#also there is NO reason for the magazine to be french-american other than the fact that I wanted it to be called FBI and couldn't think

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Re-Watch of Conquer, Religion in the Daryl Spinoff, and the PPP Card

@galadrieljones:

Finally watched Conquer tonight. I have nothing to add that hasn’t already been said, other than that I can see why many older theories thought Beth might show up with the Wolves.

Morgan finds that Hannah Fairlight magazine in Coda. She’s a native American singer dressed as such with a wolf tattoo, then the Wolves come along in Conquer with their story about wolf resurrection. “There’s gonna be a party when the wolf comes home,” etc.

Obviously, she didn’t come back. What is the reason for this deceit? So much has been learned since, about tptb and their oblique mannerisms. They never hit the nail head on. It’s usually slanted, in some way.

The Wolves were a red herring, like the man in the poncho. The real enemy in season 6 is hubris. It’s what leads Negan to their door. It’s worth noting that Beth does make an “appearance” in season 6, as Tina, and then Denise. She’s being “resurrected” through other characters, like the wolves of old. Anyway, I am gonna think on this more…

Also there’s some weird dream dialogue in Conquer. In the beginning after the credits, Rick wakes up, and he laughs, and when Michonne asks him what’s so funny, he says to Michonne something curious.

He says, “It’s like the train car. After the whole thing, I’m still there.” Later on he says, “We’re here,” about being in Alexandria, and she says something like, “You just said you’re not.” Sort of weird timing to bring up “A.” Something else I want to think on a bit.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, good points about the weird Rick dialogue. I haven’t watched that in a long time, and I’d forgotten that. We know tptb don’t ever waste dialogue or screen time, so they would have inserted that dialogue with a specific purpose in mind.

@wdway:

This afternoon I was just scrolling through some old comicbook articles and there was one from November 21by Cameron Bonomolo that I'm sure that we talked about at that time but there was a little piece of information in there that I don't remember seeing in any other article. Norman talking about his spin-off. Everything else I've heard or read about repeatedly.

He mentions a religious vibe to the spinoff. I thought that was more than a little interesting. The fact that we haven't seen or heard him mention it again might be very telling. Just thought I'd let you see it for yourself and if this is something that you guys have seen other places I really like to hear about it.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I kind of vaguely remember reading that line back when the article first came out. But you're right. I don't think I've seen it talked about anywhere else. When he says it will be a religious vibe, I envision it being religion like TDVC is religious. Can't wait to see what goodness the spinoff brings us!

@wdway:

Changing gears for a moment. The other day I was just reading comments on a TWD site that had an article about the PPP card. I always read the comments usually more often than the actual articles.

Someone had thrown out the idea that PPP could stand for Philadelphia and Paris but could not come up with a third P. Just thought that was kind of interesting. Although I truly don't think they had Paris in mind back when we first saw the card in the episode Swear but things do change.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I agree. Gimple had something specific in mind for that card, and we don't know what. I guess I could believe he might have meant Paris if they'd always planned on the French thing, which is mentioned by Jenner in the pilot episode. I just think he wouldn't have known that they would be filming on location. But they might have just figured they would still film in Georgia and "say" it was Paris, like they did with D.C. I don't know. I guess we'll know when they tell us. ;D

@wdway:

How about Project Primrose, Paris? Except I don't think that Paris was Primrose was it? Anyway you could play with this all day and not have the answer.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, for sure! Sounds good to me. But yeah. No way to know for certain. But fun to speculate about! ;D

@galadrieljones:

I like this one! Primrose team was based out of France but in Toledo at the time of the Fall, which means they were stateside. I think one of them could have been TB Ellis, since the woman from the Violet Team has a folder full of her papers on her computer, and Primrose Team seems to be the team she thinks could actually find a cure. Also idk if it would make sense but Portland starts with a P. That’s where Major General Beale’s kid is from. Portland Paris Philadelphia = PPP

@wdway:

I love this. Fun to guess what it could mean. We do have months and months to go before we have anything solid to go on. I couldn't remember if Paris was Primose or not so thanks for clearing that up. I do need to go back an watch s2 of TWB as a refresher on Primrose and Team Violet. I was going to wait for a while to rewatch but who knows I might just decide to watch a few out of order episode some afternoon along with Tales of the Dead episode 5? Wasn't that the one with the PPP card? I believe it is.

@galadrieljones:

Yes, it’s Davon with the ppp card. I’m still super intrigued by him. He’s out there somewhere. And so is the madman who shot him.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Lol. I love that last line you typed. Something that can only be said with a straight face during a TWD discussion.

@galadrieljones:

ROFL

I wonder if we know the madman who shot Davon…? Another creepy thing to hear somebody say if you don’t have the necessary context.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

So true!

[hhcwirkung]

Precious Smokers, Can You Injure Yourself In Another Means?

Each year, there is someone who asked me to advertise their e-cigarettes items for them, yet I declined them. It's extremely tangled and contradictory.

One of the most vital factors is that I have a particular mental darkness concerning the tobacco has been injured to my family, such as my father, that smokes a great deal lifelong, so he has actually obtained extremely significant health problem in his last time. It was ineffective to treat regardless of we took just how much cash.

For that reason, I was stress over their health and wellness whether we are mosting likely to promote cigarettes or vapes to anybody, who is heros or bad.

If there is an ingenious product that can actually change the tobaccos and also minimize their damaging materials to body, I would love to attempt, as well as ask cigarette smokers, can you harm yourself in another means?

" Cigarette smoking is damaging to wellness", one motto in Chinese cigarettes packs states, it makes me feel that our advises is so weak that it's hard to alert smokers to give up. So, I recommend that motto needs to be changed as, "Smoking harms other individuals's life". I indicate, if you truly intend to smoke, you need to inhale it into your very own lungs. Do not spit it out to anyone. I do not wish to be injured by your smoking cigarettes.

Among all the cigarette promotions, I choose to like the one on Marlboro Thai cigarette packs, due to the fact that it is a picture of cancer caused by smoking. When I saw the body was severely rotten, I intend to toss it away immediately.

How do you see a Magazine?

Each time when I speak about VapeBiz, I really feel that it is a service magazine as well as CBN Weekly.

What is Publication? According to Baidu, it came into being from handouts during strikes of employees, students, and wars. It pays unique attention to timeliness as well as offers much more factor to consider to in-depth discuss current occasions.

The early one publication, named the Scholar's Publication was published by French Saro, that was dated in January 1665 in Amsterdam. It was a new media at that time.

Today, there are more brand-new medias, for instance, the VapeBiz is just one of these new business publications, it not just focuses on China's vape industry, but likewise concentrates on European and American commercial hemp, along with global clinical innovation and also appeal application items.

If you don't wish to give up smoking cigarettes, what's the use of checking out VapeBiz e-mag?

I have 2 superiors, among whom was a sales supervisor, and the other, as well. They have one point in common that both of them would rather not consume a meal than throw a piece of cigarettes away. They like to offer anybody an item of cigarettes at any moment.

hhc wirkung

Yet it's no usage in the office, as a result of smoking cigarettes is not allowed in the location. Nevertheless, they need to think a lot company issues, if they are not permitted to smoke, they would certainly remain in worry as well as uncertainty concerning whether they can complete the firm's bargains target.

" Why do not you smoke in the restroom, there is a great fragrance for scenting", we recommended while we saw they were exceptionally nervous.

My God, it's outstanding, such an unstable joke can assist our superiors to locate their inspiration back. Ever since, they started to thinking easily. You can image, our workplace had lots of great smelling air anywhere, and also it made us seem like that we are flying among the blossoms.

Certainly, it's an impression.

Allow's back to VapeBiz once again. I wish its brand name style is really end up being that sort of company magazine, particularly, it looks originated from our life, since I never promote vape products, I much like to speak about service as well as life.

In all, vaping is not all of our life, yet checking out VapeBiz is one component of business as well as life at beginning.

So, I composed this article mainly to examine how many people are currently reading VapeBiz, as well as that can recognize why a guy declined to promote vape products to those brand-new cigarettes market.

I assume the worth of vape organization is not come from the vape products itself, but originated from it can change and also alter smoker's behaviors and also behaviors, I am eagerly anticipating this terrific day that every person can find a healthy method to release their anxiety.

[renatedagmarmilada]

all life

all life is in the past

being repeated today

with the promise that we will use it

never to use it again,

so then we use it tomorrow

and the circle continues,

as we repeat again the history of yesterday

in different variations

 Mr and Mrs Fielding-Goldstein of Redbridge

jews of the North London Liberal Synagogue

former brutal axe man and former worker

at the lab St Barths

on full pay

no longer come into work

 She appears once in a while

(he of cruelty fit for a Spielberg film

and she fills in false documents

or rather fills in documents

as someone she is not

and uses my work off the lab computer

and our refugee stories as theirs

if by innuendo as jewish tales

to send to magazines as her own

the people's friend! ha ha ha)

They are on over a grand a week

 I say because I have a good friend of decades

who lives at Ilford who gets none of my letters

but then no one gets my mail and jobs are blocked

because the Green's fear I might confront them

 Listen I never ever read 'Main Kamfp'

even though at Univerisity of London

I 'studied' Communism and Nazism

The teacher was a girl straight out of Uni

who hadn't a quarter of the facts I had

and merely filled the students heads

with newspaper articles and such

 I hear though that now they don't teach history

my own daughter now a College principal

a former theology and philosophy student

when head of religious studies

told me that they had to teach the holocaust

the version over here without resistance

not the real one where millions of germans died too

 odd we hear nothing of the fifty eight million of the Gulags

of sixty million african slaves alone of the British Empire

and the rest of the rest of the world

India and so one

and all the rest from other Empires

but ofcourse our Lords are jewish

and need to keep their seats securely

 before I  begin I want to make it plain

we were against Hitler from the start

we respect education and knowledge

diginity and honour and he had none

even when the British CHamberlain

was giving him all he wanted

because they well knew history

 I also hear that in America as over here

they do not teach history at low levels

though at my German University

and on my M.A. German Literature

I was highly impressed by american students

who were far superior in knowledge to the Brits

(I mean that, I was impressed!)

 As you all know Prague was once the most eastward

of the first Empire of Germany's Universities

and that the French had sat on Germany's necks

using every kind of terror inlcuding throat tearing Senegals

for one hundred years

destroying literature and culture

taking over seventy percent of the gross product

 Hitler promised them the French out

and a job to every german

 but not only that

and here lies the reasons many germans

other than that first two and a half percent who listened

backed him to the hilt

besides being an extremely efficient nation

 Hitler did have a proper plan

a Europe run from a central area

the eastern polish lands where to be farmlands

with their excellent heavy growing soils

he spared no farmers when moving for the plan

Germans from different parts had to be moved

He planned a deep sea canal to Leipzig

from the North Sea so that goods could come inland

 before he went barmy

he planned many things

which would have created a strong united Europe

strong enough to be able to stand up to a British Empire

which is the main reason for the wars anyway

two competitors at each others throats

 but he had a war to win

and he went barmy

he went against the many, many allies

he had at the beginning everywhere

and like another President I know of now

didn't know his geography at all well

knew some of his history too well

 as all uneducated people

the facts became too much

he hadn't learnt not to wake the bear

and he didn't listen to his clever people

maybe he saw just how lacking he was

when they spoke

 I don't know

we were always against him

uneducated men have flashes

but rarely more

which is why we are asked

always to back up our arguements

whilst at University

to teach us to make a practice of that

 sadly university is now little more  

than a job centre to keep young off the streets

many wouldn't pass an old style leaving exam

I have a book of a sixties GCE maths exams

pupils sigh and cry at how high the level

 I used to teach my sixteens

from a sixties JUNIOR english book

few sixteen years olds can cope with it now!

the levels had to be lowered

for the second language students mayhap?

 when we came to this country after the war

we had to join in our age classes

and that was that

no veils or special diet of easy peasy stuff for us

boiled cabbage, boiled spuds with watery gravy, prayers

ties, blazers, skirts, white socks and do as we do...

it was a healthier atmosphere altogether

with strong standards respected world wide!

 I had also an english secondary leavers book

which the lab Pakistanis pinched for their kids

as they all want to be better than the whites-

healthy competition if that were all it was-

it is impossible to get hold of them

Maybe the government is scared

if the people compared

they would stop listening to journalists assurances!

 well I think in Hitler's Germany

Mr and Mrs Fielding-Goldstein would not have been such

I doubt they could have taken a Grand of tax money weekly

for their comfortable life style in their big house in Redbridge

 but then we need to circle back

who taught Belsen these psychiatric nasties in the first place

Germany's jewish psychiatrists

then the Germans used it on them

then the americans brought it there

as they did most things worth bringing

which the russians didn't nab

tried it all out,

bettered it

and filed for the all time as too cruel to use

 so the Brits

back in competition again

using it all secretly from Kaspar and Kissinger

whom they told we were 'dirt' so we could be used for murder

torture and robbery

as did Hitler

 what was it Anna lab lady bossess put onto the machine

''we could show Hitler a thing or two''

 pressing my whole rib cage today!

pain as of infection

this is punishment because I taught children

how Yorkshire miners ladies had to pull

carts of coal up coal seams

I am not to teach kids

their own history

or that is what they said it was for

 it will weaken the victim before her time

qualify;

testing the pressure of pulling a coal cart.....

 now we have had three girls on scanner in China

at the victims/me former place of teaching

where she was chosen the top teacher by the students

all three were made to copy absolutely

everything the victim taught and did

the chinese think they are using us

but they don't know what we are doing

 everyone at each college is on the London scanner

every student, every teacher, every administrator

their friends and aquaintances

scanned in London for any number of things

all of them being put on the activating cancer list

 said the teacher in Pimlico

whom the chinese begged :

please help us to improve--

I had to laugh as theirs are much better than ours#

the chinese arn't aware of the European education tables

Britain twenty fourth

 they have rubber stamped for us

to send three more girl/teacher spies

we just yell and shout much more over there

to RenMen University there

said the Ausies

we thought these english teachers are clever

we didn't know it was all the work

of one elderly Hungarian refugee teacher

 I have to teach in Colleges

because the teacher-co-ordinator of this city

when I was at Sheffield Polytechnic BE'd

asked me if I would spy for Russia after a trip

(I have fluent german and russian)

