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femmeharringrove · 4 years ago

Note

#68 on the prompt list!

068: "We’ve been celebrating our wedding anniversary on the wrong day for the past nine years."

this took me a minute i'm so sorry oof!!

If there's anything Billy's learned, it's that his cooking skill is nothing compared to the culinary prowess of his husband. Stefano Alexander Lorenzo Harrington (a mouthful, Billy knows, he was terrified of messing it up during their vows) is king of the kitchen, and Billy enjoys everything he cooks, but sometimes Steve's menu can be used to give insight to what he's feeling.

It's one of those funny little quirks that the blonde man fell for all those years ago. After Starcourt, after he nearly died, his father cut ties with him completely and Max all but literally dragged him over to Steve's place. Steve didn't like him back then, not that Billy ever gave him a reason to like him, but the moment Max explained everything his doe eyes softened and he offered Billy a room in his house on the spot. Billy spent countless nights after that feasting on baked ziti and lasagna - "with my own pasta, none of that pre-made shit," Steve pronounced proudly as he served Billy the biggest slice of pasta he'd ever seen in his life to that point; he's outdone himself several times in the years since - and at one point realized he couldn't live a day without Steve's cooking.

He couldn't live without that blinding smile either, or without the sight of Steve chasing the Party around like a distressed young mother, or without the feeling of being wrapped up in those slender arms, face tucked into the crook of Steve's neck as the taller boy promised to keep him safe from the monsters of this and any other world. Steve told his parents Billy was just staying at the house until he found his feet, but they ended up living like that for four years before an argument between the Harrington men got ugly enough to make Steve want to leave. And so they did, after helping Steve's hoard of kids move to their respective colleges. They found themselves a little apartment in Malibu and Billy went to college that same year.

It was hard, for a while. Steve was still unsure of what he wanted to do in life and Billy struggled to find a balance between classes, his job at the garage down the street, and time with Steve. They fought, they cried, and Steve always ended up smoothing things over with Billy's favorite soups, no matter how hot it was outside, and slowly things got better.

Billy proposed to his boyfriend two years after that, and a year after that they got married, unofficially, with Hopper officiating and the Party giving Steve away. They were married on the beach on September 6th, Steve cried all through the ceremony and they spent much of that night in absolute bliss, wrapped up in each other's arms. Billy swore that the date would be one he would never forget, how could he forget? Nobody forgot their wedding date.

They've been married nine years now. He's got his engineering degree and owns the garage down the street now. Steve's artistic streak led to him opening a studio and offering art classes on top of selling his own work. They moved out of the apartment after Steve curled up to Billy's chest one night and begged for a baby. They have three of those now, bustling six-year-old Antonia, quiet three-year-old Max, and two-month-old Angelo. All three are with Auntie Max tonight, who's also moved out to the coast with Lucas and El in tow, because tonight is a special night. It's September 6th, and he and Steve are supposed to be celebrating.

Except Steve's making tiramisu and cheesecake. He's making Alfredo with shrimp and chicken and spinach, which Billy loves but knows that his husband hates. In fact, this is Billy's favorite meal, which Steve only pulls out when he's got something important to say or when Billy's feeling down. And Billy's not feeling down.

It takes some work to steal the great Stefano's attention in the kitchen, but Billy's got almost two decades worth of experience here. He hums before he touches the man - years of touch starvation and a few too many bad experiences have left the man rather skittish, especially with unexpected touches, so Billy's careful to give him warning. He presses right up against Steve's back and wraps his arms around him, fingers of his left hand slipping up under his shirt to stroke over Steve's hip while the fingers of his right hand settle just under the waistband of the brunette's sweatpants, trailing over a sensitive patch of skin. From there it's all about the kisses - little ones to the nape of Steve's neck, lazy ones on the side of his throat, nips and playful bites to the shoulder. He nuzzles at Steve's cheek a few times in between that mix and Steve lasts all of two minutes before he's melting back against Billy and gazing back at him, eyes painfully warm and full with that adoring look he always gives Billy. For a moment, the blonde can't breathe, stunned for the billionth time by Steve's beauty. He presses a soft kiss to his plump lips, slow and full of love, before nosing along his jaw.

"What are you thinking about?" he questions. Steve hums, turns from his current task of slicing his pasta dough to wrap his arms around Billy.

"You," he hums, and Billy has no doubt to the validity of that answer, but he presses anyway.

"What else?"

"What are you talking about?" Steve's eyebrow arches and Billy takes that exact moment to realize that his husband's beginning to grey, his coffee brown waves of hair showing a little speckle of silver. At thirty-five, Steve isn't really old at all, but he's got other little signs of age. He's not a lanky teenage boy anymore. But he's as stunning as ever, and Billy's heart melts as they stare at each other.

"Pretty boy, you told me you think spinach in alfredo is a sin, but you're adding it in and you only do shit like that when you've got something to share with the class. So share." His eyebrow arch as Billy opened his mouth to argue, and he hides a smile as Steve backs down.

"Fine. Sit down, Papa Blue." It's Billy's favorite nickname, received after their son Max stole the nickn baby blue. Max is biologically his, thanks to a donation from Robin. She did the same with Angelo, though their latest baby is Steve's, all big eyes and fluffy hair. Billy sits at his husband's request, and Steve sits across from him looking a little worried. "So, uh, you know how today is our anniversary?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Billy asks. Steve chews on his lip.

"Well, I called Hop this morning because he and Joyce wanna come meet little Jellybean," he begins.

"Angelo is gonna hate that nickname once he gets older," Billy warns. Steve shakes his head in amusement.

"No way, he'll love it. Or he'll at least have to tolerate it, because I'm not letting it go anytime soon. But that's besides the point. Hop and I were talking and he asked me what we did for our anniversary yesterday."

"Yesterday? Our anniversary is today, doesn't he remember?" Billy frowns as Steve runs his fingers through his hair.

"That's exactly what I said," he huffs. "But he was adamant we got married on the fifth, and so I went and checked."

"And?" Billy presses, terrified that he already knows the result. His husband bites his lip.

"And he's right. We misread the number on the date." Steve gives him a sheepish, frustrated look. "We’ve been celebrating our wedding anniversary on the wrong day for the past nine years."

"You can't be serious," Billy deadpans. Steve blinks at him.

Oh god.

It takes Billy seven seconds before he's snorting with laughter. Then he's flat-out snickering, and it doesn't take Steve long to follow. They laugh in the kitchen together until Billy's sides hurt and Steve starts to struggle for breath between his giggles.

"We've been doing it on the wrong day, what a bunch of idiots we are," Billy chuckles. Steve wipes tears of laughter away.

"Yeah, yeah," he chuckles, before his face morphs into something more apprehensive. "I'm sorry I got it wrong." Billy waves it off with one hand, a soft look settling on his face.

"Don't be. I've been making the same mistake. And I wrote the date down, I should have made my handwriting more legible." Billy's hand reaches over the table for Steve's. "Baby, I don't care that we've got the wrong date. All I care about is celebrating what we've got together, okay? I just want to celebrate the fact that I found someone who loves me more than I could ever deserve, someone who's stuck by my side through good and bad. I don't care what day we do that." He watches as Steve's anxious look melts into something significantly softer.

"Billy Hargrove, you deserve all the love this world has to offer and then some," he corrects gently. Billy's eyes crinkle softly around the edges as he smiles.

"And you've got more love in that mop on your head then the rest of the world could ever have." He stands and leans over to hold the other man's face in his hands, planting three quick kisses to his forehead. "Trust me, honey pie, you give me more love than I deserve. You give the whole world more love than it deserves." Steve's responding smile is bright and adoring, and Billy's heart melts even more.

"I love you, Billabong," he murmurs, stealing his own kiss from Billy's lips.

"And I love you, princess." They stay like that for a time, silent and content, before Steve speaks again.

"We're gonna get it right next year, right?" Billy laughs, nose wrinkling in his amusement.

"Of course. And every year after that. We can make it a two-day event, spend the first day bein' all romantic. I'm keepin' you in bed on day two, though." His smile turns into a familiar smirk. "Make you remember why you love having me around." He revels in the way his husband blushes violently, and Steve swats him away as he jumps up.

"You're a menace, Billy Hargrove. Leave me alone so I can finish cooking." He gets one last kiss before Billy backs out of the kitchen, and if he's got the same dopey grin on his face as he had in his twenties when looking at Steve Harrington, then it's neither here nor there.

#this was fun i wrote it on a train #steebie writes #harringrove #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things

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detectivesebcas · 4 years ago

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Comfortember 2020 Day 30- Recovery

Warnings: mild references to past trauma

Universe: any post-STEM AU

We're at the end of Comfortember! Thank you to every who has read, liked, reblogged, and commented. This was a fun writing challenge, but it made it a lot better to know that you guys were on this journey with me. Hope you enjoy the last installment, and I'm sure I'll be taking on another crazy writing project around this time next year.

----

When Sebastian wakes up in the middle of the night, he can tell immediately he’s not the only one having trouble sleeping. He can hear Stefano’s breathing, but it’s not the deep, slow rhythm Sebastian has come to know from so many nights of sleeping next to him.

“Stefano?” Sebastian murmurs. His mouth doesn’t seem to be as awake as his brain, and his voice comes out a little slurred. He rolls over to face Stefano even though he can’t see a thing in the darkness of their bedroom.

“Yes,” Stefano replies. His voice is quiet, but sharp enough that Sebastian suspects he’s been awake for a while. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t,” Sebastian says. He pauses to clear his throat, then adds, “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, of course,” Stefano replies. “Go back to sleep.”

Sebastian props himself up on his elbow, alert enough now to know that something’s up, even if Stefano isn’t volunteering any information. He cautiously reaches out in the dark and places a hand on Stefano’s chest, and the pounding heart he feels there tells him what Stefano himself will not.

Warmth and sympathy wells up inside him. He’s had the same experience more times than he can count, both before STEM and after.

“Did you have another nightmare?”

There is a pause before Stefano answers. “Yes. I am starting to fear they will never stop.”

There is a kind of sadness in his voice, a resignation that Sebastian hasn’t heard before, even in some of the very difficult times they’ve faced together. He scoots closer, pressing his body along the length of Stefano’s and sliding his hand from Stefano’s chest to wrap his arm around him.

“It’s only been six months,” he says. “Give it some time.”

“I have,” Stefano says, “and I am tired of it. Why does my brain continue to torment me with memories that are not even real?”

Sebastian’s hand moves up and down Stefano’s side, absently caressing him as he speaks. “STEM may not have been real in the usual sense, but it was real enough in the ways that matter. Our brains don’t know the difference.”

In retrospect, the design of STEM seems particularly cruel in how thoroughly it deceived its subjects. Of course, Mobius never intended anyone to leave the system, so Sebastian is sure the long term effects of exposure were never even considered, but it’s no wonder it has taken such a toll on him and Stefano.

“It is quite frustrating,” Stefano says. “I am ready to be done with it.”

“And you will be one day,” Sebastian says, hoping against hope that he’s telling the truth. “We’ll both be done with it one day, but you can’t rush things like this.”

One of the hardest things to deal with about the aftermath of STEM is having nothing to compare it to. Based on what he knows about other kinds of trauma and the healing process, it could take months or years before things are truly back to normal, and even then there may be some lingering effects.

He understands Stefano’s frustration with every fiber of his being. If he could heal Stefano with his will, with his hands, he would do it in a second, but he can do nothing to speed things along.

“I have always thought myself a rather strong-minded person,” Stefano says. “And yet…” His voice trails off, and he heaves a sigh of frustration.

Sebastian sympathizes. He’s always considered himself to be strong-minded as well, but he learned the night he thought Lily was dead that mental strength has little part in that kind of situation. He is just as susceptible to pain, to grief, to loss as the next person, and he is sure Stefano is as well.

“It’s really not about strength,” Sebastian says, continuing to rub up and down his side. “I mean, you have to be strong to keep on trying- and you are- but that doesn’t protect you from trauma and it doesn’t make things go any faster.”

“You make it sound so simple,” Stefano says.

Sebastian sighs deeply and leans in to kiss Stefano’s forehead. “It’s not simple,” he murmurs against his skin. “And it’s not easy, but we’ll get there.”

Stefano’s palms come to rest on either side of his face, and Stefano guides him down until their lips meet in a long, slow kiss. It’s not the passionate kind, but it is warm and affectionate, and by the end Sebastian is having a hard time maintaining it because he’s so close to breaking into a smile.

He pulls back a few inches, and Stefano speaks immediately.

“Promise me you will tell me if you grow tired of my nonsense.”

His tone is lighthearted, but it holds a note of vulnerability, and Sebastian understands that intimately. It’s not uncommon for Stefano to make a joke or an offhand remark that suggests Sebastian might not be willing to put up with him any longer, and Sebastian has those same fears himself. He leans in to kiss Stefano again before he responds.

“It’s not nonsense, and I’ll never get tired of yours as long as you’ll keep putting up with mine.”

“That seems like a reasonable arrangement,” Stefano says.

It’s all Sebastian can do not to laugh out loud at Stefano’s characterization of their relationship as an ‘arrangement’, because it’s such a Stefano thing to say.

“I’m not sure there’s any reason involved,” Sebastian says. “It’s more like I fell in love with you, and now you’re stuck with me forever.”

Stefano draws him in for one more kiss, and when it’s over Sebastian rests his forehead against Stefano’s, enjoying the warmth of his body and the comfort of his arms until Stefano speaks again.

“As luck would have it, I seem to have fallen in love with you as well.”

After that, there are many more kisses and caresses, and for one night at least, the nightmares are over.

#comfortember2020 #no.30 #recovery #the evil within 2 #Fic #Sebastian Castellanos #Stefano Valentini #steseb

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frustratedpker · 5 years ago

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Some thoughts and analysis on Clarabelle and Horace

I wanted to write this for a long time!

Buckle up guys, this is gonna be long!

As you probably know if you ‘re following my blog, I am a big fan of the series Pippo Reporter (Goofy reporter) written by Teresa Radice and illustrated by Stefano Turconi.

For those who are not familiar with the saga, it’s a series of stories that take place in 1930′s America revolving around the life of Goofy who works as a reporter with the narrative building up and leading to his first meeting with Mickey.

The stories feature the usual cast of characters but what I find fascinating is that not all relationships are established in the beginning of the story. (e.x Goofy and Mickey haven’t met yet, the Phantom Blot hasn’t become the Phantom yet...). I could even dare call it a prequel of the ‘cannon’ events.

Here’s where Claire and Horace come in! I ‘ll attempt to present a chronicle of their relationship, along with some analysis and the reasoning of why I find their ship so well written in this particular saga.

Let’s start with the first story!

In the first story “Cronista per caso” both characters are introduced seperately.

Horace is in this series the introverted mayor of the city and Minnie’s boss as she’s his secretary at the town hall.

Claire is a fortune teller, a friend of Minnie whose advice she seeks in tricky situations. In the first story Minnie particularly seeks her advice for a matter concerning Horace and her job and Claire is happy to assist her.

Now, disney fans usually know that these characters are in most stories portrayed as engaged or in a relationship, so in this scene it’s established that in this narrative they don’t know each other (yet).

But for readers not so familiar with the disney canon (as I was when I first read the story) who don’t know that Claire and Horace are meant to be together, this scene still establishes them as two individuals associated with the main characters.

In both cases though, a link is made subconsciously between Claire and Horace, forming a base on which their relationship will be built.

As concerning the plot, this is the moment when Claire first hears about Horace who -as he’s the mayor- undoubtedly has heard of before (if not voted for) and she has her first glimpse in his private life through Minnie’s sayings. It’s a nice starting point in this episode for their subplot to begin.

In the second story, “Vasetto sospetto’‘, Claire and Horace don’t appear at all so I won’t bother examine this one.

In the third story though, “Crociera con ghiaccio”, we have the next clue.

“ [Mickey] won’t be able to attend [the cruise], he is very busy with his work! Claire, a friend of Minnie, will replace him (...). I could have taken Horace with me but he’s the mayor and mayors always have many things to do”

Once again Claire and Horace don’t interact and once again a link is made between them by reffering to them in such a way.

Here we are presented with a motif which is very important in “Pippo reporter”. The motif of ‘failed meeting’ as I call it. It has been established in previous stories that main characters (mainly Mickey and Goofy) had had many chances to meet all of which failed in the last moment.

Some other examples:

The reader, knowing by experience that those meetings are the most important plot points and meant to be epic (everybody knows that Goofy is Mickey’s best friend) now applies the same motif to Horace and Claire, even if they are not familiar with them.

Progress is also made in the fourth story, “Finale di campionato”

Here we learn Horace’s fascination with baseball and the whole plot revolves around him looking almost identical to his favourite baseball player, practically being his clone.

Horace ends up taking his idol’s place in the championship after the athlete’s mysterious disappearence.

Where has this player gone to?

At Claire’s aunt’s farm in the countryside trying to escape his overwhelming life as a sports celebrity!

“And he’s not at all ugly, isn’t he?” rushes to comment Claire upon first setting eyes on him.

That’s what I call forshadowing!

And her physical attraction to him persists on the entirety of the story. The first solid base is set for her later meeting with Horace and her -now undoubtful- falling for him. At this point, even for not disney connaisseurs, it becomes evident that Claire will be Horace’s love interest.

Their official meeting happens in the fifth story, “La perla del fiume”!

I think that all necessary setting up has been established from previous episodes and now we are finaly ready -and curious- to witness their meeting!

Goofy: Oh, I haven’t introduced you! Claire, this is...

Claire: Our first citizen, Horace Horse, so mysteriously intruguing!

Goofy: And she is...

Horace: Claire la Belle, fascinatingly charming woman and fortune teller!

The attraction is instant and evident! A “love at first sight” that is actually believable. Why that? Because proper setting up has preceeded. It’s not the sudden ‘‘love montage’‘ that we ‘d get form a disney movie (I’m not accusative, I actually love them).

