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moonice20408 · 5 years ago

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The Curious Disappearance of C. Cullen

Word Count: 3818

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“This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we’re investigating the disappearance of C. Cullen, as part of our new investigation!”

“New investigation?”

“Are vampires real?”

Shane groaned. “Oh no. No no no. Absolutely not. Nope.”

Ryan let out a laugh. “What, you don’t believe in vampires?”

“No Ryan, I do not.” Shane shook his head. “And you know what, I think I might believe in them even less than ghosts!”

“Oh wow.” Ryan laughed again. “Why are vampires so much more unbelievable than ghosts?”

“Because Ryan. They’re stupid! That’s why!” He slammed his hand onto the desk with some force. “If vampires were real, we’d know about it.”

“Well what if it’s like in the movies and they’re all just living in secret?”

“Oh, c’mon. There are cameras everywhere nowadays. You don’t think we’d have caught some guy just munching on another guys neck till he drops dead at some point? Then turn into a bat and fly away.”

“Well you’d just say it was fake if we did.”

Shane paused for a second then shrugged. “Yeah, that’s probably true.”

Ryan shook his head, then faced the camera. “So, this episode of Supernatural is a going to be a little different.”

“How so Ryan?”

“Well… we’re not going anywhere. There’s no location footage this week guys.”

“Yeah, this week we just thought, ‘you know what, not feeling it.’” Shane relaxed back in his chair. “We’re gonna sit back and take it easy.”

Ryan ignored him. “The reason being, well two reasons actually. One being that, at least I figure, if they were real, vampires aren’t, err… trapped, shall we say, to one place. Therefore, if they were real, they’d still be free to leave a place. So, we’d get there-”

“And we’d be talking to no one.” Shane interrupted.

“Exactly.”

“Imagine that.” Shane continued. “Going to a supernatural hotspot, just talking to the air…”

“Would you-”

“Wouldn’t want that! Would we?” He threw his hands up in the air. Ryan just stared forward, looking into the camera with an unimpressed look. “Wouldn’t we just look dumb! Just yelling into an empty room, expecting a response.”

“Erm, excuse me, we’ve gotten plenty of responses!” Ryan defended.

“Pffft.” Shane waved his hand.

“You know what, I’m just going to continue.” Ryan said matter-of-factly.

“Please.”

“The other reason we’re staying here, is that this case is from England. And we just couldn’t find time that worked for us, as well as crew members to do a quick trip to another country.” Shane nodded with Ryan. “I did look around the location, y’know on Google, and err, it’s just a bunch of offices now, so…”

“Not as exciting as our last trip there.” Both of them shook their heads.

“Now,” Ryan straightened out the file in front of him, before looking to the camera. “I am going to admit, right off the bat…” He quickly peered to Shane. “See what I did there?”

Shane nodded.

“Vampire… Bat…”

“No, I got it Ryan. That was a good one.”

“Thank you.” Ryan smiled while Shane rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I have to admit, I, err… I’m already prepared for some… criticism, shall we say.”

“What, because vampires aren’t real?” Shane said sarcastically.

“No. Well, I guess that’s part of the debate isn’t it?”

Shane sighed and shook his head, looking straight to the camera.

Ryan continued. “What I mean is, that this is case we’re investigating, is one of the oldest cases we will have covered so far on the show.”

“Oh really? Interesting.” Shane said, genuinely intrigued. “What’s the oldest so far? Witch trials right, gotta be.”

“Err, well that’s the oldest full episode, I think. But there’s some of the ancient alien stuff we looked at-”

“Oh right, yeah.”

“But the Salem witch trials were 1690s. But the case today dates back, roughly, to the 1640s.”

“Wow. That’s pretty old Ryan.”

“Yeah, which is part of the problem. Because it’s as old as it is, the erm, documentation of it is… It’s not great.”

Shane let out a small laugh. “So, what you’re saying is, you’ve got shit.”

“No! No… It’s just we, meaning our tremendous research team, we’re usually able to get multiple accounts on stuff, and can cross reference information, you know, so we can put together a more valid case.”

“So, you’re telling me, that before the videos even started, this case has no credibility and is crumbling through your fingers as we speak?”

Ryan sighed. “Look, I feel that what we have is defiantly something. I just want to make it clear; it’s just not as backed up as our usual content. You know we try to keep it as honest as we can here. So, I figured, I’d be upfront about this, before people start yelling at me through the comments. Obviously, I’m not going to put together an episode if there’s absolutely nothing, cause that’s… that’s just telling a made-up story off the internet isn’t it?”

“Hmm,” Shane nodded. “Okay. Alright. I will reserve my judgement for the end.”

Ryan laughed. “I doubt that, but anyway, let’s get into it.

- - -

“Legends of vampires can be dated back millennia, and stories told of them are found globally. Many ancient cultures had tales centred around the nocturnal undead, reanimated corpses spreading disease to the living, or blood drinking spirits all that hold similar characteristics to the modern idea of what a vampire is.

The idea of blood drinking became very ingrained into the lore of vampires. It was once believed that the blood of a living person, contained that person’s life force, and to drink it would allow another creature to absorb that life force. Some even thought that by drinking a person’s blood, that the drinker would also gain the characteristics of that person, allowing the vampire to better disguise themselves amongst the rest of society.

The word ‘vampire’ itself only came into use in the mid-18th century, from fast spreading tales told in Transylvania, and was later further popularised due to Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, which was published in 1897. It’s Stoker who is credited for defining the modern vampire, after combining multiple myths together for his book.

In most folklores, vampires were believed to be the revenants of evil beings, or an unrested deceased person who had committed unforgivable sins in their life, but it became a common belief that a living person themselves could become a vampire by being bitten. The belief in some parts of the world became to extensive that it led to mass hysteria, which resulted in many people being sentenced to death, usually by burning.”

- - -

“What’s interesting to me,” Shane started.

“Yeah?”

“Is just how wholeheartedly people, back in the day, believed in this stuff!”

“Yeah. I did come across something, and can I just say, the historical research in this case was very interesting… Like, go look up vampire history guys.” Ryan pointed at the camera. “But anyway, in, err, Greece I think it was, was that after three years, they would dig up dead bodies and they’d be examined.”

“To see if they’d become vampires?”

“Basically.” Ryan nodded. “And if they hadn’t decayed to standard, or whatever, then they’d be ‘dealt with accordingly’” He said, adding air quotations.

“Who decides,” Shane snickered. “Who decides what a suitable decomposition is?” They both laughed. “Were they just like, ‘hmm, no, too much meat left on ‘im’”

“‘toss him in the fire!’” Ryan added.

“‘Into the pit’,” Shane mimicked throwing something over his shoulder. “‘Bring in the next decayed body!’”

“It’s like a line at the doctor’s office.” They both chuckled.

- - -

“Now, back to the case at hand. In early the 1950s, construction workers in London were working to fix up a number of buildings that were destroyed by bombs during World War Two. In one particular location, the damage caused actually led to the discovery of a basement-like room, that had been previously built over, remaining hidden for centuries. Upon further investigation, it was determined that this room was originally part of an Anglican church that was destroyed during the Great Fire in 1666, and was never rebuild.

Inside this room, many historical artefacts were found, but some of the most interesting, at least to me, were a journal and a stack of documents, that belonged to a previous pastor of the church. It is worth noting that the year 1640 is written on the first page of this journal, but it is up for debate for how long this journal was kept. The documents that were recovered, have been since entitled the ‘Crusades of Evil’.

Unfortunately, over time a lot of the writing on these pages has become too faded to accurately read. But enough can be made out to get a good sense of what they’re about. In short, the pastor of the church would lead hunts for all manner of unholy creatures. Almost all of them resulting in the execution of people who were thought to be these creatures. These documents contain the information about the accused, which was essentially just a name and location, if that, as well as what they were accused of doing/being, and the method of execution. Most of the documents found were signed a S.C. Cullen. But, thanks to the journal that was found with these papers, we know that the man in question was named Samuel Cullen.”

- - -

“No middle name?” Shane asked.

“Err, no this guy didn’t write his whole name. Unfortunately.”

“And am I correct in assuming that the unknown ‘C’ initial is perhaps the same as our missing person’s?”

“It is certainly believed that the initials do come from the same name, yes.”

“Interesting…” Shane paused for a moment. “You know… just to switch subjects here,” He huffed a laugh, “And I want this on record, this guy already seems like an asshole… I’m very against the whole idea of burning innocent people to death…”

“Oh good, I’m glad.” Ryan said sarcastically.

“But, I gotta say… Crusades Against Evil! Sounds like a badass movie!”

Ryan chuckled. “To be honest, when I first read that… I did think it sounded like some kind of shooter video game.”

“Oh! Like Doom! You ever play that?” He mimed holding up a gun, and pointing it around the room. “Vampires just popping up, like bangbangbangbangbang!” He ‘aimed’ at Ryan. “Kaboom.”

Ryan just raised his eye brow. “You done?”

“Yeah.” Shane sighed, smiling to himself.

- - -

“Not much is known about Samuel Cullen, other than the fact he was the church pastor during the 1630s and early 1640s at the very least, according to the papers found. And the journal that was found, was unfortunately in an even worse condition than the documents. That being said, one legible section did make reference to a son, and if you were paying attention, you’d have noticed I said most of the documents were signed by Samuel. Some however, were signed C. Cullen. Which has led many conclude that this C. Cullen was the pastor’s son. But when efforts were made to find out more about this man, researchers came up empty handed, and found almost nothing. Not even a first name.”

- - -

“Not even a name?” Shane said loudly.

“I know.”

“So I take it that it was Samuel naming his son after himself?”

“Err, yeah. At least that’s what most people think. Which, honestly, I think is a fair conclusion to make.”

Shane nodded in agreement. “That’s kind of sad, that we’ll never know this guy’s name.” Ryan hummed in agreement, and there was a brief moment of silence. “I bet it was Clive.”

Ryan laughed. “Clive?”

“I dunno man, first name I thought of.” Shane shrugged.

“You thought of Clive before, like, Christopher? A much more common name.”

“Aaa, this is an uncommon guy though, Ryan.”

Ryan shook his head, not commenting.

- - -

“As I said, Samuel seemed to be very enthusiastic about the hunts he led, given the number of documents signed by him. His son however, only seemed to have taken charge in two of these crusades. And if it is to be assumed that the documents were kept in any sort of order, then that would mean, these two accounts from the son were much further apart in time, than that of Samuel’s. It’s also worth mentioning, that C. Cullen’s papers were noticeably longer in length, even if too faded to fully read. But this does suggest the man was, perhaps, more detailed in his telling of what happened, or even maybe had more compelling evidence of what he believed to be a supernatural creature. Researches involved believe the most likely scenario is that Samuel put his son in charge of the church and of the hunts, when he was old enough, as the son’s involvement doesn’t seem to be much later. But that his son was much more hesitant at doing the job at hand. Therefore, leading Samuel to decide to take over once again, possibly to save his own or his family’s reputation.

One document in particular sparked interest, when upon further inspection, it appeared to be written by both Samuel and his son. When comparing the handwriting, it was concluded that it was mostly written by the son. Starting with what seemed to be a description on a group of people living underground. This most likely meaning the sewage system at the time. Bible verses can also be found, such as Leviticus 17:10-14, which quotes ‘And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.’. But the account of the raid itself, as well as what is assumed to be the execution details, was written, and signed by Samuel. And no evidence of C. Cullen can be found after this point in time.

Which begs the question, what happened during this crusade that meant C. Cullen was unable to complete his own documentation? Was it a conscious decision to leave for good? And, what became of him?

- - -

“See,” Shane started, “I know where you’re going with that that question…”

“Yeah?”

“And I don’t like it…” He sighed.

- - -

“One theory as to why he vanished, is that it during this aforementioned raid, someone fought back against him, and he was killed in self-defence. As mentioned, this attack was written to be on a group of people. Consequently, it seems pretty likely that this group would fight back, given the chance. So perhaps C. Cullen met his match, and ultimate end in this way. Similarly, could it be that he was killed accidentally? Many historians agree that these types of hunts for supernatural beings, would have involved a large number of people. Could it be, that in amidst the chaos and disorder of the crowds, undoubtedly fuelled by fear, that C. Cullen was killed. Perhaps being trampled, or being mistaken for someone else.”

- - -

“Personally,” Ryan started, “I’m not sure I think that’s likely.”

“Of course you don’t, it’s a logical assumption.”

“Oh what, you don’t think, if we were in some crazed mob, I wouldn’t recognise you?” Ryan raised an eyebrow. “And I’d just accidentally kill you cause I was so caught up in the madness?”

“Okay one, you couldn’t kill me no matter how hard you tried.” Ryan made a sound to interrupt, but Shane continued before he could. “And two, hysteria does things to people man. You’re not thinking straight.”

“I just think that the leader of this raid, would be the most recognisable person out of everyone there. I imagine they’d have had him up on a little stage while they all crowded round for instructions before they set off. They’d all of had a pretty good look at the guy, and I’m sure he’d have just been a well-known guy at the time. The trampling, or self-defence I could kinda understand, but I can’t see how someone could’ve just like, grabbed him, and I don’t know, beat him to death or whatever.”

Shane just shrugged.

“Plus, again, he’s probably the most relevant person there.” Ryan added. “So, you’d like to think someone would have noticed his death and there’d be evidence of that.”

“It’s the 1600s, Ryan! What kind of evidence do you want? It’s not like they were running round taking photos or anything.”

“Well, there could be some sort of documentation of it. Newspaper article perhaps?” Ryan suggested.

“I don’t think many newspapers would’ve survived that long… Were newspapers even a thing at this point?”

“You know, honestly I don’t know.”

“And this is the 1600s, how many people were reading?”

“Hmm…” Ryan sighed. “Okay, you got me with that one.”

- - -

“The most commonly accepted theory is that C. Cullen simply ran away. As I said, it is widely believed that he was more hesitant about conducting these crusades in the first place, so is it possible that he used the attack as a cover to escape? Many believe so. Perhaps being in charge of the crusade in question granted him more protection in the event, and perhaps he wasn’t involved in the attack at all. He was simply waiting for news on whether it was successful or not. Is it possible that he hung back, and made his escape while the crowds fought without him? And that no one realised he was gone until afterwards. That being said, some have their doubts about this. Afterall, if C. Cullen was indeed so much more humane than his father, would he really cause an attack on other people, just for his own benefit? And would he be one to watch from the side-lines, while others risked their own life?”

- - -

“Okay…” Shane said.

“What?”

“I mean, obviously, I don’t believe for a second that there were actually vampires involved in any of this… But back in the day, people did quite truly believe that they were real. So, I can’t imagine it would have been difficult to get a crowd all riled up, and then send them off. Especially if the leader of it all also truly believed in the… in the cause, I guess. And I think, that if this guy did use the attack as a cover, and if he was as good of a person as everyone thinks, then he at least thought they were really vampires.”

“That’s fair.” Ryan agreed. “And if you think about it, bible verses were only found in his accounts. So that leads me to think that he at least had like, I dunno, God in mind or whatever.”

“It’s kinda strange to, like, imagine yourself living like that. If you’re taking the bible that seriously, and know it well enough to quote like that, it’s gonna be hard, cause it has a lot of contrasting points. I mean, I can’t say I’ve read the bible, but just from what I’ve seen online. It seems like it’s a bit all over the place!”

“Oh yeah, I agree. I mean, this quote again,” Ryan shuffled through his papers, “I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people’. I can understand that perhaps that could be interpreted to mean killing vampires is okay… But then in the same book you have ‘thou shall not kill’.”

“You know Ryan, I like it when we argee on this stuff.”

Ryan laughed. “Well, we’ll see what you’re saying after this last theory.”

Shane let out a loud sign.

- - -

“I’m sure you all can guess what this final theory is. But some people actually entertain the idea that C. Cullen was correct in his quest. And that he truly found a coven of vampires living underground in London. He was attacked, and transformed into a vampire himself, and he is still out there today.”

- - -

Shane let out a long and loud groan. Leaning back on his chair, and covering his eyes with his hands.

Ryan giggled. “What, you don’t like this one?”