so that was the end of my teaching career

 SIZE MATTERS

 the last moments SIZE MATTERS SAID THE EVIL BOSSESS OF THE LAB OF HORRORS WHICH HAS BEEN RULING THIS COUNTRY FOR OVER A DECADE NOW I WEPT I CRIED I HAVE NOT OFTEN CRIED I DO NOT OFTEN TELL OF MY PAST BUT THIS IS BEYOND EVEN MY EXPERIENCES I SIN BY NOT TELLING THOUGH NO ONE WANTS TO LISTEN IT WAS NECESSARY TO HAVE THE TWO YEAR OLD TRACY RAPED FOR THEIR COMPUTER OF INFORMATION FOR THE MEASUREMENTS TO BE TAKEN ON THE MACHINE WATCH THE CRIME ..and I quote here FOR THIS INFORMATION STORE WHICH LONDON WILL DISTRIBUTE TO RETURN HERSELF TO THE PINNACLE THEY HAVE GIVEN CANCER TO MANY QUITE KNOWINGLY APPARENTLY THEY HAVE PUT STRONDIUM ONTO ME NOT ALLOWING ANY TREATMENT AND HAVE A LONG LIST OF FUTURE ATROCITIES A BROKEN LEG IS ONE- TO GO WITH THE BROKEN ARM- SO I IMAGINE ONTO THE MANY HARRY HAS TAKEN ANOTHER THOUSAND OFF MY BANK ACCOUNT AT ONE THIS AFTERNOON HE PUT OVER HARRY WORE GREY FLANNELS AND IS A JEWISH QUACK AT THE LAB HARRY KNOWS WE LOST EVERYTHING TO SAVE JEWS BACK THEN THESE NINE PAKISTANI YOUNG MEN THE SEVEN OR EIGHT YOUNG ''WOMEN'' NOT COUNTING THE SEVERAL JEWISH QUACKS MEYER, MILLER, HARRY, SIMON AND THE REST  HAVE MAIMED AND MANSLAUGHERED THEY SAY IN THEIR CASE IT IS NOT KILLING AS IT IS DONE BY A MACHINE - REMOTE AN EXCUSE I DO NOT ACCEPT BUT THAT IS THE MOST HORRIBLE OF ALL FROM MY PAST THE RED ARMY RAPED A LITTLE FOUR YEAR OLD PLAYING IN A FIELD OF DAISIES THEY DID MANY SUCH THINGS ALL ACROSS EASTERN EUROPE TO WOMEN WHO COULD NOT EVEN SPEAK GERMAN BUT WE KNOW RUSSIAN LIBERATION OF OLD THE PRESIDENT HAD TOLD MY MOTHER THE COMING RED ARMY WERE ALL RELEASED RAPISTS AND MURDERERS MALINOVSKIS ARMY OF LIBERATORS THE NAZI BULLIES KILLED EFFICIENTLY AND BRUTALLY HAVING LIVED THROUGH THE WORST HUMILIATION IN MAN'S HISTORY TILL AFTER THE NEXT WAR CLOSED NEEDING REVENGE BUT THAT BOSSESS THAT WAS NO REVENGE KILLING PERMITTED THAT YOUNG MUSLIM TO USE THAT AS A TEST NOT TILL THE END OF THE DECADE WILL ANYTHING BE RELEASED THE PRINCE SAYS HE DIDN'T THINK HE WAS JUST THINKING OF THE MINUTE SOMEONE SAID IT YESTERDAY THERE IS NO PUNISHMENT IN THE WORLD HORRIBLE ENOUGH FOR  THIS LONDON LAB BOSSESS YET THIS LAB  HAVE BEEN PERMITTED TO KEEP THEIR POWER.... NOT JUST BY BRITAIN AND HER TWISTED OLD BOYS I quote MY MEN WILL JUST SAY I AM A LITTLE OVER THE TOP- WHICH EXCUSES EVERYTHING THAT EVIL FEMALE DOES MY MEN, she says, MY MEN.. her store of former lovers, carefully chosen ALSO BY A COUNTRY WHICH CALLS ITSELF JUST THE POLICEMEN OF THE WORLD... AND HAS A CONSTITUTION WRITTEN FROM THE BIBLE WHY? I ASK THIS ON THE LAST  MOMENT OF THE YEAR... WHY?

[typinggently]

6 for Hannigram! :)

6) marvel sculptures, old books, a burning building

-

thank you so much for this! :) I had great fun with it! The idea is based on something I mentioned on twitter once some time ago and it never truly left me:

-

Art Historian/Collector Hannibal and Journalist Will

-

Dr-Count-Prof Hannibal Lecter is a celebrated art historian and collector with a collection that could very well be called legendary. In his mansion, he keeps and presents a selection of exquisite and quite exotic art, arranged in fascinating and fantastical displays.

This year, Lecter invites a very exclusive group of people to admire this treasure chest of a house, have some snacks and celebrate his extraordinary taste. Now how does Will Graham end up at said party? Easy. He’s an editor for Film et Beaux Arts Illustré (in short: FBI), a French-American art magazine for which Alana Bloom writes, who happens to be a friend of Lecter’s.

-

She also happens to break her leg shortly before the party, so Will is dragged out of his secluded house in the middle of nowhere (working for an online magazine is great when you dislike people and have a bunch of dogs) and shoved towards the nearest tailor.

Freshly suited up and very miserable, he attends the party, armed with a frown and a notepad. He doesn’t do fieldwork anymore, but he still knows enough to write a decent article, so that’s the least of his worries. But if you’ve ever been in contact with art historians, you know that they all know each other and that’s just the. worst when you know absolutely no one. So Will decides to go explore the place on his own.

Now we have to say a few things about the mansion itself, just to get a glimpse into the palace Hannibal has curated for himself. Ignoring the people having polite conversation and eating dubious looking finger food, Will wanders through the different rooms, losing himself a little – which is, as he notices at some point, very easy, since the place is constructed like a maze. He passes through a hallway overlooking the garden that reminds him oddly of the hall of mirrors. Illuminated by flickering, multiplied candles, the mirrors and windows both are rows of black pools in which Will catches glimpses of his own reflection. On the ceiling, fragments of ornaments have been arranged into a strange collage, what looks like Pompeiian frescoes next to pieces of rococo plasterwork next to pieces of gothic faults. Like looking into the splintered mirror of time.

In the dining room, the living wall of herbs mirrors the table overbearing with a bacchanalian arrangement of fruits and flowers, the scent of lilies, wine, orange blossoms and quinces almost too much to bear. On the wall, an etching after Michelangelo’s Leda. Will thinks of the fairy realms that entrap you with their fantastical buffets and selects a pomegranate, licking juice off his fingertips.

There’s a winter garden, too, right in the middle of the house, a green spine throughout the building. Will can make out marble amidst shadowed green, but instead of following those schemes and the distant whisper of a fountain, he turns to another hallway. Maroon walls, more etchings, drawings, some small portraits, and he finds himself in front of another door over which a marble sign has been installed, weathered with age. Arrète! C’est ici l’empire de la mort.

“Are you lost?”

Will turns, faces the man stepping out of the shadows. “I assumed that was the idea.” It takes some dedication, he thinks dimly, to match your tie with your wine and your wallpaper.

There’s a faint twitch in his lips, then Lecter offers his hand for a shake. Warm, a nice grip. Will wonders if his fingers are still pomegranate-sticky, if Hannibal can feel it.

“I’d love to invite you in, but I’m afraid I can’t let my other guests wait for the amount of time I’d be obliged to spend with you once the door closes behind us. But please, give me your card.” The hand is just as warm on the small of Will’s back, gently leading him from the door.

“I don’t have a card.”

“Your number, then. You’re here for the FBI, aren’t you? I’d be honoured to give you a more in-depth tour of the place.”

“Are you suggesting an interview?”

-

Yes he is. Which Will doesn’t think too much about, other than the fact that he feels vaguely hit on. But come Monday, when he explains the whole thing to Jack and Alana, both completely flip their collective shits. Hannibal Lecter has never offered anyone an interview before. Not even Alana.

The decision is quickly made: Whore out Will Graham for an exclusive interview with THE Dr-Count-Prof Hannibal Lecter and an exclusive house tour. Will isn’t exactly thrilled at how quickly his friends pimp him out, but he remembers the taste of pomegranate and honey, the scent of wine dripping from the stained petals of a lily, flickering candle light on black pools and sweet-soft, marble-smooth bodies.

-

The interview goes well, to put it that way. You know some of the rooms, you can imagine the art Hannibal shows him. Busts and sketches, paint and pastels, wood and canvas and paper and marble. The honey-darkness of Caravaggio, the peach-soft eroticism of Boucher, the cruel desire of von Stuck. Martyrs and nymphs.

In the library, Hannibal offers him the illustrations of Beardsley, first editions. Will stands at a table of soft-warm cherrywood, taking in the faint scent of leather, old books. Hannibal, standing behind him, almost close enough for his. breath to brush the back of Will’s neck.

-

Now whose house is burning? Who knows what the family is called but the mess causes a terrible traffic jam. “Oh, that’s too unfortunate”, Hannibal says, smile glinting in the soft light, “If you’d like to stay the night, I’ll show you my guest rooms.”

Will looks up from Beardsley’s The Examination of the Herald. “We have time, don’t we? Show me the catacombs.”

Hannibal’s smile sharpens.

-

-

This was fun fun fun. The chemistry suffered a little because I was a tad focused on the art part but I also have to say, once again, that I feel like at some point, this would be a great skeleton for an actual fic. I can just imagine how  n a s t y  this Hannibal is. Absolute decadence. Wrapping Will up in silk and not letting him go before he’s drunk on pleasure.

The idea that they both seduce each other with art knowledge is. Appealing. And of COURSE Hannibal would put a sign from the Catacombs in Paris over his bedroom door.

Also please check out “The Examination of the Herald” because that’s the type of shit poor Will had to go “ah aha I see” at for three plus hours. They’re both into art, but there’s art and. Then there’s. Well. Subtle flirtation? Anyhow, I’d love to show it here but tumblr would kick me off the platform in 0.3 secs I feel.

Again – thank you SO much for your ask, I hope you enjoyed this mess!! It certainly cheered me up :’)

[maxwell-grant]

Speaking of Pulp Heroes and their rather more fraught relationship with the authorities than their 4-Color successors when I read the first couple Secret Agent "X" stories, it felt like he has a buffoonish cop nemesis solely because the writer felt the genre's tropes required him to have a buffoonish cop nemesis. So. Why do so many Pulp Heroes feel a need to have a cartoon caricature of Inspector Javert in their cast?

(Inspector Javert art by dasha-ko)

The simplest answer is that much of it can be chalked up to the importance pop culture osmosis plays in how we construct stories, especially when we're explicitly trying to reference existing tradition or building off an established mold. So much of superhero fiction's origins are built off the American pulp stock and trade, and so much of that in turn is owed to the British and French pulp fiction. And when people look at the history of detective/crime fiction history and it's origins, and the role of characters like Arsene Lupin's Ganimard, Fantomas' Juve, Jacques Closeau, Harvey Bullock, Zenigata and so on, they quite reasonably assume that, much like how tight circus costumes are grandfathered into the superhero concept, it's assumed that every Gentleman Thief protagonist needs a Ungentlemanly Cop arch-nemesis / annoyance, because that's just how the concept works. The longer answer means that we gotta talk about Inspector Javert specifically, and why he ended up becoming such an imitated touchstone for pulp fiction.

The fact that so many of them take up after Javert specifically is interesting in itself, because it's not just a result to Javert being one of the most popular mainstream examples of "bad cop" characters and thus the go-to example when you want your cops and detectives to be, at a minimum, dumb obtrusive goons who can have a change of heart and, at worst, one-note villains who usually still aren't quite bad to overshadow the more interesting villains and piss off real cops who are a million times worse than what you can usually show in fiction get in trouble with audiences for disrespecting authority. In some ways, they miss the point of Javert, but also expand on the point Victor Hugo was making with him and the novel as a whole, which was in some ways a response to what the serialized fiction tradition was like at the time, as part of Hugo's intended aim of advocating for social reform:

So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless

A lot of people miss the fact that Javert did not exist in a vacuum. He wasn't just designed to be a criticism of law enforcement and a rotten cop or whatever, he was explicitly based on Inspector Eugéne Vidocq. Claims about his real life achievements are countless and self-aggrandizing and none of them matter here except for one fact: His memoirs published in 1829 are said to be the bedrock where this entire concept of "detective fiction" started, at least in the anglo-sphere (although his effect loomed globally). Vidocq was not only the inspiration for Javert (as well as Valjean), but he was also the inspiration for Rodolphe de Gerolstein in The Mysteries of Paris, Monsieur Lecoq who would go on to inspire Holmes, and long before that he inspired Edgar Allan Poe's C.Auguste Dupin, who was an unflattering take on Vidocq, and is considered the first fictional detective.

Detective fiction existed some ways before Poe's Dupin via magazines and newspapers, as the concept of the "private detective" started taking form circa the turn of the 19th century and, as all new things tend to develop, fiction started to develop about them, largely thanks to the memoirs and autobiographies of officers like Vidocq, to the point that by the 1830s, virtually all detective fiction was about private detectives. I'm linking this thread on the Pinkertons that Jess Nevins wrote on Twitter here, in case more of you wanna dive deep into where this grody copaganda business took it's baby steps to sink it’s teeth into fiction to never let go, but the point being: For about half a century, the whole concept of the Great Detective, the central figure of detective fiction and of much of popular fiction as a whole, was based on Inspector Vidocq, and that was what Victor Hugo was responding to when he made Javert. He was based on The Super Cop, the Cop of the Century for that era, and here's another dirty secret that even most Les Mis adaptations get wrong about Javert: He IS a Super Cop. In-universe, he's the best damn cop in the whole world.

He is without vices, but upon occasion will take a pinch of snuff. His life is one of privations, isolation, self-denial, and chastity—never any amusement

He would have arrested his own father if he escaped from prison and turned in his own mother for breaking parole. And he would have done it with that sort of interior satisfaction that springs from virtue.

He is every bit the incorruptible paragon of order and devotion that people tend to attribute to characters like Jim Gordon. He’s honest to a fault to a point he insists that, if he were to be dishonest, he should not only be resigned, but also punished, should he commit any injustice on others. Other cops in the story dislike and distrust him specifically because he’s not corrupt. He’s as unrelentingly hard on himself as he is to everyone else, and it literally kills him the second he’s forced to grow a seed of conscience towards those he spent his entire life oppressing. He is, by basically every metric, a Good Cop, an unusually good cop at that, and he is a bad, rotten person, because that’s what it takes to be a good cop. He isn’t bad because he’s “one rotten apple”, he isn’t bad because he’s just too obsessed with one particular man, he is bad specifically because he’s a good cop, and he is very good at serving a terrible system, and he is very good at enduring and enforcing it’s cruelties, and the moment he is forced to question to it, when he’s no longer a “good cop”, he kills himself because that’s his way of resigning from life.

He had lost his bearings in this unexpected presence; he did not know what to do with this superior (convict); he who was not ignorant that the subordinate is bound always to yield, that he ought neither to disobey, nor to blame, nor to discuss, and that, in the presence of this superior who astonishes him too much, the inferior has no resource but resignation. But how to manage to send in his resignation to God? - Victor Hugo

It was a very damning perspective that Hugo was putting forth with this character, not just as a criticism of law enforcement, but also as an open dialogue with pretty much the entirety of the feuilleton traditions that informed the century, of the uncorruptible, inscrutable, unfailingly correct detectives stomping on wicked criminals, a condemnation somehow more timeless in 1863 than countless other takes on the story across the couple of centuries since that downplayed what exactly Hugo was getting at and why Javert was that way. Javert was a response to almost 50 years worth of how the entire concept of detective fiction worked and was seemingly supposed to work forever. So, obviously when it was time for others to twist the concept further and start focusing on the daring thieves and arch-criminals for a change, well, if these characters are supposed to stand against the law at it’s mightiest and get away with it, and you don’t quite feel like buggering Conan Doyle again, what other archetype are you gonna invoke as the allmighty, yet failed, representative of the power of The Law? 

(Pictured: Inspector Zenigata, Inspector Lunge fan-art by admhire, Hank Schrader)

The Javert / Inspector has become an ubiquitous staple not just of fiction that stars gentleman thieves that, even when they are not specifically modeled after Javert, they often hit on many of the same notes that made Javert so enduring and potent of a character. It’s kind of almost a necessity, if you’re writing a story that focuses on a criminal, to see what does the law enforcement he opposes on some level looks like, and it makes for some pretty varied and interesting characters, often with some of the most interesting dynamics these stories have to offer. 

Sometimes you get characters who actually do need to be serious and heroic, if only because of the sheer scale or menace of what they’re up against, and because they don’t get to win, they can be played for tragedy, characters like Inspector Juve or Hank Schrader, who is interesting as he is very much not a Javert-kind of character at first and probably never would have come close to being one, if he didn’t find himself thrust into the position of Heisenberg’s arch-nemesis and thus had to try and make himself into the extraordinary pursuer of justice, to disastrous consequences. Zenigata’s one of a kind as, somehow both a Super Cop as well as the absolute worst cop alive and only one by the thinnest thread possible (which is part of why he’s ultimately sympathetic, because his morals usually come first and he will team up with Lupin to solve bigger problems), a more deranged nutjob than the entire gang of master thieves he keeps up with. He stretches the broad strokes of the Javert archetype to such an extreme while still remaining ultimately a moral character that he winds up becoming as much of a cop as Mario is a plumber, and an indispensable part of the gag while still being very much not just a gag character. 

