#will i ever stop this annual shitpost?

[paramounticebound]

hey guys it's my birthday today

[a-deadly-serenade]

The Shield and the Sword: Chapter 9: Fickle Feelings [Alucard/Reader]

You’re a witch that is skilled in herbology, one that has been persecuted by the church for practically your entire life. In spite of this, moving throughout different towns has allowed you to pick up some chatter about a woman in a village called Lupu. She is supposed to be a wonder when it comes to medicine, and this immediately perks up your interest. So after plucking up some courage, you’ve made it to her door… hoping that she takes you as her apprentice.

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Although you could confidently say that you preferred spring and summer to the long, dreary days of impending cold brought by winter, there was a serene beauty to be found during the months of autumn. Trees shed their leaves in a beautiful array of colors, from dark browns, to bright reds and oranges, becoming a living breathing painting in the way they danced in the wind.

The ground became blanketed in plush and crunchy leaves that rustled quietly as tiny creatures made their way through the foliage in search of food and safety. Birds had begun their annual migrations to warmer territories, with only the few hardened species sticking around to conquer another harsh winter, as they had been doing for millennia.

The air was crisp, fresh, as though you were taking a bite of one of the juicy apples that had started dropping from the trees, glistening like forbidden gems in the morning dew.

Even though it made you a little sad to see the trees so barren, and the flowers slowly starting to retreat, there was an obvious relief to be felt amongst the plants. Winter was a time for them to sleep, to relax, to prepare themselves for the upcoming spring and summer. The next time you saw all of them, they would be bouncy and refreshed, full of renewed life as they greeted the warm weather with open arms.

You had also recently noticed how much extra free time you had, now that so many of the plants you tended to were beginning to retreat back to the earth. It was great to have more opportunities to fill with extra studying, or extra practice. Recently, you had taken to adapting some of the skills you learned these first few weeks working in Lupu to your magic. Some of the fairies even offered to help, with Aria and Livy being the most enthusiastic.

It was actually nice to have them collaborating with you on this endeavor. They had recently started scouting the gardens for any injured animals for you to practice on, and would take you to them once they had spotted someone in need of a little assistance. Oftentimes it would be a bird with a broken wing, but occasionally you would come across a fox with a busted leg, or a deer that had been injured fleeing from a predator.

From these sessions, you learned how to focus your energy into stopping any serious bleeding that may be occurring, both internally and externally. From there, you moved to repairing whatever it is that had been damaged. Bones took a bit more time to mend than a cut or scratch, but you were slowly building up your stamina on how long you could use your magic in order to tend to an injury.

You had yet to practice this on a human though, and considering how different and how complicated the human body was, you were more than a little skeptical of your abilities. Perhaps… it would be possible to try it on someone you trusted?

Your teeth tug into your bottom lip as you thought this over. Was it time to reveal that you were a witch to the villagers? Your patients? Your friends? It felt so…dishonest not being able to be your complete self when you were around them. It was exhausting having to put up these fronts in order to hide this part of yourself. Castlevania had been the first place outside of your coven where you felt completely authentic, and you never compromised yourself whenever you were around the Tepes family.

But, how would they react? Would they be horrified? Would they be terrified? Would they rat you out to the church and have you executed? Or… would they be understanding? Maybe even a little curious?

You let out a frustrated sigh, and looked down at the scrawl of notes you had taken about these new healing abilities of yours. This was so irritating! If only you could just use your magic while you treated people in Lupu! But of course not! Magic was somehow seen as ‘evil’ and ‘dark’, definitely not something that could benefit humanity as a whole!

Shaking your head to clear your thoughts, you got up and stretched out your arms and legs, only then realizing just how sore your back was getting; seems as though you had reverted to slouching again in your seat as you sat there pensively.

Maybe you could ask Lisa what she thought of the idea… yeah, that sounds like a fair compromise.

You raced out of your room, practically running down hallways as you sped to the laboratory on the opposite side of the castle. This is where Lisa spent most of her time, and enormous, ancient part of the castle that had once been used by Vlad, back in the day when alchemy was the talk of the town.

When you arrive at the entrance, an intimidating, iron door that had been coated in a pitch black color, you pushed it open and peeked inside.

“Lisa?” you called out, and walked in.

The floor was made of smooth marble tiles, and your footsteps hardly made a sound as you trekked across them in search of Lisa. It was with some amusement, that you noted how Vlad must be a huge fan of statues, since nearly every room you had visited was decorated with at least a handful of them. This time, they were large bronze statues of warriors with long swords and detailed shields, another nod to the Greek motif he seemed very fond of as well.

Rows and rows of tables were scattered throughout the room, each serving their own purpose as concoctions brewed or were left to sit and cure. You weren’t completely sure of everything that was going on, a lot of these instruments still being quite foreign to you. This room also held a fair amount of items Lisa claimed Vlad invented. Although, as you looked upon two large glass tankards that supposedly could create batches and batches of tonics within a mere hour, that claim slowly started to earn a bit more merit.

“Lisa?” you called out again, but still, you earned no response.

This place wasn’t that big… there was no way she wouldn’t be able to hear you. But the further in you walked, the more apparent it became that Lisa was most definitely not here.

That’s odd… you think to yourself, hands on your hips as you tried to picture where it is she could have gone.

The kitchen? But, there was still some time before lunch, it wouldn’t make sense for her to be up there right now. The garden? That might be a possibility. Or what about the medical library?

You sighed, headed out of the laboratory, and closed the door behind you. Where should you try first? You supposed that the medical library would probably be your best bet, and so you began to make your way there.

This had turned out to be a much bigger ordeal than you wanted it to be. You just needed some advice, that was all! But now it’s just turned into a wild goose chase, and you’re hoping that Lisa will be in the library so that you could actually make some progress with this!

As you dart down the last hallway, the sudden appearance of Adrian made you all but crash into a wall. Your feet awkwardly stumbled over themselves a few times as you slowed yourself down to a stop, your breath leaving you in short, shallow gasps.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

Your eyes widened slightly as you looked at him, and you had to use all of the self-restraint within you to stop your jaw from hanging open in shock.

The entire time that you had been living in Castlevania, Adrian had kept his hair down, not like you could ever complain. His hair was beautiful, a light blond that shimmered golden in the sunlight, and silver in the moonlight. It complimented his elegant face beautifully, and you’d be damned if you hadn’t thought of running your fingers through his loose curls.

But today… he had tied it all back with a silk black ribbon, and stacked it in a messy bun that left a few strands to frame his face. You knew that you were staring, but you couldn’t help it. He looked so… he looked so--

“What, is there something on my face?”

His voice jolted you back to reality, and his question caused you to burst into a quiet fit of laughter.

“No… no, you just, surprised me is all.” you replied, and you felt yourself become at ease. Your gaze darted from his face to his garb, and your eyebrows furrowed in mild confusion when you realized that he was wearing a black cloak and leather riding gloves.

“Are you going somewhere?”

He appeared slightly taken aback by your question, but he quickly composed himself. “As a matter of fact, I am.”

You gave him a sly grin, as you teased, “You? Going out? Forgive me if I find that hard to believe.”

It did not appear as though he were in the same playful mood, his lips twitching for a moment before he said in a heated tone, “There are quite a few things I find hard to believe,” his voice trails off for a bit, and for a moment, you thought you could see the faintest tinge of hurt in his expression. This is quickly masked over as he looks back up at you, his gaze sending a cold chill down your spine. “But I doubt me wanting some time away from here is one of them.”

You’re frozen to the spot, absolutely baffled at what just happened. It wasn’t… you weren’t serious! It had just been a joke!  

Your own eyes narrowed at him, and you scoffed. “Fine, go!” you stepped aside and waved your arms down the hallway. “I certainly won’t stop you.”

He flinched, your scathing tone obviously doing its job as he glides past you without another word.

You felt like you could scream, like you could blast a hole into one of the walls, but… you just took a deep breath, and decided to continue on your quest to find Lisa.

Finally arriving at the medical library, you walked inside and to your surprise, you find Vlad sitting in one of the large armchairs. He had several books stacked on the small desk that stood beside him, a few of them open, even though he was currently flipping through one at the moment!

He did not seem to notice you at first, but as he looked up to attend to a steaming cup of tea, his eyes widened and he made a deep hum acknowledging your presence as he swallowed down his drink.

“Well, well, what a nice surprise,” he mused, a smile on his face. “I hardly expected any visitors today.”

You give him a shy grin in response, and slowly walked over to where he sat. “Actually, I was looking for your wife.”

“Lisa?”

You nodded. “I was hoping to get some advice on something… but I haven’t been able to find her!”

Vlad’s eyebrow raised up in confusion, and he put down his book. “Did she not tell you she left earlier this morning?”

Your mouth gaped open like a fish out of water, but then you frowned, your jaw tight and arms folded across your chest. “No, she did not…”

Vlad easily picked up how this news had absolutely soured your day, and he stood up from his seat to take a firm, yet comforting grip of your shoulder. “Do not take it too personally, little one. Lisa is infamous for leaving suddenly like this, especially during the colder months. She starts to think about one of the older women catching a cold, and then before you even know it, she’s racing out of here on Cinder with a bundle of supplies tied to his back.”

You chuckled at the image, and quickly found the tension in your body slowly seeping away. It was nearly impossible to be upset with Lisa, she was so selfless, and it warmed your heart learning how much she truly cared about the people of Lupu.

“I’d appreciate if she let me know next time, but, she obviously had her reasons.” you said, and let out a deep sigh. “It’s just… I would have really appreciate her intake on this…”

Vlad lead you over to a chair, and gestured for you to sit as he took his spot back in his armchair. “I hope that you understand that you can always come to me if you’re ever in need of someone else’s wisdom.”

You chuckled, and thank Vlad as he offers you a cup of tea. “Hmm… you may be onto something there,” you add some sugar and then take a sip, the warm brew setting your mind and body at ease.

A comfortable silence hangs in the air between the two of you, and you relished in the tranquility, utterly baffled that you had been so stressed out earlier.

You thought of what had transpired earlier between Adrian, and you inwardly cringe when you recall just how vindictive you had sounded. Although, it’s not as if you had been the only one with an attitude. Just what had gotten into him? What exactly did he mean when he said that he wanted to get away from ‘here’? Did he mean here as in, Castlevania? Why would he ever want to do that?

“Is something on your mind, little one?”

Your cheeks are tinged a light red, embarrassed that you had been so obvious. But, you tuck those specific thoughts back into some recess of your mind, instead focusing on the questions that had started this whole search in the first place.

“Do you…” you stopped, and your lips upturned into a grimace. “No, this is so stupid, I don’t know why I would ever think of such a thing--”

“I sincerely doubt that. Please, tell me,” he gave you a genuine smile and leaned forward a bit. “I have been alive for a very long time, young one. Nothing surprises me anymore.”

It was certainly a strange way to try and boost your confidence, but it definitely worked. Perhaps Vlad had been the one you were supposed to talk to after all, especially considering the fact that he was allegedly very skilled in the magical arts.

You ease yourself into the comfy armchair, fingers absentmindedly tracing around the golden rim of the teacup clasped tightly in your hands. “Well… let’s see… have you… have you ever been very public in showing off your magical abilities?”

Vlad’s eyes widened slightly, your question clearly catching even him off guard. “Are you asking me if I’ve ever performed my magic around humans?”

The tips of your ears turn a bright red, and your eyes shy away from his gaze. “It’s probably so silly,” you replied. “But… I was wanting to become more transparent with the villagers, to try and use my magic to do some real good. It’s probably just a pipe dream…”

“Now, there’s no need to say such things,” he said, and gave you a kind smile. “It’s honorable that you would think to put yourself at risk in order to help people. However,” his voice trails off, the frown on his face only cementing your previous claim at the ridiculousness of this idea.

“These are dangerous times for people like us, those skilled in the magical arts. Over the years, I’ve limited myself in how often I use magic to prevent any unwanted attention, especially now that I have a family.”

That you could definitely understand, and you suddenly felt so selfish at the idea of causing any of them harm by revealing your identity as a witch. But…

“I just… I just hate this nagging feeling,” you begin, voice a little hoarse. “I hate this idea that I can never be my true self around them because of what I am.” you sip on your tea to calm your jittering nerves, and took a deep breath. “It’s stifling.”

Vlad nodded his head in agreement. “Yes… it can be very frustrating having to deny so much in order to keep yourself out of harm’s way. You’ve heard of the nomadic tribe known as Speakers, yes?”

“Adrian mentioned them a few times during some of our lessons, but I must admit that I am quite unfamiliar with their teachings.”

Vlad waved his hand in the air, and a large red book flew off one of the shelves. Propelled by his magic, it spun around a few times before it gracefully landed on your lap, throwing itself open and flipping through hundreds of pages before stopping on a section with beautifully detailed drawings of people in long blue robes.

“I’ll be the first to admit that the Speakers were not too fond of me when they first found out who I was,” he chuckled, and stroked the end of his beard thoughtfully. “Especially when my skills in the dark arts started to make a name for themselves. So, when they found out that there was some murderous, dark, brooding vampire causing trouble up in the Wallachian mountains, they decided to find out for themselves if all the rumors were true.”

“‘Dark, brooding, murderous vampire’?” you echoed, amusement laced in your voice.

“You poke fun of me now, but…” he was silent for a moment, his grin faltering slightly. “I am not proud of the man I was before I met Lisa. The Speakers, in fact, were the first to suggest that I share my knowledge with the world. They were progressive, and the fact that they had been able to travel throughout Europe on tales of their good deeds alone was very impressive. But I was no fool. Even if I hardly left the confines of my castle, I knew that the world was changing and that sooner or later, their reputation was going to be what did them in.”

Your heart begins to race as you look down at the peaceful images of men and women using magic on the sick and injured, a foreboding feeling beginning to take hold of you as Vlad said this.

“Did…” you sense your throat starting to close up and you take another sip of tea. “Were they all… did--”

“Oh no,” Vlad reassures. “The Speakers still exist even today, but… I would be lying if I said that they had been spared the church’s wrath of persecution. Lisa tells me that nearby towns, notably Gresit, has been especially hostile towards the Speakers, claiming that they bring ill luck and evil alongside them.”

“I’d say that’s preposterous, but that seems to be the state of the country towards anyone that harbors magical abilities,” you hissed.

“Which is why I must warn you… to be cautious about who it is you reveal your secrets to. So long as the church remains in power, there is little that we can do to change public opinion.” Vlad placed his empty cup on the table in front of you, and folded his hands comfortably into his lap. “I’m sorry if this was not the answer you were looking for, little one.”

You nodded, having understood everything that he said, but you were still a little disappointed. “It’s so unfair… keeping all of this locked away. If only the church wasn’t so damn paranoid.”

Vlad laughed, a deep hearty sound that made goosebumps erupt on your arms. “That would certainly help put my mind more at ease. It worries me sometimes… that a passing stranger might one day mistake my Lisa as something far more sinister than a doctor.”

“I wouldn’t worry,” you said. “Everyone in the village loves her, I’m sure if there was ever any ill rumors floating around, that they would put a stop to it right quick.”

He let out a sigh, and nodded his head in agreement. “I suppose you are right. It’s been difficult to regain my trust in humanity, having seen so much tragedy and unnecessary bloodshed,” his gaze softens as he looks at you. “But, Lisa has changed me. She’s even suggested that I walk the Earth as a man, and nothing more.”

You blinked, and then said with a smirk on your face, “Vlad… you are a man though.”

He chuckled, and playfully ruffled your hair. “She meant that I should travel the country as men do, slowly, peacefully, making sure to take everything in.”

This concept was completely lost on you. What did he mean that he had never traveled before? How did he get here then? Had he never been on horseback? Never trekked across a steep mountain range?

“Well, how did you travel before?”

“When I was a young man, horses were the most common form of transportation. Although it’s been quite awhile since I’ve journeyed far on one. Let’s see,” he tapped his chin with his finger thoughtfully. “Oh, when I was getting the hang of my magic, I’d disguise myself as a bat and fly to nearby villages during the night.”

“A bat?” you blurted out in surprise. “That’s a bit cliche, don’t you think?”

“Where do you think the rumor of vampires turning into bats came from?” he retorted, which left you in stunned silence.

“You’re not serious… are you?”

“To be fair,” he began. “I’m not the only one in my family that can turn into an animal. My sister Stefana, can turn into a fox, which her partners find very impressive. She likes to put on a show, my sister, but she’s remained genuine for as long as we’ve both been alive so it seems fitting that’s the animal she chose.”

A sudden thought popped into your head, and before Vlad could continue going down his extensive family list, you asked, “Can Adrian turn into anything?”

Vlad paused, and then smiled as he nodded his head. “Of course, being my son, it makes sense that the magical arts come naturally to him, including transfiguration.”

“Do you have any examples?”

“Certainly. When he was around… oh, I’d say maybe ten years old, he turned into a bat. Gave his poor mother quite the shock when she couldn’t find him in his room, and she came to me, utterly hysterical, saying that he must’ve wandered off into some forbidden part of the castle. We were about to go searching for him, when a tiny white bat flew down from the ceiling and crash landed onto his bed.” he chuckled at the memory. “I was very proud, not having even the slightest inclination that he was remotely ready to perform such strong magic, but Lisa was far from relieved and Adrian received quite the scolding.”

“How cute,” you said, lips upturned into a delightful grin. “Can he still turn into a bat?”

“Oh yes, but I have not seen him do it in awhile. Recently, he’s been able to turn himself into mist.”

“Mist?” you asked skeptically. “How would that help?”

“It’s very useful, actually, being able to sneak around the castle or even outside with no one noticing. Although, that spell is more physically demanding than the others, so I’ve warned him to not abuse it too much.”

“Interesting…”

“And I understand that he’s managed to grasp turning himself into a wolf.”

Your heart stopped, the grip on your teacup going so slack that it almost slipped out of your fingers and smashed onto the hardwood floor. Did Vlad just say… that Adrian could turn into a wolf?

“Is something the matter?”

You felt a hand on your shoulder, and you shrunk  under his gaze, shakily placing your cup on its saucer. It was difficult to hide how frazzled this news had made you, but you just had to know, just needed some confirmation of the question that burned at the tip of your tongue.

“What kind of wolf can Adrian turn into?”

Vlad’s eyes lingered with unspoken concern, worried about this sudden shift in your demeanor, but still he replied, “A white one, but it has yet to be perfected. His eyes still remain bright gold, even in the form of a beast.”

“I see…” your heart felt as though it had leapt into your throat, and your mind flashed with images from your dream. This… this was impossible, right? Your grandmother had warned you time and time again that dreams were absolute bollocks, right? There was no way your subconscious was actually trying to get you to admit something you’d been stubbornly avoiding, right?

Your teeth dug into the flesh of your bottom lip, and you stood up from your seat, placing the book on Speakers onto one of the many books in Vlad’s pile. When had it become so suffocating in here? You needed to get out, you needed to take your mind off of this… development.

“Little one, did something I say upset you?” Vlad’s tall form towered over you, his face crinkled from anxiety. “If I did, I sincerely apologize--”

You cut him off with a firm no, and gently place a hand on his arm. “You did nothing to upset me, I promise. I just… I believe I need some time to… think things over. I think I should head to Lupu, perhaps seeing Lisa and the townsfolk will help put me at ease.”

Vlad nodded, visible relief washing over him as you said this. “I understand. I’m sure Lisa will be happy to see you as well,” he placed his large hand on the top of your head and delicately stroked your hair. “Have a safe journey, little one. I will be expecting your return later tonight.”

You gave him a genuine smile, and thanked him for his time and guidance, before you walked out of the library and closed the door with a quiet click.

                                        _________________

The feeling of the sun on your chilled skin and the cool autumn breeze dancing around you and Clara is exactly what you needed. You languidly stretch your arms behind your head and let out a soft sight, trying to get rid of all the tension that had seeped its way back into your muscles.

