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itsjuststardust · 7 months ago

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Heaven In Hiding - Chapter 1: The Bounty

Story Synopsis: Five years before the Mandalorian even met the Child, Mando took what he thought was going to be the easiest bounty with the highest payout of his career thus far. Capturing a runaway dancer—a ballerina versus a Mandalorian—was laughable.

Until it wasn’t.

The Mandalorian is a bounty hunter. His job is to collect a quarry and then return it for a profit. It doesn’t matter what happens to said quarry once he has returned it and collected the credits. So, then, why can he not forget about a sad pair of emerald green eyes after he turned her in? And when their paths cross again five years later, and he sees the condition his former quarry is in, how can he justify returning the Child to them? He is a bounty hunter. It doesn’t matter what happens to them… right?

Word Count: 5,814

Author's Note/Chapter Warnings: Long time Tumblr lurker. First time Tumblr poster. This is a multi-chapter fic that is also posted on AO3. Din Djarin/OFC. Slooooowwwwwwww buuuuurrrrrrnnnnnn. Rated Mature for Mature themes (PTSD, slight sexual content, descriptions of torture), but will eventually become explicit (Officially 🌶️explicit🌶️ Chapter 8 and beyond)... So - 18+ only. Minors DNI. Welcome interaction with others and constructive criticism. Bear with me while I figure out this whole Tumblr thing 🩶

Chapter 1: The Bounty

“Alaina! What have you done?”

Alaina frowned as she pried the pointe shoes off her aching feet. Only the third time she’d worn this pair, she shook her head as she examined the flimsy pair of shoes. They were already fraying and splitting. It looked like she’d need to start breaking in a new pair. She dropped the shoes to the floor and brought her hands to the right foot, which she had propped on her knee, and rubbed at her sore foot. It was her third performance in a row, and she found herself greatly looking forward to a few days off to rest and soak her feet.

“What are you talking about?” she asked the young dancer who barged into her dressing room at the end of her performance.

“There’s a Mandalorian here," she said with a pleading look. "A Mandalorian is here looking for you,” the girl finished, looking nervously behind her as if she expected this person to appear magically behind her.

“What’s a Mandalorian?” she asked, wiggling her toes before she slipped back into comfortable slip-on shoes.

The younger ballerina stared at her as if she’d committed an unforgivable sin.

“Use your words,” Alaina prodded as she rose from her seat to stretch. “What is a Mandalorian, and why do you look so terrified?”

Thunder could be heard as it rumbled loudly outside, and Alaina smiled. She had already changed out of her costume and was wearing her typical outfit of tights and a baggy green sweater, but she had forgotten a jacket. Hopefully, she wouldn’t get too wet on the walk home.

“Alaina, there is a bounty hunter here for you,” her younger protege explained.

She frowned. A bounty hunter? What would a bounty hunter want with a ballerina…

Her eyes fluttered closed when she connected the dots inside her mind. Surely, that insufferable man wouldn’t be so bold as to send a bounty hunter after her.

“You’ll come with me one way or another.”

Her former friend’s words from their last meeting rang clear in her mind. Months had passed since their argument, and she had put it all behind her. Unfortunately, it appeared as if he had not been able to put it behind him.

“I need to leave,” Alaina whispered, gathering whatever belongings she could to hastily throw them into a bag. There wasn’t much here: her pointe shoes, a small purse of credits, a dagger she carried on her for protection, and a protein bar. She would just have to make do with what she had. She couldn’t risk going to her home, at least right now.

She slung her black canvas bag of belongings over her shoulder as the young dancer she’d been mentoring ducked into the hall and returned with a dark green velvet cloak that was from her dance troupe’s wardrobe. It would have to do for now.

“What did you do?” her protege asked her nervously as she helped her put on the overly large green cloak. She pulled the hood up to cover her blonde hair, which was still pinned back into a tight bun from her earlier performance.

“Would you believe me if I told you an evil scientist wants to perform experiments on me?”

The younger girl looked at her skeptically, and Alaina shrugged her shoulders. Honestly, she even had a hard time believing that herself, but here she was, getting ready to run for the second time in a year - all because of what her mind could do.

She sidestepped the shocked girl and darted into the hall. Alaina looked in both directions, and her eyes locked on an intimidating-looking silver helmet, staring her down from the end of the hall to the right. Other dancers and crew members seemed just as shocked to see the armored man. People seemed to part, allowing her a clear view down the hall.

So, that’s a Mandalorian, she thought as she took in the gleaming silver helmet and dull brown armor that adorned the very large man.

She schooled her features and squared her shoulders, preparing for the race of her life. If she could make it through the forest, she could make it to the river, which bordered a mountain with a chain of caves that would be perfect to hide in. Hopefully, she’d find a good enough hiding spot to wait out the man until he gave up. In the worst-case scenario, she could follow the river to the ship docks and try to score herself a spot with a cargo vessel or something and go with them to their next destination. Starting over on a new planet was hard, but she’d done it once when she came here. She could do it again.

Mind decided, Alaina turned to her left and sprinted out of the backstage door, not giving another look behind her.

The weather had turned atrocious during her performance, and her shoes slipped in the mud as she ran from the auditorium. Rain poured from the sky, and lightning cracked overhead, followed by loud, rumbling thunder. When Alaina had overheard the predictions of a storm this evening, she found herself looking forward to enjoying the springtime storm from her home with a cup of warm tea, watching the weather roll through from her bedroom window.

Her evening plans had not included running for her life from a bounty hunter in the middle of a storm.

But she had no other choice. She needed to run. If this Mandalorian caught her and turned her in…

Warm tears tracked down her face, mingling with the cold rain that pelted her despite the cloak’s hood. She couldn’t allow herself to be captured. That was that. If she ended up in his hands, Alaina shuddered at the thought. She’d never see her life again.

She’d never dance again.

She’d never be able to enjoy a springtime storm again.

There was no telling the things she’d never get to experience if her deranged former friend got his hands on her.

So she ran.

The tree line of the dense forest came into view, and Alaina tried to push herself faster. Adrenaline coursed through her, allowing her to ignore the pain in her feet or the way her lungs burned with every inhale. She just needed to make it to the forest, and then she could work on hiding her tracks by weaving through the trees.

She broke through the tree line, and the forest’s canopy slightly shielded the downpour of rain, which meant the forest floor was not as muddy, allowing her slightly better traction.

She risked a look behind her, and her heart sank when she saw the foreboding outline of the Mandalorian standing at the treeline. Lightning cracked, illuminating the landscape around the broad-shouldered man and making him appear to be made of shadow and darkness.

“Please,” she begged the bounty hunter. “Please don’t do this.”

The only response she received was the rumbling of thunder as the bounty hunter took a single step toward her.

Alaina’s chest constricted, and she turned to run further into the forest. She did her best to make her tracks as erratic as possible as she wove through the dense trees. A root snagged her foot, and she stumbled but caught herself just before she fell to the ground. All those years of dancing suddenly seemed to come in handy for an entirely different reason.

The sound of water could be heard in the distance. Alaina smiled. That was not just the sound of rain. That was the sound of the river roaring. Which meant that the cave system that followed the river would be nearby.

Just a little further.

There would be a stretch of nothing when the forest would end, as the terrain changed from dirt to stone, as the scenery transitioned from forest to mountain and its caves that lined the river. That expanse would leave her exposed. Alaina slightly slowed her pace to conserve some of her energy. She would need to sprint to make it there once she no longer had the dense forest to use to her advantage.

She looked behind her just as lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the forest behind her. She slowed when she saw nothing there behind her. Good. Hopefully, she lost the man. Or, at least, she had given herself enough leeway to sprint across the vacant stretch of land between the forest and the rocky, cavernous mountain by the river.

She stopped at the forest’s edge, hugging a particularly large, red tree trunk. The river roared to her left, and Alaina watched the rapids crash into the grey stone banks. She gulped at the powerful sight. The river was normally full on a good day, but with the rain from the storm, it was almost overflowing the banks. If the river rose any higher, it could possibly flood the caves she was counting on hiding in. Or worse, one wrong step or slip, and she could fall into the rushing waters. Although, she’d rather meet the Maker in the river than she would at the hands of…

A branch snapped behind her, and she spun, expecting to find the armored man stalking behind her out of the darkened forest, but no one was there. She let out a shaky breath. She couldn’t waste any more time. It was time to run again.

Alaina turned to push off the tree to begin her mad sprint to the caves in the distance, briefly closing her eyes to say a prayer to anyone who was listening to give her the speed to make it to her destination. Only when she pushed off the tree did she come to an abrupt stop when she ran into something.

Lightning cracked across the sky, and Alaina’s heart caught in her chest when she realized it wasn’t something she ran into but rather someone.

The Mandalorian.

The man’s larger, gloved hands reached out and latched onto her shoulders, trapping her in his powerful grip.

“Please, sir, I know you don’t know me, but you can’t send me to him,” she begged, tears welling in her eyes as she stared up into the helmet in sheer terror.

The helmet stayed unmoving, and Alaina felt the slightest spark of hope. Maybe she’d be able to talk herself out of this. Surely, the man wouldn’t turn her in if he knew what would happen to her.

“My—my name is Alaina,” she stuttered. “I’m a dancer. I just want to be a dancer. I’ve never stolen from anyone or hurt anyone,” she tried to plead her case. “If you turn me in, he’s just going to experiment on me. He’s obsessed with me and what I’m capable of.”

“Sorry, kid,” he said. The digitized voice was flat and uncaring as he spoke.

Alaina watched in slow motion as one of his hands dropped from her shoulder to grab a pair of shackles from his waist. With all the strength she could muster, she dropped and twisted her body in an attempt to escape his grasp. And then—

She was free.

Alaina blinked in shock when she realized she was just out of arm’s length of the Mandalorian. The helmet gave nothing away, but judging how the bounty hunter looked from his empty hand to her, she assumed he was just as shocked to see that Alaina had managed to escape him.

With another blink, Alaina remembered where she was.

And then she remembered who she was.