“No.” Shane replied in pained voice.

“Well you’ll be glad to know, neither do I.”

“Oh really. I’d of thought this one was right up your street.”

“What? You seriously think I’d believe in vampires?”

Shane shook his head. “You are so genuinely terrified of ghosts, it’s really not so outlandish to think you’d believe in anything like this.”

“No, no. I’m gonna put vampires in the same category as I put witches. I think a lot of innocent people were unnecessarily killed. And in all honestly, I think Samuel Cullen here, knew what he was doing. I think it was a case of him wanting to maintain a reputation, and as with the second theory, his son just took off and left to live an honest life somewhere.” Ryan nodded.

“I dunno…”

Ryan exaggerated a gasp. “Do you think it was vampires?” He laughed.

Shane chuckled. “Absolutely not. But I mean, I’ll put the whole vampire thing down to mass hysteria, you know, like those people in France!”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “I was so desperately trying to avoid you bringing that up.” He muttered.

“They danced till they died Ryan!” He looked to the camera. “Look it up! Anyway… Mass hysteria, plus, like I think I said this about the witches, but, general boredom can cause a lot of crazy behaviour. But with this C. Cullen guy… he probably just died. It’s not like they were medically advanced. People would get some sort of disease and the local doctor would give them cocaine or some shit. And it’s just a case of crappy documentation.”

Ryan laughed. “You don’t think he managed to get away and just move somewhere else? Probably chance his name?”

“I mean, that’s a possibility.”

“I just… I think there’s something just not sitting well with me, that this guys own father, never seems to mention a death. And that he just seemed to vanish and no one noticed.”

“Well maybe he did mention it, it’s just part of the journal that was unreadable.”

“Maybe…” Ryan said, unsatisfied.

“I guess we’ll never know…”

Ryan sighed. “I hate it when you say that.”

“I know…” Shane nodded, chuckling slightly. “I’m not gonna lose any sleep over it. It was four hundred years ago, he’s defiantly dead now anyway.”

Ryan nodded and hummed. “Well on that note!” The two laughed. “Hey, do you think if a vampire died, that it could still become a ghost?”

“Okay…” Shane stood up and walked off camera.

“Where are you going?”

“Away from you!”

“It was just a question.”

Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think!

#Twilight #carlisle cullen #fanfic #op #twilight fanfiction #Carlisle Cullen fanfiction #Carlisle fanfiction #buzzfeed unsolved #the cullens #we really be out here in 2020 writing twilight fanfic huh?#own fic

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shinglescat · 5 years ago

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Previous or all stories at once.

- So, did you catch your murderer?

- Yep, a bunch of them actually. Your payment is on the table, by the way, - Mark answered, lying on the floor with eyes closed, pointing somewhere in the air with his leg, continuing in small voice, - My guess about body explosives was right; if we haven't brought the body to you, there would be mayhem in this very city, - he frowned, - We barely managed to get to their lair in time, - his tone dark, - They already placed a few corpses behind the keep; one actually went off ahead of its time, making a giant hole in the city wall, - he took a deep breath, - I don't want to admit it, my mater is a legionnaire, but...

- The Legion has a hand in this? What jarl is going to do with them? - Aspen took a sit near the table.

- Well, yeah, - elf let out a shaky sigh, - I'm afraid how rebels will respond to this. What a fucking mess. Wonder what mater would say, - he thought aloud, imagining her in front of her. She’d probably say the Legion has no connection with this attack… but she’s a war hero just as much as war criminal with blood on innocents on her hands, she’d try to justify their action, - Anyways. The jarl has them interrogated them at this very moment. They will probably either be thrown in jail or executed, not that anyone would care. The jarl also thanks you for your contribution and wants you to become the coroner for the city, - the elf fell silent for a moment before continuing his speech, - I have another matter to discuss. My sister.

- They want me to gut bodies for them, don't they? - the man shook his head, chuckling, - Sister? I've seen her an hour ago running around that dark elf she've met: she really liked that elf, probably a new idol of hers.

- Not that sister, - he sounded annoyed, - I meant my blood related sister, cousin. She's in trouble I think.

- How many sisters do you actually have? - the ashen haired man raised his brow in question.

- Two, but I'm adopted, you know, - the elf raised from the floor, stretching his arms to the ceiling, moving towards the table. He glanced at the fireplace near him before speaking again, Livaen's voice echoing in his head, - You remember when we had a sleepover back in the Void?

He heard a snicker.

- That's what you call it now?

- Ugh, - he grumbled something under his nose, getting his ass on the table, - I had a dream with her involved, she sounded distressed. Said she's cold, alone, broken; somewhere in a place where fire burns with ice, something along those lines, and then there's a monster that watches her, I dunno. Not much of a help. Any thoughts?

The man leaned closer.

- That dream, when you told me, - his voice thoughtful, low, - you couldn't sleep because I was snoring?

Mark groaned.

- Yes, you do snore.

- I wouldn’t be snoring if someone...

- Can you shove it up your ass? - Mark cut him mid sentence, pain on his face, - This isn't really the time for jokes.

- You really need to do something about that stick up your ass instead, - was heard in return, as he was dragged down in the lap.

- Don't start a fight you cannot win.

- Because you're not so witty? Boo-hoo. You have no idea how funny you are to mess with, have you? - elf groaned ever louder, rolling the eyes, - So what was that about your cousin?

The door creaked open.

- Get a room! - someone hollered, - You are the disgrace!

Visenya, her new found friend and Meltem have entered the building. The girl glanced at men disapprovingly, before moving to the bedroom nearby, crashing on the bed. The new guy followed her sheepishly, possibly afraid to offend the kid with rejection.

- What's with the long faces? - Meltem asked, getting into the vacant chair near the table, - Did we interrupt something?

Mark sighed.

- What a fucking circus. No, you're the person I wanted to talk to, - he adjusted himself, getting comfortable in other man's lap, - There's a problem I need to solve that involves my cousin. She might be in danger, but I have no idea where to find her. Our grandmother would know about her whereabouts, but I haven't seen her in ages and I have no intention on seeing her any time soon.

- Don't think we can ask Narandil to help us out? - Meltem suggested, thinking about the possibilities, - He could help us, he used to date your grandmother after all.

- I thought you're suggesting whether or not he knows where to find Livaen, - Mark snickered, - That'd be a very dumb suggestion of you, definitely worthy of Visenya. But that old witch is on Summerset, I don't see her roaming Skyrim for any reason.

Meltem looked at the window, ideas running around her head like cockroaches, none’s the right one.

- You know, - a moment of silence later, - we should ask those Thalmor agents, - Aspen chimed in, - If your cousin is in trouble, they must have a file on her, especially if she's a noble.

Mark glanced at the man, astonishment in his eyes.

- You are actually right, - he spoke, nearly whispering, looking back at Meltem, - They must have a file regarding her whether she disappeared or not in that embassy. Esmir won't leave her precious granddaughter behind, especially her only heir.

- But there is a problem, you know, - the woman said, - You can't go in there, you're on their most wanted list. I can't go in there either, I'm not exactly a low-profile person after the old man. Narandil can't go too, they have bounty on him that worth a fortune. Visenya is not that smart in the field, - Meltem was interrupted with girl’s “HEY!”, - You could go, - she addressed Aspen, - but with ear prosthetics and makeup.

The trio went silent, thinking about their chances of getting into the embassy unnoticed and safely getting out of there. Mark definitely wasn't an option to go there, he would be captured on sight, put down and sent back to Summerset to his eagerly awaiting grandmother. Meltem could go, but they don't like redguards much, and she definitely doesn't look like a wench or a dancer. Narandil would blow up their entire mission regardless, he's not the one to hold back. Visenya would be better in a support position, because should she fail during the infiltration, she'd be another captive at best that would be successfully exchanged on Mark. Aspen would work fine with a decent amount of yellow paint on top, but that requires a master artisan.

- I'm sorry, I happened to overhear your conversation, - the dark elf snatched them out of their thoughts, - I might know how to help you, - Maurice smiled, getting close to them, - There is going be a masquerade at the embassy soon, that would be your best chance to get in and get out unnoticed.

The woman looked at him dumbfounded.

- How do you know that? - Meltem asked.

- I'm on the guest list! - he smiled charmingly, - And I know a way for you to get on the guest list too. I'm willing to sell two invitations for the evening. The rest you'd need is a costume and a mask.

Mark didn't think long before reaching to his pockets.

- How much?

- A thousand for each, - the elf pulled the invitations from somewhere, waving them in front of the trio.

- Sure, - it was definitely a lot more that he would pay under normal circumstances, but he had no other safe choice to get there. He climbed off the lap, marching down to the cellar. Meltem half expected him to return with a sword to threaten Maurice into giving the invitations for free, but he instead brought two pouches of gold with him, - Are you going to count this? - he handed the pouches to the dunmer, getting the invitations in exchange.

- Let's say it's not good for a long-term friendship, - to that Meltem grunted: Mark is a bad negotiator, he does what's expected of him without trying to get a better deal for himself, and the dunmer could've easily gifted said invitations without any payment if it was the friendship he wanted, - I understand that you're unhappy with the deal, - Maurice said in an apologizing tone, noticing discontent in Meltem’s eyes, - It was difficult to get these. I appreciate that you didn't take them by force.

The woman’s facial expression changed, bitterness leaving her as she felt ashamed instead, allowing herself to be so obvious in her grudges. The elf seemed genuine, she would do exactly the same if she was in his shoes. Now that he put her to shame, she was actually glad Mark didn't resort to violence, for once happy with his straightforward approach when dealing with problems.

- So whom are you going to take to the party, Marki-Mark? - Visenya suddenly yelled from the bedroom.

- Mark, you are not going anywhere, - Meltem interjected, knowing damn well he's not going to listen to her nagging.

- I... don't actually know, - he answered, sounding lost, - Anyone who's got something to wear I guess.

- Can I go? - the girl in the back jumped at the thought, getting from the bed, - Can I go, pretty please?

The woman glanced at the elf.

- No, you can't, - Mark answered, - I... actually need some time to think, - with that he exited the house through the balcony.

...

Mark was sitting on the wooden floor, his back leaning on the railing, looking at the ships in the distance, thoughts racing in his mind, papers lying on the wooden floor with schematics for the Thalmor Embassy he purchased not so long ago from Thieves Guild. The route he has already planned seemed like a real deal: get in through the main entrance, blend in with the crowd, dance and drink to seem like a normal person, then sneak behind everyone's back into the secondary building. The emissary should keep all her files somewhere on the upper floor, probably in the archives. Though Meltem would certainly be against this plan.

There was another thing: he has to pick his companions. It's not a hard deal, since Visenya's essentially going to stay out of this affair. The girl is unpredictable and unstable, most suitable to stay away from this. She would be distracted inside, and that'd be enough to blow up the entire mission; she is a liability most of the times. And he can't just risk her.

His current plan consisted of two getting inside with invitations he bought from Maurice, third getting on their own: there is a cavern under the embassy, but he needs to do some reconnaissance before going in blind when the date's due.

Who'd go inside with invitations - Mark had no idea. And there was another matter of getting Aspen into this whole mess, because he ultimately didn't hear his agreement for this mission; Meltem is going to get her hands dirty anyways.

The woman has good knowledge of nobles and etiquette, so it shouldn't be a problem for her to navigate through the crowd inside. But she's quite peculiar, and getting her blended in would require a lot of work. On the other side he could just send her on her own, she's a master thief after all, but he had a doubt about sending her alone. It's not that she'd blow up this whole mission or anything, he just had a bad feeling about this. And should the trouble begin, she can't change her clothes and pretend to be an elf. She can fight well though and can definitely defend herself, however that will make the break in obvious for the emissary, and she would surely send a squad after them.

Aspen was a dark horse out of all three, Mark had no idea what the man's capable of. Sending him on his own would be a mistake at best, though he had a feeling the man'd be in place among the nobles. It also would probably be the best to use him as a distraction, to have him monitor the party on the inside. Yeah, they need to get him a proper dress for the masquerade... and actually ask if he wants to take part in this affair.

Mark himself could do it both ways, with and without invitation, though sneaking is not entirely his virtue when compared to Meltem. In the end would be just a matter of staying incognito during the party. He could probably go in together with Aspen, then leave the man to observe the situation in the main building, while he himself stays in the courtyard. Or the other way around. Should things go south, he could always use Aspen as a distraction, make him talk to the woman in charge and keep her from doing anything for as long as possible. Elf can't do this himself, he's too high profile for such interactions, he'd have to run to Meltem. There also will be the dark elf, Maurice, but they can't use him in any way.

Something like that? He has to ask his companions for their thoughts before committing to anything.

#sc_storytime #SC_Mark #SC_MeltemEsteban #SC_Visenya #FV_Aspen #FV_Maurice

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chyrstis · 5 years ago

Note

Writer Asks: Any Prime Number

This took me a bit longer than anticipated, but thank you a ton for the questions! They’ve been a lot of fun to consider.

2. Are you a pantser or plotter?

I’m probably a 60-70% pantser vs. plotter, because for every story I write it to be able to get to a certain scene or interaction. The rest can fluctuate wildly, which does give me some great flexibility when it comes to setting events up, but I’ve written myself into corners before, and better planning would’ve nipped that in the bud.

3. Computer or pen and paper?

I used to have notebooks full of written stuff back in high school, but once college hit I stuck to my computer. The downside to this is that plotting on the go can be tough if you need to reference anything, but as soon as I’m back at home I try to jot anything down. A blank page of paper can be just as intimidating as a blinking cursor, though.

5. How much writing do you get done on an averageday?

It fluctuates wildly, sometimes being a handful of words forced through a block, or upwards of thousands if I’m lucky. Lately, I’m been pretty fortunate to jot down at least 300-500 words a day, though this is sometimes spread through multiple ideas. The spread focus might be working in my favor, but this isn’t helping me to get much finished!

7. Standalone or series?

While one-shots are fun, series are the real draw for me. Now, the organization and planning can be a headache, but I love seeing how things can shift and develop, even if things are written out of sequence.

This does mean that I do have to reread a lot of my past works to make sure that they work in sequence, so…this can be both good and bad, but for making sure character voices stick and are consistent (and that I don’t ruin my own internal timeline), it works.

11. Booksand/or authors who influenced you the most

Answered here!

13. Describeyour writing process from idea to polished

I’ll start with the scene that’s the most solid in my mind, or a conversation, and draft that first. If I can find a solid starting point I can focus on that, or the next in sequence, and very rarely is a story written in order from start to finish. It always is a set of scenes that I’ll go through and connect one-by-one.

Then the editing starts. Descriptive details always pop up more here since I can be a bit thin with them on the first go-around, and if I’m lucky I can flesh out more conversations and underlying feelings/motvations as well.

The real fun part comes at the end. Titles. Titles and summaries. It’s not that big of a deal, but I always worry in the back of my mind whether I’ve shot myself in the foot with a bad blurb and unappealing title. Most of the time this is dead last, though there have been times before when the perfect ones have sprung up mid-draft.

17. Whatwriting habits or rituals do you have?

Music is always a must, though I’ll make do without as long as I have something related to what I’m reading about going (playthroughs, without commentary if possible). I have a lap desk which I’ve been using on my couch, so I’ll whip that out too and just settle in for the long haul.

I also have a habit of writing later at night, which may honestly go a lot later than intended, 12 AM - onward, but I feel like I stress less over the perfect word choice at that time, and can kick back and take it easier.

19. Howdo you keep yourself motivated?

Going back to the media that inspired me helps, and I’ll mess around with other things like playlists, OC questions, screencaps, pinterest boards, etc.

Feedback can be a huge thing though, and seeing any response to what I’ve written is such a huge boost it’ll carry me through the rest of the day.

29. Favouritevillain

It’s tough to pick! I do love Maleficent, though, and any villain/anti-hero lady scientists are always entertaining to watch.

31. Leastfavourite part of writing

Answered here! …But I’m going to go ahead and add titling and writing summaries as well.

37. Firstsentence A snippet of your current WIP

“Hey.”

Hana’s eyelids fluttered, then closed.

