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fanfics4all · 4 years

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The Piano Man

Request: Yes / No

Requests are closed <3 Have a nice day/night

Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Word count: 3999

Warnings: TALK OF RAPE I will not be tagging anyone but do not read if you are triggered by rape! (This is based on season seven episode 12)

Y/N: Your Name

Y/L/N: Your Last Name

PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK, I WORK HARD ON MY FICS AND IT’S NOT COOL TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK!

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Masterlist

(Not my photo, credit to whoever made it!)

A long time ago I used to live in Houston. That was a part of my life that I never wanted to return to. But now, it looks like I had no choice. I had joined the BAU team in the FBI and our case was back in my hometown.

“So Houston PD needs our boots on the ground for the Piano Man case.” Garcia said and I silently gulped.

“The serial rapist?” Morgan asked.

“A case we consulted on about eight months ago. Twelve victims over five years.” Hotch said and he glanced at me. He knew that I was one of those women that he had hurt, he was the only one that knew. Not even my boyfriend of one year knew, I couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone else. Hotch needed to know because it came up on my psych eval, but that was the only reason. The local PD didn’t even know, I never reported it because I was scared…

“He crosses racial and social lines, ages too.” He added and kept glancing at me, I knew the others noticed as well.

“Power assertive?” Prentiss asked.

“Knocks them out with a date rape drug, and binds them with piano wire…” Rossi said.

“They wake up with no memory of the assault or how they got the permanent scar the wire leaves.” I said, managing to keep my voice leveled.

“So he’s branding his victims. How does he dose them?” Prentiss asked.

“Houston PD still isn’t sure ‘cause, you know, date rape drugs metabolize quickly, and he’s keeping them for twelve hours.” Penelope answered before I could say anything. To be fair, I have no memory of how he drugged me, so even I didn’t know.

“So why are they calling us in now?” Morgan asked.

“Because of these most recent attacks. This piece of work has elevated sick and twisted to a whole new dimension. Cases in point- Brittany Anderson filed a report after she woke up outside the restaurant she was abducted from, and Vanessa Campbell was just reported missing.” Penelope answered and my eyes widened.

“Wait, those were victims two and five, weren’t they?” Spencer asked.

“Yes. He’s going back and attacking survivors a second time.” Penelope confirmed.

“Vanessa was grabbed from her house? He’s changing his M.O. from what we studied. He’s upping his game.” JJ said.

“Well, we know he stalks them. But public venue abduction, he has the power. Home invasion, he’s on their turf.” Morgan said.

“So he’s betting he can gain control before they get to a phone or a gun.” Spencer said.

“The question is why? What is he getting from revisiting old victims?” Rossi asked.

“It seems careless for someone who’s been so controlled up to now.” Hotch said.

“What is this? On the floor?” Prentiss asked.

“Uh, that- oh, God, that is the contents of Vanessa Campbell’s stomach, which she ralphed up.” Penelope answered.

“And in the glass?” Prentiss asked.

“According to the police report, it is salt and water.” Penelope answered.

“Homemade emetic.” Prentiss said.

“E-what what?” Penelope asked.

“Quick and dirty cocktail meant to induce vomiting.” Rossi answered.

“Vanessa Campbell and her husband moved to a new address. They’ve put locks on the doors. They took precautions. She even knew what to do if she was dosed again, and it still wasn’t enough. That’s what he gets out of it.” Prentiss explained.

“Their fear. He wants them to know that no matter what, he can still get to them.” Hotch said and I felt a chill run up my spine.

Everyone was getting ready to get on the jet. I gathered my stuff up and headed to the jet early. I walked on and saw Hotch sitting there alone.

“Hey.” I said.

“Y/N, I’m glad you’re here. Sit.” He said motioning to the seat in front of him.

“I don’t want you to go on the case.” He said and my eyes widened.

“Hotch, I’m fine.” I said and he shook his head.

“No, you’re not. You are too involved with this case.” He said and I shook my head.

“This man is the reason I studied so hard for this job, I want to catch people like him and now I have the chance to catch this son of a bitch. Please don’t take that away from me.” I said and he started at me for a few minutes.

“He’ll try and come after you.” He said and I nodded.

“I know the risks, but Hotch I can promise you I’m okay. I’m not gonna let him scare me.” I said and he sighed.

“Fine, but you listen to what I tell you and don’t try and find him on your own.” He said and I nodded.

“I promise.” I said, although I knew I might not be able to keep it all that well. Hotch and Rossi were talking with the chief and JJ and Prentiss were interviewing the victims. Reid Morgan and I were sent to the latest crime scene.

“Does Vanessa smoke?” Spencer asked her husband.

“Yes, Vanessa smokes. What does it matter?” He asked.

“It might explain how the unsub is drugging these women.” Spencer said and my eyes widened slightly. Thank God I quit.

“The media has done a very good job of warning people to watch their drinks so that bars are no longer a fertile hunting ground, but cigarette smokers aren’t as careful. They might ask to have a cigarette from a stranger, or have their pack swapped out of their purse when they put it down and then unknowingly inhale PCP or scopolamine, both of which mimic the effects of date rape drugs.” Spencer rambled, it honestly was always so cute to me, but now wasn’t the time to be thinking that.

“She hid them in her purse. She didn’t think I knew. She cracked the windows so I wouldn’t smell it when I got home.” Mr. Campbell said.

“You know, if the unsub stalked her from the backyard, he’d have a good view when she lit up.” Spencer said.

“He also took out the window with something like a center punch.” Morgan said.

“What’s that?” Mr. Campbell asked.

“It’s a spring-loaded device used to punch divots into metal. It also breaks glass.” I explained as Spencer walked off towards the kitchen.

“No cigarettes. He must have taken them with him to hide the evidence.” Spencer said while looking through her purse.

“You know, it might not be all he’s trying to hide.” Morgan said.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“Mr. Campbell, was this on when you came home?” He asked.

“The police told me not to touch anything.” Mr. Campbell answered.

“Well, you sure got a lot of MP3s on here.” Morgan said scrolling through them.

“Was it playing one of them?” He asked.

“No. Why?” Mr. Campbell asked.

“The media center keeps a history of the last twenty songs that were played, but either you don’t listen to any of them or someone erased it.” I said catching on to what Morgan was thinking.

“It wasn’t me.” Mr. Campbell said.

“I’ll call Garcia.” Morgan said, pulling out his phone.

“Whatcha need?” She answered.

“Hey, there’s an MP3 player in the Campbell house, can you tell me anything about the erased history?” Morgan asked.

“Okay, I can’t tell you who deleted that playback list, but I can tell you exactly when the log was cleared. 7:43 P.M..” She said.

“Why erase a history of someone else’s music?” Spencer asked.

“Because he didn’t erase someone else’s music. At 7:36, he loaned an MPS via USB drive, played it, and promptly deleted it.” She said, showing us on the Campbell’s T.V..

“Cleared the history so he could cover up his tracks.” She added.

“The unsub brought his own music to an abduction?” I asked confused.

“Yes, he did, and that is creepy. Fortunately, whatever is imported onto this computer downloaded the home network, so, ladies and gentlemen, the mystery song of Mr. Gruesome is…” She said and the music started playing. “That’s specific.” Spencer said.

“That’s another reason to call this guy the piano man.” Morgan said.

“Turn it off. Please.” Mr. Campbell said. Morgan turned it off.

“Does this song mean something to you or your wife?” Spencer asked.

“Vanessa hates it.” Mr. Campbell said and I gulped.

“How come?” Morgan asked.

“I don’t know. She doesn’t know. But every time it came on the radio, she’d burst into tears.” Mr. Campbell explained.

“So the unsub just happened to play it the night he came after her.” Morgan said.

We got back and JJ and Prentiss brought the woman back in to see if they had songs that triggered them too. All of us were in the room the local PD had set up for us and looked at all the songs these women now hated.

“Lady in Red, Up Where We Belong, Glory of Love. Each victim has her own piano ballad.” JJ said.

