#i was assigned projects speculating about them in the exact same way we did with fucking dinosaurs and ice age animals

[nexus-nebulae]

was watching a video on how shit the pocahontas movie is and thinking about the mystification of native americans in media and how they're usually shown to be serious, quiet, and typically not very emotive- i have just realised that i cannot imagine a native american child being silly and having fun because i've literally never seen that before and that is so fucked

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 13 Production Analysis

Previous Volume 6 Production Analysis Posts:

Chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven & twelve

When starting this production analysis series, three goals were kept in mind: 1) To disspell any potential misconceptions and myths about RWBY’s production, 2) to help add more depth and nuance to discussions about the production since some fans out there do care enough to talk about it, and 3) to highlight how various members of the staff have helped carry on certain aspects of the vision meant to be applied to this show. When the late creator of the show, the writers most closely associated with the show’s story, and almost every animator, storyboard artist, modeler, camera layout artist, rigging artist compositor, VFX artist, sound designer, etc., have all been passionate about the medium of anime and have applied that passion into crafting this ongoing anime-inspired project, why not give them all credit where credit is due, especially for this specific occasion?

As with all other prior analysis posts, this one is intended to put forth as much insight and context of the behind-the-scenes as possible. That said, since the volume 6 finale chapter follows the tradition of every other volume finale, expect things to be a bit more “shot-in-the-dark” than usual. Since volume 3, the ending credits of every other episode will usually list the names of those that were involved in that episode. Sometimes, names of certain people from certain departments will change depending on whether someone is being assigned to work on something a few episodes later or because that person is possibly preoccupied with another big project at Rooster Teeth Animation like Gen:Lock at around the same time. However, the ending credits for the volume finale are setup to list literally everyone that was involved throughout, even those that were otherwise non-credited from those with specialized roles to the families, children and pets of individual members of the production staff under “Special Thanks” and “Additional Security”. Combine that with no one in the animation and storyboard teams having mentioned who did what, there will be a lot more guesswork involved.

That’s not to say there was nothing to acknowledge about this episode, far from from it actually. To see how, let’s dive right in the Neo and Cinder scene. One of the first things of note that has not been mentioned elsewhere yet is Neo’s materialization effect. This has been done once before in chapter 11 of volume 3, but like with Yang’s semblance, the approach has changed with more nuance. By close observation, the way she previously materialized may have been done in a manner where one character model was layered on top of the other with the same exact pose and a wipe effect was used through the light emitted with another layer of the shattered pieces added. In comparison, Neo’s semblance in this chapter is a bit more elaborate. The supposed character model layering trick is still there, but what was once a more simple wipe with some pink lighting is now an empty space with a lot of fractal pieces swirling with the brighter colored ones in the middle. The effect also extends to Roman’s hat on Neo (assuming that was his hat) and the tips of pieces of the Mistralian ship as it transforms into an Atlessian one.

Then there’s the matter of the new designs for Neo and Cinder. Again, since the volume 6 finale did the ending credits differently, that also means that no concept art was shown, so there are no notes regarding the matter. It doesn’t help either that there is no known concept art of Neo in particular throughout the show’s history in general, partly due to how her model was originally conceived a mere 10 days prior to her first appearance in volume 2. However, right before volume 6 premiered, the key visual art made by concept artist, Einlee appeared which featured a silhouetted character with peculiar claw-like left hand in front of the head of the Sphinx Grimm. Many fans have quickly speculated that it was Cinder but the context of the appearance was kept vague. It’s now clear as to why that was the case considering how much Cinder’s new attire matches that of silhouette. What’s most curious about this design is how much a certain accessory has been kept between her main designs in volumes 1-3 and volumes 4 & 5, that being the “iridescent feathers” which have been kept towards her right side in varied places. That and her black crystal earrings and anklets have been mostly exclusive to her base designs and not present in any of her past, alternate incognito designs which have been designed by volume 2 art director, Kristina Nguyen, current art director Patrick Rodriguez and lead concept artist, Erin Winn. However, her two main designs that come with both of those accessories were done by Einlee and become increasingly darker in their color schemes to her now fully black outfit. As for why this specific design was in the poster when it didn’t officially make an appearance until this episode is hard to say, but it’s possible that on some level, this was an attempt to throw off fans from guessing too easily where things will turn out as they would theorize. How successful that was however is a whole other matter.

Putting that aside, as well as an extra mention of the choice of rim lighting for the setting and the little bits of animation that show off Cinder and Neo’s differing characteristics, we can move on to the main event regarding the Leviathan Grimm... or Levi, or Bubbles or whatever its nickname is suppose to be. Similar to Neo and Cinder, there were no concept designs of the character to dissect from, but it is clearly safe to say that the character was inspired by kaiju of the tokusatsu or “special filming” genre in Japan. Tokusatsu is basically used to describe any live-action films or shows that utilize a series of special/practical effects, one of which being having a stuntman portray a giant creature of mech or some other variation inside a suit, otherwise referred to as “suitmation.” The fall 2018 anime, SSSS Gridman, served as an example of simulating that feeling to a great degree through the way the creatures and for the most part, Gridman were animated in 3-D. Co-writer Miles Luna has gone on record before about being a big fan of the Godzilla franchise, having grown up watching them with his father, so it would not be the least bit surprising if the Leviathan Grimm was his idea. The way it was animated seems to strike this balance between how Godzilla and other kaiju have been depicted in live-action Japanese films while also making it believably feel like a part of the world of RWBY. Another noteworthy bit regarding the Grimm and how it moves is the way it dives down into the water and then rises back up from it slightly later in the episode. This is not so much to do with animation as it has to do with the use of visual effects and compositing, but parts such as the Leviathan’s silhouette underwater are especially interesting since that has rarely happened in the show prior. The only other comparable instance that springs to mind is when the Nuckelavee appears from the smoke in the volume 4 finale and there may have been a similar compositing trick. The other thing of note was the water effects which are depicted much more realistic compared to when say, Cordovin shot at Ruby and Weiss in chapter 11 which that giant splash was done in 2-D or when splashes are done via more cel-shaded 3-D visual effects.

There is more to talk about regarding the Godzilla inspired Grimm, but first, let’s rewind back slightly to bits of character acting. Despite being unsure of who did these moments, the transition from Cordovin feeling frustrated to feeling incapable of doing anything was very convincing, as well as the scene with Blake, Yang and Ruby right after and then. Of course, Blake’s ears was part of the reason for the latter as when we hear Ruby off-screen, her right ear shifts and then a bit later we see them perk up after she, Weiss and Yang talk to Maria. Even though certain animators like Asha Bishi and Hannah Novotny took more advantage of the rigs for the cat ears than others back in volume 4, a lot more animators have since then been increasingly been more conscious about having that be a part of Blake’s character acting. Speaking of rigs, the rigging artists, along with the audio and tech teams, can be considered the unsung heroes of the ever-growing staff. Lead rigging artist, Gio Coutinho and fellow rigging artists, Brian Eby and Ariana Fillipini may be one of the smallest teams and are hardly mentioned throughout these production analyses, certain animators such as Kim Newman have gone on record to owing them for providing what are essentially the virtual skeleton and bones of the character. As talented as the animators are, they can only do so much with the character models unless they are as “animatable” as possible to quote volume 5 lead rigging artist Sean Stephenson on the 6th episode of CRWBY - Behind the Episode, who is now the current lead of the rigging team for Gen:Lock.

We then get some effects of the hard-light dust barriers being implemented and are timed pretty effectively through some slow-in and slow out animations along with the use of lighting towards the start of the barrier as the hard-light shifts from one pole to the other. Next is more homage to Godzilla by having the Leviathan breathe out its version of the atomic ray (there’s a lot of them in the franchise). Between the first instance and the next one when the main party attempted to close in, there is actually a combination of certain lightning and fire effects such as the same animations for the swelling ball of energy used whenever Cordovin was about to fire lightning dust, as well as sparks surrounding the fire breath with some seemingly blurred compositing layered on top. There is also a neat recoil animation with the Grimm as it unleashes its attack. In between all of this though is a scene of Ruby putting forth her plan within the airship. The timing and facial reactions presented by everyone felt similar to that of when Jaune announced his idea to steal the Atlas airship in chapter 9 which was animated by Hannah McCravy, so it’s possible that she may have animated this scene too. Whether she animated the entirety of said-scene though is what I’m more uncertain of.

Skipping ahead a bit, we get to Ruby preparing to use her silver eyes by getting the music being more subdued and getting quick cuts to the things going on around her. I nice touch here was having Ruby’s mouth twitch a bit right when her name gets called out through her ear piece. Then again, what’s really surprising is the fact there was an ear piece model at all. Back in chapters 10-12, we saw quite a bit of the main cast using gestures with their fingers by their ears as if there was a device they were using the listen to each other. However, the device in question was never really shown up until now. One educated guess could be that there never was one until this small scene here where it needed to be made and shown in order to see Ruby attempt to remain focused. Now comes what is part of the highlight of the episode being Ruby’s memories which are mostly redrawn shots from various cuts in the series with parts of characters like arms, legs, hair and in Zwei’s case, his tail being movable (and his butt having an actual x-marked "hole”). There were also certain details implemented such as the lighting being more comparably warmer and the line work in certain characters hair, clothing and in Nora’s case, her biceps being slightly more defined. Many fans by now have already concluded that due to the show’s visual presentation of its first few volumes not having aged that well back when Poser was the main animation software that the choice for 2-D art was shown instead. That would not at all be a wrong assumption to make. However, even the one shot with Jaune in the forest in chapter 2 of volume 4, back when RWBY transitioned to using Maya and 3DS Max was entirely redrawn. The same goes for Oscar and Ruby in the training room during chapter 5 of volume 5 which seems to have been slightly redrawn but to more with adjusted lighting. So the choice was not limited to anything prior to them using the two softwares. The one clear exception to this ensemble set of shots was of Maria back during chapter 8 of volume 6. Admittedly, it was tricky figuring out who did all of the redrawn shots, especially since not all of them seem to have been done by the same person. The shot with Qrow and Ruby in particular sticks out as being more different. It may be that Erin Winn did most of the shots since the way she draws lines for hair like with Yang being similar that of the line work for Kali Belladonna’s concept art, which she designed. As for Qrow and Ruby meeting, that may have been Patrick Rodriguez.

