#its about like a teenager whos powers are going to expire but then she and her siblings find out the secret

[zickmonkey]

I made a new self insert

[torreshalstead]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea - Chapter 19

Summary - Hailey’s US visa was due to expire, which normally wouldn’t be an issue as the CPD would get it renewed but due to a backlog of paperwork, this wasn’t possible. This meant Hailey was faced with the real possibility of having to leave the country, her job and everything she held dear. That was until Jay offered up a solution which would allow her to stay in Chicago, in Intelligence, with him - they could get married. Getting married was a good idea, right?

Chapters - 19/21

Chapter Title - The Confession

Notes - it’s been a long time coming but it’s finally time! Hope you all enjoy! AO3 Link

Will hung up the phone with a disgruntled huff. How could his brother be so stupid? He had never seen Jay happier than he had been since Hailey and he had tied the knot. Will knew that originally the marriage hadn’t come about because of a burning sense of true love, but he had also known from the start that his brother's feelings for his partner were more than just friendship. And over the past few months, he had seen Hailey’s feelings change too, even before her slightly botched confession to him in this very break room.

And now two people he cared about were about to make a huge mistake. If they got divorced now it would cause irreparable damage to their relationship, friendship even their partnership and Will wasn’t sure they would ever be able to walk it back from there.

His mother had always told him not to interfere in Jay’s romantic life, that he could stand up for him in a fight or when someone was picking on him, but matters of the heart were something he would have to deal with alone. That conversation had occurred when Will had considered asking Mary Sue to prom on behalf of Jay, he knew he had the biggest crush on the girl but was too chicken to ask her himself. But his smarter than most mother had said how would it look to a girl if his big brother had to get in the middle - the answer was not good. So Will had taken a step back and someone else had asked Mary Sue to prom.

But this was different, Jay couldn’t see what was right in front of his face. And he had told him he was in love with Hailey.

This wasn’t an unrequited teenage crush, this was two people who loved each other who were too self sacrificing or self deprecating to realise that the person they loved could possibly love them back. Or maybe they were both too stubborn. Whatever the reason, he had the power to do something about it and to hell if he was going to let his idiot brother make another idiot mistake and lose the best thing in his life.

He pulled out his phone and made two phone calls and hoped his mother would forgive him for interfering for what would hopefully be the final time.

——————————————————————————

Hailey barrelled into Med with speed for the second time that day, at this point they might as well make her a frequent visitor badge and she could earn a gold star for every visit - 10th visit is free.

Will had called her to say that the doctors had taken another look at Jay’s notes and test results and that the CT was needed after all, she had known it but that hard headed doctor, Doctor Sosa, hadn’t listened to a word she was saying. Will had said he had called Jay directly and he was coming in straight from the apartment so Hailey had abandoned the takeout salads she was putting together in the grocery store and legged it to her car.

Will hadn’t sounded too worried over the phone but needing a CT was never a good thing so she had dropped it all and made Med her new destination. Luckily Will had told her the exact room so she hadn’t needed to bother one of the ED nurses with her panicked wife/partner routine again and was currently bounding up the stairs two at a time as the elevator had taken more than two seconds to arrive and Hailey’s patience was at the end of its tether.

—————————————————————————

Unfinished paperwork, that was what Will had told him. Jay had tried to call bullshit but Will explained that without it he wasn’t being signed off as clear to return to work and Jay was damned if he was being stuck on desk duty any longer than he needed to be. He thought about shooting Hailey a text to let her know where he had gone but figured he’d be gone a maximum of 15 minutes and if she was worried she could give him a call. As per their last interaction Jay wasn’t certain she wanted to speak to him anyway. And he wasn’t sure he could blame her.

He as good as told her he didn’t want to be married to her anymore and then proceeded to get hurt at work and clearly scare the living daylights out of her if the way she had thrown herself at him at the hospital had been any indication. And then there was the fact that he was more in love with her than he thought was humanly possible. Talk about mixed signals.

Jay stomped his way through the hospital, searching for the room that Will had told him he would meet him in to complete the remaining paperwork. If he had thought it was unusual for Will to be handling the paperwork or that he would ask him to come to a patient room to complete it, Jay didn’t show it. He was more concerned with getting this done and getting back to the apartment before Hailey had a chance to worry. He had caused her enough worry.

Finding the door in question, he tugged it open.

‘Alright Will, let’s get this sorted,’ he said before coming to a halt when his eyes had a chance to focus. Will wasn’t alone in the room. Hailey was sat on a chair by the empty bed, her eyes filled with concern that phased to a hint of confusion at his arrival. Jay turned quickly to look at Will who had moved behind him to sneakily take a hold of the door handle and was pulling it closed with him on the otherwise.

‘I’m going to leave you both in here until you can discuss it like adults, okay?’ He said, a tiny smirk appearing on his freckled cheeks.

‘Discuss what?’ Jay said, confused.

‘How madly in love with each other you both are and how equally stubborn you are in refusing to admit it,’ Will said firmly and closed the door behind him. Jay heard the lock twist and moved forward to grab the door handle himself, rattling it and yanking it to no avail. The bastard had locked them in.

‘That bastard,’ Jay huffed, giving the door one final heave even though he knew it was useles at this point.

‘Why did you agree to marry me?’ He heard quietly from behind him. Jay let his head fall against the locked door with a thud. He should have known this was coming. It was clearly Will’s plan and after spilling his guts to him the previous night and his tone on the phone when he said he had got the divorce papers, Jay should have known he would pull something like this.

‘Why did you agree to marry me?’ Hailey asked again tentatively when Jay failed to turn around. He took a deep breath, tried to ignore how shaky it was and slowly turned to look at her. She was standing now, just in front of the plastic chair a couple of feet in front of him, the room was single occupancy so wasn’t large, he could be breathing the same air as her if he took just three steps forward.

‘Because,’ Jay said before swallowing and running a hand through his hair. Was he really about to tell her, tell her that he loved her, had loved her for months, for longer than he had known and that the thought of her leaving the country was not something he was willing to comprehend? He looked at her, at the shimmer of tears in her eyes, her golden hair flowing down over her shoulder, begging to have his hands run through it. She looked ethereal. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and he knew in his heart he would ever see. And she looked hopeful? Like she wanted Will’s words to be true. Like she wanted him to open up to her and to confess his love.

‘Because I love you,’ Jay said with small chuckle he couldn’t control. His love wasn’t funny but the situation they had ended up in was. He saw her lips turn up into a smile, her hands stopped twisting around each other in nervousness and he let himself take a step towards her.

‘I’m not laughing because loving you is funny,’ Jay clarified with a little shake of his head, ‘it’s the most serious thing I’ve ever felt, but because we’re so stubborn that my brother had to lock us in a hospital room together to get us to admit our feelings to each other.’ Hailey let out a wet chuckle, the tears having broken through and were making their way down her cheeks. He longed to reach out and wipe them away, to cradle her face in his hands and to draw her lips to his, everything else forgotten. ‘Well because I’m stubborn,’ Jay carried on, taking another couple of steps forward when Hailey hadn’t said anything else besides her giggle, ‘so I needed to admit my feelings to you. I don’t expect you to reciprocate, or say anything. I just needed you to know, I just wanted-’

Hailey reached out and pressed a finger against his lips to stop his flow of speech, ‘I love you too,’ she whispered, her smile as soft as he had ever seen it. She loved him. His breath caught in his throat as he processed that she loved him back. ‘I guess we are both as stubborn as each other,’ she chuckled, letting her finger fall but instead of returning to her side, her hand fell to his neck, letting her thumb graze against his stubble. Her hand on him was like electricity, pulsing through her fingers into his skin.

Jay let his eyes close for a second, revelling in her touch before they flew open again as he remembered everything else he wanted to say. The dam was open now, there was no putting the genie back into the bottle.

‘I don’t want to divorce you,’ he said, letting his fingers curl around her waist and keeping her close. ‘I never wanted to, I just didn’t want you to stay tied to me if you didn’t want to be. We got married for a reason and that reason didn’t exist anymore. I was just trying to set you free,’ he said, choking back a tear as the woman that he had loved for so long was looking up at him with nothing but love and adoration. He had dreamed of this look, dreamed of holding her close and telling her he loved her, but only rarely did he let himself dream that she would say it back. Yet here she was, saying those words to him.

‘I don’t want to be free,’ she said back, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

‘That’s good,’ Jay said with a smile. ‘Because I want you with me for the rest of my life Hailey. I love you. I love you more than I ever thought possible, you make me a better person, you make me laugh, you get mad at me when I get hurt which makes me never want to get hurt again. You’re the best person I know.’ He knew it was sappy, knew he was almost overdoing the love confession thing but how many times did you get to do this, to tell someone how much they mean to you. ‘And if you want to get divorced and never speak of this again, then I’ll submit the papers today.’ He said with a small frown because it was the last thing he wanted to do, but for her, he’d do it, he’d do anything she asked. ‘But I’m really hoping you don’t.’

‘I don’t,’ Hailey responded, and before Jay could take a breath, she had pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his.

Before that moment he thought he had experienced everything he possibly could when kissing Hailey. He had relived the moments that their lips had joined on multiple occasions and the memory of the taste of her had seen him to sleep on restless nights. But he had never experienced this. Kissing someone back and knowing they are feeling the same thing as you, knowing they love you back, it was like a million fireworks going off at once, but silently in the night sky.

There was nothing in his head apart from the feeling of her against him, his hands on her hips, her fingers sliding through the hairs on the back of his neck, her lips pushing against his, prizing them open and their tongues meeting once again. If he never felt anything like this again, Jay thought, he would die a happy man. This was the happiest he had ever been.

He wrapped his arms around her back and lifted her up slightly so they were on the same level, she giggled slightly at the movement and he felt her smile against her lips.

‘I love you,’ he murmured in between kisses.

Pulling back he let their foreheads rest together but didn’t place her back on the floor, her weight in his arms was a comforting sensation and he wanted to live in the feeling a moment longer.

‘You can put me down you know,’ Hailey said quietly, ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Not willing to risk it,’ he said and squeezed her tightly.

‘Jay, you’re at risk for concussion and pretty sure the doctor said no strenuous activities,’ she sassed.

‘Firstly, he said no such thing, don’t worry,’ and he winked at her, eliciting another round of girlish giggles from her. ‘And secondly, Hailey you weigh almost nothing, there is nothing strenuous about this.’ He gave her a peck on the cheek but loosened his hold on her slightly so she slid down his front until her feet touched solid ground again.

For a brief moment they just got lost in each other’s eyes, smiles fixed firmly on their faces, arms still looped around each other, not even the slimmest of gaps present between their two bodies.

‘What happens now?’ Hailey asked softly, breaking the silence.

‘We get Will to unlock this door and we go home I guess,’ he said with a small shrug, reaching out to push a wayward lock of hair back behind her ear, letting his fingers brush gently against her skin.

‘And then we stay married?’ She asked.

‘If that’s what you want,’ Jay said honestly. ‘I want you as my wife Hailey, but if you don’t want that then we submit the papers. If you want to divorce but then date, I’ll do what you want. If you want me to move out and start from scratch like a regular relationship, we can do that too. Whatever you want.’

Hailey seemed to consider her options for a moment and Jay held his breath. ‘I don’t want any of that,’ she said, her blue eyes twinkling. ‘I want to be your wife Jay. I don’t want you to move out, though you can move out of the spare room if you want. I want this. I want you.’

That was all Jay needed to hear to crash his lips back into hers and let all his senses get filled with her. Her taste on his tongue, her soft moans filling his ears, his hand had snuck its way under her shirt and was now flat against the smooth skin of her back and he could smell her floral shampoo. It was an all out attack on his senses and he loved it. She was everywhere and he couldn’t get enough.

Hailey seemed to be equally enjoying it if the way her fingers were digging into his hair was anything to go on. And both were too wrapped up in each other to hear the door behind them click open until Will’s voice entered the room and broke the spell.

‘Glad to see you two have come to your senses,’ he chuckled and Jay pulled back from Hailey slightly to give his brother a death stare for interrupting them. He kept his arms tightly locked around her though, a subconscious action to keep her close to him. ‘But you need to get a different room, preferably not at the hospital as we need this for patients.’ He chuckled again, shaking his head slightly but Jay could see the grin still plastered on his face as he left them alone again but this time with the door wide open.

‘Come on then,’ Jay said, unwrapping his arms but linking the fingers of his right hand with her left. ‘Let’s go home.’ And as he walked out of that room hand in hand with his wife, he realised the word home had never held such meaning as it did in that moment. Home was no longer just a place, four walls and a roof. Home was a person. Home was a feeling, a feeling of safety, of love, of wantedness. Home was Hailey, and he intended to show her for the rest of his life, exactly what that meant to him.

[whetstonefires]

this is very much from nowhere but you've HAD skip beat! thoughts before and i am rereading parts of this nonsense and i am having thoughts. primarily, i think skip beat! would be improved by aging all the characters up like 10 years but keep key ages the same. e.g. kyoko meeting kuon whenthey were 6 and 10 respectively, her and sho going to tokyo at 16 etc. the introduction of vie ghoul rings a bit hollow when sho has only been famous 1 years, but if he's a properly established idol who is aging out of the circuit, you get complexity. the dark moon arc doesn't have the same punch since forbidden love and everything but that's easily adjusted for aged up characters. these thoughts are presented by the fact that i keep forgetting they are 16/17 and 20.

I HAVE ANSWERED THIS ASK THREE TIMES. SEVERAL HOURS OF EFFORT HAVE BEEN DELETED BY VARIOUS TECHNICAL FOIBLES. i used to highlight-all-copy long posts as I went for safety (this was imperfect) but the new block-based text editor doesn't allow it....

So short version of this answer now, you're probably better off this way without all my in-depth rambling textual analysis haaladksklask;dlk. Like, you're losing some fun content but hey third draft right. Condensed essence of idea.

So, I don't at all mind being spontaneously tagged in on something like this! :D But sadly, I must disagree. I don't think that would work.

First there are practical points, where I think you're underestimating how much the idol industry is a child-munching horror, and how having someone debut in her late 20s would be nonsense--that's Christmas cake, she's an old maid. Teenagers only. The basic career-arc expectations that give the plot its rough shape don't wash.

And then if Shou's career had been at this level for 10 years--he's been consistently chart-topping for months, inspired to new creative heights by his rivalry with Kyoko--he'd be the icon of a generation, and plagiarizing him would be a totally different ballgame. He'd have some measure of institutional power, instead of everyone expecting him to flame out any moment now anyway. (The Beagles could still run that con, the calculus would just look different.)

He is utterly disposable to his owners, right now; he's profitable but they haven't invested that much in him. He's already gotten further than anyone is expected to, especially without loads of nepotism. He's not aging out of performing at all, but people are in fact counting down to his expiration date as a wild success as a singer-songwriter, which is what Vie Ghoul threaten to bring upon him.

But more importantly in character terms, I think our leads absolutely have to be the ages they are--like, Ren was clearly only made 20 for Age Gap Reasons lol, but all his development since has leaned on it in such a way he'd become incoherent if he were more than like 2 years older, at this point.

When the personality under the persona starts to surface, a lot of him is still basically a precocious teenager, because he hasn't been living as a whole person since before the breakdown. But he has been living. The longer he'd been doing that, the more profound his alienation from Kuon would be, and that would change the arc.

He's only been Ren for about five years. He's left that kid behind but he's also only just stopped being a kid, really.

The difference between how you look back on and hate yourself at 15 when you're 20, versus when you're 30.......

