#(i guess it cost a bit too much in budget; eh?)

[sinvulkt]

I had forgotten the book ending, and I know why.

Was that... last episode... really necessary? XD

(Ok I won’t begin another rant about romance and romantic ’love’ closing almost every stories i come accross xd. But seriously guys if all you needed was just two teenagers to kiss under the tree, you could just grab two in any worlds, with crushes on each other, without all the mayhem and adventures xd.)

The last battle was super great though! And His Dark Materials characters are still as satisfyingly whole and complex as ever~

My favorite will probably forever remain the first book (bcs child nostalgia xd), but the show really was great, and, rare thing for an adaptation, managed to fix a lot of the issues the book trilogy had (the abrupt and total change of atmosphere + character introduction between book 1 and book 2-3 *cough* *cough*).

So this show is truly an amazing success! Good quality fantasy and loads and loads of daemons, yessss!!

(I refuse to ever settle though :p. I don’t care that I’l supposed to be an adult. I won’t settle. I dare you to force me :p)

Cried to His Dark Materials again...

this story and its ending just gets me yall...

[ragingbookdragon]

I'm Only A Crack In This Castle Of Glass (Hardly Anything Else I Need To Be) PT. 2

Batfamily x Batsis Story!

Word Count: 2.7K Warnings: Explicit Language and Angst!

Author's Note: It's amazing how much one can write when they've got a story to tell, eh? Enjoy! -Thorne

Set Three Years After PT. 1:

Life for her revolved around work in the A.M. and community college in the P.M. If she wasn’t brewing cappuccinos and baking apple turnovers, she was writing research papers and taking physics exams. It was hectic and it was hard, much harder than anything she’d done, but it was her life, and she was going to make the best of it. The money she’d taken from her savings account had only lasted her long enough to get a decent one bedroom one bathroom apartment in a small complex and the rest went towards tuition. The coffee shop two blocks from her building had fortunately been looking for a new hire when she arrived, and she took the chance where it was, not going to look the gift horse in its mouth.

The life she lived now was a complete 180 from her old one. Back then, she didn’t have to work (though she did at a high-end department store in the mall—her father got her the job but at least she had one) and there wasn’t anything she couldn’t get with a swipe of a credit card. Now she was on a budget that consisted of five and ten tips and the last time she actually bought a new pair of shoes over a hundred dollars had been last year when she needed them for an interview, and even then, it cost her a limb.

Everything was so different, but she didn’t want to go back, preferring to be on her own and away from Gotham. From the newspapers and media, her family had convinced the world that she’d taken a few years to go overseas and spend time in Europe. A mental reprieve, they’d called it. Partially true if she was honest, but she wasn’t going to open her mouth about it lest they learned where she was. She didn’t go through all that trouble to be found within three years.

“Melisandre.”

Maybe I should move again?

“Melisandre?”

Moving would take a long time but it would be effective.

“Melisandre!”

Someone grabbed her arm over the counter, and she jerked with a start, eyes widening as she finally realized someone was standing in front of her.

“Barry?” she asked, and he smiled.

“Finally,” he snorted. “I’ve been calling your name for like ten minutes now.”

She felt a flush creep along her cheeks, and she smiled apologetically. “Sorry, I was thinking about something. Usual?” she murmured, marking a disposable coffee cup with a marker.

Barry nodded with understanding and handed her a credit card. “I hear you. How’s studying going for that physics exam?” His blue eyes darted to the science book she had sprawled over the counter.

“It’s going,” she muttered and turned, starting to mix together his latte. “I still can’t get the thermodynamic laws down. They’re a bit confusing.”

“Yeah, it’ll take a while. You know if you need my help, all you gotta do is ask, right?”

Shrugging, she glanced at him as she poured. “You’re a busy man, Barry. I can’t have you trying to help me while trying to solve cases too.”

Barry chuckled and accepted the freshly poured latte. “I’m an excellent multitasker, Melisandre. Besides, you don’t have to worry about it messing with my work.” She opened her mouth to retort but he cut her off. “Seriously, shoot me an email about whatever questions you’ve got, and I’ll take a look at ‘em, okay?”

Her eyes narrowed warily, and she inquired, “You’re sure it won’t interfere? I’d hate for you to get in trouble for working on non-work-related things.”

“I promise, Melisandre,” he smiled and accepted a bag of apple turnovers too. He couldn’t help but pull one out and bite into it, letting out a delighted noise. “God, what do you put in these things? They’re phenomenal.”

She giggled and winked as he handed her a twenty. “A baker never reveals her secret, but if you really want to know, I use a little vanilla extract.”

Barry shook his head with a chuckle and started making his way to the door. “See you later, Melisandre!”

Waving at him, she called, “Bye Barry! Take care!”

Just as he opened the door, he stopped and spun around, suddenly asking, “Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?”

Blinking, she glanced at the physics book then back to him. “Well, I was going to be studying for the exam…why?”

“My nephew is in town and I wanted to introduce him to you. I’ve already mentioned you a bunch of times and he wants to meet you.”

Her face pinched. “Barry Allen, what did you tell that poor boy?”

He stuck his tongue out at her. “That there’s a lonely college student who has no friends but has the greatest baking abilities in the world.”

“I cannot believe you told him I had no friends! Why!”

“You don’t.”

“Well, yeah! But still! You don’t just tell someone that! It makes me seem like there’s something wrong with me!”

Barry waved a hand. “Relax. Wally’s the least jerky person you’ll meet.” He smiled. “You’ll like him.”

She frowned. “I still don’t think this is a good idea, Barry.”

“Why not?”

“Well, he’s here to see you and your wife, not come meet the person who feeds your apple turnover addiction.”

The blonde’s cheeks turned a dark shade of crimson and he spluttered, “It is not an addiction!” he spun around and marched through the door. “I’ll send him over tomorrow! Bye!”

And he left before she could even say a word.

***

It had to be hieroglyphics. It was either that or some ancient cuneiform he’d recently taken up interest in, because there was no way whatever he’d written on the paper was English.

She cocked her head to the side, muttering, “Jesus Christ, Barry, did you write this on a caffeine bender? Your writing is like chicken scratch.” She tipped her head to the other side trying to decipher it when someone leaned over her shoulder.

“Which problem do you need help on?” they asked, and she pointed to the sheet.

“I have no idea what that says.” She turned and saw a red-haired stranger. “If you think you can, be my guest.”

He took it and read over it a moment, green eyes scanning over the page then he said, “Let’s see, he wrote first, ‘The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system at absolute zero is a well-defined constant. This is because a system at zero temperature exists in its ground state, so that its entropy is determined only by the degeneracy of the ground state.’”

Pausing, he scanned it again and added, “Then he marked a note beside it and wrote, ‘In simplistic terms, if an object reaches the absolute zero temp. of (0 K = -273.15C = -459.67°F), its atoms will stop moving. In other words, at absolute zero, the entropy of a perfectly crystalline substance is zero.’”

Glancing at her, he smiled. “Make sense now?”

She huffed and nodded, taking the sheet back. “Yeah, thanks. I don’t even know how you managed to get all that from his writing.”

He nodded. “Yeah, Barry’s handwriting is deplorable.”

Her eyes went wide, and she immediately questioned, “How did you?”

Sticking a hand out, he greeted, “Wally West. I’m Barry’s nephew.”

Shaking his hand, she couldn’t help but laugh. “I can’t believe he actually told you to come up here and meet me.” A smile came across her lips. “I’m Melisandre Hale.”

“That’s a pretty name, Melisandre.”

“Thank you,” she grinned and waved him to one of the bar-stools on the adjacent side of the counter. “Have a seat and I’ll get you something to eat and drink.” As she slid behind the counter, she inquired, “Anything specific?”

Wally stared at the bored, offhandedly mentioning, “Barry said something about apple turnovers that could make you cry with joy, so I’ve gotta have one of those.” His evergreen eyes met hers. “Maybe two if I’m being honest.”

She grunted, but a grin crossed her lips, nevertheless. “Barry exaggerates a lot, Wally. They’re good, but they’re not mind-blowingly good.”

“Then I guess that leaves me to be the judge,” he countered with a smirk. “What should I drink?”

She thought for a moment then offered, “Have any judgments about drinking before five o’clock?”

He let out a startled laugh and shook his head. “It’s five o’clock somewhere.”

With a grin, she turned and started working her magic and a moment later, she was sliding a plate with two iced apple turnovers over along with a clear steaming mug of dark coffee with cream on top. She leaned her hip on the counter and watched him pick up one of the apple turnovers and take a bite.

Immediately his eyes went wide, and he exclaimed, “Holy shit.” He gaped at her. “This is delicious, Melisandre!”

Despite herself, her cheeks warmed, and she gave him an easy smile. “Thanks, Wally.” She nodded to the crystal mug. “Try the Irish coffee.”

He did so and tossed his head back, letting out an exaggerated groan that had her laughing until her stomach hurt. Wally was on his second turnover and he looked at her.

“You’ve gotta open up a bakery or something, Melisandre. Your pastries are awesome.”

She huffed and took the plate from him as he finished the last bite. “Let me get through college first and then I’ll wonder how to rack up enough to open a shop.”

“What are you studying?”

Pausing, she tossed a quick glance at him. “There’s no specification right now. I’m just doing general studies to get all the basics out of the way.” She put the dish in the sink and started rinsing it. “I’m at the four-C right now.” His brows pulled together, and she added, “Central City Community College.”

He snapped his fingers. “Right! It’s been a while since I went to the four-C.”

Her eyes found his and she curiously asked, “Did you go there?”

“Yeah, a few years back.”

“You don’t look that much older than I am. How old are you, Wally?”

He sipped his coffee and set it down as he replied, “I turned twenty-eight a month ago.”

“Happy belated birthday,” she smiled, and he gave her one in return.

“Thanks. How about you?”

“I turned twenty-one a few months ago.”

“Hmm, happy belated birthday to you as well.” He grinned, quipping, “How’s it feel to finally be able to legally do all the things you were doing before you turned twenty-one?”

She shot him a look. “Shame on you, Wally West, for assuming I was doing illegal things.” He chuckled and she shrugged. “But to answer your question, it feels great, so thanks.”

Wally snorted at that. “My best friend and I got absolutely hammered on our twenty-firsts and swore to never drink hard liquor again after we woke up in the bathroom in our underwear after passing out on the floor.”

A shudder passed over her at her own memory of waking up beside the toilet after her birthday celebration with a bottle of white rum. She cocked a hand up with her water bottle in it. “Here, here,” she toasted and took a sip as Wally raised his coffee and drank too.

She glanced at him. “Are you in school, or are you done?”

“I finished a while ago. I work out of a tower with a group of friends in Manhattan.”

For a moment, her eyes drifted to the simple pair of jeans and graphic shirt he was wearing. She lived in the upper area of Gotham and she knew what uptown Manhattan was like, and it wasn’t jeans and t-shirts.

Evidently, he did too because he scowled, “I have suits and ties, thank you very much.”

She snorted and took the empty mug from him. “I didn’t say anything, Wally.”

“You made a face.”

“Is a face a ground to be hostile?” she grinned. “I was just wondering what type of business in Manhattan ran on flash t-shirts and skinny jeans.” She eyed him. “Tech?”

He shrugged. “It’s…a bit of everything if I’m being honest.” It sounded like he didn’t exactly want to say, and she let it be, rinsing out his cup before setting it to dry.

A buzz sounded and she felt for her phone when he said, “That’s mine.” Wally pulled his phone out, read the message, and stood up. “I’ve gotta go, Melisandre.”

She nodded and took the twenty-dollar bill he handed her, waving her off when she tried to hand back the change. As he started towards the door, she called, “Wally?”

He turned on his heel and waited and she felt foolish for saying it, but she admitted with warmth in her cheeks, “It’s been a while since I had any semblance of a friend…so thanks for this afternoon.”

Wally gave her a pearly white grin. “Barry said you’d say something like that,” he chuckled as she scowled and he added sincerely, “Can never have too many friends, Melisandre…and I hope you’ll become a great one of mine. So far, you already are.”

She smiled, “Same here, Wally.” The bell signaled his exit and she let out a heavy sigh as her heart warmed in her chest at the feeling of a newfound friendship.

***

She was dead on her feet when she finally got through her front door and into her living room, practically collapsing onto the couch. Though it wasn’t far from the truth as she flopped down and toed off her shoes, heaving a long and winded sigh as she stared at the dark ceiling. She wanted to turn on the lamp on the table beside her, but she didn’t want to move. Hell, she barely wanted to get up and take a shower, so she didn’t go to bed sweaty.

Just a moment. She thought. Just a moment to close my eyes and I’ll get up and go shower.

Of course, the second the shut them, she was opening them to her phone telling her it was two A.M. She groaned and picked herself off the couch to shuffle into her bedroom, and when she got there, she peeled off the clothes from her body and let them fall, not caring about the hamper just a foot away. She’d do it tomorrow after class.

The shower was quick, and she crawled into bed a few minutes later, glancing out the window at the stars that were still in the night sky. Even if she tried to avoid thinking about it, she couldn’t, and her mind drifted to when she was a young girl and would stare out the window in her bedroom back in Gotham, watching the spotlight come alive and paint the silhouette of the bat symbol against the night sky.

She missed them. She missed them a lot. Missed eating meals at a full table and the laughter in the manor. Hell, she even missed being ignored, because at least then she could see familiar faces every day. Now, it was wake up, go to work, go to class, then come home. And the process repeated every morning. She was alone in a city where she didn’t know anyone except for one forensic scientist and his wife, going to a college that didn’t even have her real identity. She’d not even said the name “(Y/N) Wayne” out loud for fear that someone with super hearing would hear her and tell her father, instead going by “Melisandre Hale”, a twenty-one-year-old born and raised Central City citizen going to community college. It pained her to admit, that with her decision to grant herself the freedom she desired, it came with a heavy price, and that was the loneliness. And it was worse compared to what it was like back then.

Sighing, she rolled over and pulled the covers up over her head, hoping that when she shut her eyes, she’d stop thinking about what she left behind. Unfortunately, the universe and her mind were never kind, and as she drifted to sleep, she saw the pained faces of her family.

[ai-katsuu]

Hi. So based on the recent post of RSEA x bishonen tanteidan crossover, could u do a scene where Audrey is introduced to the f7 in a similar way Manibu introduced the Pretty Boy Detective Club to Mayumi? Oh and definitely that scene where Mayumi asks Michi to brew her tea like in the pic w Jack and Audrey. Hope it’s not too much 👉👈. Thx.

Sure! This was pretty fun to write!

“Are you okay?” the male asked grinning, holding her in his arms as he moved his face closer to hers.

Audrey widened her eyes. Where did he come from? What’s with those eyes? It’s too alluring...captivating. The man had brown hair swept to the side, his eyes the same color. He donned a navy blue outerwear and had the appearance of a sorcerer.

“Thank you…” she muttered as she finally tore her gaze away from his face.

The man smiled and hummed as he stepped back and looked at her. Audrey didn’t know what he was staring at, so she refused to look back at him as she tucked her hands behind her back.

“So, you like the ocean?” he asked as if implying something.

Audrey finally looks at him a little surprised, “What makes you think that?”

“Why, that’s a quite simple, elementary deduction.” he simply responded with a snap of his finger, “After all I can’t think of any other reason to be on the beach alone at this time of season.”

Indeed, it was winter. Not exactly the most favorable season for people to visit the location. But regardless, this man was right.

“I love the sea too,” he continued, “The beautiful sound that you hear when the long awaited waves crash onto the warm sand, the way it reflects everything in its path. It’s  too beautiful!” he spread his arms as he faced the water.

He paused and took a deep breath of the salt watered air, turning back to Audrey, “Looking for something?”

“What makes you think that?” she asked once more. How does he keep guessing what exactly her motives are?

“Why, another elementary deduction,” he puts his hands on his hips and confidently walks towards her, “The most elementary of elementary speculation. Only someone completely absorbed in searching for something,” he leans towards her smirking, “would fail to notice my spectacular self standing nearby.”

‘He said that, he totally said that. ‘My spectacular self’...’ she thought as she frowned, slightly moving back and away from him.

Suddenly, the male then brought out a magnifying glass. He blinked a couple of times before making a sound in realization.

“What now…” she muttered.

It took awhile for her to notice, but he was not looking at her, rather, he leaned down and looked at the edge of the shore behind her. The water should’ve gone back to the ocean like any wave does after it crashes onto the sand, but the area surrounding Audrey doesn’t. It circulated around her shoes.

“I of all people was a bit careless here. I just noticed it, you have a connection to the water.”

Audrey gasped and quickly hid her hands in her pockets. As soon as she did, the water surrounding her shoes went back to the ocean.

He tilted his head in confusion as he put his hand on hips, “Hm? Why’d you stop? A shame to hide such magnificence. No need to worry, talent is not something to compare.” his gaze went to the little talismans he had in his pocket, “Even if you stand next to me your powers will not be dulled!”

Having enough of this conversation, Audrey bit her lip as she took a deep breath and huffed. She turned to him, her foot stomping on the sand as she presented her best forced smile with her fists clenched.

“You’re right. I am searching for something. Would you be so kind as to assist me?” she said through gritted teeth and a grin.

“But of course!” he beamed with self confidence, completely unaffected by her obvious expression, “After all self service is what me and my boys do!”

He then took her hand and started running across the sand, “Come with me!”

“W-where are we going?!” she quickly asked.

“That should be obvious!” he smirked as he looked back at her, “To the Fearless Seven headquarters, of course!”

---

Audrey had heard of the Fearless Seven, or the F7 in short. They were the greatest heroes nationwide, but also the most mysterious. They have never shown their face to the public, and when their clients were interviewed they were forced to keep their mouths shut as per the contact that the F7 gives to them. The members whole identity is kept a mystery.

“Creepy…” Audrey pouted as she thought about this, was it really a good idea to ask for their help?

…

“Eh..?”

After arriving at their destination, Audrey was somewhat surprised that the nations greatest heroes lived in...how would she put it, a ‘down-to-earth’ home.

“This is...Risky Rock?” she spoke to herself as she looked around what seemed to be the living room.

“Hmm?”

Another voice came from the end of the room, sounding displeased at her arrival.

“What’s this? This time you brought over a girl who doesn’t even look like royalty. For all we know she’s a commoner.”

The irritated man had his back turned to her. He wore a blue vest and his blond hair was swept up. He had his hands on his hips as he held a small hand mirror towards his face.

“I bet she doesn’t even know the first thing about how to greet princes. She probably stumbles over her words and can’t even curtsy properly.”

“Princes…?” she questioned in a whisper before realizing what he said and raised her voice, “Excuse me! But I’m-”

Though it was at a distance, the man held his mirror up to look at her in his reflection. That was when the slow realization hit her and she gasped.

‘Prince Jack. The man who climbed the beanstalk and came down wealthy. The rags to riches prince, the wealthiest man in all of Fairy Tale Island. He was obviously well known around the island but has been noted to be hard to approach due to his motto:

“Time is money.”“’

In other words, every second speaking to him would probably cost Audrey her entire month's budget on meals.

“Come now, Jack.” A second, more gentler voice came from the other end of the room, “You should not say something so endlessly rude to a woman you just met.”

The man had a large sword in his lap, and Audrey heard the sounds of what seemed to be him sharpening it, “We haven’t been getting a lot of requests lately, try not to scare off our money this time.” he chuckled as he threw the slab to the side.

“...Prince Arthur!” she widened her eyes.

‘He was the most revered of the knights in Fairy Tale Island. Heir to the throne of Camelot, he was known for defeating many monsters, witches, and beasts with just his brute strength.’ she marveled in her thoughts, ‘Who knows what he could do if he put that sword of his to proper use…and to say the least you won't find a girl who’s never heard of him.’

“The richest prince, Jack, and the strongest prince, Arthur,  who basically makeup part of the well known princes in the Island, are in the same room together.” she mumbled to herself, “I couldn’t possibly hide my surprise.”

Jack scoffed as he turned to Arthur, “Don’t complain while you’re drinking the tea I brewed for you. That stuff is from my personal collection.”

But Arthur merely chuckled, “Come now. The tea that you give us is excellent, Arthur.”

“Yup! That’s right, Jack!”

Another voice, this time coming from where the couches were arranged, interrupted.

“You nabbed a girl as cute as her, and you’re saying she’s a filthy commoner?”

‘Eh...a second voice? But they sound just the same…’

“Right? I thought you’d propose at first sight like ‘Let’s live together!’”

‘No, there are three voices!’

Simultaneously, the voices stood up to reveal themselves to her with a grin, and for the third time, Audrey had to gasp.

‘Princes Pino, Noki, and Kio!’ she thought as she swallowed her throat, ‘They’re known for being the best and smartest inventors, not just among the princes but on the whole island as well! Not to mention, rumoured to be extremely handsome under those hats.They were revered scholars that surpassed even their father, the great inventor Geppetto...how on earth are they all here?!’

“You’re the traveler who controls water right? Audrey!” Pino snapped his fingers.

Audrey pouted, “How did you…”

“All in a day's work, nice to meet ya.’’ said Noki.

Kio (she hoped she was telling them apart right), stood up and went to what seemed to be the kitchen of the estate. “Hans, cook up some pasta for us will you? Something tells me we’ll need a feast for this meeting.”

Audrey’s gaze went to the gingered haired chef who stood in front of the stove, ‘Prince Hans. One of the twins from the kingdom of sweets, and the master of all cooking. He’s won many competitions and restaurants have been clawing at him for him to even just to make an appearance or try their food so that he would leave a review.’

“I see…” she stepped back and looked at the six men, “This really is the ‘Fearless Seven’, so many talented and famous people...no not just people, princes. If people knew who they were, they would come flocking with requests.”

Audrey frowned and put her hand on her chin, “But that’s what makes it all the more bewildering. Why would these six participate in such a group?”

Then, a confident and boisterous laugh was heard behind her. Audrey quickly turned around to see the man that guided her here. Now that she had the proper lighting, she could finally see who he really was. It all made sense.

“Once again, I must say I am pleased to meet you, Traveler Audrey.” he took her hand and looked her in the eye, “I am none other than the leader of the Fearless Seven, Prince Merlin.”

‘So the proclaimed leader who had the wealthiest, strongest, smartest, and talented in tow…’

‘...Wait.’

“Who are you…again?” Audrey squinted at him.

Merlin’s smile remained before morphing into a shocked and betrayed expression, “W-What do you mean who I am?!” his filter completely fell as he put his hand to his chest and leaned towards her.

Kio could help but burst out in laughter, “Oi, is she serious? She really doesn’t know who he is? This must be a low blow for you, Merlin!” He held his stomach.

“Truly a humbling moment, you’re not as well known as you think you are.” Hans smiled as he glanced at their leader.

“Shut it you two!” Merlin balled his fists then turned to Audrey, desperate to have his name known, “I’m Prince Merlin of Camelot! Greatest wizard of all time? Greatest sorcerer? The most well known in all of Camelot?!’ he yelled the last bit.

He had moved towards her with each sentence, causing her to step back and fall back into one of the luxurious chairs in the room. She leaned back on it as a worried expression started to form on her face.

“...I thought Prince Arthur was the most well known in Camelot...and that the greatest wizard and sorcerer was a mouse called Mick-”

“I brought that mouse his intelligence! That was me! The papers just don’t acknowledge it!”

‘Exasperated’, ‘Out of breath’, and ‘Flustered’ were the right words to describe Merlin right now.

“Let it go, muchacho.” Arthur sat with a sly grin etched on his face, “Not anyone can best me in terms of popularity.”

“How true,” Jack, now having a smirk on his face, walked up to Merlin who still frowned at him, “Poor little wizard is not as well known as we are.”

But when it came to Jack, Merlin’s complexion changed and took...no that’s not the right word, gripped his hand and pulled him close, “Better shut that pretty face of yours up and pay special attention to our guest. It’s your job after all.” Merlin forced through a smile, though it was blatantly obvious to everyone.

Jack’s smirk faded and rolled his eyes, walking towards Audrey.

‘Huh…?’ she thought, ‘He just obeyed him like that, even though he’s a prince. This Merlin really is the leader...is he really a prince like he claims?’

“Well?”

Audrey snapped out of her thoughts and yelped as Jack suddenly appeared before her, leaning down with a disapproving look on his face. “Don’t look at me with that stupid look on your face. What do you want?” he said, getting impatient.

“Geez, they must’ve been real attentive to the boss back home.” Audrey frowned at him, not bothering to hide her thoughts.

“Watch your tongue, commoner.” Jack kicked her chair with a good amount of force before kneeling down to her level to look her in the eye.

“Now, now, Jack.” Hans said from the kitchen as he prepared the plates for everyone, “Might as well get her something to drink. She’s here regardless.”

Jack looked annoyed at the chef before looking back at Audrey who thought about this a little too seriously. Feeling relieved that Hans was on her side a little she outstretched her arm towards him and closed her eyes.

“I’ll have tea.” she attempted to sound confident, but the expression on her face betrayed her.

“You’ve gotten rather shameless.” Jack noted as he knelt down.

[girl-in-the-tower]

Special corner on NRC’s grounds: An interview with the birthday girl ~Kore~

Ramshackle Dorm - Birthday Party Venue

Chapter I

Interviewer: Happy Birthday!

Kore: Ah! Thank you so much! And thanks for making time to visit me!

Interviewer: I heard that Ramshackle is holding a party today. Is that true?

Kore: Yeah! Grim said that any birthday needs to have a party as well! Though I think he just said that so I’ll prepare some tasty food for him today.

Interviewer: So did you make all the preparations for the event?

Kore: Hm, not really. A lot of people turned up to help, even though I didn’t ask them to.

Clover-senpai and Ruggie-senpai helped out with the cooking so I didn’t have too much on my plate when it came to catering. They’re really good chefs so all the food ended up being delicious! Even Epel made some nice apple carvings. Ah, though we made quite a lot so Ruggie-senpai ended up taking the leftovers with him.

Kalim-senpai was really excited about the whole idea. He wanted to organize a parade and a big banquet! There were supposed to be elephants and monkeys and pheasants and I think a tiger, but Viper-senpai talked him out of it. He still ended up in charge of the decorations though.

Deuce, Jack and Epel helped with the seating plan and with carrying the tables. Epel was told by his senpais to sit this one out, but he insisted on doing it. I think his training’s really starting to pay off! Though in the end it was still mostly Deuce and Jack doing the heavy lifting... 

Ace and Cay-senpai picked the music. Apparently, it’s supposed to be really trendy right now, but... ah...

Interviewer: Do you dislike it?

Kore: Ah, dislike is a strong word. I think it just doesn’t speak to my generation... hehe...

But stil! We had a lot of fun dancing together. Even Viper-senpai joined in. Haha, I got really ditzy when he spun me around like that. 

I wanted to ask Leona-senpai for a dance too, since he seemed on the verge of falling asleep, but Ace jumped in before I had a chance. He really wanted to show off his dance skills since he asked me a bunch of times. I guess he was really proud of that.

Interviewer: You seem to have enjoyed yourself.

Kore: Mm! To be honest, this was the first big celebration I ever had so I was really excited about it. Up until now it’s only been me and Theo on my birthday each year. We used to make a big bowl of rice pudding and stick a candle in it and call it a cake. So having a real one is a bit odd for me...

But I’m really grateful to have spent this day with all my friends! To think that I’d be able to experience such happiness... Ah, sorry, I’m getting a bit teary-eyed for some reason. 

Chapter II

Interviewer: How about the presents this year?

Kore: I got a ton! Everybody was so kind and thoughtful! Here, look!

Interviewer: Is that...?

Kore: Haha, yes! It’s a can of tuna! Grim said that since we’ve friends he’d allow me to have one as a present for my birthday. Though he was really reluctant to give it up...

This bouquet of snowdrops is from the Octavinelle dorm. See? This card is in Jade-senpai’s writing. Ashengrotto-senpai also said that for my birthday he’s ensure that Floyd won’t pick on me as a special favour. He said he doesn’t want anything in return, but I wonder...

