#we knew the lines better than some of the actors and they had their scripts hahaha

[invisibledragon]

It’s entirely possible that of everyone in the audience of this local drama group production of Cabin Pressure, my sister and I were having the most fun

And yes, we found the lemon 🍋

[everythingisromant1c]

p1: chemistry read w/ co-star!james

co-star!james potter x actress!reader

summary: before filming can start, your director has to ofc find the perfect person to play your love interest, + what better way to do that than to have a chemistry read?

a/n: i will not pretend to know anything abt film/tv production so this is more than probably innaccurate 🙏 also this first one is not my best work but dw more drama will ensue. <33

full series - masterlist

You'd wanted this job more than anything. You'd worked harder than anyone you knew to kickstart your acting career and knew this opportunity was just the way to do it. When your agent called you about an audition for the lead role in a new show titled 'South Bay'—a drama named after the L.A. region itself—and gave you a sample of the pilot script, saying you fell in love with it wouldn't be a stretch. And after those few months later when you'd received the call that you'd gotten the part, it was safe to say you were walking on clouds for weeks afterward.

Your amazing director Minerva had cast you first and foremost, knowing your role was key to the show's success, and you'd already built a strong relationship with her after just a few weeks of knowing her.

After casting you, she'd informed you that the show's next order of business was finding someone to play your character's—Cassidy's—love interest, Aaron. When she'd told you that initially, you didn't think anything of it. But when she told you they already had gone through the first round of auditions for the role and that it was time for the infamous chemistry reads, you had to try your hardest to stay completely calm.

Aside from the fact that you'd soon be meeting the person you'd have to spend hours working with every day for God knows how many months, you also knew that the casting directors were going to be looking extra careful at the romantic chemistry you were supposed to have with the actors they brought in. You willed yourself not to get worked up when the morning came for the chemistry reads with the men auditioning for Aaron, and reminded yourself that your role in the show was already secured. Yet, for some reason, you were still on edge.

Luckily, the casting directors had narrowed down their options from the hundreds of actors who had come to audition for the role of Aaron originally to just a handful, making your job much easier. By the time noon came around, you'd already read from the script with three different candidates.

Just as you'd expected, they each had done a close-to-perfect job in their auditions. Your personal favorite was the second actor you'd read lines with, a sandy-haired guy named Remus who you thought was a really nice person as well as actor. It was important to you that the person you were going to have to pretend to be romantically interested in was a person you at least liked, and it was all too easy to imagine working with someone like Remus.

You'd expressed your thoughts to Minerva when she'd asked for them, and she nodded in agreement—a good sign—before the two casting directors beside her were calling for her attention.

"This next one, Minerva," cooed the curly-haired woman you knew as Poppy from next to her, "we think you're going to like."

"Am I?" she asked, lips curling up.

"Oh yes. When we saw him we knew right away we had to bring him in for the chemistry reading." Poppy nodded to you. "He looks promising. And he certainly has the background; his parents are Euphemia and Fleamonet Potter."

The other casting director hummed in agreement, not hiding their impressed and widened eyes. "Not to mention, he has that accent."

You had to fight your expression from turning sour. A Potter? If there was one thing you didn't appreciate in the world of acting, it was nepotism. After working so hard and starting from the ground up to get your acting career where it currently was, the last thing you wanted was to have to see your director swoon over some guy just because of who his parents were.

Nonetheless, you had faith in Minerva to pick the person who truly deserved the job. You watched her nod at the two women beside her, intrigued nonetheless. She waved a hand over to the security guard by the door in the corner of the room.

"Bring Potter in?"

The burly man nodded and exited the room briefly, and not a minute had gone by before he returned with the man you assumed was the young Potter in tow.

You subconsciously stood up straighter when you saw him, trying to push away any premeditated opinions of the man approaching. Brown curls and a genetically gifted bone structure you could see from feet away, he walked into the room confidently with reason. He immediately offered the security guard who had brought him into the room a handshake, and you watched as the tall brick wall of a man lit up with a bright smile from the gesture. Potter then rolled out more charming words of greeting to the director and casting directors, and you took the opportunity to scan him over in more detail.

With an interest you couldn't explain, you saw that he was strikingly handsome in the kind of way you'd expect the son of two celebrities to be; he was wearing a black t-shirt that clung to him flatteringly, with that sort of movie-star quality you knew audiences always swooned over. It didn't help that the moment he walked in you saw each of the directors turn to each other with raised brows and suggestive smiles that only widened when he introduced himself, charmingly posh British accent and all. You had to fight back from rolling your eyes at their reactions.

"James," greeted Poppy, standing up from her seat to give the man a handshake.

"Poppy," the man regarded, and you felt your eyebrows raise at the fact that he was already on a first-name basis with the head casting director.

She sat back down after a moment, keeping her attention on the man—James—as she spoke. "James, this is Minerva McGonagall, the Director of South Bay."

"I'm such an admirer of your work, Mrs. McGonagall. My parents took me to see your adaptation of Henry Shay's novel about three times when it first came out."

Your parents, you thought internally with some distaste; the famous actor and actress power couple. You had to stop yourself from shaking your head.

"Please, just Minerva," the director responded warmly, and you noted that she hadn't told any of the other actors to call her by her first name. "And thank you."

Poppy nodded happily before she held out an alarming hand towards you. "And let me introduce you to the wonderful actress who is going to be playing South Bay's leading lady Cassidy Ward."

You plastered on a smile and introduced yourself as plainly and confidently as you could, definitely not feeling suddenly conscious of your appearance as his warm-colored eyes raked over you.

James took that second to scan you over before realizing with a simmering feeling in the planes of his chest that there was something special about you he couldn't make out, something that had him wanting to greet you with more than a handshake. He refrained, thankfully, not saying anything after you finished introducing yourself for a second you felt was a beat too long, before scrambling to hold out a hand to you.

"I'm James. James Potter," he said as if you hadn't been already made aware of his last name. "It's an honor to get to meet you."

You didn't know why but his clear flattery only made you more uneasy of him, knowing it was something he'd probably gotten used to pulling out to impress whatever important or famous people he was busy meeting through all the connections he probably had.

You stopped yourself in your tracks; you were being unfair. You'd only known the guy, if you call it knowing him, for under a minute. Shaking off the odd feeling that was creeping its way into your stomach, you shook his held out hand with a polite nod, though that didn't the prying feeling inside you go away.

"Alright." Minerva clapped her hands together, looking between the two of you. "We're just going to do a read-through of scene number thirty-four, Episode three." She motioned towards the camera crew set up behind her, them shooting her a thumbs up.

She turned back around, looking between you and James pointedly. "Remember, your characters Cassidy and Aaron are the only two characters in the show who have known each other for longer than just a few months. They're close. That connection has to be visible, however you want to show that to us."

You didn't know why, but you felt uneasy. You nodded at Minerva regardless, seeing the supportive but anticipatory look behind her eyes as she glanced between you and the man now standing in front of you like you held the answers to all her problems.

James looked surprisingly calm and collected, like there was nothing in the world that could make the James Potter nervous. The more you looked at him and the confident set of his shoulders, the more you thought that was true.

Your director smiled. "Whenever you're both ready."

You nodded, taking a breath in before turning to James. "Where were you last night?"

You watched as James reacted to you in character, his strong brows pulling inwards. "What do you mean?"

You momentarily were taken aback by the almost effortless switch in his accent, but pushed the thought aside. "Last night. When everyone else was at Ryan's party. Where were you?"

He shrugged slightly. "I was in my dorm."

"Really? Because I knocked on your door and no one answered."

"I must've been sleeping. Why do want to know so badly?"

"I don't know, maybe because half the football team got caught last night breaking into the Dean's office."

"You don't think I did that, do you?"

You stared at him and then down at the floor. James—or Aaron, really—shook his head at you, his tone dropping. "I can't believe this."

Then he turned away from you and, as the script had told you to, you grabbed his wrist softly.

"Aaron, wait," you called, and the connection of your fingers to his arm had them tingling with a certain kind of teeming energy, though you didn't let it show on your face. "Of course I don't think you did it. I just don't know what to think. We're supposed to be best friends, yet you won't even tell me where you were."

James let a second pass before he said his next line, and it was like you could see his character's inner turmoil flickering through his mind restlessly when he said, "You want to know where I was, Cassidy?" You nodded. "I was talking with your Professor."

"Professor Brown?" you frowned. "Why?"

"I was trying to get him to let you submit your final thesis late."

"What? You know he told me I couldn't because-"

"Because of me." He paused dramatically, stern jaw working. "The only reason you missed the deadline was because you were helping me when I got too drunk to even make it up the stairs to my dorm."

"That's ... that's really nice of you, Aaron, but you know how Brown is-"

"He's letting you turn it in late for full credit."

"What?" You widened your eyes. "How did you ..."

"I told him how it was my fault you missed the deadline. And I told him about how good of a student you are, how you've never turned in anything late once, not even when we were in high school. But most importantly," he took a step closer to you to hold your hand, something you noted wasn't in the script but made your fingers flood with feeling. "I told him what a good person you were. How kind you are. Even to idiots like me who get black-out drunk during finals week."

You blinked at him, letting a smile overtake your face for a moment. "You really didn't have to."

"I did."

He squeezed your hand and, even if it was only acting, the way he was looking at you so meaningfully made something in your chest tighten excitedly. You didn't have to act when you shifted your gaze to the ground nervously. Why the hell were you nervous? "I don't know how the hell you got him to say yes."

"Well, I also have to wash his car for free for the next six months, but that's just a small detail."

You let your jaw drop. "I can't believe you'd do that for me."

"Of course I would." James took another step closer, still holding tight onto your hand and not breaking the immobilizing eye contact he'd established with you the whole while. "I'd do anything for you, Cassidy."

He nodded slowly, truly looking invested. Then, in a beat as short as a breath but one that must've felt like minutes to you as you stood there unmovingly, he leaned forward. All you could do was blink as his handsome—ugh, handsome—face neared yours before tilting itself to the right, where he left a soft but lingering kiss on your downstage cheek.

Then he pulled away again, the distance between you maybe a few inches smaller than before, before finally whispering, "Anything."

That definitely was not in the script. Your eyes blinked in an alarm that surely was no longer in character, but James looked unbothered, something you were finding was his natural state of being.

You felt your mouth go slightly dry at the intensity behind his eyes as he looked at you, but the last thing you could do was look away now, so you stayed rooted in your place in front of James as you waited for your signal to break character. Waited and waited; you felt dizzy.

"Cut!"

Minerva immediately clapped, the casting directors doing the same, and you felt like you could finally breathe as you dropped James's hand that was still holding yours and turned away from him, not sparing the man a second glance for nervous reasons you couldn't place. Maybe it was because of the fact that the feeling of his stupid lips was still lingering on your cheek.

Your director's tone was neutral when she said, "Great job, you two," though you watched as she turned passionately toward the two casting directors and they began speaking in hushed tones.

You shook your leg subtly as you waited, an antsy habit that you couldn't identify the current cause of, and you felt James lean down next to you, something that sent a nauseating feeling of déjà vu through you.

"Don't worry," he whispered lowly, taking your mannerisms as a sign of distress. He noted that even when frowning you looked extremely pretty, though at his words you left his lips your frown only deepened. "You did great."

You turned to him in confusion and some offense, trying to keep your voice hushed as you asked, "Excuse me?"

He shrugged a shoulder, eyes flicking over your figure for a split second that you definitely noticed. "You just looked tense, is all."

You stared at him blankly, not knowing what he could possibly be implying. Was he saying your acting looked tense? That you didn't look sure of yourself? Like you weren't already the lead and that he was the one auditioning? 

You fought the urge to say that maybe you looked tense because he'd just kissed you on the cheek out of nowhere, and stayed defiantly silent. When you didn't say anything back he let his lips turn up into a lopsided smile that you were sure must work on all the ladies, almost a smirk, and he nudged you in the shoulder a bit like you were old friends. Who was this guy?

Whatever you thought he meant by the statement, you didn't get to say anything back, because Minerva had pulled away from her conversation and was staring expectantly at the two of you. You did your best to soften your expression away from offended and back to neutral.

"Well," she said, turning to the man beside you. "Thank you, James, for coming in."

"Thank you," he responded, tipping his head politely. Then he took a step forward and shook each of the casting director's hands, and you watched with a foul taste in your mouth as their lips visibly fought against fond smiles.

When he turned back around, he held his hand out to you as well, and you regarded it for a moment before shaking it like you did at the start of his audition, though this time it was definitely against your will. His hand was warm and smooth, like he hadn't worked a day in his life, and you hated the fact that you even noted how it felt at all.

Like he knew you didn't enjoy his presence, he smiled at you with something knowing shining in his eyes that you hated before he took his leave, the door to the room shutting behind him.

"That was ..." began Poppy, shaking her head slowly, "Perfect. Just perfect."

You couldn't help the way your lips parted almost exhasperatedly. "Really?" You hoped you hadn't revealed your surprise in your tone.

"Yes," Minerva responded instead, also seeming to be in awe. "Wow." She gestured with her hands exuberantly. "It was like I could see the show coming to life right in front of me."

"Not to mention the chemistry between you two." Poppy tipped her head at you, smirking as she fanned herself. "I mean, wow."

You bit down on the inside of your cheek to keep from saying anything you'd regret. Your throat felt dry. If you heard one more 'wow' from any of their mouths in reference to James Potter again you thought you were going to lose it. You tried to keep the premonition out of your voice as you bravely asked, "So, do you think you're going to cast him?"

Minerva paused for a moment in thought before answering you. "I mean, he was the last actor we're considering for the role, and I think he was the best we've seen today." She looked between the two other casting directors who nodded agreeingly at her words. "But I'd like to know your thoughts."

You blinked at her. "My thoughts?"

"Well, yes," she answered plainly. "He's going to be playing your love interest. And I like to hear my actor's opinions."

You pursed your lips at her words, feeling flattered but also not knowing how you were feeling at the prospect of having to work with James all the time. Although, deep within you, something was nagging at you—something you absolutely did not like—and telling you your answer.

The truth was, the scene you acted out with James felt realer, had come to life more than it had with any of the other actors that day. Maybe it was because he'd taken such liberties with the role, sure, but regardless, he did a great job. The thought made you hate yourself when you finally took a breath in to speak.

"He ..." you began unsurely, and then sighed. "He was great. Really great."

"Perfect!" Minerva clapped her hands together again, and something in your stomach churned. "We'll make contact with him as soon as possible." Her eyes twinkled as she regarded you. "I can't wait to have you two leading South Bay. I have nothing but hope."

"And," Poppy added, "it'll be great for publicity having a Potter in our cast."

The two other directors at the table nodded and murmured in agreement, and you fought from sighing. You thought of the days you'd spend on set with James Potter, of all people, not only having to get along with him but connect with him, with someone who clearly thought they were above you, enough to reassure you when you had already gotten the lead role. And then you thought of what it would be like to release South Bay to the public, your first leading role, only for Potter's undeniably charming face to be the audience's main focus. It left a sour feeling in your mouth.

But it wasn't just that horrible premonition that annoyed you; you didn't know exactly what bugged you about him in particular but you knew it hadn't gone away with his formal handshake or well-practiced manners. In fact, that'd probably only worsened the feeling.

But there was nothing you could really do about it now. At least, not if you planned on keeping your job. You were a professional, you knew that. But that didn't mean it was going to be easy to maintain that title. You really did sigh then, and something rooted in your gut told you it was going to be a long year of shooting.

[absolutebl]

Meet You At the Blossom - Watch Along

Maybe a trash watch? We will find out.

But first what do we know about this show?

Well, I can't for the life of me remember the title. The article placement it too weird so it will henceforth be called Blossom okay?

Here's what I learned from @renafire

Duck daddy!!!!! I bring news! China didn't kill the gays! Meet You at the Blossom is an HEA! Golden retriever XiaoBao x ice prince Huaien (who gets the shit stabbed out of him an awful lot for being a ML). A side CP of dumb, pretty bodyguard x eccentric doctor. The background plot was basically a bunch of middle age men fighting about the ML's long dead mother. Needles! So many needles! (It was practically a sickfic tbh) Flapping sleeves! Flowing hair! Poison! Politics! A villain weirdly into kites! Prisoners in chains you can easily slip your hand through! Dimples! Loyal bodyguards becoming family! It's not the best thing ever, but it ends happily! There was even a line about "true love has nothing to do with gender" which I feel like is a big deal for something associated with China?

This convinced me to watch, so I thought I'd just post it verbatim to convince you, too.

So I'd refused to watch Blossom because I assumed the leads would die or at least be torn asunder at the end, and that there would be no kisses.

So this Watch Along is going to be me eating crow.

China pretty much always does censored BL (when they do it at all) since 2017 or so. You can watch something like My E-Sports Genius Brother for the style of "happy but censored BL" that I've grown to expect from China. (Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.)

They didn't used to do this! Time once was that China was this chaotic minefield of tasty mess meets terrible tropes (like kidnapping, stepbrothers, rape, whipping boy, and dub con). I had a weird love for it at the time because it was the Wild Wild World of BL beck then and I didn't know to expect better.

I come from 90s Yaoi. Remember?

Ah the bad old days. (You can read a history of CBL here. Not updated in ages.)

Where was I?

So, what I knew about Blossom was that it was a Wuxia BL and that it was made with Thailand, or for Thailand, or something to do with Thailand (there is Thai script on the promo material) and that it wasn't being distributed inside Mainland China. (I still worry about the actors but that's kinda a natural state for me and BL outside of Japan.)

Outside of China Blossom got wide distribution showing up everywhere iQIYI (China based), Viki (Japan based), Gaga (Taiwan based) WeTV (US Based) and YouTube (Thai Channel Artop Media is serving it).

It also looks like Heavenly is involved and they are Korea based. So like, everyone had their mitts on this thing. We live in crazy times.

Okay so, here are my 20 expectations:

Pony tails with a ribbon or two

Lots of questionable older tropes, especially dub-con & kidnapping (the herb that makes you horny maybe?)

Flowing filmy robes wafting everywhere

EXTREMELY PRETTY men, costumes, make up, setting... well, everything

No consent whatsoever

Pokey pokey, but not with the right kind of swords (a naked blade will be grabbed by a naked hand, sadly also not in the preferred way)

A bodyguard hotter than he has any right to be, wearing black

Floaty fighty fighty, including but not limited to: skid backwards through puffs of dust, a leap to land + one knee down + holding sword + head bowed, a twirly protect baby from baddies

A boat in a lotus pond

Poison, probably green, glittery if I'm lucky

Circular architecture

A big fuck off fan

Puppy-cat pairing

They wander through bamboo, sit down at the edge of a lake, probubly on a log

Wound tending, of course, because there will be lots of wounds

Someone pushed onto a platform bed (also kneeling in front of it)

A jail with straw in it

Older men with sparse beards detracting from the romance

Fruit or some other food being thrown

Some serious SLEEVE action.

Li Le as Zong Zheng Huai En

Probably the reserved unhinged one. Has sword, will prod.

He has a solid track record of shows under his belt. So to speak. One wonders how they persuaded him to do BL. He sure is pretty tho.

Wang Yun Kai as Jin Xiao Bao

The son of the wealthiest man in the Jiangnan region, probably the cheerful cute one.

He's an entirely green actor.

Most of the cast is from mainland China, with the exception of Achi Sukonlaphat Sribubpha, who is Thai (obvs) and under Artop Media.

Nancy Chen is directing

She is a Taiwanese director and screenwriter, who directed HIStory 4 and HIStory 5 (neither all that great) and was behind very queer friendly Pappy & Daddy.

I wouldn't call her a stellar director. I would say I've been reserving judgement, but if you pin me down I'd call her Taiwan's New.

Pitch

Xiao Bao (cute) falls in love with icy, white-robed stunner Huai En due to an unexpected meeting. Discovers she is actually a boy (and a baddie). Hijinx ensue.

Adapted from the novel Hua Kai You Shi Tui Mi Wu Sheng 花开有时, 颓靡无声 by Shui Qian Cheng 水千丞

Co-production with China and Taiwan. But the country of origin is listed as Thailand.

12 Episodes, 40 min each (or so) for a total fresh content run time of 8 hours.

Aired: Jul 11, 2024 - Aug 15, 2024 on iQiyi, Viki, WeTV, Gaga

Shall we get started?

I had a surfeit of options since Viki, Gaga, and iQIYI all had Blossom. I like Viki's interface best, want to support Gaga the most, but in this case, I opted for iQIYI because... screen shots. So it's all your fault.

EPISODE 1: Nicknames, pretty men, dimples, twirly, stabby, floof!

I don't like the intro music, it's too slow and tinkly, but classic for the genre I suppose. Still I'm fast forwarding through all the falling cherry blossoms.

All right. Now it's about time for... YES...

Emperor Infodump

Chancellor of Extraneous Explanations

As You Know Bo

Sorry sorry. The puns must flow.

The deets: layabout emperor = chaos & suffering. New emp = strong & popular but his baby bro wants to rule. New emp exiles bro to obscurity. New emp = good ruler. Order established through patriarchal dominance. Children laughing in the street. Got it.

I will not be remembering names, FYI.

We open on kid in trouble over a kite killed(?) by baddie.

Enter pretty spangled skippy puppy McDimples. I shall call him Dimples. Dimples = spoiled rich kid having trouble finding a wife - presumably because they all know he gay.

Enter hottie evil cut-glass cheekbones McPoutypants. Haven't decided what I shall call him. It'll come to me.

Extremely pretty men. CHECK.

Ooo, a big hat on horse back!

Of course, how could I not have had that trope on my checklist? My bad.

And a bunch of assassins slow-dropping out of trees like lazy fruit. I forgot that, too.

I gotta say, fairy prince or high elf is not a bad moniker for twirly-sword cheekbones supreme.