And then, if Kyoko had lost twelve years to Shou, somehow not being discarded or figuring it out that whole time, and was now facing the world at 26 with nothing to her name but long-ingrained habits of service and self-abnegation and dozens of minimum-wage jobs from which she saved nothing because it all went to Shou, that would be much more bleak.

Do you know what it's like to be 26 and ruined, and to know you did this to yourself?

This jousei version is going to have a hard time not being about either 1) actual physical murder or 2) the grieving process for yourself as a preliminary to self-reinvention.

Kyoko absolutely does the latter in canon, but it works differently folded into a coming-of-age narrative. Bildungsroman for a woman in her late 20s whose formal education ended at age 14 getting out of an emotionally abusive relationship could be a really moving and meaningful work, but it couldn't be this story.

The thing is, this is a manga about trauma, especially childhood trauma, and its role in identity. Kyoko and Ren are both going through their arcs from the context of the very very weird and uneven development process that happens as a result of 'neglect' and 'parental fuckery' and 'bullying' and 'isolation' and 'child labor.'

They had very different experiences! Ren's parents adore him. But Shou's parents loved Kyoko too; it wasn't enough to make up for everything else.

Kyoko is super mature and hypercompetent in some areas and has huge developmental deficits in others. We are introduced to the traumas underlying this fairly quickly, for the most part, although detail kept unfolding for a very long time, and at the same time we watched her go through stages of self-recognition and acceptance, and start to heal. A huge part of this has been nurturing and honoring her inner child.

Ren, we come to see over time, has a lot of the same shit it's just subtler, and he has a much harder time unpicking it. Partly because of who he is as a person--a good liar for one thing--partly because Kyoko started off with a big burst of rage at an external target to launch herself forward and discard a lot of her repression habits in one go, while the main person Ren hates is himself.

(Remember their first conversation when he went off on her, totally breaking persona only we didn't know him yet to know it? I need to reread that again, it's been a while. But from what we know now it sure looks like he saw his younger self in her, and since he's fucked up this led to lashing out. Which was one of the most genuine human interactions he'd had in possibly years by then!)

Partly because he's older. Four years is not generally a whole lot when it's 26 to 30, but from 16 to 20 there's a big shift in plasticity of character, and he just spent his late adolescence cramming himself into a Tsuruga Ren mold only to realize there are limits to the efficacy of this coping mechanism and he's hitting them.

Due specifically to work, and the specific expectations of adulthood! Which, talk about realism wrt mental health struggles around age 20, oof.

Anyway yeah I think the age gap influences their relationships to their child-selves in ways that have been vital to their character developments and how they've influenced each other through them, which would make no sense if they were ten years older.

Would it be Less Problematic? I mean, yeah, but it also would lose the psychological realism that is, perhaps bizarrely, very present in this wildly stylized comedy workplace romance about acting and the processing of trauma.

Kyoko's characterization would be rife with insulting infantilization if she was approaching 30, but in fact she is A Teenager and this is exactly how she should be; it's a sign of health.

Honestly I just think a lot of the shit these characters do only makes sense because they are or recently were teenagers. The intensity of teenage emotions....like Kyouko's whole poltergeist phenomenon, that's classically adolescent for a reason. Shou being in the process of realizing that his shitheadery was like, actually bad; much more acceptable at 17 than 27.

They'd all be weirdly stunted individuals at ten years older, and just much weirder people than they already are. The whole cast can't be Takarada Rories there needs to be some variation lmao.

[starboy14176]

Hmmmm well i just started listening to danger days the other day on its birthday and I noticed that some of the "songs" are just clips of a guy talking! So I'd love to learn about that 👀

*happy stimming sounds* OK GREAT AMAZING. So danger days is a concept album (aka. Album that tells a story). So. The premise is. It’s 2019 and the world is basically in ruins after these wars called the helium wars and the analog wars basically destroyed it. Everything is a desert waste land except for this one city called battery city. battery city is run by an evil mega corporation called better living industries or BL/ind for short. Battery city is super fucked up like. Everyone has to take meds to stop them from feeling emotions and if u fuck up at all or show signs the brainwashing isn’t working they send you to get re-educated. Everything is like all white and there are fluorescent lights everywhere you get the picture. Ok so then. Outside the city. There is this place called the zones. And basically. The people who manage to escape bat city live there and they are called killjoys and/or zone runners. They live in abandoned buildings and eat expired food from before the war or stuff smuggled out of the city. Most famously, they eat power pup which is BL/ind branded dog food but it’s ok cuz they all have cool hair and cool names and like. They are all gay. All of them. Also in the zones they worship this lady called the Phoenix witch who is kinda like the grim reaper. She’s like a bird lady who helps souls pass on. In the zones there is a heavily graffitied mailbox known as the witches mailbox and when someone close to you dies ypu are supposed to put something that belonged to them in it so that the witch will help there soul move on. Usually you put there mask if they wore one. (Did I mention that killjoys have super swag masks? They do) ok so yeah. So the characters that the band members play are:

Party poison (aka Gerard way)

Jetstar (aka Ray Toro)

Fun ghoul (aka frank iero)

Kobra kid (aka Mikey way)

They are part of a crew (fancy zone word for found family) known as the fabulous killjoys or the fabulous four. They are protecting a young girl known simply as “the girl” that is destined to destroy battery city and save them all, however nobody knows that yet, not even her. other notable characters include

Dr. Death defying (or dr. D)

Cherri cola (my beloved <33333)

And showpony (no comment)

Dr. D runs a extremely popular radio show in the zones and the idea behind the album is that you are listening to his radio show (that’s who the guy is that’s talking, that’s dr. D) cherri cola is Dr. D’s bestie and showpony is. Definitely also there. (They are a polycule in my heart but that isn’t cannon) so the story of the album is that the killjoys are vibing, living there best found family lives right? Taking care of this kid and stuff. But uh oh spaghetti-o, BL/ind figured out that the girl is important and they send this guy called korse who is a scarecrow (bat city word for like. Assassin type beat) and he goes and kidnaps the girl. The fab four are like. FUCK THATS OUR KID and go rescue her but all get gunned down in the process. Luckily dr. D shows up and gets the girl back to desert but he doesn’t make it in time to save the Fab Four and they all die. Than Gerard wrote a comic book sequel to the album following the girl as a teenager but that’s a different story for a different day. Hope you enjoyed the info dump and I hope you enjoy the mcr fandom <3

[maaaxx]

11 & 19 for the ask game ❤

ask game :)

11 has already been answered here

-

19. "Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?":

Short answer:

From the time I could vaguely write I was writing "books" (or as much of a book a child that young can make)

I entered my first writing contest when I was 9 or 10 and I got 5th place in my school

A year later I started my first major wip that got me invested into writing as a hobby

A year after that I started another wip that most of my current wips are branches off of and also started posting bits and pieces on wattpad

When I was 14 I had my writing skills tested for early college admission and scored in the top 5 percent in my state (still very proud of this)

Entered and won a couple writing competitions besides that stopped writnig

Then a couple years later I started writing fanfiction

Currently pondering working towards actually publishing some books one day.

Long answer under the cut :)

I remember making "books" since I could write. Like I would staple paper together and I remember one specifically that had something to do with sea horses but i dont remember the plot.

My mom has boxes filled of these "books" with all of the words and even my name misspelled and poorly illustrated characters and stuff.

When I was in like 4th grade (9-10 years old) my teacher had an assignment to where we made up a story and applied whatever type of literary technique we were learning about that week to it. So like if we were learning about similes the assignment would be come up with 5 sentences that include similes that pertain to your story and include one or something like that. At the end of the year we were supposed to have 4-5 pages of this story. I think I finished with like 10-12 or something like that. She made me summarize it 💀

If I remember right I think that my story was about this set of twins where one was born with some type of super power that only the other twin knew about and the superpowered twin got kidnapped by some scientists that wanted to expirement on her and my story followed the other twin and this like 12 year old girl dedicating her teenagehood to finding the lost twin. I think I made it so the dad actually ended up hiring the kidnapper and the dad and kidnapper both got arrested. I want to find this again because I dont remember a lot about it.

That same year my teacher ended up having me enter a poetry contest and I think it was a tri-county thing. I didn;t like poetry (I still hate writing it, love reading it though) so I half assed it and I think I got within the top 5 (??) of my school. (just elementary school) so that was neat.

(This specific teacher was one of those really strict teachers that no one else liked but my little undiagnosed autistic self LOVED her because i always knew what to expect yk?? but is also the one who really got me into reading and writing and stuff and I dont think I'll ever not me extremely grateful for her)

The next year I started forming this one wip. Its definetly my longest and most elaborate and sentimental one because it opened so many different doors for me.

There was no plot but it pretty much followed this group of like 20 teenagers that had very different lives and were all really traumatized and during the "story" they're all like 15-18 trying to figure out how to move on from their childhoods and maintain healthy relationships with eachother and their individual support systems.

Some of them are neurodivergent and some of their stories are centered around that.

One of the characters name is Jack. Jack is bipolar and so is his mom and so because of his moms mental illnesses and stuff he was in and out of fostercare from like 5-13. Hes probably the 'main' character in this.

Hes also went deaf from a tmi from when he was like 9.

Then theres Allison who is autistic and she is your stereotypical 'gifted kid burnout' 'graduated at like 15' type of autistic. but this leads to a lot of issues with her and her main thing is kind of working through that.

Travis comes from a VERY religious (almost cultish) family and is develops schizophrenia at like 16 I think and he's also pansexual and his parents go through his phone and find some texts from his partner and kick him out so hes homeless and has to deal with that.

But like I said theres like 17 more of these characters and its very elaborate. It goes into the parents childhoods and deals with generational trauma and how mental illness can affect parenting.

The 'story' mostly follows Jack and Allison (theyre love interests) and everything is kind of through their pov and their relationships with the other characters and stuff.

But like 11 year old me started writing this out in composition books and between then and when I turned 15 ish and got a computer, I filled I think close to 30 composition books with this story.

But I started researching mental disorders and stuff for this story so I could make their stuff as realistic as possible and that kickstarted my spin on psychology, which led to me wanting to be a social worker which is my major. It also meant that I was really ahead in also my psyche classes. Im *technically* going into my 5th year of college and I started taking psyche classes my second year and I didnt start getting into stuff that I didn't know until the year that just ended so 11 year old me really knew what she was doing.

I remember making my mom buy me textbooks and those articles that are behind a paywall for birthdays and Christmas's

I'm getting off track

A year or two after that I started developing this other wip with kids with superpowers and there was a whole lot of worldbuilding and stuff to this one and its what got me into fantasy which is the main genre I write outside of fanfic. (my hecles wip is loosely based on this one)

(part of this one is on wattpad somewhere)

When I was 14 I took a test that determined whether or not I would be able to start college early and part of this test was writing skills. There was a fiction and a nonfiction portion and then they combined those two scores and averaged them out and my score was in the 95th percentile (top 5 percent) of everyone who takes the test (so on average like 17-19 year olds usually and then some outliers) so I see that as one of my biggest writing achievments.

(i scored shit on the math and reading comprehension portions though)

I stopped writing and stuff for like two years besides entering writing contests.

I've entered like 5 and won 2. One was tri-county and I got first place and the other one was a little bigger but it wasnt a state contest, I think it might have been regional but I got third place. I consider those both big accomplishments too.

And then when I was 17 I started writing fanfiction.

I think fanfiction is what actually got it in my head that maybe I could write an actual book one day. Like before I just saw it as like a hobby because I was scared of the commitment of writing a whole book but ive written almost 200,000 words of one of my fanfics and it wasn't that overwhelming and I think that usually a decent sized novel so why not give it a try?

Idk if that answered the question or if I got TOO off track but oh well :)

[ignitesthestxrs]

Hello! I know you’ve left grishaverse behind. But the news of the second season has me comparing books vs show again. If you feel like it: what were your thoughts on the different characterization choices with Alina and the Darkling between both?

They just seemed like very different characters even though they were ostensibly doing the same stuff. And frankly I was pretty bummed out about it. I feel like they tried to make the Darkling more palatable, which kind of ended up seeming like they didn’t understand why he sucks? (like the discourse about making the winter fete scene more consensual when alllll the false pretenses kind of makes that consent pointless, she doesn’t know who she’s actually dealing with).

And just idk the whole thing with Alina being the cause for a bunch of people dying on the fold because she destroyed the reconnaissance/maps they had so she could be with Mal and the army. And… never addressing it or feeling bad about it lol.

Sorry I realize this is more me talking at you and if you have no opinions either way, no worries. I just got annoyed about how much potential both the books and show had all over again.

is anything ever truly left behind? aka i am incapable of letting go of the things i loved once even if i have a complicated relationship with them now that really isn't love but more nostalgia for the love i once had that has long since expired--

yeah lol the characterisation in the show was: silly. on multiple fronts! definitely the ones you have mentioned!

Alina: didn't like, have a character in the show? you get such a sense of her personality in the book (grumpy cat) and she's defensive and self conscious and unconvinced of her own worth, and the whole point is that she grows into her powers? you get none of that work in the show, and none of the meaner/ruder sides of her personality. there's no...indication of what she wants or what she's working for (which tbf could come from the book, but the book has its first person pov to support her personality in a way that a show just can't do. we'll never get in her head the way a book can, so the show needed to give us SOMETHING).

the show really just felt like 'things happen to alina so much and she reacts like :O each time and sometimes makes a concentrating face'.

and the darkling LOL honestly they so aggressively missed the point of his character that he is simply a different person. like, they made a fundamental change to his motives and made it seem as though he's really in love with Alina at this point, which just categorically doesn't make any sense? the whole deal with the darkling in the first point is that he's using her, and that's a part of the tension in their relationship. this is an older man intentionally seducing a teenager lol it's Problematique and that's the point! it's supposed to be a problem! you haven't fixed anything by making it more ~genuine~ you've just made it weirder actually.

and yeah the absolute nonsense of trying to add consent to a scene that is non-consensual by its nature?? having the darkling like, ask more permission or having alina girlboss her way through the kiss like - it does nothing to change the fundamental issue with the scene, which is that the darkling is actively lying to alina and keeping things from her that would mean she would not make the choice to kiss him if she knew about them! you don't get points for asking politely when you're actively grooming someone to be obsessed with you lol

(and also, the darkling telling her his real name at his stage in their story? again, it's supposed to sell the fact that he has real affect for her, which i guess the show thinks makes everything more palatable, but it's senseless - what reason does this powerful ancient man have to be really affected by alina at this point? he tells her his name in the books as a manipulation tactic, but also not until a point where they've done real harm to each other and are caught in this mutual obsession like, it has weight and meaning at that point! in the show it just comes up as a random Thing like ok darkles)

the tHING WHERE ALINA GETS ALL HER FRIENDS KILLED like oh man that would have been a really good and interesting change to the books and to making alina more of an active participant in her own story if! it had ever! been addressed again! but we get no indication that this has any effect on her or the world state or the story beyond the episode it takes place in, it's silly.

i also think they did mal a real disservice in the show, and i adored show mal. but like, the whole point of mal in the first book is that he's just a dude, you know? he's a dude that alina loves, and who loves alina, but he has to learn that he'd do anything for her, you know? that's why his second book arc is important and interesting the way it is, and why his third book arc makes sense at all. they've taken all the teeth out of his story by making him adoringly devoted to alina without questioning her choices or decisions or doubting her in anyway. and it feels like they did that in order to counter the book fandom tendency to just virulently hate him without basis, which i get, but it does make for a less nuanced and interesting character for him.

but yeah overall i found the show a slog lol, i only got through it because i was watching with friends, and i don't know if we're going to do the second season to ourselves or not. we'll see i spose!