“Hey!”

She felt a flick to her shin, and she tensed, sucking in abreath through her teeth. “Ow!”

When she opened her eyes, the woman crouching down besideher backed up, one hand tucked close to the pockets of her green overshirt, andthe other curled around a small knife.

41. Anyadvice for new/beginning/young writers?

Don’t dismiss an idea as stupid, trivial, or overdone. Give it a chance, and see what you can do with it. While two people may have the same idea, their execution and insights are never the same.

Also, try your hand at fic. Even if later on, you’re not sure about it, the characters you’ve made are yours and yours alone. They can find new life in any original worlds you make, and you can use the experience gained to try out your ideas.

43. Whatdo you do if/when characters don’t follow the outline?

Answered here!

47. Bestway to procrastinate

Baking shows. That and game playthroughs, if not just playing the games sin general. At least with the second I can get more info for writing, but the first only makes me want to bake delicious things.

#gloomdraws #writing meme #writing

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cursedsleep-blog · 2 years ago

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Updated Thoughts on Midnight Hunt

Mechanics

Disturb, Decayed, and Day/Night were all really nice! Disturb gave the Spirits a nice identity and did a great job of tying them to the graveyard and transformation themes of the plane.

Decayed was really fun and novel take on tokens and allowed for some interesting stuff. The unnamed Morbid and the ‘Tap 3′ creatures were nice touches.

Day/Night was a good fix for WW transformation, and the D/N stuff in Jeskai really helped tie the premise to the mechanics. Tolovar is also pretty fun.

Addition as of 4/27/2023: That said, the tracking issues in Paper are worth keeping in mind, and I would like to see Werewolves that transform in different ways as well (both on and off of Innistrad)

As for Coven, it seems like an interesting idea, but a lot of the cards felt too weak.

I have no real strong feelings or thoughts about Vampire ‘Bloodthirst’ or Flashback, and the bare-bones inclusion of Clues/Investigate was really disappointing.

Btw, while UB was definitely on the stronger side in Draft, the format seemed to be pretty good regardless.

Addition as of 4/27/2023: Actually, I didn’t draft much of this, so I don’t feel too qualified to talk about the quality. WU was also on the stronger side from what I saw though.

Concept, Plot, and Stuff

While MID’s concept wasn’t terrible and it introduced some neat stuff, the execution felt lacking somehow, it seemed to play things too safe, and Vow/Olivia just made the story not matter at all.

The addition of stuff like the Covens was great, and really helps the Humans feel more Green. The movie stuff was also mostly alright. In particular I liked the Ants.

The execution of things left something to be desired though. While the idea of a looming, endless night is interesting, things did not seem as scary as they should have been.

I can’t fully pin down why it feels this way, but my best guess is that the overall horror felt unfocused? Like for the most part it was just general horror stuff on Innistrad instead of horror about the lengthening night.

It also really felt like MID (and VOW) played things too safe. Bar being down 3 Angels, the occasional reference to the Trevails, and having Em be the excuse for the Eternal Night, MID was just normal old Innistrad again. It didn’t feel like past visit really had any meaningful consequences for the plane (is the Flight of Nightmares or anything still around?), and the Eternal Night definitely had none. The biggest change was probably Odric getting vamped.

Regarding Vow some more, it just sucked. I’ll just repost what I said in the original post, though I do think I may have read a little too much into Innistrad transforming. MID’s Evolving Wilds was really cool though.

Also, I dislike how the story didn’t end up mattering because:Olivia swooped in, making the fight over the ritual meaningless. Then in VOW the ritual happens anyway, leaving VOW feeling like an awful sidequest.

Instead of focusing on the Eternal Night and the signs Innistrad was transforming (Evolving Wilds, the stuff with the Sea and Runo, etc.), VOW was about a dam wedding & reset back to the status quo.

Lastly, I think calling in the Gatewatch (except Teferi) wasn’t great. It feels like they take up space that should be going into developing the world and concept, or maybe walkers with a better reason to be there. At least that godawful story watermark is gone now.

Addition as of 12/6: Why was I that snarky about the watermark. Wasn’t I trying to not be rude this time. Don’t get me wrong, the watermark was obnoxious but so was the way I complained about it here.

#Innistrad: Midnight Hunt #magic the gathering #cursedsleeps mtg feedback

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metavanaj · 6 years ago

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AJ’S ARCADE | TIME CRISIS 5

Game: Time Crisis (Released 2015)

On the 4th of January 2019, I was blessed with the opportunity to play Time Crisis 5 - which as of the time of writing this, remains trapped in the arcade. Mid-way through 2018, I found out that they had ported past Time Crisis games, which sparked a light gun phase thus I’ve been scooping up every one I can for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3; hence the vested interest & high hopes for TC5. Having played all the past main line TC games, how does the latest 2015 romp hold up? Eh.

Before we go any further though, I thought I’d should let you, the precious reader, know that I only played through the first three stages. While I had access to the True Mastermind edition, with the extra three stages I only managed to have enough time to play through those first three stages twice - once to enjoy the spectacle, and once to try master them. However, I will make reference to the latter three stages, as I have watched a few playthroughs on YouTube, so I could experience the story, without the pressure of the gameplay.

Now, let us dissect this bitch.

The Good

Story - It has one...?

To say past games haven’t had much of a narrative would absolutely be true. Usually, the formula consists for two bros., two handguns vs a whole terrorist organisation, and taking them down before they unleash a super weapon of some sorts. Throw in a few interesting boss fights, some varied locales a not-so-surprising showdown with Wild-Dog...boom-bada bing, you have a Time Crisis narrative.

Past entries of the series have literally been too short (in terms of game time) to tell anything of worth, in the story department. Time Crisis 5, being twice as long as any previous entry, actually has enough breathing room to tell a story...for an arcade game. Mind you not anything complex, but it’s leagues better than any other light gun shooter, that dare put in possess cutscenes, inter-midst gameplay, and call it a plot. The plot actually goes somewhere - literally, and figuratively. From stages 4-6 onwards, Time Crisis 5 deviates from its usual action movie plot and manages to actually possess a few decent twists & turns, which all culminates in a satisfying finale. I wouldn’t say it’s emotional but it does evoke an emotion...and this is an hour long arcade game; that’s pretty outstanding. The series for the first time in history, makes reference to the fact it does indeed have a history; however I won’t delve into it as it would involve major spoilers - I’ll just say that it’s pretty neat.

Sights - Gwaphics

To say Time Crisis 5 is gorgeous would be an understatement. The game bleeds beauty in the presentation department. Not only does the game look like a modern, vivid, and colorful spectacle for each and every frame but even small things like the UI and HUD looks uber crisp. I especially like the simple ‘end of area’ screen in which the game primarily utilises the color of the whatever character you’re playing. While I still believe Time Crisis 1-3 still look decent regarding their age, acting as sort of landmarks of the series graphical progression, I believe TC5 straight makes TC4’s early-HD-looking ass a lot less appealing; making that game appear to age not so gracefully. While I do praise the visuals highly, it’s not 100% great all the time. Bandai Namco, have indeed utilised Unreal Engine, instead of whatever in-house concoction they usually come up with. While I’m not entirely sure if it’s 4, or a heavily modified version of 3, either way the team behind it all have left in a few jaggies here and there. Nothing too bad mind you, it just means the game looks great most of the time, instead of all the time.

Sounds - VO, Sound Design, Music?

There’s not much to say here. It’s an arcade on-rail shooter - of course the sound design is amazing. Each bullet iss followed a meaty sound effect, which of course is poorly balanced with the rest of the audio, so everything is drowned out by gunshots . I was in a noisy arcade so I didn’t get to appreciate other environmental sounds and the music, as much as I would have like.. Watching it back, there’s nothing special about TC5’s soundtrack but it still remains fitting and energising. The main theme is a pretty nice EDM interpretation of the series main theme but that’s it really. Personally, while the series has had a great soundtracks, in the past, I would call any of the OSTs after TC 1 & 2 too memorable at all. As I said, it’s fitting and that’s all it needs to be.

Voiceovers, voiceovers, voiceovers. By god, they’re voiceovers, alright. The game features dual audio but I only experienced the English VO - mind you, I have seen a playthrough with the Japanese ones. Both languages provide the equal parts cheese and cringe, both giving the ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ vibe. This is House of the Dead 2 levels of bad but it’s up to par with rest of the series so you’ve got nothing to worry about. I will say that the English VO tends to have more awkward moments more frequently but they both get the job done and they both provide a different experience. What more could you want?

Gameplay - It’s Time Crisis Alright.

Gameplay, at it’s core, is the same formula seen in TC3 & 4. It’s your usual shooting gallery with a cover mechanic. If you get to greedy an enemy’ll throw out a special red bullet that will take off one of your lives; the game will let you know this happening with a bright red ‘crisis flash’. The game also has you on a time meaning you can’t take your sweet time from behind cover - however, Time Crisis hasn’t felt like an actual crisis of time since the first game so you might as well take your sweet time behind cover. Introduced in TC3, is weapon switching; weapon switching functions a little differently in this game, so I’ll delve into that later into this piece. All you need to know is you have access to 4 guns: a handgun, machine gun, shotgun and a grenade launcher (all of which fire just as you’d expect). All of these little things add up to create some great set pieces and intense gunfights. TC5, as the series second HD outing, introduces that enhanced presentation and a small but meaningful load of mechanics. I won’t go in-depth about some of the new additions as they make brief appearances and are mostly featured in the latter three stages. Let’s just say as no point does TC5 feel ‘same-y’ or ‘stale’

The Bad

The Gameplay - Ok, let me elaborate.

Right, I just said that the gameplay’s good, right? Why is it now in the bad-section? Well, it’s a mixed bag. While, TC5 still retains what made the past games fun, this iteration features some drawbacks...and some they’re pretty game defining. For every step forward TC5 takes, it takes two steps back. These little niggles start to quickly add up and begin to degrade the quality of the experience. This game could be the best in the series, but with the flaws I’ll mention below in mind, it ends up feeling like an incredibly mediocre outing when it should in fact be the biggest and baddest TC yet.

Frame Rate - Cinematic But Not Practical

The game is capped at 30fps and it sure doesn’t feel like it was built around that frame rate. Need I say more? While this doesn’t impact gameplay for the most part, it can become an irritation. The game isn’t a rock-solid 30fps and that’s where I begin to have issues with the frame rate. It’s nothing horrible (just brief dips to 25fps, it felt like), but it could mean the difference between you losing a life or not, which could mean the difference between spending another dollar or not. The game functions at 30fps but it doesn’t thrive at it; an obvious boost to 60 would indeed rectify, or at least help mask a lot of the issues I have. The main one, that directly tied to frame rate, is the ducking behind cover; vital for both shielding yourself and reloading. Numerous times during my play session I was blindsided by bullets I was meant to dodge...half of these yes, I’ll admit were my fault but other the other half, not so much. I would often left go of the pedal, with in an appropriate reaction window, but the animation of ducking behind cover wouldn’t play out in time. Sure, I could adapt to the new rhythm (like most 30fps games force you to) but I shouldn’t have to - every past entry has ran at 60 and the ducking mechanic has function fine. It shouldn’t be problem now. If I had to take a guess, the creators have prioritised graphical fidelity, with the frame-rate being an afterthought.

Weapon Switching - Don’t Fix What Ain’t Broke

OK - so this might not be a major problem but it was with my experience of the game. The new guns feature a little button on the side for weapon switching, similar to a GunCon2 which is pretty cool. This replaces pulling the trigger behind cover to switch weapons. However, this means you’re force to take a two handed grip - not necessarily a bad thing but does remove an option. My concern was more the button wasn’t very responsive. I could quickly snap between handgun to machine gun but trying to switch to the other two guns was hassle for some reason. The button almost pushes through to the other side and gets stuck - this might’ve just been an issue with the gun I was using though, but it did result in some imprecise weapon switching. All I’m saying is that the way, weapon switching has worked in the past was fine, and I believe the button on the side of the gun could’ve been used for something else.

Dual Pedals - It’s weird

New to the Time Crisis 5 is that aforementioned dual cover system. It...works - kinda, not really, sorta. On paper, it sounds like an excellent idea but in execution, it’s a little clunky and clunky play gets you killed. So you use the two pedals to switch between cover right? Yes, that part’s fine. Personally the animation getting between cover is a little long, but not too bad. It’s more say I’m poking out of the left cover. If I want to the be poking out of the right one, I would need to tap the right pedal which would put me behind the right cover - to then poke out of it, I would need to double tap the pedal and then hold it down. While I wouldn’t complain about the extra foot work, it just doesn’t feel kinaesthetically sound. It’s not entirely bad though. Tt’s just more that the 30fps caps lead to some imprecise cover shifting, which results more often than not for you to be smacked by a bullet you saw coming. If the game did have to be tied to that 30fps though, I feel a viable way to fix this would be to just use the pedals to switch between covers and use the button on the side for peeking out of cover, tying the two actions to two seperate inputs for more precise play. I guess if the button on the side is being used, might as well revert back to old weapon switching method.

The Handgun - What have you done to my baby?!?

The handgun got nerfed and I am sad. Past titles didn’t have a cap on how fast you could fire the handgun - it would fire as fast as you could finger blast. Rhyme and innuendo intentional. Hell, TC1 & 2 are entirely built around just having the handgun and how fast you can fire it. The fire rate on the handgun, in TC5, isn’t abysmal but it makes the little thing less satisfying to use, as well as less viable when stacked up against the machine gun. Yet again, people were easily doing handgun only runs of TC3 & 4 just because of how easy it was to use the handgun. It’s a bit of double edge sword so I can see why such a change happened, so as to make the hand gun feel like an obvious downgrade. I’m just not sure the way they did it in TC5, was the way to do it.

The FABULOUS

Character Designs - Oh yeah, baby

Say what you will but I like the path the series has taken since TC3, becoming increasingly more ‘mong’ as the series goes on - TC5 is the ‘mongiest’ entry thus far. The game also introduces some much need color into the overall presentation, which not only reflects well on flamboyant tone overhaul but also just makes the game more visually appealing to the eye. Oh and all the characters look visually distinct from one enough, not just the dual twink protagonists this time round. Essentially, everyone who’s not a target has been given the attention that a MC would be given.

The EVEN FABULOUS-ER?!?

Wild Dog & Wild Fang

‘Nuff said.

And that’s Time Crisis 5 - it makes some weird design choices that affect the flow of combat and your reaction time but ultimately it retains a lot of what the series has been praised before. While I wouldn’t say it’s as tight a gameplay experience as, say TC2 & 3 (even for 4 that matter - hey it runs at 60fps), it’s certainly a good enough title to add to the lineage. The new mechanics in the game also do a decent job of setting itself apart from past entries. I also feel lot of the issues I mentioned would actually be easily rectified with a higher frame rate. Maybe a console release could fix this, hey Bandai Namco? *wink wink* If you see TC5 out in wild, give it a few quarters and minutes of your time - it’s not the most polished experience but it sure is one hell of a ride.

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smokeybrand · 3 years ago

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Smokey brand Movie Reviews: Like a Turd in the Wind

I’m on record enjoying the first Venom flick. It’s a bad film overall but i found myself pretty entertained. I personally prefer the look of the Spider-Man 3 Klyntar but I'd be lying if i said Hardy’s take didn’t feel more genuine. That said, the movie kind of sucked, though. If recall, i said that it could have been a much better experience, if a more able director had the chance to do something with the character. Well, they got Gollum Caesar, himself, Andy Serkis, to direct this f*cking thing. Serkis is a capable director but maybe don’t hand the reins to your replacement Spider-Man franchise, to the guy who made Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, as his third film, ever. I am all in a tizzy to see if Serkis pulled this sh*t off.

The Good

I have to say, the flick looks really good. Everything is far more polished this time around. Venom and Carnage look like real things as opposed to a weird concoction of Nickelodeon Gack and boogers. There is a distinct style to he visuals and that goes a long way in keeping me engaged.

Speaking of engagement, this thing is paced decently. Venom II is a little over an hour and a half so it needs to be as efficient as possible telling it’s sh*tty story. It’s a little wonky at times but, overall, it gets you to where the plot needs you to be pretty competently.