Alaina knew that people usually looked over her. She had a dancer’s typical slender build, but people usually assumed that she was weak and underestimated the lithe muscles she’d built over the years from hours and hours of daily training she’d done. She was the awkward height of being shorter than most women and missed out on parts because she didn’t fit what some directors pictured for their leading dancer. She knew she was pretty but not beautiful. Her looks were plain, and men’s gazes never stayed on her pale face for long. Alaina could go on for days. Her green eyes were too large for her face. She found herself wishing her blonde hair would be brighter and would just make a decision to be either curly or straight and not whatever unmanageable wavy thing her locks dried to. People looked at her, and they underestimated her.

The Mandalorian underestimated her, and she escaped from his grasp.

She had a gift - a gift that not many knew of. Her mother had the gift and did her best to teach Alaina how to manage it. Her former best friend turned evil scientist, knew of her gift. It had torn their relationship apart when he discovered the things Alaina could do. Her mother had warned her that people would use her, but Alaina had trusted her closest friend with her secret.

And he sent a bounty hunter after her.

After how everything ended between her and her former best friend, she vowed she’d never reveal her gift to anyone again.

However, as she stared down the bounty hunter who had been sent to capture her, Alaina decided it was time to use her gift to save her life.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose. When she opened them, the Mandalorian was taking a step closer to her, and she brought her hands up between them and watched as the man froze.

“What the hell?” came a modified voice under the silver helmet.

Alaina held her ground and raised her hands, letting her powers flow through her to freeze the Mandalorian in place.

“What are you doing to me?” he asked, and his body could only flinch as he struggled to regain control of his body from her.

Alaina smirked in response before her face hardened, and she flung her hands off to the right, sending the armored man airborne. A wave of exhaustion washed over her, and she doubled over, resting her hands on her knees as she panted. Using her powers took a lot out of her, but she couldn’t rest. Not yet. She’d only bought herself a little time.

She looked back, and when the Mandalorian’s body crashed against the ground, she took in a deep breath. Lightning lit up the sky, lighting up the bank of caves in the distance.

“Run,” she whispered and nodded to psych herself up.

“Shit!” the Mandalorian spat as he tried to get up after she had tossed him.

That was all the encouragement she needed.

She sprinted as fast as she could against the slick stone that lined the expanse between the forest behind her and the caves before her. The sound of the river roared in her ears, and she tried to use it as a meditative sound. A sound to encourage her. She used the sound of the rushing water to drown out the sound of the Mandalorian’s boots pounding against the stone as he chased her down.

Alaina gritted her teeth as she pushed herself further, asking more from her body than she ever had before. She was so close. Just a little more, and she could jump to a ledge that had an entrance to one of the caves. Once she was in there, she could get lost—so lost that it would take her days to find her way out of the intricate caverns. Surely, the Mandalorian couldn’t find her if she didn’t even know where she was herself.

A gloved hand grabbed her cloak, knocking the hood down, and yanked her back.

Alaina screamed in rage and twisted until she freed herself from the velvet garment. Unfortunately, her dancer’s grace did not hold a second time. A combination of the slick stone, her speed, and the twist it took to escape the cloak caused her feet to trip over themselves, and the stone was too wet to correct herself. She tumbled forward. Hard.

The ledge she had been aiming for rushed at her, and she crashed into it.

The last thing she saw was a bolt of lightning strike the ground in the distance before her head collided with the mountain’s ledge, and her world went dark.

Five years later...

Stormtroopers.

Of course, Karga led him into the belly of an Imp snake pit.

The Mandalorian squared his shoulders at the sight of the white armored imperial remnants staring him down. The payout better be as impressive as Karga implied it would be, he thought as the door slid closed behind him.

“This way,” the trooper closest to him said, pointing to a door on the left side toward the end of the hallway.

Mando stepped forward, keeping his eyes open for even a hint of trouble.

“Stop her!” a voice yelled from somewhere further down the hall, and Mando tensed, grabbing his blaster.

The other troopers in the hall all swiveled their heads just as a blur of yellow and white came barreling out of a door on the right side.

A frail-looking girl with honey-blonde hair, wearing what appeared to be a white hospital gown, elegantly twisted and outmaneuvered each of the troopers, who looked too stunned to stop her. Unfortunately, the woman was so occupied with looking behind her that she didn’t notice him in front of her.

She collided with his breastplate, and Mando instinctively grabbed her arms to prevent her from falling over. Brilliant emerald green eyes stared up at her, wide with fear.

But he knew those green eyes. Those large emerald orbs had haunted his dreams for the last five years.

“Tin Man?” Alaina whispered, her eyes blowing wide in disbelief.

Mando took her in. Her eyes hadn’t changed in five years. They were still that brilliant shade of emerald that had followed him all these years later.

“Save me,” she pleaded, grabbing onto the top of his chestpiece. “Please,” she begged again.

“Don’t move!” one of the troopers ordered.

He was frozen in shock, not expecting ever to see the emerald-eyed woman again.

Tears welled in her green eyes, and she surprisingly slipped from his grasp. Again.

Mando watched as she spun and twisted around him. Her movements captivated him. If this were his first time meeting her, he never would have pegged her to be a classically trained dancer. It was clear she lacked the muscle of a trained fighter, but the way she could maneuver out of his grasp spoke of someone highly skilled.

His former bounty didn’t make it far. Mando watched, too stunned to do anything, as electricity wrapped around her. He watched on helplessly as she screamed and writhed in pain, falling to her knees while she was being electrocuted. When the electricity seemed to stop, she turned back to him with pleading eyes before another wave washed over her.

“Stop!”

Mando turned to see a small, weasel of a looking man with glasses come running out of the same room as the woman had.

“Stop!” he ordered again, and Mando watched as one of the Stormtroopers released a remote that he hadn’t noticed before.

When he let the button up, the girl stopped convulsing and collapsed to the floor.

The smaller man, who appeared to be an officer of some kind, gave Mando a quick glance but sidestepped him to go to the woman. He pressed his fingers to her neck and nodded, apparently relieved to find a pulse there. He forced Alaina’s eyes open, shining a light into them. Alaina’s face scrunched in pain at the light, and she weakly shoved the doctor away.

“You have to be careful,” he scolded the trooper with the remote. “All of this will be for nothing if you fry her brain. Come, Lainey,” he whispered, helping the woman up off the ground.

“Don’t call me that,” she growled, shoving the doctor away from her. She swiped at her face and frowned when she discovered a slow trickle of blood that came from her nose.

“I'm sorry you had to see that,” the nervous officer apologized, keeping his eye on the blonde woman as she tried to stop bleeding from her nose. “We were expecting you.”

The past came back to him as he was finally able to place the man in front of him.

This was the man who had come to him about the bounty on Alaina all those years ago.

“Doctor Pershing,” the man greeted him with an outstretched hand.

Mando looked at the doctor’s hand without taking it before looking back at the nervous man’s face.

“Right, straight to business. Just like last time,” the doctor nodded and dropped his hand.

Alaina’s eyes moved to his helmet, and her emerald green eyes sparked with rage as she looked at him. Pershing moved to stand next to her and forcefully clamped a hand around her elbow. Alaina tried to yank her arm out of his grasp, but the man clung to her tightly.

Pershing gave him a tight smile. “Follow me,” he directed, turning to move down the hall. When Alaina dug her feet in, the doctor aggressively pulled her to his side, almost causing her to stumble again. “You will be punished for your escape attempt, Lainey,” Pershing whispered into her ear.

It was still loud enough for Mando to hear the man, and he felt his hands subconsciously clench into tight fists at his sides.

It’d been five years since the first time he saw her. She’d been a bounty.

She was the last puck of four he’d taken off Karga. The Guild leader tempted him with the high payout that was attached to the girl. He’d been told that the woman had fled from her husband with his fortune. There was an odd list of specifications for her return—no brute force, no head trauma, no carbonite. He just shrugged, not caring about the list of demands. It would be an easy job. A ballerina versus a Mandalorian… It was laughable to even think about.

Until it wasn’t.

He learned quickly that the story he’d gotten from Karga didn’t quite add up. Then, he was stuck with her for the three days it took to get back to Nevarro. She’d pleaded and begged him, called him a karking Imp, and told him he was working for the Empire. He held firm. She was the job. Bounties lied. It wasn’t his job to be the judge and jury…

“But you are my executioner,” she’d accused him. “If you’re going to deliver me to my death, I want to know your name. Or is your heart also made of tin, Tin Man? ”

He hadn’t forgotten her emerald green eyes in five years.

Pershing motioned for him to take a seat across from an older man in dark robes as he pulled Alaina to stand by the back wall. Alaina ripped her arm from the doctor’s hold and went to stand a couple of steps away from the man.

Now, those green eyes were staring back at him. Instead of tears or terror engulfing her wide green eyes, tears of hate, complete ire, and disgust swam in them.

It seemed the girl had been right. He’d practically gift-wrapped her for the Empire. The outcome wasn’t supposed to matter. She was his bounty. He had turned her in. That was that. She had done something to deserve to be where she was. Well, maybe she did not deserve to be with the Empire, but that had been out of his control. He’d been hired to return her to her husband… so that’s what he did… Or so he thought.

So, why did the girl’s green eyes still find a way to haunt his dreams? Not every night. Not even every month. Usually, after a difficult bounty or something that was more emotionally taxing than usual. Her green eyes and long honey-blonde hair would show up in his dreams. Which only made him feel worse.

He could still remember her name after all these years—Alaina. And here she was, on Nevarro, right where he had left her, in the possession of her new owner, the Empire.

She was thinner than he remembered. Her cheekbones were more prominent than he remembered, and her face had a hallowed, sunken look. She had a scar on her left temple from when she tripped and crashed head-first into that mountain when he chased her down. Her blonde hair was duller than he remembered it being. It was done in a single braid and fell to her lower back, but her hair had lost some of that sheen it had. Now, it looked more like straw—dull, frizzy, and dirty. She was wearing what was basically a white hospital gown that fell to her knees and looked more like a sack hanging off her frail form. The last accessory of note was the thick collar that clung tightly around her neck. A slave's collar. It was what they had used to electrocute her in the hallway earlier.

Mando felt a wave of guilt swell in his chest. Her green, emerald eyes still held that spark he remembered, though. At least the Empire hadn’t taken that from her.

Not yet, his treacherous mind whispered.