Floaty fighty fighty! CHECK

Oh, I thought they'd go in for crossdressing at the very least but I guess they went for Dimples is an idiot instead. Interesting choice. I see we also have the "baby is a clumsy bunny" trope all set to deploy. Carry on.

Grab the sword and skid through the dirt. CHECK!

And a fainting!

Pony tail with ribbons. CHECK

Dimples might be a bit too much of a prat and an idiot for me.

[Have begun watching at 1.25 speed. Don't fault me.]

I always find the orange/yellow eye makeup that Cdramas put on characters of questionable morality fascinating. Why those colors specifically? And why eye makeup specifically?

We arrive home. It fancy. Daddy doesn't want an unknown lady for his baby (silly daddy, ladies are for ladies, boys are for boys).

Everyone acknowledging that elf prince is, in fact, The Prettiest is very pleasing to me.

Meanwhile, there is some kind of list/stuff/thingy and Prince Shen wants it and is a bad guy, maybe? I can't remember names from the beginning so I have no idea what's going on with the plot but also, it is only going to get more convoluted. Plus the weekend is coming so I'll eventually be drinking and watching this. Plot is for people who don't like BL. And don't have six bottles of sake in their fridge.

Snicker.

Where was I?

Oh yes. Judiciously NOT following the plot.

Dimples and his 2 enablers seem to share about 1/3 of a braincell between them. But they're sincere about it.

Engage secret identity trope and the expected cross dressing.

Ooo Shen is The Prettiest's uncle? Damn it I'm trying to follow the plot again. Must not get sucked into plot. This is a Cdrama therein lies madness. Ah, Prettiest is the son of the emperor's exiled younger bro? Got it.

Twirly protect baby from baddies! CHECK

And that's episode 1 in the bag. In the sheath?

My thoughts so far:

This couldn't be more exactly what I expected if it tried. I mean it is trying. And it's succeeding in being a Wuxia BL. So. Yay! Performing to the packaging. I appreciate that in a show.

I'm looking forward to more.

(On the advice of one of my spies I've switched to watching on YT when I can, YT and Gaga are supposed to have the better subs than iQIYI and Viki. That said I found iQIYI's serviceable.)

EPISODE 2: Checking a bunch of stuff off my list in rapid succession

Poisoning?

No. Sex herb? CHECK

Discovery that she is in fact he?

Dominance Tussle? Dub con? Rape? Already? CHECK

Well that came fast (presumably so did he).

There’s a lot happening all at once at the beginning of just ep 2. 

It’s an ACCOUNT BOOK that’s causing all this fuss? Hilarious. 

Enter the anticipated hottie (bodyguard? spy?) in all black wearing a hedgehog. CHECK

(I didn’t expect the hedgehog, I have to admit.)

Oh is the single brain cell society is trying to grow additional brain cells? That's not gonna work.

Cheekbones is still the prettiest.

Oh HELLO stern grabby Daddy not-older brother of yummy. We likey.

Who do you belong to?

Why do you have The Biggest Sleeves?

Do I take that as a sign of gayness?

Please? 

Ooo looks like I’m right. 

Also this is very silly.

And "I never said she was a woman."

It’s just so funny.

OH NO!

Stern prince bro is leaving already?

I only had Grabby McDaddy for a very short length of time. I already miss him. 

Meanwhile, Dimples apparently has no compunction about being in love with a man, we blew through a bisexual identity crisis while I wasn't looking, and now we exist inside the gay=okay bubble? I did not expect The Bubble(tm) to show up in a Wuxia, but I guess this is a BL universe and we all just float around in it… 

Cheekbones is a bit of an asshole. Quite apart from the, ya know, bit of rapey rape thing.

I also did not have absolutely terrible VO dubbing on my bingo card. I forgot about that one in Cdramas.

EPISODE 3: Distracted by the pretty

Some kind of dark past for dimples and his little (not blood ) sister. 

Sniff test, the greatest trope of 2024 apparently. Nice to see the execution of a modern trope in a vintage style BL.

Aa ha! Kneeling next to a platform bed. CHECK

And more poisoning and drugs.

Wound tending. CHECK

Aweeeee Dimples is worried about Cheekbones! How cute.

Also, the ice queen appears to be melting.

Ooo. More sexitimes? Consensual this time. Okay. I guess Taiwan did get its nuts all over this show. (Honestly, that was a mistype but I'm keeping it in.)

The bit with all the bodyguards was great.

And my love for Mr. All-Black Clued-in Hottie persists.

We are now in the “does he like me back?” phase of the high school narrative. We are also in the "do I like him at all?" part of the narrative. Suddenly, this is an angsty YA. 

Ice queen has melted and is now turning into jelly. (Can you tell I’m very pleased with myself and this metaphor?) 

And now, Dimples is sick?

Boy, is this fast moving! I have to say, that is something I did not expect at all. Usually Cdramas are much slower than this.

I do love how shameless D imples is. It’s kind of delightful. He’s definitely in his bisexual awakening slut phase.

Cheekbones is also a doctor, apparently. Useful man. 

In other news: I would really like to add a full length crossover wafting robe into my wardrobe. I have no idea why I feel compelled by such a thing.

EPISODE 4: Gay sleeves AT last

Not a lot happened in this episode. Mostly flirting. More backstory and plot that doesn’t really matter. Presumably this intended to be character motivation?

We do not need him to be motivated we need him to be pretty. Understand the brief please.

Why no more floaty floaty sleeves?

Oooo, because sleeves in gay! CHECK

I did like the scene of the blood being cleaned up after the assassination attempt(?). It’s kind of nice to see that depicted for a change. I always worry about all that blood on that nice stone work.

Oh the handholding it was very cute.

Ice queen has melted and now turned entirely to jelly. Very very jelly.

Dimples is so stupid proud of his tall deadly wife. It's flipping adorable in a very goofy way.

I guess Cheekbones has come around and now Dimples has officially been claimed, multiple times and in multiple ways. He can't change his mind or anything now. Trouble is afoot...

asleeve?

ahead...

ahem.

I'll stop now.

EPISODE 5 - It is a Thing I guess?

OMG Cheekbones just loves his stilly bint of a bf. It’s absolutely absurd. The ultimate puppy/cat pairing.

I love it that he’s just casually walking around with a knife sticking out of his back and only cares that baby may have gotten a splinter in his finger.

Now we are in the vows portion of the early romance. I am assuming betrayal is coming soon? 

Grabby McDaddy! I missed you! Here to perform the part of Basil Exposition I see? No grabby for me? Sad. Unfortunately, if you aren’t flirting with a man I’m going to be fast forwarding. Although your sleeves are very nice.

Uh oh, Dimples is in trouble. 

Okay that was that. No screen caps, I lazy.

EPISODE 6 - DOOOMMMM

Oh lovely. More rape. I guess Dimples went looking for that response? Is that the implication? Does Dimples have a rape kink? What is with this show? 

No brothels for a baby I guess.

It’s not gay... it’s poison? 

It’s not bisexuality... it’s the slut herb? 

The single brain cell club is now the wailing fates. 

I guess cutting off a man’s hand out of jealousy is no biggie? Well this is a BL. Jealousy is the #1 excuse!

Fighty floaty blood spatter death! This time on wooden planks. Those are impossible to get clean. 

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of backstory and stuff I don’t care about, and probably can’t follow even if I did care about it.

I don’t like the Emperor at all. But then I don’t think I meant to. I am a little shocked that there aren’t more men with sparse beards distracting from the romance. But I guess this is a BL, they go for youth even in wuxia.

EPISODE 7 - You know what they say about a man with big sleeves?

Oh, Daddy McGrabby is back and he's a good guy (?)! He’s also in love with Dimples. 

Oh no!

What is this sensation I feel being thrust upon me?

Is that…? Is that second lead syndrome?  I think it is.

Oh well, it was fated the moment I saw the length of his... sleeves in episode 2.

Meanwhile?

Dimples gets tortured by acupuncture. 

Poisonings are always so elegant and classy in Cdramas.

Blah blah captured rescued captured rescued again sort of. Cheekbones is now seriously imperiled. We swap one for the other in Grave Danger (TM).

Enter the Divine Doctor character! Who (Dr) I have been told reliably by previous witnesses is A Favorite. I do love this particular archetype (quirky healer wise beyond his years - sometimes actual immortal. ) I am prepared to be delighted.  

EPISODE 8 - Divine Doctor is Emperor of the Gays

The divine doctor and 1/3 brain cell is not a pairing I thought was going to happen. Frankly it doesn't seem like the writers thought about it much either.

But it did make me laugh out loud.

It’s fantastic. I love them. I love this for me. I love a secondary couple for this show. Carry-on.

I LOVE THE DOCTOR SO MUCH. 

Everyone was absolutely correct. He is the best character. He is my favorite. He is openly gay and a troublemaker and absolute queen. And I adore him forever. No notes.

King Emperor behavior!

The evil crown prince has a crush on Daddy McGrabby. With good reason, he does have the biggest sleeves.

(I have a crush on Daddy McGrabby.) And he clearly likes brats, so I think the crown prince is in with a chance, actually.

(Not me, sadly. Despite the rumors I am not a brat. I make no case for this.)

EPISODE 9 - The Plot Thickens like Shampoo

Oh, Cheekbones is the new crown prince? We have a whole Snape situation going on here?

And finally Cheekbone knows what is happened to his poor little tortured Dimples. (oof that acting tho. before you say "what acting" i KNOW.)

In all honesty, I’m quite engaged by the drama of the show at this point and kind of losing my snark because of it. Don't get mad at me.

It’s not a bad show. I mean it’s a melodramatic soap opera, but that’s to be expected. It's so soapy it's like one of those extra foamy soap dispenser soaps.

To be entirely fair most gay men of my acquaintances have very similar relationship trajectories. Minus some of the casual murder (aside from character assassinations of course). 

EPISODE 10 - Oh Noes All Round

Not enough of my beloved divine doctor emperor of the gays. But you can’t have everything. 

Oh noes, my babies are fighting. 

But he brought you a big thistle! Don't fight!

Oh they get to kind of make up, or something. It’s sweet. Puppy Dimples accidentally caught himself a psychopath. To be fair tho, all cats are psychopaths at heart.

Oh noes Daddy McGrabby is planning on killing Cheekbones. No Daddy. Not the Cheekbones!

The cheek kiss from Cheekbones was so romantic. Normally I’m not a huge fan of this particular smooch, but under these circumstances it was very good.

EPISODE 11 - So Many Gay Emperors no one cares about the actual emperor

I wish I could shut somebody up by a simple double tap to the collarbone. It’s like the wuxia version of a block feature on tumblr.

Meanwhile, the part where 2/3 of a brain cell are comparing how hot their respective fierce gay emperors are to each other is truly hilarious. I actually clapped.

This is so ridiculous.

Epic eye roll from the remaining 1/3 of a brain cell. And I have to say I’m on his side in this matter.

Oh noes Daddy McGrabby is not, in fact, on the side of twrew lurve after all.

How sad. 

EPISODE 12 - The Bisexual In the Bathtub & other nursery rhymes of my youth

I love this silly bint of a bisexual in the bath between two fierce gay dudes who are about to give their life force to keep him alive.

Someone definitely once drew this as Lord of the Rings fanart 20 years ago.

I guess our single brain cell has been torn asunder. And Daddy McGrabby never did get his man.

Next series?

Bing him back to me.

With EVEN BIGGER SLEEVES!

IN CONCLUSION

All cards on the table?

This was undeniably a wuxia and most definitely a BL.

Evil stunning princely Cheekbones meets and falls in love with the bisexual Disaster dimples of his dreams. There’s a lot of floaty fighting, tangled plot, and overworked emotions. From start to finish it was exactly as it claimed to be, including more than the expected amount of sexual claiming.

I’m not wild about the wuxia genre, but I will tell you what I do like:

Very pretty men in flowing robes + eye makeup + hair ribbons wafting about stabbing and kissing each other plus ridiculous soap opera machinations. I also like cheekbones and dimples. AND I love a stupid gay sleeve, okay? There was also truly epic levels of stink-eye, and that too is to be lauded.

This show left me grinning like crazy. Was it great? Not really, but it was a great experience and I enjoyed it immensely.

I’m so glad you all persuaded me to watch it in the end.

Thank you! 

I should probably give it an 9/10 because I had such a good time watching it. But I’m not going to, because it isn’t a 9/10 drama. It had a lot of flaws chewing at that pretty (boom mic riddled) scenery, not to mention all the rapey rape.

It’s a solid 8/10

(source)

[heesvnqie]

non idol au + celebrity au with jay x fem!reader who are co-stars in an action+romcom kdrama?

so maybe they shoot some action scenes and he’s worried for her bc she doesn’t like having a stunt double and does all the stunts herself

and maybe they also shoot the romance scenes which lead to like a LATER irl romance scene between them yk?

feel free to ignore this if it’s not something you’d write haha

Author : Dear Anon, I would love to write this out! Thank you so muchhh for giving me such a fantastic prompt. Lots of hugs and kisses.

Behind The Scene- A Park Jongseong FF

Pairing: Park Jongseong!Jay x female reader

Word count: 4.6k

Genre: fluff, smut

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪: Your first ever series and with the BEST actor of the K-drama industry puts you under pressure and nervousness. You're not just the female lead but also the action herione. Filming alongside Jay, you and Jay develop a undeniable chemistry.

The sun hovered lazily in the sky, casting a warm glow over the bustling streets of the city. With eyes shielded by oversized sunglasses, you weaved through the crowded sidewalks, heart racing with a mix of excitement and nerves. Today was the day you had been waiting for, the start of filming for the highly anticipated action-romcom series that would either make or break your career.

You were a rookie in the industry, and this was your first series but you had something that set you apart from the rest: you were not only the female lead but also the action heroine.

As you approached the set, the sound of voices grew louder, a blend of Korean and English echoing through the streets. You recognized the towering figure of Jay, your co-star, in the distance, surrounded by a whirlwind of crew members.

He was a seasoned actor, known for his impeccable fighting skills and chiseled jawline that had won the hearts of fans worldwide. You took a deep breath and straightened your posture, reminding yourself of the fierce character you were about to portray.

Your first series was going to be with the BEST actor of the whole k-drama industry. It gave you a feeling of pride as well as of fear on the thought that what if your acting wasn't at his level?

The director, Mr. Kim, called for your attention as you and Jay arrived on set. He spoke with a fervor that could only come from a man who had poured his soul into a script. "Today, we begin with the rooftop chase scene," he announced, holding up a storyboard. "Remember, safety first, but we need that raw, adrenaline-filled performance. Are we ready?"

"Are we ready Miss Y/N? You are the main-woman in this scene.." Mr.Kim asked noticing the worry and fear in your eyes.

"Yes." You managed to say with a slight tremble in your voice.

Jay cast a concerned glance in your direction, noticing better than anyone the slight tremble in your voice and the way how your hand shook with nervousness.

He knew you didn't like stunt doubles, you had mentioned that during the audition. You insisted on doing your own stunts to give an authentic performance. The thought of you in harm's way made his stomach tighten, but he knew better than to challenge your determination.

He offered a reassuring smile instead. "You've got this," he murmured in your ear as his hot breath streamed down the back of your neck. Shivers passed down your spine as you managed to show him a thumbs-up.

The cameras rolled, and the scene unfolded. You sprinted across the rooftop with an agility that belied your inexperience, leaping between buildings with a grace that seemed almost superhuman. Jay followed close behind, his movements precise and calculated. Despite the scripted chaos, he couldn't help but admire your courage and dedication to the craft. You and Jay exchanged a few lines in between breathless pants, the tension between you both palpable, not just from the scene, but from a growing, unspoken attraction.

The climax of the sequence involved a daring jump over a narrow alley, which you had practiced relentlessly. Jay watched from the opposite rooftop where you had to land, his eyes never leaving you. You took a moment to gather your nerves, your heart pounding in your chest.

Then, with a fierce cry and quick run, you launched yourself into the air, the wind whipping through your hair. Time seemed to slow as you soared over the gap, and for a brief, terrifying second, you thought you might not make it.

But you did, landing with a thud on the opposite rooftop, your knees buckling slightly.

"CUT!" The director yelled. The crew erupted into applause, and Jay rushed to your side, his relief palpable.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his hand on your shoulder, his eyes searching yours for any sign of pain and distress.

You grinned up at him, your cheeks flushed with exhilaration. "Never better," you replied, pushing yourself to your feet. The adrenaline coursed through your veins, leaving you feeling invincible.

You both shared a brief moment of understanding, the kind that forms between two people who have just survived something intense together.

As the day went on, you and Jay shot scenes that were a stark contrast to the earlier action—now it was time for the romantic moments that would melt the hearts of their viewers.

Jay's gaze lingered on you as he and you delivered your lines with an ease that surprised even you. The chemistry between both of you was undeniable, and it was clear that both of you weren't just playing characters anymore.

Each touch, each smile, every fleeting glance was charged with a current that had the crew whispering and squeakling like highschool girls.

The sun dipped below the horizon, casting a warm orange hue over the city as the crew approached the final scene of the day. It was a classic rooftop confession, where your characters would finally admit their feelings for each other.

As the director called for action, Jay stepped closer, his hand brushing against yours. He could feel the electricity between them, and it was all too real.

Both of you delivered your lines with a passion that seemed to resonate through the air, your eyes locked in a silent conversation that spoke volumes. The moment grew heavier, the silence between your words thick with unspoken desire.

When the script called for him to lean in and kiss you, Jay paused, his heart thumping. He searched your eyes for permission, and finding it as you nodded, pressed his lips gently to yours.

The kiss was soft, tentative at first, as if both of you were afraid to break the delicate illusion. But as your characters' love story unfolded before you, the line between fiction and reality began to blur. The kiss grew deeper, more urgent, as Jay pushed you against the wall until it was no longer just for the camera.

The crew, captivated by the authenticity of the moment, held their collective breath, the whispers dying down to nothing.

Mr. Kim called "Cut!" with a knowing smile, and the spell was broken.

Jay pulled back, his gaze lingering on your lips for a heartbeat longer than necessary. The atmosphere on the rooftop had shifted, and everyone knew it. He offered her a hand, helping her to walk away from the wall, their fingers intertwining naturally. They stumbled over their next lines, the heat of their kiss still echoing between them.

The days turned into weeks, and the chemistry between you both grew more potent with each scene you two shot. You found yourselves laughing at inside jokes during takes and lingering in each other's embrace longer than the director required.

It was as if your on-screen romance had spilled over into real life, and neither of you were complaining. You and Jay began to share more than just the screen, finding yourselves at dinners and coffee shops, sharing stories about their pasts and dreams for the future.

But the whispers grew louder, the paparazzi more persistent. The rumors of a secret romance between the lead actors began to spread like wildfire through the entertainment industry.

Jay knew that this kind of publicity could either skyrocket their show's success or lead to a disastrous scandal. He had been down that road before, and the memory of his past relationships ruined by the media still stung.

The two leads decided to keep your feelings under wraps, focusing solely on both of your professional commitment to the show. Yet, it was getting harder and harder to ignore the sparks that flew every time you were together. The tension grew with each passing day, a silent dance of desire and restraint.

One evening, after a particularly grueling day of filming, you both found yourselves in a quiet corner of the set, the lights dimming as the crew packed up around you.

The air was thick with unspoken words, and the energy between them was almost tangible. Jay leaned in, his hand gently brushing a strand of hair from your face. "We can't keep doing this," he murmured, his voice low and filled with longing.

You looked at him in confusion.

"Pretending," he clarified, his thumb tracing the curve of your cheek. "We're fooling ourselves and everyone else."

Your eyes searched his, looking for any hint of doubt or regret, but all you found was the intensity of his gaze, a mirror to your own tumultuous emotions.

"What do you suggest we do?" You whispered, your voice barely audible above the soft hum of the city below. "The series is a hit. Everybody loves our chemistry. The fans truly want us to date."

He nodded solemnly. "I know. But we're not just characters in a drama, we're people with real feelings. We can't let this control us anymore."

With a deep sigh, you stepped back, creating space between him and you. "You're right," you conceded, your voice trembling slightly. "We need to be professional. Our careers are on the line."

The conversation weighed heavily on both of you, and the following days on set were filled with awkward glances and forced smiles. You both threw yourselves into work, trying to ignore the undeniable pull that tugged at your hearts.

The stunt scenes became more intense, and Jay found himself more protective than ever, hovering nearby whenever you were in the air, ready to catch you if you stumbled.

You noticed, and a part of you felt grateful, while another part resented the reminder of the barrier you both had built between each other.

During a break from filming, you sat in your trailer, staring at your reflection in the mirror. The makeup artist had painted your cheeks with a blush that didn't quite match the one Jay's kisses left behind.

You felt torn between your career and your burgeoning feelings for him. The knock on the door startled you out of your thoughts.

Jay peered in, his expression a mix of concern and determination. "Can we talk?"

Nodding, you stepped aside to let him in, your heart racing. The trailer was cramped, but it felt even smaller with the weight of your unspoken words pressing down on both of you. He sat beside you on the small couch, his leg brushing against yours.

"Look," Jay began, his voice a little shaky. "I know we agreed to keep things professional, but I can't ignore this anymore. When we're together, it feels so real. So right." He paused, watching you intently. "What if we just…see where this takes us?"

You felt a warmth spread through your chest. You knew the risks, the potential scandals and the impact on your careers, but you also knew that you couldn't deny your feelings for much longer. You took a deep breath and placed your hand on his, feeling the heat from his skin. "Okay," You murmured. "But we have to be careful."

Jay nodded solemnly. "We'll be discreet."

Your secret grew as the days passed, a shared look here, a stolen touch there. You became experts at hiding in plain sight, your on-screen chemistry becoming a delicious secret that only added to the show's allure.

