#It's made by the same person as Lethal Company so it has that similar really good balance of humor and horror!

[absolutely-zero-regrets]

shrimp upturned you will always be famous to me

[wallwriterstuff]

Her Reflection ||Marcus Volturi x Reader||

Warnings: Angst city central, descriptions of grief and depression

Words: 2741

Taglist: @royalvolturisblog @thelastemzy ​ @ferb13 ​ @raindancer2004 ​ @a-avaunce @broskibowser ​ @alecvolturiswifeforever ​ @college-is-coming @perfectcolortreestudent @volturidoll13 ​ @vamp-army

Summary:

A request for @like-rain-or-confetti

Marcus is resolute in his grief, so much so he has refused Corin’s gift many a time. When you show up, he can’t help but realise that perhaps his centuries of suffering were enough, that the contentment you offer is far more permanent than Corin’s. Maybe,  just maybe...Didyme sent you to him to give him one last chance at the happiness she loved to spread about.

You were a wonderful find.

Aro had been delighted to see you in his thoughts. He had been forced to leave the safety of Volterra for a business trip, the accounts of their business front needing attention every few decades to keep up the ruse of a modern, evolving company with changing leadership and new blood in its crew. The journey to Rome had been uneventful until they found the rogue little newborn tearing holes in a small residential area they had had to pass through. Demetri had quickly found the little fiend and as Aro took his face in his grasp, the images had raced through his mind, the regret he hadn’t taken your offer to help him strongly resonating through his body as it was mercilessly torn apart.

“Oh…Demetri…find this one.” He had murmured. Demetri did, and you had been amongst the guard now for eleven months. It had been a surprise to Marcus when you showed up with his brother as you didn’t seem to fit the Guard’s image – he wasn’t sure you knew how to be intimidating. It was clear you hadn’t come of your own volition, you were far too intelligent to be deceived into thinking Aro’s offer to join was real and clearly saw you actually had no choice at all, but still you came with a gracious smile, like you’d rather be nowhere else. After so many centuries of living and travelling as nomad you had confessed to Marcus a place to settle was nice, and despite so much time on your own you had a warm and welcoming nature that just drew the others to you.

It was all too easy to find your place when your place seemed to be everywhere and anywhere. As bitter and cautious as they were, even the twins seemed to warm to you rapidly after a few discussions. Marcus was mildly intrigued at first, but he didn’t really see enough of you to form any solid opinion on you. He only knew what he had heard, and what he had heard was that you were helpful and kind, quick to soothe pain and anger in others even if it festered in yourself. It sounded so awfully familiar to him that the raw ache in his chest, one that had never really gone away, throbbed so badly he was forced to turn his face to avoid your visage when you entered the room. Still, your voice was sugar sweet, melodic and soothing, it was a balm somehow to that pain. Months later he couldn’t say he was rid of it, he never would be rid of the pain he was sure, but it had dimmed somewhat.

His intrigue had turned to infatuation quickly when he finally let himself cast a glance at you. You were attractive to him, very pleasing to the eye though not in an exaggerated way. What made you beautiful was your personality, and it was what brought so many to your side in their efforts to win themselves a chance at capturing your affections. You turned down one after the next, the bonds you chose to make with the rest of the Guard purely founded on friendship and nothing more. Even when you grew those you coveted most it never came close to anything romantic and he was somewhat glad of that. He didn’t want to be the reason you never knew happiness, but he couldn’t help but wish that perhaps you might find it in him. There were other complications with that of course, because how could you ever give yourself to someone so broken? Was he even capable of love? How did you find happiness in someone devoid of it? He had felt it once before and this was so similar…

You had shown up more and more in the throne room, guarding them as they read. If you ever noticed his stare you didn’t say or make it obvious, but you did catch his eye once or twice and the smile you gave him warmed him inside. It had felt awful the first few times because how could he betray Didyme like that? How was it right, how was it fair, that he might get to feel any semblance of joy after his mate had gone unavenged? Was it even possible to fall in love again? Perhaps the centuries had worn away that original bond, but even that felt like a disservice to Didyme’s love, her kindness. It was enduring in ways that nothing else was. Then it hit him, you reminded him of her. The bond he could form with you was not so different to the one he had shared with her, you were too similar for it not to be.

Didyme’s gift had been happiness, the aura so inviting she had infected everyone around her with it, and while you didn’t share that gift you shared that personality. Marcus understood then, why the colour had returned to the halls as he walked them, why the sunshine seemed warmer on his skin as he passed by windows. It was you. Yet more complications came with that revelation because he was growing ever more restless (in his own lethargic way) and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hide it. How did he tell you he had grown to love you for the very same reasons he had loved her? It was like looking at her reflection distorted in a mirror, a different face and different person but the same kind of heart. You had different passions and opinions and a slightly lethal edge to your physical prowess that he found gave him comfort, for it reminded him you were not her and you were able to defend yourself in ways she hadn’t been able to, but it also finally gave him the courage to admit that yes, he did love you, he did love you and he loved you because though you were like her you were not her.

Marcus didn’t want you to think about Didyme though when you spoke to him, he didn’t want you to see yourself as a replacement for a great, epic love. Unbeknownst to him, you had enquired about the sad king the moment you arrived. Marcus’s entire being radiated such grief and pain that it had been impossible not to ask about him, and given your easy to talk to nature (and the fear of what would happen to you if you unknowingly stuck your foot in your mouth) many a guard had happily told you the reasons for his depression.

“Didyme was beautiful.”

“Didyme was always so kind.”

“She made a whole room light up when she walked into it.”

“It was the greatest love story our kind have ever seen.”

Every statement had only made your heart hurt for the man more and more. His pain was so palpable, but his interest was also obvious. For a man so broken by the loss of such a momentous love it was surprising to say the least, but you also weren’t complaining. You had no desire to see anyone feel like he did, to be so trapped in darkness, and you had made it your mission to make the throne room feel a little lighter whenever you walked into it. Marcus was rather attractive in his own way, even with the corners of his mouth pulled down and his eyes so devoid of light. You were sure with a real smile he would look radiant as his eternal youth dictated he should. The day you got to see that first wisp of a smile was the day you became more determined to see it more often. Most people had gotten so used to overlooking Marcus unless he was called upon that you were able to share subtle looks and smiles from across the room with nobody really noticing – you smiled so often it wasn’t an unusual thing to see.

It was getting close to an important anniversary, important in Marcus’s mind anyway. You had been with the Guard for almost a year and people had started to notice the effects on the quiet King. Marcus had taken to wandering the halls more often than before, enjoying the library and the music room. The Gardens would be off-limits for a while yet, the tree planted in Didyme’s honour still blooming strong every year due to Aro’s careful upkeep and too much for his heart, his eyes. It was while admiring a painting in the hall that he came across you.

“Surely, after the length of your stay with us, you have seen this piece before?” his voice was soft, a slight rasp from the disuse and lack of satisfaction in his life that had lasted so long it was difficult to get rid of it. He felt like a schoolboy when you smiled at him, and for once he embraced the feeling rather than trying to shun it.

“I have, still it amazes me.” You confessed.

“There are larger pieces.” He mused.

“Size does not guarantee quality.” Your response was accompanied by a cheeky smile that made his own lips twitch upward, that ghost of a smile upon on his lips making you sigh contentedly. Twice in one day? It must have been vampire Christmas. For a while, you stood in silence and contemplated the painting before you. It was a simple piece of artwork, the Tuscan countryside interrupted by a quaint little cottage.

“What do you see?” Marcus asked you quietly. Head tilting, you hummed thoughtfully.

“I see peace.” You voice was decisive and he couldn’t help but frown. Peace? He had studied art a lot over the centuries and he had to admit, he had never once looked at this piece twice as something he could profoundly evaluate. It was a field, it was a cottage, it was…something that felt very literal in what it was.

“Peace?” he questioned.

You hummed. “The colours are so warm, and the hills just keep rolling. This landscape stretches forever, an endless path of golden light. There is always something to look forward to ahead but so much beauty around that cottage that you would be equally as happy to stay in that moment. To be able to see the beauty in what’s around us…that is the key to peace to me.”

Marcus could only stare at the painting, trying to see what you saw. He had seen nothing but grey for so long that the warm colours still felt faded. He couldn’t really remember what true peace felt like until he became brave enough to stand beside you. You radiated it. You were so content in life it was impossible not to feel the peace of mind you carried with you everywhere you went.

“What do you see?” you asked him. He didn’t dare stare into those wine-red eyes, sure his words would flee him. Marcus cleared his throat slightly, contemplating what to say. The truth was, he hadn’t seen anything in art ever since he began to study it. He had never seen metaphors or symbolism. Art had the potential to be beautiful and breath-taking but he had lost his ability to see it, until recently. There was…something, he realised, the more he stared at it.

“I see a cottage,” he said slowly, “But it is plain. Plain yet…surrounded by warmth. Isolated, and yet beautiful…it is…it feels as though, it could be home.” There was a deafening silence after he spoke, his words carrying more weight than he had first realised, weight you clearly felt. Marcus had lived in darkness, in agony and despair, in shadows, but with you there was light, joy, and beauty. He could live that way again if you allowed him the chance to. He could find that beautiful home in you. His hand was slow, reaching for yours. For a while the tip of his little finger touching the side of your hand was all he felt, not brave enough to go any further but so desperate to. When your fingers twitched, curling around his own to link your pinkies and hold his hand loosely, he knew instinctually that you wouldn’t let go. You would help him take that last step into the light. He didn’t need to be afraid.

“Master-“

“Marcus,” he amended softly, “I wish for you to call me Marcus.”

You nodded. “Marcus, then.”

A startled little laugh escaped him, because Didyme had once said the exact same thing to him. Unknowingly, you had replicated their very first exchange. Surprised red eyes stared up at him – you had never heard him laugh before. He seemed just as shocked since he wasn’t sure he was capable of such a sound anymore.

“You…you are so like her.” he sighed wistfully. In an ideal world she would be here, but…wasn’t this ideal? A second chance was unheard of amongst their kind and he was desperate to grasp it with both hands, but he feared holding too tight and shattering the hope he was unknowingly placing in you.

"Her? I...oh...Marcus..." you trailed off. Marcus finally met your eyes, the depth of sadness in his expression something you knew now you would never be able to fully alleviate, but you could meet him in the sea of his despair and keep him afloat, couldn’t you? This kind man deserved better.

“Forgive me. I had no wish to startle you, but you remind me so much of…of Didyme.” He whispered. Your expression softened, but there was no pity there, no sympathy, only gratitude. His honesty was applaudable and the courage it must have taken to say her name, that he felt safe enough to attempt such a feat with you of all people…you were grateful. Grateful to share this quiet moment with a man you had come to greatly admire, grateful to be held in such high esteem by him.

“That makes me truly happy to hear.” you confessed. Marcus frowned, looking confused.

“It does?” he questioned. You smiled, giving your interlocked fingers the slightest squeeze. Marcus slid his palm against your own, fully taking hold of your hand now he was more confident his affections were not about to be rejected.

“The day I arrived you looked so sad. I asked around, not wanting to say anything I shouldn’t and upset you further. The tales I heard, the descriptions I was given…it is an honour to think I might remind you of her in even the smallest of ways.” Your reassurance was like a warm blanket. Feeling cocooned and safe, he lifted your intertwined hands to brush the lightest of kisses against your knuckles. The tender gesture would have made you blush if you still had the ability.

“She was truly a miracle in my life, yet for all the ways you remind me of her, you seem to have just as many differences between you two,” he murmured, “I confess…I admire the reflection of her I see in you, but I love the little things that mark you as separate from her. It felt wrong to do so, yet I could not help it.” Pursing your lips, you tried to calm your racing thoughts as Marcus watched you for any hint of reaction. He had been open and honest, taken a brave step, and he needed you to meet him halfway lest he retreat back into the shadows. Living in hope was no foreign thing for you and you didn’t just meet him halfway, you anchored him in that hope so he might never retreat again.

“It would be a privilege to help you remember what it is like to be loved.” You assured him. Marcus gave you another small smile. Over time, those smiles grew and grew until they crinkled his eyes at the corners. Some days he laughed. On one rare occasion you had gotten him to dance with you in the music room to the record playing on the gramophone. Bit by bit the light returned to his eyes until he beamed so brightly when he saw you that it was obvious to everyone the Marcus they had once known had been partially revived. Grief was a constant companion but it no longer crippled him, and in the safety of your embrace Marcus felt so far from the shadows he was certain for the first time in centuries that he was finally free of them.

[maaji-maji-majima]

some kissing hcs for Majima?(if u can make it nsfw)

So I'm in a weird place with this. I don't want to leave you unanswered but I know you won't like the answer that I give. It has been a long time since I was active on tumblr and I'm not sure when along the timeline headcanon became synonymous with fanfiction. I appreciate fanfiction authors for their creativity, but I am not one myself. I use headcanon in the older definition of "this isn't in the source material, but it is true in my brain". They are either random things my half asleep mind thought of while walking home from work or a character analysis. At the same token your ask had crawled into my brainmeats and won't leave. So again, I apologize that this most definitely is not what you're looking for, but I hope someone out there finds this to be an interesting read.

Without further introduction, here is a character analysis of our favorite pansexual, gender fluid, emotionally stunted goblin in regards to relationships and why the he desperately needs therapy as brought to you by a different pansexual, gender fluid, emotionally stunted goblin who got therapy but probably needs more.

Trigger warnings: Abuse, self harm, mental disorders, poor coping strategies, unhealthy relationships, random tense changes, not fanfiction

Spoilers for the whole franchise, but very specifically for 0, K1, and 5.

Abuse does weird things to people's brains. In Yakuza 0 Majima has barely been out of the hole for a year. He might no longer be suffering the actual physical torture he had been subjected to the year prior, but he is still directly in the hands of his abusers and being watched every moment. He is still in a cage even if it doesn't look like one. He is depressed and likely suicidal, but doesn't follow through with those thoughts because he is determined to make sure Saejima has a home to come back to. He is willing to endure just about anything to allow Saejima a chance to exact that final moment of retribution because Saejima is the one who deserves it and Majima doesn't feel that there is any possibility for forgiveness. In all likelihood he hasn't sought out anyone for a hookup or paid company for an evening due to a combination of not feeling like he deserves anything that feels good and the fact that he's constantly being watched. The year in hole means he no longer really has a concept of privacy, but he's worried that getting close to someone, even for a few moments, could put them in danger if Sagawa or Shimano feels like holding something else over his head. It isn't worth accidentally dragging someone into his own personal hell. He no longer lives for the present, he is only living for that far-off future that he hopes isn't just a pipe dream.

Enter Makoto. At first she is a stand-in for Saejima's sister Yasuko, but it morphs rapidly from there. She is the light and kindness and hope that he hasn't seen in years and she's being dragged into his bullshit. He knows in his heart of hearts that she doesn't deserve what she is being forced into, so his mind snaps into the immediate and does everything he possibly can to save her. This is is the hill he wants to die on. Maybe, just maybe, he can end his miserable existence with a final act of good and he feels that Saejima might just be able to understand. But because he no longer has any relationships in his life that are not strictly professional or the abusers he cannot escape, he has little recollection of what a nuanced relationship or even friendship is any longer. Due to circumstance she is also the only person that he cannot keep at arm's length, no matter how desperately he tries. So he falls for her and falls hard. But in the end, after everything they go through he does the impossible. He lets her go. She has a life and a future, whereas he has neither of those. What would she do? Become his ane-san? Have some temporary happiness before she realizes she has a target on her back for the rest of her life? No. Majima believes she deserves so much more than that even though it hurts him deeply. What is one more hurt on top of everything else? He's gotten extremely good at burying his pain.

Getting to Tokyo flips a switch in Majima's brain. Like many people with mental trauma who don't have access to therapy he falls into excess as a way of self medicating. He fits virtually everything on the hedonism checklist. Drinking? Yeah. Violence? Hell yeah! Promiscuity? Yeah, but I ain't judging. Drugs? Probably, even though it isn't explicitly stated in game. Everything from his shift in personality to his wardrobe has become, intentionally or not, a defense mechanism. He has escaped from all of his abusers except for Shimano and he refuses to allow anyone to gain that kind of power over him again.

It is a double edged sword, however. His depression and PTSD are running unchecked. In all likelihood he hasn't fallen hard on vices as a way to reclaim ownership off his own body. Instead it seems more probable that he is dissociating. After everything he has been through he doesn't care what happens to his body in the long run because it isn't actually his anymore. Risky behavior, which is practically Majima's middle name, is also frequently used as a passive form of self harm because the end result is either temporarily feeling better thanks to endorphins and adrenaline or permanently feeling better after embracing death. He could achieve a similar feeling by taking up jogging and chasing a runners high, but that takes more time and energy than chugging a handle of whiskey or goading some chump into throwing hands. Sadly even now admitting to mental problems by seeking help is fairly stigmatized in Japan and it was only worse in the early 90s. Can't have a problem if no one tells you it's there, right?

Then he meets Mirei. She's intense but not wild like Majima. At that moment in time she is everything he needs. Head strong, domineering, and very, very determined. She knows exactly what buttons to press to wrap him right around her finger. And he lets her take the reigns, lets her run his life because he realizes he was doing a terrible job on his own. Better her than Shimano, right? Doing something wrong results in the cold shoulder instead of a vicious beating, and doing something right leads to more than simply the relief of avoiding a beating. He decides that making her happy is enough to make him happy. Until suddenly it isn't. He never wanted to be a father, but even the idea that he could have been was enough to cause a fundamental shift in his entire outlook on life. He could have had someone to live for, instead of just survive for. But he had no say in the matter and didn't know until the decision had been made for him. When Mirei told him she had an abortion he snapped. He hit her. The one and only time he raised his hands against her. Disgusted with himself, and wounded by her decision, he left. If he was capable of that, he knew couldn't be the person she had been trying to mold him into. He realized he was nothing but a weight around her neck dragging her down. And so that day signals the end of their short marriage. He spends the next several decades drowning in guilt for his actions while still resenting her for her choice.

That leaves us with Kiryu. Poor, oblivious Kiryu. Majima's fixation is multifaceted but in no small part due to the fact that Kiryu is one of the few people strong enough to hurt him, but is the only one that doesn't want to. And Majima just doesn't understand. After everything, he only deserves to hurt, right? Saejima, Yasuko, Makoto, Mirei. Everyone who gets too close to him ends up worse for it, so why won't Kiryu and his sense of honor seek justice on their behalf? So he does everything he possibly can to wind up Kiryu enough to Pay Attention Damnit, Fight Me. But Kiryu's response is always just flustered awkwardness because he doesn't want like fighting, it's just a part of his job, like wearing a suit or answering a phone. To Kiryu fighting isn't a thing done because it's enjoyable, it's done because it has to be. But he's still the only one who doesn't flinch when Majima brandishes a knife inches from his face.

And then Kiryu is arrested and in jail for ten years. And ten years is a long time to build someone up onto a pedestal. Like only wanting to talk about the best of a person after they've died. The same thing happened with Saejima. Build them in his mind to what he wants or needs them to be since they are not there to actively correct it. The decade is pretty miserable, going through the motions and trying to not make waves with the bigwigs while terrifying the minions into obedience. When he hears Kiryu is being released it is like waking up again. He all but waits at the taxi stand at the entrance of Kamurocho on the day of Kiryu's release, all but vibrating with excitement. It's a fight he has been waiting on for a decade, too bad it was little more than a disappointment.

So Majima decides to bring him back up to spec in that very Majima flavored way. Small fights, big fights, surprise fights. Kiryu is still reluctant because he doesn't have a reason beyond Majima's dreamed up training program he doesn't actually want to be a part of. Of course this only leads Majima to do everything possible to get under Kiryu's skin, including sharing his personal vulnerabilities while disguising them as jokes just to cause fights, but Kiryu just kind of rolls with it which leads to confusion and frustration on both sides. After a while Majima starts to get into Kiryu's hobbies, like pocket circuit, ostensibly as another form of picking a fight. And he discovers he actually enjoys a lot of it. And they are both too dense and emotionally stunted to realize they're basically dating at this point. At multiple points Majima takes potentially lethal blows meant for Kiryu and the excuse that he is the only one allowed to kill Kiryu is very, very thin. He just can't quite admit out loud that he doesn't want to see Kiryu truly hurt because that's weakness and he is Not Weak (tm).

Shimano's death and Kiryu's departure from the clan come as a whirlwind that destroys him all over again. He's left directionless. So he leaves the Tojo in an attempt to find his own way in the world, for the first time in over twenty years.

I think I need to call it here for now. I know I've left out Saejima and Daigo, among others, but I've been working on this for days and my progress has been eaten twice and I just don't have the energy to keep going right at this time. Maybe some day in the future I'll find the time and energy to write out the rest for all the other games.

tl;dr What Majima wants and what he needs are two different things. He wants to fightfuck, but he needs to be bear hugged into submission so that he can have that mental breakdown he's been carefully bottling up for over thirty years. He needs a good, ugly cry. And therapy. Lots and lots of therapy.

[ask-gotham-city]

Do you have any favorite conspiracy theories surrounding the bats?

G: Since I’m not as passionate about the Bats in the same way W is, I mostly stick to their history in and impact on Gotham more than the theories and more fandom-y side of the community. However, I do strongly believe at least a few of them aren’t fully human. My front runners for that theory are Black Bat II, Batman, Red Hood, and Orphan. There’s just something funky going on w/ those guys. Anyways I’ll turn it over to W now for whatever she has in mind.

W: Oh boy anon :-)

Here’s a whole post we’ve made about Batman theories, and now it’s time to get into some others.

1. There have been/are multiple Batmen

Think about it. Being Batman is a tiring and complicated job, he gets beat up a ton, much more than most people could probably take. Not to mention descriptions of his personality, voice, abilities, etc. vary wildly from person to person. Makes you think. Is it multiple people alternating wearing the suit over months or years? Is it really just one crazy powerful or supernatural guy? No one fuckin knows bro!

2. The Red Hood is some kind of ghost or zombie

There are soooo many reports of strange encounters with Red Hood. People describe everything from feeling like they’re being watched to getting a strange cold sensation when they catch sight of him. I’ve had that experience once, when I saw him while walking home. By all accounts he carries this weird air of oddness with him, something unsettling and supernatural. He still acts pretty human in fights and when he talks to civilians according to most reports, but no one can remember what his voice sounds like. At all. We love a spooky bitch guys, but damn that bro creepy.

3. They’re all vampires

I mean. A classic. From the Bat theme to reports of members reportedly being supernatural or withstanding lethal wounds to Bat sightings in the day being extremely rare, there’s really a lot you can speculate on. Also there are a few pictures floating around the internet from like... idk some time a few years ago that actually look like a vampire Batman, but it might just be photoshop.

4. New developments and theories in the hero relationship world

Over the past couple of weeks there have been reports of some new or changed hero relationships. I guess the capes are jumping on the Wayne trend of breakups! The only stuff I’ve really been able to find so far is that Spoiler/RR couple sightings have declined recently, and that a few weeks ago when there was that company explosion over in San Fran there were also some shaky videos that have lead people to believe RR might be with Superboy, Impulse, or both now. We aren’t really sure! But I hope all parties involved are happy with where they are. There have also been more scattered sightings indicating a possible new relationship for Mr. Batman himself, but the parties involved can’t be identified in the video. 

5. Secret Batfamily leader/puppet master?

This is a favorite of mine. It stems off the fact that when the Bats are caught talking a lot in battle, it never seems to be to each other. People have picked out a few names that don’t match up with the vigilante’s aliases, including A, O (thought to be Orphan by some though people talked about this mystery person before that name change, making that unlikely), and finally Oracle (who many people have tied to the aforementioned ‘O’). Is there someone behind the scenes organizing the Bats? A leader who isn’t Batman? The theories on who this is range from the second Robin and first Batgirl all the way to Bruce Wayne. I love this theory, and though I don’t have a stake in this mystery person’s identity I do think they exist. I don’t see too many people talking about this one though which is insane! There might be another Bat right under our noses guys!!

6. Spoiler=resurrected from dead or relative of previous Spoiler

I’ve talked abt this one before but I was too lazy to find the post. Basically, there’s a swirl of theories around the blonde haired vigilante(s) that have been seen in Gotham. Some theorists think they’re all the same person, from the first Spoiler to that female Robin to the blonde Batgirl to the current Spoiler, but some people think there’s more to it. It’s pretty well known that something bad happened to the female Robin. There was all that gang shit and violence and then there are civilian reports of seeing Batman at a free clinic in the Narrows, etc. etc. Personally, I agree with the people that think she died, which is pretty widely accepted as fact. From there though things get muddy. Some people think that girl was resurrected somehow (it happens man who knows) and went on to be Batgirl and Spoiler, others think she didn’t die but you end up the same way. People who think she wasn’t resurrected point to the similarities in hair and build of the following heroes as a possible genetic connection, citing sisters, twins, even parents or children depending on the age people slot the original Spoiler at. Personally I kind of like the sister theory, but imagining the original Spoiler is still kicking is a happier concept. I’m not really sure on this one but it’s a deep rabbit hole for sure.

7. The Signal is a meta

This ones almost not a theory, just based on the amount of overheard conversations and firsthand accounts. People aren’t quite sure what his powers are, but I’ve found stuff on shadow manipulation, possible precog stuff (though might just be Bat training), and other mixed abilities. This is one of my favorites just because I already thought Signal was cool, but when the news of him being a possible meta started spreading I know a lot of meta kids in Gotham found a new role model! You don’t have to be a supervillain if you have powers in Gotham, you can be a hero too!

Anyways I have more but those are a couple off the top of my head and this is long enough. Let me know your guys’ thoughts on any of these, or if you have any theories yourself. I’d love to talk to some other Batfans!

