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#A career working with animals might be years and years away but at least I could volunteer at the shelter a day every week
malhare · 6 months
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I'm thinking about volunteering at the Humane Society.....
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capybaratrait · 2 months
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But Daddy I Love Him!: A Disney Princess Legacy Challenge
I didn't really like any version of the Disney Princess Legacy so I decided to do one myself! I tried not to repeat traits, skills... But sometimes I couldn't figure out, sorry! I also included a color scheme based on the princess. You have to complete the aspiration, career and max the skills, unless stated otherwise. I also included some extra goals!
It's not playtested, so I might make changes as I play. I have an edited lifespan that makes Young Adulthood and Adulthood a little bit longer, but Teenagehood and Childhood shorter. My guess is that you could finish the challenge in normal lifespan, but you also can do it in long or with a custom lifespan, or even turn aging off if you want to! Whatever you want to do!
Also, I had to be quite... Creative in some of the princess descriptions, because their personalities are very similar.
Also, there's not really any general rules. Your heir can be any gender you want (Everyone can be a princess!), if you want to cheat, cheat, if you wanna change something, change it!
Generation 1. Snow White 🍎
Packs: Cottage Living, Parenthood
Running away from a terrible family, you find yourself in a tiny cottage in the middle of nowhere. You dedicate yourself to keep it clean and make it a home. A hopeless romantic, you dream of finding your true love and form a beautiful family.
Traits: Cheerful, Romantic, Childish
Aspiration: Soulmate
Career: Stay-at-Home Parent
Skills: Cooking, Parenting, Cross-Stitching
Colors: Red, Blue and Yellow
Make seven friends
Marry your first love and stay with them all your life. Don’t woohoo before marriage
Befriend wild animals (bunnies, birds, foxes)
Have three children
Grow an apple tree of magnificent quality in your backyard
Generation 2. Cinderella 👠
Packs: High School Years, Cats and Dogs, My First Pet Stuff
Your parent instill in you the importance of being a hard-worker, but you can’t help but wish for a better life! With your two siblings making your life impossible, you spent your teenage years working a part-time job and saving as much money as you could to get away from them. As a young adult, you move to your own place and start working in the world of fashion.
Traits: Ambitious, Overachiever, Perfectionist
Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy
Career: Style Influencer
Skills: Writing, Painting, Charisma, Photography
Colors: Silver
Have a bad relationship with your two siblings
As a teen, reach max level of a part-time job of your choice
Always have a rat and a cat as your pets
You need no one to achieve success! But, eventually, you find someone as rich as talented as you have become (aka, don’t marry/move with before you have completed at least 3 tiers of your aspiration)
Generation 3. Aurora 🛏️
Packs: Nifty Knitting, Get Famous, Parenthood, Island Living
Unlike your parent, you don't even have to move a finger to get what you want. Born and raised in a wealthy family, you might be getting a little spoiled. That’s why your parents send you to live in your uncle/aunt’s house. There, you learn some good lessons, like the importance of generosity and hard work. Although some things never change… And naps are still your favorite pastime!
Traits: Lazy, Creative, Generous
Aspiration: Lord/Lady of the Knits
Career: Career Hop
Skills: Comedy, Knitting
Colors: Blue, Pink
Move out to your uncle/aunt’s house as a teen. There, they teach you discipline. Make sure you get at least two good character value traits!
Meet your future spouse at your uncle/aunt’s, but don’t start dating him until you are a young adult. They have to be a mermaid!
As a young adult, you don’t really know what to do. Career hop everytime you receive a call!
You love to knit! It is something you can do while sitting. Unlock all types of clothing and buy objects available with the Knitting skill
Generation 4. Ariel 🧜🏻‍♀️
Packs: Island Living, Snowy Escape, Parenthood
As a teen, you discover that you are not a normal sim: you are a merfolk. Your curious nature makes you move out from your family house to the place where your parent was born and raised, and reconnect with your roots. But when you fall in love with a normal sim, you decide to renounce your other form and become a boring, normal human.
Traits: Geek, Adventurous, Child of the Ocean
Aspiration: Beach Life
Career: Conservationist
Skills: Logic, Fitness
Colors: Red, Green, Purple
Get the Irresponsible character value trait
As soon as you become a young adult, move out to Sulani
Complete the Seashells collection and another collection of your choice
Befriend a dolphin
Stop being a mermaid when you fall in love with a human sim!
Generation 5. Belle 📚
Packs: High School Years, City Living/For Rent, Growing Together, Cats and Dogs
Ever since you were a kid you loved to hide under the covers with a good book and immerse yourself in a world full of magic where everything is possible. You love to read, it is your favorite thing in the whole world, and to think you also could create those beautiful stories? That's your dream. You also love your family, but you want to have your own life, so after graduating high school you move to a shared apartment looking for a little more independence. Turns out your roommate is a monster, but for some reason you can’t stop thinking that there is goodness deep inside them…
Traits: Bookworm, Creative, Good
Aspiration: Best-Selling Author
Career: Writer
Skills: Writing, Charisma
Colors: Yellow
Try to become a valedictorian or at least graduate with honors in High School!
Share an apartment with a sim with the evil trait. Fall in love with them, and try to change its trait for another one with the self-discovery system!
Keep a rose in your house
Always have a dog in your household
Generation 6. Jasmine 🧞‍♂️
Packs: Get Famous, High School Years, Get Together, For Rent, Romantic Garden Stuff
Stubborn and impulsive, you are not interested in love at all, especially with your parents pressuring you to give them grandkids and introducing you to suitors all the time. You want to triumph, be something for yourself! You might come across as a little self-absorbed, but you have a good heart and will help everyone in need. You move to Del Sol Valley looking for fame, and there you find someone that sparks your interest… But if you do commit to someone, it will be your decision. Your parents will have nothing to say in the matter.
Traits: Self-Absorbed, Hot-Headed, Party Animal
Aspiration: World Famous Celebrity
Career: Actor/Actress
Skills: Acting, Dancing
Colors: Blue
Have a bad relationship with all the sims your parents introduce you, especially with one of them
Fall in love with a sim in the criminal career. Your parents do not approve of them, so they have a bad relationship
Go on a vacation to Tomarang and adopt a tiger!
Make three different wishes with the wishing well over the course of your life
Generation 7. Pocahontas 🌳
Packs: Seasons, Outdoor Retreat, Discover University, Spa Day, For Rent
You grew up in the buzzling city of Del Sol Valley, a place that never sleeps, full of luxury and fake appearances, but you never felt comfortable there. You always had a connection with nature, and as soon as you reach young adulthood, you leave your parents mansion, looking to find inner peace. A natural leader, you decide to devote your life to guide and teach young generations.
Traits: Loves Outdoors, Self-Assured, Vegetarian
Aspiration: Outdoor Enthusiast
Career: Education
Skills: Research & Debate, Herbalism, Wellness
Colors: Brown, Blue
As a child and a teen, be in scouts and collect all the badges!
Have a failed relationship before finding the one you form a family with
You are a deeply spiritual person. Max the friendship bar with one of your dead grandparents
Get the Wise trait as an elder
Generation 8. Mulan 🐉
Packs: StrangerVille, Paranormal
You have a huge sense of responsibility, so you join the military thinking that that is the best way to help people. But then, you are transferred to the town of StrangerVille, and start suspecting the military wants to cover something related to the Secret Lab in the outskirts of town… And you are gonna figure out what it is.
Traits: Clumsy, Active, Family-Oriented
Aspiration: StrangerVille Mystery
Career: Military
Skills: Fitness, Logic
Colors: Green, Blue, Yellow
Fall in love with someone also in the military career. You have to have a bad relationship with them first
Befriend three other co-workers
Matchmake your friends!
Get the Brave reward trait
Generation 9. Tiana 🐸
Packs: Dine Out, Cottage Living, Growing Together
You have a passion for good food, are a very hard-working sim and will do anything possible to achieve your goals! You start working at a restaurant hoping one day you will open your very own, where you will make people happy with your dishes. Oh, you also are obsessed with frogs, but you don’t know where that comes from…
Traits: Foodie, Animal Enthusiast, Self-Assured
Aspiration: Master Chef
Career: Chef/Restaurant Owner
Skills: Cooking, Gourmet Cooking
Colors: Green, Blue
Open your own restaurant after completing the aspiration. Reach the 5 stars!
Complete the frogs collection
Have a best friend
Adopt at least 1 child; They will be the heir. Have a strict family dynamic with them
Generation 10. Rapunzel 🌞
Packs: Get to Work, Horse Ranch, City Living
Your parents were always very protective of you, and you never understood why, until they confessed to you that you were adopted. Because of their strict parenting, you couldn’t do crazy things and learn from your mistakes; you crave adventures and want to discover who you really are. You really are a creative force! You love painting, you love singing, and you also seem to have a gift to make other people feel better, so you decide to become a doctor and spend all your free time looking for your biological parents.
Traits: Art Lover, Music Lover, Genius
Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire
Career: Doctor
Skills: Painting, Logic, Singing
Colors: Pink, Purple
Find your biological parents as a young adult or an adult
Have a very long hair
Have a horse in your household
Have 4 kids in total. 3 of them have to be triplets!
Note: If I finish the legacy, which I don't think I will because I never finish them 😂 I will make extra generations for Merida, Moana and Raya.
