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robininthelabyrinth · 7 years ago

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Fic: The Swiftest Course (Ao3) (Chapter 2/8)

Fandom: Flash, DC’s Legends Pairing: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart/Mick Rory, Eddie Thawne/Iris West Summary:

Barry of Allen is on his way to the capital of Tortall for the final part of his knight training, hiding a secret that could threaten his career there. He’s determined to keep his head down and not get into trouble.

He isn’t expecting to meet Len, Corus’ Rogue, or his right-hand man, Mick. Or meet Princess Iris and his new friends, Cisco and Caitlin.

He certainly wasn’t expecting to be roped into adventure.

(It’s the Gods’ fault, really.)

A/N: For joyous-lee, who purchased one of my stories for the FandomTrumpsHate event. She requested a Tortall AU, with Barry as Alanna. Thank you so much for your patience, and I hope you enjoy it!

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"I don't think I like that guy," Barry groans one evening a week later. Iris has smuggled some muscle pain relieving balm out of the infirmary for him and is rubbing it into his back while Cisco and Caitlin keep watch.

"Of course you don’t," Cisco says. "That's 'cause he's a dick."

"My dad says 'all knights go through something like this' and cites the Lioness and Keladry of Mindelan," Iris says, scowling. "Like that's not a reason to change the system, rather than a reason to keep it the way it is."

"It's okay."

"No, it's not! That creep deserves to get kicked out of the program, not - used as some sort of life lesson for the rest of us! Ugh, and he keeps trying to flirt with me, which, no."

"Agreed," Caitlin says, nose wrinkling a little. "I've tried to explain to him that I have a boyfriend, but he just doesn't take the hint. He all but said that I was lying because I was shy and didn’t think I was pretty enough for him!"

"Wow," Cisco says. "That's even more dickish than I'd thought."

“You’d think that because my dad goes ballistic at the thought of me dating anyone, ever, he’d have some issues with me being sexually harassed, but nooooo, apparently that’s just fodder for his argument that I wasn’t cut out to be a knight,” Iris says.

“Maybe it’s his way to try to encourage you?” Barry offers. “Since any idiot would be able to tell that telling you that you can’t do something is a surefire way to get you to do it, I mean. Like, I’ve only known you for a week and…” he trails off. Iris is smiling. “No?”

“Nah,” she says. “My dad’s just blind about certain matters. God only knows what he’ll do when it comes time to marry me off for king and country.”

“I feel like the chances of us going to war with the relevant country when he finds out what happens on your wedding night are, like, 60%?” Cisco says. “And I’ve only been here two weeks.”

Caitlin snickers.

“He’s not that bad,” Iris says, shaking her head and grinning. “Well. Maybe just a little.”

“I’m surprised I haven’t seen him, actually,” Barry comments. “I would’ve thought, given that we’re so close to the courts…”

“He’s been out on same tour your mom’s on,” Iris says. “He’ll be coming back tonight, though, which is good. Mom misses him. Though I’m not sure if he’s coming back alone.”

“Oh?” Caitlin asks.

Iris shrugs. “Our neighbor to the north. The current Thawne, Eobard. He’s nice.”

“Thawne – wait, the whole big civil war thing? Where the reigning Thawne family was all but wiped out in that uprising?”

“Yeah – Eobard was some sort of cousin, but after the whole family died, he took over.”

“Seems fishy to me,” Barry says.

“No, no, he’s great. He comes by sometimes, teaches some classes in the mage university, some in the knights. He’s very nice."

"Being nice doesn't mean he didn't murder his family for power," Barry points out.

"Maybe you have to meet him to get it,” Iris says with a shrug. “He's really quite charismatic. And it's nice to have someone more interesting than Lord Merlyn around, so people stop talking about him all the time."

"I guess," Barry says. He’s not really convinced, but then again, he hasn’t met the guy, so what does he know? Maybe he is just that nice. Though that’s not a word he would have previously thought Iris would use; most of hte time, she has a bard’s turn of phrase. "I'm really just looking forward to seeing my mom."

-----

Turns out Thawne Eobard has indeed returned to Tortall with the king; in fact, they arrive sufficiently early that the instructors decide to give the students a special treat by bringing him in to teach the last class of the day.

Which they extend by an extra hour.

Barry hates everybody involved.

He wants to see his mom already; is that so much to ask?!