The box over there is from Rosehearts-senpai, Clover-senpai and Cay-senpai. They pitched in for some high quality gardening tools! Clover-senpai noticed that my old ones were kind of falling apart so he thought I could do with some new ones. Ah, I kind of shudder to think how much they could have cost... Though Clover-senpai insisted it wasn’t that much...

Ah, Ace and Deuce also pitched in for a present. Ta-da!

Interviewer: A boar plushie?

Kore: Yeah! Ace said it reminded them of me, which kind of annoyed me at first, but... Look into those cute button eyes! Isn’t this just adorable? So I decided to forgive them. Hehe, it’s hard to get angry at such a cute face.

Hm? What else? Ah! According to Jack, Leona-senpai ordered me a Magift team jacket on behalf of Savanaclaw. I’m still not allowed on the field when they play, but he said this week he’ll make an exception and let me join practice a couple of times. I’m so excited! Leona-senpai is a really good player so watching him in action is always exhilarating! 

Even Shroud-senpai sent me a gift. Ortho came to drop it off since Shroud-senpai was too shy to attend a party with such a big number of people. It was kind of disappointing... But ah! Look! He got me a limited edition BC! SSR card! I heard they didn’t print this anymore, so getting a hold of it must have been tough. I’ll have to properly thank him when we see each other again.

Chapter III

Interviewer: I was rather surprised to see that they would have a “Birthday Girl” sash prepared for this occasion.

Kore: Ah, they didn’t. This was actually a present from Rook-senpai and Epel! Hehe, Rook-senpai said it wouldn’t do to have a birthday without a birthday sash so he kindly made one for me! On top of that, he and Schoenheit-senpai did my make-up and hair for today too! Schoenheit-senpai said this was “a once-in-a-lifetime occasion” so I was really grateful to him!     

Interviewer: I see. Was the dress a present from them as well?

Kore: Eh? No, no, it was-!!

Interviewer: Are you alright? You suddenly turned red...

Kore: N-No! I mean, it’s nothing... Um, the dress is actually a present from K-Kalim-senpai and Viper-senpai...

I saw it in a magazine a few months ago and mentioned to Viper-senpai that it’s a shame this sort of dress is so expensive since I don’t have the budget for it... He said Kalim-senpai was actually looking to buy something more extravagant so hearing me express a wish for something simpler saved him a lot of grief too...

And... And Kalim-senpai said I looked... really pretty in it too...

Interviewer: Um...

Kore: A-Ah! Di-Did you know the fabric for this dress is only made in the Valley of Throns? Vanrouge-senpai told me that! He said the books he and the rest of the Diasomnia dorm gifted me had more information on it! I-I can go look for it! Yeah!

Interviewer: That won’t be necessary. But it seems you’ve had quite an eventful day. 

Kore: Yeah... It was a lot of fun, because everyone was here with me. 

Hm? Ah, my cellphone is ringing! It’s Theo calling me to wish me Happy Birthday. Um, I’ll have to go now, so...

Interviewer: No problem. Thank you for this conversation! And once again Happy Birthday!

[distractedhistotech]

They talk about stuff

“You don’t have a lot in the way of food,” commented Lewis as he looked around the van.

“Ugh, I know! The usual space is being taken up by arms and tools!” complained Vivi.

“It was mostly junk food,” admitted Arthur.  “Neither of us are good enough cooks to make decent meals on the go.”

“I could cook for you,” offered Lewis.

“Oh, right, you mentioned that you were a chef,” recalled Vivi.

Lewis nodded. “Yeah, I really enjoyed it.  I haven’t really cooked anything since I died so I’d love to be able to cook for you guys.”

“If you do, I should warn you that Vivi and Mystery eat obscene amounts of food,” warned Arthur.

“Eh, I’m used to cooking large amounts of food,” pointed out Lewis.  “I just need supplies.”

“Oof, we might need to rework the budget for that,” commented Vivi.

“I dunno, it’d probably be cheaper than eating out all the time,” pointed out Arthur.

“Healthier too,” added Lewis.  “I might need a couple of tries to get the hang of it again though, especially if I cook using my ghost fire, which I’d really like to try.”

“I would literally pay to see that,” said Vivi.

“Uh, what if there are weird side effects from cooking with ghost fire?” asked Arthur.

“We still have that campfire stove, right?” asked Vivi.  “Dunno why.  It’s not like we ever use it.”

Lewis suddenly felt very concerned about his lovers’ nutritional health.  “I know how to use a camping stove so I can use that instead if you’d be more comfortable that way,” he offered.

“I’d still like to see you cook with your ghost fire,” commented Vivi.  “It’s just energy transfer so it’d probably be safe.”

“Maybe I could try making popcorn,” suggested Lewis.  “It won’t actually use fire, but there will be heat.”

Arthur thought for a moment.  “I guess it would work to see if anything odd might happen.”

“We do have a couple of bags of popcorn somewhere,” said Vivi.  “Wanna give it a try now?”

“Sure.”  Lewis started looking through the supplies. “So where are we going?  The Techno Con?”

“That’s not for a few days,” said Arthur.  “We’re gonna stop at a couple of other places on the way.”

“We’re gonna go to a Ripley’s museum today,” said Vivi.  “We might be cutting it a bit close, but we’ll definitely be able to make the ghost tour.  We have a couple of free days just in case, so we can explore the museum tomorrow if we don’t have time today.”

“We’ll probably get to Techno Con at least a day early,” continued Arthur.  “We figured we’d relax a little and go on a date…” Arthur glanced back at Lewis.

“Don’t worry. I’ll give you two some privacy if you need it,” said Lewis.  “Just leave me a book or something, and I’ll be happy.”  He groaned.  “You wouldn’t believe how boring it was without books…or TV…or music…or generally any sort of entertainment.”

Arthur physically recoiled.  “Ugh, yeah, that sounds awful.  Hold on, I have some audible books.  Or some really old cassettes of books.  Could you hand me my laptop?”

Lewis grabbed Arthur’s familiar laptop.  “Sure, here. Got any romance?  They’re my favorite.”

“Huh.  I would not have guessed that looking at you,” commented Vivi.

“I get that a lot for some reason.”

“I like sci-fi and action,” said Arthur.  “They’re might be one that’s more romantic than usual.”  He frowned.  “Actually, maybe you should look through them, but I’m not sure how that would work. Most ghosts seem to have a weird effect on electronics.”

“I haven’t really had a chance to try,” admitted Lewis.  “I have been curious though.”

Arthur handed his laptop back to Lewis.  “Why don’t we find out?  Don’t worry about the files.  I backed everything up on flash drives before we left.”

Lewis examined the laptop in confusion.  The wallpaper was a picture Vivi had taken of all of them heading into a dark house, except Lewis had somehow been removed from the picture.  Had someone photoshopped him out or something?  Or was this part of whatever was keeping him from telling Vivi and Arthur who he was?

It disturbing whatever it was.

Lewis decided to ignore it for a moment and just see what he could do.  “So…I don’t think the touch screen is working.”

“Makes sense. Those work by picking up on the tiny electrical signals at the tips of your fingers,” explained Arthur.

“I wonder if a ghost with electrical powers could use a touch screen,” wondered Vivi.

“Oh, the mousepad isn’t working either,” said Lewis.  “I think I can still type, but I don’t think I can use a computer without a mouse.”

“Oof, yeah, that’s difficult,” agreed Arthur.  “I guess we could see if a physical mouse would work, preferably one with a cable. Until then, I guess you’ll have to direct one of us from over our shoulders.”

“That’s fine. I’ve managed to survive…uh, exist this long without electronics.”

“Now, let’s see what we’ve got.”  Arthur scrolled through his list, reading a quick summary of the books he had on his computer.

Turns out he had the first Harry Potter book.  They figured it would last most of the day, and everyone liked it, so that’s what they went with.

“You know, I was adopted when my parents found me on their porch,” commented Lewis.

“Heh, seriously?” asked Vivi.

“Yeah, although I was, like, five at the time, and they tried to find my birth parents first,” continued Lewis.  “I could never remember anything from before that though.  Made figuring out where I came from kind of difficult.”

“I never really understood why stories use the cliché of leaving a baby on the front steps of a house for the owners to raise,” commented Arthur.  “It seems like most people would either call the police to report child abandonment and possibly endangerment or just take the kid to a nearby orphanage.”

“Plus it might be really cold,” added Vivi.  “I mean, this takes place during Halloween!  In Britain!  Given, I’ve never been there, but I think it would be pretty cold.”

Arthur nodded. “That too, plus unless you know the people really well, you have no idea how they’ll be treated.”

“Yeah, I was a lot luckier than Harry,” admitted Lewis.  “He probably would’ve been better off in an orphanage.”

“How come no doctors ever wondered about why Dudley had a pig tail?” questioned Arthur.  “I mean, humans do sometimes have tails, but they’re usually removed pretty early on, and they aren’t curly.”

“They probably did talk about it,” said Vivi.  “Remember, the books are told from Harry’s point of view, and he really doesn’t want anything to do with the Dursley’s.”

“Maybe Vernon bribed someone?” suggested Lewis.

“I dunno.  I can’t remember his position in the company he works for, but how much money could you make making drills?” questioned Arthur.

“Hey, some drills are pretty big,” pointed out Vivi.  “They gotta cost a lot.”

“Yeah, but a lot of that will be in materials and other resources used to make the drills,” argued Arthur.

“Maybe he’s embezzling from the drill company,” suggested Lewis.

That got laughs from Vivi and Arthur so he counted it as a win.

“Why wasn’t Peeves in any of the movies?” questioned Vivi.  “I mean he was in the videogames, so why not the movies?”

“Budget,” Arthur said simply.

“I’m pretty sure time was a problem too,” said Lewis.  “The movie was made before 2 hour movies were considered normal, so they didn’t want to make it too long.”

“Annoying, but it makes sense,” muttered Vivi.

It was surprisingly not awkward at all.

[apriumjam]

Satsuten Cafe Drama CD Script

Once again, @jae-ha sent me the audio from @sodawithcereal for the final Satsuriku no Tenshi drama CD, the cafe AU. Here is the script! Keep a look out for the video she’ll be posting!

E: Now then, we’re all here again as usual, but the café is closed. To tell the truth, today is our day off. That’s because it’s December 23rd. In other words – it’s Christmas tomorrow!

D: Mmhmm, that’s right, Eddie.

E: So today we’re getting ready! It’s a bit troublesome, but we have to work hard this year too.

Z: And who the hell are ya talkin’ to, anyway?

E: Shut up, you savage! Eheheh. Have you gotten used to it, Rachel?

R: I’m…not really…

E: Oh, that’s right, that’s right. You just started working here. This is your first Christmas!

Z: Ah? Is the brat still yammerin’?

E: Hmph! Every Christmas, the café we work at, Angels of Death, hangs up many decorations and entertains the guests!

R: I see…

D: It’s a bit troublesome to us, but it’s the one special day of the year. We also end up having a lot of fun.

E: Every year, I make a special cake for Christmas. I have to show my skills as a genius patisserie!

Z: Oh, that’s right. The taste is good but the shape isn’t.

D: Hahah. Eddie’s cakes are always made to look like graves, after all. But I’m looking forward to it.

Z: Anyway, the old man ain’t here yet?

D: Come now, don’t call manager Gray an old man.

E: See, Rachel, every year Gray decides what the theme of the decorations and props will be. He said he would announce it today, but…

R: He might be later than usual.

D: Cathy isn’t here either, for some reason. I wonder what happened.

G: I’ve kept you waiting. My apologies.

R: Welcome back, manager Gray.

C: I’m here…

D: Welcome back. Oh my. What’s wrong, Cathy? You look quite down.

C: Doctor Danny, would you mind not bothering me?

D: Eh? What happened?

G: Ahem. Please listen.

E: You’re going to tell us about the decorations, right? Hey, hey, what sort of theme are we going with this time?

G: I’m sorry. I’ll make this short. This year’s Christmas celebration will be cancelled.

R: Cancelled…?

Z: Hah? Why, old man?

D: Hey, Zack. Manager Gray, what on earth does this mean?

G: Cathy.

C: Guh!

G: You take over from here.

C: Y-yes…I understand, manager.

G: Do you all remember the maid robot?

E: Oh, that piece of junk you brought in to the shop – it broke right away.

D: It was supposedly equipped with the latest AI technology. What about it?

G: Hmph. I knew nothing about this. So, Cathy, seeing as you ordered it, how about telling us how much it cost?

C: O-o-o…one…million yen...

E: EH?!

D: (coughing) Is that true, Cathy?

C: I wouldn’t lie about this right now.

Z: Uh…so how much is a million yen?

R: Zack-senpai, a million yen is a million yen.

G: I have no intention of critising Cathy any longer, but managing the café is a battle of money. It’s unfortunate, but it would appear we no longer have any left in the budget. In other words, we have nothing for the Christmas party.

E: How awful, Cathy! That robot ended up being completely useless!

C: Guh – ! How dare you! Be quiet, you brat. If I were to wash the dishes in winter, my hands would dry out! My beauty is what attracts customers to this shop in the first place – if my lovely hands got ruined, that would be even worse for the café.

Z: Who cares?! If yer not gonna move around, yer sleepin’ face is fine!

C: Excuse me?! Don’t screw with me, Zack! The robot broke because you kicked it around on the first day!

G: Come now, Cathy. How unsightly.

C: Ugh – I’m very sorry, manager Gray…

D: Well, it’s all in the past now. But Cathy…perhaps you should try to remedy your wasteful habits?

C: Guh…

E: Aww…I can’t make my new cake…

C: I’m sorry…

D: There’s nothing we can do. Let’s just operate the shop as normal this year.

R: Um, manager…

G: Hmm? What is it, Rachel?

R: Everyone was talking about Christmas. I think it’s definitely a very important day for everyone. I believe that we’re not the only ones who are looking forward to it – the customers are, too. So…

C: Rachel…

R: So…let’s try to do what we can, even without money.

E: Rachel!

D: That’s right. Yes, it’s as Rachel says.

Z: Hey, Ray. You’ve gotten pretty useful!

E: All right! Even with less money than normal, I’ll put all my feelings into my very own grave – I mean, cake, the only one in this world! Just watch, Rachel!

D: Yeah. I’ll do what I can, too. Eheheheh…Rachel…seeing those pretty eyes of yours…(creepy laughter) I feel myself getting inspired…(more creepy laughter)

C: I’ll try to get back that one million yen! And, Doctor Danny…please don’t show that face to the customers. It’s creepy.

Z: Well, I’ll do my part too. Let’s work hard together, Ray.

R: Okay.

(overlaying voices)

E: Ah –

Z: Hey, brat, I definitely –

C: One million yen is –

G: Heheh. I never expected the newcomer would save us. Perhaps she’s grown up a bit.

R: Let’s work together –

G: This may wind up being an especially extraordinary Christmas.

C: I have some orders! Two cakes, and a milk tea with a melon float! Doctor Danny! I’ll leave those customers to you.

D: All right, Cathy. Ah, since opening today, we’ve had an enormous number of guests today…Welcome! Before you decide on your order…heh…we have some eyeball jelly on the house. Please feel free to partake. (creepy laughter)

C: Like I said, Doctor Danny, please stop making that face.

Customer: Um, the decorations this year are more lively than usual, aren’t they?

D: Oh…did you notice? This year we decided to use our own personal belongings as the ornaments.

Customer 2: Oh…is that red ribbon attached to a syringe?

D: Hmm? Oh, that’s right…ahahah…

Customer: It’s kind of cute!

Customer 2: Yeah! It feels very original!

D: I-I’m so glad it suits your tastes…hahahah…Well then, once you have decided what to order, please call me. …Cathy, you’re not doing anything at all, are you? Well, the customers seem happy, so…

C: Oh, my! Thank you so much! Eddie! How are the cakes?

E: Just about ready! Now, for the final touch, I’ll put this on like this…yup! They’re done! Rachel, I’ll leave these to you.

R: Ah, yes. Hmm? They have my name written on them.

E: Heheh it’s a grave – I mean, a cake for you! Do you like it?

R: But…the customer is going to eat it…

E: It’s thanks to you that the café is so lively today. So I put all my gratitude into these cakes!

R: I see…

Z: Hey, brat, stop standin’ around! More orders are coming in. Three cakes!

E: Shut up! They’re ready, so just take them!

Z: Hah? Graves again. It just looks like Ray’s grave.

E: Stop complaining about every single little thing! It’s fine, isn’t it?!

Z: Tch…normally, I’d hit you, but today’s a special day, so I’ll let ya off.

R: Zack-senpai, that’s unusual.

Z: Ah? Maybe. I’m in a good mood today. It’s because of you, Ray.

R: Eh?

C: Rachel, the cakes are for this table.

R: Oh, okay. Two cakes. Thank you for waiting.

Customer 1: Thank you.

Customer 2: Excuse me, miss waitress…is that a scythe? A scythe wrapped in bandages?

R: Oh, that’s…I heard that is a Christmas tree.

Customer 2: Heh…the café seems more fun this year than usual!

R: Yes. Thank you very much.

D: Rachel, I’ll leave these customers to you.

R: Okay.

Z: Hey, Ray.

R: I have to work hard…I have to be useful…

Z: Hey, Ray!

R: Ah, Zack-senpai!

Z: I prolly don’t got the right t’ say this, but aren’t ya a bit too awkward?

R: Awkward?

Z: You should be a bit more honest, rely on people more. I think things’ll be better if ya do. The world is full of things we don’t understand. I didn’t even know about Christmas until recently.

R: Oh…you noticed…

Z: Huh? What’s that? Were ya tryin’ t’ hide it?

R: Well…my mother and father didn’t really get along…we didn’t celebrate Christmas at home…

Z: Oh…yer the same as me.

R: But, I thought Christmas seemed nice. So…even though I said all that, I didn’t really know what to do.

Z: Till comin’ to this café, I just wandered around town, ‘n I always thought people smilin’ around like idiots were damn annoying. But after starting to work here, I realised…spending time with people special to you, on special days like this, ain’t that bad. Eating good food, exchanging presents – I’m pretty much satisfied even without doing those things.

R: Presents…

Z: Huh? Oh, that’s right, ya never got a present, did ya, Ray?

R: No…

Z: That so…

R: I never had anyone to get one from, or to give one to…

Z: Hmm…

D: So you two were hiding in this corner. The last guest just left. The café is closed. Good work.

C: Ahh…I’m tired…now then. What were you two talking about? Sorry for interrupting~.

Z: Ah? I dunno what yer talkin’ about, but ya ain’t interruptin’.

R: To tell the truth…to tell the truth, I never –

(bang!)

R: Eh? This is…

D: Oh, sorry. I suppose you got surprised.

C: How stand-offish. You should have just discussed the Christmas preparations with us.

E: Sorry for not telling you. While we were making everything ready, we figured out that you didn’t know much about Christmas. So…eheheh…we made a party in secret! And of course, it’s for you!

Z: Well then, let’s have yer first Christmas!

R: I’m sorry I didn’t help with the party.

Z: This was supposed t’ surprise ya, there’d be no point if ya helped.

(everyone laughs)

G: Good job, everyone. Thanks to all your efforts, today was a good day. Now then, how about we start Rachel Gardner’s party?

E: Yay!

(indistinct)

R: Today was kind of fun. Coming home and thinking back on it makes it all seem like a dream. Everyone was smiling. Sometimes Danny-senpai’s smile was a little scary; and Eddie-senpai and Zack-senpai fought; and Cathy-san drank too much sake; and manager Gray’s speech was a little difficult, so I couldn’t understand all of it…but it was kind of fun spending time with everyone during the party. I took a shower, so I guess it’s time to sleep.

(time skip)

R: Christmas…it was too fun. I feel like I’ve just woken up. I don’t think I can sleep. Eh?

Z: Tch…what is it with this window? Why’s it so hard?

R: Is that…? Oh, no!

(window smash!)

Z: It finally opened. Tch. Where’s Ray’s sleeping? Oh, she really is asleep. ‘Cause yer not supposed t’ see Santa or somethin’, right? I’m kinda worried she didn’t wake up, ‘cause I made such a loud sound…Well, here. I’ll leave the present here. (yawns) Ah? It’s kinda late, I’m sleepy. I’ve got work at the café tomorrow, too. Guess I’ll go home’n’sleep.

R: I think he left. That’s no good, Zack-senpai. Santa Claus wouldn’t break a window with something like that. I wonder what’s inside. A Christmas present…I’m kind of happy. Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.

[anicegaystory]

Proceed with Caution

What is a good adventure without misadventure? When have you ever heard tales of a journey without its appropriate amount of hurdles? More importantly, when have you ever heard tell of a story about two young girls, at the cusp of their 20s, travelling Europe without AT LEAST one tale of a creepy dude? Zero. Zero times you’ve heard that story.

For my first tale, I wanted to get one of the creepiest out of the way. It’s not meant to spook you from jetting off on your own pilgrimage, but simply to prepare you to be aware of your surroundings and the people in them. Sure, looking back on it, I do laugh a little about it, but that is because we are safe now and oh boy were we small town naive idiots! Truth be told, it was such a surreal, and I guess traumatic experience, I honestly almost completely blocked the whole thing out! Brains are weird like that eh? I had to rely almost entirely on Sam for this one. So buckle up!

After what I can only describe as one of the most memorable 24 hours in Berlin, Sam and I …

… I should probably take a moment here to explain to all of you who may not know who Sam is!

Samantha Vanderaa (Soon to be Samantha Skauge! Woo!), is not only one of my first cousins, but has always been one of my closest friends.

I believe it was late 2010 when she decided that she wanted to travel Europe with me before I flew back home to Canada after having been living in England for the better part of 2 years. I had recently gone through a rough patch/break up/I don’t even fucking know with my first girlfriend, and Sam was going to be my knight in shining armour. We planned almost all of the trip via facebook chat, and although I am sure I will be composing a post entirely about how important that was to me, for now let’s just say it was super fucking important to me.

Alright where were we? Right! Berlin, Germany, July 2011. Packing up our rucksacks and mentally preparing for a 15 hour train journey to Florence, Italy. After having been out the night before on the most eventful pub crawl of my damn life, this was quite daunting. We were tired, we were dirty, and, unfortunately, NOT INTERESTED in some famous German sausage for brekkie.

As far as I remember, the first leg wasn’t too bad. I was pretty dozy, but I do remember flashes of incredible castles nestled in enormous rolling hills between Berlin and Munich. It was after the train switch in Munich where things got a bit dicey.

We were extremely cheap and stretched EVERY dollar for the entirety of this trip, so after purchasing a EuroRail Pass pre-trip, we assumed we shouldn’t need to budget anything for travel costs outside of snacks. This was the second time we were made quite aware that was not the case and after travelling from Amsterdam to Berlin on the floor outside of a bathroom, we decided to shell out a few Euros for this ride! So, we chose the cheapest option, a standard car (very much like what you would see in Harry Potter).

After getting settled, we were pretty pleased with the arrangement, and as the departure time was approaching, it was looking like we were going to have the car to ourselves. No such luck.

Two men joined us in the final moments before leaving the station. This was extremely unfortunate as we, thinking we would have the place to ourselves, were sitting across from each other causing each man to have to sit next to us. This was our first poor decision.

The men did not appear to be travelling together, because they never spoke to each other and one of them sat down next to me and almost immediately appeared to fall asleep which is how he remained for the entirety of the ride. Being as hungover as I was, and the general exhaustion of the first 8 hours of travel, I also started to doze off. The other guy sat next to Sam.

At this point, Sam just popped her headphones in with the hopes that she could just make it to Florence listening only to the sounds of her premade travel playlists. A pipedream apparently, as the man next to her just wanted to talk, and wow did he have a lot of questions for her. He even had the gall to ask if he could listen to her music with her!

At some point, all of this odd exchange had woken me up, and from that point on we were both on high alert. There was just something really “off” about him. He kept asking extremely particular questions about where we were going, what we were doing when we got there and where we were planning to stay. We did our best to play dumb, saying we really weren’t sure yet and that we were just figuring things out as we went. This was all obviously a lie, I mean there were some places that we definitely just flew by the seat of our shorts, but this was not one of those times.

He began to urge us to go with him and stay at his sister’s place for free, telling us that he would sort out a ride when we got to the station and to not worry about anything, just go with him when we stopped.

WELL, as I’m sure you all agree, no fucking thank you, SIR!

At one point he told us that he was going to grab something to eat and asked if we wanted anything. We didn’t. Once he left, we grabbed our shit and BOLTED.

We managed to find a sort of storage car full of bikes and junk, and hunkered down in the far back corner together. We even made a makeshift wall with our packs.

“I remember just being huddled up together watching Alice in Wonderland on the screen of my iPod classic [...] just trying to stay awake and trying to hide from this guy.”

- Sam

We honestly really thought we had escaped him and fully intended on staying right where we were until we hit Florence, but then he randomly showed up in the storage car and just started shouting at us. He kept telling us how disrespectful we were for disappearing, how he was looking everywhere for us and that he was just trying to be a nice guy and show some hospitality and that he bought us Kit Kat bars.

So, at this point, we are properly freaked the hell out and trying to explain to him that we just went for a walk to stretch our legs and that we would be back in a bit. Just doing and saying whatever we could to not be trapped alone with him in the back corner of a fucking storage car!

He warned that if we were not back to our seats, in the standard car that we chose to pay for to experience a little comfort, in fifteen minutes, he would be back to find us because, “there are creeps on this train and it isn’t appropriate for two young girls to be alone.”

What a freaking Saint, am I right?!

Anyways, we spent that fifteen minutes just weighing our options and trying not to have simultaneous panic attacks. Obviously we can’t stay here, alone in a storage car without witnesses, he knows where to find us. We can’t find somewhere else to sit we already glanced in the other cabins to find them all full up. What do we do?!

We landed on jumping off wherever the train stopped, if it made another stop during that fifteen. It didn’t. Maybe y’all have a better idea, but at this time, we decided to gather our shit and go back to our original seats. Where he was. Because we are really just so stupid.

He continued to be really needy/creepy, as expected, but this time we sat side by side, cuddled up together and did our best to ignore him.

When the train FINALLY stopped in Florence, after what felt like a damn eternity, he continued to aggressively urge us to go with him to his sister’s place and would not take No for an answer. He instructed us to stay put while he called her from the payphone. He walked over, popped in his coins and stared at us across the platform.

During this time another train had arrived and the crowd of people disembarking wandered through between us and him and at the same time he seemed somewhat distracted by his phone conversation. We decided that this was our moment to escape whatever the hell he had planned for us, good intentions or not, and we just ran. We ran as fast as we possibly could, even though we hadn’t slept all night, even though we were carrying half of our body weight in bags on our backs, adrenaline powered us all the way to the first bus we could find. We jumped on just as it was about to leave the station. We had literally no idea where it was going and we didn’t care. As the bus rolled out of the station’s lot, we could see our creepy friend searching for us on the platform as we hunched down in our seats leering cautiously out the window.

We only rode for a couple of stops before we decided to jump off and figure out where we were and how to get to our hostel. To our misfortune, we found ourselves in a relatively desolate area and it was mid-July in Italy. Now, I’m not sure if many of you understand what that means to two Canadian girls so let me just lay it out for you. It was STUPID fucking hot!

We spent the next 45 minutes lugging our packs around in the incredible heat before we managed to land a cab to take us to Camping Firenze Hostel (which was fucking incredible by the way).

In conclusion, we definitely could have handled all of that better. But, I don’t regret what we did do because even though we had to endure the most heat either of us had ever experienced (I’m not kidding folks! It was DUMB hot!) while lugging all of our shit around, we made it. We made it safely to Florence. We soaked up it’s beauty, relaxed in it’s slow pace and recharged our batteries for our next great adventure.

I am curious to know though, how do you think you would have handled that situation? How do you think we did?

If you’re a returning reader, Thanks for coming man! I really appreciate it. I laid this out as a project where I would write 1000 words for each photo, but this one ended up a tad winded at almost 2000 words. Sorry about that. I’m sure that will happen from time to time. Anywho, thanks for dropping in again, hope to see you back!