Bits and pieces of the conversation that you had with Vlad replayed in your mind, with the particular discovery of Adrian being able to transform himself into a wolf sticking out like a sore thumb. You had no time for such things… for such… foolish, almost childish notions.

Although, was it truly childish to feel certain things towards someone? Was it foolish to believe that maybe he even returned these feelings?

You shake your head, and absentmindedly begin to stroke Clara’s mane. Why would he ever return your feelings? What even were your feelings? It had all seemed so clear that night in the garden with the fairies, but the more you thought about it, the more convoluted it all became.

But there were things that you could not just chalk up to chance. The way that he looked at you during your lessons, the smile that erupted on his face whenever you got the hang of a new combat maneuver, the pink you had seen in his aura that night…

That night you were certain that he would have kissed you.

Ridiculous, you thought. Why would anyone fall in love with you? You had no money to your name, no property, and you were a danger to everyone around you should the wrong people find out about your true identity.

No… it simply made more sense to be alone, to instead focus on what you could do in the here and now, than in silly little fantasies that lived inside your dreams.

There was a bitterness in this resolution, but you did not care. It just made the most sense. After all, what sort of fool would fall in love with a witch?

The rest of the ride to Lupu went by in silence, with you admiring the wildlife and the trees to distract from the nagging feeling left behind by your earlier conclusions. Much to your surprise, it appeared as though the clinic was fairly busy, with a couple patients waiting patiently around the large apple tree that stood nearby.

After you dismounted Clara, you untied the provisions off of her back and removed her saddle and bit so that she could join Cinder in his current foraging of fallen apples and berries.

People waved and said their hello’s when they noticed you, and you happily exchanged greetings with all of them as you walked inside.

There were quite a few old folks sitting around the table, steaming cups of tea in their hands as they talked amongst one another, having a rather heated discussion on whether or not to make a batch of mucenici or papanaşi for the feast that was happening tonight.

You gave them a shy wave, the group acknowledging you with swift nods before they got back to their important conversation. You noticed that several mothers were waiting with their newborns, some of the babies sleeping soundly in their arms, while others giggled and cooed as they played with some toys or sloppily chewed on the ends of a blanket.

Although you were lacking in experience taking care of babies, you still stopped by to see what it is they each came in for, and thankfully, they all explained that they were here for their monthly checkup. The women happily toted that they had yet to suffer through a night of endless crying, from anything from an ear infection to a nasty cold.

Everyone seemed to be in such good spirits, and it made you smile, knowing that the hard work Lisa and you both did was not going under appreciated.

Speaking of Lisa, your eyes scanned the room but found no trace of her. Could she perhaps be in the back? Or maybe she had traveled to the village for a one-on-one consultation--?

“Ow! Watch it with that stuff!”

Everyone in the room simultaneously turned their attention to the door that held the laboratory, a couple of the older folks chuckling softly at the sudden outburst.

You frowned, and walked over to the door, pulling it open to reveal a very irritated Lorena and her younger sister Marian.

Marian was currently talking her sisters ear off, scolding her for what you supposed is what brought her here in the first place.

“Why don’t you ever listen to mother? She tells you all the time that you have to stop picking fights with people!”

Lorena glared at her sister, her brown eyes narrowed as her face scrunched up into a grimace. “What was I supposed to do? Just let those men behave like absolute animals?” she spat at her sister’s feet. “You’re such a coward, Marian. I couldn’t just sit back and let them treat her like that!”

Marian huffed, and threw her arms up into the air in exasperation. “Here we go again! Why do you always have to be the hero, Lorena? What if you had gotten seriously hurt?”

“It’s all worth it when I think about what could have happened had I not been there.” her voice comes out in a low hiss, but then she yelps when Lisa applies more alcohol to her wounds, deep gashes that had been slashed into her right arm.

“What happened?”

Your question seemed to finally alert the three of them of your presence, and they all simultaneously flipped their heads around to stare at you.

Lisa’s gaze softened, and her lips curled into a smile. “It’s so nice to see you, my dear. I’m terribly sorry that I left without saying anything, I just--”

“It’s okay,” you said, and sat down beside her. “When Vlad told me where you had gone off to, I knew you were only wanting to make sure everyone was doing alright.”

“And it’s a good thing I did,” she replied. “Lorena here got herself involved in quite a nasty fight.”

“Yes, I can see that,” you frowned, and gently take a hold of Lorena’s arm to more closely inspect her injuries. You shove your hand into the pocket of your cloak and procured the magnifying glass Marius had gifted you, using it to get a closer look. The cuts were clean, deep, and serrated, and as you handed her arm back to Lisa, you could surmise that they had been made from a sharp blade.

“Who did this to you?”

Lorena sighed, and cringed slightly as Lisa began to coat her arm in an ointment before wrapping it up. “I was walking through the woods in search of mushrooms and common game, hoping to help my mother a bit in finding everything we needed to make dinner. I had gone pretty deep, but I know these woods like the back of my hand, and I had been pretty excited after coming across a good stash of chanterelles and morels. I was just minding my business, when I started to hear a scuffle nearby. It sounded pretty rowdy, so naturally, I was a little curious. When I headed over to investigate, I found these two men surrounding this poor girl!”

Her nostrils flared in anger as she sat there, recalling the memory. “I dunno what they wanted with her, but they seemed pretty angry. I heard something about her people bringing “ill luck to their lands”, or something like that. It all sounded like hogwash, and she knew it too. She was feisty, I’ll give her that, she didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest. It wasn’t until I noticed the glimmer of a knife that I decided to step in. She was pretty good at fighting too, I don’t think I would have been able to take the two of them out without her help. But,” she chuckled, and looked over at her arm. “One of those bastards got me pretty good. He basically held me hostage after we knocked out his other buddy, and slit my arm a few times to try and convey how serious he was. I wasn’t scared though. I head-butted his face as hard as I could, which gave me a pretty nasty headache, but I’m pretty sure I broke his nose.”

“Was the girl alright?” you asked.

Lorena nodded her head, and flexed her arm a couple times to get a feel of the bandages. “Yeah, she was fine. Actually, she was very grateful for what I had done, saying that not many people would have risked their lives to help someone like her. Which I thought was strange.”

“Why was she surprised that you helped her?” Lisa wondered, and gathered up the dirty rags, tossing them into a boiling pot of water while she let her medical instruments soak in alcohol to be sterilized.

Lorena shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure… after that, she said that she needed to get back to her grandfather and vanished into the woods. Although, she was wearing a pretty strange set of robes.”

“Robes?” you repeated.

“Yeah, they were long and blue. With the hood up, I’m sure she could have easily been mistaken for a man.”

You looked over at Lisa, who’s eyes were now locked onto Lorena, and you guessed that she had the same idea you did.

“Lorena,” Lisa began, and walked back over to where she sat. “Are you telling me that you saved a Speaker?”

She blinked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What’s a Speaker?”

“Seriously?” Marian gasped, her hands on her hips. “I knew you weren’t paying attention! We read all about them in that book we borrowed from Crina. They’re that tribe of magicians! The ones that come and help people!”

You were impressed that Marian knew who the Speakers were, and you were even more impressed that Lisa’s mother appeared to know about them as well.

“Well, if she lives in a group, why was she by herself?” Lorena wondered. “That doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do, letting a girl with magical powers walk around all by herself. It’s no wonder she got herself into some trouble!”

“It’s a good thing you were there to help her,” Lisa said, eyes crinkled as she smiled down at Lorena. “Us girls need to look out for each other.”

“Exactly!” Lorena exclaimed, and jumped up onto her feet. “That’s what I’ve been trying to say to you!” she pointed an accusatory finger at her younger sister. “Why can’t you get it?”

Marian bristled, and she looked ready to pounce on her sister and give her her own set of bruises, but Lisa placed a firm hand on her shoulder.

“But you should also be more careful next time, Lorena. Those men were dangerous, and you know you only managed to get out of there from sheer luck.”

Lorena’s face softened, her gaze shifting to the side as she bit her bottom her lip. “I guess you’re right, Lisa… Maybe I should have tried using my bow instead of my fists, huh?” she gave a crooked smile, one that made Lisa chuckle, and ruffle the top of her head.

“I suppose that’s a… fair compromise. Now, run along now, I’m sure your mother must be worried sick for the both of you,” she said, and lead the two of them out of her laboratory.

Lisa sighed, and closed the door behind her, her lips pressed into a thin line. “That was an awfully frightful thing to hear,” she said, and folded her arms to her chest. “I cannot believe that the Speakers are still treated so cruelly by people.”

“Have you ever met them before?”

She nodded her head. “Oh yes. When I first met my husband, they frequented the castle almost every month. A majority of the time, they came to speak to Vlad about magic or nearby towns. It was actually with their help that I managed to persuade him to visit these places on foot alongside the Speakers, since he had never gone on a journey like that before.”

“Yes,” you said, as you recalled what Vlad had said earlier. “He said it had been quite awhile since he had walked the Earth like “men do”. I hadn’t really understood what he meant, if I’m perfectly honest.”

Lisa chuckled, and opened a cabinet that contained stacks of parchment, placing it on a counter and flipping through the pile. “My husband isn’t too fond of traveling, but we all thought it might do him some good to see who it is I’d be helping with his knowledge. I think it was a nice change of perspective, and I’d love for him to take another trip like that soon.”

“You should tell him this!” you insisted. “If you reminded him how much good his first trip did, I doubt that he’d say no to you suggesting that he go on another one. Especially now that Adrian isn’t a child anymore, and you have me to help with the clinic.”

Lisa was silent for a moment, and she hummed thoughtfully to herself as she picked out three separate pages of parchment, setting them aside for now. “You make an awfully compelling argument, little one. Perhaps I will bring up the idea to him? The worst he can say is no.”

She opened another cabinet and took out a jar from the top shelf, before she walked over and handed it to you. “I’m about to be pretty swamped with a couple baby checkups, would you mind heading over to Marius’s place and delivering this? It’s a modified version of the usual burn ointment I make him. I’ve added green tea leaves to help keep his skin from drying out from the cold weather.”

“Very nice,” you commented, and tucked it inside of your pocket. “Is there anything else that you’d like me to do while I’m in town?”

She shook her head no. “Nothing comes to mind. But feel free to look around for anything that you might need.”

You nodded, and with a wave, you exited the clinic and trekked down the dusty path that lead into the village. It was as bustling as ever, stands filled with fruits and vegetables from the last big harvest, large bonfires crackling in the wind, their heavy smokey scent mingling with that of fresh stews and roasted meats.

Leaves crunched underneath your feet as you neared Marius and Diana’s home, the distinct sound of metal being pounded into shape ringing in your ears. As you approached the entryway that leads into their workshop, a cloud of steam billowed out from the slightly ajar door and you rubbed your eyes with the back of your hands.

“Hello?” you called out. “Diana? Marius? Anyone home?”

The rhythmic clanging suddenly stopped and the sound of heavy footsteps approaching made you stop. You ruffled your cloak a bit, which caused the steam to dissipate as you met them halfway and found Marius, face beaded with sweat and apron covered in an assortment of stains.

“What a lovely surprise,” his voice is gruff, but the smile he gives you warms you down to the tips of your toes. “I did not expect a visit from you, lass.”

“Sorry to come here unannounced, I just needed to give you this,” you took the jar out of your pocket and handed it to Marius. “It’s the new and improved version of the aloe we’ve been giving to treat your burns. Lisa said that she added some green tea leaves to help alleviate any patches of dry skin.”

He happily takes it from your hands, his expression shining with gratitude. “That was awfully thoughtful of her, I appreciate the extra lengths she goes to for us. It can be very refreshing.”

“Refreshing?”

Marius grunts, and drags himself over to a chair. “It’s not often that you come across someone as selfless as her in your lifetime. I’m forever grateful that she decided to dedicate her life to helping others. It’s what she was meant to do,” he popped open the jar and began to generously apply some of the ointment onto his arms and hands. “As were you,” he adds. “I think it was fate that you two were destined to meet.”

A flush coats your cheeks, and you give Marius a small smile. “You’ve all been so kind and welcoming to me… I don’t think I could ever thank you enough. Lupu almost feels like a second home to me now.”

“I’m glad,” he said, just as his eyes suddenly went wide as the front door burst open.

In came Diana, her curly red hair tucked away from her face with a cute little headscarf, her attention currently preoccupied on the baskets of produce that she was hauling inside.

Marius got up from where he sat and greeted his wife, kissing her gingerly on the forehead as he helped put the produce safely onto the kitchen table.

“Love, look who came for a visit,” Marius said, and nudged his head in your direction.

Diana turned around and gasped, before she let out an elated sound as she ran over and gave you a tight hug. “Oh it’s so good to see you!”

You grinned, and hugged her back. “It’s good to see you too, Diana. It appears as though you had an eventful day at the market,” you look over at the wide array of food that she had brought home, and make a mental note to look for where they were selling pumpkins.

“Everything was so cheap! You know I can’t say no to a good bargain,” she gave you a cheeky smile and a wink, before she pulled out a chair and sat down beside her husband. “So, to what do we owe this pleasure?”

“Oh, I was just dropping off some new burn medicine for Marius, but… I suppose I could stay here for a bit. There was no one else in the clinic besides some new mothers, and I have a feeling that they’re going to keep Lisa preoccupied for a bit.”

Diana laughed, and fervently nodded her head in agreement. “Aye, I got a glimpse of who it was heading up there today, and if I’m right on who I think it is, they’re all first-time mother’s. They’ll probably want a full examination and then some. But anyways, what have you been up to?”

You noticed that Marius had begun sorting away all of the food Diana bought, while he let a kettle come to a boil over the fire. The fresh scent of apples lingered in the air as he chopped them up, your curiosity piqued as to what it is he might be making.

Your attention flits back to Diana, and you sighed. “Besides studying and working at the clinic? Nothing too exciting.”

“Really?” she frowns, and almost appears as though she is pouting in her seat. “Surely I thought something must be going on, what with Adrian showing up here this afternoon.”

“Huh?” you blurt out. “Adrian was here? In Lupu?”

Diana nodded her head. “I saw him while I was heading to the market. At least, I’m pretty sure it was him. I doubt there’s an abundance of tall, handsome blond men running around Wallachia.” she teased, her tongue poking out between her teeth. “Especially one that owns such a stunning steed.”

You were silent, eyes downcast and eyebrows furrowed together in disbelief. Adrian had come here? But why?

You thought back to when you last saw him, wearing his big black cloak and leather riding gloves. Is this where he had been heading before the two of you had gotten in your little argument?

Diana makes a strange sound in the back of her throat, one that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you finally meet her gaze. “You didn’t know that he was coming here?” there’s a tone to her voice that you cannot decipher, and you nervously swallow a dry lump in your throat.

“No… I… well, it’s true that I may have run into him earlier today and noticed that he was wearing his riding gear but…” your own voice trails off, a heavy weight pressing down on your chest as you thought back to the… conversation the two of you had shared that morning.

Diana’s face softens, and she placed a comforting hand on top of your own. “You seem troubled, sweetheart. Did something happen?”

You let out a long, irritated sigh. “You could say that…”

“Well, you can tell me about it,” Diana said gently. “It can sometimes help--talking about things that are bothering you.”

You feel yourself clam up again, as you pondered whether or not to reveal what had transpired between the two of you. Maybe… maybe she was right, maybe getting someone else’s perspective on the matter would help you make sense of it… especially on his feelings of needing to escape the castle.

Before you could say anything, Marius reappears with some honeyed apples and a batch of fresh lavender tea. The sweet treat smelled heavenly, and it tasted just as good. The honey was sticky and delicious, and mingled wonderfully with the rich lavender tea; it was just the sort of thing you needed to help set your mind and body at ease.

You cleared your throat and dabbed your mouth with a napkin, your own subtle way of letting Diana know that you were ready to speak.

“Adrian and I had a… well, I’m not even sure I could call it a conversation. It started off harmless enough, I had made a joke saying I was surprised to see he was leaving the castle when I noticed what he was wearing. But, then he got so hostile…”

“Hostile?” Diana asked. “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“I know,” you replied. “I did not think that he would take my words so seriously… he told me that I shouldn’t be surprised that he would want some time away from home. But,” you scoffed, and swirled the tea in your cup. “I don’t know why he got so upset.”

“Hmm…” Diana leaned back in her chair, head craned up slightly in pensive thought. “Did something happen between the two of you recently?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” she folded her hands together and rested them on the table. “Seems to me that you were the one he was trying to avoid.”

“Me?” you gave a wry chuckle. “That’s reassuring.”

“Now, listen here,” Diana said, a stern look on her face. “Something must have happened between the two of you, something that made him feel hurt and upset. Otherwise, there’d be no need for him to be so hostile towards you. Think. There’s got to be something.”

“I’m telling you,” you snapped. “Nothing has happened between us! We’re just friends!”

“Are you sure?” Diana countered.

“What?”

“Are you sure? That you’re just friends, I mean.”

You rolled your eyes. “Of course I’m sure. We’re not secret lovers, if that’s what you’re implying.”

Diana rubbed her face, and then let out a loud cry, “You’re absolutely hopeless! How can I help you if you aren’t going to be truthful with me?”

Your face heated up a bit when she said this, and you stuttered over your words, “I… I am telling the truth!” you tried to say your words with conviction, but there was no bite to your voice, your emotions betraying you when Diana picked up on the very slight waver in your response.

“Oh really?” she sneered at you, like a cat that had just stumbled upon its prey. “What are you hiding, hmm?”

You fidgeted in your seat, and you tried your absolute best to avoid making any sort of eye contact with her. Should… should you tell her about what happened at the colosseum? You weren’t reading too much into things, right?

Diana all of a sudden let out a gasp, and her green eyes sparkled with excitement in the low light of the fire. “Don’t tell me…” she said, and lowered her voice slightly, as if trying to conceal a secret amongst the three of you--even though you were the only three in the house.

“You have a crush on Lisa’s boy.”

Your mouth hung open in shock, and you were absolutely mortified. How on Earth…? How was she able to deduce such a thing?

She let out a high pitched squeal, and wiggled excitedly in her seat. “Oh, I’m right aren’t I? You have a crush on the little Tepes boy.”

“I…” your voice was strained, the bright red blush on your face making it hard to conceal that she had practically hit the nail on the head. “I…” you tried again, but you struggled to form the right words so you just let out a frustrated sigh.

“Hey,” Diana said, all of the teasing out of her voice. “It’s alright love, there’s nothing to be ashamed of!”

You let out another hollow sigh, your fingers beginning to pick at the fraying strands of fabric from your napkin. “But then why do I feel so ashamed?”

Her expression softened, a hint of sadness finding its way into her gentle gaze. “Why would you feel ashamed, sweetheart?”

“I… I don’t know. I’ve just never thought that love was in the cards for me, that I’d rather focus on my career as a healer instead of worrying about such a thing.” you gave her a sad smile, and rested your elbows on the table as you leaned forward. “Plus… it would just be too… dangerous for me to have a romantic partner.”

“Dangerous? What do you mean?” Marius asked.

“Well…” your voice tapered off as you thought this over. You knew why it was a bad idea for someone to be involved with you romantically, but you hardly thought it prudent to tell either one of them that you were a witch. After the story Lorena had told, it suddenly made more sense as to why Vlad had refrained from using magic too often.

It’s not like they could relate to your personal fears either, it’s not everyday that someone can say that they’ve been hunted down by the church.

So, as much as it pained you to do, you decided to keep quiet. It was the smart thing to do.

“It’s… complicated.” you finally replied. “I just… this isn’t something I want to have to worry about!”

“Why are you spending your time worrying about having a crush? It’s normal! It happens to everyone!” Diana exclaimed. “To me, the more time you spend trying to convince yourself that you don’t like him, just proves that you actually do!”

“That’s absolutely ridiculous!” you countered, ears tinged red from embarrassment. “I’m… I’m trying to be logical about this.”

