#bittersweet anniversary would be more accurate

[picspammer]

Have you ever lost someone?

[makeste]

an index of Horikoshi Kouhei interviews

these are organized by date, oldest to newest, and I’m including a brief bullet-point summary of each to make it easier to look up specific interviews by content.

also, please note that although I haven’t spoiler tagged this post, the interviews from roughly 2019 onwards include some spoilers, so please watch out for those if you’re anime-only or otherwise not caught up with the manga. that said, the other interviews I think are all good.

putting this below a cut to keep things tidy.

interview with Horikoshi Kouhei and Kishimoto Masashi, May 2015

(note: this is not the actual interview word-for-word, but includes the highlights)

Horikoshi talks about being a fan of Naruto when he was growing up

Horikoshi says he was inspired by the way Kishimoto shows emotion through drawing hands, and that he loves drawing hands thanks to Naruto

Horikoshi mentions that Gaara is his favorite character and that he really liked the Chuunin Exam arc

Kishimoto praises BnHA and says he knew it would be a hit when he read the second chapter

they talk a bit about the worldbuilding and the process of creating a story where 80% of the population has superpowers

they discuss Naruto and Sasuke’s rivalry and Horikoshi mentions that he found it “frustrating” and that he really liked the Valley of the End and thought it would be the end of the series. he says it was very emotional

they talk a little about the stress of writing manga and about the toll it takes on mental health

pre-anime interview, April 2016

talks about his reaction when he found out BnHA was getting an anime

talks about how the series originally came about

says that BnHA is the story of Izuku and All Might and that their story is the “vertical axis” which runs through the main story

says there is also a “horizontal axis”, which is the side characters and quirks and all of the other elements that he considers to be the “fun part” of the story which mellows out the darker aspects of the vertical axis

mentions that he really likes drawing and writing Bakugou

mentions Deku vs Kacchan 1 as one of the early highlights in the series for him

talks about Ochako being someone who has a more cheerful relationship with Deku, which balances out some of the heavier aspects of Deku and Katsuki’s relationship (again, horizontal vs vertical axis)

mentions that if he could pick any quirk he’d pick a “no need for sleep” quirk

talks about reading Dragon Ball as a child

mentions that he really likes American comic book heroes, especially Spider-Man

mentions Goku and Spider-Man as the two that come to mind when he thinks about heroes and what it means to be a hero (specifically, that Goku is the “win” aspect and that he brings reassurance to everyone, while Spider-Man is the “save” aspect who helps other people)

talks about hearing Deku and Bakugou’s voices in the anime for the first time, as well as Ochako, Iida, and All Might’s voices

another pre-anime interview with konomanga.jp, April 2016

(note: this interview is in Japanese, but Google translate does a servicable job with it)

talks more about Spider-Man, including his favorite costumes and comic artists

gives some American comic book recs

mentions that he likes Godzilla and Gamera and always goes to see those movies

talks about his Star Wars influences

talks about his favorite manga as a child -- Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto

talks about becoming a manga artist, and about some of his influences

says that he likes drawing monsters, creatures, and villains, and says that he really liked drawing the panel where Tomura made his first appearance at USJ

talks a little about composition and frame movement in his work, and about the challenges of drawing a weekly manga

mentions that he knows what the story ending will be, but hasn’t yet figured out how to connect the dots to that point

interview with Horikoshi Kouhei and Umakoshi Yoshihiko in BnHA: Ultra Archive, May 2016

(note: Umakoshi is the anime character designer for BnHA. also, this interview was part of the Ultra Archive character book, so you’ll have to scroll a bit through its other contents in order to get to the interview.)

they talk about the process of creating the BnHA anime and sketching out all of the character designs. Horikoshi says the anime character model sheets look just like how he draws them

they talk about Horikoshi’s obsession with drawing hands lol. Horikoshi mentions that the way Mike Mignola (the creator of Hellboy) draws hands was a big influence

they talk a lot about art and drawing in general

Horikoshi talks about Ochako’s character design a bit

they talk about the differences between drawing manga and doing animation

Umakoshi talks about his first impressions of BnHA

Horikoshi mentions that he still has a lot of ideas for characters and quirks that he hasn’t been able to implement yet

they talk about the different character designs and which ones they find easy, difficult, and fun to draw

they talk for a fair amount of time about Iida’s character design

Umakoshi talks a bit about other anime he’s worked on

they talk about the character of All Might, and Horikoshi ominously says that All Might’s future will be “a fairly sad affair”

interview with Natalie Comics, June 2018

talks about the 4th anniversary of BnHA, and the release of BnHA: Two Heroes

talks about the Basement internship arc and mentions that it was challenging for him to write

talks about the question “what is a hero?” and how he defines heroes

mentions Mina, Sero, and Shouji as characters he would like to/plans to feature in the future, and mentions that he already has a story planned featuring Shouji

talks about the popularity of the series

talks a little about Koike-san, his first editor

talks about Two Heroes and its development and story

talks about club activities at U.A., and which clubs Deku and Katsuki would be in

talks about his mom and about some of his childhood experiences which inspired scenes in the manga

talks about why he became a mangaka

talks about what percentage of the series is completed, mentions the original planned length was about 30 volumes but that it has obviously surpassed that

mentions that he has an idea of how the last arc will be planned out

interview with Horikoshi and Eiichiro Oda, August 2018

Horikoshi talks about being a fan of One Piece and mentions he even sent artwork to Oda which was included in one of Oda’s galleries

they talk more about OP and about favorite arcs and how it’s influenced Horikoshi’s work

Oda compliments Horikoshi’s art and they talk about cover artwork and coloring (Horikoshi mentions he uses Photoshop)

Horikoshi talks a bit about BnHA Two Heroes

Horikoshi again mentions that he originally thought BnHA would be about 30 volumes (Oda says he should shoot for 50 but Horikoshi laughs and says he’s not sure he can do ten years)

they talk about how fucking long OP is and how manga stories tend to expand once the story starts taking off

Interview with Anime News Network at SDCC, August 2018

talks about his love of American comics, especially Spider-Man, and says that American comics are a lot more mainstream in Japan nowadays thanks to all the superhero movies

talks about how he got started as a manga creator

talks about being inspired by Dragon Ball, and that All Might in particular was inspired by Goku

talks a bit about the process of creating characters

talks about Bakugou’s popularity and that it took him by surprise at first

mentions that he doesn’t have the stamina for BnHA to be a long series like One Piece

interview with Cinema Today Japan, December 2019

(update: here is the link to @hanashimas​‘ translation which is more accurate)

talks about Deku and Bakugou’s characters and their attributes

mentions that at the start of the story Bakugou thinks Deku is above him, so he tries to act intimidating and superior to overtake him

(ETA: apparently this is a mistranslation; he actually says that he intended for Bakugou to be a character who was “above” Deku so to speak, who Deku would eventually surpass. he then goes on to talk about his realization that Bakugou could actually have a much more interesting character arc, which of course we have since seen play out.)

mentions that he planned to have Bakugou and Deku improve on two separate vectors as they entered U.A.

mentions Deku vs Kacchan 1 as a turning point where he had some realizations about Bakugou’s character that humanized him for him

mentions that he always knew Bakugou wouldn’t turn evil and “would never lose to the darkness”

says the scene where Katsuki takes Kirishima’s hand at Kamino was bittersweet because it showed Bakugou’s growth, but also showed the ongoing gulf between him and Deku because Deku knew that Katsuki wouldn’t take his hand

mentions that Bakugou still needs to apologize to Deku

says that Kirishima, Kaminari, and Mina are among the easiest characters for him to draw because they take the initiative and get the other characters excited and help pull the story forward

mentions that he always hears Nobu’s voice in his head now when writing Bakugou

talks about the characters being high school kids still, and that when he expanded on their families he was conscious of that -- “I wanted to show that these protagonists are still children after all”

interview in Volume R (booklet that was released along with Heroes Rising), December 2019

talks again about his manga influences and what inspired him to become a mangaka

talks about the experience of getting his first manga published

talks about what inspired him to write BnHA

has an interesting quote where he talks about the vaguely desperate feeling of “trying one last time”, which was weighing on his mind when he created BnHA, and which also played into Deku’s motivations in the first chapter

mentions All Might as being a character that he’s attached to

talks about his reactions to the anime, the overseas popularity, and the first movie

talks about his heavy involvement in the production of Heroes Rising

talks about designing and creating the bad guys for Heroes Rising

talks about the creation and character design of Hawks and mentions that the original character design was going to have a bird head lol

mentions that Hawks will have a relatively big influence on the story in the future

talks about how the ending of Heroes Rising was his original planned ending for the series

talks about Bakugou’s character development which leads up to that moment

talks about the conclusion of the series, and that all of the characters will come together in the end

interview with all of the past editors of the BnHA manga, March 2021

(note: this is another interview that’s not translated word for word, but summarized. also this interview was with just the editors, not Horikoshi himself.)

they talk about the early reception to the manga, and Horikoshi’s reactions

they talk about the individual moments early on when they realized that the series would be “amazing”

Yoritomi mentions that Horikoshi came up with the designs for most of the Billboard Top 10 pro heroes at the last minute lol

including Hawks (all Horikoshi had decided on prior was that he was going to be “cool” and would be a spy)

everyone praises Horikoshi’s character designs in general

they talk about the start of the anime and that whole process

they mention that Horikoshi cried watching both of the movies

they talk about the overseas popularity of the series

each editor lists their favorite episode of the anime

they talk about Horikoshi sacrificing his original manga ending to be used in Heroes Rising

they talk about that one ending theme song in season 4 that showed the pro heroes’ childhoods, and that Horikoshi had the anime team change Hawks’s to match the backstory he had planned

they talk about the upcoming season 5 and send final messages to the fans

interview in the MHA Drawing Smash Exhibition Pamphlet, April 2021

Horikoshi talks about the art in the exhibition and about the process of creating the artwork

he mentions that the piece with Deku rescuing a falling Ochako took the longest to draw

he says the drawing of All Might was the most fun to draw for him

that’s pretty much it, this one is very short lol

interview in Jump GIGA Spring 2021, April 2021

talks about which characters will play an important role in the final act. specifically mentions Hawks, Ochako, Shouji, Shinsou, Monoma, and Sero

“many characters’ actions will converge into a single one, so maybe the best way to say it would be ‘keep an eye on all of them!’“

says that for Hawks’s flashbacks and the Todoroki family’s past, he was influenced by Sion Sono’s works

mentions that the drawing of Deku and Ochako from the MHA Drawing Smash exhibit isn’t directly related to the main story, but that while drawing it he kept in mind how their relationship would develop if he explored it deeper

says he had the final act (or at least the chapter 306 reveal part of it) vaguely planned for a long time, but started to think about the specifics in volume 21 during the Endeavor vs High-End fight

says he’s already decided on the ending, and that “the path to it has been longer than I initially expected, but the main elements that I’ve decided before starting the series are still the same”

Q&A trivia from Vol. W World Heroes’ Mission, August 2021

(and alternate translation by aitaikimochi)

talks about All Might not having many friends among the pro heroes (but says he’s become “slightly attached” to Aizawa since he started teaching at U.A.)

describes what Bakugou, Tsuyu, and Mineta’s rooms look like

talks about Jirou and Momo’s relationship and the kind of things they like to talk about when they hang out together

says that Shouji’s face will eventually be revealed, and that he is “not sure” about Hagakure’s :’)

talks about the types of YouTube videos Shouto watches (pretty insightful answer which is equal parts sweet and sad)

says that Midnight’s classes were the most popular among the students

says U.A.’s robots once rebelled against their creators (lol wtf)

says his three favorite movies are Akira, The Ring, and Spider-Man: Far From Home. he says Akira in particular is his bible

and that’s it for now, but I will update this post with future interviews as they are posted, and if anyone has links to an interview I’ve missed please let me know.

[lovelivingmydreams]

A story by heroes and vilains

Virgil Anker: Hard won victory

When you make progress through hard work, the fruits are oh so sweet. Though, sometimes, bittersweet is more accurate.

Virgil was actually relieved when Janus texted him that he wanted to skip the first day. There was an assembly and a ceremony planned and Janus did not feel like going.

This meant that Virgil could postpone being confronted with him just a little longer. It hurt a little that Janus hadn’t figured out there was something wrong yet. Virgil hadn’t really talked to him since the whole elective incident. He’d sat with him during lunch and their shared classes. But he hadn’t come by his house or hung out after school like they used to. He’d made it a point to be more animated in his conversations with Roman. He’d stopped berating him for picking fights and simply dragged him away while apologizing on his behalf. During the summer he had made sure to always be busy or away. Picani had helped him sign up for a summer camp to work on his assertiveness. Virgil hadn’t been sure at first, but he knew that Picani wouldn’t suggest it if he didn’t truly believe it might help. And it did. By the time Virgil got home he was ready to go through with his plan. He asked his dad to come along to the session right after camp and told Picani he could tell him all about Janus. He’d spent the hour curled up on the couch as he observed his father sit with a stoic expression, impeccable posture and fists clenched dangerously on his knees. Picani expertly avoided putting labels on the situation, knowing Virgil still felt very uncomfortable acknowledging those. He also managed to summarize Virgil’s 20 minute long rant about how he hoped that it would only have to be a wakeup call for Janus. That he’d get his act together and that they could go back to being friends once he did. His dad had seemed calm and collected on the surface, but Virgil could tell he was horrified to learn that Janus had become such a problem without him noticing and had been more than happy to drive Virgil straight to his principle’s house to explain the situation and ensure that Virgil would have to spend as little time as possible with Janus for the next two years if necessary. Virgil convinced him to at least call ahead. Principal Stokes was very understanding. Apparently the other teachers had talked to them on several occasions about Janus but they had been unsure what to do about it. It was their intention to figure out a policy regarding troubling signals of toxic behavior between friends in the upcoming year. Virgil fidgeted during the whole conversation. His teachers had been planning some kind of big intervention? Had it been that obvious to everyone else? “Virgil, don’t you dare blame yourself for this situation,” Stokes insisted. “It is not easy admitting that someone you care about is no longer good for you. You wanting to see the best in Janus is not weakness. It’s admirable.” Virgil glanced at his dad who was looking at his principle and nodding firmly in agreement. Then he turned to Virgil with a proud smile. “Your parents would be so proud of you Virgil,” he assured him. And he wanted to ask for a name, a memory, but he wasn’t ready to open that can of worms again. Especially not in front of his principal. “For which part?” he asked, hoping this was okay. It was, or at least, his father gave him a straight answer for once. “Both. Your father believed that fighting for yourself was just as important as fighting for others. And your mother knew that caring about others didn’t mean you should stop caring about yourself.” Virgil couldn’t help but smile at that. His parents sounded like they would’ve been awesome. He wished he had a memory of them. Any memory at all. But he didn’t want his dad to think he wasn’t enough. Between his anxiety and the situation with Janus, he already felt self-conscious. Luckily there was Patton. He and dad were nearing their one year anniversary and they had moved in together. Dad had ‘subtly’ brought up all the practical reasons why it made no sense for him and Patton to have to commute to work separately and such as summer approached. Somehow he’d been surprised Virgil put it together. Now they had a house they would all move into over the next week. Patton had already moved his stuff into their current over the summer. The idea of change still made him nervous, but if that change included more Patton in their lives then he could live with it he supposed. It had been great so far. Patton was kind and patient and caring and completely smitten with his dad. On top of that he seemed not to see Virgil as competition for his dad’s attention but an extra person to love. Patton had a lot of love to give the world and not enough people to spend it on. He also seemed to know when to leave Virgil be and when to push him to come out of his room. He knew when Virgil needed complements and when he just needed to know that it was okay if he wasn’t alright. He was also protective. When dad explained the Janus thing over a ‘family dinner’ with Patton, they had those every Sunday nowadays, he’d almost stormed off to the Bullard house. “No one makes my son sad!” he’d told Dad. That was the first time Patton had referred to Virgil as his son and… Virgil had been okay with that. So he now had two dads. Pretty much. When he came back from camp, his escapades as the invisible vigilante changed. His dad was out late a lot and promised to let him know when he left the university. Virgil told himself that he was ‘getting a room’ with Patton. Patton had taken Virgil out for Papton-son bonding time a few times over the past year. Patton taught him to bake, and learned to cook alongside him and took him on trips to the park to fly a kite or kick a ball around. Virgil liked it. But apparently both his dads had signed up for a project of some sorts. One that required a professor Biochemistry and a professor Moral Philosophy… Yeah. No. At least he no longer had to worry that his dad was getting involved in anything dangerous or illegal. Not with Patton there. Anyway, when his dads were out on a project, Virgil was babysitting a startup hero. He’d noticed him by coincidence one night as he was sitting on a roof overseeing one of his usual streets. He’d arrived to find the gang members he’d been shadowing had already had a victim in their grasp. Virgil had acted impulsively. He’d hidden his presence with all of his might and tossed a rock at one of their heads. It had momentarily distracted them, especially considering another rock hit the leader from a different angle. This had allowed the victim to escape. Virgil followed the path of the other rock and spotted the dark clad figure on the roof, ducking away to hide. And if he could see him surely those buffoons could see him too. Which was awful because the leader sent some of his goons in Virgil’s direction and some other’s in the direction of the roof. Wanting to help out a fellow well-meaning gifted, Virgil pushed himself and willed the goons not to see either of them. It was hard to cloak two people in different locations from two different groups of people who were looking for them. But if that idiot newbie- though he wasn’t much more experienced- hadn’t helped then Virgil might’ve had to make a bigger distraction and risk being noticed for real. So he owed him one. He hid behind a dumpster and waited with baited breath, hoping this would work. It took him a moment to notice, but he could kind of feel this guy under his cloak. He felt, like fireworks. It was cheesy but that was the best way to describe it. He’d never hidden anyone other than himself and Janus. Jan felt cooler, more smooth. He didn’t know if he had a distinct presence, but this was an interesting discovery. The goons got really close at one point, probably would have spotted him if his cloak hadn’t been working overtime and he hadn’t been wearing dark clothing all over. He could feel the fireworks intensify for a bit before they calmed down and the  energy felt more like a bonfire. Still intense and warm but les, prickly. He took this to mean that newbie had been nearly spotted as well but was successfully kept safe by the cloak. When the gang members regrouped Virgil heard them whisper about changing their hangout. Damn it. He needed to follow them now. Would idiot follow them as well? Virgil listened closely as he snuck trough the alley after his prey trying to look casual, almost as if he was part of the group walking ahead. He heard someone muttering in a frustrated tone. Virgil relaxed a little at that. This guy was a real hero, possibly in training, but still. So he had people who would have the sense to not send him after criminal organizations. Virgil had no such restraints. He followed the gang for a few blocks, his phone ready to record, trying to forget about the well-meaning moron. Which would be a lot easier if he hadn’t ran into him as he did whatever it was he tried to do about a car accident the very next time he went out. Virgil acted on reflex and threw up a physical protective barrier he normally used to catch blows from bullies. He’d never used it to protect someone else before now. He didn’t know he could. From idiot’s body language he could tell that he was being scolded for being so reckless. Again. Good. Maybe he’d learn his lesson this time around. Virgil didn’t seek idiot out, their path’s simply crossed and once they did Virgil couldn’t not keep an eye on him. And now, idiot was. Virgil wasn’t sure how he knew that this hero was his idiot. Maybe it wasn’t. He’d have to actually meet him and cloak him to see if he had that same energy. It was the last day before summer and he’d just read Janus’ message about skipping the first day and where to meet up to hang out. Too bad for him, but Virgil wouldn’t show. Or at least he hoped he wouldn’t give in to this feeling in his chest that made him think that he should at least let him know because if he didn’t then maybe… “Virgil, breathe. You are doing the right thing,” his dad told him calmly as he looked away from his tablet. There was a local television station playing on the tv as background noise where Virgil had heard about the appearance of a new masked hero. Each time he wondered if it was idiot or someone else entirely. He seemed government sanctioned from what he could tell. The amateur footage didn’t show much, but Virgil couldn’t help but think that this hero was about his age.

Normally his dad would roll his eyes at heroes that ‘basked in the spotlight’ as he called it, and get on with his day. But now every time an update came he seemed to pause and listen. Weird. But maybe Virgil wasn’t the only one who thought this new hero was a minor like him. Maybe his dad was worried on behalf of this guy’s parents. Parental empathy. “Maybe you should just block his number? Or get a new one?” his dad suggested pulling him from his thoughts. Right his own little crisis. “He’ll definitely come over then. At this point I don’t think he’s expecting a reply. I barely texted back last year even before I made my decision. Don’t know when that started, I just…” It was disturbing every time he realized that the upcoming… ‘break up’ for want of a better term had already happened. It just needed to be said. Suddenly the ‘breaking news’ jingle cut through the living room and both he and his dad paid attention. “I’m standing here at ‘Universe banking’ where just moments ago our town’s newest superhero stopped an armed robbery. With me Ashley Greene, an employee at this office who saw it all. Ashley, you said you were shot at?” The young woman was still in tears as she told the story of how she, bravely but foolishly, had angered the would be robber with a gun, when she was caught sounding the alarm. And then out of nowhere, the ‘dashing, kind, modest hero,’ -according to her -was there to save her. Dude caught a bullet for some stranger? Definitely idiot. Idiot reminded Virgil of Roman in a few ways to be honest. Except, there was no way that his dramatic idiot of a crush could do stealth missions for even a night, let alone a whole summer. Not even with Virgil’s constant supervision, and idiot didn’t even have that much. And no way would Roman hide that stupidly handsome face he was so proud off. And if he did, he’d wear something better than whatever that thing was the vague camera footage showed idiot wearing. From what he gathered the woman had probably drawn the comparison to a prince from the outfit. What whit the sash and all.

But on the whole it seemed like a plain white jump suit. The costume designer in Virgil was disgusted by the uninspired choice. Also, Roman would tell everyone at school and their moms if he decided to become a hero. Virgil smiled a little to himself on his way to school, imagining Roman recounting his daring rescue if he were idiot… Or ‘dream prince’ as the media dubbed him. His dads had been more nervous about him going back to school where he couldn’t avoid Janus any longer than he was. He was nervous, but he had made a decision, and he was going to see it through. As he’d expected Janus was nowhere to be found the entire morning.

