#i want another concept for the infiltration date though currently i just have them in the bar

[swordmaid]

sketching the shrios citadel au rn and its so cute but the folder counts keep increasing....................

[binbons-character-stuff]

Hell Hath No Fury

My contribution to @daffodilsbucky‘s 1k Follower Challenge! Congratulations!!!

My trope was #12 Body Swap.

Dinah Madani was a woman scorned. 

There was more to it, of course. Her career was in ruins. She was a laughingstock among her former co-workers and bosses. Her parents had stood by her publicly, of course, but she saw them, sometimes. They would just look at her, wondering where they had gone wrong with their child. 

Her life was a joke – she was a joke. And it was all because of one man. 

Billy Russo.

Dinah Madani never looked in the mirror and saw a woman who compromised her own values, used herself and Billy Russo sexually to find out information about Frank Castle and Cerberus. She didn’t see someone who played fast and loose with the law; she saw a victim. She saw a woman who had been dishonored, a woman who had been played for a fool. 

A woman who needed revenge.

And she didn’t want revenge from Frank Castle, the man who had pulled the trigger on her partner in Kandahar, or his boss, the man who had actually given the order to murder Zubair. She didn’t want revenge on her boss or her boss’s boss that gave Russo and Castle sweetheart deals for helping to take Rawlins down. Hell, she didn’t even blame David Leiberman for sending her the video in the first place. She blamed Billy Russo, because he had realized her game and beat her at it; because he had been able to compartmentalize dealing with Madani after he found out that she had been using him to get to Frank. 

Because he had been able to find love with someone else, when Madani herself had loved him: at least her version of love. More like want, really, but still, Madani owed him. So, yeah, Billy and you were the object of her sick fascination and utter hatred.

It was Billy Russo who needed to pay. And, if things went as she hoped, pay he would, and you right along with him.

Madame Gao had been hard to find, but Madani was determined. When she had found her, Gao had been indifferent to her. Russo and Castle were troublesome but nothing that her Hand members couldn’t handle. 

In the end, Madani had pledged herself to the Hand for Madame Gao’s help in getting revenge on Billy. And, in order to be completely certain of Madani’s loyalty, Gao had placed a geas on Dinah. She was now magically bonded to Madame Gao until her death or release.

It was a small price to pay to make Russo’s life a living hell before she finally ended it. 

This was going to be fun.

“Honey, I’m home!” Billy called when he stepped into your shared apartment and laid his keys in the bowl that was kept there for general pocket clutter. 

“In the kitchen,” you called out, though he had already figured that out from the delicious aromas and the music playing.

Billy tossed his suit jacket over a dining chair and strolled into the kitchen, loosening his tie as he entered his favorite room of your shared home. 

Leaning his chin on your shoulder as he snuggled up behind you, Billy pulled you close and kisses your neck a bunch of times until you giggled and turned to kiss him properly, knowing that he would continue to harass you delightfully until he got a proper smooch.

“How was your day, love?” you said after a sweet kiss.

“Not too shabby. Better now that I’m with you,” he said warmly.

You looked into his deep brown eyes and marveled that you had ever doubted this man’s feelings for you. “I love you so much, Russo,” you said sincerely. 

Billy kissed your nose with his special crinkly-eyed smile. “I love you, too,” he replied. “Whatcha makin’?”

“Just some quick sausage and peppers with pasta. Wanna set the table while I put the garlic bread in the oven?”

“Sure,” he answered, stealing one more kiss before he went to grab dishes and flatware.

Billy was still getting used to having a woman in his space; you were worth it and he would lie down in a puddle so you wouldn’t get your feet wet, but there was still a lot to get used to, y'know?

This was a man who never lived alone his entire life, going from foster homes to group homes to the Marines. When he finally got out and started his business, he got his first place alone – and he fucking loved it. He didn’t have to worry about his shit getting moved, busted or stolen. Hell, he didn’t even have to deal with Frankie stealing his toothpaste. In a burst of excessive hubris, he had gotten all of the things that he thought would show people how far he’d come in life from the foster kid whose junkie mother safe-havened him at a fire station.

When Bastion Security took off and made it through the government oversight after he and Frank and Curtis had done the CIA’s dirty work and took out Rawlins, he was able to grow the business honestly, not having to worry about Black ops that were too dirty for Feds. His jobs were aboveboard and his money was clean.

Clean money meant less money, though, so the penthouse had been traded for a normal apartment, his closets filled with nice but not bespoke suits and his parking space with the Wraith was now occupied with a Land Rover. After life settled into routine, after all the testifying before the Senate, after he paid back the dirty money he used to start Anvil, well, he realized that while it was nice to have his own space and things, they didn’t have to be the most expensive just for the sake of having the highest price tag. 

And now that he didn’t have to maintain strictest privacy at all times lest his not-so-squeaky-clean business practices came to light, he didn’t necessarily love being alone all the time.

You and he were the last of your friends who were still single; Karen and Frank were together, Foggy and Marci were engaged, Curtis had started dating a girl he’d met at the gym and Matt was getting serious with a social worker he’d met on a case where he’d been guardian ad litem for a boy who had lost his parents.

So, after the first few times that you and Billy were the only ones to show up for a group outing, or were the last ones left after everyone went on with their couples plans, you decided you may as well hang out with each other. One thing had led to another, you’d asked him to be your plus one for a work thing, he’d asked you to go with him to a mix and mingle thing so he wouldn’t threaten husbands. You never expected anything, of course; Billy was famously single and you certainly didn’t think you’d be the one to change that.

But you were. Billy finally quit pretending he needed you to accompany him as a friend and told you he wanted more. 

“What?” you asked with a nervous chuckle. “Is this a joke?”

Billy looked offended. “No,” he said stiffly. “It was not intended as such.”

“I mean, you’re famously unfunny, Russo. You sure?” you said, giving him an out.

Suddenly Billy was feeling more vulnerable than he had as a kid. He decided to go for bravado. With a half-smile, he said, “Yeah, that’s a pretty stupid idea, huh? I just thought that y'know since we been spending so much time together –”

“Bill!” you interrupted. 

“What?” he growled, cheeks a bit flushed with embarrassment.

You smiled and stepped closer, tentatively putting your hands on his shoulders. Looking into his eyes, you whispered, “It’s a great idea, Billy.”

He breathed a sigh of relief and put his hands on your hips, pulling you a bit closer and leaning in to drop a gentle kiss on your lips. 

Your eyelids fluttered open and you smiled happily. “Best idea ever.”

Frank and Curtis had known Billy for a lot longer than any of his other friends, and neither of them could get over the change in him. Outwardly, Billy told them to screw off, he had always been the same guy, but inside – well, inside, Billy knew that he was different. You had seen the person who had always worried that he wasn’t worth anything deeper than his looks. 

But you looked past his exterior, past his sins and loved the man that he had never before had the courage to be. You became his friend after he lost the money and the car and suits, and you never seemed all that impressed with his looks. Oh, you thought he was gorgeous; you weren’t blind. But that wasn’t enough for you. You’d needed to get to know the real William Russo, not the image he showed the world. Only then did you fall for him.

There was a freedom that accompanied someone knowing the real Billy. He had never known true acceptance before, had never understood that concept because no one had ever wanted what was beneath the facade he showed the world. When he was a Marine, he was the best goddamn sniper there was. When he was a businessman, he was the best bullshit artist and salesman he could be. When he was with a woman, he was the best lover he could be, leaving every partner exhausted and satisfied.

But he had never really allowed anyone to see the man he was before. Only you understood the little boy who had been abandoned that still lived inside Billy, and only you had ever been able to make him understand that it had not been his failing, that his mother had been an addict and unable to care for him. 

For the first time, Billy thought that maybe there could be more to his life than resentment and anger; you gave him love and acceptance.

Madani had gathered all of the necessary components for the spell and it was time. She had been very careful not to let Billy see her as she tailed him, learning his and your routines by heart. She had spy training, after all – even someone trained as Billy had been unprepared for the Killing Eve disguises and infiltration shit Madani was pulling. Madame Gao had also loaned her some manpower, so there wasn’t always a small woman around, regardless of her hair color or clothing.

Madame Gao herself was going to perform the spell. Later, Madani would apprentice in spellcraft, but for now she would simply be the subject of the spell.

It had been so easy to get close to you to get something personal to use for the spell component. You were truly and completely a civilian, a trusting fool. What did Russo even see in you?

Madani was currently bound to a sturdy chair, arms and legs lashed down securely. She couldn’t get out of it herself, she had no doubt that it would hold a weakling like you. 

Madame Gao began chanting and threw a lit match into a bowl, fragrant smoke surrounding Madani, clouding her vision and making her dizzy. As her eyes fluttered closed, she felt herself drifting away…

You were having the strangest dream. The sounds and smells were completely foreign to you. There was a strange voice chanting and it was as if you were drunk or high. You muttered in your sleep, and the feel of Billy’s heart beating against your cheek was growing fainter, as if you were being pulled away from his embrace. 

Suddenly, you gasped as your eyes opened to a strange room where an elderly Asian woman was looking you over with a matter-of-fact expression on her wrinkled face. 

“You do not seem worthy of such hatred as my apprentice holds for you,” she said disdainfully.

You were still woozy and completely confused. “Who are you? Where am I?”

“I think the more important question for you is, ‘Who are you?’” she replied, gesturing across from you.

You looked in the direction and saw a woman bound to a chair. Disturbing, but you couldn’t see how it pertained to you. You turned to look at the woman and saw the woman across from you mirror your move. You looked back and so did she – you began to make faces and she mimicked each one. Finally your brain caught up with the evidence before you and you looked down, finding your hands bound to a chair – but they were not your hands!

“What – what the hell is going on?” you asked, panicking and pulling against your bonds. “What is happening to me? BILLY!!”

“You may continue to scream if that is your wish, but there is no one to come to your aid. Ms. Madani was very careful in her planning. Your Mr. Russo should be waking up next to her any time now.”

“Madani? That crazy bitch who tried to kill Billy?” you asked, real fear in your eyes as you looked into the mirror more closely. The hair was short and blond now, but the eyes and face, the beauty mark – you were indeed trapped in the body of Dinah Madani.

And your love was snuggled in bed with a woman who blamed him for every bad thing that had ever happened to her – and had been trained to kill.

Billy woke abruptly, the feel of fingernails digging into his skin jolting him from sleep. He jumped from the bed in fight-mode but saw no threat. “Babe?” he said, half asleep and confused. You usually woke him up sweetly, knowing that he had PTSD from growing up in foster care and serving in the Middle East – startling Billy awake was not a great idea.

“Hey,” Madani purred, “no talking, just make me feel good.”

Billy was wide awake at that, skin almost crawling as he jumped out of bed and away from the hands trying to get inside the boxer briefs he had worn to sleep. “Ah, sorry, no can do,” he said, backing away from what certainly looked like the woman he loved. “Got an early meeting.”

“Ugh,” she practically sneered at Billy. “Fine, Russo. Go to work – as usual.”

Billy visibly flinched and said, “Ah, gonna hit the shower.”

Madani realized that maybe, just maybe she had come on a bit strong. She hadn’t really put any thought into how you and Billy were when you were alone together, and surprisingly, you spent most of your off time alone in your shared apartment. No, she only thought about getting revenge. But Billy had definitely been confused, and though she knew she was smarter and he couldn’t possibly expect this, he wasn’t a stupid man. 

She would have to be softer. It just hadn’t occurred to her that Billy Russo would want to be with a rag doll, she assumed that he would be with a woman more…well, more like Madani. She had been his type once, but it seemed that these days he liked his tail with a side of submission. 

Billy was in the shower quietly freaking out. You were behaving strangely; it was like you were a different person entirely. 

