#and the seminar setting is less awkward cause youre meant to so its not like going up to someone who almost definitely wants nothing to do

[playingonedchess]

genuinly dont think ive ever met anyone else more obsessed with the sound of their own voice than myself

[theycallmeshaggyrogers]

Essay One: ‘Anastasia’ Probably Could Have Been Great

This post will contain spoilers. There, I'm guiltless.

Have you ever heard a premise or logline to a movie that sounded so promising that there was no conceivable way in your mind that it could fail? And were you absolutely bewildered when you watched said movie your hopes were slowly choked out of you? Well, that's what watching Don Bluth's 1997 animated musical Anastasia feels like. Now, despite being a 90s fetus and having grown up watching French-dubbed Disney Renaissance films from relatively the same time period this film was released, I had not watched Anastasia until last December. It was the Tuesday night before my final exams/presentations/seminars went into full swing, and rather than dutifully studying like a good boy trying to retain his scholarship and federal grants so he can attend an out-of-state college for half the price, I decided to watch a couple animated movies that had been on my bucket list for well over a year at that point (though I only got around to watching two). 

The first was Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat, and while Fritz's plot is kind of a disconnected mess, it was quite enjoyable thematically and aesthetically. I had also went in with very little context. Sure, I saw the opening scene of those dumb college girls fawning over the crow dude just cause he was African-American, I knew it was famous for being a raunchy, animated movie intended for adults, and on more than one occasion I have had to draw in Robert Crumb's style for class, but that's all I really knew about Fritz.

Anastasia on the other hand has perplexed me. I knew of it, which is to say, all I knew was the premise, that of the sole surviving heir of the Romanov Dynasty living in secret after the Bolsheviks deposed her father during the Russian Revolution. I don't recall watching it as a child. However, as I got older and began transitioning into high school, I started taking an interest in the Edwardian period, Tsarist Russia, World War I and tons and tons and tons amateur alternate history stories I found online. I specifically became curious about what led to the fall of the 300 year-old Romanov dynasty.

 I even wrote a similar story going off Anastasia's premise because I was so infatuated with the idea that the Romanovs were able to survive such a violent deposition effort, just as the House of Bourbon did following the French Revolution (the first one at least). Like your average American Civil War buff, I like this idea of putting a “what-if?” spin on history that is fairly recent in the grand scheme of things, but has long since left cultural memory on account of those living at the time slowly dying off, and it seems that modern American media agrees with me on that sentiment, even if the more maintstream content is centered almost exclusively about Nazis and World War II.

But yeah, Anastasia has a premise that I'm sold on, is set in a country that I love for a bajillion and one reasons during a rather recent period in European history that I am genuinely fascinated by.

And guess what? It sucks.

Anastasia, for all that it does stylistically to emulate the story, aesthetic and pacing of a Disney film, is just mediocre, its premise wasted. It very much feels like a knock-off or a mockbuster with an extraordinarily high budget to match that of your average 1990s animated feature. Those who have watched Anastasia before reading this post probably assumed that the film's budget was remarkably lower than that of other big-budget animated movies being produced at the time, and I am here to dispel that assumption with the help of a series of simple Google searches.

For context, 1995's Pocahontas had a budget of $55 million, 1991's Beauty and the Beast had approximately half the budget of Pocahontas, and 1994's The Lion King, arguably the most well-remembered of the Renaissance Disney films according to my generation in particular, had a budget of $45 million. Anastasia had a budget of $50 million. And I am using Disney films as a comparison because Anastasia is very much trying to look and feel like a Disney film, and it's falling embarrassingly flat. Its character designs look like Disney knock-offs, its score feels like imitation-Alan Menkin, and even its use of 3D renders feels like Don Bluth was trying to 1-up the technological marvels done well by Beauty and the Beast. Hell, you can even tell based off Anastasia's character designs who fits into which archetype in your big-budget kids movie. 