Still, it'd be rude to rain on everybody else's parade, so Barry pulls out some papers and starts sneakily doing some of his homework instead of paying attention. Iris will catch him up on anything important, finishing his homework means more time to spend with Mom, and at any rate Barry’s never known these guest speakers to say anything that's actually on an exam. Usually it's just stories of their heroic deeds and stuff, meant to inspire you.

Barry's all good in inspiration, thanks.

From Barry's brief glance up at the start of the class, Thawne Eobard is a pretty average-looking man, dirty blond and facile of face, and he favors a frankly horrific shade of yellow for his formal robes. He spends a lot of time playing with a yellow ring which sparkles a lot and makes Barry oddly queasy, so he focuses on his work instead.

He manages to get a lot done, since the class sits positively spellbound for the whole extra hour.

"That was great," Cisco says, eyes shining. "I see what you mean, Iris; he's really nice."

"I told you," she says, grinning.

"What was the lecture about?" Barry asks.

"Oh, you know," Caitlin says, which is rather unlike her usual precision of language. "His rule up in the north, allying between Bergen and Tortall, that sort of thing."

"And what'd he fill the other hour and a half with?" Barry asks skeptically.

"That was it, really. But he was very nice!"

Honestly, Barry doesn't even care what lecture he's missed. He just wants to see his mom.

"Catch up later?" he asks and walks carefully off when the others nod.

Carefully, both because he's still sore, and because being excited could activate his powers, and no one could know about those.

He still makes it to his mom's quarters in record time.

He knocks.

“Come in!” a familiar voice calls.

Barry cracks open the door and slips in.

His mother is darting from one side of the room to the next, scowling at a pile of paper. “Sorry about the mess,” she says automatically. “How can I help –” she looks up.

Barry waves.

“Barry!”

And she leaps up and she runs over and she wraps her arms around him and it’s everything he ever wanted. “Oh, Barry, Barry, my beautiful boy,” she says, over and over. “I knew you were coming to Corus – I didn’t realize that time of year had come already – oh, I’m so happy to see you!”

“You too, Mom,” Barry says, and puts his face in her shoulder so she won’t see his tears.

Nora draws him down. “Tell me everything,” she instructs. “Who have you met so far? Have you made any friends? You’ve been here – oh, my, it’d be a week already, wouldn’t it?”

“You were out on tour,” Barry tells her, which earns him an eye-roll.

“Oh, that stupid tour,” she says. “Even less useful than normal years, and that’s saying something. Have you been out into the city yet?”

“Not except on the way in, no…”

“You should,” she says briskly. “Too many knights never venture out from the courts, and that’s a crime and a shame, that they don’t know the people they’ve sworn their lives to defend. But that’s for later. Tell me about your classes!”

Barry smiles, and does.

------------------------------------------

“I’m just saying,” Len says, not for the first time. “I don’t know if it’s appropriate.”

“You’re the Rogue,” Mick says, utterly tranquil and as unmovable as a rock. “You don’t care about appropriate.”

“Appropriate for the Rogue.”

“You’re the Rogue. You decide what’s appropriate.”

Len contemplates beating his head against the table.

“I don’t suppose saying that as the Rogue, I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a rat as a pet, would convince you?” he tries.

“I’m sure you’ll change your mind,” Mick replies. He’s still petting that stupid rat he found Mother Flame only knows where.

“In here,” a cheery voice says, audible even from where Len’s sitting, bringing a blissful interruption to Len’s attempt to shift the unmoveable object that is Mick.

Len looks up.

“Hey, it’s that kid,” Mick observes. “From last week.”

“Ten days ago,” Len corrects automatically, but indeed it is, and he’s brought friends.

Barry sees him and beams, coming over. “Len!” he says happily. “And Mick, too! It’s good to see you.”

“Hello, Barry,” Len says, unable to keep his lips from curling up. Mick just grunts, but Len can tell he’s pleased that Barry remembered him as well. Most people just focus on Len.

“It’s my first day off,” Barry says proudly. “My mom – she’s at the court – she told me to make sure to go out, but I don’t know the city at all, so I thought I’d come see you.”

“And you brought friends, I see.”