One other thing to note in these series of shots were the sound effects used during them. Sound designer, Philip Spann described the change of the sound of the memory flashes to Pyrrha and Penny as being the equivalent of viewers “being hit in the gut”, using large reverberant drums. Conversely, sound was applied  a little differently during the the latter set of memory flashes, namely “pulling the music back” as Philip phrased it when seeing Summer Rose which was Kerry Shawcross’s idea. Now, in-between all of this, there was a bit of Ruby and Jinn interacting with each other. While I’m uncertain as to who animated it, it may be the same person that animated Ruby and Weiss’s interaction at the bar room during chapter 5 of volume 6. With that mention out of the way, there’s the first reveal of a fulled rigged and animated model of Summer. There were a couple of noteworthy design choices, the first being how her clothing more or less resembles Ruby’s current outfit while hairstyle is more varied in appearance. The other thing of note is her eyes. According to Kerry Shawcross on the season 2 finale of RWBY Rewind, characters with silver eyes have a small “tick”, referring to the small white dashes on their eyes whereas characters like Mercury who have been confused for having silver eyes, don’t. This is something Kerry admitted as being an oversight at first when needing to differentiate between such characters and their visual traits.

Next is when Ruby unleashes her silver eyed powers which involves the same hatch-lining effects which have not been used since the Wyvern Grimm in chapter 12. Skipping ahead to when the Leviathan is still moving, we get Cordovin who believes in the Ruby that believes in her. In all seriousness, just as how it was likely that Miles Luna anticipated the Levianthan Grimm as a fan of Godzilla, Kerry very likely planned for the moment Cordovin utilized her mech’s drill feature as a big fan of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. To put this all in perspective, Gurren Lagann was an anime Monty Oum introduced him to as a fan of the show himself back around the time they and Miles started forming ideas and outlines for RWBY’s story in the midst of Red vs Blue season 10 production in 2012. It was even among the various anime that Monty had him and Miles study as inspiration for RWBY. Fast forward to over a year later in August of 2013 and Kerry mentioned being on his sixth viewing of the show.

“Toppa Tengen Gurren Lagann is probably my all time favorite anime. It just has a level of energy and enthusiasm I enjoy. There are subtle (and not so subtle) lessons in Gurren Lagann about not giving up; energy that persists beyond oneself that I apply to RWBY.”  - Monty Oum, Crunchyroll

Having said that, the scene itself gained the most criticism out of the whole episode from the fan base due to the frame rate when Cordovin attacked the Leviathan. Obviously the choice to lower the frame rate two 2s and 3s was a creative one given the likely homage previous mentioned. However, the matter of frame rate in 3-D animation will never cease to be a delicate subject matter with the creative decision leading to varying results from project-to-project and leaving different responses from viewer-to-viewer. As much as these analyses are dedicated to providing any objective insight about RWBY’s production whenever possible and making educated guesses in-between, whether the frame rate felt right, is up to you, the reader. Speaking personally, since the visual choice revolved around a character whose recurring animation and camerawork has been often depicted as over-the-top and dramatic, it only felt fitting. Speaking of dramatic, when Ruby and Cordovin face each other, there is an interesting fast zoom between the two before amends are made between them.

Once all has died down, we get a scene with quite a bit of rim lighting to help emphasize on the night time setting. The animation of the scene itself and how the characters are timed to do a small pause before each gesture was akin to that of the beginning of chapter 8 with the main party and Cordovin and in chapter 2 when team RWBY were all arguing with Ozpin, both of which were largely animated by Nicole LaCroix. Everything from when everyone talked to Ruby about her bold decision-making to when the cast sees Atlas and the Kingdom’s air fleet were probably animated by her. Whether or not that’s true, certain instances like Weiss’s concerning facial expression when seeing the air fleet were quite nuanced. One last thing to talk about regarding the scene are the matte paintings of Atlas, made by one of the environment designers, Weston T. Jones, who apparently contributed quite a bit throughout the volume in terms of what is shown in the final product. With that said, the ending credits themselves have some interesting positions only seen here that are not shown in earlier volumes. This is nothing new, as the volume 5 finale ending credits had a team of crowd animators which was not previously listed throughout every other episode of that volume. In this case however, positions such as matte painters and script consultants were exclusive to the finale credits this time around. Also, side note, Dustin Matthews and Kim Newman credited among the series animators even though they were never credited on any episode this volume and have been dedicating time working on Gen:Lock as that series’ animation director and lead animator respectively. Maybe he was credited for providing bits of motion capture?

Finally, there’s the after credits scene which actually has a fair bit to touch on, one of which being the forming of new “flying monkey” grimm. Aside from it being another nod to The Wizard of Oz, there seems to also be the sound of the Nevermore cries layered beneath the Beringel roars a bit. Accompanying the scene is some intriguing framing of Emerald and Mercury by the broken windows and then Hazel being framed with them a bit later. This is actually very similar to the opening scene in volume 4 before Cinder called them over, so it’s possible this was done by design to indicate the shift in who they find themselves sticking with. Lastly, Salem summons the pools of black in the form of some 2-D effects animation to end the scene and thus wrap-up the volume as a whole. As said in the previous analysis, there’s no clear indication of when production of volume 6 ended between departments. However, Miles Luna confirmed in a podcast interview with Chad James on the “Lights, Camera: Austin” website that the outline phase for RWBY volume 7′s story started as of January 21st. Combine that with how Neath Oum confirmed that there was still something leftover that never made it into the volume 6 finale and it’s clear that Kerry and Miles are itching to tell the next installment of RWBY’s ongoing story.

That officially marks the end of the chapter 13 production analysis, as well as the production analysis series for this entire volume as a whole. To say that this was a strenuous process would be putting it mildly, as a lot of searching and fact-checking information of the show’s production, past and present and forming it into as cohesive of a narrative as possible each chapter, each week, was definitely more of an ordeal. This was all a lot fun to do and some of this would have not been as doable without much needed help. A tremendous thanks to Changyuraptor over on the RWBY Sub-Reddit for being as gung-ho about updating his Source McGourse document every week to confirm who animated which sequences every week which greatly helped with better understanding how certain animators approached doing what they did. A big thanks also goes to MyAmelia on the RWBY Sub-Reddit who provided some very constructive, much-needed advice for both this Tumblr page and its posts to help potentially attract more viewers. There are still some kinks to work out, but I’m very much bearing in mind the feedback. Speaking of which, a big thanks also goes out to the following who have been very eager and provided great feedback about seeing these analysis, both on tumblr and on reddit:

Duelverse

Achro-o

HighPriestFuneral

i-am-the-entertainer

htgeehtgee

lordess-dickery-doof

yellow-eyed-green-crocodile

ladychaosstudios

And everyone else whose names I’ve otherwise neglected to add here that have been avidly reading these analyses. Finally, a grand shout-out to Kerry Shacross and Miles Luna for continuing to do great work, as well as every member of the CRWBY in every department, new and veteran for putting as much time, effort and skill into their respective crafts for making the show look, sound and feel the way it volume 6 did. They all did an overall hell of an amazing job. Among these members I wish to thank especially are animator Asha Bishi, storyboard and camera layout artist Rachel Doda and 2-D FX Artist, Myke Chapman, who have each decided to follow some random, awkward fan on Tumblr that spent perhaps a bit too much time obsessing over the production of this show. Thank you guys so much.

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam Austin episode 2 reaction

I’m already sad that we probably won’t get a scene of them dancing horribly

Clip 1 - Smoothie talk

I just want to point out that while Meg is checking out Grace online, there’s a drawing on her wall behind her that says MAKE OUT. This is clearly foreshadowing. I proclaim it from the mountaintop.

This is a nice discussion of random crap when you have more important things to talk about. But also an illustration of how they’re not on the same page at all. Now he's mocking something else she likes (meglovessmoothies), kicking her when she's down.

Lol, I’m being hard on this kid. Him dissing smoothies is hardly the least of his crimes. But you exclude her so much, dude! She has no one to do the stuff she likes with her and he left her to do talent night alone. 

What I took away from this scene is a craving for a smoothie.

Clip 2 - Call me

It’s a pretty big cultural jump from Noora naming herself after a Twin Peaks character to Grace naming herself after a Dumb and Dumber character.

I think this was a good way to incorporate social media into the clip itself. It’s one of those interactions with a weirdly specific social connotation. The comment being deleted is more suspicious than if it had remained up.

I've seen people speculate why Abby would bother posting on his IG publicly. Maybe because she wanted Meg to see it? Or she really couldn’t get in touch with him any other way.

Clip 3 - Sad girl

It definitely sounds like Tyler said “Abby.” He says “Oh shit” afterwards as if her realized his mistake. Plus he decided to go to the vending machine and Marlon went along, maybe so they could talk about what just happened.

Usually Skam doesn't all-out twist what's happening, what we hear and see if what’s really occurring. Like with Isak hearing Even’s voice while buying his depressing cheese toastie, he's legit hearing a guy who sounds like Even, he didn’t imagine it.

Shay is a bad but adorable liar. 

And she seems flirty as hell and I hope I’m not just projecting.