Tom Hardy, once again, is a delight pulling double-duty as both Eddie Brock and Venom. Dude was the best thing abut the first film and definitely brings that same energy into this one. I just wish the material the he had was better. Hardy has thee chops to be much better than this pedestrian script allows him to be. Still, he elevated all of the content the as given.

Woody Harrelson as Carnage is pretty good. The way the character has been written is absolutely disgraceful, I'll get to that in minute, but Woody works magic with what he has. I see why this cat was the fan’s choice for Carnage, way back when.

Andy Serkis is, head-and-shoulders a better director than Ruben Fleischer. I enjoyed Zombieland but literally everything else has been trash. Serkis i just as hit-an-miss but the dude understands how to tell a story properly so his Venom film is far more coherent. There are, like, themes and subtext in this one that were completely missing from Fleischer’s outing. I think my biggest gripe bout the first one was the poor direction and Sony did well to correct that with their second attempt.

I like the overall potential this film had. Serkis went into this thing with a great idea on how to make a Venom film. I think, on paper, this movie comes across much better. It’s a pity no one could execute a decent translation from the page, convincingly enough to film.

The Bad

Everything else. Literally everything else The rest of this movie, outside of the things i noted above, is varying degrees of mediocre to objectively terrible. It’s weird because, in some respects, Venom II is so much better than the first but, at the same it, still complete dog sh*t.

How the f*ck can you get Carnage so goddamn wrong? Dude is pure chaos. Hes a vicious serial killer who murders with no discretion. He’s Richard Ramirez with a strength enhancing alien symbiote. This motherf*cker is blood and viscera and malice and cruelty given form. You don’t humanize Cletus f*cking Kasady. He’s a monster, and unrelenting force of pure evil, long before the symbiote boned to him. This character is not Carnage. It’s not Kasady. It’s some poor facsimile pretending to be something it cold never live up to and i hate it.

A long time ago, after Natural Born Killers released, Woody Harrelson became the dream casting for Cletus. His take on Mickey Knox matched what we were seeing from Carnage in the comics perfectly. This was back in the mid Nineties. Holding onto the dream for three f*cking decades in order to make it happen, was dumb. Woody is too old for this role, man. Dude is sixty years old, what the f*ck? You’re telling me this senior citizen has the joint elasticity to go toe-to-toe with someone twenty years his junior?? There are so many people available that could play this role and be more of a match to Hardy than Harrelson. Cillian Murphy or Will Poulter immediately come to mind.

Similarly to how bad they f*cked up Carnage, Shriek in this was absolutely f*cking terrible. Now, i know Naomie Harris can act. She’s a great Moneypenny. However, i didn’t care for her Calypso in the Pirates franchise and that’s basically how she plays Shriek. Which, is kind of a valid take on the character i guess? But, like, do better? Again, a lot of this has to do with how the character was written but why even have her in the film? Why even have a humanizing anchor to one of the most prolific and violent serial killers in all of Marvel comics? F*cking why? Some characters don’t need redemption. Some characters don’t want it. Cletus Kasady, the real Cletus, is irredeemable and he thrives in that chaos. He calls that sh*t home. Why take it away by tying his entire motivation to some poorly written, long lost love?

Also, her powers look like sh*t.

This entire franchise, so far, has a very Nineties Capeflick feel to it. That’s not a compliment. We have come so far in the way we tell those superhero stories and to see a franchise fall into those same pitfalls some three decades later is so f*cking regrettable, man. A lot of this has to do with Sony Pictures, Avi Arad, and Amy Pascal. Those motherf*ckers can’t make movies to save their lives but, seriously, when you have Feige on speed dial in order to keep Pete in the MCU, f*cking dial those numbers ad get some f*cking help, man.

Such a waste of Toxin.

The Verdict

I expected so little and, somehow, i am still disappointed. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is as bad as the first solo Venom attempt, but in completely different ways. The direction got much better under Serkis and i like that he wants to try and infuse more of a thematic weight to this plot but he falls on his face in terms of understanding these characters. Seriously, while Harrelson does a great job in the role, the role, itself, is wrong. This is not Cletus Kasady. This is not Carnage. This is not Shriek or Patrick Mulligan. These characters are wrong on a fundamental level, betraying the fact that Serkis has no idea who they are supposed to be. They are plot contrivances to push his narrative forward, a completely different film with a Maximum Carnage skin over it. I was entertained, sure, Venom II is a fun watch with all of the explosions and quips, but it’s still a bad movie. This thing smacks of being built by committee and i think that’s why Serkis was brought into direct. He’s a cat two movies in, jut looking for work on that side of the camera. I imagine Pascal and Arad just wanted someone to manage the budget and shove in all the little easter eggs they needed for later. The first one at least had the excuse of being the first. This one should have learned and been better yet, they found brand new ways to f*ck it up. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a bad movie that’s not worth your time. Hard pass on this one.

Like, yo, the old Nineties Spider-Man cartoon did Carnage better than this. How do you have a great representation of the character available for going on thirty goddamn years, and still sh*t the bed this hard?

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lemonadeflashbang · 3 years ago

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Moonlighter Thoughts/Review

This is a game I finished just last week- and the last game I played. I’ve got kind of a weird relationship with this one. First, a quick note, I played the Switch version which I believe comes with some DLC. Moonlighter’s a game that I think a lot of people would enjoy, but I don’t think would be anyone’s favorite game. It’s the kind of game that would rule Rotten Tomatoes, but maybe fall apart when given an IMDB score. Moonlighter’s an RPG where you traverse procedurally generated dungeons to gather loot and take back to your shop, where you later sell them for cash. You play the role of adventurer and shopkeeper all in one, which is a neat take on the dungeon diver formula. First, let me get through the things I liked. The art and presentation are solid. There’s very little story, and it pretty much just gets to the point and lets you play the game. The level design didn’t fall apart at the end, and in fact the DLC postgame dungeon is one of my favorites of the bunch. The core gameplay of entering a dungeon and fighting stuff for loot just kind of works. It’s a tried and true formula that just feels good. It also feels good to sell stuff and just get rich, and the game encourages you to sell as much as possible. But the combat can be pretty shallow. Every weapon has two moves- an attack and a special. Many weapons have a basic attack combo. You have a dodge roll. And that’s it. That’s all the combat mechanics. You can switch between two weapons inside of a dungeon, so that can give you some additional move options but the general combat feel is basic. You learn some simple enemy patterns, dodge the right moves, and attack. Enemies are simple enough that it doesn’t take long before any individual enemy is a nonissue and that’s kind of the end of that. So while it’s fun to collect cool things, the combat itself is really pretty barebones. There’s little to master, and little to make repeat playthroughs interesting. Because it’s so expensive to upgrade additional weapons, you can feel locked in to your first weapon choices and there’s little incentive to mess around. The shopkeeping also doesn’t feel that great either. You place items on display at a set price, gauge customer reactions to your prices, then collect your cash if they buy them. There’s little in the way of mastery, and once you’ve figured out where an item price “should be” there’s little to actually do but sit around and wait. As you upgrade your shop, thieves might enter and try to steal your items or from the register directly. Sometimes everything just stops because a bird flew in and the customers panic, until you catch it. These mini events are kind of cute, but more annoying than engaging or skillful. They can help break up the monotony of sitting around and waiting, but not in a way that feels particularly great. In addition, that bird event can sometimes trap an NPC between states- they see the bird mid-action and just don’t know what to do after. I had to reset the game twice in one sitting due to these kinds of shop bugs that prevented you from closing or exiting your shop. They just trapped you in there, unable to go to sleep and save or leave... forever. Speaking of bugs, the game is a bit buggy. You can sometimes roll through doorways and end up outside the map, or not trigger the location change, get trapped in your own shop, etc., It can be disappointing when this forces a reset, but the bugs are usually harmless. But what we’ve ended up with a game that has an addictive core loop and a fair bit of content, but the execution just feels shallow and minimalistic. Progression is mostly tied to your equipment power as well, the easiest way to advance is to upgrade a weapon. Armor can be useful after that, but can feel pretty optional when you’re just one or two shotting most enemies to begin with. It’s a neat loop, but there’s essentially no replay value or desire to go back into a dungeon after completing it since you now just kind of smoke everything. You upgrade equipment via a combination of items and gold. You can buy the items at a hefty markup, but most of the time the items will come from the current dungeon. This leads to a pattern where you hoard necessary resources until you can drop a weapon upgrade, and then now that you can suddenly afford to sell those rarer weapon upgrade items you’ll find yourself rolling in cash and completing the dungeon in 2-3 more runs because you’ve opened up an additional revenue stream and can more easily venture deeper where the good loot is. That kind of opening has some weird effects in terms of upgrades for your shop. You’ll eventually hit a point where money for everything but the fanciest upgrades is mostly just a joke, because the exponentially scaling gold returns from the dungeon outpace almost everything there is to buy to begin with. There’s a couple other mechanics that maybe weren’t super well thought out. You can buy access to a banker for an exorbitant amount and after completing a couple dungeons, who will allow you to invest some money on a Sunday and then cash it out on any day in the following week. Neat mechanic, except you can only invest once per week. There’s a time cycle for whatever reason, but locking up your money for a week is always a terrible idea. You either need the money for an upgrade, or you’re about to complete the dungeon level you’re at and that amount of money will be literally worthless once the new income levels at the next dungeon are established. And by the time you’re likely to get around to purchasing them, the game’s mostly over anyway. It’s a mechanic that’s neat on paper, but doesn’t fit the actual game’s pacing. It doesn’t really open up any new or interesting gameplay or decision making. It’s just kind of a non choice that makes itself hard to actually interact with anyway. And speaking of weird mechanics, the DLC introduces a slew of special materials you can only get through haggling. It also introduces haggling. The thing is, all of the new DLC scaled armor requires the same few resources- meaning they’re super valuable and hard to get. Meanwhile, your weapon trees only need a few depending on their line. So you end up needing a whole ton of some special stones / cloth because you need it everywhere and then maybe just... a little of this and that for the rest of the build. You end up finishing your weapons quickly while way behind in your armor, a fact that doesn’t matter because your armor doesn’t matter much. You end up with so much health you can basically face tank the final boss without anywhere near max HP, just relying on your fat health bar and potions to heal you. Why not give the body armor one set of items, the headpiece another, the boots another, etc.,? A whole bunch of new materials were introduced and almost none of them will actually matter to your experience, and they’re all locked behind a haggling system which... doesn’t offer any exciting gameplay either. You’ll learn a rule of thumb for haggling that always seems to work and that’ll be it. What I’d like to see from any future projects is a more polished game design- making sure that the systems you have in place really fit and enhance the game. I’d also like to see some deeper combat. I don’t care if there’s six weapons if they’re all shallow and if it’s hard to actually use and upgrade all six at once. It doesn’t have to be combat depth but depth in any of the game systems, which was lacking. Moonlighter is a lengthy, fun, but ultimately shallow experience. I enjoyed it, and it’s worth a play, but it falls short of greatness due to its weaker systems design. Which is a shame, because the potential really was there for something special. Pick it up if you’re looking for a fun turn your brain off kind of game and have a dozen or two hours you want to burn.

#Moonlighter #RPG #indie gaming #game review

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persephone-damnedqueen · 7 years ago

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Mid Season Thoughts on the Fall Anime Season 2017:

Ugh, it’s already November, and we are halfway through the Fall season, and you know what that means. Yup, mid season thoughts. I know, ALREADY. Ugh, this year is just flying by. With most of these series hitting their 5th or 6th episode, I’m able to go into more details about the shows I’m loving, and hating this season, thus far, (as spoiler free as possible). Keep in mind, I am only watching about 22 shows this season, so if you see something I’m not watching or should be, tell me! Also, please remember this is solely my opinion and if yours differs from mine, I’d love to hear it. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Net-juu no Susume: Studio Signal.MD

Dropped. Alright, so I feel like I have to mention this. I’m a serious gamer. More specifically, I love me some MMOs. How much you ask? Well, so much so that I actually met my husband on World of Warcraft. Insane right? I mean my god you do not want to see our /played time on that game. So, needless to say, I am a bit critical on gaming anime because of this, because I know what it’s like. This anime was just… . cringey. I found myself sighing every chance I got and by the 20 minute mark, completely turning it off. Everything about the first episode was just … bad. There’s really just no redeeming qualities… well, one line said by the Guild Master which was something along the lines of “you have no idea what her irl gender is.” I laughed. It’s accurate. 85% of female toons you see on wow are actually guys. Anyways, moving on.

Evil or Live: Haoliners Animation

Dropped. Mmmm I had such high hopes. After reading the summary, I will admit, I was hyped for this show. On Paper, this show sounds wonderful. I thought it was going to be some horror psychological thriller that at the end of it left you questioning the very meaning of the world around you or something. Instead, what happened? I …don’t even know. The series starts off with massive amounts of Live Action, which, while being completely unexpected, I didn’t mind so much; the series became an instant drop for me when the MC and Co were clearly showing a break from reality and needed actual mental help, was beaten instead. It wasn’t “horror” or “edgy” it was just poor writing. Needless to say, I have dropped it.

Just Because!: Studio Pine Jam

Dropped. Did I make it through the first episode finally? Yes! When did I fall asleep this time? Episode two. The pacing on this show is what kills it for me. It’s so fucking slow. Ugh, I hate dropping it because it’s really pretty to look at, but I can’t deal with that pacing. Moving on.

Sengoku Night Blood: Typhoon Graphics

Dropped. I watched two episodes here before calling it quits. Let me save you the time. Girl goes back in time and gains a harem. A Vampire Harem. You heard me right.

Urahara: Studios Emt^2 and Shirogumi

Dropped. Instant Drop. Fuck, that animation is fucking trash. You have two studios working on this series, and the animation still looks that garbagey?!?! How?!?!?! I can’t even with this… Ugh, nope, moving on.

Boku no Kanojo ga Majimesugiru Sho-Bitch na Ken: Studio Diomedea

Dropped. This show is annoying. I started watching it with hopes of it doing two things. One, fill the hole in my heart that was left when Hajimete no Gal ended; and two, explain what the hell a Sho-Bitch is. Two episodes later, I still have no idea what a Sho-Bitch is. While the art is generic, the characters are bland and too common; also, the comedy too forced at time and repeatable. Yes, we understand main waifu really just wants to figure out what Haruka likes, and obviously misinterprets everything, but does that really have to be the joke every single time?

Imouto Sae Ireba Ii: Silver Link Studios

Dropped. Hahahahahaha, why is this show so popular this season? Seriously, find someone who isn’t talking about this show. It’s official, this is Silver Link’s answer to A-1′s Eromanga Sensei. My god this kid is OBSESSED with imoutos. It’s a bit repetitive for my liking, but I totally see why people think it’s hilarious. Needless to say though, as entertaining as it may be, I dropped it.

Omiai Aite wa Oshiego Tsuyoki na, Mondaiji: Studio Seven

Why am I still watching this you ask? *Nervous Laughter* It’s grown on me. It’s so bad, don’t get me wrong here, but like. . . . Will Nano and Souji get married? Yes, but it’s the journey that matters, not the destination. Rofl. Who am I kidding? I’m trash, but this is my guilty pleasure for the season, and it’s only four minutes each episode. I DON’T JUDGE YOUR LIFE CHOICES.

Osake wa Fuufu ni Natte kara: Creators in Pack

Not dropped yet, shocking right? Well, not really, I’m only watching it for the cocktail recipes. I feel like this anime is top notch for being bad. Like, it has spot on animation, considering the studio and that it’s a short, it’s unique at the very least, but nothing happens. Really, nothing happens. It’s the same premise each episode that is repeated heavily and the downfall of the series. Wife comes home, tired, husband makes her drink, wife gets drunk. The end.

Ousama Game The Animation: Studio Seven

I feel like you have to watch the truly terrible series in order to appreciate the good ones. This series is bad. My god it’s bad. Poor writing, poor animation, blood for the sake of blood, just overall bad. And what makes it worse? It’s one of the two survival game anime airing this season, the other being fantastic. After sitting through both weekly, this one just fails. . . .Except Mamo. Mamo is perfect. I love you Mamo.

