#unchanging story dvd

[beatriceeagle]

I'm sorry for immediately ignoring the structure of the DVD extras game!! I just came here from the final chapter of THE (and what a triumph!!), and I had three questions, if you'd permit me:

1) Just something simple I was wondering - I couldn't remember if it was mentioned in the text, how old was Eccron when she abused Jasper?

2) How did you come up with/develop the side characters, like Jasper and Eccron and Ange, and their place in the plot? Was it that you first decided which parts of Caleb and Beau you wanted to poke?

3) Veth being very motherly and suggesting Bren/Luc was very funny. How well do you think Bren and Luc actually get along?

<3 <3 <3

Don't worry about it—questions in any format are appreciated! <3 Answers under the cut.

1. It was never said, but she was in her early-mid 20s. Probably 23 or 24.

2. Basically, yes! Ange actually came before Jasper—the very earliest work I did on this fic was when it was still supposed to be a fairly short one-shot, and the first three of four paragraphs are basically unchanged from that version. I basically just modeled her after the four-year-olds I've known personally, and a lot of her specific traits developed organically from the details I happened to choose for that scene. The Tiefling and the Tailor led to the bear-shaped pancake led to her massive stuffed animal collection and so on. As the fic developed, I knew I wanted her to be a mostly cheerful presence, both because Beau and Yasha deserved to have some fun parenting, and also because I wanted the eventual reveal of what Grankton did to hit hard.

In the one-shot version of the fic, Beau didn't really have a plot, but I wanted her to have kids because I wanted to tap into that idea of seeing yourself from the outside. Caleb is seeing his literal self, and Beau is seeing her teenage son, but also her teenage self. So Beau always had a teenage son named Jasper who was into the Cobalt Soul, but in my one shot draft, he and Beau got along.

Once I committed to writing the long version of the story, that changed, and Jasper's personality developed to fit. I had a few driving ideas: I wanted him to be a basically good kid, helpful and well-behaved, because that would make his antagonism towards Beau much harder for her to deal with. (Beau expects teenagers to have attitudes; she was a teenager with an attitude!) I kept the Cobalt Soul angle, because that drove the plot, but now I had to think about what kind of person Jasper would be to be drawn to monkhood: curious and thoughtful and extremely protective. Very early on, I figured out his relationship with Ange, and that fully unlocked him for me. And then, as with Ange, the more I wrote him, the more the little details accumulated.

Eccron developed as she did almost entirely to reinforce the parallels that I was building between Jasper and Bren, Jasper and Caleb, and Jasper and Beau.

3. Bren has zero feelings about Luc at the moment because they haven't interacted much. Luc, I would imagine, is extremely curious about Bren, but he has Veth's sense of social graces on top of a teenage attitude, so he probably expresses it in weird ways. I think over the course of a lot of Mighty Nein reunions, Bren would probably come to see Luc as something like a lovable, kind of funny but kind of irritating kid cousin. Veth's matchmaking dreams will be tragically thwarted.

[kuririhimitsukichi]

Keroro Movie 4 Deleted Scene: Shion's Prologue

Back in spring 2009, the Keroro movie was about to release in theaters, which left the fandom outside of Japan, myself included, to wait for the DVD release before we could see it. However, at this point I had been learning Japanese for a good few years and decided to import the book through a specialty shop I sometimes went to so I could try reading it.

However, when the DVDs finally released and I got to see the movie itself, I noticed two scenes I had read in the book were missing, one of which was particularly surprising since I had seen fully animated footage from it in the previews that were edited into the opening credits.

I don't remember if there were other deleted scenes, perhaps I'll do a full translation of the book someday (yes, it's the story of the movie, but there's some nice flourishes), I'm not sure where my copy is, but the preview for the e-book version includes both scenes.

This scene in particular takes on an interesting tone when you consider that Shion means "Aster"; both that her nickname is flower related (possibly because of her friendship with Momoka), and that this specific flower signifies regret at how things turned out, but also means grace & wisdom.

For now enjoy the first of the two deleted scenes below the cut, this one was right at the very beginning of the film:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

One year ago. On the outskirts of Paris.

Beneath the lead coloured, overcast sky, church bells chimed and echoed sadly. The time for partings had come.

It was a lavish funeral for the Dracoon family, a noble and ancient, ancient European bloodline. The gathered crowd of attendees spoke in hushed tones about the remaining family.

Ultimately, they were idly gossiping.

Things like "The Dracoon family fortune will go to her, can she manage it?" or "What can she do as just one person?" or "Even though she lost her parents, she doesn't shed a single tear, such a cold girl" Amongst this group, there wasn't a single person you could let your guard down in front of.

The remaining family....

Standing before her parents' gravestones was a young girl, only about 10 years of age. She had been left alone as her parents journeyed to heaven. Lead by the hand of her brawny butler, the girl placed flowers on her mother and father's caskets. The girl kept her lips pressed in a firm line as she looked forward.

While she felt like a gaping hole was opening in her heart, she kept up a brave front, despite seeming as if she could crumble at any moment.

"Lady Felicitashion" Her butler, having read her feelings, leaned in and whispered "It is acceptable to cry during sad times".

"No Pierre. I must not cry, for I am the head of the Dracoon family"

Even if she felt alone, she would not cry. No matter how lonely she was. Even if she she felt unbearably lonely. Even if because of that she became unable to smile.

This loneliness was....

The loneliness of being completely isolated, because nobody could understand how you felt. If she could forget it all, how nice it would be....

And so, our tale begins with the always unchanging everyday life in the Hinata household.

[popculturebuffet]

HCG: Garfield His 9 Lives Retrospective: The Special (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Hello all you blues cats paying your dues and welcome back to my look at the three faces of Garfield His 9 Lives. Last time we covered the book which was excellent for the most part from some good comedy to excellent horror.

So now we're onto the second part of this unintentional trilogy. The book was clearly either a success or a good enough idea that not only did Film Roman make a special out of it but unlike the others this big chonky boy is an hour long. It's something I forgot but you yourself can experince as the specials are all on Peacock and Tubi, and I highly recommend this one off the bat.

9 Lives takes the basic premise of the book and adapts it decently for animation: There is still a good chunk of segmetns that use the regular garfield style, but some vary it up a bit in ways similar to the book if not as radical to keep the budget down.

The bigger change is that 4/9 of the segments are replaced. Only Cave Cat, the Garden, Lab Animal, Garfield and Space Cat remain, largely unchanged. Babes and Bullets is gone but was made into it's own excellent special, while The Vikings, the Exterminators, and Primal Self are just gone.

If I had to guess why, the Vikings might of been hard to replicate on a bduget with it's fantasy style illustrations, hence the much cheaper King Cat in it's place. The Exterminators coudl've been a rights thing, since some stooges shorts were under copyright, but it could've just as easily been a time thing as the special exclusive stunt cat is only a minute long. Finally we have primal self, the only one where it's damn obvious WHY it didn't happen

This version is the most popular, likely because while the book is clearly known and loved, it hasn't been reprinted. it was printed enough that thankfully it's cheap to get and the Internet Archive makes it avaliable, but far as I can tell it hasn't been reprinted in decades. The special on the other hand has 80's nostalgia for the kids who were there at the time, got a release on the garfield fantasies dvd (Alongside babes and bullets of course.. and a indiana jones spoof with a dash of james bond that is far more foregatable but fits the astetic), and is as I mentioned currently avaliable for free under garfield and friends on tubi or on it's own on peacock. It's way easier to see the specail and for it to get more word of mouth. I even saw it first before the book thanks to said dvd. So the question is how does this more popular adaptation hold up to the OG? Let's find out under the cut and once again learn when you've got 9 lives you've got nine ways to loose.

Directed by Phil Roman, who Co-Directs all other segments

I love the title cards in this version too. And it starts the same way: Jim Davis is god

And orders the creation of cat. It looses a bit of luster as oversaturated footage of paws inc isn't as fun, but I do like the booming voice of god, played by C. Lindsay Workman who played the old man in the halloween special and Garfield's Grandpa in Garfield on the Town. The punchilne's also not as strong as rather than revealing him as a cat he just says "It'd make for an intresting story". This is understandable as they save this for the ending. More on that when we get there. For now this segment is alright and workman makes it fun, but it's the only segment I feel got a downgrade between versions.

We next get our opening number, which for once isn't tied into the story thus technically giving us 11 segments this time. Garfield wails on the harmonica while we get another great Lou Rawls opening, a blues song underlying how rough it is to have 9 lives "You've got 9 ways to loose" and the genre fits the man like a glove. Truly awesome stuff and a song that's been in my head this whole retrospective and while making the cover arts.

Directed by George Singer

Watching this one I figured out WHY I didn't like the Book version as much: I saw this one first and Cave Cat has one thing this one dosen't: narration. The hammy narrator really sells the documentary feel of things better than text boxes can. I love comics as a medium but there's some hard limits, and this is a bit that just works better when you have what I suspect to be Thom Huge giving nature doctumentary style narration. It makes even the cornier jokes hilaroius and Cave Cat feels more distinct ironically with Lorenzo Music's iconic voice, with him doing a good job making this cat still have the garfield voice but feel primitive. It's good stuff and just a few touches take a pretty decent if done before bit into something fun.

Directed by John Sparey

Yeah I don't like this one. Before reading the boom comics version, this was easily my bottom life across all versions.

King Cat DOES have an interesting hook: Garfield is the pet of a dim witted pharoah and thus worshipped. The problem is as basically vice pharoah.. garfield has slaves

For starters a past version of Odie is one of them and Garfield spends the short fighting to not be killed.. but you don't care as King Garfield enslaves a bunch of dogs and hassles the slaves at the period. Karma does bite him as despite his best efforts his owner dies and he becomes a slave to odie after odie saves his life but it's hard to see that as a good "the oppressed has become the opresser"

So not only do you have slave master garfield and this ending.. you also have no real jokes. The only one that makes me chuckle a bit is that the pharoah's evil brother who eventuallyt akes the throne is named prince black bart. It's sto stupid it works. This segment.. is so bland and weirdly fucked up at the same time it just dosen't work.

Directed by Ruth Kissane

The garden is kept the same plot wise, but does feel like an equilveant exchange. The animation looses the weird 3d style and while they try to make it slightly puffier to match the book, it mostly comes across as the standard garfield. That said what we loose in the trippy 3d, we gain in the narration, done by what seems to be Nermals voice actor which comes off as Chloe herself narrating it, which adds a nice bit of whimsy that papers over what was lost. The segment's still not entirely for me, but I appricate it for what it is.

Directed by Bob Scott

Court Musician has my faviorite look out of the shorts, being one of the few to get more of a visual identity in the adpatation, having a nice very blocky style to the charcters. I love it. And it's no suprise that director Bob Scott would go on to have a healthy career doing a lot of work for disney and some design work. He even designed the characters for the threre best segments in this one, also doing the designs for Diana's Piano and Lab Animal.

The short is a fun romb as we follow famous composer Fredrick Handel whose cat is a nicely deisgned blue cat.

I really wish bob had gotten to direct more, this is great stuff as Freddy , as bluefield calls him, finds out he has to make a concerto overnight... which his boss the king never commuincated to him. So to do so he has his cat write half. The first half is a slow well done fuege as the Jester, history's greatest monster, taunts Freddy with his death should he fail... only for a rousing jazz number the cat wrote to be a big hit. It's fun as hell, well written and even caps off the special in lieu of blues cat. Which i'd object if this peice weren't so great.

Directed by Bill LIttlejohn and Bob Nester

Stunt Kat is a quick fun segment likely done as while the special was given extra room it didn't have room for 9 full segments. So instead we get a fun bit of comics history as this garfield was a stunt double for the legendary 30's comic strip Krazy Kat. Krazy Cat was a fairly simple but influental strip with surreal backgrounds. The basics boil down to this

Krazy loves Ignatz, Ignatz throws bricks a tthem, and the local cop tries to put Ignatz away and loves Krazy. It's a zany love trinagle, a tragicomedy and magistically drawn. I haven't gotten super into it, but I do respect it and it's influence on later cartoonits with both Bill Watterston and Berkely Brethead citing this one as an influence.

So here Garfield fills in when Krazy gets a bunch of bricks dropped on them while Officer Pupp runs the camera... and dies pretty quickly. A brutal fun gag and a nice way to give a cameo to a legend... if I'd remembered this I would've done the same in the first entry but hey, thems the breaks. Or the bricks I guess

Directed by Doug Frankel

Diana's Piano might be my faviorite segment here and it's the simpliest, a tale about a woman reflecting on her life to her cat patches, and the life of her previous cat Diana, a cat she got as a child, and kept for most of her life, into marriage right out of college, through the birth of her child and to Diana's sad end. It's got the most gorgeous animation of the special, this nice fuzzy style as if it was painted. The animations very limited for the most part, but it works well, making it feel like a painting come to life. It's a simple realistic tale. It could face issues with not feeling very garfield like.. but with some of the more experimental segments from the comic gone, it nicely fills the place of stretching the concept of "it's a cat" to as far as you can take it. Diana isn't garfield yet has pieces of him: her not wanting her owner to marry, issues with kids, there's pieces of garfield in his past self. I also think it's neat they acknowledge that past lives don't have to be exact matches for their future lives. This is reincarnation after all. Part of the books charm was that the various garfields were so diffrent from one another yet had some part of who he'd be in his 8th life.