“You know, considering the survivors lose consciousness during the rape, we think this functions as the unsub’s signature. He most likely plays the songs repeatedly during the assault, resulting in pavlovian response when they heard it later, sort of a subconscious rape trigger.” Spencer said.

“The night of Vanessa Campbell’s abduction, that signature became part of his torture.” Rossi said. Hotch looked at me and I shook my head.

“We need to know.” He said and everyone looked at me.

“No.” I said.

“Know what?” Spencer asked confused.

“Y/N is one of the victims from the first time.” Hotch said.

“Hotch!” I said and I felt everyone looking at me in shock.

“So, what song is it?” He asked and I looked away from everyone.

“Endless Love…” I said.

“So, why these songs? What do they say about him?” Hotch asked, but before anyone could say anything more his phone rang.

“Go ahead, Morgan.” Hotch said.

“We just found Vanessa Campbell’s body. He didn’t even bother hiding it.” He said and my eyes widened.

“How long has she been dead?” Hotch asked.

“Maybe five hours.” He answered.

“He’s never killed before…” I said.

“Are we sure it’s our unsub?” Spencer asked, he was clearly worried.

“He used a piano wire as a garrote.” Morgan answered.

“Alright, Morgan, you come back here, I’ll go to the coroner's office once they’ve looked her over.” Hotch said and hung up.

“Keep working.” Hotch said and pulled me out of the room.

“You need to go back home now.” He said and I shook my head.

“I’m not going anywhere until he’s behind bars.” I said, standing my ground.

“Y/N this is serious, he’s getting more confident, you need to leave.” He said.

“Hotch is right Y/N.” Spencer said coming out of the room.

“I’ll give you two some time to talk.” Hotch said and went back into the room.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked.

“Because I wanted to forget about it. Hotch is the only one that knew because of my psych eval.” I said not meeting his eyes.

“I can help you.” He said, gently touching my arms.

“Spence, there’s nothing to help. The only thing I need to do is to catch him.” I said. He gently guided my eyes to look at his.

“I understand, but this is dangerous for you, he could try and come after you now and what if he kills you? I can’t lose you…” He said with tears in his eyes.

“I promised Hotch I wouldn’t go looking for him alone and as hard as it is to keep that promise, I need to. Because if I ever see him again, I will kill him.” I said and Spencer’s eyes widened, but he saw the tears in my eyes.

“I can’t let him get away with this again.” I said and a tear slid down my cheek. Spencer pulled me to him and held me close.

“Just stay with me okay? I can tell Hotch that we need to stay together, I can protect you.” He said and I smiled.

“You know, I think that’ll be better for the both of us.” I said and he smiled back.

“I love you.” He whispered.

“I love you too, now let’s get back to doing our job.” I said, but he stopped me.

“There’s nothing I can do to convince you to go home?” He asked and I smiled slightly.

“You know there’s not.” I said and he sighed, but nodded.

We walked back in the room and Hotch said the three of us were going to the morgue. So we hopped in a car and headed there. They didn’t have too much to look over apparently.

“Tissue inflammation is consistent with inhalation of some sort of drug. I can’t tell what yet.” The doctor told us.

“And the ligature marks?” Hotch asked.

“Same as before. New wounds on top of old scars.” The doctor said holding up the hand and I felt myself reach for my own wrists.

“No sexual assault, though. Possibly because she regained consciousness at some point and fought back.” He added.

“She doesn’t show any signs of defensive wounds.” Spencer commented.

“No, but I did fish this out of her trachea.” The doctor said handing Spencer a bag.

“Neoprene?” I asked.

“From a glove. My best guess is she bit him.” The doctor said.

“Not enough to break the skin, unfortunately.” He added.

“An exam glove?” Hotch asked.

“Most likely.” The doctor answered.

“Actually, it’s a surgical glove. A little bit thicker than an exam glove. If he was wearing neoprene, it means he has an allergy to latex.” Spencer said.

“I’ll have Garcia check hospital records.” Hotch said and left the room.

“Thank you doctor.” I said and Spencer and I followed Hotch out.

When we got back to the PD Hotch told Spencer and I to take a little break. I objected at first, but he said it was an order so we took a walk around the block.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” I said grabbing Spencer’s hand.

“I understand why you didn’t.” He said.

“I can hear him still you know…” I said and he looked at me confused.

“What?” He asked.

“He sang the song, I remember his voice. I was new to smoking so I wasn’t used to it yet. I was out with some friends and I went to smoke alone, when I tasted it, it tasted off so I got rid of it, but I blacked out after. I couldn’t open my eyes, but I could hear that song and him singing it…” I admitted.

“We need to go back.” Spencer said and grabbed my hand. We ran back as fast as we could and we saw everyone sitting at a table.

“Hey you guys are back, we got a suspect.” JJ said and we looked at her confused.

“Y/N remembers his voice.” Spencer said and everyone’s eyes widened.

“Let’s go, Prentiss you try and get him to talk. Hotch said and the four of us walked towards the investigation room. Emily went inside and started playing to his fantasies.

“It’s not him.” I said.

“He’s definitely assaulted Dianna though.” Prentiss said.

“Arrest him for that, but he’s not the man that raped me.” I said and walked out of the room.

“How can Herman Scodie not be the piano man? We’ve got the medical gloves, the medical record he pulled.” Rossi asked. We were all gathered in the room, after Hotch had sent JJ, Spencer, and Morgan to go check his house anyway.

“The taunt he said to Diana Mitchell, he repeated to us.” Prentiss said.

“Well, Scobie definitely assaulted Diana the second time. He’s probably re-victimizing all of the survivors.” JJ said.

“But apply the profile to Herman Scobie, and look at what’s different. There’s no piano wire, and there’s no song played.” Morgan said.

“You think there are two unsubs, the piano man and a copycat?” Hotch asked.

“A copycat studies the original unsub in order to learn. Herman Scobie’s a doppelganger.” Spencer said.

“He’s trying to pass himself off as the piano man.” I said.

“Why?” Rossi asked.

“Convenience, maybe. If he assaults the piano man’s survivors, they’re less likely to reach out to the police.” Morgan said.

“And if they do, the women claim it was the piano man. No one thinks to look at hospital orderlies.” JJ added.

“So who killed Vanessa Campbell, the piano man or Scobie?” Hotch asked.

“It’s a lay-up. Same neoprene glove in her throat as we found in Scobie’s van.” Rossi answered.

“There’s something odd about that too, though. If Vanessa swallowed this it would be scarred by digestive acids. I mean, even if it got caught in her trachea as he choked her out, gastric reflux would be evident, but there isn’t any.” Spencer said.

“So the unsub placed that in her throat postmortem.” I said.

“Which unsub?” Prentiss asked.

“He used the piano wire, he played the song, it must be the piano man.” Morgan said.

“So he plants a piece of evidence to frame Scobie.” Rossi said.

“Okay, let me get this straight. The piano man is trying to convince us that Scobie is responsible for all of these crimes.” Prentiss said.

“And if these two have studied each other this closely, then Scobie is the key to finding the piano man.” Hotch said.

“His lawyer’s here. Scobie’s not gonna talk to us.” JJ said.

“He will when he finds out he’s been set up.” Hotch said.

“Let me talk to him.” I said and everyone looked at me.

“No way.” Hotch said.

“If he’s studied the piano man he’ll know who I am. He’ll want to talk to me.” I said and Spencer shook his head.

“No, we can’t let you do that.” He said.

“Fine. I’ll go in with you. That’s the only way.” Hotch said and I nodded.

“Hotch, you’re serious about this?” Spencer asked shocked.

“She’s right, if he knows who she is then it might put him on edge.” He answered.

“Let’s go.” He added and we walked inside. Herman and his lawyer looked up at us and I noticed Herman’s eyes flash with realization.

“My client has nothing to say.” His lawyer said.

“Good. We’d rather he listen anyway.” Hotch said.

“You’re going away fro rape. The question is whether you’ll let your competition hang Vanessa Campbell’s murder on you as well.” I said.