[lirillith]

Wonder Egg Priority

There’s this... thing going on with viewer reactions to Wonder Egg Priority and the issues it’s been addressing.  Spoilers (and mentions of all the stuff that makes Wonder Egg Priority a beautiful, colorful, gorgeously animated content warning of a show) beneath the cut:

Ep. 1: Girl-on-girl bullying, female friendship, the importance of having a best friend vs. shallow friendships that offer no real support

Ep. 2 - Bullying explicitly linked to jealousy over attention from a desirable male authority figure; implied sexual abuse by other girls; hints that many viewers take as implying sexual abuse by the male authority figure; abusive female gymnastics coach (a sport that for many years HEAVILY favored young girls with prepubescent bodies, frequently keeping athletes’ body fat so low they didn’t menstruate) chiding her athlete to stay disciplined and skinny, though she herself is middle-aged and stout; when the coach takes on a monstrous form it’s grotesquely female, with four breasts, one pair dragging on the ground, and she attacks Ai with breastmilk. 

Ep. 3 - Monster at the beginning of the episode talks about eating up young women. Then, the entire idol industrial complex!  Like, just, IT EXISTS.  Although “Yu-yu” turns out to be male, the focus is still on the commodification both of female idols (Rika and co.) and on the commodification of the attention and devotion of female fans (Chiemi, the two fangirls who killed themselves, even Yu-yu’s stalker) and also on Rika’s harsh words driving Chiemi to an eating disorder, an issue that overwhelmingly affects young women.  Sex work, eating disorders, restrictive body standards and fat-shaming also mentioned.

Ep. 4 - Young girl molested on train by powerful figure at her father’s company (i.e. not a random chikan; he targeted her) and driven to suicide by lack of support after accusing him; the monster goes on to make a lot of “women have an expiration date, younger is hotter” claims before Momoe defeats him.  Later monster is gender-policing who’s allowed in a women-only train car (most viewers focused on this in relation to Momoe’s gender ID but I suspect it’s more relevant to the girl she’s protecting at the time.)  Rika and Neiru have an exchange with the mannequin men about boys, girls, and suicide; Ai immediately identifies Momoe as a girl, to her delight and relief.

Ep. 5 - Neiru fights a monster who evidently took in a teenage runaway and expected sex as repayment, and another who’s obsessing at great length over youth, beauty, and hair and skin care.

Ep. 6 - Rika brings up the specter of abusive stepfathers - physical abuse of sons, sexual abuse of daughters.

Ep. 7 - Rika backstory; Rika’s motto that “a beautiful woman never needs a wallet” (because people will buy stuff for her) is revealed to be the only thing she remembers about her father.  Later, she says that she learned from her mother that men who ask women for money are fakes.  Lots to unpack here; was her dad one of the men who asked for money, despite his advice to Rika? Alternately, he took money from her to spend on a mistress? Or maybe he wanted her to rely on him, despite her running her own business. Maybe the boyfriends who sponged off her came after Rika’s dad was out of the picture. Either way, he was discouraging self-reliance in his daughter, and once again reinforcing that a woman’s value is in youth and beauty and that women without either deserve less. 

Viewers: 

After episode 2:  The coach's massive breasts that drag along the floor could possibly represent an application of femininity as a tool for the oppression of women, rather than one of empowerment. (just POSSIBLY.  there’s the FAINTEST chance.)

After episode 4:  This week, Wonder Egg Priority crashes into gender with all the subtlety of a runaway train slamming full-speed into a huge and ancient monolith bearing the word “GENDER” carved into its weathered façade.

“I don't think it will go full on ‘down with the patriarchy’ but it certainly working with some themes of mysoginy in japanese society.”

Re: episode 5:  “Also, since Neiru's Wonder Egg world already mentioned Capitilism and commerical beauty, I still bet it has something to do with corporatism.”

Apparently re: episode 5: “ then the show will be like "THIS girl killed herself to preserve her perfect hair, as women do" “

It’s like they’re trying to tell you something, viewers!  What is it?  Timmy fell down the well?

[tillidontneedfantasy]

A Track-by-Track Breakdown of Taylor Swift’s 8th Studio Album: ‘folklore’

Taylor Swift’s 8th studio album, folklore, starts off with the lie, “I’m on some new shit.” Perhaps to someone who hasn’t been paying attention this would seem to be true. But to those listening, folklore is the essence of her skill and success throughout her entire career stripped down for all to see, but more refined, enhanced, and impressive than ever.

Even prior to her pop-world domination with 1989 (2014), Taylor’s storytelling ability has always been her most compelling strength as a writer. In 2010, she released her third album, Speak Now, penned fully solo to prove to the cynics that she does, in fact, write her own music. And it’s damn good. Widely considered her best song, “All Too Well” from Red (2012) is a five and a half minute epic about love had and lost, all in walks through autumn trees, almost running red lights, dancing round the kitchen, and a scarf reminiscent of innocence, unreturned.  

Yet her pop prowess over the last six years perhaps leads to her storytelling being overlooked to those more focused on the music. There is a particular genius in writing a successful pop song, let alone three successful pop albums, that still has hard-hitting lyrics underneath the synth. Take the excellent “Cruel Summer” from Lover (2019) for example. The song is just under 3 minutes, and the production is so enthralling and infectious that it can take such a hold on you, you might miss the tale being told along with it about a fraught summer relationship that was actually just the beginning of her own love story.

But without the pop production, her stories on folklore demand attention. Swept up by a strong wave of creativity and inspiration, Swift secretly wrote and produced this album in around three months with Aaron Dessner of The National, one of Swift’s favorite bands, and long-time collaborator and friend Jack Antonoff. A surprise album is a new endeavor for Swift, as she generally spends months meticulously planning an album rollout. It is refreshing, and as a dedicated, long-time fan of Taylor, it is thrilling. Due to the album cover where she is standing in the woods, and the genre of the album itself, there have been think pieces regarding the “man in the woods” trope and what it means that Taylor seems to be embodying it. As a result of over-exposure, people are unable to stop focusing on her image and the way she presents herself. It’s understandable, as she is a very smart and deliberate businesswoman, and clearly cares about how she is perceived. But with this album, it is clear that none of that was at play. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Her mother has been battling cancer for years. Isolate a creative person in a dangerous world and they will dream up an escape. She understands more than ever how precious each moment is, and does not want to waste another one. The woods being the landscape for the photo-shoot is most likely attributed to the fact that it is the safest place to have one under these circumstances. She’s not pretending she removed herself from society and became enlightened, she didn’t dabble into a more alternative sound to prove anything; she is just sharing stories she wants to tell that she is proud of, and nothing more.

Of course the music of the album is important, but the lyrics are the heart of it all, and I wanted to focus on them. Upon its release, Taylor explained in a foreword that the album was a mixture of personal and fictional accounts. The beauty of stories is that once they are shared, they never live one single life; each person who consumes a story interprets it uniquely, and the story becomes a multiverse, with different meanings and outcomes than what initially drove the pen to the paper. As explained by Swift in a YouTube comment prior to the album’s release, three songs on the album are all one story, which she has dubbed “the teenage love triangle.” The three points of the triangle are “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty.” But if someone had not seen her say that, they might not have figured it out. Maybe they’d interpret each song as their own story, and connect it to their own. Taylor knows this. It is why she loves storytelling and is why she is so good at it. The album itself is a mirror ball, shimmering with every version of the stories being told, reflecting a bit of each person who listens. These are my interpretations, but they can mean whatever you make of them. 

1. the 1 The melody of this song helps set the scene; picture yourself skipping rocks on a lake, reminiscing on the one that got away. “the 1” is about learning to assimilate into a life without them, resentfully accepting that they might be moving on, too. She ruminates on what went wrong and what could have been. In a very Swift fashion, she puts the blame on herself when she sings, “in my defense, I have none / for digging up the grave another time.” Perhaps this song is fictional, perhaps it’s a revisit of a past feeling or relationship, but its relatability makes it feel real and present. She searches for explanations, restraining herself from asking, “if one thing had been different, would everything be different today?” But it’s good she didn’t ask, because she’d never find the answer, anyway. Best lyric: “We never painted by the numbers, baby, but we were making it count / You know the greatest loves of all time are over now.”

2. cardigan (teenage love triangle, part 1: betty’s perspective) “When you are young they assume you know nothing,” Swift sings in her smooth low-register on this Lana del Rey-esque single. “But I knew everything when I was young,” she asserts. They say wisdom comes with age, but there is wisdom lost, too, of what it felt like to be young; but she has held onto it. In this track, the narrator (Betty) is looking back on her relationship with someone she once loved (James, as name-dropped in “betty” later on in the album). Her insight on his character was always spot on; she knew he’d try to kiss it better, change the ending, miss her once the thrill expired and come back, begging for her forgiveness in her front porch light. As soon as she was feeling forgotten, he made her feel wanted, his favorite. The ending in question is unclear, whether she granted him her forgiveness or not. But what is clear is Taylor’s understanding of the pull of young love, the intensity, the immortalization of all the smallest of details, the longing to be someone’s favorite. It’s why we look back on it so often, read stories and watch films about it, even as we grow old. It’s the cardigan we put back on when we want to be Peter Pan and remember what it was like to fly with Wendy. Best lyric: “You drew stars around my scars / but now I’m bleeding.”

3. the last great american dynasty The story of Rebekah Harkness and her destruction of the last great American dynasty, Standard Oil, is documented in this track, as each verse covers a different part of Rebekah’s life, going from a middle class divorcee to one of the wealthiest women in America by marrying into an empire. Swift paints Rebekah as an outcast, the Rhode Island town blaming her for her husband’s heart giving out. Rebekah used her inherited fortune on her ballet company, throwing lavish parties with her friends who went by the “Bitch Pack,” playing cards with Dali (Yes, as in Salvador Dali. It’s not clear if they actually played cards together, but her ashes were placed in an urn designed by him), and feuding with her neighbors. Then, fifty years later, Taylor Swift bought that very house and ruined the neighborhood all over again, bringing with her the triumphant return of champagne pool parties and women with madness, their men and bad habits. It’s a note on how women will be blamed for tarnishing what is sacred to men rather than celebrated, specifically when its related to wealth and power. They will call them mad, shameless, loud. But just like Rebekah, Taylor learned to pay them no mind, and just have a marvelous time. It is also interesting to note that Rebekah went by Betty. Perhaps Taylor felt inspired by and connected to her and gave her a whole backstory, and thus the birth of “the teenage love triangle,” or maybe it’s just a coincidence; but that’s the fun of it all. Either way, this track is a standout showcase of how Swift has truly mastered her craft as a songwriter. Best lyric: “Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / and then it was bought by me.”

4. exile ft. Bon Iver You know that feeling when your parents are fighting and it’s upsetting you but you can’t help but listen? That’s kind of what listening to this song feels like. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon co-wrote the track, and he lends his gorgeous vocals to play a man who has been exiled by his ex who has moved on with someone else while he desperately tries to understand where it all went wrong. The bridge is particularly poignant, both proclaiming, “you didn’t even hear me out,” while talking over each other. He thinks he was expected to read her mind, but she is adamant that she gave him plenty of warning signs. Miscommunication is one of the most common downfalls of a relationship, and the emotion in Swift’s and Vernon’s voices really draws you into the argument with them, transporting you back into your own exile from people you once called home. Best lyric: “I couldn’t turn things around / (You never turned things around) / ‘cause you never gave a warning sign / (I gave so many signs.)”

5. my tears ricochet Taylor describes this song in the foreword as “an embittered tormentor showing up to the funeral of his fallen object of obsession.” If you know enough, you can put the pieces together that the tormentor is Scott Borchetta, the head of Big Machine Records, and the funeral is of their professional and personal relationship. Taylor was the first artist ever signed to Big Machine. Borchetta and Swift had to trust each other in their partnership for it to be a success, and oh, how it was. But prior to Lover’s release, Taylor announced that she would be signing to Republic Records as her contract with Big Machine had ended and Republic offered her the opportunity to own all of her masters moving forward and negotiate on Spotify shares for all their artists. It all could have ended amicably there, but then Scott Borchetta sold all of Big Machine, along with Taylor’s masters from every album prior, to Scooter Braun. Braun manages some of the biggest stars out there, and had previously managed Kanye West. Taylor publicly spoke out about this purchase, stating that she was not made aware of this before the announcement, and how much of a betrayal it was considering she had cried to Scott before about Scooter’s mistreatment of her. Taylor has continued to be vocal about this, and so she sings, “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace.” There is a lot to unpack in this song, but the main takeaway is that this betrayal hurts him just as much if not more than it hurts her, because his career was built on her achievements. He buried her while decorated in her success, becoming what he swore he wouldn’t, erasing the good times for greed, all just to be haunted with regret for pushing her out and stealing her lullabies. The pain is palpable, and it is notable that this is song is placed at track 5, the spot generally reserved for the most vulnerable on the album; it shows that there are different types of heartbreak that can shatter you just as much as those from romance. Best lyric: “If I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake? / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed.”

6. mirrorball On Lover’s “The Archer,” Taylor expresses her anxiety over people seeing through her act, her own grief at seeing through it herself, wondering if her lover does and whether he would stay with her regardless. “mirrorball” is about the act, one of the more obviously confessional songs on the album. She talks about how a mirror ball can illuminate all the different versions of a person, while also reflecting the light to fit in with the scene. Taylor’s critical self-awareness is heart wrenching, and it’s clear that the anxiety that surrounds the public perception of her is still prevalent. She describes herself as a member of a circus, still on the tightrope and the trapeze even after everyone else has packed up and left, doing anything she can to keep the public’s attention. It hurts to hear the desperation in her voice, but there’s hope in the song, too. She is speaking to someone (we can assume her long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn) and thanking them for not being like “the regulars, the masquerade revelers drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten.” In 2016, the height of Taylor’s fame and subsequently her farthest fall from grace, all the people who pretended to be her friends and attended all her parties celebrated her (temporary) demise, continuing to dance over her broken pieces on the floor. But he stayed by her side as she put herself back together. And so now, when no one is around, she’ll shine just for him, standing even taller than she does for the circus. Best lyric: “I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why / I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try / I’m still on that trapeze, I’m still trying everything / to keep you looking at me.”

7. seven Her voice gentle and haunting, Taylor recalls the freedom and innocence of her childhood in Pennsylvania. She asks to be remembered for how she was, swinging over the creek, before she learned civility when she would scream anytime she wanted, then letting out a very pretty one. She sings to her old friend soothingly about taking them away from their haunted house that their father is always shouting in, where they feel the need to hide in a closet, perhaps literally, or figuratively, or both. They can move into Taylor’s house instead, or maybe just to India, just be sure to pack their dolls and a sweater and then they’ll hit the road. She can no longer recall her friend’s face, but the love she had for them still lives in her heart, and she wants it to live forever through story. Just in the way that folklore itself blends reality and fiction, but the truth within it passes on, so will the purity of that love and friendship. Best lyric: “Please picture me in the weeds / before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously / any time I wanted.”

8. august (teenage love triangle, part 2: the other girl’s perspective) If you had to assign the feeling of longing to a song, it’d be “august.” It’s when you’re teetering at the edge with someone, unsure of where you stand with them, clinging to anything they give you and doing anything just to raise your chances, “living for the hope of it all.” August, the last month of summer, its heat causing it to slip away the fastest in a haze before reality hits. This track is a display of how sometimes losing something you never had causes an even deeper ache than losing something that was yours, and Jack Antonoff’s signature production intensifies the emotion even more. It’s the story of shattered hope, and the longing for the days where it could still fuel you. Best lyric: “To live for the hope of it all / cancel plans just in case you’d call.”