The titular Anya is the unquestionably feminine but nonetheless strong-willed female lead, as well as the “Princess™”, and her design by the third act of the movie reminds me strongly of 1953's Cinderella. Vlad is the obligatory comic relief because... well, cause he's older and fat. You think he's gonna be the protagonist? As much as that would have been cool, considering his background as a former member of the exterminated nobility and the emotional implications the Russian Revolution may have left on him and all, this movie had to be marketed towards kids, ergo, young leads in their twenties. But I digress. That annoying little dog-looking creature (whose name I forget even after re-watching the movie to write this) is the mute comic-relief animal sidekick who can be pushed heavily in the marketing, and Bartok is the other animal sidekick who is cute enough to be memorable and/or marketable for the movie's sake, but not cute enough to make you forget that he's technically an antagonist. Bartok's master Rasputin is self-explanatory, though that said, the over-exaggeration of facial features to make the antagonist inhuman is kind of par for the course regarding animated movies from this time and the eras preceding it. I don't feel that I need to explain myself in too much depth here, especially since the Don Bluth take on Grigori Rasputin has the emotional depth of the Sea of Azov.

However, Dmitri appears to be the exception to this rule of taking  well-established Disney archetypes and making knock-off characters from them. Obviously he's the dude half of this movie's forced breeding pair on account of his youthful charm (that translates into hideously rotoscoped facial features), but I don't think he really embodies any direct resemblance to a male Disney lead or even the generic handsome princes characters of Snow White, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. Maybe he's meant to be modeled off all those lookalike, generic handsome prince characters with a hint of Aladdin on account of his street smarts and non-royal status. Or maybe, just maybe, Dmitri's design makes him less an archetypal Disney rip-off and instead, a carefully-crafted prettyboy meant to catch the eye of the average preteen girl in 1997, one who probably listened to a lot of boy bands with pasty, broody, Dmitri-looking skinny white dudes on the cover with his exact haircut. This is honestly just speculation with no further research on my part, but I genuinely think Don Bluth was going for a 90s-boy band look for his strapping male lead, or was otherwise convinced by some focus group during pre-production that this was a sound decision. And I have to repeat myself here: it's shame that in trying to capture the essence of a moody bad boy, Bluth went the extra mile and made him as awkwardly-animated as possible, which is saying something considering how awkwardly-animated every other proportionally-realistic character is to begin with. 

The animation quality of Anastasia is probably the most glaring indicator that you're not actually watching a Disney movie, not because it's awful, but because its quality varies from character model to character model. Dmitri's character design is probably the closest in resemblance to a real person, but that benefit, if you can even call it that, is immediately squandered when you put a more stylized character like Vlad (or really any one-note side character from the film) in the same shot. Members of the royal family suffer from this issue too. Their designs seem to be based off real models rather than possess the stylization Don Bluth is famous for. Nicholas II and Anya's sisters in this regard are alright since they are minor characters with only a few speaking lines if any at all, but in the case of Empress Marie, a major supporting character, she ends up animating in the same janky manner as Dmitri. I don't think Bluth could decide whether or not to go with the exaggerated caricatures he is so accustomed to, or committing to realistic character models that would likely be hard to animate consistently. The end result that was reached seems to be this loose middle-ground where everything just feels awkward and inconsistent.

I also wanna touch on the liberal use of 3D animation a bit too, because it is probably my biggest issue with this movie's overall aesthetic. This isn't to say I have an issue with 3D, and if you can make it work in your movie, then more power to you. This issue with 3D in Anastasia however is simply the fact that it does not mesh well with the 2D setting at all. This movie has all these beautiful hand-painted backgrounds for nearly every shot but once we've moved on from the abandoned Catherine Palace (why wasn't that touched at all by the Bolsheviks again? It's been a solid decade post-timeskip right?) and onto the the train, the fact that the entire locomotive itself is a CG render will not be able to leave your head, because it is just that obvious. The one time the CG isn't blatantly tacked-on is the opening shot, depicting two music box figurines of the tsar and his wife, and that's where I think this then-budding animation technology worked the best. It did not work for a model as big as an noticeably unmanned ocean liner being battered by painstakingly-animated 2D waves.