Get ahold of yourself, Russo, he berated himself. So your girl woke up horny and tried to jump you? Most guys would be grateful, and it isn’t like you never woke her up for sex! 

Billy shook his head and hurried through his shower. He had no idea what you saw in him, but you were so tender-hearted that you were probably some combination of hurt and embarrassed because he’d run off like a blushing virgin.

Billy came back to the bedroom wrapped in a towel, an apology loaded for his weird exit, but you weren’t there. He perked his ear in the direction of the kitchen and heard you opening cabinets and shrugged. Morning weirdness aside, he really did have an early meeting.

He got dressed and came out to the dining room to find you drinking coffee. He bent over to drop a kiss on your cheek. “Gotta go,” he said. “See you at 7 for Karen’s thing, right?”

“Oh, right!” Madani exclaimed. “You’re picking me up, right?”

“No,” Billy drawled slowly. “We’re meeting at Kashkaval Garden. Remember?”

Madani made a 'silly me’ face and said, “Right, of course! Absolutely.”

“Great,” Billy replied a bit suspiciously. “You OK?”

“I’m fine,” Madani replied. “Weird dreams, feel like I could sleep some more. Better hit the coffee!”

“K,” Billy agreed reluctantly, then sent you the special smile that he deserved for you. “Love you, babe.”

Madani felt her stomach churn. Really? He loved this little Mary Sue? “Back atcha,” she said with a tense smile.

Billy’s eyebrows went up slightly, but then he smiled and said, “See ya tonight.”

“Yup.”

Billy closed the door behind him, actually shaking. You had never failed to tell him to have a great day when he left for work. He’d been called out of bed in the middle of the night and you’d told him to have a great day in your sleep! And, 'Back atcha’ when he’d said he loved you?

Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

Madani knew that Billy had been weirded out by her behavior, though she wasn’t sure what precisely she did wrong. He’d liked her well enough when they had been together, how much different could you be? Yes, you were a pediatrician, so you obviously liked children, whereas Madani wanted nothing to do with any ankle biters, even if they were family. Maybe he found something in you that he had missed out on being raised in the foster system? That made sense; it wasn’t you, but what you represented.

What possible other reason could there be for him to be with Madani’s polar opposite?

Billy had been distracted all day. From the first minute of the 7 a.m. meeting where David and Curtis had gone over the company’s quarterly financials and the prospects for the upcoming months, he’d been somewhere else. 

“Billy!” Curtis said loudly, knocking on the table in the conference room. “This is where you talk.”

“Shit, sorry, guys. Weird morning,” he apologized. “Ah, we have eight ongoing personal security jobs stateside and I’ve been trying to get us contracts for overseas security, too. If any of that starts looking positive, we’re going to need to hire and train more ground crew. And we could actually use some tech crew now, Micro.”

“That’s…wow,” David Leiberman exclaimed. “I’ll put out some feelers. This is great news, guys!”

“Yeah,” Billy said with a surprised chuckle. “Y'know, I think we might just make a go of this thing.”

Frank slapped the tabletop and said, “Damn straight!” he agreed heartily. “Drinks are on me tonight.”

“It’s your girlfriend’s party, weren’t they already?” Curt heckled Frank.

“Yeah, ya cheap bastard!” David joined in as Billy chuckled at their ribbing of their friend.

“Eh, shut it!” Frank clapped back happily. “Bastion Security Incorporated is here to stay!”

Billy was planning to talk to Frank about your strange behavior, but he didn’t want to bring down the vibe of the partners after the meeting, and he had a lot of work to do around three meetings and two conference calls. I’m probably overreacting, anyways, he reassured himself. Just a weird morning.

Still, the feeling that something was wrong nagged at him all day. To top it off, he had texted you several times and you hadn’t answered him once. You always answered him, even if it was just a few words to say you were busy and you loved him.

He was utterly disgusted with himself for feeling like a clingy teenager, but damn, you were the best part of his life. What if you really had been keeping from him resentment over how much he worked? You always said you understood, even when he had been completely honest about all the stupid, awful things he had done. He was utterly overwhelmed with the grace and forgiveness his found family had blessed him with, but they had already been friends. For them it was a continuance of a relationship and therefore they found good in him to outweigh the bad that he had done. 

With you, he had been honest early on; he needed to know that you could bear to look at him with his sins laid bare, because he knew almost from the beginning that you were special. The fact that you loved him knowing what he had done never ceased to amaze him – and he didn’t think he could make it without that love. Your love had changed him, made him able to return love. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t the most important person to him.

Christ, I feel like a twelve year old girl, he thought to himself disgustedly. 

He picked up his phone and looked again. Still no texts.

Billy sighed and tried to focus on the resumes in front of him. They needed to hire new employees whether or not his love life was making him weepy.

Billy had arrived a few minutes early, but the hostess said the Garden Room was ready and led him back. Frank and Karen greeted him warmly, Billy congratulating Karen on her book deal. As if being a partner in Nelson, Murdock & Page wasn’t enough to keep her busy, she had submitted a manuscript for a mystery novel to a publishing house and had been offered a contract.

“Promise me you’ll only describe a character based on me as 'devastatingly handsome’,” Billy demanded playfully.

“How about, 'chronic bedwetter’,” Frank suggested.

“Or 'high-maintenance mirror hog’?” Curtis chimed in.

“'Technologically challenged!’” David piped up, loathe to be left out and giving the worst playful insult he could think of.

“Or 'terrible, inattentive boyfriend?’” he heard your voice add in the midst of laughing off his buddies’ roasting.

His eyes went wide and he spun around, and yeah, you looked pissed. “Hey, babe,” he said carefully, leaning over to kiss your cheek, which you accepted stiffly.

“I’ve been sitting out front waiting for a while, babe,” Madani said with saccharine sweetness and a big smile. “If Sarah hadn’t grabbed me on the way in, I’d still be waiting.”

“I mean, I thought you’d come on back,” Billy said quietly, smiling thinly, aware that all of your friends were watching. “Not like this is the first time we’ve used this room for our group.”

Madani looked around and saw the questioning looks pointed her way and let it go. “Of course. Long day,” she said, hopefully placatingly.

“Did you bring the gift?” Billy whispered as people began to mingle again.

“Gift?” Madani replied absently.

Billy’s eyebrows beetled his brows and he frowned as he said, “Are you kidding me? I said that we didn’t need a gift and you spent hours picking things out and paid extra for fast shipping!”

Just as Madani opened her mouth to snap back, Matt said, “Billy, got a minute?”

Billy closed his eyes briefly before smiling and turning to face the group. “Sup, Matt?" 

"I heard you were hiring and I have a friend who might be a good fit.”

“You have friends who aren’t here?” Billy said with feigned amazement in his voice.

“Ha ha.” Matt held out his hand and said, “Come over here so we don’t bore everyone?”

Billy was surprised but said, “OK,” and put his arm under Matt’s hand and walked over to the far side of the room.

Matt smiled and said quietly, “Who the hell is that?”

Madani watched Billy lead Matt over to the other side of the room. She had been worried when Matt had asked Billy to talk, but then Billy had served him up snark like he did to the other guys so she figured it must really be normal.

She really was making him suspicious, though. She wasn’t going to be able to drag this out and enjoy torturing him, as much as it pained her to admit it. She had put so much thought into the method of her revenge that she didn’t research the means.

She smiled and joined the crowd, hanging back to learn the names of the people she didn’t know. She regretted letting her obsession with revenge cloud her judgment and keep her from doing better background. 

You were actually being treated fairly well. Aside from some self-defense moves that Billy had insisted upon teaching you, you were absolutely not a threat. You were more of a throw-your-handbag-then-run-away-yelling, “Street Smarts” than a hand-gesture-like-Neo-while-screaming, “Come Get A Taste” kinda girl.

The elderly Chinese woman had dismissed you to the care of a group of guards with a full-on bad guy monologue. “The rest of your life does not promise to be pleasant, but it is up to you how you will be treated while you are my guest. Obey my simple rules and you will have the freedom of this room, you will be allowed to watch television and have access to bathing facilities. Your meals will be brought to you and if you are a well-behaved guest, you will be treated as such.

"However, if you get any ideas about escaping, then of course you will be returned to this chair and these bindings. Tell me, child, have you a preference?”

“I will behave until Billy comes for me,” you said, chin raised proudly. “You’re right, I am absolutely no threat, but Billy…he allows himself to care for very few people. You have the misfortune to be holding one of them as an honored but unwilling guest. Let’s hope the insane obsession of an off-balance woman scorned is worth the trouble it will bring to your door.”

Madame Gao smiled condescendingly. “I think we will be able to manage a few toy soldiers, child. Do not worry about my health when yours is in so much more peril.”

Billy smiled tensely at Matt. “What the hell do you mean, man?”

“I mean,” Matt bit out, “that woman may physically be your girlfriend, but somehow, that’s not who is currently inside her.”

Billy was dumbfounded. He knew of Matt’s alter ego and therefore understood that Matt had talents and powers far beyond his experience, but for there to be a completely different person inside your body? The same body, incidentally, that he had been inside on countless occasions?

“Matt,” Billy bit out a moment later, “man, I can’t wrap my head around this. You saying there are two people inside her?”

“No, Billy,” Matt replied ominously. “She’s completely gone.”

Madani figured she should stop staring holes into the back of Billy’s head and mingle a bit. She’d met Karen and Sarah before, albeit in a rather interrogate-y way, but still – she figured she could handle small talk with them.

Madani walked over to the edge of the group of friends and edged in until she was next to Karen. 

Karen turned to her a bit and gave her a one-armed hug. “So glad you got here! Boys are so dumb, right?”

“Tell me about it!” Madani replied with an exasperated smile. “I feel like such a dunce, I left your present at home!”

Karen waved her concern away. “You don’t need to get me a present, silly! I just want to celebrate with all my friends.”

“Still,” Madani said ruefully, “happy birthday!”

And there was silence. And it was not good.

Frank cleared his throat. “Ah, we’re celebrating Karen’s book deal, kiddo! Did you pre-game some white wine before you got here?” he joked.

Madani was mortified. 

Karen laughed. “Oh, you goofball!” she announced. “This is an old joke, like Frosty the Snowman, we say 'Happy Birthday’ for everything!" 

Billy and Matt had returned to the group in time to hear Karen blatantly lie to help fake-you save face. 

William Russo had seen a lot of things. He’d been to war, he’d killed men, he’d seen his friends die – hell, he’d almost had his own ticket punched more than a few times. But he had never, never experienced a horror so visceral before in his life.

You had never had an enemy in your life. Hell, when he’d first met you he’d been suspicious as hell, not believing anyone could be so goddamn nice. But the more he got to know you, the more he realized you were simply a caring, kind individual.

And you would have to have one hell of a case of amnesia to forget one of your dearest friend’s birthday. 

"Karen, I am so sorry, but I just got word that I have to go into work,” Billy said regretfully. “And I really hate to say it, but I need my team.”

Frank, David and Curtis all groaned at that announcement, but they knew that Billy wouldn’t disrupt something like this for no reason.

“I’m really sorry, Karen” he said, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “I’m so proud of you. I promise I’ll make it up to you.’

Karen hugged him back, whispering, "What is going on?”

“Dunno,” Billy whispered back, knowing she was talking about you. “Gotta find out.”

Billy needed confirmation before he left. He walked over to fake-you and said, “Sorry, lovebug,” knowing that you absolutely loathed that particular term of endearment. He leaned over to kiss her cheek, feeling the anger rolling off fake-you in waves. “Can you get home OK?”

Madani almost snapped at him, but judging by the nauseating nickname knew that you wouldn’t respond that way. “Of course,” she said sweetly. 

Billy stood and waited expectantly for a moment, but you never told him to be safe.

You always told him to be safe when he had to go on a job.

