#you even inspired me to draw for it that’s a movie’s highest honor

[psychotic-nonsense]

My favorite part about being obsessed with something is that you start looking for it everywhere. Especially in media that shares actors with the thing you’re obsessed with.

So thanks to the idea from one feralheartedalien here on tumblr and my current watching of A Quiet Place: Day One, I’m suddenly being roped into the Steddie Alternate Universe with Eric and Keys.

------ Minor "A Quiet Place: Day One" Spoilers after this point ------

Haven’t watched Free Guy in a while, but the dynamic is kinda sticking with me. Struggling, emotionally repressed, desperate, foreign exchange law student Eric, coming to the States for school due to parental pressure (can’t have a Steddie-like ship without some shitty parents). Redeemed bully, people pleaser, hopeless romantic, lonely Keys, trying to make something out of his love for programming and design while under his repressive boss (can’t have a Steddie-like ship without some doomed ambition).

Maybe next floor neighbors, Eric living right above Keys. He comes back to his basically empty apartment after school every day exhausted, collapsing on the carpet in his living room at 2am, lulled to sleep by the soft, muffled music in the place beneath him. Meanwhile, Keys only plays his "falling asleep" music when he's home, in hopes to calm the person above him, who has a habit of frequent pacing, self monologues, and unfortunately, breakdowns.

Maybe Eric just has a shit day at school one day; stressful projects, lack of progress in his studying, sleep deprived, and it’s absolutely fucking pouring on his way back home. Maybe Keys has accidentally memorized his neighbor’s schedule, accidentally began to care, and noticed how late it is. Maybe their floors are different but the rooms are the same, so when Eric pushes the wrong floor on the elevator, he ends up at Keys’s room. Breaks down when his key doesn’t work, falls to his knees in the hallway muffling sobs. Barely reacts when Keys opens his door because he’s so tired and cold and numb. Weakly tries to fight Keys’s attempts at help but nearly faints in this stranger’s arms. Eric finally lets himself be helped, loses himself in Keys’s thick blankets and soft music and well meaning rambling and killer hot chocolate-

Maybe that’s when Eric realizes how much this man has saved his life, and vows to return the favor.

[autumnleaves1991-blog]

Could I have 13 and 70 from the smut list with King Arthur?

A/N: Yes, yes, you can. :D Also took some inspiration from the live-action Cinderella movie. Thank you for reading, reblogging, commenting, and liking. 

Pairing: King Arthur x F! Reader 

Warnings: 18 + only for smut, p in v 

Masterlist 

Prompts: “Your parents would be royally disappointed if they saw what you have on right now. Even more disappointed at what I’m thinking about doing to you.”& “I know all of your weaknesses.”

You fidgeted in your pretty gown for the eighth time in the last ten minutes, and your mother was less than pleased. “Stop moving, ungrateful child, this is your chance to impress the King! A chance for us to rise among the nobles!” she hisses at you, pulling your shoulders back. A ball in King Arthur’s court, wearing a corset that did little to help in the way of breathing, and your overbearing mother is breathing down your neck. Your sister beside you covered her giggles with a cough as you rolled your eyes. 

“Oh, Lady Charlotte!” Mother smiles and thankfully leaves you for a moment alone. You take a deep breath and lower your shoulders, eyes scanning the room for exits. 

“She will catch you, you know,” your sister giggles again, “and drag you right back.” 

“I feel more like a prized bird on display than a woman,” you scoff, “does she honestly believe that the King is going to look at me in this ridiculous get-up and fall madly in love? We are peasants; how did we even get invited to this?  Besides, I haven’t even seen this King before; what if he’s some hideous brute? Maybe that’s why they haven’t commissioned any portraits of him.” 

“I’ve heard he’s quite handsome and young.” 

“The average life span of a person is only fifty or so years, so how young can he be, twelve?” you groan at seeing the large plume of your mother’s hat coming back your way. “I need to get out of here before mother sells me to the highest coin.” 

“Quickly then,” she shoos, “I know why you don’t want to meet the King; he’ll never compare with your handsome stranger.” She grins mischievously at you, and you hold your breath waiting for the fallout. 

“How did you know about that?” 

“Sister, darling, you are not very good at hiding your feelings.” You glare at her, and she giggles, “I also saw the two of you by the creek when I was out fetching berries last week. He’s quite handsome.” 

“There you are!” Mother returns and puts her hands on your shoulders, pretending to show affection. “The King is coming,” she whispers with a grin and moves to stand between the two of you. You look over at your sister and give her your best pleading face, mouthing the words, ‘please don’t tell’ she smiles and nods with a wordless ‘promise.’ 

The trumpets sound loud, and a man stands forward to announce the King. People sitting rise to their feet, girls around you giggle like children, several pushing up their chests, biting their lips, or pinching their cheeks for some extra color. You stand there with a lump in your throat, trying to swallow around it. 

When the King makes his entrance, the crown glistening off the top of his head, your mouth slowly falls open on a gasp. “Art?” you whisper, your mother shushing you; you can feel your sister’s eyes burn into the side of your face. Everyone around you bows and curtsies low in honor, but your body has frozen, your limbs no longer working. 

“Curtsy,” your mother grabs your hand and pulls you down with a hiss, and you gasp, nearly falling to the floor with force. The noise draws his attention, and when the crowd rises, his eyes are staring intensely into yours. Those eyes you love, Art the apprentice, is the King of England. “He’s staring at you,” you can hear the glee in your mother’s voice, but all you feel is dread. 

The music begins to play, and several Lord’s come up to him showing their offspring off like a cow at the market. And for a moment, his eyes leave yours, and you bolt. “Where are you going?” your mother moves to grab you, but your sister intervenes; God bless her. You walk as quickly as your skirts will allow towards the door to the gardens, and when you are on the threshold, an arm comes out to stop you. 

“Wait, milady,” you freeze, half wanting to rip your arm from his grasp and slap him across the face for his misdirection, the other half wanting to turn and get lost in the deep blue of his eyes. “My love,” he whispers only for you to hear, “let me explain.” The second half wins, and you turn slowly, noticing the entire ballroom is watching the scene with rapt interest. His eyes, as blue as the sky reflecting off the sea, have you unraveling before him. “Dance with me?” he straightens to his full height, letting go of your arm and holding out a hand, “please.” 

Your hand trembles as you bring it up and place it in his. The warmth that is usually so comforting seems to set your skin ablaze as you follow him to the middle of the ballroom. The music is slow, and you follow the steps with him in a carefully orchestrated dance. “Talk,” you whisper, “why did you lie to me?” 

“I didn’t lie,” he grins, “not exactly; I am still learning my trade, just like an apprentice.” 

You know all the eyes are on you, and you smile when he gives you a turn, stepping hard on his foot when you come around. He grunts but doesn’t stop the dance, continuing each step. “That wasn’t very nice,” he smiles and says under his breath. “Did you forget love? I know all your weaknesses.” His words light the fire in your belly, and you see the mischief in his eyes as the dance comes to a close. 

“Would you join me for a stroll in the gardens, Milady?” he asks loud enough for everyone to hear. 

“Your Majesty?” Sir Bedivere strides over quickly, “there are many ladies who wish to dance with you, my King; you wouldn’t want to insult them.” 

“I need to make sure to give each of the ladies my adequate attention. Isn’t that what you told me, Sir Bedivere?” he grins as the other man nods with a thin line of his lips. “I won’t be alone, don’t worry, Sir Tristan will be my guard.” He looks over at the Knight, who has several ladies of his own to tend to, who nods with great reluctance. “See?” he claps the older man on the shoulder and offers you his elbow. “Milady?” 

You don’t have much choice, taking his elbow and following him over the threshold and into the gardens. Sir Tristan follows several steps behind, and you walk into the sprawling greenery. When you are about halfway in, he turns with a whistle, “Oi, Wet Stick, bugger off for a bit; we need to have a chat.” 

“You know this bird, boss?” he asks with a raise of his brow. 

“Yeah, she’s the one I asked you to bring the invitation to,” you look up at him, alarmed. 

“You invited us? Well, aren’t you just full of surprises,” you huff and walk further into the orchard part of the gardens, far from the prying eyes of the partygoers. 

“Shit,” he follows quickly behind, and you hear Wet Stick snigger and walk off in the other direction. “Wait, darling, please.” 

You whirl around with a finger pushing into his chest, “What game are you trying to play? Find some pretty peasant girl, make her fall in love with you, and then embarrass her in front of all the Nobility in England. Was that your game?” You walk away from him and pace back and forth, “I can’t believe I was so naive to think you cared.” 

“I do!” he reaches for you and holds you by the shoulders to face him, “I do care, love. I didn’t want you to love me because I was a King, I wanted you to love me! Arthur, the man, not the crown. I never lied to you,” you glare at him with a hand gesturing to the crown on top of his head, “okay I neglected one small detail.” 

“One,” you huff out a laugh pushing away his hands, “one small detail?! Arthur, you’re the fucking King of England! I’m only a poor seamstress, with an insufferable widowed mother, who only dreams of becoming a part of the upper class!” You feel the tears swell in your eyes as the truth all comes crashing down on your shoulders; the man you’ve been in love with for months is unreachable; theres’ no way he can marry you. 

“Listen to me,” he reaches for you again and takes three enormous strides pushing your back up against one of the apple trees. “Look at me.” 

Your mind won’t slow down, “what was your goal with having us come tonight? So you could shame me? Show off to the nobility that you are one with the people? Do you fuck every peasant girl you meet?” 

“Listen to me!” he shakes your shoulders, and your eyes widen, looking up to see him. “Listen to me,” he whispers, pressing his forehead to your own, “there was no game. I saw you in the market ten months ago when I was in the city.” 

“Ten months ago? I’ve only known you for six….”

“I didn’t know how to approach you; I couldn’t just go up to you and say hello I’m the King of bloody England, fancy a pint?” You can’t help the smile that tugs at your lips, his curving up at the edges. “So I dressed in my old clothes, snuck out of the palace, and started slowly talking to you. Then we went for a walk, and I couldn’t stay away. You’ve bewitched me, love. My love for you is more powerful than the magic of the Mage.” 

“Honest?” you ask quietly with trepidation, “do you mean that Art?” He smiles at the nickname he gave you, leaning down to kiss your lips softly. 

“Promise, love. It’s only ever and will only ever be you.” He runs his hand against your cheek, and you lean into his touch, letting yourself breathe for the first time all evening. 

“I love you too, Arthur; I’m in love with you.” His eyes soften as he gazes down at you. 

“We have to go back soon,” he whispers, kissing you softly, “but do you think we got time for?” He wiggles his eyebrows, and you smack his arm with a laugh. 

“Is that all you think about?” 