Now, this isn't to say that CG animation was not viable for animated motion pictures of the 1990s; it very well was. The Hunchback of Notre Dame uses it quite excellently throughout the film to render large crowds of Parisians as well as various exterior shots of the eponymous cathedral itself, and are perhaps the most memorable shots of that movie. Beauty and the Beast famously used the new technology to great effect as well during the famous ballroom scene. But in these two particular cases, the 3D was used largely as a backdrop to save the animators time when working on a particular shot. They were not necessarily the point of attention in the shots they appeared in; the protagonists were.

When Quasimodo is expressing his desire to attend the Festival of Fools at the beginning of Hunchback and is climbing all about the cathedral singing all angelically and whatnot, he is always the center of attention in each shot. Meanwhile, in Anastasia, many of the ship scenes during the storm are wide shots which go on for long enough that the viewer is able to identify that these backgrounds, are in fact, 3D. In all of these instances, 3D rendering was used as a crutch that made production easier. In the better-executed examples however, the directors demonstrated a degree of restraint.

Don't even get me started with that CG pegasus statue either.

Now this entire post so far has been me harping on the technical blunders of Anastasia, but if a movie looked a bit goofy at times due to inexperienced animators, the grandiose expectations of a director, time constraints or experimental technology that just wasn't there yet, it can probably make up for that with a cohesive and engaging story, of which Anastasia does not have any of these things. My first glaring issue going into this movie was how the movie introduces and frames Rasputin. There is no explanation given as to how or why he's a necromancer. In fact, necromancy seems inappropriate for Rasputin's character considering from a historic basis, he was believed to be a spiritual healer blessed by God, who I'm pretty sure frowns upon pagan magic regardless of one's denomination. I will admit that it is an interesting take on Rasputin's character given the fact that he is remembered pretty negatively by history, but with that said, if he was a necromancer, how would he have been able to convince the extremely religious, extremely superstitious Tsarevna Alexandra that he was in fact this God-blessed mystic who could cure her son of hemophilia? What could have made this work was if Rasputin was in fact used his infamously adept persuasion to convince the tsar that his dark powers were actually good powers, allowing the suspicions held by his detractors in court to appear far less warranted than they were in reality.

Regardless, the nature of Rasputin's powers go unexplained in the movie and is hand-waived by Empress Marie as “oh, we trusted him but he turned out to be hella fake lol”. It is also never explained in Anastasia how Rasputin lost favor with the Russian court, which is arguably the inciting incident of the film and happens within the first five or so minutes of its runtime. That is an issue in of itself. These thoughts immediately came to mind as I was watching Anastasia, breaking the immersion even more with each raised question gone unanswered. Would I have known Dmitri was going to be an integral character from the split-second shot where he was introduced? That's the biggest issue with the plot of Anastasia itself: it does not give you any breathing room. 

The first five minutes throw story beat after story beat at you; Russian aristocrats are celebrating the 300th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty, Dowager Empress Marie confides in her granddaughter that she will be leaving for Paris and hands her the plot-device music box, Rasputin storms in, crashes the party, curses Tsar Nicholas II, the Bolsheviks immediately attack the Catherine Palace, and Anya escapes, only to contract amnesia while fleeing. Ideally, these beats are meant for the first half of a first act, spanning about ten to fifteen minutes at most, not the first five!