-W

[thedeviltohisangel]

Whiskey In A Teacup/1

When Santi first got out of the military, he hadn’t known what to think of his options. There was always the option of giving up and going back in. The option to join a shadowy private military company. Go into private security. Go on the recruiting circuit. Maybe even become a cop. But none of them seemed like the best path. They all seemed like giving up. He had been trained by his country to be an elite, lethal machine. Being anything but the best felt like a cop out. So when an old friend of his reached out with an offer from the Secret Service, he accepted it on the spot.

masterlist is my url/writing or on ao3

send me any one shot requests for these two

When Santi first got out of the military, he hadn’t known what to think of his options. There was always the option of giving up and going back in. The option to join a shadowy private military company. Go into private security. Go on the recruiting circuit. Maybe even become a cop. But none of them seemed like the best path. They all seemed like giving up. He had been trained by his country to be an elite, lethal machine. Being anything but the best felt like a cop out. So when an old friend of his reached out with an offer from the Secret Service, he accepted it on the spot.

----

The election had recently ended with a brand new administration being ushered into the White House. Pope thought he looked cookie cutter. Like he was aging perfectly, his wife wasn’t aging at all and his family had all done Cotillion. He was in an empty conference room flipping through the personnel files that had been left for him before he waited for his friend to pick him up for whatever orientation he had to go through. 

“Santi! Glad you were able to make it in.” He stood and shook his friend’s hand, happy to have someone to talk to.

“Yeah and was cleared to read the briefing materials,” he answered as he dropped the folder back down onto the table. 

“Good. So the basics are out of the way. Now, I vouched for you hard with leadership and they want you on the detail. Close circle, last line of defense type of shit.

“Perfect. Exactly the stakes you know I’m cut out for.” 

“I know that. But the future First Lady doesn’t.” Santi furrowed his brow.

“Why does that matter?” His friend cleared his throat.

“She has requested she look every agent in the inner circle in the eye before they are officially assigned. Protective wife and mama bear.” 

“You’re not saying the debutante daughters are included in my assignment are you?” Santiago hoped he wasn’t. They looked like stuck up brats and he would rather join Will on the speech circuit than put up with attitudes like that.

“I’m saying the other agents have been tripping over themselves to try and get conversations with the older one.” His friend pointed at her picture on the table.

“That’s disgusting,” Pope whined. “How do I get her approval? I got to wait a week for an appointment?”

“Her and the daughters are at a photoshoot right now for the cover of Vogue. Said she would talk to you there.”

“Great.” It would be one of his more unconventional interviews but Santi was eager. Chomping at the bit to get back in the game. Feel useful again. Devote his life to something other than thinking about the past. 

----

The people allowed on the set were few. His friend introduced him to a few other agents and pointed to where the incoming First Lady was smiling for the camera.

“Let’s find somewhere we can wait for her to be done.” Santi kept his head down, smiling politely and shaking hands where appropriate, as they made their way towards the rooms in the back of the studio. There were two agents standing outside a door, nodding once as they let Santi and his friend into the room.

“Marnie, can you help me zip?” The female voice was coming from behind the dressing screen in the corner. Both men looked at each other, not sure what the appropriate thing to say was.

“Sorry, ma’am, we can go-”

“No that’s fine. I think I can do it myself.” Pope stayed silent as the woman, he thinks it was Penelope, stepped out in a beautiful blush pink dress that hugged her like it was made for her. He hates that his mouth ran dry and his tongue felt thick. But he pushed it aside as quickly as it came. “You’re new. And not in a suit. A friend of yours, Sam?”

“Yes ma’am. This is Santiago Garcia. Old Army buddy. He is here for a job interview.” 

“A pleasure to meet you ma’am.” Santiago extended his hand and Penelope shook it even though her eyes were rolling.

“So stupid she makes all of you talk to her first. But I guess that’s why I am not in charge,” Penelope shrugged. “I’m sure it will go well and I’ll see you around, Santiago.”

“Santi,” he blurted out before he could stop himself. “Just...Santi.”

“Santi,” she whispered like she was just testing it out. “The pleasure was all mine.” She smiled as she spun, the skirt flying around her like a Disney movie, and then she was out the door and gone.

“Isn’t she something?” Sam mused as he still stared at the door she had just disappeared through.

“Beautiful. And probably a troublemaker,” Pope replied. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” his friend teased with a slap on his back. The sad thing was, he thinks he did.

----

Penelope hated that no such privacy existed in her life anymore. It hadn’t for awhile but it had only gotten worse in the past month since her father won the election. Even now, lying in bed flipping through fashion magazines, there were people bustling in and out to pack her stuff for the move. People asking which fabric and color she thought looked best for her inauguration dress. If she liked this or that singer for the National Anthem and if she thought her peers would find this or that choice relatable. She answered with a smile and took it all in stride but couldn’t wait to shut the door and go to bed. But even there she dreamt of flags and men in suits and waving until her arm felt like it was going to fall off. There was no such thing as privacy and there was no such thing as peace. Penelope felt she was no longer her own person but everyone’s. They told her that’s what being in the first family meant. But she didn’t like it and she didn’t want it. 

“Ma’am?” It sounded like her new assistant on the other side of the door.

“Yes?” Penny had just started winding down for the night. Her face was soft from copious amounts of moisturizer. Her hair was fluffy after she took her time drying it. Her silk nightgown was kissing her legs with every step. She was tired. She wanted to curl up in a ball under a pile of blankets and dream of simpler times.

“Your new agent is here. I just wanted to introduce you before he started his first shift.” Penelope sighed and moved back towards her closet to find a knit robe that would help protect at least some of her humility.

“You can come in.” She recognized him instantly as the handsome man from the Vogue set. He looked even better now. Well groomed and in a suit that must have been tailored by an old school professional.

“Ma’am this is-”

“Santiago,” Penelope said before the introduction could be finished. “I’m glad to see the interview went well.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“We’re practically the same age. Any other title other than ma’am would work better.” He made her blush just by looking at her. It was tragic and sad. That she had to meet him like this. That he had to be someone that worked for her father. That he had to be stoic and professional all the time. That they hadn’t just met in a bar on a Saturday night or bumped into each other at a mutual friend’s backyard picnic. 

“Of course. I’ll think on it and get back to you,” he offered with a smile.

“Agent Garcia is on interior duty tonight but I am sure you’ll get used to his presence quickly, ma’am.” She didn’t bother correcting her assistant. She didn’t care what she called her.

“I look forward to it.”

----

“Alright let’s go over Polar’s schedule for the day.” It had been a couple of days since Santi had started and so far he was enjoying it. His fellow agents were nice enough and had a similar sense of humor to him. Many of them had even served and it was nice to swap stories with people other than the men in his unit. He was posted close to the action and was never really bored. Penelope was his principle. Her safety was his only priority most days and he was by her side at morning show appearances, fancy dinners with campaign donors and visits to DC elementary schools. Things were moving faster and tighter the closer they got to the inauguration. 

They hadn’t spoken much since his first night. Just nods and smiles as they made elusive eye contact throughout the day. She was beautiful. That was the simplest way for Santi to describe her. The most professional way. It was wrong but he wanted to know more about her. Learn what made her life. Made her cry. What she liked to eat and what she would order at McDonalds. Santi was someone full of life and warmth and love for those around him. Sometimes it was hard to be so cold. He hadn’t had to be so since he retired from the military. It was dredging up old feelings from the past. But he was more concerned how he felt more comfortable than he had before. How being alert and hearing radio static and a gun at his hip made him feel more at ease than the creature comforts of home ever could.

“We’ve got a pilates class, Skype call with a dress designer and then a private dinner.”

“Private dinner?” Santi hadn’t heard that on the schedule before and it made his ears perk up.

“She’s been seeing this guy-”

“Kind of a douche,” one of the other agents chimed in.

“-and it's very underwraps, very lowkey.”

“We normally draw straws or play rock, paper, scissors to see who has to take it.” Santi furrowed his brow as all the comments flooded his system.

“What’s so awful about a dinner date?” he asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“It’s the company she keeps,” one chimed in.

“He’s dull and chews weird.”

“Hurts to listen to and hurts to watch.” They all groaned in unison.

“I’ll take it then. The watching and listening part.” He was a low man on the totem pole anyways but he was also curious. He wanted to see this train wreck with his own two eyes. He took the file when it was offered, leaving the room when they were dismissed.

“Curiosity killed the cat, you know,” Sam muttered as he fell into step next to him.

“I know. This will satiate me,” Santi replied.

----

He stood dutifully by the car, waiting to open the door for Penelope whenever she was ready to go. The twisted part of him was excited to see how this night played out. Maybe it would at least be worth the good story. How the beautiful first daughter dated a slob and he was paid to be a third wheel.

“Santiago? I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.” Her fingers tightened around her clutch as she squared her shoulders to face him. 

“Yes…” he froze when he remembered he had agreed to not refer to her as ma’am.

“Still thinking of something else to call me?” she asked with a smirk. Penelope didn’t wait for him to respond and instead slipped under his arm and into the backseat of her car. 

The drive was dead silent. Santi felt awkward but knew this was a part of the job he would have to get used to. She wasn’t his friend. Wasn’t a girl he had picked up at a bar. She was his top priority in the least romantic way possible. He would take a bullet for her. When they arrived at the restaurant he moved swiftly to open her door and escort her into the dining room. They moved towards the back where a man was sitting alone. He looked like a college lacrosse player to Santi. In the most stereotypical of ways. His hands itched to pull Penelope’s seat out for her when her date didn’t, his eyes going to the menu instead of complementing the black dress she was wearing. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe this was going to be torture.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 5/7/21: WRATH OF MAN, HERE TODAY, THE UNTHINKABLE, MONSTER, THE WATER MAN and More

It’s a new month, and I guess going by previous years pre-COVID, this weekend would normally be the start of summer. This year, we’re instead getting a summer with a lot of movies that would normally be dumped into April or February or some other uneventful month. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t or won’t be any good movies, but really, there’s nothing that feels like a summer movie until A Quiet Place Part II and Disney’s Cruella open on Memorial Day weekend.

There’s been lots of great developments, though, including the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn reopening this Friday and then in a few short weeks, theaters may be allowed to be open with no capacity rules although social distancing and masks will probably still be in place. Believe me, it’s been a confusing week as the city that got used to being on the backburner when it comes to reopenings, especially with movie theaters, is now dealing with arguing politicians competing to see who could throw open the then most doors fastest. It’s actually pretty embarrassing.

That aside, this week’s The Weekend Warrior column is brought to you by the new album “Coral Island” from Liverpool band The Coral, which I’ve decided to listen to on loop until I finish this column, because it’s taking me so long to get through it. (Eventually, I switched to Teenage Fanclub’s “Endless Arcade,” since I hadn’t had a chance to listen to it yet…. And to an old standby, Royal Blood, with their own excellent new album, “Typhoons.” At least the record business seems to know it’s the summer!)

Before we get to this week’s new movies, a couple tidbits. First of all, I’m thrilled that my friends Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu’s documentary FAR EAST DEEP SOUTH can finally be seen by the entire world, or at least the United States. It debuted on PBS World Channel on Tuesday night as part of the “America ReFramed” series, but for the entire month of May until June 3, you can watch it On Demand HERE, and that is huge! (There will be other ways to see it that you can read about here.)

This is an amazing MUST-SEE doc that looks into the little-known Chinese communities that took root in Mississippi in the early 20th Century and how they became such a huge part of that area with their markets, also bonding with the African-American communities that were similarly dealing with racism from the typically white post-Civil War South. It’s not just a history lesson, and it’s an incredibly moving story about a family trying to find its roots in the most unexpected places. There was a good reason why the couple’s short “Finding Cleveland” won the Oxford Film Festival while I was on the jury that year, and Far East Deep South similarly won an award there last year after its World Premiere at Cinequest was almost scuppered by COVID. It’s amazing how much more relevant and important this film has become since I first saw it last year, since both Asians and African-Americans are dealing with serious racial issues, and this movie shows that more than anything, they should be working to boost each other rather than fighting. Do check it out On Demand this month if you get a chance!

Another musician making movies is Mr. Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. I mentioned his documentary WHAT DRIVES US last week, but I actually only got to watch it on Thursday, and like his previous film Studio City and HBO mini-series, Sonic Highways, it’s a fantastic look at the music biz, this time through a variety of artists who began their careers by piling into vans and driving around the country. That is, except Lars Ulrich from Metallica, who mentions that the band was never so small or indie that they didn’t have a bus. But Grohl has used his vast connections to bring in a lot of great musicians including The Edge from U2, Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and more, making this a very entertaining movie both for fans of the various bands but also live music fans in general. I gotta admit that as much as I loved What Drives Us, it did bring me down a bit since it’s been almost 14 months since I’ve seen any live music, and I really miss it. This is now streaming on The Coda Collection, which you can subscribe to through Amazon Prime Video.

Guy Ritchie is back with his latest movie, WRATH OF MAN (Miramax/MGM), which reunites him with Jason Statham for the first time since 2007’s Revolver, I believe. Statham plays the enigmatic Paul “H” Hill who works at cash truck company Fortico, responsible for moving hundreds of million dollars around Los Angeles each week. Fortico has recently been hit by a lethal robbery, and H’s team soon learn that there’s a lot more to their new coworker, who happens to be looking for revenge against the man who murdered his son.

(Unfortunately, reviews for the movie are embargoed until Thursday at 6pm, so I can’t tell you whether it’s any good or not. Until Thursday night. Sorry!)

But I will talk about the movie’s box office prospects, because why not? Ritchie’s last movie, The Gentlemen, opened in January 2020, during the “before times,” with $10.6 million, but that was more of a classic Ritchie ensemble crime-comedy. Wrath of Man is more of the type of movie Statham has been making over the past few years, a cross between a revenge thriller and a heist flick. In fact, Statham has done a pretty good job creating his own brand through a variety of action-thrillers as well as a number of franchises including “The Transporter” movies, “The Expendables,” and eventually joining the “Fast and the Furious” franchise as Deckard Shaw with Furious 7 in 2017. Statham then went off to make Hobbs and Shaw with Dwayne Johnson, which didn’t do bad with $174 million. Before that, Statham starred in The Meg, a summer shark attack movie that grossed $145 million. Statham going back to help his old mate i.e. the director that gave Statham his start is pretty huge.

But as I said earlier, those were all in the “before times” and with the box office the way it is, it’s hard to imagine that the exciting reunion of Statham and Ritchie can open with more than $10 million but maybe closer to $8 million, because MGM/UA just doesn’t have the marketing clout of a Warner Bros. or Universal. Even so, that should be enough to be #1 this weekend as both Mortal Kombat and Demon Slayer continue to fall away. Unfortunately, if the movie *is* any good -- and I can’t tell you one way or another -- then by the time reviews hit, people will already have other plans for the weekend than to go see the movie. So yeah, that’s pretty dumb on the part of MGM, huh?

UPDATE: MGM is putting the movie into 2,876 theaters and maybe I'm being overly optimistic, because, as you'll read below, the movie IS pretty good and reviews have remained positive with the American reviews rolling in last night, still at 70% Fresh at this writing. Maybe that'll help the movie do a little better, maybe as much as $9 million, although I'll probably owe MGM an apology if it cracks $10 million, and I don't think it will.

Mini-Review: If you’ve seen the trailer for Wrath of Man, you might go into Guy Ritchie’s latest thinking you know what to expect, because it’s sure being sold as another typical Jason Statham revenge thriller. Don’t be fooled by the marketing, the movie really is Ritchie’s chance to make his own version of Heat, an L.A. heist movie that owes as much to Rashomon as another movie being released this week.

Wrath of Man begins with the heist of an armored truck that turns deadly with the wanton murder of a couple guards. From there, you might think we know where things are going when Statham’s “H” company whose truck was hit, and on his first day, he stops a similar heist by killing the truck’s attackers. H is immediately the hero of the company, although he still has quite a few suspicious coworkers and the feeling is quite mutual. Ritchie’s film then slips into the second episodic chapter which goes back five months to that initial heist where we learn that Statham’s son was killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I don’t want to go too much deeper into how the movie and story play out, because like The Gentlemen and some of Ritchie’s more intricate films, there’s a lot that purposefully isn’t made very apparent at the beginning. To many, this movie will be seen as even more macho than most of Ritchie's films, to the point where even the only woman guard, Dana, being just as macho as the men. As the movie begins, there’s a lot of joke-cracking and crotch-grabbing, all while Statham’s character silently observes and only acts when necessary.

The film’s shift to more of a classic Ritchie ensemble does slowly take place, but by the third chapter, it shifts to the group perpetrating the cash truck heists with an “inside person,” taking the movie to yet another place that makes it more obvious that this is Ritchie’s attempt at delving into the L.A. heist genre that other filmmakers have done so well.

Oddly, Statham doesn’t have too many lines, acting almost like a Terminator in his determination to right wrongs, but as always, Ritchie puts together a fantastic ensemble cast including a number of great American character actors who we rarely get to see in such great roles. I was particularly impressed with Jeffrey Donovan, who has appeared in a number of otherwise forgettable crime films this past year. The same can be said for Holt McCallany as H’s truck driver “Bullet,” but Ritchie also cast the likes of Josh Hartnett and Scott Eastwood in smaller yet still significant supporting roles, all of whom become more interesting as you start figuring out who all the players are.

Like I said, the movie is fairly macho and the few women play very small roles, but it’s how things are set-up in the first few acts to then change course and build to an absolutely amazing third act that will undoubtedly bear comparisons to Heat. And yet Wrath of Man (which is actually based on a little-seen French crime-thriller) does branch away from some of Ritchie’s standards, first of all by being far darker and even more violent with any of the wisecracking humor that pervades a lot of Ritchie’s work to counterbalance such violence disappearing once the flashbacks begin. It’s all punctuated by a fantastically tense score by Christopher Benstead, which seems a bit much at first but eventually settles into the perfect pace and tone for the action.

Despite disappearing for a good chunk of the movie, Statham is still great, basically killing everyone as his characters are wont to do, but watching how all of the different ideas come together leads to such a satisfying conclusion that one hopes those who might be put off, thinking they know where it's going due to the somewhat pathetic and obvious marketing will give it a chance to see how Ritchie has changed gears as effortlessly as he did with Aladdin a few years back.

Rating: 7.5/10

After even a longer time since he directed a movie, Billy Crystal once again takes the helm for HERE TODAY (Sony/Stage6), a movie in which he plays comedy writer Charlie Burns, whose chance encounter with Tiffany Haddish’s lounge singer, Emma Payge, leads to an unlikely friendship, as he struggles with early stage dementia.

I’ve known about this movie for over a year now, and I was pretty excited to finally get to see it, since I was such a fan of the other movies Crystal has directed, 1992’s Mr. Saturday Night and 1995’s Forget Paris, and it’s just amazing to me that he hasn’t directed a movie since.

At first, it seems like it’s the type of meet-cute we’ve seen so much in Crystal’s past filmography, but his pairing with Haddish isn’t something that might work on paper, but in fact, their comic styles mesh so perfectly together that it’s amazing that no one thought of putting them together before.

Crystal wrote the film with comic Alan Zweibel, who adapted it from his own short story “The Prize,” which refers to Haddish’s character winning Charlie in an auction for a lunch. Actually, her ex won the lunch, and she decided to use it because… free lunch! It’s a pretty simple set-up but one that allows the filmmakers to explore some of the odder things that happen in life.

Much of the movie’s humor plays upon the differences between the two characters, and how unexpected their friendship is. I can totally relate, because I have a lot of good long-time friends who most people might never expect us to be friends, but Crystal, Zweibel and Haddish pick up on that and create a movie that’s very funny but has enough other characters around the duo toa allow their characters to show how they’re just really nice people. We see that with how Charlie takes a young writer at his late night show under his wing or how Emma livens up the bat mitzvah of Charlie’s granddaughter. Oh yeah, and Haddish sings. She actually has a number of great performances in the movie, and seriously, anyone who watches this movie is gonna wanna see a smart filmmaker put Haddish in a musical immediately.

The film also acts as a truly touching tribute to Crystal’s friend, the late Robin WIlliams, who was diagnosed with the exact same type of dementia after his suicide death, and knowing that fact, makes the film even more poignant. More importantly, it doesn’t use Charlie’s condition for laughs, and for that alone, I feel like this is ten times better than that overrated Oscar winner The Father.

Here Today’s biggest problems come in the third act when it feels like the movie is starting to over-extend its welcome, even going into somewhat expected places, but it recovers from that rough third act to land a really nice ending. Crystal has always proven himself to be a really strong mainstream filmmaker (ala Rob Reiner and others) who makes crowd-pleasing movies, and it’s so nice seeing him going behind the camera for a movie that’s obviously very personal but also highly relatable.

As far as box office, I certainly have high hopes that Crystal still has an older audience of fans who might want to see him on the big screen again. I’m just not sure if this will be in more than 1,000 theaters, and though I’ve seen quite a bit of marketing, I just haven’t seen Crystal or Haddish do nearly as much in terms of getting out there that would be necessary to reach an audience that might want to venture out into movie theaters to see the movie vs. waiting until it’s on cable/streaming. There’s also Tiffany Haddish’ fanbase, and there could be some benefit for the movie coming out the same week as her new CBS show “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”

I’d love to be optimistic with this making $4 to 5 million but it’s probably more likely to be closer to $3 million especially with capacity limits still in place for most theaters and the audience generally being older.

UPDATE: Maybe I was a little too optimistic, because I enjoyed the movie so much and it will probably be closer to $1 or 1.5 million since other reviews aren't as great.

Next, we have two movies finally being released many years after their festival premieres…

The Swedish apocalyptic thriller THE UNTHINKABLE (Magnet), directed by Victor Danell, is finally being released after playing genre fests in 2018 and 2019. It stars Christoffer Nordenrot as Alex, a young piano virtuoso who ran away from home due to his abusive father Bjorn (Jesper Barkselius). Years later, he returns home for his mother’s funeral after she’s killed in a terrorist attack on Sweden. At the same, there’s a virus that’s erasing people’s memories, but Alex is still in love with Anna (Lisa Henni), the girl he had a crush on when he left, and the three of them will have to help each other face all the horrible things hitting their home at the same time.

As I was watching this movie, a lot of it felt eerily familiar to me, but I couldn’t figure out why. The more I watched it, the more I realized that I actually HAD seen the movie before. Sure enough, I saw this movie over two years ago at the “What the Fest?!” in New York two years ago, and I honestly don’t remember loving it. Still, I decided to give it a fresh look, hoping to get more out of it on second viewing.

Some of the same things bothered me on this second viewing, because it’s really hard to figure out exactly what is going on and whether the horrific events are natural, man-made or a combination of both. For some time, we get so mired into Alex’s lame relationship with Anna, and when he returns home, his conspiracy theory-driven father is busy protecting a bunker that’s being invaded by foreign military troops he thinks are Russians. We cut between these two disparate scenarios while sometimes returning to the capital of Sweden and throwing in a few big set pieces. It’s so disjointed that you feel like you’re watching a lot of random unrelated events, maybe a bit like last week’s About Endlessness -- maybe it’s a Swedish thing?

There are aspects of The Unthinkable that are quite commendable, particularly those action moments and how the mystery about what is happening develops as the film goes along. Eventually, the film does find a more consistent pace, and things start becoming a little clearer, which makes the final act better than much of what we’ve watched earlier. Even so, it’s still quite annoying how long it takes to figure out what’s going on, even on a second viewing, and for most people, that may already be far too frustrating to get through it.

Hitting Netflix on Friday over THREE years after it premiered at Sundance is music video director Anthony Mandler’s directorial debut, MONSTER (Netflix), based on the novel by Walter Dean Myers. It stars Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Waves) as Steve Harmon, a 17-year-old film student put in jail, accused of murder in a bodega robbery. His defense lawyer (Jennifer Ehle) is trying to help him be released, but he’s fighting against the odds of a judicial system that sees him as a “monster” because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I have to be honest that I did go to see this at Sundance the week it premiered, and for whatever reason, I just wasn’t feeling it, so I only really caught about twenty minutes of it. Watching it now with more time and a little less weary than I usually am towards the end of Sundance, I was able to appreciate Monster more for what it is. On the surface, it’s just about Steve’s case and how what really happened unfolds before our eyes and we learn more about those around Steve and how their influence may have pulled a smart and studious young man into the criminal world that now has him in prison with much more violent life-long criminals.

We already knew that Harrison was a great actor, but Monster shows us that he was already on his way to greatness with this movie that for whatever reason got buried even as it dealt with issues that have been in the headlines almost every day since this debuted.

Mandler takes an interesting approach, both non-linear and also with blatant nods to Kurosawa’s Rashomon, which is even cited by Steve’s teacher, played by Tim Blake Nelson. Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Hudson are decent as Steve’s parents, but they’re generally smaller and non-showy roles compared to the moments between Harrison and Ehle. Much of the film takes place in the courtroom with flashbacks showing what happened through the viewpoint of whomever is on the stand, which eventually includes Steve himself.

The way Mandler handles the material may lean more on the artiness rather than something more mainstream -- Michael B. Jordan’s Just Mercy comes to mind -- but it’s just as powerful in showing how someone like Steve can be othered by society into being a criminal. Sure, there have been other handlings of this sort of material that I thought were better films, but if you know anyone who has ever had dealings with the “justice” system and know how unfair and horrible it can be even to the innocent, then Monster will certainly strike a chord.

Also hitting Netflix this week is the new series based on Mark Millar and Frank Quitely‘s comic books, JUPITER’S LEGACY (Netflix), another kind of twist on the superhero genre ala Amazon Prime Video’s series based on Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys. I love the comics, and I can’t wait to finally get around to seeing Netflix’s first adaptation of a Millarworld property.

David Oyelowo makes his directorial debut with THE WATER MAN (RLJEfilms), a movie about a young boy named Gunner Boon (Lonnie Chavis), whose mother (Rosario Dawson) is battling leukemia. In an effort to cure her, Guner goes off on a journey along with a teenage girl named Jo (Amiah Miller) to find the mythical Water Man, who can provide them with a magic token that might save Gunner’s mother’s life.