[sockablock]

• (start) (prev) (next) •

Chapter 8: The Long, Looping Scrawl

TUSK LOVE 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Today 9:08AM

Lavender Thunder: soooooooo good news and bad news Lavender Thunder: the GOOD news is that gustav isn’t arrested and the cops have cooled off and nobody else is dead Seaman: that is pretty good news Lavender Thunder: yeah well Lavender Thunder: the bad news is that kylre isn’t going to be around anymore Lavender Thunder: and that I think we might need to find some new jobs Lavender Thunder: the Moondrop is gonna be out of commission for like Lavender Thunder: kind of a while

•

Jester, from where she stood next to the couch with her hands over Fjord’s ribs, watched Molly make his way through the front door and into the living room. “What does ‘a while’ mean?” she asked as he approached. “Like…how long is that, exactly?”

Molly collapsed onto the sofa opposite them and shrugged. “My best guess? Probably over half a year,” he said glumly. “It’s mostly to raise funding. Gustav says that he’s got to pay off a heavy fine to the city for all the endangerment his ‘employee’ caused before he’s even allowed to start rebuilding, and then there’s the cost of repairs and the cost of new furniture and the cost of new equipment. Not to mention how long it’ll take to actually fix everything. You should keep an eye out too, Fjord,” he added with a nod to the half-orc, “word on the street is that Fletch will also be closed in the meantime. Gustav or Desmond will probably send out some kind of notice later on today.”

Fjord sighed. “Yeah, I figured something like that might happen.”

“What are you going to do in the meantime, then?” Jester asked. “And what’s everybody else doing?”

“I’m not sure about myself yet,” Molly shrugged. “I know Gustav and Desmond are going to stick around and oversee reconstruction. Everyone else is taking time off to travel and visit family. The Sisters are going back to Felderwin for a bit, and Bosun says he’s going to go backpacking through the countryside. Yasha also took off to do…whatever it is she always does. And Ornna’s taking care of Toya now, though I’m not entirely sure what that entails.”

“I take it that Kylre’s out of the picture, then?” Fjord asked.

“Yeah, what exactly happened to him, anyways?” Jester asked. “You need should be less vague over text.”

Molly’s expression immediately went dark. “It’s…not great, dear. Kylre…well, after the authorities determined that he was a fiend, they elected to…to…”

Fjord sat up as best as he could. “What, Molly? What did they do?”

Molly’s shoulders sagged. “They took him to the Zauber Spire,” he said. “They’re banishing him to the Nine Hells.”

“What?!” Jester shouted. “What do you mean, banishing?”

“I mean that they’re going to send him there for good,” Molly mumbled. “According to what Gustav told us, the police decided that because he’s a fiend, he should be sent back to where ‘his kind’ reside. Whatever the fuck that means.”

Fjord reached out a hand as if to comfort him, and then thought better of it.

“Fuck, Mol,” he said instead. “I’m…I’m sorry."

Mollymauk shrugged listlessly. “It’s no fault of yours,” he said. “It was just…shitty. Complete horseshite.”

They sat there in silence for a few more moments. The distant sound of cars honking drifted up from the streets and through the window.

“Well…” Jester tried eventually, “…at least everybody else is okay?”

Molly snorted. “Yeah,” he said, “yeah, at least there’s that. I guess…I don’t know, I guess in a weird way, life will go on. Just without one of the troupe now, and with a lot of dumb financial problems.”

“Fuck…yeah,” Fjord sighed. “This means I gotta find a new place to work. For the time being, anyhow.”

Jester’s eyes went wide. “Oh, shit!” she said. “Does that…does that still mean we can move in? Or are we going to have to wait a bit, now? I mean,” she added hastily, “it’s okay if we do, totally cool—”

Fjord reached for her hand, and she relaxed.

“It’ll be fine,” he said gently. “As soon as my damn ribs get better, I’ll ask around and see what’s available. Maybe there’ll be something I can pick up at the Leaky Tap, or somethin’, and we can go from there. But…Molly, will you be alright?”

Molly hesitated. He thought for a moment about his bank account, and then considered how tired he was.

“I don’t know,” he sighed. “Maybe?”

Jester, despite the mood, giggled. “That doesn’t sound very responsible of you,” she said.

He gave her a half-smile. “We managed to negotiate the rent down for this year, and I’ve got plenty saved up. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually spend that much money.”

“It’s true,” Fjord agreed. “He eats at the Moondrop all the time and gets people to buy him stuff that he sells.”

Molly grinned. “I’m a financial wizard,” he nodded. Then he paused, and added, “but maybe I should look into finding a roommate. If you two decide to go ahead with the apartment plan, that is.”

“We’ll see,” they both said at the same time.

“Alright, you two, alright,” Molly laughed. “Keep me posted. I’m gonna need time if I’m gonna scout someone out that snores less than Fjord. Honestly, I don’t envy you, Jester.”

She started giggling again. “It’s okay,” she said. “I’ll make Caleb find me a silence spell that I can cast on him every night.”

“Hey!” Fjord protested, and then winced. He settled for sinking back down onto the cushions and pouting. “It’s not that bad, is it?”

“It’s really bad,” said Molly. “It’s literally the loudest sound in the entire world.”

•

“That can’t be enough,” Nott commented as she peered over Caleb’s shoulder. “Look at how much water there is! That little cup is nothing.”

“It’s the right amount,” Caleb sighed and turned around to face her. “Believe me, I have done this hundreds of times before.”

“How come?” she asked. “Did you go camping a lot as a kid?”

They were both kneeling in the bathroom, positioned on the tiled floor next to the edge of a very full bathtub. Caleb had begrudgingly dipped into the month’s budgeted water usage, telling himself that he’d take less showers, and after heating the bath with a few magic spells, they were both currently blanketed by a thick layer of steam.

That smelled, rather strongly, of vinegar.

“Not exactly campfires,” Caleb said lightly, “but I suppose that works. Anyways, this is the best way to remove ashy smells from our clothing. I feel terrible, ruining them like this in battle. Especially since your dress was brand new, Nott.”

The little goblin shrugged. “It’s fine,” she said, “I don’t really think they’re ruined.”

“I am sure that you do not, though others may have differing opinions.”

“They always do,” she said solemnly. “I always ignore them.”

They finished hanging up their fancy attire on the neck of the showerhead, then left the bathroom and shut the door tightly behind them. Caleb moved towards his bed, flopped down and buried his face into the pillow. He felt a light weight sink into the mattress near the space by his foot, and he shifted slightly to give Nott more room.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Bitte. Gods, I am exhausted.”

“Me too,” she said. “I don’t even feel like doing anything today.”

“What a night that was, eh?” he asked, muffled but with a mild chuckle. “Certainly more than what I was expecting.”

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted a giant toad monster would turn a guy into a zombie and then fight us in an abandoned warehouse,” said Nott.

There was a beat of silence.

“Ja okay,” he said. “Point taken.”

There was a longer silence after that, in which Nott sprawled upside-down off the edge of the bed and closed her eyes. Caleb shoved his face further into the pillow, and tried to think of a happy place. Or at least, a sleep-inducing one.

Then:

“Those were some pretty good pancakes, though.”

Caleb turned his head. “What?” he asked.

“Those pancakes,” Nott repeated. “That Molly made us. Those were really good.”

He blinked. “Er…yes,” he agreed hesitantly. “They were rather nice, yes.”

“And it was really nice of him to let us use his bathroom,” she said. “And it was nice that he gave us clothes, and blankets, and made us tea. Even if it was creepy tea.”

Caleb nodded slowly. “Yes?” he said. “That is…true. Er…is there something you have to say about all that?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “There is. Last night was just…really nice. I liked it.”

“Despite the death and monster and fighting?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She nodded. “Yeah. To be honest, I don’t think that stuff really matter too much.”

“Was? Why is that?”

Nott smiled. “Because we have friends now,” she said. “A lot of them.”

Caleb rolled over onto his back and stared up at the chipped ceiling. He considered this.

“Ja…I suppose we do.”

Nott’s smile widened. “I like them,” she said. “It was fun before, with just the girls, but after everything we all went through together, it sort of feels like…I guess it sort of feels like this whole group is a family.”

Caleb felt something flicker in his chest. He tamped it down immediately.

“I see,” he said eventually.

Nott giggled. “It’s okay if you don’t want to agree with me. I know the truth, anyhow.”

“Do you? What is that?” he asked, almost dreading the answer.

Nott closed her eyes again. “You like them too,” she said.

For a long, long while, Caleb thought of something to say.

And then, when nothing came, he closed his eyes as well and eventually fell back asleep.

•

“Beauregard!” Jester shouted, bursting into their apartment, “are you awake?! I am home! And ready to…”

She trailed off and looked around the empty kitchen. The lights were off, and the windows drawn shut, leaving only thin trails of light creeping in around the curtains. She dropped her purse, and the plastic bag that held her dress onto the floor, and took a few steps forward.

“Beau?” she called, quieter this time. “…Beau…? Are you there?”

Almost immediately, something began to stir at the back of her mind. Something heavy, and unbidden, and unnerving, and old. She felt her hand unconsciously reach into her pocket, and clutch a small metal object on a thick leather cord. She traced her fingers along its smooth surface, and relaxed slightly as a familiar warmth washed over her.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax further, and had just recovered her signature cheery smile when her eyes caught a single piece of paper lying on the kitchen table.

She ran towards it quicker than she probably would have liked. She immediately began to read the long, looping scrawl across its surface.

Jes—

I went to take care of some shit. I’ll be back tonight, but I’m not sure if I’ll be ready to talk to you about it ‘til later. I trust you more than any of these other assholes we call friends, so please don’t be upset if I don’t say shit when I return, alright? And please, please don’t ask any questions. I promise that the second I’m ready, I’ll tell you everything.

See you later,

Drunkmonk

She stared at the frustratingly short letter for a few more seconds. She flipped it around, saw nothing, then flipped it back over.

“Beau will be back tonight,” she whispered. She took another deep breath, and nodded. She carefully folded the page and slid it into her pocket.

“Did you hear that, Traveler?” she asked the air in front of her. “Beau is fine! She’s just running errands. And, and she said that she trusts me! Isn’t that cool?”

Jester was still, and silent for a moment. Her ears twitched as if listening to a far-off song.

“I agree,” she said eventually. “Also, thanks for helping out earlier with Fjord! I’m really glad he’s okay. And I’m really glad you were there for us.”

Another pause. Another strange, silent hum.

And then she laughed and nodded brightly. “That’s a great idea! Come on, I think I remember where I put it. We were on chapter nine, right?”

And then she skipped into her bedroom, leaving the door wide open behind her.

•

TUSK LOVE 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Today 6:19PM

Seaman: good news yall! Seaman: Wessick says that the Tap’s looking for an evening bartender, and he says ive got the job! Seaman: which ALSO means yall get a friends and family discount for karaoke Seaman: probably Lavender Thunder: HECK YEAH Lavender Thunder: THAT’S AWESOME FJORD Lavender Thunder: why didnt you tell me that to my face though we live in the same house Seaman: i wanted to spread the happy news all at once Molly Seaman: also I still cant move and you went into your bedroom Seaman: sue me (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: that’s AWESOME (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: FJORD IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU Seaman: thank you Jester NottSoBrave: fjord you need to respond more energetically than that NottSoBrave: you shouldnt leave a lady wanting NottSoBrave: otherwise someone could snatch her up Lavender Thunder: oh and what do you know about women? NottSoBrave: i happen to BE a WOMEN NottSoBrave: woman NottSoBrave: whatever NottSoBrave: oh also Caleb says congratulations Seaman: thank you Caleb Seaman: and thanks for the relationship advice, i think? Seaman: don’t mention it Seaman: hey beau and yasha, what’re you going to do? (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: beaus busy right now (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: but im sure she’ll answer later! Lavender Thunder: ditto for yasha Lavender Thunder: that’s just how she do NottSoBrave: how mysterious NottSoBrave: why are they gone? NottSoBrave: is yasha a spy? is Beau a spy Lavender Thunder: yes Lavender Thunder: theyre spies

Nott looked up from her phone screen, stared at Frumpkin dead in his clear blue eyes.

“Hear that?” she said. “I knew it.”

“Spatz!” Caleb called from the kitchen. “Come on, your noodles are getting cold!”

“Coming!” she yelled back. She gave Frumpkin one last solemn nod, then tossed her cell onto the covers and scuttled out of the bedroom.

•

Beau arrived home that night well after sunset. She shut the front door behind her as quietly as she could, but frowned and looked around suspiciously when she noticed that all the lights were still on. Then she saw the living room couch, and her gaze softened.

Jester was laid out on the cushions, fully dressed and fast asleep. There was a tray on the coffee table in front of her, piled high with pastries and sporting a now-chilly cup of hot chocolate. A note next to the tray read:

For Beau!

She sighed. “You little weirdo,” she said, “you didn’t have to wait for me.”

She slid her backpack onto the carpet and carefully lifted Jester into her arms, bridal-style. She made it all the way to Jester’s extravagant canopy bed, and was almost done tucking her in, when she stirred awake.

Jester’s eyes slowly peeked open. Her irises glowed in the darkness.

“Beau?” she mumbled. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, Jes,” she said. “I’m back.”

Jester’s brow furrowed slightly. “You…your face is messed up.”

Beau reached up, felt the tender skin around her bruised eye and split lip. She shrugged and gave Jester a faint smile. “It’s nothing,” she said. “I fell.”

“That’s a lie,” Jester murmured, and closed her eyes. “But it’s okay. You said you trust me, and I trust you too. You can tell me whenever you’re ready.”

Beau was silent for a moment. Then she sighed. “…thanks, Jes,” she said eventually.

“I’m glad you’re home,” came the sleepy response. “I’m glad you came back to me.”

Beau scoffed. “Of course I did,” she said. “Why the fuck wouldn’t I?”

There was no answer. After a moment, Beau pulled the blankets up to Jester’s shoulder, turned around, and went back to her room.

•

And then, after that, life more-or-less returned to whatever semblance of normalcy it had once held, for most of them.

For most of them.

•

TUSK LOVE 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Today 10:22AM

Lavender Thunder: guysssss Lavender Thunder: whos around??!!?? Lavender Thunder: im bored out of my goddamn mind Lavender Thunder: and yashas still gone (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: ughhhh sorry mollyyyy I have class now (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: and Fjord too right now Lavender Thunder: ah its arlight dear Lavender Thunder: anybody else? Drunkmonk: i hate you, so no Drunkmonk: but actually im also doing stuff right now Lavender Thunder: fuck off Lavender Thunder: nott and Caleb? NottSoBrave: calebs working at the library toady NottSoBrave: and I don’t want to hang out with you Lavender Thunder: wow alright then (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: Nott!! Apologize to Molly!! NottSoBrave: sorry Lavender Thunder: gee thanks Lavender Thunder: anyways have fun doing your stuff yall Lavender Thunder: i guess ill ,, read a book or something

Molly lowered his phone.

He was seated on his bed, wrapped up in his silk pajamas, staring out the window at the bright and bustling city landscape beyond.

This was a strange feeling. Here he was warm, and comfortable, and the sunlight gently caressed his skin with its soothing morning rays.

But today he should have been at the Moondrop. Today he should have been in the dark backstage performer’s lounge, helping the sisters with their makeup, or watching Desmond tune his instruments, or failing to stack crates as high as Yasha could, or riffing with Bo or giving Toya piggy-back-rides or pestering Ornna or chatting lazily with Kylre or learning about sound equipment from Gustav or even bemoaning the lack of proper lighting above his dresser mirror as he tried to apply his favorite glittering eyeshadow before the afternoon shows began.

Instead, he was here.

For the first time in his entire, extraordinarily short life, Mollymauk Tealeaf felt alone.

And he realized now, with rising dread, that he had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

• • •

hey guys! Just letting you know, I’m going on a short hiatus now that Arc 1 is complete! Updates will definitely be coming, as I take time to sort out my other WIPs and adjust to college and the UK. Thank you so much for reading!!!

💚 ☕ ☕ 💚

[daveyjacobss]

fall ball | racetrack higgins

inktober day six

reader x racetrack higgins

[newsies modern day au]

summary: Y/N’s totally not in love with her best friend’s brother. Definitely not. (Okay, maybe a little.)

a/n: this is eh??? like idk i literally don’t actually have an opinion on this. hope y’all enjoy, though. tomorrow’s inktober will be posted earlier bc i’ll have people at my house later in the day, so look out for that :)

__________

Y/N was sat at her friend Sofia's kitchen table as they worked on ideas for decorating the school for gym for the Fall Ball, as they were co presidents of the committee. Occasionally, they would get distracted talking about Halloween costumes or where they could go shopping for dresses for the dance, but they had papers upon papers laid out on the table with sketches, budgets, and lists of items and ideas.

"I think if we set up the pumpkins and hay bales towards the stage it'll be more out of the way of the crowds," Y/N pointed out. Sofia nodded along, scribbling something down in her notebook. The sound of the front door opening and closing interrupted their temporary silence and Y/N tensed slightly. She'd almost forgotten the warning Sofia had given her about her brother probably coming home with a few of his friends while they were working. She listened as their footsteps and voices grew louder, getting closer to the kitchen were they sat. She leaned over a paper, adding random lines to one of the sketches to give herself something to do so she didn't have to look at them when they inevitably walked in. Sofia's brother was too much of a distraction. Y/N got tongue tied whenever she was around him, unable to focus or compose herself in her usual, confident manner. She caught Sofia smirking in the corner of her eye, elbowing her friend, who then laughed loudly. Sofia was well aware of her best friend's crush on her brother.

"What's so funny?" Race asked, entering the kitchen with Albert and Jack following behind him. Y/N's face flushed a light shade of pink as she grabbed a random list and began to read through it, checking random items off. Sofia stopped laughing, though still snickered a bit when she saw Y/N hunched over their papers and avoiding eye contact at all costs.

"Your face," Sofia retorted, sticking her tongue out at her brother. His friends chuckled as he rolled his eyes.

"You guys working on the Fall Ball stuff?" Albert asked, pulling out a chair and spinning it around so that he was sitting on it backwards. It was Y/N's turn to snicker as Sofia blushed slightly.

"Yeah," she answered, biting her lip. "We're trying to figure out all the budgets and decorations and stuff." Albert nodded, sparing the Higgins girl a small smile. Sofia wouldn't believe her if Y/N told her that Albert only ever smiled at her like that, but it was true.

"Oh, Jack!" Y/N turned to Jack, seemingly forgetting her nerves as she remembered she had meant to ask him something. "We decided on the mural at our last meeting - you said you'd paint it, right?" Jack smiled kindly at her.

"Yeah, sure," he answered. "If it's a lot I might have to get some help, but it should be fine." Y/N smiled gratefully at him, quickly writing something down on a lined piece of paper that was filled with nearly illegible notes.

"We're headed down to the basement," Race said as he moved toward the basement door. Sofia nodded in acknowledgement as the three boys went down the stairs. It was quiet in their absence, but only a few seconds.

"You'd think after all these years you'd be better at talking to him," Sofia laughed, leaning back in her chair as she smiled at her friend. "I ought to just tell him you like him," she teased.

"You wouldn't" Y/N stated matter-of-fact-ly.

"Yes I would," Sofia challenged.

"No, you wouldn't. Because if you did I would tell Albert that you've had a crush on him since sixth grade." Sofia's eyes widened as Y/N smiled tauntingly. Eventually, they returned to their work, choosing to call a truce.

_________

It was a little while later when Race came back up the stairs, telling the girls they were going to order a pizza and asking if they wanted anything. They declined, having already eaten.

"I'm going to show Jack the idea for the painting while you're up here," Sofia stood up. Race simply waved her off as he spoke on the phone. When the basement door closed behind Sofia, Y/N realized with a start that she was along with a Race - a situation that sounded much nicer than it always ended up being. Once he ended the call she expected him to go back down to join his friends, but instead he sat next to her where Sofia had been just a minute before.

"So they just put you guys in charge of everything?" He asked leaning on the table as he watched her draw one o their ideas for the layouts of the decorations. She hummed in response, nodding slightly. It took all her willpower not to look at his gorgeously blue eyes. "When's the ball, again?"

"October 14th," she responded, finally putting her pencil down and facing him. She had to take a second to catch her breath once she looked at his face, taking in his kind eyes and gentle smile. It was as if he could tell she was nervous, and he was trying to calm her down. "Tickets go on sale on Monday," she blurted out. "Are you planning on going?" She knew that he and his friends didn't always attend the school dances, but she couldn't help but hope he would go to this one, considering all the work she was putting into it.

"I was thinking about it," he answered. He glanced at the piles of papers, his tongue darting out of his mouth and running over his lips. She almost melted.

"That's good, I think Sofia would like it if you came and saw everything we're working on." The faint blush on her cheeks returned as she spoke.

"Especially if I brought Albert with me, right?" He grinned. She couldn't help but laugh, nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, she'd probably love that." The conversation lapsed and they fell into a semi awkward silence before Race broke it.

"Would you want me to come?" He asked suddenly, carefully gauging her reaction. She looked at him, surprised.

"Oh, I mean - it'd be cool if you came, I guess, to see everything, ya know?" Inside her head, she swore at herself for being so weird. Race simply nodded, smiling at her. She looked away with a red face, praying for Sofia to return from her trip to the basement.

"Do you have date?" If she had been drinking water, she would have spit it out.

"No," she choked out, her face turning a shade of red she hadn't even known was possible.

"Do you want one?" He was smirking as he watched her open and close her mouth rapidly.

"Excuse me?" She stared at him with wide eyes, her cheeks as warm as they could be.

"Sorry, I should probably clarify: would you like to be my date?" She gaped at him. Race - gorgeous, unbelievably attractive, insanely nice and funny Race , Sofia's brother Race - was asking her to the Fall Ball? "Well?"

"Yes," she finally whispered. "Yes, I'd love to." Race beamed.

"Great," he responded. He leaned in and kissed her cheek before standing up with a childish, giddy smile, heading for the basement. "October 14th, then. I'll pick yo u up?" He asked before he opened the door. She nodded numbly and he just kept smiling as he descended into the basement.

"What're you so happy about?" Sofia's voice drifted into the kitchen. Y/N couldn't hear Race's reply but, then again, she didn't really need to. When Sofia reentered the kitchen she laughed at Y/N's red face and wide eyes. "What'd he do? Try to talk to you?" She snickered.

"He asked to be his date to the Fall Ball," Y/N responded. Sofia's jaw dropped.

"He what?" She grinned, punching the air in victory. "Oh my god, Jack totally owes me money. Come on!" Sofia grabbed her arm and Y/N let herself be dragged down into the basement, where Sofia demanded twenty dollars from Jack, who tried to bargain that his payment could be painting the mural fro the dance. Y/N simply watched with a smile, laughing occasionally. Each time she met Race's eyes she could feel her face flush and her heart speed up.

When he showed up at her door in a button up and a tie on October 14th, she smiled brightly. When he held her hand during the car ride, she beamed. When they danced the night away with Albert and Sofia (who had been talked into asking Albert by Y/N), she was practically radiating happiness.

__________

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[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 26)

“She okay?” Wei signed as Ruby passed by, a worried expression on his face.

Ruby shrugged, but gave him a reassuring smile before she headed back to the sound-proofed room.

Aqua was still there and idly looking through her scroll, perking up as she Ruby slip back in. “Oh, hey, welcome back!” she said, smiling. It fell slightly as she asked, “Is Weiss okay…?”

“Ah, I’m not really sure,” Ruby said as she closed the door behind her. “She said she wanted to be alone for a while...”

Aqua frowned. “Oh. Alright. Fair enough.”

“So…” Ruby started.

“You want to know how me and Weiss knew each other...?” Aqua asked flatly.

“Actually, I was going to ask you if you had any of these parts that Yang needs for repairing Bumblebee…” Ruby said as she pulled out her scroll. “It’s a total replacement job for a LOT of vital components, like the entire engine.”

Aqua blinked. “Oh. Yeah! Sure, I can help you with that! You looking for any parts specifically, or do you want to give me a budget and a spec range?”

“Little bit of both, actually,” Ruby said as she sat down and projected the list over to Aqua. “Ideally, it’s exact replacements for everything, but she’ll be happy with downgrades, so long as Bumblebee starts running again, period.”

“What did she do to her this time? Spin out of control while she was making a sharp turn going downhill, and sent her sailing off a cliff again?”

“Nah, Bumblebee got shot up with bullets while Yang was making a getaway, and afterwards she boosted her to total failure to lose the people chasing her, Amanda, and Jaune.”

Aqua’s eyebrows rose, the fins on her arms and on the sides of her head flaring up in fear.

“Don’t worry! They weren’t shooting AT Yang or anyone else, she just thought it’d be a good idea to drive through a back-alley gun deal while they were test-firing—you know, make them think twice about following her.”

“… Oh, well, I guess… that’s... not as bad...?” Aqua forced a smile. “… Anyway, let’s go see what we have, and what it might cost you!”

After a good fifteen minutes of banter, bartering, and checking with their suppliers, Aqua gave Ruby a digital list of parts, what they might cost, and how soon they might be able to acquire them. “Wow, any way you paint it, this is going be really expensive, isn’t it?” Ruby said as she looked at the estimated totals.

Aqua chuckled. “We don’t call the shop the ‘Arm And A Leg’ for nothing! It’ll cost just an arm or a leg if you convince her to lower the bar for a ‘downgrade,’ though”

Ruby smiled and shook her head. “I know Yang: it’s at least Orochi, or nothing at all.”

“Oh well, her choice,” Aqua replied. “Anything else you needed today, Ruby?”

“Nope, that was it!” Ruby replied as she stood up. “Thanks, Aqua, I’ll probably be back here in a couple of weeks once Yang finds a new hustle—might be longer, now that Bumblebee’s out of commission, though...”

“You’re welcome, Ruby!” Aqua said, smiling.

Ruby put her hand to the lever doorknob, stopped when Aqua suddenly rolled up to her, and grabbed her other arm. “Wait, Ruby!” she cried. Ruby looked at her, Aqua hesitated for a moment, before she quietly asked, “Can you make sure Weiss is okay…?”

Ruby smiled, and gave her a thumbs up. “I was already going to do that, don’t worry.”

Aqua sighed, and smiled back. “Thank you. I seriously owe you one,” she said as she let go.

“You’re welcome!” Ruby said, before she stepped out out to the shop, and back to the cart. She frowned as she didn’t hear much of anything except deep, slow breaths. “Weiss…?” she called out. “You okay in there?”

“No, not by a long-shot...” Weiss replied, her voice low and hoarse, but at least it sounded like she’d stopped crying.

“You want to head back to Haven now?” Ruby asked.

“No… let’s get your chores over first, I don’t want to be any more of a bother than I’ve already been...”

“I don’t mind, Weiss—I actually really like having you with me while I do my chores,” Ruby said as she climbed back on her bike. “It’s nice to have someone to talk to, and just hanging out with you in general.”

Out of sight, sprawled out on the cart with her head below the level of the sides, Weiss smiled, if only a little.

“You ready to go hit our last stop?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah...”

“You need some help drinking some water first?” Ruby asked. “You sound like you could really use it.”

“Yes, thank you...” Weiss mumbled.

Ruby climbed into the back with Weiss, put her hand to the water bottle. “Man, real glad we borrowed that umbrella earlier; this’d have probably been undrinkable if it’d been out in the sun,” she said as she cracked open the cap.

“It’s been undrinkable since you were gone...” Weiss grumbled. “Why’d they have to give us such a big bottle without a tap or anything?!”

“Dunno! But just drink up, Weiss, you’ll feel a lot better,” Ruby said as she held up the bottle up for Weiss. “It’s one of the very first things they teach us at self-care class at the Bunker, actually!”

“Heh...” Weiss said as sat up, held her hands over the edge of the cart. “It’s funny… Grandma always did go on and on about the importance of staying hydrated.”

Ruby poured some out onto Weiss hands for her to rinse them off, before she drank the rest or splashed it on her face, soothe the stinging of her eyes. “Enough!” Weiss cried as she pulled her hands away, wiped the excess water off her face. “That’s enough… thanks, Ruby.”

“You’re welcome, Weiss,” Ruby said, before she put the bottle away and climbed back on her bike. “Just tell me if there’s anything else you might need! We could even get a snack again, in case you’re hungry, or just need it to feel better.”

