Kungfunurse

Still in pursuit, we followed the ball toward a small lake in Motor World that had been earmarked for a fleet of tiny bumper boats for children. The area wasn’t open yet, but the empty boats were being tested and floated on the surface. The ball soared over the grass and smashed into several of them, scattering the others with rippling waves from the impact, which launched some of the boats several feet in the air.

Charlie and Ken waded into the water looking for the hatch. After some difficulty, they got it open. Charlie pulled Frank out by grabbing him under his armpits like a baby. Frank crawled up the bank, coughing and sputtering. He splayed across the grass as we all stared at the ball, which bobbed in the water like it was attached to a fishing lure.

We did not ask for the inspector’s report, nor did we ever hear of one being filed. Ken Bailey returned to Canada. The snow-makers cleared away the PVC. Told to dispose of the Bailey Ball, they rolled it into the woods, where it remained for many years."

“And we loved it, we were all having a great time, but then he saw my sister and I, and he just got this - this look in his eyes, and then-”

She hesitated, worrying the coarse material between her fingers. “Things got pretty bad after that,” she muttered. “I know it’s silly, but I try to keep - her - comfortable. We don’t know if she can still hear us, or see us, or if she’s even still in here, but I like to think she is. I talk to her when I can, I leave music on when I’m out of the house. I tried to convince my parents to bring her with us when we went to Disneyland, but they didn’t - didn’t really take that well.”

He was perched on the shoulder of a well-built young man.

The man was a member of an organization dedicated to the protection, management, and research of mythological creatures — an organization I was also a part of.

In the dream, the man was wearing the organization’s jacket, but I’m sure he would get injured, so in this illustration, I’ve dressed him in body armor with ceramic plates.

(Yes: Highlander is a fellow March baby for me and the disproportionate number of my friends also born in March!)

In all seriousness (well, some seriousness), Highlander is a genuinely compelling film visually despite the basic silliness and some truly wtf decisions, Sean Connery vs Clancy Brown, etc with some truly great cinematic craft going on between the... rest, all enormously aided by a fantastic soundtrack care of Queen.

One of my favorite Queen songs of all time is actually from Highlander: Brian May's "Who Wants to Live Forever?" Apparently, May was just so emotionally touched by the cut of Heather's death he'd been shown that he felt moved to write a whole power ballad about it. It's just very beautiful and soaring but intense, I adore it. It's also the basis for the most recurrent motif in one of my favorite (and I think most extra) orchestral covers ever, Tolga Kashif's six-part The Queen Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

However, my other favorite is just a fantastic good time: Freddie Mercury's "Princes of the Universe," with the bonus of a magnificently unhinged music video in which, among many other things, Christopher Lambert shows up in costume as Connor MacLeod from the film and has a duel with Freddie. The song was released March 12, 1986, so we're closing in on its birthday in particular. Behold its glory:

like. that guy did not care what anyone thought. he had a whole system for ignoring yu ziyuan's opinions when he felt she was wrong. he's intense about duty. wei wuxian was very much his favorite student.

if that favorite student had in fact secretly been his own son, he'd have processed the paperwork at the first opportunity. and by the time the boys were teens, have given serious consideration to passing jiang cheng over for the inheritance, if wwx showed any willingness to take the job. because he had serious concerns about jiang cheng's psychological fitness for the role.

acknowledging a bastard with an existing legal father and adoption are afaik the same exact legal process; he wouldn't have had to lie or openly admit anything to do it.

(which is exactly why if he had adopted the kid everyone would have considered that an admission, regardless of the facts. which pretty plainly would not have stopped him. because if jiang fengmian cared enough about that sort of thing to make his decisions on that basis, he wouldn't have handled the entire wwx situation with the deliberate shamelessness he in fact did.)

and which is why, while this logic probably is very identity-affirming for wei wuxian, it only makes jiang cheng feel worse. 'no see, he's not actually a threat to your position, because if he was you'd have lost already.'