#or depending on the writer he's shown in an odd light

[cinnamunspice]

THE STATS:

physical appearance

Very dark brown hair, in certain lighting, it may look black. She is Arabic and Chinese. 5'8'', curvy and has a very sweet and soothing voice (honeysuckle like!) despite her very stiff and formal choice of words. Clothes? Designer, or handmade. Makeup? Always flawless.

gender / sexuality/ birthday /age

female. demisexual. may 15th. she is played around fourty years old as a default, physically, on this blog-- unless we are writing pre-damian and in 70s/80s detective comics world. then i'll have her physically around 32.

the link to the talia!tag

ON THE RECORD:

THIS IS A TESTING MUSE ! STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT !

I am still reading through her storyline, but as of right now her interpretation is pre-m*rrison personality/design and excluding of death of the maidens. P.S. as I am continuing to tweak damian's introduction that honors his past, but is reconciled with talia's previous history and personality-- please be patient with me! the MOST IMPORTANT thing is that we are following the Son Of the Demon and his conception was 1000000000000000% consensual. Ras's Al Ghul had intercepted the adoption attempt, and began to raise Damian in secret- on his own. By the time Talia had realized what had happened, she decided to return to her father and try to mitigate/lessen the damage and trauma that young Damian would endure. This would better align with memories of talia via tomasi's son of batman series, where she played a more sympathetic and active role as she tried to plan an escape for both of them.

if you want some resources talking about the very unfortunate r*cist turn talia's character has been taken to post 9/11 comics, and how her character's original origin should be taken (cw: mentions of SA): here are a few things.

I'm super open to her interacting with literally anyone, but I ask that no one treat her as a mustache twirling kind of villain. It can be easy to, because a LOT of more recent comics has portrayed her as such-- so if you want to base something off their previous interactions lmk, and we can work something out

SHORT BIO:

Talia Al Ghul is the Daughter of Ra's Al Ghul (Aka The Demon's Head), and a high ranking member of the League of Assassins. He is an ecoterrorist and dedicated to saving the planet at the very cost of the humans that live within it. He is also in possession of the famed Lazarus Pits.

She has operated as both an anti-hero/anti-villain who is consistently torn between her loyalty to her father, and her love of her life: Bruce Wayne. She believes in the mission of a more natural world, but has also shown to value life, and it often puts her at odds with many people.

She's gone to college in Egypt to study medicine. She's operated as a 'right-hand' woman to Ra's operations in the League of Assassins, she's been CEO of Lex-Corp, she was the one to dunk Jason into the pits and train him into the Red Hood, she is the biological mother of Damian Wayne, she has blown up infinity island….. She's like barbie, to me.

ABOUT THE LAZARUS PITS:

I understand that depending on the writer, on the 'plot holes' needing to be solved, or just the series-- the Lazarus pits origin and means has changed a bit. By default, I will be resorting to artificial pits that have been made from various poisonous chemicals that have the ability to prolong life expectancy/stop fatal wounds and to 'bring back the recently parted'). This is not a fix-all. If you want more details and comic recs on where I'm basing this off, feel free to DM me!

[tessa-quayle]

full text: 2019 Telegraph piece

check out the pictures here from @ralph-n-fiennes

the article by Hermione Eyre (official link - registration required for a free trial)

Ralph Fiennes does Ralph Fiennes so well. During our interview he delivers everything one might hope for: sensitive introspection, charm, pathos, a touch of mystery and even a (partial) defence of late Soviet Russia. ‘A lot of people didn’t experience it as repressive…’

This in the context of the stunning new film he has directed, called The White Crow, about the defection of Rudolf Nureyev from the Soviet Union in 1961. Oh, and he also impersonates a horse for me. Beautiful whinny. Sensitive nostrils.

‘It’s how I feel as the house lights go down and I can feel the expectation from the audience. You can see it in horses before a race.’ 

As we begin, in a Shoreditch loft studio not far from his home, he seems professorial, in a woolly cardigan, neatly arranging his spectacles, notebook and copy of the latest London Review of Books. When he is ready he gives me that trademark encouraging smile – half little boy, half crocodile.

Career-wise, he has it all. Family life, not so much. His greatest luxury? ‘My independence. I lead quite a solitary life.’ When I ask him if he’s a good uncle to his siblings’ progeny – Mercy, Titan and Hero, to name a few – he says flatly, ‘I could be better.’

His sister, the film-maker Sophie Fiennes, says her son Horace, now eight, really enjoyed the sword fighting in his Richard III, which is, if you think about it, a good outcome for a small boy going to see his uncle play Richard III.

His presence is a mark of quality in a film. Both the Bond and Harry Potter franchises, where he plays M and Voldemort respectively, brought him in for gravitas. Since Rada, he has run the gamut of Shakespeare, from Romeo in 1986 to his award-winning Antony & Cleopatra last year at the National, opposite Sophie Okonedo.

‘She was spectacular. I miss Antony. I found him very moving in his brokenness; his masculinity falling away and him trying to cling on to it. He’s male and middle-aged, and he keeps saying, “I’ve still got it, haven’t I? Haven’t I?”’

Does he recognise that? ‘I am 56 and I try to stay fitter’ – he does cardio and morning yoga – ‘but I can feel myself getting… old. Little shifts of energy and ambition, little impulses. You get tired more, you want to take it easy more.’ Then summoning mercurial energy in that actorly way, he explodes, ‘But I can feel myself fighting that, like, “I’m not gonna let go! Come on, come on. Yeah!” There are plenty of virile 56-year-old men.’

When I ask if he’s got a motorbike yet, like Ralph Richardson, he isn’t impressed. ‘No, my brother Joseph rides a motorbike. He can do fast cars and handle boats.’ Joseph, now 48, will for ever be the young Bard wooing Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, just as Ralph single-handedly made Herodotus hot, that spring of 1997 when we all went to see The English Patient and wept.

Antony gives everything up for sex. ‘Yes, he does, that’s a very real erotic connection, and it’s very emasculating for him.’ Does sex make the world go round? ‘Erm, sex produces more human beings, mostly.’ Nice deflection.

Fiennes married Alex Kingston, his great love from Rada, in 1993. Their marriage ended when he left her in 1995 for the actor who was playing Gertrude to his Hamlet, Francesca Annis, 17 years older than him. Although the relationship broke down in early 2006 amid reports of his alleged infidelity, they still talk, have a deep, mutual professional respect and go to each other’s first nights.

Kingston has since gone on to have a daughter, Salome, with her second husband and Annis already had three children; Fiennes has never wanted his own family. ‘Never say never,’ he demurs. ‘But I don’t feel that’s imminent at all. I love the family and community of plays or the cast and crew of a film.’

He recollects his lines from Man and Superman, the Bernard Shaw play, ‘where Jack Tanner [whom he played] rather brilliantly pours scorn on the idea of happiness: “No family, no marriage, spread your seed, but no marriage!” I love the mischief in that.’

He says, ‘I am the eldest of six,’ as if it explains everything. The Fiennes children were born within seven years. Martha and Sophie make films; Magnus is a composer; Joseph is an actor and his twin Jacob is a gamekeeper in Norfolk. Their foster brother, Michael, now an archaeologist, came to live with them when he was 11, Ralph was two and their mother Jini was only 24.

‘My wonderful parents [Mark Fiennes, a farmer, and Jini Lash, a writer] were pressured by tough financial situations and a very erratic income,’ says Fiennes quietly. ‘They were extraordinarily courageous in giving us love and a sense of home, but also a feeling, early on, of what it is to be a burden on your parents – somewhere I think that’s affected my choices.’

‘We experienced family life with bells on,’ says sister Sophie, who’s currently working on a new series of the brilliant Pervert’s Guide to… documentaries with philosopher Slavoj Zižek. ‘You have lived that and you don’t need to replicate it.’ She remembers that as a child Ralph ‘really liked getting away from us all and being alone’.

He adored his Pollock’s toy theatre and insisted his siblings formed an audience, ‘furious’ if they didn’t comply. He set up footlights in matchboxes. ‘It was magical, very Fanny and Alexander,’ says Sophie, referencing the Bergman paean to childhood.

Ralph always had ‘a love of practical jokes’, she remembers. When they lived by the sea, on the Sheep’s Head peninsula in Ireland, he stood on a rock at high tide and pretended to be drowning.

‘Gave our mother a fit.’ He also called their neighbour to say his wife had been changing a light bulb and was now hanging from the ceiling, twitching. ‘It was April Fool’s. Our neighbour was furious.’

As a young man Fiennes became, after Schindler’s List, the intellectual’s pin-up. Is ageing harder when you’ve been a heart-throb? ‘Look, there’s lots of heart-throbs out there. You see it in younger actors who are having their moment, there’s a new one and they’re written up, how beautiful they are… You see the waves and the breaks, that person had that moment, or that opportunity. There are a handful of actors and directors who stay [the course], but mostly it’s ups and downs.’ In other words, the challenge is to convert being a heart-throb into something more meaningful and lasting.

Such as directing. He directed himself in 2011’s Bafta-nominated Coriolanus with Vanessa Redgrave as his mother Volumnia; in 2013 he directed and appeared as a passion-struck Dickens opposite Felicity Jones in The Invisible Woman.

His latest is The White Crow, based on Julie Kavanagh’s biography of Nureyev. He spent months touring Russian ballet schools before finding Oleg Ivenko, a young unknown from the Tatar State Ballet company, who is devastatingly good as the dancer. Fiennes plays his mentor Pushkin.

I didn’t really want to be in it,’ he says. ‘But I felt this creeping pressure and although I had a cast of wonderful Russian actors and dancers, the Russian producer said to me, “If you want Russian investment then we need Western names, why aren’t you in it?”’

He will dig deep to make the films he wants to make: has he put his own money in? ‘I have done, yes.’ Would you again? ‘No! I’ve had to put money into all the films I’ve made. They don’t sparkle with commercial appeal.’ Did the money come back? ‘No.’ Harry Potter helps? ‘Definitely. I don’t regret doing it. I have the resources and I believe in the project. You get one life, so f— it.’

The script of The White Crow is by David Hare, who questions the view of Nureyev’s defection as a ‘leap to freedom’, showing instead a certain nostalgia for the Nikita Khrushchev era.

Hare and Fiennes spoke to friends of Nureyev from 1950s Leningrad, twin dancers Leonid and Liuba Romankov, now in their 80s, who appear in a lunch party scene alongside actors playing their younger selves. ‘Liuba said, “I felt free, I felt happy inside myself at that time.” Nureyev was so nurtured and nourished by the dance school.’

The film doesn’t have anything to say about the propaganda and food shortages. ‘If you say I should have laid out a history lesson of the regime, I say no, I think that would have been heavy-handed. I think an audience is smart. You see the ideological pressure of the regime and the constant surveillance Nureyev was under.’

Do you feel the Soviet approach to the arts got something right? ‘I do, because that was, as I understand it, the philosophy of “we’re all a group”, though of course the individual is stifled. I’ve always been moved by what I feel to be the dedication of the Russian arts ethos, the discipline, the intense seriousness with which people take it.’

His love of Russia began in his early 20s, with him performing Chekhov and reading Dostoyevsky; he is now fluent in Russian, has ‘a lingering fantasy of buying a flat in St Petersburg’ and has been presented to Putin. ‘At the St Petersburg International Cultural Forum, which they hold every year. He was very quiet and listening.’

This was before the Salisbury poisoning. Does Fiennes believe Russia was responsible? Briskly, ‘Yes, yes. It seems to me like it was. Clearly there are problematic things with the current regime to our eyes and I do feel it’s been a tricky time since Salisbury, and that’s a shame and sad.’ Oddly enough he knows the town well, having been to Bishop Wordsworth’s grammar school.

‘I had a mostly happy time there. It was an extraordinarily shocking, cack-handed event, unacceptable and wrong in every way. And in reaction the Brits have made things harder with visas and it becomes tit for tat, and the Russians have closed down the British Council, which was a wonderful enabler of cultural interaction. I don’t know if the British Council is a cover for espionage, maybe it is…’ Bond bells are ringing. But you’re M, you must know! He replies, curtly, ‘But I’m not M, am I?’

We return to the topic of growing older. ‘There are pluses to ageing, you know? You can let go of some shit. The competition falls away. You can see the cycles of your own mistakes, hopefully you’re learning… All the things that have caused you upset:  I hurt that person, I got a bad review. You start to feel: did that really matter? The things you were so concerned about just drift away on the current of life. And your idealism is tempered and your vanity gets knocked…’

He brings up, as an example, the 2002 film he made with Jennifer Lopez called Maid in Manhattan, a comedy fairy tale in which he plays a US senatorial candidate who falls for his chambermaid. ‘I saw in the newspaper they had J Lo’s most successful films and’ – big smile – ‘Maid in Manhattan was there, and it came quite near the top’ – bigger smile – ‘and then I read: “Let down by the fact that Ralph Fiennes seems like a serial killer.” Ha ha ha! I had to laugh.

’Cos my vanity scrolled it and then… bam!’ He gives a proper belly laugh. Didn’t he get together with J Lo while they were filming? ‘No. No. I was set up by her manager and the producer. So a picture was taken of us saying goodnight after dinner and sold to the New York Post. It was a decoy, to take the focus away from the fact that she was going out with Ben Affleck.’ You didn’t mind? ‘I did, actually. I thought it was really crap.’ He shrugs, smiles. The things fame brings.

‘I give my agent all these neurotic phone calls, asking about reviews, who said this, who said that, but then, glass of wine, laugh it off.’

I feel I’ve had a flash of the blazing, naughty, fun side of Fiennes; we have known it’s there ever since we saw his suavely clownish Gustave in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and his irrepressible Harry in A Bigger Splash (complete with gyrating dance routine). There is a fun side to him, then? He smiles enigmatically as we say goodbye. ‘You won’t ever see that in an interview situation.’ 

[pigeonsatdawn]

law school ep 15 (and solhwi overall)

gonna put in my two cents for the line that singlehandedly caused the solhwi nation to implode.

(apologies in advanced because my thoughts are too messy for me to neatly put it in a post but i want to say it anyway—also this is just the way i view solhwi so please don't come screaming at me if you disagree!)

i'm a diehard solhwi shipper and i love their relationship, and think they have one of the best relationships out there in the fictional world, and also definitely one of the healthiest. but to me, their relationship extends far beyond the romantic relationships we so often see portrayed in media.

kim beom said in one interview that this relationship between HJH and KS is kin to that of a soulmate relationship that's not necessarily romance, and i find myself agreeing with that notion. while soulmates are typically used to describe romantic partnerships, it doesn't necessarily have to start with romance. (many people have pointed this out in other posts so i won't go further down the fact that HJH x KS's relationship is a friends-to-lovers slow burn but you get me.)

but in fact, this bond between soulmates (or at least how i define it), in my opinion, is far beyond what we usually see in romance. as in, it's not just someone you like, but it's someone whose changed your life in a certain way. i know some may be averse to the idea of having to change for the one you love because loving is the notion of accepting someone in spite of the person's flaws, but what i mean is that when you love someone in this way, you want to change because of them. you see them, and they inspire you, and you grow in your own way. once again—growth is a very subjective idea, and even for HJH and KS we can see them grow in different directions—but we can clearly see how they have impacted each others' lives.

it's quite obvious, imo, how KS's life has been impacted by HJH's. she's,, not the "smartest" out there, and we can't deny that. we know she probably won't make it through law school if not for HJH's help. HJH is always there, a step ahead of KS, but he's not just being proud about it, instead opting to help her understand what the laws are and why they are the way they are, which KS especially needs, being a particularly empathic person. but we've also seen that HJH has helped KS beyond simply academics. he's always been there to protect her—almost all their interactions have proven that (the camera outside her house, the hungover soup, the switching seats—i think literally everything?..?..?.??). maybe she doesn't necessarily need protection, but surely thanks to his protection she's much better than she might've been without, especially knowing her terribly miserable life.

but i often wonder why HJH is so heart-eyes of KS of all people. i mean, i know love is love and sometimes you just catch feelings, but i believe there's more meaning behind their relationship than meets the eye. like you don't just look at someone so lovingly for it to be just a crush, y'know? the first reason that comes to mind is clearly simply KS's amicable personality. she definitely stands out: she's not that intelligent, struggling and barely surviving, but she has insane passion to pull through even despite truth attacks (like SJH saying she should reconsider her life decisions, saying that a chance of passing isn't something to be proud of, etc). she treats everything with such a positive outlook, and, well, KS is just an adorable human, so it's hard not to have a little crush her.

what makes KS stand out most, the core of her personality, is that she has hope, despite everything. she's been through shit because of her circumstances—left by her twin sister without a word, been in juvie, has no money to deal with it—you know, entire backstory. but instead she fights her weakness, even though she feel like it should've been her sister, even though she's not smart enough, because she has to do this. she keeps going, even though things keep turning out for the worse for her, holding hope when circumstances are most dire. but why? because she strives for justice. she doesn't want to be wronged. she wants the law to own up its mistakes, wants to make sure the law gets its own revenge. that's why she wants to work in law, yeah? and so she keeps fighting, even when hope seems lost.

okay but why did i mention this? because i think this is what HJH sees in KS. why? because this is what he needs.

HJH had lost hope. in an episode (i don't remember which), he mentioned he doesn't trust anyone, and it's obvious why: his uncle. it's the worst kind of betrayal that causes your ideals being burned down. he realized that even people who work in law can be corrupt, people who he thought he could trust above all others, people who seemed utterly good. and then he just begins to regard everyone with baseline amity, and no further. many have pointed out he doesn't have real friends (other than KS), even though he looks outgoing and friendly. it's not quite shown, but it must've been lonely. and a lonely fight, trying to prove that he will be a better prosecutor than his uncle was. and we know that HJH's nature as a person is to be calculating, objective, seeing things through facts and statistics; it's what makes him so intelligent. what that also makes him is realistic, and more often than not, that is almost equal to pessimistic—because reality just... sucks, as has been proven by the betrayal of his uncle. and further into the drama we see only more corrupt people in the business, so we certainly don't get out hopes fueled.

there's scarcely anyone in what we see who's actually pursuing law because they're passionate about the law, or if they are, they're not often very... human in doing it. examples: YJH, SJH, KSB are all very cold and indifferent types, people who really just come and do what they do, focus on studies (in the case of YJH, his teaching), and interactions with others are treated as "lesser". SJH and KSB in particular—they're good at the law, sure, but they seem to prioritize their position in law first and foremost. SJH and KSB don't hesitate to call out their losses, and even would rather not intervene for justice if it meant their position would be compromised. not that they're bad characters, not at all; i mentioned them simply to compare them to KS, who, despite not having the brains to do half the things she's supposed to do and earning herself nosebleeds everytime she tries, still does what she does for justice, passionately, hopefully, all for righteousness.

okay this was longer than i intended WHEW so i'll cut to the chase: long story short, HJH needs KS because KS gives him hope. hope of a humanity where people actually work in law and choose to fight for justice against all odds, even if the system itself is infiltrated by filth and corruption. KS is someone who, in her first lecture, was grilled the fuck out by Yangcrates, yet the first thing she does after she nearly throws her guts out is ask HJH whether he can tutor her. she does not ever lose hope, and that, truly, is what stands out to HJH, what he needs.

and KS needs HJH because he is her hope as well! hope by itself does no good if you can't actually do something about it, and KS knows this. HJH, despite seemingly just being someone to help her in her studies, is someone she needs if she wants to achieve her goals, if she wants to get back on the law the right way. which is why, in the end, KS and HJH are, while independent in their own way, dependent on each other in terms of their growth—KS gives HJH hope in humanity, HJH helps KS realize (make real) her hopes that would have been dreams if not for her.

oh my god i've rambled on this long without stating my point: THE DAMN LINE.

HJH saying he owes her makes sense in this light because, indeed, KS's positive outlook in everything keeps him going. it gives him a reason to keep wanting to work in law, because she is a reason to believe in goodness and justice, that there will be people who keep fighting for justice against all odds. he owes this to her—and perhaps that is why he goes all out to help her achieve that hope, perhaps that's why he goes out of his way to care for her. because they are each other's missing puzzle piece, the other half. soulmates.

sigh ok this was long ONE FINAL POINT. everyone has their own opinion on a solwhi ending, so i might as well chip in mine.

certainly, as a solhwi shipper, i want them to end up together. i believe they're really the best of soulmates, two people who just complement each other so well. but in the current timeline, them having a romantic relationship out of the blue would be,,, simply unnecessary, imo. they're still very much in the stage of friendship, and are both dealing with their own personal baggage, that shoving a romance would just take away the focus from their growth. i personally think even this platonic relationship is already a beautiful one, one that outshines many of the romances i've watched, even without having to flood everything under the romance light—which i think many can agree with me, seeing as how solhwi is shipped so much. i still want to see them end up together, though, so SEASON TWO LAW SCHOOL MANIFESTATION. please please please directors writers make it happen i am begging you. thank you.

sorry for this long ass post, thank you if you do read it and leave any thoughts! again this is just my opinion, you're free to let me know if you think differently or anything, or shoot me a message if you want to scream about solhwi or whatever i'm just solhwi brainrot 24/7 🤸🏻‍♀️

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 5 Most Hated Characters

As y’all can see, this week’s T5F is a request sent in by anon. I picked it because I guess at the time I thought it would be fun to explore some of TWDG’s least popular, and most hated, characters while also taking into account characters that I can’t stand. 

These are characters that the vast majority of us don’t like or downright despise for many different reasons. None of us are going out of our ways to defend most of these bastards, and anyone who is I get the impression they’re doing so for the sake of being Different™... though while looking around for info about these characters and what people were saying about them, I did find myself in some odd places.... come across, eh... odd fanart. 

But I guess this is the part where I say this is all in good fun and if you happen to be a legit stan of any of these people, that’s cool. Maybe you can answer some of my questions as to why??

5. Nate 

Okay, when I said that I found myself in odd places, it turns out that Nate actually has a bit of a fanbase. It’s not big or anything, from what I can tell, but big enough for me to question why because I was under the impression that we all agreed that this dude sucks.

Seriously, I would’ve put him higher on this list if I hadn’t discovered this handful of people making fanart for him and claiming him as a comfort character. While I find that an odd choice, you do whatever makes you feel comforted, y’know? Just would like to understand why. 

As for the rest of us, he’s terrible. Every time I go back to 400 days, he’s someone I never look forward to seeing. I’ve even tried not getting in the truck with him while playing Russell’s story, but in true Telltale fashion, you’re forced to drive along with this creep. 

Red flags start going off when Russell’s sharing his story about his previous group, something you can tell left some trauma with him, and Nate is just weirdly fixated on the girl Russell liked. Like yeah okay dude, I get it, it’s the apocalypse and you haven’t had any action for a while but oh my god. 

Then the whole walker thing that almost gets Russell chomped is annoying. Oh, and how could I forget about how it’s implied that he attacked the old couple before and was there to finish them off, which he does no matter what and it’s not great. 

Hell, he even uses the line Russell gave him but it’s worse because crazy eyes. And if you don’t say anything, Nate murders them right there without a thought and then continues to be a real creep. Fuck this guy. 

As the wise Eddie once said, “I don’t what that guy in my life, man!” 

4. The Stranger

Hey, have I ever mentioned how much this dude sucks? 

I don’t even have to tell you why he’s on this list. We all know the obvious reasons-- manipulated and kidnapped Clementine, which caused Lee to get bit by a walker and fucking die. No one here is white-knighting for this dipshit. 

Sure, it sucks what the Stranger went through. He lost his family and that would be enough to drive anyone up the wall. I mean, just look at Kenny. But this dude, okay. Look. Listen. I can only feel so bad for you when you lost your son on a hunting trip that your wife told you not to go on, then when you went looking for him, you literally left the car unlocked and running for anyone to come across. Then you come back and gasp. So your wife leaves you for being a moron... then when you find her dead, you cut off her head and keep it like a damn bowling ball because...??

At least that’s what I get from it. The writers probably should’ve done a better job with explaining what the hell happened but y’know. 

That’s not the only reason no one likes this guy. Oh no, you also add to the pile that the Stranger himself is dull. As a character, the dude is just.... boring. And I get that’s probably what they were going for with the whole “I’m just a guy, but you ruined my life and made me this way.” 

However, when you set him up the way you did with the talks over the walkie and the stalking, I was expecting a bit more personality outta this loaf of soggy bread. But no... boring yet crazy. Interesting combo and I’m afraid it doesn’t work. 

3. Larry

Larry?? On a list of most hated characters?? Nooo...

Yeah, surprise. Larry also sucks. Stop the presses. 

Larry is a pain in the ass to deal with for two episodes, constantly belittling the people around him and treating his daughter like shit. Oh, and don’t forget how he behaves towards Lee even if you try to be as nice as possible. Nope, he doesn’t care, he still thinks Lee is garbage and will continue threatening to reveal Lee’s secret to the group. Who cares if that could fuck up the dynamic and endanger the group? Larry sure doesn’t. 

Until the very end, this dude is just a splinter in the foot. By the time you get to the meat locker and he has a heart attack, you’re not gonna save him because you think he’ll be better if he survives. No, you’re attempting to save him for Lilly and Clementine’s sake, and if you don’t even care about that, you siding with Mr. Family Man to smash his head in. 

Not only is he a soiled diaper, he also don’t have much personality outside of asshole. He has maybe two moments where he’s shown to be just a bit chill? I mean, Lilly tells us that he has a lot of pain and that’s why he’s like this.... but that doesn’t excuse his behavior. 

Oh, and can’t forget that apparently he was obsessed with Lilly leaving the lights on so he let the power get cut, so Lilly couldn’t eat ice cream and had to let her hair air dry like a heathen. Unforgivable. 

So yeah, fuck Larry. 

2. Troy

Ugh, Troy. Fuck this guy. 

No really, out of all TWDG characters, this dude and my #1 pick are my most hated. Can’t stand Troy and the only reason I didn’t do a tie for #1 is because for a split second, Troy does show a tiny bit of humanity when Carver is beating down Carver, but blink and you’ll miss it.

Which had me a little concerned to find a handful of posts about having crushes on Troy and drawing fanart but.... again, I guess you do you? And if you can, please explain why because I honestly don’t understand. 

Just looking at the screenshot of him annoys him. He’s got one of those punchable faces, y’know? 

Anyway, when playing as Clementine, I’m always worried that he’s gonna pop up outta no where and grab her by the neck like he does later in ep3, even though I’ve played s2 a bunch to know that he’s not going to. 

But hell, he doesn’t need any excuse to smack anyone around, and there are a handful of times he can really hurt Clem depending on her choices. 

Not great, dude. 

Can’t say I’m too sorry that Jane shot your dick off. 

1. Badger

Yeah, you guys remember Badger. Y’know.... the man who murdered Mariana then laughed about it, claiming that he enjoyed watching her head explode and would do it again and again if he could? 

That’s what puts him at #1. He may not have the most screen time like Larry or Troy, but when he is around, he’s fucking awful.

He gets joy from killing Mariana, like it’s some sort of sick thrill for him to go around murdering children and other innocent people. 

Remember Francine? Caught her and used her as bait to try and get Javi to come down, and even went as far as to have some fingers cut off. Like, he gets off on destroying people, entire communities.

Shit, he seems to even get off to his own beat down. 

He’s fucking gross and outta everyone on this list, I haven’t found a single person being like “Yeah, he’s garbage but I like him kinda?” like no, you’re such garbage that even the Different™ crowd don’t want you. 

Fuck Badger. 

By the way, if you’ve never had Conrad kill him in your game, I suggest looking it up. It’s pretty good. Gives Conrad a little bit of closure after what happened to Francine, as well as give Javi some closure for Mari’s murder. 

Not a single soul wept for you, Badger. 