Diana's piano is a moving, wonderfully done piece, a short heartbreaking story of life that uses the medium well.

Directed by Doug Frankel

Lab Animal is the special's most memorable segments for the same reasons it was in His 9 Lives: It's the darkest segment here with Primal Self gone, and it's a striknig diffrence:While Diana's piano gives us another grounded segment, instead of a sentimental story of a cat's life, we get a cat desperately breaking free. Rather than go full realistic, they go more with a don bluth style: cartoony yet stylish. I checked director doug frankel's imdb but he shockingly only worked on one bluth film AFTER this, Ferngully, like most people on this special going on to disney or early dreamworks.

Lab Animal really is a straight adapatation of the book the only big changes being a sequence with the dogs chasing the Lab Cat up a tree, and the MP just.. glaring at the cat instead of shooting at it. Which is less effective but.. I get it. Late 80's cartoon standards and all that. Everything else is largely the same, and I feel both versions are equally good: The original has nice shades and detailed artwork, while this has gorgeous animation, a really tense score, and both have the effective twist at the end. It's fantastic and easily the best adaptation of the bunch, adapting the story perfectly while changing it just enough.

Directed by Bob Nisler and John Sparey

I really.. don't have much to say about this one. It's not bad at all: given this was one of Film Roman's later specials, they've perfected doing garfield at this point, so it's not suprising the garfield section still looks great.

The thing is this segment is the straghtest adaptation out of the bunch. It's almost word for word panel for panel with only the slightest changes. One of those changes bothers me as they censor old eli's line

The bury me is why it works. It'd be like shoretning Snoopy's Awkard Teenage Nephew's neck. It's fucked up and it's funny. And you could say "Well they censored other stuff for kids".. but they still had garfied and odie own slaves. I can understand editing out the gunfire from Lab Animal as it was the 80's and guns in kids shows was, and still is, if for more understandable reasons, a touchy subject. But this is just a bit of black comedy and I refuse to belivie garfield owning slaves is more acceptable than Old Eli wanting people to take him home and bury him.

Otherwise it's a solid adaptation, it just dosen't stand out as much both due to having no real changes for better or equal like the others, or being that diffrent from the other specials or garfield and friends. It's a reason King Kat also limped along for me I forgot to get to in that section: It feels like one of those historical episodes garfield and friends would do. Every so often they'd have jon and garfield play their own ancestors. It feels lazy in comparison to the book and other segments here. This dosen't because it shares the whole origin story thing, but does fade into the background a bit.

Directed by Bob Nessler and John Sparrey

Like cave cat I like this one more than the book, but even more as the animated version is vastly experimented. The federation planning to murder garfield in space is given more personality, counting down to his death and skipping one because he was in the bathroom, and the count down gives things a sense of pressure, as does the fact that rather than be a game this is all real and garfiled is sent out to survivie as this is his last life. So it adds tension: we know it, they know it and thus we WANT Spacefield to survivie. We also get a bunch of clone odies who hilarously get thrown back from attacking in drone ships by a fire hydrant. It keeps the best stuff from the short but expands it to be way funnier.

The ending also helps. Garfield.. still dies.. this time for real as does Odie.. and god cat calls him before them.. and due to a seeming clerical error asks garfield what life he's on. And in a touching bit of clearly remembering his eight life some how, or just kindness.. garfield gets odie 8 lives too. IT's a reminder that while Odie may anoy him.. garfield loves his brother and gladly saves him. And the ending does use the god cat twist well. We don't see a full furry face just the eyes.. btu we get the sense god was just lying his ass off and willingly let both get 9 lives as they deserved it. Garfield's argument is also.. valid. Unlike his other deaths, he didn't volunteer for this one. he was just shot up into space and died horribly. IT's a cute ending and really ties it all together well and feels like a better much more concise one than the book.

The Ranking Diana's Piano: It's schmaltzy but damn if it dosen't work on me every time, with gorgeous animation and a truly lovely story. Court Musician: I"m shocked this one ended up as high as it did but I just love the blocky, gorgeous art, that fun ending number and the jester being a hilaroiusly cruel shithead the whole segment Lab Animal: Tense, well done and gorgeous Space Cat: HIlarious and the best garfield style segment of the bunch Cave Cat: Music's performance and the great narration really sell this one Blues Cat: A catchy as hell number from lou motherfucking rawls. Stunt Cat: Only this low because it's so short but it's so damn funny and dark. In the Beginning: It's fine Garfield: Ditto The Garden: Thirded King Cat: We need a sequel where Jon is moses and frees the slaves from odie.

Next Time: We end this look with a hit and miss comics anthology that came decades later. No one really talks about.

[trillscienceofficer]

Fic commentary (DVD extras style) on chapter 2 of “Best Left”, which is when the plot and the drama really kick into gear.

(The commentary for chapter 1 is here.)

Inside, it’s all blue shadows again, except for the faint green lighting of the regenerator coming from a few meters away from the door. Standing immobile under it, Seven’s silhouette. Raffi rushes to her. It is simple enough to wake Seven—there’s a built-in emergency shut-off, a large red physical switch which she had shown to Raffi during the building process. She can easily spot it even in the green glow of the machine, grey rather than red.

As I mentioned in the previous installment of the commentary, I spent some time wondering about the regeneration device(s) Seven might use in the Picard timeline. I liked the idea of a big physical switch that could quickly power down the machine, it added to the image of 'built out of readily-available components' I wanted to convey, although obviously is it's just one of the ways in which it can be powered down. I have to imagine that this regeneration device can be connected to the ship's computer so that Seven can be woken up if there's an emergency and is alone on the ship (which is usually the case). I hope this big red switch is not too incongruous even if I didn't find find a good place to explain my reasoning in full in the fic.

She can’t lose any more time to fretting. Raffi reaches up and flicks the switch. The regenerator powers down, lighting included, and Seven’s eyes flicker open. She stumbles; Raffi grabs her in between her arms before she can fall flat on her face.

If I ever were to commission art for this fic, one of the scenes I'd like to have drawn would be this one; Seven stumbling, half-asleep and in the dark, in Raffi's arms.

“How is she,” she demands, beside the motionless form of her old comrade. The cold hue of the bay’s lighting makes Seven’s eye sockets dark and hollow, and her hands are closed into fists. Emil, on the other side of the biobed, simply obliges her. “Her blood oxygen level is now in the safe range. She had a few cuts and bruises but isn’t in any grave danger.” Raffi notices that the blood and the black eye are gone from Torres’ face. “I was waiting to revive her for a final check for an eventual concussion, even though scans have that at a low probability.” He pauses, squints, and then moves around to get closer to Seven. “You, however—”

Seven is a mess <3 but this mostly goes to show how apprehensive Raffi is in this tense moment, when she still is trying to parse what's going on and worrying about Seven's state.

She mumbles something that Raffi can’t hear, and Seven’s shoulders lose some of the tension they were carrying. “Take it easy. You took a beating,” Seven says, with sudden, unexpected softness. Torres blinks again, turns toward the woman at her side with narrowed eyes. “Seven? Is that you?” “It’s me.” Torres tries a smile, but she shuts her eyes again with a wince. “You look like shit.” “So do you,” Seven retorts, her own amusement tugging at her lips. A whisper to Raffi’s side. “Wait, do they know each other?”

I am still inordinately pleased with myself at this whole exchange lol instead of killing my darlings I pretty much left this piece of dialogue unchanged since one of the first outlines I wrote down for this story. I hope it conveys the sense of a shared history between Seven and B'Elanna, history that may not be entirely confined to the Star Trek: Voyager timeline even if echoes of it are still present, without saying explicitly what it is. Raffi is certainly observing Seven's reactions very closely in order to get a sense of who this person she's only ever seen in the news might be for Seven. And then there's Elnor and Soji, who still have no idea of what's going on at all.

Torres lowers her hands and seems to become aware for the first time that there are other people around her other than Seven and Emil. She takes in her audience with what Raffi assumes is wariness. “Is this your crew, Seven?” “Don’t worry,” Seven replies, “They’re all friends.” Raffi presses her lips together at the noncommittal answer—really, Seven? I get that you’re angry that I didn’t wake you up sooner, but we acted exactly like a crew. Or do you hate the idea of having one so much?

So I don't know how clear it is to readers but again this one-two-three of reaction is pretty much the core of the interpersonal conflict between Raffi, Seven and B'Elanna, and it's essentially all caused by the three of them all having imho similar issues re: trust, fear of abandonment and actually spelling out what it is that they need from each other. I think it makes sense that all three have similar problems because of their traumatic pasts and a present that never really allowed them to sort through any of that (maybe with the exception of B'Elanna, although she still carries a lot of baggage around), not to mention the guilt, especially in Seven's and Raffi's case, for the way they (believe they) have hurt the people they cared about the most.

Essentially Seven has been isolating herself for decades at this point, and B'Elanna is one of the few people she talks to/meets regularly and even that means, like, once a year or less. Said isolation means Seven has never told B'Elanna about La Sirena's crew, and B'Elanna is surprised to find out that Seven has people close to her again and eventually hurt that Seven did not trust her enough to let her know, especially the 'I have a girlfriend now' part (although the reasons for why Seven didn't tell her and why B'Elanna is so hurt are explored later in more detail). Seven is unwilling to admit that these new people are actually a crew because confessing that she now trusts and is close to other people (like she was close to and trusted the Voyager crew long ago) is something she's not ready to do lest something terrible happens to them because of her. Raffi in turn is hurt by Seven's refusal to concede that she, Elnor and Soji represent a crew, because to her it so clearly indicates a lack of trust on Seven's part, exacerbated by the fact that Seven seems to care for her old shipmate so much in comparison.

The rest of the story is, in my intention, all of them pretty much stumbling over all these obstacles until they tentatively find a way past them, in large part thanks to Raffi's analytical approach to everything, and also because what's a better bonding experience than being chased by a warship through an asteroid field and then trying to hijack said warship?

“Wait.” Torres squints at him. “Deactivate? Are you an EMH?” “Emil, at your service,” he replies, quite pleased with himself at the recognition. Torres doesn’t share his enthusiasm. She turns to Seven and says, “An EMH? Are you kidding me?” “It was not my idea,” she replies hastily.

Again, a little exchange I'm very fond of. Difficult patients should stick together, right? I think (or I should say, I hope) Seven and B'Elanna may have given each other some space to air mixed feelings about the Doctor, as hinted by that famous interaction in “Imperfection”. B'Elanna finding Seven in the company of another EMH here makes things worse between them for this reason—there are so many things that Seven hasn't told her, and that seem to contradict everything B'Elanna has come to expect from Seven. Especially not after Seven confessed to her that she's killed Bjayzl, but that's a part of their conflict that is explored more later.

“So, you trust her?” Seven frowns. “Of course.” Raffi tilts her head. “Because she used to be a senior officer on the USS Voyager?” “How many times have you read her Starfleet file already?” Seven retorts, forcefully sticking her left arm in the vacuum suit. “Oh, don’t start. It’s not as if it’s a secret who she is.”

I love mess. I have to imagine this type of fight happened somewhat regularly between Seven and Raffi especially early on in their relationship, with the former bristling at anyone trying to get to know her and the latter the kind of person that simply has to know even to her own detriment, which in turn I think reminds Seven a bit too keenly of her own younger self. If this particular tense conversation doesn't spiral into an outright fight it's because both of them are desperately trying to stay on task as well—the rest of their back and forth lays out the same dynamics I've tried to explain in a point above.

How else Raffi could’ve understood the wildly different emotions that the memory of Admiral Janeway seem to elicit in Seven, if she had not done her own research? (Raffi guesses it’s the mix of deep gratitude and equally deep resentment that Starfleet legends seem to engender in people they take under their wing—not that she would ever admit that to JL.)

Again, a darling I didn't kill... I got a kick out of this parallel and imagining Raffi coming up with it. I DO think that if a Starfleet legend takes you under their wing, you're basically bound to go through the spectrum of emotions about it for the rest of your natural life—and I meant this is a bit cheekily in the case of two legendary captains I have mixed feelings about myself, but they're not the only ones for whom this applies. I have complex feelings about mentorship in general; I found out in my adulthood that I'm unable to fit the role of either mentee or mentor and this has caused me no small amount of grief. I think some of this bled through on my take on Raffi in this fic, in which she's reflecting a few times on her role both as as Picard's second in command on the USS Verity and her way to care for Elnor, remaining ambivalent throughout without any clear resolution.