I like how direct and kind Grace is. No Megan messing up with H and inappropriate slut jokes. Some of the characters are on the rude side (us Americans, am I right) and Grace was just sweet, and Megan got her message right when she needed a pick-me-up. Also, no sweating for days over whether Grace will follow her back!

Clip 4 - Chemistry

He's reading The Great Gatsby while Meg reads The Scarlet Letter. Any significance, since they’re going hard with The Scarlet Letter?

“We have chemistry together, you know that.” Yes, we do know that, Marlon. That’s why Meg is worried.

Marlon is such a liar, he can't keep his story straight. 

“If you were in my chemistry class I would be texting you non-stop” lol I know he didn’t mean it this way but that has some connotations in light of your current situation, bro.

Clip 5 - Girl Squad together

This is a low standard but I do love how realistic and down go earth all their clothes are. 

Kelsey’s red upper lip legit made me laugh. At first I thought she'd been drinking fruit punch.

Jo and Kelsey are ride or die BFFs, I love it.

Kelsey looking scandalized when Grace doesn't know what a Kitten is then her “bless your heart, no wonder you’re so lost!” when she learns Grace is new, tells you all you need to know about her priorities. Also I’ve never heard one of those Southern “bless your heart”s in the wild before, I feel like I’ve spotted a rhino.

Meg: “Who am I?” THEME.

Regarding the formation of a dance team, I have some questions/concerns as to how they would handle that. If it were just a recreational team that’s one thing, but if they can get out of P.E., as Jo says, then it’ll have to be school-recognized, and I’m sure that comes with a lot of rules that you wouldn’t have if you just want to dance for fun. My school required only one year of P.E. for students (thank Goddddd) but you didn’t get out of it even if you were on one of the school sports teams, so I don’t know quite how it works. I had some friends from other schools who joined their schools’ athletic teams as a replacement for P.E., but these were all well-established teams. If Kelsey’s team gets recognized by the school, do they have to agree to a particular schedule? Dance competitions? Performances at school functions and games? So many questions. 

Grace, a dance team is a hell of a lot to commit to just to show up an Islamophobe. I mean props to the sentiment but you’re probably going to have to like ... dance, and work out, and get up early and stay after school and stuff.

I also don’t think a dance team is something she can sit out as much as Noora could be whatever about the bus, especially if there’s a 5-person minimum for the team. Grace has to be all in or she’s out.

Is Zoya going to turn out to be an amazing dancer? Did she audition for the Kittens, or did she not bother because she figured she wouldn’t make it? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a dress code that prevented her from wearing her hijab in performance. 

Clip 6 - Losers club

All right, so I kinda loved this clip and kinda hated it.

But boy did I feel bad for Kelsey in this one, in a way that I’ve never felt for any of the Vildes! Because Kelsey was doing more or less what I, a nerd, would be doing if I attempted to form a dance team. Jumping the gun a LOT with reserving yearbook space, but meeting with the principal, planning to raise money, and researching dance routines, all of that is what you should be thinking about. You know … putting together a team.

Kelsey: “I already have the agenda already...:” IDK if it’s scripted or improvised but I’m oddly into them capturing that kind of redundant language that I hear from a lot of teenagers. And well, adults.

Kelsey not even answering Grace’s question about the need for an alternative dance team. She just has an endgame and she’s going to stick to it, gosh darn it.

“Share some of that Kitten secret sauce with us” I’m not going to make a NSFW joke. I’m not.

Actually, what a blast would Jo/Shay be.

I guess what I wonder is why Zoya wants in on a nobody dance team unless she really loves to dance. Like are they ever going to show them dancing? Practicing?

Yeah, going off the earlier point, I feel really bad for Kelsey because she seems like she seriously wants to be on the dance team - maybe just for popularity/social reasons, because she seems to have a very high opinion of the Kittens. But if she’s tried out five times, she’s been practicing for weeks beforehand, and she’s throwing herself into creating a dance group of her own, that also sounds like someone who wants to dance because she enjoys it and not just to boost her social standing. 

And with that in mind, although I enjoyed a lot of Zoya’s dialogue, the fact that she stepped in with her suggestion to hook up with guys made me sad for Kelsey in a way that I haven’t felt for Vilde in any other version of this scene. Because russ/parties do have a social element involved that’s at least relevant to getting guys to like you. Druck has an established school party that the girls get assigned to and they just start going out as a crew. Skam Italia did away with the organized squad altogether and just had the girls start hanging out, somewhat formed around getting Silvia a date. But if I really wanted to form a dance team, I didn’t plan on having to hook up with dudes. That’s not a purely social organization, that’s an athletic/artistic/competitive one. 

“My plan is to work really hard on our routines” Kelsey :(

Lol somehow I think working hard on their routines will go over better with the principal compared to hooking up with football players.

Zoya says that “you guys” will have to get with the dudes because she won’t, but she includes Kelsey in this, soooo I guess Kelsey is not supposed to be that conservative of a Christian? Or will that not come up?

Jo immediately planning blackmail as a way to get the Kittens to join them - lol, this is the kind of character I enjoy, I love her.

Zoya: “If you didn’t want to be seen as a sexual object, you’d shave your head, stop wearing makeup and start wearing looser clothes.” Grace: “I wear these things for me, not for guys.” Zoya: “Well then I find it very convenient that the things you wear for you are the exact same things that a heterosexual man in America finds attractive.”

OK, that was a completely new bit of dialogue and that was something that got my attention. Because that’s good. Zoya and Grace, as the two most likely feminists of the group, having opposing takes on beauty culture. I saw people objecting to Zoya’s perspective but she’s neither 100% right or 100% wrong. Women have personal choice and preferences to style themselves how they want, including dressing with themselves in mind rather than men, but you can’t divorce that from the larger societal ideals of how women are supposed to look. I make the choice to shave my legs and no one is forcing me to do it, but I also didn’t wake up one day and form this completely independent idea that no one had done before; I had a societal norm to give me the idea. And a lot of beauty standards on women are enforced by patriarchy. It’s a really difficult conversation to have because you’re dealing with the individual (Grace saying she wears these things for herself) versus the collective (Zoya saying it’s not an accident what she chooses for herself also happens to be societally acceptable). Everyone at that table is making their own choices, but within a larger system that sets precedents and ideals. But there are also a lot of assumptions that Zoya is making, such as whether Grace is interested in heterosexual men; Grace could be a lesbian for all she knows. Not to mention that Grace is wearing an average sweater and not much makeup, so it is a leap to think she wants to be seen as a sexual object. All of the girls seem very casually dressed, in fact, and Zoya is wearing as much eyeshadow as any of them, so what’s the difference? Can Zoya say she’s wearing eyeshadow for herself, but the others can’t? To me it’s less whether Zoya is completely right and more about the fact that the ideas were introduced at all.

That’s my rambling way of saying I liked that exchange. 

Julie repeating the same camera angle with Sana/Zoya’s back surrounded by her court … sighhhhhhh come on.

General comments:

I guess what’s really frustrating is that there is so much rich material here in the setup that they could spin into new scenes and stories, but I’m not sure if they’re going to do it. Like … we should get them actually trying to dance! I want to see shitty dance montages! I want to see Grace being over it and Jo goofing around and Kelsey trying her best and Zoya defying everyone’s expectations and Meg becoming a crucial part of the team with her experience, finding some purpose and joy again! Let’s talk about clashes between Kelsey and Zoya over the uniforms, let’s talk about the first time they try to perform publicly and it’s a mess (actually let’s not, I would expire from secondhand embarrassment.) Give me all of that dance team drama, played realistically.

But also stuff like Kelsey’s religion and how that plays into the plot (like how DOES she feel about being asked to hook up with guys), how her being a Christian and Zoya being a Muslim should yield both some common ground and some huge differences. 

I’m sort of getting the same feeling I had in S4 of Skam where there was so much incredibly rich material to develop, but instead they went with stuff that was much less interesting.

The profanity filter on the FB videos is SO DUMB. There is a mature content warning at the start of every clip. Why do they have to bleep out the swear words? 

I get the sense that a lot of the new viewers on Facebook don’t know what to do about the texts and IGs. 

Marlon’s text about going to see Avengers makes it sound like the movie just came out, which is probably because the movie was supposed to be released that day (May 4) and was pushed up to April 27. Which I get but part of me’s kinda like, you could have revised that to sound a little more fitting to the date. I feel like Marlon would probably not going to wait a week to see Infinity War. 

Also Marlon has overtaken Giovanni from Skam Italia as my least favorite Jonas. He’s not the devil or anything but I definitely don’t want him and Meg together.

Jo and Shay continue to be my faves. They really should have scenes together at some point. Share one of those long candies, Lady and the Tramp-style.

[jarienn972]

The Right Place - Chapter 13

Minor fail on my part here.  I thought I had already posted this to bring the chapters posted on Tumblr current with those on FF.net and AO3, but in the midst of working on my CSLB draft, I forgot to actually post it.  I’ve got the next chapter in the works though and hope to have it up very soon!

From the beginning on Tumblr: Prologue/1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12

Wednesday afternoon, Portland Medical Center

Four o'clock couldn't arrive fast enough as both Emma and Killian tried to speculate on what Haviland may have discovered while digging through records at City Hall. More potential ideas had of course crossed her mind than his but then she knew the workings of this world far better than he did – not that he was a stranger to the probabilities of fraud, greed and deceit being at play here. Of all of them, he had the most unique perspective in evaluating Donleavy's motives but he wasn't about to let their Portland colleagues know precisely where that insight came from. There was certainly an element of piracy to Donleavy's tactics in his pursuit of his eventual goal – whatever that might be. They were just missing that final piece.

