#Desmond tester

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

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Sabotage (The Woman Alone) (1936) Alfred Hitchcock

August 4th 2024

[randomrichards]

THE DRUM:

Maharaja killed

His son wanted British soldiers

Pro colonial

[byneddiedingo]

Sylvia Sidney, Desmond Tester, and Oscar Homolka in Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)

Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, Desmond Tester, John Loder, Joyce Barbour, Matthew Boulton, S.J. Warmington, William Dewhurst. Screenplay: Charles Bennett, Ian Hay, Helen Simpson, based on a novel by Joseph Conrad. Cinematography: Bernard Knowles. Art direction: Oscar Friedrich Werndorff. Film editing: Charles Frend. Music: Hubert Bath, Jack Beaver, Louis Levy. In one of the coldest-hearted scenes ever put on film, a young boy plays with a puppy held by a woman seated next to him on a London bus, and then they are blown to bits by the bomb he has unwittingly been carrying. The scene would be less shocking if we hadn't spent a good part of the movie getting to know Stevie (Desmond Tester), the younger brother of Mrs. Verloc (Sylvia Sidney), whose husband (Oscar Homolka) belongs to a terrorist group. We have seen Stevie carrying his lethal package, which Verloc has commissioned him to leave at a specific location by a certain time, and we have grown fond of him when he is detained by a street hawker selling toothpaste and hair tonic and pauses to watch a parade. As the fatal time grows closer, we feel sure that something will happen to defuse the bomb, as usually happens in movies, so its detonation comes as a reversal of movie convention, one so radical that even Hitchcock will not attempt anything quite like it until he kills off the star of Psycho in mid-film 24 years later. Even then, he will not do anything so sadistic as add a puppy to the scene. Sabotage is not one of Hitchcock's more famous movies -- it's often confused with his Saboteur (1942). But it is, I think, one of his most characteristic because of his willingness to violate convention. The film is based on Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent -- a title he couldn't use because it was the title of his other 1936 release, an adaptation of a Somerset Maugham story that starred John Gielgud and Madeleine Carroll. But Sabotage is closer to Kafka than to Conrad, a film that verges on the surreal and dreamlike at times. The Verlocs own a movie theater and their home is separated from it by a passageway behind the screen, so that sometimes the sounds from the movies that are playing enter their daily lives. Stunned by Stevie's death, Mrs. Verloc goes out into the theater, where a Disney short, "Who Killed Cock Robin?", is playing, and suddenly begins laughing at the absurd cartoon action. Much else in the film is similarly askew: The bomb-maker, for example, keeps his explosives in ketchup bottles and condiments jars, and when he goes to get the bomb for Verloc, he finds his granddaughter's doll in the cabinet. (If, indeed, she's his granddaughter -- there's much coy mystery about that.) There's an oddball romance between Mrs. Verloc and Ted (John Loder), the Scotland Yard detective who works undercover at the greengrocers' next to the Verlocs' theater, keeping an eye on Verloc. And the ending is a mare's nest of ambiguities that don't lend themselves to summary. What keeps the movie from descending into incoherence is Hitchcock's sure sense of style and the occasionally expressionistic cinematography of Bernard Knowles. Later, Hitchcock would express regret over the way he handled Stevie's death, but it remains consistent with the haunting effect of the film as a whole.

[teecupangel]

Do you know about the game Slime Rancher? It's has a ton of really cute slimes and it's a very chill game. Just imagine if Desmond, being such a badass assassin, wakes up as a pile of cute sentient slime. XD Maybe alongside his ancestors and then Desmond sees Clay, who is the slime rancher, just scooping them all up to put them in a pen to collect and sell their poop. ^^

Well, at least they get fed everyday and don't have to worry about Tar slimes, so this is okay. Altaïr, stop trying to jump out the pen, please. Ezio! Stop hogging all the food! Ratonhnhaké:ton, stop laughing and help me!