“I didn’t kill her.” Herman said.

“I didn’t even touch her.” He added.

“Herman.” His lawyer warned.

“From what you’ve told us, we know exactly what you think of these women.” Hotch said.

“You don’t need to kill them.” I said speaking as if I wasn’t one of them.

“They’re not worth that much effort to you.” I said and he never took his eyes off me.

“But the piano man can’t take that risk. When he’d heard what you’d done, he killed Vanessa Campbell.” Hotch said.

“He went back to an old victim, just like you, but then he places a piece of neoprene down her throat. Does that sound like an accident?” I asked and he glared at me.

“He’s setting you up.” I added.

“I need to discuss this with my client.” The lawyer said.

“No, he talks to us now, or he takes his chances with a jury.” Hotch said.

“What do you want to know?” Herman asked, eyes still never leaving mine.

“Who is he?” I asked and he smirked.

“You should know, I know who you are.” He said leaning forward towards me.

“His unknown victim. The one that didn’t report him.” He said.

“Who is he?” Hotch asked again.

“I never met him. I just read about what he did in the hospital records.” He said looking up at me.

“You were the only one that didn’t report him, but you came in with the same marks as those other women.” He said, looked at me again.

“The weird thing though, I had three chicks picked out to do next. I was gonna start with Vanessa, but… He got to her first.” Herman said.

“Who was the other ones?” Hotch asked.

“Regina Lampert and Y/N Y/L/N.” He answered.

“You’re going away for a long time.” I said and walked out of the room. Spencer grabbed me and pulled me to him.

“It’s okay.” He whispered and kissed my head. We all met in the room and tried calling Regina.

“Okay, guys, regina Lampert is not answering her phone, and I found something hinky on her, which I’m sending to your tablets.” Garcia said.

“Alright, Garcia, what are we looking at?” Hotch asked.

“It’s a surveillance video from the bar that Regina Lampert works at. Do you see the guy she’s talking to?” She asked.

“PLaying the piano. He’s taunting her.” Rossi said.

“She knows it too. Look at her body language.” Hotch said.

“Watch what happens when I fast-forward to closing time.” Garcia said and sped up the video.

“She seems to warm up to him.” I said.

“And then, watch this.” She said and the video changed to a different angle.

“Garcia, freeze it right there.” Hotch said.

“Look at her face. No, she doesn’t. She set herself up as bait.” Hotch said.

“Credit card says that the guy at the piano is Hamilton Bartholomew. This is what I know, his wife just filed a missing persons report on him this morning. She directed me to some job he just applied for, so I got a background check from that where they did his fingerprints.” She said.

“Alright, Garcia, pull Regina Lampert’s rape kit and cross-reference the prints found with Bartholomew’s, and see if you get a match. We need to get to her house.” Hotch said.

“Sending her address to your GPS.” She said and then we hung up. We all left to get to her house.

“Garcia, did she pick up?” Hotch asked, answering the phone.

“No, but we did just get a 911 call from her house, and it is freaking weird.” Garcia said and then started playing the call.

“911 operator. What’s your emergency?” A lady asked.

“Hello?” She asked when no one said anything.

“My name is Hamilton Bartholomew. I’m being held captive by a lunatic!” He said then a gunshot went off.

“She took the piano man captive?” Prentiss asked.

“Unless he’s not the piano man. I mean think about it. Would the piano man call us to rescue him?” Morgan asked.

“She could be shooting at the wrong guy.” Rossi said.

“No, it’s him.” I said.

“What?” Spencer asked.

“That’s his voice… I know it.” I said.

“The lab just confirmed, it’s him.” Prentiss said. We pulled up to the house and everyone got out.

“Y/N you stay out here, that’s an order.” Hotch said and I knew there was no fighting this on.

“As long as I’m the one that puts the cuffs on him.” I said and Hotch nodded. They went in and Spencer stayed out here with me. Hotch and Prentiss came out with both of them and Hotch handed him to me.

“Hamilton bartholomew, you’re under arrest for the rapes of thirteen women and the murder of Vanessa Campbell.” Hotch said and I put the cuffs on him.

“It’s you…” He said to me.

“I’m gonna make sure you stay in jail for the rest of your damn life.” I growled at him. Hotch took him from me and Spencer came up and held me tightly.

“Should have let her pull the trigger.” I said.

“Come on baby, let’s just go.” Spencer said and took me to the car.

“He’s never gonna see light again, you know that.” He said.

“But he’s still alive…” I said.

“And I’ll be here for you, whatever you need.” He said and held me close.

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antagonisms · 4 years

Photo

BASICS

Name: Evan Czarnecki

Gender & pronouns: cis male, he/him

Species: werewolf

Age: 27. Jokes about being 63, because he was a wolf for 6 years, which is 42 dog years + those 21 normal human years. Either way, age is a really weird concept now.

PERSONALITY

Traits: Pretends to be flippant to put the world at a distance. Vulgar as a means of distancing himself from genuine vulnerability. Perceptive, but won’t let you know that. More self-aware than he lets on. Self-absorbed. Self-destructive. Loves being seen, hates being known.

Moral alignment / MBTI / enneagram: Chaotic neutral. INTP-A. 5w6.

Values: In other people, he likes independence, open-mindedness, the ability to dress well, a lack of tolerance for bullshit, genuine altruism, and resilience.

Flaws: Judgmental. Narcissistic as a defense mechanism. Occasionally rude, but mostly just cheeky. Not a team player. Reckless. Hedonistic. The brokest bitch in Blackrock.

HISTORY

( shorter version is in the app. i just like details. trigger warnings for child abuse and sex as self harm.)

1) CHILDHOOD

You had a family, once. Your mother’s a piano teacher and your father is — you don’t know, really, but he’s got enough old money to buy nice things even if he’s stingy on principle. He’s polite, and she’s funny, and your fellow patrons at Sunday Mass love all three of you because you’re down-to-earth, surface-level beautiful — a perfect American family.

But they don’t know what happens inside the too-big house at the foot of the mountain. Your mother’s a pessimist, and your father’s a sniveling piece of shit who copes with his worthlessness by making everybody feel small. He’s kinda good at it. They’re both as loud as they are erratic and it’s all a matter of bracing yourself for when the floor inevitably falls through. You make do, mostly. You hide in your room. You lock the door. You put your ears behind headphones. You drown out their screaming matches and your too-loud mind.

It all falls apart when Mommy decides she hates Daddy more than she loves you. No goodbye. No explanation. She just leaves.

Her departure plants a lesson you will later find impossible to uproot: love is earned, Evan, you’re not working hard enough. At least your father stayed. At least he sometimes loved you. At least, you think so. He might have loved you when he took you fishing, or gave you that book you really liked, or when he buys you clothes that look really nice. You flip through your mother’s old sheet music and fumble through the piano keys, and you think he might love you when he watches you fill this house with her memory without saying anything.

But mostly, he’s not very kind. You don’t want to think about it anymore.

2) ADOLESCENCE

You inherit your mother’s cynicism and your father’s stingy heart. The skill you develop is as much a sense of humor as it is a safety net. If life’s a joke, beat it to the punchline. By the time you’re fifteen, you can no longer pretend that your world is worth saving. You keep it at arm’s length. Your mind makes a mockery of the darkness to keep its jaws at a distance, because if you couldn’t do that, your pitch-black pessimism would swallow you whole.

Growing up feels less like maturing and more like mutating. By the time you’re sixteen, you stop feigning perfection to earn the affection of a father who’s heart is colder than your Blackrock winter. Popular misconception claims control is a word you never learned, but that’s just what you let everyone think. The truth is: control is a lesson you pried out of your body when the need for acceptance evolved into a need to rebel. You’re an embarrassment, Evan. Adolescence meant insurrection. You’re a failure of a son. Pills and booze and boys and girls biting the hand that hit him. Your heart is a bullet and your mouth is a shotgun and you will make yourself repulsive if the alternative is admitting that — Evan, I wish you knew how difficult it is to love you.