The pirate was also quite insistent that he wouldn't be spending this collaborative session laying in that hospital bed, preferring to sit in the chair instead so he wouldn't be viewed as an invalid. In truth, he would rather they met anywhere but this room, but at least here they had a measure of privacy and that was a far bigger priority. As far as he was concerned, he had spent more than enough time staring at these alabaster walls. He wanted a glimpse of the sea – wanted to return to the deck of his ship, but he'd conceded only because there was still much work to do and at least his attentions remained occupied.

Not surprisingly, McCallen was the first to arrive, exhausted but nonetheless determined. This was his first major case and a little sleep deprivation wasn't about to deter him. He'd catch a nap later if necessary but he was extremely anxious to find out what this bit of new information might be. As he approached the entrance to the room, the young deputy knocked politely on the doorframe before entering even though Emma had left the door open.

"Okay to come in, Sheriff?" he asked while awaiting permission to enter.

"C'mon in, McCallen," Emma replied with a subtle shake of her head. "We're just sitting here running theories of what Sgt. Haviland might have turned up." The deputy accepted her invitation and stepped into the room to find Emma seated atop the bed with her legs crossed in front of her. A tiny smile slithered across his lips when he spied the man whose bruised, battered and comatose body he'd photographed for evidence just days ago now seated in the bedside chair, barely recognizable from the John Doe he'd been tasked to identify. Save for the black eye that was just beginning to yellow around the edges, McCallen saw little of that nameless victim anymore – just a fellow deputy who'd adapted to a disability as he himself had been forced to.

A fellow deputy who had no intention of being viewed as the victim any longer – and McCallen had nothing but respect for that decision.

"Thanks," McCallen responded as he shrugged off his weathered olive suede bomber jacket. "Sgt. Haviland texted me that he's on his way. I guess we should have given him your number too."

"Good idea," Emma agreed. "I'll have to remember to do that before he leaves today. Did he give you any idea of what he might have found?"

"Not a clue. He just mentioned he'd uncovered something interesting," the deputy replied. "Let me go find another chair before he gets here though." He tossed his jacket onto the chair by the window before heading back out into the hallway in search of a chair he could borrow from another area, managing to return before Haviland arrived with a wooden chair proffered from a presently unoccupied room next door. He positioned that chair in front of the closet before taking a seat in what had been Henry's preferred spot next to the window – close enough to be fully involved in the conversation yet far enough away so he didn't feel as though he were imposing. He was well aware that he was the least experienced investigator so he was more than willing to allow the others to take center stage.

"Sheriff Jones?" Haviland's voice called tentatively from the doorway as though unsure he had the correct room despite the armed deputy seated just to his right in the corridor. "Ah - looks like I've found the right place," he said when he spotted Deputy McCallen seated opposite where he stood.

"You have," Emma spoke up, turning to see the Portland PD sergeant as he entered the room. "Why don't you shut that door behind you so we can start comparing notes? I'm guessing you must have found something big?"

"You could say that," Haviland replied as he pushed the door closed and made his way past the bed toward the empty chair McCallen had brought for him, but before he took a seat, he paused to introduce himself to Killian. "Mr. Jones," I'm John Haviland. I was originally assigned to investigate the robbery at Scott's Mart where I of course saw you on the security video. From what I could see of it, you handled that situation like an absolute pro and I'm quite glad I could finally meet you – especially considering all of the circumstances involved here. I just apologize that on that day when my officers were investigating the robbery, we didn't know just how far the crime actually extended."

"Don't think there was really any way you could have known the half of it – at least until I managed to get myself dragged into this," Killian stated, "and they clearly didn't expect me to survive…"

"No – pretty sure they didn't," Haviland replied. "Guess you were lucky in that respect."

"It's a damned good thing those fishermen came along when they did," Killian said, using the official story that the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department had documented, not about to divulge the finer details of his rescue. "Anyway - enough about that. We know we're all convened here this afternoon to learn what you've uncovered, not further discuss my rescue."

"Indeed, we are," Haviland responded with a knowing grin, not at all surprised to learn that Killian Jones was every bit as tenacious and entirely down to business as his wife. He pivoted to his left, contemplating taking the offered seat for a second before choosing to remain standing. "In truth, I have a couple of items to share. I spent most of the day over at City Hall looking over public record documents related to the ferry terminal project. That whole project is fairly straightforward – city wants to modernize and streamline the facility. The bid process to build the new terminal is sealed so there wasn't any way to learn what each company submitted, but according to one of my sources, Leviant definitely looks to be the front-runner."

"So - what might this ferry project have to do with Leviant Construction attempting to purchase properties further north along the harbor? Is there an additional expansion project planned as well?" Killian asked. He might not know a great deal about real estate but he understood the acquisition game.

"Honestly – hardly anything," the sergeant responded. "The new terminal is being built adjacent to the existing one on land they already own. It's the same exact location so the properties up around Ms. Scott's store shouldn't be affected – at least not by the ferry project…"

"What do you mean 'not by the ferry project'?" Emma wondered. "Is there something else going on besides rebuilding the terminal?"

"There might be…," was Haviland's cryptic reply - which only stirred up more confusion.

"Might be? What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?" an irritated Killian queried.

"Nothing has been officially announced yet but it seems as though the city is looking into redesigning the roads serving the terminal and the north harbor area in an attempt to give commuters easier access to downtown and the freeways," Haviland began. "Rumor has it that they're wanting to build a connector that would loop straight out of the harbor and feed into both Old Port and points north. I found a prospective filed which showed an artist's rendering of the proposed new interchange and if they're to build what this showed, most of the businesses on the north harbor would end up torn town to make room for ramps and a widened main road."

"Sounds like whoever owned those properties would probably end up in an eminent domain battle with the city," McCallen spoke up. "Wouldn't that lower the property values?"

"You'd think that, but my guess is that Donleavy has someone he's likely paying off inside City Hall who alerted him to the road development plans. For all we know, he might be buying up these properties as a way to blackmail the city into awarding his company the contract." The sergeant stated his theory but something about it just didn't click with Emma.

"If Leviant Construction is already the front-runner in the terminal project bid, why go to all of this trouble?" Emma asked. "It sounds like they'll probably get the contract anyway so resorting to strong-arm tactics and blackmail just don't seem to fit…"

"Well, that's where things get interesting," Haviland continued. "It seems that a lawsuit was just filed against Leviant seeking an injunction to halt construction at that huge office tower they're building downtown. It's nearing completion, but an unnamed source documented that Leviant was using shoddy materials during that construction which made the structure unsafe and unlikely to pass inspection. Delays on that project could cost Leviant millions and cause any awarded bids to be voided – and they'd definitely be out even more if inspectors do find fault with the building. That could mean tearing the existing structure down and rebuilding it or scrapping the project entirely. A little leverage against the city could help keep Leviant in the black and might potentially even bury the lawsuit if Donleavy had the right amount against people certain influential positions."

"So – we have the head of a construction company resorting to extortion, blackmail, kidnapping and attempted murder all in an attempt to get one contract?" McCallen was dumbfounded as to how all of this could be connected.

"Well, it is a very valuable contract," Haviland replied. "And likely whatever Mr. Donleavy and Leviant Construction profit from the terminal project would go into damage control for the office tower."

"That's some serious corporate fraud," Emma said with a deep sigh as she massaged her aching temple.

"And if your husband hadn't stumbled into the fray, we might never have had an inkling of what was transpiring," the sergeant stated. "I'm sorry for all you've had to go through the past few days, Mr. Jones, but your dilemma may have tipped us off to the biggest case in Portland history…"

"Guess you really were in the right place at the right time," Emma said with a sarcastic chuckle. "But now – how do we tie it all together and put Donleavy and his cohorts away for good?"

"I've a few ideas," Haviland answered, "but first, let's work on identifying the man that you unmasked." He addressed Killian directly as he withdrew his phone from his right-hand pant pocket. "I had one of my officers run a list of Leviant employees under the guise that this was a favor for INS. I then matched the names to DMV records and compiled a few for you to look at…" He tapped on the glass screen a few times to open the file then passed the phone to Killian with the first DMV file already displayed. "Take a look through these and let me know if any of them look familiar. Just swipe to the left and it'll open the next photo."

Accepting the phone as Haviland passed it to him, Killian positioned it in his hand so that he could use his thumb to page through the files displayed on the tiny electronic screen as Emma had shown him many times before. He focused on the miniscule image of an unknown man's driver's license photograph displayed so he wasn't privy to Haviland's sudden flush of awkward embarrassment at the realization that Killian Jones didn't have a left hand. He started to open his mouth to offer assistance, but quickly stifled himself as his aid might be viewed as offensive.

Emma had spotted Haviland's reaction and nearly spoke up, but chose not to as she recalled the conversation that she'd briefly had yesterday morning with a dispatcher when she'd only been transferred to speak to McCallen after giving Killian's description and providing the piece that had been missing from the news story – the fact that her husband was missing his left hand. Clearly the alert that had gone out from the Sheriff's Department to other local law enforcement must have omitted that detail as well and the security video that Haviland had viewed would have shown Killian's prosthetic hand - which unless you were up close - wasn't really noticeable as being artificial. Even Jean Scott - who'd gone on and on about the mysterious, handsome British man who'd been taken hostage to spare her - hadn't noticed that he was an amputee. It was obvious that the sergeant was reeling a bit from the surprise, but as she'd decided after learning about McCallen's prosthetic foot, neither of their disabilities were pertinent to getting the job done so she simply kept her mouth shut and hoped that Haviland would come to the same conclusion.

Killian in the meantime had thumbed through four of the DMV files, quickly dismissing the ones that didn't meet the right criteria – too old, too tall, too portly – but he'd paused at the fifth photograph.

