#unless it's one of those rare cases where the actor is playing themselves then by all means dislike them

[feykrorovaan]

"I don't like that character because their actor/VA is a piece of garb-"

Me:"Shhh the character and the actor are not the same person. They haven't done the same things, nor do they hold the same views. Your argument is invalid. Shhh."

#feykrorovaan #elder scrolls #elder scrolls online #eso #skyrim #dragon age inquisition #tes #dragon age #Just because an actor is a horrible human being doesn't mean their character that never did anything to deserve the hate should be hated on #and just because a character is a terrible being doesn't mean their actor that never did anything to deserve the hate should be hated on or #blamed for the things they were paid to read/act out #that the character did #unless it's one of those rare cases where the actor is playing themselves then by all means dislike them #All I am saying is learn to separate the actor from their craft #I get not wanting to support an actor/character for what they've done #but don't try to tell someone they shouldn't like a character because their actor is trash #I'm also tired of hearing about actors that seem nice being bullied off of social media/out of acting because of the hate they get for their #character. They're human beings with feelings #I'm not saying that you have to like a character #just don't have THAT be the reason for you disliking them #Find an actual reason #Be nice humans

[sstabhmontown]

Merchants, heretics, and special advisors

Aside from becoming a Knight and taking other members of one's party into one's service, most likely to be possible for Fighters, there are a few other ways to change the taxation structure.

These rules are, even more than the first part, initial ideas likely to be bent or broken by the desires of our play-group.

Houses of worship outside the Church

Normally, Clerics pay their taxes only to the Church, being outside of the secular law, with amounts above their 10% tithe securing them favour and title within that body.

Clerics who don't follow the Pope (or Caliph or other official religious leader) have two basic options for the establishments they might build. And of course, the Cleric who does is likely to stray, since those in our party have many different ideas than their superiors, and are within the game an unusual figure. If a Cleric is the head of their own movement, they can hardly be said to owe any tribute to a Bishop above them. They can keep their earnings as long as they are recognized by civil authorities.

In general, rulers in the North who themselves are part of the Church do not look fondly upon other faiths. Only in the far Northwest where they have recently converted themselves are they likely to allow any houses for Pagan gods, and in either case are unlikely to welcome those built for the other book-faiths. In the South, the more tolerant world of the Caliphate is more likely to allow such houses, but each must be negotiated with the local ruler.

Alternately, especially for the Anti-cleric, such a house might disguise itself, either toeing the line of the official Church in public, or appearing to be a fully secular establishment. In this case, you'll be using the rules for common members of the third estate, unless you can get yourself involved in financing the lord's business, in which case your beaurocratic success will also get you access to this chart:

On a 2–6, the local ruler has had enough, and will repossess your land and evict you and your followers. Avoid this by making sure they are already in your debt.

On a 7–9, the local ruler is likely feeling pressure from the official faith to act against you. A 10% share for them to give to the official Church might help you to avoid a crack-down.

On 10+, the local lord has something they want your help with, outside of the strict guidelines of the official Church. This is your chance to share secret forbidden knowledge, to broker an agreement with a clandestine actor, or even to offer them membership in your heresy so they can accomplish something forbidden like Divorce.

The Merchant Adventurer

Although rare or even unheard of in the North, in the old empires of the East and more rarely in the Western cities of the Warm Sea, another type of arrangement is known: the Merchant Adventurer. These rogues could become famous and popular members of their communities, favoured by rulers, and settle into comfortable, independent lives.

This role is most likely to be taken on by a different sort of character: the class that most values the secrets knowledges of distant places and the flow of rare materials by commerce is of course the Magic User.

If the local ruler is availing themselves of a continuing service, you can surely avoid a 2–6 roll each year regardless of your official status.

If you can convince a ruler to recognize your outfit, you can pay them a flat 10% fee of your profits plus the value of your major properties like buildings and ships, plus of course your Tithe, on the 7–9 roll, and even on a 2–6 owe this much for your last season as you lose this status.

Royal advisors

Another route a Magic-user might take is to ingratiate themself with the lord as an advisor and executive for certain otherwise impossible tasks. This is treated similarly to a Knighthood, although without as sure an oath of service the Magic-user will have to continually prove their worth, and without the possibility of taking other characters into your service. Unlike taxpayers, such an advisor needs to check seasonally even when not present in the realm, taking -1 for each season they don't represent themself, cumulatively until their return.

On a 2–6 a rival is attempting to replace you at the lord's ear. If you can't come to terms with them, they'll replace you when this is rolled a second time.

On 7–9 things are stable so long as you carouse with your lord this season.

On a 10+, you'll be able to offer a service at your lord's request, or perhaps even of your own concotion, that might also advance your own interests in the world or raise your profile with more powerful patrons.

Additionally, you'll likely hear about Domain Events in your lord's realm. More on that to follow.

#domain turn #rules #carousing

[47crayons]

so, you want to write a musician?

about me: i play viola and have experience in symphony orchestras, string orchestras, string quartets (+ a few other small ensembles), and solo performances. i've done some light composition, and have friends/family who play other instruments. while my musical history is extensive, by no means do i know everything or speak for everyone.

this guide will focus on classical music/how to portray classical musicians and things that aren't as easily researched.

quick overview of instruments in a typical symphony orchestra

upper strings (violin, viola), lower strings (cello, (double) bass; i've seen viola included here too, but it's more commonly classified as upper strings)

strings also technically includes harp and piano

woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon)

depending on instrumentation, they may also have piccolo, english horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon

saxophones are not traditionally in symphony orchestras due to it being a relative newer instrument! but this is changing because more contemporary composes are including sax parts

brass (trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, tuba, euphonium)

percussion (depends heavily on instrumentation, but common instruments are bass drum, timpani, snare, crash cymbal, xylophone, marimba)

some things you should research

where the hands are supposed to go!! i'd recommend you look at pictures of professionals in orchestra settings (ny phil, cso, berlin phil are all top tier). some musicians *coughs at yoyo ma* have less than perfect posture when they're performing solos (for the same reasons famous authors can break "rules")

necessary equipment including reeds, rockstops, different kinds of sticks/mallets, rosin, mouth pieces for whatever instrument you're writing

common misconceptions

loose/photocopied sheet music is not aesthetic—it's annoying and impossible to keep organized. folders and binders are fairly common especially when managing multiple ensembles.

original copies are often expensive and required to perform a piece (legally) for profit or otherwise (though i know a few people who have bent this rule)

not all performers are good composers (i myself have very little formal music theory training), but many composers have performance histories.

not all musicians can sing.

perfect pitch is both a blessing and a curse. notes can be slightly lower/higher but in tune with the context of the piece, which drives people with perfect pitch insane.

having perfect pitch does not guarantee someone will be a prodigy, and people don't need perfect pitch to be a talented musician.

drama in ensembles does exist, but it rarely gets in the way of rehearsal. same thing goes for good friends: if your characters have even a shred of common sense, they aren't going to be talking/messing around during rehearsal.

instruments (especially good ones) are extremely expensive. people very rarely store instruments on the wall or other displays for fear of falling.

instruments are very picky and require tuning every time. every time! it doesn't take long anyway. temperature and humidity can and will make instruments go out of tune or damage your instrument if not properly stored.

some people listen exclusively to classical music, but in my experience, that's definitely not the majority

like with anything, most musicians struggle with self doubt at one point or another.

musician culture

getting excited when we hear a piece we recognize

getting frustrated because we can't remember the name of the piece (after all, no lyrics to search)

being horrified when a non-musician actor is playing a musician. yes, we notice. yes, it's obvious.

if people are joking, it's likely to be about: violas (a quick search for "viola jokes" will tell you all you need to know) or trumpets (a reputation for being overly loud, playing and not)

putting stickers (places they toured, their orchestra, or just purely decorative) on cases is common, but not for everyone. same goes for pictures (of family, past concerts, or anything) on the inside.

scrambling for a pencil when the conductor says to mark something. pencils are a musicians best friend :D

asking (and forgetting) how to split double stops/two parts at the same time. sometimes one stand partner will play the top while the other plays the bottom, and sometimes this is split stand by stand.

this has NEVER resulted in a sexual top/bottom joke. please just. don't. also no g string jokes. it's just unrealistic.

awaiting the obligatory "it's one week before our concert, and you sound like this?!" lecture

not talking about music 100% of the time!!! they have lives outside of music (most of them, at least /j). especially to close friends, music is probably not going to be a conversation topic unless something is out of the ordinary (high stress, something funny from rehearsal, etc.)

bragging/talking about how often they practice is generally not welcomed. great, but other people don't need to hear it!

stages are hot and bright. there's no way a performer can see someone in the audience with the possible exception of the first row.

practicing

three words for you: love. hate. relationship.

slow practice (like really slow lots of people recommend half speed; good for focusing on the right notes, tone, phrasing, smooth transitions)

metronome practice (while playing, it's not annoying at all! it's helpful and requires a lot of focus; when NOT playing, it's annoying and loud because it needs to be heard over the playing)

drone practice (having a machine/website/another person play one note in the background; good for tuning and scales)

and too many more for me to detail

auditions

ensembles may have entrance auditions to determine who gets in and seating auditions to determine placement within the section.

adrenaline does not make us play better; it just makes us make mistakes. and then thinking about those mistakes causes more mistakes.

some instruments, especially those with less repertoire, have common excerpts that come up frequently (i can think of one in particular that i've played for three separate auditions this year).

stopping/starting over is not recommended ever, but if you do, it has to be 10x better. most audition judges aren't looking for perfection!! they want to see how your character can keep going after messing up.

sight reading (being given new music, having ~30 seconds to look at it, being asked to play) is never perfect. i don't care how talented your character is; if they think they nailed it, they aren't experienced enough to see all the phrasing/dynamics that they didn't incorporate. no one gets sight reading perfect!!!

perhaps most importantly, musicians are not all the same! they enjoy it for a number of different reasons and have diverse and interesting lives outside of music!!! more information about specific instrument groups under the cut :)

strings

callouses. with the exception of pianists, most string players (and especially professional ones) have callouses where they press down/pluck the strings. i also have one on my right thumb where i hold my bow. cellists and bassists might have them on their left thumb from playing higher notes in thumb position.

hickeys are also fairly common, though only some people get them. upper strings will get these by under their left jaw. cellists may have one from the wooden body resting on their sternum. some people (including hilary hahn and many many others) use a cloth for comfort and to prevent hickeys.

few people want a hickey, but it might suit a character who is constantly trying to prove themselves.

our fingers do not "glide" anywhere. you can get cuts/"string-burns" from pressing down too hard when shifting. cuts like those are the only reason someone's fingers will bleed, and it's rarer than you think.

upper strings are more prone to back/neck problems from the way they hold their instruments on one side. see also: shoulder pain.

finger cramps happen. they aren't too common, but most if not all strings have experienced at least one.

pianos require tuning every few years or else the chords will be out of tune. few pianists can tune their own instrument because of how complicated it is.

piano parts/accompaniments will have so. many. pages. a page turner may sit on the right of the pianist to turn the page.

woodwinds & brass

spit. so much spit. some instruments clean afterwards with a cloth; others have a spit valve which is as gross as it sounds.

proper embouchure, or how a musician uses the muscles in their face/lips, is tiring, and people actually get strong cheek muscles. they can also easily turn red, but it varies based on a person's facial complexion. see also: good lung capacity.

flute and piccolo are not dainty. piccolo requires as much air as a tuba. an old teacher of mine almost passed out playing piccolo when she was in college.

flutes and piccolos are high, but often not shrill depending on the level of the ensemble.

reeds last a few weeks (less if your character plays for hours a day) and can be expensive to buy.

keys and valves can get sticky especially on older instruments which can result in the wrong note or bad tone.

saxes, clarinets, flutes are more likely to "honk" on low notes.

oboes are more likely to feel "wispy" on high notes.

articulation comes from the tongue, especially for brass instruments, and conductors may ask for "tah" "pah" or "wah" sounds depending on the style of the piece.

percussion

callouses from the friction between hands and sticks/mallets.

there are so many types of sticks and mallets!!! make sure to take a look at what materials are good for what instruments/sounds.

cymbals, triangle, and bass drum are not easy to play, even though they look simple.

percussionists with the exception of timpani may play more than one instrument during a piece, and they're constantly moving around in the back during their rests.

percussion instruments are too expensive for most people to have everything they ever play. practice pads are very common in place of these instruments.

ability to play one instrument doesn't translate to different instruments. for example, many percussionists don't have experience playing set/drum set.

some of the things detailed here are heavily glossed over, so if you have any questions, i'd always be happy to talk about it with you; i may not have answers, but i will try to help as best i can!!!

since you read this far, have my favorite viola joke.

what's the difference between a violist and a large pizza?

a large pizza can feed a family of four :)

tagging some people who showed interest: @writing-is-a-martial-art @ashen-crest @kg-willie @owilder

#writing advice #writing resources #writing reference #music #wow this absolutely consumed me

[incorrect-sdv-quotes]

Okay so I know this is a SDV Incorrect quote blog but I really wanted to show off my SDV headcanon’s so you may ignore this post if you wish (I’ll go back to the normal posts after this, I have like 13 quotes queue’d up right now) 

Headcanon’s under the cut:

1.Alex’s real first name is Alexander he just prefers to go by Alex

2.Alex is a trans male so he was born female but transitioned to male at age 13

3.The bachelors ages are (listed youngest to oldest):

 Alex: 19 

Sebastian: 19 (one month older then Alex)

Sam: 20

Harvey: 25-30

Elliott: 36

Shane: 38

4.Despite Sam being older then him Alex is taller (if you put them side by side Sam looks taller but that’s only cause of his hair if you flattened it you could see Alex was taller)

5.Sebastian is secretly a vampire (He does look like one anyway)

6. Haley and Alex kind of have a Hazel and Xander from Bunk’d relationship where they’re kinda friends but one of them *cough cough* Haley *cough* has a huge crush on the other to where it’s at yandere point- Haley is not QUITE as crazy about Alex that Hazel is about Xander and unlike Hazel Haley can hide the craziness she does have around people but when it’s just her and Alex she’s all crazy and clingy- 

Like, she’ll call him pet names like “My jock prince” or “Alex-zandy-” or “My knight in shining armor” Etc. etc- or hug him and never let go until someone LITERALLY prys her off- Talk about nutty nutty nut-so-

7. My headcanon voices for the bachelors are: (Well some of them, if a name is in strike through that means I don’t have one for that one- yet)

Alex: Shining Armor from MLP

Sebastian

Sam: Rottmnt Leo/2020 Sonic the Hedgehog/Dewy from Ducktails (this one might change)

Harvey: Fozzie Bear (Harvey: WaKa WaKa (I’m sorry))

Elliott: Gunther from Shake It Up

Shane

8.Shane is basically the god of chickens he’s such a good caretaker of chickens that he could summon an army of chickens to peck the eyes out of everyone in town with one “Babock” CHICKEN ARMY!!

If you decided to read this post and you liked my headcanons then this is it for now more might be added later as I play the game and scroll through the SDV tags on Tumblr more 

EDIT 1: More headcanons!:

9: Elliott is an amazing actor but a horrid horror-movie actor (It’s just his screams are unrealistic he will literally just say “Aaaah” otherwise it’s the same as the rest of his acting) (This scream-glitch is an easy fix if you yell “Ghost” more on that in 10)

10: Elliott is TERRIFIED of ghosts even those cute and/or clearly fake ghosts (Why else do you think Spirits Eve/Halloween has Skeletons every year and not ghosts? No one wants to scare anyone Too bad.) Actually Alex dared Elliott to watch the Disney Junior show Vampirina which went fine until Demi came on screen- Elliott literally wet himself and screamed for 3 whole hours- (Poor Alex who had to listen to that the whole time-)

11: Elliott treats his pocket crab as his ACTUAL son, not as his pet but as his actual biological son (it’s actually really cute)

12: The portraits in this video for a portraits mod is how the characters actually look to me (Excluding Elliott Sam and Sebastian they still live in my brain with their cannon looks): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmBW8BzSZpU&list=WL&index=1&t=5s

13: Krobus is Sebastian’s father (yeah you THINK it would not make sense along with Hc numb.5 but if you think about it if his father is a monster and his mother is human he’s gonna be born as a human-looking monster! Which is a Vampire!)

EDIT 2: Damnit. I was scrolling through this and I realized I missed a Hc and it slipped through the original post and the EDIT 1!

14: Alex has Dyslexia (this bugger Hc belonged in the original post but it slipped through both edits)

EDIT 3: MORE HEADCANNONS-

15: Both Abigail and Sebastian used to have hair to match their parents (Abby’s was brown (Like said in game) and Sebastian’s was Ginger) but due to their “Unusual” parents (Abigail: Wizard Sebastian: Krobus) their hair changed color when they got older and their mothers just pretended they died their hair so both the towns people and Abigail and Sebastian themselves would not freak out 

16: Sebastian has snake bite piercing's but he only wears them when he’s alone (he got them in the first place cause 1: Sam dared him and 2: he decided it would be a fun way to rebel against dead to Sebastian Demetrius, he didn’t have to keep them but he ended up liking the look) 

17: Sebastian owns a giant frog plush, it’s twice the size of him, is really soft and is incredibly fat (it’s to the point it’s just a circle that has stubby legs) he loves it more then anything Excluding Alex but he does not want anyone finding out he loves it let alone owns it so he stuffs it under his bed when people are in and/or near his room

18: Sebastian’s first word was literally “Froggy”

Ex:

Robin: Can you say “mama”?

Baby!Sebastian: ...Froggy!

Robin:

Robin: Out of all words your first word is “Froggy”? Really?

19: The shortest to tallest Bachelors are:

Shane

Sam (If you take his hair and go *Squishes flat*)

Alex

Sebastian

Sam (If you count the added height from his Mullet)

Harvey

Elliott (Tall stinky sea dude)

20: Sam got Sebastian to scream “Bubbles” for 5 hours straight 

Details on that:

Sam: It’s impossible to say “Bubbles” threateningly

Sebastian:

Five munities later:

Robin: Uhhhh Sam? Why is my son on the roof screaming “BUBBLES”?

21: Sebastian owns a biker jacket but he only wears it when riding his motorcycle cause the jacket makes him look way more goth then emo and he prefers the emo look over goth look despite he acts more like a goth

22: One Feast of The Winter Star Sebastian got everyone an empty box and when they opened it Seb said: “It’s a void of nothingness. Just like life.” He did not get in trouble or nothing cause your allowed to give what you want but he did not do that again

23: Sebastian requires glasses to read, he can see perfectly but when it comes to reading on a computer or on paper he needs glasses

24: Sam does a perfect Darth Vader voice and Darth Vader breathing noises

25: Sebastian has vampire powers (cause he is a vampire (Hc 5)), he knows about them and is chill about it but he does not use them unless necessary cause he just does not feel the need to use them otherwise (His powers include, immortality (he also can’t be killed cause on my take on Vampires the stuff that “Traditionally” harms/kills them is just a mith and actually does nothing to them), super strength, increased speed, fast self-healing, telekinesis (I know this is not “Traditionally” a vampire power but Seb does have it) and the ability to change into a bat)

26: Both Sebastian and Elliott are actually pretty jacked (Not Alex level jacked but still) you just can’t see it unless they’re shirt-less (but in Seb’s case at least loose the hoodie)

27: Harvey’s doctor’s mallet weapon is just as heavy and as big as himself so he rarely goes into combat cause he has trouble welding his own weapon- 

Harvey: Time to explore the mines! *grabs his giant doctors mallet*

Harvey: Nope going down. *falls backward with a thud*

28: Elliott carries at least one very sharp pencil with him at all times so if he sees a very annoying person or a slime that escaped the mines he’ll grab it and go *StAb*

29: Everyone else makes Hermit jokes around Elliott which he finds funny and annoying at the same time (They used to do the jokes about Sebastian as well but they stopped cause when they did Seb strangled them Darth Vader style) Ex of the hermit jokes:

*singing* Someone’s on the beach with a hermit! There’s a hermit on the beach I know I know! Someone’s on the beach with a hermiiiit! And the hermit’s name is Elliott!

30: If you think Elliott’s cannon SDV schedule is anti-social you should see how anti-social he gets when writing a book-

EDIT 4: Surprise, there’s more

31: Elliott is a mermaid merman (he’s a human by day half human half fish by night but he’ll change forms sooner if you dump water on him- found that out by Haley throwing water on him in hopes he’ll melt-)

32: When in ‘fish’ form Elliott’s tail is incredibly strong (if you get hit by it you’ll go flying 900 feet in the air in 5 seconds at full strength)

33:Elliott only lets Harvey call him “Elly” if anyone else does so expect Elliott to dump water on himself then hit you with his fish tail)

34:Vincent will sing The Little Mermaid song “Under the sea” around Elliott and Sebastian (Sebastian cause think about it and Elliott cause he’s an IRL Mermaid)

#sdv #stardew valley #sdv headcanons #stardew valley headcanons #headcanons #not a quote #I have to edit this like 100 times cause I'm dealing with a strikethrough glitch

[cherriesink]

Defrott - Murmurs

Murmurs are snippets of character reflection earned by increasing Explore Points during Exploration. They usually include 6-7 monologues about other characters and 3-4 monologues about things important to the specific character.

These lines are taken straight from the English translation of the game, so fair warning of bad grammar.

About Yatsufusa “Yatsufusa is also a new type of vampire different from Shutaro Kurusu. He enjoys plays, literature, and music... Rich slacker was the term, was it? It probably means that they are the wealthy enough so they can do what they want. Like aristocrats back in the days. 

But that’s a suited way to live for vampires. Because the key to a long life is having a hobby.

And above all, Yatsufusa has a unique skill. It’s probably his ability to reason... but it’s as if he’s an actor acting on stage with a script in hand. He can reenact the crime scene just by looking at the remains. Very fascinating.

It’s also elegant how he uses his brains when fighting in a battle, unlike other vampires. I’m curious how he is 100 years from now, so I want him to live long. But from my experience... boys like him sacrifice themselves for somebody else and end up dying. Just like Mercutio...”

About Kurusu “Shutaro Kurusu... He’s not an exception, but Japanese people are interesting. Because they call themselves monsters. In Europe, we called ourselves God. Both humans and vampires will suffer if they cannot find their raison d'être.

Frailty, thy name is vampire. Vampires like Kurusu were mocked in the ages I’ve gone through. Being mocked is still cute... Worse case, you’d be killed. I wonder if his type are mainstream nowadays? It must be the age of time...

Things rarely surprise me since I’ve gone to different countries. But usually, A-Class vampires will become full of themselves. And... how do I say it- think themselves as God.

But I guess Kurusu is different. A vampire that fears his own powers... quite interesting. He is just like Hamlet. Because he is struggling how to utilize his own powers.”

About Maeda “Maeda from Code Zero... I don’t like him. He’s not elegant. 

I think our time is coming close to an end. We do not belong anywhere in the future that’s filled with rationalization. We will become extinct...

So I want to disappear gracefully when my time has come. I want vampires to be spotless when we must go. But- he and his unit are treating vampires like toy soldiers for modern warfare. That is not how vampires should end their lives, absolutely not.

