#we could've have so much content and interviews of the cast

[coquetteletters]

I'm actually so pissed at OBX for not having cast interviews for s4pt2.

[kjupchurch-xx]

Knowing You Part Two - WattPad Request

TMZ: BREAKING NEWS! Hugh Jackman calls younger co-star his Storm!

US Weekly: Hugh Jackman gets flirty on the red carpet with co-star!

Twitter Trends:

#HughJackman

#Kaitlyn

#GlenPowell

#HisStorm

As we made our way down the red carpet, I looked up to Hugh, still smiling for the hundreds of photographers snapping our photos. "I'm your storm, huh?" I teased.

He smiled as he wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him for the photos. "Sorry, Halle." He joked back.

I playfully rolled my eyes, "You know the media is going to have a frenzy with that if they aren't already." I said with a laugh as we shifted our bodies in the other direction for the other photographers.

He leaned in, whispering in my ear, "Let them." He said as he pulled away, going back to posing for the cameras.

Soon, our other co-stars accompanied us, we posed for group cast photos, Hugh still keeping his grip on my waist. As the red carpet event ended, Hugh and I were riding in the backseat of the luxury SUV that had picked us up.

He still sat close, keeping his hand on my thigh. Glen and Rachel were scrolling through their phones as Glen chuckled, "She's your Storm, huh?"

Hugh laughed, "You heard about that, mate?" He asked him, gently squeezing my thigh.

Glen laughed as he showed his phone to us, "It's all over TikTok." It was playing a continuous loop of our interview where Hugh referred to me as "his Storm". I laughed as I watched myself try to keep from giggling at the camera as Hugh smirked into the camera view.

I smiled as I looked at him. He was everything I could've ever wanted in a man, but he and I had both made it clear we were not interested in a relationship right now after splitting from our long-term marriages. As much as I didn't want to admit for the fear of scaring him away, the friends with benefits situation had me starting to slowly fall for him. He pleased me in ways that no one ever had.

He caught me staring and looked at me, with a half smile, "What's on your mind?" He asked knowingly.

I chuckled, shaking my head slightly, "Nothing!" I said quickly.

His smile grew wider, "Oh? Really?" He asked, playful sarcasm dripping from his voice.

I bit my lip anxiously as I failed to hide my cheekiness, “Yep.” I said, as the sound of the ‘p’ popped.

He chuckled, still smiling at me, “I’m sure I’ll get it out of you later.” He said with a wink, giving my thigh another light squeeze.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I giggled softly, “You still owe me a milkshake.” I teased.

He playfully rolled his eyes, “Oh love, how could I ever forget?” He said sweetly.

I smiled as I leaned my head on his shoulder as the drive to our homes continued. Rachel was dropped off at her home, Glen was dropped off shortly after and Hugh would be dropped off with me since he hadn’t had a place of his own in LA. We all lived in close proximity to one another, so we weren’t alone in the SUV for much time before we pulled into my driveway.

As we got out of the SUV, we thanked the driver and headed towards my front door. “Finally…” I heard him say with a content sigh, “I’ve been waiting to have you all to myself all night”. He said playfully.

I giggled as I unlocked the door, allowing us to enter the house. “Can you at least let me get showered and out of this ridiculous dress?” I joked as we walked past the kitchen.

He chuckled, “I’m going to shower and change too. I need out of this suit.” He said as he removed the tie.

I snickered as I kicked the heels off, and walked past the couch. “Hey?” Hugh said softly from behind me.

“Hmm?” I asked, turning around to face him.

He sat on the couch, grabbing my arm, pulling me onto his lap. “You look stunning tonight.” He said softly as he smiled, his face slowly inching closer to mine.

“Thank you.” I murmured softly through my blushes as I felt his lips finally touch mine for the first time tonight.

I missed his kisses. I missed his touch. The kiss was slow, it wasn’t aggressive or crazy. It was a much sweeter, gentler kiss. He brought his hands up, cupping my cheeks as I wrapped my arms around his neck, getting comfortable on his lap.

He pulled away and looked at me, smirking slightly as I tucked my bottom lip between my teeth, gazing into his eyes. I wanted to tell him, but I just felt like telling him about the way I was starting to feel would potentially ruin things.

He shifted us both, “You gonna tell me what’s on your mind now, love?” He asked as he gazed into my eyes and slightly tilted his head.

I shrugged, trying to act as if I wasn’t sure what he was referring to. “Nothing. I was just thinking about how well the event went.” I said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

He squinted his eyes at my response, “You’re not a very good liar.” He giggled softly.

I mocked a dramatic gasp, “I’m not lying!” I exclaimed, giggling softly.

He fixed his hazel eyes back on mine, “Tell me what’s bothering you.” He said, his voice soft but firm.

My face instantly formed into a more serious expression. “I can’t.” I said, barely above a whisper as I looked away, still keeping my arms around his neck.

His expression softened, “You can tell me anything without judgement. You know that.” He said, continuing to gaze at my expression.

I looked up, exhaling deeply. I could feel my anxiety about to burst as I pursed my lips together tightly. “I fucked up.” I said bluntly with a dry chuckle.

He looked at me questionably, “What do you mean? What did you do?” He asked, his voice beginning to sound a tad bit worried.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, “I stopped being able to separate my feelings from our… our arrangement.” I said slowly, exhaling.

He looked at me, swallowing his own nervous lump in his throat as I continued. “I know you don’t want a relationship right now, and I said I didn’t either.”

He nodded in agreement, “You’ve developed feelings for me, is that what you’re saying?” He asked, trying to clarify my words.

I nodded slowly, “Yeah. That’s… what I’m saying. And I know this will absolutely screw everything up.” I said as I pursed my lips together once more.

