#novel vane design

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Black Sails: 13 Facts About The Starz Hit Worth More Than Stolen Treasure

BY ERICH B. ANDERSON/DEC. 31, 2022 1:15 PM EST

With contemporary series like "Vikings" and "Game of Thrones," "Black Sails" may often be overlooked when compared to other epic dramas of the 2010s, which makes it one of the most underrated shows of the decade. Not only is the scale of the pirate adventure immense with many scenes taking place upon impressive naval vessels, but the political intrigue and intimate interactions of the characters make it an entertaining watch for several different audiences.

The show as a whole does a brilliant job of mixing fiction with historical figures like the notorious pirate captains Blackbeard (Ray Stevenson) and Charles Vane (Zach McGowan) whose lives were so legendary that they verge on fantasy. But at its core, the story centers on the complicated friendship between its two main characters, Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and his deviously clever quartermaster, Long John Silver, in the years before their sagas are continued in the later tale of "Treasure Island." For a series devoted to such larger-than-life individuals, the making of it also had its fair share of epic details and moments as well, which you can enjoy reading below.

The series is an unofficial prequel to Treasure Island

Although "Black Sails" is its own story for the most part, from the very beginning it was always meant to show the events building up to the classic work of fiction "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson. More than anything, the creators of the series wanted to tie up loose ends to the famous tale and give their explanation to who the characters were up to in the years before, as showrunner Jonathan Steinberg explained to Entertainment Weekly: "At the end of the book, it's recounted by other people that Captain Flint died in Savannah alone, which begs a lot of questions."

Flint's origin is certainly not the only one covered with both Long John Silver's and Billy Bones' backstories explained thoroughly as well. For Billy especially, his situation in the finale of the series gives all new meaning to what happens to him later in the novel. Steinberg added: "It is clear we are suggesting he is on 'Treasure Island,' which I think has a number of implications if you go back and read the book."

After four seasons, it is clear the showrunner was pleased with how the series handled the continuity, saying: "It felt like we had finished the argument a little bit, in terms of connecting it not just to 'Treasure Island,' but to our contemporary understanding of what piracy was, about what Caribbean piracy was."

2. The opening credits features the hurdy-gurdy

Several aspects of "Black Sails" make it stand out as a particularly fascinating TV series, with one of the top being its unique theme music in the opening credits. Not only is the memorable tune composed by the talented Bear McCreary who is well known for his work on "The Walking Dead" and "Battlestar Galactica," but it also features quite an unusual instrument known as a hurdy-gurdy, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Also known as a wheel fiddle, the hurdy-gurdy is a folk instrument that has existed for around 1,000 years and is played to this day all over Western Europe, from Italy to England. In a 2010 TED Talk, musician Caroline Phillips explained that the complex and bulky device originally required two people to operate it until the design was improved a few centuries later, so it could be used by a single performer. Although a fundamental part of the instrument is the strings, akin to a violin, the sound produced can also be compared to bagpipes.

3. The show was filmed in South Africa

While "Black Sails" takes place predominantly in the Caribbean, that was not the place chosen to film the epic pirate drama. Instead, the Starz network went with the fairly new Cape Town Studios for the production, and needless to say that the South African-based company was ecstatic over the decision. Ahead of filming Season 1, Film Afrika producer Vlokkie Gordon said: "We are delighted to have been awarded ['Black Sails'] and it is further proof of South Africa's international reputation for outstanding production skill and expertise" (via The Location Guide). Gordon continued: "A production of this scope provides not only employment for South Africans, but also skills transfer which is in line with Film Afrika's policy of supporting growth and development of the South African film and television industry."

The swashbuckling series was then added to the growing list of productions shot out of Cape Town, including "Safe House," "Chronicle," and "Mad Max: Fury Road," as per the Cape Town Film Studios website. Plus, another Starz series benefited greatly from the elaborate ship sets built there, with "Outlander" using the Jamaican landscapes in its third season, according to Entertainment Weekly.

4. 300 people worked on the pirate ship

The impressive sailing vessels featured in "Black Sails" are almost as important to the story as the characters themselves. Therefore, a ton of work was put into the construction of the sets in order to make the maritime setting feel real for the cast, and more importantly, the audience. In a behind-the-scenes clip shared by Starz, senior rigger Joel Yates explained: "The carpenters building the boat it took them, I think, four or five months. They want it to look as authentic as possible because what we've built is a very accurate replica of a sailing ship."

The end product, called The Walrus in the show, was massive as well, as Yates revealed that the full ship is approximately 140 feet long. And to pull off such an incredible feat, it took a gigantic crew with various skill sets, as construction coordinator Clive Pollack shared: "There are 300 people working on the boat. There are carpenters, sculptors, painters, riggers, sailmakers."

5. There were no bathrooms for cast and crew on the ship

For as grand as the prominent pirate ship is in "Black Sails," it does have its faults as it also serves as the set of a modern TV production. In a 2016 interview with Den of Geek, actor Zach McGowan revealed the biggest problem for the cast and crew on set: "The hardest thing about the ships, most people don't realize, is just when you're on the ship at the top of the deck somewhere, it's very far to the nearest bathroom. There's no bathroom on the ships."

Even with that minor complaint, McGowan went on to stress that being on the deck of the ship at sea was such a great experience that the actor wished he had more of those scenes. It's also his opinion that most of the cast felt the same way, except possibly the ones who spent the most time on board, such as Toby Stephens.

6. The actors went through pirate boot camp

Like most epic dramas featured on premium channels, "Black Sails" is filled with massive battle sequences, in this case often between rival pirate clans, or against the relentless forces of the British and Spanish empires. While the nature of naval warfare means that a good amount of these conflicts are long distance, yet devastating, as cannonballs attempt to rip enemy vessels apart, much of the brutal combat is at close quarters.

All of the fight scenes in the series are quite impressive, so it makes sense that many cast members received special training. In a Q&A with a few of the main actors, shared by Starz in 2015, Luke Arnold revealed: "We all went through a three-week pirate boot camp. Well, the pirates of the crew did at the beginning of shooting." And it was a good thing that they did because when asked if they could survive the rough conditions of the time period, the general consensus was an adamant no. Toby Stephens then elaborated with a laugh: "The real trouble, I'd be ok on Nasau, it was as soon as I'd get on a boat and I had to sail anywhere."

7. Clara Paget came up with Anne Bonny's distinctive look

From Charles Vane, Edward Teach, and Jack Rackham to Captain Flint, Long John Silver, and Billy Bones, "Black Sails" has all sorts of characters based on either historic people or from the famous fictional tale, "Treasure Island." Therefore, both the writers of the show and the actors who portrayed these popular figures had to work with what was already known about them. But at the same time, there was a lot of creative freedom as well.

A somewhat minor, though fascinating aspect of another one of these real characters in the series, Anne Bonny, was thought up by actress Clara Paget. In a 2016 interview with Den of Geek, when asked what she contributed to the role, the actress replied: "I suppose the hat. That came completely organically. I tried on this hat and then I was pulling it down in an almost jokey way, like an old-school Western. Then it became who she is, hiding behind this hat. It really works for the character because, as I said, it shows this vulnerable side at the same time as being a badass through one side or the other. Like schizophrenic, bipolar."

8. Zack McGowan broke a stuntman's jaw by accident

A major reason that the fight scenes in "Black Sails" are so good is because of the enthusiasm of the cast and crew when filming, yet there was one time that may have gone a little too far. When a stuntman on set named Daryl was to be hit with the butt of a rifle by Zach McGowan, the dedicated performer showed no fear and encouraged the actor to strike him square in the face. The veteran stuntman figured it was no big deal since the thing was only made of rubber. Since Daryl seemed more than fine with the idea, McGowan went along with the idea.

In a 2017 interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Toby Stephens recalled the disastrous, though somewhat funny result: "Zach, who's brilliant at this kind of thing, whacked him straight in the jaw, as the guy asked, and totally broke his jaw. It looks fantastic, it actually made the cut, and it looked absolutely brilliant. At the end of it, I just remember Daryl going, 'No, it's fine. It's okay, don't worry about it.'" Fortunately, the stuntman was not seriously harmed, so they were able to joke about it a bit.

9. Zack McGowan climbed the balconies of a building to get rum

"Black Sails" is filled with many incredible exploits of pirate warriors as they battle on the high seas, but a behind-the-scenes achievement by one of the actors was almost as impressive as what was shown on screen. During a break in filming, the cast was having a good time together but needed some rum, so Zach McGowan went to rather extreme lengths to remedy the situation.   

In order to gain access to the prized liquor in a room several floors up, the actor literally scaled the side of the building all on his own. When talking with Rotten Tomatoes, cast member Hannah New described the amazing sight, saying: "He did this like Spider-Man kind of thing where he climbed up these balconies … it's incredible, he does like, God knows how many chin-ups every day. So, he can just chin up these balconies."