I’ve interviewed Oyelowo a few times before, and I really like him a lot, so I had really high hopes for him as a director since I feel he’s just a terrific actor. Unfortunately, the material here is just not strong enough that I think even a far more experienced filmmaker could make something out of it.

Set in PIne Hills, we meet Gunner, a bright kid who loves drawing comic books, but he has trouble connecting with his father (Oyelowo), so when he has an idea that might help his sick mother, he goes off with a head-strong teen named Jo, in search of the Water Man, a summertime adventure permeated by a lot of very bad low-budget visual effects.

Honestly, I’m not even sure where to begin with where The Water Man falters, because Oyelowo has such a great cast, including Alfred Molina and Maria Bello in tiny parts. The story is a problem, as is the writing, which is just so bland and dull, that there’s really nothing in Oyelowo’s direction or any of the performances that really can salvage it. Neither of the child actors have much charisma or personality, and even Dawson’s performance, which would normally be a showstopper is repeatedly lessened by the constant cutting back to the kids. (And as someone who beat leukemia myself, I’m never a fan when cancer is depicted in movies as a death sentence rather than just another hurdle in life that needs to be overcome.)

Oyelowo himself may be one of his generation’s best actors, but he brings so little to the role of Gunner’s father, maybe to not take away from his younger star, but it hurts that he doesn’t do more to create a stronger conflict by making the character more horrible to drive Gunner away. The actual Water Man doesn’t improve things when he finally shows up, essentially talking like a pirate but not even remotely paying off.

Honestly, The Water Man seems like such a misguided venture -- Exec. Produced by Oprah, no less -- and it might have been totally forgettable if the characters didn’t keep saying the title of the movie every five minutes.

Hitting theaters Friday after a festival run is Tran Quoc Bao’s action-comedy THE PAPER TIGERS (WELL GO USA), starring ALain Uy, Ron Yuan and Mikel Shannon Jenkins as martial artists once known as “the three tigers but now middle-aged men must set aside old grudges and dad duties to avenge the murder of their teacher. I’ve had a screener of this since last summer when it played at Fantasia Festival in Montreal, and I just never got around to watching it, but if I’m able to squeeze it in before the weekend, check back here for my review.

Streaming on Shudder this Friday is Ryan Kruger's South African comedy-thriller FRIED BARRY (Shudder), starring Gary Green as Barry, a violent street junkie who is abducted by aliens who take over his body in order to… well, actually… they do a lot of drugs, have a lot of sex and other craziness. It’s a pretty strange and bizarre movie that reminds me a little of movies like a lower-fi Under the Skin or Beyond the Black Rainbow, and much of it is driven by the insane and unique performance by Green and the odd characters he encounters that I think will find its fans for sure, but it will definitely be for a very select audience of genre festival fans, as this is by no means a mainstream genre film.

Speaking of which, another movie out this week which I wasn’t allowed to see in advance is Gia Coppola’s MAINSTREAM (IFC Films), starring Maya Hawke as a young woman seeking internet stardom by making YouTube videos with a charismatic stranger, played by Andrew Garfield, until “the dark side of viral celebrity threatens to ruin them both.” Yup, it’s one of THOSE movies. It also stars Nat Wolff, Jason Schwartzman and Johnny Knoxville, but I haven’t heard anything good about it, and I’m not sure my curiosity is piqued enough to spend any of my own personal money to check it out.

Hitting Amazon on Friday is the doc THE BOY FROM MEDELLIN (Amazon) from Matthew Heineman (City of Ghosts, Cartel Land), a portrait of musical superstar J. Balvin, as he prepares for a massive sold-out stadium show in his hometown of Medellin, Colombia, which is hindered by the growing civil unrest in the area.

Lots of other movies this week, but a few that i just wasn’t able to get to this week, including:

ABOVE SUSPICION (Lionsgate) INITIATION (Saban Films) ENFANT TERRIBLE (Dark Star Pictures) QUEEN MARIE (Samuel Goldwyn Films) SILO (Oscilloscope) CITIZEN PENN (Discovery+)

That’s it for this week. Next week, Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson star in SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW (Lionsgate) and Angelina Jolie returns for the thriller THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD (New Line) and Timur Bekmambetov’s thriller, PROFILE (Focus Features). That’s right. This will be the first weekend in over a year where we’ll have three or maybe even four new wide releases.

[currentfandomkick]

Why Marinette Hates Tim

Marinette blames Tim next summer for all that happened. Why? He cursed her with a vague theory. And Max and her Both know give her a clue and she has to follow it to solve the puzzle—a fatal flaw for her, Puzzler, Hero Stalker (Tim), Riddler and her father, Professor Strange (even if he is using an alias and supposedly dead as far as legal documents go).

Hero Staker Tim swore he’d become Robin if the current one left. It was a joke between them, she thought. Then he vanished the next summer, the first one where there wasnt any Robin mentioned anywhere. It was eery.

Then, then Timothy Drake, heir to some company-who looks a lot like her Hero Stalker—is a Wayne. And there’s a new Robin. This... deeply bothers Marinette. Why? New Robin seeks her out and talks a lot like Hero Stalker. And has a too similar movement pattern and tells.

And wasnt Hero Stalker Tim from a rich but high on neglient at best family? Didnt that happen to Timothy Drake before ending up as a Wayne?

Her that puzzle peice was central to figuring this out and goddamnit. Frost, who hates gossip, told her to just look up the rich families with kids Hero Stalker’s age and see who looked like him and to leave from to his lab and antidotes already.

Frost accidently gave her the vital method to see if Hero Stalker was that dumb to be become Robin after Robin the Second (Jason) was brutally murdered. The answer was yes.

And now Marinette had a crisis. She knew Batman’s identity was Bruce Wayne. How? Tim calls Bruce his dad. New Robin slipped and called him dad. And Tim is New Robin since Tim is Hero Stalker and no one else came close to looking like Hero Stalker from the data pool which involved more hacking than she ever thought she would do.

Marinette, a child, figured out who Batman was by age 9 becuase his new Robin/former Stalker was too obviously himself. She is embarrassed on his behalf, and honestly debates asking Riddler to separate him and Bats in a non-lethal puzzle trap just to lecture him. Becuase what the fuck Hero Stalker! If she can figure it out, then everyone else can too! Probably(?) likely. Either way its bad!

She doesnt though... Riddler puts together she’s concerned for the new Robin, traps Bats in a different puzzle maze from Robin, who is stuck with a grounded Marinette. Why was she grounded, easy. She got caught returning stolen jewlry on camera. It was punishment for failing basic stealth—always take out any witness.

And instead of pointing out she knows who Bats is, she tells him to work on a different persona since ‘i made you weeks ago. Its pretending to be someone you’re not completely is all. I have to do that around Maman and Papa all the time, and whenever i go out with anyone really. Up your secret identity game already!’

Riddler is busy with Bats and didnt do cameras. Why? “Im not redesiging a perfectly good grounding maze every time. They take time and i dint always have it. Its time economics Batman. I dont know what our lovely Princess said or did to your Robin. He’s fine though, see? No major injuries.”

Tim relized Marinette knew Hero Stalker was batman’s new Robin. This meant one thing—he could still help her and the RKC now! Why? He knew even if they made him out, they want to help people and never be like their parents, duh. And if they added to his budding information network with incredibly accurate information so long as he didnt rat them out to Batman, its fine.

Afterall, Pixie Pop wants to help poeple and is working the rouges into vigilantes to help more than hurt, and is doing a great job of it for the most part. So if Pixie Pop is Princess who’s the maybe kryptonian and her powers align with that theory, so what? Superman has an heir already and a bio!son too, apparently. Lois didnt tell him since they werent together then and yeah. So really, Superman didnt need another kid, and Pixie Pop didnt want another dad—“i have Papa and Father and now four of my friends’ dads in Paris called dibs on partial custody. I have more dads than i need for a quartet. That is far too many dads and i refuse to get another one!”

Then Marinette is talking to Alix and finds out about an old director at the Lourve her dad knew, Diana Prince. Marinette was working on a Wonder Woman inspired outfit, and knew her history of Wonder Woman thank you. Its just...

Wonder Woman appeared just after Miss Prince Left. And from the videos Alix sent of her new hero, she was terrifyingly similar to Wonder Woman. Not only did they look alike and have the same hair style preference, it was the same face if she did facial recognition with Markov, her robot son with Max. Then there was gait, generao stances and how she interacted with men and women so differently as both people and damnit. Same person.

She curses Hero Staker Tim for this. She now has to hide two hero identities. Why her?

The third was debatably Ivy and Harley’s fault, but defiantely still Tim’s. Why? He was the one that got her hooked on Barry Allen’s cases, and pointing out that he didnt see meta as bad or evil but as people who can be good or be civilians peacefully. That, she needed that with how much vitrol she had to swallow about her powers indirectly from everywhere but her school and some parts of Gotham.

In her defense, she is a nerd here. A nerd. So realizing the The Flash is also the forensics guy from Central City that she kinda follows on all her social medias, watches the cases of unfold, and knows has a reputation for being late a lot like her but is still well liked. So she may fangirl about his cases with Hero Stalker erm. Tim now, still.

And if one day she managed to pout at her father enough to get him to agree to let her go with Harley and Ivy to Central City for a few days to see the meta museum they just opened up (technically the Flash Museum, but Marinette didn’t care. It was focused on metas not being horrible and that meant a lot to her scared, meta closeted butt).

And then her favorite forensic investigator, The Barry Allen, shows up? Best day ever. He’s nice! And concerned about how much of his cases she knows. Its not her fault this time though! Hero Stalker—Tim—sent her a case of his that went cold and she liked his science and yeah. New hero added to her listpersonal heroes list.

Harley isn’t even mad, just amused as Marinette fangirls over someone that isnt her and Barry has no clue how to respond as a tiny child know him as Barry Allen and thinks he’s awesome? Why?? He is happy but so confused and Iris is dying until Marinette cites cases that she shouldnt know about and tiny child why, how, when and where did you get that information!

The only answer is a friend likes cold cases and has no qualms hacking to find interesting ones, if he’s stumped then Marinette (Jill Smith mr. allen sir!) gets to try. And she is good at it since she can ask an officer in France (officer Raincomprix) about logistical things, common error margins and then puzzle it all out herself from there.

Somewhere she mentions absently that her mom doesnt like her science-y side since her dad was a bad person and liked science but she still likes learning and helping, even if the family buisness is food and service and they want her to either take over or become a designer. She’s thinking maybe for people woth disabilites so she can do more mental work and toy with hiw things bend and move and such.

Iris and Barry are ConcernedTM and debating how to get custody, or get her away from her mom or both. Probably both—no science allowed for a clear science obssessed kid is a red flag for bith of them that somethinf is very wrong. Harley and Ivy wave it off as “trust us, her mom aint budging.”

then the Flash is needed because of some gorilla—Marinette was more focused on an outfit on display and muttering over aerodynamics and friction. Barry is Concerned (smart kid, likes helping, potentially a league ally?) before he bolts, determined to get more on her when he returns and possibly see if he can get cps involved.

Marinette only notices that her hero moving so fast and oh god she did it again damnit! That was superspeed. And only one speedster had similiar measurements, the Flash.

She cant even tell Hero Stalker now because he’s Robin and the Justice League would Flip if they knew she knew 3 of their hero’s identities. She just hit her head and said “i did it again!” Harley pats her head while Marinette burrows into her because why is she a danger to the Justice League and secret identities! She doesnt want to be or to know damnit!

Tim sneezes in the distance and wonders who’s talking about him behind his back this time. He messages batgirl about this bad feeling he has and she laughs it off as the boy developing Batman’s paranoia.

Her Fourth solve was Green Arrow. It was an accident! She swears. She just saw oliver queen with a bow and arrow in a video shooting. and noticed he had a very distinct and familiar style to someone but not who. Then compared it to various archers as her brain was nagging. Then saw a green arrow video and cursed herself again then Tim five more times.

She sent a message to Rose asking why she’s a danger to all secret identities. Rose tells her it is her curse for being too damn smart and not leaving things alone.

Marinette tries reallly hard not to figure out the next one. But really, it should have been an earlier solve and she’s mad at herself for missing it for so long, even if it was more aviodance than denial.

Admittedly this one should have been an earlier solve, but she was very little when she found out about the surgery and everything and it was uncomfortable damnit! So she did what any reasonable child would. Ignore it. Then she went over the file to see if maybe she could possibly target parts of the kyptonian DNA in her to weaken it. And saw who the intended donor was, Clark Kent, a reporter that has impossible luck with big hero scoops, is never injured or rescued, and never been sick. He also looks like... one quick photoshop of his glasses onto superman with a clothing change and she sees her usual disguise technique on goddamn superman. She is overwhelmed with this as ‘oh god superman will kidnap me if he finds out!’ And hides from him whenever he’s in the region—be it France or Gotham.

Her friends think its hilarious, Marinette feels sick from it. She doesnt like this and is genuinely scared for her life and family’s safety now. And we all know how nervous marinettes are.

If at one point batman tried to talk to her on patrol and somewhat suceeded. As in, she spoke beofre bolting.

“I didnt figure out who boyscout and amazon and boltbrain and arrowhead are! Or you and the batfam! Bye!!!!” Yes, clearly Marinette can lie very well.

Batman sees through it and feels sick. He forces a league meeting asap and fills them in.

“this kid put five of our identities together and cant even lie. We need to recruit them.”

“Batman, is this that kid KF mentioned to me?”

Batman nodded. Flash sighed. “Okay. We are on a manhunt for a kid kyptonian that is terrified of all of us, very smart, and may have an active gotham villain as a parent. And somehow knows me and—wait. bats, do you have any pics of your rogues in civilian clothing? I need to test a theory...”

A few minutes later and “oh my god that little kid i met as a civilian figured me out!”

A few days later Flash finds her by acccident as a civilian kid in broad daylight on her own in Central. He doesnt show he knows she knows, And finds out she’s waiting for her babysitter to finish a class.

Flash just asks about a case he put together as Barry Allen that she might know about and...

“Uh, mr. Flash? Why are you asking me? The lead florensics was Barry Allen.”

He tries insulting Barry Allen—he’s late and sloppy and—

only for Marinette to defend him to the death. “He’s late because he stays up late working on other cases. Appearances and organizational skills arent what matters with his expertise mr. flash! He even foghts for metas to have their circumstances and powers impact on them considered dueing sentencing!”

Flash is very touched and shocked. only then he manages to get out of her that where she lives (france) being meta is a life sentence to “a living zombie And jail-time for being born a lot, even if it is t in normal prisons. And you know what? Mr. Allen stated so many times that you need to contextualize powers and abilities and intent in his testimonies for meta cases. Back home youre put in prison for defending yourself...” she tugs at her sleeve here.

“Maman screamed at me when she found out a few kids were getting stalked and i helped out and someone got it on tape. Not becuase my powers showed or anything—father made a treatment so they dont, well, they stay off when i use them and follow all the behavior and environmental rules so they cant put me in one of the centers. But she, she’s stills cared someone will try to check me for abilities back in France, and that she’ll lose me. She doesnt always realize i have them until things like that happen...”

Flash is desperately trying not to adopt her. Wally would love a little sister, and Superman has enoguh kids, Bats does too. he is oreventing arrow form having another one as she’s powered and that isnt a good when working with Green Arrow unless the meta is his girlfriend. And the girl loves science—come on!

batman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman and Superman heard the Feance bit over comms and suddenly it hit them that the kid could be in danger for existing and that an entire country villified being meta to an extreme. That the girl is in hiding and probably using an alias constantly. Batman mentally adopted her ages ago and is now in Worried Dad mode like Flash and apparently Superman was falling into it too. Wonder Woman is in righteous rage mode and ready to fight france herself if she has to—no imprisoning metas for being metas!

Flash decided to be direct since he knew she trusted him as Mr. Allen and knows he’s Flash.“So, am i allowed to know which powers you have?”

Marinette shook her head, visbily distressed and floating skightly. “If, if they ever find out i cant. I cant risk Maman and Papa and Father. I dont know everything but Father only started being a good person after the, the incident where he had to go into witness protection. Maman is dead as far as a lot of people are concerned, or she never existed. Papa doesnt know about any of it. I cant. I cant risk what they worked for by being outted.”

Flash is very concerned. “Thats a lot of pressure to put in yourself, especially at your age.”

marinette didnt make eye contact then. “I have to. If i dont people can connect dots and dashes and blips. Father says its easy for him too and that possibilities are just what we’re both hardwired for but. But i shouldn’t catch as many as i do—my teachers keep saying i need to dial it back and stop catching on so fast and blurting it all out but, i just...” marientte is visibly drowning under the pressure to act not-meta and keep her family safe.

“Sounds like youre a real smart kid.”

“Smart kids dont get caught.” She meant herself with her jewlry returns, Flash thought she meant the JL, and tried to redirect the conversation.

If the JL was out then...

“If you cant tell me, can you at least tell me you have someone to talk to about these things?”

“Auntie Quinn and Rose. Rose doesnt like you guys though.”

Flash laughed a little at that. “Alright, fair enough. Who made her mad? Was it arrow?”

“Batman.” Marinette frowning as she said the enxt bit. “Something about her being given to someone that should never be allowed bear children? She rants a lot so i cant always keep up.”

Batman internally bangs his head against a table. Outwardly, he says “Ivy’s daughter, rose. That girl, she’s the Princess.”

The assemebled winced. They all pushed for Rose to be sent toback to her mother, Ivy, since they didnt trust her with any available mentor and Ivy was usually a low ranking Gotham eco-terrorist pacified by wayne gardens and green initiatives. Apprently Rose has a lot of sway over the Princess too.

Marinette changes the conversation while. Waiting for her babysitter, Ghoul, to leave class. She needs a distraction from her situation that the Flash was willing to give her.

“Can i look at the case again? Something doesnt add up... there! See? Its close to the Speedsters that leave marks at those angles but only if they really mess with the speed force and the spacetime continuum! But theres no evidence of that, its a lightning meta, Possibly using it to teleport since no one came in or out on camera. Its a slight angle and all but...”

Flash decides Marinette will join the Justice League one day or so help him! He also decides to target france’s anti-meta policies and possibly kidnap Marinette.

The League isnt letting him. But he has a fan of Barry Allen who is handling Gotham’s criminals and beign given slack by them... albeit also raised by in-part. But the girl has a strong moral compass that is a lot like most of League’s so.

He’s fighting Bats for custody on principle. His fangirl, he has dibs!

Dont know why it ended up with Flash becoming a ‘Marinette is my daughter now’ person but why not? Wally would like her as a sister, probably.

Marinette blames all of this and the future consequences on Tim. She hates her vanishing freind for this.

[letterstodaphne]

Dear Daphne, 

It’s been a while since I wrote actual letters, but it's just so much easier to write on laptop. Of course it will be in your liking to know that the aesthetics still remain simple yet elegant, I won't ever to anything different. 

Anyways, the whole world is going insane right now and you probably would go just as mad as me watching the blatant lies and incorrect or non-verified “scientific” studies (more like methodically wrong simulations) Mr. Shorty tries to sell as the only truth, he received from his “experts” whose names he won't tell. Your best friend from the 2008 epidemic is now back on top as Germanys apparent only intelligence. Whereas back then it was Tamiflu which promised to reduce a severe development it’s now Remdesivir. You know, rewatching the news back then and comparing them with now.. it’s pretty similar but yet slightly different. 

Whereas back then almost nobody did publish actual numbers or countings, now they escalate with daily updates and drive people insane. Watching people denounce and insult each other for months becomes tiring. At the same time I get really annoyed about the fact that everyone who does offer critique - which is essential in a scientific discourse - became ridiculed or mouthdead instantly. Everyone who offered critique was entitled as a conspiracist or stupid, no matter if they were right or wrong.

Not to forget the audacity to cut off our essential rights for a month. Like I really mean the most basic of the basic rights to p.e. going for a walk in the local gardens. I mean we both would definitely still go to Schönbrunn for a walk and just pay the fee. 

By the way, you’d be so proud of me. I got straight A’s in basic and advanced statistics.. even though multivariate are killing me. Still, I actually know what scientists are talking about when showing their ‘exponential’ graphs. And when even I (with profs approval) see mayor errors in the stats, it really was badly made. But why not, it’s just so easy to follow the truth one makes up themself. 

I won’t ever forget how Shorty threatened the country with about more than 250k deaths, because his “experts” did bad maths. They seriously calculated 8mio*0.37 instead of 0,0037. The 0.37% were in percent and they literally just forgot to convert. You’d like to know of the 0,37%? It’s from Hendricks field study of one city which was exposed to a super spreading event and the majority got infected. Of course I am aware that this study has flaws. But nevertheless they could actually test households and 60% of the cities population about the virus’ behaviour. But you know I am way too lazy to recount all results. The most important part in my opinion was the newly calculated lethality between ca. 0,37% (+/-0,1%) - compared to sessional Influenza which has a lethality between 0,2-0,4%. And I know of course that wE HaVe A VacCiNe against influenza. Nevertheless only 8% of the whole austrian population got this vaccine so stfu, it makes more sense to compare both stems in this regard than with any other. And the other important conclusion was, that the number of non recorded infections may be way higher than calculated. Which is good, means that the actual lethality may be even lower. Today 25% of the persons who got tested are without any symptoms, but you know they only test ~9k ppl a day. So the thesis of a higher dark number is really plausible. 

People really love to put words into my mouth I’ve never said, whereas I only state that some measurements actually endanger the (mental, financial, etc.) wellbeing of others more than the virus. Does it sound cruel? I hate it here. 

Evil Duffy is helping out at her local suicide hotline and she told me about the significant increased calls she’s receiving. Meanwhile stuff got better, but between March-May it apparently was really bad. By the way Duffy is doing pretty good, she quit her gang and it was the best to happen to her. She’s flourishing. I love it. Don’t be jealous, we still are just friendly enemies.

Well in case you’re wondering about the recent happenings here, it’s almost as if nothing really happened. Except that the clubs are officially closed but parties won't ever stop, will they? Martin got caught in April and had to pay a 5k fee. 5k are for him like?? nothing. Of course rich people are not really affected by rules. And no, I hate him although I had to visit them since Ivana is pregnant. No one ever would’ve thought that her tiny body is once again 6months into pregnancy. 

Travelling became tiresome and troublesome. But it’s getting better in Europe. I wonder when intercontinental flights will be regular again. After my last BKK I gave up my LR license. I don’t care if I won't be able to redo the license anytime soon, this was pure torture. They literally imprisoned us for 6 days in the hotel room. No room card. No balcony. No fresh air. Only room service and bad wifi. I am not one to complain so easily about work but this was beyond my comfort zone. For my sorry ass it’s only short range all the way. I’ll gladly do every nightlight of SS4. Still better than the regional fleet, Bless their poor souls. And about the service I don't want to talk. It’s trash.

Yeah work is pretty bad, we’re actually just waiting when the company will begin to fire us. But since we’re on shortwork they are legally not allowed to to so, yet.

My studies are going badly as well, I couldn’t find the interest in anything lately. I just finished the i.p. seminars and wrote the respective scientific papers, but that's it. Only 15ects, a shame. Well.. two gradings are still not finished yet but I am sure I passed anyways. 

Seems like I was mostly venting and complaining about my recent life, but you know.. I am so mad at everything. Maybe I should start fencing once again.

I promise the next letter will be kinder,

en garde! 

[karinrumi]

Let me Stay (KawaSumi)

Title: Let Me Stay [KawaSumi, OneShot, AU, Bodyguard!Sumire]

Status: Complete.

Rating: T+ (mild-swearing)

Wordcount: 3, 909 words.

AN: Hello, everyone! Here’s my next Kawaki x Sumire OneShot. It starts my Boruto/Naruto Rare Ships Series that includes OneShots about the recommended to me rare ships! Hope you enjoy the ride. ;)

Your clumsy author - Karinrumi ;)

She couldn't breathe properly. It didn't matter how many screams and warnings she shouted towards them, at the end of this dream they died. For Sumire, it was one of the worst nightmares. 

Sumire ran over to the bathroom. She needed to take a bath due to all the sweat because of her nightmare. On her way, she tried not to vomit having in mind the scene, she witnessed in this dream.  

Her closest friends death.

Of course, their death in a dream disturbed her a lot. Even more so because of the person who killed them.

She was the one that killed them. Just one push was enough to end their fragile lives.

Getting into the bathtub was a desperate attempt on her part. Sumire hoped that the water in it would wash away all her old sins, that the nightmares stop. Her therapist said they would.

Right now they didn't stop at all. Those nightmares paid a visit every peaceful night she had.  

Sumire stared into the mirror, she looked terrible. The bags under her eyes and the paler than usual skin betrayed she had an awful night. She needs to take a grip since her teammates shouldn't worry about her.

She didn't deserve the friendship with Wasabi and Namida, especially after all these lies she was saying to them. Going on a mission now when she's like that wasn't the best idea. She should calm down, do something to distract herself from thinking about this dream. Yes, that's the best action she can take in this situation.  

Should she call Sarada or Boruto to come over?  

No, she cannot bother them with her problems, these two just started to date with each other and will end up paying attention to themselves. Besides, she didn't want to take the blame for interrupting their quality time together. In all fairness, they would be the last people she asks for help. There was the issue of her one-sided love for Boruto as well, she knew it was an unrequited love from the start, but some of these feelings still were lingering in her heart. It's not like she has fallen in love on purpose, he was just that person that saved her from worthless life by showing her his kindness.  

Ironically, the kindness that saved her now makes her unrequited love painful.  

As much as she hated the idea of going on a mission when her feelings were a mess, at the same time focusing on one would prove useful as a distraction. She should check if any solo requests are available, and just inform her squad she's going on one.   