Now, he sat across from the Client in the middle of his clandestine meeting Karga had offered. Karga had said this was a client with deep pockets; he just wasn’t expecting to deal with Imps. Mando had half a mind to walk out of the meeting, that was until his former bounty with emerald eyes crashed into him in the hallway. He didn’t know what came over him to make him stay. He rarely ran into quarries after turning them in. In fact, he’d only ever stumbled upon one one other time before now. Maybe it was intrigue. Maybe it was guilt. Either way, she was the only reason he decided to stay and hear the Client out.

Mando’s helmet was directed at the Client, but he kept his eyes on the girl, Alaina, while the Imp spoke.

The Client snapped his fingers, and Mando’s former bounty stepped to the table to stand next to the older Imp. The Client reached under the table, and when he brought his hand back up, he dropped a silver, molded object on the table.

“Beskar?” Mando asked, surprised to see the rare metal brick with the Imperial stamp prominent on it.

“Go ahead, it’s real,” the Client encouraged him with a smug smile. Mando picked up the brick to inspect it closer. “This is only a down payment,” the man continued. “I have a whole camtono of beskar waiting for you upon delivery of the asset.”

Kriff, an entire camtono…

“Alive!” Dr. Pershing spoke up anxiously from behind the table.

“Yes, alive,” the Client confirmed. The man took a deep, annoyed breath before continuing, “Although I acknowledge that bounty hunting is a complicated profession. This being the case, proof of termination is also acceptable at a lower fee.”

“That is not what we agreed upon!” Pershing argued, obviously upset by the suggestion.

Mando glanced up from the beskar and observed the client and Pershing for a moment before turning his gaze to the woman on the other side of the Client. Her green eyes gave nothing away other than obvious disgust directed at him.

Mando should have left, should have walked out. He already had a bad feeling about whatever bounty they had, and besides, a deal with the Imps was not what he had planned. In fact, Mando had made it a point to avoid them at all costs.

However… the camtono of beskar was too good a deal to turn down. The covert needed supplies and Mando had a duty to provide for his people.

“Let’s see the puck,” Mando said in agreement to take the job.

The Client raised his hand, and the emerald-eyed woman took a step forward to stand next to him at the table. She looked back at the client, who nodded to her. The woman, Alaina, turned her gaze back to his helmet and stared at him so deeply that Mando felt as if she could see past the beskar and view his face.

Mando held his breath while she continued her silent examination, not exactly sure what was happening.

“I sense no ill will,” she finally spoke, breaking the strained silence. “He is…” she faded off, and her face became sorrowful, pained even, before she finished with, “he is a man of his word.”

Mando clenched his fists on top of the table. So, that’s why the Imps had wanted her. Hadn’t Alaina called herself gifted? Her words from years ago rang through his head. Mando had even been on the receiving end of her powers a couple of times. It was one of the many offers she had begged him to take her up on instead of basically gift-wrapping her for the Empire. She'd warned him about this, but he hadn't wanted to believe her. Who knew the kinds of things someone like her could help them achieve? What other powers did she possess that the Empire was using her for?

The Client nodded and flicked his hand back, dismissing Alaina to the back of the room again.

The woman didn’t move, though. Curiously, he watched as a subtle change took over the blonde woman. A blank, unseeing look washed over her face. The woman brought a finger up to trace the transparisteel T of his helmet, and Mando sat there frozen as he watched her fingertip glide down the front of his helmet. “He’s drowning in seas of green,” she murmured, tilting her head curiously to the side. It was almost as if she could see something that the rest of them in the room could not.

The Client sighed. “You’ll have to forgive her,” he told Mando as a way of apologizing. “She’s useful, but sometimes not all there,” he finished, tapping his finger to his temple, silently suggesting that Alaina was crazy.

Then, without warning, the Client pressed something under the table, sending a shock through the collar that was secured around her neck, bringing the girl crashing to the ground with a scream.

Mando was out of his chair in an instant, ignoring the troopers who snapped their weapons back to him. He shook his head and knelt down to offer the woman a hand. She looked around, disoriented, before her gaze landed on his outstretched hand. Cautiously, the woman slid her hand into his palm and allowed him to help her back up.

The girl had been right after all...

“I am surprised to see a Mandalorian such as yourself so upset over a little electrical stimulation. Surely, you’ve done worse to a bounty to receive the desired outcome.”

At the Client’s words, the woman’s face changed from curiosity back to fury, directed entirely at him. She ripped her hand from his with a snarl.

The girl had been right, and now her blood was on his hands.

The Client snapped again, and he watched her walk back to her spot on the back wall.

He needed to fix his mistake. He needed to make it right.

“It’s not the method you used,” Mando told the client, bringing his helmet back to glare at the older man. He hoped he sounded halfway menacing so he didn’t blow his… Blow whatever inkling of a plan that was beginning to take shape in his head. “It’s the collar.”

The Client nodded and motioned for him to retake his seat. “Sometimes, things must be done to ensure the safety of others,” he explained with a smile.

Mando crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. “The safety of others?” he questioned, trying to use the opportunity to pry information from the man. “What is a waif of a girl like her gonna do?”

He didn’t miss how Dr. Pershing’s demeanor became even more uncomfortable than it already was or how the Client’s smile turned from passive to dark.

“Things you couldn’t even imagine, Mandalorian,” the Client answered ominously. “But, we aren’t here to discuss the girl. We’re here to discuss your next bounty,” he reminded Mando.

Mando gave a single nod, “Right, you were about to show me the puck.” He didn’t care about the next bounty. He cared about the one standing in front of him from five years ago.

It was time to right his wrongs from all those years ago.

“I’m afraid discretion dictates a less traditional agreement,” the Client began, leveling a look at his helmet. “We can only offer you a tracking fob.”

Mando sighed and raised his vambrace to enter the code. “What’s the chain code?” he asked.

“We can only provide you with the last four digits,” the client informed him.

Mando dropped his arm and tilted his helmet at the information—or, more accurately, the lack of information. “Their age? That’s all you can give me?” he asked, putting out with the answer.

“Yes,” the old man nodded. “They’re fifty years old. We can also give you last positional data. Between that and the fob, a man of your skill should make quick work of this.”

Mando stayed quiet, contemplating the bounty, weighing how he was going to pull off the bounty, the beskar, and the girl. Part of him wanted to go back to the original plan of killing them all and taking the girl. Chances were the beskar was hiding here somewhere, too. His eyes flicked back to the girl standing against the wall at the back of the room. Mando ground his teeth. No, if he needed a chance at freeing her, he needed to play into their game. At least for now.

“The beskar belongs back into the hands of the Mandalorians,” the client continued when he didn’t get an immediate response from Mando. “It is good to restore the natural order of things after a period of such disarray, don’t you agree?”

Mando’s helmet moved on its own toward the green-eyed woman clinging to the wall in the back, staring at him with large, mournful eyes. He let out a huff but nodded his head, agreeing to take the job.

I’m sorry, Mando thought, looking back at his former bounty. Alaina’s eyes widened even further, almost as if she had heard him apologize. The look of surprise only lasted a moment before the hard exterior returned to the green orbs. Had she somehow heard his apology? Did her gifts allow her to somehow communicate telepathically?

Mando rose from the table, turning his back to the Imps and Alaina. The job would give him time to come up with a plan for getting the beskar and the girl.

Everything had already turned upside down on him once. What else could go wrong?

Heaven in Hiding Masterlist

Next chapter in series: Chapter 2: Judge, Jury, and...

#fanfic #the mandalorian #din djarin #original character #original female character #Original force sensitive character #Heaven In Hiding #slow burn #enemies to lovers #no beta we die like men #time skip #mandalorian fanfic #din dijarin fanfiction #minors dni

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thefloatingstone · 1 year ago

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After looking into the writers predicament and how it all led to the strike it made me realize that perhaps one of the reasons for the decline in quality media is becuase writers have been given less and less incentives to create good content, do you have any thoughts?

I don't think it would be exactly incentive. I would think in a certain amount of cases it would be down more to demotivation. Generally, writers for film and TV and such genuinely WANT to make a good story and, much like fanfic writers and fanartists, will do their best for very little thanks simply because it's what they DO. But not ever show or movie is going to be a passion project, in fact most of them won't. And if you're working for Disney especially, who owns 38% of all film (not counting TV and other media) so you most likely WILL end up wroking for Disney, you are going to have a TON of studio meddling on every level of writing.

As I mentioned in the other post, Mr Rick And Morty (sorry I don't know his name and I'm too lazy to check) wrote the story for the Dr Strange and the Multiverse of madness at LEAST twice when the movie's FIRST story and script was scrapped by a previous writer. The first script he wrote was heavily rewritten and changed and reworked by the studio. and then the studio just THREW OUT that script and he had write a brand NEW script 2 weeks before shooting started using all the props, sets, outfits and CG segments they had already made. And the thing is this is now STANDARD PRACTICE in working on a big budget Disney film.

Part of the reason the Barbie movie is written as well as it is, is because Mattel were almost completely hands off with the film's writing. (the only changes I heard about was them censoring one Barbie saying the word "Motherfucker" which they censored in the film by putting a Mattel sticker over her mouth) and various other things like the removal of a narration in one scene and one or two jokes were cut. You know! NORMAL screenwriting practices!

But Disney is so paranoid and controlling with literally everything they put out it is a death sentence for any kind of creativity. Even ignoring the fact that they hire brand new writers who they can control and push around easier, I imagine even if you were NOT a new writer just happy for a big break, it must be extremely demotivating to try and write a good story when you know Disney is just gonna shred it to ribbons.

This is absolutely not the ONLY reason of course. Velma's writing is so godawful because people who had only worked in live action cable comedy thought they could do the exact same thing for an animated show and it would work without knowing anything about the medium they were working in because they were arrogant, lacked restraint, and had gotten where they were thanks to being friends with the right people. HGS is so badly written because Raye Rodriquez had shopped around his story idea to EVERYONE and got rejected by all of them until Crunchyroll needed fodder to justify opening up its own studio to create "originals". Many times modern cartoons are badly written because the actual people writing the show are animators who haven't had any formal training or education in creative writing.