After McGowan successfully got the rum and then made the way back down with it in his front pocket, the cast waiting down below were too awestruck to do anything but tensely watch. Fellow actress Jessica Parker Kennedy added: "And none of us videotaped it. I think we were all in such shock, it was so scary, I thought he was going to fall and break his neck and we would have to explain it to our producers the next day."

10. It took all season to film Luke Arnold's underwater scene

In the fourth season of "Black Sails," Long John Silver nearly perishes in the sea as he struggles to escape his sinking ship. Actor Luke Arnold must have been pleased that his character ultimately survived the harrowing experience, but filming the scenes was definitely not easy for the actor. Even though he was confident in the comprehensive training he received beforehand, Arnold still had to overcome a major fear of performing in those conditions.

When asked specifically about those tense underwater moments, he told Collider in a 2017 interview: "That was the beginning of hell that kept getting crazier as it went along. That took all season to shoot. We were in the water tank, from the beginning of the season, stuck underwater, all day." To his dismay, Arnold was right when he assumed it would take longer to finish than the filmmakers first thought, yet it was all worth it, as he added: "Right until the last couple of weeks, I was doing bits of the underwater stuff to make that whole sequence as spectacular as it is."

11. Luke Arnold received a special gift from a producer

Luke Arnold was one of several major cast members of "Black Sails" who was in the show from the very beginning all the way through to the climactic finale. The actor very much enjoyed his time filming the series, so when he found a cherished memento from the early days, it was a big deal. In the same interview with Collider, he revealed: "We were shooting a scene in Season 4 that was back in Eleanor's office, and I found the piece of paper that I was writing the directions to find the Urca de Lima on, which was the very first scene we shot in Episode 103. Nina Jack, who was one of our producers on Season 4, got it framed and gave it to me as a gift, so I've gone away with that. That was amazing!"

On the other hand, there were parts of the series that Arnold did not remember so fondly, mostly from the difficulties that arose in pretending to have lost a leg. In this endeavor, he was able to use a crutch on screen, but the prop caused him so much discomfort that he grew to despise it.

12. Luke Arnold had a legless stunt double

Once Long John Silver tragically loses his leg in "Black Sails," Luke Arnold had some difficulty filming scenes as the character, so he was grateful to have help from a stuntman named Ben de Jager who is also missing the limb. The actor told Collider: "It was great to have somebody who's gone through the experience of losing a leg. He did step in for a lot of stuff, mainly because it was so much easier to have him there. If you're shooting from behind or you're focusing on the foot, it's easier to have someone in who's missing the leg than to do it with me and spend a fortune on visual effects to change things."

Though Arnold certainly got along with de Jager, there also seemed to have been a little jealousy in sharing screen time for the role. The actor admitted that a downside for him was his absence in some major Long John Silver moments of the show.

13. The writers gradually decided to bring back Flint's lover, Thomas

For as dark as "Black Sails" can be throughout the series, it ended on a fairly happy note as the main character, Captain Flint, is finally reunited with the love of his life, Thomas Hamilton (Rupert Penry-Jones). Both men are sentenced to imprisonment on a plantation, yet all that matters to the pair is that they are together again. Viewers may have been somewhat surprised that Thomas had returned to the show given the fact that he was thought to be dead, but over time the writers decided that was not going to be his fate.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Jonathan Steinberg explained: "We had a sense in Season 2 when he died off-screen, that any character who dies off-screen, you're taking the word of the messenger as to whether or not it actually happened. We knew we weren't finished with him. And then at some point in Season 3, we realized it would be reasonably late in the series when he came back, so in Season 4 it felt right."

Source: Looper

[pastedpast]

This painting is by the artist, Ferdinand Piloty, (?1786-1844?) who painted a stylistically-similar scene of Kriemhild and her mother in the blog post I still haven't completed (link here). It refers to the tragic 12th century love story of Cornish king, Tristan, and Irish princess, Isolde (aka Iseult). The tale was adapted into an opera by Richard Wagner between 1857 and 1859. I like the painting because of the gold background and intricate tree design.

The image is just one of loads of fresh material I have unearthed while making my latest scrapbook. Other items include pictures of lesser-known animals (geunons, gaurs and peccaries); various flowers; different types of fish (glass fish, icicle fish, goatfish); depictions of zodiacal signs (from Krakow's Kupa Synagogue, and Jaipur's Janta Mantar observatory); bizarre illustrations from alchemical manuscripts; Renaissance- and Baroque-era portraits of saints (Barbara, Catherine and Rose of Lima); artworks by Vincent van Gogh; watercolour paintings of fairies, oil paintings of angels, and woodcut renderings of witches; information about bees and bee-keeping; ancient Chinese and medieval European agricultural practices; the history of weather vanes; snippets of info about and paintings by Egon Schiele; the history of the dodo and its genetic relation, the solitaire (now both extinct); a brief history of the factory-village of Port Sunlight (similar to the story of Sir Titus Salt and Saltaire in West Yorkshire, it was built by an industrialist - William Hesketh Lever* - to house his estate workers); an engraving of Hester Prynne and her daughter from Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel 'The Scarlet Letter'; information and illustrations pertaining to the use of runes in the practice of magic; the constellation of Gemini as portrayed in various manuscripts (e.g. the Bedford Book of Hours, and a Turkish treatise on astrology); info about Halley's comet, the Geminid meteor shower, the festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia, and a woodcut from a 16th century English Shepherd's Calendar; and portraits and snippets of info about the (sadly, tragic lives) of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Mary Queen of Scots, Lady Emma Hamilton, Isadora Duncan, Marie Antoinette and Anne Boleyn.

It's a pity I can't mass-produce my scrapbooks, because I reckon they would be bestsellers!

*The Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool was established by WHL after the death of his wife, and is set in the garden village of Port Sunlight, on the Wirral.

[weirdjanuary]

🇮🇹 Questo post non lo capirà nessuno (o lo capirà qualche lettore) ma lo faccio comunque perchè è un momento che voglio ricordare xD Stavo cenando con latte e biscotti quando ho realizzato che i biscotti che stavo inzuppando hanno il disegno di un segnavento a forma di gallo. Nel romanzo che sto leggendo in questi giorni c'è un quartiere chiamato Garitta del Gallo perchè contraddistinto da questa torretta con un gallo segnavento. E stanno commerciando un nuovo vino che ha sull'etichetta proprio questo segnavento perchè viene prodotto lì. Perciò scherzando ho pensato: "Allora anche questi biscotti vengono dalla Garitta del Gallo!!" Sì lo so, sono scema xDD --- 🇬🇧 No one will understand this post (or some readers will) but I'm doing it anyway because it's a moment I want to remember xD I was having dinner with milk and biscuits when I realized that the biscuits I was dipping have the design of a rooster-shaped weather vane. In the novel I'm reading these days there's a neighborhood called Rooster's Sentry-box because it's characterized by this turret with a rooster weathercock on the roof. And they are marketing a new wine that has this weathercock on the label because it's produced there. So jokingly I said to myself: "So these biscuits also come from the Rooster's Sentry-box!!" Yes I know, I'm idiot xDD

[eclipsecrowned]

You got any good Lucien metas hiding in the back room of the blog waiting to be written? // @versin-surfin​ (ik you’re full to the brim of metas so this is an ask to let ‘em loose :3)

Lucien is Adam. As in, either the eastern religious Adam, or per the story told in Sandman issue 40, the first living male being that was later identified as Adam by humanity. Watch me cite my sources on this one.

It’s shown across The Sandman that all of the first family are employed by Dream in some form or fashion. This tracks, given his general love for humanity. The brothers Cain and Abel were given dominion over the House of Mystery and the House of Secrets, respectively. Eve and her three faces dwell in a cave, and weaves stories for those who reach her. This does, however, leave Adam rather absent from the narrative.

Until you take into account there is one last vintage DC Horror host among the cast. That would be Lucien, Dream’s trusted librarian and second in command. Cain and Abel keep their mysteries and secrets, Eve tells stories, and Lucien... Preserves them. Keeps them safe. Oversees them like a proper caretaker, like a patriarch -- Wait a minute.

There’s also a notable physical resemblance between Cain and Lucien. You can see that Abel has Eve’s coloring -- all dark hair, fair skin, and blue eyes, even if the eye color is typically dependent on the artist. That in mind, it does seem to support my argument that Lucien and Cain both have wild brown hair and long, thin faces, while also dressing similarly and wearing spectacles. Then again, these are both extant character designs that predated Gaiman’s involvement in the series, so I admit this is probably the shakiest evidence I have. I just find it interesting Eve might have been designed with Abel in mind, where both Lucien and Cain exist but their resemblance is never commented upon.

Lucien was the first Raven, though he has forgotten this fact in the long march of time. That raises the question, then, of what else he might have forgotten over the ages. If he’s the first Raven, does it stand to reason he might have been the first of something else? There’s also the fact Eve is a keeper of ravens -- as Cain and Abel were made to compliment as the first brothers, neighbors across the rest of eternity, is it possible that Dream gave Adam and Eve similar complementary arrangements?

