#laurent character discussion

[chastillon]

'After all,' Laurent held his gaze, 'I remember what you like.'

This line from chapter five of King's Rising is the cruelest quote in the series, and there's a lot of competition. This is Laurent reverting back to the very worst version of himself. By the third book we expect enough growth from him to feel contrition about abusing Damen, at a minimum. Instead he's worse than remorseless and sadistically toys with Damen's trauma in front of all their men. It's close to unforgivable. Honestly, it verges on monstrous.

Maybe the best analysis is that he resembles the Regent's cruelty when at his lowest. I understand that he needed to assert power over Damen in that moment (which is misguided and doesn't even make much sense) but the presentation was overkill. It's one of his biggest character flaws.

[mad-hunts]

[ scars ] a gentle kiss on the partner's scar(s)-Violet!

all barton knew when he'd suddenly jolted up during the night was that he had had one hell of an upsetting dream. and that, even though it hadn't been about his bio father this time, that it had stung equally as much. barton nearly thought that he was stuck in the same vicious cycle that he'd been before in fact. a loop that consisted of the doctor feeling awful while he was with this person; but also feeling like he deserved every bad thing he'd done to him. that is, until one of them eventually deemed the other had crossed a line. then they would decide to break up. but unfortunately, like the tide, barton often came back to his ex eventually. and he cracked that up to the both of them being the 'same brand of fucked up.'

though barton hadn't contacted his ex-boyfriend in a long time now. all of the bad memories he'd given the doctor had stuck around in his head, however, and it even left barton feeling panicked that the person next to him in bed might be him. it was violet, though. someone who was considerably better than laurent. and who wouldn't brush barton off if he randomly (or perhaps not so randomly, in this case) got the urge to get close to her in an attempt to comfort himself. so, after barton let out a relieved albeit shaky sigh, he moved to embrace violet. he also seemed to have accidentally woke her up in the process. thus, when she posed a question to him about what was going on, barton tried to say something in response.

unexpectantly, what ended up coming out was something that sounded like a mix between a voice crack and a sob. the doctor tried really hard to keep his breathing level, but when he felt violet's lips tenderly kiss the scar he had on his shoulder, barton held onto her tighter. he spoke up then, ❝ i... i'm sorry, i just — i had a bad dream, ❞ something about saying it aloud, combined with the kiss she gave him, managed to break down the dam he had build inside of him then. a choked sob slipped through barton's lips as he sniffled. ❝ can i just stay here like this with you for a bit? ❞

[s0ym1lk]

Guys not to fanboy AGAIN over Captive Prince but the conversation about languages in CaPri is SO GOOD.

The language you speak holds so much significance in political discussions. Pacat added all these details when Akielos and Vere sign their agreement about having the verbiage translated into both languages, exactly side-by-side, so it's clear that neither side is being advantaged. THAT IS SO REAL. That's a real thing countries do when they sign political agreements, because language is a tool of soft power and capitulating to another country's language is a sign that you're letting them exert influence over you (Britain loved to do it when they were colonizing the entire world, Russia did it during the Soviet Union, and China does it now. All of the Chinese language study they sponsor in other countries is not out of the goodness of their heart.)

And the entire section in Prince's Gambit about Laurent keeping Damen up night after night to talk troop movements in Akielon, saying that it's for 'security purposes' because he's afraid there are spies in his forces that might overhear - only for Laurent in King's Rising to speak fluent Akielon to Makedon and Nikandros when he's planning their invasion of Akielos with them. It's both a concession and a show of skill to do such a thing - speaking your ally's language to them is a real sign of camaraderie and trust, it's 'giving in' to their influence a little bit, but also Laurent is showing off his super niche vocabulary to make himself seem ultra-competent and impressive. He's in a position where his allies actively don't trust or want to work with him, and he's using his language to change their minds.

I love that Pacat didn't just make Laurent magically, suddenly good at Akielon, that he took the time to write in the weeks of practice it took for Laurent to get there, because authors do not realize how hard foreign language is. Particularly the nuance of being able to speak a language relatively fluently but still lacking the vocabulary for a specific topic. And it reinforces Laurent's character so well - showing how far he's thinking ahead, but also how devious he is that he doesn't trust Damen enough to tell him the real reason for the practice, BUT ALSO it's my personal opinion that Laurent has been Big Mad about his language skills since Damen got that "I speak your language better than you speak mine, sweetheart" off in the beginning of the first book. Laurent heard that and went, 'well fuck you, I'm going to learn Akielon so hard it'll knock your socks off', and then he did. 10/10 writing.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

i’m not interacting directly with the post that brought up this topic, but i will say that if laurent saw someone claiming that what he did to damen in book 1 was justified, he would start picking up chairs.

laurent takes his own moral integrity very seriously, so even if we set aside his love for damen he would absolutely say that what he (laurent) did in book 1 was unequivocally unjust. it may have been done out of revenge rather than aimless cruelty, but it would still be a source of shame for laurent to know that he 1) did those things and 2) got any kind of gratification from doing those things, even to his worst enemy. look at how he acts after aimeric’s suicide—he experiences regret and knows that he was wrong to take it as far as he did. he tells damen specifically that he’d been wrong in book 1 to treat him (damen) so cruelly, and given laurent’s high standards of integrity, i believe that he means it. that wasn’t just something he said to be nice to damen, or because they fell in love—it’s because laurent knows he went against his own moral code for it, especially considering that damen is also a morally decent person and not a monster.

when laurent treated damen how he did in book 1, he met damen’s assumed depravity with what laurent understood to be depravity of his own. laurent was being evil, on purpose, because he thought damen deserved it. but part of laurent’s growth in the series is understanding that his assumptions can sometimes be wrong, his actions were unjust regardless of damen’s status, he (laurent) was being a hypocrite, and he (laurent) needs to do better. damen learns the same lesson, just about different topics (slavery, his rose-colored perception of akielos and kastor). these character arcs contribute to damen and laurent’s “coming-of-maturity” so they can rule together as kings.

a character’s actions being unjustifiable, at some point of the story, does not mean that they are ultimately a character who stands for and represents injustice. laurent can be a good person who did bad, unjustified things. in fact the power of his characterization comes from his moral complexity. to rob him of those things is to rob yourself of fully understanding and appreciating this one-of-a-kind character and story.

part of what makes fandom great is that people can have discussions to better understand appreciate a piece of media they all enjoy. these are just my personal thoughts on the matter. some people will share them and some will disagree! i’m down for it all :)

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - SunnyTime Crew Headcanons

I accidentally went on a bit of a ramble about the relationship of Jacktor and Jean over on twitter, and I realized that I haven't mentioned here just how drastically my thoughts have evolved about Jean Laurent since the last couple times I talked about him. So let's talk about my current headcanons for Jean and the other stars of the SunnyTime Crew, specifically their relationships with Joseph and Mary in Sunshine in Hell.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur @kurokrisps

For the longest time, the popular theories in the fandom have been that Jean is secretly Ian's father and that due to jealousy he might have had something to do with [Redacted]'s death, it not outright murdered him. I thought that the former was a neat idea and would add a lot of potential drama, both for Ian and for Joseph when these truths of the past were brought about in the present. I wasn't opposed to the latter theory, but I didn't really feel it had much weight behind it, and I didn't feel like going that route for my telling of the story.

Then three big things happened that totally changed my thoughts about Jean. First, I learned that Rory Rainberry is canonically gay. While the character and the actor aren't necessarily the same person - as Sunny Day Jack from CloudyTown is different from runaway Joseph Cullman, for example - a big part of the game surrounds how the character and the actor are tangled up and blended together. As such, it feels only right to me that the actor for Rory is also gay like the character he plays.

This, of course, means that unless Ian's mom was Jean's beard, or a fling he had while experimenting with his sexuality, it's unlikely they were in a relationship. It's not impossible, of course, since we know so little about Jean at this point. Heck, for all all we know he sold sperm to a sperm bank for extra cash on the sly.

The second thing I learned were several little tidbits of info from the new afterlife story in the latest build of the demo. I won't discuss any details about it here, as it's a closed beta for only members of a certain tier of the patreon and kickstarter backers, but I got a new sense of the vibes during that era in time.

The third big thing that happened is the sunberry renaissance over on twitter, spearheaded by the delightful Chosee. Sunberry, for those not yet in the know, is the ship name for Sunny Day Jack and Rory Rainberry. I'd say it's thanks to Chosee that Rory and Jean are enjoying a new surge of popularity, as well as a fresh perspective on the characters.

These three things - along with thinking more about this era of the story thanks to expanding Mary and Joseph's headcanons - inspired me to totally change what I wanted to do with Jean in Sunshine in Hell.

Naturally, before we begin I want to emphasize that these are my personal headcanons and telling of the story, and as such don't necessarily reflect the canon of the game. (Heck, for all I know, the initial fan theories are the correct after all!) Game theories can wait for another post.

A Good Impression

As we can tell from the interview with Dan, Sunny Day Jack was the most popular character on the SunnyTime Crew Show. While none of the cast members were immune to jealousy, it never got to the point of in-fighting, let alone murder. Each member of the crew had plenty of fans to adore each of them, even if Jack was the most popular character by far.

Joseph was highly nervous when first meeting his fellow cast members at the start and tried his best to make a good impression. He refused to make the same mistakes he did in the past that made so many people dislike him, and he totally reinvented himself. He had a brand new identity, a brand new name, and a brand new friendly attitude. No one ever had to know what type of person he used to be... not even the one person there who knows his name isn't really James Haberdae.

It's a fresh start for Joseph. He's been given a second chance to start over with the love of his life by his side. He wants to do things right this time. He wants to be happy with Mary and help make both their dreams come true. He wants get along with people, actually make friends for once instead of enemies... and most of all he doesn't want to let down the kids the way he was put down all the time when he was a child.

Joseph - or rather "James" - is rather well liked by his coworkers. He's helpful and friendly, eager to learn more how to to best do his job and help his costars. Despite his worries and past experiences, he winds up charming many people working at the studio.

The years Joseph spent on the street taught him how to please others in order to survive. Now he can actually use what he learned to build an actual life for himself, rather than drifting along barely scraping by. He swallows his temper when slighted and goes out of his way to be helpful at the studio, even if it means he winds up taking more work upon himself.

Fortunately Mary is there to keep Joseph from tipping too far the other direction and giving too much of himself to everyone else. She's got some bad people-pleasing habits as well, but because she's especially concerned for her starlight's wellbeing, she does her best to make sure he's taking care of his own needs too. Naturally, he does the same for her in return.

Of course, it's pretty well known that Joseph and Mary are together. It's kept on the down low, as the studio doesn't want any gossip anywhere within a mile of the SunnyTime Crew Show or its characters, but those who work on the show are aware of their relationship.

Most find the pair cute, but at least one person is a bit...

Well, I don't want to talk about a certain person here since that might be spoilers for the new afterlife story, so I'll say that at least Joseph's costars thought the pair were cute together.

In a way, the people at the studio are the first real friends Joseph has ever made besides his sunshine. They don't know his past or even his real name like Mary does, but that's for the better. He can reinvent himself, make a new future while keeping the only good thing about his past.

Finally Joseph isn't alone anymore.

Jean

Jean Laurent is an old hat when it comes to showbusiness. He was a child star who was put in front of a camera before he even had a concept of what a camera was. He's been in everything from sitcoms to soap operas to commercials, and he even had minor roles in a couple films.

Funny thing is that the SunnyTime Crew Show isn't Jean's first time being part of a wildly popular TV show that reached a national audience. As a child, he was part of a wholesome family sitcom. His precocious personality, as well as a memorable catch phrase captured hearts all across America. The show is one of those old classics that is still vaguely a part of pop culture even in the present day.

As an adult, Jean distanced himself from being boxed into that specific character or being viewed as a child. He wanted to be taken more seriously as a mature, grown up actor, but he's rather pigeonholed by the perception of him as a child even many years and roles later. The SunnyTime Crew Show wasn't his first pick of roles, and he mostly auditioned as a favor for someone, but the other acting gigs he wanted more fell through.

Any gig is better than none, especially when you want to get better roles one day. Playing the part of a clown baker for little kids might not be what he wanted, but it's fine for now. Sure the studio works them hard, but what studio doesn't? All things considered, it's not as bad as other places, especially since he's not the poor schmuck stuck center stage.

Yeah, Jean does feel the occasional jealous twinge when Sunny Day Jack gets more attention and love than Rory Rainberry, but overall he's perfectly happy being somewhat overlooked. Being the star that gets all the attention isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when people still see him as the annoying character he's trying to distance himself from. He twitches whenever someone says the name of that old show or the character he used to play.