You only apply yourself when it matters. You get into Stanford. You take a loan. You don’t let your father pay for tuition, because you’re not letting him control your life anymore. You leave your tar pit town the way your mother did, and it’s only a matter of time before your goodbye is permanent.

It gets better as much as it gets worse. You leave home, but home doesn’t really leave you, and you don’t recognize your body when it’s not in pain. You’re beautiful, though. People see you and want to make you theirs. You let it happen. Too-rough hands salve the ghosts of bruises your father left you. This is the ugliest way of putting it: you feel damaged. Every person you kiss has too-sharp teeth, and maybe that’s exactly how you want it, because if this body doesn’t feel like it belongs to you, then offer it up in a way that feels good.

You always leave first. You love much how it tears them apart. This is your inheritance: your Momma’s love of leaving, and your Daddy’s stingy, stingy heart.

3) THE BITE

Unlike your mother, you tried to come back. Your father called one night, asking if you wanted to return for Christmas, and the small, stupid flicker of hope that your pessimism couldn’t kill begged that you give him a chance.

He didn’t change. He argues about the degree you’re taking with the money you don’t have and insists on carving a future for you, his way. He doesn’t like your independence. He doesn’t like your protests. Your fights are explosive until they aren’t, until a raised fist reminds you exactly what violence he’s capable of.

At least he sometimes loves you. Maybe he loved you when he picked your wounded body up, carried you out of the woods, and bandaged up bite on your side. Maybe he loved you when he brought medicine to your room, and maybe he loved you when made you chicken soup just the way you liked it, even when you didn’t ask. Maybe he loved you when he sat by the side of your bed, and talked about his father, and his father’s father, and how none of them really knew how to grow up without making their sons feel small.

But the fever is strange. A new kind of anger tears out whatever capacity for forgiveness you might have had. Your bones are changing. Something wretched twists and grows inside you, and with a hot flash of pain, you’re something new entirely.

You have one last coherent thought before the wild takes your mind completely.

I have to kill him. So you do.

3.5) THE THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW

The news of your father’s death spreads like wildfire in Blackrock. It’s not your father’s mangled body that causes intrigue, it’s your disappearance. Wolf attacks, while uncommon, aren’t exactly rare, and everyone’s heard the folktales. Neighbors assure that you were there during the evidence, but the police find no evidence of carnage, not a pound of flesh nor drop of blood to support the fearful need to conclude that there’s nothing supernatural about this. You can’t prove the Czarnecki kid isn’t a werewolf, the gossipers say. Nobody can even prove that he’s dead.

4) WOLF-HOOD

You don’t know what strange circumstance landed you in your new body, but maybe you don’t care. Maybe the bite and the fever killed you, and the Buddhists were right. You don’t really know if you earned enough good karma to deserve this reincarnated form, but either way, you’re never letting it go. You hunt deer. You roll around in the snow. You snarl at any predator that dares to get near, and bite the ones that move into your space without permission. Sometimes you walk into the backyards of strangers and wait for children who aren’t afraid to try and approach you. You don’t eat them, because just because you’re a monster now doesn’t mean you don’t have principles.

You lie down. You let them rub your belly.

It’s a really nice life.

5) NOW

Six years after you thought you died, a woman drags you out of the woods you back into your body. Even a lifetime of pain couldn’t prepare you for the shift back. New bones tear your animal flesh apart, piercing your skin open to make room for your wretched old body. It aches in too many ways. The people — the wolves — the ones who did this to you, they tell you this is your home now.

So it wasn’t Buddhism. Maybe it’s the Catholics who’re right; eternal damnation does await the unrepentant sinner, and it looks like this: you’re here, trapped in a frat house for furries, without a cellphone, a car, or clothes of your own, or money to pay a doctor to confirm whether or not you’d acquired a tapeworm.

You realize you owe Stanford 213,000 dollars.

You are a very tired wolf.

TLDR:

Evan has a bad childhood. He becomes a wolf. He kills his father. He mistakes lycanthropy for reincarnation and lives in wolf-nirvana for six whole years. You drag him out of nirvana. The realization that he didn’t actually die puts him in a terrible mood.

CONNECTIONS

( So uhhh I wrote up possible prompts for the existing werewolf skeletons before I knew what anyone was like and I think they can be good jumping points! If you don’t feel this fits your character, or if you want a different sort of dynamic, just message me! )

1) WOLVES (AND BITTEN HUMAN)

ALDER: You’ve seen him at his ugliest — a small, scared creature writhing on the floor, that horrific cross between a howl and a screech leaving his shifting throat. Now there’s a flare of red-hot resentment in his eyes whenever he looks at you, and it makes you wonder if he’s more monstrous as a human than he is a beast. You saved him from death. You realize you cannot save him from life. He’ll never forgive you for that.

HEMLOCK: You are a bootlicker and he does not like you.

HICKORY: It’s not your job to keep the feral wolf in line, but your brother seems to resent whatever circumstance it was that landed him the role of mongrel babysitter. Consider picking up the slack. The guy’s only half-terrible — sullen and strange but mostly manageable, and maybe earning his trust is only a matter of affording him the patience that nobody else wants to offer. If it’s an opportunity to prove this pack your worth, try taking it.

MAPLE: You’ve worked too hard to protect this pack, to earn your position. Now your lot has dragged some feral creature out of the woods, offered him their home, their humanity, and still, he has the nerve to be ungrateful. He makes it clear that he doesn’t trust you. He makes it even clearer that you cannot trust him. Maybe the demons in your head are concussed, but the new demon in your home now insists on giving you a migraine.

PINE: You are a mirror of lost days. You are the young flighty creature he once was and can never become again. Home is a word you might have both forgotten, but circumstance has offered you both a new roof over your heads, and a family to go with it. Maybe these similarities should draw you closer, but there’s a glimmer of resentment in his eyes whenever he looks at you. You don’t know why it’s there. It could be pity. It might be envy. It must be grief.

OAK: He had a father, once, and that shit didn’t end well. For some reason, he sees it fit to pass some unearned blame on you, and now years of buried resentment are yours to bear. Family’s a broken word, he seems to think, but you cannot let him break yours. Still, it’s evident that he lacks the capacity to be as self-sufficient as he’d like, and as long as that’s true, it’s your thumb he’ll be under. You know he needs you. Offer an open hand, or pull the leash tighter. The choice is yours.

REDCEDAR: He shows up at the bookstore to read a new title of Animorphs every other day and you don’t know how that makes you feel.

WILLOW: He might take more kindly to you than he does the others. You’re both new to a home you’re not sure will ever welcome you, and more importantly, you both wanted this. The bite. This beastliness. The difference is that he’s certain. Your condition is a new part of yourself that you have yet to fully love, but he seems to think he can teach you. Man and beast are equally monstrous, he tries to convince you. So let’s be the kind with bigger teeth.

2) OPEN CONNECTIONS

( Open to humans ) has taken an interest in the Czarnecki Werewolf Conspiracy. They’re familiar with the incident — a dead father, a missing son, and the wolf that allegedly kill them both. All the facts line up too neatly, and when somebody who looks to be the ghost of one Evan Czarnecki returns to haunt the streets of Blackrock, they think it’s finally time they get some answers.

( Open to humans ) once knew Evan. Yeah, the kid who always got straight A’s and played piano for Catholic mass? What the actual shit happened to him? They’re watched Evan go from familiar face to murder case overnight, but now, the town recluses have found a new adoptee — and he’s the splitting image of the boy they once knew. Maybe it’s time to reconnect.

3) VAGUE CONCEPTS

he uhhhh (spins wheel) flirted with ( open ) at last drop for free drinks and then realized that spending six years as a wolf made him de-acquire the taste of liquor and now he’s having a crisis

( open ) tells him he needs therapy. evan laughs

this is actually very hard he’s so unsociable

jsut message me... we’ll think of something

#shipper.#about.