By the time the four of them had gathered at Bastion’s office, Billy had pulled his shit together, but there was still a part of him that was reeling. He’d seen a lot in his time on this green earth, but nothing else had come close to this shit.

“What the hell, Bill?” Frank growled as he entered the conference room at Bastion.

Usually the richly appointed room made Billy feel a sense of pride. This was where he brought new clients to discuss their needs with the team. It was a combination of high tech and dark wood, the perfect blend of science and class that said that the company was competent and successful. Now, he could have been sitting in a junkyard for all he cared. “Brother, I’m so sorry to fuck up Karen’s party –" 

"That ain’t what I’m talking about, Bill,” Frank interrupted as Curtis and David entered the room. 

“I think he means, what the hell is wrong with your girl?” Curtis said quietly.

Billy’s shoulders sagged as his chin hit his chest in defeat. “I wish I knew,” he said quietly, then looked up. “Matt said – he said that there’s someone else inside her? I mean, what the fuck does that even mean?”

Frank whistled. “Matt’s seen some shit,” he commented quietly. “Nightmare shit.”

Billy slammed his hand onto the conference table he leaned against. “What, like some voodoo shit?" 

"Ancient Chinese mysticism, actually,” Matt said from the doorway.

Billy jerked to attention. Frank, Curtis and David spun to face Matt and saw two people with him: a young man with curly blonde hair and a young Asian woman.

“This is Danny Rand and Colleen Wing,” Matt announced. “This is Billy Russo, Frank Castle, Curtis Hoyle and David Lieberman. Billy’s girlfriend is the one I was telling you about.”

Billy was quiet for a moment. The girl was Asian, but the white kid? “Ah, pleasure to meet you. But what exactly do you bring to the table?” he asked bluntly.

“I am the Immortal Iron Fist.”

You had been pacing your chamber pretty much non-stop. It was decorated nicely in soothing shades of blue and was much homier than a hotel and certainly better than a dungeon. Knowing that it was your prison didn’t make you appreciate the color scheme, pleasant or not. They could hang silk curtains on the windows, but it didn’t change the fact that there were also bars.

This was so not your thing. Billy probably would have found a way to weaponize the TV remote or built a bazooka out of a toilet tissue tube by now, but aside from making bandages out of the embroidered pillow covers, your DIY skills were strictly decorative. 

You had no idea how long you were to be a guest, either. Knowing that your stay would most likely end with either the man you loved more than life or you dead or critically wounded didn’t make you anxious to end your forced vacation with the elderly Asian woman and her silent minions.

“It sounds as though she has been placed under a spell which removes her soul with her body and replaces it with that of another person,” Danny said. “How long has this been going on?”

Billy scrubbed his face with his hand, utterly heartsick and defeated by the situation. “This morning. It was like she was a different person from the second she woke up.” He laughed humorously. “Little did I know she was literally a different person.”

Danny traded a look with Colleen. “There are only a few people in the world that could cast a spell like that, and most of them are in K'un-Lun.”

“What, now?” David sputtered in amazement. “I’m sorry, but are we really talking spells and and and magic? I mean, I know that there are things out there that we can’t explain but –”

“This is not the time to have 'The Talk’ about the world being larger than you know, David,” Matt said harshly. “Our friend is missing.”

“Shit,” Billy hissed as the pain of those words, resisting the need to double over from the gut punch they brought. “She’s missing. Jesus.”

Curtis clapped a hand on Billy’s shoulder and said, “We’re gonna get her back, man.”

“Damn straight,” Frank swore.

You were being punished. Apparently trying to keep the plastic knife from your dinner was not acceptable. You didn’t even know what the hell you were going to do with it; for Christ’s sake, you had literally fallen over when you got your toe stuck in the elastic while putting on your underwear the other day! Still, you felt like you should at least try. 

“What did you hope to accomplish?” Madame Gao snapped at you disapprovingly, almost as if she was addressing a naughty child.

You chuckled bitterly. “I honestly don’t know. I just feel wrong sitting here waiting for the man I love to be murdered by his crazy ex-girlfriend while she’s wearing my body like a Halloween costume,” you railed, beginning to cry. “Why are you helping her?”

“She has pledged herself to me for this favor,” Madame Gao said stiffly.

You scoffed. “I guess that shouldn’t surprise me. She practically whored herself out when she worked for Homeland, why wouldn’t she sell her soul, too?”

“You should mind your tongue,” Madame Gao warned. 

“Or what?” you sneered. “You’ll kill me? If you let her kill Billy, I don’t really care what happens to me.”

“You hold your life cheap.”

“I don’t. I just hold Billy’s more dear.”

“He wronged my new apprentice,” she said imperiously.

You laughed bitterly at that. “He outplayed your apprentice,” you spat. “She used sex to get information out of Billy and found out he played her back. She just can’t accept that he outsmarted her.”

She stiffened. “Perhaps your information is untrustworthy.”

“Yeah, maybe,” you countered. “But what if it’s yours that’s wrong?”

She paused as if pondering your words and then turned to leave, stopping at the door to say, “Since you cannot be trusted with eating utensils, you will not be allowed them for future meals. If there are any more incidents of pointless defiance such as this, you will be given neither utensils nor food. Do I make myself clear?”

“Abundantly,” you answered coldly.

She nodded once, looking at you consideringly for a moment before turning to leave without another word.

You waited until she was gone to sob in earnest.

“How the hell do we find out what we’re dealing with here?” Billy asked.

“Or who, for that matter,” Matt said. “Who hates you enough to do something like this, Bill? Crazy ex?”

Billy exchanged a look with Frank. “Do you think?” he began.

Frank shook his head in disbelief. “She really hates you, that I know.”

“Who are we talking about?” David demanded. Then, as if struck with the knowledge, he blurted, “Wait, Madani?”

“Hold up, you sayin’ you think a Homeland agent did this?” Curtis said in amazement. 

Billy was shaking his head in disbelief. “She lost her job when all the shit went down. You think she’d go this far off the rails, Frank?”

“Hell hath no fury, brother.”

You laid awake, trying to think of something, anything you could do to escape. 

Had Billy even missed you yet? Was Madani playing some sick mind games with him? God, had she seduced him? You wouldn’t blame Billy of course – hell, as far as he knew, you were you. 

You’d had moments of insecurity when you had first gotten together, of course. Billy was an absolutely stunning man: physically breathtaking, intelligent and charming. He had been around the block so many times you were surprised that the city of New York hadn’t renamed it in his honor. 

And that was exactly what he had told you. You had been sitting next to each other on your sofa watching a movie together when he had asked you what was wrong.

“I just…Billy, you’ve been with so many women. How am I ever gonna be enough?”

He smiled sweetly and kissed your nose. “Sweetheart, I have never been a guy to settle down, and yeah, I’ve had my share of sex. I’m not gonna pretend that I don’t know I’m hot. I can get laid pretty much any time I want.”

“Wow, thanks for this pep talk,” you muttered sarcastically.

Billy had smiled at your snark. “So, doesn’t the fact that I want to be only with you tell you that I’m only gonna be with you?”

You’d thought about it for a minute. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“Damn right.”

“Probably doesn’t hurt that Frank and Matt would castrate you if you cheated on me, either,” you’d said with a wicked grin.

“There’s my girl,” he’d said with a chuckle.

You came back to the present, even though you’d so much rather stay wrapped in the warmth of your memories with Billy. 

From what you had been told, you didn’t expect to come out of this alive. If you did and Billy had slept with Madani, well, you would forgive him. But, goddamn, you really wished you knew what that crazy bitch’s game was. 

And you really hoped Billy realized that she wasn’t you.

Danny and Colleen needed to gather some spell components of their own to divine what magic had been used, and Matt had gone off to see if he could drum up any leads on Hand activities. Billy, Frank and Curtis had changed into combat gear, ready to go at a moment’s notice, while David was digging into Madani’s affairs as deeply as he could.

Billy had been pacing the floor, so much nervous energy that he felt like he was about to lift off.

“Hey, I think I got something!” David called out.

Billy dashed over to where David was peering into his computer screen. “What?”

“I picked up a video of her leaving her apartment a few months ago and have been running a GAIT tracer on her like how I found Frank.”

“And?” Billy said impatiently.

“And she’s been going in and out of this building every day for the last few weeks, until yesterday. She went in and hasn’t come back out.”

“Micro, you brilliant son of a bitch, I could kiss you!” Billy yelled. “Frank, get on the horn with Matt, tell him to get Rand and Wing back here. We have an op to plan.”

You awoke with a start. It was still pitch dark in your room and you didn’t hear so much as a whisper of breath or shuffle of fabric.

“Who’s there?” you said quietly, hating the waver in your voice.

“It would seem I have misjudged you,” the disembodied voice of the elderly woman. “I saw nothing to inspire such hatred in you, but neither did I see the potential for you to inspire such love, either.”

“What do you mean? What are you talking about?” you asked, attempting to peer into the darkness and see her.

“You have friends in high places. And I underestimated your toy soldier,” she said, voice almost fading away at the end.

“Billy? Is Billy here?” you asked frantically, but there was no answer, and when you scrambled out of bed and over to the light switch, you were alone in the room.

But the door was slightly open.

You crept out into the hallway, terrified but not missing the opportunity to sneak out. As you moved away from your room, you began to hear what sounded like a fight – and then you heard a gunshot.

“Where is she?” you heard Billy scream.

“Billy!!” you yelled as loud as you could, moving toward the sound of his voice.

You reached a room at the end of the hallway where there was what could only be called a battle in progress. Billy, Frank, Daredevil?, a blonde kid you didn’t recognize and an Asian woman were fighting the elderly Asian woman’s guards, Billy and Frank slashing madly with knives while Curtis stayed behind them with a rifle.

You stayed back so that you couldn’t be used against them by being a human shield, but not running to Billy and being quiet so you didn’t distract them was the hardest thing you had ever done.

Finally, the last of the guards dropped and you stepped out of hiding so Billy could see you.

Billy looked at you and you nodded, ready to face your abductor.

“Honey, I’m home,” Billy called out as he entered your shared apartment.

Madani jumped up from where she had been sitting on the couch waiting for Billy to return. “It’s after 3, where the hell have you been?” she asked angrily.

“Aww honeybunch, were you worried about me?” Billy said with what almost seemed to Madani like…sarcasm?

Just then there was a brief knock followed by Frank, Curtis and Micro letting themselves in.

“Oh, hey, I told the guys you’d make us something to eat,” Billy said with a big smile. “You don’t mind, do ya Buttercup?”

Madani narrowed her eyes and bit her tongue.

“Billy, you know how much I hate sappy pet names like that,” you said in Madani’s voice.

Billy’s voice was cold as he, Curtis and Frank all pulled guns on faux-you. “Don’t move, Madani,” he growled.

“Yeah,” you said as she watched her tiny body emerge from behind the large men. “He won’t kill that body, but I told him it was OK to put a couple bullet holes in discreetly.”

Behind you was Daredevil, of all people, and a blond kid that looked slightly familiar. 

Madani looked over at Billy and sneered, “I really didn’t think you were smart enough to figure this out at all, let alone in one day.”

“That’s funny, I always gave you credit for being smart enough to do some investigating before running into a situation,” he said with an icy smile. “I knew something was up before I even opened my eyes this morning.”

You watched Madani’s hateful expression on your face and said, “Damn, babe, do I look that ugly when I’m mad at you or is she just radiating her inner bitch that much?”

“All her, hon,” Billy replied with a small smile.

“In that case, I think it’s time we put her inner bitch back in her outer bitch, don’t you?”

Danny had performed the ritual to return you to your body and then had taken Madani with him, saying he would take her to a place called K'un-Lun to be tried for using dark magic. He assured you that you would never have to worry about Madani coming after either of you for misdirected revenge again.