Off-screen, you found moments to be together, sneaking away during breaks, your conversations filled with whispers and smiles that didn't reach your eyes when the cameras weren't rolling.

One night, after a particularly demanding day of filming, Jay suggested that you both grab a quick dinner together. You both ended up in a small, tucked-away restaurant, the kind that didn't bother with autographs or photos, where the aroma of sizzling meat and spicy kimchi filled the air.

The intimate setting made your hearts race, and your conversation flowed as freely as the soju that accompanied your meal.

Under the flickering candlelight, he reached across the table, his hand covering yours. "I know we said we'd keep it professional, but I can't help how I feel about you," he confessed, his voice thick with emotion. Your eyes searched his, finding the vulnerability you hadn't expected. "I know," You replied, your voice barely above a whisper. "I feel it too."

Your relationship grew in the shadows of the film set. Stolen glances, secret smiles, and whispers that only both of you could hear. It was a delicate dance of passion and discretion, a dance that had you both feeling like teenagers again. Each day brought new challenges, new moments of tension and excitement, and each night brought you two closer together.

As the show's popularity soared, the whispers grew louder. The media was hungry for any scrap of gossip, any hint of a romance between the two. Yet, you and Jay remained steadfast in your decision to keep your feelings hidden from the public eye.

You knew that the moment you admitted your love, the storm of attention would be overwhelming, possibly even destructive.

One evening, as you and Jay sat together on the edge of the same rooftop where your on-screen romance had begun, Jay looked into your eyes and spoke the words that had been haunting him. "We can't hide forever," he said softly. "We're going to have to decide when we want to tell the world."

You felt a knot form in your stomach. The thought of your secret being out in the open was both thrilling and terrifying. You knew that once you stepped out of the shadows, there would be no turning back.

"But what if it ruins everything?" You asked, your voice filled with concern. "What if we can't handle the pressure?"

Jay squeezed your hand reassuringly. "We're stronger than we think," he said, his voice filled with conviction. "We've come this far, and we're not just any couple. We're the couple everyone wants to see together. If we do it right, we can control the narrative."

You both talked into the night, weighing the pros and cons, your hearts and minds in a constant tug-of-war. Finally, both of you reached an agreement.

You would wait until the show's finale to reveal your relationship, timing it to coincide with the dramatic climax of your characters' love story. It would be a perfect, poetic ending for both the show and your secret romance.

The days leading up to the finale were a whirlwind of intense filming and heightened emotions. The anticipation of your characters' confession mirrored your own, and the lines between scripted passion and real-life feelings grew increasingly blurred.

You both held onto the secret tighter than ever, the excitement of the impending revelation a constant undercurrent in your interactions.

As the final scenes approached, so did the paparazzi. They lurked in the shadows, cameras at the ready, waiting for a single slip-up that would shatter the illusion of your professional façade. Jay and you had become experts at dodging questions, at keeping your hands to yourselves, at smiling for the cameras while your hearts ached for more.

The night of the finale was upon them. The script called for your characters to confess their love on the rooftop under a blanket of stars. The air was thick with tension, not just from the scene but from the knowledge that soon, your own secret would be shared with the world. Jay took a deep breath as the director called for action, his eyes locking with yours, conveying all the love and fear he couldn't speak aloud.

Both of you delivered your lines with a passion that seemed to set the very air around you alight. The kiss was explosive, a culmination of weeks of pent-up emotion, and the crew watched with bated breath. As the scene ended and the director called cut, Jay pulled away, his heart racing.

The moment of truth had arrived.

You had agreed to wait until the show's finale to reveal your relationship, but the intensity of your on-screen confession had made it impossible to resist the pull any longer. Jay took your hand, his grip firm and reassuring, and led you to the edge of the rooftop, the city of Seoul stretching out below you like a twinkling sea of stars. The cool breeze whispered around you, carrying the scent of the city's vibrant life.

He leaned in, his breath warm against your ear. "Let's do it now," he murmured, his voice filled with a mix of excitement and trepidation. "Let's tell the world before the cameras do."

Your heart skipped a beat, the gravity of the situation hitting you like a ton of bricks. But as you looked into his eyes, you knew he was right. It was time to claim their happiness.

"Okay," You whispered, your grip on his hand tightening. "Let's make it our moment, not theirs."

Both of you descended the stairs from the rooftop, your steps echoing in the quiet alley. The paparazzi waited like vultures, but tonight, they had a surprise in store. Jay took a deep breath, feeling the weight of his decision settle in his chest. As you reached the street, a cacophony of flashes and questions erupted around you, but he didn't flinch. Instead, he turned to you, a soft smile playing on his lips.

"Let's go," he whispered, leading you through the frenzy.

The paparazzi surrounded you both, their cameras flashing like a storm of lightning, but Jay and you ran through the street, hearts beating in sync and as you both laughed. You both ducked into a nearby alley, the walls closing in around you as you sought refuge from the prying eyes. The moment the door to the quiet restaurant swung shut, the tension between you snapped.

With trembling hands, both of you took a seat in a cozy booth, the warmth of the place wrapping around like a comforting blanket. "Ready for this?" Jay asked, his eyes searching yours for any sign of doubt.

"More than ready," You replied, a hint of a smile playing on your lips. You both had rehearsed your story a hundred times, a carefully crafted tale of friendship blossoming into love. It was almost as if both of you had been preparing for this moment since the day you and Jay met.

The hours ticked by, filled with laughter and whispers of your own little world. The food grew cold as you lost yourselves in your conversation, the outside world a distant murmur that didn't dare to intrude. But as the clock neared midnight, reality began to creep back in. The show's finale was airing, and your secret would soon be out of your hands.

Jay checked his phone, the screen lighting up his anxious expression. "We should do it now," he urged. "Before the rumors get out of control."

You took a deep breath, your heart racing. You nodded, feeling a strange mix of excitement and dread. "Okay."

You both waited until the perfect moment, the climax of the show's final episode where your characters' love story reached its crescendo. As your on-screen counterparts shared a passionate embrace, you two posted a candid photo of yourselves on your social media accounts. The image was simple: two tired but happy faces, her head resting on his shoulder, their eyes filled with a secret that was no longer just for them. The caption read, "Life imitates art. <3 #OurLoveStory #K-DramaCoupleGoals."

The internet exploded. Within minutes of posting the picture, notifications flooded their phones like confetti in a celebration that had been bottled up for too long. The hashtags he and you had used trended immediately, and the reactions were a mix of shock, elation, and fervent support from your devoted fans

You and Jay watched in awe as the news spread across the entertainment world, the real-life romance becoming the talk of the town, overshadowing even the drama's cliffhanger finale.

The day of the Filmfare OTT Awards arrived, and the excitement was palpable. Jay and your show had been nominated in multiple categories, but the real prize was the undeniable chemistry that had brought you to this moment.

You walked the red carpet together, your hands entwined, each step a declaration of you and Jay's love. The flash of cameras and the screams of fans only served to amplify the thrill that was already coursing through your veins.

As you took your seats in the grand auditorium, your eyes never left each other's. The air was charged with anticipation, a heady mix of nerves and excitement. When the show's name was called out for Best Series, the room erupted in applause. Jay turned to you, a proud smile playing on his lips, and you felt your heart swell with joy. Both of you had done it; You two had conquered the industry together.

The after-party was a whirlwind of congratulations and celebrations. The producer, director, and cast mingled with the entertainment world, all eager to congratulate the couple who had brought their show to life. Jay's hand remained firmly in yours as you both navigated through the throngs of people, the warmth of his touch grounding you amidst the chaos.

The series creator, a charismatic woman with a sharp wit, pulled Jay and you, her eyes shimmering with pride. "You two," she said, raising her glass, "are the reason we're here tonight. Your chemistry is what made this show unforgettable." She leaned closer, her voice a conspiratorial whisper.

"A toast to our new couple and the win of our series!" She shouted.

The glasses clinked, the sound echoing through the buzzing room.

As the party raged on, you and Jay found yourselves in a quiet corner, the music a distant throb in your ears.

Jay leaned in, his eyes dark with desire. "I can't wait to celebrate properly," he murmured.

Jay held you by your hand dragging you into a suite of the hotel where the party was organised. You two slipped away, hand in hand, leaving the festivities behind.

As you entered the bedroom, he kissed you the lips. The kiss was a declaration, a promise of the passion he had been holding back for so long.

Jay pulled you closer, his hands sliding around your waist, and you could feel the heat of his skin through her dress. He had waited for this moment, and now that it was here, it was like the dam had broken.

Your kisses grew more urgent, each one a declaration of love that had been held back for too long. He slipped the dress off your shoulders, revealing the softness of her skin beneath. You unbuttoned his shirt, your fingertips tracing the contours of his chest, feeling his heartbeat against your palm.

The suite was a luxurious retreat from the cacophony of the party. The lights were low, casting shadows that danced on the walls, setting a stage for your private celebration.

Jay's hands were gentle but firm as he guided you to the bed, your eyes never breaking contact. You felt a rush of desire as he kissed your neck, his breath hot against your skin. Your fingers threaded through his hair as he trailed kisses down your collarbone, each one setting your body alight.

He paused, his gaze locking onto yours. "Are you sure about this?" Her response was a fiery kiss that left no room for doubt. "Yes. More than anything," you murmured against his lips.

His touch was electric, setting every inch of you on fire. Your hands explored his body, tracing the lines of muscle that had been honed by years of martial arts training, feeling the power and strength that had made him a star.

Your kisses grew deeper, more demanding, as sought to claim each other fully. He kissed you with a hunger that you had never felt before. His hands roamed over your curves, memorizing every inch of your body, as if he was afraid that if he didn't, you would vanish.

He took his time, exploring your body with a reverence that made you feel worshipped. His fingers danced along your thighs, his lips leaving a trail of fire wherever they went. You squirmed beneath him, desperate for more, and he chuckled, a low, dark sound that sent shivers down your spine. "Patience," he whispered, his voice a promise.

With a final, lingering kiss, he slid down your body, his eyes never leaving yours. He parted your legs gently, his gaze filled with a hunger that made your core clench with anticipation. His tongue darted out, tracing a wet line along your folds, and you gasped.

His hands gripped your hips, holding you in place as he feasted on you, his every movement calculated to drive you wild.

Your nails dug into the bedspread as he found your clit, circling it with agonizing precision. He watched your reactions, studying you like a map, learning the landscape of your pleasure. Your breath grew ragged, your hips moving in time with his ministrations.

The pressure built inside you, a crescendo that threatened to shatter you into a million pieces. And when he finally slid a finger inside you, you did just that, coming apart in his arms with a cry that was equal parts relief and ecstasy.

He un-buckled his belt as slid down his pants.He kissed his way back up your body, their eyes locking as he positioned himself above you.

You could feel the tip of him against you, the heat of him making you wetter, your body begging for more. He took a moment, savoring the connection, before he pushed inside you with a groan that seemed to come from his very soul. You were tight, so tight, and the sensation was overwhelming.

Your walls clamped around him as he filled you, the feeling so intense it was almost painful. But it was a good pain, a pain that made him feel alive in a way he never had before. He began to move, his hips rocking into yours in a rhythm that seemed as natural as breathing. You met each of his thrusts with a moan, your nails digging into his back as you held on for dear life.

He watched your face as he moved inside you, the way your eyes fluttered closed and your mouth parted in pleasure. He knew he was your first, and the thought made him even more determined to make this moment unforgettable.

He whispered sweet nothings into your ear, his voice a mix of passion and reverence. You responded with soft gasps and whimpers, your body moving in sync with his.

Your rhythm grew faster, more intense, as the room filled with the sound of your muffled cries and the slick wetness of your passion. He felt you tighten around him, your legs wrapping around his waist, pulling him deeper. He knew you were close, and he was determined to take you there. His strokes grew more deliberate, his focus solely on your pleasure.

With a final, desperate moan, you came, your body convulsing around him. He groaned, the feeling of your climax sending him over the edge. He buried himself inside you, his release hot and deep, as he claimed you fully. Both of you clung to each other, breaths mingling in the stillness that followed, your hearts hammering in a frantic symphony of love.

Your bodies remained connected, neither willing to break the intimate bond that had just formed. The room was filled with the scent of your love, a potent mix of sweat and desire. Jay kissed your forehead, his chest heaving with each breath. "I love you," he murmured, the words a solemn vow.

His eyes searched your, the intensity of your union reflected in your depths. "I love you too," you whispered back, your voice a soft caress against his skin. Both of you lay there, basking in the afterglow.

Taglist:-

@slutofpsh , @laurenalpha123 , @dreamiestay , @amortenha , @peonywon , @mitmit01 , @heeevangelizesme , @gvni-eve ,@yourmomni , @leov3rse , @punchbug9-blog

[iz1331]

Gonna have to rewatch Beetlejuice and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice back to back to compose a list of "movie canon" that were deemed not brought back/continued in the sequel.

For example: Like how the sequel "disregarded" the fact that only those who "died of suicide can become civil servants in the afterlife".

NO ONE CONFIRMED THAT! It was just a throw away line by Otho, WHO WAS A FRAUD AND KNEW LITTLE TO NONE OF THE SUPERNATURAL!

The sequel even subtly corrected that misconception. Not everyone in the Civil Service in the Afterlife died of suicide, several were wrongly assigned that cause of death.

Miss Argentina was the only significant character that had an accident in Beetlejuice that we've seen who works as a civil servant. And maybe the flattened guy, but not sure if that was an accident or not. He looked quite jovial for a flattened guy.

Case in point: we have Wolf Jackson, and he certainly didn't die of suicide, yet he works as a self-proclaimed cop and runs the whole police joint there.

The earlier scrapped concept of Betelgeuse hanging himself was just that. An idea/concept of how he died. They never used that in the film, thus it's not canon. It's considered fanon in the fandom cause it's been more than 30 years of no solid confirmation of a sequel and we were hungry for any scrap of Beetlejuice material that we can consume and use as inspiration for art and stories to feed ourselves over the years until news of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was announced and got released.

The sequel answered some questions and gave us new content to work with. For both the characters and about the Netherworld/Afterlife in the Beetlejuice universe.

I'm all for creative liberty and freedom, make a canon divergent or write an Alternative Universe of it all, but don't just shit on the sequel and say that it's an "elaborate fanfiction" like the screenplay writers didn't put a lot of thought in it that even Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara finally, after DECADES of turning down script after script, found THIS story for the sequel to have the most potential and having the right tone as a follow up for the movie that meant so much to all of them.

Everyone who worked behind the scenes in creating the film from props, set location and design, puppetry, stop-motion, costume, stunt people, make-up, lights, sound, extras, production, marketing, EVERYONE put a lot of effort and passion and did AMAZING work on this project. I'm still amazed by every large and miniscule details I discover every time I rewatch it.

Was the story of the legacy sequel perfect?

Of course not.

No sequel ever is. Someone will always find something to complain about and that's just how things work in this industry, in this world.

But, was it fun? Was it both new, and brought the same feel from the original? Did the actors brought to life the characters we've loved for more than three decades and counting? Did it introduce new characters that fit the ensemble and had the same eccentric aura of the Beetlejuice world? Was it a relief that the story didn't just end 30 years ago?

Yes, it did. For me. I loved it. It's not perfect, but for someone like me who's a bit of a perfectionist on my works, and then finding the imperfections actually making the finished product better than I expected, it means a lot.

And for what it's worth, at least the time and love and the littlest of delusion I invested for Beetlebabes actually had something to show for. A one-sided romance it may be, at least I now know that Betelgeuse isn't harboring any lasting ill will towards Lydia for all these years.

That Tim also saw it that way. That Michael and Winona were open to this dynamic and relationship between the two characters/roles that they love and cherished to play.

Also, people change. No one stays the same. Life throws curve balls at us, and yes, to FICTIONAL characters as well. People mellow with age. One person or experience can change someone, even when they've been dead for 600 years.

[sweetenerobert]

who’s line is it anyway

1.9k /dieter bravo x male reader

summary: during a table read, dieter’s thoughts trail off into more “important” things than a script in front of him.

warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI, strong language, pwp, mention of drugs, dieter being a high mess, public sex, dirty talk, unprotected p in a, choking, let me know if i missed anything!

a/n: this was supposed to be a drabble but knowing me and my writing style, a “drabble” consist of 800 words

also i would like to blame @morallyinept for this idea, the idea came from a post she made and i talked to her about it, and she made it 1000x better

one more thing: if your seeing this one of my exams are finally fucking done! celebration, ugh finally and hopefully you guys love this, trying to write and study was so fucking annoying, but i finally got this done

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“Here’s the thing,” You start, unlocking your legs from each other and placing your palms on the table. You push yourself onto the table, earning a wide-eyed expression from Dieter behind his sunglasses.

You kneel on the table — sitting on your calves, feet dangling off the table, slowly crawling towards Dieter like an animal stalking their prey. Dieter’s lips were apart as he looked at you in astonishment. “I don't care about some dumb table read when I’d rather —” You are face-to-face with Dieter, inches apart; with a simple push, your lips could collide.

Grabbing the temples of his sunglasses, you slowly slide them off Dieter’s shocked expression, closing the temples together and placing his sunglasses on the table. “When I’d rather have you fuck me on this table.”

Table reads were one of the things that Dieter dreaded — with a burning passion. Getting up so early in the morning just to read lines off a packet of stapled papers together, drinking shit coffee, and sitting around directors, executives, producers, and fellow actors/actresses he has to act to like.

Dieter was high, and he knew that it was the only thing going to make him go through this long, exhausting day. Through his sunglasses — that he didn't need to wear anymore, he could barely keep his eyes open his eyes. Dieter wanted to rest his head on the table underneath his hands and read the lines whenever he felt like it. But he was too busy looking at the people around him.

His gaze eventually lands on you as you are reading your lines. Dieter ultimately set his eyes on you. Dieter has a glimpse of recognizing you, but he was probably too high to remember it. As you stopped reading your lines, you smiled at the next person who had to read.

Dieter wished you never smiled; his cock was already throbbing in his pants — itching to be released. As he shifted the length of his cock in his pants, he noticed how concentrated and strong-headed you were. It made him want to bend you over the table more.

He yearned to know what noises your mouth made as he drove his cock into you. Dieter wanted to make you beg for more of his cock, made you want to plead for his cum. Thinking about you so much made Dieter’s cock twitch. He looked down and was annoyed that his cock wasn't getting the attention it deserved.

“Psst, D.”

Dieter heard a voice — your voice and looked up at you. You had this look on your face that you didn’t have before. It was seductive, enticing. He was shocked but just went with it.

“Yeah?” Dieter asked.

“You’ve been thinking about me, haven't you?” You questioned.

Dieter drew his lips in a thin line and shook his head. “Nope, got me confused with someone else.”

You scoff, crossing your arms and looking at him. Your legs cross, and you shake your foot in impatience.

“C’mon, D. I know bullshit when I smell it.”

Hearing you say the initial of his name made his cock twitch. He swore you heard it knock on the wooden table above his member.

“Okay,” Dieter shrugs and smirks. “Even if I was thinking about you, what could we do? We can't leave yet.”

“Here’s the thing,” You start, unlocking your legs from each other and placing your palms on the table. You push yourself onto the table, earning a wide-eyed expression from Dieter behind his sunglasses.

You kneel on the table — sitting on your calves, feet dangling off the table, slowly crawling towards Dieter like an animal stalking their prey. Dieter’s lips were apart as he looked at you in astonishment. “I don't care about some dumb table read when I’d rather —” You are face-to-face with Dieter, inches apart; with a simple push, your lips could collide.

Grabbing the temples of his sunglasses, you slowly slide them off Dieter’s shocked expression, closing the temples together and placing his sunglasses on the table. “When I’d rather have you fuck me on this table.”

You flashed a smile, and Dieter’s face looked like a deer in headlights. He glanced around him and noticed that no one was fazed by what you were saying — as if it were completely normal. “Are we going to fuck or what?” You shrug.

In one motion, Dieter collided his lips with yours, gripping your throat — a moan escaping your lips. Dieter was finally getting his wish, hearing what you sounded like under his touch. The kiss became more intimate than alluring and, suddenly, hungry. You both were two horny teenagers — couldn't get enough of each other, didn't want to let each other go.

Dieter stood up from his seat, kicking the seat out of his way — hand still gripping your throat, tiny moans left your throat with each kiss Dieter was devouring your face. Your lips tasted like strawberries, and Dieter couldn't get enough of your mouth, swirling his tongue in your mouth; he wanted to taste you inside and out.

You fixed your position on the table so that your but was planted on the table.

Dieter released his grip on your throat, his mouth moved from your lips and trails down your cheek, along your jaw, and then your neck. You gasp and moan with each kiss, suck and bite Dieter is bringing to your neck.

Your hands get tangled in his dark curls. His hair is like sand — sliding through your hands with no issue. You bring your fingertips closer to your palm as if feeling each follicle on Dieter’s head. His hand slid down to your waist and onto your leg. Dieter hooked his hand under your knee, bringing you closer to him, and he planted his lips back onto yours.

Your hand slides down from Dieter’s head to his cock. He groans in your mouth with how firmly your hand grabbed his member. “Damn, your hard as a fuckin’ rock. Should we let this monster about this cage?” You sneer. Dieter releases his grip on you and backs up to unbuckle his pants.

As Dieter is trying to shimmy his pants off in such a rush, he almost trips on his pants. You breathe a whistle out. “Damn, D. You fallin’ for me already?” You question. Getting his pants off, he looks up to see you — pantsless, cock throbbing, precum leaking through the slit of your cock, a smirk on your face.

A grin appears on Dieter’s face as he walks back to you, kissing you like his life depended on it. “You look so fuckin’ hot with your cock standing up like that,” Dieter growled.