...But I can still tolerate with their nonsense. After all, they’re still a tiny unit with Kurusu, Yamagami, Suwa, and Takeuchi. If they grow bigger to the point where they look hideous, then I must crush and erase them from this world.

Yoshinobu Maeda will be the Macbeth... who goes first on the list.”

About Yamagami “Unranked vampires are no different from ordinary human beings. That guy in Code Zero- Yamagami was it? He always looks at me with frightened eyes, but he doesn’t interest me at all. 

Everyone fears us, but S-Class vampires are apathetic about most things. We don’t fear people, we don’t get upset, and you even forget how to cry when you live as long as me.

So, unranked vampires arent that different from plants to me. I’d be interested in him if he was a really good actor, or something about him was elegant and beautiful. 

I’ll tell him that he doesn’t have to be so scared of me next time. And that I’ll won’t kill him unless he coughs during my stage.”

About Takeuchi “Takeuchi makes me feel sad. The world should have mysteries that we cannot understand. Because that is how great poems are born. Beautiful Greek mythology or the story of Icarus wouldn’t have been born if people understood what the sun was. 

Beauty lies within the darkness. Art forms through our imagination and what we find in that darkness. But the light of civilization swept that darkness and snatched away beauty from this world...

Takeuchi would’ve been dead a long time ago if killing him was my solution. But things are changing rapidly throughout the entire world since the Industrial Revolution. So in the end, the light will vanish us because we are vampires.

But I think science is dangerous in its own ways. Because you can die from getting too close to the sun just like Icarus did.”

About Suwa “Suwa- an underaged vampire that’s been living a long time. Just like me. He must be wise if he managed to survive this far being a C-Class vampire.

He also enjoys plays- so he’s checked off the list to longevity, I see. But he is too aggressive for a vampire his age. I think he can be a bit more laid-back. 

But I guess the humanness left inside him is what keeps him going. Vampires that have a strong feeling towards something tend to keep up their sanity just like me. Although, that is the same for humans as well...

I heard he was attacked by a group of vampires disguising themselves as a missionary. If he has 11 sitgmatas in total, that means he was bitten by 11 different vampires. I heard the classless ones that got banished from Europe went to Asian countries east of India. So I guess they were some of them.”

About Tenman-ya “I must say that Tenman-ya is quite interesting. There was something similar in Europe called guilds. Although, it was a place where people paid their blood in exchange for getting rid of someone they loathe.

But Tenman-ya pays with blood if vampires help out with carpenters or craftsmen. I have never seen vampires work for blood until I ran into them. That is why I never get tired of this world. Is it a cultural difference? I’m sure vampires in France won’t use it even if a shop with the same concept opened its doors. It takes too much time. I am... an actor myself, but it’s more like a hobby to me. 

To top it off, I heard their master adores vampires and despises humans... Different things pop up at different times and countries indeed. So it it very fascinating. 

However, it seems my time is almost up. I can’t keep up with this era anymore.”

About Family “My younger brother is quite famous- but I do not brag about it in public. My brother is a hero. But it will only hurt his reputation if the world finds out that his older brother is a vampire.

A vampire named Clotide turned me into a vampire. She was someone who I used to call my sister... She mastered ancient Greek and, her abilities were top-notch out of all the vampires I’ve seen. Her levels surpassed the ranking system. I am one of the oldest vampires, but even those vampires called her the “Ancient Vampire” or the “Ancient Goddess.”

An ancient code of vampires goes: “Thou shall not breed children or animal vampires.” If broken, the new life shall be ended. My sister broke the code and protected me. She protected and hid me. We traveled the entire world together...

I did not hold a grudge against her for making me into a vampire... Yet, she never forgave herself. She never did... until the end...”

About Japan “I was always interested in Japan. It all began when I watched “Madama Butterfly” at La Scala. Puccini is fascinating. I do not agree with the ending most of the time, but his music is fantastic. It makes you forget that fuzzy feeling you get.

I have never been to Asia in my life even when being alive for hundreds of years. I had nothing to do... after losing my sister. So, I first went to Beijing where “Turandot” took place. I stayed in Shanghai for awhile, and I said to myself, “Might as well visit Japan since that’s where Madama Butterfly took place...”

But it was disappointing since it was nothing like the Japan depicted at La Scala. I was expecting something more oriental but the country was busy constructing western-style buildings. I should’ve come 100 years earlier... 

But it ended up being a country that provokes my curiosity.”

About Vampires “Most vampires are terrified of me and stay away from my territory. Vampires rarely come near the Imperial Theater since they know that it’s my home. Excluding Code Zero and Yatsufusa... that is.

Those that hide in caves deep inside a mountain and come down for blood once in a while are the most dangerous vampires. Because most of their humanness has long been gone, and some of them have not spoken to anyone for hundreds of years. They forget how to speak. Not elegant at all. Plus, they are only a pain that calls for attention. So I sweep them up.

Vampires are not widely known because they are faithful to their principles to an extent. So boorish ones are even hated by their own kind... Why can’t we all live elegantly?”

#mars red #defrott

[repentantsky]

The difference Between JRPG’s and WRPG’s, and why we should stop comparing them

If you’re like me, you love RPG’s of many different genre’s. Whether they cover fantastical realms like Skyrim and Final Fantasy, or more technologically advanced ones like Borderlands or Star Ocean. 

Like all genre’s most RPG’s of different genre’s also suffer from different problems because of tropes and reused settings that people can grow tired of, but talking about RPG’s from two different parts of the world, is a whole other problem. Japan for example, is mostly marketing itself to Western players, while Western RPG’s, are mostly marketing themselves to Western players...uh wait, why does that make them different? 

It’s all because of style choices. See, Japan like most countries, has a lot of traditions that make a lot of it’s products fairly same-y. As I said that happens with everyone, but Japan has to try harder with smaller series to get western appeal, which is required to have a successful selling game, unless it’s a mobile title, since those all do really well in Japan, because people can just game on their way to and from work. I digress, but Japan is so rooted in tradition, that you can watch an episode of Gigantor, the anime that is considered by many to be the first anime ever created, and Demon Slayer, and notice a lot of similarities in the way the characters are speaking, because Japan has always made their shows where actors talk like they would in real life, which isn’t always true in other acting platforms around the world, which of course means, this translates to video games. 

Specifically what it means, is that Japan has to hop a cultural barrier that Western games don’t, and they have to rely on a lot more tropes, because there are only so many ways to translate the same basic plot of a JRPG, for Western audiences, before things become too cliché. A lot of RPG’s are successful in doing this, like the aforementioned Final Fantasy, and other JRPG’s are coming through with successful games to, like Fire Emblem. Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, Atelier, and several others. All of the games coming through lately, lead people to believe that JRPG’s are a thriving genre in the west, but that’s not really true. 

If you were to ask any random person what the most successful JRPG of all time was, a lot of people would probably think of a Final Fantasy game, but not even Final Fantasy 7, has come close. In fact the only JRPG that even made it to the top 10 best selling games ever, is Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow as a collective, with four different versions. The next best selling one is Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal, and in fact, only 11 of the top 49 best selling games of all time, are RPG’s, and all of the JRPG’s are Pokemon titles. Final Fantasy 7 has still been wildly successful, as the original has sold over 11.8 million units, and the remake over 5 million, but the fact of the matter is, that even though RPG’s as a whole are the biggest genre of the top 49, the few that made it are exceptions to the rules. In fact, of the top 10 best selling games of all time, 6 of them are by Nintendo. The other 5 excluding Pokemon, are Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros. Mario Kart 8/Deluxe, Wii Fit/Plus and the original Gameboy version of Tetris, which itself is on there twice because EA’s version is number 3. so you’re actually better off in Japan, not making a JRPG. 

There’s a lot more that can be gleamed from looking at the list, so you can check it out here if you want: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games 

The point is that JRPG’s, aren’t always as successful as people think they are. I mean sure, you don’t have to be on the top best selling games list to be successful, but Persona 4 Golden on PC is considered a massive success for selling only just over a million units since it’s release, and the Tales of Series, which is one of the longest running in gaming, as recently as April of this year, had it’s sales numbers made public, and Tales of Symphonia, the undeniable Final Fantasy 7 of the series, sold a total of 940,000 units in the United States, and the game, easily the most successful title from Tales of, only managed 2.4 million in total. None of this is to say, that JRPG’s are struggling, because most of the ones I brought up are shining examples that they aren’t, but going back to that top 10 list, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V,  just the top two of that list, have sold 345,000,000 total units. That not only beats the entire mainline series of Pokemon, it’s only about 2.5 million short extra, of beating the original 151′s total sales, with how many spare units the two games over Pokemon’s  300,000,000 million total sales mainline games, which means likely, the two of them will beat the series out at some point in the future. 

Western RPG’s, don’t often suffer from as many problems, because they don’t have a border to hop, and it shows with Elder Scrolls, which has sold 58 million total copies with only five mainline games, and 30 million of those came from Skyrim alone. It took Pokemon, the undisputed champion of JRPG sales, 20 mainline games to reach 300 million, which means arguably, by the time Elder Scrolls reaches it’s 10th installment, it will have caught up to Pokemon’s first 20 games total sales. Borderlands, which is arguably the Tales of to Western RPG’s in most people’s eyes, has actually outsold Elder Scrolls with only 4 mainline entries, one of which is considered bad by many, with a total of 60 million total units sold. The better comparison, surprising for many I’m sure, for a Tales of comparison, is actually Fallout, which has sold 13.51 million units, to Tales of 23.5 million units. 

Enough about numbers for a few minutes, 3 paragraphs about it is a bit much, but the fact of the matter is, Japan struggles more overall to make successful RPG’s in the West, than the West does in the West, and it’s all due to how much of a challenge it is to hop that border. 

Outside of sales numbers, the other major difference between JRPG’s vs Western RPG’s is how they are classified. Generally, when someone thinks of a JRPG, they think of a fantasy world, with leveling, where rare items can be won off bosses, but your main way of improving stats is to level up, and have enough money to buy the best equipment at each new town you enter with a shop. However, a lot of games have been getting that label slapped on them by their marketing teams or fans, and some of it is just wrong. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one such game, despite the drops from enemies being the only correlation between BoTW and JRPG’s. The correlation was made by fans, which might seem like an innocent mistakes, and in fact could be nothing but that, but then there’s Monster Hunter, which actually does have two JRPG’s attached to it, in the Stories 1 and 2 games, but who took the reigns of JRPG to market, calling Monster Hunter World, a JRPG. despite it having few differences from other Monster Hunter action games, outside of having a story, and having nothing more to do with JRPG’s than Zelda. A lot of fans of Japanese games will classify simply playing as a fake character an RPG, which normally would be fine, but in games, that’s not how genres are defined. If that were the case, all of Yakuza’s games would be JRPG’s, instead of just Like a Dragon, and in fact most games would be RPG’s, and they obviously aren’t. Bubsy 3D RPG anyone? No? Ya sure? Yeah I didn’t think so.   

The west has the exact opposite problem of under classifying it’s games as RPGs. While sure, you wouldn’t call Halo an RPG, unless you know, Master Chief was shooting an RPG, you absolutely should call Ratchet and Clank one. Think about it, your main playable characters all have HP, most of them have weapons that can level up, and the action setting of these games, basically should make Ratchet, a response to Level 5′s Dark Cloud series, which did all the same things for combat. However, it’s just seen as series of action games, despite it also being a lot like Borderlands. 

The point is, there are a lot of things that differ JRPG’s and WRPG’s from sales, to marketing, to style and so many other factors, I would run out of characters available to me, before I get through them all. There’s nothing wrong with these genre’s being different, but people classifying them as similar, could harm either since they don’t often jell that well together. So please, think before you compare, and for those rare RPG’s, where you can’t tell the difference, makes sure you find out where they were developed, because a lot of games you might think are JRPG’s, could in fact be Korean or Chinese. 

#JRPG #wrpg #Final Fantasy #final fantasy 7 remake #final fantasy 7 #zelda #the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #Monster Hunter #Monster Hunter Stories #yakuza #tetris #minecraft #elder scrolls #skyrim #tale of #tales of symphonia #pokemon #mario kart #mario kart 8 #dark cloud #star ocean #japan #monster hunter world #wii #nintendo #nintendo wii #super mario bros #wii sports #wii fit

[inthemediawithfredi]

Native American (Mis)Representation in Media

           Native American representation in media is not only lacking but also most times incorrectly done. I am always very fascinated by this topic because I’m an Ojibwe Native American woman, and rarely have I seen adequate and accurate portrayal of people like me and other Natives in film, tv shows, or really anywhere in media. That’s not to say that there are not some amazing Native directed and produced films with Native actors that portray what it is actually like to be Native American in the world today. However, the main problem is that there are majority of films that are produced, directed, and acted by White people that continue to show stereotypical Native American people and ideas that perpetuate societies incorrect ideas of what it means to be Native American. In return, racism, harmful stereotypes, and misrepresentation continue not only in media but also in daily life for Natives. This is harmful for Native culture because unless we make a change in how Natives are represented in media, non-Native people will most likely as a majority continue to be misinformed and uneducated, and as a result values of racism, white supremacy, and settler colonialism will continue to shine through in our society and harm our People.

           I want to start with a prime example of misrepresentation before I go into details. This example is the Disney movie Pocahontas. I still cannot believe that in 2021 this movie is still playing and no comment or acknowledgment of its complete racist and incorrect portrayal of a Native woman has been made by Disney. Almost the entire Disney movie is wrong and made up. Pocahontas should not be celebrated as a “Disney Princess” when she was actually kidnapped, raped, and forced to marry a White man.

Aside from the movie getting all the historical facts wrong and harming the history of Native Culture that way, more that you can see in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZMvyfDKMoQ), making her a Disney Princess continues to harm Native Peoples in other ways. One way that bothers me beyond measures is the cultural appropriation often displayed on Halloween. People think that because Pocahontas was a Disney Princess, it is okay to dress up like her in Native clothing and run around having fun. To make it clear, our culture is not someone else’s costume. Therefore, Disney almost makes it okay for kids and sometimes even adults to dress up in what they consider a costume (as pictured below this paragraph). This is extremely harmful for Natives. Our tradition regalia is clothing that is sacred to each tribe and each tribe’s culture. Feathers are also sacred and not everyone in a tribe wears headdresses. Wearing them as part of a costume for one doesn’t accurately represent Native culture and secondly is stereotypical and disrespectful. Not all clothing is the same for each tribe, and not everyone wears that clothing every day. Therefore, it continues to promote those stereotypes that this is how Natives dress, and this is what they look like. And again, that specific regalia is sacred to tribes therefore it’s not a costume and definitely not something just anyone can dress in because it is disrespectful and racist.

To continue on that point, while Pocahontas is an animated film, many real films continue to dress Native characters in these stereotypical Native clothes and outfits. Just to clarify, an example of real traditional regalia is pictured below this paragraph. To make these clothes is often a special, time consuming process that completes the overall sacredness of the outfit. However, as I stated earlier, these clothes are not something Native Peoples wear every day, and in fact not all Natives even own it. Therefore, media often stereotypes Native characters by dressing them in these clothes and perpetuating ideas that this is what you need to dress like to be a “real” Native American. As one Navajo actor states, “But as I climbed into the feathered costume and began to apply “war paint” to my face, I began to feel very uncomfortable. Even though I’m not of a Plains tribe, I knew that this kind of regalia was not meant for casual, every-day wear. For many tribes, including mine, feathers are sacred. Looking at myself in the mirror in full costume, I felt shameful for mocking my spirituality. I promised myself I’d never play “Indian” again” (Young). Even though they may cast Native actors, the stereotypical outfits they most often times make them dress in are actually harmful and insulting.

Even more issues can arise with the hiring of Native roles. One of the main problems is hiring non-Native actors for these Native characters. ““Redface,” the manufacturing of ersatz images of Native American identity, has long been a problem in Hollywood, and there’s a well-documented history of hiring non-Indians for Indian roles” (Maillard). Non-Native actors shouldn’t be hired for these roles because not only are problems like red-face involved but they often times try to find someone or create someone (as pictured below this paragraph) who “meets the criteria” for “looking Native enough” when in reality, not all Natives look alike or like the stereotypical historical portrayal that most people are unfortunately taught. This runs into the next problem of actually hiring Native actors for these roles.

In the film “Wind River” the director Taylor Sheridan made it a point to hire Native actors for Native roles, “He even told his casting directors that when it came to auditioning actors, “Don’t even read them unless you can vet the authentic nature of their ancestry” (Maillard). Here is a trailer for Wind River in case you’ve never seen it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7WuKdVhrmA). While I completely agree that Native actors should take Native roles, you can run into problems with distinguishing who is Native. Asking for blood quantum, tribal ID’s, or going based off tanner skin tone or stereotypical Native features are all tactics of settler colonialism that uphold systems of white supremacy and racism in today’s society. However, without some type of confirmation that an actor is Native, then you run the risk of hiring someone who claims they are Native but has no actual knowledge about their roots or ancestry-someone who just says it because it’s “aesthetically pleasing”-people I like to call “box-checkers” or “pretendians”. Therefore, I understand that casting Native actors specifically for Native roles can have its difficulties, but I still think it is something that needs to happen without a doubt.

Native representation in film, although lacking, affects both how others see Native Americans and how Natives Americans see themselves. “When present, even in contemporary media products, Natives are typically found in a historical context, reliving episodes of conflict between whites and indigenous people (Dances with Wolves, ``Geronimo’’) or as just-plain-folks (``Northern Exposure’’)” (Merskin 334). Therefore, non-Native people see Native Americans as what is portrayed in the media they consume because unfortunately many people believe what they see on TV and in Films to be true or accurate depictions, even if a storyline is fiction. These ideas are reinforcing what people are taught in school growing up about Native Americans; which is the reason some people still think of Natives in past terms (as depicted in the picture below this paragraph) where they only live in Tipis on reservations, dress in headdresses and other stereotypical things, and don’t interact with civilization, rather than looking at Native Peoples as real people who function in today’s world just like everyone else. It is harmful, stereotypical portrayals like these that perpetuate the oppression of Natives still to this day.

This also affects how Natives view themselves as well. “The homogenization of Native American identities inhibits the ability of Native Americans to see their group or to imagine themselves as anything other than the limited media portrayals. Moreover, in the absence of direct, in-person contact, the homogenizing of Native American identities creates a reference point around which Native Americans must orient themselves as they negotiate their identities” (Leavitt et al. 44). White children get to grow up seeing themselves in media and portrayed as successful, good people, but Native children rarely get to see themselves in media or anywhere in society, and if they do it is often depicted stereotypically or with negative features. When Native kids don’t see themselves represented in positive ways in media, they won’t be able to dream big or think that they can ever make it more than what the white man lets them be. I think now, luckily, social media is beginning to play a much larger role in allowing children to see themselves represented more often and more positively.

Social media is also allowing a platform for Native Peoples to amplify their voices. I would say of all media sources, social media is one of the ones that may have more beneficial uses for Native representation than any other sources. There is the ability for 100% Native operated platforms that bring awareness to many of the issues our People face today. One of the main issues I have seen promoted on social is MMIW, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. See this short clip for more information on this very important issue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOXyGJuRMmo). While this is just one of many issues that affect Native communities, social media has been great with raising awareness for non-Natives beginning with the simple hashtag “#MMIW”. Hashtags have always been a way for anyone to get something trending. As pictured below this paragraph, hashtags can be used by Native Peoples to try to teach non-Native folks more about our culture and our People. For example, some sports teams have Native mascots and names which in return prompt fans to dress up in headdresses and war paint. Social media has been a great platform to try to teach these fans why this is harmful, offensive, and racist.

One last point I want to make is again regarding Native actors and characters in films. To trail back to the film Wind River, while it is a movie about Native Americans and problems they face, there are two white main characters who get all the glory both on and off screen. “These romantic and stoic characters hardly speak in the films; nor do they get heard. In Hollywood films and TV plays, Indians are paid to die, to fall off the horse, to confirm the “Vanishing Noble Savage” stereotype” (Liu and Zhang 109). The two white actors in Wind River get recognition on screen and off screen through interviews and awards, but rarely do we see any of the Native actors in that film acknowledged.

In conclusion Native characters need to be depicted more often, better, and less stereotypically. Native actors need to be casted in non-Native roles as well. They shouldn’t only be limited to Native roles because then we continue to lack adequate representation of Natives in the media as a whole. Media needs to amplify Native voices so that non-Natives can actually understand and be educated on what Native Peoples, Tribes, and Cultures are like in today’s society.

Works Cited

Leavitt, Peter A., et al. “‘Frozen in Time’: The Impact of Native American Media Representations on Identity and Self-Understanding.” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 71, no. 1, 2015, pp. 39–53., doi:10.1111/josi.12095.

Liu, Kedong, and Hui Zhang. “Self- and Counter-Representations of Native Americans: Stereotypical Images of and New Images by Native Americans in Popular Media.” Intercultural Communication Studies XX, 2011, pp. 105–118., doi:https://web.uri.edu/iaics/files/09KedongLiuHuiZhang.pdf.

Maillard, Kevin Noble. “What's So Hard About Casting Indian Actors in Indian Roles?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/movies/wind-river-native-american-actors-casting.html.

Merskin, Debra. “Sending up Signals: A Survey of Native American1 Media Use and Representation in the Mass Media.” Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 9, no. 4, 1998, pp. 333–345., doi:10.1080/106461798246943.

Young, Brian. “Film: The Reality of Native Americans in Hollywood.” Edited by Zócalo Public Square, Time, Time, 11 June 2015, time.com/3916680/native-american-hollywood-film/.

[imaginesfora3]

It’s About the DRAMA [Sumeragi Tenma] [Pt. 2]

(Second NSFW part to the Tenma commission I did! Please enjoy~)

Even after two entire years Tenma found his heart still beat for you.

When he was around you he could hardly think straight but he was so addicted to the feelings you gave him, the true happiness he felt at seeing you smile or hearing you laugh, he couldn’t pull away. He’s plagued at night by thoughts of you, of thoughts of what could be if he could strike up the courage to ask you on a real date and not just to ‘hang out’. He always went in with the intentions of revealing his feelings, like when he’d invited you out to karaoke that one night and sang a love song that felt reminiscent of this particular situation with you, but everyone and their mother seemed to get in the way. The meaning of the song completely flew over your head and you’d complimented his singing voice, teasing about the next production being a musical starring him.

A few days after the karaoke catastrophe he’d been trying to think of a good way to confess his feelings but could think of nothing that didn’t make him feel pathetic, knowing feeling like this was natural but still hating how soft it made him look. Did women even like men who got this emotional and romantic when it came to him? His naturally abrasive self had been far too used to people fawning over him no matter how he acted but if it was his fame they fell for and not him or his actions, then it wasn’t real love, was it? Just infatuation. It’s the reason why he’d kept his distance in the dating world for so long despite all the interest in him as young handsome actor.

Or at least one of the reasons.

While he was stuck in his thoughts about his sad dating life Banri had entered the kitchen, starting a welcome conversation about clothing styles that served as a distraction for about two minutes. Said distraction quickly fizzled out when you entered the room looking more stunning than Tenma thinks he’d ever seen you, the dress you’re wearing hugging every curve of your body and leaving only the best bits to his imagination. Banri was quietly appreciating you too but was far less obvious about it than Tenma, glancing over at his friend and smirking as Tenma’s eyes drifted down to your ass the moment you’d turned around.