“That’s the problem! You can’t be logical towards your feelings, that’s not how it works!” Diana took a big gulp of tea, and then pointed a finger at you. “Something big must have happened to make you feel so… confused . What was it? Are you gonna come out with it then?”

“I…” you grit your teeth, and let out a loud groan. “I think…” you sighed, and slowly lowered your head so that it could rest on your forearms. “I think Adrian tried to kiss me the other night.”

Diana leapt out of her chair, the seat falling onto the floor with a loud thud .

“What?” she nearly hollered.

Your hands card through your hair, and you throw your head back to avoid looking at either of them. “I’m not sure, but!” you slowly eased back forward, eyes peeking out from behind your fingers. “I think he meant to kiss me that night and I… and I just… I couldn’t do it.”

Diana’s demeanor seemed to calm instantly, and she moved to sit beside you, a hand going to rest on your shoulder. “It seems to me as though you’re having quite the struggle at opening up your heart.”

You chuckled, and leaned in closer to her embrace. “You’re not the first person to tell me that. It’s just… difficult, for me to make sense of my feelings at the moment. I do care about Adrian, I care about him very deeply, but… I still need some time.”

“And that’s perfectly fine, lass.” Marius said. “Love isn’t a simple matter. It’s not something that can be left to the whimsical definitions of poets and romantics; it’s heavy, it’s messy.” he took a hold of your hand in his, which seemed so small compared to his much larger stature.

“Take all of the time you need to come to terms with your feelings. Rushing into things is what often leads to horrible mistakes, both on the battlefield and in relationships.” he gave his wife a coy smile, and then relinquished the grip he had on your hand to give you an endearing pat on the head.

“My husband is right,” Diana agreed. “You shouldn’t feel pressured, love. Although, it does sound to me that he was quite hurt at this rejection. Perhaps he’s unaware of your feelings?”

“That makes sense,” you said. “But… as I’ve said, I’m not even one-hundred percent sure about my own feelings. It… it just seems unfair for me to promise something to him and then not be able to deliver. But…” you went quiet, a frown on your face. “The least I could do is apologize for what I said today. I had been incredibly rude…”

“I’m sure that he would greatly appreciate that,” Diana replied. “I’m sure that he must be home by now, he didn’t stay long in the village after-all.”

At this, your interest is once again peaked. He hadn’t been long? Surely, you thought that he would have at least visited his mother. Why make the unnecessary trip of coming all the way here?

“Did you see where it is he went?”

Diana cocked her head to the side, and hummed quietly to herself. “I think I saw him head to the eastern part of the village,” she turned to face her husband. “What’s over there again darling?”

Marius scratched the stubble of his beard in deep thought. “Well, I ken that’s where Valeria and Tomas live, and Cordelia and her children as well. Oh… and the jeweler is over there as well.”

“The jeweler?” Diana cooed. “Now what could he be doing over there? You don’t think it has anything to do with their upcoming celebration?”

“What upcoming celebration?”

Diana gaped at you as though you had grown a second head. “You don’t know about the big party?”

You shake your head.

“The one that’s being hosted in honor of Lisa and Vlad’s twentieth anniversary?”

“Their anniversary is coming up?” you yelled out in surprise. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“It isn’t happening for another two months,” Marius said, and lightly shoved Diana to snap her out of her shocked stupor. “So they probably saw it fit to tell you a little closer to the date.”

“But it’s their twentieth anniversary,” you said, still shocked at the idea of attending a party in celebration of Lisa and Vlad. “That’s a pretty big milestone.”

“Yes, and Lisa’s been telling me that family from all over are going to attend! Oh, I’m sure that night is going to be absolutely magical.” Diana sighed wistfully, and rested her head on Marius’s chest.

“Their family, huh?” you thought of the enormous, intimidating portraits that lined the hallways of Castlevania, and swallowed nervously. If there was one thing that could set your nerves on edge, it was a castle full of vampires.

“Oh, there’s something I almost forgot,” Marius said, and he hobbled over to a box that lay hidden underneath a couple of embroidery patches. He placed it gently on the table before you and pulled it open, revealing a set of matching locket’s. The craftsmanship was exquisite, the pieces decorated with tiny flowers forged of the most delicate silver, accented by the light of a beautiful gemstone that rested in the center.

You let out a quiet gasp, and gently stroked one of them with the pad of your finger. “They’re beautiful… did you… did you make them, Marius?”

He smiled sheepishly, and rubbed the back of his neck. “Aye. I thought it would be a nice gesture, a way to try and repay Lisa and her family for all that they’ve done for us. I know it’s not nearly even close to what it is they deserve, but--”

“Nonsense,” you quipped, and gave him a bright grin. “They’re going to love them.”

Your eyes lingered on the lockets once more, but then you raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “Why are you handing these to me now? Why not give it to Vlad and Lisa personally?”

“Ah, well,” Marius chuckled. “Lisa and her family travel during the holidays, not that I really blame them getting out of here before such dreadfully cold days. I believe they usually head south, to stay with some relatives.”

“So… that means I would probably go with them too then, huh?”

“‘Suppose so,” Diana replied. “But don’t you worry your head off about us darling. Consider it a vacation, they’re only really gone a few weeks.”

At this, you let out a small sigh of relief. You thought it almost reckless to leave the village up to the whims of a harsh winter whilst you relaxed in some luxurious castle in the south-side. Still… you wondered where it is they headed off to, and you hoped that these relatives of theirs would be alright with you tagging along.

But that was something to worry about for another time.

You tentatively reached to put the box containing the lockets into your pocket, halting yourself for a brief moment just to double-check that Marius really wanted you to take them.

He let out a hearty laugh, and with a fervent nod, you carefully placed the little treasures into the confines of your cloak.

“I promise to keep them hidden until Lisa and Vlad’s special day,” you said, and got up from you seat. “I believe it’s about time that I head back to the clinic, I’m sure that Lisa could use some help by now.”

The couple smiled at you, and Diana got up from her seat to give you another tight hug.

“It was so wonderful to see you again, sweetheart. I hope that our little talk didn’t end up making things more confusing for you.”

You shake your head, and gave her a genuine smile. “No, I think it actually helped me out a lot. You were right, Diana, when you said that talking about all of this would make me feel better.”

She grinned, and bopped the tip of your nose with her finger. “Never underestimate the power of a good conversation, lassy.”

You gave both her and Marius one last hug before you departed from their home and made your way back to the clinic, mind feeling a lot less clouded and heart feeling a lot less heavy.

                                            _________________

The remainder of your day spent at the clinic went by without much fuss, with Lisa actually leaving you to handle the rest of the patients that came in while she cleaned up in the back. You had been a little nervous, but she knew that you could handle it.

As you said farewell to the last patient of the day, a farmer named Mihal who had nicked himself pretty badly after shearing his sheep, you let your thoughts wander back to the time you spent with Marius and Diana.

You hoped that Adrian would be willing to see you, much less speak with you. It was difficult to dwell on just how… callous you had been that morning. It was so unlike you.

But, you thought. It’s not like he handled the situation any better.

However, you had to cut him some slack. If Diana’s presumptions held true, it only made sense that he lashed out at you, who seemed completely apathetic to the fact that there may be something more than just friendship between the two of you.

You let out a long, exhausted sigh and turned your attention over to putting away the books and notes that you’d brought along with you. You could focus on all of your confusing… feelings when you got back to Castlevania.

Making your way outside, you called out for Clara, and after a few seconds, she emerged from behind some trees on the outskirts of the large forest that stood on either side of the small village. She whinnied and trotted over to you, as she nuzzled her snout against your cheek. You gave her an affectionate pat on the head and started to get her ready for the journey back home, a little surprised when you spotted Cinder coming out of the woods only a minute or so after.

As you tugged on the straps of Clara’s saddle to make sure that everything was secure, Lisa made her way out of the clinic and locked the door behind her. Her delightful laughter rang out through the crisp twilight air as Cinder playfully nibbled on some of her hair, and she gave him a few affectionate kisses on his head before she too began getting him ready for the ride back.

The two of you silently worked on preparing your horses, and when everything was neatly packed away, you gave a quiet click of the tongue and were on your way.

Although you both had decided to make quicker haste to avoid the cold night air, that did not mean you could not have some pleasant conversations.

“Did you enjoy your time with Marius and Diana?” Lisa asked.

You suppressed the urge to look away from her when she asked this, especially considering what you three had talked about. But, you supposed this would be a fine opportunity to learn more about this anniversary party Diana had mentioned.

“Yes, Marius was very grateful for the ointment, and while I was there, I found out an interesting little tidbit of information,” you cocked your head towards Lisa and give her a devious smile.

“Oh?”

“Diana might have let slip about a certain… party, that’s coming up.”

Lisa’s eyes widened a bit, and she gave a sheepish smile as a blush decorated her cheeks. “Oh, yes… that party. I’ve been meaning to tell you about it, but I thought it more prudent to let you know when it grew closer to the actual event.”

You nodded you head. “Yeah, that’s what Marius said. I’ll admit, the thought of being in a castle full of vampires does make me a little nervous.”

She laughed. “Trust me, my dear, if you can handle living with my husband and Adrian for as long as you have, this party will be a cakewalk.”

You laughed as well, and then hummed quietly to yourself. “I mean, on the bright side, even if I turn into a nervous wreck, it’ll be a good chance to meet some of the relatives you’ve told me about.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Lisa replied. “But we’re not just inviting relatives, close family friends are coming as well. We sent out the invitations several months ago, and almost everyone has gotten back to us,” she noticed your nervous glances and waved off your concern. “Don’t fret so much, love. It’ll be fun! I’m sure everyone will want to know more about my mysterious apprentice.”

You rolled your eyes. “There’s nothing ‘mysterious’ about me. Your family will take one look--no one sniff of me, and instantly know my entire life story. As much as I hate to say it, we witches have left rather cliched stories of tragedy in our wake.”

Lisa looked over at you solemnly, and pulled Cinder over so that she could rest a hand on your shoulder. “You must stop seeing yourself in such a negative light, little one. Just look at much good you’ve accomplished within your small time of living with me,” she gave you a kind smile. “Don’t worry about what they think, the only thing that matters to me, is that you know how much we care about you.”

Shock lingered on your visage for a split second before you nodded your head, eyes shining with unspoken gratitude. “Thank you, Lisa. It’s…” your voice trails off. “It’s been… difficult, learning to accept that my life doesn’t have to be marred with tragedy. You and your family have helped make that possible. So… again, thank you.”

She gave you a smile so radiant that it could rival the sun, and even though the night slowly grew colder, it did little to put a damper on the warmth that had found a home amongst the conversations you both shared the rest of the ride home.

It wasn’t until the towering pillars of Castlevania appeared on the horizon, did the anxiety you felt towards this upcoming conversation with Adrian resurface. There was a small part of you that wanted him to be waiting outside of the stables as you and Lisa rounded the last hill, but these hopes were dashed just as quickly as they appeared.

Instead, Vlad was there to greet the two of you, and after he gave you an affectionate pat on the head, he plucked Lisa off the back of Cinder as though she weighed practically nothing, and cradled her in his arms as they kissed.

You smiled at the cute display, but there was a sadness hidden behind your eyes as you walked Clara over to her stall. It seemed so unfair that you were denying yourself the same happiness but… it was for the best. You would never be able to forgive yourself if something happened to the family that had been so kind to you all because of a small crush.

You were so lost in thought that you did not hear Vlad and Lisa enter the stables to put Cinder into his stall, and only seemed to snap out of it when they called you over.

“So,” Vlad said, a light blush decorating his pale cheeks. “Lisa tells me that you found out about our anniversary party?”

“Yes, Diana let it slip while I visited her and Marius,” you said, as you followed alongside them into the castle. “And although I am a little nervous to be around so many of your… relatives, I am excited to be apart of such a momentous occasion!”

Lisa blushed, and wrapped her arms around one of her husbands. “I can’t believe it’s already been twenty years.”

Vlad hummed in agreement. “It’s quite extraordinary. I remember the first time we ever met, as though it had happened only yesterday.”

Lisa laughed and gazed up at him adoringly. “Yes, you had been so rude, having not offered me a drink or even to take my coat. I suppose you’ve learned some more manners since we’ve been together.”

Vlad gave a hearty laugh, and gently kissed the top of her head. “For you, my dear, I would move Heaven and Earth.” his ruby eyes glanced over at you, who had been wearing a sly grin this entire time. “Something amusing, little one?”

You fold your hands behind your back and shake your head, “Noo,” you replied, in a sing-songy voice.

Lisa chuckled, and then asked, “Dear, is Adrian not home? I would have expected him to be waiting with you.”

You feel your heartbeat quicken a bit, and you silently kick yourself for how eagerly you await Vlad’s answer with baited breath.

“He is. Last time I saw him, he was heading down to the colosseum to get some practice.”

Lisa made an irritated sound in the back of her throat. “I wish he would find some place else to train… that place is still crawling with monsters.”

“Monsters?” you echoed, and stopped in your tracks.

They both turned to look at you, and the stare that Lisa was giving Vlad, made it very apparent that he was going to be the one having to answer this one.

“Well, you see,” he began, and nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “As I mentioned during our previous conversation, I used to be… quite a household name, but not because of my generosity in the academics. The number of creatures that live within these halls has substantially decreased since those days, but I still keep a few around for protection.”

“Protection from what?” you asked, skeptical that anybody would willingly try and break into Castlevania.

“I ask myself the same question,” Lisa said, a frown on her face.

Vlad fidgeted nervously where he stood, not used to such scrutiny from his own wife. “Well… you never know. It would be foolish for me to simply rely on myself to protect my home if that time ever came. I find it reassuring to know that there are other means in which I can defend my home.”

You were silent for a moment, but then slowly nodded your head. “I mean… that makes sense.”

Lisa gaped at you, clearly unprepared for that response.

“What?” you replied. “I doubt that they would ever harm you or Adrian. They work for Dracula. I’m sure if you so much lost a single hair from your head, they’d be done for.”

Vlad nodded his head in agreement. “Precisely. I also think it’s good practice for Adrian. If he knows how to take down a supernatural beast, he’d hardly work up a sweat against a human opponent.”

Lisa still looked far some pleased, obviously annoyed that you had taken Vlad’s side on this. “It still makes me nervous. What if something were to happen to him while he was down there?”

“Nonsense,” Vlad said. “This is Adrian that we’re talking about, our son. He’s perfectly capable of defending himself.”

She looked as though she had more to say on the matter, but, Lisa decided to table it with a resounding sigh. “Alright, as long as you have confidence in him!” she snapped. “Now, what do you say I fix you two up something to eat?”

As much as you wanted to join them, this nagging feeling in the back of your mind told that you should just head down to the colosseum and get this conversation over with. So you declined Lisa’s kind offer, and told them that you were going to join Adrian, who warned you to stay as far away from whatever monster he was facing.

The thought of seeing a monster caused a chill to seep into the very marrow of your bones, and you wondered just what exactly lurked within the dark, ancient halls of this castle.

When you were little, you had read the tales of infamous Greek monsters, of minotaurs hiding amongst the twisting turns of a giant labyrinth and of vicious chimeras incinerating anything in their path with their fiery breath. Closer to home, there were stories of hellhounds stalking nearby cemeteries, waiting to pounce on anyone unlucky enough to come across them, and of wailing banshees and vindictive spirits haunting homes for generations.

Your nerves were on edge as you walked down the long hallway of the marble gallery, your magic tingling through your veins in preparation to defend yourself from anything that decided to make itself known. You had to keep reminding yourself that these creatures would never harm anyone Vlad believed to be a part of his family, so, you marched forward, and tried to keep a clear mind.

When you finally made it to the old, withering door that lead to the narrow winding staircase, you pushed it open, startled when you come face-to-face with…

“Aria?”

The tiny fairy looked absolutely frazzled, and her big blue eyes widened in surprise when she realized who she had run into. “Thank goodness!” she cried out, and grabbed a hold of your hand. “You must come at once! Adrian he… he…” tears welled in her eyes and she tugged you forward.

Your throat goes dry, and you bring her closer to you. “What’s happened?”

She sniffled, and pulled on your hand again. “He needs your help! Please… please hurry!”

You waste no time in heeding her pleas and take down the stairs at once, going down them as fast as your legs would allow. Your heart is hammering in your chest, and by the time you reach the entrance to the colosseum, you’re panting and your forehead is covered in a sheen of sweat.

The eerie blue glow of the flames cast an ominous shadow onto the colosseum grounds, the putrid stench of evil lingering within the atmosphere. When you finally see what Aria was talking about, your legs are frozen to the spot

Adrian. On the ground. Covered in blood.

You run to him and all but collapse beside him, hands shaking as you quickly scan him over to assess the damage. He lets out a low grunt when your fingers prod at his chest, ripping apart the fabric of his shirt so that you could get a better look at the entry wound.

It was clean, but it looked deep. Your hands move to rest on his chest, and immediately notice how shallow his breathing is, coming to the conclusion that the stab had gone clean through the ribs and punctured his lung.

You feel tears prick at the corner of your eyes when you glance up and see that he’s looking at you, a small smile on his lips.

“Aren’t I lucky that you came down here so quickly?”

“What happened?” you snapped, irritated at the tears that managed to slip past your defenses. You stubbornly wiped them away with your free hand, and it was then that you saw his sword, tossed aside, tip covered in blood.

“I had,” he winced as you apply pressure. “I had been practicing against some of the monsters… seems as though one of them got the better of me.”

“You absolute fool,” you whispered, and pointed at his sword. “Why did you take it out? Didn’t your mother ever teach you to never pull out the foreign object involved in a stab wound?” your voice is hoarse, and panic starts to set in as more and more of his blood coats your hands.

He chuckled weakly. “I thought I might try seeing how much my healing magic has improved…” he glanced down at his wound, and flinched. “Seems as if I still have a way to go.”

How could he be acting so nonchalant about this? This wound was serious. If he didn’t get proper medical treatment immediately he could… he could--

“Aria,” you said, and she flew over to you. “Go and get Lisa. Tell her what happened. I’ll try and stop the bleeding, but I’m going to need her help in order to--”

“No!” Adrian hissed, and took a firm hold of your wrist. “If I wanted my mother’s help, I would have sent for her.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” you quipped. “I’m not equipped to deal with this.”

“Yes, you are.”

His grip slackens, and his hand goes to rest on top of yours. “I believe in you.”

You choke back more tears, and your hollow laughter rings out into the still air of the colosseum. “You believe in me? ” you bite down hard on your lower lip to keep it from trembling. “Even…” you let out a stuttering gasp. “Even after what happened today?”

His golden eyes soften, and he nods his head. “Of course. I… I was actually down here trying to get myself into a clearer state of mind before coming to talk to you.” he’s silent for a moment, a shallow breath slipping past his lips. “I wanted… I wanted to apologize,” the grip on your hand tightens for just a moment. “What I said earlier… it was--”

You silence him with a shake of your head, not needing to hear what you already knew. “It’s alright… it’s alright,” you said, and gently removed your hand from his hold on you so that you could place both of them over his wound. “Everything is going to be okay.”

Closing your eyes and taking a deep breath, you focus on stopping the bleeding and closing the wound, as you had done to so many animals. You had to let go of your anxieties to truly let your magic do its work, and believe in the intent that you carried within you to heal Adrian… to save him. A warm feeling bubbled within your chest, your magic flowing through your fingers like a stream of liquid gold.

You thought of all the anatomy lessons Lisa had painstakingly gone through with you, and you pictured the lungs, the right one specifically. In your mind you could see every individual cell, every vein, and every nerve. It needed to be stitched back together, the cell walls, the tissue, the skin… and the blood needed to clot, needed to stop.

There’s a tingling at the very ends of your fingertips, a sensation that travels up your entire body and eventually expels from you in a long, arduous sigh. You feel light headed, and sweat drips down your back, but when you open your eyes, his wound is gone, and the only indication that he had ever been injured is a small scar located at the entry-point.

