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danny-chase · 3 years

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Do you think that Tim saved Dick in a way? Because we see Dick getting better as he gets closer to Tim and healing and getting back into the family, and ig it’s Tim who initiated that.

I literally don't have a yes or no answer for this... like most things in the Batfam - it's complicated. (Following answer is informed by 90s-00s comics, i can't really speak for new52 because it just... has so many issues one of which being erasing the relationship between Dick and Tim for *checks note* no discernable reason other than possibly *checks note* Didio hates legacy characters and wants only bad things for them so he could have excuses to kill them off or cancel their comics... idk just a guess)

Warnings: for Bruce stans - just look away i'm about to bring up bits of canon you most likely don't like, for Dick stans - Devin Grayson's run is mentioned, for the lovely anon - i wrote an essay, hope you are prepared

Tim coming into the family gave Dick a reason to occasionally hang around Bruce and i'm not sure if this is an exaggeration or not but he did sort of save that relationship - but whether that was a good or bad thing at the time, i can't really say. For sure - it starts off good, Bruce is actually trying to be a good dad (he comes down to Blud to check on Dick, adopts him, trusts him with his own city, calls him for backup, etc.). But we also see throughout Bruce Wayne: Fugitive/Murderer how unhealthy the relationship between the two can be. Dick built his core values around Bruce - if Bruce had actually killed here it would have been devastating for Dick (he was pretty much on the verge of a mental breakdown simply because they couldn't find proof Bruce wasn't guilty). The two literally got in a fist fight during the arc because Bruce was being uncommunicative and Dick couldn't take it anymore, snapped, and punched him when Bruce said "Bruce Wayne is dead only Batman now" - this tied into Dick finally having the relief and validation of being adopted and he couldn't handle Bruce stripping himself (and by extension, his fatherhood of Dick) away. In this era of comics Bruce had gotten physical with Dick before (here's me venting like an annoyed loser), and here's a clip from Bruce Wayne Fugitive that i just, *sigh*, canon Bruce, my detested.

Now on the other hand - getting Dick involved in the batfam more doesn't just mean he was hanging out with Bruce. His relationship with Tim is pretty great and I can definitely see where it was healing for a while - but also - to give credit where credit is due, the healing he goes through during this era of comics can also be attributed to Barbara and the Titans (the fab five specifically). Wally literally joins the Titans to give Dick a "social life" (me - it's because he's gay and wants to spend more time with Dick, actually, screw you DC you know i'm right). Donna plays a major part in keeping Dick's emotional well being in check. So like everything was going fine - Dick was healing, spending more time with friends, spending a lot of time with people he loved, like Tim, except he was neglecting his health and not sleeping - but overall he was in fact, managing, and moving past the deaths of Jason and some of the other Titans. With the current Titans - he was a hardass (which like ~trauma~ so I understand), but like things were going relatively okay.

And then Donna and Lilith died. And hooof Donna dying was like really really bad for his mental health.

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2003) #1

[Image ID: Dick sits in a room staring at a photo, the phone rings in the background, and he doesn't even acknowledge it, the voice mail plays: "I'm not here. Leave a message after the beep." The photo is shown closer in the next frame, it's of the five original Teen Titans - Roy kisses Donna on the cheek, tipping his hat his other hand making the okay sign, Donna has an arm around Roy, the other hand on Dick's shoulder, Garth proudly stands beaming with his hands on his hips, and Dick has both his arms around Wally's neck. Everyone is smiling in the photo. A voice plays over the answering machine: "Dick, it's Roy - pick up the phone... c'mon... please... I know you're there... just pick up. Dick, we need to talk... you can't just... please..." End ID]

For context - the previous page noted that this is Dick SIX WEEKS after Donna died. Usually Dick's the one who moves on quickly, but Donna dying broke him in a way nothing else had before - and that could be partly because he was still recovering from everyone else's death.

Up to this point, Dick had been healing and Tim was definitely a part of that, but then DC decided to throw the absolute book, bookshelf, and library at him. Reading Outsiders (2003) it's very clear he's very traumatized, and around the same time, Devin is literally whumping him like it's the whump Olympics, breaking him and Babs up, burning down his childhood home, blowing up his apartment complex (killing all but like two of his neighbors), he's literally sleeping on fire escapes using newspapers as covering because he has nothing, and the bad thing i don't like to think about (i'll let you know if you ask but that one needs lots of tw, but if you know where i'm going you know what it is already), Blockbuster is killed and he blames himself - and loses it over breaking Bruce's one rule, Bludhaven is nuked, and he pretty much tries to kill himself.

So basically, he was on the path to healing (with Tim as part of that) before he got absolutely destroyed (and almost killed off by Didio in one of the crisis). Tim in his own right, was also going through a lot in the meantime, his dad died, Steph died, Kon and Bart died, i don't remember what else happened and i haven't read that era of Robin yet. Things were good until they weren't anymore, and sometimes i think Dick would regret ever exposing Tim to the life they live, and questions whether he should have just sent Tim packing x2. They do get to spend a year together on a mental health cruise, but then Damian comes into the picture, Battle for the Cowl happens, and they have their falling out. But whatever happened on that cruise must have been really healing for Dick because he actually kind of rocks it in this era - he keeps things light with Damian, Alfred notes at one point how he makes things easy because he has lightness in him, and he patches things up with Tim - catching him in that panel of Red Robin - from there they kind of go back to normal, there's a lightness to the way they banter with each other (also here) and Tim returns the favor (from the Red Robin incident) by pulling Dick out of the water.

They've saved each other multiple times over (physically), and in both in the Black Mirror and Gates of Gotham, Tim helps out in a period where Dick is starting to fall apart from the pressure of holding things together for so long (something Tim might feel guilty for, because he did run away from Gotham on a wild goose chase for Bruce). In that period, it's really clear that Dick saves Tim (he reminds him in RR, that someone does actually care for him) and then Tim saves Dick from being torn apart by Gotham.

I should point out - Damian, while starting off as kind of a hinderance, does eventually start helping Dick as well. By the end of their relationship (before the New52 destroys everything i love), Dick has helped Damian grow emotionally, and through that process Dick probably finds meaning and value in their time together, probably a lot like he used to feel with Tim. And of course, physically, they've both saved each other multiple times by the end of the run.

So yeah. I think Dick finds meaning in growth in mentoring his younger brothers, and it's likely a healing process, that healing just has some twists and turns along the way, and sometimes, on bad days, he probably feels like maybe he shouldn't have intervened at all, but i think on most days, he's proud of what Tim's become.

...I hope this is coherent lmao

#the old: blame everything i hate about comics on Didio #thank god he got fired #tw suicide #i am so long winded oop #i'm in too deep #does this count as character meta?#maybe #Dick Grayson meta #Dick Grayson #Tim Drake #i'm kinda sad that Dick and Tim's relationship is misunderstood in a lot of fanon - because it's something that can be so personal #it's not as black and white as people seem to think #as in like... they're usually really good for each other and have a healthy dynamic #even in RR (I haven't read all of it) people take things out of context and just... ignore that Dick reached out to Tim afterwards #and like asked him to go to therapy (not arkham why are y'all obsessed with Dick throwing his brothers in arkham get help)#Tim also straight up throws Dick over his shoulder and starts a physical fight in that series #so... it can be a toxic relationship too but idk i like to highlight the good parts #i see a lot of - Dick begs for Tim's forgiveness for taking Robin away fics out there #but like there relationship isn't that simple #if they ever talked it out in canon - they'd have to address Tim lashing out physically at Dick (Dick would probably not be having it)#and the writers might then be like - hmm maybe we should address all the times we had Bruce hit him too #so like yeah i get why we never saw their reconciliation on panel (they just kinda were like okay we're fine now :D)#but still it's something i'd like to see explored from a more balanced perspective - instead of a - i project on Tim so he's always right #i probably also wouldn't be the best person to write it because i project on Dick too much #not that i would make Tim beg for Dick's forgiveness - Dick would forgive him in like .000001 seconds and def doesn't hold it against him #that's just how Dick is (he'd probably prefer if it wasn't brought up and they just pretend it never happened)#but also knowing Dick he probably feels guilty as fuck for the way RR went - which like *sigh* martyr #batfam #batfamily #batfam meta

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Why The Truth About Britney Spears Is So Elusive

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Britney Spears is one of the most-covered and least-known celebrities of the modern era. She is a millennial icon whose songs were the soundtrack of a generation. A choreographed contradiction from her earliest burst onto pop stardom, the singer became a blank canvass for anyone carrying a paint brush. The FX docuseries The New York Times Presents “Framing Britney Spears” is an attempt to find the artist’s place in the gallery. It is also searching for Britney’s whereabouts in general. Spears was placed into a conservatorship when she was 26 years old. That was 13 years ago this month, and she has been petitioning the court to have that changed.

Britney’s conservatorship, overseen by her father Jamie Spears, has been profitable. With a net worth of over $60 million, maybe too profitable to ever get resolved. It could be a form of life imprisonment and wannabe jailers appear to come out of the woodwork regularly in Britney’s career. Spears also currently has a restraining order against Sam Lutfi, one of her former managers.

According to “Framing Britney Spears,” court documents call the singer a “high-functioning conservatee.” Britney’s fans point out their favorite star released four albums, went on three world tours, performed a sold-out five-year residency in Las Vegas, was paid $15 million to be a judge on The X Factor, and put her name on a billion-dollar perfume line. Yet, she has been deemed incapable of taking care of her finances or life, and even when she can drive.The case is being proceeded over by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny.

For a pop queen in exile, Spears hasn’t been invisible. She’s been spotted at Starbucks with her boyfriend, Sam Asghari. She’s posted clips of her dancing, working out, painting, and giving impromptu fashion shows on Instagram during the coronavirus lockdown. Her posts, of course, only fuel the fire of conspiracy theorists, regardless of their apparent mood or meaning. Spears’ song titles like “Work Bitch,” “I’m a Slave 4 U,” and “”Out from Under,” could also be read as messages concerning her career.

Spears commands loyalty, and her fans love her. This is poignantly evident in Chris Crocker’s viral 2007 YouTube plea to “Leave Britney Alone.” The #FreeBritney movement rose up spontaneously after the conservatorship. The fan-produced podcast “Britney’s Gram” has dedicated itself to getting information to the public. Miley Cyrus shouted “Free Britney” during a performance. Paris Hilton and Rose McGowan have shown support. Britney’s mother Lynne Spears has been known to “like” comments with the #FreeBritney hashtag.

Samantha Stark, the director of The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears, freelanced as a choreographer while making the two-step into video journalism. Writing at The New York Times for the past 8 years, she also produced and directed episodes of The Weekly. Stark spoke with Den of Geek about the difficulties of reporting on Spears’ conservatorship, and the future of journalism in a changing media climate.

Den of Geek: What drew you to Britney, of all the cases?

Samantha Stark: We started filming this before a lot of these court filings about the conservatorship started happening. The original concept was to look back at media coverage of her through this 2020-then-lens, post-MeToo and post when things like talking about mental health are more mainstream. There’s not as much stigma. Looking back at the media coverage of her from the early 2000s feels so shocking now. That was the original concept. Then while we were filming, these court filings started pouring in.

Could you have picked two better names for this case than Wallet and Judge Penny?

Right? There are a lot of similar names that run throughout it. You have Jamie Spears and Lynn Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears. You have a lot of Kevins, just like a ton of Kevins running throughout. There are a lot of Sams also in Britney’s story. There are a lot of re-occurring names. But yeah, Andrew Wallet.

What’s the first misconception “Framing Britney Spears” will clarify for the casual Britney Spears fan?

A huge misperception of her, that I had going into the project, is a lot of people think that the creation of her image and the music that she does and the way her shows are and the outfits she wears are other people’s decisions. But what I learned over and over again was how much of a say in her early career, including “Baby One More Time” at the very beginning, she had in her image and the way she was presented. How involved she was creatively in every show she did and every music video she made, particularly at the beginning of her career. I think a lot of people think she’s this puppet that was sexualized as a teenager and didn’t know it. And I think, from talking to the people who worked with her then, that that was her. She had a really big say in that.

From my unscientific survey, asking everyone I came into contact with “what’s the first thing they think of when they think of Britney Spears”: A lot of people say, “Oh, that time she shaved her head,” or “the picture where she shaved her head.” One of the reasons it’s called “Framing Britney Spears” is there seems to be these very few still-image frames in our collective subconscious, that burned into us when we remember her.

We went into it wanting to figure out how we could learn what was behind the frame, outside of the frame. I think a lot of people don’t realize all the different factors that were leading up to that point. A lot of people don’t realize that she was going through a custody battle then and how important her role as a mother was to her, or is to her still. There’s a lot of pulling back the curtain we could do.

Danny Ramos, the photographer we interviewed, was one of the only people doing video during the big paparazzi explosion. We wanted to talk to him and use his video, so you could see what was happening outside of the frame. He describes the time with the umbrella, that’s another big photo that people remember, like the head shaving. What people don’t realize is how upset she was that day because she was trying to see her kids and wasn’t able to. And how much he pushed her buttons before that happened, some deep buttons. So that’s outside of the frame.

Another one is the central mystery of our film. I think a lot of people don’t know that Britney Spears is still in a court-sanctioned conservatorship and that, for most of the 12 years, her father was the one in charge of her personal, medical, and economic decisions. He controls what happens with her money. The central mystery of our piece is something that Joe Coscarelli, one of our reporters, says in the film: “She’s living the life of a busy pop star, and yet we’re told she’s at risk constantly.” How is someone who can live the life of a busy pop star also be so at risk that she can’t make basic decisions for herself like medical-care decisions, where she lives, contracts, what to do with her money?

Britney’s lawyer, Adam Streisand, mentions a health report he wasn’t allowed to see, and was told by the judge it was justified withholding. I’ve seen a lot of reported diagnoses on the internet. Do you have any idea what that report said specifically?

Absolutely not. I think that’s important. Part of the difficulty with reporting on conservatorships, Britney’s and also any conservatorship, is that a lot of it has to do with medical records. Also, they do have court investigators that go out and interview the people involved. They have different kinds of people who submit reports about the person, and they’re protected under HIPAA and also allow the person some privacy.