You had taken a hot shower after they had gone and had been so relieved to feel your own skin, scars and cellulite that you almost cried. But what actually did make you cry in the shower was the fact that while you could tell he was happy to have you back, Billy had made no move to kiss you or touch you in any way. 

Had Madani ruined what you had with Billy?

You were sitting on the edge of the bed, still wrapped in a towel, hair dripping down your back and shoulders as you stared into space.

“Hon?” Billy said gently, standing right in front of you. He knelt before you and ran his thumbs over your cheeks. “I’m so sorry this happened to you because of me. I know you’re probably furious with me –”

“What?” you interrupted, surprised. “I’m not mad at you, love.”

“I understand if you are,” he whispered, not meeting your eyes.

“William, look at me,” you said firmly. When his big brown eyes met yours, you saw pain and fear in their depths. “I don’t blame you for this.”

“How can you not?” he whispered.

“Hey,” you said, “this is on that crazy bitch, not you.”

“I brought this home to you. I should have never gotten involved with you, you’re too g–”

You grabbed his hair and pulled him into a kiss, silencing him and showing him how wrong he was. When you pulled apart you were both panting. 

“William Russo, I never want to hear you say you aren’t good enough or you shouldn’t be with me, because I love you more than anyone else in the world.” You leaned forward and kissed the tip of his nose, then gently said, “So shut the hell up, OK?”

Billy grinned. “Yes, ma'am.”

“You knew before you even opened your eyes, huh?” you asked, part shy and somehow part smug.

Billy chuckled. “Yeah, she might have stolen your body, but she could never be you. You’re beautiful physically, yes, but your inner beauty shines brighter than anything,” he said almost reverently. “So, yeah, I knew something was wrong right away, because your touch just radiates love, and that was missing.”

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Billy,” you whispered,caressing his beard.

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Honey, you were the one in danger! I don’t know what I would do without you.”

You threw yourself into Billy’s arms. “You never have to find out,” you said. Then you kissed him and you held one another until you fell asleep wrapped around each other, both thankful to be together and safe.

@marauder–harder / @giggleberts / @thesandbeneathmytoes  / @banditthewriter / @heyitslexy  /  @marauderskeeper / @squidscottjeans  / @russosprettydiamondnow / @iamnotbenbarneswifeyet /  @cutie-bug / @joelynnp / @sssilverssserpent / @acciophoenx / @presstocontinue / @suchatinyinfinity /  @fortisfiliae / @chibiyanai / @raquelbc2003 / @i-padfootblack-things / @rousakousa / @ponycake27 / @hermionegranger  / @drinix  / @something-tofightfor / @life-is-a-melody / @libbymouse   / @letsdanceinthedark/ @lilywoood / @ivegotillegalsinmybottom / @irinazatyk / @thinemineours / @ssserpensortiaaa / @starless-skyox / @lalafral / @hxbbit / @itsjustmylifeconfessions / @buddha-for-satan / @youveseen–thebutcher / @swiftyhowlz  / @shinebrightlikeafanbase / @moonyscardigans / @iaintnofurry / @heytherecix / @ladyblablabla / @damalseer / @starkrobb / @ymariejp / @projectcampbell / @agent-scully-182 / @saralou23/ @blackcoffeeandgreenteaforme / @ethereal-heavcns / @songtoyou/ @morriganwarrior / @training-wheeels / @breanime / @ifoundmyhappythought / @firecracker98 / @poedamneronhoe / @dylanobrusso / @0-cries-0 / @my-little-dumpster-fire / @shadowhunterscloset / @suna-the-lost-cause / @disengagefrmreality / @achishisha / @curlyhairedblueeyedangel / @editboutique / @traeumerinwitzhelden / @ripsithskywalkers / @littledarlinhavefaithinme / @thesumofmychoices / @propertyofpoeandbucky / @whovianayesha /  @weallhaveadestiny / @saltyshaggymeme / @daffodilsbucky / @abroadcastofthemind​

[rosarios-thoughts-blog]

Examining Youth Culture

A character I identify with is Janis Ian from Mean Girls because she was PETTY. We both have the ability to hold a grunge and exact our petty revenge. Although I don’t think I have the dedication Janis has, I found many similarities between her and I. 

Janis is creative and smart. She does art and came up with the brilliant plan to ruin Regina George. She’s a caring and loyal friend but a bit of a hot head. 

 I find these qualities in myself as I consider myself creative.I started learning to sew in an attempt to up-cycle my clothes. I like doing DIY’s and am currently working on my newest project, which consists of me painting a chair, and I am also attempting to interior design my bedroom. I’ve also been told on numerous occasions that I can be a hot head and stubborn.    Some people know their flaws in character traits, for me it’s my need for petty revenge. I was raised with three older siblings and one younger one. We all share similar interests and like the same things. If one of us did something we consider fun and exciting, the rest of us would want to try it. This made me develop the mentality that we all have to have the same experience in order to be even. This mentality mutated into the idea that if I was wronged, I needed to get ‘even’ in order for it to be fair. Regina George ruined Janis Ian’s life and in Janis’s eyes in order for her to return to the favor, Janis had to ruin Regina’s life. I had a similar experience to wanting to get revenge on my brother Jeffrey. About a month ago, my mother asked me to pick up her new glasses from Walmart and I obliged. I drove to Walmart, they showed me her glasses and I took them home with me. My brother hard accompanied me on this errand, but he didn’t see my mothers’ glasses. I asked Jeffrey if he wanted to see the glasses on the car ride home and he said he would see them later since he was driving. Jeffrey then asked me “Why? Are they ugly?” And although I didn’t say yes, I didn’t say no either. The next day my mom was struggling to see something, and I asked her why she wasn’t wearing her glasses. Jeffrey then approached us and told my mom “Rosario said your glasses are ugly.” In utter disbelief I literally gasped, and my jaw dropped as he EXPOSED ME. Although an opportunity hasn’t presented itself, I am still waiting pertinently for my revenge. Similar to how Janis waited for an opportunity at revenge when and found it in Regina’s desire to be friends with Cady.

I’ve recently watched films like MID-90’s, KIDS, Mean Girls, The Breakfast Club, and shows like Euphoria, along with Saved By The Bell.

One of the common themes in the stories present is sexual promiscuity among youth. Sexual promiscuity is prevalent in all of the films and shows we watched In the movie Mean Girls, Regina jumped from Aaron to Shane, Aaron jumped from Regina to Cady, Gretchen appeared to have been ghosted by two different boys, Karen Smith even made out with her first cousin.

In the film MID-90’s, Fuck-shit appeared to be a chick magnet the girl Stevie was sexually involved with told him that all her friends wanted to hook up with him. Even 12-year-old Stevie had a short lived sexual relationship. The film KIDS, it was clear that all the kids were very sexually active, especially Ruby who had been with multiple sexual partners. Telly appeared to be just as sexually active since he hunted down girls to sleep with.

In Saved By The Bell, it’s clear that Slater and Zack are good with the ladies. They are both charming and suave. Zack is seen with a new girl in many of the episodes and so is Slater until he finally gets a girlfriend.

In The Breakfast Club, although they don’t talk about sex much, the audience can tell that not having sex is a big deal when John asks if Claire if she is a pristine girl and Clair feels the need to lie. In this case, when John asks Claire if she’s pristine, he’s really asking if she is a virgin.

In Euphoria, all the characters seemed to be extremely sexually active. Rue and Jules get together, Jules and Ana sleep together in New York. Maddy and Nate sleep together and with other people when they are broken up. McKay and Cassie are sexually active almost instantly. These teens appear to be more sexually active than most and go through partners as if they were all in a race to see who could sleep with more people. In reality, teens are just as sexually active and often fall in and out of love easily. I knew girls in high school that had new boyfriends every week.

Another common theme found in these stories is teens trying to fit in.

Mean Girls character Cady does a full 180 on her appearance in order to fit in with her friends, Plastics and otherwise. When Janis tells Cady to work as a spy in Regina’s friend group Cady obliges simply because they are friends. Cady then changed her appearance in order to adapt to the Plastics.

Rue from Euphoria stopped doing drugs in order to remain friends with Jules, who put that condition on their friendship. Zack From Saved By The Bell tells a college girl he is also a college student in the hopes they might date or more.

Claire goes along with everything her friends do even though she hates it because she wants to fit in and remain a popular kid.

In MID-90’s Stevie started smoking in order to fit into his group of skater friends. In KIDS, Jennie participated in drugs when she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to but was encouraged by a friend to do so.

All these teens had some form of transformation as they struggled to fit into the groups, they desperately wanted to be a part of. The concept of teens struggling to fit in not new or far from the truth. My friend joined her school’s soccer team to fit in because everyone in her neighborhood played soccer. She continued playing for years even though she hated the sport. Her need to be friends with the kids in her neighborhood made her continue playing a sport she despised.

Lastly, a common theme found in these stories are friendship. Although all the characters in each story did fall into some form of peer pressure or struggle to fit in, they did find real friendships.

Cady, Janis, and Damian seem to have a genuine friendship as Janis made a plan to exact revenge for Regina stealing the boy that Cady liked. (plan seen in image below)

Rue and Jules are the type of friends that would do anything for each other. This was made clear when Jules peed in a bottle for Rue to pass a drug test.

The kids at detention in The Breakfast Club created a special bond as they share intimate details of their life.

In MID 90’s Stevie’s friends cared about him they way someone would for their little brother. When the kids got in a car accident, they all stayed at the hospital until they could visit him.

Zack and his friends tried to protect Kelly’s feelings when they found out her boyfriend was cheating on her because they cared about how she would react and feel.

In KIDS, Telly’s Friend let him borrow his parents’ room so that he could have sex with a girl which was something that was really important to him.

Teen' friendships are like their second family. They bond in their common struggles and passion and grow up together. People often say that you won’t remain friends with the people you go to high school with, but I disagree.  Although I did not remain friends with everyone I went to high school with, I did remain close with a few that I made my second family. Since we grew up together and share so many memories, we will always have love for each other, and that love began when we became best friends in our teenage years.

I’ve recently noticed that soundtracks can impact a film or tv series by using the music to help guide the audience on how they should feel. Shows and movies use soundtracks to let an audience know when to feel happy, sad, or scared. It can even add some drama with dramatic music. In reality tv shows, producers will often play incredibly dramatic music when two people have even the smallest fight. The music elevates the experience of the viewer, as well as enhances the effect of the emotion they are trying to convey.

In an effort to add a more comedic effect to the film Mean Girls, here are the songs I would add to the soundtrack and why: Mean Girls 1. Regina’s theme song would be the song ‘Obsessed’ by Mariah Carey because everyone in her school was obsessed with her and because she was convinced that Janis Ian was obsessed with her. 2. The plastics theme songs after they ditch Regina and temporarily name Cady the new queen bee would be the song ‘Loyal’ by Chris Brown ft Lil Wayne & Tyga. More specifically the lines “these hoes ain’t loyal” would play every time Karen Smith and Gretchen Wieners appeared on the screen. 3. Cady’s theme song when she looks at Aaron- Come And Get Your Love by Redbone

4. Cady when she gets outed as a spy in Regina’s friend group by Janis in the gym- Everybody plays the fool by The Main Ingredient 5. Cady when she is constantly reminded to join the mathletes- I Forgot that you existed 6. Cady when she saw Regina and Aaron kiss at the Halloween party- I’m Upset by Drake 7. Cady when she first saw Aaron- L-O-V-E by Nat King 8. When Karen Smith does the weather report with her boobs- Rain On Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande

9. Regina five seconds after Aaron dumps her and she moved on with Shane Oman- Thank U, Next 10. After the trust fall scene, where all the gilt’s go to the gym and express their feelings and Janis’s confesses to convincing Cady to infiltrate Regina’s friend group - Look What You Made Me Do

With the playlist i made i think this would make a good “crack” youtube video. I always find those entertaining with their funny captions of scenes and updated soundtrack. 