That really taps me out for Sandman canonical evidence. The rest of what I have is purely from follow-ups that were declared non-canon -- ie Lucien appearing at a family event at the House of Mystery in The Dreaming (1990s) with little explanation, and later remembering his daughters buried him on the banks of an ancient river shortly before Cain and Abel’s sisters are introduced -- but I think the strongest non-canonical evidence for Lucien as Adam comes straight from a companion book.

See, in the nineteenth century, the Scottish author George MacDonald wrote what many consider to be his best work. This novel, Lilith, is a reflection on life, death, and faith, and features among its cast Mr. Raven, the ghost of a librarian. Our protagonist, Vane, catches glimpses of the former librarian where he appears as his namesake, a dark-plumed bird who haunts the bookstore the protagonist now owns. Mr. Raven takes Vane on a journey to a parallel world where sleepers dream until the end of the world. During one misadventure in this fantasy world, Vane discovers that Raven is Adam. Further struggles ensue against the eponymous Lilith, Vane is triumphant, but then awakens from the dream and all is well with his soul, etc, etc.

It’s easy to see how this novel might have had some influence on the Sandman comic. Namely, we have a librarian who is also a raven, as Lucien was revealed to be later on in the series. In turn, the librarian is a raven is Adam. Hy Bender first came to this conclusion in The Sandman Companion, which is where I first heard and latched onto the idea. To me, the pieces lineup too neatly. After conducting my own research into the theory, I came to the same conclusion that Lucien could absolutely be Adam, or I could at least make the theory my own personal headcanon for blog purposes.

[iamthenightcolormeblack]

Impressions of Dorian Gray (2009)

This is a collection of my thoughts on the Dorian Gray movie starring Ben Barnes as the titular character, which I watched shortly after reading the book.

1. THINGS I LIKED

The production design. The sets and costumes are lavish and transport you back to the late 19th century/Gilded Age. The whole aesthetic of this movie is amazing.

All the party scenes. YES HEDONISM.

Sybil Vane drowns like Ophelia in Hamlet (not in the book) emphasizing how Dorian and his friends view her as a piece of art (tragic Shakespearean heroine) rather than a human being. I like how she has long red hair like the female subjects of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

2. CASTING

Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray. In the book Dorian Gray has blond hair and blue eyes (different from Ben Barnes) but I really like his performance here. He really is Dorian Gray because his good looks make him attractive in a dangerous way, but hides his sadistic nature (he uses other people for his pleasure and doesn't care about ruining their reputations or lives).

Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton. I'm not sure if he was the best choice to portray Lord Henry. He's too serious and uptight and I've always pictured Lord Henry to be a more jocular person who is great at entertaining others in his elite circle with his sly mockery of them. I think Hugh Grant would have been a better choice because Grant is great at being charming yet deceptive. A lot of Hugh Grant's characters are also good at talking intelligent-sounding gibberish for long periods of time/making witty comments (ex. Bridget Jones' Diary), so absolutely perfect for an Oscar Wilde story. Also why did they have to give Firth a most unflattering beard/goatee?

3. MAJOR CHANGES FROM THE BOOK

The movie begins with Dorian Gray dumping the body of Basil Hallward into the river and flashbacks are used to show how he got to that point, before it flashes forward to Dorian's demise. In contrast, the book has a linear narrative where events happen chronologically. Many other plot points/details from the novel were changed so that the final product resembles Sweeney Todd much more than the original novel.

Lots of sex and blood. Lord Henry takes Dorian to a brothel (never happened). The exact nature of Dorian's sins are kept ambiguous or only alluded to (with the exception of the many visits to the opium den). Instead of including more witty dialogue from the book, the movie treats the audience to weird slow motion scenes of debauchery and CGI blood splatter. I watched this movie with my parents and it was AWKWARD to say the least.

Weirdest change of all: Lord Henry becomes good and has a daughter. I strongly dislike this change because in the book Lord Henry remains a flat character whose main purpose is to voice all the hedonistic beliefs that the rich live by but won't own up to. He's pretty much the devil incarnate who manipulates Dorian to test his beliefs in action without actually practicing what he preaches. In fact, when Dorian expresses a desire to redeem himself, Lord Henry gets disappointed. In the movie, after Lord Henry has a daughter (which never happened of course) he all of a sudden grows a heart and he gets really worried when Dorian starts flirting with his daughter. He even starts to investigate Dorian and burns the portrait.

The title change from The Picture of Dorian Gray to Dorian Gray. I dislike the title change because it leaves out the fundamental theme of art as a means of revealing the human soul. The original title plays on the differences between interior and exterior appearances but twists it so that the portrait, which could be a lie (the artist's perception of the person, the features exaggerated to be beautiful), turns out to be the truest representation of the person. Art, like the portrait, blurs the boundary between illusion and reality to reveal certain truths/insights (but what those truths/insights are depend on a subjective opinion).

4. CONCLUSION

The movie is beautiful, but Oscar Wilde's social satire has been simplified into a horror movie of "pretty boy does bad things and suffers for it."

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Flights of Fancy

Chapter 2 (AO3) by @dracusfyre

Content Warning: in this chapter Bucky and Tony are both 17 and engage in consensual, non-penetrative sexual activity.

Five Years Ago: Tony

Tony smiled as he saw Bucky’s eyes drift closed, drowsy and relaxed in the quiet privacy of the stables. A lantern, partially shuttered so that the light wouldn’t go past the hay loft and attract attention in the night, cast a rosy glow over him, and for a moment Tony was so in love his chest ached. Smiling privately, he turned his gaze back to Bucky’s secondaries, smoothing down the vanes on each feather so they lay straight and unbroken, picking out stray down and detritus that gathered in them from Bucky’s work on the estate. Bucky was laying on his back on the blanket that they’d spread out over the hay, wings sprawled at his side, while Tony sat cross-legged at his hip to groom him.

“What do you think about red and gold?” Tony asked softly, now just stroking the tips of his fingers down the rachis of each feather. Bucky’s wing twitched like it tickled, but it settled back down. Red and gold paint would look lovely against Bucky’s dark brown wings.

Bucky made a humming noise, then said, “I like silver. Red and silver?”

Tony tilted his head, picturing it. Then he stretched out his own wing, eyeing it critically. His wings were a lighter color than Bucky’s, a medium brown that turned reddish in the sun. Gold would look better on his own wings, but he said, “That sounds lovely. Bars, I think, not stripes. And maybe dots, as an accent?”

Bucky opened his eyes and met Tony’s gazes. “We could paint my wings rainbow polka dots, as long as they match yours,” he said, gaze warm with affection, and Tony flushed. Without thinking, he raised his wings and Bucky’s eyes zeroed in on them, and the hungry look on his face made heat flash through the rest of Tony’s body. Under his hands Bucky’s wings tensed, and Tony had to fight the urge to bury his hands in the thick feathers and find the skin underneath.

Tony forced his wings to settle against his back and ducked his chin. “I wish we could fly together,” he said, putting his hands in his lap to avoid temptation and staring down at them. “I love you so much, the wait is killing me.”

“Just one more year,” Bucky said. “Then we’ll reach our majority, and your father can go hang.” He sat up and then there was a wing under Tony’s chin, tilting his face up. “We can go see the world, just like you always wanted.” Bucky pressed a soft, lingering kiss on Tony’s lips, and Tony leaned forward to chase Bucky’s mouth as he pulled away.

“I could get us paint,” Tony said against Bucky’s mouth. He pressed Bucky back against the blanket and leaned over him. “We could paint them, and we’d both be 18 by the time we shed our secondaries.”

Bucky’s face went slack with surprise. “Are you serious? We’d be in so much trouble if we were discovered!” His hands came up to frame Tony’s face. “As much as I love you, I don’t want to think about what would happen to you if the Duke found out you’d painted your secondaries with a commoner like me.”

“I could give up flying for a year if it meant wearing your colors,” Tony said stubbornly. “I wouldn’t even  open  my wings, if that’s what it took.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Bucky pulled Tony down on top of him and wrapped his arms around him, burying his face in Tony’s neck. “My love, are you sure?” he said, his voice so small and uncertain that any fears Tony had vanished.

“Yes,” Tony said, suddenly wanting it more than anything. “The next time we meet, we’ll do it.”

They didn’t get another few hours alone for a week, but when the moon rose that night it found them back in their hayloft, wings spread and two paint pots between them. Now that it was time, Tony found his hands were shaking every time he tried to pick up the paintbrush. There was a piece of paper on the floor with the design on it that they’d drawn out together, having already gone through three pages of paper trying to sketch something out. “It’s not too late to change your mind,” Bucky said when he saw how nervous Tony was. He took Tony’s hands in his own, squeezing them. “I will still love you the same if you want to wait.”

“It’s not that,” Tony managed. The nerves in his chest turned into a lump in his throat, then a hot press of tears in his eyes. “I just want it to be perfect.”