Britney has signaled recently through her court filings that she doesn’t want her records to be sealed, that she wants people to be able to see them. But that’s particularly with her estate, which is different from the medical records. Who knows if she would want people to see that report also? But her conservators and lawyers in the past have decided it’s against her best interest. That’s something else interesting about conservatorships, is that other people decide what is in the person’s best interest. As Britney is performing in Vegas, other people are deciding for her what’s in her best interest all the time.

Since we don’t know anything about that report, we don’t know if Britney has a mental health diagnosis. She could not, there could be nothing actually in that realm. A lot of people like to speculate what kind of mental illness she might have, but we don’t know if she even has one. I think that’s important to remember.

Britney’s request for an outside independent party taking conservatorship seems like the most rational solution to the situation. Why is this so difficult?

That is the question. It seems as if Britney requests, “I don’t want my father in charge of being a conservator of the estate. I want this trust, Bessemer Trust, instead.” Yet her father is still in charge. That is legal. The judge made that decision. We don’t know why. A lot of questions about the conservatorship system, as a whole, have been brought up during this process. When someone is under a conservatorship, they are under a conservatorship because it’s considered that they cannot act in their own best interest. Conservatorships are mostly given to the elderly with Alzheimer’s, because a lot of people try to take advantage of people with Alzheimer’s and get them to sign over their money or their wills. And this was put in place to protect those people, which is really necessary.

It’s confusing because Britney is not. It’s a very unique situation, they always say, but we don’t know why.Jamie’s argument is that he has been doing a good job on this for the past 12 years. Her estate has grown, and that if he gets taken off and a whole new company takes over, it can harm her. Bessemer Trust does this professionally. They manage people with gigantic estates’ money all the time. So, the merits of that argument are questionable. But the judge decided that way. She’d left the door open. She didn’t decide he’s definitely staying on. She didn’t do an emergency suspension. That’s what they were asking for. They could still file to remove him.

These legal processes take a really long time, and as they’re happening, everybody’s getting paid. Britney’s estate pays the lawyers on both sides. She pays for her own lawyers, and then she pays for the lawyers arguing against her own lawyers, as well as the conservators’. That is oftentimes what happens with the conservatorship system. That’s also a place where people point to as something that could be a systemic issue in conservatorship systems: are these lawyers always acting in her best interest while also getting paid as long as the conservatorship is in place?

Is Britney a hostage, or is this a self-imposed exile?

I have no idea. We don’t know. Another really hard part of reporting this is there’s such a strong circle around Britney, seemingly controlling who she interacts with, because of the conservatorship, that we can’t talk to her. And she has not said anything publicly on her social media. Through her court documents, she said she appreciates the long “informed support” of her fans and that she “doesn’t want this battle hidden away like a family secret.”

Those were quotes from her court documents written by her lawyer, Sam Ingham, who legally is responsible for speaking for her since she’s not legally necessarily supposed to speak for herself. She could. So, that’s a mystery. Why isn’t she saying anything? Is it because there are people around her stopping her, or is it because she doesn’t want to say anything? Maybe Britney doesn’t want to talk to anyone about this. We have no idea. It makes it very frustrating to report on.

Just because you report on something doesn’t mean you agree with it. Do you think Spears speaks in code on her Instagram posts?

I don’t know. I have looked at every post since 2015 and some before that. It’s really fascinating to look at. Something about her Instagram that I love was this period of time where she was posting a lot of herself with her kids. It was just so beautiful to see her as a mom, because I know from talking to people close to her, that’s the number-one thing she’s ever wanted, to be a mom and to be seen as a mom. So those are really moving to me. Whether or not she’s speaking in code with other things, it’s so hard to tell because they’re always so surprising what she puts up there.

It seems she’s been doing it consistently, even in her songs throughout her career.

Yeah. It is interesting to listen to some of her songs now that we’ve seen all this come out in court. Even the song “Overprotected.” Listening to that now, wow. It has such a different meaning knowing that she does not want her father to be “protecting” her. A lot of her music videos and music has this bondage theme. Britney is often seen in chains or in cages. Also, a lot of themes of people taking from her, like “Gimme More.”

I think people haven’t taken that seriously, but when you look at it and you think of these as art and expression, even if she doesn’t have a song-writing credit on the songs a lot. Felicia [Culotta], her assistant and friend, who’s been with her for most of her career, said she would go into the studio and talk to the people who were writing the songs about what was happening in her life. And they would often write songs based off of what she was saying, which I guess is standard in the industry. I didn’t know. But we can draw our own conclusions to why there is such a big theme, yeah, of bondage and of people taking stuff from her.

Britney was a trendsetter musically. She explored dubstep, and she really is the face of the millennials. Do you think the #FreeBritney movement will also become a millennial icon?

Well, one of the things I find so compelling about the #FreeBritney movement is talking to Kim Kaiman, who was the marketing director at Jive Records. She was the person who met Britney when she first came in at 15, and decided how to market her, what her image was going to be. She very much expressed that she wanted it to be based off of who Britney actually was as a person. She describes her as “your friend that you kind of idolize a bit and look up to, but is the same as you, has the same hopes and dreams as you have.” And the 12, 13-year-old preteen age was who they were marketing her towards, I think she really connected with that.

Kim says she captured so well the dichotomy of what a teenage girl is. Teenage girls want to be grown women, but they’re also kids. It’s this wanting to be sexy and in control feeling that she captured that really spoke to these young people. Almost everyone in #FreeBritney who I talked to was in their late 20s or early 30s. So they were that age then. They were those kids that she was being sold to. I feel like the idea that she’s your friend really carried over, because they’re like, “This is my friend that they’re doing this to. I have to go stop it,” from what they said to me.

When they were that age, she was sold as this perfect, all-American girl. Kevin Wu, who’s one of the #FreeBritney organizers, says this in the film. He was saying finding out that she wasn’t perfect, that time where she was super vulnerable to people, and she was having public issues. I hate saying meltdown because I really don’t know what it was. But the vulnerability that she showed there really, really speaks to this group, and also, I would say, that age bracket in general.

I keep quoting people, but Felicia, it’s not in the film, said “Britney was judged and criticized for who she was. Even when she came out as a teenager, she was judged and criticized for being too sexy. A lot of people who are kind of these outsiders or people who were bullied or LGBTQ people, they were judged and criticized for who they were when they were younger, and so there’s this connection. They can relate to each other.” She said, “Britney relates to them as well.”

There’s kind of this counterculture fandom that the #FreeBritney people are like the people who were bullied when they were younger. And it is kind of millennial. We want to be more open talking about mental health. We don’t want bullying. We want diversity. I do think that it really speaks to that.

You worked extensively with the #FreeBritney movement players. In the review, I wrote you treated them like stringers. How do you rate them as journalists?

I would not say that we treated them like stringers because we did all our own reporting ourselves. We have our own journalists. Liz Day, who’s featured in the piece. Everything that they were finding out and bringing up we independently investigated and verified, absolutely. But I will say, I think they became their own investigators for themselves. There weren’t people doing investigations into it when they first started in 2019. And so, they definitely became their own investigators trying to dig up court documents. But we definitely did that ourselves.

But part of the story is that they became these investigators, so we do feature that in the story. It’s fascinating. Some lawyers are involved with #FreeBritney, and they know how to find the publicly available court documents. They would take them and put them online and highlight them. And as soon as a new court document would come out, like if Sam Ingham, Britney’s court-appointed attorney, would file something new, they would know immediately and post it online and dissect it. But we did that ourselves too.

It’s so much easier for us to do it because we have a full infrastructure set up for it. These people were spending so much time. The reason they started doing the investigating is because there wasn’t any media covering it, and they really wanted that. They wanted people to look into this. And so, they started doing it themselves, and it got a lot of attention. Then the media did look into it.

We had an investigation into her conservatorship in 2016, so we were one of the only people to be looking at it in that way. It was by the reporter who’s in the film, Joe Coscarelli. They did this “Is Britney Spears Ready to Stand on Her Own” questioning: is she ready to not be in this conservatorship? A lot of people are interested in it because of what they started digging up.

I see it similar to the hijacking of right-wing hashtags by the K-pop stans or what’s happening right now with the GameStop stock. The community is bringing the attention and journalism is keeping up with it.

The fact also that the age of a lot of these people means they’re so adept at internet culture and social media culture. They are using social media in a sophisticated way to get people to pay attention to them, for sure.

Do you think Britney had any idea how creepy the Star Search Q&A with Ed McMahon was, or was she just blindsided by the stupidity of it?

I think you can look at her face and be the judge of that. She was 10, but she handled it very well. I think it boded for the future of men asking inappropriate things to her. She just kind of like, “It depends. Boys are mean. It depends.” She kind of shook it off quite well as a ten-year-old.

And you see her in our piece later, when there are men asking her inappropriate questions, she sidesteps it in a really good way, in a really way that’s interesting to watch.

The shocking one was her being told about a mother saying that she wanted to shoot her because she was a bad influence.

The wife of a governor, by the way. That’s the kind of thing that you look at and you wonder would it happen now? I think we’ve come some way of not trying to shame people for their sexuality, but who knows?

There’ve always been persistent dark rumors about Britney, along with other celebrities who reach a certain tier. Why do you think people are so eager to demonize them?

Well, I wonder if that is still true today. I feel like it was very true during this height of the tabloid era, like 2004 to 2009. We’re not as eager to enjoy celebrities’ crashing and burning. If they’re going to rise, they have to fall, that kind of narrative. I feel like our culture is not as into that now. I think we’re less mean-spirited. And I don’t know. That’s what I was trying to figure out this entire time making this piece. Like, why? Why Britney? Why are we, as a culture, consuming all of this?

The reason that there was paparazzi around her all the time is because it sold. We consume that. It sold the magazines better than any other light “storylines.” I don’t know why. I mean, just my opinion, maybe the idea of what could be beautiful in society and perfect in society was so narrow that people were resentful of that. The majority of the US Weekly readers were women, so the majority of people buying those photographs were women. Is it because this ideal was so narrow back then that people became jealous and resentful of her? Now, I think the standard of beauty has opened up much wider, but that’s just my guess.

One of the experts says she’s never seen anyone successfully terminate a conservatorship. If Britney does succeed, will that upset the guardianship designation in the future?

Only time will tell. Who knows? I mean, if there are issues within the system that need to come to light, I think it would help them come to light.

Just because we’re Den of Geek and you’re from The New York Times, I have to ask, are you at all related to Tony Stark?

You know, I get that question a lot, and the true answer is we don’t know.

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The New York Times Presents “Framing Britney Spears” debuts Feb. 5 on FX and FX on Hulu.

The post Why The Truth About Britney Spears Is So Elusive appeared first on Den of Geek.

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headlesssamurai · 4 years

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My Lazy, Poor, Stupid Person’s Attempt to Paint Tabletop Miniatures

by headless

This has nothing to do with covid-19 really, it’s just something I reckoned I’d share. For several years I’ve played Dungeons & Dragons, and occasionally others like Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green, or Shadowrun. Though, I say ‘play’, when I mostly run games as a Dungeon Master. It’s one of those “hobbies” that is a lot of fun for someone like me, but requires a ton of dedication, so it isn’t always easy to get a dedicated group together.

Anyhow, I generally homebrew settings and adventures, never really been too big on running pre-written games, even if some of them are fantastically written. And one of the most frustrating things is I some times want to have a miniature on the battle grid that looks a certain way. This is hardly a big deal, since miniatures are just markers meant for reference in combat encounters, the real image of the characters is in all of our heads.

Still, I sometimes want to have something especially specific, a lot of the players in my current group appreciate cool looking miniatures, and seeing as I’m usually hard-up for cash, I can’t always buy pre-painted mini-figures, unless I get a good bulk deal on ebay or something.

One of my recent attempts to acquire bulk miniatures came a few years back when I realized during the 4E days, Wizards of the Coast had released boxed board games themed with the D&D style, which all came with a great deal of unpainted miniatures; these came in sets like Wrath of Ashardalon, or The Legend of Drizzt, with lots of themed minis for the board game’s scenario.

Anyhow, I’ve had a ton of these unpainted miniatures forever and use them often for nobody-NPCs and other characters the players run across. Lately, however, the group I’ve been running in a campaign for about eleven months (usually weekly), ran across a problem where their dragonborn ranger Grixxis was captured by and then negotiated his away out of the clutches of this ancient entity who calls herself Gorgoth (who appears to be a pale, beautiful young woman, but probably isn’t; even the not so arcane-y Grixxis intuited that much). She was actually impressed that he resisted her Sleep spell, and offered him a deal, she’d let him go but he needs to complete a task for her in the next seven days, and if it isn’t completed in that time frame his soul will be bound to her forever.

The task was to go to a mountaintop and retrieve something that resides there, though Gorgoth did not explain what the object was, so the party set off to find this mysterious mountain. The journey led them to an area of bad wilderness where no one lives, and where roving bands of orcs constantly hunt and war with one another, so only a few people know anything about that region. The party ended up hiring a guide, who was a wood elf exile named Skaya. They seemed to be intrigued by her because she’s living in a city which is currently at war with wood elves, so there’s a lot of prejudice and racism against her kind. Skaya does have facial tattoos that indicate she’s been exiled from her tribe and therefore no longer truly considered by her people to be a wood elf (their worst form of punishment in this universe), but still, the party seemed immediately fascinated by this single NPC among the potential seven or so they might’ve hired for this expedition.

Anyhow, my players have only gotten truly invested in one other NPC they’ve met before this; a small little orc toddler named Gruuba who they saved from a bunch of slave trading bandits early on in the campaign. I’ve had difficulty finding a good miniature for Gruuba too (because she’s really small and scrawny), but since she’s at the same developmental level as a human six year-old they try to keep her out of combat scenarios (despite Gruuba’s excited insistence that she enjoys using clubs “for smashings”). Since the party have begun to really enjoy Skaya as character, the longer they’ve slowly, slowly gotten to know more about her stand-offish personal history, I really wanted to get a miniature for her that reflected my image of her better than the one I’d been using.

So, even though I got basically no experience doing so, I bought a miniature from Reaper Miniatures, and after looking up a few tutorial vids for beginners like me, I set about trying to paint my first mini-figs.