“Keep it together, man.” Banri elbowed him which caused Tenma’s head to snap back up, just in time for you to turn around and face them. “Where are you going lookin’ like that?”

“Out with friends. That okay, dad?” You stuck your tongue out at Banri who fired off some comment about how it was hard to believe you had a life outside the company but Tenma wasn’t listening, not really. Now his thoughts were just plagued with the thoughts of wining and dining you, but the actions that took place after said wining and dining had finished for the night. It’s taking all the will power he had to keep his jaw from hitting the ground when you swung around once more, grabbing a jacket before waving to the two men in the kitchen and being on your way. He wanted desperately to call out your name, to bring you back so he could soak in your beauty for just another second, but you were gone before he’d found his voice again.

“The hell was that about?” Banri was looking at him incredulously, “You stared so hard your eyes could’ve fallen out of your head. You got it that bad for her?”

“…Huh?” Tenma wasn’t listening again, now he was desperately fighting a losing battle against his dick. “Yeah, whatever.”

Banri doesn’t say anything else but it’s clear he’d picked up on all the signals Tenma had been sending your way, not really knowing how to help his friend out if he couldn’t even admit the feelings were there. He simply stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked away, leaving Tenma standing at the counter for a few more minutes, not even realizing he’s alone. When Tenma finally noticed Banri was gone he didn’t feel so self-conscious about the bulge in his pants, making a mad dash for his room and hoping he didn’t run into any other troupe member on the way there. It was the weekend so most were either holed up in their room getting much needed rest or out and about having fun until it was time to be back to business.

Tenma had never been more grateful that Yuki was a shopaholic as he clambered into his bed, leaving the room empty so that Tenma could handle his business. He hardly found the energy to masturbate but when he did he knew how to be quick about it, something very necessary for living in this dorm with a roommate who was almost always there.

Tenma glanced nervously at the door, worried about someone busting it down though there’d be no reason to do so; he could’ve locked it if he really wanted to but he didn’t feel like answering Yuki’s questions should the younger boy come home and not be able to get into his own room. Tenma’s hands slid down his pants and he rubbed his dick through his underwear, unzipping his jeans to give himself more room to work with and turning away from the door, just in case the whole ‘busting in’ scenario happened. It’s not comfortable enough so he decided on laying on his back, pants fully pulled down as his hand strokes up and down his length. He’s thinking about you, your ass, your mouth, your voice, everything that had to do with you was so incredibly attractive that he knew he’d come sooner rather than later as long as he kept up the pace. Your name slipped from his mouth, an accident, one that he didn’t think would cost him as dearly as it did.

“Tenma…?” The door creaked open but he didn’t process it quick enough, continuing to pump his length, finger stroking over the sensitive head when he realized your voice was no longer just in his head. His head whipped towards the door and he meets your eyes, his heart dropping down to the underworld as he realized you were staring at- “Fuck! I’m sorry!”

You hadn’t realized Yuki wasn’t in. Part of your jacket was ripped and you had simply wanted to come see if he could fix it up for you, having a replacement if need be, but instead you’d walked in on… An oddly attractive and incredibly embarrassing scene. You felt guilt seep into your bones at the horrified expression on Tenma’s face, watching as he rolled onto his side to fix himself quickly while trying to sputter out excuses that just wouldn’t form into full sentences; you couldn’t really blame him, this was probably in his top ten most mortifying moments now. You should’ve knocked, you know you should’ve, but now you knew that the carpet matched the drapes and that his dick was rather sizeable and-

You shouldn’t be thinking these things about him.

But hadn’t he been calling out your name?

Had he been thinking those things about you?

It wasn’t as though there were signs that Tenma might feel some type of way towards you. You’d seen him gaping at you in the kitchen and felt rather proud at his reaction, even turning around again to give him a view of all that you had; you hadn’t even realized you were showing off for him until you’d walked outside and the cool night air brought you back to reality. You weren’t in some sleazy romance novel, Tenma deserved romance and flirting and the whole shebang, not just sexual tension. Azuma had been the first one to bluntly point out that Tenma was clearly in love with you, head over heels, no doubt about it, and since Azuma seemed to be the expert in these you had truly wanted to believe him. You didn’t at first but the longer this tension between you and Tenma continued to grow… After this incident, after definitely hearing your name come from his mouth as he was certainly masturbating… Maybe you had to stop ignoring it.

Maybe you just had to deal with the fact Tenma loved you.

But how?

You don’t find an answer for another year.

Tenma’s career was in full swing meaning you rarely saw him around anymore, something that both broke your heart and brought some type of relief. As much as you wanted to confront him on his feelings you still hardly understood your own, nervous about the concept of dating someone younger than you, worried that you hadn’t interpreted the signs correctly. You had no doubt Tenma would be a good boyfriend but would you be good enough for him? It wasn’t to say you weren’t a good, loving person but would you be enough for Tenma? Popular, famous Tenma who practically had women throwing themselves at him left and right, who worked with gorgeous movie stars and was messaged by famous models daily?

He’d been gone about six months at this point but Summer Troupe’s annual play was coming around and he was ready to come home, to see his friends and live in the dorm once again. He’d contacted you and asked for you to pick him up, almost not bothering to send the text as he was still embarrassed by the entire masturbation situation. He didn’t think the moment would weigh so heavily on him but unless he was completely delusional, he was certain you’d stared at his dick until he’d turned around, not even bothering to look away (the same exact thing he’d done to your ass about ten minutes before). Did it mean something or was it just the shock? There was no easy way to get an answer and he hated that the most about this, about all of this romance crap.

The wind is knocked out of you when you see Tenma in the airport, walking towards you and Sakuya (one of the only free members who happily wanted to accompany you to get his fellow troupe leader) with his sunglasses and hat pulled down over his face. He somehow managed to keep growing even over such a short period of time, looking taller, more mature, more put-together… You realized you’re staring at him too long after he’s greeted you without saying anything in return and you forced a smile to your face.

“H-Hey there, hope that time with all the big wigs can help our play shine!”

“You know I always do my best.” His response was awkward but so was your previous statement so you can’t blame him. The walk back to the car is thankfully silent as it’s clear Tenma is quite exhausted and you wondered if he’d just fall asleep on the ride back, leaving even less room for you to make a fool of yourself.

“You really do seem more mature, Tenma,” You offered up another observation as he packed his bags into the back of the car. As much as you didn’t want to make yourself look stupid you had missed him dearly, those weekly phone calls not being enough to satisfy you. You used to talk to him every day, at least getting to see his face even if he was busy, but being overseas and filming left him too busy to keep that same routine. You understood why and you didn’t blame him but now that he was finally in front of you, you couldn’t just pass up the opportunity to talk or tease him like you used to.

“Ah, thanks…” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, looking away from you, “You… don’t feel like you’ve changed at all.”

“What does that mean?”

“I-It’s not a bad thing.”

‘It’s like coming home,’ Tenma thought with a smile, ‘I am coming home, I guess…’

“You guys must’ve really missed each other, huh?” Sakuya laughed from the back seat as you and Tenma entered the car. “We all missed you but not as much as she did! Whenever we were having trouble figuring out a scene, she’d always say ‘I wish Tenma was here’ or something like that!”

Sakuya, as innocent as he was, was absolutely killing you right now.

“Do you have any stories about being on set? Ooh, what about the places you visited while you were away?” Sakuya interrupted the growing tension, leaning forward into the front seat and looking at Tenma curiously. He might’ve just put you out there but he’d saved you just as quick, successfully distracting Tenma who seemed more than happy to tell Sakuya of all the things he experienced while he was away. You listened in while you drove, enjoying both the sound of his voice and the content of his stories, pleased even more to hear that none of his time was spent with other women.

The dorm was buzzing with energy when Tenma finally arrived.

“Summon the troops up front Muku, a celebrity has finally arrived!”

Tenma smiled weakly at  your attempt at humor but there was still come clear tension left over, something he was quick to blame on jet lag. Why did seeing you again in person leave him breathless? Why did his heart ache even though you were right there in front of him, arm’s length away? The distance had done nothing to placate his feelings, perhaps making it even worse, and he finds himself selfishly wishing he could just have you all to himself for a night.

He’d missed everyone at Mankai without a doubt but you were a special case.

Tenma is bombarded with questions, he’s given gifts and poems and all sorts of things that the others had made for him while he was gone or to welcome him home. He’d never felt more loved in his life and as he accepted these gifts, cheeks red from embarrassment while he also made sure to thank each person who gave an offering, he noticed your were absent from the general hubbub. While Kazunari is rambling on about something or other Tenma scanned the area, eyes landing on the kitchen once he noticed it was where you were. You were casually talking with Omi, something that wasn’t exactly unusual, but today he was just off. Seeing you with Omi made him feel this bitter jealousy towards him, this irritation welling up until it clearly showed on his face.

“You okay?” Kazunari asked, head tilted in confusion.

“He’s probably tired from the trip,” Azuma offered up helpfully, and despite Tenma generally being on edge whenever the silver-haired man was around him, he felt relieved that he didn’t have to come up with an excuse himself. “Why don’t you head to your room to unpack and relax until dinner? One of us will fetch you when everything’s done I’m sure.”

Was being alone with his thoughts really what he needed right now?

Tenma discovered that it was in fact not what he needed or what he wanted, unable to get the image of Omi’s hand on your arm out of his head; it was as if he was being mocked, as if the universe was telling him ‘you missed your chance, buddy’. He wondered how close the two of you had gotten, wondered if you shared any longing looks or if you’d spent a night together and the relationship took off from there, all the things that he wanted to do with you but never got to because his damn pride always got in his way. The feelings of jealousy started to bubble over until he felt genuinely angry over something he knew he had no right to be upset about, pacing in his room, wanting dinner to just be over with so he could come back and brood some more.

Tenma knew something had to be done about his feelings for you.

Being himself wasn’t working, he kept overthinking his words, stumbling over them, not wanting to look as pathetic as he felt. So what if he pretended to be someone else? When he was in character he didn’t get overwhelmed by feelings, when he was in character he kept it together no matter how beautiful the actress acting opposite to him was, so maybe the solution had been dangling in front of his face this entire time. He doesn’t know when he’ll have the chance to enact this plan but the seed had been planted in his brain and he couldn’t get it out of his head. He had to confess to you even if it killed him, even if you rejected him and never looked at him in the same light again.

He had to let you know how he felt.

Practice began the next day and despite being told he could be a bit late, he insisted on being right on time. He had gotten plenty of rest and he was ready to get back to business, with acting being the one thing that always managed to distract him from his feelings. Being with the others again gave him his energy back and he started off the day ready to conquer, flipping through the script Tsuzuru had just barely managed to get into their hands before passing out on the ground. There were plenty of interesting themes, some redemption, two twin flames reuniting, the dialogue really speaking to Tenma’s spark for both drama and comedy. He’s assigned the lead role even as he protested it should go to someone like Misumi or Kazunari who fit the lead character far more but the group was just as stubborn as he was and with a sigh, he accepted that things were getting right back to business as usual.

Tenma was totally in his element, he was more than competent enough to take on the lead role in a stage play, so then why was he constantly obliterating his lines? He stuttered in the first read through, he forget to respond a few times (he was too busy looking at you as you read over the script, looking extra cute as you concentrated), he was thinking about his own confession monologue he’d started to plot out, he was just entirely distracted. And he couldn’t just push it down like he normally did, it kept rising to the top of his thoughts and it was truly beginning to screw him over. He can see the others are getting agitated but are unwilling to call him out, likely just blaming it on him not being used to being around them again, but it was so much more than that. With a frustrated wave of his hand Tenma dismissed himself from the practice.

“W-Where are you going?”

“I’m going to practice alone. I’ll… be back.” Tenma left the room in a hurry but just as he predicted you followed, reaching out to grab his arm and stop him from storming away so quickly. It made his heart jump in his chest, made him shiver at how warm your hand felt against his arm and he had to use all the self-control he had left not to pin you to the wall so he could crush his lips against yours.

“What’s wrong, Tenma? You can’t close yourself off like this. You know you need to talk it out!”

“I was supposed to come back with more experience to make this play a success and now all I can do it… Well, nothing! It feels like I’m back at square one again,” Tenma couldn’t help but be at least partially honest with his feelings, making sure to leave out the fact you were driving him absolutely crazy by just being this close to him. The kind, concerned look on your face squeezed his heart like a vice and when you squeezed his arm reassuringly he thought he might die then and there.

“I can see you need a reminder of the fact that I’m here for you and so is the rest of your troupe! You’ve grown up so much but you can’t just keep bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders without letting us in on how you’re feeling. If you know what’s wrong and it’s a problem you can solve then let us know! And even if we can’t solve it just tell us what it is! It can’t be that bad, can it?”

“You have no idea,” Tenma sighed, trying to subtly move his arm out of your grip. “…Can we go down to the theatre?”

“You missed it that much?” You tried to joke but Tenma was looking a little too serious for you to not feel nervous, simply nodding his head and beginning to walk without your confirmation. You’re worried about what might come next but you’d rather snuff the problem out sooner rather than later; you dipped your head back into the practice room to let the others know they could continue to read their lines and that you’d be back with Tenma soon, not noticing the looks they all exchanged.

Tenma is standing center stage when you find him, pacing back and forth, looking just as pensive as he had when you’d left him. He doesn’t even notice you’re there leaving you a moment to admire his handsome face, a handsome face you’d grown fond of and had missed dearly while he was gone. Seeing him at the airport had made you just want to wrap your arms around him and tell him he was never allowed to leave you like that again, that living daily life without him had just made things feel ‘off’, but you knew you could never say something so selfish. It wasn’t as though the two of you were even dating so what right did you have to even think those things about him? Ever since you’d walked in on him masturbating you’d seen him in an entirely different life, recognizing him not just as a troupe member but as a man, too.

The change left you uncomfortable, with feelings you didn’t know how to handle.

“No one else has ever encouraged me and believed in me like you have,” Tenma began to speak as you walked closer, his intense gaze making it hard to look away from him. “My parents want me to go back to daytime drama full time.”

“You know how I feel about your father so let’s not get into that…�� Tenma smiled at the memory, never forgetting what it was like to have you so focused on him and doting over his wounds; it was the first time he ever realized he was in love with you, his strong romantic feelings for you truly coming to a head as you expressed your compassion. He was beginning to realize even more how he felt, that it wasn’t simply admiration but true love that he felt for you. You were someone he would be perfectly comfortable calling his soulmate, someone he could easily spend the rest of his life with and never regret it not matter how tough things got. If he was going to put it all on the table and finally address the elephant in the room, now was the time to do it, now when he was feeling so reassured that he’d be able to get his feelings across to you.

You joined him on stage, looking out at the empty seats before glancing over at him again as he began to talk.

“Can I act this thing out for you that I’ve been thinking about for a while?”

“Sure. Are you gonna be our new scriptwriter, too?” You teased.

“Not a chance. Just… give me a sec.” Tenma took a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair, his nervous energy infecting you as well.

“Y-You remember I’m not really a great actress, right? You didn’t forget that while you were gone?”

“I didn’t forget anything about you. I didn’t ask you to act so just… listen, alright?”

Another deep breath and you saw a switch flip in him, his face and shoulders growing more relaxed as he looked at you.

“The day that we met we fought like cats and dogs. I never thought the two of us would ever get along, never thought that I could ever see the positives or care about a person who only seemed to kick me when I was down. But I realized it was all about perspective. You weren’t kicking me but you were offering your hand, willing to help me figure out what I really needed to. I’ve dated other girls but none of them have ever held a candle to you. I started to realize they were never good enough because they were never you.”

That’s your name that he’s saying and it’s your hands he’s now holding, looking deep into your eyes with a penetrating gaze that left you feeling weak in the knees. You had suspected something was up at first but there was no way for you to refute it now, Tenma was without a doubt confessing feelings that you never knew he had. You have to applaud the bravery but the butterflies in your stomach are making you feel restless, the close proximity with the orange-haired man not helping you untangle the many thoughts you were having. How did you feel about Tenma? He’d managed to so eloquently sum up your relationship and how deeply he felt for you and yet you were still stumbling around in your own head trying to find the proper way to respond.

There’s one moment over these last few months that really stood out to you, the one night you’d been holed up with a few other Mankai members watching an interview Tenma was involved with. You’d seen that romance was one of the topic of discussions and suddenly found yourself even more interested, waiting with bated breath as the question of Tenma’s relationship status is questioned; he scoffed, blushed, and brushed off the question as being an unimportant one, completely irrelevant to the movie he was about to star in. But the interviewer was rather insistent on getting an answer, pressuring poor Tenma into at least giving him a bread crumb.

“I like someone but her and I aren’t together.”

You released a breath you didn’t know you’d been holding, receiving a knowing look from Banri who didn’t offer up anything snarky at the moment, turning back to watch the rest of the interview while you tried to calm your racing heart. That didn’t mean anything, right? He could like the actress he was on the job with, or any other number of women he interacted with on the daily, it didn’t mean he was talking about you but… Part of you hoped it was about you. You’d seen the way he looked at you before, you’d heard about the things he did just to have an excuse to talk to you but you’d always just amounted it to a schoolboy crush. But the Tenma standing before you now wasn’t just some kid, he was a hardworking adult who had matured over the years and who was confessing that his heart belonged to you.

You’re not an actor, you can’t come up with some dramatic dialogue with perfect metaphors for the love you felt for Tenma, but you were someone who shared his feelings and wanted to let him know that. Tenma went to pull away from you but before his hands can escape your grip you squeezed them, taking a step forward into his personal space, something you had always been careful about not doing before. You looked into his eyes, searching for something, hoping that none of this would turn out to just actually be some fake scene he wanted to act out but with the fondness he’s looking at you with now you knew his feelings had to be true. Or he had to be an even more talented actor than you’d originally thought but you were hoping you weren’t about to make a fool of yourself.

Leaning forward your lips brushed against his and Tenma followed through with your movement, quickly releasing your hands to hold either side of your face. He didn’t want you to pull away until he had his feel, his heart beating so loudly he’s sure you can hear it. This is a moment he’d dreamed of for years and you tasted so much sweeter than he ever expected, your lips ridiculously soft and potentially addicting. He could get lost in the feeling of holding you against him, his lungs beginning to burn from how long it’d been since he’d last took a breath, but he couldn’t find it in him to pull away from you. You seemed to feel the same as you made no move to dismiss him, kissing him back with just as much fervor, your hands grabbing onto his shirt and digging into the soft material to anchor him to you.

When you pulled away you were glad to see the cool guy façade he’d had up during his confession had completely disappeared, a dark blush adorned his face and left him looking even cuter than usual. You’re sure your face matches his in more ways than one but what does it matter now that you had him?

“I want… Please, be my girlfriend?” He’s looking away from you, unable to meet your eyes as though that was the most embarrassing thing he’d ever done in front of you. You could bring up the masturbation incident but you figured that’d just ruin the mood.

“I think I can do that.” You leaned in to press a few more kisses to his lips, Tenma deepening them each time you attempted to pull away. Finally you block his lips with your hand, sending him a playful smile. “The others are waiting for us! We need to get back to business or we’ll just spend all day in here…”

“I could live with that.”

“Well I can’t! Now let’s get back and smooth out this performance, lover boy.”

~*~

This was riskier than you’d ever taken it but you missed your boyfriend dearly.

Tenma let out a soft groan as you grinded your lower body against his, dick already fighting with the costume he was wearing in an attempt to reach your warmth which seemed so close yet so far away. You couldn’t help but laugh as he started to strip you of your clothes, shaking your head as that would be too dangerous a thing to do while you were trying to get busy in his make-up trailer. Instead, you lower the top part of the dress (thankfully, it was stretchy as well as flowy) to show off your bare chest and slid your underwear down your leg, stuffing them into his pocket before you started to fumble with the zipper.

Tenma cursed as you released his dick from its prison, straddling his lap once more and using his shoulders to slowly lower yourself onto him. You both gasped at the same time, Tenma’s head falling back and brushing against the side of the trailer as he squeezed his eyes shut and willed himself not to come quite yet. He knew it had to move quick as he didn’t know when someone would fetch him for his next scene but he had to savor how wonderful it felt to be inside you, how gorgeous you looked bouncing on his cock, your chest in his face as his hands reached around to grip at your ass. All he can think about is how sexy you are, how lucky he is to see you like this, groaning into your chest before he caught one of your nipples in his mouth. Your moan of approval only fuels him further, with Tenma taking control from under you by thrusting up and changing the rhythm entirely. He’s a bit rougher and more aggressive, hips angling to find that sweet spot inside you, tongue still toying with your hardened nipple when it all comes crashing down around him.

A knock on the trailer door caused you to jump off his lap instantly, his dick aching from the loss of contact even if his brain knew he had to scramble to get it together. He pushed you out of view of the door as he fixed himself, taking a quick glance in the mirror and hastily fixing himself before he opened said door. You did your best to stay out sight, fixing yourself just in case the assistant found their way inside and listening to the conversation your boyfriend was having. He was being rather curt but it was clear he was annoyed at being interrupted, and the only thing you get from him is an apologetic look before he leaves the trailer to go back to set.

You waited a few more minutes until things were truly quiet to get moving, sneaking your way from the trailer and seeing yourself out of the studio without further interruption. You wonder how frightened Tenma was about all of that, trying to think of what might hurt his reputation more; discovering that he was dating his director or them assuming you were just some random girl he’d called into his trailer to have sex with. Neither option seemed to be positive but… You and Tenma hadn’t talked much about the secretive nature of your relationship lately. You’d just recently overcome an issue in the relationship but it seemed like a new one was always willing to pop up when you least expected it. You tried to push this to the back of your mind, knowing Tenma wasn’t ashamed of you and that he did truly love you, but you still had to wonder if he ever thought about what would happen if the two of you really did get caught.

Surprisingly, you’re not the one to bring up the topic.

“I was asked if I had a girlfriend today.” Tenma had been showing clear signs of agitation, playing with the food on his plate instead of eating it. You had been patiently waiting for him to open up knowing if you approached the topic without him being the first one to speak he’d just close himself off and you might never know what was on his mind.

“What did you say?”

“I said… I said that I did.” Tenma looked in your eyes, searching for any sign of emotion; you simply looked surprised but that didn’t tell him if it was a happy surprised or a disappointed one.

He had thought making your relationship a secret was just as beneficial for you as it was him, in fact, he had done this entirely for you. Dating a celebrity was an entirely different world, even if you knew the real him and he wouldn’t suddenly change into a different person having the world prying into your romance might not have made things go as smoothly as they had been. The relationship had bumps in the road but things had always managed to work out, but would that have the same outcome if the tabloids and paparazzi were involved? Would you have been as willing to be patient with him? Would you even find any pleasure in being with him if your relationship was in the public eye? These questions scared him. He knew he should’ve been honest about it from the start but in the end, he continued to run from his feelings and even ignore the fact they existed.

But Tenma had to stop running.

He was tired.

He didn’t want to run anymore.