He brought his hand up, running his fingers through his dark hair. I could feel tears beginning to well up in my eyes. I didn’t want to complicate things, or to run him off by feeling something for him other than lust.

I needed him to say something.

He removed his fingers from his own hair, placing his hand back on my cheek, cupping it. I felt my eyes close, afraid of his reaction or the rejection I was going to receive.

He chuckled softly, “That’s funny.” He simply said, causing me to open my eyes and look at him, feeling disappointed. He continued as he saw my expression, “I was just telling my mates a few days ago that I felt that way about you.” He said softly as a small smile began appearing on his lips.

[studyinspectrum]

The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes: A Mystery, by Leonard Goldberg, published 2017

in 2015, disney released a live action movie called Descendants, in which it follows the exploits of the children of Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Jafar, and Cruella de Vil within a single universe. this movie spanned a franchise with a short form animated show, and two more movies, the last of which released in 2019.

The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes asks the question "what if we did that disney descendants thing… but with characters from the Sherlock Holmes canon?" the content warnings for The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes is as follows: Death, Blood, Drug use, and Terminal illness. my review references eugenics.

there's a high degree of novelty in this premise right? the daughter of Sherlock Holmes inheriting all of the abilities and traits that made him into the famous detective? sounds like it'd be a fun time. yeah. sounds fun on paper. sure. except the novelty sure runs out fast when every single character in the book is nigh indistinguishable from their ancestor character because they've inherited nearly everything from them, their name, their job, etc. only the titular daughter of Sherlock Holmes seems to escaped inheriting her father's gender too.

the cast of disney's descendants. this book feels about as graceful as this picture does.

a summary aka everyone has the same job as their parents

the book opens with John Watson jr., who is also a doctor, discussing his position of writing down the exploits of Johanna Blalock, much like how his father did for Sherlock Holmes. Watson sr. is still alive when this book takes place by the way, and is consulted in his old age about the facts of the case as they progress. Holmes seems to have passed within the past few years/recently.

As the narrative really starts, Watson jr. goes to visit Watson sr. who has taken residence back up at 221b. 221b's housekeeper is Miss Hudson, the daughter of Mrs. Hudson, who has inherited the family business of running this building. the Watsons are visited by a woman stating that she wants help or advice from Watson sr. as he knows the method of Holmes. she presents them with the case that her brother fell from the roof of their family home to his death. it's been considered a suicide due to the gambling debts he owes, especially to his friend Christopher Moran, but the woman thinks he was murdered. Watson sr. agrees to help.

the Watsons go to question the witness to the fall, Johanna Blalock and her young son who is about the age of 5 or 6. Watson sr. is inexplicably taken aback when he initially encounters the two of them, so Watson jr. takes up the helm of performing the interview.

Johanna and her son's statement do contribute to the validity of the sister's suspicion that the brother was pushed instead of it being a suicide. Watson jr. is impressed with the clarity of detail and the analytical skill at which Johanna reports her information.

Watson jr. rejoins Watson sr. and Watson sr. admits that Johanna's son is the spitting image of Sherlock Holmes as he appeared as a young boy in a photograph Holmes showed him once. Watson sr. then tells his son the story of how Holmes apparently had a one night stand with Irene Adler who just showed up at 221b one night, stating she was divorced and suffering from a terminal illness. Watson sr. never heard of what became of that union before now, but it's clear to the Watsons: Johanna is the daughter of Sherlock Holmes.

the Watsons continue with their investigation and encounter Johanna again, who can't leave the matter alone. Johanna joins them to another crime scene and through the tenure of Watson, and Lestrade's descendant also working for Scotland Yard, Johanna is allowed to investigate the scene even though she's a woman. They come to the conclusion that the brother's head was bashed in and then thrown from the roof to make it look like a suicide. The culprit could've only been Moran.

They learn that Christopher Moran is, obviously, the child of Sebastian Moran. Moran jr. served in the Afghan war just like his father and also seems to be a gambling criminal… just like his father.

Johanna and the Watsons do their best to uncover Moran Jr.'s crimes and realize he's a man with a body count, seeming to have murdered several other people and gotten away with it. he's done his best to cover his tracks or make up fake alibis and the like.

At one point, Johanna and the Watsons need to track Moran Jr. and try to enlist the help of a scent hunting dog. if you're at all familiar with canon, Holmes did this in The Sign of Four with a dog named Toby. so… they go get Toby's descendant. but the thing is, the dog is not simply "Toby jr" no, that would be too easy. the dog's name is Toby Two. Toby FUCKING Two. the pattern is starting to get infuriating at this point if i'm being honest.

they realize that the only way to actually pin Moran jr. for his crimes is to get him caught in the act. they locate the last man that Moran jr. will probably target, who is due to get a surgery soon. they come up with a plan that involves Watson jr. posing as the man and Johanna posing as an attending nurse (her previous occupation was a nurse also). this plan works and they successfully catch Moran jr.

the book ends with Watson jr. considering being Johanna's biographer just like his father. also did i mention that he's in love with Johanna?

the

so. ok. i'll start this off with saying that i found this book quite annoying. as i stated before there's a lot of novelty in having a Holmsian story focus around the descendants of the original characters but it's so superficial, especially when Every. Single. Character. Is. Exactly. The. Same. As. Their. Ancestor. around every corner was a descendant of a canon character. when Toby Two appeared that fucking BROKE me. you gave the dog a fucking descendant. fuck off oh my god.

the biggest issue that i do take with this though is the character of Moran. this is quite an antiquated concept now, so i don't know if many are familiar with it, but there was a train of thought as early as the 18th century, but especially prevalent during the 20th century, that the child of a criminal would have a genetic predisposition to also one day become a criminal. this was concept seeped in eugenics which was also a popular topic around the time.