---

Dishonorable Mentions

-Joan. She’s boring, forgettable, and no one is out here gushing over her because most of the time, we can’t even remember her name. -Danny from Vince’s story in 400 Days. Y’know, the dude going to prison because he was convicted of SA. I’ll never understand why people go with him over Justin. Justin sucks, too, but not the same level Danny does.  -Lilly in S4. Ugh. That’s a whole other topic for another day. -Arvo, though I guess he has a bit of a following, too

---

Well there ya go. Do you agree or disagree with any of my choices for this list? Or have anything to add? I’m always down to chat.

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

---

Next week’s T5F Top 5 BROTPs

[kaorimiyazonotl]

Spring and Death

I sought to seek the truth about this topic and each piece of evidence given only connects to what’s been proven and what’s obvious. Since this is greek mythology, it is a very twisted story. I picked this love story because it has been told in various ways by many different people. Everyone has heard of the Goddess Persephone(Kore) and Hades. It is beautiful yet very confusing to understand the full 100% of their story. But since I picked theirs I’ve had to take my time and look a little deeper. Persephone or Kore, the daughter of Demeter the goddess of the harvest, grain, and fertility, is the goddess of many things; spring, nature, harvest, and fertility like her mother. Hades, “the Unseen '' god of the Underworld, brother of Zeus, Poseidon, and many other gods and goddesses who are related to him. Key question to ask; What is the truth? I can tell you my version and someone can tell you theirs, but in the end the choice depends on you. In the original context, there are two sides of a story and then there's the third person who knows it all, who can give you all the answers to your questions. But this is my view from beginning to the end the way I see it and what I think of it all. 

Persephone or Kore? What’s her real name first of all? In the three articles and one book I skimmed through, Kore was her nickname meaning “maiden” and Persephone was her real name meaning “bringer of destruction” or “chaos bringer” or in webtoon “Bringer of Death''. In another book and a comment from one of the videos I watched it was the opposite, Kore to believe was her real name given at birth and Persephone was the name given in punishment from Zeus. In the article “Persephone, Queen of the Underworld'' by the Greeka website, I read “She was...called Kore…” In another article, Greek Mythology; “Hades and Persephone'' by Greek Myths it said, “They conceived a beautiful goddess named Persephone..” In the last article I read, the “Myth of Hades and Persephone'' by Greek Myths&Greek Mythology they put “...Persephone played..” and in Stephen Fry’s book Mythos, “Demeter had a daughter Persephone..”(page 138). But in a book called The Great Goddesses; Life Lessons from Myths and Monsters by Nikita Gill ``Kore...”(page 161) was her name. Later on “Hestia goes into the Underworld, to reason with Kore who now calls herself Persephone ''(page 163). Then there’s someone who commenced from the Persephone video and said that “...... Kore '' was the birth name. Also if you read webtoon’s comic Lore Olympus, Hades here and there calls her Kore but mostly calls her Persephone. It's confusing enough and there's a 10% chance with the whole name thing to be true or not because each source says otherwise. Kore; a birth or nickname? Persephone; a birth or punishment name? Persephone sounds more like her real name because I believe most people use that name rather than Kore being either her real name or nickname. Again still very confusing and I feel like there’s more missing. After all, this is Greek Mythology and it’s a long process to go over if you want to know the truth, however finding the “truth” will be done my way and how I see this roller coaster. In the next chapter we discover how Persephone ends up in the Underworld. 

First things first when Persephone gets kidnapped in six different or connecting versions, Hades either arrives or appears out of the ground in a black chariot with black horses and Demeter was either present or not, all the sources I’ve read/watched say she stopped doing her duties down on earth with the mortals to find her daughter. A little side note from the “Persephone, Queen of the Underworld” article, “Demeter was very protective, keeping her naive to the ways of the world and dressing her like a child, even though she grew into a woman.” Meaning that that explains why Demeter had such rage when her daughter went missing. In the beginning, before the kidnapping happened though Hades asked either Zeus or Demeter for Persephone’s hand in marriage or he didn't ask at all and winged the whole thing. First off from the “Persephone, Queen of the Underworld” article Hades “... asked Demeter to marry her daughter.” Or from two different articles Greek Mythology; "Hades and Persephone" and the “Myth of Hades and Persephone” Hades “..confided his secret in his brother Zeus”(“The Myth of Hades and Persephone”). Zeus then “.. gave his consent to the marriage.”(Greek Mythology; “Hades and Persephone”). Next how the kidnapping began, from  the comment section of the Persephone video, they put it as Zeus told Hades to kidnap her and they were going to use the Narcissus flower to do it. However in the book Mythos, “From out of the opening there thundered a great chariot”(pg 138). Speaking while Perspehone was out chasing butterflies in the meadow, it was Hades opportunity to strike. An interesting detail I found out on the Persephone video was Persephone found an entrance to the Underworld and Hades didn’t expect her to show up. Another detail in one article says that she was with the sea nymphs and Cyane was the only one who tried to stop Hades. In Nikita Gill's book The Great Goddesses, Persephone tries to explain to Demeter that the first time she touched a pomegranate shrub “...Instead of it bursting to full red fruit, it wilted and mottled under my fingers..”(page 167). This explains the difference between the Persephone I read about in all the other sources and this kind of Persephone who possesses great powers. The number one thing that made connections to all the sources was Demeter's actions and emotions, she was described as an overprotective, scared, worried mother. But it’s the most common emotion for a mother to have though. Demeter's emotions were for a reason, her daughter was kidnapped, she was very protective of Persephone because Demeter feared that she would suffer the same fate explaining why she was so overprotective and why she wanted her to remain a virgin. But Demeter's emotions are an example of any mother's, it was the fear that caused Demeter to be so emotional and frightened. As for the whole “kidnapping”, I think it was just a misunderstanding, Hades didn’t know what to do or how to talk to her. Like I’ve said and what the articles, books, and videos have mentioned; Hades was very dedicated to the Underworld and was more focused on his realm than screwing around with his brothers. So it makes sense for the articles to write it as a Kidnapping because some of the articles mention how Hades got Persephone without letting Demeter know or anyone. It makes sense too if he did ask Zeus for “advice” since he was an “expert” and it was his only option anyway. But Hades fell in love with Persephone at first sight and loved her dearly too. From what I’ve read, it looks to me that Hades never meant to hurt Persephone; he just didn’t know how to express his feelings and he’s never seen such a goddess-like Persephone. Things could’ve been done differently if Hades didn’t ask Zeus and Hades just had the confidence to tell Persephone his feelings. Then writers wouldn’t have taken it as a “kidnapping” and just a misunderstanding. SO, what we know so far on this journey is much more than what I’ve expected. There’s the marriage, the “kidnapping”, Demeter’s emotions, and Hades' misunderstood feelings, all were an accident and all’s emotions are relatable. However, we've only taken a stroll on Demeter and Hades's roller coasters. There is still much to discover. What exactly was the daughter of fertility and harvest emotions down in the Underworld? 

Anyone who’s been kidnapped would’ve done the fight-or-flight situation, scream or freeze, be confused, sad, and scared for their life. Persephone did not scream, I believe she didn’t have time to scream because everything had happened so fast and the world changed from light to dark in a split second. “Down in the Underworld, Persephone was distraught…”(Greek Mythology; “Hades and Persephone) they say and while Demeter was doing earth damage, Zeus had to stop the situation before it escalated. Zeus “...promised Demeter to restore Persephone to her if it can be proven that the maiden stays with Hades against her will”(“Persephone, Queen of the Underworld”). In The Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill, Persephone was herself and she tries to explain to her mother that Hades “fell in love with the part of me that no one else could, promised me a land where I could be queen and not another version of you..”(page 167). This prompts about Persephone’s powers, the kind of love she received while being with Hades, and how she was just a girl trying to fulfill her mother’s wishes by not truly being the person she wants to be. But so, aside from that, Mythos by Stephen Fry, explains the odd feeling towards both God and Goddesses feelings in the Underworld. So by Zeus's order, he sent Hermes down to the Underworld to get Persephone back, Hades refuses and so “The next day Hades knocked on the door of Persephone’s chamber...Hades..loved her with all his heart, and..he was sure that he could not let her go.”(pg 140) Since it would be odd for a “kidnapper” to treat their “prisoner” with such respect and courtesy it seems that Hades was different compared to his brothers so they say. But the book Mythos continues to give out one more piece of information, a sign to show that Persephone cares for Hades, that he could detect “a small flicker of returned love’(page 140). Strange as it seems for Persephone to give returned love to the person that “kidnapped” her I think regardless of what evidence has just said and what’s been spoken Persephone’s time spent in the Underworld were shown differently. However, Hades gave Persephone space, he could understand the fact that she missed her mother and so he was kind enough to be patient with her, he treated her with kindness, compassion, and respect. Hades was the only person who treated her like an actual Goddess, he took his time though went at a steady pace with her, but he did so much for her, built beautiful gardens, gave her gifts, most of all he allowed her to be her true self as Queen of the Underworld, ruling alongside with Hades, having their thrones next to each other to show equal ruling. Throughout a small encounter from one another, the feeling of Persephone to me shows that despite missing her mother she didn’t show any sight of regret or discomfort while being with Hades. Something tells me that at the beginning she was unsure and unaware if this person was bad, but as she saw what Hades had done for her she didn’t take it for granted but deep down I think she loved it, just wasn’t sure until the end, which came to show for her that Hades wasn’t a bad person. In the end, Persephone began to love this new world around her and accept this person’s gratitude for treating her so kindly even though he captured her unexpectedly. Hades though, his thoughts and feelings during that time don’t need an explanation, I think he was hoping that even though he was in the wrong at the beginning, he’d hoped to be forgiven. Also, he wasn’t asking much from Persephone, simply just asking to be called a friend to her. 

Thus the Pomegranate comes into play for this twisted love story. First things first, how did Persephone receive the pomegranate? By choice? A Gift? Persuasion? Hunger? Or tricked? It is said that Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds connecting her to the Underworld and because of that it created The Eternal Cycle of Nature’s Rebirth and Death. In the Hades and Persephone video, it says that Hades gave the pomegranate to Persephone as a parting gift because she was leaving the Underworld and he was terrified that she wouldn’t come back. In the articles, Persephone “had been persuaded to eat four seeds of a pomegranate”(“The Myth of Hades and Persephone”) or  Hades “tricked his reluctant bride...to eat...a few seeds from the Pomegranate” (“Persephone, Queen of the Underworld ''). In another scenario from the “Hades and Persephone” article, they say “Persephone went into the Underworld’s garden and was offered a pomegranate from the gardener...that morning Persephone was so hungry..and ate six seeds”. From a books point of view, Hades asked Persephone to “share some pomegranate seeds..to show there is no ill-feeling”(Mythos, by Stephen Fry, pg 140). Meaning that there’s no hostility towards Hades if Persephone was comfortable around him.  Being persuaded is one thing but being tricked is another. Persuasion works on anyone depending on what you use it for, tricking someone though isn’t the best route either especially when you’re trying to get them to do what you want. But common sense would say that people have their view about what might’ve happened. I just don’t believe that Hades was that cruel to trick Persephone, from what the evidence and notes I’ve pulled I find that hard to believe it’s true. If Persephone knew the risks of eating such food from a realm that was completely the opposite of hers, she wouldn't have taken it, but since she was starving she had no choice but to accept. The possibilities for Hades and Persephone’s actions all have a meaningful reason to do so. Hades actions were mostly done by fear.  As for Persephone she only ate the fruit because she hadn’t eaten. In the end no matter how the pomegranate came into play before or after Persephone still ate the fruit connecting her to the Underworld. 

Part 1

Before we begin I’d like to say that this will be put into two parts;Part one will be about how the decision was made and who made it. Part two will be explaining what the Eternal Cycle is and how it connects to Persephone. So as we all know the story told has been put onto the table into different puzzle pieces and each piece has either connected or disconnected to finding the truth. Thus giving the impression to many theories and questions about Persephone's feelings in the Underworld, Hades's feelings towards Persephone, and how great of an impact the pomegranate has played into this story.  But what I liked to figure out is how this whole stay between Demeter and Hades happened? How long was Persephone allowed to stay in the Underworld and with her mother? And who made the decision? In a gathering, according to the “Persephone, Queen of the Underworld '' article “Persephone was asked where she would like to live, she answered she wanted to live with her husband.” And so “...Zeus decided that Persephone would spend half months with her husband in the Underworld and half months with her mother on Olympus.” In a different type of gathering it says that when Hades showed up in the throne room of Olympus, he held a partially eaten pomegranate that Persephone had eaten, then Zeus ruled “that she will spend six months of each year in the Underworld and six months tending the mortal’s fields with her mother”(“Hades and Persephone'' article). In another article, it is told that Hades and Zeus came up with a plan and that stated Persephone was going to stay with Hades and Demeter for six months of the year. Before leaving though Hades had Persephone eat four pomegranate seeds and “Persephone was to..return to the Underworld for four months of the year...But..allowed to spend the remaining two-thirds of the year with Demeter'' (''The Myth of Hades and Persephone” article). From the Persephone video someone had commented that when Zeus had heard Persephone ate “fruit of the dead, connecting her to the Underworld forever, he “grounded” Persephone by staying with her mother for six months and the rest with her husband”.  But in The Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill, she describes Persephone as the decision-maker, stepping in telling Demeter that “... you gave birth to a girl who knows her mind. He didn’t snatch me and take me to hell. I went there because I wanted a queendom destined to be mine”(page 168). Then lastly, when Hermes came back the next day to get Persephone again, Hades told Hermes “she has tasted six pomegranate seeds so she must come back to me for six months of every year”(Mythos by Stephen Fry, page 141). Zeus, Hades, and Persephone. One of them decided how long Persephone was gonna stay in the Underworld and on earth. The majority of the votes said six months each year, but they were said from Zeus and Hades. Persephone, on the other, had stepped in two times calling the shots. Persephone was given a choice which she chose to live in theUnderworld because that happened to give her happiness and what Hades provided her. Everything else though, the two-thirds, four months, and half months don’t make sense at all and I don't think that connects to the big picture. But I’d like to point out Persephone’s decision-making shows strength, maturity, and growth as a Goddess and also that she is capable of making her own decisions and not being treated like a child. Whoever made the decision only comes across to what it represents and how it relapses to the change of the seasons. 

Part 2

Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, the four seasons of the twelve months that bring us the change yearly all around. Whoever made the decision left everyone in a disagreement with Zeus or Hades or Persephone’s final word. Even though Demeter wasn’t proud and neither was Hades, it had to be done so things can go back to “normal” for everyone. In previous paragraphs I and many other articles have stated/pointed out that the eaten pomegranate seeds represent The Eternal Cycle of Nature’s Rebirth and Death. Since Demeter was the goddess of producing grain and vegetation she technically controlled the seasons because when Persephone was with her during the spring and summer life was in full bloom meaning rebirth and when Persephone was away Demeter left life to rot and die because she missed her thus meaning death on autumn and winter. Keep in mind Demeter is the one that made this all happen. “According to the ancient Greeks……. this myth was created to explain the change of the seasons”(Article; “Persephone, Queen of the Underworld”). “Each time she left, Demeter mourned and all vegetation died..each time Persephone returned, the earth warmed and became fertile...This is how the Greeks explained the earth's seasons”(“Hades and Persephone” article). In Mythos, Stephen Fry states Demeter’s distress and jubilation for her daughter, it was the way the seasons came about due to Demeter's emotions. She was the one who started the cycle because she always mourned whenever Persephone had to return to the Underworld and always rejoiced whenever Persephone came back to her. The meaning of all this goes back to Demeter. I can’t be upset or disappointed that Demeter was the one who changed the seasons; she had every right to be happy and sad when Persephone was and wasn’t around. Demeter technically didn’t get to have a say during the whole decision making and as things couldn’t get crazier her time with Persephone was cut short. So how does The Eternal Cycle of Nature’s Rebirth and Death relate to the myth? It's because it has something to do with Demeter and her emotions about everything relating to her Daughter. 

 So much has happened and there’s not much to say other than this is the second to last paragraph. Before I continue though, I’d like to point out that this part would’ve been about Persephone’s feelings, but it didn’t feel right to just write about her feelings, there was so much other detail to put on here that I knew it wouldn’t be enough. In this chapter of the myth, Persephone starts to enjoy her time with Hades and slowly starts to fall in love with him. But it’s not just about Persephone, it’s Hades as well and what every moment they spend together represents and the emotions they feel together. I can’t complain about these pieces of evidence I give, other than if Demeter is mentioned here then that’s something. According to this from Mythos, it seemed that Persephone “....grew to love her time below as much as her time above. For six months she was no prisoner in Hades, but the contented Queen of the Underworld..”(page 142). And from the comment section on the Hades and Persephone video, they pointed out that “she saw sides to Hades that no one else had seen before and she began to fall in love with him.” Then in The Great Goddesses story, it is told what happens in the throne room. “Persephone sits by Hades’s side, on a throne made of skulls intertwined with black roses. He looks over and takes her hand, interlaces it with his and kisses it, his usually cold eyes warm”(page 177). After that, once all the deeds are done “they will go to their island for long walks surrounded by new dogs Hades has rescued while Persephone has been away and he will introduce them all by name to her. She will smile and pet them all..because she understands his love for dogs so well. They are loyal in a way their own Olympian family has never been to them, a way for them to know truly unconditional love widely and well”(pages 177-178). Also, one last piece of evidence to give as “punishment” I guess written in Great Goddesses would be Demeter’s “..uncompromising love is....why Persephone will never have children. She couldn’t bear to love someone like this”(page 176). Behind it all this shows actual love the two gods and goddesses have for each other despite what their Olympian family have to say. I don’t know what love is other than what I see and what people say. But I do think that this is beyond beautiful and touching to see Persephone smiling as Hades introduces the new dogs and beautiful to see that Hades changed as well and that Hades was able to open up to Persephone. It doesn’t matter how you put it, I think this whole thing connects to how Persephone began to fall in love with Hades in the first place. It’s just very upsetting that Demeter took so long to accept her daughter and Husband. Furthermore, I’m disappointed that Demeter was not able to obtain Persephone as she is by not letting her have children because of her reasons. To me that’s cruel, everyone is different, we are born into a world where no one is perfect, yet we all go through the same hell. People, friends, and family have to learn that there are some things that make us who we are and we shouldn’t be judged by that. In conclusion, Persephone was able to find happiness after going through hell. 

Finally, we’re down to the last paragraph/my review. First things first, there’s good and bad. Second, there is no “true” answer. And thirdly, this is just my view and what I believe. I’ll be dividing this into sections; Demeter, Zeus, Hades, and Persephone. First is Demeter, the mother who smothered her child and left her in a dark hole surrounded by a mother’s demands and wishes. I’ve said it now at least nine times that Demeter was scared and wanted to protect her child. Well, protection doesn’t last long and you can’t keep a person “locked” away forever. How else was Persephone or any child supposed to grow and experience things if they don’t leave? I know, you know, we know this world is chaotic, dangerous, and full of all kinds of bad things around us. I think Persephone was old enough to know right from wrong. I’m theorizing that Demeter was hoping Persephone could accomplish some of the things that Demeter couldn’t have done when she was her age and if it isn't obvious enough Demeter was the one pushing Persephone farther away. Next, is Zeus, I’m assuming he only wanted Demeter to put an end to her tantrum because it was affecting the mortals, the earth and she would cause all humanity to disappear. So notwithstanding Hades and Demeter's request, Zeus only did what would please himself only to restore the balance of the world. Moving forward the decision had to be made and Zeus was a part of making it, he just left everyone unhappy in the end. Then there’s Hades, I know, and you probably already know too that he’s WAY different compared to his brother and maybe everyone else. There isn’t a whole lot to say other than he cherished Persephone more than what any Gods and Goddesses could imagine. I still think that Hades never meant to ‘kidnap” Persephone, everything was just put into false words and misunderstandings. Hades never kept Persephone hostage or a prisoner, he was patient, kind, gentle, and very respectful towards her. After giving out evidence from all kinds of sources and people, I believe that Hades' part of the story somehow connects to the “truth” about what could or might potentially be the myth. Hades may have rushed things in the beginning but he went at a steady and comfortable pace with Persephone along the way. Lastly, Persephone, a goddess who experienced so much already for a goddess such as her age, her emotions were all over the place but even that remains a mystery. I full-heartedly believe that Persephone did hold some kind of different powers from Nikita Gill’s book. It speaks as though she was different compared to all the original sources. There are two sides to Persephone; her being a strong woman and her being a helpless child. In the beginning, Persephone was confused as hell. In a fight or flight situation, she froze, that's probably why she didn’t scream. But Hades was the only one who saw right through all her pain and misery trying to be “perfect” for her mother. My belief about Persephone is a trapped child wanting to escape for freedom and Hades helped Persephone become the goddess she was meant to be, Queen of the Underworld alongside Hades as King. In the end, Persephone changed greatly, Hades helped and was different just like her, Demeter was controlling but she had her reasons, and Zeus was just being Zeus as always. However, there is still much to this like people thought the pomegranate that Persephone ate made her fall in love with Hades (I disagree strongly) or any other part of the story that I missed. There is still a mystery to this Greek Mythology, we may never find it, people find their own truth, and there is no right or wrong answer. What I believe though is this piece that I created. 

[nothing-fancy94]

Writing Tips and Tricks

A good friend of mine suggested I should share some of the golden nuggets I have picked up in my five-ish years of writing fanfiction. Please remember that I am by no means claiming to be a professional writer, I am doing this for fun!

Building Light Romantic Tension (Specifically Between Two Friends)

Introduction/Base Understanding of Goal: Ever wanted to make your readers tingle with anticipation when reading a scene between two ‘friends’? and have them ask the age old question: will they or wont they?

With tension, especially when the tension is connected to emotions like fear and romance, it is important that the majority of what you are writing is the individual character’s perception of the environment and the people around them. How does the character move in this situation of tension? What prompts them to feel differently about their friend? This is similar to writing fighting scenes. Actions should be short, or described in a way that further adds to the tension in the scene.

For the following example I am going to use one of my favorite uncommon ships in the Sonic Universe (I mean of course its Sonic, cuz that’s my jam 😉) – Knuckles and Amy

Example one: Amy reached for the book on the top shelf, her fingers barely grazing the bottom binding of the book. She was about to give up and look for a stool, when a hand reached over hers and encased the book with ease. She turned and was face to face with Knuckles. She smiled and said, "Thanks, Knux."

Knuckles smiled back at her and handed over the book. Their hands touched, and Amy felt her cheeks grow warm. It was odd, but she felt attracted to him.

Notes on Example one: Off the bat this example doesn’t feel like it isn’t sufficient, but when you look at it a little deeper some issues come to light. Firstly, there isn’t enough information on the environment that the characters are in. It is important to firmly set the atmosphere for the interaction, since depending on where they are the characters may act differently. If she is in her own home she would feel more confident, and may not react in a tense manner, but if she is in a public setting like a library, then the stakes are higher for her and she becomes slightly more vulnerable because of her height.

Which leads me into the second point: her complex with her height makes her vulnerable emotionally, which is crucial for the tension between the characters to occur. Vulnerability opens up opportunity, or rather ‘opens the door to her heart.’ This is because she is now in a state of needing help, and when the contrast between her height and Knuckles is shown to her as he helps her with her problem, suddenly she views Knuckles in a different light. It also allows her to react in what people may call ‘an out of character’ manner. If she needs help, and she is surrounded by strangers and is too embarrassed to either ask for assistance or too stubborn to find another solution, then Knuckles reaching over her to get the book can cause her to allow emotions she would otherwise bury come to the surface.

Which leads me into the final and most crucial point. The above example simply throws her romantic tension with Knuckles at the very end, and in almost an abrasive manner. Almost like I forgot I was writing a romantic scene and threw it in last minute to get that cheap tense moment. When it is  written in this manner, it feels unearned, and leaves the readers kind of scratching their heads like “Where did that come from?” A great way to avoid this issue is to describe the feeling of attraction, rather than simply stating it. Does your character’s cheeks heat up? Does her/his heart beat faster or stop beating for moment? Does she/he feel tightness in their chest, or confusion in their thoughts? Don’t tell, show.

Lets break down these points:

1.     Set-up an appropriate environment for the characters to react in that will open up opportunities for tension

2.     Don’t be afraid to tap into your character’s weaknesses and use them against them

3.     Make sure the tension feels earned

Now let’s apply this to another example. As you will see this second example is lengthier than the first. This is actually a great thing! More in writing (just like with ice cream) is better! Stretching out a few seconds into several long paragraphs not only allows the reader to dive deeper into your writing and story, but also gives you more room to edit in the future. Cutting out redundancies are always easier than trying to add to a cheap scene.

Example two: Amy's legs stretched as far as they could go, and her fingers bent and scraped the bottom of a book’s spine. She huffed in irritation at her small figure, if she was just a half inch taller she would've been able to grab the object of her desire. However, even extending her feet to her tippy toes did nothing to help matters. She sighed, falling back onto the balls of her feet, and stared up at the offensive book with a frustrated glare. It was just her luck that the only book she needed was on the highest shelf of the library’s history section. Amy huffed and was about to go search for a stepping stool when the light above her dimmed, and she saw a large muscular arm reach over her. A hand extended and encased the book with ease. She was startled at first, and frozen in place feeling much like the book, wrapped in this unknown person's presence. A presence which felt large, yet safe. She could feel the person's chest rub against her back as they pulled the book down.

Once light returned, and she was no longer surrounded by arms, she turned to look at who had lent her a hand. She blinked a couple times in surprise as she found herself staring into amethyst eyes. Knuckles hardly ever touched books, let alone stepped foot in a library, and yet here he stood, a full two heads taller than her. She gulped, feeling an odd prickling sensation at the weird reaction she'd had to her best friend helping her out.

"T-thanks, Knux." She said, and gave him a little smile. He smiled back, and she felt foolish for her overly romantic side that had dramatized the interaction before knowing who it was. But then, when he handed her the book, their fingers brushed against each other for just the breath of a second. The connection lasted for less than a second, but it was enough to send a spark from her fingertip to the back of her neck... Just what in Chaos’ name was wrong with her?

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #83: No Longer Together-Together. A Squiggle Meister’s Views on the Potential of a Renora Breakup in V7CH8.

In light of Ren’s recent behaviour, this squiggle meister has a hunch. Since Ren has been shown to forget everything around him whenever he’s with Nora, I have a feeling that the one sure-fire way to snap Ren out of his ‘boot-licker’ attitude (as some folks are describing it) is Nora, herself, suggesting that the two should break up. 

One of the commonly highlighted aspects of Ren and Nora's relationship is how they’ve succeeded in sticking together for so many years while remaining close and supportive of each other since they were kids left to survive on their own with nothing but each other to depend on.

I think Nora of all people suggesting the split would be what finally shakes Ren out of his rut. Because in spite of everything that’s happened with our beloved Flower Power pair for this season, my hunch still remains that Ren is behaving this way out of fear of losing all that he loved to Salem and her forces for a second time.

Ren already lost his parents and his home to the Creatures of Grimm---at least the ones that we could say were Salem's own creations. For him to lose his current loved ones ---especially Nora--- to her forces again, that is the last thing I believe Ren wants. Hence his current demeanour.

I think Ren wishes to better himself as a warrior for the greater good of becoming strong enough to at least protect the people he cares about the most. There may not be any solution to stopping Salem at the moment but at the present; Ironwood is only one with a legit plan---even if it was concocted without all the pieces taken into full consideration.

Ren's actions may be questionable but I'd like to think that his motives are what's just. Hmm…starting to sound like someone familiar there but I can’t quite put my finger on whom exactly. Quite the enigma, right?

In regards to his relationship with her, I’d like to believe that Ren is doing all of this because he wants to protect Nora and not lose her to Salem and her forces...even if his pursuit of that has made him increasingly more distant with her.

Hence why I think Nora asking Ren to "break up" will be what makes him come to his senses in a way. Call this weird but...I think part of the reason why Ren is distancing himself from Nora is because...maybe he perceives her as a distraction. 