Ostensibly happy life with her Starfleet family and friends—until the synth ban. Torres then resigns from her post, divorces her husband, gets joint custody of their daughter. Disappears, over the years, in the wide cracks where all non-aligned orgs operating on the Federation borders seem to live these days. Does her daughter hate her for that, Raffi asks herself sourly. She forces the thought out of her mind. That’s pure projection—not a good mental state to ask questions. And Raffi does have a few queries for Torres.

Another piece of the puzzle in the middle-aged women drama! Raffi recognizes that she's projecting quite a bit on B'Elanna from the very start, but even if she does she isn't exactly able to stop herself from doing it (which I think it's extremely relatable—knowing your own patterns doesn't always translate in having developed effective countermeasures, and Raffi has essentially just gotten out a fifteen-years-long depressive slump). I think it's also hard for Raffi to not project because here is another woman whose life has changed completely (and whose marriage collapsed) after the synth ban, except B'Elanna has been doing great, necessary work ever since. It's not the kind of information Raffi can take with any kind of objectivity, imho.

She’s still very pale, burrowing in her suede jacket with her shoulders slumped, but she also seems more at ease, sitting with her weight on her folded right leg. Her knee-high boots must be as well-worn as the smooth elbows of her jacket.

idk guys, my dad used to wear this suede jacket everywhere and now I think it's THEE piece of clothing for mechanically minded, DIY people. And I couldn't leave out the boots, of course.

“I’ve heard about Coppelius,” Torres says, while Raffi walks down the stairs. Ah, the trade-off of leaving Elnor unsupervised with their guest. “I wondered if Seven had something to do with crashing a Borg cube onto the surface of a planet,” Torres continues. “She has a knack for—” “Being in the right place at the right time?” Raffi finishes for her, as she walks over to the table. She smiles, making herself as unassuming and nonthreatening as she can.

I'm also very proud of this scene between Raffi and B'Elanna, in which they're both so obviously taking the measure of each other, alternating between wariness and nonchalance. I also had fun throwing Elnor in the mix because his presence highlights that some of what they're doing is essentially posturing. Rereading it I liked the tension—these aren't the best circumstances in which to meet.

“You said you were attacked? And that your computer core was stolen?” “Yes. I was headed to a rendez-vous near the border, with people I worked with before. Instead of the old shuttles I expected, a warship showed up. Well, I think it was a warship,” Torres amends, “Because to be honest I couldn’t take a good look at it. It seemed to appear in and out of nowhere, and I was too busy trying to avoid its phaser cannons. Those were definitely not from a civilian ship.” She shakes her head. “I couldn’t do much, in any case, it was much faster than I was even at warp. That’s when I tried the subspace eddies, to see if I could slow them down—but then my shields were suddenly toast and my computer core was being beamed out. That’s when I got stranded.”

The bit of the plot I laid out here is something that remained pretty much unchanged from the first outline as well—essentially I had this very vivid image of B'Elanna's shuttle being attacked by a mystery ship, and then I reverse-engineered what lead to that particular outcome.

They’re getting to the heart of the matter, finally. “I’ve been meaning to ask—why would they be interested in stealing your computer?” Torres gives her a lopsided smile. “I am—good at fixing things. Warp cores, defensive systems, repurposing old tech. You name it, I’ve probably tried to bang it back into shape. I worked with all sorts of people, over the years, and over two quadrants” she adds, looking into the half-empty mug. “I have a lot of logs, to keep track of what I did for whom and in order to not get caught into feuds or other sorts of messy situations. It’s—coordinates, lists of equipment, people. Warp signatures. Even access codes, which might have changed after I used them or might’ve not.”

Heartfelt headcanon alert!! I think B'Elanna would find a lot of meaning in turning her life around this way, essentially taking what she loves doing and putting it in the service of mutual aid, even if it's a hard and thankless task. She would also have no illusion about what that entails, and how to survive in situations of conflict, I think.

Raffi is chilled to the bone. “That’s a lot of sensitive data.” Not to mention terrible info-sec all around. “Is the core encrypted at least?” “Look, I know what you’re thinking,” Torres says, glaring, “but I’m not stupid. Reliable and trustworthy offsite data storage is a little hard to come by, in my line of work. So yes, the data is encrypted, and I expect it to hold up against attacks for a little while at least. But it won’t last forever.” Raffi leans back, crossing her arms. She probably would’ve done things differently—had done things differently, during her self-imposed exile from society, getting lost into all sorts of information rabbit holes. She didn’t get rid of all her redundant copies and storage options even after being offered her Starfleet commission back. But Raffi hadn’t exactly been out there, had she? With how the pieces were constantly shifting in the sectors beyond the border, the only loyalty you could be sure of was to yourself. Granted, that’s only if you aren’t prone to self-destructive benders.

I've tried super hard to give Raffi opinions on stuff that concerns her (former) line of work, and this is one of them. She can recognize that B'Elanna didn't have the best info-sec because of her circumstances, but Raffi still thinks it was a terrible idea.

Torres’ eyes flicker to Elnor then back to Raffi. “Huh. I can see Seven has made some interesting friends lately.” Raffi could say the same about Seven’s friends from decades ago, but first she needs to find out what kind of interesting Torres exactly is. [...] Now that's what I call interesting, Raffi thinks, taken aback. The woman in front of her seems to know it too, with the way she’s meeting Raffi’s gaze steadily, as if she’s daring Raffi to have an objection to the absolutely batshit thing she’s just claimed to have done.

I can imagine that even after the return in the Alpha Quadrant, B'Elanna is still fond of crazy solutions for difficult problems, and it might just be the kind of wild feat that makes Raffi pause because I think she likes this kind of daring in people (see what she says to Soji in the show). And so here Raffi is, being wary of this woman and the rapport she and Seven still have, projecting a bit on her, and kind of admiring her. It's a complex, explosive mix of feelings and I think it can easily lead to attraction (as it does later).

“It’s—really nothing important,” she says, closing the holo-interface with an impatient flick of her left hand, “I’m probably just thinking too much. We just extracted her from a near-death situation, and I’m being a hard-ass.” Soji’s smile widens. “You did point a phaser at me the first time we met.”

Raffi blinks, Seven’s sudden apathy making very little sense. She takes in the scene properly; Seven and Torres standing apart, pointedly not meeting each other’s eyes. Elnor hangs out a bit to the side, hands clasped behind his back and a frown on his face. Long faces all around. What the hell happened back there?

I love Soji so much... she WOULD bring that up as a joke. I just had to. I also like the rest of their conversation; I think Soji really trusts Raffi's opinion and I've tried to make that clear there.

Raffi sighs, bringing both hands to her face, on the bridge of her nose. She’s the conspiracy auntie now, isn’t she? God, that’s so sad.

The show is a bit ambivalent, I think, in letting us know what is Raffi's own opinion on her quest to find out what was really behind the Mars attack. While Raffi was eventually proven right I don't think she's proud of how bad she made things for herself while pursuing her goal (even beyond the fact that I'm personally in disagreement with the way the show validates conspiracy theories). I think that after s1, Raffi's assessment of her past actions and fixations is also complicated by the fact that she's trying very hard to move on. The quote above is where I landed—a bit of self-deprecating humor.

I love mess round 2. B'Elanna wants to be out of La Sirena as soon as she can, given everything she's seen that Seven has not told her about, believing she's better off on her own, and Seven obviously doesn't understand why she wants to leave so soon in her state—hence the fight, still a common occurrence between them. But obviously Raffi doesn't know about B'Elanna's motivation at this point.

Raffi walks over to the bed, and sits down on the mattress beside Seven. “Are you worried for her?” “Hard not to be. She says she can manage alone, but she’s without a ship now, and she needs to get her computer core back soon or there will be consequences.” “And the people who stole it and left her for dead have a lot of firepower on their hands,” Raffi adds. Seven turns to her. Quirks her ocular implant in a gesture Raffi quickly learned to love, even if it often leads to heated confrontations. It’s not the case this time. “What are you thinking?” Well, time to explain herself. “Maybe it’s nothing, but I think Torres is not telling us everything about her attack. Her version is—missing context. And if you say you trust her, but she’s shutting you out as well—” Seven twists her mouth. “I don’t like the sound of that.” “I don’t mean that she’s lying to you, it’s just—” “No, I understand.” Seven reaches out to her again, placing her left hand implant on Raffi’s right. It’s cold, just like earlier, but once again the touch is steadying. Seven continues, “I just do not like to consider it.” She takes a big breath, then exhales. “Then again, it wouldn’t be out of character. B’Elanna can be—cagey.” The kettle to the pot, Raffi thinks wearily.

I think I wanted to conclude the chapter in a way that suggested that Seven, despite Raffi's misgivings, does trust her and her judgment a great deal already. I thought a lot about the kind of relationship they would have, even beyond what we've seen on the show, and I think Seven can see very clearly how smart Raffi is and how listening to her helps break Seven out of patterns in her life that would otherwise be inescapable—a thing Seven is also pretty scared of, I think, which is the source of a lot of their problems. The presence of B'Elanna, and the fact that they're already fighting, forces Seven to be a little more vulnerable, which goes a long way to smooth things out between her and Raffi (see also the way she asks Raffi to stay with her while she regenerates).

“Alright. I’ll stay then, and be unconscious with you.” Seven’s laugh, an almost silent affair, is another one of those rare rewards that Raffi will never get tired of witnessing.

I always thought Seven's (very rare) laughter would be almost silent, and tbh I don't care if the Picard show contradicts this. I still like the way this chapter ends a great deal.

[sexy-lee-min-woo]

[VIDEO] SHINHWA 13 UNCHANGING STORY DVD

Download Mp4, 480p, 846MB https://mega.nz/folder/REIDlApb#A1SdJQB-lNicN3FGmgXacw

[jazzytrait]

I just mentioned this on a comment elsewhere, but this is a serious issue around this time of year and it needs to be addressed: (hold onto your hats)

A great injustice has been perpetrated upon the youth of today. Someone took the very heart of the season and ripped it out, leaving current generations a hollow shell without even knowing what they're missing.

I am of course referring to... A Muppet Christmas Carol.

Ladies and gentleman of the jury, this beloved Christmas classic was released in 1992 starring Gonzo as Charles Dickens, Rizzo the rat as his helpful sidekick and Michael Caine as Scrooge alongside a host of other familiar muppet faces. This movie was not only accessible, funny and heartwarming for kids, full of songs that downright slapped, but also dark and scary- a typical late 70s to early 90s trait of Disney films that they try to cover up today (i.e. Return to Oz and Escape to Witch Mountain). HOWEVER... Some asshole in charge of the final cut of the film before release to vhs (an archaic form of physical media like a dvd, but with no menu, in the shape of plastic rectangle that you must treat gently and pay homage to or it will spit its soft filmy guts into your media player, ruining the movie and forcing you to sit there trying to untangle it for years to come) decided that this example of family film perfection was, in fact, too good. You see, the original cut of the film included a beautiful break-up song titled "When Love is Gone" sung by Belle and Michael Caine as Scrooge visits his mid 20s. It is my theory that this fuckwad (technical term) was unhappy in his marriage and/or reminded of his own inadequacies in his relationships by this song. This incensed him to execute his own personal agenda and bias on the film by ripping out this magical centerpiece of a scene. The official story is that he thought "kids won't care about this stuff". I. Call. Bullshit.

As if this wasn't already enough of an insult to the community at large - especially those who had already seen the film in its original form several times and were expected to just forget - the reprisal of the song at the end of the film was left unchanged, reminding us as rudely as possible of the missing key to the story as they sing "The Love We Found" to the melody of the now-squarely-on-the-cutting-room-floor masterpiece.

Ladies and gentlemen, this act of aggression towards the children of the modern age must not be forgotten. May we never again let some fuckface suit in editing remove our beloved tunes that defined our childhood from all future versions of the film. Never forget. Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk. EDIT: It is important to note that the film was not truncated due to concerns about length. A VHS can easily hold an average of 2hrs of content and this film clocks in at only 1hr 25min. Nope. This monster just wanted to destroy something beautiful.

[victimofthemusic]

Ok. For the DVD Commentary (it was very hard to choose a passage - this is one of the best fics in the fandom imo):

"Finally, Xavier’s eyes move from her face to her shoulder and he whispers, “Can I see it?”

Surprised and slightly taken aback, her first reaction is to say no, to admonish him for being greedy and asking too much of her, for taking more than she���s willing to give. 