Lunge’s on a totally opposite end of a similar scale, in that he’s a direct response to Javert as well as Holmes, demonstrating what an unflinching obsessive devotion to the law as well as a restless genial crime-solving brain does to someone who is not afforded a protagonist safety net or that sheen of fantasy most fiction affords these characters: it basically leads him to torpedo his life of everything that doesn’t get him to capture the criminal he mistakenly pursues, and it doesn’t bring him any step closer to stopping the real mastermind either, and it’s not until he owns up to his mistakes and starts to understand the story he’s in that he starts to actually help.

You can play these characters up as seriously, or as comedically, as you’d like. Sometimes they are overzealous clowns who never stood a chance and exist to make our protagonist and other villains seem cooler by comparison, and sometimes they make for such hilariously “bad” cops that they actually end up being pretty decent and even potential allies (like Chase Devineaux from Carmen Sandiego). Often, they can be a concentrated amalgam of the writer’s own feelings towards law enforcement and policing and carceral systems and whatnot, which often makes them complicated in ways even the authors don’t quite intend them to be. 

A massive part of why we enjoy these kinds of stories comes in the form of transgressive fantasies where people can trick or escape or overpower or even take over and change the systems that routinely make life so difficult for us. So much of detective fiction stars police protagonists because they place readers in the shoes of getting to be the ones with the power of the jackboots for a change, but copaganda is not synonymous with detective fiction, and hasn’t been for well over a hundred years, much of it for so long has reveled in characters who are not police or police-adjacent. These characters often stand, in turn, as many things that you might need a cop in the story for, almost like a concentrated focal point.

Maybe you want to explore the ramifications of law enforcement in your fantasy world, maybe you do believe that cops can still be salvageable and you want to show what a “good one” would look like in your view, maybe you can’t think of them as anything other than distractions at best and chief enforcers of all wrong with the world at worst, or maybe you just put em in there so you can go “Oh, what would the cops do about my hero? They would hate them because they’re too cool and they would suck at stopping them, end of story, let’s move on to more interesting stuff”. 

They aren’t always the most interesting characters, especially when they are just 1-to-1 Javert clones who remain neutral or mistake the point of Javert for simple-minded obsession, but they are always very telling characters, and they are not just a crucial archetype for what makes this kind of fiction work, but also a very significant touchstone of it’s inception and how far it’s come, and often, just fun to have around to make idiots of themselves, when fiction lets us get away with that. Fiction lets us get away with softening the edges of a lot of things we need outlets to confront safely (what else lets us do that?), this being one of them. Even when they suck, and they’re pretty much made to suck most of the time, I’m glad this archetype stuck around.

[damnable-bell]

@prince-of-elsinore tagged me in this ask meme! I love being tagged in stuff and pretending like I’m a celebrity answering questions for a magazine, so thank you, Elsi :) I’m not tagging anyone else because I think this has already gone around pretty much everyone in our circle

nickname: None! I’m just boring ol’ Emma

height: 5'2"

last movie I saw: Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar while I was visiting my friend in October (!). I’ve been too mentally tapped out to watch movies lately because of work, but I really did enjoy Barb and Star, both for its highly saturated, detail-rich aesthetic (something I especially love to see in a goofy comedy!) and gleefully absurdist sensibility, which reminded me a little of Wet Hot American Summer. I also really pissed my friend off by going, “Christopher Lennertz, that guy did music for Supernatural” during the opening credits. It’s hard, sometimes, being this person. Hopefully I’ll get back to watching more movies soon!

favourite musician: Joanna Newsom (see username), Jason Molina

song stuck in my head: Skulls by Misfits (you can tell I’ve been working out a lot of irl frustrations, hahaha)

other blogs: My old blog, minhorrors, dates back to high school. I will never completely abandon it (there’s something really nice about having an archive of my lifetime interests), but I only recognized like, two of the people on my dash. So now I’m here.

blogs following: 18—I’ve had this account for less than a week!

amount of sleep: I worked my fourth and fifth consecutive shifts today, solo, on four hours sleep :( Please clap.

lucky number: No idea!

what am I wearing: Black skinny jeans and a dog-print hoodie

dream job: I wanted to be a stand-up comedian when I was a kid. My irl friends claim that they can see it, but they could just be flattering me, I don’t know. I don’t really dream of labor, but it would be nice to have a job that let me grow in my writing and my passions and maybe came with access to JSTOR or whatever.

languages: I have a piece of paper on my desk that says I’m certified “to understand Japanese used in everyday situations to a certain degree.” This is probably the thing I am most proud of in my entire life, even if my skills have deteriorated, because I accomplished it entirely by myself, albeit for very stupid reasons (I wanted to impress a crush). I also took French in high school, but my remaining French skills are like, completely non-existent.

play an instrument: Nope! But I’m convinced I would be really good at drums if I ever tried them.

favourite song: Songs: Ohia - Farewell Transmission. I honestly feel a bit silly saying I have a favorite song—I mean, who can pick just one, right? As soon as you do, it’s going to change on you. Nevertheless, I really didn’t have to think about my answer here! It’s just gotta be Farewell Transmission.

random fact: I used to have a septum ring, but I lost it while I was in Japan (if anyone finds a septum clicker with pink gemstones in it on the floor of Ueno Park, that belongs to me, thanks!). So now I just constantly remind people of the septum ring I used to have in order to steal alt-girl valor. It really looked good on me though :(

[featherymalignancy]

this is so random but can you please tell us more about Manon, Dorian, and their relationship? when you included Manorian in In Vino Veritas I was so happy they are one of my top favorite Sjm ships :)

Omg this is the ask I didn’t know I wanted! This is gonna be fun.

So they met (kinda) at one of Dorian’s games. He’s a center for the LA Kings, the very real NHL hockey team in LA

SIDENOTE: When writing in modern AU I try not to make up details if I can help it, so it’s so fun when the stars align for me to make a cheeky nod to canon that’s still rooted in fact. For instance, when I’d already set the AU in California and decided to make Dorian a professional athlete and it just so happens to be that the hockey team in LA is The Kings.

Okay so Dorian Havillard: Captain, starting Center, and all-around Superstar for the Los Angeles Kings.

Rich boy from Beacon Hill, a suburb of Boston, MA on the East Coast.

Despite being recruited by Boston College in his hometown, he play hockey for The dreaded University of Michigan (listen, if you like college sportsball and you didn’t go to Michigan, you probably hate Michigan for good reason jk to anyone who went to U of M but also yall know your reputation 😂😂 )

He was teammates at Michigan with Chaol Westfall, the iron-tough goalie for the Colorado Avalanche, hailed by fans as the second coming of Avalanche superstar Patrick Roy

In LA, the line between athlete and celebrity is thinner than other markets so like...Dorian’s got a lot of famous friends. He parties with pop stars and actors and he was in a commercial with Lebron James for Gatorade.

And like...he’s hot so he kinda gets a lot of tail too. (jk not kinda the dude is promiscuousssss)

Manon Blackbeak:

Manon mixed race. Her mother was Cree, one of the largest of the First Nations in Canada. Her father was French.

As teenagers, Manon’s mother and aunt became models in Paris after being “discovered” in Québéc in the early 1970s by China Machado, the fashion editor for Harper’s Bazaar at the time.

Previous to becoming to the fashion editor at HB, China (pronounced Chee-na)—who was of Chinese and Portuguese descent—was one of the first non-Caucasian models to become a breakthrough success. She was taken by the Blackbeak sisters’ beauty—striking and so unlike the placid blondes dominating magazine covers and runaways at the time—and convinced their mother to let the girls to move to Paris to model for names like Balenciaga and Givenchy.

Jacqueline and Naomi both married French men, and had their daughters—Manon and Asterin—a year apart. The girls were raised mostly in Paris, though their pride for their Cree heritage was fostered by both their mothers and grandmother.

Professionally, they both go by their maternal surname Blackbeak, which has given rise to the nickname “The French Hadids” (in reference to American models/sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid) even though Manon and Asterin are cousins and not sisters

I could go on about their careers and the badass way they use their influence to speak out against the cultural appropriation of indigenous imagery in fashion and entertainment (DO BETTER, VICTORIA SECRET/KARLIE KLOSS) but thats a story for another day

How Did They Meet?

The Blackbeak cousins had begun spending more time in the US as their fame as models grew, and paparazzi took obvious notice.

When the girls attend an LA Kings game, obviously the stadium takes notice.

Between periods of play, they stadium gets the crowd excited by playing music and getting fans on a the Jumbotron singing along or dancing

AnYWAYS

The camera finds Manon for the FIRST time when they’ve got the crowd BUMPING to Timmy Trumpet’s “Freaks”, but Manon is not having it. She refuses to dance or even acknowledge that the camera is on her...

Which DELIGHTS the camera guy/the crowd, and Manon immediately beguns their fave target.

Every time there is a break in the game and music is playing, the camera pans to find a sullen Manon, who is continually nonplussed.

However, at one point Dorian draws a penalty and is put in the penalty box and they play Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” as the other team prepares for their power play (basically Dorian is forced to sit on the bench while the other team has an extra player) and

When it gets to the end of the chorus (I’m a baaaaaad guy) the camera hits Manon just in time for her to give a small but unmistakeable shrug and a evil little smirk for the “duh”

And the crowd goes WILD

And Dorian is totally goo goo eyes. In the two minutes he’s in the box, he manages to wave over one of the interns and send her to where Manon and Asterin are sitting to invite them to come out with him after the game

Coincidentally, despite being TOTALLY distracted by her, Dorian gets right out of the bench and scores

For her part, Manon is not impressed when some college-age girl is interrupting her evening to ask if she’ll come out with some himbo Manon’s never hear of. (Manon is not really a fan of the sportsball

She tries to send the girl away, but Asterin accepts Dorian’s number from the girl.

The intern isn’t foolish enough to try and relay this info to Dorian while the game is still going on, but when the game is over she informs him that Manon wasn’t particularly jazzed by his approach, but her cousin had accepted Dorian’s number.

Dorian gets dressed and goes out after the game (last game on a series and he decided he deserved to party a little, in-season or no)

A few hours in he gets a call from an restricted number. It’s Asterin Blackbeak informing him where they are.

Dorian hightailed it to the bar and begins laying the moves on Manon

They INEVITABLY go home together (it’s 💦 🔥 🍆 👅)

When he suggests they go to breakfast in the morning Manon is confused to the point of offended.

Is he expecting to get her in bed again? Because....not happening

Still, he convinces her to get breakfast.

And they are both rather shocked to find they actually...have shit in common?

So when Dorian asks for her number and to take her out on a proper date, Manon surprises herself by saying yes.

[blackjack-15]

Doubly Dubiously Designed — Thoughts on: Danger by Design (DAN)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it. In this meta, a section in between The Title and The Mystery will be The Historical Background, where we’ll dive into a what a mess HER made of this game and its history.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: DAN, mention of SSH.

The Intro:

Holy eff, what was this game?

With Danger By Design, game #14 and our penultimate Jetsetting Game, Nancy kisses Blue Moon Canyon goodbye and flies off to the land of fashion, francs, and fabulous found fripperies — France.

Yes, it was a struggle to come up with so many f-words that made a mad sort of sense.

DAN is a case where they had two or three ideas for two or three different games, and then someone got high and was like “what if we smushed them all together and don’t make them gel together at all”…only none of the ideas were fully formed, so what you get is a tornado – heh — of different things whirling together, but the second the momentum dies, you can see that nothing is actually part of anything else.

There are just too many ideas in DAN to make a game that has an emotional (not to mention logical) payoff, and too few of them are actually used throughout the game to make a game that’s interesting. Add in the fact that the characters are flat in a way that they haven’t been for 10 games and that Nancy seems to have no concrete motivation for anything that she does, and you’re left with a uniquely frustrating experience — and one that fails to take advantage of its unique location in any meaningful way, unlike the other Jetsetting Games.

The Title:

DAN is based off of Nancy Drew Files: Death by Design, which is objectively a more enticing title, though not accurate to the game’s story at all. As it stands, Danger by Design is a pretty good title; it clues you into a vague danger, it establishes not only that it’s about fashion — design — but also that the plot is being orchestrated by players that aren’t immediately visible — design.

I would actually hazard to say that DAN’s title is the most successful part of it; it doesn’t have any gaping holes, it’s catchy, easy to abbreviate — it’s only small problem is that “danger” is a super common mystery title, and that there have already been several other games with “danger” in the title — Stay Tuned for Danger, Danger on Deception Island — so it could improve from a series-naming standpoint. Otherwise, this title does all that it needs to without extraneous detail.

The Mystery:

Summoned to investigate why a famous French designer has suddenly gone crazy, Nancy’s going undercover for the…at least third time in this series so far. The designer, Minette, has taken to wearing a full-face mask with a discomforting lack of air holes and firing employees like most people eat mini-MnMs.

All at once, out of a tube, before they melt and discolor your hand. Or something.

Minette has been running behind, and Nancy is supposed to figure out what’s causing her temper tantrums and slipping schedule, amid threatening letters and insistent phone calls to the moulin where Minette houses her studio. Amy Grunhild, her boss, is wondering what’s up with her behavior and hires Nancy do to some old fashioned snooping.

Once in France, however, Nancy finds out there’s more than meets the eye, both with Minette and with the moulin. Nancy somehow finds herself in the seat of international espionage, a historical futz-up of epic proportions, several fashion faux pas, a mint shortage, flooded catacombs, and the highly graphic murder of the French Language.

As a mystery, let’s be honest: DAN is a mess. A good ol’ Southern may-yuh-suh. The A-plot (Minette) and the B-plot (Noisette + History) intertwine maybe once on the surface and then basically are separate games, no focus is given to anything so it feels jumbled and messy, there’s not enough to do and too much space to do it in…the list goes on.

The focus is honestly the part that upsets the mystery the most; by the time Nancy’s down in the catacombs for the nth time, Minette is pretty much a distant memory, but when Nancy’s trapped with the stained glass, you’re reminded of Noisette suddenly and rather uncomfortably. There’s no clear mystery — there’s in fact at least two very unclear mysteries — and so there’s no clear story.

Now, let’s get to the players who contribute to the mess.

The Suspects:

Minette — real name Tammy Barnes — is supposedly an up-and-coming fashion designer, but is tackling projects that are more what a seasoned professional would handle (like making a dress for the First Lady). Her fierce rivalry with designer Hugo Butterly feels like a looming spectre overhead, and her timetable has begun slipping more and more since she donned the mask.

Why she, an inexperienced plus-size designer is designing a gown for the First Lady (who in 2005/6 was a small, petite woman), neither I nor anyone else has any ideas.

The real reason Minette’s timetable is a disaster is because remnants of the East German Police – no, stay with me here — are threatening her into making the First Lady’s dress complete with electronic bugs so that they could hear what’s going on at the National Summit.

Minette’s the closest thing we get to a culprit — she’s the one we fight at the end — but she’s also a victim of blackmail and threats herself, and I do find it odd that, unlike in other games, she’s not treated as a victim at all; Nancy never teams up with her, never helps fight her enemies, and is never really sympathetic at all. With Minette’s personality, it’s not a shock that Nancy doesn’t sympathize, but I do find it a little odd that the blackmail thing is just kind of glossed over.

Heather McKay is Minette’s only long-time employee, who vents her frustration with her boss by sending her threatening letters every so often. Absurdly young for her position — Heather is at most 23, given her graduation date from Waverly Academy — Heather also designs her own fashion on the side, hoping that working for Minette will give her the contacts she needs in order to be a successful designer.

Heather’s designs also happen to be hideous — did HER have no one with any fashion sense at all working on this game?

As a culprit, Heather would have been interesting, but unlikely; as the person closest to Minette, she’s already the most suspicious, especially since she could be delaying Minette to make her desperate and then offering to step in and “save the day” with one of her own designs. As it is, Heather ends the game far more successful than she should be, and avoids any taint of having worked with Minette.

Dieter Von Schwesterkrank is the red herring — I mean, the German fashion photographer centered in Paris, and the great-nephew of Noisette Tornade’s Nazi lover, Hans Von Schwesterkrank. Originally dating Minette in order to explore the moulin and find Noisette’s treasure, he found he had somehow developed actual feelings for her by the time she broke the relationship off.