“We’ve almost been together a year now and I want to… I want to be able to post a picture of us. I want to make an annoying post like all those celebrities who think they have better love lives than the rest of us and I want people to be jealous that I have you all to myself. I know I’m the one who wanted us to be secret but I…” Tenma’s fingers tapped nervously against the table, his plate of food fully pushed away as you quietly listened to him. “I don’t want us to be a secret anymore. I hate hiding things from everyone. I hate not being able to hold your hand in public. When we go places together I don’t want to have to be paranoid anymore. You understand how I feel, don’t you?”

“Of course I understand. Don’t you think I want the same things you do?” You stood up from your place across the table, circling around it to stand behind Tenma who’s shoulders were sagging. You could tell this was something he’d thought about more than he let on and if you were being honest, you were proud of him for managing to speak so honestly about his feelings with you. It was hard for him to articulate exactly how he felt much of the time but he’d managed to get his feelings across to you perfectly. “I don’t want to be a secret anymore either, handsome.”

Tenma leaned back into your arms as you hugged him from behind, your chin resting comfortably on his head.

“I’ll post about it then. On our anniversary.”

“I look forward to seeing what the sappy movie star has to say about me!”

You were not at all disappointed to see the post on Instablam the following week, nor were you surprised at the responses it received from some of your Mankai friends. Kazunari posted ‘KNEW IT’ with approximately a million exclamation points, Muku posted a heart emoji, Itaru posted ‘grats’, and you’re sure there are many others buried among the comments from his fans who were both disappointed and excited to see the star they loved in a happy relationship. He had warned you not to get too lost in the comments so you didn’t linger long, re-reading his post over and over again and smiling at the fact he chose to post the very first selfie you’d ever taken together. He might say he’s not good at being romantic but you knew he was a natural when he learned to just listen to what his heart told him.

There might still be many trials and tribulations for the two of you to overcome the longer you were together but you were happy, happier than you’d ever been, and you knew every bit of trouble was worth it.

#Sumeragi Tenma #Tenma Sumeragi #A3 #A3! #Act! Addict! Actors! #A3 x Reader #A3! x Reader #A3 Imagines #A3! Imagines #A3 Scenario #Sumeragi Tenma x Reader #Tenma Sumeragi x Reader #Scenario #Commission #Smut

[sartorialadventure]

How did the fashion industry become so reliant on the labor of teenagers? What’s striking about Harulia’s story is how typical it is. ... Imaan Hammam was thirteen when she was spotted near an Amsterdam train station. Andreea Diaconu was an unusually tall eleven-year-old when scouts started circling. These girls are a few of the lucky ones; resilient Harulia signed with blue chip agencies in New York and Paris and walked for Miu Miu in March for the fall 2018 collection, but many of the roommates with whom she shared flats in unfamiliar cities were discarded or burned themselves out—“broken from the inside,” as she puts it.

... Early this year, in the wake of #MeToo revelations, Condé Nast, the publisher of this and many other magazines, issued a new global vendor code of conduct. Responding to stories about models both male and female being inappropriately touched, pressured for sexual favors, and even assaulted, Condé Nast established provisions aimed to ensure that all its editorial shoots are safe working spaces—harassment-free zones with private dressing rooms and allowances for model approval of both poses and clothing. Another set of provisions addresses the age of models: In recognition of the unique vulnerability of minors thrown into a career where they have little control and where abuse has been all too commonplace, the vendor code of conduct stipulates that no model under the age of eighteen will be photographed for editorial (unless he or she is the subject of an article, in which case the model will be both chaperoned and styled in an age-appropriate manner).

...Consider Naomi Campbell. The ne plus ultra of supermodels, Campbell was just shy of sixteen when she launched her career in the mid-1980s, when there were but a handful of twice-yearly fashion shows—a model could stay in school if she wished. Agencies signed very few names and invested in their long-term success by being selective with their bookings. Thus Naomi and her peers were sought-after. They developed close working relationships with designers, who would rigorously fit the variety of looks handpicked for them to wear on the runway. “It used to be, the fittings would take forever,” remembers David Bonnouvrier, cofounder and CEO of DNA Model Management in New York. “Now the girls are cast to fit the dress.”

“It’s a numbers game,” agrees Chris Gay, co-CEO of Elite World Group; it includes The Society Management, which represents Kendall Jenner, among others. “Brands want 40, 50 girls in a show, leaving less opportunity for designers to spend time with each talent. There’s no time for long fittings. But you know who fits those tiny samples?” Gay shakes his head ruefully. “Teenagers—girls who haven’t finished growing yet.”

If you want to understand why very young models became the runway norm, you have to look at the evolution Gay and Bonnouvrier have observed—from show samples’ being fitted to variously proportioned young women to young women’s being matched to size 0 samples. And to understand why the fix isn’t as simple as, say, cutting larger samples, you have to tease out the other factors at play, from the rise of the internet to the fall of the Iron Curtain. It’s a systemic problem. Its causes are diffuse.

... Diaconu’s early experiences in the fashion industry illustrate its perils for young models. “When I was fourteen, I’d have photographers asking me to go topless. There would be 20-hour days, taking green tea pills for stamina. Once, when I was about sixteen,” she says, “I had a booker tell me I had to socialize and go to clubs. It still makes me uncomfortable when I see models dressed as exotic parrots, hanging out at bottle service.”

...“These are children trying to understand and fit into an adult world,” observes Maria Bruce, LMHC, a New York–based licensed psychotherapist who specializes in working with high-achieving adolescents and adults, including athletes, dancers, and actors. Bruce says that the models she’s counseled struggle to navigate the mixed signals they get on the job. “They’re told to ‘grow up’ if they complain that they’re tired,” she says, “and yet in other ways they’re already treated as grown-ups.” This confusion, she says, leads teen models to feel too uncertain of their own authority to say no when they encounter dicey situations. Some muster the courage to speak up; most shut down.

“The teenage brain is sensitive to overload,” Bruce explains. “And some of the possible psychological consequences of dealing with these stressors include low self-esteem, obsessive-compulsive disorders, anxiety, and depression.”

... Myriad young models are flushed out of the industry when their adult curves emerge. Others continue to work but don’t do shows. Imaan Hammam is one of fashion’s current superstars, and she has the kind of healthy, toned body many women aspire to—but says she exceeds what some say is the regulation 34-inch hip and so is rarely spotted on a catwalk. “So many times I’d do fittings for shows and then they’d cut me at the last minute,” she says. “I tried to work out, eat healthy—but at a certain point, I had to say, Enough. This is who I am.”

... Unless and until the underlying dynamics of the fashion-show economy change, the conditions they’ve created will remain in place. Modeling will go on being a commodity business, with one new face easily replaced by the next. There will be exceptions, of course...but as Gay notes, “You can’t make policy around the exception.” The eighteen-plus runway initiative has the opposite aim: Jam the gears of the machine so it’s forced to rebuild itself.

...“We need to inject a labor consciousness into fashion,” says Ziff. “Models are not the people you picture when you think of workers’ rights, but the fact is we are doing a job and deserve to be treated fairly—just like anyone else who works for a living.”

“The age of models is just one component of a big conversation,” agrees Stella McCartney. “If you have a business that employs people, you have to be mindful of their conditions of employment—period. There’s no reason fashion should think it’s above that.”

The whole article is a fascinating read.

#modeling #fashion #models #workers rights #child abuse

[overthinkingkdrama]

Jona’s Top 10 Dramas of 2019

A couple words about how I do these lists. Firstly, I only count as “2019 dramas” shows that finished airing in 2019, therefore dramas that started airing in 2018 but finished in the early months of 2019 have been included in my process, but dramas that are currently airing and will finish in 2020 have not been included. Secondly, this list is more based on my subjective experience with each of these dramas than my objective assessment on things like acting, writing and production values, though naturally I take the latter into account when forming my opinions.

Also: Yay! This year I managed to write a full review on every drama that wound up in my top ten, so feel free to click the link on each title and check those out if you want to read my detailed thoughts.

10. Hotel Del Luna

I have a somewhat Stockholm Syndrome-y relationship with Hong Sisters dramas. Though a lot of them are not excellent, or stumble a bit in the execution, I can’t seem to stop watching them. And yes, I’ve seen them all. Something about their particular blend of fantasy, romance and camp just works for me. I do think Hotel Del Luna plays to their strengths. Somewhat like if they got to take a second run at Master’s Sun but with their dream budget, and it’s just fun. This drama is gorgeous to look at. However, it is Lee Ji Eun, aka IU, who carries the entire drama on her lovely shoulders with her mesmerizing presence as Jang Man Wol.

Bottom Line: It shouldn’t be this way, but it’s so rare to get a mainstream drama where the female lead is allowed to be truly dark and flawed, or for a drama to fully focus on its heroine’s journey through the whole run.

9. Encounter

I was somewhat disappointed by the ending of this drama, and I think that might have made me unduly harsh when I looked back at it earlier in the year. However, I got the chance to rewatch episodes with a friend and was reminded of the soft, romantic escapism of this drama. Ultimately that’s the reason this ended up in the list. I like that it plays the rich woman/poor man, noona-romance tropes entirely straight and I liked the quixotic fairy tale it was unapologetically trying to sell me. Park Bo Gum and Song Hye Gyo are a noona-romance dream team up that I’m glad I got to see at least once in my lifetime.

Bottom Line: If you don’t like your dramas slow-paced and highly sentimental then this might not be the show for you, but I can appreciate a drama that knows exactly what kind of show it is and tries to do one thing well.

8. The Light in Your Eyes

If there’s any common theme to these favorites lists in previous years, it’s that they usually include dramas that took me by surprise and did something I haven’t seen before. The Light In Your Eyes fits that description so well, not just because of oddly dark tone or the quirky premise it presents in the first episodes, but because it’s a drama dedicated to showcasing the talents of the veteran actress, Kim Hye Ja, with whom the lead character shares a name. Of the dramas on the list this one made me cry the hardest.

Bottom Line: The Light In Your Eyes is a drama that has a greater emotional coherence than it does logical sense. In fact, if you think about the plot too hard it falls apart entirely. But it feels true, and that’s why it hit me so hard.

7. Search WWW

In my review I called Search a “female power fantasy” and I still think that’s a good description. It’s also sexy romantic fantasy, twice a noona romance, and a corporate drama focused on the very contemporary issues of powerful search engine companies and how they affect the information we see and the way we view the world. I think any of those is an interesting enough angle to make a drama about, maybe several dramas. If this show has one major flaw, it might be trying to wear too many hats at once. But I salute the creators for trying to make us something different than the typical pretty boy chaebol story, and giving us not one but three female characters filling those typically male roles.

Bottom Line: I do believe this drama deserves more love and respect than it got from a fandom that at least in theory cares about women’s stories. But I also understand why a lot of people didn’t connect with the lead character or the business stuff. But for me there was something about the lead couple that rang true and resonated with me.

6. WATCHER

Every time I watch a thriller, I’m hoping for something like WATCHER. Something with deep, complex, gray characters and a story full of twists and turns that keeps me engaged and guessing from episode one until the finale. Add on top of that a powerful cast who can really do justice to these substantial characters, you’ve got a winning recipe. OCN produces a lot of dramas in this genre, and they seem to be more prone to produce sequels than most other networks. Unfortunately, that also means a lot of the dramas they make feel paint-by-numbers and empty on the inside. WATCHER is one of those shows that reminds me why I keep coming back to this network and this kind of story time and again.

Bottom Line: This is one of those dramas that has you second guessing yourself even when they come right out and give you the answer, keeping you in a perpetual state of distrust along with the characters. But it’s built on the strong backbone of complicated and dynamic character relationships, which is why it is one of this year’s best.

5. Be Melodramatic

The higher I get up this list the harder time I have boiling down my thoughts on these dramas to one pithy paragraph. Often even I don’t know what kind of dramas are going to steal my heart. I have a particular weakness for dramas that can make me both laugh and cry, and then laugh through the tears. Dramas like Go Back Couple and Matrimonial Chaos that have deep heartache folded into the shenanigans. I love a funny drama. I like to laugh, but that doesn’t count for much unless I really care about the characters and their lives at the end of the day. That’s what makes me go from liking a drama to loving it, and that’s ultimately what I’m going to remember about a drama when it’s over. Be Melodramatic is special for the way it deals with heavy subjects in a gentle and lighthearted way, and somehow without losing the emotional impact.

Bottom Line: Be Melodramatic is a drama with tongue firmly planted in cheek, lots of laughs, lots of clever dialogue as well as a meta look at the drama industry from the inside, but the reason it works so well is the vein of heart, love and loss that runs all through the story.

4. One Spring Night

It’s so gratifying when a drama delivers exactly the experience you hoped it would. One Spring Night was a drama that ended up on my radar on the strength of the previews and posters, which promised me understated, romantic slice-of-life. I’d really enjoyed Han Ji Min in The Light in Your Eyes and have been fond of Jung Hae In since While You Were Sleeping. The pairing immediately seemed to have potential, but because the drama was picked up by Netflix, in the US I had to wait until it finished airing before I could give it a shot. A lot of the time when that happens, I see enough of the drama through gifs and screencaps that my interest fades. In this case I was only more intrigued. I’ve still never watched Something In The Rain but watching this drama has made me consider that might have been an oversight on my part. And yet I worry that if I watched it now I wouldn’t be able to help unfavorably comparing it to One Spring Night. This drama is truly something special.

Bottom Line: Because of the restrained, faithful realism of this drama and the two leads who seamlessly embody their characters, this drama has the almost voyeuristic quality of peeking into something intimate and private. It’s a palpable and thoroughly involving love story.

3. Nokdu Flower

I can hardly recommend this underrated gem of a show enough. I know nearly every historical gets compared either favorably or otherwise to Six Flying Dragons, which is kind of the recent high-water mark of sageuks, and I’m going to do that again here because Nokdu Flower is really the first historical drama I’ve watched since SFD that is at the same level of quality. One thing that sticks out about my experience watching both dramas is getting actual shivers watching these charismatic leaders rally their followers around them, and understanding at least in some small part why someone would leave behind everything they knew, pick up arms, and risk their lives for an ideal. Nokdu Flower captures the fearful power of revolutionary ideas in the hands of common people, but doesn’t descend into mere jingoism or sand off the rough edges or try to white wash the dark parts of human nature while it’s at it.

Bottom Line: At its most basic level Nokdu Flower is a story of revolution, and one of flawed characters either finding their humanity or having it burned out of them in the crucible of war. As that description would suggest it’s not an easy watch, but it’s a good and worthwhile one and definitely one any sageuk fan should check out.

2. My Country: The New Age

Compared to the far more traditional and grounded Nokdu Flower, My Country is almost fantastical in tone and at times eschews logic and realism for set pieces, sword fights and close range shotgun blasts of pathos. That’s probably why I love it. The larger-than-life sensationalism of this drama is what pushes it higher on this list than the carefully crafted Nokdu Flower, because this drama appealed to me on a more primal way. It’s so unrestrained and epic in everything from the set design, the soundtrack, the cinematography to the characters themselves and the performances of the actors playing them. Lurid, melodramatic, passionate, intense, suspenseful, romantic, raw, angsty, dark...I’ve basically run out of new adjectives to use while describing this drama elsewhere on this site. Basically, My Country is my id on a plate. Bon appetit.

Bottom Line: While there are definitely misguided and flawed elements to the writing and execution in this drama, somehow all of that is swept away in the sheer pleasure of watching it. If it had been specifically designed to appeal to every narrative kink I have, they couldn’t have made a more perfect drama for my tastes.

1. Children of Nobody

I finished my favorite drama of 2019 back in January, and then got to wait around 11 and a half months to see if anything else I watched last year would knock Children of Nobody from the top spot. It’s a mixed blessing to peak that early in the year. On the one hand, there was nowhere to go but down from here. On the other, I’ve had a lot of time to digest this very heavy show, which is something I definitely needed. I mentioned in my original review of this drama that each of the characters is an iceberg, so much more going on beneath the surface than what we can see. And what I’ve realized over the course of the past year is that the whole drama is like that, in a way. It’s an iceberg of a story, and I was able to pour a lot of myself into it, to try to understand it, and that’s part of the reason it was such an emotional watch for me. I don’t know when or if I’m going to be able to rewatch Children of Nobody, but I hope I can do it some day because I feel certain I would appreciate it even more upon a second viewing.  The fact that this is a murder mystery and a thriller is almost incidental to the emotional core of the story, which is deeper and more lingering than that. The secrets, once revealed, do not diminish the story but only turn it slightly so that you can see it from a different angle.

Bottom Line: This drama is certainly not going to be for everyone. I don’t know if I would say it was underrated so much as it’s niche. The difficult subject matter is naturally going to narrow its appeal. But I do think that dramas that require the most from me, mentally and emotionally, are often the ones that stick with me the longest and make me bend and grow as a person.

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed my top 10 list this year and I wish you joy, success and profound wellbeing in 2020. Thank you again--and thank you always--for following me. I’ve got great things planned for us this year.

Jona

#kdramas 2019 #end of year reviews #top 10 #children of nobody #my country #my country: the new age #nokdu flower #one spring night #be melodramatic #melo is my nature #WATCHER #search: www #the light in your eyes #encounter #boyfriend #hotel del luna

[mattbrothersscriptwriter]

My Top 20 Films of 2019 - Part Two

I don’t think I’ve had a year where my top ten jostled and shifted as much as this one did - these really are the best of the best and my personal favourites of 2019.

10. Toy Story 4

I think we can all agree that Toy Story 3 was a pretty much perfect conclusion to a perfect trilogy right? About as close as is likely to get, I’m sure. I shared the same trepidation when part four was announced, especially after some underwhelming sequels like Finding Dory and Cars 3 (though I do have a lot of time for Monsters University and Incredibles 2). So maybe it’s because the odds were so stacked against this being good but I thought it was wonderful. A truly existential nightmare of an epilogue that does away with Andy (and mostly kids altogether) to focus on the dreams and desires of the toys themselves - separate from their ‘duties’ as playthings to biological Gods. What is their purpose in life without an owner? Can they be their own person and carve their own path? In the case of breakout new character Forky (Tony Hale), what IS life? Big big questions for a cash grab kids films huh?

The animation is somehow yet another huge leap forward (that opening rainstorm!), Bo Peep’s return is excellently pitched and the series tradition of being unnervingly horrifying is back as well thanks to those creepy ventriloquist dolls! Keanu Reeves continues his ‘Keanuassaince‘ as the hilarious Duke Caboom and this time, hopefully, the ending at least feels finite. This series means so much to me: I think the first movie is possibly the tightest, most perfect script ever written, the third is one of my favourites of the decade and growing up with the franchise (I was 9 when the first came out, 13 for part two, 24 for part three and now 32 for this one), these characters are like old friends so of course it was great to see them again. All this film had to do was be good enough to justify its existence and while there are certainly those out there that don’t believe this one managed it, I think the fact that it went as far as it did showed that Pixar are still capable of pushing boundaries and exploring infinity and beyond when they really put their minds to it.

9. The Nightingale

Hoo boy. Already controversial with talk of mass walkouts (I witnessed a few when this screened at Sundance London), it’s not hard to see why but easy to understand. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) is a truly fearless filmmaker following up her acclaimed suburban horror movie come grief allegory with a period revenge tale set in the Tasmanian wilderness during British colonial rule in the early 1800s. It’s rare to see the British depicted with the monstrous brutality for which they were known in the distant colonies and this unflinching drama sorely needed an Australian voice behind the camera to do it justice.

The film is front loaded with some genuinely upsetting, nasty scenes of cruel violence but its uncensored brutality and the almost casual nature of its depiction is entirely the point - this was normalised behaviour over there and by treating it so matter of factly, it doesn’t slip into gratuitous ‘movie violence’. It is what it is. And what it is is hard to watch. If anything, as Kent has often stated, it’s still toned down from the actual atrocities that occurred so it’s a delicate balance that I think Kent more than understands. Quoting from an excellent Vanity Fair interview she did about how she directs, Kent said “I think audiences have become very anaesthetised to violence on screen and it’s something I find disturbing... People say ‘these scenes are so shocking and disturbing’. Of course they are. We need to feel that. When we become so removed from violence on screen, this is a very irresponsible thing. So I wanted to put us right within the frame with that person experiencing the loss of everything they hold dear”. 

Aisling Franciosi is next level here as a woman who has her whole life torn from her, leaving her as nothing but a raging husk out for vengeance. It would be so easy to fall into odd couple tropes once she teams up with reluctant native tracker Billy (an equally impressive newcomer, Baykali Ganambarr) but the film continues to stay true to the harsh racism of the era, unafraid to depict our heroine - our point of sympathy - as horrendously racist towards her own ally. Their partnership is not easily solidified but that makes it all the stronger when they star to trust each other. Sam Claflin is also career best here, weaponizing his usual charm into dangerous menace and even after cementing himself as the year’s most evil villain, he can still draw out the humanity in such a broken and corrupt man.

Gorgeously shot in the Academy ratio, the forest landscape here is oppressive and claustrophobic. Kent also steps back into her horror roots with some mesmerising, skin crawling dream scenes that amplify the woozy nightmarish tone and overbearing sense of dread. Once seen, never forgotten, this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (and that’s fine) but when cinema can affect you on such a visceral level and be this powerful, reflective and honest about our own past, it’s hard to ignore. Stunning.

8. The Irishman

Aka Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus, I did manage to see this one in a cinema before the Netflix drop and absolutely loved it. I’ve watched 85 minute long movies that felt longer than this - Marty’s mastery of pace, energy and knowing when to let things play out in agonising detail is second to none. This epic tale of  the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) really is the cinematic equivalent of having your cake and eating it too, allowing Scorsese to run through a greatest hits victory lap of mobster set pieces, alpha male arguments, a decades spanning life story and one (last?) truly great Joe Pesci performance before simply letting the story... continue... to a natural, depressing and tragic ending, reflecting the emptiness of a life built on violence and crime.

For a film this long, it’s impressive how much the smallest details make the biggest impacts. A stammering phone call from a man emotionally incapable of offering any sort of condolence. The cold refusal of forgiveness from a once loving daughter. A simple mirroring of a bowl of cereal or a door left slightly ajar. These are the parts of life that haunt us all and it’s what we notice the most in a deliberately lengthy biopic that shows how much these things matter when everything else is said and done. The violence explodes in sudden, sharp bursts, often capping off unbearably tense sequences filled with the everyday (a car ride, a conversation about fish, ice cream...) and this contrast between the whizz bang of classic Scorsese and the contemplative nature of Silence era Scorsese is what makes this film feel like such an accomplishment. De Niro is FINALLY back but it’s the memorably against type role for Pesci and an invigorated Al Pacino who steals this one, along with a roll call of fantastic cameos, with perhaps the most screentime given to the wonderfully petty Stephen Graham as Tony Pro, not to mention Anna Paquin’s near silent performance which says more than possibly anyone else. 

Yes, the CG de-aging is misguided at best, distracting at worst (I never really knew how old anyone was meant to be at any given time... which is kinda a problem) but like how you get used to it really quickly when it’s used well, here I kinda got past it being bad in an equally fast amount of time and just went with it. Would it have been a different beast had they cast younger actors to play them in the past? Undoubtedly. But if this gives us over three hours of Hollywood’s finest giving it their all for the last real time together, then that’s a compromise I can live with.

7. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Wow. I was in love with this film from the moving first trailer but then the film itself surpassed all expectations. This is a true indie film success story, with lead actor Jimmie Fails developing the idea with director Joe Talbot for years before Kickstarting a proof of concept and eventually getting into Sundance with short film American Paradise, which led to the backing of this debut feature through Plan B and A24. The deeply personal and poetic drama follows a fictionalised version of Jimmie, trying to buy back an old Victorian town house he claims was built by his grandfather, in an act of rebellion against the increasingly gentrified San Francisco that both he and director Talbot call home.

The film is many things - a story of male friendship, of solidarity within our community, of how our cities can change right from underneath us - it moves to the beat of it’s own drum, with painterly cinematography full of gorgeous autumnal colours and my favourite score of the year from Emile Mosseri. The performances, mostly by newcomers or locals outside of brilliant turns from Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover and Thora Birch, are wonderful and the whole thing is such a beautiful love letter to the city that it makes you ache for a strong sense of place in your own home, even if your relationship with it is fractured or strained. As Jimmie says, “you’re not allowed to hate it unless you love it”.

For me, last year’s Blindspotting (my favourite film of the year) tackled gentrification within California more succinctly but this much more lyrical piece of work ebbs and flows through a number of themes like identity, family, memory and time. It’s a big film living inside a small, personal one and it is not to be overlooked.

6. Little Women

I had neither read the book nor seen any prior adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel so to me, this is by default the definitive telling of this story. If from what I hear, the non linear structure is Greta Gerwig’s addition, then it’s a total slam dunk. It works so well in breaking up the narrative and by jumping from past to present, her screenplay highlights certain moments and decisions with a palpable sense of irony, emotional weight or knowing wink. Getting to see a statement made with sincere conviction and then paid off within seconds, can be both a joy and a surefire recipe for tears. Whether it’s the devastating contrast between scenes centred around Beth’s illness or the juxtaposition of character’s attitudes to one another, it’s a massive triumph. Watching Amy angrily tell Laurie how she’s been in love with him all her life and then cutting back to her childishly making a plaster cast of her foot for him (’to remind him how small her feet are’) is so funny. 

Gerwig and her impeccable cast bring an electric energy to the period setting, capturing the big, messy realities of family life with a mix of overwhelming cross-chatter and the smallest of intimate gestures. It’s a testament to the film that every sister feels fully serviced and represented, from Beth’s quiet strength to Amy’s unforgivable sibling rivalry. Chris Cooper’s turn as a stoic man suffering almost imperceptible grief is a personal heartbreaking favourite. 

The book’s (I’m assuming) most sweeping romantic statements are wonderfully delivered, full of urgent passion and relatable heartache, from Marmie’s (Laura Dern) “I’m angry nearly every day of my life” moment to Jo’s (Saoirse Ronan) painful defiance of feminine attributes not being enough to cure her loneliness. The sheer amount of heart and warmth in this is just remarkable and I can easily see it being a film I return to again and again.

5. Booksmart

2019 has been a banner year for female directors, making their exclusion from some of the early awards conversations all the more damning. From this list alone, we have Lulu Wang, Jennifer Kent and Greta Gerwig. Not to mention Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe (Greener Grass), Sophie Hyde (Animals) and Rose Glass (Saint Maud - watch out for THIS one in 2020, it’s brilliant). Perhaps the most natural transition from in front of to behind the camera has been made by Olivia Wilde, who has created a borderline perfect teen comedy that can make you laugh till you cry, cry till you laugh and everything in-between.

Subverting the (usually male focused) ‘one last party before college’ tropes that fuel the likes of Superbad and it’s many inferior imitators, Booksmart follows two overachievers who, rather than go on a coming of age journey to get some booze or get laid, simply want to indulge in an insane night of teenage freedom after realising that all of the ‘cool kids’ who they assumed were dropouts, also managed to get a place in all of the big universities. It’s a subtly clever remix of an old favourite from the get go but the committed performances from Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein put you firmly in their shoes for the whole ride. 

It’s a genuine blast, with big laughs and a bigger heart, portraying a supportive female friendship that doesn’t rely on hokey contrivances to tear them apart, meaning that when certain repressed feelings do come to the surface, the fallout is heartbreaking. As I stated in a twitter rave after first seeing it back in May, every single character, no matter how much they might appear to be simply representing a stock role or genre trope, gets their moment to be humanised. This is an impeccably cast ensemble of young unknowns who constantly surprise and the script is a marvel - a watertight structure without a beat out of place, callbacks and payoffs to throwaway gags circle back to be hugely important and most of all, the approach taken to sexuality and representation feels so natural. I really think it is destined to be looked back on and represent 2019 the way Heathers does ‘88, Clueless ‘95 or Easy A 2010. A new high benchmark for crowd pleasing, indie comedy - teen or otherwise.

4. Ad Astra

Brad Pitt is one of my favourite actors and one who, despite still being a huge A-lister even after 30 years in the game, never seems to get enough credit for the choices he makes, the movies he stars in and also the range of stories he helps produce through his company, Plan B. 2019 was something of a comeback year for Pitt as an actor with the insanely measured and controlled lead performance seen here in Ad Astra and the more charismatic and chaotic supporting role in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

I love space movies, especially those that are more about broken people blasting themselves into the unknown to search for answers within themselves... which manages to sum up a lot of recent output in this weirdly specific sub-genre. First Man was a devastating look at grief characterised by a man who would rather go to a desolate rock than have to confront what he lost, all while being packaged as a heroic biopic with a stunning score. Gravity and The Martian both find their protagonists forced to rely on their own cunning and ingenuity to survive and Interstellar looked at the lengths we go to for those we love left behind. Smaller, arty character studies like High Life or Moon are also astounding. All of this is to say that Ad Astra takes these concepts and runs with them, challenging Pitt to cross the solar system to talk some sense into his long thought dead father (Tommy Lee Jones). But within all the ‘sad dad’ stuff, there’s another film in here just daring you to try and second guess it - one that kicks things off with a terrifying free fall from space, gives us a Mad Max style buggy chase on the moon and sidesteps into horror for one particular set-piece involving a rabid baboon in zero G! It manages to feel so completely nuts, so episodic in structure, that I understand why a lot of people were turned off - feeling that the overall film was too scattershot to land the drama or too pondering to have any fun with. I get the criticisms but for me, both elements worked in tandem, propelling Pitt on this (assumed) one way journey at a crazy pace whilst sitting back and languishing in the ‘bigger themes’ more associated with a Malik or Kubrick film. Something that Pitt can sell me on in his sleep by this point.

I loved the visuals from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar), loved the imagination and flair of the script from director James Gray and Ethan Gross and loved the score by Max Richter (with Lorne Balfe and Nils Frahm) but most of all, loved Pitt, proving that sometimes a lot less, is a lot more. The sting of hearing the one thing he surely knew (but hoped he wouldn’t) be destined to hear from his absent father, acted almost entirely in his eyes during a third act confrontation, summed up the movie’s brilliance for me - so much so that I can forgive some of the more outlandish ‘Mr Hyde’ moments of this thing’s alter ego... like, say, riding a piece of damaged hull like a surfboard through a meteor debris field! 

3. Avengers: Endgame

It’s no secret that I think Marvel, the MCU in particular, have been going from strength to strength in recent years, slowly but surely taking bigger risks with filmmakers (the bonkers Taika Waititi, the indie darlings of Ryan Coogler, Cate Shortland and Chloe Zhao) whilst also carefully crafting an entertaining, interconnected universe of characters and stories. But what is the point of building up any movie ‘universe’ if you’re not going to pay it off and Endgame is perhaps the strongest conclusion to eleven years of movie sequels that fans could have possibly hoped for.

Going into this thing, the hype was off the charts (and for good reason, with it now being the highest grossing film of all time) but I remember souring on the first entry of this two-parter, Infinity War, during the time between initial release and Endgame’s premiere. That film had a game-changing climax, killing off half the heroes (and indeed the universe’s population) and letting the credits role on the villain having achieved his ultimate goal. It was daring, especially for a mammoth summer blockbuster but obviously, we all knew the deaths would never be permanent, especially with so many already-announced sequels for now ‘dusted’ characters. However, it wasn’t just the feeling that everything would inevitably be alright in the end. For me, the characters themselves felt hugely under-serviced, with arguably the franchise’s main goody two shoes Captain America being little more than a beardy bloke who showed up to fight a little bit. Basically what I’m getting at is that I felt Endgame, perhaps emboldened by the giant runtime, managed to not only address these character slights but ALSO managed to deliver the most action packed, comic booky, ‘bashing your toys together’ final fight as well.

It’s a film of three parts, each pretty much broken up into one hour sections. There’s the genuinely new and interesting initial section following our heroes dealing with the fact that they lost... and it stuck. Thor angrily kills Thanos within the first fifteen minutes but it’s a meaningless action by this point - empty revenge. Cutting to five years later, we get to see how defeat has affected them, for better or worse, trying to come to terms with grief and acceptance. Cap tries to help the everyman, Black Widow is out leading an intergalactic mop up squad and Thor is wallowing in a depressive black hole. It’s a shocking and vibrantly compelling deconstruction of the whole superhero thing and it gives the actors some real meat to chew on, especially Robert Downy Jr here who goes from being utterly broken to fighting within himself to do the right thing despite now having a daughter he doesn’t want to lose too. Part two is the trip down memory lane, fan service-y time heist which is possibly the most fun section of any of these movies, paying tribute to the franchise’s past whilst teetering on a knife’s edge trying to pull off a genuine ‘mission impossible’. And then it explodes into the extended finale which pays everyone off, demonstrates some brilliantly imaginative action and sticks the landing better than it had any right to. In a year which saw the ending of a handful of massive geek properties, from Game of Thrones to Star Wars, it’s a miracle even one of them got it right at all. That Endgame managed to get it SO right is an extraordinary accomplishment and if anything, I think Marvel may have shot themselves in the foot as it’s hard to imagine anything they can give us in the future having the intense emotional weight and momentum of this huge finale.

2. Knives Out

Rian Johnson has been having a ball leaping into genre sandpits and stirring shit up, from his teen spin on noir in Brick to his quirky con man caper with The Brothers Bloom, his time travel thriller Looper and even his approach to the Star Wars mythos in The Last Jedi. Turning his attention to the relatively dead ‘whodunnit’ genre, Knives Out is a perfect example of how to celebrate everything that excites you about a genre whilst weaponizing it’s tropes against your audience’s baggage and preconceptions.

An impeccable cast have the time of their lives here, revelling in playing self obsessed narcissists who scramble to punt the blame around when the family’s patriarch, a successful crime novelist (Christopher Plummer), winds up dead. Of course there’s something fishy going on so Daniel Craig’s brilliantly dry southern detective Benoit Blanc is called in to investigate.There are plenty of standouts here, from Don Johnson’s ignorant alpha wannabe Richard to Michael Shannon’s ferocious eldest son Walt to Chris Evan’s sweater wearing jock Ransom, full of unchecked, white privilege swagger. But the surprise was the wholly sympathetic, meek, vomit prone Marta, played brilliantly by Ana de Armas, cast against her usual type of sultry bombshell (Knock Knock, Blade Runner 2049), to spearhead the biggest shake up of the genre conventions. To go into more detail would begin to tread into spoiler territory but by flipping the audience’s engagement with the detective, we’re suddenly on the receiving end of the scrutiny and the tension derived from this switcheroo is genius and opens up the second act of the story immensely.

The whole thing is so lovingly crafted and the script is one of the tightest I’ve seen in years. The amount of setup and payoff here is staggering and never not hugely satisfying, especially as it heads into it’s final stretch. It really gives you some hope that you could have such a dense, plotty, character driven idea for a story and that it could survive the transition from page to screen intact and for the finished product to work as well as it does. I really hope Johnson returns to tell another Benoit Blanc mystery and judging by the roaring box office success (currently over $200 million worldwide for a non IP original), I certainly believe he will.

1. Eighth Grade

My film of the year is another example of the power of cinema to put us in other people’s shoes and to discover the traits, fears, joys and insecurities that we all share irregardless. It may shock you to learn this but I have never been a 13 year old teenage girl trying to get by in the modern world of social media peer pressure and ‘influencer’ culture whilst crippled with personal anxiety. My school days almost literally could not have looked more different than this (less Instagram, more POGs) and yet, this is a film about struggling with oneself, with loneliness, with wanting more but not knowing how to get it without changing yourself and the careless way we treat those with our best interests at heart in our selfish attempt to impress peers and fit in. That is understandable. That is universal. And as I’m sure I’ve said a bunch of times in this list, movies that present the most specific worldview whilst tapping into universal themes are the ones that inevitably resonate the most.

Youtuber and comedian Bo Burnham has crafted an impeccable debut feature, somehow portraying a generation of teens at least a couple of generations below his own, with such laser focused insight and intimate detail. It’s no accident that this film has often been called a sort of social-horror, with cringe levels off the charts and recognisable trappings of anxiety and depression in every frame. The film’s style services this feeling at every turn, from it’s long takes and nauseous handheld camerawork to the sensory overload in it’s score (take a bow Anna Meredith) and the naturalistic performances from all involved. Burnham struck gold when he found Elsie Fisher, delivering the most painful and effortlessly real portrayal of a tweenager in crisis as Kayla. The way she glances around skittishly, the way she is completely lost in her phone, the way she talks, even the way she breathes all feeds into the illusion - the film is oftentimes less a studio style teen comedy and more a fly on the wall documentary. 

This is a film that could have coasted on being a distant, social media based cousin to more standard fare like Sex Drive or Superbad or even Easy A but it goes much deeper, unafraid to let you lower your guard and suddenly hit you with the most terrifying scene of casually attempted sexual aggression or let you watch this pure, kindhearted girl falter and question herself in ways she shouldn’t even have to worry about. And at it’s core, there is another beautiful father/daughter relationship, with Josh Hamilton stuck on the outside looking in, desperate to help Kayla with every fibre of his being but knowing there are certain things she has to figure out for herself. It absolutely had me and their scene around a backyard campfire is one of the year’s most touching.

This is a truly remarkable film that I think everyone should seek out but I’m especially excited for all the actual teenage girls who will get to watch this and feel seen. This isn’t about the popular kid, it isn’t about the dork who hangs out with his or her own band of misfits. This is about the true loner, that person trying everything to get noticed and still ending up invisible, that person trying to connect through the most disconnected means there is - the internet - and everything that comes with it. Learning that the version of yourself you ‘portray’ on a Youtube channel may act like they have all the answers but if you’re kidding yourself then how do you grow? 

When I saw this in the cinema, I watched a mother take her seat with her two daughters, aged probably at around nine and twelve. Possibly a touch young for this, I thought, and I admit I cringed a bit on their behalf during some very adult trailers but in the end, I’m glad their mum decided they were mature enough to see this because a) they had a total blast and b) life simply IS R rated for the most part, especially during our school years, and those girls being able to see someone like Kayla have her story told on the big screen felt like a huge win. I honestly can’t wait to see what Burnham or Fisher decide to do next. 2019 has absolutely been their year... and it’s been a hell of a year.

#top 20 #films of the year #films of 2019 #10-1 #toy story 4 #the nightingale #the irishman #the last black man in san francisco #little women #booksmart #ad astra #avengers endgame #knives out #eighth grade

[jimvasta]

Prince Charming

aka Prince Michael of Esterria Extract from a new book I’m writing. Not sure whether to publish or not yet.

It’s hard being everyone else’s Prince Charming, especially when you haven’t quite worked out how to tell the women throwing themselves at you that, honesty, they’re really not your type.

“Game or film?” Prince Michael asked as the pair ambled into the games room.

“I can’t hold my drink like you can, I’d get slaughtered gaming right now. I vote for a film.” Swaffam was drunk and he knew it, but the Prince liked getting his guard drunk when he was off duty, it seemed to amuse him greatly.

“I’m tempted to go for a game just to beat you but it would be a hollow victory.” Michael flicked through the film list, putting it up on the main screen so Swaffam could look too. “Or how about that new horror series? The one with the serial killing ghost.”

“Yes,” Swaffam was quick to agree, remembering that series had one of his favourite actors in it. “Good idea.”

Michael selected the first episode before going behind the sofa.

Swaffam heard the door of the fridge opening and the chink of bottles. There was always a good selection of beers kept perfectly chilled and Michael insisted on only premium offerings from specially selected breweries. The door closed and there was more movement, the familiar sound of Michael vaulting the back of the sofa. The impact of him landing close beside Swaffam was followed by the shock of an icy bottle against his neck.

“Ahh, every time.” Swaffam shuddered.

Michael laughed as he offered the bottle to Swaffam over his left shoulder, the ritual was one he enjoyed and one of the few opportunities he had to get one over the Imperial Guard. They both knew he was allowed to win each time but it was still fun.

Swaffam accepted the bottle and used his teeth to open the twist cap the same way he so recently taught the Prince.

Michael copied the action, leaving his left arm across the back of the sofa as he spread himself out comfortably.

It was a while before Swaffam even noticed, they tended to sit close a lot anyway and he could not be sure if Michael was even aware of what he had done. As soon as he was aware of it, there was no smell in the air but the Prince’s rare wood cologne and no sensation but the warmth of his arm. It was so distracting he could barely focus on the screen. When did he turn back into a hopeless adolescent? The man beside him was so far out of his league they might as well be in different universes and yet the alcohol was screaming at him to do something. It was ridiculous, there was no way he should even consider it and yet the thought was still there. He was too drunk, he had to remember his position.

The credits rolled as Michael looked sorrowfully at his beer bottle, upending it to check there really was none left.

There was no hesitation from Swaffam, he knew his duty and rapidly acquired two more bottles from the fridge. When he returned to the six person sofa he could not resist the urge to sit exactly where he had been, so close to the Prince they were touching.

Michael pretended not to notice, smiling to himself as he drunk his beer.

Halfway through the next episode, Swaffam stopped breathing as he felt Michael’s arm slip off the back rest and drape itself around his shoulders. Slowly, after an agonising mental debate, he raised his left hand and felt fingers entwine themselves around his. He did not dare look at Michael, he did not trust himself to look into those haunting amber eyes.

When long minutes yielded no objection, Michael applied a gentle pressure pulling Swaffam closer, but Swaffam was ready for him, twisting round as he moved. Unsure how it happened, but absolutely not about to object, Michael was being held in Swaffam’s arms with his head resting on Swaffam’s broad shoulder. And all the while Swaffam did not look Michael in the eye or say a word.

They were still sat like that when the next episode finished.

“It’s getting late.” Michael murmured.

Swaffam said nothing, but his grip tightened, he was not ready to leave.

“We could watch some more, unless you’d rather I take you to bed.”

Finally, Swaffam moved, twisting to look at Michael’s face and those amazing eyes. “You really like me like that?”

“Honestly? I’ve been flirting with you for months, you’ve just been painfully oblivious.”

“I don’t look for those signals from people who are out of my league.”

Michael pushed against Swaffam’s arms, standing as he was released and taking Swaffam’s hands to pull him up too. “What do you need? I seriously considered buying a t-shirt that said ‘I’m gay and horny, get in my bed’, but I thought it might be too subtle for you.”

“Bold of you to assume I can read.” Swaffam retorted, playing off the recent jibe from a young Lord who dismissed Imperial Guards as no more than meat headed bullies.

“Must I order you?”

“I’d rather you didn’t, that’s one of the few orders I’d be obliged to decline, but given the choice between killer ghosts or your bed, I’d choose your bed.” An insistent voice in the back of Swaffam’s mind cursed his stupidity, but the alcohol drowned it out. He wanted what the Prince was offering.

“And whatever happens,” Michael spoke softly as he held on tight to Swaffam’s hands. “Is up to you.”

“You’re the Prince, shouldn’t it be up to you?”

“Like you said, there are some orders even I can’t give and,” Michael hesitated, but he had gone too far now to stop. “I spend so much time giving orders these days, sometimes I’d just like someone else to take control.”

“In that case,” Swaffam tugged Michael in close enough to whisper in his ear. “We’re going to your bed and you’d better be prepared to do as you’re told.”

Michael caught his breath. Being so close, hearing those words, it was exactly what he had been dreaming about since he first saw Swaffam topless in hospital, but now he was virtually shaking with nerves and anticipation.

“You know you’re the last person I’d ever hurt,” Swaffam felt Michael freeze in his arms. “There’s no point doing this unless we’re both going to enjoy it.”

As he looked up at Swaffam, Michael’s confidence returned. “Follow me.”

#fiction #lgbtq #gay fiction

[1stunseeliefaelass]

Darksiders Arthurian Tales Revisited

Chapter 29: Thorns and Flame

"Remember Horseman...what happened the LAST TIME YOU USED THAT THING. What happened, after it BROKE?"

Death felt a chill run up his spine at each growl. The hands also each tightened their grip as he spoke. When they finally let him go, all was quiet again, he could breathe again. Death then glanced back at the shard in his hand before quickly putting it back and shutting the box. He then took a moment to compose himself before hearing his younger brothers.

"Hey big bro, lunch is ready! You comin?" Strife called out to him.

"Don't tell us you're skipping out again." War adds on.

Death quickly rushes the box under a small cloth from nearby, and hurries on out to greet his brothers. Playing the usual part of their calm brother he responded, "Don't worry, I'll be eating for sure. Was just...taking care of a few things. That's all."

With that he followed his brothers to the main hall. Meanwhile Fuzzball had gone into his room, his little leg having healed enough to allow some limited movement. War however paused as they walked, having noticed something on Death's neck. Strife looked at him confused, whilst Death gently pushed War's hand to the side, "I'm fine, nothing's wrong War."

"Death, you can't hide everything. Certainly not from me. There's a mark on your neck, let me examine it."

"I accidentally hit my throat don't worry about it." Death casually pointed out.

"How the hell'd you get all the way around though?" Strife asked unconvinced.

"Nevermind it. Just know that I'm fine, I swear it. Now, shall we get some food?"

With that Death quickened his pace to the main hall. His brothers followed him, but found themselves still unconvinced. Death meanwhile ignored their concerns for now. Instead he began eating and noticed Aleyn seemed more lively when walked in. He wasn't as pale and almost looked as though his frailty had melted away. Course Death happened to glance outside and saw more of those Styxian Roses. Thinking back, he began to think to himself, *"These roses don't just randomly appear to me. There needs to be a graveyard, or a large mass of the dead. Unless....someone here has been marked by them."*

Death glanced back at the roses behind Aleyn, they were actually moving, albiet extremely slowly. They also occasionally tapped at the window, seemingly trying to match their timing with gusts of wind. It was almost as though they wanted to reach Aleyn. Death couldn't be certain though, and wasn't about accuse him of anything. Not without sufficient evidence first. Course the more he thought back, the more he realized the roses couldn't be after anyone else. The burning lesions on his body, the strange concoction he needed for his health's sake. The extreme frailty he exhibited just a day before. It all made too much sense, Aleyn must've been marked. How or why Death wasn't sure, he did know one thing though, he had to be careful. Fuzzball may be a good actor, but still, better safe than sorry. Suddenly his musings were interrupted by Aleyn, "Something wrong Horseman?"

"Hmm? Oh nothing. Just thinking to myself."