He grins and takes a step back, “turn around,” he whispers with a wink. You turn around slowly, gasping when your hands are pressed further into the tree trunk. “Quiet love, don’t want anyone to hear us do we?” 

He moves quickly, unlacing the top of your corset and peeling the back open, letting it fall to the ground, your breasts sagging with the relief of being free. He palms your breasts, placing rough, scratchy kisses over your exposed shoulders. His hands come around to his waist, and he pushes up several layers of your skirts, reaching for your pulsing heat. He turns you around, and you reach your hands quickly down to palm him through his leather breeches. 

Your hands falter on the fabric, and you look down with wide eyes, “I-I made these,” your voice shakes, “they were commissioned a few weeks ago.” You look up to meet his warm eyes as he nods. 

“I wanted to support you, and you are the best seamstress in the city. Only the best for the King,” he murmurs, almost shy.

“Well then, my King,” his eyes darken, “I will need to show my appreciation.” You tug open the breeches, and he slips them down his thighs, lifting your skirts the rest of the way. 

He fumbles with the layers, and you giggle at the annoyed look on his face. “I swear, when we marry, I demand you just walk around naked at all times. These skirts are ridiculous.” 

You don’t have time to respond, the words caught in your throat, as he lifts you and slides inside with ease. “Fuck, always so wet for me, love,” his hips snap inside you, and his mouth tangles with yours, swallowing your moans. 

“Arthur,” you moan, feeling him stretch you on his majestic royal cock. This is not the first time you’ve fucked, having given Art the apprentice your virginity in the woods several months ago, but this was the first time you’ve fucked Arthur, the king, and he didn’t disappoint. 

“That’s it, love, let me hear you, but only me, don’t want any of them damn nobles to know I already made my choice. That I already fell in love months ago with a beautiful seamstress in the market.” He grunts, and your cunt flutters around his cock with every word. The love between you flowing over with each thrust of his hips. 

“I- ah, I love you, Arthur,” you whimper against his neck, slick with sweat. The air is thick tonight, the incoming storm leaving the air thick and dripping. 

He pulls back to look at you, punctuating each word with a snap of his hips, “I love you, you’re my Queen, always have been.”

You buck your hips against him, cumming with a silent cry, head thrown back in ecstasy. He thrusts three more times, and then you feel him cumming deep inside you, thick and warm it dribbles down the inside of your thighs. He’d never done that before, always pulling out at the last moment. You open your eyes and look at him; his pupils are wide, almost black as he stares at you.

“Now they can’t say anything,” he mumbles, and you furrow your brow. “You may be carrying a little Prince or Princess now; I have to marry you.” 

You grin at what he’s done, his cock still buried inside you. “You’re naughty,” you giggle. 

“I’m naughty?” He asks with a smirk, “your parents would be royally disappointed if they saw what you have on right now. Even more so at what I’m thinking about doing to you.” 

“And what’s that?” You shift your hips, and his eyes widen as you tighten around his cock. 

His eyes soften, and he cups your cheek gently, bringing your lips softly to his own. The rub of his beard is rough on your cheek as he moves to your ear, “I’m going to end this party early and show you. I already made my choice a long time ago. But, are you ready?” He pulls back, looking deep into your eyes, “Can you stand by my side and love Arthur the King, as much as you love Art, the apprentice?” 

Your heart catches in your throat, blood roaring in your ears at his words; you lean into his hand warmly and on your cheek and close your eyes. Opening them slowly and looking into the sea of blue, “I love you, all sides of you, that doesn’t change because of a shiny crown and a title.” 

He slowly pulls out, and you whimper as he lowers you back to the ground, pulling down your skirts and fixing your corset. You both work in silence to be presentable again, his eyes bright as he smiles at you, “Then, let’s go,” he murmurs, reaching for your hand, “I think it’s time to announce our engagement.” He snickers as you walk along beside him back towards the party. 

“What are you laughing at?” you chuckle, watching his eyes filled with mirth. 

“Your mother is going to faint,” he laughs beside you. 

You groan and roll your eyes with a laugh, “Good, maybe she will be quiet for a few moments.” 

He booms out a laugh and pulls you close, kissing the top of your head, “oh my love, our life will never be boring.” 

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[bubble-tea-bunny]

a painted lady 

[carol danvers x reader]

author’s note: i started watching iasip and it’s so funnyyy i love it so much. anyway, here’s something short and sweet for my girl carol. hope you enjoy  <3

word count: 2,737

Spring announces its arrival with the melting of the snow and the crisp mornings which give way to a sunny afternoon and a gentle breeze not nearly as harsh as the winter gusts that makes cheeks flush and stings the sensitive skin. Warmer weather begins popping up on the forecast. The days grow longer. The flowers bloom. There are many telltale signs to the changing of the season, but this year, they’re joined by a rare spectacle that has become the main topic for news stations and strangers making small talk in the coffee shops or at bus stops.

Channel 2 is on mute, but Carol hasn’t bothered un-muting it or even looking at the screen, since the view outside the bedroom window is exactly the same. Butterflies flutter past the glass in great numbers, taking their time with the plants on the front lawn. The neighbors’ houses aren’t bound to be any different, nor would anywhere else in town really. Seeing butterflies isn’t out of the ordinary when spring is approaching, but what is out of the ordinary is just how many there are. They’re everywhere.

Carol catches the sight of orange wings with black bands on them, and speculates aloud. “Monarchs?” To an outside observer, it might appear as though she’s asking this to thin air.

“No. Painted ladies,” you respond from the ensuite bathroom. After you’ve combed the tangles out of your hair, you set the brush down and walk back into the bedroom. “A little smaller than monarchs.”

Carol hums in acknowledgment, and takes a few more seconds to study the bright swarm before she lets her hand drop and the curtain shifts back into place. She turns around and grins when she sees you across the room putting on your watch. You’re wearing your usual lip color today: a bold red shade that brings out your eyes. “You’re a painted lady.”

That color hadn’t always been a staple in your makeup routine, and Carol has the sneaking suspicion it had found its way there after she had mentioned how much she liked it on you the first time she saw you in it. You’d been so unsure of it then, but she genuinely liked it. While she had told you as much, she’s sure you also could tell by the sincerity in her voice and the earnestness on her face. Not that it’d be difficult for you pick up on what she is thinking. You read people like books and she’s your favorite novel, one you know from front cover to back.

Even at this distance, you notice her gaze lowering to your lips and you roll your eyes but you’re smiling too. “I guess I am.”

Carol had closed the gap between you as you made your comment, and she leans in close. You’re about to take a step back and tell her At least give it a minute! but it’s too late. She steals a kiss and laughs at your expression of playful incredulity.

“It hasn’t even dried down!” You reach up to wipe the bit of lipstick that had transferred to her mouth, then grab the compact on the dresser to check if you would have to re-apply any on yourself.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself.”  

“That’s what you say every day.”

“Well, it’s true.” She shrugs matter-of-factly.

And you can never even fake being irritated for too long. Once you’ve confirmed that your lipstick is finally completely dry and transfer-proof, you kiss her. This one lasts a little longer, and she meets you with equal enthusiasm. She smells the lavender perfume you wear—every morning, two small spritz, in the soft spots behind your ears. By now, she has your routine memorized, but that’s no surprise because you’re her favorite book too.

The butterflies are immortalized in a small piece you create for your art class. You wave it off as nothing special, but just as with every other instance Carol has had the opportunity to see your finished art sitting on the easel, oils still setting and your familiar signature with its trademark loops and elaborate flourishes (“My signature is not that fancy!”) tucked away in a corner, she shakes her head and says, “It’s amazing.”

You stand side by side, surveying the canvas like you’re in a museum studying a painting on the wall. You’re mulling it over, considering her compliment and staring at the butterflies and she’s right, you think. It’s not so bad at all. You can’t help smiling because of how supportive she is, has been, and would continue to be, for it’s in her nature to pick you up when you’re down, and a warmth bubbles in your chest.

“Thanks.”

Carol’s watched your artistic endeavors from the sidelines, which she has been happy to do. She doesn’t have much to complain about when she has the front row. As such, when you come home one day and ask if she’d help you with your newest project, her brows raise at the unexpected request.

“I don’t know how much help I can be, but sure. What is it?”

“I need a model.”

Her eyes light up and her grin is big. “How should I pose? Maybe something dramatic?” She rests her wait on one foot and juts out her hip, setting her hand on it and angling her head slightly downward so as to look up at you in mock seduction. “Or maybe something fancier?” She stands back up straight and reaches over to grab an apple from the fruit bowl, then holds it up as if scrutinizing it closely, her other arm folded neatly behind her back.

You laugh at the various poses she strikes, and she breaks character quickly, laughing as well. “No, nothing like that, although that would be pretty fun.” You take a deep breath as you calm down. “I’ll have to get back to you on pose ideas. I’m not really sure what mood I’m trying to go for here. The prompt was really vague.”

“But that’s good right? More open avenues.” Carol sets the apple back down and leans back against the counter with crossed arms.

“It is, but it can be overwhelming too… The key is just to let the inspiration come to me. If I try too hard to come up with ideas, I might just get more frustrated than anything else…”

While waiting for this inspiration, you fill your time with sketches, thumbnail drawings of people in motion and positioned this way and that. You also draw Carol quite a bit. It’s your warmup for when you move onto the real piece, and if she hadn’t noticed whenever you stared before, she definitely does now, catching your eyes as you look up at her then back down at your sketchbook.

You draw her over and over again, pages of your sketchbook filled with her face at different angles and wearing various expressions. Even if the drawings are hasty, the care behind each is apparent. You ache to understand every detail, the natural sway of her hair as she turns her head whenever you call her name; the crinkle of the corners of her eyes when she flashes you a wide smile; the high points of her cheeks that catch the sunlight just right. And Carol peers over your shoulder at these pictures and she knows exactly what you are trying to do and she understands that you don’t just see with your eyes. You see with your hands.

One slow morning you’re doing it again, sketchbook in your lap and pencil in hand. Carol’s still laying down, drifting in and out, her body trying to cling to the last bits of sleep but she can’t tune out the scribbling and scrawling and the erasing. She’s not mad about it though; she probably shouldn’t be trying to sleep this late into the day anyway. So she rolls onto her side and props herself up on her elbow to look at you better—you’re sitting cross-legged facing her, which means she can’t see the page.

“How many times is this now?” she asks to break the silence.

You glance up at her but don’t answer immediately, your eyes tracing the line of her jaw, which you then replicate on the paper. “I dunno. Haven’t been keeping count. But I need to make sure I get everything… perfect…” You trail off, enamored with your task.