And if anyone even jokes about prodding him to say that old catch phrase, he's throwing hands. He is never saying those words ever again. Never. Again.

Well... unless he gets paid ridiculously well. Despite spending so many years as a popular child star, his nest egg is less than ideal because his parents were the ones holding the purse strings. Those bastards wasted his hard earned money on drugs, hookers, expensive cars, and all sorts of useless shit. Once he became an adult, he amputated that dead weight as soon as he could. His family still tries to hit him up for cash occasionally, but they've well and truly burned any bridges they had to him.

Yes, Jean has a lot of experience with the world of showbusiness, both its highs and lows. He's practically seen it all.

That's why Jean could see Joseph was in way, way over his head. He knows all too well that fresh meat like Joseph - especially when they're so soft and tender - is going to get eaten alive. He's seen it many, many times before.

Jean didn't intend to get close to his fellow costars, or anyone working at the studio really. This was just a stopover role, something to pad his resume and bank account until he landed a part someplace better. You never know who in this cutthroat business is genuine and who is looking for an opportunity to stab you in the back while wearing a smile on their face.

Damn it if Joseph didn't get past Jean's defenses in spite of himself.

Jean was certain that Joseph was a bright star that's going to burn out quickly, just a newbie that got ridiculously lucky. He had every reason not to get too close, but over time he and Joseph bonded. At first he pegged "James" as a boy scout, a sweet and naïve golden retriever of a man who was practically born for the role of Sunny Day Jack.

Over time things changed bit by bit. Joseph was so earnest that Jean wound up feeling sorry for the guy and threw out a bit of advice here and there. Just to make things easier for himself of course. Joseph was always so grateful, so eager to learn, it made Jean feel awkward for how harshly he'd come across.

The actors all smoked, so the four would often wind up hanging out while taking their cigarette breaks. While Jean didn't tend to start conversation, the others were more open to talking. Venting about the bosses was a sure way to get Jean to join in, and he wasn't immune to laughing along to a funny story or ribbing a costar for something embarrassing that happened.

Joseph never pushed himself too hard on Jean when trying to make friends. He saw a bit of his old self in Jean in the way he used to push people away with a prickly exterior, ready with some cutting snark and raise his defenses at a moment's notice. He was friendly, but never encroached on Jean's personal space unless invited. That consideration played a big part in Jean eventually warming up to him.

Over time, friendship grew between the four, much to Jean's chagrin. Sure he had the occasional spat with Cloudy-Belle Sue's actress, but he respected her. Knackadan Drizzle's actor was a riot and a great wingman at the local hot spots when Jean was looking for a handsome gent to take home for the night.

With things being not quite so progressive in the 1980's like they were today, Jean had to keep his homosexuality on the down low. While the studio overlooked quite a few "questionable" things people did when working there, it was only overlooked if the news never caught wind of anything. This was why Jean had adopted the motto of "don't shit where you eat," so he made it a policy never to date his coworkers.

Of course, a little subtle flirting never hurt anyone when the cameras were off. When he was in a good mood of course. Jean didn't often let people know when he was in a good mood, but after he made friends with his costars, he would occasionally flirt with the two good looking men who shared the stage with him. It was all in good fun.

Really, Jean would've been very tempted to break his rule of not dating coworkers for Joseph. Those handsome looks were a big part of Jack's popularity for good reason. If Joseph wasn't already in a happily committed relationship, he would've most likely asked the other man to come to his place or a hotel for the night.

Nothing would've come of it beyond a night of sex even if Joseph was single though. It would've been just a fling since Jean doesn't plan on staying at the SunnyTime Crew Show longer than he has to, but it would've been fun.

Jean isn't one to break into a closed relationship though, not unless it's a toxic one that's better off ending. He's no saint even if he does have morals. Joseph and Mary's relationship is certainly anything but toxic. The pair are just so sickeningly sweet together that he can't help but feel a little jealous of what they have. He's not ready for that sort of relationship with anyone yet, but maybe someday he'll find a guy that looks at him the way Joseph looks at Mary.

Jean doesn't quite bond with Mary the same way he does with Joseph, but he does grow fond of her as well, and a big part of it is because he and Joseph become friends. He doesn't tend to interact with the writing staff very much directly, just reading the scripts he's given and listening to the director's instructions, but with how Mary and Joseph are joined at the hip, he winds up spending more time with her by association.

Mary is almost as new to showbusiness as Joseph. In a way, she's a good match for him in how soft she is. Jean suspects their relationship is a big part of why they're both so soft, as the pair dote on and spoil each other so much. They don't talk about how they met, but they act like they've always known one another, so he suspects they're childhood sweethearts. They probably had a charmed life together, never really knowing how bad life can truly be...

Yeah, Jean doesn't really know the pair as well as he thinks he does even after spending a few years getting to know them.

Jean gets close enough to joke around with Joseph and even lightly tease Mary a bit. All it takes is a bit of innuendo about what the pair do behind closed doors to make Mary blush hard. Naturally, Jean uses their nicknames for each other as a way to tease both of them. Jean even gets close enough with Joseph for insult humor between friends, though he never gets quite that casual with Mary.

Rather than being jealous of Jack's popularity, Jean takes advantage of it to tease Joseph. "Poor bastard," he remarked sometimes whenever "Jack" would get dragged off for yet another extra photo shoot, interview, or autograph signing that he could simply waltz away from.

Jean does legitimately feel bad for Joseph being overworked, and advises the guy not to jump at their beck and call so much, but Joseph always smiles and insists that he can handle it.

Joseph is too desperate to keep his job. Jean can see that. All the advice in the world isn't going to deter Joseph from clinging to the part of Sunny Day Jack with everything he has. Poor guy is just going to have to learn the hard way just how harsh the entertainment industry is.

Jean just hopes that there'll be something left of the good guy he's grown to care for by the time showbusiness has had its way with "James."

Jean never saw the incident of '84 coming, not in a million years.

In the aftermath, Jean moved on to another role, as he always intended to do, but it was tainted by the incident. He did visit Mary in the hospital once, but it felt more like he was coming to her wake than encouraging her to get better. She didn't even seem to know anyone was even there anymore.

Jean didn't visit a second time. He didn't want to think about the incident or what happened to either of the pair. He distanced himself from all the people who worked on the show.

With how hard the studio came down with the NDA, Jean knew better. He tried to forget he ever knew any of them at all. It was better to cut all those relationships off.

He never should've gotten close in the first place.

The show never happened. Jean was never a clown. There's a gap in his resume filled with hush money. Being paid for his silence helped ease his nerves a bit. This was just a part of the business, he told himself. He saw so much shit over the years... this was just more of the same.

That's why even in the present day, Jean is still acting. From child star to silver fox, he's a well known actor with a wide range of roles. He has connections in various places in the industry, even with the modern day LambsWork Productions.

Most days, Jean forgets all about the SunnyTime Crew Show and all the people he got to know there. He forgets the faces, names, and funny stories. He forgets everything.

But sometimes... he remembers the incident in spite of himself. He remembers the children screaming and the smell of gunpowder.

Sometimes Jean feels guilty for burying the memory of his friend James... but he knows better. He always knew better than every one of them.

On that note, let's switch over to another one of the costars of the fateful SunnyTime Crew Show.

Knackadan Drizzle

Much like Rory, Knackadan is also canonically gay. Also like Rory, I decided it would be fitting if his actor shares the same sexuality. However, while we know the actor for Rory goes by the name of Jean, we don't actually know the name of his actor yet.

Well... outside of the closed beta, at least. I'm not giving out spoilers here, so let's just stick with a fun little nickname for the purposes of this post. I'm going to go with Knacktor, a portmanteau of "Knackadan" and "actor" much in the same way Jacktor became wildly used for Joseph.

Likewise, I'm going to be calling Cloudy-Belle Sue's actor Suetor. I know Cloudytor and Belltor could work too, but I like the potential pun possibilities with Suetor. I just need to figure out a good joke involving her and a suitor...

Anyway, Knacktor, being the oldest member of the main cast and more mature than the rest of the crew has a more fatherly air to him. He's friendly and fairly outspoken. He's had many years under his belt as a model and taking in acting roles. He hasn't landed a starring role before, but he's got a good resume and a decent amount of experience.

Knacktor is the first person to befriend Joseph, warming up to him right away. He often times goes out of his way to help the poor guy out, as "James" is always in way over his head. He's the first to offer tips and give the new star a heads up when trouble is brewing. He's more than happy to suggest catching a drink together after work, maybe even a double date with his boyfriend.

Although I don't have the character fully fleshed out in my head yet, I like to imagine Knacktor as having a long-term boyfriend during this era. He might have to keep it on the down low, especially since not everyone is going to be nice about his sexuality during this time period, but with those he can trust he's more than happy to show off his lovely partner.

In a way, Knacktor envies his costars in the romance department. Suetor is engaged and even invited him and his partner to her wedding. Knacktor can see Joseph and Mary are no doubt headed for marriage as well. It's something he and his partner can't do legally... at least not for a few more decades.

Until then, matching tattoos with hidden meanings would have to take the place of wedding rings.

In a lot of ways, Knacktor is the "uncle" or "big brother" of the group, watching out for his fellow costars as well as other friends he made while at the studio. Unlike Jean, he was more than willing to make friends and get along with everyone he could.

Knacktor's opinion on Joseph and Mary was that they were "good kids," and he liked to use the fact that he was older than them as a reason to playfully tease his younger coworkers. They were friends, and he got to know them pretty well.

The relationship Knacktor and Suetor have is more of a sibling bond type vibe. They have a history and are fond of teasing one another. They knew each other from a previous show they had parts in, which were also aimed at young children. It was more of a local show, but it gave them a good sense of how these things go.

Knacktor was in it for the long haul. Despite the flaws at the studio, he saw the potential in the SunnyTime Crew Show because there were so many people working there who were passionate about it. Joseph especially fueled this energy and encouraged others, which he was more than happy to help along.

What happened during the incident and the "facts" that came to light were something Knacktor never would've expected. Even today, he still doesn't know the truth about "James" or Joseph or whoever... Everything was buried... along with his unlucky costar.

Nothing was the same after the incident. Knacktor was there when it happened. He was standing right beside Joseph when the bullet blew the man's brains out.

He still has nightmares about what he saw that day... and sometimes... he has nightmares that Joseph is still dying, still trapped somewhere...

Knacktor tries to forget, if only for his own sanity... but guilt makes that impossible. He and Joseph were close. They had been good friends. Joseph opened up to him at times, and he did the same. He caught glimpses of the man behind that smiling mask, but never enough to see someone who could drive a person to murder.

Knacktor knows he'll never know the truth. He can't dig into it. He can't afford to, not when the studio threatened legal action against those who wanted answers, who wanted to talk about it.

He can never be really sure if he ever really knew "James" at all.

Trauma and guilt born from loyalty to a friend was made it impossible for Knacktor to forget. He visited Mary after the incident. She was a sweet woman. It was awful to see the way Joseph's death destroyed her. It pained him when he heard of her passing not long after.

At the same time, it was almost a mercy. Mary no longer had to live with the nightmares like Knacktor and the others did...

Knacktor couldn't keep acting after that. He refused to work with LambsWork Productions again or even return to the old studio... but it wasn't enough. Going into any studio caused him to suffer from panic attacks, even if it wasn't the one where the incident took place. All it took was some lights and a camera and he was reliving it again, watching a friend fall... his blood and viscera spraying all over him...

He could never forget that feeling no matter how many times he scrubbed at his skin.

It was impossible for Knacktor to continue his acting career. He retired quietly. The hush money from the studio allowed him some breathing room while he changed jobs. He couldn't work with children, not after that. He couldn't work anything that reminded him of the SunnyTime Crew Show. He got a nice, quiet desk job where he still works to this day, readying for his retirement.

While Knacktor doesn't hide that he was an actor in the past, he never breathed a word about why he quit. He'll change the topic or simply say he got tired of it, hiding his trauma behind a smile.

Some things are best left buried in the past, no matter how much the guilt haunts him.

Cloudy-Belle Sue

Of all the cast members, Suetor had the most experience working in young children's programming. She bounced around from local show to local show until landing on the SunnyTime Crew Show. It was the first time she was on a show broadcast nationwide. It was an incredible experience, one that she still treasures despite how it ended.

Suetor befriended Joseph easily, along with Mary. The two were just so sweet, and she was really rooting for them to make it. It broke her heart with the way their love story ended. They were invited to her wedding, which was set to take place only a month or so later...