I can’t actually find a scene from the saga that explains how Horace already had heard of her, but with some guessing and common logic, I can assume that either Minnie or Goofy (who by now are his close friends) would have surely mentioned Claire to him and her involvement in some of their previous adventures.

It’s really realistic how they came together, getting to know each other through mutual friends.

Hoarce: You have a lovely hand!

Claire: Yours isn’t quite bad either! Would you mind me reading it sooner or later?

Horace: I would also have you read me your phone number!

Claire: What a brilliant idea! I always loved giving numbers!

They’re meant to be! (poor Goofy third wheeling)

I love how from the first moment they can’t get their eyes from each other.

There’s no more to say! They are so cute!

And they soon, almost at once confess their feelings to their friends (tbh Horace does try but Goofy is kinda oblivious, Minnie on the other hand is much more in sync).

And there is obviously a ball which they attend together:

I really like how Turconi makes sure to make their love so evident throughout the story’s events, event at a paranoic degree, just to show how in love they are:

I ‘m sure someone’s getting their ears chopped off in that fight but they keep dancing serenely. And poor Goofy just ... exists there (I feel you fam)

Claire: They have stopped playing the music...

Horace: Does it matter? Your voice is music to my ears!

I don’t know the bodycount of that fight, but good for them!

Claire: May I have this last dance under the moonlight?

Also Claire: May I also have this last dance under the sunlight?

And that concludes the ball and starts their relationship (dating at this point to be precise)

I particularly find the story’s ending very touching:

Horace: *spotting the motorcycle* Would you mind ... ?

Claire: Are you kidding?

Claire: It’s so romantic!!!

At the very next story (”Un ombrello, un capello, un monello”) they’re already a couple:

The romance reaches its peak in “La piuma d’ oro” in which they get officially engaged and have their first (shown) kiss. This is actually the core of the whole episode and their relationship is for the first time, not a sideplot, but the actual plot.

[ you will excuse me but I sadly don’t have any pics from this story

have this little heart instead --> <3 �� ]

Their sideplot may have already concluded in “La piuma d’ oro”, but them being a couple now gains a plot forwarding role.

Claire: But what are you doing?

Horace: Making your dream come true my treasure!

In “Quel faro sui monti del lago” the characters find themselves entangled in another adventure only because Horace takes them on vacation in the place where Claire dreams to go (get you a rich mayor for fiance ladies)

And it’s time for their relationship to have its first test! While on vacation they meet this beautiful German (who **spoiler** turns out to be a spy)

Instant dislike! (I still prefer Silvia Ziche’s designs of displaying jealousy but Turconi gave us this fashionably annoyed Clarabelle so I can’t argue)

It was about time for them to endure jealousy. As in real relationships after some while not everything is seen through rose tinted glasses.

Still, everything turns out okay, leading to their last appearence together in the saga in the final story, “ Il rustico cavallerizzo”.

Minnie: The mayor has just arrived in the box of honour!

Lady: Let me see! Let me see! Is he in sweet company?

That’s how we leave them, together, officialy a couple and happy!

In conclusion, I really liked how this series treated them. Radice took time to first develop them as individuals, give them distinct personalities that also work apart. She made also sure to make them compatible and discretely foreshadow their romance, so when it comes it doesn’t feel forced or rushed but expected and natural. They also remain consistent as side characters who don’t disappear after their sideplot is concluded. They continue making appearences, both together and individually, that also forward the plot. The relationship between them evolves gradually, passing through different levels and situations to arrive at the point of ‘‘cannon’‘ events (by which I mean the disney lore outside of the saga).

I think that I said all I wanted to say, perhaps even more that needed to be said. But as I really like those characters and as I am a great fan of Radice and Turconi’s work I couldn’t pass up this chance to talk about them!

Thank you for reading and coping with my blabbering!

#this took two days to write #but I am mostly satisfied #if anyone has pics from ''la piuma d' oro'' it would be a real treat #analysis #pippo reporter #not duckverse #clarabelle #horace #stefano turconi #teresa radice

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letterboxd · 4 years ago

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How I Letterboxd #5: Will Slater.

Talking mullets and other manes with the man behind the internet’s definitive ‘exploding helicopters in movies’ catalog.

“Man cannot live on helicopter explosions alone. Even I need some occasional intellectual nourishment.”

A London-based PR man by day, by night Will Slater has a thing (and a podcast, blog and Twitter account) for movies that feature exploding helicopters. According to his Letterboxd bio, it’s “the world’s only podcast and blog dedicated to celebrating the art of exploding helicopters in films… as well as shaming those directors who dishonor the helicopter explosion genre”. As Will tells Jack Moulton, he also loves film noir, Wakaliwood, masala movies and much more. Just don’t get him started on the one action movie cliché that never fails to disappoint.

Sylvester Stallone takes aim in ‘Rambo III’ (1988).

First things first, have you ever had a ride in a helicopter? Will Slater: What, do you think I’m mad? Of course I’ve never flown in a helicopter! If I’ve learned anything from watching hundreds of films where helicopters spectacularly explode, it’s that they are a singularly dangerous form of transport. You never know when Sylvester Stallone is going to pop up with an explosive-tipped arrow and blow you out of the sky.

I’m going to say the words ‘the definitive action hero/heroine’. Who pops into your head first? No runners-up. Go. Snake Plissken, no question, for a number of good reasons. First, there’s the look: that eye-patch, the beaten-to-hell leather jacket and Kurt Russell’s lustrous mane of hair. Second, there’s the attitude: his contempt for authority, the drawled sarcasm and all-round bad-assery. And I also like that he doesn’t have any special abilities. Action heroes generally tend to be either musclebound slabs of beef—Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stallone—or martial arts specialists—Jean-Claude van Damme, Jackie Chan—Plissken is just a pissed-off, angry dude who’s trying to stay alive. He’s very relatable. Plus, I’d argue he pretty much invented the whole anti-hero formula that rules our screens today.

Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in John Carpenter’s ‘Escape from New York’ (1981).

When did you start your podcast and which film got you into looking deeper into the topic? It was while watching the cheesily bad Cyborg Cop that I first had an epiphany about the weird and wonderful ways in which helicopters seemed to continually explode in movies. But the film that convinced me to start documenting the phenomenon was Stone Cold. If you’re not familiar with the film, it was an attempt to turn former gridiron star and mullet-king Brian Bosworth into the next big action star. It goes without saying that Stone Cold did not transform ‘The Boz’ into the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the film wasn’t a total failure as it features a helicopter explosion that is as brilliant as it is gloriously stupid.

And that was the prompt to start the Exploding Helicopter. I launched the website in 2009, and the podcast followed 2015. Since we started, our aim has been a simple one: to celebrate the strange and inventive ways that helicopters explode in films.

youtube

Motorcycle crashes into helicopter in mid-air, ‘Stone Cold’ (1991).

When did you join Letterboxd? What are your favorite features here? I’ve been around since 2013. As for the features, the stats are very cool. When you dig into your viewing history, you can learn some very revealing things about yourself. For example, I generally like to think I have a commendably broad taste in film, and watch only the most important and influential works from every decade, genre and country. But then you look at the data and find you’ve watched Thunderball nine times in the last five years, so maybe you’re not as cool as you thought.

We noticed that your profile faves are low-key and explosion-free, given your theme of choice. Why these four and not Die Hard four times? Man cannot live on helicopter explosions alone. Even I need some occasional intellectual nourishment, between watching whirlybird conflagrations. There’s a little bit of nostalgia tied up in The Ipcress File. I first saw it as a kid, and it made a big impression on me. It’s very stylishly directed, has a great John Barry score and a star-making turn from Michael Caine. I’m a big film noir fan and Sweet Smell Of Success is a beautifully sour tale of cynicism and manipulation. To borrow the words of Burt Lancaster in the film, it’s a “cookie full of arsenic”.

Jean-Pierre Melville is my favorite director and Le Samouraï was the first of his films that I saw. What Melville does so masterfully in this, and his other crime films, is distil the elements of film noir. Basically, he takes the genre’s iconography—the gun, the trenchcoat, the fedora—and familiar plot tropes—the betrayed assassin, the heist gone wrong, the criminal doing one last job—then elevates them above cliché into something almost mythic. And what do I really need to say about Taxi Driver, other than it’s a masterpiece?

Now you say you shame directors who dishonor the art of helicopter explosions? Which directors did you dirty? Well, one of the biggest names in our hall of shame is Tony Scott. For a man who specialized in hyper-stylized, pyrotechnic-filled action movies, he flunked every helicopter explosion he filmed. In our eyes, one of the most egregious offences you can commit is failing to show the helicopter explosion. And in both Spy Game and Domino, old Tony cheats the viewer by having the chopper fly out of sight before it explodes. Now, I can accept such visual chicanery in a low-budget film, where they presumably don’t have the money to stage the scene, but what’s Tony’s excuse? If you look at his filmography, at one time or another he’s wrecked trains, planes and automobiles in spectacular fashion. But for some reason, he repeatedly couldn’t be bothered to give us a satisfying chopper conflagration. At a certain point, it starts to feel like a personal slight. Tony, what did I ever do to you?

In your immortal words, “a film is always improved by a helicopter explosion.” When has this been especially true? When you see lists of worst-ever directors, Uwe Boll is a name that always seems to turn up. And, according to the internet, one of his worst-ever films is the video game adaptation, Far Cry. Now, I’m not going to try [to] convince you that the film is a neglected classic, but it does have a very imaginatively staged exploding helicopter scene. It’s too convoluted to explain here, but take my word that it wouldn’t be out of place in a Fast and Furious movie.

What about the unsung heroes; the stunt artists, the pilots, the pyrotechnicians, the VFX wizards who have worked on numerous iconic action moments, all of whom deserve a shoutout? Personally, I don’t understand why the Academy doesn’t have a stunts category. But if they did, I’d be lobbying hard for Spiro Razatos to get the first award. These days, he works as a stunt coordinator on the Fast and Furious and Marvel films, but I’d like to draw people’s attention to some of his early work. Back in the nineties, he did a lot of work with PM Entertainment films, an independent company that made low-budget action films for the home video market.

They might not have had much money, but they put every cent on the screen with glorious, raucously inventive set pieces that were often more spectacular than big-budget Hollywood offerings. And remember: this was in pre-CGI times, so every death-defying detail was absolutely ‘real’. Go back and watch films like The Sweeper or Rage, and you’ll can see why Super Spiro has now graduated to these more prestigious gigs.

Narrow this list down for us: which is the ultimate most spine-tingly epic “we got company” movie moment? As you may have gathered, I do like an action movie cliché. When you encounter one in a film, it’s like meeting an old friend. And one of my favorites is when someone uses this classic line of dialog to signal that a car chase or a gun battle is about to start. I’ve heard people deliver the line in all sorts of ways–funny, scared, angrily and often just badly. But if you want spine-tingly, then you can’t beat Harrison Ford in Star Wars. He drops the line during the detention-block scene after failing to bluff an imperial officer. As soon as he says it, John Williams’ iconic score kicks in. It gives you the ‘feels’ every time.

youtube

“Boring conversation anyway.” Han Solo and Chewbacca in ‘Star Wars’ (1977).

And which action movie cliché can you simply not stand? Stop it: my hackles are raising just thinking about it. For me, the trope that never fails to disappoint is the ‘reluctant’ hero being convinced to take up arms and join the fight. You know the scene. Invariably, the hero has hung up their spurs and is living a bucolic existence ‘off the grid’, when a gruff buddy shows up asking them to risk almost certain death by taking on ‘one last job’. Now, dialog is rarely an action film’s greatest strength, and these beefcake actors generally are not cast for their dramatic chops. Which means we get subjected to the same perfunctory and uninteresting scene over and over again: “I told you, I’m out the game”, “Goddamnit, we need you”, “OK, I’ll do it”. These scenes just never work and are never less than painful to watch.

Which up-and-coming action director are you most excited about? In terms of up-and-coming action talent, I’d pick the director Stefano Sollima. I first noticed his work on a couple of TV series: the fantastic Italian crime dramas, Romanzo Criminale and Gomorrah. The way he composed shots really stood out, and it was clear he had a very cinematic eye. He rather reminds me of Michael Mann. He’s now on Hollywood’s radar and got to direct Sicario: Day of the Soldado the other year. And he’s lined up to make a Tom Clancy adaptation with Michael B. Jordan. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

Have you witnessed the glory that is Wakaliwood—Ugandan DIY action filmmaking—three of which make Letterboxd’s official top ten films by black directors? Which international films do you feel out-match Hollywood? I love the Wakaliwood films I’ve seen. It’s fascinating to watch action films from around the world and see their different styles and flavors. Recently, I’ve been trying to investigate Indian cinema and, in particular, what are known as ‘masala movies’. These mix action, comedy, drama, romance and dance numbers into one big, crazy, entertaining mess. They’re a unique experience. If you want to check one out, I’d suggest Dhoom 2. It’s bananas.

Can you believe there are only two female directors represented in your exploding helicopter list? Do you believe that’s due to systemic or thematic reasons? You have to say it’s systemic. Men have dominated filmmaking for more than a century. Until women have the same opportunities to direct and make films as men, it’s impossible to know what their interest may or may not be in blowing up helicopters. [Will has previously written about the search for “true gender equality in the world of exploding helicopters”.]

To address the elephant in the room, how has Kobe Bryant’s unfortunate death earlier this year changed the way you look at these scenes? Obviously, I appreciate that Kobe Bryant’s death was very shocking and a tragedy for his family and fans. But basketball really is not a thing on these grim shores, so it didn’t register with us unenlightened Brits other than [as] a sad headline about a US sports star.

What was your most anticipated movie event of 2020 before Covid-19 pushed every tentpole back? That’s easy: No Time To Die. I’m a huge Bond fan and as soon as tickets were available, I booked myself in to see it on opening day at an IMAX. But if the Daniel Craig era is synonymous with anything, it’s lengthy delays between films.

Freerunner Sébastien Foucan in the opening scene from ‘Casino Royale’ (2006).

What’s a fond memory you have in theaters related to the Bond franchise? I remember going to see Casino Royale. I was excited, but also nervous to see it. The Brosnan era had ended with the risible Die Another Day: invisible cars, kitesurfing and, worst of all, John Cleese’s awful Q. Since that had come out, we’d had Mission: Impossible, Bourne and the Triple X films, so it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Bond might be finished. Then the first ten minutes of Casino Royale happened. And while that outstanding parkour-inspired chase was terrifically exciting, it also hit me like cinematic Valium. I suddenly realised I could sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that 007 was going to be just fine.

Are you planning on returning to theaters as soon as you can? When would you feel comfortable? I’m taking a wait-and-see approach. I’d love to see films back on the big screen again, but I want to know more about how cinemas are going to maintain social distancing inside.

Finally, what three Letterboxd accounts should we all be following? Why not give Todd Gaines, Jayson Kennedy or Fred Andersson a follow? If you’re interested in genre films that are a little off the beaten trail, they’ll likely all steer you towards some hidden gems.

#letterboxd #how i letterboxd #letterboxd member #letterboxd community #cine #film lover #exploding helicopter #chopper fireball #action films

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artboitrash · 5 years ago

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His Bloody Rose (Stefano Valentini fanfiction) Chapter 16 - Hidden Feelings

My eye opened as I slipped back into consciousness. I turned over and stretched out my limbs, groaning quietly to myself. I ran my fingers through my bangs, combing out the snags that had occurred in the night. I glanced down at my bed once I sat up, mind piecing together what had happened through the haze of a heavy sleep cycle.

Rose lay peacefully next to me. She seemed to only wake after I did when she stayed over.

I watched her as the sheets lifted and sank with her breathing. I wondered if she struggled to breathe, even in her sleep. If her lungs or her throat pained her when she wasn't awake.

The events of last night fit together in my mind, assembling the proper timeline as I recalled each detail almost perfectly. Helping her as she got into my car, nearly having to pry her grip off of me because of the state she was in.

"I won't hold it against you, if I have bruises on my arm tomorrow," I'd said.

She only nodded as I closed her door, not reacting to my attempt to lighten the situation. We went to the hospital, followed closely by the police. It was a silent drive as she sat next to me. I barely looked at her, knowing the image that would be there. She gripped her hands to her elbows, across her stomach, still wearing my jacket across her shoulders. She didn't talk the whole drive, nor did I expect she even could. Each time she tried to talk it was barely over a whisper, looking as though it hurt her.

The police interviewed me on what I saw, why I was in the women's restroom, my relation to Rose, and so on. I was sure to keep my mind calm, and only give them information they asked. I did admit to them one of the reasons I had taken her to the restroom was to have sex discreetly, as I assumed she would have a similar response to the question.

When they were done with me, I did inform them that I had seen the man who attacked her before. I didn't know who he was yet, but he had been stalking her at the college since the time I met her. I gave them details of what I had seen, him staring in at her, and at me while I was there, through doorways and windows, sitting himself outside of the gallery where he could watch her while she worked in there. They seemed to take my claims seriously when I said them, and I insisted they follow me up on what comes of it.

Once Rose was finished being evaluated by the hospital, we drove to the police station so they could finish interviewing her. They let me sit next to her as two officers questioned her and listened to her story as best she could describe.

I sat there with my hands in my lap, watching the detective take notes in front of me. I knew she would feel like everyone was watching her if I looked at her, so I simply listened to her as her story unfolded.

It was an ex-boyfriend of hers. His name was Ryan, it seemed, and he had been worse than a brute when they were together. She detailed how he had been trying to "win" her back over during the year and a half after she broke things off with him. He had abused her sexually, all the time as she described it, and turned more violent as time went on. She had been too scared of him and had no proof of what he was like, so she never went to the police.