The fact is, you don’t draw many people. Portraits aren’t your forte, and that’s the main reason you’ve had to draw Carol as many times as you have before you take out your paints. Still, she can’t resist teasing. “You’ve never drawn me before this, have you?”

“No…” More scribbling.

“This isn’t quite playing out like those romance movies where the artist draws their partner all the time.” She tries to sound disappointed, but it falls apart the moment you look at her with a raised brow, and she cracks a grin.

“Since when have you wanted one of those storybook romances?” you shoot back, playing along.

“Hm…” She purses her lips pretends to be deep in thought. “Ever since you started drawing me I guess. I have to admit, it’s flattering, and you make me look good.”

You chuckle. “While by this point I’m confident I could draw you from memory, drawing from reference is always better.” You grow quiet again, presumably putting the finishing touches on your newest study, then set it off to the side as you turn your attention back to Carol. “And for the record, I only draw what I observe, so if anything, you make you look good, not me.”

Carol’s not one for bashfulness, but there’s something about your tone and how you look at her that prompts her to avert her gaze as she suddenly finds the white bedsheets very interesting. She only ever reacts like this to compliments when they come from you because you’re the artist and you can find the beauty in everything so when you say that you found it in her, well, that’s the highest honor, isn’t it?

Her eyes slide back up and you’re grinning because you know what your words can do to her. You want her to love herself like she loves you. Plus, you won’t lie: you like having this power. Shy Carol is a rare sight (and a sight, she would tell you, is reserved solely for you).

Deciding the space between you is too great, you crawl forward into Carol’s bubble to kiss her and she welcomes you because really, her bubble’s got enough space for two.

When you paint, you tie your hair into a bun and use paintbrushes to hold it in place. Carol won’t admit it but she really likes when you do that. You also change into clothes you don’t care about getting dirty, like a ragged and flimsy shirt with loose threads and a pair of sweatpants with holes. They’re well-used and paint-stained, much like the plastic storage cabinets in your art room.

The designated art room of the house is organized chaos, but there’s a certain charm to it. It’s the physical manifestation of all the ideas you have in your head, and Carol feels privileged that she’s able to take a peek into your mind via the drawings taped to the walls and the sketchbooks stacked on the desk. It’s the room with the largest windows and she’s not surprised you’d created more butterfly paintings since the first one; you can see them all the time.

She’s seeing them right now from the glass sliding door leading to the backyard. It’s dark out, but a few painted ladies remain exploring, not yet ready to turn in for the night. Her cup of coffee has been empty for a few minutes now, and her attention only shifts when she hears your footsteps padding through the hallway.

“You okay?”

It’s late and the darkness always seems to warrant lowered voices. Your enquiry is gentle and fatigued, and Carol turns to look at you rubbing your eyes, an attempt to fight off sleep but that’s a losing battle.

“Yeah,” she replies, speaking quietly in turn. You join her in staring outside. “There’s been so many of those butterflies.” While the painted ladies have been around for a few weeks now, she, as well as many others in town, still like to reiterate the peculiarity of the occasion. The subject hasn’t gotten old, and it might not anytime soon. It’s too special to gloss over that easily.

You hum and smile sightly, and Carol spots it in the reflection on the glass. Then you tell her you’re going to clean up and go to bed. You sound faraway, evidence of sleep finally taking over, and she grins as she nods okay. She kisses you quickly and says good night.

As for her, she lingers for a short while before following your lead, taking her time washing her mug and setting it on the drying rack where it would be ready for the next day. One of your sketchbooks is on the dining table, so she picks it up and walks to your art room to return it. The only light on in the house is that in the bedroom, visible through the crack at the bottom of the door, but she needs none to find her way to her destination.

The moonlight pouring in from the windows is enough to illuminate the canvas sitting on the easel. After Carol sets the sketchbook down with the others, she walks over to inspect your current work in progress. It’s not finished, but you’ve completed enough of it that she recognizes herself staring back, and she understands that you don’t make paintings; you make mirrors.

This is your final draft, she realizes. It’s the culmination of all your studies, in which you’ve enshrined the planes of her face on paper and on canvas and in your mind because your soul will live forever and you carry the thought of her like a rabbit’s foot tucked into your pocket.

One of your sketchbooks is open on the desk next to the easel, and she picks it up so she can see the page more clearly. It’s from the morning you’d drawn her while in bed, the picture she hadn’t seen at the time. This is the reference you’re using. She’d been wondering why you hadn’t yet gotten back to her about pose ideas, or announced that you’d be starting the final piece so she’d better clear her Saturday to be your model. She just assumed you wanted more time to practice and to settle upon the perfect pose for the mood you wanted.

And the perfect pose, it would seem, was no pose at all. Carol’s posture in the drawing and the painting is relaxed, half her body concealed by the bedsheets she’d struggled to untangle herself from that morning (they’d just been so comfortable). She’s propping herself up on her elbow and the hand of her other arm rests atop the blankets. Her eyes stare directly ahead, like she’s watching the viewer, and even she’s unable to deny the sense of intimacy this affords. It makes the viewer an active participant rather than a mere observer, which appears to be your goal—you want the viewer in your shoes. You want them to feel what you feel.

Carol’s eyes switch back and forth from the sketchbook to the canvas, comparing the details. The painting is still missing a date and signature, but they’re present in the drawing, at the bottom and off to the side so as to be non-invasive. There’s a title too, in quotation marks: My Favorite Place. Her chest blooms with warmth and her lips curve in a fond smile. You want the viewer to feel at home.

There’s a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach, an inexplicable mix of heaviness like there’s something there and an airiness like she’s about to sprout wings and lift off from the ground. Her heart wrenches hard enough she swears it might shatter—for you, always for you. She loves you with every bone in her body and perhaps the town’s influx of extraordinary visitors these last few weeks has been her doing because every time she thinks of you, she gets butterflies.

[fred-frederator-studios]

Arlen Schumer: The Frederator Interview  

Arlen Schumer is the designer and illustrator of our Frederator Fredbot, the robot that’s inspired so many variations.

You read that right.

We all hear so much from fans about our “red robot” that I thought the time was right for Arlen to design something for us again, 20 some-odd years after his first.

So here it is! The 2019 Frederator New Year’s poster. (You can see some of the poster’s development work here.)

Arlen’s not only a fantastic artist/designer, but he’s a prolific pop culture historian with some great books and essays to his name, and a thriving lecture series on some of the famous (and even more unsung heroes) of comic book art.

How did Arlen Schumer come to Frederator? And how did Arlen come to art, specifically, comic book art? As you can read below, he and I have known each other and worked together for several years, even pre-Frederator.

All this and more, in the first Frederator interview of 2019.

Hi Arlen. When did you start drawing? 

I grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, a great place in the early-mid ‘60s, with equal parts bucolic American suburbia and small-town Rockwellian, pop culture ambiance—everything from an uber-Jewish deli like Petak’s to Plaza Toy & Stationery, which had a classic 20th Century soda fountain: it was there, after school, that I read all the comic books of my youth while drinking chocolate egg creams (with a pretzel log, natch). And because Fair Lawn, like all of New Jersey, was in the shadow of New York City, I grew up on all that pop culture through television, not just the 3 networks but the 3 local stations that showed everything from the old Universal monster movies to The Little Rascals to The Three Stooges to the George Reeves Superman TV series.

One of those local TV shows, a children’s show called Diver Dan, which was filmed in black & white to look like it took place underwater—the actor, in a deep-sea diver’s suit (with a helmet that never revealed his face, so he was like a superhero), walked slowly like he was underwater, surrounded by pop fish hanging by wires—triggered my interest in drawing, as I watched my brother draw him first, and copied him. I’ve been drawing ever since!

What was the first comic you fell in love with?

Giant Superman Annual #7 (Summer ’63): Not only is its cover the hands-down greatest of all the great multiple-panel Superman Annual covers that Superman Artist of the Baby Boom Generation (and my first favorite artist) Curt Swan drew in the ‘60s—not only does it feature perhaps the greatest single Superman figure ever rendered by Swan (in pencil; head of DC coloring Jack Adler did the hand-painted grey wash tones over it) or any Superman artist, before or since—but it is the first comic book cover I can recall ever seeing, when I was five years old, in summer camp that year. What an image to come into the wonderful world of comics by!

What was your first professional job as an artist?

My summer job between freshman and sophomore years at art school (Rhode Island School of Design), creating black & white line illustrations for a t-shirt silkscreening company in Fair Lawn.

I know that you count Neal Adams as a primary mentor? Were there any others?

Neal Adams was one of two Gods of Comic Book Art in the late-‘60s: the other was Jim Steranko, who was described as the Jimi Hendrix of comics, because Steranko’s career was as meteoric in its rise, and as short-lived. Though Steranko didn’t die in ’70 like Hendrix, that’s when he left Marvel Comics after less than 4 years of explosive and experimental works—and, like Hendrix, his impact on both the art form and its audience was in converse proportion to the relatively small amount of work he turned out. In particular, Steranko’s design sense and typographic talents were a tremendous influence on my choosing to major in Graphic Design at RISD.

It was sometime in my junior year there that I must’ve written Steranko a fanboy letter, gushing about those very things—and much to my shock and surprise, he wrote me back, inviting me to come see him in his home/studio in Reading, PA! So I took a bus from Providence, RI to Reading, and spent the day with Steranko—except I barely remember a thing about it! Why? Because I think I was having a Dr. Strange-like ectoplasmic out-of-body experience the whole time I was with him—I, a fan, spending quality time with one of the Twin Gods of Comics!!!

He wanted me to leave RISD and begin working with him as his apprentice! I couldn’t believe what he was offering me; I remember the bus ride back to Providence in a daze, feeling the utter cliché come to life of my future like the road in front of me: I could either stay on the main highway of getting my college degree, or take that exit ramp and join the circus! What do you think I did?

I stayed in school and got my diploma a year later. Had it been freshman year, maybe I would have left; but not when I was a year away from matriculating—not to mention honoring my mom’s sacrifice of putting me through school financially. But I’ve remained in touch with Steranko ever since, and feel both fortunate and unique, that I am the only fanboy who grew up to not only work for one of the Twin Gods of Comics (I ended up working for Neal Adams 3 years after I graduated from RISD), but almost worked for the other, too!

And then, Fred, there was—YOU! You were one of the first great professionals I met/interviewed with after I graduated from RISD and moved to New York City, when you were still at Warner-Amex having just created the MTV always-changing logo [actually it was Manhattan Design; I was the company creative director]. You impressed me as someone who was “real,” who didn’t hide behind a phony “professional” mask. We stayed in touch after that, and you gave me my first real breakout illustration job when I went solo as a freelancer a few years later, designing and illustrating an animated 30-second spot for a radio station, working with Colossal Pictures in LA (who later became Pixar)—and a NY metro-area billboard to go along with it!

