#cinderella boy october challenge | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cleverhottubmiracle · 1 month ago

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Brandy announces upcoming memoir, Kemi Adetiba announces release date for “King of Boys 3,” West Ham appoint Graham Potter to replace Julen Lopetegui as head coach. Stay in the know with our Rave News Digest, which summarizes five of the hottest global news stories you need to catch up on, saving you time and energy. Consider it your daily news fix. 1. Brandy announces upcoming memoir #BrandyMemoir 10.7.25Pre-order in my bio ♥️ pic.twitter.com/7XgFGdhSPs — b r a n d y (@4everBrandy) January 8, 2025 Brandy, the iconic singer and actress, has announced the release of her highly anticipated memoir, set to debut on October 7, via Hanover Square Press. The book, currently untitled, will provide an intimate look into her journey from growing up in McComb, Mississippi, to achieving global stardom as a trailblazing entertainer. Fans can expect stories spanning her early music career, including the release of her self-titled debut album at just 15 years old, and her groundbreaking role as the first Black actress to play a Disney princess in the 1997 classic “Cinderella.” Sharing the news on Instagram, Brandy described the memoir as one of her most challenging yet rewarding projects. “I allowed myself the space to be fearless and vulnerable to reveal some of my most intimate moments,” she wrote. Highlighting her journey of resilience, she reflected on the highs of performing on world stages and starring in beloved TV series like “Moesha,” alongside the personal trials that shaped her. “This memoir is a lifetime in the making,” Brandy added, expressing hope that her story inspires others navigating their own paths. The memoir is now available for preorder, promising readers an unfiltered glimpse into the life of one of entertainment’s most enduring stars. 2. Kemi Adetiba announces release date for “King of Boys 3” Kemi Adetiba announces the upcoming release of “King of Boys 3: The Beginning of The End”. pic.twitter.com/2DmPS46ZbY — T.U.E (@TheUpperEnt) January 8, 2025 Acclaimed director Kemi Adetiba has announced that the much-anticipated third installment of the King of Boys franchise, subtitled “The Beginning of the End,” will premiere in December 2025. Adetiba broke the news to her fans on Instagram on her birthday, sparking excitement across social media. “KOB Army… ARISE!!! It’s time… We move. Signed: Your General. #KOB3 #TheBeginningOfTheEnd #DettyDecember25 #KAV25,” she posted, hinting at a thrilling culmination to the hit series. Since its inception in 2018, King of Boys has captivated audiences with its gripping tale of power, betrayal, and redemption, centered on the formidable Alhaja Eniola Salami, played by Sola Sobowale. The sequel, “King of Boys: The Return of the King,” released on Netflix in 2021, raised the stakes with its dramatic twists and powerhouse performances. Fans can look forward to the return of beloved characters, along with fresh faces, as Adetiba promises another intense and emotional journey. The ensemble cast, featuring celebrated actors like Nse Ikpe-Etim, Jide Kosoko, Adesua Etomi, and Richard Mofe-Damijo, is expected to deliver stellar performances in what Adetiba has called “#TheBeginningOfTheEnd.” 3. Y/Project is officially closing down Y/Project has officially announced it is shutting down after 14 transformative years. The Paris-based fashion label became known for its twisted denim and warped silhouettes. The decision comes after the brand’s inability to secure a buyer following creative director Glenn… pic.twitter.com/yQUw2z3oQW — Complex Style (@ComplexStyle) January 9, 2025 Parisian fashion house Y/Project has officially announced it is ceasing operations after 14 years of bold and innovative design. The decision follows the brand’s inability to secure a buyer after being listed for sale last year, a move prompted by the departure of creative director Glenn Martens and the death of co-founder Gilles Elalouf. Founded in 2010 by Gilles Elalouf and Yohan Serfaty, Y/Project became renowned for its avant-garde aesthetic under Martens’ leadership, earning accolades like the ANDAM Grand Prize in 2017. However, the loss of Elalouf placed the brand under financial strain, ultimately leading to its placement into receivership by a Parisian commercial court. Y/Project leaves behind a legacy of daring design and impactful collaborations. Under Martens, the brand redefined contemporary fashion with its signature trompe l’oeil styling and exaggerated silhouettes. Despite generating nearly €11 million in revenue in 2023, the brand’s closure reflects the broader challenges facing the luxury market. As a tribute to its legacy, Y/Project will donate archival pieces to prestigious institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Palais Galliera in Paris, marking the end of an era for the independent label. 4. Asake makes history as artist with most certified songs, albums in Nigeria Asake has the most certified songs and albums in Nigeria LONELY AT THE TOP 7x Platinum (700K) BANDANA 5x Platinum (500K) TERMINATOR 5x Platinum (500K) SUNGBA 4x Platinum (400K) 2:30 4x Platinum (400K) MR MONEY WITH THE VIBE 7x Platinum (350K) BASQUIAT 3x Platinum… pic.twitter.com/A90s9VibPZ — Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) January 7, 2025 Nigerian singer and songwriter Asake has achieved a monumental milestone, becoming the artist with the most certified songs and albums in Nigeria. Known for his genre-blending style that fuses Afrobeats with hip-hop and highlife influences, Asake has redefined success in the Nigerian music scene. His record-breaking album “Mr Money With The Vibe” has been certified 7x Platinum, with over 350,000 units sold, while hit singles like “Lonely At The Top” (7x Platinum, 700,000 units) and “Bandana” (5x Platinum, 500,000 units) have further cemented his dominance. In addition to his Platinum accolades, Asake boasts a host of Gold and Silver certifications for tracks like “Active,” “Fuji Vibe,” and “Olorun,” and has earned international recognition with certifications in the UK for “Bandana” (200,000 units) and “Mr Money With The Vibe” (Silver, 60,000 units). As a Grammy-nominated artist, his rise to global prominence showcases his hard work, creativity, and ability to connect with audiences worldwide. This historic achievement not only solidifies his status as a trailblazer but also serves as inspiration for emerging artists in Nigeria and beyond. 5. West Ham appoint Graham Potter to replace Julen Lopetegui as head coach West Ham United is delighted to welcome Graham Potter as the Club’s new Head Coach ⚒️ — West Ham United (@WestHam) January 9, 2025 West Ham United have confirmed the appointment of Graham Potter as their new head coach, following the departure of Julen Lopetegui. The announcement comes after Lopetegui was dismissed on Wednesday, less than eight months into his tenure, following heavy defeats to Manchester City and Liverpool. The Hammers currently sit 14th in the Premier League table, seven points above the relegation zone, as they look to steady the ship with Potter’s guidance. Potter, who has signed a two-and-a-half-year deal, brings experience from his successful stint at Brighton and a challenging spell at Chelsea, having been away from coaching for nearly two years. Speaking on his appointment, Potter expressed excitement about the opportunity, citing West Ham’s strong foundations and global support. “It was important to me that I waited for the right opportunity, and West Ham feels like the perfect fit,” he said. “This is a club with everything in place to achieve consistent success, both on and off the pitch.” Potter’s immediate task will be preparing the team for their FA Cup third-round clash against Aston Villa on January 10, as he aims to kick-start his tenure with a strong performance. Fans will hope Potter can reignite the Hammers’ form and build on the progress made in recent years, including their Europa Conference League triumph in 2023. Featured Image: @brandy/Instagram Our Weekday News Digest summarizes five of the hottest news topics worldwide–including celebrity news from Hollywood to Nollywood, the latest trending global headlines from American reports to top African news today, and the best sports stories in 2024.For the latest in fashion, lifestyle, and culture, follow us on Instagram @StyleRave_— Read also !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', ' fbq('init', '496558104568102'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script',' !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script',' fbq('init', '1453079628754066'); fbq('track', "PageView"); Source link

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norajworld · 1 month ago

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ellajme0 · 1 month ago

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chilimili212 · 1 month ago

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oliviajoyice21 · 1 month ago

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theus-what-are-you-doing · 3 months ago

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DAY 30: COLD

Yet another addition to @cinderellaboyincorectquotes and their anonymous submitter's "Last week of October Challenge". I thank you both for the prompts as always, It was quite fun to work on this one, especially as I had more time to work on it today!

With you guys seemingly liking the prior entry with the fic, I thought it would be good to do a less angsty oneshot to help ease those feelings caused by our poor scared Buddy yesterday. It admittedly has been posted much later than I intended because writers block held my ass in a chokehold midway through. Nevertheless, I made the fic a little longer to try and make it up to you all for the wait. As always, I hope you all enjoy it!~

(If you guys stick around till the end, you might get another art piece linking to the fic too 👀)

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“Look like you’re Freezing”

Cinderella Boy OneShot || 1988 Words

Tonight was a special night.

It was Buddy’s first night of proper freedom, after all. The first night he had a chance to go outside after spending weeks smuggled away in the attic of the one and only Chase Everett Hollow, the first night he would be able to feel the soft autumn breeze on his skin or hear the soft crunch from stepping on the vibrant leaves that lined the streets. The first night that the chapter of his new life started.

See, a few weeks prior, Buddy and his key companion, Violet, managed to flee from the restrictive grasp of Ex Libris and the cage that they were locked within under his servitude. How? It was quite simple, or at least it was for Buddy. He was just waiting around in his cell for his next orders when he heard the door unlock and braced to see his master, only to see the face of…Deacon? He would soon be pulled from his shackles, encouraged to flee from the room. That's when he would come across Chase in the main hall running circles around the being he had grown to be so terrified of, purple key in hand and laughing. He would always ask how they managed to find the location and get in but it was always a mixed reprise about hunting them down over the last few years and Deacon’s brilliant plan to break in but not to get out.

Nevertheless, Buddy was thankful, even now as he stood by the window of the attic, staring down at the streets below with his breathing heavy and arms shaking. Despite being out of the control of Ex Libris, Buddy couldn't help himself, still having a deep fear rooted within, present within his nightmares. A despair that one day he would wake up and be back in that damned cell, or that he would open his eyes to the figure of Ex Libris looming over him, ready to snatch him and the keys back, to hurt his precious Chase.

Speaking of the devil, footsteps interrupted him from his winding thoughts, just as arms wrapped around him from behind and gave a cheeky but affectionate squeeze. A cheery voice met his ears, pleasant and always managing to calm him.

“What are you doing brooding up here?”

“I’m not brooding”

“Uh huh…~”

Buddy took a deep breath, turning around with his features still shaking. Such a sight caused the owner of the voice, Chase, to stiffen a little, eyes growing clouded with worry as he took his hands. He knew what this was about, It had been like this for the past few weeks and he wasn't an idiot.

“Still worried about them returning, huh..?”

This earned a soft noise and a following nod from Buddy as he sunk his weightless and lanky body into him, giving Chase something akin to a hug, but lacking any arm movement. The blonde’s arms moved up to wrap around his waist to make up for it however, just as his voice hushed down into a barely audible whisper.

“Well… We’re going to head outside together today…We need to get you some clothes. You can do this..”

They both glanced down at the oversized crimson hoodie that Buddy had practically lived in for the past few weeks, A strange phenomenon of never changing out of it unless forced when it needed to be washed or until he was showering, becoming an even stranger cycle as he insisted on staying in his towel until the hoodie had been washed and dried. As cute as the raven looked in it, however, he admitted he needed a change, both of them did. And so, with a moment's hesitation, Buddy nodded to the suggestion of leaving, soon pulling away and moving to slip into some shoes that he had actually borrowed from Deacon.

The two would make their way downstairs passing the keys as they travelled to the door, and Buddy couldn't help but make a note of what was happening with them. See, Chase’s hunt for keys inevitably made its way to Grandad Ralph finding out about their existence. Despite his initial shock, he did allow them to have access to the rest of the house after feeling a little bad that they were stuck in the attic, but only if they agreed not to cause any destruction (which in all honesty, they were quite good at somehow doing the opposite, leaving the rooms cleaner than when they first entered). They made quite a few games with their new found freedom, but they were currently making flower crowns out of origami paper provided by Prunella's mother, yet another person who found out about their existence, even befriending a key herself.