“Says the one whose cock is rubbing against mine; it feelings fucking amazing.” You admit. Hearing you say these things made Dieter’s cock twitch. As your hands gripped the material of his shirt, you leaned back, Dieter following suit — Dieter’s body had pressed down on top of yours under the table. Two bodies melted together by intensity, heat, and tension. It was an art piece that Dieter was satisfied to be a part of.

Dieter backs up from your mouth as he glances down at his cock near your aching hole. You hold your legs with your hands, a grin on your face as Dieter glances at you. “What are you waiting for?”

Dieter positions his cock near your hole, a line of saliva leaving his mouth, connecting with the shaft of his cock — rubbing his spit to lube his cock up. Slowly pressing the tip inside you, a sharp exhale escapes your lips — a hiss leaving Dieter’s mouth.

“Fuck, baby. Your tight,” Dieter admits.

“Only the best for Dieter Bravo,” You wink.

Dieter, slowly stretching you out, made his cock into overdrive. His cock was twitching inside you — you felt it get bigger inside you with each slowly agonizing push. The base of his cock connects with your balls as they gradually shrivel. His hands grip your ankles as your nails create dents on your inner thighs.

Dieter backs his hips up and slowly pushes them towards you. A look of worry had ridden his face.

“D?” You question.

“Yeah, baby?” Dieter answers.

“If you’re gonna fuck me, do it the way you’ve always dreamed about.”

“Are you sure?”

You nod. “Use me, Dieter,” You grit.

A sneer spread across Dieter’s face as the grip on your ankles got tighter. A wave of pleasure rode your face as you felt how fast Dieter his thighs were clapping into you. Dieter enjoyed hearing the noises that escaped your lips; it was ecstasy, coke, anything for Dieter was better than any drug he could imagine. Hearing the claps, your moans, and your hands trailing his abdomen — Dieter’s mind went into overdrive; this feeling had beaten any high he’d ever experienced before.

“You like that, baby? You like it when I use you like this?” Dieter asks.

“F-fuck, yes, Dieter. I love it so much,” You groaned.

Your hands grip Dieter’s shirt — almost tearing the material under your nails. You pull Dieter towards you, lips intertwined, nose bridges fitting perfectly together. Dieter’s hands let go of your ankles — planted on the wooden table under both of you. His thrusts got more intense as you felt your cock twitch between the both of you.

Your moans landed in Dieter’s mouth as your moans became hitched with each thrust. Dieter could feel the table shift with each push of his pelvis.

“Baby, I need to get you pregnant, I need to cum so much.”

“Do it, Dieter,” You instigated. “Get me pregnant; I want your cum inside me.”

Dieter’s thrusts became more intense, non-human, bearing his teeth like a rabbit in heat. Your moans come out like music to Dieter’s ears — he couldn't get enough of your voice.

“Fuck, yes, Dieter. You’re hitting so deep!”

“God, I love it when you scream my name like that. You’re so fuckin’ perfect,” Dieter grunted.

Your nails claw Dieter’s back as his hands reach your waist. His hands melted on your waist as his lips connected with yours, his hips rutting into yours, your hole wrapping Dieter’s length, his grunts coming out as breaths in your ears.

“Baby, I’m gonna fuckin’ cum,” Dieter bear his teeth.

“Fucking hell, Dieter, just do it,” You groaned.

Dieter could feel himself getting closer with each thrust and each moan that was escaping your lips. He was a man obsessed.

“Fuck, Baby. Here it comes,” Dieter grunted.

“Dieter, Dieter,” You moan.

“Dieter.”

“Dieter.”

“Dieter,” Dieter shook his head and glanced around.

He noticed that you weren't on the table anymore; you were back in your seat, looking at him with confusion on your face. Not as if you were a moaning and sweating mess on the table just a couple of seconds.

Dieter glanced around and noticed everyone was looking at him; they seemed more eager than you. Dieter hated the stares everyone was sending, and he wanted to curse everyone out who was staring at him, but he was too confused about what had just happened.

“Dieter,” Dieter turned his head to see the director had been saying his name.

“That’s your line, buddy.”

Dieter scoffed and just looked at the script below him and read the lines he hadn't practiced. After Dieter had finished reading his lines, he was a grumbling mess. It sounded like he escaped a psychiatric hospital. His phone vibrating next to him took him out of his psychotic grumbling. His phone screen brightened the sunglasses on his face, and he saw a text from an unknown number.

xxx-xxx-xxxx: i can tell you lost your train of thought thinking about me, if you want, we could meet up and make those thoughts a reality ;)

Dieter’s jaw almost dropped, but he managed to keep his cool; he picked his head up to stare at you. You had waited for the next person to read their lines, but you could feel Dieter’s eyes on you. Your eyes trailing to stare at Dieter’s and you flash him a wink and smirk.

Dieter’s cock twitched in his pants, and his face had heat rising faster than the speed of light. He was ready to take you on the table “again,” but for the first time in his life, Dieter was glad to be patient.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Soooooo.... what if Wukong didn't always have stage fright? What if he ONLY started being afraid of large crowds watching him....

AFTER his rampage through Heaven and he was sentenced to death, trigrams furnace, lots of stabbing, and when nothing else worked 500 years under a mountain by a LARGE CROWD of angry gods.

Mac is more than a bit surprised to learn yhe boisterous, bold Monkey King was more than a little traumatized by the whole experience and maybe he needs some hugs....😈

Ooo thats a spicy idea >:3

My hc is that Wukong is good at bluffing and improvising - but the second there's a "script" to follow or something is expected of him, he just freezes. He can drunkenly retell his Havoc in Heaven to the Brotherhood with perfect comedic timing, but if he's asked to make a speech infront of his own army he stumbles. He'll def improv a troop raising call no problem, just don't expect him to keep any decorum.

And oh gosh, imagine that the modern stage reminds Wukong so much of the "trial" he endured in the Celestial Realm after the Havoc.

Hundreds of people he can barely see, many that want to hurt/kill him, reduced to his birthday suit (think the "you flicked too damn hard!" scene in Thor Love and Thunder), the location of his sworn siblings unknown, Mac's no where to be seen, and he just heard Lao Tzu say something about a furnace??

Wukong had the attention of All of Heaven on him. He never wants to endure that again.

At least with armies of angry soldiers, he can physically fight back and repel them. When his "audience" has him restrained or expected to remain calm, Wukong starts to panic. He feels like an chained animal. I'm surprised that he didn't have a more negative reaction during the talent show in Lantern City.

Macaque of course always knew Wukong was bad at scripted speeches, so he had been the one to whisper lines into his ears/hold up cue cards for him back in the day. Macque had always been the better actor. Just another way they were like Sun and Moon together.

But the first time he sees the great Sun Wukong get swarmed by paparazzi in the aftermath of a rough fight, and the king freezes and can't even speak? Mac jumps in and whisks him away via shadow portal.

Macaque: "You never used to lock-up like that... not even when I dragged you into my plays for the little monkeys." Wukong, slowly calming down: "I... it's just all the eyes on me... It reminds me of the trial... All those face just... watching me and talking about me like I'm some sort of animal..." Macaque, flooded with regret and remembering what Wukong said under the mountain: "Oh..." (a hug occurs) Macaque: "I'm... sorry I couldn't come to your rescue back then." Wukong, trying to deflect with humor: "Hey lets be fair - I doubt you could have taken on the entire Celestial justice system by yourself. A lot of what I said back then was cus my brain just got finished steaming." Macaque: "I could have tried." Wukong: "Then we would have shared that furnace. And we'd be two idiots chained beneath the mountain together." Macaque, small smile forming: "You speak as though that would be so terrible." Wukong, forgot how much natural rizz Mac has: "ah." (//∇//)

The two monkeys later find a simple solution to the problem. Lots of Wukong clones, all doing advertisments and public appearances. Small downside is now a few hair clones will hum advert jingles and get too ethusiastic at the mic.

Macaque: "...tell me, why were you using a cardboard Wukong if you could make temporary clones of yourself?" Wukong: "Sentimental value."

[steppingonyourshadow]

Selected excerpts from Xiao Zhan's Global People interview

Our interview with Xiao Zhan took place in the depths of the night. During the day, he had been busy with training camp for a new movie, and at night he attended a taping of a promotional program for his new show which ran until almost midnight. In the lounge which had been converted into our interview space hung the two outfits he wore today. Two pairs of white trainers sat on the ground. Once the equipment and the lights had been set up, there was almost no space to move.

After he finished the taping, Xiao Zhan changed as quickly as he could, fixed his hair and hurried to the lounge. Near the door, he stopped for just a moment, slowed his steps, came in. Greeted me coolly, sat quietly. Staff bustled around him, adjusting lighting, checking the mic. As he picked up and carefully read through the interview outline, there seemed to be a spotlight beaming down from above his head, separating him from the noise of the outside world, leaving only a man immersed in thought.

It seemed to be a habit of Xiao Zhan's to have some paper on hand. Acting coach Yang Xu, who has worked with him many times, once described him as "constantly with a script in hand". This comes partly from anxiety about the role, and also the respect he has for the character. As an actor with no professional training, Xiao Zhan still maintains a conscientious approach to performance.

This attitude, lurking beneath the surface, has been crucial to quietly helping him make the transformation from quantity to quality. In the past three years, Xiao Zhan starred in the play A Dream Like A Dream, with more than ten thousand characters of dialogue; there have been a steady stream of releases, ranging from costume to modern dramas, from fantasy to realist; when the TV series Where Dreams Began was released in June, audiences saw a more mature "actor Xiao Zhan".

"I think the way in which I'm most like Xiao Chunsheng is that if we decide on the right thing to do, we will persist with it all the way. In the show, Xiao Chunsheng had to make a lot of different choices as society changed around him, but the core of what he insisted on never changed, including how he is with his friends, family, and his life's work. He's kind of an obstinate person," Xiao Zhan told us.

"When people talk about you in the future, what do you hope they'll say?" We asked him.

"That show he was in recently was pretty good," Xiao Zhan says, smiling.

This is his intent, to be an actor who is known for his work. In recent years, Xiao Zhan has increasingly felt the special connection an actor has to the act of performance. At the end of the work day, back in his hotel room, he would often think back on the day with a strange sense of satisfaction.

"I'd feel really pleased, like oh, actually that scene was decent, all that hard work was worth it." Or he'd reflect, "that scene wasn't my best, if I could do it again I'd do better."

"Audiences tend to have a harsher, more critical view of non-professionally trained actors who attract a lot of attention like yourself. How do you view these comments?"

Three years ago, at an event to commemorate 110 years since the birth of the playwright Cao Yu, Xiao Zhan had a conversation with Cao Yu's daughter Wan Fang. Xiao Zhan asked her: "is truthfulness the most important thing in doing creative work?"

"With equanimity. Like the line from Where Dreams Begin, 'the more difficult road is the one heading up'. If their comments have merit, then I'll take them on board and make changes next time. For me, an actor speaks through their works, so everything should serve the work."

Wan Fang replied with a line from her play 'Winter's Journey': "There's no single path toward truth, truth is its own path."

Xiao Zhan carried this answer with him. He knew that this was also the attitude one should take to performing - there are no shortcuts on the way to a good performance; it can only be achieved through sincerity and persistence.

[itsukismoon]

I Vow to You, the Shape of My Love - Moon route chapter 2 (Cyrus)

>> moon route chapter 3

Continuing the patrol with Cyrus—

Before I knew it, the setting sun had painted the town red.

Cyrus: It's about time we head back to the castle.

Emma: Oh yes, it's almost time for the party to start.

It seems that the Fata Musica performance had finished, and I could hear people passing by commenting on the show.

Woman: Ahh, I was so moved I cried. I want someone to pledge their love to me like that...!

Man: It's not our silver wedding anniversary, but maybe I should pledge my love to her too...

Cyrus: ...The audience seems to have loved it.

Emma: Hehe, that's right. The scene where they pledge their love seems to be particularly popular.

Cyrus: That was certainly a wonderful scene.

Cyrus: Not only were the actors' performances great, but it's clear that Suzuka has worked hard on the dialogue. (TN: Suzuka is the script writer of Fata Musica)

Emma: Um, Cyrus-san... Do you usually watch a lot of plays?

Cyrus: Not really, why?

Emma: I think that watching the play while analysing the dialogue is quite professional.

Cyrus: Ah, I see... it might be that way because I read a lot of books.

Cyrus: Then, general knowledge and... maybe it's because I’m also very familiar with the folklore that inspired the story.

Cyrus: Suzuka has amazingly managed to adapt the script to be more moving while still keeping in line with the original.

Cyrus: Also, the impression you get from realism and the atmosphere is something you can't get from reading...

Emma: (Cyrus, it seems you enjoyed the Fata Musica performance more than I thought).

Emma: If you have the chance, would you like to go see another play with me?

Cyrus: Yes, I would love to. Let's take some time off sometime.

As we headed towards the royal castle, savoring the joy of making a new promise—

(change of location: royal palace)

Kent: Cyrus-san!!!

As soon as we entered the party venue, Kent came running up to us, waving.

Kent: Listen up, Emma! Vel-san and Suzuka-san praised me!!

Kent: "Your sword fighting, which was already good, has gotten even better." It's all thanks to Cyrus-san's guidance!

Cyrus: I didn't do anything special

Cyrus: It was you who worked hard and mastered the technique in a short time.

Cyrus: I hope you will continue to use the skills you have acquired on stage.

Kent: Nghh... for real, you're sooo cool, Cyrus...!

Kent: Today's performance was a great success! I wanna have a toast with you two!!

Cyrus: Oh, of course.

Emma: I'll go get some drinks!

The toast the three of us raised was delicious.

(change of location: town)

Cyrus: ...The town is pretty calm at this time of night.

Emma: There was a little scuffle, but I'm glad the festival ended safely.

We were on the way home from the fun party.

The day after was going to be a day off for both of us, so we decided to spend the night without any worries. As we walked to the inn...

Cyrus: ...Huh? The ceremonial/wedding hall is open at this time.

Light was streaming in from the windows of the wedding hall, and there was a sign propped up next to the door.

Emma: "Feel free to use if you have something to vow." Is it open just for today...?

Cyrus: Now that I think about it... people on their way home from the theater were saying "I want to pledge my love to my special someone."

Cyrus: They might have been referring to this.

Emma: (I can certainly understand why you'd want to pledge your love to someone after seeing that play...)

Emma: It would be a nice occasion, so why don't we give it a try as well?

I was a little tipsy, so I went ahead and asked him out.

Cyrus: ...what a coincidence. I was thinking the same.

Cyrus smiled and opened the door to the hall—

[natlacentral]

The Kiwi director bringing live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender to life

Netflix's live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is arguably one of the biggest productions of the year. The project, which has a budget of US$120 million, has captured imaginations worldwide since its debut last month. Today, Netflix confirmed the series will be renewed for two more seasons.

One of the visionaries behind the new show is Asian-New Zealand creative Roseanne Liang. Serving as co-executive producer and director of episodes five and six, Liang knows the responsibility she carries in taking a beloved story from script to screen.

"It is a huge weight to bear," she says.

"We wanted to provide the best thing in the spirit of why we love the original Avatarand that's all we can really operate through. Have faith, trust our instincts that our hearts are pure, our minds are true and we're doing the best we can."

It all started in 2021, when Liang's agent called her about the show. Netflix was looking specifically for pan-Asian directors and her name was on the list.

"I knew about the show because all my friends had been saying 'you need to watch it' at various points. I was like, 'oh it's a Nickelodeon animation' and they're like, 'no, you don't understand. It is life, it's got one of the best dramatic arcs ever, you've got to watch this show' ... I watched the hell out of the three seasons and became a convert. Everything everyone told me was true."

Liang says there were huge challenges in adapting a 20-episode, half-hour animated series into eight hours of epic live-action television.

"The world is so rich, there's bending, there's all this flora and fauna and animals, it's this pan-Asian, indigenous world that is taking from cultures that seem familiar to us but are different and new. The challenge of that world-building was vast.

"It's also hard to get the tone into your head - you can do silly things like sucking frogs and cactus juice in the animation - because it's animation - but I don't know if you can have the tonal whiplash in a live-action like that.

"We'd always have to find that line. The dramatic can't be too dramatic, we've gotta undercut it with probably a quip or something, but the funny can't be too slapstick cause people will be like, what is this."

Liang says casting for the project also came with a bit of pressure. Season one follows a 12-year-old Aang, 14-year-old Katara and 15-year-old Sokka, and finding young actors capable of undertaking the roles was "scary".

"They're all teenagers. I think Dallas (Zuko) is a bit older but still young, just in his early 20s. It's all about casting the right actor - and person. Because the person needs to be able to deal with the pressure of what they're about to go through.

"The children had an incredible support network though. Dallas Liu and Ian Ousley (Sokka), they were best mates, they chose to room together in Vancouver where we shot and they were each other's support buddies. I just love their bromance, it's a beautiful thing when cast members look after each other like that."

The Netflix adaptation attracted some scrutiny after the creators of the original series - Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino - stepped away from the project citing creative differences after being involved for two years. Liang says their departure was "a source of pain and dismay".

"We cared so deeply about the source material ... at the same time, we know what we're doing it for. Some things won't live up to people's understanding, we're never going to be able to completely mimic or mirror the animation, but some things - I've gotta hand it to the writing team - some things they made even better."

A plot tweak in episode six, directed by Liang, follows Zuko's journey in a way that strengthens what the character stands for - Liang argues, better than the animation itself. While episode four features the addition of one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking flashbacks of the series, the funeral of Iroh's son Lu Ten.

"The Leaves from the Vine storyline about how much Iroh grapples with his part in the war and the cost of who he was in the army, the writers were like, we think we can add this moment in here to really cement the relationship between Zuko and Iroh.

"Zuko did an immense kindness to Uncle Iroh by sitting with him in mourning and it is a gift that Iroh repays. That relationship is one of the most rewarding, beautiful, fun, funny relationships of the whole series."

As a Chinese-New Zealander, Liang says it was a huge honour to be involved in a project that highlights the richness of a pan-Asian, indigenous world.

"It was the ethos of the entire production team that we do something new in this sphere that won't draw the silly, polarised calls of "wokeness" because it makes complete sense in this beautiful world that Bryan and Michael created in the original series. It was always diverse and that was their vision.

"All we had to do was serve that vision and it was just the most natural thing in the world."

While she hadn't worked on a project of this scale before, Liang could draw on rich experience from her involvement in local productions such as Creamerie (with RNZ's own Perlina Lau), Banana in a Nutshell and My Wedding and Other Secrets. She hopes her success inspires other New Zealand creatives to aim for the stars.

"Just because we come from a small country or are part of a diasporic community, that's no barrier to working at this level ... whether it's your ethnicity or your upbringing, don't let it limit you because you can get there."

In fact, Liang's "New Zealand-ness" was a strength on set. Wearing an 'Aroha Mai, Aroha Atu' shirt, she explained that the Māori phrase means 'love received, love returned' - an understanding that helped connect with the First Nations indigenous crew that worked on the show.

"The ethos that we have in New Zealand, the multi-cultural understanding of people and relating to each other, it helps - so much of my job is feeling people's energy and giving my own energy back to them and growing up in New Zealand where these - usually indigenous - ideas of how to serve people and act with love has served me so well.

"It's really been nothing but an asset to my entire process."

[alexthebordercollie]

To Love at all is to Love Entirely

Chapter 3: Bibliophile

Warning contains alcohol and references to alcoholism.

︵‿୨ - January 10 1951 - ୧‿︵

A couple of months passed and the weekly tablas had become a major part of Bruno’s day-to-day routine. He found himself leaving his tower more and more often as he spent afternoons with Camilo pouring over scripts and doing silly voices, cracking jokes. His Sobrino reminded him of himself in a few ways. If only he could have been so confident when he was that age. Maybe then people would have liked him better. Though with his powers he doubted it.

Every day the walk down the stairs seemed to get a little shorter. He couldn’t tell if there were fewer stairs or maybe he’d just gotten faster. Living in the walls had worn him down over time. He was always rather agile. Good for running away. His first few days back in the tower had been more exhausting than he was prepared for. The stairs had gotten so long. That said they were already pretty long when he left. He looked back out at his room as he stood at the top of creaky wooden steps leading up to the curtain. The tile floor in the center had more color and life than he remembered it ever having. The stairs were sturdy and in much better repair. Certainly, they must have gotten shorter? These rooms always did tamper with one’s sense of space. The small enclaves that dotted the stairwells had developed smooth stone arches and he’d slowly been making use of more of them. The sign that sat in the center of the room, carved in stone, still taunted him every day though. No matter how homey the room became.

“Su futuro espera.”

He wished he could smash the blasted thing with his bare hands. What he once found funny and atmospheric as a child now felt like a bitter insult. He hadn’t used his powers since the house was rebuilt and his life was all the better for it. He hadn’t been to the vision cave. He didn’t want to see it. Perhaps he could ask Luisa for a favor later.

Bruno rested his face in his hand and drummed his fingers along the table. Saring blankly in frustration. Carlos attempted to dart under his drumming fingers occasionally. At least someone was having fun. Día del Encanto was coming up that weekend and Camilo wanted to do some kind of special performance for it but the inspiration was alluding him.

“We could do one on the town's founding.” Camilo suggested.

Bruno noticed his mother out of the corner of his eyes as she headed for the front door. He could have almost sworn he saw her flinch at that suggestion but her stoic expression made it unclear if she’d even heard them. She was always quiet and reserved when this festival came around. There were lots of parties in the Encanto. Holidays, birthdays, whatever have you. His mother helped organize every event and Día del Encanto celebrated her and the council especially. She was a near-mythic figure to this town. A saintly woman whose many blessings protected them from a wicked world.