Two things, if you’re looking into this yourself; First, I’m not totally unartistic, I write creatively and I sketch with pencils and ink. Painting’s fairly new to me, but it’s not like I have absolutely no artistic talent. I also solder a lot of really small wires and components in my normal daily job, so I may have better muscle control for this sort of thing than some people. I only mention this because I may have had a few advantages in this undertaking. I just don’t want to make people overly confident, keep things in perspective. So whatever your level of expertise at this, if you want to start just try to patiently measure your expectations, and don’t get discouraged if your first results aren’t so great. All things improve with time.

And B. if you’re poor, lazy, and stupid like me, there’re ways to get around that. This video I watched gave me a good rundown of the basic steps which are; - scrub the plastic down with some dish soap, luke-warm water, and a toothbrush; allow at least 1 hour to dry (I let them sit for a day because I’m paranoid), and be sure there’s no lingering moisture before you start painting - get a good primer or base coat on the model before you start adding other colors; lighter base coats allow more colors to show up easier, while darker base coats tend to make the colors you paint over them darker - stay calm and take your time - try to paint the colors that’ll go under other colors first, like, if a barbarian dude is shirtless but’s wearing a few pieces of armor, paint his shirtless skin first, then paint the armor he’s wearing second because it layers over better that way - use thinner paints and multiple coats of a color to get an even final color instead of one thick coat - allow each coat of paint to dry for 10 - 20 minutes before applying the next coat - learn about washes, pigments, and inks, because they’re awesome - get a decent varnish for a final protective coat, matte varnishes make the model look dryer and flat, gloss varnishes make the model look shiny and wet, if you do a coat of gloss and a coat of matte varnish it equalizes it pretty good

And this video here sort of laid to rest my fears that I’ll need to spend $600 on paints and washes and stuff. The very helpful lady in that video explains how she uses generic acrylic paints from the craft store (I got mine at Wal-Mart) to paint her Warhammer miniatures, and she even offers a method of making your own washes from a combination of paint and flavorless mouth wash. It’s genius. So try not to stress too much about buying the really nice brand name paints, because it’s not necessary, those paints just have an optimal mix I think, otherwise they’re the same damn thing as generic acrylic paints. Also, you’re just trying to learn, so unless you really, really feel like emptying your bank account, just use the generic stuff.

I started out painting something I didn’t care about. I wanted my miniature for Skaya to look badass and awesome, so I wanted to start with some practice miniatures. Grabbed a few from those 4E board game sets and gave it a shot. But I had also recently gotten hold of a Goliath Barbarian miniature from the Player’s Handbook Heroes sets (also from the 4E days) a rare find, since it usually goes for like $60.00 by itself. Randomly found some dude on ebay selling an unopened box set for $20.00, so I got a wild elf druid and a human berserker along with it. So I started out touching up the goliath’s armor to make it look more like armor and less like weird blue stuff.

Here’s a before-and-after for him (I didn’t take photos of them before because I wasn’t anticipating this, so I just found examples from around the web):

Next I tried a re-paint. A friend of mine had recently guest-played in my campaign and created a half-drow monk (his backstory was fantastic), so since nothing like that exists, I took a Soulknife Infiltrator miniature seen here:

And repainted it to sort of look like his half-drow Monk of the Open Palm:

I finally had the courage to do a full paint, so I grabbed the Dragonborn Elementalist from the Wrath of Ashardalon box, and painted her up with reddish scales (I’m one of those who thinks dragonborn should have physical attributes of their heritage).

In the box her name’s Heskan. I definitely used way too much wash on this one so she looks super shiny.

I then took the orc archers in that same box, and not really paying too much attention this time, quickly painted them, because I lack many orc archers:

At this point, I felt it was time to finally paint Skaya, the wood elf exile. I used the Reaper Bones model Deladrin, Female Assassin ($1.99) for Skaya’s mini.

And taking way more hours than I did on the others, which were only about 1-3 hours each, when you count waiting for the coats to dry, I managed to sort of make her look like Skaya, I guess:

After this, the fact that it wasn’t complete and utter shit, which is what I expected, I was encouraged. So I tried to do out party’s tortle cleric, named Daruuk of Chult (who oddly speaks with a Slavic accent, so that’s how people from Chult sound in our campaign), for whom we’ve lacked an accurate mini-figure for some time. I bought a pack of Spikeshell Warriors ($2.99) from the Reaper Bones line.

But Daruuk characteristically wields a large shield and a warhammer, so for some reason I got super detailed and bought a pack of loose shields from the Reaper Bones line ($0.99), then bought Halbarad ($1.49) a human cleric.

I clipped off Halbarad’s hammer at the hilt, then I trimmed the spikes off of the spikeshell warrior’s club, and used a dremel to carfully mill a hole inside the shaft of the spikeshell’s club, then pinned the hammer inside and secured it with gorilla gel. I used an actual cork board pin to push the shield onto the spikshell’s offhand after cutting off his turtle shell shield in order to pin it before gluing, then clipped off the rest of the cork board pin. Somehow, this ended up making the shield look meaner because it now has a like pyramidal spike sticking out the center. After allowing the glue to dry I painted him up, and my attempt at Daruuk the Death Cleric turned out thus:

I guess his hammer looks sort of Acme-level cartoony, but he’s a giant 350 lb. turtle-man who talks like Omega Red from X-Men The Animated Series, so I’m okay with that. The spikeshell also fits well with the razorback sub-race feature I allowed Daruuk’s player to homebrew for himself. I was really proud of this one.

Finally, because I’m an insane asshole who is getting obsessed with my new hobby, I decided it was dragons or bust. So I bought a pre-primed unpainted Young Blue Dragon from WizKids ($13.99).

And spent, like, three days meticulously testing different paint layers to see how they come out. I tried to paint her in the tradition of blue dragons as they appear in the art of Forgotten Realms material, but gave her a somewhat darker cast, and added metallic blue layers to her claws and spinal ridges. I still need to paint her base, put some highlights on her eyes to accentuate the glowing effect and add my washes to give her a final layer of dimension, but here’s how she came out so far:

Behold, Stormfang! Mistress of Thunder...

Anyhow.

This is super long and I wonder if anyone will bother to read any of it. But just wanted to put this out there. From a dude who, if you asked me a year ago if I thought I could do this, I’d have said I’m too stupid, poor, and lazy. I still think of myself as all of those things. The real pros use crazy detailed techniques with like seven layered highlights on their models, and airbrushes and all kinds of other madness. I use maybe three coats total and I don’t get too worked up if I make a mistake here and there, and I haven’t spent more than maybe fifty bucks total across six weeks, and most of that was wasting paints because I was still learning how to mix different shades.

So if you got something you feel like you’ve always wanted to do but are too stupid, poor, and lazy to figure out, just go for it yo. I managed to crack out these bastards and I still think I suck, but it’s way better looking than I expected. For real though, you should see some of those Warhammer players, they got mad crazy god skills at this stuff compared to me. But your level of skill isn’t the point. The point is to have that moment with that thing you did, and look at it, and just go “Yeh, I did that” when at one time you never believed you ever could.

There’s always going to be somebody better than you, but even they, like all of us, are still learning.

侍 headless

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alvaar-aldaviir · 4 years

Text

Wondrous Tails: Listening to Music / Polyamory Discussion

This is going to be my last official prompt entry for the Wondrous Tails of FFXIV event. It's been an absolute blast, and I suppose no better way then to cap it off on a dual prompt my bingo board just gave me. With my Bard. And the weird road he's taken to get here.

Time Frame: Post Canon (years after Shadowbringers) Very minimal spoilers.

Notes: All characters are aged up. Mentioned possible poly relationship between my WoL and the twins. No, there won't be incest, ship what you like but I still don't think it fits the twins' personalities.

Also I have no idea how I keep writing from Alisaie's perspective but it keeps happening and I'm not even going to argue at this point.

Her brother was hopeless in matters of love. It was something Alisaie had long known about him, especially after having to endure the misplaced affections of several of his numerous crushes in the Studium. But watching him around Alvaar was borderline painful by proxy at times.

She’d thought it odd, the way he had immediately excused himself from the lavish hall of the Canopy as soon as Alvaar had taken up his harp and the amused snort the Bard made as he left. Yet another inside joke between them it seemed, and again one she hadn’t the faintest what it meant.

Having heard Alvaar’s music many times before she knew it wasn’t that he was terrible. In fact, his cheeky quip of being a ‘Bard of Bards’ sounded fairly accurate as she’d seldom met anyone rivaling the pull and sway of that skilled tenor and accompanying harp. Music hadn’t been any form of her specialty or interest in her studies, but she knew enough to tell when someone was good. Hells any random passerby who stopped in could tell that he was exceptional. A fair few had even found a seat and ordered food and drink to enjoy while they waited out yet another of Gridania’s torrential downpours.

Perhaps it was given his long years as a Bard of battle, raising voice and lyre to inspire and weave bolstering magic with his allies, which lent a persuasive pull to his songs. There was a... sincerity, she supposed. Buried deep in every tune ringing off strings and lyrics resonating in his voice. Age old stories and memories wrapped up in each song and if she closed her eyes it was almost as if she could see them herself.

Far off battles for ancient kingdoms. The journey and trials of heroes. The giddiness of a wild flight through open skies. The sorrow and determination of a Queen of ice.

And though there was no trace of Bardsong in his movements, no telltale hum of potent resonance as he wove supportive spells, she could vaguely read a subtle shift of aether. Not enough to invoke anything, but there nonetheless, shifting about him as if charmed by his song.

It explained a great deal she supposed, if his regular singing could tune and prime surrounding aether. Several of his clever tricks and impressive feats in their adventures made more sense if that were the case.

But even if she enjoyed his songs, it wasn’t in her nature to sit idle while the sun was still up. Rising to her feet after an hour she made for the door. A bit of rain didn’t mean she couldn’t explore the indoor market space or perhaps brush up a few skills in one of the practice yards.

It was just as she was clearing the door that a familiar shock of white caught her periphery, surprised to find her twin on the porch still, seated against the corner of the building and sketchbook on his lap. For a moment she pondered leaving him be before discarding the notion. What was the fun of that? Much more interesting to find if he would be too absorbed in his work to notice her approach when she doubled back to try the south exit and creep up over his shoulder that way.

“From memory, dear brother?” she asked abruptly as she studied his half-finished drawing, smirking as Alphinaud startled and almost dropped his charcoal stick. And even if he quickly and quite huffily clapped the book closed, they both knew the damage was done.

“Invasive as ever, dear sister,” he returned flatly.

“You know Alvaar would likely hold still for a portrait if you asked,” she commented lightly, leaning against the corner wall, and crossing her arms over her chest with a smug air.

“It’s just practice,” he murmured. “Nothing I would need him specifically for.”

“Mmm. So why, if I may ask, are you seated out here, in less than ideal conditions, sketching pictures of a man who’s been sitting fairly still and inside with better lighting?” she inquired.

“I like the peace and quiet actually, and ordinarily the privacy, but it seems rather lacking in it today,” he clipped back.

“Funny, I can still hear Alvaar just fine from here. Almost uncannily so...”

At that he merely shook his head and stared out over the lake the Roost overlooked, expression pensive and clearly not in the mood for their usual banter.

“... You should tell him you love him,” Alisaie stated after a moment, glancing down to meet his surprised stare. “Oh please... I’m your twin. I know you’ve been enamored with him longer than I have whether you want to admit it or not.”

A soft noise left his throat, trying for words and clearly meaning to protest before breathing out a heavy sigh and his shoulders slumping in defeat. It was probably one of the most miserable looks she’d seen on him in some time, and the notion of it grated on her nerves far more than she liked.

“And to what end?” he asked quietly. “I’ve no interest in hazarding the bonds we’ve built and driving a wedge between you and I, Alisaie. He seems quite taken with you, so I’ve no wish to jeopardize that for my own self-interest.”

“We’re casual. There’s nothing there for you to jeopardize,” the Red Mage answered simply.

“But you wish there were,” he returned promptly, meeting her gaze with a moment of resigned and knowing maturity.

It was enough to still her reflexive scoff and the lie that wanted to spring from her tongue. Damn it. Even after all these years he still had those moments of being infuriatingly mature. “... I do,” she answered.

“Then I’m not about to hazard that,” he stated firmly.

Sighing deeply, she lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose a moment. “Alphinaud... just because we’re minutes apart does not make me a child needing to be coddled from the world. Don’t sacrifice your own happiness because you believe mine more deserving. I’m a grown woman, I will be able to handle whatever he may choose.”

Silence filled the space between them, only accented by the hiss of rain and distant hum of harp and voice. Brow knitting in irritation as her brother continued to stay mired in his thoughts with no sign of changing his mind, she blew out a slow sigh for patience.

“Who’s to say he picks either of us anyway? .... Who’s to say he won’t pick us both?” she tosses out flippantly.

“Begging your pardon?!” Alphinaud blustered, staring at her in stupefied surprise.

Giving a one-armed shrug she gestured vaguely with her other hand. “I’m just saying that historically, things tend to work out where Alvaar is concerned. You never quite know how they will until they do, but neither will you find out just sitting around being miserable. And I’m not about to thank you for martyring your own feelings on my behalf, Alphinaud. You’re my brother. My twin. The one constant I can count on if no one else. If the world threatening to end several times hasn’t managed to change that, what makes you think the Warrior of Light could either?”

Glancing at him and the sincere surprise and sentiment in his eyes she looked away with a huff, resettling her stance to ease some of the embarrassment she was feeling.

“Do you mean that?” he asked softly.

“Of course I do and you know it. ... Besides, we’ve shared everything else most of our lives. If we could manage to handle sharing Angelo growing up, I think we could manage this too,” she reasoned casually.

“A dog is a far cry from a mutual boyfriend, Alisaie,” Alphinaud mumbled, face staining a bit red even just speaking of it.

“Well it would certainly make a more sensible reason for sharing the same house now wouldn’t it?” she teased, flashing him a grin at the inside joke.

Blinking at her in puzzlement for a moment, he finally gave a soft chuckle when it clicked. “You still remember that? Gods that was... over a decade ago now I think,” he mused tapping at his chin with a knuckle in thought.