Black Clover: Studio Pierrot

Ugh, do they ever stop yelling? Pierrot has killed this series. Plain and Simple. Honestly, there is so much I could go into, like the terrible voice acting, horrible pacing, stereotypical characters, or decent animation, but I feel like all of that is just beating a dead dog. Everyone in the community has already mentioned all of this, so why reiterate? I’ve been told the manga is a billion times better, and I might one day start it, (especially since I own the first seven volumes haha), but for now there are only two reasons why I am watching it still: one, because my husband really likes the series, and two, because you have to watch the bad series to appreciate the good ones. But, for the love of all things holy, please stop with the yelling.

Konohana Kitan: Studio Lerche

MY CUTE LITTLE FOX GIRLS.

I love this show. It’s so adorable, and Yuzu is fucking adorable, and this entire show is adorable. The tone of this show is just so fucking adorable and leaves you feeling so happy. Did I mention it’s adorable? No? It’s adorable. Ugh, I needed this show.

Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World: Studio Lerche

I’m watching the dub. YEAH, I’M WATCHING THE DUB, WHAT’S IT TO YOU?! Every season, I typically pick out one or two dubs per season to watch; last season it was Boku no Hero Academia, (Yeah, I watched it subbed too, WHAT’S IT TO YOU?) this season it’s this. And, no it’s not just because I heard Ian Sinclair had a role in it! So, what are my thoughts on it? I like it. I like it a lot. It’s different, everything from the beautiful animation done by Studio Lerche, (yes I really like Lerche.) to the wonderful story line. It’s different, and when you’ve seen as many anime as I’ve seen, different is very much appreciated. How’s the dub you ask? Surprisingly, pretty well done. Lately, I’ve been feeling like the quality of dubbing has gone down with as many as Funimation does in a season; they mostly just feel rushed and poorly executed, if you need an example just look at Juuni Taisan. It’s nice to see that that isn’t the case here.

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou: Studio White Fox

It went in a different direction than I thought it would. This show is genuinely good, and is definitely worth the watch this season, but more so if you like episodic Slice-of-Life series. While I still haven’t permanently given up on the hope of the series taking that darker more philosophical route, I am actually satisfied with the way it is going from here. I am also fascinated with the fact that they aren’t actually the last humans alive, and I think that makes this series just that much more unique than the majority of the moe post apocalyptic series out there. I guess the only major downfall of this series is the terribly done 3D animation. I mean, dear gods they need to take a page from Inuyashiki or Children of the Whales because they know how it should be done. But overall, I am actually happy with the first part of the season, and looking forward to the rest.

Mahoutsukai no Yome: Wit Studio

The hype killed it for me. . . .

Yes, this series is really good. I’ve already admitted it’s contender for Anime of the Season, and the best thing this studio has done, period. (Fight me SnK fans). But, this series has been so hyped up that I dread watching the weekly episodes. It just exists for me right now. I know, “but Persephone, this show is just SO good, how could you not be in love with it?” Meh, it’s a phase, I’m sure once the hype dies down, I’ll like it more; for now though, I’ll keep watching it weekly, but if you need me I’ll be in the corner hyping up Juuni Taisen.

Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau: J.C.Staff

Children of the Whales, because fuck that long title. After many recommendations, I picked it, and oh my god am I glad I did. First off, the art style is beautiful. It looks like nothing this studio has ever created, it’s easily one of the best animated series of the season. I bet most people didn’t even notice it’s in 3D because that’s how well done it is. The plot is captivating, and makes me scream either “What the Fuck?” or “No!” at least once per episode, (thank you for holding up to the ‘Drama’ tag). Netflix needs to step up their game and release the damn episodes weekly, just saying. Also, Best Closing of the season. I can’t skip the closing. Period. It’s beautiful. Don’t wait. Watch it. It deserves more hype.

Blend S: A-1 Pictures

My moe blob this season. This is one of my favorites. Why wouldn’t it be right? Cute moe girls doing cute things? Perfection. I think why I like this show so much is solely because of all dark, dramatic, depressing or actiony shows I am watching this season, this one can leave me with a smile on my face. It’s the palette cleanser you watch when you are sad or just want a better mood. It puts a smile on your face and I need that, especially this season. Plus, it’s also just really good; and, not to mention, I got my token beach episode, so I’m happy.

Inuyashiki: Studio MAPPA

This show destroys me. MAPPA, what the fuck? Why are you making me feel? Alright, The opening few minutes of the first episode made me feel. Fuck, I almost started crying. It was depressing and yet the story was just relatable and beautiful all at the same time. Then. . . it got weird with the whole alien, mecha space thing. Then, more feels. What did episode two do to me? I broke down. Hard. That scene in the second episode was fucking hard to watch. I honestly don’t think there’s been a scene that’s been that hard to watch since the puppy scene in Elfen Lied. That’s how hard that scene was to watch. That was also the moment I knew I was hooked. Now, we are coming up on episode six, and I’m still just as hooked. This is without a doubt one of the best of the season, and definitely the darkest.

Juuni Taisen: Graphinica

Without a doubt my favorite non sequel of the season. I’m addicted. I love everything about this show. It’s fucking intense and filled with plot twists and betrayals and deaths and gore and just epicness. Is it a bit predictable? Well, yes, but what do you people honestly expect when there are twelve main characters, twelve backstories and twelve episodes? Also, DID YOU SEE MY BEAUTIFUL LITTLE PYSCOTIC USAGI?!?! BEST BOY 2017. YEAH, FUCK YOU FIGHT ME.

Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Washio Sumi no Shou: Studio Gokumi

My God, am I a whore for a good drama filled Magical Girl series. Seriously, it’s my crack. Ugh, add on gorgeous animation to top it off, and I’m set. I loved season one. I adored it, and now that this part has just finished airing, I can say without a second of doubt, this season is better than the first. Just watch it. Take my word. Watch it. Oh, and

*Screaming as loud as possible while crying hysterically*

GIN-CHAN!!!!!

Osomatsu-san 2nd Season: Studio Pierrot

I feel like this show is the hardest show to talk about. I mean most of what this show is can be summed up with a simple “What the fuck am I even watching?” But, let’s see what can be said about this. My gods this show is a gift. This has to be one of the underappreciated comedy gems to come out in the recent years, and it fills me with joy knowing that it still shines just like the first season did. I love the more focused episodes on each of the brothers and even the parents. With just the first part out right now, I can still say without a doubt that I am enjoying this season more than the first.

Shokugeki no Soma: J.C.Staff

It’s about to go down. I repeat: It’s about to go down. The hype is real with this show. This is hands down without a doubt the best season of Food Wars period. As a manga reader I can tell you everything is true to the manga and perfect. I need more Food Wars in my life. This is amazing. ALSO, MY SON IS ANIMATED NOW AND HE’S FUCKING GORGEOUS, AND I’VE WAITED FOR YEARS FOR HIM TO BE ANIMATED AND HE FINALLY IS AND I’M SO HAPPY.

3-Gatsu no Lion 2nd Season: Studio Shaft

My Gods, WHY IS NO ONE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS?!?!?!! I fucking LOVE this show. This show makes me feel shit I didn’t want to feel. You know a show is amazing when every episode you don’t know if you want to cry because it makes you so happy, or curl in a ball and cry because HINA AND REI ARE MORE PRECIOUS THAN LIFE AND DESERVES ALL THE HAPPINESS THEY CAN GET. Without spoiling anything, episode three and four destroyed me; I’m talking like near Koro-sensei level of destroyed, and that alone makes it a gem that’s hard to come by. Hina and her development in this arc is fucking amazing, and my gods don’t even get me started on Rei. Ugh, it’s perfect and deserves all the praise.

Gintama. Porori-hen: Bandai Namco Pictures

Like what even was life before Gintama? Was there even life? Was that actually living? Any anime season with Gintama airing is a good season, regardless, yet once again Gintama keeps bringing us more and more quality comedic gold, proving yet again why it’s the king of comedy series. This arc is hilarious, like seriously, is there someone out there who doesn’t like this arc? Exactly, I rest my case. Thank you Gintama.

Ballroom e Youkoso: Production I.G.

This has to be one of the best sport anime I’ve seen in a long time, and without a doubt, the best sport one of the year. I love Sport anime, and I think that I.G. has proven they know how to do a good sport anime. I mean with Kuroko, Haiykuu, Prince of Tennis, Diamond no Ace, (Do I need to go on?), there was never a doubt that it wasn’t going to be anything less than amazing. But, damn. They outdid themselves here. I’m impressed. All I’m left with each week is the need for more. It’s really good. Fuck, it’s really good. Seriously, why are you not watching it? Also, Fuck you Chi-chan. You are still worst girl 2017. Yeah, Fight me.

So, yeah, those are my thoughts so far on the Fall Anime 2017 season. Let me know yours, and if there is anything I’m not watching, and should be, then please tell me! I love recommendations.

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5hfanfiction · 7 years ago

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Parting Shot Episode 5: Walls

I had never been on a proper date before. I had convinced myself that it was simply for lack of trying, but the truth beneath was that it just wasn’t me. I had no intention of meeting any kind of stranger at a neutral location, exchanging small talk and sitting in awkward silence while a candle between us wore down to it’s waxy death. I had no intention of paying for a dinner I didn’t enjoy, or walking through a moonlight park only to end the night with an awkward peck on the cheek and a broken promise to call soon.

On this particular night however, I found myself standing in front of the full length mirror tacked to the inside of our bedroom door and looking myself up and down. Examination was only the second of a two part cycle that included circling nervously around the room and sidestepping every stray pile of clothing Camila had chosen to adorn the floor with at the time. I had chosen a loose top with a soft purple hue, a last minute rush purchase that I was now wishing I hadn’t made so prematurely.

“Lauren, cut it out.” My subject of interest whined from the bed. She had finished with a late afternoon at work, and was now mauling a banana from it’s peel. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, the length of which was looped over her head and dangling in front of her face. “You’re making me dizzy with all the pacing.”

“Do I look okay?” I questioned, facing her and opening my arms like a statue of Jesus in front of the town’s only church. One side of Camila’s cheek was bulging with banana, the chewing avidly as the light from her phone screen consumed whatever attention was leftover. “Camz!”

“Hm?” Brown eyes blinked up at me. “Oh, yeah you look hot.”

“You don’t sound sincere about that at all.”

Placing the half empty peel down on the bed, Camila jumped to her feet and padded over to me, swiping up a small palette of eye-shadow and trapping a brush between her teeth on the way. She then began to slowly unbutton the shirt, pulling it off my shoulders and letting it fall to the ground. “What are you doing?” I questioned, watching her grab a black article of clothing from the floor and shake it out.

“Black.” Camila mumbled through the brush between her teeth. “Not purple. You’re hot as fuck in black.”

I remained quiet, nodding as the brunette went up on her toes so she was a touch taller than me. The hand holding onto the palette landed on my shoulder, the brush sweeping delicately over my eyelids. “Do you have any idea what you’re actually doing right now?” I asked her softly, receiving a gentle press of her finger against my lips as a sign for silence. “I’m just saying.” I mumbled regardless. “I’ve seen you do makeup all of two times in the history of forever.”

“You’ve seen me do makeup more often than that.” Camila giggled, finishing up on the lids and using the very tip of her finger to remove a glob of mascara from my right lash. “There. Much better.”

Admiring Camila’s handiwork in the bedroom mirror, I caught her eye in the reflection. “I promise I won’t be too long.” I assured her. “It’s just a quick dinner, maybe a movie, I’ll walk her back home, and that’ll be it.”

“Lauren, you can take however much time you need, don’t feel like you need to rush true love just to be home on time.” Camila assured me, backing up to the bed again and reassuming her lazy position nested in the comforter with the other half of her banana in hand. I gazed down, watching her chew thoughtfully while a long block of text scrolled by on the screen of her phone.

“What are you reading?”

“Me?”

“No, my imaginary friend.” I smiled, sitting down on the edge of the mattress and reaching out to poke the side of her head. “Yes you.”

“My talk with our english teacher got me thinking the other day.” Camila chewed, turning off the phone and curling around to look up at me. “I want to get into more classic literature, more than just Wordsworth, Hemingway and their life lessons of humility and love. Where there any famous horror writers?”

“Horror?” I frowned. “Since when are you interested in anything remotely scary? The last time I tried to get you to watch a horror movie you curled up and hid behind me like a five year old.”

“I figure writing a horror story is a different sensation than watching one.” Camila stretched out down the bed, every inch of slender limb flexing and relaxing in post snack haze. “It’s a different feeling when I know what’s going to happen, nothing can jump out me bite my head off my shoulders.”

It took me a moment to sort through the scarce library of writers and poets in my head. “Lovecraft was a horror writer.” I told her suggestively. “Shirley Jackson. Stephen King. If you want to get kids where it hurts the most, you can always fall back on clowns ripping off the arms of innocent children from the confines of a storm drain.”

“Did that happen?” Camila sat up with a start.

“Not in real life, but Pennywise has definitely haunted the dreams of a few baby boomers in this town.”

“Is that why clowns have such a scary connotation now?”

“That, and John Wayne Gacy.”

“Who’s John Wayne Gacy?”

I pressed my tongue to the inside of my cheek. “He was a serial killer slash rapist who was active through the 70s. He had something like thirty teenage boy victims, a bunch of which were executed through this persona he had for parties, a clown named Pogo.”

Like a cartoon character, Camila eyes slowly widened in fear as I spoke. “Fuck you Lauren, just go on your stupid date before I get even more terrified and demand you stay here with me all night.” The brunette fell back against the bed, turning her shoulder blades to me with a visible shiver. I laughed, rising to the door.

“Make sure you don’t fold any paper boats without me.” I called on the way out, leaving Camila curled in a very confused ball on the bedsheets.

***

Lucy lived a few blocks north of the school, the surrounding neighbourhood a little more bright and privileged than the rest of the town. I parked a block away, scanning the numbers on the doors before landing on the address I had well memorized. It was a three or four story home, standing tall at the end of a quaint cul de sac and boasting a rather manicured lawn and primped flower arrangement. Walking up and across the expansive path through the greenery, I didn’t give the butterflies in my stomach a second thought before rapping hard on the smooth finish of the front door. A few seconds passed, and following the sound of small footsteps scuttling across the floor, it opened. I found myself staring down at a girl no older than seven or eight with dusty brown hair and a naturally tanned complexion.

“Oh, hello.” I forced a smile down at her, my distaste for most children kicking in quick. The girl was holding a brown overstuffed teddy bear under one arm. “I’m looking for Lucy?”

“Hello.” The girl said back, granting me a sweet smile. Her voice was layered with a very heavy accent. She nodded, backing up and hurrying away. Lucy appeared no more than a second later, dressed in a tight black dress that was perfectly casual for a simple dinner.

“Hey Lauren, sorry come in.” She smiled. “That was my little sister Elena, she doesn’t speak very much English.”

“What language does she speak?” I asked, stepping through the door and looking around.

“Spanish.” Lucy smiled, the adorable curves at the corners of her mouth becoming more defined as she did so. “She’s actually my stepsister, my older brother and I lived in Miami for a while so we’re both pretty fluent, but she never left Colombia until now so she hasn’t got as much practice.” Gesturing me further inside, I let the front door close carefully behind me. “You look good by the way.”

“Not as good as you.” I shoved my hands into my pocket shyly. “You’ve got a nice house.”

“It’s not too bad.” Lucy shrugged, moving to the sliding doors of a hallway closet and parting them before pulling a long grey cardigan off it’s hanger. “Let me just get my shoes and we’ll go.”

“No rush.” I turned at the sound of a child’s voice, just in time to see a small boy run down the hall, approach the front of the house then turn around and start climbing the stairs as quickly as his little legs would let him. He looked almost identical to the girl, and had a chubby hand wrapped around a small toy airplane. “He’s cute.” I noted, smiling as he reached the mid-landing of the staircase and sat down to take a breath.