Weiss sighed, and shook her head. “Like I said, let’s just go… you don’t need to fuss over me this much!”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“Till we get back to Haven, please.”

“Okay,” Ruby said as she started pedaling again. “Sorry, it’s just that I did this all the time back at the Bunker.”

“Oh? Did your dad rope you into being his little teacher’s assistant?”

“Nah, I just want to help! Though, coincidentally, he is one of the staff who got opted for extra training for emotional crises. Depressive episodes, anxiety attacks, delusional moments—he’s pretty much handled it all, and so have I, and generally we never needed to elevate to one of the psych nurses.

“Guess it really helped we already knew a lot of those techniques from when we went through our own dark stuff.”

Weiss’ eyes widened; she hesitated, all manner of expressions playing out on her face. “Do you… do you mind if I pry…?” she asked, quietly and carefully.

“Sure! Gotta warn you though, it’s really heavy stuff.”

Weiss sighed. “I’ll be fine, Ruby, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Okay! But just speak up when it gets too heavy for you, okay?”

“You want to establish a safeword while we’re at it, for future use?” Weiss joked.

“How about ‘Oatmeal’?” Ruby suggested seriously. “Alongside OJ and whatever was in the greenhouse, it’s what we were guaranteed to have at the Bunker whenever a food delivery happened to be late for whatever reason.”

“Have a thing against oatmeal?” Weiss asked.

Ruby shuddered. “You have no idea.”

“’Oatmeal’ it is, then,” Weiss replied.

“Okay!” Ruby chirped. “So, I guess you could say it all started when my mom died.”

Weiss blinked. “Wow. Straight to the point, huh?”

“Yeeep. She was a huntress, and Dad thought it was just going to be another extended mission, until she never came back; never really found out what happened to her, either.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

Ruby shrugged again. “Eh, I was two at the time, didn’t really remember much of anything… Yang said I was really broken up about it, though. If there was one thing for sure, though, it was that after the Lodge sent the official letter saying they’d stopped looking for mom, Dad pretty much just...

“… Shut down.

“He was always the kind, caring, goofy friend, you know? Everyone’s new best friend, brightens up a room just by walking into it, always ready to crack a joke, or offer his shoulder to whoever needed it. Yeah, he was weird, like how he always sent our dog Zwei through the mail whenever he needed someone to take care of him, but it was a good kind of weird.”

“Wait… he sent your dog through the mail…? How is that not animal cruelty? No, wait, scratch that, how did he survive…?”

“Dad unlocked Zwei’s aura a long time ago, and he always makes sure to pack in plenty of dog food plus a can opener, the manual kind, so he never needs to go looking for batteries or a power outlet.”

“… I… see… please, go on.”

“Alright! Anyway, after he got the letter, it was like you’d just flicked the off-switch on everything that made Dad, well... Dad!

“He never got too drunk too many times like Uncle Qrow, never got into drugs, didn’t go disappearing for long times going who knows where, didn’t go bringing strangers back to the house, he was still good to cook food and do chores around the house, just generally kept me and Yang alive, clean, and healthy, but you could tell that his heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

“Didn’t have the words for it then, and it took a while for Dad to admit it himself, but he became depressed; not as bad as it could get, but still not good by a long-shot, either.”

The conversation paused as they reached the line between the commercial districts areas and the industrial areas; traffic officers started to point them away from the more secretive and secure factories, they started riding on the sidewalk as more and more delivery trucks and heavy industrial equipment started taking up all lanes of the street.

“It’s a big part of why we moved from Patch to Mistral, actually!” Ruby continued, raising her voice as the hum and groan of traffic and whirring machinery filled the air. “The doctors said it might be good if he had a change of scenery, started afresh, got away from all the memories. Well, that and he’d have much better, easier access to mental health services and therapy here in Mistral than back in Patch.”

“But why not just move to Vale, or one of the other cities? Too close to home still?”

“Mom, dad, Aunt Raven, and Uncle Qrow all met while they were studying in Beacon. They were in the same team together actually—STRQ—and they’d pretty much been everywhere there was in Vale.”

“Ah. That explains it.”

“Anyway, Uncle Qrow’s and Dad’s benefits from teaching or being an active huntsman technically could have let us move anywhere, but they both decided it might be best if they chose someplace dad was already familiar in.

“Sure, Mistral changes from day to day, but some things about it just always stay the same, and he had plenty of friends who were still here or moved back themselves, and were ready to help, even after all these years; Dad’s the kind of guy that really leaves a lasting impression on you, you see.”

Weiss smiled. “I don’t doubt that.”

Conversation stopped again as Ruby headed down another series of winding paths, to the older, quieter half of the industrial section—saw mills, quarries, factories that still produced hand-crafted weapons made of traditional materials like wood and metal, with a handful of more modern establishments that used the same raw materials.

“Yang and a lot of the adults said it was all the love and support that got him out of his depression, and yeah, it is super important, having a strong support network, but even back then, I knew it also had a lot to do with the pills he had to take on the reg, the visits to the therapists over at the Lodge.

“It was actually why Yang and I started working as couriers—Uncle Qrow’s drinking and getting in trouble sometimes made it… difficult for us to claim family benefits.”

Weiss winced. “That’s unfortunate...”

Ruby shrugged. “It happens. And it’s what we had to do, to help him get better. That’s why dad and me do a lot of things, actually—someone needs help, we can give it, so we do. Doesn’t matter if it was hunting down Grimm and keeping people safe, someone to help haul their groceries in, or get better when they were sick, whether or not you could tell from just a look.

“It’s actually one of the reasons I really liked the Bunker—there was no shame about whatever it was about you, if it was in the DSM, a medical manual, or you just couldn’t fit in with all the other combat schools, we just helped each other out, when we needed help.”

“Well, that’s the end of my story—oh, neat, we’re almost at the paper mill, too!”

“Huh! That’s convenient!” Weiss said, sitting up. “Where is it, anyway?”

“Just past the Bunyan Logging Co. mills!”

Weiss blinked, the blood draining from her face. “… Wait… did you just say Bunyan Logging Co….?” she whispered.

Ruby stopped, slowed down as she looked over her shoulder. “Uh… yeah! Should I have mentioned that earlier…?”

As if on cue, a pickup truck with tinted windows and the logo of the Timber Wolves gang came roaring up a side street, swerving to a stop right in front of them, its tires squealing and leaving feet-long skid marks on the road as it jumped the curb and came onto the sidewalk, Ruby and Weiss bracing themselves as the car almost hit the bike.

It stopped just inches away, the first-rate suspension and brakes jerking the car to a complete stop, but Ruby and Weiss stayed tense as the gangbangers started climbing out of the back, and stepping out from the car, picking up or being given wooden weapons like baseball bats, Arnis sticks, and staves.

They started surrounding them from all sides as the driver stepped out of the car, and Weiss’ worst fears were confirmed.

“Well, well, well… lookit what we have here...” said a muscular teen in a black-brown-white flannel shirt, the stubble on his square jaw well on its way to becoming an impressive beard, a wicked grin of mostly metal on his face as he rhythmically thumped his baseball bat in his palm.

It wasn’t hard for Weiss to notice that he’d shaved the side of his head since she last saw him, so everyone could see the massive, stitched-up scar there.

“What do you want, Woody?” Ruby asked warily. “Last I heard, Yang didn’t have any beef with you.”

“That she doesn’t, Little Red, ‘cause your sister’s smart in that respect, at least…” Woody pointed his baseball bat at Weiss. “Snow White and her Fish Fry ex, on the other hand...” he muttered, his eyes narrowing.

Ruby looked at him, then back at Weiss in confusion and worry. “Weiss…?”

Weiss sighed as she sat up, resting her hands on the edge of the cart as she looked at him. “Woody, just let us pass… I’ve got money, I can pay your ‘toll,’ or whatever it is you want to call it.”

“Oh, I’m not interested in your moolah, Weiss,” Woody growled, Ruby tensing up as he came right beside her, Weiss’ knuckles turning white as his face came level with hers. “You see, there was a reason we went for Aqua in the middle of that rainstorm all those years back…”

The rest of the Timber Wolves began to close in, raising their weapons up threateningly.

“She thought she could get away with fucking with us like that, and we wanted to show that even if you’re literally a fish Faunus surrounded by water, you can’t get away from Saul Bunyan’s crew, use her to send a clear message to everyone else who was thinking they could screw with us.”

Woody grabbed the edge of the cart with his free hand, brought his face right up to Weiss, fire in his eyes and a snarl on his lips. “Your coming to her rescue did the exact opposite of that, and then some.”

“Fuck off, Woody!” Weiss spat, scowling right back.

“And how about I don’t?!” Woody snapped. “The Wolves rep took a BIG hit that day, Weiss, and I’m still struggling to get the respect I used to, back before you gave me this lovely souvenir on my noggin ‘fore you we thought you left the lower levels for good.”

Weiss felt Woody’s hand wrap around the front of her dress; too exhausted, she couldn’t stop him as he pulled her right out of the cart, threw her onto the ground. Weiss gasped as her back hit the pavement, she lay sprawled out on the road.

She opened her eyes, found Woody and the other Wolves surrounding her, so thick she could only catch a glimpse of Aqua running away through the space between their legs, before before they started bringing their bats, sticks, and staves down on her, over, and over, and over again.

“Weiss!” Ruby screamed as she jumped off the bike. “I’m—wha, hey! Let go of me!” she screamed as two more Wolves caught her, held her back as she thrashed and kicked at them.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

The blows came, one after the other, on her head, on her chest, on her arms as she tried to put up her aura and defend herself, pouring down like the rain assaulting all of Mistral, her blood washing away with the thick floodwaters coursing down the streets.

Unseen to them all, a glowing white glyph started to form right by Weiss, spinning violently and radiating brighter and brighter... but not to Aqua, rushing back to the scene with a harried and miserable police officer in tow.

Flash!

The thugs shielded themselves against what they thought was lightning streaking through the sky, only to find a giant blue-white alpha beowulf standing right beside them. It casually brushed off the remains Ruby’s shattered cart, all the Timber Wolves stopped and stepped away, except for their leader.

Woody raised his bat over Weiss’ head once more, bloodlust and glee in his eyes; he brought it crashing down on her, blinked and looked up when he felt a strong, powerful force suddenly stop it in mid-air.

The alpha calmly pulled it out of Woody’s hands, gripped it itself in one claw, then smashed it sideways into his head, on the side opposite his scar.

Crack!

The wooden baseball bat rang but remained unscathed, as was the Bunyan Guarantee, Woody’s skull was not quite as durable. As he hit the ground, the water near his head running red, his goons screamed, dropped their weapons, and tried to run…

… But unfortunately for them, the Beowulf was much faster, stronger, and angrier.

[marsymallows]

Yes, you read it right! I finally did it! I went on a solo trip for the first time and it’s for my 30th birthday!!

I’ve been thinking of doing this for the longest time as I love TRAVELING, and lately, I love being ON MY OWN. Put those together, and what do you get? Labo! Seriously, you can just do the math! Haha!

I booked this trip probably around April (when we got our bonus) and when PAL had one of their seat sales, which was very timely. I did not book any baggage allowance yet as I wanted to backpack around the island and I wanted to teach myself how to pack light this time. So total cost was around Php 1,100 round freaking trip!!!!!!

Weeks prior to the trip, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna push through as the weather didn’t look so good, plus I was a bit short on moolah as I am not doing well at my sales job, but since I was turning 30 naman na and I saved up pa rin naman, plus, I, really, really wanted to do something new, I did it!!! My adventurous self was poking me constantly that I got annoyed so sige na, push na this!

The week prior to the trip, I was still sooooo busy implementing activities. I even traveled to one of my remote territories the day before, so you can just imagine how tired I was from the long drive, but that didn’t stop me! In fact, I was sooooo excited, I packed my bag a few days prior. Usually, I’d pack my luggage the night before a trip, which brings me to ehem, the things I learned on my first ever solo trip!

  PACK YOUR BAG EARLY! – Ok so you guys probably already know this, but did I say that this post was about you? Charot! Nang-away? Anyhooooo, I normally pack my bags the night before, coz that’s the time that I don’t have to worry about my deodorant getting lost in my luggage when I haven’t put on any yet. Same with my slippers, undies etc. This time, I started packing my stuff at least 2 days prior, so I had time to sort through my beach OOTD’s, my swimwear, my scarves (always!). I had time to check my travel toiletries so I could buy whatever’s lacking. I was also able to organize my stuff in separate travel pouches especially my cords, chargers, batteries!

RESULT:I was able to eliminate excess stuff as I had time to really think about what I am going to wear based on my itinerary. Unfortunately, I still had to buy prepaid baggage allowance. I guess I really am no expert at PACKING SHYET, I mean, PACKING LIGHT. I guess this was still a FAIL, nevertheless, I still tried (so it’s a WIN too!) and that’s what matters. For my next beach trip though, I would really want to pack less than 7kg! Challenge accepted!

my backpack weighed 10kg at 50L! My shoulder bag weighed 6.5kg! LIGHT PACKER BA KAMO? Haha!

DO A LOT OF RESEARCH! NO ONE’S GONNA DO IT FOR YOU THIS TIME! Normally, my brother and sister would do all the research for our family trips, from the itinerary, to hotels and transport to restaurants to try and shopping districts to visit. Same with trips with my friends. I have a friend in Cebu who does all the financial stuff, so we would all just depend on her on how much we would all have to pay individually when the bills come. The only time I did really heavy research was for our first Japan trip coz I had all the time in the world (I was unemployed at the time haha). So It’s not like I am useless when traveling. See, I could do it if I want to, and this time, I HAD TO. Thanks to all the bloggers, vloggers, influencers, Biyahe ni Drew, and my bro for all the tips, the tricks and all the things they learned from their trips to Camiguin.

RESULT: I was able to browse through different options and finally book my accommodations the best way possible (Thanks Agoda and Booking.com). I was able to put together my own itinerary (without having to consider the preferences of another–yay for solo trips). Although 70% of my research was literally just spoon fed by my brother who went to Camiguin a few months earlier, I still am proud of myself for being able to juggle these last minute reservations with TONS of WORK!!

IF THERE’S AN OPTION TO PAY CHEAPER, GO FOR IT! – This is probably a result of doing number 2 too. No, it’s not the #2 you’re thinking about! I was referring to DOING YOUR RESEARCH.

If you happen to find out how much things really cost ahead of time, say for example, renting a scooter to go around the island on, you wouldn’t pay Php 500 for a 24 hour use!!!! And yes, I am speaking from experience. Sadly, I forgot how much my brother paid for his when he rented one. I didn’t have time to scroll through our looooooooooong IG conversation, so I paid Php 500 instead of just Php 250-300!

When commuting, try to find out how to go around like the locals do (thanks bro and our hotel receptionists for the tips!)! It would help you save big time! On my 3rd day, I commuted on Camiguin’s public transport, aka their relas/motorelas and paid around Php 11 the most!

Camiguin motorela and the Samuel by Vjandep restaurant in the background!

Also, when you’re alone in say some sort of public pool with tables for rent, you don’t have to rent a whole table for your stuff and pay Php 75. Sadly, I also did, when I could just have left my bag and slippers beside the pool itself.

For food, try walking around your hotel, look for restaurants where the locals eat, or again, do your research and check reviews of previews visitors to get the “bung for your buck!”. You don’t really have to go cheap for food, but it would be soooooo nice to have a sumptuous for an incredibly affordable seafood lunch or dinner!

Hayahay Cafe’s famous smoothie bowl!

For your accommodation: Since this was my birthday trip, I booked a night at a pricier place, Ysla Beach Camp and Eco Resort for the glamping experience and I must say that it was worth every penny! Then I transferred to a budget hotel, GV hotel which was equally worth my hard earned money coz it was in the middle of everything and I was really comfortable as well! My room was just Php 500 a night! I just added P25/night to transfer to an air-conditioned room. I will be making a separate post for my trip itinerary so I will be writing a more extensive review of the land arrangements!

Another tip for budget travelers going to Camiguin, I paid friggin Php 200 for my boat ride to White Island instead of Php 450-500, though the guilt trip afterwards still kills me to this day! LOL! Instead of finding and convincing a group of 3 or perhaps a couple to take you along with them on their boat (boat can only accommodate 4 tourists and 2-3 boatmen) before you go to the cashier, try going directly to the cashier at the port and wait for a group to approach her and pay her, before you tell them that you are on your own and you’re looking for a group to join. This way, they would have paid their 550 each and you’re just gonna have to pay a joiner fee of Php 200. You can talk to the group if they wish to split the payment equally and pay them after. That’s what I did, but the couple didn’t want my money! So I saved 300-350 bucks! Again, I don’t recommend this, but you can most definitely try!

RESULT: Need I say more?

MAKE SURE TO LET PEOPLE KNOW YOUR ITINERARY! – I was in constant communication with my brother and my family, just in case I get in any accident or into any serious situation. And you can also get in touch with friends through video call if you can! It will be less lonely! LOL!

rtc-capture-id:8ef9e88f-6341-4b17-8c66-8d6ab9f1722a

RENT A SCOOTER OR MOTORCYCLE! – I need not emphasize this!! This is the best way for you to go around the island, on your own time and terms. Of course, there are risks of you being flagged down by NPA’s (JK! there are NONE!), or crashing with no one to rescue you (there’s no cell service in some parts of the island) or getting robbed (not that I heard any) but it’s part of the adventure! TBH, it was my first time riding one and I was manhandled by it. JK! The first time I was ever on a scooter (which was manual transmission pa) was back in high school/college (about 10-15 years ago) and my tito was just letting us have a feel of it around an almost carless cemetery. So I have no experience of riding one on public roads ever, but like what they always say, long as you know how to ride a bike, you’re good to go! Funny coz when the owner was handing it to me, I asked him 3x how to lock the bike when getting off (to avoid it getting robbed), how to start the ignition etc that he started to worry too. He even offered to drive me around instead, but I was firm to say “hindi kuya, gusto ko ako lang!” Tapang-tapangan eh! Solo travel nga diba? Nagtataray na naman? Char! Kidding aside, I told him firmly but in a nice way that I wanted to go around on my own. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to write about it here as part of my personal milestones! Yun lang pala!

LESSONS LEARNED: Always bring your driver’s license with you when you travel. I left mine at home, in Cebu, so I drove to the airport and back without one too! So, on my 3rd day in Camiguin, I commuted on motorelas, which was equally fun as it got me to talk to the locals and foreign tourists alike!

BE SURE TO KNOW YOUR WAY AROUND THE ISLAND! – Download the map so you could still navigate offline! Know where the tourist spots are! Ask around! I relied on Google Maps the whole time and it’s a good thing that you can literally go around the island via their circumferential road!

SUPPORT LOCAL! – This one I’m proud to say I do in all my travels! Who doesn’t? Try the local cuisine all you want coz you are gonna miss them for sure! I always make it a point to buy cute artisan products coz I love ANYTHING HANDMADE and HANDCRAFTED and ANKLETS! The one I wore on this trip was from El Nido! Talk to the artists or restaurant owners and ask them about their passion, for inspiration in your own life! LESSON LEARNED: Talking to owners and artists is what I got to learn how to do in future solo travels! I need to be less awkward and less shy! LOL! 

BUY A TRIPOD WITH BLUETOOTH REMOTE CONTROLLER! – This was probably the first on my list of things to buy before I went on this trip! My friend, Dee recommended the Xiaomi selfie stick and tripod in one! It doesn’t extend that long, but it is sturdy and reliable as hell! Dayum these Mi products really are worth your money! You can easily slip it inside your beach bag as it isn’t bulky at all! You can also attached the bluetooth controller into the stick so you don’t have to worry about it getting lost! Got it for P799!

MAKE FRIENDS! – I traveled solo to have peace of mind and to not worry about wasting other people’s time, but it wouldn’t hurt to talk to a few strangers along the way. I may be an introvert, but that definitely doesn’t mean that I’m antisocial. There’s a thick line between those two coz I love talking to people. Ang defensive? I like getting to know people and hearing their stories, but in an intimate way. I don’t like big groups unless I’m comfortable with everyone. I get energy from having time for myself, but also from talking to people who inspire me, have a laugh with me and all that shizz.

In this particular trip, I got to know 2 other guests at Ysla Beach Camp. We only got to talk at breakfast before we all checked out and like everyone I met on this trip, they were surprised that I was on my own! I found out that one of them was from Cebu too, and they gladly shared tips on where to spend the sunset at.

The night before, it was one of the senior staff, ate Bing whom I talked to while waiting for my food. She shared stories about the whole Biyahe Ni Drew Crew including the main man himself **coughs so gwapo! **coughs and compared him to Atom Araullo who also visited their resort in the past.

At the Church ruins, I met this little boy named Christian, who took all of my amazing IG-worthy photos. He directed me and shot my photos in less than 5 minutes! Fastest photoshoot ever and I was surprised by how beautiful everything turned out. Walang tapon! 

Lastly, on my motorela ride back to the airport (which took less than 10 mins), I met this hilarious couple who pep-talked me about career women marrying late in life. Buti na lang kasabut na ko ug Bisaya (ngek mali pa rin pala!) and was laughing the whole time, I almost missed my stop! LESSON LEARNED: Travel solo and talk to strangers, one thing you won’t be able to do much when you’re traveling with someone! And one more thing, be courteous and grateful and give the locals your best smile always!

BE GENEROUS WITH YOUR TIPS! – I know that it sometimes feel unnecessary to do so, but find it in your heart to give back because people working in tourism even those kids who offered to take such good photos of you deserve it! I know most of you are probably so generous when traveling, so good for you!

BRING A BOOK OR TWO!  – This may be the right time for you to finally start the book you’ve been wanting to read for the longest time, so make the most of it! It will be perfect especially if your room has no TV and no WIFI!

BE ONE WITH NATURE and ENJOY THE LITTLE THINGS! – Go camping! Wake up early and catch the sunrise by the beach! I never miss sunrises on vacation! It’s my most favorite thing to do! Usually while walking along the shore, I’d be accompanied by dogs and I would meet a couple of fishermen prepping their boat and nets! Go out and enjoy the view and the fresh air! Go for a swim! Take lots of photos and videos to reminisce memories with! Then get rid of your phones for a while or maybe just go offline for a bit and turn off your playlists and listen to the sound of nature instead! Reflect and contemplate. Paint!Pray! Walk around the city early in the morning before everyone wakes up! Walk around at night too especially if the area looks safe! Enjoy these little, big things! LESSON LEARNED: BEING ONE WITH NATURE IS ONE OF THE BEST FEELINGS IN THE WORLD!

BE GRATEFUL! – Life is beautiful so be grateful for opportunities to travel, to try something new, to meet new people, learn about their culture, for the chance to unwind and rest from all the chaos, for the time and space to reflect on your life. Good things are always present in our lives and we just fail to recognize them! For this trip, I thank the Lord over and over again. I was anticipating some travel mishaps, but I almost had none! I’m grateful that I did not crash my scooter, nor did I encounter a police checkpoint. I’m grateful for all the people who assisted me.

awra awra thanks to my selfie stick/tripod!

I’m grateful for the people who shared their stories with me! I’m grateful for the beauty that is Camiguin! It is now my favorite trip by far because I did it NOT ON MY OWN, but with GOD and with EVERYONE who helped me out!

  Things I Learned from my First Ever Solo Trip / Camiguin Yes, you read it right! I finally did it! I went on a solo trip for the first time and it's for my 30th birthday!!

[kchatjjigae]

And then there were two.

As Miss Leila winged back to the states this morning, it just leaves your intrepid travelers SaraG and I to pick up the mantle and scour the streets of Seoul looking for the interesting. Today we find the interesting by hunting down Korea’s National Treasure #1, seeing a man about a fortress wall, hiking up-up-up to Namsang tower, jaunting off to lock some locks to a fence, try to gauge just how big is too big in shirts for SaraG, me finally break down and buy that jacket I’d been thinking about for days, but not before completely blowing the budget on an impulse buy, then we end the day and possibly our relationship, with a trip to the Han River. 

Sound like a lot? Oh, it was. Wait until you see our step count for the day! 

While we did our friendly duty and got up to see Leila off to her taxi for her early morning flight, we promptly curled back into beds and chilled, deciding we didn’t have the need to jump out of bed to push, push, push. Oh, we’ll take it easy we said. Just figure out as we go along, we said. 

We were fools. 

Once we deemed an appropriate time had passed for us to have considered ourselves ‘slept in,’ we poured over my tourist maps and the guidebook left to us by our Airbnb host….or possibly Leila. I can’t remember which. We considered what was left on each of our to-do list, which was surprising, not as much as we had figured. Making a decision which didn’t have too many rounds of “what do you want to do?”, we decided we were going to start out by hunting down Sungnyemun Gate, which is, officially, Korea’s National Treasure #1 (Since 1962). Sungnyemun Gate is one of the 8 gates along the fortress wall which surrounded the city during the Joseon Dynasty. The history on this gate is pretty amazing, from the reconstructions to the demolition of the outer walls during the Japanese occupancy to the arson which burned down the top wooded pagoda in 2008 by someone who has also set fire to one of the palaces. (Dude. Side note, what an A-HOLE) Check out their Wikipedia page here to read all about it.

Just like with the palaces, the gate is surrounded by the city, literally. The busy streets literally encircle it. Its one of those places where you get off the train, walk up and up, wonder, “have we headed in the right….oh, there it is!”

This is not the only gate which remains (I believe there are two more), this is the oldest. 

Tempting traffic, trying to get the best shots of the gate we can in between cars, we hit the tiny park that surrounds parts of it and just take it all in.

Before moving on because we had more places to be! More history to catch! 

But this was the best start as we were on our way to find something that was pretty high on my must-be seen list. The remains of the fortress walls that once surrounded the city. Gate. Walls. Seems like it made sense. 

We decided to press on, finding our way to Namsan Park, intent on getting a close up look to the legendary Namsan Tower. Which, of course, makes me think of one question: 

Do you know Namsan Tower? 

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

While we did handily have our Naver Maps at the ready, really, it wasn’t super necessary. See that big tall thing in the background there, just keep walking towards it until you hit a hill and then just keep going upwards. In order to get there, we wandered through the local neighborhoods, skirting the edges of Namdaemyun Market, where we’d been with Leia and Lisa just the other day. We started to climb up higher and finally, as we seemed to be lifted out of the alleyways, we arrived at Namsan Park, the entryway to the trails leading up to Namsan Tower.

It was green and quiet, just us and a man in a suit on a chilling either before or during work. Or maybe it was just him in his usual clothes just hanging out, no work involved at all, who am I to judge his life choices? He barely looked at us, absorbed in his coffee and music.

To the right was now a length of stairs which lead up towards the trails, and next to that? The fortress wall! We were hiking right alongside it. It was a total kdrama moment…you know, just with less Kdrama hero and more sweat. What we didn’t realize was this was just the beginning of the train, the starter course, the hiking hors d ‘oeuvres if you will. It was wide open spaces which periodically lead to giant statues of people we didn’t know, marking essential bits of history we didn’t know.

When there were placards in English explaining what the statues were, their history, we stood and read them, learning a lot about the perseverance of the Korean people throughout history. And when they didn’t translate who they were? We simply made up a story.

One might ask why we simply didn’t take the tram up to the summit like any average Kdrama loving person in Korea for the first time. Easy enough? They were closed. They closed down like the week before we arrived and were out for maintenance our entire stay. Of all the rotten luck. 

Except? 

I love the fact that we actually hiked our way up the mountain. We got to wander the stair covered trails, through the trees, around vistas, all the while next to varying lengths of fortress wall in various states of rebuild, wonder if this part or that part was original, knowing a lot of it had been taken out by the Japanese during the occupation. We saw amazing views of the city, passing people of all ages coming up and down the paths. It was also something that SaraG and I were achieving together. Sounds weird but we’d been through so much during this trip, were faced with days alone with no one but each other for company, when before we’d only spent odd hours together here and there. Starting this new experience doing something physical, something challenging, I think it was a great way to kick it off.

