#17 years old was how old the 2007 versions used to be | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cleolinda · 2 years ago

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I texted my sister and asked her if she had any further comments on Mitsouko (current formulation), since "old" was all she said at first. Bear in mind that she’s learning individual notes now; I had gotten out some sandalwood and patchouli for her to smell, and threw Mitsouko in at the end. At the time, "old" was what we were working with. So I texted her after writing my review (see above).

"Baby lotion," she said.

google dot com search "what does baby lotion smell like"

I knew she meant Johnson & Johnson's in particular: "A delicate balance of soft powdery notes, florals and subtle sparkling fresh green and citrus top notes. The heart of the fragrance is built around a trio of Rose, Jasmine and Creamy Iris. The floral notes also work to compliment the […] powdery and classic musky notes that round out our baby lotion fragrance."

There it is: some of the most important notes in the Guerlinade base.

II.

I got a sample of the pre-2007 Mitsouko—I don’t know the precise year, but the Perfumed Court billed it as an older formulation that does, in fact, use the pre-ban oakmoss. And I had read so many angry reviews of how the original was obviously better and richer and more sophisticated that I had to wear it three times before daring to write this.

I don’t like it.

We have to acknowledge that I am not smelling a vial of 2006 Oakmoss Mitsouko in 2006. I am smelling it 17 years later. The product has changed and aged. However, Guerlains tend to age well, and people gush about the vintage perfumes especially.

The oakmoss is extremely forward, and I don’t know if it came out like this when this specific product in this specific vial was manufactured. But now, it has a very strong scent of peppery pencil shavings, and that dominates almost the entire lifespan of the scent on my skin. The fragrance as a whole is very skillfully blended, by which I mean the notes (mostly) sort of blur together into a new species all their own, which is another Guerlain trademark; by contrast, I have several perfume oils where each note is distinguishable unto itself, and they take turns stepping forward, almost like colors in a kaleidoscope. In the Thierry Wasser formulation without oakmoss, this resulted (see above post) in a little bit of both phenomena: two distinct, blended fragrances circling each other. In this original version, I can barely pick out the lilac at all; the fragrance is almost linear on my skin. It sounds wild to say that a 21st century formulation is better, and maybe I only think that because I wore it first. But the original Mitsouko smells like an autumn-colored tapestry on a wall, rich and complex, and that tapestry depicts two dancers. The new version smells like the actual dancers moving in front of you, until the spicy autumn forest peach bows out, and the baby lotion cool lilac floral takes center stage.

I had some business up in the original post about a glass slipper, and that’s not here at all. Finally, I wore both perfumes at the same time, one on each wrist, and the difference was still there. I feel like I must be smelling this wrong. Maybe this heresy just comes from my skin chemistry in the first place. Ultimately, I think that’s why so many people write so much about perfume: it’s fucking weird.

Mitsouko

Guerlain, 1919, Jacques Guerlain. Post-2014 formulation; eau de parfum concentration; 2002 decant from the Perfumed Court.

(To discuss: what it smells like, why it smells like that, and the struggle to describe this legendary heritage throwback.)

Trust me, these specifications make a difference. A year ago, I read reviews of different versions and took notes on what I wanted:

Do not get samples from 2007 - 2013, pre-2007 will have real oakmoss. Every concentration has different focus. EdP is mellower than EdT. Extrait is "truest."

You see, the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) restricted oakmoss in 2001, and then more tightly in 2009, from what I can tell. Mitsouko is considered a "reference chypre," a textbook example of the genre, and chypres are, by definition, citrus (usually bergamot), labdanum, and oakmoss. (The Perfume Society adds patchouli to this trio.) Like, you gotta have those for it to be a chypre. But Mitsouko is not THE chypre:

Bois de Jasmin: Guerlain Mitsouko : Fragrance Review (New and Vintage):

Created by Jacques Guerlain in 1919, Mitsouko was a variation on the avant-garde fragrance of the period–Coty Chypre. Chypre was based on the startling contrast among the bergamot top notes, the jasmine heart and the richness of oakmoss. Though undoubtedly beautiful, Chypre was brutal in its impact. […] Mitsouko is a kiss to Coty Chypre’s slap in the face, and for this reason, its popularity endures to this day.

So when oakmoss was restricted as an allergen in the 2000s, perfumers industry-wide scrambled to come up with a facsimile; for Guerlain, with a fragrance this storied, failure was not an option. Reformulations everybody hated were, though. Edouard Fléchier took a crack at it somewhere around 2007, and in 2013, Thierry Wasser reformulated the whole thing to recapture the scent everyone remembered. People seem to have been satisfied with that version since.

So I've worn that new Mitsouko on and off, when I feel fancy, for about a year now. I put a little on a card for my sister to smell the other week, and she said, "It smells old." (She'll be the first to tell you that she’s learning what individual notes smell like.) Being crushingly literal, I don't understand what "smells old" or "smells like old ladies" means. Powdery, she said, struggling to explain. "Old." Maybe I haven't smelled enough old ladies.

Mitsouko does smell… weird, by modern standards. Generally, people either love it or hate it, and Results May Vary in a big way; it's worth getting a sample just to take it for a spin (kind of like Not A Perfume or Glossier's You, in that one regard), and to see what a piece of history smells like. Expert-of-experts Luca Turin says it's the one perfume he'd take to that proverbial desert island, but I am but a gentle woodland creature, a basic vanilla bitch; I would be more likely to take something that cost $10 instead of $145. But I still kind of love Mitsouko. Users who review it positively often speak of not liking it at first, then going back to it again and again. They also speak of a "pissy" stage in the middle that might be civet or oakmoss (or whatever represents those notes now); I know what they're talking about, but it doesn't read as anything so unpleasant to me. It's not easy to wear like the simple scents I usually go for, but the drydown is absolutely gorgeous. That's one of the things that makes Mitsouko so interesting to me: it's like two completely separate perfumes were mingled, and the first gradually recedes to let the Guerlinade take center stage.

But what’s in it? “La Guerlinade,” for starters, is a complex foundation that the historical Guerlains have—a house accord. (You could buy it unto itself for a while.) The exact formula is super secret, of course, but it's said to (possibly) include bergamot, jasmine, rose, orange blossom, orris, vetiver, tonka bean, vanilla, and lilac. The lilac—a note I didn't even know I would like—is what shows up on me with both Mitsouko and Guerlain's L'Heure Bleue (1912); it's a soft light purple note that peeks through from the very beginning, and gradually becomes the glass slipper that Cinderella leaves behind.

Over on the official Guerlain site, they tell us a bit more about the reformulation:

A masterpiece in balance and originality, Mitsouko combines a fruity peach note with jasmine and rose centifolia (May rose) flowers. Its mysterious base combines spicy notes with notes of undergrowth and vetiver.

Warm spices such as black pepper mingle with cold spices like cardamom and pink [pink pepper?] berries.

Patchouli essence features many vegetal, woody and earthy olfactory facets. Combined with rose, moss, and bergamot, patchouli forms the base of the chypre accord.

Hilariously, Guerlain also straight up tells you what Thierry Wasser actually put in New Mitsouko:

ALCOHOL

PARFUM (FRAGRANCE)

AQUA (WATER)

LIMONENE

LINALOOL

EUGENOL

HYDROXYCITRONELLAL

EVERNIA FURFURACEA (TREEMOSS) EXTRACT

CITRAL

BENZYL BENZOATE

ALPHA-ISOMETHYL IONONE

CITRONELLOL

GERANIOL

BHT

HEXYL CINNAMAL

CINNAMYL ALCOHOL

ISOEUGENOL

BENZYL ALCOHOL

BENZYL SALICYLATE

TOCOPHEROL

CI 14700 (RED 4)

CI 19140 (YELLOW 5)

CI 60730 (EXT. VIOLET 2)

FARNESOL

Yeah. There's the famous Guerlinade… in there somewhere. They gave that secret away, hidden under a tiny link, because it means fuck-all without proportions or a way to separate it from the composition as a whole. Well played.

A Basenotes user posted a suggested Mitsouko formula that's somewhat more indicative of what those chemicals would smell like (deep breath): sweet orange, lemon, bergamot, elemi, celery seed, tarragon (a component of oakmoss reconstitution), coriander, chamomile, lavender, geranium, ylang, jasmine, clove, anise, castoreum, civet, labdanum, tonka, patchouli, cinnamon, peru balsam, benzoin, vanilla, violet, rose, costus, vetiver, musk, and the famous "aldehyde" C-14: a peach-scented lactone from 1908.

Logically, Mitsouko (1919) must not have been the first fragrance to use gamma-undecalactone, but I'm not sure any other has survived the ages like this one. Carter Burr (another top expert) writes that Jacques Guerlain most likely got it from the supplier Firmenich, via their Persicol peach base:

C-14 was a marvel, a fruity, aromatic, delicious scent that gave ripe peach skin. Guerlain plugged C-14 into the equation perfectly (the rumor is, actually, similar to Chanel 5, that he in fact accidentally overdosed the stuff; who knows), and Mitsouko became a thing of subtle opulence, strength and balance and silken twilight.

Sidebar: peach is one of my favorite fragrance notes. It's in Tamora, one of the first BPALs I ever tried twenty years ago; I don't know what the actual peach accord in that oil is, but it's still probably my favorite Black Phoenix. No matter how weird people said Mitsouko was, I was GOING to try it for that landmark peach lactone. And that's what shows up at first for me. I do get that Guerlinade lilac peeking through, but the opening as a whole is a spicy autumnal peach lying on the dead-leafed forest floor, more velvet than flesh, Octoberish and unseelie. That first sequence is intriguing, and then it warms up into that unpleasant stage; then that uneasy note fades and the Guerlinade comes fully out, a soft pale purple-blue siren song floating by on a powdery cloud. Those are the two perfumes that seem to be twined: bewitchingly different, each one blended so smoothly that I can't distinguish all the notes within them, yet not quite blended together.

And that's just my own reaction. Watching Fragrantica reviewers describe Mitsouko is a pastime unto itself. It smells like power, sex, domination, old money, "strangely nutty," depressing, elegant, fascinating, bitter, ripe, like oil paint, "an old medicine cabinet," pungent, tangy, moldy, intoxicating, alienating, feminine, masculine, unisex—to quote frugally:

User Aerides: "Mitsouko is gloomy Sundays, walks in the woods after it rains, and empty auction rooms. […] It's incense and burning candles, and waxy floor polish. It's cinnamon peach jam. It's a bouquet of lilacs on the dining room table. It lasts so long it's like a ghost in the room."

User Amararata: "There is something vampire-like about this fragrance. It's the sort of scent a woman leaves behind after she's conquered a man, or a kind of lascivious tryst in the middle of the day."

User querty988: "For some reason, those stinky little [camphor-clove] whiffs endeared it to me. It was like the baby from Eraserhead whispering in my ear, 'yes, I am the most revolting thing you've ever smelled, but I'm here with you in public today, and it's our little secret that I belong to you.'"

User KingRidesBy96: "Can't explain it. Don't want to. She's a witch, it's magic."

Mitsouko is weird as hell, and yet, thanks to the “waxy floor polish” review, and (I swear) a review someone wrote that I can't find now that mentioned linseed oil, furniture, paint, and his wife, I knew exactly what Mitsouko was going to smell like. And I was right. And I think that the mental preparation is incredibly important here. Not to be snooty about what it takes to "appreciate" a perfume like this, but to frame for you where this being of times past is, at least, coming from. Mitsouko is Aslan, present when the Deep Magic was written in 1919, whether the Deep Magic smells good on you or not.

Further reading linkspam

Bois de Jasmin: What Does The Word Mitsouko Mean?

It’s the French spelling of a female Japanese character’s name (Mitsuko, “child of light,” “shining child”) from the 1909 French novel La bataille (“The Battle”); Jacques Guerlain was friends with the author, Claude Farrère, so this is thought to be the most likely namesake. Wikipedia:

The novel is set in Japan during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, and chronicles a fictional amour fou between a British Navy Officer and one "Mitsouko", the wife of Fleet Admiral Marquis Yorisaka. Both Yorisaka and the British officer sail to war, and Mitsouko awaits with reserve to see which of the two will return alive to her.

Maybe this is reflected in the duality I’m getting from the perfume, I don’t know.

Isn’t all this very orientalist? Why, yes! Our antique faves are as problematic as ever!

Ayala Moriel: Olfactory Orientalism

Arts of the Working Class: Journey with Mitsouko and Mitsuko

More technical discussion:

Persolaise Review: Mitsouko from Guerlain (Jacques Guerlain; 1919 [and Thierry Wasser; 2013/14]):

Suffice it to say that whether it’s because [Wasser] increased the dosage of vetivert in the base, or he revitalised the citruses at the top, or, most interestingly, he created a special ‘oakmoss-like’ accord to compensate for the shortcomings of synthetic substitutes, the result is that the current Mitsouko feels like it has just emerged from the fountain of youth.

The Empress of Moss: Mitsouko

A look at the current state of the chypre: IFRA, Oakmoss, Chypres & Perfume Houses (2022)

Late breaking news: right after I fell down the stairs and injured myself ratter thoroughly yesterday, my vintage pre-oakmoss-ban Mitsouko sample arrived in the mail. I’ll update once I can smell it. I also have a 2022 decant of L'Heure Bleue and, uh, about three drops of Samsara from around 1989, so stay tuned for more Guerlain at some point.