I got a Slime Rancher Desmond ask before and I wasn’t that familiar with Slime Rancher before so it was more or less a setup where Desmond is an actual slime that can morph his appearance to his liking and it was set in the Third Crusades so, for this one, we’re going for full on Slime Rancher AU where Clay himself has been transmigrated to…

The last game he played!

Clay had been testing out an incomplete version of Slime Rancher as an alpha tester before he got the mission to infiltrate Abstergo so he didn’t know all of the ‘new’ and improved mechanics from the barebone game he had tested back then.

He does know that to live in this world, he would have to make use of slime poops (that they call plorts apparently).

So Clay sets up a pretty much adequate ranch and even manages to get enough slimes to give him plorts that would cover for his living expenses, the expenses of taking care of the slimes and have enough to save up for stuff he might need or might want.

Along the way, he finds out that there is no way out of this world.

Whether this was meant to be some kind of digital afterlife his digital self had gotten himself into or if this was some sort of strange reward for his ‘contributions’ to the Calculations, Clay has no idea.

He doesn’t mind though.

It was kinda relaxing and his slimes were doing all pretty docile as long as they get fed.

Clay makes sure they get fed and even gave them small houses… mostly because he had been bored.

His slime ranch was also growing and he has enough funds to expand the ranch itself, maybe include a separate enclosure for the next slimes he’d tame or maybe even get a new pond so he can get more puddle slime.

He should probably do something about those four troublemakers though.

Of course it had to be the three slimes named after Seventeen’s ancestors that would cause a bit of mischief in this peaceful ranch.

Altaïr the Quantum Slime was using one of his clones to jump out of the pen again and get to the Phase Lemons that Clay had planted for the damn thing.

Ezio the Crystal Slime was by the edge of the pen as well and Clay was sure that damn slime was going to make a break for Clay’s stash of Odd Onions the moment all hell breaks loose and Altaïr had managed to infiltrate the Phase Lemons.

And surrounding both of them are Connor the Hunter Slime (look, Clay tried but he can’t remember Connor’s real name, alright?) and Desmond the Gold Slime, looking like they were egging Altaïr on or trying to stop him.

Clay was betting on the first.

There was a reason why they were the only Slime of their kind.

Their food were hard to get and they were the troublemakers of the ranch.

But still…

Clay couldn’t hate them.

Why should he?

They were just slimes after all.

Altaïr the Quantum Slime:

Ezio the Crystal Slime:

Ratonhnhaké:ton (called Connor by Clay) the Hunter Slime:

and…

Desmond the Gold Slime:

[johndpg]

SPANKING ON TV #5

The Drum (1938) d. Zoltan Korda

We’re off to the British Raj this time. 14-year-old drummer boy Bill Holder gets into trouble when he’s caught smoking in the barracks. He’s been warned before, so the Sergeant Major bends him over the end of his bed, turns his kilt back and whacks his bare backside with one of his own drumsticks. Pretty hefty whacks too by the sounds of it!

Publicity stills:

The basic plot of the film is jingoism of the highest order, with the Brits trying to track down smuggled shipments of arms on the Northwest Frontier of India to head-off a full-scale rebellion. When the peace-loving ruler of Tokot, a key kingdom in the region, is assassinated, his son Prince Azim goes into hiding. Somewhere along the way he meets and befriends Bill who teaches him how to play the drums. Later Azim is therefore able to bang out a danger signal that saves the British forces from an ambush.

The film went down well with British audiences of the time, no doubt fondly remembering the days of Empire with a tear in their eye, but caused near riots when shown in Bombay and Madras (as they were then called).

It is unknown exactly when the practice of wearing no undergarments under the kilt began. The earliest reference to the tradition was during Waterloo in 1815, but underpants were certainly forbidden by the time of the Raj in India. Indeed, during the First World War, Scottish regiments were inspected by a senior officer who used a mirror to look under kilts; any soldier found wearing underpants was sent back to take them off! We can be confident, then, that the intention is that poor Bill gets his bare arse spanked by the Sergeant Major.

Prince Azim was played by Sabu, a teenage Indian actor who found success in Hollywood during the 1930s and 40s. He was 14 at the time.