“Well, yeah,” Barry says, utterly unselfconscious. “I told them I was going into the city, then Cisco said I was probably going to be kidnapped and sold into sex slavery and Caitlin told him he was stupid and you were probably just going to try to sell me things until I didn’t have any money left and Iris started saying there were laws against that, so in the end it was easier to convince them that I wasn’t going to be murdered, robbed, or otherwise vanished by bringing them along. Besides, neither Cisco or Caitlin know the city all that well; they’re new, too.”

Len blinks. Those were a lot of words. “Right,” he drawls, for lack of anything better to say. “Well, why don’t you introduce me?”

“Right! Here – guys, come over here – here, this is Cisco – uh –”

“Francisco Ramon,” the boy says. “But no one calls me Francisco but my parents.”

“And this is Caitlin Snow,” Barry continues, nodding at the blonde girl. Then he turns to the last girl, who’s pushing back her cloak to reveal her face. “And this is –”

“Iris, Princess and Duchess of the Western March,” Len drawls. “Yes, Barry, I do live in Corus; I’ve seen her before.”

Iris shrugs. “It was worth a shot,” she says wistfully.

“Oh, I don’t care,” Len clarifies. “There’s only one King in the Dancing Dove, and he doesn’t wear a crown.”

If Len was expecting Iris to be annoyed, he’d be disappointed. Luckily, he wasn’t. Instead, her eyes light up. “This is the Rogue’s Court,” she crows. “I knew it!”

“The Rogue’s Court?” Barry asks, blinking.

Len presses his lips together to keep from laughing. The kid’s adorable.

Mick leans over and mutters into Len’s ear, “You can keep him if I can keep my rat.”

“Not the same,” Len hisses back.

“- where the Rogue controls all the thieves of Corus, possibly of all of Tortall,” Iris is telling a spell-bound group. “They’re the representative of the poor of Tortall, the King of the streets, the poor man’s last resort. His job is to manage the crime in the city and kick the asses of the nobility if we start forgetting about the poor. So basically: totally awesome. This is where it all happens.”

“You’re going to be disappointed,” Len says, unable to keep a smirk off his face.

“I am not!”

“Sure you are,” Len says. “I’m the Rogue.”

Iris eyes him suspiciously. “No way.”

“To my sorrow, yes.”

“Really?”

“He killed the last one,” Mick says. “That means he’s in charge. No other competence test required.” He picks his rat up from the table onto his palm and tickles it under the chin.

“Will you please not do that?” Len says, closing his eyes. “At least not in front of visitors.”

“We’re making progress,” Mick tells the rat. “First he was saying I couldn’t keep you, then that you weren’t appropriate, and now we’re on specific to-dos.”

Len looks beseechingly at the group of grinning knights-to-be. “Tell him the Rogue’s terrifying second-in-command becomes notably less terrifying if he’s got a pet rat he coos over.”

“I don’t know,” Barry says, hiding a smile. “I think he’s a very scary rat.”

“Traitor.”

“He’s adorable,” Iris declares, leaning forward to get a better look. “What did you name him?”

“Faithful,” Mick says.

Len gives him an incredulous look at the same time as the four others. He hadn’t heard that before, either.

“Really, Mick?”

“That’s his name.”

“Like, um, Lady Alanna’s Faithful?” Cisco asks.

“Yep. That’s his namesake.”

“But the Lioness’s Faithful was a cat…” Caitlin starts, but Iris shushes her.

“I think Faithful is a lovely name,” Iris says firmly. “Can I…?”

Mick holds out his hand.

“Aw, he’s really quite cute and…” her voice trails off. “Oh. Huh.”

“Oh, huh?” Barry asks.

“Purple eyes.”

“Are you kidding me?” Len asks, leaning in, but no, she’s right. Purple eyes.

On a rat.

How utterly bizarre.

“Told you,” Mick says placidly. “Faithful.”

“…right,” Len sighs, dropping the question. He knows when it's just not worth fighting on an issue.

That’s when there’s a loud clatter and the sound of shouting. The would-be knights all spin around – undoubtedly eager to go do justice or whatever it is that knights do – but Len can hear the voices and he knows what this is.

He settles back in his chair.

Some of the bully boys drag in a tall blond man, dressed in a long black cloak designed to help with the rain. It’s clearly meant not to stand out and probably wouldn’t anywhere else in Tortall, but that by itself stands out plenty in Corus, where the Rogue controls the crime.