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thethingswedotomorrow · 5 months
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After 200 years of being a 'shopowner' in SoHo, Whickber Street has gotten relatively used to Aziraphale's (and subsequently Crowley's) presence. But after 200 years, people have definitely noticed that A.Z Fell and Co. is in no way a typical bookshop.
The shop's opening hours alone are enough to give away that something isn't quite right.
The hours of operation sign reads like a puzzle you'd expect at the entrance of a haunted tomb
(Which was EXACTLY what Crowley was going for. Aziraphale approached him in 1835 about making a sign to avoid customers, and he still prides himself to this day about it)
"No customers today, Angel? I wonder what wicked creature could've caused that. Must be a pretty brilliant demon, that one."
Crowley tries to use that sign as leverage in arguments at least twice a decade and it's never once worked, but he figures one of these years the Angel will finally gives in to his 'wiles', and Crowley is nothing if not persistent
Aziraphale has a reputation among the rare book enthusiast community as the rudest gentleman they've ever encountered, but he always sends baked goods afterwards when he feels guilty about it
Once, a particularly rude collector found that the package they received seemed to be expired by a very, very long time. And all the cookies broken and crumbled.
It was the cruelest thing Aziraphale could think of, ruined treats. Crowley was very proud of him for that.
"Absolutely diabolical, Angel. Ever consider a career change? You'd be a Hell of a Demon with skills like that."
If a customer miraculously finds the shop open, they immediately realize that they probably shouldn't have walked in
Aziraphale is always perfectly polite to customers, of course. But 'polite' and 'welcoming' are very different words, and Aziraphale is a Principality, not a saint. He's never had much patience as far as customers were concerned.
Anyone who finds themselves wandering towards the first edition shelf towards the back suddenly seem to remember that they've missed a very important appointment.
A mysterious phone call from a long-lost family member goes a long ways towards turning people around and back onto the street, as well.
Once or twice, a few persistent potential-customers have found their phone buzzing, announcing they've suddenly won a rather large amount of money from a contest they don't remember entering.
On the rare days Aziraphale has to go out of town for an auction or errands, Crowley will occasionally volunteer himself to watch over the shop.
When Crowley is alone in the shop with customers, all bets are off.
From the street, you'd think somebody was throwing a rave in the shop.
Lights flickering off and on in no particular order, and occasionally turn colors. Apparently, it's very difficult to browse books with flashing blue and orange lights all around you, and when you complain to the man sprawled on the seat behind the counter about it, all you get is a smirk and a "Sorry 'bout that, keep meaning to fix them up. Whatta shame, huh?"
Suddenly the lights seem to fix themselves, just in time for the soft classical music coming from the back of the shop to turn into a techno rave edit of 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. All at a volume that would be painful at a outdoor concert, let alone a small shop.
Sometimes, Crowley doesn't even sit behind the counter. Customers might just walk in to find a very large, very judgemental looking snake laying across the desk, hissing at anything that moves.
He had to stop pulling that particular trick after a concerned group of mothers called animal control on him, and he almost got kidnapped by idiot humans who decided to try and pick up a 15 foot snake with little grabby claws.
Crowley had far too much pride to tell Aziraphale about that day, and sulked on the couch in the back for the rest of the week.
(Aziraphale found out, of course. Nina watched the whole thing from across the street, and laughed so much she dropped a pot of coffee all over her counter. The Angel had the good graces to never bring it up, but quietly laughs everytime Crowley glares at an animal control van that passes by the street.)
The only time Aziraphale welcomes humans into his shop is when they come in, not for books, but for refuge.
The people of SoHo always know that A.Z Fell and Co. is open to everyone that needs a safe place, for any reason.
They'll find a kind looking man ushering them inside, offering them a seat and a cup of tea, listening to their problems and offering advice, helping when he can. He has the air of someone much, much older than he looks, and much wiser than you'd think.
Those humans, the ones who come in seeking help, always leave feeling miraculously better. And sometimes find themselves blessed, just a bit.
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xoxobluelock · 1 year
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Shidou & Zlatan Ibrahimovic Similarities
I was looking into Shidou's Big Bang Drive and fell down the Zlatan Ibrahimovic rabbit hole. Turns out, Shidou and his favorite player share a number of similarities, including incredible bicycle kicks, play styles, backgrounds in Taekwondo, and ...abrasive personalities.
First, the Big Bang Drive.
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Ibrahimovic is the first video result when you search "bicycle kick" for a reason. In a 2012 Sweden vs England friendly, Ibrahimovic pulled off what is widely considered a legendary bicycle kick goal—some have argued one of the best goals of all time—30 yards out. With the vid / gif and the manga panels below, I think you’ll see some similarities between Shidou’s Big Bang Drive here in Chapter 130 and Ibrahimovic's goal.
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Below is a play-by-play, followed by background on Ibrahimovic and similarities he and Shidou share:
(I am not claiming the Big Bang Drive was based on Ibrahimovic's goal. I just think it's interesting. Also, you can find the "Egoist Bible" player interview in which Shidou states Ibrahimovic is his favorite player here, courtesy of 705point8 on Twitter.)
The goal starts with Sweden (Ibrahimovic's team) stealing the ball from England and passing long—like Sae did—to where only Ibrahimovic and two members of the opposing team are. Like how Shidou is going up against Reo and Aryu after moving on "reflex" toward the goal, knowing Sae would work his magic and get him the ball.
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The goalie had come out from the goal, and heads the bounced pass away (like Gagamaru), but it isn't enough to get past Ibrahimovic. Or Shidou. 
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Shidou pulls off an overhead bicycle kick goal bonkers enough to have even Sae show some surprise on his face. Look how far away Shidou is! Is it 30 yards like Ibrahimovic's? Can't say for sure, but it looks damn close. Man, I can't wait to see this match animated!
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Sae's face 😂
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I'm no football expert—I’m running on Ted Lasso, Blue Lock, and a dream here—but is it possible that Shidou's Big Bang Drive might be an homage to Shidou's favorite player and his famous thirty-yarder? I think so. Or it's entirely coincidental, you decide.
...
Background + Similarities
Here's the man in question, recently and younger.
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(Content warning: Ibrahimovic, like Shidou, is sometimes crude and violent, and has sexualized aspects of the game. The explanation below is far milder than what you’ve already read in the manga, just want to mention it.)
(Unless otherwise noted, everything below came from Ibrahimovic's Wikipedia page.)
If you read Ibrahimovic's Wikipedia page, you can see why Shidou is a fan: 
One of the best strikers of all time? Three whole decades of playing football, a twenty year international career, still playing into his forties (though not always as striker now)? (We know how football is life for Shidou!) Brash and outspoken? Known for acrobatic goals? Making yellow and red cards fly like paper planes? Makes sense to me.
Notably, Ibrahimovic's been carded for the following:
Cursing—meh, pretty tame.
Literally slapping, elbowing, kicking, punching, and headbutting people—sometimes even his own teammates! Okay, now we’re on to something. 
Grabbing his junk to taunt jeerers. Sexualizing things for no damn reason, just like Shidou! 😅 Ibrahimovic’s done this at least twice, I believe. And fairly recently, 2016 and 2019.  
...
Perhaps the most interesting connection is Taekwondo. I had assumed Shidou had some degree of experience in Taekwondo after seeing his crazy form / flexibility in Chapter 88 and googling “axe kick." But what do you know? Ibrahimovic attended Taekwondo classes as a child and received an honorary black belt. Several articles either imply (The Athletic) or state (The Sun; Goal) that Ibrahimovic's black belt is not just an honor bestowed for highlighting Taewkondo, but also a real distinction he earned at only 17.
I'm saying: both Ibrahimovic and Shidou have some Taekwondo experience, starting in their youth.
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(Ch. 102)
Ibrahimovic says: #Taekboll
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See him in action on his Insta:
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Reading further on his Wikipedia, Ibrahimovic definitely has the Blue Lock ego down. Here are some fun lil quotes:
“‘You bought a Ferrari, but you drive it like a Fiat.’ — Ibrahimović disparages Guardiola on how he was used at Barcelona.”
“He announced his arrival in idiosyncratic style by taking out a signed full-page advertisement in the Los Angeles Times that simply said, ‘Dear Los Angeles, you're welcome.’” (A WHOLE DAMN PAGE IN THE LAT—I can’t 😂)
“Post match, Ibrahimović stated he was ‘happy for Toronto because they'll be remembered as my 500th victim.’” (Such a dick, I love it.)
“‘Swedish style? No. Yugoslavian style? Of course not. It has to be Zlatan-style.’ — Downplaying the influence of his background, Ibrahimović describes his unique playing style.” (Okay, King JJ.)
“One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch." (I dunno, bro, I enjoyed the last one.... 😂)
Here’s one that highlights another connection to Shidou / freedom in football: “I was sacrificed and no longer had the freedom on the pitch I need to succeed.” He literally said this about playing with LIONEL MESSI. But, ya know, fair point. Shidou and Rin had so much fun sharing the spotlight (and the ball). (Important to note that Ibra has also expressed admiration and respect for Messi.)
“…Ibrahimović announced he was to leave the LA Galaxy through his Twitter account, telling Galaxy fans ‘[Y]ou wanted Zlatan, I gave you Zlatan. You are welcome. The story continues...Now go back to watch baseball.’” (Baseball! The shade! 😂)
The actual tweet with what, I'm assuming, is a fan-edit he 'borrowed':
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Not from Wiki: As recently as a 2021 interview, Ibrahimovic stated, "Deep down, I think I'm the best player in the world."
