarian for reasons that would double this post’s length if i got into it

technically that’s almost twenty characters . oops. i deserve a fucking sainthood for not putting stahl, fjorm, eddie brock, josh washington, mike munroe, or m*ntparnasse on here so i’m counting this as a victory

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Venom review

You know, Venom really isn’t so bad.

Not that you’d know that. Critics everywhere are saying this movie is bad, with the more lenient reviews calling it “So bad it’s good.” It has been compared to The Happening, I’ve seen it compared to Catwoman, it has been called a disaster, it has been called a pile of shit… and frankly I’m still kind of unsure why after seeing it. I think the “so bad it’s good” argument has a bit more merit, but even then, I don’t actually think the film is bad enough for that. This isn’t Suicide Squad we’re talking about, my brain was on for this whole movie. It’s silly, a bit campy, kind of goofy… but I think Venom is a pretty solid movie.

Of course, right out the door Venom has an uphill battle: it’s a PG-13 version of the notoriously violent brain-eating anti-hero, so of course the lack of gruesome brain-eating is pretty disappointing. That being sad, Venom has been good in more family-friendly environments, like the PS1 Spidey game or the various cartoons, so it’s not an impossible sell. The bigger hurdle is overcoming the character’s connection to Spider-Man, but frankly I think people make a bigger deal out of that than is necessary. Venom is a cool character regardless of Spider-Man or not, and I think this movie does a solid job of establishing that. Venom doesn’t NEED Spider-Man, not necessarily. I certainly wasn’t crying over Spidey’s absence in this movie (though considering where Spidey is as of Infinity War… yeah, you know, probably a good reason why he can’t show up).

Anyway, here’s the story: Eddie Brock is a journalist, and one who kinda does what he believes is right, consequences be damned. Too bad he decided to go up against a corrupt billionaire and ended up destroying his own life and relationships in the process. Eddie gets a chance at redemption when one of said billionaire’s scientists gives him some secret details of what the guy is up to; Eddie sneaks into the labs this guy runs and ends up getting infected with an alien parasite. Now the billionaire wants his alien back, but that’s easier said than done when it has bonded with Eddie quite well, though it turns out to be more of a shoulder devil than a shoulder angel. Can Eddie curb this alien’s violent tendencies and figure out what to do before he gets captured?

Ok so that plot summary is kind of a mess, but then so is the plot. But it’s not a mess in the sense that something like, say, Suicide Squad is, where it’s a trainwreck to the point of being incomprehensible. No, Venom is more of a mess in the sense that the plot shifts gears so often it’s honestly a bit nuts. So much shit happens in the span of this film, it’s almost ludicrous. I believe Tom Hardy said in an interview that about forty minutes were cut, and honestly, it does kind of feel like it when some scenes end abruptly and some plot points just happen so fast. All that being said, the movie is still pretty straightforward and simple, and while there are bumps the ride is mostly enjoyable.

This really comes down to the absolutely brilliant and bonkers performance from Tom Hardy. Muttering in some completely unknown accent and just having the most epic freakouts and reactions imaginable, he seems to be channeling Jim Carrey from the 90s in this film, and I mean that as the highest compliment. While Eddie Brock is a bit cookie cutter in terms of character archetype, Hardy injects quite a bit of charm and likability while still making Brock a flawed but still likable character. Brock is a lot nicer than usual, but he broke into his fiancee’s computer for private files and ended up getting her fired and is okay with Venom eating people he deems as evil, so it’s clear Brock isn’t 100% nice. It really shows that a lot of Hardy’s performance was improvised, and frankly I think that was for the best; Hardy knows what he’s doing, and it pays off well as even in the duller moments Hardy carries this film.

The bickering friendship between Brock and Venom is really amusing, and Venom himself when he shows up is cool. Frankly there’s a lot of homoerotic tension here, which culminates in Venom possessing Eddie’s former flame and making out with him (as I’m sure you’ve already heard everywhere; it makes more sense in context). I guess that level of closeness just comes from being a symbiote. The best part of it all though is Venom’s eventual rationale for becoming a good guy: Venom was a loser on his home planet, just like Eddie, but together they’re a lot cooler. I am not fucking kidding. Seeing such a bizarre and silly rationale played straight like that (or IS it being played straight?) is so absolutely endearing to me; a lot of the stuff in this movie is like that.

The action is mostly ok, but it’s not anything too special. I think that neutering the film to a PG-13 was a huge mistake on Sony’s part, because they could have had a very impressive amount of black comedy on their hands. Oh, there’s still some good dark jokes here and there, but I feel like it would have been so much better if all the gory glory was on display. If they are gonna do Carnage, as the mid-credits scene teases, they better be prepared to up that rating because a neutered Venom is one thing, but a neutered Carnage is inexcusable. But yeah, the action is a bit generic but passable, which is also what can be said for the evil symbiote Riot. He’s an okay villain, but not amazing or anything. You’ll probably be wishing they had just made Carnage the bad guy, though I do have to give them props for using a character that not many people know about. I always like when comic book movies utilize less well known characters.

Overall, this film is a lot of goofy, cheesy fun. It is by no means a perfect film, but I do think it lays a decent foundation for sequels, and most importantly, unlike Sony’s previous attempts to make a Spider-Man movie, this film is very standalone and doesn’t try and shoehorn in a bunch of elements for an expanded universe like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 did. So props for that Sony, you’re slowly learning! I’d definitely say check this out, especially if you’re a more casual comic book movie fan or are a big fan of cheesy early 2000s style superhero movies; I will say this is a lot more Raimi Spider-Man than theatrical Daredevil or Catwoman at least. If you’re a hardcore Venom nut who is appalled that he could be PG-13, just skip this and wait to see if they release an extended cut, because I think if there is one it could help the film be a lot better. Bottom line, it’s a fun film if you’re in the right mind for it, and I do think there is enough genuinely good elements to keep it from being bad enough to be “so bad it’s good;” with a little more polish this film could have been genuinely great, and I definitely think sequels can improve upon what was laid out here.

If nothing else, this is 100% genuinely better than the last time Venom appeared in a live-action film. I may have forgiven Spider-Man 3 for a lot of its sins to be able to find it unironically decent… but some  stains just run too deep to ever be fully cleansed. Topher Grace Venom is one such stain.