“I’m telling you, I didn’t –” he’s protesting in a faintly accented voice, only to fall silent when they throw him to the floor at Len’s feet.

“This is the one,” one of the bully boys reports. Thugs and enforcers; Len doesn’t have to like them – and he doesn’t – but they’ve more or less formed their own union in support of the Rogue. His very own bodyguard corps, but one with its own interests, and one that’s helped more than a few Rogues go the wrong way down the road of succession.

There’s a reason Len prefers Mick. Of course, that’s the same reasons the enforcers can’t stand him.

“You sure?” Len says, lacing his fingers together.

“What’s going on?” Barry asks.

“This man has been accused of stealing from his fellow thief,” Len drawls, eying the man. “Now, I don’t know how it is where you’re from, but here in Corus, we thieves follow a code of conduct. It keeps us out of getting into too much trouble with the Lord Provost, and it keeps peace among our ranks.”

He smiles sharply. “And we don’t appreciate people who break that code.”

“I didn’t,” the man says again. “I swear it.”

Mick snorts in disbelief. “Punish him and be done with it,” he says, stroking his rat with a gentle finger as the rat crawls over his knuckles.

It is oddly threatening, now that Len sees it in action. Dismissive and yet not soft.

“If he says he’s innocent, you have to prove he’s guilty,” Iris says.

Len gives her a look. “No,” he says slowly. “We really don’t. This is the Rogue’s Court, not the lawman’s.”

“But then how will you know if you’re punishing the right person?” Barry asks. “Won’t it be worse if you get tricked?”

They’re not wrong, but…

“We have three eyewitnesses that put him at the scene,” Len says. “Two more that say he was arguing with the man beforehand, and he was spending some pretty pennies the very next day – pennies he refuses to explain how he obtained.”

“I can’t,” the guy says wretchedly. “I would if I could, but I really can’t. I just woke up with the money in my pockets. But I didn’t take his money. I really didn’t.”

Iris crosses her arms. “Maybe he’s being framed.”

“Maybe he’s lying,” Len points out.

“I’m not letting you punish him just because you think he’s guilty,” she says, bristling. “Not without some proof.”

Len and Mick exchange looks. They’d really only planned to give the guy a good tanning and set him on his way – standard for first-time offenses – but the guy was really sticking to his story.

And that cloak was so very distinctive. Very easy to fake.

Len sighs.

“Mick,” he says. “You have three hours.”

Mick nods and gets up, slipping out the side door.

“He stays here, under watch,” Len tells the bully boys. “He so much as twitches towards the door or a weapon, put him down.”

The enforcers nod, pleased, and retreat to stand by the door.

“What’s going on?” Barry asks.

The man looks up, hope in his eyes. They’re very blue.

“Mick’s going to look into the issue,” Len says. “If he comes back and says there’s not enough to convince him, you go free. If he says there is, you face the penalties you have coming, no more arguing.”

“That’s fine,” the guy says. “Thank you – I swear –”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Len says. “Really.”

He turns his eyes to Iris. They’ve gone a little starry-eyed. “Thank you for standing up for me, my lady,” he says. “You don’t know me – and yet –”

“I’m training to be a knight,” Iris says, but she’s smiling back at him. “Standing up for people – for justice – well, it’s what I do.”

He catches her hand and presses his lips to her knuckles. “It doesn’t take away from what you’ve done for me,” he says. “If all the world followed your example, we’d be better off. Thank you. What may I call you?”

“…you can call me Iris,” she says after a moment, slight flush on her cheeks, pulling him up. “You know, like the princess. And enough of that. What’s your name?”

“Sorry,” he says, smiling a little bashfully. “I forgot myself. My friends call me Eddie.”

“Nice to meet you,” she says. “Won’t you sit with us? You’re not from here, are you?”

“No,” he says. “I’ve never been to Tortall before, actually; I worked with a caravan and they fired us not far from here, so I thought I’d come here.” He winces. “I’ve only been here two weeks.”

“And you’re already in trouble,” Iris says, shaking her head.

Len rolls his eyes.

Barry notices him and grins, leaning forward. “They’re a bit much, aren’t they?” he whispers.

“Just a bit,” Len murmurs back. “He is new, though – you catch how his eyes didn’t even blink when she said her name?”

“What about it?”

“He doesn’t know who she is, and she knows it.”