Only a few of her coworkers came to Suetor's wedding, one of them Knackator. Jean rescinded his RSVP after the incident and ghosted all of them.

The empty chairs at the reception were painful for her to look at.

Despite the incident, Suetor continued to work in children's entertainment. Because she had been getting in makeup at the time, she didn't get a front row seat like Knacktor had. She didn't suffer the same level of trauma. The screaming of the children reached her dressing room, but it sounded odd to her at the time. She was distant enough not to notice the panic and fear in their voices until she heard the sound of gunshots.

Suetor left her dressing room only after it was deemed safe enough to do so after the police arrived. She didn't see any bodies, just the blood stains on the floor. Knacktor was off getting cleaned up. She took it upon herself to try and help calm the crying children who had been traumatized by the incident.

Of the three costars, Suetor was spared the worst of the incident. Knacktor was right next to Joseph when it happened. Rory had been backstage, but still had a clear view of Joseph's murder and the way Mary ran to the body, screaming...

Suetor did visit Mary in the hospital more than once. She tried to support Mary, but her words could never reach. They had become friends even before Joseph came back into Mary's life. She had hoped she could do something for her grieving friend... but she didn't know what she could offer.

There was nothing she could do for Mary, just like nothing she could do for Joseph. The studio wouldn't allow them to pay for a funeral for either of them. The cast couldn't even have a memorial. They were all scattered to the winds, left adrift and threatened into silence.

Suetor still has the vase Mary gave her for her birthday. Sometimes, she puts flowers in it that she thinks Mary or Joseph would have liked.

What happened to those two was a tragedy, one that should never have happened.

Suetor never got a clear picture about what happened during the incident. Jean refused to say anything and Knacktor was too traumatized to talk about it. Anyone else was too scared of legal threats to tell her the whole story.

All Suetor could do was move on. She continued to work in children's entertainment, sometimes in front of the camera, sometimes behind it. She tried to do right for the children, both in honor of her lost friends and so that no other child would have to suffer such a traumatic scene again.

Suetor had children of her own. They're all grown up and moved out of the house by the present day. By all respects she's had a nice life. The incident of '84 at times feels more like a nightmare than anything else, but she can keep it out of her mind for the most part. She is able to remember "James" and Mary fondly as she knew them and not so much for how they died.

Of everyone, Suetor suffered the least from the incident, but it still haunts her.

Everyone who worked on the SunnyTime Crew Show are haunted by the ghost of the incident of '84, even if they're not free to talk about it publicly.

Joseph tried so hard to do right by the children. Suetor saw that every day with how gentle he was with them, how wholeheartedly he embraced the role of Sunny Day Jack. She might have been the more experienced one of the two in this regard, but he had this natural charm with children. He was the most beloved cast member not by luck, but because he shone more brightly than any of them.

What happened to him wasn't right. Suetor heard only a few solid details, something about a lunatic with a grudge... but why would anyone hate such a sweet, sincere guy like James to the point of murder? It never made sense to her. A part of her was never satisfied never getting answers, but she had to accept it... if only because digging put her and everything she cared for at risk.

Sometimes over the years Suetor couldn't help digging, just a little. Not enough to risk NDAs. Not enough to risk her family. Sometimes she runs into people who were there, who knew Joseph, who were in the audience... sometimes they say things.

The children especially had a lot to say even years later... but children can be the most unreliable of narrators, and accounts can differ wildly, especially as the years distort the truth.

A bad person said Sunny Day Jack was actually a bad man. Then that bad person killed him. The things the bad person said to Joseph... Suetor could never be sure what exactly they were. Time also has a way of blurring the truth until things start sounding more like an urban legend.

It's an unsolved mystery, one Suetor can only accept will never be solved... at least not until a young woman who reminds her of the friend she made 40 years ago comes to her door to ask questions about a show that was lost...

I think I'll leave things on that note. As you might tell, the cast of the SunnyTime Crew Show is still very much a work in progress. Although they're not fully fleshed out yet, talking about them like this helps me develop them more. I think I've got a better idea of who I want them to be in Sunshine in Hell thanks to this post. I have a feeling I'll ramble on about them more again in the future to develop them further. I hope you enjoyed this exercise in character building!

[kybelles]

so after a recent conversation with my friends we’ve come to a realization: fandom loves Slave Rights Advocate laurent trope. whether it be an arranged marriage au, a time travel au, an auguste lives au or any kind of setting where slavery is still in motion; it’s always laurent who opens damen’s eyes to the horrors of slavery and insists they can’t be with each other until slavery is abolished, that slavery is a deal breaker on whether they can be together or not. now i certainly don’t want to sound like i’m policing anybody’s creative choices but it’s become such a common trope in the fandom that it is baffling at this point because. here’s the thing. slavery isn’t one of laurent’s battles. at all.

allow me to explain further before i make people angry. it’s clear laurent is against the fundamental premise of slavery and finds it inhumane. but through the series (counting out taofc where he and damen are trying to build an empire together), he doesn’t actively fight or challenge the system or slavery. i don’t even think this is a hot take when you remember that he;

i. didn’t protect the akielon slaves in arles until damen begged him to and sold them to torveld for personal gain (which was the best course of action he could take under the circumstances but as i said, he wasn’t above using them)

ii. referred to damen as his slave constantly in both a technical and romantic sense

iii. got turned on by playing master and slave and master and pet

iv. used isander as a way to get back at damen: was fed by isander in the feast, stroked him, allowed him to kiss his feet and boots etc.

in fact here are plenty of instances where it’s clear laurent enjoyed the type of power he had over damen:

and here’s the only part where i can remember damen and laurent discussing slavery after damen’s identity is revealed and they have the possibility of a future together. as you can see, laurent’s attitude towards it is pretty neutral. he doesn’t approve, but it’s clear he’s not a passionate champion of the anti slavery movement.

let me make it clear that none of this is a criticism towards laurent. it’s important to remember that capri started as a slavekink fic (in pacat’s own words) and though it evolved, by the final draft she still kept some of those elements: like making the first night between lamen a romantic, sacred, precious thing between them; laurent telling damen he’s his slave by feeding him as a slave would, damen calling himself laurent’s slave as a sign of submission/love/romance before their first kiss, laurent saying damen is still his slave before sleeping with him… the narrative still eroticizes slavery to some extent and uses it as a vehicle of romance.

the thing is, laurent finding enjoyment in these practices is not the problem. when the fandom loves to pretend like laurent would be so disgusted by the idea of slavery (even though the text repeatedly shows he’s not) , that he; a perfect civilized blonde veretian angel would come to akielos and educate those barbarians about how horrible slavery is and damen would only open his eyes to the truth through laurent’s guidance, that’s when my issues start. because, like i said, this was never laurent’s battle and it pretty much reads like laurent is some sort of white savior, someone who comes to damen’s country to “fix” the problems of akielos without understanding their history, needs, or the region’s current state of affairs.

another very important thing to underline is that the whole slavery ordeal in the series was damen’s character arc, not laurent’s. he’s the actual slave in the scenario, and as much as laurent doesn’t like slavery, damen didn’t come to the conclusion that it was bad because of laurent’s preachings. it leaves a bad taste in the mouth that damen was the one who actually experienced slavery and faced countless humiliations in vere and yet people still insist on making laurent educate damen about why it’s wrong, even though he himself has never experienced slavery in his life. (one might argue in aus where damen was never sent to vere as a slave he wouldn’t come to the same realizations but that still doesn’t mean laurent would have a passionate agenda regarding slaves. at best i believe he would demand damen to stop sleeping with his slaves as they are monogamous.)

choosing laurent as The One who firmly stands against slavery is bad from a narrative pov too. making this specifically about laurent makes no sense because it's got nothing to do with him. it's not his country! he doesn't care about akielos the way damen does. everything about it thematically relates back to damen; who exists as a metaphor for akielos - any insult or injury done to him is an insult to akielos. he embodies it’s values and it’s people, and by becoming a slave he’s reflecting the current slave state of akielos, and through finding liberation for himself he’s also finding liberation for akielos. it’s a powerful symbolism for how akielos is changed and freed directly BECAUSE of his own personal liberation. laurent has nothing more than an intellectual interest in anti-slavery and he only ever begins to care about akielos because he cares for damen. but damen was raised with it and experienced it and cares very deeply about it. it’s his country! it's his story!

tldr; through the series, it was damen’s journey to experience what it was like to be a slave, to see the true horrors of this practice and decide he doesn’t want to rule his country that way anymore. so taking his agency and giving it laurent, someone who was neutral at best about slavery, feels incredibly insensitive and wrong.

[mecachrome]

Hi K! I saw this TikTok yesterday (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT21XXxV3/) and I kind of just wanted your take on the situation.

I’ve tried to briefly read what I could about the situation between Oscar and Alpine but you might be aware of more? I’m just wondering things like… was it mainly an Oscar decision? Do you think/know what was the catalyst for the move to McLaren was? How might it have affected Oscar when he first started f1 in 2023? Do you think it had an effect on Lando/Oscar getting to know each other early on for maybe the good or bad? I didn’t become an Oscar, landoscar, McLaren fan until 2024 so it’s all about out of reach for me. I would just love your opinion on things!

Sorry for the long ask!

bless your heart anon but i did not expect to open that link to an aaron burr song 😭

i'd love to discuss it more though!!! i kind of cover this in my oscar primer but i'm happy to delve into the alpine situation specifically. also i always like pointing to this article from when everything went down because i feel it summarizes the contract stuff pretty well! 

anyway, to begin with—oscar joined the rsa in 2020 because eurocup winners are automatically offered an academy spot, which means alpine never specifically "scouted" him (not that it matters for anything but just some context i guess). this is also when he met mark, who proved to be a fairly important main character in the contractual proceedings.

some background on alpine as a team is that... THEY'RE A JOKE!!! sorry. the problem with alpine actually is that renault has a sizable government stake in it which kind of restricts its vision / effectiveness / seriousness as a formula 1 outfit. honestly the problem with the french ladder itself is that it's WAY centralized in a way few other countries' are, which is why french drivers are kind of all Like That with one another (childhood sponsor trauma/ffsa drama. but that's neither here nor there). anyway in the case of oscar and many other juniors, alpine proved to be such a resounding failure at properly promoting them into actual f1 seats because it treats itself like a frontrunner while managing itself like and having the admin resources of an f4 team... hence the crb's involvement!

the main problem at the time was ceo laurent rossi, who joined alpine in 2021 with its branding overhaul and was like You Know What? Who Needs A TP! EYE can do all that!!!!!!! when he, in fact, could not do all that (ok exaggerating but they were running a "multi-pronged" leadership structure with him + multiple directors which is like... Fine if you HAVE A TEAM PRINCIPAL and then split the technical directors, like mclaren are doing under andrea. but they were just doing anything man. and it was kind of understood that rossi was pulling all the strings). also worth noting that he was the ceo of the alpine sportscar brand overall too and not just the f1 team lol. he would eventually appoint otmar to be the tp, but i will say that like he was 99% running things still and otmar was just his public-facing fall guy handling all of the media scrutiny and acting like the villain in the story. like yes he was the one calling out oscar on netflix and stuff but he had very little power in the grand of scheme of things.

anyway at the time, the director of the alpine academy was mia sharizman, who LOVED oscar lol and gassed him up in comparison to all the other juniors. he was a big part of the early academy overhaul in the first place, which is why they were able to create a generally robust testing program by the time rossi came into place, which i will say helped oscar massively in preparing for his time in f1. but he was already fired by the time crbgate happened sooo... rossi didn't really care about the academy at all, and his narrow-sighted business instincts heavily waylaid its potential and progress, and all of his poor decisions are also basically what directly ousted (THEE) prost from the outfit and turned him on alpine.