But then she does what she refused to do last semester: she allows herself to look at him, really look at him, allows herself to see what he’s been trying to give her all along and she finds her own fears reflected back at her, the same fears she keeps under lock and key and buried six feet down in the depths of her soul. The same ones he allows to play out on his face, lurking like shadows in the depths of his eyes, his proverbial heart on his sleeve for her to see and hold and do with as she pleases, if she so wishes. 

It hits her, then, like a proverbial arrow to the shoulder, that the scar she bears on her shoulder was originally meant for his heart, the same heart he bears to her now. The same heart she almost died protecting by making the choice to step in front of that arrow. That same arrow that he shot originally to protect her, even though she had done everything she could to prove she didn’t need to be saved. This scar binds them together, connecting them in a way that’s unchangeable and undeniable, as sacred as any vow or promise that could be uttered between two people and even though it’s been imprinted into her skin forever, it’s Xavier’s scar, too. This piece of her body is no longer just hers, it belongs to him, too. "

For a fic commentary on any one of my fics, please see this post here

*

Oh my gosh first things first--thank you so much @jandjsalmon for not just participating, but for saying such sweet things and for even reading this fic in the first place🥺❤️

And secondly, I'm going to tell you a secret--this is my favorite scene in this entire fic and I'm so happy this is the one you chose🖤

I struggled a lot with this fic--I have four different drafts sitting in my google docs and I kept re-writing and re-writing, because I was so nervous about my portrayal of Wednesday and for some reason, I kept thinking back to that scene in the last episode, where she takes the arrow for Xavier and I kept getting stuck on the significance of what that meant--quite literally putting your own life on the line for someone else, sticking your neck out for someone in order to keep them safe, to protect them in such a visceral way. And for me, that little moment, that's signifies Wednesday's shift in her feelings for Xavier--or at least, an unconscious acknowledgement of what she feels for him.

And my thoughts kind of...spiraled from there.

It's hinted at throughout the show that Xavier and Wednesday are somehow linked--not only are their powers similar, but Wednesday keeps getting compared--by both Goody and Morticia-- to a raven throughout the show and in the first episode, Xavier is seen painting a mural of ravens. They also have a habit of saving each other--Wednesday saving Xavier from being burned alive in his Godmother's coffin and Xavier pushing her out of the way of the gargoyle in the first episode.

It just seems to be this pattern, this cycle, of them looking out for each other, protecting each other and I really wanted some physical evidence of that, tangible proof to tell that story.

And that's when I realized, the only scar--physically, at least-- Wednesday would carry from that night would be the one left behind by the arrow. Goody healed her stab wounds, but this one scar--she would have that one forever. And it's one she bears because she stepped in front of that arrow to save Xavier's life.

Wednesday is a very solitary creature, who is admittedly selfish, likes control, has self-preservation instincts a mile wide and doesn't do things without thinking it through and this scar, to me, would contradict all of these things--tangible proof that for one moment, she didn't think, she put someone before herself and risked her life to save someone else. And not just anyone, but Xavier--someone who she felt she couldn't trust, but I would also wager to believe she knew she could trust him, but didn't understand why she knew that, why her body seemed to know that and she projected that suspicion onto him.

And I felt like this scar would be something Wednesday would struggle to come to terms with--because of everything it represented to her. And I think the memory of how she got that scar, what she did to earn it, would be something that held a significance to Wednesday.

(And it didn't escape my notice--or Wednesdays--that the scar would be shaped like an X, too😏)

And to me, this scene, it shows Wednesday surrendering to a truth that she's known all along--that Xavier is a part of her, that they're lives are linked, somehow, someway and for someone who struggles with emotions like Wednesday, this would be the only way she'd be able to show him that. And I think that would mean more to Xavier than anything else--Wednesday, bearing this part of herself to him, because it says more than those three words could.

(Wednesday would totally be the type to romanticize scars and this is a hill I'll die on)

Scars tell stories--where we've been, what we've been through, what we've survived--and once I latched onto this concept, the writing of this story happened organically and came so naturally, it wrote itself.

I'm so sorry for this long winded rant, I swear I didn't mean to make it this long and I will give you so much credit if you bother to read any of this rambling over just a five hundred word section of a fic.

Sigh.

Music is a big part of how I write and in case you're interested the top five songs I listened to when writing this were:

1). Snow on the Beach by Taylor Swift

2). Maroon By Taylor Swift

3). Labyrinth By Taylor Swift

4). California by Lana Del Rey

5). Anyone Else by PVRIS

And a bonus track:

6). Strangeness And Charm by Florence + the Machine

I hope you enjoyed this little bit (ha, more like a lot of bit, again I'm so sorry💀) of commentary and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and thank you for giving me the opportunity to ramble about something I'm so very passionate about❤️

*

If anyone else would like to participate in something like this, simply pick one of my fics from here or ao3 and choose a 500 word section to get background info, commentary, a more in depth explanation, funny little anecdotes or what I was thinking when writing said scene, feel free to send it to me in my asks🖤 this was so much fun to do and I’d love to do more🖤

Credit to this post here

🖤

[hearts-shinhwa]

Reason why Hyesung’s always trolled: He’s too easy, he never learns, and it’s fun XD

[casasupernovas]

I'm back! Time for 'The Lazarus Experiment'!

Link to Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

The is long, so I have to split it up.

Away from Manhattan and the Doctor already tells the audience that it's the end of the Doctor/Martha Tardis team and he has taken her home although she doesn't know it. "Perfect landing, which isn't easy in such a tight spot," the tight spot of course being Martha's living room. Martha then follows this with "you should be used to to tight spots by now" and... 👁👄👁

It actually pains to see just how Martha did not realise that her time with the Doctor is apparently up. When she asks "where are we?" The Doctor responds "the end of the line." It's fairly obvious here that this is a goodbye. The audience is in denial and Martha is blissfully unaware. Because we know Martha is the official companion of the season. There's no way the story is ending here.

Martha runs to the Tardis door. Looks at him expectantly. The Doctor says reiterates the finality again; "no place like it." It is so obvious but Martha clearly does not think the Doctor is dumping her, not after what happened with the Daleks? New New York? Shakespeare? The Moon? But we've already established that the Doctor didn't even get to see Martha be brilliant in Manhattan, they are seperated so many times the past couple of adventures. Intriguing that this one puts them together. Again, Martha does not get the Wizard of Oz reference (who knows maybe a callback to the Doctor apparently being unaware of the 'Butterfly Effect') but instead gives him an excited grin and opens the door.. to find her living room. "Home. You took me home."

As I type this, I stated it seemed obvious that he took her home, but honestly, despite the fact that we know Gallifrey is gone, it kind of sounded like he was taking her to a place that he would consider a home to himself. I dunno. Thoughts?

Anyway, Martha's theme plays over the Doctor emerging from the Tardis after her looking very pleased with himself. We of course, know exactly why he is so chuffed he got her back to her home, in the right timeline...

Martha expresses confusion at how all this is possible considering all they have done, the Doctor explaining that using the Tardis, he made it happen relatively "all in one night." I'll also point out how while Martha queries how this is possible, the Doctor looks at Martha's photos. I think the most interesting part of this scene is something the Doctor said in 'Gridlock'; how he hardly knows Martha. It's been said how the Doctor is more of an interruption to Martha's life. Placing him quite literally in the middle of Martha's life enhances Martha's character. Because it shows how rich a character she is. Unlike Rose, she has her own place, decorated, clearly lived in for a while, her answerphone goes off, her laundry is in the corner, before she travelled with the Doctor she reeled off all the errands she had to run. Martha's life all comes crashing back into view and it's interesting to see just how much about it the Doctor does not know, or cared to ask about. I said this before but while Martha always asked questions about the Doctor's life, he never once asked about hers.

Martha's confusion is also a great callback to the show in general. When Rose was sent back home in series 1, the dichotomy between Satelittle Five and the ordinariness of the Powell Estate was palpable. It's the same here, it doesn't seem possible to Martha that she could have gone through so much, only to come back to a (seemingly) unchanged Earth. Same with Donna having flashbacks when she walked back on her very ordinary street. As the Doctor tells her, everything is unchanged here "books, cds...laundry" as he picks up a piece of her underwear which Martha snatches away, clearly embarassed. Why he does this beats me, and even on the DVD commentary with Mark Gatiss and David Tennant, Mark commented that this is probably the first time we have seen a companions pants let alone see the Doctor touch them. So...yay?

It's a reoccurring theme that the Doctor in this era is an undercover sexual deviant, mainly for laughs because the Doctor has been such an asexual character for so long. The policeman from 'Aliens of London' seem to think he lured Rose into a sex cult (which is why she cannot say where she has been or why she disappeared) and we get the whole "you just want to mate" joke in s4, as well as the Doctor saying "I should do that more often" after he kissed Donna (her face is hilarious) causing him to expell the poison. Those examples are a bit more humorous (Jackie's concern is valid) but with Martha here, it just seems inappropriate and even borders on offensive/disrespectful. Also more embarrassing for Martha considering she has a crush on the guy. ALSO this is not the first time in the series that Doctor does something inappropriate with Martha. In the original script for 'The Shakespeare Code' in the bedroom scene, the Doctor was supposed to strip down to his underwear before jumping into bed. Thankfully David refused. There's this strange sexual undercurrent with Martha in some of these episodes and I'm not sure they are handled very well, it's a bit graceless. Not like 'The Doctor Dances'. Some of it is clearly for laughs as we will see later, but there's an underlining theme with the allegory for the Doctor and Martha's relationship in this series. I mean this episode's chronology with 'Smith and Jones' is the equivalent of Martha having a one night stand. It's what Francine thinks she's done. She gets keys to the flat (the flat being the Tardis) later. Mattha's theme is also very sultry. It's my favourite and I like how the Doctor and Martha's theme have this female voice singing, her vocal is more alluring than haunting like the Doctor's.

Also randomly, as I was doing a little research for this post, I came across a randomly homophobic review, where the writer stated that the Doctor and Martha's knickers scene was "sexually cheeky yet sweet (unlike the bisexual kissing in The Parting of Ways and numerous gay comments littered in Series 1) and wow. Do I even need to explain this one?

Moving swiftly on, the Doctor reiterates it's the end of the line, Martha says "so this is it" and the Doctor's reaction is...interesting. "Yeah...I should probably um..." He has an air of I really wanna get out of here, because everytime Martha draws his attention to how he is dumping her rather unceremoniously, he looks very sheepish. But sheepish in the way when you start grinning like mad because you feel really awkward. It's quite incredible to watch, he's so detatched, unmoved at leaving her.

He is then interrupted by Martha's life making itself known - on Earth, this is Martha's territory, a voicemail. Martha apologises for this which is interesting, because she has nothing to apologise for. It's her flat, her phone, her life. It goes to show the level of importance the Doctor has been elevated to in her life. She has interrupted the Doctor's big goodbye speech, not the other way around. She's inconveniencing the Doctor. Wasting his time. Her time with him was only borrowed anway. "As promised." So we get a voicemail from Martha's mother Francine, Martha again stresses that this is inconveniencing the Doctor, saying "it's my Mum, it'll wait." We get a cute moment though, after Francine says "alright, pretend you're out if you like" and they both chuckle because - she has been out. Francine then tells her her sister Tish is on the news and we get the first sign of the shows titular plot - 'The Lazarus Experiment'. Tish is standing right next to Doctor Lazarus. This is the first example we get of the Master elevating Martha's family into unusual positons to draw Martha and the Doctor out. Martha switches off the tv, while the Doctor looks very perturbed at what Dr Lazarus has stated; that he will change what it is to be human. But alerted back to Martha, they continue their goodbyes. "We should...we should..." and he puts an arm on the Tardis, above Martha's head, Martha has both hands together in front of her, down past her waist.

He's leaving so Martha tries again, moves a little closer and says "I suppose things just kind of...escalated." A sentiment that the Doctor does not disagree with. It was supposed to be one trip but he took her on three. Martha then thanks the Doctor for everything and the Doctor says it was his pleasure. He then leaves and Martha takes a deep breath, moving away to watch the Tardis go. The music swells and Martha is visibly upset before realising the Tardis is returning, smiling. The Doctor returns and makes it known that he is not returning for Martha, he's interested in Dr Lazarus of course. What do you mean you're gonna change what it means to be human?

Next Section Here!

[supeson]

the living is wise

part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine , part ten, part eleven, part twelve, part thirteen, part fourteen , part fifteen, part sixteen, part seventeen

Living alone allots you certain privileges. Coming and going whenever you please, buying whatever food strikes your fancy at the moment. One of those privileges, you thought, was being able to sleep in on your one Saturday off in a month. The trilling of your cell phone tells you another story. You let it ring three times before you grip it tightly, squinting before bringing it up to your face. It’s Bruce. You let out a huff, but swipe to accept the call. 

“You have about a minute to buzz us in before three highly trained professionals break into your apartment,” He tells you. You can imagine him on the sidewalk looking up at your apartment, calculating all of the ways he could get in without using your front door.