“Of course. And I’m still just as intent on spiting that old bat now as I was then,” Alisaie confirmed.

She could still remember with perfect clarity the words Alphinaud had thrown back at their first instructor. An overly prim and proper Roegadyn woman who had picked and pried at them during and after lessons for always being together. ‘What will you do when you’re grown and married?’ she’d challenged them one day, haughty toned and dismissive as she’d stared down at them. ‘We’ll all live in the same house together of course!’ he’d shot back angrily, as if it were the most obvious solution in the world. Because at the time, and to them, it was.

If they weren’t meant to be together, two sides of a coin, why be born twins at all?

Giving an amused snort at the memory she pushed herself upright fully and stretched. “Maybe we can get another dog too. That would be nice.”

“You’re serious?” Alphinaud asked, tone still wary with disbelief.

“Sure. If you pay for it, I may even let you name it this time.”

“Not about the dog, Alisaie,” he sighed, ruffling his hair in exasperation. “You know what I meant.”

“I meant what I said Alphinaud. If you can be fine with whatever outcome happens, I can be fine with it to. If he picks you, or me, neither of us, or even both of us. It won’t change anything between us,” she answered firmly. “But if you don’t tell him because you’re worried about me, I’ll never let you hear the end of it.”

Sitting back against the wall, the Scholar made a slight face at the threat before he looked thoughtful instead of withdrawn. “I’ll... consider it.”

That was progress of some form at least she supposed, and that would have to do for now.

“Very well! But note I do demand payment for my invaluable advice,” she intoned haughtily, drawing herself up grandly before striding away. “Finish up that portrait and leave it in my inn room before sundown and I’ll waive my travel expenses too. If you need me, I’ll be in the markets.”

She didn’t need to look back to know the put-upon expression he’d be making. Just as she knew that half-finished picture of the Bard would be complete and on her bedside table when she retired to it.

“Hey Ali!” Alvaar greeted her cheerily, face flushed from liquor and a slight slur on his words. He was sitting at a table when she arrived back to the Roost during sunset, leaned heavily against the furniture and various bottles littering around him.

“What did you do?” she asked flatly, hands settling on her hips as she surveyed the scene disapprovingly.

“Nothin! Just... playin and singin and need booze fer my throat,” he chirped, smiling brightly.

“And about drunk off your arse. Come on, let’s get you to bed, it’s getting late.” Stepping closer she moved to help him up but stopped when he pressed a hand to her arm and held fast.

“Nah... ahm good. Dun worry bout me,” he soothed, smiling warmly. “Help will be along soon. Always does when I stop playin.”

Raising a brow at him, she sighed and opted to humor him. While she could certainly haul him to bed with the wiry strength she’d gained with her growth spurt and years of Red Mage training, trying to force Alvaar into anything when he didn’t want to was a recipe for failure. And bruises, as she’d learned once before on accident.

Grabbing up the empty bottles she took them to the counter for disposal, perking up at Alvaar’s next enthusiastic greeting while the proprietress made off with the bottles.

“Hey Alphi!”

Turning to watch her brother finally make his appearance from the stairs, she stayed put at the bar and waited. Noting the way Alvaar brightened in that quiet way of his, nodding and answering whatever questions Alphinaud had for him. The way her twin’s expression softened with a lovesick fondness even as he fretted over the Bard gently while Alvaar leaned into him for support instead of the table.

A few years ago, she’d spotted the easy trust between them. How they could speak without words almost as well as Alphinaud and she could. The confidence in each other and way they both eased when together. It had been an alien feeling, vexing in a way she couldn’t describe. Half worried she was losing her brother, and half convinced the flame of a crush she’d held for Alvaar was already a lost cause.

In some way she still worried, but if the many years fighting side by side against the threats of Source and Shards alike hadn’t diminished any of the bonds between them and only managed to strengthen them instead, she told herself there was little reason to pay it much mind.

“Ah, that’s a sight I haven’t seen in some time,” the Elezen woman behind the counter remarked softly, drawing Alisaie’s attention for a moment. She was an almost plain woman, with cropped ashen brown hair and simple dress, but the air of gentle confidence and friendliness was refreshing in a city that tended to huff at outsiders.

“A few years ago it would be almost weekly they would be here, Alvaar entertaining my patrons until he could barely stand, and young Alphinaud finally swooping in to see him off to bed like clockwork,” she mused aloud as if to no one in particular. “Alvaar used to get so sad when he played late into the night after he went to Ishgard. It was as if the sound of a broken heart was on those strings. It’s so nice that his music has its joy again.”

Blinking at her quietly for a moment, she looked back at the pair with a small nod. “Yea, it is,” she murmured.

“And they’ve grown up so much over the years too. Why, I remember when Alphinaud was still almost elbow height! And he used to boss our poor Bard around all the time and Taelis would get so furious with him he’d stomp out at all hours of the day. Of course, at the time Alvaar barely said a word so it was definitely on his behalf… It took Alvaar so long to come out of his shell from when he first arrived here, a fresh young Adventurer looking to help people. Oh, but then there was that nasty rumor in Ul’dah that had them both taking refuge here years ago… and then a few months after that Miss Y’shtola was recovering in one of our suites. They must have been sitting out here together until almost dawn waiting for her to wake up. They’ve been through here so much I almost can’t remember all the tales I’ve heard accompanying each visit...” she mused aloud, voice cheerful as she spoke of days long past.

There were a few beats of pointed silence that stretched between them, both watching silently as Alphinaud gathered Alvaar’s things for him and pressed the Bards harp into his hands so it could be dismissed dutifully.

“They love each other very much I think,” the proprietress mused aloud. “You can see it plain as day in how they look at each other.”

Feeling her heart sink at the ease of that statement and the truth in it, Alisaie looked away, starting to move before the woman spoke again.

“I wonder what adventures he must share with you, Alisaie, for him to look at you so lovingly as well.”

Turning abruptly to stare at her in surprise, she tried for words a moment and only managed a flustered, “W-how?”

Smiling at her kindly the woman raised a finger up with a gesture of confident intuition. “A Mother knows many things. She can always tell when one of her children is so genuinely in love.” Looking back at the pair fondly she continued. “I have always dearly wished for the happiness of the many adventurers and aspiring heroes who have found their way through these doors. So please, I ask you and Alphinaud both to take care of one of my dearest sons, as I know he will take care of you.”

Studying the gentle and proud demeanor of the woman in puzzlement, she was interrupted from whatever she might have said in reply by a loud cry of, “Ali!”

Looking over she noted her brother’s quiet amusement as Alvaar waved at her energetically in his liquor fueled excitement.

“Come on time for bed! I’m not going without you I told Alphi so!” Alvaar announced loudly, shifting his stance needlessly given the Scholar was mostly holding him up at this point anyway.

“Yes, I’m coming,” she called, casting a glance at the proprietress who still smiled at her fondly. Unable to think of anything to say she offered a nod, quickly making tracks as Alvaar whined her name again. Sweeping up under Alvaar’s other arm, she helped Alphinaud to carry his weight towards the suites. “Come on you, that’s enough yelling. Let’s get you to bed,” she chided.

“Okay!” the Bard chirped overly loud again. “Goodnight Mother Miounne!”

“Goodnight Alvaar! Pleasant dreams!” Miounne called fondly, watching the three make their way off to the stairs.

“Yes, you’ve all made Mother very proud indeed,” she murmured to herself fondly.

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writing-radionoises · 5 years

Text

gifting!

ship: kamukoma

genre: fluff

prompt: komaeda making kamukura a gift and seeing how kamukura reacts, suggested by anon

notes: shout out to the anon on my main blog this is a genius idea

tw for self harm implied

Izuru liked the little things.

Watches, bracelets, hair ties, hair clips, and other such things.

He liked things he could mess with.

He liked the color red, but green was cute too.

That was about all Komaeda had to work with when it came to making a gift for him. Which was really just wonderful, truly.

That was sarcasm.

But surely, this abandoned ol craft store would have something Komaeda could take and make something with.

Something Izuru would like.

The lights had gone out a long time ago, the cash register the only thing destroyed. Shelves were falling apart from wear, the scissors and other such sharp objects removed from the abandoned store.

Komaeda had come across this building not too long ago, and had the idea of making a gift for his lover.

Izuru had given him plenty of things, searching for something that would make Nagito happy, something to make him no longer want to hurt himself.

Each gift was adorable, handmade or restored. He always had a specific reason as to why he thought Nagito would like them. It was cute, made Komaeda more than happy.

The other day, though, Kamukura mentioned that he had never received a gift before. He said that he shared a birthday with Hajime, since there was no defining date of when he as an alter came into existence, so Hajime just decided they would share a birthday. He had my celebrated it before, he was never out during his birthday, apparently. And even when the body was just Izuru's, no one truly bothered to celebrate his birthday or anything of the sorts.

Kamukura was barely human to most people, after all.

But still, such an explanation saddened Komaeda. He may be trash, but Nagito still had his birthday remembered and celebrated each year. His maids used to throw a little party for him after his parents passing.

It reminded Komaeda that Izuru has truly barely experienced anything.

And so, here he was, a package of blank hair clips in hand, and searching through the paints and gems and things, trying to put together some gift that Izuru might like.

God knows if Izuru would even like this.

Still, Komaeda was going to try.

With glue, Halloween foam cut outs, paint, and hair clips, Komaeda eventually made something similar to what he imagined.

He placed the couple of red hair clips into a box, in which he neatly wrapped up afterwards, and messily tied a ribbon around.

It was messy, imperfect in… more ways than one, but Komaeda was certain Izuru would like his silly gift.

Komaeda pocketed the gift box in his jean pockets, readjusting the collar around his neck and exiting the store, heading back down to the apartment he and Izuru occupied, trying to peel off the dried glue and paint from his fingertips.

He pushed open the door to the apartment building, and pressed the up button on the elevator.

Izuru had gotten it worked just for Komaeda, after he passed out from walking up the flight of stairs. Unfortunately, the floor they mainly occupied was the top floor, because Izuru wanted quick access to the roof to start a garden. Not that Komaeda minded, but his lungs definitely did.

The elevator opened, and Nagito stepped inside and pressed the button for the top level. The elevator closed and moved slowly as Nagito removed his medical mask, coughing into his elbow and taking a deep breath. The pollution had severely affected his lungs, made it hard to breathe. Even with the Towa air purification system, the pollution was bad. Poor Nagito was just too sick to really battle against it.

The elevator beeped, and reopened as Nagito exited and walked towards their apartment. He knocked on the door at first, and then opened it up.

As to be expected, Izuru was tending to a daisy in a pot at the kitchen table, his ruby eyes glanced up and met with Nagito's green ones, and instantly darted away.

Izuru was not a fan of eye contact.

"Where'd you go?" He asked, holding his head up in his hand. Kamukura never greeted anyone, he thought it was a waste of time, boring.

Or maybe he just didn't really understand it.

"Oh, no where special," Komaeda croaked, sitting across from Izuru.

"Don't lie. Let me see your wrists," replied the dark male, his eyes moving towards Komaeda's chest.

Nagito rose a brow, but held out the bandaged right wrist as Izuru carefully took a hold of it.

"Why do you want to see?"

Izuru's delicate hands unwrapped the bloodied bandages, the ultimate nurse flashing behind his eyes as he fished another roll of bandages from his pocket.

"Wanted to make sure it isn't infected. You are a special case with wounds like these."

Izuru is referring to both Nagito's luck and his sickness. Both make wounds hard to heal, but easy to scar.

Izuru's fingers ran across the scabs of the old self harm scars, then wrapping the new bandages around them, and repeating the same with the other.

"Be careful with your hands," Kamukura said half mindedly, the ultimate nurse talent now put away.

"I have something for you," Komaeda started with a smile.

Izuru rose a brow this time, tilting his head to the side as his mass of braided hair fell with his head, "Oh?"

"You said you'd never been given a gift before, so I thought it might be cute if I made you something," Nagito answered, taking out the wrapped gift box from his pocket and sliding it over to Izuru, "It's definitely not the best, but I tried really hard."

His eyes shined brightly with what could be described as excited as he carefully untied the ribbon and with the precision of a surgeon, unwrapped the box.

A million thoughts raced through Nagito's mind. Sure, Izuru was bad at social norms and was sometimes more blunt than he meant, but he wouldn't outright insult Nagito, right? Izuru isn't that mean, right?

The tape on the box was removed and the lid of the box opened as Izuru started to take out the hair clips. He pulled out the two matching dark red ones with little black cat charms, examining the barrettes carefully before taking out the others. Six in total, each in pairs. There were the black cat clips, bat clips, and ghost clips. Izuru's face lit up with a familiar expression to Nagito. It was an expression of Izuru's that happened when animals were mentioned, or when he saw a cute cat and just had to shake his hands.

Joy is likely the word for it.

Izuru placed the clips into his hair, brushing the bang pieces framing his face into the clips and pinning them into his hair with a smile.

He took Nagito's bandaged hands into his, having stood up in the process of this and happily bouncing on his toes.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it," he said, and Komaeda smiled in return, "Should I make you something in return? Is that something you're supposed to do? I can-"

"Please don't," Komaeda interrupted with a laugh, "Seeing you happy is enough of a gift."

Izuru paused, his freckled face now turning a peachy color in embarrassment. Izuru's ruby red eyes darted around in search of a subject, unable to find anything.

Komaeda laughed once again, leaning up and pressing a kiss to Izuru's lips.

Komaeda doesn't need anything more than Izuru's smile.