"I see. Is Morgen's condition worrying you still?" Aleyn inquires.

"I suppose...yes." Death tells him, using his concerns from earlier to mask his true intentions.

"Ah of course, I suppose it's only natural. Even so you needn't fret over it, I believe I have a blend ready for her that won't cause nasty side effects. If anything, I'm certain the current one's shall cease. I ask only that you trust me on this."

Death searched for any disingenuousness to his tone, but finding nothing he relented, "Very well."

Aleyn took the simple answer for what it was and finally made his way out, having finished his meal. He then went to his room to fetch his supplies before receiving another message from his Father.

"Aleyn, I don't trust the Horseman. Something didn't seem right with him."

"I'm pretty sure he's always that way usually."

"Even so, I have a bad feeling about him Aleyn. You should return home, preferably soon." His Father implored him.

"I shall Father, once Morgen is well. I can't just leave a patient to handle the side effects one of my blends left them with. As a doctor I refuse to do so, I CANNOT do so."

His Father groaned, "You only remain because you once cared for her. I can't understand why you wish to help her. Given what she nearly did to you, how she destroyed you."

"ENOUGH. Morgen may have left but, I cannot blame her. Nor shall I ever. Besides, I...nevermind..."

"Aleyn.."

"Nevermind Father! I have work to do, so if you don't mind."

He left Aleyn be at this, but decided enough was enough. His disembodied gold skull floated about before reaching a locked door. He only just merged through it and was met with the withered, slightly mummified body of Aleyn's Mother. His Stepfather's body, had seen far better days really. He paid no heed to it though, only focusing on the Mother.

"It seems you are to be useful again. I cannot say I am at all amused at having to do this again, but for our son's sake I must. Enjoy the sunlight whilst you can bitch, if you can at all that is. Given that you'll still be under my reign."

From there he began to use his own necromancies on the woman to give some semblance of frail life to her flesh. With that he lifted her up by seemingly invisible strings. Then he quickly entered her body for possession. After completing that step, he looked over himself.

"We currently look about one missed meal from the grave. But this is nothing that your precious makeup and perfumes cannot mask my dear. As embarrassing as it is for me to put this on for you. Perhaps I should find a fresher dress for you as well. And a cloak in case there's anything I cannot hide with your trinkets." He spoke using her own voice, which sound as though she were a smoker for a vast majority of her life. Which wouldn't be far off from reality, given that she was rarely without a cigarette stick.

It took a VAST amount of time to 'freshen her up'. But eventually it was done at long last. He had a knight carry them by carriage to Aleyn's location. Meanwhile Baccara had decided to return back there, as she could sense something was wrong earlier through the roses. Or rather the ones that she left there to watch over him. All of sudden she senses the Father and is forced into hiding. The Father senses her as well, but only vaguely. It's still enough for him to send a knight to look for her as he approaches the castle. Then he called to a guard as Aleyn's Mother, "Might one of you go and fetch my boy? Or at least find someone who can?"

The guard looked at the cloaked woman with confusion and fear. She looked as though she'd crumble to dust in that cloak if she moved just an inch. A bony finger pointing at him however sent him running to do 'her' bidding. Running into Death first, he began trying to give the message to him, "It's a - it's a - it's a.."

"Get a hold of yourself, spit it out man!" Death shouts at him.

"Strange lady....at the gates." He lets out in a high pitched whimper.

Death groans before walking outside to greet her, only to immediately freeze. Sensing an undead presence about this older woman before him. Casually as possible he walked over to her, "Uhm excuse me miss...you wouldn't mind if I checked you over for illness would you? We have an ill lady inside and so we only wish to be sure with visitors."

"I'll not be remaining long, but if you insist." The woman's voice tells him.

Death then uses his necromancy to sense for anything off once she gives him her outstretched hand. Instantly he senses exactly what they're dealing with. Not just the fact they've got a Lich's attention. But also a Death Knight roaming around the premises. "Uh alrighty then....you stay out here and I..will go get him. Uh who's your son by chance?"

"Aleyn." The Father responds in the shell. Then once Death hurries off, Aleyn's Father cocks his head as the Mother, "Did I give something away that easily?"

Aleyn meanwhile is met with another guest, this one far more welcome. Baccara comes rushing up through the rose vines reaching up to his room in a pure panic. Shaking badly as Aleyn quickly checks her over, knowing her panicking means only one thing.

"What happened? What has he done? What did he say?"

"He only sent something to find me. I don't know what he would do if I was caught." Baccara tells him in fear.

"Easy there you're safe now. Whatever he sent can't hurt you here." Aleyn informs her gently before looking outside. Where he spots one of his Father's Death Knights. "Father what are you doing?"

Then they hear Death making his way over in a rush. "Aleyn?"

"Quickly, over there. Stay inside this and don't come out until I say." Aleyn quickly says to her before hurrying Baccara into a closet.

Death then makes his way into the room, "Aleyn...we've got a problem. Your...'Mother' is here for you."

Aleyn turns around highly annoyed, "Oh, has she now?"

"Yes, she's indeed outside waiting for you. And also how the hell is your Mother a Lich?! And what does that make you?!"

"Shhhhhhh! Not so loud damn it. Please stay calm."

"I AM CALM!"

All of sudden Death is hit with a spell and immediately goes down. Falling asleep. Aleyn realizes what's happened and goes to get out of the way of the window. Only to get surprised by his Father, "Hello son."

"Huuuuragh! Oh do NOT scare me. Agh." Aleyn says as he grasps his chest, trying to calm down.

"Sorry. Is she here?"

"Of course Morgen is here." Aleyn replies sarcastically.

"I'm not speaking of her, and you know that well enough. I won't tolerate her being near you, where is she? I sensed her some time ago on my way here."

"Even if I did know where she is, I wouldn't tell you. You want her dead after all, you always did." Aleyn tells him.

"She broke your heart just as Morgen did."

"ONLY BECAUSE YOU TOLD HER TO!" Aleyn suddenly shouts before having to grasp his chest again.

His Father floats closer to him on instinct, "Aleyn take it easy. Stay calm."

Suddenly he's smacked out of the air by a vine. One from Aspen funnily enough. Course her pissed off gaze meets Aleyn first, "Start explaining. NOW."

"Right...explain...uhhhh...." Aleyn begins to say before quickly teleporting both himself and Baccara out of there. He brings Baccara to Morgen, who is at first quite concerned.

"Aleyn...what are you doing? And who is that?"

"I don't have time to explain, please just make sure she's safe for me. When I told you of having met someone, this is whom I spoke of. She means the world to me Morgen, I nearly lost her once, I never want to know what it's like for her to truly die. Please keep her safe."

"Aleyn I....I'll do my best. But who am I protecting her from exactly?"

"My Father. He doesn't particularly like you, but he full on hates her. I don't know why he can't seem to let it go, but he won't. So I am forced to keep her hidden and safe." Aleyn explains quickly.

Morgen nods and gently holds out her hand to Baccara. She hugs Aleyn tightly though, "Aleyn please...I sensed your pain earlier. The roses showed me. I can't leave you."

"I have no choice Baccara, just please stay safe for me. I don't want to lose you, ever. So please, stay here with Morgen and your Mother. PLEASE." Aleyn implores of her.

Baccara finally relents, the high emotions she'd been experiencing beginning to fade away. Aleyn couldn't help but deflate inside, knowing how she can be when he isn't with her. But he inevitably has to let her go and calls to his Father. Morgen meanwhile ushers Baccara around the corner for her safety. She tries her best to comfort her, but Baccara gives little response to it.

"Enough of this Aleyn, you're coming home right now." His Father growls at him.

"I will, just let me give Morgen the newest blend of mine. I still wish to fix my mistake." Aleyn pleads with him.

"So be it. But you'd better be quick."

Aleyn then rushes over around the corner and presses two tea bags into Morgen's hand, "They're labeled with your names, that way you'll know which is which. Thank you Morgen, and forgive me Baccara."

With that he returns to the floating gold skull, who then leads him away. Morgen notices a few of the brand new rose vines wither whilst the others quickly flock to her and Baccara. They gently nudge at her as if trying to be comforting. But Morgen doesn't trust them and heads inside with the girl. Or she tries to, but Baccara remains in place. Her emotions having faded away faster than autumn leaves. She then takes root into the ground as the roses surround her. Becoming a tree before Morgen's eyes. Morgen is left unsure of what to do, but places a protective charm on one of her branches to be safe. Then she heads inside to find help. Only to be met with Nergal trying to calm down Aspen again whilst Death is sprawled out on the ground in Aleyn's room. Naturally Morgen rushes to his side and checks him over.

"Death can you hear me? Death?!"

He begins stirring a slight bit and his eyes slowly start to flutter open, "Mmmmnnrgh...ugh...Morgen? When'd you....wait a minute...SHIT! I'm gonna kill that asshole."

"What do you mean? What happened?"

"For one I'm assuming a sleep spell was used on me. Secondly, it was either Aleyn, or someone else." Death explains in aggravation.

"Perhaps Aleyn just panicked?"

"He was panicking some, but I was freaking out..a bit more..admittedly. Get ready to fight a Lich."

"LICH?! Since when?!" Morgen shouts in worry.

"Since today. Sensed it when that strange lady arrived. Claimed she was Aleyn's Mother, but I kinda doubt that now."

"He does have a Mother, although I've not seen or heard from her in quite some time. Not that I'd wish to myself, she was a dreadful woman." Morgen says matter-of-factly.

"She definitely sounded like a smoker, come to think of it." Death replies shaking his head to rid of his current daze.

"Oh I recall that much being true. Rarely did she ever like being seen without a cigarette stick. Believed they were a symbol of 'sophistication', ugh. She was about as sophisticated as a stubborn llama, and spat just as much at anyone she hated. Even her own son."

Death then looks at her a bit shocked, "Really?"

"Oh yes. 'Course she did begin to look, frailer, when I got older. She was still very much a crotchety bitch, but she could never truly do anything. Not without Aleyn's help, and part of me feels she knew it. I honestly felt bad for him everytime I saw the two of them."

"That explains why you two hit it off back then. Another case of kindred spirits." Death says.

"Likely yes. Even still, what do you plan to do per chance?"

"I need to find him, get to the bottom of this. Besides, Aleyn may prove helpful in our current endeavors." Death tells her.

"I do recall where his home lies, although....it's in the Seelie Realm. Close to the border, but on the Seelie side nonetheless."

Death thought for a moment before stating, "Alright, you'll stay here then. Just give me a crystal with his location on it."

"Only if you swear you won't go alone."

"I won't. I'll have my siblings with me. Trust me, you've got nothing to worry about." Death promises before Morgen uses the crystal to retrieve her memories of where Aleyn lives and how to get there.

With that done Death hurries off to get himself and his siblings ready. Morgen meanwhile went back outside to see how Baccara was doing, only to find Aspen there. She was singing calmly by the tree Baccara had become, clearly trying to coax her into doing anything else but that. Morgen chose ultimately to leave them to their moment, before Aspen asked of her, "Morgen, if you could, might you bring some water? I find myself parched. Ash....I mean Baccara may need it herself."

The tree moved slightly in response before a disinterested ghostly voice sighed, "You rarely call me by my chosen name."

"I have a reason to use it now my child. I may wish this fate wasn't your own, but I'm slowly starting to understand something."

"And that is?"

"That I cannot change what happened. Nor could I have predicted it. But most importantly, I still failed you as a Mother after your trauma. I failed to accept you, what you'd become, what had happened to you."

A hand sprouts from the tree, placing itself on Aspen's shoulder, "Mother, just the fact that you kept coming despite everything was always enough. Although it's hard to know when anything is enough anymore. When things such as happiness and love are lost to me now. That is unless Aleyn is close by. It feels as though, all that's left of the original me stays with him. As I can't feel anything without him."

The hand retreats back and Aspen places her own hand on the trunk, "I know you care for that man but, he led to your demise."

"It's not him who I blame, nor do I fear him."

"Then...who do you fear child?"

"His Father, the Lich who possessed him that night."

Morgen returns with the water just in time to hear that bit of intel, "Wait....the Lich is Aleyn's Father?"

"Yes. His name is Achiron." Baccara explains plainly.

"I need to go. Here's your water ladies, I'll return shortly." Morgen says before rushing off quickly.

She's able to catch Death and the others just as they're leaving. Death in particular is kind of surprised and a little worried, "Hey slow down, what's the rush?"

"I just found out who the Lich is. It isn't his Mother, it's his Father. I don't recall the name Achiron, but Baccara seemed certain of..."

"Wait wait slow down, who the hell is Baccara?" Death questions her.

"Wait a minute, she wouldn't be a Dryad by chance would she? A pretty creepy looking one? Freaky ass mask?" Strife quickly asks her.

"You could always ask her yourself." Morgen states.

"Uhm.....probably wouldn't be a good idea..."

"Why is that brother?" War inquires.

"I may have...threatened to shoot her in the head...last night..." Strife slowly tells them.

Fury facepalms, "Really Strife?"

"How was I supposed to know she'd be important?! I mean...seriously! All I knew was I saw a creepy ass Dryad and I was running for my life from a ghost child!"

"Actually I was carrying you. You passed out like a wuss." War declares.

"Shut up!"

Death chuckles before saying, "Alright Strife if you're gonna keep being a massive baby, I'll go meet her."

"Hey! One I'm not a baby and two, Fury would've done the same!" Strife retorts.

"No I wouldn't!" Fury shouts at him.

Death just groans before walking off annoyed. Then follows Morgen to where Baccara's tree self is. Death then notes Aspen's sullen expression, and her being there at all, "Why be near this tree? Do Dryads have natural sympathy for each other?"

"No, this is my daughter Baccara. Although when I told you of her, I was using her birth name, Ash." Aspen explains softly.

Death's eyes widen, "This is her? Holy shit. What exactly...happened to her?"

"I do not know. Baccara does, but doesn't like speaking of it. Although maybe Aleyn could tell you if you really wish to know." Aspen responds with a hint of malice towards the end.

"I know you once told me she was murdered. But something tells me you were still processing things."

"My Mother still blames Aleyn despite him being possessed at the time. His Father attempted to end me, but Aleyn saved me. As best he could with what he had. Aleyn could explain better, as I don't want to talk about it. It still gives me nightmares." Baccara explains to him.

"I see. I'll ask him about it. For now try to relax, both of you. I'll go and bring Aleyn back, somehow."

Aspen then stands, "Nergal will go with you, I'll accept nothing less."

"Very well, but why? Aside from the fact that you're 'dating'."

"I've never once told him this but...Baccara is his daughter too."

"Excuse me...WHAT?! THAT'S SOME PRETTY IMPORTANT STUFF YOU'VE BEEN KEEPING TO YOURSELF!" Death yells at her in shock.

"Why haven't you told him?!" Morgen shouts at her.

"I feared what he'd do if he knew!" Aspen tells them.

"What exactly are you three yelling about?" Nergal suddenly inquires coming out due to having overheard them from inside, "And what were screaming at my woman for?"

Aspen sighs before nervously asking him, "You recall how you're...'barren' right? Unable to..produce children?"

"How would I not? And why?"

"This tree here...is that of a Dryad. One of my daughters..in fact. More specifically...she's...also yours..." Aspen responds fiddling her hair a bit.

Much to her surprise and worry, Nergal laughs, "Ah...HAHAHAHA. That's one heck of a joke. It actually gave me some sense of humor, for a small bit. Anyway is that the reason why you three are yelling?"

"I'm...not joking Nergal. She truly is your daughter. I....found a way to...make you fertile...but it didn't last. I only wanted...to make you happy...to please you...My only intent was to give you a....chance...." Aspen admits to him as she begins to shrivel up with anxiety. Only then does Nergal realize she's dead serious.

"What? Hmm...well then, what seems to be the matter then?" Nergal inquires simply.

That's when Baccara reveals herself, albiet a tiny bit nervously, "Uhm....hello Father."

"Hmm, daughter?" Nergal says in greetings, even offering his hand.

Baccara however grabs his hand before pulling him in for a hug. Matching both her Father's height and strength. Surprising him in quite a delightful way. "I'm glad to meet you finally...I just wish you got to see me before...I looked like this."

"Wait....you didn't always look this way?"

"No....do you see the roses on my tree?" Baccara tells him plainly.

He turns his head and after analyzing the roses, his skin color slowly begins to shift from brown to blue. The runes on his body glow and his horns start to look metallic. Nergal then tells her in a dangerously calm tone, "Show me what happened to you."

She allows him to enter her mind, albiet reluctantly. From there he sees it all. A Lich-possessed Aleyn with soul green glinted eyes casting a blight spell through a special dagger made for Dryads. Aleyn trying to save her life and begging her to hold on. Then Aleyn being dragged away by the Lich, only to fall as he rushes back to aid her. His head was cut above his right eye, revealing black blood. The Lich then reveals himself, as a disembodied gold skull. Bejeweled but very much not a pretty sight. The last thing he hears from Baccara's memories as her vision seemingly started fading is,

"Reap what you sew whore. May you rot away to dust, your voice fade to only an echo, and your soul disappear into the ether."

Nergal clenches both fists before he releases Baccara, backing away slowly. Only to sit down as he's left to process everything going through his mind. His skin finally having changed color, his horns completely metallicised, finally the runes and his three eyes are glowing fiercely. Two blue eyes, with the center one red and slited like a snake's. He's completely silent, weeping a mix of distressed, angry, bitter, sorrowful, and pained tears all at once. Baccara's own emotions overwhelm her as well, and she sobs herself. Her own tears being distressed like her Father's, but also fearful. Saddened by his reaction, and fearing that he'll now think less of her. Aspen meanwhile has no idea what to do. Watching as both her daughter and beloved have their own breakdowns. Baccara's being a nervous breakdown whilst her Father has a complete emotional breakdown. Something he never expected to have in his entire life. Suddenly, Baccara takes off in her panicked state.

Morgen just shouts to Death, "Go after her, and bring both Baccara and Aleyn back! I'll watch these two with the others, now go, hurry!"

He nods before doing just that, his siblings each having their own reactions to a panicked and sad Baccara running at top speed past them. Death then shouts to them, "GET GOING! GO AFTER HER! I'LL CATCH UP!"

War leads the charge after her, with Death soon catching up with them as he said. Morgen and Aspen meanwhile watch Nergal keenly as he's seemingly about to topple over. Aspen is apologizing profusely to him. Morgen is noticing him finally fall over, causing her to panic. Lunara has been watching this go down and is mortified for Nergal. Quickly she tells Morgen, "Summon your sheep Morgen, do it for his sake! I'll try and find something that Aries may have for him!" Morgen does so as best she can as Lunara goes to her husband. Or rather the version of him that's currently ruling for him. "Aries! Aries!"

"What is it my dear?"

"It's Wyzemon, I fear he's dying! He's having an emotional breakdown!" Lunara frantically says to him.

"Lunara my love, why worry? He's been a thorn in our side ever since his existence, has he not?"

"HAVE YOU NO HEART?! He's your SON!"

Aries then booms at her, "HE IS NOT MY SON, HE IS A THING I CREATED BY MISTAKE! SO WHY SHOULD I CARE WHETHER HE LIVES OR DIES?!"

Lunara then begins to cry, and begs him, "If not for him...then for Morgen...the Dryad he loves...and his child. Please..."

"Why? And the fact that he has a child is...not a good thing...at all."

"She grew up not knowing what she was until today! The fact that you would call her a thing as well truly disturbs me! Why must your stubbornness and pride tear this family apart forever?! WHY?!" Lunara shouts at him before flying away in a hurry. Aries only sighs to himself, unsure of what could possibly be up with her. He shuts his eyes, choosing to sleep on it.

Lunara soon gets an unlikely visitor as she weeps in sorrow over everything, "Why do you keep letting yourself be disappointed? Why do you allow him to keep doing this? Why do you keep trying? Suffering?"

Lunara looks around and vaguely sees Verdak's silhouette through her tears, "For my family...."

He doesn't reveal himself beyond the silhouette, "What seems to be the matter with 'Nergal', as he's calling himself?"

"He's having an emotional breakdown after being shown his daughter's fate. I fear it may be too much for him. Aries will do nothing for him, as I feared."

Verdak sighs, "I may have a solution for that."

"What is it?"

He summons forth this dark orb, full of various lights swirling within, "This will heal him, and give him structure. This will fill him, and grow his heart."

"He'll be able to feel again? To handle strong emotions?"

"He never felt anything to begin with. But this will allow him to now, and to handle his emotions. One more thing, for my Grandchild." Verdak informs her before summoning forth a vial and giving both items to Lunara.

"What will this vial do?"

"Allow her to feel again as well, without requiring the boy being nearby. You'll have to take that orb to Nergal, the TRUE Wyzemon." Verdak tells her.

Lunara nods, "Thank you Verdak, I'll do it. Just try to delay Aries if you can. He'll not let me remain for too long if he finds out I'm helping Wyzemon."

"You know as well as I do, as long as I'm here, as long as I exist physically, he sleeps. Trust me, he'll be asleep long enough for you to do your task."

Lunara flashes him a smile, one he hasn't seen from her in so long. A smile so sweet it takes him back to a certain memory, one that belongs to the true Aries. The memory of when Lunara and he first fell in love. Verdak decides to treasure this memory, for as long as he can, considering it payment enough for now. Lunara then hurries over to Titania's castle, finding both Morgen and Aspen panicking badly as Nergal is crashing mentally. Vortigern is doing his best to comfort Morgen whilst Titania is begging Aspen to move aside so they can try and help him. Lunara however quickly freezes everyone in place for but a moment and enters Nergal's mind. Once there, everyone is released from the spell. With Morgen being asked by Lunara, "Join me in his mind dear, I may need the extra help." Morgen naturally lets Aspen know what she's going to do and Aspen allows it hoping it can help Nergal. Morgen then meets her Mother within Nergal's mind and they hurry to search for him. Lunara however lets Morgen know, "We'll be searching for Wyzemon, Nergal's true self. The item I have can help, but only if Wyzemon is the one to receive it."

"I've not met that version of my brother before." Morgen tells her nervously.

"You have my girl, you just...don't remember the encounter. Now, let's try and see if calling to him works or not. Wyzemon! Wyzemon!"

"Brother?! Brother!" Morgen shouts, joining her Mother.

All of sudden they are met with a representation of Nergal's Nightmare form. The same shadowy outline with translucent skin that looks like the night sky. They can see his metal bones completely as when they were first seen. Finally Morgen sees the three sockets on the skull, two blue and one red. The runes in this case look bright red. "Why have you come here?"

"We need to find Wyzemon, in order to save him." Lunara declares to him.

"Please let us pass, so we may find him." Morgen pleads.

"Fine, I'll let you go..see him." He says pointing behind them.

They both turn and Morgen is shocked to see a VERY giant entity. With a skull like Nergal's, but with horns that jut out like elongated lightning bolts. Being symmetrical on either side of his head. The rest of him seemed to be covered in a fancy dark cloak with no sleeves. Showing his royal status as the Prince he is.

"Forgive me for disturbing you Wyzemon, I know you likely have no desire to see me in any form of yours, but I have something that can help you. Verdak asked me to give it to you." Lunara explains gently to him.