[fmdjoosungarchive]

location: gold star building and element’s dorm/daisuke’s apartment studio

date: mayish 2020 and some days in later 2019

word count: 1288, not including altered lyrics

tldr; verification for @dawonfmd’s candy. partial lyrics, composition, & production. obviously lots of mentions of dawon, quite a bit of mentions about daisuke as well. beware a mention of dieting, an allusion towards ~fornication~, & some reference towards sung’s bad relationship with sexuality n communication, but only if u squint. continuing the trend of ‘sung dislikes throwing beats on every song but gold star does it for him anyway’

company camaraderie, ‘or something’.

that was the only reasoning sung got on why he was producing this song for one of the company’s idols. --don’t get him wrong, sung had been thoroughly enjoying the backseat role he’d been taking lately in writing and producing for others’ releases, and loved that gold star took the songs he’d sent them seriously. this one was a bit sudden, though.

nonetheless, he’d agreed, after a good chunk of listens to the finalized demo. he listened to it, even as he opened the grandiose door to the gold star building, earbuds blocking out the bustle passing by him, fingers wrapped snugly around a notebook tucked against his chest, hair messy enough he was glad barely anyone followed him around like they did for more well-known idols.

he paused, a little over halfway through the song, before opening the door to the studio he’d been directed into.

and there, it made sense.

at least, it made sense for a second. of course gold star had kept this schedule from him, when dawon was the person he’d be producing for. there was no animosity between them, but it had been a long while since they’d been able to chat easily as friends. years.

the thought cracked pretty quickly. gold star’s employees didn’t know anything about his relationship -or lackthereof- with dawon. there was no way they could have sneakily planned it out. this was just... fate.

sung hadn’t intended for the song to be written with dawon in mind, but looking back, he could see how gold star thought of it as the right fit.

lyrics came first. sort of.

gold star had him on a diet for a music release, though he couldn’t remember which one. sung had never been fond of dieting, as he ate healthily and exercised well, but some part of him had trouble standing up for himself with the company when it came to his looks. leftover worry from his trainee days, he would guess.

some day of his dieting, he’d awoken from a dream with a craving for sweets, and in his dreamlike state of mind, wrote down a list of food that sounded good to him right then.

turns out, sung had written in his lyrical notebook, as he found out a few days later, coming across the barely legible and overlapping words. he’d laughed about it, at the time, and left the page for his future self’s amusement.

however, they came back, eventually.

sung found himself in the studio, a few months later, trying to write for himself. and like with many of his songs, he was slowly coming to realize the composition would better suit a vocalist. ideas hadn’t been coming to him as easily because of it, and as soon as he’d scrapped the idea of it being for his own releases, everything opened up.

it could become brighter, lighter, less of the punch that was currently expected of him. he wanted it to feel like soda pop, a sonic expression of carbonation. it could lose stringency, and leave room for the vocal talent to shine through. it could build upon the vocalist, and work with their melody to lift them up.

if it was up to sung, he’d have chosen a main vocalist for the composition, which, he did end up getting. just not who he could have guessed.

he greeted dawon and the other producer working with him warmly. they chatted shortly, small talk, while sung ignored the pit in his stomach sinking deeper by the minute. when the topic shifted to the situation at hand, discussing expectations, the concept of the song, what he and the other producer wanted, what dawon wanted, sung could feel his cogs turning another notch, helping him slip into ‘producer mode’.

however, it was only when dawon was in position, the two separated by the glass between them, that sung truly felt like he was in the proper element. dawon was a good person, and despite his upset, sung was going to do his best to make dawon’s solo debut worth it.

as the first run of the backtrack started, filling the room around him and the space of the headphones around dawon’s ears, thoughts flit. he’d noticed it as soon as he’d received the finalized demo. it was more simple than when he’d sent it, and had a line of beat across it that he hadn’t added himself. both were things sung had come to get used to, especially with gold star’s songwriters. the latter, he supposed, went with the vibe and sound gold star wanted out of current releases, especially for newer groups. sung wasn’t entirely convinced it made compositions more trendy, however, he hadn’t seen the figures. maybe it did. the former... sung understood, especially in this instance. his demo that he sent off to gold star had daisuke featuring as his vocalist. therein, the productional stylings were tailored towards daisuke, and the way he experienced the song, especially around the bridge, which he’d written as the place to lift.

in hindsight, he could see the humor in having daisuke perform the demo for him when the song was only ever finished because of him. it was around when he’d finished the basis of the bridge’s melody that he came back to the lyrics. unintentionally, at first.

sung was feeling insecure. a general day of insecurity that festered itself and infiltrated all different areas of his life. and that day, he felt insecure about daisuke, too. even knowing it was silly of him, sung still felt fear that he wasn’t enough, and that daisuke would see he wasn’t giving enough to their relationship, to him, and wouldn’t want him any longer.

and so, while his boyfriend was out on schedules, and sung was at home, stewing, he picked up his pen and notebook, and wrote down his feelings. amongst them, was:

alone in a dark box i crack little by little painful thoughts do you know what it means to lose flavor?

his heart had felt the slightest bit lighter, after getting out his feelings in some way. it was enough that he could move about the house, getting things done, and that when daisuke came home, sung could ask for reassurance without balling up and crying.

--and it was a heart-stopping reassurance.

when in the middle of the night he managed to unstick himself from daisuke’s body, the lyrics he ended up writing around those few lines he’d liked best took a completely different meaning. he wrote them separately, on his dreamstate ramblings page, and connected through taste. the taste of their love, of himself, of what he desired to give daisuke every waking hour.

the lyrics altered again when he came back around to the composition he’d left unfinished, as he realized the carbonation fit his sweet treats like a glove. the composition changed too, though more as he found himself adding onto this culminating song’s scape to better fit the vision he had in his head.

it was a vision that dawon fit perfectly into. the thought hadn’t occurred to him in the entire process of creating the song, but it really was a great match. he spent their entire recording session thinking of how he might alter the final production to add back in those building sounds that would lift up the currently-somewhat-dull sounds ringing through his ears.

he’d felt hopeful enough in where this project was going that when he greeted dawon after the recording, he’d hugged him. it’d been many years since they’d hugged, he was pretty sure, though he shoved those anxious thoughts away in favor of the sparks of happiness shooting through him. maybe... maybe he could try harder, to get closer to dawon again. maybe, he’d ask for his thoughts as he mixed the track. ...maybe.

[thearkhound]

Weekly Famitsu #572: Metal Gear Ghost Babel interview

The Game Boy Color version of Metal Gear Solid, otherwise known by its Japanese title Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, is one of the better-received side-entry in Konami’s stealth action game series. It wasn’t just a half-baked cashgrab, as was the case with many Game Boy games that happened to share their title with a popular console or PC game, but could’ve easily been a worthy successor to the prior 2D Metal Gears (particularly Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake on the MSX2) had it been made before the original Metal Gear Solid.

Prior to the release of the game, producer Hideo Kojima and three key members of the development team (Shinta Nojiri, Ikuya Nakamura and Tomokazu Fukushima) were interviewed for an article published  in Weekly Famitsu #572 (December 3, 1999). This interview would later be posted online on the Twitter account Game Dankai 198X, which specializes in reposting magazine articles from Famitsu and other Japanese gaming magazines. The following is my translation of the interview.

PROFILES

Hideo Kojima - The father of the Metal Gear series, nicknamed Kantoku (Director) by his staff. He serves as producer for Ghost Babel.

Shinta Nojiri - Director of Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. Mr. Kojima calls him “our own Keanu Reeves.”

Ikuya Nakamura - In charge of everything related to the game’s imagery such as the pixel art and the screen design.

Tomokazu Fukushima - In charge of the writing. He also co-wrote the original Metal Gear Solid with Mr. Kojima.

INTERVIEW

Famitsu: Let’s start by telling us why you decided to make this new Metal Gear for the Game Boy.

Kojima: It was a few days before the release of Metal Gear Solid (henceforth MGS1) on the PlayStation. The game was already being well-received overseas, so we received a request from Europe asking us why weren’t making a Game Boy version too. They’re crazy over Metal Gear in Europe, so we decided to give it a shot.

Famitsu: So it was a development request from overseas? It’s rare for a Japanese game to be developed under such circumstances.

Kojima: That’s right. We were about to start our research on the PlayStation 2 around that period as well. While the PS2 is pretty good in terms of visuals and sounds, I wanted to be bold and re-explore the question of “what is a game”. Naturally we couldn’t use polygons. but I thought we would re-evaluate the essence of Metal Gear in sprite form.

Famitsu: Were there any concerns during the planning phase?

Nojiri: Since Ghost Babel is for a portable game platform, we designed the game around those circumstances. That’s why we went for a stage-based format for example. But in the end I think we ended up ignoring the limitations of the Game Boy by cramming too much stuff, didn’t we? (laughs)

Famitsu: The graphics are really pretty.

Kojima: The pixel art was by Nakamura, who also did the textures in MGS1. I’m willing bet there’s nobody in the entire Konami Group who draws pixel art as well as he does. However, his lifespan decreases little by little for each pixel he draws. (laughs) Since it’s a skill that can only be passed from one master to one student, he’d better train a successor soon or we’ll be in trouble.

Nakamura: I’m already dying. (laugh)

Famitsu: (laughs) But seriously, there’s a limit to what can be expressed on a Game Boy. Was it much harder than working on something on the PlayStation?

Nakamura: No, not really. The original Metal Gear released on the MSX back in 1987 was already a 2D game. However, we aimed to create a game that wouldn’t feel dumbed-down to players who already experienced MGS1.

Famitsu: I see. Were you also concerned of MGS1 while writing the story as well?

Fukushima: In order to not betray the expectations of the fans we made up to this point, we wrote the story with the idea of being worthy of the series while also surpassing all the previous games. However, I’ve been told it’s a bit too intense in some parts (glances at Mr. Kojima while stating this).

Kojima: Indeed, the game’s story is way more intense than anything I’ve written (laughs). The concept designs and such were also pretty amazing. Among the bad guys there’s a guy named Slasher Hawk who ate manatees. Naturally that idea fell through.

Fukushima: No, it wasn’t a manatee. It was a dugong (a similar-looking kind of marine mammal).

Famitsu: They both look alike (laughs).

Kojima: By the way, I know the two dolls that Marionette Owl is always holding have names. What are they called?

Fukushima: They’re Osan and Koharu. (everyone laughs) [tl’s note: These names are references to main character’s wife and lover respectively from the Japanese play The Love Suicides at Amijima]

Famitsu: The Metal Gear series is known for its strong themes that it tries to convey to players through their stories. Is it the same with Ghost Babel?

Kojima: Not having a theme in this game would be like running around a public park holding a knife. Allowing such a thing would be dangerous. That’s why after we allow players to play around with a weapon, we preach to them at the end and say to them “this is how you use that knife.”

Famitsu: I see what you mean with that statement.

Kojima: But I was a bit worried. The main demographic for Game Boy players in Japan are elementary children who are used to the worldviews of games such as the Goemon series. I was a bit worried about what kind of direction this Metal Gear would take. What players expect from a Metal Gear is not a cartoon version of Snake who lives in a world with a trivial story, but a realistic Snake who goes through a thematic story. So we stuck to the same hardboiled approach from before.

Fukushima: That’s why the scenario we wrote for the game goes beyond what people expect from a Game Boy game. It’s a story full of betrayal and conspiracies.

Nojiri: It’s not just the story. We also designed the graphics with that same mentality.

Nakamura: Instead of drawing in a strange cartoon style, we intended to respect the worldview of Metal Gear with every pixel we applied.

Kojima: The characters move really firmly on the Game Boy’s small screen. They really come to life I should say.