As a culprit, Dieter would have been incredibly dull; he barely has enough personality to fill a teaspoon, he’s the obvious red herring due to him and the conspirators both being German (not to mention the German occupation of France in World War II, where the historical background is set), and he would get nothing out of messing with Minette, as his job does better the more that fashion designers thrive.

Jing-Jing Ling is an Australian (and presumably also part-Chinese, given her name) “plus size” (by this game’s standards; I talk about this later) model who was tricked into a contract with Minette and is Nancy’s roommate during Nancy’s time in France. A chronic liar with an interest in circuitry and engineering, JJ also spends her time baking and eating cookies —yeah, because that’s how a model keeps her size 12 (American size 10) figure, wow — and being easily duped into giving up an autograph via a game of Hangman.

The wet dream of both the catacomb-climber Zu and of Joe Hardy himself, JJ is my preferred culprit if I had to choose just from the cast; outwardly friendly while also outwardly manipulative, with the perfect excuse for going out at all hours of the day and night — Minette is an eccentric, remember — and smarter than she seems. She’s also related to both the “Secrets of Paris” plot (through Zu) and the Minette plot. Her being the culprit would make this an entirely different game, however, and so as the culprit in the current game, she’s an iffy choice at best.

Rounding out our physical suspects is Jean-Michel Traquenard, owner of the easiest to pronounce yet most mangled name of the whole game…and editor of Glam Glam Magazine. He’s also the only Frenchman in our suspects, and one of three probable Frenchmen in the entire cast (Zu and possibly Lynn Manrique, judging by her last name).

As a character, Jean-Michel is unique and memorable; as a culprit, he’s a non-entity. While he could have been more than just a place to see a photo and get a sprig of mint without painting bad replicas of famous paintings for 22 hours, he sits comfortably at Café Kiki, not caring three straws about the havoc happening both in the fashion world and in his city.

There are so many phone characters in this game (most one-off, but still), so I’ll run through them briefly.

Zu is an explorer of the Parisian catacombs, who helps Nancy get down there to explore once she gets him the aforementioned autograph from JJ. He’s fun to talk to, and necessary to the plot, but doesn’t show up quite enough. An interesting twist would have had him be one of the existing cast, but no one quite fits the bill.

Lynn Manrique is a one-off historian who wants to talk to Minette about the moulin and Noisette, but who keeps being blown off. She gives Nancy a bit of info, then promptly disappears again.

Hugo Butterly is another brief phone character, giving about as much information as you’d expect from a hoity-toity fashion designer. His convo with Nancy is mostly to rule him out as a suspect. He would have been a cool option for also being Zu. Ah well.

Prudence Rutherford, in all her glory, shows up as a phone friend here, and is one of the most memorable parts of the game — not shocking, as she was just as enjoyable in Secret of the Scarlet Hand. Here, she’s sent off a request to Minette for a few outfits that of course Nancy has to put together.

Sure, what Prudence wants is an eyesore, but a delightfully Prudence eyesore. Perfect for a woman who’s good friends with P. G. Krolmeister.

Finally, let’s talk a bit about the woman who started part of this game.

Noisette Tornade — literally “hazelnut tornado” in French, which is the oddest name ever – was a member of the French resistance during World War II. Though loyal to France, her boyfriend Hans was loyal to his native Germany, and their relationship resulted in Noisette being seen as a traitor.

Though acquitted, Noisette remained bitter towards those who distrusted her, and hid the treasures of Paris that she had saved for the rest of her life to punish them.

Interestingly enough, when you’re playing this game for the first time, you really do feel like Noisette is supposed to be a sort of tragic hero…but Noisette is not a good person, or a moral person. Even after being exonerated and elected as Director of Public Works for the rest of her life, Noisette is too bitter to restore the art to the country, and refuses to believe she might have acted in the wrong by knowingly and deliberately harboring a Nazi.

Perhaps in early planning stages (and I say planning very, very loosely), Noisette had been executed and was supposed to be a tragic figure who did nothing wrong. But Noisette wasn’t a good person, and any points she might have gotten for saving art disappear when she decided that because she was suspected due to the fact that her boyfriend was a freaking Nazi, the city would pay for it — forever.

The Favorite:

There’s some good stuff in DAN (even if most of it doesn’t come to fruition or feel deserved), and they do deserve to be mentioned.

Jean-Michel is by far the best character that this game has to offer, and he’d still be pretty good in a game that was a bit better. Apart from his painful pronunciation games with Nancy, he’s a lot of fun to talk to and has a great character design. A larger than life character needs a larger than life wardrobe, and Jean-Michel delivers.

My favorite puzzle in the game is the Prudence costume design; while it’s not a hard puzzle and doesn’t really make you feel very accomplished as a puzzler, it is a whole lot of fun and a way to design some of the ugliest outfits known to man.

My favorite moment in the game is anytime Nancy spends time in JJ’s apartment; it’s so well designed and homey without being ugly or kitschy. Baking cookies is prolly the best moment — I wouldn’t call it a puzzle, it’s more like just a task — because it just feels nice and relaxing.

The Un-Favorite:

It’s a small thing, relative to the rest of the things wrong with this game, but I hate that a size 10 (size 12 in France, which converts to an American size 10) is defined as plus-size in this game when in 2006, the year this game was released, a 10 was nowhere near a plus size. It’s a small detail that they very easily could have gotten right, and they didn’t bother to even check.

My least favorite moment in the game is easily the Minette fight that turns into Nancy trapped with Noisette’s artwork. Nothing quite illustrates the fact that they had no idea what story they were telling and no idea how to end the game more than the fact that we go from a slo-mo kung-fu fight to a hall of French artwork and no one’s quite sure which one is supposed to be the climax.

My least favorite puzzle is the catacomb puzzle; while the catacombs are cool to explore, navigating them is a frustrating experience, only made worse by the fear of getting lost – or the rats stealing things that you really, really need.

While most things in DAN bother me to some degree, the game is so uniformly disappointing that not a lot of things stand out over each other, so we’ll move on to where the actual work begins.

The Fix:

This is one of the few games that, in order to have a cohesive plot, storyline, and motivation for all (or even any) of its characters, needs a complete re-write to the setup along with changes to the “plot” progression itself.

The first big problem to fix is the reason Nancy’s there in the first place. It doesn’t make a lot of sense that she’s there to figure out what’s wrong with Minette — she should have a lot of specialized knowledge in order to be an assistant to such a major designer — and the justification is flimsy.

There’s also the problem that our historical characters aren’t heroes, so to try to “exonerate” Noisette when France already cleared her of everything except bitterness is, quite frankly, not a very heroic endeavor. Having this B-plot marginally tied to the A-plot by the fact that the Germans are the bad guys in both really isn’t great either — and certainly isn’t enough justification for the writing to be this bad.

To fix both of these in one fell swoop, shift the story in the past slightly.

Perhaps Noisette and Hans are still involved, but Noisette manages to turn her boyfriend against the Nazis and they spy on behalf of France, including saving France’s art from the hands of the Nazis and hiding it. The French government, however, doesn’t trust either one of them, and executes them for treason against the French state. Noisette and Hans carry the location where they stored the art to their graves, believing it to be unsafe with German sympathizers still around, but leave clues with friends and around the city, wanting it to be found in due time.

Cut to 2006, and Hans’ descendant Dieter Von Schwesterkrank has found evidence that Hans and Noisette were loyal to the French cause and were executed unjustly. The evidence is enough that he believes it (perhaps a work of art or two deemed ‘stolen’ by the pair has turned up in the family, but without any provenance, causing issues of authenticity), having always heard growing up that Hans was working for the French, but he knows that no one else will unless he can dig up more.

He tries to seduce Minette — an actual Frenchwoman in this version — into letting him hang around the windmill where Noisette and Hans once lived. He accidentally falls for her, but she breaks it off due to the external pressure, leaving him both heartbroken and unable to search more.

Having gotten the phone once in the moulin and been subject to one of Prudence Rutherford’s calls, he learns about a hotshot teen detective in America named Nancy Drew who’s worked undercover before and will take any job.

Needing her help, Dieter writes Nancy, telling her that he’s got a job for her and that he’s just trying to figure out how to get her a visa to come to France. Using Heather’s crush on him,  he mentions an intern from the States that he’s heard of that can supposedly handle any boss, no matter how obnoxious — and the wheels start spinning.

Once Nancy gets to France and gets the low-down on Minette, she goes to visit Dieter to get her real assignment — to balance working for Minette while finding proof of Hans and Noisette’s innocence.

With those changes in place, the game can proceed relatively unchanged in the order of events, albeit with more importance given to Dieter and less on pointless minigames with Minette. As Nancy tries to find out more about Noisette and Hans, she also notices Minette acting strangely: refusing to talk to people, communicating through emails and instant messages, falling further and further behind.

Zu changes from a wacky one-off character with an obsession to the expert in the catacombs and their use by the French Resistance during WWII; Lynn Manrique from a simple historian to a French Art historian specializing in identifying forged works of art and in art trafficking during the War.

Instead of Noisette’s plotline getting swirled into Minette’s, Minette’s issues are swirled into the larger plotline of proving Noisette and Hans’ innocence through finding the missing artwork and, along with it, the proof that they were working on behalf of France all along.

In the interest of not changing too much, the bad guys can still be fringe German extremists looking to destroy Noisette and Hans’ hard work (or perhaps who have a personal grudge against Hans in particular) and so threaten Minette, but rather than threatening a world summit through a bugged dress, they’ve been stealing fabric, designs, unpicking stitches — whatever they can think of — to delay her collection in the hope that she’ll think that the moulin is cursed and move to a different location, allowing them to search the building top-to-bottom to find the art that they suspect is hidden inside.

I know that this Fix section seems quite long, but it’s all really worldbuilding and premise changes; once a few motivations are shifted and the villains’ objective changes from something that the player doesn’t care about to something that they will care about, the game improves itself rather quickly.

WWII isn’t my preferred time in history to learn about, but even I can acknowledge that passing off the French occupation as “ah those wacky Germans” and “seriously and actively dating an actual Nazi shouldn’t get you suspected as a collaborateur because That’s Mean and if people suspect you just hide French national treasures because that’ll show them” isn’t a great look, nor does it fulfill the “edu” part of “edutainment”.

[thestylesindependent]

Brand new adventure- Harry’s interview with L’Officiel Hommes China (translation courtesy of Google)

He is the face of Gucci's new fragrance, an ultra-modern pop star and an exquisite young man, and Harry Styles may be content with his premature achievements. But he prefers to choose to be alone and fade out of the public eye, with curiosity or even greed to touch the music.

"So French!" The young man in a Mickey Mouse sweater smiled softly, facing the sometimes excited and blushing editorial team of magazines. On the day after the interview, his new song was launched, and it attracted more than 1.5 million followers in just a few hours. After a brief retreat, or after a breath-recovery process like holding his breath, a series of bumps began, and this was the return of Harry Styles. Harry, who has just soloed from One Direction (the band sold 50 million records over a six-year career and has since ceased indefinitely), achieved his personal career and released his first solo album in 2017. People saw him transforming. He was no longer the Harry of the 1D band, but became an independent artist, receiving reviews from music critics, and going in harmony with this era. He is fickle, he treats his sexual orientation peacefully, he defends equality, and supports same-sex marriage. The pop singer who has grown up in the greenhouse has now become a cocoon. Gucci's vibrant, poetic and destructive creative director Alessandro Michele, who is responsible for the styling of Harry's first tour after solo, has been selected as this fashion season Image ambassador for the new fragrance "Gucci Mémoire d'une Odeur". 

Soon before our meeting, he just spread some clear signals in an American journal, announcing some song samples of the new album: in recent months, he has been listening to McCartney, reading Murakami sang with Stevie Nicks in preparation for the new album. So on the day we met, we found two pieces of evidence that witnessed his creative journey over the past few months. The content of these songs is full, exquisitely arranged, delicate and at the same time rough and unruly, like an ecstatic intoxication, but also the sorrow of dawn and dawn, all of which show a large album full of color and temperature collision.

While anxiously waiting to jump into the vortex of public attention (album promotion, touring, and many things in celebrity life), the 25-year-old boy calmly told with restraint and enthusiasm throughout the day. Yourself. (To be honest, he did not try to avoid the eyes of passers-by. Instead, he walked in the panties between the two shots and ate Asian takeaway meals at the corner of the street instead of sipping healthy celery juice or eating Steamed tofu.) "The first smell I remember was probably the smell in her mother's kitchen, the smell of her roasted meat, and the smell of perfume on her." This is how this good son, also a contemporary superstar, is. Express his memory related to smell. However, if one day Harry lives in your house by accident, who knows if this will happen? Never let him feed your cat, because he said: "I have been accompanied by cats every time I grew up, every time. When I feed them, the smell of cat food makes me unbearable. "

It can be said that his cooperation with Alexandro Michele is not a pretense, and their creative lines coincide. "Alexandro is a free thinker, and his way of working is very enlightening. If he wants to do something, he will do it. It's that simple. It's impressive, especially for a big When working at a brand. This is great when you have the opportunity to participate in the work of a recognized master. He doesn't ask about class, age, or business. He does everything for everyone, everyone, I I think that any kind of art should be like that. "He talked about childhood again (yes, childhood seems to be yesterday in his eyes)": I like 'scent memory', I like its freshness, and it can be based on the user The different and changing characteristics. This perfume reminds me of the summer of childhood. Sitting with friends by the lake, where I grew up, smelling the fragrance of wild flowers ... "Today this Times exactly reflect the poem of Henri Michaux: "Night is not like daylight, it has great flexibility." That is to say, Michele's method is very suitable, even with this kind of abandoning the rules The approach is closely related. "Boundaries are gradually falling, whether in fashion, music festivals, film and television, or the art world ... I do n’t think people are still looking for differences in this category. The line between them is also the subject of creation. People no longer need to be this or that person. I think that people are simply trying to get better. In fashion and other fields, these standards are not as strict as before, which brings Great freedom, exciting. " "Although Michelle doesn't necessarily ask for my opinion, we will show some ideas to each other. It is cool to get opinions from people who are not necessarily in the same field as you, and you respect his work and taste "We noticed a new motivation, perhaps a new way of writing, which came from taking control of our careers. In short, when a seductive carefree and cruelly erodes talent, a serious mentality that a person shows ": writing songs is surfing. You can train as much as you can, and the waves Sometimes it doesn't. But we still need training to get better. It's impossible to sit down one day and think about writing the best song of my life. It takes a lot of effort. "

He worked in a bakery ten years ago, but now he has become the company's bet, the star and the focus of media attention. Whether out of fantasy or fact, he ca n’t help asking such a young man. How to get rid of this cobweb of public opinion. "Becoming famous is something I'm still learning and experiencing. I learn how to filter out what I like and dislike, pick out what can be integrated into the song, and what I don't want to share. Find a balance. Sometimes wondering how people think about this or that lyrics ... it means accepting to show off their fragile side, but at the same time, it makes the whole adventure exciting The reason. "He said. Indeed, when he revealed some clues about the upcoming album, the excitement was obvious, hoping that he could express "a sense of freedom". This feeling is not completely new to some hot idols, especially some like "Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Stevie Niks, Janis Joplin Joplin) and Prince ". In contrast to this crowd is Nick Drake, whom he likes to listen to recently. The outstanding singer's music is full and well-crafted, giving people a joy. "When I look at them, I don't know what it is, but it's there. It's a strange thing. They transcend the limits. When it comes to songwriting, McCartney has always had a huge impact on me. I was lucky Some of them are strong, and in my eyes, they have always been awesome. "

He arrived in a special car (with a driver, a small freezer and dark windows), and instead walked to the corner bar for a beer, and the number of people accompanying him decreased. Looking at the back of this millennial superstar, we think again of the teenager wearing an exaggerated cardigan, dreaming of standing out in the TV singer competition. Today, behind him is a gentle fragrance of wildflowers and Sunday lunch.