He did see Roman entertain his usual group of friends during the assembly. He wondered if that offer to sit with them was still standing. He almost joined them, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to assume and if Roman was going to reject him, he preferred for it to be in private. So he sat alone and let his thoughts drift to possibilities. Mostly worst case scenario’s, but even in the ones where he ended up spending the next two years completely alone as Roman finally chose himself a princess to be his prom queen, completely forgetting Virgil even existed and where Janus hated him for standing him up this morning, he felt at peace with that. Because even that was better than spending another day in the constrictive dynamic he’d been putting up with for the past two years. Lunch came around and by the time he entered the cafeteria Roman and his group were sat at their table talking excitedly about something. Dream Prince no doubt. Once again he imagined Roman standing on the table declaring himself to be a real hero. He’d be wearing something dramatic, something stylish. Something maybe not entirely practical. Roman took care with how he dressed, but Virgil had seen him sacrifice function in favor of form plenty of times over the past few years. He was definitely not shy about pushing the boundaries of what was considered ‘masculine’ when it came to clothes or even make up. Virgil could respect that. He liked experimenting with his make up too, though he wasn’t comfortable enough to break out his lighter pallets for going out in public yet. Virgil walked to his usual table to eat his lunch and wait for when Janus would show up, demanding to know why he didn’t show up that morning even though he never indicated in any way he was planning to do so. He took out his sketchbook and made an outline of a standard male figure and started adding clothes to it. A cape was a must for Princey. If only to look good for the camera during interviews. Though he would look so cool taking it off in order to fight his opponents. Probably saying some cheesy one liner with a confident smirk. He decided he’d draw a ‘pretty’ version now and a practical one later. So he added heals, lined the whole thing with gold details, put in buttons, a belt to store a sword or any gadgets Princey might be using and a sash, even a crown. He was just about to start a new page for the practical outfit and considering designing a stealth version of it so he could come along on Virgil’s stake outs when suddenly… “Is that a Dream Prince superhero costume?” Virgil immediately slammed the book shut and looked up. He wasn’t supposed to see that! Roman’s wide eyed awe turned to a shocked pout. “Don’t hide it! It’s gorgeous!” he insisted. Virgil felt a whole swarm of butterflies set loose in his stomach. He really thought so? Was he just being nice? “That hero dude wishes he had something that amazing.” Hero…? Oh… Only now did Roman’s initial remark fully register. He thought this was inspired by the new hero. Of course he’d assume that… “Um… Thanks,” Virgil muttered. What else was he supposed to say? “Oh no this is actually meant for you because I can’t go an hour without thinking about you and with all that superhero talk I couldn’t stop myself from imagining you as a hero and designing you a full hero wardrobe”? Nope, that was not going to happen. “I’m serious,” Roman insisted, not impressed by Virgil’s attempt to dismiss his complement. “You’re super talented.” Why did he have to say that? Virgil felt his cheeks heat up and tried to hide it by focusing on the last bits of his meals. Why was he here? Why was he talking to him? He never came over. Was this because J wasn’t here right now? Roman couldn’t be here when Janus came. That would end badly. Not to mention the fact that Jan would never believe this was Virgil’s own idea if Roman was anywhere near him when he explained his decision to him. Wasn’t he busy dazzling his fangirls minutes earlier? “Is there a reason you abandoned your girlfriends to talk to me?” Virgil knew Picani would say that he was confusing assumptions with facts. Or something like that. He didn’t like that he snapped at Roman. He’d done nothing wrong. He couldn’t help it that the thought of him with some girl made Virgil’s stomach drop. Roman frowned visibly confused as he looked back to his table. Suddenly he gasped and turned back to him rubbing the back of his neck flustered as he started ranting. “They aren’t… I mean they are my friends who are girls. Not… I thought that was rather obvious. I’m the ultimate gay disaster,” he laughed awkwardly. “Sorry, I just… I’m rambling. I’m not used to saying it yet,” he admitted. Virgil just stared at him. “Oh.” Gay. All this time Roman was gay. Not even vaguely interested in any of the girls in school. He stood a chance? Judging by the uncharacteristic nervousness, Roman was uncertain how Virgil would take this news. Well, this was one of those times where this information was relevant. “Don’t worry, I get it,” he assured him, gesturing to his signature purple patched hoodie and magenta hair. Roman looked him up and down for a moment and then his eyes widened in understanding. “Oh, that’s clever. Maybe I should start doing that too.” And just like that he got his confidence and flair for the dramatic back. “You know, since it’s not as obvious as I thought. Don’t want any awkward conversations where I have to tell a lovely maiden she’s just not the right gender for me.” He struck a tragic pose and sent Virgil a wink that made his heart jump. This was not out of the ordinary for Princey, but now that Virgil knew he was gay, he couldn’t help but wonder… “So… You came all the way over here to come out or…?” Is he going to ask me out? God what do I say? Should I say yes? Or play it cool and pretend I need to think about it a bit first? Wait, no, he won’t ask me out. He would’ve done so already if he was interested right? But what if he assumed I was straight all this time as well? Just keep breathing V. Keep breathing and listen to what he says. Roman shook his head as if to get his thoughts back on track that way. “No, I just… I’ve been having trouble keeping up with schoolwork and I wondered if we could study together?” That… What? “Don’t you have friends for that?” Virgil asked dryly as he got up. His lunch was finished and he needed an excuse not to look at Roman right now. He was disappointed. But… Was Roman trying to ensure they’d spend time together this year? He still wanted Virgil to be his friend? He really didn’t know what ‘giving up’ meant did he? Roman chuckled. “I do and they are lovely. There are few challenges we can’t conquer. But homework seems to be one of those few. We distract each other,” he admitted. Virgil thought back to every time he’d seen Roman with his friends. To his one conversation with André, and he understood what he meant. “You won’t let me get away with slacking. You lack the patience.” Virgil put his now empty tray on the dishrack and looked back at him. Spend time with Roman at least once every week? Just the two of them…? “Sounds good,” he smiled. It sounded really good. “Great… Friday works for you?” Roman asked with that brilliant smile of his. Virgil just shrugged and nodded. “My plans got canceled so you’re in luck.” He hadn’t visited Janus for any of their normal weekend plans since… early spring, come to think of it. He hadn’t had the energy. And now he definitely wouldn’t go back.

And when it came to his family, other than for Sunday family dinners he could do whatever he wanted with his spare time so long as he let his dads know. And this was technically school time. Suddenly something in his peripheral caught his attention. Before he consciously registered the falling ceiling lamp he launched himself at Roman. “Princey get down!” he shouted. ‘Save him!’ was the only thought in his head. He’d never believed any of those stories about time slowing down in a moment of crisis. But he swore he saw every minimal change in Roman’s expression as his happy smile turned to confusion. He could feel every cell of his body that touched Roman’s as they crashed to the ground. He moved to cradle Roman’s head to shield it from hitting the ground too hard. Once the impact was absorbed he pushed himself up but not too far. He checked Roman over while he tried to not have too much of a gay panic. Which wasn’t easy. He was laying on top of Roman Castile. He was close enough to smell his collonge. That or he smelled really good all by himself which of course he would! The near death experience was completely forgotten as he was just a breath away from kissing Roman and God did his classmate’s eyes just drop to his lips? He had to have imagined that. He could not handle this! And at the same time he felt like he could not bear to move. Then time snapped back to normal and everything seemed louder and brighter than before. He already knew that just the past ten minutes would take up most of the hour he’d spend with Picani next Saturday. For various reasons. “You okay?” he managed though he found most air was pushed out of his lungs by the fall already. Roman just nodded, seemingly not quite catching on to what had just happened yet. Knowing that any moment now they’d be swarmed by concerned bystanders Virgil rolled off him and helped him sit up. Roman glanced from Virgil to the smashed lamp. By some miracle neither of them had been cut by flying glass. Then again, maybe Virgil had shielded them. “You saved my life,” Roman whispered in awe, still processing everything.

“Well. Anxiety. Makes me hyper aware of everything around me,” Virgil said dismissively as they stood up. He blamed the adrenaline coursing through him for the way he’d just casually admitted to having a disorder he had been reluctant to tell even his father about. “I’m glad,” Roman joked softly. Frick that smile. “Yeah… Well…” Luckily he didn’t need to reply. They were quickly overrun by worried people and guided to the nurses office and then to the hallway in front of the principal’s office where they were told to wait for their parents. Great. Logan was going to lose his mind. After a few moments of debating with himself he decided that taking his meds in front of his crush was less embarrassing than potentially have an anxiety attack in front of him. So he dug through his backpack to find his pills. “Thanks again,” Roman offered, scratching at the back of his head. “Well,” he muttered as he finally found both his water bottle and his pill bottle. Picani had prescribed him something to help him manage his anxiety in high risk situations. He wasn’t supposed to take it too often, but after the morning he had he kind of needed it to deal with his dad. Virgil didn’t like taking pills in general, so this was a last resort coping tool. Talking to Roman, knowing he kind of sort of stood more of a chance than he thought he did was nerve-wracking enough on its own.

But then there was the whole Janus thing and what happened in the cafeteria and then his dad and... God he needed his meds. “I needed to get out of the way too. Might as well take you with me right?” Virgil hurriedly took his pill, hoping that it would go ignored. It didn’t. “You cool?” Roman asked worriedly. He couldn’t bear to look at him right now. He could feel his face heating up and prayed his thinner foundation was enough to hide it. “For my anxiety,” he admitted as he shook the pill bottle before shoving it back and taking another swig of his water. “My dad is going to freak. He’s protective.” It was so important to him that Princey understood that whatever he’d see today wasn’t how his dad normally acted. “And if he freaks I freak. And if I’m going to freak, I better take my meds.” Please don’t ask more. “My parents are the same,” Roman offered sympathetically. “They forget I’m not Remus at times. And honestly I think they go a bit overboard with him as well… I could look out for him.”

Part of Virgil wanted to talk about Remus with Roman. He could hear the hurt and longing in Roman’s voice. But he was still tense about showing how broken he was. What was he thinking telling Roman? Now he’d never want to be around him again… No, he couldn’t think like that. He’d worked on this with Picani, with the camp counselors. “Hey, don’t stress it,” Roman’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “If they didn’t give me massive headaches I’d be on meds for my ADHD.” Virgil looked up in surprise. Roman was broken too? Or, not broken. Broken didn’t fit Roman. But still. Roman had something he needed meds for like him. Only he couldn’t take those meds because his body hated them. He had to just deal. Roman found his surprise funny it seemed. “What? It’s almost more obvious than the rainbow in my soul,” he chuckled with a dramatic pose. Virgil couldn’t help but laugh along. Thinking back to… Well everything Roman ever did, he was right. “I suppose you are right. You always seem to own every single moment. I guess I assumed you were extra by choice,” he admitted, feeling a little embarrassed that he missed that in his blind admiration. “Don’t worry about it. We all have our own challenges. And hey. If not for your anxiety, I’d be a stain on the cafeteria floor. And if not for my ADHD I wouldn’t have crushed it on the stage four nights in a row during last year’s production!” Virgil couldn’t help but smile as he saw Roman light up at the memory. “Yeah, you were pretty alright,” he allowed casually. He did not expect Roman’s eyes to widen and his grin to be quite so blinding at that. “You were there?” he gasped. It looked like he was trying, and failing, to hold back the extra. Virgil shrugged casually, hoping he did a better job at hiding his true emotions. “I mean, I helped out with some of the set and costume designs,” he admitted. He might have put a little extra care in the Prince costume. As he had with all Roman’s roles.

“They gave me a ticket. I was just seeing my work brought to life,” he explained casually. He glanced back at Roman and saw the young theatre enthusiast look up at the clock.

“Hey can I have your number?” he asked suddenly. Virgil’s heart stopped. Roman Castile just asked his number… Did he hear that right? His confusion must’ve been very clear because Roman quickly added: “For Friday, I mean.” “Oh, sure,” Virgil nodded, silently berating himself for thinking for even a second that he’d meant it any other way. Roman gave him his phone. He swiftly put himself in as ‘guide to hell’. His dad had taught him about his namesake and the meaning of his name near the end of middle school when he’d felt embarrassed by it. And a Roman poet who actively ridiculed the emperor was a pretty cool guy to be named after as far as Virgil was concerned. And then he’d read Dante’s inferno over the summer and he was completely sold on it. He hoped Roman would get and appreciate the literary reference. And if not, it fit his aesthetic well enough. He handed Roman his phone back and smiled to himself when he saw him grin when he checked his new contact. He looked down in his own contacts. Roman had just put his name with a ;p next to it. He could do better. He grinned, feeling daring as he changed the contact name. Suddenly a loud voice startled him out of his mischief. “Mi hijo!” He looked up and saw a Latina woman, dressed in a kitchen uniform, stride through the hallway. He could see Roman stiffen and then the prince of junior year was mercilessly dragged into a soul crushing hug. Obviously dying of embarrassment. It was kind of endearing though. “Mom, please, I’m fine.” Roman groaned, though the chuckle took away from the complaint. “Fine?” Mrs. Castile scoffed. "The principal told me what happened Roman!” She stepped back, gripping her sons shoulders tightly, sharp eyes looking him up and down to see if there was any sign of damage. “I could’ve lost you! Rest assured the city will hear from us about proper maintenance of the school buildings!” She had a point, Virgil supposed. It could have ended badly for them. But, as Picani said, living your life on might haves, was exhausting and pointless. “It was a freak accident mama. Please don’t make a big deal out of it. I don’t even have a scratch,” Roman argued. This was met with another nod. “I heard.” Suddenly her eyes met Virgil’s and she lit up. He had to resist the urge to step back. Roman definitely had inherited his mother’s eyes. And if he read the woman’s expression right, she was about to show how much of his energy came from her as well. Before he could brace himself for whatever she had in store for him, he was looking at Roman’s white Varsity Jacket. “Mom, this is Virgil, he was my lab partner last year,” he introduced them, mostly turned towards his mother and his body still blocking her path. Virgil saw her give a nod, prompting Roman to step to the side. “Virgil, this is my mother, Alicia Castille.” Virgil could not begin to express how much he appreciated this. Roman knew for all of maybe 20 minutes that he had anxiety and he was already trying to accommodate him.

All he could do with that for now was give him a smile and try to make a decent impression on his mother. “Pleasure to meet you ma’am,” he offered as he held out his hand. Formal and with respect for other people’s personal space, like his father had raised him, was clearly not the Castile way. His hand was grabbed in two warm, soft hands and pressed against a chest as he was met with an earnest look that told him that if not for Roman he would have been on the receiving end of one of this woman’s hugs. “First you help my boy discover a love for science and then you save his life. You are a marvelous young man,” she gushed, making Virgil blush. Wait… Had Roman talked about him? To his mother? In a positive way? His hand was released and he struggled to find something to say in response. “Ah, well…” But then it was his turn to be embarrassed by his parent it seemed as the sound of his name being shouted cut through the hallways. He couldn’t help but shrink back. He hadn’t heard his father sound so distressed since he thought he was having an attack last year. Logan appeared around the corner and quickly locked eyes with him. Relief starting to replace the worry right away. Moments later Virgil was hugged tightly.

“You are alright.” “Dad, please, I’m fine,” he pleaded. The one time he wanted his dad to stick to his slow and steady method when it came to physical affection. Then again he’d expected this. It was like whenever his dad was overwhelmed emotionally he looked for a life line. Usually, that was him. Finally, his dad let him go. “What happened?” he asked as he looked him over to see if there was any sign of a recent panic attack or injury. Once he was satisfied with his inspection he glanced at their audience, as if he was suspecting them of having caused this crisis. “Who are these people?” “Roman Castile and his mother…” Virgil explained, confused that he hadn’t figured that out himself yet. Wait… He couldn’t have… “Dad, did you even let the principal finish his explanation?” he asked already filled with dread at the most likely answer. “I… Well, I’ve never been called to school before. When he said something happened… I didn’t want to waste time. It was only logical.” Virgil rolled his eyes. “I’m surprised you didn’t head straight to the ER,” he huffed. His father did not appreciate his attitude. “Forgive me for caring about the only family I have.” Virgil immediately felt bad. He felt nervous and embarrassed, but that was no excuse to take it out on his dad. He truly meant well. Most likely he’d been just as nervous today, if not more so. Getting that call, he must’ve assumed Janus had done something bad for the staff to call him in. “I know you care dad. But you can overdo it a little,” he muttered. That was true as well. Whenever his dad did get emotional, he got really intense. “Pardon me sir.” Virgil and his dad looked up in surprise when Roman’s mother spoke up. “But you are this fine boy’s father, correct?” she asked pleasantly. His dad straightened his posture “Logan Anker, I apologize for my behavior. I…” He was immediately stopped by a warm smile and careless wave of Mrs. Castile. “Oh, don’t mention it. You should have seen me the first time mi principitto came home with a bruise. I was this close to murder,” she chuckled good naturedly as she held her fingers a hairs width apart. “I can relate I belief,” his dad chuckled as he looked back at him in that way he would sometimes. A strange mix of happy, proud, sad and worried. “Alicia Castile,” Roman’s mother introduced herself. “Your son has helped my boy in class last year and now he’s saved his life. I feel like I owe your family a great debt. If you ever have a party that needs catering I’ll give you family prices. No questions asked,” she promised. “You run Magical Kitchens. I have had the pleasure of sampling your work before, I might hold you to that,” dad smiled politely. Then his eyes returned to Virgil. Oh no. That was his ‘firm parent’ look. “We’re heading home, you are going to rest up.” Yep he was right. He made a thing out of showing off that he thought he was overdoing it, but allowed a small smirk to show it was in good humor. “So I won’t get a lecture on playing hero?” he asked teasingly before waving Roman goodbye, giving his mother a polite nod and heading off towards the parking lot at a steady but swift speed. He wasn’t willing to risk staying around much longer and risk any more embarrassment. “Not today,” he heard his father reply behind him.

Very soon they rounded a corner and Virgil could hear his dad’s phone buzz. “Patton, I’m sorry, I overreacted. Virgil is fine,” he said as he ruffled through Virgil’s hair. Much to the latter’s dismay. What was his dad thinking? What if Roman saw? He quickly stepped away and tried to fix his hair as best as he could. Looking back to make sure there were no witnesses. Luckily the hall was still empty. He decided to walk a bit faster though, just in case. “I see.” Oh no. Virgil didn’t like his father’s tone at all. “Thank you Patton. I’ll see you later.” A moment later he hung up. “Patton did talk to the principle didn’t he?” Virgil guessed, deciding to get this over with as fast as possible, as he got in the car. Just then he caught sight of Roman and his mother arriving at the parking lot. Roman was talking to her about something. Gesturing wildly with his hands, his face alight with enthusiasm. He really liked seeing him like that. He was looking forward to seeing it more often over the course of the year without having to worry if it somehow upset Janus if he spent time with him. “He did…” Right… His dad heard he had almost gotten hurt. “It’s not a big deal dad. It was a freak accident and we’re both fine. I promise,” Virgil assured him. He could see Logan steady his breathing and focus. He knew better than to interrupt while his dad was thinking this deeply about something. Virgil relaxed as his father finally started the car and left the parking lot. Now there was no chance of Roman spotting them, or Virgil subsequently doing something embarrassing.

“I am sorry if I embarrassed you back there.” Virgil flinched. Had his dad noticed? God was he that obvious? No. It’s fine, just play it off. Maybe he meant, embarrass you in front of your classmate, not crush. “It’s whatever,” he mumbled, desperately searching for a change of subject. Suddenly it hit him. “You don’t have to take me back home you know. You have like two more classes to teach right? I can sit in the back and draw some,” he looked back to Logan with a small smile. “I’d like to see my flashcards in action.” His dad frowned thoughtfully. “You didn’t hit your head at any point?” “No,” he stated. “If either of us hit our head it would’ve been Roman.” And he had made sure that he didn’t. “Well, okay then. I don’t mind showing of my son to my students,” his dad smiled fondly, making Virgil almost change his mind about going home. At his father’s instruction he texted Patton. “Coming over to campus. See you soon.” “My students have probably gone to study in the library or taken an extended lunchbreak due to my absence,” Logan explained as they entered the empty auditorium. Virgil looked around imagining himself in a room like this in a few years. “They’ll be informed that I have returned soon. We’ll see how many actually show up in-” “Where is my brave angel baby!!!” Virgil looked up, fight or flight instincts fully engaged. Patton was rushing towards him. And before he could decide how to respond he was being hugged.

“Oh, kiddo. Are you okay? Were you scared? Why aren’t you at home?” Virgil couldn’t be annoyed at him when he sounded so distressed. “Pops, I’m fine! Not even a scratch on me,” he assured him, gently hugging Patton back. “Aside from ‘Gay Panic’ his emotional state was not compromised.” He did not just do that. “Dad I swear I’ll move in with uncle Thomas!” Virgil threatened, deciding that this was enough hugging and stepping away from Patton “What do you mean? Was it a boy? Was he cute? Tell me!” Patton squealed. “Don’t you have a class to get back to,” Virgil huffed, very done with being publicly humiliated. Dad’s students were already arriving. He regretted his tone a little when he saw how confused Patton was by it. Luckily Logan was there to be ‘moody teenager translator’. “Don’t take it personal. He’s just a little embarrassed.” He didn’t have to look so pleased by it though. “Ugh, I’ll be in the back,” he stated as he made his exit. By the time he had settled in and took out his sketchbook and pencils, Logan was addressing his students. “Take your seats everyone. I apologize for my tardiness, but rest assured we won’t fall behind first day of the semester. We’ll start class in 10 minutes so your classmates have a chance to join the lecture if they want.” Virgil heard the students filtering in, but was focusing on the drawing.

He had just finished the body, when his dad started class. “Hello everyone. Apologies for the delay. Today is not… Vibing with me it seems.” Virgil looked up and saw his dad hold up one of his flashcards. He chuckled along with the class. “Welcome back to all of you. I look forward to having another productive year. Please be on your best behavior. My son Virgil is joining us today.” Virgil waved at the many turning heads when his dad motioned in his direction. “So I’d like to get some cool dad points today.” Again a chuckle rippled through the room. “But now, without any more stalling. Let’s get started.” Virgil dove back into his sketch. He hadn’t given much thought to the color scheme for the suit, other than gold detailing, but for the real one he was thinking red, white and gold. That seemed to fit the heroes tastes. No full on white jumpsuit. Red pants, gloves and cape, that would make the white shirt pop out more. He stood by the cool factor the cape would add to the complete look. Though he noted down that it was meant for formal functions. He toned down the gold details. He’d been having a bit too much fun with those. Then he worked the crown he’d designed into the mask. He considered the boots and decided to give the mannequin normal white shoes. But, as a joke, added a heeled version in the margin. He observed his work, it looked cool. He had some more place on the page and put down a few ideas for a cool logo they could put on the cape. Like a coat of arms. A family crest. Something to complete the prince aesthetic. He really liked it. He had to admit, he first thought he’d just make the design, show it to Roman and then leave it be. But… What if he really sent in a copy of this to the GTH… He wasn’t going to think about that right now. Maybe later… “Hey!” Virgil looked up in surprise. One of his dad’s students was talking to him. He looked to the front of the room. It seems like his dad was busy setting something up. “You are Anker’s kid huh?” They asked. Virgil nodded. “Cool. What’s it like to have him for a dad? Like, he’s a stick in the mud but he’s also pretty funny. What’s that about?” Virgil quirked his brow, not sure if his dad just got insulted or complemented. “I don’t know. He can be strict, but that’s cause he cares a lot. He’s mainly very supportive,” Virgil explained. “You’re not really what I imagined his kid would look like,” the student in the next seat mused. “Um… I guess, not? I’m more of an artsy kid I guess,” he admitted. “Is it true you got him and professor smiles together?” Professor… “Patton you mean? Uh, yeah. I gave them a little push.” Both students nodded in approval. “They are so cute together. Good job,” the second student praised. Virgil smiled, he had to agree on that one. “Thanks,” he nodded. Then his dad called everyone’s attention again. Virgil turned the page and started working on something else. A costume for him should he have the funds to get one professionally made. The class continued like that. With him working out several designs for himself, occasionally interrupted by either his dad pulling out the notecards, or one of his students asking him something during a quiet moment. Before he knew it he and his parents were heading back to the car. “So what happened?” Patton wondered, making Virgil tense up at once. Well there went all his progress in relaxing. “Nothing! Can we just drop it?” Virgil pleaded as he got in the backseat and fastened his seatbelt. “It’s pretty much as you said. Virgil pushed Roman to safety, both boys are fine.” Virgil was grateful for his dad’s factual and neutral summary for about one second. “Wait… Roman… The Roman?”