Desmond Tester played Bill. He was 18 but had a reputation for playing younger. Previously he was cast by Alfred Hitchcock in Sabotage (1936) as a short-trousered schoolboy called Stevie even though he was 16. He doesn’t get spanked in that film but he is blown up on a bus after being tricked into carrying a bomb by an enemy agent planning a series of attacks on London. Although somewhat slow by today’s frenetic standards, the film was considered shocking at the time. If only they’d known what was coming.

Here's the link to The Drum. Fast forward 9 mins to see the Sergeant Major going Phil Collins on Bill's backside.

And here's another link to Sabotage. It doesn't end well for Stevie at the 54 min mark.

And finally here's a bonus Black Watch soldier giving everybody an eyeful in Hong Kong in 1997.

[ao3feed-twiyor]

WISE (I need to think of a better one)

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/iU97MJX by CaffeinatedGengar This is the first chapter a tester of sorts. Might make it into a series. Follows the Forger Family Words: 1499, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: SPY x FAMILY (Manga), SPY x FAMILY (Anime) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M, Multi, Other Characters: Yor Briar Forger | Thorn Princess, Loid Forger | Twilight, Anya Forger, Yuri Briar, Bond (SPY x FAMILY), Fiona Frost | Nightfall, Franky Franklin, Sylvia Sherwood | Handler, Damian Desmond, Becky Blackbell Relationships: Loid Forger | Twilight/Yor Briar Forger | Thorn Princess, Anya Forger & Loid Forger | Twilight & Yor Briar Forger | Thorn Princess, Bond & Anya Forger & Loid Forger | Twilight & Yor Briar Forger | Thorn Princess read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/iU97MJX

[ulkaralakbarova]

Karl Anton Verloc and his wife own a small cinema in a quiet London suburb where they live seemingly happily. But Mrs. Verloc does not know that her husband has a secret that will affect their relationship and threaten her teenage brother’s life. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Mrs. Verloc: Sylvia Sidney Karl Verloc – Her Husband: Oskar Homolka Stevie – Her Young Brother: Desmond Tester Ted: John Loder Renee: Joyce Barbour Superintendent Talbot: Matthew Boulton Hollingshead: S. J. Warmington The Professor: William Dewhurst Mrs. Jones (uncredited): Clare Greet Greengrocer (uncredited): Aubrey Mather Monocle Man (uncredited): Austin Trevor Studious Youngster (uncredited): Charles Hawtrey The Professor’s Daughter (uncredited): Martita Hunt Mr. Verloc’s Visitor (uncredited): Torin Thatcher Mr. Verloc’s Visitor (uncredited): Peter Bull Man Walking Past the Cinema as the Light Is Renewed: Alfred Hitchcock Film Crew: Screenplay: Charles Bennett Director of Photography: Bernard Knowles Editor: Charles Frend Novel: Joseph Conrad Director: Alfred Hitchcock Additional Dialogue: E. V. H. Emmett Art Direction: Oscar Friedrich Werndorff Wardrobe Designer: Marianne Thanks: Walt Disney Continuity: Alma Reville Music: Louis Levy Sound Recordist: Angelina Cameron Costume Designer: Joe Strassner Dialogue: Helen Simpson Dialogue: Ian Hay Associate Producer: Ivor Montagu Scenic Artist: Albert Whitlock Camera Operator: Stephen Dade Art Direction: Albert Jullion Producer: Michael Balcon Music: Jack Beaver Music: Hubert Bath Assistant Director: Pen Tennyson Movie Reviews: CinemaSerf: Perhaps not one of Hitchcock’s most prominent films, but it’s a tense crime thriller telling the tale of a family of recent émigrés to Britain who are struggling to run their small London cinema. Oskar Homolka (“Mr. Verloc”) falls foul of some criminals who offer to pay him for carrying out an act of sabotage. This doesn’t quite cause the mayhem they desire so he is unwittingly, this time, involved a much more deadly action. Unbeknown to him, Scotland Yard are on to them and have planted a detective (John Loder) in the greengrocers who befriends the family. The plot unfolds slowly and tensely. Loder and (“Mrs. Verloc”) a slightly dewy-eyed Sylvia Sidney fall for each other as we go along. That storyline slightly districts from the suspense and the ending comes along a bit too rapidly for me. Great to watch, though…