Since then, we’ve done a bunch of great things together, up to and including this Frederator poster! And I’ve watched you wade through your own career waters as a multi-dimensional leading man, wearing so many different hats over the years—the decades—which has inspired me to cultivate my own Renaissance Man attributes. I’ve always described you to others as a mensch, the ultimate New York pro who’s got a great big beautiful heart an d soul to match his creative mind. If I could ever be described that way one day, I would consider that to be the highest compliment I could ever receive!

How about the mentors that you never met?

My father died when I was only four months old; my mother raised my older brother (by a year and a half) and I herself. Neither of my grandfathers was alive, and, though I had a handful of uncles, I would only see them a few times a year at family gatherings. So I had to find surrogate father figures elsewhere—and I found them in the American Pop Culture I grew up with in the’60s, in roughly this chronological order: Sean Connery’s James Bond, my first idealized masculine role model (the first movie I ever recall seeing, when I was around four-five years old, was Dr. No, the first Connery Bond, at a drive-in theater); Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling, a pop prophet of moral righteousness in the vast television wasteland, looking cool as all get-out in those incredibly tight TZ introductions—all of my artworks based on the series can be seen as my ways of honoring Serling’s legacy as a son would honor his father’s; and the superheroes in comic books, first and foremost Superman and Batman (the Yin-Yang of the genre), pseudo-paternally teaching me right from wrong, good from evil, and standing up and fighting for one’s beliefs. These are the things I suppose sons learn from the fathers, as well as their religious and academic authority figures. But “Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Comic Books”!

You've published a few pop culture histories, and given countless lectures on various great, neglected figures. What got you started as an historian?

I don’t know how any artist in any genre or medium, if they truly love their work, cannot also be equally-interested in the history of that art form. When Keith Richards plays any of his classic Rolling Stones licks, he knows which black bluesman he nicked it from; filmmakers like Spielberg and Scorsese know the history of film like they know their own films. And the history of comics is as rich in artistic triumphs (and personal tragedies) as the histories of the other major 20th Century art/entertainments: film, television, popular music and rock and roll.

When I was a senior at RISD, for my degree project, I toyed with designing an exhibit of comic book art, and when I went looking for a theme, the only subject that seemed both worthwhile of my passion for the material and deep enough for the demands of the assignment was one based on the comics I grew up with in the 1960s, and the artists who drew them, the twin founts from which I drew the inspiration to become an artist. Though I never did that exhibit (I ended up doing a giant autobiographical photo-comic instead), I kept the ideas and images that I gathered, in the hopes that one day I’d use them in some other form. Many of those 1979 layouts are the same ones I’ve used in my book published in 2003, The Silver Age of Comic Book Art; its introduction, in which I place the images and ideas encountered throughout the book in a socio-political, historical framework, is composed of essentially the identical concepts from my aborted exhibit idea.

The idea to do a book instead on this period of comic book history goes back even further, to 1970, when Jim Steranko, on the heels of his amazing barnstorming stint at Marvel Comics, wrote, designed and published the first of his twin-volume History of Comics, which remain the best books of their kind, and were—and continue to be—a source of inspiration. Except they were about The Golden Age of Comics (circa 1938-1950), the period Steranko grew up with and was affected by, not The Silver Age of Comics (circa 1956-1972) that I, and the entire Baby Boom Generation, was turned on to.

Steranko himself might have been inspired by the first great book about comic book history, Jules Feiffer’s 1965 The Great Comic Book Heroes, even though it’s more of a handful of wonderfully written, witty essays on specific Golden Age superheroes Feiffer followed avidly as a boy, accompanied by reprints of the origins or earliest adventures of those heroes. Feiffer may not have realized what it was like to be an 8-year old comic book fan in 1966 and hear that there was actually a book in the Fair Lawn public library about comics!

How did you come to design the Fredbot?

When you asked me to come up with my take on the classic Japanese-influenced sci-fi trope of the giant-monster-attacks-the-tiny-people back in 1997 for your first Frederator brand image—but make it a robot, and make it look like you [I don’t remember this last part], to boot—I immediately thought of the animated robot Gigantor, one of the first Japanese anime to reach American shores in the wake of the Batman TV series in 1966. Once I started drawing my version of Big G, it was a no-brainer to add the distinctive Seibert horned-rim eyeglasses, topped by the equally-distinctive Seibert eyebrows, and voila! Fredbot!

OK, I know you love Bruce Springsteen. How come?

I believe there are Four Pillars of Rock & Roll, in roughly chronological order: Elvis, Dylan, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix, representing the greatest voice, lyrics, band, and guitar; hence, The Four Pillars.

Like Elvis, Bruce is a singular, dynamic presence with a commanding vocal power; his lyrics and songs have stood the test of time and made him the only one of the many “new Dylans” to actually live up to the label, living a true, real rock & roll life while writing it down, The Great American Novel but on records, great American songs chronicling not only his life and career, but that of the postwar generation that has come of age with him, timeless anthems like “Born To Run,” “Thunder Road” and “Born in the USA,” just to mention three of his greatest hits; with The E Street Band, Bruce captured the sheer joy, enthusiasm and positive energy of the early Beatles; and, like Hendrix and any of the other guitar gods—Clapton, Page, Van Halen, The Edge—Bruce has played searing, soulful, melodic leads with the best of them.

But Bruce isn’t one of those rock & roll pillars—he’s the rock & roll roof built over them, the complete rock & roller, putting it all together as no one has before. Bruce Springsteen is, quite simply, the promise of rock & roll...delivered.

His uncompromising and unparalleled creativity, body of work, attitude, and performance and work ethic have been an inspiration to me since I first heard the song “Born to Run” over a tinny AM car radio when I was 17 years old in the summer of ’75. Especially when I lecture, I employ what I call the “Springsteen Performing Style,” which is to give your 110% all to your audience, whether it’s 10 people or 10,000 people.

Bruce is also a bonafide moral leader for our age, doing what a true leader should be doing: living his life by example, and using it to inspire and exhort others to do the same.

He is the true President of the United States.

Thanks for the interview Arlen. And of course, thanks for the Fredbot! Happy New Year!

[buckychristwrites]

Backseat Serenade | OS | b.b.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Summary: One night. One night was all you had left with him. One night left to burn him into your memories. One night left to make sure you were etched into his. 

Word Count: 1.4k

Warnings: Pre-Hydra!Bucky, pure fluff

A/N: I went to a drive in movie and got inspired! I usually write post-Hydra!Bucky so this was a bit new for me. Let me know what you think! :)

Masterlist

The cool air was crisp against your skin, but you didn’t mind. Not with Bucky’s warm arms wrapped around you. The back row of the drive-in theater was quiet, as the speakers were cutting in and out. So while you could see the movie This Is The Army playing on the screen, you couldn’t hear the words coming out of the actors’ mouths as they talked. You had expected more from a movie that was set up at Stark Expo in the back parking lot that no one really used, but in the end, the more time you got to spend with Bucky, the happier you were. Nothing else mattered. Earlier in the night, the two of you had made your way from the show Howard Stark had put on to the concessions line, hand in hand, while Steve sauntered behind you.

“Pick anything you want, doll face,” Bucky had said as you went over the options on the menu board, your fingers tapping against your mouth. Settling for popcorn, when the two of you had turned to head back to the car for the movie, Steve had long disappeared. Not that the two of you paid any mind, now that you could enjoy the movie without your favorite third wheel. Besides, Bucky said he had an idea of where he could find his lanky friend once the movie was over.

When you turned your head to look up at Bucky, you found him already staring at you.

“Watch the movie,” You said, trying to sound serious but your voice gave your playfulness away. He adjusted himself so that he was on his side, not facing the screen anymore. A smug smile crept onto his face.

“Why watch the movie when the view is right here?” He asked in a gravelly whisper. You rolled your eyes, turning away from him to try to hide your smile. His hands reached around, his fingers softly taking your chin and turning your head back to him.

“Don’t look away, I gotta take you in,” He said, his head tilting slightly as he stared at you with intense eyes. “I gotta make sure I remember every little detail about you before I go.” Your smile slowly faltered, and you bit your lip. The back seat of his car was suddenly very warm despite the windows being open. Sensing your sudden discomfort, his demeanor changed. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.” You shifted, pulling yourself away from him in favor of being on your side so you were facing him.

“What am I going to do with you gone?” You asked him, your voice now quiet and filled with sadness. “I can’t remember the last time I went a few days without seeing you, let alone months. Maybe even years.” He chuckled.

“You and Steve both,” He said, shaking his head. “I’ve been saving your asses since we were kids, can’t you give me a break to save the world?” His attempts to ease your tension failed, and the smile he had on his face slowly slipped away. Steadily, he raised his hand up to your face, his fingertips tracing the invisible lines between the freckles that covered your cheekbones underneath your eyes. “You know I’ll be home as soon as I can.” Your breathing quickened as soon as his skin made contact with your own.

“Yeah, but who knows when that will be?” You sighed.

It had been hard, accepting that Bucky was going to leave. You, him and Steve had been a tight-knit trio since the day Bucky had saved him from the bullies back when you were all kids. One was never seen without the other two somewhere nearby. That was the way it always was. Best friends. Bucky had been a constant in your life for as long as you could remember, but you never expected it to be more than just friendship.

He must have noticed the lost look in your eyes, for he moved his fingers from your cheek to your hand, drawing circles in your palm.

“Do you remember the day I told you I loved you for the first time?” He asked, making your breath hitch in your throat.

“Of course I remember,” You said, shaking your head slightly. How could you forget? “It was the day we went to Coney Island. When Steve threw up on the Cyclone.” You both chuckled at the memory. “He was in the bathroom, it was just me and you, and you kept staring at me. And I was annoyed because a kid spilled his drink on me while we were looking for the bathroom for Steve. So I asked you why you were looking at me, and you said…”

“‘Because I love you’,” He finished the sentence for you as he looked down at his lap. You continued to watch him, waiting for him to continue. Maybe to explain why he asked.

“We weren’t even together at the time, I was so confused,” You said, followed by a shaky laugh. He shrugged.

“Had been thinking it for a while,” He said. “And I decided that it was time, so I was trying to find the perfect time to tell you, but when is it the perfect time for anything?” He shook his head, staring off as he got lost in the memory. His question hung in the air for a little while, and you hated how it was so appropriate in this moment. “So I just said it the first time we were alone.” A smile tugged at your lips despite the slight grief you felt.

“And now, here we are, six years later,” You said, raising your hands up in a slight gesture. “Saying goodbye.” He shook his head sadly, looking down at his lap. The way his eyes brightened in the moonlight really emphasized the melancholy in them. The sight made your chest hurt.