“Pedro.” Lucy addressed him over her shoulder. “Can you say hello to Lauren?”

“Hello.” Pedro waved with a shy smile, spending no more than a split second on me before turning and rushing up the remaining steps.

“Sorry.” Lucy chuckled. “This house usually isn’t so loud and full of children, they’re typically in bed at this time but it’s a Friday, so things are a little more casual.”

“No worries.” I watched as she strapped on a pair of fancy sandals and slid the strap of a purse over her shoulder. Walking down to the car, I inhaled at sweet scent of garden flowers gracing the cool night. “I don’t really have anything particularly fancy planned for tonight.” I informed her, catching her dark eyes. “Actually there’s not much fancy that you can do around here.”

“I haven’t had the chance to tour around at all, we’re still in the process of moving in.” Lucy admitted back. “So really, anything you’ve got planned is perfect for me.”

What I had planned happened to be a candlelit dinner at a small, family owned Italian restaurant with the world’s best garlic bread. Playing off what Camila tended to prefer on the nights we treated ourselves, I ordered for us both, slipping a subtle ten dollar bill to the waitress and getting her to serve us a few vodka infused glasses of cranberry juice. “So hey, my friend mentioned that your Dad was a pretty big time musician.” I mentioned as we scanned the desert menu together. “Is that true?”

“You could say that.” Lucy shrugged, setting the menu down. “Carlos Vives. He’s working on studio album number eighteen, and wanted a nice quiet place in the middle of nowhere to act like his cabin in the woods. It meant moving the entire family from a place we all knew really well to somewhere completely unfamiliar, but I guess if it gets the creative juices flowing then I can’t really argue.”

I did the same in order to get a better look at her. “Wow, eighteen albums?”

“Eighteen and counting.” She nodded back. “He’s really more known in Latin America.”

“And you said those two were step siblings, right?”

“That’s right. He might not have been half bad at writing music, but the man was never good at being able to stay faithful to one woman. I don’t hold it against him anymore, my mom was pretty crazy. It all worked out, she’s got a multi-million dollar mansion in Miami, he’s got a lovely new family.” She took a long sip of the glassy red liquid in front of her and looked up at me. “But enough about me, tell me about yourself. What are your parents like?”

“Oh, I don’t have any.”

Lucy blinked, lifting a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “You what now?”

“I mean— sorry.” I forced a soft laugh. “I guess it just seems that way so it’s what I tend to tell people who ask.”

“It must be quite the adventure to live on your own.” Lucy seemed to understand the implications of my answer, instantly stopping any further questions regarding my family tree.

“I actually don’t.” I smiled, pointing wordlessly to the creme brûlée and tiramisu on the menu. The waitress, who was already familiar with mine and Camila’s typical order gave me a knowing nod and dipped off into the back kitchen. “I live with my best friend, we’ve got a really crappy place that seems to do the trick on the south end of town, we’ve been together for about a year and a half now.”

“Oh wow, that’s pretty cool. No rules, no adults, no little siblings.”

“It’s perfect.” I agreed as the dessert arrived to the table. The dishes were about the same size, one glazed with golden layer of cooked brown sugar, the other a cream colour dusted with coca powder. “You’ve got to try these both, if there’s anything worth preserving when a giant tornado wipes this town away it’s the desserts. And the burgers. And the fish and chips. Just try before I have to put my foot in my mouth.”

Laughing, Lucy dipped a small dessert spoon into the tiramisu on the left and lifted a perfect combination of every handcrafted layer. “So how did the two of you meet?” She asked, popping it into her mouth and becoming visibly taken aback at how good it was.

“It’s complicated.” I tapped idly at the hard surface of the creme brûlée, wondering how many details I was . “We were both in the same place at the same time… geographically and emotionally. Everything sorta fell into place because of fate, and just stuck that way. I’ve learned that it’s really important to find someone you can lean on, and when you do you shouldn’t let them get away. Camila’s just that person.”

“Camila?” Lucy was busy cleaning her spoon, and it was becoming cuter and cuter to watch as the lights in the restaurant dimmed. “Oh, the girl you were with at lunch? She seems really nice.”

“She has her moments.”

The two of us hesitated very little when cleaning off the rest of the desserts, promptly paying the cheque and taking a slow stroll back to the car. I had been given the ripe opportunity to lend her my jacket, keeping the stark breeze off her shoulders and taking it on my own. After Lucy’s final year in high school, she wanted to remain in the states, and keep her attention halfway between her Latin American roots and Miami childhood home. She had chosen New Orleans in Louisiana, and when I asked why gave me a rather interesting answer.

“It’s horror factor.”

“It’s what?” I cranked up the heat in the car, pulling from the restaurant parking lot.

“It’s horror factor.” Lucy repeated, giving me a sweet smile across the gearshift. “You’ve never heard of Delphine LaLaurie and her mansion? She was featured on American Horror Story Coven by Kathy Bates.”

“I know who Kathy Bates is.” I curled my lip in thought, gazing out the front window at the lack of traffic on a quiet Friday night. “But I’ve never heard of Delphine— what’s her name?”

“LaLaurie. She was a socialite of New Orleans in the 1830s who had this central position in society after her third marriage to a young physician.” Lucy explained. “There was a fire in her giant mansion on a rich side of town, and when the police got there they discovered it was set by her seventy year old cook who was chained to the stove and afraid of being sent to an upper room of the house.”

“Afraid?” I had to reach over and set the keys into the ignition, but the raspy tone that Lucy had in her voice was sending an uncharacteristic chill down my back. “Why?”

“Police broke down the door to find seven or eight slaves tortured, some murdered others still barely alive.” She replied, the darkness in her eyes swirling. “There was a woman whose stomach had been cut open and intestine wrapped around her like a corset. Another man had a spike drilled through his head and his brain was all stirred around, and a third with his mouth stitched shut. The citizens discovered her treatment of the slaves, and drove her out of the city. She fled to France.”

Quiet fell over the car, and I finally managed to bring the engine to life. “Should I be worried about you?” I shot her a playful smile.

“Nah, I’m harmless. I just love dark, messed up things.” She smiled back. “I believe that when the zombies rise up and kill us all, we’ll finally have world peace.”

“Because of the common enemy?”

“No, because we’ll all be dead.” She shrugged. “I like Madame LaLaurie’s story because it shows that despite the slavery and mistreatment of African Americans at the time, there was a really powerful sense of humanity in the people. The entire population of New Orleans trashed that mansion, driving her out of the city and stripping every ounce of social status she may have had. They ruined her.”

“I like the way you think.”

Lucy grinned, lifting her arm and using her fingers to carefully part her light brown hair over one shoulder. “It would be awesome to study something like philosophy and social issues. I love history, going back to things in the past and understanding how they managed to shape the way they are now.”

On the ride home, I let Lucy open up about the things she was passionate about. Remaining quiet, her voice washed over me like a stress-free lull, the passion in her words about issues that so many of a close-minded town would never consider throughout their daily activities. Lucy spoke about women, politics, some of the world’s greatest leaders and their superficial counterparts. She detested labels, insisting that no soul on earth could pin her down and define who she was, and that no one had the right to call her anything she wasn’t willing to call herself. By the time we arrived back in the north end of town, I was not-so subtly disappointed that our time together had to come to an end.

Walking her up to the porch once more, I accepted my jacket back and stood in shy anticipation as she unlocked the front door. “Do you want to come in?” She asked, gesturing to the warmth of the front hallway. “You don’t have to if you don’t want, I just thought—“

“Of course, I’d love to.” I cut her off, a fuzzy feeling washing over me as the brunette took my hand with a soft laugh and led me into the house. She took me on a quick tour of the ground floor, a wide open space consisting of a grand piano, some smaller keyboards, and a plethora of unpacked boxes still sealed with tape. Apologizing profusely for the mess, she showed me the vast backyard space, perfectly trimmed and adorned with a variety of russet red flowers.

“I had the option to be homeschooled like my little siblings, at least until I graduated and we could head back down south.” Lucy explained, pulling two glasses down from an upper cupboard in the kitchen. “Neither of my parents work, so they have tons of time to spend at home… I guess choosing high school was my way of getting out of the house and away from their watchful eye.”

“I’m glad you chose high school.” I accepted the second glass with a smile. “Just really glad.”

“You’re sweet.” Lucy gestured for me to follow again, and we headed up the stairs. “Everyone’s room is on the second floor, I assume they’re asleep by now.”

“So where are we going?” I asked, glancing up to see the staircase happened to wind up even higher.

“To the upper room.” The girl looked down at me, a devilish smile creeping onto her face again. “The one that’s always locked… that no one goes into for fear of never coming out again.”

I blinked, the image of my intestines wrapped around my stomach like a gruesome fashion ornament suddenly giving me a very severe headache. “Lucy…” I warned, her name dancing off the tip of my tongue as if had not for a few measly hours, but for years.

“I’m kidding.” Lucy landed on the top floor and pulled the door to a rather spacious room open wide. “It’s just my bedroom. “My dad keeps all his recording stuff up here as well, there are a few rooms within other rooms with soundproof glass, padding on the walls, microphones and mixing boards.” I stepped inside, relieved to see a room that was half unpacked from cardboard boxes, a double bed and a tall chest of drawers. There was a shiny laptop sitting open and charging on the blanket, and a wide television backed against the wall opposite. “Sorry about the mess.” She added. “I’ve moved before, but never as far as we did this time. I had to pack up more than I anticipated.”

“It’s no problem.” I eyed the flat-screened device. “You have your own personal TV?

“It’s still yet to be inaugurated.” Lucy clarified, turning her back to me. “It was a gift from my stepmom who believes buying expensive items with my father’s money will make me love her. Could you unzip me?”

“Sure.” I stepped over, clearing a small pile of school supplies and slowly bringing down the zipper on her dress. It hit me in the brighter, more unflattering light that Lucy was strikingly small. She had to be barely over a hundred pounds, her shoulder blades pronounced and the plates of her spine almost countable beneath her skin. There was a faded line that was a touch darker than her complexion moving down the line of her spine, a clear hospital incision that had been stitched up and healed over. Without thinking, I brushed the outside of my knuckle against it, making a small noise of curiosity.

“It’s gross, I know.” Lucy had gathered her hair over one shoulder and peered over the other. “I had really bad scoliosis when I was a kid, and when I had the operation it was risky because I was so small. The correction process was terrifying, but I got through it okay and it’s healed properly now. The scar is still fading.”

“It’s not gross.” I watched as she made her way to the other side of the room, scooping up a pair of soft sweatpants and an off-shoulder sweater off the floor. “It makes you unique.”

“You’re cute, but a huge percentage of kids develop scoliosis just before hitting puberty.” Lucy dipped into the attached bathroom and nudged the door, leaving only a few inches worth of space open. She began to change, her back to the room’s entrance. “It’s kind of like osteoporosis and rickets in industrial England. There was so much smog and pollution in the air that kids were developing bowed knees and brittle bones by age seven. Talk about your terrifying corrective surgeries.”

“You seem to know a lot about the events of the past.” I mentioned, finding myself a standing in for the hero that always peeked at the pretty girl. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the way her back and shoulders flexed as she moved, noticing the tattoo that graced the side of her back, just beneath the arm. “Could they do surgeries like that in industrial England?”

“Likely not.” Lucy turned around, leading me to quickly divert my gaze. “They were just recovering from the era of bloodletting, so modern medicine was still pretty far off.”

“What does the tattoo on your ribs mean?”

The girl hopped back over another pile of clothes and started to the TV, summoning an old looking DVD case from an open box. “Hm?”

“The words.” I tried to clarify without sounding too creepy. “It looks like a different language.”

“Oh, the quote.” Lucy had removed a disc from the case, sending into a sleek player positioned just beneath the screen. “It says for the happiness of nations, we should, philosophers be kings and kings philosophers. It’s in the original Greek.” I tried for the next few seconds to recall who was behind the circular statement, but nothing seemed to hit me. As the television screen flickered to life, Lucy spoke again. “It basically means that if we want to find peace and happiness, those in power need to lead in a way that has regard for the human mind, and those who understand it need to step forward as leaders. That we all have a sense of responsibility to better the greater good based on our strengths.”

Plato? I thought silently. The menu of a terrifying looking horror movie flashed across the screen, the arrow hovering over the play option. “I’m going to run downstairs for a bowl of popcorn, make yourself comfortable.” Lucy told me, vanishing without acknowledgement out of the bedroom and down the stairs. I did so, placing my jacket on the back of a desk chair and sitting down on the perfectly made bed. Whipping my phone out, I took the time alone to send a quick text half intending on checking up on Camila, half to occupy myself from snooping around.

how’s it going? I typed, waiting for the three animated bubbles to pop up. They did, and moments later,

Camila: Oh, not bad. Just sitting around waiting for Barnum and Bailey to kidnap me in the middle of the night and lock me in a cellar to feed on my brains. How’s the date?

the ringling bros would never do such a thing camz, they’re an American treasure. the date is going really well, she’s got a really nice house

Camila: You’re at her house?

I figured it’d be impolite to say no.A touch of guilt flashed through me at the prospect of leaving Camila for much longer. There was a stash of cigarettes taped to the inside of our toilet tank, and for the longest time I knew the girl had assumed I’d either never seen them, or chosen to ignore them. Counting the number of individual smokes left in the pack every time I cleaned the bathroom had turned into a chore, but it was worth it considering how hard she had worked to quit only a few months earlier.

Before I could read Camila’s reply, Lucy stepped back into the room with a large bowl of popcorn balanced on one arm and something wrapped in colourful foil between her teeth. She had a shrink-wrapped remote in her hand, pouncing playfully onto the bed at my side while sliding the laptop out of the way. The lights went off, her shoulder brushed mine, and for the first time in the night I felt a genuine pang of nervous energy surge through the room. “I was thinking about a classic.” Lucy informed me, starting to tug the plastic protective coating off the remote after placing the bowl of popcorn down in my lap. “Have you ever read It, by Stephen King?”

I glanced at her briefly, taken aback by the coincidence. “I had been thinking about that book earlier today. What made you choose it?”

“It’s my type of horror.” Lucy finally rid the remote of its plastic before setting it between us, pulling the foil wrapped item from her teeth and summoning a small lighter from the pocket of her jeans. “I like the deepest forms of psychological fear. Maybe if everyone has their greatest fears chasing them through the night we would all be on the same wavelength of kindness.” She held out her hand, extending what I could now discern as a rolled joint. “Do you smoke?”

“Once and a while.” I nodded. “But only when the occasion is extra special. It’s an expensive habit.”

“I agree, but you’re not driving very far tonight, are you?” She smirked, holding the unlit joint out in one hand and the lighter in the other like a dual offering. Glancing momentarily at a series of dark opening credits and deep red ominous font, I accepted the neatly rolled cluster of weed and held it over the lighter. Lucy smiled, firing up the joint then hurrying off the bed to lift the side window and banish the scent away with a crisp fall breeze.

The movie was different from the book in a number of ways, most of which my mind had involuntarily set on the back burner as the typical ghoulish images of a literary masterpiece had been played out by the characteristic cinematic charm of the early nineties. The marijuana had done well to bid away any unease I may have had watching a horror movie in the middle of the night, as did Lucy’s comforting presence. We found ourselves talking softly through most of it, discussing everything from characters to set design, poor acting to mediocre makeup.

“So if that was your kind of horror, what other kind of horror is there?” I asked once the credits had rolled and I felt like I’d been somewhat scarred for life. The last thing I wanted to do was get up from the cloud-like bed I had snuggled into and drive across the town, but I had no intention of leaving Camila on her own for much longer.

“There’s the more cookie-cutter, vampire, werewolf, ghost-story one.” Lucy replied. “The one that involves magic, and seeing dead people… paranormal activity and alien invasions.”

I grinned. “You’re telling me that if aliens came down and started to abduct people, you wouldn’t even flinch?”

“I would whip out my camera.” The Latina smiled back. Her expressions were so pure, simple and straightforward as if the emotions she felt had never been anything but true. Lucy didn’t seem to mask any sort of feeling, speaking her mind, refusing to conform and charming me through the night in a way no date had before.

