#the actual next thing is STATIC SHOCK S4!!!!!

[t4tails]

finished batman mystery of the batwoman UHH idk im kind of disappointed? i was really hoping for a more comic accurate batwoman aka kate kane 😔 and the twist that there were 3 of them was REALLY obvious. AND THEY WERE ALL STRAIGHT!! BOOOOO. i will say however that robin was very cute in this movie

[littlemisssquiggles]

So...just finished wrapping up the season finale of Young Justice Outsiders

With Young Justice Outsiders being officially done now, I’m going to give my honest opinion of the entire series and I’m going to be blunt here folks:

Outsiders was pretty great. I enjoyed it a lot. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Invasion and the original first season. 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to say the season itself was underwhelming---I’m just saying that there were certain things that the other first seasons did better than Outsiders for me.

One of my biggest beef with this season is how it didn’t do a good job at letting us get to know the new characters like Tracie 13, for example. If it wasn’t for the fact that I knew about Tracie through my love for Blue Beetle, I would have absolutely zero idea who she is. And what sucks is that Outsiders didn’t do a good job at introducing her to me as part of the audience. 

Even after one whole season, I don’t know anything about Tracie beyond the bare minimum that she’s canonically the girlfriend of Blue Beetle and has powers. 

For people like me who aren’t familiar with her character, I wish the series could’ve done a better job at setting her up---allowing me to get to know her first. This is how I was able to fall for Blue Beetle. In Invasion, we were introduced to newbies like Blue and Bumblebee. Same for Impulse and Invasion did a good job at setting these guys up and developing them. 

Blue of course got it better since he was a focal character of S2. Sadly Tracie 13 isn’t the only character who suffered from this. There were Whisper and Oprhan too.  Unless you’re a Batman fan, you might not know these characters at all. Even now, after this whole season, I’m like WHO ARE YOU guys? Who are you supposed to be? 

I guess I can look into them now but you get what I’m saying right? Maybe next season we can get a chance to know more and see more from these new characters. Speaking of next season:

Young Justice S4...when?

With the way how things ended off, I’m hoping S4 is a sure thing. I sincerely hope it’s in the cards. Now before I close things off with this post, I’m just going to unapologetically screech things that went through my mind while watching the final few episodes of Outsiders. Apologies for the ALL CAPS:

BRION! GODDAMMIT MAN! 26 EPISODES! 26 GODDAMN EPISODES OF PLOT AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ALL GONE TO SHIT! DUDE! WHAT THE F*** WITH THAT ENDING! WHYYY? WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THE WHOLE TWO EPISODES BEFORE WHERE HE WAS TALKING ABOUT PATIENCE AND SHIT! YES I KNOW HE WAS BEING MANIPULATED BUT SERIOUSLY MAN! DAMMIT BRION I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU!

WALLY! FREAKING WALLY WEST. THANK GOODNESS THEY CONFIRMED THAT YOU’RE TECHICALLY STILL NOT OFFICIALLY DEAD! THAT LEAVES ROOM FOR YOU TO RETURN IN THE SPEED FORCE LIKE MANY OF US HAVE BEEN SPECULATING SINCE INVASION FOR YEARS.

AND SINCE WE’RE ON THE TALK OF WALLY, ARTEMIS AND ROY---I MEAN WILLIAM. THANK GOODNESS YOU TWO DIDN’T HOOK UP. THAT SHIP WAS CRINGE. I’M SORRY. I MEAN I GET WHERE THEY WERE GOING AND I ACTUALLY ENJOYED HOW THE SHOW HANDLED THESE TWO. FELT VERY GENUINE AND REAL. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, GLAD IT DIDN’T PULL THROUGH CAUSE IT WOULD’VE BEEN WEIRD AND I’M HAPPY THE SHOW ACKNOWLEDGED IT. ARTEMIS IS STILL IN LOVE WITH WALLY BUT SHE’S ACCEPTED THAT HE MIGHT NOT BE COMING BACK. THAT’S ALRIGHT, WE ALL KNOW HE’S GONNA COME BACK IN S4. YOU’RE GONNA GET YOUR HAPPY EVER AFTER WITH WALLY ARTEMIS. JUST YOU WAIT.