Virgil felt all his muscles lock in place. Patton should not know that there was a ‘the’ Roman! “I… I never mentioned Roman during family dinners…” And he hadn’t talked about him the past summer. Which could only mean… “Dad!” he exclaimed accusingly, only making Logan chuckle. Was this payback for back when he first met Patton or something? “Oh, don’t be embarrassed kiddo. Logan, tell me you didn’t say anything too bad in front of him,” Patton pleaded. “Not to my knowledge. I didn’t even bring up that I recognized him.” Virgil felt all color leave his face. No… No. Why!? “What do you mean?” Patton asked curiously adding to Virgil’s horror. He wanted off this ride, now! “Well, I’m pretty sure he was the charming Prince Virgil couldn’t tear his eyes away from during the play.” Ok. Time to panic, and/or cry. He was leaning towards the ‘and’ option. “That’s not… I worked hard on the costume. That’s all.” He knew it was a very poorly executed exit strategy. If his dad had noticed how he kept a special eye on Roman’s Prince, then he might’ve noticed… “And the shepherd from the winter play. And he was the crazy scientist and the minstrel in the plays of your freshmen year,” Logan added. Virgil was ready for the universe to swallow him now. “It’s not like that,” he insisted. “What were you two talking about anyway?” Patton wondered. And Virgil was grateful for the slight change of subject. Virgil shrugged. “We worked well together last year. Roman suggested studying together once a week,” he explained. And that was the truth. And luckily, that seemed enough to put an end to the conversation. Just in case though, Virgil escaped to his room the second he got home. No sooner had he taken out his phone to put on some music to drown out everything else, or he got a call. Normally he would hate that. But the idea read “My DreamPrincey”

“Purgatory. Satan speaking,” he smirked as he picked up. “Hello there my chemically imbalanced romance.” Of all bands, it had to be that one? And again with the possessive pronoun. It should be illegal to affect someone this much in a single sentence. Virgil didn’t miss a beat though. “Hey there sir Singalot.” His heart stuttered when Roman chuckled at that one. “I just realized that we got extremely rudely interrupted.” “You could phrase it like that,” Virgil laughed. “So… when and where do you want to meet Friday?” Your place, the park, the mall… No… Homework. It’s for homework. “Let’s head to the library after school. We can grab some pizza from across the street after if it’s late,” he suggested, trying not to cringe as he pretty much asked his crush out to dinner. Sure, it could be interpreted as a platonic thing. But still. These were big steps forward to him. “Sounds great,” Roman agreed happily. Virgil didn’t want the conversation to end there though. Luckily he had a good question about the subject at hand. “Yeah. Hey, about that. Are you cool with helping me out with Spanish? I know you take French, but…” His mom had greeted him with a Spanish pet name right? But maybe they weren’t raised with the language beyond that… “I mean…” Had he just offended him?

Before he could spiral too much, Roman answered. “My parents raised us bilingual. Me encantaría ayudarte a aprender el lenguaje de la passion, mi caballero oscuro.” Holly… He had no idea what he just said. He spoke way too fast for him. Apreder… that was teaching or something. And he thought he caught passion in there. God what was it with this guy? “That better be you saying you’ll help,” Virgil huffed. “Of course mi amigo sombrío. It’s the least I can do por mi Salvador,” he teased. Virgil blushed. He understood Salvador. Savior. Roman had called him his savior. “Virgil? Who are you talking to?” Virgil suppressed the urge to curse. Really dad? Now?

“Roman dad! We’re talking about going to the library on Friday!” he yelled back, holding the phone away from his face. He really hoped his dad would leave it at that, but he wasn’t so lucky. “For homework right?” Of course homework! Was he being serious? “Yes dad. He’ll help me with Spanish,” Virgil replied with an exasperated eye roll. “Alright. I’ll leave you boys to it. Dinner at six.” “Noted…” he called back, waiting for a few seconds to make sure he heard him go down the stairs. “He’s gone,” he sighed in relief. “Sorry about that. He is… He means well, but sometimes…” He was lost on how to explain his dad’s intense reactions to his safety honestly. Usually he was very calm and collected. But bring in a scraped knee, or a bruise and Virgil could feel the fear come off him. Even when Logan tried to hide it. “I get it… I’m sorry about your mother,” Roman offered. Oh… Oh yeah his dad had said something about their small family. Roman really paid attention huh? “Oh… Right… Um… I never.” He took a breath. It was fine. Roman wouldn’t judge right? “I don’t remember either of my birthparents so…” “Shit. Sorry, I didn’t…” Roman hurried awkwardly. It made Virgil smile a little.

“It’s alright… I don’t advertise it, but I don’t really care if people know.” Except he cared a little that Roman knew and would think badly about it. Which made no sense, but his worst thoughts rarely did in hindsight. “Logan is my dad in every way that matters. I’m sure they were awesome and everything… Dad seems to miss them anyway. And sometimes he’ll say that I’m like them, or that they’d be proud and stuff… But yeah. He’s protective of me. Hence his whole ‘don’t be a hero’, rule.” God he was rambling. Someone stop him. Roman chuckled. “Well, too late for that. You might as well pick up your tights now.” Roman meant to brighten the mood. But god no. That would be an actual nightmare. “As if. I wouldn’t be caught dead in something like that. I’d be more into the Midnight Mirage aesthetic,” he confessed. Already thinking up a design. “Shut up! That’s totally my celeb crush!” Roman gushed. Now Virgil really wanted to try putting something together inspired by Mirage. “You? Prince of theater, have a crush on LA’s vigilante?” He asked incredulously. “I wouldn’t have picked you for the type to like bad boys,” he teased, while he wondered if he counted as a ‘bad boy’ in Roman’s eyes. “I like the mystery,” Roman replied casually. And then, as Virgil could have expected, he turned the tables on him. “Well since you know my big secret, it’s only fair if you tell me your crush. Spill Doctor Gloom.” His crush… Celeb crush. Roman was talking about crushes on celebrities that were too old for them to start with and unlikely to ever meet them. Still he needed to buy himself some time. “Um…, well for a girl… I’d say Blaze.” She was really cool and intense and criminally good looking. At least if you asked Virgil. “And guy?” Roman pressed. Virgil felt his throat close up, his heart skip a beat. What to say? “Come on. Which prince tickles your fancy?” You. “Who may sweep you into his arms-” you “-and ride off into the sunset with you?” You, you, you 100% you. “DreamPrince,” he blurted instead. Why? No clue. But it happened. And it was the least credible answer. Dream Prince didn’t even have an official picture released to the public yet. There was only one witness who had gotten a decent look at him and talked to him. “I didn’t see that one coming,” Roman’s surprised voice pulled him out of his panic. Was he buying it? “So our resident edge lord fancies himself a literal prince charming as a romantic partner huh?” he teased. Apparently he did. Well maybe it wasn’t that bad. He’d basically just told Roman that he was his type, right? What little anyone could gather from the Prince fit Roman as well. Still he felt the need to backpedal a little. He could not pretend to be swooning over that guy too much. “Don’t look too deep into it. I just admire his guts. Gifted or not, it takes nerves of steel to face a guy with a gun like he did.” Or to face bullies, and to be friends with him while Janus gave you the death glare. “And to go outside in that crime against fashion.” He shuddered as he recalled the jumpsuit. He might have to send in his design. For everyone’s sake.

“I’ll probably be over it next week,” he huffed dismissively. Showing that he was not too invested in this ‘crush’. Roman hummed in response, seemingly distracted. Virgil felt butterflies in his stomach as a hopeful thought crossed his mind. What if he was building up to… He had just said that Virgil’s preferred aesthetic matched with his celeb crush… And then he was pressing for his type… What if he did want to ask him out? “Any reason why you wanted to know?” That was nowhere near as casual as he’d wanted to be. But it was out. And Virgil was holding his breath in anticipation. “Stacey!” Virgil had to pull back from the phone due to the sudden loud exclamation. Who? “My friend. She’s been pestering me for your number since I mentioned I had it and I obviously wasn’t going to betray your trust and do that. So…” Wait… No. “Stacey wants to go out with you, would you be up for that?” Oh…. “Stacey?” He thought back. He remembered her. “Seen her in the art studio a few times. She’s got style.” And she was very pretty. If he was completely honest with himself he was kind of flattered that he had apparently caught her eye. He supposed he should give it a chance. “Sure. Text me her number,” he decided. “Awesome,” Roman replied, unaware of the stinging in Virgil’s heart.

They talked for a long time after that though. About school, summer, Disney and theater. It was easy talking to Roman. It always had been, but now… It was just different. Suddenly Virgil heard Roman’s mother call out, almost instantly followed by his dad. “Man… time sure flies,” Virgil mused, his cheeks hurting from all the times Roman made him laugh.

“Si. Nos vemos mañana!”

Virgil chuckled. “That means… See you tomorrow, right?” Virgil verified.

“Si!” Roman exclaimed. Virgil chuckled. “Bye Princey,” he said gently before hanging up. He checked his messages before heading down. Roman had texted him Stacey’s number and he had a message from Janus. He decided to call Stacey now. Get it over and done with. “… Who is this, and how did you get this number?” Virgil smirked. She had spunk. He kind of liked that. Maybe this would be not so bad. “I’m the devil dear. Someone you considered a friend just sold me your soul,” he said in his best imitation of a demon voice. “OMG… Virgil? Virgil Anker?” she asked, seemingly flustered. “That’s my name,” he acknowledged. “Roman said you wanted to go out with me?” “I’m going to kill that pompous…” “So you don’t want to hang out at the gallery tomorrow?” he asked playfully. “Wait really!?” she asked shocked. Virgil chuckled as he got up and started going down the stairs. “Well, it’s not a date exactly. Consider it a vibe check. We’ll set up a new canvas, have some fun and get to know each other. Then after we can see if we really want to go out together. What do you think?” he offered. He didn’t want to deal with the pressure of a first date right away.

“Oh, yeah. Awesome!” she agreed. He made his way into the kitchen. “Kay, so tomorrow after school. See ya later Stacey,” he bid before hanging up. “Who, was that?” his dad asked from his seat at the kitchen table. “Stacey. One of Roman’s friends…” the thought of Roman, and how he’d played wingman for her hit him in the chest. “He… Told me she liked me and asked him for my number. I got hers and we’re going to hang at the art gallery to see if we click. I haven’t really hung out with anyone other than Janus or Roman, so I don’t… Know if I’d like any of my other classmates. I figure I should give her a shot. She seems fun,” he said. Mostly to remind himself as he took his seat. “It’s like I said… Me and Roman… It’s not like that.” No matter how badly he wished it was “That’s really sweet of you Virgil,” Patton offered. Virgil gave him a small smile. After dinner he opened Janus’ text. “Sry bout what happened 2day. Will U B @ schl 2mrw?” Virgil was taken aback, and a little hopeful. So Janus had come to look for him and heard what happened? And he actually asked him for his plans? Maybe, maybe he didn’t need to lose his best friend after all… No. This is why it took so long. When not around others Janus was almost always great to hang out with. He was fun and smart and weird in a cool way. But at school he would be around other students. Around Roman. That would be the test. He texted back. Hoping it would help somehow. “M fine thx. C U there.”

confrontation

Masterpost

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[eusjess]

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆:

          ⟨ SAMANTHA LOGAN. CIS FEMALE. SHE / HER. ⟩ though the mist might prevent some from seeing it, 𝐉𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀 ‘𝐉𝐄𝐒𝐒’ 𝐒𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐎 is actually a descendent of 𝐊𝐇𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐄. it’s still a question of whether or not the 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 year old 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐌 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐔𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 from 𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐈𝐒, 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐈, 𝐔𝐒𝐀 has taken after their godly parent completely, but the demigod is still known to be quite 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 & 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐇.

𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒:

         little sister, little spitefire always trying to fill her older brother’s shoes ( even when he’s off in the nhl ) ; a fiercely INDEPENDENT woman trying to cut her way through a sport with little future for her but she pays that no mind ; an agile winger with an insanely accurate shot, and a loyal teammate perhaps a little prone to anger ; extremely proficient in her aerokinesis and levitation, often using it to have a little fun with aerial acrobatics ; creator of snow but struggles with ice ; in tune with all aspects of herself, from her athleticism to her beauty to her sexuality ; she’ll leap before she looks and deal with the consequences herself, reluctant to ask for help even when she desperately needs it.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘:

— jess was born on a surprisingly mild winter’s day in st. louis three hours after her brother, jonathan, but not in the same place and definitely not to the same mother. let’s just say that arrival home from the hospital was a surprise and leave it at that, but khione has always gotten what she wanted and it was quickly that the samaroo’s were enamored with the little girl slumbering peacefully in the goddess’ arms. that would be the last time jess saw her birth mother for thirteen years but she did not lack a mother.

— raised as both samaroo’s own, she would proceed to pretend those three hours that separated her from her brother simply did not exist. anywhere her brother went, jess did too. anything her brother did, she wanted to do too. this went from endearing to annoying to concerning at some points, specifically when her brother picked up a hockey stick at seven and she sat in the stands at six. from the minute she walked into the arena she knew that this was a place where she belonged, for the chill in the air and the action on the ice ; it was something innate and much like her godly mother, jess often got what she wanted.

— she begged her parents to let her on the ice, and eventually they caved : but only to the world of sparkly dresses and pristine white figure skates. and for a while, that was alright. jess learned to skate ( exceedingly well ), surpassing her peers by leaps and bounds — sometimes, a bit literally.

— jess’ content nature lasted a little over a year, until her seventh birthday, when the badgering of her parents to allow her to join a HOCKEY team began to pick up full steam once again. this was much less jess’ love for the ice and very simply the desire to do everything her brother did. even at that young age she wasn’t a quitter, not one to SETTLE. they eventually caved, and come fall, the local team ( still co-ed ) had a new face.

— it was clear only after a short amount of time that jess’ talent on the ice was not confined to spins and jumps, picking up the sport shockingly quickly ; though she had definitely already gotten familiar with the game from all the times she’d watched from the stands and badgered her brother.

— her childhood in a suburb of st. louis was rather MUNDANE, not quite filled with opulence but comfortable and full of love. her summers were full of street hockey with her brother and his friends, skinned knees and roughing around no issue to her though his friends always seemed to pull their efforts a little bit. she always told them not to, for all the good that did.

— and it was that way for years. there were things she would see out of the corner of her eye sometimes : the way the ice clinked in her water when she was angry, how snow seemed to always fall softly on her as if REVERENT, and how she was so sure she saw her first grade teacher eat a soda can once. but these were all things she chalked up to her imagination until that fateful day of her thirteenth birthday.

— if not for the rule put into place about claiming, jess may not have been claimed at all given her affinity for blending into the moral world, but claimed she must be and so claimed she was. it was their birthday and they were out skating on a frozen pond. jonny and their friends had gone in already, the cold getting to them but it never seemed to get to jess for reasons she was about to learn.

— it’s a patch of rough ice that sends jess sprawling, twisting her ankle and springing tears to her eyes at the sudden burst of pain. there’s a soft whisper of wind and then she’s at the feet of a beautiful woman — beautiful but cold like the ice she’s seen form on tree branches. the truth is pressed like a cold stake between her eyes, blossoming beneath the cold, pale fingers of her godly mother along with the words, “don’t cry.” it is not an endearment but an order. to jess, unlike some of her siblings, this is her khione — their godly mother has never been anything but the epitome of winter : tough love, only the strong survive, the only thing tears are good for in winter is freezing.

— life doesn’t change much for jess in the wake of that, save for the truth seems to awaken something within her. the small things she saw out of the corner of her eye turns into TRUTH : wind streaming from her fingertips, snow falling into her palms in the middle of winter, the things that lurk around the corner. eventually her parents take notice, and more of the truth is aired out between daughter and parents — her brother busy at hockey practice. jess had to skip. of anything, that’s what she’s most upset about.

— jess goes to a camp for two summers : learns a bit more about the side of her life she didn’t know. fighting skills are fun to learn, but she feels listless within the boundaries of the camp, not allowed to go on quests. the only daughter of khione she feels a bit of an outcast, the whispers and looks likely not helped either by the SIDE her godly mother takes in the giant war. and so she doesn’t go back after that, returning instead to the one place she always did feel like she belonged : on the rink and with her hockey team. her training continues on an individual basis, stolen hours on the rink and in the cover of darkness. learning to spot monsters that lurk in the halls and dispatching them. 

— and so, her life returns to a version of normal. she goes to school, she plays hockey, she practices her powers and swordplay in secret, she gets plenty of colleges that want her to commit to them come the end of her junior year. this is the life she’s chosen and she can definitely live with that.

— her brother jonny was a hockey player in his own right, an elite defenseman but in a more visible way than jess in the way that all male players are. he was drafted in the first round of the nhl draft and jess was there proudly ( and a BIT sorrowfully, because she knew her future in the sport wasn’t possible like it was for her brother ). but she swallowed those fears and did not allow it to sour her relationship with her brother.

— ultimately, she follows him to the same college where they BOTH lead their teams with a ferocity unmatched. they were the unstoppable samaroo siblings, always having each other’s backs and and the lynchpin in their respective teams. she grows in those years, as a person, as a player, and in her own power.

— two shared years of college was all they got before jonny went into the nhl, leaving jess behind as she knew he always had to. and so she returned to school, continued to dedicate herself to the game, her team, and her studies and was a PROUD little sister. and maybe, her own skill would lift her up someday, more than just a footnote in her brother’s pressers about childhood, about how she just might’ve been the reason he got so good at defending against unpredictable players.

— jess led her team to a national championship her junior year, falling just short her final year at clarkson making the end all very bittersweet. it was after that she was faced with a choice. given her talents ( and her BROTHER, though she loathes to admit anything she does is because of him ), she was offered a contract with the buffalo beauts in the nwhl, but ultimately declined it in favor of continuing her education.

— eonia had been on her radar for a little while, a new consideration as she realized there was a whole other side and community she hadn’t yet truly made contact with. and with a little more time and a little more maturity under her belt, jess felt like she was willing to give the demigod community a change again. so in spite of the very mild and sadly fair-weather location, she made the decision to apply and enroll. and well, their hockey team was pretty good too.

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂:

— jess... really didn’t attend a camp long term. being a daughter of khione has its benefits sometimes. given her godly mother’s lesser standing ( sometimes, she’s not even considered a goddess, but don’t tell khione that ), it makes her scent less noticeable to monsters meaning jess was able to live a rather normal life with the occasional need to dispatch a monster, y’k. there are probably other factors too : mainly, how hockey locker rooms and equipment tend to smell, and two, the fact in st louis they lived over her father’s caribbean cuisine restaurant.

— jess has one older brother, jonathan ( completely mortal ), only a few hours older than her and they share a birthday, so it’s no surprise that many think he’s her “fraternal twin.” to most, that’s what they easily believe. the TRUTH is something jess tries not to dwell on but it’s as simple as : her parents were celebrating their anniversary at a mountain chateau and — never the most conventional when it came to the bedroom— they decided that the beautiful brunette they met at the lodge’s spa would make for a fun addition that night. being the fallout of your parents' threesome with a goddess isn't how jess saw her life starting but sometimes you don't pick these things... they just happen. regardless, she loves her parents lmao. practice safe sex lads... not this.

—  jess effortlessly combines the worlds of being a beautiful woman along with the rougher sport of hockey, not quite splitting the image of a female jock when she’s off the ice though that hardly means she doesn’t fit in. she’s simply in touch with both aspects of herself extremely well.

— her dad is from trinidad and now runs a very successful caribbean cuisine restaurant in st. louis !! despite the fact her dad is a chef, jess cannot cook save for the most basic things...

— extremely bi with a strong preference for women, though she tries not to fall into the cliché of gay female jock. this was something she explored only after her entrance to college and came to the conclusion about rather quickly. always so self-confident, this wasn’t an aspect of herself she struggled to come to terms with — simply an accepted fact. she’s definitely in the LGBTQ+ Alliance though she probably doesn’t attend a lot of meetings between hockey conflicts and just.... other things. she’s at their events tho and... around enough :)

— she isn’t the neatest by any terms, though not unhygienic by any means. her dorm has a very lived-in feel, clothes not always put away and the tendency at times to look like a storm hit it. regardless, she always seems to find what she needs when she needs it, so why change.

— she is a WINGER : a strong and agile skater with an ability to slip past defenders and a quick and startlingly accurate SHOT that has been touted the best on her team and one of the best in the east back at her first college. her nature off the ice translates well onto it, often with high risk, high reward situations. some have compared her to a loose canon, others have compared her to a ghost with her ability to drift between players and always be in the spot she needs to be to SCORE. she leads her team in goals, and sets up on the right circle in the powerplay. her defensive game is a little lacking, but she’s working on it. generally too irresponsible and unpredictable to have an A or gods forbid.. the C. so none of that for her. she does on occasion rile up the girls ( in a good way ) pretty good though.

— played for the national women’s team the spring of her final year at clarkson :) it was during these games in europe that she visited eonia and it confirmed to her that she wanted to attend !!

— love pilates so much... like so much. also come to her for ab workouts bc she’s the queen of them.