The opening scenes of this movie feel insanely rushed, and it just keeps happening and happening. Rasputin destroyed the train? Fuck it, Anya, Vlad, Dmitri and Annoying Dog will just walk to the nearest port city instead, and it'll be a merry old trip where Anya's groomed for her inevitable reunion with her grandmother! Not a single beat in this story felt organic, which in turn, as someone who has watched enough family-friendly animated features as an adult to pick up on particular narrative beats, made it predictable. By the time the climactic confrontation between Anya and Rasputin had commenced, I was so disinterested with what was happening because I knew where this story was going: Rasputin was gonna die in some way, be it through hubris, being outwitted by Anya, or a deliberate fake-out (guess what, it was behind door #3!). My only respite throughout this entire movie was the fact that Anya and Dmitri's endless exchange of sarky retorts never got tired for me for some odd reason. I understand that giving both of these characters sardonic, witty personalities was  meant to show chemistry between the two, but it all feels like filler dialogue when their inevitable union at the end of the movie barely feels earned, especially when I'm 20 minutes into the movie and I still can't figure out if this animated musical is supposed to be an intense historical drama or a romantic comedy. I can barely remember anything about Anya's personality beyond her snark. She's humble, pretty without trying, and a well-meaning person, but so was Cinderella. She's witty and sharp-tongued to a degree, but so was Beauty's Belle and Hercules' Megara.

Finally, no criticism of Anastasia is complete without examining the ethics behind basing a story off a violent major event in a nation's already violent history. Anyone who has read up on the causes of the Russian Revolution would be made aware of the empire's horrible mismanagement at the hands of Nicholas II. They would know that at the time of World War I, Russia was bankrupting itself, it was conscripting young men my age into a losing war without even being provided the proper equipment, and the Romanovs were effectively sitting on their hands the whole time. Listening to a grandiose opening musical number sung by the citizens of St. Petersburg bemoaning their lives under Soviet leadership all the while exchanging hopeful whispers of Anastasia's survival just puts a bad taste in my mouth. 

Moreover, on the opposite side of the social hierarchy, I was hoping to see surviving members of the old regime expressing how they felt after losing their power, and how it might have changed them, namely Vlad as well as Anya's grandmother, Empress Marie. I was hoping, from premise alone, that this movie would explore some more mature themes about power and how one comes to terms with losing it. Family-friendly movies don't have to be sanitized to be family-friendly, no matter what the hypersensitive, suburban white mom may tell you. Hunchback approached themes of infanticide, emotional manipulation, racism and religious zealotry through its villain, Claude Frollo, while Beauty and the Beast confronted hypermasculinity and human cruelty through Gaston. With that in mind, why did this film, predicated on a violent revolution with horrifying consequences in the form of a civil war, purges and genocide, have end up as thematically sterile as it did?

Admittedly, what I was hoping from Anastasia was probably too much for the production team at Twentieth Century Fox to get away with, because after all, when you make media that is meant to have a broad appeal, it means you have to make thematic sacrifices mandated by corporate. Sometimes, you can't write the story you want to write. I was expecting the very same story I wrote for myself all those years ago, one of a lost royal who must come to terms with the fact that the old empire has fallen and things will never be the same again. I was hoping that the true villain would be a former revolutionary or a member of Lenin's cabinet whose hatred of the monarchy spurred him to ruthlessly pursue any Romanov survivors, and not the one-note Rasputin whose motivation we don't even completely understand. 

Apparently, Bluth never considered to use Bolsheviks as the antagonist faction of the film, though at one point it was bounced around that a fictional vigilante police officer with a grudge towards the old regime would be the central antagonist rather than Rasputin. And you know what? I'd dig that! But while a communist police officer taking the law into his own hands doesn't seem nearly as menacing as a corrupt priest turned-evil wizard, I definitely think it would have been a step in the right direction. If the writers went for the “vigilante police” angle, I think that aspect alone would be enough to warrant less egregious comparison to Disney at the time, at least from a characterization standpoint. We could probably have had this officer villain be multifaceted a villain with a complex sense of justice, or even a redeemable one at that! Not even Hunchback's Frollo had that narrative luxury! 