Buddy made some sort of amused noise as he spotted Violet towards the back of the table, feverishly and methodically making flowers for her sister, Silver. She glanced up after catching sight of him, grinning with her opalesce eyes shining, and soon called him over.

“You're going out?”

“Yeah… I thought it was about time.”

“How brave! What exactly are you doing?”

“I believe getting clothes…”

“That's exciting! Make sure to get yourself something nice! And… oh! Could you get more of these paper things? They're rather fun to play with!”

Buddy nodded, finding it hard to not grin with her infectious excitement. He couldn't deny that ever since Violet had reunited with her siblings under the care of the Hollows, she seemed… So much happier, like the colours in her eyes were brighter and more radiant. It was nice to see such a positive effect. Yet he couldn't dawdle, with Chase watching from the door and unintentionally pressuring him to hurry up. He bid his “See you soons” to her and quickly got to the door.

The next events went by in an overwhelming swirl for the poor raven, all too much as he was pulled out of the house, pestered after meeting up with Deacon and Prunella, and whisked away to the shopping centre. Once there however, he would admit that the seemingly infinite stores were impressive at least, with most of his interest focusing within what Chase described as “Alt shops”. Many of the outfits there reminded him of what Violet was so fond of dressing him in back in their old life… and although such outfits were linked with quite a bit of negativity, he couldn't help but gravitate toward them. Nevertheless, he had managed to collect quite a few things he adored, including but not limited to: band tees, loose jackets, an array of villain themed jumpers and hoodies that he thought Violet might enjoy and boots that he only got because they made him even taller than Chase.

Before he knew it, the trip was over, and the three had made their way through the automatic doors of the shopping centre, leaving to what seemed to be quite the bit of a different environment.

Buddy seemed to stumble, pausing a bit as he exited, finally taking note of the changes around him. The sky had turned a deep orange and the streets were dimly lit by the warm lanterns lining them. But there were so many shadows, things he couldn't quite see.

So… this was night?

Of course, this wasn’t the first time the boy had seen the evening sky, having a tendency to always quietly admire them from the attic window. But to actually be out in it was a completely different story. Every shadow could hold them… he could be dragged in and no one would even know. There were those nerves again from before, causing his fingers to tremble. Deacon and Prunella had seemingly started to walk off, not wanting to get caught with the chill in the air and a little busy talking about a horse top Prunella had forced Deacon to buy.

But Chase paused and lingered beside his frozen friend, approaching quietly and snapping his attention to him as he drew him into a hug. Although the affection wasn't returned immediately, he eventually felt the raven hair tickle his jaw as Buddy began to bury himself into the crook of his neck. They spent a few moments like that before they both pulled away, Buddy's hands slipping to Chase's hips and his own hands resting on the other's chest. Feeling the beating heart under his fingertips, Chase suddenly understood what was happening. But they had come so far! Buddy was enjoying himself up to now, would it have been the best response to point it out?

That's when Chase had decided, and in not wanting to bring it up and make buddy self conscious after they had come so far, he sweetly smiled before taking a different approach. Taking a brand new striped scarf that Buddy had gotten while out, he took a moment to drape it around both of their shoulders, earning a confused glance from the raven.

“What are you doing?”

Chase let out a giggle

“Just giving you a bit of warmth! You look like you're freezing!”

Buddy took a moment, eyebrows furrowed as some cogs began to turn in his mind. Yet they stopped after a moment, confusion meeting his expression again

“That's not… My shoulders aren't cold..?”

Chase had to stifle a laugh at the pure adorableness of Buddy not entirely understanding what he was trying to do. He promptly pushed a little further, seeing if that could achieve his goal.

“Then perhaps another part of you is… Your legs, your chest..”

Chase's hands began to glide over his chest area, causing a bob to form in Buddy’s throat. What was that feeling? Like his stomach was flipping and wriggling… it wasn't unpleasant but certainly new. Chase only continued with his suggestions.

“Your face, your ears… maybe even your lips?”

So that was his plan, hoping he could distract him with flirting, strange but not entirely uncredible, that had worked in the past after all.

Buddy went bright red with the suggestion, mind lingering on the lips. He wouldn't deny that he had been wanting to kiss Chase from the moment that he and deacon had saved him. Scratch that, he's wanted to kiss him from the moment he started providing him with food within their book based adventures, ever since he slept in that damn hoodie when Chase first left it behind, way before he was saved.

For so long now, he had longed to pursue him. But Buddy wasn't entirely sure how to initiate such a relationship, strange since he had seen so many books where the hero kissed the Heroine, so many initiated kisses. But none had ever been the Heroine and the villain... All he could do was try, lips parting as he answered

“Well… My lips are a little cold… I don't suppose you have a way to warm them up, do you?”

Chase couldn't help but bite his own lip, looking up with a bit of a starstruck expression, kind of surprised that Buddy was actually entertaining him. He nodded softly, muttering a “Can I?”. Once receiving a nod from Buddy, he took a bit of an anticipating breath before leaning up. This had been the moment that he had waited for, the moment he had… admittedly dreamed more times than he could count.

His eyes closed as he planted a soft kiss upon the others thin and cold lips, pressing into them and receiving a similar motion back. What was meant to be a sweet peck soon would linger, neither boy willing to pull away. Buddy's eyes closed slightly just as drew Chase closer by his waist, a warm and unfamiliar feeling blooming in his chest and easing his anxieties and fear. His shaking finally began to stop, and although occupied with what was becoming an admittedly heated kiss, a faint thought crossed his mind.

Perhaps he was finally safe after all.

#artists on tumblr #digital art #my art #original art #art #cinderella boy #cinderella boy buddy #chase cinderella boy #stargoth #a03 writer #my writing #writers #writers on tumblr #writing #fluff

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suzannnemillerhistoryandresearch · 1 year ago

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SUZANNE MILLER

(undated/uncredited photo of Suzanne Miller, previously published on theonline UT finding guide for these papers as early as 1995)

(uncredited Tonight show era photograph, Suzanne Miller and Steve Allen, New York NY 1955 or 1956)

Petite Cinderella Lands Choice Spot With Allen

by Tom O'Malley and Bob Cunnif Akron Beacon Journal October 27th, 1955.

NEW YORK, Oct. 26 - If you're hungry for a Cinderella tale, we offer the case of Miss Susie Miller, a 20-year-old raven-haired miniature. Hardly a whisper high, she has a boyish hair-cut and the kind of round-eyed innocence one associates with waifs and puppies.

Susie, like so many other ladies eating off the fringes of the Manhattan scene, is an actress. Most actors and actresses in New York starve exquisitely, awaiting the big break.

Susie, a Toledo O. charmer, was starving only from being "in between jobs". To keep body and soul as a unit, actors will take odd jobs modeling or working in commercial exhibitions or, if really desperate, selling cologne in a department store.

The sub-five-foot Susie angled a routine "filler" assignment on Steve Allen's "Tonight". She was to demonstrate some venerable gadgets from the Antique Fair, which was then in New York.

Ordinarily, models of the standard classic proportions land these jobs, but Susie happened to 1- be around the fair, addressing envelopes, and 2 - be exactly the right proportions (tres petite) to wear an available period gown for the Allencast.

Allen, accustomed to the usual vacuous blonde mouthing sweet banalities about some commercial product, was struck by Susie's unusual freshness. "Hey, you know something," he broke in, "you're cute. If there are any producers watching - well, what more do I have to say. You can see for yourself."

As it turned out, Steve remembered HE was a producer and hired Susie for "Tonight."

We cornered Susie via Telephone to find out how Cinderella's blood pressure was holding up. "I'm having a terrible time keeping on the ground." she admitted.

We had heard she was about to move into a cold-water flat on the lower West Side. "Have you got your eye on a better place, now that you've hit it?" we asked.

"Oh, I'm not changing." she replied. "I'm staying with friends now, but pretty soon my roommate and I - her name's Janis Halliday and she's an actress, too - will move into the Mulberry st. place. It's really $20 a month and we split the rent."

"But if you're making more money than you've ever earned before, why a cold-water flat?"

"Oh, I'm interested in decorating it. It's such a horrible place - sort of a challenge. Maybe I can buy a little more expensive drapes now - stuff like that.

(This Cinderella prefers pumpkins to carriages.)

"I'm from Toledo and I've wanted to be an actress ever since the first grade. I played an angel and I loved the way everybody fussed around fixing up my costume and all. Never wanted to be anything else."

"Last thing I did before getting on Steve's show was playing the part of a 12 year old boy in 'Climate of Eden' off-Broadway. That's where I got this haircut. I don't know whether I like it or not. My hair before was sort of nothing, if you know what I mean.

Susie probably will be featured in most of the comedy sketches on the Allen opus, as well as becoming an official greeter for guests on the show. "I've already been doing research on the All Star basketball players who are going to be on the program." said Susie. "They are the big ones," she added.

When Susie mentioned parenthetically that she had found a kitten shivering in the doorway and was going to adopt it, we wondered if she had any plans for naming it. How about "Steve Allen?" we offered stupidly.

"That's corny. I respect Steve too much. I think I'll name him Theodore." Allen couldn't have been better complimented.

(uncredited Tonight-era promotional photo, archived when sold online but not obtained)

Today on TV Boston Daily Globe December 21, 1955

TONIGHT: Four aspiring comedy writers whip up a skit for Steve Allen and Susie Miller; comedian Bob McFadden, Modern Jazz Quartet, guests. 11:40 (4)

(photo of Suzanne Miller obtained by the author from eBay, not appearing in the UT archives. Suzanne Miller seen days before first appearing on the Tonight! SHOW, 1955)

Toledoan Makes The Big Time: Persistence Pays Off For Susie

by Rhea Talley Toledo Blade January 28, 1956

NEW YORK, Jan 28 - Susie Miller is so well along on the road to fame and fortune that it shouldn't be long now until she can leave her birth certificate at home when she goes shopping. In the past, saleswomen have often wondered if she were not spending mama's money without permission.

Suzie looks 14. Among the millions who see her several times a week on Steve Allen's television show "Tonight" there may be some who think she is 14. Actually Suzie is 20, and an intelligent, serious-minded girl who wants to play the classics but is hep enough to know she won't get much chance in New York, although she would make a charming Juliet if only she would let her hair grow.

This young lady, who is famous for her picture in Life as well as her TV performances, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Kenngott, 5106 Fern. She has a younger brother and sister and a baby half brother just one year old.

When Susie was graduated from Libbey High School in June, 1953, she joined the Mad Anthony Players in Toledo as an apprentice. There she met Janis Halliday of Geneva, O., who was playing leads with the Players and with whom she now shares an apartment in Greenwich Village.

A pixy is what Susie is. Television people call it "an off-beat personality." She's like a pert Peter Pan, her brown eyes flashing up beneath a great unruly shock of coal black hair that looks like a neo-Italian-boy haircut.

It was cut that was originally so that Susie might play the part of a boy in an off-Broadway production of "Climate of Eden." The coiffure was so comfortable that she cut it like that again, and that's how it was when Susie made her first appearance with Steve Allen. That's how it remains (she had cut it again, but vows that no one had asked her to keep it that way, shat she just wants a style that's easy to comb).

Given these attributes, and juxtaposition to Steve Allen, who is more than 6 feet tall, you can see why Susie makes television viewers sit up and ask, "Who's that?"

There's a moral in Susie's success story, and a success story it is, because since coming to New York in the fall of 1953 she had hardly made an impression on Broadway. Once she worked as general handygirl in an office to earn her share of the apartment and what was left over went to acting lessons.

In June, 1954 she wrangled her wangled her way as an assistant stage manager to a summer story company in Braddock, Heights Md., and also wangled several parts normally played by children. That fall she toured in a performance of ... yes, that's still being played ... "Uncle Tom's Cabin," with the Virginia City Mont. Players Her original role of Topsy delighted Susie. Then they switched her to Little Eva, whom she hated; Susie has more spice than that.

On her way back East, she stopped at home for a short visit before her second assault on New York stage doors.