That should help. Maybe the time spent away from Konoha is for the best? Sumire doubted she'll be really alone though. After all, her rehabilitation included at least one person that observes she's not up to something dangerous.   

Sumire sighed at the thought. Going on a solo mission seemed like more trouble for her than any other ninja in the village.   

                                 ・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・

Apparently, she could go on a solo mission under the condition she's not entirely alone. Hokage never had any shred of doubt that Sumire was the skilled kunoichi. Her best guess was that the villagers and the elders are secretly fearing she'll start attacking villagers again or betrays the village. 

Sumire scowled while reading the description of her mission. It was obvious they tried to play it safe by sending her on a C-Rank one.   

Not to mention that protecting the adoptive son of Hokage on his way to Iwa being ranked as C-Rank mission had her alarmed to be extra careful. Boruto's adoptive brother name slipped out from her mind. What was his name again?

Kawasaki? Kawamaki? 

Sumire could swear it was Kawaki, but there's no way she was entirely sure. The only thing she could do was standing in front of an exit gate waiting for the man of honour to arrive.

"Ain't you too short to be my bodyguard?"  

She turned around to see the person who dared to call her short! Her spiteful glare didn't affect the man saying these cursed words. Sumire was declared a dangerous warrior, a skilled fighter, the traitorous woman, but if there was something she hated, it was being called short in any shape or form. She would be the one to deal the killing blow if protecting him wasn't her obligation as his bodyguard for this mission. 

"Height has nothing to do with my capabilities." Sumire tried not to seeth from the anger she felt. Why being polite to so-called VIPS was part of her job? Punching them would allow skipping the problems they create, to begin with.  

"I ain't doubting that. Name's Kawaki," he introduced himself first. Sumire couldn't deny he's a handsome looking man, but she was glad her taste in clothes isn't similar to his. Looking like a punk girl parading with bandaged breasts and the transparent jacket wasn't the image she wanted.  

"Sumire Shiga-," she paused to correct her mistake. "Sumire Kakei."  

"Hmm… Ain't you just a midget? I know that one asshole lady is super powerful, but you're looking less skilled than her." Kawaki smirked at her in a way that annoyed her to no end.   

Midget?! Asshole lady?! 

She indeed wanted a break from the people living in the village, to find a way to stop her nightmares too, but dealing with a guy that called her the midget made Sumire second-guess herself. And that usually never happened lately. 

"I'm the midget that specialisation is sniping and is very efficient in hand-to-hand combat. You should be more careful in the choice of your words." Sumire dismissed for a moment his insulting comment to inform him as emotionlessly she could about her area of expertise in battle.

Then they fell into an uncomfortable silence.

Venturing into the forests surrounding the village could be a pleasant experience, under the condition she wouldn't have an unwanted company. Sumire liked to be around the trees, wild animals and being on a path that makes it easier for her to hide. Konoha Forest belonged to territory she was familiar with, giving her advantage in a case of being ambushed. The only problem was that she was limited in a way due to the person walking behind her. 

Sumire disliked the feeling of someone dragging her down, so do Kawaki, at least she assumed that's the case. There's no way that he didn't have any fighting skills taking into consideration he's the adopted son of Hokage. Being on the high alert never brought her down and the gut feeling she had about this whole mission being suspicious, made her watch her surroundings more.  "At what you excel in the combat?" she inquired.

Surely, Kawaki should've known how to fight. When she calmed down Sumire mind turned sharp in the realisation that the man she was supposed to protect would be capable of defending himself. In other words, her mission as Kawaki's bodyguard was just a ruse, and the whole situation serves as the means to test her loyalty to the village. A trial to see if she'll backstab these pesky elders, or is there another objective she's unaware of?

"I'm glad you ain't fucking stupid. You can tell I'm well versed in hand-to-hand combat too and I dare to say I'm better than you." His answer just confirmed he's an arrogant motherfucker. Sumire wasn't impressed by his cocky demeanour in the slightest, cursing in her mind Konoha elders because she suspected they were the ones that are paranoid about her going rogue. 

"You sure are cocky, aren't you?" Sumire summed up from what she gathered from this short exchange. Kawaki didn't answer deciding the silence was the best response. Great, now she even can't enjoy the peace and quiet in his presence.

If in his place was Boruto, Sarada, or her teammates Sumire wouldn't be bored while walking around the wilderness. It's not like she disliked silence per se, but the stillness, when she was with Kawaki, belonged to unbearable kind of quiet.   

They walked like that at least two hours straight without rest, then suddenly stopped at the scent of a burnt body. In front of them, a headband with the symbol of the leaf belonging to their village was underneath the autumn leaves.

Why a potential enemy showed up so soon? Wasn't it the C-Rank mission?!

Sumire nodded to Kawaki in a way to signal the danger, as well get the confirmation he noticed their potential enemies. She used the hand signs feeling a flow of chakra rushing through her entire body and created a clone made from water. Water Clones were different from the Shadow Clones Boruto used in a lot of ways. First of all, she couldn't stray too far away from the copy of her body made from the water, her control over the body double depended on how she correctly calculated amount of  needed distance.

Leaving the clone with Kawaki, Sumire jumped to hide in a nearby tree. One, two, three... There are seven opponents in total. The clone is standing in an overprotective manner in front of Kawaki, that's good. From this spot, it'll be easier to shoot them all with her water bullets. She concentrated her chakra around her palms then with the snap of her finger the first shot of the lethal water projectile was fired.  

One of the enemy ninjas let out a shriek at the sight of his comrade dropping to the ground. She was able to shot the two others before the rest of them noticed her position.   

She needs to change her hiding spot, quickly. Sumire narrowed her eyes and glanced towards her clone that still was guarding Kawaki that looked relaxed, clearly enjoying watching her dealing with these ninja fodders. "Damn, if I jump on the other tree I won't be able to control my clone," she whispered, seeing the four others head straight to Kawaki. 

She didn't have a lot of time to think, so she used the tree to jump and shot the two others in the mid-air, but that left the two enemies that could still fight back.  In fact, one of them threw shuriken at her while she was preparing to safely land. Gracefully landing she took out the shuriken that she was stabbed with from her left arm. She's lucky it wasn't the poisoned one. Tearing up the part of the purple fabric from her shinobi attire, she tied it around her arm to stop her blood from spilling on the soil.

Sumire wasn't a medic ninja and didn't have time to seek medical attention right now. Even the smallest trace of the blood could reveal where she and Kawaki are to the enemy. Wrapping her injury with a torn cloth was all she could afford, really.

In the background, Kawaki let out a whistle. Sumire was so caught up in the fight she forgot her mission is to ensure his safety, not hers. She messed up big time by revealing their hiding spot. 

"Follow me," she demanded and hoped Kawaki will obey her for now. There was no time for idle chit-chat anyway.

Running as fast as she could Sumire tried to cover their tracks and used the shortcut to get out from the forest. In that way, she could prepare an elaborate trap for the two remaining shinobi that chased them. Breathing heavily from overusing her chakra, she decided to use her bleeding arm to have like some like to say unfair advantage.

But the real battles never were fair.

"Summoning jutsu." Summoning Nue always drained her chakra reserves, not that it was a big deal in the long run. Her monkey friend absorbed chakra from enemies and channelled some of it to the chakra reserve she lost during the fights.

Sumire: The Hawk Stealing Ninja - that's the title she received on one of her past missions. She overheard a lot of rumours about her achievements afterwards. Not that was important in the middle of two enemy shinobi getting out from the forest and falling into her trap. They didn't stand a chance against Nue at all. Her monkey companion completely destroyed any sense of dignity her opponents had. 

Now, it was the time for questioning. Why ninja from Iwa attacked the chunin from her village? Extracting some information about that can change everything about the mission. Travelling to the village of the ninjas she slaughtered a moment ago was worrisome. She should report to the Hokage and ignore that Kawaki still was whistling. Puzzled by what does it mean she decided to think about it later. Maybe she scared him by showing off her skills?

Ha! Maybe now he understands midgets can be deadly.

                                 ・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・

Sending the report to the Hokage went smoother than she imagined, even if her arm hurt like hell. Sumire was grateful that Kawaki stayed silent until they got to rest in the inn. Who would've thought she appreciated something she found unbearable before? Her feelings were hard to handle sometimes, even she had a problem dealing with her own contradictory behaviours. It's not like she lacked confidence, out of all kunoichi in Konoha Sumire clearly had been the second most confident female ninja with Chō-Chō in the lead. Sure, she was acting a little bit as Sumire Kakei to make her friends happy, but confidence wasn't the issue for her.

Her one-sided love for Boruto and maintaining a friendship with Sarada is. 

When Sumire realised she screwed up by telling Sarada, she likes Boruto it was too late to regret it. Blaming it on her 'white lie' to help Sarada to see she loves him as much as Sumire did was indeed her intention. Sumire never hesitated when she knew what she wanted, she headed into the charge, not wasting any opportunities. Maybe she was too bold about her emotions? 

The memory of a little boy running away from her when she told she likes him as marriage playing partner came to mind. She wasn't older than five years old, but she could scare him to befriend her in that way. She went back home, and her mother gently brushed her long hair to calm her down, their only moment of being cherished by one another. Sumire had to wonder often if her confidence is too strong for other people.

Sarada looked startled like a sheepish mouse when she mentioned to her about liking Boruto in a romantic way. She was aware her love is one-sided, that Boruto loved Sarada, but what was she supposed to do? Ignore how she felt? Being in constant denial? Stop having these nightmares?   

On top of that, when she tried to take a break to come to terms with her emotions, she ended up as a bodyguard for Boruto's adoptive older brother. His fucking brother that probably knows him better than she ever will be allowed to. She wanted to cry. The only reason stopping her was that she was on a mission. Dealing with heartbreak during the mission was stupid.

Breathe.

Professional, she needed to be the professional kunoichi right now.

The small hotel room without windows, two beds, a table, and the cupboard suffocated her. Who she'll talk with about these ugly reactions she recently has? 

Her teammates?  

No, she wasn't even able to face them and come clean with explaining the bad things she did in the past.

Boruto and Sarada weren't even an option because of her jealousy. They had something special, they had a real kind of love. Something she'll never have as long she's Sumire Kakei. So why she feels so bad about feeling jealous? She should be happy her closest friends found happiness.

Her inner turmoil broke the sound of knocking on the door.

"The door is open, you can come in, Kawaki", she said with any trace of normality she had left.

Is she really Sumire Kakei, or Sumire Shigaraki? Which version of her is the real one? She acted for so long she cannot see the difference in her both personalities at all at the moment.

"Don't you need to rest? I understand that the fucking kunoichi's in the Konoha are badass, but you're on another level of craziness than that asshole punching ground girlfriend of my bro," Kawaki let out an amused chuckle. Sumire had no idea if he was praising, or insulting her.

 "I am fine. What about you? Did you get injured during our last fight?"

"I'm alright, y'know. You were the one ending up hurt in the end", Kawaki shook his head and the gleam in his eyes, made her wonder what he thinks about. Sumire didn't know Boruto's adopted brother that well and wasn't too thrilled to protect him. She planned to move on from her one-sided love, so Kawaki's presence wasn't certainly helping her in that area.

"I'm your assigned bodyguard", she replied curtly. Protecting him was her job. It's better when she's injured instead of the person she's supposed to protect. Clients are always more important than the well-being of ninja fulfilling the mission. That was how it worked.

"Ain't you tired of being the ninja? From what I've seen, you all go to seek death in the most gruesome ways possible."

She supposed it's how the civilians in the Konoha perceived the job they did as a ninja. Deep in her heart, she should be prepared to answer this formulaic question, but couldn't. It's like her voice died and the sudden recollection of her nightmares hit her in the most inappropriate moment. Sense of amusement over this conversation made her laugh at his words. In a way, he was right.  People in this line of job she worked with were messed up in the head, and that included her too.

"Sometimes, I am tired. It doesn't mean I seek death, it's just my job like any other job other people have. Sure, there is a risk, but if..." Sumire surprised herself with this wave of honesty on her part.

"If?" Kawaki raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to continue.

"Nevermind. Just let me stay here with you for a moment, if you're worried about me."

She wasn't expecting for him to stay here with her, but he did. This passing feeling of warmness was enough for her to want to protect him without thinking of him as Boruto's brother.  Sure, his language could be considered vulgar, so what?

Just by staying here with her, he proved to her his kindness, and she admired that trait in others.

Because she wasn't kind at all. It's enough that he lets her stay.

                                 ・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・

Travelling to Iwa on the secured route by Tsuchikage and making sure Kawaki is safe, was part of her job. Sumire tried to separate her personal feelings from her duty as his bodyguard. It took a real toll on her since she was so close to revealing all her pent-up feelings to him. 

It's terrifying how fast she could open-up to him under different circumstances. Being Kawaki friend after she finished her mission didn't sound that bad, though. They found a lot of common ground and had similar hobbies. Kawaki, just like her always prioritised saving money due to his background. At first, he was very cautious but spilled everything after learning she was an orphan too. Too close for her comfort, she felt like they gravitate between eventual friendship just to backtrack and come back to a professional way of treating each other. The only question in her head during those past few days of travelling was;

Who really Kawaki is to her?

Good friend? Her client? Adoptive Brother of Boruto? Maybe something more than a friend?

If question number four makes her numb, it could only mean she's doomed.

Ninja assigned as bodyguards couldn't pursue their clients romantically in any way.  From what she heard from Sarada for that very reason dating Boruto is difficult for her friend. Sumire was sure that the girl dating Boruto needed to have a clean background and be as well trustworthy.

Unlike Sarada, she didn't meet these conditions. She knew that falling for Boruto would end up with her being hurt. She still has fallen for him. For better, or worse.

The fear of falling in love with Kawaki made her space out. 

"Hey, are you okay?" Kawaki spoke up after an hour of walking next to her in silence.

"I am fine. Why do you ask?" She silently prayed that her feelings won't get out. Kawaki's presence affected her greatly. Mainly, maybe it was because during those past few weeks they talked a lot with each other. The similarities they shared, the silent understanding they shared, everything they had in common makes it complicated.

It almost felt too easy to start crushing on him, open-up to him. Sumire was scared he could bring out her honest feelings, opinions, even feelings out from her.

And he wasn't doing anything special.  

"You look paler than usual, ain't you? It's pretty obvious. Having a bad night?" She could swear he looked worried, not that she was better than him at reading the body language. Kawaki mentioned he learned it to avoid putting his  biological father  in a bad mood. Sumire didn't pry further into the subject. 

They were both hanging on the thin lines of their comfort zone.  

"I had the nightmares about killing my best friends," she admitted. Then a lot of things she hid started to come out from her mouth. Sumire wasn't planning it, her own voice sounded like she entered auto-pilot mode. Kawaki listened patiently commenting on things like her crush on Boruto, or the too much accurate description of her nightmares. 

"Why ain't we start dating after this mission ends?" he proposed when she finished talking.

"What, why? That's so sudden." Sumire widened her eyes, surprised by his question. 

"We both want to forget about our one-sided crushes, right? Ain't it an appealing offer?"

"I see. You want to date me as a rebound? Who's the girl you love?"

"Sarada."

Sumire sighed. To be honest, she suspected that was the case. In her entire life, it was clear Sarada had no eyes on anyone except for Boruto. Kawaki's feelings were similar to her own. 

Yet, another thing they shared in common.

"Do you still love her?" she whispered. The silent nod just confirmed for her something important. Sumire smiled gently, her guard completely down.

It won't hurt her to give it a shot, right? 

Maybe dating someone else will help her too. In a way, it's beneficial for them both. She's his rebound, he's her rebound. Just a simple mutual arrangement that she'll agree to. If something goes wrong, they can simply talk and go back to their current lives.

"I am in. Can you promise me something?" Sumire decided to make some things clear.

"Sure, what is it?" Kawaki shrugged, clearly knowing what they both walk into.

"Let me stay as your friend, even when we stop."

Yes, as long he's her friend everything will turn out alright. This mission, rebound dating and guarding him with her life. Letting her stay by his side was the only condition she had. 

"In that case late my stay as your friend too."

He agreed, and that was enough to make her happy. 

[short-wooloo]

From the reviews section of ff.net A Thing Of Vikings chapter 87:

Every single “trump supporter” in these comments has immediately, without any consideration for any of the points made in this or the previous chapter, proved them entirely correct. I’m reading at least two death threats, multiple condemnations that are straight up lying about things Trump’s done and have misstated facts about the COVID-19 outbreak, etc. The Trump stuff is all politics, but essentially; He didn’t drag the economy up, somehow. Those are remnants of Obama’s economic policy combined with a small global uptick. Economic policy takes years to go into effect, so we won’t know how successful his policies were until at least another half a year or more. And we won’t even know that because COVID-19 exists. So far, though, doesn’t look like he’s done much. He’s completely decimated the robustness of the economy; fallback systems that were formerly in place for all sorts of emergencies, economic, health, and otherwise, including the CDC(which he cut the budget of), pretty much every single department with a relation to population and earth/climate studies(which, contrary to Trumpist belief, doesn’t just have to do with climate change but also with things like *how we can avoid viruses jumping between species like coronavirus did* and *how we can get maximum yield out of our agriculture*, and more), dismantled or attempted to dismantle or is in the process of dismantling pretty much the entirety of the US healthcare support system(slashing federal contributions to medical think tanks and regulatory organizations, scaling down operations of said facilities, cutting government spending on hospitals and hospital plans), etc. All of the above, whatever your opinions on their budgetary necessity, have for a fact caused one thing. You know what that is? The current COVID-19 crisis. Medical supplies; gone. Many hospitals; now underfunded. Medical plans for most people; kaput. Unemployment support for every class of unemployment, including temporary or transitional unemployment; nada. CDC; has been instructed to NOT do anything, it seems. Since, y’know...they haven’t done anything this entire crisis. Trump’s two biggest flaws, regardless of politics, are his impulsiveness and his ego - ie, his need to take credit for anything good that happens, essentially. That means disassembling the CDC so his task force can do everything and he can say, “Look! I did that!”. That means holding press conferences where he answers all the questions, instead of Dr. Fauci, or any other medical experts, or even Pence, who’s actually being the more reasonable one and letting medical experts do their work. That means going on Twitter, while hundreds of thousands have died, and peddling theories about the Democrats making up statistics about the COVID-19 outbreak, which directly contradicts the statistics provided by the very experts he appointed and approved. At the very least, Mr. Trump has been a font of misinformation that is stemming efforts to fight the disease. More realistically? His inaction is the reason the outbreak has spread so far in the US. His inaction is the reason why hospitals don’t have funding or supplies(enacting the DPA without using it? ️). His inaction is the reason there isn’t any cooperation on a state to state level to fight the outbreak; each state is going at it alone. His inaction has killed upwards of 20 thousand people, at this point; and it is slated to kill 60 thousand plus more, with how things are going. Not only that; the sheer misinformation here about the outbreak is stunning. The Chinese federal government actually took pretty direct action as soon as they heard about it; issue being, it was the inherent corruption of their own government that prevented the federal government from hearing about the outbreak. Records show the city government had blocked any efforts to try and communicate the severity of the outbreak - and even news the outbreak existed - from the federal government. The instant the federal government heard, they sent investigation teams and started making moves to shut things down - most likely a PR move for the most part, to get their own butts out of the fire, but ultimately still the most effective move they could have made at the time. They lie about stats, true, but their methods of controlling the outbreak are effective. The reason why it spread so fast is not just because of global inaction - it’s because China is China, and the disease is exceptionally infectious. If I remember correctly, it’s twice as infectious as the flu; kills on an order of magnitude more people; has an extremely long period of time in which patients are both infectious and asymptomatic; can jump between species, as already shown; has at least three strains jumping around; is completely new to modern medical science; and is a coronavirus, a class of virus that has very few actual treatments as of the modern age. SARS and MERS, the other two most similar coronaviruses, had basically no reaction in terms of medical development; they were too “small” and localized. Not enough time, or sample.a, to even effectively develop treatments. All these things combined caused the current crisis. It’s one of if not the most infectious disease we’ve seen in centuries, perhaps millennia, or perhaps even ever. And that makes it a lot more dangerous than a disease that kills 100% of those it infects, or anything that lethal. As for these responses and this story; Are you all really right-leaning Americans? Does freedom of fucking speech ring a bell? AToV is allowed to say whatever they want; as a more right leaning moderate, I agree with some of the things said(everything about Trump’s response to COVID-19 reeks of politics and not science), and I disagree with some of the others. But I can certainly see the point being made, that y’all are fucking toxic - and you know who I’m talking about. Death threats are unacceptable. The responses aren’t that bad, for the most part - even many of those disagreeing - but the disagreements with death threats and those complaining about the mere expressing of opinions need to stop. Y’all complaining about double standards, but in your fucking retarded self-righteousness you are applying a double standard. So you’re apparently allowed to express your opinions, not to mention for some in a way that’s illegal and can be investigated by law enforcement, but AToV isn’t on their own fucking story? Get a fucking life. To the few who disagreed and responded civilly, without the “WaaAh you’re NOT allowed to express your opinions if they disagree with me! Shitty person!” Or “Go die for having an opinion!”, kudos to you. Although, please. Stop spreading misinformation about the virus. What we need right now is a coordinated federal and international response, not each state hammering in different ways at the same problem, and each country following suit. If one state fights it off, and a single person crosses over from another state - outbreak number 2 happens, and it never ends. Trump needs to at the very least stop talking about an economic reopening, because now that’s completely infeasible because he reacted too late, and start coordinating a unified federal response. Companies are sitting on their asses not doing anything; the DPA is here just for that. Private individuals with fucking 3D printers are contributing to this fight more than some corporations with professional factories and injection molds for masks/equipment.

[ficsinhistory]

,As the second season is over, I can finally do it! The second part of Karmi's character analysis per episode!

Despite all the flaws she has, I love how complex she is! She is bold, sarcastic and not made to sympathize at first, this with her not being automatically a villain! Showing to the target audience that people have nuances, that not always someone well acts in black and white, with some managing to overcome problems and not let interfere, but that others get quite marked with these experiences to the point of influencing how it handles some things and someone good can always improve, because not all their attitudes are the best. Which is not bad if you have a good character development, exactly what I'm going to analyze.

And then I want to score one thing: It's okay that you do not like Karmi. Since she needs more development to become a character and that's okay! But some people reduce it to imprecise definitions, deleting important traits of it, distorting it completely as the character is. So, I'm going to do my analysis with that in mind and try to talk about it too, okay?

Internabout

Ah yes! This is where we started the first season. A very cool episode with Trina, NBB, where Hiro arranges a stage and several hilarious and somewhat tense things happens. And of course, Karmi appears in a very interesting way.

Her first appearance was during the gang tour. She is in the lab when she is introduced and where she boasts of the internship, something she has earned because of her lifelong study. Even though she has said it presumptuously, no one can deny that it is a great achievement.

I know, I know, Liv is bad and all, but it does not obliterate the fact that Karmi had her attention because of the talent of prodigy that she has and knowing Amara, even wanting to use it, would not have something common to have in her plan, but, yes, something really impressive. At this point, it is Hiro who is rivaling Karmi, so much so that the gang itself asks why he is still jealous, and does what he can to have something to rub as a victory to Karmi. He arranges an internship with Krei and the episode unfolds.

Her next appearance is at lunch, where she is taking care of her own affairs.

 Hiro comes and tries to provoke her, which she does not leave cheap and refuses giving Hiro a little nervous attack. Both at the beginning and in this scene, it was proof that Hiro also plays this rivalry and that, once and for all, Karmi may be a jerk, but she is not a bully!

Does she have bad attitudes? Yes. Does she need to improve and apologize and change her behavior? For sure! Is she a bully? As someone who has suffered for years this, I can say, no.

According to the definition, bullying has as main pillar the misuse of power in the relationship, generally leading to a total isolation of the target. Karmi has no power imbalance with Hiro, except to be taller, she is practically equal to him. She is a student like him, what she talks about does not affect his reputation, at the most it irritates him, that when he does not rebut, and the stage that she gains in this episode does not harm him in anything but to hurt his ego, thing which already happens since "Big Problem". This stage was won honestly, without Karmi having sabotaged Hiro at all.

Since the beginning of the episode, she's been taking care of her own affairs and the only time she's talked to Hiro was on the Scoraxy tour. After that, she basically reacted to Hiro the whole episode. 

They are rivals and Hiro is not afraid of it, or Karmi. Both are provoked and Hiro has some of the blame on the disagreements, something very different from what constitutes bullying, mainly where the victim usually is afraid, at least, to react.

The next time she appears, her interaction with Hiro was not even required

since they met by accident. That's when Karmi discovers that what he said was "an important task" was just being Krei's servant. In contrast to what Karmi did in Smal Hiro One, Hiro did not tell the truth about what he was doing, trying to trick her when Karmi burst into laughter. (Let's be honest, it was funny and you would laugh too.) She then left and did not show up any more.

In that episode, it was shown how the rivalry comes from both sides and how Karmi simply reacted to Hiro's taunts as he did hers, which is totally different from bullying. It also showed that Hiro reacts well with the injured ego and has flaws, one of the points they have in common.

Pray Date

Ah yes! One of my favorite eps! Here we had many good scenes from around the world and a wonderful character development in general!

The first time Karmi appears is when Hiro and Fred go after them to try to get to Sycorax's lab to check Knox. Karmi at first does not want to get involved, but Hiro practically manipulates her, being honest here, but he had the best of intentions and they were desperate measures so it's forgivable.

Here she also warns about security, which was hilarious! And Fred ends up spoiling various cultures of microorganisms. As a scientist, I can say that this takes time and she was rightly angry. Despite everything above, she actually went to check what Hiro "asked" and eventually discovered that she did not have access to the file. Which led her to question Liv about this, with a very curious body language that I'll look into later.

He loved the dispensation and Karmi ends up meeting Fred, Hiro and Baymax. Hiro questions her about Knox, which leads him to hack into the company's computer and Karmi can identify that something is wrong with his genetic code.