Your arms are shaking, and you’re struggling to keep yourself up right, but you could not hide the utter elation that fills you up at such a momentous success.

“I can’t believe I did it…” you whispered.

Adrian smiled weakly and placed one of your hands over his heart, its rhythmic beating setting your mind at ease. “I never doubted you for a second.”

There’s a small tug at your hair, and you turn to find Aria, tears flowing down her face that she wipes away with said strand.

“You’re…” she sniffled. “You’re so amazing. I can’t believe you did that!”

You delicately cup her in one of your hands and set her on your shoulder. “It’s all because of your quick haste to find help that I was even able to save him, small lady. So, thank you.”

Aria let out a dramatic wail, and wiped more tears from her eyes. “Whatever did we do to deserve you!”

The moment is unfortunately cut short when a foreboding feeling settles at the base of your spine, and you sense dozens, if not hundreds of eyes on the three of you. Your head shoots up to look into the stands, and your skin crawls at the sight.

Monsters, of all shapes and sizes, stood watch in the seats.

Skeletons wielding swords and lances clatter noisily to one another, while giant, leathery, bipedal birds wielding long spears glare down at you with their beady yellow eyes. Strange gargoyle like creatures, their mouths filled with rows of razor sharp teeth, cackled from up above, while giant wolf-like beasts howled and stomped their giant paws onto the marbled flooring.

“Begone!” Adrian shouted, and grit his teeth as he struggled to get up on his feet. “As your master, I command you to leave this place at once!”

“You are no master of mine.”

The hair on the back of your neck stands up as an otherworldly voice echoes throughout the stadium. The monsters in the stands recoil at the sound, silencing almost instantly, and from one of the nearby entrances, emerged a group of powerful, intimidating monsters.

Knights adorned in thick, steel armor galloped in on horses… horses that appeared to be missing the lower half of their body. Their steeds were unlike any that you had ever seen, decaying and rotten, with their intestines hanging out from where they’d been chopped in half. In their hands they each held a long, deadly lance, raised at the ready to attack.

Beside them stood another group of knights, but they were much too tall for it to be a human residing within the sturdy, blue colored steel. They stood nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with the monstrous horses, and grasped tightly in their massive hands, were a large steel shield and an enormous ax.

You quickly stood up and put yourself between them and Adrian, staring them down with all of the courage that you could muster.

“What is it you want?” you demanded.

“Ah, so you’re the one that emitted such… deliciously powerful magic,” one of the horse-back knights cooed.

“We can’t tell you how surprised we were when we found out that our Lord and Master allowed a witch to walk these sacred halls,” another one spat. “We thought it had been an utter disgrace… that is, until now.”

Their horses let out deep, guttural cries that turned your stomach to knots, as their masters commanded them slowly forward.

“Stay back!” Adrian yelled, his legs wobbling as he stood up off the ground. He grunted from the effort, and almost collapsed back onto the floor, had you not caught him and let him lean against you for support. “I am the Prince of Darkness, son of Vlad Dracula Tepes, and as such, I command you to let us be on our way!”

The knights chuckled, and simultaneously raised their lances.

“You are nothing more than a pathetic child,” one of them hissed. “A petulant brat that assumes he can command us as though he were his own father. Imagine.”

They all laughed, an empty sound that made goosebumps erupt on your skin.

“Please,” you pleaded. “Just let us be on our way, and I promise not to tell Vlad what happened here.”

“Silence witch!” one snarled. “How dare you speak our Master’s name. You were foolish to come down here alone.”

“We never saw what he saw in you, but now…” one cackled beneath their helmet. “We understand everything completely.”

“What do you mean?” you try with everything in your power to not let your voice waver and reveal how terrified you truly are, but there was only so much you could do.

“Your power… it calls out to us.” One said.

“So delicious… so tempting.” Said another.

“We have waited so long… so long for something like this… we won’t let you take this opportunity away from us.”

All at once, the group of monsters began to close in on the three of you, their weapons raised and poised ready to attack.

“Stay back!” Adrian shouted again, and with a wave of his arm, his sword came flying into his hand. “I won’t allow you to continue so much as looking at her, you vile beasts!”

“Pathetic,” one of them said, and before you could even react, one of the larger ax knights had knocked Adrian out of the way with a swing of their shield.

“Adrian!” you cried out, and made to go after him, but you were stopped by a lance being pointed at your throat.

“It would be wise for you to follow our orders, lest a more serious fate befell your so-called Prince of Darkness.”

You could hear Aria crying out for Adrian to wake up, begging him to get up and save you, and in that moment, where you could cry, where you could scream, where you could plead for your life… you remained silent.

This… you had seen all of this before, you had felt all of this before… this feeling of hopelessness… this feeling of tragedy…

A loud ringing fills your ears, and everything appears as though its moving in slow motion.

Yes… it’s just as you predicted… You’ve failed to protect to protect the ones you care about from harm. Again. You’re going to lose everything. Again. All because you’re a witch.

The cacophony of laughter from the knights swirls around you like a tempest, and even though you’ve conceded yourself to this fate… there’s that tug.

No… a voice rings out in your head. No more… no more… No. More.

You glare up at the monsters before you, a renewed vigor in your gaze and confidence in your gait. “My life… my life is one that has been filled with one calamity after another. I thought I was doomed, cursed , to never again find even some semblance of happiness,” you chuckled, something that stops the knights in their tracks.

“But then… I met Lisa. I met Adrian. I met Vlad. They’ve helped give my life purpose, they’ve helped me understand that even someone like me deserves a chance at a happy life… at a good life…” your hands balled up into fists and you took a step forward, staring down the knight before you with the coldest look you could invoke.

“I won’t let you take that away from me.”

What happened next… you weren’t exactly sure. The last thing you remember seeing is the silver glint of their weapons being raised, before a bright blue light consumed everything in the room. Your vision had gone white, and by the time your bleary eyes managed to refocus on your surroundings, the only thing left of those monsters, were piles and piles of ash.

“Wh… what?” you gasped, suddenly keeling over as your head pounded from a terrible headache. You groaned out in pain, and tears caused your vision to go blurry again as you looked upon the ashes scattered around the colosseum.

Where did the knights go?

You heard your name being called out, but it sounded so distant, so… fuzzy.

Did I kill all those monsters…?

“What… happened…?” you muttered weakly, as you collapsed onto the floor; Adrian’s bright gold eyes being the last thing you saw before the darkness consumed you.

[vanilla-blessing]

qb anime of the year list 2018

Anime of the Year 2018 - the year of girls going to aquariums together

I’ve seen at least one person who claimed that 2018 was the best year for anime in recent memory and I’m inclined to agree. A large majority of my top ten list is shows that I would consider perfect and even shows that blew away what I thought was possible in the medium. It was a revolutionary year and makes a strong argument that anime wasn’t a mistake after all. - qb

#1

Hugtto! Precure blew away my expectations every week for close to a year. I don’t exactly know what to say about it here, since this isn’t the last time I’ll talk about it for sure. It doesn’t even end in 2018, but it was such a huge part of my 2018 in anime that it would be inaccurate to not include it. The only way I can think to explain Hugtto! Precure is to talk about the Netflix She-ra reboot. She-ra’s a pretty basic modern Dreamworks cartoon, with some interesting ideas thrown in and likable characters, but mostly held back by what they could realistically allot for production. Because of this limitation, She-ra goes hard on a single perfect episode (if you’ve seen it, you know which one) that stands out in a big way and shows the full potential of what they set out to make. Usually, Precure is lucky to get a handful of these stand-out episodes in a season, and most of the time just gets by, due to being an annual series that can never, ever take a break. Normally, the first few episodes of a Precure season can be counted on to be strong, but the realities of anime production being hella tough inevitably catch up.

Hugtto! Precure started with an incredible opening arc, then never let off the gas pedal. Nearly every episode of Hugtto is a stand-out, never-before-seen, innovative tour-de-force. The combination of production miracles that resulted in Hugtto has been talked about by me on this blog before, (http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/176000267859/hana-is-getting-unstable-a-pink-precure) but the length of time that Hugtto stayed in the paint, going extremely hard every single week with few exceptions, was just absurd. Every season of Precure has one or two peaks, sometimes a good season gets lucky and has even more, the best seasons bat a solid average, but are still expected to be held back by reality. Coming out of the fifteenth season of Precure with a majority of the best episodes in the entire franchise isn’t something that I can wrap my head around, but it definitely happened, mostly in 2018. It’s simultaneously a love letter to the franchise’s past, present, and future made by the biggest Precure fans on the planet, and it’s unquestionably the best season. Hugtto threw what we all knew was true and had accepted about Precure clear out the window, retroactively made older seasons better, watered my crops, brought world peace, ect.

Oh yeah and boys can be cures now. 

#2

I’m definitely not done with Revue Starlight and this won’t be the last time I talk about it. Revue Starlight essentially carried the Summer 2018 anime season on its back. Starlight absolutely dominated my anime watching schedule; my week was seriously just waiting for and watching different translations and releases with every other show being almost incidental, far less important than waiting for the song lyrics to get translated for an episode I had seen three times already. I won’t get into everything here, since I’ve already talked about it on this blog after all (http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/179023723689/subtext-is-for-cowards-revue-starlight), but I need to reiterate that it was such a commanding, unique, stylized experience and didn’t drop a single episode in its entire absurdly high-level production. The only reasonable explanation for this is devil magic, and hell, it was worth it. Revue Starlight is probably in my top 5 anime of all time and I wouldn’t get this list out if I said everything I wanted to say about it. It’s great. Watch it twenty times. 

#3

Pop Teen Epic, or Hoshiiro Girldrop, was the most wildcard that has ever been in seasonal anime, and could have been absolutely anything. What none of us predicted was just how much of anything this show would be, encompassing an unprecedented range of artists, voice acting talent, and whatever AC-bu are, each giving their very individual takes on a self-described shitpost comic strip, sometimes covering the exact same material two or three times, with no regard for any sort of cohesion or structure.

Nothing about this idea should have been funded, nothing in Pop Team Epic has any reason to work, and as a straight adaptation probably wouldn’t have worked. PTE spun gold from trash through the raw effort of artists doing their own thing, which captures the original spirit that made the formerly-cancelled comic popular in a way that’s much too intelligent for haters to understand. Also it got a dub, which is the most ridiculously bad idea i’ve heard in my life, and it owns that it happened.

#4

Spider-man into the Spider-verse is legit the best comic book movie ever made. It’s a fun, expressive twist on the most tired superhero origin story of all time, and showcases some of the most sssssssssstyle and raw, real emotion I’ve ever seen in animation. Its particular selection of influences is brilliant and poignant, rising far above the simple fanservice you’ve come to expect from Spider-man. The unrelenting individualistic spirit of this movie will stick with you the longest in the soundtrack, bravely incorporating a side of pop music that you don’t usually get to see in big-budget productions, pulling soundcloud rappers out of their grody (i’m told) dens into the spotlight with equal importance alongside the heroic score. Spider-verse is all about establishing your own unique flavor, and it manages to overwrite every other entry in this cursed franchise with its bold taste.

#5

It doesn’t make sense to me how amazing Aggretsuko’s dub is. The impeccable timing of each line, the perfect integration with the comedy, and the optimal length of the episodes are all far beyond what I expected from a Netflix show. It not only converted the original series of shorts that I already had on my top 10 the first year into a godlike longer series I didn’t know I wanted, but went to the effort to bring real metal singers in for the karaoke. Honestly just repeat everything I said in my 2016 list and multiply it by five. I hope they make more. They’re making more.

#6

I was pretty slow to pick up anime in the Winter 2018 season, but I never missed Hakumei and Mikochi, maybe because it was like, the only simulcast on my favorite online anime streaming subscription service HiDiVE. The subs weren’t great, and it certainly wasn’t all that popular, but it was just the relaxing show I needed. Hakumei and Mikochi brought me back to my favorite non-racist parts of the Redwall series of books: friendly animals, delicious foods, alcohol, and rustic songs. I was ready to put it on my list for simply being a cute healing foodie anime, but to my surprise, it had much more in store within its tiny world: stark confrontations with mortality, a shy riverside necromancer, the inexplicable remake of The Raid: Redemption in miniature, fashion trends, frogs, carpenter weasels, carpenter skeletons, ghost celebrations, a country beetle with lofty dreams. The list of memorable people, places, and things contained in the gnomish roommates’ tiny world goes on and on.

Masaomi Ando’s directing went completely along with the storybook aesthetic, maybe even to an overall detriment, which is exactly the kind of reckless commitment to style I love to see. The distinctive paneling, constantly gorgeous backgrounds, and deliberate pacing perfectly captured the imaginative stories I loved to read as a kid, but with more alcohol, and more sophisticated themes under the surface. Even something anime rarely get right, endings, were perfectly capstoned every week with a short digest that explored more of the history, legends, and very personal lore of their small, unique world. At its core, Hakumei and Mikochi is the calming story of tiny roommates you think it is, but it’s also so much more. They have day jobs and get drunk and remodel their house after it explodes that one time. They gamble dangerously to escape a blizzard, help a photographer give herself a little credit, and rescue their neighbor from a fancy grave of her own making. By the end of the show Hakumei practically built half a town. The collective stories from their everyday adventures build into something tremendous, and it all wraps up on the most perfect ending sequence I could have hoped for, which calls back to every story thus far as a new verse of the show’s central duet is sung. In any reasonable AnimeOTY Hakumei and Mikochi would be my top anime of 2018, but this year, the competition was unreasonable. This show will just have to settle for being the best regular anime of the year.

#7

Bloom Into You is an incredible adaptation of an apparently yuri romance manga that raises the bar for anime adaptations in general. I don’t know when, but somewhere along the line I stopped expecting that serious capital R Romance anime would have a distinctive style, and gave up to the notion that there was no demand anymore and a stylized, seinen/josei romance would just never get made. Well that was 2016 and then Scum’s Wish happened which this blog has covered extensively.(http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/168842023559/how-lerche-adapted-an-average-trashy-romcom-into, http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/168789506264/scums-wish-and-our-messy-uncomfortable) To me Bloom Into You feels similar in concept, as a difficult romantic situation with no easy answers or completely happy people. The main perspective character, Yuu, is among my favorite romantic leads in any series; she doesn’t get romantic feelings, although she wants to, and despite being easily motivated, is kind of dispassionate. Her relationship that she was pushed into with Touko might as well be out of mutual convenience, since Touko doesn’t want to fall in love with someone who would love her back, and Yuu doesn’t think she can.

Yuu filters the developments of the series as they grow closer through a very different perspective compared to more emotional leads of usual romance stories, methodically breaking down and considering where she’s at, observing where others are at, before taking an action that makes sense to her. Her growth through the series takes a very different direction than the common dramatic formula; instead of running headfirst into misunderstandings to overcome romantic challenges, she’s compelled to take a step back and position herself in a way that allows her to understand and confront her girlfriend’s issues. The changes that she experiences herself during this process are extremely gradual, but are no less significant to her. Although the dramatic weight of the series is obviously all about Touko, the central thesis of Bloom Into You is to explore Yuu’s complex feelings, and ask to what degree our actions are dictated by our emotions. It’s a heavy topic to be sure, but what makes this anime adaptation special in particular is how the directing and production pull it off, to maybe an even stronger degree than the original material.

Bloom Into You’s most striking and noticeable feature is the incredible conservation of small movements that connect expressions naturally. Minute changes in characters’ faces are vital to observe the almost imperceptible changes in Yuu over the course of the series, and every aspect of the direction is in service of highlighting these subtle moments. In addition, repeated cinematic themes are reinforced over the show’s run, such as the use of light to impart a blinding realization, flower language to inform deeper personalities, even using a literal (not literal) cinema. Symbols such as trains, masks, and mirrors are used constantly and consistently to reinforce the show’s themes, which should be immediately obvious from the opening animation. I’m still kind of stunned that Bloom Into You’s ending theme is such a banger and managed to use an oscillating sine curve in a metaphorical way. These details might be lost without the brilliant layouts, intentionally resembling a stage, which always push the minute differences front and center. As an anime adaptation, Bloom Into You adds so much value in such a subdued, conservative way that it puts uninspired adaptations to shame.

#8 

Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 rounded out the year with a good old new-fashioned Japanese-speaking Chinese-Wuxia Taiwanese puppet show. The novelty of this wild series, like, existing at all, is still incredible to me, but I was really wowed by the new characters and the direction the series went in after the already high standards of the first season. Following the outrageous action and fights of the previous season, I did not expect that season 2’s introductory goon would 1. Live past the first episode 2. So quickly become my favorite swordfighter and 3. Have inarguably the most complete character arc of the entire show thus far. The Princess of Cruelty’s struggle against her inner and outer demons in a unreasonably stacked, desperate situation developed her into easily the most compelling character of the season, and the rest of the cast including a corrupt police officer with extremely disconcerting and bad puppet teeth, a ventriloquist rock-lutist, and a nihilist monk each bring their own unique flavors to the table. The table that they throw the puppets in the air from to make the show. All of the new elements of Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 improved an already strong formula even more, and revealed an emotional depth to the series that I’m excited to see developed further. Some people might not call this anime, but those people haven’t seen Thunderbolt Fantasy for longer than 2 seconds. It’s so anime.

#9

I blasted all available seasons of Star vs the Forces of Evil early in 2018, and it was basically my first foray into straight-up American cartoon magical girl, despite watching all the Japanese ones, which was probably an oversight on my part. That’s because Star Versus is really good, and provided a flavor of magical girl I had been missing out on. I could talk about the excellent sparkle witch aesthetic of the show, fluid animation, and hilarious comedy, but I’d rather spend this blogspace posting Star Butterfly faces. 

#10

A Place Further Than the Universe, or YoriMoi, or my preferred moniker That Antartica Anime, wasn’t on my radar until well after it had finished airing, but it stuck with me for most of the year. Although it’s definitely melodramatic at times, it utilizes this tendency in exactly the right way to enhance the individual characters’ emotional arcs. Even though I was personally sort of taken out of it for many of the girls’ personal trials, :penguin emoji: is obviously thoughtfully written and carefully constructed, and especially knows how to orchestrate an immense emotional reaction with pitch-perfect timing. If there’s one particular aspect this anime has absolute mastery over, it’s hitting that perfect note and cue to create a memorable narrative climax. And for all my bellyaching about not fully relating to some of the characters, Miyake is definitively the #1 qb-relatable character of the year.

Here’s the rest of my list. Don’t @ me about it because if its not on my top ten then it doesnt really count anymore i dont make the rules thats just how it is

11. Yuru Camp

12. Hisone and Masotan

13. Asagao to Kase-san

14. Devilman Crybaby

15. After the Rain

16. Planet With

- friend of the show @queuebae on twitter 

That’s why the 2018 anime of the year award goes to Kaiju Girls 2.

[yuhdongsaeng]

office parties and painful memories

pairing: yoongi x reader word count: 2.4k     → listen i don’t know what this is. i can’t defend it. i have no idea. this is a shitpost. this is a circus of a fic. the worst. the absolute worst. i don’t know what this is. it’s specks. yeah, specks.

The first time Yoongi sees you, you’re standing by the piano with his mother in your navy blue dress and red shoes that sparkled so brightly that it always looked like you were walking on stars. He didn’t know yet, but he’d grow to love the bouncy pigtails that rested on your shoulders and your big eyes, which were filled to the brim with wanderlust and a childlike curiosity.

“Yoongi plays the piano?” you asked his mother, shyly tracing the bars of white and black.

“He’s very good, too.” she confirms, smiling empathetically before turning her head to the doorframe, meeting the deep, shy eyes behind raven locks. “Yoongi, you’ve come downstairs. This is Y/N, her family just moved in next door.”

His eyes only meet yours briefly before panic bleeds into his dark eyes.

All girls had cooties.

But not you.

There was a fair chance that going to the party wasn’t a good idea. The mere knowledge of the full tub of ice cream in your freezer taunted you endlessly as you went through dress after dress, annoyed huffs and sighs parting your lips ever so often.