After the interview, she was taken to an empty room with a white wall. They took pictures of her as I watched through a window from the next room. I watched as they would get close to the markings he had caused on her, taking detailed images of everything he had done. The large, dark purple bruise on her throat that was already forming, the fingernail scratches along her arms and face, and the bruises on her face where he had tried to knock her out. Each time I glanced at her, I felt rage burn in the pit of my stomach.

Eventually, we were allowed to leave. We were escorted to my car, and they told us we would be called and a follow-up would be given to us in detail. She was told she may have to testify in court, and we would be visited by a detective if they needed any more details.

As the car door shut behind me, I switched on the engine and began to exit the parking lot.

"Do you want me to take you home?" I said quietly as I turned onto the road.

I glanced at her. She shook her head roughly in response to me.

"No." She croaked. "No, not my home."

I glanced over at her, her tears streaming down her face afresh. I frowned. It elicited something inside of me, making me realize she was hurting emotionally and mentally more than I'd seen her. The day I took her to my studio, the times when she had sought comfort as we talked on the phone, it made much more sense now.

"Bella mia..." I muttered.

I reached over and grabbed onto one of her hands. I grasped it tightly and felt her fingers intertwine with mine.

"Can I stay with you for a few days?"

"... Yes..."

We arrived at my home around 1 in the morning. My gallery opening had begun around 5 in the afternoon. I exhaustedly locked the front door after we entered and tossed my keys on the island in my kitchen.

I guided her still frightened form to my bedroom, helping her sit on the side of my bed. Sitting where I had placed the dresses earlier for her to choose from. I turned to my closet and pulled out an old shirt for her to wear. The only feminine "night clothes" I had were unfortunately lingerie, and they were mostly photo shoot clothing, and I wouldn't risk traumatizing her more by asking her to wear any

"Th-thank you..." was all she could manage as I exited so she could change.

Now, the following morning, I looked over to her tranquil face. Her body was facing me, laying on her side in her sleep. I swallowed, eyes tracing over her form under the sheets. The gravity of my current reality settled into my bones; this woman who I've invited into my home and shared my darkest secret with lay before me as though I wouldn't harm her.

I found myself faced with that same question again. Why? Why did I even tolerate her presence, or I suppose even entertain the idea of keeping her around?

It wasn't supposed to be like this. I wasn't supposed to feel this way about her.

Now when I turn my mind to capturing her death, I've begun to feel hesitant. I've begun questioning myself. She's made me more confused than anyone, any model I've come across.

She's especially different in that I've slept with her twice now.

Even if I break the cycle and let her go, I don't think I'll be satisfied. Something about her makes me... unsure. I don't like feeling anxious, or unsure of myself.

Yet she drives me crazy.

Despite learning what I do, knowing what I do to create my art... she has stayed with me. No, more than that, she fell in love with me.

She doesn't simply do as I say to stay alive. She won't allow herself to be abused by anyone again. She has spoken out against me once so far, telling me she wasn't going to allow me to use her or control her. It had been during when I made a few discussions about how she should wear her hair once she grows it out, to which she responded she was planning on keeping her hair short for a long time.

I have to admit, since I've seen what she's been through, I find it very admirable. Especially standing up against someone who continually tells her they will to kill her.

I lay down in bed again, sliding the sheets up to my chest. I lifted a hand and slid it through her hair. She didn't have a chance to take a shower last night, too tired and already asleep in my bed once I finished getting myself ready for bed. Her hair was still a little stiff from the hair gel I had used, but I passed my fingers through the strands anyway.

I watched her face, unmoving as she slept. The silent breathing as her frame moved, curled up slightly in on herself.

She's never mentioned her family. Granted, I never spoke about mine, but she hasn't said anything that implied they existed. I wondered if she had been alone, like me. If she had anyone to care for her, to love her. I wondered if she had been so alone in the year and a half after breaking things off with her last boyfriend, and that's why she was so quick to lower her guard around me. I wondered what she felt when she realized she loved me.

I've always scoffed at the notion of love. I thought it was a simple mindset that gave someone a weak point. I've been attracted to some people, cared about them, but never felt more than that.

And yet I am questioning my own feelings. My thoughts. Questioning myself in a way I'm sure I never have.

I sighed through my nose, finally realizing I had been holding my breath. And finally realizing just how much I sighed when I thought about her.

I continued petting her head, just watching Rose.

My Rose.

"Mia..." I whispered, not realizing it slipped out. "Mia bella Rosa."

I slid my hand down, gently brushing my fingertips across her face. I softly touched her cheek bones, her plump cheeks... tracing her small nose, her eyebrows. I let my finger run along her jawline, and over her lips. Her lips that had pressed against mine so many times now. Her skin, so soft... so lovely.

I ached to turn it into one of my creations.

Yet I couldn't. I wouldn't hear her praise, her excitement. I wouldn't see her smile.

I wished to create, but I couldn't pull away from the image of her before me. I yearned to stay like this. To find myself frozen in time with her. Frozen as I slide my hands back through her hair.

"Lovers" I could call it. Or "Longing." Something along that string of ideas.

The world would never be so accepting of a work like that. I knew this once I returned from the war, and I knew this when I set up my first gallery showing. I hadn't been accepted by so many people around me. I wasn't accepted for the scarring on my face, and I wasn't accepted for the vision that had been granted to me.

And still, I seem to have found someone who has accepted me.

My eyelid fluttered low, and I allowed myself to close it, pulling my hand away from her head. I don't want her to leave me. I'm sure I would have to leave her, eventually. I know most relationships end in heartbreak, and this one I'm sure will be no exception.

Still, I wanted to keep her by my side. Keep her voice speaking to me. Keep her love and thoughts centered on me.

"Stefano...?"

My eye opened and regarded Rose again as I heard her near voiceless whisper. Her eyes were open, looking at me. I stared quietly at her, letting myself a moment to smile at her.

"Good morning."

She nodded and smiled weakly in response. She reached forward, holding onto my hand. I hold it back, still mulling in my thoughts, focusing on the soft sensation of her hand in mine. The difference in the flawless skin running along her hands, and the small shrapnel scars along mine. It had taken so long for me to be comfortable to let her see my hands and the skin of my torso. She had yet to see my missing eye, though. Maybe after a while, I'd let her see it... When I'm ready.

Rose shifted where she lay, and eventually sat up, the small smile dropping from her face.

"S-sorry..." she mumbled.

She hopped off the bed, and ran out of the room. I blinked, watching her leave the room. I sat up and rushed after her. She ran into my bathroom and to the toilet. She began having her stomach into it, coughing and sputtering.

I watched her for a moment. I went to her, ignoring the scent of the bile, kneeling beside her. She coughed as I ran a hand over her back.

"I wonder if you got food poisoning from dinner." I said quietly, wondering if I had under-cooked something last night.

She shook her head. "I don't know... I've been feeling so sick lately."

"Damn, maybe the flu?"

"Maybe." She coughed and threw up again.

I sighed, and stood up. "How about you take a shower, my dear. When you're all done. I'll make you some breakfast for when you feel better."

I turned and went to the kitchen, pulling out my electric kettle. I ran some water in it and set it up to boil.

I began to hum my favorite song quietly to myself as I pulled out my french press and began setting it up. I poured some coffee grounds into the press, and turned to my fridge for some bread and eggs. I hesitated, then decided some sausages would be good to have, too.

I turned to the stove, and saw the time on the overhead read 2:00 P.M. Two in the afternoon...? I guess I shouldn't really be surprised, we were both so exhausted last night.

The kettle beeped, and I poured the water to start the coffee, beginning to cook the food. I began to hum a little louder, letting myself going through the motions for the morning.

Certainly one thing that was good about Rose coming into my life was that I began to eat a little healthier.

Well, I should say eating at all. I'd had such a hard time stomaching much food, so my refrigerator was mostly empty. Given that she had begun staying over once a week, I've started making larger meals and eating properly.

After a few more minutes, I felt arms slide around my waist. I glanced down, seeing my Rose's bare arms wrapped around me as I felt her head press into my back.

"Feeling better, my dear?"

"Mm-hmm..." I felt her nodding against me.

I kept stirring the eggs, waiting to hear the dinging of the toaster, keeping some attention on the sausages as well. I continued humming quietly, letting myself feel the warmth of her pressed into my back. Once the toast had popped up, I switched off the burners, and turned back to the coffee that was still steeping. I plunged it down, pulling out some mugs for us. I poured the coffee and divvied the food between some plates.

I made my way to the fridge, Rose following me as I made my way there. I pulled out some cream and made the coffee. I picked up both mugs, and set them on the island in the middle of the kitchen, then grabbed the plates with some silverware and set them by the mugs.

After that, we sat down to eat.

#Stefano Valentini #the evil within stefano #The Evil Within 2 #tew #tew2 #tew2 stefano #stefano valentini fanfiction #stefano #His Bloody Rose #Chapter 16 #Hidden Feelings

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cawolters · 6 years ago

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!SHOUT OUT SUNDAY! -WIP Edition-

Ahaha! You thought I just gathered all the info on your wips for fun?

No no my friends, I also wanted to show them to THE WORLD!

Here’s a list of wips and peeps that needs to be mentioned as grand writers, lovely people, and creators of killer stories!

First Fall by @cirianne

Genre: fantasy and a murder mystery

MCs: Benedict Coldwell, Crown Prince Rufus, asshole and rival; Nathan Westen, admiral and love interest ; Oliver Swann, secretary and badass; Princess Catherine, a friend with benefits

Plot: Benedict Coldwell is a powerful and arrogant sorcerer needs to investigate a streak of murders conducted by magic. And on that course, his beliefs and values will be thoroughly shaken.

Through The Ashes by @blindandpassionate

Genre: New Adult dark fantasy/drama

MCs: Alma, Kali, Lotus, Freya, Terrence, and Stefano.

Plot: Slueth Alma continues to work undercover. While her broken found family tries to stick together and heal. Witches, warlocks, and magical creatures are vanishing. They never expected danger to be so close to home.

Howl of the Blood by @kainablue

Genre: Visual novel /17+/ slavic / dark fantasy / romance/ drama

MCs: Tayena Viogor and her Romantic Interests: Lalik, Elemir, Ino, Sabbeha and ?????

Plot: Tayena’s sister gets kidnapped and she sets off to rescue her. On that journey, she will meet Wolcheks, a race of half-humans, half-wolves that are very, very angry. Tayena will learn why and that will kinda turn her world upside down (and not in a good way). You play as Tayena, you can romance 5 characters and you will encounter witches, monsters, vampires, pagan rituals, family secrets and all kind of twisted shit.

A Year At The Opera by @james-stark-the-writer

Genre: urban fantasy murder mystery with soap opera/sci fi/thriller vibes

MCs: There’s quite a few pov characters but the main one is Aaron. The entire story revolves around him.

Plot: Aaron is a writer. All he wants is to have a happy life. But, it all comes falling apart when Aaron’s dad dies in a tragic accident. And Aaron makes a wish that the world was a soap opera and that his dad wasn’t really dead. It comes true. And now there’s a murderer on the loose. Aaron and his friends have to stop the murderer, and, Aaron has to find a way to undo his wish while his other friends deal with their own drama.

Lies and Death (working title) by @adie-dee

Genre: Modern Fantasy

MC: Bethany Norton

Plot: Bethany has been cursed to die on her 25th birthday, a curse which links her to a doomsday prophecy that’ll destroy the world. Until the day comes through, the curse is protecting her from all harm, and she uses that to try find a way to save her own life. Her parents would prefer she come home so they can say goodbye, but she doesn’t want to do that while she feels she still has options. Unfortunately, Bethany is a mess - she’s a slob, probably an alcoholic, and has zero self-preservation skills - and ends up falling for Blake, an attractive jerk who’s been sent to kidnap her and who always seems to know where she is. Along the way she also meets Marcus & Imogen, a battle couple who get struck by lightning if the try to tell a lie, but who are still hiding many secrets, and Kenneth, an older man working for an anti-magic organization who is strangely convincing and insists he knows how to break the curse. Aside from her best friend, Faith, Bethany has no idea who to trust. Can she survive? Who wants her dead? And why, of all people, was she the one cursed?

The Colors of War by @oceanwriter

Genre: Historical Fiction

MCs: Marjorie Borchert, Daniel Reynard, Nikita Savas

Plot: Marjorie Borchert was sent to America after the London Blitz in 1941. What happens to her there? Nobody knows anymore!

Sin Eater by @adenhamcreations

Genre: Young adult fiction

MCs: Jayde (main protagonist and narrator), her best friend Jenny, her crush/friend Parker, Jak (Jayde’s mysterious boss), Aiden & Amber (siblings that Jayde meets and befriends).

Plot: Jayde Holloway discovers that she has the ability to erase memories when she accidentally wipes her best friend’s at the end of their senior year. Full of guilt and a desire to escape, she flees and tells no one where she went. However, she is found and blackmailed into starting a business with her powers by the mysterious Jak, and she’s soon erasing memories for any client who wishes to forget every misdeed or bad thing that’s happened to them. While Jayde struggles with loneliness and her past, she is eventually forced to travel back to her hometown for new clients. There she meets siblings Amber and Aiden, two siblings with some secrets of their own. Once she befriends them, Jayde’s memories begin to overwhelm her, and she must decide what’s truly right not just for her old friends, her new ones, or Jak…but for herself as well.

On my Heart by @corishadowfang

Genre: Urban Fantasy

MC’s: Aiden Cooley, Kiru, Gertrude Ferry, Jackie Williams

Plot: In an alternate version of earth, humans have created Familiars from the remnants of dragons. These creatures allow them to use magic, as well as transform their owners unto dragons –though the latter is illegal because of the damage it does to the user. When Aiden is knocked into the river by an unknown assailant, Kiru –his Familiar– forces him to transform into a dragon in order to save his life. Now on the run from the law, he enlists the help of a former police officer –Jackie– and a hermit with an unusual amount of knowledge on dragons –Gertrude– in order both to help him avoid arrest and to understand why the transformation hasn’t harmed him like it has others.

Shift by @vhum

Genre: Dark YA Fantasy with themes of identity and revolution.

MCs: Flint, Shanna, Buck, Margot

Plot: In the prosperous seaport city of Oversea, a hidden society of shapeshifters recruits four young adults to their cause: infiltrating and influencing the corrupt rule of the Governors. But shifters have been outlawed for two hundred years, with good reason. In spite of the risks, the new recruits submit themselves to the magic of shifting, quickly learning that faces and allegiances are equally deceptive in this shadowy underworld.

More to come!!

Thanks for sharing your work with us guys!

#writeblr #writing #wips #shout out sunday #awesome writers #author #writer #tumblr writers #writblr #amwriting #read other peoples wips #Positiveblr #cawolters #writing fiction #follow #writing inspiration #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #writerscorner

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crystalracing · 6 years ago

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Kimi Raikkonen 2008: Connecting the "dots"

September 10, 2013 UPDATE: Today, Ferrari announced Kimi's re-signing for 2014 F1 season as a SF driver. In many ways this is a confirmation of what we have been saying all along that Kimi's ousting at the end of his first stint took place under a totally unusual circumstances which had nothing to do with his racing and driving abilities.

I'll continue to update this documentary blog as new information becomes available but judging from the visitor traffic to this blog a lot of people are now even more curious as to why would Ferrari re-employ Kimi if in fact all those reasons and justifications to fire him were true... So, my guess is that we'll continue to learn a lot more about the details of 2008 events as the insiders continue to talk (they always do...). We'll keep this documentary blog as an example of a Hall of Shame Piece for Formula One Journalists who have been either sleeping on the job or too scared to expose/talk about what goes on behind close doors...

This is the working version of the article "

Why Kimi was not on top of his game in 2008"

-- the original was published in AS forum and F1Bias.com (Soren is a good friend).

Dates of events in the following timeline are important, because according to official Ferrari, or Santander accounts, and timelines most of the following did NOT take place in 2008, but in 2009.

You may read all original articles in this blog in their timeline order (starting from the bottom on the main page, all articles are posted under their original 2008 dates).

Why Kimi was not on top of his game in 2008

by wrcva

The period between April-July 2008 is probably one of the worst periods not only for Kimi’s F1 career but probably in his life. All his life he and his family believed in hard work and doing their best to achieve good things on merit. In Kimi’s case this means putting his natural talents to best use in performing, and winning races.

2007 season was a dream come true year for Kimi. He won the closely fought Formula One (F1) World Drivers Championship (WDC) and was ready for defending his title in 2008. From all indications outlook for the 2008 season was pretty good, arguably conditions were even better than the 2007 season for Kimi to defend his title.

Backdrop for 2008:

As of April, Kimi Raikkonen is already leading in WDC points 4 races into the 2008 season. Generally, life is good other than the management changes that took place at Ferrari as

Stefano Domenicali

replaced

Jean Todt

as the head of Scuderia Ferrari the 1st of January 2008. It's no secret that Todt and

Luca di Montezemolo

(LdM)

had a power struggle within Ferrari, something which lead to Todt'd eventual and swift exit. With Todt effectively out of the way from early 2008 and Domenicali, di Montezemolo's protege, in his place it was basically a different Scuderia overnight

(thanks to OSX).

"In 2007, [Todt] prepared the ground for Stefano Domenicali to succeed him as head of the Scuderia as from 1 January 2008. Then, on 18 March 2008, he resigned his position as Special Advisor to the Ferrari board, to be replaced by Amedeo Felisa. He nonetheless remained a member of the board of Ferrari for a further year before resigning all his functions within the Italian firm in March 2009."

April 27, 2008

-- FIA post-race press conf after winning Spain —

Kimi –

“It was a perfect weekend for us in Barcelona,” explained Raikkonen. “We were going really fast all the time and we didn’t have the slightest problem. Many times I have won and afterwards still had the feeling that it could have gone better. This time I did not have that feeling: this was probably the best weekend I’ve ever had in my career.”