“Just three?” You yawn into the phone. 

“Bruce Wayne would never be caught breaking into some shabby apartment building in the middle of Gotham. My kids on the other hand, I have no control over.”

You groan, but roll off of the bed and onto your feet. Bruce lets out a small laugh, and nods to Dick to open the door as he hears you shuffle around, then hit the buzzer next to your front door. “The elevator’s broken again, by the way. The super has been ‘trying’ to fix it for a week now.”

Tim lets out a moan of despair at seeing the out of order sign, but dutifully pivots to the stairs. Bruce hangs up with a smile, starting the trek up to your third floor apartment. 

                                                        *

Your apartment looks unchanged from the many other times he’s been there, aside from the box in the corner filled with cartridge cases and DVDs. Your cats are nowhere to be seen, and there's an open cereal box on the kitchen counter.

"I thought you said you have been packing," Bruce says, pulling off his gloves as he walks around. His kids are doing the same, exploring every nook and cranny (that they hadn't already seen on a computer monitor).

"I have. You can see the box in the corner, can't you? That's all packed up, babe." Bruce narrows his eyes. He doesn't appreciate the sarcastic tone of that babe. You roll your eyes. "Alright, I wasn't expecting you guys to be here at the ass crack of dawn to help me move. I thought you'd be here at like, two o'clock or something. I was gonna get up and start frantically shoving shit into boxes at noon."

“The early bird catches the worm,” Dick chimes from the kitchen, already pulling your dinner plates from a cabinet. You scrunch your nose at him. The other two Wayne kids take that as an invitation to start going through things as well, opening drawers and taking things off of shelves. They find the boxes you bought in the closet and set to work packing. 

“There are uh. Boxes in the closet for the figures you’ll come across. Please put them in the corresponding box. I’m gonna go to my room.” You go down the short hallway off of your kitchen and shut yourself in the room at the end of it. You kneel and look under your bed just to make sure, but sure enough, there are Tigger and Little Bit, huddled under your bed, eyes wide. “Yea, I know.”

You spend twenty minutes working up the energy to change into regular clothes, and by the time you’re pulling on some jeans, someone knocks. “Yea, you can have some of my snacks, but don’t touch the Cheez-Its, I’ve been saving those.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a Cheez-It,” Bruce speculates from the other side. 

“Oh fuck,” You mutter. You open the door for him, letting him sit on your bed as you continue to get dressed. He looks at you appraisingly while your shirt is off, and you roll your eyes. “Your kids are right outside and I know for a fact these walls are thin. I’ve gotten noise complaints.”

Bruce just smiles knowingly, then wrinkles his nose as he watches you pick up the dirty clothes off of the floor and dump them into a large box, then do the same with the clean clothes hanging up in your closet. “Shouldn’t those be separated and folded?”

“Have you ever done your own laundry, rich boy? No? Trust me, in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter. I was just gonna wash ‘em when I got to your house anyway. Who cares about wrinkles?” Bruce opens his mouth to respond, but you’re faster. “Yea yea Alfred does, I know. I’ll deal with him later.”

Bruce says nothing, just watching you quickly, albeit messily, pack the rest of your closet. He gets up to help you pack up your various knickknacks around the room, but stops when he sees you hesitate. He can tell what you’re thinking already. “I do want you at the Manor. We’ve already cleared out space for all of your things, believe it or not. Don’t throw away who you are to fit into my life. Please.”

“I just feel so...juvenile, compared to you. You have great artworks and books signed by the authors and expensive vases just hanging around. I have anime figures that are depreciating in value by the day and this old Yu-Gi-Oh! comforter my mom wouldn’t throw away, and now I won’t throw away. It just seems so...out of place for me there. Your house has been featured in maybe a dozen magazines! My apartment has only been featured in my 2AM snapchats to my friends.” You wrap your hand around a small plushie, seemingly testing its weight in your palm. You’re mentally testing its weight in memories. Is it dear enough to you to go with you into this next phase of your life?

He comes up behind you and places a hand on your arm. “My house is a façade. It’s perfectly tailored and manicured to look the way it does, to keep up my billionaire persona. None of those paintings or books or antiques hold any value to me. Most of them were bought at charity auctions or brought into the house by Alfred. These,” He gestures to the things hanging up on your walls and sitting on your shelves, “things mean something to you. They hold special meaning, or memories for you. Your stuff makes you happy, and that’s all it needs to do. It’ll fit into my home just fine, because it’s your home too now. Feel free to fill it with as much stuff as possible. God knows it might actually need some redecorating anyway.”

You’re about to open your mouth to respond when you hear scuffling coming from outside your door. You set your plushie down with a slight downward quirk to your lips and turn towards the door. Dick bursts in just as you hear “Bruce!” and ‘Father!” come from the living room. 

“Okay nothing is permanently broken, first of all, but do you think your landlord will still give you back your security deposit if the ceiling fan became a floor fan?”

[purplesurveys]

1556

what is your favorite kind of ice cream? I like the popsicle-style ice cream where there’s a hardened coating you can bite through. Never saying no to those.

if people could read your mind, what would they usually find? My never-ending worries about work and deadlines and clients and deliverables and reports and emails.

who do you talk to on the phone most often? I never use calls (audio or video) as a means to communicate when messaging can achieve the exact same thing, hahaha.

what's a song that makes you feel happy? Jungkook’s Euphoria or Jin’s Moon :)

what celebrity would you like to meet? Namjoon. I feel like I could learn so much from the dude in just five minutes’ worth of conversation.

what's the best concert you've ever been to? Haven’t been to a lot so my answer is unchanging - Paramore, 2018. More than being front row for it, the energy was just something else. I was glad they had moved on from their signature emo/rock style at that point cos it allowed the crowd to be more mellow, so it was a two-hour experience of just dancing freely and a whole lot of chill vibing.

what is your favorite clothing store? H&M, but I also mostly pick out clothes from small independent businesses too cos they have a lot of trendy pieces for like third of the usual price. And you get to support small and local too, which is the best part for me.

how did you meet your best friend? I stabbed her palm with a pencil in Grade 1.

do you need money to be happy? I touched on this in the last survey I took, but the brief answer to this would be yes. I lack privilege in a lot of yes, and I’m in a position where money is an absolute necessity to alleviate my day-to-day worries and problems.

what is something you do well? Pull through my duties while staying stable. I honestly surprise myself with the lack of breakdowns I’ve had this year, despite how taxing work has been.

what's a good idea you've had recently? I guess surprising Bea with milk tea and sushi? We’ve had a lot of teammates leave the company in the span of a week, and long story short it’s left our team in particular considerably understaffed. I know it’s been rough for her knowing she handles a heavier workload than I do, so I got her a little something as a Friday treat but also as a morale booster. And she really liked it, so I hope it was able to help her someway somehow.

what is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? I skip breakfast all the time lol but if I had the luxury of time to actually eat before work, my ideal meal would be garlic rice with a sunny-side up egg and two hotdogs.

how far in advance do you prefer to plan? It depends on what I’m planning for and how enthusiastic I am for the thing that needs planning.

do you like to wear high heels? I love high heels. There aren’t many occasions where I get to wear them, so when I get the chance I definitely pick the highest heels available hahaha.

how many slices of pizza do you usually eat? 2-3, usually.

Can you remember life without technology? what was it like? Nah. I’m a 1998 baby, first of all hahaha. Which means to say technology was already starting to rapidly rise by that point -- a number of my earliest memories involve me watching my dad play games on the PC and my mom painstakingly sending emails to my dad with dial-up internet.

what gift would you like to receive? Master cooking and baking skills. what's the last thing you paid for? LOL the order I booked for a new BTS DVD...

what's the last movie you watched? I think that would be Parasite, which I watched about a month ago.

do you remember your dreams? Some of them.

do you play any instruments? Nah.

do you always smile for pictures? Eh, not always. Sometimes I’ll do cute poses like a kiss face, or like a half smile where I’ll have my teeth out but I’m not actually smiling.

what are you most excited about right now? Next Saturday. Busan concert day is sooooooooo close and I waited for ages for it. I want to make sure I have the best time ever this weekend :)

if you had $5 in your pocket what yould you spend it on? I’d save that for emergencies but realistically I am likely to spend it on Starbucks lol.

how often do you buy things via the internet? At least once a week, and they’re mostly food deliveries.

would you like to live in a different country? if so which one? In a heartbeat, man. Opportunities are anywhere but here. It’s so frustrating. Please don’t take what you’ve got for granted.

what animal would you see first if you went to the zoo? This question was also on another recent survey I took, how strange. I don’t feel like retyping that entire answer though.

if you could switch places with someone for a day, who would it be? This girl I follow on Instagram who’s able to buy literally every BTS merch that comes out and travels to South Korea multiple times a year, whether it’s to watch the boys or visit a bunch of BTS-related spots, whether it’s their favorite restaurants or music video filming areas. I’m not envious of her at all and in fact I really enjoy seeing her life unfold and the different adventures she gets to be a part of, but I’d love to try being her for a day.

do you prefer the aisle, middle, or window seat on a plane? Always the window. Apart from the views it also lets me lean on something when I have to sleep.

what's your favorite song from a movie? Sparkle from Kimi no na wa.

where would you like to volunteer? At an animal shelter or a museum.

would you rather go out for dinner or cook at home? Go out! Dinner’s always a great to be out.

who sent the last text message you received? Apart from the hundred scam messages I get in a day, it was someone related to my work.

what's your favorite flower? Peonies.

what's the last song you listened to? I blame the favorite movie soundtrack question because right now I’m literally listening to the live orchestra version of Sparkle, haha. It’s been a while since I heard the beautiful crescendo and just had to hear it again.

do you like being alone? Sure, I need it every now and then of course.

what was the last thing you ate? Pasta and toast.

how do you find new music? Spotify.

what is your dream travel destination? Seoul!

if you could play any instrument what would it be? Piano.

what's the last youtube video you watched? The aforementioned orchestra video.

where are you going on your next trip? Not so sure. Maybe next month? I know my family’s looking to go out of town once my dad is back home.

what are you currently addicted to? BTS as has been glaringly obvious for some time now, lol.

[flexivewor]

Mastercontroller sims 3 create a sim

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This mod is some what like 'Inseminator for Sims3'. Note: It is compatible with latest Sims 3 1.19/2.14/3.10/4.7/5.5/6.2/7.0 patches.ħ.The SuperComputer Mod The MasterController : I think by the title you can understand the nature of the Mod, this mod adds custom CAS sliders that allows us to change properties of the Sim that where previously unchangeable, and achieve a more realistic Sims game.ĭownload link: Delphy's BreastSliders.rar Update : It is Compatible with latest Sims 3 1.18/2.13/3.9/4.6/5.3/6.1 patches.Ħ.Create-a-Sim: Adjustable Female Breast sliders Also it will allow user-directed same sex pregnancy. Inteen 3 Mod (Extended game core):This Mod enables all romance options (woohoo, pregnancy, marriage) across age ranges between Teen, YA, Adult and Elder in Sims 3. This is another great story progression mod for Sims 3 game.For me it is a typical mod, once you are in this Mod you cannot enjoy other core modes likeĬompatible with latest Sims 3 1.29 updateĥ. Note: Compatible with latest patches Such as 1.29 The purpose of the mod is to simulate a life-like balance among the inactive members of town, while providing the user the option to disable functionality they do not want.ĭownload Link: Twallan Story Progression Mod One of the interesting feature is you can jump to other neighborhoods by making or selecting neighborhood sim as active. So it will not conflict with any other mods. The highlight of this mod is, it is a Non- core mod. However there is mod which had taken Foot steps of Indie Stone Story Progression Mod.

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Parents, Guardians and Older Siblings: While mods can help improve your Sims 3 game and performance, some mods will add mature content, breaking the game's T for Teen Rating! That being said, you should do more intensive research, on what package files will be installed into your modified Sims 3 game, if you share your game and PC with your. Even though The Sims 3 is a classic game, it is still an old one that means some of its vanilla features can feel outdated. If you desire to go back to The Sims 3 after many years, we have compiled a list of the best The Sims 3 mods for you.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#20yrsago Why secrecy sucks (digital TV DRM edition) https://web.archive.org/web/20020605164106/https://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/guest_commentary/3218127.htm

#20yrsago Roll-your-own consensus and defeat the Hollyweird conspiracy https://memex.craphound.com/2002/05/09/roll-your-own-consensus-and-defeat-the-hollyweird-conspiracy/

#15yrsago Spider Robinson’s Hugo-winning “Melancholy Elephants” online http://www.spiderrobinson.com/melancholyelephants.html

#15yrsago AT&T whistle-blower interview https://www.wired.com/2007/05/spying-in-the-death-star-the-att-whistle-blower-tells-his-story/

#15yrsago Giant coalition opposes Broadcast Treaty www.keionline.org/misc-docs/StmtforMay9USPTORoundtable.pdf

#10yrsago Geekdad on Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow https://www.wired.com/2012/05/cory-doctorow-great-big-beautiful-tomorrow/

#10yrsago Buying DVDs just got worse thanks to obnoxious new anti-piracy warnings (pirating movies remains unchanged) https://www.wired.com/2012/05/anti-piracy-warning-updated/

#10yrsago Leaked DHS memo: Pornoscanners don’t work https://www.wired.com/2012/05/body-scanner-vulnerabilities/

#10yrsago @neil-gaiman​ on Maurice Sendak https://www.wired.com/2012/05/maurice-sendak-rip/

#5yrsago Intel declared war on general purpose computing and lost, so now all our computers are broken https://memex.craphound.com/2017/05/09/intel-declared-war-on-general-purpose-computing-and-lost-so-now-all-our-computers-are-broken/

[x0401x]

Given >> New Years Trading Acrylic Stands

Bonus: messages from the voice actors under the cut!