— pursuing her masters in JOURNALISM with a focus on sports journalism. if she’s not playing hockey, she’s probably at some other game covering it. with the slim chances of her being able to make a life playing professional hockey, she wants to at least be able to COVER it professionally. her undergrad degree is communications from clarkson university in upstate new york.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘:

— she’s been called a LITTLE SPITEFIRE ever since she was a little girl, when she was nearly always in contrast with her quieter and calmer brother ( and even in spite of her godly heritage ; it's a little IRONIC really ). though she’s not the smallest anymore, her height landing her a hair above average, the spitefire comment remains true. fiercely independent, jess goes after what she wants with a ceaseless ( but not always the most logical ) attitude. it has given her a little temper too, though her rage is often intense and brief and passing. she’s not one to hold a grudge, especially against those she considers friends.

— there’s an undeniable underlying confidence that jess carries herself with, on and off the ice. it’s intimidated some and endeared her to others. but with this fierce independence comes some drawbacks : mainly in her reluctance to ask others for help and sometimes inability to admit she is wrong.  there are a few that she’ll begrudgingly listen to : her close friends, her brother, her teammates, but she can’t promise that she always HEEDS what they say or that their opinions go into making the more informed decision. she has a brash and an ‘i can do anything’ attitude which has on occasion gotten her into a few binds though she’d never admit it, constantly ignoring people if they tell her she can’t do something. she’ll leap before she looks and then splint her own ankle after the fall if she has to.

— she has a big heart, resulting in no shortage of friends but carefully guarded when it comes to romance. incredibly passionate about what she does, her few adventures into romance have been fleeting : either the other turned off by her fierce independence or her growing bored rather quickly. her spitefire name holds up, her relationships intense, bright, and fleeting. she isn’t afraid of break ups, and historically has been the one to do so. her own unwillingness to stick to a partner for very long could speak to commitment issues, though she’s decided to put that examination on the back burner. her hookups are not an extensive list, but it isn’t skimpy either — she goes after what she wants, after all.

— she puts on the air that she doesn’t care what other people think, but the truth is that she does. taking critique was hard for her at first, but she’s forced herself to learn over the years to not take that to heart. she does want to improve, after all, and that is part of that process.

𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒:

AEROKINESIS ( + LEVITATION ) —

         by far jess’ most honed godly power would be her aerokinesis. it was the first one that presented itself and the one she feels the most comfortable with. because it is the power most integrated with herself, it’s also the one jess is most prone to lose control over — and the more unhinged she is, the colder the air ; she’s definitely caused frostbite before. it’s not uncommon to see a few snow flurries in the gusts of wind she creates, though if those are because she’s summoned them or just the scientific result of humid air rapidly freezing... well that remains to be seen. jess never has been the most science-minded. given how well-versed she is in aerokinesis, it’s also not uncommon for her to walk around like her own personal air conditioner, especially given the heat sensitivity of her and her siblings. she really hates heat — why did she go to school in greece again ??

         she also often combines her control of cold winds in tandem with her levitation powers to achieve something that’s like not quite flying but it’s similar ( being supported by the air, more like, yadda yadda, y’know ?? ). levitation took her a while to get a hang of ; it’s actually quite different from her use of the winds and requires much more focus and a sense of CALMNENSS that wasn’t easy for jess to find. because of her tendency to defer to the more “brute force” approach of using the winds, it’s been a struggle, but it’s something she’s been working on since she came to eonia and something she’s been steadily adding to her godly powers toolbox. she’s never had a fear of heights which allows her to push herself further, and she loves to do aerial acrobatics ( the lower temperatures at high elevations don’t BOTHER her either. whooo bonus ). though powers are banned in eonia hockey against mortals, she sometimes can’t help but reflexively use her aerokinesis or levitation to keep herself from getting injured — she has enough practice with using it subtly it that it’s pretty much not noticeable when she does ; and it’s NOT cheating shhh.

CRYOKINESIS —

         one would think with an unpredictable temperament like jess’ that she would be rather prone to freezing things on accident, but this couldn’t be less true. the TRUTH is she lacks the discipline to truly freeze things, not having enough focus to still molecules and all that jazz. she finds the exercises to hone this part of her ability rather dull — a surprise considering she loves hockey so much. but she considers between her siblings and poseidon kids she doesn’t need to bother honing something that doesn’t interest her when she could just make someone else do it instead. instead you’ll find she’s much more prone to creating icy gusts of wind or frost when she’s angry or emotional. besides you’ll find flying stinging snow that’s almost sleet is a pretty effective offensive weapon. otherwise her prowess with “freezing” things is limited to her lowering her drinks ( and the air around her ) to the perfect temperature.

         however, she does have some levels of mastery over other parts of cryokinesis, specifically when it comes to summoning and manipulating snow. she finds the more unpredictable and scattered nature of snow something she can more readily relate to and perhaps why she has found much more mastery over it. you won’t find her freezing lakes or making ice patches but if you need a little bit of snow for the Aesthetic she’s definitely your gal. given her prowess with aerokinesis, this means she can whip up a pretty mean snowstorm, but not for a sustained amount of time unless one of her siblings or a demigod with complementary powers helps her. one of these days she’s going to team up with one of the zeus kids to make thundersnow on the grounds that she thinks it would be “really really fun.”

FEARSPEAK —

         jess didn’t even realize she had fearspeak until she came to eonia, but that doesn’t mean she hadn’t used it before then unlike her levitation. “soft, snow-like whispers” aren’t really her natural vibe — more prone to being loud and rather visible with her emotions and feelings, but there have been times on the ice where her anger had dissolved into something crueler. it’s an odd thing to sense people’s fears, and an even odder mindset to want to confirm them, but there are... situations. it’s something she’s only used a handful of times, mostly in certain high pressure and high level games, the fallout of her friends’ bad breakups ( no harm in putting a little unease into their exes right ?? ), and not something she intended to do.

          jess truly isn’t able to sense people’s fears, even when she uses the power — it’s more just a gut feeling of knowing just what to say and knowing it will be believed. she hasn’t tested this power much outside the handful of times she’s accidentally used it and doesn’t like when she does. the mindset she’s in when she uses fearspeak... that’s not someone she wants to be — but deep down her own fear is that it’s inevitable that’s who she’ll become.

FIGHTING SKILLS  —

          jess’ skill in battle is... probably a little above the average demigod. a lot of this is due in part to her natural athleticism and agility training than any true taught skill. she picked up fighting rather late in the game. her weapons are simple : a short sword and dagger, both good for offense and the dagger lending to more unpredictableness. much like her approach to hockey, she tends to be unpredictable and can be quite emotional in her approach. sometimes this is an advantage, other times the risks she takes do not pay off. her strategy is often to employ offense rather than defense which again... works sometimes and other times not so much. she does enjoy sparring and especially sparring with powers involved. it’s a good challenge and often times she comes out on top though her recklessness is most likely one day going to get her hurt. her aim is quite good and she has the potential to be quite skilled at archery, but she finds the practice to get to the more exciting applications of the weapon rather dull and lacks the patience to see it through.

𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄:

— 5′6″, very athletic build, strong legs from skating and impressive arms. brown eyes and brown hair often kept in her natural curls a little past shoulder length. she will straighten it on occasion for events, but does so rarely because the effort isn’t worth it.

— she’s incredibly handy with a make up brush, an expert on her own face and drawing out her features in a simply but beautiful manner.

— to say the least, jess never looks bad. she believes attitude and mental health all start with appearance and therefore always goes through the effort of making herself look good even if she feels the opposite inside. the times when she doesn’t look that great truly speak volumes of just how down she must be.

— jewelry : loves a bit of sparkle, owns plenty of jewelry she cycles through regularly from necklaces to earrings to bracelets. these are often gold or bronze, warm-toned. when she plays though, the only piece that remains is a very simple short gold necklace with a small sapphire from her brother.

— style : she has an eye for BEAUTIFUL things, simple clothing that’s comfortable but also makes her look great. with no shortage of fabletics leggings, tasteful cropped shirts, and colorful sports bras often worn as crop tops, she strikes a fit figure on campus, though she also mixes in a healthy mix of skinny pants in a rainbow of colors. it’s a toss up if you’ll get her more athletic style or her snappy casual day-to-day look, honestly even she doesn’t know how she picks. she’s fond of denim jackets and nike sneakers ( honestly… a fan of nike and adidas, she may as well be a walking advertisement for them ). while she owns a fair number of skirts and dresses, she tends not to wear them until the occasion calls for it or when it’s quite warm out, just due to her eccentric and very active nature ( and nike pros under them when she does ofc ).

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒:

in general... lemme get back to you on this lol... but a quick note :

jess just started at eonia this past fall ( fall 2020 ), but that definitely doesn’t mean she hasn’t already integrated herself into campus lol. given her personality, she’s definitely already found friends and hookups and all that fun stuff, they just all will have formed relatively recently !! 

i’m also open to past connections in the states ; however, these might be a little limited and hard to fit given the specificity of her background... i would love for her to have had a demigod friend back at clarkson ( it’s a small-ish school in upstate new york... it’s surrounded by a lot of pretty woods and definitely the opposite of urban )... i have ideas but also i know that’s a specific ask skskalsdkjf

𝐎𝐎𝐂:

hey it’s ollie again ✌️ . bringing u jess who’s cool, fun, and funky. unlike a certain man ( jason ).

[kitauji-king]

‘Liz and the Blue Bird’ Recap Part 1

I recently watched KyoAni’s ‘Liz & the Blue Bird’ for the first time, and I have to say: wow, what a film. This is one of the few times where I finished a film and was left utterly speechless by the end of it. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is my new favorite film. If you’ve ever felt like a movie had to have been made specifically with you in mind because it seemed to hit all the right notes with you emotionally, that’s exactly how I feel about ‘Liz.’ Part of me is wishing I had watched this movie around when it first came out so that I could’ve witnessed all the hype around it. However, I actually do think it was for the best that I waited until now to watch it. I honestly don’t think I would’ve understood it as well as I do now.

I really love this movie, and I really wanna talk about it. So, instead of harassing my friends about it, I’m going to be doing a scene by scene review of ‘Liz’ and share my thoughts. I promise you this is only going to be, like, half-serious. 

This is going to be split into 3 parts uploaded sporadically.

Obviously this post will contain spoilers for the whole film as well as seasons 1 and 2 of Hibike.

Liz and the Blue Bird or Liz to Aoi Tori is an animated film directed by Naoko Yamada, produced by the prolific animation studio known as Kyoto Animation, and was released on April 21, 2018 in Japan, then November 9, 2018 in the US. To talk about Naoko Yamada for a minute, she started off at KyoAni as an assistant animator, doing inbetweens as so many animators do starting out in the industry. Eventually she was allowed to direct, where she has quite the impressive track record. She’s directed K-On!, Tamako Market, Hibike! Euphonium, and probably most notably, A Silent Voice just to name a few things. With that in mind, I’m not surprised why I enjoyed this movie so much. Yamada is known to show a real sensitivity toward depicting the different relationships between young girls in a naturalistic way.

EDIT: I began writing this on Saturday, April 18, just a day or two after I watched the movie for the first time, and I swear I didn’t even process that the two-year anniversary was coming up! What a wacky coincidence.

ACT 1

The first imagery in the film we see are gorgeous, picturesque watercolor-style background paintings.

As the titular track plays, we are introduced to Liz; not the main character of the film, but certainly the main character of the book, also entitled ‘Liz & the Bluebird,’ featured in this film.

The first shot we see of her is a voyeuristic one; we are a good distance away and we are peeking from behind a tree at the intimate moment between Liz and her animal companions.I have to say, I had no idea what to expect when I first sat down to watch this movie, as I wanted to go in as blindly as possible. I certainly hadn’t been expecting to see this German picture book-esque art style with lush forest backgrounds in a Hibike movie, and I honestly thought for a moment that I had accidentally stumbled upon the wrong movie.

Liz spots a bluebird settled on a tree stump and she is immediately attracted to the creature. The bird flies over to Liz and lands in her hands as the music climaxes, but as quickly as it arrives, it flies away across the lake. A bittersweet moment.

As the camera pans downward toward the flowers, the scene fades, and we are finally brought into the real world. This is punctuated by the titular track concluding, and being replaced by music that is more abstract and minimalistic. This world is notably duller with cooler, more subdued colors, directly contrasting with the bright, warm colors in the picture book world.

Shots with the camera focused on feet or legs are a common motif seen throughout this film.

We are finally introduced to one of our main characters, Mizore Yoroizuka, now a third year at Kitauji.

I was also slightly caught off guard seeing this new art style being used. Initially, I missed the art style originally used in the show, but after watching this movie I now understand KyoAni’s decision in changing it up, and I also completely agree with it. Looking back, I believe that the show’s original art style simply would not have worked at all, or at least not as well as it could’ve. This new art style with thinner linework, slightly elongated figures, slightly smaller eyes, and subdued colors makes the characters feel more mature to match the tone of the film. Also, while the old style is ideal for showcasing exaggerated and wacky facial expressions, this style is suited better for more subtle emotion, which, again, better matches the tone.

She waits.

Something I enjoy about KyoAni films is how the camera is oftentimes used to show the audience what a character is seeing through their eyes, instead of the camera just acting as a third person bystander all the time.

We hear more footsteps approaching, but they do not belong to the girl Mizore is waiting for.

This is turning into an episode of the ‘Gushing Over KyoAni Power Hour’ but I have to commend their sound design and the way they utilize silence and quiet moments in this movie. So far in this scene, aside from the very minimal track played over this, all we can hear is the foley of the atmosphere, footsteps, clothes rustling, etc. This quietness shows us the solitude of Mizore’s world. It’s also important to note that all the music, not sure if this includes the music in the picture book world, was recorded in the school that Kitauji is based off of. Regular school items were even being used as instruments!

When the music suddenly picks up as another girl rounds the corner, we know she’s the one.

I like to believe that Mizore is so attuned to Nozomi that she’s memorized the sound of her footsteps and is immediately able to recognize that it's her as soon as she is within ear range.

:’)

Nozomi is in focus while everything else in the shot is out of focus. To Mizore, everything outside of Nozomi is irrelevant.

The two girls continue walking together, Nozomi leading and Mizore following behind. This statement alone accurately summarizes the dynamic between these two characters during the beginning half of the movie. Clearly there’s something of an imbalance. Mizore watches and waits for Nozomi to act before she does anything.

I read somewhere that Mizore’s seiyuu speculated that when Mizore is an adult and she looks back to her time at high school, she’ll find that her only memory of Nozomi will be the back of her head… and that got me… feeling some emotions….

Coincidentally, Nozomi finds the feather of a bluebird on the ground, and offers it to Mizore.

I have my own little theory that Mizore could be on the spectrum. Her habit of running a hand down her hair whenever she appears to be nervous or anxious, amongst her other mannerisms in this film lead me to believe that. I think I’ll elaborate further on that and explain my reasoning in a future post.

Mizore accepts it, but is still unsure of herself. Hence the questioning tone. Clearly Nozomi found the feather to be extremely pretty, but Mizore doesn’t know why she would give it to her of all people. She’s still under the impression that she doesn’t mean as much to Nozomi, as Nozomi means to her.

More shots of Nozomi and Mizore playing follow-the-leader as they walk through the school. Nozomi puts her hand on a locker as she rounds a corner, Mizore also puts her hand on a locker. Nozomi stops for a sip of water, Mizore also stops for a sip of water.

These walk cycles give us good indications as to who these characters are. Mizore is timid and hesitant, Nozomi is carefree and outgoing.

Kitauji has way too many different flights of stairs.

We are flashed back to a memory that mirrors this moment in time. Again, Nozomi walks with a skip in her step, her hips swaying, and her ponytail bouncing playfully.

Mizore puts the key in the door to the band room, but hesitates for a moment before unlocking it. When she does open it, Nozomi enters the room first with a twirl.

I’ve been watching a lot of video essays and reading a lot of discussions about this movie, and one of the points someone brought up really stuck out to me. This whole scene, from when they are walking through the hallways until now, when Mizore opens the door, offers the earliest hint in the movie that Mizore is actually the bluebird in the relationship. While Nozomi is the one ahead of Mizore on their journey, Mizore is the one who holds the keys to their destination. Mizore is the one in charge, but she holds herself back. While Nozomi makes it to the door first, she cannot enter until Mizore opens it.

That’s one of the many things I love about this movie, there are so many nuances that you pick up new things and make new interpretations with every single viewing.

Uh oh.

After putting their instruments together and warming up, in a rare moment, Mizore tells Nozomi how she’s feeling. Mizore is merely happy to have Nozomi at her side, but Nozomi misinterprets this as her being happy about the free-choice piece their band has chosen to play: Liz & the Bluebird. Mizore probably couldn’t care less about the piece, but doesn’t bother correcting her. She is only interested in the piece and the story behind it when she hears that Nozomi is interested in it.

Remember how I said this art style was ideal for showing subtlety in emotions? This is what I was talking about.

In this visually experimental scene, Nozomi explains the story of Liz and the Blue Bird while we also see the story of Nozomi and Mizore’s friendship unfold.

:’)

Sound familiar?

One of the first indications that Nozomi isn’t the best at listening.

Mizore: Same.

Me: Same.

Scenes that physically hurt me #1

A lot of people love to bring up KyoAni whenever the topic of queerbaiting arises; that’s neither here nor there. However, I cannot deny the inherent queerness of this scene, and really of the whole film. It’s made obvious that Mizore loves Nozomi in a way that’s more than just a regular friend. Other people make Mizore anxious, but not Nozomi. Mizore enjoys Nozomi’s presence so much that she wants to lean into her side. For a second, the two of them are frozen in time and in a world of their own. Mizore is forced back into reality when Nozomi abruptly pulls away.

The movement title, “A Decision Borne of Love,” sticks out to Mizore.

Just like their intonation, there is that imbalance in their friendship and this is the film’s way of hinting at that if you haven’t already picked up on it.

Throughout the film, Nozomi is always wearing this pink watch,  showing how eager she is for the future.

To Mizore, the watch on Nozomi’s wrist is just a constant reminder that their time left together is fleeting.

Listen. I absolutely love whenever these two are on screen together. Love-hate relationships can be hit or miss, but this pairing is one of the better ones of that kind. They’re both great characters individually, but they also have amazing chemistry together.

Don’t get it twisted, Mizore is good friends with Yuuko and Natsuki, but them entering the room means that her moment alone with Nozomi has come to an end. Mizore and Nozomi don’t seem to share any classes together, so this is likely the only time of the day where they get to have a moment to just themselves. Mizore cares for Natsuki and Yuuko, in fact Yuuko was the one who stayed by her side after Nozomi originally quit band, but her relationship with Nozomi is a treasure more precious than anything.

I was wondering if we’d be seeing these two in this film, and I’m so glad that they are. I’m more glad, however, that they are pretty much relegated to the background here. They’ve already had their seasons 1 and 2 character arcs wrapped up, now it’s time to give the secondary characters a chance to shine.

I’m also very glad to see these two attached at the hip in almost every scene they’re in.

Nozomi leaves to go rehearse with her kouhais, and Mizore watches yearningly as she is being left alone again.

I’ll probably say this again multiple times throughout this recap, but I seriously identify with Mizore so much. I mean, we’ve all been that girl. We’ve all been paranoid that if given the choice, our friends would pick someone else to hang out with over you.

I admire KyoAni for including these casual moments of characters just chilling and talking about nothing. Of course they don’t add much to the overall plot, but they do contribute to the overall atmosphere of a high school. High school isn’t always about drama, it’s also about random conversations you have with your friends.

Mizore is still thinking about what Nozomi said earlier. In Hibike season 2, we know that for a time Mizore hated competitions until Kitauji won gold in the Kansai competition. I think that now in this movie, Mizore still hates competitions, but for a different reason. The national competition marks the last time the third years will get to play together.  She fears that because they won’t be in the band anymore, Nozomi won’t have any other reason left to stay with Mizore.

As Mizore begins to read, we are brought back into the picture book world that strongly resembles a 1970s anime.

We see Liz again as she emerges from a train. This takes place in an early 20th century European town filled with friendly people, though Liz doesn’t seem to interact with them. 

This world is also giving me Howl’s Moving Castle vibes?

She works at a humble bread bakery owned by a man named Arlt. 

Liz doesn’t look exactly eager to clock out for the day. It’s safe to assume that her shifts at work are the only times where she gets to have any real human interaction. I’m getting the impression that even though she’s introverted, she still gets lonely. Much the same as Mizore. As Liz waves ‘goodbye’ to customers, her face sinks ever so slightly.

After work, Liz returns home to her cottage to prepare a meal for herself, eat it alone, and then retire to her bedroom to sleep. 

In the morning, the same bluebird from earlier appears at Liz’s window and peeks inside the room.

Later in the day, Liz is caught in a storm as she is returning home from another shift at the bakery. After overdosing on berries, Liz wakes up the next morning still at the dining table, after the storm has already passed. She walks out the front door and notices a mysterious blue-haired girl passed out in the grass.

Liz realizes, “oh sh*t, I should do something.”

She’s dead.

After being woken up, the girl immediately recognizes Liz. The girl, who is actually the bluebird personified, reminds me a lot of Ponyo in how she pretty much claims Liz as her person, and quickly forms a bond with her, much like how Ponyo does to Sosuke.

Act 2 of the movie begins and we’re brought back into Mizore’s world. She continues reading the book and smiles to herself.

In rehearsal, the band president Yuuko delivers a message about auditions for participating in the national competition. Mizore is anxious at the mention of the competition again.

The flute girls have already given their senpai a cute nickname, and Mizore is understandably a little jealous. Maybe all of their problems would be resolved if Mizore and Nozomi would just give each other cute nicknames.

She’s literally so adorable??? I think she’d be considered a gyaru in Japanese culture based on the color of her hair and how she has it styled.

After some encouragement from her friends, a first year oboist named Ririka musters up the courage to approach Mizore.

Uh Ririka, birds are a bit of a touchy subject for Mizore right now.

When I watched this for the first time, admittedly I was a bit anxious about what these girls’ intentions were with wanting to invite Mizore to hang out with them. However, my anxieties in regards to that were quickly relieved when I remembered that bullying is just not a concept that exists within the world of Hibike. I’m really glad that this is an anime where most people are at the very least cordial with each other.

F in the chat.

Mizore isn’t ready yet to branch out and meet other people. She’s still tunnel visioned on Nozomi.

After rejecting Ririka, Mizore walks over to Nozomi. Nozomi tells her that she and the flute girls are going out to eat later today. I think that Mizore is unsure about whether this was an invitation for her to join them. Regardless, Mizore doesn’t want to impose seeing that she’d probably feel awkward around a group of people she doesn’t know very well.

Nozomi likes spending time with Mizore, but she’s just too high in demand with her peers.

Mizore puts away her instrument, and then pulls out the bluebird feather Nozomi gave to her this morning. She clutches it close and treasures it as a gift from the person she loves.

Forever screaming at how gorgeous the environment art in this movie is.