“I’ll tell Cisco and Caitlin not to say,” Barry replies, eyes dancing with mischief.

“You do that. No need to spoil her fun.”

They fall to talking, since Len’s not going anywhere until Mick’s finished his investigation. It turns out Barry has some problems with a boy up in the castle – some jerk named Tony Woodward who’s apparently as massive as an oak tree and has taken a distinct dislike to Barry – and his friends have all sorts of suggestions on how to fix the issue.

Iris spends most of her time talking with Eddie. They apparently share an interest in neo-revival poetry, with a particular emphasis on how notoriously terrible Good King Jonathan’s love poetry was.

“You want me and Mick to take care of it next time he goes out walking?” Len offers. “My grandmother was Bazhir; I don’t hold for any of that desert rat talk, not in my city.”

“No!” Barry says. “I couldn’t ask that of you. No. If you’re the Rogue, you’re nobody’s fists for hire.”

Adorable.

He’ll have to ask Mick how serious he was about letting Len keep Barry. Especially if he gets Mick equal dibs…

Mother Flame curse it all, though; that means Len’ll have to accept the rat.

“It wouldn’t be for hire if I’m doing it ‘cause I want to,” Len points out.

“Still no,” Barry says, but he’s smiling. “But actually – could you teach me how to stop him? I have knight training, but so does he; I don’t know any tricks to beat someone the size of Tony. But you…”

Len raises his eyebrows. “What makes you think I know?”

“No way Mick would’ve let you get this far without teaching you how to stop him,” Barry says.

“Hey! Maybe I taught him.”

“Did you?” Caitlin asks.

“…no,” Len concedes. “Mick’s the genius when it comes to punching people. I just run the Rogue, that’s all. Barely worth discussing in comparison. King of the Streets? Eh, whatever, pay it no mind – punching people’s where it’s at.”

They all laugh.

“So can you do it?” Barry asks, looking eager. “If it’s not too much time…”

“I could see myself covering a few classes,” Len says.

“Caitlin and I can cover for you for chores if you teach us the tricks when you get back to the knight’s court, Barry,” Cisco offers. Caitlin nods in agreement.

“That would be great,” Barry says.

They end up talking logistics for the next hour until Mick shows up, a good hour and a half before Len’s deadline.

Everyone goes quiet for a second.

“He’s fine,” Mick says.

They break out into cheers.

Iris even grabs Eddie into a hug.

Len arches an eyebrow. Mick had been fairly convinced of Eddie’s guilt, and a hour and a half isn’t a lot of time to change your mind.

Mick shakes his head slightly.

They’ll discuss it later, then. That’s not promising – Len has been complaining recently about how strangely slow certain things have been going, and an incorrect identification with five witnesses means either a set-up or a conspiracy or both.

Probably just people bellyaching about how Len’s not a proper Rogue again, but worth investigating.

For the time being, Len turns to Eddie. “No hard feelings, yeah?” he says mildly. “But remember, if you intend to be a criminal in this city going into the future, you’ll obey the rules.”

Eddie smiles.

He looks like a puppy, but not quite as much as Barry.

“I promise,” he says. He dips his head a little, looking a little shy. “I’ve actually never been a criminal before. I’m hoping to find a job.”

Trickster help him.

Len sighs. “How ‘bout this,” he says, mildly pained. “I’ll get you a job, if you promise to not be a criminal. I got a feeling you’d be terrible at it. Give us all a bad rep.”

Iris is beaming so hard Len’s amazed her muscles haven’t seized up yet.

“Thank you,” Barry says, and smiles at him.

Len swallows. Barry's really pretty when he smiles like that. “Yeah, sure,” he says, aiming for dismissive. “Hey, Mick, I promised Barry here lessons in dirty fighting. You in?”

“Of course I’m in,” Mick says. “Are you crazy? I taught you everything you know.”

“You did not.”

“I knew it!” Caitlin giggles.

#coldflashwave #dccoldwave #mick rory #barry allen #leonard snart #iris west #Caitlin snow #cisco ramon #eddie thawne #my fic #tortall

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podcake · 8 years ago

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Podcast Teatime: The Question Session

A very welcome February day to you all! This is my first Q&A of the new year and I thought no one was better to pick for this beloved series than the creator of The Bright Sessions podcast, Lauren Shippen.