[wahwealth]

The Stars Look Down (1940) | Michael Redgrave | Margaret Lockwood |

he Stars Look Down movie is a British film released in 1940.  This classic film is based on A. J. Cronin's novel was written in 1935 with the same title.  The film is about injustices in a mining town in North East England. Coal miners,  who are led by Robert "Bob" Fenwick, vote to go on strike.  The miners are refusing to work in a particular section of the mine.  The reason is due to the great danger of flooding. Tensions rise as the strikers go hungry. Cast Michael Redgrave as David "Davey" Fenwick Margaret Lockwood as Jenny Sunley Emlyn Williams as Joe Gowlan Nancy Price as Martha Fenwick Allan Jeayes as Richard Barras Edward Rigby as Robert "Bob" Fenwick Linden Travers as Mrs. Laura Millington Cecil Parker as Stanley Millington Milton Rosmer as Harry Nugent, MP George Carney as Slogger Gowlan Ivor Barnard as Wept Olga Lindo as Mrs. Sunley Desmond Tester as Hughie Fenwick David Markham as Arthur Barras Aubrey Mallalieu as Hudspeth Kynaston Reeves as Strother Clive Baxter as Pat Reedy James Harcourt as Will Frederick Burtwell as Union Official Dorothy Hamilton as Mrs. Reedy Frank Atkinson as Miner David Horne as Mr. Wilkins Edmund Willard as Mr. Ramage Ben Williams as Harry Brace Scott Harrold as Schoolmaster Strother (as Scott Harold) You are invited to join the channel so that Mr. P can notify you when new videos are uploaded, https://www.youtube.com/@nrpsmovieclassics

[gatutor]

Sylvia Sidney-Desmond Tester "Sabotaje" (Sabotaje) 1936, de Alfred Hitchcock.

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Sabotage (The Woman Alone) (1936) Alfred Hitchcock

November 25th 2020

[movie-titlecards]

Sabotage (1936)

My rating: 5/10

Yeah, this one didn't do much for me... I guess some of it was kind of suspenseful, but mostly it was just too dour and self serious, and I just didn't care very much about any of the characters.

[howardhawkshollywoodannex]

Desmond Tester as Stevie Verloc in a scene from Sabotage (1936). Des was born in London and had 23 acting credits, from an uncredited bit in 1934 to a 1991 short. His other notable credit is The Stars Look Down.

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2019) - #98: Sabotage (1936) - dir. Alfred Hitchcock

I’ve been slow to write reviews this summer, and now that so many drafts are piling up, I’ve got to just buckle down and get the work done. Luckily for me, Sabotage is one of the best recent entries in my log, displaying some of young auteur Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite themes in one of his most intriguing British films.

Bronx-born star Sylvia Sidney, operating as a freelancer after the expiration of her Paramount Pictures contract, is an improbable yet welcome headliner for this London-based tale, playing the American wife of a man named Karl Anton Verloc (Austrian actor Oskar Homolka in one of his greatest performances). Karl married his spouse seemingly out of benevolence and generosity rather than for love, giving her and her much younger brother Stevie (Desmond Tester) a better life than they had in their home country. (You may note that “Mrs. Verloc” is never identified by her first name, a precursor to Joan Fontaine as “the second Mrs. de Winter” in Hitchcock’s Rebecca four years later.) The Verlocs run a movie theater owned by Karl and fittingly he keeps them in the dark as to his secret side career: committing sabotage that endangers Londoners.