“I should get going.” I laughed, stealing the last popped kernel from the bottom of the popcorn bowl and wishing I had a refill. “Before I fall asleep here.”

“That wouldn’t be too bad.” Her dark eyes sparkled. Deciding to only agree silently, I tipped her over playfully and rose, gathering my jacket. The two of us floated silently back down to the first floor, and the moment I stepped out to the front porch I couldn’t help but turn around. Lucy was leaning against the frame of the door, her hands tucked away into the sleeves of her sweater and a shy look on her face. “I had a really great time Lauren. Thank you for tonight.”

“So did I.” I agreed, matching her smile. “I learned a lot from you… I look forward to learning even more.”

“I’d like that.”

Knowing it was my move to make, I took a small, timid step forward and lifting my fingers to her chin, tilted it up. “I really want to kiss you right now…”

“I really want you to kiss me.” Lucy echoed back without missing a beat. “Right now.”

The sensation of her kiss, much unlike the entirety of the night was pleasantly surprising breath of fresh air. I found myself melting into the contact, her body coated in a thin layer of muscle and warm to the touch. Much unlike myself, Lucy knew what she was doing. Her movements, the way she went up onto her toes so we were eye level and pressed the palm of her hand to my cheek, everything seemed so perfectly practiced.

“I’ll get to see you again, right?” I questioned softly, unwilling to wake any member of the house, young or old.

“We have history together.” Lucy grinned back, running her fingers through her hair.

“I wish.”

“Goodnight Lauren.” She said with an amused lilt in her voice. I nodded, taking a small step backwards and slowly returning to the car with a brief glance over my shoulder to see she had remained on the porch, watching me go. The walk gave me just enough time to accept that I had been wrong about judging the art of the first date.

***

After a car ride home deep in my thoughts, I arrived back to a silent and pitch black house. Sidestepping a cluster of shoes, and shedding my jacket to the back of a kitchen chair, I then tiptoed into the bedroom to see it fared to better. Crumpled balls of yellow paper from a rather sad looking legal pad were scattered across the floor, the bed, and every foreseeable surface of storage space.

“Camila?” I asked the darkness, keeping my voice low.

The mass of paper on the bed shifted, and from the debris poked a very sleepy looking mass of brown hair. “Hm?” She yawned, rubbing her eyes. “Lauren? What are you doing home, I figured you were just going to spend the night.”

“No, I didn’t want to risk running into her superstar father in the morning and have to explain who I was.” I explained, crouching down and picking up one of balls of paper. “And I would have felt bad for leaving you alone all night… what’s going on in here? Have you moved since I left?”

“No.” The brunette yawned again, lying back against the bed. “I’ve been trying to write a scary story, but nothing’s coming to mind. I’m just too cute and fluffy.”

“You are both of those things.” I smiled, clearing away a few balls of paper from the bed so I could perch onto the edge and tug off my socks. “Have you eaten anything?”

“No.”

“Camz, it’s past midnight!”

“I wasn’t hungry.” Camila shrugged at me.

“But you’re always hungry.”

“Help me.” The girl ignored me, holding out what was left of the yellow pad in one hand, a pencil in the other. Accepting both, I looked down at the prompt she had written out. A horror story about a girl with otherworldly abilities on a nation where she is virtually alone. Undergoing a dark feeling that something unpleasant is about to happen, the protagonist must use the passion she has for her origins to prevent disaster. She will do anything to make it so, no matter how dark.

I was instantly reminded of Lucy’s preference for horror, for the darker, more gruesome emotions that her interests played off of were very different from Camila’s idea of a horror story. One preferred to dig into the victim’s psyche and extract it with a spoon, while the other steered her creative track towards a premonition and a world of loneliness. I couldn’t in the moment, choose which one I preferred. Something drew me to both, but in very different ways.

Walls. Thirteen year old Jeanne Carter has all her life been labelled a bio-terrorist. With the elusive ability to manipulate the emotions and bodies of even the strongest personalities, she is both revered and feared, locked away and admired like a caged animal. Thinking back to the unease I’d felt on the way back from dinner, I decided to blend their worlds, embracing a new type of fear. When a threat to social security looms over the nation, Carter is forced to envelop the people who hurt her most, dominating the minds and bodies of the most powerful members of government and make decisions that will inevitably rescue the nation from her premonition. She uses her greatest gift to play out sacrifices, death, conflict and decay while shouldering the hate of so many within the four walls of her cell. Carter succumbs to her own exhaustive demise alone, aided only by the letters passed through the bars by an anonymous source.

“Why are you so much better at this than me?” Camila asked when she finished the brief paragraph. “That’s genius.”

“A girl with unknown origins, beginning her life alone, ending her life alone, yet making so many sacrifices and life-saving decisions to so many people along the way.” I focused my gaze on the very tip of the paper. “And doing it all while locked up and put on display like an animal in a cage.”

“What kind of sacrifices?” The brunette asked, curling up into an adorable ball and resting her head in her hands. “Would she really kill people in order to be the un-sung hero?”

“Sometimes political leaders are so corrupt that they can’t see anything in front of them but the potential to exert their power and money over those who are crippled.” I replied. “There are people that just can’t be reasoned with… minds that are so dark and twisted that the only way to remove them from the picture is to light their lives on fire and drive them from their homes.”

“So you want a person who despite being different, fights to make the dark and twisted right again.” Camila purred. “Someone who doesn’t bother with the pain of labels and acts by her own morals.”

I stood up, granting her a small smile on my way down the hall and into the kitchen. It was hard to describe my confidence level with this particular plot-line. It had too much been infused with the level of insight from my first proper date. Arranging a piece of toast slathered in peanut butter and a banana, I returned to see Camila doodling over the piece of paper, her gaze brushing across the ink. She thanked me, nibbling happily on the late-night snack while I changed out of my clothes.

“It’s a shame she dies in the end.” The brunette mentioned quietly, now buried under the comforter and licking the peanut butter off her fingers. “Wouldn’t it be more heroic if she made it out alive and got to live a full life in the world she managed to save?”

“Maybe.” I agreed, tying my hair into a loose ponytail. “But a silent messiah doesn’t just win in the end, especially when they’re a heroine, not a hero.”

“True.” Camila folded the paper in half and tucked it beneath the pillow. The effects of the weed from earlier had managed to continue lingering as I joined her under the covers.

“Why did you write out a prompt that you had so much trouble following through with?” I asked, letting her snuggle up and inhale whatever was left of the weed scent on my skin.

“I was secretly hoping you’d come home so you could write it for me.” She admitted. “Is that lame?”

“Not at all.” I assured her. “It’s incredibly cool.”

“Good.” Dark lashes fell flush against the spaces beneath her eyes. “Goodnight.”

I drifted off thinking about the evening, glad that I had made the decision to return home; hoping I would always have such a precious choice. A noise in the middle of the night got me up and checking the house, making sure no raccoons were climbing up the kitchen walls. While I was up I decided to check the bathroom, quietly lifting the back of the toilet up and peering into the tank to see the pack of cigarettes taped to the inner porcelain.

It had remained exactly where I remembered, completely untouched.

***

#UPDATE #series #AU #slash #camren #angst drama #submission #Parting Shot

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harriet-spy · 8 years ago

Text

This story would have required too much heavy lifting to actually write in full. But, to indulge a friend, I wrote some of the emotional bits. An AU. Hopefully an obvious one.

Greg wasn’t sure what sort of horror movie visual he’d been expecting to see as he approached Holmes’s cell, but it wasn’t a man sitting in an armchair in a snug Victorian-looking nook, reading a book. He was very pale—well, you’d expect that, wouldn’t you—and lanky, sharp-featured, with a long nose. The overhead picked up a faint red in his hair. A little odd, but not necessarily intimidating. Though the worst person Greg’d ever met was a tiny old lady pensioner who’d poisoned half the neighborhood’s kids. The book was thick, with onionskin pages; Holmes turned the page approximately once a minute as Greg waited, apparently oblivious to Greg’s presence.

But of course he couldn’t actually be, and Greg was willing to be patient, but he didn’t have all day to stand around this place. “Mr. Holmes?” he said. No response. “Or…whatever it is you’d like to be called?”

He turned the page. “Most of the guards here call me Mike.”

“Mycroft, then,” Greg said, and that won him the ghost of a smile. “If you’re amenable, I’d like to talk to you about some murders.”

The smile diluted itself to nothing. “Whatever stories they’ve told you about me, Detective Inspector, you can’t believe I just popped out of here for a quick spot of slaughter and then popped back in.”

“Oh, you’re not a suspect. I just wanted to ask you some questions.”

Another page turn. “Detective Inspector, in the twenty-one years I have been imprisoned, I have been asked by my captors to predict terrorist attacks; to make fortunes in the markets for them; to break reputedly unbreakable codes. I have cooperated, not because I have been rehabilitated in any way, shape, or form, but simply to stave off boredom. Why do you imagine I’d be interested in something so limited as murder?”

Damn. Greg had actually been able to hear the semi-colons as he spoke. “Well, it involves your family,” he said.

Mycroft’s finger halted, mid-flick. He still didn’t look up. “My parents are dead.”

“Yeah, I read that. The others.”

Flick completed.

“Some hikers got lost and found a body on the grounds of Musgrave last week. Badly decomposed, but forensics suggest that he was tortured and killed in much the same way as four other people in the county. I have pictures, if it would help to look at them. We think it’s a serial killer and we’re trying to figure out the connection, if any”—he remembered to add—“to the estate.”

Mycroft snapped the book shut and finally looked at him. His eyes seemed a hundred miles more remote than he actually was. “Tell my sister that I appreciate her sending me such a pretty policeman, but I must decline to play.”

Greg blinked. Well, this would be the weirdness they’d told him about. “Your sister didn’t send me, Mycroft. In fact…” He decided to be bold. “I think she might be involved.”

“You interviewed her.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, of course.”

“Then she sent you, Detective Inspector. I’ve no idea why she’s decided I’m a threat to her at this late date, but she’s wrong.” He flung his long fingers outward. “She won a long time ago. Tell her that.”

He laid the book down and picked up a pad of paper that had been lying on the floor next to his chair, along with a pencil. Greg stared. Definitely not all there. But he hated to have come all this way for nothing.

“And what should I tell your brother?”

Mycroft looked straight ahead for quite some time, not blinking. Then he sighed. “There’s no point in telling him anything.”

Mycroft took two steps out the exit door, did an odd little stagger, and fell. He pushed himself up to his knees, but kept his hands on the pavement. Greg reached for his arm, but he jerked it violently out of Greg’s grasp. His eyes were screwed shut.

“Are you okay?”

“The ground,” Mycroft said through his teeth. “The perspective. I haven’t been under the open sky in seventeen years.”

“Oh. Damn.” He hadn’t planned for this. It hadn’t even occurred to him, though now it seemed bloody obvious. “Can you stand?”

“Not with my eyes open,” and now Mycroft was shivering.

“All right. All right. Just…hold on, mate. Hold on.” Greg cast around. It was too cold for him to take off his coat. He turned back into the building. In the reception area there were a few umbrellas by the door. Greg swiped one without a pang of conscience and came back out. He knelt down next to Mycroft and opened it over him, blocking out the sky. “Is that any better?”

His eyes blinked slowly open. For a moment, he looked remarkably young. “Yes,” he said cautiously.

“All right, then.” Greg gave him his other hand to help him up, careful to keep the umbrella close over his head. “It’s only a short walk.”

“I know that.”

The irritation in Mycroft’s voice was reassuring, but as they settled into their seats in the copter, Greg noticed that he was looking green again. “You’re probably going to want to close your eyes for this,” he said through the radio.

The copter lifted off. Mycroft darted one peek down at the swiftly churning Atlantic as they cut an arc over it and immediately sank back in the seat.

“They gave you some Xanax,” Greg said. “I think you’d better take some. If you throw up in here, it’ll be a long trip.”

An hour later, Greg helped Mycroft down from the copter. Three doses of Xanax and he was still absolutely rigid—he hated to think what it would’ve been like without the medication. Fortunately, it was another short trip to the car. Mycroft stumbled in and Greg shut the door behind him with a feeling of relief.

It was a long drive down into London. Mycroft spent most of it looking out the window. Greg could see the pulse still jumping in his neck and decided not to try talking to him. ��As self-contained as he had been in his cell, he had to be embarrassed now, even if he didn’t show it. He also decided not to put on the radio. God knew how he’d react to that. So most of the trip was quiet and uneventful, so much so that as Greg hit London-bound traffic on the M11, he shifted his focus to the road rather than his passenger.

Sometime after they’d reached the city proper, he glanced over and realized that that had been a mistake. Mycroft was slumped over, basically dangling in the seatbelt, eyes completely glazed over, lips slack.

“Mycroft? Are you okay? Mycroft!”

What had gone wrong? If the pills had just kicked in late, he’d be asleep, not in a trance. Greg debated whether he should pull over. Probably better to get him to the house.

“Mycroft!”

He reached out and shook his shoulder. Mycroft flinched and curled away, but the action seemed mechanical, like a plant on a nature show recoiling from an unpleasant stimulus. There was no more awareness in his eyes.

“Jesus, Mycroft, don’t do this now. We’re almost there, okay? I don’t want to have to take you to hospital, I could never explain you. Okay?”

Much against his better judgment, he tried squeezing his hand. He felt the faintest contraction of muscle in reply, and squeezed again. Mycroft made a curious interrupted gasping noise, as if he’d just emerged from deep water, and turned his head, blinking.

Greg hastily released his hand. “Hey, can you hear me?”

Mycroft didn’t answer. He seemed to be looking at the console. After a minute, his hand darted forward and seized the multitool Greg kept there. With one motion, he flicked up one of the knives and then slashed it across his palm. Bright red welled up immediately.

“What are you doing?” Greg grabbed at the tool. Much to his relief, Mycroft let it go immediately, fixating on the injury. His breathing was still irregular. Greg wrenched the wheel, pulling them off, then threw the tool into the back seat and seized his wrist. “Are you out of your mind?”

Mycroft said raspily, “I was. Or too far in it.”

He flexed his hand, and Greg could see the pain ripple over him. “What are you talking about?”

“Fugue state, Detective Inspector,” and some of the irritation was returning to his voice. “Do you have any idea what’s going on outside these windows?”

Irritation on the verge of giving way to hysteria. Greg looked around. “Yeah. It’s London. Big city. You remember.”

“The last time I was here was in 1995! Do you have any idea how much data—“

Mycroft cut himself off and sat back, shrinking into himself, trembling.

“Ohhh.” Greg didn’t think he had the best imagination, but he wasn’t slow. Yeah, London was different than it had been back in the twentieth century. Even more noise, color, lights, frenetic activity, and Mycroft might as well have been in a monastery up at Sherrinford. “Ohh, okay. I get it.”

“It’s a good thing cars don’t have cigarette lighters anymore,” he muttered, with a choked laugh that was too much like a shriek.

Greg winced and let go of his wrist. Okay. De-escalate. He knew how to do this. “So. Just listen to my voice for now, all right? There’s a first aid kit in the glove compartment,” he said gently. “I’m going to lean over and get it, okay? Can you just try to take some deep breaths while I do?”

Mycroft didn’t answer.

Greg opened it as slowly as he could and removed the kit. “In for seven counts, out for eleven, Mycroft,” he said. “It’ll get easier.”

Still no answer, though he thought he was trying to comply.

He reached over for the injured hand. As his fingers approached, Mycroft’s hand executed a sort of jerky swoop in the air, but then halted. “Okay. Okay,” Greg said, and moved again.

When Mycroft surrendered his hand to him, it felt like rescuing a wounded bird.

Mycroft swung away and stared at him. “You think I killed Victor Trevor.”

Greg just kept a stray cynical snort from escaping. He’d found Mycroft in the deepest darkest dungeon there was, what could he have possibly thought…? But Mycroft sounded astonished. And offended. His eyes were dark.

“Look,” he said placatingly, “you were barely thirteen. I’m sure you didn’t…back then the Crown actually had to overcome a presumption that someone your age couldn’t tell right from wrong enough to commit a crime—“

“Which the Crown did in my case.“

“Well, your sister said—“

“I know what my sister said. All of it. None of it was true. I never hurt Victor Trevor. In any way.”