Susie had the courage to make a living wherever she could. In October a friend who was promoting the New York Antiques Fair hired Susie to demonstrate antiques. This is the sort of job that New York actresses often take as stop-gaps. The job led Susie to the Steve Allen show. This appearance didn't bring her much money. Susie got her regular fee, which wasn't that big, from the Antiques Fair. Because a scout for the show thought she would make a cute addition, she went on.

Steve asked, pointing to the antiques, "Are these for sale?" and Susie replied "Yes!" A second's pause. "But I'm not."

That is all she remembers of this repartee. But whatever she said, it was good enough for Steve to ask her back the next night. The next morning NBC was on the telephone asking her to sign a contract. She agreed at once. "A whole year!" she says ecstatically.

When the network offered that contract, they weren't quite sure what Susie could do. She proved to be delightful in such dialogue as:

Steve: "What do you think of the romance of Peter and Meg?"

Susie: "Well, I think that they ... WHO?"

Steve: "Princess Margaret and Captain Townsend."

Susie: "Gee, I don't know." Pause. "Who do they record for?"

Susie doesn't say what her income is these days. She doesn't spend much of it and for rent, since she and Janis have moved into a cold-water flat on Mulberry St., which rents for $20 a month.

"Tonight" is Susie's only job. She reports for work early in the evening, stays through the end of the show, late at night, then goes out with other performers for a bite to eat, because she can't go to sleep right after working. Waking around "ten-ish" she finds her days full with publicity interviews and other work connected with "Tonight," with decorating the apartment and with her acting lessons. Susie has been working very hard to lose her midwest accent, and she must have succeeded, because no one has commented about it so far.

Susie, who weights 89 pounds, thinks her diminutive size is an advantage. "People notice you more."

She has grown to like the name Susie, although she was annoyed first when the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists wouldn't let her use her own name, Suzanne.

The other night during rehearsal, while Susie was being photographed and, in all respects, treated like a celebrity, Janis Halliday sat on the sidelines. She had just returned from a season touring with the Virginia City Players. Remembering how she had taken Susie under her wing back in Toledo, when she begged to be brought to New York, Janis must have been feeling like the hen that hatched an ostrich egg.

(clipping from The Los Angeles Examiner, January 14 1956)

Toledo Girl Makes Good On Steve Allen's Show

by Earl Wilson Syndicated to The Toledo Times

NEW YORK - "Know why I want to be famous?" Toledo's Susie Miller said on the way to be interviewed and photographed by Life and Look.

(I hope I'm scooping them with this little story for the Toledo Times.)

"I want to meet some famous people. I want to be in the same room with them, talk with them and have them want to say "Hi" to me."

Susie's sudden establishment on television with Steve Allen is Broadway's newest Cinderella story.

She'd appeared on Steve's "Tonight" program to plug the National Antiques Show.

"I needed a job," she told me, "and a friend helped me get one addressing envelopes. They got the idea I could model some of the antique costumes since I'm very small and most models won't fit in them."

"I don't know anything about antiques."

So beguiling was she, Steve has put her on as a regular. "A sort of Girl Friday on camera." says Susie, a graduate of Libbey High School who's emoted at the Mad Anthony Playhouse.

She's the daughter of Mrs. Alfred Kengott of 1111 Coventry, Toledo, where her step-father is employed by Champion Spark Plug.

"They never saw me on television," says Susie "I was on in the beginning - before Toledo gets the show. But Steve kept mentioning my name so they knew something was happening."

Susie's had to register with the TV union, AFTRA, which wouldn't let her register as Susie or Suzanne, her real name, because another TV girl was named Susan Miller.

Though she's still using the name Susie, she's registered as Susannah.

She's already caught the fancy of the TV public and the after-the-show celebrity-chasing mob shout to her, "Hello, Susie."

Susie didn't do much in dramatics at high school but, she says, "I took lots of speech and won some speech contests." She's taken dramatic instruction from the famous Herbert Berghoff on Broadway.

Recently she had the role of a boy in an off-Broadway production of "Climate of Eden" - and the boyish bob she had to have is just now growing out.

"You like TV better than the theater?" I asked.

"it's one big hectic ball - Oh, I love it" she replied. "At rehearsals there are at least 50 men moving things, shouting, playing jokes. Nothing like the discipline of the theater. It's interesting not to have a script."

"I hope I won't slip and say a cuss word."

Someone interrupted to say that some big magazines wanted to see her.

"They're so casual" she said. "But I'm not complaining. I have to go over to NBC and show them my pictures. They want to see what kind of faces I can make."

"They want me to get some funny songs that would be cute to sing."

"You sing, too?" I asked.

"I shouldn't!" she said.

(detail from The Baltimore Sun, Christmas Day 1955. This promotional photo appears commonly elsewhere in newspaper archives, though not in the U Toledo papers)

(Scan from Little Girl in a Big City from American, January 1956. Detail scanned sourced from the UT finding guide for these papers, 1995)

LITTLE GIRL IN A BIG CITY

by Susie Miller

1/1956

The other night, a woman stopped me in a theater lobby and said, "Susie, my teen-age daughter's brokenhearted because she's only four feet eight. She feels just like a midget and thinks she hasn't got a chance in life. You've been in stage shows, now you're on TV, and you seem to have lots of friends. How did you overcome your handicap?"

I drew myself up to my full 4 feet 11 inches and replied, "Being small is a darn nuisance, as your daughter and I both know, but it doesn't have to be a handicap. You've just got to believe that you're as tall as you feel, and convince people that you're a real grownup even if you still look like the kid next door."

As I slipped out of the darkened theater and walked down Broadway to take a subway home, I got to thinking about my size and whether it had affected my life. As usual on the crowded sidewalks I was being pushed and jostled by full-sized folks coming out of restaurants and movie houses. I thought how nice it would be to be able to jostle them back. But this I know I'll never be able to do. The minute I hit a busy street, I'm fair game for anybody taller than I am, which includes just about everybody except babes in arms.

Men I meet at parties have an impulse to pat me on the head and protect me, instead of asking me out on dates. I'm not only the size of a rather small 12-year-old, but I look like one. It's awful hard to make people believe you're 20 when all they say when they see you is, "What a cute little kid."

Back home in Toledo it never occurred to me that I was any different from other youngsters until I got to the sixth grade. I was, of course, a good deal smaller than my classmates, but at first I didn't mind when they called me Midget and Shorty. I thought these nicknames were kind of cute. But one day I overheard my school chums discussing a party they were getting up. When my name was mentioned, someone said "Gee, I suppose we have to invite Susie, but gosh, she looks like such an infant!"

Well, that did it. Next day I went to the public library and came across a paragraph to the effect that stretching exercises and drinking lots of milk might make a person grow. For the next few weeks I stood in front of my bedroom mirror for hours and stretched every which way. Then I'd hurry to the icebox for as much milk as I could swallow. At the end of six weeks I sadly learned I hadn't sprouted by so much of a 16th of an inch!

A few years later, when I was 15, I was in biology class one day when the subject was genes and chromosomes - the tiny cells that make us what we are. During class discussion, the teacher pointed to me and said, pointedly in front of all the others: "Now, take little Susie, here. I happen to know her parents are small too: so it's not scientifically probable that she's ever grow any more." One the way home from school I stopped and bought the highest-heeled shoes I could find.

During high school I got a great idea. Maybe it would add inches to my height - or at least make me look taller - if I studied dramatics, and learned to stand and walk effectively. But when I appeared for tryouts, I was always a source of giggles and amusement. I felt like the man in the ad: "They laughed when I sat down at the piano." But when I graduated I was more fired up than ever to get on the stage. I'd have been willing to just walk around in a dog's suit if it meant appearing behind the footlights. The University of Toledo had a dramatic school and I was lucky enough to get a job in their summer stock theater that first year after high school.

Of course, everybody thought I was crazy to want to be an actress. They said I'd never get to play anything but children's roles until I was 50 and old enough to be a character actress, where size and shape don't count so much. But, being stage-struck, I'd read a lot of magazine articles about stage and screen stars, and I'd discovered that there were lots of successful actresses not much taller than myself - like Veronica Lake (5' 1") Imogene Coca (5' 2") Mary Pickford and Helen Hayes (both an even 5 feet). Somehow, they all made people believe they are taller than they really are.

Miss Hayes, incidentally, recently said that all through history, tiny women have had better luck with men than many of their full-sized sisters. "I've played three queens," she said, "Mary Stuart, Cleopatra, and Victoria. Cleopatra was very small: she weighed about 100 pounds, but she was very successful with men. So was Queen Victoria, who was not only short but also fat and dumpy. Then look at Mary Stuart. She was six feet tall, but got badly treated by men who were using her to advance their own ends. Finally, she lost her head."

If Helen Hayes could make people believe she was 6 feet tall on stage, I figured perhaps I had a chance, so I stuck to it.

A friend in summer stock, Janis Halliday, had gone on to New York to try a crack at Broadway. She wrote me she thought I might be just right for a certain part in a New York show she knew about. Believe me, I couldn't pack my bags fast enough. I moved into Janis's $20-a-month cold-water flat in Greenwich Village and became literally "the little girl in the big city."

The first time I went to the movies by myself and plunked down my money, the cashier told me haughtily, "I'm sorry, little girl, but you can't go in unless accompanied by an adult." The same sort of thing happened a short time later, when Janis and I and a couple of young actors we knew went to order a beer at a local tavern. Everybody got served but poor little Susie, and I had to leave.

I finally wrote home and had the Toledo Board of Health send me a card attesting to my age. This seems to satisfy most bartenders, even though they still shake their heads in disbelief when they see that my head barely clears the counter.

Of course, one obvious problem when you're small is finding clothes. In school I could always go to the children's department of one of the big stores in Toledo and find something to wear. But when I go to New York and started traipsing around to producers' offices, I wanted to look like, well, at least 16. So I had to buy grownups' clothes. I weigh 89 pounds, my figure measurements are 32-22-33, and I wear a size 5 dress, which is pretty hard to find anywhere. After I get the dress home, I always have to take up the hem a couple of inches. I can still buy most of my accessories, like hats and gloves, in subdeb departments.

But my real problem - an expensive one - is shoes. I wear a size 3 and have found that apparently only the very rich have feet that small. I always have to pay an awful lot for shoes because none of the moderate-priced shoe shops carry my size.

Incidentally, I no longer wear extremely high heals. When you're as short as I am, an extra inch or two one way or the other won't make much difference. So my favorite footwear is a pair of Indian moccasins. They make me look even shorter - but now that I've learned to make the most of what I've got, that doesn't seem so important as it used to.

Actually, up until now, my stage and TV roles have come as a result of my half-pint size, rather than in spite of it. But I'm more determined and more confident than ever that sooner or later I'm going to break through the size barrier.

After reaching New York I didn't get the role my roommate had in mind. But shortly thereafter a producer called to ask if I'd be interested in playing a boy in a play called The Climate of Eden. I've always been afraid I'd be typed as a gamin (I call it my Leslie Caron complex) and doomed forever to play little boys, leprechauns, sprites and elfin characters. But that first boy's role was a break into the theater and I accepted the part gladly.

When the show closed, I was asked to audition for a little girl's part, this time a play called Anniversary Waltz starring Kitty Carlisle and MacDonald Carey. I was stunned when I was turned down - not so much at losing the role, but because I was too short to play the 12-year-old daughter of such tall parents as Kitty and MacDonald!

Well, now I've lived the part of the struggling young actress to the hilt. I've trudged from producer's office to producer's office. Janis and I lived off beans which we cooked on the hot plate in our combination bathroom-kitchen.

I began taking any kind of job I could find. I finally got office work with a meat packer, but after several weeks I began to wonder if I shouldn't start saving up carfare for that long ride back to Toledo.

Then one morning not long ago the phone rang. It was a friend of mine who was doing publicity for the Antiques Fair, an annual institution in New York City. He asked if I would be willing to try some clerical work on a temporary basis. I've learned, when you're trying to break into show business, never turn down a legitimate offer. So I showed up promptly next morning ready to attack the card files with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. I only hoped the cabinets wouldn't be out of my reach.