...
Alright, this got more involved than I intended. Going to wrap it up with some brief notes on play style and some fun facts.
Straight from Ibrahimovic's Wikipedia page: “Known for his strong mentality and leadership, as well as his extroverted and highly competitive personality, despite his success, he has been criticised in the media for his arrogance, aggression and rebellious character, as well as his lack of discipline on the pitch, in particular in his early career, which has led him to involved in confrontations with other players, some of his managers and even reporters.” Can definitely see why Shidou might feel some kinship with Ibrahimovic!
Wiki also notes ESPN described Ibrahimovic as "good in the air, quick, tall, strong and agile, he plays well with his back to goal and boasts some of the best finishing, vision, passing and ball control around.” Mr. Demon Wings / "Flying Killing Machine" Shidou is definitely good in the air (Ch 131). Ibrahimovic has Shidou by five inches in height, but Shidou is over six feet and is shown to be acrobatic. Shidou also has incredible game vision. Look at Mr. "My Weapon is 'Extreme Spatial Awareness!!" go (Ch 130)! And he plays well with his back to goal. "As long as I'm inside the penalty area, even with my back to it... I can find the goalmouth without even seeing it!!"
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Lastly, Ibrahimovic is active and popular on social media—apparently the most followed Swede on Insta with over 55 million followers. He often signs posts with a 🦁. He doesn’t drink alcohol. He had a rough childhood. He's married and has two kids. Ibrahimovic also has a habit of referring to himself in the third person.
Phew. Okay. I got shit to do. You can tell where I got tired. I might revisit this later, especially if I come across anything else relevant to Shidou / Blue Lock. But since you made it this far, I'm begging you to read this article in The Athletic. It is so damn funny and interesting and weird, complete with talkshow appearances and everything—and it really highlights things like his sense of humor and ability to laugh at himself (on his own terms, at least). And makes you wonder just how much of his ego is a facade.
There’s obviously a lot more about Ibrahimovic and his decades long career. Like how he played in Sweden’s U-18 Team, multiple leagues, and World Cups; has scored a “perfect hat-trick,” etc., etc.. But I tried to give a brief overview of what seemed most relevant to Blue Lock and my favorite character.
Hope you found it interesting / helpful, too! Might get around to posting some of the notes I've taken on Shidou and Sae for a fic now that I'm finally free from Tumblr purgatory and can actually be seen in the tags.
Update: As of June 4, 2023, Ibra has officially retired. At age 41, after over 30 years in the sport. AC Milan sent him off in style, and he trended at #1 worldwide on Twitter for hours after the announcement. He's still very active on his socials and seems to be enjoying retirement, playing pickle ball and attending Coldplay concerts!
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brucenorris007 · 1 year
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“Game Sonic doesn’t have it in him to kill Eggman.” -Someone on IG comparing Movie Sonic to Game Sonic per something written in StH 2′s script. Have... have you played or even seen the Sonic games? Especially those prior to Forces and Frontiers?
Okay, maybe that’s somewhat unwarranted. Still.
He doesn’t prioritize killing Eggman the way Shadow occasionally or Omega (always) do, but he’s not exactly opposed to seeing, ah, spilled yolk on any sort of principle, either. Eggman just doesn’t occupy anymore space in Sonic’s mind than he warrants at any given moment; the doctor might be obsessed with crushing this teenager who keeps humiliating him, but the reverse?
Sonic at one point says, when asked in Sonic X where Eggman is on a day he’s not actively destroying things or hurting people:
“I don’t care.”
Newer iterations of the blue blur confuse it a bit–starting around Lost World, I believe–but let’s go down the Games timeline; explore the evolution of Sonic’s general attitude toward killing and by extension, cracking the egg.
Classic Sonic is a younger, less powerful and perhaps more unhinged hedgehog. Like I said in another post, Sonic’s first priority is doing what’s Cool; stomping Eggman’s machines and rescuing his animal friends have fit his personal definition of cool from day one.
Every time Sonic and Eggman clash, Sonic stops attacking once Eggman does; that is, once his contraption of the week gets thrashed. Eggman’s smart enough to flee by that point, and while Sonic would keep fighting if the doctor attacked him again, striking an enemy in the back while they’re running away doesn’t fit his definition of Cool.
Sonic doesn’t go out of his way to kill an enemy who isn’t actively trying to kill him, but neither does he go out of his way to save Eggman from falls that could easily end his life. (Refer to: The conclusion of most fights between Robotnik and Super Sonic pre-Dreamcast era)
A trend that carries through at least Sonic Unleashed; if Sonic had a truly immovable stance against killing Eggman, he wouldn’t just stand by and watch his contraptions fall to pieces around him until the doctor spirals in just a pod or console seat at terminal velocity per Sonic 06. I wouldn’t be surprised if Eggman keeps Heal Units on hand for personal use when cartoon physics aren’t enough to prevent grievous injury.
I predict this is going to get longer than I expected; have a cut.
And Eggman knows this. After so many years as arch-enemies, how could he not recognize the pattern? Factor it into his schemes and calculations, his fail safes, however much he loathes the idea of losing again?
There are two Mobians in the franchise who consistently hold back and put a check on themselves out of consideration for others. Two Mobians who, should either snap, are capable several times over of wreaking untold havoc across the planet and ending the doctor’s career in evil permanently.
Knuckles, and Sonic.
This echidna is strong enough to trigger a fault line that can sever an entire zone off of Angel Island with a single blow; who, coupled with his familiarity with chaos energy and channeling the merest fraction of the M.E., can sucker punch someone out of their Super state. Destined Child’s self-control of his strength is a more significant act of kindness than just about anything else he could do.
And Sonic’s maximum speed, in his normal state, cannot be accurately measured even by Eggman’s machines. Oh, he can work out medians and means for the hedgehog’s typical velocity, enough that his robots can put up a decent fight and track/predict the blue blur’s movements.
But Sonic pulls stunts that should not be possible even in the fantastic world of Mobius on the daily; he’s fast enough that he can and has joked about light speed being casual for him, and at one point in his career he outran a black hole for upwards of half a minute. Again, without the aid of his Super state.
Sonic’s reasons for holding back coincide with Knuckles’ somewhat, but they don’t match one to one. A) He holds back for others’ sake and safety: pulling a friend along when he pours on a speed boost, pacing himself when he’s carrying someone (often, though not limited to, princesses...) and, one can infer, limiting himself to just fast enough to break the sound barrier most of the time so he doesn’t constantly destroy/reshape the terrain he’s running on. Sonic’s a rebel, and he enjoys breaking stuff, but only when he’s making a point through the stuff he’s breaking. Aimless destruction isn’t quite his wheelhouse.
And B) he holds back for the sake of having more fun. There are a lot of reasons Sonic’s persisted as a character for three decades now, and one of them, setting him apart from a lot of other ‘cool’ stoic characters I could name, is that Having Fun falls under his definition of Cool.
This is the only way Sonic’s approach to things in the Riders games, his rivalry with Jet in particular, makes any kind of sense; he chooses to race using Extreme Gear because the sport, the banter, the push toward the finish line alongside his best friends are fun, he enjoys all those things. If beating Jet or proving that he’s faster was truly the highest priority for him, he’d ditch the board and just break a half dozen laws of physics on foot like he always does.
Like I mentioned, Eggman’s aware of that; of the fact that Destined Child and Some Guy are, 99% of the time, exercising self-restraint. And factors it into his schemes. He doesn’t quite fear Knuckles snapping as much, since there are years of evidence proving that taking advantage of the echidna’s naivete isn’t enough to make him lose it, and because he understands that Knuckles sees himself as a Guardian on and off of Angel Island. Born to protect; only harming in service to that role, and certainly not to kill.
Compared to Knuckles, Sonic’s conditions for losing it, for going berserk are much more apparent; namely excessive, grievous harm to his friends. In particular, his best friend Tails.
There’s a reason why Eggman ejected Sonic from the ARK in a time bomb space pod in SA2 before facing off with the fox, and it wasn’t simply because he was outnumbered. He was holding Amy hostage with Tails in the room well before Sonic arrived. He could have demanded Tails exit the Cyclone and killed the fox. He didn’t need two hostages.
But he knew better than to think he could predict how Sonic would react to seeing his sidekick (in Eggman’s mind) motionless on the floor of the ARK. Worse case scenario, four bodies end up careening in free fall towards the Earth’s atmosphere.
Eggman knows Sonic has it in him to kill; are other Mobians more likely to try killing him? Yes, but the possibility still figures into Eggman’s plans and is one of the reasons the blue hedgehog occupies most of the doctor’s attention, second to his obsession with returning all the humiliation Sonic’s visited on him over the years.
All that being said, there is a moment in Sonic’s career that marks the beginning of a shift in his attitude toward killing.
Emerl.
Gemerl’s predecessor and the focal point/main character of Sonic Battle, for the uninformed.
Sonic found this battered robot, abandoned by Eggman in a fit of impatience and frustration; this machine designed to be the ultimate combat weapon, capable of observing and evolving based on those it interacts with like a whole-ass person would. In the penultimate chapter of the game, Emerl acquires the seventh chaos emerald and achieves a perilous state where the right words might make or break the world, and Shadow picks the right ones that allow Emerl to function autonomously without posing a danger to the planet.