#perfume discussion #perfume #perfume: guerlain #long post #mitsouko #updates

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darkveracity · 2 years ago

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Complete Umineko Timeline

I recently finished my first readthrough of seminal 2007 murder mystery doujin visual novel Umineko: When they Cry. While I was reading I kept detailed notes on both my solutions to the murder mystery puzzles and the backstory timeline that led up to the game. I'm sure plenty of other people have gone over the solutions before but the timeline itself is likely to be interesting so I've cleaned it up for publication. This includes the following

Calculations for how we can derive dates that are never given explicitly but have enough evidence to constrain them to a narrow range (this applies to the years most of the adults were born)

Backstory events stretching out behind the catbox into the past

Post-1986 events stretching out in front of the catbox into the future (It should be noted that some of these differ slightly between the manga and the visual novel. I've chosen to follow the manga where applicable as it was written later and generally seems to contain Ryukishi's 'intended' solution)

For the contents of the catbox itself you'll want to take a look at the solutions (or maybe if there's a demand for it I'll write mine up too)

Discussion

Krauss, Eva, and Natsuhi

Umineko never directly states how old Krauss, Eva, and Natsuhi are. However we have the following pieces of evidence we can use to pinpoint things

Eva mentions that Natsuhi is three years younger than her during one of the parlor scenes in Legend

Eva’s narration refers to Krauss as her older brother of two years during her flashback at the beginning of Banquet

Natsuhi was childless for 12 years before having Jessica 18 years ago, placing her marriage 30 years ago in 1956

The Ushiromiyas moved to Rokkenjima in 1952. Eva’s flashback at the beginning of Banquet takes place while she’s living on Rokkenjima and at the tail end of high school demanding to go to college (ages 15-17)

Eva’s birthday is October 21

This places limits on their possible ages in both directions. The school year in Japan begins in April and students begin elementary school at age 6. Therefore, to have been attending high school in 1952, Eva must have been born somewhere in the range 1936-1938. Since Natsuhi is three years younger than her and got married in 1956 this means she was married somewhere between age 15 and age 17. There’s nothing I would put past Kinzo but the older end of that range seems most likely so for this timeline I chose to make Krauss born in 1934, Eva born in 1936, and Natsuhi born in 1939

Rudolf, Asumu, and Kyrie

Like his siblings we’re never given Rudolf’s exact age but we can get a good estimate from the available evidence

The Ushiromiyas moved to Rokkenjima in 1952. When the siblings discuss the stories of wolves on the island in Banquet, we’re told that Rudolf was in elementary school (ages 6-11) at the time

Kinzo’s flashback in the manga version of Requiem establishes visually that Krauss, Eva, and Rudolf were all born before he enlisted in 1944

Rudolf’s birthday is September 29

Just like for Eva, this constrains the possible years Rudolf could have been born to between 1941 and 1943. Of these 1941 is the most likely because the age difference between him and Eva doesn’t seem particularly large

All we can say about Asumu and Kyrie’s ages is that they went to college with Rudolf and are therefore close in age to him. As a side note Asumu’s family name Akinaka is never given anywhere in Umineko but Ryukishi specified it on twitter in 2013 so I’ve chosen to use it here

Rosa

In a recurring pattern Rosa’s age is never stated exactly but it’s easy to infer

Rosa met the girl who was imprisoned in Kuwadorian in 1967 and was in middle school (ages 12-14) at the time

Rosa had Maria in 1977

Rosa’s birthday is June 3

The possible years she could have been born are then 1953-1955 which means she had Maria somewhere between age 22 and age 24. I’m again most inclined to pick the early date since it makes her have Maria at a slightly more reasonable age.

Unfortunately, this age doesn’t completely make sense with the stories we’re told about her childhood. Her siblings would all have been essentially full adults by the time she was old enough to spend much time interacting with them so the stories we hear about them tormenting her are reframed as adults hurting a six year old. Not exactly impossible in Umineko but it casts everything in a very different light

The Kuwadorian Girl

Requiem refers to Kinzo raping the Kuwadorian girl when she was the same age Bice was when he first met her. For the sake of intergenerational parallels across the three Beatrices, this age is almost certainly 19, placing both her birth and Bice’s death in 1948, but all we know for certain is that she was older than Rosa but not a full adult when she met her. Since Bice died before the mansion's completion in 1952 and the Kuwadorian girl died in 1967 the lower bound on her age is 15.

Alternatively, we can consider the circumstances of Rosa's birth and work backwards. Krauss, Eva, and Rudolf were all conceived before Kinzo left for the war and when he returned he neglected his wife to spend time with his mistress instead. Rosa, who was born significantly later, appears to have been conceived after Bice was already dead. From this we can infer a possible sequence of events - perhaps Kinzo in his grief at losing the woman he loved tried sleeping with his legal wife one last time to see if maybe he could find solace in her arms and that produced Rosa. Following this methodology the Kuwadorian girl's most likely age is exactly nine months older than Rosa or roughly 15 at the time of her death. I've chosen to follow the parallels and make her 19 on the timeline but you can make a good argument for either.

Erika

Erika is described as a few years younger than Jessica. Her backstory sounds like it takes place in college but we should probably chalk this up to the anime tendency to pretend high schoolers are independent adults and treat it as taking place in high school. With nothing else to go on, the best we can do is fall back on Higurashi parallels - Erika is a double for Bernkastel who most closely resembles a 16 year old Rika

George

At the beginning of Legend Battler says that George is "five years older than me so he's probably turning 23 this year". George's birthday is March 19 which is before October so at first glance this might seem like a logic error but the answer is just that Battler doesn't remember his cousins' birthdays and George is already 23

Jessica

There's no question whatsoever about the date of Jessica's birth. She was born on August 25, 1968 to an extremely happy Natsuhi. What's a little more in doubt is the circumstances. If we count backwards nine months to get the timeframe for her conception, we find that Jessica was conceived in late November 1967. Lion's 'birthday' ie the day that they were given to Natsuhi is November 29, 1967 which lines up almost exactly with Jessica's conception. Following the same logic that connects Rosa's conception to Bice's death a certain possibility arises here too - perhaps Kinzo handled the death of the Kuwadorian girl by once again sleeping with the nearest available woman to see if perhaps she could be a replacement and this resulted in Jessica. It would certainly explain why Natsuhi was unable to get pregnant for twelve years and then suddenly conceived if it were in fact Krauss who was infertile the whole time.

That being said we have it in red that Natsuhi is pure and faithful so perhaps this whole line of logic is faulty from the start. Umineko certainly never implies anything of the sort on purpose

Lion & Sayo

The date of Lion and Sayo's birth is unclear. Lion was given to Natsuhi on November 29, 1967 and Sayo was given the birthday of May 25 at the orphanage but it's not clear that either of these is their true birthday. The most we can say is that they were born at some point in 1967

Ange

This one’s an actual logic error. We are given the following three pieces of evidence which cannot simultaneously be true

Ange’s birthday is June 17 and she’s six years old therefore she was born in 1980

Battler made a promise to Sayo six years ago at the 1980 family conference in early October

Asumu died, Rudolf married a pregnant Kyrie, and Battler left the Ushiromiya family after that promise

As June comes before October this situation is impossible. We could try to resolve it by saying that Ange was born six months before Asumu died but the narrative is clear that Kyrie was pregnant when she got married, not already raising an illegitimate child. Similarly we could claim that Battler actually made his promise at a non-family conference visit to Rokkenjima in early 1980 but Requiem clearly shows us the first, second, and third family conferences after Battler leaves and has Kanon be created at the third one three years ago so this throws off the entire timeline. The only remotely reasonable solution is to decide that Ange was actually born on June 17, 1981 and is just the kind of little kid who likes to say she’s six when she’s really five and a half (and then keeps doing this for the rest of her life so she calls herself eighteen when she’s really seventeen and a half)

Timeline

1900s:

Nanjo Terumasa is born (April 5)

Ronoue Genji is born (June 10)

Kumasawa Chiyo is born (July 19)

Ushiromiya Kinzo is born (August 17)

1910s:

Genji and Kinzo grow up in Taiwan together. They are both the sons of rich families and they become close friends

1923:

The great Kanto earthquake destroys the Ushiromiya family. The surviving family elders pick Kinzo (20s), a distantly related branch family member to be the new family head ostensibly because he has polydactyly but really because they want to use him as a puppet

1926:

Beatrice Castiglioni is born (September 14)

1920s:

Hideyoshi is born (November 25)

Kinzo (20s) is forced to marry a woman he does not love and spends twenty years as a living corpse, enduring life without really living. His only solace is his love for reading foreign books

1934:

Ushiromiya Krauss is born (February 26)

1936:

Ushiromiya Eva is born (October 21)

1939:

Natsuhi is born (July 30)

1940:

Krauss (6) begins elementary school

1941:

Ushiromiya Rudolf is born (September 29)

1940s:

Sumadera Kyrie is born (November 8)

Sumadera Kasumi is born (September 10)

Akinaka Asumu is born

1943:

Eva (6 going on 7) begins elementary school

1944:

Kinzo (40s) volunteers to fight in WWII. He is assigned to a secret submarine base on Rokkenjima as engineering staff. No Japanese submarines ever actually dock at the base and eventually the navy decides to store an enormous quantity of explosives on the island so it can be strategically blown up if necessary

1945:

An Italian submarine carrying ten tons of secret gold docks at the Rokkenjima base and Kinzo (40s) meets Beatrice (19) who is serving as the Italian translator. Kinzo incites a shootout over the gold which kills everyone else on the island and the two run away together as lovers. He meets Nanjo (40s) as the doctor on Nijima who treats Beatrice’s wounds

Kinzo performs the most difficult con of his life and manages to prevent the military from finding out what happened on Rokkenjima or discovering the presence of the gold

1946:

Natsuhi (6 going on 7) begins elementary school

Krauss (12) begins middle school

1940s:

Kinzo begins living a double life, spending as much of his time as possible with his mistress Beatrice while maintaining appearances with his family

Kinzo foresees that Genji’s family will meet a horrible fate if they stay in Taiwan during the post-war chaos. Unfortunately he is only able to convince Genji to leave and the rest of them perish. In gratitude for saving him, Genji decides to dedicate the rest of his life to serving Kinzo as his butler

Kinzo uses a variety of legal shenanigans to acquire ownership of Rokkenjima and secure the location of the gold

Kinzo takes inspiration from the poorly pressed bird symbol in which only one wing is visible on the gold and creates the one winged eagle family crest. He represses any ingots taken outside Rokkenjima with the symbol he designed

Kinzo takes a trusted business contact, the president of the Marusoo company, to see the gold. He gives him physical possession of one ton of the gold as collateral and has him take back a single ingot to be appraised. With this level of verification he is able to take out massive loans from the business community. He uses his foreign language skills to get in extremely close with the post-war occupying forces and makes vast amounts of money providing supplies for the Korean War. Finally he repays his debts and retrieves the collateral from his friend, leaving him with a single ingot as a commemorative gift

Hideyoshi is left orphaned by the war. He decides to build a company from the ground up, starting with stealing supplies from the occupying forces. Slowly but surely he becomes a powerful businessman

1948:

Rudolf (6 going on 7) begins elementary school

Beatrice (23) dies in childbirth. Kinzo (40s) is heartbroken and decides to treat her daughter as her reincarnation, giving her the name Ushiromiya Beatrice

1949:

Krauss (15) begins high school

Eva (12 going on 13) begins middle school

1952:

Kinzo (50s) constructs a secret mansion on Rokkenjima known as Kuwadorian and uses it to house his new daughter. At the same time he builds a secret underground VIP room to store the gold. He comes up with an elaborate riddle to hide its secret and builds a complicated mechanism to open the door. Finally, he repurposes the explosives on the island to build a special clock that will blow up the entire island at midnight if a switch is set. He uses this doomsday device to gamble his life by setting time limits for problem solving and is able to achieve short bursts of brilliant madness that drive enormous business success

Kinzo (50s) finishes construction of his new home on the other side of Rokkenjima from Kuwadorian. He moves his entire family to live there and frequently disappears for long periods of time to visit Beatrice. The two mansions are linked by a secret underground passageway left over from the island’s days as a military base

Krauss (18) begins college

Eva (15 going on 16) begins high school

Natsuhi (12 going on 13) begins middle school

1953:

Ushiromiya Rosa is born (June 3)

1950s:

Kinzo uses some of his wealth to create Fukuin House, an orphanage for children with nowhere else to go. He begins taking ambitious teenagers from the orphanage as young servants in order to give them practical experience and money to start their lives with

Kinzo violently abuses his children and constantly screams and insults them

Kinzo’s wife becomes extremely suspicious that he’s cheating on her with a blonde but is never able to find evidence. Every time he disappears to visit the girl in Kuwadorian she organizes all of the servants to frantically search the house and attempt to find him. Eventually it becomes commonly accepted knowledge that Kinzo has a secret mistress and her hopeless situation drives her to despair

Krauss frequently beats and insults his younger siblings to compensate for his complex about not being able to live up to his father’s expectations

Eva becomes obsessed with earning her father’s respect and works as hard as possible to become a good student and achieve great things, even becoming class president when Krauss never became more than vice-president. She loathes Krauss for automatically being the successor simply because he’s a man. In order to fuel her work ethic she creates an alternate self representing her childhood dreams that lives inside her as a witch

Rudolf constantly sneaks off into the shadows for sexual liaisons with the maids

Rosa grows up extremely lonely with no friends anywhere near her age and no one who is willing to pay attention to her. She retreats into a world of playing with dolls and stuffed animals until eventually her older siblings rip up her most treasured friend U-tan the rabbit and declare that she’s dead

Natsuhi grows up in an extraordinarily strict environment, kept isolated from the world as a princess

Kinzo collects a number of Winchester rifles and practices shooting them in the woods

1954:

Rudolf (12 going on 13) begins middle school

1955:

Eva (18 going on 19) graduates high school and manages to go to college against her father’s wishes through sheer hard work

Natsuhi (15 going on 16) begins high school

1956:

Krauss (22) graduates from college and begins working as a real estate investor

Kinzo (50s) crushes Natsuhi’s (17) family and as a prize forces her to marry Krauss (22). It is not clear whether she is given the chance to complete high school. She is unable to bear a child for a very long time despite trying

1957:

Rudolf (15 going on 16) begins high school

1959:

Eva (22 going on 23) graduates from college

1960:

Rudolf (18 going on 19) graduates high school and goes to college. While there he begins perpetrating elaborate fraud schemes and seducing women. He acquires a large harem of hangers-on but eventually ends up splitting most of his time between Kyrie who is his business partner and Asumu who provides him with emotional support

Rosa (6 going on 7) begins elementary school

1962:

Eva (26) marries Hideyoshi (40s). Due to Natsuhi’s (23) failure to bear a child she is able to have him transferred into the Ushiromiya family register

1963:

George is born to Eva (26 going on 27) and Hideyoshi (40s) (March 19)

1964:

Rudolf (22 going on 23) graduates from college and partners with Kyrie (20s) to found a new company

1966:

Rosa (12 going on 13) begins middle school

1967:

Kinzo (60s) forces the Kuwadorian girl (19) to have his incestuous child

In late November, Rosa (14) runs away from home after having a fight with her mother and encounters the Kuwadorian girl (19). She helps her escape but while attempting to get back to the mansion she falls off a cliff and dies. After this incident Kuwadorian is shut down for good

Kinzo (60s) gives the child he had with the Kuwadorian girl to Natsuhi (28) to raise. She treats this as an insult due to her inability to have a child and is so disgusted that she pushes the servant carrying the baby off a cliff. The servant dies but Genji covers up the incident and police rule it an accident. Kinzo is driven deeply into madness and begins to isolate himself and spend all of his time studying the occult

Kinzo’s child survives the fall but Genji (60s) sends them to Fukuin House and conceals them from Natsuhi and Kinzo. They are given the name Yasuda Sayo and the birthday May 25. Although the child was assigned male at birth, the fall severely damages their genitals and afterwards it is decided to raise them as a girl. Nanjo performs the surgery that saves their life and at the same time he amputates their polydactyly sixth toe. He ‘carelessly’ leaves a scar, ensuring that Kinzo will one day be able to recognize them