On hangers in the office I noticed a number of ladies' dresses, from the Revolutionary War period. What struck me most about them was that they all looked like size 5's - my size! I asked someone how come, and was told I would have been a full-sized female a couple of hundred years ago, when women ran much smaller than today. So I asked to try on the dresses, and found they fit perfectly. Then, since I'd had some acting experience, I was told I could model the dresses, if I wanted to, on Steve Allen's NBC-TV show, Tonight since Steve planned to mention the Fair on his program. Did I ever jump at the chance! Now, at least, I could tell them when I got back home that I'd "been on television."

I must have looked pretty funny in those costumes. I wear my unruly hair short and sort of sticking up - and I must have come over like a fresh kid in her grandma's gown. Since Steve is 6-foot-3, I looked even tinier. Well, anyway, everybody began laughing, and Steve, who's very fast with an ad lib, wouldn't let me off the stage. We sort of talked a while and when I found I felt completely at home in front of the cameras. Stand even an aspiring actress on a stage in a ring of bright lights, and anything is likely to happen, from a stage-fright collapse to an unexpected hit performance.

After the show Steve put his arm around me and said "Susie, you were wonderful tonight. You gave us all a lot of kicks. Come around tomorrow, and maybe we can make you part of the show."

Those next few days were, well, just as they say, like a dream. Steve Allen gave me a contract. I suddenly was getting offers from other shows for amounts of money that sounded astronomical. But the happiest thought was that I had my foot - however tiny - in the door. Once you've made a success, however small (excuse the pun!), nice things begin to happen. Like Steve wrote letters to all the casting directors at NBC asking them to keep me in mind.

People still refer to me as "little" Susie. It's never that "intelligent" or "charming" girl, but that "little" girl. I'm still typed as a "cute kid" and am expected to act like one, of stage as well as on.

Personally, I don't know how many peewees like me there are in American. I read somewhere that 5,500,000 women are under 5 feet tall. I hope they don't let their small stature keep them down.

You have to remember the nice things when being little gets you down. Just when you think you'll go crazy if one more male comes along, pats you on the head, and says "What's a pretty little girl, four foot eleven ... gee, that's pretty little!" you recall one of the nice things that happened to you in spite of your size.

I remember, when I first decided to be an actress during those summer-stock days in Toledo, I often felt low when everybody poked fun at me, saying that I'd never be picked for a grown-up part, that even the highest heels wouldn't get me off the ground far enough to make me look like a real woman. One day I began painting scenery and I must have been looking me youngest and littlest. I had on a pair of shorts, a grubby T-shirt, and dirty sneakers. I was bemoaning my height because I couldn't reach up to paint the top of a screen. Then the company's director came over and said, "Susie, in our next play, Dark of the Moon, there's a part for a real slinky, seductive witch. You're the only girl in the company I can see playing it. Interested?"

I looked up at him and then down at my paint-splattered legs and I couldn't think of anything to say, so I just hugged him. It was the nicest thing anybody had ever said to me. When I went back to my painting I found it was a cinch to finish off the screen. I guess I didn't know until that moment how really tall I could be.

THE END

(Suzanne Miller and Herb Sargent, American Magazine, January 1956)

Unknown Toledo newspaper

6/6/56

Sue Miller, the little Toledo miss who began her career with the Mad Anthony Players in the Zoo's indoor theater and became television's Cinderella girl this past season by landing a contract with Steve Allen for his "Tonight" show, has taken a leave of absence from that assignment to do summer stock in Madison, O., during the next few months. Sue, who has been studying histrionics with Stella Adler in New York, is visiting her family here. She expects to return to the Allen program in the fall.

From Jack O'Brian's syndicated International News Service column

August 25, 1956

...What ever happened to Suzie Miller?....

BIOGRAPHY FROM THE MEXICO CITY COLLEGE PRODUCTION OF ISBEN'S "GHOSTS" (self-penned?)

November, 1958

Suzanne Miller (the director) has recently arrived in Mexico after completing her studies at the Stella Adler Studio in New York. She has been acting and directing in various professional theatres in the United States for many years, and brings to this production a variety of theatrical experience. She has appeared in several off-Broadway productions in New York, among which were "The Climate of Eden" and tryouts of new plays. For the American Shakespeare Festival she understudied for the role of Juliet. Miss Miller believes in the importance of an Ibsen theatre where Ibsen's plays could be produced in chronological order as a cycle. This would allow the public to see all the conflicting sides that he saw, and to arrive at a clear idea of his thought.

(above photo of Suzanne Miller in Mexico City does not appear in the UT papers)

'Ghosts' Opens Tomorrow Night in MCC Theater

by Bob Stout

Mexico City Collegian, Vol. 11, No. 4

Friday, December 6, 1957

The MCC drama season opens tomorrow night at 8:00 in the College theater with the Suzanne Miller directed presentation of Ibsen's Ghosts.

A student matinee was held yesterday to work the final "kinks" out of the production for tomorrow's official opening.

The performances are free to MCC students and ten pesos for the public. Free bus service will leave the Diana at 7:30 and return there after the play.

Gene Gerzso, strong in her portrayal of Mrs. Alving, a determined and bitter woman, heads the list of veteran performers that will bring Ghosts to life.

Mrs. Gerzso has previously appeared locally in such roles as Amanda in Noel Coward's Private Lives, Ruth in Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Perpetua in Christopher Fry's Venus Observed.

A graduate with a degree in music from College of Pacific, she has also studied music and drama in New York, at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Cleveland Playhouse. With the later group she appeared in The Night of January 16th, The Servant of Two Masters, and Bury the Dead, among other plays. She has also done summer stock work in Carmel, California.

Anthony Zerbe, as interpreter of the role of Oswald Alving, her son, a weak, syphilitic, young artist, formerly appeared on the stage with the Pomona College "Masquers" and the Newport Players, handling such parts as Coney in Home of the Brave, Yank in Hasty Heart and Hank in Desperate Hours. He also studied drama in New York with the Famous Stella Adler.

Angel Gonzáles, as Pastor Manders, a euphemistic, society fearing preacher typifying the obedience of the code of conventional, contemporary social values, is head of the MCC Spanish Department and an expert in English literature, especially the Age of Milton. He has done dramatic work locally, in Spain, and in Scotland.

Jacob Engstrand, opportunist and hypocrite who has taken advantage of the Alving household, will be portrayed by Sam Wixman. Attracted to Mexico by "the opportunities here for cultural and social research," former college professor Wixman has appeared in The Night of January 16th, The Sea Gull, Nathan the Wise, and the reading of the Caine Mutiny Court Martial with groups in Mexico City and has done little theater work in San Francisco, Berkely, and Pasadena, California.

A student of the Lewis Classes of Drama and assistant director of the Lewis Children's Drama Class here, Jenny Dowling enacts the part of Regina Engstrand in tomorrow's performance. Miss Dowling, a veteran actress in the local Dr. Julia Baker workshop, has previously appeared in Faust, Romeo and Juliet, and Monkey's Paw.

The director, Suzanne Miller, a newcomer to Mexico City College dramatic circles, comes here from the New York stage. A former student of Stella Adler in New York, the vivacious Toledo, Ohio, born director appeared in last summer's American Shakespeare Festival and in several plays in off Broadway theaters.

Collegian Throws Merited Bouquets

Mexico City Collegian, Vol. 11, No. 5

Thursday, January 30, 1958

It isn't often that the Collegian throws bouquets.

But we feel the director and cast of last quarter's dramatic production, Ghosts, deserve one.

Suzanne Miller, the pint-sized little dynamo from New York's Shakespeare Festival, did a wonderful job of casting and directing.

It was her first such experience. She asked the college to give her the opportunity to direct Ibsen's masterpiece, and volunteered her services free.

The result was a polished, almost flawless production.

Gene Gerzso, Tony Zerbe, Sam Wixman, Jenny Dowling and Angel Gonzáles sacrificed time from their regular jobs and classes, braved laryngitis and worked overtime to perfect their roles.

Arnold Belkin, almost unassisted (except by the Collegian staff), designed and built the sets.

Tom Sewell spent days and nights behind the scenes doing everything from carrying coffee to playing Tarzan on the curtain ropes.

To all of you, and to everyone else who had a part in making Ghosts a success, we give our thanks. . .

Or, as Suzanne would have said, "We love you all."

R.J.S.

(Suzanne Miller and Joseph Cornell. Photo appeared on the cover to the exhibition COLLAGES BY JOSEPH CORNELL)

COLLAGES BY JOSEPH CORNELL

Exhibition catalog, 1975

COLLAGES BY JOSEPH CORNELL

COLLEGE OF CREATIVE STUDIES GALLERY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SANTA BARBARA

Suzanne Miller Joseph Cornell

COLLAGES BY JOSEPH CORNELL

October 24 - November 11, 1975

Opening Hours Friday, October 24, 4 - 6 PM

Gallery Hours: Mon - Sat 10 AM - 4 PM, Sun 1 - 5 PM

CATALOG OF THE EXHIBITION

COLLEGE OF CREATIVE STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SANTA BARBARA

EXHIBITION DATES: OCTOBER 24 - NOVEMBER 11, 1975

THESE COLLAGES BY JOSEPH CORNELL WERE LOANED TO THE COLLEGE OF CREATIVE STUDIES BY SUZANNE MILLER, A RESIDENT OF SANTA BARBARA. SHE FIRST MET JOSEPH CORNELL IN 1955 WHEN SHE WAS 20 YEARS OLD AND PLAYING IN AN OFF-BROADWAY PRODUCTION IN NEW YORK CITY. CORNELL CAME TO SEE THE PERFORMANCE AND STAYED TO MEET THE ACTORS. SUZANNE AND CORNELL BECAME FRIENDS AND REMAINED SO UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 1972. SHE RECEIVED THREE OF THE COLLAGES, BOY IN THE DESERT, THE BUST, AND BUTTERFLY AND ROSE OVER THE YEARS, AND THREE OTHERS WERE LEFT TO HER AFTER HE DIED.

SUZANNE MILLER WROTE THE ANECDOTAL COMMENTS ABOUT EACH OF THE COLLAGES FOR THIS CATALOG AT SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA, IN 1975.

BOY IN THE DESERT - 1955

THIS IS THE MOST ELABORATE COLLAGE IN THE COLLECTION. CORNELL'S COMMENT: "PROBABLY VERY FIRST COLLAGE." THE STORY BEHIND IT REFERS TO THE TIME I MET JOSEPH. I WAS PERFORMING IN AN OFF BROADWAY PLAY, MOSS HART'S CLIMATE OF EDEN. I PLAYED AN ELEVEN YEAR OLD BOY NAMED BERTON. JOSEPH CAME TO SEE THE PERFORMANCE AND STAYED TO MEET THE ACTORS. WE BECAME FRIENDS, ALTHOUGH IT WAS A WHOLE YEAR BEFORE I UNDERSTOOD WHO THIS ODD AND DELIGHTFUL PERSON WAS. THE PATH FROM MY PERFORMANCE AS A LITTLE BOY IN A PLAY TO THE HOGARTH BOY WHICH HE HAS PLACED SO JOYOUSLY IN THE DESERT IS NOT A DIRECT ONE, BUT RATHER ONE OF THOSE LEAPS OF ASSOCIATION EXECUTED BY THIS ARTIST.

FRANZ HALS IMAGE

THIS COLLAGE CONTAINS A PICTURE I SENT TO JOSEPH FROM SPAIN. I CAN’T REMEMBER WHY I SENT HIM THIS PARTICULAR PICTURE SINCE THE ORIGINAL PAINTING IS NOT EVEN IN SPAIN. I KNEW JOSEPH USED THINGS IN ART THAT EVOKED A PERSONAL RESPONSE. I WOULD SAY THAT PERHAPS, SINCE I AM OF DUTCH ORIGIN, THE SAW A RESEMBLANCE.