sorry this is getting so long but i do feel like you have to go back quite a bit to understand the failings in oscar's time at alpine LOL. anyway the REAL kicker of the story actually begins with esteban ocon: in 2021, rossi offered him a THREE-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION?! it was literally a kneejerk "oh we have a french driver who's doing okay this year so let's sign him FOREVER" reaction and it would also unknowingly be the nail in the coffin of his time in f1. like to be clear, mia nurtured visions of buliding a robust renault junior program for years and years, and then they signed esteban and FERNANDO, but laurent (renault puppet) was like hmmm well we've got a french guy so let's make sure we hold onto him forever. hehe :P for the image :3c

so that's basically where the problem lies in 2022. oscar—surprise surprise—wins f2 as a rookie, leaving him with nothing to do that year, since neither esteban nor fernando can be replaced, guanyu gets the only open seat left, and he isn't about to go to indycar to get forgotten, which means his only option is to be alpine's reserve driver and do a lot of testing with them to get the feel of an f1 car. the thing is, though...... someone (i assume mark) also manages to negotiate that oscar be allowed to join mclaren's pool of reserve drivers alongside alpine's, just to give him a maximum number of opportunities during his sabbatical. alpine, being Oh So Magnanimous And Open-hearted, are like ok? whatever. what's the worst that can happen

so at this time fernando had a one-year contract extension for 2022, and would ostensibly be parting ways with the team in 2023 for oscar to take his place. the problem is, though, that alpine are like ermmm... but Fernando is Good. but we can't get rid of esteban >__< so what if we just stick oscar at williams for a few years and then maybe we can give him a seat in like 2025???? which is like. WHO IS GOING TO BE WAITING AROUND FOR AN ALPINE SEAT!!! YOU AREN'T PRE-FLOPPAGE MERCEDES. you aren't even POST-FLOPPAGE mercedes. My God. 

basically alpine really wanted to have their cake and eat it too. they were like, well fernando is good NOW but he's also kind of old, so let's give him a 1+1 and kind of hold him on a tight leash in case his performance suddenly falls of a cliff. of course, because laurent has an ego the size of france, he was like surely fernando will be begging to stay with us because who else will have him?! not like the man is a world champion who has standards.

but then seb retired and fernando saw the opportunity and immediately jumped ship to aston. LOL.

back to oscar for a moment: basically he had a contract as a 2022 reserve driver and they were working on writing a contract for his potential 2023 seat, which at the time was presumably going to be the williams seat (replacing goatifi). the catalyst for oscar, or really mostly mark who handled all of this, was that they were constantly ghosting him and missing deadlines and basically dicking him around. they had this one director of legal affairs who was essentially alpine's ENTIRE LEGAL DEPARTMENT and was under huge pressure from both sides as she tried to handle the situation with 0 support or documents being given to her from alpine. here's the bit from the article that explains exactly why oscar never had an actual seat in place, and why the crb unanimously ruled in oscar's favor:

This reserve deal was lodged with the CRB on March 14th, but did not feature any extension beyond December 31st for a potential race seat with Alpine. Piastri received this contract through his lawyers on March 15th, with Mercer stating that this was "an emergency measure" with the season starting just four days later, and no reserve driver agreement in place. Without a contract in place, Piastri could not be granted a super licence for his reserve position, which Mercer was aware of. With no other option, she was forced into treating the Terms Sheet of November 2021 as a binding contract, adding the words "legally binding Heads of Terms" to the document.

the actual catalyst came in may 2022, when alpine finally proposed (as i previously mentioned) the plan to be at williams for 2 years until he could join them in 2025. to be clear, again, there was never A williams contract, just a proposal/plan to get him one. mark was basically like well Fuck That?! so he immediately got into conversation with mclaren/seidl/whoever, and they signed a driving agreement for oscar with mclaren, with the understanding that he'd be a reserve driver but had a clause to be promoted if they bought out ricciardo's contract. yay! this is what the crb upheld as "valid and binding" in comparison to alpine's farce of a document. 

finally back to fernando, the reason this all went to the crb in the first place is that alpine NEVER intended to immediately promote oscar and were simply blindsided by seb's retirement and fernando's subsequent "betrayal." because they suddenly had a seat open, they were quick to scramble together an announcement for oscar's seat, without any consideration for the fact that he might have been shopping around for a better offer after being held in limbo by them for so long. like not only did they want to ship him off to williams—who weren't even particularly receptive to the idea of being an incubator for other teams' academies anymore—they'd already stuck him in the reserve role for all of 2022!!! after winning f3 and f2 as a rookie back-to-back! and they would only ever continue to not learn with the rest of their drivers!!! (e.g. doohan... not that doohan is anywhere near the same level of fumble/expected ceiling as oscar but still. so embarrassing to see their juniors just walking around the paddock being sky/f1 media puppets)

sorry this is SO LONG. 

your other questions. re: how it effected oscar coming into 2023, i do think that overall, having so much testing experience with an f1 car and being around an f1 outfit was fairly helpful, although i wouldn't overstate the impact his testing had on him either—he was running with a different team and using a car from different regs. i don't think it necessarily negatively impacted him, though; sure, people entertained the narrative that he had a TON of pressure on him from taking ricciardo's seat, but i honestly don't feel that mclaren ever created that kind of environment for him, and i think his expectations as a rookie were laid out pretty clearly from the get-go. oscar was probably just eager to prove himself, focus on driving, and move on from the drama of alpine.

i'd also say that his early relationship with lando was probably similar LOL :') i don't think lando really had any particular thoughts on the situation or about oscar himself other than like "well good riddance for you mate" and then they probably just forgot about it. there was a lot of misinformation at the time about oscar's situation with alpine, but he strikes me as a very "well /i/ know the truth so who cares" kind of guy.

god SORRY this is so long but i hope this helps T__T <3

[deliciousangelfestival]

Every Time You Lie-Ch 2 || Lloyd Hansen

Character: dark!Lloyd Hansen x female!reader, dark!Husband Lloyd Hansen x Wife!reader.

Synopsis: Any woman is jealous of you, especially with the status of being the wife of Lloyd Hansen—the CEO of the biggest pharmacy company in the country. From the outside, everyone sees you as a perfect family, a successful husband, two kids, and living in a big house. 

But the truth is different. You are trapped in this marriage because of the mistake you made. You are willing to give everything you have to get your freedom. Free from him. Free from your vicious mother-in-law. Free from your snobby son.

This story has manipulation, tragedy, and drama. 

Both of them shouldn’t be together.

Warning: Betrayal, suicidal thought, harsh language, tragedy. Minors do not read. 18+

Author Note: I do not consent to copying or translating my work. 

Any reblog, comment, and feedback are appreciated. I want to know what you guys think about this one.

Series Masterlist || Chapter 1, Chapter 2 , Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5,Chapter 6 , -

Main Masterlist || Ko-fi

Lloyd always gets what he wants. He learned his ability to manipulate when he was a teenager. 

He never stopped doing it, and it benefits both sides. 

Good at manipulating, negotiating, and most of all, a football championship. That's how Lloyd got accepted at Harvard Law School. 

Every man and woman was jealous of his success, and he noticed that, too. And he enjoyed their envied look. But what can he do? There's only one winner.

However, they were surprised when they discovered Lloyd worked as a corporate lawyer at the pharmaceutical company. 

Because many law firms are interested in recruiting him. 

The truth is, it's been Lloyd's plan from the beginning to work in Laurent Pharmaceutical.

The story will go back to when he was 9 years old. He just returned from playing with his friends when he heard his mother scream. He went to see his mom, who was already on the floor. She's kneeling and her head facing down. Mail letters and bills are scattered around. 

His house and his mother, Krystal, became a mess after his father died of lung cancer. Lloyd has learned about death and accepted that his father has gone. 

But Krystal didn't accept this. She crawled to Lloyd, her hands clenched on his shoulder. Her teary eyes and messy hair make her like a lunatic. 

"Lloyd, remember this. It's all Laurent's fault your father is gone. It's all his fault!!!"

Lloyd clenched his fist, holding the pain because of her hand gripped. "Yes, mother."

Since then, he has studied, made friends and used his charm to manipulate people. 

When he got accepted at Laurent Pharmaceutical, it was really easy for him to get promoted. Lloyd finally met the CEO, Ralph L/N. He is a humble man who prefers to work at the lab with his team rather than expand his connections. 

Such a waste, to be honest. This company has potential because of the quality of medicine it makes. It's cheap, effective, and has loyal consumers. 

If he becomes the CEO, he will make the company bigger and more successful. 

Lloyd discussed expanding the company with Ralph, but he wasn't interested. 

That's where he met you, Y/N L/N, for the first time at the lab. You were looking at the microscope when your father called your name. 

Lloyd met with your sister and your younger brother. He tried to hang out with them, but he failed. Mia, the second child, in her head, only filled the wedding plans with her fiance, while your brother didn't let anyone enter his friend circle. 

The only choice he has is you. You are the eldest child and want to continue the company after Ralph retired. It's perfect. That means you know everything about the company.

He tried getting close to you. He started as your advisor, became a friend, and became a lover. It wasn't easy, but he loved challenges. 

When both of you became close, he discovered an internal fight between siblings. You, Mia and Theo, are fighting to become the next CEO. 

Lloyd thinks how sweet and cute you are when you come to him, telling him all your problems. That's how he knew everyone's secrets and weaknesses. 

He used all the information to make L/N siblings fight with each other. At the same time, he continued his plan to make Laurent Pharmaceutical company bankrupt. To finish his job and fulfil Krystal's wishes.

But decided not to bring down the company after you told him, "I love you Lloyd." 

That's the first time he felt guilty. You were innocent, kind, and gentle. He knows what the company means to you. It wasn't your fault, but you got into this mess because of him.

When Krystal heard his plan, she didn't agree. He doesn't want to stop halfway, too. "I'll change the company name to Crystal Pharmaceutical."

His mother didn't say anything, but a smile appeared. It's the first time he sees her smile after his father died. He never saw her smile when he made any achievements. Turned out revenge is the answer. 

Then, the judgment day came. When he signed the letter to make it official, he became the new CEO and changed the company name to Crystal Pharmaceutical. 

That's the first time he saw hatred in your eyes when you looked at him. He doesn't like it. He longs for the loving eyes. Lloyd understands that you hate him. He will make it up to you. 

But he lost his patience when you wanted to publish the company secrets that could end everything. He doesn't want to do this but must make you listen to him. 

He threatened your family life. That's enough to make you obedient. 

After exchanging vows and kisses on your wedding day, you told him, "I've stopped trusting you." 

Nobody from your family or friends at the wedding. Only Lloyd, his mother and people you don't know. 

He smiled and kissed your cheeks. "Everyone has their secrets."

Since then, both of you have become a married couple. He watched every move you made. Lloyd knew you still hated and blamed him, but that's life. Nothing is fair in this world—only the strongest survive. 

You didn't try to do anything; after becoming a mother, you stayed home and did your duty as a good wife. He had nothing to complain about. His life is perfect. 

Time passes, and under his management, the company has expanded and has a billion in profits. It made him own the world. 

Successful company, perfect image, and perfect family. 

When becoming successful, there's always a temptation. Lloyd has ignored it because he got you. 

But in the end, he got tempted by this one girl. Her name is Zoey. She reminded him of when you were young. 

What impressed him was that she didn't want anything else from him. She just wants to know how it feels to be with him. He must admit he lost control when he tasted the forbidden fruit.

Every time they were together, Lloyd felt guilty towards you. And he wished you would never find out. 

But his fear became true on the wedding anniversary. 

You knew. 

He doesn't know how you found out; he will check on your daily agenda. 

He thought you would slap him and went to hit Zoey, but instead, you said, "I want a divorce."

No. Oh no, he didn't expect that. The only woman who he only loved in this world. You're his perfect wife in his golden cage, and he can't let you go.

He should've chased and apologised to you rather than continued the damn party.

Lloyd almost lost his mind when the head of security suddenly barged into the party and said, "Mrs Hansen got hit by a car." 

He immediately went to the hospital, but you were already in the surgery room. He wasn't allowed to get in. Lloyd calmed down when he heard Emily was inside with the team. 

"Hiks…hikss…" 

Lloyd didn't realise his son, Lionel, was sitting near the waiting room. He sat in the corner, lifted his knees to the chair and hid his face. 

The bloody shoebox is beside him. It's your blood. 

Lloyd gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. He approached his son and put his hand on Lionel's shoulder. 

Lionel lifted his head; there was relief on his face when he saw Lloyd. "Dad…"

Before he said something, his neck was grabbed, and Lloyd pushed his body to the wall. "Uurghh…"

Lloyd no longer cares. Because of this kid, you got into an accident. "If you weren't mine, I would end you right now." 

"Put him down!!!" Krystal screamed in the hallway. She was shocked to see her grandson being strangled.

Lloyd clicked his tongue; he threw Lionel to the ground like trash. Krystal ran and helped her grandson. She looked up to Lloyd. "How could you do this to your son?"

Lloyd didn't bother to look at her. "It's your fault for making him so irresponsible like this."

This is the first time Lionel saw his father this scary. He hides in Krystal arms.

The surgery went on for 4 hours. Finally, the head doctor and Emily came out from the surgery. 