I’ve been itching to know what this starlet in the podcasting scene has to say about her work on the show, her muses, and what she might have in store for us in the future.

(The following is a direct copy-and-paste from the email)

Hi PodCake!

Thanks for reaching out! Here are my answers:

Question One: What drove you to make the series have therapy as a central plot point? Is it more of a framing device for the overall narrative or is there a more specific reason?

It definitely started as a very convenient framing device. Everyone knows what therapy is, and has an idea of what happens there, so there wasn’t a complicated premise or world that the audience needs to buy into. It also gave me the excuse to keep things confined to two people in one room - those kinds of scenes can be hard to keep active, but with therapy as an activity in of itself, the audience doesn’t get bored (hopefully).

But ultimately, I wanted to write something that would allow characters to really discuss their feelings and delve into their own emotional lives. People rarely do this in their actual lives, but therapy provides this space.

Question Two: Is there an ultimate plan you have for your overall story or do you simply make things up as you go along?

It’s a little bit of both. My writing is always very focused on character, rather than plot, so I usually think about where I want to take the characters and build the plot around that. There are some exceptions to this (which I won’t identify here because: spoilers), but I’m rarely thinking about the big plot machinations first.

As I start to map out a season, I have a target that I’m trying to hit, whether it’s a reveal about a character, a big change in the dynamic of the group, etc. I then start to write the season with that target in mind, but how I get there is discovered along the way. This has meant that some things have changed pretty drastically from when I started out, but it has also led to some really exciting, organic discoveries about the characters themselves.

Question Three: Your show has a very interesting cast of characters. Is there a specific character you have the funnest time writing for? Whose the hardest character to put on paper?

I think this shows in his scripts, but I love writing Caleb. That’s why his scripts are usually at least 5 pages longer than everyone else’s. I like getting my brain into that teenage boy voice and I love the contradictions that Caleb contains - he’s smart, but so often oblivious; he’s very caring, but he also has an anger problem; he wants to talk about his feelings, but he can be so bad at communicating.

I’m also really enjoying writing both Mark and Wadsworth this season. Mark is such a cheery, charismatic person who has been through so much trauma - balancing who he is by nature with what has happened to him is a fun challenge. Wadsworth is just…she’s awesome, and so unbelievably arrogant, but has reason to be, and that’s a lot of fun to write.

Chloe is definitely the hardest to write. She’s constantly having at least two conversations: the one that’s happening out loud and the one she’s participating in in her head with everyone’s thoughts. Chloe is always at least one step ahead of everyone she’s talking to, so balancing each of those conversations and thinking about how what she’s hearing is affecting her own emotional state can be really difficult.

Question Four: I tend to use The Bright Sessions as a great example of expressive and effective acting in audio drama and I’m curious as to where you found so many wonderful actors. Did you already know them all or did you seek them out yourself?

I am lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, where I am surrounded by incredible actors that the big shots haven’t discovered yet. Most of the cast are from an acting class I’ve been taking at The BGB Studio for three years. Julia (Dr. Bright), Briggon (Caleb), Charlie (Damien), Andrew (Mark), Phillip (Frank), and Alanna (Rose) all go to that studio and that’s where I met them.

Anna (Chloe) and I met in a UCB class three years ago, and she introduced me to Ian and Alex M., who play Agent Green and Wadsworth respectively. Briggon, appropriately, introduced me to Alex G., who plays Adam. And then we have Reyn, who plays Charlie Decker, and who I know from ars Paradoxica, which our sound producer, Mischa Stanton, created. So it really is a family affair.

Question Five: The Bright Sessions has been achieving a lot of success in the podcast community over the few years it’s been out. Did you expect it? What do you attribute this success to?

I definitely did not expect it. I certainly hoped that people would listen, and had lofty goals to have tens of thousands of subscribers, but when we started out I assumed that was a pipe dream. I - and I think this applies to everyone else involved as well - have been delightfully surprised by its success at every turn. In just the 15 months we’ve been doing this, we’ve had so many people listen and send us messages and draw fanart and be enthusiastic, and we are incredibly grateful.

I wish I could tell you that we followed a very specific set of steps to have a successful podcast, but I honestly have no idea how we’ve gotten to where we are. Obviously, I’m proud of the show - I wouldn’t make it if I thought it wasn’t good - and I think people should listen, but I’m still surprised by how it’s taken off. I spent a lot of time in the early days on Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc., just trying to get people to listen and I think putting in those hours really helped. And then I think it’s just been a lot of dumb luck of the right people finding us.