She still does not want to go, understandably, but when Hiro states that someone has to help, she is convinced. They go up to sub-level 9 and fiddling with the files discovers a cure, however they end up being caught and after Liv takes Fred out, they start being chased by Knox, which leads them to a difficult situation.

Hiro wants to disable the security protocol, but Karmi says that would not be good, because it would put many people in danger and suggest waiting until she finds a cure. They argue and Karmi continues underground while Hiro and Baymax leave.

Her next appearance is questioned on Liv's decision, asking her to let him try to find a solution without killing him. However, no one buys the idea.

Then she appears already with a cure and watching worried about a Knox going to the lab, meeting with "Captain Cute" and stating that they would help. However, she questions about Hiro, asking about his status. Gogo claims that he is well and she appears for the last time, having a civilized conversation with Hiro, stating that the "Sycorax" had healed based on her research. This episode was incredible for Karmi's development and brought relevant information about her personality.

The first thing is that it breaks one of the main concepts that many had that Karmi would be a villain. However, it is shown that she has one of the best moral sense of the series.

She may have started helping Hiro because of the ego, but she ended up helping because, as seen in part one of this post, she is a good person. And the evidence of this ran through every episode. The first, and perhaps not so obvious, is when Fred comes in with a club in her lab. Karmi can be a bit harsh when she acts, but she did it to protect Fred.

As a virologist, her work is not only dangerous but extremely deadly, so much so that there are danger signs throughout the lab. One of the basic rules of a lab even is that you can not eat, and taking into account a biology laboratory, this gets even more severe. Fred could become infected with a serious and deadly disease, since Karmi works with extremely lethal pathogens. So it was not just anger, she was trying to protect him.

The second is after Hiro hacks the file. Karmi clearly did not want to break the rules, which could not only put her stage at risk as it was illegal because it was an invasion. However, when she heard that Knox needed help, she went without question, only worrying about how they would arrive at sub-level 9. 

Showing once again how much she wants to help people, as we have seen her speak since the first we saw her, it is not about breaking rules, but if helping someone demands it, so be it. Another situation is when they are fleeing from Knox. One thing very well punctuated by Ari @princess-kidatheart17​ is that she could have fled by herself, but she pushed Hiro to go along.

She worried about his safety and acted on that feeling.Not to mention she bothered to help Baymax as well.

Already the main act of altruism of every episode, at least in my view, was when they were considering what to do. By this time, Hiro had no hope of Knox's healing and was concentrating on leaving the scene, probably resorting to recapture. However, Karmi still had faith that Knox could be normal again which motivated her to take high risks, not only that, she was willing to put her own life on the check and stay longer with a monster that was hunting to kill if it meant not only that he would have a chance to turn human again as she was thinking of people who could get hurt if Hiro turned off security. This was said quite explicitly by her!

Karmi at no time here thought of itself, putting the life of the people of the city and the own Orso Knox above hers. In addition to that when Hiro left her leaving alone, she was faithful to what she believed and began working on a cure.

 When she’s back, she’s questioning Liv herself, stating that she could help.

But the conditions were against her and as Hiro had been captured, it would be too much to ask to entrust a life to her with such urgency. I think Karmi herself would not think that was a good idea, for all intents and purposes, she remained true to herself and continued her healing.

Speaking of Liv and Karmi, we have seen how Amara manipulates her in a way very similar to Gothel and Rapunzel. Karmi is treated like a child by the same one and it constantly has its opinions rejected and painted as inferior or infeasible, which is aggravated by the poor social aptitude that it has. When she goes to speak, Karmi is insecure and nervous, which leaves her vulnerable and Liv knows it. This is dangerous.

She does not want to disappoint her and Liv takes advantage of it. Already afraid and nervous when talking to Liv, the woman leaves her hands tied for being beyond her superior in the company, since she is the CEO, also takes advantage of the vision that our biotech has of her.

Now, the most moving situation of the episode is when she shows concern for Hiro. Something I found interesting is when she asks if he's hurt. Karmi could wait until the next day to see him at SFIT, but she was genuinely worried about asking Big Hero 6 himself. Not only that, when she'll ask if he was hurt she took a break.

The possibility of Hiro getting hurt makes her so distressed that it becomes bitter to think about it, showing that they do not hate each other. Karmi cares. Then the episode ends with her and Hiro talking where we see that a friendship is possible in the future. Honorable mention for the fact that Karmi has canonically Hiro's phone number.

Nega- Globby

Here she interacted more with Honey Lemon, which made me thrive both because she was someone different from Hiro, and because she showed that she could interact with other people after all. This episode showed what I said before about barriers and how Hiro and Karmi are to blame in the rivalry, showing how he talked about how Karmi could not be friends with anyone. Being someone who has social difficulties, this must have been such a blow to Karmi, who again only answered the height. It also showed the vision she has about Hiro and that she finds him very convinced of himself, as well as hinting that the animosity she feels has a much deeper motive.

Her past and what has gone by is still a complete mystery, but it must be big enough to keep it a secret for so long. In any case, here it shows that she has friction with Hiro, but still can be very helpful with others.

She went to find Honey at Grandville's request, however she continued to help on her own, and while having her personality conflicts with Honey, they worked well. Even not being much of a "person of hugs."

Many people may have been surprised that Hiro and Karmi have returned to normal fights, including myself in this. But after much thought, I came to the conclusion that Pray Date was not an episode for these two to finally understand, but rather an episode that pre-established information for this. That's why they're still arguing. In Pray Date important things have been stated, such as Karmi's moral standards, which are very high even, the fact that she cares for Hiro, the two do not hate each other and that if they want, they are capable of peaceful coexistence. So we just have to be patient.

Something Fluffy

This episode brings me a lot of information and theories, besides being the last appearance of Karmi until now. In addition to important statements.

Karmi suddenly appears the first time questioning Hiro about why he publicly accused Liv of creating the monsters. What she did was very unpleasant and unexpected, honestly. But, I assume she acted like this because it hits her on a personal level, not so much by Liv. If you watch this part, even questioning Amara, Karmi felt more offended because she makes "part" of Scoraxy and, as she believes they do good, accuse the company and how to accuse her of something absurd and she would never do , how to create monsters.

K: Why were you attacking Liv with your baseless accusations?

H: Baseless? Sycorax is super-secret genetic modification research!

K: We are the future.

H: No, you are a monster factory.

You may notice that Liv's name is only quoted at the beginning and then the discussion is more conflict-based than Hiro and Kami's views on the company and especially themselves in general. 

In the middle of the fight, Hiro uses the direct focus for Karmi and calls it "monster factory". Not Liv, not Sycorax, but Karmi personally, showing that rivalry also affects him, including how he talks to her. Karmi is part of Sycorax and she sees it as a good thing due to not being aware of Liv's actions, so it's understandable that she finds Hiro's personal accusations, because it's not just Liv or Sycorax, it also hits her.

After that, after all, she's a reasonable person. Hiro has had fits of jealousy before and could be the same occasion, so what does she do? You say Liv is innocent without stopping? 

No. She asks if he has any proof. In the face of so many accusations, it is natural that she expects something to support his theory. She was willing to listen, and I believe that if he had any, even against her likes, Karmi would have listened as she did on Pray Date. However, Hiro did not and this led to an abrupt end.

The next apparition is when Hiro is freaking out and they are gone again. The kid is not in the best shape, unfortunately, and Karmi does not believe her. I can, again, understand, since he is visibly paranoid and, honestly, I would not put faith in anyone in the state where Hiro was. Not to mention that the Mayois were not yet aggressive, but as cute creatures, which did not help much for Karmi's belief. Not to mention that it's not just Karmi, nobody believes in Hiro.

Well, the Mayois start to become a problem and that forces Hiro to get help from Karmi, which brings another interesting point. She does not believe him and does not seem to have any mistrust of Liv, yet she was willing to help search for some answers, even if it was for the boy who was accusing the company she was interning. 

With her help, we discovered that the creatures were made of fungi, and again, even if it was none of their concern or concern, Karmi is open to making a reversal serum to help.

It reveals other things about her personality. Karmi may have an admiration that she may become blinded by Liv, but she has no blind loyalty for Liv. We have to remember that Karmi is oblivious to the harmful actions of Amara and all the respect she feels is because of the good deeds that the CEO seems to have what makes her see it as inspiration, but Karmi is open to evidence and disobey Amara to do what's right, as seen in Pray Date. Not only that, Karmi has an altruistic soul and would not follow any of Liv's disastrous steps. As we have seen, the reason she disagrees with Hiro is not because she thinks Liv was unlikely to have done it, but rather because she has done so many good deeds and has shown it so often that it is ridiculous to accuse her. She has a basis for disagreeing with Hiro, even though she is wrong, it is not based on blind faith, but on tests that Amara cleverly left very convincing, deceiving not only Karmi but also every city.

Not only that, even though she does not believe in Hiro, she is willing to listen to him and help him, even if he does not get along very well. Karmi could have refused to help on all previous occasions, she had to lose including life at various points, but when she saw that she could help, she embarked on her head, she was never stingy at that point. Because, once again since some people do not realize it yet, she is a good person. But like anybody, she has flaws.

In the end, she boldly helps to fight the Mayois and does not appear anymore.

Overall, this season is proving to be a great season overall, increasing the stakes and giving development to the characters including Karmi. Now wait for the next few chapters. Anyway, I'm a sucker for analysis and thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, until the next

[rosemaruii]

The Stars in Your Eyes Will Shine

Choi Jongho x OC Ghost!AU

Synopsis: After having met an unlikely see-through housemate, OC Jiwon has found herself to have fallen in love with him. The only issue is that he’s a ghost. It’s pretty quick to the point and there’s a happy ending wahey

Words: a lot. (3782)

Also published on Wattpad under user Rosemarui

Jiwon had a little secret. A minor thing she hadn't told any of her friends or family. She actually had a roommate living with her, a boy. A ghost.

She's not crazy by the way, there was a time she didn't believe in ghosts either. Although, upon coming face to face with one, she couldn't help but believe it. Why didn't she move out? Well he was... charming? She didn't really get it herself, but she couldn't bring herself to move out - it was hassle and he wasn't that bad. In the beginning he stayed well out of her way, only coming out to see the sun occasionally.

Now a couple months in, he sat comfortably beside her as she watched a random drama on TV. To be perfectly honest, it made her nervous. Not because of his being a ghost or anything, just, well, him in general... She knew it was kinda strange and probably frowned upon in some way? There were probably some ghost-human rules out there somewhere.

"Is he doing good?" The ghost beside her pointed out, gesturing to the screen.

To be frank, she had no clue what was happening - having zoned out a while ago. Focusing her eyes on the screen, she noticed the lead character on the floor, bleeding out of various lethal wounds.

"Um... I don't think so, but he's the lead so he'll survive." She muttered absently, already feeling herself zoning back out.

Jongho turned to look at her, noticing her glassy eyes.

Waving his hand in front of her, he asked, concerned, "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Jolting from her stupor, she looked around for a second before her eyes registered Jongho in front of her. "Oh, uh, I'm fine... Just concerned about, um, school."

From the scrunch of his eyebrows, she could tell he didn't believe her in the slightest. To try and reassure him, she gave a small smile and held her hands up, "I'm fine, promise."

With a disgruntled frown, he slumped back down, taking time within the next hour to steal quick glances at her.

He was concerned, of course he was. She meant, well, the entire world to him. She didn't leave upon seeing him, she stayed and kept him company, she told him he was her precious friend. Although those words, somewhere in him, stung, he was eternally happy.

She excused herself after the show finished and took to her room, leaving him to watch as she retreated upstairs. He wanted to do something for her but what was there to do? He didn't even know what was wrong, not to mention he couldn't exactly leave.

It frustrated him, this body of his as well as his inability to help her. What good is making crockery float when he can't even comfort his special person?

Being alone now made him wonder how he even spent the days before her, he was so bored and a minute hadn't even passed yet. Before her, he didn't have a games console or TV, no books no nothing. Now he had that, but he just couldn't find the energy to interact.

It took ten minutes before he sauntered upstairs to look for her. A second to hear quiet sobs and less than that to burst into her room, not caring if the door was shut - he flew straight through the wall.

"Jiwon?" He muttered, approaching her hunched form slowly.

She didn't react upon hearing his voice, there wasn't any need to hide it; he'd already seen her. Letting out a humourless laugh, she apologised, "I'm fine, sorry..."

It was excruciating to watch as tears fell to the floor, knowing that he couldn't do anything to help. He could only talk to her, there was nothing more to connect with.

"You're not. Please don't cry?" he begged, crouching in front of her and extending a hand, only to pull back. He remembers she mentioned 'touching' him was cold, the whole phasing business was disturbing too. It's just he forgets he can't touch her.

"It's really stupid, I'm stupid. Sorry for being a bother..." she sniffled, wiping her nose on her sleeve as she mustered the brightest smile she could - a step down from her usual ones. It made him frown, but he quickly covered it with a weak smile of his own. He didn't want to make her feel worse.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at the cause of her small breakdown. Still transparent. She couldn't even wrap her arms around him or hold his hand, was this affection even possible? The uncontrollable flow of tears continued to roll over her cheeks, but she had long stopped sobbing. It was just the sting of acceptance now. He was unreachable.

The next few days were torture. They were just like normal, but it felt so much harder.

At one point she was reading a book on the sofa, turning the page regularly. She didn't flinch when sight of a head entered her peripheral, nor when he spoke in a whisper, "What's this book about?"

"It's about society. A depressed man trying to find a reason to live," she answered him in a similar volume.

"Sounds morbid," he said, resting his chin on his hands and reading anyway.

She smiled, "It is."

Possibly a half hour later, Jongho stood up, not worrying about the book - he wasn't even reading it in the first place.

"Jiwon? Let's go out."

Freezing, she closed the book slowly as she turned around to face him, "What?"

"I wanna see the river."

She was confused and worried, but stood up.

"Why? Is that-" she paused, "can you leave?"

A wistful grin spread on sinful lips, "We'll find out, wont we?"

He went to hold his hand out, and she went to take it, only they realised a little late. Her hand passed right through, sending a freezing cold shiver down her spine. He snapped his hand back and apologised, taking steps back towards the door.

"Can you," he nodded towards the door, "get that?"

Staring blankly at his guilt ridden face, a moment of awkwardness was enough to snap her back to her senses. Stumbling, she shuffled to the entrance and took a step outside, turning and watching as Jongho hesitated in the doorway.

She too was nervous, her heart was pounding like a drum in her chest. In spite of her fear, she wore a reassuring smile, hiding that she'd be ruined if he vanished before her eyes.

He took small steps, even smaller as he placed a foot outside. When he didn't feel anything odd, he took another stride, and another. He first looked up at the darkening sky, seeing the sun slowly lowering towards the horizon; then he looked at her. Glowing in the evening light, he didn't bother lingering on what she looked like - he was far too ecstatic about being able to leave. With a toothy grin, he ran up to her excited, waving his arms around like a child.

"Jiwon! I left! I can leave!"

She ignored the toxic melancholy settling in her stomach and grinned right back at him, "You did, you couldn't before?"

He shook his head, "I couldn't even access the garden."

A warmth enveloped her, it was different to the regular cold she felt around him. As if she was infected by his excitement, she cheered from beside him and set off for the river. Only to realise a second later that he wasn't following.

"Jongho?"

He stood behind her still, watching her skip around. A gentle expression that vanished when she turned and met his hesitant eyes.

"Are you okay? We can go back-" she was cut off by a chuckle, he waved her off and began to walk towards her.

"It's fine, let's go?"

Trailing her eyes on him, she hurried behind him.

It didn't take long for their paces to match, ghosts still had to walk. Even just feeling his subtly cold presence beside her was enough, she was content with just that. She decided it was best to leave it as it was, unnaturally natural. Only things never worked out the way they're planned, her ideas all the same.

When she felt a familiar cold wrap around her hand, she stumbled slightly. She tried to look at him but his face was turned away from her, maybe his was as red as hers was, even without the circulation of blood. Despite not being able to feel his hand, she loosely closed hers around his. Every single resolution to forget about her impossible feelings flew out of the window, crushed into tiny pieces and burnt to a crisp. Was it a sin to think this could be something, something possible?

This warm night suddenly turned bitter. She was beyond hoping, thinking realistically was the only way to prevent damage. Even with that in mind, she couldn't find it in her heart or mind to let go, to pull away and tell him to stop playing with her. Call her weak, call her stupid, but all she wanted was something real, even if he wasn't.

A painstakingly silent walk later and the sight of the river, basking in moonlight, painted a scene in front of them. It was almost like a movie setting, the dim street lights and the steadily rising moon, the darkening of the deep orange sky and the moon reflected in the bottomless water.

Jiwon let out a small gasp at the picturesque view, slowly dropping her hand through Jongho's without realising it.

For some reason everything just seemed to glow.

"I've been here before at night, but I don't think I've ever really admired it like this..."

"Jiwon?"

Turning around, the bliss slowly dropped from her eyes. He wasn't usually so serious looking, it honestly made her scared. Was it true? Was he really going to disappear? Why? Or was he just playing with her? The tension killed her.

"Can I ask you something?"

She nodded despite not wanting to know.

"Do you think it's possible for someone... to fall in love with something that doesn't, isn't supposed to exist?"

Mouth parting as she took in his words, her eyes glistened with a layer of dew. She nodded, "I think it's, it's not impossible."

He smiled so slightly she could barely see it in the light of the retreating sun and flickering lamps.

"Then," he started, "can something without a beating heart still feel love?"

Frowning, she stepped towards him, only for him to take a step back, "Of course. There's, there has to be exceptions." She didn't hesitate.

"Can I be an exception?"

Her heart thudded like thunder in her chest, violently but oh so full of hope.

"Can I?" she returned, standing confidently staring right through him. "Can I love someone who doesn't exist?"

He swallowed thickly. As much as he wanted to decline, he knew that wasn't what he'd been struggling for.

"I want you to be."

"Then-" A short yelp diverted his attention from the strikingly interesting gravel. Eyes whipped back to where Jiwon was supposed to be, only to not see her. Turning his eyes to the hill leading to the river, he could just make out the silhouette of something tumbling town it. It took a moment for that to register in his mind, then the shrill yelling and self deprecating laughter.

"Jiwon?" he called after her, quickly hurrying and sliding down the slope as fast he could without falling himself, "Are you okay?"

A short pained laugh, "Yeah! I'm fine."

She was happy, so happy. She couldn't even begin to describe the emotion in her mind and even what she felt physically. Her hairs were standing on end and she was tensed up but she was over the moon, her stiff body didn't feel stiff it felt light, like she was laying on a cloud.

She heard Jongho's approaching footsteps before seeing him kneel beside her. It was that comforting cold sensation again, not like the damp clamminess of the earth beneath her. He didn't have a scent though, all there was, was the gritty stench of mud and an overbearing grassy scent. How she longed to know what he felt like, what he smelt like, even what he... She just wanted to feel him, nothing more. To know him better and connect with him deeper, it was everything she ever thought about.

His face entered her vision, taking up almost all of it as he stared into her dazed eyes.

"Are you really okay?"

The mood from before, was it forgotten all so easily? She didn't want to ignore his feelings over her mistake, she should've looked where she was walking. It wasn't her fault she couldn't take her eyes off him.

"Jongho?" she muttered, staring just as deeply into his eyes. He nodded, thinking something very different was going to happen, he wasn't expecting her next move.

She picked up her sore arm from the ground.

"I love you," she smiled and placed a hand on his cheek.

It didn't pass through. It wasn't cold. He was warm, soft, she could feel his skin beneath her fingers. He was alive.

Both of their eyes shot open.

Jongho quickly took a hold of her hand, getting even more stunned when he actually grabbed her. He could actually touch her. She was warm, he knew she was warm, but he could really really feel her. Her soft skin and tiny hands, he was holding them.

His sickly blue tinted skin exploded with vigorous colour.

Jiwon didn't waste a breath before sitting up and planting her other hand on his shoulder.

"I can touch you."

"You can touch me."

They both muttered, breaths colliding.

It was then his translucent hand was brought to attention. He was planning on touching her face with it, only to notice he couldn't see his hand, let alone feel it. She saw it too and felt her heart, her world come to a stop.

Was he, was he really going to disappear? Now?

"Wait!" she cried desperately, eyes already bleeding tears, mirroring Jongho's own expression as he turned eyes on her. "Don't- don't go, you can't!"

He was equally as terrified. He had no idea what was happening, but he had an inkling.

He didn't waste another second. Dragging her towards him with his remaining hand, he wrapped himself around her, burying his head into her shoulder. She also didn't spare any time before clutching onto him, taking in his unique warmth, the new scent like fresh laundry, but how he felt in her arms. She didn't want him to be taken away from her so soon.

"Please don't leave," she begged, a stream of ugly tears gushing down her face, "don't leave me alone, not now."

Her tight embrace grew slack as the body in her arms burst into nothing.

~~One month after~~

Jiwon has, for the most part, been trying to move on with her life during the past month; unfortunately a tougher task than originally expected. She rid her home of all and anything that reminded her of the supernatural ghost boy. The book she read with him. The trinkets he used to pick up randomly to scare her. Even the clothes she wore that day. She tossed it into the attic and didn't think twice before locking it up, even leaving a final defence in the form of a note - Don't think about entering! it read. It wasn't the best, but for now she had the strength to leave it be.

As she plopped down on the significantly lonelier sofa, she realised just how cold it was. No longer did she watch those dramas, too distraught by the fact that she wouldn't hear his annoying voice picking out every little fault and detail. It was rare that she found herself reading too, not wanting to remember the comforting chill every time he'd lean over her shoulder to read alongside her.

Goosebumps dotted her skin as she took a look around at the vast space, empty and cold. It wasn't warm like it was when he was here, as contradictory as it may be.

She would find herself breaking down in the middle of menial tasks, dinner preparation, cleaning, even sleeping. Because finally she realised just how big of an impact he made on her. Taking care of heavy lifting, getting things from high shelves, helping divide the housework, even singing to her at night. He was irreplaceable - not that she'd know where to attain another ghost housemate. She didn't want someone else, though, she only wanted him. Cheesy as it was, she wasn't able to function right without him.

Burying herself in school and work was all she could do.

Despite the sudden dedication to her studies, she still without fail continued to mark on the calendar every day that had passed without him. At the very least, out of everyone in the world, even if everyone forgot him she would remember. She'd remember how he smelt in her arms, his muscular frame and the sound of his heartbeat; the colour of his skin and the sight of his ecstatic grin, she'll remember everything about his evanescent warmth.

There was an attempt to give up hope after the first week, she tried convincing herself he wasn't coming back, it was impossible. However, she soon found that hope suited her better. Not to mention the resounding thump of his heart still echoed in her mind. He was alive, she knew it. The only issue was if he could return to her, if he even wanted to. She wanted him to, to finally be able to hug and kiss him and take him out, to hold his hand and experience everything again.

All this thinking about it just brought a layer of tears to her eyes. The game show on TV had long been forgotten, she stared at the wall just beside the stand entrapped in her thoughts.

One by one, the buds of water rolled from her eyes, slowly trickling over her cheeks and down her jaw to her neck. She didn't bother to wipe it, she didn't even know she was crying.

One two three, tears or seconds she wasn't sure but a shrill chime rang throughout her home, startling her from her trance.

Deciding to ignore it, she went back to paying attention to the television even if she hadn't an idea what was happening. But- whoever was at the door was impatient. Heavy knocks and thuds, the ringing of the doorbell in her ears, it didn't take much for her to run to the door.

"Yes?" Jiwon huffed, sounding both withdrawn and a little agitated; understandably so.

"You're crying," he said.

The heavy drum of his voice, the slight mumble as he pronounced the words, the familiar deepness. Her hands shook as sweat rolled down her back. She couldn't- she couldn't believe it. Her eyes widened upon seeing his familiar face before her, now an even more impressive amount of tears left rivers down her face. Struggling to talk or form sentences, she stammered and blubbered like a fish out of water. Hesitantly, she brought a weak hand up to attempt to touch him.

In her delirious state did she conjure him up or something in her mind? Was this just a figment of her imagination? Discombobulated, she could only stare as he took short strides towards her. His shoes almost bumping into her socks, he drew his physical body as close as he could to her and grabbed the hand she had hovering in the air.

Wiping the waterfall still running from her blatantly sore eyes, he ignored the redness and locked onto their colour.

"Jiwon," he whispered, brushing tear after tear away, "I'm sorry."

Instead of another embarrassing attempt to form legible words, she just stared at him in shock and shook her head loosely.

Chuckling briefly, he swept some stray hairs behind her ear, "You got a haircut."

She nodded, able to now keep in, to an extent, her sobs.

"You're beautiful."

Unfortunately for her he wasn't making it easy.

"I missed you," she breathed, wavering as she held a hand to his cheek. She could feel him, he could touch her, they could feel each other. It was as if she were holding a silk pillow in her hands, even with the odd rough patch of small bumps or invisible acne it was everything she dreamt about. Her eyes drifted from his to where they made contact, she really could touch him. He was warm, so warm.

Her fingertips grazed over the sides of his hair, just as soft as it looked. His glossy hair easily allowed her to slip her hand through, dusting over the top of his ear.

"You're here," she cried, a new round of water pooling in her tortured eyes.

Removing his grip on her hand, he took to holding the other side of her face and wiping her eye.

"I told you not to cry, remember?" he smiled, dropping his forehead against hers. Warm, it was warm. She was warm and smelt exactly like he thought she would, strawberries and sugar. Sweet. Her reaction was as he expected, tears, tears and more tears. But he couldn't deny he felt the same.

She nodded and smiled as best she could, a sound of realisation escaping her chewed and sucked in lips. She was biting them to prevent any unwarranted noise, to attempt to stop the downpour.