The senior doctor removed his surgery mask and explained the result of his surgery: "12 broken bones, her head got hit badly. We have stopped the blood in her brain and lungs. It's a miracle she was still breathing when she arrived at the hospital. But she already lost so much blood. I'll be honest. There's a low chance she could wake up."

When Loyd heard that, his knees became weak. He grabbed his phone to make a call. "Gather all the best doctors. Tell them, it doesn't matter how much it costs."

After he made the call, he sat on the floor and looked at his wedding ring. If the damn doctors couldn't help you and you leave this world. He will chase you to heaven or hell and bring you back. 

With all the doctors he gathered, none of them can cure you. It's been 4 months, and Lloyd almost lost his mind when he saw you looking lifeless like this.

Your best friend Amelia was heartbroken, and she blamed this on him and Lionel. What's new?

Then your brother Theo came too. Lloyd never saw him after he took over the company. And it takes a lot of work to track him down. 

The first thing Theo did when he met Lloyd was punch him. "I have lost Mia and my father. If I lose Y/N, I will torture your mother in front of you until she dies.'

Lloyd never thought Theo would threaten him. After 20 years, he looks different. Lloyd saw the look in his eyes before. Veteran army. Seems like Theo has secrets.

He needs to be on guard when he's with Theo.

Lloyd prayed every single night for you to open your eyes. 

His prayer was answered when Lionel told him, "Mom just opened her eyes!"

Both of them ran fast to see you. 

Oh, how bright his life was when he saw you looking at him. Finally, you're back. 

But he wasn't ready when you avoided him, and you asked, "Who… are… you…?"

It felt like thunder just struck him. Then he realised the way you look at him is different. Lloyd was too stunned to speak until Emily asked you. 

"Do you know what today's date is?"

"21st July 20XX."

Lloyd's hand dropped down when he heard the date. Because it was one day before he met you, that means…

You don't know him. 

To you, he's just a stranger. All the memories both of you had made together are gone. 

You moved your head left and right gently. "Where’s Theo?" 

"How did you know he's here?" 

Your head tilts toward the flower vase near you. "The flower. He will buy this for me everytime he apologises to me." 

There’s a flower vase beside you with white orchids. That flower symbolizes apologies. Theo learned it when he tried to impress girls. He always gave you this flower after both of you fought. And it always has 3 stalks, an odd number representing his siblings. 

You don’t understand why, when you think about Theo, you miss him because you met him last night. 

“Is he with my father?”

Lloyd sighed. 

"I'm sorry but Ralph L/N died on 11 April 20XX.. And today is not 21st July 20XX but 8th August 2023."

You widen your eyes. It's impossible. "This is a fucking joke, right?"

"A joke with you lying on the patient bed? It's a tragic joke."

Is that true? Is that why these two youngsters are calling you mom? And this man, is he your husband? What happened to your boyfriend? 

This question made you have difficulty breathing. "Haah…Haah…"

You need help understanding what's happening. You remembered that you went out with Amelia last night, and now you woke up in the hospital? 

"Uurgh…"

Suddenly, you feel a painful headache. When you closed your eyes, you saw a blinded car headlight, heavy rain, and darkness. 

You fainted again.

Lloyd, hold your head. Seeing you didn't recognise me, his blood boiled. He screamed, "Get the doctor, or I'll burn this place to the ground."

Emily ran outside. "Call the neurologist department!"

The hospital went into chaos for a moment. All the senior doctors gathered to discuss. It's obvious what happened, but they fear Lloyd since he is the biggest donor to this hospital. 

In the end, Dr. Gilbert stands beside Emily. If Lloyd is mad with the result, at least his daughter can calm her father. 

"Dissociative Amnesia." 

When Lloyd and Lionel heard that, they felt lost. Amnesia. It's a difficult word to accept. That means you have no memory of them.

"This type of amnesia is forgetting a specific period of time. It is caused by stress or trauma. That's reasonable since the hit she got because of the accident. It's even a miracle her eyes are still working. The shattered glass from the car also got into her eyes."

Lloyd rubbed his forehead. "She forgot who we are. Her family. She only knew she was 21 years old."

Lionel felt scared, thinking his mother didn't remember him. He regrets everything he did towards you. 

"At this moment, try to be patient. If she is too stressed, she will get a stroke. There is something that medical can't explain but I will keep saying it's a miracle Mrs. Hansen is still alive."

Dr. Gilbert looked at his note "When she calms down, we will try hypnosis therapy to trigger her memory."

After saying that, both of them left the room. 

Lloyd keeps watching you asleep. He hopes you will remember him and tell him it's just a nightmare when you wake. 

But no, the second time you woke up, you asked him, "You're my husband?"

Ahh, he lost you.

He felt empty when he heard that. You are his biggest achievement. And now, in this situation, his hard work turns into nothing. 

Even though Lloyd felt empty, he still showed you the wedding photo from his phone. 

You looked at the photo; no one from your family or friends. You don’t know all these people.  And your face in the picture, you know it's a forced smile. 

You know this since you have always been asked to get photographs for a magazine. You used this fake smile. 

But why, on your wedding day, you don’t look happy? 

"Why does my face look like that?"

Lloyd was speechless because you were right. It's a forced marriage. You don't have any choice but to marry him. 

He smiled and said, "You missed your father and felt sad he couldn't be beside you. In this photo, you tried to be strong, my dear."

When he called you that, your skin shivered. It made you uncomfortable. You pushed away his phone and looked at him. "Are you sure I married you? Because you're not my type."

Lloyd bites his tongue when he hears that. You went back to your old self. It would be nice if you just kill him now.

Join the taglist:

@rubywrites-4, @marigarcia07, @chemtrails-club, @barnescamboy, @esotericgalaxy, @inlovewiththefictionalcharacters, @buckysteveloki-me, @xcaptain-winterx, @magnificentsaladllama, @bagoffeelings, @darkofimagination, @cherrybubblebullet, @starsofcloud, @thatzolagirl

Any reblog, comment, and feedback are appreciated. I want to know what you guys think about this one.

Series Masterlist || Chapter 1, Chapter 2 , Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 , Chapter 6 ,-

Main Masterlist || Ko-fi

[galadrieljones]

A demon among angels, huh? 👀

Let it be known that I don't think Daryl is a demon lol. Obviously, he's a good man and a moral character. I do, however, think he's a fallen angel. With his tattered, black leather wings, his fall from grace and journey through hell has reminded me of the literary Lucifer. Lucifer means "light bringer" and also "morning star," which is the name of the weapon that Daryl has wielded since season 10, the eponymous episode, in which he leads his people into rebellion against Alpha, a psychopath who certainly regards herself as a god.

In Christian texts, Lucifer, an angel, was cast out of heaven for questioning God and even believing that he could become God, as well as for recruiting a third of God's angels to join him in his rebellion against God. In Dante's Inferno, Lucifer is portayed as a cold and grotesque being in the Underworld, lonely and chewing the heads of betrayers such as Judas Iscariot. He's not a villain, per se. He's just lost, and in the old literature, he was never found again.

Re: the dialogue with Genet:

Speculation time. I believe Daryl is being used by Losang, and I think that Genet knows this, and I think that's what she's referring to in this scene, and why she's laughing maniacally. I think that possibly, Genet is not the "true" villain of the story. She is a villain, but that's just our current point of view. We don't know what Losang wants, but we do know that he wants something that has to do with Laurent. We know that Genet is his enemy. We also know that Genet's faction the Power of the Living has persecuted the Wildfire scientists, hunting, jailing, and killing them since the Fall. Since persecution is bad, we all assume that what Genet did was bad, and that she's the bad guy. But what if it's not really that simple? And what if she truly believed she had a good reason to do what she did? Everybody views her as the devil, but what if the "angels" that she fights are not as angelic as they seem?

For example, what if the scientists were abducting and experimenting on innocent people? On children? Would the fact that they are working on a cure for mankind excuse this? We have proven precedent for this kind of thing happening before, in both World Beyond and The Ones Who Live. The CRM has been used as a major proxy for the magical science of unethical thinking. This exact same conflict (sacrificing the few for the greater good) is also explored in "Coda," when Dawn tries to convince Beth to stay, because her sacrifice is important, because what she's doing there could be "the most important thing she does in her life."

Of course, we have no idea what Dawn is talking about.

We know now, too, that Laurent will be taken from Daryl and Isabelle, as TD predicted some time back, and I'm guessing it will be Losang who takes him, whether by force, or because he somehow gaslights Laurent into going with him willingly. Where is Losang taking him, and why? What is the "ceremony?" What is Losang's relationship to the scientists that Genet hates so much? Why is he Genet's enemy?

Realize that this is all pretty much hypothetical speculation at this point, so just consider it food for thought.

Re: Losang's motivations at the Nest:

Remember that Daryl was outside with Laurent when somebody came and told him that Losang wanted him at that meeting, where they discussed what to do about Fallou and Emile. Losang dismisses Daryl's suggestions, obviously, because he's a *pacifist,* but if Losang truly didn't want to hear it, or if he truly didn't want others to hear it, then he wouldn't have told Daryl to come inside. He wanted Daryl there. Because, ultimately, he needs him. He just doesn't want the others to know this, or to know why.

Later, Losang tells Daryl that a team is being assembled to intercept Genet. Daryl tells him he is going to go. Losang doesn't say no. He simply *discourages* the use of violence. He is *unhappy* with how Daryl conducts himself, and yet...

He knows that Daryl will do whatever it takes to get Fallou and Emile back. If he fails, or people die, then Losang can simply blame Daryl for being too aggressive, overly violent, for rushing in too soon. It makes Losang look good. If he succeeds fully, and he even manages to kill Genet, well, then, that's great. It makes Losang look good, too. Losang is using Daryl as a means to an end with Genet, but he also fears that Daryl's influence on Laurent will be too strong. Daryl is an A, remember. He may not relish the fact, but he is very good at leading people, particularly the disenfranchised and the meek.

Like Dawn, Losang needs his "wards" to be as weak as possible. They need to be Bs. If they begin to fight back, then they might accidentally find out what the hell is really going on here, and that's bad. (I have really longwinded, detailed theories about what the hell could be going on here, but it's not time yet for those lol). Anyway, commence the comparison between Daryl at the Nest and Beth at Grady. More on that soon. But first.

Re: Lucifer Archetypes:

This is a slight digression. I have begun to think of the literary Lucifer archetype, the trope of the renegade, fallen angel, because it's indicative often of a character who is struggling with their faith, and struggling with how to proceed in a derelict world. This is very relevant to Daryl right now.

This trope is not relegated to Daryl in TWDU. Though he's the one with the wings, there are many Lucifer archetypes in the series, including major characters like Rick, Shane, Madison Clark, and Father Gabriel. These are essentially rebellious thinkers, revolutionaries, a lot like Daryl, who, at one point or another, get a little too ahead of their skis and go tumbling off the mountain, face first. They lose their pious nature, their goodness, their faith in God and in people, but the key to being the hero in a sick and dying world is that, despite the odds, they find their faith again. This is where the Lucifer trope becomes, essentially, a Christ allegory.

I know that @frangipanilove has written brilliantly about the Lucifer/Christ dichotomy, and while this is mostly unrelated to that, I think there is some similarity at work. Lucifer and Christ are two sides to one coin. Often times, in a story, a character must fall from grace before they can rise again and lead their people to salvation. Of course, not all characters make it past their descent. Some of them are too far gone (Shane, I'm looking at you) and for some, the jury is, essentially still out (like Father Gabriel or Madison Clark).

Beth, by the way, also struggles with her faith while she's at Grady. It's quiet, but she risks losing who she used to be. One of the reasons her "death" is so frustrating, in fact, is that she sort of dies at a low point. She is framed as a hero, and yet, we never really get to see her "rise again." Not truly. Her death is senseless, the point of view confusing. We don't know what she's thinking, or why she does the things she does. Her journey is incomplete.

Re: Dirty Work

Now, more on Beth at Grady. Beth, while in the process of trying to figure out what she believes, is, like Daryl, used by some sort of manipulative "superior" to do the "dirty work." In searching for who to believe, she finds herself caught in the crossfire, a puppet in a war that doesn't even involve her. This is what spurs her renegade spirit, and her desire to rebel. This is SO MUCH like Daryl in France, right down to the part where Dawn is trying to convince Beth to stay, against her own instincts, I don't even know where to begin.

The phrase dirty work is interesting because it shows up several times in relationship to Daryl. Pope mentions "dirty work," too, in "Rendition." He tells Daryl about his mercenary company, who were once hired by "politicians" to do their "dirty work."