“Whatever you paint, I paint,” Bucky said softly, drying Tony’s cheeks as the tears spilled over, his own eyes suspiciously damp and voice hoarse. “And whatever that looks like, will be perfect.” Seeing that Bucky was also affected made it both better and worse, and after a few moments Tony managed to swallow back his tears.

“I’m ready,” he said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. He picked up the paintbrush and dipped it in the red, smoothing off the excess paint on the edges of the paint pot. Bucky did the same, and as Tony put brush to feather on the outermost secondary feather on the underside of Bucky’s wings, Bucky did the same on Tony’s. The popular novels, the ones that Howard always complained about, said that you could feel the paint going on, damp and cool, but to Tony’s disappointment all he felt was pressure. But the sight of the red on Bucky’s feather more than made up for it, and he couldn’t help but turn his head and compare it to his own.  He met Bucky’s eye, who was doing the same thing, and they both smiled and leaned in for a kiss. Doing the rest of the wings took a good hour before they were both satisfied that the design on their secondaries matched, and then they closed up the paint pots and set them aside so they wouldn’t spill.

“Now what do we do?” Tony asked, realizing that he was going to have to hold his wings open for a while to let the paint dry or else the design would be smudged. When Bucky didn’t answer immediately, he looked up to see that Bucky was giving him a wry look, wings also spread rather awkwardly.

“I don’t know, Tony. Given that most people paint their secondaries on their wedding night, what would they possibly do while their wings dried?”

Tony made a face and wished he had something to throw at Bucky, knowing that his face was red again. “Well, I know  that, ” he said. “But it just seems like it would be awkward, trying to do it while holding your wings open like this.”

Bucky’s eyes darkened and he lay back against the hay, keeping his wings splayed. Tony swallowed thickly at the display; he’d seen Bucky with his wings splayed open, but this was different because now Bucky was holding his wings open like he was flying, like an invitation. When Bucky gestured for him to come closer, he did, and at Bucky’s urging Tony settled into his lap, pulse quickening when he realized Bucky was already half-hard. “I imagine they could do it like this,” Bucky murmured, dragging his gaze from Tony’s to rove hungrily over Tony’s spread open wings. His hands settled on Tony’s hips, and when he rocked up Tony bit back a moan at the delicious friction. He did it again and again until they were both fully hard and straining at their breeches; when they had settled into a good rhythm, Bucky’s hands slid up Tony’s shirt, skating over his ribs and digging into the muscles of Tony’s back where they were tense from holding his wings still. “You can flap, if you want to,” Bucky said, voice low and dirty, and Tony shuddered.

“We should stop,” he said breathlessly, but despite his words he didn’t stop his rocking; the pressure of Bucky’s hardness against his own felt too good. They’d always stopped before it got this far, but tonight was different. Tony didn’t think either of them felt like stopping. Flapping his wings helped him keep his rhythm, but the real reward was hearing the broken sound Bucky made in his chest at the sight, thrusting up so hard that Tony had to squeeze his hips tight with his thighs like he was riding a restive horse.

But then Bucky stopped, eyes squeezed tightly closed. “We can stop if you want to,” he said, and when he started to release Tony, Tony grabbed his hands and put them back on his skin.

“No,” he said. “I know we should, but I don’t want to. I’m yours,” he said, waving his painted wings to make the point. “I don’t need a piece of paper or society’s approval to know that.” He leaned over Bucky, bracing himself on his shoulders and wings spread over them both, then kissed him, mouth sliding against his and tongue thrusting in hungrily. Bucky groaned and his hands plucked at the laces holding Tony’s shirt together at the sides, then buried his hands in the scapular feathers to grip Tony by his shoulders, pulling him down to meet his hips as Bucky thrust up. Stars burst behind Tony’s eyes at the sensation and he gasped against Bucky’s mouth. The movement of their bodies became desperate then, as they chased their relief; Tony moved his grip from Bucky’s shoulders to his wing shoulders, pinning them down, and Bucky bit back a curse and came, throwing his head back as he spilled hot and wet between them. His hands tightened almost painfully on Tony’s wing shoulders as he shuddered under Tony, and the sight and sensation sent Tony over the edge as well, toes curling and breath punching out of his lungs at the force of his orgasm. He wanted to collapse against Bucky but remembered at the last minute that his wings might still be damp, so instead he just rested his forehead against Bucky’s, both of them damp with sweat.

They breathed there in the silence together, Bucky’s hands gentling on Tony and raking through the scapulars that he’d disarranged at the height of passion, then after a moment Bucky said, “That outta do it for the paint, though,” and Tony couldn’t help laughing. He sat up, grimacing a little at the wet, sticky feeling of his breeches, and examined his wings. Sure enough, all the flapping had made the paint dry, and it was easy to pick off the few bits of hay that had stuck to the paint as it dried.

“I love you,” Tony said as he folded his wings, hiding the paint. It was going to be hard to hide the paint from his parents, but so worth it, to be able to see the design on his wings whenever he was alone and remember this moment. It would be easy work to fake a sprain and just ride a horse wherever he would normally fly. Bucky probably wouldn’t have to do the same; his work usually kept him busy enough that the only time he was even able to go for a flight was on his half-day, and no one would notice if he wasn’t flying on his time off.

Bucky’s eyes were full of awe and wonder as they roamed over Tony’s face, like he was afraid that Tony was too good to be true. He sat up and kissed Tony again. “I love you too,” he whispered against Tony’s mouth, and even though they were in a hay loft, surrounded by the smell of horses, in that moment Tony felt like he was flying.

“What in the  hell is this?” Howard thundered, voice tight with rage. He grabbed Tony’s wring wrist, fingers digging in painfully at the joint, and yanked Tony’s wing open. Tony tried to fight him off, struggling to get away, but Howard’s wing came up and clubbed him by the side of the head, stunning him.  Howard held him there for a long moment, one hand on his wing wrist and one on his shoulder, staring down at the painted secondaries.

Tony felt hot and sick with fear and anger, trembling all over. He had no idea how Howard had found out, but he was just as furious as Tony had known he would be, face white and eyes blazing. Finally, he shoved Tony away, sending him almost stumbling to the floor. “Who is it?” Howard demanded. “Who have you been flying with?”

“No one,” Tony mumbled, because it was true, he and Bucky had agreed to only go flying when they were both of age, despite the taste of marriage flight they’d had in the hay loft.

Howard slapped him. Tony gasped at the shock of pain, eyes tearing up from the surprise of it. He forced them back, though, because he’d be damned if he’d show weakness to his father. “Don’t tell me you haven’t been flying when I can see the paint with my own goddamn eyes!” He roared. “Now  who is it?”

But Tony shook his head stubbornly, crossing his arms across his chest and closing his wings tightly against his back, one of them aching from Howard’s rough grip. “Fuck you,” he said, lifting his chin. “I’m tired of you clipping my wings. I’ll be an adult in six months and then you can’t touch me anymore.”

“Oh, you haven’t even  seen  me clipping your wings,” Howard said, curling his lip. “It won’t be difficult to find out who you’ve been cavorting with.” Tony felt a spike of dread at the thought of Howard discovering Bucky, and he made a break for the balcony to try to warn him, but Howard caught him by the wing and threw him back into the room. Tony hit the corner of the desk sharply and fell to the floor. Before he could get to his feet, Howard had him by the back of his neck and was half-pulling, half-dragging him towards the closet. He shoved Tony inside and slammed the door, and Tony heard the lock turn.

“No!” Tony yelled, banging and kicking on the door. “Stop! You can’t do this!” but there was only silence on the other side of the door. Tony fought the door until his hands were bloody and his body ached, but to no avail, so finally he slid down to the floor and buried his head in his hands, praying that Bucky figured out what Howard was doing and could escape.

The thin strip of light under the door had gone dark before the door opened again, and Tony squinted against the bright light of Howard’s lantern as he stood in the doorway. “Get up,” he said, pulling Tony to his feet when he didn’t stand up fast enough. With a tight grip on Tony’s elbow he led him to Howard’s study, closing and locking the door behind them. There was a fire burning merrily in the grate, and a tray of dinner was on Howard’s desk, but that’s not what drew Tony’s eyes.

It was the pile of dark brown feathers on the desk, red and silver paint gleaming in the firelight. Tony’s blood ran cold at the sight and his knees went weak, making him stagger before he caught himself on a chair.

“I told you it wouldn’t be hard to find your lover,” Howard said. He picked one up and ran it through his fingers; Tony could see that the feather had been cut, not pulled out, so at least Bucky wasn’t bleeding out somewhere from his lost secondaries. But Howard had still brutally cut the sign of Tony’s love off of Bucky’s body; Tony felt queasy as he imagined how one or more of Howard’s goons would have had to hold Bucky down while Howard did it, could almost hear the metallic click of the heavy shears as they cut through each rachis. He doubted that Howard had stopped at the secondaries, too, and sure enough, as Howard gathered up the pile he saw the tell-tale tapered ends of primary feathers. Now Bucky would also have to bear the shame of everyone seeing that his wings had been clipped, obvious even with his wings closed; it would be months and months yet before they would start to be replaced and Bucky could even do the most basic flying again.