Nakamura: I think there’s more animation in this game than there has ever been in any other Game Boy game to date.

Kojima: Snake’s bandanna even flows into the air when he runs. Fhwaa!

Famitsu: Wow, that’s really detailed!

Kojima: The way the characters move have considerable realism to them. Even I was surprised when I saw them the first time.

Famitsu: How complete is the game in its current stage?

Kojima: I would say the game is around 50 to 60 percent finished. But each portion of game is considerably complete.

Famitsu: Can you tell us how many stages will be in the game?

Nojiri: Currently we’re planning 13 stages. The game basically revolves around infiltration and avoiding conflicts by hiding, but the objective varies depending on the stage. For example, you might have to infiltrate in darkness, demolish a building or fight a boss depending on the situation.

Famitsu: That’s quite a variety of objectives.

Nojiri: That’s the idea.

Kojima: Moreover, if you clear stage once during the story mode, you can choose to replay that stage with a different objective. The way to defeat a boss or the number of enemy soldiers you encounter and such might be different.

Famitsu: I see. It sounds very similar to the VR Training mode in MGS1.

Nojiri: It’s something of a separate bonus mode. A VR Training mode is also being added to the game.

Famitsu: Speaking of which, there’s around 180 stages planned for VR Training mode. That’s quite a lot. When I heard that number for the first time, I thought it was a mistake.

Kojima: That’s because we specialized in doing such stupid things. (laughs)

Famitsu: Stupid things…?

Kojima: Isn’t the Game Boy meant to be played outside? When you’re commuting on a train or in a car, there’s a time limit before you reach your destination. That’s why we planned lots of simple ways to play the game under such conditions.

Fukushima: There are things we ported from MGS1 and things we made specifically for this game.

Famitsu: I already feel full just hearing that.

Kojima: We haven’t revealed it yet, but there’s also a versus mode that uses the link cable that’s really fun. I can’t talk about the rules yet, but it’s an absolute blast! You’ll be thinking “I can’t believe playing against another person can be this fun.”

Famitsu: Are there any words each of you might want to give to our readers as we conclude this interview?

Nojiri: Purely as a action game, I think we ended up producing a fun one, so I hope many people will enjoy it.

Fukushima: I think Ghost Babel has a very different tone compared the usual Game Boy game. Nevertheless, I hope people will still play it since it’s a fun game.

Nakamura: Even though it was for a portable game machine, I drew the game’s pixel art with the intent to challenge its hardware limitations. Please look forward to it.

Kojima: I’ll be happy if many people after playing this game will ask themselves “what is a game?”.

The four developers discuss the creative urges they have for Ghost Babel. Even as they smile, there’s a sense of severity towards the game’s development.

[team-jpde]

JPDE's 2nd Birthday - The Birth, the End and the Break

Hello, thar, Meinos Kaen here… And today is JPDE’s 2nd birthday.

By birthday I mean the day I first had the idea for the overall story, thanks to a good long-time friend of mine that on the JPDE Discord server goes by the name of Penny –sic-. I had debated about maybe considering the birthday the release of the first demo, or of Version 1.0 but I thought I’d be completely honest and true with you guys. Also so I can weave you the tale of the game’s origins.

THE BIRTH OF JPDE

I didn’t get into RWBY until after the end of season 3. I was aware of its existence, I had heard about Rooster Teeth but I never got into any of their products. I knew of RvB but I was never into Machinima videos. Achievement Hunter? I prefer playing videogames instead of watching people play them –but I will tune in for good commentary even if I don’t always completely agree with the points made, shoutout to Jim Sterling, Yathzee and TotalBiscuit (rest in peace)-.

The first contact I had with RWBY was actually the Yang VS Tifa Deathbattle, a video with an outcome that even RWBY fans pretty much all agreed was bullshit and immediately made me not interested. I had friends who were fans, though, one of which was Penny. She tried many times to get me interested in RWBY, to the point that I pretty much knew the whole plot before even watching an episode. Still, she never managed to stir the embers of interest.

Until she showed me Penny –the character-. A fan-art of her, then her official sketches, and damn. Penny is still, by far, one of the best character designs I have ever seen in animation. Then she showed me the episode where she appeared and I was hooked. So cute! So freckly! So pure! So OMGGIANTLASERWTF!

Then, after getting me on board… She told me Penny was dead, after I had already gotten to Season 3! THAT CHEATER!  So I got moody and eventually turned to my favourite coping mechanism… Imagination.

Hitting ideas off my friend and just shooting the shit about how Penny deserved more friends, maybe her own team, maybe someone who loved her, and a partner. Those talks gave birth to the concepts for David, Evelyn and Jack, and eventually to Team WHIT too.

Those conversations actually turned to a roleplay, but I have always been a writer first and foremost so I thought ‘hey, this could actually make a nice fanfiction’. Been writing fanfiction since I was 14, so the progression was natural.

Then, I remembered something else. I had been experimenting and using RenPy randomly on and off for years but I had never actually put my ass in gear and just made something… Then I realized I wanted to make a Visual Novel out of it. I wanted to make a story where Penny didn’t die and I didn’t just want to write it, I wanted to code it.

I started thinking about making monthly releases of it right off the bat, budgeting certain amounts of money out of my own pocket. That only lasted for a couple months before I opened the Patreon for JPDE and, my god, the support I received has been unbelievable. All for a little fan-game born out of love for a redheaded row-boat. I’m humbled every minute of every day by the all too real support I’ve been getting.

Two years later, JPDE is still going strong and I’ve even managed to start working on original projects of mine. I can’t thank you guys enough for the support you’ve been showing me…

And today, as year two comes to a close, it’s time to discuss year three. It’s time to discuss the road to the end-game.

THE ROAD TO THE VYTAL TOURNAMENT 

As you may already know if you've been playing the game, the School Life part of JPDE will end with day 183, which is going to be the weekend of the Vytal Dance, corresponding to the RWBY Vol2 episode Dance Dance Infiltration, and then the events of the Breach of Vale City. On that weekend it's when the end-game starts.

On the weekend of the dance, instead of choosing who to go on a date with, you'll be asked who to bring to the dance out of all the characters you've been on four dates with. Once made, that choice can't be changed, and other than the dance it will influence how certain events will play out in Breach and during the events of the Vytal Festival.

The choices are mutually exclusive, meaning that once you've chosen one character it will be like all the other dates won’t have happened –unless it’s a threesome/moresome route, ahem-. If you choose Silhouette-chan, it will be like you will always only have gone on dates with her. I’ve stated in the past that JPDE’s route dates are like schrodinger’s cat. The dance invitation is like opening the door.

There are however, certain exceptions, which I will refer to as complementary characters. The dates of these characters will still count as having happened even if you choose someone else for the dance and will influence some events during the end-game. So far, those characters are:

Neopolitan

Qrow Branwen

Pyrrha Nikos (Optional)

Cinder Fall

The more dates you get with these characters, the more they will influence the end-game, even if you decide to not bring them to the dance. Also, they will interact with other certain characters’ stories in certain ways if you bring those other certain characters to the dance.

Got all that? Good, because now we come to…

END GAME DEVELOPMENT

Once we hit day 183, I will change how I release content for the game. Since I won’t be able to measure the progress in weeks any longer, I will just release as much as I can manage each month. But there’s also something else that is specific to the ‘date routes’ part: I will only ever work on one character’s end-game at any given time, exception made for the complementary ones.

What does that mean? It means that, when we first hit day 183, I will have a poll asking you to decide which character out of the ones currently at four dates you want me to work on. I will then work on that character’s end-game only until completion, then open another poll to decide which character to work on next.

This, of course, on top of the usual two dates a month and the story progression, provided that we keep a sufficient level of Patreon funding.

IN CONCLUSION

At this rate of releasing and updating, we’re going to reach day 183 probably on JPDE’s third birthday. So you have one year to get as many people as possible up to four dates before the final battle to decide who’s going to get the first end-game focused round of development. That final vote will be PATREON EXCLUSIVE. I repeat, ONLY PATRONS WILL BE ABLE TO VOTE ON THAT POLL AND ANY SUBSEQUENT ONES REGARDING END-GAME CONTENT.

And with that, I now officially declare fourth dates available to be nominated and voted for in New Route Events polls. All other rules, particularly the ones regarding Team RWBY and Team JPDE characters, stay in place.

Papa loves you, papa thanks you and I will talk to you soon. Put a mark on your calendar, prepare, plan, look for allies… Because we’re now entering Year Three of JPDE. And the stakes have never been higher…

- Meinos Kaen

Ah, also...

P.S. - SEPTEMBER BREAK

BunnyVoid, our background artist, has recently suffered a death in the family. ArsonicArtz is going to Japan and Papa is going to France and Poland in September.

Considering these circumstances, there will be a small break in September. Meaning that the September release will only contain the new dates.

[aion-rsa]

Army of the Dead: How Zack Snyder Is Revolutionizing Zombie Movies

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Since long before Zack Snyder or Army of the Dead, zombie movies have proven to be one of the most surprisingly versatile subgenres in film. George A. Romero pioneered the form with the incisive, socially conscious Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, and since then we’ve seen an ever-growing menagerie of zombies and zombie movies. More than a few times, the undead ghouls have been reinvented to frighten and fascinate audiences across the world.

So it’s probably fair to wonder at this point whether we’ve just about seen it all when it comes to zombie flicks. Innovative takes on the genre like Shaun of the Dead, Train to Busan, and Warm Bodies have taken the zombie myth and twisted it in unexpected ways. And Zack Snyder’s own remake of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was an amplified homage to the original with a wry sense of humor. It received praise from fans of the genre, and to this day is considered to be one of the best efforts in Snyder’s oeuvre.

Now, 16 years later and after an eight-year stretch of superhero movies for Warner Bros., Snyder is returning to his zombie roots by partnering with Netflix for Army of the Dead, a heist/zombie movie mash-up that he hopes will take the genre to new heights in several ways.

The story is set in a zombie apocalypse that originated in Area 51. Six years after the outbreak, Las Vegas is essentially quarantined, with a wall built around it to contain the zombie hordes that have taken over the city. The government plans to nuke Vegas to end the zombie outbreak for good. In this time of chaos, a former casino boss, Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada), hires a group of mercenaries led by zombie war hero Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) to infiltrate the city and extract $200 million that’s sitting in his vault underneath the strip before the city is pancaked by the government. The team should have plenty of time to get in and out before the bomb drops, but once they’re inside, they learn that the president has moved up the drop date to appease his supporters, giving the team little time to get out of the drop zone before the city is blown sky high.

Worse, while on their way to the vault the team will have to fight off a massive army of undead led by Zeus, a highly intelligent and combat-savvy “alpha” zombie who started the outbreak at Area 51. When Zeus bites someone, they become a deadly alpha like him; when an alpha other than Zeus bites someone, they become a more traditional “shambler” zombie.

Netflix invited Den of Geek to the set of Army of the Dead back in 2019 where we had the chance to sit with Snyder and the cast to get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie.

“From the first conceptualization of the movie, [we knew] there were going to be these evolved zombies,” Snyder explains as he sits with members of the press on his lunch break. “I thought it would be cool if there was a way to have a little bit of sympathy for the bad guy. It’s hard to have sympathy for a normal zombie. In a way, the guys who kill them seem like they’re doing them a favor. I thought if we were able to create this other class of zombie that was semi-conscious, treating them like a wolf or dog, like, they can’t talk, but they can organize.”

This highly evolved class of zombie gave Snyder and co-writer Shay Hatten more creative opportunities when laying out the story, lending emotional depth to the traditionally one-sided human-zombie conflict. The government feels that they’ve imprisoned the zombies in Vegas, but perhaps the alphas and their shambler offspring would rather just be left alone.