Morgen however is unsure of what to say, but a large disembodied hand suddenly scoops her up. Morgen recognizes it from her dreams with Verdak and finally asks, "It was you. You were the version that saved me, aren't you?"

"I am, and I'm relieved that you are still safe." Many more metal hands with rainbow slitted eyes then come close to her, "What have you brought?"

Lunara is then brought up from the void by another hand, "This orb here, Verdak told me it would grant you emotions. As well as the ability to handle them."

"Would it now? Or is it just a meal?" Wyzemon inquires before grabbing it from her. He then proceeds to try and crush it. It predictably shatters and the lights all travel down into his hands. On which the eyes turn into mouths for this affair. Morgen and Lunara are a bit spooked as Wyzemon enjoys the meal, "Euphoria...and something else."

The women then see a small change, a slight breeze moving the cloak. Beneath it they see a spine and ribcage around a heart. Then these things begin to grow. A full skeletal structure grows, and his heart becomes larger with a vascular system. With a heavy contented sigh he tells them, "Thank you, that did indeed help with things. It indeed gave what he promised, emotion. Thank you again."

With that he shuts them both out of his mind. Leaving them with a partially confused Nergal. Morgen about asks him if he's ok, but Aspen barrels into him, "Oh Nergal, are you alright?! I'm so sorry!"

"I'm fine I'm fine yeesh. I have one emotional breakdown and everyone thinks I'm about to die yeesh."

Aspen just looks at him and straight tells him, "You almost did."

"That...was supposed to be a joke. Clearly I should work on that. Anyways, I'm actually glad you're here Aspen. Just need you to be closer, right now."

Aspen is then surprised by him wrapping his arms around her, naturally she returns his embrace tightly and quietly says to him, "I love you."

Nergal then finally whispers to her the one thing he's been dying to say for MILLENNIA, "I love you too. You have no idea how long I've been trying to say that. So where's our daughter at this point? Everything kind of went black after..."

As he gestures to the floor, Aspen tells him, "She took off. Why she did I don't know. But I'm scared to think of where she might be. Baccara took off so fast I dare say she may not even realize where she's going."

Nergal just embraces her again, "Calm down Aspen, I'll find her. I won't let that Lich harm her. I won't let him succeed in taking our daughter from us." Then he looks to Lunara, "Mother, would you care to assist me in meeting your Granddaughter?"

Lunara nods like crazy as she resists the urge to squee at this breakthrough. Morgen then summons a jar, "Here Mother, try squeeing into this."

Nergal chuckles at the attempt and watches keenly as Lunara squees into the jar, but ends up shattering it with her pitch. That's when he laughs, "As adorable as it would be watch you keep trying other methods of letting it out, we need to hurry Mother."

Lunara nods again, "Oh of course, forgive me son. Let's hurry on then."

"Lets."

Meanwhile Baccara has caught up to the carriage Aleyn is in. Only for her to suddenly be frozen by a frost spell from the Lich. She topples over shivering badly and Achiron has the carriage move on. But Aleyn immediately shouts at him, "Stop right now! She'll freeze on her own! Please stop! The least we can do is bring her inside!" Achiron notices his son's collar smoking from the inside as his undead side kicks in, beginning to burn him immensely. He relents against his 'better judgment', on letting Aleyn go to Baccara. He rushes out to her, luckily for him she's close enough that he won't run out of breath. Gently he wraps her within his coat and scoops her into his arms. Despite noticing that the frost spell's effect faded already. He doesn't want his Father to change his mind. So he plays along with things as if she were still cold and whispers to her, "Pretend you're still cold, shiver occasionally. We have to fool him, at least until we're in my room. Ok?"

She nods quietly and a bit stilted, already proving to be a good actress. Which he expected of her, given the dream she once expressed to him. Once back in the carriage he catches his breath and keeps his hold on Baccara. 'Course when his Father goes to touch her with his Mother's hand he pulls her away, "Don't you dare. Especially not with that bitch's bony talons."

"If there's one thing I can say, is that she'd likely agree with me for once. That this...'thing'...isn't meant for you." Achiron tells him in her voice.

"How dare you?! Firstly, I couldn't give a DAMN what she would possibly want me to do with my life anymore. As for you, you won't ever stop me from being with Baccara. Morgen may have left, but that void was overflowing with love when I met Baccara. I would trade anything for her to be able to live freely again. To see the free spirit that would run into fields of wildflowers with no care at all. What I wouldn't trade for anything, is the memories I have of her and continue to make with her even now." Aleyn replies smoking all the more. The scar on his head burning even more.

Achiron sighs and lets him/herself out with Aleyn following behind. He's still carrying Baccara, and refuses to let the knights take over for him as his Father asks them to. No matter if she's taller than him or not. Gently he brings her up to his room and lays her down on his bed to 'rest' the spell off. His Father is at least 'courteous' enough to bring the crystal containing the dresses she used to wear during her visits. Aleyn then works on relaxing and cooling down whilst watching over Baccara. He then caresses her face, feeling the lingering remains of a tear trail on either side. Tenderly he grabs a handkerchief and wipes her eyes.

"There. Now you almost never weep anymore. What upsets you so?"

"I will not trouble you with it." Baccara replies in that familiar dead sounding tone.

"Baccara please don't use that tone on me, it worries me. I know you have trouble feeling much anymore, but I'm here now. I promise you my feelings are the same as ever, I just wanted you safe from him. Please tell me what's wrong." Aleyn pleads with her.

"I'm....scared Aleyn. That my Father will feel the same as my Mother does about me....nothing but sorrow....and pity....He even had a breakdown and....it scared me more." Baccara tells him before her emotions finally begin to show themselves whilst she cries again.

"Come now Baccara, you're alright. I'm here, you're safe, everything will be fine. I have you now, and I will NEVER let you go. I'll never let you be alone again. You can stay with me, we can be happy together. I'll find a way to help you further. So that you can be yourself again, if you so choose that is. If you consider this to be you now, then I will accept it. I'll find a way to keep up with you in either form. To become the man you deserve more than anything."

"I already have the man I deserve. I'm looking at him right now. Aleyn, you don't have to change who you are. Nor do I wish to change myself, I cannot do so anyway." Baccara tells him sweetly.

"Cannot change or cannot want to change?"

"The second. I know I probably should, and that I could if I wanted...maybe. But, I cannot want it, not truly. It's, extremely hard."

"Don't worry, I'll figure something out for you. My only hope is that you'll remain here with me. I understand if you need to go back to the forest every so often, but I can find a way to make things easier. I could move your tree here to my garden, your original one. I know you still reside in it despite it being dead." Aleyn promises her.

"It stills gives me some nutrients, so it would work, but how would the forest stay under control?" Baccara asks whilst tenderly reaching up to his face at his scar.

Aleyn however grasps her hand, "I'm alright Baccara. Please don't worry. Now, how about we see about getting you dressed? If you're up for it. As for the forest, it should be fine without you for a time."

"If you say so. Would the dresses still suit me, after all this time?"

"Of course, you'll see." Aleyn promises her before helping Baccara to her feet. He then tenderly kisses her forehead and helps her get dressed. Baccara ends up choosing a beautiful black velvet dress with a red tinge to it. The sleeves hang off the elbows in a trumpet shape. Aleyn then presents her with a box, "How's this my love?"

Baccara is dazzled by the Styxian Rose inspired jewelry. The chain on the necklace looks like black rose thorns, with roses dangling off of it with tiny soul green gems on the petal edges and the center of each rose. Next came a beautiful headpiece with a single large Styxian Rose with the same green gems on the edges and center, with a few thorns and a single leaf on the side for extra flair. Finally a single small box that was obviously meant for a ring. Aleyn wasted no time in picking it up before carefully bending a knee to her. Baccara found herself surprised and shocked by the gesture as she realized what he was doing. "Aleyn...are you?"

"Baccara, when I met you as Ash you had returned my desire to live. Given me a reason to continue to do so. Now as Baccara, you grant me more love and forgiveness than I deserve from you. I want to know this everyday of my life. Even if I end up dying tomorrow, I could do so being the happiest man, with no regrets. That is...if you'll be my wife."

Baccara's original personality actually starts to shine through, delighting Aleyn immensely. It takes her some time to finally tell him, "Yes Aleyn, I will be yours."

With this Aleyn quickly holds her close for a passionate kiss before placing the ring on her finger, "You have no idea, how long it took me to find someone who would actually accept and stick to that design. People really do fear the roses that follow me."

'Course at this time, Death and the others have arrived. Only to be met with immediate resistance from Achiron's forces. Achiron in the meantime has actually overheard the exchange, and is fuming. The one thing he wanted to avoid happening has just happened right in front of him. His son has proposed yet again to a woman he loves. Achiron, being so certain that this exact love will be the end of his son, opts to find an alternative way to be rid of her. Intimidation failed, and even his previous murder attempt failed. So whatever he'd choose to do, it'd have to be something careful this time. He sends a knight to deal with the rose vines that are now sprouting near the couple like weeds. Only for the poor thing to lose his hand in the process. Naturally Aleyn notices that and is a tiny bit worried. He ushers Baccara inside, only to hear his Father speaking to another Death Knight.

"What?! What do you mean they're here?! Agh, first my son gets engaged to the harlot and now this?!" He shouts having gone back into his normal golden skull self.

Aleyn's scar begins glowing again, "Father, the 'harlot' is now my fiancé. You WILL respect her far better than THAT. Now apologize to her for that HARSH WORD."

His Father is surprised by a small flame jutting from the scar briefly, "Aleyn, relax. Your scar is reopening."

"Apologize, and swear to me you'll never bother her again. Maybe then I will." Aleyn demands.

Achiron relents, but only his son's sake, "Fine then. My humble apologies to your girl. I'd use your name, if I remembered it. For that I suppose I must also apologize. Now I need to handle the Horsemen being at our door."

Aleyn sighs, "They probably want to know if I'm well. Let me address them."

"So be it, but remember to keep yourself safe."

"I will Father." Aleyn informs him whilst gently taking Baccara's arm in his own.

'Course meanwhile the Horsemen are met with Nergal rushing in full force. Hell one may have mistaken him for Samael through his entrance alone.

"Uhm....Nergal?" Death inquires nervously.

From inside a fresh crater in the ground, with bolts of lighting dying out slowly, Nergal comes out, "Where. Is. My. Daughter?"

Aleyn then comes outside with Baccara and immediately tells him in a concerned tone, "Right here."

Baccara waves to him and quickly asks him, "Are you ok?"

"I'm alright, my ticker is finally up to par. How about you? I heard you took off, worried your Mother and I sick."

"I'm fine, Aleyn being near me has helped. In fact...I want to remain with him." Baccara tells him.

"Right. About that. Horseman, take him. We're not letting you stay near this place. I have a bad feeling about it." Nergal tells her.

"Ok no. You are NOT taking my son anywhere. I am, against my better judgment, allowing this girl to stay here. Because my son adores her so. And NO ONE is taking him from me." Achiron tells him straight off.

Nergal nearly says something angrily, before noticing a glint on one of Baccara's fingers, all of a sudden his mood shifts, "Surely you'd want them to have a celebration before the union becomes official?"

Lunara, having caught up a moment before, notices the ring as well and gets all giddy again. Nergal notices her and decides to let her keep up holding it back until she's near exploding. Death and his siblings all share a collective, "WHAT?!"

"Excuse me?" Achiron inquires in confusion.

"Father it's fine. I'm actually fine celebrating this moment." Aleyn tell him a bit excitedly.

"Aleyn your health is.."

"Father not in front of guests, please." Aleyn implores him.

"Don't worry I understand, I've seen it. Fuuuuck." Death says concerned at having revealed that he knew.

"Wait you've seen me?!" Aleyn quickly questions him.

#Darksiders Fandom #Darksiders Fanfics #Darksiders OCs #Darksiders Arthurian Tales Revisited #Death #Strife #Fury #War

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior Home Edition May 8, 2020 – CLEMENTINE, SPACESHIP EARTH, BLUE STORY, VALLEY GIRL, ARKANSAS, HOW TO BUILD A GIRL and more!

And the summer that never was continues with no new movies in theaters unless you include a number of select drive-ins scattered across the country. There’s a lot of new stuff out this weekend, some good, some bad, but we’re getting to a point where every distributor big or small is dumping their movies to VOD in hopes of making money. But I guess that means there’s a lot more options of things to see, right?

The Virtual Oxford Film Festival continues this Friday with the virtual premieres of Steve Collins’ comedy I’ve Got Issues and the unrelated doc feature, I Am Not Alone (Note: both of these are only available for folks in Mississippi!). Also, the Hello, Gorgeous Shorts block (love the names they come up with to put these shorts together!) will debut with 8 new shorts, including Bad Assistant. You can get tickets to all of these things at the festival’s Eventive page.

For the next few days only, you can also win the Oxford Film Festival award-winning short Finding Cleveland right here for free! The film directed by Larissa Lam that follows husband Baldwin Chiu’s journey to Mississippi to investigate his roots will have its feature version, Far East Deep South, premiere as part of Oxford’s virtual festival in June.

One of the better films I watched this week (I guess that makes it this week’s “Featured Film”) is Lara Gallagher’s feature debut CLEMENTINE (Oscilloscope), a seemingly simple two-hander indie drama showcasing two fantastically talented actors in Otmara Marrero and Sydney Sweeney (HBO’s Euphoria). Marrero plays Karen, a young woman looking to get away after ending a relationship with a significantly older woman, deciding to break into her lover’s isolated lakeside home. There, she encounters Sweeney’s Lana, a mischievous younger teen of indeterminate age who Karen befriends. The two of them get closer as Karen is still in mourning for her previous relationship, but as she learns more about Lana, things clearly aren’t what they seem.

Gallagher has written a sweet and subdued character piece that at times veers into thriller territory but never goes so far across that line to take away from the drama. At the film’s core is the mystery about the two young women and their respective pasts, because we don’t even learn that much about Karen before heading to the lakeside house.

where there’s a lot of mystery about both of the young women at the story’s core, There were aspects of the movie that reminded me of the recent dramatic thriller Tape, where there’s also an aspect of sexual abuse and revenge, but it really never goes to places that might be expected. I’m a little bummed that I missed this at Tribeca last year, and part of that can be blamed on the enigmatic title which doesn’t really give a sense of what the movie is about at all. But Gallagher and her cast have done a fantastic job with a film that’s not necessarily easy to define or describe but leaves you with a warm feeling that films like this can still be made. (See Never Rarely Sometimes Always as another example of this.)

Now might be the perfect time for Matt Wolf’s new doc, SPACESHIP EARTH (Neon), which is all about the eight people who locked themselves into Biosphere II in the early ‘90s with the plans to live inside the ecologically self-contained environment for two years. Neon had two amazing scientific docs in 2019, Apollo 11 and The Biggest Little Farm, both which were in my Top 10 for the year, so imagine my disappointment when neither of them received Oscar nominations. Wolf previously directed 2013’s Teenage and last year’s Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, the latter being a decent doc using archival footage, and Spaceship Earth mixes all of the amazing archival footage with interviews with many of the key characters. In case you weren’t familiar with Biosphere II, it was an experiment set up where 8 individuals would spend two years inside an environment that’s meant to be fully self-sufficient. Wolf’s film goes back to the start of what was essentially a theater group who put together a number of global projects before tackling Biosphere II, a project that wasn’t taken very seriously by the scientific community because there were no scientists among the group. It was seen as “ecological entertainment” by some and a cult by others, and those feelings increase when it was discovered that not everything is what it seems. When an accident causes one of the “biospherians” to have to go outside, she ends up sneaking things back into Biosphere II, which is against the rules set up by the group. It’s a fairly fascinating doc if you were around during this time but only heard about it filtered through the news and the PR, but Wolf’s film goes deep into the project and the controversy surrounding it, as well as when it inevitably goes wrong. Wolf manages to get many of those involved, including the group’s leader, John Allen, and there’s even an appearance by another figure from U.S. politics who had their own documentary just last year! This is a really strong doc that is getting a digital release and apparently, it will even be screened on the sides of some buildings, which is a cool idea in this time where there aren’t many theaters.

A relatively big hit in the UK, BLUE STORY (Paramount), the directorial feature debut of British rapper Rapman, adapted from his own YouTube series, is now available via digital download, having originally been planned to get a US theatrical release in March. It’s about the friendship of two young British teens, Timmy and Marco, from the Peckham area of London but from opposite sides of what’s become a violent street gang feud. I saw this movie way back on March 11, and I had to rewatch it more recently since I had forgotten whether I liked it or hated it. I’m probably somewhere more in between, as I thought the young leads, Stephen Odubola (Timmy) and Micheal Ward (Marco), were both terrific in a movie that generally had some storytelling and pacing issues. 

Honestly, I didn’t understand a lot of what was going on due to the heavy accents (even with the necessary subtitles), but it also didn’t really stand up to last year’s Les Miserables,  a film set in a similar setting in France, but that one  was nominated for an Oscar after being submitted by France. Besides writing and directing, Rapman also acts as the film’s ad-hoc narrator through a number of raps that gives his film a bit of a hip-hop musical feel. I’m not sure I was crazy about this decision since a lot of the time he is recapping something that we just saw take place.

The film definitely has a unique energy, as the first half alternates between youthful innocence and faux machismo, neither which generally does very much for me.   I did enjoy the film’s romantic underpinnings as it shows young love between Timmy and a classmate named Leah (Karla-Simone Spence) , but that storyline comes to an abrupt and shocking halt about 45 minutes into the movie before the story jumps forward three years into something very different.  (To be honest, the romantic aspects were handled in a far more interesting way in the recent indie Premature.) The movie does get far more dramatic and tense in this last act, while it also shows what a talented cast Rapman has put together in order for them to shift gears into the very different tone the movie then takes. It’s a jarring change, but it adds to what Rapman was trying to do in making Blue Story an almost-Shakespearean coming-of-age story set against an authentic urban landscape. I’m not 100% sure Blue Story will connect with young urban Americans in the same way as it clearly did in the UK, because the dialect and slang that pervades the film often makes it difficult to follow, but it’s quite a striking debut from the rapper/filmmaker.

Next up is VALLEY GIRL (Orion Pictures), a musical remake of Martha Coolidge’s 1983 movie that introduced many people to one Nicolas Cage. The new movie is directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg (A Deadly Adoption, “The Mindy Project”), and it stars the wonderful Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) as Julie Richman, the valley girl of the title who is going to high school with her valley girl friends but becomes enamored with the punk kid Randy (Josh Whitehouse), who comes from a very different world. I’m not sure what else I can tell you about Valley Girl, since I’m under embargo on this one until Friday, so I’m not sure if I can tell you if it’s good or bad. I will say that if you like popular ‘80s groups like Modern English and others, the movie may give you a smile. It also stars Alicia Silverstone as the older Julie, telling her own daughter this story in a framing sequence, as well as Judy Greer as Julie’s mother and others, such as Mae Whitman, who can really belt it out in her role as Randy’s bandmate, “Jack.”  This is supposed to open in some of those aforementioned drive-ins, as well as being available digitally.

Getting away from this week’s musicals, Clark Duke co-wrote and stars in his feature film directorial debut, ARKANSAS (Lionsgate), based on John Brandon’s novel. I haven’t read the novel, but Clark plays a lowlife named Swin, a drug-runner along with his partner Kyle (Liam Hemsworth), both of them pretending to be park rangers. Kyle is particularly interested in learning more about their enigmatic boss, the Arkansas-based drug kingpin known only as “Frog,” but their business arrangements get more complicated.

I had a few problems with this movie, much of it coming from the relatively weak writing that comes across like it was made by someone who has watched way too many Scorsese or Tarantino movies without really understanding why those filmmakers’ movies are so brilliant. I hate to say it, because I generally like Duke as an actor, but casting himself in the role of Swin without doing much beyond growing a moustache to make himself look sleazier really didn’t much for the material. He was a very odd pairing with the rugged and tougher Hemsworth.

The best part of the film is when it flashes back to 1985 West Memphis and we meet the actual “Frog,” played by Vince Vaughn, and we see him interacting with Michael K. Williams’ “Almond,” who he betrays to take over his drug business. I liked this bit of the movie even if Vaughn’s accent wasn’t great, but then we’re back to Duke and Hemsworth in present day, and that doesn’t hold up as well. Clarke overcomplicates things by creating a non-linear narrative that jumps back and forth in time and between two storylines – again, like Pulp Fiction – but the storytelling and dialogue doesn’t do enough to make up for the confusion this cause.

Clark certainly has brought on some decent actors, such as John Malkovich and Vivica A. Fox, but making himself the focus of much of the movie compared to the far more charismatic Hemsworth, hurts the movie more than helps it. I didn’t hate Eden Brolin as Swin’s love interest, Johnna, but they really didn’t enough chemistry to make them believable as a couple.  Don’t get me wrong. I definitely commend Clark on taking on such a big project as his directorial debut, and it definitely grew on me, but it’s an erratic piece that pays tribute to far better films and that is its biggest detriment.  Originally planned for a theatrical release on May 1, Arkansas will instead hit Apple, Amazon, On Demand platforms, DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday.

Beanie Feldstein from last year’s Book Smart stars in Coky (“Harlots”) Giedroyc’s HOW TO BUILD A GIRL (IFC Films) as Johanna Morrigan, an ambitious 16-year-old from Wolverhampton, England who gets a job at music magazine “D&ME.” She creates an alter-ego pseudonym for herself in Dolly Wilde, and quickly learns she has to be mean in order to succeed and earn the respect of her peers as one of the UK’s most hated music journalists, even after falling in love withs (and then betraying) rock star John Kite (Alfie Allen, who also was on “Harlots”).

Based on British journalist Caitlin Moran’s 2014 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, I definitely should have liked this movie more, having been a regular reader of the Melody Maker around the time Moran would have been writing for it. The screenplay she’s co-written adapting her own book isn’t great, and everyone involved just seems to be trying too hard to be funny and failing miserably.

I guess the biggest issue, once you adjust to Beanie Feldstein’s British accent, which falls somewhere between Harry Potter and the Beatles, is that it’s hard to care about her character even a little, since she’s acting all quirky one second and then becomes a monster as the film goes along. Johanna is just annoying and when she transforms into “Dolly,” she becomes even worse.

Paddy Considine plays Johanna/Dolly’s father, who still has aspirations of being a rock star after giving birth to a huge brood of children. There’s a few other small roles from other actors like Emma Thompson, Michael Sheen and Gemma Anderton, many of them portraying Johanna’s author inspirations talking to her from her wall of idols.

How to Build a Girl is just another example of the sad state of British comedies, although there are a few shining stars like last year’s Yesterday, which was in my top 10, and this year’s Emma. This one just isn’t particularly funny, and there’s a general feeling of been-there seen-that, as it tells a fairly typical rise and fall story where Dolly’s debauchery turns into an awful human being, and it’s not like I liked her much to begin with.  She isn’t as funny as intended and then she gets awful, and it’s impossible to feel bad for her when things ultimately go wrong. Anyway, five minutes later, everything is fine.

It’s the type of autobiographical thing that a writer writes to make themselves look like some kind of hero, and it reminds me a bit of last year’s Blinded by the Light in some ways. h I know a lot of people liked the movie, but I wasn’t really a fan at all. This movie is even less funny and not particularly original, making it feel about as pretentious as the British music press became in the ‘90s. Either way, it will be available to watch at home via VOD as well as in some open drive-ins where applicable.