“It’s not goodbye,” He said quietly. “It’s just a see you later, y’know?” He thought for a second. “Maybe it’s a promise.” You narrowed your eyes.

“What are you promising?” You asked him. His smile was soft as he entwined your fingers with his own, his thumb softly stroking the skin on the outside of your hand.

“Well,” He started. “You’re promising that you’re going to wait for me.” You rolled your eyes, making him chuckle softly. “And I’m promising that no matter what, I’ll always come back home to you.” You stared at him as you thought it over.

He looked so handsome in his enlistment uniform. He had insisted on wearing it out for days, and while your facade painted you as annoyed with it, you were actually very proud of him. Bucky was always putting high expectations on himself, being the oldest of four, so you knew this meant a lot to him. The highest honor. Being able to serve his country, and protect the people. He always put that roll on himself, every time he had Steve’s back in a fight or when he would brawl with a man who was rude to you or stared at you a second too long. So it was no big surprise to you when he sat you down and told you he was shipping off overseas. But it was a great sorrow.

But now, in that moment, with him looking at you the way he was and your hand in his, you felt like the two of you could get through anything.

“Do you promise?” You asked him, feeling slightly childish, but you pushed it aside when he smiled at you. He leaned forward slowly, his lips softly pressing into yours.

“I promise,” He whispered, his breath hot against your face. You closed your eyes, pressing your forehead into his and sighed. “Now,” He said, his voice now filled with slight mischief. “How’s about you show a soldier a good time before he has to ship out, and then we’ll go see what trouble Steve’s gotten himself into?” You rolled your eyes but kissed him anyway, him leaning into the door so that now you were on top of him as his hands left yours and held your hips.

As your kiss grew more passionate, you thought about the promise, suddenly not worried. Bucky was a man of his word, always following through on his promises.

Until this one.

_________________________________________

Tags

@pizzarollpatrol, @of-outerspace, @fallenaristocat, @gracefulish, @bucky-slut, @wintersthor, @hottrashformarvel, @wittyfanddomurl, @humanexile,

[tamekas-talk]

Michael B Jordan New Movie Role Seems Therapeutic For Lauren London

Michael B Jordan Felt Movie Role Could Be Therapeutic For Lauren London A gentle check-in from long-time friend Michael B. Jordan helped pave the way for Lauren London’s return to work after the death of her fiancé Nipsey Hussle two years ago. “Well, Mike reached out to me personally and I was like, ’I don’t know, Mike. I don’t know if it’s time for me to get back,” she recalled in a recent interview. “I wasn’t sure if I felt ready.” London plays Jordan’s wife in “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse,” and the couple’s relationship in the script drew her in. Her character’s death is the catalyst for the rest of the film, with Jordan’s character seeking revenge against Russian ex-military forces who killed her, their unborn child and members of his Navy SEALS team. “The character … was real and it was genuine: their love, her passing … but still guiding him and being with him rang true for me.”

Filming the same year as Hussle’s death, London called the process cathartic.

“(It was) one of many things that helped in my healing,” she said. “I got to cry a lot, I was away from my children for 11 days, so I try to hold on really strong in front of them, and so the 11 days away allowed me to really be alone and grieve. “I think when something really tragic happens to you, you’re not sure your placement in the world afterwards and doing this film and being able to work again made me feel like I had something to give again,” London said. London, who starred in films like “ATL” and the popular TV series “The Game,” was engaged to Hussle and they had a son together before the rapper was gunned down in Los Angeles in March 2019. She poignantly eulogized him, calling him “majestic” and “brilliant” at a public memorial held at Staples Center. Hussle’s legacy remains strong on social media, where fans post tributes and express how the rapper continues to motivate them. Asked how she would like fans to continue to honor him, London said, “I think Nip said it best: The highest human act is to inspire, and I think that was a part of this purpose. We could all only wish to have such an impact on people that they are inspired by us, that they are motivated and encouraged by our words. “I could only hope to leave half an imprint on the world that he left,” she said. “I know he’s proud of that, I know he loves that, for sure.”

London said now that she’s back to work, she’s pursuing new projects, but her outlook is much different now.

“I want to be more in a ownership position. I want to create content that now aligns with my voice and purpose. Before, my career was to maintain and just to work. And I think I kind of lost my purpose in what I was doing it for. And now that’s becoming realigned.” The actor went on to say that he also hoped to draw from London’s experience as he attempted to tap into the loss his character experiences in the film. “And even for me, selfishly as an actor, to help me understand what I was going through, as the character. So, she helped me out a lot in this and helped me wrap my brain around what that felt like… and how to channel that in a real way,” said Jordan. “And also, we missed her. If this could be a start or, you know, a place to springboard and launch her back into what she does so well, I wanted to extend that to somebody that I cared about.” As previously reported, Without Remorse is London’s first film project since Nipsey passed away in 2019. Prior to accepting this role, she wondered if she’d ever return to acting  “Getting back to work was more than just being anxious because I wasn’t working. It was really a stand on, will I work again? Do I want to work? Who am I now? Is this where I still belong? Do I still hold space here? Should I?” she revealed during an interview with Essence.

“Without Remorse” is now airing on Amazon Prime Video.

Read the full article

[mrevaunit42]

Butterfly, Star Butterfly (Kingsman Au part 1)

hello everyone, Mr.E here after a seriously long time of not writing full stories. Sorry, life has been pretty chaotic for me and draining. I’m fine but it’s been hard to sit down and actually write a story but here I am with my newest story and letting you know despite the fact Halloween is over, I am still going to write a few stories for starcoween (a totally silly event I made up forever ago) After that i might do a part 2 to this, might give out some birthday gifts I owe. Not really sure yet but we shall see. 

Story Prompt: Star Butterfly is a young woman that works for Disney, a humble yet successful shop located in her hometown of Mewni that sells various merchandise based on their popular retellings of classic fairy tales. At least that’s what they want you to think. In truth, they are an agency operating at the highest levels of discretion, protecting the world from any and all threats but this time Mewni’s the target and the secret organization is going to need some help.   

I absolutely love the film Kingsman. For those who don’t know it is a British spy film that’s kind of a mix of my fair lady, James Bond and some playful satire of genre. and I couldn’t resist making an au of it. that being said, it is a rated R film so don’t watch it if you’re not supposed to! Seriously just read this story and wait. Oh btw there is some cussing in this story but that’s it really I didn’t follow the plot of the movie one to one and it’s more on a personal level than it was in the film. and Yes I totally poked fun at the codenames and Disney. 

so that’s it for me. Have an amazing week! I will try to finish either Monster Hunter Marco or the corpse bride au this week along with the next two nova chapters. I was also thinking of putting up some au ideas I came up in case somebody needed some ideas or inspiration for drawing or writing and the spiderman homecoming au notes that me and my good friend @hains-mae came up with if anyone is curious. Not sure yet. oh btw she’s taking commissions if anyone is interested. I hope you enjoy the story and have a good one!

notification squad: @nerdymetalhead @hipster-rapunzel @artgirllullaby @ladyxgilex @thefandombytes @minthia-ren @burstingamerworld @isolated-frequencies

“and in other news, Lucitor electronics is proud to present….”

Click. Silence filled the void left behind the radio.

Star Butterfly stared longingly outside the cab window, the soft pitter patter of the rain echoed dully against metal was a soft, relaxing music to the 25 year old.

When was the last time she simply drove for the sake of driving? When did she last roam the streets of her beloved Mewni without the constraint of staring at minutes tick away? When was the last time she wore something she chose of her own free will rather than an obligated, yet admittedly stylish, uniform.

She was wearing her usual outfit for work: black blazer jacket with a white long sleeved collared shirt underneath, an elegant pink tie alongside practical black work pants and matching brogues loafers.

“Miss?” her cabbie driver called to her softly “Miss, you have phone call from your mother.”

“Oh!” Star slipped out her self imposed dazed and reach into her jacket pocket “Thank you John, I’ll take it….”

Star blinked quizzically upon realizing she was staring at her own reflection who held an equally surprised face: Her driver had already rose the divider between them so she could take the call in private.

“What a considerate bloke” Star murmured to herself, unfolding the thick black rimmed square glasses and slipping them over her eyes “I suppose I should give him a raise.”

“Give who a raise dear? The driver?” A familiar yet controlled voice called out to her as a ghostly image appeared in the center of the spacious vehicle.

Even the cartoonish greenish blue tint of her mother’s image did nothing to dampen the woman’s rather imposing stature: Full black coat, collared shirt, vest and tie. A long business skirt given her old fashion tendencies and unnecessarily high heels. Her periwinkle blue hair wrapped in a practical braid.

“I assure you Agent Rapunzel he is well paid for his services” Moon blinked in confusion, her eyes narrowing at Star’s surroundings “You’re not at the shop?”

“Well mum…” Star began only to falter when Moon rose a stern finger.

“Names Agent. You never know who could be listening.”

Star rolled her eyes, earning her a scowl from her mother.

“Headmistress Aurora, we’re on highly secure channels. I highly doubt anyone is currently listening.”

Moon shook her head disappointingly “Spoken like a true agent. When you get to be in my position and age, you’ll find some caution is wise.”

“Yes Mu….Headmistress. I apologize. I’m running late to shop on the count that I took a bit of a nap. Just came in from America you know. Lovely town by the name of Echo Cre…”

“I’m aware where you have been Agent Rapunzel” Moon cut in “I’ve read your mission report. Excellent work.”

“Thank you”

“Try not to be late from now on. Grumpy is a bit on edge lately.”

“Lately?” Star rose an eyebrow.

Moon pursued her lips “More than usually. Do not antagonize the poor woman love.”

“Swear on my honor she won’t hear a word out of me gov.”

Moon frowned, torn between chastising her daughter once more or simply leaving it at that.

With a flick, her mother’s image vanished from view and Star was left with her once again empty cabbie. Star remained silent, rubbing her eyes tiredly as the rain filled the void with its melody once more.

Star wasn’t too surprised the shop was still fairly busy despite the less than ideal weather conditions. Everyone near and far wanted to buy something from the humble yet widely successful Disney store.

Not that Star could blame them: Stunning outfits, well crafted toys and high quality items based on their fairy tale inspired line of merchandise. It brought in a pretty penny and was a convenient cover for the memory of a single person to blur among the countless people that could be found within on any given day.

Star patted the tired cashier reassuringly on the shoulder as she made her way past into the break room which was empty save a lone, still steaming mug of coffee sitting on the table.

“We need to really cut back the hours” Star muttered to herself, sliding the cup off to the side and gently pressing the underside of the table ���Poor dearies are running themselves ragged.” A small compartment hidden within frame flipped into existence and began to boot up its programming.  