The understanding of seeing him had crawled through the web of thoughts in your head, and you wondered how your heart could still speed up, how it could still twinge at the sight of his name on a table card.

It had been quite a while, after all.

Dress after dress slipped through your fingers until the specks of navy appeared.

”It sounds absolutely dull, doesn’t it?” Yoongi doesn’t make eye contact with you, but looks as though he’s studying the stars intently.

“I like to hear it.” you smile, re-adjusting your head on his shoulder before closing your eyes peacefully, knowing that all the stars above you will still be there when you open them next.

“It’s rotten.” He spits. “The words are pale in comparison to how I’m feeling.”

If you didn’t know better, you’d think he was mad. Perhaps he was, a little. You contemplate opposition, but exhale instead before humming.

��Say it.”

There’s a brief pause before you hear his lips parting, and the words fall like silk from his tongue.

“I love you.”

You stay composed in your little flat until you realize it’s time to pick your shoes, and the red heels are the first to fall out when you finally open the closet.

The fluttering in the internal archive of memories is almost overwhelming as you reach the one of a nervous Yoongi standing on a small bridge as he awaits your arrival.

“I got you these.” he almost stuttered, and your heart fluttered at the sight.

Granted they were much shinier then, but as were many things that weren’t anymore. Life had dulled, and it seems that your mother was right about shoes being a parting gift.

But you were sure Yoongi didn’t intend to mean it like that.

There’s a metaphorical noose that tightens around his neck whenever you tell him you love him, is what he’d spill through lingering whispers, his eyes comfortably hiding behind a thick fringe.

“Love,” he’d say. “It’s terrible, and I can’t breathe.”

You’d hum lightly in response, partially to humor him and partially because your words weren’t painted in the colors of thick, tan rope, at least not intentionally. It was 4AM now, dawn tiptoeing around the world before it dared show.

“But I chose the color of it,” he’d continue when he saw how the veins on your lids looked like lightning. He almost lost himself when your fingers almost intertwined with his and a yellow spark reflected off the parts that touched. “Perhaps I chose the fabric, too…”

This time, you didn’t reply. Instead, your gaze fixed on the yellow spark, and you wondered how the two of you could emit electricity. However, you believed you could. You’d just seen it, you thought. His lip stretched sadly with a slow blink and he sighed before letting his bones rest besides yours. It was late, after all.

“Sometimes I even think I tied it myself.”

The clock was ticking down.

His name almost sounds unfamiliar when you first hear it all those years later, and a momentary whiplash of heartache journeys down your spine as you raise your head to see the lips who dared carry his name.

“They haven’t been together for a long time now.” Jin spoke to some blonde a few feet from you, a blonde whose nose never belonged in your business. “It’s odd that you’d mention it.”

It irked you, and you almost lifted yourself from the wall you were leaning against, but restraint kept you at bay and a pathetic sigh parted your lips. It was not your business anymore, it seemed, when it finally dawned on you that your love with Yoongi was no longer just art, but a museum to anyone interested.

The annual anniversary parties at Big Hit had not been very eventful for years now, but courtesy was courtesy and if you ever forgot, your dad would be sure to remind you of the importance of a good reputation within the firm. Bang Sihyuk had raised his glass in your direction once or twice by now, and your sips had fractionally enlarged with each polite cheers – Bang Sihyuk getting more and more blurry in the process.

You must’ve looked pathetic, standing against the wall, finishing your fifth glass of exquisite red wine (it all tasted the same to you, though) in your uncomfortable clothes, but navy looked good on you, and if you were going to be pathetic, you were going to be beautiful, too.

Your eyes kept rocketing towards Jin throughout the night no matter how many times you forced it away, perhaps hoping to hear his name again.

He looked beautiful in his suit, but his shoelaces were untying.

Yoongi realized he could want you so bad it hurt him when he walked in on you that one night, restlessly spread across the field of silky whites in nothing but lingerie, which lazily clung to your hipbones. He felt it piercing in his jugular vein when his gaze landed upon your bra, folding and lifting in all the places it was too big. His breath hitched when he continued his journey down your waist and a slow burn spread across his breastbone, and he almost considered stopping. Turning his gaze. He didn’t dare imagine what your elevated hip would emit, how the pink lace almost got a voice and the whispers turned to spiders down his spine.

However, mostly of all, and he hoped he could evade this part; it was the momentary flash of sparks in your eyes when your gaze lifted to him as he shut the lights off that really hurt him.

The steps towards you were erratic and frantic, yet he kissed you carelessly - but the ashen skin was merely a cover for the consuming Christmas tree that was growing inside of him.

“Yoongi,” fell from your lips in your own dazed manner, and although you breathed into his mouth, it travelled down his throat until it reached his ribcage, and began pounding from the inside out.

You needed to stop, he thought, biting into his tongue to prevent him from spilling all the light out from his chest. Your eyelashes needed to stop resting on your cheeks so mockingly, if Yoongi was going to have any chance to make it out alive.

He glances up towards you, your gaze follows, and he wonders how you could feel it so differently. How love could be a congealing matter to you, a solid, tangible point, which you could mold and discipline to your liking – yet to Yoongi, it was a consuming liquid that radiated everywhere within him until you filled up all the empty spaces of his body.

Finally, a shaky hand made its way to your hair, and he brushed a few stray curls away from your complexion.

“Yes, my love?” he asked in a strangled, asphyxiated voice, making sure he didn’t slip any of the love that boiled through his blood and filled him to the brim.

It was a nervous manner in which the words left your mouth, fear lathered like a film on top of your skin.

“We’ll never survive this if we keep this up.”

He kissed you then, perhaps to shut you up and perhaps simply to savor the taste of you. Yoongi had come to realize how far your mind and heart could wander, because you were quite obviously elsewhere, whilst he was right there.  

It was heated and your bra was coming undone.

The firmness of Jin’s voice rings through your thoughts as you sift through the archives of memories titled ‘Yoongi’, not once stopping to realize how misplaced you were at the event. Your internal journey down memory lane trickles to a halt when his voice emerges again, and you glance towards him to see the same blonde in front of him. There’s a slight recognition that she might be in PR.

“He really loved her,” he shifted uncomfortably on his feet, as if the weight of the words were too heavy for him – perhaps they didn’t belong in his mouth to begin with. “It shocked us all.”

She plastered a sympathetic smile, stretching her ivory skin and the wrinkles around her eyes suddenly show for the years that have passed.

This time Jin sees you, standing against the wall across the room, your navy blue dress making you look uncannily elegant. He blinks twice to make sure it’s you before his eyes widen in the color of shame, and his gaze automatically strays. You lift your lips in a tight line before bowing your head towards your glass, acknowledging exactly how awkward the situation was.

It’s odd how old friends can become strangers again, and you wonder if the opposite process can happen twice.

You take another sip of your wine, with which you’re reminded to pour yourself another.

“I’m just trying to let you know that he isn’t good for you.”

Perhaps you had heard the words one too many times for your blood to boil, and instead you sunk into your slouched position in defeat. You didn’t necessarily believe it, but fighting your own mother was never the easy route.

“Yoongi treats me well, mom.” you reiterate with your fingers crossed beneath the dinner table.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it, sweetheart. His plans don’t align with yours.” she stresses the last syllables as if she didn’t know the stabbing pain she inflicted.

You hoped that your silence would be enough to end the conversation, but it only induced a continuation.

“What are you going to do when he debuts? When he’s too busy to text you even once a month?” she raises her eyebrows in question. “When the only thing he can do for your family is send monthly checks to cover the bills?”

Your brows furrow and you tell her the only thing you know to be true.

“We love each other, mom.”

The heart doesn’t forget the love it once held. You’re still unsure at what point in the night you learned this, or perhaps you just accepted it, but it became clear when you started playing with the thought of greeting Yoongi upon his arrival, and you realized you’d sprint to his embrace a thousand times, in a thousand lifetimes.

The sulkiness was beginning to weigh on your shoulders, and you put the glass away to disrupt your string of tipsy thoughts. Yoongi was a memory now, a love that once were but was not anymore.

Your eyes had paced to Jin again when you realized you didn’t know what to do with your hands anymore.

He had just finished shooting the music video for Fire when he put the fire between you out.

“I guess not.” was what he replied when you asked him if he loved you, his voice more baritone than you had ever heard it. You barely recognized him, but truthfully, it was the first time you’d heard him lie, too.

Yoongi pretended that he didn’t end a lifelong string of love, pretended that he ended a relationship like any other young man could and would – but the heart never forgets the love it once held.

The thing is, Yoongi didn’t know love when it wasn’t embellished in your name.

His eyes burned like hell as the tears begged to be released, but he never granted them a pass.

“So it’s over.” you almost raised your voice in question, a slight disbelief painting your face as the features of the love of your life became muddled, less recognizable.

Yoongi merely swallowed before bumping his shoulder into yours when passing.

He would’ve combusted had he stayed another second, and he knew within himself that it was a fire he had to put out – no matter how terribly wrong he was to do so.

You don’t quit on the people you love, and it was Yoongi’s regret to carry.

It was lackluster. Life was lackluster. Your navy dress, the wine, Jin and the blonde. Lackluster. All was lackluster but the memories.

He climbed the flight of stairs with a heaviness, his fingers tapping his thighs in anticipation. He hadn’t seen you for a while now, but he knew you would be there – Jin made sure to text him so.

Was he wrong to feel excited? Was he deserving of the butterflies that bloomed in the pit of his stomach?

He wasn’t, he knew he wasn’t, but he couldn’t stop it once it started.

There was no doubt in his mind when he saw you; you were the one even when he could only see your back. His eyes only briefly met Jin and the dreaded blonde from PR he’d been avoiding since he stepped foot in Big Hit.

He wasn’t deserving of your voice, nor of your eyes. He couldn’t have you look at him even for a second, he knew this much. He almost left before he saw you turn, and he convinced himself he could steal a single glance – just one, and then he’d go.

Nobody knows, but you know, and Yoongi knows.

Your eyes meet and it all unravels.

[differentcoloredkids]

i tried to keep myself from bringing shitposting and memes into the legacy universe because it’s Serious but also like.... it’s fucking power rangers

which is why this is now in a google doc:

During The Hangover (mentioned in ch8; fall 2014), Kimberly calls Tommy ‘porcupine head’ and it, unfortunately, sticks like a needle (haha). The mega rangers are Very Pleased at how their first ranger reunion went.

Social media is no longer allowed at ranger reunions after Conner almost outed Dustin’s ranger identity because he bet Dustin couldn’t do a keg stand while morphed with his visor open and it ended up on snapchat and Conner ALMOST sent it to his story instead of just to Kira but, luckily, Trent was looking over his shoulder and stopped him in time. After that, nobody, especially a Red, is allowed to use social media during a reunion. There may or may not be social media app geofencing around the Hartford mansion now that activates every Thanksgiving Break. It frustrates Mack endlessly.

Zack cooked all of one time and almost killed Cassie with a food allergy, so he’s never, ever allowed to cook again.

For 2007′s reunion, the location was moved to Hartford mansion where, to this day, every Thanksgiving Break, it lights up like the end of the world. (There may or may not be spells or other supernatural defenses in place to NOT attract the attention of the media that close to 100+ Power Rangers are all under one roof for almost a whole week.)

I have no fucking clue where the ranger reunions were held before that. The early ones were easy like MMPR-in Space, they’d just chill in someone’s house while their parents were away or (once the MMPR crew got older) someone’s dorm. The dates were also pretty lenient in the early days and doing a reunion during Thanksgiving Break wasn’t decided until, probably, 2002 or so.

Everybody gives Tommy hell after he brings the Dino Thunder crew and all the other Rangers find out what the fuck he’s been up to for the past few years. TJ especially chews him out.

Some rules of ranger reunions:

** No politics. This is fine, considering (because I can and because they’re fucking Power Rangers) everyone’s somewhere left-wing or, at the least, leftish.

This is now not fine at all, considering fall of 2016 and how the Reboot Rangers’ first reunion falls about three weeks after The End.

The rule still applies, though, because they’re mature adults and are still under honorable obligations to protect the Earth, no matter what idiot heads what country.

** Real fights will be taken outside to be handled with a mediator (or several) and as peacefully as possible because nobody wants two superhumans beating the crap out of each other.

** Fake/staged fights will happen on dinner tables or kitchen counters or coffee tables and, most likely, recorded for posterity (but NOT posted on social media).

Kimberly and Tommy’s famous Hangover is the most memorable one.

** No bugs, frogs, or basically ANY animals allowed. Reasons for this exist from allergies to Mia will stab someone if they bring a frog near her.

** NO CIVILIANS (besides the ones who know of Ranger identities and actively worked with a Ranger team).

** Always check the ages of the newest Ranger team and (because they’re usually underage) do not give them alcohol.

** Do not drink anything Zhane gives you. He says it’ll be fun, but most likely, you will be the laughingstock of the next five years.

** Do not eat anything Mia gives you (unless you’re Lauren).

** As mentioned above, no social media. There is geofencing around the Hartford mansion that lasts exactly the entire Thanksgiving Break annually.

** Always make a joke about Tommy’s ‘90s hair. Every year. And, after 2004, about his porcupine hair. Every year.

** Don’t talk shit about Tori. She just pops up wherever she wants, even if you already glanced around right before saying something.

Unless you’re Kira, Adam, Bridge, or Xander.

But, especially not if you’re Dustin or Shane.

** Don’t make cat jokes around Katherine. She’s already heard them all from Kimberly and Tommy.

** Nobody is allowed to dare anyone to do a keg stand ever again.

** Spin the Bottle is an okay game to play as long as it’s not combined with any other games.

Do not combine it with 7 Minutes in Heaven. That is how break-ups start.

Do not combine it with Truth or Dare.

Truth or Dare is banned and has been banned since a certain point in the early 2000s.

It’s okay to combine Spin the Bottle with Truth or Truth, which is used, instead, as a bonding game and a way to get to know other Rangers better. (Whatever Kelsey says about it being “not exciting enough,” she’s lying and pretending like she doesn’t enjoy quality friendship time.)

** Always make sure there’s a first aid kit in every room, especially upstairs where the dartboards are. Alcohol and darts is not a good idea, and Jason has shitty aim when drunk.

** Fire extinguishers are a Must near the kitchen, and if that doesn’t work, just wait for Tori and try not to get set on fire.

** Speaking of which, do not cry wolf when there is no wolf. Do not say there’s a monster when there’s no monster. Don’t run at anyone with a sharp object. Don’t yell “fire!” “bomb!” or “we’re under attack!” 

** Also, don’t pretend like you’ve gone evil unless Kimberly is running through her annual Turbo re-enactment for the laughs. Please don’t punch her.

[woegoths]

chances are, you probably know who kieran prescott is.

kieran moved from america to england when he was about 5-6 for a deadbeat father who winded up leaving him and his (muggle) mother on their own like, 2 minutes later. with his mother an understandable fish out of water in the magical world, he was taught from a pretty young age how to fend for himself! most people would say he did pretty well. his wiki page will tell you he did pretty well. his 200k+ instagram followers will definitely tell you his looks are Not suffering for it.

according to witch weekly’s annual Nude 4 Charity cover issue (if anyone actually bothered to read the text) - “in school, prescott was sorted into gryffindor and got drafted to the hogwarts’ quidditch team as a first-string chaser at age 13 alongside another fan favorite, julien belrose. whether it was prescott’s natural talent on the field or belrose’s household name that warranted the interest of scouters, the two were quickly recruited to england’s national junior team, attending school part time and playing games across the world. the duo quickly earned a reputation for themselves with their seamless, seemingly natural pass-work and took england’s national junior team to the top both years they played. prescott was immediately recruited to the montrose magpies out of school, a fit that earned him the title of captain after just 3 years. not long after, in a move that struck controversy coming from the ace of an all-male team, kieran prescott held a press conference in which he announced that he was gay. if he didn’t have a cult following before, the words “quidditch isn’t who i am. it’s just what i do.” certainly solidified one. with one cup win already under his belt and fans across the globe, league watchers can only wonder what’s next on his agenda. still a “no comment” situation regarding his relationship with julien belrose after he fell out of the league’s eye 7 years ago. bummer!”

on the outside, kieran prescott is the best guy with the best career and the best following. his team openly supports his decision to come out, his wins are both effortless and consistent, and he’s genuinely likeable. a google search will lend you an amount of friendly fan-encounters rivaled only by the number of cat pictures on his instagram (his cat, of course, is named purrscott, and arguably holds the title of Most Meme-Friendly Cat of the 2000s). 

joke’s on all of you though, every single person who has ever only known kieran prescott as the Quidditch Player, the Celebrity, the Guy From Instagram/Twitter/All Those Stupidly Endearing Interviews People Won’t Stop Posting On My Facebook Feed. while it’s totally true that fame is something that kieran wears well - he’s naturally charismatic and extroverted, he’s great at getting people to like him and genuinely enjoys making friends - he’s also a total fuckin disaster of a human being in pretty much every other aspect of his life. 

being held up on such a specific, idolized pedestal from such a young age made it hard for kieran to rely on anyone or make genuine emotional connections with others - not for a lack of trying, but because he doesn’t really have the life experiences people generally tend to bond over. his life isn’t ordinary, and it never has been. he didn’t go to school, really. adults have told him he’s the shit since he was old enough to knew what it meant. he was thrust into a position of fame that most adults don’t ever reach before he even finished puberty. to make it all worse, his single most valuable emotional connection was cut PRETTY TRAUMATICALLY 8 years ago by the person that meant, still means, and will probably always mean the most to him even after hurting him IN THE WORST WAY! cool. after his friend(?) breakup with julien belrose, kieran crashed pretty hard. his best friends were his cat and his therapist for a long time. he day drinks. he hasn’t willingly woken up before 4pm since he was 18. he uses social media as an outlet for interacting w/ people (fans) w/out having to deal w/ actual consequences. he once held onto a bath bomb that a fan sent him for like months because he liked how it smelled but was too afraid to use it (? who sends one.. just one unpackaged bath bomb). he hasn’t dated anyone in 8 years. 

in this regard, his team is what has picked him up off the ground and he’s definitely a whole lot better at being functional than he was 8 years ago, but his life is... a mess. a fun one but a messy one.

unfiltered kieran looks something like gina linetti, mindy lahiri, and the 100 emoji. mostly this post. messy and depressed and gay af but he has a good heart and he’s always down to party. check out his tag for good personality vibes and shitposts. he’s a good egg i promise he just has a lot of umm.. problems. PROBLEMS THAT HE IS DEALING WITH. this is already so long please be friends with him and love him as much as i do thanks bye

[businessthreesixfive-blog]

Individuals Provide 2018

If one theme binds the 21 Washingtonians in City Paper’s 2018 People Issue, it’s that each of them is sure about their purpose in life. Some of them discovered what their life’s work would be as children. Others made an enduring commitment to finding their purpose, even as they waded through personal setbacks and faced obstacles beyond their control.  

Neal Henderson, who was born in 1937 on the island of St. Croix, fell in love with ice hockey during a childhood trip to Canada. Pamela Ferrell has spent four decades braiding, caring for, and comprehending hair—specifically “circle hair”—becoming a force in policy-making and art alike. “I want to heal the world using hair,” she says. “Everything else I’ve done has led me to this.” 

The People Issue is an annual exercise at City Paper. Every fall we generate a list of people who have something important to say about this moment in D.C. A few of them are in the process of making their mark on the city right now. Robin Bell is one of those. He casts critical images and texts onto the facades of buildings nearly every night of the week. Some have found themselves in the center of the news. Indira Henard has been advocating for survivors of sexual violence for two decades, but this year, she did so under the spotlight of the #MeToo movement. Still others are local institutions, people who could lead our People Issue any year, for years on end. Kojo Nnamdi is one of those. 