There are a thousand and one reasons for WHY something ends up badly written. But as for why we have gotten SO MUCH that is badly written recently I would chalk up to studio execs and the business side of Hollywood choking the creativity out of the writing process in an attempt to maximize profits in the short term.

That's an EXTREME simplification but that would be my opinion. Hell the only reason AI writing is even a conversation regarding film and TV is because it's the kind of thing these studio execs are SALIVATING over the thought of. A writer they have 100% control over that they don't have to pay and don't have to deal with all that "creative vision" or "artistic expression" bullshit which they don't like because it represents risk to sure fire income.

because most Studio Execs are businessmen who have no concept of creativity whatsoever, have no idea what being creative even means, and yet they think because they know how to make money in a corporate sense, they know how to monetise creativity to maximum efficiency.

It's like a fisherman getting rid of all the fish in the sea because they're getting in the way of him monetising the ocean.

Anyway this ask is a mess because this is a complex issue I am trying to express a simplified opinion on. But I hope you get what I mean.

#C-Puff answers

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leader-wretched · 17 days ago

Text

My experience with Afrothunderxx96 - Part 2: Conflict (October 2024)

Please read these posts first:

Click here for the introduction post

Click here for Part 1

Trigger Warnings:

Mentions of transphobia

Mentions of death threats

Mentions of trauma, anxiety and depression

Mentions of NSFW (18+) content

Mentions of fictional depictions of sexual abuse and grooming

(All of these trigger warnings are mentions only. Nothing is described in detail to keep this post suitable for all audiences.)

--------

October 2024:

Everything was going very well between Afrothunder and I. I received an invite to Afrothunder's Discord server called "The Super Secret Server of NSFW" after I purchased a commission from her of two of my characters, which is something I had been wanting for a long time.

I was overjoyed to receive my commission and to join Afrothunder's server. I was fully aware that there was going to be NSFW content, and I was happy to be in the server, since I have had to restrict myself from expressing my sense of humour in other servers where my NSFW jokes were not allowed.

Here is the server invite. I completely censored the server image as it depicts nudity:

For a while, things in the server were going well. I made lots of jokes, shared memes, shared artworks and talked about my JSAB AU with Afrothunder. I saw some of Afrothunder's and other people's NSFW drawings, and the ones I saw at this point depicted safe and consensual activity, so I was completely unbothered by them and actually liked some of them.

--------

Transphobia:

Since I was becoming more confident in my drawing abilities, I decided to share some of my drawings I was working on. One of the drawings I shared was a work-in-progress body reference of my version of Cube from my JSAB AU, who is a trans man like me. I drew him in front, side and back view in his underwear and chest binder. I didn't want to draw him nude and I wanted to draw layers over him of all different kinds of clothing items, making the clothes layers like a dress-up game where I can mix and match them to make new outfits.

Afrothunder made a very inappropriate and uncalled for comment about my Cube's body that came across as extremely transphobic. She said "You say he's a guy but he's built like a girl."

I was very upset by her comment for obvious reasons. I responded by editing my post, deleting the image and saying that I will be completely changing my Cube's design so people don't insult him anymore.

I wanted to create positive trans male representation through my Cube, but I received many hurtful comments just like this one Afrothunder made. I have even received transphobic death threats over my drawings of him, which is why I deleted everything from my DeviantArt years ago and since then have only posted my art to trusted private servers. I messaged Afrothunder in her DMs, explaining why I felt the way I did and apologising for my reaction. She apologised as well and I accepted her apology, but something that happened later on totally changed that...

--------

Normalisation and depictions of sexual abuse and grooming:

Soon after, I became exposed to explicit content depicting non-consensual activities created by Afrothunder. It included a short comic with Sam and Macabre and a commission drawing of Cube and two other characters.

Seeing this completely shattered my trust and admiration for Afrothunder. It caused a rehash of trauma for me which made me feel physically sick and unable to sleep properly for many days. It reminded me how people cannot be trusted and brought up feelings where I feel I am better off alone because of the amount of times I've been hurt and let down by people. I never thought someone I supported and cared about would be ok with creating such content. When I tried to bring it up with Afrothunder in her DM's, she accused me of not liking being in her server. I then explained to Afrothunder why the image she created with CTYH Cube upset me, in which she responded by justifying it. Afrothunder said that the sexual abuse, grooming and exploitation depicted in the images she made were her 'fetishes.' I asked her a bunch of questions about it, in which her responses upset me even more because she confirmed that the abuse in the images was something she liked. I was very upset with her and expressed my feelings, saying: "How the actual f### can you be ok with this is beyond me. And to think I used to admire you and look up to you. I honestly don't know if there's any coming back from this. First, you insult my character and give me a half-a##ed apology only after I apologise to you first, now you openly admit you enjoy seeing and drawing r###, grooming and s####l predation? Please tell me this stuff applies to fictional characters only and not real people as well." From this point on, Afrothunder blocked me. I feel like this is avoiding accountability and responsibility for the hurt she caused. -------- (I will be writing and uploading the third post later on describing what happened recently, especially now that she's stooped to the low level of what she just said about me in her recent post knowing what I've been through.)

#jsab #jsab community #just shapes and beats #afrothunderxx96 #Jsab ctyh #ctyh #Close to your heart #Tw trauma mention #Tw transphobia mention #Tw sa mention #Tw noncon mention #Tw grooming mention #tw depression mention #tw anxiety mention

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dearmahiru-archive · 2 years ago

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even without textual evidence id love to hear your thoughts on kotoko not killing anyone directly!! i never hear 10 theories, & especially not ones that dont revolve around her beating up the prisoners. if youre comfortable, i would love to hear your thoughts on my wife ~with love

Ahh so sorry for how long it took to me to answer this ask my brain has been gone for the past few days. But you're right! How could I pass up an opportunity to talk about Kotoko? She deserves so much more love than what she's given. Kotoko appreciators please interact I'd love to hear your thoughts.

So we already know I subscribe to this particular theory:

Since it serves as a extension of the parallels found in the prisoners. It also fits with Kotoko since she states she'd be an innocent person outside of Milgram:

Kotoko: [...]To defend and protect the weak, there’s always situations when you can't do anything else. I say again, what I did is, “facing an urgent and illegal infringement, an action taken out of necessity to protect the rights of myself and others”. You do understand what that means, right? Es: "Criminal law, the 36th paragraph, article 1. Justifiable self-defense." Kotoko: "Looks like someone has studied. So in reality, my case, if taken to the judiciary, will also be judged as justifiable defense.

(Kotoko you did nothing wrong so true so true!)

Though, I'll admit this doesn't outright confirm she didn't kill directly anyone. However, if we work back from the idea Kotoko commited an indirect murder then you start noticing a lot of weird details in her case.

— The Warehouse

First off, Kotoko didn't directly killed the warehouse guy. We know this because her actual victim died in a nearby street in Sendocho, Kyoto.

There is the possibility there's multiple murders underneath her belt but she hasn't mentioned it hereself:

Kotoko: I did kill someone. This is why I believe in the power of Milgram.

And, unlike other prisoners, Kotoko has no reason to lie about herself. She admires the prison and believe she's done nothing wrong. If she wants to become our fang then certainly she'd jump at the chance to mention all the villains she's defeated.

Which is amazing and everything but. . . if Kotoko's victim didn't die in the warehouse then why is it the climax of Harrow? It's obviously meant to be presented as her murder. Why are there so many strange details included in the warehouse scene too?

I pointed this out in a seperate post but there's three major strange details in the warehouse scene:

1). A car suddenly appears the second time Kotoko enters the warehouse.

2). Kotoko's outfit shifts midway through entering.

3.) Despite that, her cap still appears on the ground.

(I don't even think Takao, the warehouse guy, is even bleeding...! I've been told otherwise but I turned up the saturation and stared at the image like twelve different times but I think its shadow. Why is it obscure anyway??? Just make it outright!! Some of us have vision problems y'know!!)

I don't have any answers for why these details are here but it's weird. This is only time I can think of in S1 where the "real world" has muddled up details like this. (Apart from maybe Rei's change of eye colour which is more subtle than this).

Which isn't to say her victim isn't Takao. Again, it's the literal climax of the song and her wolf imagery comes out full stop while dealing with him. She's been hunting this guy down for possibly two years and he's done inexcusable harm to children.

Several news article through Harrow Flash news: A girl's dead body was found near her home, presumed to be another victim of a killing spree targeting little girls

New evidence: tire marks, same as the marks found near where the girl's corpse was abandoned. The culprit seems to have kidnapped her by car, murdered her, and dumped her body near her home

The person who killed 10 people in two years was the spoiled son of an upper-class citizen. He ran over an elementary-school girl and she died, which may have been concealed due to his father's power

It also fits with her theme of protecting others as opposed to Mikoto's theme of protecting himself. Murdering a serial killer who's done inexcusable harm on this level can make it harder to punish her in the future. She did a very, very good thing by taking this guy down.

Her smile also matches up with the shot in Undercover where she's presumedly beating someone to death.

— The Alley way

If we're discussing a potential victim here then it's more likely to be Mikio Oshii, the man she beats up in the alley way. However, I'm not convinced of this either because it's never given full confirmation.

An article from Harrow: "Mikio Oshii, a man wanted for theft was found unconscious yesterday night and taken to the hospital, his face and stomach beaten up. Footprints of a man's sneakers were found at the site, and the police are searching for a male culprit."

(transmasc kotoko so true!! handsome boy!!)

It's possible he could've died later in the hospital—like, genuinely I believe it, there's plenty of evidence, and I don't have a direct argument against it—but for the sake of this theory I don't think this is the case.

Unless Mikio laid a hand on her prior, tracking down to corner a thief and beating him until he's unconscious wouldn't constitute as self defense. If this was the case then why not show the audience?

As for the indirect murder part, there could be a debate over whether a death caused later constitutes as murder but I don't think it'd be an interesting debate.

It's also a pretty tame murder in the context of Milgram. Kotoko "I defeat evil doers" Yuzuriha beat up an old guy, didn't even finish the job, and he died by blood loss. Not only is this the legal definition of murder (Kotoko had the intent to harm + the victim died as a result of her wounds), the literal children of Milgram have done worse. When Amane wanted to kill someone she atleast brought a steel pipe and aimed for the head!