[scarytheory]

James Bond conquers Czechoslovakia (or not?)

In the sixties, James Bond was everywhere. But even though it was a big worldwide phenomenon, it was hardly accessible to everyone. Czechoslovakia was a socialist country with a strict regulation system for film industry, so it is not surprising that James Bond films were not screened until the end of communist regime in the early nineties. But somehow James Bond had a notable presence in Czechoslovakia. It was a name known to average film fans. They heard about Sean Connery, Bond girls, and some of them could describe a detailed plot of the movies. How is it possible? This article discusses media discourse about James Bond, and how it created a basis for a familiarization with the James Bond film franchise.

The Czechoslovak film industry was centralized in the state-controlled institution between 1945 and 1990. Every imported film was approved by the state. Very broadly speaking, genre cinema from the Western countries wasn't ideologically desirable. Only around 5–10 British films were screened every year in Czechoslovakia in the '60s and '70s . Mostly they were kitchen sink dramas (A Taste of Honey or Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) or literary adaptations (Tom Jones, Far from The Madding Crowd). The action adventure genre was presented by French comedies (super popular Fan-Fan the Tulip and similar films) and by French art films (Breathless, Pierrot le fou). Important were leftist qualities of these movies. Approved were also some James Bond knock-offs, for example West German movies about FBI agent Jerry Cotton. Some people would say that James Bond and similar films could not be shown because of censorship, but that is not true. These films were not screened, because they just were not bought into the Czechoslovak distribution. There were, of course, reasons for that.    

So what exactly was problematic in James Bond films? First, it was simply a country of origin. It was not just that Bond was British (= Western country). In Czech press were Bond movies often described as American, which is at least partly true: distribution rights were owned by the American company United Artist. Also values presented by the films were values that were in Czechoslovakia identified with capitalist countries, especially with the United States. But mostly, Bond wasn't a preferred type of a hero for a socialist audience. He was rich, obsessed with expensive cars and clothes, violent and sexual. He was not nice. He was not a socialist hero. A Polish film historian Jerzy Toeplitz wrote about a bad influence of James Bond books and films, and the article was translated for Panoráma zahraničního filmového tisku in 1966. He wrote that James Bond books are meant for a Western reader who is “succumbed to the amuck of accumulating consumer goods.” That is related to the fact that the film series itself was perceived as existing just with a goal of gaining money. A lot of articles were stating (and mocking) the way the films were used for merchandise.

James Bond was a perfect picture of a capitalist country: cruel, brutal, too erotic, sadistic and racist. Which are all fair points, but they weren't said with an aim to open any kind of discussion. The goal was purely ideological. “We must build a hero – either a man or a woman of our time who upholds our humane socialist morale – and pose him or her against this mythical hero who can do anything, nothing is a nuisance to him, who overcomes everything smoothly and –  like James Bond, for example – has the right to commit senseless murders. This represents an ideological conflict with the bourgeoisie, one that is essential and without compromise.” (Film a doba, 5, p. 243).

Perhaps the most interesting aspects were constant mentions about racism. However a language that was used to describe racism in James Bond films was very racist itself. That is actually not surprising because Czechoslovak people had – and still have – lots of racist issues. Lubomír Oliva, one of prominent Czechoslovak film critics, described James Bond this way: “James Bond embodies a new type of Superman. He is coldy cruel and dismissive of the weak. He kills without remorse, because that is his job. Multiple scenes from the trilogy show racism, which is subconscious, automatic, and therefore more insidious. Is he the Tarzan among nuclear weapons? Or perhaps he is a  different but more dangerous type of a primitive: a close relative of the Nazi Übermensch.” (Kino, 1965/11, p. 13). It is also very telling to look closely at the photos used in that article – Bond shoots, Bond fights, Bond smiles like a crazy lunatic while he kills people. The writing itself is very suggestive, evocative and even vulgar. Oliva loves to mention every specific and cruel thing Bond does in the films in details. One has to ask – what if the effect of listing all the bad things was quite opposite? Was not public more curious to watch it?

Maybe the screenwriter of many amazing Czech genre films (Adela Has Not Had Her Supper Yet, Lemonade Joe) Jiří Brdečka was a little bit fond of Bond, right? Well – not really. The most problematic part of Bond films, according to Brdečka, was their anti-communist aspect. A majority of the villains were communists and often from USSR, which was not acceptable. In Brdečka's article in Divadelní a filmové noviny he compared people of color to communists. James Bond films are full of prejudice against both, and that is simply bad. He also wrote: “This hero is deeply engaged and his engagement compels him to eat communists and colored people for breakfast – both at the same time if possible. This tells us that James Bond may not find fertile soil around these parts.” But Brdečka at least acknowledged that the films were really well made. And concluded with: “[The films] are excellent crap, with an emphasis on crap.” (Divadelní a filmové noviny, 1965/9-10, p. 10). Galina Kopaněva (another a very prominent and very popular film critic) took one step further. Not only the films themself are bad and stupid, the loving audience from Western countries is stupid as well: “[young people] devour the elegant Bond and his precise punches to the stomach. They loosen their ties a la Bond when they see the closeups of  of Bond girls’ super-breasts, they bray with enthusiasm when there is an especially well done murder, they clench their fists as they watch crazy car chases on serpentine mountain roads, and they succumb to the pleasant shivers caused by torture scenes.” (Film a doba 1965/6, p. 323). The infantilization of audience was sometimes used while describing popular culture but was not broadly used for describing James Bond.    

So, now we know that James Bond was bad for Czechoslovak people. Or at least according to the prominent film critics and state-run film industry. But how is possible that James Bond became a well known phenomenon in communist Czechoslovakia? It was not allowed to show James Bond in the cinemas but somehow people knew who James Bond is. There were also special namings for James Bond films – bondovky (that is used still today) and bondiády. People were obsessed with them, even though they did not have an option to watch them.

The most obvious answer for James Bond popularity is that he was a constant presence in the Czechoslovak film press. He was – in his invisibility – totally visible. Bond films were often mentioned (and sometimes analyzed) in the press targeted towards film professionals (Interpressfilm) or “smart” film fans (Film a doba, Divadelní a filmové noviny) and in popular film magazines (Kino). Almost every Czechoslovak film critic had an opportunity to see a James Bond movie at some international film festival or in a cinema abroad. That means that they wrote reviews for Czechoslovak magazines. But the reviews were not only about qualities of the films. More often the critics retold the plot with every possible detail (including the ending of the film). The magazines also published spreads about James Bond phenomenon in general (including lots of photos), interviews with actors or directors, short notes about upcoming films or about changing of the actors. The articles were a weird mixture of positive and negative. For example, you would have a long text about Sean Connery, and in this article author would write about how wonderful actor Connery is. But they would also mention that Connery deserves better than Bond. Or you would have a big spread about a James Bond movie premiere, and author would mention that film is spectacular and fun to watch, but also that it is still a low and decadent film. 

Another way to get familiar with James Bond were the books by Ian Fleming. Three of them were published in Czechoslovakia: Dr No (Doktor NO, 1968; both Czech and Slovak version), View to a Kill (collections of short stories Ve jménu zákona, 1969) and Goldfinger (Zlatý fantóm, 1970, with a film cover and a lot of photos inside the book). The rest of the stories was published after 1990.

Of course in Czechoslovakia were some people that managed to see a James Bond film in other countries (travelling was complicated but not absolutely impossible). Ivan Soeldner said that people used to visit strip clubs while abroad, but suddenly it was a necessity to go see a James Bond film instead. He also stated that Bond (and strip clubs) are highly overrated (Kulturní tvorba, 1965/33, p. 14). But Bond films became word of mouth sensation – not just because they were entertainment films but because what they meant. Bond films were in a way similar to popular American music or Coca-cola. People heard so much about it that it became its own animal. The efforts to minimize and ridicule Bond in press actually created by mistake an unique mythos of James Bond – almost a symbol of anti-sovietism and anti-communism, something like a forbidden fruit. 

James Bond obsession calmed down a little bit with a departure of Sean Connery. Some articles were still occasionally written but not with so much passion as it used to be in the '60s. But a new opportunity to see James Bond films arrived to a Czechoslovak audience in the '80s. Videorecorders became more affordable and in 1985 there were around 80 000 of them. For Czechoslovakia was a very important phenomenon an unofficial “pirate” dubbing. So suddenly, for some people was a possibility to borrow VHS with some movies that were unavailable before (including Bond films). 

The communist regime ended in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and Czechoslovak film industry started to transform. The process was slow and messy. But finally, a first James Bond film was shown in Czech and Slovak cinemas: The Living Daylights in 1992 (in English original with Czech or Slovak subtitles). This film also had a special bonus for the viewers – it took place in Bratislava, Slovakia (but it was actually filmed in Austria). A lot of older Bond films also appeared in official VHS market, and the “black pirate market” was still quite proficient during the nineties.

The aim of this short overview was to show the ways James Bond appeared in the Czechoslovakia for the first time. It was probably very similar in other socialist countries (Poland, USSR,…). I think that it is important to ask questions about what Bond actually meant for a different types of audiences, and how it changed over time. The answers are still relatively vague (and maybe even banal), more answers could bring complex research in daily press or oral history. 

My sources: I did a quick research using a lot of articles from the '60s till early '90s. Big thanks to National Film Archive that has everything scanned in the digital library. 

Periodicals: Divadelní a filmové noviny, Film a doba, Filmové aktuality, Filmové informace, Filmový přehled, Interpressfilm, Kino, Kinorevue, Kulturní tvorba, Panoráma, Panoráma zahraničního filmového tisku, Záběr

I also used my own knowledge of Czechoslovak film industry (so you need to trust me that it is all true). I tried to put all this together, and the conclusions are my own. Hopefully, it all makes sense (I didn’t went too much into details because well, this is not some kind of complex research, it is just something I did for fun)

And thank you to amazing @slippingintostockings​ who helped me with the translation of Czech reviews from the sixties. 

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

After her marriage with Frank Randall has failed and Claire Beauchamp flees from her violent husband, she finds refuge in the house of the Fraser/Murray family in Berlin-Wilhelmshorst. But then tensions arise between Britain (which has since left the EU) and some EU member states. All holders of an English passport are required to leave EU territory within six weeks … and suddenly Claire’s fate looks more uncertain than ever.

This story was written for the #14DaysofOutlander event, hosted by @scotsmanandsassenach​

Note: This chapter contains references to domestic violence and suicidal thoughts. If these things trigger something in you, please skip this chapter.

Chapter 3: 14 Seconds (1)

         Etienne Marcel de Provac Alexandre was satisfied. No, Etienne Marcel de Provac Alexandre was not satisfied. He could not be satisfied at all, because in reality he did not exist. It was James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser who was satisfied that Etienne Marcel de Provac Alexandre, his alias, had also successfully completed this assignment. Neither the negotiations nor the conclusion of that special trade agreement with the Argentinians had caused any problems, so he was able to finish his job in the time allotted.

“Buenos Aires - Skyline” by maymuc

         The success with which he had been able to complete his mission helped him to get over the inconvenience of his onward flight to Boston. It took more time for these 8,500 kilometres than for the return flight from Boston to Berlin. So he flew from Buenos Aires-Ezeiza shortly after eight in the evening first to Lima, where he had an 80-minute stopover at the Jorge Chavez International Airport. Then he was able to board a plane that took him from the Peruvian capital to Florida. He used the time on the plane to get some sleep.          When he arrived at Miami International Airport, he first had an extensive breakfast. Then he wandered around a bit, just to move his legs and afterwards he immersed himself in various wine magazines. While he was still reading and waiting for his connecting flight to Boston, an elderly gentleman approached him.          According to his legend, Jamie introduced himself as a French wine merchant who, on behalf of the Berlin-based company "In Vino Veritas - International Wines and Spirits", searched for new wines worldwide or brokered wine sales to partners.          This company - "In Vino Veritas" - really existed. And if anyone should have the idea to make further investigations about the firm, he would find nothing else but a flourishing wine and spirits trade, based in the German capital. Every time James Fraser mentioned this name or passed on his business card bearing this company’s name, he had to force himself not to smile. The irony of this name had made him laugh out loud when Ernst Neuenburger first told him about it. Because there was no truth in the wine that this company sold at all. On the contrary, this wine was nothing but deception. "In Vino Deceptio" would have been the correct name, but for very understandable reasons, that name had not been chosen. Ernst Neuenburger had acknowledged Jamie's loud laughter by saying:

         "Irony is one of the best gifts to survive the challenges of this life."

         The elderly gentleman who approached him at the airport in Miami made a harmless impression. He showed no great interest in the personal background of the person he was talking to, nor in his business relationships. It seemed as if he was simply trying to bridge his own waiting time by philosophizing with someone he liked about a topic in which both were interested. For Jamie, that was o.k.          It was due to his thorough preparation by Ernst Neuenburger's staff that Jamie was not only very well versed in European wines, but also in Australian, New Zealand, North and South American wines and their respective markets. On their behalf, he attended the Austrian Wine Academy and completed his training as a Wine Academician with the Wine Diploma, also known as the "International Wine Specialist". He was thus not only accepted into the "Club of Wine Academics", whose members were active in 41 countries around the world, but also acquired the prerequisites for the "Master of Wine" degree. Jamie was happy to take the trouble of this training, which not only helped him to fulfil his covert mission, but also raised his status in his real business life. The fact that his certificates and diplomas were issued in his alias name and in the name of James Fraser was also taken care of by Neuenburger’s staff.          Etienne Marcel de Provac Alexandre talked for almost an hour with the older American, who introduced himself as Bob Snider ("the one from Boca Raton, not the folk singer from Canada"), mainly about American, French and German wines. Then his flight was called and Etienne Marcel de Provac Alexandre said a hearty farewell to his interlocutor.

“Terminal - Miami International Airport” by Martin St-Amant (S23678) - Eigenes Werk, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6281155

         When James Fraser took his seat on the plane that was supposed to take him (finally!) to his next destination, he first wrote down the content of his conversation with "Bob Snider" and all the details he could remember about the man he had spoken to. The senior may have been harmless, but the mere fact that a stranger had come to speak to him obliged him to report this contact to his employer.          It was shortly after three in the afternoon when his plane landed at Logan International Airport. He took a taxi to the hotel where "In Vino Veritas" had booked the so-called "Boston Studio" for him. When he entered the room, he had to smile. The arrangement of the furniture in the various hotels around the world amazed him again and again. Here, it was the mixture of modern furniture and furniture trimmed on old that made him shake his head slightly. He would never really feel comfortable in such a mixture. But maybe it was better that way. The discomfort he felt in such rooms made him want to return home all the more. All that mattered to James Fraser was that the hotels booked for him had a fitness area that was open 24 hours a day. And that's exactly where he went after having a light dinner in the hotel restaurant that evening. One hour of workout and a long shower later he returned to his rooms where he went over the planning for the next day. Twenty minutes later James Fraser, alias Etienne Marcel de Provac Alexandre, sank into his bed and fell asleep contentedly.

“Luftbild des Hafens von Boston” by ArnoldReinhold - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83686125

         Just a few blocks away from Fraser's hotel, Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall was lying in the bed of her conjugal bedroom. Tears were streaming down her face and wetting her pillow. Although she had been lying under her warm blanket for more than half an hour, she trembled all over her body as if she were standing outside the house on a frosty winter's night without a coat.          Behind her lay another evening of arguments, insults and humiliation. Frank, her husband for almost 10 years, had left the house at some point in a rage. She knew that he would now be sitting and drinking in one of the nearby bars. If he picked up any woman who wanted to spend the night with him, he was never expected to come home soon. But if he left  the bar empty-handed, he would return ‘home’ and the night could turn out even darker.          Frank Randall could not find a woman that night who would voluntarily share a cheap hotel bed with him. He returned to the house he and his wife had once called ‘home’. That night, Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall's worst fears came true.