I honestly think this movie could have been great, but it could only have been great had it chose to stand on its own two feet instead. It tried to be a Disney movie at Disney's then-artistic height since the 1950s. it tried to make use of 3D, it tried to make use of diegetic, catchy musical numbers, it tried to play into appealing character archetypes right down to their designs, and it tried to copy the broad-appeal narrative trappings of your average well-received Disney film. I think what Anastasia proves the most about itself is that while the “Disney style” can easily be replicated on account of its ubiquity and impact on western culture, that doesn't mean imitating the formula will always be a successful endeavor.

[squaredancing-weston]

para || Westrose: A Bitter-suite Reunion, 1/14/2017

Tagging: @wmhs-marleyrose and @squaredancing-weston

Time: Saturday night, 14 January 2017

Setting: Embassy Suites, Columbus, OH

Summary: Marley is meeting her friend for an Engagement Party.  Brody is supervising the FFA Conference for his students.  They both end up at a hotel in Columbus, and a lot of tension builds until combusting.

Part One

Emily, one of Marley’s friends was getting married, and surprisingly asked Marley to be in the Wedding party. She was pretty excited about this outcome, and while it has been a while since the two women saw each other last, they spent hours on the phone talking about the wedding. Emily lived in Columbus now, and invited the girls down to Columbus for dress fittings, and engagement dinner, so Marley made a weekend out of it. She figured why not. The dinner was being held at the Embassy Suits, and Marley got herself a room, and was pretty stoked to get away for the weekend.

Dress fitting went well, as well as it could at least. Emily decided on a dress, it was fitted, so at least they got that handled. They spent the day hanging out with her friends, drinking wine, and getting  their nails done. It was kind of lavish, but Marley wasn’t one to complain. Dinner went off without a hitch, she talked to some of Daniel the groom’s friends, and all around enjoyed herself. Once it was over, Marley headed to her hotel room, and changed into a pair of yoga pants, and a tank top, and decided to walk around a bit, since it was too early to sleep. It was strange, but she enjoyed people watching while at these things. Staring over the balcony, she grinned as she watched an older couple argue, before turning around to head back to her room, when she spotted him. No… that can’t be… “Brody?” She called out before she could stop herself.

It was Saturday night, and the first day of the FFA conference had gone over pretty well.  His kids had definitely seemed to enjoy themselves, and Brody hadn’t been bored either.  The club’s budget was deep enough that he’d opted to take up some of the rooms that the Embassy had set aside specifically for the schools in attendance, which meant less driving around and allowed the kids to hang out with other students here for the same reason.  Of course, he’d had to break up more than one pair making out in a corner, but really, that was to be expected, being they were teenagers and in a nice hotel away from Lima and their parents.  

The night itself was winding down as well: with curfew, Brody had done a quick sweep to do a head count on both rooms, and while he didn’t demand that they go to sleep, he did remind them all that he expected them to stay in their rooms for the rest of the night.  Brody may be a “fun” teacher, but his kids knew better than to test him-- breaking curfew not only landed you in hot water back at the school, but it banned you from any traveling for the rest of the year.   It wasn’t a punishment he had to regularly enforce, but as the guy in charge, he still had to stay out and about the halls for an hour or two for good measure.

Luckily, that part of the night was almost over, and Brody would be able to retreat to his own hotel room and change out of the button down and dockers that were starting to feel constrictive this late.  He admittedly hadn’t been sleeping that well at home, but maybe a hotel bed would offer some respite, he thought wistfully, ambling over to the railing and leaning against it.  He was half-watching the night owls still wandering around beneath them, half-considering his schedule tomorrow, when he heard his name being called.  Turning toward the voice, his eyes widened in shock as he caught sight of none other than Marley, dressed down in thin pajamas, stood in the corridor like an apparition.  How had Taylor put it?  A nightmare dressed like a daydream.