Comment

: The guy won Spain just several days ago… then, all of a sudden Public Relations (PR) seed planting & “rumors” kick in. It is not clear who started them but the mission was to melt the iceman because it would be terrible PR to get rid of a 2 times WDC, in the event that he managed to win the 2nd one in 2008.

In the following, partially narrated timeline, I tried to put the main news item with the earliest approx. date of first showing up (in google news based on article posting date) out of 100s or 1000s regurgitated ones for each article. They give a good glimpse into what was in Kimi’s mind as he was facing a psychological PR war, aside from racing issues during 2008.

May 1, 2008

–

Luca di Montezemolo:

Massa’s future with the team is secure. It will be too damaging to partner Alonso with Kimi.

Keke Rosberg:

Kimi has to make way for Alonso…

Stefano Domenicali:

Kimi is motivated from head to toe, and I know he is not thinking about retiring.“

here

Comment

: You can tell that they have been talking about Santander coming in as the new long term sponsor but the plan is to not to talk about it externally… This is the first time appearance of Kimi’s “motivation” by Domenicali. It is not yet used in a negative way but it is a crucial PR keyword because at this point they cannot start talking about Kimi’s performance as he is in the lead. But, this is point the decision has been made that

Kimi has to go

. Also note the disconnect between LdM & Dom’s statements. Yes, the date is correct - May 1 2008, and Ferrari leaders are are forced to answer questions about the driver line-up, Kimi's motivation, and retirement rumors instead of talking about their win of Spanish GP several days ago.

May 8, 2008

– Niki Lauda scoffs at Alonso-to-Ferrari rumours —

"Raikkonen and Alonso together?"

former triple Formula One World Champion Lauda, 58, is quoted as saying by the German news agency DPA.

"Last year Raikkonen was champion and now he is number one. Why must we now discuss whether Alonso is going to go there?"

the great Austrian wondered.

"They already have the perfect team with Massa, so why should they bang their heads together?"

Lauda, who won two (1975, 1977) of his drivers' world titles with the Maranello based team, added.

Comment

: Hearing all kinds of rumors, Lauda is wondering WTF is going on at Ferrari as they seem to have one of the best line-ups for defending the championships they won with Kimi just six months ago... He is a racer and he simply is thinking about these rumors from the racing perspective as to why the team would change their existing WDC/WCC wining line-up... but what he does not know is that the seed is already planted about a month ago when

Emilio Botin, Fernando Alonso and Flavio Briatore

(Renault boss and Alonso's manager)

, and

Luca di Montezemolo

got together to discuss

Santander/Alonso Ferrari move

(April, 21 2008). Interestingly, the next day

Montezemolo (April, 22 2008)

, and subsequently

Briatore (April, 24 2008)

both denied the rumor

Briatore agreeing with Montezemolo that.

"When a team has two drivers equally good, the teammates become their biggest enemies. Pilots as Raikkonen and Alonso are complicated and put them in one team does not produce the best result for a team. During the last year, see the McLaren. Hamilton and Alonso lost the championship and the reason was simply because of their rivalry." -- link

So, by the first week of May 2008 Santander-Alonso-Ferrari plans were already in motion. From this point on Ferrari's challenge is to manage the situation with the media and fans to make sure Kimi is phased out of Ferrari with minimal negative publicity for Ferrari for getting rid of their World Champion.

May 24, 2008

– Alonso signs for Ferrari —

The word in the F1 paddock in Monte Carlo is that Fernando Alonso has just inked a deal to drive for Ferrari in 2010. No confirmation is expected for a year, and there may be denials of any arrangement, as there would obviously be some serious knock-on effects for other parties in the F1 paddock.

here

Comment

: Spanish press is going nuts over this as well at this time.. You can use google news with date filters if you want to see for yourself. Emphasis:

do not confirm and deny until next year

— which they did…

June 6, 2008

– FIA interview —

Kimi: “

I still have a contract until the end of next year,” Raikkonen said during the press conference ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Thursday. “I haven’t made any decision as to whether I will keep going or not. That’s the last contract I have and we will wait and see during this year and next year what happens.” “I haven’t made my mind up and we will see.”

"I like the racing and the other stuff is not always the best thing... When there's too many things that you don't enjoy, or you think that the whole thing is not what you want any more, then it's time to go away.

Comment

: (this is the GP Hamilton rear ended Kimi) — why would this contract issue come up in the FIA press conference? You can tell internal discussions about his departure is well underway. Yet, we are only 7 races into the season…

July 10, 2008

– German magazine Sport Bild

According to popular German magazine Sport Bild, it would seem that Spanish bank Santander would be moving from sponsoring McLaren to become one of Ferrari’s top sponsors from 2009 onwards. The big bank would have their adverts on the front and rear wings, alongside lettering on the drivers overalls. Ferrari have been touting for a new top sponsor since cigarette advertisers were not allowed in many countries, Marlboro being the major backer for many years. With a contract with Marlboro still in place, hash markings would still be on the cars. For the Scuderia though, Santander have said the major condition of their deal is that former World Champion Fernando Alonso would drive for the team. He won’t confirm his future, and will not comment until September.

here

Comment

Santander-Ferrari-Alonso deal is done at this time but negotiations with Kimi are in full force. Look at the desired date for the sponsorship… Now, how did Alonso come up with that

September

date, unless he red Kimi’s contract, and is familiar with the performance / and renewal options Kimi could exercise? I think that is an accidental slip up by the Spaniard because the September date was significant only to Kimi’s contract. He cannot comment on what will happen because they do not know what Kimi will do yet – as Ferrari is still negotiating! (see Sep 12 news, in the following).

July 11-19, 2008

-- Kimi's front suspension is updated sometime between these dates..

According to Interview with Ferrari team principle Domenicali on December 16 2008, this is the point Kimi lost his front suspension. From all indications this was a surprise to Kimi, given how sensitive he is to changes made on the car.

Question to Domenicali by Autosprint:

Did Kimi share his problems with you? - We always talk with each other and argue about general technical issues. From the technical point of view he was dissatisfied with front suspension, and it didn't work the way he wanted. The front suspension to suit him was a recurrent topic of our discussions. How fast did you discover that? - In midseason. We changed the suspension in Germany and returned it for Kimi in Monza.

In this interview Domenicali misspoke. Kimi got his old suspension back in Singapore, not Monza. This issue is also alluded to by Michael Scumacher who is in charge of car development and updates:

“In a way it is his (Kimi's) strength that he has a very focused vision, and maybe sometimes it doesn't always help him. We could maybe help him more if he would ask for it,”

said Schumacher in an interview for BBC earlier yesterday. The German insisted that part of Kimi's loss in form in the second part of the season was because the Fin failed to adapt to the new developments introduced by Ferrari in the mid-season. “I think I have to protect him in many ways, because in the middle of the season we made some developments to the car but Kimi simply didn't get on with these ones. The moment we went back to those changes, we got him back to competitive lap times," link

Here, if we look at the WDC points table, from mid-July to the end of September Kimi was able to score only 9 points in 6 GPs. Surely, there was some bad luck involved as well...

July 20 2008

-- FIA -

German Grand Prix

Post Race driver quotes:

Look at Kimi's reaction in the interview in his own words:

"This was definitely not the kind of race we had been hoping for. We have struggled all weekend and we have to try and understand why. Usually, our race pace is always good, but today that was not the case, because I almost always suffered with a lack of grip: only in the final stages did the situation improve a little bit, but it was never enough to be competitive. We have a test in Jerez, where we will try and improve the car so as to arrive in Budapest in better shape. This is definitely not a crisis, but we have to study carefully the handling of the car to understand if we have taken the right road in terms of development." Source: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/7/8126.html

Comment

: Mr. Schumacher definitely knew what was the deal but maybe he did not have a chance to inform Kimi that his front suspension was totally different for the German GP... This also amplifies the communication and turf problems between Domenicali and Schumacher.

Now, imagine or try to visualize what would Schumacher himself (as a driver) or Alonso would have done after learning the fact that their front suspension was replaced without their knowledge or they were not invited to driver debriefs... not a pretty picture huh.

Interestingly, Schumacher made another comment back in early April about Massa with a prediction. At the time, it was not a big deal but hindsight his support for Massa, and willingness to predict his WDC chances, given his 3rd and development driver role for Ferrari, further supports the timeline that he knew a bit more...

"He (Massa) has zero points for the season, so it is not the best of starts ... he has played his jokers so far, and doesn't really have any more jokers to play,"

"But things will turn around very quickly I think in his favour. He is certainly still very capable of winning the championship this year.

"If Massa wins the championship at the end of the year, nobody will care or remember about the start of the season." (link)

July 31, 2008

– FIA Thursday press conference - Hungary

Question: People are talking about you retiring, not necessarily at the end of this year but at the end of next year. Are there any thoughts on that?

KR:

I never said anything like that. I only said that I have a contract until the end of next year and then somebody made up that I will stop at the end of this year or the end of next year, but I never said that.

here

Comment

: Guess who is propagating retirement rumors? This is a pretty major PR war against Kimi… and they are wearing him out. You know, all by itself, it is pretty hard to fight for the WDC – even when you have full support from the team…

Aug 24, 2008

– FIA post-race press con –

Massa: “My win in Valencia moves me ahead of Kimi into second place in the championship. I’ve been asked if I feel Ferrari should favour me for the title since there are just six races remaining. All I can say is that I want to keep winning, to keep beating not just my teammate (Kimi Raikkonen) but others too,” Massa was quoted as saying on the Ferrari website. The Brazilian, who is on 64 points, six behind the leader Lewis Hamilton, further added that he has got nothing to do with such decisions. “I just do the best possible job for the team and leave the rest to the management,” he added.

Raikkonen is third on the table with 57 points. Meanwhile, Kimi has rubbished the claim that he lacks motivation.“Next week, we will go to Spa (venue of the next Grand Prix). I love this track. I will give it all to win again. If someone has doubt as far as my motivation is concerned: go ahead. I want to win. More than ever,” he said on the Ferrari website.

Comment

: Since April, Kimi’s lack of motivation stories have been propagating into millions of articles, blog and forum posts. (Google is your friend). Motivation is the keyword because they still cannot talk about performance…

Sep 12, 2008

– Ferrari confirm Raikkonen to end of 2010 —

Ferrari have announced an extension to Kimi Raikkonen’s contract for a further two seasons, keeping the world champion with the Italian team until the end of 2010. With Raikkonen’s teammate Felipe Massa also under contract for that period, it means Ferrari’s race line-up will remain unchanged until at least the start of their 2011 campaign. Raikkonen joined Ferrari from McLaren last season, while Massa has been with the team since 2006. The announcement should end media speculation suggesting that Raikkonen may retire at the end of this season.

here

Comment

: This is the automatic contract renewal option Kimi is exercising to increase the Santander/Ferrari payout based on exceeding his performance benchmarks on his contract. He knows he is done with Ferrari… and if he could find a way, he could have left by the end of 2008. He is loosing the PR war, but trying to secure finances in negotiations. I also think this is the point that Kimi's generally cooperative relationship with LdM went south. (read about

Kimi's contract

)

Sep 12, 2008

– Alonso "Kimi deal has no impact"

Fernando Alonso insists that Kimi Raikkonen's extended Ferrari deal has not put a dent in his plans for the future. Ferrari announced on Friday that Raikkonen had extended his contract and would remain with the Scuderia until the end of 2010.

This put an end to reports that Alonso could be heading to Ferrari at the end of 2009.

However, the Spaniard insists those were just rumours and that Raikkonen's deal has not upset his future plans.

"I knew already that they will extend the contract," he told Autosport. "Nothing has changed. "Talking about 2010 and 2011 is way too far for me. I want to win before that! "Always my plans were more focused on 2009 and in 2009 there was no possibility of Ferrari so it was never in my plans." It remains to be seen which team Alonso will race for next season as while Renault are keen to retain their double world champion, Honda are also reportedly on the look-out to sign him.

here

Comment

: Alonso knew Kimi had to exercise the automatic contract renewal option after negotiations with Santander failed... I guess he could not convince Botin to pay up Kimi to walk at the end of 2008, so he could move to Ferrari starting 2009. It is interesting that Kimi's contract renewal announcement date is the same date as Alonso's statement: September 12 2008.

I also think between July and September 2008 Santander explored various possibilities to get McLaren let them off the hook from the exclusivity clause in the old Santander-McLaren sponsorship agreement but their attempts were unsuccessful (probably Ron asked for a lot of money). If that took place Santander could have started their Ferrari sponsorship a year earlier. So, during this period (until September) Kimi was waiting to see if he would be able to end his relationship with Ferrari at the end of 2008.

Sep 14, 2008

– FIA post race int. Monza —

Raikkonen. “

You don’t have to be Einstein to understand that this is not the right way to fight for the title. It’s not over yet, but now it will take a miracle, like one that makes lightning strike twice

.”

Comment

: He is not just talking about racing here. Even though he is still within the mathematical possibility with 4 races left in the calendar (he is 20 pts behind Massa, and yet that still is better odds than 2007); he is up to his neck in the swamp trying to fight/fend off elegators on multiple fronts:

Santander/Ferrari lawyers…

His relationship with Schumacher. It was never emphasized in 2008 but I think it was a very significant issue. For 2008, Michael’s role was, per LdM: “official 3rd driver, in charge of car development.” See footnote 1 (and check out Michael’s Ferrari and wiki profile for his role in 2008). Kimi did not like this at all because Michael was in charge of something (the car itself) that he had been used to controlling/influencing all his career. Link

Pressure from LdM and Dom to help out Massa because if Massa wins the 2008 WDC, Santander will be thrilled given their upcoming 2009 IPO in Brazil. In my opinion, Dom or LdM never mandated this, but they highly encouraged Kimi to fall back because financial implications for Santander, the future sponsor, was in Billions of $. (not Millions, it is Billions) And because Massa is a native son of Brazil who can mobilize local investors even better than Alonso. here. In the end, Santander’s IPO gains were about $9 Billion. See footnote 2. Note: IPO means Initial Public Offering. Or the stock market launch for that company. In this case, in Brazil. Click on this link to read about the inportance of Brazil to Santander.

Sep 24, 2008 - Pitpass –

Spanish media is claiming that Ferrari’s recent decision to re-sign Kimi Raikkonen until the end of 2010, is a smokescreen, aimed at putting everyone off the real story, which sees Fernando Alonso heading to Maranello as early as next year. Spanish newspaper Marca claims that Santander, which headed to McLaren with Fernando Alonso in 2007, is behind a move which will see the two-time champion join Felipe Massa. The Spanish banking giant is due to take its account to Ferrari next year, and, having lost out when Alonso quit McLaren after just one season, wants its national hero back on board and in a winning (red) car. It’s claimed that the bank will not only meet Alonso’s financial requirements but will also meet any compensation demanded by Raikkonen.

It is fair to say that the announcement that Raikkonen is to stay with Ferrari for two more years caught many by surprise, especially since the Finn appears to have lost his sparkle in recent months, a situation not helped by the fact that he is now almost certain – barring a miracle recovery – of having to play second fiddle to his Brazilian teammate. While several teams, most notably Honda, have been wooing Alonso, the Spaniard needs to be back in a winning car, and other than BMW – which is backed by Santander’s rival Credit Suisse – Ferrari appears to be the only option.

Comment

: Looks like negotiations for buying out 2009 failed, probably to Kimi’s dismay — from here on it is a Cold War within the team and

Kimi is the unofficial #2

by corporate decision because they still need to ramp up Massa’s standing in Brasil for the upcoming IPO.

The only thing they could not foresee was Massa’s accident in 2009. Kimi’s departure was a done deal as early as May, 25 2008, latest Sep 14 2008. They just had to make sure he did not accidently win 2008 WDC as Ferrari would have looked really stupid… Very curious about that pit screw up in Monaco, if it was real or orchestrated because this is where it all started, it is a milestone event for things starting to go wrong for Kimi for the rest of the year, along with some unlucky situations.

May 25, 2008 FIA post race Monaco — Kimi “A very poor race for me, right from the off. There was a problem with a wheel before the start and we broke the rules, which meant I was given a drive-through penalty. During the race, my main problem was trying to get the tyres to work as well as possible. Then we decided to change the strategy as we expected it to rain again, but it didn’t happen. Twice I had to change the nose after breaking the front wing. So, as you can see, a long run of things going wrong which explains the 0 points. I am sorry for Sutil, who I hit with just a few laps to go. I lost control of the car under braking coming out of the tunnel and I could do nothing to avoid him. It’s a shame how things went today, as we had the potential to do well. It’s true that I’ve lost the championship lead, but I always said the championship would be a very long one. Now we must prepare as well as possible for Canada where we will try to make up for this disappointment.”

That is why, Kimi always said;

“There are many reasons. In F1 there is always a lot of money and there can always be different options. That’s what happened in the end. It’s nothing to do with racing or what I do in the team.”

In short, Kimi was in the wrong team, at the wrong time stuck between Ferrari and future sponsor Santander, because he had the wrong nationality (the Latin lineup), relative to Santander’s business plans, and Ferrari’s role within.

January, 13 2009

-- Ferrari approves of Kimi's rally outing --

Ferrari has no problem with Kimi Räikkönen contesting Finland's famous Arctic Lapland Rally later this month, team boss Stefano Domenicali has insisted.

Formula one teams often baulk at drivers' requests to engage in dangerous off-season activities, but it emerged last week that Räikkönen, the team's title winner of 2007, has entered himself as the driver of a Fiat Abarth S2000 in the event later this month.

"This is the traditional attitude we take to our drivers," Domenicali said at the launch of the team's new 'F60' single seater for 2009.

"We always try to have a very open attitude to what they do. I see this as an extra two days of testing for Kimi."

here

Comment

: Why change of heart by Ferrari after two years with Kimi, all of a sudden approving a "dangerous sporting activity" for Kimi? Because that was a part of

Kimi's separation negotiations

back in September that he will be allowed to participate in whatever sports activity he desired, including rallying. Domenicali is referring to Michael's soccer activities in "We always try to have a very open attitude to what they do."