However, this isn't to say her victim isn't Mikio. Atleast, not entirely. The alley way matches closest with the Sendoku street and beating up someone is presented as her murder. This scene is definitely important to understanding case.

—So Like, What Is Her Murder Then?

Haha... remember in my original post when I this theory was half-baked and had little evidence? I can croon all I want about how it's not Takao or Mikio but she had to killed someone, y'know? There's no other character in Milgram where you couldn't reasonably guess the victim based off of the first trial alone. I've also noted why it still could've been either of them too. This also isn't conclusive evidence she didn't directly or indirectly murder them either.

Personally, I think Kotoko's crime should be an extension of Milgram prison, similarly to Fuuta. Her judge/jury/executioner vigilante traits fts this already but I think it could go even further. I'm thinking she might've turned to a higher authority and they recieved a lethal punishment of some kind? That's kind-of just my shot in the dark through.

Kotoko's case interests me the most because of how simple is appears to be while having so many elusive elements. For instance, who're the two girls and the man with the hammer? One of the girl's could've been Kotoko herself too which makes for an incredibly interesting backstory. There's also this line in her voice trailer:

Kotoko: "From the begin I've never asked for your understanding! My actions, one by one, are bringing earth closer to peace. Useless Weaklings should just shut up and let me protect them!"

Which is strange because every voiceline happens before their time in Milgram. Who is she talking to and why does she need to defend herself while talking to them?

This conclusion is a bit of a mess but wow I'm really excited for Deep Cover. Recieving confirmation on anything is going to make me ecstatic. Inno Kotoko truther through and through I adore her.

#again really sorry how long this took to me!! graduating is beating me like a bloody pulp #there's probably some details I'm missing too boooooo #milgram #kotoko yuzuriha #꒰ ☁️ ꒱ ── warm regards‚ cinnamon

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ilovescaredysquirrel2 · 5 months ago

Text

Disney's going downhill again (kinda happy ngl)

Should I really be happy about this? I mean, people are going to start turning to the underrated non-Disney media now that the world's most overrated company is going downhill again after Inside Out 2 brought them back up with a few months of hype.

First, let's talk about the live action Snow White remake. As someone who hates the "original" movie from 1937 (I say original in quotation marks because there's so many Snow white adaptations throughout the years). I just don't like the old animated Disney version, no matter how much someone will argue with me. Yes, I seen it but I have not grown up with it. I understand it's hard for someone to hate it if they grew up enjoying it, which I don't understand how they could because there's so many things in it that would scare the kids, and also... Snow white is a teen and the prince is a grown man! You can clearly tell just by looking at the designs. Nothing wrong with Snow white as a character but I heard they were originally going to make her look different but changed it to her current design because they didn't want her looking "too mature" which is freaking gross. I mean, it's from 1937 and it was legal and apparently normal for grown men to be attracted to underage girls and marry them... but doesn't that make you want to watch the movie less? Like, it's not the Victorian era anymore so why are we watching movies from back then? I don't mind that they remade Snow White and the seven dwarves, it doesn't look that good anyway. However I'm still not hating on the live action remake as much as I hate on the original. Who needs the problematic Disney versions when we have Red Shoes & the seven dwarves, and Mirror Mirror? Heck, I'd even watch the Super Why version over the 90 year old cartoon Disney one.

Now my rant on Disney's Snow white is done, let's get Decendants (or is it Decendents? whatever) out of the way. The Decendants franchise is basically an Ever After High knock off, just as the first Toy Story is a Knock off of Raggedy Ann & Andy Musical Adventure. Regardless if you like Decendants or Toy Story, we can still acknowledge that originals existed before the Disney versions. Disney DOES make knock offs, you know. The Wild is an obvious knock off of the first Madagascar movie. Everybody's saying how bad the "Jaladdin" song is in the new Decendants movie but I saw a video by The Artistic Aloubell on YouTube and she explained how another song in the movie had a very bad message (I'm not sure if I should post a link to her video in post, but I'll post it in the comments if someone asks for it). The song was basically about how being evil is justified if you have a good reason to? I don't know honestly, I'm an adult and I had trouble figuring it out, imagine the children who the movie is meant for, trying to figure out the message. The kids watching Decendants probably think like "Oh the outfits are cool! I like her outfit and her blue hair!" not about the message, but still! At first glance the song seems cute but when that YouTube artist broke down the lyrics and explained it, it wasn't so cute. Everybody was hating on the "Jaladdin" song, though. The Jaladdin song actually made me laugh a little, when I saw the clip. Also, I haven't actually seen any of the Decendants movies so I don't know every single detail, I just know it's basically like Ever After High, they're the sons and daughters of Fairytale characters, that's why they had a goofy song with Aladdin. Also, I thought the "Rise of Red" was going to be Little Red Riding hood's daughter or something, but it's the Queen of Hearts? Wow, what a missed opportunity! (btw I like how they had a tribute to Cameron Boyce, may he rest in peace).

Now let's get to the sequels, after you probably read enough already. Disney doesn't need to make live actions of every movie, but I'm fine with the Snow white one, as i said before (I just wish they didn't cast Rachel Zegler). I think the fact that they're making sequels of everything is worse than live action remakes (however I don't think that Lilo & Stitch or Tangle need live action remakes, since they're not as outdated as Snow White or Cinderella). The Moana sequel doesn't look bad, but it doesn't beat the original movie (even though I think Maui's "You're Welcome" song is so annoying). I can tell that some of the animation doesn't look as detailed and well-rendered as the original did, plus they got the culture down to the T in the original. The sequel doesn't really display that, plus it looks like there's more action and less heart warming story than the original. Something about the trailer felt a bit off, but it doesn't look bad. Zootopia, sequel is where I get really pissed off though. Disney's like "Oh no! we're losing all our gay furry audience now that Zootopia is old news! Let's bring it back so they can fall back in love with their dream crush, Nick Wilde!" and yes, this is coming from someone who hates the original Zootopia for a multitude of reasons. In fact, Zootopia is the only modern Disney movie that I truly despise! Also, why are they making a Toy Story 5? We don't need a 5th Raggedy Ann & Andy knock off!

Anyway, if you came this far, thank you! If you don't agree with me on everything I said, that's fine but I hope I gave valid points. If not, feel free to argue with me in the comments! You don't have to always agree with me, let me know if you do or don't. PLEASE CHAT WITH ME IN THE COMMENTS!

#non disney #disney hater

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hidingoutbackstage · 1 year ago

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If you don't mind, how exactly is Ashley in the remake a perfect victim? Also, I think you mentioned something about her being oddly patriotic in the remake once. Could you elaborate on that also, if you did?

Of course I will take any excuse to talk abt Ashley at length (and any excuse to criticize re4make lmao) Long meta under the cut

Basically when I say that remake Ashley is a “perfect victim” I mean that she is written in such a way that she is exactly sympathetic to the audience without anything negative about her for maximum sympathy points. This is especially true when you compare her to her characterization in the original.

In og re4 Ashley is a scared, kidnapped 20 year old. She screams for help when she gets kidnapped because that’s a game mechanic and the whole point of the game is to rescue and keep Ashley safe. But her scream was “annoying” or “obnoxious” to a lot of players (which, like, skill issue? I played 4 and would only hear her scream once or twice per action scene she was present for, because keeping her safe was my priority. That’s literally the point) Ashley also feels and looks young in the original, which is true. She’s 20 years old. That’s not that much time to be an adult, especially for a girl who’s likely been very sheltered since she was at least 16 (when her dad became president) if not her entire life. She’s scared. She’s going to react to her feelings of fear when she sees herself coughing up blood, or hesitate before jumping off a ledge. But fans saw that as her being childish (again, she is only 20) She’s also sexualized by Luis (and the player if they decide to be a creep) and rightfully has an angry/disturbed reaction to it. But fans saw that as her being “bitchy” instead of a justified reaction. You’re supposed to fear for Ashley’s safety. She’s vulnerable. Your purpose is to protect her. But people would talk at length about how much they wanted to harm and kill her because she was annoying, or had poorly written dialogue they didn’t like, or because she was childish, or she got in the way of the gameplay (again, skill issue) or, above all, she didn’t “deserve” to get rescued.

So for the remake, they decided to adjust her. And I do think adjustments were necessary! They could’ve made her outfit more practical (they didn’t) they could’ve reworked some of her mechanics for the new style of gameplay (they did) and they could change moments of dialogue and game mechanics to be less creepy towards her (they did thank fucking gd) but the other changes? Were unnecessary and actively focused solely on endearing her to the player, which left her a shell of a character and a perfect victim with nothing to her as a person. She’s a textbook prop character.

Starting with her appearance, they did my girl so fucking dirty in the remake. In the original she’s clearly meant to be young, with her soft, makeup-less face and outfit that looks pulled out of a Tiger Beat issue (I’ve compared her outfit to 2000s Ashley Tisdale, which I think might’ve been inspiration for her but I can’t say for certain) but the remake ignores that. Instead they decide to make her look much older, and it blows. They give her a full face of makeup (like they do for all their women nowadays but w/e) and a hairstyle that covers her ears (because apparently people found her ears in the original unattractive???) they give her fucking BLUE EYES which makes no gd damn sense as she had brown eyes in the original, they give her an ugly orange blazer to wear overtop of her classic outfit which is something a 20 year old college student in the early 2000s would never wear to a party, I don’t care who she is, they give her tights under her plaid skirt when they could’ve just given her pants (they should’ve given her her beta outfit, honestly, but they didn’t) and an eagle pin and eagle necklace because get it? She’s Baby Eagle, she’s the daughter of the president. That’s her only fucking character trait, “President’s Daughter” (that kinda bleeds into my “she’s annoyingly patriotic now” thing but I’ll get back to that) So Ashley looks way older than 20 now, which is disappointing. They could’ve really leaned into how young and innocent and scared she looks if they wanted her to look like an actual 20 year old in 2004 instead of a 20 year old Instagram influencer in 2022 (who they actually based her face on)

But not only does she look more mature, she acts like it too. She’s quieter now, doesn’t scream for you every time she gets kidnapped, instead there’s an on-screen visual indicator as to how Ashley’s doing, which I do think is a better game mechanic (I might just be a very visual person lol) but the only reason they did that was because fans of the original wouldn’t shut up about how annoying her screaming was. In the remake, aside from some of the darker cutscenes, the only time Ashley cries out in genuine sounding fear is when Leon himself gets critically injured. The only time she’s allowed to show real fear is when she’s caring about you, the player. It rubs me the wrong way. She also doesn’t kick and scream as much when being picked up, and instead of dying, mostly, she just gets knocked to the ground and you have to pick her up, and when you ask her if she’s okay, she meekly says yes.