(T/N: These messages were posted to the official Twitter on Christmas Eve, celebrating the release of the last Blu-ray/DVD volume. I only just got to translating them, but they’re still fresh!)

Yano Shougo (voice of Satou Mafuyu)

Congratulations for the “Given” Blu-ray/DVD vol.4 hitting the shelves.

Ever since I was told about the audition, I thought about Mafuyu every day. I had been face-to-face with the past and day-by-day that Mafuyu is burdened with, wondering about just how difficult it would be to start walking on from that point, after being separated from someone important. I think the live concert scene from episode nine where Mafuyu sang “Fuyu no Hanashi” was his confession to Yuuki, as well as Mafuyu’s shout. At the same time, there is also the fact that it is a song he was able to sing due to having met everyone from Given and spending time together with them. I hope people can feel from this song the miracle that happens to Mafuyu’s “from now on”.

And the story will continue as a movie. Just like in the ending theme song “Maru Tsuke”, Mafuyu and the others will live on by checking their answers with others, be them right or wrong. Continuing from until this point, I hope people can watch over them with unchanging love from now on as well.

Lastly, I have a load of gratitude from the bottom of my heart for being able to meet Mafuyu. For being able to meet Haruki, Ritsuka, Akihiko. And for being able to meet Yuuki. Also for everyone supporting all of these meetings. Truly, thank you very much!!

Uchida Yuuma (voice of Uenoyama Ritsuka)

From episode nine onwards, the story moves on largely through the minds of Ritsuka and the others, so my heart was racing as we did the recordings. Their figures as they sense each other’s hearts through the language called music make me feel that those meetings might have been inevitable.

The monologue he had while replacing the guitar strings was very memorable. That and other things made the recording with “Ritsuka and the others” into trouble (laughs). There were depictions of many sorts of emotions, but all of them are inside Ritsuka, so the challenge was how far I could portray them. His teenage figure rolling up with unrest also made my heart squeeze!

Nakazawa Masato (voice of Nakayama Haruki)

“We’ll reach the goal and head to the next starting line” was what episodes nine to eleven were like. This goes without saying for the live concert scene, but I was able to see in them quite a few “changes”, such as everyone’s excitement as they welcomed the concert and the loneliness that suddenly welled up from it.

The feeling of “daily life” from Yuuki and Mafuyu’s seashore scene incites tears... Ah, no good, this is supposed to be a normal commentary. To me, Mafuyu was a ball of cuteness when he accidentally started crying.

Eguchi Takuya (voice of Kaji Akihiko)

During the recording of the drama CDs, we would look at each other’s faces at opposing sides of the microphones, and ad-libbing was emphasized, so they were fun to record... *laughs* Speaking about my own ad-libbing, it was actually a moment where I would use a stop watch and compete with the others, so it was fun to go over to everyone’s microphones and get in their way. Everyone’s state of bewilderment was literally so real. It was a performance that we would not be able to create anywhere except in that space... *laughs*

[buckstaposition]

I cling to your lips like gloss (2)

a Javier Peña x OFC story

also on AO3

author: @youhavereachedtheendofpie (in case u wanna come say hello on main but no pressure)

rating/warnings: swearing, mentions of character death, some mentions of sexual situations but nothing explicit, spoilers for season 2 (should probably have tagged ch1 for this too oops)

words: 6607, no regrets

summary: it’s not a date if it’s for work

Author’s note: There is so much research that went into this I would just like to say thank you internet for letting me look up stuff from the comfort of my own home at unholy hours even though I did get very distracted while looking up late 80s wedding dress fashion. Also bless the s2 dvd extra which was a director’s commentary on s2 ep10 and very informative.

—

Tag list: @keeper0fthestars @opheliaelysia @dindjarindiaries @fromthedeskoftheraven @shikin83 

(message me if you want to be added to the list. or just message me in general)

and also I urge you to look at the beautiful moodboard that @huliabitch made for me! I love it so much!

Masterlist

Prologue

Chapter 1 - The Informant

Chapter 2 - A Wedding and Four Funerals

"All the best from Mr DEA." Diana said as she threw herself down in the seat across from her best friend. Gabriela looked effortlessly glamourous as usual, even though she was just in a blouse and jeans. She just had that air about her, like one of the vintage movie stars, something Diana had never quite been able to match. She was well aware she was downright frumpy in comparison, not one to catch eyes just by walking past. For the most part, that suited her. Gabi tried to seem nonchalant about the greeting.

"Oh?" She sipped gingerly from her drink and put her menu away. "You finally met, then? He's back?"

Diana nodded and stowed away her purse and cardigan. "Yeah, this afternoon and yesterday, in the morning. He seems... nice enough? I don't know. Not a talker, is he? He seems a bit on edge, to be honest. Though I suppose that's to be expected." But despite everything, he still has kindness in his eyes.

Gabi just grinned at her for a long moment, waiting to pounce.

"Yeah, he can be a bit of a grump. ...Handsome though, no?"

Diana sighed, swatting at the other woman with her own menu. "Did it ever occur to you that the newly divorced woman might have had her fill of men for the time being?"

"It has occcurred to me that five years of unchanging, uninspired missionary for half an hour exactly, twice a week, with that wet blanket you married might have left you with the need to really be filled by a man for once."

"Gabriela!" she gasped, choking on thin air and mortification, even though their conversations would often get way more explicit than this. Just never with her being the subject. Gabriela just smiles like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, hailing a waiter to give him their order.

"Speaking of newly divorced: has the dipshit finally signed the papers then?" Diana groaned, throwing her glasses down onto the table to massage her temples.

"No, he's dragging his feet. Which is ridiculous, it's not like I want anything from him. It's not like we're fighting tooth and nail over every other thing, like that American movie, the one we watched on your mom's old VHS player, you know? With Meryl Streep? In any case, now he decides to fight? If you can call that fighting."

"Kramer vs Kramer." Gabi remarked sagely. "Yeah... At least you don't have children together. That could really have gone ugly. I still don't know what you ever saw in that man."

"Oh shut it. I used to be fond of Juan Mateo; I don't know when that changed." Diana huffed, quickly snatching up her glasses when the waiter sailed over with their drinks and appetizer.

"Well that's the problem, you never loved him! And your parents set too good an example; what could ever live up to that?" She took a generous drag from her drink, then dug into the food with hungry abandon. "At least you're finally rid of his snoring. And his mother."

"God, she really hated me. Couldn't bear it that her precious boy brought some lowly scum from the comunas into her pristine middle class home. Marrying me might have just been the only demonstration of free will that man has ever managed." Diana allowed herself to seethe a bit at the memory, taking it out on her food as she stabbed at it roughly. "And I will definitely not miss the snoring."

"Mr DEA barely snores." Gabriela remarked lightly. "Just ...very softly. It's quite cute."

"Since when do you let clients stay to actually sleep?" Diana inquired around a mouthful, brows scrunched. Gabriela hummed thoughtfully, swiping some sauce off her plate with a piece of bread.

"Ah, but he was so tired, poor thing. It wouldn't have been safe to send him back out, he would have crashed his car and died in a ditch somewhere, which would have been a real shame. I just let him nap for an hour or so that one time. Besides, I wasn't in any state to do much myself after he blew my back out." She had a way of being so nonchalant about these things that Diana supposed came from a sort of professional equanimity. Diana possessed no such poise and gawked openly, the wheels turning in her head as she recalled previous conversations and connected dots.

"Oh." She breathed as realization hit. "Oh! No! That was him? You're kidding me. How am supposed to look him in the eye now?" Gabi was already cackling, barely able to hold her laughter as Diana sputtered, recalling the very detailed recounting she'd received after the night in question. "You said you felt that for days after!"

"I did, but it was worth it." Gabi was now subtly holding her sides, having pushed her empty plate away to be collected. "You see, you're my dearest and oldest friend and I only want the best for you."

"I'm sure Mr DEA would be delighted to know of your crude attempts to pimp him out." Diana snarked, pushing her own plate to the side just in time to be whisked away by the waiter. "You're incorrigible. This is serious. Besides, I think he really liked you, actually."

"He liked the illusion of intimacy, like most of my clients. Lonely but with committment issues to the moon and back. It's not like I'm telling you to marry him. I'm just trying to get you properly laid for once." Gabriela scoffed. She could be so detached sometimes. In fact, one could call it downright cynical. But Diana had known her since they were both in pigtails and could detect the care behind even the most jaded words.

"Oh whatever. I request a change of topic. How's your book coming along? Any progress on that chapter that's been giving you so much trouble?" Diana asked sweetly, making the other woman glare at her over the plates with their main courses as they were being set down. Because yes, Gabriela does indeed write more than letters, and she's good, too. Also, two can play this game of being just slightly mean.

--- --- ---

Javier hated team meetings. And now that he was the boss here he couldn't even get out of them. Worse, he had to lead them. He looked over the assembled agents, glad that he had most of their names down by now. Gladder still that this was a DEA-only event and he wouldn't have to deal with any of Stechner's CIA asswads for now.

"Duffy, where are we on the shipments?" He turned to the other man expectantly. Duffy was one of the few agents here that weren't younger than him; he actually had some experience under his belt, unlike all these fucking greenhorns the higher-ups had sent him. He forced himself to pay attention to Agent Duffy's answer, making notes of important dates as he listened. Operation Cornerstone had, at this point, not yet come to full fruition, but if they continued to put in their due dilligence it was almost certain to turn up something useful. When they'd gone through all the points on his agenda, and after clearing up a few uncertainties, he dismissed the roomful of agents.

"Duffy, got another moment?" Javier stopped the other agent as he turned to leave the conference room.

"Sir?" Duffy sat back down and pulled his writing pad back out.

"Have you come up with any ideas for my informant in Calí?" Javier had mentioned this before, seeing as Duffy was one of the agents permanently stationed at the Calí field office. Now that Escobar was gone it would look suspicious if the head of the DEA in the country trekked up to Medellín every other week, and they needed a better way for Miss Rivas to hand over her collected intel. Duffy cleared his throat and caught the eye of one of his colleagues and waved him over.

"Lopez here has had a few ideas, sir. Tony, tell the boss your ideas for drop-offs."

The other agent was younger, handsome in that pretty way that made girls sigh dreamily, going by his own, admittedly remote, memory of high school and college. Lopez hadn't said much during the meeting, but had that eager glint in his eyes that said he wanted to prove himself. Javier had had that same look when he first came down here; it hadn't survived the first year.

"Let's hear it."

"Okay, so I was thinking the public library might be worth a shot." Agent Lopez pulled a notepad from his own case, squinting down at the scrawled chickenscratch. Javier nodded along, encouraging more than praise. He'd have to run these ideas by Miss Rivas anyway, and if she had concerns they were back at square one. But that was a river he intended to cross when the time came and not a second earlier.

--- --- ---

The satphone was also a good instinct because after their preliminary meetings in April, it gets irritatingly difficult to arrange another one for over a month.

"The what now?"

"The 4th International Poetry Festival. It's on from June 2nd to 8th." she explained patiently. "Orietta Lozano, Gloria Gervitz, Blanca Varela!"

"I assume those are poets."

"Obviously."

"You want me to go to a poetry festival with you?"

"No, I'm taking the week off and I'm going to the festival, and I am also free to meet you. I'm just suggesting that maybe your work hours don't all have to be spent in dreariness and drudgery." Something sizzled on the other end of the line where she was making herself dinner while talking to him, and it made Javier's stomach grumble. "A bit of culture is good for the soul, Agent Peña. You'll burn yourself out with how much you work. When was the last time you ever did anything for fun? Read a book? Hell, listened to music?"

Whenever you call me. She always had music on at home. It drifted through the receiver, a soothing background hum that was too soft to truly make out most times. Add to that the fact that he was still sitting in his office at almost half past seven in the evening, and he didn't have a proper counter-argument.