Possible reality is they are no longer concerned about Kimi or whatever happens to him as he is on his way out. Again, note the dates...

Now, let's fast forward to September 2009...

September 14 2009

-- Formula1.com - Q&A with Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali--

Formula1.com Q&A with Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali

Q: After all the rumours it would be helpful to hear one word from you regarding Kimi’s future. Is Kimi driving a Ferrari in 2010?

SD:

I am definitely not going to discuss that now. As everybody is aware, Kimi has a contract with us next year and I am very happy with his performance because he is driving very, very well, especially in the second part of the season. The last five races he has always been on the podium and I think after Barrichello he has scored the most points, so he has shown true qualities of fighting for the championship. That is our position

Comment:

So, Kimi's ousting is not officially announced yet...but the new contract was already signed and sealed about a year ago, back in Sep 2008 that;

Option 1) 2 year full pay (2010+severance) provided he walked away from F1 for 1.5 years.

Option 2) 1 years pay (2010) + some severance + get the McLaren seat.

As we know Kimi took option 2 - you can read more about this

here

December 11 2009

-- SportsPro discussion interview --

The following snippets are one of the few direct mentions of Massa's role within the Santander world from Mr. Cendoya, who is the Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Communications, Corporate Marketing and Research for Santander Bank (Mr. Botin's number 2 guy for sponsorship affairs)

... Cendoya is understandably reluctant to place the bank in the pecking order of Ferrari sponsors and says simply: In Ferrari, we are on the podium and the podium is a very good place to be. Ferrari has a process and they are going to announce the car and image later on. We are a main sponsor; we are not a title sponsor. I cannot say more... ... Cendoya rightly points out that Santander is not in charge of driver selection and intriguingly suggests that, for example, the commercial appeal of current Ferrari driver Felipe Massa might be an effective way of growing the brand worldwide the implication being that, even with Alonso on board, the bank's popularity might only increase in Spain by one or two percentage points, whereas the potential gains in other markets are significantly greater. Cendoya says it is all about creating an emotional link between potential new customers and the bank. How many Spanish people, for example, are today very happy because we are with Ferrari? I don't know, but in my opinion a lot because I received more than 700 emails giving felicitations for this agreement. Every employee in our bank can guess a figure but it could be 10 million. In Brazil there are 50 million fans of Formula One, 80 per cent of them are Ferrari fans and they now feel happy and proud of being part of the Santander group (source article:: Sport is playing its part in the Santander story).

This SprortsPro article is very telling about why Kimi had to go without mentioning his name even once. Mr. Cendoya further states;

Cendoya makes clear, a cold, rational business decision, just as was the decision to sponsor McLaren three years ago. We started at the McLaren team, with an English pilot and a Spanish pilot at the beginning. We had a low presence in the team but we paid a lot of attention to every penny, peseta, euro that we were spending. We don't give money away. We have given a lot of attention over the last 100 years to caring for the money of our shareholders.

Comment

: This article also sheds light into Massa's continued presence at Ferrari without results (read update on this here). His presence alone is enough to produce the expected

Return On Investment

(ROI) at the levels that are even better than what Alonso is able to generate as a Spaniard. Santader's ROI does not even depend on Alonso or Massa winning races. Given their demographics they have enough appeal in the Latino world to satisfy Santander's financial expectations by just driving the red cars around to boost credit card, insurance, other financial instrument sales as well as merchandising.

What is a bit hard to understand is how the journos/media could not connect these dots to show what really went on in 2008. You do not have to do any major investigation because pretty much everything is in the public domain. While we understand commercial pressures on the racing business, 2008-9 was anything but sporting for Ferrari. They should have just let him go after 2007 instead of playing all kinds of games, and engaging in a PR war to give it an appearance of performance problems.

I suspect, even Massa will not bet against Kimi’s performance this year, or when he appeared to beat him back in 2008-9 as he knows what the deal was relative to his role within the Santander world. I think Kimi understood the business aspect of the issues, and in line with his character never washed any dirty Ferrari laundry in public. Yes, he did have several unlucky situations but his fate was already signed and sealed mid season 2008 purely for business reasons. 2009 was essentially continuation of the 2008 theatrics until Massa’s accident. On another front, almost identical scenario (to Santander-Massa-Brasil situation) is in play for Perez in a Santander sponsored car (Ferrari or McLaren) — Perez-Santander-Mexico, from the same playbook.

November 8 2012

-- Spanish sports newspaper Marca --

Asked by the Spanish sports newspaper Marca to recall his memories of racing for F1′s most famous team Ferrari, Raikkonen answered: “Neither good nor bad.“

I won a title with them and had some good times. I am satisfied with the three years I spent there.

“I don’t miss anyone,” he admitted. “To me, leaving there (Ferrari) was a relief.“

The situation could have been better, but it’s the past and what is done cannot be reversed,” said Raikkonen.

“Things don’t last long if you’re working somewhere and the relations are not good.”

He explained that, in contrast, he enjoys working with Lotus.

“I felt good from the start,”said Raikkonen. “

People work hard and calmly, but they want to win and the sport and the technical sides come before the politics.” --

Source

December, 4 2012

Mercopress.com

For Spain’s Santander bank Brazil is number one and ‘absolute preference’

Emilio Botin chairman of Santander Bank, the leading financial institution in Spain and among the top largest in the European Union said in Sao Paulo that Brazil is the “number one country in Latin America” and the absolute preference of his institution...

read full article

Footnotes:

1) As to how things evolved with the car I am not totally sure, but the person who had a front seat was Chris Dyer. In the following quote, he is reflecting on 2008 season.

“We had a tough and hard season but Kimi did exactly the right thing within the team and everyone respected what he did and how he reacted to this situation. We had a fantastic car but unfortunately we made mistakes when thinking about what’s best for our driver (Raikkonen).”

I believe the "situation" he is talking about is the Ferrari corporate decision to support Massa – not exactly sure when, but possibly Sep 24. (Kimi was told that they have to let Massa contest the 2008 championship because they are stuck with this request from Santander).

I think

“we made mistakes when thinking about what’s best for our driver”

bit is referring to Michael Schumacher, because Michael wanted Massa to be the official feedback/debrief driver sometime around Monaco. I think all of Michael’s initiatives were well intentioned organizational efficiency related enhancements trying to help Ferrari without favoring any driver but because he was closer to Massa probably Massa benefited more from them.

The other issue was the infamous suspension change that was introduced mid-season, again by Michael's planning and directives. It was a unilateral action by him as he was trying to improve the car.

link

If you recall, recently Kimi said there was only one person at Ferrari he did not like… he did not name that person but I believe it is Michael, because Michael was officially in charge of the car. I think he was/is on good terms with Domenicali and Luca di Montezemolo (LdM) because he understood the Ferrari business situation that he could not control but Michael was in charge of something (the car itself) he has been used to controlling all his career. In any event, this area – Michael’s role — needs more research because it is mostly opinions. I suspect Dyer will talk or imply after his departure mid year.

2) Massa was at the right place, at the right time and with the right Sponsor, given his nationality. In fact Botin personally made sure

Massa was taken care of

even before the 2010 Ferrari sponsorship started:

Massa-“I’m glad to get this support from Santander. Lately I met President Emilio Botin twice and he is absolutely excited about the potential of the Brazilian market…

Being Brazilian, going into the IPO Massa became the

brand ambassador for the bank

(read the last paragraph in the link relative to the date of the article. Alonso was supposed to be in the list but not Massa, on that date) sometime during the summer of 2009, well before Santander-Ferrari relationship kicked in on Jan 1, 2010 (Alonso had been the brand ambassador for Spain for a while). This was a direct Massa-Santander payroll relationship ~$5-7M per year.

Fast forward to Nov 2011,

Botin decided to personally fire him

because he was upset with Massa for the results of 2010/2011 seasons. To understand the importance of Latin America to Santander, just look at their annual reports. So, to those who have been wondering why Massa has been with Ferrari despite underperforming? Because his nationality has been more important than his performance. And remember this stuff was not supposed to take place prior to Jan 1, 2010.

Global recession further increased the importance of Brazil

for Santander as they are desparately looking for new markets to offset losses in Spain. Therefore, they couldn't afford to drop Massa despite his not so stellar performance between 2010-2012, so they had to renew his contract.

This area could use some more research – journos: talk to some ex employee perhaps…

Posted 10th September 2013 by wrcva canvass

#Kimi Raikkonen #ferrari #raikkonen #Scuderia Ferrari #F1 #fernando alonso #Felipe Massa #Massa

8 notes · View notes

strategicsmmarketing · 2 years ago

Text

Social Media Research

Hello all!

As you may have realized, I am a college student. As a college student, research takes up a lot of my time. It is pretty much a necessity for anyone who attends a university. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the arts, in business, in STEM…you are ALWAYS researching for one reason or another. It’s exhausting for sure, but thankfully modern technology makes it much easier than it once was.

Today, I will be discussing three research papers I found and their practical applications in the marketing world. To keep a common theme, I decided to focus specifically on luxury brands.

When A Luxury Brand Bursts: Modelling the Social Media Viral Effects of Negative Stereotypes Adoption Leading To Brand Hate

The internet, being a free place with little accountability, is littered with incorrect “facts” that can overtake the general online population. When rumors are spread enough, it can be hard to figure out what is actually factual and which sources are trustworthy- these instances are referred to by The World Health Organization as infodemics (Pantano, 2021). It is common for people to trust the information that they see on social media, especially when it is delivered to them by a celebrity (Pantano, 2021). It has also been found that users are more likely to blindly believe the information in a social media post if it has a large number of likes (Pantano, 2021). So: theoretically, if a well-liked celebrity endorses a brand and that same brand also has a lot of likes online, it is probably considered a trustworthy and good company by the general public. This paper, linked here, discusses research done on a Dolce&Gabbana marketing campaign from 2018 where the brand used stereotypes to exploit the Chinese market (Pantano, 2021). Their Chinese #DGTheGreatShow campaign depicted an Asian actress eating Italian food (Dolce&Gabbana is an Italian brand) with chopsticks, which consumers found offensive (Pantano, 2021). This is apparently a common tactic for D&G— make controversial advertisements in order to spark debate and garner brand interest, and even Stefano Gabbana himself expressed on Instagram that the Chinese audience didn’t “get” the ad…which, of course, earned him more backlash (Pantano, 2021). Consequently, Chinese e-commerce and luxury retailers removed D&G from their platforms (Pantano, 2021). Since you can never truly get anything that big off the internet for good, it is expected that D&G will continue to be affected by this extremely poor choice in marketing for years to come (Pantano, 2021). As far as the initial controversy goes, it took about a month from the peak of negative comments for the discussion to go away; since D&G did not handle the “contagion” immediately, it blew up more and took way longer than expected to blow over (Pantano, 2021).

So what can we learn from this? First and foremost, make sure your risky marketing campaigns go through and are approved by a diverse group of individuals. I cannot imagine there was any person of asian heritage on that D&G marketing team considering they still published it confidently. Furthermore, you know how Stefano Gabbana doubled down on his racist campaign and told people that they didn’t “get it”? Definitely do not do that as part of your damage control plan. And definitely do not think you are above backlash just because your company is considered “luxury,” you might just lose a whole continent of people’s support (and more, but I’m especially referring to the asian retailers). Oh, and finally: if you do start to receive an abnormal amount of negative comments, contain the issue and get rid of the content as soon as possible…it will still spread, but it will never be as bad as if you keep the campaign going.

The Common Values of Social Media Marketing and Luxury Brands. The Millenial and Gen Z Perspective.

You may have noticed that luxury brands do not tend to hugely market themselves on the internet. One hypothesis as to why this is: luxury tends to associate itself with authenticity, exclusivity, and hedonism (Dobre et al., 2021). Marketing luxury items on social media could take away part of the mystery and appeal of feeling included in a secret club of sorts once a person buys an item.

To test the relationship between luxury brands and an online environment, the authors of this paper studied a sample of consumers in Romania (they found that not many research papers regarding luxury brands were based on Eastern European markets) and received, in my opinion, some predictable results (Dobre et al., 2021). Firstly, it was found that the perceived value of luxury brands that are present in social media positively affect consumer intentions, as they were more likely to purchase the brands online, visit the brands’ websites, engage in the brands’ social media posts, and more (Dobre et al., 2021). The research also found that the use of social media by luxury brands positively influences the brands’ perceived value, according to the input of Generation Y and Z survey respondents (Dobre et al., 2021). Overall, it was concluded that there is no natural incompatibility between luxury brands and general online marketing, but that the brands need to use the right tools in order to make up for the lack of a physical store (Dobre et al., 2021). Highlighting aspects such as company history, product craftmanship, and brand values with visual aids is a good place to start (Dobre et al., 2021).

From this study, we learn that luxury brands can generally do nothing but benefit from social media as long as they use it correctly (learn from the previous article and don’t be racist, for one thing). They should make up for the absence of a physical store by posting content that is informative and valuable to their consumers in ways that are less common for everyday brands…talk deeply about brand values and perhaps even show them in action, for example. Lastly, Generations Y and Z (who are becoming the biggest purchasers of items across the world) consider luxury brands with social medias to be more valuable. So with all this in mind, if you are part of the marketing team for a luxury brand and are debating whether or not to join social media, definitely do it! I would say: Hold yourself to a higher standard than other everyday companies that are online, and find a way to give your social pages a competitive advantage.

Unpacking the Relationship Between Social Media Marketing and Brand Equity: The Mediating Role Of Consumers’ Benefits and Experience

Digital technology influences approximately 80% of the global luxury market (Zollo, 2020). This aligns with the idea that Millennials naturally expect brands to be marketing themselves and creating dialogue online, and positively respond to those that interact with them (Zollo, 2020). The writers of this paper wanted to closer study the affects of social media marketing on luxury fashion brands’ brand equity, and surveyed a sample of 420 wealthy university students to do so (Zollo, 2020). It was found that cognitive, social integrative, personal integrative, and brand experience mediate the relationship between social media marketing and brand equity (Zollo, 2020). The group concluded that social media marketing does not always positively affect community participation, and in fact it can sometimes cause discontinued use of the brand’s social communities (Zollo, 2020). They also noted that social media marketing tactics are more effective if they can satisfy specific consumer benefits and create positive experiences, and thus they suggested that luxury brands on social media should analyze the personal motives of their consumers—such as implementing elite and fashionable marketing strategies (Zollo, 2020).

What we can learn from this is very similar to the second article’s lesson: luxury brands should put in a lot of effort to pin down exactly why consumers buy from then, and then they should greatly lean into that on their socials. Marketers should make sure the posts provide value to consumers in a unique and interesting way, while also promoting the “elite” values that feed the customers’ egos. It IS dangerous for these brands to market with a simplified plan, since the expectations for them are high and followers could easily get bored if they are posting like every other company nowadays. Luxury clothing marketing teams, therefore, have it harder than teams for stores like Walmart and American Eagle…the former is practically walking on a tightrope and need to stay perfectly balanced the entire time; one wrong move and you could end up like Dolce&Gabbanna! (Although, let’s be real…they make so much money that I’m sure they’re doing just fine in the long run).

Dobre C, Milovan A-M, Duțu C, Preda G, Agapie A. The Common Values of Social Media Marketing and Luxury Brands. The Millennials and Generation Z Perspective. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research. 2021; 16(7):2532-2553. https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer16070139

Lamberto Zollo, Raffaele Filieri, Riccardo Rialti, Sukki Yoon, Unpacking the relationship between social media marketing and brand equity: The mediating role of consumers’ benefits and experience, Journal of Business Research, Volume 117, 2020, Pages 256-267, https://doi.org/10.1016j.jbusres.2020.05.001. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320302885)

Eleonora Pantano, When a luxury brand bursts: Modelling the social media viral effects of negative stereotypes adoption leading to brand hate, Journal of Business Research, Volume 123, 2021, Pages 117-125, ISSN 0148-2963, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.09.049. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829632030624X)

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oosteven-universe · 3 years ago

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Good Luck #3

Good Luck #3 BOOM! Studios 2021 Written by Matthew Erman Illustrated by Stefano Simeone Lettered by Mike Fiorentino You've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I Feel Lucky?" The Unfortunates finally strike upon some Good Luck, though they have disappeared from the Kismet Zone. Will Artie, Cherry, and Hilde uncover the reason behind their disappearance and be able to hold onto their luck, or is time running out for them? Just in case you needed it the opening has a nice little narration of who and where the constellations are currently. This leads us into learning a little more about Kismet Zone where our overzealous, see power hungry and mad politician, villain has declared himself the leader of the project and will do whatever he can to amass the kind of power that makes him sound like some sort of crazed despot. All in the name of the United States naturally. What he doesn’t know however is that his machinations are doomed from the start, aren’t they always though? I mean seriously those with delusions of grandeur usually fall and fall hard right on their face so why should this guy be any different. Just how flexible his plans are and how he’s adept at thinking on the fly will have to come into play at some point and I’m interested in seeing how Matthew depicts this. I am thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continues to bring these characters' personalities to life beautifully. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing mad schemes, twists & turns and revelations we are left in constant awe with each new moment. How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is rather impressive. Within the layers where the bulk of the characterisation lies along with the new avenues surprising us as well as other bits and bobbles add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How everything works together to create the story’s eb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is beautifully achieved. The interiors here are actually quite lovely. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout really opens the mind up to the possibility of these various constellations and sets them apart from the ordinary humans we see. The linework is strong, clean and crisp and how along with the varying weights we see such great detail work coming to the forefront is marvellously rendered. We get some great use of backgrounds here and how they enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is great to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is done exceptionally well. That we see these kinds of computer blocks changing the scenery without the use of black lines is a real highlight for how we see the application of the colour. Four kids with seemingly no luck whatsoever, good or bad, have been tasked with stopping the event in Little Kentucky Ohio. With the world thinking them dead and getting ready to move on to another phase of planning will these kids be able to regroup and accomplish their mission? With some strong concise writing and hellaciously good characterisation wrapped up in these fine interiors we’re going to come back and find out and that’s a guarantee.