9. this is me trying “this is me trying” is like a drive through a tunnel at night, hearing your loudest anxieties and insecurities echo all around you, caving in. The track is another apt insight into Swift’s struggles with her self-image, with the pressure she puts on herself, so much so that she sometimes pushes herself too close to the edge, her fears luring her out of the tunnel and down, down, down into her own cage, stunting her own growth and keeping those who care out of reach. She tells us how she was “so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere.” Every action has an equal, opposite reaction, meaning that she was pushing herself so hard, she rolled back to where she started, and now has to reset. This could be referring to the period between the end of the 1989 era and the release of reputation (2017), or a different time in her life, or just a general sentiment. It doesn’t really matter, though, because no one’s growth is a neat, straight line; growth is jagged. Just like any of us, Taylor will always have to face new obstacles, new pitfalls, new reasons to get back up. She sounds most vulnerable as she cries, “at least I’m trying,” and you feel comforted knowing someone so beautiful and successful has to push herself to try, too, and yet that motivates you more to try yourself. Best lyric: “They told me all of my cages were mental / so I got wasted, like all my potential.”

10. illicit affairs A quiet, slow-build testament of the passion, the tragedy, the secrecy, the inimitability of a romance that shouldn’t exist, “illicit affairs” demonstrates how you can ruin yourself for someone from just one moment of possibility or truth, quite like the narrator of “august” does for the hope of it all. An illicit affair can be many different things: infidelity, forbidden love, a love that can never be fully realized, a relationship that is inherently wrong but electrifying all the same. It’s a reminder of what so many of us would do just to see new colors, to learn a new language, even if the one moment of enlightenment destroys us forever. We might lose the iridescent glow but we don’t forget it; we carry it with us, but must be careful to remember its blinding effect, to remember how fatal the fall is from the dwindling, mercurial high. Best lyric: “Tell your friends you’re out for a run / you’ll be flushed when you return.”

11. invisible string Clearly the most outright autobiographical track, “invisible string” is the plucky pick-me-up needed. The song is like sunshine, as Swift endearingly links all the little connections between her and her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, since before they even met. She compares the green grass at the Nashville park she’d sit at in hopes of a meet-cute to the teal of his yogurt shop uniform shirt, and gives a nod to her smash hit “Bad Blood” from 1989 with the delightful line “bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to LA.” She reasons these coincidences as a fateful, invisible, golden string tying them together since the beginning, always destined to meet at the knot in the middle. She thanks time for healing her, (a callback to “Fifteen” from Fearless [2008]), fighting through hell to make it to heaven, transforming her from an axe grinder to a gift giver for her ex’s baby (the ex in question, Joe Jonas, and his wife Sophie Turner, happened to have their first daughter two days before this album’s release). As she has on her previous two albums, she uses the color gold to illustrate how prized their love is to one another. It’s sweet to know in all the gloom that the string has not been severed, and the trees are still golden somewhere. Best lyric: “Cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart / now I send their babies presents.”

12. mad woman Throughout her entire career, Taylor Swift has defiantly defended female rage, all the way back from throwing a chair off a platform on her Fearless Tour during the impassioned “Forever & Always,” to her patient, vengeful reliance on karma in reputation’s lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” to her most recent tackling of the matter on Lover’s last and final single, “The Man,” where she explores society’s acceptance and encouragement of angry men yet disdain for angry women. “The Man” is catchy and upbeat, and a fun thought experiment into how Swift’s career would be perceived if she was a man, something that is even more interesting to think about now as she releases an album in a genre heavily dominated and lauded by males. But on “mad woman,” she further explores the creation and perception of female rage, though masked under a smooth, haunting piano melody, her vocals subdued, taunting. In the album foreword, she describes the inspiration behind this song as “a misfit widow getting gleeful revenge on the town that cast her out.” This could be the continuation of Rebekah “Betty” Harkness’s story at her Holiday House in Watch Hill, RI, and how she further alienated herself from the rest of the neighborhood as they cast stones at her for the collapse of the last great American dynasty. (Or perhaps Daenerys Targaryen’s descent as the Mad Queen played a part in the song’s inspiration, as Swift has spoken of her love for Game of Thrones and her character specifically.) Taylor herself could also represent the widow, her music and masters as her love lost, and the men behind the crime as the “town that cast her out.” In the first verse she sings, “What do you sing on your drive home? / Do you see my face in the neighbor’s lawn? / Does she smile, or does she mouth ‘fuck you forever’?” It’s the first f-bomb of Taylor’s career (though a much more playful one will come two tracks later in “betty”) and it speaks volume. Taylor has received a lot of condemnation for expressing her anger at their transaction, for calling out their greed for what it is. Some view Swift’s stance on the ordeal as petty and trivial; they see the men as orchestrating a good business deal, and Swift as the girl throwing a tantrum. Ask any woman, and they can tell you about a time a man told them they were crazy for being justifiably angry; it only makes us angrier. “No one likes a mad woman,” Taylor states, “You made her like that.” Swift underscores that here, how they will poke and poke the bear but then blame it for attacking, as if they had never provoked it at all, and how dare it defend itself. Just as they blamed Rebekah for her husband’s heart giving out, they somehow manage to blame Swift for not being allowed to purchase the rights to her own work. And yes, she’s mad, but the song is measured and controlled; she’s used to her anger now, and knows just how to wield it. Best lyric: “Women like hunting witches, too / doing your dirtiest work for you / It’s obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together.”

13. epiphany This is another track Swift provided some background on, stating it was inspired by her “grandfather, Dean, landing at Guadalcanal in 1942” during WWII. The first verse paints this image, while the second verse depicts a different kind of war, happening right now, fought by doctors and nurses. She speaks of holding hands through plastic, and the escape folklore has granted you suddenly lifts. Watching someone’s daughter, or mother, or anyone suffer at the hands of the COVID-19 pandemic, just as watching a soldier bleed out, helpless, is too much to speak about. As she points out, they don’t teach you about that vicarious trauma in med school. We are living in a tireless world with barely any time time to rest our eyes, but too much going on while we’re awake to make sense of any of it. “epiphany” is a cinematic prayer, pleading for some quiet in order to find an answer in all the noise. We’re still waiting for that glimpse of relief. Best lyric: “Only twenty minutes to sleep / but you dream of some epiphany / Just one single glimpse of relief / to make some sense of what you’ve seen.”

14. betty (teenage love triangle, part 3: james’s perspective) It makes sense that a song reminiscent of Fearless would exemplify some of the best story-telling on folklore. The final puzzle piece of the teen love triangle, “betty” is a song sung by Swift from the perspective of the character of her own creation, James, attempting to win back his true love, Betty, who he slighted in some way. He proclaims that the worst thing he ever did is what he did to her, without explicitly stating it. Though the infamous deed is unclear, here’s the information we collect from this song: James saw Betty dancing with another boy at a school dance, one day when he was walking home another girl (from “august”) picked him up and he ended up spending his summer with her yet still loved Betty, and though he ended things with his fling and wanted to reconcile with Betty, he had returned to school to see she switched her homeroom (James assumes, after saying he won’t make assumptions. Classic men). So in order to make it up to her, he shows up at her party with the risk of being told to go fuck himself (the second and charming “fuck” on the album! Which is repeated!). Upon his arrival, there is a glorious key change (ala “Love Story”) and all the pieces fall into place for the listener; we realize Betty is the girl singing in “cardigan” as he lists the things he misses about her since the thrill expired, like the way she looks standing in her cardigan, and kissing in his car. He’s 17 and doesn’t know anything, but she knew everything when she was young, and she knew he’d come back. The way I see their story conclude is that she led him to the garden and trusted him, but as they grew older they grew apart, but the love she had for him never faded completely. Listening to this song is like being back in high school, whether you were the person who did someone wrong or the person so willing to forgive in the name of young love, or Inez, the school gossip, you’re right there with them. The other great thing about this song is that it is sung to a girl, and though it is set up so we understand it is most likely from a boy’s perspective, it doesn’t have to be. It’s really great that girls in the LGBTQ community can have a song in Taylor’s voice to fully connect to without changing the pronouns or names (even James, which is unisex and is one of the names of the daughters of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Taylor’s close friends, mentioned in this song). That is the beauty of folklore: the infinite ways a story can be told, perceived, retold from a different perspective, and told again. Maybe you’ll hear it from Inez. Best lyric: “But if I just showed up at your party / would you have me? Would you want me? / Would you tell me to go fuck myself, or lead me to the garden?”

15. peace One of the most beautifully solemn songs of her career, “peace” echoes the same fears explored in “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” from reputation; will the person she loves be able to weather the ever-present storm that comes with the life of a superstar, but also dwells within herself? Will holding him as the water rushes in be enough? Will giving him her wild, a child, her sunshine, her best, be a fair consolation? Presumably another confessional track and about Alwyn, Swift puts him up on a pedestal, praising his integrity and his dare to dream. She proclaims that she would die for him in secret, just as she told him she’d be on her tallest tip toes, spinning in her highest heels, shining just for him in “mirrorball.” She highlights some of the greatest gifts of love, such as comfortable silence and chosen family. She knows what they have is special, but she also knows the value of peace, the ultimate nirvana, and does not want to deprive him of that. It is so deeply relatable- to me, at least- to feel like you can give someone so much of yourself but know it still may never be enough, and to fear either losing them or robbing them of something better. But looking at what they have together, maybe peace is overrated. Or maybe, she’s looking for peace in the wrong places. The calm is in the eye of the storm, and sometimes, there’s nothing more freeing than throwing away the umbrella and soaking in the rain. Best lyric: “I never had the courage of my convictions / as long as danger is near / and it’s just around the corner, darling / ‘cause it lives in me / no, I could never give you peace.”

16. hoax The truest enigma of the album, the closer, “hoax” is a devastatingly dark ballad about the uncertainty, or perhaps incredulity, of someone’s love for you, a love that is your lifeline. The lyrics are ambiguous, which gives way to a plethora of interpretations. Perhaps she is speaking about a hypothetical situation that has yet to happen (and hopefully doesn’t) in which someone she loves and trusts betrays her. Maybe she is talking about a relationship, real (hopefully not) or fictional, in which despite the torment it brings her she holds onto it for dear life. I’m most inclined to believe that the song represents her difficulty in accepting that someone is willing to love her through such dark periods, that their love must actually be a hoax, but she chooses to believe in it anyway and uses it as the motivation to rebuild her kingdom, to rise from the ashes on her barren land. And even through the downs that come at some point in every relationship, she can still see the beauty in it all. Yes, their love is golden, but waves of blue will crash down around any partnership, because life does not exist without them. So even when things are as blue as can be, she’s at least grateful it’s with him. Best lyric: “Don’t want no other shade of blue but you / no other sadness in the world would do.”

Although we still have yet to hear the deluxe track, “the lakes,” as a fan of Taylor for almost 12 years, it feels so obvious that this is her strongest work yet. The storytelling I fell in love with on Fearless as a teenager (which, much like folklore, was highly inspired by imaginary situations and real emotions) is even sharper now as we have both grown into adults. The music on this album might not be everyone’s speed, and that’s okay. But it allowed Taylor to dip back into what made Fearless such a success: using pieces of her own truth and the whims of her imagination to develop a multi-faceted narrative that becomes universal. During her Tiny Desk concert, before performing “Death By A Thousand Cuts” from Lover, Swift explained the anxiety she felt around the possibility of stunted creativity when people would ask her what she would write about once she was happy. Taylor has released an abundance of beautiful, fun, complex love songs since the start of her relationship almost four years ago now. But “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” which is a fan favorite, helped her prove to herself that she can still write a killer breakup song while being in a happy, fulfilling relationship; the song was the last track written for Lover and was inspired by the film Something Great on Netflix. And so it makes perfect sense that Taylor used folklore to continue exploring this new avenue for songwriting. All of her discography and all of her life experiences have culminated to the folklore moment: as all the best artists do, she will never stop finding inspiration in hidden corners of this dark, mystical, wondrous universe, and falling in love with new ways to share those wonders. And that love will be passed on.

DISCLAIMER - REVIEWER’S BIAS: I love Taylor Swift more than any person in my life, yes including my parents, they are aware and have accepted this fact long ago ❤️

[skyhopedango]

State of the Season pt 1

So, so many shows! :O I don't remember the last time I watched so many ongoing shows. Alas, quantity doesn't translate into quality, but still, there are some pretty nice shows that I enjoy a lot.

Not these, though.

Dragon, ie wo kau

Yeah, this was crap. I expected something fun and fantasy-spoofy, I got a badly animated, badly produced, badly acted (from the main character) video-game-referencing show that takes one joke that is already not incredibly funny, and runs it into the ground until there's nothing left but dust. Pity.

.

Mars Red

Oh, this show. The first episode was stilted and vaguely pretentious*, but I thought eh, let's see a bit more of it. So I watched episode two and three, and bam, the usual vampire-hunter-vampires shenanigans with some half-hearted attempts at ~Historical Relevance~ but still pretentious. Perhaps it could've been better with more interesting/charming characters, but they weren't interesting at all... OK, that's not quite true, I liked that young vampire (supposedly the most powerful one?) who was always doing the "hey enemy vampire, you can join us or you can die" speech, that was cute.

*I mean... yes, you've read Salome. Yay. So how is it related to what happens in the episode? Does she kill the one she loved to possess him or something? No. Does she do anything even vaguely related to the story of Salome? No. So... what's the significance of the references? And from episode 2 it was downhill. EP 2 has Romeo and Juliet for "tragic lovers" which is about the most clichéd thing ever and the lovers' story had nothing in common with Romeo and Juliet other than them dying in the end. And in episode 3 the characters are literally standing around reciting Relevant Poetry. I suppose this works for people who are satisfied with understanding a reference and who want to feel smart for knowing some classical literature, but other than that...

I've been putting off watching episode 4 since Monday, and frankly at this rate likely I'll never watch it.

.

Fumetsu no anata he

3 episodes in, and oh yes, I remember why I didn't keep up with the manga. Look, I'm not saying it's a bad show. As most people I was very impressed with the first episode. Good stuff, emotionally powerful. But what happens after that is just totally not my cup of tea. Nonhuman entity learning to understand humans and gaining sympathy for humanity would be totally up my street - but not really when it happens via a generic adventure story, tryhard epicness tipping into unintentional hilarity every now and then, overwrought music, precocious kids mugging for the camera, and the threat of misery porn looming just over the horizon... and that's not even mentioning the obvious production issues apparent from episode 2 that further undermine the epic tone the show is going for.

I think I'll give it one more episode, although I have a feeling I'm not going to last longer. I'm sure the story will eventually have some profound things to say, but I'm also sure it'll be nothing I haven't heard before in ways that resonated better with me.

.

86 -Eighty-Six-

aka "Liberal Circlejerk - The Anime". (And while it can't be "white liberal" for obvious reasons, it has the attitude down pat.)

This show. This is what you get from a LN for horny teen boys fantasizing about being badass soldiers and naive girls in sexy uniforms, that also wants to say Serious Important Woke Stuff. You get a show about Super Special Teenagers that is hilariously dumbed down, preachy, self-congratulatory, and also cynical about how it treats its female characters. (And that's not even saying how stupid the setting is... I'm sure there'll be some twist but seriously, it still wants us to just handwave away stuff like "even if the enemy's weapons will expire in 2 years, how come nobody asks 'what if they built new ones' or 'what if they have other stuff up their sleeve'" etc...)