"Can you make this image any larger?" he asked, offering the device back to Haviland hoping he would be able to adjust the size of the photograph displayed as he had already determined he was lacking the dexterity to complete the task himself without fear of possibly dropping the sergeant's phone.

"Sure. Do you want me to enlarge just the face?" Haviland asked.

"Please," Killian replied as the image was zoomed in to display just the face of a twenty-three year old blond haired man. Haviland turned the phone around to show Killian the enlarged photo and Emma knew instantly from the way her husband's jaw suddenly clenched that he recognized the man. "That's the younger man – the one I pulled the mask from. I'm sure of it."

"Great – let's see who he is…," Haviland began as he adjusted the image back to the view of the full Maine driver's license so he could read the man's name and contact information again. "Benjamin Toliver, age twenty-three," he recited from the display.

"Guess we need to have a talk with Mr. Toliver," Emma stated, confident that this could be the break they'd been looking for.

"Should we bring him in for questioning?" McCallen wondered.

"I think maybe we should go to him," she suggested. "Bringing him to a police station might raise some red flags. Right now, it doesn't appear that these guys know that Killian is alive. We need to keep it that way as long as possible."

"I agree," Haviland stated. "We shouldn't bring him in just yet. I'd rather start with an approach that might make him a little nervous either at home or at work. He's young and likely inexperienced so he'll probably run straight to his partners."

"I could see the fear in his eyes when I unmasked him," Killian remembered from that afternoon. "Had I not been stabbed, I believe he would have broken down right there and divulged everything. There's little doubt in my mind that he's the weakest link…"

"I just did a quick search of the database and he doesn't have a record but it says he's been working for Leviant Construction for a year. His older brother, Jackson Toliver, is also listed as an employee. This is Jackson…," Haviland flashed the DMV photograph of the older Toliver brother on the screen. "Anything recognizable about him?"

Killian stared at the photograph of Jackson Toliver for a few seconds, straining to recall the look of the eyes behind the mask. "Can you show me just his eyes?" He needed the closest image possible that isolated just the man's eyes to see if they matched the ones he remembered. Haviland zoomed in as much as the device would allow, displaying a cropped image of Toliver's face from his nose up to his hairline. There was a familiarity to the hazel eyes that stared back at him, but the pirate couldn't be entirely sure this was the second robber. Images could be deceiving at times. "My apologies, but I just can't be certain. All I could see was his eyes behind that knitted mask. The color is similar, but I cannot be positive from just that image. I'd need to see the man myself – to hear his voice and hopefully see the impression of my knuckles across his jowls."

"You managed to hit him?" Haviland queried, smiling at the thought that their quarry might have a very visible contusion on his face just like the one they'd given their hostage.

"Of course, I hit him. Rendered the bastard unconscious for a few minutes before I cornered the younger one." The pirate was undoubtedly proud that he'd been able to take on the two thieves - although that pride was smarting just a smidge from his failure to factor in a third partner. "He'll definitely be sporting a few bruises of his own."

"Thank you for that," Haviland grinned. "It'll give us something we can look for to help identify whoever is Benjamin Toliver's partner – whether that might be the brother or someone else. I think maybe we should make a trek over to Leviant Construction's worksite tomorrow morning before it could possibly get shut down by any injunction. We'll go ask Benjamin Toliver a few questions about the robbery at Scott's Mart – just enough to make him nervous – and we'll see who he turns to for help. I'd love for it to be Donleavy, but I'll settle for the other masked partner right now because I've got a very good feeling that we might be able to get those two to turn if we need to."

[hiddenbonesoflove-blog]

Did children build the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna?  - Mary Shepperson

New evidence from Akhenaten’s capital suggests that a ‘disposable’ workforce of children and teenagers provided much of the labour for the city’s construction

There’s a whiff of magic about the site of Tell el-Amarna that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. It’s partly down to the effort of imagination needed to conjure a great capital of ancient Egypt from the sea of low humps stretching between the cultivation and the desert cliffs, and partly the long shadows cast by its founders – the ‘heretic’ pharaoh Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti.

Amarna came and went in an archaeological moment. It rose and fell with Akhenaten and his religious reformation, under which Egypt’s ancient pantheon of gods was briefly usurped by the worship of a single solar deity; the Aten.

On an uninhabited stretch of the Nile’s east bank, Amarna was founded, constructed and abandoned in under fifteen years. When Akhenaten died in 1332 BC, Egypt’s ancient religion was restored under his successor Tutankhamun and the heretical city of Amarna was flattened and forgotten.

Recent research at the site has focused on Amarna’s cemeteries; not the flashy rock-cut tombs of the royal family and its courtiers, but the simple desert graves of the ordinary Egyptians who lived and worked in Akhenaten’s city and never got to leave.

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Between 2006 and 2013 I was lucky enough to work for the Amarna Project on an excavation which aimed to recover four hundred individuals from a large cemetery behind the South Tombs cliffs, estimated to contain around six thousand badly looted burials. The study of these burials and their human remains has opened a new research window on life and death in the lower echelons of Egyptian society. They paint a picture of poverty, hard work, poor diet, ill-health, frequent injury and relatively early death.

In other respects the South Tombs Cemetery remains were fairly in line with expectations. There were modest variations in the wealth and style of burial, there was a fairly even mix of male to female individuals, and the age distribution showed the usual pattern for ancient populations; high infant mortality giving way to fewer deaths as children survive into early adulthood, with the death rate then rising again as adults succumb to illness, childbirth, injuries and age. This was all important and highly interesting, but not particularly unusual.

The North Tombs Cemetery

In 2015 we began excavating another non-elite cemetery in a wadi behind a further set of courtiers’ tombs at the northern end of the city, and here the tale takes a stranger turn. As we started to get the first skeletons out of the ground it was immediately clear that the burials were even simpler than at the South Tombs Cemetery, with almost no grave goods provided for the dead and only rough matting used to wrap the bodies.

As the season progressed, an even weirder trend started to become clear to the excavators. Almost all the skeletons we exhumed were immature; children, teenagers and young adults, but we weren’t really finding any infants or older adults. Our three excavation areas were far apart, spaced across the length of the cemetery, but comparing notes all three areas were giving the same result. This certainly was unusual and not a little bit creepy.

The initial skeletal analysis of 105 individuals excavated at the North Tombs Cemetery in 2015 has now been completed by Dr Gretchen Dabbs of Southern Illinois University, and it seems our initial impressions were absolutely right. More than 90% of the skeletons have an estimated age of between seven and twenty-five years, with the majority of these estimated to be younger than fifteen. Essentially, this is a burial place for adolescents.

This leaves us with some explaining to do. Seven to twenty-five is the age range in which people shouldn’t be dying; this is when health should be most robust in a normal population, yet for the people of the North Tombs Cemetery death seems to have come almost exclusively during these years. On the other hand, young infants, which usually abound in ancient cemeteries, are virtually absent with just three of the 105 skeletons estimated to be under seven years old. The North Tombs Cemetery shows the exact opposite of the usual demographic pattern for a cemetery.

The skeletal pathologies at the North Tombs Cemetery also had some curious features. For such a young population, traumatic injuries and degenerative conditions were very common. The majority of 15-25 year-olds had some kind of traumatic injury and around ten percent had developed osteoarthritis. Even in the under 15s, sixteen percent were found to have spinal fractures along with a range of other abnormalities usually associated with heavy workloads.

The most obvious explanation is not a pleasant one: This population seems to have been a workforce of children and teenagers who had to perform frequent heavy labour. Seven years old is about the earliest age that children might be expected to carry a load and follow instructions, hence the absence of younger skeletons. The absence of older adults suggests two possibilities; either workers were released or re-assigned when they reached full adulthood, or the nature of the work and living conditions meant that none of the workers lived much past twenty-five. Indeed, it seems they were lucky to make it to fifteen.

The isolation of these young people in death raises questions about how they lived. Family was very important in ancient Egypt and it was the responsibility of relatives to see that dead family members were properly provided for in the afterlife. The fact that the North Tombs Cemetery dead were buried with little care and virtually no grave goods strongly suggests that they were not returned to their families for burial but lived and died away from the care of relatives.

A further indication of the grimness of life for the young people of the North Tombs Cemetery comes from the multiple burials. 43% of graves contained more than one individual, which is way higher than the small proportion of multiple graves at the other Amarna cemeteries.

At the North Tombs Cemetery the multiple burials, sometimes holding as many as five or six skeletons, contain children of such similar ages that family relationship seems unlikely, while at the South Tombs Cemetery multiple burials appear to represent family groups. South Tombs multiple burials are laid side by side in graves dug to double or triple the usual width, but at the North Tombs Cemetery graves containing more than one skeleton are about the same size as the single burials with the bodies stacked directly on top of each other.

The implication of the North Tombs multiple burials may be that bodies were expected and a grave was dug at the cemetery without knowing how many bodies there would be. Sometimes there was just one body, but if more were delivered the same grave would do for all of them. Whether this collection of casualties was a daily, weekly or monthly occurrence is a matter for bleak speculation, but the cemetery is large, probably containing at least a couple of thousand burials.

Who is buried at the North Tombs Cemetery?

This is a difficult question at this early stage of the project and all our current theories have their drawbacks. The North Tombs Cemetery lies towards the main stone quarries and it seems most likely that these people were employed somewhere in the quarrying process as unskilled labour during the frantic construction of the new city.

One possibility is that these are Egyptian children, perhaps demanded from their families as a contribution to the construction of the new city, or singled out in some other way. Corvée-style labour, enforced and unpaid, was frequently used in ancient Egypt on major projects. It is also possible that these were the children of slaves and therefore viewed as more or less disposable. In either case, children seem to have been removed from their families with little intention of them being returned.