Looking up through her eyelashes, she met his less than calm eyes. She never noticed the fondness within them, nor that they were a beautifully deep colour of brown.

"I love you," she whimpered, wiping her face as best she could with two hands, even trying to hide behind them. It was difficult as he also had hold of her with his forehead against hers no less.

Turning, he brushed his lips against hers, their noses bumping together slightly didn't distract him, he merely smiled at the contact.

"I love you," he told her as she balled the clothing on his chest into her loose fists, "I love you," he kissed her cheek, "I love you," she closed her eyes, he kissed between her eyebrows, "I love you," his voice faltered, finally every emotion was catching up to him. She was in his arms reciprocating, she loved him, she was waiting for him.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her oh so close. He looked into her dry eyes with watery ones and pressed his cheek against hers, "I love you."

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 1, Episode 11, The 12-Step Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Dean: Hi, I'm Dean Devlin, Executive Producer.

Chris: I’m Chris Downey, Executive Producer and Co-Writer of this episode, The 12-Step Job.

John: I’m John Rogers, Executive Producer.

Amy: I’m Amy Berg, Writer and Producer.

Rod: And I’m Rod Hardy, I’m the Director of the episode.

John: Welcome to The 12 Step Job! This is an unusual episode in that this is our bad guy and we meet him first and we don’t usually meet him first.

Amy: This is true.

John: This is true. Also the music video sound that you’re hearing is not anybody. There is actually a big debate on the message boards about who this was, and this was actually our composer, right?

Dean: Joe LoDuca wrote this song for us. We told him the kind of song we wanted, and he knocked this one out of the park.

Chris: It’s fantastic. The only thing he had was Celtic punk.

[All laugh]

Chris: And if I could tell you that this song was exactly the song I had in my head, it’s really the truth.

John: Cool!

Amy: We actually made Drew, this is Drew Powell, our great guest star for this episode, we actually gave him homework to go out and listen to some Irish punk. So, when he does the lip syncing here of what it is, and then Joe matched the song to whatever he was mumbling.

John: That’s pretty great!

Amy: Yeah.

Rod: Drew’s played a drunken Irishman many times in his life I think.

[All laugh]

Rod: One of the treats about casting him in this particular role.

Chris: Now you worked with him before, you knew him before, right?

Rod: You know I met him because he and another acting partner had written a screenplay they wanted to do in Australia, and they discussed it with me, and by chance some six months later, I’m in the casting session. I sit there, and in walks Drew so it was a real treat to catch up. So, he is a very talented young actor, and I think what he’s delivered from this role is something that I think will push his career ahead forward. I have no question about that.

John: I- you really- he was one of those guys and we cast him off a tiny one inch square on a computer.

Chris: That Amy found.

Amy: Yeah, yeah, I saw his- it was like an 8 by 10 piece of paper with about 20 faces on it. I was like you know what, I like this guy. I literally circled him, and we brought him into the audition, and we’re like ok, he’s it.

Rod: But you know he also played Hoss in the remake of Ponderosa, which was also made in Australia, and in fact he’s married to an Australian. So, there’s that Australian connection once again. I’m the guy with the funny accent, by the way. I’m from East Texas if you can tell.

[All laugh]

John: This con is actually scarily prescient, because this is about a charity that got ripped off by a money manager. And of course we wrote this months and months before the Madoff scandal hit.

Amy: Yes, hello Bernie Madoff.

John: Yeah.

Amy: We are psychic.

John: Not psychic, just that I think the- unfortunately scumbags exist, but the news wasn’t covering them until it hit the critical mass that it eventually hit.

Chris: I don’t know if we would have decided to make our Madoff character the sympathetic one in the episode had we written it post Madoff.

[All laugh]

John: Probably not.

Amy and John: That’s probably true.

Amy: This actress, by the way, her name is Denice Sealy and she’s fantastic. She really grounds it for us.

Dean: By the way, I love this shot, how it goes all the way around the room, it covers everything in the scene, and it’s seamless.

Rod: Well, you know Dean, it was one of the things about doing this show for me, is you set up a high standard with that pilot, I might say, speaking of good shots. And I’m not here to just pat you on the shoulder, but you set up a really interesting style and look that I found really worthwhile following through, and this set in particular gives you a chance to do 360 degrees, as you know, we do quite often in this show.

John: Also, that’s- this is one of the ones where we really tried to address Nate’s drinking, and as you see she sort of smells the booze in the pop can, and not as the resident alcoholic ,but certainly as the person most familiar with the alcoholic lifestyle, it’s laid in through the entire season.

Chris: How’s that beer by the way?

John: It’s just great, thank you.

Chris: Ok, good.

John: The reason we all have beer, by the way, is that I insisted that I would be drinking every session and now everyone’s into it so.. Why does that make me the bad guy?

Rod: My way of getting to know Tim was before I actually started on the show, when we went out on a Saturday night with the DP and the operator and a bunch of other people, and we drank. Just to see what it would be like.

[All laugh]

Amy: Pure research.

Rod: Thanks for the gig!

John: No problem. But, yeah, it’s actually laid in fairly thoroughly throughout the season. You will never see an episode where he doesn’t have a drink in his hand, and it’s kind of interesting that this air orde,r there were two episodes about his drinking in a row, but this episode was meant to be the one where you realize with Sophie- and you’re kind of in the Sophie POV- that she realizes at the same time that the audience does, he’s not well, that this is not- That funny little habit we’ve given him is actually catching up with him. It’s starting to roll up on him.

Amy: By the way, our graphics guy literally handed me a map and I had to circle spots on the map, and then they drew lines. Like, ‘OK what’s a pattern?’ was basically my, uh-

Chris: Well nice job! It was a really nice- a very nice Family Circus  job.

Dean: I still don’t get the Family Circus joke.

Amy: Honestly, I didn’t get it either.

Chris: Billy, from the Family Circus, would walk from here and they would say, “Billy, go bring this laundry to the basket!” and they would show the route that he took all around.

John: It was a part of the Family Circus cartoons- was always some big convoluted route with Billy at the end of it, kind of-

Rod: God, I’m going to ask who Family Circus is.

All: Oh!

Rod: Sorry about that!

John: Billy would like have taken something. He would say, “Billy, go take something to the laundry.” and Billy would like take something from the fridge, he would stop by and go outside and bury a dead hooker. He’d steal a car. He’d- what?

[All laugh]

John: That was my version of Family Circus.

Rod: The great thing about this scene and this character throughout this episode, to me, was the flawed hero. There’s nothing more appealing on-screen than when one of your heroes has a slight dysfunction.

Dean: This moment here between Eliot and Hardison, you so nailed the fun of these guys together. In fact, I think of all the episodes this season, this one was my absolute favorite, as far as these two guys together having fun, and Rod, I just think that you absolutely nailed that relationship.

Rod: Thank you, do you know what it was? I think I read the screenplay and, I hate to be cliched here, but I really got a sense of a Lethal Weapon-style relationship between them- between these two characters and, on television, that’s very rare, and I think you guys wrote a really nice piece for both of them. They both, sort of, stood out very strong.

John: And it helps that the actors themselves are friends. It really helps that they like playing this stuff, they’re really into it.

Amy: And they were actually calling themselves Riggs and Murtaugh throughout the episode. So, it was really funny. So, they embraced it too.

Chris: The interesting thing in this scene too, speaking of the dynamic between the actors, was also watching Christian Kane helping teach Aldis Hodge how to fight. So, you kinda saw that their dynamic as actors-

Chris and John: -is somewhat similar to the characters.

Chris: Because he was kind of showing him how to do the moves in the fake fight coming up.

John: By the way as far as verisimilitude goes, I really appreciate that your crummy bar/strip joint has a We Support the Troops banner on the. That is like- man when I was a stand up and I was going to these small towns, there was like-

Rod: I have to be perfectly honest with you, you know, this is a used car yard.

John: I know. It’s really magnificent.

Rod: It was really something. The sign helped a lot. Yeah, yeah.

John: It was a great piece of production. It really was.

Dean: It’s also one of my favorite fight scenes of the year too. I thought this was really great, and it’s nice to see. We had one episode where Aldis did a little bit of fighting, where he fought the injured.

Amy: More a shove than anything.

Dean: And we saw that he’s graduated from that to actually being in a fight scene.

John: But even if you look at it, he’s not good. He tangles guys up, he gets hit. You know, what he’s really doing is kind of pull the guys off Eliot. But most of it, he’s using his reach and his arms and really more tangling them up. Charlie Brewer did a good job of separating out their fight styles.

Rod: And let me tell you, these scenes work because the actors can do it themselves.

Dean: That shot, Rod, gave me a heart attack, when I saw it I said, “Wait a minute, who said the actors can dive away from a moving car!”

John: You know what, Dean, it’s really for the best that we don’t tell you everything that’s going on on the set.

Dean: See what happens when I don’t show up on set.

Amy: Dean, Dean, the insurance company is on the phone.

Dean: And this was a great bit. This whole shooting the engine block, “I was aiming for his leg.”

Chris: That was his ad-lib.

Amy: I think it was in- on the script it was, “I was aiming for the tire.”

Chris: It was “aiming for the tire,” and he said “I was aiming for his leg.”

John: I also like how all the actors have developed a different way of talking into the headpiece. Each one has a different way of letting the audience know that they’re talking into the- are moving the conversation on.

Amy: Christian is great at that, by the way. Whenever it’s out of context, he knows to reach to his ear.

John: He establishes the space.

Chris: Rod, I also like how you used the crane in this show. You never did it in a big kind of elaborate shot it was always very- like that was a very subtle way to bring you into the car. You have another thing before where you establish just before, the showdown. I love how you use the crane in this episode.

Rod: You know when you’re doing these seven day episodes, it’s about trying to find the angles that are different. It’s not about getting something flashy that takes away from the storytelling, it’s about finding an odd angle- and I thought that went nicely, thank you.

John: I do love that a recurring thing in these commentaries is, “When you’re doing these seven day episodes.”

[All laugh}

John: The absolutely mad schedule.

Amy: Wait till we do a Bank Shot Job and we talk about how we did that in six.

Chris: This is a great transition here, between him sleeping on the airbag-

Chris and John: -and waking up.

John: That’s a great transition.

Amy: By the way, that’s- all the snoring sounds are ADR. He did that after the fact; I think, he snores.

Dean: And I love that reveal of Tim, there, because you don’t know where we are because the story hasn’t told us exactly what we’re going to do, and it’s such a lovely way to go out on the act.

Rod: I was reminding Drew of his last hangover during this scene, and he really nailed it.

Amy: Because it was the night before.

John: No, yeah, the twist reveal. This is where we started to land this sort of template as it evolved over the course of the season, and now the place where we’re going to live for the rest of the show, is kind of dumped on the end of the first act. It’s really- it’s interesting to see how hyper-aggressive our first acts got near the end of the season, as we crunched how much we could shoot. I mean really time- shooting time began to dictate that.

Chris and Amy: Right.

Chris: And it was always our intention to not show a lot of the prep, like you do in a lot of other con and heist shows. That we’re gonna kind of like drop you in.

John: We’re just going to assume that they’re good enough to pull this off.

Rod: Now this was an actual rehab center which you guys know about.

Amy: Yeah, it’s the Veteran’s facility.

Rod: The Veteran’s facility so- and they were just fantastic with us. They really allowed us freedom right across the place. And a lot of really nice guys there.

John: And a beautiful location.

Amy: This actor playing Dr. Frank, by the way, is Garrett Brown, and he’s that guy that you know from that show that you never remember his name.

[All laugh]

Chris: That’s exactly what my wife said watching this.

Amy: ‘It’s that guy!’, but Garrett Brown’s his name, kids. He’s fantastic.

John: Now this is interesting, the light fixtures are what sell it. That’s a transition from the rehab center. This is on a soundstage.

Chris: That’s a soundstage. They did a fantastic job matching it.

Dean: I love this scene.

John: Now here’s a quick question, the exterior roundy rounds, I know how they’re done. How did you do this interior? Because you’ve got some where you’re kind of drifting, and you’ve got some where you’re doing the sort of roundy round shots.

Rod: You know what we do is, we put a remote head camera in the middle of the group. So, we’re able to just remotely make the camera focus on whoever we wanted, and it just gives you another perspective. You can’t use it all the time, but it gives you another perspective.

John: Right.

Rod: I mean. I love her sense of comedy, is-

Amy: Beth is amazing.

John: Beth is incredibly funny.

Rod: She’s just fabulous.

Amy: And it’s weird, because she doesn’t ad-lib dialogue very much, but all her sort of facial features and physicalities are all ad-libs, and they’re just amazing.

John: And breaking in and out of this circle here is really visually interesting.

Amy: Yeah.

John: Now did you get this done in one day?

Amy: Yeah, in one day, everything in this room.

Rod: But it’s a seven day shoot.

[All laugh]

Chris: Did you mention that?

Dean: And this girl was phenomenal.

Amy: This is- Marisa is fantastic and John Kerry - not the senator - is playing our Gary Busey look-alike, and they were both brilliant.

Dean: From heaven, from heaven.

Rod: And I think she’s playing a Michael Jackson look-alike.

Rod and Amy: And he's playing a Busey look alike.

Rod: But she was really terrific. She’s a smart young actress.

Amy: She’s wonderful.

John: We have to give a shout out to April Webster and Scott David for this one because-

Dean: -because our casting-

John: -this casting-

Amy: One of our better- well we’ve had great casting. But this one- the day players were fantastic

Chris: Sulentine[?], you expect them to give you some good Sulentin[?], but when you need somebody that’s mumbling incoherently...

Amy: Yeah. It's not like there’s a template for that for casting agents.

John: I also just realized this whole scene is basically just Tim being annoyed and it really is and this whole thing is just focused around his frustration.

Amy: And apparently Parker, too.

[All laugh]

Rod: I love Tims ad-lib about the Gary Busey look alike/

Amy: Yeah, yeah that was an adlib that was fantastic. By the way John Kerry, our Gary Busey, literally spoke the words written on the page for dialogue which were just basically words that Chris and I made up.

Chris: He did we wrote them, yeah. Hers might have had a little more relationship to what the words were supposed to be than in mine but it was- it was- he read them.

Amy: Yeah yeah.

John: Now here's something since this is sort of how one scene sort of plays out, I can ask the writers, two writers who don't usually write together, how’d you split it up?

Chris: We split it into acts; it was kind of interesting. I wrote acts one and two.

Amy: I wrote acts four and five.

Amy and Chris: - and we picked scenes in act three that we wrote separately.

Chris: We said, ‘can you start working on that first scene in act three?’

Amy: Yeah I got that, can you do this?

Chris: ‘Alright alright, how did that one end?’

Amy: And oddly there wasn’t a lot of having to polish after the fact, either because, I think because we wrote this towards the end of the season, our writing styles meshed and we got the voices down.

Chris: And I’ll say something else when I was watching with my wife, I asked my wife if she could tell who wrote what half, and it took her a minute, it took her awhile, but she said I think you wrote the first half.

Amy: Ahh, nice.

Chris: But it was pretty close. For that to happen, I think, it's a pretty good seamless style.

Amy: By the way, my brother calls me after every episode to tell me what bits I wrote in every episode. He knows me so well that he can target my jokes, even in episodes I didn’t write.

John: Vocal rhythms. You know, you transfer your vocal rhythms to your characters’ dialogue.

Rod: That last shot we saw was shot at about 9:30 at night and when was pitch black outside and David Connell, our DP, does an amazing job at being able to create that illusion, I might say.

Amy: And I’m pretty sure Beth, at this point, can actually pick a lock. She's done so much research on con and stuff.

John: We mentioned on another commentary, Apollo says she has the best hands of the cast and she could actually do this if she wanted to.

Amy: She does.

Rod: She’s got good legs, too, by the way.

[All laugh]

Amy: We love you Beth, in a platonic way.

John: Yeah, but we have all sorts of parameters that we’re not allowed to talk about.

Dean: Wait until you see her in the dress in the season finale.

John: Yeah, that was a little stunning.

Amy: That was nice.

Rod: I thought her dress at the wrap party was pretty damn good, too.

John: Well the thing is, you tomboy her up, and the writers, you have to think about the characters in a certain way, you know. We got her in the pony tail and the break-in clothes the whole time, then we finally glam her up in the season finale and it’s like ‘Oh!’

Dean: I love her reactions to the whole medication thing here. Again, as you were saying, it’s not dialogue that she’s improvising, but the way she takes the pill and eats it says more about her character than any dialogue.

Chris: That’s not in the script.

Amy: Yeah, it’s the best I’ve ever seen, and as scripted she wasn’t actually supposed to eat it, which she does. She actually chews it. But she- it was scripted to where she just looks at it, and then it was a reveal in the next group therapy scene that she was affected and she had taken it. But how do you not show that? How do you not, like-

[All laugh]

Chris: It’s the defiance. This is a fantastic shot here.

Rod: And here is one of the best car park locations in Los Angeles.

John: This is production value.

Amy: That’s my RAV4, by the way. Made its debut, right there.

Dean: I think this is my favorite scene of the series.

John: Really?

Dean: yeah. These two guys, the bomb.

Amy: Riggs and Murtaugh.

Dean: I tell you, I could watch this all day long.

John: You realize that right now, Tim Hutton is sitting at home listening to this commentary with a single tear rolling down his cheek. I hope you’re happy. He’s like cradling his Oscar, he’s like ‘Dean!’

Chris: He acts a hole into this episode, he really does.

Dean: I’ll bet it’s his favorite, too.

John: It is pretty great. It is amazing, you know this car park really is no more special than other car parks, but just being out and seeing LA behind you just adds so much more to the production value.

Amy: Yeah, the backdrop in this is just gorgeous.

Rod: Of course you guys had written some of these scenes being night scenes, which-

John: That’s adorable. [Laughs]

Amy: There was about 5 or 6 night scenes that became day scenes.

Chris: For those of you that don’t know, night scenes are very expensive.

John: Yes. They’re very expensive. You’re shifting the entire shooting schedule of the crew, you’re changing, you know.

Chris: Let me tell you, I was talking about this earlier today with Amy, I actually think that, aside from the economic reasons of being in the day, I actually think that it lightens up the fun, being in the day time. And I think it elevated the fun of this episode, having it be bright.

Amy: It kinda gives it more energy, visually and physically.

Dean: It would’ve been more heavy, if it was at night.

Amy: I remember when- I don’t know where Chris was, Chris I think you were on set, supervising Juror when John and I were doing the polish on this scene, and we were trying to make it shorter, but in fact we ended up making it a page longer because we kept adding stuff to it. And you were playing Hardison and I was playing Eliot, and that’s how we got to the ‘reboot, kick it’ line.

Rod: Which is a good line.

John: It was literally just us talking through the scene.

Amy: Yeah, it was us talking through the scene because you know John is the big tech nerd on the show, and apparently I’m the tough ass-kicker, I don’t know how that translates but-

John: But apparently- I love the fact that so many things are computerized in a car now, including, you know the- I just literally put a heavy bag of groceries on the passenger side and it triggered the seatbelt alarm.

Chris: Sure, that’s in the prius. I have that too.

John: Yeah, and so the idea that the bomb would be wired to the pressure in the- rather than the ignition just kind of amused me and allowed us to trap him in the car. Which really worked because computer guy can’t touch the computer.

Dean: Well what i love is the switch in dynamics, in the beginning of the scene, Hardison is nervous and Eliot knows what he’s doing. And then suddenly it all turns around.

Chris: Once it becomes a computer, it becomes- Hardison takes over.

Dean: The ‘run the bag of bricks by me again’ is the best line.

Rod: That’s a good line.

Amy: It’s fabulous.

John: And also I gotta say, I mean we talk a lot about how much we love him ,and how great he is, Chris Kane does little- these little choices, little bits, particularly in comedy lines, he’s a really great comedic actor.

Amy: Yeah.

Chris: It’s right there.

Amy: And there it is, folks.

Dean: And again the more frustrated he gets, the funnier he is.

John: Just right there, look at it.

Chris: A lot of hesitations, he's great.

Amy: Right there! That’s exactly what we’re- yeah, just the blinking and the- ‘run… run the bag of bricks by me again?’

John: It’s not- there’s not a lot of action guys that have that chops. I mean, seriously.

Amy: And the shaking of the hand there, like, you never really see

Chris: There’s some great shots here coming up here.

Dean: You can tell they really like each other here, both as characters and as actors.

Amy: Oh, for sure.

Chris: Oh, I love that shot.

Rod: And this here is fantastic, very funny.

John: I love that shot. Also popping out wide here was inspiring, I have to say.

Chris: Yeah, well comedy plays in the master.

Amy: Yeah, comedy plays in the master.

Chris: And we talk about that a lot, you want- want space for-

Dean: Was the line ‘cry a little’ in the script?

Amy: That, yeah, I wrote that, yeah, ‘I wanna cry a little.’

John: Whenever you give him, particularly- it’s tricky with Aldis because, he’s incredibly tall and in great shape, and it’s interesting we were talking about the promo from one of the other episodes, from Two Horse, where the promo shot, the iconic promo shot from the show, is him in the suit with Tim at the track.

Dean: Right.

John: He has an incredible presence, and so writing him down to be geeky and afraid is actually fairly challenging, you have to kinda go a little far with it.

Dean: That’s the crane shot I was talking about.

Chris: Yeah this shot, I love this shot.

John: yeah arriving down there, that’s really nice.

Amy: The other thing about the ad-libs between those two, is that by the end of the season, we’ve gotten to know the characters and the actors who play them so well that we were writing the ad-libs for them.

John: Yeah

Amy: Like, to where moments that felt like they were ad-libbed, were just little lines that we wrote because we knew they would say them.

Chris: On the spot, yeah.

John: This is also one of my favorite bits, the idea of the axis- the axis of scumbags.

Amy: The axis of scumbags, yes.

John: I had just finished the book McMafia and the idea that- that essentially the universality of organized crime, and the kind of black market, the black economy that’s out there, there would be nexuses and our guys would naturally stumble into them.

Dean: Another compliment i want to give you, Rod, is that when I was first looking at this script, I got nervous about these gangs-

Rod: Right.

Dean: -because the initial image in my head was so cliche, I thought ‘oh they could be so goofy’,  buti the fact that you put them all in these dark suits and made them look so elegant, really made these gangs intimidating.

Amy: Yeah, that they weren’t wearing bandanas.

Dean: It made these scenes work. They didn’t feel like the typical-

Rod: Right.

Amy: And I think it helps that we got Chase Kim, and we’ve got Cisco Reyes right there playing the Mexican gang leader and they brought some gravitas to it which is nice.

Rod: They certainly did.

John: You got good actors- I mean this is cast great all the way down. All the way down through the day players. I’d use either one of them in a leading role, you know?

Dean: Sure. Now is that the crane just moving slowly?

Rod: Yeah it was, and once it had come to the ground we just had it move slowly on the ground.

John: So you wrote- you ran the whole scene with the crane moving.

Amy: There was a crane going the whole time, yeah.

Rod: Because there were so many members of the cast here, I wanted to be able to get that sense on a big wide shot, so you could see the gangs and their positions within this story and it worked really nicely.

John: That’s another thing you did really well here, Rod, if i can say, action all depends on geography.

Dean: Yeah and you never lose the geography.

Chris: You always know where everything is.

John: A lot of action directors just think it’s in the choppiness or the movement, it’s all about knowing where everybody is at all times.

Dean: We started going down, we leave going back up; it’s so great.

Amy: Yeah i love it, love it!

Dean: And i love this scene too. This is my favorite scene of these two together.

John: Yeah it’s interesting, it’s really- it’s really the moment where she starts to realize he’s more broken than she thought he was. You know?

Dean: Yeah.

John: All joking aside, all banter aside, you know, this is not- this is not funny anymore.

Rod: Which is interesting when you think about, the person you look up to, the man that leads the group, has these flaws and could let you down. It sets up a great thing for these characters for the future too.

Chris: And you kinda get a window into how unself-aware he is. I mean that- here’s a person who devised this con, that’s putting himself in rehab, because he has no concept that he has a problem. Or you could kinda look at it as, on some level did he- was he trying to test himself to see if he really did have a problem. It’s really interesting

Amy: Can we take a minute to say how awesome Timothy Hutton is in this episode?

John: Yes.

Amy: He’s so good.

Dean: He’s amazing in this episode. Because he’s able to play the depth of the problem and still be funny.

Amy: Absolutely.

Dean: That’s hard to do. You know, it would have been so easy to slip into melodrama.

Amy: Right.

Rod: And also keep the continuity performance, when you realize how in and out of scenes we shoot. He kept it going and worked it really nicely.

Chris: This is a fan favorite right here.

Amy: By the way, I wrote this scene in approximately thirty seconds, but-

Dean: But what makes the scene, is Christians face right… there!

[All laugh]

Rod: ‘Is that where the scam’s going?’

Dean: That’s what makes the scene! That reaction, right there.

Amy: I actually played a joke on Aldis, after I wrote this scene, I went down to the set - they were shooting Stork Job at the time - and I told him that I had this three page scene where in order to get into the rehab facility, that they were going to have to play gay lovers. And I wanted to make sure that he was comfortable with the kiss.

[All laugh]

Chris: Oh, that’s great.

Amy: It literally went on for ten minutes, he got really paranoid, and Christian who can read me like John can read me, knew I was joking the whole time, but Aldis just-

John: You’re a horrible poker player.

Amy: I’m a horrible poker player, it’s true. But I got Aldis, probably because he’s 22.

John: No the- yeah that was a great little improv. I mean it was interesting to see how you- trying to move people in and out of this rehab structure actually became part of the challenge of the show. When you split the team, a lot of the fun is trying to get them back together.

Chris: Well originally we kind of thought that they were all gonna be in there, and that Eliot was going to be a rage-aholic, and then it was just once we figured let’s split them up, it that’s when it just-

Amy: And you need some time to just breathe, too. Which is nice to sort of leave it and come back to it.