On the way out, Mizore runs into Ririka and her double reed friends again. The first years make another attempt at starting a friendship with Mizore, though the third year only spares them a couple words before she departs.

KyoAni is so good at creating such cute, appealing characters.

Ririka is really determined to get to know Mizore, so who better to ask for help from than the Mizore expert herself?

Was she about to call Mizore an ice queen? I thought that was Reina’s title.

Uh, same.

Ririka is worried that she may have gotten off on the wrong foot with Mizore considering she doesn’t seem to be reciprocating. I understand this situation extremely well; I’ve been through it multiple times, although more so from the perspective of Mizore. Mizore and I are quite similar in many areas, including being aloof and taking a good while before feeling comfortable enough to open up with someone. So yeah, I do get the frustration on Ririka’s part.

Nozomi, you literally didn’t actually offer her any advice at all, you clown.

I--

A nice egg in these trying times?

Back in the picture book, Liz has invited the blue girl into her home and is nursing her back to health. Apparently, she makes pretty good soup.

She’s offering the blue girl her home, so she might as well get some free labor out of it.

It’s a particularly windy day, and as the two of them are doing the laundry, a hankerchief gets caught in the breeze. The blue girl attempts to retrieve it but she remembers she’s lost her flight capabilities. She’s a human now, but at the cost of her wings.

Liz takes her to the local Panera Bread she works at. Arlt says... something?

The blue girl discovers she has a taste for human blood.

I’m declaring that these two are very much in love and I will not be taking any feedback at this time. The lighting in this shot is *chef’s kiss*.

The two girls have spent the whole day together, from going to the bakery, picking berries, and having dinner. The blue girl brings a light to Liz’s life that had been previously missing.

Now the duo are having a picnic on the side of a hill. It suddenly dawns on Liz that she actually doesn’t know anything about the girl she has living in her house. The blue girl doesn’t seem to know anything either. She lived a pretty nomadic lifestyle as a bird. However, one thing the blue girl knows for sure is that she came into Liz’s life so that she wouldn’t be alone anymore.

Liz is a pretty reserved individual and the blue girl is more of a free spirit. She fears that someday the blue girl will decide to leave her. So, Liz makes the very simple request that the blue girl should stay by her side forever.

Mizore wants the same thing from her favorite person.

Mizore is interrupted from her reading by an unenthusiastic library assistant telling her that she needs to get out so that she can lock up. I imagine she isn’t quite too fond of Mizore after this movie.

First years really do be getting younger and younger...

Those two are Satsuki and Mirei, two first years who join the bass section in the next Hibike movie, Chikai no Finale. We get a better look at their relationship there.

Mizore: !!!

Oh.

Nozomi explains the famous Minami Middle School ritual known as the “I Love You Hug,” or the “Daisuki no Hagu.” Basically you find a friend, give them a hug, and tell them all the things you love about them. Sounds very, very, gay.

Nozomi’s had her fair share of I Love You Hugs back in the day, but Mizore’s never had a chance to participate in one.

Scenes that physically hurt me #2.

Seeing that Mizore’s never experienced an I Love You Hug, Nozomi offers her one. She opens her arms waiting for her friend to reciprocate. Mizore is completely caught off guard, but she is more than willing to try it. Unfortunately, Mizore is too slow to respond and loses her chance.

Nozomi said “haha, just kidding… unless…”

Nozomi has to leave Mizore behind so she can go to class with Yuuko. Mizore is frozen in place and Natsuki’s creepin’.

Best moment in the entire film.

I literally love Natsuki so much, she’s quickly becoming one of my favorite Hibike characters. My face lights up pretty much every time I see her on screen. She’s definitely the type of girl I’d wanna be friends with in high school.

Mizore would much rather not think about the future at all, and enjoy the time she has left with Nozomi.

And that’s how Natsuki beat Shaq.

It’s time for Mizore to switch into their gym class’s basketball game, but she’s not really feelin’ it. I don’t blame her.

Okay I’m in love.

Being the excellent friend that she is, Natsuki takes one for the team and goes back in to play another round in Mizore’s place.

Nozomi listens in on her flute girls having a gossip sess’. Of course they’re talking about boys because what else do teenage girls have to talk about?

Hanayo Koizumi? When did you transfer to Kitauji?

*side eye emoji*

Mizore is in her usual hideout: the science lab by the blowfish tank. As of late, she’s taken a bit of an interest in feeding the blowfish.

She still hasn’t filled out the career survey; she can’t figure what to do for her future, and I don’t really think she wants to figure it out either.

Mizore still can’t help but see Nozomi as the bluebird. Nozomi is her whole world, she’s her miracle. Ideally, she’d keep Nozomi all to herself, but she already knows that that wouldn’t be fair to her at all.

Through the window, she spots Nozomi on the other side of the school.

Nozomi notices that her flute is casting a dancing light reflection on her friend, and the two make a game of it.

I want nothing but good things for Mizore.

Scenes that physically hurt me #3.

It’s very easy to doubt Nozomi’s love of Mizore and to even call their friendship one-sided, but I don’t agree with that. In fact, we already know that she cares a lot about Mizore based on their arc in season 2 of Hibike. Not only can you see it in the way Nozomi looks at her, it's also clear from small gestures she does in this movie: giving Mizore the bluebird feather she finds, inviting Mizore out (which we’ll see coming up a couple times), offering her an I Love You Hug, and standing up for her when the library assistant nags Mizore about returning the book (again, a bit later on in the film) amongst other things.

The issue is simply that Nozomi is very high in demand. She’s very pretty and talented; it’s only natural for her kouhais to look up to her. So of course Nozomi wants to look after them and form a bond with them. It’s kind of her duty as a third year. Yuuko had Kaori to look up to, and Kumiko had Asuka. As a matter of fact, Ririka is trying to get Mizore to do the same for her. And yeah, Nozomi is also a bit dense. But hey, no one’s perfect.

The kids are back in rehearsal and are admittedly a little stressed about the upcoming auditions. One thing they know for certain, though, is that Nozomi is most definitely going to be given the flute solo in Liz.

“Ganbarou!”

Nozomi catches a glance at Mizore doing her warm up. She tells her friend to do her best in the audition. She also has no doubt that Mizore will do well and get the oboe solo.

The title track is playing again, meaning we’re back in the fairy tale. The blue girl is enchanted by the moon and the night sky.

:’)

The blue girl is happy to be living with Liz, but she also loves her freedom. In the middle of the night while Liz is still asleep, the blue girl sneaks off and flies out the window.

Liz wakes up and finds her companion is missing.

Not much later, the blue girl returns from her night out at god-knows-where with god-knows-who, and climbs back in bed, relieved that Liz still seems to be asleep.

But she wasn’t.

Don’t make a Game of Thrones reference, don’t make a Game of Thrones reference, don’t make a Game of Thrones reference, don’t make a Game of Thrones ref--

You mean humans don’t go south for the winter?

Where the blue girl realizes that she can go anywhere she chooses, while Liz chooses to stay grounded. I’m wondering, why does Liz choose to stay isolated at her cottage? She works in the city, and surely she could move there to save herself the commute? I’m guessing it’s that although she does appreciate interpersonal companionship, she’s still largely an introvert, preferring to spend time in nature.

Jesus Christ, you guys need a marriage counselor.

The blue girl sneaks back in again in the morning. 

While the two of them are feeding the animals, they both see a couple of birds flying in the sky above them, as if taunting them. The blue girl wants to be with them, though she stays grounded for Liz’s sake. She made a promise to stay with her forever, after all and she intended to keep that promise. During the daytime, at least.

At this point in the story, Liz realizes that a sacrifice is going to have to be made.

Part 2

Part 3

[kumeko]

Title: some walls need to be torn down

A/N: For the @superbatexchange! Unfortunately, my giftee dropped out, but I had already finished my piece so this is now for the community in general. 😊 Hope you enjoy!

Summary:  Bruce had never been good at letting down his walls, at letting others in. Even for Clark. Especially for Clark.

…

…

…

…

i.

“How’s Friday?” Clark asked, flipping through his planner. Red circles, scribbled in appointments, and stickers decorate every month. His finger tapped on one of the few empty dates. “I’m technically on assignment, but I can always hop back for the night.”

 “How old school of you.” Bruce pinched the planner between his fingers, dangling it in front of him. “You have a phone.”

 “It’s easier when I can write it out.” Frowning, Clark swiped the planner back. He smoothened the page, clearing any wrinkles. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much good; there was a permanent crease where Bruce had gripped it too hard. “Damn. You’re lucky the year’s almost over.”

 “Or what?” Bruce asked dryly, taking a sip from his coffee. He never understood Clark’s preferences for diners, but at least this one had a decent coffee. Leaning back on his seat, he observed the restaurant from their booth. The breakfast crowd was here, a strange mix of truckers and businessmen hurrying to work.

 And of course, one journalist, who was still pouting over his agenda. Clark sighed mournfully. “Maybe I should tell Dick to pick on you.” He glared at Bruce grumpily, tapping on the Friday insistently with his pen. “So. Friday?”

Obliging, Bruce pulled out his phone and checked his own schedule. Friday, Friday, Friday—he had a single meeting in the morning, and the rest of the afternoon was clear. Thank goodness for Lucius Fox, he really knew how to minimize his “CEO and Playboy Bruce” appearances. “I should be fine.”

 “Great.” Clark beamed, pure sunshine. “It’s a date.”

    ii.

 There was a familiar prick on his back, the sense that someone was watching him, and Batman pulled out his batarang. Tense, he crouched slightly. It couldn’t be another thug—he had cleared out most of Black Mask’s men from the warehouse. Whatever ones he hadn’t caught would be running away. Then who—

 A cape swished behind him and he relaxed. Of course. Superman. Standing straight, Batman turned around. His own cape curled around his legs and he crossed his arms. “Superman.”

 There was no responding smile, no exasperated sigh, and the hair on his neck stood up. Superman scanned the surroundings as he slowly floated down. His lips were a flat line, his tone distant. “I caught the runaways.”

 “Then that clears up everything.” Feeling uneasy, Batman dropped his arms to his side and took a step forward. In the dark, it was hard to see Superman’s face, to see the ridges and planes he knew intimately. “Are you angry?”

 Superman’s feet touched the ground with a quiet thud. Stiffly, he bit out. “Yes.”

 It’d been a while since he’d seen him this angry, even longer since it’d been directed at him. “I couldn’t ignore—”

 “I’m not asking you to ignore criminals or the bat signal or whatever case you’re on,” Superman growled, his jaw tight. “That’s what we do. But this isn’t the first time you’ve blown me off. Or the second or the third—you do this more often than we actually go on a date.”

 Even though he knew Superman wouldn’t talk like this if there was anyone around, he instinctively checked their surroundings for any interlopers. Coolly, he answered, “It was a time sensitive matter.”

 “They’re all time-sensitive matters. It always is,” Superman bit out bitterly, shaking his head. “But we’re not alone. Nightwing, Robin, Oracle, Batgirl—any of them could step in for a single night. They do it already for each other.”

He looked away, unable to refute the point. Feebly, he argued, “I had to handle this myself.”

 “We can’t keep doing this,” Superman said, his voice oddly soft. He started to float again, slowly rising up to the hole he’d made in the warehouse ceiling. The moonlight hit his face and all Batman could see was the weariness on his face. “Even after all this time, you still won’t let me in. And I…I don’t know how much longer I can wait.”

    iii.

 That was not his ceiling. No, that wasn’t completely accurate. To be precise, it was more that something felt off about his ceiling. Like there was an extra dent in it or the paint was more chipped than it should have been. Even his bed felt strange, too soft to be his. Lying still on the bed, Bruce kept his breathing steady, listening for any intruders. There were no strange sounds or, even more worrying, the usual ones. By this point of day, Alfred would have had breakfast ready.

 Quietly, he slipped off his bed, his feet landing on a layer of dust. Bruce stared at the hardwood floor, then at the tables and dressers around him. Everything was covered in a thick grey and he had a sinking feeling this wasn’t a prank by Dick or Stephanie. No, something was wrong here.

 Without a second thought, he crept out of his bedroom. At the very least, his batcave should still be untouched and maybe he could find out something more there. The rest of the mansion was coated in dust, looking unused, and Bruce fought the urge to shiver. It looked abandoned. Forgotten. Even the old grandfather clock looked like it had seen better days. His fingers were sticky as he typed in the usual password and suddenly, a shrill alarm rang.

 Immediately, he took a step backward, his body crouching as he scanned his living room. No one swooped out of the shadows, running to see who had broken in. He’d have to find a place to hide, to observe—

 Glass twinkled behind him as a large object burst through the bay windows. Turning around, Bruce shielded his eyes as he took in the attack, a bright red and blue blur that hurtled at him. Wait, red and blue? He knew that colour, knew that ‘S’. “Clark?”

 “Bruce?” Superman halted in front of him, his eyes wide in surprise. “You…you’re alive?”

 Alive? Well, he had been right then. That wasn’t his ceiling.

    iv.

 “Here, have a cup of tea. You still like two milks, right?” Clark smiled awkwardly, setting down a fragile teacup on the coaster in front of Bruce. Dressed in overalls in his family farmhouse, Clark looked more like a farmer getting ready to milk a cow than a reporter chasing a news story. Then again, maybe that was the case here. The only thing to indicate that he wasn’t purely a country boy was the gold necklace that disappeared under his collar.

 “Yes.” It seemed that at least he shared the same tastes as this world’s Bruce. Scanning the room, Bruce noted pictures of Ma and Pa Kent, of Conner and Kara Zor-el. It seemed this world wasn’t too different then. Except of course, one notable exception. “I take it I’m dead?”

 “Uh…” Clark rubbed the back of his neck. His lanky frame was too big for the couch, his knees bent uncomfortably. The furniture here hadn’t changed at all from the last time Bruce had visited the Kents. “Yes.” He paused. “Sorry.”

 “It’s not your fault, is it?” Bruce asked, picking up the tea. He had always known he’d die from his duties. It didn’t make it easier to hear, even if it was just in a different universe. “You don’t need to apologize.”

 “Yes but…” Clark frowned, running a hand through his shaggy hair. Now that Bruce was looking at it, it was peppered with white and grey hairs, a Clark that was much older than his. A Clark he might never get to see ordinarily. They’d never really confirmed if he’d age normally, if he’d live forever. “I’m sorry all the same.”

 “Always with the saviour complex.”

 Clark blinked, before breaking into a hearty guffaw. Not remember restraint (as usual), he wrapped an arm around Bruce’s back, squeezing him tight. “And you’re still a prissy cat.”

    v.

 “Luckily for you, the league’s still active.” Puffing his chest proudly, he pointed at one of the more recent photos, showing him with grown-up Conner and Kara. Their costumes had changed, Kara’s more battle-oriented, Conner’s less casual, and they were all grinning as they stood in front of the Justice Hall. A newly rebuilt Justice Hall. “We’ll find out soon enough if it was magic or science that brought you here. Or something else entirely—I feel like we keep finding things that go beyond everything we know. Guess it’s one of nature’s miracles.”

 Bruce didn’t want to think about how many times they must have built, destroyed, and rebuilt that place. The iterations of the league’s hall. “The new generation took over?”

 “Yeah. Especially some of the kids from the Justice Society. Us old-timers are taking over what Jay and Alan started there.” Clark smiled fondly as he held up a photo of him surrounded by a gaggle of masked teens. Some were easy to pick out—Liam Harper, Wally’s kids—others less so.

 And with the bittersweet tinge in Clark’s expression, Bruce knew better than to ask what had happened to Jay and Alan. “So even you retired?”

 “Even I retired,” Clark chuckled. “Though I can’t help myself if something happens nearby.”

 “No, that’s you.” Bruce scanned the other photos, the changes in his companions. Older Hal. A kingly Arthur. Diana, still going strong. And more, beyond that, and there was something reassuring about the idea that even after he was gone, the work still continued. To find a picture of Cassandra as Batman, of Dick and Damian still patrolling together, of Stephanie refusing to give up her purple abomination.

 A picture of him and Clark, sitting awkwardly next to one another. Clark grinning brightly in the camera as he snapped the selfie, this world’s Bruce trying not to smile and failing miserably at it. Another, of Bruce with a pair of champagne glasses. More and more lined the wall, it was impossible not to see them now that he’d noticed the first one. They almost seemed to glow, dragging his eyes from one to the next. A first year anniversary. A surprise dinner. A relationship that was much further than anything Bruce had at home.

 The pictures suddenly stopped and he stared at the last one, of them sitting by a river, watching the sunset. Did he die after that? Involuntarily, Bruce asked, “What happened?”

 “To what?” Clark approached him from beyond and Bruce could hear as his breathing shallowed, as his breath hitched.

 “Us,” Bruce answered bluntly, the only way he knew how.

 “Oh.” Clark stepped back, sitting down on the couch once more. He interlaced his hands, resting his chin on his knuckles. “No wonder you felt so familiar.” He smiled sadly as he looked up at Bruce. “You’re also in love.”

 “I wouldn’t use that word,” Bruce corrected reflexively.

 “You don’t have to be so defensive.” Clark lowered his eyes. His foot scuffed the floor. “You’re only hurting your Clark, you know.”

 “Like I hurt you?”

 “No, like my Bruce hurt me.” Clark closed his eyes, curling into himself even more. Again, Bruce couldn’t see his face. Again, Bruce wished he could make out his expression. “Like I hurt him. He couldn’t open up and I was tired of trying and…and then he died, before anything happened. Before anything could happen. No apologies, no understanding, just nothing.”

 Bruce stepped closer, his hand hovering over Clark’s back. “I’m sorry.”

 “Me too.” Sitting up straight, Clark pulled out the chain around his neck. On the other end was a plain silver band. “I was going to propose, you know. Thought I’d finally surprise him for once. I wonder what he would have looked like.”

 There was really only one answer to that. He squeezed Clark’s shoulder. “Happy.”

    vi.

 A woman stood in front of him, her hair black as night, and Bruce could have sworn it was Zatanna. Except, it was her granddaughter, and there was something both happy and sad about that knowledge. Catching his stare, she clicked her tongue and rapped his head. “Close your eyes. It’s bad enough you’ve seen what you have, can’t have you finding out more.”

 “Your grandfather, was he—”

 “No guesses either!” The woman growled.

 Clark chuckled. “He’s probably right. He always is.”

 “Yeah, but I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of confirming it.” The woman snorted indignantly. “Alternate world or not, we’re similar enough that we could be his future. And it’s dangerous to know the future.” She rested her palms on the side of his head. “Sometimes you can make it happen.”

 Knowledge could prevent terrible futures, Bruce wanted to point out, but the magic in her hands washed over him, lulling him to sleep. He drowned in drowsiness, his eyes getting heavier and heavier, and the last thing he saw was Clark, was his wedding band on his finger. The silver glinted once, twice, and then all he saw was pitch black.

    vii.

 This was his ceiling. Bruce stared at the pock-marked ceiling, the burn mark from one of Damian’s surprise training sessions. His bed was the right level of firmness. There was no dust anywhere in the room and through the vents he could hear Alfred humming, the scent of coffee wafting in the air.

  He was back. Immediately, he rolled over and picked up his cell, tapping the third speed-dial number. All Bruce would see was that Clark’s sad smile, the apology that lingered in the air unspoken.

 And maybe that was their world’s future and maybe it was just a similar alternate world, but either way, he couldn’t let that happen here. Now.

 “Clark? We need to talk.”

[jerezanas]

150 Years of Rebellion: Remembering the Lares Revolt

(Pictured above: The flag of Lares, a municipality of Puerto Rico. The flag has a white cross in the center that divides it into four quadrilaterals. The top ones are a bright celeste blue and the bottom ones red. A five-point white star is located in the center of the left blue quadrilateral. This particular specimen is 150 years old, and it shows. It is tattered, ripped, and speckled with numerous copper-colored stains — Blood stains.)

Tomorrow on the 23rd of September we Puerto Ricans shall celebrate what is perhaps the most bittersweet day in our quincentennial colonial history. On September 23rd, 1868, Puerto Ricans took arms against the Spanish government and demanded independence. El Grito de Lares (translated often in English as ‘The Lares Revolt’, though ‘The Lares Cry,’ or ‘The Lares Yell’ would be more accurate) takes its name from the municipality it happened in, a sleepy small town in the mountains that still takes pride in it.

The Lares Revolt is known for being the first Puerto Rican nationalist uprising, but the demands were many: the right to vote and form parties, freedom of association and press, the lifting of trade restrictions, tax reform, economic development, religious liberty, worker’s rights, the end of military rule, and most importantly of all, the abolition of all forms of slavery.

More so than an empty campaign promise to garner support, abolitionism was at the very core of Puerto Rican nationalist ideology at the time. So much so in fact, that the main organizers of the rebellion — Ramón Emeterio Betances and  Segundo Ruiz Belvis — had dedicated more than a decade prior to baptizing and emancipating children saved from slave auctions. Their activism was practiced at every level, from convincing local hacendados to join their cause to traveling all over Latin America and Spain to raise support for the movement. The importance of racial equality as a foundation for any nation was especially emphasized by Betances, who himself was of black heritage and was estranged from his father because of the latter’s attempts to “whiten” the family through legal means. 

It’s little surprise then, that not only did The Lares Revolt have support from the local intellectual circles, but also the support of the island’s black populace and growing number of immigrants. Alongside them, there were people from every sector of Puerto Rican society, including indentured workers, artisans,  independent farmers, and small businessmen. 

Originally the plan was to take the town a week later with weapons brought over from St. Thomas by Betances, but the Spaniards captured him beforehand and so the event was hastened to the 23rd. This was the first in the many reasons for the revolution’s failure, though it should be added that the movement had already suffered a serious blow the year before when Segundo Ruiz Belvis was found dead in Chile (he was only 38, leading many to speculate he was assassinated.) Still, considering both of its leaders were absent and the rebels had practically no training or weapons to speak of, it’s remarkable that they managed to take the town anyway. The Republic of Puerto Rico lasted from the night of the 23rd to the morning of the 24th and had a fully island-born provisional government. Their first and only act as such was the abolition of slavery and indentured labor. 

Estimates vary, but some chronicles speak of almost a thousand rebels fighting on that night. 551 were charged with sedition against the Spanish government. More than 80 died while awaiting their sentence, and a handful more died in the act. Betances himself was exiled to France. He died there a month after the American invasion in 1898,  having been one of the few to denounce American colonialism as being just as evil as its predecessor. 