Karl’s complicity starts out as a means to pay the bills - he’s paid top dollar to carry out acts of terrorism - but it turns into something far more perilous and personal when he graduates from helping cause a citywide blackout to orchestrating the planting of a bomb in a public space. Undercover Scotland Yard agent Ted Spencer (John Loder) is sent to gather information on the Verlocs by posing as a clerk at the grocery store next door to their cinema, but matters become complicated as Ted develops a close relationship with Mrs. Verloc and Stevie. The layers of suspense in the plot intensify as Karl’s violent pursuits threaten to destroy his family and he begins to crumble under the weight of maintaining his deception.

Alfred Hitchcock uses the black-and-white cinematography by Bernard Knowles and the editing by Charles Frend to build wave after wave of tension, never more so than during an infamous scene set on a bus and in a climactic confrontation between Oskar Homolka and Sylvia Sidney that incorporates strikingly modern examples of close-ups. Although the ending is a bit rushed and confusing, overall the film is a smashing success. I owe a big thank you to the Criterion Channel app for making Sabotage available, granting me the chance to see a Hitchcock film that stands with The Lodger, Murder!, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes as the most impactful of his pre-Hollywood productions.

[tampon-on-the-sidewalk]

Songs You Should Know From The Rasmus

An iconic band is representing Finland in Eurovision this year! However, most people who have known about The Rasmus prior to Jezebel usually think of their biggest hit, In The Shadows. I want to shed light on the songs that have gone unheard, and show how amazing these guys are. I will attempt to narrow it down to two per album. Under the cut because long! This will be in chronological order and hopefully show their evolution as a band.

Song- Album- Year

1. Fool- Peep- 1996  I chose this one because it’s the closest in lyrics to their current sound! Their first album I like to call the genre Skunk-ska punk. It’s also one of the few songs in the debut that you can understand his English! The singing is so fast in the others that you really can’t tell what Lauri is saying. An important note- Aki is not the drummer in this album, but rather Janne Heiskanen. Founding Guitarist Pauli Rantalsami can be heard here. 2. Small- Peep- 1996 This one moreso sets the tone for the entire Album, and their sound for the next few albums. Definitely more of a funky sound.  3. Sophia- Playboys- 1997 When I think oldschool rasmus, this is the first song that comes to mind! The brass, the composition of the song, the fast-paced lyrics and over-all fun feel of the song despite the lyrics. This album has a lot of guest performers, from the instruments to backing vocals, which I think is pretty astounding.  4. Blue- Playboys- 1997  I wanted to put this one in as well, because there’s something about the way the older songs are composed that really tell a story. If you have the time, I recommend this whole album in that regard.  5.  Help me Sing-Hell of a Tester- 1998 This album is the last time we hear the brass in a Rasmus song. Lauri’s vocals are starting to come in a bit stronger, and his pronunciation is improving. I really like this one musically. 6. City of the Dead- Hell of a Tester- 1998 As you could expect from an album titled ‘Hell of a tester’, there are a lot of experimental tracks on this. This is where their sound starts to sound like Dead Letters/Hide From the Sun. 