 SPEAKING OF SHIPS, FREAKING BRION AGAIN AND HALO. YOU SUNK MY SHIP AGAIN! JUST AFTER IT GOT BACK TOGETHER AFTER THAT ODD SUBPLOT WITH THE TRAITOR DOCTOR! DOES… THIS MEAN THAT HALO IS GONNA HOOK UP WITH CYBORG NOW? CAN I SHAMELESSLY SHIP THESE TWO NOW AS MY REBOUND SHIP TO COMBAT MY FEELINGS OF ANGER OVER HOW THEY SCREWED BRION’S CHARACTER IN THE END AND RUINED WHAT HE AND VIOLET HAD? SERIOUSLY I’M GONNA BE SALTY ABOUT THAT FOR A WHILE. F***ING BRION!

 OKAY,WHAT ELSE, WHAT ELSE? OH! FOREGGER IS BABY. FRED BUGG WITH TWO G’S IS STILL BABYEVEN AT THE END. CAN WE ALL SIMULTANEOUSLY AGREE WITH  THAT NOW? FOREGGER IS BABY. MY PRECIOUS BUG SON WHO I ADORE SO MUCH. I SHALL ADD HIM TO MY GROWING COLLECTION OF BUG SONS RIGHT NEXT TO BLUE BEETLE. MY TWO BEAUTIFUL BUG BOYS.

 OUTSIDERS MADE ME REALIZE HOW MUCH I MISS BLUE BEING A RELEVANT CHARACTER. I KNOW HE HAD HIS STORY IN INVASION AND IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME. BUT I FEEL LIKE INVASION SPOILED ME. THEY GAVE ME SO MUCH GREAT BLUE BEETLE CONTENT THAT I WAS STARVING IN OUTSIDERS. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. I MISSED MY PRECIOUS BUG SON THE FIRST DURING THAT TRYING HIATUS, OKAY.

 SPEAKING OF SONS, EDUARDO DORADO JR…YOU WERE SURPRISINGLY GREAT THIS SEASON. WAS NOT EXPECTING EL DORADO TO BE SUCH A POIGNANT CHARACTER BUT HE WAS. LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING HIM THRIVE MORE IN S4.

 AND SPEAKING OF ED…HMMM…I DUNNO. AS MUCH AS I LOVED THE FINAL MOMENT WHERE WENDY TOOK OFF HER INHIBITOR COLLAR AND SHE AND ED SHARED A NICE BIG OLE SMILE THAT WAS SOO ADORABLE….I DUNNO.

I TOTALLY SHIP ED AND WENDY BUT…I’M ALSO STARTING TO LIKE THE IDEA OF BARTUARDO TO MAKE UP FOR BLUEPULSE BEING DEAD NOW. SO…I’M CONFLICTED. MAYBE ED CAN BE REVEALED AS BI. IT COULD HAPPEN NOW. YOUNG JUSTICE IS WOKE ENOUGH FOR THAT NOW, RIGHT?

DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW WOKE THIS SHOW GOT THIS SEASON. NOT GONNA TOUCH IT. JUST GONNA MENTION IT AND SAY THAT IT WAS THERE---IT WASN’T AS OBNOXIOUS AS MOST WOKENESS IN MEDIA TODAY. BUT IT WAS THERE. I SAW IT.

 ANYWAYS NEXT---STATIC SHOCK; OH MY WORD, STATIC WAS…SURPRISINGLY UNDERUSED THIS SEASON. NOT GONNA LIE. HE HAD SOME GOOD MOMENTS BUT…I DUNNO, I FELT LIKE THEY DIDN’T DO MUCH WITH STATIC THIS SEASON AT ALL. NOT AS MUCH AS WHAT THEY DID WITH ED.

I MEAN I LIKED THAT THEY CHOSE TO PUSH ED OVER STATIC SINCE HE’S A CHARACTER FOLKS BARELY KNOW ABOUT WHICH…MAKES THE SCENARIO WITH HIM GETTING MORE SCREEN TIME TO SHINE THAN STATIC MORE IRONIC. BEFORE YJ, STATIC HAD HIS OWN SERIES AND WAS MORE KNOWN THAN EL DORADO. IN YJ, ED IS GIVEN MORE MOMENTS TO SHINE. I’M HOPING THAT S4 GIVES ME THAT SUPERPOWERED RUNAWAYS REUNION I’M CRAVING NOW.

LET ED, VIRGIL, JAIME AND BART GO ON A SOLO MISSION AND BRING BACK TEAM HEADBANDS TO JOIN THEM. BRING BACK ASAMI AND TYE. MAYBE ARSENAL TOO. I NEED THIS EPISODE.