“I hate you,” Tony said, voice low and full of loathing. Howard shrugged and started feeding the feathers to the fire. Tony’s hands curled into fists and he trembled with rage, throat tight as he watched each red and gold feather, so carefully and lovingly painted, go up in flames; he wanted to throw himself at Howard and save them, but Howard would beat him black and blue for the effort and burn them anyway. “Are you going to clip mine, too?” he sneered. “Show everyone what a harlot your son was for a stableboy?”

“If I thought that would shame you at all, I would consider it,” Howard said mildly. “But you have already demonstrated you have no shame,” he added, waving one of Bucky’s feathers at him before he threw it into the fireplace. “Instead, I’ll be binding your wings until all of your painted secondaries have been replaced. You’ll be confined to the house as well, since I can’t trust you around the estate.”

“You can’t keep me prisoner forever,” Tony said. “The first chance I get, I will find him and you will never see me again.”

“Over my dead body,” Howard said, enunciating each word for effect, then dumped the rest of the feathers in at once, making the fire snap and throw off a greasy, stomach-curling smoke. “Or better yet, his. You either submit to my rules or I’ll have my men finish what we started, your choice. Either way, you will never see him again."

[alethiometry]

Edward Kenway for character asks!

ooooooo okay i should open this with a disclaimer: i have not finished black flag yet (about 2/3 of the way through i think? i need to level up my ship so i can beat the next story mission lol) so everything i'm saying here is based on the game up to thatch's death, and everything we know about edward in ac 3: forsaken and the comics that came out a couple years ago.

First impression

oh boy... to be honest, one of the reasons it took me such a long time to get around to playing black flag (it was one of the first ps4 games i bought when i got my console in 2016, and i didn't start until about a month ago) was because i didn't really feel particularly strongly about edward's character design. i was vaguely interested in That One Pirate Assassin Game after having watched (and loved) black sails, but was afraid i would be let down; to me edward just looked like Some Dude, and i was still hung up on the black sails gang. to me, black sails and its characters were so genre/time period-defining that any other piece of pirate media just seemed lackluster in comparison.

i'd also heard a lot of praise for edward and for ac4 in general so i was aware that it was a very popular and well-received game. but since i mostly heard that from reddit (didn't join tumblr ac fandom until odyssey in 2018) i kind of discounted it, bc gamer reddit tastes are... questionable at best.

Impression now

I LOVE HIM!!! i always think i want stories about virtuous characters who believe in goodness and kindness and aren't motivated by gold or glory but aren't afraid to do what needs to be done to help others who can't help themselves. and sometimes that's true (coughratonhnhake:toncough). other times i end up clowning on myself because i realize that it's so much fun when said good/kind character has a rough and rugged exterior, and is motivated by personal gain (i think edward and kassandra are kinda kindred spirits across time and space in that regard, but maybe that's another rant for another time). sometimes you just want someone to be a little bit of an opportunistic bastard, and boy does edward fit that to a T. he's an incredibly complex man, and i think what really got me was that even as he was impersonating assassins and then templars and then assassins again, all for personal gain (pickpocketing the templars in havana while he gains their trust and agrees to do their dirty work lmfao my beloved <3), his primary motivation for doing so was to prove to caroline and her family that he is someone worth a damn, that he is capable of great things and that he is worthy of their love and acceptance. and i know from ac forsaken that the marriage with caroline doesn't last (though i haven't played ac4 far enough to see if that happens on screen, or if it occurs between the game and the novel) which makes his backstory in the game all the more heartbreaking. but his optimism and perseverance and determination to prove himself are all what make me love him.

so that's edward the romantic. now let's talk about the way edward is with adewale, his crew, and his friends. and let's also put the rest of this behind a readmore bc girl i am RANTINGGGGGG

he has several lines that he says to adewale that make me physically cringe (namely: "many of [these men] wouldn't accept you as captain" or "what was it like being enslaved?" like i get that someone like edward would be asking that question in good faith and genuine curiosity but also JESUS CHRIST UBISOFT). but on the flip side - cringey as those questions are, he also takes the time to actually listen and learn, and i think he genuinely values the perspective that he gets from adewale allowing him to open these lines of trust and communication. there's a patience and mutual respect there that i adore.

i also love how much edward loves his crew and his other pirate friends. those scenes of him + kidd + thatch + adewale + hornigold (lol) drinking on the beach and having a grand old time and talking about establishing - to borrow one of my favorite chills-down-my-spine phrases from black sails - a nation of thieves, for people like them to live and prosper, free from the chokehold of civilization. and i know he's not as outwardly invested in counterculture/independence/anticolonialism as thatch and vane and kidd are, but the fact that he so wholeheartedly supports his friends' goals, lofty and impossible as they are, speaks volumes about his love for his friends.

Favorite moment

every scene he has with kidd when kidd casually and softly reminds him that they see that he is a good person beneath his opportunistic and rambunctious exterior. i especially love when they discover julien du casse's mansion containing orders for templars to go out and hunt down assassins: the way kidd immediately knows that edward wants to help the assassins as a way to make up for the damage he did while masquerading as a templar, even if he hasn't voiced it aloud himself. the way that they don't force edward to admit anything about himself before he is ready, but still constantly remind him that he has a good heart. they give him space to come to terms with his compassionate side in a world/environment that more often than sees compassion as something to be stamped out or cast aside. i don’t love when characters are forced to be the Moral Compass for a main dude character, but i think it works for edward and kidd.

Idea for a story

not an edward story per se, but there are 2 povs into edward's life that i would cut off (someone else's) limbs for:

jenny's pov growing up in the kenway household. from haytham's pov it seems that she knows way more about his past than haytham ever did (it was hinted at that there are rumors about edward’s past as haytham was growing up that he wasn’t privy to, but i don’t think at any point in the novel does haytham ever find out definitively that his father was a pirate) and i want to know how she knew so much, and more into what her life was like - through her eyes rather than haytham, who is like 10 years younger and by his own admission barely understands her and barely has a functional relationship with her. i'll expand further on edward and jenny in the next question/prompt/bullet point, actually, bc i have a LOT more to say.

connor's pov learning about his grandfather from... idk? who's around to tell him? what's so goddamn sad is that by the time connor rebuilds the colonial brotherhood he's kinda the only one left. sure there's aveline down in louisiana, but as far as we know everyone who was around in edward's generation is dead now, and i'm not sure how much of the kenway saga is preserved for connor to discover, or if all this information about their family line was discovered in the modern-day, by your abstergo employee character, and later by osto berg in the comics. which is why i so badly want a revelations-style game where connor traces his assassin heritage back to the caribbean, relives some of edward's memories, and then makes the trip to london to see his aunt jenny. it would have been such a cool way to round out the kenway saga.

Unpopular opinion

idk how popular or unpopular this is bc i rarely see other in-depth posts about it on my dash, but edward was a terrible father to jenny. he was every bit the wonderful and loving father to haytham for the 10 years that haytham had a father, but i wish we'd seen more of jenny's perspective than just a few lines of dialogue in haytham's diary: i hate the way edward sidelined her and raised her in the same manner that any other wealthy person of the time would have raised their daughter - that is, for the sole purpose of sitting pretty and marrying her off in an arrangement that would benefit the family. it's especially hard to reconcile because in ac4 there are female assassins in the americas, and there are female pirates in the caribbean, so it's not like edward isn't aware that women have as much right as any man to live life on their own terms. it just seems like by the time he returns to england and settles down with his family, he's reverted back to the societal norms and gender roles that the pirates fought (and lost) against, and it's hard not to be deeply disappointed by that.

to be clear, i don't begrudge edward settling down and becoming a Rich Society Man. dude deserves to live comfortably with his loving family. he has every right to dote on his wife and children, and leave behind the hardships of being a pirate. but i think "fightning against deeply-ingrained cultural norms/expectations is a long and bloody struggle, and after losing so many people he cared so deeply about, i think it's understandable that edward wouldn't want to continue that fight alone (and also adewale is still fighting the good fight) (do NOT @ me about ac rogue I Pretend I Do Not See It)" and "i don't love the way edward sidelined his daughter into societally-expected gender roles she did not want; it makes me think that he did not continue drinking his Respect Women Juice as much as i thought he did/wanted him to" are two opinions that can coexist.

Favorite relationship

i don't know that i ship edward romantically with anyone, actually. i thought he and caroline were cute in the beginning, but it's hard to want to ship them knowing that she leaves him eventually. and ofc there'd edward/tessa in ac forsaken, and we know they were very happy together and that he loved her so so much. but we don't see that relationship except through haytham's eyes.

as for non-romantic relationships, i already talked at length above about his relationships with adewale and the other pirates and kidd, and i'll just leave it at that. i'm also vaguely aware that edward's got some upcoming scenes with anne bonny, but i'm not at that point in the game yet so i don't have much to say about the two of them. so far i've only seen them say a few lines to each other at the nassau tavern.