7.  One & Only-Into- 2001. This album was VERY difficult to pick just two songs from, because they’re all so great and diverse. This is when the band really starts to take form. I feel like Lauri’s vocals are the strongest in this album(at least, until 2008) and this is the debut album of current drummer Aki Hakala. Most of the songs in this have a cinematic feel. 8. Bullet- Into- 2001 Despite not being a single, I feel like this song is also a very recognizable Rasmus song. You can start to hear a bit of Dead Letters take shape.  9. Time to Burn- Dead Letters- 2003 I’m partial to this one because it was actually the first Rasmus song I’ve ever heard! The somewhat depressing lyrics, the energy of the whole piece, the chorus is just. Perfection.  10.  In My Life- Dead Letters- 2003  Content warning for sun glare in the video The song was definitely an anthem to me as a little gay boy growing up. A very uplifting, empowering song. The ending of the song is one of my favourites. 11. Dancer In the Dark(bonus track)- Hide From the Sun- 2005 The Rasmus has always been great at the opening instrumentals of their songs, and this is no exception. The chorus really tugs at my heart. This album in general has probably the darkest lyrics of their entire discography. You can really feel the pain in some of these. 12. Dead Promises- Hide From the Sun- 2005 An intense song that just keeps building as it goes. Also has the lyric that inspired the album title!   13. Lost and Lonely- Black Roses- 2008 I was torn between which one to showcase the musicality of this album(this or Ghost of Love). The composition of both songs is somewhat similar, but it’s so beautiful. I chose this one as the ending instrumental is so pretty. It should be known that Desmond Child(who helped write Jezebel) also worked on this album alongside the band. 14. Dangerous Kind- Black Roses- 2008 Probably the most upbeat(next to Your Forgiveness) song of the album. The thing about this album, is all the songs almost feel like one song strung along.  15. Sky- The Rasmus- 2012 For a self-titled album, this couldn’t be more different than what they were known for which is why it’s so amazing. The vulnerability in all of the songs really speaks to me but this one in particular? For starters, the lyrics are about a man on death row coming to terms with everything before he’s executed. The fact that Lauri could write a song like this is just astounding. Easily my favourite The Rasmus song of all time. 16.   Empire- Dark Matters- 2017. I’m going to be brutally honest, this album as a whole was a huge letdown to me. None of the songs were particularly memorable, the instrumental hooks in the beginning that they’re so well known for are nowhere to be found(at least not to the caliber they’re known for), and I feel like Lauri’s vocals aren’t strong at all. However, this song definitely packs a punch and is very personal for both he and Eero(EDIT, it was Pauli), who were going through marital issues at the time. This album is the last one to feature guitarist Pauli Rantasalmi.  17. Bones Honorable mention. This song reminds me specifically of a different band, but I can’t think of who it is. Maybe Reflexion? It’s very powerful yet subtle where it counts. This is not in an album yet! Thanks for reading, and happy listening!

[critical-ramblings]

Realer than You

(Also on AO3!)

Yasha thought she was going crazy.

Crazier, anyway.

She could remember things again, after she’d run into that biker in Stockholm. Time made sense, mostly. But space was starting to fragment, the further west she came.

When she was tired, she would smell salt water and grease, reach out a hand for a railing that wasn’t there. Look out and see only the ocean where there should have been fields.

When she was hungry, she would be on foot in a German street. The noise and press of people buffeted but did not touch her. Someone else, with dirty ginger hair and a thick beard, peered back at her, then was gone.

When she was lonely, there was a train. Or many trains in succession. She would be sitting in a luxurious seat, watching houses and trees blur past.

There were times when the emotions weren’t hers, either. Anger would flare deep in her chest, a hot rage that Yasha never let herself feel, and with it came a humid summer night. Cursing in Mandarin--a big eighteen wheeler pulling away from her and a lean young woman with her middle finger in the air. She looked at Yasha with her teeth still bared, but the connection broke under the weight of Yasha’s fear. She sat under a cloudy sky in Latvia with her hand pressed to her chest. She stayed that way for a long time.

And then there was the circus. It was after she’d stopped for the night, pulled off the road and hidden her bike. Yasha didn’t have the paper she’d need to cross these borders legitimately, and even if she’d wanted them she didn’t have the money.

Still, her long wander through the Siberian wilderness had left her with the skills to make her way back through civilization unnoticed. With the increasing frequency of her visions, Yasha was just as glad to go days without seeing another human being.

She was sitting on the side of the road to watch the moon come up, and all of a sudden there were lights. Neon reds and blues and purples danced through the forest for a moment, before resolving into carnival booths and tents and a ferris wheel that sparked and glowed in the fading sunlight.

“Hey now,” someone said next to her. “Can’t have you sitting in the middle of the road, can we?” A thin brown hand reached out to her, covered by the tattoo of a green snake with a brilliant red eye looking up at her. The first thing she noticed was his coat, a knee-length masterpiece full of stars and moons and stranger things, the embroidery glinting in the light of the circus.

And then she saw his swords, jeweled scimitars hanging from his belt as casually as someone else might carry a purse or a backpack. Yasha took his hand without thinking, let him help her up, and never took her eyes off those swords. Oh, her gang had never had anything so pretty, but they had loved grinding down old pipes and rebar and scrap into things like swords. Things meant to cut and kill.