She hated this festival. She never said as much but he knew she did. She didn’t like to talk about his father much. Not directly. He could think of nothing more insulting to her than to see his sacrifice represented by a silly story for kids. No matter how tasteful or buried in layers of metaphor.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea.” Bruno replied as he flipped Carlos onto his back with his fingers and tried to imagine him dressed as his late father. His stomach churned at the thought.

Camilo followed where Bruno’s eye line had been and watched Mamá leave for the day. No doubt to assist with festival preparations.

“Oh, uh, maybe you’re right.” Camilo replied as if he may have realized how inappropriate the suggestion was as it had left his mouth.

Camilo looked down at his hands for a second before perking back up with a new idea.

“I know! A meet and greet!”

“Perdona?” Bruno lifted his face from his hand with a confused shrug.

“Kids in town keep asking if they can pet the actors, maybe we could do that. Get a little area set up where kids could come feed and pet them.”

Bruno snatched up Carlos defensively. The rat let out a startled squeak as he was pulled close to his human padre’s scruffy face. The thought of a bunch of hyperactive children pulling little tails and whiskers. What if one of his niños got squished or worse?

“Oh, no. Absolutely not. The safety of our troupe is my first priority.” He insisted as he sat back and folded his arms.

“Venga Tío, We’ll supervise. It’ll be fine.” Camilo attempted to cajole him. Bruno wasn’t having it.

Bruno stood firm. Or sat rather. Arms crossed and hoping he looked sufficiently stern.

“You let Antonio play with them.” Camilo gestured to his hermanito who was doing homework laying in the sun in the middle of the courtyard. A capybara lay beside him listening to him explain basic arithmetic. Bruno could have sworn the math problem he was on sounded harder than the ones he was given at that age. Had the assignments gotten more difficult? Or was he just getting old?

“Antonio is gentle, I trust him.” Bruno clarified. “Most kids his age aren't Antonio.”

He very well meant it too. His sobrinito was a uniquely sweet and gentle boy who had utterly charmed Bruno every time they talked. That boy could convince him to murder and he would do it without a second thought. Antonio was too good for this family. Perhaps he was biased. He remembered being a shy little boy who escaped to the comfort of his own animal companions.

“Well we’ve gotta do something.” Camilo grumbled. “Everyone else has something they’re doing for the festival.”

“Not Luisa.” Bruno reminded.

“Luisa saved the town from a rockslide last week. What have you done for anyone lately?” Camilo snarked.

Bruno drummed his fingers along his arms anxiously. Camilo sounded like his mother. Bruno hadn’t really been contributing anything of importance besides helping his sister with dishes and sweeping the courtyard every evening. Casita tended to help with the latter activity. He really was a waste of space at the end of the day. Taking up a room in the house, eating their food, and contributing nothing besides something to laugh at.

No, what was he thinking? Camilo was a child. What right did he have to talk back to him like that?

“I said no Camilo.” He replied sternly after recollecting his resolve.

Camilo sat back frustrated. He crossed his arms and mirrored Bruno’s face back at him.

“I said no Camilo.” He mocked.

Camilo was a good boy. He really was. He liked to push Bruno’s buttons. He didn’t respect him. Why should he? Bruno vanished for years. He gave up any scrap of authority he may have once had in this family years ago. If ever he had any to begin with. He wondered sometimes if perhaps he was a touch bitter. Bruno escaped his mother’s overbearing pressure while he watched his sisters' children suffocate for years. Sure his sisters tolerated it, as did their husbands, but he had escaped it. If only Camilo knew what a cold comfort that was.

Bruno scrambled internally trying to calm himself down. Looking for a witty retort that might defuse the tension. Mirabel beat him to it.

“Go easy on Tío Bruno. He’s been having a rough time of it. Maybe you two should just relax and enjoy the festival this year.” Mirabel soothed as she passed by.

She pinched her primo's cheek and he deflated back into himself.

“Don’t treat me like a kid.” He whined.

“Well stop acting like one and I’ll stop treating you like one.” Mirabel teased.

She shuffled through her bag before brushing a lock of hair behind her ears and heading out the door.

“Where are you going?” Camilo called out to her.

“To hang out with some friends, what’s it to ya?”

“I didn’t know you had friends?” Camilo grinned.

Mirabel stuck her tongue out at him before heading out.

Camilo smiled mischievously. “Off to go play con tu novio.” he chimed.

“Her what?”

Bruno’s heart nearly stopped.

“There’s a boy at school she’s been hanging out with all week. She says she doesn’t like him but I know better.”

“S-she didn’t say anything to me about any boy.” He stammered out. He worried about Mirabel. Boys could be cruel. She could get hurt, heartbroken even, or worse, married.

“Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock…”

“Well of course she’s not gonna say anything to you and Tío Agustín. You’d just embarrass her in front of su enamoramiento.” He sighed as if it was obvious.

Bruno stared back at him with puffed cheeks and crossed fingers.

“Girls need to take their time with these things.” Camilo spoke as if he were a wise weary sage enlightening Bruno on the mysterious ways of women.

Bruno freed his breath with an exasperated sigh. Thinking back to the many times Pepa had fallen hard and fast only to flee to the mountains to avoid drowning the village. Suffice to say he wasn’t sold on Camilo’s insight.

“Oh, and you would know all about girls wouldn’t you?” Bruno replied grumbling dryly. “Have you ever even kissed a girl?”

Camilo flushed hot red “I’ve kissed a girl!” He flustered out, his voice cracking more than most teenagers would. A downside to being a shapeshifter.

“Oh yeah how many?”

“More than you.” He shot back.

Bruno leaned back again and stroked his scraggly beard. The kid had a point. Bruno had never kissed a woman. Never planned on it.

“Mira sobrino.”

Bruno stood up from the table and fiddled with his ruana for a moment as he thought. He’d been a bit spooked from watching tv in town after his enthusiasm started getting on the nerves of his neighbors. He’d barely had much time to really enjoy the art form despite how hard he’d fallen. He’d seen bits and pieces of the medium long before getting the chance to experience it firsthand. He'd seen it in visions as a kid. His dreams were often influenced by visions of the future. In his sleep, he could watch all the television he wanted though the programs were far more disjointed. “I’ll go see what’s on tonight. See if I can get some inspiration.” He tucked Carlos under his collar and ruffled Camilo’s hair with his hand. “If I can’t come up with anything maybe we can just sit back and enjoy the festival, eh mijo?”

“Fine.” Camilo pouted. Camilo enjoyed putting on a show. He’d been looking for opportunities to try and push the limits of what they could do with their tiny little stage. No doubt Camilo was hoping he could do something to market themselves to more people. Bruno lacked such ambition.

︵‿୨ -❇- ୧‿︵

That night Bruno made his way to the little bar facing out onto the plaza. The Martinez family had set up a television for the town to enjoy in their downtime. They had purchased it to share with the town after the crack in the mountains made trade expeditions substantially easier.

Their family had a talent for making aguardiente and lived closer to the fields but had set up a little spot in the middle of town. Every day one of their kids would be there serving drinks and helping Julieta pass out food. It was a comfy spot for folks to unwind and catch up after a long day of work. On rare occasions, Senor Martinez would go with some others into the nearest city to sell goods. He'd stock up on things they couldn’t make in the valley. The trade crew used to make these trips twice a year, now they were going once a month. Agustín was on the trade crew. Clumsy as he was Agustín had a talent for finding his way back to the valley. A task that was easier said than done. It was a wonder how he always managed to come back in one piece.

He remembered when his cuñado had to bring little Mirabel to the city to get her first prescription. He’d spent all day in his vision cave worrying over his sobrinita. Julieta burnt dinner that night. The stress had been worth it though to see her come home with those adorable round-rimmed glasses. The memory was bittersweet. Mirabel was so young, she barely remembered the adventure. Barely remembered him.

He looked over at the bar where the television sat. A large wooden-looking box with a staticy gray screen. It was playing a telenovela. Bruno had visions of them and seen them in dreams but he'd never gotten to watch them for real. They were a new medium. His curiosity was nearly outweighed by the stress of possible social interaction. Especially since he hadn’t been to the bar since a vision of crop failure angered the Martinez family enough to scare him away a dozen years ago. Rocco had been rather charmed by Bruno’s tablas. He'd invited him to come and drink with him sometime. The evidence suggested that old vision had been forgiven. With the added temptation of the new television, Bruno had been a bit more accepting of Rocco’s hospitality than he likely would have been otherwise. Though they still barely spoke. Mostly he just came for his shows.

A few neighbors of his chatted merrily. A man whose name always escaped him tried to get his attention and engage him in their conversation. “Eh, if it isn't Bruno Madrigal! Here I was afraid we’d scared you off hombre. How're things in la casa Madrigal?”

“Oh fine. I’m just here to see what’s on tonight.” Bruno gestured to the TV in a way that implied he didn’t really want to talk. The two drunk men shrugged him off and didn’t seem to take offense as they returned to their chatter.

“Sí, dale mi amigo.”

Baby steps.

He looked around for a moment as he took a seat by the television. He always sat closest to it. A seat most people didn’t take as it wasn’t particularly comfortable to watch from so close and at such an odd angle. Not to mention you could hear the rumble of the family's little gas generator in the back room which most folks found unpleasant. He liked being tucked away in the corner. It felt more private, just him, the TV, and the hum of the generator. He could see a hint of someone in the kitchen. A woman it looked like. Gabriella he figured. She was never a fan of his. She’d hated him since they were children and one of his rats made its way into her book bag in the middle of class. He couldn’t sit for a week after that incident. He stopped bringing his rats to school though. Which he supposed was the point. School was a nightmare without his companions there to comfort him.

He laid his head on the bar on top of his crossed arms and stared at the screen absentmindedly. He tucked Carlos’ head back down under his collar when his furry companion tried to get a good look at the TV. It would probably be better for him to stay hidden if Gabriella was serving tonight.

“You look like you could use a drink.” Came a woman’s voice. Unfamiliar, strange.

His eyes fluttered upward at the stranger though he didn’t move. Merely peering up at her from behind a curtain of black curls that refused to stay in his ponytail.

The woman standing over him placed a shot on the bar beside him. She was tall a little taller than Pepa even. Curvy with a low-cut, puff sleeve, top that showed off a bit more of her shoulders than his mother would have thought proper. She had a mole on her collarbone and long mahogany curls that fell in waves from a high ponytail. Most notable were the pair of glittering golden brown eyes smiling back at him.

He looked at the shot for a minute. “Oh no, no gracias.” He replied, pushing the drink a few inches away. He had a bad history with alcohol and no plans on reigniting that love affair. The woman nudged it back over to him.

“You look like you destrozado.” The woman insisted cheekily as she hoisted herself up to sit on the bar beside him.

The sudden proximity of her rear to his nose forced him upright in his seat.

“Who, Bruno?” The man whose name he always forgot chimed in. “He always looks like that.”

His companion added. “Oh yeah, man always looks como borrego degollado.”

Bruno glared at his neighbors as they laughed. The strange new woman laughed along with them and he couldn’t help but ask.

“Do I know you?”

The woman blinked at him for a moment before laughing again. “I hope not! Otherwise, I’ve set a new record with how quickly my reputation precedes me.” She joked. Twirling her hair into warm ringlets around her finger. She had a laugh like jingling bells. Her flat round nose crinkled up when she smiled.

Bruno stared blankly as he ran his fingertips along the counter. His eyes darted back towards the TV a few times. She was obstructing his view of with her... curves. The woman looked over her shoulder at the TV before sliding back down off the counter.

“I’m new in town.” She explained as she straightened out her fiery red skirt. “Mi hermano and I are sort of, nómadas.” She paused a bit as if looking for the right word.

“Gitanos?” He wondered aloud before immediately regretting it.

The woman stared at him for a moment. Bruno had a bad habit of blurting out unfiltered observations which had gotten him into trouble before. The woman jiggled once more like bells and he relaxed again.

“Oh no. Though I’ve met a few and let me tell you they do not disappoint.” She smiled wistfully as if recalling a fond salacious memory. Her stormy eyes had a glint of some worldly, primal, mischief that made him uneasy.

Newcomers were rare in this town. If Bruno didn't already have a hard time talking to people he knew... Bruno eyed the shot next to him. Maybe one drink wouldn’t hurt.

The woman turned back to him and held her hand out. “Me llamo Jacqueline por cierto.”

Bruno downed the shot faster than she could speak then stared at her extended palm. He took her hand in his fingertips, giving it a gentle awkward shake.

“Uhm, Bruno. Bruno Madrigal. But... you’ve probably heard of me.” He replied shyly.

Jacqueline seemed surprised by his odd mannerisms but didn’t seem to dwell on them much. “Oh I’ve heard of los Madrigals. People around here never seem to shut up about you guys.”

Bruno waited for her to ask about his powers. He knew it was coming. She’d ask for a vision and he’d have to decline. It was ok. He was braced for it.

“I’ve seen the little tablas you put on for the kids.” She nodded out towards the plaza where he usually set up his theater. “Funny stuff. You and the boy have some real talent.”

Bruno was astonished. Camilo shapeshifted at those performances, and this woman made no comment. “M-mi sobrino Camilo.” Bruno introduced. “He’s a funny kid.” He rang his ruana through his hands. Gently. Just feeling the fabric in his palms. He could feel a warm flush come over him though couldn’t tell if the buzz was setting in or he was just happy.

“He wants to do some kind of big performance for the festival this weekend but I’m at a loss for ideas lately.” He explained. “I thought I’d see what’s on tonight to try and get some ideas.”

There was a glint in the woman’s eyes he couldn’t quite place. He flinched as she slammed a palm on the counter.

“The library! Go read. What are you wasting your time here for?”

Bruno stared wide-eyed. His hands crinkled up near his face. “I-I can try the library tomorrow.” He stammered out dumbfounded. A strange suggestion to make so aggressively.

Jacquline cleared her throat and brushed a stray brown lock from her face. She leaned on the counter cooly and gestured to the TV with her plump red lips. The opening credits were playing for a show Bruno had seen before in visions. Sua vida me pertence. He'd seen a number of shows like it in green silence. Many he knew didn't exist yet. He'd been so excited to get to finally hear the dialogue outside of his dreams which he knew he couldn't trust to be fully accurate.

“Your writing is so much better than anything you’ll find on that caja idiota.” Jacquline tried to flatter him.

That’s what his mother called it too.

“I dunno, I think it’s an underappreciated medium.” He defended.

“Oh don’t get him started!” One of Bruno’s neighbors complained. “He’s been obsessed with the damned thing since we got it!”

“It’s going to change the way we tell stories. It’s the way of the future!” The other man mocked. Marcello, he thought, though he wasn’t sure. “Knowing his luck, it'll be the downfall of mankind.”

Bruno grumbled under his breath and looked down at his hands.

“Hey just because you idiotas lack imagination doesn't make him wrong.” Jacquline protested.

Bruno looked up again. This woman was full of surprises.

“Oh no. Bruno is never wrong. He’s just bad luck.” The one whose name still escaped him replied ominously.

Bruno got up from his seat. “I should go.” He mumbled.

“Wait!” Jacquline grabbed his hand as he turned to leave. She gave him a pleasing smile.

“Ignore them. Come, sit, have another drink with me. I’d love to hear your ideas.”

She really didn’t know, did she? Baffling, she hadn’t heard of what he could do. He knew he should probably decline the offer. He promised his mamá years ago he’d stop drinking.

“Ah, s-sí. Por qué no?” He stammered sweetly.

︵‿୨ -❇- ୧‿︵

His neighbors groaned and left as he and Jacqueline spent the rest of the night chatting away about the future of media. He tried to sound speculative of course. No need to ruin a good thing. Though sometimes he let slip a tone that was a bit too definitive. Did she really not know? It was hard to tell. She either didn’t know or didn’t care. Either way, the conversation was deeply refreshing. A few shots got him looser and more open than he’d been in a long time.

He got so distracted talking about writing and acting he lost track of time and missed dinner. He crept in the front door quietly after most of the family had gone to bed. Julieta was still in the kitchen doing dishes. Had he been a bit more alert it might have struck him as odd she was still up. He tried his best to be quiet, but Casita protested as he fumbled over the threshold. They rattled their floor tiles irritably. He put a finger to his lips to shush the noisy house but a kitchen cabinet waved in his direction to get his sister's attention.

“¡Mierda!”

Julieta looked up from the sink to the fluttering cabinet then over to Bruno.

“Traitor.” He hissed to the floor tiles who rattled indignantly.

“Bruno? There you are.” His throat ran dry as his sister made her way over to him. He should have tried to just walk past but froze up and missed the chance to maintain the distance.

“I was worried when you didn’t come to dinner.” She said as she took in the sight of him.

He tried to look at anything but her face. “Oh, lo siento. I was just watching television and lost track of time.” He insisted from behind a curtain of hair as he started eeking away. Hugging conspicuously close to the wall as he tried to get around her into the courtyard.

If she wasn’t suspicious before she was now as she leaned closer to get a look at his face. Her brows knit together and she rested her hands on her hips. Catching a whiff of him.

“Have you been drinking?” Her voice was trying to be stern but the shock and worry beneath the accusation made him wince.

“Who me? No, no I would…” He waved a hand dismissively as he continued to dig his grave deeper. “Psh! Why would I be doing that huh? I would never.”

He chuckled awkwardly as she continued to stare at him. Julieta was a sweet and non-confrontational type. She didn't need to be loud or aggressive. Her disapproving pout was all she needed to have a profound effect on him and Pepa.

“I-I’m just gonna go to bed now…” He stammered before scurrying off to his tower before she could say much else.

︵‿୨ - January 11 1951 - ୧‿︵

The next morning his hermana kept shooting daggers at him as she set out their breakfast. Bruno grinned sheepishly at her as he went to fill his plate.

“Thanks for covering for me.” Bruno whispered to her. It was apparent his mother hadn’t learned of his drinking.

Beatrice peeked out of Bruno’s breast pocket to sniff at his plate. The young mother's, rather large, adult children had been smothering her that morning. She'd opted to accompany Bruno for the day for a breath of fresh air. Julieta glared at the rat and grumbled.

“Eat your breakfast, you need it.” She scolded. He knew she didn’t like him feeding her carefully prepared meals to his pets. The edge in her voice implied she thought he might be hungover. Honestly? Bruno felt fine, at least not much worse than usual. He really wasn’t a morning person and adjusting to the family's schedule again definitely wasn’t easy.

Bruno took a seat at the end of the table opposite his mother. Occasionally sneaking a bite or two of his breakfast to Beatrice when Julieta wasn’t looking. She had started setting aside some grains for feeding his pets like she used to before he left. His rats, however, had grown spoiled and fat on her cooking and he couldn’t help himself. Beatrice especially was so sweet and tender. She was one of his younger rats and was always so gentle and shy. He couldn’t help but spoil her.

His mother shot him an angry glare as she sat down and began running through the itinerary for the day.

“Bruno.” She barked as he nuzzled his pet. Her voice startled Beatrice back into the depths of his pocket. Bruno sat upright and gave her his full attention.

“Sí Mamá.”

“I hope you enjoyed your outing yesterday.” It wasn’t a question. “Dolores says you were busy making friends in town.” His mother seemed torn between praising and scolding him. “So busy you couldn’t make it home for dinner. Or let anyone know you would be arriving late.”

“Right, perdón, I just, we, I got talking about the entertainment industry you see, and, and… I lost track of the time.”

His mother raised an irritable brow. “Well since you had such a relaxing evening I was thinking you could take over Agustín and Félix’s chores for the day so they could have some time off.”

“Oh, gracias but that really isn’t necessary.” Félix insisted. Bruno’s cuñados both seemed uncomfortable with the prospect of being used as a punishment.

“Nonsense.” Mamá insisted. “You are both wonderful, dutiful sons who do so much for this family. You deserve some recognition for all the hard work you do.” She looked down at Bruno from across the table. “Some of us could use to learn from you both.”

Agustín looked to Bruno with a pained expression as he mouthed the words “Lo siento.”

His mother continued to go around the table reminding everyone of their obligations for the day. Pepa had work to do in the fields and Isabela would be joining her as had become the norm. Luisa had a construction project to assist with on the edge of town, though her daily workload had notably decreased. Camilo was babysitting for the Marquez family after school and Dolores would be helping Antonio with homework after doing a sweep of the town for a pickpocket who’d become a recent menace.

“As for you Mirabel, I would like you to accompany me to today’s council meeting.” Mirabel nearly choked on her orange juice.

Bruno had more or less tuned out the rest of the day's plans after his mother had finished reprimanding him for his absence at dinner. This got his attention though.

“Who me?!” Mirabel fumbled out in disbelief. Seated directly next to the matriarch.

Mamá took her napkin from the table and reached over to wipe a drop of juice from her nieta's chin.

“I’ve been giving it some thought.” She explained carefully. “And I think it would be a good way to put your talents to use.”

Bruno noticed the look that flashed briefly on her face as she pulled her hand back. That little flicker of doubt. She had always been harsh but it still hurt to see her confidence so shaken since the house had collapsed. Those little flickers worried him.

“That is if you think you can handle it.” She clarified gently.

Mirabel looked dumbfounded around the table. Agustín took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze while Bruno gave her a pair of encouraging thumbs up. Mirabel would do well on the council. She was caring and observant and a far better communicator than most of the family.

“This is great. You’ve been asking for more responsibility. I think this job is perfect for you.” Her father reassured.

Mirabel opened her mouth to speak only to be disrupted by a disgruntled Pepa.

“Mirabel? Really Mamá?” She griped, a small cloud forming overhead. “You’re going to put una bebita on the council?”

“Pepi, mi amor.” Her husband soothed. She shrugged his hand off his shoulder and crossed her arms at their mother.