         The next morning, James Fraser woke up well rested and full of energy. His first course, after a brief visit to the bathroom, took him back to the hotel gym and then to the shower. Just as he was getting dressed for the new day, the room service brought the "Continental Breakfast" that he had ordered the night before. He had breakfast, reading on his tablet the various international newspapers whose online editions he had subscribed to. Exactly the peaceful and quiet morning time, as he appreciated it.          There were still four hours to go before his next appointment, a business lunch with “Paul Smith”. That man was also on Ernst Neuenburger’s payroll but had a completely different legend. Jamie had decided to use this time to have a look around the area of his hotel. The hotel's limousine service first took him to Paul Revere's house, and an hour later he was driven from there to the Old North Church. He would also have liked to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, but there was not enough time left and so he let his driver take him to the steakhouse where he should meet "Paul Smith".          When he arrived there, his "business partner" was already sitting at the table reserved for them. The men, who had never seen each other in person before, greeted each other like long-time friends. No one would have suspected that they knew each other only from photos that Ernst Neuenburger had placed quite innocently in the advertisements of a wine magazine some time before. They ate and drank and had lively conversations (and for those sitting nearby with ears too big) about current trends in the wine scene, prices, order quantities and shipping options. At the end of the extensive business dinner, they signed each other's contracts, both of whom knew that they would never experience any real economic development, and then toasted each other loudly with champagne to this glorious "business deal". Shortly before three o'clock in the afternoon, "Etienne" and "Paul", who called each other by their first names only and addressed each other as "brother", left the restaurant. Their sunny mood was in stark contrast to the dull, autumnal weather that swept over the city of Boston that afternoon.          Paul waved at a passing taxi and got in. Jamie waited for the limousine service, which was parked a bit far away, and due to the rather cold weather was quite happy that the car started moving in his direction immediately.          While he was still waiting, his eyes fell on an advertising flyer, which was driven across the sidewalk by a light wind. A name that was emblazoned on this flyer caught his attention. It was the name of a painter - Gerhard Richter. Jamie not only admired the paintings of the professor, who had taught painting at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf from 1971 to 1993 and whose works were among the most important and expensive of any living German artist. He was also fascinated by his life story, to which Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck had set a monument in his film "Never look away" (”Werk ohne Autor”). Without thinking for long, Jamie bent down and picked up the flyer. Still in the car he began to read. A small gallery not far from his hotel advertised an exhibition documenting Richter's life and work. Jamie put the flyer in his left breast pocket. He would love to spend part of his free evening visiting this exhibition. But now he had to hurry, because a small, private teleconference with the "managing director" of "In Vino Veritas" was scheduled for three o'clock in the afternoon local time, and he didn't want to be late. 

         While Etienne Marcel de Provac Alexandre reported to his boss in faraway Berlin about the successfully concluded contracts with "Paul Smith", Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall made her way through her neighbourhood. Although the weather was unusually cold for the time of year, with 13.8 degrees Celsius, she could no longer bear to stay in her "home" after everything that had happened the previous night. At first she had thought of going to a nearby café that she visited regularly in the past. But the thought of having to sit on a hard wooden chair had made her refrain from doing so. Not far away there was also a church that she had visited repeatedly and the fact that the pews were furnished with soft seat cushions lead her steps hopefully towards this building. But her hope was to be disappointed. On the - closed - main portal there was a handwritten notice that on that day the doors of the church would stay closed due to a sudden illness of the sexton. Resigned, she turned around. Where could she go now? Her gaze fell on a small gallery that was open until six o'clock in the evening. That was still three hours away. Three hours in which she could look at the pictures there, or sit down in front of one of the works of art. Three hours in which nobody would approach her or ask her about anything. Three hours in which she could think about her next steps in peace. Somehow she had to find a way out of this misery. But she did not know how. Only one thing she knew with one hundred percent certainty: She would never return to Frank Randall. Not a single moment would she voluntarily stay in the presence of this monster again. She would rather put an end to her miserable existence. Claire had already thought about this once before. Back then, on 31 May 2018, when Longfellow Bridge was reopened after five years of repairs. But when she stood on top of the bridge, she was not sure whether a jump from there would bring the longed-for end to her agony. She had turned away and had returned. Returned to her life with Frank, whom she knew was cheating on her regularly. Returned to a life of lies. Returned to a life where she tried to numb all her pain with alcohol and pills. But if her experience had shown one thing, it was that no drug in the world could cover those wounds, especially not those that Frank had inflicted on her the previous night. Something had to happen. 

 “Ausstellung” by beludise          Twenty minutes before 4:00 pm Jamie had finished the conference call. Through one of the windows of his room he looked outside and noticed that the sky was darkening. A strong wind had come up and rain began to patter against the windows. But even if the thunderstorm was about to start, he would not be deterred from visiting the small gallery whose flyer he still carried with him. He dialed the number of the reception and ordered the limousine service again.          On the way to the lobby of the hotel he thought about how much he would have loved to get in touch with Jenny, Ian and the kids via video conference. But that was not possible. The chance of endangering himself, his job and possibly his family was too great. But it would not be long before he would finally see them again. The following evening his flight left and the following day, with a small detour via the headquarters of "In Vino Veritas", he would arrive back home and see them all again. He was already looking forward to it very much. For him, his family was the most valuable earthly possession and he wished for nothing more than to be able to start a family himself one day. Up to now he had always pushed that thought away. While he was still living in Scotland, the administration of his parents' estate and the political activities took up all his time and energy. Moreover, he would not have wanted any women to be the wife of a man who was a convicted traitor, being held in a London high-security prison and therefore not able to provide for his family. But more important than this was the fact that he had not yet met "the" woman with whom he really wanted to spend his whole life and with whom he wanted to start a family. When he entered the foyer and the receptionist told him that his limousine had just arrived, James Fraser had no idea that he was less than an hour away from that very encounter.          Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall had entered the gallery, paid the entrance fee and accepted an exhibition guide, which she had immediately stowed in her handbag. She had wandered aimlessly through the rooms until she found a small bench in one of the back exhibition rooms. It stood in front of a picture showing an older man with glasses, standing in front of a reddish wall. But she only took note of it peripherally. Much more important in her present situation was that there was soft upholstery on the bench. Carefully she sat down on it and yet the pain went through all her limbs.

         When Jamie's limousine stopped at the curb in front of the gallery entrance, it had already begun to rain in torrents. The sky had darkened to black and now and then a loud roll of thunder could be heard. Carl, the limousine driver, parked near the entrance and then quickly jumped out of the car with a large black umbrella bearing the logo and name of the hotel in golden letters. He opened the door on the rear passenger side and held the umbrella so that Jamie could get out without getting wet. The chauffeur accompanied him the few steps to the gallery, then quickly hurried back to the limousine where he would wait for the guest to return.          As soon as he had entered, Jamie was greeted by a friendly member of the gallery staff. He paid the entrance fee and received the exhibition catalogue. Then he slowly started his way through the exhibition. It took him about forty minutes to reach the back room of the gallery. Already from a distance he saw the well-known photo that showed the painter in front of his famous work "Wall". Only once had Richter had himself photographed in front of this work. This photo had then adorned the title page of the art magazine "art".

“Locken” by KRiemer         In front of exactly this two-meter by two-meter picture sat a petite woman, whose head was surrounded by an only slightly tamed, dark brown mass of curls. Carefully and anxious to make as little noise as possible, Jamie approached her with some distance. A few minutes passed, then he heard the woman sniffing softly. She opened her handbag and was obviously looking for a handkerchief in a hurry. Jamie reached into the right pocket of his jacket and pulled out a pack of Tempo tissues, which he opened and held out to the unknown woman.

         "Please, take one of these.”          The woman turned her head up to him and looked at him with big amber eyes, red from weeping. Later, James Fraser would tell again and again how  those first 14 seconds, when he looked into the most beautiful eyes in the world, decided his future path of life.

[enchanted--roses]

Girl Meets World Plot Bunny

OC: Pearl Matthews FACECLAIM: Bailee Madison FANDOM: Girl Meets World PAIRING: None SUMMARY: (Small Precision that you will see a little bit in this text, I’m not a pro Maya, and totally ship Riley and Lucas) Pearl is Cory and Topanga first child born barely a year after her parents’ wedding in 2000. Being the oldest meant that she was close to her parents and protective of her sibling, right? Wrong while she will do anything for Riley and Auggie, she always felt like her parents was favouring her youngest siblings even if she and Riley could have been considered twin with only one year between them. From a young age, she will be closer to her aunt Alison and her uncle Josh who was more like an older brother than an uncle with their two years apart (since GWM said he was 17 and not 16 in his first appearance we can conclude that they retcon Josh birthdate as they did for Cory, Shawn and Topanga). When they were young Riley and her were close always doing everything together, until the day Maya will enter Riley room from the bay window. From that day on, she will feel like a third wheel with her sister and her best friend. Not that she didn’t love Maya, but sometimes she was feeling like the blonde was trying to take her sister away from her. That feeling will only grow with time, seeing her doing the same thing with the rest of the family. Those feelings will push her to find solace in her aunt Alison who was living between Paris and New York but always have time for her godchild. Alison will be the reason Pearl will meet Shawn Hunter, her father best friend who left New York after Riley birth and never try to make contact with them. Those two will become her confidant and will always be there for her when they were not working away from the city. Having those two in her life will give her the confidence to make friends outside of Riley world. Feeling that she need to pull away from her sister and mostly Maya. She was happy with her friend and with the relation she had with her sister. But everything will change with the arrival of Lucas in their life. She will meet Lucas the same time as her sister and the first thing she will think is how this boy will break her sister heart, she didn’t know why but she felt that this was going the outcome from their meeting. As time progress she began to think that maybe she was wrong and Lucas will not break her sister heart, she was even beginning to ship those two together and was helping Lucas with setting up dates, if only she knew how wrong she was. Being older means that she was not in her sister class and was not aware of how everything was going down in her father class, she will learn a bit of if by Farkle and Lucas himself about the yearbook and everything that was happening with her sister and her supposed best friend. She will decide right there to take Riley under her wings and try to find their closeness back, by mending the bridge between them first. This will be the reason she will ask Lucas to be able to come with them to Texas, feeling that something was going to happen and she was right, her sister will do the first mistake of many and will tell Lucas she was seeing him as a brother and nothing else, to make way for Maya who suddenly have feelings for Lucas, which was not right in Pearl mind, who was thinking who could do this to their best friend and fell for the same boy. After that trip, Pearl knowing the truth behind her sister words will try many times to make Riley tell the truth, not only to Lucas and Maya but to everyone else who were so sure there was no romantic feeling between Riley and Lucas. Of course Riley will not follow her advice and Farkle will be the one spilling the bean during the New Year’s Eve party, making everyone uncomfortable. That will be the push Riley need to get closer to Pearl who will be more than happy to have her sister back, especially when the triangle will start and she will see that Riley need her more than ever. Around the same time, Shawn will ask for her help to set up a date with Alison, after years of hiding his feelings for the young Matthews, he was ready to show his feeling. As she see the pain her sister have to endure and see that Lucas don’t want to hurt anyone, she will do something she promises she will never do and will intervene in the love triangle, destroying it sooner than canon. During Girl meets Ski Lodge she will push Lucas and Riley together saying they should talk, she will also do the same thing to Josh and Maya even thought she was still angry at the blonde for everything. Even thought everything was becoming easier with her family and between her sister and her friend, she will decide to do something for her and as her mother decide to stay in New York for the family, she will announce that she was going to study in Paris with the newlyweds Alison and Shawn not wanting to stay in New York much longer, and promising Riley she will always be there for her even if she was not nearby.

OC: Alison Matthews FACECLAIM: Anne Hathaway FANDOM: Girl Meets World PAIRING: Alison x Shawn SUMMARY: Alison is the youngest daughter of the Matthew family and the child just before Josh. She was born in 1986 one year after her sister Morgan and thirteen years before her little brother. During her childhood she will be close to Morgan and Cory, reflecting on those years she will finally say that she was closer to Cory than Morgan and this will be the reason that when Pearl will be born years later she will be ask to be her godmother. Being close to Cory means she will also become a fixture in his life and be really close to his friends specially Shawn with whom she will keep a great friendship for years to come. Shawn will be the one between the two to make contact after a couple of years to reconnect, saying that he was stupid to leave New York without keeping contact with her. At first she will be a little angry at him, since he was just a great friend to her, than he was to her brother and it hurt her that he left without a goodbye, but he will make up for all the lost time by inviting her to Paris when she turned 21 and got her a job working for Vogue Paris in the fashion department with a foot in the door in the art department when they need a photographer. While Shawn will be one of the reasons she got that job, the real reason will be the fact that she fluently speak French and English and was the top of her years at NYU. It will be because of her and her life in Paris that both her niece Pearl and Riley will be obsessed with going over there to see the city and explore things with her. Even though she was living away from the family for the job she found in Paris, she will always have time for her family, talking with Pearl when she needed her or even just say hello knowing her godchild need this more than anything. While her and Shawn were in Paris together for a time they will have a small relationship, that will not long last cause she was Cory little sister and he was still hung up on Angela. Alison will understand and will actually say that she was still his friend and nothing will change that. At 24 years old, she will be the youngest person to become a Fashion editor and have an office in Paris and New York working for both the American and French versions of the magazine. Her having an office in New York meant that she now had the chance to see her family more often and to get closer to Pearl even more. Not that she was not close with Riley but she saw how Pearl was doing with everything and the fact that Maya was in their life. Every time she was in her office in New York, she will take a Week-End with Pearl to be just the two of them and leave the city for a small trip, going to place close to them or a little bit further to have no one trying to find them, it will during one of those trip that Alison will make Pearl and Shawn meet and bound. After that first meeting, Shawn will be a fixture in most of their trip which they will never tell Cory since he still didn’t know that his sister and best friend were still in contact. The next four years will be the same for her travelling between New York and Paris, when needed and spending most of her spare time with Pearl or Shawn when he was at the same place as her. Spending so much time with him, will make her remember why she felt in love with him in the first place, but won’t tell him scared of missing up their friendship. As she is back in Paris for a couples of week she receive a message from Pearl that will make her come back to New York to see her and Riley, they will explain to her the yearbook and the fact that Riley was still in love with Lucas but was trying everything to prove otherwise for her best friend, Alison being just like Pearl will actually be angry at Maya to even consider a relationship with the guy Riley was in any sort of relationship. To help the younger girl she will propose to take her away for a small trip, Riley will accept happy to finally do something like this with her aunt. Even thought that trip will help her, couples of weeks after it she will hear about Texas and will come back for the New Year’s deciding that for once she will be with them for the holidays. Not so long after the New Year, Shawn with Pearl help will set-up a date with Alison realising that he loved her all along and was just too hurt to see it, and since meeting Angela again he knew that Alison was what he wanted. That first date will be followed by another, then another until they will officialise their relationship to the family and most important to Cory, who was not ready to see his younger sister with his best friend. It will take Pearl, Riley and Josh to show him, that the two was really in love with each other and was not just messing around. He will give them his blessing saying that he was happy for the both of them, but he wishes they will have told him long before. It won't take long for Shawn to ask Alison to marry him knowing she was the woman of his life. They will get married not so long after the event of Girl Meet Ski Lodge. They will leave for a small honeymoon where Alison will ask Shawn if he was alright with inviting Pearl to leave with them in Paris since she was accepted in the university she wanted in Paris; Shawn will accent without even thinking about it. At their return they will tell Pearl the news, the young woman will be happy and will announce the news at her parent when Topanga will tell everyone that she decides to stay in New York.

Forever Tag: @fiercefray​y​​​  @ochub​​​ (wanna be on any of my taglist? ask me!)

[hlupdate]

He is the face of Gucci's new fragrance, an ultra-modern pop star and an exquisite young man, and Harry Styles may be content with his premature achievements. But he prefers to choose to be alone and fade out of the public eye, with curiosity or even greed to touch the music.