Really, I'd like to say that at least the show has its heart in the right place, but I can't, because for every preachy and dumbed down but decent message it delivers it does shit like ogling the main female character (whose uniform has a garterbelt apparently because the LN writer is into that), having her make cute pouty or blushing faces, pointing out how she's a virgin, having a "boys ogle bathing girls" scene* where the girls of course talk about boys and romance because girls, eh? etc. Hell, in episode 4 it even manages to undermine the single best thing that happened in the show so far by basically tone policing the oppressed character who told the MC to fuck off and not treat them as her morality pets. Clearly even if your friend was just killed in action and this random person who is also your oppressor and is wallowing in privilege, is crying in your ear making it all about her, you shouldn't be rude to her because aw shucks she meant well. And of course all it takes is a "sorry, I'll treat you like humans from now on, I swear" for everyone to start respecting her. Like, wow, she's committed to the bare minimum, where's the champagne?!

*Yes, the girls were dressed, but you just know that at one point in production (or perhaps in the source material) they were were naked. The entire scene is set up as a usual ogling-bathing-girls scene, so I'd bet money that what happened was someone in production vetoed it in the very last moment so they didn't have time to rewrite everything, only to give the girls clothes.

I'm still getting some entertainment value out of 86 (those spider tanks are pretty nice...) but oh boy, the cringe.

[cinema-tv-etc]

Why The Godfather Part III has been unfairly demonized

By Caryn James1st December 2020

he mafia trilogy ended with a closing chapter that has long been vilified. But as a new recut is released, 30 years on, Caryn James says it deserves to be re-evaluated. T

The final part of the Godfather trilogy is considered such an artistic disaster that you'd think Francis Ford Coppola had forgotten how to make a film in the 16 years that followed The Godfather Part II (1974). Part III's most famous dialogue – Al Pacino as the aging Mafia don Michael Corleone snarls, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in" – has become an easy laugh line.

But 30 years after its release, it is time to rescue Godfather III from its terrible reputation. Pacino's eloquent, fiery, knowing central performance is supported by several bravura set pieces that are mini-masterpieces in themselves. With deliberate echoes of the earlier Godfather films, there is singing and dancing at a family party, a bold murder during the San Gennaro street festival, a tragedy on the steps of an opera house in Sicily.

In the film’s confusing main plot, Michael gets tangled up in dealing with the Vatican  

Hindsight alone would tell us how seriously the film has been undervalued, even without Coppola's newly restored, re-edited and renamed version. It now has the title Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Calling it a coda emphasises its connection to the earlier instalments, and even hints at its lesser stature. And the word 'death' signals its dark inevitability, although the meaning of that word is slipperier than it first appears.

Twelve minutes shorter, it rearranges some key episodes, eliminates a few minor scenes and trims a line here or there. But until its altered ending, it is fundamentally the same film, better in parts than as a whole. It is too flawed to come close to the accomplishments of The Godfather (1972) or its sequel, both among the most towering and influential films of the 20th Century. They have penetrated the culture, from their language ("I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse") to their quintessentially American story of immigration and upward mobility. But the new version clarifies Coppola's epic vision, revealing how much the Corleone story was always Michael's, a deeply moral saga of guilt and redemption. He just happened to be a mob boss.

For me the tragedy of The Godfather, which is the tragedy of America, is about Michael Corleone – Francis Ford Coppola

Coppola was always lucid about the trilogy's vision, even when others were confused. "For me the tragedy of The Godfather, which is the tragedy of America, is about Michael Corleone," he says in the extras on a DVD set of the three films released in 2001. He wanted The Death of Michael Corleone to be the title back in 1990, but Paramount, the studio releasing it, did not. The film's initial reception was measured disappointment, not dismissal or horror as we now assume. Roger Ebert actually loved it. Pauline Kael did not love or hate it, but offered the withering, condescending assessment. "I don't think it's going to be a public humiliation." Expectations were high because of the legacy of the earlier films, yet low because Part III came with a whiff of desperation and of selling out. Coppola had resisted making another Godfather for years, then wrote the screenplay (with Mario Puzo) and edited it in a rush to meet its Christmas Day release. It even got seven Oscar nominations, including best picture and director. It is an odd example of a movie whose reputation has declined over the decades.

Why the film is misunderstood

Then and now, the series has largely been misunderstood. Crime movies like Coppola's and Martin Scorsese's are so seductive that audiences have embraced them for apparently glamorising the love of raw power and the concept of honour among thieves. Beneath the Mafia-friendly surface, though, they are built on ethical themes their more hot-headed characters don't grasp. The Godfather Coda tells us that crime really doesn't pay when you're ready to search your soul. The young Michael struggles with the idea of killing and crime in the first Godfather. The consequences of his decision are central to Part III, which takes place in 1979, 20 years after the events of Godfather II. Michael, a billionaire living in New York, has made his businesses legitimate and is left to grapple with his guilt for so many crimes, especially ordering the murder of his  brother Fredo, who betrayed him.

The film still has problems that no amount of editing can change. In a needlessly confusing main plot, Michael tries to take over a European conglomerate called International Immobiliare. By buying the Vatican's shares, he'll be bailing out the corrupt Vatican bank. The family part of the story revolves around Michael's nephew, Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate son of his brother Sonny. Andy Garcia is as good a Vincent as you could hope for, handsome, swaggering, rough around the edges, dynamic on screen. But his character never makes much sense. Vincent has his father's explosive temper and appetite for violence, but somehow goes from a not-so-bright thug to a shrewd, controlled crime strategist in a matter of months. His change is far from the engrossing, methodical character trajectory that takes the young Michael from idealist to murderer in the first Godfather.

And the film's most severely criticised element is no better than anyone remembers. Winona Ryder, who had been set to play Michael's daughter, Mary, dropped out weeks before filming started and was replaced with unabashed nepotism by Coppola's teenaged daughter, Sofia. Today, we know Sofia Coppola as a brilliant director, but it's easy to see why her amateurish performance made her another target of Godfather III jokes, particularly for the unintentionally awkward and passionless romance between Mary and her cousin Vincent. Coppola actually snipped a couple of Sofia's lines in the new version.

He makes a major change at the start of the re-edited film, eliminating the lovely original beginning. It set an elegiac tone by showing images of the abandoned family house in Lake Tahoe from Part II, and includes a flashback to Fredo's death, while Nino Rota's familiar soundtrack music evokes the past. The new version begins with a duplicitous archbishop soliciting Michael's help for the Vatican, a scene originally placed later in the film. The change highlights the finance plot without making it any clearer.  

The exhilarating start

But the film soon picks up with its true, exhilarating beginning. Several generations of Corleones, along with friends and business associates, gather at a party celebrating Michael. His sister, Connie, sings an Italian song, while shady-looking visitors pay homage to Michael in his office. He now has bristly grey hair and a lined face, and controls his family and business with authoritarian power. The extravagant 30-minute sequence echoes Connie's wedding at the start of The Godfather, and the First Communion party in Lake Tahoe that began Godfather II. Michael's office even has the same light slanting through the blinds that we saw in his father's office in the first Godfather, when Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone received visitors. Throughout, these call backs to the previous films add resonance while trenchantly revealing how things have changed.  Michael is burdened by conscience in a way Vito never was. "I don't apologise," Vito tells Michael near the end of The Godfather, justifying his brutality because he was trying to save his family. Godfather III is all about Michael's need to atone.  

Al Pacino's performance may have become an object of derision, but he knows what he's doing.

The party scene flows easily as it brings every character up to date. Diane Keaton is as deft as ever as Michael's ex-wife Kay, who pleads with him to allow their son, Tony, to pursue a career as an opera singer. Kay can be chilling. "Tony knows that you killed Fredo," she warns Michael. Yet she has never got over him, as we see in a later scene when they have a tearful tête-à-tête in Sicily, a scene Pacino and Keaton make painfully real.

Connie, played with glorious sharpness and wit by Talia Shire, has morphed into Lady Macbeth. Mafia princesses can never run things, but they can pull the strings. It's Connie who ruthlessly tells Vincent, "You're the only one in this family with my father's strength. If anything happens to Michael I want you to strike back." She has asked the right person.

Vincent is central to many of the set pieces. During a meeting of Mafia heads in Atlantic City, when Michael announces he is out of the crime business, a helicopter approaches the window and shoots most of them dead. Vincent rushes Michael, the main target, to safety. The intrigue and rapid-fire violence in the perfectly orchestrated scene might obscure the real point: Michael can't escape his past. That attack causes his cry: "Just when I thought I was out..." Pacino's performance may have become an object of derision, but he knows what he's doing. He is raw and angrily over-the-top in some scenes, but modulates those outbursts with quieter moments. When a stress-induced diabetic attack sends him to the hospital, in his delusional state he calls out Fredo's name. Pacino shows us a conflicted Michael, weakened yet clinging to power.

The power of the re-edited finale

The tone becomes more ominous and the themes more spiritual when the entire family goes to Sicily for Tony's opera debut. (There are spoilers here, but the time limit on spoilers has expired after 30 years.) Michael grapples with the Sicilian Mafia, for reasons linked to the Immobiliare deal, but that is less important than his inner crisis. He makes a confession to a cardinal, breaking down in tears as he says, "I'm beyond redemption." When his protector, Don Tommasino, becomes another victim of Michael's power struggle, he sits by the coffin and says to God, "I swear on the lives of my children, give me a chance to redeem myself and I will sin no more." In this version, Coppola eliminates lines in which Michael asks why he is feared and not loved, removing that plea for the audience's sympathy. Michael gives Vincent control of the family, but does he really have a clear conscience when he knows too well the vengeance Vincent will plan?

The Trump era has been full of Godfather references; Trump himself regularly attacks CNN's Chris Cuomo by calling him Fredo.

That revenge plays out in the elaborate, gripping final sequence at the opera, a counterpart to one of the most famous episodes from The Godfather, when a baptism is intercut with a series of murders. That first sequence was about Michael's rise to power; now he suffers the consequences. While the family watches Tony on stage, Coppola weaves in scenes of Vincent's crew settling scores. One shoots an enemy who plummets off a beautiful spiral staircase. Another murders a rival by stabbing the man's own eyeglasses into his neck. At the opera, hitmen are after Michael, which leads to the shooting on the steps, and a bullet meant for him that kills Mary. For him there is no coming back from that, no possible way to forgive himself.  

As the film ends, Coppola makes a brilliant editing choice. The original ending flashed ahead years to the elderly Michael, sitting alone in a gravelly yard as the camera closes in on a face still full of desolation and sadness. He falls to the ground, obviously dead.  With a tiny cut, Coppola transforms the meaning of the scene. It now ends with the close-up of Michael's face, still alive. Living with his guilt is his true death, a death of the soul and of hope. Coppola adds text at the end, which says: “When the Sicilians wish you ‘Cent'anni’... it means ‘for long life’... and a Sicilian never forgets.” Michael is doomed to a long life of remembering.

Godfather, Coda restores Coppola's original darker vision, but one element creates a jolt even he couldn't have seen coming. The locations listed in the end credits include Trump Castle Casino Resort in Atlantic City, where the exterior of the helicopter attack was shot. The Trump era has been full of Godfather references. Some are from mainsteam media, including a 2018 Atlantic Magazine article with the headline Donald Trump Goes Full Fredo, comparing a Trump tweet saying that he is “like, really smart” to Fredo famously insisting in Godfather II, “I'm smart! Not like everybody says, like dumb, I'm smart!”  Similarly, Twitter trolls routinely mock the president's circle and his grown children as Fredos, portraying them as weak and bumbling like the character,  including pasting Donald Trump Jr’s head on a photo of Fredo's body.  Donald Trump himself regularly attacks CNN's Chris Cuomo by calling him Fredo. Godfather II even turned up in court documents charging Trump's advisor Roger Stone with obstructing justice, citing an email in which Stone asked someone to protect him the way Frankie Pentangeli covered up for the Corleones. Today the location credit lands like a coda to the end of the Trump presidency, and offers a reminder of how influential the Godfather films have been, even when they were embraced for all the wrong reasons.

Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is available on BluRay and streaming from 8 December.

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https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201201-why-the-godfather-part-iii-has-been-unfairly-demonised

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201201-david-fincher-hollywoods-most-disturbing-director

[hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis]

Caught In Between 08. Sacrifice

Summary: Athena Dumont has finally found a place to call home after many years of foster homes and traveling. She had finally tamed her supernatural side and just wanted to live a normal teenage life. She quickly discovers that there is nothing normal about her hometown, Mystic Falls and gets sucked right back into the supernatural world.

Post Date: 06.09.20

Word count: 2k

Based off: 02x19 “Klaus” | 02x20 “The Last day” | 02x21 “The Sun Also Rises”

Masterlist

I head downstairs the next morning to grab some food from the kitchen only to be greeted by an Elena and non-daggered Elijah at the front of the house.

“Ummm… Ele--” I start before she rushes to cover my mouth with her hand. 

“What are you doing?” I whisper to her.

“I’ll tell you, both of you. But not here,” She whispers back.

“Can I trust you?” She whispers turning to Elijah.

“Can I trust you?” Elijah questions back. Elena seems to reluctantly hand the dagger over to Elijah to show that he can trust her. He takes it from her hand and now knows that he can trust her.

“If you want to come, Athena. I’m gonna head out soon.” Elena whispers to me.

“Alright, let me get ready real quick. I’ll meet you in the car.” I respond and start to head back to my room. I quickly get changed and grab my bag before making my way to Elena’s car.

Elena then drove us to the Lockwood mansion where we spent most of the day learning about Elijah’s family history. Along with the curse and how it was really just a curse placed on Klaus.

The next morning I go to get Damon, who seemingly hadn’t tried to get me up first, “Knock, knock,” I say opening the door to Damon’s room. 

“Yes?” He lies staring up at the ceiling not even sparing me a look.

“You good?” I asked closing the door and making my way to his bed.

“Yes. No. We can’t just let Elena sacrifice herself,” He sighs.

“We can’t exactly stop her either. This was going to happen regardless of what we tried,” I say trying to ease him as I lay to rest my head on his chest.

“And you. What are we going to do once Klaus can finally get his hands on you? I’m not gonna let that happen.” He starts to sound even more upset looking down at me.

“Damon, you know you can’t control our every move, right?” I look up. “Look, I can handle myself when it comes to the Originals. Don’t worry about me. Right now we need to focus on stopping the ritual and more importantly...kill Klaus,” You hesitate to say his name. 

“Alright, fine. I’m sure everyone is waiting for us downstairs,” He gets up as my head just drops to the bed. I get up after him and head to my room to get dressed for the day. I head down to the library where everyone is.

“Tonight is the full moon. We should assume that Klaus is prepared to break the curse,” Elijah explains as I take a seat next to Elena on the couch.

“Elena and Athena,  said that the sun and the moon curse is fake? That it’s actually just a curse placed on Klaus.” Stefan questions.

“Klaus is a vampire. Born of a werewolf bloodline. The curse has kept his werewolf aspect from manifesting. But if he breaks it…” Elijah begins to explain.

“He’ll become a true hybrid, huh?” I finish. Elijah nods, confirming my thought.

“Then why are we letting him break the curse? We can kill him today. With Bonnie.” Damon explains entering the library.

“No. Bonnie can’t use that much power without dying,” Elena states.

“I’ll write her a great eulogy,” Damon responds.

“Damon,” I say, disapprovingly.

“It’s not an option, Damon,” Elena protests.

“All right, how do we break this curse?” Stefan changes the subject only slightly.