Dean: I love Eliot's moment here where he just says ‘Are you ok?’. Where it’s like, you get the feeling that this is starting to spread, that- their fear that the leader may be coming apart.

Amy: Yeah, and I love Gina here too, because-

Dean: She covers for him.

Amy: -she’s taking charge, she’s-

John: She’s enabling. Which by the way, now that the season has wrapped, we can make a point- we can actually, since you’re watching on DVD we can tell you, this is part of the fact that we knew this relationship wasn’t gonna work.

Dean: Right.

John: I mean going forward, it’s interesting, because you kinda expect it to be the big romance of the season, but about a third of the way through, we realize no, they’re too broken, this isn’t going to work. And so we had to start writing to the fact that she’s not mature enough, she’s still a criminal, he’s still a drunk, he’s not over his wife, and so it was a really fine line the actors had to walk the whole season.

Chris: I love the way this is composed, too. I love him in the middle of- Rod, you did some great stuff of Tim smoldering in the background, that I love.

[All laugh]

Rod: He’s always present-

Chris: There’s one coming up that I thought was fantastic, but this, too.

Amy: Yeah, he never left, Tim. He was always there.

Rod: The thing about working with this cast is that there’s an embarrassment of riches, they have- they each have their own place and they develop the scene accordingly, but when you have the chance to get in and cut it whichever way you want- look at this scene.

[All laugh]

John: I mean really, it’s all- it’s all anger.

Amy: There’s really nothing better than Parker on happy pills, by the way. I love it.

John: And the gimmick that everyone can understand him, but Tim it’s really just- I really do adore. That, there you go, over to you.

Dean: And I can’t say enough about our DP.

Amy: Dave Connell, baby.

Dean: Episode after episode, what he’s doing every week, was a quality level so beyond what I’d even hoped for. I mean, I just think every shot is gorgeous.

Amy: Yeah.

John: Especially since we’re doing it, what we do it in nine, ten days? How do we do it?

Dean: Seven days!

Amy: Wow, seven days. Wow how do you make a shoot in seven days Dean?

Dean: Quickly!

[All laugh]

John: Oh, dear. There’s actually- I do wanna say one lifestyle thing, in the previous scene where-

Chris and Dean: I love that!

John: Where Tim has the shakes, as we were pitching the- pitching the thing in the room? I told the story about when I’d been doing stand up in Australia, and we were drinking so heavily that when I stopped drinking for a day, I actually got the shakes that night.

Dean: Right.

John: And it was a great moment with the younger writers who were like, ‘the shakes? What are the shakes?’ and I went ‘oh that’s not good, I’ve had a symptom nobody here has had? That’s not- that’s not healthy’

[All laugh]

Amy: That was actually really funny.

John: The con actually- what I like, too, is the con goes along the 12 step progress- program. He has to make amends, that’s a logical part of the-

Chris: Yeah, that’s part of the- we tried to work it into the episode.

Dean: There’s actually a really nice button on the scene that we had to lose for time. It wasn’t because we didn’t like it, it was just trying to get it in within the time, and hopefully on this DVD you’ll be able to see that button.

Amy: Yeah.

Rod: God, they’re beautiful cars. They really are great cars.

Amy: Yeah! [laughs]

Dean: God bless Hyundai Genesis.

Amy: Hyundai Genesis, we love you!

Chris: Thank you, thank you very much.

Dean: And might I say, this year, when every car company did poorly and had huge losses, the only one that increased was the Hyundai Genesis. And I think it was entirely us.

[Laughter]

Amy: Oh wow, yeah.

John: So you’re- so you’re thinking that Leverage single-handedly tried to revive the auto industry in America?

Dean: Single-handedly saved this- and if more car companies-

Chris: Note- note to GM, come to us! We’ll put you on our back

Dean: I’m just saying.

Chris: We’ll put you on our back.

[All laugh]

John: We’ll do what we can for you.

Amy: Oh by the way, one of the scenes we had to lose for time is the bridge between this scene and the next scene at Leverage HQ, which we’ve filled with lovely product placement, was a montage scene of all the good deeds and people that Hurley had helped.

Dean: Which hopefully also be on the DVD.

Amy: Yes. Which we will put-

John: Did- did we shoot those?

Amy: Yes, we did! Yeah we shot them.

Chris: Yeah we shot them. Yeah yeah yeah we got them.

Dean: I think we even did the effects shots.

John: So you- you meet all the people Hurley has helped on the way which helps sell this scene where, you know what he actually didn’t just help that waitress, he’s left a trail of good deeds behind him.

Dean: Yeah

Amy: Yeah, and the strippers are very thankful for that.

John: nd that was hard casting.

[All laugh]

Rod: That was a big job to cast.

Amy: That was tough casting.

Chris: Yeah that was hard, that was tough.

John: That’s always- as soon as directors and writers see ‘stripper’ in the script, that’s always- yeah.

Amy: That’s my fault.

Chris: I think there’s a great ‘a architect’ joke in that.

John: Yeah there is

Amy: Oh there is! Yes- we- yeah.

John: That’s a big shout out to Derek Evans, the- Derek Edwards pardon me, the Canadian comic the ‘a architect’ joke is in the original script.

Amy: ‘I want to be a architect’

John: Yup. That is the greatest- the greatest stripper joke ever written.

Chris: Another great-

John: Oh, that’s great.

Chris: Tim- Tim smoldering in the background, enraged by this guy.

Dean: Beautifully composed.

John: It is. And then a nice button reveal. And also- I like the fact that we made it the San Francisco office to explain why they were all Korean and nobody noticed ‘why are they all Asian?’.

Amy: By the way, I

Chris: Nobody- nobody blinked.

John: That’s one of those things that as a writer, when you’re inside the show so much for things that you think people will catch, and people never catch.

Amy: I- I think that’s true, that’s- people never catch. Chase Kim, I love you.

[Laugher]

John: You know you’re- you have to be careful there, you’re a powerful person you can’t let the actors think you’re harassing them in some way.

Amy: Oh. Well you realize I know all of their names, that’s why I am likeable.

Dean: This is the ‘just give me something to do’ scene right?

John: Yeah.

Dean: Which- which for some reason, both the writing of it, and the performance of that line, was insanely truthful. I mean it- and it was a great out of the melancholy of this scene.

Amy: Yeah

Dean: Because it’s what he needed to get through, and in fact it’s what he’s done the whole season.

John: And I mean, it’s weird that this whole show is kind of, you know two writers wrote it, it really was kinda on the fly-

Amy and Chris: We wrote it in a week.

John: -but it unifies most of the themes of the season. It really does.

Dean: Yeah.

Amy: Yeah. Intentionally, right Chris?

Chris: Oh, absolutely, that’s what we had going.

[Laughter]

Amy: We totally planned that.

Rod: Of course it is.

Chris: We certainly didn’t wanna just, have something to film next week.

John: I like to- I like to think it was really my polish that brought that-

Amy: Oh, what?

Chris: That’s it, you brought in all the themes.

Amy: You did not touch anything we were not apart of, my friend.

[Laughter]

Dean: Rod, you going to handheld in this scene, which we normally do in a physical jeopardy scene-

Amy: Yeah.

Dean: -gave us the feeling of emotional jeopardy.

Rod: Yes, yes it does.

John: When do you make that- I mean, Rod, when you- you’re sorta looking at a scene, what is- when do you make that choice? I mean, is it-?

Rod: Do you know- I mean in one sense I like to leave the freedom of that choice right up to the point just before you’re ready to shoot it. But other times when you’re reading a script, you do tend to- and I might say there were some brilliant notes given out about the style of the production. So often you get onto a series and you come in and do an episode, everybody’s saying just ‘do what you feel comfortable with’ but at least there was a guide that- that Dean had left behind which gave, very clearly, the choices. And of course, this is normally in an action sequence, or whatever, I felt that unease, from the camera movement. And of course then we introduce Sterling and-

Amy: Oh, Mark Sheppard.

Chris: So here’s the- here’s the story of this. We were contracted to have Mark Sheppard in this particular episode. And we- the writers-

John: It wound up being different, yeah.

Chris: Dean came in and said ‘we really need to use Mark Sheppard’ and we said well we’re in rehab, I mean we just don’t have a place to put him. And Dean kinda walked out of the room, and then he walked back in, and he said ‘he’s a hallucination’ and he walked out again.

[Laughter]

Amy: That’s what Dean does all the time, by the way. Solve a problem and then leave.

Chris: And- and we sat down and we came to this scene, and this is one of the best scenes of the episode.

Amy: By the way, this is the only scene Chris and I actually wrote together.

Chris and Amy: We actually wrote this together, yeah.

Dean: I love how he’s in a different wardrobe here each time you cut to him.

Amy: Yeah, yeah. That was a- that was a nice choice

Rod: He’s a comfortable spirit.

John: And again, it’s an interesting bit of geography, because it starts at the door, to Tim at the window, and then rotate around.

Rod: Just watch Tim’s eyes now, though, I love those eyes.

Amy: Yeah, Tim, ugh, gosh...

Dean: Tim so just knocked this episode right out of the park.

Chris: And I think Mark Sheppard had some- the ideas about the glass and-

Amy: Yeah, he wanted to bring back the glass.

John: Well what’s interesting is that the glass becomes a thing in the season finale.

Chris and Amy: Yeah.

John: The glass- the idea that they trade this glass back and forth, and again it’s one of those reinforcing things where, when we started Sheppard in the show, we didn’t know if they’d been friends or not. And by the end of the season, I’m fairly sure they were best friends. And there was- there was just too much continuity between the two of them

Amy: By the way, Rod, I totally love this choice of sort of filtering this scene through Nate’s sort of psychosis in a way. Tt was fantastic.

Rod: Sort of distorted, yeah.

Dean: Yeah look at that, sort of bouncing around. And it really gave that impact on this cut, because you felt it was building building building.

Amy: I mean as great as the dialogue was, I thought it was fine that you did it that way.

[All laugh]

John: That was- that was very giving of you, very nice.

Amy: yeah. I thought that was very open

Dean: [Laughs] And he wants to hug him.

Rod: He wanted to hug him.

John: He’s not a big-

Amy: Yeah, by the way ,he’s that guy. Drew is that guy. He’s like ‘where are you? Give me a hug.’

John: Tim Hutton, not a big fan of the- the social hugging.

[Laughter]

Amy: Nate isn’t.

John: Nate- Nate isn’t, Tim is.

Amy: Tim is, Nate- Nate, not so much.

John: Yeah I mean, Tim- look at that, that is a guy just composed with rage and way off his game, yeah. He’s really- it’s weird it’s to the point with the commentary where it’s just like yeah let’s pop the sound up because Tim’s just rocking this out. Yeah, this is also one of the tricky things, where when you’re in a closed location, one of the writer room challenges is always ‘Alright, what’s the danger? At some point some dudes with suits and guns are gonna show up. What makes sense in this context?’

Amy: It was- it was fortunate-

Dean: I love- I love Parker’s reaction, when she steals the gun, accidentally.

Amy: And John- yeah, yeah.

Dean: It’s just- she can’t help herself from stealing something.

Amy: It’s just instinct, yeah. It’s just instinct.

John: And Beth really added a level of pathos to that, where it was just beautiful.

Amy: Oh, fantastic.

John: I mean, it was interesting to- it was interesting, some fans got really angry at the fact that we took Beth- Parker out of rehab.

Chris: Right.

John: Because the idea is she’s getting better!

Chris: They’re all ‘how dare they?’

[Laughter]

John: But there’s- she can’t get better! There’s no show!

[Laugher]

Amy: But see that’s not who Parker is. She’s becoming someone she isn’t, which is why you can’t have her stay that way.

Dean: And this line- that line right there is the whole season.

John: Yeah.

Dean: Where he says back to him ‘is doing all this for the right reason, wrong?’

Amy: Yeah.

Chris: Well that’s- well that’s how we envisioned this character, was kind of a cracked mirror version of Nate.

Dean: A mirror of Nate, yeah.

John: Yeah, exactly

Rod: Well he wasn’t really that smart because he’s putting all the money into the stock markets.

[All laugh]

Dean: Right.

John: Which really ended very poorly all around.

Amy: Right, it did not go well. Did not go well.

John: Yeah, look- look at that take, that was a lovely take. But yeah, the entire- again, the theme, he asked this question of like- basically sets up ‘I’m a pathetic drunken wretch and I’m doing exactly what you do aren’t I morally justified?’

Chris: Right, right.

John: There’s no way you can, you can avoid the- that situation. And that's kinda the interesting thing is, it’s a very light, funny show, underneath, running through the entire season is ‘this dude’s broken’.

Amy and Chris: Yeah.

John: Matter of fact, everyone else is getting better around him. You know he’s the one who interestingly isn’t leading them in any way shape or form. They begin to lead him, you know?

Amy: Well they’re sort of evolving, he’s sort of devolving as the season goes on.

John: Yeah.

Amy: And also I think that Jack Hurley is sort of the Bizzarro nate.

John and Chris: Yeah

Amy: Like the difference between them is control. Like Nate, typically, has much more control than-

Chris: Nate typically is not the character of id. He’s all about the ego and superego. Literally, Hurley is the id.

Dean: I love that, he just shoves him into the hall.

[Laughter]

Dean: You get a near death situation.

John: ‘You know what, I’m just tired and cranky.’

Amy: ‘You know what? If he gets shot, that’s fine. I’m getting out of here.’

Dean: Oh this is- and this, this is to die for.

Amy: Yeah.

John: This bit is great.

Dean: ‘You’re touching me.’ [Laughter]

Amy: By the way, the reason- the reason Beth is slightly smiling there is that before we shot this scene, the three of them, the actors, had a food fight with cold cuts. And when- when Tim put his arms on Beth, she got this- this whiff of turkey that was so overwhelming.

[Laugher]

John: I will, actually, also say that where that- where that bit of dialogue comes from, it’s from a Justice League that Mark Waid wrote, where- I’m totally gonna say this, one of my favorite bits of comics. Batman puts his hand on Flash’s shoulder and says ‘I need you to do this’ and there’s a long pause where Flash goes ‘Batman is touching me. I’m going to die, aren’t I?’ And the idea that someone’s physical contact was so rare, that what- even in a totally different context stuck with me, and that’s- really, you know.

Amy: Is it weird that I didn’t read that and yet I wrote that? [Laughs]

John: No, because we talked about it in the room, the bit where-

Amy: Yes we did talk about that, that’s true.

Chris: Right that’s how it all-

Amy: That’s true.

John: Yeah, I mean, at this point it was the three of us in a room.

Dean: And I love Hardison’s line here.

Amy: This is so good.

John: Oh yeah this bit. He’s so angry.

Dean: I nearly died, and all I had to do was get him tacos?

[Laughter]

Amy: ‘I sat on a bomb!’

Chris: Read this kinda late. Cause sometimes you look at a- you look at a moment in a script and you go ‘is the audience gonna buy this?’ Let’s write to it, let’s have a character say what we’re saying .

Amy: I love that. I love that.

John: Yeah, ‘Are you out of your mind?’

Chris: It’s the ‘let me get this straight’ line.

Amy: Yeah yeah.

John: Yeah. A crucial part of the writer's toolbox is being able to sell the ‘let me get this straight’ line properly. Cause poorly done...

Dean: Here we go, cause again, resetting this whole thing again.

Amy: Gorgeous!

Dean: This is beautiful.

Amy: Hey ,remember where we were? Exactly. With the crane.

John: Yup. There’s the geography again, yeah.

Amy: Yeah.

Dean: And just the amount of movement that you got out of the camera, Rod, was just fantastic.

Rod: Yeah. Thank you. I feel that movement is always important on television stuff, because it just keeps the audience feeling just a little bit uneasy.

John: Yeah, even just a little creeping here right now is just fantastic.

Dean: And we’ve never stopped, this whole sequence, it’s just great.

John: No. Also you shoot through the foreground a lot I’ve noticed, which is nice.

Amy: Oh yeah, I love that. It’s brilliant

John: It’s definitely something worth stealing. I mean when we bring you back, we’ll definitely have you use-

Amy: Oh yeah, for the eight episodes in season 2.

Rod: Can you- can I get the guarantee now?

[All laugh]

John: Oh, this showdown is a great- and that’s a great background. And again, it’s interesting - I think it works better in the day not just because it brightens it up, but because you can see more.

Rod: Well you know one thing I was thinking as we were standing on top of that car park, ‘Would these guys be doing this with thousands of people watching it?’ But that’s half the fun of the scene, because these kind of guys do do that.

Chris: Yeah

Amy: Yeah, they’re not afraid of anything.

Dean: Now this effect sequence, is one I’m most proud of on the show.

Amy: Yes.

Dean: This was something that we wanted to do for real, and the practical realities of what it was going to cost us between all the stunt cars that had to be destroyed, the amount of fire marshalls-

John: Exploding a car in downtown LA.

[Laughter]

Dean: And so we said, ‘I think we can do this with a model.’

Amy: Yeah.

Dean: Elsewhere on the DVD there will be a little behind the scenes of how we did this.

Chris: Oh that’s cool; that’s terrific.

Dean: That’s a tiny, little model on a green screen.

Rod: That is pretty amazing stuff, let me tell you.

John: And this is my favorite bit.

Amy: Oh, the tire!

Dean: That tire was digitally animated, with digital fire on it.

Amy: Wait, the tire makes a return appearance shortly, which is fantastic, in the foreground of Tim.

Dean: But then it’s real.

Amy: And there it is.

Chris: But also you shot- also you shot through fire which was the other thing. You had a little fire in front of the camera to get this.

Rod: Yes, yes.

Dean: And sold the whole thing.

John: How do you do that? Do you just set up a fire bar?

Rod: Yeah a gas bar- flame bar underneath the camera lens. But I have to tell you, as the director of the piece and having been there, I was absolutely amazed when I saw the fire.

[Laughter]

Rod: i just couldn’t believe it. I thought it was just terrific.

Amy: It’s always a good sign when the director doesn’t think that you’re gonna be able to pull it off.

[Laughter]

Rod: I was in doubt, I have to tell you, but not anymore.

Amy: We do some things well here.

Rod: Yes

Amy: Thank you, Dean Devlin.

[All laugh]

Dean: I love that reaction.

John: I love that- I love the idea that the bomb coming back is- hesitance there. ‘No no no, don’t don’t tell him.’

Amy: ‘I don’t like where this is going.’

Rod: Now this part is really- to the writers. This is so silly, but, my god, it works.

John: Yeah.

Rod: It’s such fun. It’s such fun.

Amy: It’s great.

Chris: It’s- thank goodness it worked.

John: Well this is- this is definitely one of those situations where it was- it was ‘alright, here’s the physical location, here’s the situation he’s in, how in the name of-’

Amy: By the way, only so many things you can do there-

John: Yeah.

Chris: And really we- really we didn’t have a lot.

Amy: -and using this creeper was like the only thing I could think of right there. Using the creeper there.

Dean: This works so well. It’s such a laugh.

Chris: This worked really well. And it worked.

Amy: And originally we wanted to-

Chris: And this- this sells it to me - him pulling on the ropes, that’s what made it really work.

Amy: I think originally we were gonna have Drew hop on Gina, but then that would’ve been just ridiculous.

Chris: Yeah, that didn’t seem...

Dean: That could’ve just killed her. [Laughs]

Rod: But let me tell you, we had to build those cars up on 25 bricks to get Drew underneath them.

[All laugh]

John: Yeah, kinda a slight miscalculation there, yeah. Yeah it’s not like I would’ve slid under there like a greased pig either.

Dean: I love when he says ‘you two hate each other’.

John: Well they kinda do.

Dean: Love and hate - it’s a fine line.

Amy: In the context, yeah yeah.

Chris: Strong emotions.

John: Love and hate. I mean it’s the- it’s the people that you care about that can call you on your- your bullshit. That’s the situation she’s in and he’s not at the emotional place where he’s ready to listen yet.

Amy: And she wouldn’t be on his case if she didn’t care about him, so.

Rod: You know, you say that this relationship doesn’t- wouldn’t go any farther. I gotta tell you I watch it kinda like I did with Moonlighting. They would bicker and fight and carry on, I still feel like there’s some sexual tension there that stays alive.

John: Yeah, well there is.

Amy: There will always be tension, yeah.

John: But when I say this isn’t going to go further, is that they have to realize this isn’t the version that’s going to work before they can go forward.

Amy: This isn’t the version of them that will be successful, yeah

Chris: And we wanna keep them- we wanna keep them apart.

John: But really them, the end of the season is them really just realizing that, this? As much as they care for each other doesn’t work. And hopefully second season, now that we know we have a second season-

Amy: And they’re waiting for that.

Chris: And I love this, another- another great- another great transition.

John: Good transition. And they’re waiting for that that’ll work.

Dean: And I love him trying to get the hug. And there’s just, like, no chance it’s going to happen.

[All laugh]

John: And that’s- you know, there’s a line he has earlier in the show where he says, ‘this is my big score’. And he’s constantly looking to fix everything with one score and that’s what Nate’s doing.

Amy: Bizzaro Nate, comes into play.

Chris: Exactly. But with- with id instead of ego.

John: ‘Take the win. Take the win.’ The- I will freely admit, money in the car tire? Lupin the Third. That’s what gave me that idea.

Chris: What’s that from?

John: The Japanese anime Lupin the Third did a car crash heist.

Chris: Wow, that’s- go look- go look for that kids.

[Laughter]

John: Freely- freely admit that inspiration.

Amy: Steel belted radials.

John: Yup. Now this is great, where they try to give him a fresh life, and they try to- We’ll be seeing him again.

Chris: We will.

John: Hurley is a character that will definitely come back. We like both the actor and the character.

Dean: And he’s a terrific thief.

Chis: Yeah.

[All laugh]

John: Yeah ,well that’s boiled down- now there was a version of one of the scenes where the team actually talks about adopting him like a puppy.

Amy: Yeah, it’s true.

John: That we wound up not doing, but it was lovely. Because it is, he’s a money guy and the one part of the team they don’t have is a money guy.

Chris: Right.

John: Yeah, we’ll definitely be bringing him back.

Rod: Yeah and a great you know, it starts off as the anti-hero and then at the end of the time here- wants the hug again-

[All laugh]

Amy: He just wants a little love!

John: Yeah ‘no please, please.’

Chris: ‘Keep it in.’

John: ‘No, no, no.’

Amy: But- but I have good intentions? No? Alright fine.’ Love it.

John: Yeah, he’s put them through a very long couple of days.

Dean: And I absolutely love the coda scene on this episode, because at this point you’re like ‘Jeez what happened to Parker?’ and then you get to find out.

Amy: This was so fun to write, I have to tell you.

Dean: My- my best friend, this is his favorite line of the entire season so far.

Amy: Really?

Dean: Is him saying ‘I don’t think she knows how to play this game.’

[Laughter]

Amy: Yeah, well you wanna give him one moment of clarity. Rehab works for some people! Maybe not Parker, but-

Chris: Well when I was- that was exactly- we were literally writing this thing in the room together, and at one point I said ‘Alright this is who I have in the rehab center, a sullen teen girl and a guy that mumbles’ and then I threw it to you and you said ‘I’d just put them in a charades scene’ and I go ‘great!’

[Laughter]

Dean: I love how Parker always smells things. Whether it’s someone's hair, or the clothes...

Amy: You gotta test it first. What, you don’t do that?

John: Actually, one of my favorite little throwaway bits is that moment where Sophie’s the only one who recognizes the diagram. That it’s the antiquities thing at the Cairo Museum.

Amy: Yeah yeah yeah.

John: It’s just one of those little things that reinforces the thing why she has to be with people she’s like. And you’re right this isn’t Parker, this is having a weird reaction drugged up Parker.

Amy: Yeah, Parker doesn’t naturally jump hug.

John: The jump hug that launched a thousand fan fictions.

Amy: Oh my God, yeah.

Chris: Oh boy, people are writing about this like crazy.

Amy: But now they’re confused because they’re like, ‘wait I thought she like Hardison, but she totally went for Eliot first, what’s the deal’?

John: Yeah, they’re all- they’re all in uproar. You know what, ah, look at em, they’re so happy.

Rod: Let me tell you during these troubled times we’re going through, to see a family on television like this, that each week you see that family getting to know things about each other, it’s fabulous. And let me tell you, a family, thank you for welcoming me into this one.

John, Amy, Chris: Aww, please.

Rod: I seriously had one of the best times in a long time working with you bunch, seriously.

Amy: Aww, you’re so sweet!

Rod: And the show ends up and shows it, too, I might say.

John: Oh, that’s a great episode.

Amy: I think so. It’s a really good episode.

John: This is the wrap up, during the credits you get to say anything you wanna say. Do you wanna say something nice to Rod? He said something nice about you.

Rod: No you don’t have to.

Dean: Nah, no way.

Amy: I love Rod.

Chris: We should try to get him into writing.

Rod: Let’s talk about David Connell’s clothing.

Amy: Really? What’s the deal?

Dean: In many- in many ways this is one of my favorite episodes of the season. And in fact, because we shot this before I had a chance to shoot the season finale, I, actually, was really inspired by the way you directed this. And I incorporated a lot of your stuff into the season finale.

Rod: Thanks. Thank you.

[twofrontteethstillcrooked]

silverflint drabble, 3 Dec. 2018

(@silverflintdaily)

snow, gun, remorse

"Who's got the gun?" Flint said. Spluttered, actually, trying to sit up with a gasp; the pain at his temples suggested it was feasible he was the one who'd been shot. He raised his hands to his head like they could dampen the deafening sound of blood leaking from his ears.

"I think you were dreaming," Silver screamed, or, possibly, said at a completely normal volume. 

snow, gun, remorse

"Who's got the gun?" Flint said. Spluttered, actually, trying to sit up with a gasp; the pain at his temples suggested it was feasible he was the one who'd been shot. He raised his hands to his head like they could dampen the deafening sound of blood leaking from his ears.