Obviously, in the ultimate chapter, Eggman has to come and fuck that up.
With Emerl out of control and beyond the reach of words or reason and only minutes between him and the planet’s destruction, Sonic has no choice but to destroy–to kill–this robot he practically raised like a child of his own to save the world.
Sonic doesn’t hesitate in doing so, though it’s clear he doesn’t want to. And of course, it affects him.
It’s that moment that begins to change his attitude from “I don’t kill in cold blood/don’t kill anyone with their back to me or running away” to “I don’t kill if I can help it.”
Make no mistake, though: Sonic wouldn’t shed a single tear for Eggman’s funeral. At most, he’d consider life marginally more boring without an arch nemesis and then get over it.
Sonic is capable of cracking the egg; he prefers avoiding it, but under the right circumstances, avoiding it falls way down his list of priorities.
To this day in the games, Eggman doesn’t go after the hedgehog’s friends in earnest until he believes the blue blur has been dealt with first.
That is very, very intentional on his part.
@generic-sonic-fan
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hanyusan · 1 year
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GIFT
My delayed emotions are catching up to me. At last, I feel overwhelmed. Lack of sleep might be amplifying a little bit. I tried to nap at intermission and sleep after. For adrenaline-related reasons, that did not happen. Worth it.
Yuzu is someone who prefers to express himself through art versus relying on speaking. When you see what he has to say, you don't filter through it like you would if he were to use words alone.
For precisely that reason, his skating feels distinct from that of his peers'. Even if you can't decipher the details, his skating is alive. It declares, it shouts, it smiles; sometimes it cries. At times, it overflows with satisfaction. At others, it brews with frustrated determination. In the final years of his competitive career, it shrouded itself in a solemn fighting spirit. GIFT defined itself through all these raw and honest emotions paired with simple yet poetic voiceovers and a dramatic array of visual effects, dance, and (of course) live music. Yuzu promised an ice "show." A fantastic show was exactly what he delivered.
Though Yuzu doesn't shy away from sharing his emotional state, he's also an incredibly private person. While his wisdom makes itself obvious based on what he chooses to tell the public and when (...and how), a lot more of it exists in what he keeps to himself.
Most of us know that he goes through hard times. It's impossible that he doesn't. Even if not because of the glare of the public eye, his toughness on himself must weigh down heavier at certain moments. Yet he successfully hides a large extent of it. When it was literally "amateur" hour, he would disappear for months at a time and then abruptly reappear at competitions, only to vanish again immediately after. Unless he deigned to mention it afterwards, no one knew what was happening in those weeks when he transformed into the elusive animal of nature documentaries.
As worrying as it was, I also like it to this day. I like that he circumvents the obligation to report his every move. I like that he only talks about things when he feels like it, and then with as few or many words or anime references as he desires. I like that he opened zero social media accounts until he needed them for work, because of course he would. Maybe it hits close to home. I often feel pressured to share my problems with people so they can make me "feel better," even if I'm not ready. That uninvited breach of boundaries usually prompts a horrible spiral of suffering. I like that he felt okay closing himself off.
Today, Yuzu filled GIFT with his entire heart, strife with all of the agony and internal turmoil that he's battled. And I like that he felt safe enough to be vulnerable and tell everyone that he's had a hard time. That he once felt deterred by the circumstances from continuing what he loved. That later, when his love wavered due to different circumstances, he tried to force himself to still find it enjoyable. There comes a point where, no matter how deep your love for something, one day you'll feel as if you're merely going through the motions. It's scary. You defined yourself by your passion for so long. How could it just go away? What are you if it goes away?
Part of me harbors the naive wish that he never had to endure such pain. It's paradoxical. To be tormented by such philosophical questions, you first have to be the type of person who would want to seek and create answers. And that type of person, someone who is pensive and caring, is always who deserves the inevitable pain the least. That's who Yuzu is—someone who won't take the easy way out.
Like life, skating challenges him in an unfair and persistent fashion. As this road continues to taunt him, I wish for him the tenacity to walk it and the inner peace to stray from it should he ever want to. I hope that when he's alone, he can remind himself not to feel lonely. And if he still does, I hope he can remember how many people love him and feel even a little bit better until he can get back on his feet. He is an undying phoenix, sinking into ashes with the promise of rising again. As many times as it takes.
Yuzu, you gathered so many talented people to your side tonight to put on an amazing production. I cannot fathom the amount of time, precision, and innovation it must have taken you and your entire team to complete it. I won't lie. Your seemingly insatiable hunger for bigger and better things can be frightening at times. Yet I adore the unbridled glee on your face when you succeed in grabbing what it is that you reach for.
ありがとうございました!
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P.S. Take that, 4S. Little punk of a jump had it coming.
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mays-corner · 1 month
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(This post is a bit random so if you get it you get it if you don't get it it's fine)
It's 2024. I should be going to the disco, which I dislike.
Instead, I decided to hyperfixate on a Welshman.
One thing that baffles me to this day, and trust me it has happened more than once, is has anyone ever tried to protest at least a bit to still have Matt as John? Did no one try hard enough? Or have the attempts failed?
I mean-
I'm a newer fan (even with content crumbs I am a fan) still, so I can't be sure, but I'm amazed that in all these years that have passed, no one ever did anything, and now he can't even play Constantine (I think).
And now, the only role I've seen is him dubbing John 💀
Ignoring this discourse about John, I've decided to search for other roles, movies, and series, and what I've found was interesting, to say the least.
I am becoming passionate about him for various reasons. Other than wanting to revive pre-pandemic activities, I have noticed a pattern: I enjoy searching for things that I only watch. These are some thoughts I had about some things I could not find in Italy:
Hard to find (for example, I'm still searching for "The Halcyon," and the funniest thing about this is that in Italy, it was shown on TV (on an RAI channel, RAI is an Italian broadcaster) during 2017 and it's not available on their platform.
Region-locked content (the DCAU being region-locked is such a crime; we only have House of Mystery, and that's it) or even trying to watch a simple cameo when the entire series is region-locked (the Harley Quinn one). However (and this is good news), while searching for Away (one of his movies to watch), I found Tubi and used a free VPN. It was slow, but it worked, and I watched it.
Expensive (I paid Assassin's Creed Black Flag in installments, so that wasn't expensive, but still...)
It was a play, so they haven't recorded it, but to see and better understand the role he played (in this case, read), I read Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola, and it was still effective.
Not even available on Chili (an Italian streaming platform on which you can rent or buy movies), the title only appears but is not available for streaming (lol).
Using Vinted or secondhand shops in general (it’s not the best time for me to go fully secondhand, but I suppose I could find some things there).
At the moment, I've watched just what I could easily find without resorting to piracy (which is ironic, since in Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Matt voices Edward Kenway, a pirate.).
In this list of things I could easily find, we have:
Constantine (thanks to another fan)
Criminal Minds/Criminal Minds Suspect Behavior (I had Disney Plus for a month, so I've watched it from there)
Flypaper, Adverse (Prime Video)
Arrow (Prime video)
Legends of Tomorrow (Netflix and Mediaset infinity)
House Of Mystery (Amazon prime, you have to rent it but still)
While writing this I found that "Layer cake" is on Sky, which I have and Now TV too.
Pocket Money (While watching it I just understood two words out of an entire short and I'm a c2 in English 💀)
Away, Wild Decembers, Armistice, Blood Monkey
So, you might have been asking yourself... Have I gone mad? To search and find for stuff not even available in my own country? In my own continent, too?
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But I thought this is what comes with being a fan of someone, even if the career is what it is.
Considering me being unlucky, I was never able to see Matt when he acted and then had premieres at the same time.
Asssassin’s Creed Black Flag? I was 10, a child, lol.
Legends Of Tomorrow? I liked anime, manga and everything japanese.
And the list goes on...
It's nice to see what was like and what I couldn't live, gosh, I'm praying hard that we get to see him act again, I want and I wish to be present, live or not.
I wanted to make a really nice speech but nothing comes to mind, when I get it maybe I'll post it 💀
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natlacentral · 3 months
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Daniel Dae Kim on that pivotal fight scene in Avatar: The Last Airbender: “There was guilt, there was conflict, there was pain”
Over the last 30 years, Daniel Dae Kim has been a recurring presence on our big and small screens alike, from the culture-shifting Lost to the Oscar-winning Crash. He's played dads (wholesome) and daddies (less wholesome), and sometimes those roles have converged, as in Netflix's live-action reboot of the beloved cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender – a series about a fantasy kingdom separated into four elemental nations that have been ravaged by war – where he takes on the villainous Fire Lord Ozai.
“Very often in my career, I've played good guys,” Kim tells GQ over video call from Seoul. Not so much in Avatar – Ozai is about as far away from a good guy as you can get. He’s callous and deranged, with domineering sheets of metal and leather armour, and a long pointed beard that’s only marginally less sharp than his cheekbones. He's the Big Bad of the series (albeit one that's so ripped it's caused some people to question their allegiance to the show's hero).
As the king, he looms over the Fire Nation, which has imperialist ambitions to rule the rest of the kingdom, as well as his own children, Zuko (Dallas Liu) and Azula (Elizabeth Yu), who he pits against each other and hardens with physical and psychological punishment. He's not exactly in the running for Father of the Year. “I like to think that he's trying in his own way to guide his children,” he says. “He doesn't necessarily listen very well to his kids, but he is trying to solidify his legacy and make this family a dynasty.”