"So French!" The young man in a Mickey Mouse sweater smiled softly, facing the sometimes excited and blushing editorial team of magazines. On the day after the interview, his new song was launched, and it attracted more than 1.5 million followers in just a few hours. After a brief retreat, or after a breath-recovery process like holding his breath, a series of bumps began, and this was the return of Harry Styles. Harry, who has just soloed from One Direction (the band sold 50 million records over a six-year career and has since ceased indefinitely), achieved his personal career and released his first solo album in 2017. People saw him transforming. He was no longer the Harry of the 1D band, but became an independent artist, receiving reviews from music critics, and going in harmony with this era. He is fickle, he treats his sexual orientation peacefully, he defends equality, and supports same-sex marriage. The pop singer who has grown up in the greenhouse has now become a cocoon. Gucci's vibrant, poetic and destructive creative director Alessandro Michele, who is responsible for the styling of Harry's first tour after solo, has been selected as this fashion season Image ambassador for the new fragrance "Gucci Mémoire d'une Odeur". Soon before our meeting, he just spread some clear signals in an American journal, announcing some song samples of the new album: in recent months, he has been listening to McCartney, reading Murakami sang with Stevie Nicks in preparation for the new album. So on the day we met, we found two pieces of evidence that witnessed his creative journey over the past few months. The content of these songs is full, exquisitely arranged, delicate and at the same time rough and unruly, like an ecstatic intoxication, but also the sorrow of dawn and dawn, all of which show a large album full of color and temperature collision.

While anxiously waiting to jump into the vortex of public attention (album promotion, touring, and many things in celebrity life), the 25-year-old boy calmly told with restraint and enthusiasm throughout the day. Yourself. (To be honest, he did not try to avoid the eyes of passers-by. Instead, he walked in the panties between the two shots and ate Asian takeaway meals at the corner of the street instead of sipping healthy celery juice or eating Steamed tofu.) "The first smell I remember was probably the smell in her mother's kitchen, the smell of her roasted meat, and the smell of perfume on her." This is how this good son, also a contemporary superstar, is. Express his memory related to smell.

However, if one day Harry lives in your house by accident, who knows if this will happen? Never let him feed your cat, because he said: "I have been accompanied by cats every time I grew up, every time When I feed them, the taste of cat food makes me unbearable. "

It can be said that his cooperation with Alexandro Michele is not a pretense, and their creative lines coincide. "Alexandro is a free thinker, and his way of working is very enlightening. If he wants to do something, he will do it. It's that simple. It's impressive, especially for a big When working at a brand. This is great when you have the opportunity to participate in the work of a recognized master. He doesn't ask about class, age, or business. He does everything for everyone, everyone, I I think that any kind of art should be like that. "He talked about childhood again (yes, childhood seems to be yesterday in his eyes)": I like 'scent memory', I like its freshness, and it can be based on the user The different and changing characteristics. This perfume reminds me of the summer of childhood. Sitting with friends by the lake, where I grew up, smelling the fragrance of wild flowers ... "Today this Times exactly reflect the poem of Henri Michaux: "Night is not like daylight, it has great flexibility." That is to say, Michele's method is very suitable, even with this kind of abandoning the rules The approach is closely related. "Boundaries are gradually falling, whether in fashion, music festivals, film and television, or the art world ... I don't think people are still looking for differences in this category. Even if there is still a gender distinction in the world, they The line between them is also the subject of creation. People no longer need to be this or that person. I think that people are simply trying to get better. In fashion and other fields, these standards are not as strict as before, which brings Great freedom, exciting. "

"Although Michelle doesn't necessarily ask for my opinion, we will show some ideas to each other. It is cool to get opinions from people who are not necessarily in the same field as you, and you respect his work and taste "We noticed a new motivation, perhaps a new way of writing, which came from taking control of our careers. In short, when a seductive carefree and cruelly erodes talent, a serious mentality that a person shows ": writing songs is surfing. You can train as much as you can, and the waves Sometimes it doesn't. But we still need training to get better. It's impossible to sit down one day and think about writing the best song of my life. It takes a lot of effort. "

He worked in a bakery ten years ago, but now he has become the company's bet, the star and the focus of media attention. Whether out of fantasy or fact, he ca n’t help asking such a young man. How to get rid of this cobweb of public opinion. "Becoming famous is something I'm still learning and experiencing. I learn how to filter out what I like and dislike, pick out what can be integrated into the song, and what I don't want to share. Find a balance. Sometimes wondering how people think about this or that lyrics ... it means accepting to show off their fragile side, but at the same time, it makes the whole adventure exciting The reason. "He said.

Indeed, when he revealed some clues about the upcoming album, the excitement was obvious, hoping that he could express "a sense of freedom". This feeling is not completely new to some hot idols, especially some like "Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Stevie Niks, Janis Joplin Joplin) and Prince ". In contrast to this crowd is Nick Drake, whom he likes to listen to recently. The outstanding singer's music is full and well-crafted, giving people a joy. "When I look at them, I don't know what it is, but it's there. It's a strange thing. They transcend the limits. When it comes to songwriting, McCartney has always had a huge impact on me. I was lucky Some of them are strong, and in my eyes, they have always been awesome. "

He arrived in a special car (with a driver, a small freezer and dark windows), and instead walked to the corner bar for a beer, and the number of people accompanying him decreased.

Looking at the back of this millennial superstar, we think again of the teenager wearing an exaggerated cardigan, dreaming of standing out in the TV singer competition. Today, behind him is a gentle fragrance of wildflowers and Sunday lunch.

[newstfionline]

Saturday, February 6, 2021

Media grapples with how to cover Trump after White House (AP) Two weeks into Donald Trump’s post-presidency, it feels like he hasn’t really gone away. He’s stayed in the news, defying the tradition of former presidents abruptly falling off the radar upon their successor’s inauguration and despite the shutdown of his favored means of communication on Twitter. A debate in media circles over how much attention he should receive when he is out of power has been put on hold, probably for several more weeks. “It’s virtually impossible to stop talking about Trump,” said Kelly McBride, National Public Radio public editor. “There’s still too many questions about what he did as president.” Stories about Trump on websites monitored by the analytics and advertising company Taboola in January got nearly four times as much traffic as stories about Biden. Trump stories had at least double the amount of traffic almost every day of the month. That continued even after the inauguration, but at a lesser degree.

Trump rejects Dems’ request to testify at impeachment trial (AP) House Democrats on Thursday asked Donald Trump to testify under oath for his Senate impeachment trial, challenging him to respond to their charge that he incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol. Hours after the Democrats’ request was revealed, Trump adviser Jason Miller dismissed the trial as “an unconstitutional proceeding” and said the former president would not testify. Separately, Trump’s lawyers denounced the request as a “public relations stunt.” The impeachment trial starts Feb. 9. Trump, the first president to be impeached twice, is charged with inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters broke into the Capitol to interrupt the electoral vote count. Five people died. Before the riot, Trump had told his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat. Many Senate Republicans have argued that the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office, even though he was impeached while he was still president. In a test vote in the Senate last week, 45 Republicans voted for an effort to dismiss the trial on those grounds.

Biden faces a relieved but cautious Europe (NYT) There’s no doubt that most European leaders are relieved by the vision and commitments of the new U.S. administration. But that doesn’t mean they will follow Biden’s lead in lockstep on the world stage. The ultranationalism of former president Donald Trump and the bruising experience of Brexit further convinced officials in Berlin, Paris and Brussels of the need to pursue a more independent European approach and to build greater capacity for self-reliance after more than half a century of sheltering beneath the American security umbrella. In remarks aired Thursday during a dialogue with the Atlantic Council, French President Emmanuel Macron cheered Biden’s arrival, but emphasized his vision of “European sovereignty,” where the continent takes more ownership of its security and more proactively reckons with crises in its neighborhood, from North Africa to Russia’s borderlands. The experience of the Trump years has shifted Europe’s strategic thinking. The dramatic Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol reflected not just the volatility of U.S. politics, but the extent to which domestic polarization could subsume future foreign policy. “It showed how fragile democracy can be, not just in the United States but here as well,” Anna Stahl, a Berlin-based analyst, told New York magazine. “And one lesson from that could be, in addition to the fact that the U.S. is divided, that we need to focus more on European solidarity.” Macron said Europeans should be wary of finding themselves in situations where they are dependent on U.S. decision-making, “because any U.S. decision which is democratic could be led by a domestic approach, could be led by a domestic agenda, and obviously the reasonable weight of the U.S. interests … could not be exactly the same as the European one.”

U.S. trade deficit rises to 12-year high $679 billion (AP) The U.S. trade deficit rose 17.7% last year to $679 billion, highest since 2008, as the coronavirus disrupted global commerce and confounded then-President Donald Trump’s attempts to rebalance America’s trade with the rest of the world. The gap between the value of the goods and services the United States sells abroad and what it buys climbed from $577 billion in 2019, the Commerce Department said Friday. Exports skidded 15.7% to $2.1 trillion, and imports fell 9.5% to $2.8 trillion.

Billed for bad advice (NYT) McKinsey & Company reached a $573 million settlement with 47 states and Washington D.C. over that time they allegedly helped the maker of OxyContin “turbocharge” sales of the highly addictive opioid, paving a swath of personal and economic destruction across the United States and leading to a deadly epidemic that has claimed 450,000 lives over two decades and caused serious lasting damage to untold more. Records show McKinsey helped Purdue Pharmaceuticals sell higher-dose pills even after Purdue pleaded guilty to misleading doctors about the risks of the pill, and offered assistance in getting the pesky FDA off their back. McKinsey will not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, but agreed to restrictions on its future work with addictive narcotics. The states will use the penalties for the opioid treatment, prevention and recovery programs created in response to McKinsey’s successful advice.

Haiti’s Impasse (Foreign Policy) Stores were shuttered and protests unfolded in Haiti’s capital this week as the country’s opposition staged a general strike calling for President Jovenel Moïse to step down. They argue that his term ends Sunday and a transitional government should step in; Moise says his term lasts until 2022. On Tuesday, Catholic bishops called for dialogue and offered to mediate the crisis, writing in a statement from a bishop’s conference that “the country is on the verge of explosion.” Moïse was elected in late 2016 after a yearlong standoff over a previous election. Less than 10 percent of registered voters supported him at the time, and his administration has faced large, on-and-off street demonstrations since mid-2018. These denounced fuel prices, alleged corruption, political repression, and economic strife. A year ago, Moïse dismissed most of Haiti’s congress and began ruling by decree. For now, Moïse says he will stay put, in which case the protesters say they will stay in the streets. While the United States, the Organization of American States, and the European Union have called for elections to restore the legislature, in the coming months, Moïse’s plans focus on modifying the Constitution.

Denmark to develop digital passport proving vaccinations (AP) Denmark’s government said Wednesday it is joining forces with businesses to develop a digital passport that would show whether people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, allowing them to travel and help ease restrictions on public life. Finance Minister Morten Boedskov told a news conference that “in three, four months, a digital corona passport will be ready for use in, for example, business travel.” “It will be the extra passport that you will be able to have on your mobile phone that documents that you have been vaccinated,” Boedskov said. “We can be among the first in the world to have it and can show it to the rest of the world.” The coronavirus has seen a near-total halt in international travel as countries try to contain the spread of the virus. Major European airlines, for example, are flying a tenth of their normal traffic. [Sweden is developing something similar.]

Moscow’s jails overwhelmed with detained Navalny protesters (AP) The video, shot by a man detained in a Moscow protest, shows a group of people jammed into a police minibus. One of them says on the recording that they had already been held there for nine hours, with some forced to stand because of overcrowding and no access to food, water or bathrooms. Detainees are recounting their miserable experiences as Moscow jails were overwhelmed following mass arrests from protests in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny this week. They described long waits to be processed through the legal system and crowded conditions with few coronavirus precautions. More than 11,000 protesters were reported detained across Russia in the pro-Navalny rallies on two straight weekends last month and in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Tuesday, after he was ordered by court to serve nearly three years in prison. Some of the protesters were beaten on the streets by riot police or subjected to other abuse. While it accounted for less than half of the detentions, the capital’s jails quickly filled up as scores of people were sentenced by the courts. Many received misdemeanor charges that resulted in jail terms of five to 15 days. Marina Litvinovich, member of the Public Monitoring Commission that observes the treatment of prisoners and detainees, said Moscow simply could not handle such an influx of protesters convicted of misdemeanor offenses and needing to be jailed for several days. “The first crisis occurred when police vans and buses (with detainees) were driving around Moscow anxiously and jails didn’t let them in. They didn’t know where to put people,” Litvinovich told the AP. “Some people were brought back to police precincts. Some were standing the whole day inside police vans near the jails. Some got lucky and they were given food and taken to toilets. Some didn’t have luck and they had to pee in a bottle.”

Virus upends new year for millions of Chinese (Washington Post) For the second year in a row, millions of Chinese are missing out on the most important holiday of the year—a time for family reunions, lavish meals, fireworks and catching up with friends—as authorities try to control new coronavirus outbreaks. Residents are not only disappointed. Many are also angry at the extreme measures local authorities, determined to avoid outbreaks in their districts, have adopted to limit travel. For months, officials have discouraged travel during the festival by handing out cash subsidies, free phone data usage, and points for coveted residence permits in cities. China’s State Council instructed officials to “guide the public” to celebrate “on the spot” rather than crisscross the country. The measures appear to have worked. This year’s Spring Festival travel rush is expected to be the quietest in more than a decade. Transport ministry officials expect 1.2 billion trips, compared with 3 billion in 2019 and a drop of more than 20 percent from last year, when many families were sheltering at home at the height of the outbreak in China. Those who tried to go home have found themselves stymied by extra, often contradictory rules. In theory, residents traveling to rural areas only need to present a negative coronavirus test result taken within the past seven days. Unofficially, local governments have added restrictions, such as mandating centralized quarantine and sealing residents in their homes.

China’s latest weapon against Taiwan: the sand dredger (Reuters) Taiwanese coast guard commander Lin Chie-ming is on the frontline of a new type of warfare that China is waging against Taiwan. China’s weapon? Sand. On a chilly morning in late January, Lin, clad in an orange uniform, stood on the rolling deck of his boat as it patrolled in choppy waters off the Taiwan-run Matsu Islands. A few kilometers away, the Chinese coast was faintly visible from Lin’s boat. He was on the lookout for Chinese sand-dredging ships encroaching on waters controlled by Taiwan. Half an hour into the patrol, Lin’s nine-man crew spotted two 3,000-ton dredgers, dwarfing their 100-ton vessel. Upon spotting Lin’s boat, armed with two water cannons and a machine gun, the dredgers quickly pulled up anchor and headed back toward the Chinese coast.The sand-dredging is one weapon China is using against Taiwan in a campaign of so-called gray-zone warfare, which entails using irregular tactics to exhaust a foe without actually resorting to open combat. Since June last year, Chinese dredgers have been swarming around the Matsu Islands, dropping anchor and scooping up vast amounts of sand from the ocean bed for construction projects in China. The ploy is taxing for Taiwan’s civilian-run Coast Guard Administration, which is now conducting round-the-clock patrols in an effort to repel the Chinese vessels. The dredging is a “gray-zone strategy with Chinese characteristics,” said Su Tzu-yun, an associate research fellow at Taiwan’s top military think tank, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research. “You dredge for sand on the one hand, but if you can also put pressure on Taiwan, then that’s great, too.” Sand is just part of the gray-zone campaign. China, which claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, has been using other irregular tactics to wear down the island of 23 million. The most dramatic: In recent months, the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military, has been dispatching warplanes in menacing forays toward the island. Taiwan has been scrambling military aircraft on an almost daily basis to head off the threat, placing an onerous burden on its air force.

Efforts to end Myanmar’s ethnic conflicts shaken by coup (AP) The coup that removed an elected government and reimposed military control in Myanmar has raised even more uncertainty about a fragile peace process aimed at ending decades of conflict between the military, armed ethnic groups and militias. Over 20 ethnic groups have been fighting the military over control of predominantly ethnic-minority borderland areas, including Shan, Kachin, Karen and Rakhine states. The groups have sought greater autonomy for their regions, which are often rich with natural resources. The military and militias aligned with it have fought for continued centralized power and control. Myanmar has one of the longest civil conflicts in the world, with fighting continuing at different times across the country since 1949. Many of the armed groups want greater autonomy, which they feel was promised by Suu Kyi’s father, Gen. Aung San, via the Panglong Agreement of 1947, which called for a federal system of government, ethnic minority rights and religious freedom. Aung San was assassinated later in 1947. Decades of junta rule that followed resulted in a slew of human rights violations, including the use of civilians as slave labor, rapes, extrajudicial killings and burning of entire villages.