“I won’t be around forever.” Mamá answered slowly and carefully. She didn’t seem very comfortable acknowledging it out loud but was keeping her cool. “Someone has to be ready to take my place someday.”

“Yes, one of us!” Pepa challenged as she gestured to Bruno and Julieta. “Mirabel is a child Mamá.”

Bruno screwed up his face. Slightly disgusted by his sister's attitude. “Like you ever wanted a spot on the council.” He chastised. He was happy for his sobrina. It was about time she got a proper role to play and he didn’t doubt for a minute she was the best choice.

“We all know you didn’t.” Pepa rolled her eyes. “I assumed Julieta would be next.”

Bruno drummed his fingers on the table awkwardly. She had a point. Julieta was the responsible one. He and Pepa had always assumed it would be her though their mother never directly addressed the issue before. If people disliked his advice before he shuddered to imagine how much worse it would be if he had any real authority. Pepa of course was already a ball of nerves without the added responsibility.

“Julieta has enough responsibilities as it is.” Their mother defended her position.

“Honestly Pepa I really don’t mind.” Julieta insisted as she reached past her husband to pinch her daughter's fat cheeks. “I think Mirabel will do wonderfully.” She insisted with a kind of love in her voice that their own mother had rarely managed for them.

Pepa took a deep breath and sighed. Félix put an arm around her shoulder. The cloud over her head dissolved as she considered her words.

“Mirabel is young, Mamá. Doesn’t this seem like a lot to put on her?” Pepa clarified. “Especially given…” She trailed off. Bruno knew what she meant. Mirabel had always been given pretty minimal obligations before. This would be a big change for her.

“I think that should be up to Mirabel to decide, don’t you think?” He piped up timidly before Pepa could finish her thought. He looked over to Mirabel who seemed thankful for his reassurance.

All eyes at the table landed on Mirabel. She looked down at her hands for a moment. “I think,” She looked back to her Abuela, “If you think I’m ready, then I’m ready to give it a try.” She finally finished.

“You have my full confidence mi vida.” Mamá insisted with a smile.

Bruno couldn’t help but beam with pride as his cuñado started gushing and smothering his daughter in kisses. Mirabel was a clever, empathetic, girl. She helped his mother organize the reconstruction of their home. She was a natural-born leader and he knew she’d take to the job with her usual fervor. Camilo cheered his prima with playful hollering while others clapped. Dolores smiled brightly at Mirabel between the hands that protected her ears from her brother’s onslaught of noise. Pepa seemed to settle down and gave a tired smile. He understood his sisters' misgivings. While Mirabel’s giftless status had made her life challenging it had also afforded her a level of freedom. A childhood none of them ever got to have. He wasn’t surprised Pepa wouldn’t be eager to see that come to an end for their sobrina, but Mirable wasn’t a child anymore. It wouldn’t be long before she was done with school. She had a life to prepare for. As long as Mirabel was happy with this decision Bruno would support her to the best of his abilities.

︵‿୨ -❇- ୧‿︵

Eventually, most of the family funneled out of the house. Either off to school or sent to do work in town. Bruno was quick to get a start on the extra chores around the house while Agustín and Félix were off. His mother didn’t want him to leave the house today. She didn’t say as much. It wasn’t hard to guess. He was fully prepared for a quiet day with the house mostly to himself.

“So what held you up last night?” Agustín asked as he and Félix cornered him at the edge of the courtyard.

Much to his chagrin, his cuñados had decided to spend their free time pestering him.

“Nothing important.” Bruno muttered as he kept his eyes on the floor while he swept. “What about Mirabel, eh?” He attempted to avoid the conversation he knew was coming.

“AH! I’m so proud of her.” Agustín cooed. Félix elbowed his ribs.

“Sí, we’re all very excited.” Félix agreed. “You know what else is exciting?”

They were committed today, weren’t they?

“Claro, claro.” Agustín shook himself from his dreamy-eyed state to regain his resolve.

“I just got caught up chatting at the bar and lost track of time.” Bruno replied flatly as if it wasn’t news. It was though. He rarely spoke to anyone outside the family and it was no shock that people would be curious. Especially a pair of extroverts with nothing more important to do with their time.

The pair of friendly busybodies made juvenile hooting sounds as the tiles under his feet shook him upright.

“Bruno making friends in town?” Agustín cheered in disbelief. “That’s a new one.”

Bruno strangled the broom handle as his shoulders worked their way up to his ears. “It’s really not that impressive. She’s new in town. She didn’t know any better. I’ve probably already scared her off with my rambling anyway.”

Bruno tried to scurry out to a patch of floor further from the wall so they wouldn’t surround him as easily.

“You spent all night chatting up la señorita and think you can get away with leaving us in the dark?!” The shock in Félix’s voice would have felt condescending had it come from anyone else.

Of course, he couldn’t escape as the men both materialized in front of him to continue their inquisition. Bruno stumbled back a bit as Agustín crossed his arms and nodded in enthusiastic agreement with Félix.

“Tell us everything hombre.” Félix demanded.

Bruno stammered a moment and wrung the broom handle hard enough to turn his knuckles white. He was sure most of the color had already drained from his face. Beatrice peeked her head out of his pocket and made eye contact for a moment. Her glittery little beads were reassuring.

“Pues... she uh. She’s new in town… I think I already said that. I don’t think she knows what my gift is yet. That’s probably why she was willing to talk to me…”

“Sí, but what’s she like?” Agustín clarified.

Bruno looked back down at the floor again and continued sweeping. “Well, she smiles a lot. She’s very loud. Kind of pushy actually.” He thought back to how oddly insistent she was that he visit the library today.

“I was going to just watch some television for ideas for mis tablas but she said I should stop by the library if I’m short on inspiration. She was weirdly adamant.”

Félix and Agustín shared some kind of unspoken exchange Bruno couldn’t interpret.

“Interesting.” Agustín put a hand on his shoulder. “This woman wouldn’t happen to have long brown hair and blue eyes, would she?”

Bruno froze up a little but tried to keep moving as if he wasn’t startled. “Umm... More gray really but sí…” Of course, Agustín would have gotten a look at any newcomers in town. New folks weren’t a common occurrence. Having been one himself, once upon a time, he was often in the business of keeping track of people coming and going.

“Jacqueline! You won over that belleza!”

“You’ve met the new folks?” Félix asked. “I only heard about them yesterday.”

“I make a habit.” Agustín explained pridefully. “They’re travelers from what I hear, just passing through. But, I’ve seen Jacqueline and let me tell you that woman es muy bonita and a real firecracker.”

“She has a real jingly little laugh.” Bruno muttered absentmindedly as he thought back to their conversation. “Like bells.”

Félix and Agustín stared at him dumbfounded. Bruno realized the words that had just left his mouth. He could feel their eyes boring holes into his back while he swept. After a moment or two, he relented and looked back at them to see his cuñados holding each other with the glitter of barely contained excitement in their eyes.

“Our little Brunito is all grown up!” Félix teased.

Bruno groaned and thumped his head against the end of the broom handle. “It’s not like that.” He protested though he doubted his in-laws would listen. Why did no one in this family ever talk to him like an adult?

“Oh relax, we're only teasing.” Agustín reassured as he wrapped an arm around Bruno’s shoulder.

“Seriously hermanito you don’t have to act cool with us. If you like this girl then we’ve got your back.” Félix insisted.

Bruno did not in fact like Jacqueline. At least not the way they were implying. He didn’t think so anyway. There seemed to be no evidence to him of such a thing and past experience led him to very much doubt it. That said, she was nice to him which was refreshing. She let him talk and didn’t condescend to him. So that was a plus. It would be nice to talk to her again, he supposed. Maybe enjoy having a new friend for as long as that lasted. She likely wouldn’t be in town long enough to grow to hate him.

“Not to mention I think señorita might be interested in you too from the sound of things.” Agustín chirped as he continued to pull Bruno in closer and invade his personal space.

“I doubt that.” Bruno replied dryly.

“You said she wanted you to stop by the library right?” Agustín asked.

“Yeah…” Bruno eyed him quizzically.

“She’s trying to get more time with you. She’s been staying with Señor Robledo.”

Señor Robledo was an elderly man, or Diego as Bruno used to call him, older than Bruno’s mother in fact. He was one of the few people who were consistently kind to him growing up. An old friend of his father's and a founding member of the town. He was Bruno's teacher growing up before retiring to run the local library. He always seemed to appreciate Bruno’s love of reading. His home was attached to the library. A small two-bedroom space with a little kitchenette and washroom which he used to share with his daughter. Ever since she passed away, nearly twenty years ago, the spare room had become commonplace to put people up for the night should there be a need. The kind old librarian was one of Bruno’s few friends for a long time. That is until he had to give him the bad news about his daughter. Bruno hadn’t been to the library since then.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go to the library.” Bruno replied sadly and he pulled free from Agustín’s grip. “Besides, I've got a lot of chores today, and I’ll probably see her around town. She’ll change her mind sooner or later anyway.” His words began devolving into rambling before Félix yanked the broom from his hand.

“She’s inviting you over! Go get your girl mi amigo. We’ll cover for you.”

Bruno stared wide-eyed as he wrung his hands together. “You two aren’t going to leave me alone are you?”

“Mis hermano you spend too much time at home as is. We can’t just let you pass up an opportunity like this.” Agustín replied.

“If tu madre has a problem with it she can take it up with us.” Félix added.

It wasn’t just Bruno who caught on that his mother was being overbearing. Bruno thought it over for a moment, pacing slightly. He had enjoyed his chat last night with Jacqueline. Maybe that had been the alcohol talking. He wasn’t interested in flirting by any means. Maybe if he entertained this woman it might get his increasingly pushy family off his back for a bit. Ever since Mirabel cornered him with the tables de ratas it had become increasingly obvious his family was looking for excuses to get him to socialize. While he was going out every weekend he was still greatly more introverted than the rest of his family, and most frustratingly, people tend to assume you lack a life if you aren’t leaving the house. His mother was the one exception. She seemed more than content with him floating about Casita like a hungry ghost. Just as long as she knew where he was.

“I guess I could go see what she wants…” He replied hesitantly.

“That’s more like it.” Félix cheered as he slapped him on the back hard enough to send him fumbling slightly.

“We’ll finish the chores today. Just be sure to fill us in when you get back.” Agustín insisted as he went to grab the dustpan from the corner of the room.

Bruno left the house with an awkward little wave to his overbearing cuñados.

︵‿୨ -❇- ୧‿︵

He wasn’t looking forward to visiting the library. Perhaps he could just do something else with his newfound free time. He could just lie... No... He was a terrible liar and he knew that. Besides, Agustín would probably talk to Jacqueline later. Maybe she wouldn’t be there and he could just go back home. Perhaps he could actually do the thing she recommended and look for something to read for inspiration. Though he kind of doubted there would be anything interesting he hadn't already read. The town didn’t get new books near as often as he would have liked.

He barely paid much mind to the greetings he received as he made his way through town. He still habitually hunched over and stuck to shaded areas. He had no reason to sneak. Still he preferred to draw as little attention to himself as possible. He missed his hood. His old poncho had a hood and Mirabel had decidedly not given his new ruana one. He understood why, much as it frustrated him. He stood outside taking in the modest dusty building. It had been decades since he set foot in this place. It still looked the same. He didn’t. He had started tying his hair back every morning to keep it clean. With his new ruana he could no longer hide behind a hood. He wore more color, nicer button-downs and trousers. His eyes were heavier than once they were.

He eyed the door handle wearily. He didn’t want to see the old librarian. Sadly the man never left the building so it seemed unavoidable. Was it really worth it just to get Félix and Agustín off his back?

THWUMP!

A cloud of dust flew from the open window and knocked Bruno over as the breeze blew it into his face. Fumbling and coughing, blinking dust from his eyes he tried and failed to maintain his balance. He let out a startled yelp as he hit the ground despite himself.

“Lo siento! Are you ok?” called an unfamiliar voice.

Bruno rubbed the dirt from his eyes and squinted up. A face hung out the window looking down at him. As he focused his vision against the burning glare of the sun he caught a glimpse of dirty blond hair that shimmered gold where the light hit it. As the man's face became clearer Bruno regained awareness of himself and his pathetic state on the cobblestone.

Bruno leaped up to his feet and brushed off the dirt. “Oh no, me? No, I’m fine, just fine, I just, I mean,” Bruno forced his incoherent stuttering to a stop and shrunk in on himself as he made eye contact with the stranger.

The man in the window blinked at him as he leaned over a heavy pile of old books. A stack which was no doubt responsible for the dust cloud that had so rudely assaulted him. “I didn’t realize there was someone at the door. I would have been more careful otherwise.”

“Oh, no pasa nada.” Bruno insisted as he tried to play it off cool. “People don’t notice me all the time.” That was a failure.

Bruno was able to get a better look at the stranger now that the light wasn’t obscuring his vision. The man appeared around his age if he had to guess. Then again folks in the Encanto tended to age rather gracefully thanks to his sister's cooking, so perhaps his judgment was skewed. He had a round chubby face with a set of half-rimmed glasses that looked like they were threatening to slide off his relatively flat nose. His dirty blond hair fell in little feathery layers and stuck out occasionally at odd angles. Most notable however were a pair of stormy gray eyes that seemed unsettlingly captivated by what they saw.

“I noticed you.” The man replied.

Bruno stared back at him cluelessly. There was a moment of silence before the stranger seemed to collect his thoughts. He adjusted his reading glasses and smiled politely.

“You’re Bruno Madrigal. I’ve seen the little tablas you put on for the kids in town. It was a very endearing introduction to the local culture.” He chuckled. His laugh was warm. Bruno could feel that warmth in his chest.

“You’re the other newcomer in town I take it?” Bruno asked.

The man looked back at Bruno, the glint of his glasses in the sun making his eyes shimmer. “So you’ve met mi hermana I take it?”

Bruno nodded. This was Jacqueline's brother. That made sense. They had the same plump lips and wide flat noses that crinkled when they smiled. Though this man's voice was warm and soft as opposed to the loud jingle of his sister. The man slipped back inside. For a moment Bruno’s heart sank a little, only to be startled by the door nearly smacking him in the rear.

The man gestured inside. “Well don’t let me distract you. You must have come here for a reason.”

“Oh, uh, sí, sí.” Bruno stepped inside nodding graciously to the stranger. “Where's Señor Robledo?” He asked nervously.

The stranger held a finger to his lips. With a coy smile, he pointed to a lump in the corner behind the desk. The old man had fallen asleep in a rat's nest of blankets. Bruno would have almost worried he’d died had throaty snoring not occasionally punctuated the silence.

“Me llamo Wilfredo.” The strange man, Wilfredo apparently, introduced himself. “Consider me the new librarian as long as I’m here.” he explained.

Bruno nodded.

He looked about the cramped library. The place was in greater disarray than usual. Cleaning supplies were strewn about. Tall stacks of books sat in the available floor space next to half-empty shelves.

Wilfredo closed the door gently so as not to wake his sleeping housemate. “I hope it’s not any trouble.” He apologized. “I’ve been reorganizing things since I got here.  No es por ofenderte pero, this place looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in ages.”

“No lo hago.” Bruno chuckled as he started scanning the stacks of books. They were sorted by genre. “I’d believe it.”

Bruno found a stack of fiction novels and knelt down to skim the spines as Wilfredo returned to his cleaning. Some of the books were in better repair with unfamiliar titles. Usually, when the town bothered to buy new books it was practical things. Things his mother and the council thought valuable. He hadn’t seen anything new in the fiction section since he was a child.

“Me encanta el tablas de ratas, por cierto.” Wilfredo’s voice disrupted his trailing thoughts. “You��re a clever writer from what I’ve seen. Such a cute little idea.”

Bruno smiled to no one in particular. He grabbed a book from the stack. Wilfredo was in the next aisle over and couldn’t see his face, but he smiled anyway.

“It was mi sobrinas idea. You know how creative niños can be.” He was in no hurry to add that he’d been playing such childish games in private for decades with his many pets.

“She sounds like a clever girl.” He replied.

“She is. She’s brilliant.” Bruno turned the book over in his hands though could barely focus as a proud toothy grin consumed his face. A thought occurred to him as tender Beatrice poked her head out of his front pocket. Sniffing the unfamiliar binding in his hands.

“You’re not put off by the rats?” Bruno asked. “Most people are. Even folks who like the plays usually teach their kids not to get too close to the stage.”

“Nonsense really. Rats are highly intelligent animals and a lot cleaner than most people realize.” Wilfredo seemed mildly offended by the ignorance Bruno assumed of him.

“Al fin alguien lo entiende!” Bruno exclaimed in relief. He went and plucked out another strange book. “You like rats?”

“I like learning. I read a lot” Wilfredo clarified.

“So would you say you're, una rata de biblioteca?” Bruno inquired coyly.

“Perdon? Was that a pun?” Wilfredo seemed playfully stunned by Bruno’s audacity.

Bruno's short-lived confidence left him when, to his surprise, Wilfredo removed a book from the shelf that separated the two of them. The man eyed him with mock suspicion through the crack in the books. The adorable way his nose creased over pouty lips only made Bruno more nervous as he stammered back.

"Uh, yeah, Like, y'know cause you like rats, and reading, ratón, rata, and you're a librarian..." The pun didn't need explaining but he couldn't help the disorganized stream of consciousness that tumbled out. "A-and you're a bit too big to be a mouse, don't you think?"

Did he just call him fat? That wasn't what he meant. Wilfredo placed the book back on the shelf once again obscuring his face. The once comfortable barrier was now a source of anxiety as he worried he had just offended his new acquaintance.

"You're lucky I have a fondness for wordplay or I might have taken offense to that." His voice sounded teasing, but not angry. Bruno let a faint relieved sigh escape him. A smile crept over his face. Pepa always hated his puns.

There was a brief comfortable silence before Wilfredo poked his head around the corner. Inspecting the book Bruno was currently cradling. “Gracias.” He breathed. “I was worried my contributions to this place would go unappreciated.”

Bruno looked back down at the book in his hands. The condition was immaculate. It was heavy and felt good in his hands. Somehow it seemed sensible to him that such a beautiful book could only belong to someone like Wilfredo.

Bruno’s heart nearly skipped a beat as Wilfredo stepped over the stack of books to stand over his shoulder. Inching closer to get a better look at the cover. “This one’s a favorite of mine. I’ll miss it when we’re gone.”

Bruno took in Wilfredo's melancholy expression through the corner of his eye. Too nervous to turn his head and risk brushing his face against his new companion's cheek. He looked back at the book in his hands. “You’re leaving this behind?” Bruno asked as the melancholy infected him too.

Wilfredo stepped back and shook his head sadly before plastering on a fresh smile. “We can’t just take advantage of your people's hospitality without contributing something in return right?” Wilfredo insisted. “Mi hermana… We’ve fallen on some hard times and needed a place to stay while I wait on a job I have lined up in Cali.”

“That’s a big city.” Bruno mused. “I don’t think I could handle living somewhere so busy.”

“I used to teach at Del Rosario in Bogotá.” Wilfredo laughed and leaned against the bookshelf. “I assure you I’ll be well within my element.”

His dismissive response made Bruno feel small. “If you’re such a big city, big shot, professor how’d you end up broke in the middle of nowhere, uh?” Bruno’s reply was a bit snarkier than he intended.

Wilfredo stopped smiling as he looked down at Bruno. A lump formed in his throat as he worried he’d said something he shouldn’t have. This man was tall. Only about as tall as Agustín but wide as Félix. Bruno had always been short and scrawny. In the brief pause as he collected his thoughts Wilfredo seemed to tower over him. He felt like a giant. Utterly dwarfing Bruno. Eclipsing him in his shadow. Wilfredo examined him ever so slightly before replying.

“It’s complicated. Mi hermanita and I are wanderers. It’s just what we do. I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand.”

He wasn’t sure how, but somehow, Bruno felt he had struck at something delicate. Something that was better left untouched. Wilfredo ran a hand through his hair as he smiled shyly. His eyes cast aside. Bruno’s eyes darted about as he thought of some way to change the conversation.

“Dia del Encanto is this weekend.” He blurted out awkwardly. He scanned the gray slates as their eyes reconnected. Bruno found himself eagerly looking for something else to take in. The gray slates made his chest tighten. Wilfredo wore an earthy green cardigan with a light green v-neck with red trim. The red trim reminded him of Jacqueline's fiery skirt.

“Sí, I heard.” Wilfredo replied softly. He seemed to notice that Bruno was falling in on himself. “It sounds like fun but I’m not sure if a small-town festival is really suitable for a big city, big shot, professor.” Wilfredo replied with a playful jab.

Bruno felt an inexplicable disappointment sink in. He hugged Wilfredo’s favorite book to his chest. Had he offended him? “Alright you got me.” He chuckled awkwardly. Trying to hide how profoundly this man affected him. “It’s just, mi familia expects me to go and I’m sure it would be more fun with you there.”

Why did he say that? Meirda! Just shut up. Talk about something else. Anything else. Why did you say it like that?!

Wilfredo laughed heartily. His nose crinkled when he laughed. “I suppose I can take time out of my very busy schedule to spend time with a new friend.” He teased.

Bruno forced an awkward laugh as he considered his exit. He drummed his fingers along the book's binding.

“I should probably... uh, hmmm.” Bruno waved the book in front of him before pulling it close to his chest again.

“Oh, bien, sí.” Wilfredo scurried over to the desk and quietly shifted through loose papers as he asked Bruno for his library card only to learn Bruno hadn’t used it since he was a child. Library cards had always been largely a formality for him. The old man sleeping behind the desk has always trusted him to return his books on time. Wilfredo simply jotted down a note of the book's absence allowing Bruno to scurry out without further complications. Bruno was grateful for the leniency. He'd feared he might just asphyxiate if he spent any more time in that library.