Being featured in different publications and on iTunes has really helped people find us and those features came up more or less organically - thankfully, there are people out there who actively seek out audio drama and then write about what they like. But mostly, I think the show has done well because we’re telling stories about characters a lot of people can relate to. I’ve certainly made an attempt to write something that is engaging and compelling, but having the actors that we have to bring these characters to life is, I think, our biggest asset.

Question Six: What drove you to make this into an audio drama? Do you have any inspirations you’d like to credit?

The reason for making The Bright Sessions an audio drama was two fold. First, there was the practical reason: making an audio drama is far less expensive than making something for film. I needed to be able to do every step myself - the writing, the recording, the post-production - on a tight budget. Audio drama was the solution.

Second, the creative reason: I like the freedom of interpretation that audio drama provides. I’ve been in fandom spaces for a long time and, though I’ve never been a creator of fan works myself, I’ve always loved consuming them. The wonderful thing about audio dramas is the variety of listener interpretations they spur. Listening to an audio drama is like reading a book - you can fully immerse yourself and imagine the world and the characters however you like. Creating something that encouraged that kind of imagination really appealed to me. There were many creative reasons for sticking to audio, but this was the one I was most excited about.

While there aren’t any direct inspirations for the content of The Bright Sessions, Welcome to Night Vale and BBC Radio’s Cabin Pressure were the two pieces of audio fiction that I listened to before writing The Bright Sessions. WTNV is simple - mostly just one man talking into a microphone, with music. Cabin Pressure is elaborate - multiple scenes with different soundscapes and effects each episode, recorded in front of a live audience, big name actors. I didn’t have the dough for a BBC-like production and I think Night Vale only works as a mostly one-man show because of the magical combination of Cecil Baldwin, Cranor & Fink’s writing, and Disparition’s music.

That formula is impossible to replicate. When thinking about how I wanted to tell a story through audio, these shows were my two reference points and helped me find the middle ground in which The Bright Sessions exists.

BONUS: Has creating The Bright Sessions been a major impact in your life? How have things changed for you?

Oh boy, has it ever. The Bright Sessions has become my life. It started as a side project - a way for me to try my hand at writing and do some acting with a couple of friends. It has now turned into a full-time job (or, more accurately, three full-time jobs). On a practical, macro-career level, doing this podcast has completely changed the way I approach my professional life. Whereas before I was mainly an actor, I’m now a “writer/creator”.

People like the thing I make and they write about it and invite me to come places and talk about it and that could not be more different from the life of general obscurity I lived as an actor. I’m by no means famous or even known outside of podcast circles, but I do feel that I am beginning to experience a level of recognition that is exciting and weird and genuinely a bit confusing. Also on the practical side, the success of the show has opened a lot of doors to me in entertainment that were previously closed. You’ll have to stay tuned on where that leads, because I certainly can’t predict at the moment.

On a personal level, The Bright Sessions has given me so, so much. It’s given me the opportunity to work with people I deeply admire and grow something with them. I cannot ever express how rewarding that is. Beyond the friendships that doing the show has strengthened, and the amazing work I’ve been able to observe in these actors, the show has, funnily enough, been very good for my mental health. Creating the character of Sam was like giving my own anxiety a voice. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend acting out panic attacks for everyone who struggles with anxiety (those scenes are hard) but for me, it has been extremely cathartic.

Sam and I are very different people in what we want out of life, but our anxieties are the same. It is such a relief to be able to write a scene in which Sam explains why going outside or talking to people or feeling a certain way is terrifying. I now have something to point to and say, “this is who I am, this is how it feels sometimes to just go to the grocery store, these are my fears” and, while that is a vulnerable and frightening thing to lay bare, it has been oddly healing.

And then to get messages from people saying, “I relate to Sam so much, thank you for her, I feel less alone now” is truly moving for me. It makes me feel less alone and I am unbelievably grateful for that.

And, mixing the practical and the personal, doing The Bright Sessions finally made me get my act together and actually start going to therapy last year. I thought it was time for me to practice what I preach.