HÔTEL DE L'ETOILE

THE HOTEL THEME RUNS THROUGH THE CORNELL BOXES AND REAPPEARS IN THIS COLLAGE AS A HAUNTING FACE ONE MIGHT CATCH A GLIMPSE OF IN THE WINDOW OF AN OLD AND COSMIC HOTEL. THE IMAGE CAME FROM AN AFTERNOON I SPENT WITH JOSEPH IN THE SHOPPING AREA OF FLUSHING, NEW YORK. OVER THE YEARS WOOLWORTH WAS AN IMPORTANT SOURCE OF STIMULATION AND CREATIVITY. HE FOUND MANY OBJECTS HE COULD LOVE THERE: STAMPS, PAINTED WOODEN BIRDS, GOLD BRACELETS, WINE GLASSES, MARBLES, ETC. SINCE HE WANTED MY PHOTOGRAPH, THE BEST PLACE TO GET IT WAS THE OLD WOOLWORTH'S PHOTO BOOTH. THE IMAGE YOU SEE IS AN ENLARGEMENT OF A DIME STORE PROCESS TURNED INTO QUITE SOMETHING ELSE.

THE BUST (?) - 1969

NOTATIONS ON THE BACK:

CONTEXT OF NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE

MOPPET CIRCLING ON VELOCOPEDE [sic]

MOZART NO. 2 HORN CONCERTO 1965

PREOCCUPIED WITH “MINOR” COLLAGE

THIS IS NOT, STRICTLY SPEAKING, A COLLAGE SINCE THERE IS ONLY ONE IMAGE. CORNELL COMMENTED THAT THERE WAS NO IMAGE TO BE ADDED THAT WOULDN’T SOMEHOW DISTURB IT. THE IMAGE COMES FROM A MAGAZINE AD FOR CARTIER’S JEWELRY. DIPPED IN BLUE STAIN, IT EMERGES MYSTERIOUSLY IMMOBILE AND YET VIBRANT. IF YOU SENSE A DELICATE EROTICISM IN IT, YOU ARE VERY PROBABLY RIGHT.

PORTRAIT OF A GIRL - 1969

THIS COLLAGE WAS MADE WHILE I WAS IN SPAIN, ALTHOUGH IT HAS NO CONNECTION WITH ANYTHING SPANISH. CORNELL MADE NO OBVIOUS ASSOCIATIONS OR LITERAL SYMBOLISMS. HE ALLOWED HIS SUBCONSCIOUS TO SURFACE AND GUIDE HIS SENSIBILITIES. I REMEMBER WRITING HIM FROM SPAIN ABOUT MY TRAVELER'S EXISTENCE TAKING PLACE IN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT SIMULTANEOUSLY -- THE EXPERIENCE AMERICANS OFTEN HAVE IN OLD COUNTRIES. HERE WE HAVE A PORTRAIT OF A CHILD FROM THE PAST TOUCHING AN OBJECT IN THE FUTURE, WHICH, OF COURSE, IS OUR PRESENT. IN THE ORIGINAL PAINTING, THE OBJECT IS A MUSIC BOX OF THE 1600'S. CORNELL HAS REMOVED THIS OBJECT, REPLACING IT WITH AN IMAGE OF THE 20TH CENTURY, AN IMAGE DIFFICULT TO RECOGNIZE BUT UNMISTAKABLY MODERN. HE HAS REMOVED THE BACKGROUND, PLACING THE FIGURE IN AN INDETERMINATE TIME AND SPACE, CREATING A METAPHOR OF PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.

BUTTERFLY AND ROSE - 1970

THIS COLLAGE WAS ONE OF CORNELL'S LAST WORKS. THE NOTATION ON THE BACK IS "FAIRY TALE FOR MAGRITTE" WITH THE NAME MAGRITTE CROSSED OUT AND FOLLOWED BY THE SYMBOL FOR A STAR. I REMEMBER GIVING JOSEPH THE ROSE WHICH HE FASTENED TO THIS COLLAGE. I EXPRESSED CONCERN THAT THE ROSE MIGHT FALL APART EVENTUALLY, CORNELL WAS INDIGNANT AT THIS SUGGESTION, ASSURING ME THAT HIS PIECES DID NOT FALL APART. HERE AGAIN IS THE USE OF OBJECTS FOUND IN UNLIKELY PLACES, A BUTTERFLY STICKER, A PHOTO FROM THE FIVE AND DIME, THE SAME SUNDIAL IMAGE THAT RUNS THROUGHOUT HIS WORK, A CUTOUT FROM A LITTLE PAPERBACK ON THE STARS, A SIMPLE PROTRACTOR -- ENOUGH TO SUGGEST THE UNIVERSE IN A TOTALLY UNPRETENTIOUS WAY. TOWARD THE END OF HIS LIFE JOSEPH COMMENTED ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE OF COMMON OBJECTS ABLE TO EVOKE A RESPONSE IN HIM. WOOLWORTH WAS NOW FULL OF THINGS STAMPED IN PLASTIC. THESE NEW THINGS DIDN'T MOVE HIM. THE OBJET TROUVÉ HAD BECOME THE OBJET MORT.

#suzanne miller #tonight show #joseph cornell #toledo #toledo ohio #toledo history #steve allen #primal scream therapy #shakespeare in the park #stella adler #the honeymooners #anthony zerbe #daphne rose kingma

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dicepunzel · 2 years ago

Text

I posted 33 times in 2022

That's 33 more posts than 2021!

3 posts created (9%)

30 posts reblogged (91%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@askcupsandcasinos

@starlightmeadowbloom

@dicepunzel

@madfantom

@starlightmeadowbloomthesecond

I tagged 33 of my posts in 2022

#the cuphead show - 31 posts

#cuphead - 31 posts

#king dice - 31 posts

#cuphead don’t deal with the devil - 31 posts

#cuphead king dice - 29 posts

#casino cups - 27 posts

#mugman - 18 posts

#the devil - 15 posts

#disney tangled - 12 posts

#disney - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 40 characters

#day of the little candles with starlight

My Top Posts in 2022:

☀️Princess Rapunzel x King Dice🎲

This is my first digital art for my ship and I do hope you like this as I did worked so hard for making this beautiful

1 note - Posted October 7, 2022

☀️I’ve made this and I’m super broad of my work; A perfect blend of digital, traditional and edit art for Rapunzel and King Dice almost kiss for the first time.🎲

2 notes - Posted October 9, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

King Dice and His Charms to Everyone in the House of Mouse

☀️(This is challenging number one: King Dice singing Why Don’t You Do Right from Roger Rabbit and his charms took over under his spell only because Rapunzel dare him to do it for fun.)🎲

🎶 You had plenty money, 1922 🎶

As King Dice began to sing ‘Why Don’t You Do Right’ that was once performed by Jessica Rabbit, he clicked his fingers that transformed his suit into a sparkling purple that shines all over by the spotlight. The room was filled with a royal colour of purple that shading from light and dark with the romantic calm music played.

🎶 You let other women make a fool of you 🎶

All the males and females were all stunned and kinda surprised/shocked on this turned of the event for the House of Mouse, but then few of them were melted in awe as his singing voice was spreading across one table to another.

Timothy Q. Mouse wasn’t sure what’s going on until he started to fell for that melody, Jiminy Cricket wasn’t sure either until he took his glasses to take a closer look at King Dice, Sheriff of Nottingham shook his head and just stared at King Dice in shock. Cheshire Cat just giggle slightly before lifting his head up to take a perfect view of King Dice.

“What a man…” Phoebus mumbled, smiling as he stared at King Dice. Quasimodo smiled before chuckled nervously when Esmeralda looked at the boys while smirking.

“Yeah…” Thomas O'Malley mumbled, kinda agreed with him.

🎶 Why don't you do right, like some other men do? 🎶

King Dice walked across the stage where he was standing and leaned against the wall before sliding down a bit, giving them a innocence look on his face.

Cinderella’s mice and birds were eating their food when they stopped to hear this song, Cinderella smiled at King Dice while her husband Prince Kit was confused with the whole show.

Aurora smiled as she noticed that her three fairies were blushing all pink, green and blue that got Blue Fairy and Merlin smirk at them and chuckled a bit when Merryweather hide her face with her hat.

Gremlin Jamface’s smiled as his eyes started to sparkles while Gremlin Markus tried to hide his blush with his hands and Gremlin Gus’ face was turning red as the Devil smirked at his old best friend and new worst enemy.

🎶 Get out of here and get me some money too 🎶

King Dice then left the stage with the stairs in front of him, so he could put his flirting skills on the spotlight for Rapunzel’s dare she was giving him for.

Lumiere gazed at him and Belle rolled her eyes before smiling as she knew what French men would easily fell for the song that was so beautiful and easily to be charmed by the King Dice himself.

🎶 You're sittin' down and wonderin' what it's all about

You ain't got no money, they will put you out 🎶

King Dice walked up the DuckTales table, placed his hand on Scrooge McDuck’s shoulder while gazing at Della Duck who give him a small smile. He then went to Donald Duck and placed his finger under his chin before giving him a tickle that caused Donald’s face relaxed from his touch.

“Now, that’s a man alright.” Goofy mumbled, “Who’s got a sparkling purple suit. Who’s the Devil’s Right-Hand Man. Oh, and who’s have a tons of hearts!”

🎶 Why don't you do right, like some other men do? 🎶

King Dice then walked up to the Disney Brothers table and give Minnie and Ortensia a wink that got them giggle before giving a flirting looks while Mickey and Oswald just glared at him, furious that he flirting with their wives in front of them.

🎶 Get out of here and get me some money too 🎶

Magic Carpet swaying to the music and Jasmine smirked at him while Genie’s mouth dropped and Jafar just stood there in shock.

Anna and Elsa giggled when King Dice walked up to their table placed his hands on the sisters’ shoulders before winking at them and Olaf who blushed while chuckled slightly.

Merida stared at him while her mother placed her hand on her chest where the heart was and her father stared at him in confusion.

“Unbelievable,” Gremlin Prescott said while rolling his eyes.

“Tell me about it,” The Mad Doctor replied while blushing.

“Yeah…” Daisy said, swaying to the music. “He is one lucky guy with that singing voice like that.” She then giggled at that part.

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5 notes - Posted October 8, 2022

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meimae · 3 years ago

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11/12/21

Despite being out with a regular old cold for two weeks in October, I managed to finish my 7th VN, 大正×対称アリス! This was part of VN Club's October challenge for the month, and yet another 乙女ゲーム to keep in my books.

Didn't really have many expectations diving into this; the blurb leaves something to be desired and basically just says "Hey, here's some gender swapped fairytale characters. Oh, and by the way, have fun with no memories!".

This is the 5th VN I've read that makes the protagonist draw the short straw - start off 記憶喪失 and discover who and what they are along the way. An easy way to introduce characters perhaps, and I'm not necessarily sick of it yet compared to the very common Schrodinger's cat or Theory of Relativity reference.

This VN is episodal; you get to interact with two particular characters per episode, except for the epilogue. It was an odd choice, because it spurred some people into thinking they could just skip to the episode with the character they like.

However, this does not remain the genderbent romantic comedy fairytale recreation I thought it was going to be, and the longer I read, the more I was pleasantly surprised and disturbed by the true story that unfolded episode by episode.

STATS AND GRAPHS

Time Spent Per Route: prologue 1.61; シンデレラ 9.45; 赤ずきん 5.89; かぐや 7.02; グレーテル 7.97; 白雪 7.67; 魔法使い 6.5; アリス 6.71; and omake 1.29. Total: 54.11 hours.

As I expected, my reading speed dropped down from my peak with あやかしごはん. It's not particularly bad, just a few thousand characters less, but still remaining consistent throughout. Also managed to hit 100k characters towards the end which will forever feel really good to do.

Discussion about every route and CGs:

As usual, I implore you to stop reading now if you plan to read this visual novel. This is a story meant to be experienced and it would be a pity if reading forward ruins it for you.

Trigger Warning: themes dealing with depression, anxiety, paranoia, drug abuse and overdose, suicide, and other mental health conditions.

Who would've thought that this seemingly fluffy and sweet otoge would contain all of these?

I'm not going to lie, while reading through the first episode, I kept thinking, wait, what was the point of this game again? Do I just go around and date all the guys and maybe somehow get her memories back? It honestly reminds me of Island, happily going around and getting to know the characters, but in the back of my mind I was waiting for something big to happen, and I must say I wasn't disappointed.