The role of a mercenary is related to the cardinal sin of indifference, more popularly known as sloth. Indifference is used to describe sinners who cannot make difficult choices, who will not choose sides in the great big war of our lives. Yes, this is a sin. Perpetrators of indifference only make choices that are most beneficial to them in the moment, or which constitute the path of least resistance. Biblically, it's often associated with one turning away from God, because making choices to live a life dedicated to Christ have become too demanding. In the episode "Indifference" (4.4), Carol essentially accuses Rick of such, re: "You can be a farmer, Rick, but you can't only be a farmer." Maybe Carol acted rashly in killing Karen and David, but at the same time, in growing too comfortable with his situation at the prison, Rick has essentially lost his moral compass. He's missing the war.

Indifferent characters often end up doing a LOT of the dirty work in a war, and they make many deadly mistakes, because their code is compromised. Wolves on either side of the war can sense this and have figured out how to use them to their benefit. They pay them, they threaten them, they manipulate them, etc. etc. etc. To win the war, you have to choose a side. That's the message. Otherwise, you get used, as a mercenary.

This keeps coming up. The concept of having to make difficult choices, of having to choose sides in a war you never asked to be a part of. Somewhere along the line, you find yourself doing things that will haunt you for the rest of your life, and then later, you realize that these choices came at the behest of some fancy "politician," be it a police officer, the President of the United States, or some other "diplomatic" wolf who used you. While Beth was busy trying to save her friend Carol and trying to figure out how to escape from Grady, Dawn was busy using her, to kill not one but TWO of her officers, in a bid to further her own agenda. It is, in fact, this very indiscretion that finally turns Beth against Dawn for good, empowering her to finally choose a side.

Remember, too, that while *we* and Team Family referred to Pope's group as the Reapers, which are, in and of themselves, like "angels" of death, Pope never once refers to them as such. Pope calls his people "The Chosen Ones."

He calls them this because, at the end of the world, while doing their dirty work, they were in a city that, like so many others, was napalmed during Operation Cobalt, and they walked out of the fire, not only alive, but completely untouched, "without a scratch." Pope seems to believe that his people are chosen and protected by God, and he anoints Daryl as such. They are a religious organization. They may appear to be misguided, but they chose God. So while they're angels of death, sure, they're also apparently immortal, Christ-like figures out to cleanse the land of evil. They accept Daryl into their home. They feed him, defend him. We like Daryl, so this is good, right? In a lot of ways, in TWDU, whether someone is an Angel of Death or a Chosen One, a villain or a hero, is simply a matter of perspective, which can change dramatically depending on where we are in the story, at any given time. That's part of what I think is going on this season of DD, with Genet and Losang. I think it's also a really important theme to remember when dealing with a character like Daryl, who has many sides and is capable of many things.

I really don't know what any of this means yet, by the way. And I'm kind of tired and so I know I'm rambling on and on about angels and Jesus and Lucifer, etc. etc. But there has to be a reason that Losang, like Dawn did to Beth, is using Daryl to do his "dirty work." I think it says something about Daryl, and about Beth, that they are living in limbo. I think that Pope and the Reapers are likely meant to function as a sort of allegory here. They're what happens when this sort of thing plays out to its most demonic conclusion. You get somebody like Leah, who has become so twisted that she can no longer function in any sort of cooperative society. She ends up trying to kill the same man she once loved, because she's been manipulated by Lance Hornby, a wolf. Leah dies a mercenary, but she wasn't always one. At one point, she helped Daryl, offered him comfort, etc.

Similar to Shane, she's like the cautionary tale, what could happen to somebody like Daryl OR Beth if they become "too far gone," and they can no longer get on the right path toward redemption. That's what I'm trying to get at with all the Lucifer/Christ/Indifference stuff. Daryl must choose a side, and he must rise again (or, he could descend forever, though I think that's unlikely lol). The side he chooses may not even be Genet or Losang. In fact, it probably won't. It will likely be rebellious, but this, in and of itself, IS a side for a character like Daryl. This stuff also informs what we never saw with Beth, despite narrative promises that were made in season 5. Beth certainly led her own rebellion in the halls of Grady Memorial, even though we saw just a snag.

Anyway. Whatever happens with Daryl and Losang, I essentially think it could really inform our understanding of what happened back at Grady, too. We'll just have to wait and see.

[that-left-turn]

Is it a coincidence that Melissa was the one they said was injured?

Although most fans know tboc flopped bc of the writing and daryl's poor characterisation, it seems quite possible some of the men who think they're making world class art want to blame the low ratings on carol. Killing off all the women after carol touches down in France also seems like possible bait to try to get viewers to blame carol's return for their deaths (either that or just coincidental blindness to their own misogyny). So, is it possible they tried to blame the delays on melissa in an attempt to stack up more against her?

Is it a coincidence that Melissa was the one they said was injured?

No, I don't think it was. No name should've been given if there was an injury.

[I]s it possible they tried to blame the delays on melissa in an attempt to stack up more against her?

I think the stooges blame her for all sorts of things. She showed up, ruined their "world class art" and reviewers still loved her performance. The plot and Daryl's characterization, not so much. That's gotta rankle. Zabel's made no secret that he discusses the story with Norman, no mention of Melissa. She's said she's light on giving notes and the subtext of that is that she doesn't want to step on anyone's ego and end up worse for the wear. (Been there, done that. It's incredibly frustrating.)

Mediocre white men never want to be held responsible or accountable for their failings. None of these guys are employable, so they don't want the blame for the show being a giant flop. Zabel hadn't worked in forever, and he and Richman have a history of getting each other on the payroll. Nobody is buying any of Nicotero's pitches, which I assume is why Norman asked AMC to hire him for this show. Gimple will never work elsewhere.

I think Zabel killed all the female characters because he needed deaths (it's a horror show, supposedly) and he had no further use for them. I don't think he's conscious of his own misogyny. The show is riddled with examples of men getting a pass because they're 'troubled' or burdened by their man pain.

In 205, Codron speaks to Laurent about his brother Michel: Laurent asks if he was a bad man and Codron replies that, no, he was just afraid. They agree that fear makes people do terrible things, but Michel was about to rape a young woman when Daryl intervened on her behalf. Codron's brother came upon her, the old man and Daryl by chance, and decided to harass them. He wasn't the one who was afraid. Like all bullies, he preyed on their fear of him.

Only the women get punished for their transgressions.

[hoodlessmads]

Dark Heir spoiler thoughts:

Okay some of these are criticisms but please understand I really liked it! I liked it even more than Dark Rise. I’m just an overdramatic person and need to yell sometimes.

These don’t have any particular order, I’m just freestyling -

Reading Captive Prince years ago (and rereading since) before reading Dark Rise made me have an unfair resentment towards James for being basically the same character as Laurent but not as good and that continued here

Will is the second best character Pacat has ever made after Laurent and book 3 might push him ahead

I loved seeing Will use more and more of his evil powers

The best one being where he possesses anyone with a brand and his eyes turn black and he turns into Legion (maybe shoulda turned that off before trying to appeal to Violet…)

Finding out his mom actually was tying him to bedposts and beating him this whole time somehow shocked me because for some silly reason I believed one of the most unreliable third person subjective narrators ever, Will, that she was a nice lady just doing her best. Anyway I love this revelation because it makes such perfect sense, it’s just, “Oh. Of course.”

Violet and Cyprian are both himbos yet Violet is somehow the only character with a single brain cell left at the end of the book

Cyprian drinking from the cup makes no sense after they had a whole discussion in the first book about how drinking from the cup put the Stewards into the Dark King’s plans and made them his thralls and was the entire reason they died, a massacre which Cyprian experienced viscerally, and then he goes and drinks from the cup anyway and oops surprise Will can in fact enthrall him. Cyprian is able to fight it off but that doesn’t change the complete recklessness and out-of-character-ness of it to me.

Violet/Cyrprian is a good ship

Phillip/Visander is hilarious (in a good way)

Will/James is fine but I wish I was more compelled by them than I actually am. For being the main couple, I don’t feel like their relationship has been given the room it needed to develop organically and instead it feels like we’re falling back on physical attraction and a vague shadow of a past relationship in the old world that we didn’t get to see. It’s hard not to compare to Damen/Laurent which by contrast was developed so painstakingly.

Elizabeth is incredible

Visander sucks, actually

The whole Light kind of sucks. The Stewards, the Sun Kingdom, they were all assholes

People with black-and-white morality are truly terrible, aren’t they? And pretty much everyone is like that except for Will, James, and Violet

Sometimes I felt like that fact was really being hammered in on purpose almost as though to make James murdering like 300 people seem less bad (but it didn’t….)

But I don’t dislike James because he murdered 300 people, I actually love villains and I especially am attached to the idea of everyone being redeemable. But what I don’t like is the book telling me I should like James without giving me a good reason or the book downplaying his actions to make him seem more sympathetic. He can have murdered all the Stewards and still be compelling, we don’t need to diminish what he’s done in order for him to be likable

Also everyone in this book except like, Will and maybe Violet and James is an idiot (and I’ll excuse Elizabeth for only being ten). Someone send these characters to Psych 101, they don’t seem to understand the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy…

Like obviously if you tell someone they’re evil over and over again for their whole lifetime they will become evil

Theory - I don’t think Violet will turn on Will. I think she’s just shell-shocked. She wasn’t really given a chance to take a stance before James Peter Panned him away. Violet knows exactly what it feels like to be told you are evil because of some past thing, and she knows Will better than any of the other characters. And she knows that morality is not black and white (Tom is her brother). She’ll definitely end up in Will’s corner by the end.

Theory - The line of the Lady and the line of the Dark King are the same bloodline and they split off later. Sarcean’s “cataclysmic night together” with the Lady was mentioned not once but twice. Pacat doesn’t waste lines. The child that the Lady had was Sarcean’s, or at least one of them.

Will better figure out how to destroy that collar quick…before they both get even more traumatized. I think that will be one of his main goals in book 3. Or I hope…otherwise it will be hard to develop the genuine romance

I sure hope Will can also figure out how to expel that shadow from Cyprian before he like… dies. Don’t do that to Violet D:

So, I’m not a huge fan of YA in general (outside of YA anime and manga which for some reason hits different). I used to like it a lot, it used to be most of what I read. I grew up reading series like Redwall, Darren Shan, Demonata, Pendragon, and so on. But I’ve grown out of the genre (I’m 27). Not every adult does - one of my best friends who is a year older than me still really enjoys YA. But because I don’t like YA, I think my enjoyment of Dark Rise/Dark Heir is influenced and my criticisms may be unfair.

But I find that with fantasy series like this, I the books really need to be longer. Or there needs to be more of them. I feel like Dark Rise has so many moving pieces, enough characters that there could be a trading card game (and there are literally collectible cards), so many different magical artifacts and magical powers, an entire magical old world beneath the semi-magical 1820s Europe world to develop, and also by the way a whole story that took place 10,000 years ago that has to be told at some point. I find myself feeling like all these different elements are being introduced and moved on from too fast and I wish they were all given more time to breathe. I think that’s part of why the relationship between Will and James feels a bit rushed to me. I don’t know if the short length of the series was Pacat’s choice or an editor’s, though. I don’t feel like Captive Prince had this issue because there were no supernatural elements, the cast was much smaller, and the plot was comparably simple so a lot of it got to be characters just talking to each other, which was great, and the world building was accomplished mainly through these interactions. The plot and world of Dark Rise is much larger in scope but the page count is the same (a little longer maybe).

So wait who is Mrs. Duval

Why did Ettore leave the Stewards anyway? Other than the obvious, which is that they suck

Where was Grace during the whole ending scene? Wasn’t she there but just not saying anything. As this total calamity befalls her only remaining friend group she finally has seen too much and just nopes out and is busy making tea in the corner or maybe popcorn

I do really like Cyprian btw in spite of thinking his moral code is shitty. Gave Violet a chance but sold Will for one corn chip… I see how it is (okay that’s not fair but you know what I mean, he has flaws)

It sounds like I’m in the majority when I say that I still don’t like Devon - I saw that theory about him being the final big bad and I’m so on that train. I think he’d make a good enough final villain. I agree there is something predatory about him and Tom. I don’t necessarily think Pacat wants us to root for them as a couple, though. There were better ways to pull that off if that was the intent.

Not to repeat myself but Phillip was such a pleasant surprise. Like who is this fruit and how did he get here

So next book, I hope (assume) we get to see the rest of the old world story filled in so we can understand where it all went wrong for Sarcean and also the exact nature of his relationship with Anharion because so far it’s been quite vague (intentionally I assume). Like….. you know….. did he agree to put on the collar?