In an alternate timeline where Natsuhi (28) does not attempt to kill the child, they are given the name Ushiromiya Lion and raised as the successor to the Ushiromiya headship with the new birthday November 29

1968:

Kyrie (20s) and Asumu (20s) get pregnant at the same time. Asumu discovers the pregnancy first and convinces Rudolf to have a shotgun marriage. Their delivery dates are on the same day. Asumu miscarries, Kyrie has Ushiromiya Battler, and then while they’re both barely conscious Rudolf (26 going on 27) swaps the babies so that his legal wife will be the one who gives birth (July 15). Asumu almost certainly figures out what has happened but resolves to love Battler as her own son regardless

Kyrie (20s) manages to use Rudolf’s (27) influence to completely escape from the Sumadera family. Kasumi is forced to take on her responsibilities as the successor and marry a man she does not love

At long last Natsuhi (29) is able to bear a child and Jessica is born (August 25)

1969:

Rosa (15 going on 16) begins high school

George (6) begins elementary school

1970:

Furudo Erika is born (October 4)

1972:

Rosa (18 going on 19) graduates high school and begins college. Presumably the battle Eva fought with Kinzo to secure her own education allows Rosa to do the same as Rosa certainly doesn’t have the guts to fight for it herself

1970s:

Genji decides to fake Sayo’s age and claim that she is three years younger than she really is to avoid Natsuhi and Kinzo realizing her identity. In order to make this work he ensures that she grows up completely isolated within the orphanage. She spends all of her time locked inside and is never allowed to make friends who might notice that she’s not the age she’s supposed to be

Rudolf and Kyrie build a powerful company together, constantly skirting the law and committing serious fraud. Many of their rivals are driven so far into debt that they commit suicide

Kinzo's legal wife dies. He cries at her funeral but not very much

1974:

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion (6 going on 7) they begin elementary school

1975:

Jessica (6 going on 7) begins elementary school

Battler (6 going on 7) begins elementary school

George (12) begins middle school

1976:

Rosa (22 going on 23) graduates college and begins creating a fashion company

Genji (70s) arranges for Sayo (9 pretending to be 6) to begin working at the mansion under the name Shannon. In order to hide her existence from Natsuhi (36) and Kinzo (70s) he claims she is three years younger than she actually is. She treats the Shannon identity as a sort of imaginary friend representing the ideal servant girl she would like to become

Lunon, Sanon, Lenon, and Leion begin working at the same time as Sayo (9 pretending to be 6). They are significantly older than her and do not treat her very well

1970s:

Sayo slowly acclimates to life as a servant. After repeatedly losing things she invents a witch who she calls Beatrice but will later call Gaap as an imaginary friend who takes her possessions. Kumasawa teaches her a series of tricks to not lose things which she frames as rituals to keep the witch at bay

Sayo breaks a vase which is particularly dear to Kinzo. Kumasawa helps her avoid punishment by claiming the vase was broken by a stray cat, teaching her the concept of magic that matches a result

Due to being thrown off a cliff when she was a baby, Sayo does not have normal hormone production and does not go through puberty, remaining waifish and androgynous. She is extremely disturbed by her boyish appearance and lack of periods and begins to hate mirrors. In order to look more feminine she begins padding her chest

Sayo learns that she shares a deep love of mystery novels with Battler and begins to fall in love with him over repeated visits. He tells her about his ideal girl with a description broadly taken from porn magazines. Asumu watches over and supports their relationship

1977:

Ushiromiya Maria is born (March 29). Her father tricks Rosa (23 going on 24) into taking out a giant loan for him and then flees the country, leaving her a single mother

Erika (6 going on 7) begins elementary school

Sayo (9 going on 10 pretending to be 6 going on 7) begins elementary school

1978:

George (15) begins high school

1979:

Lunon, Sanon, Lenon, and Leion graduate from being Ushiromiya servants. Asne, Belne, and Manon begin working as replacements

Sayo (12 pretending to be 9) trains the new servants. Belne doesn’t take the stories of the witch seriously so in order to teach her a lesson, Sayo begins conducting a series of pranks on her. She hides her master key in Belne’s locker, waits for Belne to unlock a room and put her keys down, swaps her keyring without the master key with Belne’s, and then asks Belne to lock the door. This makes it appear as though the key was moved from Belne’s ring to the locker by magic while giving Sayo a strong alibi for stealing it. After many similar experiences, Belne repents and believes in the witch

Sayo (12 pretending to be 9) abandons the desire to become an ideal servant which Shannon represented and instead begins planning to become a witch. She revises her imaginary scenario so that now she is the witch Beatrice and Gaap is a demon who is her close friend. Her witchsona with long greenish-blonde hair and a white dress will later be known as Clair Vaux Bernardus

1980:

Battler (12) visits Rokkenjima for the last time before leaving the family. He promises Sayo (13 pretending to be 10) that when she’s ready to leave the island he’ll come for her on a white horse and whisk her away. He gives her until the family conference next year to decide whether to take him up on his offer

George (17) watches Battler (12) and Sayo (13 pretending to be 10) talking and gets extremely jealous

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion (12 going on 13) they begin middle school

1981:

Jessica (12 going on 13) begins middle school

George (18) graduates from high school and begins college

Battler (12 going on 13) begins middle school

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion (13 going on 14) they are elected vice president of their middle school class

Kyrie (30s) gets pregnant with Ange and finally gains the certain determination to kill Asumu (30s). However before she can act Asumu dies for unrelated reasons. Rudolf (39 going on 40) marries Kyrie immediately, and Ange is born shortly afterwards (June 17). Battler (12 going on 13) is so offended by this series of events that he leaves the Ushiromiya family and goes to live with Asumu’s parents for the next six years, taking the family name Akinaka. When Sayo (14 pretending to be 11) learns that he has left the family she convinces herself that this is a trial of love and if only she waits for him while believing hard enough he will come for her next year

Battler (13) does not attend the family conference. Sayo (14 pretending to be 11) is heartbroken but tells herself that he’ll come next year

1980s:

A number of important pieces of media come out earlier in the Umineko timeline than in our world. Touhou becomes popular, and Pretty Cure style magical girl shows begin airing on TV including one that stars Bernkastel

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion they begin playing badminton and achieve great success at tournaments

Maria meets a priest who tells her about Jesus. This experience convinces her that she too is a child of god with magical powers and she undertakes intense occult self-study

Rosa regularly leaves Maria alone for days at a time so that she can go on trips with men. The entire neighborhood becomes extremely worried about her. Maria begins to become isolated both at school and at home and is regularly bullied

Sayo begins meeting with Maria as her witchsona every time she visits the island. She convinces her that she is a witch by showing her small magic tricks and becomes her best friend

Battler wins a set of cheap plastic hair ornaments for Ange at a fair. They become one of her most treasured possessions

Erika goes out with a boy who is living some sort of double life. She collects circumstantial evidence and becomes convinced he’s cheating on her. It’s unprovable but the core themes of this narrative suggest that the secret is probably actually crossdressing

Rosa gives Maria a cheap department store plushie and pretends she made it herself. Maria names him Sakutaro and loves him with all her heart

Sayo begins actively building the legend of the golden witch by telling ghost stories and playing occult themed pranks on people. Through her hard work she combines the existing ghost stories about the evil spirits of Rokkenjima with the story of Kinzo’s mistress to create an environment where all unexplainable phenomena will be blamed on a witch

A servant falls down the stairs and quits after being seriously injured. This is quickly incorporated into the legend of the golden witch as Beatrice punishing those who don't believe in her

Sayo begins to invent more OCs, creating Ronove as a double for Genji, Virgilia as a double for Kumasawa, and the seven sisters of purgatory as anthropomorphizations of Kinzo's occult paperweights. Maria gives them all names. In exchange Sayo creates the Chiesters and Sakutaro for her as anthropomorphized versions of her rabbit figures and her favorite stuffed animal

Sayo becomes close friends with Jessica

Jessica begins practicing playing guitar secretly at school and wishes she could get away from her family and play in a band

After Rosa leaves Maria alone for so long that she's picked up by the police, a child protective services officer visits the family. Rosa assaults the officer, and in her rage at Maria rips Sakutaro apart and smashes one of Maria’s rabbits. The CPS officer opens a case to attempt to have Maria placed in state custody but Rosa uses her wealth and influence to get it dismissed

The president of the Marusoo company dies and Krauss manages to obtain the ingot he was given, acquiring physical proof that the Ushiromiya gold exists

Krauss makes a series of bad business investments and is repeatedly defrauded. He attempts to turn Rokkenjima into a resort but the project falls apart leaving him with a newly built guesthouse and no visitors. In his desperation he begins to embezzle Kinzo’s money and makes shady backroom deals offering up ownership of the island itself as collateral

1982:

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion (14 going on 15) they are elected president of their middle school class

Asne, Belne, and Manon graduate from being Ushiromiya servants

Battler (14) does not attend the family conference. Sayo (15 pretending to be 12) begins to doubt whether he ever made her a promise at all or whether she merely misinterpreted him

1983:

Maria (6) begins elementary school

Erika (12 going on 13) begins middle school

Sayo (15 going on 16 pretending to be 12 going on 13) begins middle school

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion (15 going on 16) they begin high school

Battler (14) does not attend the family conference. He sends letters to his cousins. He either does not write a letter to Sayo (16 pretending to be 13) or the letter he writes is stolen by George. She buries her grief by externalizing her feelings and pushing them onto her witch persona Beato. At the same time she begins experimenting with dressing as a boy and creates the Kanon persona with cooperation from Genji and Kumasawa. By pushing her love for Battler onto Beato and all of her negative emotions onto Kanon she is able to keep Shannon as a purely positive persona

George (20) has a marriage interview with a girl Eva (47) wants him to marry named Ayumi. Eva taunts Sayo (16 pretending to be 13) with the fact that the two of them can never be together

Sayo (16 pretending to be 13) accidentally spills soup on herself while serving Kinzo (80s) and removes her kneesock in front of him. He sees the scar from the amputation of her polydactyly and realizes that she is his child who survived the fall after all. Afterwards he begins to try to get closer to her and teaches her to shoot his guns

1984:

Jessica (15 going on 16) begins high school

Battler (15 going on 16) begins high school

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion (16 going on 17) they are elected vice president of their high school class

Kinzo hangs a portrait of Beatrice with the witch’s epitaph in the main hall of the mansion in April. Sayo (16 going on 7 pretending to be 13 going on 14) revises her witchsona so that it is now a blond haired beauty matching both the woman in the portrait and Battler’s image of an ideal girl

George (21) and Sayo (17 pretending to be 14) begin to get closer and go on a few outings together. They are not quite dating yet but the possibility of romance is there

Jessica (16) becomes disturbed by the way Maria (7) talks about Beatrice and starts to investigate. Sayo (17 pretending to be 14) tells her a ghost story about the golden witch appearing in the VIP room at 2 in the morning. She then places a creepy doll on the bedside table in the room, gives instructions to Genji and Kumasawa to act as accomplices, and hides under the bed in the dark waiting. At 2 am when Jessica enters the VIP room an accomplice places a phone call to the room and plays a recording of Maria singing. Afterwards another accomplice in the basement shuts off the lights on the circuit breaker. Under the cover of darkness Sayo climbs out from under the bed, grabs the doll, cackles loudly, and leaves the room. After this experience Jessica decides to stop investigating

Genji gives Sayo (17 pretending to be 14) a hint regarding the epitaph by telling her that Kinzo’s beloved hometown is in Taiwan. Over the course of many months she works her way through the entire riddle and eventually on November 29 she finds the hidden gold. Genji dresses her in the witch dress, takes her to Kinzo, and finally tells him the truth about their relationship. Kinzo apologizes for everything, gives her the head’s ring and keels over dead. Afterwards Sayo orders Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo to keep these events secret and decides to continue working as a servant while waiting for Battler’s return

Sayo (17 pretending to be 14) is utterly horrified at learning the truth about herself. Her incestuous heritage, her body that cannot bear children, the bloodstained wealth of the Ushiromiyas seized with betrayal and murder, and her unwitting romantic relationships with her blood relatives all drive her to despair

Natsuhi (45) discovers that Kinzo is dead. Krauss (50) confesses to embezzling his father’s wealth and tells her that he may face criminal charges for it. She decides to maintain the illusion that he is alive until Krauss can fix their financial situation. She hides his body in the freezer in his study and orders Genji to begin lighting strong incense in the room to hide the smell

1985:

George (22) graduates from college. He begins working at his father’s company to gain business experience

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion (17 going on 18) they are elected president of their high school class

Gohda is dismissed from his job working at a high end hotel due to a dispute between the staff and the management and his involvement in an affair. He has difficulty finding work in the restaurant industry and decides to apply to work for the Ushiromiyas. Natsuhi (46) hires him

Gohda tells Sayo (18 pretending to be 15) that witches do not exist. In order to force him to believe she sets up a situation where he and Genji are the only two people on the island. After Gohda finishes cleaning the kitchen and leaves, Genji creates an occult sculpture using paint and kitchen supplies then summons Gohda, pretends to have discovered it, and asks for help cleaning it up. Afterwards Gohda does not disrespect the witch out loud again

Jessica (17) asks Sayo (18 pretending to be 15) whether Kanon is single. Sayo is simultaneously overjoyed to be loved and disgusted at the incestuous nature of that love. Despite herself she begins to fall in love with Jessica as Kanon

Maria (8) attempts to teach Ange (4) about magic but Ange rejects her, driving her further into isolation

Natsuhi (46) manages to get through the family conference without anyone noticing that Kinzo is dead with the help of Genji (80s), Nanjo (80s), Kumasawa (80s), Sayo (18 pretending to be 15), and Krauss (51)

1986:

Sayo (18 going on 19 pretending to be 15 going on 16) completes middle school. In her complete despair she does not bother advancing to high school and chooses to drop out

Erika (15 going on 16) begins high school

Jessica (17 going on 18) runs for class president at her mother’s insistence and wins the election. She does not enjoy the position

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion (18 going on 19) they graduate high school and begin college

Jessica (18) gives Sayo (19 pretending to be 16) a mixtape containing songs that she likes to try to get closer to her as Kanon

George (23) takes Sayo (19 pretending to be 16) on a trip to Okinawa. She hopes that the trip will give her an opportunity to confess the truth to him but he doesn’t so much as touch her and the right moment to confess never arrives. He tells her that he plans to propose to her at the next family conference, completely driving her into a corner and leaving her with an unavoidable deadline coming up