"Alright, fine. 2nd to 8th, I'll see what I can do."

--- --- ---

She was wearing another belted shirt dress, this one pale yellow and sleeveless, the full skirt reaching to just below the knees. It reminded Javier of the style his mother used to wear when he was little. Saturday, June 4th, had him meet up with Miss Rivas at the Teatro Metropolitano in central Medellín. Her dress contrasted against the blocky red building in a way that tugged familiar, but Javier was trying to train himself to not see blood in every instance of red.

"This is quite a way from Envigado." He announced his approach as soon as he was close enough to not have to shout. She jumped a bit, clearly startled, but her lips pulled into a polite smile when she recognized him.

"Agent Peña." She greeted. "No, cultural grandeur doesn't usually make it out to the comunas." She sat back down on the bench and pulled a flyer from her (rather big) purse, thumbing it pensively. Javier sat beside her, not quite at arms' length. Trying to appear wordlessly inviting, if only to mask how at a loss for words she made him feel. He seemed to be no longer used to normal, civil human interaction.

"Right, there is one reading here at the Metropol that starts in about half an hour that I think you might like. It has a few of the international poets; a few of them will be reading in English. Then there's another one later at the Teatro Carlos Vieco that I'm keen on. It's about half an hour on foot between locations, but there's the open air exhibits that only require a small detour." She pointed it all out on the program as she spoke, Javier silently nodding along in acknowledgement. "I've planned it so there's more than enough time for a lunch break. I hate having to rush through things that are meant to be enjoyed. I brought arepas, but there are usually enough street vendors out and about to get something else, if you prefer." She really did talk a lot. That was surprisingly fine by Javier, since it meant he didn't have to. "Though of course if you'd rather just get your intel and go I understand, but I must insist on at least this first reading, Agent Peña. But otherwise I wouldn't want to impose. I'm sure you have other things to do."

His lips twitched involuntarily and he held his hand out for the program flyer, silently reading it over. None of the names rung any kind of bell. Not that he was much of a poetry aficionado. "Sounds good to me."

She blinked. "Which part?"

He handed her back the flyer, which she took automatically, still eyeing him with uncertainty.

"All of it." She blinked again, looking mildly shocked, the flyer still dangling uselessly from her fingers. "Miss Rivas, I came all the way here and you went through all this trouble planning. It would be a waste to part ways after so short a time."

Truth be told it sounded ...nice. The thought of spending a day just exploring, letting work be work for even just a day (or at least part of it). Despite being an only child, he'd never liked being on his own even when he was young, cherishing every day spent with school friends or any of his numerous cousins. And it wasn't like he'd had to do far less pleasant things for information.

Her expression morphed from uncertain gaping into a wide, pleased smile that he couldn't help but mirror. Maybe she was quite a nice lady after all.

---

"...I have to ask though: What's a ...smit- ...smee-dereen?"

"Smithereens." Javier corrected gently as they exited the venue after the reading. "It means... it's all the small pieces that are left over when something is destroyed. Like with a bomb."

"Hmm," she hummed, pensive as they strolled along with the leisurely flow of the crowd, "I'll have to think a bit more about this." She fished around in her purse, producing bottled water and offering him one. He took it gratefully, unscrewing the cap and taking a sip. "How did you like it, Agent Peña? Already regretting agreeing to this?"

"No." Javier found himself replying perhaps a smidgeon too quickly. "No, it's very uh... enriching." And not what he'd expected at all. Though the festival was now in its fourth year running, he'd never had the chance or the wish, really, to attend it before. He'd barely taken note of its existence, too preoccupied with chasing down leads.

"Hm, you don't have to mollify me, Agent Peña. You'll still get your intel, don't worry." Her expression slipped, from an almost serene smile back into that underlying heaviness that he could identify only now that it had been lifted for a short while.

"Miss Rivas," he said earnestly, "I wouldn't lie to you. I'm just not that good with words. That's why I'm a government agent and not a poet."

That at least made her chuckle a bit. And it was true, too. He felt lighter, in a way, like his mind had been craving a break from the frustrating work of trying to find an in to take down the cartel. Even his shoulders felt less tense here. And it was a beautiful day, too. Warm but not too hot, sunny with a mild breeze. People were out and about around them, festival goers and other citizens alike, mingling freely with a carelessness that would have been unthinkable only a year prior.

"Juan Mateo never wanted to come with me to this." She gestured vaguely at the city and its people around them. "My husband. Ex-husband. Technically still husband because he won't sign the divorce papers." Her features turned tense as she explained, a slight frown appearing between her brows. "Not that it matters now, of course. But goodness, that man had no sense for these things. He thought top shelf coffee was the height of culture. He'd act like going out to a bar one evening every few weeks was a chore beyond compare. Such a martyr!" She huffed and Javier laughed softly, offering to take her bag for a while as she adjusted it on her shoulder for the third time now.

"No, that's alright. It's not heavy. This way." Her hand naturally slipped into the crook of his elbow to steer him down the side of the road and Javier faltered for a moment, cursing himself for wearing a short-sleeved shirt even though it was comfortably warm. He just didn't want to get separated in the bustle of activity, he reasoned. This was a perfectly tame and non-offensive gesture and it would be rude to flinch away, he reasoned. She initiated it, after all. No harm no foul. This was still a professional alliance.

"You think very loudly, Agent Peña." She remarked, lightly squeezing his elbow. "It better not be about work."

"Technically I am at work right now." He countered, covering her hand on his arm with his much larger one and giving it an awkward pat.

"Lucky you." She teased, lightly nudging his side with her elbow.

"Beats paperwork, that's for sure."

They ambled along, weaving through the crowds where they gathered in front of street performers and makeshift stages. Javier couldn't deny that it felt good to feel the sun on his skin, un-recycled air in his lungs; most of all being far away from Stechner and his legion of CIA goons was almost rejuvenating. They fell into a languid rhythm, walking leisurely and stopping every so often to linger a bit where music was being played or more poetry recited, in front of the stalls of local artisans or to look at the sculptures that had been put up as an open air exhibit throughout the city. Every so often, Miss Rivas would tell him some little anecdote, be it about any of the previous festivals or just the city itself. He barely felt the time pass.

By the time they'd made it across the river and to the park wherein the open-air theatre was situated, it was time for a late lunch and Javier felt his stomach start to protest, all that walking serving to work up an appetite.

"...and after school Gabi and I would trek across town to the library and hide by the shelves in the back, the ones with the old classics, and we'd read all the scandalous 19th-century novels about adulteresses and other fallen women. You know, Anna Karenina, Thérèse Raquin, Madame Bovary, Tess of the d'Urbervilles..." Miss Rivas set her bag down and produced a fairly big plastic container from within, setting it on the bench between them. "Perhaps not the most appropriate fare for a couple of fifteen-year-old girls, but it wasn't like we had a whole lot of supervision, you know? It definitely wasn't appropriate to read to a five-year-old, so I guess it's good that Maritza never really paid attention much- Stop my prattling any time, Agent Peña. I know I talk too much; Juan Mateo always used to say so."

Javier paused, an abundantly filled arepa inches from his mouth. "He what now?"

She flushed, looking down and picking at the wrapping paper she'd bundled the food up in. "It's fine, it's not a big deal, really."

"It's not fine." Javier insisted. Told her to shut up, told his own wife that she talked to much! What an ass. He started tearing into the arepa with a glower. They sat in silence for a while, chewing tensely in this little corner of the park at the foot of Cerro Nutibara, in a spot that was fairly hidden among the greenery while still affording a decent view of the city streets below. Javier didn't even know why it irked him so much. There were worse things out there than insensitive husbands. Ex-husbands at that. Still, he seethed quietly in his righteous wrath.

"Wanna see something funny?" She was already digging through her purse, so he didn't see much sense in replying. She pulled a photo from some deep compartment in her wallet, looking down at it thoughtfully for a moment before passing it to him. In his defence, Javier hadn't meant to laugh. It just came out, snorty and half-aborted.

"Hey, at least I managed to evade the poofy sleeves, okay? My mother was dead set on them. She wanted me to look like the English lady… uh, Princess Diana. I think she might have taken the name as a sign."

"That's a.. that's a lot of satin."  And tulle. Javier pressed out, still suppressing his laughter and barely succeeding. He could have pointed out that the mass of ruffles negated any absence of actual puff sleeves, but thought it better to refrain. And it wasn't like she hadn't looked beautiful as a bride, it was more that in that ruffled satin-and-tulle concoction she looked like an unwilling dress-up doll, despite the tasteful off-the-shoulder cut and flattering waistline. It was just... there were a lot of ruffles. There was a lot of dress, period. Paired with an expression that was better suited to a funeral, the effect was almost morbidly comedic.

"Wait till I show you the cake; we were basically identical." It was the dryness of her tone that set him off. There was no suppressing it now, Javier was bellowing, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. It didn't help that the dress fashion hadn't really strayed very far from the 'bigger and more style' in the years since. All things considered, this was a comparatively simple gown, lacking the mass of sparkly appliqués and abundance of bows and flowers that had been popular in the latter years of the previous decade. It just wasn't a style that suited her personality in any way, at all. Her slender figure was absolutely drowned in the sheer volume of the skirt alone. Hell, it completely overshadowed the already forgettable man standing by her side in the photo. Though 'by her side' was a generous descriptor. There was definitely enough space for the Holy Spirit and then some between the couple.

"My mother spent ages on that damn dress. Her hands looked like pincushions by the time she was done; that's why she wore gloves to the wedding."

"She's a seamstress, right? Your mother?" She'd mentioned it in an offhand comment during one of their previous phone calls.

"She was." Diana confirmed, tucking the picture away again. "Didn't think you'd remember that."

"Of course. I listen to everything you tell me."

Diana chuckled, flushing lightly. "It's not even relevant to the case!"

"I listen to everything you tell me." Javier insisted and started gathering up wrapping paper and such to throw away. A quick look at his watch told him they'd have to get moving soon if they wanted to make it to the theatre on time to get decent seats.

"Right." Diana collected her things to stuff them back into her bag. "So it's a no for ruffles, but what would you have me wear, Agent Peña? What do you think suits me?"

Javier couldn't have told even the most skilled interrogation expert what exactly compelled him to answer, and so readily at that, why he had an opinion at the ready in the first place, or at least that's what he preferred to tell himself.

"I think... something soft and flowy, not a whole lot of embellishments, if any. Clear lines and a light fabric, something you can dance in and be comfortable. Definitely no more satin."

She laughed now, as well, eyes twinkling with what he thought was approval. "You are full of surprises. Should I ever get married again, I'll most certainly engage your services as designer, Agent Peña."

"I'll keep a spot open for you. First consultation is free."

---

How her hand can feel so natural there in the crook of his elbow after hardly a day, he cannot tell. All he knows is that by the time the reading at the open air theatre is done the sun has started to dip in the sky and if this was what his work was like more often he'd perhaps be happier in his workaholic ways. Though they haven't broached the topic of work in hours now, instead ambling half-aimlessly northward towards Conquistadores where he's parked his rental car at the hotel he's staying at. Because it is a long way to Envigado and he insisted on driving her home. Because even though now that Escobar is gone Medellín is much safer, but he's never been one to easily trust a good thing.

It's only when they've crossed the big main street Avenida 33 that Miss Rivas gets quieter. She's obviously  tired following their prolonged outing, but he instantly misses the pleasant hum of her voice, her clever little observations- At the same time, it's a comfortable silence, not one weighed down by expectation. She'd even let down her hair from where it had been up in a ponytail for most of the day, most likely to keep the thick curtain of it away from her neck in the heat and sun.

They're just crossing a smaller square, the edge of it lined with shops, the hole-in-the-wall kind mostly, when she suddenly pulls away with a soft instruction to wait there for just a moment, and he's left to look after her flapping skirt with what is probably not the most dignified expression. Defeated, he sat down on the broad edge of a flowerbed nearby and watched her cross to a food vendor, order, and fish around for her wallet to pay, before turning around again with a plastic cup in each hand. Fresas con crema, he can make out upon her approach, and one corner of his mouth ticks up involuntarily.

"Hungry again?" He teased when she got within earshot, handing him one cup and setting the other down beside him along with her purse.

"There's always space for this in my stomach." She retorted primly. "If you don't want any, all the better."

"Thank you for the generous offer, but no. Thanks for this." He makes a show of cupping the treat protectively, fully knowing he'll have to set it down to unwrap the plastic spoon that came with it. It makes her laugh nonetheless, which imbues him with a strange, fluttery sense of accomplishment.

She's still standing, head thrown back and grinning wide, when her gaze catches on something at the far end of the plaza, and her expression morphs from glee to astonishment to rage so quickly it gives Javier whiplash.

"Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!" Ripping off her glasses and thrusting them into his hands, she began stalking off.