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ahickey2000 · 4 years

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Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan was released on July 24, 1998 in the US by DreamWorks Distribution. It opened in 2,463 theaters and was very well received making over $30 million opening week. The movie had a $70 million budget and ended up grossing over $216 million domestically and $265 million internationally, making it a whopping $481 million release worldwide. Saving Private Ryan is a war drama that stars Tom Hanks, with a strong core supporting cast that is set in World War II and begins with the invasion of Normandy. The movie went on to win and be nominated for several awards in almost all major categories. The movie was recognized by both the Academy and the Golden Globes as nominees and in some cases winners for Best Motion Picture, Director, Cinematography, Sound, Editing and Writing. One thing that was noted as a controversial point was Spielberg’s use of graphic violence to depict the battle scenes. It was the first movie to use so much graphic violence, but many felt that including that violence was what created the realism and made the viewer feel like they were really watching a true depiction of war. The violence in Saving Private Ryan is important as a tool to allow viewers to consider that the movie is more about the war than it is about the plot of the movie. The movie’s premise is that three brothers from one family have died in the war and that in order to ensure that the fourth brother survives, so they send a group of soldiers on a specific mission to find him and send him home. While the plot is important and there are truths embedded in the story, the movie itself is about the war, and the violence and horror the soldiers faced. The initial battle scene of the invasion of Normandy is filmed in a way that makes it like a documentary and gives the feel that it was filmed during the actual battle. “In the first battle sequence, the camera is handheld which creates a jittery but not blurry picture of the fierce battle. Critics believe that Spielberg shot this sequence in double speed using every other frame, this is what made the film appear sharper, edgier and less soft”(Nora Emanuelle Boehmer). Spielberg also uses the sound in the movie to create realism. During the invasion scenes on the boats the motors are very distinctly heard and you can almost feel the chop in the water and smell the salt in the air. When the soldiers end up under water the sound goes out into a dreamy sort of quality, just like when you actually end up under water and then when the soldiers come up for air the sound is crisp again and you can hear the battle going on. These techniques, creating such realism, draw the viewer into film and make the audience feel like they are a part of the history of the scene. “The viewers are supposed to be emphatic observers who feel a personal closeness to the tragedy, the viewers are supposed to dive into that battle scene on D-Day at Omaha beach”(Nora Emanuelle Boehmer). Spielberg’s intention seems to have been to have the audience feel the emotions that were felt during the battles and between the different characters. Without the graphic violence the audience would not have been able to fully grasp what the soldiers felt during those battles. One of the things that critics mentioned when discussing Spielberg’s use of violence in Saving Private Ryan, is that he is very careful to handle the graphic violence in a way that does not glorify senseless killing of the German soldiers. All of the battle scenes are appropriately reverent to the emotional toll the soldiers faced. Spielberg is able to show how difficult the war is with both physical and emotional wounds. “The battle scenes avoid conventional suspense and sensationalism; they disturb not by being manipulative, but by being hellishly frank” (Lisa Leigh Parney). The response of movie goers after seeing it in theaters for the first time was reflective of this. In an article by Lisa Leigh Parney they did exit interviews and overwhelmingly the audience felt that it was very authentic. One viewer noted “The violence was authentic. My brother was out there in France, missing in action for six months, but they got him back. The movie honors him and his fellow men. It was accurate all right.” And other viewer who was an unnamed veteran said “war is hell – it showed hell”. Saving Private Ryan’s remarkable success was in great part due to this realism including the use of realistic violence. “The first 30 minutes are considered the most realistic recreation of war in movie history”(Columbia University Press). It was marketed as such and included the use of veterans verifying its authenticity. In a press conference about the movie Spielberg said “It would have been irresponsible for me to undercut the truth of what that war was like… My hope is somehow to resensitise audiences to how bad it was for the men who survived, as well as for those who perished”(Columbia University Press). The criticism of Spielberg is that Hollywood sensationalism is ever apparent in any movie. In fact, the sound and music as well as some of the visual choreographed effects are clearly technology used in a Hollywood megamovie rather than a documentary. Critics note that although it leans toward the idea of authenticity, it is still, in fact, a blockbuster movie that is made and marketed as a profitable venture. While this is true it is important to remember that it was in fact produced as a feature movie and not a documentary and so that distinction is irrelevant. “Nobody squinting through a viewfinder could have lasted thirty seconds on Omaha Beach, and synchronized sound was impossible… Reconstruction is the only mode of naturalistically portraying events where cameras could not be present” (Columbia University Press). In order to portray a realistic and authentic tribute to the horrors of D-Day, Spielberg deliberately and carefully uses his sound and camera techniques to guide the audience through the graphic scenes. In order to confirm authenticity and the truthfulness of the story it’s important to listen to veteran accounts of the invasion, and their critique of the movie and the battle scenes. In a news clip about the day, a WWII veteran talks through a shaking voice and tears about his duties on the boats that day. He frankly details the numbers of deaths, and how he prayed over a fallen comrade to ease his pain “I couldn’t help him, I couldn’t even help myself” (Inside Edition). During the interview he is emotional and reports that Saving Private Ryan accurately depicted his experiences. In the initial battle scene we see Tom Hanks with his head down and hands shaking, and his young men looking to him for strength (Jade Docs & Movies II) and you can feel the words of veteran Frank Devita and his description of the men whom he saw that morning leaving the boats. It is important to acknowledge that in addition to portraying accurate battle scenes with gruesome brutality, Spielberg also very beautifully captured the emotional side of his characters. While the movie’s focus is on the battles encountered, it is easy to see that there is a brotherhood that is formed by the men in the movie. By the time the final battle scenes on the bridge take place there is an obvious bond that has formed between the soldiers. It is different than the initial invasion and Spielberg brilliantly takes care to develop this throughout the movie. The relationships in part are built on the conflicted feelings about the mission and how they are risking their own lives for the sake of one man. In the scenes depicted after the loss of two of the men, Ed Burn’s character is very vocal about his frustration with the mission and Tom Hanks’s character continues his process of building the brotherhood. As Tom Sizemore’s character is physically and verbally fighting with Ed Burn’s trying to pull ranks and get him back in line, Tom Hanks humanizes and quiets the debate by calling out the bets on what he does for a living. He speaks calmly about home and his family and connects the characters and thereby the audience (The Paramount Vault) in a very human way. This scene shows the emotional hardships of war and reminds viewers that these were very young men; regular everyday men who were required to fight in this grueling war. Saving Private Ryan became known as the most realistic portrayal of WWII ever. It was a huge financial success that garnered praise and awards for masterfully and authentically recreating the hardships of WWII. It would have been impossible to have such a reaction from veterans and the movie industry without the graphic violence. It was difficult to watch, but more difficult to live through and that was the point. Saving Private Ryan would not have been able to connect with those who had fought the battle, as well as those who studied the battle if it had not been honest about the loss and devastation the soldiers lived through. Spielberg created a beautiful tribute for the world even with the graphic violence that was necessarily included.

By Abby Hickey

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animatedminds · 4 years

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What If: Every Character In Dragonball FighterZ Had a Dramatic Finish? (Pt. 3)

And here we are at the third leg of this little brainstorming session. Since yesterday, UI Goku has come out - people are enjoying the apparently pretty insane defensive options he’s got, and the new Kefla Dramatic Finish, but that doesn’t mean our work here is done just yet. If you haven’t seen the first two installments of these, this week in honor of the Ultra Instinct Goku DLC for Dragon Ball FighterZ I’ve been doing a little hypothetical thinking about Dramatic Finishes - those awesome re-animations of classic Dragonball moments that Arcys lovingly put into the game. Specifically, we’ve been approaching the question of “what if there were even more Dramatic Finishes” - since only a select portion of the cast has one. Over the last couple of days, we’ve been going through each of the characters without a Dramatic Finish and trying to find the best choice, the most cinematic moment, coolest and hopefully most epic shots of each character’s history that could work as a Dramatic Finish for them. This is more of a hypothetical: as I said in the previous installments, I’m not seriously saying that every character in the game should have a Dramatic Finish: Arcsys puts a hell of a lot of work into each of them, and the majority of the roster getting such time consuming devotion is just not happening. This is more of a thought experiment - and an excuse to rewatch a ton of clips from all over Dragonball history, of course. And as before, I’m looking for good scenes that would make appearances in Dramatic Finishes, not necessarily wins - so some of the characters on this list are going to lose.

If you want to the whole thing in one shot, you can always just listen to it on Soundcloud: we have a whole cast for it right here. But if not, then buckle up: cause here we got into Part 3. When last we met, we went through the Cell Saga (and Videl), so the next character up without a Dramatic Finish should be...

Majin Buu

Buu has been in the game since the beginning, but never did seem to get much attention - the main villain of his own arc, albeit one in which is many additional forms and personas took center stage after himself, Buu’s got quite a bit of interesting moments under his belt, with his own brand of destruction that’s as terrifying as it is silly.

I do want to preface this by pointing out that in the last video I went over an option for Super Saiyan Vegeta, which involved compositing the Final Explosion moment from his stint as Majin Vegeta into his regular Super Saiyan form and using that as a Finish, and before we go into more options for Buu I’ll say that at the end of the day I still think that’s the best option both for Vegeta and for Buu himself, but too give something extra for this segment...

The tricky thing about Buu is that he does a lot of fighting but not a lot of finishing - in this form, at least, he mostly wreaks havoc on innocent bystanders while the heroes can’t stop him. There are some scenes, like him killing Dabura by turning him into a cookie, that would work - but which would involve characters that aren’t currently in the game.

So I ultimately came up with two options (technically three, but I’ll save that third one for the next section).

The first is a less serious suggestion, since the steps required to make this scene smaller for a Dramatic Finish probably aren’t worth it, but its is a version of this anime-only scene where Gotenks attempts to fight Buu and - predictably - is defeated. This scene works in a general sense due to the good framing: Gotenks is knocked into a wall so hard he gets embedded into it, and then Buu destroys everything around them while he is helpless to stop it, and in transferring the action to the City stage you could make that simple idea work pretty well.

The thing is, what would really make this scene work as a Dramatic Finish is something that would be kind of extra for this game: the army shows up, and they kill massacred while Gotenks fails to get them to run. That would really put the drama in this Dramatic Finish - the hero fails to save the innocent bystanders and all, and without it the scene is just kind of bland, but there’s no way Arcsys is modelling all that just for a reach of a Dramatic Finish, so in the end there are better options for both characters.

So for the other, better option? Give him one of his scenes where he goes up against his later forms. Majin Buu ultimately turns good and fights against his later, eviller transformations, which makes for some good moments. The first of which would simply be a Dramatic Opening which adapts the scene where Kid Buu spits out Majin Buu who (later) gets up to attack him. It’s a two separate scenes, but they’re both quick, and easily condensed condensed into one: just have Kid Buu spit out Majin Buu, who immediately steps up to fight.

But for finally a Dramatic Finish suggestion, we have another one that requires some finagling: take the scene in which Majin Buu attempts (and fails) to turns Evil Buu into chocolate, and give it to Kid Buu instead.

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This would be a win for Kid Buu (again, replacing Evil Buu with him in this case), and it would work pretty easily, given that a lot of Dramatic Finishes so far use a formula like this: Kid Buu knocks Majin Buu back, who gets mad and tries to strike back with the Chocolate Beam. Kid Buu blows it back and Majin Buu gets hit instead. A piece of chocolate hits the ground, Kid Buu picks it up and eats it - then end with a shot of Kid Buu laughing maniacally, or perhaps shift one of Evil Buu’s poses over to Kid Buu.

It wouldn’t be the first time something from one of the earlier forms was given to Kid Buu in this game, and it works out fairy well - though I will say again that the Final Explosion moment is still the best option for Majin Buu in my opinion.

Next on the list...

Gotenks

Gotenks is, if anything, even trickier than Buu. The entire concept of Gotenks is a warrior who is extremely powerful and versatile, but also a complete fool and a blowhard. He’s many times more powerful than either Goten or Trunks could ever be alone, but in terms of character and wisdom he’s less than the sum of his parts - and so, he can never win.

This presents an interesting problem for this list: Gotenks has no follow through. Not only does he never really finish off an opponent, he also has a tendency to screw up and get himself taken out in inglorious ways that wouldn’t make great Dramatic Finishes either. The option I gave in the preceding section, losing against Buu, is a good example: it just has too many problems even given that it’s an above average choice in comparison to a lot of his other moments.

But there are a couple options I can think of, still. The first is a good choice for a Dramatic Opening - in fact, the very first thing I thought of for this section: that anime only fight that I brought up with Majin Buu begins in an interesting way: Gotenks blindsides Buu with a cheap shot. Then we get a surprisingly cool entrance for a scene meant mostly to fill time, in which Gotenks - wreathed in shadow against a vibrant blue background - makes a dramatic speech about how he’s going to kill Buu for good.

Really, the visual effect of this is so good that even given that they would have to transpose it to a different stage (the City, again) I wouldn’t mind seeing it as a Dramatic Opening. It’s at least an option for this section, though... let’s face it, it’s not quite there yet. We can at least think of a Finish for here as well, can’t we? Well, the one I figured on is - unfortunately for Gotenks - a loss, and it’s more of a funny moment than a Dramatic moment, but I’d say either of the versions of Beerus’ defeat of him during the Battle of Gods arc (either in the movie, or in Super):

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For reference, he’s the Battle of Gods version as well.

The perfection of this scene is that while it may not be a titanic moment that shook the heavens like most of the Dramatic Finishes, it gives us a chance to show off another side of Dragonball that’s always been a strong factor: the humor. The Super version, especially, gives Koichi Yamadera and Jason Douglas a chance to let loose their chops and give us a complete rant that’s as all over the place as it is fun to watch, and ultimately even if it’s not epic, it’s definitely entertaining. To imagine a Dramatic Finish that’s just Beerus stopping the action, taking over the camera and shouting about pudding in as over-dramatic a way as possible for half a minute sounds oddly good to me - kind of meta, and a heck of a non-sequitiur.

Yes, at Gotenks’ expense, but these two options really run the gamut of Gotenks’ scene: either he’s crowing dramatically about how awesome he is, or he’s getting humiliated in a fight. I love the kid, but he could use some character development (Super gave Goten and Trunks a little, but they were out of focus so much you’d never notice).

Either way, we move on to...

Vegeta (Super Saiyan Blue)

When it comes to characters for who felt a bit left out, it was somewhat surprising that neither Super Saiyan Blue Goku nor Vegeta got Dramatic Finishes when the game came out: this was Super was current, and it was assumed the game would try have a bit of synergy with its moments - but then again, it also makes sense. Animation lead time takes forever, and game lead time takes forever, and since it takes over a year to make either of those things waiting to make a moment in retrospect sometimes is just more worthwhile than rushing to do something in the moment.