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rockinjoeco · 4 years

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Chelsea Turbulence

In my first blog post, I will be talking about my beloved Chelsea football club and reviewing our season so far, including the bad run of form (including the Southampton defeat yesterday) that’s seen us lose 5 out of our last 7 league games, four of which were worryingly against teams in the bottom half of the premier League.

This inconsistency of ours is very reminiscent to Chelsea before Abramovich. There were times when we would get an amazing result, and then a disastrous result the next. For example, in December 2001, we won at Manchester United 3-0, a wonderful result considering the comprehensive nature of the win and that Man United were champions back then and the favourites for the title back then. However, a few days later, that 3-0 win at Old Trafford was followed up by a 1-0 home defeat to Charlton Athletic. For me this season, it’s easy for me to be in despair as a Chelsea fan as losing 5 out of 7 league games is relegation form, but what is important to remember is that we were on a transfer ban, therefore meaning we couldn’t buy anyone, including a replacement for our star player Eden Hazard, who departed for Real Madrid last summer, so at the start of the season, I would’ve just been happy to avoid relegation! Christian Pulisic finally being available to play for us has helped us though, even if he doesn’t fully compensate the departure of Hazard. Hiring Frank Lampard as our new manager, replacing Juventus-bound Maurizio Sarri, gave me some joy as seeing a Chelsea legend returning as our manager was always going to be good to see, but also seeing our former academy coach returning as assistant manager of the whole team rather than just managing academy players meant that our youth players will finally get a chance in the first team. I know we are a big club and therefore us Chelsea fans will be very demanding, but Lampard himself know how competitive we should be and while there’s no doubt that many of our young players have talent, it will take them time for them to become players of the highest standard.

Before the Man City game last month, we were in the top 4 by 9 points, and now after our bad run of form, we’re only 4th by 3 points. As disappointing as this collapse of ours has been, Chelsea have already exceeded expectations this season, playing great football and our youth players like fikayo tomori, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham have performed well this season, with the latter getting 11 goals in the league. For years, us Chelsea fans have been crying out for our manager to start giving our youth players chances in the first team, and it shouldn’t have to take a transfer ban for that to happen. It still pains me to see how we let the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Mohamed Salah go and then become excellent players elsewhere. Previous managers have been too hasty with our youngsters and that’s why we haven’t seen an academy graduate become a first team regular with us since John Terry. Yes, Maurizio Sarri have Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi a run of games in the first team last season, particularly in the Europa league, but he was under pressure to do so. Prior to the start of last season, Ruben Loftus-Cheek said he didn’t want to be loaned out again, which Sarri had planned to do. Loftus-cheek said he wanted to be part of the Chelsea team or be sold to another club where he will play regular first team football. Therefore, Sarri has to keep him and make him part of the squad. In January 2019, Hudson-Odoi had been interesting Bayern Munich, and as he wasn’t getting into our first team and having seen how well Jadon Sancho had been doing in the bundesliga, Hudson-Odoi wanted to leave Chelsea and join Bayern. Knowing Hudson-Odoi’s potential, Sarri didn’t want to lose him and therefore had to give him a run of games in the first team. Both Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi impressed when they played in the first team and gave a positive indication of what they can bring to our team. The impressive form of tomori, Mount and Abraham has finally vindicated our loan system which had been criticised for a long time. Would the trio of youngsters have made the impact that they have made if they came straight from the academy without being loaned out? Possibly not. Roman Abramovich has invested a lot of money into our academy and the loan system was invented to give our younger players the chance to regular first team football at a competitive level. Previous manager have abused that system and used it to profit from our younger players by eventually selling them rather than actually developing them so they can eventually play for Chelsea one day.

Even when we were on a great run and won 6 league games in a row, defence was an issue for us. Defence was an issue for us last season too. Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen don’t seem to have developed as much as we had hoped for a few years ago. It was a bad injury back in 2016 that has stifled Zouma’s development when his style of play was reminiscent to Marcel Desailly and it looked like he could be our main centre back for the next decade. It’s never nice seeing bad injuries on footballers, particularly promising young players. As well as Tomori has done this season, he still has a lot to learn and unfortunately has a tendency to make silly mistakes that unnecessarily gift chances to the opposition. There are times when we have won games that we should’ve won more comfortably but then unnecessarily gift the other time a chance to get back into the game and make things more difficult for ourselves. I actually believe the biggest loss this season has been Gary Cahill. Even though he’s not as good as he was a few years ago, his experience could’ve helped tomori’s development while also covering for the absence of Antonio Rüdiger, who we have really missed when he’s been out injured.

Thankfully we can finally be allowed to buy new players in January, and the first half of this season has helped us have a better idea of where to improve. I think we do need a world class winger who can always make something out of nowhere just like Hazard did. I think if we look at those home defeats against West Ham, Bournemouth and Southampton, we didn’t have someone who is world class to create chances that could’ve got us back in the game. Not only could we not have gotten a goal in those game, we didn’t create enough clear chances to do so. Callum Hudson-Odoi struggled against Southampton yesterday, and it looked like it will take him time to become a world class winger. Willian has done well this season, but I don’t think he’s as world class as Hazard was and for me, he’s more of a squad player who can do a job when someone’s out injured or can make something happen from the bench. Christian Pulisic has also done well for us, although it’s taken him time to make his mark on the team, but I don’t think he’s consistent yet, bearing in mind he’s still a young player. Jadon Sancho would be my first choice. He’s done excellently with Dortmund and England, knows Hudson-Odoi and Tammy Abraham through the England under 21s and knows Pulisic from their time with Dortmund. We’ve also been linked with Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha, who is an excellent player and can make something happen out of nowhere like Hazard did, but I think the £80m asking price is probably too much money for him as he’s 27 years old, whereas approximately £120m for 19-year-old Jadon sancho would arguably present better value for money.

Left back is another key position we have to improve on. Azpilicueta’s ability has unfortunately declined this season, having been a wonderful servant for us and can play anywhere in our back four, Émerson just doesn’t look like he’s good enough to be a starter for us and Marcos Alonso is more of a wing back than a left back, so when he’s been playing as a full back, he looks like he’s being played out of position. Ben Chilwell would be my first choice as left-back, who’s done so well with Leicester this season, and I hope a deal can be done with Leicester next month. If we have to wait till the summer to get him, I’d be happy with that, as I can’t think of any alternative targets for the left back position. The jury is still out on the centre back position, because I’m yet to see if Rüdiger and Tomori can pair up together in that position. It would be nice to see Nathan Aké back, who we shouldn’t had sold in the first place. Ake can also play as a left back too, which would be useful if we can’t get Chilwell in January. AC Milan’s Alessio Romagnoli would be good for us too, with many regarding him as the next Alessandro Nesta. There’s also been talk about Frank Lampard wanting you replace our goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. I personally have no problem with Kepa, I know he is still only 25 which is a young age for a goalkeeper. The thing I don’t get, however, is that when we signed him in August 2018, the club came out and said we’ve been tracking this goalkeeper for the last few years, but his contract was about to expire six months prior to us signing him for over £70m, so if we knew that Kepa was the man we wanted to replace Thibaut Courtois, who had been vocal about wanting to return to madrid to be with his family, why didn’t we make a move for Kepa then? It seemed unnecessary to buy him for a record fee in the summer after he had just signing a new contract with Athletic Bilbao six months earlier.

We should sell Olivier Giroud in January as he doesn’t seem to fit in with Lampard’s style of play, and I think a new back-up striker is needed, and it’s so difficult to buy squad players as every great player wants to play regular first team football, and even warming the bench for a big club like Chelsea may not seem an attractive prospect for them. We’ve been linked with Moussa Dembélé and Timo Werner, who could be good players for us, but would they want to just be deputies to Tammy Abraham? Possibly not, but I think Abraham himself needs some serious competition as he’s only got 1 goal in his last 6 league games and that competition could help him up his game.