The one person that could make him put aside his duties. Nora, as odd as this might sound, has somewhat become the embodiment of Ren’s humanity. He’s most relaxed when he’s around her. Or at least she’s his constant reminder that there are things that should matter more to him than just dedication to the line of duty. There are people who matter. And that kind of also creates an emotional tug-o-war for Ren between his dedication to his duties to stopping Salem and the people around him that are being affected by the choices he’s made to ensure the success of said duties; if that makes sense.

I think the next episode might lead to Renora breaking up as instigated by Nora. Harsh but I think it’s what the Writers have been building up to with them as part of their story for this season; among other things. I feel like at some point during or perhaps, before the Schnee Dinner party, Nora will grow fed up of Ren's behavior and say that they should split up and no be together-together anymore since that’s the impression she’s been getting from Ren this whole time.

Since Ren's thing is that he's never been good at talking then...call me weird but I kind of do want a Renora break up to happen at this point just for the sake of having Ren talk his way back into making up with Nora.

I'm feeling like there's going to be a Mr. and Mrs. Incredible from the first Incredibles movie moment between Ren and Nora with Ren yelling that he doesn’t want to lose Nora to Salem. 

He doesn’t want to lose anyone he loves every again. 

As I said, Ren’s already lost his parents to Salem. He lost his home to Salem. Heck he even lost one of his teammates and closest friends (Pyrhha) to Salem. Salem has costed Ren so much loss in his life and he wasn’t about to let her take anyone else he loved from him again basically...maybe?

I think that’s the reason. But then again, these are only my views on the matter. Either way, Ren needs to talk to Nora and someone definitely needs to ask Nora what’s going on with her too. 

The PLOT has been tiptoeing around some untold backstory for Nora, possibly in Mantle and for Pete’s sake; I just want someone to finally ask her what’s up with that. And what would awesome is if Ren is the one to ask her. These two kids need to talk. I’m not sure if the Schnee Dinner will be the appropriate setting for that but, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s used as another catalyst to spark more development in the Renora love story for this season.

Since Nora initiated their first kiss, I'm still banking on Ren being the first to confess his love for Nora.

A part of me also feels as if Nora and Ren are going to attend the dinner party and the entire time Ren just ignores Nora. Even when she shows up looking all beautiful, like the goddess that she is in her dinner dress---I have a feeling that Ren still isn’t going to react much. He’ll probably give the same indifferent response as he did on the mission with the Ace Ops. If anything, what I’m hoping to see is a sort of Yule Ball Hermione moment for Nora. Like she shows up at the dinner looking so breathtakingly gorgeous that not even duties could stop Ren from just ogling at her.

However this only lasts a minute and Ren looks away instead of complimenting his girlfriend since, in his mind, he's trying to remain vigilant just in case something bad happened at the dinner. Similar to the Watch Party, I bet Ren is going to be on very high maintenance at the Schnee Dinner.

So much so that he’ll probably desire to spend less time in Nora’s company and more stick closely to Ironwood (perhaps even keep Oscar company since I’m assuming that Ironwood will wish for Oscar to remain close to him as well; at least until they’ve met Jacques since I’d also like to think that Oscar would stick close to James to lend him some morale support).

As a matter of fact, I actually like this idea. Ren is the one member of JNR I haven’t seen Oscar bond with yet. 

So I think it’d be cool if Ren and Oscar got a chance to chat at the dinner leading to Oscar probably suggesting that Ren talk to Nora. Y’know, hit him with the ole “talk to the person you’re most afraid to” advice that he gave James.

Going to Nora: Heartbroken at Ren ignoring her at the party, let’s say… Nora starts chatting it up with some snooty Atlesian rich boys who start flirting with her.

This unfortunately ends up being a huge distraction for Ren. More than he anticipated. After all, who wouldn't be peeved by his girlfriend laughing it up with some random boys she just met who all stand around her, ogling her like a pack of wolves to a slab of meat. I'm actually very curious as to how a jealous Lie Ren would react. 

Somehow I’m picturing Ren being the type to be annoyed at other guys hitting on Nora but still humble enough to not let his annoyance get the better of him to cause a scene. I can more picture Ren taking Nora’s hand and pull her away to talk to her privately.

I actually really want to see this happen now.

Picture it. Ren and Nora show up to the dinner but separately. Ren accompanied Ironwood, Oscar and Winter while Nora remained with the rest of the team. Despite showing up looking the most stunning we’ve ever seen Nora (bonus if we got a scene with Nora being given a makeover by Blake and Yang), Ren barely even reacts to seeing her. Instead he turns the other cheek (to hide the deep blush creeping up on his face) and resumes his post at Ironwood’s side (like the bootlicker he has come to be apparently).

So Ren spends his time around the General instead of Nora. Fortunately he isn’t alone. Oscar is there with him for the most part until the two are excused to go join their friends at the party while Jacques and Ironwood discussed more private matters. However in spite of this, Oscar takes notice that Ren still doesn’t wish to go enjoy the party with Nora as he would expect him to. This leads to the two sharing a chat.

Perhaps Oscar confides in Ren that he’s been avoiding someone at the dinner too---Ruby. Let’s say…Oscar confesses to Ren that he wishes to resume his conversation with Ruby about disclosing the truth about Salem to Ironwood; highlighting his nervousness of how she might react to his words. Oscar even asked Ren for his advice since he’s usually the calm and collected one within their team.

However Ren doesn’t even answer Oscar since he was more focused on watching Nora laughing it up with a pair of Atlesian rich boys she had met at the party. Nonetheless, Ren still provides Oscar the answer he needed. Oscar tells Ren that he was going to talk to Ruby but not before advising Ren that he needs to talk to Nora about whatever was going on with them.

So Ren ends up approaching Nora. Let’s say…he confronts her just as she was starting to get annoyed with the rich boys after the topic of Mantle was brought up and similar to V4, these Atlesian rich boys show no remorse for the plight of the People of Mantle. Calmly Ren tries to speak to Nora. However…let’s say, unhappy with the way Ren has been treating her lately (and rightfully so) Nora decides to give Ren a taste of his own medicine and ignores him this time.

Still, Ren tries to still talk to Nora. He even takes her hand and tries to lead her away for them to talk. However…this ends up causing a scene where the rich boys try to take Nora back from Ren. One of them even insults Ren (or gets violent with him) and this leads into Nora scaring them off.

As the Atlesian Rich boys bolt away before Nora could lay the smack down on them with all the might in her thunder thighs, Ren tries to speak to Nora again but she sadly snaps at him. 

Let’s say, Nora was so upset with Ren at the moment that she didn’t even want to talk, much less look at him at him. 

Maybe Nora even mentions that she and Ren should break up for good. But before Ren could recover from the shock of that; perhaps a bell is rung signifying that pre-dinner mingling portion of the party was finished and now it was time for the main part of the night: the dinner.

So all the guests pool out of the main hall and into the dining area. Ren tries to speak to Nora again but for another time, she ignores him, still very much upset. She even goes to sit next to someone else at the table, maybe next to Jaune on the opposite side of the table or one of the RWBY girls. 

That’s my hunch for now. As per usual, these are only thoughts and ideas. Nonetheless, I do think it would be pretty cool if we got something like this done for Ren and Nora’s side of thing for the next episode.. But who knows? I could be all wrong my theories. I guess we’ll only know once the new episode drops on us this Saturday.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Musings

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[starstruck-thirst]