Alphas aren’t the only new form of zombie that you’ll see in the movie. Las Vegas is home to all manner of bizarre creatures, both animal and human, and you can expect to see a wide variety of gruesome undead versions of Vegas oddities and eccentrics as the mercs battle their way to the center of the strip. Zombie Elvis impersonators, zombie male dancers, zombie tigers, zombie brides… it’s all very Vegas, and reflective of just how much fun Snyder had making the movie.

“Zeus rides a horse!” Snyder gushes. “He’s the smartest of all of them. Whether he has hopes and dreams, I’m not sure. But our humans give zero fucks about his world. It’s kind of a fun relationship between him and the team.”

As for the team’s interactions with each other, Snyder assured us that while the movie is as fun and bombastic as you would expect, the character work is the spine of the film and informs all of the action. 

Bautista’s Scott begrudgingly lets his estranged, activist daughter Kate (Ella Purcell) join his crew in the film, and they’re forced to work out their issues as they carry out the mission. Joining them are Scott’s friend and adept mechanic Cruz (Ana de la Reguera), helicopter pilot Marianne (Tig Notaro), expert zombie-killer Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), reckless social media influencer Guzman (Raúl Castillo), the casino’s head of security Martin (Garret Dillahunt), and Scott’s “ride-or-die” compatriot, Chambers (Samantha Win). The film also stars Nora Arnezeder, Theo Rossi, Huma S. Qureshi, and Matthias Schweighöfer

“At its heart, it’s a relationship movie,” Snyder says. “[Scott] and his daughter are trying to mend their relationship over the course of the movie. She shouldn’t have been on the mission but she kind of tricks him. It’s this small relationship movie inside of it all about a father who kind of abandons his child and tries to make it right. On top of that, it’s pure genre insanity.”

From what we were shown on set that day, the movie certainly looks to deliver on the genre goodness, for both the zombie and heist fronts. Snyder and company had rented out the entire casino floor at the Showboat hotel in Atlantic City, and they spent several days filming frantic zombie-killing action scenes involving a ton of wire work and big, loud guns (which Snyder test-fired himself with childlike giddiness). There were dozens of zombie extras running around, and the casino floor was so littered with inanimate zombie bodies that we had to watch our step virtually everywhere we went. Rest assured, the movie will be action-packed.

Another way Snyder and his team are attempting to make Army of the Dead a progressive entry in the genre is with its deliberately diverse cast. 

“Something that was really important to us was to have a global cast,” says producer Deborah Snyder. “Being on Netflix, the majority of the audience is international. There’s no reason the cast should be all American, all white. And it was really important for us, and me especially, that the women are as strong as their male counterparts. That’s something that I’ve been striving for, especially in action and genre. Their characters have depth.”

The cast being led by Bautista makes sense in that he’s a big star, but what perhaps goes under the radar in many people’s eyes is that he’s essentially the first Filipino-American to lead a diverse cast in the history of major motion pictures.

“Dave has been amazing. He’s awesome,” Zack says of his leading man. “My movies are pretty popular in the Philippines anyways, so I’m excited about this added bit that’s really going to take it to the stratosphere, I hope. He considers himself this anti-action hero but he can do any of the action! It’s cool. He’s not afraid to be rough and not look good all the time. That’s what’s cool. And he can be vulnerable.”

When sitting down with Bautista on set, the actor describes a deep sense of duty and fulfillment in representing Filipinos on the big screen.

“I’m getting ready to have the Filipino stars tattooed on my chest, front and center, really big!” Bautista shares. “It speaks to where my pride is as far as being a Filipino. I’m half-Filipino, but I embrace it completely. I’ve never been embraced like I was when I went to the Philippines. It means a lot to me. I want to represent something and I want to inspire people. It means everything to me.”

Read more

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In addition to the film’s cast representing a wide range of communities, Snyder harnesses the strength of zombie movies as socio-political commentary by weaving statements about the current state of the United States into the fabric of the narrative.

“There’s zombie-infested Vegas, and then what happened was they built this refugee camp at the outset of the zombie plague to quarantine,” Zack explains. “Six year later, the camp still exists, so now it’s this political tool that the government uses. If you have contradictory political views, they’ll stick you in there. They have a heat gun, and if you’re below 98.6 degrees, that’s probable cause to put you in.”

The director continues, “A lot of the people in the refugee camp are disenfranchised. Whether it’s a statement about immigration or the literal refugee camps around the world, it made sense to me to have an internationally diverse cast because of the centerpiece of the movie. This group that goes in are a mish-mash… they’re mutts. They’re rogue samurai.”

For Snyder, the feel of Army of the Dead was inspired by some of the most classic genre movies from his youth, though as in his previous work, he attempts to build on the concepts they introduced by subverting expectations and putting his own unexpected twists on genre conventions.

“When we did Dawn of the Dead, it was a slightly genre-buster movie in that I was a fan of the original, and I didn’t want to remake the movie, exactly,” Zack says. “I was trying my best to pay homage to the movie but I was always only referencing the original as opposed to a straight remake. I find that to be a fun area to be in.”

He continues, “Army of the Dead was really inspired by Escape From New York, [James] Cameron’s Aliens, Robocop… that world. It’s very much a genre deconstruction in the sense that I love all the genre tropes, and so I’m constantly trying to subvert the tropes by having them not finish as they typically would.”

After spending eight years in the superhero movie making business, Snyder felt that going back to intimate, genre storytelling would be exactly what he needed to reinvigorate his creative mind and passion. He needed a change of pace, and he missed being hands-on with the filmmaking process.

“Your relationship to the photographic process, even the actors… you grow further and further away from it,” he says of making big superhero movies. “I was still drawing the shots, but they were getting made further away. That’s kind of true of all aspects of the movie. This movie, for me, is a 100 percent organic experience where I take hold of it as a filmmaking process, as a writing process, photographically, as a director. It’s a joy to get up and work on. There are no real politics. Just make the movie as cool as you can, that’s it. In that way, it’s super refreshing and inspiring.

Snyder’s proximity to the tactile, hard work of filmmaking was evident from my time on set. In addition to directing, he acted as the movie’s DP and B camera operator and was interacting with the actors constantly, all while quite visibly having a lot of fun. It’s difficult to imagine he was as playful and loose on the sets of his DC movies. According to Snyder, while Army of the Dead certainly took a lot of hard work to make, he was constantly inspired by the material and embraced the challenge.

“Every movie is a struggle, right?” says Snyder. “I love that about moviemaking. The smoothest movie in the world is a shitfight. But with this movie I could make a subversive movie but no one would have to reach for the symbolism. It’s right there. It’s a genre that is about that, right? A good zombie movie, all the great Romero movies, they’re all mirrors. The zombies are us. For me, that was a great place to dig my teeth in.”

And working on a smaller scope means that this is the most personal movie Snyder has made in quite some time.

“It’s a giant movie, but I’ve tried to get at it in a super intimate, personal way,” he says. “This is not a movie that’s made by committee. It’s personal, singular, my eye seeing the movie.”

Army of the Dead hits select theaters on May 14 and Netflix on May 21.

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[traincat]

what do you personally dislike about Slott's ASM? also do you know how he has been the main writer for so long? It feels like marvel should have switched it up

This turned out so long, sorry, anon.

I don’t know the circumstances that have led to Slott’s extremely long run on Amazing Spider-Man, but I do feel it’s long past time to switch it up for a number of reasons, and frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t chose Legacy as the perfect time to bring in a new writer. I’ve got two bones to pick with Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man, and one is a couple of personal experiences I’ve had that centered around Superior Spider-Man (importantly, they’re both scenes involving the run’s treatment of women) and then just a general note on why his Peter Parker voice doesn’t work for me, personally. I have liked other comics by Slott, for the record.

The personal experiences first:

I’ve witnessed Slott harass a friend of mine on social media over a comment on a frankly awful panel in Superior Spider-Man, saying that they shouldn’t criticize Otto’s actions because he was “on a journey.” This kind of behavior is apparently not an isolated incident where he’s involved, but I should note that my friend was at the time very young (I can’t remember if they were 18, but quite possibly they were younger). I believe it was made obvious to him at one point that he was arguing with a teenager, but I can’t recall for sure. I do know they did not tag him in their criticism. But most importantly, this is the panel they were discussing:

For those unaware, Superior Spider-Man was a storyline where Doctor Octopus bodyjacked Peter and intended to live his life as Peter and as Spider-Man. Nobody knew that Peter had been replaced. 

Otto’s thought boxes are positioned over Mary Jane’s dialogue, effectively silencing her, and not only is HIS gaze clearly fixed on her breasts, but the reader is essentially forced to stare at them, too. I don’t know how the average man feels looking at this panel, but I can say, as a woman, it 100% feels like the comic is creepily staring at my boobs and I’m not cool with that. This is not a fun cheesecake page, embracing Mary Jane as a confident, sexually attractive woman – it’s treating her like a piece of meat. If this was intended to be funny, I’m sorry, but the joke is bad. Even if we were to say Otto was “on a journey” to become a better person and that his behavior in the first issue is not indicative of who he’ll become so he shouldn’t be judged on it – which, currently, he’s in a Peter clone body, being all sad because his Parker Industries coup failed and the woman he lied to and seduced using Peter’s identity doesn’t want to date him, so I guess the last stop on the train was Disgusting Man Valley – it’s still a page where a man infiltrates a woman’s private life using the body of one of the closest people to her and then ignores her voice to stare at her breasts. (Make no mistake: Otto was explicitly and aggressively trying to trick her into bed using Peter’s identity. Later, when he realized he could access Peter’s memories, he replayed Peter’s sexual encounters with Mary Jane. I don’t like any stop on this journey, guys.)

The “journey”, I suspect, was meant to refer to Ock’s growing feelings towards Anna Maria Marconi, but that just highlights another set of problems I have: Mary Jane, a beautiful model turned entrepreneur, is ultimately deemed by Otto as “unacceptable” for someone of Peter’s intellect, and cast aside in favor Anna Maria, who works in STEM, can cook like an Italian grandmother, and who is pretty but not conventionally desirable. It would be one thing for the character to do this, but Slott did once say that Otto was better at appreciating “real beauty” than Peter, and that Peter’s love for Mary Jane was “anti-Marvel”, because Mary Jane’s “superficially beautiful”, implying that she lacks inner beauty and ignoring the canon fact that Mary Jane’s moral center has always been stronger than Peter’s. This disregard for Mary Jane solely because she’s pretty continues in a scene where Mary Jane gets all dressed up and goes to meet a new guy she’s interested in, only to get pushed into the mud before he sees her. While humor via humiliation is common in Slott’s Spider-Man, I don’t really think I need to elaborate on why a scene all about taking a woman who is confident in her appearance and sexuality down a peg leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I really dislike how often Mary Jane is disregarded by fans because she’s “a shallow male fantasy” (please read comics) so to say that Peter loving her is anti-Marvel is just, like, no. 

More under the cut.

(It’s also out of character for Mary Jane not to realize Peter’s not Peter, considering she outfoxed (and then bludgeoned) the Chameleon and can pick Peter out from among his clones:

but for the sake of Superior’s deceit, I can let this go. The Superior Spider-Man scene where she sits in a burning building waiting for Spider-Man to come save her, The Most Out Of Character Mary Jane Scene Of All Time, I cannot.)

So there’s just, generally, the treatment of Mary Jane in Superior Spider-Man, as well as his reaction to a criticism of it. Then there’s an encounter with a male Spider-Man fan I had which, while this isn’t a direct criticism of Slott’s work, I do think it ties into the way women are treated in it, especially within the body of Superior Spider-Man.