Sayo (19 pretending to be 16) sets herself up on a culture festival date with Jessica (18). Afterwards Jessica confesses to her and Sayo rejects her. This is extraordinarily painful for her because she is in love with Jessica but she is convinced that the romance is doomed and too scared to try

Krauss (52) manages to put together an actually profitable real estate deal for once. He becomes convinced that if he can just hold on a little longer he will be able to repay all his debts and hide his criminal embezzlement

Hideyoshi (60s) attempts to list his company publicly. He fails to secure a majority stake and is attacked in a hostile takeover attempt, pushing him into a position where he needs to acquire an enormous amount of money to defend against it

Rudolf (45) attempts to expand his business overseas. He accidentally violates another major company’s intellectual property rights and enters a position where he needs to acquire an enormous amount of money to settle with them

Rosa’s (33) debt comes due, placing her in a position where she needs to acquire an enormous amount of money to pay it off

Battler (18) returns to the Ushiromiya family after Asumu’s parents die

Sayo (19 pretending to be 16) learns that Battler (18) will return and is driven completely mad by her hopeless situation and the combined weight of the family’s sins. She writes out countless murder suicide plans, creating fragment world after fragment world and transcends humanity, becoming a witch. Metafictionally, she becomes a miko of Lambdadelta who guarantees her power as long as her plan continues to have absolute certainty

Sayo (19 pretending to be 16) begins making extensive preparations for her murder game. She tests explosives from the stockpile under the island by blowing up the Rokkenjima shrine and practices firing guns extensively. She converts a billion yen worth of the gold to cash and sets up a series of postcards which will be sent to the families of the victims leading them to some of the money. Shortly before the family conference she places her murder fic in wine bottles and hurls it into the sea

Sayo (19 pretending to be 16) recruits accomplices for her plan. Kumasawa and Nanjo happily agree to help her after being told it will be a murder mystery prank. She tells Genji her full plans and he does not raise any objections to the idea of destroying the entire Ushiromiya family in a complex murder suicide scheme. Finally, she has Maria memorize her letter in advance in order to serve as a good messenger and tells her a magical account of her plans in which everyone will be resurrected in the golden land. Any other accomplices are specific to a particular fragment and are mostly recruited the day of

The following people gather for the Ushiromiya family conference:

Ange (5 and a half but likes to say she’s 6) stays at home

Kinzo (80s) who has been dead for over a year but is kept alive as a ghost by Natsuhi’s efforts

Krauss (52), Natsuhi (47), and Jessica (18)

Eva (49 going on 50), Hideyoshi (60s), and George (23)

Rudolf (45), Kyrie (40s), and Battler (18)

Rosa (33), and Maria (9)

Nanjo (80s), Genji (80s), Kumasawa (80s), and Gohda (?)

Sayo (19 pretending to be 16). In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised her she instead attends the conference as Lion (19)

Erika (16) falls off a boat near Rokkenjima. With the help of a miracle she could have drifted to the island

The family conference occurs and its events are locked away in a catbox forever when the mansion is destroyed in an explosion

Within the catbox the adults solve the epitaph and reach the room of the gold before Sayo can carry out her murder plans. A gunfight breaks out and Kyrie and Rudolf decide to slaughter everyone on the island, blow it all up, and run away with the bank card with a billion yen. Eva manages to stop them but is unable to save anyone but herself and decides to blow the island up anyway to hide the truth. She escapes to Kuwadorian and survives the explosion

In the alternate timeline where Natsuhi raised Sayo as Lion, Kinzo is still alive and he holds a funeral for the two Beatrices in the morning. In the evening during the family conference his children argue with him over Lion becoming the head until he decides to give them the witch’s epitaph and tell them that if they can solve it they can have the headship. His children find the gold and the same events play out with the addition that Kyrie also kills Kinzo and Lion

Sayo survives the gunfight, changes her mind about committing murder suicide, rescues Battler, and confesses almost everything to him. The two of them escape through the secret tunnel to the submarine base and attempt to take a motorboat away from the island. Sayo jumps into the water to drown herself using a gold ingot as a weight and Battler leaps in after her. She dies, and he almost drowns

After pulling himself out of the water in a haze Battler is hit by a car and temporarily loses his memories. He’s saved by Hachijou Ikuko who gives him the new name Hachijou Tohya and functionally kidnaps him. Metafictionally Ushiromiya Battler and Yasuda Sayo drown together and become trapped in purgatory. Sayo decides to begin tormenting him with her witch games until he eventually remembers the truth

In a popular alternate interpretation Sayo survives the suicide attempt, adopts the identity of Hachijou Ikuko, and resolves to live with Battler for the rest of her life without ever revealing the truth to him

1987:

Ange (5 going on 6) begins elementary school

Eva (50s) becomes the Ushiromiya family head and is tormented by police investigations and media attacks. Everyone believes her to be the true culprit. However the police are never able to find any evidence and the massacre is formally ruled an accident

After the massacre, the families of the victims receive the mysterious postcards Sayo mailed out. None of them claim the money

Eva sells the portion of Kinzo's occult library stored in Kuwadorian. This draws a significant amount of attention from the occult community as it contains many rare treasures

Two of the message bottles containing Legend and Turn wash up and are found by the police. Combined with the occult attention from Kinzo's library, this causes the crime to be regarded as the work of a witch in the public eye. A large majority of the message bottles are lost at sea and never found

Eva takes guardianship of Ange. She desperately wants to love her and become her mother but the two of them are both deeply broken from grief and Ange is unable to trust Eva which slowly poisons their relationship. At Tanabata Ange wishes to get her family back and convinces herself that the wish will only be fulfilled if she treats Eva as their murderer and never lets her into her heart

After a series of episodes where Eva screams and hits her for so long that she forgets why she was originally angry, Eva realizes that she’s going to destroy Ange’s life and decides to send her away rather than hurt her anymore. When Ange attempts to run away and go back to her grandfather’s house, Eva uses it as an excuse to send her to a boarding school

1980s:

Eva writes a secret diary describing the true events of the catbox

The true crime community around Rokkenjima becomes a large community of dedicated witch hunters. People begin forging message bottles to write fan fiction

Tohya slowly adjusts to his new life living with Ikuko and the two of them begin publishing mystery novels together. To celebrate completing their first book, Ikuko shares a third message bottle which she found on the beach containing Sayo’s full confession with him. He remembers his past as Battler but is unable to accept it as his own memories and resolves to continue his life as Tohya. In the alternate interpretation where Ikuko is Sayo she simply writes out her confession and claims to have found it in a message bottle

Tohya and Ikuko begin writing forgeries, continuing the metafictional narrative that began in Sayo’s two surviving games. Tohya falsely believes Eva to be the true culprit and begins his forgeries by writing Banquet, a narrative in which she murders everyone and survives. After reading his work, Eva realizes who he is, pays him a visit, and tells him the truth. She leaves the key to her diary with him in the hope that he might one day share it with Ange if she makes her way to him too

Tohya writes Alliance, End, and Dawn completing his metarrative and laying Sayo to rest. It’s not clear whether Requiem and Twilight are ever written in the real world at all and if so they’re certainly never published. He incorporates Ikuko's cat Bernkastel as the primary antagonist of the latter part of the story (as a sidenote, the existence of the Magical Bern-chan anime in-universe implies that Ikuko named her cat after her favorite magical girl)

1993:

Ange (11 going on 12) begins middle school

1990s:

Eva (50s) amasses an enormous fortune, surviving the collapse of the Japanese economy in the early 90s and becoming even richer than Kinzo once was. This is made even more impressive by the fact that she started with a small fraction of the capital he did

The witch hunter community unearths Rudolf and Kyrie’s criminal past and begins to accuse them of being the true culprits

Ange is utterly miserable and alone at boarding school where she is constantly bullied. She has Maria’s diary and begins to use it to retreat into delusions, summoning Maria’s ghost, Sakutaro, and the stakes as imaginary friends. Eventually she is attacked in a bullying incident so bad that it makes her want to kill everyone present and she is forced to abandon this coping mechanism when she realizes it provides her no power to affect reality

Eva, alone and dying of grief, becomes extremely sick and begins accusing people of poisoning her

1996:

Ange (14 going on 15) begins high school

1998:

Eva (62) dies, leaving her wealth to Ange (17 and a half but she likes to say she’s 18)

Ikuko acquires Eva’s diary and holds a witch hunter convention to unveil it. At the last minute she refuses to show it and walks out. This permanently defuses the enthusiasm around the Rokkenjima mystery by reminding the would-be witch hunters that what they are doing is nothing more than desecrating the memories of the dead

Ange (17 and a half but she likes to say she’s 18) attempts to contact Tohya (30). Tohya is too scared to see her directly but she meets with Ikuko who gives her the key to Eva’s diary and allows her to read the truth. She is driven completely into despair and jumps off the roof of a skyscraper but survives by landing in the safety netting. Metafictionally she goes on a vision quest to reconcile herself to the truth and become a witch of resurrection

After surviving the fall, Ange (17 and a half but she likes to say she’s 18) gives up the Ushiromiya fortune and adopts the new identity Kotobuki Yukari. She spends the rest of her life writing children’s books to pass on the lessons she’s learned

In an alternate timeline after surviving the fall Ange (17 and a half but she likes to say she’s 18) travels to Rokkenjima while accompanied by Amakusa, a bodyguard given to her by President Okonogi, and hunted by Kyrie’s younger sister Sumadera Kasumi. Shortly before reaching the island she deduces that Okonogi has cut a deal with the Sumaderas and Amakusa plans to kill both her and Kasumi in the isolated location. In order to save herself, she kills Amakusa before he has the opportunity. She embraces the mantle of the witch of truth and sets off on a journey to escape her fate for good, allowing the name Ushiromiya Ange to die just like in the main timeline

Decades Later

Ange uses her wealth from her career as a novelist to reestablish Fukuin House. When remodeling the building, she recreates the main hall of the Ushiromiya family mansion from memory even getting the artist who originally painted the portrait of Beatrice to create a duplicate for her

Tohya finally overcomes his fear of meeting his sister and identifies Kotobuki Yukari as Ange. He reaches out to her and the two are reunited at last. Metafictionally, Battler and Sayo reach the golden land and are freed from purgatory, ascending to heaven

#umineko #umineko no naku koro ni #timeline

306 notes · View notes

fiveisnumber1 · 4 years ago

Text

Timeless - Five Hargreeves x Reader

Word Count: 3828

Warnings: None

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23

_________________________

Pt 11 - Lost In The Past

You didn't know how long it had been since you started crying but there came a point where you could cry no more. The tears no longer fell and your screams were nothing more than gasps of air. You felt empty like every last bit of emotion inside you was just released into the hollow house. Wiping the tears from your eyes you felt a gentle hand stroke your hair.

"There there, why don't we go get you some food to eat? You must be hungry after all that crying." Grace says

You turn your head to look at her and give her a small nod. Grace extends her hand to help you stand from the floor and when you stand she wraps an arm around you, guiding you to the kitchen. Sitting you down at the kitchen table, Grace starts to cook while you try to come to terms with your new reality. You had so many questions and yet you weren't sure if you had the words to vocalize them.

"Grace?" You call

"Hm?" She replies

"What happened since I've been gone?" You question softly

"Well George W. Bush served as president until 2008 when Barack Obama was elected to the presidency. The company Apple invented the iPhone in 2007 which revolutionized technology by giving phones touch screens. Youtube, Facebook, and other social media platforms grew to international success during the time you were gone. The-" Grace replies but you cut her off

"No, I mean...what happened here?" You say

Grace stops cooking for a second and turns to you.

"Oh. Well, you and Five went missing on the same day eleven years ago and things were never quite the same. Your disappearances took a toll on both your family and ours. I remember that about three years after you left, your parents packed up and moved to wherever they went. They were so distraught and I don't blame them it's very difficult to lose a child. I recall that back then Diego really tried his best to track them down in case you ever came back."

"What happened to Diego? And the others?"

"Diego left the house right when he turned eighteen, and Vanya, Klaus, and Allison left shortly thereafter which happened about six or so years ago. Luther stayed but now he's up on the moon doing some important research for Mr. Hargreeves!"

"You forgot about Ben." You state

"Oh right...Ben. Ben died on a mission in 2006. I don't know if you saw in the courtyard but there's a memorial statue for him there."

"He died?" You reply shocked

Grace nods.

"Yes and that was the straw that broke the camel's back, after you and Five went missing, and Ben's death, the rest of the children had no desire to stay in the house. It's difficult having to lose all your children one by one..." Grace states before putting on a chipper voice "Anyway here's a grilled cheese sandwich!"

"Oh." You say surprised at her quick shift of emotion "Uh, thank you."

"No problem (Y/N). Feel free to walk around the house and if you need anything else just ask! I'll be in the laundry room." Grace says before leaving

As she exits the kitchen and heads upstairs to the laundry room, you stare at the grilled cheese before pushing the plate away and putting your face in your hands. Everything felt like it was moving at a million miles per hour and you couldn't make it stop. You needed to get your mind off of things. Lifting you head out of your hands you stand up and grab your sandwich off the plate and walk towards a calendar on the kitchen wall. It read November 22nd, 2013. You shook your head and decided to leave the room. Strolling out of the kitchen and around the Umbrella Academy, you look at paintings of the former academy members. With each painting, the number of kids grew less and less as if time was making them disappear. You continue to walk around as you eat your sandwich taking in the empty sights. Passing different rooms, memories replayed in your mind so strongly that it was like you were right there in them again. You could practically see and hear the Hargreeves kids running down the halls and fighting with each other in those dumb uniforms they used to wear but you knew those experiences were just in your mind. This building had become a haunted house filled with the ghosts of past memories that would never come back. Looking outside at the snowy scene you decide to brave the elements and head out to the courtyard. This time instead of frantically looking for signs of life you take in the sight of death. You make your way over to the statue of what looks to be an older version of Ben. The statue has a solemn look on its face as it looks down on you.

"I guess you're the only one left here." You comment to the statue

You got no response. You didn't expect one but it was worth a shot. You looked down at the pedestal the statue was on and read the epitaph.

May the darkness within you find peace in the light

You wrote that to him in the journal you gave him for all of your 13th birthdays. Things really had changed while you were gone. With the cold starting to set in, you head back inside and go stand in the parlor next to the fireplace. Looking up at the painting of Five once more, a mix of emotions started churning inside you. Anger, grief, confusion, hurt. All of them overwhelmed you.

"You know this is all your fault Five." You start to rant to the painting "If you hadn't gotten mad about whatever it was you were mad about neither of us would be in this situation."