She’s also “more useful” when she Does Not Need To Be. She puts out the fire on Leon after the Mendez fight. She helps Leon turn cranks in the castle. She doesn’t need to be given herbs for healing anymore, so she’s less of a “burden” to you and your limited resources. She takes the Plaga out of Leon’s chest (like she did in the original) (but it’s offscreen for some reason?) She’s also your hype man! She’s constantly telling you how cool you are and how impressed with you she is and how great you’re doing in the gun range and how she wishes she could be like you. Like okay I guess, but if you pay attention, her dialogue almost never talks about herself, it’s about Leon or the situation they’re in. She, like the game itself, never considers herself first. Which is ridiculous, since she’s the focus of the entire gd damn game.

They amp up the torture she and Leon go through, which I honestly like, I think the og was lacking some in the horror department with the concept of an infection that slowly takes over the mind and body of those infected, it at times felt more silly than scary, like their irises physically turning red. So I think the changes to make it more terrifying are welcome, and man are they terrifying. Ashley is stripped of her coat and scarf and has that black goop stuff forced down her throat with symbols painted on her face. It’s tough to watch. But the scene makes you feel more for her so it did its job.

Ashley being separated from Leon also isn’t her fault this time around, so you can be more sympathetic towards her. Instead of panicking and running away and being separated from Leon, this time her mind is taken over by Saddler, which separates her from Leon. See, it’s not her fault! Her mind was taken over! So there’s nothing to angrily blame her for <3

The reason I’m so furious that remake Ashley is a perfect victim is because they felt the need to make her a perfect victim. Plenty of people, myself included, played the og and LOVED Ashley, she was a cute character with some funny lines and moments and she was endearing, like a little sister to Leon. But because of the toxic male gamer space at the time and the large distaste for victims who are imperfect, those who yell and get angry and are too loud or obnoxious, the makers of the remake felt obligated to make her more endearing to the player, so you would have a REASON to sympathize with Ashley. Which we didn’t need! She’s a 20 year old whose been kidnapped! That itself should be enough of a reason to feel for her! But the remake has to play up her endearment to the player, make her not scream too much, not make her imperfect or too loud or too angry or too obnoxious, just a prop character who’s here to make you feel good about what a good job you’re doing and who’s physically attractive and thus you’re programmed to like her. It’s fucking exhausting and annoying is what it is.

Despite how it looks, I’m not a 100% re4make Ashley hater. I think they DID improve upon things that needed to be improved, mainly how she was treated by the narrative. Now she hides in lockers instead of dumpsters (it doesn’t happen much but still) and the game doesn’t grossly sexualize her, and the devs were clear that they wanted nothing romantic between her and Leon, and they did improve upon some mechanics, like I said I like the visual indicator that Ashley’s been kidnapped because it actually shows you where she is instead of you having to listen for where she is or look around a group of 10 enemies to find the one carrying her. There was just SO much potential to have Ashley be a really good CHARACTER, but the team was so focused on making her palatable, they forgot to give her any semblance of a personality.

(Oh and while we’re here, another reason I hate her lack of character/personality is because they WERE able to give character and personality to other characters, i.e. Luis, Krauser, and fucking Salazar, but not to the woman who’s the main focus of the fucking game. Beats me)

Okay now for the patriotic stuff. I fucking hate it lol. Og RE4 was willing to talk negatively about the American government, which was interesting! This game came out during Bush’s presidency and the war on Terror. There was a genuine disdain for America from other countries, hence why the villains in the original were so anti-American and their plan revolves around making sure “America won’t think they can control the rest of the world” and all that. It’s INTERESTING. The problem is that America is so far up its own ass now, that people would likely boycott or dislike a game with an anti-American sentiment in it. Which is actually such bullshit for RE4, by the way? The VILLAINS are the anti-American foreigners, you play as an American hero. If they were so worried about the game coming across as anti-American, just point out that it’s the VILLAINS who have that point of view, and you’re good. There was no reason to hide the anti-American sentiment the villains have as much as they did in the remake.

Ashley furthers this idea that the game can’t be mean to America by being annoyingly patriotic. There was NONE of this in the original, btw. Her father was the president, and she wanted to go home. That was it. Now, she has a line where she tells Leon she would like to become an agent like him, saying “We can protect the U.S. from any and all threats” like boooooo that’s so lame. Like I said, her necklace and pin are both eagles. There’s no character reason for that, it’s just because she’s the president’s daughter, and an eagle is a symbol of America. Also Leon later jokingly says to her, “keep this up and I’ll be out of a job,” furthering the idea that Ashley, upon seeing a cool badass American soldier, is just smitten with the idea of becoming one herself. She’s an insert for all the people watching/playing who are the reason Call of Duty keeps making games, hoping it’s username will sign up for the military. It’s a tool for propaganda. ASHLEY is a tool for propaganda. It’s completely stupid

#sid answers #cbros5 #sid rants #sid bitches #resident evil #ashley graham

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synthient · 1 year ago

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Do you think the Exile club scene changed in any noticeable way between the original trilogy and Resurrections?

As a matter of fact. It just so happens that I have a year-old abandoned fic fragment. which was supposed to be about Berg having a one night stand with Smith. and then having to justify to Morpheus 2.0 why he fucked his dad (1 of 3) (probably the worst one to find out your shipmate just fucked). Anyway I only got as far as sketching out the Io club scene where they meet:

“Okay,” said Morpheus, “I feel like you guys are hyping this place up way too much.”

“Yeah, no, I’ve been to a lot of clubs—like, a lot,” Berg assured him, ignoring Lexy’s eye roll and the elbow she dug into his side. “This one really is on another level.”

“Sure, sure, I’ve watched the cutscenes, I know about the cave orgies—”

“Eh,” said Seq, whose avatar moved across the Construct City sidewalk with just a subtle sense of weightlessness and lack of friction, compared to the program and the podborns in the group. “I like to think we’ve come a little farther in sixty years than ‘cave orgies.’”

“It’s like they say,” Bugs said, as she slung a companionable arm over Morpheus’s shoulders. “No one can be told what the Rabbit Hole is.” Her eyebrows waggled. “You have to see it for yourself.”

Morpheus laughed, and Berg drank in the sound: hard won, over weeks of the Mnemosyne crew coaxing the program out of his shell, showing him it was safe to let down his stoic façade and be himself. Berg let himself admire the ease in Morpheus’s posture. The crinkles at the corners of his eyes as he bantered with his crewmates. The personality packed into his latest outfit—okay, and the well-tailored way it hugged his waist. Berg couldn’t pretend he didn’t appreciate that. Morpheus had chosen a suit in a deep shade of violet for tonight. In the darkness, it looked like one solid color, but as they passed under a streetlamp, a silvery floral print shimmered under the surface.

Around them, the streets thronged with people. The humans and programs were outfitted in a dizzying array of styles, and the synthients had taken every digital shape imaginable: from the roughly humanoid, to a giant metal manta ray who was floating tentacle-in-hand with their human date. The IO nightlife offered plenty of destinations to choose from, but a good chunk of the crowd seemed to be headed the same direction as the Mnem crew.

On the building up ahead, a set of animated neon signs flicked through their tableau: a rabbit, legs outstretched in a sleek, bullet-shaped pose, leaping sideways into a hole (Lexy’s eyes traveled far enough back in her skull that, for a second, only the whites showed). Their crew joined the press of bodies surging toward the entrance. After a minute or two of amicable jostling, the bouncer waved them through, and they were in.

“Woah,” said Morpheus, eyes shining. The first time Bugs had loaded up an infinitely-stretching rack of clothes for him in the Mnem’s Construct, he’d had the same look of awe. “Yeah. Okay.”

The music, the rainbow lights, the dancing and drinking and making out: all of that could have been found in any decent nightclub in the Matrix. The free intermingling of humans and machines was different, of course. But the real show was happening on the ceiling. Several stories above their heads, the Construct’s physics engines had been modded to completely ignore the law of gravity. The clubbers danced in midair. They were oriented in any and all directions: right-side up, upside down, horizontal, vertical. As their crew watched from below, one couple floated toward the center of the room, drifting slowly like astronauts, locked in a passionate embrace.

With a tour guide’s flourish, Bugs took Morpheus by the arm and led him forward. Morpheus cast one last disbelieving grin back at the others, and then the two of them vanished into the crowd.

“Welp,” Lexy deadpanned, looking over at Berg. “Guess we both have to find a new date for tonight.”

“You two have it easy.” Seq shifted so that his hip wasn’t clipping through a barstool. “Some of us have to meet someone in here, jack back out, and then walk twenty minutes to their apartment complex.”

“You poor thing,” said Lexy. “Will it make you too jealous if we get drinks?”

“I’ll live somehow.”

The three of them made their way over to the bartender. As Lexy ordered, and as Seq stared longingly at the lineup of fancy liqueurs, Berg scoped out the room. Most of the clubgoers tonight were strangers to him. But hey, there was Facsimile, from the Horus’s crew. There was someone who he was pretty sure lived a couple doors down from Hano. And over there, across the bar, was…

“Ohh my god,” Berg found himself saying aloud.

“What?” Lexy followed his gaze, and sucked in a sharp hiss of breath.

“Oh, shit,” said Seq, mildly.

#also i already repurposed the rabbit hole name for the neosmith workplace situationship fic.#the matrix

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duckapus · 1 year ago

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The first five MRU universes

So again, gonna be a while before these actually happen because I want to actually write out the process of Piper stealing the HMG research, some of the preparations for Launch Day, and the actual First Activation, and I'm waiting until after I finish the Wonder Arc to write those so I don't end up abandoning it half-finished for months. But I at least wanted to list them out.