All in all though, through the events of Lares didn’t lead to Puerto Rican independence, they did eventually lead to two great things: the abolition of slavery in 1873 and the birth of a Puerto Rican identity, which flourished in the decades following it. In addition, many of the exiled participants of the rebellion became well-established and respected political figures in our neighboring nations of Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

The flag pictured is thought to be the last remaining flag from that night, though it’s not the original. The original flag was woven by Mariana Bracetti, one of the many women involved in the movement and sadly one of the very few actually named. Known as “Brazos de Oro” (Arms of Gold), she was the wife of the commander of the Puerto Rican Liberation Army and the leader of the Revolutionary Council in her own right. Sadly, the original is thought to have been destroyed. 

The flag instead pictured is one woven by another woman and patriot, Rosalía Márquez. Currently, it’s in the custody of the Museum of History, Art and Anthropology of The University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus. It’s displayed only on the event’s anniversary, and after the 23rd it will be once again stored away for its protection and conservation. Entry to the museum is completely free and open to the public, so if you’re in Puerto Rico I highly encourage you to go and pay homage to all the brave individuals who have given their lives in the still ongoing fight against colonialism. 

[sherlockxreader]

Oh My Love (Sherlock x Reader)

Title: Oh my love

Summary: Sherlock has been with the reader for a while before she suddenly died. After a few years, he receives a note that could only be from her - the handwriting, the style, the smell even - but he is sure it could never be her, that it could just be a prank. No matter how much he tries to convince himself, and convince John and Greg, everyone is just sure that no one can come back from the dead. Soon enough, these theories are proven wrong. Reader comes to 221B and asks for Sherlock’s forgiveness, in vain. Author: Niky @waiting-for-orchestra Words: 3162 Characters/Relationships: Sherlock x reader Warnings: character death, angst Request: So there's these two songs I absolutely love, and I was wondering if someone could do a songfic for one of them ("Oh My Love" by Silver Trees or "Dear Doubt" by Michael Schulte) where Sherlock thinks the reader is dead but receives a note that could only be from her except no one believes him, thinking its a prank, but then she shows asking for his forgiveness and he refuses to forgive her, avoiding her at all cost. Maybe sad, or bittersweet, ending??? - anonymous A/N: Lovely request, anon! I’m the mood for angst lately, so here it is! This is my first songfic, so I hope I’ve nailed it! For the record, I set it before Reichenbach, so in about season 2, when John is still at 221B. I chose the first song you mentioned, as I found the lyrics slightly more suitable; I hope you like it, and sorry for the inactivity lately!

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My love, I had to write, my love, I feel the weight inside me grow, and hold.

Baker Street was completely empty. It was past midnight, but Sherlock knew Mrs. Hudson would have been awake to make him some dinner. Strangely enough, he was hungry. He was never hungry. Never, except for that day of the year. That day, it was a very important day, or it would have been had she not died. She, Y/N. He missed her, the only woman he ever loved. She hadn’t been like the others, no one could have ever said she had been. She had that laugh, those eyes, that mind, that were nothing common. And on that day, it would have been their anniversary. They had been together for about three years before she disappeared, and every year he would take her out somewhere she liked, sometimes he even remembered to get her a present. Because it was worth remembering, unlike everything else.

We were young back then when we started out, we were young back then.

She would have been twenty-seven years old on the day of her death. And on that day, on her twenty-seventh birthday, he found her body lying on the ground on one side, surrounded by blood, in the living room of her small apartment. He had hurried to call Molly, who told him, tears welling up in her eyes, that she had already died more than two hours before.

But he didn’t want to remember.

Soon, he arrived in front of the door to his apartment. He felt the cold metal of the doorknob under his calloused fingers as he pushed the door open, and Mrs. Hudson came his way. “Sherlock, how are you, dear? Do you want something to eat?” she asked approaching him slowly, noticing his grim expression. “I would love it, Mrs. Hudson. I’ll be upstairs”. He was hungry, he didn’t know why. Maybe he needed something to fill in the emptiness, and he couldn’t think of anything other than food, unless he went back to drugs. But she would have hated him for that.

He didn’t bother to take his coat off; he just sat on his chair, looking at the experiments left unfinished on the kitchen table, there as always, the experiments she used to help him with. The smell of dust was strong, but he hadn’t worried about that in a while either. Mrs. Hudson opened the door a few minutes later with a plate in her hand, and a letter in the other. “This came in the mail today, I don’t know if you want to read it. I haven’t opened it, maybe give it a look, will you? Who knows, there might be a big murder waiting for you!” She tried to force a smile out of Sherlock, but he didn’t even look at her as he took the plate and the letter from her hands. She didn’t say anything else; wisely, she decided to walk away and return to her apartment.

Sherlock ate quickly, as if starving. He wasn’t really hungry, but the emptiness was unbearable. Then, he took the letter, and brought it to his nose: the smell was familiar, and unmistakable: it was her smell. ‘Someone who wears the same perfume… there are way too many women in London’. He was tempted to toss the letter away and forget he ever saw it. That smell brought too many memories back, he couldn’t just read a letter and feel his heart clench every second with a new flashback. But he pulled through. He opened the envelope carefully, and his fingers brushed against a perfectly folded sheet of paper. Another memory flashed in his mind…

“What are you doing?” Sherlock asked, noticing Y/N was handling a lot of paper. “Oh, nothing” she replied with a slight laugh, “Inviting people for Christmas”. “Paper invitations?” “I like tradition”. Sherlock moved closer to her, noticing how she folded the paper aligning the corners perfectly. “They have to be original, don’t they?”

He smelled the paper again, letting the memory sink in for a second before trying his best to put it away. He unfolded the sheet, and his expression tensed. The handwriting: it was hers. There could be no doubt about that.

Happy anniversary, my love. I know I’ve done it all wrong. I’m sorry. But I miss you, even if I don’t know if you miss me, even if I don’t know if you still remember our anniversary. And I love you, even if I don’t know if you still love me, even if I don’t know if you’d still want to see me again. I’m coming for you, my love. Will you wait for me?

“No, no, NO!” Sherlock tossed the paper away from his sight, not anymore able to control the pain. He all of a sudden took his gun from a drawer and aimed at himself, hands shaking; then he relaxed. A deep breath, another… then he took the letter again. He read it out loud, fighting against the tears that threatened to fall as he noticed how much it sounded like her voice was speaking instead of his own. Then, he hid it under some documents, took his coat off, and locked himself in his bedroom.

Too far to say turn back, too high above to feel the ground below.

“John, John, please wake up. John, please!” Sherlock shook his roommate out of sleep in the early morning; he had not been able to relax for a single moment. He was still shaking, going almost out of his mind. “Sherlock, it’s not even five in the morning. What do you want?” “John, it’s about Y/N”. John’s eyes widened all of a sudden, looking up at Sherlock. “She’s been dead for two years, and for how it upsets you, how could there be any news?” “I don’t think she’s dead. She played with me. She played with my mind… again”. It was difficult to understand whether Sherlock was smiling or frowning as he let his mind wander in the memories. “What happened?” “I… I don’t know. My mind isn’t working as usual, John, I feel as if I were going crazy. I got a letter yesterday, it should have been our anniversary. It was written as if she had… It had her smell… It was her handwriting, I’m sure… John, I don’t understand, you are familiar with women instead. Could someone ever do something like this… could she have survived?” John’s expression saddened as it softened slightly. “She was losing blood from all over her chest. Both Molly and I inspected her wounds. She was dead, Sherlock, and it was her. I’m sure, unfortunately, as I’ve never been about anything”.

For the whole day, nothing could keep Sherlock away from that letter he had received. He couldn’t deduce any further, and only then he decided to do something he would have never done, in any other occasion: he called Greg Lestrade. “George, will you please come to the flat? I need your help with something”. “It’s Greg, and… wait. You need my help? With what?” “I can’t explain on the phone. Come here, and be quick!”

For Greg Lestrade, it would have been impossible to ever even wish to see Sherlock wanting his help for something. Yet there he was, almost begging in a shaky and anxious voice over the phone, a frustration in his tone that he had never heard before. Approaching the door to 221B and knocking lightly, he tried to guess what the reason for such a request could have been. Sherlock knew everything, while he, Gregory Lestrade, Detective Inspector of Scotland Yard, was nothing more than a mere human being in comparison to such genius. Mrs. Hudson opened the door and welcomed him with a smile. “Hello, Greg. What a pleasure to see you here! Unless you’re here to tell Sherlock off for something of course; he’s not really normal these days. Normal for Sherlock, I mean.” “Hello, Mrs. Hudson. Actually, Sherlock called me just now, he says he needs my help. Do you by chance…?” “I have no idea. He’s upstairs, try to see if he can calm down, he’s been screaming in frustration the whole day”. Greg walked up the stairs with hurry, and he opened the door silently to find Sherlock lying on the floor, stretched so that he almost walked over his hand as he entered the flat. “Finally, finally here, Gavin!” Sherlock said with a sigh of relief. He stood up from his unusual position, then hurried over to the kitchen table. “This. This piece of paper. This is what I need your help with. I’m going crazy over it”. Greg took the sheet in his hands, accurately analyzing it. The handwriting was awkwardly familiar. “You see it, Gill? It looks familiar, doesn’t it? Whose is it?” Sherlock pressed him. “Stop pretending not to remember my name! If it’s important for you, you should for once let me concentrate!” Sherlock caught the message and seemed to become small all of a sudden, and no matter the pity he felt for his desperation, Greg couldn’t help but be pleased by that. “Sherlock, you do understand that she’s dead, and that this is almost surely a prank sent by someone who wants to mess with you and make you waste your time, right?” Just like John’s, Greg’s reaction was obvious and his statements were probably correct - Sherlock knew that, but he was not going to accept it until he had more proof. The DI’s harsh words pierced right through his heart, as another confirmation of his worst fear that had come true two years past, and that was now pushing through his mind to make him feel the same things all over again: panic, sadness, loneliness. All over again.

Oh my love, will you take me home, when I’m lost, will you keep me close?

“You can check every single detail about her corpse in here, and if you’re really that crazy you can even take it back from the grave and analyze it once again. Sherlock, I’m telling you in the clearest way I can, and I know it hurts, it hurt me too back then, but Y/N is dead. I’m sorry, but that’s how it is and she can’t come back, you know that very well”. Sherlock had wanted to try talking to Molly Hooper, the only one left in the group, the only one left that could have given him some even faint hope. But she was sure of the facts, she couldn’t consider, for the sake of science, that maybe she had survived. It was impossible. “But this letter… It is not a prank, Molly, it can’t be. The smell, the handwriting, the way it is folded. Everything leads to her, Molly. You can find someone with the same perfume, or a similar handwriting, or someone with serious OCD that folds sheets perfectly. But what’s the possibility of finding someone else with all these three combined?” “Sherlock, this is not letting you think logically anymore. Please let it go, it’s not worth it”. “It is, it is worth it! How can you all just not understand?” he shouted, leaving the morgue with his hands balled into fists, the letter crumpled in his strong grip.

Oh my love, will you give me the faith to believe in a fight and carry through the flame?

“I’m coming for you. Will you wait for me?” Sherlock couldn’t stop repeating those two last lines in his mind. He was waiting, but when was she going to come? Slowly, he’d started to doubt the authenticity of the letter as well. There was no sign of her, nothing that could even remotely indicate her presence anywhere. No one was knocking at the door, other than some random boring clients. No one was climbing in through the window. No one was sending anything anymore. No hidden messages were getting in his way. There was nothing, she was gone forever and she’d been gone for two years. He was finally starting to accept that. Maybe one day he was also going to learn to forget her completely, not to think of her anymore. And maybe for once he was going to be able to go through the day of their anniversary without feeling that empty. Maybe, the pain he was feeling was the pain caused by the pieces of his heart coming back together. Maybe, the wound was healing.

“Sherlock, are you okay?” John asked one morning, about two weeks after the events. “Do we have clients today?” “Not yet, it’s only seven in the morning”. “Right.” Sherlock hadn’t been accepting any cases lately, though. John was worried by that. Sometimes, he would have given the world to get one simple case. Now, he was avoiding every request. “If it is a prank, I have to at least know who decided to prank me. I’m not accepting anything until I’ve solved this, so send them away if they come and say Sherlock Holmes is very busy right now” Sherlock murmured, as if answering John’s questions. “You’re still thinking about that?” John asked. “How can I not?” “I thought you had decided to let it go. Sherlock, it’s not worth it. There might be some great cases among the ones you declined, you’re going to regret this later”. “Sounds like what Mrs. Hudson would say”. “It’s what Mrs. Hudson says, Sherlock!” The detective didn’t answer. He laid back in his chair, looking at the letter sitting on the small table beside him.

My love, I know the way I’ve walked ten thousand miles to make it through, for you. Hold on to light and rest in my heart, know this is my best for you.

It was almost midnight. Sherlock hadn’t moved from his chair the whole day, and had barely said a word. John had probably gone to his girlfriend’s, but the detective really couldn’t tell: he hadn’t been paying any attention to that, at all. The wind was hitting with great force against the locked windows, but it didn’t seem to bother him. The door to the flat opened all of a sudden, revealing a thin figure in the shadows. “I’ve been waiting” Sherlock whispered softly, a hint of sorrow in his voice. “So you have…” Silence fell as the figure moved towards him, into the flat. He stood and faced it, the soft features of his old lover barely visible in the dark. “How did you fool everyone? How did you do that? Me, John, Molly, everyone. How did you do it?” The questions came out all at once; he was barely able to hold himself together. “It’s difficult to explain…” “Answer me”. He heard her softly sigh as she took another step forward. “I can’t tell you”. “Then there’s nothing to talk about. You made me wait for no reason. You can go”. “No, Sherlock, really, I…” He stared into her eyes that sparkled in the dim light coming from the street. “I really can’t tell you. But now it’s all over, and maybe one day it will be so far in the past that we’ll be able to talk about it as if it were nothing. Please, just…” He didn’t answer, but the feeling of his eyes on her made her voice crack. “I messed it up again, didn’t I?” No reply. “Maybe if I’d just really died back then, maybe it would have been different. I know, I know, I know… I’m always wrong. But I missed you, I really did, and I know you did too. Please, Sherlock, answer me for once… Will you ever be able to forgive me?” Sherlock moved a few steps towards Y/N, lifting her chin up with two fingers and closing the distance between them with a sweet kiss. He had missed her, and he had missed the feeling of her lips against his, but it was better for him and for her to just let it go. He pulled away, then whispered in her ear: “Now go”. Y/N threw her arms at his neck, letting some of her tears fall on his shoulder. “Sherlock…” “Just go”. “I messed it up again…” “You should have thought about it. You either give me a reason, or this is it.” “I can’t”. “Then go, and if this had to be the case you should have not sent that letter at all. You sent me on a fool’s errand these days, do you have the slightest idea what that means? I’ve been refusing clients, just because I didn’t seem to understand how that letter had come my way. Please, just go, and don’t show up again unless you have a real reason for it”. He grabbed her wrists, forcing her to loosen her grip on him, then led her towards the door. It was the final goodbye.

You belong along the road with me, I belong with you.

“Mr. Holmes, it’s weird to explain, but… God, I can’t manage…” A man had stormed into 221B a couple of weeks after Y/N’s return, claiming that his wife had been killed during the night. “This morning I woke up and found her in a pool of blood… Mr. Holmes, I…” It wasn’t the first one of the kind. Since about a week, many young men had been coming to the flat to discuss their wives’ or girlfriends’ sudden death, especially overnight. One of them also claimed that the day in which they’d found the body, was meant to be his and his wife’s anniversary. As the client walked out the door, John approached Sherlock. “Why all these sudden deaths? Why just the women? Why overnight?” “I know why and we’re going to confirm my theory… tonight, I suppose”. “Am I allowed to be there?” “No”.

It was rainy outside. The door to the flat opened again, after midnight, and Y/N’s thin figure stood at the entrance. “Why did you kill them?” “I don’t know. But don’t worry, today’s was the last one”. “Why?” Y/N approached Sherlock, who immediately stood up from his chair. “I don’t know that either. Actually, maybe there’s one more left”. “I knew it was you since the second client, but can you give me the reason for this at the very least?” “Sherlock, I told you. I don’t know. But I have to complete my last task”. She walked towards him again, and kissed him sweetly for the last time before aiming a gun at her heart. “This time’s for real, Sherlock. No more tricks, I swear”. The loud firing of the gun made him jump, then he found her dead body in his arms, warm blood dripping from the wound. The gun hit the ground with a thud, and Sherlock fell to his knees, holding Y/N close to his chest as his tears landed on her cold skin.

[woodsens]

The 12 Worst Types best beginner keyboard piano

Correction Appended

On an album of bittersweet childrens music that she wrote more than a decade back, the lady who arrived to get recognised only given that the piano teacher available what, in hindsight, seems like an eerie glimpse of her personal foreseeable future.

Im moving absent nowadays to a location so far-off, the place nobody knows my title, she wrote from the lyrics of a song referred to as Shifting.

When she wrote that music, she was young and vivacious, a piano teacher and freelance audio writer who liked Beethoven and jazz, sunsets and river Appears, lengthy walks and every little thing about The big apple.

On a kind of beloved walks, via Central Park in the bright Sunshine of the June day in 1996, a homeless drifter conquer her and tried to rape her, leaving her clinging to life. Once the assault, the terms to her music came legitimate. She moved absent, away from Ny city, outside of her outdated lifestyle, and all but her closest buddies didn't know her title. To the rest of the environment, she was — like the much more well known jogger attacked in Central Park seven yrs before — an anonymous image of the city nightmare. She was the piano Instructor.

Now, within the 10th anniversary of your attack, she is celebrating what seems to be her total Restoration from brain trauma. She is forty two, married, with a little baby. She is Kyle Kevorkian McCann, the piano teacher, and he or she hopes to explain to her Tale, her way.

Her medical professional explained to her it will take ten years to Get well, and Sunday was that talismanic anniversary. I come to feel my everyday living continues to be redefined by Central Park, she claimed a number of days in the past, her voice delicate and hopeful. Just before park; following park. Will there at any time certainly be a time Once i dont think, Oh, this is the 10th anniversary, the eleventh anniversary?

She spoke in her modest ranch household in a very wooded subdivision inside a The big apple suburb. She sat inside of a eating area strewn with toys, surrounded by images of her cherubic, darkish-haired 2-yr-aged daughter. A Steinway grand stuffed 50 percent the room, and at a single position she sat down and performed. Her playing was forceful, but she seemed humiliated to play various bars, and shrugged, as opposed to answering, when asked the title from the piece. She requested that her daughter and her city not be named.

She calls that day, June 4, 1996, the day when I was damage.

Hers was the very first in a string of assaults by precisely the same man on 4 women about 8 times. The last sufferer, Evelyn Alvarez, 65, was crushed to Demise as she opened her Park Avenue dry-cleansing store, and ultimately, the assailant, John J. Royster, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in jail.

Still the assault over the piano Instructor would be the one particular people feel to remember probably the most. Part of the fascination must do with echoes in the 1989 assault over the Central Park jogger. But Additionally, it frightened men and women in a way the attack within the jogger didn't simply because its situations have been so mundane.

It didn't happen in a very distant part of the park late during the night, but in close proximity to a well known playground at 3 inside the afternoon. It could have occurred to anybody. The stress was heightened by the thriller with the piano teachers id.

For three times, as law enforcement and Medical doctors experimented with to see who she was, she lay inside a coma in her clinic bed, nameless. Her moms and dads were on trip and her boyfriend, also a musician, was in Europe, on tour. Last but not least, among her pupils regarded a law enforcement sketch and was able to detect her from the clinic by her fingers, mainly because her face was swollen beyond recognition. The law enforcement did not release her name.

The very last thing she remembers about June 4, 1996, is offering a lesson in her studio condominium on West 57th Road, then Placing her very long hair inside of a ponytail and going out to get a walk. She won't try to remember the attack, Though she has read the accounts from the law enforcement and prosecutors.

To me its similar to a actuality I learned and memorized, she said. Just as if I have been a pupil in school studying record.

She won't take into consideration The person who did it. I may need been angry for any minute, although not much longer than that, she mentioned. How could I be offended at John Royster? He was declared not crazy, but I assume by our expectations he was.

Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, her health care provider at Ny Healthcare facility-Cornell Healthcare Heart, as it was identified in 1996, informed reporters that she experienced a 10 per cent possibility of survival. Medical practitioners experienced to get rid of her forehead bone, which was later replaced, to produce home for her swelling Mind. When her mother manufactured a community attract pray for my daughter, countless numbers did.

Soon after 8 times, she arrived outside of a coma, to start with inside a vegetative state, then in the childlike state. As she recovered, she slept minor and talked consistently, sometimes in gibberish. I used to be having mad at folks after they didnt reply to these words and phrases, she claimed.

Like an Alzheimers affected individual, she had very little brief-term memory and would ignore guests once they remaining the space.

More than various months, she had to relearn the way to walk, gown, examine and produce. Her boyfriend, Tony Scherr, frequented every day to Perform guitar for her. He encouraged her to Engage in the piano, in opposition to the recommendation of her Bodily therapists, who believed she would be pissed off by her lack of ability to Enjoy just how she at the time had. Mr. Scherr performed Beatles duets with her, participating in the still left-hand portion though she performed the correct.

That was my best therapy, she said.

In August, she moved again residence to New Jersey, together with her father, an engineer, and mother, a schoolteacher. She visited outdated haunts and named friends, striving to restore her shattered memory. I used to be pretty obsessed with remembering, she mentioned. Any memory reduction was to me an indication of abnormality or deficit.

Her therapists believed her development was fantastic, but her two sisters protested that she wasn't the deep thinker she had been.

What bothered her most was that she experienced lost the opportunity to cry, just as if a faucet within her brain had been turned off. A person evening, 9 months just after she was harm, she stayed up late to look at the John Grisham Motion picture A The perfect time to Get rid of. Just immediately after her father experienced long gone to bed, she viewed a courtroom scene of Samuel Jacksons character on trial for killing two Gentlemen who had raped his younger daughter.

The faucet opened, plus the tears trickled down her cheeks. I thought about my mom and dad, my father, and what they went by means of, she explained. Minimal by tiny, my experience returned, my depth of mind returned.

Urged by her sisters, she went back to highschool and acquired a masters diploma in tunes schooling.

Not every thing went nicely. She and Mr. Scherr split up 5 years following the assault, even though they continue to be good friends. She dated other Guys, but she usually instructed them regarding the assault straight away — she couldn't aid it, she mentioned — they usually hardly ever known as for the second date.

We have to uncover you anyone, her Mate David Phelps, a guitar participant, said four yrs ago, in advance of introducing her to Liam McCann, a pc technician and amateur drummer. For once, she didn't say just about anything with regard to the assault till she acquired to grasp Mr. McCann, and after that when she did, he admired her strength.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had normally frequented her at her bedside when she was inside the healthcare facility, married them in his Times Sq. office. She wore a blue gown and pearls. Whilst she was pregnant, within a burst of creativeness, she and her mates recorded Even though Were being Youthful, an album of childrens songs that she experienced prepared ahead of the attack, including the tune Transferring. Her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Scherr, developed the CD. On it, her partner plays drums and she plays electric piano.