A further suggestion is that the North Tombs Cemetery may represent a captured or deported population brought to Amarna for labour. This is perfectly possible and would account for the lack of family contact and the apparent disregard shown for young life. On the other hand, there are no indications from the method of burial, the pottery and the few objects recovered to suggest that these people were not Egyptians.

We hope that future DNA analysis of the bones might clarify the geographical origins of the North Tombs Cemetery skeletons.

In any case, the evidence of the North Tombs Cemetery forces us to face the possibility that Akhenaten built his city at least partly with child labour.

For archaeologists, Amarna is both a blessing and a curse for understanding life in New Kingdom Egypt. On the one hand it provides a snap shot of a city of this period, conceived and built from scratch and not altered in later periods. On the other hand, Amarna is awkwardly exceptional in that it was built at great speed under an eccentric pharaoh and his strange new theology, so how representative might it really be?

If the building of Amarna employed child labour, could it have been a more widespread practice for state building projects in New Kingdom Egypt? At present comparable data from other Egyptian sites is very limited. The exceptional nature of Amarna makes it hard to extrapolate these findings from one highly unusual cemetery.

However, Egypt is littered with building projects of extraordinary scale by ancient standards, from pyramids and temples to canals and artificial lakes, commissioned by pharaohs with a similarly megalomaniac mind-set to Akhenaten. Perhaps when we marvel at these wonders of ancient engineering we should spare more thought for the price paid in human lives, some of them only just beginning, which constituted the cost of such high ambitions. Archaeologygives us the means to provide a counter narrative to the pharaonic bombast of the textual records and tell a grimmer tale of hard work and short lives.

All work at Amarna is carried out with the kind permission and support of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. The work at the North Tombs Cemetery is supported with funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities. The Amarna Project is a project of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.

[chilly-territory]

K Case Files of Blue 2, chapter 1 (part 2 out of 2)

Slowly but surely...

Case Files of Blue 2 by Miyazawa Tatsuki

Chapter 1 (part 2/2) (volume 2, pages 41-62)

†

"...Did he leave?" Kokujouji Daikaku asked slowly, drinking tea in a tea room not far from the top floor of Mihashira Tower. "Yes, sir." The Usagi from earlier soundlessly materialized next to him. "While humbled, he seemed to have a lot to say." "I see."

The elder presented quite a wondrous sight. His clothes were lordly, his hair and mustache was snow white, and the gaze of his eyes was way too sharp for an old man. Kokujouji was this country's absolute ruler, and even his physique, being larger than average, testified to it, but he still fit into the small Japanese-style room easily.

The Usagi by his side was not exactly of small stature either, and normally you would expect a third party, were such present there, to feel oppressed in that cramped room, but in reality, it turned out to be the opposite and the two's presence made an outsider perceive the room much bigger than it actually was. Perhaps, such an effect was created due to the sheer grandeur of Kokujouji Daikaku's breath of mind and appearance.

"...Your Excellency," the Usagi addressed his king after a lengthy silence. "May I humbly ask you a question, sir?" "Oh?" Kokujouji intoned askance. "Now this is unusual. What kind of question?" "The Blue King was generous enough to back off and leave out of consideration for the honor of someone like me who forsook his name, his face and his individuality. That is why, despite being an Usagi, I found myself somewhat concerned with the situation." "Alright, ask then." "Thank you, sir. Your Excellency, what are your reasons for the orders you gave us concerning the matter the Blue King brought up?"

That was a question as direct as direct got. All the suppositions Minakata Reishi had voiced earlier were correct. Following Kokujouji Daikaku's instructions, the Usagi intentionally let a certain amount of the information they would normally regulate and suppress leak. The incidents with Akiyama and Doumyouji may have been only minor, but they only saw publicity in the first place because such was the will of Kokujouji Daikaku.

The Usagi knew better than anyone that the anger of the Blue King Munakata Reishi was righteous and fully founded. Only, the Usagi unconditionally believed his master despite that. He was certain that said master would not do it without a reason. Even when his orders were hard to understand, there must have been far sight and deep design behind them, always.

Toying with a tea utensil in his hand, Kokujouji finally uttered, "One reason." It was only with this particular Usagi that he could afford to be that frank and direct in his answer. "I owed Kounomura Zen'ichi a favor." "Could it be that you incurred it during the global financial crisis of the past, sir?" Kokujouji nodded silently.

The crisis erupted with an investment bank of a certain major country going under, and Japan was among the countries heavily affected by it, but through unofficial assistance from Kounomura Zen'ichi a great number of banks and corporations had been saved. His clout and connections with relevant ministries and top players of the financial world were substantial, and they were getting only stronger.

"I admit that when he personally contacted me, I had a thought that he had what it took to be a king." "..." The Usagi waited for Kokujouji's next words. Because that alone could not be the reason.

No one would argue about how much Kounomura Zen'ichi contributed to the country's well-being. However, it was unthinkable for the man known as Kokujouji Daikaku to allow himself to condone what could only be called biased actions based solely on that.

Kokujouji continued with a question of his own, "What did you think of Munakata?"

The Usagi found it hard to answer.

"You have my permission to speak your mind frankly." "Yes, sir." The Usagi, although not without some awe and fear, laid out his frank opinion. "If you will kindly allow a small person like me to speak of a king, I humbly shall." He paused. "The Blue King, Munakata Reishi-sama, seems to have found himself at a loss. No, perhaps saying that he is perplexed would be more correct. I, however, cannot make a conclusion from his looks alone whether his uncertainly has to do with his position or is due to this unknown enemy." "Kuku." Unusual for him, Kokujouji Daikaku let out a chuckle.

Watching him, the Usagi recalled his talk with Munakata earlier. At the end of it, the king decided against finishing his sentence. But the Usagi had his guesses about what the Blue King had omitted: was the Gold King testing his mettle? he wanted to ask, the Usagi was sure.

The Usagi himself, too, suspected that that might have been the case. Timeless Palace and Scepter 4 shared one obvious common feature, and that was the fact that they prioritized this country's public order above anything. Among the 7 kings, only the Gold and Blue kings shared this view and intention.

The differences were that Scepter 4's work was more of public and official nature, while Timeless Palace handled things more clandestinely, as well as the fact that formal standings wise, Timeless Palace was ranked just a little higher than Scepter 4. So what if this elaborate method was Kokujouji Daikaku's preferred test to see for himself the ability of the newest rookie King who was to work under him?

Except Kokujouji, as if seeing through the Usagi's speculation, said in a tone overflowing with dignity, "Not even I understand a tenth of the Dresden Slate's true nature." He paused to take a sip of his green tea. "I don't know if the Slate can uninstall a king and reselect another one to take his place. In which case..." Kokujouji's eyes took on a sharp glint, "...everything will be weighted against one another - both when it comes to fate and when it comes to kings."

The Usagi bowed silently. He sensed that asking any more questions would be overstepping his boundaries.

'What if...' he thought to himself. What if one of his master's many expectations in regards to the treatment of this case involved the King of the Beginning, the Silver King who was still flying across the sky, looking down at the world beneath from high above. The Gold King Kokujouji Daikaku never ceased his attempts to get to know more about the Slate. For the sake of his friend and a dead woman. So there was a possibility that this case was the groundwork for that.

"...I've been drinking only tea lately. I wouldn't mind having some coffee tomorrow," Kokujouji suddenly said. "As you wish, sir. I shall order it brewed for you tomorrow." The Usagi gave another deep bow. For he had made a promise with himself to follow the Gold King to the ends of Earth.

†

Fushimi Saruhiko got going full throttle starting the next day. His peculiarity lay in the astounding contrast between his tendency to snidely protest or ignore whatever was requested of him, demonstrating his lacking manners for all to see, and the extraordinary speed and efficiency of his work when you did get him started. From the time when Fushimi Saruhiko got assigned to the Special ops squad, the troops never made a secret of how much they condemned his attitude and his tendency to address his King as simply "you" with hardly any politeness or respect to speak of.

At first, the list of those who reacted relatively negatively to Fushimi wasn't limited only to Fuse; even Akiyama and Benzai couldn't help the slightly displeased amazed expressions that twisted their features from time to time. In a sense, such a reaction was probably only natural, seeing that the attitude Fushimi took towards Munakata Reishi, whom they served for a rather long time, was rather rude. It was only to be expected that they interpreted such an attitude as Fushimi taking the whole of the Blue clan led by the Blue King for fools.

Gradually, however, Fushimi had managed to earn the acknowledgement from the other clansmen, including all of the special ops members, thanks to two factors.

The first one was that Fushimi had demonstrated before their own eyes his overwhelming data processing and practical work ability. He worked almost twice as much as an ordinary person would and produced four-five times more results. Seeing that, everyone in Scepter 4, an organization that tended to respect performance and ability more than social status or age, had acknowledged Fushimi before long.

The second factor had to do with why the younger members had accepted him. It was because Fushimi Saruhiko treated everyone equally. No matter what subordinate or senior - even if it was his own superior - or an outsider he was dealing with, he said the same words to them and acted in the exact same way towards them. It was all too likely that even if he met the most influential person on Earth, he would talk to them in his usual slightly fed-up and bored way. In that sense, it was safe to say that such an approach struck people as rational and commendable.

This time, too, in his habitual and very Fushimi-esque manner, Fushimi had arrived to certain conclusions. That's what he said to Hidaka the night before:

"What we need to rack our brains about first is the scale of Kounomura's organization, don't you think?" That was the start of it as he had deduced certain things from there.

"Everyone's falling for Kounomura Zen'ichi's bluff way too easily," he continued. "He may be a celebrity with one hell of a smart head on his shoulders, but he's no ghost or god. Just a human without any special abilities. So first, make sure you remember this at all times."