︵‿୨ -❇- ୧‿︵

The last few minutes of their conversation played on repeat in his head the whole way home. Things were going well. They were getting along. Then he had to open his big stupid mouth and make things weird.

He hadn’t even paid attention to the book he’d checked out. He just needed an excuse to leave. He flipped open the cover to read the preface as he trudged along. It was a collection of short stories and poems. The perfect thing to inspire the kind of short plays he wrote for the kids in town. Albeit some of the titles sounded a bit inappropriate. A few cynical titles regarding god and politics did catch his eye. He couldn’t help but imagine how his mother would have reacted had she caught him reading such a thing as a child. It wasn’t until he neared the Casita that he remembered he had failed at the objective he’s been set out to accomplish. He didn’t even see Jacqueline at all today. Félix and Agustín would be expecting a report when he got home. He looked down at the handsome book in his hands. He really should go help them finish the chores. Especially considering he would have spent all day inside had it not been for them. He wouldn’t have met Wilfredo. Then again…

Bruno found himself a comfortable spot nestled in the roots of a kapok not far from home. It was a comfy spot he used to hide when he was young. The sunlight cast beautiful little shadows on the pages as he read. Félix and Agustín had expected him to be gone for a while anyway. Surely they wouldn’t mind if he took his time getting home. As long as he got back before dinner what was the harm in taking some time out to read? Beatrice made herself cozy in his lap sniffing each new page as he read.

“Did you like him?” Bruno asked as he scratched the top of her little head. She leaned into his touch and rubbed her back against his palm.

“I liked him too.”

︵‿୨ -❇- ୧‿︵

It was Beatrice who first noticed Alma making her way up the hill to the Casita and alerted Bruno. Seeing his mother he scrambled quickly to find a leaf or stick he could use to bookmark his page before hurrying home. He snuck around the back of the house and through the side door on the patio that led to the kitchen.

“Making it home just in time today, eh?” Julieta teased as he snuck in.

“You say that like there’s a curfew.” Bruno chuckled awkwardly.

His hermana passed him a tray of food. “If you’re going to skip out on your chores you can at least help set the table.”

Bruno carefully set Wilfredo’s book on a shelf next to his sister's cookbooks before taking the tray to the dining room. Julieta was still annoyed with him after yesterday. It’s not like he didn’t know why.

“Did you have fun with that Jacqueline woman I’ve been hearing so much about?” His sister asked cooly as she assisted in setting the table.

“Agustín told you about that huh?” Bruno replied sheepishly. “He seemed to think something was going to happen.”

“Did anything happen?” She raised an eyebrow.

Bruno looked back at his sister somewhat baffled. “Well no.” He replied as though he thought that was obvious. “I didn’t even see Jacqueline today.”

“Then why were you gone all day?”

“She wasn’t home. I ran into her brother instead. He recommended a book and I got distracted reading.”

Julieta sighed and tutted. “Bruno, what am I going to do with you? You need to stay focused. Mamá was so worried about you yesterday when you didn’t come home.”

Bruno tugged at his ruana. “I know.” He didn’t mean to cause their madre distress. He had such a bad habit of doing that.

Just as they finished setting the table Agustín came waltzing in cheerily with a bloody hand. The bite mark on the back of his hand was rather grizzly and Bruno wondered if Agustín had simply lost all ability to process pain over the years.

“Brunito, just the man I wanted to see!” He chimed.

Julieta noticed the blood on his hand and rushed over to investigate. “Ay! Agustín what did you do!?”

“He didn’t listen to me when we were cleaning Antonio's room, that's what he did.” Félix explained as he reached over to grab a morsel from the table to pass to Agustín who nibbled gratefully.

The unidentified animal bite quickly disappeared leaving only a stain on the edge of his sleeve.

“So Bruno, your chat with la senorita bonita, cómo te fue?” Agustín grinned cheekily. Julieta groaned and ran out to the courtyard to call the family to dinner.

“Oh, yo no.” Bruno replied, “I mean, I didn’t... like we didn’t have a chat 'cause she wasn’t home.”

“Oh.” Agustín seemed half surprised and half disappointed.

“C'mon man, we risked la ira de tu madre and that’s the best you got?” Félix replied irritably.

“Hey, I wanted to stay home.” Bruno raised his hands defensively. Then he thought of Wilfredo’s book and rushed to the kitchen to grab it while he filled his cuñados in. “I should thank you both though.” He explained.

He rushed back with his book and a smile that was maybe a little too wide. “I did meet her brother Wilfredo at the library though. He’s been reorganizing the palace and donated a bunch of new books.” He showed them Wilfredo’s pristine collection of poems and short stories. Pulling the book away protectively when Agustín tried to grab it to get a better look at the title. “We had a really great chat. He's a university professor. Did you know that? And he likes rats, what are the odds am I right?”

Bruno looked up from the book he was enthusiastically admiring as he realized he was starting to ramble. He stared awkwardly at his cuñados dumbfounded faces.

“Bueno, it’s great to see you haces amigos.” Agustín replied optimistically.

Félix rolled his eyes. “You’re too old for this hombre. You’ve got a shot at a beautiful woman and you spent your day reading and talking about tus ratas?”

Bruno wrapped his arms around the heavy leather-bound book and held it to his chest. “I mean, she wasn’t home. What was I supposed to do?” He tried to laugh it off but Félix’s words hurt.

“Go find her cabron!” Félix insisted as if it were the obvious answer.

“Go find who?” Camilo asked as the rest of the family began to funnel in for dinner. His sobrino’s voice nearly made him jump. He was certainly not interested in talking about his dating life or lack there of with his mischievous nephew. He would never hear the end of it.

“Your tío-” Félix began. Bruno rushed to cover his mouth before he could finish the sentence.

“It’s nothing important.” He laughed awkwardly. “Your Pa and I were just talking about boring grown-up stuff. Nothing interesting to speak of.” He insisted unconvincingly. Camilo stopped piling on his plate for a moment to stare at his uncle quizzically.

Bruno could feel eyes burning through him.

Dolores nudged her brother aside to fill her plate, “Leave Tío Bruno alone hermano. It’s none of your business what he does with his time.”

Dolores was a lifesaver.

“Lo que sea.” Camilo huffed as he took his seat. Félix and Agustín followed suit and Bruno reached over the table to fill his own plate. “As long as you finally came up with something for the festival.”

Bruno sat down and opened his mouth to reply before the sight of Mirabel and his mother shuffling in caught his eye. They were in some manner of heated conversation. Not angry, just very involved. Poor Mirabel looked a bit frazzled, to say the least.

“How was your first day with the council Mirabel.” Bruno asked gently.

Mirabel turned to look at him as she sat down with her plate. She brushed some stray hair from her face. “Oh, uh. It was great. It’s just a lot to take in is all.” She sounded breathy and flustered. Had his mother really been cracking the whip that hard today?

Mamá seemed pleased however as she praised Mirabel. “Mirabel did wonderfully. Very attentive.”

He wondered if his mother noticed how frazzled his sobrina was.

“Uhm, perdón! Tío Bruno!” Camilo snapped his fingers at him impatiently.

“Be respectful Camilo.” Pepa scolded.

Bruno returned his attention to Camilo who had sat down beside him at the end of the table.

“El festival?” Camilo asked irritably.

“Oh, no actually.” Bruno replied. “We’re not doing a show for the festival. I decided to go with un nuevo amigo.”

The whole table went silent.

“¡¿Estás bromeando?!” Camilo huffed. “Now you decide to have a social life all of a sudden?!”

[bioticgoddess]

MK1: Khaos Reigns

As promised, here's my take on the DLC. What I liked, what I didn't, and my overall opinion. Reminder, I don't play Mortal Kombat. Not my cup of tea but this I've been exposed to this lore since I was a wee baby millennial. So mind you my take is lore and story based not game play. From what little I've played, the game play is usually pretty good.

Below the cut for everyone's sanity and to save any folks who haven't already be sucked in from spoilers.

What I liked:

Harumi. She can fight and she's alive. I suspect if she's not a Kombatant in MK2 (or a future DLC) then she'll be an NPC with more voice lines or at least more story relevance. (If she dies, we riot.) Loved her interaction with Johnny and how both Kuai Liang and Liu Kang agree that she's wise and should be listened to.

The Sektor/Bi-Han confirmation (reveal?). I saw it and was like "omg...they did it. THEY FUCKING DID IT!" Giddy happy moment. There was a lot of speculation and NRS didn't hide that, bare minimum, she would be in love with him, but it was done very well. I also appreciate that it's a conversation topic in their tower intros with other characters. They are gonna make each other worse but I think it will keep them from some of their bad/negative choices from the original games.

Cyrax. No further explanation required (Cyrax and Tomas have always been some of my faves so that the New Cyrax is on the list should surprise no one).

Empress Tanya and Emperor Rain. His death hits us in the feelings not because of how he went but because of how well those characters and that relationship was written. A+ to the writing team. That's how you introduce a character and kill them in quick succession and make your audience care! (The actor playing Tanya's reaction is also on point.)

"Cyber Lin Kuei", that it's armor is great. This makes a lot more sense to be overall than converting people into robots. Though I do wonder what plan Sektor has for she and Bi-Han to maintain greater control over the Lin Kuei following Cyrax's defection. It'll be interesting.

Titan (OG) Havik is still a Full Tilt Diva.

They canonized a bunch of the intros from the tower in the main story, it's a good look.

What I didn't like:

Bi-Han/Noob Saibot. We knew it would happen and while he's technically not dead I don't like how they handled him. They've slotted him right back in the same space his occupied in the original games/timeline of antagonist to Kuai Liang/Scorpion. Could they reform/redeem him in later games, maybe but I'm not holding out hope given his tower ending.

Sektor's and Bi-Han's relationship...they are gonna make each other worse if they are left in the roles they currently occupy and I'm not looking forward to a re-cast retread of old story lines with them. (I will be pleasantly surprised if this is used to make them better both as characters and from a story telling standpoint.)

How did the previous Lin Kuei Grandmaster die? Tell us more than Bi-Han abandoned him to die...or killed him? They've said both in game.

I reposted something from another Tumblr earlier (and that poster went into much more detail) so I'll summarize: I don't think there was any good reason for leaving Tomas out of the story. Even Kuai Liang giving a throw away line of "I've tasked him with leading the Shirai Ryu." or something to that extent was better than just blatantly forgetting about him when they're supposed to be brothers despite their lack of blood ties. Calling out Kuai Liang there.

This story was too short and felt rushed. Like they had to get it out and didn't have time to put in as much as they wanted. I will compare it to the script that was leaked via pastebin and Reddit, but that was the script. They removed Sektor, Cyrax, and a few other characters/scenes but overall what we saw there was what we got and it felt lacking. Why didn't we get to see some of Cyrax and Kuai Liang going through the maze with WWII Johnny? The stuff with Empress Tanya and Sektor was great but they had opportunities to give us more and didn't or couldn't and you can tell.

How did Bi-Han/Noob tearing off Havik's limbs and head actually stop him? Dude could grow literal clones that way and regenerate limbs? Is he like a Highlander where taking off his head (and keeping it from his body) stops that? What about the Time Crystals/Kamidogu, shouldn't those have made him Bi-Han/Noob proof? (I like that Bi-Han got most of his payback and someone NOT Liu Kang ganked the villian but they established Havik could do some next level nonsense.)

This one bothered me a lot: NO ONE thought about the fact that Bi-Han knew all of the defensive capabilities of both Earthrealm and Outworld and that rescuing him should be as high a priority as Geras. They were still gonna fail but NO ONE thought of that reason except him after Liu Kang restored his mind.

My overall take:

It's not good. It has good bones and if it had been longer and more fleshed out it would have been much better. For a Mortal Kombat story DLC it's passable.

This felt like it should have been saved for a second game or that they should have taken another 6-12 months to give us a longer DLC. As a villain Titan Havik and his minions (especially Chaos Kenshi & Chaos Takeda) felt underutilized to the point of waste.

Have an intense staring Tomas as thanks for reading my rambling about Mortal Kombat 1's DLC story. (If they hurt him in a subsequent game/DLC...we RIOT).

[magnorious]

Review: ‘We Find Out The Truth, Sort Of’, Percy Jackson Episode 7

TL;DR the flashbacks were the best part of this episode and because they exist, precious minutes serving actual plot were eaten by missed potential. Also someone kidnapped Hades and replaced him with a caricature imposter.

This show is quickly becoming not even enjoyable enough to make fun of, but with two episodes to go, might as well see it through to the end.

Episode 6 left off with some wild Hollywood-y changes to the source material, the biggest being that the summer solstice deadline has already passed and the gods are at war, because tension? Everyone knows the world isn’t going to end, everyone knew it wouldn’t end in the book either — the stakes came from whether or not Percy would be able to prove his innocence and recover his mom. We knew somehow that things would work out, the question was what the cost would be if he failed.

Giving Percy the 4th pearl and making him already fail by the powers that be was an interesting decision. It robs the tension from the rest of the plot if there’s no clock ticking down anymore. Hades, Ares, every single hurdle they face burns more time and forces Percy to risk flying on a plane to reach New York before the deadline... all for Zeus to not give a damn anyway.

But did this interesting choice make for a better or more entertaining story?

—

I’m shocked they kept Crusty’s Waterbeds given how much plot they have left to shove in this story. And, of course, Percy already knows exactly who he is. They finally got a character to look like they did in the book and (for Supernatural fans, it’s the same actor as Death) it’s pretty well done for the costume and makeup department. But all of that is moot once again when the script gives away all the answers.

Percy has no time for Crusty because the plot has no time for Crusty. They try to give him some thematic relevance but they’re sprinting to the finish line now, and they can’t even let Percy kill him, going out of their way to make Annabeth tell him to be happy he gets to keep his head.

Side note- the pearls look like tiny Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

Oh and DOA Studios doesn’t exist, because there’s no time for that but there is certainly time for flashbacks. If I had to pick between Crusty and Charon, I would have preferred Charon 100%, he’s actually a decent guy — but not this version of him. He does actually appear, looking more like a grim reaper than an underpaid middle manager bereft of his Italian suits.

The flashback itself is wonderful, I wish the rest of the show was so nicely written. The second flashback they don’t have time for is also great. I like seeing more of Sally and their struggles growing up, her tireless search for ways to protect her demigod son. This is the kind of filler that helps tell the story, unfortunately it’s at the expense of the existing story this episode, eating up minutes. The *third* flashback eating up minutes is also good, this just isn’t the time for any of these. They should have all been in the St. Louis episode. I hate how good these are, because it shows how good the writing could have been. Baby Percy still runs circles around the older kids’ line deliveries. The **fourth** flashback is well-acted but baffling, more on that later!

The Underworld is grey. Painfully grey. Another reason I wish this show had been animated was full creative freedom to go all out with the design and the colors and the scale. This is just boring- grey and hazy to hide how boring it is. The Underworld is an entire kingdom, it’s a realm, terrifyingly beautiful. There’s black poplar trees and all the different rivers and Elysium and the Isles of the Blessed and Persephone’s garden. The ghosts actually look like ghosts. The kids in this version don’t actually look intimidated by the magnificence of the place. There’s no time to be intimidated.

Cerberus is fine. Annabeth’s waterland ball is swapped in for Grover’s stress ball. But he remained a Rottweiler. What’s not fine is the plot handing Percy 4 pearls only to randomly rescind one by making Grover lose his to recreate the tension they murdered. Percy doesn’t hesitate to give his to Grover and there’s no time for them to have any kind of dramatic argument over who should actually stay behind.

Asphodel is a forest, not a field, i.e. the Fields of Asphodel. The concept is cool, actually. These souls stuck there for so long they’re growing roots into the very fabric of the Underworld. So kudos there, that’s genuinely creepy. The rest of Asphodel is a desert, still not a field, and bright as daylight for some reason when it should be permanent night down there unless you’re in Elysium.

Buuut then said roots tangle up Annabeth and make them leave her behind. Percy doesn’t even try to cut her free and she just takes a pearl to the surface, to be ejected from the plot for now. What regret did she have? Doesn’t matter, no time.

Percy is still too smart for his own good and the plot still hates any mystery whatsoever, so he finds the Master Bolt immediately after the brush with the Pit. The Pit also has no voice of Kronos to make it extra creepy, because there’s No Time For That. The entire point of the Chekov’s gun that was those shoes is tossed aside.

The Underworld continues to be painfully grey and beige. Hades isn’t grey, though, oh no. Hades isn’t Hades either. I kept waiting for the reveal that he’s just one of Hades’ Furies in disguise or even a lesser spirit he orders around to screw with people. I waited, and kept waiting. The dude who played Hades in the movie was more accurate.

They still do argue. Percy still accuses Hades of meddling. They argue in front of a random living room instead of a godly Underworld throne. Maybe that wasn’t in the budget. I’m still waiting for Hades to drop this ridiculous act and toss this puppet aside. He starts offering sanctuary when book Hades desperately wanted absolutely nothing to do with whatever was brewing between Zeus and Poseidon, claiming now he needs another god’s weapon to defend himself and I don’t think signature weapons are so easily transferable. Percy and Grover get the heck out of dodge shortly after.

Then Poseidon shows up in the fourth flashback and, well, Percy does have his hair (but not his random British accent). No Hawaiian shirt and khakis in sight. This exists to make Poseidon and Sally’s love for their son more tangible, but in the first book he’s a dick. He’s not seen on the page until Percy meets him on Olympus and the god is a huge disappointment to him. Poseidon begins narrating like this is the season finale, Ares shows up, and cut to black.

The entire book we’re left in limbo on where Poseidon stands, if he’s going to be as spiteful and selfish as Zeus or Dionysus. That reveal on Olympus meant something. But at this point I’m tired of arguing why scenes matter when the show couldn’t care less.

At this point making book comparisons doesn’t matter anymore because this just isn’t Percy Jackson anymore. The characters have their names, sure, but that’s about all the due diligence that’s paid to the source material. I watched this with someone who hadn’t seen a single episode before nor read the books and even they commented that it’s horribly rushed. Even without Percy Jackson’s name on the marketing, they’ve been questing to the Underworld for the entire season and *this* is what we get for it?

Here’s to hoping the entire budget for fight scenes went to the finale so Percy can kick Ares’ ass.

[mattnben-bennmatt]

Ben Affleck, at the top of his game

Entertainment Weekly (11 January 2022)

The actor-director has seen fame from both sides now — and he's ready to talk (with Matt Damon, and us) about it.

By Leah Greenblatt

-

It's one of those endless blue-haze days in Los Angeles, and Ben Affleck is leaning back on the diving board of a borrowed Bel Air estate to catch the sun, his long torso arced like a bell curve. For a moment it seems like he might actually fall in, bringing a precariously perched photographer and several yards of creamy, expensive-looking knitwear with him. But his balance is better than it looks: Affleck, 49, has walked the plank many times before, and tumbled from greater heights than this. He's also climbed back up again, a story of outsize stardom and second chances played out in the public eye for nearly three decades now.

After a mid-career swerve toward directing films like Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo (for which he won Best Picture), the actor has returned to his first love, turning in fresh, revelatory performances in Ridley Scott's medieval epic The Last Duel and George Clooney's warmhearted drama The Tender Bar. To mark the occasion, Affleck's erstwhile creative partner and oldest friend in the business, Matt Damon (it's been 24 years since they took home their Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting, how do you like them apples?), sat down to discuss life, love, and all the roles — School Ties, Armageddon, and yes, even Gigli — that made the man. —Leah Greenblatt

MATT DAMON: Ben Affleck, it's great to see you here today.

BEN AFFLECK: Hey there, man! Welcome to the red carpet. Before we get into your project, who are you sleeping with?

[Laughs] Well we're here to talk about The Tender Bar, a movie directed by George Clooney which you star in. I guess I first became aware of it when you called me very excited that you read a great script that Bill Monahan wrote and George offered you a job. I promptly called George and he said that it was because you were cheaper than me. But as the month went on, I started to wonder if he was telling me the entire truth.

He told me that you argued too much. "I got tired of dealing with Damon's bull----. You're gonna do what I tell you, right?"

How was I going to just take his notes and not say anything? But you said you received some of the best direction of your career from Georgie, so I was wondering if you could help people understand what that means.

Well, first of all, because you'd worked with George, I had worked with George, I knew him well and liked him quite a bit. You've always been very smart about picking great directors, and lucky that good directors have picked you. I feel like you really understood that very early on and how well it served you, and I remember George being somebody about whom you just raved.

So aside from being deeply jealous and developing a sense of inadequacy and self-loathing, I did think, "Oh, that would be nice one day, if that happened to me." So when he just called me out of the blue — you know how rare it is that a finished, wonderful script shows up with a really great director, and all you have to do is to just basically be conscious and sentient and say yes.

I mean, especially today, right?

Yeah, I knew that this was kind of mine to screw up. I couldn't imagine there wasn't a long line of people that wanted to take this part, so I really respected his confidence and faith in me, and I wanted to do well for him. I wanted to do it for myself. There's an emotional scene in the end where I give the kid [Tye Sheridan] a car, and every time I read the script, I cried. So I showed up and I really got ready and did my thing. We did the first take and I thought, God, this is it. This is all working. George came over and he said, "Yeah... Giving a car to someone is supposed to be fun."

That's what he said?

I was like, "Right, yes, of course. I've been playing it completely wrong." Other directors can talk to you for an hour and a half and it doesn't seem clear what they're driving at, whereas George has this gift of succinctness and insight. But also just being directed by somebody who's done this job that I've been trying to do for, I don't know, 30 years, is such a comfort and a relief.... My dad worked in a bar, as you know. All that stuff was very familiar to me. So my only concern was, "Should I be working harder than this? It shouldn't feel this smooth."

I've always said, as an actor, your only excuse for not being good is "I didn't know what movie I was in."