You pace back and forth in front of the fireplace, your feelings of hurt and anger growing stronger like the flames before you. You continue to yell louder at the painting in front of you,

"Oh leave me alone (Y/N) you wouldn't get it. Bullshit! Do you see what you've done? Look at me! I have no family, no home, no friends, nothing because of you and your stupid superiority complex! All of it is gone! Do you hear me?"

By this point, you were actively staring down the painting, pointing and screaming at it,

"I HAVE NOTHING! NOTHING BECAUSE OF YOU! I LOST EVERYTHING AND THAT INCLUDES MY BEST FRIEND! HOW DARE YOU FIVE! HOW DARE YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Child, yelling at the painting is not going to console your grief." You hear a voice say from behind you

Turning around you find Mr. Hargreeves to be standing there.

"Why do you keep the painting up then?" You retort crossing your arms

"I keep it up to remember the boy." he answers, "I told him not to mess with time travel but he refused to listen."

"He thought he was better than everyone." You comment

"He thought he was better than most people, not all, but most." Reginald replies "Now if you're going to be staying here there are going to be rules that you need to follow."

"Who said I was staying here?" You remark

"You have other accommodations?" He questions

You let out a huff.

"No." you reply annoyed

It was true, you had nowhere else to go and this was probably your only chance of having a home of sorts. You heard the stories of what it was like to live with Reginald and although you didn't want to, you knew that you had no other choice.

"Very well. I will have Pogo inform you of the daily schedule of eating, training, and studying."

"Slow your roll old man, training?" you question raising an eyebrow

"Of course. To develop your powers." He responds blankly

"Listen, if I'm going to live here and have to deal with your rules then I have some conditions. First, I will train my powers and let you research them but do NOT expect me to put on a little uniform and become the only member of the second class of the Umbrella Academy. That's not happening. Second, if you want me to learn something it will wait until the weekend because during the week I want to go to school. Third, I have autonomy of where I go both inside and outside this house. I am not going to live my life solely in one bedroom. Do I make myself clear?" You demand

"I see time hasn't dulled that sharp tongue and insolent attitude of yours." Reginald remarks

"Well what eleven years is to you has been like two hours to me." you retort

"Fine. I agree with your conditions and the schedule will be adjusted accordingly but you MUST stick to it and the house rules or I will not tolerate your requests further." Reginald replies

"Deal." You state curtly

"I'll have Grace deal with your living accommodations. Now keep quiet."

"One more thing. You got his eyes wrong, they're a brighter blue." You say gesturing to the painting of Five

Reginald turns to walk away and you flop down on the couch. This is not what you expected when you woke up that morning...eleven years ago. All of it was still so surreal and you didn't know what to do. So you did nothing, you just laid on the couch staring at the ceiling silently and let the world pass by as it had done already. You didn't notice how much time had gone by until you heard Grace call out,

"(Y/N)!"

"I'm here." You reply sitting up from the couch

"Mr. Hargreeves told me that you're going to be staying with us. I'm so happy to hear that! Now I have the pleasure of being able to take care of you too!" She says happily "Let's get you situated!"

Grace and you walk upstairs and into the hall that housed the former rooms of the children.

"You can pick whichever room you want!" Grace explains "Allison's room is all set up in terms of having girlier items, and Vanya's room is smaller but it's barren so you can decorate it however you want! Luther and Ben's rooms are super organized! We can always redo Klaus or Diego's rooms and there's always Fi-"

"I'll take a look at the rooms and let you know." You quickly shoot out

Grace gives you a slightly shocked look before smiling and saying,

"Oh alright, I'm going to make dinner then. Just let me know before bedtime so I can get some clean sheets for you."

You didn't mean to cut off Grace but Five's room was the only room you didn't check earlier. Going in there wasn't something you were prepared to do right now and it definitely wasn't the one you were going to stay in. It would hurt too much, not only because of all the memories made in there but because it looked right across at your old room which was now frozen in time. Passing the closed door of Five's room you walk down the hall and carefully examine all the other options. You saw that Allison and Luther had two of the largest rooms, and you were surprised you couldn't find a hole cut in their shared wall to secretly enter each others. Nevertheless, Luther had only left recently so you didn't want his room and Allison's room had too much of her stuff in it and you knew even with rearranging you couldn't make it feel like your own. Making your way down the hall you saw Vanya's barren room but decided against it because it was too small. Klaus' room was too messy even though he hadn't been there for years and you felt weird about staying in Ben's room since it was still his when he passed away. All that was left was Diego's room. It wasn't as large as Luther or Allison's but it wasn't as small as Vanya's. You still felt a little awkward about taking it but out of all the options it was the best choice. Hearing a bell ring you went down to the dining room for dinner. Mr. Hargreeves was already there standing behind his seat at the head of the table. You stood behind the seat at the opposite head.

"Sit." He commanded

You sat down and Grace dished out food for both you and Mr. Hargreeves. The dinner was silent, the only sounds were that of the silverware clanking against your plates. When finished you excused yourself from the table. As you were walking away Grace asked,

"Did you pick a room?"

"Ah yes, I'll be staying in Diego's room." You answer

"Well it's not Diego's room anymore silly, it's yours! I'll go get some fresh sheets for the bed."

As you head to Diego's room you quickly get an idea to try and make the room more of your own. Transporting yourself to your old room you grab three items before transporting yourself back to the academy. As you approach Diego's room with the items in your arms you see that Grace had finished making the bed. Entering, you place the items on the desk. The diary replica that your parents gave you, the music box, and the teddy bear that Five gave you. It wasn't much but the items comforted you. Putting on a pair of pajamas you got ready for bed. As you pulled the bedsheets down Grace appeared behind you in the doorway and said,

"Goodnight (Y/N), sleep well."

She started to walk away when you called out,

"Grace?"

"Yes (Y/N)?" she replies

"Do you- do you think you could tuck me in?"

You saw as her expression was both happy and sad in a way. Like there was a piece missing that you somehow filled with that question.

"Of course," She replied a smile coming on to her face

You got into the bed and Grace happily tucked you in. Pulling the covers a top of she couldn't help but feel a sense of completeness that she lost years ago. The house had been so empty since all the kids left, but now she had someone to take care of and although the circumstances were less than great for you she wanted to make sure that she could give you the best. Quietly, she turned the light off and closed the door so you could fall asleep.

After that day the Hargreeves house had become your home. Over the next month, you moved most of your stuff from your old room to your new one. Having your stuff helped to make the transition easier although it also made you miss your past. To pass the time, you religiously wrote in the replica diary about each day but instead of writing dear diary for each entry, you wrote Dear Five. You hoped that if he came back one day you could give him the diary to read about what you were up to so it was like he was always there with you. With some help, you got enrolled in school but wouldn't start until after winter break. Even as you settled into the routine of training and living, you still felt all the emotions that you had that first day. You knew you wouldn't get over them immediately but you wished you had a better outlet. Going to Grace one day you asked her,

"Grace, do you have any ideas on how to get these negative feelings out in a healthy way? I know they won't go away but I'm hoping I can make them less strong."

"Hmm. Well if you put the energy that you spend on those feelings into different activities it might help. You could play the piano again or you can take up a physical sport. I heard boxing is really good for taking negative energy out." Grace responds "Actually I think there is a boxing club in the area. How about you check it out tomorrow?"

"Alright, I can try that. Do you think they're open though, it is Christmas Eve." You reply

"If my knowledge is correct, this one is open 365 days a year." Grace replies

You nodded and once you had figured out where it was you put on exercise clothes. Grace bundled you up in a warm jacket and with that, you walked your way over to the boxing club. Entering you approached a desk where an old man sat.

"Hi, I'd like to learn to box." You say

"You're a little small to learn, don't you think?" He replies

"I have a hundred dollars that say I'm not too small." You state holding up the bill

"Can't argue with that." The old man says taking the cash

He escorts you over to a punching bag.

"Wait here, I'll get you someone to teach you." He says before turning his attention "Hey Kraken, get your ass over here. I need you to teach this kid."

Slowly a man steps out of the boxing ring where he was practicing and walks over to where you and the old man are. The old man walks away as the younger man takes off his gear. He says,

"Hey, I'm-"

But he stops abruptly. The man just stares at you blankly.

"Are you okay?" You ask

"Sorry, you look like someone I used to know." He says

Something about this man felt familiar but you couldn't place it. The man sticks out his hand to shake yours. You go to shake it but when you look down at his wrist he has an all too familiar marking there, a tattoo of an umbrella in a circle. You look at the tattoo before looking up again at the man and start to recognize the features of the boy you used to know, now all grown up.

"Diego?" you question softly

"H-h-how did you know my name?" He stutters

"I knew it because you do know me. It's me, (Y/N)," you reply softly

You can see the confusion on his face turn into a softer expression. Although it might not have been evident to his other siblings, Diego was a deeply emotional person and you saw that exact look you were seeing in his eyes many times before when you two were younger.

"No. It can't be. You look exactly the same, you should be my age" He questions, the emotion on his face becoming more evident

"Accidentally traveling through time will do that to you. Please you have to believe me Eggo." You begged

He was having doubts that it was truly you but that all went away when you called him that name. It was a dumb nickname you gave him when one time Luther refused to let go of him. You kept exclaiming "let go my eggo" as you tried to use your powers to get Luther off. No one else but you ever knew of that. Tears formed in Diego's eyes but quickly after he wrapped his arms around you and picked you up.

"Hey everyone! My sister is back! We thought she went missing but she's back!" Diego exclaims to the people in the boxing club

There are some cheers and congratulations shouted from across the gym as Diego puts you back down. For so long he hoped that you would come back and now here you were like a Christmas miracle. You were more like a sibling to him in the short amount of time he knew you than his own siblings were. Instead of learning to box the two of you talked. You explained everything that you had gone through and your current living situation. He didn't like that you were living in that house with his father but he knew that he didn't have the means to house you nor properly take care of you. One thing he did know is that he was going to make sure that after all this misery you could have a better life. Even though time had gone on and he was older now you were still like a sister to him but now you were his little sister and he was determined to protect you from any harm the world might throw your way. He was going to be the best older brother he could be to you and make sure that you would not have to face the life he did.

And so for the next five years, Diego was there for every important moment in your life, always trying to support you and make it better. He dropped you off on your first day of school when spring semester rolled around and every first day after. He went to every piano recital you had and sat front row. When there was a father-daughter dance fundraiser he went to make sure you weren't alone. He trained you and coached you in boxing and was there for every single match. He planned a huge sweet 16 birthday party using what money he had. He was the one who took you on your first college visits when you were 17. He took time out of his days to practice working on your powers. For everything, he was there and on top of that, he regularly took you out of the house to spend time with you. You were his little sister, his true sister and he wanted you to know it.

Along with everything Diego did for you, you were grateful for some of the things you had gotten in the Hargreeves house. After about a year or so you stopped calling Grace by her name and started to call her mom. If androids could cry tears of joy Grace would have the first time that word left your mouth. Pogo had convinced Reginald to get you a piano play and in an odd act of kindness, he did. Along with that, your powers developed greatly under the supervision of Reginald and Pogo. You were able to do more in terms of manipulating the molecules in the world around you and were able to start seeing disturbances in them as well. Life wasn't perfect but through the years it got easier. But although you were growing up and trying to move on with your life, even after all those years Five never left your mind for a second. You missed him greatly and hated that the last words the two of you shared were ones of anger. You wondered if he was still mad at you. Each moment of every day Five still consumed your mind and you hoped that wherever he was, in another time and place, that he was doing okay and that one day he would come back to you.

Check out the side story here:

The Missing Five Years - “Lost In The Past” Side story

Taglist: @xplrreylo @joebob15274 @insatiable-ivy @fruitsaladtree @angelpeachamber @academy-umbrella @lizziel1410 @ir3neeee @faith-quake @aliens-with-colas @eddiomyspaghettio @lady-celeste25 @im-dead-and-hurting @nerdypinupcrystal @cherry-ki-d @anapocalypseinmymind @vicassa @2cuteforyourlies @taylorsmakingfuckingmacandcheese @n1ghtsh4d3-67 @cheshire-salvatore-mikaelson @shadowycreationcupcake @macaroni-mads @metor-showers1994 @fivehargreevesforthewin @rinko-san @supernovavision @cicilisthebest @flickbix @hi-v-juice @magykal-777 @zosiaduda

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multiverseforger · 4 years ago

Text

Leonard Snart was raised by an abusive father and took refuge with his grandfather, who worked in an ice truck. When his grandfather died, Snart grew tired of his father's abuse and set out to start a criminal career. Snart joined up with a group of small-time thieves and in planning out a robbery, each was issued a gun and a visor to protect their eyes against the flashes of gunfire. This visor design would later be adapted by Snart into his trademark costume. In recent years he has added a radio receiver to them which picks up the police band to monitor local law enforcement. Snart and the other thugs were captured by the Flash and imprisoned. Snart decided to go solo, but knew he had to do something about the local hero, the Flash.[4]

Snart read an article that theorized that the energy emissions of a cyclotron could interfere with the Flash's speed. He designed a weapon to harness that power and broke into a cyclotron lab, intending to use the device to charge up his experimental gun. As he was finishing his experiment, a security guard surprised Snart. Intending to use his gun only to scare the guard, he inadvertently pulled the trigger and discovered that his weapon had been altered in a way he had never imagined. The moisture in the air around the guard froze. Intrigued by this twist of fate, Snart donned a parka and the aforementioned visor and declared himself to be Captain Cold - the man who mastered absolute zero.[7]

Snart then committed a series of non-lethal crimes, on one occasion placing the city in suspended animation in an attempt to force Iris West to marry him as he had fallen in love with her when he saw her in the prison, but the Flash got through a wall of ice and was able to reverse the process. He later fell in love with a newscaster, and competed with Heat Wave (in his first appearance) over her in a crime spree, but they were both beaten by the Flash. But after Barry Allen's death, during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Captain Cold became a bounty hunter with his sister Lisa, the Golden Glider.[4]

During the events of Underworld Unleashed, Captain Cold lost his soul to Neron but Wally West brought it back to the land of the living. He soon returned to crime, this time a member of Wally's Rogues Gallery. The Rogues had first been assembled when another Flash foe, the super-intelligent Gorilla Grodd had broken them out of jail to distract the Flash. The Golden Glider had abandoned her bounty hunter career and had started partnering with a series of thugs who she dressed in a costume, armed with a copy of Captain Cold's signature Cold Gun, and called Chillblaine. Already distraught over the death of her lover, the Top, it seemed that the supposed death of her brother pushed her over the edge. But the last Chillblaine was a little smarter and more vicious. He murdered the Golden Glider, prompting Captain Cold to hunt him down, torture him and kill him by freezing his outer layer of skin and then pushing him off a high rise building. Not long after that, Snart was framed by a new incarnation of Mister Element. He used his Element Gun to simulate Cold's gun, using ice and cold to murder several police officers before Captain Cold and the Flash discovered who was actually responsible. With the death of his sister, and having killed Chillblaine and Mr. Element in vengeance, Cold has again become an unrepentant criminal. However, during a confrontation with Brother Grimm, Cold actually worked with Wally West to defeat the powerful magic user, although this was mainly because he and Mirror Master had been betrayed by Grimm and wanted revenge.[4]