Favorite headcanon

kassandra absolutely rubbed shoulders with edward at some point during his time in the caribbean; i like to think that she needed to lie low for some reason (maybe she was with the assassins idk) and joined his crew. i just need my best stabby gal and my second-favorite stabby dude to be pals!

finally, this isn't a headcanon per se but it is obligatory that any time i talk about kenways i yell for a bit about the fact that EDWARD WOULD HAVE LOVED CONNOR SO SO SO MUCH AND I'M FOREVER DEVASTATED THAT HE NEVER GOT TO MEET HIM. at the same time, if edward hadn't been murdered and haytham not been indoctrinated into the templars the way he had, i'm not sure connor would even have existed. and in a way i'm glad that edward wasn't around to see how broken and cynical and depressed haytham became, because i think that would have absolutely broken his heart.

send me a character!

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Richard Cromwell (born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh, also known as Roy Radabaugh; January 8, 1910 – October 11, 1960) was an American actor. His career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel (1938) with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again with Fonda in John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Cromwell's fame was perhaps first assured in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), sharing top billing with Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone.

That film was the first major effort directed by Henry Hathaway and it was based upon the popular novel by Francis Yeats-Brown. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer earned Paramount Studios a nomination for Best Picture in 1935, though Mutiny on the Bounty instead took the top award at the Academy Awards that year.

Leslie Halliwell in The Filmgoer's Companion, summed up Cromwell's enduring appeal when he described him as "a leading man, [the] gentle hero of early sound films."

Cromwell was born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh in Long Beach, California, the second of five children, to his mother Fay B. (Stocking) and his father, Ralph R. Radabaugh, who was an inventor. Among Ralph's patented creations was the amusement-park swing ride called the "Monoflyer", a variation of which is still in use at many carnivals today. In 1918, when young "Roy" was still in grade school, his father died suddenly, one of the millions of people who perished during the "Spanish flu" pandemic.

Later, while enrolled as a teenager in the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles on a scholarship, young Roy helped to support his family with odd jobs. The school was the precursor of the California Institute of the Arts, and it was there where he met fellow classmate Edith Posener. Posener, later known as Edith Head, would become one of the leading costume designers in American film history.

Cromwell ran a shop in Hollywood where he sold pictures, made lampshades, and designed colour schemes for houses. As Cromwell developed his talents for lifelike mask-making and oil painting, he formed friendships in the late 1920s with various film starlets who posed for him and collected his works, including Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Claire Dubrey and Ann Sothern. Actress and future Academy Award-winner Marie Dressler was also a friend; the two would later share top-billing in the early talkie film Emma.

Still known as "Roy Radabaugh", he had just two days in film extra work on the side, and can be seen in King of Jazz (1930), along with the film's star, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. On a whim, friends encouraged Roy to audition in 1930 for the remake of the Richard Barthelmess silent: Tol'able David (1930). Radabaugh won the role over thousands of hopefuls, and in storybook fashion, Harry Cohn gave him his screen name and launched his career. Cromwell earned $75 per week for his work on Tol'able David. Noah Beery Sr. and John Carradine co-starred in the film. Later, Cohn signed Cromwell to a multi-year contract based on the strength of his performance and success in his first venture at the box-office. Amidst the flurry of publicity during this period, Cromwell toured the country, even meeting President Herbert Hoover in Washington, D.C.

Cromwell by then had maintained a deep friendship with Marie Dressler, which continued until her death from cancer in 1934. Dressler was nominated for a second Best Actress award for her 1932 portrayal of the title role in Emma.

With that film, Dressler demonstrated her profound generosity to other performers: Dressler personally insisted that her studio bosses cast Cromwell on a loan-out in the lead opposite her — it was another break that helped sustain his rising status in Hollywood. Emma also starred Myrna Loy in one of her earlier screen performances. After production on Emma was completed, Director Clarence Brown tested Cromwell for the male lead in his next feature: The Son-Daughter, which was set to star Helen Hayes. However, the part of the oriental prince ultimately went to Ramón Novarro, and Cromwell never again worked at MGM.

Cromwell's next role in 1932 was on loan to RKO and was as Mike in Gregory La Cava's, The Age of Consent, co-starring Eric Linden and Dorothy Wilson. Cromwell is also remembered during this period in Hoop-La (1933), where he is seduced by Clara Bow. This film is considered the swan song of Bow's career. Next, the much in demand Cromwell starred in Tom Brown of Culver that year, as well.

Around this period in his career in the early to mid-30s, Cromwell also did some print ads and promotional work for Lucky Strike brand cigarettes. According to his niece, Joan Radabaugh, Cromwell was a very heavy smoker. Nevertheless, at his home he was always the gracious host, as his niece related, and as such he took great care to empty the ashtrays regularly, almost to the point of obsession.

Next up, was an early standout performance by Cromwell in the role as the leader of the youth gang in Cecil B. DeMille's now cult-favorite, This Day and Age (1933). To ensure that Cromwell's character used current slang, DeMille asked high school student Horace Hahn to read the script and comment (at the time, Hahn was senior class president at Los Angeles High School). While again on loan from Columbia, Cromwell's by then salary of $200 per week was paid by Paramount Pictures, DeMille's studio. Diana Serra Cary, in her biography of Jackie Coogan, relates an episode on the set wherein Cromwell came to the aid of actress Judith Allen:

I watched as he (DeMille) systematically reduced ingenue ... Allen to screaming hysterics by calling her every insulting name in the book in front of company and crew simply to bring on tears ... Cromwell was the only man on the set who dared confront the tyrannical DeMille. White with rage, Cromwell stopped the scene and threatened to deck him if he didn't let up on the devastated girl. He (Cromwell) then drove her home himself. After that courageous act the chivalric Cromwell was unanimously praised as a veritable dragon slayer by everyone who had witnessed that scene.

After a promising start, Cromwell's many early pictures at Columbia Pictures and elsewhere were mostly inconsequential and are largely forgotten today. Cromwell starred with Will Rogers in Life Begins at 40 for Fox Film Corporation in 1935, it was one of Rogers' last roles and Poppy for Paramount in 1936 wherein Cromwell played the suitor of W.C. Fields' daughter, Rochelle Hudson. In 1937, he was the young bank-robber in love with Helen Mack and on the lam from Lionel Atwill in The Wrong Road for RKO.

In 1936, Cromwell took a detour in his career to Broadway for the chance to star as an evil cadet in an original play by Joseph Viertel, So Proudly We Hail!. The military drama was directed by future film director Charles Walters, co-starred Edward Andrews and Eddie Bracken, and opened to much fanfare. The reviews of the play at the time called Cromwell's acting "a striking portrayal" (New York Herald Tribune) and his performance an "astonishing characterization" (New York World Telegram). The New York Times said that in the play, Cromwell "ran the gamut of emotions". However, the play closed after only 14 performances at the 46th Street Theater.

By now, Cromwell had shed his restrictive Columbia contract, with its handsome $500 per week salary, and pursued acting work as a freelancer in other media as well. On July 15, 1937, Cromwell guest-starred on The Royal Gelatin Hour hosted by Rudy Vallee, in a dramatic skit opposite Fay Wray. Enjoying the experience, Cromwell had his agent secure for him an audition for the role of Kit Marshall, on the soap opera Those We Love, first on NBC Radio and then CBS Radio. As a regular on the Monday night program which ran from 1938 until 1942, Cromwell played opposite Nan Grey who played Kit's twin sister Kathy. Cromwell as Kit was later replaced by Bill Henry. Rounding out the cast were Robert Cummings and Gale Gordon.

In the late 1930s, Cromwell appeared in Storm Over Bengal, for Republic Pictures, in order to capitalize on the success of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Aside from the aforementioned standout roles in Jezebel and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Cromwell did another notable turn as defendant Matt Clay to Henry Fonda's title-performance in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939).

During this period, Cromwell was continuing to enjoy the various invitations coming his way as a member of the A-list Hollywood social circuit. According to Bob Thomas, in his biography of Joan Crawford, Cromwell was a regular at the Saturday Night dinner parties of his former co-star Franchot Tone and then-wife Crawford. Other guests whom Cromwell dined with there included Barbara Stanwyck and then-husband Frank Fay, and William Haines and his partner Jimmie Shields. During the freewheeling heyday of West L.A. nightlife in the late 30s, Cromwell is said by author Charles Higham to have carried on a sometime, though obviously very discreet, affair with aviator and businessman Howard Hughes.

In 1939, Cromwell again tried his luck on the stage in a regional production of Sutton Vane's play Outward Bound featuring Dorothy Jordan as his co-star. The cast of the production at the Los Angeles Biltmore Theater also included Cora Witherspoon and Reginald Denny

Cromwell served during the last two years of World War II with the United States Coast Guard, along with fellow actor and enlistee Cesar Romero. Actor Gig Young was also a member of this branch of the service during the war. During this period, Cole Porter rented Cromwell's home in the Hollywood Hills, where Porter worked at length on Panama Hattie. Director James Whale was a personal friend, for whom Cromwell had starred in The Road Back (1937), the ill-fated sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front. With the war's end, and upon returning to California from the Pacific after nearly three years of service with the Coast Guard, Cromwell acted in local theater productions. He also signed on for live performances in summer stock in the East during this period.