We need to be patient with our young players as this season is a transitional season for us and it’s a big learning curb for them. We also have to remember that Frank Lampard, while he’s a club legend, is a young manager and has shown great potential as a manager when he was at Derby last season. I know many will argue that maybe we should’ve gone for a more experienced manager, but there weren’t many managers who we could’ve attracted with a transfer ban, and the transfer ban actually was a blessing in disguise for Lampard as it buys him time. What I found interesting was upon being appointed, Lampard said he didn’t want any special treatment from the board. We know how ruthless Chelsea’s board is, as you’d expect from any big club, and Lampard knows that whatever decisions the boardroom will make as it will always be whatever decision is best for the club. We have exceeded expectations this season, but being a big club that we are, we must always seek to improve so we can start winning titles again in the future.

#chelsea fc #premier league #frank lampard #eden hazard #callum hudson odoi #christian pulisic #jody morris #roman abramovich #fikayo tomori #mason mount #tammy abraham #reece james #ruben loftus cheek #maurizio sarri #football

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liigainenglish · 4 years

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Liiga in January: JYP

7TH PLACE: 10 G - 2 W - 8 L

Oof. January wasn’t a good month for JYP. I mean, eight straight losses and only one of them being a one goal game. Begs the question of what the hell happened here, considering everything went so well in the autumn and Julius Nättinen was hottest player in the entire league.

So far this season JYP has had a pretty healthy core of players, despite missing a few defensemen from the lineup in the past month (like captain Juuso Vainio, Mikko Kalteva and rookie Anttoni Honka). But that’s no excuse of the team only scoring 23 goals in the month and being scored 36 against. It’s no excuse because with the addition of Julius Honka earlier this season they had 11 defenseman on their roster.

Granted one of those 11 players was Ossi Ikonen, who has been quite the journeyman this season with starting off his season with JYP, then being loaned to first Pelicans and then to SaiPa. A reporter asked him why does he think he has yet to been able to secure a spot in the lineup for remainder of the season and only getting some monthly based loan contracts, especially since he has been an asset to the teams in their own end. While Ikonen’s own answer to the question was pretty coy, I could see the answer being his main team: JYP.

Clearly the reason JYP hasn’t released him from his contract, and let him sign with someone else, is the pending playoffs. While this is mostly just speculation, it would make sense that JYP would plan to recall Ikonen for the playoffs as a depth player. And when he does return, he is ready for it, because of having played entire season somewhere else.

Anyway. The team admits that the fact they had been rolling high for weeks and months in the autumn that if it saw problems with their game, they were sort of ignored because the team was still winning. Now that every other team has been improving their game with the end of regular season approaching, not fixing their problems early enough has bit t JYP in the ass. Despite knowing exactly what the issues are, the team hasn’t just yet managed to get back into winning the games. Telia’s announcer/expert Ismo Lehkonen even had a suspicion some of the players were more playing for themselves and playing to rack up points for themselves than playing for the team. But this thought doesn’t fit JYP’s style.

Coach Pekka Tirkkonen sees that only way to get out of this slump is to work, work and work, and maybe eventually things will turn around. And well, winning the last game of the month may have been that moment where slump ended. We’ll see.

TOP 5 PLAYERS OF THE MONTH: Miska Siikonen 1+5, Julius Nättinen 2+3, Jerry Turkulainen 2+3, Juha-Pekka Hytönen 2+3, Jani Tuppurainen 1+4

#jyp #monthly report

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tkmedia · 3 years

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Tottenham transfer rumours: Roma to rival Spurs for Damsgaard

Wrapping up the Tottenham transfer news, rumours and gossip in the 2021 summer window.Who have Tottenham been linked with?Nikola Milenkovic - West Ham have left Tottenham trailing in the race to sign Fiorentina defender Milenkovic (Daily Express, August 7) Philippe Coutinho - Tottenham may make a move for the Barcelona outcast if they do end up selling Harry Kane during this summer transfer window (Daily Star, August 5).Adama Traore - Nuno Espirito Santo is set to raid former club Wolves for the winger, with the West Midlands club ready to sell the Spain international for around £45m (Daily Mail, August 2).Aaron Ramsey - Tottenham are lining up a sensational move for Juventus midfielder Aaron Ramsey (Daily Mirror, July 28); Spurs face a battle with Wolves if they are to finalise a surprise move for the former Arsenal midfielder, who is likely to leave Juventus this summer (Daily Express, July 27). Dusan Vlahovic - Tottenham want to partner Harry Kane with Fiorentina's £50m-rated striker (Daily Telegraph, July 29); The Fiorentina striker could be tempted by a move to Tottenham (Daily Express, July 26). Simy - Tottenham are interested in signing the Crotone forward to support Harry Kane (Daily Telegraph, July 29). Antoine Griezmann - Tottenham have asked to be kept updated over Griezmann, but currently have no plans to bid for the Barcelona striker (Daily Star, July 23). Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Atalanta goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini is excited by the prospect of joining Tottenham ahead of his expected move to the north London club. Mikkel Damsgaard - Jose Mourinho could come back to haunt Tottenham with his new club AS Roma ready to make their move for potential Spurs target Mikkel Damsgaard of Sampdoria (Daily Mirror, August 6); Sampdoria are yet to receive any concrete interest in the Denmark star, who has been linked with Barcelona and Tottenham (Daily Express, July 30).Gareth Bale - Nuno has confirmed the Real Madrid forward will not be returning to the club next season, saying: "He will not be part of our squad" (July 16).Matthew Hoppe - Spurs are among four clubs interested in the 20-year-old Schalke forward, who scored six Bundesliga goals last season (Boot Room, July 15).Danny Ings - Tottenham have made Southampton striker Ings their priority signing this summer (Daily Telegraph, July 14).Renato Sanches - Spurs are competing with Barcelona to secure the signing of the Lille midfielder (Le10Sport, July 11)The latest players linked with a Tottenham exitTottenham are willing to sell a number of their first-team players this summer in order to help fund their rebuild of the squad, including Serge Aurier and Moussa Sissoko.Toby Alderweireld, Erik Lamela and Juan Foyth have already been sold to help fund the arrivals of Pierluigi Gollini and winger Bryan Gil.Harry Kane - Manchester City are willing to offer Bernardo Silva in any deal for Kane but are prepared to miss out on the England captain altogether rather than meet Tottenham's straight asking price of £150m (Mail on Sunday, August 8); The striker will have to force through his departure from Tottenham after Manchester City began drawing up plans to go into the new season without a recognised striker (Sunday Mirror, August 8); Tottenham would consider a Manchester City offer of £120m for Kane - if the Premier League champions commit to at least another £20m in add-ons (Star on Sunday, August 8).Kane returned to Hotspur Way on Saturday morning after facing criticism for failing to show up for Tottenham's pre-season training over the past week (Sky Sports News, August 7); Kane says he never refused to train with Tottenham and will return to the club on Saturday "as planned" (August 6).Kane appears to have ruled himself out of Tottenham's opening Premier League match against Manchester City after extending his holiday, against the club's wishes (Daily Mirror, August 5); Kane is considering an official transfer request as he attempts to force a move to Manchester City (The Independent, August 4); Kane is planning to report back to Tottenham by the end of the week, despite making a pit-stop in Florida on his way back from a holiday in the Bahamas (Daily Telegraph, August 4); Kane has failed to show up at Tottenham's training ground for the second day in a row, but is expected to return this weekend (Sky Sports News, August 3); Tottenham are set to fine Kane for not showing up for pre-season training on August 2, it is understood (Sky Sports News, August 2).Manchester United are hoping Kane stays at Tottenham this summer so that he continues to fit into their plans for their next three signings (Daily Star, August 2); Manchester City look set to end their interest in signing Kane if they are successful in bringing Jack Grealish to the Etihad (Daily Mail, August 2); Daniel Levy has given Kane the green light to join a Premier League rival, opening the door for a possible £160m move to City on a weekly salary of £400,000 (The Sun, July 23); Kane's England team-mates believe he could refuse to return to pre-season training with Spurs in a bid to try to force a move to Man City (Daily Telegraph, July 17); Kane has again told Tottenham he wants to leave this summer. Spurs are now making enquiries about replacement centre forwards, in the first indication the club are willing to consider the feelings of their 27-year-old talisman. (Sky Sports, May 27).Oliver Skipp - Newcastle are interested in signing the Tottenham midfielder after his impressive promotion-winning campaign with Norwich last term.Davinson Sanchez - The Colombia international is in discussions over a move to Sevilla as a potential replacement for wantaway centre-back Jules Kounde, according to his agent (Daily Mail, August 2).Cameron Carter-Vickers - Celtic have been told they will need to stump up for Cameron Carter-Vickers because the American star wants to leave Tottenham for good (Daily Record, August 2); Celtic are interested in signing the Tottenham defender (Daily Record, July 23).Japhet Tanganga - Tottenham are reportedly set to sanction a loan move for the young defender that will see him join Turkish giants Galatasaray (Daily Mirror, August 4); Galatasaray have made a loan offer for the defender (Sky Sports News, July 29). Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Spain international Bryan Gil has joined Spurs on a five-year deal and Spanish football expert Terry Gibson thinks he has the talent to enrich the Premier League. Confirmed Tottenham signingsPierluigi Gollini - Atalanta, loanBryan Gil - Seville, £21.6m plus Erik LamelaCristian Romero - Atalanta, £42mConfirmed Tottenham departuresPaulo Gazzaniga - contract expiredDanny Rose - Watford, free transferKazaiah Sterling - contract expiredJuan Foyth - Villarreal, undisclosedErik Lamela - Seville, swap for Bryan GilKion Etete - Northampton, loanJoe Hart - Celtic, undisclosedTottenham contract newsHeung-Min Son - The Spurs forward has signed a new four-year contract with the north London club that will run until 2025. Read the full article