#Comic Books #Comics Reviews #BOOM! Studios

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adriannegomez-blog · 3 years ago

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Since I have never posted the Pros and Cons for Thalia's Beast before, I'd like to share here how amazing it felt when my first full-blown English novel on dreame received its evaluation mark from my editor, miss Sofia Dreame.

Back in the middle of 2020, I was completely incognizant that there is a need for an editor to mediate my application on Stary. I submitted an application directly on the site and got a rejection afterwards without knowing the reason why?

No one tries to contact me back then, but I was grateful to find miss Sofía from my newsfeed which at that time is spreading a photo ad about how to contact dreame editors for book liscencing. I have heard so much great feedbacks about Ms. Sofia, not just being a pedant editor, but also as a pioneer writer of PHR publication in the Philippines. So I am already expecting a pedant editor ahead 😂😅

I told myself, can I do it? Can my story pass? Hahaha I actually had a cold feet when I submitted the Synopsis of Thalia's Beast to her. But my passion won over me, that if I wish to improve then I MUST pass her standards. And I think I did. 😂 So from then on, I always take the way I submit my Synopsis to dreame as a challenge.

So if I took all these effort to work on making this book. I also made this post to let you know why you SHOULD start reading #ThaliasBeast on #Dreame :

1. Aside from the fact that it's about a non-mainstream, Philippine Mythology-inspired but with a twist story, you will actually feel like becoming part of the story as you flip each chapters. (let alone wish to be the main lead too.)

2. I can guarantee you that this story will bring you to places in the Philippines and even parts of Europe without moving your feet...like for free, and not even the pandemic could hinder that.

3. If you think you know so much about Philippine Mythology, read this and learn how these deities actually live among us mortals.

4. This is very engaging to read that it is available for the entire world to see since it is written in English.

5. I don't wish to brag too much but This story has been evaluated as HIGHLY RECOMMENDED STORY available on Dreame and Ringdom with ONE CONS given only.

It is currently FREE TO READ on the apps so I'm encouraging you to check it out while it is still free.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

ℍ𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕨𝕠𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕕...

𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕚𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕠𝕕𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔾𝕠𝕕𝕕𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕤, 𝕨𝕙𝕠 𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕣𝕦𝕝𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕟 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℙ𝕙𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕡𝕡𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕤' 𝕡𝕣𝕖-𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕒𝕝 𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖𝕤 𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖 𝕒𝕘𝕠, 𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕦𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕦𝕤 𝕙𝕦𝕞𝕒𝕟 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘?

𝔹𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕒𝕚𝕣 𝕨𝕖 𝕓𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕖?

𝔻𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞 𝕦𝕟𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕝𝕪 𝕥𝕠 𝕖𝕒𝕥?

𝔸𝕟𝕕 𝕞𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕒𝕝𝕝...

𝔽𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕚𝕟 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞, 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕙𝕖𝕖𝕝𝕤?

From an Editor's Pick as #HIGHLYRECOMMENDEDSTORY ON #DREAME and #RINGDOM comes to your presence the 1st book from the PhilMytho Trilogy:

꧁ Thalia's Beast ꧂

Story Link: (click the link below to start reading)

Written by Amedrianne (Raena Adrianne)

Genre: Romance-fantasy

Sub-genre : Mythology (Philippine)

Language: English

Status: On-going | FREE TO READ

Blurb:

Living away from her parent's superstitious beliefs & traditions, Thalia—a regular tourist guide from the Philippines—became used to being just the typical and normal person...or so she thought.

Until an incident happened in Monaco which will take her own life. But not until the fates has intervened to realigned her path the moment she set her feet back to the world of living. Incarnating an ancient demi-goddess, Thalia has risen with a purpose to restore the failing balance of heaven & earth, as well as to rekindle an old impermissible romance from centuries past.

Determine to find answers from all the weird stuff happening around her, Thalia will soon find out how once an old myth binds her fate with her most hated man, Stefano—a man fighting over his beast inside from wanting to devour her.

#philmytho #starypromotion #starypick #stary #starywriting #philippinefolktale #philippinefolklore #RINGDOM #PhilippineMyth #Bakunawa #mayari #BATHALA #dalikamata #dalikmata #pandaki #magwayen #apolaki #hanan #TALA #moonbeast #MOONGODDESS #StoryPromotion #romance #fantasy #myth #mythology #dreamestory

#bakunawa #fantasy #mayari #philippinemythology #romance #dreame #dreameapp #moongoddess #moon beast #amedriannestories #amedrianne #Spotify

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buddiebeginz · 7 years ago

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robert is a stereotypical soap villain no matter what you say. he does awful, evil things that are SUPPOSED to make you hate him. is ED the only British soap you actually watch? how long have you been watching it for? because he's ALWAYS been a villain. you can call him morally grey if you want, if it helps you sleep at night, but he's evil and he's always gonna be a villain. no matter what type of redemption arc ED tries to give him while under pressure from abusive fetishising Rbron fans.

You know if you just wanted to message and disagree with my points on things fine but you’re clearly just wanting to be offensive just for the hell of it.

1. I’ve been watching soaps since I was a kid whether or not I’ve been watching British soaps that long is irrelevant. I’m not stupid. I know the traditional soap formula. Sorry to break it to you but there is a traditional soap formula that applies to all soaps across the board. I’ve also been watching Emmerdale long enough to get it’s specific formula and to understand how the show sees it’s characters and how they set up storylines.

2. While Rob has done a lot of morally reprehensible things him and his storylines are not set up for him to be just a cardboard cut out “stereotypical soap villain”. Considering you throw him in that classification I’d thrilled to know how you determine what it is exactly that makes a “stereotypical soap villain” in the first place. In my opinion stereotypical soap villains are characters for which it is nearly impossible to be redeemed people like Pierce, Gordon, Lachlan, Jason, Declan, Carl (also if you’re familiar with American soaps Stefano from Days of Our Lives). There have been a lot more but the reason these names in particular come to mind is because they all did things there is no real coming back from. Their main characteristic in the storylines they’ve been a part of is that they’re trouble and they hurt others.

Rob has been trouble and he has hurt a lot but not every storyline he’s in is about him hurting someone. Last years was all about him and Aaron growing closer and him supporting Aaron through the worst time of Aaron’s life. This year has put a lot of focus on Rob and while he has hurt Aaron it’s obvious it wasn’t just Rob’s fault their relationship ended. Rebecca had a hand in what happened and Aaron played a part in the break down of his and Rob’s relationship as well (though obviously the ons is not his fault).

The storyline this year has showed Rob doing things to hurt others. Hurting Aaron and Liv with what happened with Rebecca, trying to hurt and get revenge on the Whites but the show isn’t saying that Rob is enjoying what he’s doing and reaping all the benefits because of it. Soon Rob will have every last thing snatched away from him including the baby which may be his son. The show is saying this man who has continually done things to fuck up his life and hurt others needs to learn he has to change the path he’s on or he’ll end up just like the people he hates or worse. This long elaborate story isn’t the kind a soaps tells about a stereotypical villain. Villains are meant to be used as plot devices. To do their harm, get their comeuppance, and move the story along for the protagonists at the center. Rob is at the center of this story. It is his story.

3. I don’t call Rob morally grey because it “helps me sleep at night”. I don’t need to see some pretty fake version of who Rob is in my head. I love that character for who he is including all of his mistakes.

4. You obviously have some serious issues with Rob and that’s fine but If you’re going to call him evil and a villain be prepared to also call Aaron, Cain, Ross, Adam, Andy, Eric, Chas, Charity, etc the same thing. There are no innocent (adult) characters on a soap. All characters at one time or another will do something to hurt someone else, or break the law, or even kill someone but generally once a storyline is over you’re not supposed to look at them and think you’re a villain now based on what you did in one storyline. Most soap characters will continue to change depending on what the situation calls for unless they are always the stereotypical villain and that will be their role. If you find out Adam killed Emma will he now be a villain? Rob hasn’t always done terrible things he’s just a complex character who will never fit in an easy to define box. I think for some of you it’s easier to just write him off as a villain and accept what you see at face value than to try and dig deeper and truly understand him.

5. I’m seriously DONE with people who don’t like Rob or Robron telling those of us who do that we’re fetishizing them. Why? Because they’re a same sex couple? Because you assume I’m a straight woman and you think reading or watching stuff about them turns me on? Well in the first place their sexuality has very little to do with why I love them. Other than I’m bi and I’m happy to see someone representing a part of myself on tv. I was drawn to this ship because of who the characters are and their story not because both of them happen to be men.

I’ve seen so many of you who don’t like the idea of Rob and Aaron together shipping Aaron with literally any other male you can find so seriously give me a damn break. I saw this happen all the time in the Glee fandom people who didn’t ship Klaine would say those of us who did were fetishizing them. Us shipping and liking Rob and Aaron together is no different than those of you who went nuts over Charity and Vanessa together or do those Vanity shippers get a pass because they’re shipping two women and it’s nothing to do with the evil the is apparently Robert Sugden? Seriously if you don’t like Rob just say so and stop coming at people with this bs.

#ask #anon #emmerdale #robert sugden #rr*

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partapotso · 7 years ago

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So who's the best/worst artist?

(This is gonna be a long post, so I’m posting most under the read more option. But hey, you asked for it! And probably regret it now. This isn’t as serious as it probably should have been considering the length of this post, though.)

There are plenty of great artists that have done decent or even amazing work drawing John, and I’m mainly going to concentrate on them because every Rockerduck is beautiful deep within.

So, let’s begin: some of the official artists who have successfully drawn him - a.k.a the only relevant ones - are…

Francesco Guerrini

Excellent fluffy sideburns and he either looks very handsome or utterly adorable. Guerrini has a very beautiful style overall, I mean, even the brush strokes make me sigh in adoration.

Salvatore Deiana

I really like the way Deiana draws John’s hair and glasses. They’re much closer to his eyes and on top of how good it looks it’s probably more convenient too - I’d imagine they sit better closer to the face. His shoes look so small though. I wonder how his feet fit in there? Nevertheless Deiana’s John is one of my favourites. His inking is also lively and clean, which I appreciate a lot.

Alessandro Perina

Starting this with something completely unrelated, but one of the many reasons why I liked Scrooge’s Last Adventure was the way Perina drew the backgrounds, more specifically the buildings and how they were decorated. Obviously that’s not the reason why he’s on this list, even if I also adore the way he draws expressions and how dynamic the characters can look… cough, anyway, he draws a very adorable Johnny and that’s what matters the most to me.

Giorgio Cavazzano

… except that what I just said was a big lie, because this mean man on the left is what makes Cavazzano one of my biggest favourites on this list. His style has changed a lot during his career and, in all honesty, I liked his old style a lot more. (Both of the first pictures are from the 70’s, the third one is from 2002). The 70’s Johnny’s hair was actually quite perfect and he generally looked great just like all Cavazzano’s ducks did, if you ask me. He still remains one of my favourites despite the changes in his style. (I even have his autograph and a sketch of John by him! Sometimes life sucks but then I remember that drawing and everything’s suddenly better.)

Romano Scarpa

Sometimes his ducks look oddly rubbery and bouncy, but that doesn’t make his John any worse. Excellent hair, I wonder why he only gets so few of them in the comics today? ((Let this man have more than six hairs on his head now that Scarpa isn’t here anymore to do it himself, goddangit)) One big difference between Scarpa’s and most artists’ style was that his John had hair growing not only on the cheeks but in the back as well. I wish I could draw John’s hair as nicely as he did.

Massimo De Vita

I always associate Massimo’s Rockerduck to his, well, a bit more criminal tendencies, especially because Massimo was perfect at making his ducks look so cunning (which, ironically, isn’t pictured here). A 5/5 Rockerduck with the Good kind of hair™, also drawn by one of the greatest duck artists there are. (That is obviously just my humble opinion. I guess old Italian ducks just mean a lot to me.)

Giovan Battista Carpi

Just like Cavazzano, Carpi drew ducks for decades and that means his style varied a lot during that time as well. I only included here my favourite looks, because even if the hairdo with a bald patch on top was pretty much the same as which Scarpa drew, it, uh, didn’t have the same appeal as the ones shown above. For once he’s been given more than small tufts of hair and he looks absolutely great. Okay, that hair was a bit out of control and all over the place sometimes but it’s still one of my favourite hairdos for him, it’s a pity it always looks bad when I try drawing it.

–

Other great examples of quality Rockerducks, pictured below, are by Lara Molinari, Carl Barks, Guido Scala, Flemming Andersen, an artist remaining a mystery from the comic studio Staff di IF (even inducks couldn’t help me identify the artist) and no other than Silvia Ziche.

… and let’s not forget these two boys that I love despite their strange or silly looks. The one on the left by Pier Lorenzo De Vita deserves to be mentioned just for his excellent dandy looks - he even wears a bowtie and gloves, he kinda looks more like a cartoon penguin, if you ask me. On the other side we have Jan Gulbransson’s, erm, more original version of the character, which definitely deserves to be on this list simply because he has a special place in my heart, even if it’s true that he doesn’t look much like himself, hah.

Those two unfortunately aren’t really good compared to many above them, but they have my special permission to be counted in the good ones instead of the bad and the ugly. Actually I have a hard time calling any Rockerduck either one of those. Sure there are some I don’t find as interesting or nice-looking as others, but even when I look Giuseppe Perego’s Johnny in the eye I can’t tell it that it’s ugly.

Like, Perego is far from the best, but there isn’t really much wrong with the way he draws John..? He looks much older than he usually does, though, that I have to say. He looks like he’s actually losing hair.(Btw, check this panel out, he is SO SMALL)

I’m struggling to come up with any particular artist that makes him look really BAD to me, there hardly is any and I definitely can’t remember any even if I try my hardest, but I have to say that one thing that really makes a difference to me is his hair. The way most artists nowadays draw it looks a bit funny compared to the ones I praised earlier (but as you can see, some of my favourites gave him only like ten separate hairs anyway, so it isn’t that black-and-white either). Some artists that didn’t impress me with their Johnny first were, among the few that I haven’t bothered learning the names of, Stefano Intini, and more recently Donald Soffritti, whose way of drawing ducks never really appealed to me, but the more I look at his ducks, the more I tolerate them. I mean, look at Soffritti’s John (on the right), he’s absolutely adorable even if I’m not a huge fan of his style in most cases.

Conclusion: every Rockerduck is beautiful to me and I am a bad critic. I can’t say a bad word about any of these artists after this all. There’s always something positive about them that I see after looking at their works for a while. I’m planning on practicing drawing his hair some day (hopefully) soon and I’m going to try different styles, so that will probably result in some stronger opinions about his hair because, seriously, otherwise there’s hardly anything in him that could look weird or wrong to me. Thanks for asking and I’m sorry for my messy answer!!

#seriously uuugh i really wanted to talk about my love for those artists #but i think i also should make actual appreciation posts for them someday...#i have plans #but if they're for posts like this then they're much less relevant than my art ideas #so i'll most probably try to concentrate on drawing #ducks #obviously #and especially this sucker #btw there's now over 500 pictures in my folder for (not even all of) my pics of him #and more in other folders #rip #i am an embarrassment

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bytheanchor · 5 years ago

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BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Stefano Enrico Paolo Giorgio Alessandro Luigi Eduardo Niccolò Teodoro Filippo Cristoforo Beniamino Patricio Giacomo Tomoso Eugenio Riccardo Giovanni Salvatore USED NAME: Stefan Salvatore PRONUNCIATION: ˈstɛfɑn sælvəˈtɔri MEANING: Crown. The first Christian martyr. REASONING: To me both of these make a lot of sense. Stefan for one has always been regal in a way, with an old fashioned set of morals, almost princely like, and it is also shown that his father had already written off Damon and put all of his expectations on him, even though he was the youngest son. And on the other side, Stefan has never been able to forgive himself for anything he’s done, and in a way that has fueled even more bad things to happen when he loses control. He couldn’t accept the fact he killed his father, or that he coerced Damon into finishing the transformation with him, and as a result he’s always seen things under this all or nothing light. He can’t allow himself to have good things, because in his head that leads to horrible mistakes, and he doesn’t deserve them. So even when he is happy, there is always a sense of guilt, and that he must punish himself in some way, or deny himself something to keep a sober head. In a big way, this strict fasting of any and all things he used to enjoy as a human, is what leads to his blood-lust and uncontrollable impulses whenever he lets go. He’s only been able to let go safely and enjoy himself truly without fears around Lexi. And on the other hand that also means he’s always willing to sacrifice himself for anyone he loves or deems more worthy of living than he is. NICKNAME(S): Stef. PREFERRED NAME(S): Stefan. BIRTH DATE: November 1st, 1846. TURN DATE: September 25th, 1864. AGE: 17 (before turned), 145 when he meets Elena Gilbert. ZODIAC: Scorpio. GENDER: Male. PRONOUNS: He/Him. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Biromantic. SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual. NATIONALITY: American, Italian descent. ETHNICITY: Caucasian. Half Italian, half French (from his mother’s side). CURRENT LOCATION: Mystic Falls, Virginia / verse dependent. LIVING CONDITIONS: Salvatore Boarding House, built in 1914, which he makes his somehwat permanent home after Damon kills their descendant, and owner, Zach Salvatore which passed the ownership to their name as the only Salvatores left / verse dependent. TITLE(S): The Pure of Heart. The Good Brother. Ripper of Monterey.