When in town, Cromwell was a fixture within the Hollywood social scene. According to the book Cut! Hollywood Murders, Accidents and Other Tragedies, Cromwell was a regular at George Cukor's "boys nights".

Back in California for good, Cromwell was married once, briefly (1945–1946), to actress Angela Lansbury, when she was 19 and Cromwell was 35. Cromwell and Lansbury eloped and were married in a small civil ceremony on September 27, 1945, in Independence, California. In her authorized biography, Balancing Act, Lansbury recounts her life with Cromwell, as well as the couple's close friendship with Zachary Scott and his first wife, Elaine. Lansbury and Cromwell have stars within walking distance of each other on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Cromwell made just one statement to the press regarding his wife of nine months and one of her habits: "All over the house, tea bags. In the middle of the night she'd get up and start drinking tea. It nearly drove me crazy."

According to the biography: Angela Lansbury, A Life on Stage and Screen, Lansbury stated in a 1966 interview that her first marriage, "was a mistake" and that she learned from it. She stated, "I wouldn't have not done it", and, "I was too young at 19. [The marriage] shouldn't have happened." Articles based on interviews with Lansbury have stated that Cromwell was gay. Cromwell and Lansbury remained friends until his death in 1960.

Before World War II, in the early 1940s, Universal Pictures released Enemy Agent starring Cromwell as a draftsman who thwarts the Nazis. In 1942 he then went on to appear in marginal but still watchable fare such as Baby Face Morgan, which co-starred Mary Carlisle and was produced by Producers Releasing Corporation, one of the "Poverty Row" studios.

Cromwell enjoyed a career boost, if not a critically acclaimed performance, in the film adaptation of the hit radio serial: Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher (1943), opposite Gale Storm. Next up at Monogram Pictures he was cast as a doctor working covertly for the police department to catch the mobsters in the very forgettable, though endearing Riot Squad, wherein his "fiancée", Rita Quigley, breaks their engagement. Cromwell's break from films due to his stint in the Service meant that he was not much in demand after the War's end, and he retired from films after his comeback fizzled. His last role was in a noir flick of 1948, Bungalow 13. All told, Cromwell's film career spanned 39 films.

In the 1950s, Cromwell went back to artistic roots and studied ceramics. He built a pottery studio at his home. The home still stands today and is located in the hills above Sunset Boulevard on North Miller Drive. There, he successfully designed coveted decorative tiles for himself and for his industry friends, which, according to his niece, Joan Radabaugh, he marketed under his stage name.

Around this time, Baby Peggy Montgomery (a.k.a. Diana Serra Cary), who had appeared in This Day and Age with Cromwell many years earlier, recalled visiting Cromwell at his home along with her late husband during this period to see his "beautiful ceramic screen which had won him a prize at the L.A. County Fair." His original tiles as well as his large decorative art deco-style wall paintings of Adam and Eve can still be seen today in the mezzanine off the balcony of the restored Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, which is today considered a noted architectural landmark.

Under the name Radabaugh, Cromwell wrote extensively, producing several published stories and an unfinished novel in the 1950s. After years of heavy drinking with a social circle of friends that included the likes of Christopher Isherwood, Cromwell ultimately changed his ways and became an early participant and supporter of Alcoholics Anonymous in the Los Angeles Area.

In July 1960, Cromwell signed with producer Maury Dexter for 20th Century Fox's planned production of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, co-starring Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Dix (son of Richard Dix), and Neil Hamilton who replaced Cromwell in the film. Cromwell became ill and died on October 11, 1960 in Hollywood of liver cancer, at the age of 50. He is interred at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California.

Cromwell's legacy is preserved today by his nephew Dan Putnam, and his cousin Bill Keane IV, both of the Conejo Valley in Southern California, as well as the family of his late niece, Joan Radabaugh, of the Central Coast. In 2005, Keane donated materials relating to Cromwell's radio performances to the Thousand Oaks Library's Special Collection, "The American Radio Archive". In 2007, Keane donated memorabilia relating to Cromwell's film career and ceramics work to the AMPAS Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills.

Cromwell was mentioned in Gore Vidal's satirical novel Myra Breckinridge (1968) as "the late Richard Cromwell, so satisfyingly tortured in Lives of a Bengal Lancer".

[ao3feed-dramione]

Dissiosus

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3e7l16H

by megloveslokitooomuch

Several years after the war, Draco is a reformed man with his own fashion brand - Malfoy.

Hermione is climbing up the Ministry's hierarchy, her ambition to be Minister for Magic fueling her success.

Demons haunt them both, so when a chance encounter begins the intertwining of their lives, they snatch at the opportunity for happiness.

Words: 11310, Chapters: 9/20, Language: English

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Romilda Vane, Lavender Brown, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Molly Weasley, George Weasley, Percy Weasley, Ron Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Bill Weasley, Fleur Delacour, Charlie Weasley, Cedric Diggory, Teddy Lupin, Andromeda Tonks, Cho Chang, Minerva McGonagall, Madam Rosmerta (Harry Potter), Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, Mr & Mrs Granger, Gregory Goyle

Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Lavender Brown/Blaise Zabini

Additional Tags: Draco is a Fashion Designer, Hermione is the minister's senior undersecretary, Romilda and Lavender are Hermione's best friends, Kingsley Shacklebolt is Minister for Magic, Harry and Hermione used to be a thing, Cedric dies - again, Andromeda is Teddy's guardian, Harry cheated on Hermione with Cho Chang, Draco has a cat called Merlin, Hermione is Teddy's godmother, Draco has a Bowtruckle called Dora, Lavender is the editor of the Daily Prophet, Hermione loves soppy Muggle romance novels

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3e7l16H

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Luke Arnold and Toby Schmitz cast in Michael Bay's pirate drama Black Sails for Starz

TWO mutinous Australian actors are on their way to Cape Town to challenge Captain Barbossa's evil supremacy on the high seas.

GEOFFREY Rush better watch his back. Two mutinous Australian actors are on their way to Cape Town to challenge Captain Barbossa's evil supremacy on the high seas.

Luke Arnold and Toby Schmitz have been cast in director Michael Bay's pirate drama Black Sails, a kind of prequel to Treasure Island, set 20 years before the events in the book.

Arnold, best known for his roles in Rush and McLeod's Daughters, will play a young version of iconic villain Long John Silver.

"Sailing, sword fighting and pretending to be a pirate - it doesn't really get much more fun than that,'' the WAAPA graduate said.

Schmitz, currently appearing in Belvoir's stage production of Private Lives in Canberra, plays Rackham, a character based on a real historical figure.

Created by Jon Steinberg, Black Sails also features Toby Stephens as Captain Flint and Shameless's Zach McGowan as rival pirate Charles Vane.

Executive producer Bay is known for his enthusiasm for large-scale spectacle in films such as Armageddon and Transformers.

An entire cover is to be turned into a olde pirate town for the eight-episode series, inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure novel, which will premiere on Starz in 2014.

Two full-sized ships are being built to accommodate the rival pirate gangs.

To get into shape for the role, Arnold has been working with a personal trainer in Melbourne.

He heads to Cape Town next week for pirate boot camp -- designed to help him and his landlubbing co-stars get their sea legs and polish their sword-fighting skills.

"This role came along at the right time for me. All my friends say I have been typecast. It's certainly nice to have a part where I don't have to worry about shaving and cutting my hair.''

Arnold said he was looking forward to putting a new spin on one of literature's more colourful antagonists.

"There have been so many versions of Long John Silver - Eddie Izzard, Tim Curry, Charlton Heston, Orson Welles. This is a chance to tell the back story,'' he said.

"In the book, you hear about how he lost his leg, but the story comes from Long John's own mouth and I don't think you can actually believe a word he says.

"How the accident came about is very much open to interpretation.''

[rebelsofshield]

Panels Far, Far Away: A Week in Star Wars Comics (10/30/19 and 11/6/19)

Wow. It’s been a wild two weeks. Yes, two weeks. Life has been a thing and Panels Far, Far Away has fallen a tad behind as of late. So now, for your reading pleasure we have two solid weeks of Star Wars comics. So happy belated Halloween, say hi to your good Doctor, and prepare to rescue some Wookiees.

Star Wars Adventures #27 written by John Barber and Michael Moreci and art by Derek Charm and Tony Fleecs

It’s not just Marvel that has joined the journey to The Rise of Skywalker. IDW Publishing is launching its own story of the struggle between the First Order and the galactic resistance these coming weeks. Whereas many other stories have concerned themselves with just how the Resistance restructures itself in the wake of the disastrous events of The Last Jedi, Adventures instead follows a lone Wookiee’s attempt to save his homeworld from tyrannical occupation. That’s right, it’s Chewbacca and a Porg vs the First Order.