You can see how doing adapting quickly might not end with the best result in Ranger 17′s FighterZ moveset, which has to fill blanks with Cell saga moves and a couple things adapted from other video games, unable to use a lot of the things that made Ranger 17 so fun to watch because the character was already in production when those happened.

But let’s not get distracted. Vegeta Blue is in an interesting spot, because no matter how powerful he is Vegeta’s role is still the same: do well against the less powerful opponent, then get wrecked by the main antagonists. This ultimately means that a lot of Vegeta’s best moments in Blue are against characters not in the game. A favorite moment, and the one I would absolutely want as a Dramatic Finish, involves a character I’ve personally wanted in the game since launch - but who is almost certainly never going to make the cut (Auta Magetta), a titanic Final Flash + Punch that ended up becoming his LVL 3 in the game itself. Other good options include his hilarious and cathartic defeat of Frost in the Universe 6 vs Universe 7 tournament, and his defeat of Toppo in the Tournament of Power, all of which involve character that are unlikely to be in the game even as DLC (though they’re at least more likely than Spopovich).

But if we only look at characters who are in the game, we’ve mostly got fleeting moments of victory that quickly turn around to defeat. But, if we’re looking that those there is one that stands out as particularly cinematic: the end of his fight with Freeza in Revival F (or Super).

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In this clip, Vegeta defeats Freeza, who has a cheap shot attempts to blow up the entire planet. Think the Freeza vs Goku Finishes or the Gohan vs Cell Finishes, except in this case the hero fails. The cheap shot works, and Freeza destroys everything... until time gets rewound and Goku stops this from happening by taking out Freeza before he can.

The irony here is pretty funny. You either get a Dramatic Finish where Blue Vegeta loses, or one where he wins but Blue Goku still steals his thunder. EIther way, though, it’s still one of the most cinematic options. Especially if you add in a little of the Super version of Freeza blowing up the Earth, with bits and pieces of all the characters as they have only a moment to react to their sudden doom. You could even do something akin to how Arcsys did Dizzy’s instant kill in Guilty Gear Xrd, and have your different teammates all react differently depending on who is on your team, though that might be a step too far.

Either way, all you’d need is to win against Blue Vegeta while Blue Goku is on your team. Freeza throws a fit, Vegeta attempts to execute him but is stopped by Freeza blowing up the planet... then rewind. The scene replays, but this time Goku leaps forward and finishes Freeza off. End with a shot of Vegeta yelling at Goku or something for stealing his moment.

It’s a pretty great option, even if it’s not Vegeta’s most glamorous moment - but then, that’s pretty standard for Vegeta. Either way, we can move on. Next up...

Hit

When I was first putting this list together, last week or so, it was before Blue Goku was revealed to be the version of Goku with the Kefla Dramatic Finish. Everyone assumed it was UI Goku, so I had a Goku option lined up - but him now having one (and thus being out of this list) works out fairly well, because originally the choice I made for Blue Goku and the choice I made for Hit ended up as the same thing anyway.

Hit and Blue Goku’s fights feature some of the best scenes either character (which is to say, Hit and that version of Goku) have in Super, and it’s a no brainer that the finish for this section would come from that fight... but, since the first version of that fight ended inconclusively, I would actually suggest compositing scenes from their first fight with the conclusion of their second, anime-only rematch: which ends with a titanic moment - though yes, another Kamehameha - where Goku literally breaks through and shatters Hit’s time stalling technique.

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Meanwhile, while the second fight provides the climactic conclusion, the first fight provides the build up and the best visuals: featuring epic scenes where the two rush each other in sprays of blue, red and purple that could really show what Super was capable of when the animation really got going.

So the key here is to make a new Dramatic Finish that combines elements of that first fight and the conclusion of the second: much like the Super Broly Finish, have the first part be moments from the first fight adapted together, to create the flow of a single stretch of combat. A win for Blue Goku, of course, this would start out as a blistering clash between the two.

Then, end it with the conclusion of the second fight, with Goku completely overcoming Hit’s time skip and blowing him away, through collapsing in exhaustion afterwards. Given the differing locations of their two fights, this could either take place in FighterZ’s original stage - Galactic Arena - which is loosely inspired by the Universal Tournament area, or the Archipelago.

Then much like the Jiren Finish, the last part of the scene would be them palling around - or as much as a guy like Hit can pal around - after the fight, promising to come at each other with even more power next time they meet, just like the ending of their rematch. It’s a strong Dramatic Finish that shows off the best of both.

It seems like Blue Goku has been the theme for the last two sections... but we might as well not break the trend now. We move on to the last section of the day, and the last character introduced in Super to not have a Dramatic Finish...

Goku Black

Yes, Zamasu’s insidious disguise himself. While Zamasu got several Dramatic Finishes to his name, Goku Black has since launch had to make due with the semi-special finish you get if you kill him with Beerus’ LVL 3.

As the primary Zamasu faced during his eponymous arc, Black does most of the legwork throughout that saga, but a downside to the way that saga is built is that there isn’t much in the way of “final” moments throughout it all: it’s basically a running fight in which the fighters take break for Round 2, Round 3, etc - most big moments on one side are instantly undone by big moments from the other side, with neither really gaining ground enough that you could build a Dramatic Finish out of it.

There is, however, one pretty decent moment that would make a great moment - featuring a cinematic comeback for Blue Goku followed by a brutal shutdown by Black. We’re talking here about Goku’s fury, the moment where he finds out what Black did to Chi-Chi and Goten in his timeline (note: not pleasant), followed by his enraged - but short lived - revenge.

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The flashback is just too long to really work in a Dramatic Finish, unless you did it in snippets like Bardock’s flashback in his, which I would suggest, but given the whole fight scene afterwards might end up a step too far. Either way, it’s a win for Goku Black, in the City stage: he has Goku literally up against a wall, torturing him alongside Zamasu... only for Goku to break free and completely lose it. Following would be another fight scene within a Dramatic Finish, in which Goku goes to town on Black and Zamasu, seemingly winning... until Black turns it around by powering up himself, finishing Goku off with the God Slicer (or Divine Lasso, depending on your preference).

Final shot is easy: a shot of Goku’s broken body on the ground, as in the source, added with a shot of Black standing smugly over him smugly. It’s one of Black’s more epic moments - at least that isn’t inflicted on innocent bystanders - and works very well as one of those few moments where the villain gets one over on the hero.

And that’s it for today! We’re coming up on the end: to be concluded, tomorrow!

As always, if you don’t want to wait just check out the whole thing on Soundcloud, and in the meantime let me know what you think of the choices for each character and whether you have any other ideas! But either way if you’re a FighterZ player I hope you’re enjoying the DLC, and if you’re a Dragonball fan I hope you’re keeping up that endless search for more power. Stay sparking!

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femnet · 5 years

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My mom was adopted when she was 2 days old. I don’t ever remember a time in my life when I didn’t know that fact and neither does she. There was never a big shocking revelation about it. It was just always a fact of all of our lives.

My grandparents, Harry & June (Pops and Mama), were two of the most influential people in my life. When I think about celebrating International Women’s Day, I think about Mama and all she accomplished in her lifetime. She was raised on a cotton farm in Arkansas and was one of only 6 siblings to have a career outside of farm life. She was educated, something rare for a woman born before 1920, worked for a time as a teacher, and then for the State Department. She met Pops after WWII (long after a woman of her time should have been married) while they were both working in China, and made him chase her for months before she agreed to go on a date.

Harry and June adopted my mom some years later after they could not have a baby of their own. They were back in the states and reached out to a lawyer in Reno who had been a WWII buddy of my grandfathers. He helped them arrange the adoption of a baby girl, and the rest, as they say, was history.

For the next 60 years, all my mom knew of her biological family was that her birth mother was going through a divorce when she decided to put my mom up for adoption. We did know that she was originally supposed to be adopted by another family, one that ended up wrapped in a scandal, but that the lawyer switched her at the last minute and gave her to my grandparents instead.

My mom was raised as an only child, completely adored by Harry and June, and was their entire world. When my parents moved to Texas for my dad’s job, they followed not long after and were everything we could hope for in grandparents. We have always enjoyed poking fun at who my mom’s people may be, buying her birthday cards in other languages, coming up with elaborate stories about how the Queen would be coming for us one day, celebrating “our people” with a variety of cultural holidays, and more!

We lost Mama in 2000 after many years of battling breast cancer, and I was devastated. She had been a warrior and had fought with every last breath. I had just graduated high school and she made it just long enough to ensure that I had my diploma and my college acceptance in hand. Her only granddaughter was going to get an education. Pops passed away at the age of 95 in 2015. He had dementia in the last few years, but we were lucky in that, until the end, he was still there, and my kids even got to know their great-grandfather for who he was. He and I shared a birthday and were always incredibly close. He was the kindest man I have ever known. We celebrated both of their lives for what they were: lives well lived to the fullest, and always with love.

Two years ago, we were thrown a curve ball. I was getting ready for bed one night when my Facebook Messenger went off. I looked to see that I had a new message request. Normally, I would ignore these, but I had just put a bunch of old stuff up on buy sell trade, so I figured that maybe someone was requesting information about something I had for sale. I could not have been more wrong! I opened the message to see:

I sent a private message to your mom, but I don’t know how often she checks it so I am messaging you too. My name is Debra and I am looking for my half sister and I think your mom may be her. I left a detailed message on your moms Facebook. Could you let her know so she can check it?

I quite literally fell out of bed! My mom’s adoption records were closed. Her birth mother had set it up so that she could not be found! I didn’t know what to do so I took a screenshot of the text and sent it to my brother! My husband immediately thought it was a scam. My poor brother replied with “OMG Pops had another family?!?!?!” forgetting that any biological children Pops had (he didn’t) would not be biological siblings of my mom, haha! I decided to reply asking for more information before I turned my mom's world upside down. We didn’t have a lot but we did have some specific details that would identify whether this person was legit or not.

Debra continued:

I was texting (the lawyer’s daughter). Her father handled an adoption for my mother and when I told her he also handled her divorce she told me her dad helped a WWII buddy adopt a baby girl which she thought might be in that time frame. I'm not sure when she was born but the divorce finaled in Jan 19**. She was able to give me your grandpa's name and I found his obit and you and your mom. I've been looking since my mother died about 5 years she only told me and my older sister a year before she passed. I've been disappointed a couple of times even went as far as having a sibling DNA test done. Was your mom born in Reno or does she know?

Mentioning the lawyer’s daughter by name and the city of Reno was enough for me to know that this woman was onto something. Pops had stayed very close friends with the lawyer throughout his life and my mom spoke of him and his daughter fondly. We chatted for a bit longer and she shared with me that she had two other living sisters and an older brother who had passed away. Debra, one sister, and the brother were older than my mom and the youngest sister was 12 years younger. The siblings had no idea their mother was even pregnant as she left the children with her family and went to work in Reno through her pregnancy to finalize the adoption and divorce. The baby was not her husband’s but conceived during an affair. The biological father had been in town for work and returned to his wife soon after his job was complete.

Debra’s mother, Marge, spent her left thinking the baby she gave up for adoption had gone to the other family, and had kept news clippings in a box of the stories of the adoption scandal. By the time she told her daughters of this missing sister, her dementia was well advanced, and so her recollection of the years was quite fuzzy. It was this box that helped Debra and her sister begin their search. There were several children adopted to this family in order for an heiress to secure her inheritance. When the scandal broke, the children were all removed to a children’s home and other families. They were able to find the woman born around the same time, and reached out to her first. When the DNA results came back negative, they tracked down the lawyer’s family (Bob had passed some years before as well). His daughter felt comfortable sharing the name of her father’s longtime friend because she knew my mom had always known about the adoption. Could you imagine if we hadn’t known?

I did the only thing I could think of to do at 11:45 at night. I attached the screenshots to an email, and sent them to my mom and dad saying “your biological family found me last night.” There was probably a better way to share that information, but at that time of night, I was not thinking clearly!!!

The next morning my mom called and said “I’m waiting for the punch line. Where is the large woman in a mumu?” No punch line this time, mom! We met for an early lunch to talk about it. Her head was spinning! We pulled up Debra’s Facebook account and started combing through her pictures, and clicking through members of her families. We could absolutely see a resemblance. They shared my blond hair and green eyes, one of Debra’s sons had very similar facial features to my brother, and then we saw the picture of Marge in her younger years. She did look a lot like my mom. It took my mom a few days to process everything, but she decided to go ahead and call Debra back and agreed to a DNA test using 23andme. If it was negative, at least she would be helping someone along their journey.

Weeks went by as we waited. I began messaging with Debra’s daughter, but otherwise, the two families kept a distance. They were careful not to get their hopes up, only to be crushed again. Then, finally, one day they received the email they had been waiting on. They were biological half-sisters. Debra and her family were elated to finally have found their missing piece. Our family was a mix of emotions. We were all excited to meet this new, extended family, however, the revelation started a new journey of rediscovering self-identity. My mom had always been Harry & June’s daughter. What did this mean now?

My mom and I decided to fly out to meet them in their home town a couple of months later. We met all three sisters, and two of their daughters, and had a wonderful weekend connecting. It was really a crazy experience seeing what characteristics are tied by DNA other than physical attributes. A simple mannerism or a laugh became little reminders of this new bond that has always been there. They showed us around their town proudly, introducing my mom to everyone who had a tie to their mother. My new cousins and I invented a drinking game: every time someone said how much my mom looked like Marge, we drank! I was drunk by lunch! It was a wonderful weekend of bonding and learning about the woman who made an impossible choice, sending my mom’s life in an entirely different direction.

The two years since have allowed us time to reflect and digest the new twist in our story. While we are now connected to these wonderful people on the other side of the country, we came to the realization that, when Marge gave my mom up for adoption and gave her to Harry and June, my mom became 100% their daughter. Our history is forever connected to them, their legacy, and the lessons they taught us. When I speak of my grandparents, it will always be Harry and June that I’m referring to, and always be them who I adore and miss. I will forever be grateful to Marge, and the choice she made. I wouldn’t be here today if she hadn’t made it! I love my new aunts and new cousins, but differently than those who have been a part of my life since the beginning. I believe they feel the same, as some have reached out to connect, but others have not. Those who have not probably feel the same as a few of our family members in that they know who their family is, and to them, we are basically strangers, and that’s ok too. My mom is glad to have a connection with her sisters, but the bond will never be as tight as the one the three who were raised together share. She may be their sister but she will always and forever be Harry and June’s daughter.