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strayframes · 6 years

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Jet Li - China’s Hero

By Sam Cave

Beijing, 1963. A child is born into poverty, the youngest of five. By two years old, his father has passed away. His family can’t afford meat, so young Lie Liajie is often hungry but never complains. When he is eight years old, his mother enrolls him in a summer course for martial arts. He shows a natural talent for Wushu, and his instructor takes notice. The boy attends a non-sparring Wushu event. Soon after, the instructor refers him to Wu Bin, coach for the Beijing Wushu Team. With his family’s permission, he is allowed to join. The coach takes a special interest in the boy, making him practice twice as hard as the other students. The criticism is harsh and constant, but he has good to food to eat and a sense of purpose that will help him to rise above his environment - China’s rocky crossroads between the Great Leap Forward and Mao’s cultural revolution.

A few years pass. Once a year the team is allowed to go to the movies. They watch Shaw Brothers and Shaolin five venoms, and sometimes Jimmmy Chang. One night the team gets to see a film called Fist of fury, Starring a westerner name Bruce Lee. the older boys love the film, and they clap and cheer, some of them smoking cigarettes and drinking rice wine. Their instructor chaperones hush them but also smile and laugh. Even as strict as the coaches can be, these boys need to blow off steam. The boy sits and watches the film, wide eyed. A friend passes him a Coca-Cola but he doesn’t notice. He is mesmerized by Lee Little Dragon’s screams and whoops, his speed and tempo. It is not so much Bruce Lee’s skills - the boy has seen Wing Chun and Southern Style Kung Fu before many times. It is the pauses, the stare, the speed with which he executes each maneuver. These are the things that a young Lie Lianjie would incorporate into his own fighting style, as the years ahead transformed him into the Martial Arts idol in known as Jet Li.

Asian cinema is a vast genre, with very different subsets. When I think of Japanese film, I picture ghost stories and bloody action like The Grudge or Battle Royale. Korea has the darkly comic revenge films of Chan Wook Park (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance). John Woo (Hard-Boiled) and Wong Kar Wai (2046, In The Mood For Love) both hail from Hong Kong. Historically, Mainland China’s identity in film has been firmly rooted in martial arts and Wushu-style historical epic tales. This makes sense, since the Wushu novels of writers like Jin Yong hold a place not unlike Tolkien in Chinese literary culture. Jet Li’s characters in Once Upon A Time in China, Fist of Legend and Fearless are based on real historical figures, and the China depicted in these stories is an honorable, decent place worth fighting for. The nationalistic message is often heavy-handed, but considering the China of twenty or thirty years ago, perhaps people needed to believe in not just heroes, but Chinese heroes.

I first discovered Jet Li when I saw Lethal Weapon 4. He played a silent martial arts villain with a ponytail who could dismantle a gun in seconds. His pre-combat stare was like nothing I’d ever seen onscreen before. It is his trademark - when he glares at his enemy he eminates both pure calm and pure danger. LW4 was Li’s first time crossing over into American films, after making over 30 movies in China since his debut in the 1980’s. Becore Jet Li started acting, there was an effort to find a successor to Bruce Lee, as evidenced by the early films of another Chinese martial artist, Jackie Chan. Chan was ten years older than Jet Li, and had been trained at the Chinese Opera. By Contrast, Li’s training focused purely on martial arts. He specialized in Wushu from the age of eight. Unlike Bruce Lee, who broke with Kung Fu tradition to establish his own style of fighting, Jet Li would become a Kung-Fu formalist. His trained at the Shao-Lin temple and spent years becoming an expert in Northern-style Kung Fu. Before the age of 10, Li won gold medals at the All China Games, and his team performed for Richard Nixon at the White House. According to Wikipedia:

he was asked by Nixon to be his personal bodyguard. Li replied, "I don't want to protect any individual. When I grow up, I want to defend my one billion Chinese countrymen!"

Jet Li would not be groomed as Chan was, to carry on Bruce Lee’s legacy. Too much time had passed and the industry had moved on from Bruce-sploitation and the legacy of Enter the Dragon. When Li first emerged in the 1986 film Shaolin Temple, his Northern Wushu and Tai Chi background was evident in every move, every trap, every aerial spinning kick. His fighting and performing style harkened back to old-school Kung Fu films by Shaw Brothers like Five Venoms and (bla).

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The storyline of a typical Jet Li film goes something like this: A guy from mainland China (cop, soldier, fill in the blank) is tasked with the responsibility of protecting someone or exacting revenge for a dead master. He goes to Hong Kong, Japan or America, where his upstanding and honorable values are called into question by his new surroundings. There’s a girl, a villain, and much flying of fists and feet until finally the hero returns to China, happy to be home (in The Defender, he is killed and his body goes back to China).

After a few years as a supporting, utility player, Jet Li got the role of a lifetime playing Wong in Once Upon A Time in China. The film, directed by Tsui Hark, was a retro/throwback style historical epic with sharp cinematography and high-flying wire assisted wushu fight choreography and stunts. It was a leap forward for Hong Kong film, and spawned 3 sequels with Li reprising the main role. The films that followed could be described as Jet Li’s Hong Kong period. Fist of Legend, The Defender (also titled Bodyguard from Beijing), The Enforcer, Meltdown, Hitman, Tai Chi Master, Swordsman series. The list goes on.

Some of these movies showcased Li’s martial arts skills better than others. Sometimes he had guns, like Chow Yun Fat in Hard Boiled. Sometimes he had a kid sidekick or a love interest. One thing is for sure - playing in a Hong Kong action movie in the 90’s was not for the faint if heart. Cut-rate action techniques and low-budgets loaned themselves to accidents. The fighting was often full-contact. Actors could end up with a face full of glass from explosions. Still, the Beijing Wushu prodigy found his place amongst other martial artists like Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh, churning out epics, gangster films and cop dramas for audiences in Hong Kong (now hurtling towards its handover to the mainland) as well as the rest of Asia and beyond.