i've been aware of this concept for a while, but it's a topic that's prominent in another book i actually like, Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie, where a woman is concerned her fiance won't marry her or have children with her on account of her mother being convicted of murder, but the woman believes her mother was actually falsely accused. this book presents the dangers that this concept brought: children and family members of criminals were branded as being possible criminals themselves, having done nothing than simply exist and some armchair ableists wanting to blame psychopathy on your genes.

i don't think i need to explain that this is absolutely bullshit, but here's a really good scientific paper on the matter that also says it's total bullshit.

so the fact that this concept is being applied to Moran, even if it's unintentional due to the entire premise of this book, is pretty disgusting. the idea that anyone is still using this concept as recently as 5 years ago in order to justify the crimes of a character is just callous and absurd. (except Sherlock Holmes media loves to just thoughtlessly throw around psychopathy and sociopathy concepts without considering the ramifications of doing so, don't they? yes, i am talking about BBC Sherlock.)

if i have to talk about the cast as a whole though, no one has any specific character traits that are really defining or sets them apart from their ancestor. all of the characters just feel like… they're filling roles. like… a Sherlock Holmes story needs a housekeeper, so there's a housekeeper. it needs a detective from Scotland Yard, so there's a detective. it needs a scent tracking dog, so there's a FUCKING dog. even Johanna feels like she's filling a role, even if she has the most defined personality out of anyone in the book. Scandal in Bohemia exists and has a "smart woman" character, so Johanna fills that role. the characters are just checking boxes, they're just names on a sheet. everything feels so… dull. i feel like Disney's Descendants probably gave more care to creating characterizations for their villain child characters than this book treated it's entire cast.

in terms of the mystery itself, i also didn't like it that much. about 1/4 of the way into the book, Moran becomes the ONLY suspect and the rest of the book is spent just trying to figure out how to catch him. it feels like a really bad version of an Ace Attorney case where you already know who the culprit is and you have to work backwards to connect them to the crime except you're not in control of the reigns of the fun story and instead you have to follow around three characters that are always annoyingly three steps behind the culprit because they keep taking time to explain every concept to you.

the story would've been much better if for some reason Moran WASN'T the culprit and it was actually someone else that the main crew hadn't anticipated. it could've even been another descendant-- like any of the descendants of Holmes' allies of the past-- and it would've made for a much better story! then the set up of all of the descendants having all their parent's jobs and lives would've played into the expectation that it'd just be another criminal, only to flip it on it's head! it would've been so easy to do! and instead you take a eugenicist's garbage approach to the story and made it bad! fuck!

sorry im gonna calm down

ok so… what are the people saying about it. turns out for once, the public agrees with me. even when people seem to enjoy elements about the story, they're still not rating it highly. they also bring up my same frustrations about the descendants/inheritance of qualities and dispositions. something that keeps being brought up in connection to this book though is the word "fanfiction". while everything written after the original canon would be considered fanfiction, it's being used in a derogatory sense that is alluding more to this being something that could be found on a self-publishing website or fanfic hosting site where there's little editing and oversight to the story. which i don't think i fully disagree with to be honest.

Angie Berry from criminal element writes:

Goldberg clearly loves the concept of inheritance, but it feels rather limiting and frustrating here. Claiming that someone has no choice but to follow the same patterns as their forebears makes for boring predictability with characters—a much more interesting, exciting story would be how someone could completely defy genetics and expectations.

from echoes-empty-mind blog post:

It is as if the author wants to reassure themself, of their connection to the original stories. The whole enterprise seems like an overtly complicated fan-fiction rather than an original reinterpretation of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Speaking of which, the mysteries are clunky, mostly predictable, and meandering.

review of familiar and passionate frustration a from Goodreads user LilyBooks:

[…] But my primary complaint is that this book assumes that the reader is just as stupid as those characters. In the course of the investigation, we are treated to multiple lengthy explanations to things that a person of average intelligence already knows. Being able to see up close but blurred at a distance is called near-sightedness? Shocking. (Note the word myopic does not appear in this text, which the original Holmes would no doubt know and use.) And it possible to determine if someone is near-sighted by asking them to both read and look across the street without glasses and have them tell what you they see? The field of ophthalmology is no doubt rocking from that revelation. Did you know that blood passes through both the heart and lungs in circulation? I never heard tell! Would you have ever guessed that a walking stick with solid silver ball on the top would cause a round fracture in a human skull? Probably not because John Watson, Jr. - a pathologist!!! - doesn’t believe it until Ms. Holmes/Blalock gives him a demonstration! Brace yourselves for this one, because not only is a whole chapter devoted to explaining it, but it also gets a paragraph long rehash in a later chapter in case you forget: the letter E is the most commonly used letter in the English language!

the book averages at a 3.6/5 on Goodreads and 3.28/5 on Storygraph. that's pretty low for a seemingly popular pastiche. when i think about it, this book does feel like it's probably trying to capitalize upon the fact that there are a lot of female crime fiction fans and this is an attempt to give us a female detective that's something on par with a classic detective. but then just going… whole hog and then some on that concept to the point it's just sickening.

regardless of how i personally feel about this book, there are five more books penned by Goldberg in this series: A Study in Treason, The Disappearance of Alistair Ainsworth, The Art of Deception, The Abduction of Pretty Penny, and The Blue Diamond. these books are rated higher than the first novel in the series, but that might be a combination of The Blue Diamond only being published this year and the lack of people reading it, and the fact that so many people seem to have dropped off from the series after the first book that only the people that actually like the series are reviewing them.

i can't say that i'll be joining the ranks of people continuing on with this series. maybe if i absolutely run out of stuff to consume. which will probably be never.

there are several other pieces of media that attempt to assign the skills of Holmes to a woman, most recently a TV show called Miss Sherlock, comes to mind. it's received international praise and i'd be interested in one day watching it myself.

i won't go into it fully now, but that reminds me that there's A LOT of Sherlock Holmes inspired media coming from Japan. through some research i discovered that Edogawa Ranpo is mostly to blame for that. but honestly, that deserves it's own post at some other time.