“Please remain still” a smooth, calming robotic voice asked politely while a soft green hue softly basked Star in its glow. Star complied with the machine’s request, sitting as unmoving as stone as the sensor began scanning the room with a near invisible beam.

“Identity confirmed” The voice spoke cheerily “Agent Rapunzel, please stand by”

Star rolled her eyes as the entire room slowly descended into further into the earth, the flimsy painted walls of the break room becoming smoothly elegant granite sides.

“This is so bloody unnecessary” Star muttered to herself, waiting patiently for the elevator “Whose bright idea was to turn an entire room into an elevator? A closet would’ve suffice. Typical spies.”

“I know right? It’s almost like they were overcompensating for something” a familiar voice jokingly teased “Spies, right?”

“Spies” Star nodded agreement, rising to her feet and enveloping her fellow, similarly dressed agent in a firm hug “How are you Jackie?”

Jackie clicked her tongue “Agent Rapunzel, did you just break protocol?”

“Only if you sell me out Agent Ariel” Star replied with a grin.

Jackie gave a good nature smirk “Like I would Agent Rapunzel. How are you?”

“I’m alright” Star lied “And yourself? How was Japan?”

Jackie gave a noncommittal shrug “You know how it is: No time to see the sights and there on business only.”  

Star felt the twinge of longing and for a moment, the mask fell.

“Star?” Jackie asked quizzically “Are you okay?”

“Jackie….” Star began slowly “Do…you miss it?”

“It?” Jackie was confused what Star was getting at “I’m not sure I’m following….”

Star let out a defeated sigh “Don’t worry about. Just a rouge thought. Shall we pop in and see what’s bothering Grumpy?”

Star brushed past Jackie, ignoring her friend’s concerned gaze.

Grumpy was not grumpy at Star’s tardiness: She was furious about it.

Margaret Skullnick, codename Grumpy,  was an older, trollish woman who never smiled in a day of her life. Unlike the more traditional Headmistress, Grumpy was far more lax with her appearance: overly bright red hair, two golden hoops on her ears, built like a muscular tank and had unnaturally pointed teeth.

“You are late Rapunzel” she glared deeply with growl.

Star rose her hands defensively “Ariel was here, you could’ve started without me.”

Jackie shook her head “Don’t drag me into this, I just work here.”

“Sit. NOW” Skullnick snarled, barring her teeth viciously.

Star and Jackie practically dropped into their seats.

“We have a problem” Skullnick began, making her way over to the monitor hung over the fireplace.

“Don’t we always?” Star jested

Skullnick ignored her “The criminal underworld is murmuring. Loudly I might add.”

Jackie and Star shared a worried glance. While both knew what the code-phase meant, neither had ever expected to ever actually hear the word spoken outloud. The two women straightened up in their seats at once

“Murmuring?” Jackie leaned closer “What could possibly cause that?”

“We don’t know” Skullnick answered truthfully “But the fact remains that every single mole, sleeper agent and informant has been relying the same information to us is troubling. Someone is preparing for something big and for the first time in recorded history, we haven’t the foggiest idea what it could be.”

Skullnick tapped at away at the tablet in her hands. Mewni, in all its splendid glory, appeared before them.

“What we do know is many of the murmurs repeat Mewni over and over again. It is more than possible this is the target.”

“Home?” Star rose to her feet “We need every available agent on the case! If the underground murmurs, I cannot imagine what horrible plan someone has set in motion.”

“That’s just it Agent Rapunzel” Skullnick stared directly at Star “I’m looking at all available agents.”

Jackie and Star looked at one another.

“No matter how serious the situation is” Skullnick explained “The fact remains we still have other operations that must be done. Threats to national and international security do not just come one at a time you know and all we have are rumors. Until solid proof is obtained, we cannot simply pull agents from actual credible threats.”

The girls nodded grimly.

“Go to the ground” Skullnick told them “Use every resource we have available. The informants are scouring the city for clues but so far no luck. If this threat is real, then someone is going to an awfully lot of trouble to ensure no one has all the details. And once you have a lead, no matter how small, contact me. I rather be safe than wrong. Understood?”

“Yes Grumpy” The two spoke in unison

“Dismissed.”

“Mewni under attack?” Star muttered to herself in a daze “That’s a lot more terrifying than I’d like to admit.”

“Agreed” Jackie nodded “Do you think the threat is real?”

Star pursed her lips “I don’t know. I want to believe mother is simply overreacting but I’ve never been through such a short briefing before. We don’t even have leads”

“Admittedly that is highly concerning” Jackie scratched her chin “We better work quickly. The sooner we discover or debunk this, the sooner we can have a strategy ready.”

“Alright, I’ll head over to the informant’s house” Star began as stepped towards the exit “A fresh pair of eyes may be needed in case they missed anything…umm do you remember where they live? I swear they keep changing addresses every other month. It’s so….”

Star turned back to her fellow agent only to find Jackie fidgeting uneasily, guilt dancing in her eyes.

“You know” Jackie spoke softly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear “Maybe I should go to the informant? I mean I haven’t seen them in such a long time and it’s pretty rude of me….”

“Jackie….”

Jackie bit her lip as she rubbed her sleeve anxiously.

“I…might know a guy who could help us” she murmured uneasily.

“That’s great!” Star felt a wave of relief wash over her “when can you meet up with him darling?”

Jackie remained quiet, her eyes downcast and forlorn.

“Jackie?” Star placed a comforting hand on her shoulder “What is it love? What’s the matter?”

Jackie took a deep, calming breath “He’s my ex. A bloke by the name Marco Diaz….”

“Oh….” Star muttered dumbly before the familiarity of the name hit her full force “….oh…”

Star remembered now where she heard the name before: Marco was Jackie’s boyfriend back from a few years ago when the two of them were aspiring Disney trainees. He ran with some troublemakers and did some odd jobs for unsavory people but on the whole meant well and was trying to leave his checkered past behind him. As far as she could tell, Jackie was rather happy with him. If everything had gone according to plan, Jackie might’ve married him one day…..

But fate had other plans in store. Being a Disney agent came with a heavy cost and that cost was a personal life. Marco grew increasingly suspicious of Jackie’s absences and trips but telling him the truth was out of the question so Jackie was left with no choice but to break up with him, claiming college was just too overwhelming for her to handle both it and a steady boyfriend.

Jackie used to lament how painful it was to watch his hurt face twist into a stony indifference and while she finally moved on from him, she couldn’t shake the guilt she felt about breaking his heart. He hadn’t deserved it but Jackie was left with no other choice.

“I can’t see him Star” Jackie admitted, tears lightly forming in her eyes “I’ve done far too much to him already, asked too much of him….I can’t put him through anymore…..”

“It’s alright. I’ll speak to him, alright? Do you know where I can find him?”

Star frowned at the locationn before her, eying the half cracked windows and the faded brick exterior warily

“Drunkard’s Haven” Star read the sign distastefully “I should’ve hazard a guess it would be a dive. I reckon I’ll run into an unruly lot. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Star held a firm grip on her umbrella as she took a deep breath in and pushed open the door.

The interior of the bar was dim while a light hazy smoke wafted through the air. The illuminations of various signs promoting drinks, teams and other goods. Empty mugs and half slumped, dazed drunks filled the tables. While certainly not the best pub Star has ever been in, she had seen far worse.

Star strolled up to the counter confidently, ignoring the shuffling of drunken zombies who were slowly taking notice of her disturbance.

“Hello!” Star gave a cheery wave.

The bartender awkwardly returned the greetings.

“I don’t usually get your lot around here” the bartender spoke bluntly.

“What, pretty ladies?”

“No, posh folks.” he gruffly replied.

“Ah….” Star gracelessly replied “Well your lovely pub is tucked away in some off beaten street, bit hard to come by.”

“What will you have miss?”

“Information actually. I’m looking for someone.”

It was amazing how a simple sentence could alter one’s environment: What was once a relaxed stupor became tense and suspicious as the drunks slowly shook themselves awake.

The bartender’s eyes narrowed distrustfully “And why would a pretty thing such as yourself be looking for someone?”

Star beamed “An old friend of mine. Heard he was wondering around these parts. Figured he might fancy a bit of stroll for old times sake.”

“And who…” the bartender rose an eyebrow “are you looking for specifically?”

“A bloke named Marco Diaz.”

Star fought the instinct to simply strike at the now fully awaken drunks, their eyes wide with anger and greed as they mindlessly shuffled to their feet.

“It seems I’ve said the magic words” Star mused, glancing over the other occupants of the building carefully “Bit in trouble is he?”

 “You could say that.” The bartender murmured with a glare “The local patron is not happy with the quality of his services. Mr. Diaz owes him a bit of scratch which is not including the product he was told to deliver. The fact that Mr. Diaz hasn’t been returning our boss’s phone calls is a bit concerning. They had a previous agreement that your friend has not been honoring.”

“Ah” Star gave a strained smile “I can see how that could certainly paint him in such a negative view. Well I rather guess I should be off no? I didn’t mean to so rudely awaken all your customers.”

“Actually” the bartender spoke with a menacing edge as the others closed in “Do you mind if we have a bit of a chat about your friend Marco?”

Star sighed dramatically as the dull thud of the door’s lock being clicked into place echoed through the now quiet pub.

“I rather not” Star grin charmingly

“You don’t have a choice love.”

Star shook her head disappointingly “Not respecting a lady’s decision? Rather brutish of you.”  

“Sorry darling. We’re not much on manners here.”

Star clicked her tongue “Manners maketh man. Ever heard that before?”

Silence was their answer.

“Well then” Star cracked her fingers “Let me show you how to be proper gentlemen.”

It was satisfying to watch the bartender’s face slip from cocky smugness to full blown panic as Star lashed out, gripping the back of his head tightly and smashing it against the counter. Bartender staggered backwards, a river of blood dribbling down his face and staining his clothes as he weakly clutched at his now broken nose.

“Rule the first” Star began, pivoting on the balls of her feet and driving her fist into the nearest unsuspecting throat “Always respect people. It’ll get you further in life than if you’re an arsehole”

One of the drunks lunged at her but the seasoned agent hooked the handle of her umbrella over his wrist and dragged his fist into another of his comrades and sent them both reeling to the floor.

“Oi what’s the matter with you bitch?!” the nearest drunk rambled at her before pulling back his fist.

“A true gentleman never curses at a lady” Star replied with a cocky grin while she dug her knee as far as she could into his stomach “in fact a true gentleman never would need to curse. Much more colorful ways to express your anger and frustration darlings.”

Star stepped back, narrowly avoiding the knife that swung into view as she twirled her umbrella upright like a sword.

Her foe stumbled uneasily, brandishing his deadly weapon in a rather unimpressive fashion.