Hidaka nodded vigorously at Fushimi's words. It made sense that perhaps they all unconsciously fell for the false image Kounomura was projecting, allowing themselves to be manipulated. It was like Fushimi said: there was no denying that overestimating Kounomura had led to them losing sight of what their opponent actually was in reality. And that in itself was probably a psychological trap set up by Kounomura.

"If you look at what's going on in a calm and rational manner," Fushimi went on, "you'll see that all what they've been doing up until now can be broken down only in two big types. The first one is them imitating Scepter 4's work. And the second one is their disruptive activities against Scepter 4. See? Under no circumstances they depart from these two categories. And that's gotta be because Kounomura so decided for himself, in that little activity policy plan of his."

Fushimi emphasized his point, calling Hidaka's special attention to it. "I don't have to spell it out for you that these two types of their activities are what can give us necessary clues to grab Kounomura, currently in hiding, by the tail, do I?" Hidaka shook his head. "No, you don't have to. It's investigation 101, isn't it? That any action a person takes is bound to leave some kind of trace." Fushimi smiled thinly. "To bring Kounomura down, for now we'll exclude the first type from our investigation scope," he declared with conviction.

To Hidaka's subsequent question of "Why?" he replied, "According to the testimony of the criminals they've apprehended, Kounomura's forces include a special assault unit made up of more than 20 trained strains, and he has them handle that sort of missions. To put it bluntly, right now we simply lack resources to deal with them, see?"

Hidaka couldn't deny that painful truth.

Fushimi wasn't finished though, "So what that leaves us with is their disruptive activities against Scepter 4 - well, let's just call it what it is, that is, harassing us. Said harassing activities provide quite a few hints." "What hints?" Hidaka expression showed incomprehension. From where he stood, his coworkers had been put out of commission one after another before he knew it, and when it dawned on the rest of them, it was already too late, with the situation coming to a stalemate. To make it even worse, even his own boss, Munakata, showed signs of not being himself.

To his eyes, that particular fact almost fell into the domain of primitive 'curse spells' or 'black magic' rather than being a tactical result. It was as if Kounomura's magic had been cast on the whole Scepter 4.

Fushimi let out a small sigh. "Like I said, Kounomura is leading you all by the nose. What he's pulling off here is a creative mix of deception and bluff. One thing though. He did his homework thoroughly, and his research on us is flawless." "Research?" "That's right, research. I admit that he's sharp and shrewd like no other. He likely can accurately read all of our special ops squad's members like an open book, predicting with ease our psychological state and actions we'd take. He just wouldn't be able to corner us like he has if he couldn't do that, simple as that. So here's a question for you. How did he get his hands on the massive amount of data that allowed him to analyze us so thoroughly? Since when has he been in contact with us? Was he that close to us as to have the opportunity to get to know us so intimately? No, he wasn't, was he."

Hidaka stayed silent.

"That's why I'm saying that you don't think enough," Fushimi informed him with a cold look. "Use your head. He may be an intellectual monster alright, but even a monster can't do an analysis if he doesn't have the necessary data for it, naturally?" "Ah," Hidaka's head snapped up. "Could it be...?"

Fushimi nodded. "Yeah, bullseye. He has just the right guy for that kind of job. That is, one of his followers must be a strain that can read a person's mind under certain conditions." "Oh no." "Hey, it's not like he's breaking any rules here, now is he? You guys just have been assuming things and seeing Kounomura through the filter of your own illusions. That's how he's made such progress in the first place. With a strain that can see inside a person's head at his disposal, he started out by doing a thorough analysis on each of us. That's why we so guilelessly fell into his trap."

After a pause, Hidaka finally whispered, "...I see," although it sounded closer to a moan than anything. Things had started to add up for him.

Fushimi sighed and took out a stack of paper. "And this is what we have on it. It's the investigation report on strains with that kind of ability and their family lines that I've compiled and printed out in advance. Using this and the info I have on my laptop as our clues, we'll get going for real tomorrow." "Fushimi-san!" Hidaka's eyes shone impossibly bright. And he was dangerously close to jumping Fushimi and hugging the dear life out of him. How great it was to have this person back!

Fushimi only let out a grievous sigh, the longest yet, and shook his head. He had a lot on his plate to take care of.

†

What Fushimi Saruhiko did first was to formulate several conditions and narrow down the list of suspects to 20 names. Then, after a preliminary examination of each on several points, he managed to narrow it down to only 4 people. Investigating them further, including tailing them, yielded results and left him with a sole possible candidate. All of that didn't take him even a full day - his detective ability was that great.

Since time was not something he had in spades, the next step Fushimi took was putting the target under thorough surveillance, that is, he moved on to a full-blown stakeout.

Having skimmed through the target's profile once, Fushimi had memorized it perfectly.

Male. 21 years old. Born in Tokyo. Father is a securities salesman, mother is a piano teacher. After graduating from high school, the suspect enrolled in university with the goal to become a photographer but dropped out. Presently works as a part-timer, attending a vocational photography school. Left the parents' home and lives in a shared house.

Fushimi kept watching this young man via the state-of-art tech as well as good old spying, running a thorough analysis of his life. As a result... he got incredibly exhausted.

The everyday life of that guy, named Marumoto Keiji, seriously got on his nerves.

That Marumoto lived with 3 other young men and 3 young women in what's known as a shared house. Their residence was a freestanding remodeled house, white and stylish. In addition to 8 rooms, it had a restroom, a bathroom, a recreational room and a living room. The furnishings looked like they belonged in a holiday house by the beach. The beams were left exposed, and from them hang a hammock, shells of assorted colors decorated the shelves. On the wall, a corkboard was put up, with some of the memorable photos sporting silly comments in fluorescent pen.

The recreational room had a billiards table and a darts board illuminated by decorative lighting. Further in the back, a slightly dated gumball machine and a mini fridge filled with cola could be found. The walls were plastered with old Hollywood movie posters and styled to resemble those of an old-fashioned American house.

Such was the space Marumoto Keiji lived in, spending his life in that shared house.

In the morning of the day Fushimi dedicated to spying on him, he seemed to have a day off, as he drank a smoothie he had made himself by throwing banana, apple and green and yellow vegetables into the mixer and did some easy yoga on a yoga mat. After that, he climbed into his hammock and started reading a book. It was a small book, a collection of landscape photos with poetry slapped on.

Before long, the other residents got out of bed and showed up. Even though they lived in a shared house, they all looked impeccably fashionable. A model in the making, a future professional surfer, an actress wannabe... One prominent point this dwelling's residents had in common was that they all were still nobodies. They were fellow dream chasers that pursued said dreams together, sometimes encouraging each other, other times competing, still other times clashing.

On that day, a lot had transpired in that house.

One of the guys and one of the girls who liked each other had chosen not to pursue that love and to stay friends for the sake of their dreams. They gave each other a hug, shed a few tears and broke up.

One of their friends who had been wandering the world for half a year had come back. Tanned and a little sturdier than before, he said, "I'm back," and the girl aspiring to be an artist that was chilling in the living room handed him a glass of mojito as she smiled at him, "Welcome back. Have you found what you were searching for?" she asked. "I have." The young man, with newly grown out mustache and in some foreign country's national costume for some reason, showed a broad smile on his tanned face. "I sure have. What I was searching for was here all along," he thumped himself on the chest, around where his heart was, a couple of times. "Good for you." The girl casually saluted to him with two fingers.

Fushimi felt a distinct pang of irritation. 'These people...'

In a room of an apartment building across the street from the residence his target lived in where he was being in the middle of his stakeout, Fushimi found himself tapping his foot restlessly.

'Do they live like that every friggin day?'

By the minute, all that was happening in that house looked progressively more melodramatic, bittersweet and complete with ridiculous amounts of glitter. In fact, Fushimi was willing to bet that these people's brains were ridiculously glittery, too.

'They're so...'

Fushimi couldn't help scratching his head. His skin was crawling, so he had to. Their lifestyle, thought patterns, speech - everything evoked a strong rejection in Fushimi.

'They're so unbelievably and revoltingly disgusting!'

Indeed, these were people that were the exact opposite of what Fushimi Saruhiko was. So much that they gave him allergic hives. If he had to watch them for more than 2 days, his body just might not hold.

Fushimi was seriously getting worried about his health, but luckily for him, he had managed to confirm Marumoto's true colors surprisingly fast. The event that made it possible took place during a barbecue party to celebrate the return of the aforementioned resident of the house after his wanderings.

Marumoto, busy snapping pictures of his gently smiling friends, some with a jug of foreign beer, others with a cocktail in hand, suddenly pointed his camera straight at the spot from where Fushimi was watching them. It went without saying that Fushimi was very careful about hiding that he was staking them out. And yet, without any hesitation whatsoever Marumoto focused his camera on the window of the room Fushimi was in and clicked the shutter a few times.

'!' Fushimi, watching him in binoculars, got startled, and Marumoto made a show of pointing a finger at him and said with his lips only, "Bang!" topping it off with a wink. Then he went back to his friends like nothing had happened.

'That fucker!' Fushimi's mouth twisted into a crooked sneer. '..."I know you're there", is that it, huh? I say bring it!'

His irritation got much worse, to the point where it felt almost refreshing.

†

Late at night on the same day, Matsumoto Keiji casually walked out of the shared house with a camera in hand. The excuse he told his friends was, "I want to take a few picture of the night city." He walked, taking deserted backstreets with no hesitation.

And there, Fushimi Saruhiko in full uniform blocked his way, looking so natural about it as if he was waiting for someone he had a prior arrangement about meeting with.

Marumoto Keiji didn't look surprised in the slightest.