"I think you were dreaming," Silver screamed, or, possibly, said at a completely normal volume.

The room was blurry, as though filmed through a lens smeared with Vaseline. Silver's flannels shone through the gloom like red and green beacons. Flint managed to pull himself out of the couch cushions, feeling like he was being buoyed along in some sort of rowboat; there were waves beneath him, threatening to wash him back out to sea. Silver was floating nearer like tacky driftwood, his uncombed hair a riot and his smile somehow not condescending.

"Nice pajamas," Flint rasped. His mouth tasted like couch cushion and cheap old scotch.

"Thank you." Silver sat down on the closest windowsill and slowly reeled up the blinds. White light strong as a nuclear detonation -- strong as all of Flint's remorse -- filled the room. "Well, it definitely snowed last night."

Flint would take his word for it because there was no way he could open his eyes again. There was probably some kind of appropriate response he was supposed to give as the other person in the conversation. What came out of his mouth was, "Murggph."

Silver patted the arm Flint had thrown over his own face. "I'll make you some coffee." It sounded like he put down the shade halfway, thank god.

"You don't drink coffee."

"That doesn't mean I can't make you some."

Flint lowered his arm in time to see Silver with his crutch headed toward what Flint supposed was the kitchen. "Are your pajamas infested with reindeer?" he asked, because it concerned him that the answer would be yes.

"So you're super bad at this holiday stuff, yeah?" Silver yelled out.

A groan was as good as a word, but Flint wanted to do better than that. "This isn't the holidays," he stated emphatically. "December 4th is not the fucking holidays."

"Only three weeks to go, Ebenezer." While something rattled unsupervised in the kitchen like a box of feral cats Silver came back out to lean against a dinner table and wipe his hands on a tea towel patterned in penguins wearing Santa hats.

"Christmas is three whole weeks away, and the first day of Christmas technically doesn't start until Christmas day itself, and yet I have already heard no fewer than eight godforsaken versions of 'Have a Holly Jolly Christmas' no fewer than seven dozen times each in public locations in the last three weeks." Flint felt the same icy rage that had sent him to the airport bar yesterday rising to the surface, despite the look on Silver's face. "Tell me that's not torture as defined by international law. Tell me there isn't a kid working at Bubba Burgers right now who's about to go 'round the goddamn bend listening to Michael fucking Buble on a loop and we'll talk, but--"

"Listen," Silver interrupted. He bounced down next to Flint like a Tigger who'd learned how to master a real leopard's sudden lethal pounce. "You don't have to tell me what it's like out there this time of year. It's entirely likely that kid at Bubba's is gritting his teeth and coping, which is a sight more than you're doing, because that kid has bills to pay and baby Jesus won't be leaving a filled stocking where that kid's squatting this week, okay?" Silver blew out a breath and put his hands on his reindeer'd knees. "I get that you hate this time of year, and you have your reasons, but the rest of the office, myself most especially included, would appreciate it if you could just go take a fucking walk when you get this wound up. Everyone knows Christmas is a lot of racket. Some of us would like to enjoy the corporate gifts anyway."

The seriousness of his tone was punctuated by the sharp whistle of a kettle. A few minutes later he was giving Flint a mug shaped like a decapitated snowman head filled with something steamy and smelling vaguely of cinnamon.

"Do you even have any coffee?" Flint asked, knowing it would make him sound peevish.

"Nope." Silver nudged him until he moved over on the couch. "It's Christmas tea, though. Nice and strong."

Flint took a sip. It tasted like there were multiple spices in there and the tea was hot like the surface of the sun. He took another few sips. After half a mug he started to feel saner. He chanced glancing at Silver, who was sipping from an overlarge green mug that said 'When I think about you, I touch my elf' on the side. Flint watched his throat as he swallowed and felt his own throat go dry from it.

"You didn't have to come fetch me last night," Flint said, by way of apology.

Silver snorted lightly. "I didn't fetch you, dipshit. I was at the airport too."

This was honest news to Flint. "Why?"

"Madi was supposed to come in for a conference. She got stuck at her connection at Logan, but her texts went into the ether for a while, or my phone's crapping out or something, so I didn't know until I was already waiting at the other end of Chez 747."

Flint thought for a moment. "Is she still on her way, or--"

"Nah, the conference is cancelled since half the scientists are stuck in random cities. I think they're rescheduling for, like, August. Some month when it's guaranteed not to snow."

Silver sounded so breezy, Flint thought, you'd never know he was upset at all if you didn't know him.  

"It's fine." Silver sighed, as though Flint had commented. Sighed again. "You were very hostile about that bag last night." He pointed at Flint's black and tan carry-on, which was tumped over by the front door.

"I don't remember--"

"Actually, you were fairly hostile about everything last night. Have you thought about therapy? I'm no expert but you seem like a good candidate for some."

Flint put down the mug. "I was asked never to return to the Little Sisters of Mercy clinic after a single hour-long session."

"See, I know you're joking, but that's easily the most plausible thing you've ever said." Silver looked at Flint with a smart-ass expression. When Flint shrugged, he shook his head with a little laugh. "You're welcome to take a shower. There's plenty of food in the place, too, since I thought, you know. I was already planning to have company for a few days."

"I should call a taxi." A taxi, Flint thought, because fuck Uber. He had a vague recollection of having had similar thoughts last night at some point while still at the airport. The idea of going out into the cold and the white did not hold much more appeal now than it had then.

Silver shook his head again. "No-one's supposed to be on the roads. State of emergency and all that. We're lucky to have escaped the airport when we did." At Flint's frown he continued, "Take a shower and we'll have brunch. The lights are still on; if you're hell-bent on doing some work you can use my laptop."

"I'm sorry to impose--"

"Since when?" Silver levered himself off the couch. "It's not a problem."

Flint stood up beside him. It was the worst choice he ever made in his whole life, which was saying something. The room heaved like it was the world's biggest stomach. He stood there swaying in the surf for what seemed like a solid ten minutes, with only Silver's hand on his elbow to keep him from being thrown against rough-glass rocks. Flint's vision finally cleared, and the floor stopped surging.

Silver was standing very near. "Better?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah."

"I called Gates and told him where you, we, were, by the way--"

"Thank you."

"--since you hadn't bothered to do that."

Flint gave him a level look. "I can't overstate how much I appreciate your hospitality."

Silver narrowed his eyes. "You could always try."

"Bathroom's down the hall?" Flint parried.

"Yep."

Flint took five steps away and looked back. Silver was standing there looking at the ceiling as though it would grant him guidance or respite.

"I really," Flint started, with his throat tight. "I really do appreciate...this." He gave a little something-like-a-smile. "You."

Silver held his gaze. "You're welcome," he said after a moment. "I'm gonna go start some food." He turned to go to the kitchen. "Please don't drown in the tub."

[penumbra-rp]

Congratulations Akanksha, you have been accepted for the role of Bellatrix Black!

Her gaze flicked towards the interviewer, and the thin veneer of a post wave feminist boss slid over her skin “— I think it’s really important for me to be seen in this position. It’s rather odd that the fashion industry is catered towards women and yet most executives, and even designers, in the top fashion houses are…men.”

Admin Ash: Akanksha, I absolutely adored that Bellatrix was the feminist force of nature that the fashion world wasn’t ready for but she forced them to accept. You said that Bellatrix was a woman better suited to battle, wearing her skin like armor and possessing the keen readiness to obliterate obstacles in her path in whatever form they took. And as you go through the stages of her life, you can see that she’s in a consistent fight, grappling with numerous battles -- with her mother to take on less upper-class societal norms, with her father to be taken seriously as a business woman, with her volatile nature as it needed to be subdued without the proper outlet to put it. But now that the Death Eaters have given her that outlet, I’m beyond ready to see Bellatrix tap into her nastier self. 

Please check out our checklist for joining Penumbra. 

01. Out of Character

NAME: Akanksha

AGE: 23

YOUR BIRTHDAY: 10/31/1995

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

TIMEZONE: EST

02. In Character

CHARACTER: Bellatrix Black

CHARACTER’S PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

FACECLAIM: Crystal Reed

CHARACTER’S BIRTHDAY: April 14th, 1988

PERSONALITY:

(+) EFFICIENT – Electricity followed the path of least resistance and Bellatrix was the same way; she saw her solutions in straight lines. Obstacles were removed not circumvented. In the business world, this garnered her praise – she had an uncanny ability to cut through bureaucratic paperwork. In the other matters, this trait was especially welcome. Deliveries were made quickly and discreetly. And those who interfered were eliminated at once, with little time spent contemplating the morality of it all.

(+) INTELLIGENT – Perhaps if knowledge wasn’t such a means to an end, she would have spent more time in academia. Nonetheless, Bellatrix actively sought to learn more, to know more. From languages to stocks, she kept an attentive eye on new trends. Developing a vast and in-depth repertoire of skills was what kept her far and ahead from anyone else, and she aimed to keep it that way.

(+) PROTECTIVE – Bellatrix protected what was hers. She’d learned at the foot of her father, strict but unhesitating when crushing those who would do his family harm. Those outside her family must work much harder to be considered one of hers. But once they’ve earned their place in her shadow, she will do whatever necessary to protect them and more often than not, their mistakes.

(-) VOLATILE – Bellatrix has always struggled to hide what she’s felt. This issue is greatly compounded by her mercurial nature. She went from calm to furious in a breath, and settled just as quickly. This made her rather unpredictable; some days she’d let a mistake pass and others she’d use it as an excuse to indulge in her more violent tendencies.

(-) CRUEL — Perhaps the most offensive aspect of Bellatrix was her particular brand of violence. She didn’t simply eliminate her obstacles, she obliterated them. For any perceived slight, her retaliation was ten-fold. She was quite simply mean, and rarely for good reason. Bellatrix enjoyed being cruel; it slaked some tormented creature inside her that she’d never been able to articulate.

(-) DOGMATIC — At the end of the day, you were either with her or against her, and she would interact with you accordingly. No one could truly be neutral in Bellatrix’s eyes. Her black and white worldview fed into her narcissistic notion that only she knew best. The only complicated relationships she had were those with her sisters; the differences between them were obvious, but there were striking similarities as well. Beyond them, Bellatrix didn’t allow herself the murkiness of gray areas.

BRIEF BULLET POINT BIO:

NAME – Bellatrix was born in the middle of a thunderstorm, screaming from birth. They named her for a constellation, as the Blacks had always done. They named her for a warrior, and it meant something when the Black family gave their daughter a title like that. Bellatrix was born with turmoil inside her, one that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Her skin would always feel stretched tight, like armor, and the first time her mother dressed her up for fun, make-up making a little girl seem older, she knew that femininity would only ever be war paint for her.

MIRROR – It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be a girl. She had no problem with her body, the budding curves, the slimmer face. It was all the expectations that came along with it. She fought her mother because she didn’t want to wear dresses. She fought her father because she wanted to be involved in the family business, not married off. She fought her sisters because maybe if Andromeda stopped being so difficult, maybe if Narcissa stopped being so perfect, maybe then her parents would turn their attention away and she could finally breathe. She wanted to shriek so loud her mirror would crack, and maybe then the jagged reflection would look more right to her than the dark haired, red lipped princess who stared back.

ACADEMIA – She somehow scored the highest marks in her class but very nearly didn’t graduate from secondary school due to the sheer number of transgressions. Her father’s lethal charm, both carrot and stick at once, ensured her graduation and there was something in his eye that told her he was proud of her. On the cusp of adulthood, she finally managed to prove to her father that her mind, her hands were worth far more at House of Black than as a negotiating piece. Bellatrix studied the right courses, spent her summers interning at the fashion house, and graduated from the Slytherin School of Social Science poised to take over.

CAREER – The moment she was initiated into the Death Eaters, the clawing, hungry thing inside her settled. Or rather, it was appeased with the promise of danger, with the deadly games and trades, with the scent of blood. Executive Director of House of Black itched less when it was meant to be a cover and not her reality. She did her job well, better even, once she had an outlet for the tendencies that made her blood simmer beneath her skin until she burned from the inside. For that had always been the struggle of a starry warrior – Bellatrix was fearless and bright, but she was at her best in battle.

OPINION – While Bellatrix appreciated the privileges associated with The Sacred 28, the gendered aspects of the culture grated on her. Being raised in that culture allowed her to slip in, seemingly one of them, but her family always knew better. Only the youngest Black had thrived in those spaces. She preferred The Death Eaters mostly because it was the first place she had been able to be her complete self. For the first time, she hadn’t had to shave off the distasteful pieces of herself to be seen as appropriate. The Death Eaters had provided her a true sanctuary, and Bellatrix would be damned before she let some upstart activists ruin that.

INTERVIEW:

i. How do you feel about your current occupation?

— Bellatrix didn’t bother smiling; she hadn’t been pleased about the interview in the first place. In fact, she distinctly remembered telling her youngest sister that as Marketing Director, Bellatrix expected Cissy to head off any and all journalists. She didn’t have the time or, quite frankly, the temperament. “I enjoy my work, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said, dark eyes still focused on the contract she was reviewing. “It’s a very high energy environment, which suits me particularly well. And—“ her gaze flicked towards the interviewer, and the thin veneer of a post wave feminist boss slid over her skin “— I think it’s really important for me to be seen in this position. It’s rather odd that the fashion industry is catered towards women and yet most executives, and even designers, in the top fashion houses are…men.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste. “There’s legacy and family here, yes, but House of Black continues to be trendsetting in more ways than fashion, and for that simple reason I could never consider a position anywhere else. I love this company and my job.” She smiled then, more bared teeth than grin — she’d never been able to truly hide the predator in her — and the unspoken for now became clear.

ii. What song would you say describes yourself?

— Bellatrix tilted her head in consideration. Lips curving into a smile that was relatively softer, more knife edge than blatant fangs, she turned back to her computer. Neatly manicured nails (she never bothered with fancy colors sticking to nude or black) tapped her keyboard with ease and accuracy. A click, and a thrumming beat began to fill the office followed by a rich female voice. We wear red so they don’t see us bleed… “Trouble by Valerie Broussard.” She didn’t offer any further explanation.

iii. Does reputation matter to you?

— She leaned back, chair tilting and arms folded across her torso. There was a quickness to her movements, something a little faster, slicker than Narcissa’s stunning grace or Andromeda’s serene gentleness. “Of course it matters, how could it not – businesses are built on reputations; but deals only come through when you have the knowledge, the skill, the competence to back your reputation.” She observes the interviewer for a moment. “I know I match up to my reputation.” Her quick up-and-down gaze seals her assessment and the interviewer can sense her judgement easily; they don’t even have a reputation, none that she’s heard of, so she doubted they had the competency either.

iv. What is your relationship with your parents like?

— It was the first time in the interview that Bellatrix was caught off guard. Everything in her felt jagged for a moment – being off-tilt was uncomfortable for a woman who prided herself on her preparation. But she was a Black. So Bellatrix straightened her spine, shoulders back, chin up, dark eyes even. “I suspect you’re asking due to the nepotism here.” She didn’t mince words, or care to lie. “Family always comes first; that’s how I was raised. My relationship with my parents is complicated and definitely improved once it became a more adult relationship, like anyone else. But I also know, that they will always have my back, and I will always have theirs.” A more honest answer would have been too nuanced for her to articulate to someone who knew her well, let alone an absolute stranger. Her family had been both cage and sanctuary, and her parents had always held the keys to the lock.

v. What languages can you speak?

— Unlike Andromeda, who only spoke a few languages because she didn’t study them further, unlike Narcissa, who pretended she only knew a couple, Bellatrix boasted her five languages with an arched brow and a smug tilt of her chin. “French, Italian, Russian, Japanese,” she listed, each word emphasized with another pointed finger. She added her thumb and gave a cheeky wave. “And of course, English.” There were a few more she could fumble her way through, strictly for business needs, but Bellatrix wasn’t the sort of woman to advertise in which ways she was mediocre. She was the best because to her, there was no other way to be.

vi. If your home was on fire and you could only save one item, what would you choose?

— The question felt rather silly to Bellatrix. She didn’t feel attachment to items, her loyalty was to her family. And even then, the material objects that mattered to her most was almost always kept close to her. “My work bag,” she answered with an artless shrug, angled to gesture the sleek black leather bag. “I keep my laptop, wallet and phone in it – in this digital age, my most valued possessions are all kept safe in cloud storage.” Besides, family heirlooms were more her sisters’ realm.

vii. Which Hogwarts University faculty did you study at? The Gryffindor School of Applied Science, the Ravenclaw School of Humanities, the Slytherin School of Social Science, or the Hufflepuff School of Art?

– Her patience was beginning to thin, each inane question causing her jaw to set. “I believe this is information you can find with a quick search,” her voice was dangerously saccharine, and the nervous stutter she received in response pleased her. “This time, I’ll save you the work.” Don’t let there be a next time, she said, not through words, but through the hardness of her gaze, the line of her neck the slope of her nose. “I completed an accelerated course of study to graduate with both my undergrad and master’s in International Commerce. From Slytherin.” What a quick search wouldn’t tell the interviewer was that in those five years, she very nearly also completed an Industrial Operations Engineering degree from Gryffindor. She’d liked applied sciences well enough, but not enough to fight her father on it.

vix. What is your social media username?

— “Another thing you can easily search, so this time I’ll let you handle it,” Bellatrix responded dismissively. “If you have any other questions, please email my assistant. Had I known what a waste of time this would be, I would have had you do that in the first place.” Her voice was cool and matter-of-fact, and before the interviewer had even stood, Bellatrix had turned back to her work. Fortunately for the interviewer, her username was easily found on her business card;@BellatrixBlack printed in neat font above icons for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It was clear upon further research that Bellatrix didn’t run her social media – they were highly curated business accounts. And no amount of research would reveal her extremely private personal tag that she only used for Snapchat & FlooNet: @bellatrixie.

[myjerrythings-blog1]

Why All Attempts To Create ‘A Simple CRM’ End Up In Failure.

Recently I came around one more string about a startup that is making 'a basic CRM', in light of the fact that every single existing arrangement are excessively intricate and accompanied highlights that 'private companies needn't bother with'. I used to get associated with these exchanges in light of the fact that as Bitrix24 CMO I think about CRM showcase significantly more than your normal startup organizer. Bitrix24 included 'an essential CRM' to its arrangement of apparatuses four years back and starting at 2017, Bitrix24 is the most dominant free CRM (Client Relationship The board programming) out there. We have customers relocating to Bitrix24 from 'the top' — Salesforce, Microsoft Elements, Zoho, just as 'the bottom' — Insightly, Pipedrive, Highrise, Hubspot CRM and such. What's more, in those four years totally every contender, regardless of how mind boggling or how basic, have been adding new instruments and highlights to their CRM, much the same as we have.

We should begin with a couple of realities. CRM market is totally commanded by 'complex' CRM frameworks. Regardless of how you check it, by income or by number of paid seats, just Salesforce, Microsoft and their companions can flaunt billions in incomes, more than one hundred paying clients and a great many paid seats.

On the off chance that you take a gander at your common VC upheld 'Salesforce executioner' CRM, it's typically five years of age, has somewhere in the range of 5,000 and 50,000 paying clients with income between $5 million and $50 million. To put it plainly, off by a long shot. However there are individuals attempting to make CRM frameworks that are much progressively basic, persuaded that they have an extremely brilliant future to be sure. On the off chance that you are one of those individuals, this post is composed for you.

Give me a chance to begin with an explanation that there's no such thing as CRM. Indeed, even at the main methodology, there are at any rate three particularly unique CRM classes — sales, advertising and backing. Your business CRM contains information about who purchased what, has statements and solicitations, shipment statuses, fundamental stock control, membership the board, item inventory, etc. Your advertising CRM is revolved around a LEAD, not a client (like the business CRM). CRM for promoting is utilized so as to push the lead down the business channel until the person makes the buy (or make them rehash the way). Here your instrument suite more often than not includes email promoting, showcasing robotization, dribble crusade, telemarketing, etc. At last, client support CRM is basically a helpdesk. Here you needn't bother with statements or solicitations or email promoting, however you need case the executives apparatuses, similar to need levels, case heightening and consumer loyalty appraisals.

In this way, on the off chance that you chose to make 'a straightforward CRM', you'll have to forego either deals or backing or advertising, on the grounds that having every one of the three requires a base degree of intricacy that can not be diminished. There are instances of extraordinary CRM frameworks that have all three — none of them guarantee to be basic, since they are most certainly not.

Along these lines, assume that you've picked your objective. Regularly these new companies target deals or showcasing CRM or even remain at pre-CRM level at contact the board. Two lethal missteps are generally made immediately. Misstep number one — a gullible conviction that hidden complexities of this world should be possible away with by offering a solitary basic arrangement. Misstep number two — refusal to comprehend that the most concerning issue for organizations is An Individual, not A Bit OF CODE.

Give me a chance to give both of you guides to represent the two slip-ups that even a non-CRM expert can get it.

Model #1 — Human residences.

We should see elective lodging methods, state spider web or cordwood versus aloof house or shrewd house. The primary methodology stipulates that regardless of how complex the fundamental issues are (a dangerous atmospheric devation, high obligation levels, obliteration of the white collar class, national bank money related arrangements), you can leave home loan free in an eco-accommodating route by just structure a house yourself from effectively gotten materials that are economical or free. The subsequent methodology stipulates that you can attempt to take care of just a solitary issue (diminishing vitality utilization) by applying genuinely complex innovation, and keeping in mind that there are instances of DIY shrewd or inactive homes, it is commonly recognized that such homes are increasingly costly and procuring an expert is progressively fitting at that point attempting to do it without anyone else's help, except if you as of now have vital aptitudes.

Model #2 — Automotive industry.

We should see Portage Model T versus Tesla. Assume you need to construct another vehicle. You can attempt to return and assemble something as essential and solid as Model T, or you could attempt to break with custom and construct something new. I am utilizing Tesla in this model not on the grounds that it's electric, but since Tesla doesn't simply take a gander at the vehicle, it takes a gander AT THE DRIVER also. It is really superfluous whether the vehicle is electric or ICE, what's unmistakable is that what's to come is helped if not self-governing driving. By concentrating on the driver (An Individual) and the possibility that you can lessen or thoroughly dispense with human blunder, you get to an absolutely new level. That is beyond the realm of imagination, in the event that you are building Model T or need to diminish it further to a bike.

Alright, enough with the models and we should return to CRM.

The motivation behind why CRM market is developing so quickly and that even microbusinesses now use CRM programming is on the grounds that the world is getting the opportunity to be Increasingly unpredictable. There's more challenge, cash is effectively open (and costs less), and innovation is unleashing destruction on numerous businesses. Much the same as you can't unravel moderate lodging or a worldwide temperature alteration issue by showing individuals how to assemble their very own homes from soil, you aren't helping any independent ventures by structure a straightforward contact the board arrangement that is only one stage above Exceed expectations and doesn't do something besides fundamental email showcasing. THAT Isn't THE WAY.

You likewise must be straightforward and comprehend that #1 issue for any CRM is Individuals Utilizing IT. There's a popular saying in the business that the best CRM is the one you'll really utilize. Various articles have been expounded on CRM usage procedures and worker commitment. They are about as compelling as MADD (Moms Against Alcoholic Driving) promotions in preventing individuals from drinking and driving. Statements of regret to MADD.

So what would you be able to do to truly make your CRM simpler to utilize?

Initially, if a representative has an alternative to not utilize CRM, the person Won't utilize it. So DON'T GIVE THEM THAT Decision. Notice, I didn't state Power individuals to utilize CRM, on the grounds that with current CRM it's a bit much.

For instance, Bitrix24 CRM is coordinated with email and communication. This implies on the off chance that somebody calls you or you call somebody, the call is consequently signed in your CRM database. Another approaching call is consequently treated as a potential lead. A call to/from a current client is added to that record. All calls can be recorded, as well. Something very similar happens to approaching and outbound messages, be they routed to your organization email or deals operator email.

Numerous other CRM frameworks do this too and this is basically significant, on the grounds that it takes out pointless information section. You never again care if your representative has neglected to log a call and include a note, since it's as of now all spared in your CRM. Numerous workers don't realize they are utilizing Bitrix24 or Salesforce or Zoho, on the grounds that they just depend on email or telephone calls alone and their administrators are the ones who have CRM get to.

The subsequent method to improve CRM is, clearly, the interface. This is the reason Kanban is moving as once huge mob from errand the board to CRM. Dashboards, 360-degree client see, programmed reports all assistance as well. UX is an exceedingly emotional issue, so I'll stop here.

The third method to inspire your customers is to offer movement computerization inside your CRM. Most CRM frameworks center around advertising robotization alone. However, you have to mechanize exercises for your business staff too. Here's the reason it's fundamentally significant.

Most CRM frameworks, regardless of how straightforward or how best in class, are utilized as a client database and that is it. You include another lead or client in your CRM and … nothing more occurs. Possibly somebody will accomplish something, perhaps not.

With action mechanization, your whole way is mapped out. Assume you get a telephone call from another telephone number. An errand is consequently created — qualify the lead inside 24 hours. Along these lines we know whether an approaching call is from an individual intrigued by your administrations or an exhausted telemarketer. When the lead is qualified, another assignment is made consequently for your deals person — follow up with a call or on location introduction or something different. When that stage is achieved, your lead is naturally changed over into an arrangement and another undertaking is consequently created — send statement or receipt. Et cetera.

Keep in mind, at no time ought to there be leads or openings WITHOUT Planned Exercises. Supposing that there are, you can make sure that you have exhausted sales reps gazing at their PC screens, attempting to make sense of how to kill the rest of the hours of their workday. There's nothing more awful then a customer hanging tight for a receipt without anybody mindful that it hasn't been sent. Furthermore, don't mess with yourself that it's just workers who are unreliable. I know various effective solo entrepreneurs, who keep up their client database, yet didn't do anything with it For a considerable length of time.