Mycroft was actually flushed. The contempt in his voice kept cracking, falling open, leaving a strange rawness.

But Greg was used to criminals denying their crimes, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. They got angry. They got quiet. They cried. They screamed. They were guilty all the same.

“Mycroft, come on, I read your file. You killed two other children practically the minute you arrived at Aston Hall! And then when they sent you here, that doctor.”

“They were attempting to take advantage of me,” Mycroft said. “If you’ve seen my file, you must know that when I was younger I looked very much like someone who could be made a victim. The staff weren’t going to lift a finger to help me. I had to make it very clear from the outset what I would not tolerate. Those deaths saved other lives.”

Greg cocked his head and looked at him. That the inmates sometimes got up to bad things at places like Aston Hall—that was no secret. He could see the chubby Mycroft he remembered from the file being a target. Although that hardly justified killing someone…but, then, he had only been a kid…

And he had been convicted of murdering the six-year-old friend of his little brother. The little sister had not quite said he was fiddling with both of the boys, but that was the conclusion the cops had come to. And the verdict had borne out their position.

“Look, I came and got you out knowing what you’d been convicted of. Nothing’s changed. Does it really matter what I think?”

Mycroft’s eyelids suddenly drooped, as if they’d become too heavy to keep up. He turned away. “Yes. It does. Did. No, it doesn’t matter.”

Those choppy, inconsistent phrases sounded nothing like Mycroft. Greg felt as if he’d been handed a forfeit in a game he didn’t know he’d been playing.

“I’m quite tired,” Mycroft went on. “I think I’ll retire for the evening.”

“Mycroft,” Greg said, “I really didn’t think—“

He rose. “You believe my sister may be a serial killer, and yet it never occurred to you that Victor Trevor might have been her first victim. No, Detective Inspector, you didn’t think at all. Good night.”

Even after Mycroft had re-acclimated, walking the streets with him was still an adventure. He haughtily refused to adjust to the rapid pace of the London pedestrian, which meant he was in constant danger of being knocked over. Worse, several times a day he would lose himself in some information he had just taken in and slow or even stop altogether. When he saw it happening, Lestrade quickly got used to grabbing Mycroft’s elbow and manhandling him out of traffic until he deigned to come on-line again.

The sign of that abstraction was a narrowing of the eyes, a contraction of the brow. But a few days in, when Mycroft slowed on Albany Street, Lestrade glanced over to see a slackening of his features, a softness in his gaze he’d never seen before. He turned his head to see what he was looking at. MARKSON PIANOS, the sign read.

“Do you play?” he asked, then realized what a stupid question it was. No doubt they kept a baby grand at his top-security prison for him…

“I,” Mycroft stopped and cleared his throat, “I did.”

“Do you want—“ Greg began and then stopped, because Mycroft was already plunging across the street and into the store. Greg had to follow.

Mycroft had seated himself on the bench in front of one of the instruments just before the window. He was staring at the keys as if he didn’t dare touch them. A shop assistant came up to him and Greg said hastily, “We’re looking for now, thanks.”

Mycroft stretched out his left hand, and settled it on the keys. He tentatively struck one key, then another, dissonant. He made a little face, struck another, then played a chord. He carefully worked his way up a scale, still with the one hand, then brought the other to join it.

He started out very slowly: a single tentative little tune, which he repeated, against a slowly changing background. Then it itself moved gently up and down, Mycroft speeding up and sounding more fluent as he went. Greg liked the piece. It was contemplative, it sounded like taking a fact from an investigation and turning it over and over, considering it in several different contexts. It ended all too soon.

Mycroft had gone completely still. Greg ventured, “Liked that. What was it?”

“Student piece,” Mycroft said without turning his head. “Bach prelude.”

He bit his lip, then launched into something else, not totally different in style. Quietly melancholy, but with a courtliness, repeating once with a darker ending. Then abruptly the same tune jumped up high and went piercing and wintry. Mycroft played it through almost to the end, then broke off and pushed himself away. He looked like he was having trouble getting his breath.

The shop assistant was looking at them again. Greg waved him off.

“Are you all right?”

Mycroft nodded.

“That was pretty. Why did you stop?”

“I can’t play it properly,” Mycroft said, toneless. “I can remember the score perfectly and all the recordings I heard as a boy, but to play it well myself I would need years to develop the muscle memory and my own style. I’ll never be able to play it properly.”

“It sounded fine to me…”

Mycroft shook his head, his lips thinning. He rose. “It wasn’t.”

#fic fragments #sherlock #mycroft holmes #greg lestrade

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marcuserrico · 7 years ago

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'Star Wars' Toy Pro Spills 40 Years of Secrets: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Kenner Classics

Designer Mark Boudreaux in his office with the Millennium Falcon vehicles he has designed over the past 40 years. (Credit: Hasbro)

In 1976, Mark Boudreaux was a University of Cincinnati design student on the hunt for a local work-study gig — and he hit the jackpot. He landed a job “down the street” at Kenner Products‘ “Prelim” design department. Before long, he was at ground zero of the Star Wars toy boom, helping conceptualize some of the signature products in the Kenner line, including the Millennium Falcon. Four decades later, Boudreaux is still “on the boards” as senior principal designer of Star Wars/action brands at Hasbro (which acquired Kenner in 1991). For the 40th anniversary of the release of Star Wars: A New Hope, Boudreaux met with Yahoo Movies to talk toys. Here, in Boudreaux’s words, is a first-hand history of Star Wars playthings.

By the late-’70s, Kenner was banking on TV-related toys, as bigger rivals like Mego and Mattel locked up the most famous film and comic-book characters.

Mark Boudreaux: At the time, Kenner would have been working on Six Million Dollar Man — Steve Austin — and we also came across a property called Man From Atlantis with Patrick Duffy. … I was given the responsibility of “Hey, he needs some sort of vehicle, what can you come up with?” … So one of the first things was this toy concept called the Aqua-Terra Pod.

Those toys would soon be an afterthought. While Mego and Mattel ultimately passed on the Star Wars license, Boudreaux’s boss, fellow University of Cincinnati alum Jim Swearingen, trekked out to Lucasfilm headquarters, read the script for A New Hope, and was hooked.

I started working at Kenner in January ’77. In February, we first saw the trailer of Star Wars and all immediately became fans.

My direct design manager [Swearingen] had the opportunity to go out to California and he got a really good idea of what Star Wars was all about. He quickly realized that this was not just a movie about characters, but it was also about their ships and going from world to world. You had classic good and evil, you had great characters and environments and ships — something you could really sink your teeth into.

But with the film’s May 25, 1977, release looming, Kenner faced a big problem.

Once Kenner started getting into Star Wars it was pretty much all hands on deck, 24/7. As I mentioned, we didn’t see the trailer until February ’77 so that didn’t give us much time to actually put product on the shelves. It became very apparent that even though we put all resources to bear on developing Star Wars, we really weren’t going to get plastic product out until ’78.

Boudreaux “on the boards” in his Kenner office in the mid-’80s. (Credit: Mark Boudreaux/Hasbro)

I recall being in brainstorms with the rest of the designers and said, “How might we go about putting Star Wars under the tree for that holiday season in ’77?” The idea was to come up with the Early Bird Special — it would essentially be a promise of four figures [Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and R2-D2] mailed directly to you and in that envelope was included a cardboard display with little plastic clips that as you purchased your initial wave of characters you’d be able to display them proudly. I think there were some membership cards, maybe some stickers and things.

And they asked me to put together some preliminary conceptual documents — some artwork, fabricate some envelopes so that we can show our management team what the thoughts were. And it was quite an interesting conversation, if I recall, going to upper management and saying, “Hey, you know, we want to sell an empty cardboard box for under the tree.”

Kenner’s original Early Bird Certificate Package featured a cardboard standup, “Space Club” membership card, and stickers. Along with a line of deluxe 6-inch “Black Series” figures to pay tribute to the original Kenner line, Hasbro has released a 40th anniversary version of the Early Bird set, this time including Darth Vader. (Credit: Hasbro)

In addition to Luke, Leia, Chewie, and Artoo, the first wave included eight other action figures: Han Solo, C-3PO, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, Death Squad Commander, Sand People (a.k.a. Tusken Raider), and Jawa. The earliest vehicles soon followed: Luke’s landspeeder, X-wing fighter, and TIE fighter.

Design, engineering, manufacturing all came together and sat down — I wasn’t always privy to the top-level discussions — but I believe they started and said, “You know what, it’s really about the characters. What are the core group of figures we can execute first? Obviously that included the core heroes, the core villains, and some of the ancillary characters — Jawas, things like that.

Swearingen realized early on that the size of the toys would need to be scaled down to work within the scale of the Star Wars universe.

He understood that for us to be able to develop really meaningful playsets and vehicles, the figures would need to be something other than our traditional 12-inch figure. For a long time G.I. Joe was 12-inch as well. It was the gold standard for a lot of product that had been developed. But he had the insight to say, “We have to take a different approach to this,” and he started thinking about this, he made some mock-ups. The team got together and decided that having that 3 3/4-inch scale would really allow us to create the type of product we were looking to do. That 3 3/4-inch scale made the figures large enough so you could have a recognizable portrait, which the design team thought was very important.

It also let you hold a lot of characters in your hand all at once. If you were kids running around the block you could just stuff the figures in your pocket, grab a couple of vehicles, and you were off. One of your friends was in a TIE fighter, you were in an X-wing, and you’d have dogfights running around the neighborhood. It was that intuitive design sense that my boss had.

Watch: The Best Vintage Star Wars Toy Commercials:

yahoo

Team Kenner then established a template for its future Star Wars saga toy-making.

As you might recall, the movies were out for over a year at the theaters at the time. There was no such thing as computers and DVRs and Blu-rays and all that fun stuff.

We were three years in between films, so we had time to backfill product if we couldn’t do it all at once. We went for landspeeder, TIE fighter, X-wing because they were a little easier to execute. Something like a Millennium Falcon or a Tydirium [Imperial] Shuttle, those are a bit more complicated, a bit more expensive… those tend to be in the second and third year of the line. And that’s pretty much how it worked for those first three films.

Boudreaux, who became a Kenner full-timer in 1978, was asked to take on a big assignment for the second phase of A New Hope toys.

Members of our design team and marketing would talk with Lucasfilm about what product we should try to shoot for, what really were the core vehicles and figures we should do first. They said, “Hey, Mark, we got this Millennium Falcon to do. Would you like to go ahead and do it?” And I’d go, “Yeah, yeah, sure. Why not?” We were fortunate. We didn’t start this until ’78, so we fortunate to know what the Falcon was all about. It was a character in its own right. It was such an important story element. To have all of our heroes come together there, to have a base of operations that allows them to go from place to place. We knew about all the features: we knew about the gunner station, we knew about the remote probe, things like that. So we tried to incorporate those into the toy.

Boudreaux’s original design blueprint for the 1978 toy Falcon (Credit: Mark Boudreaux/Hasbro)

My responsibility was to take a big blank sheet of paper on our drawing board and determine how large should it be based on our character sizes, what type of features could we incorporate, how would we do the gun turret, how might we open the cockpit, how would we have landing gear.

Lucasfilm has always been a really great partner with Kenner and Hasbro. They would give us as much conceptual art as possible. Back in the day it was usually 8x10s, hopefully in color, a lot of times in black and white, and we would just go from there.

Lucasfilm provided Kenner’s design team with detailed photos of movie-used models, including the original Falcon. (Credit: Mark Boudreaux/Hasbro)

As I mentioned, we had our own model shop. So I would go ahead and do pencil drawings, to do layout, and those layouts would then be given to our model shop and they would make a one-off model of the Falcon. We used that model to demonstrate the features to all the folks in management. Once it got the go-ahead it went to the production designer who would create the actual toys.

Kenner’s Prelim design team made a functional, full-scale plastic model based on Boudreaux’s designs to demonstrate the features. (Photo: Mark Boudreaux/Hasbro)

Though more finely sculpted, Kenner’s final toy version of the Falcon hewed closely to the mock-up. (Credit: Hasbro)

Kenner had the opportunity to essentially allow fans to relive what they had seen on screen by producing the vehicles and figures and creatures and playsets — that was something really special. All of a sudden, now you could continue the fantasy that you saw on the screen or you could adapt it to your own. Heck, you could have Greedo flying the Millennium Falcon. That was so cool about Star Wars. There were so many points of entry [for] the fantasy.

Like the film, Kenner’s Star Wars line became an instant smash. Stores struggled to keep shelves stocked with product. And George Lucas and his crew were just as psyched by the toys as everyone else.

Lucasfilm was always very, very helpful [trying] to determine what would be the best product to come out with for the first year, second year, third year. We would go through an approval process. We have conceptual approval. Then we usually do a first model or there are some renderings. There was one trip where we actually went out to Mr. Lucas’s home for Empire Strikes Back and had a presentation for Mr. Lucas. That was quite a fascinating trip, to be a twentysomething designer in the midst of Mr. Lucas and all of his friends and partners and also [Lucasfilm concept artist turned filmmaker] Joe Johnston and other designers that were there. It was cool having the actual Star Wars designers come up to us and say, “Hey, this toy is really cool.”

And while those early toys had their issues, they also had their charms.

I’m in love with 1977 figure sculpts because they were at the forefront of design. They’re just as nice in a lot of ways as our most elaborate Black Series figures at this point. Each time we’ve done something, it’s the very best we could do within the technology.

Because Star Wars has been around for 40 years, it gives us the opportunity to do updated characters, updated vehicles, where it’s appropriate. We’ve done five Millennium Falcons. I’m just as proud of the first one we worked on as the one we just did for The Force Awakens. They’re each a little different but we put our hearts and souls into all the things we do. As fans we say, “We haven’t done this for a while, maybe it’s time to do an updated version,” but it’s never because we felt disappointed in the first version that we did.

Boudreaux’s drafting table, pencil, and “big sheet of blank paper” have been replaced by computers; here’s a look at his digital designs for Hasbro’s Force Awakens toy Falcon. (Credit: Mark Boudreaux/Hasbro)

Boudreaux had a hand in several of the most significant toys in Star Wars history, yet some of his favorites are more obscure.

The Millennium Falcon is obviously No. 1. I’m a lover of Boba Fett and I’ve had the opportunity to work on multiple Slave Is — those are the big vehicles. But from a personal point of view, we were able to develop a series of smaller vehicles, called Mini-Rigs, back in the day. And a vehicle called the Cruisemissile Trooper. Those were items that I was given permission to develop, “inspired by” vehicles, what we call “off-camera.”

Kenner’s Mini-Rigs seen here from concept to product. The “off-screen” vehicles were big enough to fit a single action figure. (Credit: Mark Boudreaux/Hasbro)

Things that would fit right into the Star Wars universe but you never saw on screen. They could very easily fit into the story. So, from a very personal perspective, to be able to pen a design that was in an official Star Wars package and related to Star Wars or Empire or Jedi, that was something I always just really appreciated. You don’t get a chance to do a lot of that in the Star Wars universe because it’s so rich on its own. But for someone like myself back in the ’80s to be able to do a design from a fresh piece of paper was really quite cool, something I’m proud of.

Introduced in 1995, Boudreaux’s Cruisemissile Trooper, seen here as a preliminary model, was envisioned as an assault vehicle, where the pilot was part of the ship. (Credit: Hasbro)

Meanwhile, the Hasbro team is cranking out a new line of toys for ‘The Last Jedi.’

Obviously, we’ve been working on the product for quite some time. Lucasfilm is a very good partner. They give us just the right amount of information that is required to do appropriate product but as a fan there are still a lot of things that I don’t know about, and that’s OK. I want to be entertained and surprised just like all the other fans when we see the film. But we can’t wait to see it.

Everybody has put a lot of really hard work into it, and we’re all really excited for it. After seeing Rogue One, that really inspired us even more with all the great content that Disney is generating for Star Wars. We see a bright future for this brand and I hope to be involved with it for many years to come.