It's interesting, because that was the very first thing George did. I mean, a director's job in large measure is tone. Is it more comic? More serious? For me, every time I work with a director that I really admire, and even some I don't — I can learn from negative examples, too — but I just feel like I become a much better director.

I remember Francis [Ford Coppola] sold these little cigars at his winery that are called Carmine Thrifties, they're named after his father. And on the side of the box, it says, "Steal from the best." Which brings me to my next question: Is there anything you're going to carry forward into your own directing coming out of this experience?

I think it's hard to overestimate the degree to which a director's attitude, openness, comfort, generosity pervades the set and sets a tone. George does that better than I do. And he was enormously respectful of the degree to which I take very seriously my need to be there with my children for my half of the custody. I mean, he bent over backwards. You didn't have to be there until midnight every night [or] obliterate the rest of your life in order to do this. Because he's got this spectacular wife, he's got his children, he's got a very rich, full life. He's got to sell coffee—

He sells tequila, too.

Tequila and coffee. That's no joke.

He's got you in the morning and the night.

I'll tell you what I want to be. I want to be George Clooney selling coffee and tequila. Because that really frees you up to do the movies you want to do.

So speaking of awesome actors, I've been tasked with going all the way back to the beginning of your career.

Don't be afraid to relieve yourself of some of that burden, if it feels unduly burdensome.

I take my job very seriously here at Entertainment Weekly.

That's what I'm afraid of.

But before we go back to where it started, let's talk for a second about where you are. Do you attribute it to just, "You play in traffic long enough, you're bound to get hit by some cars?" Is that why your performances are so good of late? Like what you did in The Way Back and The Last Duel. It's full, it's rich, it's invested. It's right. And you're not reaching.

Thank you. That means a lot. Sometimes people will go, "You know, you've really gotten better as you were older," which sometimes feels like "You're not that bad-looking in person! You're not as stupid as I thought you were!" I have some performances as a younger person that I really liked. I knew [Good Will Hunting's] Chuckie Sullivan. I felt an affinity for Ned Alleyn in Shakespeare in Love, and really connected with the character in Chasing Amy.

Changing Lanes! You were great in that one.

That's where I met Bradley [Cooper], actually. Starting off, you have these ideas about success. You know, my mother made $28,000 a year. So I would be like, "How could I justifiably say no to this?" Just not understanding the value of turning things down. People talk about your choices and I want to say, "Well, it's not like I was passing on Scorsese movies." Like, "No, Marty, I'm good. I'm going to do Surviving Christmas." Part of our fates are controlled by the opportunities we have in terms of material and directors.

Absolutely.

That's a big one. And then also, I've always felt more comfortable playing characters that weren't the traditional kind of protagonist. You do this much better than I do, and it's not a backhanded compliment because you find a way to make characters interesting and flawed and real. Because you can't, as a storyteller, alienate the audience from your protagonist. Then you're just watching a movie about somebody you're either judging or don't like or don't believe. And that just blows the whole thing up.

It's deceptively difficult to play the leading-man role. It's like Denzel [Washington], you just can't help but like him and want to be him and admire him. That's a level of being interesting so that you draw people in. One of the nice things about getting older, if you're lucky, is you stop bulls---ting yourself and you start going, You know, I actually know where my feelings are. And the more I figured it out, the more accessible that was. I know what painful is and I know what disillusioned is and I know what ambivalent is, I know what nostalgia is.

Right.

I had a really nadir experience around Justice League for a lot of different reasons. Not blaming anybody, there's a lot of things that happened. But really what it was is that I wasn't happy. I didn't like being there. I didn't think it was interesting. And then some really s---ty things, awful things happened. But, that's when I was like, I'm not going to do that anymore.

In fact, I talked to you about it and you were a principal influence on that decision. I want to do the things that would bring me joy. Then we went and did Last Duel and I had fun every day on this movie. I wasn't the star, I wasn't likable. I was a villain. I wasn't all the things I thought I was supposed to be when I started out and yet it was a wonderful experience. And it was all just stuff that came along that I wasn't chasing.

My only thing is that now I live in fear every time I do another movie, I'm like, Do I still feel that, am I still good? I'm afraid it's going to go away, you know? 'Cause it's elusive. But I'm happy now. I'm feeling it now. And I do think I've gotten better. I think people generally get better with the age and experience—

Some might not. They might get in really bad, corrosive habits.

If you're smart, you learn from people who are really good. And I think our friendship helped kind of inculcate that knowledge in me. We were very generous and open with stuff. Being around other people that you liked and respected and were smart just made you better.

You said to me and I've always repeated it — I mean this is when we started writing together, you were 20 and I was 22 — really starkly, you were like, "Judge me for how good my good ideas are and not how bad my bad ideas are."

Everyone's got bad ideas. Like David Fincher, who is brilliant, every now and again, you go, "Hmm, I don't know." But then you find out he has the humility to go, "Oh, huh."

I remember that with the Coen brothers, more than once. One of them would come up and give me a note after a take and then the other one would be off talking to another actor and would come up and give me the exact opposite note. And without fail, I would always say, "Joel, Ethan just told me the opposite thing," or "Ethan, Joel just told me to do the opposite thing." And no matter who it was, the second guy would say, "Oh yeah, do what he said." [Laughs]

Let me ask you a question about the business before I start running these old movies by you. Given The Last Duel, which I'm drinking my tea and shamelessly promoting with a Last Duel mug that I made...

Did you hand-paint it? Matt Damon, hold the mug!

Obviously it was a box office failure. But interestingly enough, it's number one on iTunes. So it means that there is an audience, just one that was unwilling to go in the middle of a pandemic to the theater. How does that make you feel, coming out with another drama — did COVID just accelerate something that was going to take 10 or 15 years, or is it coming back?

You know, I won't hedge, because that's always boring. I will say, when The Way Back came out, it was released the week they closed the theaters [for the pandemic]. But even before then I knew this movie about grief and a child dying and alcoholism and recovery is just not going to get adults in the seats. We were just talking about Narcos: Mexico, Succession, Mare of Easttown. There's these amazing things being done on streamers. Roma! It's not just some formulaic TV procedural like when we were kids. And you could only watch it like my dad, on an 11-inch black-and-white TV.

If I had to bet, a drama like Argo would not be made theatrically now. That wasn't that long ago. It would be a limited series. I think movies in theaters are going to become more expensive, event-ized. They're mostly going to be for younger people, and mostly about "Hey, I'm so into the Marvel Universe, I can't wait to see what happens next." And there'll be 40 movies a year theatrically, probably, all IP, sequel, animated.

The Last Duel really clinched it for me. I've had bad movies that didn't work and I didn't blink. I know why people didn't go — because they weren't good. But I liked what we did. I like what we had to say. I'm really proud of it. So I was really confused. And then to see that it did well on streaming, I thought, "Well, there you go. That's where the audience is."

Heading back into a time machine now—

If I thought I was going to be held accountable for these movies 20 years later...

Thirty years, dude. Thirty. Let's start with School Ties because that was the first time we did a feature film together. What do you remember?

I knew my nine lines back to front. I loved every day I was on a call sheet, every day I got to come to work. You were there, in Boston. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

Even by the dump in Lowell. Remember?

We literally were next to a dump and thought we were kings. I knew I was playing the one s---ty anti-Semitic bully character, so I figured it was probably not going to be great for me career-wise, but I loved it.

I wasn't in this, but Dazed and Confused, that was your first time working with and meeting Rick Linklater and all those guys.

He was a model to us as we looked around and thought for the first time, "Maybe we can make our own movie," you know? You can do Reservoir Dogs or Slacker or Clerks or Do the Right Thing. People were kind of working outside of the system, and that was inspiring.

Look, it's a bunch of 19-year-old kids shooting nights in a party scene in Texas. So it was barely distinguishable, the time at the hotel and the time on the set. I got to know Matthew [McConaughey] when he was first starting out. Rory [Cochrane], I stayed friends with him, he was in Argo. Anthony Rapp and Joey Lauren Adams and Renée Zellweger, it was just an abundance of riches.

And then it bombed. Bombed! Nobody saw the movie, but it got great reviews. I remember there was a [former EW film critic] Owen Gleiberman review saying "Once every decade..." and I thought this was hyperbole. But it ended up being true, it's a real cult movie that people still talk about and I'm glad to be a part of it. And again, I was the single unappealing character in a movie of enormously appealing people. So not a great career strength. [Laughs]

Well now, speaking of DIY filmmaking: Mall Rats. You obviously have got to talk about Kevin [Smith], but maybe fold them all in because you've got Chasing Amy, too.

I was, once again, playing the bully, running around, throwing people into their lockers. But I liked Kevin. He's funny and smart and charming. We got along.

Kevin also saved Good Will Hunting. This is not a small side note. He is the reason Good Will Hunting got made. We were dead in the water, all the offers had evaporated.

I promised him I would thank him if we ever got an Oscar and promptly forgot. And then I told him, "If I ever win again I swear to God I'm going to thank you." Forgot again.

Kevin and Gus [Van Sant, Good Will's director] and Robin [Williams] were equally important. And I think Francis [Ford Coppola] vouched for me with Robin.

God, he was a wonderful guy. And funny! It was the first time I ever got to hang out with somebody that talented and that famous. I remember walking down the street in Boston with him, he had done Good Morning, Vietnam and Awakenings and Fisher King and all that. And all everybody in Boston would say was "Nanu, nanu."

Yeah.

Mork from Ork.

Mork! But he did do that — he would just do take after take after take because that beautiful brain of his would always come up with something different to do.... So from there, I remember when you got Armageddon. We got split where people went, "Oh, well, Ben's the big movie guy. And Matt's the serious guy," because I did Saving Private Ryan. But the fact was that we were desperate to get another job, and I would've happily taken Armageddon. You would've happily taken Saving Private Ryan. I remember I was shooting [The Talented Mr.] Ripley in Italy when that thing opened, and it was a massive hit. That was a terrific cast.

Yeah, Bruce Willis, Owen Wilson, Billy Bob [Thornton], Mike Duncan. This was real Hollywood, which I felt like I had never seen. They dug out two stages of Disney for huge asteroid craters, and I didn't even think about the fact that the basic premise of the movie was totally absurd.

Why are they training oil drillers to be astronauts rather than astronauts to be oil drillers? You would think the learning curve would be somewhat more steep on the oil-drillers-to-astronauts route. But it was fun and the right time. It's funny, Bruce dropped out of a movie, and as the deal for dropping out of this movie that wasn't working is that we get to put you in two movies, and they put him in Armageddon and The Sixth Sense.

Oh my God, really?

Yes! And I was a little naive about the opinions people would form about me. Or Michael [Bay] and Jerry [Bruckheimer]'s focus on aesthetics, like, "You guys gotta go to the tanning bed!" They made me fix my teeth and work out and be sexy. Be sexy, how do I do that? "Go to the gym!" Running in the gym and putting oil on my body and stuff, and it just turned out to be a long-form version of one of those male topless calendars, in a garage, carrying a tire, kind of greased up. Michael had a vision of a glistening male torso in the oil, and he was like, "That's going to go in the trailer and sell tickets!" And you know, what can you say? We could have made, I think, 400 Chasing Amys for what we made Armageddon for.

It's funny because that's the one movie of mine that my kids have watched and they'll kind of all admit to liking, even though they relentlessly mock it and me. "What are you, driving a tank on the moon?" But they had fun, you know what I mean? They won't even watch The Town. So there you have it.

My kids won't watch my stuff, either. All right, wow, they have a lot of movies they want me to ask you about.

Skip to the ones that are interesting.

Let's touch on Gigli because it's directed by one of our favorite directors, Marty Brest. Where does it sit with you now?

You know, it's an interesting thing because it was a really easy choice. I loved Midnight Run. I loved Beverly Hills Cop. I loved Scent of a Woman. Marty's obviously enormously gifted. There's no question in my mind that this was a guy I wanted to work with. There was wonderful stuff in there. There are things where my daughter will be like, "This is ableist and disgusting," and okay. The way we see stuff has changed a little bit, or a lot in some cases. And there are things that seemed they could work at the time and don't in retrospect.

But really, the truth about that movie and what it taught me was how much everything around a movie sort of dictates the way people see it. But for being a movie that's such a famous bomb and a disaster, very few people actually saw the movie. It doesn't work, by the way. It's a sort of horse's head in a cow's body. And the studio at the time, because I had begun having this relationship with Jennifer Lopez, which was selling a lot of magazines and appeared to generate a lot of enthusiasm, they just predictably latched onto, "They want a romantic comedy. They want the two of them together. More of that!" And it was just like that SNL sketch: "Bad Idea."

But even movies like The Sum of All Fears that worked commercially but didn't have any depth to them, I didn't do anything particularly interesting in them. [Gigli] didn't work and we did five weeks of reshoots, which we knew were not gonna work. It was a movie that didn't work.... Interestingly, I learned more about directing on that movie than anything else because Marty is a brilliant director, really gifted. It's not like it's worse than all... there's a bunch of horrible movies and in terms of losing money, I've had five movies — at least! — that have lost more money than Gigli has.

It's just that it became a story in and of itself. The funny name, the Jennifer Lopez romance and overexposure of that, it was kind of a perfect storm. And I remember talking to Marty the Friday it came out and I was like it's just spectacular, it's a tsunami, it couldn't be worse. This is as bad as it gets.

I thought my job was to be a cipher. I can see now how people looked at me and thought of this person as some callow frat guy who's cavalier, or has too much. It engendered a lot of negative feelings in people about me. There's that aspect of people that I got to see that was sad and hard, it was depressing and really made me question things and feel disappointed and have a lot of self-doubt. But if the reaction to Gigli hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have ultimately decided, "I don't really have any other avenue but to direct movies," which has turned out to be the real love of my professional life. So in those ways, it's a gift. And I did get to meet Jennifer, the relationship with whom has been really meaningful to me in my life.

I remember you saying to me at that time — probably around the opening weekend, and I never forgot it — you said, "I'm in the worst possible place you can be. I can sell magazines, but not movie tickets."

Yeah. I remember feeling like it was the worst of both worlds. I always viewed it that the tax you paid to get the chance to do this work was to sacrifice your private life, and people were going to have license to make sport of you to some degree. And I didn't go into it blindly. I knew that Sean Penn and Madonna were a tabloid story when I was young. I knew that could happen. Jennifer and I happened to be together at a time where the whole industry of celebrity journalism, if you want to call it that, sort of exploded. But I thought, "S---, this is really not how I had hoped to go, where I'm going to be, what? Famous for being an a--hole or a failure and not able to work?"

I can't think of a worse outcome. Because I've never found any virtue in fame at all. I've probably gotten out of a couple of [traffic] tickets. I've gotten reservations at restaurants. But the whole point was to be able to do this job. That was it. Otherwise, what is it worth? It's corrosive. It changes the relationships you have with other people. But one of the things that time showed me is that it is those moments of crisis or pain or perspective that are strong enough to make you go, "F--- it. Well, this doesn't work. I've got to do something different." I've definitely learned more from failure than I have from success.

Yeah. Well, we're not ending on the note of failure because the postscript to the story is, after 2006, you became a world-renowned director. You won an Academy Award for Best Picture, which is really the highest mountaintop in our business. I'm wrapping this up because I'm late for dinner. My kids are staring at me through the window.

I know how it goes.

But you've had a remarkable last decade and a half that is culminating with some of your best acting work that you've ever done and The Tender Bar is another example of that. And I dare say your writing is pretty damn good. I was really proud of the work you did on The Last Duel.

I love you, man. I want you to do all my interviews. Are you cheap? [Laughs]

I'm free, actually. I'm free.

To be honest... Thank you. It's true, it ends on a much happier note. Not easy and not always smooth, but good. I don't know that that would've been possible for me alone, doing this job in this world without somebody I grew up with who I loved, who I knew loved me and had my back, who believed in me, and whom the popularity of my movies or what people said about me wasn't going to change what they thought about me.

This friendship has been essential and defining and so important to me in my life. There were a few critical times, which are private and I don't want to share, but where your support was so profoundly meaningful to me that I don't think I would've been able to be successful without it. So let me take this opportunity to thank you—

—in a Zoom interview. [Laughs] Congratulations on another great piece of work, and I hope people go see The Tender Bar. We've just got to get people to see the movies.

Well, that may go away, but we'll always be good. And we'll finally have figured it out when we hit the dinner-theater circuit.

We're each a fan club of one for the other. All right, man. I love you.

I love you, buddy.

[bylertruther]

But the other thing that really helped, of course, was we knew we needed an amazing actor. And we had that in Jamie and we actually had him… It was some of the most challenging sides [usually lines of dialogue from other scripts to use for chemistry tests or screen tests] we’ve ever given any actors because we had him doing lines from "Hellraiser,” which are really hard to sell. How do you sell, sincerely, in a very sincere, real way, “I’ll tear your soul apart”? No one could do it. Jamie was the only one out of hundreds who could sell that line and make me believe it and not have it be kitschy. And then we also gave him sides from, and every actor who auditioned for the role, sides from “Primal Fear.” There’s that scene where Edward Norton, he tells Richard Gere and he flips. And that’s also, it’s a great scene, but a hard scene to pull off. Jamie was the only actor who could do that and perform that monologue beautifully and Pinhead. Ross Duffer: We’re really the first of anything that requires actors to read from both “Primal Fear” and “Hellraiser” for a single role. And I’m excited to know that people are finally seeing, because I think sometimes he’s so different as Vecna that now that people are seeing what… I mean, just in terms of both his performance as Vecna under those prosthetics was amazing. And his stamina, in terms of that is a very physical thing, to be under this weight of all these prosthetics. Matt Duffer: But so it was almost like he was basically playing three roles. And he’s a tremendous actor. And an even better person. He’s got those cheeks too which must be really great to put some goop on. Matt Duffer: He’s got a great jawline to play a monster. He does, we did have a height requirement for anyone auditioning for the Vecna role, because he wouldn’t be too scary if he’s smaller than some of our actors. So that was the only requirement. And then you had to be able to do Edward Norton and “Hellraiser.”

[denimbex1986]

"This is arguably the most important story of our time; the stakes really couldn't be any higher."

"It's profound, but it's told in a very human way."

"Everything Chris Nolan has done, has been a prelude to this."

"This is not a film, this is an experience. It is a heart-in-your-mouth thriller."

"I've been interested in Oppenheimer's story for a long time. At some point, I learned this key piece of information; that in the lead up to the Trinity Test, they were dealing with the very small possibility that when they pushed that button, they would set fire to the atmosphere of the Earth and destroy the entire planet. And yet, they pushed that button. I wanted to take the audience into that extraordinary moment in human history."

"Cillian playing Oppenheimer was the centrepiece of the film, but I knew that he was going to need the most extraordinary ensemble around him."

"The people involved in the Manhattan Project were charismatic individuals, they're very talented."

"The world that Oppenheimer inhabits is filled with rock-star scientists and, and I think because we have all these fantastic actors, you really buy that."

"It felt like I was playing sports with some of the best athletes. Every single person has come to set knowing that they have been hired because somewhere along the line Chris thought that you did a good job - and this goes for crew as well."

"My preference is always to do things in camera as much as possible. It sets a big challenge for every department to actually bring the reality of a thing there for the actors."

"Every crew member on this film has to adjust their work for the IMAX screen."

"IMAX can contain 18k resolution per frame which is by far more than any digital camera. It gets thrown up on a gigantic screen and the moment you watch it, it's very evident the quality is unprecedented."

"This is a story of America in the 20th century, so I think it can be painted on that big a canvas, and what better way to do that but with IMAX cameras?"

"I always try to use real locations as much as possible. With location shooting or sets, the more things can just be real, the better they're going to feel to the audience."

"There's almost no studio work on this film - everything is location."

"The sets were built in such a way that they felt incredibly authentic."

"We built our Los Alamos at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, which is along the same mountain range that Los Alamos proper sits on. This was very important and I based all of this on research. We built all of these buildings 360; we want it to feel like you are right there, you are in this, this is happening, this is real; this isn't a backlot."

"It's just the most transporting thing, you know, when you're there and it just looks exactly like Los Alamos 1940s must have looked, and you know that no detail has been overlooked."

"You know, we also shot in a huge amount of the real locations; we shot in Oppenheimer's house in Los Alamos, we shot in Princeton."

"Walking through Princeton, it's really very funny because people, you know, they're walking around and they go -"

"Shooting those scenes, playing the characters who really had versions of these events happen there; you just get a real charge out of it, you know?"

"When you do Chris' movies, things that when you read a script you normally would think would be visual effects, you know that you're going to be doing the stuff practically."

"They had to film the world of quantum physics; their whole unit was one big science project. I was daily very jealous."

"We did a lot of experimentation; we came up with some very interesting analog methods of how to approach this, all of which was leading to the Trinity Test, which had to feel nightmarish and terrifying in a way that computer graphics never really is. What we were able to get into the finished film to me is extraordinarily beautiful but also very frightening."

"Working with this whole team was such a great camaraderie and with the commonality of: 'We are going to get this in camera.' I love Chris' dedication to that."

"It really speaks to Chris and the way he directs; all of the energy goes around the camera like, we're all here to do the same thing."

"Chris makes films for theaters, for movie-going audiences, you know, so you want to see that as it's designed to be seen."

"Watching this very different sort of film on that big screen, it sort of makes you gasp; you're right in their experience."

"This is I think a definitive moment in the history of modern filmmaking. Do yourself a favour and go see this on as big a screen as you can."

"With the sound design and the score and the emotionality of it, this is an unforgettable, unmissable experience in a theater."

"We've made Oppenheimer on the largest scale possible because the idea is to come and experience this. His story is monumental and epic and extraordinary - it really has to be seen on the big screen to be believed."