“Well, the ritual itself is relatively straightforward. The ingredients, so to speak, you already know. The moonstone. A witch will channel the power of the full moon to release the spell that’s bound within the stone. After that, Klaus, being both werewolf and vampire, will sacrifice one of each.” Elijah explains the steps to the ritual.

“And where do I fit into it?” Elena asks.

“The final part of the ritual. Klaus must drink the blood of the doppelganger… to the point of your death,” Elijah answers her question. You feel Elena’s uneasy shift and I take her hand into mine and squeeze it as Stefan takes her other.

“And that’s where you come in,” Elena looks back up to Elijah.

“This is an elixir that I acquired some 500 years ago for Katerina. It posses mystical properties of resuscitation,” Elijah picks the jar up from the case its in.

“So I’ll be dead?” Elana asks.

“And then you won’t” Elijah quickly responds.

“That’s your plan? A magical witch potion with no expiration date? You want to come back to life, What about John’s ring?” Damon butts in.

“Are you forgetting that that ring only works for humans? Elena is a doppelganger a supernatural occurrence,” I remind him.

“Athena is right. Odds are the ring won’t work,” Elijah continues.

“I’ll take those odds over your elixir. What if it doesn’t work, Elena?” Damon asks making his voice quieter.

“Then I guess I’ll just be dead.” Elena nonchalantly says. Damon looks at me and then Stefan for reassurance that we agree with him, but we don’t. Damon just walks out of the library upset.

“Do we know if Klaus has everything he needs to do this?” I ask.

“Does he have a werewolf?” Elena adds looking over at me

“Klaus has been waiting to break this curse for over a thousand years. If he doesn’t already have a werewolf. My guess is by tonight, he will.” Elijah states.

“What are the chances that it could be Athena?” Elena asks for my concern.

“If I remember correctly, Klaus seemed quite fond of you last time,” I clench my jaw and look down as Elijah answers the question, “My guess is that he would do no harm to Athena. Unless he’s mad about you leaving, then I’m not sure.” 

“Well, if it ends up being me. Then, I’m willing to do whatever I can to help. If not, I’ll definitely try to be on the lookout tonight during my transformation,” I sigh and get up to go outside.

After a few minutes of walking around alone, I notice Elijah making his way over to me, “Are you ok?” He asks concerned.

I sigh, “I just don’t what I’ll do if any harm comes to my friends. I know I kinda left because of his obsession with the curse, but I don’t know what I’d do if he hurt any of them,” I explain.

“I promise I will try my best to make sure no harm comes to them,” Elijah responds.

“Thank you. If he does break the curse and ends up surviving. It’s only a matter of time he would figure out where I am, especially if I’m at the ritual and I’m not sure if I can face him. Not only because of his reaction to seeing me again as himself but also the fact that he hurt my friends.” I say.

“Come here,” Elijah pulls me into a tight hug. “I promise that I won’t let him harm you. If he wants to, he’ll have to go through me, lil’ one.” Elijah mentions his nickname for me for the first time in a while. Before I could respond we hear some shouting from inside the house, the next thing I know Elijah vamp speeds us inside

We find Jenna holding a crossbow to Alaric, accusing him of being Klaus. Alaric claims that he was let go, but before we believe him we test him by asking something that only Alaric would know. Luckily for him, he passed.

“Why’d he let you go?” Stefan questions.

“He wanted me to deliver a message. The sacrifice happens tonight.,” Alaric states. We all make our way into the great room to see what Alaric might know. Alaric explains to us that he has no memory of what Klaus was up to while in his body. He also told us that Katherine was there, even though we already knew that.

Elijah and I make our way into the library as everyone else heads upstairs, “What are the chances Klaus would be willing to let me be his werewolf for the ritual?” I ask him.

“Slim to none. But I nor your friends would let that happen so I wouldn’t suggest volunteering.” Elijah states coldly.

“I know, I just wish there was something I could do to--” 

“Wait shh… shh,” Elijah stops me from talking.

“What is it?” I ask after a few moments of silence.

“It seems as though. Damon just fed Elena some of his blood,” Elijah explains.

“What the hell?!” I say as there a loud crashes coming from the second floor.

I start to head upstairs before Elijah stops me, “Well, it sounds like you don’t need this anymore. Feeding her vampire blood rendered it useless. Tell Elena I’ll be back before nightfall. We’ll proceed as planned,” Elijah puts the elixir away as I notice Damon walk into the library. Elijah starts to head out.

“We both know that elixir wouldn’t have worked anyway,” Damon states. Elijah turns around to respond to Damon’s statement before heading out again.

“How could you?” I ask turning to Damon.

“It was the only way to be sure she would survive,” He rebutted.

“I can’t believe you,” I shake my head at him before walking away. 

I spent the rest of the day taking time for myself, preparing for my transformation. As soon as it got close enough to my transformation, I go on the lookout for the place of the ritual, so I could try to stake it out. I find it and travel a few hundred feet back so they couldn’t hear me transform. 

After a few hours, I find myself near the ritual site with a blanket over me. Elijah is kneeling by with a bag of clothes, “Here, now stay out of sight,” He hands me the bag.

“Thank you,” I whisper as I turn around to change. Elijah vamps speed me close enough to the ritual but far enough that I can’t be detected. As soon as I caught a glimpse of Klau’s face, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave or not. But I stayed wanting to make sure that the plan goes well, and If it didn’t then I would find a way to stop him.

I watched in horror as Klaus and his witch start to perform the ritual. After Stefan offers to take Jenna’s place as the vampire, Klaus stakes Stefan in the back making note that he does not want Stefan to be used in the ritual. He begins by killing  Jules by ripping her heart out and squeezing it over the puddle of blood for the spell. He then kills Jenna by staking her in the heart.

As soon as he came to Elena, I wanted to do everything to stop it. To make myself known. But I had to let the plan play itself out. Watching Elena’s lifeless body fall to the ground enraged me, as Klaus started his transformation. All of a sudden Bonnie comes out of nowhere, chanting a spell to keep Klaus down. She continues to inflict pain on Klaus as Damon sets Elena down next to Stefan. I make my way over to them with Elijah. I stop to stand with Bonnie as Elijah saunters up to Klaus.

“Elijah?” Klaus whispers.

“Hello, brother. Elijah responds.

“Hey, are you good?” I ask Stefan as he walks up beside Bonnie and me, he nods his head even though he’s still in pain.

Elijah then plunges his hand into Klaus’s chest, “In the name of our family, Niklaus,” Elijah starts.

“I didn’t bury them at sea!” Klaus states as I look at the two confused.

I notice Elijah’s face soften, “What?”

“Their bodies are safe. If you kill me, you’ll never find them.” Klaus explains.

“Elijah! Don’t listen to him.” Stefan calls out.

“Elijah. I can take you to them. I give you my word...Brother.” Klaus tells Elijah in pain.

“Elijah, you can’t, not after all we’ve been through,” I say even though it’s hard for me to look at the sight and even speak those words, knowing I had some care for the both of them.

“Athena?” I notice Klaus slightly shifts his eyes over to me.

“Do it and I’ll take you both out,” Bonnie threatens.

“You’ll die,” Elijah states.

“I don’t care,” Bonnie quickly responds.

I see the contemplation in Elijah’s eyes, “I’m sorry,” He says before whisking  Klaus away and me along with them. 

A/N: Thanks for waiting so patiently. Originally this whole part was going to be based on 02x19 “Klaus”, but then I realized that it was super slow and just a filler episode. So now this part spans over 3 episodes even though it’s really short. Although, I have great plans for the next part, now that Klaus has actually entered the story.

Taglist: @tristanacarry​ | @commentaryfanfic​

[nautiscarader]

Wendip Week 3 - Love potion

(Ao3)

 - I love, smoochikins   - I love you too, pumpkin pie...   Wendy and Dipper didn't even start drinking their shared milkshake with two straws, as they were too busy ogling each other and calling each other names so sweet it started to rival the very dessert they were not eating. Their table at the Lazy Susan's was observed by three people, one of them feeling more and more guilty by the minute.

 - Mabel, what have you done to them? - Melody asked the teenager  - Well... - Mabel shied away and began toying with her hair - You remember that Love God incident?   - Oh, the burning balloon one? - Soos added - Or do you mean the ethically questionable practice of using a magical potion to make people fall for each other without asking them if they are up for it?  - Mabel, didn't you learn anything from the Tambry and Robbie incident? - Melody crossed her arms.  - I did, but... - Mabel stuttered - But they look so cute together! And Dipper has been in love with her since forever, and Wendy obviously has a thing for him, except she's too cool to say it, and... I just thought that maybe they need a little push. And hey, Tambry and Robbie turned out fine.   - Mabel - Melody interrupted her. - I have never heard Wendy say anything remotely as uncool as "smoochikins", and Dipper would have sooner started flying than openly admit he's in love with Wendy. That's not them.

Mabel sighed and lowered her head in shame.

 - Okay, I guess we need to undo it.   - Does the love potion have some instructions, or... - Melody leaned forward.  - It does! It says that it should wear off after three hours, but it's been more! - she showed her the empty bottle - And trust me, I tried sprinkling them with the anti-love potion, but it just didn't work. Dipper just got an umbrella and offered it to Wendy so they started ogling each other underneath it.  - I think we need to bring big guns. - Melody spoke - Let's drag them to Ford.   =============

 - I love you, my did-dop.  - I love you too, my cœur-duroy...  - It's worse than I thought.    Ford spoke, watching the two teenagers squeezed into the same seat of his mind-reading machine. Neither Dipper, nor Wendy looked uncomfortable, and they didn't protest when Ford put a huge wired dome over their heads to measure their brain activity. 

 - Okay, but can they be brought back to reality? Earlier today they have been doing the "No, you hang up first" for an hour, and they weren't even on the phone!  - From what Mabel described, it looks like this is some sort of liquefied spell - Ford spoke, watching as the pink, gooey substance sticks to the side of his glass probe - If we don't have a remedy for it, then we must break the spell the usual way.    There was time in Melody's life when the phrase "break the spell the usual way" would be considered odd. Those times were long gone.

 - So we either find some equally crazy witch, or...   - Or we see what can compromise the spell's integrity. - Ford ended - We need to find what holds them together, and see if we can wedge something, metaphorically, between them.   - Okay, let's do it. - Mabel sniffed - If we want to repair their hearts, we need to re-break them!

========

 - Look, Wendy! - Mabel sneaked between her and her brother - Dipper has a whole collection of fantasy red-hairs! Just like you! Oh no! - she spoke in a pretend voice - He has tons of other crushes, not just you!

She waved a huge stack of posters depicting scantily-clad women or elves, all bearing a striking resemblance to Wendy. For a split of a second the teenager looked at them, and just when Mabel thought she would be able to divert her attention, she pushed her away to look at Dipper.

 - Cool, I know who to cosplay for next Halloween! They do look neat. 

=======

 - Look, Dipper! That is Wendy's ideal boyfriend - she showed him what might have counted as a forged screenshot of an on-line dating site, if it wasn't written in crayon. - She says she likes men, not boys, who are tall, and not tiny, and she definitely doesn't like journals! Oh, what a tragedy! You two have negative sixty percent match!  - You are right - Dipper spoke to Mabel, once more bringing a smile to her face - That's why I got myself a gym membership, I gotta keep in shape and not spend the rest of my life in books.   Mabel groaned. 

=======

 - I know what we should name our children! I've already started a college fund for them!  - And I have made blueprints for our house!

Mabel shared the with Wendy and Dipper, trying to come up with new excuses to break the powerful spell they were under. But nothing that could come to her head didn't work - no matter their differences, one of them always found a way to brush them off. And even though she tried to mentally silence it, the sounds of them kissing only cemented their cursed love.

 - I'm sorry, Dipper, I'm sorry Wendy - Mabel sniffed - I thought I knew what I was doing, because I wanted you guys to be happy. I shouldn't have messed with your lives...

Suddenly, the squelching of Wendy and Dipper's lips stopped and was replaced by coughing, screams and the cries of utter disgust. Mabel jumped in her seat, and for the first time in her life, she was g;ad to see two people choking to death. 

 - Wendy! Dipper! You're back! - she cheered - I am really, really sorry, you guys, I-  - Mabel, did Dipper and I kiss? - Wendy asked Mabel, her eyes still red. - And why do I feel like I've eaten two pounds of ice cream?  - And did I agree to marry her? - Dipper look at his hand with what looked like a plastic ring from bag of cereal over his finger.  - Yeah, and it's my fault. Sorry, I am the one to blame. I might have had spiked your drinks with the love potion.

Wendy and Dipper's eyes widened, and as they were about to complain, Mabel continued.

 But I guess me admitting to that undid the spell! The dishonesty! That's what breaks love! Ford was right! I was dishonest with you, and that finally broke it!  - Er, I'm afraid not.    The three youngsters turned their head and watched as Ford walked into the diner with the same glass test tube he's been experimenting with.

 - Turns out the love potion's duration lengthens over time. And since this thing is a year past its expiration date, it should have worn off after 7.5 hours. And it took... - Ford looked at his pocket watch - Seven hours and forty minutes. Acceptable result.    Dipper, Wendy and Mabel blinked, sharing the confused looks.

 - But of course what Mabel spoke is completely correct, you shouldn't be altering other people's emotions. - Ford grunted - Especially with unapproved chemicals. Well, I'll have to go, I have to dispose of the rest of this, so that any match-makers won't be tempted to use it.    Mabel turned towards her friend and brother once more, their faces still filled with a mixture of confusion and bewilderment.

 - So... what are we gonna do now?   - I don't know, I guess I have to use that gym card somehow. - Dipper shrugged. - Er, wanna join me?  - Sure, I got a whole batch of nerdy comics to read. - Wendy took out the issues of "Ynna, the fighter empress". - Hope they don't charge me for just sitting there.   Mabel watched as the two walked out of the diner, chuckling to some joke only they understood, almost as if nothing has happened. 

 - Well, at least I got out of it without having to suffer consequences for my actions! - Mabel cheered herself up.  - That will be a hundred and eighty-five dollars for all the desserts they ordered. - Lazy Susan spoke, slamming the receipt onto the table - Do you have the cash, or should I bring the mop?   

[bethsuglywigs]

1x09 Questions

I’m sitting in my 9 hour Saturday negotiations class doing this instead of listening lol. 

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

TBH I was crying laughing through most of this episode. Annie non-stop roasting Dean and Stan/Ruby smoking expired weed are the standouts though.

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

Rio calling them bitches. He must have skipped his dose of respect women juice that morning.

Also am I the only one that thinks Rio speaks differently in s1 than he does in s2/s3. I can’t put my finger on it, but he sounds different to me. 

3. Do you think the girls should have told Rio about Eddie? How do you think things would’ve gone if they had? Yes. I think Rio wouldn’t have tested them and then he and Beth wouldn’t have broken up. But also they really have no reason to trust Rio or even to be that loyal to him after he took back their cut.

I mean they couldn’t know this, but Rio knew about Eddie anyway so they only could have benefitted from telling him. 

4. Sara moves up the transplant list this ep in two pretty delightful scenes! Still - the episode makes it clear Stan and Ruby can’t afford the surgery. Before Ruby got into crime, what do you think her and Stan’s plan was regarding finding the money when they got the call about the transplant? What do you think they would’ve (or could’ve) done if crime wasn’t an option?  

I think they would have tried fundraising at the church again. But mostly I think they would have done what they end up doing, paying with a check they know is going to bounce and hoping Sara gets the kidney before it does.

5. This episode makes it clear that Annie’s been staying with Beth since everything went down with Greg and Nancy in the last episode. Do you think this is something Annie’s done before? And what do you think this - and the subsequent scene with Annie calling Beth on Dean’s behaviour - tells us about the relationship between Annie, Beth and Dean over the years?