#by Junell #March 2019 #family relationships #DNA #identity

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searbao · 6 years

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(The Sunday Times article for those of you unable to read it)

Last Sunday, just days after being nominated for an Oscar, Timothée Chalamet bounded into a busy London bar like a man who still believes nobody knows who he is. Heads turned. Autograph hunters were in the yard outside. At one point during our interview, he shouted “Boom!” so loudly that tables of drinkers turned, stared, turned back, then turned around again. “It’s, it’s...” one said, slightly uncertain as to who he was or, more likely, how to pronounce his first name.

It’s plain old “Timothy”; and what filmgoers recognise him for is his breakthrough role in Call Me by Your Name, a gay coming-of-age story that has grown from cult hit to mainstream contender. He is smart and sensitive as Elio, who falls for his family’s American hunk of a guest, Oliver (Armie Hammer), during a picturesque Italian summer.

In person, Chalamet’s hair bounces, as does the rest of him. He is thin and wiry; as graceful as a ballerina and as energetic as the Duracell bunny; fond of light physical affection. He talks at the motormouth clip typical of Hell’s Kitchen, New York, where he grew up.

I have never met anyone as delighted to be alive as he is right now. Who can blame him? At 22, he is, for Elio, the youngest best actor nominee since 1944. He would be the youngest ever winner: not bad, considering he was previously best known for a bit part in Homeland and quit Columbia University to audition for, but not be cast in, Manchester by the Sea and the latest Spider-Man. In a fortnight, he will be at the Baftas for both lead actor and the coveted rising-star prize. But everyone knows it’s the Academy Awards that matter most. How does all that feel?

“This is how it matters to me,” he says. “Call Me by Your Name has gone beyond my wildest dreams. People came out because of that film. But I don’t want to be known for something that happened when I was young. So [the nomination] comes with tremendous gratitude and is something I’ll humblebrag about to my friends and family, yet this is hopefully just the start. There’d better be more.”

The good news, I say, is that he is unlikely to win, as voters seem unable to look past Gary Oldman’s prosthetics in Darkest Hour. So the accolade might be a millstone, but not as heavy as it could be. He laughs at my cheek.

“The truth is, you want to prepare a speech, but — I don’t know,” he says, frozen. “These ceremonies are overwhelming enough, independent of having to get up in front of legends and have your mouth move.” A fellow nominee, Daniel Kaluuya, the young British star of Get Out, is equally excited. “When we lock eyes,” he says of Kaluuya, “we give each other a look of ‘What the f*** is happening?’”

The crazy thing is that Call Me by Your Name is only the second best film starring Chalamet nominated for best picture this year. The best is Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig’s exquisite straight coming-of-age story, in which Saoirse Ronan’s titular teen struggles with men and her studies. It’s an astonishingly astute film, with Chalamet playing Ronan’s second boyfriend. He sits by the pool reading literature, looking brooding — which is exactly what Elio does. Chalamet claps along loudly when I bring up typecasting. He’s too hot now to sweat the small stuff.

Gerwig has been nominated for best director at the Oscars, which makes her the story of the night. Although other awards have found room for Lady Bird in several categories, they have overlooked the one that counts: best director. Some thought her film was simple compared to, say, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, with its crew of hundreds moving a boat off a beach, and that such traditionally male-made projects are simply harder to do. Size matters, it seems, to panels of predominantly male voters. Or perhaps they just don’t like women to direct.

“There’s no difference in being directed by a woman,” Chalamet says sharply. “But in the public representation, there is a huge difference, and that’s why it’s so important Greta was nominated, and so shocking she is just the fifth woman to be so.”

He looks bemused as I float the idea it might be easier to make a film that is character-driven, as is Lady Bird, than something on a grander scale. “And it’s interesting,” he adds, “that the conversation is framed in relation to production of the movie, because it’s clear that it’s way harder to get an audience for smaller films. Budgets are significantly less.” He sounds irked, clearly finding questions about the battle of the sexes dated and odd.

Yet Chalamet should be used to this by now. He has come into the industry in the era of Time’s Up, which strives for better treatment for all, especially women. It’s hard being in the middle of a storm that’s still raging. There was a late caveat to this interview, namely that I couldn’t ask Chalamet about Woody Allen. The actor recently donated his salary for the director’s forthcoming movie, A Rainy Day in New York, which he filmed last summer, to funds including Time’s Up. He had made a statement about it a couple of weeks ago, and that was that.

I pushed back. Journalists have been accused of dodging difficult questions, but if the interviewee refuses to be asked, that leaves us in limbo. I was then allowed one specific question about Allen, by email. I asked three. Chalamet answered this one: “You were the first lead to donate your salary for a Woody Allen film. What has been the reaction to your statement?”

He replied: “I’m just focusing on the work as much as possible. I mean, I literally get to have this conversation with you in relation to Lady Bird, which freshly presents a female coming-of-age story, independent of a male romance being the catalyst; and to Call Me by Your Name, which similarly presents male coming-of-age with a new lens… Thanks to these films, I’m getting new opportunities. But I’ve also learnt that, along with the opportunities, I have new responsibilities, and none of this is lost on me.”

I have sympathy for him. Allegations against Allen have been public for years, and it’s not as if established A-listers such as Cate Blanchett or Javier Bardem are quizzed about their decision to work for the director. Chalamet’s feeling, I imagine, is that his salary statement was enough, and such a move has probably helped end Allen’s career anyway. I’d be stunned if anyone sees A Rainy Day in New York, and gobsmacked if a leading actor signs up for his scripts again.

Still, although we can’t talk about Allen, we can discuss Time’s Up. Chalamet is in a business going through a great upheaval. He calls it a “really important moment in Hollywood”, and there’s a sense that, like every new generation, he looks at those above him with suspicion, at times even disdain. “I’m in a new wave of actors that doesn’t stand for stuff like this and is part of that change,” he says proudly. “It’s actually been a lesson for me to learn what the — well, prejudices isn’t the right way to put it — the old-school way of thinking was. How they used to talk about these things.”

Does he expect the change Time’s Up seeks will be organic? “It would be a little passive to say it’s going to be totally organic,” he says bluntly. “But we’ve seen in the last months that there is real momentum.”

I can’t shift from my head some theatre I saw him do online from five years ago. The monologue was from White People by JT Rogers. After a largely satirical diatribe, he ended with a furious — and heartfelt — “What right does any human being have to be hateful?” before storming off stage.

Call Me by Your Name’s fandom is now at such a pitch that it already has its own nerds. They have noticed that the opening line of Love My Way, the track Armie Hammer does an elaborate dance to, is: “There’s an army on the dancefloor.” Cute. “OK, I did not know that,” Chalamet admits. Just that morning, they were discussing a possible film in which “he plays a president and I play a KGB spy”. They are the Brangelina we need right now.

Yet leave any film in the sun for long enough and it will get burnt. First, there has been press and online comment that it’s a story about grooming, which is weird, given that Elio is 17, Oliver is 24 and the age of consent in most American states is 16; in Italy, it’s 14. Still, that criticism persists. As does one about straight actors — which Chalamet and Hammer are — playing gay men. It can’t have been for box office, given that the former was unknown, but critics have questioned why out actors couldn’t be cast instead.

Chalamet pauses, which is rare, and answers carefully, as if they teach actors how to make a statement in the age of the hashtag along with the Stanislavski method.

“Well, first, it’s important for actors of all identifications to be represented, so any propulsion to bring that movement forward is good,” he begins. “But as relates to Call Me by Your Name, this is a story that presents love, sexuality, identification and orientation in a definitionless way. That’s one of the beautiful things about the movie. Ultimately, Luca [Guadagnino] is the best person to talk to, because this is his film and he does what he wants.”

“I don’t know anything about the sexuality of Armie or Timothée,” the director said huffily when I interviewed him last year, before adding that he didn’t think Elio would necessarily be a gay man later in life. Maybe the amount you care about the sexuality of the cast in Call Me by Your Name is directly related to how binary you consider sexuality. The film’s youngest actor, like most of his millennial peers, simply doesn’t care.

What about a sequel? “F***, yeah,” Chalamet says. “It’d be a dream. And the great thing about being an actor is that the storytelling would have nothing to do with me.”

I wish him luck with “those awards” as he leaves for another ceremony. He laughs. I meant the Oscars. “Oh, those awards?” He laughs louder, as if it hasn’t sunk in, and disappears into the lift. Up, up he goes, and, hours later, is named actor of the year by the London Critics’ Circle, beating that Oldman.

#timothee chalamet #call me by your name #lady bird #i hate paywalls #putting under read more so i dont get a dmca for this lol

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jhinnyjaxy · 6 years

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A Drunk Idiot or a Sober Psychopath: Which is Worse? (Pt.3)

A several-part long collection of stories that are basically A Day in The Life of Jhin and Jax written by The Idiot That Ships Jhin/Jax (aka me).

Wordcount: 2581

Ao3 Link

(Sidenote; idfk how to write fanfiction or anything in general besides essays and persuasive arguments for mock trial so sorry on that.)

The Grandmaster closed his eyes, ready for a good, long nap now that he was finally home. His Piltover home, at that. Small and cosy, with a small wood stove that actually kept the main room warm. Several of them were strewn about the house, despite its small size, but only two or three had to be on to warm up the place to a cozy degree.

It was nothing like Jhin's houses, which were wide and spacious, with high ceilings and open floor plans and little furniture (well.. little of what Jax would call 'furniture'). Jax's house had shorter ceilings, small rooms, and so many things it was leaving the realm of 'cozy' and bordering on 'crowded'. But the light-colored walls of red and yellow and brown lent just enough relief that you could ignore the tattered, faded Shuriman rugs with a few to many details, or the dinged up and faded coffee table that smelled like a big, wooden boat docked in the harbour. It failed to remedy the man's poor taste in tabletop decor, though.

Several terribly-sewn doilies of various sizes were on nearly every surface, sometimes having two or three of them stacked crossways on top of eachother. On top of some, there were tacky flower pots full to the brim with basically anything but fresh-cut flowers. One had origami flowers (of varying quality), but the rest of them were filled with multi-colored marbles, long-since-used handheld fans, various kinds of fancy silverware, tubes of strange liquids... well, what was once liquid.. at some point..... hopefully. Discarded dishware sat on the tabletops, the exact time they were put down entirely lost to memory.

It looked much like a collector's home. Cluttered, but not too cluttered. There was just enough space to go about day to day life, but sometimes you'd bump into something, step on a misplaced pair of shoes, or stumble over a dropped jacket.

Jhin found himself in the latter situation as he shuffled his way over to another seat just across the coffee table from Jax, bumping his shin into the edge of it for what would be the first of many times during his stay. He hissed from between his teeth, lifting the cup of tea to his lips and taking a gulp of it. He tried to make himself comfortable as possible as he sat down, only really achieving so by throwing one leg over the edge of the coffee table and half-way tucking the other one in the space between the table edge and his seat. It left him in quite an unflattering and, frankly, revealing position, but he showed no shame. He ran his fingers through his hair to attempt at trying to tame the mess it had become.

"You have a horrible set of bed sheets," he noted, not even looking up from his tea.

"Good morning to you too, hunny."

They had a quick exchange of smirks, Jax sitting up in his seat.

"I'll have to give you a - oh, what is it? - a 'cash course' in color theory. You are god-awful at matching colors."

"They're comfy though, right?"

"Oh yes, your bed is positively delightful to sleep on. Quite possibly the best night of sleep without you by my side I've had in a long while. It's especially impressive when considering you don't even have a proper bed frame."

"Shit just makes stupid noises all the time, who needs 'em?"

"Ja," Jhin cheered half-heartedly into his cup as he took another sip. "Thank you for making tea, by the way."

"No problem."

A comfortable silence drifted between them. Soft, relaxed faces were warmed by the spring sun that spilled through the open window, the sound of the unkept bushes outside rustling in the late-morning breeze. It was a clear morning, nothing seemed to pollute the air despite the house being just eastward of the bumbling double city-state of Piltover and Zaun. But, to be fair, it was a considerable distance away. Not too far, but there was a good two to three hours worth of a wagon ride between this neighborhood and the main city.

Jax laid back in his chair and closed his eyes once more. Sleep began to take over, washing the residual aches and pains away as everything relaxed and gave in. It was so comfortable, so simple. And he felt all the more calmed with the knowledge that Jhin was there (which, all things considered, was a miraculous statement in and of itself).

"Dear, before you sleep.." Jhin cooed, just above a whisper.

"Mmm?" Jax was only half-listening.

"Would you mind it at all if I clipped your hedges later today? The small ones out front?"

The fighter furrowed his brow, a hazy memory of the hedges in question coming to mind, with the greatest of his efforts. His tanked energy levels were finally getting to him, "Why?"

"They're a little messy, I just want to tidy them up a bit. Might as well be useful while I'm here, and that seems like a good enough place to start, don't you think?"

Jax didn't respond for a few minutes, drifting in and out of sleep as he battled between his exhaustion, and the cold splash of realization he was still ankle-deep in a conversion. It got to the point he forgot what it was he was even talking about. Something about salads? Green things? Plants? Cucumbers? Could he even grow cucumbers here? Maybe he should grow cucumbers. He's never really had cucumbers, but they sound tasty. Or maybe he was thinking of kale... wonder what kale tastes like.

His thought process was interrupted by a soft kiss being pressed against his cheek. A hand settled on his thigh as he forced his eyes open, finding Jhin leaned over next to him.

"I'll take that as a yes," the man mumbled, the faint tremor in his voice sending chills down Jax's spine. He brushed his hand across Jax's cheek and tucked a bit of hair behind the Laidian's ear, "Sleep well, Obi."