There were two very different parts of the ‘park.’ The first part being more park-y with the statues and the open spaces. The second was the steeper, uphill hike. The two sections were separated by a snackshop. Well. There were other things there, but let’s focus on the most important thing. Though it seemed appropriate to have one of the packets of ramen, I just wasn’t hungry enough for that, so we simply got waters and snack bags. Dukboki flavored for me! It was weird. Spicy and overly sweet. I’m now addicted and pick up a bag whenever I pop over to my local H-Mart.

LAUGH. Actually, step back, before we hit the snack shop (where it was just the bored girl and us behind the counter), we hit the essential building,: the bathroom. As we walked there, we passed a man in a very loud yellow sports outfit shouting and acting crazy in front of a film team. You could tell when they weren’t filming, he was a little mortified for himself, but we tried not to stare too hard. Our guess? It was some sort of CV being filmed.

Fortified by overly sweetened snacks, we continued on, for the first time, I regretted my choice of the heavy sweater, sweating balls as we headed upwards.

But before long, the fortress walls getting older and older, we reached the summit. Or, before there, we arrived at the K-famous, fence locks. The walls were a sea of color, brightly colored locks attached to every available surface. Some attached to fencing, some affixed to the locks that were attached to the fencing.

There were layers upon layers of locks, digging through you feel like an archeologist of love, the top shiny and new, their vows of love bright and bold for everyone to see, but as you sunk lower, the locks were older, rusted, barely legible. It makes you wonder about all those people who were there before. How many of these people are still together? Are there people out there who went there on dates and fervently wished on those locks?

Once we were there, we became a little bummed out as this was a place that was on all of our wish lists and here it was, just us who had been able to make it. It wasn’t really fair. In honor of our comrades, we purchased them the cutest little locks, filling out their names with ultimate biases, found the perfect place, and attached them to history. 

We wandered the top of the mountain again, as we did with SM town, got al the way there, looked at the cost to go to the top of the tower, and said…eh, we’re good. Come on, how much better could it have been from where we were? What we’d achieved on our own?

We found where you tuck away your keys, which honestly I’d forgotten about, thinking we would take the cute matching keys back to our friends. Nope, you actually toss them here and move on with the idea that your love will last forever if you can’t reopen the lock.

By then, we were famished, and we wandered Namsan looking for sustenance. Feed us Namsan, feeeeed us. There was a lot to choose from, which was a bit of an issue. You ever get to those moments when you’re just like, I don’t want to make another decision again, possibly ever? Sometimes I def hit those walls.

We ended up in a little Japanese place where a cute guy gestured us to a table. When you were there, you chose what you wanted from the picture menu and then fill out a little card telling the server what you wanted. SaraG and I decided to get an order of Katsu and one of dukbokki to share. It might be that it was delicious or it might have been that we were just famished but, yeah, it was pretty tasty.

Having no intention of hiking back down, we took the time to figure out what we wanted to do next as we ate, and planned how to get there. After lunch, our batteries recharged, we set off to investigate the different parts of the observatory area. Passing on hologram pictures of me with BigBang (turns out, not something I regret). Wandering outside, we realize the stop for the bus is right outside where we were, we decided to hop the next one to continue on about our day. 

Surprisingly, the trip down was a lot faster and less sweaty than the way up! 

Once down the mountain, we decided, you know, since we were right there, to wander around Namdaemyun market, just walking, poking in and out of the little stalls, trying to get lost, trying to see every corner but turns out? This is not a thing you can do! In one stall, which was long and skinny, packed tight with clothing until you could barely see what was inside, SaraG had trouble narrowing down all of the things she wanted to get. It was like this stop was made for her. Like it called out “SaaraG coome and buyyy meeeee….” She was able to pick up a bunch of styled shirts she’d been looking at during our travels. 

While I waited for her to dig through racks, I decided to half-heartedly poke around. After my belly patdown, I’d been careful not to express to much interest in places like these. Being a lady of a specific size, I wasn’t that sure I was going to find anything that would actually fit me and wasn’t sure I was up for the inevitable disappointment when I didn’t. That was until I saw this red and black buffalo check long coat with hood layered with a black and white striped dress. Sounds weird? It was. And it was delightful. Though I hadn’t allowed myself to buy that jacket from days ago as I hadn’t wanted to spend the money, and this was actually only like 5000 won less and had thought and talked about it since this took SaraG going, “That looks great! You should totally buy it!” 

And I did!

It’s huge, it took up an enormous amount of space in my already packed suitcase, it makes me look like I’m a hipster lumberjack and yet…I don’t freaking care. It’s probably the coolest thing I had bought to that point, and I bought it from a lady who worked a tiny little clothing stall in a tiny little corner of an overwhelmingly large and unique market in Korea. I think that just makes it cooler and therefor I am cooler. 

I’ve put a lot of thought into it. 

We wandered, pleased as punch with our purchases and decided to call it a day. And by day I mean, it was getting late and we needed to be off to our next stop. What had we decided on? We were going to take up Leila’s charge and find that park we’d talked about the night before by the Han River. That’s right, back to Kdramaland, baby! 

Getting there was a HOOT. 

Finding the bus we needed, we waited and waited. There were a lot of people waiting along with us. The bus came, all in its bright green glory, already packed to the gills and, with a deep breath, we pushed our way on. When we say this was a tight fit, SaraG and I essentially clutching each other as we leaned into a kindly ahjussi as the bus continued to get fuller and fuller. Back home, once the bus reaches a specific capacity, the bus driver will wave a hand at people waiting on the stop, “Full! Wait for the next one!” If they stop at all. Not so in Korea. It’s like they see each person as a challenge to see just how many people they could cram in there, we were mushed in with the old the young as people just leaned into the pile. We tried not to laugh, but it was hard to do. Periodically I tried to figure out where we were, where we needed to get off, but really, it was a crapshoot and we ended up getting off a few stops too late. 

By this time, it was dark, and we walked the sidewalks, trying to find the Han River. SaraG made friends with a tiny little bit of a girl who had just been to the dentist with her dad. It was adorable. Reminds me of this time in Busan when we were in the elevator of our Airbnb with a halmoni and her granddaughter, and she was trying to get the shy little girl to bow to us. So. Freaking. Cute.

We cut under an underpass followed some signs, and there it was: The Han River! We got off the road at a perfect spot, one fo those boat launches paved in bricks leading down to the water. Off to the site was a long bridge. With us was another pair of friends, sitting on the ground, huddled, chatting and laughing quietly over the music playing from a phone. It looked like fun, so SaraG and I found a spot a ways away and popped a squat. The air had a slight chill to it, but it was clear and the perfect night to hang out with your friend by the water.

The real question is, what does one listen to while they are making a memory they’ll never forget? We scrolled through my phone and pretty quickly came up with this: 

We sat there, just looking at the water, taking in our time there, being with our friend, listening to the music we loved, the music that brought us together as people. I don’t want to be too gummy, but I’m not going to lie, it was a really big moment for me. It was like the accumulation of everything. There may have been tears. A little. Maybe. But I’m not telling. 

It was the perfect moment and will always be one of the biggest highlights of our trip.

From there we took our selfies, our together shots. The river, the bridge. Then we realized the path continued on, and we walked the length of the river. Chatting nonsense, stopping for pictures, imagining stories of famous meet-cutes. The pathway was lightly filled with people on dates, people running after work, people walking their dogs. It was a piece of ordinary. Under another bridge, there was one of those community workout areas with the random young man working out. We wandered, walking further and further until we realized 1) we didn’t think we could get to where we needed to be from where we were, and 2) we were going to have to walk all the way back, picking an arbitrary spot, we walked until we reached it and turned back.

Such a great night! 

The bus on the way back was surprisingly empty. Surprisingly? Thankfully? Either way, we were on our way back to Hongdae for food. Remarkably, and now I regret a little bit, we did pass up on a BT21 shop, but that might have just been us being done, tired and hungry and not a reflection of our love for BTS. After some debate we ended up in a ramen shop, hot soup seemed to be a great cap to the day. Then we realized we ate Japanese food twice in one day in Korea and chided ourselves a bit, but it was yummy., so we moved on. We also got to hear the guy in the table across the tiny restaurant mansplain to the girls he was with on whatever topic he felt they needed to be educated on. We tried very hard not to roll our eyes.

Steps, adventure under our belts, time to call it a night, right? Naaaawwww bishes, we weren’t done! Since I’d bought that jacket with nary a thought, I figured it was time to find that shop I’d seen the jacket I’d wanted a few days ago, throw the budget aside, and buy it, 

I’m joking. At no time did I ever throw the budget aside. Believe it or not, I came in under budget! That being said, I dragged SaraG she voted “dur, I don’t know why you didn’t buy it before” and bought it. 

We celebrated with street waffles filled with a myriad of delicious and decadent fillings.

Yes, we had just eaten ramen. Who is going to judge us? Not you, right??? Hands and bellies full, adventure level set at maximum, we called it a day. I’m not entirely sure how we could have even thought to top a night with the Han River and street waffles. Not. Physically. Possible. 

Now for that critical question. Ready for that step-count?

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So this happened today… #steps #traveling #walking #seoul #southkorea

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BoOYEAH! 

    Korean Adventures Day 12: That Time We Didn’t Breakup By The Han And then there were two. As Miss Leila winged back to the states this morning, it just leaves your intrepid travelers SaraG and I to pick up the mantle and scour the streets of Seoul looking for the interesting.

[lookbackmachine]

The Untold Story of Mulan

The Untold Story of Mulan

The height of Disney's animation renaissance was The Lion King, and that film grossed over $312 million in 1994, and then the descent began. Pocahontas did well but not nearly as well as The Lion King. Then came Hunchback of Notre Dame, which made less money than Pocahontas. However, the indisputable evidence of their decline was Hercules in 1997, which had a $35 million advertising budget in an $85 million production budget. In the US, Hercules didn't even break the $100 million mark. Hercules marked the beginning of the end for 2D animation at Disney, which would ultimately reach its conclusion with Home on The Range in 2003. From 1997 to the end, there would be glimmers of hope for 2D animation. One of these glimmers was Mulan. The film broke with the Disney formula in many ways, but perhaps most significantly, it wasn't made in the historic Disney Burbank studio, it was made instead inside of a theme park.

Tony Bancroft: From day one, I was probably three years old, and I knew I was gonna be a cartoonist or an artist of some kind. I have a twin brother, Tom Bancroft, and he and I always loved to draw, we were just artists from day one, just doodlers, and very competitive, too, with it, just like some brothers are competitive with sports like soccer and whatever. For us, it was always drawing. We were looking over each other's shoulders and just iron sharpens iron, so it was actually a really good thing in retrospect. We were both doing comic strips. We wanted to do a twin comic strip, believe it or not [chuckle], and we didn't discover animation until we got into going to a city college, 'cause we were trying to figure out, well, do we even need to go to college if we're gonna do a comic strip and we just need to probably just work and create our comic strips as we were just trying to decide which way to go, and our parents were kind of pushing for college, of course. And this guy, Eric Stefani, he became a good friend of ours, was doing these clay animated videos, we got to know him, and asked us to do a video during the summer together, and we created our first animation. Stop Motion Clay film to a music video.

We loved the animation. But you know, to both of us, it was like rocket science. There was some kind of higher math that we couldn't figure out how animation was done [chuckle] and they're messing the math involved, we just knew it, it was some kind of alchemy that we just couldn't figure out, so it wasn't until we actually did that clay animated film that one summer in City College that boom, all of a sudden we're bit by the bug. And we've started researching, like, can we go to school for this and what school would that be? And back then, this was mid 80s, I guess it was, yeah, there was only two schools, probably, in the country, that had really notable animation programs and the biggest one was right near our house, we lived in Orange County, like I said, So CalArts California institute of the Arts is in Valencia, California, and we found out about that, and we were like, "That's it, we gotta go there".

And then we found out how much it cost and we're like, "Oh my gosh, two students? How is my single mother gonna put us through college?" She had just gotten married and we were living by the grace of God, and our stepdad, and kinda barely making it so we worked really hard that summer, and then my mom had some savings put aside and we were able to afford the very first year at CalArts, but for us it was a stepping stone to getting a job, that's all school was for us, really, that it was about getting the training and putting together the portfolio that we needed so that we can actually maybe get into Disney, which was our dream. We made it through a year and a half, and then Disney came calling looking for interns to start with a new internship for the brand new, it was just opening, Disney MGM studios in Orlando, Florida, and Tom and I applied and we got into the internship, we were the only sophomores that were accepted, they were only looking at juniors and seniors. We had to beg our way in.

Well, at the time, Bill Matthews was in charge of the development program and hiring students and helping and nurture them, and the internship program, and Bill was very well known in feature animation. He was like... We used to call him Uncle Bill, or uncle Winky. I don't know why Winky, but we went to Bill and we said, "Look, we're passionate about this and this is our one chance, if you don't let us in to show in our portfolio and don't let us have this opportunity for this internship, we may not be here next year, because we literally have no more money. You may never see us again, or we may never have the opportunity to show our portfolio again to you, 'cause we won't be here anymore". And that touched his heart and he said, "Okay, we'll look it up, no problem, you guys show", They reviewed our portfolio. Bill actually said, "I really can't tell the difference between who's who. So you're both in". [chuckle] It was just like, "You guys, your portfolio is just like you do, they're exactly the same. So you're both in". I've never been so happy as to when I got accepted into Disney, it was a huge, huge day. And then boom. After a nine week internship, Tom and I were working in Orlando, Florida and we were employees, like five and six of the Orlando Florida Studio with only about 30 employees in the beginning. It was awesome, it was a dream come true.

Barry Cook, Director Mulan: I was working at Hanna-Barbera studios to my first job in animation, I was an assistant animator, cleaning up shots for Saturday morning cartoon work and a good friend of mine, Mike Lessa who went on to be a visual effects supervisor for many years at Disney, so Mike gave me a call one day and said, "Hey, they're making this movie over at Disney, and they're looking for assistant animators", and I'm like, "What is it? Is it like a cartoon? Is it a feature animated thing or what is it?" He said, "No, it's just sort of a live action combo. It's called Tron". And I said "Eh, I don't know what that is". He said, "I just signed a contract, so I can't do the film. So, I'm recommending you highly, if you're interested in the job, call this guy Lee Dyer". And so I called him and met with them and he's like, "Mike says you're good, come on over", so it was meant to be a temporary job. In a couple of months time I was promoted to being an animator, doing visual effects, because they just needed all hands on deck they could get. One thing led to another and that six-month job, I ended up staying at Disney 22 and a half years. [chuckle] That's the way it worked. That's the way I got in the door.

We'd opened the studio in Florida, and I worked for Disney in Burbank for about nine or 10 years prior to the studio opening here, in Orlando, in 1989. Yeah, there were seven of us that were sort of considered journeymen and then the rest of the crew was comprised of people who had just gone through the Disney internship and had been hired.

One of these new recruits to Florida was Barry's future co-director, Tony Bancroft, and Tony's brother Tom.

Barry Cook: Oh yeah, he and his brother both, yeah, they were there and we used to harass them, give them a hard time, but they were cool guys, and certainly enthusiastic and very, very talented artists, both of them, and then a crew of seasoned guys, men and women, from people like Rick Sluiter, my favorite art director of all time. So that was sort of the makeup of the studio there.

Tony Bancroft: Here we were working at a new studio. And to tell you the truth, when the Disney MGM studios opened, it was... There was a lot of fanfare, because one, okay, it's a working studio within a theme park, right? Though we weren't employees of the theme park, we were employees of the studio, which was centered in Burbank, California, but we're working all the way in Orlando inside of a theme park. So there was a lot of interesting elements to that, that you don't have just getting a job at an animation studio, like there was a policy at the parks where anybody that worked at the Parks had to have short hair, and they couldn't have facial hair, and there was a dressing policy, and you had to wear a uniform, so they allowed us animation folks to come in, if we had a facial hair when we were working and applying for the job in California, they would let us come in with that, but if we shave before we actually got on the plane to Florida, we had to stay unshaven, that was kind of the deals.

And because of that, the the park people didn't like us very much, as a matter of fact, there was times when we would go out to our cars at night, and we had a special parking lot just for us too, and some people would have their cars keyed or their tires slashed by these... The theme park people that were just so upset at us, because we were just like, the elite and treated differently, that's how they saw us. We weren't trying to be upstarts or anything like that, or make them feel bad about their lot in life. It just, kinda that was just what it was, and we felt bad that we were treated differently, but we weren't asking not to be treated differently either. We had certain expectations too, like Well, we are making animated movies that make a lot of money. We have specially trained gifts and abilities that we're using and skill sets. So we knew that there was a reason that we were being treated differently than somebody that serve popcorn in the parks.

But I don't know, I think it was just a short-term thing, it died down after a while, and people just kinda left us alone, and there was friendships that developed on the other side of the glass, and that's kinda how it was, it was always the other side of the glass, there was us, and then them, kind of the whole time. Yeah, we sat in front of glass all day long, like there was a wall, a glass line wall that went along one side of the building, it was all strategically positioned so that the guests as they came through, they would see the progression of animation by walking through this corridor behind us. It was definitely weird, it was definitely weird at first, being in that environment and having people every 15 minutes, there was a new group of people that would come through the lobby and come by those glass windows, and it was just all day long from the beginning to the end of our shifts. After a while, we called it a moving wall paper and it was definitely guys behind the glass that sometimes they would sit there and they would watch us like all day, and those were the true artists, some of them were just huge fans and wanted to be on the other side of the glass with us. Some of those people became employees of animation later on.

Barry Cook: We were only going to do short films. That was sort of the only promise that the studio could give us. It was gonna start with some Roger Rabbit cartoons and they wanted to do a couple more of those and they wanted to do maybe some more Mickey Mouse cartoons or Goofy shorts, or something that... You know, just some sort of basic ideas for doing short cartoons there. But what happened very quickly as we began taking on parts of different features, what a lot of people don't know is that at the Florida studio, they did about 45 minutes of Beauty and the Beast there, probably 20 minutes of Lion King, they did... Some ink and paint work was the first job they did on finishing up Little Mermaid, Rob Minkoff was there before he directed Lion King, and he was doing Roger Rabbit short Trail Mix-Up, and that was the first one to come in the door. Rob and I would stay there late at night looking at edits and looking at animation tests and trying to time them out to make them visually funnier, just playing with the timing and stuff like that. So we really got along well, and he began to trust me a lot for a lot of stuff, and so he really recommended me to direct the third and last Roger Rabbit short when he was hired away to do Lion King.

That's how I got that job. And I had made an experimental short before then in Florida, called Off His Rockers, but that was a short film that combined a CG character and a hand drawn character.

Tony Bancroft: There was an opportunity that arose on Rescuers Down Under, and at the time there was a lot of us junior cleanup people were all really interested in become... Moving up the ladder and becoming an animator, and in Florida there, because it was so small, they created one opportunity on the next film which was Rescuers Down Under to become an animating assistant, and so that person got to work with Mark Henn and train, and they would actually get scenes on the next feature. There was about eight of us that probably did animation tests to try out for this opportunity, this one position. Aaron Blaise got the position, and I was happy for him, but also bummed for Tom and I, we both really wanted it, and I was told later that I was like number two in line. And I was like so passionate and desiring to be an animator there at Disney and wanting to move up. I knew in California, they had more opportunities, and they were actually looking for four animating assistants instead of one in Florida, it was four openings in Burbank, California.

So I said, "Can you put mine into the running for the position in California? If I get it, I'll leave Florida, and I'll move back. That's how much I wanna do this". I got one of those four positions for Rescuers Down Under. There was a part of me that wanted to be part of the big show. The main studio in Burbank was considered the main studio, the big studio. The Florida studio was the B team. They were always doing parts of the animated features and parts of this, and so they were more like the... Kind of the rookies, they were always looked that way. So I went back to Burbank, California, and got the job and started animating on Rescuers Down Under, and I moved up quite quick. I don't think it's by my own credit and my own, I don't know, make it sound like it's all about me. For some reason I was definitely there at a good time, and God just opened up doors of opportunity for me and I climbed the ladder very quickly, I was with Will Finn who is an absolutely outstanding supervising animator, a good friend of mine, and Will was so kind to me, gave me great scenes on each of the films that we worked on, so I got promoted quickly.

I worked with them as an animating assistant on Beauty and the Beast on Cogsworth, and then he would give me really good like dialogue scenes, which was kind of unheard of, 'cause you start out as an animating assistant, you tend to do like the scenes that Will doesn't wanna do like booger animation, like scenes where Cogsworth and Lumiere and Mrs. Potts are like the size of boogers on the screen, and so they're just like hopping around after Beast. I literally did this scene where like, "Hey come back, wait, wait, Beast", and they're running up the stairs, after Beast, and he's like this big shape going up the stairs in the scene and they are these little guys in the background, but it was Will who gave me some of the scenes that he wouldn't normally do, and because of that, I had a reel of animation to show the review board, so I got promoted on Beauty and the Beast to full-fledged animator half way through, and then Aladdin, I worked with Will again on Iago, the parrot, and then after Aladdin, I went on to supervise, I actually became a supervising animator, on the Lion King, and then it was kind of one thing after another, and I kept getting promoted.

Animators on an animated feature just like actors on a live action feature by a director, they're cast by the director based on their skill sets. Tom Cruise, the hero, okay, he's gonna always do the big hero guy, or there's... Jack Black's always gonna do the comedy guy, or the comedy sidekick, and stuff. I was definitely a comedy guy, and kinda stereotyped as the comedy guy, and doing comedy characters. I'd done Cogsworth and Iago and Frank, the frill neck lizard even before that with Will. So I thought after coming off of Aladdin and doing Iago the parrot that maybe I'll have a chance to do the bird. I heard there was a bird in the Lion King named Zazu, and I thought "Okay, well, I just did a bird. So maybe the directors will see that I can... It's a comedy character and it's a bird, I'm a shoe-in". And I thought, maybe, maybe if I'm lucky, I'm a shoe-in for that. And then they turn around and they gave me Pumbaa, which was already way more than I expected, it was... I didn't even ask for Pumbaa because I knew it was just outside of my stratosphere of possibilities, but that opportunity came to me and even though I was scared to death, I took it.

I'm like, "Okay, I'm gonna just do... Draw the heck out of this warthog, and I'm gonna try and make it my own and hopefully they'll love it". But they did, and Lion King took off and in such a huge way, unexpected and unbeknownst to all of us at the studio at the time. Lion King broke $100 million before the weekend, the first weekend, it was this huge phenomenal success. We know that now, but at the time I was like such a surprise. Because it was such a huge success, my name started to come up more, like everybody is on Lion King. Everybody became successful or were talked about or were celebrated because of that film's success.

Lion King was mammoth, groundbreaking and culture defining. It grossed one billion dollars in merchandise sales, and $312 million at the box office, and was the highest grossing film of the year. Around the same time, Barry Cook was in Florida, and the Florida studio members were growing tired of being seen and treated as Burbank's lackey.

Barry Cook: We were sort of banging our plates on the table saying, "Give us a feature! We wanna do a feature!" And so, Burbank looking down at us like, "I don't know if you guys are ready for that". We're like, "We're ready, we're ready, we wanna do it, we wanna do it", but yeah, I really felt like we can do this. And we all felt like, there was real... Peter Schneider always called it esprit de corps, a group of people with a singular sort of mindset. The Florida Studio was a very, very special place. It was just a place where everyone just shoulder to shoulder, we were moving the same mountain, and we were working together to do it, and everybody respected each other, no matter what part of it they had, and it didn't matter what it was. And I think we had a little bit to prove, maybe because we were sort of little brother underneath the Burbank studio in some ways. Some people might call us the bastard cousin, or something. But I think we felt like we can do this and we know we can do it, and we're gonna do it great, and we're gonna do the best we can do. And it was like Spanky and Alfalfa putting on a show in their barn or something. But it just felt like that, we were just like, "What a great opportunity and what a great moment in time to be in". And so finally they asked me to begin developing on Mulan.

The Development Department at feature animation had acquired the rights to a book, a children's book by Robert San Souci. It was The Legend of Mulan, something like that, it's a small book and it basically sorta outlined she was a kid and she went to war and she tracked the enemy, and they all lived happily ever after, it was just a really short little thing. There was a Chinese opera I think that was the story of Mulan, and I think there's a sort of a poem that was written about her famous poem. There may have been some live action things or smaller TV things or something about her at that point, but none that we knew of, and it were clearly fine at the time. You gotta realize, it was before we had everything on internet, and there wasn't really much to go on. But after the success of Lion King, especially, it's like "Oh, we've done a story that's set in Africa. Now let's do one that's set in another country". The Russian one, which became Frozen, it was originally Snow Queen, a Russian story. Basically, they had this... I don't know if it's a mandate, but just the notion of part of development instead of just the Anglo-European fairy tales like Snow White, and so forth and so on, and even Little Mermaid, and whatever, let's see if we can tap into other countries' cultural stories and present a broader scope of stories around the world.

So that was sort of the big idea that was sort of floating at the time, so this was sort of the most viable Chinese story, I think, that they could find. That's how it happened. Looking back in hindsight, it's remarkable that it's a story about a girl who is not a princess, number one, and I always say that emphatically when I say that to anybody who talks about her in those terms. She's not a princess, she never wanted to be a Princess, she doesn't need a man, she doesn't want a man, although she sort of does begin to fall in love with a man, but it's not her goal like little mermaid, "Oh I just need a man if I can get legs." That's her whole goal in life and this is sort of sad but... So it was way ahead of its time, I thought in the way we were thinking about the story and not to mention that but it takes place during a war and she's in a war. Can you imagine that for a pitch for a Disney animated film, it's a war story, it's not a very likely scenario to be a successful movie. It wasn't something I introduced and said, "Let's do it." it was something that was inherent to the story, but looking back it seems really an odd choice in a way.

So for Disney movie at that time to be set in the time of war, so I do applaud the foresight of Peter Schneider, Tom Schumacher, the executives who were in charge at the time. Even Jeffrey Katzenberg was still at Disney when we began developing it along. He left about... He really gave the green light to start making the movie, and much less it sort of broke away, I thought a lot, and we wanted to break away from the mold of the kind of stories Disney was telling. We were obligated to make it a musical. Disney said it will be a musical. We didn't, Tony and I, really didn't have a choice in that. Yes, there will be a funny side check character, those sort of work. So there were some of those formulaic tropes that were paying off big time, at that time, that we adhered to. But looking back, we were breaking ground that Wonder Woman was breaking a year ago, we were breaking it 20 years ago. And hardly without notice and hardly without fanfare, in some ways.

Tony Bancroft: The story I heard for how I got on to Mulan as a director was that literally Mulan was a story that was germinating for a while. It was tagged as Orlando Florida Studio's very first feature. It already had a director attached to it, Barry Cook who was homegrown from Florida as a visual effects animator and they were already saying, "Well, we want Barry to direct, he's in a good position for that. It's his time to direct a feature and he's a homegrown boy from Orlando, Florida, it makes sense. But who do we have co-direct with him?" Was the big question. And they'd gone through quite a list of people. And it was one night, as Lion King director, Rob Minkoff, was walking to his car at night, going out to the garage, he met up with Tom Schumacher who was then the Vice President of the Development Group. And Tom turns to Rob and says, "You know, we got this film, Fa Mulan, The Legend of Fa Mulan," as it was called back then. "And Barry's on as a director, we're looking for a co-director, I don't know, what do you think, Rob, just throw out a name to me. Who do you think?" And Rob looked at him and he said, "Well, what about Tony Bancroft?"

And I think it took Tom back a bit and I think he was like, "Huh, okay." I think they still looked at me as kind of a kid, a junior animator in some ways, even though I just supervised Pumbaa and all that. But because of the success of Lion King and other things, and I was known to be kind of outgoing, and obviously I talk a lot, so I think they liked that. And he thought about it, and asked around to other people. I heard he asked Don Hahn and other big staff members that were well regarded at the studio at the time, and everybody was positive about my name and about me possibly doing it. So they asked me. I was shocked! It was kind of like the Pumbaa thing. It was that moment where this came out of left field, I didn't expect this. I wanted to direct, but at the time at the Disney Studios it took like 10 years, 15 years to move up the ladder to become known as a director, or have that actually that possibility of becoming a director at Disney.