Chrollo Lucilfer: A Great Heist Part 1

Warnings: Sexual descriptions, Theft

This is a thing I have been toying with that is part of a writer collaboration. The second part will be posted by another writer in the future. And when it is I will reblog it here. But please, as always, enjoy and let me know what you all think of it. Hopefully it will make up for the hiatus a little bit.

~~~~~~

Your heart was beating with a steady pace, but it felt like it shook your entire body.

It took a conscious effort to keep it calm. “Don’t get in over your head,” you warned yourself mentally.

Don’t let your adrenaline make you do something stupid.

The glass square in front of you seemed almost transparent, the artfully arranged lights that illuminated the item inside had been placed specifically for that effect. Idly, the thought crossed your mind to reach out and run your fingers over the cold surface of the ceramic. This insatiable desire to snatch something from a museum wasn’t new to you, but the fact it was a tea set did strike you as odd when you thought about it logically.

Jewels, expensive paintings, national treasures. These all made sense to drool over. But a fucking tea set? If you couldn’t clearly see the glowing air around it that marked it as a special nen object, you would have been concerned that your taste was starting to slip.

“The Bolama Tea Set has traveled the world and the origins are unknown. The clay used in the making of the tea set is not native to any known developed land. It has a dark color naturally which can be seen inside the pot and cups, while the outside has been glazed to a brilliant blue.

Legend says that whoever uses the teacup marked with a bird will gain the life energy of the person who uses the teacup marked with a rodent.”

The animals were both red on the bottoms of the cups that were tilted on an angle so that the viewer could clearly see them. Against the dark color of the clay that practically glowed.

Stories accompanying objects were a dime a dozen, especially if they could be confirmed to be over two hundred years old, but since the set was covered in nen energy, there could be some truth to the legend. And you wanted to find out so bad. The potential mystery in front of you only made you want the set more.

The cold glass surface became obscured as a man stepped up next to you, standing a bit more closely than the mostly empty art museum hall really required. His pale face reflected right in front of the teacups, dark tousled hair showcasing how pale he was even in his almost transparent reflection.

“Do you think the legend is true?” he asked. The friendly quality of his voice took you by surprise and made you look at him directly. He continued to look at the display case and you noticed he wore a headband, which was curious. Clothing could tell a lot about a person, this was a fact you used to your advantage when scoping out potential targets, and in your experience the only people that wore headbands like that were usually sports enthusiasts, people that wanted other people to think they were sports enthusiasts, and hunters. But you didn’t sense any nen from him. And he wore far too much black for a sports enthusiast.

He could just be a weirdo. There were also plenty of those in the world.

But most likely he was using zetsu to make it seem as if he couldn’t use nen.

Then again, maybe you were giving a stranger too much credit.

“Of course not,” you said with a small laugh and light hearted lit to your voice, “Legends are just silly stories right?”

His eyes slid to you and slight goosebumps rose on your flesh as his dark irises looked directly into you. There was a coldness behind that warm voice, you hadn’t noticed it before but now even as he smiled you felt it. Had you been too distracted with your lust for the Bolama set?

“Hmm? You think so?” His voice still sounded so pleasant, so normal and welcoming to conversation. But now you couldn’t shake the feeling of a looming darkness standing next to you. He hadn’t given you any reason to feel on edge, but your instincts were never wrong. “Most legends come from a level of truth to them. Perhaps someone poisoned the rodent cup, and the legend started. Meaning it isn’t anything mythical so much as… sinister?”

Your fingers started to tingle, in the way they did right before you were about to steal something you had been coveting. A slow smile spread across your lips as your carefully maintained heartbeat picked up just a little. “For some people the art of malevolent intent is mythical. It makes it easier to say a demon made you do something horrible than it is to admit you did it yourself. And society likes to accept that answer. Surely no one that corrupt could actually exist? Demons make much more sense. They are absolved of guilt or guilt by association if they just accept the existence of creatures they cannot control.”

The man looked shocked for a moment as he looked back at you. A warm sense of pride at his reaction filled you as your grin only grew. Shutting down men that thought they were deep was in your top 3 favorite things list.

But to your surprise he didn’t get angry or frustrated. Instead he smiled and laughed. Not the irritated laugh you had heard from others before that laughed so they could quell a growing anger at being shown up by a woman, but a sincerely entertained laugh. “I think you’re right. Is it not why Satan exists? If you can say that you were led into temptation by a force that is greater than yourself then you cannot possibly be responsible for the guilt that you have earned. But then, are people no better than children unable to think for themselves? When children are young we excuse much of their follies with the fact they don’t yet comprehend the world in the way adults do. Exonerating them of any sin they could have brought upon themselves. So by using the contingent presence of evil entities are we not just allowing our growth to be stunted?”

Is this what people called a ‘nerd fight’? “Are you saying we are all just ignorant children refusing to grow up and take responsibility for our actions?”

“Well… some of us more than others perhaps,” he said continuing to hold a smile as he looked back to the tea set.

“Do you take responsibility for your choices that others might perceive as malicious?”

He paused, and the once simple and pleased smile twisted into a grin as he slipped a hand into his pants pocket. “I’d like to think so.”

“Why? Because you are an adult, or you like to be identified as a malevolent demon?”

A small chuckle this time and he did a quarter turn to fully face you. Automatically you turned to face him as well, only now noticing in the break of your back and forth banter that you were enjoying yourself. Playing a game of verbal tennis with a total stranger- a stranger that was starting to seem more attractive by the moment if you were completely honest- was pretty fun.

He had to be a hunter.

“Do you have time for dinner?” he asked, dark eyes holding you in place with their intensity. His warm voice had lowered into a more predatory dark tone. It made a lightning strike of excitement run up your spine.

Admittedly, you were taken by surprise for the second time at the sudden offer. “Depends,” you replied leaning casually on one leg as you looked the man up and down to decide for yourself if a dinner treat before a job would help you feel motivated, “are you buying?”

~*~*~

The walls were real wood, dark and sealed to preserve the natural color that helped the room feel warm and inviting, spite the icy cold people that occupied it. Ornate chandeliers hung from the ceiling offered enough light to fill the room but small lamps on tables and mounted on the side panels gave each table its own individual glow. Tall bay windows provided a screen into the outside world in the form of darkness and blinking lights, like artificial stars. The diners that sat closest to them naturally ignored the view, they had paid good money to look snobby and they wouldn’t be denied a chance to show off to the other snobs just how much more contemptuous they were than everyone else.

It was the kind of restaurant you visited when you wanted to relish in the fact that everyone around you thought they were safe, as you sipped wine knowing with a smug sense of superiority that you had robbed one of their own and now dined on their dollars. It was in your top 4 favorite things.

Tonight was somewhat different though.

You had been given an address and a time to meet from the man in the dark clothes, but you hadn’t been quite expecting this. Luckily you had dressed for the part. A long dress with a plunging neckline that you kept specifically for occasions such as these.

After the conversation at the museum you had guessed that the stranger would take you somewhere he could show off more, and you had pinned it exactly right. Though, to be fair, you were even a little surprised by the level of showmanship.

Mentally you praised yourself for confirming who was paying for dinner beforehand.

“Shall we?” he asked next to you, holding an arm out for you to take. The maître d was gesturing for you to follow a member of the waitstaff as he led the way into the large dining room where quiet conversations and the clinking of dinner wear could be heard.

With a nod you took his arm and followed, realizing for possibly the first time that your greed had gotten the better of you again. The thought of getting a nice meal with a handsome stranger had blinded you to potential dangers. He could have not shown up. He could have shown up just to kill you.

The second thought was definitely the more titillating of the two. Which would have been worrying if you hadn’t decided a long time ago that therapy was boring and stealing things was much more entertaining. It was the thrill of it all, and this was just another job. Stealing a meal from this handsome stranger before disappearing.

Maybe if you played your cards right, you could get away with more.

“Your table,” the waitperson said stopping next to a bay window. Before they could pull a chair for you, the man slipped from your grip and did it himself. You smiled and sat as he pushed the chair gently under you.

He was good.

As he moved to his own chair you admired the way he looked. A black tailcoat with a high breast. Very cutting on his form, and you had always liked that look more than the long-breasted coats. It made men’s waists tempting to touch. A midnight blue cravat was tied around his neck and it complimented his odd earrings perfectly. Black hair was slicked back, and you decided it looked nice in this environment, but the down and tousled look was definitely preferable. Admittedly, he looked intoxicating.

Maybe you would have to stay for dessert.

“May I suggest our newest wine? It is an import from Azia and pairs well with tonight’s dinner.”

“That will be fine, thank you.”

“This is quite the elaborate place,” you commented, sitting back in your chair to look around at the other diners casually. A few looked at you from the sides of their eyes, obviously judging as in polite company one didn’t simply look around and observe others so blatantly. But you just smirked and looked back to your dining partner. “Maybe I should have dressed up more.”

“You look lovely,” he commented, and it made you smile. Who could tell how sincere it was, but it made you feel good.

“Thank you. Luckily, I think that you look handsome enough for us both anyway.”

His lids lowered a little, giving his face a much more serious look than he had in the museum. “Handsome for a malevolent demon?”

“An alleged malevolent demon,” you corrected, holding up one finger. “You didn’t confirm nor deny.”

“I suppose you are correct. I didn’t.”

“You also didn’t grant me your name. Somewhat cruel for a gentleman, be he demon or man. Especially when you so brazenly invited me to dinner.”

“Usually you have to already know a demon’s name to summon him.”

“Unless you happen upon one and then you must learn his name so you can summon him again, if you so desire.”

Another chuckle.

You couldn’t help but to notice that since arriving to the restaurant that your companion hadn’t been behaving quite as every-man cheery has he had previously. In the shroud of the night he was much darker by nature. His voice lower, and the way he looked at you as if he was going to pluck you from a museum like a trained thief.

“You interest me,” he said as he leaned over the table toward you.

“Hmm? Before you try to steal my innocence, sir, I should warn you I don’t have much left.” You leaned in towards him just a few inches, enough to make your flirtations clear without giving too much away. Your index finger toyed idly with a strand of hair that fell in front of your ear as you looked up into his eyes.

“I suspect not,” he said with a smoky voice that made your fingertips tingle.

That was when you realized it was a race. A race to see who could snatch the other first.

Half of your mind told you to get out while the going was good, but the other half was on a high of curiosity. Who was this man? If you probed deeper what would you find?

What could you take from him?

The waitperson arrived, but neither of you moved. “Your soup course. Tonight we have vichyssoise,” they said as small bowls were placed upon the central plate. They poured you each a glass of wine in silence, obviously not minding the fact that the two of you were staring at each other waiting to see who would look away first.

Unfortunately, you couldn’t let the person leave without recognition. Service people had it hard enough without being ignored, even though most people did so. Without moving the rest of your body, you turned your head to smile at them warmly, “Thank you so much. It looks delicious.”

Since you had broken first, your partner turned and also thanked them as his wineglass was placed back into position on the table.

Resuming a proper position on your chair you stared into the soup bowl. Chopped leak floated on top of the cool white broth and collecting a few pieces into the spoon proved easy seeing as it was a chilled soup. The taste had a surprising underlying sweetness to it, and you sipped at the spoon enjoying the feeling of the cool liquid running down your throat. “It is very good,” you commented as you gathered another spoonful to sip.

Carefully you slid your foot forward slowly until it gracefully touched his own, he didn’t look up from his own bowl but you could see the corner of his lips quirk into the slightest of smiles before bringing the spoon to his lips. “Delectably creamy,” you added licking the side of the spoon to catch a drop before it fell into your lap.

The soup was gone quickly. The rich creamy broth dictated it would be a small portion so that the consumer would have room for the next course. How many there were you couldn’t be totally sure, at minimum four since the service started with soup. But it could be up to seven.

Oh the silly knowledge you had gained over the years of tricking rich fools.

As the bowls were whisked away, the man ran a hand over the side of his head, making sure his hair was in place before he leaned on the table an acceptable amount. “I would like to ask you something more direct.” It wasn’t really a question, or a form of seeking permission. He had said it in such a way that you couldn’t really say no without seeming rude, not that you would have minded coming off rude to a man that dared to command you after knowing you for at maximum an hour.

Taking the wine glass into hand you sipped it, smirking at the light lip print that was left behind. Deliberately you moved your leg so it touched his softly, like a whisper, and looked at him to show you were listening.

“How were you planning on stealing it?”

Uncertain if it was the soup or the icicle of potentially being caught in your mind, your blood ran cold for a few seconds. You controlled your face to not display this sudden change in your temperature. “Known each other less than a day and you’re calling me a thief? Perhaps you are mistaking my intentions?” It was a statement that could blanket many things and didn’t give away that you knew he knew.

But he did know.

The way he looked into your eyes directly, his hand resting on the table casually so that if he had to grab the silverware it was within reach, the knowing smirk. It all gave away that he very much knew.

“If demons did exist in this world, do you think they would know each other immediately? Or do you think it is possible for them to fool each other? Perhaps, they could even fool themselves?”

His leg moved closer to your own and now they were touching with force. You managed to continue to keep your cool as you responded, “Hm, this is a difficult topic.”

“Because demons aren’t real?”

“Because it depends on your perception of demons.”

He nodded to encourage you to continue before sipping his own wine. Idly you ran a finger around the rim of your water glass as you thought aloud. “In many mythologies demons have a natural order, levels if you would. So higher level demons are more apt at deceiving man and beast alike. They can appear normal to any untrained eye. But also, they can spot weaker kin instantly. Often, they can recognize fellow high-level demons in a way that even lower tiers can’t say they feel from their own kind. A type of respectable feeling of knowing someone before properly meeting them.

But are we to assume that in this world they follow those rules? And I suppose more importantly how is one to know said rules?”

“Then you believe it is possible?” he asked sitting back, the mischievous grin on his face only growing.

“Who knows? Maybe only a demon would,” you replied before a fresh sip of wine as the waitperson returned with two beautifully crafted salads.

“Salad course is a bibb lettuce salad with lemon dill vinaigrette,” they said as the plates lightly clacked against each other. The salad was piled so nicely that it almost looked like a flower, petals glistening with the vinaigrette like morning dew. Eating decadently was nice from time to time, but admittedly it also seemed like a shame to make something you were going to eat look so pretty.

Mercilessly you picked up the salad fork and took up a small bite of the dish to taste, ruining its beauty. The lemon after a creamy soup course was a nice pick up. The service felt like it was ramping up to the entrée with each crisp crunch of the leaves.

“I think that the ability to recognize a soul that is similar to yours is an acquired ability as opposed to an inherited one. One develops it as a way to know who is friend and who is foe.” The smooth cadence of his voice was so natural, and how he effortlessly brought the conversation back to a point that was beneficial for him was artful.

You nodded putting the salad fork down. “I suppose you are correct. And I would also think that in the case of meeting a similar soul, trying to hide would seem rather silly wouldn’t it?” Elegantly you patted your lips free of the vinaigrette.

“It would be foolish to try and hide once spotted, yes.” He was staring at you. You could feel it, the power of his knowing eyes on you.

So, this had been what you were sensing before at the museum. He wasn’t a hunter, or at least if he was he wasn’t a traditional one. He was a thief. And he had figured you out before you had figured him out. Not that you could let on to that fact. Pretending that you were on his level could possibly be the only way that you would be able to make your way out of this situation.

That, and you had wanted that damn tea set first. No man, no matter how attractive, would swipe something you had been yearning for, for a week,  from under you. Moments passed while you sipped some wine to wash your palate clean and your salad plates were taken away. Soon the entrée would arrive. The meat of the meal.

Finally, you looked up to meet his eyes, knowing full well he had watched your every movement up to that point. His face was serious, chin resting on his hand to steady his gaze as he waited for you to acknowledge him. You had to hand it to him, he had been quite patient. Below the table his leg was still pressing into yours and you hadn’t moved away from him at all. “I suppose it would also be foolish to hope that we had different targets, just at the same location?”

He smiled. “I think something could be worked out,” he said with amusement.

This probably meant he had several targets, or would be willing to split the prize after the object had been hawked. But you still wanted to find a way to try the cups. What was the fun of acquiring a mystery if you couldn’t try to solve it? But once it was out of the museum, who was to say what wasn’t possible?

Coyly, you slipped your other leg forward so that you gripped his between your two. “You sure know how to surprise a lady with a good time,” you practically purred.

He reacted positively, hooking one of your ankles with his foot to forcefully slide your legs closer to him. “I believe in taking what one desires.”

“I guess that means I never had a choice then,” you pointed out, worried only momentarily that he would pull you from your chair entirely. “I suppose this also answers the question I asked earlier.”

“Oh?” he asked, shifting his leg slightly against yours and making a small shiver run up your spine.

“I asked if you perceive yourself as an adult or as a malevolent demon.”

The waitperson stopped by the table and he sat up so that the entree could be placed in front of him. “The entree tonight is seared dry rub salmon with fruit salsa on top. Sauteed vegetables and long grain rice as a side. And naturally, bread.”

This time neither of you could look away from the other but you made sure to mutter an appreciation, positive that they could feel the tension that was growing between you two and didn’t really want to interfere with that anyway. Which was confirmed with how quickly they left the table again.

“I take it you have come to your own conclusion.”

“I have,” you replied lifting a leg and running it up the side of his, making a more brazen move since the seal had been broken on this strangely intense conversation.

“Well?” he inquired seeing you weren’t going to be forthcoming on your own.

“A malevolent demon to be sure,” you said with a quiet laugh which abruptly stopped when his hand caught your ankle under the table.

His tight grip made you clutch your dinner fork. To defend yourself? Just to have a grip on something? Even you weren’t sure. But as he brushed his thumb over your skin he shifted forward on his chair enough that he could touch your leg and look relatively natural while doing so. “And you? Are you a demon or a human that is merely influenced by demons?”

You slid the dinner fork through the salmon, making sure to get some of the salsa from the top to go with the bite. Like everything it was delicious. The spices in the dry rub mixed with the sweet and spicy salsa. His hand slid from your ankle to your calf, gripping almost painfully as he went so as to get your attention.

“The guard rotation around the tea set walks by every 3 hours at night. The glass can be removed with a special tool I have a replica of,” you looked into his eyes again, wondering if he would be audacious enough to actually pull you from your chair or upset the table in a way that would draw attention.

“And the cameras?”

“I have my own way of dealing with those,” you stated before taking another bite of salmon.

At long last he lifted his own fork with his spare hand and took a bite of his dinner and you felt a little calm permeate the air. The tension was more noticeable once it had regressed some. The hand on your leg was still very warm and present. He was keeping control of you physically in a subtle enough way that none of the other diners would notice if they had the gall to look. “You’ll have to tell me later then,” he said with an expectant tone in his voice

You nodded, feeling compelled to follow his direction. Not sure how much of a choice you had, or maybe that was an excuse?

“Chrollo,” he stated plainly.

The fork stopped shy of your mouth. “Chrollo?”

His smirk was back, the one that seemed dark and yet sincere. “That is my name. I look forward to working with you.”

~*~*~

At some point the streetlights had stopped going by the car window. Almost total darkness stared back at you through the tinted glass as the trees on the side of the road obscured the distant, blinking city lights. The driver hadn’t said a word from the moment Chrollo helped you into the car, and he hadn’t given any directions to the very still form in the front seat. The quiet felt stifling after being in a restaurant surrounded by noise and a constant flow of conversation. It created a sense of foreboding which floated around the small space as the car took you even further from civilization.

A temperate hand covered yours, which dragged your attention away from the window. Chrollo was looking at you with some of the warmth that his face had held during the museum trip and it was hard to tell if it helped you relax or only made you more tense. “Don’t tell me a thief is afraid of the dark.”

A soft chuckle came from you at the mere idea. “Do I seem like I’m on edge or something?” you asked, noticing you might have let some of your cool mask slip.

While you knew hand to hand combat, you didn’t have any physical weapons on you in the moment, and Chrollo had all the control. You were going somewhere with him where he would have the advantage, possibly allies. But he hadn’t given you much choice when he told you that he was going to bring you with him. To talk about the plan.

He didn’t know you well enough yet to trust you not to do something brash, or stupid, after separating at dinner. It only made sense he’d keep you nearby. So, there was an unspoken threat about not doing as he wished. And it was never good to bring attention to yourself with a fight in a fancy restaurant before a job.

And it would be a lie to say that part of you wasn’t finding thrill in this turn of events, even though as you had sat in the car it sank in just how potentially over your head you really were.

The leather seat didn’t even squeak as Chrollo shifted so that his body was turned towards you as his hand cupped your face. “What does a demon have to fear from the night?”

Now you actually laughed, some of the weight lifting from your shoulders with the release of the tension. It had been a little corny, and the smile on Chrollo’s face didn’t give away if that had been the intention or if he just hadn’t cared how you reacted.

When your laughter stopped, he pulled you closer to him on the back seat until he could easily lean down and brush his lips over your own. The movement had caught you by surprise, and you could feel your cheeks warm.

Which was quite rude of your body to betray you, since you had been doing so well at playing the little flirtatious game at dinner. Even throughout dessert- which might have been a somewhat rushed in hindsight- the back and forth banter and casual touches had remained constant. It was almost too distracting for you to enjoy the apple tartlet and on location made vanilla ice cream.

Almost. That tartlet had been amazing.

“What brought that on?” you asked while attempting to read his expression before he turned to face forward with that smirk on his lips again.

“I just wanted to. No real reason.” It looked like a thought crossed his mind as his eyes wandered from the driver to the window and back to you. Gently he put his finger under your chin to run his thumb over your lip, “Does it bother you?”

“Not at all,” you said with a small shake of your head, and he pulled you to him again, making you stretch to meet his lips. The kiss was surprisingly chaste, but firm.

The car stopped, and he broke the kiss with a chuckle. “Maybe we’ll continue this later?”

“Maybe,” you confirmed as he released you and you sat back comfortably in your seat.

Chrollo accepted that for now with a nod, swinging the car door open to slip out. Was it just the trait of a thief that they seemed to move with such deliberate ease? Did you look like that?

You took his offered hand to slide out of the car, using his balance to steady yourself as you did so. Secretly you hoped you looked half as graceful.

The building the car had stopped at appeared to be an abandoned apartment building, easily seven floors tall and you wondered where Chrollo kept his lovely tailcoat when he wasn’t using it. Or maybe he had stolen it just for dinner tonight. That was kind of an attractive thought.

Behind you the car was turned off but the driver didn’t move to get out. “Come with me,” Chrollo said as he moved to the front door and held it open.

Inside the building looked worn, but not like it was a complete safety violation just yet. Old wallpaper peeled in places, dirty with age, but some light glowed from an apartment door that had been left open on the right side of the hallway.

Without thinking much about it, you moved towards the light spurred on by curiosity. A plain living room was visible beyond the door frame, a lamp on the coffee table the only light. You almost walked into the room automatically but stopped when you noticed fine threads spread over the doorway like a spider’s web.

But it was apparent to anyone with nen that these were not normal.

“What’s wrong?” Chrollo asked behind you.

You pointed at the threads and looked back at him, “I suspect you should enter before me.”

He smirked, putting one hand into his pants pocket leisurely. “Machi, let down the threads.” A pause. Then the threads were quickly tugged away from the door without a single sound. “After you.”

Walking into a previously trapped door seemed like a horrible idea, but at this point you had to accept you were in this deep. Might as well dive in.

The apartment furniture was mostly intact, just old. A musty smell circulated the room and particles floated lazily in the lamp light around a woman with pink hair sitting on the sofa, one leg curled up to her chest. Her blue eyes watched your every move as you entered the room and stood to one side for Chrollo to come in.

“Where is Pakunoda?” The air about him had shifted somewhat. If this was how he truly was it seemed the Chrollo from dinner was the closest you had gotten to his true self so far because he was relaxed, but in control. His shoulders were back but slumped somewhat as he looked at the pink haired woman.

“On her way. She’ll be here soon,” the woman responded, her eyes flicking to your face and narrowing in distrust before going back to Chrollo’s. “She said everything should be ready for tomorrow on her end.”

Admittedly since you had done dinner it had gotten somewhat late, but you had still been hoping that the heist would happen tonight. It was a bit disappointing.

“Good. Let’s go over the plan tomorrow. Would you like to rest?”

It took a moment to register that he was addressing you with the question as you were distracted with the aura of malice that was radiating your way. “Hm? Oh. Sure,” you replied. Mostly you wanted some time away from the woman you presumed was ‘Machi’ and have a moment to think of what your own plan was going to be.

“I’ll be back momentarily. If Pakunoda comes back have her wait with you until I get back.”

Machi nodded and Chrollo gave you a simple smile before turning to lead you out of the apartment. Meanwhile Machi was watching you directly again and it wasn’t in your nature to not say something about that. “Nice not meeting you,” you half joked with a wave before you left to catch up with the person that had gotten you into all of this. Machi didn’t seem to react but you were curious how much she wanted to murder you.

“She seems nice,” you told Chrollo as he opened a door across the hallway.

He laughed as he went through, “She is.”

If that was nice then you wouldn’t want to see her angry. Or Chrollo for that matter.

This apartment was a mirror of the last in set up, but the living room was occupied by a different sofa. Where had the people gone and why hadn’t they done something with their furniture? The thought only persisted further as Chrollo led you to a bedroom that still had a half decent bed with a pillow and a blanket. You tried not to wrinkle your nose at the thought of how long those items had been here, but truthfully you had slept in worse.

“I was surprised to hear that we wouldn’t be getting to work tonight,” you confessed as Chrollo stopped in the room, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

“It’ll make more sense tomorrow when we discuss the details,” he said leaning against the nearest wall, watching you.

That was the problem with thieves, they were always watching. “Do you plan to rob half the museum?” you asked moving in close to him.

“I plan on taking what I want.”

“So you’ve said. If you have help, why ask for mine?”

“You seem to have a good understanding of the museum, we share a goal,” he ran a hand down your exposed arm, “and- as I said before- you interest me. Thus, what is to stop me from taking you just like I take everything else I want?”

“I can’t argue that.” Instinctively you leaned in towards him so that your body was almost touching his, threatening to pin him to the wall with one more step. “What would you have done if I had said no to dinner then?”

His hands gripped your wrists and pulled, making you crash into him and you were surprised at how comfortable he was to lean against despite the hard muscle you could feel under his dress clothes. “I knew you wouldn’t.”

You opened your mouth to say something snarky back, but the chance was taken from you as Chrollo kissed you again. His fingers around your wrists tightened to a painful level which made you wince. When he freed your lips you quietly hissed a noise of pain at how hard his grip was. He didn’t seem bothered, if anything you could feel his grip tighten just a little more on one wrist before he turned you in one swift movement to pin you to the wall.

Due to the speed at which it had happened, the force of being slammed into the wall was painful and you clenched your teeth to keep from making any noises of pain. Chrollo’s free hand grabbed your chin and forced your head up and to the side so that he could easily bite at your neck and nip your throat.

Everything had progressed so quickly that you only now noticed your heart was pounding, and surely he could feel that heavy throbbing in his teeth as he bit down on your sensitive nerves.

You were completely in his control, in a place far from the rest of the civilized world, with the only people nearby to hear you scream being his associates. Saying you had dived too deep into the pool would be under exaggerating. For the first time you felt actual fear well up inside of you, making you feel cold everywhere but the places Chrollo touched you.

Swimming in thoughts of lust and fear you accidentally let a moan escape when he bit down on your shoulder and sucked. Your hand struggled against his strength, but he had firmly pinned it to the wall at your side, so your other hand went to his shoulder gripping the soft suit fabric tightly in your fingers as you struggled to know if you wanted to push him away or bring him closer.

He stood straight to take in your expression, and you knew you looked flushed already. Your heart was just beating too hard, and maybe you had held your breath to keep from moaning at each touch. Like some school girl that was being touched for the first time. Passively you assured yourself it was just because it had been a little while. That was all.

Taking your hand from his shoulder he brought both of your hands over your head, holding them with only one of his own. “So that’s the face that lives under your mask,” his voice was boastful and soft, secretly you loved hearing him talk.

“I don’t know what you mean,” you were trying to sound coy and confident, but even you could hear the low tremble in your words.

The back of his fingers ran from your temple to your cheek as his dark eyes drank in your attempt of a cock-sure smile. “I could see just a peek of that mask slip at dinner. And I wanted to take it from you right there in front of everyone.” You shivered and his hand slid down your neck to your shoulder. “This look suits you. It’s honest and greedy.” His fingers danced their way under your arm to your back and easily found the zipper on your dress. “Your eyes practically beg for me to feed that greed because you can’t take it for yourself. Not while you are held like this you can’t anyway.”

The comfortable fabric of the dress loosened in a waterfall around your body as he dragged the zipper down, leaving you standing naked save for your panties and shoes- as the dress hadn’t allowed you to wear a bra. That was the upside, and downside, of such clothing: once it was gone you were horribly exposed. Subconsciously, you rubbed your thighs together before you caught yourself and steadied your legs.

Chrollo was smiling again, and gods you enjoyed the way that little smile accompanied the look in his eyes. He put his hand to your lower back and you could feel the skin warm instantly at his touch. “Maybe my plan to take what I want is to seduce you into just giving it to me,” you managed finally as the warmth spread to your butt with his movement.

“Not a bad plan,” he praised, fingers sliding under the curve of your bottom to tease your vaginal lips. You let out a sigh, spreading your legs just enough for his fingers to have room to move teasingly against you. “But what if I stopped right now? You wouldn’t get what you wanted.” His fingers stopped moving completely.

You licked your lower lip, hiding your disappointment. “Then you wouldn’t get what you wanted either, right? So where would that leave either of us?”

“Perhaps all I wanted was this. Having you exposed and craving my touch. So I would win.”

Being careful to not move quickly enough to accidentally harm him, you lifted a leg and moved your thigh against his groin, feeling his dick react with a twitch which made you giggle. “Seems a lame victory. Like stealing the glass of the display case and leaving the jewels.”

Gently at first you rubbed your thigh against him before pushing harder, knowing you were also rubbing his balls with each movement. His lips parted absentmindedly, a sign he was enjoying it. The growing firmness against your thigh helped prove that. “Come on, boss. Don’t you want to take something that isn’t yours and mark it up?”

His hesitance had actually played in your favor, giving you a moment to take initiative and gain a little ground of your own. Some of that initial fear had converted into adrenaline that was feeding you to be sassy. But Chrollo’s ego wouldn’t allow it long you realized, because with another fluid motion you were falling onto the bed. His dark silhouette loomed as you started to get onto your elbows out of a natural reaction. “No. Stay as you were,” he said, tone dark with a sense of order that was used to being heeded.

The ground you had just gained was crumbling as you laid on the bed looking up at him as he loosened his cravat, eyes never moving from your body. It seemed like a good time to remove your shoes, so you toed them off, hearing them hit the floor with a soft thud. “Nothing bad is going to happen,” you told yourself as he dropped the flowing fabric from his neck and began to remove his coat. “You can handle this. This is just a bit of fun before a job.”

Every movement he made as he undressed made the adrenaline within you increase. Your legs were almost trembling with need, as well as from an understandable fight or flight reaction. Chrollo draped the coat over a nearby chair and you ran a hand down your chest watching him take the time to remove his shoes. His eyes watched as you cupped one breast and pinched the nipple between two fingers, hips shifting against the bed in anticipation.

You enjoyed him watching you. Knowing that he would notice each little movement made your skin raise in goosebumps and your other hand caressed your hip as he moved towards the bed. He stopped next to the bed and continued to observe you as he removed the cuff-links from his shirt. The pause gave you a chance to regain that crumbling level field again, so you slowly lifted yourself up to your elbows. This time he he said nothing. Testing the line of his order, you sat up and shifted your knees underneath yourself so you could rise upon you knees to match his height the best you could with the slight height disadvantage the bed created. His face didn’t give away anything, and it was starting to irritate you. The least he could do was give you a bit of reaction for your performance.