有栖百合花

The moment 百合花 started speaking, I knew I'd love her; her banter with the characters were fantastic. She's smart, clever, and funny, and while she does somewhat evoke the very feminine damsel-in-distress type she takes everything in stride. If anything, the strange situations she ends up in are strategically planned by her, even though the guys think they're in control, which makes her an even more brilliant protagonist in my books. She has a very interesting layer of cunning that surprised me and honestly made me concerned, too, because oh boy, the choices she makes in some of these? Absolute insanity.

What a gal, what a gal.

Episode 1

シンデレラ

シンデレラ was like fine wine; the longer I read the more I appreciated his role in the story and his character quirks. I loved him as an older brother figure the more I saw him in other routes. Shh, its my white/grey haired character loving self speaking.

He has a bit of a bad spending habit, hinting on a twisted version of the Cinderella fairytale, but he eventually develops a deep sense of duty to right the wrongs of his father, pay off his debts, and to help establish his brothers and their family's cafe before truly taking on the role of being 百合花's fiancee.

It was all very sweet; this was a nice and mature romance story through and through, with our lovely protagonist helping him change for the better along the way. Again as I said, the more I got into the story, the more I appreciated him as a character - they barely dropped any hints in this route or rather you wouldn't even understand the connection til much later, so playing blind, it was practically a SoL story and you really can't expect much more to happen in the next routes.

赤ずきん

Oh, but I was wrong with that assumption.

Much like the first route, 赤ずきん's was just as sweet. My favorite 真面目 character trope makes a return! I'm sorry, but I've become such 剣が君 trash that it was impossible for me to stop imagining 黒羽実彰 saying all his cute, embarrassed lines, that I had such a good time reading this. (•///•)~♡ I've become obsessed looking through voice actors' VNDB lists, send help.

I like that the twist to the fairytale was that 赤ずきん was the actual 狼 in the story. オオカミ, 猟師, and 百合花 all plotted it out to help him forgive himself for the things he did in the past and to bring him out of his paranoia embedded into him by his mother that all people are cruel and would treat him different, so its best to stay inside. Even though my next point actually should make him feel more paranoid.

This is a turning point for 百合花'a character for me. She started to evolve from this nice, witty, pretty lady to someone to watch out for, since its suddenly revealed that she's capable of controlling a situation to such a point. Its actually pretty scary how easy it is for her to pretend and act a certain way to get to a conclusion that benefits her. In this case it does benefit everyone involved and everyone ends up happy, but the way it was brought about still feels kind of icky.

If you think about it more critically, 赤ずきん really feels like victim of 百合花's controlling nature. Of course he wouldn't be able to tell that himself because he fell in love with her, and his other friends don't see or seems fine with it, especially because one of them is her brother. Ooof, yikes. Beauty and the Beast stockholm syndrome vibes, only its the "beast" that is trapped (albeit self-imposed because that's what he was taught as a child and he thought he was doing his job) in beauty's plot. She practically won't leave him alone and it felt as if she was throwing herself at him almost.

Anyway.

Please let me know if you feel the same, because the longer I think about it the more wrong it feels. Wouldn't it have been easier to just all sit down and talk about it rather than to come up with this ridiculous rouse of someone wanting to attack her? C'mon now.

From here on out 百合花 and the story becomes more interesting and thrilling to read, so if you dropped this game after episode 1, I do implore you to pick it up again.

Episode 2

かぐや

In an interesting turn of events, 百合花 turns out to be one of the siblings of シンデレラ, グレーテル, and 白雪 instead of 猟師 in 赤ずきん route or siblingless like in シンデレラ route (if I remember correctly). Not going to lie, I kept forgetting that she was trapped in a strange dream state with アリス, but from this route onwards it was finally made blatantly obvious to me that nothing in this game was normal.

Why is it that the playboy characters are always those who are seriously depressed? Oh but wait...it isn't as shallow as I thought it was going to be.

The most interesting character design of the six, and the only one referencing Japanese folklore and mythology, and of course can't forget the 関西弁 as well to cap it off.

There was a lot of heavy topics in this route and very much like our protagonist, he had some sort of amnesia, but it turned out that he was just suppressing all the bad memories in his life.; かぐや was an unwanted child constantly put through the foster system and was essentially forced to witness or to help push through someone else's suicide attempt against his will. He grows up feeling unwanted, hence the multiple relationships, and he is extremely possessive and desperste for attention as well since he never had stability in his life. GEEZ.

百合花 was very nice to him from the get go, always giving him the benefit of the doubt until she figured out what the root of the problem was. The issue is - and I can't believe you have to go through this to get the good end - is that she also takes it to the extreme and stabs herself in the gut to make him trust her enough to quit his own suicide attempts. She actually dies in one of the bad ends, which is an obvious end, and one of the only bad ends that didn't feel pointless.

Let me tell you, I lost my mind when it happened! Where did all the fluff go and why is this suddenly so depressing? ｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД`)･ﾟ･｡

グレーテル

This time around, everybody is siblings with each other except for 魔法使い and アリス. They're really pushing this sibling narrative with all of the past romances, huh....

One glance at this boy, I knew something terrible was brewing underneath the surface. It takes かぐや's possesiveness and easily triples it - literally the first scene at the start of the route involves a gigantic cage in a dark room. ドS sibling has arrived.

グレーテル has a massive シスターコンプレックス, and she is constantly trying to snuff his urges in a manner that won't cause him to go bonkers with jealousy. The scenes switches a lot to explain why グレーテル made the extreme decision of locking 百合花 in a house in the middle of the woods.

Turns out he wasn't actually a sibling of 猟師 and 百合花, but someone who was kind of just taken in as a family member. He was always made to feel inferior to his siblings, so he was constantly striving to excel in all of his school activities. His obssessive love for 百合花 causes him to get picked on in school a lot, and for 百合花 to receive equally nasty comments from his peers as well - which then causes everything to snap causes him to almost beat a student, and eventually many other students, to death if not for someone else holding him back. He gets suspended from school and he misses a year, causing him to not be able to go to school with 百合花, who at this point, he obsessively wants to protect from the 狼 of the world, which explains the cabin in the woods, and his distaste for オオカミ, 百合花's friend, and someone he thinks is making moves on her.

To control his anger, and later on what was revealed as what I can only describe as schizophrenia - extreme hallucinations and delusions of himself mocking his decisions - he eats a lot of "sweets" or really he takes his medicines for his condition just so he could pull through and function like normal. It was presented as an addiction, and it was very concerning the way he gulped down multiples from his prescription bottle.

Again, 百合花 with the strange suggestions such as staying together in a house that's about to burn down to the ground, welcoming the urges of her "sibling" in one of the bad ends, and telling him to quit his medicines. Now I'm not a psychiarist, but I do know that you shouldn't suddenly not take your medicines for illnesses such as these, even if you feel fine, because it can actually cause more psychotic breakdowns in the future. Obviously that didn't exactly occur in this since this is fiction, and they get a pretty questionable happily ever after as sibling...fiancees? Ick.

Still, this was a riot from start to finish, and pretty much my favorite next to the best end, because of just how ridiculous the whole thing was.

Also, the ribbon. ( ﾟ• ﾟ)

EPISODE 3

First of all, can we talk about this absolute fire of an opening song?! Easily my favorite rendition, and I never skipped listening to it whenever I booted up the game. Coming from the chaos of Episode 2, you just know that things were about to go down!

youtube

By this point, I was very alert to any scent that would lead me to a a hint to what was going on, but I was still left flabbergasted at what was to come.

白雪

Honestly, coming from that epic soundtrack and the events in Episode 2, this started really tame, with 百合花 hanging out casually with 猟師, 白雪 and his mom a lot.

If anything the most suspicious person was his mom - I honestly thought she was poisoning him or something, a theory based on the original Snow White fairytale, especially because 白雪 was starving himself and refused to eat anything that he was given - easily interpreted as an eating disorder - except for his mother's apple pie which was his favorite. Even the stuff that she gave 百合花 turned rotten and made her sick.

As it turns out, 猟師 made 白雪's acquaintance first, when he saw him at the dead of night by the lakeside. He earned his trust eventually by giving him books to read and talking about his sister 百合花ありす, who had beautiful blonde hair and strange two-toned colored eyes.

His family used to be rich, until a time where his father left him and his mother to fend for themselves. They moved out of his mansion house to a cottage in the woods, and his mother worked herself to the bone, dodging tax collectors and teaching 白雪 to do the same, because the 狼 of the world are terrible people. They lived in this kind of seclusion, with 白雪 occasionally sneaking out to the lake.

One thing led to another, and 白雪 revealed his secret to 猟師 - that he kept the decaying body of his mother at their dilapidated house in the middle of the woods, and kept himself alive by munching on the now rotten apple pie she last baked for him. He also believed that him leaving her to sneak out caused her death, and that he deserves the kind of life he lives because of it. OH BOY.

The other thing was that he was aware. He knew that he was both real and unreal, and that at the other side of the looking glass was a person named アリス - the same name 猟師's sister had - and he was keeping 猟師 close as a friend, but also to get to his sister who might be his way out.

Thankfully both 猟師 and 百合花 were kind enough to make him realize that not all people are evil, and that he wasn't responsible for the things that happened to him.

魔法使い

And so we move on to 魔法使い, one of the biggest enigmas in the game, and another piece of the puzzle who is aware of everything that is going on.

Of all the characters and throughout the game, both 白雪 and 魔法使い were the most secretive of their backstories and intentions with acceptable reasons. Both of them knew what the world was and how it functioned - through the looking glass of アリステア's mind.

魔法使い was there to act as a reset button - which explains why he appears at every bad end - to make sure that 百合花 made the correct decisions that would solve every other character's problem, except for his.

I think its better to explain further in the next section, to kill two birds - well three - with one stone, and since he won't get his proper, unselfish, happy ending until the Epilogue anyway.

アリス & アリステア

アリス, the beginning of it all and the first split personality of アリステア.

For a good beginning of the Epilogue, ありす chases after アリス, through all the different characters' stories, only to reveal that she wasn't the ありす they knew and loved, and the only people who could explain why were partially 白雪, 魔法使い, and アリス.

Which brings us to the original, truly existing person, アリステア.

アリステア is a shy and reserved boy from a classy family, a dad who had many riches and a kind mom who loved fairy tales. His parents hosted a party one day, and he decided it was best to keep to himself in his room, much to his mother's disappointment. He would often talk to himself in the mirror, convincing himself or rather, the then unbeknownst to him split personality アリス, who was confident and bold and someone he believed to be a better version of himself.

With アリス's urging, he goes down to the party and finds ありす crying, with her beautiful blonde hair similar to his, and a pair of strangely beautiful colored eyes that were the cause of her to be teased. It probably happened at the same time, both アリステア and アリス were besotted by this girl who shared their name, hair, and eventually her ribbon, and for the remainder of her stay before she moved countries, she played with one or both of his personalities - again most likely unbeknownst to her.

Years passed and they grew up and lost touch with each other when アリステア's father's empire collapsed and his family was left with a lot of debt. By this point アリステア was already struggling without his friend ありす, his family was in shambles, and he had began to have these out of body experiences - his multiple personalities slowly appearing and taking over.

He got acquainted with 猟師, ありす's brother who was left in the country to pursue his studies. He also helped アリステア to talk to someone who could handle his case. Eventually through this connection, ありす and アリス reunite, with her parents deciding to officially take him under their wing as part of their family, despite all of them knowing about the multiple personalities.

Their first encounter was with シンデレラ, ありす being able to tell the difference immediately. He was dead set on making his father's wrongs right, and their only work around was to make him ありす's fiancee so they can live together without the stern looks of others.

ありす, with the help of her brother's initial guidance was able to tell all of the multiple personalities (the six initial characters except for 魔法使い who doesn't appear til much later) apart and treat them accordingly to how they interact with her, all along loving the original アリステア, unbeknownst to him who feels like he doesn't own his body anymore.