There are a ton more movies this week, and unfortunately, I didn’t get to fully watch many of the movies below, though I still hope to watch more of these over the next few days and may add a few more reviews.

I heard good things about Christophe Honoré’s comedy ON A MAGICAL NIGHT (Strand Releasing), particularly about Chiara Mastroiani’s performance as Maria, which won her an acting award at last year’s Cannes. She plays Maria, a woman dissatisfied with her marriage of 20 years, who moves into a hotel room across the street after getting into an argument with her husband (singer Benjamin Biolay). I haven’t gotten through it yet as it seems, like so many French movies, to be very talky, but I’ll try to get to it. It will open virtually as part of Film at Lincoln Center’s virtual cinema, following its debut at the “Rendezvous with French Cinema” series that was unfortunately cut short midway this year.

Also continuing this weekend is Cinema Tropical’s “Cinema Tropical Collection” of Brazilian films, this week’s being Caetano Gotardo’s YOUR BONES, YOUR EYES,  in which the filmmaker stars as João, a middle class São Paulo filmmaker who has long conversations and monologues with the people around him.

There are a few other docs available virtually this week, including Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s REWIND (FilmRise), a collection of home videos from 20 years ago, when his father would film family gatherings but also documenting a family secret that would lead to a media firestorm and a court battle.  The film will be available to stream and download on iTunes, Prime Video, GooglePlay and Microsoft this Friday, and then will air as part of PBS’s Independent Lens on Monday, May 11.  

The Maysles Cinema in Harlem is continuing its virtual cinema with Alex Glustrom’s MOSSVILLE: WHEN THE GREAT TREES FALL, which will be available for a 48-hour VOD rental for $12 from Thursday through April 14 with a Zoom QnA with the filmmakers on Saturday at noon Eastern. The film centers around Mossville, Louisiana, a community founded by former African-American slaves that has been overrun by petrochemical plants and toxic clouds that have forced residents from their homes. Glustrom’s film focuses on Stacey Ryan, a man who refuses to abandon his family’s land and fights for his own human rights.

Apparently, William Nicholson’s HOPE GAP (Screen Media) is getting a second chance to be seen on VOD after a rather half-hearted theatrical release on March 6. It stars  Annette Bening as Grace who is dealing with her husband of 29 years (Bill Nighy) leaving her and how that break-up affects their grown-up son (Josh O’Connor).

Following its premiere as part of the virtual Tribeca Film Festival, Emily Cohn’s sex comedy, CRSHD (Light Year), will get a virtual theatrical release in New York, LA and other regional markets. It stars Isabelle Barbier as college freshman Izzy Alden who goes with her best friends (Deeksha Ketkar, Sadie Scott) on a journey to help Izzy lose her virginity.

Also in select theaters, on demand and digital this Friday is José Magán’s The Legion (Saban Films/Paramount), starring Mickey Rourke, Bai Ling and Lee Partridge. It takes place during the invasion of Parthia where two Roman legions are brought to a standstill in Armenia’s snowy mountains where they’re dying from the cold. Their only hope against the cold and the Parthian patrols is half-roman soldier, Noreno, who must cross the mountains to find the men who can help them change the course of this losing battle.

On VOD starting Thursday is Spa Night director Andrew Ahn’s Driveways (FilmRise), starring Hong Chau from HBO’s “Watchmen” and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing as Kathy, a single mother who is travelling with her 8-year-old son Cody (Lucas Jaye) to her dead sister’s house with plans to clean and sell it. There, she befriends a Korean war vet named Del (played by the late Brian Denneny), who quickly bonds with her young son.

Also in theaters and On Demand is Tom Wright’s Walkaway Joe (Quiver Distribution), starring David Strathairn and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, a film about an unlikely friendship between a young boy and a wandering loner, who helps the boy look for his father in pool halls across the country.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This week’s Netflix offerings including the comedy special, Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill, presumably taped at one of his nights in residency at the Beacon Theater. The hour-long special is now available and has been said might be Seinfeld’s last special. The Michelle Obama doc, Becoming, will also be on Netflix by the time you read this. It’s the first feature length doc from Nadia Hallgren, and its produced by the Obamas, much like the recent Sundance opener, Crip Camp, and last year’s Oscar winner, American Factory.  The second season of Dead to Me also debuts on Friday as well as a number of other series.

In case you missed it earlier in the week, you can now watch last year’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on Disney+, which means the entire nonology is now on Disney+. You can also watch a new docuseries about the making of last year’s hit, The Mandalorian, called Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, which has Jon Favreau doing roundtables with some of the creatives with the first episode, “Directing,” now on the service and the second episode, “Legacy,” premiering on Friday.

The new Hulu animated series, Solar Opposites, will premiere on the streaming service this Friday. It’s the new series co-created by Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan (respectively the co-creator and former head writer of Rick and Morty), and it features a voice cast that includes Roiland, Thomas Middleditch, Mary Mack and Sean Giambrone with a huge line of guest voices, including Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina, Christina Hendricks, Tiffany Haddish and many, many more!

The final film in Lionsgate’s Friday Night at the Movies will be Keanu Reeves’ John Wick, which will show for free on the Lionsgate website on Friday night starting at 9pm Eastern.

Next week, more movies not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#TheWeekendWarrior #Movies #Reviews #Arkansas #BlueStory #ValleyGirl #HowToBuildAGirl #Clementine #SpaceshipEarth #Streaming #VOD #Digital

[mrjoelgarcia9]

Let’s Talk #StarWars: #Solo

It is now the year 2020.

Time to start off the year (and decade) with a mostly obscure topic: Star Wars.

Red SOLO cups are a memorable part of any party.

The film of the same name, on the other hand, is boring and forgettable.

For a review of Solo: A Star Wars Story, feel free to keep reading. There will be spoilers.

In this Star Wars spin-off, Han is an orphan living on the planet Corellia trying to survive alongside fellow orphan and lover Qi’ra. While trying to escape, Qi’ra is captured and Han joins the Imperial Navy. Three years later, he meets the criminal Tobias Beckett. After failing to blackmail him, Han is thrown into a pit with a Wookie named Chewbacca. The two team up, free themselves, and join Beckett. He is on a mission to steal a rare fuel known as Coaxium for the crime boss Dryden Vos. With the help of Qi’ra, Lando Calrissian, and his ship the Millennium Falcon, they work together to find some Coaxium.

This film was both boring and incredibly mediocre. Of Disney’s many Star Wars productions, this spin-off was the most unnecessary.

When trying to explore any character’s origin, it has to at least be entertaining to watch. Solo fails in that regard. His origin fills in nonexistent plot holes, feels very disconnected from the rest of the franchise, and was as necessary as Boba Fett’s origin in Attack of the Clones.

Continuity-wise, the film takes place a decade before A New Hope. It retroactively serves as an introduction to Han, Chewbacca, Lando, and the Falcon. The only things worth noting when it comes to the overall saga are how Han got his last name, Lando having previously owned the Falcon, and the ship’s transformation into a piece of junk.

The plot was forgettable. It tried to present a different point of view of the Star Wars franchise similar to Rogue One, in this case smugglers who are mostly nowhere near to either the war or any Jedi. It failed by not being that entertaining to explore.

Most of the film focuses on setting up big scenes, such as Han escaping, how he met Chewbacca, the failed robbery, and the Kessel Run. While these scenes look visually amazing, especially the last one, they are bogged down by dull dialogue and dawdling pacing in a vain attempt for the film to match the elongated run times of the other Star Wars films.

The slow pacing ruins the film. It stops several times just to introduce new worlds and characters which may or may not be explored in future sequels and spin-offs. The film could have been cut down by 40 minutes if it stopped introducing characters who were either not the main focus or quickly killed off.

New characters Beckett, Qi’ra, and Dryden Vos don’t bring anything new to the franchise. Beckett is shown to be Han’s mentor, likely to parallel Luke and Obi Wan, but Woody Harrelson always sounds bored whenever he speaks. He plays Beckett as a laid back Tallahassee who occasionally gets angry.

Both Emilia Clarke and Paul Bettany were complete afterthoughts with their performances and characters. Qi’ra, at first, appears to be a forgettable love interest until the film abruptly reintroduces her as an ally only to later reveal she was evil all along. 

It would have made more sense for Qi’ra to be two separate characters, the former a love interest Han left behind on the planet and the latter a potential ally who turns out to be evil.

Dryden Vos was just awful, with Bettany giving it all in a performance frankly out of place for this franchise. Vos looks and sounds like a stereotypical crime boss straight out of a Godfather ripoff.

Alden Ehrenreich tries his best to differentiate his Han from that of Harrison Ford, but he plays the character as an annoying lucky moron.

Only three actors stood out and make the film watchable. Joonas Suotamo did a great job as a (slightly) younger Chewbacca, Phoebe Waller-Bridge was hilarious as L3-37, and Donald Glover was amazing as Lando Calrissian.

As for Darth Maul, his presence felt like desperate fan service due to the film’s lack of lightsabers. It would probably make sense for fans who either read the comics or seen the Star Wars Rebels animated series. Those who have only seen the films, on the other hand, may be left confused since his last film appearance (The Phantom Menace) ended with him being split in half.

This film’s cliffhanger makes it look like Disney wanted to continue the story as part of another film series to replace the Skywalker Saga. The problem is any future stories set between this film and A New Hope would be restricted by continuity and likely cause more plot holes than The Rise of Skywalker.

The only possible continuation would be one where he meets Jabba the Hutt. The Special Edition of A New Hope already revealed Han had worked for him for a while. A continuation could show how he went to work for Jabba and end with him arriving at the Cantina at Mos Eisley.

Otherwise, if this was the only film made centering around this particular story, then it was as pointless as any Terminator sequel after the first one.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is not a good film. Compared to the franchise’s other ten films, it is not as bad as the prequel trilogy but pales in comparison to Rogue One and the other two trilogies. Unless you want to complete your Star Wars collection, this film is only worth watching either as a rental, streaming, or whenever it airs on TV.

The film is available to own on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital. As of this writing, it is the only Star Wars film available to stream on Netflix.

Until next time, thank you for reading and Happy New Year!

#solo #solo a star wars story #han solo #star wars #2020 #Happy New Year #happy new decade #chewbacca #lando calrissian #qira #tobias beckett #tallahassee #zombieland #disney #A New Hope #Prequel #review #film #red solo cup #l337 #dryden vos #paul bettany #alden ehrenreich #donald glover #emilia clarke #millenium falcon #darth maul #kessel run #netflix #jabba the hutt

[lets-break-free-from-our-chains]

Evangeline Herondale Bio

A/N: I will being adding more information, wherever needed, to Evangeline’s Biography as the series progresses on through each chapter. I know that sometimes I prefer to imagine an OC in a story I'm reading in my own way based off the description of the OC’s characteristics given in the story. With that said, I will not cast a specific girl to be the face of Evangeline. That way all my lovely readers can imagine Evangeline’s Physical features exactly the way they want to; aside from the eyes, hair, and skin tone, of course. Whether she be made up completely from your imagination or cast as your favorite actress who holds the same features. Feel free to send messages on who you feel is perfect to play Evangeline. I got quite the adventure planned for this series, so buckle up, my brave Shadowhunters! I feel the actors I did cast, for all the other roles, are notoriously well known enough. However if you don’t know the actor and would like to know or have a question about the people I chose feel free to message me anytime and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible. -xoxoxo

Warning(s): Possible Spoilers for people who haven’t read the dark artifices yet. Evangeline Herondale and Alec Lightwood are their own warnings. Information overload. Non-certified Crash Course for New Series ahead.

Disclaimers: I claim nothing as my own except for my OC that I created to co-exist with the Shadowhunter Universe that belongs to Cassandra. Any and all rights and claims to every Shadowhunter Universe characters, places or objects in this series that also rightfully belong to her. All text from the movies and books belong to Cassandra. This is purely a fanfiction story created for enjoyment, with the help of said previously existing fandom. My only claim is to my OC, my plot changes, and my series title. 

Word Count: 1845

Masterlist

Sneak Peak in The series: “Your Mother Loved You, Evangeline.”

A Tale of Frayed Gold Series

Full Birth Name: Evangeline Josephine Herondale

Full Marriage Name: Evangeline Josephine Herondale-Lightwood

Born: January 8, 1989, Herondale Manor, Idris Age: 23(as of 2012) Kind: Shadowhunter

Alias: Eve Josie Fray Evangeline Josie Fray Evangeline Josephine Herondale-Fray Evangeline Josephine Lightwood

Nickname(s): Little Angel(by Imogen) Josie-Bear(by Marcus) My Evangeline(by Celine) Evie(by Alec, Clary, Max, and Izzy) Big Sis and Josie(by Jace) Residence: New York Institute in Manhattan, New York London Institute in London, England(Former) Brownstone in Park slope, New York City(Former) East Village, Manhattan, New York City(Former) Herondale Manor, Alicante, Idris(Former; Unless on business in Idris; in which case both her and Alec prefer to reside in the manor until they return to the New York Institute)

Spouse/Shadow-Mate: Alexander Gideon Lightwood

Child(ren): TBA

****************************************************** Mother(s): Celine Montclaire-Herondale*(Biological)

Jocelyn Fairchild(Adoptive)

Father(s): Stephen Herondale*(Biological)

Luke Graymark(father-figure) 

Sibling(s): Jonathan Herondale(Younger Biological Brother)

Clary Fray/Fairchild(Adoptive Younger Sister)

***************************************************** Parabatai: Clary Fairchild

***************************************************** Family:  Herondale Family Lightwood Family Fairchild Family Montclaire Family(Disowned/unacknowledged by Eve)

Relatives: 

*= Deceased

Lightwoods

Maryse Trueblood-Lightwood(mother-in-law)  

Robert Lightwood*(Father-in-Law) 

Isabelle Lightwood(Sister-in-law)      

Max Lightwood*(Brother-in-law)

Fairchild

Jocelyn Fairchild(Adoptive Mother) Clary Fairchild(Adoptive Sister)

Herondales

 Imogen Whitelaw-Herondale*(Paternal Grandmother)

 Marcus Herondale*(Paternal Grandfather)

 Owen Herondale*(Paternal Great Grandfather)  Lydia Kingsmill-Herondale*(Paternal Great Grandmother)  Cordelia Carstairs-Herondale*(Paternal Great-Great Grandmother)  James Herondale*(Paternal Great-Great Grandfather)  Lucie Herondale-Blackthorn*(Paternal Great-Great Aunt)  Will Herondale*(Paternal Great-Great-Great Grandfather)  Tessa Gray-Herondale(Paternal Great-Great-Great Grandmother)  Cecily Herondale-Lightwood*(Paternal Great-Great-Great Aunt)  Ella Herondale*(Paternal Great-Great-Great Aunt)  Edmund Herondale*(Distant Direct Ancestor)  Linette Owens-Herondale*(Distant Direct Ancestor)  William Herondale*(Distant Direct Ancestor)  Tobias Herondale*(Distant Ancestor)

Montclaire

Lisette Montclaire*(Maternal Grandmother)                                                    Jules Montclaire*(Maternal Grandfather)

******************************************************* Personality Traits: Evangeline is wise beyond her years, but still managed to keep a young and fun personality similar but not exactly like her younger brother's personality. She is naturally funny and sarcastic. She is kind to people she deems deserving of it, which happens to be quite a lot of people; Downworlders among said group. She carries a very warm and calming atmosphere around her. One of the many things that her family enjoys about her. She is highly intelligent and you can nearly always find her with her nose in a book, or writing more pages in the book she's working on. Now that she has her shadow mate she can't see life without Alec and vice-versa. While she can sit in the quiet with a good book for hours on end. she also has quite a competitive streak in her. She knows that many people can find that annoying in a person and tends to fight with herself on keeping her competitive side at bay. However, oh boy. When she found out Jace had a competitive streak to rival herself, and that he actually considered it fun and endearing in a person who could enjoyed good, fair, and friendly competition. She almost couldn't contain herself. Jokingly calling Jace her long lost twin and asked him where he wandered off too; both still unaware of Jace's true heritage. Eve also has an amazing amount of patience and therefore is very hard to truly upset her, but the angel help anyone and everyone who crosses Eve, directly, or crosses her by crosses someone she loves.

Evangeline is extremely loyal to her own. There is no such thing as anything other than 100% loyalty, to the ones she cares about, in her mind. Because of that fact about her, she is ruthlessly unforgiving to those she sees as traitors, Liars, thieves, and most of all cheaters of any kind. Eve loves the ones she cares for so fiercely, strongly, and whole-heartedly that she finds herself unsettled and perturbed; almost disgusted, by those who don't seem to cherish and define themselves by loyalty and honesty on some level, no matter how small or big. One example being when Robert cheated on Maryse. Eve showed him no mercy, and viciously came to her defense, followed closely by her mate Alec and brother Jace, whenever the two older Shadowhunters disagreed on any level. Eve would do nothing to hide her disdain for Robert even to his face. In Eve's mind, an attack to a family member might as well be a direct attack on her. 

*************************************************

Important Trivia: Evangeline was extremely close to her grandmother, Imogen, during her two years as a resident at the Herondale Manor. As soon as Evangeline was born Imogen loved her granddaughter as much as she loved her beloved Stephen; quite a few would say even more than Stephen. Imogen took care of Evangeline while Celine rested from the extremely hard labor she went through. Imogen was she first and only person to call her, little angel, derived from her first name. Imogen would also occasionally call her Josie-Bear when playfully teasing her. However, that was a rare occurrence as Imogen preferred little angel as she saw the name fit to describe the light that her little angel brought into her grandmother's world. After Imogen lost her shadow-mate and son she was devastated, but she managed to keep it together with the hopes that she would be with her granddaughter again. However, as soon as she received word that Evangeline was kidnapped, and likely dead after a raid in Herondale manor that left Celine and her unborn grandson dead. All the light left her and with the grief of losing her Evangeline turned her harshly bitter and hostile to the world around her. Imogen's once very warm aura died and was replaced with a shell of a woman who showed no mercy and kindness what so ever. In late 2007 she received word that a family of Shadowhunters that didn't belong to any institute showed up at the new York institute. One of which was the shadow mate of Alec Lightwood. However that's not what caught Imogen's interest. It was the fact that her last name was Fray but she was adopted and bared a striking resemblance to the Herondales and her first and middle name was Evangeline Josie. Imogen trying not to get her hopes up, after thinking her granddaughter dead for so long, decided to go to the new York institute and see for herself. There she identified Eve as her granddaughter based off the birthmark over her heart and blonde hair and gold eyes. Rare physical features supposedly only her granddaughter possessed; even though Jace held the same features, the only different being that the Herondale birthmark was on his shoulder and not over his heart. Imogen appeared to return to her old self instantly as her eyes welded up with tears and she gave Eve a watery smile while introducing herself as Evangeline's grandmother.

Evangeline was spoiled rotten by her grandfather, Marcus Herondale, who had always wanted a little girl. He was also the only one to ever call her Josie-bear and in response, after she was big enough to talk more, Eve would call her grandfather, papa bear.

Evangeline has a deep hatred for her mother's parents and the way they treated Celine. When Eve realized children would be the real outcome of her life now that she found her shadow- mate. She become nervous about motherhood. Concerned that she didn't know if she would be any good at it. Imogen and Jocelyn told Eve about how Celine's parents were towards her, and how different Celine was from them because of her childhood. Imogen spoke of how gentle Celine was with Eve. Always handling her like the most fragile precious treasure in the world. She always spoke so soft and gently to Eve, that in Imogen's mind, it seemed like Celine thought if she spoke to loud or to harsh that her beloved Evangeline might break and shatter. Imogen and Jocelyn told Eve not to worry so much, and pointed out the fact that because she was worrying so much proved that she wanted and would strive to be best mother for her children. 

Eve has always had a general love and great respect for her Biological mother, Celine, just because she was her mother by birth and title. However that love soon became very deep after hearing many stories from both Imogen and Jocelyn about how much Celine loved and cared for Evangeline before her abrupt and untimely death. However before Imogen or Jocelyn spoke in detail about Celine's relationship with her daughter; Eve deeply struggled with the small nagging doubts her mother ever truly wanted her or cared for her.

********************************************** Quotes spoken by Eve about the Montclaires: 

"Okay. Don't be like Mother's parents[Montclaires] under any circumstance goes without saying, but I'm gonna say it anyways. I'll just be like you two and Maryse. Did you guys happen to write personal survival guides during your time with raising kids. Cause I've always been on the opposite end up until this point." -Eve to Jocelyn and Imogen, on the do's and do not's of motherhood.

"They're NOT my family! Family doesn't do that to each other. Parents who claim to love their children do NOT do that to said children!" -Evangeline to The Clave, when questioned on her heritage and allegiance.

"I refuse to acknowledge they[Montclaires] were ever family at one point in time. Or at all for that matter." -Evangeline to The Clave, when questioned on her heritage and allegiance.

Quotes Spoken by Eve about her Enemies:

"Anyone who hurts my family, is no friend or ally of mine. They're my enemy." -Evangeline to Sebastian, delivering him a promising threaten when the two talked about Max's death and the Lightwoods grief over the youngest member's horrific death.

"I will hurt you for this. I'll kill you, one day, for what you have done! Not even the angel can save you. Your fate has been fixed." -Evangeline declares to Sebastian, infuriated over Max's death and the devastation it left her shadow-mate in.

"This is the beginning of the end. THEIR END, not ours." -Evie to Clary, in regard to their enemies and the end of The Dark War.

"I never lose, Jonathan. I hate losing. Failure is not a option for me. You should have learned that about me by now, Morgenstern." -Evangeline to Jonathan Morgenstern, on her Hatred for losing as she's seen, First hand, how costly it can be to lose. Especially if it's losing to Valentine and his followers.

Quotes Spoken by Eve about her mother, Celine:

"My mother LOVED me! I was WANTED and LOVED by my mother...and you[Valentine] took her away from me, along with my baby brother! Why did you do that?!" -Evangeline to Valentine, while desperately trying to understand why he would hurt her so deeply in such a way for no reason.

"You ripped my mother, my brother, and my world away from me...and because you took those things away; you also took my happiness away from me...and this is what you've done with it!" -Evangeline to Valentine, Outraged with Valentine, himself, and with his plans.

"I wonder anywhere from once everyday to infinity on what those two words would sound like falling from her[Celine] lips...My Evangeline." -Evie to Alec, about her mother's personal term of indearment for Eve.

Sneak Peak in The series: “Your Mother Loved You, Evangeline.”

#Alec lightwood x reader #alec lightwood x you #alec lightwood #alec lightwood imagine #alec lightwood x oc #jace herondale #jace lightwood #jace wayland #clary x jace #shadowhunters #Shadowhunterstvseries #izzy lightwood #isabelle lightwood #max lightwood #fanfiction #alec lightwood imagines #imagine alec lightwood #TMI City of Bones #tv show #original character #Herondale siblings #Shadowhunterfamilyhistory #cast #TMI movie #kevin zegers #Jamie bower campbell #lily collins #original female character #shadow-mates #familytrees