In Gaza, Pandemic Forces Tough Choices (NPR) How does the pandemic affect one of the world’s most crowded and battle-scarred territories? From merchants to doctors, the 2.2 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip are forced to make tough choices to survive. On a single street, a vegetable seller, supermarket worker and secondhand clothes merchant recently showed up at their day jobs—though the clothes merchant said he was convinced all three of them had COVID-19. “I feel bad about myself. I would quarantine myself for a whole month if I could, but I have to keep the shop open. I have no other source of income,” Hossam, 26, told NPR by video chat. He declined to give his full name because he could be arrested for keeping his shop open while sick. Hossam lost his sense of taste and smell, and became fatigued, but refused to take a COVID-19 test. If it were positive, his whole family would be ordered to quarantine and he and his brother, the family’s sole breadwinners, wouldn’t be able to work. Gaza’s Hamas rulers offer no financial aid to those quarantined at home. “There are many others like me who don’t want to report their illness so they can keep working,” Hossam said. This is common in Gaza, where most live below the poverty line and the economy is in a chokehold due to a nearly 14-year Israeli and Egyptian blockade severely restricting trade and travel to the Islamist-ruled territory.

Food inflation (Financial Times) Global food prices have reached their highest in almost seven years, further raising the specter of food inflation and hunger at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit economies around the world. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index for January rose by a tenth from a year ago to its highest level since July 2014, led by a sharp increase in grain prices. Substantial buying of corn by China and lower-than-expected production in the US helped send the gauge—which tracks a basket of food commodities against their 2014-16 prices—to its eighth consecutive monthly increase, the longest rising streak in a decade.

[ljones41]

"MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" (2001) Review

"MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" (2001) Review There have been more adaptations of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel, "And Then There Were None" than any of her other novels. That is quite an achievement. The only other novel that comes close to producing this number of adaptations is her 1934 novel, 'Murder on the Orient Express".

Christie's 1934 novel managed to produce four adaptations, as far as I know - two movie releases and two television movies. The least famous of this quartet of adaptations was the television movie that aired on CBS in 2001. This version is famous or infamous for one thing - it is the only one that is not a period drama and set in the present day. "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" made a few other changes to Christie's narrative. The television movie's beginning established a complicated romance between Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot and a sexy younger woman named Vera Rossakoff. The number of suspects was reduced from twelve to nine. And the Orient Express was stalled by a mudslide due to heavy rain and not a snowbank caused from an avalanche. Due to the film's setting, some of the characters' backgrounds and professions had been changed to reflect the late 20th century and early 21st century setting. "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" begins in Istanbul, Turkey; where private detective Hercule Poirot had just solved the murder of a dancer at a local nightclub. After a brief quarrel with his lady love, Vera Rossakoff, Poirot sets out to fly back to London. But an encounter with his old friend Wolfgang Bouc, an executive with the the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, leads Poirot to return to London via the famed Orient Express train. During the eastbound train journey, an American millionaire named Samuel Ratchett tries to hire Poirot to protect him from a potential assassin who has sent him threatening letters. However, Poirot refuses the job due to his dislike of Ratchett. During the second night of the journey, heavy rain causes a landslide, blocking the train to continue its journey. And Rachett is found stabbed to death inside his compartment, the following morning. Bouc recruits Poirot to solve Rachett's murder. I have a confession to make. I had disliked "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" when I first saw it on television all those years ago. My main reason for disliking the television movie was the fact that it had a modern setting, instead of one set in the 1930s. It was not a period movie. And for a story like Christie's 1934 novel, I resented it. However, I do believe the film's modern setting provided one major flaw for its narrative. Since the late 20th century, passengers for the Simplon Orient Express have to book passage on the train long before the date of its departure - six months to a year, more or less. The idea of Poirot managing to get a compartment aboard the Orient Express at such short notice in 2001 strikes me as pretty implausible. And when one adds to the fact that the train travels to and from Istanbul at least once a year, makes this narrative in a modern setting even more implausible. Another problem I had with "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" was it made the same mistake as the 2010 adaptation from "AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT". They used the wrong rail cars. The 2010 television movie used the blue and cream Pullman cars for the journey from Istanbul to Calais. The 2001 movie used the brown and cream Pullman cars, usually reserved for the Orient Express from London to Folkstone, as the main train, as shown below:

Do I have any other problems with "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS"? Well . . . yes, I have one further problem. But I will address it later. Aside from these problems, did I enjoyed this recent re-watch of the television movie? Yes, I did. More than I thought I would. Which is ironic, considering that I disliked the movie so much when I first saw all those years ago. I finally realized that I had automatically resented the film for not being a period drama. And over the years, I had erroneously believed that the movie was set aboard a modern train and not on a restored one from the past. It took my recent viewing of the television movie for me to realize I had been wrong. However, I did noticed that the sleeping compartments did look surprisingly bigger than usual. Despite some modern updating in the film's visual look, the characters' background and dialogue; "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" did a first-rate job of adapting Christie's novel. What many might find surprising is that screenwriter Stephen Harrigan and director Carl Schenkel did not inflict any drastic changes to Christie's plot, unlike some recent Christie adaptations from the "AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT" series and one or two miniseries produced by Sarah Phelps. Harrigan and Schenkel did not drastically change the movie's narrative, aside from reducing the number of suspects and having the train delayed by a mud slide, instead of a snow drift. Yes, the backgrounds and professions of the characters were changed due to the modern setting. And characters also change nationalities - like Bob Arbuthnot, an American tech CEO (British Army colonel in Christie's novel); Senora Alvarado, a widow of a South American dictator (a Russian princess in the novel); Phililp and Helena von Strauss, a German or Austrian couple traveling the world (the husband was a Hungarian diplomat in the novel); and even Wolfgang Bouc, the Franco-German Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits executive (who was solely French in the novel). This version of "Murder on the Orient Express" was not the first or last time when some of the characters' backgrounds and nationalities were changed. All four adaptations (including the highly regarded 1974 version) were guilty of this. But despite these changes, Harrigan and Schenkel stuck to Christie's narrative. And thanks to Harrigan's direction, this version proved to be a lot better than I had originally surmised. I certainly had no problems with most of the film's performances. "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" provided solid performances from Amira Casar, Kai Wiesinger, Dylan Smith, Nicolas Chagrin, Adam James, Tasha de Vasconcelos, and Fritz Wepper, who managed to create an effective screen team with star Alfred Molina as the investigative pair of Poirot and Monsieur (or Herr) Bouc. I thought David Hunt did an excellent job of conveying the aggressive, overprotective and slightly arrogant traits of American CEO, Bob Arbuthnot. I enjoyed Leslie Caron's colorful, yet autocratic portrayal of Senora Alvarado, the widow of a South American dictator. Meredith Baxter was equally colorful as an American character actress, traveling around Europe as a tourist. Her portrayal of Mrs. Hubbard reminded me of a younger version of a character she had portrayed in the 1980 miniseries, "BEULAH LAND" - but without the Southern accent. And I was really impressed by Natasha Wightman's performance as British tutor Mary Debenham. What really impressed me about Wightman's performance is that her portrayal of Miss Debenham was the closest to the literary character than any of the other versions. There was one performance that fell flat with me and it came from Peter Strauss, who portrayed the victim, Samuel Rachett. If I must be brutally honest, I found it rather hammy. Strauss, whom has always struck me as a first-rate actor in other productions, seemed to be screaming in nearly every scene. However, there is one scene in which I found his performance impressive. The scene involved Rachett's attempt to hire Poirot as his bodyguard and with a performance that permeated with subtlety and menace, Strauss reminded audiences of the excellent actor that he had always been through most of his career. I have never come across any real criticism of Alfred Molina's portrayal of Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Well . . . I did come across one article that discussed Molina's performance from Vulture magazine. But the critic seemed more focused on the movie's modern setting and Poirot's relationship with Vera Rossakoff, than Molina's performance. Personally, I thought the British actor did a superb job in portraying the detective. He managed to capture all of Poirot's intelligence, mild eccentricities, slight pomposity and talent for emotional manipulation. One thing I can say about Molina's portrayal is that his performance as Poirot was probably the most subtle I have seen on a movie or television screen. Whether someone would regard this as good or bad, is in the eye of the beholder. But I feel that this subtle performance suited Molina's style. Some have commented that Molina's Poirot was more "youthful" than other portrayals. Hmmmm . . . how odd. Molina was in his late 40s when he shot the television movie (perhaps 47 or 48 years old). Yet, Albert Finney was a decade younger when he portrayed Poirot in the 1974 film and his Poirot came off as a middle-aged man. David Suchet was five or six years younger when he began his twenty-four years stint portraying the detective for ITV's "AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT". And during those early years, his Poirot also seemed slightly middle-aged. Because of this, I find this observation of Molina's Poirot as "youthful" rather questionable. It is a pity that the "official" opinion of "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" is so negative. I used to share this opinion until I did a re-watch of the television film with a more open mind. Like others, I had been dismissive of the 2001 version, due to its modern setting. I now realize I had been rather narrow-minded and prejudiced. Despite its flaws - and it had a few - "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" proved to be a lot better than I had originally surmised, thanks to director Carl Schenkel, Stephen Harrigan's teleplay and an excellent cast led by the superb Alfred Molina. I hope that one day, other Christie fans would dismiss their prejudices against the movie's setting and appreciate it for the entertaining production it truly is.

[portbayrp]

Trigger Warnings:

cult mention. child neglect mention. depression mention. 

                               ABOUT THE CHARACTER.

★ ━  ( eva green,   cis-female,   she/her )  ━ ★   just to be clear, ya didn’t get this information from me.   The person you’re lookin’ for is     YAENA MADELEINE BOYLE.  also known as     YEN.    Last I heard she was born on   MAY 1ST, 1985    in    NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA,   but she’s been livin’ in   LAKE OSWEGO,    for about    FOUR MONTHS.   Word around the districts is, this doll,    YAENA    can be    SELF CENTERED,   UNAPPROACHABLE,   &    HAUGHTY,   but i gotta tell, ya, alls I seen is good things, like the fact that she’s   LOYAL,   PASSIONATE,    &    CREATIVE.   I guess that depends on how well ya know ‘em, though.   the last thing ya need to know is that she works as a   FREELANCE COSMETICS BRAND OWNER.  I don’t know much about what that’s all about but I do know that’s all I can tell ya the rest you gotta find out on ya, own.    ━     ( ooc:   grace,   gmt+3,   26,   she/her )

                           BIOGRAPHICALLY SPEAKING…

growing up he was exposed to;

Yaena (also called Yen or Maddie from her middle name) is half French (mom) and ½ Irish, ½ American (dad side). She was born in New Orleans to parents who belonged to an obscure little hippie cult that traveled and moved every other week. She moved from state to state for years and years on end, was home-schooled, lived on a boat somewhere in the Deep South for a while– until her nearly broke parents send her away to live with her grandma at the age of 15.  Yaena never had a stable, structured childhood; her parents were neglectful and never truly cared about any of their children; the environment she grew up in was challenging, at best, as she lived with strangers and moved often and was also kept away from school and other such activities.

She really spent her entire childhood bottling up every ounce of anger / negative emotion out of fear that expressing herself would set her parents off / desperately wanting to be a “nice kid” to make them care, so every time she speaks up or lashes out or throws a tantrum or voices her opinion, now, she’s doing it for her younger self.

That’s the main reason she’s fine with people not liking her. She’s very self aware and she understands that she can be a lot to handle, and that she isn’t for everyone, but stifling herself / her feelings for someone else’s comfort isn’t a compromise she’s willing to make. She won’t do that to herself ever again.

all about the family & their relationships;

She stills talks to her grandmother and treasures her above all others; she hasn’t spoken to either of her parents in nearly two decades now; she also has an older brother, whom she last saw a few years ago before he moved to Europe– they still email and call each other but are not very close; she has some half siblings most of whom she hasn’t even met

the road to portland starts with;

Yaena moved to Portland after a traumatic break up to get away from everything that had been reminding her of everything she had lost; she was desperate and quite depressed, much unlike her usual character; her friend had recently moved back to Portland (it’s her hometown) and when Yen brought up that she’s thinking of selling her New York apartment and moving away, she suggested Portland. Portland has really provided her with the perfect opportunity for a fresh start.

her occupational perspective;

She is extremely passionate about her cosmetics brand company and works super hard to ensure her products are of the best quality possible (and ethically created in every sense of the word: vegan and locally produced). Other than that, she’s saved quite a significant amount of money during her fashion-journalism career, but apart from whatever she makes off old blog posts and republished articles, all her current income comes from YMB Cosmetics.

where her passions reside;

She is passionate about art, fashion, homemade cosmetics and lotions and natural remedies (which is how she got the idea to start her company). She is truly obsessed with the occult, tarot reading and astrology and loves to collect obscure tarot decks, candles and other such herbs, as well as talismans and various art pieces and decorative pieces. Other than that, she is very politically aware, and even though she is not one to heatedly discuss politics, she always privately, quietly supports organizations whose causes she believes in.

additional notes;

Yaena (also called Yen or Maddie from her middle name) is half French (mom) and ½ Irish, ½ American (dad side). She was born in New Orleans to parents who belonged to an obscure little hippie cult that traveled and moved every other week. She moved from state to state for years and years on end, was home-schooled, lived on a boat for a while– until her nearly broke parents send her away to live with her grandma at the age of 15.

There, she was able to settle down and thrive; unlike her parents who never really cared about either of their children (she has an older brother), her grandmother was loving and protective, a refined, elegant and well traveled woman who would teach Yaena more about life in a year than her parents had in well over a decade; her grandma had been a widow for nearly a decade by that time and had cultivated a deep interest in the occult, in tarot reading, herb growing as well as making her own cosmetics and perfumes; an interest she would soon pass on to Yen who went on to graduate high school with remarkably high grades and move on to attend college to become a chemist, hoping to one day work in a lab, only to drop out a year later and switch to journalism after earning a scholarship.

at the age of 22, armed with an impressive collegiate CV, she moved to New York after being offered a writing job by her college supervisor who ran an online, high end fashion magazine. Throwing herself into her work, Yen worked hard for years and years on end, sacrificing personal luxuries and relationships, building a name for herself in the fashion industry and travelling around the world.

she impulsively got married and then divorced within less than half a decade. Her husband (Maddox) had been nearly 15 years older than her, and after realizing that he would never want children with her and not being able to reach a compromise, they called it quits.

As a child, she moved around and lived with uncles and friends of her parents or members of their weird, nomadic cult in a short amount of time and that’s where she gets the crippling fear of being unlovable and the overwhelming desire to start a stable family of her own– and this is part of the reason she and Maddox were completely unable to reach a compromise and stay together.

Yaena loves passionately and selfishly; she is impulsive and stubborn; selfish and cold hearted and decisive; she is extremely smart and creative and hardworking but she can also be extremely distant, closed off and snobbish.

she is adventurous and loves to travel and learn new things; she is not afraid to take risks and she is not afraid to do everything on her own.

she has an immense love for plants

she has just moved to [ PORTLAND ] and is currently living in a renovated over half a century old cottage near the woods.

she is currently taking online classes to complete her chemistry degree and has launched her very own cosmetics brand (just over a year ago) after quitting her luxurious writing job and selling both her NYC and her LA apartments.

she’s been in an on again off again relationship for nearly two years now, and although she’s crazy in love with him, she’s actually moved all the way from New York to [ PORTLAND ] to get away from him and the whole situation.

She has a really nice expensive car and drives like a goddamn maniac who doesn’t care if she lives or dies, but she has never gotten so much as a speeding ticket.