I think teenage Annie lived with them early on in their marriage and probably during Ben’s early life after ending things with Greg. I imagine that Annie has only relatively recently established a more independent life from Beth (maybe in the last 5-7 years).

As far as Beth and Dean’s relationship, while I do think Beth probably was in love with Dean and happy for a time, Dean probably was always condescending and dismissive of Beth. And I think it probably got worse once they started having kids (imo I think Dean is the one who wanted 4 kids). Since Annie was probably always around, she would have seen the way Dean treats Beth and because she loves Beth, she’s probably never liked Dean. 

6. Ruby and Stan have leftover weed from the Nelly concert in 2003! Lidya Jewett was born in 2006, so I think we can safely assume this is a pre-kids Ruby and Stan, haha. What do you think their dates / relationship life was like before the kids?

I imagine they were a little wild. Obviously Stan and Ruby know how to have fun with each other. They probably just had a lot more fun before they had to worry about their children. 

Also a friend of mine left weed at my place for like 6 months and then tried to smoke it when she got it back and she told me it was unsmokeable. So I’m a little concerned about that about to get its leaner’s permit weed. But I don’t do drugs so who am I to say.

7. What do you think of the truck job in this episode and how the girls handle it? Do you think Rio thought it would get this sort of reaction out of Beth? The scheme itself is a bit stupid, but it sets so many fun scenes. I actually LOVE that the girls get Rio arrested. It’s incredibly shortsighted, but he has so much power over them and this is the first time Beth really pushes back against him in an effective way.   

8. The first Beth x Rio break-up!!!!!!!!!! I have no question here, haha, just talk to me about it. I want to know all your thoughts! *chin hands*

chef’s kiss baby!

9. That said, do you think Beth really believed Rio was going to kill her?

Yes. While I don’t think Beth is generally afraid of Rio, he has told her multiple times at this point that he loves murder and its his preferred method of dealing with problems. Also Rio is literally a gang boss and if you know anything about gangs its that you don’t just get to walk away. Beth SHOULD be concerned about him. This is like the one time she has any self preservation instinct.  

10. This episode also starts a pretty pivotal plotline for not just the remainder of this season, but s2 too in Boomer infiltrating Mary Pat’s life. What do you think of the dynamic that’s teased out between them in this episode? And do you think there was any way their relationship could’ve gone differently to the way that it did? Better? Worse?

I want to say that things could have gone differently for them. Mary Pat is so earnest in her desire to start dating again and she does seem to have a genuinely good time with Boomer in the beginning. But ultimately Boomer is Boomer aka the earths biggest shit stain so he would have always ruined it.

11. This episode also ends with each of the girls getting an emotional speech. Annie tries to leave a message for Ben, but ends up in a complex, biting, grief-struck conversation with Greg instead. Ruby tries to tell Stan about what’s happening with crime and Rio, but they’re interrupted by the phone call for Sara’s transplant. Beth gives her angry, self-righteous speech to Ruby and Annie about fairytales and goodness, which sets them on the scheme for the next episode. What do you think these scenes tell us about each of the girls’ arcs this season? And how do you think it sets us up for their final notes in the s1 finale?

Annie: The way Annie pivots from explaining herself to Greg to teasing him and he just lets her, reveals why their relationship didn’t work out. He obviously heard her on those messages and she’s been acting really weird, but he doesn’t push her. While I think they do genuinely love each other, I don’t think they know how to communicate when things get difficult. 

Ruby: This goes back to the point I made last week about Ruby feeling more guilty about hiding things from Stan than actually committing the crimes itself. 

Beth: Love that Beth invents feminism just to get back at her boyfriend.   

[coppicefics]

Masked Omens: Week Four

[Image Description: Image 1 - A simple rendition of the Masked Singer UK logo, a golden mask with colourful fragments flying off of it. The mask has a golden halo and a golden devil tail protruding from either side. Below, gold text reads ‘Masked Omens’.

Image 2 - A page from the Opinion section of the Capital Herald, dated Saturday, 16th January, 2021. Full image description and transcript below the cut. End ID.]

Read the fic here!

(Falling records template from Pixeden)

The Capital Herald, Saturday 16th January 2021 Opinion, page 20

Main Story: TOFFLEY GATE: FIFTEEN YEARS ON, IT’S NO HOME Where is the affordable housing that was promised? And why can’t local people get access to it? The Toffley Gate development once seemed like that most elusive of rarities; a politician's campaign promise made real. When Lawrence Richmond, a distinguished barrister, was elected as MP for Toffley South in 2005, it was partly on the strength of his pledge to build a brand new block of affordable accommodation for the people of Toffley. In fact, if you ask most local voters why the future Transport Secretary won his seat, they'll point in the direction of Toffley Gate. The development, it was claimed, would create jobs in the area, boost property values, and allow more buyers and renters on low incomes to invest wisely in their future. Fifteen years on, how are those claims holding up? Well, the development did indeed bring in construction jobs, as well as long-term positions in the shops and services on Toffley Gate's street level. As construction continued, however, some concerns were raised – even as early as February of 2006, seven months before the grand opening – that changes to the specification meant almost all the flats in the towering buildings would be described as luxury apartments, rather than affordable housing. But as long as they were still rented out at low rates, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. When the development's 312 flats were put on the market, however, 276 of them were priced at luxury rates. The remaining thirty-six were a single block of small studio apartments, suitable for a single occupant or two, a far cry from the family homes Richmond had promised to provide. Protests followed, in 2009 and 2010, but it was too late. Now, fifteen years on, only 194 Toffley Gate units are occupied. The rest remain empty and useless, far beyond the means of most local residents and workers. The Capital Herald popped into the local coffee shop to canvas opinions. “Oh, they're lovely, aren't they?” said Gladys Jones, retired, who'd stopped in with her grandson, Chris, a student. “I'd love one of those balconies, but not on my pension.” And Chris? “They're going for what, two or three grand a month? I could work for years and never save up enough to live there.” What would he like to see done with the place? “Drop the prices, maybe set them up as student accommodation, the uni's always oversubscribed. Or just... make sure normal people can afford them, you know?” “I put my name on the waiting list for the cheap flats when the place opened, when I was about twenty-five,” Jenny Tyler, a teacher, told me. I asked her what changed her mind. “No, I'm still on the list. Fifteen years, I'm still on the list.” Has she considered applying for one of the more expensive unused units? “No. On a teacher's pay? No, in fact, I'm moving back in with my dad. It's cheaper to commute in from Tadfield than to keep paying rent in Toffley.” And what of those behind the counter? Of the three employees on shift, two had joined the waiting list for the affordable housing at Toffley Gate. All three agreed that they'd love to live in one of the fancier units, if it were possible. One, Tom, has a second job as a cleaner on the development. “I have to clean all the luxury homes, even the empty ones,” he said. “And there are a lot of empty ones. Even the ones where you can tell someone's moved in, there's hardly any sign of life. It almost seems like an investment property type thing, but I don't know how they can be making money without sub-letting it.” When approached for comment, Lawrence Richmond – an Eton graduate who lives in a large historic house with his wife and son – argued that he is not responsible for market rates, nor for setting the level of affordable housing provision within the development. Why, then, did he make such grandiose promises during his election campaign in 2005? And why, sixteen years on and after several protests, is he still in office? If Richmond is as keen on affordable housing as he claimed to be in 2005 – as he has continued to claim, during the run-up to every local election since then – there must be something he can do, in his capacity as Toffley's MP, to encourage the building's owners, Selectan Homes Plc, to lower rents and allow lower-income families to access the many unoccupied units in the building. Surely it would be a win-win situation; Selectan would reap the rewards of a fully-let building, existing Toffley Gate residents would benefit from an invigorated community, and local people could live in the area where they actually worked. The businesses established at the base of the Toffley Gate tower blocks would have as many customers as they could want. In short, Lawrence Richmond, what are you waiting for? TINA MOON

[Image Description: A colour photograph of a gleaming block of flats. End ID] [Caption] Toffley Gate gleams in the sunshine. But are its units overpriced? (Photo: Daniel Brubaker on Unsplash)

Right hand column: OLD TUNES ARE BEST How wonderful to hear some music from the good old days on ITV’s The Masked Singer. When I sat down to watch it - under duress, I’ll admit, and largely to keep my wife and daughters happy - I expected nothing but noise of the variety that makes up the modern singles chart. Imagine my surprise and delight, then, when several of the songs reminded me of the heady days of my youth. Some, of course, were older still, overshooting the perfect era of my teenage years to land in the tragically uncool Jazz Age, but for the most part over the last few weeks I have been able to sing along with abandon, embarrassing my daughters no end and infuriating my wife, who is desperately trying to ascertain the identities of all of the disguised celebrities inside the ludicrous costumes. I doubt we’ve ever heard any of those voices before, given that the really big names in entertainment no doubt have better things to do than make such fools of themselves on a Saturday night, so I won’t be participating in the silly guessing game. Instead, I’m picking my favourites based on the songs they sang in the first few weeks. Snake is my favourite, by virtue of singing a Whitesnake song in the first live show, and it was a good enough performance that I will, for now, dismiss last week’s show as merely a momentary lapse in skill and judgement. Bonfire got everyone in my house smiling with ‘Disco Inferno’, and it’s rare that my children and I agree on anything, so they have to be the house favourite. Axolotl chose wisely in channelling Kermit the Frog, a universally beloved entertainer, and Pony’s tribute to America with ‘Horse With No Name’ was very enjoyable, too. So, I don’t know who Snake is but I’m rooting for them anyway, it seems. Who knows what tonight will bring? READER’S LETTER FROM DEREK METTE

Coupon, bottom third of page: [Image Description: Graphic of two falling record sleeves, with corresponding vinyl records also falling beside them. The first album sleeve shows two silhouettes of a face, looking towards each other in the style of the face/vase optical illusion, and is labelled “talking about it - Anathema”. The second shows a closeup of hands holding a book, and is labelled “Anathema - Narrative Devices”. At the bottom of the graphic are track listings. “Talking About It: Talking About it, Here I Go, Talking in Circles, The Magic Word, Seventh Sense, Pour My Heart Out, Nobody’s Fault, For A Spell, Living In The Past, Parting Words. Narrative Devices: Narrative Devices, Stab In The Dark, Look Before You Leap, Out Of The Crowd, Daisy Chains, I Hate To Leave, Ashes, Eagle Eyes, End of Days, Parting Ways.” End ID.] EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT FOR CAPITAL HERALD READERS Exclusive to the Capital Herald, this voucher entitles you to 50% off the listed price of Anathema's first album, Talking About It, when you buy her new album, Narrative Devices. Featuring hit singles 'Daisy Chains' and 'End of Days', Narrative Devices has been described as 'a breath of fresh air for folk music' and 'a powerful meditation on the stories we tell ourselves every day'. 'Talking About It' contains the gorgeous ballad 'For A Spell', which has already sold over half a million units as a single in the two years since its release. Don't miss out on this amazing deal! Just take this coupon to your nearest participating retailer, or enter code CAP50 when ordering online. [Image Description: A barcode marked ‘FOR RETAILER USE’, from barcode.tec-it.com, and a QR code, from qr-code-generator.com. End ID.] Voucher expires 12AM 23/01/21. At participating retailers only. While stocks last. Not valid outside of fanfiction. For full terms and conditions, see page 28.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

OED Word of the Year expanded for ‘unprecedented’ 2020 (BBC) This year has seen so many seismic events that Oxford Dictionaries has expanded its word of the year to encompass several “Words of an Unprecedented Year”. Its words are chosen to reflect 2020’s “ethos, mood, or preoccupations”. They include bushfires, Covid-19, WFH, lockdown, circuit-breaker, support bubbles, keyworkers, furlough, Black Lives Matter and moonshot. Use of the word pandemic has increased by more than 57,000% this year. Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Dictionaries, said: “I’ve never witnessed a year in language like the one we’ve just had. The Oxford team was identifying hundreds of significant new words and usages as the year unfolded, dozens of which would have been a slam dunk for Word of the Year at any other time. “It’s both unprecedented and a little ironic—in a year that left us speechless, 2020 has been filled with new words unlike any other.”

Jury duty? No thanks, say many, forcing trials to be delayed (AP) Jury duty notices have set Nicholas Philbrook’s home on edge with worries about him contracting the coronavirus and passing it on to his father-in-law, a cancer survivor with diabetes in his mid-70s who is at higher risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19. People across the country have similar concerns amid resurgences of the coronavirus, a fact that has derailed plans to resume jury trials in many courthouses for the first time since the pandemic started. Within the past month, courts in Hartford, Connecticut, San Diego and Norfolk, Virginia, have had to delay jury selection for trials because too few people responded to jury duty summonses. The non-response rates are much higher now than they were before the pandemic, court officials say. Judges in New York City, Indiana, Colorado and Missouri declared mistrials recently because people connected to the trials either tested positive for the virus or had symptoms. “What the real question boils down to are people willing to show up to that court and sit in a jury trial? said Bill Raftery, a senior analyst with the National Center for State Courts. “Many courts have been responsive to jurors who have said that they’re not comfortable with coming to court and doing jury duty and therefore offering deferrals simply because of concerns over COVID.”

The next few months could be rough for the U.S. economy (NYT) The next few months have the potential to be very unpleasant for the American economy. Many states are reimposing coronavirus restrictions, which will likely lead to new reductions in consumer spending and worker layoffs. As Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, recently said, “We’ve got new cases at a record level, we’ve seen a number of states begin to reimpose limited activity restrictions, and people may lose confidence that it is safe to go out.” Adding to the economic risks, several of the government’s biggest virus rescue programs are scheduled to expire next month. It isn’t clear whether Congress will renew them, because congressional Democrats and Republicans disagree on how to do so. A lack of government support, Powell has said, may lead to “tragic” results with “unnecessary hardship.” The longer-term picture is more encouraging, though. There is reason to hope that the next economic recovery, whenever it comes, will be stronger than the frustratingly weak recovery after the 2007-2009 financial crisis. “It’s a good guess that we’ll get this pandemic under control at some point next year,” writes Paul Krugman, the Times columnist (and Nobel Prize-winning economist). “It’s also a good bet that when we do, the economy will come roaring back.”

Student loan repayments (WSJ) The U.S. government stands to lose more than $400 billion from the federal student loan program, an internal analysis shows, approaching the size of losses incurred by banks during the subprime-mortgage crisis. The Education Department, with the help of two private consultants, looked at $1.37 trillion in student loans held by the government at the start of the year. Their conclusion: Borrowers will pay back $935 billion in principal and interest. That would leave taxpayers on the hook for $435 billion, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The analysis was based on government accounting standards and didn’t include roughly $150 billion in loans originated by private lenders and backed by the government.

Brazil’s local elections (Worldcrunch) Brazilian local elections can be fun to watch. Candidates come from every walk of life, and are notably allowed to use nicknames on the campaign trail—and there have been some true gems over the years: a loud man with thick sideburns and bushy hair campaigned as “Geraldo Wolverine”; an elderly man in army uniform and full beard was “Bin Laden for Governor”; and we’ve also seen a tropical, chubby Spiderman, an old Robin, and Jesuses in various shapes and sizes. Earlier this month, as Brazilians headed to the polls to elect local leaders in the country’s major states and cities—including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro—there were exactly 78 candidates who chose to run as some form of “Bolsonaro,” and even one as “Donald Trump Bolsonaro.” Results are in and 77 of them failed to get elected, including the president’s ex-wife, who campaigned as Rogéria Bolsonaro. The Brazilian leader personally chimed in on his social media accounts to endorse the 59 candidates (with and without familiar nicknames) he favored—only nine of whom got elected, according to Estadão de S. Paulo daily. Centrist and moderate parties made gains in the local contests, which also came at the expense of the other massive political force in the country, the leftist Workers’ Party.