Captain Cold was declared the leader of the Flash's Rogues Gallery. His skill and experience have made him a strong leader to the likes of the Weather Wizard, the new Trickster, the new Mirror Master, and the new Captain Boomerang. Len seems to have taken the young Captain Boomerang under his wing, after the elder Boomerang was recently killed. Tabloids rumoured that Captain Cold's sister, the Golden Glider, was Boomerang's mother, making him Captain Cold's nephew. This turned out to be false, however, as the new Boomerang's mother has been revealed to be Meloni Thawne, who is also the mother of Bart Allen. Despite his more ruthless nature as of late, Captain Cold's heart is not completely frozen, evidenced by having sent flowers to honor Sue Dibny, murdered wife of the Elongated Man.[volume & issue needed]

Traditionally, Captain Cold is driven by three things: money, women, and the desire to beat Barry Allen. Although not the lecher that Captain Boomerang was, Len Snart has an eye for the ladies, particularly models. When Barry Allen died, Captain Cold drifted for a while, jumping back and forth over the lines of crime and justice. He was captured by the Manhunter and served time in the Suicide Squad, worked with his sister as a bounty hunter (Golden Snowball Recoveries), and, with his longtime friend and sometimes nemesis Heat Wave, encountered Fire and Ice of the Justice League. He has teamed up with various villains over the years other than the many Rogues. These include Catwoman and the Secret Society of Super Villains. His favorite baseball team is the Houston Astros.[volume & issue needed]

"One Year Later"Edit

In the 2006 "One Year Later" storyline, he and several other Rogues are approached by Inertia with a plan to kill the Flash (then Barry Allen). Though Inertia was defeated, Captain Cold, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, Mirror Master and Abra Kadabra killed Bart with a combined barrage of their elemental weapons. He, Heat Wave, and Weather Wizard seemed to express guilt, however, after learning the identity of the Flash and how young he was.

Salvation RunEdit

Captain Cold is one of the exiled villains featured in the 2007-08 miniseries Salvation Run along with his fellow Rogues: Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, and Abra Kadabra.

New RoguesEdit

The New Rogues version of Captain Cold is Chill, a unknown man who possesses a Cold Gun.

Final Crisis: Rogues' RevengeEdit

In the 2008 miniseries Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge, Captain Cold and the Rogues briefly joined Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains. In Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge story, however, Cold and the rest of the Rogues reject Libra's offer, wanting to stay out of the game. Before they can retire, they hear of Inertia escaping and decide to stick around long enough to get revenge for being used.[8] Cold and his group are challenged by a new set of Rogues, formed by Libra to be their replacements. The new group, having kidnapped Cold's father, challenge the Rogues, and are defeated and killed. Cold goes to his father, talking to him about the abuse he suffered, and the fate of his sister. After the elder Snart insults him and his mother, calling them weak, Cold punches him, but finds himself unable to kill him, instead getting Heat Wave to do it.[9] The Rogues have their confrontation with Inertia, despite interference by Zoom and Libra, and kill Inertia. Libra then reveals that he needs the Rogues because Barry Allen has returned from the dead, and the Flashes are potential threats to him and Darkseid. Though shocked by the news that Allen is alive, Cold still rejects his offer of membership. After regrouping, Cold and the other Rogues agree not to retire, claiming that the game is back on.[10] In "Final Crisis" #7, someone that looks like Captain Cold appears as a Justifier and is seen fighting the Female Furies alongside the other Justifiers under Lex Luthor's control.

The Flash: RebirthEdit

In the 2009 The Flash: Rebirth miniseries, Captain Cold is seen with the other Rogues, reading about Barry Allen's return and claiming that they would need more of the Rogues.[11] The Rogues are still debating Allen's return, with Cold saying it's time to pull out their contingency plan that Scudder came up with, stating "In case The Flash returns, break glass."[12]

"Blackest Night"Edit

In the 2009–2010 "Blackest Night" storyline, the Rogues realize that the bodies of various dead Rogues are missing and prepare to fight them. Captain Cold knows that his sister, the Golden Glider, is among the reanimated Black Lanterns but is still ready to lead the Rogues against the zombies.[13] He is confronted by the Black Lantern Glider, who attempts to use his feelings of love for her against him. However, Captain Cold manages to suppress these feelings long enough for him to fight back, freezing her within a block of ice.[14] He subsequently kills Owen Mercer by throwing him into a pit with his Black Lantern father when he learns that Owen has been feeding people to his father in the belief that consuming flesh will restore him to life, informing Owen that Rogues do not kill women and children.[15]

The Flash (Vol. 3)Edit

In The Flash (Vol. 3), Captain Cold and the Rogues visit Sam Scudder's old hideout and unveil a giant mirror with the words In Case of Flash: Break Glass written on it and release beings from a Mirror World upon breaking it.[16] However, Captain Cold is told by Mirror Master he had discovered that the giant mirror is actually a slow acting poison.[17]

The New 52Edit

In the timeline of the 2011 company-wide reboot of all its superhero titles, The New 52, Captain Cold is reintroduced as a younger man than in the previous timeline and now with his Rogues lives with a code to never kill. His origin remains the same, however, his sister Lisa has not been the Golden Glider, and is instead dying of cancer. Upon learning that the hospital does not have enough energy to power a laser that could save her life, because of an EMP seemingly caused by the Flash, Cold blames him for everything that has happened to him, including a falling out with the Rogues, and decides to break the rules of their "game" and kill the Flash. Captain Cold has undergone experiments that have given him ice-based metahuman powers, including the ability to slow down the molecules around him, creating a field of inertia that reduces the Flash's speed to human level, allowing Captain Cold to touch him and effortlessly beat him.[18] He and the Rogues are set to return,[19] but later defeated them with help from Flash, and the Pied Piper.[20]

After freeing the Trickster and attending the meeting at the Justice League Watchtower, the Rogues return to Central and Keystone City, only to see that both have been destroyed by Gorilla Grodd. Grodd returns to Central City during the eclipse, while a ceremony commemorating Flash between the humans and gorillas is occurring. Grodd proceeds to take control of Central City as its king and renames it Gorilla City. Captain Cold sees the city's cops tied up from Grodd, and proceeds to free them. He then asks Mirror Master to help him get to the hospital where his sister is being held in order to check on her. While there, the Crime Syndicate send Black Bison, Hyena, Multiplex, Plastique and Typhoon to finish Grodd's work and destroy the hospital. The Rogues are able to hold them off, only to be interrupted by Deathstorm and Power Ring, who were sent by Ultraman to deal with the Rogues for resisting the Crime Syndicate's offer to join them. After battling Deathstorm and Power Ring, Deathstorm attacks Captain Cold and is able to extract his freezing powers from his DNA. Mirror Master attempts to get the Rogues out through the Mirror World, but Power Ring destroys the mirror causing the Rogues to be separated. Captain Cold ends up at Luthor and his Kryptonian clone's location where they are also joined by Black Manta, who has retrieved Black Adam from the ocean.[21] Luthor realizes that, with the help of his clone, Black Adam, Black Manta, and Captain Cold, he may be able to stop the Crime Syndicate. Captain Cold and the rest of the squad, now joined by Batman, Catwoman, Sinestro and Deathstroke, infiltrate the fallen Watchtower, where Black Manta kills the Outsider and Cold proceeds to shatter Johnny Quick's right leg after having frozen the molecules in it with his cold gun. He then unmasks the hooded prisoner brought over from Earth-3, revealing it to be Alexander Luthor, who is their version of Shazam, Mazahs, who states he will kill them all.[22][volume & issue needed] After defeating the crime syndicate, Captain Cold is pardoned by the U.S government, and becomes a member of the Justice League, along with Luthor.

DC RebirthEdit

Snart and the Rogues first made a cameo appearance in the DC Rebirth's storylines; they are fleetingly watching a news report about the many newly created speedsters appearing throughout the city in The Flash #3. Snart quips that it is time for the Rogues to leave Central City for a while. Visually the Rogues still seem to be based upon their New 52 appearances in this cameo, though when Snart later appears in one of Flash's memory flashbacks he has resorted to an even older look. He and the other Rogues retain these costumes in their later appearances.

Snart and the Rogues make their first full-length appearance in The Flash #15, where they are attempting to steal a valuable golden statue of the god Mercury from the small island nation of Corto Maltese. The Flash arrives to stop them, but they turn out to be constructs of Mirror Master laid so that the Rogues can commit a crime spree in Central City. Captain Cold reveals what he had been working on in his absence from the city—a "black ice gun" that uses the anti-Speed Force weaponry of the terrorist group Black Hole combined with his regular freeze gun. After a fight, the Golden Glider had a chance to kill the Flash, but was talked out of it by her fellow Rogues. Despite this setback, Flash manages to finally beat Snart and the rest of the Rogues without killing them. By the end of The Flash #17, Snart appears to be ready to take over Iron Heights from the more neophyte villains, including Papercut.

In the Watchmen sequel Doomsday Clock, Captain Cold and his fellow Rogues are among the villains that attend the underground meeting held by Riddler that talks about the Superman Theory.[23]

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years ago

Text

MEET THE PRESS

August 3, 1969

You are clued into the frank and tough talk to come by the way Lucille Ball swipes away with her handkerchief at the flies threatening the hors d’oeuvres The kerchief almost snaps like a wet towel.

The scene is the pool patio of her home on Beverly Hills’ Roxbury Drive and a cocktail party is in progress for visiting television editors.

Lucy has just emerged from the main house. She wears a powder blue double-breasted slack suit and saucer-sized sun glasses. In the blazing sun her orange hair has the color intensity of hot coals.

She has counted heads. Husband-producer Gary Morton is there. So are Desi Arnaz IV her son, and Lucy her daughter. And her TV side-kick Gale Gordon with his wife. Plus a half-dozen of her staff and CBS emissaries. There have been introductions all round to the newspaper types. It is time, she announces, to talk and she waves everybody into the big and comfortable pool house. A table has been positioned so that she can sit there presiding as she used to do at the stockholders’ meetings of the old Desilu Studios.

Almost immediately some wag fields her the question: “Lucy do you run the show?” She flashes him that big innocent TV look of hers. A staff member jumps up “Let’s all answer that one for her” There is a resounding “YES” from family-and-cast. Everybody laughs uproariously.

Very few questions are required to prime the pump. Lucy, it seems, has some matters of personal irritation on her mind and as far as she is concerned they come tumbling out without any prodding from her would-be interrogators.

First of all, she asks rhetorically, what’s all this business about whether she would retire? “I never said I wanted to quit or retire. There was a time when I was willing to quit but nobody asked me. Now I’ve set a date when I’ll retire”

A lot of ears perk up Somebody asks slyly — when? She’s waiting for that. Her answer is smilingly emphatic: “When I drop dead in my tracks.”

She turns then without anybody’s questioning to the matter of her longevity in television. This is her 18th year on the tube and it used to be talked about that she traded her popularity to CBS in return for its buying other shows produced by her company. This evokes an almost visible jet of steam out of the top of her carrot locks. “I never at any time sold any of the 20 shows our company produced on the basis of my returning each season. I’ve said that literally hundreds of times and nobody believed it.”

She went on to make it clear that she also dislikes the “big business” image which has adhered to her over the years. “I never like to talk about big money. I make my deal and that’s all. It’s been mostly a matter of legal procedures.”

As the star wades into these fiscal subjects your eye roams over the assemblage. Young Desi in tennis togs impassively studies the smoke curling up from a cigarette. Young Lucy clutches her hands around her knees and stares intently at her mother. Husband Gary sitting on a ledge at the back of the room swings his legs and smiles.

There has been no mention of Desi the elder the former husband Lucy’s co-performer and co-founder of Desilu Studios (now sold). Earlier this writer had chatted briefly with young Desi. He said he saw his father off and on and spends his summers as a rule at the father’s beach home at Delmar, south of Los Angeles.

The youngster asked if I knew his grandfather Dr. Desiderio Arnaz who lives in Coral Gables. (1)

But back to Lucy She’s telling us how many years it took to realize that as Lucille Ball she had attained V.I.P. status.

She reviews the years she spent trying to make it in show business, first on the stage, then as a model, and finally in the movies. Much of the time she says she stagnated. Until television came along.

“I never had any sense of importance. I was very pliable always willing to do what I was told It wasn’t until one day I saw in print somewhere some actress described as a ‘Lucille Ball type’ that I knew suddenly I was somebody and a part of the business.”

From there on the interview jumps from subject to subject.

I ask her whatever happened to the project Dean Martin’s producer Greg Garrison had for starring Martin, her, and Jackie Gleason in a revival of the musical “Guys and Dolls.” (2)

“I never said I would do it. Garrison kept publicizing it, but he never cleared it with me. I do still want to do ‘Diamond Jim’ with Jackie It’s just a matter of finding the time.” (3)

A lady editor wants to know how Lucy keeps her sinuous figure.

“I don’t particularly like food. I’m not very fond of meat, for example, except in the morning.”

Which brings a snort of disgust from her husband. “Can you imagine what it’s like to have to watch her eating corned beef or hamburger at 6 o’clock in the morning?”

The questions now go to the children. What are Desi’s plans? Does he want to make acting his future? “I want to be an actor for awhile but I don’t think I ever want to be one certain thing.”

Young Lucy, who, at 18, is two years older than her brother, is more sure of her future “I’ll go to college for awhile but I like acting. I’ll stay at it if I can.”

Would she somebody asks join the campus protest and carry a sign? Only if it says ‘wet paint’ quips she.

Lucy now introduces her cast veteran, Gale Gordon. He pays her extravagant compliments and talks a bit about his radio and early television days.

The interview’s late arrival is venerable George Marshall, who is now the show’s director. Lucy introduces him as “our sexy senior citizen.” Marshall goes back to the dawn of movies and is filled with fascinating anecdotes about his years in the business. (4)

The conversation turns to TV’s talk shows. Somebody suggests to Lucy that she would be a highly likely guest for Merv Griffin’s new show starting on CBS Aug 18. (5)

Lucy's answer comes lancing back “That’s what you think. I don’t like him.” Which rocks everybody back. Why not? “Because he doesn’t know how to interview. He’s rude to his guests and he monopolizes the conversation.”