“Buy me dinner first, at least,” he said, and Yasha snapped her eyes back to his face. There was something about the wrinkles at the edges of his eyes that made his smile softer, unthreatening. He held himself like a conman, a huckster, but his smile gave him away. “What’s your name?” he asked, only to pull her out of the way as a horse-drawn buggy clattered down the path.

“Watch it, Molly!” Two girls shouted at him in unison. Molly flipped them both the bird and then turned his attention back to her. The head of a peacock just peeked out from the open collar of his shirt, it’s dark purple and green feathers curling up the side of his neck and cheek.

“I’m...Yasha,” she said, and somehow smiled back at him.

“Well, I’m Mollymauk, Molly to my friends. Which we most certainly are!” He put his hands on her shoulders, looking her up and down. After a second in which Yasha fought and failed to contain her blush, he announced, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so in need of a good time. Come on,” he wrapped her arm in his, like they were walking into a ball. “Let’s get you some cotton candy.”

“I don’t--what?” Yasha laughed as he half-dragged her through the almost empty booths of games, a few carnival goers just starting to appear at the gates behind them. “You know I’m not really here, right?” For a moment she was back in the forest, walking too quickly among the dark trees with Molly still on her arm.

“Ah, gloomy place, that,” he said, tugging gently on her elbow. They turned left and were back in the carnival, passing one of the teacup looking rides. “Nevermind that.”

“But that is real,” Yasha said, a little desperately.

Molly only turned his crooked smile up another notch, his eyes sparkling with mischief as he said, “Is it?”

Yasha groaned, feeling her mind waver under the weight of this thought. She’d had enough of unreality already. Hadn’t she? If she couldn’t remember...?

“Don’t sprain something, now,” Molly said, with just the faintest hint of worry creeping in to further ruin his persona. “Listen, if you’re real, and I’m real, which I am. On most days, anyway--” Yasha shot him an exasperated look from behind her hands. “Okay, I’m real. Then what does it matter  how  we’re talking, or seeing each other? What matters is that you were sitting by yourself in the middle of fucking nowhere, and I happen to have the--purely metaphorical--keys to party central! I meant it when I said you needed a good time.”

Yasha took one deep breath, and then another. The air smelled like fried food and sugar, here, and a small group of stands were selling drinks and popcorn. Most of the tables were occupied, here. Carnival-goers looked up as Molly passed, then back at their food when no act began. While her friend acquired two bags of popcorn and a cone of literal spun sugar, Yasha closed her eyes and just...thought. It did matter, what was real and what wasn’t. But if she couldn’t deny that Mollymauk was real--and she couldn’t, not to his face--then both things had to be true. He was here, and she was there. And also they were together.

Well, it was fantastic, unbelievable. But it was real. So Yasha decided to believe it, and having decided so, she could stop hurting her brain so much trying to logic it out.

“Done?” Molly asked, holding out the cone like a strange fluffy bouquet. “Taste this and tell me I’m a figment of your imagination.”

“I still don’t know if that’ll really work,” Yasha said, but she smiled anyway and bit into the purple cloud. For a moment, she could feel the crackle of melting sugar on her tongue, could almost taste something sharply sweet--then it was gone. Molly stuck out his tongue to reveal a faint purple stain. He sighed and looked mournfully down at the popcorn she wasn’t going to be able to eat.

“I shall suffer, in the name of friendship,” he announced, and dragged her off back towards the rides.

If he was supposed to be working that night, Yasha never saw a sign of it. Molly only had to wink at whoever was manning the booths and breeze past them. “One of those nights!” he called over his shoulder, when a black woman with shoulder-length dreads and flames painted on her face tried to catch him. “I’ll be fine, Orna, no worries!” He rushed away before Orna could weigh in on the matter.