Here, Daniel Dae Kim talks to GQ about the challenges of adapting a much-loved property, his shirtless fight scene and the likelihood of a season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
GQ: Mark Hamill voiced Ozai in the cartoon. Have you had a chance to meet him?
Daniel Dae Kim: We've never met but we actually had a nice little Instagram exchange because he saw an interview answer that I gave regarding him. He saw a clip and said thank you, so I responded and said it was all true. I have a lot of respect for him, not just as Luke Skywalker, of course, but he's one of our greatest voice actors.
One of the most pivotal scenes in the series is the fight Ozai has with his son Zuko where he gives him his facial scar and then later banishes him. What preparation went into that scene?
The physical preparation was intense. In the animated series, he's shirtless, so I thought ‘Uh oh’. I wasn't sure how authentic they wanted to be, and sure enough, the showrunner was like, 'Oh, yeah, we're gonna do that'. So I started to work out and I started to diet. I'm not immune to vanity, so I thought, well, at least I should try and look pretty good. But I did not want to look like someone who was unreasonably fit, if that makes sense. He's not meant to be a WWE wrestler, he's meant to be someone who has great skill and power that comes from his [fire] bending. You might find this disingenuous, but hand on my heart it's true – some actors enjoy the vanity of being shirtless and welcome it and I've worked with those actors. I am not [one of them]. If that's my last shirtless scene, I won't be sad.
That scene is probably the most vulnerable we see Ozai, where he maybe feels bad about what he's doing to his son. Is that how you interpreted it?
I was trying to add in a little nuance there so that it wasn't just full-on hatred, anger and frustration. There was guilt, there was conflict, there was pain. That's what I was trying to communicate.
What are the challenges of performing fights that have been adapted from a cartoon?
Our stunt team did a great job in helping us imagine what the supernatural elements of the fight would be. We have the physical hand-to-hand combat, but then with the addition of the firebending and the special effects, it required a certain specificity and suspension of disbelief on our parts. [Imagining] a huge beam of fire going 30 feet across and believing the effect that it would have. I give a lot of credit to the stunt team for being so specific about it and saying 'If you want to create this kind of blast, it's this kind of a movement’. That imagination became part of the choreography.
In the original cartoon, Ozai is shrouded in secrecy until he's finally revealed. But in this, you're shown almost immediately. Why was that a necessary change when bringing it to live-action?
I think it was a dramaturgical function. There was an effort made to deepen all of the primary characters earlier on. If you look at Sokka's story and Katara's story, certain elements got pushed up. I think the reason they pushed up my story was in service of Zuko because we wanted to feel what his motivations were and why he was relentlessly chasing Aang. I personally applaud the decision, because I think you care so much more about the primary four than you would otherwise. It's the right decision.
In the finale, we see Ozai has even more deranged plans for world domination. Everything about him is about legacy. What did you try and tap into there?
I kept thinking, like, what happened to Ozai when he was a child that he would think that this is the way to show your kid his destiny? I did look at his line to succession… the fact that he is a second child, and how that's not the natural lineage for a king. So what kind of ambition does it take to supersede the rightful heir to the throne? There's that phrase that I think of – ‘hurt people hurt people’ – and I wonder ‘What was Ozai’s trauma as a child?’ because he's clearly passing it down.
The finale massively sets up a season 2 with a cliffhanger. In the cartoon, Ozai descends further into madness. If season 2 happens, is that something you'd look forward to exploring?
A descent into madness sounds like juicy territory for an actor, and it's not something I've explored before on screen. Should we be lucky enough to get a season 2, I look forward to those conversations. Nothing is inevitable in this business and in this industry climate, but there seems to be a lot of excitement about it.
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maxdreavus · 5 months
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Hi there! (o´ω`o) Welcome to my blog!
I’m Maxine Miller (although I prefer just Max, please!), and I’m a 25-year-old lady from the Galar region. I currently live in Circhester and work as a trainer at the Ice-type gym here! 
I was born in Unova, but my family moved here when I was 5. My home was… unfit for me, so I ran away to Spikemuth with one of my older brothers’ unwanted partners (now my partner, Misdreavus (it/they)!) when I was 10 or so to start anew. Life was rough for a while, but a close friend of mine helped me get on track! I only started my career because he hired me to work at the Dark-type gym (.❛ ᴗ ᵔ.)
Some of you might know me because I competed in the Gym Challenge last year with Melony's endorsement. Even though losing in the Finals was devastating, I still had a great time and learned a ton, so please feel free to ask questions about it if you're curious!
Although I work with Ice-types, I don’t specialize in any specific type outside of my job! I love all pokemon and aim to be knowledgeable in as many as I can, with hopes to have a completed Galarian Pokedex someday. That said, I have a whole bunch of pokemon, and no set team; I alternate my team often to give them all a chance to shine, but Misdreavus consistently sticks around with me.
I’m not really sure what else to put here, so please feel free to pop into my ask box if you have any questions!
Thank you for reading (*´∇`*)
//important ooc message below the cut!//
Hi!! I’m Crisa (@YeehawBvby), a 27-year-old lady from the US. 
First off, I base Max strongly off of myself (visually too), so please be kind and don’t do anything weird!! We’re both autistic, we’re both kinda shy, and we’re both big sensitive crybabies. :'D In the same way I’m better with animals than people, Max is better with pokemon than people.
Second! I have a ton of content about Max on my main blog, under the tag “oc maxine,” but here’s a link to her official lore-post! I’ll be updating it to add and remove things as time goes on, so feel free to check back in every once in a while if you wanna learn more about her.
Finally, Max and Piers are dating, and she and Leon used to date while she was a Gym Challenger. I’m not going to explicitly mention any of it, so as to not step on anyone’s toes in RP, but I’ll be alluding to her relationship with Piers often (or at least to their close friendship) since he’s such a huge part of her life. The in-character reasoning for not disclosing their relationship status will be that they don't really want their relationship in the open yet, with Piers being famous and Max somewhat-famous. She’s also close friends with a few other gym leaders (including Marnie, who is the gym-leader in Spikemuth by now), so they’ll probably pop up every once in a while here too!
Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask on my main blog! x
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museywrites · 7 months
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Xiantober 2023 - Day 10: FanArtist!Xian
Word Count: 721  Pairing: Wangxian Tags: Fan Artist Wei Ying, Voice actor Lan Zhan
Wei Ying sat back in disbelief as he stared as his email. 
There was no way. 
This had to be fake, right??? 
His heart wouldn't stop hammering in his chest as he read over the email again and again. 
Hello Yilling_Patriarch, I apologize for emailing you out of the blue, especially when your commissions are closed, but I just had to reach out. I am an absolute fan of your work, and given your work, I know you are a fan of mine. I was hoping to personally commission you for several large scale projects for some of the characters I voice. If this is something that interests you, please let me know. We can talk more in detail if you decide you're interested in working with me. Sincerely, Hanguang-Jun
Wei Ying would be lying if he said he wasn't going absolutely feral over this email. The Hanguang-Jun wanted to commission him! Like, actually commission him! 
For years, Wei Ying had been a fan of the animation industry. He loved animation from all over the world. But for the past few years, one particular voice actor had caught his attention. He rarely spoke long periods at a time, but his lines were so raw, so full of emotion, so impactful. 
And that *voice!*
Most of Wei Ying's personal art projects over the last few years have been of the characters that Hanguang-Jun voiced! He had no idea he had captured the voice actors attention! 
He was beyond stoked and so excited. 
So of course he had to accept the offer! 
There were several emails exchanged between the two, discussing all the art that Hanguang-Jun wanted to commission from him for some upcoming conventions and events. It was an overall straightforward and professional exchange, but Wei Ying couldn't help but fanboy a few times, not that the other seemed to mind. 
Eventually, their correspondences moved from email to discord in a private DM where Wei Ying was happy to share progress of his art. Their chatting became more frequent, and Wei Ying wasn't entirely sure when they began talking so casually with one another. It had happened so naturally… 
[Hanguang-Jun:] Wei Ying, I know this might be an odd request… [Hanguang-Jun:] but, I will be in your town this weekend for a meeting with a family friend… would you be interested in getting coffee together? I apologize if this seems unprofessional.
Wei Ying was certain he flatlined right then and there. Was… was Lan Zhan (of course they already shared their names) asking him on a date?!
'No. No it was just coffee! Don't get ahead of yourself, Wei Ying' 
[Yiling_Patriarch] Absolutely! I'd love that! [Hanguang-Jun:] Perfect, it's a date then
Wei Ying stopped functioning for a good hour after that. 
Of course, the date, which is precisely what it was, went off without a hitch. Or… okay, there were many hitches, like Wei Ying forgetting how to talk, or tripping and falling right into those big, strong arms, or even the fact that Wei Ying was so jittery his knees hit the table at least three times!
But through all of it, Lan Zhan just made sure he was okay while giving him the softest expression. They talked about their careers, their home life, their likes and dislikes. It was so natural, so warm, and once the nerves finally went away, it was everything someone could hope for on a first date. 
The second, the third, and the fourth date were just as magical, and Lan Zhan got to the the work Wei Ying was doing for him personally after being pulled into his apartment and kissing senselessly until they passed out between the sheets after getting to know each other on a much more intimate level. 
Wei Ying had learned the next day that having Lan Zhan around while he worked was very distracting. All those kisses and massages meant he got almost no work done. 