They asked me at five years. I'd been at the studio for five years only, so I was really junior. There was things that I just didn't know yet, I hadn't learned. My fear was, I don't know a lot about the story process. Or how do I work with script writers, or what about down the road, I've never worked with camera. I've ever worked with Ink and Paint Department and color and production designers. And there was so much that I was just petrified about, I guess. But my mom had always told Tom and I, "You know, if the door of opportunity opens, go through it, what's the worse that can happen?" So I did.

Barry Cook:  For me, I was one of those guys, I'm not saying I am still, but as a younger man, I was highly ambitious. And I just felt like, "Who better? I'm your guy. I can do this. This is what I was born to do." That's what I've always wanted to do since I was a very young child, is to make movies. And I felt like I'm getting into my element. I'm getting into the saddle I've always wanted to be in. This is where I'll thrive, and this is where I'll flourish. It's right here, this is the place for me. There's no better place for me on earth. Right, this is it. Yeah, I didn't have any trepidation.

Tony Bancroft: That was probably the scariest part of being asked to direct a Disney feature is: Yeah, one, there's a lot that I don't know, but, two, really the bigger and a more immediate thing that was staring me in the face was I left the Florida studio as an animating assistant, and I was returning as a director. In Barry Cook's mind I was now his equal, but in everybody else's mind, including my twin brother who stayed at the Florida studio and was now underneath me, I was their boss. When I was considered one of the junior guys, the most junior guys when I left, and just in five years. And they didn't see me go through that transition, they weren't working by my side and seeing me grow into becoming a supervising animator and all that kind of stuff. They saw from a distance what was happening to me, and promotions coming. But I learned very quickly that you don't gain admiration or praise or respect just over night, and it really is something, respect has to be earned. And it's not because of the title that the company gives you. So, I might have been called a director, but it was very hard walking into that position in the Orlando Florida Studio.

You know, I had Barry Cook as my co-director. I looked to him and I tried to kind of go under his wing at first, for sure. We were definitely co-directors. It wasn't like he was my boss, or he was the senior director and I was the junior director. I think maybe they wanted it to be that way, but I think we kind of... Our dynamic was that we were just more equals together. Barry and I went through a lot of ups and downs. It's funny because most of the features during that time in the '90s and stuff, and even coming after that, it was known, and it still is, that Disney prefers the two director model. And there's a reason for that, it's so Herculean amount of effort. There's so many different people and artists to be able to speak to, and to have one person do that is very, very difficult. It's only happened a couple times in the history and canon of Disney features, but I think it was a large part of Barry in the beginning that wanted to direct Mulan by himself. He thought, "Well, this is the Florida Studio feature, it's the first one. Maybe we can do it different here in Florida. Maybe they'll just allow me to direct this myself." So when I was announced coming on to the picture, he knew that it was happening, but maybe not so open to it in the beginning.

Barry Cook: Yeah, it's funny because I wasn't solicited for ideas for a co-director or a partner in the process. So basically, we were assigned together [chuckle] and that's the way it happened, so... When you've got a arranged marriage sort of thing, it takes awhile to fall in love with your partner, I think. And for me, that would be all that it was, probably. It was just like you two guys are together on this movie, for better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness and in health, go do it. And that's sort of what it was at first. And to me, it was like, "Gee, I don't know if I like this. And a move that is just personality-wise, it maybe rubbed me the wrong way, that I had no say in it, or whatever, and had already been working on the project for a couple of years. But so I just think it was probably just that, that it was just we had to find a way to work together and play off each other's strengths, and collaborate in a creative and productive way.

And I think probably I don't really remember much, but yeah I'm sure it was awkward at first. And I had been in the animation business for quite a long time too, before then, a lot longer than Tony, just around and in the industry and stuff. And it was maybe just a little hard for me, personally, to take on a partner, no matter who it was. I mean, nothing against Tony at all, but it could have been anybody. But to say this is gonna be your dancing partner, go. That was just probably a little hard for me to swallow off the bat. So yeah, I can imagine sort of being a little rough at the beginning.

Tony Bancroft: And we come from two different worlds. He was a painter, he was a visual effects animator. That's how he... That was his career at Disney. I come from character animation, and cartooning and stuff. And so we saw things differently.

Barry Cook: And a lot of the partnerships happen in different ways, for different movies. Like Ron and John, they were sort of partners coming right out of school. They were sort of doing stuff together and loved working together, and they were sort of a natural partnership. And other partnerships were just put together for different movies. And what the studio felt was strengths and weaknesses, there was a perception that I had a weakness for character animation, and that's where Tony would be very helpful. But I don't think that perception was necessarily true, because I'm not a character animator, but I look for performance and character performance, and telling the story with the emotions of the scene, whether it's a hilarious scene, or whether it's a serious scene. So, I felt like I never had any problems giving animators direction on the scene. I wouldn't give them technical direction, or speak the language of a surgeon, like, "Oh, the arc on that character's elbow should be a little tighter," just those kind of things. 'Cause that really never, still doesn't make any difference to me.

But what are the characters communicating through their body language to their emotional performances, all that matters to me. So that's all I was ever after. Tony's strength, as the studio saw it, was as a character animator, and as a supervising character animator. And one that directors loved working with, and one that did remarkable animation. So, I think that was his strength coming in. I don't think his strength was from a storytelling background. Mine was more. I was on the visual effects originally, but I had begun telling a lot of stories in the short films, and that kind of stuff. And Off His Rockers I wrote, and then Trail Mix-Up, I wrote a lot of it, too. So, I was sort of known for sort of story invention, and known as a sort of natural storyteller, I guess. So I think that was my strength. And also just having a broad understanding of filmmaking process. 'Cause I had worked on Captain EO, Michael Jackson's music video, and I'd work with Michael directly on that for a while doing visual effects, and re-shooting green screen stuff.

I'd had some experience with big stars. And then just the whole process in the visual effects department. You saw all the animation that was done in the film, it always came across your desk, and you worked closely with the camera department. And a lot of times with editorial and layout departments. So in that department, you got great exposure to all the departments in the studio. So I think the people in effects animation were very well-rounded as filmmakers.

Tony Bancroft: There was meetings in the beginning. The first year was really tough, when we were together. And we would... There would be little side jabs and looks and little snotty remarks to each other in meetings with full staff there and lots of people. It was affecting morale and people could see that we were at odds. That's not good, that's not good for anybody. And it was Pam Coats that really said, "Guys, you guys gotta come together on this. And you guys can't be that way with each other." And some of it was just our immaturity, I think, we were both kind of hurt and we were both kinda lashing out at each other a little bit. So there was some of that. But creatively, we both wanted what was best. But at first, I think we both wanted our ideas to be what happened. I know I felt that way in the beginning. That was my immaturity.

You know, directing a Disney film is a roller coaster. People think, "Oh, it's a dream come true." There's so many responsibilities, pressures on you. There's so many days that you feel like just crap sometimes, and people don't like you, or they're upset you viewpoints and your direction and your ideas. And, "You suck." And it really can wear on you. And a lot of times it's your bosses. The ones that should be supporting you, you feel the least supported by oftentimes. And so it's not all the staff, but sometimes it was the staff too, and people underneath us. And I'm like, "I just want the best for the film. And I just want everybody to get along, and for us to do with job." And I tried to be kind of the positive funny guy, the morale guy, and it would just come back at me. There was days that I was just elated and felt like I was really contributing and I was driving the ship. And this movie is gonna be great, and my vision is really lending itself to making it great. And then those other days where I felt like I'm just a glorified approver, and these people have to go through me and I have to stamp it, and I'm just like a piece of the factory; and I just didn't feel like I was really contributing, I just felt like I was almost in the way of people getting their scenes done.

So, there was days like that. But I think every director feels that way, at some time or another, and it's always having to go back inside yourself and say, "Why am I doing this? What do I love about this story?" And bringing that passion back and stirring that passion, and that's what keeps you going. But there was so much that I didn't know about directing that I had to learn along the way. How to share your vision for something, but also let people speak into that vision. It was so many balancing and created balances that I had to learn, and managerial skills. And yeah, there was a point because Barry and I were... We had this friction in the beginning, it was obvious, so it was palatable in the room. And there was a point where there was gonna be a change made or there needed to be a change made. And I was talked to, and I'm sure Barry was talked to at some point too, but I know I was talked to.

And I told my boss one time, if it's better for the movie to fire me, or for me to step out of here, or get out of here, I will. I'll do it right now. I'll leave and I want to, if it means for a better movie, because I care too much about Mulan and this movie, and this studio, to get in the way. So, if I'm getting in the way, you tell me and I'll go. And I don't think that my boss expected that. [chuckle] I think that really... Me kinda throwing myself on the grenade, all of a sudden, when he kinda wanted to be a little threatening, and say, "You better buck up, and go the company way," and whatever, I think that kinda surprised him. And he was just like, "Blah, blah, la, la... " [chuckle] But it was because of that, I think, that they stepped up behind me even more. It was in a way, in that kind of weird corporate way, he appreciated that about me. He appreciated that I was willing to step up for the film and say, "Go ahead, take me out. I'll do it right now. I'll leave, if that's what it means to make this move better."

Barry Cook: Well, I don't know that Tony was ever almost taken off the film. I can't confirm that. I don't know that. Look, every moment that you're doing a movie at Disney you could be taken off the movie. Everybody is replaceable. And everybody in Hollywood's replaceable. That's what the studios in Hollywood have going for them. There is a line of starlets from Hollywood to the East Coast dying to get a break in movies. There's not that many people who wanna do feature animation, but there's still a line of those guys too. And very talented.

So you know at any minute that they can fill your shoes, and that's another reason for two directors. If one gets hit by a bus you can still work tomorrow. No one's indispensable. I mean, when you get to a point, or to a level of recognition, which Disney directors don't get to intentionally, the studio doesn't promote the director, they promote Walt Disney. But if you were someone like a Tim Burton, your work is so signature and the way you do it, you would feel like, "Oh, I'm safe on this movie." But if you're working on one of the big animated feature films, sure you could be replaced at any moment. There comes a moment when the studio does commit to its directors and they say, "Yeah, these are our guys, we're going through it. We're going through the battle." It's just like going on the battlefield, it's like these are our generals, win or lose, these are the guys we're doing it with. So I think the studio does make a decision at some point, "They're safe, we're going forward with... " But, until they're convinced of that, it's tentative every day for everybody. So sure, I was probably pulled off the movie ten times and didn't know it. A hair's breadth away from something like that. But yeah, those are all sort of backroom conference discussions.

Tony Bancroft: I mean, I was pretty shaken by it and later I was very angry for quite a while that people behind my back were talking about me, and thinking that I was an issue, or I was the issue when I felt like there was other issues that should have been talked about, or brought up. I was probably at my all time lowest after that 'cause I felt pretty unappreciated. But that's the great thing about life is that you move past those things and one day you come in and you feel very appreciated, and you feel like we're doing a great thing here, making this movie. And I'm working with an all-star team of some of the best, most wonderful people, personality-wise, but also the greatest artists that I could ever work with in the world.

That's what keeps you going. And it was really starting to understand each other and what each other wanted for the movie. And I started really opening to Barry's point of view of who Mulan was as a character. And it was shared by Chris Sanders and some of the other department heads, and I was like, "Okay, let's go that way, we're doing that. We're doing that, this is where we're going." And that really blossomed things, to a point where, by the second year we were in meetings and totally in agreement with each other. And he could say something, and I would just nod my head, I wouldn't have to add in. Or I could say something, and he would be totally supportive of it. We had departments that we supervised on our own, and we trusted each other and didn't get into each other's business on those departments. It really came together for the benefit of Mulan.

Barry Cook: Yeah, although I... Admittedly, we didn't stay partners after that, we didn't say we have to make films together for the rest of our lives, we're the new Cohen Brothers. We didn't fall in love to that degree. Who knows? We could make a movie together before it's all over with again, but at some point we felt like Yeah, this is working. Like I said, the whole atmosphere in the Florida studio was one of real cooperation and collaboration. We just got into a groove of doing the work and loving the work we were doing, and I think it worked out really good.

Tony Bancroft: I like to say that we really developed the same vision and the same passion for the movie, and really became friends and buddies on the picture. Whereas, that doesn't always happen with directors that are put together, but we did, we fell in love with the movie and therefore each other, and it was that our love and passion for Mulan, the character, that I think brought us together too. It took time but it happened.

What happens I think in any kind of crew, but particularly when you're just starting and you're trying to earn that respect is that they had to see that I cared more about the film than I did my ego than being called a director. I just wanted to be part of the team. So, what I discovered very quickly is, to be a good director is to be a servant to the people that are underneath you. Don't treat them like they're underneath you, they're doing you a service, they're helping you to make the film that you wanna make, to bring your vision to life. I just wanna serve them, get out of their way when I needed to, I wanted to give them a piece of my mind creatively when I needed to, to lift them up, I wanted to push them so that they could do even better work than they ever expected. Not to settle, and to inspire, and to bring them up, and I feel like that's what I came to do. And ultimately, that's how I gained their respect.

When they saw that I loved the film as much, if not more than they did, and I cared about them and their piece of it as much, if not more than they did, I earned their respect. At a point there, after that dark time, we went right into overtime, we went right into heavy deadlines and a lot of extra work and the final push of the film. And when you get into that mode, you're either all in or all out, and you have to be all in to really give the film what it needs. And I just had to, as the director, obviously, you're the number one person that people are looking to for answers and to keep the ball rolling. And so I just had to make a choice to be all in. And Mulan became a real character to us, a real person really, to a lot of us on the film. I used to tell my wife, she became kind of a mistress, I hate to say, but kind of the mistress that I would spend time with late at night because I was working so many hours and that I was putting so much into her and trying to make her successful and be who I thought she could be.

So it was like this weird dichotomy of a lover and father, if you will, to a character that doesn't exist, but in your mind really does. It was her, it was her that kept me going, it was the crew, it was the people, it was the studio. And I'm so glad I did, and I look back at it now and it was the best experience in my life. One of the hardest experiences in my life, probably the best one for sure.

It was actually a really great time when I came on because they had gone through a really tough year, the very first year, trying to crack what the story was gonna be and how to tell it, and they've gone on some real odd directions, not good directions. Chris Sanders had come on as the head of story. Chris is a genius, he's just so creative and so wonderful, we're blessed to have him as our head of story. And when he came on, he started getting in the mix with the writers and conjuring up new and different ideas and with Barry and everybody. And so by the time I came on, they had pretty much scrapped the last version of the film, the script and they had written up a treatment which is only like maybe 11 to 15 pages' long that represented the new direction of the story that they wanted to go in. And I loved it, it was engaging, there was a lot of good elements there, but we still ended up even at that point starting from almost from scratch again, we still reinvented the wheel several times. We cut characters out, we added characters.

There was a lot of changes, but that redrafting of the story when I first came on, it at least had the core of what Mulan's story is about a girl that loved her parents so much, her father particularly, that she would go off to war and maybe even die in his place. That was the emotional core of the story. It still is, but everything else had to be invented.

Barry Cook: It was the moment when reflection had come and Chen-Yi Chang had storyboarded it. The final storyboards for that sequence was done by Dean DeBlois. But Chen-Yi boarded the first version. Well, I actually thumbnailed the first version myself, but Chen-Yi drew a beautiful definitive inspiring version of it. That whole thing was inspired when I was in China. We went to a place where all these bays were set up and these bays are like the stone tablets. They're not gravestones, they're commemoration stones and they have information about ancestors and tributes and honoring ancestors, and they put them up in places like these temples and courtyards, and things like that. I was looking at these things and I was noticing how highly reflected the surfaces were and we could see our reflections in them. She's a girl searching for identity, maybe her image could be distorted in some, skinny in some, fat in some, like a fun house mirror stretched out in some. We never really did that in the film, but that's where the idea started, and then I thumbnailed something when I got back to California. I basically gave it to Chen-Yi as sort of a storyboarding assignment. That scene is the lynchpin.

Jeffrey Katzenberg was leaving Disney because President Michel Eisner had ousted him, and Eisner would refuse to honor part of Katzenberg's contract, which stated that Katzenberg would get a percentage of the profits from each of the films that he worked on. Katzenberg would ultimately prevail in an out of court settlement and in a one-finger salute to Disney, he formed DreamWorks.

Tony Bancroft: Well, it was good and bad because when Jeffrey Katzenberg left, that's right when they restructured the story. The biggest change was we had a different music guy, we had Stephen Schwartz who did all the music for Pocahontas, and Stephen was writing songs for, and he had written like, I don't know, I wanna say two to three at least, but with the story restructure they ended up getting thrown out and on top of it, Jeffrey ended up stealing Stephen from Disney, and he was the main writer for Prince of Egypt, which was DreamWorks SKG's first animated feature. So Jeffrey took Stephen with them, which was at the time pretty crippling for Mulan. Unfortunately, we got David Zippel and Matthew Wilder, two very new guys and fresh faces, they contributed the songs for us ultimately. At first, it was a big, big bump in the timeline for us.

Barry Cook: Jeffrey was more or less the captain of the ship of feature animation. It was funny because I was there the day Jeffrey Katzenberg entered the studio, I was there the day Michael Eisner entered the studio, I was there the day Frank Wells entered the studio, I was already working there. But to see this guy, Jeffrey Katzenberg, absolutely go from, I know nothing about animation to falling in love with the art form, and he really did and you could see it happening. He fell in love with the process that Walt Disney himself had created for developing and making these animated films. That was pretty cool, and he was very much supportive when Chris Sanders and myself, had come up with the core of the story we wanted to tell and we'd pitched it to Jeffrey. Our immediate supervisors, or president of feature animation, maybe they weren't as behind the version we wanted to tell, but Jeffrey really supported us on it. He was sort of tough, sort of a tough, creative boss to have but he would always push you toward the better ideas. And that was part of his strength.

With Katzenberg gone, Michael Eisner was spending more and more time in feature animation giving notes.

Tony Bancroft: Unfortunately, yes, he did. And Eisner, being across the street, did wanna see the reels from time to time, and it wasn't as much as Jeffrey was involved, but he did wanna see it and he definitely had his reactions. Jeffrey was definitely the better executive to show a creative piece too, because his ideas were very constructive, they really made sense, he really thought about his notes and things like that, but he also was a creative mind that could contribute ideas. He wouldn't just say, "This is a funny guy, he's making funny air." I mean, sometimes he would, but he would also come up with areas and ideas of what could make it funny or what could make a stronger dynamic or a relationship work, or something? And they really made sense. He was good at that, he was good at story. Whereas, Eisner, if you had just listened to his overall overarching note, it was good, and you can really get something from that.

The problem with him and executives like Eisner is that they often try and instead of just giving you a general note, they try and give you a specific note with an idea of how to fix it. An example of that is, early on, he saw our storyboard animatic of the whole feature, and one of his very first comments was, "I think... I think Shan Yu need a song. Yeah, he should just in the beginning, he should just break out with a song where he's talking about, 'I'm gonna kill the Emperor, I'm gonna take over China.' Let's figure out what he's doing, let's have a real villain song in the beginning." And we just looked at each other, Barry and I and the rest and Chris Sanders and the producer, we were just aghast. We were like, "Oh, my gosh, Eisner wants Shan Yu to have... " We didn't see Shan Yu that way. There was no way we were ever... We were trying to make Shan Yu into this kind of a real visceral, scary, intense, real villain not a cartoony, over-the-top guest on, or something like that, or even Scar. We wanted him to be vicious and mean, and cool and intense. Miguel Ferrer was doing his voice for goodness' sakes. We couldn't think of him seeing ever.

So, when we went away and after we picked our jaws off up off the ground, we talked about, "What is he really asking for? The meat of what he's saying is, he wants to know who Shan Yu is and what he wants. Okay, that's something we could deal with. Put the song idea away, the specific element of making that a song and let's write a sequence that is that." And that was a good note, that was something that we needed to hear, that was something that we could connect with, and that was something we can work from. So we created the sequence that's in there based on that bogus note from Michael Eisner. We made a joke song that I think was played at the rap party. One of the story guys, I think it was, did a rush storyboard of some crazy Shan Yu song, and it was only played at dailies or at the rap party, I can't remember which, and it was never seen again.

Instead Shan Yu would become one of Disney's most treacherous and real villains.

Tony Bancroft: The scene with the flag where he... It cuts to black but you know he sticks a burning flag through the guy on the gate on the Great Wall. We wanted to set that tone for him, but he was a very real threat, he was almost like a super villain, he was so powerful and so strong and so determined but also smart. You see him as a real thinker, like when they get the doll. "Oh, this doll comes... " He ask his troops first like a quiz, like, "What do you see?" And they're sniffing it, and there's this powder and there's this, and they're given him. And then he summarizes for him, "This doll came from the Bojong mountains and then... " He's like detective quality smart, he could put a story together, he knows what's going on, he's got a mission and he's got a goal, but he's also this unstoppable force of nature, he's this typhoon that nothing can stop from him getting to the point where he's gonna take on that Emperor except for, and this is the dynamic that is so important to the story.

Except for there's this little girl in this little province of China and how is she gonna affect that bigger story? And that's what we tried to do with it is, if you open up with this bigger than life story, the world is on fire and everything's going to heck, and then there's this huge dragon, how does the little cobbler work into that story and have an effect? That's what we wanted to do with Mulan in the beginning of the story and so Shan Yu had to play that part.

Barry Cook: We worked very hard and we actually fought very hard creatively to tell the story that we ended up telling. When once we gotta set in our head, we were sort of like pit bulls, we really wanted to happen. The same thing happened with Ming-Na Wen's voice. I had heard her opening their ration in the movie Joy Luck Club, I said, "Wow! What a voice. I wonder who that is." I said, "Wow! That's a cool voice. Wow!" And so we found out and I said, "You know, I think this is our person. I think this is our girl. This is the voice of Mulan." And top studio brass that I should not mention by name, said, "Oh, we should get somebody famous. She's not famous. We should get somebody well known, and besides, I don't know if I really like her voice anyway. They're really gotta be good, I don't know." So I fought, and I fought, and I fought for Ming-Na Wen. And fortunately, she's our voice of Mulan in the English-speaking versions of the movie.

Tony Bancroft: Well, I'll back up and say we had a mandate put on us by the studio, Michael Eisner, all the big executives and stuff to cast a 100% Asian. Now, when I say Asian, we do have Japanese, Korean, they're not all Chinese. But at the time in the late '90s when we made this, there was not a big pool of Asian-American actors to go to. Certainly, ones that had a name or any kind of marquee value was hardly at all, that's why we have Sulu from Star Trek in there and then Pat Morita. At the time, those were some of the bigger names that you could go to. So we had a first screening of the film that had 100% Asian actors in it except for Eddie Murphy's Mushu because he's a magical dragon, because he's from another world, it lended a creative freedom to us where we could go any direction we wanted to. We had a kind of a Brooklyn-ie Timon-type actors in there before we tried some other things. It was actually Michael Eisner's idea to go after Eddie Murphy and we loved that idea 'cause it was just so diametrically opposed to Mulan and this little Chinese girl.

But that very first screening that we did for Michael Eisner and for the rest of the crew, we had everybody but Eddie Murphy Mushu was Asian, and it fell flat, all the comedy was not playing. We had several comedy characters in there that we were trying to get jokes out of, Grandmother Fa was not funny. You know, Yao. And after that screening, that mandate was lifted and Eisner and everybody said, "Well, maybe you can recast some of these." And so, we looked at it really deeply and decided, "Let's get a new actor in for Yao. Let's recast grandmother." And that's when we got Harvey Fierstein and then June Foray came in for grandmother. We did have an Asian actor for Shan Yu and it just was not menacing, it just wasn't big enough, and it was our casting director that recommended Miguel Ferrer, and I loved it. I mean, I'd seen RoboCop and stuff that he was in that and I just loved his deep voice, and when he came in it just knocked us on our butts. We were just so impressed with the delivery that he gave us.

Barry and I both have daughters, and at the time, I think we had one each at least. We did wanna make an impactful Disney female hero that was strong, that didn't need a man to help her, that was a big deal to us. We wanted her to be able to stand on her own two feet, to be passionate, to be so driven by what she knew was right and what she knew that she could do, that there weren't any limits. She has this limitless kind of strength within her. Personally, I wanted that for my daughters, I wanted them to see and have a Disney heroine that they could look up to for the next generation and generations to come and say, "That's the hero for me. That's the girl that I wanna be. I can do anything if I set my mind to it."

Well, yeah, and so many of the Disney features before that, one of the parents who would be gone or both of the parents would be gone, and it was about an orphan story like Aladdin. And we had this kind of commitment that we wanted to make a film where both parents were alive, they lasted the whole story, and we did that and a grandmother to boot. So, we felt like a big success there in the Disney canon of films. It's important to Chinese culture too the feeling of filial piety, about family and you do things for the legacy of your family, for the respect of your family, to bring them honor and glory, That's a huge part of Chinese culture, and it's also therefore, a big part of Mulan story.

We had to fight for the parents so as many times that an executive or somebody would say, "Well, if we just get rid of the father or maybe the mom. Do we really need the mom? What do we need her for? Make it just about the dad and we'll save some footage and some line mileage or whatever." But we just felt strongly that, "No, we're gonna make the first Disney film with two parents."

Barry Cook: The night where she leaves home, it's no dialogue, it's all just silent movie sort of stuff, just visual story telling. And we knew that sequence had to happen for the story to happen. She had to leave home. There's no way around it. You know that scene's gonna be in the movie in one shape, form, or the other. The scene where she leaves home was sort of the lynchpin. We knew we had a movie when we had those two things storyboarded. We really felt like, "Yeah, it's this... This is gonna be great."

In 1997, Eddie Murphy's films were dropping like flies, he was also stopped by police in 1997 for having a transsexual prostitute in his car in West Hollywood. Culture has changed since then, and the shock of this is far less than in 1997, but it didn't help that Eddie was also married at the time. Eddie's behavior was completely antithetical to the wholesome historic Disney image, which even in 2018, led to the firing of Director James Gunn for off-colored tweets. However, back then, the image was swept under the rug so that they could get a falling star to be their wannabe guardian dragon.

Tony Bancroft: I remember when we first started working with Eddie and he was cast as Mushu, there was concerns in the studio about his career kinda tanking. That every movie he was doing wasn't very successful, it was like Metro and The Holy Man, and some movies around that time that were not doing too well. He was kind of sinking in the box office and not as popular as he used to be. We wanted the Axel Foley guy, and that kind of success and that energy, but we got him at kind of a low point. I do remember that he was filming and it came out before us, The Nutty Professor, and that was a big point in his career. That brought him back into the limelight 'cause that did really well, and it was very funny and well regarded.

So that came out right before us, I think, and Eddie Murphy was great. A consummate professional, I'll say that upfront. But it's funny, I think most people think that he improved a lot of his lines. I've had a lot of people ask me that over the years, and he really didn't. We knew we had Eddie Murphy coming into it, so our writers, or script writers, and all the dialogue that we did, the storyboard artists, we worked towards Eddie Murphy. And we had this Axel Foley type in our mind, so clearly because of what he had done in the past, that we start to work towards that. I think he surpassed that in a lot of ways, and he tried to be more unique and do something different. Like there was one time, I know we mistakenly... And this is one of the things that new directors do, they're not always so smart and wise. We asked Eddie Murphy, "Okay, in the scene, maybe after you say the line, you could do that, that Eddie Murphy laugh. We want the trademark Eddie Murphy laugh in this, can you do that?" He just got really serious and looked us in the eyes, like, "That's Axel Foley. That's not Eddie Murphy laugh, that's not me. That's that character. Don't ask me to do another character in your movie. What's the Mushu laugh? That's what we should be figuring out." And we're like, "Okay, Uh... "

And the funny thing is that we would just say, "Hey can you put a little laugh in at the end, or... " And you would still hear the Eddie Murphy laugh. The thing that we were looking for, still came out, but if we asked for it specifically, he would not give it to us. I always describe it as, we were like the plumbers coming into his house 'cause we did record mostly at his house, wherever he was, is where we went. And he had in his contract that we would come to him. But he never came out to LA, he and he lived at the time, in New Jersey, in this big mansion where he had a recording studio in his basement. He fancied himself a pop singer. You know, "My girl wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the time." That was his big hit in the early '90s I guess it was. Because of that, we would go there and we would set up our equipment, with his equipment. We would be there for hours setting up and then he would just walk in, do his thing, and then take off. And he was cordial and nice and stuff, but there was no hanging out. There was no like, "Let's shoot some pool. I'd love to meet the kids. And hey, can I do a drawing for your little nephew there," or something like that. It was just, he did a job and then he left. Then we had to pack up our stuff and leave out the back.