She doesn’t wait for the next question. “I’m wild about Dick Cavett (on ABC) I think he’s great And I told Bill Paley (board chairman of CBS) he should have him on our network. But Bill said ABC got him first and we’re out of luck.” (6)

Everybody is suddenly distracted by three teen-age girl fans leaning over a fence way up front. They’re begging to be allowed on the grounds. Morton jogs forward to shoo them away.

“This happens all the time,” says Lucy. “My God they used to picnic right in front of the house until our police department stopped them. Jimmy Stewart, who lives up the street, finally told me how to keep them away. Turn on the lawn sprinklers.”

Morton returns and takes everybody for a tour of their luxurious but very lived-in home. Lucy tells us a funny story about how Jack and Mary Benny had once been their next door neighbors sold their home then asked her to try to mediate a re-sale of the place back to them. Then we take our leave.

# # # FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) Dr. Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y Alberni II (1894-1973) was a Cuban politician and the father of Desi Arnaz. He graduated from the Southern College of Pharmacy in 1913 in Atlanta, Georgia. Desiderio Arnaz II was the youngest mayor of Santiago de Cuba (1923–32). When president Machado was overthrown in August 1933, Arnaz was arrested and jailed. Six months later, he was allowed to go into exile. He married Dolores "Lolita" de Acha y de Socias in 1916 and had one son, Desiderio "Desi" Arnaz III. He later had a daughter, Connie Arnaz (1932), with Anne M. Wilson, whom he married in 1941.

(2) Guys & Dolls was a 1950 stage musical by Frank Loesser, based on the stories by Damon Runyon starring Robert Alda, who appeared on several episodes of “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy”. It was filmed by MGM in 1955. During that time, Lucy and Desi were also under contract to MGM, so they prevailed upon “I Love Lucy” to insert a clip from the film into “Lucy and the Dummy” (ILL S5;E3). After its initial airing on October 17, 1955, the clip was removed from the film print, and for legal reasons, has never been restored. It is unclear whether Garrison’s project with Martin, Ball, and Gleason would have been a film revival, or a stage production. Whatever it was to be, Lucy wanted to have no part of it, perhaps remembering the rigors of performing on stage in Wildcat (1960). During her film career, Ball was in two films based on Damon Runyon material, The Big Street (1942), a film she claimed as her favorite, and Sorrowful Jones (1949). She also did a radio version of Runyon’s “Tight Shoes” in 1942. Ball and Gleason would have been cast as Miss Adelaide and Nathan Detroit, while Dean Martin would have played Sky Masterson, the romantic lead. Those roles were played by Vivian Blaine, Frank Sinatra, and Marlon Brando in the film. Obviously, the project never came to be.

(3) “Diamond Jim” was a project that Lucy dearly wanted to make with Gleason. He would play Diamond Jim Brady (1856-1917) to her Lillian Russell. Ball even went so far as to have a script written to further grab Gleason’s attention. Despite their best intentions, Gleason and Ball’s schedules never allowed for enough time to make the film.

(4) George Marshall (1891-1975) had directed Lucille Ball in Valley of the Sun (1942) and Fancy Pants (1950). He was considered an expert at location shooting, so when “Here’s Lucy” wanted to spend the first four episodes of Season 2 on location, Marshall was hired as director. He stayed on for seven more episodes of the sitcom before bowing out.

(5) Despite Lucille Ball’s rather harsh public assessment of Merv Griffin (1925-2007) at this August 1969 press party, Ball appeared on “The Merv Griffin Show” four times between 1971 and 1980! During her first appearance, the aforementioned George Marshall was also a guest!

(6) Lucille did seem to enjoy doing the talking to Dick Cavett, although she only got to do his chat show once, on March 7, 1974, in conjunction with her press tour for Mame.

#Lucille Ball #1969 #Press Party #Dick Cavett #Merv Griffin #TV #Here's Lucy #Gary Morton #Lucie Arnaz #Desi Arnaz Jr.#Guys and Dolls #George Marshall #Jack E. Anderson

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juniaships · 4 years ago

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Kaysha Wallace Bio (General)

This is a generic bio of my TMNT OC which applies to the continuities she's in. Which I rushed in time for her b-day! 💖💖💖

Full Name: Kaysha Cheyenne Wallace

Age: Depends on continuity, usually between ages of 16 ~ 21 years

Birthday: Feb. 14

Species: Human

Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (multimedia)

Voice Claims: Depends, but head-canon Amber Riley for Rise, Cree Summers for 1987, Kimberly Brooks for 2007 version, and Aisha/Layla's 4kids dub actor for 2003 version

Character: Friend and ally to the Hamato clan; love interest to Leo.

Powers/Abilities: Martial Artist, stealth and spying; mastery at tessen fighting and close range

Items: War Fans, tanto, kunai, kimono (courting gift from Leo)

Relationships

Family: Mr. & Mrs. Wallace (parents, alive), Rashean and Devon (younger brothers, 7 to 12 years range)

Friends: The Turtles, April O'Neill, Casey Jones

Acquaintances: Usagi Yojimbo, Mona Lisa, Tenet, varies by continuity

Enemies: Purple Dragons, Foot Clan, The Shredder, Kraang, most enemies of the Hamato

Love Interest: Leo is considered her primary love interest as he's the turtle I tend to ship her with. Originally was going to be with Raph but I felt like Leo needed someone that could connect with him on a personal intimate level and it all spiraled from there. Their ship name is Cotton Candy Ninjas!

Appearance

- Body type and height varies by actress/art style, but she is typically portrayed as a African American female

- Brown skin (medium-dark tones); curly-kinky hair worn in protective styles.

- Pink is the dominant color in her wardrobe; tends to wear trendy fashions

- Her ninja suits tend to be dark shades of red/maroon-pink with lighter pink accents and a belt for equipment

- Exception: In Rottmnt her main outfit is a pink kimono-styled suit with light blue and pink accents

- Pink sash/belt and domino mask

- Blue and jade colored kimono

Personality

Most iterations of Kaysha depicts her as a bubbly and passionate young woman. Her biggest flaws can be her hidden insecurities and tendencies to be a drama queen. She can also get frustrated easily if things don't go her way. Later on, she becomes more patient and brave, learning to keep herself levelheaded on missions and real world. A true romanticist at heart, Kaysha always tries her best to see the positive side of things. She has a thing for "shipping" people and encourages folks to find their true love. Not much can bring her down.

Abilities

In every continuity she's in, Kaysha does not develop superpowers. This leaves her with normal human weaknesses and limitations.

Her preferred weapons are bladed war fans and tanto, and she is adept at close range. She lacks long range and is not a fast agile fighter, so she relies on quick thinking, stealth and evasion tactics.

Another skill she possesses is using her knowledge of fashion to create intricate disguises. This is especially helpful in undercover missions. Her friendly demeanor allows her to communicate with allies easily.

Backstory: Her backstory involves her being a vocal opponent of the Purple Dragons, unwilling to see her brothers fall victim to gang violence. Due to the nature of the franchise the exact story of how she met the turtles changes. Typically, she would meet them either completely on accident or they save her from a bad guy and her curiosity gets the better of her and she goes to look for her mysterious rescuers.

Trivia

- She doesn't trust hair salons

- Kaysha is a fan of baseball, even thought of giving her a bat as a mean weapon but I didn't want to copy Casey's schtick

- Kaysha never turns into a mutant, I don't want to change a fundamental part of her character

- In Bayverse Kaysha is a blogger who highlights urban legends and cryptids

- 2003!Kaysha appears in s1 but does not know about the turtles yet. She does find out in season 2, which later kicks off her arc of becoming a kunoichi

- 2007!Kaysha knew about Raph being the Nightwatcher; while fearing for his safety she also knew the city needed protectors and kept this secret from Leo.

- 2012!Kaysha is by far the youngest at around 14 years old; most others are 17/18 depending on the Turtles's age range

- She is said to be a great singer

- Character Inspo: Belle (Beauty in the Beast), Elle Woods (Legally Blonde), Mai Shiranui (Fatal Fury), Mulan (Disney version), Stella (Winx Club), Stella Monroe (Rainbow High), Mercedes(Glee) and Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man series)

- Originally she was going to wield a katana to match up with Leo before I decided to give her a personal weapon

- She was also going to be the long range fighter but a found a lot of girl characters have long range/arrows so Kaysha has a melee weapon

- The Tessen idea came from the 2012 meaning; the significance for Kaysha's tessens is her confidence and comfort in her battle style

- Rise!Kaysha uses hearts in her design (shoulders, face shape, earrings)

- 87!Kaysha is a roommate of Mona Lisa and not paired with Leo

- Kaysha was written to be a love interest for Raph before I switched him with Leo

- Her original color was cyan/light green because she was something of a replacement to Venus de Milo

Quotes: NA/TBD

Pictures:

#oc bio #oc: kaysha wallace #tmnt #tmnt oc #teenage mutant ninja turtles oc #oc #rottmnt #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2003

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inspiringmelodrama · 3 years ago

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I’ve seen a lot going around about Post+ and Tumblr trying to make some dollars on content creators who WILL get sued the second Disney sniff’s their work. So I’ll try and explain some of the ways it can ruin your life.

Intellectual Property IS a big deal, it moves billions of dollars every year all around the world.

Everyone has heard of Disney and how voracious they are for their copyrighted stuff and they are not the only company with a team of lawyers whose only job is to sue people who infringe it.

Maybe you’re thinking, “but I’m not making any real money out of this” or “I’m just a broken 19 years old college student, Disney won’t care about my little fanfic, fanart, stickers…” and let me tell you, they will.

They won’t care that you’re a fan. That you love that piece of media so much you decided to spend hours on it. They won’t look at your fanfic or fanart and say “Wow, look how talented they are. Look how much they love it.” They will say “This person is using our property without a copyright license.” just like they regularly do with people who run Etsy shops.

Want to see some examples?

- In the early 2000’s a Harry Potter fan created an entire site dedicated to the magic and world of Harry Potter. The site, called Harry Potter Lexicon, was an encyclopedia of sorts. It had potions and spell lists, a guide to magical creatures in the Potter universe, characters info’s and a lot of interesting things about the books. Does it sound familiar to you? That’s because J. K. Rowling launched her own version of the “Harry Potter Lexicon” in 2012. You might know it as “Pottermore”.

But the copyright lawsuit came much earlier, in 2007 to be exact. The creator of the lexicon decided to publish it with a small, independent publisher and *gasp* have people buy copies of it.

J. K. Rowling, who for the past 7 years had said multiple times that she *loved* the lexicon and I quote:

"This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an internet cafe while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing). A website for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home."

Did a whole 180º during the trial (which she won by the way):

“‘I believe that this book constitutes the wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work,’ she testified, going on to denounce the book as plagiarism and a waste of money.”

Maybe you’re thinking “I created an original character! It’s not copyright infringement then”

But your character is a mandalorian, a warrior from outer space who wears armor and doesn’t show their face. They are not called “Din Djarin” and they don’t have a child to protect or a beskar armor, but the concept is still there. And Disney will come for your throat over the usage of their concept.

Just like “Christian Laboutin” has sued other brands multiple times over the years because they made shoes with red soles. Yeah.

Even if you’re not in the US or Europe they can sue you for copyright infringement. Most laws that regulate intellectual property rights come from international treaties and accords that many countries sign on. It doesn’t matter either if said company is not registered or trademarked in your specific country. In Brazil, for example, part of the Intellectual property legislation dictates that renowned, traditional, important brands are automatically protected even if they don’t trademark themselves in the country.

The bottom line here is: monetizing fan content is a very bad idea.

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diorchitect · 5 years ago

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Serpentine Pavilions

As you know, since the year 2000, the Serpentine Gallery in London invites a different architect from around the globe to design an annual pavilion set to be built at the entrance/garden of such place. The gallery gives them a budget and total freedom of design, however, it does require them a sitting area to have lectures, eat, contemplate the gardens and so on.

Since I wanted a justification and say why my personal favorite is the best, I decided to rank every one of them. Listen, I have my personal preferences when it comes to architecture but I tried to be a little bit more neutral here.

So here they are, from worst to best:

20. The lounge (2010). Jean Nouvel.

Sir, you were commissioned to design a pavilion; this is a sports bar/lounge area, visitors are feeling excluded. Please, leave the room.

19. The mountain (2004). MVRDV.

These architects ignored their budget and their pavilion was never built; they wanted to cover the gallery under a huge mountain but, why would you persuit that artistic idea when Christo already exists?

18. The tunnel (2015). Selgas Cano.

This tunnel simply goes to nowhere. You enter and there’s not so much to do in there... then you go out.

17. The stone hill (2019). Junya Ishigami.

Half of Ishigami’s idea was borrowed from SAANAS’ pavilion from ten years earlier. But the hillside effect outside and underneath were kind of cute.

16. The theatre (2007). Kjetil Thorsen & Olafur Eliasson.

This was just so… over designed…

15. The chapel (2016), Bjarke Ingels.

This is a great entrance hall to the gallery, I give him that. However, Mr. Bjarke “idea” was not something new, Sou Fujimoto had a similar aproach three years earlier.

14. The old school roof (2005). Alvaro Siza & Edoardo Souto de Moura.

These two were like, “just call the engineer”.

13. The balloon (2006). Rem Koolhaas.

This was one of the few pavilions that didn’t require a huge effort to be built, but it did have an effective impact on the landscape. Take a note, MVRDV.

12. The terrace (2003). Oscar Niemeyer.

Somehow, Oscar Niemeyer made a pavilion about himself… but it was great. A little bit less of its “wine tasting room” vibe would have been great.

11. The donut (2014). Smiljan Radic.

Playful, useful and family friendly.

10. The structure (2002). Toyo Ito.

Toyo Ito said “I’m gonna give you structure, I’m gonna give you views and something for the architecture students to copy over and over again”.

9. The garden (2011). Peter Zumthor.

Zumthor decided that the gallery garders were too sterile, so he gave then an actual garden to contemplate.

8. The mirror (2009). SAANA.

Sejima and Nishizawa know western architects are too invasive, so they tried to deliver the less possible: a roof that hiddens with the reflection of the garden.

7. The Maya ball field (2008). Frank Gehry.

He really paid respect to the gallery behind by making it the pavilion’s focal point. Not to mention the grandstand was used for a great variety of activities.

6. The origami (2001). Daniel Libeskind.

This structure just has so many posibilites. You bring your kids, they play around; you have a conference, you have a shelter, you want a sculputure for your gallery, you got it.

5. The 3D sketch (2013). Sou Fujimoto.

Fujimoto sketched a bunch thin lines for his pavilion, then he explained it to his team and said “I don’t want any strange structural elements to appear and fuck my idea”. And they made it happen.