 And on a final note…WHAT WAS THAT REFERENCE AT THE END? THEY TEASED SOMETHING BEFORE THE CREDITS BUT BECAUSE I’M NOT FAMILIAR WITH THIS CHARACTER OR SYMBOL, I WAS LEFT CONFUSED BUT…EXCITED?

 And that’s all I gotta say. Overall, I liked Outsiders. Invasion is still my favourite season of YJ though. If I had to rank the seasons from personal favourite to least favourite, it would be--- Invasion, Original First Season and Outsiders would be last.

Again, not saying Outsiders wasn’t good. As a matter of fact, it was great and proves that Netflix and DC can provide a great continuation to this franchise. I just hope that the traffic for Outsiders was good enough to warrant it being in for a S4. I really hope so. I hope fans don’t have to wait another several years for YJ again.

 Fingers crossed. But yeah, those are my thoughts on Outsiders.

 ~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)  

[sol1056]

story structure and how doing it wrong can mess things up

This post, I’ll talk about story structure in general, with some examples. The follow--up post will talk about VLD S3/S4 story structure specifically.

I’ve mentioned the MICE quotient before (milieu, idea, character, element), but to recap: it’s a way to categorize the type of conflict or complication added to a story, so a writer can mentally track what questions the story is raising, and where/when to answer those. 

A story fundamentally is a series of questions: “who are these people? why are they doing that? what will happen next?” If the writer doesn’t bother to answer to the reader’s satisfaction, the resolution will feel incomplete. 

Broadly speaking, you can braid elements, or nest them. Braided elements are going to show up almost immediately in a story, often drive the entire plot, and should be wrapped up in the final resolution. In VLD, there seem to be two core and somewhat related elements: “can we become a team” and “can we defeat Zarkon”. 

Note: these two questions are also co-throughlines, as the backbone of the story. A throughline is the one question or conflict that runs through the entire story, and when it’s resolved, the story ends. A throughline is not always obvious. For S1/S2, "defeat zarkon” is a consistent throughline, and every adventure in some way pushes forwards on that. If Zarkon died at end of S2, but Haggar or Lotor took over, we’d realize the actual throughline was probably more like “can we bring down the evil empire”, of which Zarkon was only one facet. So, the story continues. If Zarkon is defeated but the story continues, either we’re dealing with a sequel, or the longest epilogue ever.

Here’s a bit from a lecture by Mary Robinette Kowal, about nesting elements. She’s speaking of short stories here, so the duration is a scene or so. In a longer work, a nested element can last anywhere from a scene to almost the entire story.

Nesting is when you introduce one of these [elements] for only a scene or two. If I have a character going on a quest -- an event -- then you get to the cave where they pass a challenge... for that one challenge, we do the idea, we resolve it, and we move on. That's nesting, but you do have to resolve it, at some point, or that's going to be a nagging thing in the back of the audience's head, if it's sufficiently interesting. 

Sometimes you can get away with it, and it's just, why is that watermelon there? People who've seen Buckaroo Banzai, we're still wondering about that watermelon... there's one scene where they're walking through a big area and one character asks, 'why is that watermelon there?' and the other character says, 'I'll tell you later'. And they never do.

Behind the cut, I’ll go into more detail about what story structure looks like in terms of nested elements, how to deal with watermelons, why elements should be closed in the reverse order they were opened, and the problem with elements that are too obvious/easy to resolve. 

weaving & nesting elements together

I mentioned in an earlier post that “there must be a path towards answering the idea [element] before the story can progress”. In episodic stories (think old-school sitcoms), MICE elements are open-and-close, much like the ‘pass this challenge’ example. 

When every nested element is neatly closed off,  you have a very static kind of story, one that’ll end up feeling like it’s just running in place, at best. Ask a question, get an answer; ask another question, get the next answer. The beauty of nested elements -- and where it can lend a dynamic element even to purely character-driven, quieter, stories -- is that the answer to one question is a new question. 

That’s a serial approach to elements: the closing of one opens the next. Nesting, though, leaves the first question open, and creates a new one within it (ie, to resolve the quest, one must answer this challenge). You can’t resolve the first without addressing the next, and so on, and so on. 

In VLD, S1E2 through about S1E6 are roughly episodic, and open/close on a variety of ideas: can they defeat this robeast, can they defeat this general, etc. For the story to ‘hang’ together, each of those sub-elements must conclude with something that pushes the story forward. At the same time, each must support the two main elements (”defeat the bad guy” and ”be a team”). 