All that happened in the five previous routes except for 魔法使い, was アリステア's reality split into five to form fairy tale characters - a reflection of his mother's obsession - for the personalities lived in his mind and possessed his body at different occasions which also got him into trouble for obvious reasons - グレーテル being the most violent personality.

It all boiled over when one evening, he wakes up in bed with ありす - with the smell of sex in the air - and none of the memories. He reacts to the extreme, in a fit of anger, and demands to know who dared to damage ありす's body as well. I still don't know who it is - probably グレーテル because he was the one who blatantly expressed such urges multiple times in his route.

He chugs a bunch of meds which leaves him comatose in the hospital in the hopes that he can enter his mind and talk to his multiple personalities.

Which is where ありす comes in. She actually somehow manages to create another personality of herself in アリステア's mind - a game to be played repeatedly, with 魔法使い as a sort of overseer, to make all personalities happy with a version of ありす for themselves.

It pretty much works out, they all pick the ありす that catered to their needs, except for 魔法使い who actually was in love with the human ありす, and アリス who was hesitant as well since he knew about the human ありす from their shared childhood. アリス talks to them carefully, and leaves all of them a version of ありす that loves them or that would at least would love to keep them company.

So that's at least 12 different personalities that all live rent free in his mind, but won't take over his body for the most part.

The biggest twist even, is one of the bad ends, where one of the ありすs goes rouge and actually just takes over アリス's body and murders the original ありす, so for obvious reasons アリス would be left to deal with the repercussions and live with the fact that with his own hands, he killed the one person who ever loved and cared for him - whether or not that was own mind's doing.

I honestly can't even begin to explain how mind blowing this entire revelation was to me. I'm writing this two months after reading, and I'm still so impressed by how this entire story teased the reader with so many hints and still be able to drop a bomb this big at the end.

Fantastic storytelling, and I'm absolutely dying for people in my club to start reading this, so I could talk to someone about it. ｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД`)･ﾟ･｡

-☆-

It was so long and there was so many things to keep track of by the end - probably the reasons why I couldn't sit down and write this. I'm incredibly surprised that something written so well would be hidden under the otoge genre never to be even looked at by a lot of people just because of the tag. If only they knew!

#language learning #japanese language #language acquisition #study blog #langblr #studyblr #大正×対称アリス #taisho x alice #visual novel #visual novels #language immersion #japanese #japanese langblr #japanese studyblr #otome game #乙女ゲーム #vn review

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maria-scribbles · 4 years ago

Text

we’re just like kevin bacon!

prompt: for @bricksatanakinswindow ‘s halloween writing challenge! this was initially inspired by "mortal enemies accidentally showing up in matching costumes every fucking year" but once i started writing it kind of snowballed from there and i ended up with this lmao

ship: jj maybank x fem!reader

word count: 4.6k+ (i think this is the shortest thing i’ve ever written lol)

warnings n stuff: childhood enemies to lovers, swearing, mention of underage drinking, halloween shenanigans, makin' out, smut (not too explicit but i still think it's spicy enough to need an 18+ warning), jj and the reader being cute lil nerds and quoting movies back and forth, the author blatantly using some of her personal favorite movies/shows as inspiration for costumes, the author also making her opinions on ghostbusters clear (instead of the human trash can peter venkman, stan the adorable dork known as ray stantz for clear skin)

a/n: this was hella fun to write and i already have so many more halloween fic ideas bouncing around in my head (it's spoopy season, y'all!). title of this fic comes from guardians of the galaxy 😊

Of three things in life you were certain.

One, you loved Halloween more than any other holiday of the year; after all, you and your twin brother Mason were born just after one AM on October 31st so you could say a penchant for all things spooky was in your blood.

Two, Sarah Cameron was your best friend. Being neighbors your whole lives, the two of you were thick as thieves and spent almost every day together, much to the annoyance of both your brother and hers; as much as you loved Mason, sometimes you wished Sarah was your twin instead of him and you knew without question the blonde girl would trade Rafe for you in a heartbeat (with little to no guilt, in fact.).

And three, you absolutely hated JJ Maybank. You'd been at the top of each other's shit lists ever since you were both six years old, when he made fun of you for the stutter you'd had back then and you dumped a full milkshake over his head as payback, and even as time passed and you grew out of your stutter, your disdain for the blond pogue only grew stronger. He was infuriating, plain and simple, and the mere mention of his name made steam come out of your ears.

The boy was just good at being annoying and seemed to love pushing everyone's buttons, yours especially, and always found ways to get under your skin without fail every single time your paths crossed (which was way too often for your liking, but running in the same friend group made it hard to avoid each other). It became an unspoken thing, the great Y/L/N-Maybank feud, with both of you trying your hardest to piss the other off until one of your mutual friends or your brother broke it up and pulled you to opposite corners of the metaphorical ring to take a breather before the next round.

You'd never admit it but deep down you kind of liked it. You liked being at the center of his attention (granted, it was antagonistic in nature but it was attention all the same), his bright blue eyes following your every move whenever you were within his sights and you liked that you were in his thoughts even when you weren't around, a fact proven to you by the tiny notebook Kiara carried around in her pocket recording how many times he mentioned your name. Knowing you lived rent free in his mind brought you an embarrassingly high level of satisfaction that you'd absolutely deny feeling if anyone ever asked, just as you'd deny the fact that he lived rent free in your mind, too.

...At least for most of the year. Everyone, including JJ, knew that to you Halloween was a damn-near sacred time. He knew never to mess with you during the weeks leading up to the holiday and definitely never on the day itself, lest he want yet another milkshake dumped over his blond head. He knew that, the whole damn island knew he did and yet...somehow, some way, he managed to get your blood boiling every. single. year. And you, like a masochistic idiot, let him.

It all started when you were twelve.

You, Mason, and your friends were finally old enough to go to the annual youth party held on the sprawling lawn of the Island Club, an event you'd been looking forward to attending every Halloween since you were eight. Of course, you were excited for the dancing and games and food but the thing you couldn't wait the most for was the costume contest, a chance to show off your skills and prove to everyone on the island that Y/N Y/L/N was the undisputed queen of Halloween.

So what if your hopes were a little too high (considering you were only twelve and going up against kids ranging from your age to fifteen), you were still gonna give it your all; you spent weeks perfecting not only your costume but your brother's as well with your mom, helping her cut fabric and sew zippers, styling wigs and painting props until everything was perfect.

"Oh my God, Y/N!" Sarah, dressed as Cinderella, yelled from the passenger seat of her dad's SUV when they swung by to pick you up. "You look amazing!"

"So do you!" You said, slipping into the back seat in between a miserable-looking Rafe as Sarah Sanderson ("I lost a bet," he explained with a scowl) and Mason, holding your mini R2-D2 on your lap. Was it kind of cheesy, dressing up as the most iconic twins in movie history? Probably, but you really didn't care because Leia Organa was a total boss bitch and Mason was practically over the moon that he got to be his ultimate silver screen hero and swing around his very own lightsaber as Luke Skywalker.

"The Force is strong with you two." Ward joked, earning an eye roll from both of his children as he drove to the Island Club to drop you off. Rafe immediately disappeared into the crowd to meet up with Topper and Kelce and the three of you went off to find your own friends, skirting around the edge of the party toward the snack tables, also known as the most likely place for them to be.

You spotted Kiara first, looking like an actual princess in her Tiana costume and waved, smiling when she waved back and beckoned you over as she said something to Pope, dressed as Albert Einstein, that made him start laughing hysterically.

"What's so funny?" You asked, reaching between them to grab two handfuls of pretzels and immediately dropping one into your brother's outstretched palm, careful to keep the sleeve of your white dress away from the bright orange-iced cupcakes on the table.

The two of them exchanged a look that instantly made you realize something was Up™ but before either of them could answer, Mason asked around a mouthful of pretzels, "Where're Tweedledee and Tweedledum?"

"J, why didn't we think of that?" John B's voice came from somewhere over your shoulder and when you turned to face him, you nearly dropped both the droid cradled in the crook of your elbow and the snacks in your hand. Not because of John B and his hilarious Chewbacca costume but because of the fact that JJ Maybank, the one person you hated the most on the whole entire island, was dressed as Han freakin' Solo.

"Yikes." Someone muttered behind you -it sounded like Sarah but you weren't really sure- and Mason nearly choked on his pretzels as he tried and failed miserably to keep himself from laughing.

"You've gotta be kidding me." You huffed, rolling your eyes as JJ crossed his arms and glared in your direction, blaster hanging from the holster on his hip.

"Listen, Princess, I'm not too happy about this, either."

"Oh, shut up, you nerfherder."

"Who you calling-" Mason and John B cut in and pulled you both in opposite directions before either of you could turn it into a shouting match, your brother physically grabbing you around the waist and carrying you off while the latter caught the back of JJ's vest and dragged him away. Despite their best efforts to keep you apart, you ran into each other more times than you could count and spent a minute or two squabbling like cats and dogs each time until one of them intervened once again. It was childish, it was immature, and it was fun, even though you'd never, ever admit it. Ever.

You didn't win the costume contest that year in the way you'd imagined at all. Still, first place in the group category was a win in your book and it felt good, even if one of the members of your unintentional Star Wars posse was someone who tested every bit of patience you had. The four of you split the cash prize and you went home 25 bucks richer, stashing it away for next year's costume and pushing the thought of accidentally matching with your mortal enemy from your mind.

You had no idea this thing was only just beginning.

The next year, you let Sarah and Kiara convince you to match with them and the three of you rolled up to the party as the Pink Ladies -you as Rizzo, Sarah as Sandy, Kiara as Frenchy- only to run right into the boys, your brother included, dressed as the T-Birds. John B, perfectly in character as Danny, immediately whisked Sarah off to dance while Pope, the most adorably awkward Doody you'd ever seen, went to grab some snacks with Kiara, leaving you stuck with the bane of your existence as, of course, fucking Kenickie (Mason, as Sonny, dipped sometime before then without you noticing). The two of you spent the whole evening glaring at each other and hurling insults back and forth at breakneck speed, more in character than either of you'd ever want to acknowledge and for the second year in a row, you won first place in the group costume category.

At fourteen, you went as Princess Buttercup and JJ showed up as Westley, fake sword in hand as he followed you around all night like an annoying fly, sarcastically drawling "as you wish" every time you so much as glanced in his direction. Your brother, dressed as Inigo Montoya, nearly pissed himself laughing and you wanted to snatch both of their prop swords and shove them up their asses. You came in first again in the group costume contest and begrudgingly split the prize three ways.

At fifteen, you worked hard on a Dr. Ellie Sattler costume from Jurassic Park, he strolled in as a disheveled Dr. Alan Grant with mud splattered boots and tattered clothes, and you really regretted not taking the offer to be the Tai to Sarah's Cher and Kiara's Dionne. Once again, Mason laughed so hard his face turned red and you were tempted to grab the sword he was holding and beat him over the head with it, not just for laughing at you but also for the completely atrocious Jack Sparrow costume he wore. To your absolute horror, you and JJ won the contest in the duo category and you wanted to melt into the ground when they called you onto the makeshift stage to collect your reward.

When you were sixteen, you and your friends "graduated" to the party held for the older teens inside the club itself. With costume rules a little more lax than they were for the younger kids, you decided to go as (an only slightly sexy) Janine Melnitz, complete with a prop telephone you answered every so often with a loud "Ghostbusters, whaddya want?!" much to the embarrassment of Mason, who was once again dressed as Luke Skywalker, this time in the fatigues he wore while training on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back.

You strutted into the party in your heels and pencil skirt only to nearly fall flat on your face when you caught sight of JJ in a terrible black wig and glasses, proton pack strapped to his back and 'Spengler' printed on the front of his jumpsuit. Your brother winced when you all but screeched "Again?!" right into his ear and grabbed your elbow, dragging you over to an empty table and depositing you into an open chair.

"There's no way this is a coincidence anymore! He could've picked Venkman, with all the womanizing and lowkey being a creep and thinking he's God's gift to mankind? It would've been the perfect choice! He's not nearly adorable or dorky enough to be Stantz or sassy enough to be Winston-"

"Jesus, you have a lot of feelings about Ghostbusters," Mason muttered, rolling his eyes when you shot him a withering glare.