[dreamersingingroses]

My, my, can you believe I'm so unused to being approached by fellow fans (making myself sound like a loser, ik ik) that it took me the better part of the week to realize I had notifications in this blog??

Okay, so @sinna-rou, I did my best to sum up a few sources from 'round this site to perfectly showcase why Chen Feiyu is the best Mo Ran we could've hoped for (answering as a rb so others interested can also acess it).

You probably have already seen some of these, but I thought they were a good starting point!

See, first off, not only does Chen Feiyu share his actual birthday with Mo Ran, he also absolutely LOVES his role, as you can see in this interview and these gifs.

He also has very good chemistry with Luo Yunxi, as you can see in this leak from the production, and he's very much a Mo Ran-shaped nuisance as well: case in point 1, 2, 3, and of course 4.

He's a well-rounded actor that can wear Mo Ran's kindness as well as he does Taxian-jun's madness (there are SO MANY more leaks with txj on tumblr, you'll probably lose it).

I tend not to purposely look up Immortality-related posts because they make me want to tear my hair apart (the cast is just so *chef kiss*, it should be a crime that we've been deprived from their work for so long. I just know they've done their best, and I want this series, like, yesterday).

Now, because I got through the pain of remembering this is something I want but cannot have, take this cwn leak as a bonus (higher resolution on Instagram).

My advice is to just dive into the marvelous tags #2haleaks and #hao yi xing and drown in the sorrow of being part of the collective yearning.

Also there's this little post detailing some of the leaked scenes to look out for, as well as some of the leak-compiling posts in this blog.

I hope to have helped! Chen Feiyu is like—best Mo Ran. I love him. I'm probably not the best person to illustrate why, but I guess enthusiasm about my support of him should make up for my lack of words. Once again, sorry for having taken so long! I totally reblogged more Immortality content a while ago, but I made the mistake of tagging is simply as #erha on my blog, which means digging it up has been... a journey. Because I'm kinda obsessed with the husky and his cat.

I really, really hope we'll eventually get our hands on this series pre-censorship, be it through an unsalvageable leak or a miraculous 'company uploaded the episodes and had them taken down an hour later, but by then fans had already downloaded them all' move (which has, as far-fetched a sit sounds, already happened haha—for those curious, I learned of this on Reddit!).

All in all, I want to be the kind of person that keeps hope alive in the face of hopelessness. Granted, political circumstances could be better and it'll probably be a long while until this will see the light, but we'll probably be here by then, and that's how we sleep at night. Gotta be positive!

okay but WHO WAS GONNA TELL ME that luO YUNXI!!!! is cast as ChU WanNINg? I BEG YOUR FINEST PARDON?

someone’s gonna need to wipe me off the floor if Immortality ever airs because i am not ready

so you’re telling me that this

is the man gonna be playing THE pathetic wet cat, the “no one could ever possibly love me”

the stoic, the graceful yuheng elder

the desperately repressed

The White Cat, Chu Wanning????

i’m done. deceased. wake me up when it’s out

image credits: gifs 1&2 @xiaosean - 3&4 @kimp05 - 5 @trendingdrama - 6 @yilinglaozu - image 7 @inthefaceofadaffodil (also OP of the inciting post mentioned in the tags) - 8 official image

[yusufs-stew-of-romance]

My transcript of Arjen Lubach's interview with Marwan Kenzari. DO NOT REUPLOAD I tried my best - it was a fun interview, and they were both being little shits lmao, there was a great really joke-y vibe.

AL: "My guest is a Haagse (indicating he's from Den Haag) Hollywood star. Yesterday evening he was attending the premiere of Black Adam, and today he's at the desk of White Arjen, also very cool. He shines next to the greatest stars in the coolest movies." [cut to montage of TOG, Instinct, MOTO, Aladdin] AL: "We saw him in The Old Guard, Instinct, Murder on the Orient Express, Aladdin, and unfortunately we couldn't afford to pay for more fragments. Give it up for Marwan Kenzari!" TS 00.52

AL: "What nice of you to be here!" MK: "Yes, thank you for allowing me to be here." AL: "Sure! How are you?" MK: "I'm good!" AL: "Great. Now that we have that out of the way. You flew in straight from London, I believe, this afternoon, right? Yesterday the premiere of BA. How was the premiere?" MK: "Eh, big! and it's always at Leicester Square and and that's ehm, yeah, a lot of fans (in attendence.) The subject of this movie has a big loyal fanbase in itself." AL: "Because it's DC comics, right?" MK: "Yes, exactly" AL: "And that's one of those super-hero worlds." MK: "Yes, so it was really exciting, everyone was there, it was gezellig (cozy/he had a good time with the cast), eh, the showing of the movie went well, so it was - I was happy/glad I got to go and attend." AL: "How nice! We have a picture of the premiere, and it doesn't match with how chill you are right now. Because, I see you standing there with - who do we see - the Rock, right? Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan..." MK: "Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo…" AL: "This was from last night! and now you're here in our funky small VPRO studio." MK: "Yes, exactly that." AL: "So, something about Black adam. We also have a short fragment of the trailer.. (MK: yes), ehm, shall we just watch it? And then after I have a question for you about it." MK: "That's okay." AL: "Let's watch it."