We hope that in these pages someone’s life experience—their joys, mistakes, and efforts to comprehend the world—will inform your own. —Alexa Mills

Darrow Montgomery

The Voice

Kojo Nnamdi is celebrating his 20th year as host of the popular Kojo Nnamdi Show, airing weekdays at noon on WAMU. Kojo is a native of Guyana who emigrated in 1967 to attend college. A naturalized U.S. citizen, he began his career in 1973 at Howard University’s WHUR-FM radio and later hosted Evening Exchange, a public affairs program that aired on Howard’s WHUT-TV. —Tom Sherwood

You have such a cool name. Can you tell us how you got it? 

Rex Orville Montague Paul was never seen as a very cool name, and that is my real name. I took the name Kojo Nnamdi when I entered professional radio because, one, it was a time when a lot of black people were seeking to reclaim our African heritage and, two, in those days quite a few people in broadcasting used to choose pseudonyms. I picked Kojo, which means “born on Monday,” and Nnamdi I picked because I was a great admirer of Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first [president] of independent Nigeria. Nnamdi is not usually used as a surname in Nigeria, it usually is used as a first name, a Christian name, but not being intimately familiar in those days with how these things were done, I chose it as a last name and it stuck ever since then.

Is that name [Kojo] on your passport?

Nope. As we used to call it back in the day, my slave name is on my passport. My parents got a little carried away.

You are in your 20th year at WAMU. The media world has fractured with social media. But you consistently have an audience. Do you have any idea why?

Terrestrial radio had a certain longevity and stability that people respect, but even that is slowly fading away. But I think what our show does and what I have come to present is a sense of place. It was fortunate for me two years ago that the station decided the show should no longer cover national and international affairs but focus on local affairs because the media that had been suffering the most is local media. Our show is able to give people in this region, whether they live in Maryland, Virginia, or the District, a sense of place and I think that is what is responsible for my own staying power.

You have a distinctive voice and manner. 

I don’t know where the voice came from. Before I ever left my native country [in 1967] I applied for a job at the local radio station. I was roundly rejected in the first round. I wasn’t even considered. I think the voice has to do more with my longevity than its timbre. There’s something about voice that still captures the imagination [of listeners]. You invariably never look like what they expect you to look like. There’s that level of intrigue that people find fascinating.

A mutual friend said that you are seen as a wise, thoughtful person … but your youth “was a little bit different,” more radical.

That’s true. I first got involved in radio not as a professional but as an amateur because I was a radical activist. In those days, from the late 1960s to early 1970s, I went from being a Black Nationalist, to being a Pan-Africanist, to studying Marxism and considered myself an activist, [part of] the Baby Boom generation that wanted to change the world. [When] … I was able to get my first professional job at Howard University, I began to realize that even as an activist, one would have more credibility if one were perceived to be fair. I realized more and more that being able to leave my personal opinions at the door … would gain credibility for me … and that has stuck with me to this day. 

You will be 74 in January. Do you have a sense of how long you want to do this?

The ironic part is that under normal circumstances I should be considering retiring at this point. But for reasons that I cannot explain, the popularity of the show, and my own, seem to be higher than it’s ever been. And I must admit, that is a motivating factor to keep on doing it.

Darrow Montgomery

The Hair Fixer

Pamela Ferrell has spent the better part of 40 years staring at other people’s heads. Her long career in hair began with the founding of her D.C. hair braiding company Cornrows & Co. in 1980. After being slapped with fines for operating without a cosmetology license, even though there was no instruction on natural hair braiding included in cosmetology curricula, she and her husband Taalib-Din Uqdah fought the city. In 1992, D.C. created a separate license for braiders. Ferrell has remained active in the politics of hair, filing EEOC claims and lawsuits against businesses that discriminate against women with certain natural hair styles, and even convinced the U.S. Navy to change its hair policy in 1993. The majority of her business today centers on designing custom hairpieces for women experiencing hair loss. An exhibit about her work is currently on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. —Laura Hayes

You’ve transitioned from hair stylist to hair activist to hair scientist. What is your latest project? 

The Grow Hair Project is about teaching women how to use their hair and scalp as a tool for keeping track of their health status. Strands of hair give us a three-month imprint of what your health status is. It tells us what your mineral content is, like iron, sodium, and potassium. It will also tell us what toxic minerals you have, like lead and mercury. I’ve developed this way of looking at the scalp, and based on patterns of hair loss, I can determine what health problems someone has. For example, the top crown of the head is your blood circulation and cardiovascular system. I’ve followed women for 30, 40 years. I have files of photographs of them over the years. I even keep my files of deceased clients. Many of them had crown hair loss and died of heart attacks, young women. I want to heal the world using hair. That will be my lasting impact. Everything else I’ve done has led me to this. 

You began your TED talk by asking the audience what would happen if blonde, redhead, and straight hairstyles were banned in the workplace. How are you still fighting the battle to convince employers to stop discriminating against workers based on their hair?

Circle hair and straight hair have different characteristics. One grows up, one grows down. If it rains and your hair gets wet, your hair is going to hang down, mine is going to expand up. I’ve used these characteristics to fight hair discrimination in the workplace. The most recent case I did was with the U.S. Army. In 2014, I got a call from one of my clients. She’s in a panic because she had been wearing her natural hair twisted for years. The Army had just changed the grooming policy saying you could not wear twists or locks. I had already done this with the Navy. I had a letter I sent to the Secretary of the Army in May 2014.  They called me back in. I put together a presentation in four days that I gave to 24 senior officials. I just talked about hair shape. I didn’t talk about black people, white people, skin color, none of that because at the end of the day, that gets old. They totally got it. They changed the policy. This was in May. They were honoring me at the Pentagon in September. They said a policy had never been changed that quickly. 

Looking back at your career what was your proudest moment? 

Being called by Diana Ross to do the hair for the movie Out of Darkness. Of course, it was in California. The producers thought, “Why don’t we get someone here? It’ll be less expensive.” Diana was like “Well, I want her. I want to interview her.” I went out and interviewed and when I came back she told me I got the job. I was on location for two months. Then I worked with her for four years after that. I toured with her. 

Darrow Montgomery

The Artist by Night

Almost nightly, video artist Robin Bell uses a projector to cast critical images and texts onto the facades of buildings. The D.C. native first earned headlines in 2015 for projecting poop emojis onto the side of a new Subway in his Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Since his shitposting days, Bell has set his sights on the Trump administration, and specifically the Trump International Hotel. From reviving a D.C. protest from the Reagan era (“Experts Agree! Ed Meese Is a Pig”) to broadcasting blunt objections (“Brett Kavanaugh Is a Sexual Predator”), Bell is working at the intersection of text art and the op-ed page. —Kriston Capps

Where are you projecting tonight? 

I’m not exactly sure. I might be doing the Trump Hotel again and a few other spots around town. I’m working with a few people on an idea at the moment. We did similar projections last night on immigration.

How responsive are you to the news cycle?

Right now, I’m waiting to see what the day’s like by 4:00 and then I’m going to start fine-tuning some things. Some projections, we spend months working on just a simple sentence or two. Other times, we’re figuring out something insanely last minute.

Who are your partners in this?

Two or three years ago, I could do it with one or two people, maybe helping move the equipment. Now I have a team of people who work with me on everything from film to photo to documentation. Sometimes, depending on the projection, I might work with an advocacy group. Or I’ll work with either another artist or filmmakers. Two and a half weeks ago, I did a gig with Assia Boundaoui, who did a movie called The Feeling of Being Watched. She had figured out that her family home and her community had been under FBI surveillance for over 20 years without any convictions. She went through the process of getting [Freedom of Information Act requests] to talk about the surveillance program. She wanted to project images from the FOIAs and her home videos from that time period on the FBI Building. To flip the imagery and research back on the building where that went on.

What buildings have you projected on in D.C.?

I should have a list. The Trump Hotel. We’ve done the Department of Justice, the FBI. We’ve projected on the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, the EPA, Department of Energy—not that one yet, actually, we might do that tonight. I’m saving that for something special. It’s a really big wall. Department of Interior, World Bank, IMF, Supreme Court, the Jamaican Embassy—

That was another one working with a photographer, about a UNESCO World Heritage site in Jamaica being turned into a shipping port for Chinese shippers. 

There are 15 that I use. I won’t give away my fonts. Forever, I felt like every single activist poster used Impact. Fucking Impact, everywhere. It’s such a great font, but I try not to use that one.

Do you have any copycats?

I’m not the first or hopefully the last projection artist. There’s a group that’s very like-minded that I work with in New York called The Illuminator. We work with each other from time to time, but then we also challenge each other with getting better at projections and locations. This technology, it’s been there. Jenny Holzer did it. Barbara Kruger did it. Krzysztof Wodiczko, he’s a legend at what he does.

Do you draw inspiration from memes? Do you think of your work in the context of memes?

I definitely don’t think, “I’m going to create a meme,” and that’s the inspiration for a projection. We’ve played around with memes. We did the Left Shark once. We animated the Left Shark and made the Left Shark dance on the Trump Hotel. That was when Stormy Daniels said that Donald Trump was scared of sharks.

Will you keep doing this under, say, a Liz Warren administration?

Oh yeah. We were doing the same projections under Obama. We were doing projections on the EPA. That was the first time I did an EPA projection, over the Keystone pipeline. We do more now—you can’t make up this news. What used to happen in a month happens in a day or two.

Darrow Montgomery

The Culinary Historian

Michael Twitty grew up in D.C., had internships at the Smithsonian Institution, and has gone on to make a career of studying culinary traditions and what they mean. His narrative cookbook, The Cooking Gene, won two James Beard Awards this year, and he has no plans of slowing down. —Stephanie Rudig

You were born and raised in D.C. What food memories do you have from growing up?

I’ll start with my mom. When she came from Cincinnati, one of the things she noticed was the prevalence of seafood. They had never had so much crab. And of course the half smoke, nobody had a half smoke in the Midwest. The food was much closer to the food of the South, where her parents had come from. For my father, who was born and raised in the city, he has a long memory of what it was like to be in these communities of people who had come up from the South who were still living under segregation, and formed their own restaurants and communities in Washington that spoke to where they came from. Everybody had a garden. People ate out of those gardens. Growing up in the city, during the summertime people had barbecues and cookouts. You could literally go from household to household and just pick up a plate and be kind of full. 

For your research for The Cooking Gene, you actually went and worked in fields and produced food the way enslaved people did, the way that people did historically. What was it like to spend so many years of your life doing that?

It was my way out of a rut. I taught 14 years of Hebrew school in this area, and I had a routine, and I hate routines. I felt as a historian that it’s kind of thrilling to place yourself in the history. It’s one thing to say, “Those people over there, this is what happened to them.” But when you know your own story is actually tied up in the history that you teach and write about, it’s incredibly personal. It’s almost as if you never learned anything.

Was there anything that particularly surprised you during this process?

The number of white people who I was related to. It’s happened to me so often. The other night I was in Norfolk, Virginia. The family who the lecture series was named after, his son gets up and says, “I have to call you cousin, because I did some research and you and my mother shared an ancestor.” This happens to me all the time. 

A lot of people first came to know you through your open letter to Paula Deen after her racist comments. You invited her to come cook with you. She never responded, but does that offer stand?

It does, but until she does, I’m like Mariah Carey: “I don’t know her.” I was disappointed, but I was cool. Honestly, had she shown up to that dinner in North Carolina, we might not be talking right now. It would be a completely different narrative. 

I hear that you want to do a book about Jewish culinary traditions, and also one about your experiences as a gay man working in kitchens. 

Kosher Soul is in the process of being written now. Kosher Soul is about Jewish food and Jewish culture, but through the lens of African-American Jews and Jews of African descent. Jewish cookbooks are an extension of the way Jewish culture uniquely inculcates its culture. The next one doesn’t have a name yet. For gay men in the kitchen, and LGBT people period, the kitchen is both a sanctuary and a war ground. All these people in the food world, James Beard, Craig Claiborne, all these gay men who shaped the contours of American food as we know it. You have to ask yourself, what is it about men who sleep with men that makes them so profoundly central to the history of global gastronomy? 

Where do you like to eat around here?

It’s going to get me killed. I will say this. Andy Shallal, if you’re listening, please reboot Eatonville slash Mulebone. It was really good, and I don’t like to eat Southern food and soul food out. They always mess it up.

Darrow Montgomery

The Bonsai Master

Just like his dad, Joe Gutierrez went into medicine. He’s a surgeon and has practiced at several regional hospitals, including Doctors Hospital, Georgetown, and Sibley, with his longest stint at the now-shuttered Columbia Hospital for Women. But as a hobby, he started cultivating bonsai trees decades ago and is a long-serving volunteer at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. —Stephanie Rudig

How did you get involved in bonsai?

My uncle was a photographer, that was his hobby. He liked to photograph old buildings and old doors, and I liked to photograph trees. I liked trees that were crooked with a lot of movement to them. Then we came to the states from the Philippines, and we stopped in Japan, and that’s when I saw my first bonsai. That kind of sat at the back burner of the brain. I was up late one night in the recovery room waiting for a patient to wake up. We had a nurse who had a book on chrysanthemums. The first half of the book was how to take care of chrysanthemums, and the second half was how to make bonsai out of chrysanthemums. I thought I’d give it a try. 

I can’t tell you how many chrysanthemums I killed. I didn’t have the patience, and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I bought every book I could for bonsai and had a little bit of success. Brooklyn Botanic Garden had a Japanese master there, so every month I’d pack up my tools and go to Brooklyn and spend a day there. Usually I’d go on Friday, then I’d have the rest of the weekend to play with the trees. 

It’s interesting that you say you didn’t have the patience, because you’ve now stuck with it for several decades. 

When I first went into practice, my dad said, “All you need is some patients.” He was playing with the term. You really need patience in bonsai, you can’t do everything all at once. There’s times when you should prune, and times when you shouldn’t prune. 

I’ve heard that you use surgical tools in your bonsai practice.

I have some old tools. Tools wear out, so I have tools that were discarded, beyond repair. They’re stainless steel, so they don’t rust. 

Are there other similarities between the two interests?

I like to work with my hands, and I like to do meticulous work. It takes meticulous work to wire all the little different branches and make the wiring look neat. It’s the same way when you do surgery. People don’t really see what your suture technique looks like, but if you take pride in what you do, it’s gotta look nice.

You’ve earned the nickname “The Magician” [from the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society].

You bend branches and make them bend a different way, people think it’s magic, but it’s not magic. You have to know exactly where the breaking point is. You bend the branch until you think it might break if you move it a quarter inch, then you stop. 

What’s the oldest tree you’ve trained? Have any survived from your early days?

My oldest trees are collected trees. I have some trees that are 15, 20, 30 years old. If you start with a nursery plant, that’s pretty old. I have trees that are a couple hundred years old, but those are trees I dug up in Colorado. 

How long have you been volunteering at the museum?

Twelve or 13 years. Since shortly after I retired. When the Japanese pavilion opened in 1976, I was there. 

How has it changed over the years?

Some of the trees look better now. 

They’re that much older, so there’s a lot more foliage. They get good care here. We photograph the trees so we can see that they really do look better. Some of them have died. Every curator says “I don’t want any trees to die on my watch.” But it’s just like patients. They have a life expectancy.

Darrow Montgomery

The Self-Care Purveyor

Alisha Ramos started her career in tech, working at Vox Media and as a design lead on healthcare.gov. Now, she helms Girls’ Night In, which publishes a weekly newsletter on self-care to over 100,000 subscribers, and hosts live book club events in nine cities. —Stephanie Rudig

What prompted you to quit your career in the tech sector and launch Girls’ Night In?

I actually think Girls’ Night In is very much in line with technology. I built our website from scratch, and designed and coded it. From figuring out how to grow the newsletter to publishing content to harnessing our community, a lot of it is very technology driven. I launched the Girls’ Night In newsletter in the middle of all this political upheaval and amid a very overwhelming news cycle. I wanted to create something that was fun and gives you a chance to take a breather. The decision to quit didn’t come until six months after launching the newsletter. I put 100 percent of myself into everything I do, and at that point I was one foot in, one foot out, and I decided I wanted to be 100 percent in. 

Self-care is very big right now, but you’ve managed to gain a really huge following. What sets you apart from other people who are covering the same thing?

When we first launched, self-care wasn’t really a force like it is now. I made a point to not use the phrase “self-care,” because I felt that it could be co-opted. But now we embrace it, because it is a simple encapsulation of what we stand for, which is to help women relax, recharge, and build more meaningful community. I wanted to capture the sense that I get whenever I host my friends for a night in. It’s really the time for me to connect on a deeper level with my friends and deepen those relationships. We are trying to put a deeper focus on a sense of mental wellness, emotional wellness, and social wellness. Those are all a part of how we live our lives as humans. 

I keep hearing that millennials crave “experiences,” but it kind of seems like that’s just another thing that’s burning people out. How can staying in be its own experience?

The really fun thing about Girls’ Night In is a lot of people will tag us on Instagram while they’re staying in alone on a Friday or Saturday night. We’ll usually repost those, and we’ve gotten messages from people who say, “Even though I’m staying in, I still feel like I’m part of something, and I feel less alone.” Another favorite part for me is our monthly book club gatherings we have offline. We created those to balance the need to stay in and the need to go out and experience the world. There’s usually around 20 or 25 women. It’s a really great way to meet other people in a not overwhelming way. 

Can we expect to see more events from Girls’ Night In?

You can expect to see us expanding into different types of event formats. In New York we’re hosting an expanded version of our book club. There are more social elements involved, so we’re having a book swap, teaching people how to press flowers in their books, we have fun icebreakers. We look to our community for everything. Even the book club came organically from our community from people saying “I love reading the newsletter, but I want a book club, because when I stay in, I read books.” 

What does an average night in look like for you?

Cooking is definitely one version of my self-care. I usually go through my favorite recipe sites. I’ll try to find one that’s a little complex or something I’ve never cooked before. It gives me a little bit of a challenge, which as a type-A person, I love. That’s my time to reflect and relax, and at the end of it I get a delicious meal. And the usual stuff that others probably do like watch Netflix.

Darrow Montgomery

The Fire Chief

Gregory Dean is the stoic face of D.C.’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services department, responsible for coordinating the District’s response to everything from house fires to the Women’s March. In 2015, Mayor Muriel Bowser tapped the Seattle native to run FEMS, after a decade of helming Seattle’s fire department. In the past few months alone, a string of over 1,500 overdoses from synthetic cannabinoid K2, along with a major fire at a seniors’ apartment building called Arthur Capper tested the department’s organizational muscle. And five days after that fire began, a 74-year-old male resident was found (largely unharmed) in his apartment. Dean’s philosophy for each new event? “We’ll go back out and ask different questions, more penetrating questions.” —Morgan Baskin

Tell me a little bit about your career path, and how you ended up where you are.

I was in college, and I was getting ready to get drafted to go to Vietnam. They had a lottery system; my number was high, which means, I wasn’t going to Vietnam. So I took a part-time job at the Seattle fire department. I mean, I took a job, I just assumed it was part-time. And I was going to go back and finish up [school] and be a history teacher. But when I got there, I found out that I loved the adrenaline highs of never doing the same thing every day, the unexpected. So since then, that’s all I’ve done. 

When I first started, we worked 10-hour days and 14-hour nights. And then in the ’80s we switched to 24-hour shifts. And then as an administrator you work seven days a week, eight hours a day, or so. 

What kind of history did you want to teach?

It was just going to be high school—so just general history. 

How is working at the department in D.C. different than working in Seattle?

We’re the nation’s capital. And there’s great pride in being the nation’s capital and being innovative and doing things—for example, the number of first amendment marches, and preparing for the inauguration, for being prepared for the host of things that go on in the District. 500,000 people show up and we’re expected to not only manage the day-to-day business [of FEMS], but all those [protestors] that come to the District at the same time. 

You know, you take great pride in being able to take care of people. For the inauguration for the president ... at 2 in the morning we went home, at 7 in the morning we started the Women’s March. And just having all of your resources available and ready to go. The marches we’ve had, the things that go on—you know, it’s interesting. 