Two things are fortuitous: one, she had to pass Javier to get to whatever she saw and two, his reflexes are still sharp enough for him to jump up and into her path, even having managed to safely deposit the cup of strawberries and cream.

"Whoa, what the hell is it?"

"I- ...she-" Her voice is strained, her whole body taut like a livewire as she attempts to round him and resume her warpath. On instinct, Javier took a few steps backwards, keeping himself between her and her target. It's only his hands on her shoulders that stall her enough for him to be able to whip his head around and follow her eyeline. That side of the square is empty save for an older lady shuffling along, huffing and puffing and blissfully unaware of the wrathful freight train about to rush her. To say Javier was puzzled would be an understatement.

"What, her? The old woman?"

"That's Hermilda Escobar!" She's shaking so much he has trouble keeping a grip on her. "Look at her! The nerve of that woman to show her face here-" She winds out from under his hands, rounding him with a quick sidestep, and he can only match her speed because his legs are longer.

"Hey!" Javier whisper-shouts to be met with flashing eyes, then repeats it more softly. "Hey. What exactly are you planning to do here, huh?"

"I'm gonna give that self-righteous bitch a piece of my mind is what I'm gonna do!" She retorted, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It's cowing, the single-minded purpose rolling off of her. She's strumming with it, her seething damn near tangible. In her rage, she is ruthless. Javier had no doubt, in that moment, that once let go she might well maul the woman with more than words.

It's instinctive, the way his arm wraps around her. Like the few times he's had to restrain Steve and yet not like that at all. For one Javier doesn't have to go for a near chokehold, though energy-wise her wrath is at least as fierce. So, he wraps one long arm around her waist, hauling her much slighter body against his with a half-turn, her forearms colliding sharply with his chest.

"Easy." He rumbles, his other arm coming up to fold across her shoulders. "Easy. Calm down. Calm down!"

Palms smack against his pectorals and it stings. "Hey!" He tightens his hold around her trembling body, her angry, anguished squirming. Softens his voice. "Hey. Calm down, okay? What're you gonna do, beat up that old woman in the street? Come on, breathe."

The sound that comes out of her is something very closely related to a snarl, and he feels the bite of her nails even through his shirt, but holds fast, continuing to ramble empty phrases with the intent to soothe, or at least distract.

"If you tell me to calm down one more time I will get violent." She promised, hands pushing into his chest in an effort to break his hold. The old woman has almost passed by completely by now, seeming blissfully unaware of the savaging she's escaping. Javier held fast, as tight as he dared, the hand still pinching the pair of glasses between two fingers awkwardly patting at her shoulder while he sways them both, rocking from foot to foot.

By the time Diana has calmed down enough that he feels comfortable loosening his hold, the old woman is long gone from view. He feels her slump in his grip, reflexively tightening his arms again to hold her up.

"Hey," he gentles, lightly nudging the side of her head and thinking, distantly, that all but burying his nose into her soft hair is far too intimate a position for any of this. "Hey, it's alright, I've got you, okay? I've got you."

They're still swaying on the spot, a gentle see-saw motion, and then he felt the hands that had been clenching and unclenching on his chest lose all tension and drop down to the side. She's still shaking, her whole ribcage jumping with the hiccup of suppressed sobs. Somehow, he maneuvers them both around and back the few steps from where their snack and her purse still wait beside the flowerbed.

"Why'd you hand me these, anyway?" It's but a cheap distraction tactic, Javier handed her the glasses back as soon as she sat nevertheless.

"I'm not blind without them." Diana responded tersely, snatching the glasses and cleaning the lenses with the hem of her dress. When she doesn't deign to elaborate, he sighs and stretches from where he'd sat back on his haunches in front of her, resuming his earlier seat and finally unwrapping the spoon. It's a tense silence for a long moment, her aggravation like a pulse around them. Certainly it gives Javier a good bit to think on.

"You wanna tell me what that was all about?"

"Don't condescend to me. You may have been closer to the action, but I've lived here all my life." She ripped open her own packet with a vengeance, digging the spoon into her own portion with such force that the sliced strawberries bleed into the white cream. Javier sighed. Took a moment to order his words before they leave his tongue.

"I just need to know if this," he gestured between her and the edge of the square, "is going to be something that has to be taken into account. I need to know that you're not just in this for revenge. I need to know where you're at mentally. I need to be sure, both for your own safety and the integrity of this operation, that you're not just going to snap one day and try to claw Miguel Rodríguez' eyes out, okay?"

She chews angrily a moment, eyes flashing at him before she stares straight ahead again. The wrath is still rolling off of her in waves, perhaps dipping a bit in its intensity, but far from dulling just yet.

"You want to know my motivations, is that it? Well, let me lay it out for you, Agent Peña: of my entire class, a third never even made it to graduation, for one reason or another. I spent my youth plotting routes around gunfights in the street, with just enough success to still be alive, somehow. My mother was caught in the crossfire of a raid and was afraid to leave the house for years afterwards. My father was on that Avianca flight. My baby cousin Maritza is dead and her baby will grow up without her mother. And throughout it all, I took the coward's way out, moved cities, for university, for work, for marriage, for myself even, and everywhere I went they were, too. The narcos have spun their spider's web across the whole damn country and beyond and sooner or later everyone gets stuck in it. I got stuck in it despite my best efforts, and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of having to flee and turning up in dead ends. Somehow I have landed in this unique position, and I refuse to join them. Is that enough motivation for you, Agent Peña?"

She held his gaze, a challenge in fire, and he wondered how much longer that adrenaline surge would sustain her before she crashed. Wordlessly, he nodded his affirmation.

It's more tense silence after that, thick like stew or the humidity out in the jungle. She doesn't reach for him again as they resume the walk up to his hotel, doesn't casually link their arms like before, choosing instead to fidget with the handles of her bag. He hates it, misses the lightness the day had before. These narcos, they really do poison even the most mundane of things with their long, bloodied shadows. When they get to the hotel's underground garage, she's gone even more quiet, almost deflated. There are no more words exchanged, save for the clipped directions to her aunt's house. At one point, Javier was almost certain she'd dozed off.

---

"Do you ever think you should have been there? When they finally got him?" He'd just parked the car opposite of the house. It's almost completely dark outside by now.

"...Yes." Of course he did. He'd wanted, even needed to. The temporary suspension had not been near as effective a punishment as denying him that. The fruits of his labor, of years spent chasing after shadows and getting himself mired deeper and deeper, until he barely recognized himself when he looked in the mirror. He'd wanted it, sure, but perhaps he hadn't deserved it.

"Why did they send you home?" It's not that Javier is in a particularly obstinate mood, it's just that after the incident earlier, he's reluctant to bring up his own involvement with the cartels of Calí and Medellín, much less Los Pepes, so he gives a non-committal grunt in response. He should have known that wouldn't deter her. "When I first called, Agent Murphy said you had been recalled to the States. I only found out later that that was before they finally got Escobar. Why would a top agent on a case of this magnitude be pulled off and sent back before that?"

"You mean what did I do?" She nodded. There was no getting out of it now. He didn't want to lie to her either. Javier sighed, scratching his thumbnail across his brow. "You're going to look at me differently."

"Perhaps, yes." She took a deep breath, rummaging through her purse and producing a folded up paper. "These are the names of some American banks that I'm very certain help funnel and launder Calí's money. Sorry it's nothing more specific." She placed the paper in his hand, gently closing his fingers over it. "Whatever you tell me, we're in this together, right? We both want to bring them down. I trust you, alright?"

Javier gulped, his fingers tingling under her touch. He pockets the paper to buy time, if only to swallow through his suddenly-too-dry throat. And then he tells her. The dead ends and the crippling bureaucracy, Don Berna, the Castaño brothers and Judy Moncada and Pacho Herrera. His desperate grasping at straws to find a way, any way to throw a wrench in the escalating violence and catch Escobar, how that backfired so spectacurlarly. How he tried to get out, despite knowing that these people do not allow outs. How he'd been played by the fucking CIA because he'd been an idiot falsely believing that the two agencies were operating under even remotely the same objectives. How he'd gone down, almost taking his partner with him, definitely tanking his boss' career. He hasn't spoken to anybody about this in such depth, not even his father. By the end of it, he's exhausted.

"So you're the one Carlos Castaño wanted to feed to the crocodiles."

"What?" He'd expected judgement, even disgust. Certainly not this.

"I overheard Gilberto mentioning it on the phone. I think he must have just learned that you'd be the DEA's man in charge. 'Maybe I should have let you feed that damn DEA agent to the crocodiles after all, Carlos.'  The door wasn't all the way closed, that's how I heard it. I think that was the moment I realized I couldn't wind my way out of this. That either they were going down, or they were going to find out that I was already talking to Agent Murphy and have me... vanished."

"I won't let that happen." Javier promised instinctively, hands tightening on the steering wheel. "Crocodiles though? Really?" Not how he thought he'd end, that was for certain.

"Yeah, they're very uh... charming, huh?"

Javier grimaced. "If I never see any of them again, it'll be too soon."

"Knock on wood." Diana replied and unbuckled herself, pushing open the door.

"I'll walk you. It's dark."

"It's only across the street." She protested, and was that the ghost of a smile on her lips? Javier's hands stilled on his own seatbelt.

"You sure?"

"If my aunt catches me coming home with a man I'll never hear the end of it." Diana slipped out of the car, then bent to grab her purse. "Good night, Agent Peña. Until next time."

"Good night, Miss Rivas."

He waited until she was inside, the door securely locked behind her, before starting the drive back.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3

-------------------------

Author’s note cont’d: if you wanna know what I had in mind, approximately, for the wedding gown see here

The International Poetry Festival of Medellín is a real thing, too. They have a youtube channel

[bigfrozenfan]

THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE CREATORS OF FROZEN!

FROZEN II APPRECIATION WEEK 

Day 8: " Thank you, Frozen"

A bit late for this post, as this Appreciation Week (initiator @chocolatiex​) was already at the end of June 2019, but that would have been too early and I wanted to make sure that I could still stand to it after the release of the film. I created this draft already in early July and it is unchanged. Only at the end I added a supplement.

The film Frozen influenced my life out of the blue in a positive way. It has become a "lifeline" for me. If something goes wrong in real life or if my mood has reached its low point, then I only have to deal with Frozen, watch the film or the pictures or the figurines i'm collecting to calm myself down and to create new hope. Frozen is both instructive and profound for me and the lovingly and realistically animated characters are so alive that it's easy for me to identify with certain people in the story and to put myself deep into their situation. I have discovered a "new love", Anna, and even if she is only virtual, it means a lot to me. I wrote a lot about my love for Frozen and Anna in my blog, if you want you can read it there.

A nice side effect for me, after having dared to enter the international Frozen fandom, is that I have improved my English skills. All this has given me completely new experiences and I have become much more balanced! English is not my native language and only when I watched the film in the original language i did realize the true meaning of the lyrics, which unfortunately were completely wrong in German. I hope that this time more value will be placed on a correct translation for the German version! The fans there will thank y’all.

I don't know yet what the end of Frozen II will be, but I hope, like also some of the well known animators of the film, that it will continue afterwards and there will be a third part of Frozen.

So....THANK YOU Frozen team for the incredibly details in Frozen II

Look at the reflection of Grand Pabbie in Anna’s Eyes!!!

Look at all the details of the clothing incl. the seams.

THANK YOU Frozen team for a happy Elsa in Frozen II

THANK YOU Frozen team for that moment Elsa holds Anna’s hands without fear in Frozen II

I could say sooooo much but i guess THIS should be enough for now to show you my love for Frozen. Please continue! I really need to know how “the gang” develops in the future and all the fans around the world would say the same...i’m absolutely sure!

CHAPEAU !

---

I know that since the end of September, when the Leaks about the end of the film and the separation of Anna and Elsa came to light, the fandom has been split and there has been a lot of fighting since then. Especially between the two big ships. But I don't care, because I love the movie as it is and because I'm not part of these ships and I'm not sticking to the headcanons of these shippers. I also don't care if I only get one single note for my post. It's a personal statement because I really appreciate the work of the makers of Frozen II and I want to express that in my post. I had already written quite a bit about it after the film was out and also posted high resolution pics of Elsa, as always with moderate acceptance of the "established" fans for my own posts. I know that I am an outsider in the fandom, but that hasn't stopped me from expressing my ideas and feelings about Frozen here. My new followers seem to at least appreciate this. I don't know yet how I'll be doing here on Tumblr next year, but I won't spend several hours on my edits for only 5 notes, most of you don't want to see that anyway as it seems. It's a waste of time. The fact is that I love Frozen II and as soon as the DVD is out I will watch it as often as I can and I also hope to get the Deluxe Soundtrack Edition next year in the original version. 

Have a nice day and Merry Christmas to y'all...