[BA trailer plays]

TS 2:23

AL: "Yes, so, you have a big role in this movie, and yet you're nowhere to be seen in this trailer. Are you sure you made it into the final cut of the movie?" MK: "You never know! No, no, I never said I had a big role." AL: "Yeah, okay." MK: "but it's ehm," AL: " But you were on the red carpet with 5 famous - so that was my assumption..." MK: "Yes, well, they allowed me to participate and I'm really happy they did but they - the way they shape the trailer and how they cut it, that in itself is a world of its own - I don't want to talk it right for them, but they have their reasons to why they cut me out in places where they could've left me in, and that's uh, it's a spoiler sensitive role, let's put it that way." AL: "Ah, so that's it. Okay, later we're having an after-party so we can speculate about this there."

TS 3:12

AL: "What can you tell me about the film, about it's contents? What's the story?" MK: "Well, like you said, it's DC comics so it's the world of a couple of really famous hero's like Wonder woman, Batman, Superman, and it's a complex story - have you got time?" AL: "Eh, not really no but make an effort." MK: "Well the story takes place in a fictive city, ehm, eh, in a fictive country I should say, we follow a young lady, a rebel against the current regime, and the government is feverishly digging for an important, eh, kind of product which is called Eternium and," AL: "This is going to be really long isnt it?" MK: "Yeah, well I'll try to summarize it in two sentences then Dwayne Johnson plays Black Adam who's actually a slave from five thousand years ago who gets brought back to life present day," AL: "wow" Mk, undisturbed: "BY THE SEARCH FOR THIS CROWN made of eternium… yes." MK: "And then I've actually left out so much of the story." AL: "Yes, I hope about two hours of movie you've left out."

TS 4:43

AL: "You've also done a lot of Dutch movies, Wolf and De Oost and these kinds of projects. Have you noticed any big differences between those and American movie sets? So not so much working with actors, but differences in logistics and these kind of things?" MK: "At it's core, no not really, because making film is a beautiful process of just searching. The morning you show up on set to do scenes, those scenes don't exist yet - maybe only on paper. So the process is maybe the same, but there's different budgets and you're working with people with forty years of experience, and, everything can be done/nothing is impossible, and the construction - it's like using a different muscle to come to these scenes (in shaping them), but in the end it's just a search for the story you're trying to tell." AL: "Did we lose you forever to Hollywood or are you coming back to the Netherlands to do stuff here as well?" MK: "I don't - I don't get to make these calls." AL: "No no you have to make a decision right now!" MK: "No, no what I'm trying to say is that I don't know! I am ALLOWED to play in these films (as in he's lucky to being cast), and I'm grateful that I am allowed, and if it's a Dutch movie I am just as happy." AL: "You're such a humble man." MK: "oh, that's all fake." AL: "I immediately believe that, and a great actor apparently."

TS 5:51

AL: "Can you say anything about upcoming projects?" MK: "Yes, so we just shot the sequel to the Old Guard, a movie for Netflix with Charlize Theron in the main lead, and, among others, Matthias Schoenaerts, Luca Marinelli, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and this time in part 2 Una Therman and Henry Golding, so a huge, amazing, diverse cast of hardworking actors which results in all kinds of bruises and injuries and a dislocated shoulder and a thumb -" AL: "What? Because they're so disciplined that when you make a mistake they beat you into the floor or? How did these wounds get to be in this story? It's because they take this role so seriously they forget the physical objects or something? Like... gravity?" MK: "Yeah no, it's just because you're shooting 80 days of 12hour shoots and sometimes you bump your knee." AL: "And then you just go through it." MK: "Yeah." AL: "Yeah wow okay, awesome."

AL: "Are you ever standing still with the fact that you get to do all these cool stuff like, wondering what you're doing there or are you taking it a bit for granted? (laughs) I'm filling in for you (apologetic)" MK: "No no, I would lie if I said it wasn't special, but I also got to meet Remco Campert (a famous Dutch poet) in the Vondelpark, which is probably my highest point of being starstruck." AL: That's also nice. Fuck you Charlize Theron. eh. No, I was kidding" (fuck you as in marwan not being starstruck for her lmao) MK: "He was making a joke!" AL "I'm a huge fan please come to the show." AL: "yeah, I'm really excited about the film, black adam, I haven't seen it yet. I wasn't allowed to see it yet you guys were really stern on that so I am really curious, I'm definitely going to check it out. Good luck for all your future projects. Thank you, Marwan Kenzari!"

[chrisodonline]

TITLE CARD: ONE WEEK LATER

I am writing this post as quickly as possibly since I've got to go fold laundry, and I still want to have time before I go to bed to do some reading of a book I just bought. So no promises on proofreading.

I am still perfectly content with the finale. I've been watching the show over 14 years (not just seasons), and it...very much felt like the show I've been watching for 14 years. It's the show they wanted to make, and the one everyone there was happy with. They very much made a show they'd want to watch, and that goes for multiple people behind and even in front of the camera. Listening to the cast over the years always gave me a good redirect reminder on overprojecting onto people.

Shows, and their pilots, are supposed to be "story engines." The ending was "The story continues, but there are also new stories and always will be." And I dig it. I have had a week of reading interviews, after also watching them in the retrospective, and also reading comments and thoughts from fans across all platforms and with all different preferences. I've always been interested in reading different opinions, even if some weren't always painless to read because I take weird things personally. As I've gotten older, met more people, learned new things, and learned to look at things in other ways, I feel like it's good to take away feeling humble whenever you can. Some out there are so into the ending storyline they truly do want to see a movie about that. Because it is very much something the show would have done. And they've very much been watching the show. (I'm personally good, though. Don't need one.)