Such elegance. Such confidence. Such charisma towards her field! I want to thank Miss Shippen for doing this Q&A with me and to you all for reading this.

I say you make your appointment pronto and take a listen to The Bright Sessions for yourself. This has been PodCake, end recording.

#the bright sessions #podcast #lauren shippen #looking at the BRIGHT side today #ha ha #q&a #podcast teatime

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newstechreviews · 5 years ago

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(PHOENIX) — An Arizona elected official ran a human smuggling scheme that promised pregnant women thousands of dollars to lure them from a Pacific Island nation to the U.S., where they were crammed into houses to wait to give birth, sometimes with little to no prenatal care, prosecutors allege.

Paul Petersen, the Republican assessor of Arizona’s most populous county, was charged in Utah, Arizona and Arkansas with counts including human smuggling, sale of a child, fraud, forgery and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The charges span about three years and involve some 75 adoptions. Investigators also found eight pregnant women from the Marshall Islands in raids of his properties outside Phoenix, and several more are waiting to give birth in Utah, authorities said.

“The commoditization of children is simply evil,” said Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes.

The adoptive parents are considered victims along with the birth mothers, and no completed adoptions will be undone, authorities said.

Petersen’s attorney, Matthew Long, defended his client’s actions during a Tuesday court hearing in Phoenix as “proper business practices” and said they disagreed with the allegations.

Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Petersen should resign from his elected position determining the taxable value for properties in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs.

Petersen served a two-year mission in the Marshall Islands for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Reyes said. He was later recruited by an international adoption agency while in law school because of his fluency in Marshallese, according to a 2013 Phoenix Business Journal story.

Prosecutors say Petersen used associates there to recruit pregnant women by offering many of them $10,000 each to give up their babies for adoption. Petersen would pay for the women to travel to the U.S. days or months before giving birth and live in a home that he owned until delivering the baby, according to the court records.

The expecting mothers were often crowded in the homes, with Marshallese women Petersen employed helping with things like translation, transportation, legal documents and applications for Medicaid benefits, prosecutors said.

Women got little to no prenatal care in Utah, and in one house slept on mattresses laid on bare floors in what one shocked adoptive family described as a “baby mill,” according court documents.

Petersen sold the house this spring as complaints mounted from neighbors in the working-class area in suburban Salt Lake City, said new owner Alanna Mabey.

She was told it had been used as a rental, and since purchasing it she has found trash like dirty diapers in the bushes, she said. The news about how prosecutors say expecting mothers were treated there is “horrible,” she said. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”

In Arkansas, it wasn’t uncommon to find a dozen Marshallese mothers on the verge of giving birth in one house, said Duane Kees, the U.S. attorney for the western district of Arkansas.

“Many of these mothers described their ordeal as being treated like property,” Kees said. “Make no mistake: this case is the purest form of human trafficking.”

Arkansas has one the largest concentrations of Marshallese immigrants in the U.S. and the women would then be flown there or back to the Marshall Islands after giving birth, authorities said.

Petersen charged families $25,000-$40,000 per adoption and brought about $2.7 million into a bank account for adoption fees in less than two years, according to court documents.

Petersen’s Mesa, Arizona, home is worth more than $600,000 and located in an affluent, gated community.

The Utah probe began after investigators got a call to a human-trafficking tip line in October 2017. Staff at several hospitals in the Salt Lake City area would eventually report an “influx” of women from the Marshall Islands giving birth and putting their babies up for adoption, often accompanied by the same woman.

The scheme defrauded Arizona’s Medicaid system of $800,000 because the women had no intention of remaining in the state when they applied, according to Arizona prosecutors.

Under a compact between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Marshallese citizens can enter the U.S. and work without a visa, unless they’re traveling for the purpose of adoption, authorities said.

Petersen has faced troubles with his adoption practices in the past. An Arizona juvenile court judge in 2016 denied a couple’s request to adopt a child born to a Marshallese woman because he feared the arrangement set up by Petersen had violated that country’s law. A court of appeals reversed the decision, saying no Marshallese approval was necessary.

Authorities do not believe the women were misled into believing their children might be returned at some point.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said adoptive parents who went through Petersen’s agency have nothing to worry about.

“No one’s going to go back and redo adoptions or any of that kind of stuff,” Brnovich said.

#Blogger

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itsfinancethings · 5 years ago

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October 09, 2019 at 11:26PM