The lunatic rabbits

I saw the news a while back that Emma Roberts was working on a TV series reboot/sequel of Aquamarine, which I have kind of revisited lately after being bodied by an adaptation I did not like. Aquamarine is not a movie I grew up with, but I do think fondly of it and its messages about friendship and love.

And then! They announced! That in the reboot! Raymond is coming back!😱

Context: In Aquamarine, the titular mermaid Aquamarine pursues human boy Raymond, who is very sweet, but the movie ends with their relationship nebulously open, with Raymond learning she's a mermaid and wanting to date her anyway, but no promises. It's a nice, open-ended way to wrap up that relationship because he's a secondary character, and the movie's actual central relationship is the friendship between Aquamarine, Claire and Hailey.

The last news I saw about the reboot was that Emma Roberts is producing and that it'd be about a new character, a teenager, who discovers she's half-mermaid, but I can't remember if that earlier announcement said that this new character would be related to Aquamarine or not, and there's no mention if Claire (Emma's character), Aquamarine or Hailey, would be coming back. Though I assumed with Emma's involvement, Claire would be there at least a little bit.

But now with this new announcement that they've brought back Jack McDorman as Raymond as this new teenager character's single father, this meaaaaaans that Aquamarine and Raymond got together! And had a kid! (Though things did still go wrong since Aquamarine is missing.) In a world where Practical Magic 2 doesn't have Aidan Quinn in their cast list and Top Gun: Maverick doesn't have Charlie, this is unexpectedly delightful!

I haven't written anything in a while, and although I haven't really been feeling shippy (reading or writing) I've been feeling some kinda way about the rise of non-disclosed AI-generated fics, and wanted to at least post something to get out there. So naturally what my brain decided to daydream about is a missing scene of a series of an AU that's not one of my more popular 'verses. I am very fond of it, though!

Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Pairing/Characters: Steve/Tony
Genre: AU, established relationship, PWP
Rating: Explicit
Words: 2000+
Crossposting: AO3
Summary: Tony and Steve have reunion sex after the Battle of New York.

( How Does It Work Now )

Reading Lionel Richie's autobiography Truly is such an exercise in trying to sort a timeline in my head because he's such a beloved pop icon from my childhood, but also he had friendships with Sammy Davis Jr. and Gregory Peck, and his big break of sorts (with the Commodores) was by opening for the Jackson 5 with tiny Michael Jackson. He has survived quite a number of his peers, so his biography covers a big stretch of time and touches on the many changes to the music industry and his own difficulty in reentering it, though the bulk of the book covers his early years up to the 1990s when he took a break.

I only knew Richie as a solo artist, so the early portions with the Commodores, and his vehemence on how important they are to his career, are really interesting. Having read a couple of musical autobiographies at this point, there's always an angle to take be it to look at the industry, the creative process, or a gossipy memoir, but Richie's angle is (as I read it) primarily about his experience of being black southerner, and from that, his experience of being a black artist. It's so important to his identity and he shares the details of the ways, in how he was raised in Tuskegee that had its pride in black excellence, his ADHD sometimes hampering others' belief in his ability to commit, his social consciousness, his connections with others, and later his frustration at accusations of his sound not being "black enough".

It's such a great read for that content, and I think to that end he shies away from the bigger drama moments of his life, and there's not as much detail about the nitty gritty of his leaving the Commodores, his two divorces, and his nervous breakdown (from overwork and the first divorce) that led to taking a break and re-finding himself. I'd never realized that he'd left the spotlight painfully, as it were, since artists do pull back by their own choice sometimes, so this was all really surprising to me. Although he does mention all these things, his wording is careful and kind (again, fair) so anyone looking for deeper explanations won't find it, I think. Although the build-up to leaving the Commodores is there, with the friction and opportunities, the actual leaving happens briefly in one page, without details on contracts and logistics, and I don't think any of the members are mentioned again after. (Could be wrong.)

Edited to add: I just checked, the only Commodores song I know is "Night Shift", which came out after Lionel left the band. Wait no, there's "Brick House", which I forgot was theirs.

A little bonus for me, is that he mentions his friendship with Tina Turner, and after reading two of her autobiographies, it's funny how recognisable yet also different she sounds through Richie's words. Like, my memory could be failing me but I don't recall Turner mentioning in her autobiographies her friction with other black artists after she left Ike. But I have for quite some time now had the vibe (without hard evidence) that Turner pulled away from the black recording industry because of how she was let down by them after leaving Ike, and Richie's anecdotes of her anger support that reading.

Also, I did not know Nicole Richie was adopted! I knew she was his daughter, which I learned only quite some time after she and Paris Hilton became famous, but not that she wasn't biologically his.

As is typical, I've been listening to his music as I read his book. Although I knew most of his big hits, there's some others that will make good additions to the next karaoke outing, if available.

After taking a while to finish a massive 600+ page book, it's a bit of a shock to go back to shorter books, like I'd start them and suddenly be like, wait I'm almost done???

( Cut for religion. )