The very first time that we met him, he came down in his bath robe, and he was just like, "Oh man, I can't believe it, I smell like a Blimpie. Do you smell my hands? Do they smell like Blimpie? I'm so sorry I smell like Blimpie. I just had a Blimpie upstairs. I got vinegar and olive oil all over me. I smell like a Blimpie." That's the first thing he ever told us. We're like, "Great, thank you."

Eddie Murphy telling Tony his hands smelled like a Blimpie sandwich wasn't the only awkwardness that Tony faced with Mushu. Tony would also be directing his own brother for the first time, and Tom wanted to animate Mushu more than anything.

Tony Bancroft: My brother was actually a part of Mulan before I came onto it, because he was in the Orlando Florida Studio working there still. And he was actually doing development on some of the characters and he really wanted to do Mushu. That was a big part, and so I wasn't sure if he could do it. There was a lot of people that weren't sure, but they were waiting to cast all the characters until the second director came on, basically me, who they knew would have more of an animation background. So, I was a big deciding vote in who got what part for all the supervising animator roles. And so I basically cast the film alongside Barry. And it was hard, because you don't want to show any kind of preferential treatment to your twin brother. And it was that whole, "What are people gonna think if I give him one of the starring roles in the film, Mushu, particularly?" But he did some tests, and he earned that part, he really did. He did some animation tests, it was a couple of guys that did animation tests for Mushu. Both Barry and I fortunately agreed that Tom should get the role.

The difficulty, as we went through, was I would be joking around, or I'd talk to him like a brother. "Oh, you knucklehead," and that kind of stuff. In the very next moment, I would have to turn around and say something as a director, "Make sure you get that scene done." Or, "Oh, on this next thing I wanted to tell you about this, this is really important." And he would have to do that switch in his mind, when his to speaking to me as his brother, when is he talking to me as my boss? And he did a great job, I give him a lot of credit for that 'cause I didn't, I had so much on my plate, I couldn't worry about Tom and his emotions and how he was doing with all this, so he had cope with a lot of things on his own, but he really did. We got through it and we had a great relationship. And when I was not directing and on the weekends and stuff, I was over Tom's house and we were hanging out. We had our special relationship as twins, as brothers, but also when at work, that's when it was serious and I had to be his boss.

Barry Cook: There was a moment in the film that's a transition in the story, but I felt like sort of coming up with that idea, the nut of that idea, to me, I felt like yes, I know what I'm doing here. And the moment where we had the transition from, is really making a very, very sad moment where Captain Shang puts up the little makeshift memorial to his father, with his sword and the helmet, and Mulan adds a little doll. And the snow to me, the snow is so important, I said, "It should start snowing here." Everybody's like, "Why?" I said, "I don't know, but it just needs something. Something needs to change. Something needs to be changing the air." Something's changed in all the characters, right? For them, they were like, "Oh this is serious now. We're not just training and belly-aching about not having any girls around, missing our favorite dinners at home, and joking around by the lake skinny-dipping. This is serious now, we're going into a war.

How do we transition the characters? And I think maybe it was along the same point where I really felt like we're making a significant film here. We're not making a film that's gonna be seen this year and never thought about. This film is gonna last. And this film is gonna have staying power through generations, I think. And I thought at that point, this is something that's not just the next movie coming out, it has some gravity to it. But I think working in that moment of the story and working that transition, and coming out of that transition and doing the comic relief of Mushu accidentally setting off a rocket, right before the big battle, just giving the audience that laugh. We've been so heavy for the last five minutes or ten minutes. The film had been so heavy and so series, and so like a live action dramatic film, that breaking it with a comedic relief, but then also, that being the trigger that notified the enemy.

They're in the valley, time to attack. Everyone's hair goes up on the back of their neck, and here comes Shan Yu and his troops over the ridge. That part of the story, it's a big transition in the movie. But also for me in the making of the film, I feel like it was a big transition, maybe in my confidence. But I just also felt for the sake of the movie I felt very confident that wow, we've got something now that's more than a lynchpin, but something that's like a core to this movie, has so much weight and foundation to it, that it's gonna work. It's gonna work well. It's gonna work well for the audience.

Tony Bancroft: I just thought of something too that was kind of a defining moment for me as a director on the film. It didn't come until the end of the movie, but I really felt like one of my most defining moments where I really stood up for myself as a director, and for the movie specifically was working with Jerry Goldsmith. Jerry Goldsmith was our score composer, he was very famous for doing Star Trek theme, and Rudy, and he won Oscars and stuff like that, and Emmys. So Jerry came on the picture and he was just kind of a force of nature. But there was a sequence that we had that we had fallen in love with the temp track that we had storyboarded too, and it was a Randy Edelman piece, I forget from what. But it's the sequence where Mulan goes in to her father's, or parents' room, grabs the conscription notice, cuts her hair, takes the uniform and the horse and rides off. And it starts with her sitting outside her parents window, and it's raining and it was almost like cutting a music video, that sequence was one of the very first sequences that was boarded. It went through a lot of different iterations. And back in the day of Stephen Schwartz there was a song there and we took the song out, and just found this score. Dean DeBlois, who's now a big time director at DreamWorks, had done How To Train Your Dragon, he was the one that storyboarded that sequence, or at least the final version of it. And he picked the score. We cut it to it. It was the very first sequence that became the tent post of what this movie was. We would show it to people all the time and everybody loved it. So, come to the end of the movie, after it's animated and Jerry is scoring stuff, and he gets to scoring that sequence, we told him, "Well, it has to have this beat to it." And we tried to explain it to him, without showing him or letting him hear the scratch track, 'cause that can be insulting. That can be insulting to an artist so creative.

So, we just talked through it, we talked through what we wanted for the sequence. The beat the kind of more the music feel as opposed to a scored-over sequence. He went away, and he sent us a synthesized version of it, and it was everything we didn't want. It was just scored over and had all these emotional things but the music was changing from scene to scene and it was all over the place.

Barry Cook: Yeah, it was really funny, because here's Jerry Goldsmith, the greatest composer, arguably, even to this day, probably one of the greatest film composers ever, right? He's up there with Maurice Jarre and John Williams. He's just one of the great composers, right? So, basically we said, "Well, we still don't like that cue. It's not really working out the way we thought it would." "Well if you guys really don't like it, you're gonna have to talk to Jerry about it." I think that was the word that came down from Peter Schneider or Tom Schumacher. Okay, so we made an appointment to go see him at his home on a Saturday morning. A maid, who was like a live-in maid, opened the door, "We're here to see Mr. Goldsmith." "Oh yes, he's expecting you. Just go back past the swimming pool, and that little house back there, go upstairs and wait for him upstairs." And so we went up there and waited. We were sitting up there. It's this little... It's his little creative studio space. He's got a keyboard, and he's got some of the electronic recording equipment and things. He's got a couple of chairs in there.

And we're waiting, we're on pins and needles. 'Cause we don't... I play bluegrass fiddle, that's my ability, so I'm not really that musically inclined. And Tony, I don't think Tony could carry a tune in a bucket. So, we're not musical guys, really, right? And we've already done the movie with Jerry and everything's worked out pretty good, excellent, really. Except for this one cue, we just didn't like. And it's the cue where Mulan's leaving home, and it's something we gotta tell him. So we're sitting there in chairs waiting. And in two chairs, two identical chairs, side by side. And I sort of look on my shoulder 'cause I didn't notice. And right between us, on a shelf above our heads was an Oscar. It's like going to the mountain to tell Muhammad that something was not right… I don't know, it was just comical. The situation was comical. It didn't have a comedic end, necessarily. We worked with Jerry, he was very cross that day. And "Okay, guys, I'll try to, I know what you're talking about, okay, I'll try to make it more rhythmic and more like a music video, or more like a tune carrying it."

Tony Bancroft: We went through that two or three times. Finally, he just threw his hands up and said, "Just let me listen to the darn scratch, alright? Let me just hear it!" And so we played it for him, and... It had this build to it and everything, and this beat. And he's like, "Oh, okay, I get, I get, I got it." He didn't even finish the whole thing. "I got it. No, I got it. All right, I know what you're going for." He goes off again. By this point, we're actually starting to record on the stage some of the other score we have. The movie's paying for all this money for orchestra to come out. We got a stage. And he starting to compose the music, but we still haven't heard this final one. So, he invites us over to his house, Barry and I, and we're sitting on these chairs, and he's like, "Okay guys, I got it. I think I know what you want. This is it." And he plays it for us.

[music]

It's still not quite there. This is probably the fourth iteration by this point. And he's at his wit's end. And he is upset at us. We're first-time directors and all this kind of stuff, and there's that feeling in the air. But we talk to him again, and we just take a slow. Well Jerry, it still doesn't and that beat, and it's got to have that driving thing. And we cut to these beads, and animation is done, it's gotta really fit in there. And so it's, "All right, all right, all right. All right, I'll get it right. No problem. I've never done this before, but I'll do it again." He goes away, and here he rewrites the score again. But this time, we don't hear it until we're on the stage. So he's got a full 80 piece, or a 120 piece, I forget what it was, orchestra of musicians there. This is the most expensive time on a movie is during this kind of moment where you're paying for engineers and the recording space, and all the orchestra.

And everybody is in the sound engineering booth, there's the the head of animation and the vice president of animation, the music supervisor, Pam Coats the Producer, and then Barry and I, and probably 12 other people and assistants too. So, he had scored some pieces, everything was going well that day. Everybody's in a good mood, and he goes, "Okay, so here's this sequence. I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna play it for you. We're gonna record one. We'll just lay one down for you guys. But you know what, you're gonna love it. It's gonna be great, you're gonna love it.

[music]

And it's better. It's better. It's still not quite there, and I'm... As Jerry's out there in the room with the orchestra, I'm looking around at everybody else trying to get a temperature of the room, and the engineering booth with all the executives, and mostly Barry, my partner. Like, "We... Do you think?" We're all kind of shaking our heads. No, it's not quite there. I feel like we have some agreement. Jerry ends with the orchestra, he walks into the sound booth and he was like, "Ha! What do you guys think, ah? Great, right? We got it, we nailed it!" All of a sudden, there's just crickets. There's just nobody says a word. And I'm looking around, going, "I know we were just talking about this, we were just... " And I'm looking at Barry, and he's... And Pam, and the executives in the background they're all mum. So finally, I decided out of my youthful bliss, I guess, and confidence of... I'm gonna support this film, and I know it can be better.

I stand up and I said, "Well, Jerry, if it just... " And I couldn't even get the rest of the sentence out and a volcano of expletives and shouts and yells came my way. It was like one of those Tom and Jerry cartoons where his hair is going back, as Jerry's blowing in my face. And just cursing like a sailor, all this stuff about, "What do you know! You don't know! And you're just a junior director!" All this, blah, blah, blah. "I've been working on this... I've never had this in... " And so, all this kind of righteous indignation comes out of him. I take it, I just sit there and take it. And I finally just say, "But Jerry, it could be better." And luckily, fortunately, I had a very specific idea. You can't stand up against Jerry Goldsmith, and just say, "Well, it could be better." I just said, "Jerry if there's this speed here, and there's this instrument, if we could just bring that out more and this and that. I suggested a couple tweaks. Luckily, the music supervisor then finally got up out of his seat and supported me. "Yeah, Jerry, that might be good, let's try that."

And he calmed down enough, and he said, "Fine. All right." And he goes back in, does it with the orchestra, right there. And it was the take that's in the movie, it was perfect. But it was that moment that I really felt like a director in a weird way, because I stood up to somebody that was a big bear of a man and had this strength of will, and yet I had to come up above that and say, "But that's not what's right for the movie." I know I had heard what was right. I knew that there was something better that could be in that moment and that's what I was fighting for. I wasn't fighting Jerry Goldsmith, I was fighting for what could be better. The potential of that sequence was so important to me. That's what I was fighting for. And finally, I feel like Jerry got there. And the rest is history.

Barry Cook: And I'm still not happy with the cue and I don't think Tony is either, but it's just a way that goes sometimes. But all in all, I'd say that Jerry Goldsmith was one of the true highlights of my career, to be able work with him.

When you start on a movie, you think, "Oh, here's the way this movie should be." But there's a certain point that happens in every single project, where the project begins telling you what it needs. It's like Audrey II, "Feed me." And it really tells you very specifically, "No, no, no, I don't need that, I need this." Oh, it really starts demanding its own way. If you listen to it. If you refuse to listen to it, you refuse to see what it's turning into and how it's coming to life, then you can miss the boat on it. But I think at some point, it had established itself as a story, as a look, as a tone, everything else that did probably the last half of production, it was telling us what it needed at every turn.

And it's funny because Ron and John, I remember one time they told a group of us, I think they were doing a little lecture on directing. And they said, "You're trying to get the movie made, you're trying to make a movie, you're trying to make a movie, you're trying to make a movie, you're trying to make a movie, and then this day comes; you're trying to finish this movie." [chuckle] So, it becomes from trying to make it, to trying to finish it. It's like turning over a page, or something, it suddenly is upon you. Oh, now we gotta get it finished. And then it's just really tender loving care and making sure that it doesn't get harmed on its way out of the cradle, or whatever that is.

Tony Bancroft: To paint the picture for you, we were this little studio, the little engine that could, that was out in Orlando, Florida. We had never made our own feature together, we probably had one of the greenest crews of any Disney feature going back to, maybe, Snow White. Our crew was mostly all animators and clean-up people and artists that came from art schools directly to that studio in Orlando, Florida. Never worked with a lot of the senior guys and got that kind of discipleship and mentorship and here we were making our own feature and nobody expected Mulan to be good. They wanted it to be good, obviously, but nobody had that high expectation of us. And because of that, it kind of put a chip on our shoulder of wanting to prove ourselves as a studio.

And people on that film bonded like crazy. Our crew was like a family. We cared and we were so passionate about that movie and everybody on it. I tell people all the time that Mulan could not have been made anywhere else in the world and come out as good as it did I think, and it was really because of this green, green crew that just were like a family that worked so hard into the night, that gave their all and sacrificed it all and left it on the art table for Mulan. It was awesome, but we didn't have that expectation that we were gonna be big, or successful. We felt like we were making our own little backyard film. You know what I mean? It wasn't like we were making a Disney Feature, we didn't feel that way the whole time, it felt like we're just making our own little backyard film. Maybe, I hope people come and see it, and like it.

The defining moment was every couple of years, the studio would do like a whole studio-wide meeting, where the executives and the directors would talk about the next five years of projects that are coming up. The very first day of that, they wanted to screen Mulan in its entirety. And it was not all animated, there were story boards in it. Some animation, some color. So it was at that kind of a stage, and we screened it for the whole studio. There was this feeling like, "Man, that films are just going down, they're not doing as well." And there was a sense of anxiousness about their jobs and where animation is going and they could see that Lion King was well behind, and the success of Lion King was well behind us, and now that films are just going down, down, down in the box office. Pixar was having huge success, and our movies were not doing well. And there was an uneasiness. And so we screened the film and people were reacting, they were laughing and they were into it. But, you know, when it's the crew and it's other animators, when it's professionals, they don't laugh as much as a regular audience, they're very critical. So they tend to hold their cards pretty close to their chests, and that kind of thing.

But when it ended, it was quiet. We didn't really know what people thought, and then all of the sudden it was this huge gush of clapping and cheering and as the lights went on, people stood up and there was a standing ovation. These were from executives, these were from story people, animators, all of our peers in the Burbank California Studio. They all stood up and started cheering us. And unfortunately, the whole crew that mainly was back in Orlando, Florida; they didn't get to experience this moment. But Barry and I, and Pam and Chris Sanders, and some of the heads of departments were there, and they literally wouldn't stop clapping until we stood up and took a bow. And to me that was the most special moment of Mulan. Everything after that, I didn't care about. I really didn't care about how it came out in the theater. For me, that moment of getting the adoration of our peers in California meant that the Florida studio got it right, and they were encouraged, it made them feel better about where the company was going, and that this movie's coming out, maybe it will be success, maybe they won't lose their jobs. It was all that mixed in there. But more than anything, it was that feeling that Orlando, Florida got it right. Our little studio did it.

Because Hercules was a disappointment at the box office, Disney cut costs and only gave half of Hercules' advertising budget to Mulan.

Tony Bancroft: And it explained so much to me as to why Mulan didn't do as well as I wanted it to or thought it might. All the reviews were great. People were loving it and liking it and all this, and yet it didn't make as much as some of the movies that had come out even just a couple of years before. And so hearing that 20 years later that they had a short changed us on our marketing because of Hercules and stuff, all of a sudden made sense. In a way, it kind of made me feel a little better I guess about things too, 'cause I wanted it so badly to be a bigger success than it was. But knowing that they kinda shortchanged us on the marketing explained a lot.

Barry Cook: From the day I started on it, to the day we walked out of Technicolor when the released print was color timed, was about five years to the day that I had started on it. And it's funny because after Mulan came out and it was pretty successful and it was a good movie, a great story and well told. And Jeffrey Katzenberg, he invited me over to DreamWorks, and it's just sort of like... You wanna come over and work for a while? And I didn't, but he thanked me, he said, "I just wanna thank you for Mulan," he says, "because you know I have 2% of the profits on that movie." [chuckle] And you're like, "Thanks Jeffrey, wish I had that."

Tony Bancroft: It was known to be a success. Not regarded as a huge success, like Lion King or anything, but they thought of it as success. A little blip on the world of money coming into Disney, I guess. But it was a different time. When I came out of Mulan, I started to see pretty quickly that times were changing. Pixar was doing extremely well, right around the corner was talk about not doing anymore 2D animation. The world, things were shifting, and I didn't have a crystal ball, or anything, but I started becoming restless too. After coming off the Mulan, they had me in development for six months. And I had an opportunity to develop a bunch of movies. I pitched several different movies. I wanna do an Irish parable, and I pitched this giant movie, and now they're working on a giant thing, or they were recently. I pitched a superhero movie, and then they did the Incredibles years later.

I pitched a Puss in Boots idea and concept, and then DreamWorks did Shrek with Puss in Boots. I kept pushing these ideas that I felt like were new and original that weren't being done, they were all getting pushed aside, they were all being rejected. And I started realizing that something is going on here, and I'm not getting connected to another project. Even some other projects that were in development, there was a lot of directors and projects on the runway to take off, so I could tell that even if I got on to a project, it would not be in production probably for five to seven years because of how many they already had lined up. And I'm like, "Ah!" I couldn't wait, I didn't wanna do that. So I went back in animation, I missed drawing and anime, and I animated Kronk in Emperor's New Groove. And then right after that, I started really feeling like I wanted to start my own animation company and feeling like that was time to leave. And so I did, I left and I started my own a company called Toonacious Family Entertainment with a couple buddies from my church.

While Tony was on his way out, Barry was busy developing another film for the Florida studio.

Barry Cook: It's called My Peoples. I had been developing it for about two years, and we had a green light for production. My Peoples was a hybrid film, 2D and CG together. And that was sort of a tougher film to make, but we felt pretty confident we could do it in Florida, since we had a lot of people training in CG, we had also a lot of experiences 2D animators. But the vision I had for the movie, the look of the movie sort of depended on that hybrid. Dolly Parton was doing a voice. We had great bluegrass musicians doing a lot of music because O Brother, Where Art Thou? Became famous, became the top selling soundtrack album a couple years before. That was the only reason I even got their attention with this idea, because that had been such a successful movie.

Well, the basic pitch was... The foundational part was sort of Hatfields and McCoys. Two families that had never gotten along. That set in the Appalachian Mountains, and the two young people in the family who'd fallen in love with each other. And one of them was a folk artist. He was a guy who made these, for lack of a better term, these dolls, these wooden dolls that were crafted out of metal. And some were made of old lawnmower engines and different parts, and stuff like that. But they all represented relatives that he knew in the past, or people from his side of the family. And one was a little angel that really represented his mom. And he made this little angel as a gift for the girl he loved. But magically, when this angel was brought to life, she wasn't about to go down and woo this girl to become part of their family. She still had a great prejudice against that other family. So it's basically about an angel who doesn't want do her job. And that was the Dolly Parton part.

Mulan producer, Pam Coats, was integral to the film success. But when she was promoted to Executive VP of Creative Development, it came with an unfortunate task.

Barry Cook: Pam Coats was a fantastic producer, and she was... The success of the movie, I think, owes so much to her. But it's funny because she was the actual person who told me that the studio was closing, and then my movie wasn't gonna get made and that I no longer had a job at feature animation. It was sort of ironic in that regard. But we remained friends, and we see each other whenever we can. And she's, you know, she's great.

David Stainton, President of Walt Disney Feature Animation sent out an email to the studio to explain why My Peoples had been shut down, which read, "The fundamental idea is not strong enough or universally appealing enough to support the kind of performance our movies must have today." After Mulan, Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear, My Peoples would have been the fourth Disney feature made in Florida.

Barry Cook: But I do think, and I'm pretty sure that just the whole 9-11 thing in 2001, a lot of companies all around the world just began contracting, in terms of what they were willing to spend, and what they were willing to do, and what the future held and everything else. When Disney began closing their studio... They had a TV studio in Sydney, Australia, they closed that. They had one in Tokyo, Japan, and they closed it. Their Paris studio, which did parts of features, they closed that. So we sort of knew we were next on the list, you know. My project came down to, it was either my project or Mark Dindal's project, Chicken Little. And I think the big decision was Chicken Little was already in Burbank, and Chicken Little was all CG. So in some ways, Chicken Little was sort of the easier pill to swallow for the studio for its first CG feature.

And in the end, Michael Eisner, he didn't tell me personally, but what was told to me, was the reason they weren't gonna make the film, it was too colloquial. It was too specific to a region of the United States. And they didn't feel like it would have universal appeal as a story. And I would disagree highly with that, because if you look to movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, or something like that, that are culturally specific but have... The human condition is the same no matter where you go. And relationships and everything else, no matter what culture you're in, no matter what situation. So, that was sort of his official line to me why they decided not to make the move. And it's all Disney's property because they paid me to develop it, and with the agreement that it would be theirs regardless of what happened, whether it got made or not. I knew I couldn't get it made in my own necessarily, but to... So yeah, that's still sitting over there in their ARL, animation research library. But everybody in feature animation sort of knows about the project and knows of it and thinks it would have been a really... A very, very unique film at the time, maybe. And a very, I don't know, just something really fresh. Something really different, but yeah, I guess it wasn't meant to be, but...

On January 12th 2004, CNN reported that Disney would close the animation studio in Florida and cut 260 jobs.

It was terrible. I don't know how else to describe it. It's horrible. It was just absolutely heartbreaking. Walt Disney World kept calling me saying, "We found a box with your name on it in a warehouse, 87, over here. Can you come can pick up?" So I was picking up boxes out of various warehouses all over Disney property for the next six months. It was crazy. [chuckle] And so it was... I'm thankful for 22 years at Disney, 22 plus years at Disney. You look back right now and say, "Well yes, it's been great." Whenever it was, studio closed 2004, it's been 14 years. It's been a great 14 years. Some lean times. Some good times. Some fat times, but some really interesting work and things. So, yeah, I...

But the studio closing, and that whole group of talent breaking up and basically being blown to the four corners. Well, it was heartbreaking. I don't know how else you'd put it. It was just absolutely... It was like your house burning down. Everybody got out alive, but barely. But everything you loved sort of burned to the ground.

For more behind the scenes stories from animation, check out the Bancroft Brother's Podcast, hosted by Tony Bancroft and his brother Tom Bancroft, on iTunes.

[melindarowens]

No Diss, And An Upbeat FMSR Sends Kiwi Higher!

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Whew! I had a much better night of sleep last night! I still don’t know what the problem was on Monday night, but I certainly was glad it did not return last night! Not much going on in the currencies or metals as I fire up my laptops, and check out what went on in the overnight markets… Another loss for my beloved Cardinals. The offense has simply dropped off a cliff, and dolt me, I stayed up to watch most of that debacle last night! The Band Yes, greets me this morning with their song: Roundabout… The Big Boss, Frank Trotter, sent me a link to an article on what the song Roundabout is all about, the last time I mentioned this song…

Well, as I said in the opening, not much going on in the currencies and metals.. Although we did have one strong move overnight from kiwi, which got a clean bill of health from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) Financial Monetary Stability Report for May. I’m waiting for the data of the day which will come from the Eurozone, where their May CPI (consumer inflation) will print. Here’s the skinny, Eurozone CPI bumped higher in March and April (up to 1.7%) and Eurozone President, Mario Draghi, shrugged it off saying that it was “short-term” and wouldn’t continue to go higher. The experts have this May CPI report as confirmation of what Draghi was saying, and they think CPI could slip back toward the 1% level that was prevalent in the Eurozone before the last two months… So, in the end this morning, the euro will be tied to “how much CPI falls in May”… Like I said, we’re waiting for the data to print as I write…

I mentioned the RBNZ’s Financial Monetary Stability Report (FMSR) above… The report was upbeat and confirmed what I kept saying, which was that the New Zealand financial system is sound, and the risks facing the system have reduced in the past 6 months… The “risks” that the RBNZ is talking about is the Housing Bubble in Auckland. You may recall me telling you a few months ago, that the RBNZ had tightened the LVR (loan to value ratio) and that has done a lot of the heavy lifting toward reducing the risks… However, RBNZ Gov. Wheeler was quick to point out that, “As sharp reversal in risk sentiment could lead to higher funding costs for N.Z. Banks and an increase in domestic borrowing costs.” Wheeler also pointed out that “the outlook for the global economy has been improving but global political and policy uncertainty remains elevated and debt burdens are high in a number of countries”…

Thanks to my friendship with the former Gov. of the RBNZ, Don Brash, who set me up to receive Reserve Bank notices a long time ago… These notices give me RBNZ insight , which is helpful, like the info on the FMSR… I have to say that I was shocked that RBNZ Gov. Wheeler, didn’t diss kiwi in the press conference following the issuance of the FMSR! And so, with RBNZ Gov. Wheeler not dissing kiwi like he usually does, and the FMSR having an upbeat tone to it, kiwi took off and gained over 1/2-cent to a 71-cent handle this morning… Remember a couple of weeks ago, when kiwi got the stuffing knocked out of it, and fell back to a 68-cent handle? I like looking at 68-cents in the rear view mirror!

Well, the risk meter should be ratcheting higher this morning on the news overnight that a bomb exploded in Kabul near the opening of the Green Zone which houses U.S. military headquarters and embassy… I was watching Gold not reacting at all to the news of the suicide bomb explosion. So, maybe I’m making more of this information than needs to be made of…

The euro has bumped up 20 ticks from where it was when I first turned on the currency screen this morning. Maybe the CPI data has printed and I’m just not seeing it yet… I’ll keep an eye out for that!

Pound sterling got whacked again last night after another poll, this time it was the YouGov poll, which showed a further narrowing of the lead for Conservatives, and the YouGov pollsters decided to make a call afterward, saying that they believe that Conservatives could lose their majority in this election… Wait! What? OK, calm down and read on… It appears that the YouGov Poll is not a broad poll and therefore they have a wide plus- minus adjustment on their numbers… So, let’s take this report with a grain of salt and move on, eh?

In China last night, their May PMI (manufacturing index) printed better than expected at 51.2 and expectations at 51… The April PMI was also 51.2, so no gain or loss for the Chinese in May, with regards to manufacturing. The Chinese renminbi was allowed to appreciate a small bit on the PMI print outcome. Stabilizing data is important to China right now… They need all the stabilizing they can get!