The tricky thing about this series is that once the reader learns that Will is the Dark King, it’s hard to maintain any sort of external tension. Right? It’s hard to feel afraid of the forces of the Dark when the protagonist has total effortless control over them just by virtue of who he is. Will can literally just be like, “No, don’t” and everything’s fine. He did just this at the end of Dark Rise. I find the way Dark Heir seems to end with their “only hope of stopping the Dark army” destroyed to be pretty unconvincing. Why on earth would Sarcean create a destructible object that is the only way of controlling his own army? Of course Will should be able to control them with his will alone. If he can control Shadow Kings and make them die with his words alone, why didn’t he try yelling at the shadow army to stop trying to possess people? This doesn’t make sense to me. And if people become Returners through his magic, shouldn’t he be able to exert some control over their existence the way he does with the branded? Pacat has done a good enough job at getting us to know Sarcean (an extremely good job btw) so as to make the destroyed brand plot point unbelievable. Anyway…

Instead, the tension in Dark Heir is almost entirely internal or realized in character relationships rather than physical threats. The tension is between Will and himself, and between Will and his friends. (There are tensions between other characters but focusing on the main plot here.) The possibility that they might find out and abandon him, and the possibility that he might actually be as nasty of a guy as Sarcean was, the slim chance that he might learn something that makes him go, “You know what, I agree with my past self after all.”

Now that everyone has found out who he is, that particular source of tension has sort of evaporated, so now in book 3 Pacat has to find a way to make Will’s conflict with himself and his friends compelling enough to carry us through 450 pages (I don’t expect this will be difficult). What I see as the problems now are 1) what was Sarcean actually planning and how did he plan on getting Will (himself) to fall in line with them (this was a question in Dark Heir as well but now it’s bigger), 2) how is Will going to destroy his own (Sarcean’s) Dark artifacts so he can free James, and 3) Can he convince anyone to ever love him (oh no ouch).

If I had to rank these books at this stage I’d probably give Rise a 3.7 ish…. and Heir a 4.2. I’m holding out for Dark King to be a 5 or close. (I don’t know what the actual title will be, I’m just guessing lol.) I definitely think Dark Heir is an improvement over Dark Rise since I always thought the most interesting part of the latter by far was everything that happened once Will learns he is the Dark King at the very end.

“Are we going to talk about the magic pseudo-sex scene—“ No and I hope we never will

[irregularcollapse]

I literally just found out that you’re a lesbian and I was a little surprised but now I have to gush about your writing because of it. I was telling my partner about Even In Another Time and how it’s practically one of the best romances I’ve ever read because it actually feels romantic, but I could never really put my finger on the difference between it and frequently recommended romance novels. I think it’s because you write about men and male characters like they’re genuinely attractive and beautiful while having very masculine traits, and as a lesbian it really makes the whole fic so much better. Laurent’s love for Damen is so much more real and they seem more like equals in their relationship because of them being attracted to all of each other. The emphasis put on Damen’s physical appearance but also his nature and his love for the people around him made it an insanely good reading experience. I thought about it for days, no joke.

Anyway, hope this wasn’t weird.

this ask and your tags on the library post did give me a bit of a chuckle, i can't lie, but thank you so much for sending this. i wanted to think carefully about a response, and i know you haven't really asked a question, but you've said some incredibly flattering, really kind things and i think it warrants some acknowledgement!!

i'm having a really rough time with writing confidence lately, despite like... writing degrees and literal decades of considered work on my craft (excepting the few years where i couldn't write due to my health) which i only mention because it's so funny how i can still have my confidence shaken when i've been previously pretty happy just sticking to my own thing and experimenting for fun and self-critiquing. so it's just really nice, in the place i'm at right now, to have someone like yourself come forward and share that you've recognised the effort i put into my work.

the slightly jokey response to your curiosity is that even when i'm writing queer men, spiritually i'm writing dykes. i think there's more shared in queerness than there are things which separate us, and queer masculinity is always beautiful to me in any iteration, so maybe that's what you see in my writing. queer femininity is as well, and hopefully you see some of that too.

the other thing is always my goal with writing romance generally, which is that it needs to be abundantly clear to the reader why these two people love each other. i know in fic it's sort of a given, because there's already investment in the characters from the reader and everyone is sort of bringing their preexisting expectations of the characters/ship to their reading, but i personally don't like to write fic with any presumptions. the love needs to be clear on both sides or it just doesn't work - and yes, this is absolutely about equality of attraction as well. i think equality in a relationship is the sexiest thing you can write into a romance, because it means that balance of power is malleable and can shift back and forth. fixed binaries are rarely sexy to me, and there are just so many ways that power and trust can be passed back and forth between a couple. that feels more truthfully queer to me, personally.

i think, when it comes to writing attraction that i don't necessarily personally have... well, i like the characters, and i respect them, and i don't think there's much that separates attraction anyway. but also, i wouldn't be doing my job as a writer if i didn't have respect for the attraction and the drive to inhabit the character rather than imposing my own perceptions onto them, you know? this is sort of connected to a lot of threads in my head, including wider fandom's reluctance to write women experiencing pleasure, and people being so damn bold about effectively saying they want women removed from these stories entirely, and the frequent portrayal of women as a threat to queer men, but that's all technically a different discussion and sort of a long bow. i get that some people are young and/or haven't worked through their internalised misogyny yet, but i don't think i could write queer men in a way that apparently achieves my goals and resonates if i didn't love and respect women so much. there's more i could say about that, but this is already very long and nonsensical.

anyway, thanks heaps for sending this <3 you're very kind, and a treasure, and it cheered me a lot and gave me much to think about!

[seasonsofcapri]

Seasons of Capri 2023: Cycles & Circles - Masterlist!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the fest this year and made it such a success. Scroll down for the full masterlist, but here's a quick summary of what we did this year:

Fics submitted: 14

Fanart submitted: 3

Total number of words written: over 198,000, including four works in the 10,000-20,000 word range, and three that broke 30,000

We're so grateful to everyone who signed up and made all this incredible art. We couldn't do it without your love for these characters and this fandom! ❤️

And now, here are all of the wonderful creations for this year's fest:

Sexual Intercourse by antivillain

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.3k

Damen's healthy enough to engage in sexual intercourse. Laurent is (emotionally) healthy enough to tease Damen mercilessly for being so awkward and uncomfortable discussing the matter with Paschal. Paschal is not paid enough.

Tie Me Down, Set Me Free by @kiseopingu

Fic | 14.3k | Damen/Laurent

When Damen gets hired by his family's sworn rival to help track the man's younger brother, he doesn't expect the road to lead him to familiar places, and familiar faces. As for Laurent, his path to freedom is clear. It's only a matter of creating an opportunity to reach it.

As past and present slowly merge, both Damen and Laurent are forced to contend with their truths, whether they want to or not.

Jokeste’s Journey by @vmcgmidlifecrisis

Fic | Jokaste/OFC | 4.3k

Jokaste travels north, meets (original character) Drifa and gets some sexy fulfilment.

Beautiful, Beloved, Strong by bluehair

Fic | Erasmus/Kallias Erasmus/Torveld | 1.5k

My prompt for The Seasons of Capri Fest 2023 was: "Kallias schemes to save Erasmus with no hope of seeing him again--until one day, he does." Hope I did it justice! Because Kallias really would do anything for love.

Returning by flightinflame

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.4k

Damen knew the return to Arles would be hard for Laurent. He had not considered that it would be hard for himself.

The Stand-In Wedding Planner and the Obstinate Baker by penstrikesmidnight

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.8k

Auguste's wedding planner has decided to go on vacation a week before his wedding, leaving Laurent, the best man, to make sure everything is taken care of. If that's not enough, Laurent has to deal with an obstinate baker who seems intent on making his job as hard as possible.

There is absolutely no chemistry between them. At all.

Heat by @linecrosser

Art | Auguste/Laurent | Digital

While in the middle of a campaign in Delfeur with his older brother, the Crown Prince of Vere, Laurent goes into his first (late) heat at age 17 (totally triggered by the presence of Damen, the stupidly handsome Crown Prince of Akeilos). There are very few things more dangerous than having an Omega in heat while camping in enemy territory, and it's too late now for suppressants. Leaving Laurent to ride out the heat on his own would mean leaving it last for three days or more. Auguste has no option but to help Laurent through it by himself, so it will last no longer than a couple hours.

Red (like our spilled blood) by @pijulle

Fic | Kastor/Laurent Damen/Laurent Auguste/OFC | 39.6k

Akielos and Vere are at war, but maybe marrying the princess of Vere would help the two country finds a common ground - "The prince!" Auguste shouts. "Laurent is a prince!"

Star Crossed by @hephaest1on

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 35.2k

A story of Laurent Capulet and Damen Montague. A tale based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, of lovers who suffer because their families are feuding. A modern AU that leans on the themes and actions in Shakespeare's original play and plays on the issues young lovers face in a world where gossip is news.

if only to dream of you by @nv-md

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.4k

During negotiations with the Vaskians and Patrans, Laurent falls ill and Damen must leave him to lead their newly-forged kingdom.

After a week of quiet suffering, Damen returns to their bedchambers and attends his husband.

Ruin Your Salvation, Ruin Your Mind by pretend_i_dont_exist

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 10.2k

"I do not understand. I thought we had a truce, so I came here for peace." His voice had grown hard and dangerous. "Why?"

Silence for a moment. "You killed my brother. ------- Laurent has suffered a lot since his brother's death, but he survived to his wedding day, and he's looking forward to a quiet life with a man he appreciates. New life, new him, he decides to invite his brother' killer to the wedding to talk and make peace with himself (by murdering the guy).

In Another Life by @mosrael

Fic | Halvik/Jokaste | 43.8k

Jokaste is the pearl of Ios–beautiful, intelligent, revered–and the consort of the most powerful man in Akielos… Or so she thinks. When her chosen lover’s power is corrupted and usurped by a foreign faction, Jokaste must make the hardest decision of her life: remain in Akielos and meet a perilous fate–one she had a hand in crafting–or flee to seek her future elsewhere.

Or: when getting kidnapped, then kidnapped again turns out to be the best possible thing that could happen to a girl.

antidote by @banananamilks

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.7k

Auguste survives Marlas, but Damen still becomes our captive prince. Actually all three princes are kind of the captive prince. oops

Soldier, Poet, King by @bluebutter-art

Art | Damen/Laurent | Digital

Two years after the bells had rung, both Akielos and Vere celebrate the wedding of their two Kings, which coincidentally falls on Vere's Annual Autumn Festival.

Chasing Meridians; Or 26,00 Miles to Home by @not-a-coral-snake

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 17k

Laurent lives a life of quiet routine, until the day a few ill-chosen words, his uncle's malice, and his own inability to back down from a challenge see him wagering half his fortune on an impossible journey to the ends of the earth and back. Happily, or perhaps unhappily, his newly-hired valet is making the journey with him and has plenty of opinions about where they should go, what they should do, and de Vere himself.

An Around the World in Eighty Days au.

At the Drop of a Veil by @seekthemist

Fic | Damen /Laurent | 19.1k

The Battle of Marlas could have brought the relationship between Vere and Akielos to a breaking point, but it didn't. As the peace treaty is finally signed, King Aleron has a very clear idea of how to ensure the agreement is truly felt.

"Since the formal establishment of Vere and Akielos as independent reigns, there had been twelve peace treaties. The Peace of Marlas, signed by King Aleron and Theomedes-Exalted before the beginning of autumn, would be the thirteenth.

The thirteenth peace would not go down in the history of the Kingdom as an abject failure. Not if Laurent could help it."

By the Waterfall by @captaindamianos

Art | Damen/Laurent | Digital

Laurent is the god of winter, Damen is the god of summer. They only ever overlap in spring and fall. Is their love story doomed forever?

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[my-mt-heart]

Where's Daryl?

This was very difficult to write. It opened up a lot of old wounds for me, so if you read this, thank you. If my thoughts on this show haven’t been your cup of tea, that’ll most definitely be the case here as well, so maybe just move along. ***Trigger warning for discussion of childhood abuse***

For about a year and a half, Caryl fans asked Where's Carol? as a pointed reminder that the spinoff was always meant to be hers just as much as it was Daryl’s. Even though she's back now, her fans didn't always know she would be (nor did the EP's 🙄) so her absence during filming and promotion of the first season was a heavy burden to bear. The irony is, though “Daryl Dixon” sticks out like a sore thumb in that ridiculous font, he's the one who feels absent sometimes, as if important parts of his character development were lost when he washed ashore while other parts come and go as the plot demands.