Reporter Gatecrashes EU Defence Chiefs’ Video Call After Login Details Posted on Twitter (Vice) A Dutch journalist managed to join a video call for EU defence ministers, much to his and everybody else’s surprise. Video posted on Twitter shows Daniël Verlaan, a technology reporter for broadcaster RTL Nieuws, in disbelief as he realises he’s actually managed to jump on the call. RTL said that Verlaan was only able to do so because of information tweeted by Dutch defence minister Ank Bijleveld, including a photo (since deleted) showing five digits of a six-digit PIN needed to join the call. Defence ministers representing EU members and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell were on the call. When Verlaan joins, Borrell asks, “Who are you?” After exchanging pleasantries, and as laughter is heard in the background, Borrell asks the reporter if he knew he was “jumping into a secret conference.” “Yes, I’m sorry, I’m a journalist from the Netherlands,” Verlaan says. “I’m sorry for interrupting your conference, I’ll be leaving here.” A spokesperson for the Dutch ministry of defence told RTL a staff member had accidentally tweeted the picture containing information that allowed Verlaan to join the call. “This shows once again that ministers need to realise how careful you have to be with Twitter,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

France’s Dragnet for Extremists Sweeps Up Some Schoolchildren, Too (NYT) Armed with assault rifles and wearing balaclavas, dozens of police officers raided four apartments recently in a sprawling complex in Albertville, a city in the French Alps. They confiscated computers and cellphones, searched under mattresses and inside drawers, and took photos of books and wall ornaments with Quranic verses. Before the stunned families, the officers escorted away four suspects for “defending terrorism.” “That’s impossible,” Aysegul Polat recalled telling an officer who left with her son. “This child is 10 years old.” Her son—along with two other boys and one girl, all 10 years old—was accused of defending terrorism in a classroom discussion on the freedom of expression at a local public school. Officers held the children in custody for about 10 hours at police stations while interrogating their parents about the families’ religious practices and the recent republication of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the magazine Charlie Hebdo. The fifth-grade classmates are among at least 14 children and teenagers investigated by the police in recent weeks on accusations of making inappropriate comments during a commemoration for a teacher who was beheaded last month after showing the cartoons in a class on freedom of expression. As France grapples with a wave of Islamist attacks following the republication of the Charlie Hebdo caricatures, the case in Albertville and similar ones elsewhere have again raised questions about the nature of the government’s response.

France’s Sarkozy goes on trial for corruption (Reuters) Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial on Monday accused of trying to bribe a judge and of influence-peddling, one of several criminal investigations that threaten to cast an ignominious pall over his decades-long political career. Prosecutors allege Sarkozy offered to secure a plum job in Monaco for judge Gilbert Azibert in return for confidential information about an inquiry into claims that Sarkozy had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy, who led France from 2007-2012 and has remained influential among conservatives, has denied any wrongdoing in all the investigations against him and fought vigorously to have the cases dismissed. Next March, Sarkozy is due in court on accusations of violating campaign financing rules during his failed 2012 re-election bid. Next March, Sarkozy is due in court on accusations of violating campaign financing rules during his failed 2012 re-election bid.

Merkel, Germany’s ‘eternal’ chancellor, marks 15 years in power (AFP) In power so long she has been dubbed Germany’s “eternal chancellor”, Angela Merkel marks 15 years at the helm of Europe’s top economic power Sunday with her popularity and public trust scaling new heights as her remaining time in office ticks down. With the coronavirus raging around the world, the pandemic has played to her strengths as a crisis manager with a head for science-based solutions. Merkel, 66, has said she will step down as chancellor when her current mandate runs out in 2021, and leave politics altogether. Assuming she finishes out her fourth term, she will tie Helmut Kohl’s longevity record for a post-war leader, with an entire generation of young Germans never knowing another person at the top. The brainy, pragmatic and unflappable Merkel has served for many in recent years as a welcome counter-balance to the big, brash men of global politics, from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin, as liberals have looked to her as the “leader of the free world”. A Pew Research Center poll last month showed large majorities in most Western countries having “confidence in Merkel to do the right thing regarding world affairs”.

China tests millions after coronavirus flare-ups in 3 cities (AP) Chinese authorities are testing millions of people, imposing lockdowns and shutting down schools after multiple locally transmitted coronavirus cases were discovered in three cities across the country last week. As temperatures drop, large-scale measures are being enacted in the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Manzhouli, despite the low number of new cases compared to the United States and other countries that are seeing new waves of infections. On Monday, the National Health Commission reported two new locally transmitted cases in Shanghai over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to seven since Friday. China has recorded 86,442 total cases and 4,634 deaths since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Singapore, a City of Skyscrapers and Little Land, Turns to Farming (WSJ) In this skyscraper-studded nation of nearly six million people, all the farmland combined adds up to about 500 acres—an area roughly the size of a single American farm. That explains why more than 90% of the city-state’s food comes from abroad, a feat of globalization that plays out every day as beef is brought from New Zealand, eggs from Poland and vegetables trucked in from Malaysia. But recent developments—from Covid-19-related border closures to international trade fights—have shown that near-total dependence on the outside world may not be the best strategy in a shifting global environment. The Asian financial hub long focused on growing investment is turning to growing food. It can’t be done the traditional way, however. Land is so scarce in Singapore that the government continually reclaims territory from the sea to build new urban infrastructure. Instead, businesses are trying to reinvent agriculture. Industrial buildings are being converted into vertical farms with climate-controlled grow rooms. Rows of lettuce and kale are nourished not by soil, but via automated drips of nutrient-infused water. LED lights substitute for the sun. The government’s goal is to have 30% of the island’s nutritional requirements produced in Singapore by 2030, up from less than 10% today. Earlier this year, it shipped 400,000 seed packets to households to encourage home cultivation of leafy greens, cucumbers and tomatoes. In September, it announced about $40 million in grants to expand high-tech farms.

Reports: Israeli PM flew to Saudi Arabia, met crown prince (AP) Israeli media reported Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia for a clandestine meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which would mark the first known encounter between senior Israeli and Saudi officials. Hebrew-language media cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that Netanyahu and Yossi Cohen, head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, flew to the Saudi city of Neom on Sunday, where they met with the crown prince. The prince was there for talks with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. A Gulfstream IV private jet took off just after 1740 GMT from Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, according to data from website FlightRadar24.com. The flight traveled south along the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula before turning toward Neom and landing just after 1830 GMT, according to the data. The flight took off from Neom around 2150 GMT and followed the same route back to Tel Aviv. While Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates have reached deals under the Trump administration to normalize ties with Israel, Saudi Arabia so far has remained out of reach.

Cyclone Gati hits Somalia as country’s strongest storm on record (Washington Post) Tropical Cyclone Gati struck the arid nation of Somalia on Sunday as the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds, making it the strongest storm on record to hit the country. The cyclone made landfall after undergoing an extraordinary period of rapid intensification, which may have set a record for the entire Indian Ocean basin, at one point attaining the strength equivalent to a Category 3 storm, with 115 mph maximum sustained winds. Its landfall was farther south than any major hurricane-equivalent cyclone on record in that part of the world as well. Landfall occurred near Xaafuun, a small community about 900 miles northeast of Mogadishu, where the land juts east near the northern tip of the country. Hordio and Ashira, both desert communities, were also directly affected by the core of the storm. A broad four to eight inches of rainfall accompanied the system through northern Somalia, the driest part of the country, drenching desert regions with a year or two’s worth of rainfall in just a matter of hours to a couple of days. Rains also swept through the Gulf of Aden and brushed up against Yemen.

[svankmajerbaby]

13, 20, 30, 40 !!

thank you so much for the ask!!!!!!

13.  Describe your writing process from idea to polished i’m not really sure, but i think i’d go something like this: i get the idea usually by either being obsessed with a property (whether it’s frankenstein, beetlejuice or barbie) or by thinking up characters and adding traits and backstory to them, and then thinking up possible dynamics for them to have with other characters. then, i try to figure out a particular context (place and time) that could fit these characters, and i make sure to think it up in such a way that it doesn’t really conflict with the source material (for my barbie-frankenstein fanfic, for example, i didn’t want to set it in early 19th century, because i wanted vivianna to be able to become barbara roberts at some point, and as such it was more comfortable to preserve the victorian aesthetic while also being closer to the 20th century); if there’s not a proper space and time these characters can feel comfortable in (whether because of a particularly tense political situation, persecution, or simply The Wrong Aesthetic Choice), i make up one. after that i begin to write dialogues and location descriptions, try to picture it all in my head as clearly as possible. then, after i have some scenes written and some interactions done, i try to organize them, thinking what should come first, what can lead to a good finale, what would be the most important moment for each character and so on. when this is done, i usually already figure out the ending and can structure everything to lead up to it. after that, it’s all a matter of sitting down and writing between the scenes i’ve already done, editing them and adding whatever new ideas i get in the meantime. usually this is what takes the longest, because by this point i’m losing steam and interest and become distracted by new projects... but sometimes i manage to finish it and by then the editing process starts on full, checking for any grammar or spelling mistakes, wrong pronouns or words or names, usually cutting down on redundant descriptions or dialogues, adding things if i think something is not clear enough or erasing things if they seem too on the nose, and then i do this over and over until i feel it’s good enough.

20.  How many WIPs and story ideas do you have? oh boy do i have plenty. i’ve sorta finished the first novel of the story of Olimpia Gómez -the first one is simply called “La Ejecutora, 1938″; i’m currently writing the second, the third and the fourth ones -”La Ejecutora, 1946″, “La Ejecutora, 1954″, and “La Ejecutora, 1966″ respectively. then i also have almost finished my stage adaptation version of “Corpse Bride”, which i renamed “Death and Marriage”. i’m a chapter away at finishing my toy story fanfic, “Sitting On The Shelf”. i’ve written a single chapter of a beetlejuice fanfic about the maitlands that i still haven’t found a proper name fore, but which i’m very excited about. i’m writing several chapters at once of a massive addams family fanfic, focused on most of the main family characters’ backstories or developments beyond the nineties movies, which i’m calling “Family Beyond Blood”. i’ve started a little princess tutu fanfic that i’m not sure if i should continue, but which is a stylistic deviation of what i’ve been writing so far, so that’s good. i’ve kind of abandoned another fanfic idea i had, “Vulnavia & Vulnavia”, from one of my favorite horror movies, “abominable dr phibes”, which i have to come back to... and like the madwoman i am, i’m planning on rewriting the star wars sequel trilogy, so i got that in my to do list, as well. besides those fanfics, i got a sci-fi novel being developed, called “Los Prototipos”, about two twins that escape the enclosure where they had been raised to find out they were being studied to make a single-minded working force (kind of like the replicants in blade runner) with an expiration date -all this set in a dystopic 1960s country somewhere in latinamerica, tackling issues of economic imperalism, forced labor and independece through revolution. this is one of my most political works, so i’m giving it a lot of space to breathe. i’ve also began some time ago a series of noir/horror short stories set in Buenos Aires, one of them based on a short movie script i’ve written, which i’m really excited to do -because i’m usually crap at writing short stories -but i’ve left it in standby until i finish the bigger projects first... and then I Have Scripts, Baby! “Mi Amiga Carolina”, about a possessed doll that emotionally manipulates a depressed teenager that moves alone into her grandmother’s old house; “El Moderno Prometeo”, a (mostly) faithful retelling of frankenstein set in Argentina, focused on the family drama of the frankenstein family and on the relationships between victor, daniela (justine, here being his older sister), quique (henry) and elsa (elizabeth); a screen adaptation of a novel of a friend of mine, “La Chica Que Trabajaba Los Sábados”, about a non-practising jewish woman in Buenos Aires who falls in love with a rabbi, and how their relationship ebbs and flows; and “Verano en los Manzanos”, about a boy who lives in rural Córdoba who falls in love with a girl from Buenos Aires (i try to write what i know, usually), and who as they grow up become a couple, have a kid, and ultimately wind up apart due to his struggle with depression and her own struggle with acute anxiety, all of this interweaved with his own return to the little forgotten village he grew up on, where he reflects on the life he used to have. so, in total... 16 WIP. plenty.

30.  Favourite idea you haven’t started on yet i just now realized that i forgot to mention it in the last point, but technically i havent’ even started, so yeah, it’s just an idea: a series of sci-fi books about a parallel history in which India was the first country to go to the moon, and in which South America has the ASADE (Asociação Sul-Americana D’exploração Espacial), where they train cosmonauts to explore the vastness of space: set in an alternate 1930, a team of specialists on several fields and from several countries (the ones I got thought up already are captain Alfonsina Shua, from argentina, and copilot Adolfo Chaviano, from a paraguayan-argentinean couple) go on the fifth ever tripulated voyage. on an exploration, copilot Chaviano gets lost and disappears in space, cut off from his crew, and ends up going through a wormhole and crossing a threshold between sci-fi and fantasy of a blooming star -rendering him immortal but extremely radiated, which allows him to continue exploring space (ending up in several planets, registering his encounters with varied extraterrestrial cultures) while back in Earth the ASADE and his family try to locate him and bring him back home -it’s basically “The Martian” meets “The Little Prince”. and then, there’s the sequel series, about the three grandchildren of Adolfo Chaviano, who, after his death, discover that their grandfather had been developing a time machine alongside Alfonsina to go back in time and look for a way to revert the effects of the radiation in him, in order for him to live longer -and, perhaps, to find the way to become immortal and continue exploring the deepest limits of space. set in an alternate 1971, where space travel is now commonplace, the three siblings, Lena, Majo and Laucha embark on a space mission, meeting all sorts of new characters similarly affected by radiation and some mysterious magical/space properties, in order to find Alfonsina and ask her to give them one more chance to ask questions and say goodbye to their grandfather. so yeah, i got a lot of ideas, but i haven’t been writing any scenes yet -it’s still all in my head so far.

40.  Share some backstory for one of your characters well, the original character i’ve got developed the most is Olimpia Gómez (whose birth name is Beatriz Moreno), the orphaned daughter of two spanish union workers who were killed in the Semana Trágica on 1919 by the mysterious Society (of course, working in cahoots with the repressive government), and taken in by that same Society and raised to kill supposed “criminals and dangerous subjects”. trained in the countryside, taught to always be ready to die an honorable death for peace and justice while on duty, she’s taken to Buenos Aires to prove herself by stealth-killing the targets she is given, who she is told are people beyond salvation. she’s never been popular, but her closest friend, Eugenia Menéndez, always tries to get her to open up and join her own attempts at having a normal social life -which is quite difficult when being a spy and “executioner”. Olimpia has a boyfriend, fellow agent Evaristo Gutiérrez, but by the time they’re nineteen their relationship feels cold and strained, and at the same time there’s the pull of one of the most powerful members of the organization, Azucena Velázquez, daughter of two high-ranking agents: she’s kind-of out as a lesbian (only able to be so because of her high status), and has always been interested in Olimpia; Olimpia has to wrestle with her own internalized homophobia, feelings of guilt and bisexuality in order to finally decide who she wants to be, alongside her discovery of precisely how the Society is corrupt and extremely politically motivated when electing its “targets”, which leads Olimpia to try to escape it -despite knowing that the Society is everywhere, and if she can manage to escape, it’s because the Society allows it in the first place.