So one can only imagine how bad it was once they moved in together a few short months later~ 
Lan Zhan of course continued his voice acting career, and Wei Ying became his personal fan-artist. Always paid for his work despite Wei Ying saying it wasn't needed. 
Who knew such a happy ending would come from such a simple email?
Certainly not these two. 
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Swipe City
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Disclaimer: This is fiction. I do not know any celebrity appearing in this story. It has been years since I have written anything; so, please be kind. Also, I have no idea how to make any type of masterlist or hyperlink additional chapters on here; so, if you do happen to know, please let me know. :) 
Warnings: Mention of Age Gap (All parties are of legal age; OC is older), Female pronouns used (purely because I’m female and using some of my life experiences as inspiration.) 
             The silence of flat in mid-January London is bothersome. Usually, this type of silence is like a warm hug away from the chaos of his lifestyle, but tonight, Christian Pulisic wants nothing more than to hear the patter of another’s feet coming toward the couch with some coffee and a gentle cuddle.  
             It’s been a long week of doctor’s appointments and meetings with the Chelsea staff to determine the plan in caring for his injury. He knows he should be happy that ‘at least two months’ is not replaced by ‘career ending’, but right now, he wants someone special to hug him and tell him that even if it was ‘career ending’, he would still be important.  His family has conveyed this to him from an ocean away, but his desire is for  the support that can only be given by someone who has chosen to love you rather than having to love you. 
With a sigh, Christian opens the app Mason had suggested last week. 
 ‘A dating app.’ He thinks begrudgingly. As a busy man and an introvert, he knows this is his best shot in meeting someone to commit to, but God, does he hate the damn thing. Christian hates the idea that he can’t  meet someone at school like his parents or through friends like Reece had.  He knows it’s in part due to his high-profile job and in part due to his personality –can’t meet someone if you don’t particularly like leaving the house. 
       With yet another sigh, Christian begins completing the profile. 
              Name: Chris      Lives: West London    Occupation: Personal Trainer                          Age: 25            Looking For: Monogamy, Committed Relationship                        Kids: Doesn’t Have, Wants Kids         Religion: Christian                                 Smokes: Never     Drinks: Occasionally     Born: United States                    Introduction: Hi, I’m Chris. I moved to London from the U.S for work.  I’m interested in meeting someone who shares my belief in family first. I like reading, animals, and quiet nights in. 
   Near the end of the profile, a question catches his eye. The app wants him to indicate an age range for his potential matches. Christian hesitates. He doesn’t think dating younger is a good idea after his last relationship turned sour from the discovery that she just wanted his money to party and shop. Christian considers for a moment the issues with dating older. They could have kids, but hey, he loves kids and eventually wants them. He knows that they could be more mature than him and he might seem childish to them, but maybe dating an older woman could help him learn something about himself. Besides, Mason has already told him that his own experience with dating older women was great because they knew what they wanted and weren’t usually bothered by the constant travel of their job.  Christian looks at the age range once again, takes a deep breath, and selects ages 25-35. 
    Next, he selects the pictures for the profile.  This part aggravates him to his core and causes some regrets about his tattoos. Christian can’t just select pictures of his back to the camera with his arms showing, because any fan will identify him from the images on his skin. A face picture is simply not an option. Christian thinks back to what was on Mason’s profile and begins to emulate it –images of a sunset, a picture of the ocean from his vacation, that random book he has been reading, and a picture of his favorite beer. It’s not the greatest curated group  of pictures, but it’ll have to do. 
 Once he completes his profile, Christian rechecks for any identifying information and pictures that would suggest who he actually is. He feels slightly bad that he has lied or shifted almost all of his information, but Christian knows that if he wants to find someone serious about him, he has to make sure they aren’t around him for his job or money. 
After completing his profile and closing the app, Christian says a quick prayer for the right one to be out there for him then ventures upstairs to the bathroom with a hope of washing off his loneliness. 
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leedee013 · 7 months
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2064 nightingale way?
Oh boy.
2064 Nightingale Way is a fun little project I started while lost in thought on one of my walks in Germany. It's about Luke, who is a junior in college and feels like he's never going to amount to anything. He's not unique, he doesn't stand out, and as hard as he tries, he can never produce any work that's truly remarkable or noteworthy. And so, it's a story set through his eyes as he interacts with all of his friends, who he feels stick out so much more than him, and his search to become "A Character;" someone who isn't afraid to embrace who he is in his entirety.
First chunk from my WIP draft below the cut!
Further intrigue? Want more writing? Find it on @thornilee013
When I was growing up, my mom told me I could do anything, as long as I could read. 
I became obsessed with words, at the infinite ways they can fit together to weave stories, incite compassion, inspire others, and even destroy. They always seemed so delicate─dependent solely on breath or pen to exist. 
As a result, I've lost myself in stories for most of my life, letting myself get swallowed into narratives from all over the world and wrapping myself in the sentences that spun them together. 
I've even tried to write my own stories, but they always end up fading away from me before I can finish them. One day I want to hold on to a story and let it take me somewhere, but it’ll have to wait until after college.
I dreamed of going to a small, liberal arts college ever since I was a kid. Nothing too fancy, and certainly nothing too prestigious, but rather a place where I could find like-minded people and learn as much as I can from all subjects. 
To no one’s surprise, I decided to become an English major. I even added an education emphasis, since it would be useful to have that skill set in the future when I start looking for jobs. It’s a while until then, but might as well get it done now rather than spend more money getting a certification later. 
I moved into my new housing assignment (for the most part) a few days ago, and my junior year is about to begin. I’m not quite sure what to expect, but I have to admit that the stress of last year hasn't quite left my bones yet. It also means that I'll officially be closer to the end of my college career than the beginning, which honestly makes me even more nervous about how little time I have left until I can't turn back. And even though I love my major, writing essays over and over is beginning to feel repetitive and make my words feel meaningless. 
It doesn’t help that I’m a pretty meaningless person. I always did well in school, but was never anything special. I’ve never been one to stick out, no matter how hard I try. I’m completely forgettable. I have a few friends, and they seem to like me enough, but out of all of them I’m the least interesting. Not for a lack of trying, though. I’ll put it like this: if my life was an anime, my friends are the kinds of people who would be the main cast with iconic hairstyles and over-the-top personalities. Meanwhile, I would blend into the background. 
The worst part? I know that it could be different. I mean, other people manage to become Somebodies all the time. Back in high school my friends would throw out names of singers and athletes and performers all the time, and I would swear that they were just making up names to toy with me. There are so many incredible people in the world, and as much as I want to be one, I never will. I push myself to do the best that I can at whatever I do, and make an effort to always be kind to everyone, but it all feels like an act, nothing more, nothing less. 
There’s always something holding me back, and no matter how hard I try to get out of its grip, it won’t let me go. It’s like I was thrown onto a stage with no exit, and everyone is watching me, waiting for me to dare break character. And I’m convinced that I’ll die if that happens. That the spotlight trained on me and pinning me in place will go out, and my life will end with it. 
And so I lose myself in stories, and lost I shall remain.
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pizzaqueen · 1 year
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Thank you so much for the enthusiasm for my Buckingham A League Of Their Own AU so far! Here’s part two :D It’s Robin’s POV and half platonic Steve & Robin and half Buckingham meeting/getting to know each other (it overlaps with part one)
1.4k / no warnings (but vague mentions of war)
Part one
Oh, and if you haven’t already seen it @yendts did some AMAZING art for this AU
Okay, now, the fic:
Sweat drips down Robin's forehead, stings her eyes, but she’s grinning when she pulls her mask off. They won. They won! And it was down to Robin.
"Nice catch, Buckley," Stan, the shortstop, says, slapping her on the back.
She grins wider. "Thanks." She looks around, the joy of victory slowly becoming tinged with concern. She can’t see Steve.
It's not like he can't look after himself, or anything, but he's their coach. And he's been different since he got back. God, Robin, of course he's different—his major league career was cut short and who knows what he saw, fighting out there—but he's been so down that sometimes (most of the time) she worries.
And then she sees him. He’s talking to a guy about a head shorter and twenty years older than him, more animated than she's seen him in a while.
With a bounce in her step, she goes over, punching him in the arm. "Hey, coach," she says, "see me win?"
Steve turns to her, smiling. A proper, actual smile. "Yep. And so did..." His brow furrows and he turns back to the guy he was talking to. "Sorry, I forgot your name."
“Ernie Capadino,” the guy says. "Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush, but do you want to play ball?"
He's looking at Robin; her brow furrows. "I already do?” She points back at the field.
"Proper ball. Professionally. Mr. Wrigley and some others are setting up a women’s league. I've been sent to find talent for the tryouts. I think you've got what it takes."
The world stops and everything seems distant. This must be a dream. She makes the winning catch and then there’s this guy here telling her there’s going to be a women’s league and she’s got what it takes. All she can manage to say is, “You're a scout?"
"I'm glad you're quicker at catching balls than catching on."
"Hey," Steve says, "you're kind of talking in riddles."
"Sorry." Mr. Capadino mops his brow. "It's been a long day." He turns to Robin. "Are you interested?"
She hesitates, biting her lip. ”This isn't a prank is it?" Some of the guys are prone to pranking, and she’s not sure they’re clever enough for this, but…a women’s league? An actual real women’s professional baseball league?
"Not a prank."