↬ INTRODUCTION VIDEO

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE: Veritas State. HOMETOWN: Mystic Falls, Virginia - USA. SOCIAL CLASS: The Salvatores were part of the Founding Families in Mystic Falls, that first colonized the region. They were land owners, and part of the upper class of the country. Stefan grew up in a very traditional catholic home, and was born and bred with the best South manners, education, and etiquette of the time. EDUCATION LEVEL: Stefan never had a formal education in the way we think of it now, he was partially taught at home, and took some “Winter Sessions” at the local school as was custom, getting straight A’s then. However, he has always loved reading, and learning, and through the years, specially after being turned, he spent a lot of his time and energy on it. He knows all the classics, and has studied a lot of History, not to mention he attended several Ivy League schools during the years and specifically Harvard in the 1970′s. FATHER: Giuseppe Salvatore † (killed accidentally by Stefan in 1864) MOTHER: Lillian Salvatore (turned 1858) SIBLING(S): Damon Salvatore (turned 1864 also by Katherine Pierce) BIRTH ORDER: Damon - Stefan (seven years younger). CHILDREN: None. PET(S): A horse named Mezzanotte (Midnight in Italian) before being turned. OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS: Katherine Pierce, aka Katerina Petrova. Stefan met Katherine in 1864 when he was a 17 year old, still human. She came to Mystic Falls under the guise of escaping the Civil War, and sought refuge with the Salvatore family for unknown reasons. Perhaps because the doppelganger fate urged her to find Stefan. Immediately upon meeting, they felt a connection, at the time, Damon was away being trained for war, and Stefan and Katherine spent some time being the only ones in the house aside from his father and servants. Despite this, Stefan didn’t make a move, too gentlemanly to do so, until his brother came back and started to compete with him for Katherine’s attentions, which the latter encouraged, in part because she was scared of how significant her time with Stefan was becoming, in part simply because she wanted to. This caused a rift between them, and despite their seven year difference, Stefan and Damon spent the year chasing after the girl and while Damon was soon aware of her being a vampire, Stefan didn’t know it for a long time. When he did find out, it was after confessing his love for her, and Katherine then compelled him to not be afraid of it, and of her. The founding families had always been aware of mythical creatures, and soon enough Giuseppe started to get suspicious about this “innocent orphan girl” he’d taken in. Eventually it all led to the conclusion of Katherine’s long con plan of faking her death, and while Stefan and Damon were unknowingly attempting to save her from it, their father shot both of them in cold blood, believing they were no longer his sons if they had been corrupted by a monster. Which in turn began their transition into vampires, having had Katherine’s blood in their system for a while, once they woke up and she was gone. For nearly a century and a half Stefan believed Katherine was dead, until one day when visiting Mystic Falls, he spotted Elena Gilbert in town and was shaken. Once he found out she was human, he decided to return to the town for good, for a while, and get to know her, hoping maybe that she could be the girl he’d thought Katherine was, the one he fell in love with once. His relationship with her is extremely complicated, she was the vampire who turned him, his first love, his first time, and for a long time he blamed all of the subsequent bad events of his life on her. And yet he can’t help it but be attracted towards her whenever she is around, and at the end, Stefan feels sorry for her, for the girl she was under her masks, the one he had loved, and who had suffered terribly. Even if he isn’t sure if he can ever fully forgive her. Elena Gilbert. As mentioned above, when Stefan first meets Elena his soul nearly leaves his body as he believes he’s seeing Katherine again after 120+ years. After he confirms she is human, however, when he saves her from drowning in the same car accident that kills her parents, he sees more than that. He sees her being kind, and loving, and friendly and warm, and he is fascinated by her. He decides then that he needs to meet her, get to know her, see if someone with Katherine’s face can truly be as opposite from her as she seems to. It takes him a short time to realize it is definitely real, and the more he gets to know her, the more he falls in love with all of the ways in which Elena is different from Katherine. In the way she doesn’t feel the need to manipulate him, to make him play games for her attention, to put on a show for him or make him compete. He always feels enough around her. More than that, in the way she respects everyone around her but still has an incredible moral and backbone and strength of character. He falls in love with the person she is, and it’s even better than what he felt when he was human, because it’s even more intense and because it’s fully and freely reciprocated. That is why he does his best to make none of the mistakes Katherine did with him, and be as honest and open with Elena as he can and as every opportunity comes. He sees the shadows in her from her loss and feels guilty that he wasn’t able to save her entire family, and so he does his best to make her as happy as possible, and be there for her whenever she needs her, whilst trying to never suffocate her or control her in anyway shape or form, the way he had been once. Alexia Branson, aka Lexi. Stefan first met Lexi in 1864, shortly after his transformation. The Civil War was still going, Damon had disappeared, and after losing control and killing his father, and his brother promising eternal misery to him, Stefan went off the handles for the first time. With so much death all around, he had an easy time gorging on his bloodlust and not being noticed. One night he tried to attack Lexi, not realizing she was a vampire just like him, an older and stronger one at that. She soon saw what was happening to him, and took it upon herself to detox him off of human blood and teach him how to turn his humanity switch back on and control his impulses. It worked, and after a while they went their separate ways. In 1912 Stefan returned to Mystic Falls for his half nephew’s funeral, and there he met Damon again for the first time in 50 years. They eventually went out for a drink, only Damon coerced Stefan into drinking human blood, and after he did, Stefan’s guilt for killing Marianna Lockwood led him into turning his switch off again and going back to his Ripper lifestyle. Lexi found him again in 1922, and then began his rehabilitation once more. Stefan had been at it for a long time, so it took her over a decade to get him well again and off of human blood, in 1935. It was also in that Ripper period that Stefan started being called the Ripper of Monterey when he went on a killing spree of a whole village in Monterey. After that, Stefan and Lexi kept a close contact. They saw each other at least every year, and on his birthday for one night, Lexi always took Stefan to have fun and be able to let go without being afraid of what he could do. She is the only one with whom he can be himself and not feel guilt over it. She makes him feel safe, even from himself. Lexi, shortly after being turned, lost her brother, who was 16 then, due to humans coming after her and getting her brother killed instead. It is implied that she took a liking to Stefan as the brother she had lost, and that she made it her mission to look after him because she had sworn to herself that she would look after her little brother and wasn’t able to. They have a true connection, and consider each other family. Damon killed her in 2009. Lillian Salvatore. Stefan was told his mother passed away in 1858, when he was 12 years old, and he believed that for the next 155 years. Lily, as they called her, was told to have supposedly been a much kinder parent than her husband, while still human. When Stefan was 5 years old, she tried to run with her sons, by stealing money from her husband’s bureau, but he caught the act, and proceeded to blame it on Damon. Stefan then watched his brother be brutally punished at Thanksgiving dinner when he denied having stolen anything, and his mother didn’t stop it. In 1858, she became very sick with tuberculosis. Stefan spent most of this time, being 12 years old, terrified of the knowledge his mother was going to die, and trying to deny it as much as he could, so he saw very little of her on that last year, even though he spent most of the time away procuring things for her and that she would like. At some point, his father sent her away to a clinic, where she ended up dying. As a child, Stefan blamed himself for her death, since his father sent him to procure a medicine in town for her, and when he came back she had already been been taken to the clinic. He thought, then, that if he had come back faster he might have saved her, when it was his father who did not want him there for her leaving, probably thinking he would be a nuisance to it, due to his adoration of her. It is indicated that Stefan might have been her favorite son, and the sentiment was mutual, Damon calling him “mama’s boy” once, despite the fact that his good obedient nature meant that his father also tended to “favor” him growing up. That year, a vampire nurse gave Lily vampire blood just before she died of consumption, and so she was turned. When she realized what she had become, she faked her own death and vanished, then succumbing to a ripper lifestyle.

IMPORTANT EVENTS: In 1851 (five years old) Stefan watched his father burn Damon’s hand with a cigar when he accused Damon of stealing money from him and Damon, being innocent, denied it. In 1852 (six years old) Damon broke Stefan’s nose trying to teach him how to punch (right hook). In 1858 (twelve years old) his mother got sick with TB and proceeded to die later that year (found to have been actually turned into a vampire in 2013). In 1864 Katherine came into their lives and Stefan lost his virginity to her, learned about the supernatural world, and got fed her blood and subsequently turned when his own father shot him whilst he was trying to save Katherine along with Damon, not knowing that it was her plan to get captured the whole time. After he’s turned, Emily Bennett, keeping a promise to Katherine, makes him an enchanted ring out of a Lapis Lazuli stone that allows him to walk under the sunlight without being burned. It was also later that year when he met Lexi Branson, and she taught him how to control his bloodlust and keep his humanity in check. In 1912, Stefan met Damon again for the first time in 50 years, and Damon proceeded to coerce him to drink human blood, leading him into killing Marianna Lockwood and entering a ripper frenzy. In 1917, Stefan, still a ripper, decimated a migrant village in Monterey and became known by vampires all around as the Ripper of Monterey. It was also after the massacre that he was found by a Siren (old supernatural species who hunt the souls of the wicked) and once she made him realize what he had done he was horrified, and wanted her to kill and take him, instead, seeing he had genuine remorse, she pitied him and altered his subconscious to make him forget what he had done and believe he was worth living. After that his ripper killing became much more subdued. In 1922, Stefan met Klaus and Rebekah Mikaelson, and became best friends with the former and dated the latter. When Michael appeared, Klaus fled, kidnapping Rebekah with him and compelling Stefan into forgetting he ever met them. It was also the year when Lexi found him again, having heard of his killing sprees, and went on to rehabilitate him once more. In 1935, Stefan was finally off of human blood again and completely in control, with his humanity switch back on. In 1942, Stefan tried to re-conciliate with Damon once again, at Lexi’s insistence. He told him of his plans to join the war efforts as an ambulance driver, and Damon agreed. Despite that, Lexi warned Damon in secret that his lifestyle might damage Stefan’s recovery and after it almost proving true, because of the company he kept, Damon decided not to go, so Stefan left for war, to the North African campaign, on his own. In 1960, Stefan is shown to be drinking human blood again, but to still be in control. He lets a woman go after compelling her to forget, and when she meets another who seems to know everything about him and to tell him she’s after Damon to try to kill him, Stefan scares her off but doesn’t kill her either. In 1977, Damon was getting a reputation as a killer and Stefan, having been in Mystic Falls with Lexi, asks her to go help him in NYC, since Stefan wouldn’t be able to without going off the tracks, himself. Lexi does. 1987 was the year when Lexi took him to a Bon Jovi concert on his birthday, and also when Katherine is shown once again to have been stalking or looking after him, as she did in 1922 and several other times. In 1994, Stefan was back in Mystic Falls, living with Zach, when Damon appeared and convinced him he wanted to make up. Stefan believed him and believed he was off of human blood until he realized Damon had taken Zach and his pregnant wife off of vervain and was feeding on them. Stefan then tried to reason with him, and getting no results, tried to lock him up for a while. Damon escaped and killed everyone inside the Salvatore Boarding House, who were there for a party, includding Zach’s pregnant wife, Gail. Stefan took her to the hospital and they were able to save her baby, whom he made sure was adopted to a good family. Stefan compelled Zach to forget about his wife and daughter, believing it to be the merciful thing to do, and then left Mystic Falls, again, since he couldn’t hide the deaths from the whole town. He looked out for Zach’s daughter, Sarah Nelson, all her life, in secrecy, until she was killed in 2017. In May 23rd, 2009, Stefan returned to Mystic Falls once more, and watched Elena’s parents crash their car with her over the Wickery Bridge. He went on to save them, but was very insistently ordered by her father to save her first, which he did, but then was unable to get back to her parents in time. That was when he realized Elena looked just like Katherine, but was human, and decided to watch her for a while. Once he was sure and realized how good she was, how different from Katherine in his mind, he decides to stay and that he has to get to know her, enrolling into her High School after that Summer is over. Stefan has said that at some point in his vampiric life he has climbed Mount Everest.

MY STEFAN SALVATORE HEADCANONS COMPILATION tba!

ARRESTS?: None. PRISON TIME?: None.

OCCUPATION & INCOME

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: Salvatore Family fortune. SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME: Investments over the Centuries. TERTIARY SOURCE(S) OF INCOME: Compulsion when very needed. APPROXIMATE AMOUNT PER YEAR: Unknown. CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: Stefan used to want to be a doctor when he was human, probably due to his mother’s sickness and death, but it all changed after he was turned. As much as Stefan likes being useful, I’m not sure that he believes he could ever truly settle down and be happy. Even because due to his non existent aging, he can never stay too long in one place. Eventually he has to start over completely somewhere else, and that is why he mostly takes on passing jobs or studies but never really builds anything out of it. Stefan really likes to learn, so tends to have projects, instead, such as learning a new language, or learning mechanics, or studying literature, cooking!, etc. He moves from thing to thing and tries to learn a little bit of everything he can. PAST JOB(S): None. SPENDING HABITS: Stefan is not really a spender, unless when he is on ripper mode, because then he’s unrestricted with everything, not only money. However, he does like nice things. Stefan was raised in a certain way and, though not usually flashy in his tastes, he likes the more expensive side of life, quality and brands, while keeping a classic style. The one thing he really likes to spend on are classic cars and motorcycles, but he also likes to rebuild them and work on them, so it’s more part of a hobby than a spending habit. He likes to live a good life, but he does so reasonably for his social class. MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: Probably his daylight ring. And after that, his books first and cars/motorcycles second. Also his picture of Katherine which he carefully keeps through the centuries despite his insistence that he despises her.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

PHYSICAL STRENGTH: Supernatural physical strength from being a vampire, which will only grow with every passing year. Subdued only by his animal blood diet, however, it is also shown several times that Stefan possesses a lot of hidden strength that can come out when he is emotionally unstable and make him dangerous even to much older vampires. OFFENSE: Stefan is more defensive when in charge of his own mind, but he can take the first step if he needs to. Basically he’ll do anything he has to to protect innocent people or people he loves, but when it comes to himself he’ll wait and defend before he attacks. Stefan is also an experienced fighter and as such knows his way around taking down enemies. DEFENSE: Stean doesn’t really attack unprovoked, so he’ll mostly defend, and when he does he is very skilled and brutal at it if he needs to be. SPEED: Supernatural speed from being a vampire, which will only grow with every passing year. INTELLIGENCE: Highly intelligent, both academically and emotionally. ACCURACY: Stefan is very skilled, and due to both supernatural advantages and his own habit of learning new things whenever possible, his accuracy tends to be high. AGILITY: Supernatural agility from being a vampire, which will only grow with every passing year. He was also shown to be very agile as a human. STAMINA: Supernatural stamina from being a vampire, which will only grow with every passing year. He was also shown to be very physical and not shy to play sports, do manual work, or take long hikes as a human. EXTRA: Stefan was able to overcome compulsion from an original vampire Klaus, due to his love for Elena. Stefan is the only known vampire that seems to be able to live completely off of an animal blood diet. Extra vampirical abilities such as, immortality, fast healing, highly improved hearing and eyesight, and also an enhanced sense of smell. As well as an ability called dream manipulation, with which he can enter other people’s dreams and either help make them peaceful or turned them into nightmares. TEAMWORK: Stefan is an introvert but he can work well in a team, as long as there’s a clear objective, he’ll even compromise and work with someone who doesn’t have high morals if he has to, to achieve a greater good. He’s very open minded and doesn’t usually judge, which makes him easy to get along with, and his goals are usually to help someone in some way. He also literally is good at / can enjoy playing in a team, from time to time, as he did playing football in High School as a wide-receiver. TALENTS: Writing. Mechanics. Cooking. Playing the guitar. Playing football. Others. SHORTCOMINGS: Due to self-deprecation, Stefan can become frozen and not be bold enough or persistent whenever he feels that might not be what someone else wants. He also tends to forgive too much and try to see the good in people to a fault. LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: English, Latin, French and Italian. DRIVE?: Yes, and he loves to and to race. He owns both a red 1963 Porsche 356B Karmann Coupe and a Harley motorcycle. JUMP-STAR A CAR?: Yes. CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: Yes. RIDE A BICYCLE?: Yes. SWIM?: Yes. After he’s left to drown in a safe, over and over again, however, he becomes afraid of closed in spaces and skittish of deep water. PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: Yes, and he owns a guitar. PLAY CHESS?: Yes. BRAID HAIR?: Probably. TIE A TIE?: Yes. PICK A LOCK?: Yes. But he can also just destroy it with vampire strength.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: Paul Wesley. EYE COLOR: Dark green. HAIR COLOR: Dark blonde. HAIR TYPE/STYLE: Short and styled up. GLASSES/CONTACTS?: No. DOMINANT HAND: Right. HEIGHT: 5′11′’ feet (or 180 cm) WEIGHT: Unknown. BUILD: Lean and muscled, athletic. EXERCISE HABITS: Stefan has always been athletic and he likes to hike and or to exercise to spend energy and keep himself distracted. SKIN TONE: Pale, white. TATTOOS: A tattoo of a rose on his right shoulder. PEIRCINGS: None. MARKS/SCARS: None permanent. NOTABLE FEATURES: Well traced mouth, warm smile, deep set honest eyes. USUAL EXPRESSION: Brooding, quiet. CLOTHING STYLE: Casual-trendy / Classic. JEWELRY: Daylight lapis lazulli ring, worn on the middle finger of his left right. ALLERGIES: None. BODY TEMPERATURE: Colder than average due to vampiric traits. DIET: Animal blood / human blood usually when out of control. PHYSICAL AILMENTS: None.