Zabel talks about swapping Daryl's iconic vest for "old man" suspenders as a matter of pragmaticism i.e. they were the only clean clothes available. Norman says it was a choice he wanted for some unclear reason, but neither of them seem to consider the intelligence of their audience, particularly Carylers, to see it more symbolically. The costume change is our visual reminder that Daryl isn't himself. In some scenes he's chattier than he should be, far more trusting of strangers with personal details, and far more theatrical. Then in others, the differences are even more alarming. He calls a child cruel names, puts his hands on him, and feels conflicted about returning home to his family, to the woman he said he loved.

I mentally prepared myself for retcons, but the one I'm struggling with a lot right now, which I haven't seen anyone bring up yet, is the retcon of Daryl’s childhood abuse. Daryl tells Isabelle that he and Merle had to take apart engines and if they couldn't put them back together, their dad wouldn't let them have dinner. It's a milder version of the stories the scars on his back tell us, though I can buy Daryl omitting the worst of it like he did in the pilot. What I can't buy is Daryl saying his dad was "hardly ever" around and emphasizing it as the main source of his pain growing up. It feels contradictory for one thing. When we see Daryl's scars for the first time in S3 of the flagship show, it's implied Daryl was trapped in an environment that enabled his dad to physically hurt him often. Presumably that's why Merle felt guilty about leaving him behind. The revelation also seems like it's only intended to highlight the consequences of an absent father figure, explaining Daryl's fear of not making it home, but also justifying his "close" bond with Laurent. The best stories allow a character's emotions to drive the plot, but this just does the opposite, twisting Daryl's backstory to fit the current narrative.

Daryl's backstory made so many people root for him in the first place. It allowed Carol to see him when nobody else in the group could. It helped me process my own childhood trauma. The ways I got to watch him overcome his violent past gave me hope that masculinity could mean more than what I grew up around—more than anger, shouting, and swinging fists. Daryl taught me that men could still be tender, kind, and loving even if those closest to them in their childhood never showed them how. I imagine Daryl's representation has been important to boys and men too, specifically to those who were afraid to speak up about their abuse because of the stigma around it. The implications of this scene may not be easily noticeable to some, but they are to me, and I'm deeply offended by it.

I’ve talked at length on this blog about how it takes a village to make or break a show, though it’s usually the showrunner who has to answer for it. I've already mentioned that I do blame Zabel. His knowledge of French history has no value when he obviously didn’t bother to study Daryl’s history aside from reading old scripts and (maybe) watching the first couple seasons. That's incredibly irresponsible and terrifying for S2. I also blame AMC for their short-sightedness and their determination to save face no matter how much it costs them. I blame Gimple for his pettiness. I blame Greg Nicotero for his insensitivity to Melissa and her fans.

As for Norman, he's hinted very loudly that he wants credit for the show being "different," so in theory he should be prepared to take some of the blame too. I can't name all of the decisions he specifically made, but no matter what they were, I can blame him for not speaking up about the shipbaiting, Daryl's wavering loyalty, and the childhood abuse retcon, all things that hurt his character and hurt the fans. I genuinely don't know what else to think other than Norman didn't give either the consideration they deserve. The show has been treated like nothing more than a vanity project, and it’s unfortunate when you think about what he and AMC had to gain from the original Caryl spinoff.

I love the version of Daryl I knew before this whole mess, I love Carol, and I love the relationship between them. I want them to have the story they deserve in S2. At the moment, I don’t know how to reconcile that with the agony I feel over the damages to half of my two favorite characters. If Carol is going to cross the Atlantic ocean to find Daryl, I want him to be the man who threatened to punch holes in all the boats so she couldn’t leave and the man who told her he loved her before—ironically—leaving himself. I need to hear Daryl admit he hasn't been completely honest with the French characters, not because he was afraid of getting too close to them, but because he didn't want to face the pain of potentially living without Carol and TF. I need to hear him say that he can't be Laurent's father, which is okay because the kid has plenty of other family to take care of him. I need to hear him say, out loud, that he could never love another woman romantically because he's already in love with Carol. That's what I need to feel better about this story. That's where my investment is. I feel like Carol is safe in Melissa's hands, but I don't feel like I have anyone to rely on for Daryl. That’s a big problem because their stories are so intertwined. There’s no Daryl without Carol nor Carol without Daryl. If you ruin one of them, you risk ruining both of them, and that’s a possibility I really can’t bear.

[warningsine]

It’s rare to see an action movie with an entire female cast.

Lately there’s been many action films with women, but very few have this kind of laidback comedy. I’ve noticed that in action films, women aren’t very funny — they’re often intimidating. The idea in “Wingwomen” was to portray a group of girlfriends that everyone wants to hang out with.

What’s great is that they’re not the typical action heroes, they’re even quite “girly.”

Yes, and I like the fact that we had this freedom to portray these characters smoking cigarettes and drinking wine when they’re not kicking butts. We wanted “Wingwomen” to be rock ‘n’ roll. It’s kind of our French touch. In American action movies, you don’t see that. Filmmakers are censoring themselves to have the widest possible audience.

Did the fact that you were making it for a streamer give you a greater sense of freedom?

The advantage of working with Netflix was mainly the budget, which would not have been possible for a film like this if I had made it for theaters. That gave us a lot of freedom to shoot the script I had written.

Just like “The Mad Women’s Ball,” “Wingwomen” also falls into the theme of female empowerment.

It’s kind of my favorite topic! The idea for it came while I was finishing “The Mad Women’s Ball,” which was very intense as it explored the condition of women just a century ago, a time when women who didn’t want to marry were institutionalized in psychiatric hospitals. I wanted to continue filming women, and thought I should make a film that captures our times. And as I was developing it, I realized that women are actually facing some of the same issues that they were before to remain free.

“Wingwomen” is entertaining, but it’s also feminist movie.

I tried to debunk stereotypes about strong women. In certain countries like ours, women can be powerful, financially independent, they have fun, they can live together and be free. But are these women finding love easily? Not really, because as they’re becoming more self-sufficient and demanding, men can feel out of place.

The idea with “Wingwomen” was to make a movie about women who are liberated, who can have children and become mothers even if they haven’t found the perfect man who checks all the boxes. I find it very touching to see a beautiful and sexy woman, like Adele Exarchopoulos’ character, who is an elite sniper and at the same time lacks self confidence and continually falls in love with the wrong guys. I just rewatched the film and thought to myself that it reflected what I’m hearing a lot around me. The solitude of powerful women today who still remain naive and very much in demand of love. It’s a real issue in our society, and I want girls like my daughter to grow up with images of these women and feel like they can be all these things.

Did you find inspiration in American comedies with female casts?

I watched a lot of American comedies, but I find that they’re full of stereotypes about single women. They’re often completely desperate or totally vulgar. The girls in “Wingwomen” are professional thieves and killers, they have a demanding job. It’s like the equivalent to running a big business, they can’t get drunk the night before carrying on a multi-million heist. They also exercise a lot, but they do eat unlike in other action films with women. The other difference is the brand of humor. It’s not trashy and it’s not cynical either. It’s an accessible comedy that’s meant to be a crowdpleaser and make men and women laugh. It was important to have male characters [played by Félix Moati and Philippe Katerine] who aren’t total losers, but are rather charismatic because I didn’t want to fall into clichés.

In the film, you and Adele genuinely look like best friends. Did you know each other before filming?

We didn’t know each other, but I wrote the part for her and a miracle happened when we met! I don’t have friends in the industry and I only know people I make movies with, but when we met and had dinner together for the first time I knew instantly that it was for life. I knew she was super talented, but she really blew me away.

We had a blast making this film together and we laugh so much, but she also had this amazing talent to improvise and come up with brilliant dialogue. I like to give actors the possibility to say things with their own words. Sometimes it’s more complicated, for instance on a period movie like “The Mad Women’s Ball,” but as long as the actor’s improvisation is better than what’s in the script I’m all for it. On “Wingwomen,” I insisted that we shot with two cameras because I wanted actors to be free to improvise and I was able to keep filming. Adele had so much fun during the training and experienced an epiphany playing a sniper. By the end of the shoot she was a total pro, she didn’t even blink when firing shots.

The film is really packed with action. How did you prepare for it?

We started preparing three months before we starting filming, and then we had a coach with us during the shoot and we trained for up to two hours a day. We had to look extra fit to look credible for these roles. I started this routine after shooting Michael Bay’s “6 Underground” (in 2021) and I kept going because it changes everything inside and out.

How was it to direct Isabelle Adjani?

I’ve known Isabelle for 10 years, and she’s a very close friend. We’re very co-dependent on one another. She was the first person who visited me at the maternity when I had my son, and she brought a gigantic teddy bear. We’ve always wanted to work together and we wanted to find something special. As with Adele, I wrote this part for her and I discovered her as an actor. She blew me away. When she walked in on set I had the feeling of being in the presence of an icon, even if she was my friend. And she’s so incredibly generous with everyone on set, like Adele. Isabelle brought a lot to the script, she came up with her dialogue which was so brilliant and even surprised me with blonde hair one day! It was truly enjoyable to have this sense of freedom, because we need it these days.

What was Netflix’s input in the project?

Netflix wanted us to create a movie that was ambitious in terms of mise en scène… some sprawling action while retaining this French touch. One of the most spectacular scenes in the film had us jumping out of an helicopter and flying out with wings. I had seen two shots like these in U.S. films, including in “Batman”… I really wanted to make that scene look as believable as possible, so we filmed it with real stuntwomen rather than doing it with VR and special effects. I find the result beautiful. You can see the sky and the sea.

What are you working on now?

I’m in pre-production on a film about a masculine hero, for the first time!

Is it for a platform?

Yes!

Do you miss making films for theaters?

The world of film has changed a lot. People’s relations to theaters have changed … What matters the most to me is to tell stories and be given the resources to tell stories. I miss theaters, but I will come back with other kinds of films. The reality is that in order to [keep] making ambitious films with big budgets and a total freedom of expression… as a woman I’m not given these opportunities with theatrical movies.

[quincyhorst]

HELLO! i adore your hcs too much 😭 and i want to ask if you have anything about stéphane from rose griffon? for some reason i feel like he’s underrated compared to the other midfielders,, (p.s. jean is LITERALLY this emoji: 😈)

AAAA Thank you so much!!! ;v; And I have quite a lot for him, so I'll share some!

Stéphane is from Nimes, a city from the south of France, mostly known for its roman colosseum (Les Arènes) that hosts events like bullfights and such. In just a couple of years, Stéphane went from seeing the place from afar... To performing chansons on it.

But to summarize the how; it all goes back to some years before the FFI. Even though he wasn't popular yet, Stéphane had a huge love for music, so alongside school he would assist special classes as to write music. It was there when his first songs came from; at first covers yet eventually branching out to more original lyrics and melodies. However, those were meant only to be listened by his teachers and classmates. That was until, at the end of the year, a local radio host offered the kids to showcase their best tunes across the country.

...However, what nobody was expecting is that of all the broadcasted songs, Stéphane's one would awaken a frenzy in the public. Soon enough the station was bombarded with letters of fans begging the hosts to play the song more often, and also as to know who had composed such masterpiece. The thing had became so big that after a long discussion, the Henno agreed to release few of Stéphane's songs in the form of a CD. A huge success!

So, as time went on till the FFI, Stéphane kept composing songs; some being kept private and others published on CDs, all of them still selling like crazy -and even worldwide!-. Though despite being at a different level of skill and fame than his classmates, he still insists on assisting composing classes. Too bad he sticks out like a sore thumb.

At least compared of those of his same level, Stéphane prefers to be humble. No matter how much fame or skill he has, he still insists to live in a low profile, never wanting to consider himself "different" just because of his circumstances. For example, although he has made enough money as to soon move to the more "artistic" Paris, Stéphane insists he wants to keep living on Nimes, because no matter how simple or small it is; that's the place that saw him grow.

...He's not that different from Laurent, who also desires to live like a normal person, so I can see them getting on well. I can also see him be on good terms with Ronny, even though the latter prefers luxury over simplicity. Émile is one of Stéphane's many fans, and once he got the chance to, he asked him to sign his CD case. And as for Pierre and Julien... He's way too calm to properly understand them 😭

I'll cut this here to avoid writing too much. Nonetheless, hope you like it! ♥ And you can always ask for more or any other character 👌

(AND YES YOU'RE RIGHT!!! Every time I saw that emoji I was like "JEAN GUTAIN????" 😈😭)