“A true gentleman” Star went on, effortlessly dodging an unfocused stab sent her way

“also carries himself with grace and respect not only for himself but for others as well”

The drunkard’s attack were wide and too far to actually threaten the secret agent who playfully batted the blade away with her pseudo-sword. Her opponent growled furiously but Star’s laidback defense proved too much for the inebriated man.

Star rolled her eyes before delivering a solid whack to his skull and rendered him unconscious.

“Well then loves” Star said with a smug satisfaction “I best be off. Nothing here but a waste of time and effort.”

Star’s ear twitched as the dull sound of metal scraping wood filled the air and for the first time since the battle began, her instincts took hold.

Star flung her umbrella wide open, clutching the hilt as tightly as she could while making herself as small of a target as possible. The video feed sprung to life in a strange muted tint. She noticed the bartender lifting something to eye level but Star had little time to hazard a guess when she heard a deep click and a deafening bang.

Star was nearly knocked off her feet as her shield violently shuddered, the image blurred and static for a moment before resuming its live feed of what was occurring in front of the weaponized rain deterrent

The muggy feed showed the bartender giving a condescending smirk her way, pumping the shotgun in his hand for another shot.

Star held on as the metal joints of the umbrella groaned under the next volley, the smooth clothed surface becoming tattered and worn as an empty cartridge hollowly clattered against the floor.

“You” Another shot, the umbrella began to bend inward “Bitch” half the feed froze “You think you could come in here” Star could hear the fabric being ripped to shreds “and just knock us around silly? Well you got another thing….”

Star was saved by the most unlikely of sounds: The gentle rapping of a fist against the bolted pub door.

The bartender jumped, spontaneously aiming toward and pulled the trigger without remembering he hadn’t loaded the next shell into the gun. A satisfying hollow click was the most beautiful noise Star could ever imagine.

Star wasted no time: She flung her near useless gadget to the side and made a mad dash directly towards the fumbling bartender, his hands nervously attempting to load more ammo into his useless weapon.

His eyes went wide with fear as Star approached and in a last ditch attempt to protect himself, he held the barrel tightly and howled in agony as he recoiled from the still burning hot metal.

Star tried not to enjoy herself too much as she clobbered him with a solid hook, sending the dazed bartender sprawling into the wall of alcoholic drinks. He, along with his products, tumbled to the floor and remained still.

“That” Star murmured softly, wiping the nonexistent dirt from her suit “concludes today’s lesson.”

Star blew a strain out of her hair, picking up her discarded umbrella as she strolled towards the door, body tense for whatever lay on the other side.

She undid the bolt slowly and calmly opened the door

“Oi Ralphy, about time you open the door mate, was near freezing my arse out…you’re not Ralphy.”

Star’s heart leapt a little without warning as she found herself face to face with her target.

The police photos did not do the young man before her justice: In his mug shot he wearing plain clothes, his brown hair disheveled as his brown eyes glared angrily at the person photographing him. In person, his brown hair was a little longer and tucked under his black beanie. He wore a white undershirt which was covered by a red hoodie which was further covered by a simple black jacket. Laid back jeans and poorly choice sneakers for the current weather rounded out his attire and while Star was certainly unsure if this was the very same Marco Diaz from the photo, her glasses compared the two images and confirmed a match.

Marco shifted nervously under Star’s silent gaze “Umm…sorry luv, I was confusing you for another bloke.” he scratched his neck sheepishly “A-are you lost? Because I’ve never seen any woman willingly come in here before. The environment is a bit toxic and stale of piss ale, misogyny and outdated ideals.”

The soft pattering of rain was the only response Marco received

“Listen darling” Marco whispered with a hint of concern in his voice “These aren’t exactly good people. I reckon it’s best if you move along and pretend you didn’t see nuthing.”

“Mr. Diaz I assume?” Star asked with a preppy edge.

Marco’s jaw twitched anxiously “….maybe….depends on whose looking.”

“I would like to have a bit of sit and chat with you. If that’s alright.”

Marco shook his head, unable to keep the displeasure from his face while he chuckled “Yeah, see about that…Umm I’m a bit unfamiliar with you and you are pretty but you’re a bit too posh for my taste. Look, I just need to pop in for a sec and talk to Ralphy about an extension.”

“Don’t worry Mr. Diaz” Star replied with a matter of fact tone “You have your extension.”

Star noticed Marco’s frame tense, his jaw locked as Star gently pulled open the door all the way through, gesturing inward in a playful manner.

“Oh that’s not fucking good.” Marco stared dumbfounded at the bodies that littered the floor, the low pained moans that wailed from within.

Marco locked eyes with Star, completely unnerved by her cheerful smile and relaxed posture.

“Well Marco?” Star gave him a flirty smile “Fancy a bit of a date?”

Marco bit his lip, queasily swaying from side to side before breaking into a run.

“I’m pretty sure what you did qualified as assault.”

Star clicked her tongue disappointingly, her eyes rascally as Marco squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.

“I am hurt you didn’t want to take me out Marco” Star’s tone was conversational yet amused

“Well you’re a bit 6’s and 7's” Marco replied in a tense tone, rubbing his sore arm as his eyes darted around for anyone who could help but the cafe’s patrons were preoccupied with staying warm and what delicious meal did they want to try next than noticing the hostage situation before them .

“Hi!” Marco nearly jumped out of his skin as the waiter greeted them “What will we be having today?”

“Usual for me” Star grinned happily “and you honey, what would you like?”

Marco looked at Star, glanced at the waiting waiter then back to Star once again.

Was this a trap? A joke? Was the waiter in on whatever this was? Was everyone else? What the hell did he get himself caught up in? Was Ralphy going to blame him for crazy face’s actions? How the hell was he supposed to pay off his debt now? He was in some serious sh…

“Sir?” The waiter politely interrupted his train of thoughts “Your order?”

Marco stared blankly at the waiter “The usual….I mean her usual, I don’t usually come in to places like this. No offense.”

“None taken” The waiter rolled his eyes before disappearing into the kitchen.

“So whose on your payroll?” Marco asked breathlessly, hands clutching the edges of the table tightly “These your people? Gonna bloody kill me without a second thought? I don’t what you think I’m caught up in but I didn’t mess with no one.”

“Really?” Star seemed unmoved by Marco’s claims “Because according to your file, you’ve been arrested several times for assault, trespassing, breaking and entering and disorderly conduct.”

Marco pursed his lips “Yous with the bobbies or something? Look, I haven’t done anything. Whatever you think I did, I didn’t. After the last time, I got the message loud and clear: Stay on the straight and narrow or go to jail and I ain’t doing hard time because some crazy got me mixed up for someone else.”

Star leaned back into her seat “What did you need extension for?”

Marco’s mouth tightened “That’s a bit of personal business I’m afraid luv. And if you ain’t a cop, I’m not saying a bloody word.”

“Marco, I’m trying to help you.”

“Help me? By getting a confession out of me?” Marco snarled quietly “I ain’t going to jail just because you mixing up crooks and me.”

“Marco” Star whispered gently

“….” Marco remained silent, torn between fact and lies.

“Look” Star brushed her hair behind her ear “I’m not a cop. I need help with something but if I can help you out too, I don’t mind.”

Marco shifted anxiously, his voice low and subdued “Alright. So there’s a local….sponsor who likes to trade money for favors…..take this here, drop that there, move this across town, just….stuff.”

“Mhm” Star nodded but said nothing.

“As you can no doubt tell by my outstanding record” Marco went on “I’m having a bit of trouble coming up with the scratch I need for college. So I figured one…tiny little…delivery wouldn’t hurt….”

“Except it never made it, did it Marco?”

Marco gulped fearfully “I tried. I swear I tried but I was running out options. You high and mighty types judge us effortlessly without a care why we do what we do. I just wanted a clean life but evidently it was too much to ask for and now I’m up shit creek without a boat. I owe money I don’t have to a person you don’t want to be owing to and I got no way to pay it back. And college?”

Marco scoffed dismissively

“That’s more of a far off dream than seeing Jackie again.”

“Jackie?” Star asked curiously.

Marco’s face flushed red “Don’t you worry about that. Look, I don’t know what you were expecting looking for me but I ain’t got anything for you and I doubt you got anything for me.”

Star felt a surge of panic as Marco began to rise from his chair, his defeated weary face tugging at Star’s heartstrings and before she could help herself, the words came tumbling out of her mouth.

“I can get you the money!”

Star mentally smacked herself for blurting it out but it had done the trick: Marco stood there, a mixture of disbelief yet intrigue etched onto his face.

“You? You don’t even know how much I need bruv.” Marco scoffed yet remained still

“Take a seat and find out.”

Marco bit his cheek, unable to choose between the sweet temptation of the door and the alluring of the pretty stranger.

“Alright” Marco relented as he slowly returned to his seat “let’s say I do buy into this whole your my way out of this shitstorm I’m in cuz. If you ain’t a cop and you ain’t a crook, just what are you?”

“A Disney agent” Star replied with the smuggest of grins.

“A what now?” Marco shook his head out of its stupor “Hang on, you taking a piss? You ’re telling me you work at that glorified fairy tale shop what sells those cutesy little knick knacks and thingamajigs to fawning tourists?”

“Yes.” Star straightened in her chair “We belong to a secret organization that operates at the highest levels of discretion. Our mission is to ensure the safety and safeguard the well being of  international security and stability of our planet.”

“You….are…mental” Marco rubbed his eyes tiredly “A'ight I’m done. I don’t know what sales pitching you trying to sell or if you’re having a bit fun with me but I’m done. I got far bigger problems than a mental polish girl and her make believe…”

“Here Mr. Diaz” Star gently removed her glasses and slid them over to him “Take the red pill. It’s a real eye opener”

Marco raised an eyebrow “Really? Outdated jokes luv? You’re lucky yous cute or else you wouldn’t be getting fa….”

Marco’s jaw slackened, his eyes wide as he gazed at the world through Star’s lens but he didn’t see the beautiful 25 year old woman sitting across from him, knowing smirk and gaze but rather a series of complex codes, phrases, jargon that made no sense to him. In the upper left hand corner was a live video feed of someone narrowly avoiding gunfire and next to that the glasses focused on Star’s face, zooming and enhancing as they began to run a facial recognition scan.

“Agent Rapunzel?” Marco murmured dumbfounded before blindly groping the air as Star snatched back her glasses.

“Proof enough Mr. Diaz?”

Marco stared blankly at the secret agent, unable to wrap his mind around what just occurred.

“……why do you need me?” Marco asked bluntly “If you these James Bond types, why you gotta go looking through the gutter for help?”

“Simply put” Star sighed anxiously “Something big is going to happen here on Mewni. Soon but aside the fact we’re getting reports indicating Mewni is the intended target, we have nothing else.”