I think my favorite comment among hundreds, but possibly even 1,000+, when someone was claiming the ep felt like the show instead of something else: (Paraphrasing) "Why would they change the recipe just because this is the last time they're baking the cake?" Look, I was even surprised to find that I was happier with the finale the more I thought about it instead of less. But I knew what bakery I was going to. I knew that I'm far, far from their only customer. I knew that I could've always stopped going to that bakery and the bakers would've been fine. It's their product but also their passion, and they aren't going to miss me because I didn't understand why they wouldn't break their rules to give me a custom order. (I've worked in customer service for a very, very long time and have also been a customer service manager for a long time. Yes, there is always the threat of people creating fake crimes in The Court of Facebook, but we aren't going to screw over other customers who are truly loyal for one loud so-and-so who never seems happy with anything. We don't need that person.)

From a logistics standpoint, the show was always going to be limited by a late-in-the-season cancellation, the availability of actors, and squeezing in enough to pay homage to everyone who's had a hand in the show over 14 years. They weren't going to be able to stick the landing with any new tricks at the eleventh hour (hello, cornucopia of metaphors and idioms). And they definitely weren't going to do well if it's not something they didn't truly want to do. The show didn't always know its limits, and that only led to cringe-y things. This was the finale: I wanted 0 cringe. And while I may have wanted slight tweaks to things, those are personal wishes. And you can wish in one hand, and...well you know the rest. There was just the right amount of sentiment without it feeling like the show was trying to be a cutesy sitcom or maudlin soap. I don't like a lot of super sweet icing on my cake, in general, and when they start going wild with those giant rosettes and borders...no. Not the cake for me. Fine cake for others. Nothing wrong with liking it. But I go to this bakery because they stay chill on the rosettes. (We can always go to AO3, er, our own kitchens, and add our own rosettes or whatever decorations we want.)

This isn't the kind of show you can actually give letter grades to, either. Save that for your more prestige-y and thinky things. It's very much a pass/fail if it's anything. And they passed.

I will miss it, but it was time. And not every cake may have been for me, and yes, some of them you could tell the bakery team was not on their A-game. However, I'm grateful for all the cakes.

[gl0rious-purpose]

Exciting and Fast Things (Loki x TVA!Reader)

Summary: Life at the TVA was boring. Of course, Loki had to be the one to spice up life there, specifically yours.

Word Count: 3214 Words

Author's Note: There is implied sexual content and light swearing, but there's not really a lot of details.

The TVA. The infamous Time Variance Authority. It was the only thing you had known since you were born. Or at least you were taught that. A man by the name of Mobius M. Mobius, who was obsessed with jet skis, had raised you as his daughter. He was kind, gentle, and very much dad material. You never really went to school, the knowledge just magically showed up as you got older. While you got older, your dad had discovered a variant. The variant had been killing minute men all across the timeline, causing a huge disruption in workflow.

The disruption mostly affected you. You worked as a file keeper and you had to constantly keep updating files as the minute men and women were killed and new ones were trained and brought in, minds clearly wiped. Well, in a sense. As far as you know, you were the only one who had been their your whole life, besides Mobius and Ravonna. 

While you were working one day, an alarm started going off. It was on that didn't go off as often, but it piqued your interest. The light would flash whatever color an identified variant radiated. This one radiated green. Those who radiated green tended to be perfectionists, analytical, conceptual, cool, calm, inventive and logical. They could even be mischievous. The green ones were always rare, or at least that's what you thought. You've never met one. Well, that was until Mobius had identified the variant killing all personnel. 

It was a Loki variant. Out of curiosity, you looked up the Loki variants on your computer. Most of the variants you saw were apparently "pruned." The one they had identified apparently was unlisted because you couldn't find on that was female, but seeing that all of them were fluid with sex and gender, you thought they had just shifted to a different form. As you scrolled through the files, one caught your eye. Loki Laufeyson, Timeline: 2012. You pulled the file up and scanned it. 2012? There's no way they're here now. As you read further, you found the status area. In bright red lettering read 'In Process Of Capture.' 

Your thin brows furrowed lightly before returning back to their relaxed position. We capture them? You inquired mentally, not wanting a response. You shook it all off before closing down all the files and clearing the history. That was the number one rule when it came to computers in the TVA. You log in, get the information you require, and then you would clear out without a trace. You truly hated it, but it wasn't your place to complain about an extremely reasonable rule. Closing the area completely and locking it, you stared into the now dark area. I wonder if I'll ever meet on of these green Loki variants. You mused mentally, sighing as your keys bounced against your thigh as you made your way to your shared apartment with Mobius.

  Several Months Later...

Months had passed since the Loki variant was identified. You've never seen your dad more excited than that moment. Well, besides when he met you and he got new jet ski magazines. You only got them because they made him happy, but you were more into motorcycles. Running the risk of getting thrown off an open bike at high speed just appealed to you. Maybe you liked the idea of it. Or maybe it was the thrill. One of these days, you were determined to ride one at least. 

Today, however, was not one of those days.

A week ago, the minute personnel was able to capture the 2012 Loki variant. While The Avengers going back in time to break the timeline was fate, Loki escaping with the tesseract was not. You stood by the docking bay, waiting eagerly to see the green variant. Your dad had been so excited about this, he wanted you to be there. He wanted you to see that all the hard work paid off. Of course, you had to stay in a corner, far out of harm's way. As the portal open up, the minute personnel pushed the variant through. Your breathing faltered as you took him in. He was menacing, but in a good way. He was extremely tall. If he were to stand by you, he would've loomed over you like a giant. The idea made you shiver, not with anxiety, but with.. anticipation. You wanted that to happen. 