Again, universe 1 is basically the Test Universe, while 2-5 are in one batch that gets activated all at once.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Anchor: Link

Supervisor: Trinity

MRUs: 0 and 1

To justify having references to every game (because why wouldn’t it) Time Portals appeared basically everywhere at the same time the Memes did. Also, the Internet Graveyard got merged with the Wild-Era Sacred Realm (which was obviously never visited and is at the current End of the timeline so it doesn’t mess anything up and I can do whatever I want with its aesthetic). Yes, whoever did the setup had to get every Korok seed so the Key Items menu couldn’t canonically update and potentially break something. They did, in fact, get a raise for that.

Hamtor Tubez

Anchor: Doc the Hamtor

Supervisor: GIF

MRUs: 2 and 3

A puzzle game about leading Hamster-like creatures called Hamtors through elaborate tube mazes. Doc is a Mad Scientist and the leader of the Hamtors and is training them for when he will one day TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!, and there’s other unique Hamtors with special abilities that get introduced throughout the game as new puzzle elements.

Beneath the Faerie Mound

Anchor: Frida

Supervisor: Quazar

MRUs: 4 and 5

A metroidvania about a Changeling who gets Taken Back and has to fight her way out of Faery Country so she can return home. She initially thinks that MRU5 is another faerie who's come to try Taking her again.

The Fairly Oddparents!

Anchor: Timmy Turner

Supervisor: Spreadsheet

MRUs: 6 and 7

Look, making the Pokemon Anime universe part of the AU has set the precedent for also being able to use cartoons as SMG/MRU universes instead of just Games.

Interestingly, the Memes changing things to make the universe more entertaining undid a lot of the later season retcons, especially the Season 9 ones, so a lot of the characters are actually less Mean and Stupid than before. I'm using kid Timmy because he's the Real One so the live action movies and That One Spinoff aren't canon outside of memes, but Nicktoons Unite and its sequels are. So are seasons 9 and 10, 10 because I happen to like Chloe (or at least what she had the potential to be) and 9 because I think it would be funny to have Sparky be The Thing We Never Speak Of among the characters who would know about him.

Janitor of Heart: Stain Rising

Anchor: Rodney Teegan (Champion Form only)

Supervisor: Connectivity

MRUs: 8 and 9

A Magical Girl Beat-'em-Up that's actually a tie-in to an in-universe comic series called Rodney Teegan: Janitor of Heart.

The premise of the comic series is that a girl named Mina Reynolds who is Exactly the sort of person you'd expect to be a Magical Girl Protagonist gets her chance to when her school is attacked by a goop monster (part of an eldritch being known as The Stain) and she finds a magic bracelet containing the Spirit of Heart, Harmony, who chooses her as the Champion of Heart. But, when she tries to transform, some wires get crossed somewhere and the bracelet's power instead flows into Rodney Teegan, a 57-year-old janitor who Mina considers a close friend and who was with her when she found the bracelet. And because the transformation is based on what Mina wanted to look like as a magical superhero, he ends up in the body of a teenage girl with a cute poofy pink outfit. Whoops.

In his Champion form, Rodney has the expected enhanced strength, and can heal very quickly, but his main power is being able to turn cleaning supplies into weapons. It can be something as simple as a broom (in fact his signature weapon is a spear made from a push broom) or as massive and complex as a street sweeper truck. Also, Harmony isn't just a Cute Mascot Character and actually joins in fighting, mainly using super-strong punches and kicks and acting as a healer. Mina still has the bracelet (it actually can't come off at all) and needs to be nearby in order for Rodney and Harmony's powers to work. I have not come up with what Rodney's hero name would be.

Anyway, the game depicts the events of a particularly large Stain attack, this one being an invasion of the whole city, but other than the larger workload it'd be a fairly normal day (since by this point the three of them are more-or-less used to this since it's been a few months) if not for someone new joining the fray. It turns out that Harmony isn't the only Spirit in town, because we're introduced to the Champion of Storms, Thunderbird, and her Spirit partner Zap. Thunderbird has weather control powers, usually favoring lightning, and has a strange transforming mechanical construct that she uses both as a weapon and mobility aid, usually mechanical wings, giant electrified gauntlets, or supersonic skates. She's fighting the stain too, but has apparently decided to start a rivalry with Rodney's team instead of working with them just 'cause. Also, when her machine isn't in Skate Mode it's revealed that she has a translucent magical construct in place of her right leg.

She's eventually revealed to be Hazel O'Brien, one of Mina's classmates. The machine is her wheelchair, which transformed along with her because why wouldn't it?

Interestingly, Connected Cosmos Company were the ones who made the game, and also the ones who came up with Hazel and her Thunderbird persona. However, due to the terms of the licensing agreement the comic's creator owns the rights to the character, and has made sure that the specific designer in CCC who made her gets the royalties for the character being used in the comic (because the game is canon to the comic and Hazel's now a major character), rather than the company as a whole. She's the one character created by CCC that Jayin doesn't own, and I like to think that grates on her, especially because she can't do anything about it without damaging her company's carefully cultivated reputation.

Anyway, as far as the MRU stuff goes, there is one odd quirk about Rodney's Anchor Status: due to only his Champion Form being playable, his Anchor code is dormant in his normal form. Thankfully this doesn't cause problems for the Meme Cycle or the universe's stability, and it doesn't have the same negative effects as actively suppressing his Anchor Tendencies would. It does, however, make it so his Champion form has a different personality (bubbly airhead with occasional violent tendencies) than his normal form, which is very much Not A Thing in canon.

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plumbogs · 8 months ago

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I want her to be as evil and morally corrupt as possible, so I have to come up with a plan. The limits of TS2 and being in-character evil will be a challenge, but I do think I will be able to pull it off.

Step one is inviting over an old sorority sister to figure out how to get in on that witchcraft thing. Unfortunately, not only is Tiffany good but she's also not powerful enough to train new witches yet.

so i conveniently summon the evil witch and get Brittany to explain her goals of wealth hoarding and world domination. Mostly wealth hoarding.

boom (i will have to change her hair and outfit back. sorry but the witch look isn't right. go back to being cool)

she sets the witchcraft chamber upstairs and gets a little bit of (evil) studying in. it's just like college all over again.

the evil witch bullies tiffany downstairs, but who cares about that.

She can't just study all day. She has a badass club to run. she harasses gilbert. which he deserves btw. i think i will do something very quirky and funny with them as a later plot arc.

normal day at the club. john has a mental breakdown while alexander sluprs down a delicious carbonated beverage. they both traveled far for this. the distance to bluewater village does nothing to prevent people from venturing out. i think john is still just very upset about the empty nest vacation being cut short. he could have been at the beach but now he's here beside some horrible vending machines at a goth club. he isn't even goth. there are too many men wearing fishnets here. he's alone and scared. his wife is leaving him for another woman.

nobody else really showed up but alex stuck around to chug shitty mixed drinks until 5 in the morning. unlike the real world, that is profitable enough to justify staying open since all the staff was sent home long ago.

sims love soda machines but they act as siren calls for swarming guests that end up disappointed because nobody's going out to convince them to buy anything. I think it'll probably be better to set out free food honestly.

#sims 2 gameplay #brittany upsnott #tiffany sampson #john burb #alexander goth #<- the guy did nothing but drink and watch the suffering of others. icon

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mdhwrites · 2 years ago

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Subtext vs Plain Text: Multi-Tracking in TOH

So a disclaimer first: I am someone who DRASTICALLY prefers your basic story functions before you try to tell me what the deeper meanings of it are because, you know... If I don’t like your base story, why should I care about your subtext? If I’m questioning how this functions, claiming you’re smart for breaking your own rules isn’t going to make me turn around. And this is kind of the entire vibe I get from Hexide’s allowance of people to study multiple tracks. I’ll actually talk about the metatext first as I’ve seen others point out: It’s a commentary against modern school systems where kids are forced to learn a curriculum set by others specifically for a specific subset of jobs, commonly office or factory jobs. There is a lack of self expression and even self identity in these curriculums and it’s always justified with you needing it for the sake of your future. Even Willow plainly states she’s in abominations because of the job prospects which any Humanities or History major will feel in their soul. TOH presents instead the idea that self expression and experimentation are good and help advance kids more than simply trying to slot them into a one size fits all curriculum. That they need to be allowed to experiment and have a wide variety of experiences or to follow that which they are passionate about doing as an adult. For a kid’s show, it’s not terrible and it will resonate with many kids who feel abandoned by traditional school systems. The outcasts. The target demographic of the show in theory. And it’s not so radical as to seem completely dumb about these things. Until, you know, you spend five seconds thinking about the context of the show itself. In universe, there is a VERY basic explanation for why kids would focus on one track of magic. It’s literally illegal for them to do otherwise as grown ups. That’s not an over exaggeration or the like even. Because every coven in the world only allows one type of magic, and being outside of a coven is illegal, every multi-tracking student has two options: Join the Emperor’s Coven, which is depicted as difficult (at least until Sport in a Storm but that’s another blog), or becoming a wild witch which ranges from imprisonment, being forced into a random coven or just straight up execution. Quite literally the change to allow multi-tracking is setting up the kids for failure and death. If they can’t make it into the EC and compromise by going into a single track coven, they’ll be weaker than anyone else there because they aren’t as focused in their discipline. If they don’t compromise, they literally become outlaws. And Bump theoretically knows this. He was raised under Belos’ rule and likely would have been in school as the whole system changed to be based around the covens. Around what the new world order was. And as a pragmatist, the single tracks would have been befitting for that new order but allowing people the ability to swap if they showed an aptitude for another track is a good compromise. And the fact that all of these kids are setup for failure kind of undermines the subtext, doesn’t it? But if you ask why it was done besides to comment on the subtext, there isn’t really an answer. Hexide is never a major part of rebelling against Belos, never much of a driver for Luz to decide covens are inherently bad, especially since this subtext and plain text is mostly in her first day at the school so she can have a special, rainbow outfit when at school, so... Why just blatantly ignore your world building like that? Unless it’s just to get on a soapbox and preach about your ideas? Because even if I agree with your assessment, screeching it incoherently in the middle of Disneyland while I’m trying to enjoy it is only going to sour me on your message, if I hear it at all.