Here’s the sticky part in considering story-structure like this: if you do not resolve an element, then consider all succeeding elements as nested, and secondary to that open element. (It really is like html code; gotta close your tags in order of opening them.) By ‘resolve’ I mean, ‘answer all questions in the reverse order in which they were raised, within the course of that element’. 

Frex, S2E3, a classic Idea episode: ‘who helped Shiro escape?’. We go to a new location (milieu), raise questions (idea), meet Ulaz (event). Then we have an idea, where the characters ask questions and get direct answers, open/close. Next, an event: fight the bad guy. In rapid succession we work backwards: bad guy element is closed in parallel with closing ‘meet Ulaz’, a short argument to close the ‘raise questions’ element, and departure. The resolution mostly answers ‘who helped’ -- we know some of the how and who, but not really the full why -- and that ‘why’ lingers for later development.

So that’s an example of how a minor detail raised in an open/close nested segment becomes the thread of following story elements. Now Shiro isn’t chasing after ‘how did I escape’ or ‘who helped me’ but ‘who is this organization and why did they get involved’. 

On a small scale (like within a single scene), you can smash the closing points together. Strictly speaking, it should be ‘bad guy defeated’ and then ‘lose Ulaz’ but actual practice, it was more like ‘lose Ulaz’ leads to ‘bad guy defeated’. Two elements resolved each other, as it were.

The same is true of the BoM episode. We go to a new location (milieu), start dialogue with Blades (event), travel to second location (milieu), offer alliance (event), demand Keith’s knife (idea), put Keith through trials (character), end trials, resolve knife, agree to alliance, return, confirm dialogue, and depart. 

But in the middle of that, the questions raised in the trial (and in the resolution of the knife) are bloody HUGE. It’s a watermelon times a hundred.

dealing with watermelons

The temptation is to do exactly what the writers have done: to just leave that question over there, unaddressed, for chapters (or episodes) on end. 

Don’t do this. It’s supremely annoying to readers.

Readers want their questions answered, and if one is left hanging for too long, they’ll grow cranky and shut the book (or stop watching). They’re going to conclude that either you can’t (or won’t) answer the question, or they’re going to assume you didn’t even realize you needed to answer the question. If they decide the second, you might as well hang it up. It’s damn hard to come back from that.

It’s not hard to fix. Just give the readers an answer. Any answer. It doesn’t have to even be the right answer. Think of any good mystery, where details unravel and what looks one way changes shape from a different perspective. It’s okay to tell the readers, “oh, Shiro probably escaped on his own” and later tell them, “wait! actually, he had help, he just didn’t remember that because he was still fuzzy from whatever the scientists gave him!”

Since I did bring up the BoM episode, that makes a good case for where you can lampshade the hell out of things, as a way to quasi-resolve. Basically, you’re telling the reader, ehhh, that question isn’t really all that much of a bombshell, don’t worry about it. Jut skip the exposition, and just have another character raise the question. It doesn’t take a lot, and you slide right through the emotional beat, too: 

*Keith and Shiro return with Kolivan and Antok* Kolivan: Princess Allura, it's good to see that the rumors are true. You're still alive after all these years. Allura: So is Zarkon. Can we consider you our ally in the fight against him? Kolivan: The blade of Marmora is with you, but-- Pidge: Keith, where did you get that sword? Keith: It's...It's my knife. Hunk: No, I'm pretty sure that's a lot bigger than a knife. Keith: Uh, yeah. It's... because apparently I'm... part-Galra. *everyone stares* Pidge: But I thought the Galra had never made it as far as Earth. Antok: Do you think all Galra were happy under Zarkon's reign? Over the decafeebs, some fought, and some were forced to flee, including our brethren. Pidge: But-- Kolivan: That discussion can wait. Princess, I've received word from our spy inside the Galran hierarchy. They have become aware of our presence, so the timetable for our plan has been moved up. Shiro: How soon do we need to begin? Kolivan: Now.

See, the hanging question was: how can Keith be part-Galra and have a Marmora blade, given he grew up on Earth? Don’t ignore that. Answer it: provide something reasonable, maybe a little pat. “Earth was a safe place to go for Galra who hated Zarkon, and sometimes that included a Blade, and by the way, it’s been 10,000 years,” implying that Keith’s blade could be hundreds of years old. 