Jax awoke some time later, to the sound of the neighborhood church bells rolling through the streets and past the houses like thunder. He'd always liked those bells, they sounded unique. Everywhere else the bells sounded tinny and meaningless. Like there was no effort put into it. It would grow tinnier and thinner the father away you got from them, until they stopped dead a few streets away. Here, the sound was wooden and whole, rattled the bones if you walked close enough, shook windows in their frames father off. It gave the kind of deep, glorious sound you'd hear from Obji as he passed; the twinkling of wind chimes mimicking the lesser spirits as they trailed behind him. Those bells were why he moved here, specifically, after leaving Ionia.

The bells rang five times, then stopped, leaving nothing but silence behind.

The fighter struggled to keep himself from holding his breath. He almost felt misplaced in the silence. It humbled him, somewhat, as the feeling of embarrassment over making the smallest noise creeped on him. He sat up with a grunt. A snarl spread across his face, Jax involuntarily baring his sharp teeth as a brief, thrumming pain in his shoulder caused him to freeze. Damn wound acting up again. He swore quietly and took several deep breaths as he waited for the pain to dull, as it always did.

Soft chimes rung out on the front porch, accompanied by the creaking wood underneath footsteps. The door opened and Jhin walked through. He wiped his forehead with the back of his forearm, trying his best not to touch his face with the dirty gloves on his hand. Pink flushed his cheeks and nose, blending rather nicely with his tan skin and dark hair. His movements were slow, untheatrical, and deliberate. A certain brand of tiredness weighed on his features, his eyes half-lidded and mouth slightly slack as he tried to catch his breath. It must have been a hot day out there. Jax didn't feel it, he was one of the fortunate who had air conditioning. That, and it's not often he felt much of anything while unconscious and asleep. Jhin had though, and must've spent a good while out there.

The man looked briefly over to Jax, concern flickering across his face. Jax, meanwhile, fought to keep himself composed in his haze of intoxicating awe. To be duly noted, such battles weren't as often won as his other ones.

"Hey," Jax grunted out, pulling at the leg of his pants and shifting in place.

Jhin took his sweet time responding, face switching between the visually-similar-but-functionally-different expressions of 'mildly annoyed' and 'perversely curious'. Jax tried to hold out, but eventually gave in to his need to fidget and whimper in embarrassment at the other's unrelenting stare. He hated silences in conversation. Especially ones where they kept staring at you. It made him feel uncomfortable, and ashamed, like he did something wrong and bad and he had become a horrible person because of it. It was irrational, but he felt it anyway. It didn't really help that Jhin's expression when he stared at nearly anything was perhaps the single most terrifying (and attractive) thing about him. Nevermind his towering height, or his spider-like features, those never really phased Jax. He'd seen more terrifying things before. But that stare was something else: cold-colored eyes fixed on one thing, the subtle changes in his expression as his eyebrows and nose and lips twitched and shifted about, confusedly, as if they didn't know what do to. Like the pace of their carefully memorized and rehearsed script had been interrupted, and they hadn't yet learned how to improvise.

"Good evening, hugaboo," Jhin greeted with a single nod, turning into the kitchen. "How was your nap?"

"It was okay," Jax said.

"'Okay'? Just 'okay'?"

"I wish it was longer."

"Mhm?"

"Like, twelve hours longer."

There were a few thumps of closing cupboards, "Twelve hours?"

"I'm still kinda tired... an' my shoulder hurts."

"Sleeping in a ratty arm chair will do that to you."

Jax pursed his lips and glared playfully at the entrance to the kitchen, knowing full well he couldn't be seen, "I think they're kinda comfortable."

Jhin walked out holding a big glass of water, gloves tucked underneath his elbow, where he had at some point rolled up his sleeves. It was a cute look on him.

"To be frank, dear-"

"But'chyer Ren."

That got him a scathing look, "- your definition of 'comfortable' is not one a man of your stature, age, and experience should have. It's one more commonly found in the younger types, who's bodies are more forgiving and wallets not as deep."

"Uhhm..." Jax clicked his tongue. "I'll give you that first part, but the last bit? Not so much."

"Whatever does that mean?"

"I'm as poor as dirt, darlin', in case you haven't noticed," the fighter made a motion towards the old jackets that littered the entryway, each one filled with countless holes and a handful that were lucky enough to have their holes sewn up. A moment went by as he pondered just how long it'd been since he last bought a new jacket (or when he last did his laundry... oops).

"You were. But that's hardly the case nowadays."

".. huh? How?"

"You can figure it out."

"Wuh?"

"Come on, use that brain of yours," a grin graced Jhin's lips for a brief moment as he lifted the glass of water to drink. "I'm sure it's in there somewhere."

Jax half wanted to say 'ouch'. Instead, he sat still and contemplated two things; why he'd chosen to deal with all this in the first place, and why he felt so many mixed feelings about that look Jhin was giving him. It was like the man's eyes were smiling. Cunningly. Like some cat getting its sick amusement from knocking fragile things off shelves and tables. Somebody waiting for their unsuspecting victim to realize how stupid he was as they somehow drank water from a bright pink sippy cup with faded daisy decals evilly.

"Oh," Jax's face brightened, giving a grin and a wink. "Rich on love?"

"Ew," Jhin scrunched up his nose, his whole body cringing at those words. "No, that's disgustingly sappy. I meant that I am rich, and therefore, by extension, you are too."

Silence again. There was a certain look on Jax's face that screamed 'guilty'. He knew he was pampered, one just had to glance at his plump cheeks, chubby arms, and round belly to tell that. Jhin took every opportunity to shower the Grandmaster with gifts of any type. Food, clothing, blankets, sugar, and (rarely) alcohol. Knowing full well that he was so pampered was embarrassing to say the least, but he just couldn't help enjoying it. It felt nice having someone treat you so... nicely, without asking for much in return. It was long overdue for the Grandmaster, and he very well deserved it, but that wouldn't stop him from feeling guilty about it. He felt the need to repay Jhin somehow, but he could never figure out how.

"Your shoulder."

"Hurts."

"I know that," Jhin puffed. "I was meaning to go on to ask if you'd like anything for it? Surely you have something to ease your pain."

"Yeah, patience."

"That was not the kind of remedy I was thinking of.."

Jax tapped his chin, then grinned: "Kisses?"

"On your shoulder? Good heavens, how scandalous," the man looked shocked.

"No. On the cheek, doofus. Don't get so excited."

"I wasn't-" Jhin sighed and rolled his eyes. He knew a trap when he saw one, and didn't feel like falling into it this time. "Fine."

The Grandmaster beamed, eyes glowing with anticipation. Always eager for this type of thing, it was like he thought affection to be some rare gem. A one-in-a-million happening. When, in fact, it was nearly every day the two of them spent together. Unmitigated shows of affection were handed out like hotcakes, and laid around in piles that looked like they were going to fall over because they were so tall. It was no less sweet, but it was common between them. Jhin simply went over to him, carefully. He hit his knee on the corner of the table, yet again, as he moved to crouch down. Jax's smile dropped at the sound, only to be trapped in a kiss. A quick one. Followed by several more kisses.

Jax giggled. Jhin placed his water down and leaned closer, peppering kisses on the Laidian's cheeks and neck. They both began to laugh, taking turns nuzzling and pecking each others cheeks. Tickling soon began, with the Virtuoso helplessly caught in Jax's firm hug, unable to escape the tickling of his sides. He fought hard, but unfortunately Tickle Fights were one of the kinds of fights the Grandmaster was undefeated in. An indeterminate amount of time passed as the two tickled one another and tried to avoid buckling over from laughter and tears, until they were forced to stop and catch their breath.

"See what I mean?" Jax eventually said, still holding the other man close.

Jhin hummed in response, reaching up to play with a stray strand of the fighter's gray-blue hair.

"As they say; laughter is the best medicine."

There was a pause. Jhin stopped twirling the strand of hair in his fingers.

"Get out," he deadpanned.

"Wha- this is my house, asshole!"

#{A Drunk Idiot or a Sober Psychopath: Which is Worse?}#{Sweethearts}#{Purple Idiot}#{Mr. Fancypants}#Jhin/Jax #Jax/Jhin #tw; my ship #jhin league of legends #jax league of legends #long post

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13thhr · 4 years

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Episode #241: Reading from The Thirteenth Hour on Exercise in Seclusion and the Start of Like a Hood Ornament 1

https://archive.org/download/podcast241_202003/Podcast%20241.mp3

On this week’s show, I thought I’d touch on the topic of exercise, specifically what you can do if you happen to be isolated (either due to a global pandemic or imprisoned for other reasons, like Logan in one part of The Thirteenth Hour, which we’ll be reading from shortly.

As it turns out, there’s actually quite a lot you can do even if you can’t go to a gym. Although being quarantined does not necessarily mean you can’t go outside (the virtues of short duration outdoor physical activity is something we discuss briefly though a scientific paper – see the abstract below), you can do a remarkable amount inside, even if you have little to no equipment. I’ve done a version of the workout that inspired the little passage in The Thirteenth Hour for decades. That workout was really nothing special – just having been the body weight exercises we did in martial arts classes and other calisthenics I recall from an old Canadian Air Force fitness manual I had as a kid that we probably got at a garage sale. If you’re interested, Arnold Schwarzenegger put together a similar routine that is available for people to access here.

Here’s the passage from The Thirteenth Hour:

They’ll break you if you let them. I wasn’t the strongest person out there, and though I always had hope, now I had purpose again. I started from the beginning, with my body, the only way I’d learned how. Every morning, after I woke up, I would wash my face and clothes, if they needed washing. Then I did calisthenics – pushups, sit–ups, stretching – like I had done when I was in training. My muscles felt deconditioned from lack of use and malnutrition, so much of my strength had left me, and everything was more difficult now.

It’s hard to take it slow when your never–resting mind can envision all the things it’d like your body to be able to do once more. But in the end, sometimes it’s best to just get busy trying and spend less time thinking.

When I could comfortably walk around my cell and jog in place, I slowly motioned through the different hand–to–hand combat techniques that I had learned during my training. Who knows, I thought, if I make a break for it, I’ll need those techniques the most. After a few weeks, my stamina began to reassert itself, allowing me to wage ongoing battles against that cloaked magician, Klax. Whenever I felt myself growing tired, I saw his form in my mind and practiced harder.

More than once the guards rushed into my cell, thinking that I had collapsed or died because I was lying face down on the cold stone floor. I was actually just resting, but my guards had grown somewhat fond of me, they said, and didn’t want anything bad to happen to me. I was never sure if they were telling the truth or not; I’ll bet Klax would have had their necks if they had been so careless as to let me kill myself without his being able to see.

My agility came back last. The cell was not large enough for much, but the ceiling was high and my boots were padded, so I figured it was worth a go. Pretty much anything is, though, after you’ve been cooped up in the same room for weeks.

I tried standing on my hands again, at first with my feet resting against the wall to accustom my arms to the change in weight they’d be frequently bearing in the near future. Then handstands without the wall. Then handsprings, and finally, aerial techniques. As for the latter, the first few times, the guards must have heard the sound of my feet slamming into the stone floor because they came running. They saw what I was doing, took it as a suicide attempt, doubled their checks on my cell, and, of course, made me stop at once, lest, by golly, I crack my head open on the hard stone floor. I was too far into my regimen to really care what they thought, and it just meant I had to practice when they were asleep or weren’t looking. And try to land softer.

There were a few times when I did go overboard and missed beaning my noggin on the stones out of sheer luck. It goes with the territory … sooner or later, everybody ends up bailing in midair. One minute you’re in the air, next thing you know, your jump seems off or things just feel weird, and if you have time to think anything at all, that’s about when you think some bad words, along with “this could hurt.”

But I knew that once I regained confidence in my body and what it could do, I would stop bailing. I knew my body would get used to being in strange positions in the air again, and I knew the best way to not get hurt was to go all out on each technique. I just wasn’t quite there yet, resulting in a few midair problems and hard landings on an unforgiving stone floor. I hurt an ankle after a bad landing – an easy thing to do if you’re practicing on a hard, uneven surface like the floor of my cell – but thankfully escaped anything worse. Luckily, I had a good set of boots – one of the few things Darian’s Army did right – that were light and flexible with thick, padded soles meant to withstand miles upon miles of marching and other abuse. Later, Aurora found me a mattress, which she intended for me to sleep on (which I did, of course), but what she didn’t know was that it was the mat I used to soften my landings.

https://www.tiktok.com/@13thhr/video/6805532752927001861

https://imgur.com/gallery/yYmEOnO?s=sms

So I finally took the plunge and created a little profile on Tik Tok. To be honest, I don’t get 95% of the stuff on there, but it has some videos of people making stuff and doing flips, so that’s enough for me. I mainly just use it to post some videos of the resin minifigures I’ve made. This is the backflip animation whose frames are above.

Today also marks the first Rocketeer segment as a part of the podcast. Now, obviously, there have been many episode mentions about the Rocketeer before, though here are a few:

–Ep 18 on comics (Dave Stevens)

–Ep 53 on rewatching the Rocketeer as an adult

–Ep 235 on making the resin miniature Rocketeer

But this week’s show marks the first time starting an actual segment (kind of like how I used to do a starving artist segment before) that I’m calling:

https://imgur.com/gallery/yYmEOnO?s=sms

That’s “Like a Hood Ornament” if your interface doesn’t support graphics (that’s you, iTunes show notes). You may recognize the moniker as a line from the 1991 film. Today’s we’ll start out with the fictional bio most likely written by Dave Stevens for his protagonist, Cliff, who inspired Logan in many ways.

More coming next week! Stay safe!

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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!

youtube

You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.

Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/ or Spotify. Join the mailing list for a digital free copy. You can also get it on CD or tape.

Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com

Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY

Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book? Just email me at [email protected] for more details!

Stuck at home? Think you can't exercise? Maye not! This wk on the show, we touch on #exercise you can do in #quarantine, like Logan in #TheThirteenthHour. Plus, the start of a regular #Rocketeer segment on the show! @ihavespokenpod Episode #241: Reading from The Thirteenth Hour on Exercise in Seclusion and the Start of Like a Hood Ornament 1…

#actionfigures #CliffSecord #davestevens #designertoys #exercise #figurine #martialarts #miniatures #quarantine #resin #rocketeer #sculpture

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