Fushimi, standing in the spot of white light from a street light, smirked faintly, "...I see. I guess I wasn't wrong about you being a mind reader." "..." Marumoto Keiji stared at Fushimi with a troubled smile. "Actually, it's not like I read in your mind that this would happen. It's just that you had that air about you that said come on out already. And so I did, because you know, a man has to rise up to that kind of challenge."

A certain thought had occurred to Fushimi again.

This guy's strangely regular features, a nicely done stylish crew cut, chic clothes and that tone of voice that made no secret of how full of himself he was... Fushimi loathed anything and everything about the guy with passion.

"I don't plan to have a long chitchat with you, punk. Admit the following. You are Kounomura Zenichi's lackey and a strain who can read minds. On Kounomura's orders, you've been snooping around to provide the data allowing to analyze what actions the Scepter 4 troops would take. Do you admit to it?" "What a bummer. Kounomura-san told me that if you show up, I can admit to that if I have to," Marumoto tilted his head to the side in puzzlement. "...Which means you admit to what I listed?" "Well, so it looks like if we put it simply, but if I lose sight of the really important things on the other side of the truth, I might lose the path I've been walking. Call it miracle or call it light, whichever floats your boat." "I don't give a damn about your convoluted monologues sounding like poorly written J-Pop lyrics. Answer only in yes or no. Are you Kounomura's lackey?" "Say..." Marumoto knitted his brows. "Why are you so hostile? Someone has no friends, eh? You know, the people you can do a barbecue together with or go to a darts bar... don't you have anyone important that you can friend on SNS?" "Alright." Fushimi gave up, in more senses than one. Establishing communication with this guy was absolutely impossible. "I'll just have to beat you up first and then haul your ass where I need it."

He drew his saber. Matsumoto grinned and suddenly pointed the camera at Fushimi. Click, the camera's shutter released.

The quick bright flash made Fushimi grimace.

Marumoto was carefree as ever, "Sorry, buddy. This is my ability. Like you've guessed, I can read minds when I click the camera's shutter. And..." He closed his eyes. "Uh-huh. See, when I do this, I can get the picture pretty accurately. I see. So you got into a big fight with your very precious friend." His eyes opened again. "Okay! I know! I'll tell you how to patch things up with your friend!"

'I'm gonna kill this fucker,' Fushimi thought. Kicking the ground, he was about to take a swing with his saber.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Marumoto clicked the camera's shutter again. A flash much brighter than before flared.

"Ugh!"

That light was easily comparable to the effect of a stun grenade specially designed to steal a person's ability to move, and it made even Fushimi freeze.

"Crap!" He swung his sword blindly but hit nothing. "Sorry," Marumoto's voice, strangely soft yet serious, came from a good distance away. "I knew via my ability that you would do that. So I came prepared."

The sound of an engine roaring to life reverberated throughout the neighborhood.

By the time Fushimi was finally able to see again, all that came into view was Marumoto's rapidly disappearing back as he rode a bike in the distance.

"!" Fushimi punched the nearest wall, then took a deep long breath. And that was all it took for him to regain control.

Sheathing his saber, he fished out his PDA and called Munakata. Munakata didn't answer, so Fushimi left him a voice message, reporting what had happened in detail. "As such, I will now be in pursuit of the target. Regards," he finished.

"Tch," clicking his tongue once, he slouched and started walking unhurriedly.

Needless to say, Fushimi was well aware that he was being baited. To make Fushimi bite, Marumoto was intentionally making himself stand out as he ran away. However, there was also no doubt that this presented a valuable clue. As loathe as he was to admit it, Fushimi hadn't exactly been given the choice to ignore the runaway and let him escape.

So he decided that when he found Marumoto, he first would sock him a good one and only then arrest him.

[frogbutane57-blog]

Good Trouble: Jesus' New Hookup Is Going to Seriously Complicate Things for Callie

Tuesday's episode of Good Trouble opened with Jesus (Noah Centineo) in bed with a hot blonde. What else would you expect from the Lothario of the Adams Foster family, ya know? However, you could tell immediately that Jesus' romance would have consequences once the hot blonde was revealed to be Rebecca (Molly McCook), Callie's (Maia Mitchell) fellow clerk for Judge Wilson (Roger Bart).

Thanks to some timing shenanigans, Callie didn't find out until the end of the episode that Jesus had managed to find the most inconvenient person to hook up with in all of Los Angeles. It didn't help that Callie went behind Rebecca's back and reported her former boss for sexual harassment to Judge Wilson after Rebecca explicitly asked her not to share that story. So, it's fantastic that Rebecca is showing up at the Coterie, where Callie lives with Malika (Zuri Adele) in closer quarters than she disclosed to the judge a few episodes ago.

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That's not where the drama ended though. While all of this was going on, Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) started a female rebellion at Speculate after getting fed up with the racist and misogynist atmosphere that pervades the company. However, every employee signed a non-disclosure agreement when they joined, meaning they weren't supposed to discuss salary with any other employees and anyone caught participating in Mariana's rebellion could get fired.

Executive producer Peter Paige helped TV Guide break down the tense episode and teased what's coming in the latter half of the season. Keep reading to see what he had to say!

Noah Centineo, Good TroublePhoto: Richard Cartwright, Freeform

A lot of people who direct episodic television just get episodes assigned to them by the executive producers, but as the executive producer, why did you choose to direct this episode? Peter Paige: The one with Noah in it? Well, if I'm being 1,000 percent honest, it's just how it worked out logistically because I directed the second episode, and I was directing the second to last, and it was sort of the best slot that worked. That's the uninteresting answer, but I will say this: Any time our family came back, we wanted to make sure we created a really ... especially welcoming environment for them, and so knowing that Noah was going to be joining us, of course I was thrilled to be able to take the helm.

What was it like having Noah back on set now that he is officially the internet's boyfriend? Paige: Well, what's crazy is he was becoming the internet's boyfriend the week he was on set. The week it was all happening was when he was with us. That's the week that ... Gabrielle Union was tweeting about how she wanted to date him, and all the cougars were coming after him, and all of that was happening while he was on set with us. And we were like, "This is kind of crazy," and he was like, "This is kind of crazy." So we were there, holding his hand basically, as it happened.

I found it very fitting and appealing that Jesus came in and immediately got into some girl drama while he was there. We have this cliffhanger revelation that he slept with Rebecca. How is that going to play out going forward? Paige: Look, it's just a complicated situation. It is a little bit of an odd pairing, but the only person who's going to find it really stressful is Callie, to have her beloved brother sleeping with her new frenemy at work. It's just a little bit messy for everyone.

Does this mean that there is room for Noah to return to help clean up this messy situation? Paige: Look, there is always room for Noah to return. Always, always, always.

Speaking of Callie and Rebecca, Callie was really pushing Rebecca to come forward with the sexual assault allegation in this episode. How is it going to go when Rebecca finds out that Callie made a complaint against Rebecca's old boss? Paige: It's going to complicate it in a huge way. You'll see in Episode 9 that Rebecca views it as a betrayal and is really thinking about retribution.

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I found it interesting that both Callie and Mariana are facing sexism in the workplace in two very different ways. How are they going to bond together over these separate situations that they're facing? Paige: I sort of think every woman in the world at this moment in time is having a reckoning around dating, sexuality, romance and flirting and all of that in the workplace. What does it mean? How do we do it? Is there a way to do it that's appropriate? So I love that we're exploring in not one, but two environments, in two really different ways. Callie and Mariana, they are very, very, very different people, but occasionally they find themselves confronted with the exact ... same issues, the same challenges, and I always just find it fascinating how instinctually they each want to deal with it differently.

Mariana kind of gets a win towards the end of the episode when HR says that she needs to be part of this social media project. Is that going to make her slow her roll a little bit when it comes to her salary rebellion that she's waging? Or is she going to go full steam ahead in trying to make the company recognize the power of the woman they have? Paige: You know our Mariana. She ain't taking table scraps. Yes, she gets a win, but it ain't the win she wants. That's not a big enough win for her, and Mariana's never — she's rarely ... out for herself. She knows that there's big fish to fry here, and she ain't going to stop until it's gone.

Do we think that this is going to be a good move for her, or is this going to make things only that more complicated for her at this particular job? Paige: Any time you are trying to change the status quo, you are going to piss people off along the way. That's just human nature. Any time you try to change the dynamic, you are in danger of getting some pretty serious blowback, and Mariana is no exception.

We've seen her stage these kinds of protests before, and sometimes she goes a little bit too far when doing it. How do you guys want to show that she's grown and matured and handling this in a smart and responsible way to actually get things done rather than getting in over her head? Paige: It's always a balancing act. I mean, like I said, Mariana's very headstrong and very, very determined, but it gets hard to know, where's the line? When do you keep pushing? When do you push some and wait and see what happens? When do you see what the fallout is from what you've already done? I think that's a question that everybody kind of struggles with, is how do I make a stand without losing my job? But when you really believe in something, you got to try. So Mariana will, as usual, make some bad judgment calls along the way. She'll make some good ones, too, but she'll make some bad ones.

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What can you tease about the rest of the season? Paige: Well, you've got an extra chunk, and they're fantastic. It is a really great ride. Everything is building. There's great emotion, great tension, great sex and romance. ... Forgive the hubris in this, but I think we did a really incredible job of dropping you into a world and introducing you to it, but that's the job of the first half of the season is just letting you get to know the world. Now we're in. We're into story, we're into character, we know these people. We're invested, so you've got a really fun ride ahead.

Will there be any more threesomes? Paige: I don't think there are any more threesomes in Season 1. That is all I will say.

Good Trouble airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform.

Source: https://www.tvguide.com/news/good-trouble-season-1-episode-8-noah-centineo-peter-paige-interview/?rss=breakingnews