What’s your planning strategy when you know big protests or demonstrations are coming down the pipeline?

With the inauguration, we took a year. We worked with all the different police agencies, we worked with the military, we worked with the Secret Service, a number of different fire departments—because, big events like that, you have to use your mutual aid, to be able to make sure you can cover all the different aspects. So each one is a little different, but based on the type of event and based on security, it determines how far out you have to prepare for these types of things. 

On a personal level, how do you deal with public health crises like the K2 overdoses? Do you approach it clinically at this point?

So, I think everyone is always affected. We do better by training. Training allows us to actually manage the types of events that we deal with. But it’s not just one person—I think if it’s one person you feel totally responsible. We work as a team, and so we talk about events, and train for events—I always look at fire departments like football teams. You want to go out and utilize your skills so when events come in, it’s exciting times. We get to manage and see how well our training matches up with what we’re seeing. So we look forward to those type of events. And trying to manage all the different things that go on.

Darrow Montgomery

The Hockey Ambassador

Born July 9, 1937 on the island of St. Croix, Neal Henderson fell in love with hockey at a young age, when he visited his father in Canada. He moved around the United States before settling in D.C. in the 1960s, and in 1978, founded the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club to give local kids the opportunity to play organized ice hockey. It’s now the oldest minority hockey program in North America, according to the NHL, and Henderson remains actively involved four decades later. In May, the league announced that Henderson was one of the finalists for the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award, which is “presented to the person who best utilizes hockey as a platform for participants to build character and develop important life skills for a more positive family experience.” —Kelyn Soong

Hockey is still a predominantly white sport, especially in the NHL. How did you get into the sport?

When I was a child, my dad was in the Merchant Marines, and his port of call was St. Catherines in Canada. At the time, I was an only child along with my mom, so I had the opportunity to travel to Canada during the Second World War, and I learned to do what the kids in the neighborhood did. I enjoyed the game. I enjoyed playing hockey, and it stuck with me from then on.

What did you enjoy about the sport? What drew you to it?

Well, the hypnotism of the stick and puck. You had a language different from any other sport to play. You don’t even have to speak but you understand the language of stick and puck.

What is the language of stick and puck?

The way you pass the puck to your partner. The way the puck sounds hitting the stick. The way the puck feels when it touches your stick. The way you control the puck and the different areas of the blade of the stick that touches the puck. [How it] feels in your hand.

What’s the mission of your youth hockey program?

It’s to teach people of all colors and ages to work together, to understand each other, to form a more perfect union of understanding each individual by means of communication through playing ice hockey.

What kind of impact has the Capitals winning the Stanley Cup had on your program?

It’s given us a greater feeling of importance, that even though it’s a game, it means so much as a part of life to strive for something, to want to be on top with something in mind. And that’s a part of life. You want to do what you can in life to be not only the best you can be, but to be able to do something that you can be admired for.

How do you think we can get more people of color in hockey and playing at a high level?

I think you have to express that by showing more people, letting more people see that. I think more commercials, more people being involved as far as conversation ... to enlighten people about this sport.

How important is it to have an ice rink in Southeast, where kids aren’t normally exposed to ice hockey?

I think it’s important because it’s another avenue to travel. You have the basketball courts, you have the football fields, you have the baseball fields. Why not have an ice rink?

What are you most proud of?

I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve helped so many kids go to college, become respectable, have positions in many different operations of our society that they can be happy and honored to be in. They’re good citizens for the country and they are well worth the strides that they have made to be where they are.

Darrow Montgomery

The Do-It-All Designer

Dian Holton is eternally hustling, whether dressing store windows at Gap in the wee hours, whipping up designs for her day job as an art director at AARP The Magazine, or planning big things with the D.C. chapter of American Institute of Graphic Arts. In everything she does, she gleans inspiration from her own world, whether she’s seeking input from her family members who have served in the military for a service-focused shoe collection, or building numbers out of all different kinds of materials and photographing them—her Daily Digits project. —Stephanie Rudig

You work at AARP, and people may have a preconceived notion of what that’s like, but your design is hip and young looking. A lot of people expect something different from AARP. How do you bring your design to the organization?

It’s a team, and I want to give credit to the entire team. We have people who have a wealth of experience and knowledge. I try to get outside of my 9 to 5 to glean inspiration so I can bring it back in and fuel those projects. I’ve got the keys to the car and I’m driving 100 miles an hour. I can hire whichever illustrators I want to hire. I like colors and patterns and textures, so I try evoke that energy in that content. 

You work in fashion quite a bit, and recently did your first shoe collaboration with Nike. Tell me about that.

They reached out in January and they said, “You have like 11 days.” I was like, I can bitch and whine about the timeline, or I can just do it. You know, like Nike, right? This is really a promotion of the NIKEiD customization program. I wanted to tell a story. My brother had just come back from Syria the previous year, my dad is retired military, my cousins and uncles on my dad’s side, most of them have served, all branches. I know it’s materialist, but I thought this might be a good way to pay homage to them. I wanted it to be intergenerational and be appealing to people my dad’s age and people my brother’s age. The reception was amazing. I did not expect people to be as excited and to foster the conversations we had. People were reaching out from abroad. I donated proceeds to Veterans on the Rise, which is a nonprofit here in D.C. that supports homeless vets, and to Purple Heart Foundation. 

How did you manage to consistently stick with your Daily Digits project?

It started in February 2015. I wanted something where I could control the medium, the time I post, if I just don’t want to do it anymore. I started with Rolos. It took off and became really easy. I did 30 days and it just kept going and going. HP reached out and asked, “Would you be interested in using that body of work to do a collaboration with us?” We did two small books, almost like coffee table books. They wanted me to highlight their new inks. The books are all printed with those inks. That was a fun project, and it turned into a commercial. 

You’ve had a lot of clients and dabbled in a lot of areas. Do you have any dream projects?

There’s so many things. All the things. I’m looking to have an exhibit with [Daily Digits]. I would also like to make a book, like a bound book. So Random House, Chronicle, hello. Also I want to do a calendar. With that project I would love to see it in a tactile form, because it’s just digital. I’ve always had the goal of working corporate at a fashion company. One of the reasons I’ve stayed at the Gap is I want to do corporate store designs and campaigns. Beyond that, I don’t know. I’m content for the most part. I want to work on fun projects that are meaningful and impactful.

Darrow Montgomery

The District Fishwife

Fiona Lewis brings Aussie charm to Union Market, where she operates District Fishwife—a small and mighty fish market and made-to-order seafood stall. The Melbourne-born fishmonger studied chemical science at university before “going adventuring.” She visited, lived, and worked in various countries including Vietnam, Myanmar, and Afghanistan. She met her future husband, Ben Friedman, at an expat party in Kabul where she was helping to open a friend’s restaurant. She agreed to come back to the U.S. with him. That was nine years ago. —Laura Hayes

Why did you decide to open District Fishwife in 2014?

Coming from Kabul, I was so excited to come to D.C. and be an hour and a half from the ocean. Afghanistan is landlocked and a war zone. What was coming in, even to a couple of high-end restaurants, wasn’t amazing. I was so excited to come here and go to great fish markets and buy all this amazing fish. Then I got to D.C. and was like, “Huh?’” I felt the city was lacking in the quality of seafood that we enjoy everywhere in Australia. 

How has the business evolved over the past five years? Your kitchen seems to crank out poke bowls and shrimp bánh mì sandwiches? 

When we opened we didn’t have as much [prepared] food as we do now. When we signed the contract we were told [Union Market] would be a market, not a food hall, but that’s what it is. We sell a little more food than fish, but that’s not surprising. We do have a whole bunch of loyal, amazing supporters for our fish. 

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Educating customers. A passion of mine is sustainability. How can we continue eating wild fish forever? Part of that is learning about, embracing, and understanding aquaculture [farmed fish]. There are good and bad practices. Customers will walk past my case seeing that some products are farm-raised, yet they’ll go to the butcher next door where almost everything is from a farm. I’m trying to change the perception in America that farmed is bad. Aquaculture is the thing of the future. With it we can support our wild fisheries, our fishermen, and our industry. Our Cape d’Or salmon is farmed in Nova Scotia in seawater. Hopefully in the next 40 years we’ll be eating fish raised in a tank somewhere, done exceptionally well. It’s only just starting. The technology is only 10 years old.

What makes a bad day a bad day in the fish world? 

Hurricanes. That means no fishing. No fishing means no fish. This year there have been a huge amount of hurricanes and storms and crazy weather from the Gulf to the East Coast and we try to be as regional as possible. 

You say your customers have come to trust that the seafood displayed in your case is sustainable. What fish should we be eating more of? 

We don’t want to just eat cod, tuna, and salmon. It’s about broadening horizons and eating lesser-known fish. If you haven’t heard of a fish in our case, ask us about it and we’ll tell you how to cook it. Try the smaller fish. They reproduce faster from a wild perspective. The other thing to remember is that the shellfish we cook are filter feeders. Mussels, oysters, scallops, and clams. They’re not just sustainable, they’re restorative. They’re cleaning the ocean. 

What do you think of the plastic straw ban craze? Are there other, even more impactful plastics we should do away with?

I don’t think we’re at a place yet where we can stop using all plastic, but we’re at a place where people can bring their own bags to grocery shop. All those boring, simple things. But more importantly the water [bottle] thing kills me. Sometimes you need a transportable thing of water, but think about it consciously every time before you do it so you’re using two bottles a week instead of 30.

Darrow Montgomery

The Team Builder

Local sports fans may remember Pops Mensah-Bonsu as the high-flying dunker on George Washington University’s men’s basketball team from 2002 until 2006. Since then, the 35-year-old north London native has lived and played basketball around the world. His nine-year professional career included stops in the NBA, high-level European leagues, and the NBA’s minor league, now known as the G League. After retiring from playing in 2015, Mensah-Bonsu worked for the National Basketball Players Association and as an advance pro scout for the San Antonio Spurs. Now he’s back in his “second home” as the general manager of the Wizards’ new G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go. —Kelyn Soong

Welcome back to D.C. How are you settling in?

Not settling in for me. I’ve been in the D.C. area since I left GW. Since I’ve retired, I’ve worked remotely from D.C. It just feels good to be fully based here as far as my day-to-day operations in the heart of D.C. So I’m pretty excited about that kind of relocation.

You’ve played professionally across the country and all over the world. What’s it like playing all those places?

It’s interesting because journeymen are usually looked at in a negative light. For me, it just made me the man I am today and it allows me to do my job a little bit better. I’ve played in the NBA. I’ve played high level Europe. I’ve played in the G League, and I have experience and success at every level. All the experiences that I’ve had have better served, or allowed me to better serve these players in the managerial position that I’m in today.

Did you expect to become a general manager?

No. I was always one of the players who thought about life after basketball. I always thought about going to law school. I thought about going to get my MBA. I always had a fascination with hotels. I wanted to get into the hospitality industry. I still have a weird fascination for hotels. I think playing basketball, it takes you all over the world and you see a number of different hotel rooms. … Hotel rooms always excited me for some reason, but I think when I retired early, I realized that my impact on the game was probably going to be more off the court. That’s when I realized the front office was going to be my path.

What do you hope to accomplish with the team?

Development, across the board. We want to be able to develop the players on and off the court. We want to be able to develop our staff. We have an assistant coach. Hopefully we develop him into an NBA assistant coach, maybe one day a head coach. If we have a head coach, we want to help propel him into an NBA head coach one day. If we have anybody else in our front office, if it’s a basketball ops assistant, we want to develop them into someone higher up in the front office. 

And the community. Ward 8, Congress Heights is one of the main reasons why we’re here and we want to make sure we embrace that community. Community development is a big thing for me. When I got the job I really wanted to make sure they felt a part of this and felt like this is a team they can call their own. We want to embody that Go-Go name and we’re not going to take that lightly.

What do you think of the team name?

I love it. I feel like we set the bar high with the name. Now we have to live it and we have to embody that name and make sure we embrace it. The players like to listen to music before practice starts or it gets going. Coach threw on some go-go and got the guys pretty excited, pretty hyped. Everybody out there who thinks it’s just a name, nah, we take it to an extreme when it comes to being the Go-Go. We even practice to the music, too.

Darrow Montgomery

The Government Watchdog

As the first director of D.C.’s Office of Open Government, Traci Hughes drew the blueprint for its mission. Some didn’t appreciate her effort to peel back the curtains on governmental operations, and earlier this year, the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability declined to appoint her to a second term. —Mitch Ryals

In your five years as director of the Office of Open Government, what violation of open government laws did you see most often?

The most common ones were that people were improperly closing meetings. We really had to work with the public bodies from the outset to make sure that everybody was properly trained.

We’re all human in these roles, so there was unfortunately a lot of push back. There were public bodies who felt they should be able to discuss certain things in a closed or private session that the law simply didn’t allow. 

Are there any cases that stand out in your mind?

The first one being the United Medical Center opinion, in which I found that that public body wrongly entered into closed session and then voted to close the only maternity ward east of the river.

That has significant implications in many different areas, the least of which, in my opinion, was the violation of the Open Meetings Act. The response for that particular public body was “Well we’re going to sue the Office of Open Government.”

The second opinion I issued pertained to the Commission on the Selection and Tenure of Administrative Law Judges. That was also very unpopular with the executive because the opinion stated that not only were there numerous violations of the Open Meetings Act, but there was the potential that a couple of members were not properly seated when they took certain very high profile decisions. If you’ve got members of a public body who are not properly seated, and they take action, then potentially that action is null and void. I knew when it hit my desk: This is going to make me or break me. And this is a pivotal moment for me. Either I’m going to do my job and probably risk losing it, or sweep some stuff under the rug, where I’m not pointing out the violations of the law. I could not live with not treating that complaint the same way I would any other. I could not allow anyone else to fill the narrative or fill the gap on what happened.

In 2016, Mayor Bowser created the Mayor’s Open Government Office, which served a similar function to your office. Some saw that as a duplication of efforts.

Well, I think it is just what you said. I think it’s entirely redundant. The job description itself was an exact mirror of what I did. So the handwriting had been on the wall in terms of my fate for a year or two prior to my term ending.

Does anything with the Office of Open Government need to change?

I made this very clear to the Council: I think the Office of Open Government should be attached to its own public body to make sure the office maintains its independence. And we now see evidence of what could happen when it doesn’t have full independence. Any person who sits in the director’s seat will think, “Should I write this opinion? Should I not pursue this, because my job could potentially be in jeopardy?”

After you weren’t reappointed, you launched a campaign for D.C. Council, but got caught in the same signature-gathering controversy that disqualified other candidates. 

Running for office was a great learning experience. I’m a very deliberate public servant; I was an accidental politician, but it’s not in my constitution to play dirty. So I don’t know that I’ll ever do that again. It’s a nice little footnote to my life 50 years from now.

Darrow Montgomery

The Concert Capturer

Ahmad Zaghal goes to a lot of concerts. In 2009, the year he won the 9:30 Club’s coveted raffle—in which one winner receives tickets to every concert in a calendar year—he attended 160 concerts, he estimates. In recent years, he’s made a name for himself through his concert photography, which is surprising considering he’s blind. What started out as a kind of joke—an Instagram account for a blind guy taking concert photos—has evolved into an artistic endeavor, he says, and his photos have been exhibited at the Phillips Collection. —Matt Cohen

How did you first get into music? What were the first concerts you attended? 

I guess it was access to whatever was on TV and, like, HFS. It was a lot of local radio and things like that. There wasn’t much access, really at all, to the internet at the time, which is weird to think about now. Nowadays everybody has access to pretty much whatever—all the music that’s ever been recorded and widely released. You know, you see teenagers who have this crazy wealth of knowledge. [Back then] it was pretty much MTV and local radio stations for the most part. I think one of my first shows—if not my first show—was one of those HFStivals in the ’90s.

For years, I’ve seen you at, it seems like, almost every show I’ve gone to. How many shows a week would you say you attend?

I think I’ve cut down lately. I don’t know, maybe two to three. I feel like I was probably up to about four or five at some point … I really didn’t start going to them regularly until I was well into my 20s.

When did you start taking pictures?

The fall of 2013. It started as a joke between myself and Valerie Paschall. I mentioned to her, “What if I started an Instagram page and started posting pictures?” She thought it was a funny idea. I really didn’t expect it to be more than just me and her, maybe a few other people looking at it, having a laugh over it for a couple weeks. Kind of thought it would die. But then [Washington Post Style Editor] Dave Malitz somehow found out about it, and then mentioned it to [Post Pop Music Critic] Chris Richards. Or maybe it was the other way around. That led to Chris doing a piece in The Post. It kind of became a thing after that, I guess. People seem to be into it still.

What’s that process like for you? I’ve seen you take pictures during shows and you’re pointing your phone where you hear the sound coming from.

Yeah, that’s definitely part of it. Also I get a little bit of feedback from the phone, as to whether there are faces in the frame or something. I can’t really hear it while it’s happening, but I turn the phone way up, so that the voice is loud enough, so I can actually feel it coming through the speaker on the phone. That gives me an idea as to whether or not I’m aimed in the right direction.

Nowadays the facial recognition thing has gotten so good that the voice-over app on the phone will actually tell me if there are faces in the frame, after the fact.

As someone who’s been going to shows in D.C. for almost 20 years, how have you noticed the music scene evolve in that time?

I do think that the local scene is sort of at a peak right now. As opposed to five or 10 years ago, where I’d be going to see mostly touring bands, nowadays I’m mostly just going to see friends’ bands. I’m still out pretty regularly, and I would say, 80 to 90 percent of the bands I go see are bands from around here. I feel like there’s a lot more happening, local music-wise. There’s been a lot more attention from national outlets being paid towards what’s going on here, which is very cool to watch unfold.

Darrow Montgomery

The Social Justice Preacher

Rev. William H. Lamar IV has been the pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in the District of Columbia since 2014. And in that time, as pastor of the 179-year-old national cathedral of the 2.5 million-member AME denomination, Lamar has hosted nationally known speakers, presided over memorial services for people like former PBS anchor Gwen Ifill, and been at the vanguard of many social issues. Since President Donald Trump’s election, Lamar has been especially focused on social justice issues—taking part in numerous protests (he was even arrested for one of them), programs, and acts of civil disobedience. —Hamil R. Harris

You and your ministers have been involved in many protest and calls for social justice. Why has this been part of the mission of your church ?

We do what we do in Washington, D.C. and around the world because God is a God of abundance, beauty, justice, and peace. Where there is scarcity, human beings are hoarding God’s gifts and exploiting the vulnerable among us. Where there is ugliness, human beings are deciding who is worthy of human flourishing and who is not, based upon race, gender, language, religion, ethnicity or some other excuse to oppress and demonize. Where there is injustice, human beings have erected systems to economically and politically reward socio-historical mendacity and the commodification of human bodies and God’s good Earth. 

Can you talk about some of the causes you have been involved in since the election of President Trump? During a White House protest led by the Bishops of your church, some said President Trump’s son-in-law [Jared Kushner] wanted to have a meeting with African-American church leaders, like Trump did with Kanye West. Is this dialogue possible?

We have been involved in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, the Washington Interfaith Network, the Sanctuary Movement, and many other collaborative movements that follow and fight alongside God, as God bends the world toward justice. I will meet with anyone. My ancestors taught me to acknowledge the humanity of all people. What I will not do is allow myself to be propagandized in the interest of empire, white supremacy, or kleptocratic capitalism. No photo ops. Only discussion grounded in history, not hagiography, and real solutions. 

In recent years we have witnessed an uptick of hatred turned into violence against houses of worship, from the killing of nine souls at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston, to the shooting of 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. What is your message to your members and all people of faith at this time?

