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seishun-emergency · 2 years ago

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ACTUALLY. HOLY SHIT okay it's soooo topical that i was studying victorian literature this year because. there was a huge debate in the victorian era around the "condition of england" debate as it related to industrialization and art and its so unbelievably fucking applicable to what's happening with valkyrie during the war, with shu's view of art and perfectionism

so a big talking point during the victorian era was about industrialization and the role of the working class and how, effectively, they were being turned into materials or machines for the sake of "progress" - namely, the progress or benefit of the elite few at the cost of their humanity. this eventually extended into art . there's this guy john ruskin that wrote an entire thing called the stones of venice about the debate of perfection/imperfection in art, and how he believes that imperfection in art is necessary, because perfection in art/artisan craft (as was prized during the victorian era and in england) was achieved by "geniuses" at the cost of the humanity and individual creative spirit of "regular" people who could help them achieve this perfection in their craft by splitting the load. effectively, turning these humans into tools or machines for the "genius" creator to wield in order to achieve the perfect art.

sound familiar?

some quotes from ruskin's stones of venice:

"Understand this clearly: You can teach a man to draw a straight line, and to cut one [...] and to carve any number of given lines or forms, with admirable speed and perfect precision [...] but if you ask him to think about any of those forms [...] he stops; his execution becomes hesitating; he thinks, and ten to one he thinks wrong [...] he makes a mistake [...] but you have made of him a man for all that. He was only a machine before, an animated tool.

And, observe, you are put to stern choice in this matter. You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him. You cannot make both. Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions. If you will have that precision out of them [...] you must unhumanize them."

ruskin also has a few paragraphs talking about the idea that art or goods can be made both genuine and perfect by having a gentleman or artisan or genius design the form of the art/goods, and "common workmen" do the actual creation process, allowing for "design and finish". ruskin challenges this, saying that it's founded on "two mistaken suppositions" that 1) one person's thoughts can be accurately executed by another person's hands and 2) that the kind of manual labour necessary to actually make the finished products is a downgrade from the creative work of design

"We are always in these days endeavoring to separate the two; we want one man to be always be thinking, and another to always be working, and we call one a gentleman, and the other an operative. [...] As it is, we make both ungentle [...] and the mass of society is made up of morbid thinkers, and miserable workers."

"It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect. [...] For since the architect, whom we will suppose capable of doing in all perfection, cannot execute the whole with his own hands, he must either make slaves of his workmen [...] or else he must take his workmen as he finds them, and let them show their weaknesses together with their strength, which will involve [...] imperfection, but render the whole work as noble as the intellect of the age can make it."

and finally: "But, accurately speaking, no good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand of perfection is always a sign of misunderstanding of the ends of art."

"but leo! shu makes all the costumes and songs and stuff for valkyrie the argument you make isn't true because it's not like shu ISN'T doing the work" I MEAN. OKAY. SURE shu IS doing a lot! but also it isn't necessarily the creation of the songs or the costumes or the choregraphy that's the focus here, the final "product" to be consumed. its the PERFORMANCE.

and mika and nazuna, during the exvalk days, essentially function like tools. their goal is to be honed to perform perfectly by shu's hand, in order to present the completely perfect final product that shu wants for his art. the analysis through ruskin's view of tools and perfection still applies, i think

anyways. i dont know if akira meant This much of an anything but it's really interesting to connect shu's victorian aesthetic of valkyrie and perfectionism at all costs to actual discourses happening in victorian england around art and perfection and industrialization and dehumanization. i hope it was meant as this much of a something i think that's a really fucking smart way to incorporate victorian debates into valkyrie and shu's characterization and i had fun pulling all this apart and putting things together

#leo liveblogs #leo composes #leo marionette lb #enstars #shu itsuki #also jesus this post is like 750 words what's wrong w me

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romi--weiss · 4 months ago

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TRIGGER WARNING: drug abuse, death, murder, guns, homophobia

❀ *◦ mia goth. cis woman. she/her. lesbian. ⇝ hey, isn’t that romi weiss ( nickname: onyx )? i think that the twenty-five year old from new york city, ny works as sous chef at the ivy and spy for the cardinal serpent, but outside of that people describe them as glitter on the floor after the party, chanel diamond earrings & a fresh manicure. i hear they are contrary & self-destructive, but they are also known to be bubbly & generous. consider giving them a visit at their home in the marionette and get to know why they’re called the life of the party.