4. The tent (2000). Zaha Hadid.

This was the first Serpertine Pavilion ever. Actually, the gallery only wanted a tent to celebrate their 30th anniversary but they wanted Hadid to design it. She had a very limited budget but that didn’t interfere to make a statement of her work.

3. The tree (2017). Francis Kéré.

Unlike other architects, Mr. Kéré had a very personal aproach for the pavilion; unlike Ingels, Kéré did have a concept. You see, since he was a child, he and his neighbors use to gather around a big tree and, underneath its shade, do a lot of different activities; social and school activities, even medical. That’s what he wanted the visitors to experience.

2. The excavation (2012). Herzog, de Meuron & Ai Weiwei.

The only pavilion underground, covered by a water mirror, a fountiain; as if they were trying to do a newer version of a classical garden. Just brilliant.

1. The celosía (2018). Frida Escobedo.

Unlike many of her predecessors, Frida Escobedo doesn’t have a particular “style” and her work isn’t very much known outside México. Her pavilion isn’t about her but it shows how great designer she is. It really has every requirement the Serpentine Gallery expects from the commisioners; it’s a bridge to the gallery, it’s a place to be in, it’s an object to be contemplated and to contemplate its sorroundings, it’s an imaginitive montage of simple materials; it is a great piece of architecture.

#architecture #this was fun

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holisticalecsecareanu · 4 years ago

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An interview for Adevarul.ro with Alec from 2017 just ast God’s Own Country came out.

I found this notable because after the initial questions about the film which have been asked before, the interview does delve into other areas that I haven’t read covered, like how Alec’s parent’s responded to him wanting to be an actor, and how Alec felt about what I assume is a family values group in Romania and their stance on LGBTQ people. He very plainly states his support for the community and how happy he is the film was well recieved and if it were possible for him to be more perfect, I don’t know how that could be.

I just really find a different energy to the interviews Alec does in Romanian. Not only are they easily twice as long, but he just seems to answer with a lot more detail and ease.

The Google translated version is below. Again, I have no way of checking for accuracy, so keep that in mind. :-)

Actor Alec Secăreanu (32 years old) spoke in an interview for "Adevărul" about how he was chosen to star in the multi-award-winning British film "Blessed Land / God's Own Country", how he prepared for this role, which is the message film, but also about what the acting profession involves. News on the same topic Alec Secăreanu plays the role of a Romanian gay day laborer in ... The British film "Blessed Land / God's Own Country", starring Alec Secăreanu, entered Romanian cinemas on November 17. The feature film presents the love story between the British farmer Johnny Saxby (played by Josh O'Connor) and the Romanian worker Gheorghe Ionescu (played by Alec Secăreanu). "God's Own Country", directed by Francis Lee, is one of the most discussed and awarded films of 2017, being compared in the international press with the famous "Brokeback Mountain" - winner of three Oscars, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhhall.

The film was released at the Sundance Film Festival (Utah / USA) at the beginning of the year, and then participated in an impressive number of festivals, winning numerous awards: Männer Jury Award at the Berlinale, Award for Best International Film Direction - drama at Sundance Film Festival, Best British Film at Edinburgh International Festival, Special Jury Prize at TIFF Cluj, Best Film at Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, Best Toronto Debut Award Inside Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival.

The casting for "God's Own Country" lasted six months in Romania, and the director Francis Lee saw over 40 Romanian actors for this role choosing Alec Secăreanu.

Alec Secăreanu graduated from UNATC in 2007. In Romania he starred in a series of short films ("Candy Crush", "Silks", "My Name Is ...", etc.), TV series ("Daria, my love", "One step ahead", "Bet with life") and feature films: "Love Bus: Five love stories from Bucharest", "Adalbert's dream".

"The Truth": How did you come to play in this British film?

Alec Secăreanu: I took the test, I sent a self-tape. Me and about 40 other actors. Francis Lee was looking for a Romanian for this character. He came to Bucharest, he wanted to meet some of these actors, and I was one of them. Then he sent me the script, I read it for the first time, I really liked it and I really wanted to be part of this project and this story. I met him, we worked together for almost an hour, after which I flew to London, me and three other Romanian actors, to do a chemistry test with Josh O’Connor, the other main actor. The test went very well and I took the test.

What did the director tell you? Why did he choose you?

He told me that I resonated the most with the character, that I was what he needed for the character Gheorghe. He liked that I understood some substrates of Gheorghe.

Tell us about Gheorghe Ionescu.

Gheorghe is a Romanian born and raised somewhere in the country, in the Timisoara area. He arrives in England to work, like many other Romanians. After a while, we find in the film Gheorghe who is hired on Johnny's farm for the beginning of spring, the season in which the lambs are born. He is a guy with his head on his shoulders, seated, for whom the quality of life of the animals he takes care of matters a lot, a sensitive guy who invests in people, but also very cerebral.

How did you prepare for this role?

We started working on the characters almost three months before filming. After taking the test, I did a skype with Francis who started asking me all kinds of questions about the character, about his biography, his parents, other relationships, school, how he got to England. I built his whole biography, from the moment he was born until the first time you see him appear on screen, I settled this whole life with Francis. After that, I arrived in Yorkshire and there were two weeks of character training, in which I worked every day on the farm, from morning, from first hour, to evening. In the two weeks we worked, we basically understood what life on the farm means, it gave us the quality of the characters, because we had to work a lot outside, and in Yorkshire spring is not like in Romania. There the weather is bipolar, as I told him, meaning you have four seasons in one day: it starts with snow, then hail, then storm, then the sun rises for five minutes and then it starts again. Working a lot outside, of course, that environment affected us too, because all the moisture and all the cold somehow got into our bones and changed our way of walking, our posture. All these things helped us to build the characters. I worked on two different farms. Me at Francis's father's farm, Josh at the farm where the movie was shot. Francis tried to keep us as far away from each other as possible, because he wanted the first meeting on the screen to be as authentic as possible, to be full of tension, clumsiness. It wasn't until a while since we started filming that Josh and I moved into the same house, and our friendship began to develop at the same time as the relationship on screen. We filmed chronologically and that helped us a lot.

How did you prepare for the role of a homosexual?

I don't think sexual orientation is the defining characteristic of my character. I tried to approach the three-dimensional character and see exactly what is behind the character. His sexual orientation exists, and he accepts it, he is comfortable with it.

So does the character know about his sexual orientation or does he discover it?

No, it's not a movie about coming out. It is a film in which both characters are comfortable with their sexual orientation and it is a film in which, in fact, these characters are emotionally closed and the film captures their struggle to open up emotionally and let themselves be loved and loved back.

How was your first contact with Josh?

We met at the casting, it was very nice. We worked very well since the test, we stayed I think an hour and a half together. At one point it was nice to take a break and go out with him to smoke, and Francis told us that he came out after us and hid to see if we were still talking or if we were sitting on the phone. Josh is a very cool guy, with whom I developed a beautiful friendship. It has nothing to do with the character on the screen, he is a super nice and open guy and we worked very well together.

Why do you think they chose a Romanian actor for this character? Did they want to emphasize that there are a lot of Romanian immigrants?

The character is somewhat inspired by an acquaintance that Francis had. He's known since he wrote the screenplay that he wants an outsider for this character. Before starting film, he worked in a junkyard and there he found a Romanian named Tavi. He was very impressed by his story, namely how much he had to endure all kinds of xenophobic attitudes on the part of employees, bosses, just to carry out his goal - to support his family, to be able to he also brings her to Britain. In time, he managed to bring his wife, buy an apartment and make a good living.

Given that homosexuality is still a taboo subject in Romania, have you thought about the reactions you will receive from here?

No, I was never interested in that. He's not the first gay character I play either. I have a pro-tolerant attitude and I don't care what people think about it. I know I grew up in a homophobic society, but I was lucky to have open-minded parents who taught me that there is absolutely no problem with a person's sexual orientation. They just saw the movie a few days ago and they loved it.

What did you learn from this role?

That you have to be authentic and true, with yourself as a person, first of all, and especially as an actor, if you practice this profession. I've been lucky enough to work with people who are very passionate about what they do and I've learned a lot from them about what it means to make a film, not to betray the process, to focus on the story you want to tell and be as authentic and organic as possible in this direction. It helped me a lot as an actor, but of course also as a person, because I won very good friends from this movie, which you don't meet very often.

Have you noticed a difference between the way the teams from outside work compared to the way the ones from Romania work?

Yes, there is a difference, but there is an imposed difference. Those people have regulated a lot of things, they are organized in unions that protect their rights. And of course you feel these things on the set because absolutely all the conditions are created for you to be able to deliver what is required of you. I felt this from the first day I got there. I'm talking about the days I spent on the farm, the things I needed on set. "God's Own Country" is compared in the international press to "Brokeback Mountain".

Did you expect such a positive reaction?

We are honored by this comparison, you know. "Brokeback Mountain" is a great movie, only there are two totally different movies, with different issues. If in "Brokeback Mountain" you have two characters who are not comfortable with their sexuality, they discover it, they are both married to women and they have problems about how they think the world will look at their relationship, here is never the question about it. . Both characters are comfortable with who they are, it's a story about letting yourself be loved and loved back, about vulnerability in the end.

What was the hardest thing about this role?

Working on the farm, altogether. I realized how hard it is to be a farmer. People who have a farm have absolutely no free time, no weekends, no days off, no vacations. And they are not only farmers, they are also masons, mechanics and all this physical work that I did there seemed to me the hardest part of all the training and the whole movie.

Did the fact that "God's Own Country" was appreciated by critics bring you bigger projects? Did you feel a change?

I have felt a change in the way my phone rings more often and I receive more emails. Yes, a lot has happened since this movie came out. It is a very important point in my career, this film helped me a lot in terms of visibility and to develop as an actor.

Why should Romanians go to see the film?

I think you should go see it because it's a film about hope, it's a very beautiful love story between two people who apparently come from two different worlds, but actually have so much in common. I hope it gives them hope in true love, that's what the movie is about.

Have you received any feedback so far, from here or from abroad, from the LGBT community?

Yes, I've been to a lot of LGBT festivals. I’ve been to Inside Out, Toronto, Outfest in L.A., NewFest in New York and so on. The community received the film very well and I think it is a very good year for queer films, as has never happened before. From the feedback I received, I think the community needed a movie like "God's own country" because it's a movie about hope, and most of the time, queer movies end in tragedy. We needed a happy ending movie.

What do you think about the Family Coalition?

I think they should deal with really important things for the family, such as dropping out of school, single-parent families, children who are abandoned by their parents to go and work abroad, by no means with this referendum which is totally useless and expensive. and which, in fact, instigates hatred and intolerance.

In the summer of this year, you also appeared in an American film, "The Saint", in which Roger Moore also plays. Is your goal to become a famous actor in Hollywood?

My goal, as an actor, is to create characters that are as authentic as possible and to tell stories. That's what I prepared for, that's what I do and that's what I know how to do. I try to take them moment by moment, because I might skip some steps if I start thinking about where I want to go. I want to work more in film, I also want to do theater, but I take them moment by moment and see where it takes me. A lot has happened to me this year. I now have an agent in London, I have one in L.A., I get screenplays, I read, I'm offered things. I want to take it slow and build my career

How do you see what's happening in Hollywood right now, in the context of a series of allegations of sexual harassment? Have you ever faced something like this?

I have heard of situations of sexual harassment in our country from some directors from my fellow actresses and I have witnessed moments of verbal and physical harassment at many rehearsals. I don't know if it's a practice, a habit, but these things happen and I don't think it's OK to be like that. I think things can happen in a civilized context. People have lately become more vocal as the world begins to aspire to a kind of normalcy. I encourage people to say when something goes wrong in an institution, in a team, because it is not OK and an attitude must be taken.

Have you ever considered a role you would like to play?

Yes, I really want to play Platonov in Chekhov's "Untitled Play." I had the opportunity in college to work a little on this character and he stayed there somewhere.

What is the most precious thing you learned in college?

Be true and honest with yourself and do not betray, because if you lie you will see immediately. As an actor, you do not learn to lie, but to tell the truth. And the more honest you are with yourself, the more you manage to overcome that barrier and people start to really believe you.

What pushed you to the theater?

I think I made up my mind in high school. I did a high school with a Mathematics-Computer Science profile like my parents and my older brother. And at one point, in the 10th grade, I discovered that there was a theater circle and I started going to it, after a while I realized that I could get out of class to go to the theater. and I kind of fell in love with this thing. I've been a performer since I was little. And in 12th grade, I said, "OK, that's exactly what I want to do." There followed a rather strange period with my parents, who did not agree to be an actor, we quarreled for a long time to a point where they saw that I was really determined and from that moment on they supported me. to the end and still support me and are very proud of what I do. I somehow understood that I was still a teenager and many teenagers are in a hurry and I understand why they had to be somehow sure that this is what I want and that I'm not kidding, it's not just a phase I'm going through. There is inconsistency in this job, there is always a risk of not having projects. You have periods when you are very crowded and periods when you do absolutely nothing. But in that period when you don't do anything and you wait for your phone to ring, you still have to try to be prepared, to be warm, to read, to repeat, to develop, to keep worrying.

Have you ever had a stalemate in the profession?

I could call them dead ends when I had to find another job to pay my bills and I started bringing used cars from Germany or working as a bartender or waiter and you realize that you are bitter, that you know you want to work, you know you're an actor and that's what you want to do. And at one point, every time I realized that my job was taking up too much of my time and I no longer focused on my job, I quit my job and went back to acting and tried to care more. I also worked in casting for almost five years and I learned a lot from this experience, as a process and what happens behind the cameras. As an actor you enter the casting room and you have emotions, sometimes you miss rehearsals because of emotions, because you have 5 minutes to give everything. But being on the other side of the room, I learned a lot from my fellow actors taking the rehearsals and I was thinking about what they did to get the rehearsal and I started to develop a behavior about how to present myself at the casting, and that helped me.

Is there a role that you really wanted and didn't take the casting?

The first thing an actor has to get used to is rejecting and trying not to take it personally, because you often go to rehearsals and maybe you are not suitable for that role or maybe the director has something else in mind. I learned to treat all the tests with professionalism, to go and give everything I can at that moment and then if it turns out - well, if not - well again. OK, I have a stake in every casting I go to, but I try not to be disappointed if I don't take the test, because otherwise I would fall into depression.

What's the hardest thing for an actor?

Let's "keep your sh * t together". (Laughs) It's delicate, because many times, especially when you work quite hard, you take your psyche and hit it with all the walls and you become very vulnerable. It is important to have a period of decompression after a project, in which to put all those things aside, to be able to breathe, to be able to be a man with normal preoccupations. I think that's the hardest part, holding your head on your shoulders. Many times things can happen that distract you from your path.

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