Is her life as it absolutely was? Not accurately, nevertheless she's unwilling to attribute the discrepancies to her injuries. Her previous two piano college students still left her, without the need of calling to explain why, she stated. She has resumed taking part in classical new music, but simple pieces, for the reason that her daughter would not give her time and energy to exercise. As for jazz, I dont even attempt, she claimed.

She wish to generate far more, sensation stranded within the suburbs, but she is definitely rattled. She tries to be articles with staying dwelling and caring for her daughter.

Dr. Ghajar, a medical professor of neurological operation at what is now identified as New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Clinical Center, who operated on Ms. Kevorkian McCann after the attack, said last week that her amount of recovery was rare. Shes basically usual, he said.

Other specialists, who're not personally accustomed to Ms. Kevorkian McCanns case, are more careful.

Regaining the ability to play the piano might contain an Practically mechanical method, a semiautomatic remember of what the fingers ought to do, mentioned Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a professor of scientific rehabilitation medication at New York College School of Medication. When brain-wounded, you happen to be always brain-injured, for the rest of your lifetime, Dr. Ben-Yishay stated. There's no overcome, There exists only intensive compensation.

The greater telling Portion of a Restoration, in his perspective, is psychological, and on that rating he counts Ms. Kevorkian McCanns relationship and kid as a major victory.

For her aspect, the piano teacher understands she has changed, but she has designed her peace with it. I was type of a hyper —— I dont know if I used to be a Type A, but I was bold, she claims. Why was I so formidable? I used to be a piano Trainer. I dont really know what the ambition was about. I actually did return to the person Im purported to be.

[redkiteradio]

12 Stats About best beginner keyboard piano

Correction Appended

On an album of bittersweet childrens tunes that she wrote in excess of ten years back, the woman who came for being recognized only because the piano teacher available what, in hindsight, looks as if an eerie glimpse of her possess long run.

Im going away today to a spot so far away, in which nobody is familiar with my title, she wrote inside the lyrics of the music named Going.

When she wrote that tune, she was youthful and vivacious, a piano Trainer and freelance audio writer who beloved Beethoven and jazz, sunsets and river sounds, lengthy walks and every little thing about New York.

On a kind of beloved walks, by way of Central Park in the brilliant Solar of the June day in 1996, a homeless drifter beat her and attempted to rape her, leaving her clinging to lifetime. After the assault, the words to her music came real. She moved absent, from New York City, out of her outdated life, and all but her closest buddies didn't know her title. To the remainder of the planet, she was — much like the a lot more renowned jogger attacked in Central Park seven several years before — an anonymous symbol of the urban nightmare. She was the piano Instructor.

Now, within the 10th anniversary from the attack, she's celebrating what seems to be her total recovery from brain trauma. She is forty two, married, with a little boy or girl. She is Kyle Kevorkian McCann, the piano Trainer, and she or he would like to tell her story, her way.

Her health care provider informed her it could consider ten years to Get better, and Sunday was that talismanic anniversary. I experience my lifetime has become redefined by Central Park, she reported several times in the past, her voice soft and hopeful. Before park; immediately after park. Will there ever be a time when I dont Feel, Oh, this is the 10th anniversary, the 11th anniversary?

She spoke in her modest ranch property inside a wooded subdivision in a The big apple suburb. She sat in the eating home strewn with toys, surrounded by photos of her cherubic, dark-haired 2-year-outdated daughter. A Steinway grand filled 50 percent the home, and at one particular level she sat down and performed. Her taking part in was forceful, but she appeared embarrassed to Perform more than a few bars, and shrugged, rather than answering, when questioned the identify in the piece. She requested that her daughter and her city not be named.

She calls that working day, June 4, 1996, the working day After i was hurt.

Hers was the main in the string of attacks by the identical person on 4 women about 8 days. The final victim, Evelyn Alvarez, 65, was crushed to Loss of life as she opened her Park Avenue dry-cleansing store, and finally, the assailant, John J. Royster, was convicted of murder and sentenced to daily life in prison.

But the attack over the piano Trainer could be the 1 folks feel to keep in mind essentially the most. Part of the fascination has got to do with echoes of the 1989 attack over the Central Park jogger. But In addition it frightened individuals in a way the attack on the jogger did not since its conditions ended up so mundane.

It did not happen inside a remote Portion of the park late in the evening, but in close proximity to a well known playground at three during the afternoon. It might have transpired to any individual. The stress was heightened with the thriller from the piano lecturers identity.

For three days, as law enforcement and doctors tried using to learn who she was, she lay within a coma in her medical center mattress, anonymous. Her dad and mom were on holiday vacation and her boyfriend, also a musician, was in Europe, on tour. Last but not least, among her pupils recognized a police sketch and was capable of recognize her in the medical center by her fingers, mainly because her face was swollen past recognition. The law enforcement did not release her identify.

The very last thing she remembers about June four, 1996, is supplying a lesson in her studio condominium on West 57th Road, then putting her lengthy hair in the ponytail and heading out to get a wander. She would not remember the attack, While she has listened to the accounts with the law enforcement and prosecutors.

To me its just like a reality I figured out and memorized, she mentioned. Like I were being a university student at school finding out historical past.

She isn't going to contemplate the man who did it. I may need been angry for the moment, although not for much longer than that, she stated. How could I be indignant at John Royster? He was declared not insane, but I guess by our standards he was.

Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, her medical professional at Big apple Medical center-Cornell Health-related Center, as it had been known in 1996, instructed reporters that she had a ten per cent chance of survival. Physicians had to remove her forehead bone, which was later changed, to generate area for her swelling Mind. When her mom designed a public appeal to pray for my daughter, hundreds did.

Right after 8 days, she arrived away from a coma, very first in a vegetative state, then in the childlike point out. As she recovered, she slept very little and talked continuously, at times in gibberish. I had been getting mad at men and women every time they didnt respond to these words and phrases, she claimed.

Like an Alzheimers patient, she had little quick-expression memory and would neglect readers when they still left the room.

Around various months, she had to relearn the way to stroll, gown, browse and generate. Her boyfriend, Tony Scherr, frequented every day to Engage in guitar for her. He inspired her to Enjoy the piano, towards the recommendation of her Actual physical therapists, who imagined she can be discouraged by her inability to play the best way she when experienced. Mr. Scherr performed Beatles duets with her, participating in the still left-hand part whilst she performed the correct.

Which was my very best therapy, she reported.

In August, she moved again dwelling to New Jersey, along with her father, an engineer, and mother, a schoolteacher. She frequented outdated haunts and termed pals, making an attempt to restore her shattered memory. I was quite obsessive about remembering, she reported. Any memory decline was to me an indication of abnormality or deficit.

Her therapists believed her progress was terrific, but her two sisters protested that she was not the deep thinker she had been.

What bothered her most was that she had dropped a chance to cry, as though a faucet within her brain were turned off. One particular evening, nine months after she was harm, she stayed up late to look at the John Grisham Film A The perfect time to Eliminate. Just after her father experienced absent to bed, she watched a courtroom scene of Samuel Jacksons character on demo for killing two Guys who had raped his younger daughter.

The faucet opened, and also the tears trickled down her cheeks. I thought of my mother and father, my father, and the things they went through, she stated. Very little by small, my experience returned, my depth of brain returned.

Urged by her sisters, she went back again to highschool and bought a masters diploma in songs education.

Not all the things went perfectly. She and Mr. Scherr split up five years after the attack, although they continue to be friends. She dated other Males, but she usually advised them with regard to the attack instantly — she could not support it, she reported — and so they never ever referred to as for just a 2nd day.

We've got to find you anyone, her friend David Phelps, a guitar player, claimed four years in the past, right before introducing her to Liam McCann, a computer technician and amateur drummer. For once, she did not say something about the attack until finally she acquired to grasp Mr. McCann, after which you can when she did, he admired her power.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had frequently frequented her at her bedside while she was inside the healthcare facility, married them in his Moments Sq. Office environment. She wore a blue costume and pearls. Although she was pregnant, inside of a burst of creativity, she and her pals recorded While Had been Younger, an album of childrens songs that she had written before the attack, such as the song Shifting. Her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Scherr, generated the CD. On it, her husband plays drums and she or he performs electrical piano.

Is her everyday living as it was? Not accurately, however she is hesitant to attribute the variations to her injuries. Her previous two piano pupils left her, without contacting to elucidate why, she stated. She has resumed playing classical tunes, but straightforward pieces, for the reason that her daughter would not give her the perfect time to practice. As for jazz, I dont even attempt, she reported.

She want to drive more, feeling stranded inside the suburbs, but she is definitely rattled. She attempts to be material with being residence and caring for her daughter.

Dr. Ghajar, a scientific professor of neurological surgical procedure at what on earth is now termed New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Clinical Heart, who operated on Ms. Kevorkian McCann after the assault, said past week that her level of Restoration was unusual. Shes in essence ordinary, he explained.

Other authorities, who are not Individually aware of Ms. Kevorkian McCanns scenario, tend to be more cautious.

Regaining the ability to play the piano may include an Virtually mechanical course of action, a semiautomatic remember of what the fingers ought to do, reported Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a professor of clinical rehabilitation medication at New York College School of Medicine. At the time brain-wounded, you happen to be generally brain-hurt, For the remainder of your daily life, Dr. Ben-Yishay reported. There isn't a remedy, There is certainly only intense compensation.

The more telling A part of a Restoration, in his perspective, is psychological, and on that rating he counts Ms. Kevorkian McCanns relationship and child as a major victory.

For her element, the piano teacher knows she has modified, but she has built her peace with it. I used to be kind of a hyper —— I dont know if I had been a sort A, but I used to be bold, she says. Why was I so formidable? I had been a piano teacher. I dont determine what the ambition was about. I really did return to the person Im purported to be.

[emilyl-b]

10 Great fire inside music Public Speakers

Correction Appended

On an album of bittersweet childrens tracks that she wrote a lot more than ten years ago, the woman who came to get regarded only because the piano teacher offered what, in hindsight, looks like an eerie glimpse of her possess potential.

Im transferring absent these days to a spot so distant, exactly where no person knows my name, she wrote in the lyrics of a tune identified as Relocating.

When she wrote that music, she was young and vivacious, a piano Instructor and freelance audio author who loved Beethoven and jazz, sunsets and river sounds, lengthy walks and every thing about Big apple.

On a kind of beloved walks, by way of Central Park in the intense Sunlight of the June working day in 1996, a homeless drifter beat her and attempted to rape her, leaving her clinging to daily life. Once the assault, the text to her track came accurate. She moved absent, out of New York City, from her outdated everyday living, and all but her closest good friends didn't know her identify. To the remainder of the globe, she was — much like the additional well known jogger attacked in Central Park 7 a long time previously — an nameless symbol of the city nightmare. She was the piano Trainer.

Now, around the 10th anniversary on the attack, she's celebrating what is apparently her comprehensive Restoration from Mind trauma. She is 42, married, with a small boy or girl. She's Kyle Kevorkian McCann, the piano Instructor, and she or he really wants to convey to her story, her way.

Her health care provider instructed her it will just take 10 years to Recuperate, and Sunday was that talismanic anniversary. I sense my life has become redefined by Central Park, she mentioned a number of days in the past, her voice delicate and hopeful. Before park; just after park. Will there ever be described as a time Once i dont Believe, Oh, Here is the tenth anniversary, the 11th anniversary?

She spoke in her modest ranch house inside of a wooded subdivision in a The big apple suburb. She sat inside of a eating place strewn with toys, surrounded by pictures of her cherubic, dim-haired 2-12 months-aged daughter. A Steinway grand filled 50 % the place, and at one particular place she sat down and performed. Her actively playing was forceful, but she seemed ashamed to Enjoy various bars, and shrugged, rather then answering, when questioned the identify of your piece. She requested that her daughter and her town not be named.

She calls that working day, June 4, 1996, the day Once i was harm.

Hers was the 1st in a string of assaults by the exact same guy on 4 Women of all ages above 8 times. The last victim, Evelyn Alvarez, 65, was crushed to death as she opened her Park Avenue dry-cleansing shop, and in the end, the assailant, John J. Royster, was convicted of murder and sentenced to daily life in jail.

However the assault on the piano Trainer will be the just one individuals seem to recall by far the most. Section of the fascination should do with echoes on the 1989 attack over the Central Park jogger. But Furthermore, it frightened people today in a way the attack around the jogger did not simply because its circumstances were so mundane.

It did not occur in a very distant A part of the park late during the night, but close to a favorite playground at three from the afternoon. It could have transpired to any one. The strain was heightened with the thriller on the piano academics identification.

For three days, as law enforcement and Medical doctors tried using to see who she was, she lay in the coma in her healthcare facility bed, nameless. Her mothers and fathers had been on vacation and her boyfriend, also a musician, was in Europe, on tour. Eventually, amongst her pupils identified a police sketch and was capable of establish her while in the clinic by her fingers, mainly because her face was swollen further than recognition. The police did not launch her identify.

The very last thing she remembers about June four, 1996, is offering a lesson in her studio apartment on West 57th Avenue, then Placing her very long hair in the ponytail and going out for just a walk. She won't keep in mind the attack, While she has heard the accounts in the police and prosecutors.

To me its like a fact I discovered and memorized, she said. Like I were a student in school finding out heritage.

She isn't going to take into consideration The person who did it. I may have been offended for a minute, but not for much longer than that, she reported. How could I be indignant at John Royster? He was declared not crazy, but I guess by our standards he was.

Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, her physician at New York Clinic-Cornell Medical Middle, as it had been recognised in 1996, explained to reporters that she experienced a ten percent probability of survival. Health professionals had to remove her forehead bone, which was later on replaced, to generate space for her swelling brain. When her mom built a public attract pray for my daughter, hundreds did.

Following eight times, she arrived from a coma, initially in a vegetative point out, then in a childlike point out. As she recovered, she slept tiny and talked frequently, sometimes in gibberish. I had been obtaining mad at persons if they didnt reply to these words and phrases, she explained.

Like an Alzheimers individual, she had small shorter-term memory and would fail to remember people when they remaining the room.

More than various months, she needed to relearn how you can walk, dress, study and write. Her boyfriend, Tony Scherr, visited each day to Participate in guitar for her. He inspired her to Enjoy the piano, in opposition to the recommendation of her Actual physical therapists, who believed she could well be frustrated by her lack of ability to Perform the way she after experienced. Mr. Scherr played Beatles duets along with her, playing the still left-hand aspect though she played the best.

That was my most effective therapy, she explained.

In August, she moved again home to New Jersey, along with her father, an engineer, and mom, a schoolteacher. She visited previous haunts and named good friends, making an attempt to revive her shattered memory. I had been quite obsessive about remembering, she stated. Any memory loss was to me a sign of abnormality or deficit.

Her therapists considered her development was great, but her two sisters protested that she wasn't the deep thinker she had been.

What bothered her most was that she had shed a chance to cry, as if a faucet inside her Mind had been turned off. 1 night, nine months soon after she was harm, she stayed up late to view the John Grisham movie A Time and energy to Destroy. Just right after her father had gone to mattress, she watched a courtroom scene of Samuel Jacksons character on trial for killing two men who experienced raped his young daughter.

The faucet opened, as well as the tears trickled down her cheeks. I considered my mother and father, my father, and the things they went by means of, she reported. Minor by little, my sensation returned, my depth of brain returned.

Urged by her sisters, she went back to school and acquired a masters diploma in tunes training.

Not every little thing went nicely. She and Mr. Scherr split up five years once the assault, though they continue to be friends. She dated other Guys, but she constantly informed them concerning the assault immediately — she couldn't assist it, she claimed — plus they by no means termed for your next date.

Now we have to seek out you an individual, her Good friend David Phelps, a guitar player, stated 4 years in the past, prior to introducing her to Liam McCann, a pc technician and beginner drummer. For after, she did not say anything at all with regards to the attack until eventually she acquired to grasp Mr. McCann, after which when she did, he admired her strength.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who experienced typically visited her at her bedside whilst she was from the medical center, married them in his Occasions Square Place of work. She wore a blue costume and pearls. Even though she was pregnant, within a burst of creativeness, she and her friends recorded Even though Had been Youthful, an album of childrens tracks that she experienced written before the assault, including the tune Moving. Her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Scherr, made the CD. On it, her partner performs drums and she plays electric powered piano.

Is her everyday living as it absolutely was? Not accurately, nevertheless she is reluctant to attribute the distinctions to her injuries. Her very last two piano learners remaining her, without calling to clarify why, she claimed. She has resumed playing classical tunes, but uncomplicated items, mainly because her daughter will not give her the perfect time to apply. As for jazz, I dont even consider, she explained.

She would want to drive far more, feeling stranded inside the suburbs, but she is definitely rattled. She tries to be articles with keeping house and caring for her daughter.

Dr. Ghajar, a medical professor of neurological surgical treatment at what is now known as New York-Presbyterian Clinic/Weill Cornell Healthcare Heart, who operated on Ms. Kevorkian McCann after the attack, claimed last 7 days that her degree of recovery was uncommon. Shes essentially standard, he mentioned.

Other professionals, who will be not personally acquainted with Ms. Kevorkian McCanns situation, are more cautious.

Regaining a chance to Participate in the piano could include an Practically mechanical method, a semiautomatic remember of what the fingers have to do, explained Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a professor of medical rehabilitation medication at Ny University School of Medicine. Once Mind-wounded, you will be always brain-wounded, for the rest of your life, Dr. Ben-Yishay explained. There is no remedy, There's only intensive compensation.

The greater telling Element of a recovery, in his check out, is psychological, and on that score he counts Ms. Kevorkian McCanns marriage and baby as a major victory.

For her element, the piano Instructor is aware she has changed, but she has designed her peace with it. I had been form of a hyper —— I dont know if I was a Type A, but I was bold, she states. Why was I so bold? I used to be a piano Trainer. I dont know very well what the ambition was about. I really did come back to the person Im supposed to be.

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Miley Cyrus and best keyboard for learning piano

Correction Appended

On an album of bittersweet childrens music that she wrote a lot more than a decade back, the woman who came to generally be regarded only because the piano Instructor provided what, in hindsight, looks as if an eerie glimpse of her personal long run.

Im shifting absent now to an area so distant, where by no one is familiar with my identify, she wrote in the lyrics of a song identified as Shifting.

When she wrote that music, she was youthful and vivacious, a piano teacher and freelance music writer who cherished Beethoven and jazz, sunsets and river Appears, long walks and all the things about New York.

On one of those beloved walks, by way of Central Park in the intense sun of a June day in 1996, a homeless drifter conquer her and tried to rape her, leaving her clinging to existence. Following the attack, the words and phrases to her music came accurate. She moved away, outside of New York City, away from her old lifetime, and all but her closest friends did not know her identify. To the remainder of the earth, she was -- much like the more popular jogger attacked in Central Park 7 years earlier -- an nameless image of the city nightmare. She was the piano Instructor.

Now, within the tenth anniversary on the attack, she's celebrating what is apparently her complete Restoration from brain trauma. She's forty two, married, with a little kid. She is Kyle Kevorkian McCann, the piano Instructor, and he or she would like to inform her story, her way.

Her physician explained to her it would get a decade to Get well, and Sunday was that talismanic anniversary. I sense my daily life continues to be redefined by Central Park, she stated various times back, her voice gentle and hopeful. In advance of park; right after park. Will there ever be a time After i dont Imagine, Oh, This is actually the 10th anniversary, the eleventh anniversary?

She spoke in her modest ranch household in a very wooded subdivision in a very New York suburb. She sat inside a dining area strewn with toys, surrounded by images of her cherubic, dark-haired 2-12 months-outdated daughter. A Steinway grand crammed fifty percent the area, and at just one position she sat down and played. Her playing was forceful, but she seemed ashamed to Perform various bars, and shrugged, rather than answering, when questioned the title of the piece. She asked that her daughter and her town not be named.

She phone calls that day, June four, 1996, the day After i was harm.

Hers was the primary in a string of assaults by the identical man on 4 Girls about eight days. The last victim, Evelyn Alvarez, 65, was overwhelmed to Loss of life as she opened her Park Avenue dry-cleaning store, and ultimately, the assailant, John J. Royster, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

But the assault about the piano Instructor could be the a single individuals look to remember the most. Component of the fascination must do with echoes with the 1989 assault over the Central Park jogger. But Furthermore, it frightened people in a means the attack around the jogger did not mainly because its conditions were so mundane.

It did not happen in a distant Component of the park late in the evening, but around a preferred playground at 3 while in the afternoon. It could have transpired to any individual. The tension was heightened because of the thriller on the piano teachers identification.

For three days, as law enforcement and Medical doctors tried to understand who she was, she lay inside of a coma in her hospital bed, anonymous. Her moms and dads had been on getaway and her boyfriend, also a musician, was in Europe, on tour. Lastly, one among her students recognized a police sketch and was capable to discover her inside the medical center by her fingers, simply because her encounter was swollen beyond recognition. The law enforcement did not release her name.

The very last thing she remembers about June 4, 1996, is offering a lesson in her studio condominium on West 57th Street, then putting her prolonged hair inside a ponytail and going out for just a stroll. She would not recall the attack, Though she has listened to the accounts in the police and prosecutors.

To me its just like a fact I acquired and memorized, she explained. As though I were being a college student at school finding out history.

She isn't going to consider the man who did it. I might need been offended for a second, although not much longer than that, she stated. How could I be indignant at John Royster? He was declared not insane, but I assume by our benchmarks he was.

Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, her doctor at Ny Hospital-Cornell Health care Centre, as it was regarded in 1996, explained to reporters that she experienced a ten % prospect of survival. Doctors had to remove her forehead bone, which was afterwards replaced, to create area for her swelling Mind. When her mom designed a general public attract pray for my daughter, thousands did.

Soon after eight times, she came out of a coma, to start with within a vegetative state, then in a childlike condition. As she recovered, she slept minimal and talked frequently, in some cases in gibberish. I was receiving mad at individuals if they didnt reply to these words and phrases, she mentioned.

Like an Alzheimers affected individual, she had minimal quick-phrase memory and would forget about visitors when they left the room.

More than many months, she had to relearn the way to walk, dress, browse and publish. Her boyfriend, Tony Scherr, frequented every single day to play guitar for her. He inspired her to Participate in the piano, versus the advice of her Actual physical therapists, who considered she would be pissed off by her inability to Participate in the way in which she once had. Mr. Scherr played Beatles duets together with her, playing the still left-hand part whilst she performed the appropriate.

Which was my most effective therapy, she stated.