And then, to make sure you don’t give a chance for someone to poke further (like Pidge), you have a damn good reason for setting the conversation aside. Kolivan’s news about the spy does work; Kolivan’s not going to see it as a shocker that Keith has Galra ancestry, so it’s in-character for him to brush aside everyone’s shock. The watermelon is (supposedly) resolved, but it’s still there to revisit later.   

close in the order you opened

In the continuation I’ll get into showing how ignoring this rule can really mess things up, but here I’ll just use one of my favorites:

boy fish meets girl fish boy fish loses girl fish girl fish dies going over hydraulic dam

Oh, wait, no, let’s do Wizard of Oz, instead, ‘cause it’s actually a beautifully nested story where each element leads into the next. It goes something roughly like this:

I hate this town -- character  oh no tornado -- event    how do I get home? -- idea      I must go to Oz -- milieu        how do I help these new friends -- idea          the wizard gives me a challenge -- event          I kill the witch /event         the grateful wizard helps my friends /idea      I return to where I started /milieu    I learn my shoes take me home /idea  I find my family is alright /event I realize home is best /character

As MRK likes to say, if Dorothy had arrived in Oz, and Glenda had said, “oh just put on these shoes and click your heels together!” we would’ve had a short story, not an entire book. Instead, Dorothy is told she has to see the wizard, which leads to meeting new friends, which helps her get to Oz, and so on.

Now, to thoroughly butcher the structure, let’s say that Dorothy kills the wicked witch, and spontaneously knows how to help her friends have a heart, brain, and courage, and how to get home. We’ve just resolved several nested elements... and the unclosed elements are now going to feel superfluous. Like, why even go back to the wizard, when she already has the answers she sought? 

But the story spends chapters (alternately, easily half the movie) making a huge production out of ‘we have to see the wizard’. There’s even a song about and everything. Pages upon pages to build this up, including the arrival in Oz and the overwhelming experience of meeting an angry wizard. Resolving Dorothy’s questions several steps earlier would leave that entire build-up just hanging there, but addressing it is going to be a boring read. Yeah, okay, wizard, whatever, we could cover that in a paragraph. Why not just say goodbye to friends, click the heels, and be done? 

throw out the easy elements

Let’s change out Dorothy’s shoes for something like, say, a map. She doesn’t open it. She just asks someone else, “how do I get home?” She goes through all those adventures, comes back to the start, and is told, “oh, you could just open that paper up, it’s a map to get home.”

If at least nine out of ten of you wouldn’t DNF right there after most of a book of Dorothy never even asking, gee, what does this map show?, I’ll eat my hat. It’s one thing to have the element-resolution lie in the very last thing the character tried, or (common in some genres) the character trying the one thing they’d been told through the entire story not to do (”don’t cross the streams”). But if it’s something that obvious, that instinctive -- “I wonder what the book says” -- that’s hinging a lot on the character being stupid. 

There has to be a really good reason for a character to be unable to resolve an element on their own. It’s not just a matter of the element not having scale enough to drive a character into action (ie the tornado), but it also can’t be something the character could’ve just waited out. If the character acts because they think they’re about to be fired, you need to give them a really good reason they don’t, can’t or won’t just find another job. Readers are going to tell that you’re contriving an element (a “must save my job” idea) to push the story forward, and you created a plot hole at the same time.  

Because nested elements each hinge upon the previous, if a precipitating element is in fact a plot hole, everything hanging from that element will fall right into that hole. Swallowed up in irrelevance, because the reader’s going to be saying: “they could’ve skipped all this by just posting their resume on LinkedIn.” 

On top of that, it guts the story’s stakes -- why should readers care about a character who’s effectively making a mountain (the story) out of a molehill (the easily resolved element)? 

[thereal-tsuki-llama-blog]

The Shoot

Tumblr preview! Still deciding whether it’s worth posting on ffnet or not...

Office AU-AU in which Hei is publicly out as a contractor working for S4; Misaki convinces him to do a PR pro-contractor photoshoot. For @omnicat :)

"There were plenty of photographs of me in the Syndicate's files - can't you just use one of those?"

"That's true, there were; but no offense, Hei, those photos make you look like, well, a criminal."

"The Director is right, Officer Li. We want the public to see your transformation from hardened criminal to upstanding law enforcement officer. But if you actually look like a criminal, how do you expect anyone to trust you? We want the idea of a ruthless killer, not an actual one. Don't worry, I've been photographing celebrities and pop stars for years. Just follow my direction and you'll be fine.