Teasingly, you ran your hands down his chest as he put the cuff-links into a pants pocket. Even through his clothes you could feel the defined muscles and you bit your lower lip imagining what he would look like naked. Using just the tips of your fingers, you caressed his neck. Drawing lines from the pale flesh down to the top button of his shirt. Purposely looking at his shirt buttons and not his face, you popped the button free and with a leisurely pace moved to the next. The building joy you felt as you did so was comparable to opening a gift, it didn’t matter that you had a good guess what was under the paper. A new toy was a new toy.

Chrollo ran his hands through your hair, moving a few strands out of the way of his view of your face. This little tell made it apparent that he did enjoy your show, so much so he wanted to watch every part of it as you moved your fingers down his front.

Unable to contain yourself from taking a bit more, you leaned forward and kissed the side of his neck as your fingers continued their dexterous dance on his buttons. Your trained fingers could open locks, nick wallets unnoticed, and coerce men to do your bidding with just the barest of touch. But still you enjoyed the action of slowly popping each button free and revealing the undershirt that hugged his torso underneath. Chrollo’s long fingers moving through your hair only added to the experience, definitely helping you feel inspired to continue doing whatever came to mind and you straightened out enough to run your tongue over the soft curve of his ear.

The last button came free and your hands moved past the stiff cotton to the softer undershirt to caress his chest. His skin was so pale, probably from thieving at night and hiding out for most of the day. You wanted to ruin that beauty.  Each little kiss back down to the nape of his neck was just as teasing to you as it was to him with that thought in your head.

While your hands continued their adventure of his body, he freed his hands of your hair and shrugged the shirt off his shoulders. Moving in such a way as to not disturb your actions, he pulled the shirt free of his pants and tossed it join the tailcoat on the chair. He was obviously distracted by this menial task, so as his hands met your hips you bit his neck- hard enough to leave a bruise to be sure- and he hissed. His muscles tightened under your touch and the fact that he made it so apparent that he had been caught off guard made pride swell up in you, even as he grabbed your shoulders to pull you back. “Bold, aren’t you?” he questioned, almost sounding a little irritated. Already you could see the beautiful purple blemishing his skin.

“I can get a little needy,” you admitted, reaching for the button on his pants as you spoke. You were too involved now, so even his slight disapproval couldn’t stop you now.

Chrollo resumed removing his much more complicated outfit as your fingers worked the front of his pants. Easily he slid the suspenders from his shoulders and threw off his undershirt with haste. Somehow even rushed, it was really attractive to watch a man undress from a good outfit. And the increasing speed at which Chrollo was becoming naked let you know he was getting excited.

His dick was pressing against his underwear, bulging out from the open front of his pants, trying to become completely free. You took it into both hands, rubbing your thumbs against the underside as your fingers laced around his girth, the silky fabric of his underwear adding to the sensation for you both.

“Take me into your mouth,” he said in that same commanding tone as before. You licked your lips and looked into his face finally. His eyes had a shine to them that hadn’t been there before and his lips were in a perpetual tiny, almost unnoticeable, smile. To encourage you further, he put a hand on top of your head and leaned in towards you.

“Of course, boss,” you replied, really hoping the playful use of the title made him feel a little less in control of your actions. But if it did he didn’t let on as you slid his underwear down to free his dick at last.

He was already hard, but as you wrapped your hand around it you could tell there was room to grow. Rubbing the side of the head you ran your tongue over his balls and up the underside to the head. The veins in his sensitive flesh were protruding a little and you could feel them on your tongue as you repeated the motion but taking your time to let the tip of your tongue explore. Something told you that Chrollo wasn’t the type to be loud, but that only made you want to really earn a reaction.

You loosened your grip and started to rub your fingers up and down the shaft of his dick, keeping it teasing at first. Any piece of flesh you left exposed became a target for your lips and tongue to flick against, providing some lubrication to your fingers as well. He still hadn’t made a noise yet, but his dick grew so that now your grip was tighter purely because his size demanded it.

Shifting you positioned your mouth over the head, running your tongue around the ridge of flesh as your hand’s speed remained constant. Despite the fact he still wore his dress pants, you could see his thigh muscles tighten as you took him into your mouth, carefully brushing your teeth over the sensitive, wet surface. You couldn’t be sure over the sound of your mouth working, but you swore you could hear his breath catch from that move.

You chanced a glance up as you worked your tongue out under him and sucked. For a brief moment his eyes closed and a fresh sense of pride egged you on. Your free hand gripped his thigh for support as you gripped the base of his cock to hold him steady for your mouth. Carefully, you backed him out of your mouth and then brought him in, taking his length deeper into your throat before pulling away again. The pace was slow and deliberate and each time you came back you managed to fit more down towards your throat.  It was a delicate balance of pace and stamina as you tried to be careful so as not to not over do it and make yourself gag. Each time you carefully touched your teeth to just the ridge of the head his thigh muscles would tense again and you knew that he liked the slight thrill.

You managed to take him entirely in, gagging only a little as his dick rubbed against your throat, but not enough to be ashamed of. Now you picked up the pace. Finger and thumb creating a ring around his base, you quickly sucked and backed him out of your throat just a few inches before going back. His hand on your head gripped your hair tight and you wished you could look up into his face again, but that would distract from your careful rhythm.

Somewhat unfortunately, Chrollo finally gave you a reaction. Both hands buried themselves into your hair and he forced your head to move faster. Both of your hands gripped his thighs for stabilization as he brought your mouth too fast back onto his cock and you gagged a little as he did it again. To the best of your ability you breathed in through your nose and tried to work your tongue around his dick as he kept up his  harsh pace. A single tear ran down your cheek as you wondered how much longer you could take the abuse. You hoped that your fingers were leaving bruises on his thighs as you clung to him for dear life.

Just as you started to wonder if you’d pass out from not being able to get in enough air for how fast Chrollo was going, he finally released the pressure on your head so you could pull away enough to recover. He hadn’t come but he was definitely at full erection now, a little pre-cum sitting on your tongue as you coughed and took in a full breath. His hands hands slipped out of the strands of your hair and you sat back on your heels, wiping your mouth with the back of your hand as you gave him a low glare. It took a moment for you to regulate your breath, but he was of course not paying attention to you now.

Instead he was slipping his pants and underwear off, taking the suspenders off of the pants with particular care. “That was a bit rude,” you said after recovering more thoroughly, sounding only a little breathy.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked looking at you from the corner of his eyes.

Admittedly you didn’t. But if you said yes, would he? He had already made it very clear that he planned to take what he wanted. “No.”

He smiled facing you again, suspenders taut in his hands. “No, what?”

You swallowed as your heart slammed in your chest. “No… boss?”

He laughed and pushed you onto the bed as he followed. Had he seriously thought that little name to be sexy? Or was he just messing with you? You couldn’t tell as he knelt on the bed and turned you onto your stomach with one hand. 

With a skilled and fast hand, Chrollo easily tied your wrists behind your back with the suspenders, your hammering heart still echoing in your ears as you tested the strength of the accessory. They gave enough so it was comfortable, but he had tied them in such a way it would be hard to escape.

“You know I saw you the first day you looked at the tea set.” You turned your head in an attempt to be able to see him over your shoulder. It was difficult but you could see his face as he watched his hand rub your naked back. “I’m not sure how long you were in town before that. But I knew what you were when your eyes lit up.”

You didn’t get to ask any questions as his hand left your back and came across your ass. It didn’t hurt much, the action had been playful. “I knew that shine instantly. A demon cannot hide what it is from another demon, right?” When you didn’t respond he smacked you again and your fingers curled into your palms. “That was what you said right?”

“That is what I said,” you agreed.

He made a low noise of pleasure, somewhere between a chuckle and a ‘hn’. “I didn’t lie when I said you looked nice in your dress, but you looked gorgeous in that moment. Your fingers moved like they wanted to work a piano or a lock,” he was rubbing the place he had spanked you before, which made your skin burn. “And it was then that I knew I wanted to take you.”

The way in which he said the sentence made cold creep up your spine again. Shifting slightly, you attempted to turn so you could more clearly look at him, but a solid slap against your butt stopped you. “Not yet,” he commanded and you laid still. “I want to know: did you notice me that day?”

Had you? It was hard to remember. When something caught your attention that was all you focused on in those moments. A harder smack came down and the noise was much louder than the other ones. You grumbled out an ‘ouch’, pulling against your restraints.

“Well? Did you?”

The museum had been quiet, but there were several tourists and even some locals. Their clothing gave away which party they belonged to. Had anyone caught your attention specifically?

He spanked you again, just as hard as the last time.

You closed your eyes remembering the museum. Remembering who you looked at and who you had intentionally avoided.

With his next strike you cried, “Yes! I saw you.”

“Oh? Are you lying?”

“No,” you sighed, feeling the stinging continue. “I tried to avoid you when I came into the museum. You were looking at the statue outside of the Azian exhibit as I left.”

He kissed the cheek he had created a fire on. “I knew that you were a true thief,” he said with a light voice of praise.

You took a breath in through your nose and out your mouth in relief before Chrollo turned you on your back again. Your arms being pinned under you wasn’t the most comfortable, but you didn’t have time to think about it as he positioned himself between your legs and began tracing a path up your inner thigh with just the lightest touch of his fingers. “Did you know when you saw me then that this would happen?”

Everything in you wished you could lie and say you did, but it was too obvious of a lie. “I knew when I saw you today.” This caught his attention.

He looked you in the eyes as one finger traced your panty line. “Did you?”

“When you didn’t walk away after I replied to you,” it was a stretch of the truth, but a convenient one.

One finger found its way under your underwear and touched your slit. Now you were aware just how wet you were as he slid his finger up and down and you looked to the darkened ceiling with a soft gasp. “Did you think you’d end up just like this?”

You smiled. “Oh yeah. It is obvious you’re the kind of guy that likes to tie a girl up.” Roughly he shoved a finger into you and you gasped louder, thighs clamping around his body.

To his credit, now he shut up. Focusing just on moving his fingers in and out of you, curling them against your insides in a way that made you moan. It became obvious that he was intentionally not touching your clit, and that was maddening as the warm sensation of a building orgasm started to build inside of you. You managed to focus enough to twist your hands under your back, pulling at the suspenders and using their sight elasticity to work them around your wrists.

“Chrollo,” you breathed and he ‘hm’ed in response. “Stop teasing me.”

He thrust his fingers into you deeper, but you didn’t make a noise- even though you really wanted to. He frowned as each of your noises and tells slowly stopped coming as simply. You looked down at him with cold eyes, “I told you. Teasing me isn’t going to work forever.”

You pulled your hands out from under your back, holding the suspenders in one hand with a pleased grin that you had managed to slip out of them. Taking the suspenders into both hands you shifted yourself so you could lift your hips to gently rub his dick with your pussy, keeping the teasing grin on your face the entire time. “Did I surprise you… Boss?” Playfully you whipped his chest with the suspender strap. “You said yourself that I was a thief. Did you think your little trick would hold me long?”

“Interesting,” he muttered, leaning over you to intimidate you with his position. “I didn’t think you’d get free so quickly.”

It was a small praise, but you lapped it up. You slid the suspenders around the back of his neck and pulled him down to your level. “Tell me more about how impressive I am.”

“You’re more than bold. You’re outright audacious.” You started to laugh but he pressed his mouth to yours so that he could kiss you silent.

If asked, you would be forced to admit that Chrollo was good with his mouth in a few ways, and you wish you could have known if it was any good in more. As he kissed you with rough vigor he also took the opportunity of your distraction to swiftly slip inside of you. All at once you were flooded with feelings: his lips still pressing into yours, his dick sliding in and out of you, his hand digging into your hip as he helped lift you to his rhythm. 

Chrollo reached out with his free hand and took the suspenders from you and discarded them, though you weren’t sure to where- you didn’t really care either. But with the object occupying your hands gone they started to wander for a place to belong. Naturally they ended up his hair, each finger breaking up that perfect slicked back look as you pulled his face from yours to breath in as his pace picked up and made you gasp.

You watched his hair become disheveled through hazy eyes. You had been right, he was much more attractive this way, and that only added to the pleasure.

He brought his hips up with an especially hard snap and you moaned loudly, forgetting for the moment that there were potentially other people around to hear you.

“God,” you muttered with a breathy voice and Chrollo laughed.

“He has nothing to do with this,” he replied. “Give credit where it is due.”

A small chuckle was cut off from your lips as he shoved his way into you particularly hard. On some level you were worried you would pull his hair too hard as your fingers tightened their grip on their own accord. Releasing his dark strands you gathered the blanket underneath you in two clenched fists, watching Chrollo’s face as he fucked you.

“Chrollo, don’t stop,” you moaned, “Whatever you do, don’t stop.”

His lips had parted again, one of his only tells so far of how much he was enjoying this. At one point he slowed, and his eyes closed before he picked up his pace and you felt washed over with sensation again. You were so close to an orgasm and his face said he was too.

You released the blanket to reach down and rub your clit, touching your finger against his dick as it came into you and you could feel him shudder as your nail brushed against him.

The build up within you gave out, like a dam. You clamped down on Chrollo as you orgasmed. Your hand let go of the blanket and gripped his forearm as a small cry came with the rush of pleasure. The extra pressure of you clamping onto him was enough to finish him off as well and you could hear his voice catch in his throat as he came.

Feeling satisfied and somewhat spent you turned your face into the bed, noticing only now that the sheet below you smelled somewhat clean. How far ahead had he planned all of this? Not that you would complain. Fucking on a clean bed was much better than what you had thought was happening at the start, not that it had stopped you obviously.

Chrollo brought a hand down your body one last time before standing, an air of fulfillment still hanging about him as well. You watched him move- wrapping yourself in the blanket for covering and warmth- as he redressed, keeping the tailcoat and cravat off.

“The water works,” he informed you as he ran his hands through his hair to fix it, which made you frown. You had done good work messing that up. “There are clothes in the bathroom for you.”

“You sure think of everything don’t you?” He tucked his shirt into his pants with a smirk.

Keeping the cover wrapped securely you sat up, drawing his attention. “Rest in here as long as you like. We’ll go over the plan tomorrow and move into position in the afternoon.”

“Yes, boss,” you teased.

“Don’t push it,” he warned, but it didn’t sound too serious. Something about your teasing smile must have brought a thought to his mind, because after fastening his top button he leaned over and gave you a chaste kiss. “I’ll see you later for briefing.”

It wasn’t just a casual throw away line. It was a statement of certainty. In a simple way he had just told you what he expected, and you wondered what he would do if you didn’t. If you slipped away into the night.

He left you alone and you fell back into the bed, cuddling up to the pillow. Happily you found it too smelled clean.

You didn’t intend to leave before the job was done though. No. You had pushed things this far, and now you had gotten a taste for Chrollo. It was easy to see he thought you capable, but something told you he still underestimated you.

The swirling ideas of a plan started to form in your mind as you drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

~*~*~

 “This plan still doesn’t sit well with me.”

“Is that your intuition, Machi?”

“… yes.”

“Hm. We’ll tread carefully. We can still use her for the end of the plan. We just have to be careful with how we proceed up to that point. Pakunoda will be with her the entire time. I trust her, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Then we’ll continue on with our plan for now.”

“Fine.”

Across the hall the shower water turned on.

“Hope she is as good as you think she is, boss.”

~*~*~

 Showered and changed into fresh, dark clothes you joined the other apartment once more. The door was clear of traps this time so it was a better start than before.

Two women were in the room: Machi sat in her same position on the couch and who you presumed was Pakunoda leaned against a wall that led to the kitchen. Chrollo sat on the kitchen counter, using the natural sunlight from the nearby window to read a book. All eyes but Chrollo’s flew to you as you entered the room.

The atmosphere was tense. This was why you liked working alone. Other people could cause such drama.

“Good morning to you too,” you said to the women as you stopped in the living room. Admittedly it was already afternoon. You had hid in the other apartment for a few hours, using the alone time to your advantage and avoiding this very meeting.

“Good morning,” Pakunoda said. You thought her voice was pleasant. Neither rude or overly pleasant. Just natural. Which wasn’t what you had expected

You waited for Chrollo to address the room, wishing he would put the book down and get to it already. You were itching to start, especially since your own original plan was to act last night, now you were already 16 hours off of your own plan.

With a resounding snap, he closed his book and looked up at you. His face was passively neutral and he had changed clothes at some point. No longer was he in the dress slacks and button up, but instead in black pants with white detail, and a black coat. It would look gaudy on most anyone else, but it suited Chrollo. The tattoo on his forehead was new though. It hadn’t been there last night at dinner and at the museum he had worn a headband. Maybe he had covered it with makeup to go out last night? Somehow you already felt it suited him just as much as his clothing did.

“We’ll talk on the way,” he stated standing up from the counter. In unison the two women stood and waited for Chrollo to lead the way.

They obviously worked together a lot.

As he left the apartment the women waited for you to go before them, and you managed not to sigh as you did so. If you were going to disappear you would have done it by now. It occurred to you that perhaps they were more worried about you attacking them. But for what reason?

The car from last night was still outside, and you wondered if they had at least moved it overnight so that no potential passerby would see it.

“First we will go back into the city. It is Friday, so as evening settles in downtown will be lively with foot traffic. We’ll blend in with the crowds and meet on the South side of the building at 9:30 pm,” Chrollo informed you all as he held the door open.

Without hesitation Machi and Pakunoda got in before you and Chrollo motioned for you to go in before himself. The other two women sat across the car from you and Machi reached up and tapped on the top of the car twice. Automatically the driver started the car and began driving back the long way to the city.

“At dusk we will enter through a door on the roof. Machi will be getting us through that door. Once inside you and Pakunoda will go to the first floor. She knows what objects to take from that floor. Machi and I will go the basement and meet you at the door to the East side of the building that lets out onto the street. At that time we will rejoin with the car. Any questions?”

“What time are we meeting at the East entrance?” you asked.

Chrollo looked at you next to him and smirked. “It should end up being around 11:00 pm. The weekend crowds will still be around to provide us cover as we rejoin the traffic on the street.”

This was a fast plan. But if the cases could be removed and objects taken quickly, you could definitely get the tea set within the guard’s rotation break. But what other items were on the list? Was Pakunoda fast at such work? She had to be if you were both to take the main floor.

“Okay,” you replied, though you weren’t feeling very informed or confident.

Machi and Pakunoda had nothing to ask, which wasn’t surprising. Surely they had known the plan and the finer details before now.

“Can you still take care of the cameras?” Chrollo asked you and you nodded. “Good. You will take point on the way into the museum and Pakunoda will provide directions as needed.” You noticed he didn’t ask how. Something told you he wanted to watch you do it instead of asking.

If you had thought the drive out of the city had been awkward, the drive back in was definitely worse. The car was quiet as the grave and the lack of slight flirtatious energy made it feel longer when compared to last night.

You distracted yourself by looking out the window, watching the scenery fly by that had just been so much darkness the last time you saw it. There were other buildings scattered around, it had to have been a suburb that had been mostly abandoned over time while people moved closer to the city. After a few miles the signs of people still living buildings could be seen. Lawn decorations, cars in the driveway, and toys left in yards.

What would life have been like for you if you hadn’t decided you wanted to be a miscreant? Would you have settled down in a small suburb and found a boring job to work five days a week?

This was too much introspection. How did the other three stand being in this situation? You felt like you would go crazy. You wished you had a cellphone for once. But they hadn’t been worth the hassle so far so you had never gotten one.

The memory of Chrollo’s shocked face when you had turned the tables on him last night came into your mind and you didn’t stop the cat like grin that appeared. You couldn’t wait to see it again.

It felt like an eternity, but finally the busy city traffic enclosed the car. Pedestrians filled the sidewalks as the dying light made the concrete glow orange. The small clutch purse you had taken with you to the restaurant was still in the car and you were glad for that because you had left it behind like an idiot last night. You could feel it against your ankle as the car took a turn towards the museum.

Fishing down for it you pulled it into your lap, seeing Machi watch your movements with curiosity. As if to reassure her, and maybe yourself, you pulled from the small bag a tool and waved it at her. It was your entry key into the museum displays. She looked away as if she didn’t care and you rolled your eyes replacing the item into your bag.

This was already a fun filled trip with friends, you could tell.

The car stopped on a side street and automatically Chrollo opened the door and motioned for you to join him. This time you didn’t have him help you, probably because of pride, and you got out on your own. The car drove away once the door was shut to drop the other too off a few blocks away to blend in with the crowd as was the plan.

Watching it go you couldn’t help but to wonder: who was the driver? How much did they know about this plan? It all seemed like a lot of variables to consider, but no one seemed bothered. Just another testament of how often they all worked together.

Refusing to walk behind Chrollo, you walked by his side and he looked at you from the corner of his eye for a brief moment. You didn’t particularly care what he thought about it, but you weren’t going to be forced to walk behind him like a puppy. He didn’t say anything as you turned a corner together and made your way through the crowded downtown streets.

No one really paid attention to you as you carefully side stepped anyone that was too distracted to not run into you themselves. That was the beauty of large cities, no one cared what you were doing as long as you didn’t bother them. Even if you were dressed for a night out at a club that you had no intentions of visiting.

Chrollo ducked into an alleyway, and you matched his pace and direction easily. Out of sight of the main street you did feel better, even if no one was paying attention before. Now you were unseen by most eyes.

Several twists and turns later the team arrived to the back of the building at last. The last lights of the day had disappeared over the horizon and the noise of night life rose in the form of music and voices from every nearby major street.

Machi  and Pakunoda had been waiting, casually leaning against the back wall of the museum. Their forms were barely visible in the darkened alleyway but you already were familiar enough to know it was them at a distance.

Standing straight, Machi threw her barely visible threads to the rooftop and pulled them to test their grip. Methodically she handed one to Chrollo and you first. You wrapped the silky strand around your hand and Machi tugged the strings with a full body movement which sent you flying towards the roof.

The way she did it so seemingly easy was somewhat shocking. You gripped the roof edge and pulled yourself the rest of the way up, releasing her thread as you did so. “That’s pretty impressive,” you confessed, rubbing your hand from where the thread had bitten into it.

Chrollo had a smug look of pride when you looked at him, but he shrugged, nonchalant. “They are very good at what they do.”

“I guess that is why you’re willing to work with others,” you commented as Machi and Pakunoda pulled themselves onto the roof with grace.

“One of the reasons.”

Machi passed by you to the roof door, pulling a straight pin from the cushion on her left hand as she went.

The door popped open easily and without a word you all entered into the building. Now this was the part you had been excited for, the actual fun.

This was your number one favorite thing.

Once you reached the door for the first floor you motioned for the others to stand back. Being careful to move as slowly as possible, you opened the door the slightest crack and peeked out. The guard wasn’t on this side of the exhibits just yet, and you knew from your long walks that the stairwells weren’t alarmed as the guards used it to go between floors sometimes. It also saved on tech cost to keep the rest of the building on high alert comparatively.

With a deep breath you brought forth your nen into your right hand. Carefully you reached out and touched the outside wall. Emitting your nen across the wall you moved it based on a sensation you couldn’t quite describe. Electricity had a specific, familiar prickling sensation, and once you found it you could tap into it and follow it to your primary target: the cameras. Using the electrical signals, the cameras were manipulatable with your nen. They could flicker, freeze the last visual data they had received, or turn off. The more cameras, the more nen you’d have to use. There were only three in this first area. Easy enough.

“Let’s go,” you said confidently, opening the door and leading the way into the museum. Each camera flickered several times, so as to disguise that there was a sequence that hid you and your companions movements through their areas to the next dark zone.

They stuck to you as closely as they could, never asking a question or seeming to double check your work. It seemed they blindly trusted you, or they really did take Chrollo’s word. Either way there was no chance you were going to be left alone at any point.

Area by area you made your way to the stairs that would allow Chrollo and Machi access to the basement, Pakunoda giving you specific floor plan details along the way. Which was helpful for the places you hadn’t memorized since they hadn’t been integral to your own needs before. But her knowledge was so exact you were curious how she knew it all.

At the door to the stairs you managed to rest a little, only one camera pointed in this direction and freezing it alone was easy enough. Now you didn’t feel so silly for resting extra today since you were expending much more energy than you had intended.

“Nice work,” Chrollo complimented, both hands in his coat pocket. He seemed completely relaxed.

“How will you get to the East entrance?” you asked.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be there,” he said with a smirk. Behind him Machi opened the stairwell that led to the basement and Chrollo gave you a last look over his shoulder as he turned to leave, “Make sure you’re there as well.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” you teased, hearing Pakunoda at your back shift.

The two of you continued your path to the section on unidentified artifacts. But first, Pakunoda directed you to the Azia exhibit and you realized that your leading target would probably be that area. It was frustrating, you’d prefer to get your tea set and shrug the woman off, but it was still too early. You wanted Chrollo and Machi to be deeply stuck in the basement first.

The patrol guard was just leaving the exhibit hall as you arrived. “Yeah they have been doing that all week. There is a special electrician coming to check it out,” he said into his walkie talkie as he passed by the alcove in which the two of you hid. Pakunoda looked at you upon hearing this and you merely smiled.

 “I’ll go down there just to be sure as always though. I bet they’re just old. You gotta replace technology every six months these days you know? That’s what the kids all say." The guard continued rambling on about cameras and technology as he made way towards the part of the museum you had come from.

You shrugged at Pakunoda with false ignorance before turning into the exhibit hall.

Again you froze the camera in this hallway, it was easier than making it flicker forever. It took more energy but as long as you only had to do this a few times you’d still have plenty of power. “So you’re an emitter,” Pakunoda said as she stopped at a display case of masks and pointed.

“Guess so,” you replied, pulling your tool from your clutch bag. “I always thought being a manipulator would be easier, but you work with what you get.”

Easily you took each screw out of the case quickly and when you lifted the glass Pakunoda took the masks so you could quietly replace the glass. She wrapped them in cloth and placed them in a bag she had brought with her.

Three more displays of ancient artifacts were taken much the same way, each time you got faster with the strange screws and tool. You noticed Pakunoda’s bag was quite full already and too much more could leave too much room for weight error.

“Let’s move on,” she said and you nodded with relief.

The unidentified artifacts exhibit was small. Only one camera inside, part of the draw for you personally.

But this time as you took the last screw out you pointed to Pakunoda to lift the glass. She looked at you with distrust but you remained firm. “This is the one thing I have to grab with my own hands. Chrollo promised me that right.”

He hadn’t, but maybe she’d fall for that lie anyway.

With a soft sigh she lifted the glass and you could feel your fingers start to tingle with excitement. You pulled from your clutch a folded up object and with a flick of the wrist it folded out into a container. Pakunoda’s eyes widened with surprise as you gently lifted the tea set from its current home into the container. With practiced speed, you folded up the top after dropping all of the soft foam that had taken up the rest of the clutch bag. It would help cushion the tea set so that it would clatter around in the box.

“Thanks,” you told her with a smile. Slowly she started to set the glass down and you backed away silently, dropping your nen from the nearby camera.

“Let’s go,” she said and you nodded innocently.

“Which way? I don’t know the way to the door on the East. I always came in and out from the North.”

She pointed and you nodded turning, resuming your camera manipulations with your nen. She followed too closely for you to try and bring the cameras back up to catch only her, but that didn’t matter. You had gotten her once.

You checked the clock on the wall as you passed by. 10:20 pm. It hadn’t taken you as long as you had thought it would. Maybe you had thought that because you expected that Chrollo had more targets on the first floor. But if they had guessed 11 there was a reason. He and Machi would still be busy in the basement.

The container in your hand was heavy, but you felt so light carrying it. Actually you felt positively giddy. You got what you wanted and in just a few moments you’d be free of your babysitter.

The door to the East exit was just ahead but Pakunoda grabbed you and pulled you to the side behind a large sign that was boasting about a new exhibit. “This should be a camera blind spot. We’ll wait here until Chrollo returns.”

All too happy to drop your nen you nodded. If you had to, you could keep it up for longer, but you were admittedly getting a bit tired and the night wasn’t over yet.

You could hear footsteps running down the tile floor in your direction and managed not to smile. Chrollo and Machi would be too smart to make so much noise, it had to be the guard.

He stopped at the end of the hall and you peeked out from your hiding spot to see him raise his gun. “I know you’re back there. Come out or I will be forced to fire!”

Pakunoda looked at you pointedly and you stared back at her with confusion. “Maybe he saw the cases empty?” you asked shifting more behind the signage.

She frowned and gripped the arm that held the tea set, looking into your eyes with a gaze that could kill. “Then how does he know which exit we are at?”

“It is his job,” you snapped. “How should I know?”

But Pakunoda’s hand on your arm was crushing. The muscles under her grip screamed and your free hand flew to hers to pull back her thumb and force her to relieve some of the pressure. “Let go, you’re hurting me,” you snarled as the emotionless face continued to stare at you.

“You brought the camera back up on me,” she said plainly. “Why?”

A sliver of panic stabbed into your heart. There was no way she should know that. “Never trust a thief,” you told her simply as the guard down the hallway yelled again. “I knew you were going to ditch me. I heard them talking about it earlier.”

She nodded, “I can see that. But maybe you’re jumping to conclusions? You don’t know what was what was going to happen.”

A bullet hit the wall to the side of the two of you, it was just a warning shot. “Never take unnecessary chances. Besides I know the wine, dine, and leave behind trick.” Chrollo had been very charming, there were times in the game that you had slipped and enjoyed yourself a bit too much. But you knew it was all business.

Loud clattering rang against the museum walls, the second floor guard had arrived as back-up. There were at least two more within the building. Time was running out.

“It’s too bad. You had some potential,” Pakunoda said as she shoved you harshly into the hallway.

You bit back a curse, catching yourself before you completely lost footing and fell to the ground. “Put your hands up!” one guard cried.

Pakunoda watched you from behind the sign, her gun raised at you as well. She was aiming purposefully low, intending to wound you so you couldn’t run and would be caught. “You’re right, it is too bad, Paku,” you muttered quietly enough the guards wouldn’t hear a thing. “We could have been friends under different circumstances. Maybe.”

She didn’t react to you, merely watched with a quiet coldness as you slowly knelt and put the box on the ground while the guards barked orders at you and into their walkie talkies. As you slowly lifted your hands over your head, you could see her pull her phone out of her pocket from the corner of your eye. She was telling Machi and Chrollo what had happened, now time was even more limited.

But it was the perfect opportunity. Her attention was split between aiming at you and using her phone, so you dropped low, swinging your leg out to knock over the exhibit sign that she was still taking refuge behind.

Making a quick decision she dropped the phone, gripped her gun with both hands and fired. A bullet from the front whizzed by you when you had dropped down, but you had always been focused on Pakunoda’s gun. She was closer, so she was a bigger threat.

With seconds to spare you angled your supporting foot to launch you away from her target area and then back at her, successfully dodging her shot. Her reaction time was fast and the gun swung around to point at you again and you muttered a mental prayer to whoever would take it that you could be just a little faster as you knocked the hand with the gun away. Someone must have been listening, because the shot missed and you landed on Pakunoda with your entire weight.

There was no time to revel in your victory, using all of your strength you pushed her out into the center of the floor, keeping your feet under you as did so. With one hard push you lept to your box and snatched it up before dashing to the door.

Down the hall, the guards couldn’t clearly see what was happening as the two of you were silhouetted by the lights outside of the exit and it was the only source of light they had to operate off of. This made them slow to react as one shot at you and the other raced down the hallway towards Pakunoda who scrambled for her gun and fired. But you didn’t have time to look back and see what was going on past that. Only the sound of a body hitting the ground gave away any clue.

For fire safety the doors could be pushed open from inside even when locked, so escaping out onto the street was easy.

Your heart was pounding so hard that you had to fight the natural urge to gasp for air as you quickly hustled down the stairs and into the crowd that filled the street on a busy weekend night. It took a second to compose yourself enough to look up and pose yourself to appear natural so as to blend into the people who hadn’t just been shot at several times.

Moments after the door to the museum opened and an angry Pakunoda emerged into the night air. Without a doubt you were sure that both guards were dead, but had she recovered the cell phone in time to also follow you?

Time was actually up now.

You didn’t turn to look at her as you weaved your way through the crowd and turned a corner.

Once out of her line of sight you ducked into the busy bar immediately down the street. The bodies packed inside were unforgiving but you managed to slip around them easily with a practiced dance that required you to twist and turn your body, keeping your prize close to your chest.

It was too dangerous to look around for your tail, because that would make you too obvious, but you hoped she hadn’t seen you as you ducked low enough in the crowd so that you couldn’t be seen. Using the cover of other bodies as a camouflage as you snuck around to the door that lead to the back room. The bartenders had been so busy with orders they didn’t notice you push your way into the kitchen.

The pair preparing simple bar food and closing up for the night didn’t seem to particularly care when you entered the kitchen and immediately went out the back door to the alleyway where everything had started. You couldn’t blame them, it was a busy weekend night and surely they were exhausted.

It was a simple turn around, but you didn’t see any sign of Pakunoda as you reemerged onto the street and hailed a taxi. Not a second could be wasted or stalled so you slipped into the back of the cab without a second cursory look around. As you sank into the seat you could hear the noise of sirens in the distance already coming your way. They sure worked quick in this city.

“Where to?” the driver asked.

You looked closely at him to make sure that he didn’t seem familiar before responding, “Train station.”

The taxi slid away from the sidewalk and into the busy traffic. By the time you hit the first stop light down the street the telling blue and red of the police were already surrounding the museum and you decided to chance a glance, turning to see if you would catch a glimpse of any more action.

“Woah. That is sudden isn’t it?” the driver commented as he looked back in his mirror.

“Yeah. I wonder what happened. I hope it isn’t a fire,” you said with a morose tone.

“Oh that would be awful. I’ve been to that museum a lot. There are a lot of really pretty pieces in there."

“I had hoped to go but I didn’t have time. I was visiting my grandmother for a few days. I did find a nice gift for my husband down town though,” you said lifting the box for him to see. “He loves sweets so I got him a cake from that bakery down the street.”

“Oh! Simple Sweets? I love that place!” The car started to move as police rushed into the museum. “Did you try their pastries? They are so flaky you’ll never want any other pastries in the world.”

You smiled as the driver prattled on for the rest of the drive, caressing the top of your prize like a cat as you barely listened and made the appropriate “oh” and “really?” replies.

Admittedly you’d miss the dress you had left behind. But sacrifices had to be made for good product you decided as you tipped the driver from the clutch bag you had managed to keep track of the entire time. “Thanks for the ride and suggestions! I’ll be sure to try it all next time I visit!”

The driver chuckled and waved goodbye as he got out to help a woman load her bag into the trunk.

Even though you had just been in a pleasant car ride, your heart was still beating heavy in your chest as you bought a ticket and navigated your way through the station toward your platform. With how well trained Chrollo’s team was you knew you’d have to get off early and fly to the next city where you would try to lay low for a bit. There would be a bit of extra footwork this time, but at least the cops wouldn’t be looking for you when they had other perfectly viable suspects.

You bought a ticket for the next train leaving so as soon as you stepped on the platform you were able to board. The entire time the phantom sensation of a weight on your back made your shoulders tense as you navigated the train car to a seat closest to the aisle and away from the large window. The train was pretty empty, both a blessing and a curse. But it gave you a chance to be familiar with everyone that entered and took seats. No one seemed particularly suspicious.

Outside the whistle blew and you sighed hoping that there had been too little time for anyone to make their way here from the museum, what with all the cops and traffic.

Your right side felt icy cold as the train doors slid shut. It was too tempting to ignore, so slowly your eyes slid from the seat in front of you, across the aisle, and out the opposite window.

Standing with his hands casually in his pockets amongst the crowd you could see Chrollo looking right at you. His face seemed passive, neither angry or unconcerned as the train started to move away from the platform. Machi and Pakunoda weren’t in sight, so they were either still busy, or on the train.

But spite that concern you stood and went to the window to watch Chrollo’s dark form slip away, offering a smile and a wave goodbye as the train picked up speed. Before long, even his black silhouette was too far away to make out from the rest of the human forms that waited for their train.

[xxoxofemme]

My thoughts on 15.16

Hello lovelies! Welcome to my extremely biased review of Supernatural 15.16! Will probably be out of order to the episode because I'm an inconsistent bitch. So, let's start with the basis of the episode. Young Winchesters, flashback. This didn't feel like my boys, their dynamic was incredibly off. Dean called Sam names, tried to ditch him, and ignored him. We have been shown Dean in the past at this age before, and we know very well this is not how he treated his little brother. Now, yes, Sam is still greatly important to Dean, but at that age? Sam was his pride and joy, his everything, his Sammy was everything to him. And Dean would never, never treat him like that. I also wanted to point out it felt strange for Dean to connect so easily to Caitlyn and Travis. Sam I feel would want to help, but it felt odd for Dean to jump into opening up like that. With Robin in the previous flashback episode, (when he was nearly the same age as he is here!) It took weeks for him to open up, and even then he was still closed up. True, Robin wasn't in danger, but he still gave in to telling Cait and Travis extremely quickly. I think Dean, especially at that age, would not have jumped into that action without Johns explicit say-so. Another thing, is that this timeline is incorrect. In 'Just My Imagination' (11.09 I believe) we see Sam jumping excitedly to go hunt with Dean. True, Sam had been talking to Scully (is that his name? Me not fact checking names Im sorry) about possibly going to college, but at the end of the episode we see him saying "This, this is my life! I'm finally going hunting with Dean!" Sam was nine in that episode. And in this most recent flashback episode, we see him at ten years old. Now I'm aware of how much change can happen in one year, but over the course of 15 seasons I've seen how often Sam changes, how his goals and opinions evolve. He doesn't change an opinion that firm in less than a year. And yet, in 15.16 we have him holding onto hope of college and researching where he could go. We have previously been told Dean (and subsequently John) had no idea about Sams driving desire for higher education, only that he was a bright student who enjoyed learning. It hadn't occurred to them that Sam would truly ditch, even as much as he complained. It was part of why Sam was so cast out (as we are shown throughout season one) when he said he was leaving. To them, it was incredibly out of the blue. This goes against Dean finding out about Sams college research in the latest episode. This would mean Dean knew what Sam wanted, that Dean said "maybe" to Sams wish. Which we have had reinforced many times over that this didn't happen. See all of the early seasons. I understand that we have fifteen seasons and over three hundred episodes, but it frustrates me that there is such a glaring plot hole. Sams sudden 'abandonment' of the family business was such an important plot line in the early seasons and they truly went against much of it. Onto my next topic! Towards the end of the episode, Dean tells Caitlyn he is always afraid. Aside from the heartbreaking aspect, this is huge character development. Dean uses his macho, never afraid, badass male attitude as a shield, and we saw it crumble for a moment. Dean is tired of lying. He is tired of pretending everything is okay. And he might not have been able to open up to his brother just yet, but he let his facade crack for a moment and for once, admitted his fear. An important point is that Dean is likely to never seen Caitlyn again, never speak to her again. Not that Caitlyn doesn't matter to him, but in his line of work, it just isn't likely. He lives from one apocalypse to the next, and he still has the mindset that everyone he loves gets killed. So his confession, while greatly meaningful, doesn't mean he is getting to the point of succeeding at opening up to his loved ones. Still, though, I was very proud of him. Next next next. Onto Dean seeing his brothers dead body. (See, out of order I warned you of my sporadic nature)

This is one angle I see it as: And so, here is young Sam. Reminding him what it's like to lose a child who depends on you so deeply. Reminding him of how much his heart aches when he goes against what's true to him. And the trauma of seeing his brother, still his light after all this time, broken, mutilated, dead on a floor. Especially ten year old Sam? His love, his everything, still waiting for the torture he knows lies ahead? Perhaps this implies that Sam, still young at heart, still hopeful of the ways of the world, is still destined to meet and end like that. A pile of bodies, from a monster they could never understand. Except, many years later, it isn't a one off. It's God. That is so, so symbolic at a time like this. But, from another point of view, I offer this: This may not even about Sam. This could be about Jack. Dean has just been told Jack is going to die, and Jack is like his kid at this point. And Dean is terrified of losing another kid. But Dean still can't, he won't let himself feel that way about Jack. So his subconscious puts forth Sam, because Sam has truly always been his kid. His brother, yes, but Sam was basically his child. This is a way his subconscious and the storyline is reinforcing: A) Sam is like Deans child as well as his brother. and B) Dean feels that Jack is his kid but can't let himself admit it. No matter who the writers meant for us to interpret the moment as referencing, we still end up with the same message.  It's about the vulnerability of caring for someone with such a tragic ending. It's about trusting yourself enough to allow bad things to happen, knowing you will fix it in the end. It's about the horrors of life and how you fight them. It's about family. *checks notes* Onward we go! Now about my very favourite part of the episode: Sammy cracking. We haven't seen Sam that angry, that out of control, yelling, wrecked, at this brother, in a very long time. While I understand Deans point of view, while everyone has right to everything they're doing, I was, I am, shocked and impressed of Sams reaction. That was raw, true emotion. He was furious, at a loss, and Jared played it beautifully. The tension in that scene was incredible and J2 knocked it the hell out of the park. As for Dean, we have seen Dean like this before, many times over. Making the wrong choice for the right reasons. He has a mindset of doing the hard thing for the right people. And right now the stakes are higher than ever. He is screaming at himself just as much as Sam, that they don't have a choice. He doesn't have a choice. Losing Jack, it has to be worth it, they have to save the world. A lesson that they never seem to learn is that they can't save the world without each other. Their motivations and emotions, morals, and breaking points, are all interlaced in unexplainable ways. Pull one thread, take one of them out of the equation, and it's all going to go to hell. Now I didn't say this was healthy, but co-dependency is all that they know. It's all that they are, and they rely on it (each other) to function. Dean has to realize he needs Jack, Jack is a part of them, and finally as a team they can fix it. Dean currently can't accept this. He is holding onto his anger like a birthright, like a saviour, because anger is the only thing he feels he can rely on. So he is taking his self conflict out on Sam. He always takes it out on those he loves. Dean is no stranger to self conflict, self hatred. And he takes it out on Sam, or he smashes the shit out of Baby, he ignores and pushes Cas away. This is how Dean copes, and Sam knows it. Sam usually takes it. Braces for the punches and stands his ground. But now, now Sam is cracking. Sam is breaking, and he can't hold on anymore, he can't shove it down and bite his tongue and take it. He explodes, he shows, he tells Dean he can't believe this. It's so powerful from both ends.

The dynamic right now, with four episodes left, is a bomb-field. Dean was lying to Sam about Jack dying, Cas is lying to the brothers about the Empty deal

still angry with Jack and Cas about what happened with Mary, Dean is lying to Amara and Billie, Cas is lying to Billie and telling Jack to not spill the beans about his deal. No one is on good terms, and those who are, their relationships are about to blow up. The team can't handle that right now, they ALL need to come clean, and be on the same page. They don't have time for tears, for punches, for screams. They need each other in this final run. They are all each other have.

Aaaaaand that was my thoughts and meta about 15.16. I love y'all, feel free to leave your thoughts or ask my opinion on something else. Have sweet dreams, a good day, a pleasant beginning, and a happy ending.

See you, sweethearts.

[rosecorcoranwrites]

Common Misconceptions About Character

Characters are the heart and soul of any story, so it makes sense that those of us who write or analyze stories focus much of our time on the ins and outs of character and characterization. Yet a lot of this analysis ignores certain types of storytelling, unfairly idealizing some story and character types over others. Worse than that, even, is that which misunderstands the relationship between an author and their characters. I've noticed three particular misconceptions which crop up the most, and I have a theory as to where they come from (Hint: it's moralism!).

Misconception 1: Character Driven Stories are Better than Plot Driven Stories

Character driven stories are those where the characters have some goal or desire and work to achieve it; the plot is generated by the characters’ choices. Plot driven stories are those where events happen and the characters have to react to them; the plot is also generated by characters’ choices. If the characters didn't make decisions, they wouldn't be characters! So what's the difference?

In character driven stories, there’s a sense of urgency that can be appealing. What is that character willing to do to get what they want? Why do they want it? Will they get it, or learn that perhaps there are things more important than their goals?

For plot driven stories, it’s interesting to see what the characters do when things are thrown at them. How will they get out of this scrape? Why do they react this way vs that way? Can they really beat such insurmountable odds?

I think the root of the misconception that character driven stories are superior is based largely on bias against certain genres. Literary fiction tends to be heavily character driven, in that not a lot happens other than the characters making choices. Genre fiction like fantasy and sci-fi are mixed, where inciting incidents kick off the plots and random encounters along with choices made by the characters keep it going. Comedy, adventure, and horror are at the far extreme, usually totally driven by plot and circumstance rather than character goals. Much of the derision of plot driven stories is genre bigotry in disguise.

Both types of stories have something to offer us, and it’s rare to find a work of fiction that is only driven by characters or only driven by plot. Most stories mix them, to great success. People need to get off their high horses and focus on writing the best characters they can, whether they drive or react to the plot.

Misconception 2: Dynamic Characters are Better than Static Characters

Speaking of writing the best character, clearly that means writing a dynamic character who learns and grows over the course of the story, right? Wrong! Static characters have their place, just as plot driven stories have theirs.

First of all, a story is not the same thing as a life. While we all do grow and change over time, a story is a window into a particular time, through a particular point of view. Some characters have gotten their changing out of the way in the backstory. Others serve as constants for the other characters to rely on. It would be weird if every character, including the side characters and villains, all changed by the end of the story, because this isn’t necessarily their story, not the beginning of it, not the end of it, not the time when they happened to do their changing.

But what about protagonists? Surely they must undergo some sort of transformation, right? It depends on the character, and the story, and—you guessed it—the genre. Take cozy mysteries, or slice-of-life, or comedy. We don’t want Sherlock Holmes or Yotsuba or Bertie Wooster to change and grow; that’s not the point of their stories or their characters. We want to come back to those books, again and again, and know exactly who's waiting for us.

Even genres that generally have dynamic protagonists don’t require them. Take Lina Inverse, of the fantasy series Slayers, who is just as gluttonous, greedy, and wild in Season One, Episode One as she is in the finale of the fifth season, made fourteen years later. What about Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird? Though she slightly changes over the course of the story, mostly in how she perceives her father and Boo Radley, it’s more important for her to be the static viewpoint character through whose innocent eyes we see what’s happening in Maycomb County.

Again, there is a place for both static and dynamic characters. As long as they are each well-developed and serve their stories, it doesn’t matter if they change or not.

Misconception 3: Nothing You Make a Character Do is Out-of-Character

I don't even know where to start with this one. No, wait, I do: reductio-ad absurdum. If Javert, from Les Miserables, decided to join the Thenardiers in their skullduggery rather than either accepting Valjean's mercy or jumping to his death, that would be out-of-character. If Uncle Vernon, apropos of nothing, warmly embraced Harry and said that he had come to truly accept him as his son, and that he had been misguided all these years and seen the light, that would be out-of-character. If Luke Skywalker were to not see and seek the good in some relative of his and instead decided to kill that relative off before they could go full Dark Side, that would be out-of-character (ahem... AHEM!!!).

Just because you are the writer does not mean you can do whatever you want with the characters. If that were true, they wouldn't be characters, but rather cardboard cut-outs that you cause to do random actions and say random things. Characters are supposed to represent real people, and real people act a certain way from situation to situation and over the course of time. Past behavior predicts future behavior.

That's not to say people can't change, for weal or woe, but that usually happens in one of three ways. First, they change over time, as dynamic characters are wont to do. Second, they have a "road to Damascus" moment; much like miracles, these tend to be considered deus-ex-machina and are thus rarely employed in fiction. I would say these usually happen when character A does some act of kindness or sacrifice for character B, and B is struck by this and realizes they must change their ways (again, for weal or for woe; Javert gets such an act of kindness from Valjean, but instead of accepting it he chooses to kill himself rather than live in Valjean's world of mercy. What a guy!).

Finally, there are stressors. These might be the character losing their job, or getting betrayed, or having someone close to them die, or breaking up with a long-time love. If you’ve heard the term before, it’s likely from the context of criminology; stressors are often what precipitate a violent crime. If a kind, sweet character suddenly goes bad, maybe it's due to a string of stressors. Notice I said a string; you have to have some sort of build up for a character to really go off their rocker or it will feel like it came out of nowhere. For a crash course in this sort of in-character change, I recommend Tangled: The Series, which artfully depicts not one, but two characters' roads to perdition in unexpected but understandable ways. These kinds of stressors should feel like the final straw in the bale that broke the camel's back.

For all of these changes—gradual, road-to-Damascus, or stressors—the change itself still needs to be in-character, which means that the writers need to know who their characters are and what makes them tick. If this villain is shown an unprecedented act of kindness, will they immediately forsake their plans, start going easier on their own minions, or withdraw for a while to think? It might be that only one of those courses of action would be in-character for that particular person. If this character's loved one is murdered, is that enough to make them go on a revenge spree? And are the particulars of who is caught in that revenge spree in-character?

I submit that Hawkeye killing criminals in Avengers: Endgame is in-character—he's already a hero, so he's still technically protecting innocent people, even if that means mowing down bad guys who "should" have been killed in the Snap. It makes sense, given who he is and where he's coming from. I also submit that Katniss agreeing to a final Hunger Games for the Capital's children in Catching Fire was out-of-character. She had seen what those death games were like first hand, especially for little kids like Rue, and it doesn't make sense—even if her sister was murdered—for her to do a 180 and throw away everything she stood for. Had she been shown, earlier on, to not care about the lives of Capital citizens, or to have a dehumanizing or vengeful streak, I could see it. But she didn't, so her sudden bloodlust came out of left field. I also can't accept the murder of her sister as the last in a line of stressors because—despite the horrors Katniss had seen inflicted on the people of the Districts—the Capital also did that to their own citizens. It is made abundantly clear that the Capital is willing to murder their own people (Katniss witnesses this first hand as she makes her way through the Capital streets), so it doesn't fit for Katniss to choose further violence towards the people she has seen being slaughtered by the very people she is fighting. Her action (and, by the by, Haymitch's going along with it) felt startlingly out-of-character.

The Moral of the Story

Going back to the above example, if Katniss's actions were so out of the blue, why did Suzanne Collins write them that way, rather than choosing another route? I think it's fair to say her intention was to underline the horrors of war and what it does to people, which... is a bit patronizing. The entire Hunger Games Trilogy was about the horrors of war. We saw children forced to kill each other. We saw an entire district reduced to rubble. We saw people melting in the Capital A-bomb-style. To then feel the need to have Katniss—who by this point is already so hardened by what's happened to her that she barely blinks at the violence around her—give up everything she has fought for and become like the very evil she has been fighting seems to be hitting us over the head. But that story needed a moral, and Collins really, really, really wanted to make sure we got it.

And that is perhaps the greatest misconception of all, and the root of the other three: the ardent insistence that stories need to teach a moral. Some of you might balk at this, saying, perhaps, that modernism and post modernism have gotten rid of the whole idea of "the moral of the story", but they didn't. They just changed what the morals were. True, early novels is England and America had a puritanical streak, and some people, back in the day, insisted that stories teach lessons about religion, and virtue, and the dangers of a life of debauchery. Truly, fewer and fewer stories, as the years went on, dealt with these particular topics, but those morals were subsequently replaced with lessons about feminism, and representation, and the dangers of war and racism. Before any one flips their lid, they should know that I support all of those morals: I love religion and virtue and feminism, and am really not keen on war, racism, debauchery and such. But I'm really not keen on being preached at in books

Obviously, not all, or even most, books are preachy. They weren't way back in the day and they aren't now. And yet, there seems to be a sneering favoritism for books that offer some sort of moral over those that are, frankly, just fun and entertaining. Books where characters make choices—moral choices, though they aren't always explicitly called that—are seen as superior to books where people respond to the plot by going on adventures or getting into scrapes. Dynamic characters who change—by either learning lessons and growing as people or, contrarily, losing themselves to a life of vice and sin (even if we no longer describe it as such)—are so much better than those silly characters who simple exist, neither rising to the heights of heaven nor descending to the depths of hell, with nothing to teach their audience about where life might take you. Nothing you make your characters do is out-of-character, because they don't represent people but instead archetypes and Vice and Virtue and whatever else you need to preach—Uh, I mean tell—your story.

Again, I'm not against stories having morals; heck, I'm one of those last few weirdos who can't stand books that have an immoral message. What many people don't understand, though, is that there is a vast and cavernous difference between an immoral story and an amoral story, and that amoral stories, be they wacky comedies, cute slice-of-lifes, puzzling mysteries, or tales of derring-do, are not bad, nor even inferior to other stories. They are not inferior for offering fun, plot driven stories, nor for having constant, static characters. They are not inferior for not having a moral. In fact, I submit that any random amoral story with well-developed characters is superior to a "moral" story—be they old morals or new—where the author forces the cast to act painfully out-of-character in order to beat us over the head with a message.

Basically, the point of a story isn't to teach something, at least, not necessarily. The point of a story is to be true to itself. That might mean having some deep message, or it might mean being thoroughly entertaining, or maybe both. Characters, similarly, should be true to whatever story they find themselves in. As I said at the beginning of this post, characters are the heart and soul of any story, and I mean any story: plot- or character-driven, dynamic or static, moral or amoral.

And those, dear readers, are my thoughts on character.

[bigskydreaming]

@seekingxanadu​

LOL I think you and I aren’t likely to ever agree on the subject of Jason’s role in the show, xanadu, as I actually like him being present and would enjoy seeing him end up more integrated into the team in the future. Yeah, there are a lot more classic Titans that they still haven’t gotten to, but IMO there’s a lot of reasons for that (like Wally and Roy currently being used elsewhere, Vic with the Doom Patrol, others perhaps ‘on hold’ because there’s always any number of projects or potential projects in the works that aren’t even announced to the public yet, etc).

Personally, I think its likely Jason’s role in the show and mythology has been expanded instead of introducing more Titans in his place for the same reason Hawk and Dove are here despite never being hugely present in Titans stories for the most part: they’re cheap.

Like tbh, that plays SO much more of a role than most people realize with shows like this, where budget concerns are constantly an issue, and special effects tend to carry the highest price tags. As far as the showrunners are likely concerned, the more they can bring in non-powered characters and give them screentime, the better....because it saves money.

For that matter, superhero projects belonging to the various live action shared universes love to cheat special effects whenever and wherever possible....and roster choices are absolutely made with an eye towards if any existing properties produced by the same companies have special effects that can be repurposed and used with other characters. Like, creating the special effect for the first time tends to be the most expensive part by far, whereas its often relatively simple and cheap to reuse it in a variety of ways....so they all like to do this as much as possible.

Just as an example, take the X-Men movies (sorry if they’re unfamiliar to you, they’re just the instances I can speak to as a sure example of this).....to most people, a LOT of the mutant characters used in the various films seem random as hell....like Azazel in First Class, and Sunspot in DOFP, etc. Thing is...those two and other characters were picked primarily because of the special effects. Azazel’s similarities to Nightcrawler wasn’t a coincidence, it was the point. The studio already had the special effect they’d created for Kurt’s teleportation power signature, and it’d been easily one of the most positively received and talked about special effects of the original trilogy....so they wanted to use it more. Cheap and easy, compared to making new ones for characters with entirely different powers. So by making Azazel one of the primary villains, they just used Kurt’s special effects and gave it a slightly different tint. Same thing with Riptide, Shaw’s other henchman in that movie....totally random choice given he’s never been remotely associated with the Hellfire Club and what they showed in the movie isn’t even really how his powers work in the comics...but the way they portrayed him in the movies allowed them to reuse some of the tornado effects they’d created for Storm in the original trilogy. Havok’s power displays were just repackaged versions of Cyclops’ special effects, and for Sunspot in DOFP they just reused stuff they’d developed in the original trilogy for Pyro...even though again, what Sunspot was shown doing in that movie isn’t remotely how his power works in the comics.

So like....this is a very very big consideration for studios with any and all superhero projects, both film and TV...its why WB picks nonpowered characters to center TV projects around whenever possible, like Arrow and Batwoman and the reason Hawk and Dove were referenced as being looked at for a possible spin-off pretty much since Titans started...and its not a coincidence that the Flash was the first superpowered character they chose to expand their TV universe with, as superspeed has always been one of the cheaper effects to create (its also why Smallville utilized Clark’s superspeed even more often than it did his superstrength). Same thing why when picking another ‘powered hero’ to add to Arrow early on, they went with Ray Palmer and gave him basically just an Iron Man style suit to start...because even when they eventually had him develop his shrinking power....again, super cheap. Size changing effects just involve shooting a lot of different takes using scale models or messing with proportions in post. Compared to what’s required for a lot of DC’s more high profile heroes....that costs nothing to do.

Odds are, Jason was originally introduced in S1 purely because they could use him to advance Dick’s solo storylines in ways very few other characters could allow for, given a key point of Dick’s story arc in becoming Nightwing over the course of two seasons has revolved around touching on where he’s been and come from, and how he’s now grown past that. To really make the most of that, you need something connected to his past, to Batman, and given its notoriously difficult and complicated to secure approval to use Bruce in any and all live action projects, with the sheer volume of different people you need to get on board with it....Jason was a much easier alternative.

And then once he was relatively well received, they jumped on the chance to expand his role because he enabled them to expand their core cast of characters without dramatically inflating their budget at the same time. Just like that’s why Hank and Dawn were never going anywhere any time soon.

So tbh....he’s very likely not taking anything away from any other Titans’ chances of appearing...since the same hurdles and reasons to take it slow are still there for a lot of the other characters. After Arrow ends, it might be a different story with that freeing up Roy to start making appearances...and who knows with Wally because even though he plays an entirely different version of Wally, bet you anything they’re waiting to be sure Keiynan is definitively done playing Kid Flash or the Flash show is for sure never going to bring him back, before considering either Wally for use elsewhere. Like, I know he already said he was done playing Wally but actors change their minds, so I doubt anyone in the studios took that as an immediate green-light to launch a new Wally project elsewhere.

This almost certainly played a factor in their killing off Garth in just his first appearance....water effects are notoriously hard to make look convincing, and this one’s on the writers too given that I bet people in the writers’ room in general weren’t pushing really hard to make Garth a core character for the show....a lot of TV writers reeeeeally hate trying to write for characters who are intrinsically affiliated with say, the ocean, if they’re not otherwise an ocean-themed show already.....because its just another version of why a lot of comic book writers say they have a hard time showcasing Arthur in JLA books, due to a lot of his most thematic abilities being so location dependent. (I mean, personally I say in both cases this is just a lack of imagination and not a good excuse for not using Garth or Arthur more, lol, but like, it is what it is. This tendency among writers as is still already exists).

And the DC expanded universe and which production companies are affiliated with which properties and studios and stations and all that is a huge complicated mess, so I’m not even going to try tracing the connections to verify for sure, but I’d be willing to bet Titans has access to either some of Supergirl’s special effects or some of Superman’s movie special effects or both (or possibly just to Superman special effects developed for various projects that have come and gone over the years without ever making it to completion). Either way, bet you anything that has as much to do with the decision to introduce Superboy into this particular ensemble, as does just them wanting to have a Super-family character in the mix and Superboy was next on the list, not already being used elsewhere.

*Shrugs* But yeah. Never underestimate the power of the dime even with something as fundamental as picking a core roster. Actually, ESPECIALLY with something that fundamental, since that’s the foundation any and all budget concerns spring from. As much as I love the original Judas Contract storyline, I’m not at all bothered to see Rose kinda shoehorned into Terra’s role in a truncated variation of it here....because first, that story’s been adapted a ton in a variety of different ways, so its not really a huge loss to not have it fully adapted again, but second.....its less likely that Rose took Terra’s role here and more likely that Terra was never remotely an option for the show given how ridiculously expensive her powers would be to render well....so they looked at what else they could make fit a similar role and decided hey, why not bring Rose into this as well, even though she’s not primarily associated with this generation of characters?

And Joey was obviously always a strong candidate to add to the cast as early as this, of course. My bet is other than possibly Roy, depending on WB’s overall plans for him, like, I would guess the next most likely Titans to show up/be added to the cast are Lilith, Mal and/or Karen. Telepathy’s cheap and easy to gimmick up some power signature for.....tbh, I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason Lil HASN’T shown up yet is because they’ve been saving her for after the Jericho storyline is done, given that her powers would cut through all the stakes and suspense and reveal Joey was riding shotgun in Slade’s head from the very first time the Titans encountered Deathstroke this season. For that matter, it’d be extremely difficult to write her as not sensing the sheer chaos going through Dick’s mind this entire season and cutting off that storyline early, and it does seem they’ve known exactly where they wanted to go with Dick this whole time so I can easily see them having decided early on they viewed this as a necessary part of his evolution into Nightwing, and Lil’s mere presence would throw a spanner in those works.

And as for Mal and Karen, again, the shrinking powerset is relatively easy to pull off and its likely more just not wanting to invest in Karen’s suit/flight just yet that’s been the delay there, and Mal’s sonic powers OR his teleportation powers are both relatively easy and cheap.

And of course, other non-powered characters not usually affiliated with the Titans are always a possibility. I’d put money on freaking Golden Eagle being a more likely contender to show up than some of the other powered Titans, for that matter.

Anyway, just my industry take on the matter in general, lol. You know I’d always be for Jason as a Titan as I think he would have ended up one eventually if he hadn’t died when he did, and I’d love to have just one adaptation that doesn’t stick to his death and Red Hood storyline. He doesn’t need it to be an interesting character, just good writing. Its not like Bruce or Dick are definitively chained to one specific storyline outside of their own origin stories, so no reason Jason should have to be either. (And honestly, in line with everything I was talking about here......IMO the nonpowered characters are always a degree safer from being killed off than the powered characters. Doesn’t mean they’re ever totally safe, and it doesn’t mean the show’s necessarily ‘at capacity’ for powered/expensive characters already, but at a certain point the cast list likely will end up sticking with just the powered characters they have until one of those powered characters is killed or otherwise written off...before adding another ‘expensive’ character to take their place.)

But yeah, anyway, lol. Don’t know if that might make you a little more positively inclined to Jason taking up a slot on the show....all things considered, I truly doubt that it was ever a case of them picking to make Jason a series regular OVER adding another classic Titans character in that place instead. It really is more likely IMO that the cast list we have this season was more or less already otherwise in place and they just looked at things and said “we can’t really afford to introduce an additional character on top of the other ones we want to add already this season, like Joey, Slade, etc, and especially not one with special effects heavy powers...BUT we can bring Jason in as more of a presence in the ensemble and bump him up to series regular without too much trouble.”

[mobius-prime]

101. Knuckles the Echidna #13

The Chaotix Caper (Part One of Three): The Unsuspecting!

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Manny Galan Colors: Barry Grossman

So this arc is… really bizarre. Despite being part of the Knuckles the Echidna comic, it really has nothing to do with Knuckles. That alone isn't a problem, as certainly not every issue of Sonic the Hedgehog is centered around its titular character, but the Chaotix and Julie-Su get up to shenanigans in this issue that are honestly not very interesting at all. Let's just… jump in for the next three days and get it over with, man.

Right away we get to meet maybe one of the only interesting characters introduced in this arc, Harry the Dingo, who's elected to forego his past career in the dingo military and become a cab driver instead, taking the graveyard shift. The beginning of the issue is a pretty funny stereotypical washed-up cabbie monologue, where he acts like all he wants to do is mind his own business, when he hears a scream for help. Turns out the scream is from Charmy, holding his unconscious friend Mello and crying. Oh no! What happened?

Harry struggles to keep up his ruse of not caring what happens next as the rest of the Chaotix arrive to help, worried because they heard that a bee matching Charmy's description was seen being taken to the hospital. Aside from that inadvertently making fun of the fact that members of a particular species in this universe tend to all look the same, Vector doesn't even believe he's looking at Charmy at first, because he's too big!

Yeah, remember when I mentioned Charmy's inconsistent size between issues? This is apparently Kenders' attempt to clear that up, so that he can be depicted as both ordinary-bee-sized and Mobian-sized as circumstances dictate. All it really did was create more awkwardness later on, as from here on out he's almost exclusively portrayed as Mobian-sized, with his "flight mode" barely being referenced at all. Anyway, at that moment the doctor comes out, and gives Charmy the bad news - that Mello has died. Charmy turns and sobs into Harry's arms as everyone looks on in sadness. But how exactly did Mello die, anyway?

Harry wonders silently if he wouldn't have been better off as a delivery truck driver, giving us a clean segue into another dingo driving just such a truck with a nice big delivery of food and beverages to… Happyland? Hey, wait, didn't that sleazy amusement park get closed down when Renfield T. Rodent was arres-

…they just never learn, do they?

Back in Constable Remington's office, he begins to question Charmy about his friend's death, hoping they can find an explanation and catch the culprit. Julie-Su shows up, miffed that no one thought to call her, and Remington heads her and Vector off before they can get into an argument. Charmy begins his story with the fact that he and Mello visited Happyland just yesterday - what a shocker! - and sure enough, after they left, Mello began to describe seeing a number of strange visions before he dropped unconscious. Remington explains that they've been seeing a string of similar incidents on the island - always with young individuals - though everyone else survived. They've all been poisoned with a substance called… Lemon Sundrop Dandelion!

Boy, you just can't get any subtler than this, can you? Really, Kenders? Lemon Sundrop Dandelion? LSD? You had to use the initials of the real drug to create a stupid-sounding name for a fake drug? This is perhaps one of the most bizarre places to include an anti-LSD PSA, and what's more, it makes it sound like the problem is specifically people overdosing on the stuff. Thing is, that's just not how LSD works in real life. I did a little research, and it seems like to actually overdose on LSD by itself you'd need to take almost 200 times the usual dose - scientists are actually not sure at all what the true lethal dose range is for psychedelic drugs, because they're so nonlethal in isolation. Obviously this doesn't mean they can't be dangerous - they can cause extremely irrational and fearful behavior due to the nature of the trips they can bring on, causing people to act recklessly or suicidally, for example - but it's not going to cause blackouts and death within hours of ingesting it like shown here. Furthermore, LSD is non-addictive (chemically - we're not talking about emotional dependence, since people can get emotionally addicted to practically anything), and is in fact usually unsustainable for long-term use, not only because of the intensity of the trips it brings on, but because the human body tends to build up a tolerance to its effects very quickly, making it hard to have any effect after even just four days of repeated use. I know this is a fictional drug and everything, but the symptoms portrayed don't even match what it's based on in real life, so this really just reeks of weird reactionary anti-drug fearmongering. I have to wonder if someone higher up told Kenders to throw in an anti-drug PSA, or if he decided to do it himself out of the goodness and care of his own heart toward the young'uns.

Anyway, Remington suggests everyone go investigate Happyland for themselves while they wait on Mello's final medical report, and as they head out to do so, we get a quick shot of Locke and Sabre watching Knuckles' journey home through yet another hidden camera. Okay, at this point, they either have hidden cameras pointed at every square of land across the entire globe, or they have some kind of tiny floating camera following Knuckles at all times, because there's no other way they can so easily spy on him at all times. Knuckles is traveling back through the badlands he led the lost tribe through in the last KtE arc, and hears rumbling in the distance, quickly growing louder, followed by strange lights coming toward him.

Locke is about to jump in to save him, finally, but then both he and Sabre are brought up short by… something they see on the monitor, exclaiming that Knuckles is more powerful than they thought. We don't get to see what they see yet, though! Instead we hop back over to the Chaotix and Julie-Su, who exit the police station to see none other than Harry, waiting for his next cab fare on the curb. In spite of his continued insistence that he doesn't want to get involved, one puppy-dog-eyed look from Charmy is all it takes to get him driving them all over to Happyland. They discuss the possibility that Mello got sick from eating something here, but Charmy says he didn't notice Mello eating anything, despite a flashback behind him showing otherwise as Mello orders himself a chili dog. The Chaotix conclude that this must mean the food is safe, and they all immediately begin ordering themselves some chow, even as Julie-Su admonishes them.

I'm sure that will go well! Back in his office, Renfield is talking happily to himself about all the profits he's going to make with his new scheme, until the previously-shown Ebony Hare waltzes in with a sexy fox lady on his arm and a giant bulldog bodyguard as backup, demanding that he be made a partner. Back in the theme park, the Chaotix start acting very strangely, describing odd visions, wandering off, falling over and even vomiting into a trash can nearby, as Julie-Su, justifiably, begins singing the "I told you so" song.

Welp, they're all high as balls! Good luck dealing with that next issue, Julie-Su!

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x09 – “Knights of Light Part 1”

8x09 – “Knights of Light Part 1”

The first time I watched this episode, I spent most of the episode being nothing but confused. This time, there is still a lot that confuses me, but I’m able to focus in on what does so. This episode retcons what has previously been depicted as the Lions’ consciousness. Now, the void that Shiro spent seasons three through six in is no longer the Black Lion’s consciousness. It’s just a miscellaneous realm of connectivity between everyone in the universe’s minds. In the style of how what was previously described as the Black Lion’s consciousness was animated, now similar appearing locations exist inside Honerva’s mind. The way universal consciousness is depicted in this episode is so uncontrolled that the episode has the Paladins arrive at Honerva’s mind twice during their attempt to get to her, or if the first mind they get to wasn’t Honerva’s then it was someone that isn’t identified. They get pulled into Honerva’s mind, but then the things characters say indicate that they’re not in Honerva’s mind. Basically, this episode’s production couldn’t keep clear about its locations. Maybe that’s just a problem with writing disembodied, nebulousness like this: you lose sense of the logistics of the action.

I’m also super annoyed that this episode now adds a second level of blamelessness to Honerva and Zarkon. The show has long been pushing the idea that neither of them are to blame for their actions because they were externally influenced by being poisoned by quintessence. But now, this episode says that they weren’t to blame because they were possessed by rift entities. I am not okay with a story telling me that it’s not the fault of abusive, torturous, genocidal dictators that they abuse, torture, and commit genocide.

The episode starts with Allura having another dream, floating in darkness.  There’s a voice calling her name, I think it’s Honerva? Allura wakes up, Coran and Lance by her bed in the medical bay. Coran asks her about the entity, and Allura says, “I did what needed to be done. […] This entity, it is connected to Honerva in some way. I believe we can use it.” Coran goes patriarchal, saying, “I swore to your father I would look after you, but I fear I may have let him down.” Because how dare a woman make her own decisions.

Coran says, “This is the path of darkness.” We get lots of supposedly ominous statements like this in this part of the story, but none of it really amounts to anything. It’s certainly not foreshadowing, nor is it used as set-up to be undermined. It’s not as if the story is having it seem like the rift entity is dangerous only to reveal, as I suggested last commentary as having been a potential better story, that the entity isn’t dangerous, just upset at being imprisoned and hurt by Honerva. Nothing like that happens in this story. It’s just the entity is miscellaneously dangerous, and then the danger to Allura never happens. 

I still think the way gravity works on the Atlas is odd. Shiro floats through a hallway up to a door, and once at the door, he steps down onto the floor. There’s no gravity in the center of the hallway, but there’s gravity along the sides of the hallway. It comes off to me as nonsense. Shiro opens the door and inside are the Paladins and Coran. “You wanted to see me?” Shiro asks. This again emphasizes how Shiro is not part of the team. The rest of them had this big conversation without including him in it until now.

Keith says, “We think we might have a way to find Honerva.” Allura tells Shiro, “The entity has bonded me to Honerva. The link is there whether we use it or not.” I guess this is just more miscellaneous, unexplained space magic. The entity isn’t really defined in this show. We’ve seen the entities in the past be aggressive, we’ve seen it merge with others of its kind to fight. That was presented as being a threat (3x07 “The Legend Begins). Now, we’ve seen it having been inside Tova, but precisely what it did in him wasn’t explained. I guess maybe the show is saying the entity is just there to let Honerva control and kill the Colony Alteans? That doesn’t make the entity really seem inherently threatening in and of itself though. That’s just using the entity as a mechanism to say this is how Honerva can control people. That’s Honerva, not the entity, being threatening.

Allura says (and Lance looks super angry while she speaks), “I believe if the Paladins connect using the shared consciousness of Voltron, we may be able to travel through the void and into Honerva’s mind.”

I have a huge problem with this. This is feels like a massive retcon to what “the void” has been shown as in the past. This is connected back to 5x03 “Postmortem,” in which all five Paladins used their bayards in Voltron. In that episode, Voltron is being attacked by a plant-virus and Pidge says, “Listen, this virus is affecting Voltron on a submolecular level. To drive it out, we have to tap into the quantum energy that binds us all to Voltron.” Allura then responds, “The bayards, they amplify each Paladin’s life force. They might provide enough power to drive out the virus.” The five of them put their bayards in their respective Lions’ bayard slots, and then they all appear within “the void.” The void is in “Postmortem” and in every instance that has dealt with Shiro and the Black Lion’s bond, like 2x07 “Space Mall” and 6x06 “All Good Things,” been about the Paladins and Voltron. The void has not been some otherworldly location separate from the Lions/Voltron. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for the void to now be connected to Honerva. Honerva is not a Paladin. She has never been a Paladin. The psychic space of the Lions/Voltron should have absolutely nothing to do with her.

I can totally understand why people would see this episode and, on this alone, think that this is evidence of a massive change in the season’s plot really late into the season’s production. I can see how there’s a suggestion here of a revised story where originally the Paladins went into the psychic space of Voltron having something to do with Shiro and his having been stored by the Black Lion in her psychic space. If the void is now just some nebulous otherworld that does not belong to the Lions, then it completely erases the previously stated fact that the Black Lion kept Shiro in its consciousness. But the show’s use of the void in the past has been fairly explicit that that is what was happening. So, this episode contradicts severely with past episodes.

That’s not to say that the executive producers and writers of this show would have any problem with writing this story to contradict previously written story. They don’t seem to have any real desire to maintain continuity and consistency in the writing for this show. Since most of the plot of this series seems like the EPs and writers were mostly just winging it as they went along, I don’t think they cared that this violates what’s been established in the story. Sometimes, I honestly don’t think that Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery were even interested in telling a story. I think they just wanted to do story-less animation. So many times, this show feels like they were trying to do nothing more than to make some Voltron: Defender of the Universe AU fanart. They certainly did not construct a coherent, cohesive narrative. Maybe that’s part of what angers me so much about VLD. I’m a writer. I love storytelling. I love animation, but I come to animation as being a medium through which a story can be told. JDS and LM saw this project as animation first and foremost, and storytelling was only secondary, at best. The story of this show was only something they were forced to do in order to be allowed to make animation. I don’t think they really cared about telling a story.

Back to this episode. Pidge says, “That could in theory give us access to her physical location as well as key information on how to defeat her.” I’m still stuck on how they would see entering Voltron’s psychic space would have anything to do with Honerva. This is just feels forced.

Keith says, “Honerva is capable of creating galactic komars, wormholes, Robeasts,” I know this show doesn’t do logic, but Honerva’s “galactic komar” was dependent on the Robeasts. How many Robeasts did she create from the statues at Oriande? I know, the show doesn’t show us so that it can have an endless supply for whenever the writers want to pull a new one out of the bag and not have to keep track of the logistics of them all. All of the Robeasts used in 8x06 “Genesis” should be out of the story. Oriande and the white hole went boom, so none of them there should have survived (though since Merla pops up again, I guess they did). The ones used as part of this “galactic komar” though have been found; that’s where the four of the six Colony Alteans now onboard the Atlas came from. So, did the Atlas just leave those Robeasts laying on those respective planets? Are they just sitting there waiting for Honerva to reclaim them? Otherwise, how is the “galactic komar” still a threat since it was built out of tech (the mechas and the Olkari cubes) that are destroyed or no longer functioning?

Keith continues, “And now, Lotor and his mech are out there somewhere.” Again, this show presents this story as if Lotor is actually alive, but we’ll soon be shown that he’s a melted corpse. It does make the season feel like it was re-edited. If it wasn’t re-edited, then this is absolutely the creative team for this show repetitiously manipulating the audience. If they hadn’t already proven themselves to be more than willing to engage in audience manipulation, especially when it comes to Lotor’s part in the show’s story, then I might be more willing to give more weight to the possibility that this was re-edited. I can see JDS, LM, and the writers in a meeting saying to write the season’s story to make it look like Lotor is alive only to surprise twist! he’s been dead the whole time. They wouldn’t care about the inconsistency that writing this season that way would have because their goal would be to create the surprise twist! that they seem to think is how you create a story. And it would make sense that they would think that that is how you create a story if creating that story was always secondary, at best, to their goals with this project.

Keith says, “We don’t have any other leads. It might take lifetimes for another opportunity like this to come around.” Are you kidding me? Keith thinks that Honerva is going to sit out and do nothing for “lifetimes?” Remember, they’re saying they need to do this in order to find Honerva, that’s the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to find her. But if Honerva’s not done doing what she plans to do, then she’ll show up again, thus they will have found her by her just continuing whatever it is she’s doing. This line of dialog is just not written well.

Shiro speaks. “I spent a lot of time in the infinite void.” Yes, you did, and that void was inside the Black Lion, not some otherworld that is connected to Honerva. “And if you face Honerva in the void—” They shouldn’t be able to because how is Honerva able to be in the Lions’/Voltron’s psychic space?

Lance says, “We’re messing with powers we don’t fully understand.” Unfortunately, the writers of this show don’t fully understand those powers either because they didn’t bother to define those powers.

Coran says, “It’s been a long time since it was only the seven of us in a room together.” That’s because the writers didn’t bother to continue to write you guys as the main characters.

The Paladins get in their Lions. Allura has a flash of Honerva’s face and screams. She then has a vision of Honerva and Merla floating in a hallway. It makes me think of how the Shiro-clone had visions of Honerva going to Oriande in 6x01 “Omega Shield.” Unlike with Allura, it couldn’t be that the clone had a rift entity in him. I’m still wondering why exactly the clone was able to see Honerva in that episode. The initial blast of Allura seeing an outline of Honerva’s face made it seem like Honerva was directly trying to access Allura, but then the vision of Honerva floating down a hallway would suggest Honerva was just doing her thing and Allura was eavesdropping. Even within just a couple of seconds, this show seems to contradict itself.

The show then cuts to a total tonal dissonance by having Veronica and Iverson discussing Shiro’s win at arm-wrestling while having a “robot arm.” I really like (the barely included) Curtis in the background turned in his seat and listening to this conversation while having an adorkable smile.

So, Voltron forms, the Paladins do their joint bayard use. The animation team was clearly lazy and just reused a shot from the animation in 5x03 “Postmortem.” You can tell that it’s reused animation because Keith is currently the Black Paladin. Keith, though he has the black bayard, wears red armor. In the animation of the bayards being used here in “Knights of Light Part 1,” the user of the black bayard has black armor, just like he did in “Postmortem.” So, in this particular shot here in “Knights of Light Part 1,” that’s Shiro’s arm, not Keith’s.

Everything glows and then turns dark. Then the Paladins enter the void. Allura declares that they “must travel through that light.” Generic, but okay. She says, “The entity draws me toward it.” That implies that either the entity has some agency or that for some reason the entity is unwillingly attracted toward Honerva. (I really hate that to continue to discuss this episode, I have to accept the retcon that the Lions’/Voltron’s psychic space is not the Lions’ consciousness but some otherworld that Honerva is connected to.)

The Paladins use their suits’ jetpacks to move toward the light. I know it’s a minor matter, but they’re not physically in this location right now; they’re sitting in their Lions. So, why write them to look like they’re using their jetpacks to move through space? They get to the light, which fills the screen, and then dissipates into normal looking space. Lance says, “What is this place? It’s like I can hear what the universe is thinking.” What? This show is going to write the universe itself to be sentient? I imagine that this line really is nothing but the writers thinking they’re being profound when really it’s just them being nonsensical.

Pidge invokes the Olkari having said everything is made of the same energy. Hunk replies, “So, thoughts are linked across some kind of, what, cosmic connection?” I’m so uninterested in this. The psychic space used to seem special, that it was a manifestation of the Lions’ consciousness. Now, the void is just some generic overmind of the universe. The implication of this is that the Black Lion didn’t save Shiro’s spirit at all. If the void is not some psychic space of the Lions’ consciousness but instead is just a universal overmind, then Shiro’s spirit wasn’t being stored in the Black Lion. Shiro’s spirit was just where spirits are.

Allura has another flash headache, and then everyone else does too. They see Honerva and Merla somewhere. It looks like Oriande with how the mechas are standing in the background. Cut to Voltron’s eyes glowing.

Back in the overmind. Allura explains that “that was Honerva. The entity inside of me is connected to her.” This dialog is getting repetitive. Allura says that they now have a psychic link with Honerva. “The closer we are to her, the stronger that link.” But of course, they’re not physically closer to her, so I guess this “closer” is referencing their being psychically closer to her here in the overmind? In which case, this line of dialog becomes a tautology. Lance worries that Honerva will use this link the Paladins now have with Honerva’s mind to find them. Then they will have achieved their goal; remember, they’re doing this to find where Honerva is. Also, Honerva has enough space magic already, I doubt she needs this link to find them.

It feels really weird for Keith to say, “This isn’t just on you now, Princess.” They haven’t interacted with Allura in recognition of her as a princess in a long time. It feels strange hearing him do so now. It actually sounds kind of condescending when he says it. Keith tells them all to miscellaneously focus on Honerva’s energy. They glow. The Lions’ eyes glow. Each Paladin is shown associated to their Lions. And then the Lions are flying through space.

What is happening here? I guess the Lions aren’t actually flying anywhere, that this is somehow now them in the overmind going with the Paladins through the overmind to Honerva’s mind? But then, they fly into the distance and there’s a flash of light and the Lions are back together in Voltron. So, is this actual Voltron or some Voltron in the overmind?

This is a huge part of why I hate this episode: It so too damn confusing. I can imagine the creative team had certain specific ideas in mind when they were doing this, but they failed to tell this story clearly, and I don’t know what they were trying to tell.

Voltron looks like it’s travelling through space. There’s even planets and moons. Because Voltron actually travels through space, there’s nothing visually that allows for this to contrast with actual space if this is supposed to be Voltron traveling through the overmind.

Hunk says, “I can feel something, like an energy inside me.” And Allura says, “It’s the entity.” The entity is now in Hunk? In all the Paladins? Keith says, “It’s like a dark realization washing over.” This line does not mean anything. It’s just miscellaneous spew that the writer thinks sounds profound and ominous. It doesn’t though. Pidge says, “It’s like we’re begin pulled by a tether connected to our souls.” Again, this is nowhere near as profound as the writer thinks it is. It also places the locus of action on the entity, pulling them, rather than on the Paladins actively traversing through the overmind. It’s sort of depriving the Paladins of agency. It also doesn’t explain why the entity is being drawn toward Honerva.

They come upon what looks like a black hole. Everything goes dark, then every looks like neurons, which I assume is supposed to be Honerva’s brain. Then Voltron looks like it comes out of a light, like it’s left the neurons behind. It’s so confusing. I’m really trying to understand what this animation is actually depicting, but I don’t really know.

Voltron flies through space some more, and then everything turns dark again. And then Voltron is flying through that darkness with little bits of quintessence? floating off of it. Then Voltron separates into little colored dots. From the wide shot, you can’t tell if they’re the Lions or the Paladins. They float through blackness with more quintessence-bits floating from a glowing event horizon. The camera reorients, and the glowing Paladins land on the black surface.

I don’t know why Voltron was involved in this traversing of the overmind. What did Voltron actually do for the Paladins in this process? And why is Voltron now not part of the process? Why did it poof into just being the Paladins in the overmind again? Also, the animation already had Voltron enter what looked like a black hole, which I assumed was Honerva’s mind, but then they left it, floated through space some more, and now have arrived at what looks like another black hole. So, why was there a first black hole if that wasn’t Honerva’s mind? Whose mind did that first black hole belong to?

They stand on a surface, and Allura says that Honerva’s mind is “on the other side of this wall.” There are streaks of black with streaks of red or orange for eyes moving under the wall. Allura says, “It feels like that these are the souls that Honerva has defeated and corrupted.” Why has the show not shown us that Honerva could corrupt souls before now? (Or is corrupting a soul what she did to the clone to be able to control him? That would make it even more offensive that the Paladins described the clone as evil.) Honerva corrupting souls just comes out of nowhere. There is nothing in the show prior to this that sets-up this reveal. And, if Honerva can explicitly corrupt someone else’s soul, then how did the writers think it’s acceptable for them to expect the audience by the end of the series to view Honerva as absolved of her horrible behavior?

The show here says Honerva can corrupt souls, it has been saying for seasons now that Honerva was corrupted by quintessence poisoning, and in this episode says that Honerva was corrupted by a rift entity. It’s all a mess that does not locate motivation for character action within the character.

Spectral hands come out of the floor-wall and grab Allura first and then all the Paladins. There are a lot of hands, so there are a lot of souls that Honerva has corrupted. The Paladins, with the exception of Keith, are pulled down into the floor-wall, into Honerva’s mind. Why wasn’t Keith pulled in?

First Pidge opens her eyes and the way the place she is looks, she’s in a greenish version of what had been depicted as the Black Lion’s consciousness in 6x06 “All Good Things” when Keith spoke to Shiro’s spirit there. But Allura just said that “on the other side of this wall” was Honerva’s mind. But the visuals of this would suggest that this is the Green Lion’s consciousness. So, how is the Green Lion’s consciousness inside Honerva’s mind?

A green-outlined shadowy person with a polearm weapon appears and attacks Pidge. Cut to a yellowy-orangey area where Hunk is being attacked by a similar figure with a staff. Lance in a red area fighting one with a sword. Allura in blue and fighting one with a bow. Keith meanwhile is still on the surface of Honerva’s mind.

Pidge says, “I can’t even feel my Lion.” I still don’t understand why the animators chose to have the environments the Paladins are fighting in resemble what “All Good Things” presented as the Black Lion’s consciousness if here the Paladins are, as Pidge says, disconnected from their Lions. I don’t know if the executive producers and animators in making this episode either didn’t remember or recognize the significance of this background from when it was used in “All Good Things,” but that’s hard for me to accept as a possibility. Or if they instead thought that assigning meaning to animation like they did for this background style from “All Good Things” just didn’t matter and that they could just port over the background style and ignore the previous meaning.

In Shiro and Keith’s conversation in “All Good Things, Shiro said, “somehow the Black Lion retained my essence,” to which Keith asked Shiro, “Is that where we are, in the Black Lion’s consciousness?” So, this background style has most definitively been established as being that of the Lions’ consciousness. But now, Pidge says she “can’t even feel [her] Lion.” I just don’t know what to make of this episode. It seems so disconnected from what has come before. No wonder people think this is the result of shattering some original story and reconstituting the pieces into this confusing mess.

Allura’s attacker shoots an arrow at her. She holds out her hand, shadowy wisps float off her hand, and the arrow stops. Her eyes turn black. She screams an inhuman scream. I guess we’re supposed to think this is the rift entity acting through her?

But then glowing, spectral versions of the Lions show up in each of the four’s combat area. So, they’re supposed to be inside Honerva’s mind, though it looks like the visual style previously used to depict a Lion’s consciousness, Keith can’t get inside Honerva’s mind with the other Paladins, but the Lions can enter into Honerva’s mind to join their Paladins? The Lions roar, and the dark wisps are blown by the wind of the roar off of Allura’s eyes. The shadowy figures the Paladins have been fighting have their shadow blown off of them revealing them to be the past Paladins.

So, we’re supposed to understand that Honerva somehow corrupted the souls of the Paladins. How did she corrupt Alfor’s soul? When did she corrupt Alfor’s soul? We saw in “The Legend Begins” that Alfor was killed by Zarkon on a bridge with no one else around them.

Allura’s eyes go dark again and she screams her inhuman scream and attacks Blaytz. The Blue Lion roars again and everything goes white. Then we see Alfor giving the other old Paladins their armor and their bayards. This scene depicts Zarkon pre-quintessence poisoning, and he says, “With this much power, we will be unstoppable.” So, his being a dictatorial, genocidal conqueror was always a part of who he was. He didn’t become bad because of quintessence poisoning. So, the show using the poisoning to excuse his behavior is just offensive. This flashback scene of the old Paladins unintentionally emphasizes Zarkon’s lack of presence in this fight so far, emphasizes Keith’s exclusion from the fight.

Allura stops short of stabbing Blaytz. “It’s really you,” she says. Pidge says, “Your soul, Honerva must have—” and Hunk continues, “—trapped you here somehow.” Of course, that makes me ask, how did Honerva do this? Especially with Alfor? We’ve seen his death. When did Honerva trap the Paladins’ souls inside her own mind? And why has that never been part of the story until now? Honerva has been active in this show’s plot for the whole series. Why is it only now that her having done this is relevant? This has never been a part of anything in the story until now. It clearly was not planned as part of the overall story arc. This really is just coming out of nowhere. And that, beyond this part of the story being super confusing, is why I don’t like it. The idea that the current Paladins would have to fight the old Paladins is a really interesting premise, but there’s been no set-up to lead to this fight. There’s nothing to this that makes it feel the inevitable outcome of the events prior to now.

Like too much in this show’s story, this is a set piece. It seems conceptualized wholly independently of the story and then the story is what was written to try to force connection between set pieces. It’s why the reveal of the clone and resulting battle between Keith and Shiro had a certain grandeur to it, but there was no reason ever given in the show for why Haggar had hundreds of clones of Shiro made. That fight was a set piece that was forced into the story rather than grown out of the story. Similarly, this fight with the old Paladins doesn’t come out of the story, it’s wedged into it, the story is forced to accommodate it, and that’s why it is so disconnected to what has come before. And in being so disconnected, the moment is deprived of the emotion it could and should have.

The Lions roar once again, the souls of the old Paladins and the backgrounds fracture and light pours out of it all and everything goes to white. All of the development in this conflict comes from the Lions, so if the Lions could clean the Paladins’ souls of corruption, they why have they been sitting there in this fight waiting instead of just doing so from the moment they came into this space?

Cut to a flashback with Alfor, Gyrgan, Trigel, Blaytz, and Coran discuss how Zarkon is going to come for them. Trigel wants to fight Zarkon, but Alfor doesn’t want to risk Zarkon getting the Lions. Alfor says they’ll use the other Lions to seal the Black Lion and then send the other four to where they were until they were found at the beginning of the series. Alfor tells Coran to use the Castle of Lions to take Allura and the Black Lion away. But then, Gyrgan says, “Then it is decided: We go into battle together one last time.” Of course, that doesn’t match Alfor’s having rejected fighting when Trigel suggested it first.

Cleaned of having been corrupted by Honerva, Trigel asks, “Where am I?” Hunk answers Gyrgan, “You’re in the void, just outside of Honerva’s mind.”

One, the backgrounds still look like the Black Lion’s consciousness, but Hunk doesn’t say they’re in their respective Lions’ consciousness, he says they’re “in the void.” But then he says that they’re “just outside of Honerva’s mind.” Keith is, the rest of them are not. The rest of them were dragged under the barrier into Honerva’s mind. This show really cannot keep this straight. So, which is it? They were pulled into Honerva’s mind, but it’s outside her mind. They’re in the void, but it looks like the Lions’ consciousnesses.

Trigel says she’s glad that “someone so connected to the world around her is piloting the Green Lion.” I still don’t think this show has actually shown Pidge to be connected to nature. “My race believes observation to be the most revered attribute.” As I’ve said before in my commentaries, I really don’t like when science fiction writes aliens to be monocultures. Trigel’s race doesn’t believe anything because it was made up of a bunch of different people, who like humanity, all have a bunch of different thoughts and opinions and beliefs, or at least her race should be like that if it was written realistically. Sorry, that’s just a peeve of mine.

Blaytz tells Allura, “People often overlook me because I was,” there’s a very slight hesitation in his voice, “different.” I very much imagine that this is supposed to be a reference to Blaytz being gay. Unfortunately, this phrasing sounds to me like how a straight person would write a gay person to speak. Using the word “different” as a stand-in functions like someone who doesn’t want to get personal, which you have to do to write dialog well. It’s seems clear to me that the word “different” was chosen to avoid actually, openly talking about Blaytz’s being gay. It makes the character’s experience generic, which causes it to lose emotion and meaning. I can imagine the writer defending this dialog by saying writing it this way gives it universality, but that’s a thought that comes out of unexamined privilege. By excluding the specifics in favor of claimed universality, you deny the cause and content of the discrimination and exclusion you claim to be rejecting, and so cease to be actually rejecting anything.

Blaytz then continues talking about the Blue Lion picking him. “But the Blue Lion recognized something in me, something others couldn’t see. It saw the greatness within that even I did not.” Imagine this dialog but instead of Blaytz talking to Allura, he was talking to Lance. It would be totally fitting in theme as another step in Lance’s struggle to recognize something great within himself that even he could not see. Lance had, until it was abandoned by the writers, serious issues with self-confidence and believing himself to have value as part of the team. Even this episode hints at that abandoned element of Lance’s character back at the beginning during the meeting with Shiro when Lance expresses pleasure that calling him “the sharpshooter” is now something the team does fondly. It would have made so much more sense for Blaytz to have said this to Lance. But instead, he says, “You, Allura, have greatness within you as well.” This isn’t something she needs him to tell her since she’s hasn’t wrestled with feeling fundamentally worthless, especially once she learned Altean alchemy at Oriande. She has doubted her ability to succeed, but not her inherent worth. “You’re so much like your father, and yet so different.” This line is so cliché and so meaningless.

Lance, with his long history of insecurity, gets nothing from Alfor that supports him as a person. Instead, the show returns to having patriarchy as the governing influence of Lance’s relationship with Allura. “Through the Lion’s bond, I could feel your love for my daughter,” Alfor says. “I could feel yours as well,” Lance says. Why is this show juxtaposing the love of a father for his daughter to the love a guy feels for his girlfriend? It’s just gross. It makes Lauren Montgomery’s claims that feminism has any influence whatsoever in this show seem absolutely absurd. But then, LM thought killing Allura at the end of the series was feminist. I still cannot get over how she considered having Allura reincarnated as an infant, literally infantilizing Allura, and have her then raised by Lance. It’s so creepy.

Alfor tells Lance, “We face many quests throughout the cosmos, but the most amazing journey is that of life. And the biggest question you face is who to go on that journey with. I’m glad my daughter chose you.” So, Lance receives nothing, no personal support from his Paladin-parallel. The others tell their respective Paladins something supportive of them, but all Lance gets is Alfor’s patriarchal approval of Lance as a suitor for Allura. This is such an absolute disservice to Lance’s character.

Keith remains on the surface of Honerva’s mind, unable to get through. Then suddenly the Black Lion is there. Why did it take so long for Black to show up for Keith when the other Lions had long showed up for their Paladins? Keith gets no special moment of affirmation with a previous Paladin. It feels absolutely like he was excluded, but for no reason other than they wanted to save a conflict with Zarkon until later. But if Zarkon was corrupted the same as the other old Paladins, why wouldn’t he have attacked Keith the same as the other old Paladins attacked their current counterparts? Almost as soon as the Black Lion shows up here with Keith on the outside of Honerva’s mind, the other Lions show up here too. The other Paladins, both old and new, show up here on the floor-wall to Honerva’s mind.

Allura runs to and hugs her father. Alfor says, “It is fitting that I would find what is brightest to me in the darkest place.” This feels a bit cliché. Allura says, “All that I have done, I have done to make you proud.” Trust me, I know what it feels like to want to make a parent proud, but this is so limiting. This is Allura defining herself by her father’s acceptance rather than defining herself by her own self. It’s very patriarchal to write a young female character to define herself by her father. I just don’t like it.

There’s a headache flash, and they see Honerva looking at a mecha, one that matches the one Allura saw Lotor piloting in her vision last episode when Lotor said, “Follow me!”

Alfor says to Allura, “You hold a dark entity within you! Don’t you know how dangerous that is!” Thank you so much for your patriarchal judgement, Alfor. Allura is so stupid that she couldn’t possibly know about something being dangerous unless you chastise her for it. Also, ignore the fact that this supposed dangerousness never manifests in the story.

Alfor says, “That’s what led to Honerva and Zarkon’s end!” So, not only were they poisoned by quintessence when they went into the quintessence field in “The Legend Begins,” now the show is saying that Honerva and Zarkon became who they are because they were possessed by a rift entity? The show is really doubling down on absolving Honerva and Zarkon for being abusive, murderous, genocidal dictators for 10,000 years. Not only is it supposed to be not their fault because they were poisoned, now it’s also not their fault because they were possessed. I do not find the-devil-made-me-do-it stories even remotely interesting. This is just the creative team of this show being too cowardly to actually have their villains be villains. They don’t mind retaining their proclamation that Lotor was evil all along because declaring him to be evil was their big, desired plot twist. But they were too scared to commit to having Haggar and Zarkon as villains. For so long, both characters were written as just generic, maniacal villains. Then, I think the creative team thought they were making Zarkon and Honerva be more complex villains by saying they did the horrible things they did because of an external force (quintessence). Now, the show is just creating another way with which they can absolve the characters of the horrible things they did. But it’s not like Honerva and Zarkon just said hurtful things. They abused their son. They enslaved people. They tortured people. They murdered people. They committed genocide, murdering the population of whole planets. This is not something to forgive them for. And it’s offensive that this show is telling us to do so.

Also, if Honerva is supposed to be absolved for her actions because she was being controlled by a rift entity, how is it that the show simultaneously has Honerva affecting others through the rift entity? She was trying to kill Tova last episode through the rift entity in him. So, is the rift entity controlling Honerva, or is she controlling rift entities?

Allura says, “I am not going to be afraid to use the power I have.” She says, “We need to continue,” and someone, Lance, I think, says, “But how do we get past the wall?” Well, the spirits of the old Paladins dragged everyone but Keith beneath the wall earlier, so, try that.

Allura says, “It’s like I can feel her thoughts. The way through is with the darkness.” I don’t know how these two sentences are supposedly connected. Is this the extent of what the entity is doing for Allura, just getting her inside Honerva’s mind?

Alfor says, “Honerva went mad—” it’s annoying that the show equates mental illness with dangerousness in this line of dialog “—obsessed with darkness and power.” She was obsessed with quintessence. So, is the show now calling quintessence “darkness?” I thought quintessence was supposed to be life energy.

Allura does a touch-hand-glow and the surface beneath them glows. A light line streaks through the surface and the geometrics like that which appear around wormholes and like the ones Honerva created on Oriande when she retrieved Sincline appears beneath them all. Everything starts glowing white and they disappear from the surface.

This episode is a mess. It’s ambitious, but it’s so unwieldly. It significantly contradicts previous parts of the show, and that really, really bothers me. I don’t like how it takes what felt special (the idea that the Lions had a psychic space created by their consciousness, and that that is where the Black Lion kept Shiro’s spirit after he died) and now just makes it all be some generic universal overmind.

And I really hate that this show is now saying Honerva and Zarkon’s horrible behavior is the fault of being possessed by rift entities. Before it was the result of being poised by quintessence. Did the show forget that they had already assigned one thing to blame for their behavior other than themselves? And that is the ultimate thing that angers me about this. Both quintessence poisoning and rift entity possession are cheats. They reveal a fear of letting villains be villains. They refuse to seriously deal with the reality that these characters are horrible people. By assigning blame to an external source, now two external sources, the show prevents the villains from having to confront their behavior, and the protagonists lose the ability to condemn the behavior as the narrative manifestation of their final confrontation with the villains. The same way that these episodes keep telling us the rift entities are a threat without ever really resolving that, the series, by locating the blame for the villains actions in external sources, never resolves the villains’ actions.

[mythicallore]

Creature Feature: Flatwoods Monster

Some cases within the world of cryptozoology, UFOlogy, and the paranormal have managed to become almost legendary in their fields. These are the rockstar cases that seem to have defied all attempts to dispute or debunk them, refusing to die and managing to live on and even transcend mere eyewitness reports to become legendary. One such case that is as well known and persistent as it is mysterious is that of a very strange creature that appeared one evening in a small U.S. town amid stories of a UFO landing, and would go on to catapult itself into the annals of great cases of the paranormal.

The setting for this very bizarre tale is the small rural town of Flatwoods in Braxton County, West Virginia. It is a quiet town pretty much in the middle of nowhere, where everyone knows each other and not much typically happens, but on September 12, 1952, all that would change, and the peace would be disrupted by a world changing event for them. On this evening, at around 7:15 PM, brothers Edward and Fred May were outside playing a friendly game of football when they were surprised to see what looked like a pulsating, blazing ball of fire go streaking across the sky to come down and seemingly crash in some hilly woods at a nearby farm owned by a G. Bailey Fisher.

Not quite believing what they had just witnessed, the excited boys ran to the house of a neighbor named Kathleen May, to whom they breathlessly told of what they had seen. May gathered up a flashlight and called together a group of people composed of local children Neil Nunley and Ronnie Shaver, as well as 17-year-old West Virginia National Guardsman Eugene Lemon, to go investigate the area where the strange ball of fire had gone down, along with Lemon’s dog. As they followed the beam of the flashlight out into the night past the dancing, flickering trees they still had no idea what they were dealing with or what to expect out there, and there was a sense of apprehension and even fear as they stumbled along up a hill on the farm. Little did they know that things were about to get very bizarre indeed.

When they reached the top of the wooded hill they could see through the trees what seemed to be a pulsating red light, and they were overcome by a sudden, nauseating metallic stench that they would later describe as a “pungent mist.” In the meantime, the dog snarled and barked before retreating with its tail between its legs, leaving them stabbing about in the darkness with the flashlight beam, searching for whatever it was that had chased the animal away. As they peered through the darkness trying to make out just what the light ahead was and what lie out there in the gloom, they could see glinting in the light of the flashlight what looked like the shining eyes of some nocturnal animal, but it soon became apparent that this was no animal any of them had ever seen before.

The mysterious eyes seemed to be set within a massive humanoid figure standing around 10 feet tall, with a round, fiery red face with glowing yellow eyes set within it, framed in some sort of hood or cowl shaped like “the ace of spades” embedded with flickering lights, and possessing small clawed hands, and a dark green, possibly black cylindrical body with what appeared to be folds upon it like some sort of draped fabric or molded metal, the whole of which was wreathed in some mist or fog. None of them got much of a chance to examine it for too long, because after a few moments whatever the entity was emitted “something between a hiss and a high-pitched squeal,” and then glided right towards them with a “thumping, throbbing noise” to send the terrified witnesses running for their lives down the hill, dropping the flashlight in the process to send them into near total darkness. Upon returning home they would all experience severe nausea, swelling of the throat, and even convulsions, compared with the symptoms of mustard gas by the doctor who examined them.

The next day, local law enforcement checked out the site of the purported incident, but were unable to find any corroborating evidence for anything the group said they had seen. There was no trace of any pulsing light, no sign of the creature or its odiferous stench, and nothing at all to suggest anything out of the ordinary. That was the official consensus, but of course word got out and it was not long at all before the media was stoking the fires of UFO rumors by claiming that signs of a landing, such as “skid marks” and an “odd, gummy deposit,” as well as strange pieces of a plastic like material, had been found at the scene by a reporter named A. Lee Stewart, Jr., and it was also discovered that numerous people in the area had also seen an object streak across the sky on the night in question. The case took off as a real UFO landing, and the media went with it, splashing it all over newspapers as various UFO enthusiasts and paranormal investigators descended on the area as well, including esteemed Fortean writers Gray Barker, Ivan T. Sanderson, and John Keel arriving to investigate.

Various strange accounts began to come out of the woodwork at the time, such as one woman who claimed to have seen the same monster that had been described just a few weeks before, and another witness who said that her house had reverberated and been shaken by some mysterious force on the night in question. Another report came from a couple who claimed that just hours after the original sighting they had been driving down the highway when they had noticed a horrible metallic smell and been assaulted with what felt like an electrical charge, before witnessing an otherworldly reptilian creature float across the road in front of them.

There were other odd accounts as well. Mrs. May would claim that the day after the incident she had been approached at her home by two mysterious men who said they were reporters and had asked to be shown the site, after which they would emerge from the trees with strange oily stains on their clothes. In later years even more strange accounts would surface, such as a commander of the West Virginia National Guard named Captain Dale Leavitt, who in the 1990s would say that he had examined the area with 50 Air Force personnel after the “crash” and find an oily substance and a mysterious “6m circle of depressed grass.”

There would also turn out to have been numerous other sightings of UFOs on the night of September 12 across several states. Indeed, in an account compiled by investigator Frank Feschino, Jr. in 2004, there would be hundreds of reports of unidentified flying objects and landings reported on from the same night as the incident. Adding to all of this were the odd physical symptoms reported by the witnesses and their doctors, as well as the subsequent strange death of the dog who had been with them, which allegedly began vomiting uncontrollably and dropped dead for no clear reason. All things told, the weird incident sparked UFOmania in the small rural town, and many were convinced that what had been seen was an actual alien spacecraft landing and its unearthly occupant. Indeed, Ivan T. Sanderson was sure that this was the case, and that the numerous other UFO reports from the same time frame implied perhaps a whole fleet of the objects passing the area.

In the years after the Flatwoods encounter the original witnesses would stick by their story, insisting on what they had seen, and it became one of the most famous alien encounters in the annals of the paranormal. So what was it they saw out there? What was that light, the noxious odor, and indeed that looming, glowing eyed beast? What connection did this have to the lights that so many people saw shooting across the sky on that same exact evening? Just what is going on with the case of the Flatwoods Monster? That depends a lot on who you ask.

A very persuasive skeptical argument is that the whole mysterious event is the result of a unique convergence of a mixture of misidentification and coincidence. In this theory the light, or lights as the case is often described, was perhaps a meteor, which was mistakenly thought to have crashed behind that wooded hill by the witnesses. There were indeed many people who reported the light seen as not a UFO, but as a meteor, so perhaps the witnesses saw this celestial event and jumped to a different conclusion. They then warily went up that dark hill in a state of fear, the atmosphere made more ominous by a blanket of fog that was covering the area at the time. In this state of dread, they saw one of the three aircraft warning hazard beacons in the area visible from that hill, and considering the meteor they had seen mistook it for a UFO.

But what about the horrible monster they saw, you ask? The skeptical take on it is that this was no monster at all, but rather a large barn owl perched atop a high branch. In the murky darkness, with fear pervading the air and low visibility and that sinister light visible through the trees, the witnesses misidentified the owl and its perch as being part of a single entity. The owl, just as startled as the witnesses, had then flown off past them into the night, letting out one of the bird’s distinctive shrill cries in the process. In their panic and surprise, the witnesses had mistaken it for an alien entity flying towards them, sending them running. Many of the features of a barn owl match up with the description of the creature, and looking at artistic representations comparing the monster and an owl it is easy to see the similarities, especially considering that they had only seen it fleetingly for a few moments in dim lighting before fleeing in terror.

This all seems to make sense so far, but then we are left to ask just what about the other evidence found, such as the oily residue and the strange track marks? Some have pointed out that these tracks could have been caused by a tractor that was in the area at around the time of the sighting, the oil perhaps leaking from it, or even from the truck of a local man who had gone driving through hoping to see the creature. The foul odor had been suggested as being exuded by a type of grass native to the area with a distinctive smell. And the negative physical symptoms are claimed by skeptics to have been simply caused by deep fear and over exertion. Skeptic Joe Nickell wrote a whole deconstruction of the case for the Skeptical Enquirer, which you can read here, and it is so convincing that even many paranormal researchers and UFOlogists have conceded that this is probably what actually happened.

Joe Nickell’s sketch comparing a barn owl and the alleged “monster”

It certainly seems to be open and shut when looking at all of the clues and evidence that this may have just been one big misunderstanding seen through the lens of anxiety and fear, later sensationalized by the media and embellished with countless books and articles in the lore of the paranormal. Yet there are many who think that the case is far from solved, pointing out that there are still aspects that don’t fit in neatly with the skeptical theory, such as the pulsing quality of the “meteor” and the fact that a whole group of people saw the creature and maintained that it was no owl.

Whatever the answer may be, whether this was some alien entity or the product of misidentification and overactive imaginations, the tale of the Flatwoods Monster still gets plenty of play in paranormal circles, and is still talked about and debated to this day. It has become such a legendary case that the town of Flatwoods has a museum dedicated to the creature and an annual weekend festival to commemorate it called “Flatwoods Days,” which features live music, and food and craft vendors. There is even a sign on the road leading into town that reads “Welcome to Flatwoods / Home of the Green Monster,” so it seems that whatever the Flatwoods Monster was or wherever it went, it has been ingrained in the town’s culture and in the world of Forteana, and in a sense is here to stay.

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket, SE02, Ep19

A rare ep divided between mom-tohru & real-girl/woman tohru!

-The sohma’s moma role (ending?) :

Once again tohru is shown as a mother figure. I know this is the backbone of the show & reason of its existence, but it’s been dragged so long now! It’s time the show graduates from this concept & moves on to deeper analysis of the characters. But since the writer impersonates yuki most of the time, I think the show/story itself will stop playing/showing mama-tohru card when yuki moves on/admits his feelings. Yuki can grow in front of our eyes but tohru won’t be allowed much growth unless her mama role is done completely. Kinda similar to a young mom raising kids, once they grow up, the mom will start to see herself as a person with interests, excepts tohru isn’t really the sohma’s mother, so the longer it takes to move her character beyond this role, the longer this role itself becomes stale & known as long last impression. However, it is promising that this is a first where a person finds motherly love in tohru yet sees her as teen/equal/friend in the same ep they discover her motherly charm!, so I guess the story/ show is getting ready to let go of moma-tohru & welcomes woman-tohru!! Moreover, this ep is divided between tohru & rin as equals! Rin acknowledges tohru’s motherly appeal but she quickly moves from it, since rin herself is treated as an adult within the show (intimate with haru), so her initial child-like attachment to tohru is treated as rin needing one last hug/break down before she reconciles/lets go of her motherly issues. We see the result right away, all rin’s interactions with tohru is based on equality as BOTH bush each other in a unique way within tohru’s journey in sohma land.

-New bond with new friend (female power!):

Tohru is the person with most friendships in furuba. Each of these friendships are unique with the other person. There are friendships with motherly/ dependent hint as of yet in the story: yuki/kisa, friendships strengthened by kyoko: hana/arisa, light friendships: haru/hiro, equal friendships: kyo/momiji (It shocked me looking back at momiji’s friendship with tohru! he was never dependent on her & he shared time & interests with her! cute lil boy!). so why is tohru’s friendship with rin any different? Tohru befriends rin based on mutual feelings of loneliness & abandonment at first, then mutual goal, mutual strong desire to fight & protect loved-ones, mutual stubbornness & mutual need to keep the quest hidden from others. The biggest differences between hana/arisa friendship with tohru & rin’s is that the former was established in the tender age of early teens & fueled by the three’s admiration & attachment to kyoko. Hana/arisa tend to care for tohru & shower her with love, pretend to not see her mask, respect the distance tohru puts in her heart, fight for her at times & always try to protect her which is awesome & sisterhood goals! but rin is different. Rin acknowledges tohru’s weakness & doesn’t see it as cute or endearing!. Seeing someone being overly kind for their own good breaks rin, she hates seeing such kind ppl taken advantage of, she challenges tohru with care wrapped in harshness, she fights back tohru’s tendency to take care of her & isn’t afraid of scratching tohru’s mask by stating the truth! Rin is harshly frank & doesn’t sugar coat her words. (sth she shares with kyo). Moreover Rin’s friendship is sth tohru makes in her youth/early adulthood years. soon, tohru is becoming an adult woman who needs to stand up for herself & her desires in the harsh world & fight back to get what she wants. It is amazing that the story is acknowledging the importance of new bonds without belittling old ones. Tohru’s friendship with rin shouldn’t be compared or put above or under her other friendships. We need/give different things from/to different ppl. I love that!

-Tohru the Real Woman:

While the ep contained a moma-tohru reference, tohru was more herself than most eps so far!! her inner thoughts were blocked again but she was given space to interact with others, a space to be a girl/a woman! Glimpses of tohru’s real character with hints of growth!! was shown this ep:

She yelled at rin demanding answers. Didn’t like to be pushed over or ignored!! YES! Showed rin that she too has things to fight for. She stood her ground to the point of making the boys leave their rooms shocked! tohru shouting & demanding selfish needs & fighting shrewdly!! “I have things I can’t give up, just as you do” You go girl!!

She interacted with kyo like normal teenage girl in love for the 1st time pleased with how much he was paying attention tor her & they flirted openly like the young dorky oblivious teenagers they are!

She talked frankly with rin abt the curse & the two bonded over their desire to break it without teaming up together. Rin wouldn't want to endanger another “haru”.

Tohru’s core was shaken with one direct question triggering past/deeply buried trauma. we saw glimpses of real vulnerable tohru as opposed to the bright always 100% optimistic persona introduced since SE01.

-Tohru’s Mother nightmare:

That was chilling, creepy & weird. it was triggered with rin’s “why do you want to break the curse?” which is odd cuz we know tohru wants to save the zodiacs, then “ what can’t you give up? What’s the most precious to you?”..then Akito is shown... weird!!! if her mom was shown, as she’s the most precious to her, then, fine. If kyo is shown, I’d say perhaps he’s the new most precious to her?.. but Akito?? Obviously, Akito’s pic doesn’t mean she’s the most precious o tohru. perhaps it calls to sth Akito said?...what tho??.. that day they only talked abt kyo’s confinement, & zodiac never ending banquet... I don’t get it? what’s so triggering abt a speech Akito said ages ago & tohru moved from it since then. Why NOW it is triggering?

-The nightmare tells us YES, her mom is the most precious.. why Akito mattered then?? The nightmare showed that tohru still hasn’t moved on from her mom’s death & perhaps still feels guilt, which is very common for ppl who suddenly lost a loved one. The “if only I said goodbye, if only I kissed you one last time or even worse if only we didn’t fight that day”... al these guilty feelings are common symptoms of not letting go yet. But what comes after the nightmare is the chilling part! Her haunting face.. what is tohru looking for outside her door? she’s trying to see if her mom is still there? ouch!

-Rin’s monologue/voice-over is giving us exposition of what tohru is feeling & what she needs. Rin notes that tohru is falling apart & breaking down. Baring the burden of everybody’s pain on top of her own buried lid! Tohru needs a haru-like person. someone who sees the real her as haru saw the real tormented rin. someone who smiles warmly for her & gently pushes her forward. Oh I get it now! Rin said tohru needs someone who opens the door! we saw tohru herself open the door after the dream. meaning that this person is yet to be admitted in tohru’s life! Off course we know it is kyo~ duh~ but it’s not this easy or simple. Tohru needs to acknowledge kyo as this person even if he really is. Her realization is her door to opening the lid.

Side Notes:

I know that the scene of kyo/tohru flirting is shown from yuki’s perspective & is essentially made to be used to further yuki’s development abt his own growth & how he sees tohru vs how kyo sees her. but I really wished that visually the scene would be given double importance. show it from yuki’s perspective & show it from tohru’s. You can do that. You actually can show multiple characters equally in one scene & hit two birds with one stone. further yuki’s growth & show us glimpses of tohru’s. Not everything regarding tohru’s development needs be shelved for later. We saw kyo’s face, but the scene moved quickly & tohru was giving her back to yuki when she blushed meaning giving her back to us. (don’t mind me, just slightly disappointed abt tohru NON-mom-mode screen time/focus that could’ve been adjusted better). no big deal..T_T.

Yuki got a mother-nightmare. Then tohru, does this mean kyo will have one too? Does this mean that their lid opening will follow the order of the nightmare appearance? yuki,then tohru, then kyo?

Haru acknowledging, blessing yuki’s growth & new friendships is cute!

I hope this isn’t the last time we touch upon tohru’s personal feelings this season. Give me hints, symbolism. Doesn’t have to be full story. T_T.

I hate/love how hot shigure is!

Shihure’s “ the sound of breaking” is epic! his schemes are paying off & he knows it. My wish is for the curse is to break without any magic involved or any big thing tohru needs to do! it would be best if it even breaks without tohru!!!! I kinda feel a hint of “depend on yourself for your wishes” subtle theme here, so tohru breaking the curse for the sohma’s negate that. Moreover, the hell with the curse & the sohmas!!!! why should tohru bear others’ burden till her last appearance in the show! I want her to let go of everything & focus on herself!! what SHE wants/needs for HERSELF! That’s an epic message for a self-denying & excessively altruistic character like tohru! but yeah..seems it’s curse-breaker tohru story.

Haru wearing kyo’s red shirt!!! which means that is after, Se01, ep.9. he wasn’t a high school-er then. (I’m not gonna calculate how old was he when they did it. lol)

I relate to rin’s feeling towards overly kind ppl!

I don’t like tohru’s elementary style pigtails in an ep where she’s more womanly than she’s ever allowed to so far..=/. Nothing against woman doing pigtails!! but we are speaking abt using visuals to express change in character & growth! C’mon show!! however, I’ll give them credit for drawing tohru more grownup/older/mature in her hospital walk scene with rin. =D! plus her clothes are awesome! 

Who thought that the kindest, cutest & most precious character would say the most cryptic, haunting & chilling words “ together..always”.. tohru continues to hide her pain.

[mindthump]

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino: 'We’re not doing this ever again' https://ift.tt/33hEQTi

‘Hi guys and girls,” says Al Pacino brightly, making his entrance. He is sporting a veteran-boho look: what seems like about six black cardigans on top of each other, lots of chunky finger jewellery and messy bird’s-nest hair. There may even be one of those two-inch ponytails that were popular in the late 80s in there somewhere – it is hard to see in the general tonsorial disorder.

Next to stroll in is Robert De Niro, who – in dramatic contrast – looks like he has come in from a round of golf: shirt and sports jacket, grey-white hair slicked back. Welcome, then, to the Al and Bob show.

Observing them here, in an intimate room full of selected journalists, you see how their personalities contrast as much as their dress sense. Pacino speaks in a barely audible bass rumble and is not short of waffle; De Niro, while not exactly monosyllabic, spends as much time nodding with his distinctive pursed-mouth underbite and says as little as he can get away with. That is, until we got on to the matter of a certain US president, of which more later.

The pair – the film industry’s equivalent of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – are bona fide living legends, the greatest US actors of their generation, able to wipe the floor with modern lightweights such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Daniel Day-Lewis. Or that is what we would like to believe, anyway. Today, they have rolled into London as the main attraction on the press roadshow for The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s monumental new gangster picture – and there is a lot to get through. “Wow,” says Pacino at one point, casting his mind back across the pair’s career-long relationship. “We’ve known each other for a really long time.”

For years, The Irishman was little more than a rumour; plagued by delays, distractions and drop-outs, it looked odds-on never to make it out of the starting gate. But, like a wiseguy fitted with a cement overcoat, it has landed thunderously in the middle of the autumn season, blowing away the rest of the awards-bait dross.

The Irishman is the fourth in Scorsese’s series of epic mafia pictures, following Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino; it is the latest variant of Scorsese’s reinvention of mob life as an agonised stations of the cross. It is also the wintriest of character studies, contemplating (like Scorsese’s last film, Silence) the approach of death with equanimity. The CGI that Scorsese added to “de-age” his actors, and the deal that the director made with Netflix to fund it, has unexpectedly put his film in the same camp as cutting-edge industry disrupters. Scorsese himself has acquired new cultural currency in recent months: the naked homage/appropriation by the makers of Joker has driven attention to his string of 70s masterworks, while his dismissive comments about superhero movies (“not cinema”) – the first shots in the publicity campaign for The Irishman, as it happens – ignited a social media firestorm that is yet to die down.

Yet, more fundamental than any of this is the sense that The Irishman is a landmark reunion of the old neighbourhood: a last gathering of the clans, a final get-together before age and time overtakes them. Harvey Keitel and Joe Pesci play ageing mob bosses, Pacino is a notorious union boss, Jimmy Hoffa, and De Niro is the Irishman, ice-cold real-life hitman Frank Sheeran. The Irishman turns on the relationship between Hoffa, whose disappearance and presumed murder in 1975 remains unsolved, and Sheeran, a hitherto little-known mob figure who confessed to killing Hoffa, his longtime friend, to the lawyer Charles Brandt, who included it in his 2004 biography of Sheeran, I Heard You Paint Houses. Hoffa and Sheeran provide suitably substantial figures for Pacino and De Niro to renew their on-screen confrontation, most vividly portrayed in the 1995 Michael Man thriller Heat (the 2008 cop comedy Righteous Kill was slightly less memorable).

Pacino says they met in 1968; at the time, Pacino was a firebrand stage actor yet to feature in films, while De Niro was doing wacky avant-garde movies such as Brian De Palma’s Greetings. “Early on in our careers, we connected from time to time and we found we had similar things happening to us,” says Pacino. “Our lives took on a whole different kind of thing.” It was camaraderie, he says, that “got us together”.

Looking back, their acting careers did seem to blossom with a mysterious symbiosis. Both acquired a reputation in their teens as a troublemaker: De Niro spent much of his youth in Little Italy, Manhattan; Pacino, three years older, grew up in the Bronx. Both scored major breakthroughs in the early 70s courtesy of the Italian-American presence in the Hollywood new wave: Pacino as the flint-hearted capo-in-waiting in Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster epic The Godfather in 1972, De Niro as a knockaround guy in Scorsese’s Mean Streets a year later. The two appeared in the same film for the first time, although not together, in Coppola’s Godfather sequel in 1974: De Niro played the young version of Pacino’s father.

Sometimes I feel I know nothing about acting. Until you start. That's what's exciting for me

Al Pacino

Pacino gets a little dewy eyed; he looks a bit like a panda with a secret sorrow. “We’re really close. We don’t see each other very much, but when we do, we found we shared certain things. In a way, I think we’ve helped each other throughout life.” The thought of Tony Montana chewing things over with Jake LaMotta is not an image to trifle with. De Niro nods away, bottom lip almost wobbling, but there is no stopping Pacino. Their off-screen friendship, he says, has fed into their acting; in Heat, he says, “we were at opposite ends”, whereas “we were close” on Righteous Kill. They “had a chance to explore that again” on The Irishman: the relationship between Hoffa and Sheeran, who were friends for years before Sheeran’s betrayal, is the nub of the film. “I don’t think we talked about it consciously. It came relatively easy, as those things go.”

When it is his turn to talk, De Niro is all business. The Irishman, it would appear, is as much his show as Scorsese’s. He explains how he nagged Pesci on to the film, despite him having all but retired: “I said: ‘Come on, we’re not going to do this ever again.’” Sentiment is not his thing. “It was tough enough to get it done, to get the money to do it and everything. I don’t see us putting on a movie like this. I hope we do other films together, but like this? Not likely. This is it.”

Much ink has been spilled over the years on the De Niro-Scorsese axis, as well as the De Niro-Pacino one. But, bizarrely enough, Pacino and Scorsese had never worked together before. For two such high-profile princes of the Italian-American sensibility, that feels like a mistake. “I know,” rumbles Pacino, leaning in and turning worldly-wise. “Like everything in this business, if you’ve been in it for a while, you realise that things get started, but then they go in different places and they don’t always culminate in a film. A couple of times, Marty and I were going to do something together, then they slip away.” He mentions a Modigliani biopic he and Scorsese worked on in the 80s, which they tried and failed to get financed. “Happens all the time.”

De Niro was the key in finally getting The Irishman off the ground. He and Scorsese had been mulling another project about a retired hitman for years, The Winter of Frankie Machine, adapted from the 2006 novel of the same name by Don Winslow. As it was gearing up, De Niro was directing his second film, The Good Shepherd, about the early days of the CIA; that film’s writer, Eric Roth, gave him a copy of Brandt’s Sheeran book as research. After reading it, De Niro took it straight to Scorsese. Just as Frankie Machine was about to get the green light from Paramount, Scorsese did the unthinkable: he walked away and started over again.

More Scorsese films intervened – Shutter Island, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence – before schedules and money aligned and The Irishman could start shooting. For half a decade, De Niro says, the only relic of the film was a now-legendary table read in 2012, “just to have it documented so it could be shown to anybody who was interested”. Every now and then, De Niro says, Pacino “would call me and ask: ‘Is it happening?’ I’d say: ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s happening.’ But it took a long time.”

So long, in fact, that they started to get too old to play their roles as originally conceived. Both actors are well into their eighth decade: Pacino is 79, De Niro 76. Scorsese had been clear that he did not want to use different actors for their middle-aged selves, who dominate the film’s scenes. Enter the “de-ageing” CGI technology. “Netflix came in and paid for the process,” De Niro says. “It helped us all along.”

Did they get the willies confronting their younger versions? Sheepish guffaws ensue. “What do you think?” asks De Niro. “Don’t we all?” replies Pacino. Do they still enjoy the job? De Niro is pithy: “It’s different, but I like it just as much.” Pacino goes long: “It sort of depends on what you’re doing,” he says. “I hate to say it, but you can go 20 years between inspirations.” He stops for a moment, baffled by his own eloquence. “Bear with me – I’m going through the bushes here and I’ll come out with something.” He says he is always on the lookout “to find something that you really connect to, you really want to do”. A lot of the acting he does is “work-rest”, he says, so he can “get back to looking around and seeing what’s out there”.

We have a gangster president who thinks he can do anything he wants

Robert De Niro

De Niro nods along furiously. Pacino is in the groove. “Sometimes I feel I know nothing about acting. Until you start. That’s what’s exciting for me. A new character. I often say: ‘Desire is more motivating than talent.’ I’ve seen people with great desire take it through. The truth is, it’s the same thing that is always was: you are feeling this new character, this new person, this new story.” As he grinds to a halt, Pacino looks pleased: he has come out with something all right. It is a great manifesto for a living legend.

As the encounter starts to wind down, one big question – arguably the biggest – remains unasked. If it is about anything, The Irishman is about the gangsterisation of US politics, how the Cosa Nostra exploited opportunities to corrupt the electoral process and organised labour. Two big killings – those of John F Kennedy and Hoffa – are characterised as the outcome of mafia intervention in the political sphere. Some might say the US is still living with the legacy; as De Niro’s version of Sheeran likes to say: “It is what it is.” De Niro has a record on this: we know he hates Trump and has called him out time after time. But the way he suddenly takes over the room is amazing to behold: eyes like gun-sights, he gives Trump both barrels. “We have a real, immediate problem in that we have a gangster president who thinks he can do anything he wants.” De Niro is livid; Pacino knows to keep quiet. “If he actually gets away with it, then we all have a problem. The gall of the people around him who actually defend him, these Republicans, is appalling.” He does not call Trump a “mook”, but he may as well have.

Instead, he has a message for the press: “It’s a resentment of people like you guys, writing about what you see is obvious gangsterism. They don’t like that, so they say: ‘Fuck you, we’re going to teach you people.’ And they have to know they’re going to be taught.” This is De Niro unfiltered, and it is thrilling to experience it at close quarters. Does he think Trump will go to jail? “Oh, I can’t wait to see him in jail. I don’t want him to die. I want him to go to jail.”

And with that the Al and Bob show closes. De Niro abruptly resumes his affable persona and says goodbye; he and Pacino are swiftly escorted out. Trump – we can but hope – is quaking in his boots. But The Irishman roadshow rolls on. It is what it is.

The Irishman is released in UK cinemas on 8 November and is on Netflix from 27 November