Yet, they had been sort of getting along better: after having a bit of a melt-down the week prior, she had approached him much more normally.  No I miss you’s, no more trying to talk about feelings-- just casual chit chat like they’d had when they’d first met.  And Brody had missed that.  It wasn’t like he suddenly decided he hated Marley and wanted nothing to do with her-- sure, he was mad that she’d sort of been using him, but at this point he was half-convinced she’d been doing it subconsciously, because damn if she and Bas weren’t being stubborn.  But he didn’t want to think about Sebastian.  His face tugged up into a grin, ignoring the clench of his chest as he gave a wave, “Hey Marley-- what are you doing here?” he asked, gesturing around them.

Marley was pretty excited for her friend. Everything seemed to be coming along well, she tried on her dress, she had the bridesmaid dress, she briefly knew the other girls, and knew it seems like a good party. Emily seemed to have a lot planned for her wedding, which made Marley nervous, but it would be fun. She couldn't deny that.

She was kind of impressed by the engagement dinner. The couple seemed happy, and they toasted to the happy couple, and she had a great time. Seeing Emily so happy madeMarley said. Not because she was so happy, because at this point her love life was a total disaster, and she wasn't sure what she wanted at this point.

People watching was always her thing. Growing up, she and her mom use to do it, hence why she was so content of watching people. Still, Brody had to be the last person she thought she would see here. Her stomach dropped, because while things were okay, she missed him, alot, and really wish things haven't changed. She tried hard to act like everything was okay, even though it was hard. She missed him, and things were so confusing. Running her hand through her hair, she shifted, and smiled. “I could ask you to same. I didn't realize the conference was here.” She commented, biting down on her lip. “My friend Emily is getting married. We had dress fittings, and the engagement dinner, so I decided to make a weekend out of it.”

He raised an eyebrow at her echoing his question back at him.  “Really?  The signs downstairs weren’t hint enough?”  The ballrooms had been completely occupied all day, and the cafeteria and its tables were crowded with students whether there was food available or not.  But he supposed she might not have been paying a lot of attention when she checked in, if she was roomed up here.  “Yeah, I remember you saying-- I just didn’t realize you meant, you know, here.”  He nodded lamely, uncertain of what to say.  He hadn’t thought to ask Marley where her friend was from; he’d just assumed she was hanging around Lima or close by.  “So, how’d it go?” he asked politely, a thought causing his lip to twitch slightly.  “Worth leaving Sebastian with Batsky, at least?”  He had kept up a little with the two, trying to balance his masochistic curiosity about their relationship with his ulcer-inducing misery over the loss of both of them.  It really was no wonder he wasn’t sleeping.

“I mean I didn’t know it was here per say.” Marley admitted, looking down to cover the blush to her cheeks. She knew it was busy, but she didn’t get to the hotel until it was time for the dinner. “Yeah, I didn’t realize yours was here either, until.. Now.” She said slowly, hoping he wouldn’t think she was following him, or something. Marley bit down on her lip, and smiled. “It went really well, I had a great time. We’re doing brunch tomorrow.” She was babbling, though her ears twitched when he mentioned Bas. Of course he would. Sighing, she glanced up at him. “Of course it was worth it.” She wondered what he meant by that, but things have been good so far, she didn’t want to push it. “How is the conference going?”

“Yeah, I mean, hotels don’t usually advertise for each other’s events-- I mean, I don’t think.”  He shrugged, trying to keep the tone easy to mask the awkwardness of the moment.  “It might have been funny to see how many schools would get lost if they did, though.  But I’m sure there’s other stuff going on in Columbus besides this thing, yeah.”  He hoped she wouldn’t read anything into them being in the same hotel-- or Bas, for that matter.  He had reserved this place back over the summer, so it wasn’t fair to hold him accountable for the situation.  “That’s great.  I mean, I don’t really remember engagement parties or anything, but I’m sure it was a blast.”  He chuckled lightly.  “Well, I hope you guys are going out to eat: pretty sure the kids are planning on wiping everything out by nine tomorrow.”  Her clipped answer pretty much shut down any wiggle room for conversation.  “Right, of course,” he replied in turn.  “I’m sure she’s fine.”  He glanced down at his shoes, his toe digging into the carpet.  He should have known better than to bring the guy up.  Their relationship was their business now-- certainly none of his, except for Sebastian’s constant harping or Marley’s midnight rescue calls.  But not the relationship itself.  The other teacher’s question brought his eyes back to hers, and Brody nodded and smiled, “It’s good-- some pretty decent seminars this year, and the kids aren’t making too much trouble in between, so if this keeps up through tomorrow, I’ll call it a success.” His lips twitched a little.  “Why, you thinking of crashing?  I mean, brunch can be boring, I’ve heard.”