A loud clink caused you to focus back in on what was happening. The personnel was unlocking his chains, leaving his mouth guard for last. As they dropped the chains, they looked at the guard before deciding to leave it on until they got to booking. You stared intensely at the variant. The almost viridian green suit flattered his form quite well. Instinctively, your mouth turned up into a smirk at his appearance, eyes flickering to the sudden movement. Mobius had walked up to the variant, clearly pleased with himself.

"Loki Laufeyson. Glad you could be here." Mobius spoke courtly to him, which caused the man in front of him to roll his eyes. If you didn't know Mobius, you would've thought he would've pruned him right there and then at the action. But that's the thing – you did know him. Mobius would rather work along side this variant and understand him better in person than removing him from the timeline completely. Mobius gave a smile and stepped aside to let the guards through. They walked swiftly, afraid that Loki might try something while not locked up. You staring must've been felt because suddenly his eyes flickered over to your location. If you weren't mistaken, you could've swore you saw a hint of mischief glimmering in his eyes. Once he was out of sight, you let out a breath you didn't know you were holding. Oh my god...You couldn't help, but mentally swooned over the variant. You had to manually take care of your breathing as you tried to compose yourself as Mobius came over, huge smile plastered on his face.

"Wasn't that awesome?!" Mobius spoke in a breathy voice, overwhelmed by the encounter. You shot him a small grin, happy that he finally got what he wanted. He pulled you into a huge, bear hug, rocking you back and forth. Mobius pulled away, pressed a kiss to your forehead. He shot you a toothy grin before glancing at one of his own personnel. They gave him some type of gesture, you believe it was to indicate that the variant was ready to be interviewed and he nodded before looking back at you.

"Well, I better go over the variant's history. I'll send my findings up to be filed in a bit." You barely nodded at him before you saw him basically run out of there to get to the interview room. Back against the wall, you stood there for a couple minutes. You would've spoken to Mobius instead of giving simple gestures, but it felt like Loki had stolen your voice. Clearing your throat, you pushed yourself off of the wall and walked out of the docking bay to the files room.

As you got settled in and started to dive into your work, your mind kept wandering to the variant. He was just so hypnotizing and he had you spellbound. Without moving your head, your eyes glanced up at the personnel walking by as you remember somewhere in the file that said his mother – well, adopted mother – had taught him magic. Had he casted an incantation on you? You pondered on this for a while before rolling your eyes.

"We all know magic is incapable of use here." You muttered, internally scolding yourself at the thought. You reached over to grab a file you had to digitize and placed it in the scanner. As you watched the devices bar of light through the closed lid, you realized that you weren't going to get a moment without thinking about the variant. You groaned, sitting back in your chair as you waited for the scanning to finish. You thought this was going to be a long day like the rest. However, it was starting to change. A long day? This was going to be a long week.

  Every work day went the same way, but it appeared Mobius was spending more and more time with the Loki variant. Please let Mobius get his work done with Loki. You internally pleaded this for several mornings as you watched him rush from the apartment to meet up with the God. You placed your hands on the counter as your hung your head, mentally exhausted from thinking about Loki. Maybe you should talk to him? You suggested to yourself as you took in a deep breath, looking up. As you looked up, a magazine caught your eyes. You slid your body over the counter as you reached for it, smiling at the motorcycle on the front. 

"Great," you started, slightly sarcastically. "An excuse not to have to file dad's notes yet. Score!" You celebrated a little before grabbing your things and walking down to files. You were going to file those note whether you liked it or not, you were just going to make it the first thing you did. Walking out, you locked the door, juggling the items you had in your hands. As you swung your bag over your shoulder in the hall, magazine in hand, you heard minute personnel talking behind you, boots rapidly hitting the ground loudly. 

"Did you hear? Mobius is actually trusting the Loki variant to roam the place." The first one spoke, clearly astonished. The other one scoffed behind you.

"I think he's definitely gonna help." The second one's snide remark made you pick up the pace a bit, eager to get away from the negativity.

"Yeah, help himself." The first guard replied in a snarky manner before they both let out demeaning giggles rang out, nauseating you. You swallowed the feeling as you picked up the pace and made it to files. Looking up at the clock on the wall, you saw you were extremely early. Maybe I can get more work done. You mused to yourself as you got the area unlocked and ready for business. Dropping into your chair, you turned on the computer and logged in. As it logged in and took you to the homescreen, you zoned out. Was Mobius really letting Loki walk around freely? You pondered on what the hunters had said, jumping at a file being dropping on the counter. You looked at the guard, who in turn looked at you apologetically, muttering a 'sorry' before scurrying off to their post. You shook your head as you grabbed the file and placed it on the scanner. By the way it was going, you could already tell it was gonna be a long work day.

As hours passed, by the fourth hour of work, you had already gotten all your work done. Even though time moves differently here, it could at least speed the fuck up. You thought, grumpily. Normally at this time, you would have more files coming. You had gotten a notification that no more files were going to come until tomorrow due to printing error. As you sat there, wondering what to do, you remembered your motorcycle magazine. Grabbing it gleefully, you eagerly started to flip through the magazine. As you read each page, you basically checked out if the world around you. In fact, you were so engrossed with the magazine, you barely noticed that Loki had walked up to the counter in front of your desk. He leaned over the desk, examining you, waiting for you to notice his presence. His eyes raked over your body, enticed with what he was seeing. You were the most ravishing person he had ever had the pleasure of laying his eyes on. Gods, the things he would do to you if he had permission. He leaned further, not realizing you hadn't seen him. After a couple minutes, he decided to clear his throat to catch your attention. The sound startled you as you quickly closed the magazine and threw it under files, looking at the person briefly. As you adjusted yourself, you did a double-take of the person leaning comfortably across from you. You gulped, hoping your sudden nervousness wasn't apparent. He gave you a smile as he caught your eyes, easing the tensions, but causing your stomach to twist into knots. A sailor's knot to be specific, and it was quite uncomfortable. You turned your body more towards him, not realizing it allowed him to take you in fully. His blue eyes flickered down before they rose slowly back to yours.