My message is that America is literally grounded in the destruction of First Nation bodies, black bodies, and bodies that continue to be dehumanized under the white heat of the white gaze under demographic duress. Nothing has happened in this nation to interrupt the narrative that certain bodies are expendable and the Earth is to be exploited. Houses of worship are not exempt from this carnage because theology in America has supported this destruction of human bodies and God’s good Earth. America’s god of empire, commerce, hate, and war must die. Churches and synagogues and mosques who know of God’s justice and peace must preside at the funeral. There is hope, but only if we bury America’s god and live together under the banner of the God who loves all and lifts all.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a book years ago entitled Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? How would you answer that question?

Washington, D.C. has a choice. The United States has a choice. The world has a choice. Community is the result of shared resources, shared truth, and shared opportunities. Chaos is the result of greed, mendacity, and the hoarding of resources. You tell me what America seems to be choosing.

Darrow Montgomery

The Ancient Whale Whisperer

As a paleontologist, whale-chaser, and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History curator of fossil marine mammals, Nick Pyenson is something of a time traveling detective. This summer Penguin published his book, Spying on Whales, which is about his excursions across the oceans to learn more about whales—the biggest creatures on Earth. —Kayla Randall

What does paleontology entail?

We want to know about the history of life on Earth. What happened for most of the 3 billion years of life on this planet? Paleontologists have to be like detectives. You don’t get all the evidence; you’re trying to understand something you didn’t see and use tools of inference. More importantly, we are now agents of geological change on the planet. Our activities are directly influencing major Earth systems. We will see summers free of ice in the Arctic probably in the next 20 years, maybe 15 years, maybe sooner. Look at our carbon dioxide concentration: The last time it was 400 parts per million, which it is today, was 3 million years ago. So, to find examples of where the Earth is going in the future, we need to look to the past. It’s a very common thing for paleontologists to say, “Use the past to understand the present, and the present helps you understand the past.” That’s definitely super true now, more than any other time in human history.

What about your work with whales?

For whales, what’s cool is they have a fossil record. A lot of my job involves understanding the evolutionary past of whales. They have land ancestors. They once lived on land and they were the size of dogs. Some of them nowadays can weigh more than the largest dinosaurs and live in the ocean. That’s a pretty crazy amount of change. If you didn’t have the fossil record, you would not be able to understand how whales got to where they are. 

You learn so much. How do you make sense of the information that you get?

There’s no place that’s not interesting to me on the planet. We kind of think that everything is known because we have smartphones and Google. But, the fact is, we really don’t know that much about the planet we live on. And we especially don’t know everything about the past. We don’t know everything there is to know about the history of whales because the past is incomplete.

You can also slide the scale to historic time, and that’s where it gets really interesting because we hunted whales in the millions last century. Two to three million whales were killed during industrial whaling. That was an industry, that was for profit. So the world we live in today has far fewer whales than it did 100 years ago or 200 years ago. What are the consequences of that for ocean food webs? Nobody really knows, and that makes it a really interesting question.

Moving to the future, we are acidifying the oceans, we’re making them warmer. We also have major impacts just in our own activities directly, with shipping, with noise, with pollution. Military sonar has a big effect on whales, all kinds of whales. And the Navy knows that. But are they going to do anything about that? Probably not, because national security is a pretty big issue. 

Plastic is a part of our life, and all that ends up in the ocean … It stays forever and breaks down into smaller and smaller parts and eventually ends up in food webs. I don’t think any of us want to eat salmon that probably has plastics inside, but that’s the reality of the world we live in. We’re starting slowly to recognize the direct and indirect consequences of being several billion humans on the planet. The big question is what room is there for all the other species, including whales, on the planet?

Darrow Montgomery

The Activist Actor

Regina Aquino has wanted to perform since she was four years old. The Clinton, Maryland, native studied acting at Studio Theatre after college and appeared regularly on local stages before taking a hiatus to raise her family. Now Aquino, who has roles at the Folger and Woolly Mammoth in coming months, is focused on dismantling conventional notions about what theater should look like. —Caroline Jones

Did you see changes in the D.C. theater scene in the time you were away?

To be honest, not really. In terms of pushing the boundaries with regards to the stories that are told, it’s always the smaller theater companies that embrace stories written by people of color, diverse casting, stories that challenge the norm. When I started acting here, I was the only Filipina actor in the city and in the time that I was away up until now, there’s only been one other. I think the diversity and breadth of talent that is coming up from all different communities, that alone will demand change of the stories that are being told and hopefully will also force the larger theater companies to look at the entire talent pool. 

I understand that it’s very hard for a larger theater company to break away from that when you have some bills to pay. But at the same time, how are you growing your audience base and who are you making these stories for? How are D.C. theaters going to survive if they’re always trying to attract the same audience base when this city’s becoming more and more diverse, and those diverse populations also have funds and the desire to see plays?

What do you think about the leadership changes that are happening in D.C. theaters?

I think what Colin Hovde did—knowing that Theater Alliance is at a peak point in its existence and making space for a new leader to come in, hopefully a leader of color or somebody from the LGBTQ community, to really engage with that specific community in a different way than, you know, a cis het white man—is very self-aware and very intentional. 

Losing Howard [Shalwitz, former artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company] was, of course, devastating because he is the real deal. We were so lucky here to have that.

But to know that they brought in a woman of color [Maria Goyanes] who has worked very hard and made huge advancements at The Public ... I mean, when I met her and she made her introductory speech to the board, I felt like she was speaking specifically to me. She was talking about inclusion and the power of storytelling and that America is more than what we have traditionally seen on stage and that we need, at this moment in time, in our history, to tell stories that bring us all together and show all of our common interests and struggles and how our genesis, our arrival here in this country, it’s all so similar, so how do we cross those boundaries? 

What excites you about living in D.C.?

D.C. is so unique in that there’s always been intense artistic subcultures. We have so many amazing artists who stay here, so many theater artists who stay here because of the opportunity to work at huge theaters and play huge roles and actually develop yourself and develop relationships. 

It seems like there are people, especially in the artistic community, who want to grow a D.C. that’s not the federal government.

There’s always been an opposite to what the world perceives D.C. as being. I think wherever there’s intense politics and conflict, there’s always art. There’s always going to be somebody who challenges that or who thrives in opposition to what the norm is, and that’s me. 

When I did The Arsonists at Woolly, we really leaned into me. That was the only time I’ve played a Filipino on stage and that’s not written into the play. I just really leaned into it because all of the ambassadors, everybody in Georgetown, all of their housekeeping staff, all of their nannies, they’re all Filipino. The thought that perhaps I might be challenging these affluent, progressive, “woke” white people makes me feel like I have done something for this specific community that no one else could have done and that fulfills me.

I’ve played a maid now. I don’t want to do that again because at some point, you start to reinforce that stereotype. It’s being constantly aware of the things that I don’t want to reinforce in this community because I don’t want people to become complacent. 

Darrow Montgomery

The Survivor Advocate

Indira Henard is the executive director of the DC Rape Crisis Center. As an advocate for survivors of sexual violence for more than 20 years, the #MeToo movement has thrust her agency and her life’s mission into the national conversation this year. —Alexa Mills

When you started as a volunteer at the DC Rape Crisis Center 11 years ago, what was the work? 

I was a hotline advocate and I was a hospital advocate, and we would get called out for hospital advocacy to support survivors who had just been sexually assaulted. And we run a 24/7 hotline. So that was the work. 

What are your memories of doing that work?

My first hospital advocacy case, I’ll never forget it. It was at three in the morning. I was called to Greater Southeast Hospital—it has a different name now—and there was a woman who had been sexually assaulted. And when you walk into that exam room, you don’t know what’s going to be on the other side of that door. And so what I always tell people is that it’s about being able to connect with another human being. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like or what your background is. You are showing up for somebody in their most difficult time. They want to know that you are there to support them, that you are there to believe them, that you are there to do whatever it is you can to make a very tragic situation as comfortable as possible. 

Do you still have chances to do that in your executive director role? 

My role is quite different now, but I’m always on the ground. So for example, we sent a crisis team out to Capitol Hill to help support survivors who were being triggered by what was happening around the SCOTUS nomination, and to support Dr. Ford, and I led the team. I take hotline calls still. I meet with clients at least a couple times a quarter. 

What did your team do on Capitol Hill? 

We were in the Hart Senate Office Building for the most part, and we had advocates as well as licensed clinicians, and we partnered with other local agencies. If there were folks who needed to talk to us, we were there. Then our other team was also here at the office because clients were showing up in record numbers. We received a significant spike in our hotline, so we were in the trenches. It was all hands on deck. 

As someone who has dedicated your life to these issues, what has the #MeToo movement been like? 

The #MeToo movement has ignited a national conversation around sexual violence, which is a good thing. The challenge is that there is a lot that is not talked about within the #MeToo movement. There is this paradigm of what folks think sexual violence is, but sexual violence sits on a continuum. It’s incest, and childhood sexual abuse, and some of those things that we are not hearing about in the national spotlight. 

What do people need when they call the rape crisis hotline? 

When people call the hotline, and even when we showed up at the Hart Building, it’s for emotional support. Sometimes people call the hotline when they have just been assaulted, but more times than not, people call because sexual violence—when you have been sexually assaulted, you’re always going to be dealing with that on some level. Not in a bad way, but it’s just always going to impact you. You may have a trigger, it may be your anniversary, you may just be having a hard time. We see a spike in calls during the holidays. 

Why are the holidays a trigger? 

If you were assaulted by a family member, what does that mean to go back home, what does that mean to sit at the table with a person who possibly perpetrated against you? If you’ve never disclosed to your family, you may be showing up a particular type of way, but nobody knows why. If you don’t have family. All of those things. We always have special events for our clients during the holidays. 

Darrow Montgomery

The Spiritual Leader

Rev. Randy Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral, was born in the District and raised in Alexandria, but spent three decades away, leading Episcopal congregations in Savannah, Georgia, and Richmond, Virginia, before returning in 2016 to lead the Cathedral. In those two years, he’s had to grapple with major national issues, from gun violence to racism, but finds joy in connecting with the Cathedral’s many visitors. —Caroline Jones

How do you see the Cathedral’s role in D.C., in a time when people are asking a lot of questions about how humans relate to one another and treat each other?

When I arrived at the Cathedral, the focus of the Cathedral for recent years had been moving us into a place of financial stability, so I was really focused on continuing that work. And shortly after I got here, Trump was elected president, which sort of changed the whole dynamic of everything. It was a painful time for many people, we saw a lot of grief in the Cathedral the day after Trump was elected, but it’s a fascinating time as well. We occupy this interesting space at the intersection of the religious and the civic. I think the Cathedral has an important role to play in that, trying to bring those two together in some ways.

The Cathedral has a great conevening platform. It has a wonderful ability to bring people together for some of the important conversations that need to happen. As I like to say, I’m trying to live into Lincoln’s language to call us to the better angels of our nature. 

One of the things I wanted to ask about was the “Seeing Deeper” program (an initiative that invited people of all faiths to visit the Cathedral when it was decked out in colorful lights). What is the goal of that?

The goal, on the one hand, we’re a Christian community. We’re committed to following the ways of Jesus. On the other hand, we’re also really committed to helping people find their own spiritual expressions and not saying you have to have our way as the only way. So “Seeing Deeper” was a way to say to people, “OK, here we are in the depths of winter. We want to create these very non-ideological opportunities to maybe experience something transcendent.” I thought we’d get 700, 800, maybe a thousand people who would be interested in that. I was blown away that last year in one night, 7,000 people signed up to come to the Cathedral just for that purpose. 

Where do you find the joy in your job, when your public statements often come at times of sadness?

The Cathedral is a nonpartisan place. We’re not Democrat or Republican, but the Gospel has some pretty serious implications, and so we find at times that it’s really important for us to speak up and speak out about things. And so we don’t shy away from that. 

At the same time, the heart of our faith is a thing of joy. It’s about joy and it’s about hope and it’s about human possibility and it’s about helping people to become the best that they can be, so I find great energy and great joy in lifting that up for people and trying to help people find that. We’ve got a lot of problems, a lot of issues, but there are a lot of wonderful people and wonderful things going on in our city and in our country that need to be lifted up. 

Have you found that people have come to the Cathedral in search of reminders of that?

We find that a lot. Michael Curry, our presiding bishop, preached the sermon at the Royal Wedding. It was the most simple sermon, it was about the God of love, but you could see across so many people that they needed to hear that very simple message. So we find people all the time that they come to the Cathedral and they’re looking for some hope and they’re looking for some greater sense of meaning or some way to lift up something deeper than the meanness that exists around us. 

Darrow Montgomery

The Local Activist

As a core organizer of the D.C.-area chapter of Black Lives Matter, April Goggans has been at the forefront of community organizing against police brutality and harassment in the District. From marches through busy downtown streets in the middle of rush hour, to rallies in front of the Wilson Building, Goggans has made it her mission that, as D.C. sees a surge in national-level activism, outrage over local issues affecting longtime residents isn’t drowned out. —Matt Cohen

How did you get involved in activism and Black Lives Matter DC?

So I’ve been in D.C. for, I think, 12 years. I started doing tenant work, actually, at Marbury Plaza. After I did that whole rent strike and everything, I started noticing people thinking Anacostia was going to turn really quick with gentrification at that time. I noticed the increased police presence. But the thing that was unique, was people’s ... their normalization of over-policing. 

I didn’t actually join BLM right off. My brother was involved for a while. Then I had taken off a year or two from activism in general because I was burnt out. But after, I went with him to the White House the night [Officer Darren Wilson] got off. It was mostly college students from Georgetown and GWU. People were taking selfies. I was just like, “I can’t.” I remember feeling like … this isn’t a place for us to mourn.

How do you think the work that you’ve done with Black Lives Matter DC has changed since you started to now? 

I think we were really fortunate that the people who founded our chapter very much founded it out of [a want] to be different than a lot of other groups that were doing Black Lives Matter work at the time. They thought that ... police, over-policing, police murder was a symptom of a larger framework of looking at the world for black people.

People went really, really hard in the beginning, really fighting against things. Then the Charleston shooting happened. I remember that week, we had just as many meetings as we always did, but we couldn’t get through any of them. Everybody was just sobbing, just tired. You’re like, “Will it ever stop?” You just literally can’t go anywhere, which is when we started really focusing on healing trauma … trauma both suffered around the movement, but also things that we carry with us just as a result of the effects of white supremacy and microaggressions at work, all that kind of stuff.

Do you feel that your work on getting the NEAR Act (Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results, an effort to reduce violence in D.C.) fully implemented has gotten city officials to pay more attention to what you have to say?

I do. I think you see it in our social media interactions. They don’t like us to say that they’re not doing something, especially if it’s in their own ward, even though they’re not. Because I think the fact of the matter is that we have a track record of—we’re not just throwing [accusations] out there. Generally, if we’re calling you out, we’ve seen it. We have the receipts, and we’re not afraid to show them.   

Darrow Montgomery

The Filmmaker

Christian Oh loves creativity. As the president of the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival and board chair for DC Shorts, Oh—an IT trainer by day, and a producer and director at other times—is always thinking creatively for his next project. But beyond filmmaking, Oh says organizing events and looking for opportunities for Asian-American performers is his calling. —Diana Michele Yap

What drew you to film in the first place? 

I got into film back in high school. We were playing around with a VHS camcorder, and my friends and I shot a film about a weird sci-fi love story. I remember doing the in-camera edits of having people disappear and appear by turning the camera off and on again. I love film for the basic architecture of being able to tell any story. It’s that simple.

Why did local Asian-Americans want their own film festival?

Back in 2000, there was a desire to tell Asian-American diaspora stories. A few friends, before my time, decided to create a film festival centered on those stories. Being Asian-American and growing up here in the U.S. is very different from being an Asian in our motherlands. There are some cultural aspects that are somewhat universal, but our experiences are different.

How would you advise fellow creatives of Asian descent who may face family disapproval for pursuing arts careers?

All of our parents want their children to be successful. They rarely see artistic pursuits guaranteeing economic advantages. But I beg to differ: Success is not just about money. And I feel that the next generation of Asian-American parents is embracing that. I am truly thankful when I see parents who support their kids who pursue the arts or sports. It means we are letting our kids follow their dreams. Many of my friends have had those dreams torn away from them.

Where have you found your personal strength to become who you are?

Having been homeless and penniless at one time in my life has allowed me to build upon those harsh experiences and made me realize that true strength comes in your resolve and not giving up. We are here for a limited time on this earth, so do as much as you can to achieve as much as you can. You may not be able to get it all done, but look for those small wins and keep plugging away.

What are your ambitions for the Asian-American and D.C. film and creative communities?

To provide more channels of engagement, education, and distribution. Engagement: There should be Asian-American performers at ethnic festivals, but more important, representation at mainstream events and festivals. Education: more opportunities to have Asian-American youth be exposed to the creative arts—all forms of it. Singing, dancing, rapping, filmmaking. And distribution: more access to get creative content out there within the mainstream.

How can people get involved in D.C.-area film festivals?

There are over 65 different film festivals within the D.C. metro area. Find one that you are passionate about and become a volunteer. Learn from the directors, the actors, the festival planners and more. And most importantly, enjoy the films!

Darrow Montgomery

The Outside Artist

There’s an arcadian quality to Twin Jude’s music. It’s intentional, and you can hear it on her excellent 2017 EP, MĒM—named after the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for water. Originally from San Diego, Twin Jude’s family has roots in the D.C. area and she officially moved here in the spring of 2017. Since then, she’s performed all over the region, establishing herself as one of the area’s most innovative experimental artists. —Matt Cohen

How did you get into music and art? What was your path into the creations that you’re making now?

Well, I grew up in the ’90s. I had a Walkman. My dad, he’s a musician. He’s actually a minister but he’s a musician inherently. His father, my grandfather, he was an orchestra instructor so it’s been passed down from generation to generation. I’m one of those jack-of-all-trades in terms of music and creating. I used to play around with Walkmans, record my own tapes and stuff like that. They were really shitty but it was fun.

What do you draw the most inspiration from?

For me, it’s the ocean. Growing up in San Diego, that’s where we went. We spent all of our time there, especially together as a family. Then even as an adult, that’s where I spent a lot of alone time. The ocean, and definitely film. I have a deep love for film. I really like how moving even the simplest ideas can be. Outside of art and music, real, genuine connection with people. I learn so much just by hearing people’s stories. I’m always open to learning something new, especially from the elders. They always got something to say.

One of the things that’s really striking to me about your music is the environmental influence. How do you draw your environment into the art that you make?

Well for me it’s connected to my spiritual beliefs. I feel like I’m the most at ease and at peace, and actually the most connected to the universe, when I’m outside. That’s why I love summer. Well, even though I’m more of a temperate person—I do love a nice early fall feeling. 

But I’m outside all the time. Even this week I was at Rock Creek Park, just enjoying it. Sometimes it will be an animal that will just decide to linger. It’s not afraid, which feels really cool because we get so desensitized and we’re so far away sometimes from the natural life. Sometimes I come out just to look at the stars, just to be present there. Just from that … I’ll channel that energy and create a song that personifies that feeling.

What has been your experience in the D.C. music community and how has that influenced you?

Honestly, it’s been such ... I don’t even know how to describe it really, but it’s been really, really, really nice. Everyone’s so open and genuine. I feel like on the West Coast my music is a little bit more weird for them, unless you’re in L.A. or something ... I really didn’t want to go there at all. Here I feel like I can just be myself. It feels really, really nice just to be accepted for who I am and what I create.

Is there a specific place that you would say is one of your favorite places—

Exactly! I feel like everyone has that one spot: outdoors somewhere that they always like to go and they can just feel completely at peace and at home.

Yes. For me that’s Sligo Creek Park. It’s the perfect place. It’s right between everywhere. I really love the Takoma Park area. That’s where my mom ... Well, she’s from here, but that’s where she spent her time. I feel really connected to that area. There’s this one part that’s further down. I forgot what the cross street is, but you can find this little quiet area right by where the stream gets really loud. It’s hard to have a conversation but it’s nice if you want to go there by yourself.