Despite the prevalence of cute sidekicks and slapstick humor, there is a genuine sense of stakes and tension in John Barber’s Chewbacca tale. Sure he may be lugging around a pet Porg with him, but this is his home and Chewie could not be more invested in its safety. Derek Charm draws Chewie with an unexpected ferocity and determination and uses some of his trademark creative layouts to have our Wookiee hero springing across the page and breaking panels with strides and jumps. It makes for an investing little story that I can’t wait to dive further into.

This week’s back up story proves to be less impressive, but still entertaining. Our three droid heroes, C-3PO, R2-D2, and BB-8, find themselves alone on Garel having been overlooked once again by both the First Order and their friends on the Resistance. However, when a young orphan needs help, they decide to take matters into their own hands. There isn’t anything quite as engaging as the Chewbacca segment, but it’s nice to finally see our robotic friends taking matters into their own hands and proving their worth. Tony Fleec’s pencils can’t help but bring to mind the shortlived Droids animated series from the 80s, but it works well here and gives this new story a pseudo-retro vibe.

Score: B+

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #5 written by Cavan Scott and art by Francesco Francavilla and Charles Paul Wilson III

Yes, yes, I know. Halloween was over a week ago, so this, hopefully annual, celebration of all things creepy in Star Wars is a little delayed. Luckily, this final issue of Return to Vader’s Castle proves to be the strongest of the bunch, even if it comes nowhere close to reliving the heights of its predecessor.

The biggest struggle with this year’s Vader’s Castle series has been the mismatch of artists with source material. While Cavan Scott took us to even more twisted and dark little Star Wars horror stories, the artists tasked with bringing these to life, while often talented, felt out of place with the decidedly more sinister narratives. While frame artist, Francesco Francavilla turned in impressive work on a regular basis, the tales themselves struggled. It is disappointing that Francavilla doesn’t get the opportunity to do a full issue on his own like Derek Charm did last year, but Charles Paul Wilson III lives up to the task and delivers the most visually cohesive installment of this miniseries.

While Colonel Hudd tries his best to escape from Mustafar with the help of an unexpected ally, his captor, Vanee, recounts a creepy rebellion at Vader’s Castle by the planet’s natives. Writer Charles Soule had hinted at the mystical relationship that the Mustafarans had with their planets lava in his Darth Vader ongoing and Cavan Scott dives further into that here. The result pits Darth Vader up against a local mystic and a horde of lava zombies. Yes, lava zombies, and yes, it is as cool as it sounds.

Charles Paul Wilson III crafts some delightfully creepy and bizarre character designs for the lava zombies and their Mustafar masters, and colorist David Garcia Cruz brings it to life with an effective mix of striking reds, purples, and oranges. The end result is the first installment of this miniseries that feels visually consistent throughout and lives up to its goals as an all ages horror book.

Score: B+

Star Wars Allegiance #4 written by Ethan Sacks and art by Luke Ross

The conspiracy on Mon Cala comes to light in the final issue of Star Wars Allegiance. Just who has been setting the citizens of the watery planet and the Resistance is revealed even as the First Order arrives in orbit. Also, Finn and Poe fight some bounty hunters.

Star Wars Allegiance is a very fine little comic. That’s it really. It’s fine. The strongest point of this comic since its start has been its story of a war-weary Princess Leia and her relationship with a planet she helped plunge into hardship almost forty years prior. It is a dramatic backdrop for a narrative and helps solve a logistical question for the Resistance as we head into December’s big final showdown. However, as an actual prequel to the final installment of this latest trilogy, the result feels decidedly lackluster. The central cast of new generation heroes are mostly given little of consequence to do and more often than not, particularly in the case of Rose and Rey, feel written out of character or reduced to their most basic form. The Finn and Poe section proves more fun than the material granted to our heroines but the end result still feels decidedly inconsequential.

Fans looking for a piece of connective tissue linking the time between the Battle of Crait and the start of The Rise of Skywalker are best served by checking out Rebecca Roanhorses’ novel Resistance Reborn, which covers similar ground as Allegiance but with greater depth and fidelity. As it stands, Allegiance is a fun appetizer for a larger meal. Decent art, decent story, decent characters.

Score: B-

Star Wars Doctor Aphra Annual #3 written by Simon Spurrier and art by Elsa Charretier

When they first appeared in last year’s Doctor Aphra annual comic, Nokk and Winloss, a bi-species monster hunting couple, quickly endeared themselves as two of Star Wars’ most creative and lovable additions in sometime. It is both a treat and a worry that the fate of these two seems so inextricably linked to galactic chaos ball, Doctor Chelli Aphra.

Writer Simon Spurrier and artist Elsa Charretier look to change that up here by giving Aphra her latest opportunity at redemption, and maybe a little revenge too. In a complicated scheme, Aphra uses her new found access to Imperial files to help Nokk track down a man who deeply wronged her and also give her husband and Wookiee bounty hunter, Black Krrsantan, some closure on the way.

Spurrier gets to play with his trademark layered storytelling even more than usual here. The added page length and relatively self-contained nature of this story allows him to play with perspective, plotting, and pacing to an even more controlled degree than usual and the result is a narrative that is filled with twists, turns, and betrayals. It may not be the most memorable tale that Spurrier has crafted on Aphra, and is nowhere near the delightful heights of last year’s annual, but the result is still a very solid and fulfilling little chapter that provides some closure to this comic’s supporting cast.

Elsa Charretier has been a regular feature of IDW’s Star Wars comics for some time, and it’s nice to finally see her make the jump to Marvel’s line of adventures. Her exaggerated and stylized characters work well for a tonally varied comic such as this and it’s nice to see the Star Wars line branching out a bit in visual representation. Colorists Edgar Delgado and Jim Campbell  don’t always do the best at bringing her complicated pencils to life and the result sometimes feels too heavily inked, but the comic still maintains a unique visual aesthetic that succeeds more often than it stumbles.

Score: B+

Star Wars Doctor Aphra #38 written by Simon Spurrier and art by Caspar Wijngaard

Even with the announcement that renowned speculative fiction writer Alyssa Wong will be taking over Doctor Aphra early next year, there still hangs an air of finality around “A Rogue’s End.” Many of the major players among the last thirty eight issues of this series have come back to play and Aphra’s future feels more in flux than ever. With her wayward father now in the clutches of Darth Vader and her former droid sidekicks/torturers back in her orbit, Aphra has more to lose than any other point in her twisted history.

It’s the father daughter relationship between both Doctors Aphra that really takes up most of the meat of the story here and it helps the comic feel like it is approaching a full circle conclusion to the first issue penned by Kieron Gillen over three years go. Spurrier finds expansive creative real estate here, charting the reunion, frustration, and possible reconciliation of these two in the span of twenty some pages. It feels organic and emotional and ups the stakes considerably for the next two issues.

Spurrier also gets the chance to write Darth Vader more than he has in previous issues here. The result is pitch perfect and delightfully sinister and unstable in a way that feels right in line with some of the great comics for this character over the last four years, even if it ends up covering some familiar ground.

Caspar Wijngaard’s pencils are dependably striking here and helps the comic look better than it has in quite sometime. Colorist Lee Loughride feels more at home now than in last issue and characters and environments feel more lively and defined. Aphra herself still feels a little awkwardly rendered, but she is the exception, not the rule, to an otherwise visually impressive issue.

Score: A-

[vintagebooksdesign]

THERE THERE - Tommy Orange

There There by Tommy Orange weaves together the stories of contemporary Native American characters into a dynamic narrative about violence and recovery, family and loss, identity and power.

The title THERE, THERE commands attention so the design required something that was simple, strident and bold that used both type and image in a stark combination. The idea was to create something incredibly graphic, filling the cover dimensions perfectly. 

The work of US woodcut artist, Bryn Perrott, reflects a raw energy, which perfectly matches the tone of the novel. Bryn described her working process for us:

I start any commission/client woodcut or image by talking with the client about their ideas and what they envision for the final composition. I usually make a mock up sketch for the client but that sketch is far from how the final image will look.  From there I enlarge the drawing into a stencil I use for cutting the wood shape with a jigsaw. That shape is then painted black and the stencil applied on top of the black flat with a transfer paper. Now the block is ready for carving. Most of the detail and nuances happen when i’m carving and it comes as I work. I don’t plan everything out but I have a general idea and then elaborate on that idea.

Once the lettering was designed, Bryn worked up a single large feather accompanied by her signature water/tear drop motifs.

The feather is in a blazing red colour and has been placed directly over the black title, and some of the feather vanes have been wiped away to make it look as though it has been entwined with the title lettering.  It partially obscures THERE THERE, but is still readable. The cover was printed using red foil, which sits on top of the matt background, giving a hand-printed feel to the cover.

Publishing tommorrow by Harvill Secker

[peninsulacurtains]

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