"Shut up! Listen to me, there's no way in hell Maybank randomly decided to be, out of alllll the 'Busters, Egon fuckin' Spengler, okay? He had to have somehow known I was coming as Janine and did it just to piss me off!"

Your brother heaved a deep, heavy sigh that made you want to smack him and fixed you with a deadpan stare. "Or, have you pulled your head out of your own ass long enough to think that maybe you're just becoming...predictable?"

You really did smack him then, hard on his exposed shoulder and he yelped, scowling as he rubbed at the red mark you left behind. "Ow! What the hell, bitch?!"

"Don't you dare call me predictable, you dickhead! I pride myself on my costumes being very unique and unexpected -you know, out of the box!"

"Hate to break it to you but they're not really out of the box if Maybank shows up in a matching one every single year." He said with an infuriating, shit-eating grin, patting your shoulder before straightening the plush Yoda strapped to his back. "I'm gonna go get some food, wanna come with?"

Still miffed at his comment, you shoved his arm away and glanced down at your lap, ignoring your brother's sassy "your loss" as he headed toward the snack tables. Not even a minute passed by before his empty seat was taken and you groaned when you looked up to see who it was, your eyes meeting a pair of bright blues behind tacky, oversized glasses.

"Hi, Janine."

"...Egon."

The two of you sat in silence after that, watching the dancing crowd under the flashing neon lights and sparkling disco ball until you saw him turn to face you out of the corner of your eye.

"Why Janine?"

"Huh?" You turned to face him, too, one eyebrow raised in a perfect arch as he gestured toward your costume.

"Why did you dress up as Janine, Y/L/N?"

"I've always liked her sassiness and 'I like to play racquetball.'" You offered a casual shrug of your shoulders and carefully stuck a finger under your wig to scratch an annoying itch above your ear. "Why'd you pick Egon, Maybank?"

"He's my favorite." He answered simply with his own shrug, shooting you a genuine, real smile that you, for who knows what reason, found yourself returning without a second thought. "Smart, hilarious -plus, 'I like to collect spores, mold, and fungus.'"

For the first time in your life, your eyes rolled out of amusement and not annoyance at something that JJ Maybank said and, to your complete surprise, it kind of felt...right. "Really? I'd have pegged you for a Venkman stan."

"Are you kidding? He's the worst!"

Never in your wildest dreams did you ever think you'd sit across from your hated enemy, not only having a civil -hell, downright enjoyable- conversation but actually smiling right along with him, laughing at his jokes and doing your best to ignore the sudden flutter in your stomach each time you caught sight of his slightly crooked teeth when he grinned. You didn't even notice when your brother returned with Kiara, dressed as Moana, at his side and two heaping plates of snacks in his hands until his chair scraped gratingly across the hardwood floor.

"Kie, are you seeing this? Pigs must be flying 'cause they're actually smiling at each other." Mason said, cackling as Kiara turned to squint out the window.

"Yeah, I think I see one or two soaring around out there." She giggled and sent a mischievous wink in your direction. With your face feeling like it was on fire, you flipped them both the bird and took off, disappearing into the crowd and leaving all your traitorous, confusing thoughts about JJ behind with the boy himself; it was Rafe's last party at the Club and he owed you a dance anyway, but even as your best friend's older brother, cute as hell in his Thor costume, playfully twirled you around the floor to the Ghostbusters theme song, you felt more than your partner's blue eyes on you.

To no one's surprise, you and JJ won the duo category for the second year in a row and when you joined him onstage to collect your prize and didn't feel like you'd rather die than be up there by his side, you suddenly realized you were only certain about two things in life instead of three.

At seventeen, you were confident you and JJ wouldn't be matching for once (after last year, though, you were kind of thinking it wouldn't be that bad of a thing). You'd gone cult classic for your costume, pulling inspiration from your mom's favorite move, 1999's The Mummy, and put together a screen-accurate Evelyn Carnahan in her iconic black dress, including a handmade Book of the Dead and matching key. You blackmailed Mason with pictures of him, drunk as a skunk and dressed in your Janine costume from the previous year, and got him to go as Jonathan, complete with a pith helmet and prop bottle of The Glenlivet.

But, as always, JJ managed to surprise you. You literally ran right into his chest and if it wasn't for his arms instantly wrapping tight around your waist, you would've bit it hard.

"Whoa, careful there," He said, one hand keeping you close while the other moved to help you hold the book in your arms. "'The Book of the Dead? Are you sure you wanna be messing around with this thing?'"

Of course he'd make the perfect Rick O'Connell, you thought as you playfully raised one eyebrow and curled your fingers around the strap of the gun holster draped over his shoulder. "'It's just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book.'"

Mason was a little too in character as well as he dramatically rolled his eyes and wandered off, muttering "puh-lease" under his breath and shooting Sarah a conspiratorial wink that you didn't see. The blonde girl glanced between the two of you -arms still around each other and identical smiles on your faces- and grinned. The party flew by in a blur of movie quotes, laughs, and more dances than you could count and by the time you made it home, 50 bucks in the pocket of your dress and another group costume win under your belt, you were almost positive you never actually hated JJ Maybank in the first place.

Now at eighteen, you pulled out all the stops for your last party at the Island Club. You'd spent the last few months slaving over your costume, sewing custom pieces, hand-crafting your prop, and spending way too much money on body makeup and a wig but when you saw the final product in the mirror, you knew it was all worth it. You were ready to slay the competition this year and take home first place for the final time.

Mason, indifferent as always about the contest but willing to do anything to keep those pictures from seeing the light of day, didn't protest one bit when you forced him into the matching costume you'd made for him -in typical Mason fashion, he liked that he didn't have to wear a shirt and could show off his muscles- and spent a few hours perfecting his makeup.

You felt on top of the world when you walked into the party that night as Gamora, a replica of her Godslayer sword in hand and skin painted a perfect shade of green, followed by your brother as Drax, already flexing for anyone and everyone looking his way. The rest of your friends came to win as well: John B and Sarah as Flynn Rider and Rapunzel, Kiara as Eleven, Pope as T'Challa, and, of course, JJ as Peter Quill, Baby Groot perched on his shoulder and twin blasters at his hips.

"Lookin' good, Gamora!" He called over the music, shimmying his way over to you with some dance moves that would impress Star-Lord himself.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Quill." You replied in a sing-song voice, even as you took his outstretched hand and let him pull you into the crowd of bodies hopping up and down to some terrible EDM beat under the twirling disco ball.

"It got you out here with me, didn't it?"

You rolled your eyes and hooked the sword to your belt before stepping closer and draping your arms around his neck, twirling your painted fingers in his hair. "Just remember, 'I know who you are, Peter Quill. And I'm not some starry-eyed waif here to succumb to your pelvic sorcery.'"

You should've known you spoke too soon the second you saw the spark in JJ's eyes that all but screamed 'wanna bet?'

And that's how you found yourself in the middle of the single hottest make out session you'd ever had the pleasure of participating in an hour later: back pressed against the locked door of someone's deserted office, legs wrapped tight around his waist and his hands hooked under your ass, both your sword and his blasters abandoned on the floor at his feet, and he was either a sinfully good kisser or trying really, really hard to blow your mind.

"I'm not gonna end up green after this, am I?" He mumbled against your mouth before trailing his lips along your jaw and you breathed a laugh, tightening your grip on his hair.

"This is professional makeup, dumbass. It's gonna take more than some kissing to smudge it."

"I'm down for some smudging if you are."

You pulled him back for another kiss in response and gasped into his mouth when he walked across the room, one strong arm reaching out to sweep whatever was on the desk to the floor before setting you down on it.

"Confident, are we?"

JJ smirked at your breathless question and the way you hooked your ankles around the backs of his thighs to pull him closer. "So is that a yes to the smudging?"

"Just shut up and kiss me."

He did -very well, you might add- and you kissed him back, untangling your hands from his hair to slide them under his jacket instead; you helped him push it off his shoulders and it had barely hit the ground along with poor Baby Groot before your fingers were tugging his shirt from the waistband of his pants.

"Someone's impatient." He teased, leaning back just far enough to let you pull it over his head and toss it somewhere behind you.

"Someone doesn't know how to stop talking." You whispered your reply low in his ear and then trailed your lips down his neck, smiling in satisfaction at the tremble in his voice when you kissed the purple mark you'd left behind earlier.

"N-never was very good at that."

"'You should've learned.'"

"'I don't learn, it's one of my issues.'"

One of his hands gripped your wig, pulling your head back a little roughly -you'd have so been into that if it had been your real hair he pulled- and you winced at the way the bobby pins holding it it place tugged painfully at your roots. "Ow, not so hard!"

"Wait, what the fuck? I thought you were wearing a wig!"

"I am but it's still pinned to my actual hair!"

"Sorry, but how the hell was I supposed to know that?"

The sight of JJ's face slowly turning red made the butterflies in your stomach go haywire and so you just shook your head, mumbling "don't worry about it," before pressing your lips to his once again. He was gentler this time with the pulling and you dug your nails into his bare shoulders at the thrill of his mouth against the exposed column of your throat, leaning back further and further until you laid flat on the desk.

His fingers had just unbuttoned your pants when your phone started to ring from your pocket, blaring the Star Wars theme you had set as your twin's ringtone.

"Mason's timing is impeccable," JJ said sarcastically, chuckling as you clamped a palm over his mouth and answered the call.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Jesus, no need to be pissy!" Mason loudly replied over the applause crackling through the phone's speaker. "I just thought you'd like to know that we just won best group costume with Maybank. Again."

The blond winked at the mention of his last name and pulled your hand away from his mouth, pinning it to the desk beside you with one of his while the other started tugging your pants down over your hips.

"Oh, that's cool, Mase-" You inhaled sharply when his lips touched the edge of your underwear, so close to where you wanted him most but at the same time so far away, and your fingers held your phone in a white-knuckled grip. "But I-I'm kind of in the middle of doing someone -something!- right now."

"Smooth," JJ said, not even trying to be quiet as he released your pinned hand to finish pulling your boots off, along with your tight leather pants that he casually tossed aside. "And I knew you weren't green under these!"

Your laugh quickly turned into a gasp when his fingers hooked under your panties and pulled those off, too, and the touch of his tongue against the skin of your inner thigh sent white-hot lightning racing through your veins; the phone slipped from your grip, falling with a clunk onto the desk as your fingers tangled in his hair and he lifted one of your knees over his shoulder.

"Okay, I'm hanging up now! I already know you're getting laid but I don't need to hear it." Mason's loud grumble drifted up through the speaker and if you weren't so preoccupied with the boy between your thighs doing some downright wicked things to you with his mouth, you might've noticed that your brother didn't actually sound that grumpy before he ended the call and your phone's screen went dark, right as you lost control of your voice.

"Fuck me."

"Funny, I thought that's what I was doing?" You felt more than heard his response against you and a shiver ran down your spine when his bright blue eyes flicked up to met yours in the dim light of the office.

"You know what I meant, Maybank."

"Trust me, Y/L/N, I know. Question is: where do you want me?"

You tugged on his hair, grinning wolfishly at the way his eyes fluttered closed and a low moan rose from his throat. "Everywhere in this damn room, starting right here."

"I was hoping you’d say that.”

- Back at the party, Mason looked up and met Sarah's gaze, both of her eyebrows raised expectantly as she asked, "Well?"

He took his time slipping his phone back into his pocket before giving her a quick nod, grinning triumphantly when she immediately burst into gleeful giggles.

"Yes! I just knew they had a thing for each other! Mortal enemies, my ass."

"I think that was the very first time in my sister's life that she didn't give a shit about the contest." Mason said and reached over to snag a cookie from her plate, chuckling when she pushed his hand away from the chocolate chip ones and toward the peanut butter. "We couldn't have pulled this off without you. I mean, making sure they showed up in matching costumes every year? Genius, Sarah. Absolutely genius."

The blonde girl grabbed her own cookie with a wink. "Think they'll ever figure it out?"

Your brother just threw his head back and laughed. "I hope not! I wanna save that story for my best man speech at their wedding."

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