"Then, yes, I—" Robin looks at Steve, and he gives her an encouraging look and a thumbs up. She lets out a relieved breath. She would've still gone, but it would have been with a heavier heart. She smiles and says, "I'm definitely interested."
"I still can't believe this is happening," Robin says, curled up in the projection booth with Steve. "In less than a week, I could be a professional ball player."
"Could be?"
"I might not make a team."
"You will."
Robin smiles, then she bites her lip. The projector flickers away, whirring between her and Steve. The theatre gave him back his old job the moment he got back, and Robin's glad he has this, but she can't stand the thought of leaving him. "Come with me."
"Yeah, sure."
"I mean it."
"What as? Your batboy."
"No. Just to get out of Hawkins."
"Yeah, I got out of Hawkins, pretty recently, remember? Didn't work out too well for me."
Robin looks at Steve's knee, doesn't think about the other scars. She wants to say At least you're still alive, but she doesn't. It wouldn't be fair. But she spent months and months imagining Steve, dead in some ocean somewhere, blown to pieces in the Pacific, and she's still so relieved he's alive that some days it's hard to remember his life has been torn apart. But she decides to try a different tack, just like she did when she convinced Steve to coach the Tigers. "I don't want to go alone," she says softly.
"Robin."
"Please, Steve. I've never left Hawkins for longer than a week." She presses her hands together. "Please come with me."
And that does it. She sees Steve's resolve crumble.
"Just for the tryouts," Steve says. "And then I'm coming home."
"Of course. Wouldn't want to miss out on any of the incredibly interesting things that happen here."
Steve rolls his eyes, but he seems a little lighter as he changes the movie reels over, and Robin smiles easily. She's going to play ball. For real!
Holy shit.
"I'm standing outside Baker Field!" Robin bites her lip, bouncing on her toes. "Baker Field! Do you know how many games I listened to being played here?”
"Yeah." There's a strangeness in Steve's voice, but it's gone when he adds, "I'll meet you back here after." He pauses. "Or, should I say, I'll meet the new Robin Buckley, hotshot pro ball player." He nudges her shoulder.
"This is really happening, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Steve says, "it is."
Robin claps her hands to her face. "I think I might pee myself."
Steve snorts. He shoves her lightly in the direction of the gates. "Go on, go prove what I already know. And lay off the high ones."
"I like the high ones," she says.
Steve shakes his head and gives her a wave.
Robin steels herself and finally goes inside and then she stops dead. There are so many women here. So many women like her. She wants to cry but she's too excited. This is what she's been waiting for, her whole life, even if she never knew it.
A stray ball comes her way and she picks it up, throwing it back the way it came.
And that’s when she nearly hits the most beautiful woman she's seen in her life.
Robin has been babbling for the past ten minutes while she and Chrissy throw the ball back and forth to each other, unable to stop the nervous stream of words falling from her lips. Chrissy doesn't seem to mind, though. She's smiling and she laughs whenever Robin says something funny (not always on purpose). Her laugh is like cool water on a hot day or the sound of the crowd cheering when Robin makes the winning catch.
"Is Steve your fella?"
"Huh?"
"You've mentioned him a lot and you said he came with you, so I figured he's your guy."
"Oh. No. Definitely not. Steve is..." How to explain Steve? "Steve's my friend. My best friend. But just a friend." Was that too forceful? She doesn't want to seem too obvious. No, it was fine. "Do you... Do you have a...fella?"
A pained look flits over Chrissy's face, but it could just be the clouds moving across the sun, casting dancing shadows. "Yeah. Jason. He's overseas, right now."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's fine. He'll be home soon."
Robin throws the ball back. "You didn't want to wait for him at home?" God. Why is she still talking?"
The ball comes whizzing toward Robin and she catches it—of course she does—but she feels the force of Chrissy's pitch through her glove. She takes her glove off, shaking out her hand. "Wow. You've got... A great arm."
"Shoot, I'm sorry! I just—" Chrissy pauses a moment, and then she shrugs. "Got carried away."
"We're here to play our best," Robin says. "Right?"
"Right." Chrissy bites her lip. "So, you said you're from Indiana?"
"Yeah. Hawkins. You've probably never heard of it."
"No. I'm from Indiana, too, though," Chrissy says. "South Bend."
"Oh, one of the teams is going to be in South Bend, isn't it?"
“It is.” Chrissy shifts her weight, then mutters, “I hope I make one of the others."
Robin lets out a soft breath. “I know what you mean.” When Chrissy’s brow furrows, Robin adds, “I mean, I’m glad they don’t have a team in Hawkins.”
There’s a quiet moment and Robin isn’t sure what it means but then Chrissy nods, a smile growing on her face, and throws the ball back. She almost catches Robin off guard.
They play until someone calls out over a megaphone that tryouts will be starting in five minutes; Robin had almost forgotten about them. She goes to pick the ball up at the same time Chrissy does. Their hands touch over the stitching—well, no, their pinkie fingers touch—and Robin’s pulse leaps, but, even though Chrissy has paused, Robin’s sure she isn’t feeling what Robin is feeling.
And then Chrissy finally moves, saying, “We better go,” pushing herself to her feet and holding out a hand for Robin.
Robin takes it, letting Chrissy pull her to her feet, still too turned around to say anything, watching as Chrissy walks away.
God, she hopes they make the same team.
Tagging some people (please let me know if you don’t want to be tagged again or if you’d like to be added):
@stevethehairington @ladydorian05 @ravnlinn @eerielake @grey-edges @thebridgetonarnia
Sorry if I missed anyone
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stromuprisahat · 7 months
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Burial tends to delay decomposition. In fact, a body above ground is said to decompose at least four times faster than one buried. Under ground, it probably takes two years for the soft tissues to disappear completely. Tendons, ligaments, hair and nails will be identifiable for some time after that. In about five years the bones are bare and disarticulated but there are often fragments of cartilage and, if I use a high- speed saw to cut the bones of bodies that have been exhumed after five years, there is a wisp of smoke caused by scorched protein still in the marrow and the smell of burning organic matter – something I can also expect from the bones of the recently dead. The human skeleton is the last part of the body to return to the earth, which, of course, can take a very long time: hominid bones more than 2 million years old have been found in dry parts of the world. Unless preserved anaerobically in a bog, the damp UK climate does not keep bones so well. And eventually, all bones must decompose. Wet soils that hold water hasten this by leaching the calcium and other minerals away. As the bone becomes more porous, the process of disintegration is helped by bacteria, fungi and even plants thrusting their roots inside the cracks and crevices and breaking up the bone more – as well as by gnawing animals. Throughout their careers, pathologists are approached by the police to examine bones. ... Usually just one bone is found, sometimes a collection, and they are nearly always from animals. But not always. All pathologists have files labelled ‘Old Bones’ and every attempt is made to identify these finds. Some bones, like the pelvis or the skull, tell us at a glance whether its owner was male or female. Other bones, and particularly teeth, can tell us the age of the deceased if they were very young or very old. Otherwise, judging age from a skeleton is not a precise science. For the most part, our ‘Old Bones’ files remain mysterious. Our main task is to date the bones and discover whether this death, possibly a criminal death, occurred in the last sixty or seventy years, in which case the killer might still be alive. Dating is a specialist skill. Carbon-14 dating only works to a very long time-scale but the atomic bombs of the 1940s, with their release of strontium-90 into the atmosphere, mean it is relatively easy to discover whether bones pre- or post-date these explosions. If they predate the atomic era, the police are seldom interested, although archaeologists might be.
Unnatural Causes: The Life and Many Deaths of Britain’s Top Forensic Pathologist Unnatural Causes (Dr. Richard Shepherd)
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ambiguouspuzuma · 1 year
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Escapism
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It had started as escapism. Since Cadsik knew that he was going to die, he wanted to distract himself from that knowledge - and more than that, he wanted to enjoy the little time that he had left. Not while away his final moments in dread, but savour every endangered minute. Six years. He figured that he might as well make the most of them.
This was the time to take risks. To do the things he'd always wanted to, but been too afraid to try: he'd once dreamt of paragliding, motorbike riding, sky and deep-sea diving, and now he'd been given the incentive to give them a go. He knew they couldn't kill him, and that he had no hope of living anyway. He was a man with nothing left to lose.
With a six-year diagnosis, Cadsik had no need to save or worry for the future. He had no use for his career, his mortgage, his longer-term plans: only a hunger to travel the world, seeking out the taste of dreams. Whatever it cost, and whatever it took. He was a man reborn, his life one endless adventure - at least, if he didn't think about the end. Deprived of a future, he had learnt how to live in the present.
It was a silver lining, he thought - like the insulating foil on the capsule, the crest of starlight on the bow of the command module. The spectre of death had transformed his life, and almost always for the better, as if he'd traded quantity for quality. Space had always been the greatest dream of all, and now he was here: Cadsik had volunteered for every programme going, dedicating his life to that application, and finally been accepted. A voyage into the stars.
It was a five year mission, which suited him perfectly. He'd had a year to exhaust the adrenaline stores on Earth, and this was the ideal opportunity to try something new, to risk his life in the name of science, whilst risking nothing at all. He would die on his return to base, once his six years were up, when the mission was done. Returning as a hero, no doubt martyred by some rival cosmonaut. If he did have to be murdered, it was the perfect way to go.
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"You can ask three questions," they'd told him. "Lady Mzila will answer in her style. There will be no follow-up, no clarification. If you wish for more detail, you must use your questions to ask it."