#TOH #Hexide

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cobycobsy2k · 2 years ago

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In The Zone (20th Anniversary Special)✨

Hello guys, today I bring you a very special blog for me because we will talk about my Favorite Album of the princess of Pop Britney Spears. The truth is that "In The Zone" is one of my favorite Britney albums, along with "Oops I did it Again" (2000), "Britney" (2001) and "Blackout" (2007). Well, I also bring you some curiosities about the album that more than one person might like and some theories that I have made about the album, without further ado let's start!!

INFORMATION

In The Zone is the fourth album in the career of the Princess of Pop: Britney Spears. This album was released on November 1, 2003. This album contains hits like "Toxic", "Everytime", "Me Against't The Music" (Collaboration with Madonna).

Genres: Pop, Hip Hop, Dance, Dance Pop, R&B.

Era length: 2003-2004

Tour: "The Onyx Hotel Tour" (2004)

CURIOSITIES:

1.-During the recordings of "In The Zone" response songs were created for Justin Timberlake's song "Cry Me A River", among them are: "Everytime" (The only one that could enter the album), "Guilty", "Rockstar" (A very good song that YES or YES should have been on this album or on the canceled Original Doll from 2005), "Sweet Dreams My L.A Ex" (This song was originally going to be the answer to CMAR) and "Look Who 's Talking Now"

2.-"Touch Of my Hand" was almost left out of the album, because the song talks about female masturbation, Jive yelled for Britney to remove the song, to which she said: "I don't really understand the scandal, yes A man can do something like that, why can't I?

3.-Britney HATED "Outrageous", a song that was chosen by Jive Records in response to the decision to add "TOMH"

4.-The original name of the album was "Get In The Zone", but it had to be changed to just "In The Zone" due to legal conflicts, as well as the name of the tour.

5.-Originally (I Got that) Boom Boom was going to be the first single, but Britney chose Me Against the Music, then it was asked to be the second single but Britney chose Toxic because of its great single capacity.

6.-The idea for the Toxic Video came from Britney during a tour in Japan, so that the video was recorded 3 days later.

7.-This Album together with Blackout are the albums with the most unreleased songs in Britney's career.

8.-Britney's Diamond outfit in the "Toxic" video is actually diamonds embedded in her body, making it a bit uncomfortable to record the scenes in that outfit.

9.-In the ABC television Special of "In The Zone" Britney recreates some of her most iconic outfits such as those of "Im A Slave 4 U" (2001), "Me Against the Music" (2003) and others

THEORIES

1) If Britney hadn't broken her knee on the recording of "Outrageous" there would have been more singles for the era and it might even have lasted a bit longer (Possibly until spring '05)

2) "In The Zone" was originally the first part of three visual albums that Britney wanted to make, the three albums would have different themes, the three albums would be "In The Zone" (2003), "Original Doll" (2005) and " Blackout" (2007).

3) It is widely rumored that there is a deleted scene from Me Against't the music where Britney is with an Oxygen tank.

4)Possible singles after Everytime and Outrageous would be: Breathe On Me (released in the summer of '04), The Hook Up (late '04), Brave New Girl (in Japan, late '04), Touch of my Hand (Europe only, Early 2005) and Early Morning (Last Single, USA only, Early 2005).

5) In the event that the Outrageous and Breathe on Me videos had been released, they would tell the same story, starting with Outrageous and ending in a certain way with Breathe on Me.

6) The album was going to contain "cut" songs from both Oops I Did it Again and Britney (Maybe this justifies the appearance of "Brave New Girl")

Thanks for watching ✨😊

#britney spears #in the zone #in the zone era

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eighttwotwopointthreethree · 1 year ago

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who lives, who dies, who tells your story: a write up of new swan shakespeare's julius caesar

it's been a while since i watched a live production of shakespeare! and i hadn't really expected to spend this interval of my summer doing so, but the new swan shakespeare festival at UCI was doing julius caesar, which, if you know anything about this blog, is like my number one most favourite shakespeare play. so of course i had to go see it. and you can go see it, too, if you're in socal, alongside their production of as you like it, and the complete works of shakespeare (abridged) (which, if you've ever seen the reduced shakespeare company's filmed version, is really hilarious).

why is julius caesar my favourite play? i mean, besides the homoeroticism in the text between brutus and cassius (#brutecass4lyfe), julius caesar to me is just one of the most human of tragedies, one of the most prescient political dramas ever done. back in 2017, shakespeare in the park did a JC production that, controversially, portrayed the man as a donald trump-type figure. and you know what, they've got a point. julius caesar was a populist. literally, his faction was called the populares; he claimed to represent the will of the people, but ultimately was taking power for himself.

granted, brutus and cassius themselves were not scrappy revolutionaries trying to change the world for the better, for all that brutus likes to cloak himself in honour and high-minded ideals. their faction, the optimates, were of the ruling class in rome. they represented the people in power who disliked caesar's broader appeal. shakespeare (via cribbing from plutarch) points out that many of the optimates were simply mad they did not seize power the way caesar had. cassius was indeed born as free as caesar, with as many of the privileges and ruling rights as caesar; why should cassius bend the knee to caesar when the bitch can't even swim?

brutus, idealist that he is, also could not justify bending the knee. he did not want to lose his own power, though he couches it in shakespeare as a wish to remain free. it's through brutus' rhetoric about freedom that we get the idea of brutus and cassius as revolutionaries, when in truth all they wanted was to return to the pre-caesar status quo. and when they determined that the best way to usher in the revolution is through violence and bloodshed, they set forth the main tragedy of the play: that a revolution begun in blood will end in blood. we've seen this play out throughout the centuries: the french revolution, the russian revolution, pretty much every violent coup that ends in repressive regimes. as long as there are despots, there will be fodder for julius caesar productions. (cassius was onto something when he wondered how many times their actions would be played out in the future "in states unborn and accents yet unknown"!)

this timelessness was felt in the new swan production. the costuming was at parts roman-inspired, though not all the way through--people wore tunics reminiscent of southeast asian clothing, or hoods and masks, or--in the second half of the play--military camo atop their tunics marking their allegiances. one notable setting was the one for octavian and antony's conversation, set in what looked like a public bath. another notable costuming choice was caesar's majestic outfits--flowing, regal, queenlike.

the production notes mentioned a deliberate casting decision of 50-50 male-female roles, with antony, caesar, and cassius notably played as female, with their pronouns changed in the text to refer to them as female. calpurnia, caesar's wife, is taken out of the text and her lines given to lepidus instead, and the characters refer to him as caesar's husband--which does cause an interesting dynamic when lepidus says non-calpurnia lines in the bathhouse scene with antony and octavian. other roles were also condensed--cinna the conspirator was taken out of the text except in the scene with cinna the poet, titinius (our beloved plothole man) had his lines given to metellus cimber, and some of strato's lines were given to casca. also, strato's role in holding brutus' sword is entirely excised, which means that brutus stabs himself at the end, rather than implicate someone else in his death.

all in all, these changes led to a tighter-paced production, where the side characters like casca and metellus cimber were given more of a character arc than in the original. giving titinius' role to metellus cimber, for example, made cassius' death make more sense, because there was already established rapport between metellus cimber and cassius in the first part. (i would argue that in this production casca and cassius had more chemistry, though...)

another notable doubling choice was giving caesar's actor the lines for cinna the poet. i think that was striking for the production, because it made cinna the poet's death at the hands of the mob have a striking implication for this caesar's. who deserves to die, and who was just an innocent caught at the mercy of mob justice? was it only cinna? or was it caesar and cinna? if you ask mark antony, of course, she would say it was both of them. this production's mark antony did an excellent job in taking control of the narrative after caesar's death. i'm used to JC productions going to intermission after caesar's burial, but new swan deciding to do so after the dogs of war monologue certainly told me that that was the turning point--that by letting antony have any share in the narrative, brutus had signed the death warrant for his ~perfectly justified~ revolution. his idealism--his persistence in "civility" and "playing fair", was his fatal flaw.

a couple other scattered thoughts:

i could see that the production was more firmly on the 'bromance' side of the brutecass debate.

which, fair, yes, that is how people have traditionally read the dynamic, but i'm always a good sucker for a cassius obsessed with brutus to the point of dragging him down the path of destruction with her, and would love to see a bit more of this cassius' manipulative ability.

this cassius is fiery, sarcastic, and i do love the way she sinks to her knees in the tent scene when she offers her heart for brutus to stab, but...

i don't think this brutus is quite picking up what cassius is setting down. he's a liiiiiittle bit too heavy on the stoicism. the passion that he showed portia in her ONE scene with him? that's what i would have liked to see out of him in the tent scene, and in that forever and forever farewell cassius scene.

maybe i've just got deranged brutecass brainrot, but i do feel like the devotion that the two characters express to one another in the text itself is part of shakespeare's sympathetic portrayal of them.

i mean, otherwise, all we've got of cassius and brutus is that dante thinks they're such horrible betrayers that they're now forever being chewed on by satan in the ninth circle of hell, next to judas freaking iscariot. brutus and cassius are, as far as classic lit is concerned, sharing the afterlife together.

that's why their devotion to one another in shakespeare's play is so compelling. it's like cassius' one redeeming feature, that he's so unerringly loyal to brutus and only thinks the best of him. while brutus allowed himself to be seduced into cassius' conspiracy, and his own devotion to honour ends up signing away their lives.

and yet when cassius tries to warn him against letting antony take control of the narrative, cassius was still too in love with brutus to actually put his foot down and say no and stop it.

also this production's portia stole the show. in her one scene she was just incredible. badass. girlboss. 100/10 no notes.

according to the dramaturg, who was sitting near us during this showing, this show's caesar was an understudy because the other actor got covid? you literally couldn't tell because this caesar was spectacular. such mean girl energy. regina george would've been proud.

anyway, go see the production! or go see new swan's as you like it, or the complete (abridged) works of shakespeare. there's plenty of showings for the rest of this summer, and you'll be in for some solid acting and good fun.

#lily reviews shakespeare performances #julius caesar #new swan shakespeare festival #uc irvine #p: julius caesar

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