PSYCHOLOGY

JUNG TYPE: INFJ ENNEAGRAM TYPE: The Reformer. ( Ego fixation: Resentment. Holy idea: Perfection . Basic fear: Corruptness / Imbalance / Being bad. Basic desire: Goodness / Integrity / Balance. Temptation: Hypocrisy / Hyper-criticism. Vice/Passion: Anger. Virtue: Serenity. Stress: 4. Security: 7. ) Helper / Giver. ( Ego fixation: Ingratiation. Holy idea: Freedom, Will . Basic fear: Being unloved. Basic desire: To feel love. Temptation: Deny own needs / Manipulation. Vice/Passion: Pride. Virtue: Humility. Stress: 8. Security: 4. ) Peacemaker / Mediator. ( Ego fixation: Daydreaming. Holy idea: Love . Basic fear: Loss / Fragmentation / Separation. Basic desire: Wholeness / Peace of mind. Temptation: Avoiding conflicts, avoiding self-assertion. Vice/Passion: Disengagement. Virtue: Action. Stress: 6. Security: 3. ) MORAL ALIGNMENT: Lawful Good. TEMPERAMENT: Melancholic. ELEMENT: Fire. CELTIC ZODIAC: Reed (The Inquisitor) PRIMARY INTELLIGENCE TYPE: Verbal/Linguistic (83/100) and Intrapersonal (80/100). APPROXIMATE IQ: Unknown. High. MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: Anxiety, Bloodlust, Depression, Suicidal tendencies, PTSD, sequels from emotional childhood abuse, self-hate. Can be Compulsive and Obsessed about his ripper days, such as keeping the names of every single person he killed. SOCIABILITY: Stefan is not really sociable, but there can be exceptions. Mostly he describes himself as a loner, but if he is with the right person he can have fun in a crowd, like with Lexi or Elena. However, if given a chance to pick he’ll always pick something quieter and more lowkey, also because it helps him keep control. In a party he’ll tend to keep to himself or interact with people he already knows. He doesn’t actively seek out new people and he doesn’t enjoy the spotlight. He does enjoy dancing and is good at it, though, and he likes music and shows. EMOTIONAL STABILITY: Stefan is either extremely stable or very unhinged. When he has his human switch on he can usually keep a very good control, he is calm and serene, he is patient and thinks logically most of the time. However when the emotional pressure is too high and or something else happens that turns it off, he becomes more impulsive, careless, loves to be surrounded by people and parties and can go into ripper frenzies. When he is in control he tries to keep very tight reins, and it’s been implied that that’s part of the problem, that he never lets himself let go and when he does it’s because he’s lost complete control, and it doesn’t end well. OBSESSION(S): Being good, helpful, making up for the mistakes that haunt him. COMPULSION(S): Bloodlust. PHOBIA(S): Water and claustrophobia after Silas. ADDICTION(S): Human blood. DRUG USE: None. ALCOHOL USE: Stefan drinks often, because the alcohol helps with his blood crave, but due to his metabolism he doesn’t get drunk unless he really tries to. PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: Only when provoked or specially when someone he loves is threatened, but not as a general rule. And definitely when in ripper mode.

MANNERISMS

SPEECH STYLE: Stefan has a very witty, clear, intelligent, well spoken speech style. He enunciates well and usually sticks to grammar and very little slang. ACCENT: A light southern accent. QUIRKS: Gets very sarcastic when annoyed, even childish, knows a lot of trivia about a lot of different things, quotes literature at times. HOBBIES: Reading, journaling, crosswords, learning new things, playing the guitar, hiking, camping, photography, building cars / motorcycles, working with his hands, cooking, pool, darts... HABITS: Reading, drinking, journaling, working on his blood crave, early mornings and late nights, lots of coffee, reflecting. NERVOUS TICKS: Clenches his jaw, swallows hard, deep breaths, clenches fists, drinks more. DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: People he loves, protecting them, making them happy, keeping them safe. Not losing control. Atoning for his sins, being a better person than he was yesterday. Understanding others. FEARS: Losing people. Losing control. Hurting those close to him. Hurting innocents. Never being able to atone and become better. Never being loved, or rather worthy of it. POSITIVE TRAITS: Loyal, Intuitive, Empathetic, Brave, Compassionate, Kind, Generous, Loving, Caring, Protective, Determined, Careful, Earnest, Honest, Good listener, Attentive, Curious, Quiet, Calm, Considerate, Studious, Forgiving, Guider. NEGATIVE TRAITS: Private, Self-hating, Righteous, Anxious, Closed off, lives in Denial, Overstrict with himself, Mostly unable to let loose without deep fear, puts others in front of him to the point where he doesn’t go for what he wants if there’s even a minor chance someone else might not want it, Broody, comes off Standoffish, can be Jealous but only about Damon. SENSE OF HUMOR: Dry, sarcastic, ironic. DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: No. CATCHPHRASE(S): "Says the girl who spends her alone time writing in a cemetery.", "Yes, being a 150 year old teenager has been the height of my happiness." , "I usually keep to myself , I don't always fit in" , "Don’t flirt with me Katherine. I’m not Damon, I haven’t spent 145 years obsessed with you." , "I promise you, I will not let anything happen to you." , "I see the usual restraint has been exercised." , "Tell you what Ray. We're going to play a little drinking game. Something I like to call: truth or wolfsbane." , "That's good. It's good to want things, Katherine." , "You can’t put that on yourself. Not everyone is your responsibility. Not everyone can be saved." , "I see we are still fighting, got it." , "Let me just name the million other people I'd rather be having dinner with right now." , "If I let myself care all I feel is pain" , "This will be the second time Damon has tried to kill Jeremy. I guess nobody's perfect, right?" , "Sex wasn't good because we didn't care. It was good because you were crazy. Crazy sex is always good." , " I know "nada" means nothing. I know what day it is, I know what year it is, I know this car has a V-8 engine, and yet I am two journals deep, and I have absolutely no memory of who the hell I am." , " I'm feeling better, which in my world means I haven't committed a homicide since I last saw you. I've been doing a lot of thinking today, a lot of wandering around, and this seemed like the most appropriate place to come." , " Me. You have me. Look. You were there for me last night. Sounds like you're always there for me. So let me be there for you, ok?." FAVORITE QUOTE: “Yeah. But, you know, the life that we had, I mean, that was amazing, too, and it wasn't a spell or a prophecy. It was real. We fell in love on our own.” FAVORITE QUOTE (ABOUT): “ Because even in death, your heart is pure, Stefan. I sense that about you. That will be your curse.” — Emily Bennett.

FAVORITES

ACTIVITY: Reading / writing. ANIMAL: Horse. Mezzanotte. BEVERAGE: Whiskey. BOOK: Several, all the classics, also Shakespeare. CELEBRITY: None. COLOR: Blue. DESIGNER: None. FOOD: Italian. FLOWER: Rose. GEM: Lapis Lasulli. HOLIDAY: Christmas / none. MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: 1963 Porsche 356B Karmann Coupe. Harley motorcycle. MOVIE: Stefan's likes F. Scott Fitzgerald, especially his masterpiece The Great Gatsby; Scorsese, Taxi Driver. MUSICAL ARTIST: Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Bon Jovi... QUOTE/SAYING: “We choose our own path. Our values and our actions, they define who we are.” SCENERY: Mountains. SCENT: Wiskey, pine trees, cologne. SPORT: Football. SPORTS TEAM: None. TELEVISION SHOW: Seinfeld; I Love Lucy is his all time favorite, Loving cup episodes are the best. WEATHER: Fall. VACATION DESTINATION: Nature.

ATTITUDES

GREATEST DREAM: Reaching peace. GREATEST FEAR: Being a monster. MOST AT EASE WHEN: Alone, or with someone he loves, in nature. LEAST AT EASE WHEN: Surrounded by a human crowd. WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN: Become a Ripper and never come back, or kill someone he loves in that state. BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: Learning control. BIGGEST REGRET: Hurting Elena, both while under compulsion from Klaus and scaring her at the Wickery Bridge. MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Stefan doesn’t really do embarrassed, shameful moments he has a lot of though. Definitely Elena seeing him as a ripper. BIGGEST SECRET: People he’s killed while out of control. TOP PRIORITIES: Keeping his loved ones safe and happy. Keeping control.

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#bio tag #𝕚𝕤𝕞𝕤 ↬ the pure of heart (stefan salvatore)#all done!#i think everything is right

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artboitrash · 5 years ago

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His Bloody Rose (Stefano Valentini fanfiction) Chapter 17 - Fading Memories

-Rose's P.O.V.-

The clinking of my favorite mug filled the silent, small kitchen. The sound of the spoon stirring the tea I had stood watching for the past five minutes being what filled my mind. I tried to simply drown out my thoughts. It wasn't simple, since nothing was helping to stop me thinking.

I picked up the mug, softly sipping at the hot tea. It burned my tongue, and I was grateful to just feel something.

It had been weeks since Stefano's work had been brought down.

NO, no. I don't want to think about it. I have to stop thinking about it.

Did I chase him off??

Stop it.

My phone started to buzz. I jumped, reaching for it instantly. I hoped it was a phonecall, I begged it to be Stefano calling me.

It was my timer. I guess I had accidentally restarted it after turning it off before. I choked back tears, like I always did each time I get my hopes up. I always knew it wasn't him, but... I still held out hope.

I slipped my hand over my stomach, and across my slightly larger hips. Did he leave because I started gaining weight? I didn't think it was showing that much.

I shook my head, mentally counting the days again since he had gone. Replaying the last time I saw him. The Sunday after Ryan had tried to kill me, he dropped me off in the afternoon. He walked me up to my apartment, leaving me with a kiss, a smile, and a wave.

"Next time my gallery is shown, would you mind being my plus one again?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Of course not."

He laughed, kissed me on my forehead, and pulled my front door closed for me while waving a little bit at me.

And then he was gone. I watched his car drive out of the apartment complex, saw it disappear around the corner with a smile across my face. I was happy how attached he seemed to grow to me. It felt like we were really a couple, and even if he was only playing the part, it made me feel happy that he was willing to go as far as saving my life.

"Agh!" I slammed my mug down on the counter. I didn't realized I had frozen, reliving the last time I had seen him.

I rubbed my hand, feeling the heat pulse through my hand painfully.

Stefano's gallery stayed up for a month and a half, but the opening night was never rescheduled, and my painting teacher asked me several times if I knew where he had gone. Apparently, she couldn't get a hold of him either, and he wasn't coming to pick up his work from the arts department.

Now a new artist is in his place, and Stefano's work sat in the back room, waiting until it was claimed. The gallery head always insisted on keeping unclaimed work of the gallery artists if they forgot some of their work.

Two months and a week. That's how long it's been. Sixty-seven days. Daily life has kept me from realizing how long it really has been.

Ryan has since plead guilty and been sentenced for his attempted murder and assault. I didn't have to testify against him, and didn't have to relive that night.

My phone pinged, and I opened it since it was still in my hand.

Message from my contact titled Therapist; "Good afternoon! How are you feeling?"

I typed back "Not feeling the best. I can't stop thinking about my boyfrie" and I backspaced several letters. "I can't stop thinking about my friend that went missing."

"Have you called and asked about how his case is going again?"

I frowned. I had called police chief Phi the other day, and since I knew him from when he talked to my class a few months ago.

"Yea, they said there isn't a case again. They said he isn't missing and aren't continuing to look into it."

"I see. Are you not doing too well since they left?"

"Yeah... Maybe... I don't know. I loved him." I hesitated after I hit the send button. "I still do love him. I keep talking like he's in the past tense, but even if we were only together for a few weeks, I still love him though."

"Maybe that's a sign that you have unresolved thought processes. Do you want to talk about it tomorrow? Our appointment is Sunday, right? You've been having a hard time opening up about your friend."

I bit my lip, remembering the appointment I had scheduled. "I don't know. I mean it was because he disappeared that I started going to you. And yeah, tomorrow is our appointment, which is Sunday."

"We'll see how you feel about it tomorrow, okay? For now, try to enjoy your spring break."

"Thank you. You too."

I hit the back button, and looked over my texts again. The only ones that I had available were from my therapist, from Stefano, from Carolinn, and some various students from other classes.

I clicked on my text message exchange with Stefano for the hundredth time since I had last seen him. The last text message he sent me, replied days after I sent him one, appeared in front of me.

Me; "How are you doing? Have you talked to Carolinn?"

Stefano's reply read "No, srry. I gtg, blla. Please dnt wrry nymore."

It didn't look like his way of typing. He had always used full words and sentences. He had better punctuation than me, and I've had people ask me why I bother typing in full sentences compared to some people. And he never, ever abbreviated.

But my efforts to find him, to file a missing person report, speaking to police, and asking around weren't helping at all. He was gone, just nowhere. As though he never existed.

My mind went to some of the stories I had read. I wondered, as astronomical as it was, if he had been taken or killed by someone. After what I had seen him do to Ryan, and some stories about how he had learned to efficiently use knives and fencing, I couldn't help but think he wouldn't be someone who was easy to kill.

Sometimes I wondered if he was even real. I would wake up from dreams that felt too real of him holding me, loving me. I would sit up once I woke, wondering if he had ever been in my life.

I sipped at my tea some more. It was a more bearable temperature now, and I set my phone down on the counter. I picked up my mug again, ignoring the glazed feeling of my tongue and the small amount of pain still coursing through my hand. I began to drink from my tea, and tried drowning my thoughts out again.

"Thank you..." I said quietly. I stood up from my seat, wiping away my tears.

"Of course. I think we made some progress today." said my therapist. She shook her head, small strands of black hair dancing around her face.

I sighed. "I didn't expect that to get to me too much. I've been bottling it up so much, I... I don't know."

"That's alright. I'm a therapist, so I see it plenty, hun."

I nodded. I cleared my throat, hearing her next client open the door as they did at the end of each of our sessions. I almost turned around, but I felt I didn't need to.

The rain pounded against the window, and I didn't want to think about trying to get home in this weather. While I love the cold spring rains, it isn't fun to make my way through when I have to walk a long ways.

"Have you been drawing more?" she asked, for some reason changing the subject.

"Well, no, not lately."

"Well, you should, since you're an artist." She crossed her arms as she thought, almost in a playful manner. "You're very creative. You're an intelligent girl, and we really need more people in our world like that."

I laughed quietly, turning to leave. "Well, I guess you're lucky I'm here, then, so I can let my creativity into this world."

I looked up, staring at the man standing in the doorway. I gasped, it wasn't the man that usually came in. This man had slicked back hair, a black suit and tie, sunglasses, and an earpiece.

I stumbled backwards as he stood in the doorway, like a secret service agent or a guard blocking my only means of escape.

"I'm afraid that's not what I meant." said the therapist behind me. "Your creativity isn't being noticed in this world and you aren't making anything presently. We do need people like you, and I am sorry that you're going to need to become used to a new life."

I felt a sharp pain in my neck. I yelped, jumping back away from my therapist. She was holding something that looked like a gun, or a syringe, I couldn't quite tell. I grasped at my neck, breathing heavily and beginning to stumble backwards, losing feeling in my limbs and watching the world shift oddly around me.

"I've looked up your friend and found he was selected, too, to be an artist in the new world. If you remember who you are, then you will be able to reunite with him, eventually."

My voice is garbled as I fall to the floor, unable to support my weight. My head lulls to the side on the rug, my eyes closing and the world disappearing out from underneath me.

I don't hear the world, or feel it, as it slips away from me. I barely manage to lift my head, gasping aloud as I regained consciousness. I sat up, looking around.

My head hurts so bad. I grasp it tightly, feeling nauseous and overwhelmingly sick. I gasped out some more, reaching for my neck where it hurt slightly.

The nightmare slipped away from me, and I looked around the room. It was a white living room, a white plush rug under my feet, and a quiet breeze coming through the open window. I blinked, staring at the window, hearing some wind chimes swaying in the soft, late summer breezes.

I shook my head. It had all just been a bad dream. Everything is okay now.

I looked down at my ensemble, a short white summer dress fitting my form. I smiled quietly, smoothing out the wrinkles in it. I wondered when I had managed to fall asleep. I looked around some more, seeing my painting supplies where I had left them.

I smiled to myself, remembering again. I remembered gathering my supplies and setting them on glass coffee table. I had even started mixing colors, then lay down on the couch as I thought about the world.

I sighed quietly, picking up some brushes, listening to the tranquil summer breezes running through my house. I was happy, and the surroundings were perfect. I decided to stand, and felt a violent sense of vertigo. I gasped quietly, grabbing the edge of my couch to stabilize myself. I trembled quietly, remembering how I had fallen over in my nightmare.

I breathed, feeling the world under my feet, looking out the window again. I walked around my living room, feeling its familiarity coming back to me.

I found a piece of mail on my counter. I must have grabbed it and brought it in before I fell asleep. I picked it up and opened it, the black intricate design standing out against the white tile of the counter. I opened the letter, reading my initials as a greeting.

"Welcome, R.O.! We are so glad to have you here in Union! Please enjoy yourself as you adjust to your new life in town. The locals are known for being sweet and caring, so don't be too shy to mingle with them and get involved with the community. Make your way to the visitor center or the town hall if you have any questions or need help adjusting to your new life. Union; we're glad to have you here!"

It wasn't signed, and it wasn't dated.

I laughed quietly. I moved in only a week ago. I remember, I decided I needed a new life. I didn't have anything keeping me in Krimson, so I might as well go somewhere new. The dreary, tiring life was too fast-paced for me, so moving to a quiet, small town sounded wonderful.

So far, it was. I could remember moving in, setting my moving boxes on the floor and waving the taxi away. I could remember unpacking and putting everything away carefully, enjoying my new home that came already furnished.

I sighed to myself again, content again. I finally had my own house, and I could do as I wished. I had achieved my dream of becoming a stay-at-home artist.

Things were going well, for once in my life. I entered my kitchen, and clicked on my new stove top kettle. I pulled out a mug and some English breakfast tea. This was time for celebration. Hopefully, this new life in Union would be the best possible opportunity, a new and clean slate away from who I used to be.

#Stefano Valentini #The Evil Within 2 #stefano #the evil within stefano #tew #tew2 #tew2 Stefano #stefano valentini fanfiction #His Bloody Rose #Chapter 17 #Fading Memories

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