BASIC INFORMATION

NAME: Romi Chava Weiss NICKNAMES: Rom (pronounced "Rome") AGE: 25 BIRTH DATE: August 5, 1999 ZODIAC SIGN: Leo ETHNICITY: English, French, Brazilian GENDER: Cisgender female (she/her) ORIENTATION: Gay BIRTHPLACE: New York City, New York OCCUPATION: Sous Chef at the Ivy

RELATIONSHIPS

SIBLINGS: Liliana Weiss (sister) RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single CHILDREN: N/A

PHYSICAL TRAITS

FACE CLAIM: Mia Goth EYE COLOUR: Light brown HAIR COLOUR: Dirty blonde HEIGHT: 5′10″ WEIGHT: 120 lbs. BODY BUILD: Slim

HEALTH

ALLERGIES: N/A SMOKES?: Yes DRINKS?: Occasionally DRUGS?: Yes, weed on occasion CHRONIC ILLNESS: N/A

DISORDERS

ADDICTIONS: Cocaine (in recovery) MENTAL DISORDERS: Depression WHEN WAS THIS DIAGNOSED?: When she was 24, Romi was diagnosed with depression while she was in rehab

BIOGRAPHY

EARLY BEGINNINGS

Romi was born in New York City in 1999 to her parents Peter and Eva Weiss. Growing up, she and her older sister, Liliana, were incredibly close and they spent a lot of time playing together in their Greenwich Village townhome. The Weiss family lived in the lap of luxury and Romi and her sister never wanted for nothing

What Romi didn't understand when she was younger was where all that money came from. The truth was that her father was a mobster and he made all of his money by being a drug baron. In fact, at one time, Peter Weiss was responsible for a majority of the heroin that was being sold in the city

Growing up, Romi was the apple of her father's eye, his baby girl. However, it wouldn't always stay that way. Though her mother, Eva, tried her best to look their other way regarding Peter's dangerous line of work, her final straw was when a bomb was set and detonated in their home when Romi was fourteen. Thankfully, Eva had taken the girls out for the day, though their housekeeper was killed. After this, her mother was determined to keep her children safe. She packed a suitcase and took the girls with her

However, Peter Weiss did not take kindly to his daughters being whisked off into the night and he wasn't about to let his wife win, nor would he allow her the opportunity to take all of his blood money in alimony and child support. So he did something about it

While the girls were at school, Peter had his wife taken care of and he was determined to ensure that his girls never found out. When he picked them up from school, he informed them that their mother had gone away for a while. And then 'a while' turned into 'a few months' and then finally, the story was 'I'm sorry, girls, but she's decided that she doesn't want to come back'

From the very beginning, Romi knew that something was very wrong--her mother would never, ever leave her daughters behind. The whole story just sounded wrong, like it was just vague enough to buy some time. Though no one ever said it, as Romi grew older and realized the dark truth about how her father supported their lavish lifestyle, she realized that her mother was dead and that she would probably never, ever be found. You could call the mob a lot of things but you could never call them inefficient

THE CHATALYST

For a very long time, Romi didn't feel like she could do anything about her suspicions. How could she? By the time she was 17, she was well aware that her father financed her entire lifestyle. She wasn't stupid enough to think she could just get disowned and survive. Maybe that made her weak, to be unable to live without Daddy's money, but she didn't know what other choice she had

Over time, though, it began to weigh heavier and heavier and heavier. She'd started to have nightmares about her mother, started to wonder how much her father actually loved them. Sure, he said it all the time but did he really love them? Or were they just his darling dolls, his prized possessions to show off and take credit for raising such wonderful children--or so he thought

The first straw was when Romi came out. She'd always known she was different but she never thought it was a big deal--in fact, she really didn't try to hide the fact that she was gay. However, when she brought her first girlfriend, Meg, home to dinner, her father blew up, screaming at her, calling her a disgrace, disgusting, and a disappointment. Romi would remember looking at her sister, Lily, and pleading with her eyes 'Please say something! Please stand up for me!' But instead, her sister just averted her eyes, probably grateful this wasn't happening to her. Romi had always feared her father but this was the first time that he'd ever screamed at her

After that, things were different. She wasn't the apple of her father's eye anymore--quite the opposite. From that moment on, he only ever told Liliana that he loved her and it showed. Romi felt the lack of love, from the both of them. It's like she'd completely abandoned. A few days after the incident at dinner, he'd come to her and apologized for yelling but he also made it explicitly clear that she was to keep her sexuality to herself. She remembered having laughed in his face, asking him "Are you fucking serious?" His face of anger and disgust showed that yes, he was indeed serious