Well, looky there! The euro has just jumped above the 1.12 handle, I’m still not seeing any data printing, but… Even a quick check of my Eurozone economic calendar didn’t show me what I was looking for to confirm that a better than expected CPI report is responsible for the move in the euro this morning. I did see most of the CPI reports for the individual countries of the Eurozone, and most of them were reporting better than expected CPI for May, except Germany, and with Germany being the largest economy of the Eurozone, it throws a larger than the average bear, spanner in the works, so I guess I’ll have to wait-to-see the Eurozone CPI report… In the meantime, the euro has bumped higher…

The Bank of Brazil (BOB) meets today, and will announce a rate cut… At least that’s how I see it… I see the BOB cutting their Selic Rate (internal rate) 100 Basis Points today! That would bring their Selic Rate to 10.25%, and that won’t be the last of the rate cuts from Brazil going forward… Just to prove the BOB is totally removed from any influence of politics, they will cut the Selic Rate by 100 Basis Points even though the real has been getting sold like funnel cakes at a State Fair, because of Political risks in Brazil..

Earlier this month, I said something about the former President Dilma Rousseff who was impeached earlier this year. I said that current, interim President Temer, had charges brought toward him on the news that he knew about the illegal funds that went to Rousseff… Someone close to the Brazilian news sent me this when I made that error… “Rousseff has never been charged with taking bribes. She was accused of knowing about them, but there was no evidence. Edward Cunha took bribes and now we know VP Michael Temer was also involved with the bribes. Rousseff was officially impeached for providing false data about the state of the Brazilian budget just before an election. As Wikipedia puts it “finding Rousseff guilty of breaking budget laws and removing her from office.”

There has never been a claim that she took money.”

Chuck again.. that’s what I get for getting into “politics” especially in a foreign country!

It is Month-end, and there could very well be position squaring for the month-end numbers, but with May not being a (quarter-end) the position squaring probably isn’t going to mount too much, but as I said we could very well see some today. If we see any it would probably benefit the currencies with some yield differential to the dollar…

The reason I say that is that these currencies with some yield differential to the dollar had been see the most shorting, due to the rate outlook of the U.S. (higher), which would mean a narrowing of the yield differentials, and thus potentially weaken the higher yielding currencies… But that’s just for today, folks… once we turn the page on June 1, the shorts can go back on, literally and physically! It’s unofficially, summer, the kids are out of school, so it’s time to get those sharts (as our Little Christine pronounces SHORTS) out and wear them!

The price of Oil continued to slide downward in the past 24 hours… After the OPEC meeting, Oil slipped, then recovered going into the weekend, then has gone back to slipping downward again.. not a lot of stability here, and certainly not on terra firma! The Petrol Currencies have been going back and forth alongside Oil, but at least the Norwegian krone has the euro strength on one side to keep it from getting sold too much.

The U.S. Data Cupboard got things going yesterday morning with a print of Personal Income and Spending… Once again, everyone is wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’ for Consumer Spending to pick up… And it did… Here’s the skinny… Both Personal Income and Spending grew at a 0.4% clip in April… I would like to think that this is good for the economy… But I’ll have to see more of this, because March’s report wasn’t exactly stellar, even with an upward revision! This data also has a PCE component to it. (Personal Consumption Expenditures) which is the Fed’s preferred inflation report, and this component rose 0.2% putting the year on year rise at 1.7%… Still not 2%… Still not reaching the Fed’s target… And that’s just fine with me!

The Case/Shiller Home Price Index for March was unchanged at a 5.9% increase…. And Consumer Confidence which has been running at all-time highs, saw a little slippage in May from April’s 119.4 sliding down to May’s 117.9.. Still quite high… and still no call to Chuck to see how confident he is!

Today’s Data Cupboard only has Pending Home Sales for April… That’s not exactly going to move any markets… We will get the privilege to hear what two Fed members have to say today… Robert Kaplan and John Williams will speak today, and I expect both of them to walk the straight line to a Fed Rate hike… And we could get more talk about the Great Unwind…

Gold had a down day yesterday, but the close was much better than the trading during the day, which saw the price of Gold slip by $ 11 and change at one point in the day. But Gold closed down just $ 3.80 at $ 1,262.80… The shiny metal is up a buck or two this morning, no big shakes… You know, I tell you all the time about the Gold accumulation that Russia and China continue to hoard… Well, if you do the math (don’t worry someone else has for you!) these two countries are basically taking on the entire global production of physical Gold, which leaves nothing for you and me, and jewelers and so on… An asset can only hold its current price when a scenario like this comes along, for so long… And then it historically breaks out to the top side, because of the lack of supply and the strong demand… That’s why I told some folks on the Butler Patio that I see Gold moving to $ 1,300 by summer’s end… of course I told them that was just my opinion and I could be wrong!

To recap… Not much movement from the currencies & metals so far today… The euro has bumped higher on what Chuck believes is a better than expected May CPI in the Eurozone. Kiwi has jumped to a 71-cent handle on an upbeat Financial Monetary Stability Report and no dissing of the currency by RBNZ Gov. Wheeler last night. Gold lost $ 3.80 yesterday, and is up a buck or two this morning. Chuck is somewhat inquisitive about why Gold is not reacting to the news that a suicide bomb exploded in Kabul Afghanistan? The U.S. Data Cupboard told us yesterday that Personal Income & Spending both increased by 0.4% in May, that the PCE was at 1.7% year on year, and that Consumer Confidence slipped a bit in May, but is still very high…

For What It’s Worth… You know how I keep saying the U.S. economy is going nowhere? Well, this writer from MarketWatch is pointing that out.. The article can be found here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-economy-seems-frozen-in-time-but-underneath-the-ice-the-water-is-warming-2017-05-28?siteid=nwtam

Or, here’s your snippet: “A new pro-business president, record stock-market prices and the highest level of consumer confidence in years shows a lot has changed for the U.S. economy in 2017. But one thing hasn’t: Headline growth appears frozen in time.

Even a pickup in gross domestic product in the spring to 3% from 1.2% in the first quarter — helped by another strong month of employment gains in May — won’t alter the bigger picture.

Read: Economy wasn’t as bad as it looked in first quarter, GDP shows

The U.S. is still expanding at a roughly 2% annual pace that’s prevailed since a recovery took hold almost eight years ago, well below its historic 3.3% average. President Trump has vowed to restore the “good old days” but so far progress is scant.

“We are still on the same track,” said Sam Bullard, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C.”

Chuck again.. The article goes on to say that the writer believes we are better off this year, than last year with the economy… Well, Let’s see… The economy went nowhere last year, and so this year we’re going nowhere faster!

Currencies today 5/31/17… American Style: A$ .7458, kiwi .7110, C$ .7430, euro 1.1216, sterling 1.2842, Swiss $ .9713, … European Style: rand 13.0789, krone 8.4301, SEK 8.7028, forint 273.76, zloty 3.7187, koruna 23.5597, RUB 56.51, yen 110.83, sing 1.3824, HKD 7.7911, INR 64.45, China 6.8554, peso 18.73, BRL 3.2579, Dollar Index 97.12, Oil $ 48.60, 10yr 2.22%, Silver $ 17.30, Platinum $ 944.10, Palladium $ 808.90, Gold $ 1,266.30, and SGE Gold.. .$ 1,266.85

That’s it for today… The end of May… Pretty amazing to me that the year is flying by again! Tomorrow we welcome the month of June… I have NO Doctor’s appointments this week, nor do I have an infusion! It’s like I got a “get out of jail free” card! YAHOO! That could mean that I’m making a call to the Pizza Man Pizza every night! But I don’t see that happening… I just haven’t been that hungry at night recently… Tomorrow evening I’m going out! We’re having a retirement party for my good friend, Frank Trotter… I’ve been asked to say a few words, since I’ve known him longer than anyone else at the bank… And that’s what I’ll be working on today… I have to say the exact right things, I get no Mulligans, and I have to attempt to not be too sappy, in fears that I would get emotional and tear up! I used to tell people at presentations that Frank and I did together, that Frank & Chuck have worked together so long, that when we started the Dead Sea wasn’t even sick! HA! The Black Crowes take us to the finish line today with their song: Hard To Handle, which was originally done by the great Otis Redding. I prefer his version, but the Black Crowes did an excellent job on this song too! And with that, I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday! Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler Managing Director EverBank Global Markets Creator / Editor of: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts 1-800-926-4922

http://www.everbank.com

The post No Diss, And An Upbeat FMSR Sends Kiwi Higher! appeared first on Daily Pfennig.

Daily Pfennig

source http://capitalisthq.com/no-diss-and-an-upbeat-fmsr-sends-kiwi-higher/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/05/no-diss-and-upbeat-fmsr-sends-kiwi.html

[everettwilkinson]

No Diss, And An Upbeat FMSR Sends Kiwi Higher!

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Whew! I had a much better night of sleep last night! I still don’t know what the problem was on Monday night, but I certainly was glad it did not return last night! Not much going on in the currencies or metals as I fire up my laptops, and check out what went on in the overnight markets… Another loss for my beloved Cardinals. The offense has simply dropped off a cliff, and dolt me, I stayed up to watch most of that debacle last night! The Band Yes, greets me this morning with their song: Roundabout… The Big Boss, Frank Trotter, sent me a link to an article on what the song Roundabout is all about, the last time I mentioned this song…

Well, as I said in the opening, not much going on in the currencies and metals.. Although we did have one strong move overnight from kiwi, which got a clean bill of health from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) Financial Monetary Stability Report for May. I’m waiting for the data of the day which will come from the Eurozone, where their May CPI (consumer inflation) will print. Here’s the skinny, Eurozone CPI bumped higher in March and April (up to 1.7%) and Eurozone President, Mario Draghi, shrugged it off saying that it was “short-term” and wouldn’t continue to go higher. The experts have this May CPI report as confirmation of what Draghi was saying, and they think CPI could slip back toward the 1% level that was prevalent in the Eurozone before the last two months… So, in the end this morning, the euro will be tied to “how much CPI falls in May”… Like I said, we’re waiting for the data to print as I write…

I mentioned the RBNZ’s Financial Monetary Stability Report (FMSR) above… The report was upbeat and confirmed what I kept saying, which was that the New Zealand financial system is sound, and the risks facing the system have reduced in the past 6 months… The “risks” that the RBNZ is talking about is the Housing Bubble in Auckland. You may recall me telling you a few months ago, that the RBNZ had tightened the LVR (loan to value ratio) and that has done a lot of the heavy lifting toward reducing the risks… However, RBNZ Gov. Wheeler was quick to point out that, “As sharp reversal in risk sentiment could lead to higher funding costs for N.Z. Banks and an increase in domestic borrowing costs.” Wheeler also pointed out that “the outlook for the global economy has been improving but global political and policy uncertainty remains elevated and debt burdens are high in a number of countries”…

Thanks to my friendship with the former Gov. of the RBNZ, Don Brash, who set me up to receive Reserve Bank notices a long time ago… These notices give me RBNZ insight , which is helpful, like the info on the FMSR… I have to say that I was shocked that RBNZ Gov. Wheeler, didn’t diss kiwi in the press conference following the issuance of the FMSR! And so, with RBNZ Gov. Wheeler not dissing kiwi like he usually does, and the FMSR having an upbeat tone to it, kiwi took off and gained over 1/2-cent to a 71-cent handle this morning… Remember a couple of weeks ago, when kiwi got the stuffing knocked out of it, and fell back to a 68-cent handle? I like looking at 68-cents in the rear view mirror!

Well, the risk meter should be ratcheting higher this morning on the news overnight that a bomb exploded in Kabul near the opening of the Green Zone which houses U.S. military headquarters and embassy… I was watching Gold not reacting at all to the news of the suicide bomb explosion. So, maybe I’m making more of this information than needs to be made of…

The euro has bumped up 20 ticks from where it was when I first turned on the currency screen this morning. Maybe the CPI data has printed and I’m just not seeing it yet… I’ll keep an eye out for that!

Pound sterling got whacked again last night after another poll, this time it was the YouGov poll, which showed a further narrowing of the lead for Conservatives, and the YouGov pollsters decided to make a call afterward, saying that they believe that Conservatives could lose their majority in this election… Wait! What? OK, calm down and read on… It appears that the YouGov Poll is not a broad poll and therefore they have a wide plus- minus adjustment on their numbers… So, let’s take this report with a grain of salt and move on, eh?

In China last night, their May PMI (manufacturing index) printed better than expected at 51.2 and expectations at 51… The April PMI was also 51.2, so no gain or loss for the Chinese in May, with regards to manufacturing. The Chinese renminbi was allowed to appreciate a small bit on the PMI print outcome. Stabilizing data is important to China right now… They need all the stabilizing they can get!

Well, looky there! The euro has just jumped above the 1.12 handle, I’m still not seeing any data printing, but… Even a quick check of my Eurozone economic calendar didn’t show me what I was looking for to confirm that a better than expected CPI report is responsible for the move in the euro this morning. I did see most of the CPI reports for the individual countries of the Eurozone, and most of them were reporting better than expected CPI for May, except Germany, and with Germany being the largest economy of the Eurozone, it throws a larger than the average bear, spanner in the works, so I guess I’ll have to wait-to-see the Eurozone CPI report… In the meantime, the euro has bumped higher…

The Bank of Brazil (BOB) meets today, and will announce a rate cut… At least that’s how I see it… I see the BOB cutting their Selic Rate (internal rate) 100 Basis Points today! That would bring their Selic Rate to 10.25%, and that won’t be the last of the rate cuts from Brazil going forward… Just to prove the BOB is totally removed from any influence of politics, they will cut the Selic Rate by 100 Basis Points even though the real has been getting sold like funnel cakes at a State Fair, because of Political risks in Brazil..

Earlier this month, I said something about the former President Dilma Rousseff who was impeached earlier this year. I said that current, interim President Temer, had charges brought toward him on the news that he knew about the illegal funds that went to Rousseff… Someone close to the Brazilian news sent me this when I made that error… “Rousseff has never been charged with taking bribes. She was accused of knowing about them, but there was no evidence. Edward Cunha took bribes and now we know VP Michael Temer was also involved with the bribes. Rousseff was officially impeached for providing false data about the state of the Brazilian budget just before an election. As Wikipedia puts it “finding Rousseff guilty of breaking budget laws and removing her from office.”

There has never been a claim that she took money.”

Chuck again.. that’s what I get for getting into “politics” especially in a foreign country!

It is Month-end, and there could very well be position squaring for the month-end numbers, but with May not being a (quarter-end) the position squaring probably isn’t going to mount too much, but as I said we could very well see some today. If we see any it would probably benefit the currencies with some yield differential to the dollar…

The reason I say that is that these currencies with some yield differential to the dollar had been see the most shorting, due to the rate outlook of the U.S. (higher), which would mean a narrowing of the yield differentials, and thus potentially weaken the higher yielding currencies… But that’s just for today, folks… once we turn the page on June 1, the shorts can go back on, literally and physically! It’s unofficially, summer, the kids are out of school, so it’s time to get those sharts (as our Little Christine pronounces SHORTS) out and wear them!

The price of Oil continued to slide downward in the past 24 hours… After the OPEC meeting, Oil slipped, then recovered going into the weekend, then has gone back to slipping downward again.. not a lot of stability here, and certainly not on terra firma! The Petrol Currencies have been going back and forth alongside Oil, but at least the Norwegian krone has the euro strength on one side to keep it from getting sold too much.

The U.S. Data Cupboard got things going yesterday morning with a print of Personal Income and Spending… Once again, everyone is wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’ for Consumer Spending to pick up… And it did… Here’s the skinny… Both Personal Income and Spending grew at a 0.4% clip in April… I would like to think that this is good for the economy… But I’ll have to see more of this, because March’s report wasn’t exactly stellar, even with an upward revision! This data also has a PCE component to it. (Personal Consumption Expenditures) which is the Fed’s preferred inflation report, and this component rose 0.2% putting the year on year rise at 1.7%… Still not 2%… Still not reaching the Fed’s target… And that’s just fine with me!

The Case/Shiller Home Price Index for March was unchanged at a 5.9% increase…. And Consumer Confidence which has been running at all-time highs, saw a little slippage in May from April’s 119.4 sliding down to May’s 117.9.. Still quite high… and still no call to Chuck to see how confident he is!

Today’s Data Cupboard only has Pending Home Sales for April… That’s not exactly going to move any markets… We will get the privilege to hear what two Fed members have to say today… Robert Kaplan and John Williams will speak today, and I expect both of them to walk the straight line to a Fed Rate hike… And we could get more talk about the Great Unwind…

Gold had a down day yesterday, but the close was much better than the trading during the day, which saw the price of Gold slip by $ 11 and change at one point in the day. But Gold closed down just $ 3.80 at $ 1,262.80… The shiny metal is up a buck or two this morning, no big shakes… You know, I tell you all the time about the Gold accumulation that Russia and China continue to hoard… Well, if you do the math (don’t worry someone else has for you!) these two countries are basically taking on the entire global production of physical Gold, which leaves nothing for you and me, and jewelers and so on… An asset can only hold its current price when a scenario like this comes along, for so long… And then it historically breaks out to the top side, because of the lack of supply and the strong demand… That’s why I told some folks on the Butler Patio that I see Gold moving to $ 1,300 by summer’s end… of course I told them that was just my opinion and I could be wrong!

To recap… Not much movement from the currencies & metals so far today… The euro has bumped higher on what Chuck believes is a better than expected May CPI in the Eurozone. Kiwi has jumped to a 71-cent handle on an upbeat Financial Monetary Stability Report and no dissing of the currency by RBNZ Gov. Wheeler last night. Gold lost $ 3.80 yesterday, and is up a buck or two this morning. Chuck is somewhat inquisitive about why Gold is not reacting to the news that a suicide bomb exploded in Kabul Afghanistan? The U.S. Data Cupboard told us yesterday that Personal Income & Spending both increased by 0.4% in May, that the PCE was at 1.7% year on year, and that Consumer Confidence slipped a bit in May, but is still very high…

For What It’s Worth… You know how I keep saying the U.S. economy is going nowhere? Well, this writer from MarketWatch is pointing that out.. The article can be found here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-economy-seems-frozen-in-time-but-underneath-the-ice-the-water-is-warming-2017-05-28?siteid=nwtam

Or, here’s your snippet: “A new pro-business president, record stock-market prices and the highest level of consumer confidence in years shows a lot has changed for the U.S. economy in 2017. But one thing hasn’t: Headline growth appears frozen in time.

Even a pickup in gross domestic product in the spring to 3% from 1.2% in the first quarter — helped by another strong month of employment gains in May — won’t alter the bigger picture.

Read: Economy wasn’t as bad as it looked in first quarter, GDP shows

The U.S. is still expanding at a roughly 2% annual pace that’s prevailed since a recovery took hold almost eight years ago, well below its historic 3.3% average. President Trump has vowed to restore the “good old days” but so far progress is scant.

“We are still on the same track,” said Sam Bullard, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C.”

Chuck again.. The article goes on to say that the writer believes we are better off this year, than last year with the economy… Well, Let’s see… The economy went nowhere last year, and so this year we’re going nowhere faster!

Currencies today 5/31/17… American Style: A$ .7458, kiwi .7110, C$ .7430, euro 1.1216, sterling 1.2842, Swiss $ .9713, … European Style: rand 13.0789, krone 8.4301, SEK 8.7028, forint 273.76, zloty 3.7187, koruna 23.5597, RUB 56.51, yen 110.83, sing 1.3824, HKD 7.7911, INR 64.45, China 6.8554, peso 18.73, BRL 3.2579, Dollar Index 97.12, Oil $ 48.60, 10yr 2.22%, Silver $ 17.30, Platinum $ 944.10, Palladium $ 808.90, Gold $ 1,266.30, and SGE Gold.. .$ 1,266.85

That’s it for today… The end of May… Pretty amazing to me that the year is flying by again! Tomorrow we welcome the month of June… I have NO Doctor’s appointments this week, nor do I have an infusion! It’s like I got a “get out of jail free” card! YAHOO! That could mean that I’m making a call to the Pizza Man Pizza every night! But I don’t see that happening… I just haven’t been that hungry at night recently… Tomorrow evening I’m going out! We’re having a retirement party for my good friend, Frank Trotter… I’ve been asked to say a few words, since I’ve known him longer than anyone else at the bank… And that’s what I’ll be working on today… I have to say the exact right things, I get no Mulligans, and I have to attempt to not be too sappy, in fears that I would get emotional and tear up! I used to tell people at presentations that Frank and I did together, that Frank & Chuck have worked together so long, that when we started the Dead Sea wasn’t even sick! HA! The Black Crowes take us to the finish line today with their song: Hard To Handle, which was originally done by the great Otis Redding. I prefer his version, but the Black Crowes did an excellent job on this song too! And with that, I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday! Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler Managing Director EverBank Global Markets Creator / Editor of: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts 1-800-926-4922

http://www.everbank.com

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Thoughts on Owning a Lexus After 9 Months

Ever wondered what type of cars us financial bloggers drive? If so, you’re in for a treat today :)

My man MP from MustachianPost.com just collected data from over 20 different bloggers on what they’re riding these days, and why, and was kind enough to let us debut it on Rockstar Finance yesterday. Check it out when you get a chance!

The Cars of Personal Finance Bloggers

Some of the bloggers featured are Joshua Becker from Becoming Minimalist, Brandon from Mad Fientist, Justin from Root of Good, Jesse from YNAB (his car was my favorite surprise, especially considering he founded a budgeting company! ;)), the Financial Samurai, Mr 1500 Days, Paula from Afford Anything, The Frugalwoods, Physician on Fire, and Jason Fieber from Free At 33 – formerly Dividend Mantra.

You may be surprised what frugal people rock ;)

And if you haven’t been reading this blog for more than 9 months, you may be surprised what I drive too. In a nutshell, I went from this:

(1993 “Frankencaddy” – 90,000 miles, fully paid off, side hustle king!)

To this:

[2008 Lexus RX-350, 80,000 miles, car loan]

All in a span of a couple of weeks and totally unplanned, haha… I wrote about the whole thing in depth here (Bye Bye Frankencaddy, Hello Car Payments!), but the short version is that I needed a bigger, more reliable, car as I was taking over responsibility of driving my little nuggets around every day, and out of all the cars we looked at this was the only one that *excited me* enough to want to spend any money. I don’t really care about labels or how fancy/expensive things are, but stuff I consume DOES need to make me happy. And as long as I can afford it, it’s fair game.

The beauty of personal finance, eh?

Anyways, it came down to picking up a used minivan or a used luxury car (both around the same price, interestingly enough) and, well, for once I splurged and picked up the fancier one. I did wish I had more time to search for a cheaper and privately owned model vs snatching it from Carmax, but outside of that I’ve surprisingly had little regrets. In fact, I’m actually MORE in love with it than the day I took it home!

It’s been about 9 months now since owning it, so today I thought I’d share my thoughts so far. While hopefully not losing any more of you in the process :)

(The day I blogged about this purchase broke the record for the most unsubscribes ever here! HAH!)

We’ll start with the items that shocked me the most…

#1. A luxury car feels damn good to be in!

I know everyone (including myself) likes to say “a car is just a car and it gets me from point a to point b”, but the truth of the matter is that some just feel nicer to be in! You may not need or want a luxurious ride, but they’re definitely not all made the same. And never again will I assume people are buying them simply for “status.” I know many are, but there’s something to be said about the quality too. I’m just hoping I haven’t screwed myself from ever owning a hoopty again, haha…

#2. I’ve got more swagger than usual.

I don’t know if this will shock you as much as it did me, but I actually feel more confident riding around in this thing. I don’t know why that is, and I know I probably shouldn’t, but in all honestly I do. I just feel GOOD driving it around town, and even more so when I step into it for the first time of the day! Now granted, I also felt pretty pimp’ish rolling out in my Caddy too, but there’s a nuanced difference in the type of swaggership going on here, haha… How do you put a cost on that when factoring stuff in? ;)

#3. My charitable giving has skyrocketed

Tell me the truth: if you see a fancy car rolling up to a street corner and a homeless man is there asking for money and the driver turns a blinds eye, what’s the first thought that goes through your mind? Be honest! Mine? “What an a-hole!” “You can afford that car but can’t afford to dish out a few dollars? Come on now….”  Haha… Now what if this same car that rolled up was a beater? ;)

Obviously there are a TON of factors as to why someone does or doesn’t give out money, and I’m clearly in no position to judge, but for me personally, I just find it MUCH harder to *not* give when I’m sitting in a car that’s not at all a necessity. And if I had to guess, I’d say my charitable given has at least tripled since buying this car. Whether on the street corners or in life in general. Who would have guessed that??

In fact, this same period of ownership has also seen me finally get our philanthropy project up and running too after all these years!! Which has already helped give out over $5,000! Now perhaps it’s purely coincidental, but then again who knows… All I do know is that I’ve become much more charitable since picking up this ride and it’s nice.

#4. Expensive $hit still breaks :)

Going down to the not-so-shocking list, no matter what car you drive – old, new, expensive, cheap, fancy, boring – all cars require maintenance. Now some are more quality made and will last longer than others, but at the end of the day no car stays alive without some good ol’ TLC.  And not surprisingly, TLC costs a lot more on luxury cars vs standard ones.

I’ve already had to do oil changes, regular scheduled maintenance, and lately all new tires due to some bare threads I knew about when first picking it up, as well as a nice tire popping when some asshat left razor blades in the middle of the road, ugh. All things that come with the territory of car ownership, but all things that cost more typically with a luxury car than not. This area I don’t like so much ;)

(Also – as VIP as they treat you at the Lexus dealerships, and they def. treat you well!, it’s definitely not worth the mark up as I found trying to experience it for the first time… yikes)

#5. Expensive $hit has too many fancy buttons!

If I gave you a dollar for how many times my dang tire pressure light comes on, you’d have $15 already. I’m all for smart technology and keeping me in the loop, but my goodness does it seem a bit too much at times. Anytime the temperature changes drastically that tire gauge goes bananas over here… It even goes off when my *spare* tire needs air! Haha…

I miss the days where I just chalked it up to the car “being old” and carrying about my business ;) Though that’s probably not the smartest route to take either, and leads us to the next thought…

#6. I’m taking MUCH better care of this car than any others.

I’ve only owned one newish car before – a new-to-me Toyota Highlander back in the day, with chrome rims and all! – but even then I only did the bare minimum and was stressed any dang time new car repairs needed to be done. Which actually tells you something good right there – if you can’t afford the repairs, you can’t afford the car!!

But in this more-mature phase of mine, over 8 years since owning that car, I’m quick to act like an adult now and actually face the music anytime something needs attention. I still cringe every time and don’t enjoy it, but these days the precious cargo I drive around are much more important than the cash. So I suck it up and get stuff taken care of in a more timely manner. I’ve also since learned that I require a mechanic who I can ask a billion and one dumb questions too and not get laughed at! ;) I hate not knowing if I’m getting ripped off or not!

#7. Lots of you reading this right now also have a Lexus RX :)

The last thing I’ve learned was that, despite oodles of people hating me for this and leaving my site,  many others shared that they HAVE THE EXACT SAME CAR!! Which is fantastic! And I appreciate all of you who reached out to tell me so during the apocalypse too. (Though more of you emailed me on the side vs publicly stating it ;))

I started a tally so I could share the total numbers, but it seems I lost it all and could only find one of the messages I saved which coincidentally also came from a $$ blogger! Per Grant from Millennial Money:

“I have a 2007 and I love it. Best car ever. I bought mine off someones lease and it only has 61,200 miles on it. I live in the city and only drive like 1,200 miles a year, so I plan on driving it for at least the next 20+ years! One of my life goes is to never get rid of that car”

BOOM! So frugal or not, it always feels good knowing you’re not alone, haha…

And that’s where we stand at least now with the Lexus experience :) Will I regret it later and come back singing a different tune? Perhaps. But so far so good, and I look forward to seeing how many miles I can rack up on this thing before it runs into the ground…

I’m going for 218,000 so I can bet out the attendees of Camp Mustache! (Nice find, Gwen!)

What car you rollin’ in these days?

********* PS: Here’s that list of bloggers’ cars again if I haven’t scared you away yet: What 21 financial bloggers drive. They’re def. more in line with what you could expect, haha…

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