So I used to cosplay, and one time I went to a big outdoor shoot with a bunch of friends and friends’ friends and some photographers, etc, and afterwards we all crowded into a big diner booth together, Jersey style, and this guy I don’t know starts chatting me up. (I guess he missed the memo about superficial beauty.) And it’s a cosplay thing, so like, we’re all nerds, and somehow we start talking about Spider-Man. And this guy rushes to tell me he is loving Superior Spider-Man. Do you know what he just can’t wait to tell me he loved about Superior Spider-Man? He loves that Doc Ock punched Felicia Hardy in the face. “That was awesome,” he told me, referring to a scene where Felicia comes across Spider-Man and, not knowing it’s Ock in there, initiates some playful banter, which he responds to by punching her in the face hard enough to knock a tooth out. Because he’s the Superior Spider-Man! And obviously that’s ~superior~ to what “shallow” Peter would have done, which was most likely engage in consensual sex with Felicia, because they’re both adults who enjoy having sex with each other. Did Dan Slott hold a gun to that guy’s head and make him tell me how awesome and funny it is when men violently assault women in fiction? No, but he did write a scene that it’s possible to interpret as glorifying said assault. At the very least, it does not condemn it.

Dating tip, guys: when talking to a girl for the first time, please don’t tell her how cool and funny you think violence against women is. (Actually, if you find it cool and funny, please be upfront about that, so she can get out of there and never talk to you again.)

Ugh. You guys. I do not like how this title treats women. I don’t like how other Slott titles treat women, although they’re less egregious about it, because at least when Peter Parker is in control of his body and the title you’re forced as a writer to deal with the fact that, while Peter canonically is real enthusiastic about sex with women, the character does actually like, respect women as human beings. Slott has also fridged several important Spider-Man women, notably both Dr. Ashley Kafka and Marla Jameson – both professional women. I love Cindy Moon and I love what other writers have done with the concept of someone who spent ten years locked away in a bunker, but I’m not actually sure Cindy’s introduction needed to be about a woman who was locked in a box since she was a teenager, you feel me?

My issues with Slott’s Peter characterization are entirely a matter of personal taste. I’ve already mentioned that I don’t love humor via embarrassment or humiliation, but I really, really don’t like it. And Slott uses it a lot – his conception of Spider-Man as a funny superhero involves Peter being the butt of a lot of jokes, instead of Peter just… being funny. I also find that his Peter lacks an edge. This is also my problem with Bendis’ Peter, though I feel Bendis nails the rhythm of Peter’s banter better than Slott does, and his dialogue-heavy writing is a good fit. Also, he knows Peter’s Jewish. But like, for instance, you have an iteration of Peter who was only ever written by Bendis in Ultimate Peter! And he’s a good boy! He is! I care about him so much less than 616 Peter. This is related to my dissatisfaction with Homecoming, where he was completely toothless and the narrative went out of its way to point out how NOT scary he was. I’m sorry, but a teenage boy who can punch through concrete no big deal is actually always going to be at least a little scary – instead of rejecting that fact, I’d rather explore how Peter makes himself gentle as he grows up, and how he struggles to be as good and as moral as Spider-Man is, and when he leans into that threatening nature. I want that struggle, and that relationship with violence, throw in some Spider-Man as a predatory animal metaphors okay at this point I should note that the modern Spider-Man writer whose voice for him I like the very best is J. Michael Straczynski’s. You can see what I’m talking about in this scene, for example:

He’s completely gentle with Mary Jane – but when Tony gets in his way to keep him from going after a paparazzo (Tony wouldn’t know this, but Peter once threatened to rip a sleazy photographer’s head off after he called Mary Jane cheap, so y’know, trying to get him to calm down is reasonable), Peter’s reaction is hostile – threatening to forcibly move him, the clenched fists, etc. (One of my big Peter characterization rules is you can’t write how he interacts with other people the same as the way he interacts with his family.) He also just tossed Wolverine out a window, so.

“You were chosen for your rage” ooooh Mr. Stracyznski, tell me more. This sounds like I am joking no 10000% give me more of Peter shirtless and beating up the Kingpin. His freaking murder polo:

Basically, as a reader, I appreciate the depths of Peter’s kindness best when they aren’t necessarily first nature for him. Slott’s Peter doesn’t have that same edge to him. He’s not reining himself in. (There was a Norman vs Peter fist fight and I WAS NOT INTO IT, which should be impossible.)

[swipestream]

Trying Out The Alexandrian’s Urbancrawl System: Designing The City Of Juntial

I’ve been excited by a series of articles I read on The Alexandrian from way back in 2015 on building a city based campaign with a hexcrawl feel (it was called an urbancrawl there). I’ve also been inspired by the way the Steve Jackson Sorcery! gamebook series, which was translated to video games back in 2013, portrays a sort of old-school “anything goes” fantasy. So I thought I would try my hand at using the system roughed out at The Alexandrian to create an urbancrawl with the strange magic feel of yesteryear.

So to start, I need a concept. Let’s go with: There’s a place where several majors rivers meet. It’s a low soft land so rather than form a lake, it just makes the surrounding area mushy and swampy. In the past the inhabitants along the rivers would send boats to the point where they meet and trade. Eventually, a few buildings were erected, a few house boats permanently docked, and a city grew from there. The land isn’t ideal for building, so over time buildings were built on the sinking ruins of older buildings until they became relatively stable. Today the city has a sizable moat around it, and is filled with winding roads and canals and is still a sizable hub for travel and trade. Though well defended from outside attack by its geography, the city itself is in some places lawless and in all places strange, wet and overripe with plots and intrigue. We’ll call this city Juntial (from a sloppy Google translate of “river” and “together” and since the geography reminds me of Mexico city and I’ve got some ideas about how the land was stolen from the natives, we’ll bastardize Spanish instead of Nahuatl)

So the base of the Alexandrian Urbancrawl system is neighborhoods and layers (essentially types of points of interest you might find if you were looking). So I need a few things to get started:

To know how many neighborhoods I need

A set of districts to cluster them into

A set of layers

So how many neighborhoods do I need? If you read The Alexandrian’s set of HEXcrawl articles (another good read), he mentions that his own hexcrawl is 16×16 and WAY too big. That at most you need 10×10 or 12×12. So that’s a good number to aim for. BUT, in the urbancrawl system, each layer is keyed for each neighborhood, so if you have 3 layers, you only need 1/3 the neighborhoods because each one holds 3 things depending on what you’re looking for.  Taking another angle, what if we look at the number of actual neighborhoods in a modern large city and then normalize to the size of a large medieval city? That nets you a magic number of 20-30 neighborhoods. And if you have 4 to 7 layers, that will hit your target of 100-144. So that’s what we’re going for.

Next, what districts do we want to cluster into? I jotted down a list and asked another GM for their thoughts and came up with a sizable list that I pared down to a handful:

A crafting district: While this is a trade city so shops are all over and tradesmen are all over, this will be a small district where craftsmen whose professions make them unpleasant to work or live near. Specifically tanners, papermakers, animal processors, alchemists, smelters, etc… since several crafts of this type require clean water, many produce polluted water, and many smell bad this district should be situated near and inflowing and an outflowing water source and should be on the edge of the city or surrounded by undesirable locations.

Slums: There should be probably several slum districts with something to keep them distinctive or one larger district. This will be a good location to give the city the lawless and dangerous feel we want it to have.

Ruined/blasted/magic/university: I definitely want a section of the city that is mostly ruined and full of dangerous and weird things. While I don’t think want a full district for mages or a university, it occurs to me that if a section of a city were to be destroyed and now populated with all sorts of danger and weirdness, that a district that HAD been devoted to wizardry and study would be a good bet. And having a ruined university is a good way to communicate a city in decline.

Palace: This district houses the current monarch, a mummy whose will is interpreted by a circle of nobles. In addition it houses many government buildings and homes for some nobles  and government officials, though other noble houses are scatters all over the city.

Temple: While temples can be found throughout the city, there is also a temple district where the majority of large impressive temples are found.

Bazaar: A large central district with a small lake surrounded by a large bazaar, this district holds many of the middle class citizens of the city and many of the tradesmen that are not relegated to the crafting district.

Docks: Not a district proper, but instead a set of non-contiguous neighborhoods around the various docks in the city.

That gives us 7 districts to work with. If each one has 3-4 neighborhoods, that nets us our 20-30 neighborhood target.

Next, what layers do I want to work with?  The Alexandrian articles give a few examples, from which I borrowed heavily and added a few of my own.

Gazetteer/Landmarks: This is the base layer that just includes a description and a landmark of note.

Gangs: Since this is a lawless city, gangs run unchecked in most of the city. Even in the more civilized areas, guards are little more than mercenary thugs plying the same strongarm tactics as the rest of the city’s gangs.

Heist: I have never played an urban game where at least one PC didn’t want to steal everything that wasn’t nailed down.

Weirdness: Half of what this campaign is going to be about, so it has to end up here. Every neighborhood gets a weird little secret.

Aboleth: What better weird high level challenge for a semi-sunken city than a couple of aboleths and their minions.

 Patrons/houses/politics: This is another good call from The Alexandrian list. Some players will want to just pick up a job rather than scare up their own work.

Shops: While this is a trade city and most items should be readily available, I like the idea of each neighborhood having a shop with unique items you can’t get anywhere else.

Ruins/undercity: The event that destroyed most of the university district also destroyed buildings all over the city. In addition, there are numerous entrances to the sunken levels underneath the current city

Bugs and fungus: These seem like common enough non-human enemies in a city built in a swamp.

Cultists: I have this idea that the area was populated by some reclusive people before the city was built. They tried to stop further building before it got too big but were sent packing. Their descendents have infiltrated the city and work to bring it down or at least return it to their possession.

This gives us 12 layers, but we’re not going to count the landmark or shop layer because they’re not adventure sources. So that’s 10. For our target of 100-144 adventure sites, that means we really only need 10-15 neighborhoods, so I’ll aim for the lower end of our 20-30 estimate.

So now we have what we need to proceed, but before I can start laying out a basic map, I have one issue. What exactly IS a neighborhood? I mean I kind of get it, but how does one divide a city into neighborhoods? Well, turns out oddly enough that the modern concept of the neighborhood only dates back to the 1920s. But it’s still useful for our purposes. So the modern neighborhood has the following characteristics.

Designed to combat dangers of heavy traffic. Treated Neighborhoods as “islands”: This is not really a concern in our city.

Center the school in the neighbourhood: also not really a worry in our setup.

Place main streets along the outside: This is really useful. It means that if we want 20-30 neighborhoods, we can essentially take a 5×5 grid map and call all the lines major roads or canals, walls, etc…  and all the squares our neighborhood. It will be better to use a distorted grid rather than a perfect one, but the basic setup is the same.

Make inside streets distinct and curved for privacy: This is of minor importance. We won’t really see them at any level of map I’ll be making, but it’s interesting to know. If nothing else it means that chases along main roads are very different than those inside neighborhoods.

Shops go along the outside: again a traffic concern. But it makes sense. Another detail that’s not terribly important for maps but interesting anyway.

Use 10% for parks, open space, etc…: Obviously this will be very different depending on the district and not very important as far as birds eye maps go, but useful for description, etc…

So what are the next steps?

Rough out a neighborhood map divided into districts

Make a few minor notes on districts

List out points of interest for each district for each layer.

Detail those points of interest only as much as necessary.

In all of this, it seems like the best bet is to go light. If a line or two will do I don’t want to waste time with a full NPC list and tac map. This is already going to be a lot of work. But, I think it’s a very edible elephant. It naturally breaks down into bite sized chunks for digestion. As a reward for myself, if I actually make it to the finish line I may hire a cartographer to map out the whole thing. That will cost a pretty penny I’m sure. On the other hand, a project like this will be an investment for years to come.  See you next time with a rough map.

Trying Out The Alexandrian’s Urbancrawl System: Designing The City Of Juntial published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames