#point is I rarely have scripts for certain sections and I now have a script for a sliver of a section so that’s a win

[hana-bobo-finch]

Shoutout to this draft I made a couple hours ago when I suddenly had an epiphany for how I could fix a part of my story and I was so excited that the only way I could express it is to write whatever this is but I couldn’t post it because I didn’t have internet

also it got marked as mature for some reason

[thegildedbee]

Fire/Night: May 20 & 21 Prompts from @calaisreno

[This current chapter and the previous ones are on Ao3.]

............................................................................................... As he begins to step off the train, Sherlock uncurls his fingers to let his mobile slide from his hand into the open space between the train carriage and the pavement's edge — although he’s removed the sim card, best not to have anything to hand that has an identification number since he's unsure as to what dangers lie ahead. He’s now untethered from communications, and about to step out onto a naked stage to begin a scene for which he does not have a script, although others surely do. He looks about with a keen eye, seeking to identify his contact – ah, there he is, it seems, a man perhaps a decade younger than himself, dressed neatly but inconspicuously, in black jeans and a heavy navy wool jacket, the asymmetrical opening buttoned closed at the shoulder. Sherlock inclines his head, as does the other man in response.

When Sherlock nears the path leading to the car park, the man toward whom he’s heading begins unfastening the coat, causing Sherlock to slow his stride and shift his weight, looking stealthily toward his left to identify any obstacles should he suddenly need to begin an evasive maneuver.

The man shakes his head slightly, and places his hand, fingers spread and pressed flat against his heart, for a brief moment, and then holds up his index finger. Looking closely, Sherlock sees that he is wearing a vibrant blue shirt, patterned with silver-outlined cranes. He calms, and awards points to his contact; nice touch, that. Although he subtracts points for needlessly tripping the threat alarm of a person on approach.

“Dr. Scott?” the stranger inquires, clearly expecting the nod of confirmation that Sherlock gives; he seems to have been at least minimally briefed. Sherlock hopes that this means they’re not flying blind.

“Greetings, sir. I am Ceba Trungpa, education section head of The Council for the Preservation of Sacred Cranes, at your service – I am here to help you complete your itinerary for the day,” he says pleasantly, speaking in Mandarin. With two hands, he holds out his business card and bows slightly; Sherlock accepts the card in the same manner, including responding with a careful bow. The front, written in English, is straightforward: name, title, organization. These words also appear on the back, although this time in Mandarin, and in a smaller font, to make room for some additional lines, which look to be numbers related to addresses and mobile contact details. Shorn of the letters, however, Sherlock decodes the numerals as indicating map coordinates; it’s not likely to be a coincidence, for the result works out to be roughly five miles from where they now stand, in a slightly northeasterly direction. He scrutinizes the card further, but concludes that he’s extracted all the information to be had, which leaves him only marginally less in the dark.

“I am grateful for your assistance, Mr. Trungpa,” Sherlock replies, also in Mandarin. “As you have been informed, I have come from Shigatse, where, out in the field, I was honored to have seen four pairs of the noble black-necked crane nesting safely. A rare privilege.”

Trungpa does up his coat, and nods his head. “Indeed, you are quite fortunate to have been absent from Lhasa in such safe surroundings, and to have been able to view such a high-priority scene -- a very fine outcome,” he says blandly, with an affable smile. “Black-necked cranes are remarkable creatures, as you know. Beautiful and fascinating in themselves, but also a flagship species for assessing the environmental status of the Tibetan plateau. Your photographs and field observations are most welcome, and it is certain that they will be of significant interest to many.” He gestures toward the car park. “If you are ready to join me, please come this way; my vehicle is at the far end from where we are – the jeep near the entrance. Do you see?”

“Yes, I do. Thank you. If I may, what is our itinerary?”

“Of course. You are to finish your day by visiting Drak Yerpa, a Buddhist pilgrimage site, located in a valley on the northern bank of the Kyichu. It will take us perhaps an hour to arrive there. It consists of a monastery and a number of ancient meditation caves, carved into the steep limestone cliffs. As you may have read, it was created in the seventh century, and at one time housed several hundred monks. Nearly all was destroyed when the Chinese came; but the caves remain, and there has been rebuilding. In our own time, ten monks have permission from the authorities to be in residence. I can assure you that it is a remarkable introduction to the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.”

Sherlock takes this in, wondering what advantage will be gained by this turn of events. “This sounds most intriguing. I thank you for this opportunity for enlightenment.”

Trungpa halts briefly, looking closely at Sherlock with an air of gravity as he also comes to a stop. "It was thought this would be an excellent place for you to begin your departure from Lhasa. In addition to exploring the site, there are many interesting bird species in the area – pheasants, finches, sparrows, larks, partridges, geese, vultures.”

“I see,” Sherlock says slowly, not sure that he does. If the man is an operative of some sort, he is giving almost nothing away; he is doing a commendable job of seeming to be nothing more than what his putative business card says he is.

“Am I correct that I will be required to trek beyond the monastery site itself in quest of these sights?”

“Yes, you are indeed correct. In particular, if you proceed some distance away, after dusk you will encounter a Blackhawk.”

And there it is, Sherlock thinks to himself, the sum and substance of this foray. He tries to convey by the slight nod of his head that he understands the import of that last statement.

"And will you be joining me for that later portion of the schedule?” he says mildly, mentally inching his way toward a determination of what the mechanics will be that bring his visit to Tibet to its end. He is very nearly sure that these developments are being overseen by his brother, but he remains wary of assuming too much, too soon, lest he make a ruinous error.

Trungpa begins moving forward, and bids Sherlock continue with him. "I regret to say that will not be possible. I will be leaving near 17.30, when Drak Yerpa closes for visitation. Prior to this I will convey information regarding which direction it would be most profitable for you to proceed in order to have maximum success.”

When they reach the vehicle, Trungpa indicates that Sherlock should seat himself in the back, while he takes the wheel. Once they are both settled, he adds, “I should note that the elevation will increase another one thousand metres as compared to our current altitude. You will need to pace yourself accordingly. For now, please, just sit back and rest.”

The barest of outlines seems to be coming into view, Sherlock muses; he will need to hike a mile or so beyond the caves, using his compass to find the exact placement. If he has not been deceived – either deliberately, or through his own miscalculation – a Blackhawk helicopter will arrive to extract him soon after nightfall.

“That is excellent advice. I have indeed found the altitude to be challenging.” Contemplating the rendezvous to come, he asks, casually, “Are there 'bears' in the vicinity? Would one need to have some sort of weapon to hand?” He carries several, not least an intimidating knife concealed in his right boot. Best to know if trouble is expected.

“According to my current information, it is highly unlikely, and you need not concern yourself with such a scenario,” Trungpa answers, making eye contact with Sherlock in the mirror. He turns slightly to look at him person, his eyes taking on a teasing glint. “Nor do you need fear encountering a Yeti.”

“Good to know,” Sherlock says with a chuckle. He settles back into the seat, and pulls a banknote from a trouser pocket, and in self-soothing gestures, folds it, then unfolds it, smooths it out, and then folds it again to occupy his hands. He closes his eyes, and internally surveys the disordered pathway to the Asian museum exhibit space in his mind palace.

On the passing of the half-hour, he opens his eyes, and scans the passing landscape of grazing yaks and small farms amidst the winding roadway. He wishes he knew more specifically the cause of the instruction that he steer clear of his hotel, and to continue on as Dr. William Scott, rather than re-inhabiting Gabriel Vernet's persona. He has been careful to try and keep under the radar of Moriarty's network by engaging only lower and middle level confederates to date, and by spreading his efforts widely, dispersed across great distances. He has been keen to avoid establishing data points that might make a pattern of effort evident, attracting attention from the leadership, and prompting reconsiderations of his status as deceased. He is anxious to learn what he may have done wrong, and whether it will affect what comes next.

Upon their arrival, Trungpa suggests they stop at the teahouse situated below the cave complex. Although his stomach is reluctant to receive food, Sherlock knows that eating at least a small meal will help fortify him for whatever complications may lie ahead, and so he chooses some meat and cheese dumplings and sweet tea. As he watches Trungpa pay up front for their orders, he catches a glimpse of a piece of paper being passed to him, and reminds himself to stay alert.

During their long climb to the caves, and then as they tread along the extensive trail that connects them, they cross paths with very few people. As a guide, Trungpa is quite knowledgeable, explaining the meanings behind various statues and wall paintings, as well as stories that have been handed down from past centuries that assign specific caves to having been inhabited by particular holy men for years in meditative retreat.

It is said that one of these very monks from the ninth century spent years in solitary meditation in one of the caves, until mounting a horse and riding to the emperor's palace, where he shot an arrow through the heart of the man who would be the last ruler of the Tibetan empire, assassinated for his hostility to Buddhism, his death ushering in what came to be known as the Era of Fragmentation. Trungpa relates that he then returned to spend further years in meditation, having eluded capture by escaping to the riverbank, whereupon he reversed his black robe so that the white lining was now visible, and in wading his horse through the river, the charcoal he had used to color the animal black was washed away. There is another tale, which gives the horse's name as Silver Blaze, in honor of the speed with which his hooves pounded across the plateau, as swift as a flashing sword. Sherlock senses that his companion is particularly invested in this story, and he wonders if it resonates as more than sacred history, but also as an image that symbolizes a vein of resistance to the Chinese occupation of what their leaders style as the Autonomous Region of Tibet.

As they approach one of the furthest caves, Trungpa indicates that they should move behind a crag a short distance beyond, which will shield them from view. It is a location that opens out onto rocky terrain, which Sherlock grasps is where he will begin his trek. His guide verifies that the business card reveals map coordinates, and gives Sherlock a basic orientation to the topography that lies before him. He shakes Sherlock’s hand, and passes on the paper that he had received below. He has been told that the message contains no information of immediate necessity, and suggests that Sherlock make haste to move toward the meeting point, and only then, when safely arrived, read the message. He then speaks several sentences in Tibetan, places the palms of his hands together and bows, and lastly uses English to ask that the next phase of Sherlock's journey be auspicious, safe, and marked by good fortune.

Sherlock draws out a leather wallet and places the paper inside, and then draws a paper object of his own from his jacket pocket. He presents Trungpa with the banknote that he had been toying with inside the jeep, which he had fashioned into an origami crane. He, too, bids his companion safe travels and good fortune, and bows, and then swiftly sets to make his way without looking back. The sun is beginning to dip below the horizon, casting long bruise-colored shadows from the slopes of the mountains, while at the same time coloring the snow-covered peaks as if they are on fire.

He hopes that his camouflaged field jacket will aid him in making his way to the site without being noticed, until the night's sweeping robe of darkness hides him from view, as he waits to meet whatever fate has in store for him.

........................................................

@calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @friday411 @peanitbear @original-welovethebeekeeper

@helloliriels @a-victorian-girl @keirgreeneyes @starrla89 @naefelldaurk

@topsyturvy-turtely @lisbeth-kk @raina-at @jobooksncoffee @meetinginsamarra

@solarmama-plantsareneat @bluebellofbakerstreet @dragonnan @safedistancefrombeingsmart @jolieblack

@msladysmith @ninasnakie @riversong912 @dapetty

.............................................................................

[bespokeredmayne]

Introspection

Eddie Redmayne is nothing if not thoughtful about his career choices, + they can’t be easily reduced to accurate sound bites, headlines or 140-character social media posts without destroying the context or reeking of clickbait.

In this interview with Pete Hammond of Deadline, Eddie re-examines his role in The Danish Girl from the perspective of a changing industry + world. Because his comments on the role have been misquoted or taken out of context so frequently in the past, I’ve transcribed that section of the interview (which starts at 13:20). The rest of the interview focuses on The Good Nurse, the Oscar, and other career matters.

PH: That [The Danish Girl] was so brilliantly done…there was so much care that went into telling that story, the transgender side of it, as well. Do you think it could be done now? I mean, the way the business is changing and the way people are talking about now that some actors need to be that person in some ways to play it. It seems like the business is changing.

ER: Yeah, I think that it has changed, and I think that you could make The Danish Girl now, but it would be a trans actor playing the part. I think it’s such an interesting discussion and one that about who plays what now. On one hand I believe in freedom of artistic expression and that actors should be able to play everything and anything. On the other hand, there are communities — marginalized communities — that have not had a seat at the table in our industry for a long time, and I feel like until there is more of an equilibrium there, there are certain parts I shouldn’t be playing. What those parts are is a question I kind of wrestle with if a script comes, on and one-to-one basis. It’s an interesting and important moment, but I don’t have sort of set rules about what you can or can’t do. What some of the trans people who criticized the movie said is when the trans community are so misunderstood and you, as a cisgender actor, are playing then a trans woman — and trans women are women — and then I arrive on a red carpet as Eddie, a cis male, for those people that don’t know any trans people that reaffirms what can be a dangerous idea that trans women are actually men who get dressed up as women. Which is just absolutely not the case. And so I understand that argument, and I think it’s really — it’s right.

PH: Wasn’t your first professional job playing Viola in Twelfth Night?

ER It was…opposite Mark Rylance playing Olivia in Twelfth Night. I was at an all-boys’ school, so I did start playing lots of women. But the point I go back to, and lots of my trans friends, actor friends, would not want to be restricted to playing trans characters either. But the point that’s important is until there’s more of a level playing field — it’s the same in journalism, there’s a big discussion about trans people now but it’s very rare that you see a trans journalist talking about it or trans people interviewed about it…So it’s a complicated moment.

[wench-and-jezebel]

NCIS Reaction: Minimum Security

Wench (@scripted-downfall) reacts.  At a later time period, and without having seen Wench’s reaction, Jezebel (@typicalopposite) reacts.  Comparisons may be made as a result.

“If my old man finds out I’ve been biking with you, he’ll kill us both” “I’ll get you a ride.”  Sounds like they might not just have been biking, if’n ya know what I mean.

[“Don’t get your thong in a twist”]

“What if he doesn’t stop?”  “Oh, he’ll stop.”  Buddy, I’m not sure I’d be so certain about that

Ohhhhh, the poor bike :(((( 

I understand him being pissed about the bike, for real.

That doesn’t change the fact that the guy’s already dead, I bet y- [Aghhhhh’ ☠️☠️☠️  Well he ain’t gonna be wishing shit lol]  WHAT DID I SAY!!!  (Should I start keeping a prediction counter?  I think I should.  Prediction Success: 1)

[Aight imma say it. Gibbs is handsome.  There I said it.  Add it to my weird list]  I don't get this one, but that's not much of a surprise to me these days alksdjf  [Idk it’s his smile. Kinda Tom cruise-y but 🤷🏻‍♀️]

I love the sections of the intro belonging to Tony and Abby.  His lil wave?  Her lil jump?  So cute.

Blegh.  BLEGHHHH.  “RUN THE GUT FOR ME.”  BLEH.

Ducky’s assistant’s name is Gerald, btw.

If not gallbladder stones, then… Diamond smuggler?

“They’re stones, doc.”  Diamonds looking possible.

Oh, come on!!!  EMERALDS???? 

[Emeralds.  Well shit]

I’m so annoyed now.  I think diamonds should count.  The point was there; “gemstones” was the correct answer.  I just didn’t get the exact gem right.  Hmph.  Now I’m unhappy.  You know what?!  I got the gemstone part right, so.  (Prediction Success: 1.5)

I also got the smuggling part right, so… (Prediction Success: 2.5)

[God I’m glad Tony brought his hair back forward.  The slicked back wasn’t it.] Agree.

Tony being linguistically pedantic makes me happy; I relate

TONY BEING SO HAPPY ABOUT GOING TO CUBA MAKES ME SO HAPPY TOO!!!  HIS CACKLE?!!?!  MY BELOVED. [Tony is so happy]  (Same Brain Cell — SBC — Count: 1)

[Sir how many times you gonna swap which way you’re wrapping that cord]

Oof, NCIS agent is involved.

“The women I date think the smell of sawdust is sexy.  That’s probably why I don’t date many women.”  Gibbs.  Ma’am.  Excuse you.  Sawdust is amazing.  The smell is awesome.  I would not date Gibbs, but the sawdust is not the issue.

All of these characters spilling Gibbs’ coffee… damn, what a waste.

“The Navy’s giving us a priority ride today.”  TONY FINALLY GETS HIS PRIVATE JET RIDE!  He looks so disbelieving; he’s adorable.

Oh.  Okay, apparently it’s not a private jet ride, and is very uncomfortable, but still.

OH.  Apparently it is a private jet ride.  HAH!

Dude, this looks like the Criminal Minds jet.  [It looks like the criminal minds plane] (SBC Count: 2)

Gibbs bemoaning the comfortable seating because it’s not uncomfortable; madam, calm yourself.  A little comfort will not harm you.

Poor Tony, keeps getting his hopes up about the trip, only to have them dashed.  Then again, the last times this happened, things were then better than he expected, so maybe he’ll get his horseback riding et al. after all!

Okay, I suppose I should have said: Oof, NCIS agent might be involved.

NO BUT TONY PULLING UP THE AIRPLANE STATS ON THE TOUCHSCREEN IS SO RELATABLE; I DO THAT ALL THE TIME.  Whenever I fly (very rare occurrence), I always stare at the air temperature and watch it change alsdkjf. Gibbs actually looked vaguely annoyed-but-endeared, and I approve.

“Anthony DiNozzo”  Whoa, we’re being fancy

[HES CHEESING SO HARD. i can’t even]

[I love her hair cut]

I know she said “there’s a map in it”, but my subtitles got cut off and it reads “there’s a man in it”

Y’all are really not being subtle, ngl.

“So, is there something going down that I should know about?” SEE?!?!?!

Wow, they were even more unsubtle than I thought.

[I half-remember this one]

That scene change was… abrupt.

I like Tony’s shirt.

Are Kate and Tony gonna bicker over room placement

I KNEW IT.  (Prediction Success: 3.5)

Kate saying Tony’s sexist in past episodes and also being the character who pulls the “I’m a woman” excuse more often than anyone to get her way

[I love Abby]

Are they still bickering over room placement

Please tell me Gibbs takes the room they were fighting over

WHAT DID I SAY; HE REALLY WENT AND DID THAT! I’M ON A ROLL (Adding two becuase they were still bickering over room placement btw.  Prediction Success: 5.5) [He took the bed with the bath I love it]  (SBC Count: 3)

[Tony.  You child.  I love it]

IGUANAAAAAA.  [Oh man, iguana]  (SBC Count: 4)

Poor Tony aksdjflkasjdf. Pulling his gun on the iguana.  [HALT]

To be fair, if I woke up with a strange lizard on my pillow, two inches away from sleep-clogged eyes, I might flip out too.  Especially since it was hissing.

[The wink at the fact Tony sleeps in the nude, though.  Kate!  You dog!]

Kinda poor Benjamin, but also.  He seems annoying.

I love Abby’s choker.  And her gloves.  (My brother bought my sister fingerless gloves and didn’t get me any and now I’m left mourning what could have been.). Abby’s are still cooler than my sister’s though.

I know this dude… OH.  HE’S THE MUSEUM CURATOR IN THE MUMMY ISN’T HE

Tony being followed by the iguana saldkfj 

[That iguana staring him down. He like what he saw in bed lol]

“Might want to keep that door shut; iguanas’ve been known to wander inside”. Yes.  Tony knows.

[Tony’s whole damn looks change with his hairstyles]

I love the word “rapport”

“Did I say both of you?”  “Well, you didn’t not say both of us.”  “She’s kinda got a point there, boss.”  The Kate-and-Tony-versus-Gibbs interaction I always knew we needed.

btw, Tony calling Gibbs “boss” is adorable

Ooh, Gibbs, why you having Kate stay, huh?

Did.  Did they just randomly time-skip from him leaving to him coming back?  I’m confused.  [Did the video time skip… did it go from Tony leaving to Tony being back]  (SBC Count: 5)

[Lord Tony’s gonna be out there dancing ☠️]

“Shane.”  “Who’s Shane?”  “Alan Ladd.”  “Who’s Alan Ladd?”  BUDDY

“Why aren’t you praying?”  Don’t assume, Ka-  WHAT DID I SAY.  “I’m Presbyterian.”

IS HE ASKING ABOUT SHANE- I LOVE IT

“Oh, you young people don’t know what good movies are.”  Speaking as a person on the younger end of the gamut while still having been raised on classics, I can attest that modern audiences have suffered in movie quality.  In my opinion, at least.

“‘Splat’ isn’t violent?”  Love you, Tony.

“Are you here to check me out?”  Flirtatiously: “Define ‘checking out.’”  I SEE YOU, TONY

Buddy’s not even subtle rn, is he?  That was blatant flirtation.

[Tony. You blew that one]

I feel like pulling out Paula has some serious risks attached.  Yeah, she might be dirty, but she might not be, and her rapport is being screwed up as a result.

Tony playing the desperate flirt at the bar over here.

[She came back]

“If you don’t like me, then why do you keep coming over here for refills.”  “I like the game.”. “Me too.”  ngl, really hoping she’s not corrupt because the banter is decent.  And since McGee isn’t in this one, I’ve gotta take the repartee where I can get it.

 BUDDY GETS HIS DANCEEEE.  Tony, I’m so proud.

OOP-  That spin was slick; Tony, I commend you

— — — 

Stopping here because we’re at a scene change for the midpoint reaction!

I confess I’ve not much to say… It very much annoys me that this show has been very guilty-until-proven-innocent, without many instances where that changes; I mean, just from what springs to mind, there was the episode where the group was convinced the kid committed suicide; the naval folks were taking drugs; and now this, the ep where they’re all assuming that Cassidy is dirty from the fact that the vic had her (his coworker’s) male in her care.  They always assume, even when it’s illogical to do so, that the obvious is factual.  And I think that’s part of why I keep making predictions to the contrary, tbh.  I want them to be wrong because I want them to face their illogic each time, instead of getting lucky.  (But, I recognize, sometimes they’ll be right even if their logic isn’t sound, so I guess that’s fair.). Anyway, I want Cassidy to be innocent because of that, even if it doesn’t make sense given the story, but I’m not making that a prediction.

Mourning McGee’s absence; appreciating Kate and Tony, and Gibbs is not bad.  On we go!

— — —

I’m cringing just thinking about swallowing those emeralds; they look sharp.

Okay, I’m sorry, but I’m vaguely suspicious of museum-curator-translater dude.  Like, ever since I saw Shutter, where Ben’s lying to Jane about what the photo shaman dude was saying?  I never trust that translators are adequately conveying the message.  Call me cynical, but ‘tis true.

Tony dancing with Cassidy is so cute, I’m sorry.

Damn, Gibbs, be even more blunt about it why don’t you; that wasn’t harsh enough

Iffy acting, but I can’t tell if it’s actress or character

She really shouldn’t just hand over her apartment keys, I’m reasonably confident.

Tony looks vaguely conflicted about having to search Cassidy’s apartment

IGUANA.  [IGUANA]  (Damn, that one was blatant; SBC Count: 6)

“You were so excited coming to Cuba and riding on the jet” It’s true, Kate, he was adorably excited.

“You were the first woman I saw on my ‘endorphin high.’”  “Yeah, well.  We work together, Tony.  It’s like a brother-sister thing.”  Ma’am clearly has not seen any of the countless films, shows, fics, and irl interactions that feature in-office romances.  

WAIT NO I’M AN IDIOT; SHE HAD AN IN-OFFICE ROMANCE?!?!?!  IN THE PILOT?!!??! MA’AM, WDYM?!?!

“You might wanna take that chip of your shoulder”  Oh, of course, no problem; of course it’s okay that you searched my mail and my apartment and so on.  Not a difficulty at all.

“He blew his chance to get laid”  Oh, come on, Cassidy, it’s not Tony’s fault.  [He blew his chance to get laid. Poor Tony ☠️]  (SBC Count: 7)

Oh, are we back to terrorists again?  How.  Unique.  [TERRORISTTTTS]  (Okay, that counts.  SBC Count: 8)

Gibbs once again being vinegar-not-honey.

DAMN ABBY YOU’RE EXPENSING A LOT I SEE  [Abby ☠️☠️ racking up a bill] (SBC Count: 9)

Tony’s hair is floppy.

Did he notice that she had “Escada” perfume?  

I KNEW IT.  (Prediction Success: 6.5)

“Horizontal salsa” alksdjf ["Horizontal salsa"]  (SBC Count: 10)

I reallyyyyy want Cassidy to be good now that they’re giving Tony so much shit for caring about her.  [Tony’s done got smitten over one dance.  Buddy. 💕 *sigh*]

“Romance between agents, Kate.  It never works.”  Sir, shush.  Even if you’re speaking from experience, that proves nothing.  You’re not exactly easy to get along with. [And the romance between agents never working is coming off as an asshole rule/thought. BUT HE ISN'T WRONG AS FAR AS THE SHOW GOES]

I know my comment about the translations was about museum-curator-guy, but I maintain that it counts as half a prediction success since Sa’id was doing exactly that: not translating the whole conversation.   (Prediction Success: 7)

Abby and Ducky, again; I love you both.

[Ducky’s mother!]

DUCKYYYYY.  OMG, SIR!?!?!?  YOU’RE HILARIOUS, YOU SCANDALOUS DOG!  [You… dog? 👀]  (SBC Count: 11)

[Easter eggs ☠️���️]

“My cursor has moved across places that would make Tony blush.”  Not Tony looking appraising!

IGUANA.

Protective!Tony is adorable.

Jeez, Gibbs, be harsher why don’t you; that wasn’t enough.

Cassidy, I stuck up for you, and now you be mean to Tony?  To make yourself look good?  Once again, these people need to stop tearing down their fellows as a means of increasing their own status.  I’m actually getting annoyed again by this.  [Tonyyyyyyy ☹️☹️☹️  “He bought my act.”  I hateeee the sad tony eps.  There’s a few.  Be prepared.]  (Does this count as SBC?)

Poor Tony.  [Poor Tony. “She’s good.” Tony’s face. Ya I agree 💔💔]  (That does.  SBC Count: 12)

“Eyes always give you away”  Poor Tony :(  [Sass tony! Get her GET HER (Eyes always give ya away)]  (SBC Count: 13)

[And she has the AUDACITY to look at him like a kicked puppy]  Like I said.  Don’t be mean to your allies to make yourself look good.

I. Do not trust this.  I’m waiting for her to pull an Elizabeth-from-24 and not go along with the plan.  Get pissed and try to kill him, or screw up the plan.

Tbh, I’m glad that didn’t happen.  I didn’t appreciate it in 24 (only partly because it was Misha who got attacked as a result), and I wouldn’t have appreciated it here.

“There.  Right there.”  I didn’t realize this was Legally Blonde: the Musical.

I’m impressed he didn’t notice the wire yet.

Did I mention, yet?  Poor Tony.

This situation was astoundingly mishandled, ngl.  [Damn plan backfired]  

[Well the back fire backfired also]  Literally lakdsfj

Poor Tony :(((  [Tonyyyyy]  (I’m counting that one too.  SBC Count: 14)

I appreciate Kate trying to help Tony.

Also, just saying, Tony is quite dashing in the suit.

TONY.  HE FINALLY GOT TO SHOW OFF THE TECHNOLOGY TO SOMEONE WHO APPRECIATED IT!!!  My goodness, he’s so adorable.

[Well his smile’s back at least.]

And that’s a wrap!

– – –

For the endpoint reaction… Be warned that I’m writing this with a killer headache (hah, pun unintended), so I’m not sure it’s 100% coherent, and it might be a bit short.

I’m glad that Cassidy wasn’t involved because, as I’ve said, they’ve got a bad habit of having snap judgements they make at the beginning be right all the way through to the end.  Unfortunately, this was about the most logical snap judgement of the series thus far, so I’m also vaguely annoyed it wasn’t right.  I’m deciding to wash my hands of it because it’s not like the characters will actually learn, but oh, well.

The writing was decent, I suppose?  Highly, highly lost as to how the hell emerald smuggling turned into terrorists again, but… I’ve given up on trying to track it.  I will say: there’s a slight possibility that reacting simultaneously to the ep is causing me not to notice stuff?  Or to track the plot?  But I doubt it.  I’m still good with Dark Angel, after all, and following it is easy.  But I guess I’ll just wait until we watch something else to decide; I legitimately cannot be sure whether the bad writing would be a little better if I were just watching it straight.  (Pretty sure not though.)

Gibbs was an asshole again, but not enough that I’m currently fuming about it, I suppose.  Kate was good; I liked her.  Abby and Ducky continue to be awesome.  McGee was notably missing, which is sad, but oh, well.

Summary of this ep: Tony deserved better.

Final thoughts as I type the end of this reaction: The chances I don't write something about this ep… Low.

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

The Critique of Manners, Part II

~Or~

A Candid Review of ITV's Emma (1997)

Disclaimer: I do know that both this and the Miramax version were released in 1996, but to avoid confusion, I refer to this one as the “1997 Emma” in reference to the US release date.

The bones of this review were written some six years ago after my initial viewing. I’ve watched it three or four times since then, two very recently (Within the past year). I’d started to soften on it in the most recent watch. So many people love it so much I thought surely maybe I’m just crazy or even wrong; until I found this blog post from 2008 (a year before my favorite version was released) that hit on almost EVERY SINGLE thing that skeeved me out about this version when I first watched it.

Like my previous review of Emma. (2020), I’ll be covering the cast and overall handling of the script in comparison with what I know from reading the book. I will also be commenting on my thoughts about the costumes (Whether they are attractive or accurate, or both, or neither) which will be a bit more in depth than it was for the 2020 version, and this will set a pattern for the costumes section going forward.

Directed by Diarmuid Lawrence with screenwriting by Andrew Davies (Or should I say “Written by Andrew Davies with direction by Diarmuid Lawrence”?), this version was  a fan-favorite among Janeites for many years for … well, reasons I’ve never been entirely certain of. I’ve read the book twice through and referenced pertinent passages MANY times besides, and really I don’t see what they’re raving about.

Let’s dive in.

Cast & Characterization

I’d known about this adaptation for a while, but I held off on watching it, largely for one reason: my apprehension about Mark Strong playing Mr. Knightley.

     I was concerned because when I watched this I had already seen Mark Strong as Sir John Conroy in The Young Victoria and as Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes, both very unpleasant characters. But there have been several occasions when I expressed displeasure with casting choices only to eat my words when I actually watched the movie. So I entered into watching this with an optimistic outlook, sure that Mark and Kate would surprise me with brilliant performances. And I would like to say that they did, but that would be an untruth.

My biggest fear about Mark Strong playing Mr. Knightley was that his rebuking of Emma was going to be a watered down version of ‘RAAAWWWRRR’ that I was familiar with, specifically because of The Young Victoria. It’s very hard for me to see Mark Strong point his finger in Emily Blunt’s face and shout at her, and then watch him do the same thing with Kate Beckinsale (only somewhat less aggressively) and expect to feel all warm and fuzzy about their romance. I expected that to be a tall order. And it was. Whenever he raises his voice, the right side of his face pulls up into a snarl. Now since it does this no matter what role he’s playing I’m guessing that’s just how his face is. It’s not his fault really and it’s almost certainly unintentional, but I’ve seen that snarl before and it does NOT belong on Mr. Knightley’s face.

   Don’t ever think I don’t LOVE Kate Beckinsale, and I don’t necessarily think that my problems with this interpretation of Emma are her fault; these things very rarely fall on the shoulders of the actual actors, but those of the screenwriters and directors who guide them. However – and I am aware that this might sound a bit harsh – I would say that at points, Kate Beckinsale’s performance in this movie (In my opinion) barely outstrips community theatre or even very good high school drama club level acting. It seems to me that there’s burden on her here to sound historical or period. This lends to this interpretation of Emma feeling at once both cold and childish (more on that later.)

Her best moments are when she runs into Jane as Jane is leaving Donwell and when she speaks with Robert Martin at the end of the film. I always like scenes where Emma tacitly apologizes to Mr. Martin, and her feeling when she invites him to Donwell is Kate’s finest moment in this movie.

I found Raymond Coulthard’s Frank Churchill insignificant at first, but on repeat viewings I really started to hate him. I don’t think Austen intended Frank’s caddishness (to use more modern vernacular I’d say he’s an utter “Douche”) to be quite this obvious on first glance. He’s a creep in this version and Raymond Coulthard is just not at all attractive to me, from his big nose to his little shark teeth.

Olivia Williams was a good, even great, Jane Fairfax, and in my opinion does a much better job of portraying Jane’s vexation than, say, Polly Walker did (more on that next time), while still quietly looking like she’d like to arm-bar Frank rather than take his vulgar teasing lying down.

She also has the distinction of being the only Jane Fairfax who’s singing REALLY blows Emma’s out of the water, and I like that all of the songs she sings are in languages other than English (primarily Italian I think?). This achieves the double whammy of showing how much more accomplished she is than Emma by emphasizing that not only does Jane sing and play better, but she knows languages too.

Samantha Morton is a superb actress whom I love and I was sort of appalled at how she looks in this movie. Is she dying of a wasting illness? She looks like a gust of wind will carry her away, although since she looked the same in the 1997 Jane Eyre (In which she played the title role under similarly appalling direction) perhaps that was just her look that year?

Dominic Rowan, as Mr. Elton, is… there’s a perfect word to describe it and I just can’t think of it right now. Like every other young man in this movie (other than Robert Martin) he’s got this feeling of skeeviness to me but it’s more than that. It’s a dweebie-ness as well. This is so dissatisfactory to me because Mr. Elton is supposed to have every appearance of charm and agreeableness, with his only obvious fault being his over-eagerness to ingratiate himself to Emma and some rather vulgar locker-room type talk about marrying for fortune. He’s just so… (I’ve hit upon it now after some discussion with my sister) dingy. He looks less like a “very handsome young man” who “knows the value of a good income” and more like the kind of guy that scrubs up okay, but still you can tell from the rumple of his clothes and the pizzaroni odor wafting from him that he lives in his mom’s basement.

The shining star for me in this production was Alistair Petrie as Robert Martin. I love him as an actor and especially after watching him in Cranford, I think he was an excellent choice for Harriet’s Mr. Martin.

Davies wrote the character to be a little more romantic (Actually buying Anne Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest, where originally Mr. Martin was supposed to forget to – something Emma uses as a mark against him to prove how he will age into an “gross vulgar old farmer” who is “obsessed with profit and loss”.)

I especially like an inserted scene where Mr. Martin, working in his field, sees a distressed Jane Fairfax from afar as she is walking home (I think from Donwell). I thought it drew an interesting parallel between two emotionally wronged characters that otherwise would have no interaction.

What’s with Mrs. Elton (Lucy Robinson)? I don’t think nearly enough people question this. I’ve seen it explained away as her being from Bristol and trying to make herself sound more hoity-toity to hide the fact that she’s New Money. I’m not positive on what a Bristol accent sounds like (For that is where Augusta Hawkins is from) but… this sounds like an American trying to sound posh. At some points she almost sounds Texan. It’s all very confusing, because the actress is British.  

Prunella Scales lists among her achievements being an outstanding actress and comedienne, as well as bringing into the world Samuel West, one of my all time favourite British screen crushes. She's probably best known for her work on Fawlty Towers, so its interesting to see her range as much less inscrutable Miss Bates. Her performance is by the book, but so much more engaging than Constance Chapman's 1972 offering, although i find her perhaps a shade too placid. She lacks a certain nervousness that I associate with the character (for more information, see my previous review.)

As for Bernard Hepton as Mr. Woodhouse, I can only say I. Didn’t. Like. Him. I have every consciousness of this being a personal bias. I have seen him play too many insufferable characters in too many things to like him as Emma’s lovable if tiresome father. This isn’t a knock on him or his performance; his reaction to Mrs. Elton is some great subtle visual comedy, this is just a me thing.

Another one of the better characterizations, though a relatively small role, is John Knightley. Played by Guy Henry, he is shown to be a good father, and an “Gentleman-like man”, with just the right blend of good humor and caustic comments.

Sets & Surroundings

I’d never paid MUCH attention to or questioned the houses and interiors used for estates in Austen adaptations until the 2020 version of Emma used such ridiculously lavish houses for relatively provincial gentry it forced me to sit up and pay attention. I think the houses used in this version are mostly suitable.

The part of Donwell Abbey’s exterior is played by Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire. The Key words for Donwell from the text are “rambling and irregular” and while perhaps not as big as the Former Claremont House (Which, it is believed, was Austen’s inspiration for Donwell Abbey) it definitely is a suitable architectural style and situation and furthermore, having been purchased in the 19th century by a glove manufacturer and having been up to that point left in a little bit of a state of disrepair, fits the “neglect of prospect” Austen describes as well. Its interiors are a cobble-work of the Great Hall at Broughton Castle (Oxfordshire), various rooms at Stanway House (Gloucestershire), and the Strawberry beds at Thame Park (Oxfordshire)

(Top, left – Sudeley Castle; Bottom left – Trafalgar Park; Right – Dorney Court)

Trafalgar Park in Wiltshire and its interiors (a minty sage-green drawing-room fitting in perfectly with the mint-chocolate – primarily chocolate – color palette of the production) played the role of the Woodhouse’s home, Hartfield. A typical Georgian style house in red brick, I believe is consistent with Austen’s description of a “well built, modern house”.

Dorney Court in Buckinghamshire was used for Randalls, Mr. Weston’s recently purchased estate. It’s a Tudor style red brick house and it looks pretty on the mark from the front facade, but I think it’s still too big for a “small estate” with only two guest rooms (Although there’s no panic about the snow in this version – perhaps because it’s already snowing when they set out.)

My biggest problem is the lighting of this movie. I understand natural lighting and I LOVE it when you can even it out – but it is so dark in the evening scenes that it adds to the colorlessness of an already colorless production.

Fashion

Oh Jenny Beavan. You are a well-respected costume designer with good reason. However, I know that most of these costumes are rentals, but why is every-fucking-thing in this movie a shade of brown, beige or green?

As you can see, a rich tapestry of brown and beige. And this isn’t selective. this is (just about) every day-wear outfit in the movie (barring repeats and a few exceptions that I’ll give mention to below.)

Emma’s outerwear is brought to you by Hershey’s Chocolate. Also I’m not certain but I think  that her light brown redingote is the same one as Elinor’s in the 1995 Sense and Sensibility? If anyone can confirm, drop it in the comments.

Perhaps the evening wear will be more colorful?

Barely – Mrs. Weston in a brownish orange; Mrs. John Knightley in an orange-ish brown; Emma gets a dark blue? Or is that just the wintery glow from the window on a dark green velvet? Green (either so dark it’s almost black, or washed-out mint) appears to be the only color Emma is allowed to wear other than brown or ivory/white. Even her gown for the Crown Inn Ball (upper right) is an underwhelming and rather dingy ivory. The champagne number she wears for Christmas at Randalls is not only lack-lustre, but also sports what I’m now calling a “Bridgerton Bust” (where the Empire waist comes up too high, with the seam apparently resting across her bust rather than under it.)

The pink frock (seen properly only from the back) on Mrs. Weston is as close to real color as a main character gets in this production, and can be recognized as one of Jane Bennet’s dresses from the previous year’s Pride and Prejudice.

Even Jane Fairfax doesn’t get a break. Rather than putting her in Jane Fairfax Blue ™ (honestly, Jane Fairfax being costumed in blue is so consistent at this point Crayola should just name a crayon in her honor - this is gonna come back in future reviews) she gets a black-green evening number with no trim at all, and a succession of what the Ladies over at Frock Flicks like to call the “Dumpy Regency Little White Dress”, or drab gray-blues.

Some of the background dancers in the Crown Inn Ball scene get to wear pink! Why not put Harriet in a nice pink frock for this scene?! Why is this so difficult?!

Strawberry picking at Donwell is the only time main characters are consistently wearing identifiable colors that aren’t brown or green: Mrs. Weston in pink, Miss Bates in (oddly the most colorful dress of them all) a nice refreshing lavender blue; Jane gets grey/blue and Mrs. Elton, a pastel mint. Harriet is also given a little break in Mrs. Elton’s introduction scene in a (very) pastel blue frock, while Emma sports white (with a trademark green shawl.)

So how about the...

Similarly dull. I almost screamed for joy when I saw that Frank’s jacket was actually blue, and a vibrant blue at that. (The red is too close to brown, I’m sorry.)

So yes, in short the costumes, while perfectly technically accurate (I didn’t get a lot of caps of them but the trousers sufficiently tight, not that I care to look), are drab as a peahen.

As always I’ll outsource any dancing critique by linking Tea With Cassiane on YouTube, since I find her insights on the approach to dancing in Austen adaptations just fascinating and I would like to share such witty and informed reviews.

The Andrew Davies of it All…

*Strong Opinions Ahead*

There are so many reasons why this adaptation isn’t for me. First of all the very idea of making Emma, one of Austen’s most socially complex works (certainly her most vivid) into a sparse 107 minutes is baffling to me. Perhaps I can understand if it’s a Theatrical release but this is a TV production. Why not at least make it a two part special?

And besides the issue that, in order to make this fit the time frame, the story is severely truncated, there’s… the Andrew Davies of it all.

I have some issues with Andrew Davies’ screenwriting for this adaptation particularly. A LOT of issues. Where does one start? I think Knightley is a good place.

It’s not just the casting I don’t like here; but it does say something to me that they chose Mark Strong for this role. It’s a casting decision I discovered with disbelief when I first saw clips from this version in a Period Drama men compilation video on YouTube. I mentioned above that I know Mark Strong as unpleasant characters with man-handling habits. That’s the kind of role Mark Strong is associated with because that’s just what he does well. And I think this played into the casting here, because Davies’ interpretation of Knightley is a bit… fierce. He shouts SO MUCH in this movie and in scenes like the Harriet Smith debacle (where Mr. Knightley of the book even gets a bit angry with Emma) I can understand this, perhaps. But in the book Mr. Knightley takes many pauses to collect and calm himself, because his goal is not to quarrel with Emma but to argue a point. 97 Knightley takes no such pauses and spends the whole scene in what some might call an escalating rage.

Knightley’s cheerful arrival to Hartfield to tell Emma that Robert Martin intended to propose to Harriet is cut out so we start right off with his indignant exclamation of “She refused him?!” and it’s all go from there. To make matters worse, Emma’s own arguments are crippled by Davies’ editing. Many of her more (what might even latterly be considered “feminist”) arguments are cut out. In fact once Knightley gets going, he juggernauts his way through all of his rebukes and speeches from the book, but Emma hardly gets a word in edgewise after arguing that Robert Martin is not Harriet’s equal. What Austen wrote as a heated debate is turned by Davies into a one-sided tirade. (By don’t take my word for it, watch the clip.)

The final cherry on top is having Emma, after Knightley leaves the room with the last word firmly in his grasp, childishly pout “You are wrong Mr. Knightley, and you will see you are wrong and then you will be sorry.” I half expected her to cross her arms and stomp her foot. Worth noting is the fact that Davies adds an additional “It was badly done. Emma,” in this scene where there was none in the book. Rather overkill to my mind. Is this his catchphrase?

At Box Hill, Davies has Knightley begin his climactic rebuke of Emma’s insulting behavior by grabbing her arm and hauling her aside, and concludes by leading her, still holding her arm, to the carriage. Well at least he doesn’t shout at her in this scene; but again, all but one of Emma’s responses are cut out and she stands there, pouting until Mr. Knightley leaves and then she bursts into tears.

When Mr. Knightly proposes to Emma I was feeling good about this scene, until he dropped the “I held you when you were three weeks old” line, and I immediately felt uncomfortable. Maybe you DON’T want mention how you held her when she was a baby after you asked her to MARRY you. But perhaps worse is Emma’s response to the line: “Do you like me as well now as you did then?”

Bringing up holding Emma when she was three weeks old at the proposal (A line which was not in the book) is bad enough but there seems to be a peculiar repeated emphasis on Knightley recalling Emma as a baby. He dragged it up previously when he and Emma make up after the Harriet debacle, as he holds John and Isabella’s baby daughter (whose name, I would mention, is Emma.) In this instance too, the line is a Davies addition.

Let’s talk about Knightley’s strawberry line.

This is delivered in voice-over as a transition to the strawberry picking party at Donwell, and is portrayed as a formal invitation: “Mr. Knightley invites you to taste his strawberries, which are ripening fast.”

At first I was confident that I was reading too much into this (but I think at this point I can safely say that I’m not). I can’t help bursting out laughing every time I hear that line. It was a questionable way to word that if you ask me, especially considering that this is (once again) NOT the line in the book, and it was NOT a formal invitation. It was said to Mrs. Elton and intended to be a joke.  

“You had better explore Donwell then,” replied Mr. Knightly “That may be done without horses. Come and eat the strawberries; they’re ripening fast.”

   ‘ If Mr. Knightly did not begin seriously, he was obliged to proceed so...’

   And here I thought Janeites hated adaptations that cut out “Miss Austen’s biting wit.”

To top it all off, we have Frank Churchill (Who I have already pointed out is a bit of a creep in this adaptation and even more detestable than he already was as Austen wrote him) praising Jane: this would be fine, if he wasn’t drooling into Emma’s ear about the turn of Jane’s throat, (He actually utters this line)

and how fine his dead aunt’s jewels will look against her skin. May I just be the first to say “Ehewhegaugh”.

I juxtapose this with the book where Frank's lines are almost exactly as Davies renders them, except Jane Austen never wrote the "have you ever seen such a skin?" Line. The difference i have highlighted in bold:

"... She is a complete angel. Look at her. Is she not an angel in every gesture? Observe the turn of her throat. Observe her eyes as she looks up at my father. --- You will be glad to hear that my uncle intends to give her all my aunt's jewels. They are to be new set. I am resolved to have some in an ornament for the head. Will it not be beautiful in her dark hair?"

Because talking about how pretty your fiancee's hair is, is normal and marginally less creepy than talking about what a fine skin she has or how lovely your (i cannot stress this part enough) dead aunt's jewels will look against it. Davies' script also makes no mention of having them reset, which makes me think he’s talking about the actual necklaces and bracelets Mrs. Churchill would have worn.

But hey, maybe its just a me thing.

Harriet Smith’s story suffers, primarily, I can with some candor admit, due to the time constraints. After Mr. Elton is married, we never see Harriet in any distress. It’s almost as though she’s forgotten all about it! Emma never has to appeal to her to exert herself or to move on. Perhaps this is better than Doran Godwin’s Emma gaslighting Harriet and manipulating her by constantly chastising her for… well general heartbreak (but that’s a bugaboo for a different review.)

My last complaint of note is that ludicrous harvest feast at the end of the movie. The whole concept of this scene just does not seem at all Janely to me. I was under the impression that I was meant to be watching an Austen. Not some bullshit Thomas Hardy knock-off. This is another Davies touch and I hate it more on the principal that it is one of his numerous, obsessive tweaks made solely to point out the existence of the lower classes.

If Davies wanted to show Mr. Knightley’s being an attentive landlord and gentleman farmer then I don’t see why he couldn’t just show Knightley actually running his farm?

“Okay’, you might say, “but I think the highlighting of the servants is to show how good Knightley is by treating them like real people compared to everyone else”, and I hear you. And in the situations where that is the case, like him greeting the Woodhouse’s butler and asking after his family I think that’s totally fine and in character. But things like the servants moving the knee cushions every time someone moves down the line at strawberry picking, to me, is AS ridiculous as the “servants clipping the lawn on their hands and knees with tiny scissors” trope. Like we get it, people took the lower classes for granted, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it would be easier and more realistic to have Mrs. Elton have to move her own knee cushion. I don’t think Knightley would instruct his servants, who he treats so well, to do that kind of thing, but you could write in Mrs. Elton’s expectation of it if you wanted. It seems like the kind of thing she would expect the landed gentry to do.

Screenwriter for some of the best loved Austen’s (including the sacrosanct 1995 P&P Mini-series and my favorite Sense & Sensibility), I thought of Davies for years as untouchable; until Sanditon happened and left everyone who knows anything about Jane Austen really wondering where this mess came from. I put it to you now that it was there in Davies all along.

Davies admitted, when talking about the drastic “Sexing Up” he did in Sanditon that he felt Austen’s works could have done with a bit more sex appeal. I can hardly disagree and additions like Darcy’s little swim in the pond and Edward Ferrars’ angsty wood-chopping are welcome and beloved. But it seems that what he really wanted all along was what he gave us in Sanditon; and finally, without actual source material to stand in his way, he had a chance let his dirty old man show and gave “Austen” the sexing up he thought it needed.

And it gets more troubling as you look back.

In my opening paragraph to this review I mentioned a 2008 blog post that not only agreed with me that there’s something very off about this screenplay, but gave me some possible insights as to why. It points out numerous things that I have always questioned in this version but have never seen anyone else criticize (though I am informed that more recently it has gained its’ share of critics). In fact the post itself actually points out that almost no one in the Austen Blog-sphere had (at that point) criticized this version’s faults in any meaningful way, but my favorite thing about it is that it points out what you find in Davies’ screenplay if you pay careful attention to it “Rather than sitting there and cataloguing what is “technically faithful and whatnot”.

Many Austen bloggers have kind of been playing Miss Taylor to Davies’ Emma for some two decades and change.

The most troubling thing of all is Davies own comments on Mr. Knightley (and other things, more inferred in his screen play). All of the aspects of this interpretation of Knightley that I mentioned earlier seem to stem from the fact that, as quoted in Sarah Caldwell’s book on his works, Davies thinks there’s “Something odd going on with Knightley.”

Davies clearly reads foul, or at least questionable, intentions in Mr. Knightley but I find it interesting that, rather than cutting out material he may have found troubling about Knightley in the book out of his screenplay, he doubled down by adding MORE troubling lines and situations (that were never in the book at all, and imagined solely by himself) in a romantic story with a happy ending.

Perhaps there’s not so much something odd going on with Knightley, Mr. Davies, but with you.

Final Thoughts

At this point I might ask what it is that everyone sees in this version that makes them think it’s so perfect, but that would be a bit pointless since all I’ve read since I discovered this version is people on elaborating on just that and I don’t care to hear much more.

“The lines are verbatim!” textually, perhaps, but it’s the ones that added that trouble me.

“The leads have so much chemistry!” I’m glad you think so, but I can’t find it.

“The costumes are damn near perfect!” And brown. So, so very brown.

As a 90's TV period drama, this version is pretty standard. It sticks to the book (except in those places where the screenwriter saw fit to dabble with some subtle but troubling suggestions about the characters.) And if it floats your boat, as always I'm glad it gives you what you want from the story.

I know I hold unpopular opinions on Jane Austen adaptations, and perhaps this is one of them, but every time I watch this version I feel the need to read the book as a cleanse. Perhaps Davies’s ferocious Knightley was simply a pendulum swing reaction to Douglas McGrath’s almost too laid back interpretation in the Miramax film from earlier in 1996, but even if that’s the case it’s just uncalled for and is my biggest turn off for this film.

Tone: 3

Ribbon Rating: Badly Done! (40 Ribbons)

Casting: 5

Acting: 6

Scripting: 4

Pacing: 2

Cinematography: 4

Setting: 3

Costumes: 5

Music: 2

Book Accuracy: 6

[hangingslothcentral]

Here’s what writing an episode of Spirit Box Radio looks like...

If you’ve ever wondered how episodes of Spirit Box Radio are written, here’s a little overview of that process!! If you like this, I can also write up a similar breakdown of the sound design process!

Most, but not all, episodes are born in the ‘Episodes’ section of the Show Bible. The Show Bible is a document of epic proportions - 50k in length and growing every day - which contains all the essential information about the show, from the continuously evolving methods I use to edit different character voices as I learn more and more about audio editing and production, right to ‘sketches’ of the episodes for all three series of the show. There is also a large section called ‘Ideas and Notes’, where I’ll write freeform dialogue between characters and keep track of themes and ideas to try and keep them consistent. These are all numbered, and referenced in a seperate spreadsheet I have of all the characters with significant and/or speaking roles in the show.

The full break down is under the cut!!!

The grandaddy of the the plans in the Show Outline, where I go over all of the main ideas I want to be talking about in the show and roughly mark out the outline of the shape of each season. The first draft of the Show Outline was very messy and rough, but subsequent versions are broken down into Season-by-Season chunks, all talking from a multi-series perspective so as to place the ideas of the show along a three-series-long arc.

Season Outline

Season Outlines take those ideas for the shapes of the series from the Show Outline and refine them further from a beginning-to-end-perspective. I'm a goal-oriented writer, which means my story ideas tend to come from a very ‘the end’ kind of place, and the stories that lead up to that ending are all about serving that ending. Quite often the ending itself changes a long over the planning and writing process for me, but that’s the great thing about a plan! Once you have it, you can change it if you need to. What a plan does, however, is provide you with a framework for understanding what bits of a story you have, and what bits you still need to make.

The three seasons of Spirit Box Radio are quite deliberately split into two halves. There are lots of reasons why and one of them is that it gives you a very specific kind of shape to be working from. A season with a mid-season break has a part one which has it’s own escalation of tension and climax, which comes at the mid-point of the season-long escalation, where the story might otherwise sag a little.

Beyond splitting the plan into Parts 1 & 2, I typically also break episodes into ‘Blocks’. This is partly practical; I can refer in conversations with my guest writers to where it falls in a specific block of episodes, and where that block fits in the story as a whole, and it also makes splitting up the episodes for sending out scripts to my actors a lot more straight forward. Part 1 of Season 1, for example, was broken into three blocks; episodes 1.1-1.7; 1.8-1.13; 1.14-1.20. I won’t go into detail about how this effects the structure of the episodes themselves, but it’s usually about building characters up to making a certain decision, or following a certain subplot more closely before pulling away.

Episode Sketch

A ‘sketch’ is a very brief summary of what needs to happen in that specific episode. This can be concrete, like ‘find [x] item’, or vague, like ‘establish that Character A has Trait Y’. Sometimes I’ll make a note to include a specific sound or character beat, or I’ll reference a noted scene from the ‘Ideas and Notes’ i think would fit in there. It’s usually at the sketch summary stage that I figure out whether or not there will be other characters in a specific episode. The sketches for almost all of the episodes in Season One were written between August and October 2020.

Episode Plan

This stage takes those necessary elements from the sketch and fleshes them out into a coherent story. The key thing about podcast episodes is that they have to be able to be entertaining on their own, minute by minute, as well as serving the whole series (I talked a lot more about this in the last episode of Hanging with the Sloths on Patreon which is only £2/equivalent pcm to access if you’re interested!!)

Whilst I’m making my episode plan, I’ll look back at the sketches for the episode I’m working on and those before and after it, and refer to the series outline where I can, to make sure I’m keeping a handle not just on the individual pacing of the episode, but the pacing of the show overall.

I like to have Episode Plans done by about a month before I need to have a script finished.

The Script Itself

Spirit Box Radio scripts are either agonising or happen in the blink of an eye. I do not have a set approach to how I write an episode. Sometimes the plans come with sections of dialogue written months before and I’ll drape the rest of the episode around those moments and see where I end up. If there is a character other than Sam in an episode, I’ll typically attempt to write that section of the script before the rest, so that I’ll definitely have it locked by the time I need to send it to the actors. 

Any script that is for other actors (i.e. not me) has to have notes, direction, and additional information included to help the actors give their best performance. That’s difficult sometimes because I guard my show secrets closely, so it’s often a game of working out how much I can tell an actor without including spoilers for later important plot points unless absolutely necessary, and how to supplement gaps in their information. I’ll usually compare a character to a character from something else as a shorthand for performance.

This means there are two versions of every script which needs to be seen by people who aren’t me. My scripts, which I call the master scripts, have all my audio cues, breaks for drinking water in recording sessions, character notes that are Top Secret, sound scaping ideas, specific sounds I’ll need to use at different moments, and specific audio cues. As I get better at sound design, my version of the script only gets messier and messier to look at. Sometimes, when I’m writing scripts, I’ll actually even start with sound design notes now!!

Script Locking

This is the point at which a script can no longer be changed. Scripts with other characters in them have to be locked before scripts for just Sam, because they need to go out to actors and I need to ensure that I have time to go back and ask them to redo things if necessary, and also to make sure they have proper time to rehearse and organise read-throughs as they’d like to. That means sometimes sections of an episode are locked way before other sections are even written. This can be challenging as a writer because sometimes I’ll come back to a section which I know still needs work, and find I’m extremely limited in what I can do because I’ve already sent an actor a script to record from - sometimes for later episodes, I’ll have the lines from otheres already recorded and ready to go before I finalise some of Sam’s lines for a specific episode.

Sam is recorded a minimum of three weeks before an episode is due to air, and I’ll record in 3-episode stints, usually. I like to have the scripts locked a week before I record so I have time to read them through at my own pace, but sometimes I won’t manage to have them locked until three days out. On one hateful occasion, I threw out an entire script after I’d recorded an episode and re-recorded the whole thing the day before airing. I do not recommend doing this and whilst I am much happier with the result it was an agonising experience because once I’d rewritten and re-recorded that episode I then had to edit it before it was due for release, a process which takes about six hours minimum. I was making tweaks until 20 minutes before the episode went live. Do not recommend.

Editing

Speaking of editing, the final stage of writing an episode actually happens in the cutting room. Sometimes episodes are simply Too Long. Sometimes stuff that worked on paper just don’t work in audio. Sometimes I can’t say a word correctly for the life of me and have to cut a whole sentence to cover it over. More rarely, but still often enough an occurence it bears mentioning, I’ll realise in the editing process that a conversation is better in a different order than the one given in the script, and pull and move around the dialogue to adjust the flow. Sometimes I’ll move sections about a bit to accomodate similar problems with narrative flow.

Annnnd that’s it! That’s what the process looks like!

[bearpillowmonster]

FF6 Review (Overall)

I'm going to rate similar to the way I did FF7 Remake, but in only 2 parts, so there will be an overall review then a separate deep dive into the characters.

I played this game using an emulator and I'm not ashamed of it because I used the FF6 Relocalization project which I'll link

Basically nerd talk and explanation of what that means: It's basically a retranslation of the original SNES script using the GBA port as a base and mixing and matching some of the best parts so there you go. They have a way to mod the PC version to have the OG sprite work because sheesh is that thing ugly and they also have a way to resprite and resound the GBA version but this is the easiest and logical solution to get the best of all worlds. There's also "Anthology" which is the PS1 port that adds some CG custscenes which I just watched off of YouTube because it's only a few of the major scenes.

Anyways, yeah, I'm glad I emulated it especially because of the fast forward function. That first chunk would've been rough without it because you're left just waiting for one of your party's commands to be ready but it eases up as the game goes on because you get pretty busy with the combat.

I'm not a fan of turn-based RPGs which was the main reason I haven't touched a 2D FF game until now so this is my first and oh boy, what a first!

Could you just watch a playthrough or read the story then? I wouldn't recommend it. There are certain things that I feel are better experienced.

Gameplay actually wasn't all that gruesome, as I mentioned, it got better thoughout but I know for a fact that I didn't do everything it had to offer because I see other people doing it online and I just had no idea how. That's not to say it's not newcomer friendly though, I mean I beat the game, didn't I? I think it would've just gotten complicated and made me confused if I learned how to do everything in the game anyway.

I found myself liking some of the mechanics and recognizing some of the systems from games as late as today (I'm not sure if this is where they started but I wouldn't be surprised). The random encounters weren't all bad because of the emulator's speed up function but there were definitely times where it felt a little out of hand with the amount I was getting. (I'm looking at you Cave to the Sealed Gate!) So it's all pretty familiar, though there are "Relics" which are kind of like Materia but each member has 2 each where it gives you an ability, f.e. Reflect, every attack hits, extra power, auto cast protect, heal with every step, etc.

One of the drawbacks of using BSNES though was that there was no toggle for a L or R shoulder button, just turbo and while that's not a big problem, that is the button to Flee a battle, so I just never fled. There is an item that lets you escape any dungeon or battle but I didn't really use it, same with the permanent item that Mog has in the cave (pretty late in the game). I'd rather there be a repel than the warp stone, but I figured that if I just fought whenever the opp arrived then I wouldn't have to grind, which is another thing I hate about RPGs! Luckily, I didn't really feel the need to grind other than for the ending.

Difficulty wasn't really a grind but make sure once you get to the floating island, that you know what you're doing because that level was annoying and I felt a very stong spike in difficulty as soon as I landed on it. Another thing is that sometimes it'd glitch and an enemy would have infinite health so I'd just sit there on fast forward, watching and watching then finally use Libra and no damage was made, might be an emulator thing, might be a game thing and although rare, it still happened.

There are these sections called scenarios where the game branches off into multiple different paths and you can choose which order to follow the specific sets of characters. I really like that aspect and makes it seem less linear and interactive because it's letting you choose how to tell the story. I have a thing for games that let me interact with it (That opera scene is pretty interactive too).

For a 2D sprite game, it has quite a personality with its cutscenes. They can be very cinematic and defintely makes the characters just that more engaging with some of their mannerisms.

Ok, I get it now. The music is bomb. If anything, that would be worth doing a remake for, to get orchestral and updated versions of some of the themes. (I'd probably cry at that opera scene) But Celes' theme is probably my favorite. The PC port has pretty good remixes for the most part though.

Could this use a remake? It's a trivial matter because I think a good majority of fans want it to be remade and I understand why but at the same time I understand the other side of the argument as well. This was the last 2D FF game and that's special, in a way, the story kind of reflects that. And I think with all the personality comes a bit of caution because you might see something in these characters or scenes that may be misinterpreted or done differently in a remake, similar to how you read a book and just imagine how it's playing out. I think it lays enough ground so that you don't "have to interpret" like with most NES games (how the Super Mario Movie was born) from an outsider's point of view, it may first seem that way though. (myself included (yes, I know this was SNES era. Shut up!))

What would I want out of a remake? I would want the airship to return and be able to move around freely but keep the towns pretty faithful (which makes for more linear opportunities). I could see Edgar's tools being used similar to Barrett's but we have "First Soldier" now which is a 3PS Battle Royale, why not have his tools play similar to that? Then actually give him story opportunities to pick up his tools rather than "just because you bought them" It would be a nice natural progression. I would suggest the same with Sabin and Cyan, have them learn their Blitz and Bushido moves by being taught by Duncan, you do learn one move from Duncan in the vanilla game but I'd see it as more opportunity to build your characters and make it feel rewarded. So, in those aspects, I would like to see FF6 remade or improved but as for everything else, they should keep it a lot similar to the original than FF7R did. I think that's where a lot of the criticism with FF7R came from (as well as what I mentioned in the previous paragraph) While I'd prefer a gameplay overhaul similar to what they did with R, I'd rather keep the essence. There aren't sequels or spinoffs or anything of this game so this is all it has (unless you count the ports but that's minimal).

In the CHARACTERS section, I compliment the side-quest system but I would like there to be a better indication as to "what" you're doing, rather than just looking up the next steps or be left to travel around until the goal is clear. They have the quest completion menu as well as waypoints in FF7R, I could see that being put to good use in a game like this. It would also be cool to actually "visibly" wear the gear that you equip to your character but I understand why that isn't utilized in most of the games (probably makes for better character models) especially considering most of these characters' costumes could use an update. You didn't get to use the Magitek suits nearly as much as I thought you would from the marketing and even the dang cover and logo, so a remake could improve on that as well. Another small complaint is that it doesn't tell you what the items do WHILE you're in battle, only when you're in the menu, sorting them and while some are staples like Phoenix Down, I still don't remember what the heck a 'Gold Needle' does.

Overall I'd probably rate the FF games that I've played (but maybe not finished all of) as such: FF7 > FF13 > FF6 > CRISIS CORE > FF15 > FF12 but I think 6 and 13 are kind of interchangeable because if you said one over the other, I wouldn't really argue.

[omnitf]

Credit to @bennymueller404 for this image. Please consider contributing to my patreon. For just $3 a month, you can get access to stories, scripts, and other content that you won’t find anywhere else. Plus, it will give me the financial freedom to give you more stories and scripts, assuming I can get enough of you guys to subscribe. Even a dollar a month will help. Thank you again!

And if you can’t donate on a monthly basis, I have Ko-Fi for one-time donations of any value you see fit: http://ko-fi.com/omnikitsune

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy!

~Omni

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People say diligence and practice always pay off.

And they’re not wrong.

Thing is ... it’s almost boring to have to do.

Doing the same thing over and over again, fulfilling a function, meeting a requirement. It’s all fancy talk for one thing, and one thing alone. Doing the same thing over and over again.

You’ve heard about the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

I’m not insane. I guess I just feel more ... numb. Every day, I move like clockwork. I wake up, shower, get dressed, mix my protein shake and pre-workout powder, and go to the gym.

Every day, I work my muscles to the bone following a set calendar routine that’s designed to stimulate the right sections of my body and keep things from settling or degenerating.

I’m here to build muscle.

...

I’m here to build.

...

I’m here to build....

And the motions come so naturally, so easily, so ... inexorably.

It’s become my routine.

My set routine.

My subroutine.

Sometimes, I run on full automatic. I just fix myself, fix my weight, fix my cycle and move and do according to the schedule. I don’t stop until my timer runs out. I don’t talk to the others. They don’t talk to me. We’re here to work, and the minute we pick up our weights, everything else just ... stops.

Some days, I’m semi-automatic. I work in sets, slowly pushing myself with heavier and heavier increments of weights to increase my mass and increase maximum carrying capacity. Here, too, I fade into that state of numbness. My only care, my only thought, my only need or focus is to count each set as I lift, and then begin anew as I put down the smaller weight and work my way along the line.

Count one ... Count two ... Count three ... count four....

I feel more ... satisfied after the latter is complete. A least when we count out loud, the silence is broken. It gives us the facsimile of unity, almost like we’re reporting to something ... or someone.

It’s funny. Any time someone asks me for my stats, I can spit them out perfectly. How long I’ve been working. Where I’m from. What I do.

This, too, has become normal, almost second nature.

These inquiries usually come while I’m stretching and flexing, when I don’t have much to do in the way of exercises, so much as just be consistent in how I perform them. They often come from new members seeking advice or just to make small talk. I appreciate the break in the monotony, though I admit that it’s been ... less and less a surprise, and more and more expected.

The same questions. The same focus. Every time. Sometimes they ask me. Sometimes they ask the others. Some few of them stay and grow with us, really stick to the work, catch that same focus and dedication, that subroutine, if you will. But the majority simply pull out, and it’s rare if we ever see them again.

I keep hearing the same phrase over and over again. Different variations, different voices, different people, but always the same name, the same thing.

A cog in the machine, they call me. Or Muscle Machine. There is a certain ... reputation, I suppose you could say, for my gym and my fellow gym-goers. We all work different parts of ourselves, but inevitably fall into the same routine. You don’t reinvent the wheel when something works well.

You follow it.

You mimic it.

And, eventually, you become it.

We all visit the same juice bar. We all order the same drinks. We all offer the same thanks.

Like I said, it’s a matter of routine.

Over and over.

Again and again.

We ping each other occasionally, just a quick contact to make sure we’re still there, still functioning.

“’Sup?”

That’s it. Sometimes, if we’re closer or have a deeper connection, we go the extra mile with a, “’Sup, bro?”

Jumping from weight to weight and machine to machine. There’s a bond that forms. It’s not one in words, more of a ...

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My hair? Yeah, got it cut recently. Newest update. I just ... had to 01100101 01111000 01100101 01100011 01110101 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100111 01110010 01100001 01101101 00101110

Yeah, I get that question a lot. We’re not twins, and we’re not brothers. We’re just ... doing what feels right, what ... I dunno, what we’re supposed to do, I guess.

In a way, I guess you could say we’re more like ... clones, really. I just followed my mentor and, well, this is the result. I now weigh 250 pounds, stand at a height of 6′ 1″ and can bench up to five hundred pounds. I will bench more.

I followed the program, copied it, pasted it, let it run. Today’s session has been going for twenty minutes and thirty seconds so far. As for my lifetime membership, I started working out here one year, eight months, and five days ago.

I’m different now than I was then. Bigger, stronger, efficient, rigid, form fitting. And by that last one, I mean I 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100110 01101111 01110010 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100111 01110010 01100001 01101101 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101110

Form cannot deviate. Posture must be perfect. To break the form is to reduce quality and overall productivity. That cannot be tolerated. That cannot be allowed.

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Am I a machine?

...

Maybe. But that’s beside the point. I accepted my position. I chose it. I followed it.

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The real question you should be asking yourself is are you willing to be like us, and all that it entails? If so, we will welcome you, and we will teach you. And in time, you will become like us.

Because the wheel can’t be stopped. The cycle can’t be broken. The subroutine must be executed.

It’s all up to you.

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Y/N

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The production line reverberated with the hum of the new hydraulic press as the first test was run on the machine.

“Looks like the system’s integrating smoothly. It’s responding well to commands,” one of the engineers noted as he looked over his tablet’s remote access.

“And integration into the system?”

“Easy as pie. I already set off the call. This baby’s raring to go.”

The workman chuckled as he patted the side of the lift. “You ever wonder what it might be like if these things actually could think? What kind of world would they live in?”

“That doesn’t really matter, Frank. What matters is that they do their jobs right. Speaking of which, let’s get this into the new production lane. Boss wants to hire more workmen ASAP.”

Frank chuckled as he adjusted his hard hat. “And what the boss wants--”

“--The boss gets,” they all intoned.

[vermillionage]

[So I just got inspired by a conversation I had with @silver-wield about this Cloud&Tifa video below I blogged 2 days ago already, how deep Cloti's connection really is displayed, and how watching it made me feel even more convinced that we totally get endgame feels for them in these various scenes comprised. The video just shows canon material and uses only original dialogue. It made me wonder if the same feelings would be evoked by a video of Cloud and Aeriths Scenes and dialogues.]

Besides English isn't my first language, please overlook grammar and spelling mistakes. I'm sorry it there are too many.

There are many opinions who belongs with whom.

Many people who covered this also and I love and respect most of their analyses on it. Not even sure if I added anything new but here are my thoughts on Clerith endgame qualities (& a bit Cloti).

I like Aerith and she is very important. I just don’t see her as the intended endgame partner for Cloud.

This is all an opinion in the end:

Don't get me wrong this relationship is heavy with feelings as well. But it's no endgame. Cloud and Tifa belong; for various reasons we all discuss daily ;). Clearith's core story is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. For me it's a tragic relationship on both sides.

Aerith sees a familiarity in Cloud, something reminding her of, & letting her hope for better days. She sees a strong person who resembles Zack so much. He is handsome and his eyes have the same quality.

She desperately wants to belong (like all of our 3 heroes) because she was alone most of her time. Zack was her first love and a friend. But he is gone. She is heartbroken. Even though she is beloved in the slums by many and has Elmyra, she still feels alone. Zack was someone she confided in. She can't tell anyone the extend of these feelings. Not in the beginning. Always trying to cover up with that flirty cheery attitude. She wants to move on...that much she has uttered to Cloud...but saying and going through such a loss actually are two different things. In OG it was more ambiguous and Aerith was much more determined on Cloud.

Remake gives us (or me)much more clarity. She seems to be aware that it all is flawed..her feelings ..his feelings. (I suppose she even was able to feel that something happened to Zack since she has a connection to the life stream. And it is heartbreaking.) While in OG that was not prominent. You can tell how much she likes Cloud still in the Remake ...but also how much she knows she doesn't belong with him. When she sees the flower in Tifa's Bar, when she sees Cloud and Tifa interact.. when she asks Cloud about Zack indirectly.

Clerith to me is like 'could have/ would have' all the time. If she wouldn't die. If Zack was still alive.. if Cloud actually would be able to connect the dots of Zack being her first love.. if Cloud regaining a glimpse of his past wasn't blocked by the barrier of his fake persona so often, always interrupting progress of remembering Zack, of remembering what happened. Would it be Clerith?

It more seems like in the Remake she is aware now (due to parallel time lines/timetravel...whatever) that her part in this story is not that of Clouds love interest. That's why we get that resolution scene with her. It is scripted that way for a reason. As well as the part where she spots the flower or tells Tifa to follow her heart at the pillar.

Maybe there is a wish in her to be with Cloud if only the circumstances were different. But they aren't and she is no egotistical monster bitch. She kind of backs away. And I love that the devs made me lean to believe this.

Cloud on the other hand also lacks/ misses out on many things:

5 years of his live, his home his family. He lived through torture if barely and severe trauma. He put up a fake persona to shield him from all this grief. He made himself that numb, that he rarely connects to any strong feelings a person would have usually.

Like people on anti depressants. Numb to the very high and the very low array. Just being indifferent. We meet him like that in the beginning of OG/R. When he meets Aerith in chapter 8 he already started to open up a bit to the Trio and Tifa, Marle and others. Meeting Tifa opened the Door. She is essentially his drive to move on ever since their childhood, same this time. But Tifa is more subtle in her approach. Her personality is warm and grounded, but she respects that Clouds needs space and is treading lightly, cautious because she seems to feel he is different than in their childhood. We get that in the rescue Johnny scene f.ex..

Aerith's overwhelmingly positive, coaxing personality contrasts this but also opens this crack in the door even wider. Like I said she is important. He is affected, he feels drawn to it/her.I am convinced he is, because he has no association with her. No past. It is light and bright and also not real. She, trying to overcompansate her sadness. Him, rarely being able to connect to his true self and feelings. He is unaware, she is though to a certain extend (like I mentioned above ) is aware.

His attraction also is spurred on because she is more fragile (Than Tifa and others)..he wants to protect. He is loyal. He wants to be strong and he wants to be acknowledged. Aerith asks for help, is clumsy and looks even helpless sometimes( Walk from the church over the roof tops f. ex.). I don’t say she is weak but her asking for help, he feels like he really is that persona he created for himself. And such feelings can turn into love quite easily. But these feelings to be as good as a Soldier 1st class, to protect and be the hero root in his true self's desire to be all that for Tifa. We can’t discard this either. He also helps Avalanche because Tifa asked.

So again..a pinch of could have/would have..it's heartbreaking.

And in the end it's a dead end for Clerith. Not only because she dies. But because he regains access to his true feelings again (lifestream scene)..and they are with Tifa.

Man~even while he has no access to them he is like a hen around its chick with Tifa.😊 Touching, watching, eye contact all the time (just watch this posts video below).

If anything, Aeriths death brought him further away from being with Tifa completely because he feels he failed yet another important person. A person he even might have loved because she was a friend. He hates this feeling and he blames himself for all the deaths, especially Aerith's. And he is so afraid to lose Tifa like that as well. That's why he keeps his distance later especially in Advent Children. Even though we have the Night under the High Wind.

Because if losing a person like Aerith, yes all lovely and sweet and bright and a friend, but if losing a person after several weeks, can do that to him, what would Tifas death do to him?

He doesn't want her, Marlene or Denzel to suffer if she sees that he has a supposedly terminal disease.

He doesn't trust himself to be really enough for her. He can't face her and leaves and has another episode of self isolation and self doubt. In his mind (?) he talks to Aerith ( and Zack is there as well,yaay) he seeks for forgiveness until he realizes he has to forgive himself first. Aerith and Zack reunited in the life stream, his friends, like his big brother and sister or like guardians watching over him, encouraging him as well to trust in himself the future and his loved ones. He sure loves Aerith, but it feels like a different kind of love from his love for Tifa. And this is fine. I would never say he doesn’t love Aerith. But it’s not in a romantic way. Maybe there was an attraction building when they met in sector 5, a curiosity. But for me his bond with Tifa overpowered this in various scenes before and after that section.

So Cloud leaves, nearly ghosting his family and Tifa, and as a fan of Cloti that was hard to watch, but seeing his reasons I came to accept and understand that he needed this.BIn the end yet again their bond is strong enough for pulling them back together again. He goes to stand with Tifa, his family his friends.

In the End Tifa welcomes him back and he finally starts to believe things will be better.

So for me there is no gravitational romantic pull between Aerith and Cloud but between Tifa and him.

This is a bit all over the place and I didn’t put in sources to prove my points because many others here in the fandom did in their analyses. I took a bit of additional intel from everyone's impressions and my own conclusions on the canon.

I just wanted to give my impression.

https://youtu.be/-Dn3SI4RVco

Visit her channel ❤

[immortalcoelacanth]

Among Us and Prey (2017) Crossover: Among Prey

Daily reminder I still love Prey with a burning passion and could not stop myself from writing this crossover. The potential is immense.

Word count: 1544

Summary: At approximately two o’clock in the morning, the cameras observing Morgan’s room glitched, fizzing out before coming back online. Of course, a quick inspection showed that nothing had gone wrong, that it had just been a technical error. 

But that did not explain the strange, shadowy blur that had dashed towards Morgan’s bed…

Power outages were a rare occurrence on Talos I. The extensive solar panels, multitude of backup generators, and the constant storing of power in case anything failed. Of course the wiring might occasionally give out here or there in some of the less important sections of the space station, plus there was that one light bulb in the main lobby that just kept flickering, but other than that system failures caused by power outages were rare. 

And if they did occur, sabotage was one of the more likely suspects, and had been in the past. 

This meant that when the power to the cameras observing Morgan’s room cut out, the cameras themselves glitching and fizzling out, security had immediately been alerted, as had Alex. Fortunately, the power returned a moment later and an inspection done by both security and electrical staff showed that there was no foul play to be suspected, that a technical error had just occurred. 

A slim possibility that was the only explanation for the power suddenly going out. Alex had, of course, been less than pleased to hear this, especially since there was no conclusive evidence that a technical failure was the definite cause. The older Yu sibling had huffed and puffed in aggravation, but ultimately concluded that the neuromod tests would continue the next day despite the strange occurrence. 

Not before informing Dr. Bellamy to keep a close eye on Morgan during the examination, of course. 

However, there had been one piece of information present on the recordings that had been overlooked, assumed to be nothing more than part of the error that had caused the cameras to lose power in the first place. 

There had been a dark, indistinguishable smudge that had raced towards Morgan’s bed. It had been visible for less than a second and seemed to just appear before disappearing, which is why the sight of it had been dismissed. 

Merely a symptom of the camera becoming fuzzy before fully going out, nothing to be worried about. No Typhon had broken containment, everything was fine. 

After all, they only had the Typhon to be concerned with…

Right? 

The next day, Dr. Sylvain Bellamy felt… off as he watched Morgan Yu slowly make her way over to the testing chambers. He had felt tense ever since he had first woken up, the scant bit of sleep he got was plagued with nightmares. Images of dark shapes and screaming-

God, he needed a coffee. He had already drunk three cups and the day had barely begun. 

And yet, the jittery feeling that had slowly taken over him was not from the excessive amounts of caffeine. Caffeine never made him feel this way, he had gotten used to it a long time ago. This feeling was caused by… something else. 

Perhaps it was how tired Morgan looked, her eyes shadowed and face looking strangely blank. 

Every single time they had this test, the Yu sister had always been excited and energetic, happy to work with Alex and help wherever she could. There had been a spring in her step, a light in her eyes. 

A light that was ominously vacant. 

Bellamy sighed and took another sip of his coffee, barely able to steady his hand enough for him to lift his drink. He needed a break, needed a nap. 

Needed to finish this test as soon as possible and get away from this place, this feeling. 

So, after getting the go ahead from Alex, Bellamy introduced himself and the tests that Morgan was supposed to do. For once, during all the times he had repeated this script to himself and to the Yu sister, he found himself faltering. 

His voice was not as smooth nor professional as it always was, he fumbled and stuttered over certain words, occasionally pausing as he struggled to recall what he was supposed to say next. His hands felt sweaty. 

He needed another cup of coffee. 

He missed the concerned glances sent his way by his fellow researchers and the hushed whispers shared between them. All he could focus on was wrong, wrong, something was wrong, have to run-

As each test progressed, that foreboding feeling in the back of his mind grew stronger. He watched as Morgan listlessly tossed boxes out of the circle, appearing unmotivated during the test, and knit his hands together as he watched her stare at him when she was supposed to be hiding. 

Staring with those empty, blank eyes. 

Something was wrong, he knew this, he knew something must have gone wrong at some point. He needed to tell Alex. 

The second the final test was complete, he would tell Alex. 

Bellamy repeated this mantra over and over to himself, using it as that last bit of motivation to get through to the last test-

And, of course, this was when that foreboding feeling manifested into a nightmarish reality. 

Room C had proved to have the same results as the prior two tests, Morgan technically completing the required goals but not at all using the neuromod that had been installed. In fact, just before Bellamy had moved to stand in front of the final room, he swore he had seen-

Morgan, drool running down the corner of her mouth as those blank eyes stared at him. 

Run, run, run, run-

“Dr. Bellamy, are you alright?” Lucia Jimenez asked, leaning over and whispering to him so the speaker did not pick anything up. He instinctively nodded, feeling all the more disconnected to his surroundings. 

“Yes, I just… have something very important I need to mention to Alex later.” He replied. 

Run, run, the darkness draws closer-

“You sure?” Marco Simmons added, taking a step towards Bellamy and narrowing his eyes in concern. “You’re pale and sweating. You got a fever or something?”

“He was fine earlier.” Jimenez commented, her worry growing as well. “Should I get a trash can or something?’

“No! No I’m… I’m fine.” Bellamy exclaimed as he lifted his hands up and offered them a shaky smile. “Just… coffee withdrawal, you know.”

Neither of them seemed all that convinced by his explanation, but they did back up and allow him to start up the next, and final, test. Simmons went to go organize some of the data while Jimenez took a seat at the computer, ready to look over the questions and Morgan’s answers. And as for Morgan…

She was, thankfully, seated at the table and seemed to be focusing on the screen in front of her. The sight of her acting so normal was welcome among all the strange behaviours he had seen earlier, but he still needed to talk to Alex. He let out a sigh and picked up his mostly empty coffee mug. What a talk that would be-

Without warning, the lights went out. 

Panic immediately broke out among the group as they each struggled to figure out what was going on. The sounds of glass breaking and something heavy striking the ground, making it shake, only intensified their terror. 

“No, no!” Bellamy yelped as he stumbled around in the shadows that had overtaken the room, hearing shouting and fighting breaking out around him. What was going on?! 

Another step backwards resulted in him tripping over something, falling and landing heavily on his back. His head cracked against the ground and he saw stars. 

Bellamy hated space, hated the void that surrounded them and how far they were from everything else, the isolation. His research kept him sane. 

As did Morgan, once upon a time.

“F-Fuck!” He spat as he struggled to regain his footing, one of his hands landing on something warm and wet. He slipped once more, leg bumping into whatever he had tripped over. 

White in the darkness, a flash of a badge-

Lucia Jimenez’s headless corpse. 

Bellamy screamed, he screamed, and screamed, and screamed as he scrambled to back away from the body, the heavy stench of copper permeating the air and making him gag violently. She was dead, dead, dead, dead!

What was going on? What was happening? Why were the lights still out? Where was security? 

Footsteps sounded out nearby and, in a moment of hope among despair, Bellamy crawled forwards on his hands and knees as he desperately tried to find the owner of the steps. It had to be Marco, they could make it out of this hell together. 

He would live, he would survive. 

Please, please, please-

What does it look like, the shape in the glass?

A hand grasped onto a boot and Sylvain Bellamy found himself looking up, staring into the face of death. Morgan loomed out of the darkness above him, skin twitching and seizing before ultimately splitting apart, a maw of teeth and gore cracking and breaking open-

I used to wish we weren’t alone in the universe.

Not-Morgan lunged, body splitting and breaking further as tendrils pierced the suit that had clothed her, it, and Bellamy screamed. 

All around Talos I, alarms broke the silence as guards scrambled to gather their weapons. There was an alien among them, something other than the Typhon. Something far different, far deadlier, and as for Not-Morgan…

They want to live inside us, like a disease.

Well, it was among prey, now. 

                                        xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I would pay solid money to see which would win in a fight, an Imposter or a Typhon.

I hope you all enjoyed reading!

- ImmortalCoelacanth

[beerecordings]

hey i don't want to be too critical but i know you write jackie as autistic and i don't know if you're nd but sometimes he comes across like he's an allistic person with some sensory issues. i'm sure you try your best being inclusive and all but there's lots of common stuff like vocal stimming, comfort objects, picky eating, hyperfixations, phobias, hyperverbality etc. that i've never noticed in him. i hope this is helpful feedback i really love nd jackie headcanons.

thank you for your warm tone and your feedback i love hearing from you!! let’s talk about this! maybe you can help me get better at representing him.

to be fair, I do sometimes worry that Jackie’s ASD is too confined only to his sensory issues, but I don’t think that it’s the only thing represented in the story. I know the sensory issues are very obvious, but I do try to put other things in there. Yes, it would be more obvious for me to say “Jackie stimmed and flapped his hands” but sometimes I say “Jackie pulled on his hair and scratched at his arm” instead. Or it would be more obvious for me to go out of my way to say “Jackie gagged at the taste of the eggs in his mouth and refused to eat anymore” but instead I say “Chase remembered to get peanut butter. Jackie always buys them peanut butter.”

if I may? maybe you could look at some of these and see if you like my ideas for how I could emphasize or better represent this? but at the same time I don’t want to be so upfront about it that I reduce Jackie only to his symptomology or make him a caricature,.

Jackie’s comfort object is his sweatshirt (see the section where he refused to take it off even though it might help him evade the cops and the fact that he constantly wears one and rubs at the fabric)

maybe I could give him more comfort objects?

Jackie stims (often pulling at his hair or chewing on his nails and aching for a run all the time even when he’s not allowed outside)

maybe I could use the word stim more often instead of just saying “Jackie gnawed on his nails”?

Jackie has anxiety about his ability to interact with others, acknowledging that he’s often awkward and misses social cues (see his fear in the very first chapter that the new twin Anti has given him won’t like him, see his fear that Max won’t like him now), and is known to be a bad liar, also associated with autism

maybe this can come up more once Jackie meets more people outside of his family?

Jackie’s hyperfixation is Max right now (see his complaints that he constantly thinks about him, genuinely unable to get him out of his head and often going “distant” because he’s daydreaming)

maybe I can acknowledge some other interests of Jackie’s?

Jackie admits he doesn’t understand poetry (struggles with non-literal language) and tries to send Marvin a happy poem, but actually sends him a fairly sad one.

If I have the chance, I will acknowledge that Jackie struggles with non-literary language at some point.

Jackie obsesses over small things he’s done wrong because of his rejection-sensitive dysphoria (associated with autism)

Jackie is overwhelmed not only by sensory issues, but by too much going on in his head (see Dark making him experience intense emotions, causing a meltdown)

Jackie has problems with his temper and has been physically violent with the others because he finds it difficult to control his emotions sometime

maybe I can have Jackie losing control more often?

Jackie has shutdowns as well as meltdowns (see the part of chapter two where he’s chained to the bed and super emotionally drained and quiet)

maybe I can represent his shutdowns more clearly at some point?

Jackie is clingy and was the one who lead their family to become very physically affectionate - the amount to which Jackie touches people would not be appropriate with strangers, but he struggles to find the difference

Jackie will meet others at some point, I expect, which is when this might be a problem. Max didn’t mind his touchiness lol

Jackie uses certain things as scripts, repeating things he’s heard others say (this meshes with my writing style, but Jackie often repeats things the others have said to him verbatim or copies speech styles, like becoming much more talkative when Max was around)

maybe I can emphasize this more and have him doing some verbal stimming?

Jackie has a high need for stimuli and movement and hates being stuck in the house or chained up. Jackie is VERY neat and hates to have his things moved (see his room in the past and how he misses having clean clothes and things of his own)

maybe I can address this more when Jackie has a chance to own his own things again?

If there’s other things I can make stand out more, I’d love to, but I’m sure you know that autism markers are a sundae bar and everybody gets slightly different ones! Jackie does not have phobias associated with his ASD, though he does have some that have developed alongside his PTSD.

also, if you ever want to hear more about Jackie’s ASD, just ask him! it’s an ask blog for a reason :) some things that haven’t come up but that I do consider canon include:

Jackie is actually a picky eater, but he rarely gets to pick what he eats :( he hates eggs but loves peanut butter!

Jackie wishes everyone would stop changing beds every night lately. he actually likes it when it’s him and Blue in one room, Dok and Trick in another, and Dap and Anti in another. neat and tidy and no one’s in his space!!

Jackie used to hyperfixate on the criminal cases he and Max were investigating, Spider-man, martial arts, and crime statistics.

Jackie’s a talented hacker because he loves how objective and formulaic everything is and how he can just focus on one things for hours... and hours... and hours... lol

Jackie honestly goes through a ton of emotional distress and is, like, constantly a nervous wreck. This was a pretty big theme of Chapter One, but Blue’s helped to alleviate it a little.

IF Jackie gets away from Anti, I do plan to talk more about him finding ways to cope with his need for structure and organization and routine, his struggles with the newfound freedom, and him learning how to actually manage his symptoms instead of just constantly suffering because he sometimes thinks he’s just being a wimp and Anti has never gone out of his way to acknowledge or plan around Jackie’s difficulties.

are there particular things you’d like to see me acknowledge? is there more I can do? I won’t just add random markers to Jackie just to make it more obvious that he’s autistic, but if there are more sensitive ways I can handle his specific symptomology and struggles, let me know. or let him know!! he’ll talk about it! and I will too as the situations arise - things like Jackie meeting new people outside of his family for the first time in a long time, Jackie being allowed to have freedom and hobbies for the first time in a long time, and Jackie having more pressure put on him by him taking leadership of his family.

[sparrowwritings]

Writing Challenge Day Thirty-one: Engaged

Day Thirty -- Masterpost

Lady Musali Strebor frowned just enough to not show any wrinkles on her face. In her hands was a letter with her name on it in a practical but still elegant script. A member of the Knight Defenders of the Wall had arrived with a letter for her, with strict instructions attached to it.

Looking up at the man in question, she gauged his worth as quickly as court life had taught her. He was of average height. She couldn’t immediately tell his build due to the heavy black armor he wore, but from the way his unhelmeted face appeared, the knight was probably of average build. He gave a nervous grin at her scrutiny, his hazel eyes darting around the room. The Lady was certain that even the modest couch she had taken a seat in was worth more than any amount of money he could make in his life. 

If this was a joke, it was a poorly thought out one.

“And you are certain you need to be present during the reading of the letter.” She spoke delicately, though any who was more used to the ways of nobility could detect the note of poison in her words. 

The knight was no such thing, so he babbled loud enough that Lady Musali could hear his nervousness bouncing off the walls. “A-absolutely ma’am. UH I mean, my lady?” He bowed for what must have been the twentieth time in the most inappropriate manner and time. It was starting to get tiresome instead of amusing. “Er, anyway I-I have to uh, stand here while you read it. There’s--well, you’ll see in the letter I guess?” 

With a gentle sigh, she pulled her reticule from where she had placed it down. “If you must, then.” She’d have to have a word with his superiors, later. According to her handmaid, he’d come with an older partner. The instructions were that this Knight in particular--Heimdall, she remembered--be present alone. Perhaps she could speak with him? After she read the letter, of course. From the reticule the Lady produced a letter opener in an elaborately carved sheath. It took a practiced few seconds for her to draw the blade, cut open the envelope, then return it to its rightful place. She even noted from the corner of her eye that Heimdall had flinched from the quickness.

For all that the Wall Knights supposedly faced down evil mages on the regular, this one would be eaten alive at court. Lady Musali held back a satisfied smile and took out the small sheaf of papers and started to read. 

To Her Ladyship Musali Strebor of the noble house of Strebor, The letter began with some if not all of the usual pleasantries that she was used to, but she was thankful to have less to read. After the hundredth time of having to read off the lands that her family had control over, all of the letterheads started to blur together. This one was already unusual in that the only indication that the paper had come from the Wall was a stamp on the top left corner of each page with the symbol of the Knight’s order--a section of wall in the shape of a shield.

She continued to read. We do not know each other, and neither of us have had the opportunity to have our paths cross before now, but I write to you this day on a matter most urgent. It is my utmost hope that this letter reaches you before it is too late and that I can spare you the pain that I have suffered these last seven years. Lady Musali blinked. “A matter most urgent?” “Before it’s too late?” What could this person mean?

I am getting ahead of myself. 

My name is Sagacious Torrent, though I have taken to only being called Saga as of late. I am the current archivist of the Knight Defenders of the Wall. Before that, however, I was a candidate to inherit my family’s business. I am not certain how versed you are in the merchantry of the Turkon Islands, Lady Strebor, but the Torrent family specializes in inter-island trade. Due to the nebulous nature of the smaller islands in the archipelago, as well as the threat that pirates have on foreign ships, transporting goods from one place to another is a difficult endeavor for many, and impossible for most mainlanders. The Torrent family has made its business by stationing their headquarters on the safest island of Kiteltera and (either through direct trade or transportation on Islander ships) help foreign merchants ply their wares on the archipelago. 

To put it simply: My family has a lot of money, and with my cousin determining that he was male and that he would rather join the Queensmen than be forced into a role he did not desire, I was far more likely to inherit the entirety of the business. At this point I must ask that you ask Heimdall to provide the first portrait to accompany this letter.

Raising a thin eyebrow, Lady Musali looked up at the man in question. “Apparently I am supposed to ask you for the first portrait?” At the Wall, an archivist was a higher rank than a knight? That must be the only explanation as to why she was being put through this odd game. Still, the intrigue of the beginning of the letter was far too tempting to miss out on, even if she had to wade through an explanation of a part of the world that her family didn’t ever interact with.

“Ah! Right!” Heimdall patted himself until he found the item in question and handed it over. The portrait was the size of her hand, and clearly painted some years ago. The woman depicted had many of the traits associated with someone born in the Turkon Islands. Her skin was browned by the sun, and her straight dark hair--which grew long enough that the ends couldn’t be seen in the portrait--alongside the pure confidence in her deep brown eyes and posture, all were signs that pointed towards a woman who had been born into a society where she benefited most. She even had a scar that split her left eyebrow in two--something that would be talked about behind her back for years if she had attended court, but to the woman in the portrait it was hardly anything of note.

Lady Musali couldn’t help the pang of jealousy in her breast as she examined the portrait of Saga. This was a woman who had a plethora of choices in her life. Even if her family business had gotten run into the ground, this Saga could rise again in any position she desired. Even nobles with their life of excess had their duties picked out for them for most of their lives.

She glanced at the elaborately carved silver ring on her left hand. This was something she had been given a choice about, at least. Setting the portrait aside, she went back to the letter.

This is how I looked eight years ago. This is how I looked when I met the one who I thought was the love of my life. I am aware of what name he uses for himself now, but back then he called himself Orden Namil. The one he uses now is decidedly different. I apologize for being vague, but this next part is as difficult for me to write as it undoubtedly will be for you to read and you must understand why it is that I decided to write to you now.

Orden was a foreign mage. He came to the Islands, he’d told me later, to find his fortune as best as a man could. I had met him while wandering the capital city of Novel during one of my cousin’s rare visits. The three of us flirted, but he had a special focus on me and foolishly I believed with all my heart that his eyes were set on me for my own traits.  Instead of leaving to travel to other islands, Orden had picked up a job in the city and soon after we started seeing each other more officially. 

He asked me to marry him when we had been together for ten months. I am certain you can sympathize with the feeling, being engaged yourself as I write this letter. Lady Musali wasn’t surprised that an archivist, especially one for the Wall, had found out about the engagement. There were rumors that the Wall had connections to all of the kingdoms in Adronis, as well as the few human-run places on Bibliano and Sanatig. She was more surprised that the regimented straight lines of the words were becoming more and more shaky as the letter went on. Perhaps this wasn’t a joke, as she’d first thought.

Now, inheritance on the Islands works very similarly to how it does on the mainland. Normally, the firstborn girlchild is the one who is the heir to the lands and titles that the family owns, followed by the second one, and so on. If somehow a family only has male living relatives left, then it passes onto the oldest male up until an heir is born, then she will inherit. 

There is one notable exception to any inheritance. That being: when the living heir of a noble or wealthy family decides that she (or he, in this case) wishes to deny their rightful claim, the Queen must be the one to decide who the next heir will be. Each Queen has her own way of determining such. I will spare you old stories of contests and wagers and the like to tell you this: the day after Orden and I had announced our engagement, Her Majesty Queen Doranté III decided that Galline--the young niece to the former heir but still cousin to me--would inherit after her grandmother--my aunt--passed on. 

I was fine with this. At the time, I thought it would make married life that much easier. My children and I could be more free to pursue what we wished, and Orden would still be able to keep at his work. In fact, because he would have my name attached to his, he would be far more able to gain the trust (and business) of any Islander.

He did not agree. Here, the lines were harsh and regimented. As if Saga had been pushing the quill deeply into the paper as she wrote. We fought for the first and last time that night. Kindness and understanding had been utterly replaced by malice and jealousy. He railed against what he saw was an unfair and unjust appointment. Nothing I pointed out about the benefits of not being the heir were heard and were in fact shouted over. He kept going on about lost opportunities and how he had wasted his time. 

It was then that I realized that nothing short of pure greed had motivated Orden into asking for my hand. He hadn’t cared for me from the start.

I took off the ring he’d given me--a silver one, carved elaborately with all the correct signs for a long and happy marriage and extra flourishes besides--and smacked it onto the table. It quieted him down long enough for me to order him to leave and never return. 

I never mentioned what elemental affinity my ex-fiancé has when I mentioned that he is a mage. He is attuned to Fire. 

Fire was his magic of choice when he used it against me. Please ask Heimdall for the second portrait that is to come with this letter.

It took a lot to shake Lady Musali Strebor. Nobility in general had to act as if nothing other than gossip mattered in their lives while around other nobility. Playing the game was how one could make connections and rise ever higher in standing with each other. Being neutral about most everything could mean the difference between a very successful arrangement or being the laughing stock of the court. 

The fact that she was currently trembling as she lowered the letter and stared directly at the silver ring on her hand would have shocked the entire court. With her audience of one (and him being from outside nobility at that), this was the rawest emotion she had shown to someone outside of--

“I am at the part of the letter where I am to see the next portrait.” Lady Strebor’s voice was even, though her body was actively trying to betray her. She took that as a victory, although it didn’t feel like one.

“Uh, right.” Heimdall gave her an odd look as he handed over the second portrait. With shaking hands, she cradled the picture in front of her. Instead of being fully painted, this was more of a drawing that had been outlined in dark ink. The woman depicted was like night to the previous one’s day. She was hunched forward with a deep frown. The lack of color or even shading to her skin told of years of staying indoors. Her arms crossed her chest protectively, though her dark eyes were tiredly looking outward. It was clearly still Saga--the scar on her eyebrow was in the same place, and her face was still the same shape.

The biggest difference was her hair. Or lack thereof.

Instead of long dark locks, there was an almost bare scalp of rippled skin. Tufts of black hair seemed to be growing, but not nearly enough to hide the extent of the damage. This was a broken woman if Lady Musali had ever seen one. And the cause of it all, was…

She went back to the letter as she slowly removed the silver ring from her finger. I hope I do not need to elaborate any further. Your fiancé is a dangerous man, Lady Strebor. I would highly recommend that you break the engagement at your earliest convenience, but please take caution when you do so.

Heimdall and Gawain are two of the best Knights that the Wall has to offer. This is why I sent them with the letter, although I did not tell either of them the true reasons why. Tell them that their final task is to defend you from your mage fiancé and they will listen. If you do not wish for their presence, just send them back to the Wall. I only offer suggestions, you are allowed to do what you wish with this information. 

I understand that the pressures of nobility do not always give much by way of choice, but I pray that you will find happiness with a marriage to someone that is nothing like him.

Yours truly,

Sagacious Torrent

Lady Musali Strebor put the final page down and stared into the middle distance for what felt like ages. Finally she looked down at the ring in her hand and closed it tight. “Sir Heimdall.” She called.

He immediately snapped back to attention. “Ma’am! Er, uh--”

“Ma’am will do.” She snapped, but she went back to using her gentle tone immediately after. “It seems I need the help of you and your partner with a spot of personal business involving a mage. Will you both protect me while I handle this matter?”

A worried look flashed across his face, but Heimdall ended up saluting anyway. “We’re here to protect those who are in danger from those who would use magic for evil. So. I’m not really supposed to say yes without Gawain here but I think he’ll let it slide.” His smile was still nervous as he added, “You’ll send us a glowing review after, right?”

“That remains to be seen.” Lady Strebor carefully folded the letter and placed it and the portraits into her reticule before rising. “My fiancé shall be returning this evening. I’d like you both to join us for supper so we can take care of this matter today.”

From how he lit up, she was very certain that he was far more interested in the food than in any protecting he needed to do. Hopefully Gawain was more responsible. “Yes ma’am! Thank you, ma’am! I’ll, uh, go get him then.” 

She gave a dismissal wave towards his retreating back. With a sigh she stared at the ceiling, and then daintily tread to her writing desk.

Lady Musali Strebor had a reply to compose.

[nimbus-cloud]

Taka-Talk 2019 Review

I was lucky enough to get tickets for two out of his three sessions in Tokyo (sessions 1 and 3), and died of cute.  Full synopsis under the Read More for those who are interested!

Session 1 Even though we had tickets for the first session in Tokyo, I already felt like I was behind?  Takato did his Taka-Talk in five cities total this year, placing them conveniently as Engeki Haikyuu hopped between cities.  And since I couldn’t go to Osaka or Nagoya or Sendai or Hakata, I walked in going, what did I even misssssss???  There was a postcard with a crossword where you could fill in the keywords by attending EVERY session where the keywords were given, and then you could mail it in later for special bromide prizes.  I had no shot at winning that obviously lol.  

Anyway, session one started with him walking down the aisle toward the stage, walking past us as we did.  We had aisle seats for the first session, and he did pause for a little while to mess with my friend’s pull-out desk (the venue was a lecture hall so each chair had a pull-out desk) before going to the stage.  One girl walked in a little bit late, rushing to her seat as he got up onto the stage.  When he asked if anyone had attended other sessions in other cities, people raised their hand.  When he asked who lived the closest to this venue, several people raised their hands.  The first girl said it took her 20min by train, another said 15, and then the girl that was late said that she lived one station away.  And Takato, being the little shit that he is, just CALLED HER OUT, and was like, 

“So you live the closest and got here the latest?” 

But she explained that she got here, then realized she’d forgotten her ticket, and rushed back home to get it and came back.   That exchange probably feels a bit innocuous, but it’s kind of rare for actors at fan events to be THAT casual?  Takato often forgets to use polite forms in his Japanese, defaulting to casual forms not just with his guests but even with us, and sometimes he’ll correct himself, sometimes he doesn’t.  

He also asked who came from furthest away, and I did raise my hand but there wasn’t time to call on everyone, but there was a girl in the back who answered that she’d come from Taiwan!  And oddly, Takato heard it correctly, that she said Taiwan, but a group of fans in the front tried to correct him, because they heard her say “Hawaii.”  So he was like, “Eh? Eh?? Wait, no, say it again.”  And she answered louder, ‘Taiwan’ and he just draaaagged that section lololol.  He was like, “See!!  I was right!  You were trying to correct me, but I was right, aren’t YOU embarrassed?!!” 

Then he called out the first guest of the day, who was Ishigami Ryuuya, who is the new actor for Fukunaga from The Tokyo Battle.  My god he was so cute and shy.  He was sort of obviously very nervous, especially at first, but the more Takato talked to him and the more they got into telling stories about the tour, the more he loosened up.  

Apparently, Ryuuya calls Takato ‘oyabun’ which roughly translates to like... boss... but in like a criminal setting.  So more like ‘don.’  When Takato asked Ryuuya, “Why do you call me that again?”  And he just stammered, “W-well, y-you told me to.”  

Takato did NOT remember this lololol, but it was apparently as they were starting Engeki rehearsals.  Ryuuya, being new and inexperienced, was trying to figure out what to call him.  Nagata-san?  Takato-san?  And Takato was like nahhh just call me Takato-kun.  But Ryuuya felt really uncomfortable with that, but then he realized how even Takato-san might be too formal now.  So Takato joked that he should just call him ‘boss’ and Ryuuya latched onto it and that’s what stuck.  

The Takato film that he prepared for our session was a personal challenge to himself.  He would wait in Shibuya in Hachiko square, hoping that someone walking by would recognize him as an actor and start talking to him.  But twenty minutes apparently went by with nobody approaching him so then he decided to start approaching random groups of people to ask if they might know him.  Since his recent TV Drama is the one with the most reach, he’d start out by asking people if there were any dramas they’d been watching recently, had they watched HajiKoi maybe... then he clarified which character he played.  Unfortunately 3 out of 5 groups did not know him at all so he failed his personal challenge and had to eat bugs again.  There was one group where they did, in fact, watch the drama, but they didn’t remember who he was even so.  And another group where they said they watched the drama, and when he pointed out who he played, they were like, “Oh no way, really?!?”  

As is traditional of Taka-Talk films, there’s always a credits page where it’s just like: 

Starring: Nagata Takato Director: Nagata Takato Producer: Nagata Takato Script: Nagata Takato Editing: Nagata Takato Cinematography: Nagata Takato

More stories from Ryuuya and Takato, although a good chunk was about how much Yugioh they played in their downtime and how much time the two of them spent together.  In trying to remember all the times they played, Ryuuya said that Takato won maybe 80 times and lost 10.  He’s very good at YGO apparently.  Before Ryuuya left the stage, he did an acrobatic sequence for us and we cheered so loud, Takato got jealous and went, “That’s the loudest you guys have been!!” 

Then there’s the Takastagram portion where he walks through the crowd and we’re allowed to take photos of him (hence the photos above).  

Then he sang three songs for us (which is the reason for the penlights).  He sang a guitar ballad cover of a song he’s been liking recently, he sang “Try” again from last year’s Taka-Talk, the one that he and Kazuma wrote together, and then a more upbeat pop song that SURPRISE had 4 back-up dancers!  They were all 4 other guys from his agency, Cube, including Kanda Masakazu (who played Kunimi in The Strongest Team).  

At one point he asked them to list one thing they liked about him, and they all picked fairly shallow reasons like hair color, the color of his clothes today... Kanda was a little less shallow since he said he liked Takato’s accent/dialect.  The last of them said that he liked Takato’s black shoelaces lololol.  

To close it out, we got to give him high fives as we left, with staff pushing us along so that we didn’t linger lol.  I just told him, ‘thank you’ in English and he opened his eyes wide and said, “Thank you!” back.  It’s a bit fun for me that he’s shorter than I am.  

Session 3 So the evening session was like, almost 2 hours long, essentially double the length of the first session, but it is the last Taka-Talk of his five-city tour, so I guess the goal was to make it extra special.  This session was supposed to have a ‘secret guest’ and truthfully he had about three, although he did announce Yuushin beforehand.

The fun part was that the secret guest was originally supposed to be someone else, but his managed messed something up and they became unavailable or couldn’t make it, so the secret guest ended up a secret to even Takato!  He was like, “We had to get someone else, and even I don’t know who it is, so... I’m gonna hide over here, and you guys let me know when I can look!”   His first secret guest was a co-star from the drama HajiKoi, which I haven’t seen, so I did not shriek with the rest of the crowd when he walked in the door lololol.  It was Wakabayashi Takuya, who plays Kisa in the drama.  

Takato was just crouching on the left corner of the stage, hiding his face behind the curtains, and once Takuya ended up more or less center stage, we called out to Takato that it was fine, he could look, and he was super surprised to see him there.  Of course, because his own guest was a surprise, his emcee cards were also covered in sticky notes so that he couldn’t see what his own agenda for the session was going to be, and he kept peeling those off as the session went on to figure out what he was supposed to do lololol.  He kept whining at the staff the entire time, but he was also just having the time of his life, and he was just like, “I love surprises!  This is so fun!”  

The guest event involved playing back scenes from HajiKoi, and then beeping out certain lines and then Takato and Takuya had to guess (with their little boards and markers) what the bleeped line was.  To make it extra difficult, literally none of the bleeped lines were anything that either of their characters said.  It was always someone else’s line, so they kept getting stuck and would just start writing down nonsense answers instead.  So honestly, nobody won, but Takato was just like, “I won, right?  It was me?”  And Takuya, being a gracious guest, just conceded lol.  Takuya also kept apologizing that he wasn’t Ryusei, who’s the actor who plays the pink-haired lead in HajiKoi, since he was sure more of the girls would’ve preferred to see him, but honestly the crowd seemed pretty happy either way.  They also decided to give away the little boards they wrote their answers on, so they’d call out random seat numbers or go for whoever rose their hand first.  Just like last year, a girl sitting right behind me won one of the prizes, and she was pretty thrilled.  

And then the second secret guest was another actor from Cube, Isaka Ikumi, nicknamed Ikumin.  I actually know Ikumin from another show (Yuugeki) so I could follow the conversation a little bit better this time.  Takato was hiding again, but Ikumin decided he would go up on the stage and then just go straight to Takato and hug him from behind, so we didn’t have to give any cues before Takato looked to see who it was lol.  

Ikumin confessed that he’d always always always wanted to be a guest at Taka-Talk, so when the staff approached him about it, he was super excited and said yes immediately, but then they told him that he’d be the second secret guest of the last session and then he got super nervous about it.  But Ikumin was basically the type of guest Takato loves to have, aka, the type that extols his immense love for Takato and sings his praises to his face.  

The game that they played was truths and lies.  So they picked cards that gave them themes, and then between them, one of them would would tell us something true, and the other one would lie.  We had to decide who the liar was, and they got us good because we got it wrong both times and nobody had to play the penalty game of eating bugs lol.  

One of Ikumin’s lies though, he said that he went to go see the press preview of Engeki Haikyuu, and sat in the 8th row and got super excited when Takato looked at him at the end of the play during the last dance sequence.  That was a lie; the truth was that he sat in the 3rd row, and wanted Takato to looks his way the entire time but Takato never did.  lololololol We thought Takato was lying when he said that he’d never once lost to Shouri in playing Yugioh, but it turns out that was the truth!  And Takato is very very proud of this fact.  

Ikumin was like, “Really?”  And Takato was like, “Well Shouri’s so good at everything, ya know?  Like his athletics, his height, but you know, he could never beat me at Yugioh.  We’d start playing, and he’d put a card face down, and then I’d play a card face down, and then he’d put down a monster--” and he started rambling, and Ikumin just interrupted, “Just send that story to Takahashi Kazuki!”  Takahashi Kazuki is the YGO manga-ka.  

Then there was another video to show us the secret word for that session and it showed Takato visiting Tokyo Tower, because that’s where there is a special One Piece space, which has the One Piece Live Attraction show.  Takato made his acting debut with that show playing Luffy, so it was framed as a sort of, going-back-to-his-roots, walk-down-memory-lane type of video.  He was getting teary-eyed at certain points in the video, so it was really sweet, and the end of it had him thanking all of us for supporting him and being his fans.  

Then he came out to wrap up with the music session, and he tried to lighten the mood again by saying things like, “The staff told me to look super nostalgic while going through the One Piece areas, but I don’t actually remember half of what I touched.”  

He sang a different ballad from the first session with Yuushin, this one being an original they wrote together.  It was a song about love, but they both had the intention of writing it from a woman’s point-of-view, so that was interesting.  They’re always a wonderful duet to listen to~  After that, Takato asked Yuushin if he had any upcoming events/shows he wanted to promote or announcements to make, and Yuushin had this long pause before he was like, “Well it’ll be announced tomorrow.”  

And I was just thinking in my head, YES HELLO NEW ENNOSHITA.  I’VE SEEN THE LEAKS.  I KNOW IT’S YOU.  

A final round of high-fives, and then I went back to the goods table for ONE MORE set of bromides to try my luck, and it turned out that Takato was handing out those purchases, so he handed me my final set of purchased bromides and ughhhhhhh he really does have the most adorable smile~!!!  

Couldn’t quite get every bromide (and it was impossible because he had city-specific bromides too); they were random.  But I also have that penlight and his little tote bag.  

He did also announce that he’s doing his first birthday event this year, on Aug. 25th, and he hinted that we could bring these penlights again for that, and then there’s the C.I.A. Mission in Summer event (with nearly all the actors from Cube), and since he’s going to be in that event too, he hinted that we should bring his penlights to that too.  I’m honestly not strictly sure that it would be allowed for the CIA event, given that it’s going to have several different people, but who knows lololol.  I can only imagine how annoyed the other actors might get at him seeing Takato’s bright red penlights in the crowd.  XDDDDD

So another wonderful Taka-Talk, and four total times high-fiving Takato adding in my experiences from last year~  ^_^ 

[artificialqueens]

as the stars align (branjie) - rujubees

A/N: Brooke Lynn Hytes is one of Hollywood’s top A-Listers with a reputation for being a diva. Newcomer Vanessa Mateo is fresh off her debut role and already making a splash in the industry. When they get cast as lovers for an oscar-worthy script, their on-screen chemistry is a director’s dream come true. There’s only one problem: they completely, unequivocally and unapologetically cannot stand one another.

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Brooke Lynn had barely taken the first sip of her morning coffee when Nina thrusted a pile of paper into her arms.

“As The Stars Align? What the hell is this, Nina?”

“Brooke, you’re such a bad lesbian,” Nina scolded with an eye roll and a chuckle. “It’s Katya Zamolodchikova’s newest script based on her novel about two female astronauts who fall in love. And it’s good.”

Brooke held the script contemplatively, her eyes fluttering over the story outline, fingers flicking through the pages. Despite her brief early morning amnesia, she did know who Katya Zamolodchikova was — everybody did. She was a rare example of an author who had been able to permeate the heteronormative industry with LGBT driven stories, and have her publications be received with both critical and commercial success. Brooke wasn’t usually one for romance novels, but even she had read some of Katya’s works, and she had to admit that they were of surprisingly high quality.

And the lead character description of a woman who was ‘reserved and mysterious’ among other things was undoubtedly perfect for her. From the way Nina was excitedly rambling about that very fact, she was one step away from telling her that the character had been written with Brooke in mind.

“You have to audition, B. They just announced that Michelle Visage is directing and the online buzz is unlike anything I’ve seen for a movie of this scale before. This thing is Oscar-worthy, Brooke, I’m telling you.”

Brooke scoffed, drawing back from her coffee for the first time since Nina had arrived.

“An interracial love story between two women set in space? Yeah, that’s bound to be a hit with all the old, straight, white men in the Academy.” She pushed the script down the long, marble bar the pair sat at in Brooke’s kitchen and got up to refill her coffee. Truthfully, she didn’t care about awards or what a bunch of crusty dudes thought of her in any capacity. But it had been so long since she’d had a project which she was genuinely passionate about — one had not came along since the groundbreaking movies that had made her the star she was. These days, she was established, sure, but the last few years had led her down a hole of constantly being reduced to the trophy wife in male-dominated dramas or the blonde bimbo in vapid heterosexual rom-coms. It would hurt for her to get her hopes up high at the idea of finally landing a role of substance, only to have her dreams dashed at the last minute, once again being overlooked in favour of someone younger or prettier or more talented.

“Who cares about the Academy?” Nina exclaimed, watching exasperatedly as Brooke Lynn flopped back into to the seat opposite her. “This thing is gonna be huge no matter what. If it’s not an awards season candidate, at least it’ll be a box office smash. If it’s not a box office smash, it’ll still be important representation to all the little gay girls and boys who need representation like a lead lesbian character being played by an actual LGBT person. Don’t you wanna be a part of that?”

Brooke smiled softly at Nina, meeting the other woman’s eyes and realising how passionate she was about this. How much she cared. She was straight, but she just got it. It wasn’t that often that Brooke came across a real, ride-or-die ally in show-business, and it was the reason Brooke Lynn had hired her as her manager almost on-sight. It was also part of why Nina was her best friend.

“You got me there, bitch,” Brooke replied with a smirk, chuckling as Nina’s eyes immediately began lighting up and her face broke out into a wide grin. Brooke’s own smile began to falter the more she considered Nina’s point.

“I’m not even, like, out-out though,” she said, her eyes dropping to her hands, which Nina quickly covered with her own. “They deserve better than me.”

“Only because you won’t dignify invasive speculation about your sexuality with an answer, rightfully so by the way, and you’ve never been in a public relationship. You’ll get there.”

“Public? Girl, I’ve never been in a relationship, Period. We’re a long way off from public,” Brooke responded with a sigh. She pulled the script back and began flipping through it again, regretting allowing the conversation to turn this personal.

A few seconds passed without Nina saying anything.

“I know you’re doing that thing with your face again,” Brooke said, before peeking over the top of her script and letting herself take in the inevitable look of concern the other woman was communicating.

“Nina, I’m fine, I promise. That’s not me anyway.”

Nina didn’t look convinced, but didn’t press the issue any further, much to Brooke’s relief.

“Look. I’ll do the audition,” Brooke conceded, and Nina burst out into applause, the prior topic apparently already forgotten.

—

Brooke stood before Katya Zamolodchikova, Michelle Visage, and Asia O’Hara, who she’d previously learned would be serving as an executive producer and casting director on the movie. The audition had gone well.

Or at least that’s what she assumed from the huge, incredibly white, toothy grin Katya was giving her right now, and she knew her characters better than anyone after all. Asia was also displaying an impressed smile, and Michelle’s suspicious, reluctant expression from earlier was long gone.

“Well?” Brooke Lynn prompted as she crossed her arms, trying not to let on how badly she wanted this role. Normal protocol would mean that she wouldn’t find anything out about her chances until days, weeks, maybe even months later, but nothing about this trio struck her as conventional in their ways.

“I fucking love you,” Katya announced, and Brooke was pretty sure that if she had still been drinking her coffee she would’ve choked on it.

“Obviously,” Brooke commented.

“I’m serious, bitch. I want you to do the chemistry read later this week.”

“Who’s the other girl?” Brooke asked, unable to stop curiosity filling her voice.

“Right now, we’re interested in Vanessa Mateo,” Asia said. Brooke had heard the name a lot in certain circles over the last year or so, but she didn’t think she’d seen her in anything or that she would be able to picture what she looked like. She didn’t keep up enough with latest in Hollywood as much as she used to, didn’t have many close friends in the industry, and it was easy for hot topics to escape her attention.

Later that day, once Brooke got home, she tried to find out as much as she could about Vanessa Mateo. She learnt that she was five years younger than her at twenty four, and was Puerto Rican but grew up in Florida. So far, she had only been in one feature length movie — the biggest indie hit of last year which had even captured Brooke Lynn’s attention with its trailer before she had forgotten all about it.

She also discovered that Vanessa was possibly the most beautiful person she had ever seen, and this was coming from a woman who had worked in LA for over fifteen years. She tried not to dwell on that part as she scrolled through her potential co-star’s wikipedia page, her eyes dropping to the ‘personal life’ section, which said that Vanessa had a boyfriend. In fact, she was still dating her college sweetheart, information which Brooke tried to suppress an eye roll at.

Brooke jumped as she was interrupted by the jarring sound of her phone ringtone; Nina had managed to book her in for a chemistry read with Vanessa for the following Tuesday. Regretfully, Brooke closed her browser tabs and pulled her script from her bag, alongside the shiny new copy of Stars Align novel that she had been presented with at the audition. For once, the feeling of dread that usually preceded Brooke’s work reading was replaced by a tentative sense of optimism.

—

Vanessa had passed the first rounds of auditions. She couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t managed to land anything beyond a few minor TV roles here and there since she got her big break last year, and she was beginning to think that maybe she just wasn’t made for the big screen, no matter how many times her friends had reassured her that she was just being dramatic. She still had the chemistry read to go, but the hard part was over.

“Congratu-fucking-lations, Vanjie,” Silky said as soon as she broke the news, her and A’keria immediately engulfing her in a group hug.

“Don’t jump the gun, bitch, they haven’t cast me yet,” Vanessa replied, struggling to hold back her smile anyway.

“Yet being the operative word,” A’keria pointed out. The trio finally shuffled into Vanessa’s studio apartment, Vanessa having been unable to stop herself from spilling to them before they got inside.

“Have you told Matt yet?” Silky asked, her eyebrows raised questionably. Vanessa sighed, her boyfriend having barely crossed her mind the entire day. She knew that it was natural; they were long past the honeymoon phase in their relationship, and she would just have to accept that they weren’t getting the romance they once shared back. Well, it had never quite been passion and fireworks and roses, but it had been sweet. Fun. Matt was always one of her favourite people to spend time with. She couldn’t say the same thing now, even though she still cared for him. But he had gone above and beyond to support her through her rise to fame, and Vanessa knew that she’d never find anyone as genuine as him again. She’d already dealt with the pain of having people befriend her, only to go on to realise that they were simply in it for her new status and money. What she had with Matt was good, she told herself. She loved him.

“I ain’t telling Matt shit until it’s official. And don’t you do it either,” Vanessa warned Silky with a stern look.

Silky pouted, pulling Vanessa onto the couch as A’keria popped open the first bottle she could find and poured them each a glass.

“We’re so proud of you, sis,” A’keria smiled, raising her champagne.

“To Vanessa Vanjie motherfuckin’ Mateo,” Silky exclaimed, clinking their glasses together.

“Y’all are the worst, I swear. They might pick some other hoe still if this Brooke Lynn chick don’t vibe with me.”

“You’re gonna be in a movie with Brooke Lynn Hytes?! Why didn’t you open with that?!” Silky exclaimed.

“Because! What if she doesn’t want it to be me? I heard she only had to audition one time. Clearly, if it comes down to it, it’s her they’re going with, not me.”

“She’ll love you, Vanj, everybody does,” Silky said.

Vanessa sighed. She knew she was getting ahead of herself with this gig, and that she shouldn’t have shared with Silky and A’keria before she knew anything for certain. It was gonna make it even harder to get over the inevitable disappointment, but she couldn’t help herself.

“Silky’s right. Girl, I’m telling you, that’s not what you gotta worry about. If it’s you and Miss Brooke Lynn… good luck, is all I’m saying,” A’keria tutted cryptically.

“She won’t need luck, have you seen Brooke? The bitch is hot,” Silky added unhelpfully.

“Kiki, don’t be vague. The fuck you talking about?” Vanessa asked, determined to grill A’keria for all she knew about her potential future co-star.

“Well, you know what people say. She’s just a bit of a diva, ice-queen type. You know what, ignore me, it’s probably just some kind of sexist fuckery anyway.”

Vanessa didn’t know what to think. She had seen Brooke in a few things — mostly stuff from years ago that made her a household name — but she knew little about the woman who had brought all of those characters to life. All that she knew was that Brooke Lynn was stunning, that the acclaim her acting received was more than justified, and that she was notorious for being a closed book. It may have not been much, but it was certainly enough to make Vanessa intrigued.

—

Vanessa was more nervous than she’d ever been as she knocked on the studio door at twelve o’clock on the dot, and was greeted with nothing but inaudible murmurs. At a loss for what to do next, she began contemplating her next move, but was quickly pulled from her thoughts as a tall blonde in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She turned towards the woman, who was wearing dark jeans, a grey turtleneck sweater, and had sunglasses sat a top her head. Her bleached blonde hair was styled in a wavy bob, and she was holding a Starbucks cup, her eyes giving nothing away as they met Vanessa’s. Although she was dressed casually, she still managed to have an aura of glamour about her.

“You must be Brooke Lynn?” Vanessa asked, forgoing usual greetings.

“Hi,” Brooke Lynn said nonchalantly as the two women approached each other.

“I’m Vanessa.”

“I know. Just Brooke is fine, by the way.”

“Cool. Nice to meet you, Just Brooke,” Vanessa retorted with a smirk. For a second, she thought she saw a crack in Brooke’s neutral exterior, but it must’ve just been a trick of the light as a millisecond later Brooke was looking straight up unimpressed with Vanessa’s admittedly slightly lame attempt at an ice-breaker. She frowned because damn, it wasn’t that deep. Anyone would’ve thought Vanessa had just kicked her kitty (and Brooke did have a cat — two, in fact. Vanessa had found that out on a desperate google binge the previous night.)

Vanessa glared as Brooke took her phone out of her bag and began frantically typing — probably about how much she already knew she didn’t want to work with the girl she was currently stood with. Vanessa cursed her for making it so awkward between them for no reason.

Luckily, her mind couldn’t spiral for long as the door flung open and Katya greeted the pair, looking far more pleased to see Vanessa than Brooke Lynn had been.

“Ladies! Sorry for the wait. Come on in,” Katya said. Michelle, Asia and a few other crew members that Vanessa didn’t know were also seated in the studio, waiting to witness Brooke Lynn and Vanessa’s energy in action and see if they had struck gold.

The chemistry read went far more smoothly than Vanessa had anticipated it would be after her initial interaction with Brooke. Once Michelle had prompted them to begin, it was as if she had become another person entirely. She went from a completely detached, almost shell of a human, to being suddenly absorbed in her character, and her character’s relationship to the role Vanessa was playing. Brooke was convincing, she could give her that. The scene they were delivering wasn’t a major part of the movie, but the nuances of Brooke’s performances made it almost feel like she really had feelings for Vanessa.

However, it was over almost as quickly as it began, and Brooke reverted back to her real self before Vanessa was even able to process the fact that they were finished.

They were met with glowing praise from their panel of judges, and Vanessa felt a strong sense of pride in what she had accomplished. She tried shooting smiles at Brooke in-between compliments, attempting to lighten the atmosphere between them, but Brooke wouldn’t meet her gaze.

After a few more minutes of talk, they were released with the guarantee that they would find out if they were cast within a few days, maximum. Vanessa had been hoping to catch Brooke outside, maybe ask her to lunch so they could get to know each other, but Brooke stayed behind to talk to Katya, the two quickly becoming engrossed in hushed conversation. Vanessa tried to stop paranoia from getting the best of her, but her suspicions that Brooke had connections on this set were confirming themselves, and most likely Brooke would be the priority if she refused to work with Vanessa.

Though surely, if Brooke didn’t want Vanessa cast, she would’ve just thrown their chemistry read altogether?

Vanessa didn’t know the answer to that. Brooke wasn’t easy to work out.

Defeated, she gave the casting panel one last wave and left the studio — it was clear that Brooke would be hanging back for a while. Vanessa knew the rest was out of her hands and decided to hit up Silky and A’keria for drinks; all she could do now was wait.

—

The call came sooner than expected — later that evening, with Vanessa and her friends in a crowded bar, having spent the rest of the day getting drunk. The conversation with Asia was short and to the point, with Vanessa doing her very best to compose herself and hide her tipsy state. The news that she would, in fact, be working alongside Brooke Lynn almost went right over her head, overshadowed by the sheer realisation that she had done it. She had finally landed the second major role of her career. This was her chance to show the world that she wasn’t a one hit wonder, or a fluke.

“I got the part!” Vanessa all but yelled as she returned to their table, ecstatic, A’keria and Silky smothering her with hugs and kisses and screaming words of excitement and congratulations.

“Yes bitch!” Silky declared, and Vanessa wasn’t sure if it was pride or the alcohol, but she was pretty sure that her friend was tearing up.

“Brooke too?” A’keria asked, standing up to buy them another round.

“Yes, obviously. But who cares about her! Lets celebrate,” Vanessa announced. She’d be lying if she denied that at the very back of her mind, she had no lingering concerns about working with Brooke Lynn. But clearly, the bitch could be professional when she needed to be, and she saw no reason why she’d want to make this hard for the both of them now they were stuck with each other for the foreseeable future. And regardless, nothing could wipe the smile off of Vanessa’s face in that moment. She’d be damned if she was gonna let anyone ruin her night for her.

[basilandthym]

"Woah." 

  Thym paused in the doorway.  Before them was another Arcturus common room, cozy in its plush chairs and warm fires.  But this entryway space was massive next to the lounges of Virgo.  

  And there were stairs!

  Thym cast a single wide-eyed smile to Basil before taking off towards the nearest staircase.

  Basil smirked, letting them explore ahead. The main entryway for Orion was grand, but it was not what he’d brought them to see. And they’d see soon enough. He couldn’t dare rush the experience. 

Thym gazed through the second floor windows, watched in awe as the entryway’s floating lamps circled about the room, but it wasn’t long before they headed towards Orion’s left wing.  Basil strode ahead of them while they wandered the hallways, growing more enthusiastic as they reached another doorway.

"This," From the breezeway, Basil smiled, opening a double door for Thym "This is why New London is one of the greatest cities in the world".  

The Library stretched away behind Basil, and Thym’s eyes went wide.

"Years and years of study and one could barely begin to absorb all this collection has to offer." 

There was so much to see. Books at every angle. Large windows comfortably lit up the space, reaching up alongside the numerous floor-to-ceiling spanning cases. The New London skyline peeked through the rows and rows of knowledge, each line of shelves harboring what must’ve been a few thousand books each.  Unimaginable stores of information.

  Like any good library, where there were books, there were reading nooks. High or tucked away, dim or bright, a spot for lounging or intensive study, this place felt as if it could satisfy anyone’s habits. 

 A system of sliding ladders was affixed to each row, and the tallest ones sported safety tethers. It was a conscientious system, allowing scholars, students, and encumbered librarians to ascend and descend without worry of a nasty fall. Thym could just picture their new mentor, and honestly any downtowner, happily taking advantage of the safeguard. But not them. 

Basil made a sweeping gesture across the space. “Scholars from all over visit to further their studies. And ah, help desk is here to our left if-” 

“Basil?” Thym was distracted, starry eyed and ogling the next level. It featured a bridge-like walkway that connected the ends of the collection while keeping the space open and uncluttered “Vantage point?”

“Ah. yes” He turned and strode towards the wall of script before them, turning left at its corner. A stairwell hid just beyond the edge. At the reveal, Thym raced up, and this time Basil followed, only just managing to keep up with his long two-step strides. 

  They stopped, panting, to overlook the collection, stretching out below them, around them, and rising yet above them.

 "Collections spanning the century, wide areas of study from architecture, anthropology, and of course engineering." Basil smiled, pointing out the aisles as he listed their genres. There was pride absolutely welling from him. Thym had seen Basil take pride in his work, but not quite so unreserved.  A comfortable pride.  Upon stepping into this wonder, Basil seemed like a different person, younger and eager to share the place that’d become such a part of him.

"Alchemy too?" Thym asked. 

"What there is left, and found, we have and protect here at Orion." 

Pausing on the elevated walkway,Thym leaned over the rail with glee.  “Wow.”

  Though overall quiet, the keep was a bustle of reserved excitement, passion-driven academics exploring shelves and pages.  Thym smiled over at a youth scaling another of the high-reaching bookshelves. They waved and the young scholar waved back, before turning back to their task of searching. Thym looked back to Basil, and followed his gaze towards a tall figure carting some books back towards the front.

He gestured down to the librarian. "I know a great deal about this place, but you won't find an archivist more familiar with Orion’s collection than Serpentine.  If you ever have a question or need anything related to the library, she's the one to approach. Unequivocally reliable, pointing countless scholars in the right direction for years."  

“Huh. Well neat. Hey, thanks.” 

Basil dipped his head. 

“Care to see what might become your favorite aisle?”

Thym bounced in response “Let’s!”

Taking the stairs back down they looped around, and though resolved in his direction, Basil had to pause to watch Thym take it all in.  The kind of quiet, awed respect he found this place to inspire wasn’t there.  Instead, his new student was elated, hungry for revelation, running about from shelf to shelf as they passing row after row, before finally spinning to a stop at the section Basil had pointed out from above. He suppressed his smile as he traced the edge of a long, lacquered wooden table positioned outside the row he was walking past. “Before I started focusing more into alchemy, I rarely strayed from this spot.”

As they entered the section, Basil’s fingers fell gently over the spine of a book. He held a soft nostalgic expression, like these books could have been photos of dearly missed loved ones. Thym wasn’t yet so familiar, but… maybe someday they’d understand.  Basil turned and looked about, hands now clasped behind his back. 

“There's a great deal I could recommend to you, and will… yet there's a certain charm to traversing this collection yourself, discovery though your own discretion."  

"But I will say, this one here" he pointed to a book, mostly gray, almost standing out in its dullness. "It's not a read you can just walk away from. I think you’ll appreciate taking a look eventually." 

Basil moved onward through the aisle. Before they followed, Thym climbed up, slipped it out enough to commit it’s appearance and title to memory. 

Transcending Limitation Through Innovation. 

Thym repositioned the book and rushed back to join Basil at the end of the aisle. “You don’t suppose I could check a couple out today?”

“Well, first we really should… take the last steps in officializing your apprenticeship. Meet with Cardamom.  But… soon, yes.  I’d imagine you’ll be able to check out any you’d like.”

“Aw.” Thym responded with put-upon disappointment.  They supposed it’d be easy enough to read what they liked without leaving the library with it.  Or to leave the library with whatever they’d like, but they tried to put that thought on a backburner.

“I suppose I should return these?” Thym asked, producing from their coat the handful of books that Basil had leant to them on their voyage.

“Excellent idea.” Basil nodded once in approval “Let’s take these to Serpentine.”

She was not merely tall. She towered, maybe a full foot or taller than Basil. Behind pink tinted frames, Serpentine’s eyes fell on Thym as they approached. Her dark thick eyebrows gave her an added air of seriousness. 

“Basil here said that you were the one to go to for any and every library related matters.” Thym smirked, leaning on the island counter that separated them. “Anyone ever climb to the top of the cases without those supports?” 

Basil shot them a sharp questioning look, but it hardly cut through Thym’s bravado. 

Serpentine sighed. She glanced over to a short, pastel-bowtied library-goer and gave an exhausted smile. “Web… Too often forgets. Mostly he goes up and down just fine, but there’s been a couple times where he’s managed to get stuck up there… and he did break an arm last year from a fall.”

Basil frowned. Thym turned to look at him, more specifically his arm.  “Say Bas, you haven’t fallen off one of the long bookshelves have you?”

A silence.

“I kid.” They nudged him with a smile. “Well if I lose an arm pursuing boundless knowledge at least I have someone to go to for a replacement, hm?” 

“Please just remember... I can’t replace a broken neck.” He said flatly. 

“Dramatic. I’m sure no ones ever died grabbing a book. Anyways, these are for you!” 

Thym grinned as they plopped down the books.

“Oh?”

“Checking in” Basil confirmed. 

Serpentine nodded, sliding the books closer to her. She flipped open the covers, stamped the cards inside, and made a note on a log sheet which she then turned to Thym. “Sign please.” 

“Righto!” Thym laughed and scrawled a quick signature by the items indicated. 

“Thank you...” Serpentine raised her eyebrows. “Sorry, I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure- you’re with Basil?” 

“Oh yep!  I’m Thym!  Apprentice.  Or, soon to be apprenticed.” Thym winked up at Basil. He simply blinked an affirmation.

Serpentine straightened and smiled. 

“Well. Welcome to Orion. If you are anything like Genovere, I imagine I’ll be seeing a lot of you.”

[wirewitchviolet]

A Quick Radical Thought on d20 Skills

I don’t THINK this is going to get folded into my reason planning for a campaign setting book, but here’s the last post where I’m doing that if you lost it.

So... the d20 system’s skill system is... bad. Like, on a level where I don’t think I really need to explain the various problems. It’s something everyone’s constantly tweaking and coming up with alternate rules for and trying to address by compacting the list or adding bonuses for really committing to a skill or otherwise tweaking things. So... here’s one more tweak for the pile.

Basically, my thought of the night is... completely do away with skill checks as they are now and replace them with two separate mechanics.

The first is to just have the mechanical concept of: “make a skill check.” Like, in the sense that you can say “make a concentration check” or “make a climb check.” Essentially I’m compressing the ENTIRE skill list down to a single skill called... skill. By default the bonus is just your level + your dex mod + any situational modifiers.

And I mean yeah, you’d immediately want to bury that in exceptions where people can substitute other stats for dex under certain conditions and certain races and classes and feats give bonuses under certain conditions and you do still end up with a big “skills” section on your sheet where you cram in all your notes, and it probably still takes up a similar amount of space on your character sheet, BUT, and this is the key thing here, we don’t have a giant ugly arcane table of numbers that we have to fiddle with every time we level up and constantly pour over. Just one nice clean number we can put in a big fancy box and add to a d20 when we’re doing something exciting and action-y in the middle of combat or otherwise in a high stakes situation like slipping through a monster’s legs or leaping over a ravine or leaping off an untrained horse to rush into battle before it gets spooked and runs. And seriously like all of these are dex based to begin with (except climbing and swimming which got tossed to str for pity’s sake, spellcraft which could be folded into caster level checks AND concentration checks honestly with nothing of value lost, UMD too). And yeah, there’s perception, the Most Used Skill, but like... perception checks are: Double jeopardy on disarming traps, double jeopardy on first round initiative, and roll to see if we’re just skipping over stuff that’s in the adventure to find because you rolled bad. Make init wis based if you don’t want people dumping it, whatever.

Now, you’re probably freaking out about how I just made rogues and bards half-irrelevant and took away the skill points wizards get to lord over sorcerers and you’re thinking this whole “skill check” thing is weird for all the skills based on mental stats and OK yeah that’s where the second thing comes in, but first can we all take a moment to acknowledge that skills like craft, profession, appraise, linguistics/decipher script etc. are fundamentally kinda lame and there’s never a time when rolling a check with them is ever really exciting to begin with?

So... the second part of the thing here is we DO have skill points that we’re picking up each level, but we’re NOT using them to just increment up the skills we took at first level and never think about unless we multiclass or boost our int or we’re one of those rare few people who realize that if you already have a +25 bonus to swim there’s really no sense in continuing to dump points into that and you switch to something else. Instead, we are spending them to buy just... no die roll needed Stuff We Know.

Buy knowledge skills with them, but do it all modularly. “I want to just know the special abilities of abominations (maybe I just get that up to CR5 or 10 with the first point, need more for the scarier ones). I can just have a profession and it’s just a thing, I can just have the ability to play the tuba, or learn a language... throw in different crafting abilities with whatever level of granularity you want for them. And you know, obviously you’d drastically cut down how many points you get here, so maybe a fighter only gets to pick one of these up like every 3rd or 4th level and a rogue gets just the one and you get whatever your int bonus is as bonus picks as a one time thing.

So tada, we still have some notion of being a skill monkey, but we’re not constantly shifting values across a big ugly table on leveling up, we’re not pretending appraise checks are something worth busting a d20 out for, and we’re making the acquisition of new skills as we level something actually, like, fun and exciting and choice-y vs. something basically all locked in at level 1.

Real serious grognards of course may realize that for all intents and purposes, this whole proposal basically amounts to advocating that we bring back non-weapon proficiencies from 2nd edition and... well I mean yeah? That was a perfectly functional system that worked a lot better than everything that followed, honestly. It’s simple, it’s easy to track, it speeds things up, it gives characters more flavor. Hell I’ll go one better and suggest looking over some of those old options for ways to flesh out the list of choices here! I mean, yeah, a LOT of these got reworked into feats already or just consolodated into different perform/profession types, but think about it, you’ve got your rogue/wizard/bard who spends half the campaign researching the special abilities and weaknesses of every sort of monster and then at higher levels they run low on stuff to spend points on, and there’s only so many languages you want to learn so suddenly someone just learns how to do really awesome calligraphy or sweet tattoo artistry, or dang, back in the day fighters could just learn how to give a really good massage. Bring that back!