The only unfortunate aspect of Jet Li’s Chinese catalogue lies in the poor production values of most of these films. The overdubbed English is poorly translated, the action has a cartoonish quality and the characters are usually stock and cheesy. In other words, they are typical ‘Chop-Socky’ Kung Fu films made in the style of Bruce Lee’s catalogue, before the technical achievements of later films like Crouching Tiger, Hideen Dragon and Iron Monkey. There are some clear exceptions, such as the Once Upon a Time in China series, expertly directed by Tsui Hark and featuring another Kung Fu prodigy, Donnie Yen.

Because they were made before the age of DVD and HD, Li’s films could only be seen by Western audiences in rare Chinatown screenings in a few major cities. In the late 1990’s a new pop culture trend would change this pattern, and the trajectory of Li’s career – catapulting the Wushu prodigy from China to the United States. When Wu-Tang Clan first arrived on the American hip-hop scene in 1993, no one was prepared. Their albums were soundscapes comprised of hard-hitting verses, skits, and samples from Kung Fu and martial arts films. Along with Nas, DMX and others, Wu-Tang popularized Jet Li’s films by referencing him directly in their music. Li noticed, and his late 90’s output reflected this unlikely alliance. Black Mask, Romeo Must Die, and Cradle 2 the Grave featured Li’s action sequences cut to high-energy hip-hop. The films were successful, proving that Jet Li’s Wushu could be imported to the West.

Like Jackie Chan, Jet Li’s late 90’s crossover into Hollywood films was inevitable. It was a career move probably not based on financial need (he was already wealthy), but more based on the fact that he had outgrown the Hong Kong film scene. After his role in Lethal Weapon 4, he starred in a string of ambitious but fairly crappy vehicles like Romeo Must Die, Kiss of the Dragon, and Cradle 2 the Grave. These films, though largely panned by critics, served the purpose of greater exposure to US audiences and access to directors and filmmaker

In 2006, Jet Li announced his retirement from martial arts movies. The final entries into Jet Li’s martial arts catalogue, all made around this time, are easily the best. Hero, Unleashed, and Fearless are examples of bigger-budget Jet Li, not so different from his Chinese films but with an emphasis on acting and emotional content.

Hero is an epic historical tale in the style of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In the film Li plays Nameless, an assassin tasked by an Emperor to eliminate those warriors perceived as threats to his his throne. Filmed in wild and beautiful colors with flawless cinematography, Hero is an example of contemporary Chinese cinema, and how much technical ground has been gained in the past 15 years. The film has been hopelessly replicated and borrowed from since its release in 2002, mostly due to its historical accuracy, dark tone and operatic fight sequences. It was at the time the most expensive mainland Chinese film ever made, and sits at the beginning of a trio of martial arts films by director Zhang Zimou, who before Hero was mostly known in art house circles for his dramatic collaborations with actress Gong Li.

The casting of Hero was an eclectic mix of non-martial artists and experts, with Jet Li (the mainland’s biggest star) in perhaps his biggest starring role to date. Donnie Yen, who at that time was still a supporting player, was brought in for the first fight scene. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, coming off the huge success of Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, played the feuding lovers Broken Sword and Flying Snow. And Crouching Tiger’s Ziyi Zhang played Moon, the loyal servant. Leung and Cheung were both veteran Hong Kong actors, neither one from strictly martial arts but with 20 years of experience in all genres. Zhang came from a ballet background, and though she had a breakthrough performance in a Crouching Tiger, her martial arts skills were limited. Jet Li recognized her talent and mentored her on set, and joked about his short legs being the reason for his never trying ballet. It made sense for Li to reach out to the younger Zhang, also from the mainland and twenty years his junior. For so long he himself had been the young Wushu prodigy, but now at over 40 years old he was sliding into an elder-statesman role.

The action sequences in Hero used wires extensively - not just as a tool to exaggerate aerial jumps and spins but to make the characters fly and soar the air, dreamlike and surreal. This deliberate wire choreography may have been influenced by The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, but Hero has its own sort of Cecil B DeMille outrageousness to it that is totally out of balance with the serious tone. In fact, Hero is almost weighed down by its own sense of gravity, and is sometimes unintentionally funny when it’s adding more and more layers to each action sequence. (Arrows). It is here that Jet Li is the films saving grace. His sense of form, toughness and his skill not just as a martial artist but as an actor corrects the balance. When Li extends both arms in front of his face and slides his sword back into its sheath with a resounding and satisfying ‘click’, the film resets itself and we, the audience are given a break from the proceedings.

Unleashed raises a poignant question: can a man who has been reduced to an animal find salvation? In this film Jet Li plays Danny, a childlike soul with violent tendencies, trained since childhood to fight and kill on demand. His aggression is symbolized by a metal collar, which is controlled by his brutal ‘master’. Li is passive until the collar comes off, at which time he becomes an attack dog, dispatching his opponents in a flying, screaming rage. Unleashed is pure pulp, but it is elevated by the presence of Morgan Freeman (as Danny’s kind savior), and by Jet Li’s performance. Danny is a kid, full of wonder and innocence, but unable to escape the violence that has defined his existence. Li plays it with subtle, quiet emotion and dignity. The action in Unleashed is as usual exciting and well mounted, choreographed by longtime collaborator Yuen Woo Ping. There are even some darkly funny moments, like when Danny kills an opponent with one poke to the Adam’s apple. Yikes.

Fearless is an atypical Chinese martial arts film, because it shows the hero as lacking virtue (at least for the first half of the film). Li plays Huo Yuanjia, Godfather of Wushu and undefeated champion of Tianjin. After murdering a rival in the ring, the rival’s disciple takes revenge and kills Huo’s family. In his grief, Huo goes into exile and lives amongst simple farmers. Finally he returns home, humbled but also disgusted by the imperialist influx of foreigners taking over China. He begins to fight again, but this time for the honor and reputation of China – essentially for China’s place in the world. His final fight before dying from poisoned tea is against Tanaka, a Japanese samurai. It is worth noting that the Japanese occupation is a common theme amongst Chinese and Korean films. Both countries suffered under Japan at different times, and in the world of Fist of Legend and Fearless (two parts of the same story) the scars are still fresh. Fearless is actually titled Jet Li’s Fearless, and this film finds the actor back in his comfort zone of pure Wushu action and Chinese history. Where in Fist of Legend he reprised Bruce Lee’s performance in Fist of Fury as Chen Zheng, student of Huo Yuanjia and avenger of his master’s death, Li gets to play the master himself. Fearless is a mainland production, not as artsy as Hero and more in the vein of Once Upon a Time in China.

In the wake of Bruce Lee’s untimely death, the martial arts world was fractured. In the West, Karate was gaining speed and this popularity gave actors like Chuck Norris (a contemporary of Lee’s) and Jean-Claude Van Damme

It would seem the sun has set on Jet Li’s career. He left his audience wanting more, and with Disney hinting that he might return to his martial arts roots in Mulan, there may be more to see. In his personal life, Li occupies the rare position of the a mainland Chinese with wealth, who, now living in Singapore, is somewhat beyond the reach of the communist government. As a devout a Buddhist he has in fact visited the Dalai Lama (while making sure to voice his belief in a united China). He

So, the question remains. What is your favourite Jet Li movie? And why does Jet Li Matter? In the opinion of this humble critic, Jet Li Matters because China matters. Mainland China needed a hero during times of extreme transition, when the Western idea of the Middle Kingdom was that it was a place that manufactured plastic trinkets. Audiences got used to Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, and yes, Jackie Chan - as the heroes of Shao Lin or daring Beijing Police detectives, fighting their way through low-budget films made by an industry trying to keep up with the world, yet not afraid to have some fun in the moment. I still have only seen a handful of the original Jet Li movies, and so my perception of his work is top-heavy, weighed down by the performances from the end of a unique and amazing career. But what performances they are: Danny the Dog sitting next to Morgan Freeman at the piano, trying to find the courage to say his own name. Nameless and Flying Snow deflecting a sea of arrows with their swords, weightless in the air above a temple. And finally Huo Yuanjia, in the last moments of his life and with poison coursing through his veins, finishing his battle against Tanaka, Japan, Imperialist Britain, and himself. Jet Li Matters.

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