“Yeah, I guess not.” Marley agreed, her lip twitching slightly. “Oh yeah, Columbus is packed.. It’s strange. I feel like I have gotten use to the small town living in Lima.. though the city is always nice.” She grinned over at him, because Lima was pretty much a small town, and it seems she has gotten use to it. “Yeah we had a good time. Em is going all out, I’m a bit worried with how much I’ll spend on this thing.” She admitted, but she was happy for her friend. Brody mentioned the kids eating everything, and in all honesty, she wouldn’t put it past them. “Oh I am sure they will. We are going somewhere I believe.” Though she had no idea where at this point. “Yeah I know..” It was awkward now that he brought up Bas, and she sighed, because she didn’t want it to be awkward. At least Brody began talking about the seminars. She never did anything like this in school, but she was sure the kids have fun. Biting her lip, she peered over at him, and nodded. “Maybe I am. You’re right, brunch can be pretty boring..” It was quiet for a few moments, and Marley looked over at him. This is nice.. Sitting here, and talking..”

“It is kind of crazy,” he agreed.  “I mean, it’s obviously a whole different brand than I dealt with back at home, but still, definitely kind of chaotic.  Definitely different from Lima.”  Marley wasn’t wrong: not that Brody had lost track of how to navigate a big city, but he was used to the quiet of the one-cow town nowadays.  “Yeah, wait till you’ve been here for a decade.”  He quirked a brow curiously.  “All out?  Like, a theme or something?  Sorry, as far as I remember, Engagement parties are just food-- I was in high school for the last one.  But I mean, you’re-- I don’t know-- having fun, I guess?  Hopefully not getting roped into an ugly color or something?”  Brody didn’t know much about weddings, truthfully-- he didn’t have a lot of friends that a) partook in them and 2) invited him to attend.  But Marley didn’t seem like she hated the gig, so he didn’t think it would be too awful for her?  Maybe even a good chance to get away from all of them, if they could just manage not to run into each other again…  He chuckled, “Well, if they’re going to have ravenous appetites, I’d just as rather it be aimed at the food,” Brody joked.  No club was safe, it seemed, against teenage hormones, and so he was just as much a referee for tonsil hockey matches as a chaperone to shuttle his kids to a speech on irrigation systems.  “But it’s good you guys are finding somewhere, you know, nice, to talk about stuff.”  Wow, this wasn’t getting better-- maybe he shouldn’t be mentioning Sebastian at all.  “I just mean, you know, it would have been funny to see how she and Bing would have made out,” he tried, hoping drawing a teacher that they hadn’t both slept with at the same time would help dig them out of this hole.  He smiled, “Yeah, tomorrow there’s a special guest who’s going to talk about Sustainable Agriculture Practices, so I’m sure you’d be at the edge of your seat the whole time.  On the other hand, brunch has mimosas.”  His expression remained the same, but Brody felt a red flag go up with Marley’s admission.  It was an innocent thing to say, he knew, but he was already feeling anything but innocent about hanging around Marley in a hotel in the middle of the night with her in thin pjs.  “Yeah, I mean, standing,” he gestured to the two of them against the rail.  “But yeah.  It’s nice that we can, you know, talk.”  He didn’t quite meet her eyes, afraid to read anything in her blue gaze, or, worse, have her read something in his.