"Hello, Loki Laufeyson." You spoke slowly, hoping your voice was as steady as you tried to make it. He hummed in response, scanning your chest for a name tag. 

"Hello..." His voice trailed off, realizing he couldn't find your name anywhere.

"..None of your business." You finished his sentence, wanting to mess with him before you actually let him know your name. You couldn't imagine how wide his eyes would be when he learned who your dad was. You watched him suck in his cheeks, trying to figure out how to respond. His eyes closed as he head leaned back fully, allowed your eyes to slowly trail from the underside of his jaw to the bottom of his throat. It was the strangest thing, but you thought it was attractive seeing him like that.  I'd like to see that more often. You chewed on your lip as some questionable thoughts came to mind. His head fell back down, face covered with determination. 

"Excuse my manners. You know my name, but I don't know yours. What is your name? A woman as ravishing as you must have a lovely name.." Loki's voice seemed to grow deeper as the sentence trailed off, flicking his out against his bottom lip as looking you up and down again, hoping you noticed. Without warning, your cheeks grew a little hot. Your eyes flickered down as you tried to make your cheeks go back to their normal hue, mentally scolding yourself. Loki smirked mischievously at your reaction. He watched your head turn back to him, ready to respond.

"It's Y/N. Y/N Mobius." You paused as you watched the gears turn in his head before his mouth formed an 'o' shape. Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. That was definitely not the reaction you were expecting, let alone the one you wanted.

"He talked about you. I didn't connect the dots that you were his daughter until now." Loki shrugged nonchalantly, giving you a warm, cunning smile. All you did was nod in response. Now that these foolish semantics were done, you decide to find out why he was really here.

"Anyway, why are you here?" You inquired, reaching over to clear the computer before logging off. You won't remember to do so after this conversation. You glanced over at him as he quickly put his words together.

"Well, Y/N, I came to see the prettiest person at the TVA." He stated his true intentions, watching your face intently for a reaction. As he watched you stare blankly at him, he realized you might've been oblivious to his flirting attempts. This is going to be harder than I thought. He grumbled internally, throwing a mischievous smile on.

"That would be you, darling." The nickname rolled off of Loki's silver tongue, making your stomach twist tighter. Ignoring the internal war, you have a quick smile before going back to just staring at him. Your unimpressed look threw Loki off completely. He breathed in deeply, realizing he'd have to change the subject to keep this interaction going. He needed this to work.

"Um, anyway... What were you reading? You know, before I distracted you." He wiggled his eyebrows at you, watching your eyes flicker to the finish pile of files. Sighing, you dug out the magazine and tossed onto the counter besides Loki's arms. He eyes the magazine, taking in every detail.

"It's a motorcycle magazine." You explained blatantly, knowing he knew what it was. He hummed in response before chuckling. 

"Your dad likes jet skis and you like motorcycles. Huh." He pondered for a second before continuing. "How interesting." One of his brows raised as he looked up at you, intrigued.

"What can I say? We both are drawn to exciting and fast things. It's our passion." You explained, hoping Loki was going somewhere with this conversation. If he wasn't, you were very much prepared to go home and sleep. He looked down as he licked his lips, eyes peering back up at you through his brows.

"You know, I'm very exciting." Loki stopped his sentence, hoping he had captured your attention. Your attentive eyes stared back at him, head tilting slightly to the right. Make this good, Laufeyson...You internally urged him, eyes squinting slightly.

"And I can go as fast as you like." His eyes flickered to your lips before moving back up, sending you a quick wink as he laughed darkly. You laughed nervously, biting your lip as you brought your hand up to the computer, turning it off. Well, if he's interested. Loki watched you push yourself away from the computer desk, eyes dropping down to your thighs. As much as he tried to stop himself and half some self control, he stared at them, sizing you up a bit. He nodded as his eyes trailed back up your body again, this time he did it seductively, causing your breath to hitch in your throat. You walked over to him slowly, hands slowly sliding up his body before settling on his chest, palm towards him. Loki watched you, eager for your next moves. You moved your right hand to grab his tie, gently tugging him towards you. Leaning your mouth up against the corner of his, the corners of your lips turning up teasingly, eyes fluttering closed.

"If you're so confident about that, let's find out." You whispered to him seductively, reaching out and biting his bottom lip. Loki growled at you, roughly grabbing your hips as he hungrily pressed his lips to yours, his tongue making it's way quickly into your own. You moaned as he continued to battle your own tongue, wrapping your arms around his neck. His tongue grazed against the inside of your mouth, exploring every inch. Suddenly remembering you were out in the open, kissing a variant, you pulled away for air. As you briskly locked everything up, leaving the magazine on the counter, you grabbed Loki's wrist and dragged him back to the shared apartment. You looked behind, winking at him before he hurried to walk beside you, slipping an arm around your waist. The slyness? The mischief? The analytical skills? Loki was without a doubt a green variant, and you were sure his personal skills were going to keep proving that.

You weren't entirely sure of what was going to happen tonight, but you were very eager to let it happen. You just hoped Mobius was so busy talking shop with Ravonna that he wouldn't be coming home.

You can also read this fic here <3