In August, she moved back property to New Jersey, with her father, an engineer, and mom, a schoolteacher. She visited previous haunts and known as good friends, trying to restore her shattered memory. I was very obsessed with remembering, she stated. Any memory reduction was to me a sign of abnormality or deficit.

Her therapists thought her development was terrific, but her two sisters protested that she was not the deep thinker she were.

What bothered her most was that she had lost the chance to cry, like a faucet inside her Mind had been turned off. A single night time, nine months immediately after she was damage, she stayed up late to observe the John Grisham Motion picture A Time for you to Destroy. Just after her father experienced long gone to mattress, she watched a courtroom scene of Samuel Jacksons character on trial for killing two Adult males who had raped his younger daughter.

The faucet opened, as well as tears trickled down her cheeks. I thought about my dad and mom, my father, and what they went as a result of, she reported. Minimal by very little, my feeling returned, my depth of intellect returned.

Urged by her sisters, she went back again to school and acquired a masters degree in new music education and learning.

Not every little thing went effectively. She and Mr. Scherr split up 5 years after the assault, even though they remain good friends. She dated other Adult males, but she usually told them in regards to the assault straight away -- she could not assist it, she said -- and they in no way termed to get a next date.

We have now to locate you a person, her friend David Phelps, a guitar participant, mentioned 4 many years ago, right before introducing her to Liam McCann, a computer technician and beginner drummer. For the moment, she did not say something regarding the assault right up until she acquired to know Mr. McCann, then when she did, he admired her toughness.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had generally visited her at her bedside while she was from the clinic, married them in his Occasions Square Business. She wore a blue dress and pearls. Although she was Expecting, in a very burst of creative imagination, she and her friends recorded When Had been Young, an album of childrens tunes that she had written before the assault, including the music Relocating. Her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Scherr, generated the CD. On it, her partner performs drums and she or he plays electric powered piano.

Is her everyday living as it absolutely was? Not accurately, although she's hesitant to attribute the dissimilarities to her accidents. Her final two piano learners remaining her, without contacting to explain why, she reported. She has resumed actively playing classical songs, but straightforward pieces, since her daughter would not give her the perfect time to follow. As for jazz, I dont even test, she mentioned.

She want to push far more, emotion stranded from the suburbs, but she is definitely rattled. She tries to be material with remaining property and caring for her daughter.

Dr. Ghajar, a clinical professor of neurological operation at what on earth is now referred to as NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare facility/Weill Cornell Healthcare Centre, who operated on Ms. Kevorkian McCann once the attack, mentioned very last week that her standard of Restoration was rare. Shes fundamentally regular, he explained.

Other industry experts, who will be not Individually familiar with Ms. Kevorkian McCanns situation, tend to be more cautious.

Regaining a chance to Perform the piano may well require an Virtually mechanical procedure, a semiautomatic remember of exactly what the fingers ought to do, reported Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a professor of scientific rehabilitation medication at New York College School of Medicine. Once brain-injured, you will be generally brain-wounded, For the remainder of your life, Dr. Ben-Yishay mentioned. There is not any treatment, There exists only intense payment.

The greater telling part of a Restoration, in his watch, is psychological, and on that rating he counts Ms. Kevorkian McCanns marriage and child as a big victory.

For her part, the piano teacher appreciates she has changed, but she has built her peace with it. I was form of a hyper ---- I dont know if I was a Type A, but I had been bold, she suggests. Why was I so bold? I was a piano Trainer. I dont determine what the ambition was about. I actually did come back to the individual Im purported to be.

Correction: June thirteen, 2006, Tuesday An post on Thursday about Kyle Kevorkian McCann, a piano teacher who was beaten and sexually assaulted a decade back in Central Park, misstated the title of her album of childrens tunes. It truly is While Ended up Young, not When Were Young.

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15 Ads That Prove Nostalgia Is a Powerful Marketing Tactic

Nostalgia marketing is the advertising equivalent of comfort food. In a time when most marketing focuses heavily on the future, it transports us back to a simpler place where our current problems don’t matter and the hustle and bustle of modernity just melts away. Instead of anticipating the next great thing, nostalgia marketing urges us to focus on the things we already know are great. We know at a gut level that nostalgia gives our lives a feeling of meaning and continuity, but you may be surprised to learn it can also make us looser with our wallets. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that nostalgic feelings made participants more willing to spend money on consumer goods and services. It would appear that advertisers have caught on. Over the past five years, nostalgic ads have been popping up left and right — with millennials as their main target.

Although these ads are getting more common, marketers have known that millennials would be a nostalgia-fueled generation for some time now. Even in 2015, when many millennials were still young adults, nostalgia was a hot topic in publications like Digiday. “Millennials are coming of age in an age of economic turmoil — a difficult job market,” Cassandra McIntosh, a senior insights analyst at Exponential, told Digiday. “Therefore, they end up romanticizing simpler times much more — even those times they weren’t around for.” To give you inspiration for your own nostalgic campaigns, we selected 15 examples of advertisements that use nostalgia marketing. Watch them and see if you get the telltale bittersweet pangs associated with nostalgic feelings. Examples of Nostalgic Ads 1. Motorola Razr In the early 2000s, prior to smartphones, one of Motorola’s most popular cellphones was a tiny, flat flip phone called the Razr. Despite its number-based keyboard and a small screen, people loved it for it’s design and simplicity. In 2019, Motorola gained buzz when it re-introduced a new and improved Razr which featured a folding touchscreen when opened.  In the commercial announcement, you see an old-school Razr lifting off of a table and flying through the air as its old layers peel off to reveal a new design. The phone then opens to reveal the Android-like touch screen. 

2. Nintendo Many children of the ’80s and ’90s remember playing Nintendo-based video games with their siblings. But, for the children growing up with siblings, many also remember the sad feelings related to growing apart or drifting away from a relative. This commercial highlights both of those memories by telling the story of two Nintendo-loving brothers who grow apart, argue as teenagers, and then happily reunite as adults to play the new Nintendo Switch together.

This commercial not only reminds people of what it was like to grow up with siblings, but it also reminds you of the great fun you had playing video games as a child. Then, because the brothers connect and chat virtually as the play Switch games at the end, it shows how Nintendo’s technology has evolved to connect old friends and relatives all around the world. 3. Australia Tourism Board Instead of promoting a traditional ad that simply showed off Australia’s most beautiful destinations, Australia decided to disguise a tourism ad as a star-studded trailer for a fictional reboot to the ’80s film, Crocodile Dundee. 

As those who watched the original Dundee series get excited by clips from the film, starring Chris Hemsworth and Jason Sudeikis, its revealed that Hemsworth tricked Sudeikis into a tourism ad. Despite the trickery, Hemsworth and Sudeikis still both agree that their trip to Australia was still the best vacation they’d ever taken.  This was a clever way to embrace the television and movie reboot trend of 2018 and 2019, while still highlighting the best Australia has to offer for tourism. Because it features actors who are popular in the present day, it’s also hilarious for both people who followed the Dundee films or either of the main characters in the fake reboot. 4. Spotify In 2016, music-streaming service Spotify unveiled a new spokesperson — er, spokes-dragon — in a 30-second ad produced by Wieden + Kennedy New York. Falkor and his boy companion Atreyu (now a heavily bearded 44-year-old man) are both characters from the beloved 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story. W+K even got the original actors to reprise their roles (Noah Hathaway as Atreyu and Alan Oppenheimer as the voice of Falkor). The pair appear just as the film left them over 20 years ago: gliding through the clouds while the movie’s dramatic theme song plays in the background. “I can’t believe people still listen to this song!” Atreyu exclaims. His dragon agrees, they share a laugh, and the two speed off into a grainy, ’80s quality CG sky.

5. Freia The tagline of Freia, a Norweigan chocolate company, is “Et lite stykke Norge” (A little piece of Norway). This spot for the company produced by SMFB Oslo fully encapsulates the sentiment in a simple, joyful way. The plot follows a Norweigan expat in New York navigating a hectic life as a fashion stylist. When he returns home to his apartment one evening, he finds a half-eaten bar of Freia chocolate in his otherwise empty fridge. After just one bite, he’s inspired to hop on a plane back to Norway to visit his father and soak up the majestic landscape of his homeland. The ad ends with the stylist discovering a modest hair salon for sale in what is presumably his hometown.  The message is clear: A taste of Freia chocolate is inherently connected to Norway, no matter where in the world you may be. 

6. Adobe Bob Ross — the beloved ’80s painting guru who passed away in 1995 — experienced an unexpected resurgence in popularity in 2016. After Netflix added his classic TV show, The Joy of Painting, to its streaming lineup, Ross became a trending topic on Instagram. Adobe took notice, and decided to pay homage to the late painter in a series of tutorial videos promoting their new Adobe Photoshop Sketch for the iPad Pro. Authenticity was central to this nostalgic campaign. Adobe and agency Lekker Media collaborated with Bob Ross Inc. to make sure every detail was accurate, right down to the brand of clothing Ross wore on his show. Children’s book illustrator Chad Cameron, who plays Ross in the series, channels the artist’s relaxed, unpretentious demeanor perfectly. “Bob’s wish was to inspire as many people as possible to be creative and to share it with others,” Joan Kowalski, media director at Bob Ross Inc., told Adweek. “Adobe’s ‘Joy of Sketching’ series reminds us that a company as big as Adobe shares in that hope.”

7. Oikos Although it originally aired from 1987-1995, Full House has become a nostalgic childhood symbol to multiple generations thanks to syndication. But before Netflix revived the show with a 2016 reboot, Dannon reunited a few of the show’s stars in an ad for Oikos, the company’s line of Greek yogurts. John Stamos is joined by his former cast members Bob Saget and Dave Coulier in this Y&R Vinizius-produced spot. The trio doesn’t explicitly reprise their Full House roles, but the dynamic is undeniably reminiscent of their days on the sitcom.

8. Nike In 1973, Billie Jean King won a tennis match against male player Bobby Riggs, which was coined “The Battle of the Sexes.” The historic tennis game was the first time a female tennis player was matched against a male. In and before the late 1950s, men were seen as superior athletes and breadwinners in society. Prior to the tennis match with King, who was only 25, even Riggs said that he could beat a woman at his age of 55. King’s tennis match win proved Riggs wrong. It also proved that men and women could compete equally on the tennis field and in other sports. On a bigger scale, it further empowered women, who were often stereotyped as wives, homemakers, or secretaries at the time. With King’s win, it became harder to ignore that gender stereotypes were false and that women could win and even lead amongst men. During the match, King wore an iconic pair of blue Adidas tennis shoes. Years later, to celebrate the 45th anniversary of King’s win, Adidas launched a limited edition line of BJK shoes with the female tennis legend’s face and initials on each pair. To announce the shoe line, Adidas launched a series of simple commercials showing Billie Jean King spray-painting piles of shoes blue. Here’s an example of one of the ads:

To further promote the line, Adidas also had booths at the U.S. Open tennis match where fans could bring any brand of shoes and have an artist paint them blue with Adidas’ special BJK logo. According to Adidas, the overall campaign led to a 20% boost in tennis shoe sales. And, now that the campaign is over, people are auctioning off these limited edition shoes on eBay for upwards of $1,000. 9. Tesco Nothing screams nostalgia like old home movies. In this extended holiday ad from British grocery chain Tesco, we watch a family grow and age over the years through the lens of their Christmas home videos. Set to a poignant theme, the ad is intended to stir up fond holiday memories for viewers. “We wanted to show what a real Christmas is all about — not a perfect, airbrushed one — but the ones we recognize from our own lives,” David Wood, Tesco’s U.K. marketing director, told Adweek. The ad was produced by Wieden + Kennedy, London.

10. Microsoft Although Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is no more, this 2013 spot for the web browser earned viral recognition and a Webby Award nomination. “You might not remember us,” the ad’s narrator begins, “but we met in the ’90s.” The commercial goes on to highlight all things ’90s — fanny packs, Tamagotchi, bowl haircuts — even the Oregon Trail PC game makes an appearance. Column Five Media, the creative agency behind the ad, set out to create a nostalgia-driven viral ad that would reintroduce Internet Explorer to ’90s kids. “The idea of a brand like Internet Explorer being forward-thinking enough to make such a story-focused, Gen Y-centered commercial was pretty newsworthy,” the agency wrote in a behind-the-scenes blog post. “Focusing that story on ’90s nostalgia, which we knew was popular with Gen Y and not yet fully realized in video form, is what made [the ad] shareworthy.”

11. Chili’s Chili’s ads are usually characterized by close-up shots of glistening hamburgers, sizzling bacon, and french fries still glowing with fryer oil. So this 2016 ad produced by Boston-based agency Hill Holliday was a departure from the casual dining chain’s typical go-to formula. The commercial depicts the Chili’s origin story through a series of retro vignettes. We see the laid-back founders playing ring toss, lounging on the hood of their car, and — of course — flipping classic Chili’s burgers in their first restaurant. The ad taps into traditional Americana — a form of nostalgia for small town American life, middle class values, and neighborhood restaurants where everyone knows your name.

12. Apple Apple regularly features celebrities in their advertising, but they made a notably nostalgic casting decision for this iPhone 6s spot. Everyone’s favorite sweet-toothed Muppet, Cookie Monster, might have switched to a more balanced diet, but he appears whipping up a batch of his favorite chocolate chip cookies in this ad. TBWA/Media Arts Lab is the agency behind the ad, and they even released a series of “bloopers” featuring the beloved childhood character.

13. Target The nostalgic force is strong in this Target video promoting Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise. As part of a larger campaign to encourage fans to share their Star Wars memories online, Deutsch LA produced this two-minute compilation of Star Wars fans’ home movies. In the video, young fans dressed as little Princess Leias, Luke Skywalkers, and Han Solos brandish lightsabers and give their best Chewbacca impressions, all while the classic Star Wars theme plays in the background. The result is an endearing campaign that’s sure to resonate with longtime fans and new converts alike.

14. Bacardi For their 150th anniversary back in 2012, Bacardi released a series of print and television ads showcasing the brand’s party-starting heritage. The trip down memory lane was intended to give the company a shot of authenticity, reminding consumers that Bacardi has stood the test of time. The goal according to Leo Premutico, co-founder of WPP agency Johannes Leonardo, the agency behind the ad, was “to depict a moment in time that lives in history” and offer “an eye to what’s next, an exciting future.”

15. McDonald’s When McDonald’s removed antibiotics and artificial preservatives from their chicken this year, they wanted an ad campaign that not only informed consumers about these changes, but also tapped into nostalgia surrounding their famous nuggets. “There’s an undeniable level of nostalgia tied to the McDonald’s brand and its food,” Britt Nolan, Leo Burnett USA’s chief creative officer, told Adweek. “We set out to capture that relationship in a sincere, simple way that today’s parents can relate to and feel good about sharing with their own kids.”

How to Nail Nostalgia The key to nailing nostalgia is to understand what motivates your audiences, how they were raised, and where their deepest interests lie. To do this, do a little research or develop buyer persona’s that grew up in certain generations to learn what makes them think. To learn more about building and analyzing your buyer persona, check out this helpful guide. For more great advertising inspiration, here’s a roster of 2019 Clio Gold-winning ads. Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in September 2016, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in February 2020.

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Mets Season a Failure? Not if You Ask Pete Alonso

The Mets staved off elimination from postseason contention with a stirring comeback victory on Tuesday. But even after they beat the Miami Marlins, 5-4, in 11 innings, their chances of making the playoffs remained a near impossibility because the Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals each won on Tuesday.

Michael Conforto hit two home runs, including a game-tying shot in the ninth inning, and Brandon Nimmo drew a bases-loaded walk in the 11th as the Mets reached 82 victories to ensure a winning season for the first time since 2016.

But with one more loss or a win by the Brewers, the Mets will finally be mathematically eliminated from the playoff race. (The Nationals clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday.)

With the Mets’ collective goals reduced to a wisp of fantasy, their individual pursuits are virtually all that is left in the final week of the season.

There is Jacob deGrom’s quest for a second straight National League Cy Young Award. There is also the future of Manager Mickey Callaway and the question of whether he will be back next season. But perhaps most compelling is Pete Alonso’s chase for the rookie home run record.

Alonso did not hit a home run on Tuesday, going 0 for 5. He still has 50 homers more than any previous Mets player. But if he can manage three over the final five games of the year, he will break Aaron Judge’s major league rookie record.

That, and Jacob deGrom’s final start of the season on Wednesday, may be all that is left for Mets fans to cheer.

Alonso noted on Tuesday that more than 19,000 players have suited up in Major League Baseball, but none of them managed to hit 53 home runs as a rookie. He said he struggled to find words to express what achieving the record would mean to him, but he eventually found a few.

“Super, incredibly amazing, awesome,” he said.

Unfortunately for the Mets, those words do not accurately describe the team’s season.

Alonso’s search for history comes within the context of a sad ending — the Mets’ all-but-guaranteed failure to reach the postseason. In contrast, Judge’s 52 home runs in 2017, including 15 in the final month of the regular season, came amid a remarkable run by the Yankees that did not end until the final out in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

Judge added four home runs in the postseason, including three in the A.L.C.S. Alonso, almost certainly, will not get that opportunity.

“Let’s say, if we don’t make the playoffs,” he said. “It’s unfortunate. But I think there’s a lot of positives and I feel like that’s going to have some building blocks and momentum going into next year.”

Still, it is a harsh reality that a team with a clear leader for the National League Rookie of the Year Award — who is also expected to get votes for the Most Valuable Player Award — and the leader for N.L. Cy Young Award winner in deGrom, is on the verge of elimination from the playoff race. The Mets trail the Brewers by five games in the fight for the second N.L. wild card spot.

But Alonso remained as positive as always when assessing the season, and preached patience for a team that is showing signs of improvement as it heads into the off-season.

“I wouldn’t say it’s bittersweet at all because this has just been a miraculous year for me,” he said. “Everyone in this locker room has been awesome. We have an awesome team, a great group of guys and I wouldn’t change anything that’s happened for the world.”

Alonso has been remarkably consistent throughout the season, hitting nine home runs in his first 29 games, then 10 in May and nine in June. After a mild drop-off to six in July, he added eight in August and has matched that total in September, with six games still remaining including Tuesday’s contest. He had 24 home runs at home and 26 on the road.

On Monday, he singled in the third inning, giving him 335 total bases to break David Wright’s franchise record of 334, set in 2008. Alonso’s 50 home runs are the most in baseball, and his 82 extra base hits, also a club record, were tied with Cody Bellinger for most in the N.L.

He has seven homers in 17 games against Marlins pitching and five in 16 games against the Atlanta Braves, the Mets’ final opponent.

Martin Prado, the Marlins infielder and a 14-year major league veteran, does not expect this season to be a fluke considering what he’s seen of Alonso’s consistency and maturity.

“The guy has a really short stroke to the ball,” Prado said. “But he’s a big boy, and every time he hits the ball, it sounds different from anybody else. When you have that much power and you are direct to the ball, it’s hard contact somewhere and you are more likely to succeed in this game.”

Alonso, of course, still has goals for the future: Make fewer outs to raise his on-base percentage (it was .363 in 155 games), and improve his defensive proficiency and his base running to become a more complete player.

Callaway said that Alonso had succeeded Wright, who retired last season, as the face of the Mets, and indicated he would afford Alonso every opportunity to break Judge’s record.

“It would mean a ton,” Callaway said. “There’s a lot of special things that have gone on this season and Pete is definitely one of those things. What he’s already done is spectacular. I would love for him to break that record and win an M.V.P.”

Alonso stressed on Tuesday afternoon that the Mets were still focused on trying to secure an unlikely playoff berth. But for a player whose only goal going into spring training was to prove that he was good enough to play in the majors, Alonso has gone far beyond that.

“This year has been unforgettable for me,” he said. “The most fun year I’ve ever had playing baseball. It’s been extremely special. I’m going to remember this season for the rest of my life. It’s been miraculous.”

INSIDE PITCH

The Mets will retire JERRY KOOSMAN’s No. 36 during a ceremony next year. JEFF WILPON, the Mets chief operating officer, made the announcement on Tuesday, the 50th anniversary of the Mets clinching their first National League Pennant. Koosman joins TOM SEAVER (41) and MIKE PIAZZA (31) as the only Mets players to have their numbers retired. Wilpon said he expects more number retirements in the coming years. He did not say it, but DAVID WRIGHT’s No. 5 is an obvious choice. … Reliever Paul Sewald got the Mets’ win on Tuesday — his first victory in 119 career games. He is 1-14. “It’s a meaningless stat for a reliever,” Sewald said, “but it’s good to at least have one.”

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The Modern Rules Of Interior Decoration Guide | interior decoration guide

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Whether your giftee’s thumbs are blooming or black, they’ll addled the pages of this chiral from the aggregation abaft Terrain, Anthropologie’s garden and affairs retail brand. Creative administrator Greg Lehmkuhl and Terrain’s gardeners adorn with flora central and out, all year round. With a aesthetics of “there’s boilerplate like home,” the books sends us out to beat adjacent twigs, berries and buds and actualize naturalistic, arresting arrangements.

LESSONS: Account ample leaves with accomplished foliage in a planter. Pair a blaze pit with comfortable throws, abating drinks and ad-lib seating, and you’ll accept a prime atom from which to acknowledge a albino world.

THEN AGAIN: Of the actual accessible projects, 25% are wreaths.

IDEAL FOR: Earthy DIY sorts. Wreath zealots.

More: How to Actualize a Modern Country Kitchen

F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Street Journal

Classical Principles for Modern Design: Lessons from Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman’s The Decoration of Houses The Monacelli Press, $50

New York artist Thomas Jayne starts with the angelic credo of Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman’s 1897 “Decoration of Houses” (yes, the admired biographer wrote a book on décor that pros still consult) and expresses them with 21st-century appearance that goes aloft the Vanderbilt manses of Wharton’s world.

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THEN AGAIN: Detailed instructions on how to acrylic the arcade of a Palm Beach alcazar may accomplish the clairvoyant feel beneath than mirthful.

IDEAL FOR: The 1% as able-bodied as your acquaintance whose bookcases sag with 19th aeon literature.

More: Bringing Hygge Into Your Home

F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Street Journal

Maison: Parisian Chic at Home Flammiron, $40

Fifteen Parisian apartments that abandon “decorated” for “lived in” are toured by Marin Montagut, a watercolorist, and Ines de la Fressange, author, archetypal and architect of an eponymous French appearance and home-accessories brand.

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THEN AGAIN: This book may validate hoarders.

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More: Accomplished Art Collectors Are in a Buying Mood

F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Street Journal

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Australian artist Megan Morton shares the voyeuristic amusement of peeking into the homes of an all-embracing accumulation of writers and artists.

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THEN AGAIN: When Ms. Morton asks contributors, “If your abode was a phrase, what would it be?” it smacks of pretension, not practicality.

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