Romi's father was verbally abusive but he'd never been physically abusive--after all, why raise a hand yourself when you can pay someone else to do it? After she'd come out, Romi had noticed that she was being followed. At first, she was worried that it was some creep but it turns out that her father had had her tailed, just to keep an eye on her, to make sure she wasn't 'disgracing the family.' It was soon after this that Romi started to use coke on a regular basis

Though she'd never been interested in drugs before, suddenly, partying became her escape. After all, what else could she do? She was forced to be closeted at the threat of being kicked out of the family. Feeling unloved and unable to love out in the open, she really lost all inhibitions and threw caution to the wind. Every single night, you could find her in a club, high, having the time of her life

One night, however, she'd made the mistake of stumbling into the house right in the middle of an important business meeting. To save face, her father tried to have her escorted to her room but something in Romi just snapped--maybe it was the way he was talking to her, so fucking condescending, like she was a child. Sure, maybe she was acting like a child but he should fucking know why. After all, how could you expect a motherless child not to be lost?

In front of her father's business associates, she'd made an offhand comment about her mother--she hadn't meant to, it had just slipped out. "Are you gonna' do to me what you did to Mom? So I'll stop being such a fucking bother to you?"

After apologizing to his associates and apologizing for his 'disturbed' daughter, he had Romi escorted to her bedroom where she passed out. However, when she woke up, she found herself in a very different place. She was alone in a room and shortly after she came to, her father stepped into the room. Shit, this was bad

At first, she started begging him--she was sorry and she promised not to cross him again, promised to no longer embarrass him. But he said it was too late for that. At that, suddenly her fear turned to rage and she leapt at her father, her nails tearing at his skin. "I know what you fucking did," she snarled. "You think you can just throw people away when you get tired of them? When they're no longer of use to you?" Her father simply pushed her away and gave her a sickening grin. "Precisely." Pulling the pistol from his waistband, he muttered something about how she was far more trouble than she was worth. After that, everything went dark

THE AFTERMATH

For quite a long time, it's as if Romi was living her new life on auto-pilot, as if she'd barely registered that she herself was alive--and how exactly the fuck was she alive anyways? For a long time, her memory was a thick fog that she was unable to see through, only getting bits and pieces here and there. However, eventually, she was able to piece enough together to know that her father had been behind it all

She hadn't been able to locate her sister, Lily--though she never stopped hoping that one day, they'd be reunited. She did, however, find her father. She tracked him down and discovered that he was now living in Anchorage, Alaska, one of the city councilman no less. With that, she set off to Alaska

She still had her orders, of course, but she was also pursuing her own agenda. When she showed up in her father's office, for just a brief moment, she saw a sight that she'd never beheld before: he was afraid, like he'd just seen a ghost--because hadn't he?

Needless to say, Romi turned the tables on him and blackmailed him--what kind of father gunned down his own fucking daughter anyways? She let him know straightaway that he would be funding her lifestyle and he'd continue to do so lest he risk losing it all. It wasn't just what he'd done to her--it was what he'd done to her mother and all of the knowledge that she held about his life of organized crime

Even though on the outside, it seemed like she'd won, she still felt as if she had a storm inside her chest. She continued to party, becoming even more reckless now that she seemingly had endless money to spend. In her young adult life, she'd had a lot of low moments but perhaps her rock bottom was when she'd gone on a three-day bender in her big, empty apartment. She'd been doing line after line and at one point, her euphoria turned to sheer panic because she could hear her heartbeat in her ears and it felt like it was racing faster than ever before. Suddenly, she was sobbing, terrified that her heart was going to explode, terrified at the idea of missing out on everything that she'd yet to do

With some encouragement from friends like Cyrek Fawn and Anka Mae-Nava'i, Romi eventually checked herself into rehab, where she was diagnosed with depression. She's had a few backslides but she's now been sober for a year-and-a-half, a huge feat for her

Anka also encouraged her to explore her culinary skills, which Romi seemingly had a knack for. Having trained under Anka, Romi is now a sous chef at the Ivy, an accomplishment that she's rather proud of

#tw: drugs #tw: murder #tw: death #tw: violence #tw: homophobia #tw: guns #this took forever but here it finally is <3

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