His first choice was obvious. "How will I die?"
"You will be poisoned." Lady Mzila sat behind a small table draped with lace. The attendants had ushered them through in silence, the instructions delivered outside, and Cadsik and Doka had perched on uncomfortable stools across from her. Only when they were alone did she speak.
They'd found her in a disused amusement arcade. Most of the empty stores had been packed with coin machines, mutoscopes and automata, and they'd expected her to be another fortune-teller in a box. To their surprise, the curtain had revealed a real woman, flesh and blood and incense - although she was barely more animated than those clockwork puppets, and equally as creepy.
"Poisoned by whom?" Cadsik asked next.
"Halan Gyravic." It was a Yaurian name, which felt a little stereotypical, given the history of conflict and spycraft between their nations. Not that Cadsik had ever imagined himself a target. He'd worked as a grocer before he left to travel the world, and then beyond it, and couldn't believe that anyone would waste their poison on his death.
"When will they do it?"
"Six years from now."
At first, he had paid no heed to her ridiculous warnings. Even his friend Doka, who received more worrying replies to the same questions - a truck, three weeks on - was only slightly unsettled. But then three weeks passed, and Cadsik understood the truth. As they buried Doka, he vowed to make the most of his remaining years. Grief and shock made way for a new joie de vivre. At his funeral, they would say that he'd died happy.
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It was the perfect opportunity. The technology remained experimental, and none had yet undertaken such a lengthy trip, but Cadsik, the man with one fear, was undeterred. He knew that space would not kill him, and that he'd spend five years in regret if he let this chance pass him by. People said that life was too short not to follow their dreams; in his case, he knew exactly by how much.
It had started as escapism. But as Cadsik gazed out into infinity, he realised that his capsule might offer an actual escape: if he dawdled on the return to Earth, remaining in orbit for longer than planned, he might pass the six year deadline. This was a closed system, adrift on his own, with no chance for poison to reach him.
Given their history of conflict, which had spilled over into rival space programmes, the scramble for the solar system, no Yaurians had been involved with the programme, and security was tight. There could have been no tampering before he left, and now he was untouchable. Could he really avoid his fate, or was it something else? What if Doka had stayed away from the road? What if the Lady's warning had been meant to be heeded?
He put that theory into practice. Cadsik was careful, keeping a count of Earth days, other days, in case there had been some sort of catch, and year was given an astronomical meaning. He tracked his own orbits of the sun, and those of the neighbouring planets. He rationed his supplies, and ate them warily, in case Halan Gyravic had prepared them, a long fuse to catch him far away.
But five years on, Cadsik was still alive, and ready for the journey home. The six years had passed, by any definition, and he was over the moon as he circled back into his return orbit. He couldn't wait to be back. This was the point at which all of his sacrifice would become worthwhile: giving up five years of his life to the abyss, in exchange for who knew how many decades more.
He hailed the station on the radio - there was no response, which wasn't a good sign. Neither was the murky sky above the designated landing zone, as he crashed in through the ruined atmosphere. The planet had been blue when Cadsik had left it, but now it all seemed grey, deserted and bare. Nobody came to recover his capsule, and he had to wait for the tide to carry him back to shore.
There was no home to go back to. Everybody else was dead, and seemed to have been for some time. The first city he reached was a graveyard, except that even the weeds were smothered under a thick layer of crematorium ash. Cadsik breathed in the irradiated air, and knew that he'd been poisoned too. A nuclear war, it seemed like - although there was no-one left that he could ask, no surviving records of their end. Only Lady Mzila's cryptic prophecy.
That Gyravic person must have made the bomb, or launched the missile that struck his home: he wasn't really sure how it worked, but they'd killed him with a long fuse, struck just as she'd foretold. He thought about her timescale, and wondered how many would have received the same diagnosis. Most people except Doka, perhaps. If he'd been with anyone else, they might have questioned their shared fate - but then without his early death at the wheels of that truck, neither would have believed it.
They'd just been asking the wrong questions.
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invisibleicewands · 1 year
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Michael Sheen on art, fear and Amadeus: ‘David Suchet was in really good shape. I … am not!’ 
Those who have followed the career of the Welsh actor Michael Sheen might expect to encounter a chatty charmer, the “bare-footed buffoon” of his Twitter bio, a full-throated stage animal.
But when he meets Guardian Australia, “harried” is the word that springs to mind – a Sheen closer to the exaggerated version of himself he plays in the Covid lockdown TV hit Staged, not given to suffering fools. At one point I swear he rolled his eyes.
“It’s crunch week,” he says. “Very intense.”
Best known for his roles in The Queen, Good Omens and Masters of Sex, he meets me straight from a wig fitting for his role as Italian composer Antonio Salieri, in a new production of Peter Shaffer’s Tony award-winning play Amadeus at Sydney Opera House. He’s shaved his pandemic beard and is wearing jeans, sipping tea from a mug with his name stuck to it. His blue-brown-green eyes are shining. (He once said on Twitter that his eye colour changes “rather annoyingly.”)
“Crunch week” is the frantic rehearsal period leading up to a production’s first performance. This one has been made more crunchy than usual by the Christmas break, and an extra three days Sheen lost to a “really rough” stomach bug that also took down his partner, actor Anna Lundberg and three-year-old daughter Lyra; along with their six-month-old baby, the family are with Sheen for the season. They are not getting much sleep.
This should be a time of joy for Sheen: World Cup season for a fan whose love of the sport went viral last September, when he gave a rousing speech to the Welsh team. But due to the time difference, illness and new father duties, he says, “It’s the World Cup I’ve seen the least of.”
Perhaps they were “a bit mad” to come to Australia with a new baby at Christmas time – but it’s his first time in Australia, and Sheen couldn’t resist. “There might not be another opportunity and the children are young enough to travel,” he says, adding that Anna’s family are about to fly in from Sweden.
At least Sheen comes to Amadeus thoroughly grounded in its workings, having played the young Mozart in Sir Peter Hall’s staging nearly a quarter of a century ago. That production took him from the West End to Broadway and Los Angeles, and opened the doors to a film career that has included his flawless playing of British PM Tony Blair in The Queen, David Frost in Frost/Nixon (opposite Frank Langella, who played Salieri on Broadway in 1982) and the prestige TV series Masters of Sex. And let’s not forget Last Train to Christmas.
Sheen was 30 at the time; David Suchet played Salieri, the role Sheen steps into now.
“Peter [Hall] was an absolute legend. To get to know him a bit and listen to him talk about the play, that was so great,” says Sheen. “It was also my first time with the Old Vic and I just loved being a part of that. While we were on Broadway, Barry Humphries was doing his Dame Edna show. I saw him and I was absolutely blown away by the danger and the genius of it. He invited me to lunch, which was just lovely – and now Barry is here in Sydney and coming to see me again.”
Sheen remembers his Broadway and Los Angeles experiences fondly – mostly for their idiosyncrasies. For instance, on Broadway, “people clap you at the end of a speech, or clap you when you walk on stage after you’ve had a good review. The oddness of that!”
Playing Mozart remains the longest single theatre engagement of Sheen’s career. “It lasted about 18 months. It was quite hard going at times.” He played Mozart “like he had nuclear reactor inside him,” Sheen recalls. “It’s a positive creative force but it’s also destructive. He’s driven by it and has to try and keep up with it. All that scatological stuff he says, all the personality quirks, they are all coping mechanisms for someone being hurled through space at 1000 miles an hour.”
Playing the older role is no cakewalk either. Salieri is the storyteller, the main focus. One monologue charting the rise and fall of Mozart runs for several pages.
“The play is very demanding and I’m not in the shape I used to be,” says Sheen, who is 53. “I’ve had two children in the last few years, and what with work and everything that’s happened with Covid, it’s been hard to do all the exercise you need to do. I remember David [Suchet] was going to the gym all the time, he was in really good shape. And I … am not!”
That said, this relatively short Sydney season will allow Sheen to let rip to some extent, he says.
“There is much more freedom to explore when you’re playing Salieri … there’s a lot more room to try things out.”
Directed by Craig Illott, the Opera House production features western Sydney actor Rahel Romahn, 28, as Mozart.
“The thing with Mozart is that he’s a mirror to Salieri,” says Sheen. “Before Mozart came along, Salieri considered himself a risk-taker, a pioneering creative artist. Mozart introduces colours he hadn’t known before, concepts he wasn’t aware of. Mozart is an artist. Salieri is someone who has had a career.”
Which is why, Sheen explains, “Salieri has to smash the mirror.”
Is it inevitable that artists lose touch with the creative spark as careers burgeon and responsibilities grow? Does making great art get harder as you grow older?
“I actually don’t think it’s about age, so much,” Sheen says. “We all start off with a sense of an ideal and what we would like to achieve and strive for. It’s about balancing your career and your life responsibilities, but staying true to your original impetus. Are you satisfying yourself creatively? Are you challenging yourself? Are you developing and getting better? I think anyone creative worth their salt is asking themselves that every day.
“When you work on this play, you explore those insecurities and fears, and I have them just like anyone else does. In any part you explore, you look for the bits you connect with and then you amplify them and splash about with them a bit, and that’s what brings the piece to life. It’s not comfortable, but I quite enjoy that. In the end, if you don’t want to explore those things, you shouldn’t play Salieri.”
https://www.theguardian.com
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