“Now, give a us a little pose, mildly threatening perhaps.” Click. Click. “Try to do something with your face, please, something that's a little less deer-in-the-headlights.” Clickclick. “And your hands, they need to be active, don't just let them hang there like dead fish.” Click. "Wait, is that the coat you want to wear? That black, it's just soaking up the light, no, it's no good at all.”

“That was sort of the point…”

“Well, it’s terrible for photographs. Let's try taking it off.” Click. Clickclick. “That's better. Spread the coat over the chair, hm, not bad.” Click. “Except - what are those? Those are your knives? No no no, a black hilt in a black sheath against a black coat? That won't do at all, they completely break up the line of your silhouette. I thought you consulted a production designer on this, Director?"

"Officer Li, ah, missed his appointment."

"Director Kirihara scheduled it for right after my patrol shift. Something came up."

"Something quite conveniently came up."

"I can't help it if people leave suspicious-looking bags at ramen stands at the exact time my shift is supposed to end."

"You -"

"Ahem. Water under the bridge, water under the bridge. We'll just have to make do with what we have. Why don't you try holding one of the knives in your hand - yes, take that ridiculous harness off, not even the metal will show up on film, goodness. Now the knife - that, ah, that's a little too..."

"Aggressive?"

"Yes, aggressive, thank you Director."

"How else am I supposed to hold a knife?"

"Like you're not trying to kill someone."

"Haha, yes, thank you Director, exactly. You're not trying to kill anyone here, now are you? Yes, yes that expression is perfect! Just hold it...”

Click clickclick.

“Now, try not to hunch so much; you're not skulking in the shadows, you're contemplating the meaningless life of a killer, struggling to find the humanity within you - no, no that's a bit too...mugshot. Let's try for some heartfelt remorse. Bless you, Director.

Click. Click.

"Okay, better. Still not...well, it's better. Ahem.”

Clickclickclick.

“Let me adjust this light here, all that black, my my, the camera does not love it. Whoops, we're back to deer-in-the-headlights again. Don't look into the light, look at me.”

Click. Click.

“Why don't we try for something a bit more threatening, good - no, wait, that's too threatening now, we don't want to frighten the public, just give them a tiny taste of how dangerous you used to be. Mysterious, not Sociopathic.”

Clickclick click.

“Romance the camera, yes - don't grip the mask so hard, it represents your fragile inner soul. That's quite a cough you have there, Director Kirihara, I think I have some cough drops in my bag if you'd like.”

Click clickclickclick.

“Why don't we try sitting, yes? Knees pointing left - no, my left, sorry - and one hand on your thigh, your other elbow like so...lean forward a little...no, no, your elbow like - here, like this. Just - ah! My, that was quite the static buildup, um. Oh dear, my camera."

"Is it broken?"

"Hm, the shutter seems to be malfunctioning. Haha, no need to glare at him like that, Director, he can't be at fault for the dry air. I'm always shocking myself on the doorknobs in this building. But it's fine, I have another in this case here. Although, I am in love with that stern look  - maybe we can work you into a few photos, document your capture of the infamous Black Reaper, that sort of thing.”

"What? No! No, that's alright."

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

"It's a terrible idea! I mean, we want to project an image of trust and cooperation; I think depicting me arresting him would send the wrong message."

"Hm, perhaps you're right..."

"Anyway, I didn't arrest him; he volunteered on his own. Just like he volunteered to do this photoshoot."

"Volunteer is a strong word..."

“Yes, well, now would be a good time for a costume change, while I get this other camera set up. I think I have all I need of the Reaper persona. No, it's fine, you can change right here in the studio, no need to be modest. The Director won't mind turning her back, I'm sure. Director?”

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

“This will take so much editing, all that black… Hm, are you available in November? Only we're doing this charity calendar shoot and - okay, okay, never mind. There's a drinking fountain in the hallway if you need it, Director. Okay, you're Officer Li now, Pal of the Police Force - a black suit too? Really? Well, no matter. We're going for friendly here, no, no that's deer-in-the-headlights again...”

~~~~o~~~~

“Well, Officer Li, that wasn't so bad, was it?”

“You owe me.”

“The photographer was a little enthusiastic, I know, but hopefully we got some good shots for the department’s new promotional material.”

“You owe me.”

“I told you you'll get compensated for your time - it'll show up in your next paycheck.”

“That's not what I mean.”

“Oh. Oh...well, I do have a camera at home. Maybe we can have our own, private photoshoot later?”

“Only if you agree to be in it this time.”

“I don’t -”

“You can be Miss August. Hang on, I have a cough drop here…”