They sat at the top of the ferris wheel for half an hour, Molly pointing out the lights of the nearby town, “And that’s the pub, down there with the red star. Nearly got kicked out last night, not my fault of course,” and trying to get Yasha to eat the popcorn. She kept expecting it to vanish when she picked it up, but seemed to be that Molly was the one who got the actual body of the food, she could still taste and enjoy it. “There’s absolutely too many ways to abuse this power,” Molly said happily, licking grease and salt off of his fingers.

He took her through the back of the main tent, where a tall man in a red coat and top hat was telling stories to the small but dedicated audience. They saw Orna’s fire dance and Desmond’s flying violin before Gustav caught sight of them and used the shadows to sidle up before Molly could slink away.

“Aren’t you supposed to be out telling fortunes?” the tall man asked pointedly, poking Molly’s chest pocket.

“Oh, we’re fine without my little sideshow for one night.” Molly patted the deck of cards concealed inside his beautiful coat, glancing sideways at Yasha. “I just needed a break, Gustav.”

“Hmm. Well, mind you don’t make a habit of it, Mollymauk. I’d hate to see you lose your flair.” The lights came back up before either of them could think of an answer, and Gustav hurriedly stepped back into the ring.

On their way back towards the teacup ride, Yasha pulled to a stop next to the strength tester pole. A couple of people were already here, watching a man with broad shoulders and a long tangled beard step up to the plate. “How do you think this one works?” Yasha asked.

“Well, mostly by making the weight heavier than it looks, so no one hits the bell,” Molly replied.

“No, I meant. With the thing, with us, you know. Is it me or you swinging?”

“Oh.  Oooh, I see.” Molly glanced quickly between her shoulders and his own much smaller biceps. He grinned. “Let’s find out.”

They only had to wait a couple of minutes in line, and then the minder was handing Yasha the hammer with an amused look. “Trying your luck, Molly?” he said.

“Uh, yeah?” Yasha looked around a little frantically, but Molly just stood a few feet away and gave her a double thumbs up. So to other people, she looked like Molly. She was Mollymauk, even though he was also here.

But it was Yasha who stood with her feet shoulder width apart on the black rubber mat, Yasha who hefted the ill-balanced maul in both hands and eyed the little weight. If her body wasn’t really here, maybe it was just that her mind expected muscles to react differently. Or that she knew how to lift heavy things, to hit heavy things, more than Molly did. Whatever the cause, the reaction was just as unbelievable as the rest of her night: the weight shot up, past green, past yellow, past orange, and hit the bell at the top with a resounding RING.

It wasn’t just the game minder who was staring at her with his mouth open, but everyone else in line as well. And her smile wasn’t as crooked as Molly’s, but it was just as sharp. Yasha handed the hammer back with a little bow and a laugh as Molly rushed up and pulled her into a one-armed hug with a wild laugh of his own.

“Such a skinny little bloke,” someone said, as they walked away. “Wouldn’t’a thought he had it in him.”

Eventually they ended up sitting on the grass by the gates, watching people leave. Molly would guess how much they’d spent under his breath, and Yasha would try to guess what relationships there were going on. The most memorable was when an older man walked out alone, a huge stuffed pink bear clutched tightly under his arm.

“Spent at least fifty euro getting that thing,” Molly swore up and down.

“For a daughter, maybe?” Yasha tilted her head thoughtfully.

“Nah, for himself. Definitely for himself.”

They both laughed, and Molly bumped his shoulder against hers, and Yasha leaned against him back.

“Well?” he asked, turning to smile up at her from under his bangs. “I know it wasn’t a magnificent ocean cruise, but. Did you have a good night?”

Yasha looked back up at the lights, at the ferris wheel and the games. She saw, underneath them, the forest trees and black sky somewhere to the east. “It was a good night,” she said at last.

“Great! Excellent. And we’re both still real?”

She was too tired for a laugh, but she did chuckle a little as she got to her feet. She could feel the connection fraying between them, fatigue and the fading edges of her headache wearing him away. “We’re both real,” Yasha said. She reached out to touch his shoulder, then thought better of it. She had only just met him, after all. “Goodnight, Mollymauk.”

“Goodnight, Yasha.”