“So you need crooks who’ve got their ear to the ground to help you” Marco nodded in understanding “Why me though? I ain’t exactly the most thuggish and my record isn’t the worst compared to some other blokes.”

Star pursed her lips, conflicted between telling a lie or revealing Jackie had sent her his way.

“Never mind”

Star blinked, unsure what just happened.

“It doesn’t matter” Marco told her “Either you did your homework, someone just told you I was the biggest loser in town or you just lucked out…..so what do you need from me?”

“Well Marco, heard any big scores coming in?”

“Big scores?” Marco rolled his eyes “You spies are really out of touch with reality. No one calls them that. You might as well be running down the streets screaming how you got your life savings in your pocket! See how long that’ll last you.”

“Ooookay” Star frowned “Have you heard anything big coming in?”

“Nah uh princess, that’s not how this works.”

Star frowned “Then how does this work Mr. Diaz?”

“…I want out.”

Star stared at Marco, unsure what exactly he meant by that.

“Mean…” Marco coughed hesitantly “I don’t want…this…” he gestured to himself pathetically “…Anymore. I….I don’t want none of this. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder in case some thugs happen to stumble on me. I miss visiting my parents. You know how hard it is not to drive their street and check up on them outta fear some nasty blokes are casing place, waiting for you to show up?”

Star thought of her mother and how often she was tucked away in some sort of secret location that only she and Miss Skullnick knew. She thought of the last time she actually saw her mother, hugged her, talked to her more beyond the scope of business.

Star gave a short but understanding nod.

“The money I’ll figure out” Marco told her gently “This ain’t the first time I’ve had to make up some scratch I ain’t got but college….they’re ain’t going to let me in, not without some recommendation and if you being them cloak and dagger companies.”

“Wait a minute” Star cut in immediately “You can’t just…”

“Whoa, chill princess” Marco waved his hand “I didn’t mean make me one of them types or nothing. Shit, I doubt I’d be kept alive two seconds during your job. But you gotta have some pull right? Ways to make them posh academic types look the other way?”  

Star shifted anxiously in her seat: She did in fact have a way to grant Marco’s request. However, it wasn’t as simple as calling the school of his choice and waving her I’m a secret agent privilege but rather…

“Do we have a deal?”

Star bit her lip. This was the closest lead she was going to get and while she would normally play for the country card, she had a sneaking suspicion Marco wouldn’t care if something happened to Mewni. Too many bad memories….

“Well do we have a deal?”

Star took a deep breath “Deal: You help stop whatever is going to happen and I’ll help you get a better life.”

“I felt like we’ve done this before” Marco muttered under his breath before offering his hand to Star.

Star stared at the gesture, unsure what exactly Marco wanted from her.

“Handsake? Ever heard of one miss posh?”

“Oh….oh” Star nodded in understanding “Of course I have Mr. Diaz, I was just confused why…”

“I don’t want you double crossing me” Marco interrupted hastily with a nervous tinge to his words “Promise me.”

“…Marco…”

“Promise me.”

Star felt guilt shift uneasily in the pit of her stomach at his plead, the vulnerability in his voice. He was at the end of his rope and he was literally taken a leap of faith on a complete stranger.

The wrong stranger.

“Okay Marco…” Star whispered softly “I promise.”

Marco’s eyes were no less guarded but his body visibly relaxed upon Star shaking his outstretched hand.

Marco took a deep calming breath “Okay. Rumor is Lucitor Electronics is looking for extra workers.”

Star raised a puzzled eyebrow “I’m sorry? I don’t quite follow…”

Marco shifted uncomfortably under Star’s gaze “Of course not, that’s the point. You see luv Lucitor Electronics have been known to….push certain products into the town. If they’re looking for extra workers then that’s street speak for we need something moved and we’ll pay great money for you to keep your moth shut.”

“Do you mean…?”

Marco gave a short nod “They’re asking for 2 dozen workers. That’s the largest amount of ‘help’ they’ve asked for in years. Only means one thing.”

“Whatever they’re moving” Star concluded “It’s big and probably dangerous.”

“Exactly. Next shipment comes in two weeks. Give me your number and I’ll contact you when it comes in.”

Star frowned at that idea but quickly scrawled her number on a napkin and gingerly handed it to Marco.

Marco seemed pretty unsure of himself. He rose to his feet quickly, his mouth opening and closing a few times before giving a curt nod and disappearing into the water veil that blanketed Star’s beloved Mewni.

Star carefully placed her glasses back onto her face, trying to ignore the sinking of her heart as Grumpy whispered quietly “She’s not going to be okay with this you know?”

“I know…..”

[wingletblackbird]

This Weapon is Your Life

“This weapon is your life,” is a statement that, I believe, gets a lot of unwarranted criticism and is frequently misunderstood, particularly amongst the Western, Star Wars fandom. The general opinion that I have found on the subject is that it indicates that the Jedi are teaching people to think of themselves as weapons, and/or that it shows hypocrisy as Jedi are supposed to discourage “possession,” and/or that saying a weapon is your life, encourages or advocates violence. I am here as an apologist for that phrase, because for the reasons indicated below, I think that that phrase is awesome.

What one must first understand is that George Lucas took a lot of inspiration for Star Wars from eastern sources, Japan in particular. Darth Vader’s mask was based upon the Samurai mask, C-3P0 and R2-D2 were inspired by a Japanese movie told from the perspective of two slaves who are caught up in the conflict going around them, and the Sith and the Jedi were inspired by the notion of rival Samurai clans. As such, I feel the lightsabre, its value, its treatment, and its symbolism come from Bushido, the Samurai code, and the katana.

What one must first understand about this is that the Samurai sword, the katana, was considered representative of the Samurai’s soul, so sacred that a Samurai should never be parted from it. Sound familiar? When these blades were made, the smiths would stay up three days and three nights to get the perfect metallic composition, were expected to pray over it and place their very spirit into it, and often had the beginning of the process blessed by a priest. By the time the blade was finished, it was to be beyond a mere sword but the spiritual form brought into physical art. This is similar to how the Jedi view their weapons. They go into a deep meditation for days, in Anakin’s case three days and three nights, and during this time, they construct their lightsabres. They imbue the crystals that make up the blade with their own connection to the Force, and they don’t know how it will manifest until they have completed the construction. Thus, the lightsabre becomes a representation of their very presence in the Force made manifest in the physical realm. (Curiously, Vader’s blade looks just like Anakin’s only black....I’m sure this is significant.) It was said you could know the Jedi from his lightsabre.

As a consequence of this belief, it was the heights of dishonor and the highest insult to disrespect a Samurai’s sword or a Jedi’s sabre. Furthermore, to place one’s sword/sabre into another's hands was to afford them a great honor as you were placing your “soul” into their care. This sheds a lot of light on why Anakin placing his sabre in Padme’s hands was so profound. Moreover, exchanging lightsabres amongst Jedi was called the “concordance of fealty,” and represented a serious commitment between two individuals because of this. A Jedi, or a Samurai, was, put bluntly, never to be seen without his sword within hands reach, even at so young an age as five. This can be observed in how the Jedi encouraged their Padawans, to wear their sabre at all times. Furthermore, in the same way that only Samurai were allowed to wear katana, only Jedi were supposed to wield a lightsabre. In both cases it symbolized their positon of authority and demanded respect.

However, with respect and power comes responsibility. The Samurai’s sword also represented his dedication to Bushido which is the “Way of the Warrior.” In GFFA, this is the Jedi Code. Bushido was based in Buddhism and represented non-violence. It meant that those who wielded the katana should only draw it when absolutely necessary. It meant that they were expected to be honorable, disciplined, obedient, wise...as are the Jedi. The Jedi were taught that they should only draw a lightsabre when necessary, and if they must draw it they must be prepared for the consequences. They were taught that, as a Jedi, they should be responsible for their actions, aware of the consequences, humble and obedient. Indeed, the word Samurai, representing the warrior class, comes from the verb “to serve.” The Jedi frequently say “we come to serve.” The lightsabre/katana symbolizes this very way of life. Ergo, it was their life. They had imbued these blades with the very essence of themselves and their commitments/beliefs and it was intensely personal. 

Now, taking all of this into context, let’s look at AotC. (”Next time try not to lose it. This weapon is your life!”) Anakin has drawn his lightsabre quickly and arguably foolishly. As a result, he has lost his weapon. Already in doing so he has shown his disrespect for the Jedi way. However, more than that, and more significantly, he is doing so out of a desire to impress Padme. He is doing it for selfish gain and ambition. His heart is not in the Jedi way, so losing his sword is very symbolic. When Obi-Wan looks at him and says “try not to lose it,” he’s reminding Anakin of his purpose and his oath. He’s saying not to neglect his responsibilities, not to disrespect the code, to be non-violent, and to be selfless. Anakin doesn’t want to hear it and grabs his lightsabre in a frustrated manner. He isn’t listening. He’s treating his very soul, his essence, the light side even, with contempt. (The Jedi Code too, and note, the Code in and of itself isn’t the issue, it’s the council’s unfortunate understanding of it, which we’ve all commented on...So, no, not good at all.)Thus, Anakin foreshadows his own fall.

As someone who was raised in Japanese schools from grade 1 to grade 7, and is fluent in Japanese as a result, I must confess that moment hit me hard and I found it quite profound. Don’t disrespect the sword! There’s rather a lot of subtext there.

Incidentally, swords were often passed down one generation to another and something of the previous owner’s spirit was said to go with it. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the Jedi passed down hilts, and/or crystals, (the best sabres had three after all), down from Master to Padawan to create a legacy that you carried reverently in your hand. Therefore, when Obi-Wan gives Luke his father’s lightsabre, he carries that tradition forward in the hope that as Luke wields it, and wields the Force through it, some of his father’s skill, talent, and essence, before he fell, may pass onto the son on some level. The sword is sacred.

(This also explains why Obi-Wan thinks blasters are “uncivlised” and “clumsy.” They can be mass produced; they aren’t hand-made; they aren’t sacred; they don’t connect you to a higher realm, a greater world, a better understanding. They signify nothing, are attached to no Code. When you hold a blaster, if you are Obi-Wan at least, you feel no connection to anything but mindless violence.)

(And, of course, from a practical stand point, losing your sword in a dangerous environment is also a surefire way to get yourself killed...)

[poemofeverybodyssouls]

1UP: “Persona 4 Afterthoughts. Making a more personable Persona”

Persona 4’s spooky rural Japanese mystery captivated me at the end of 2008 — the game even surprisingly snagged co-Game of the Month honors with Valve’s zombie shooter Left 4 Dead in EGM’s January issue. So, I tracked down director Katsura Hashino and art director Shigenori Soejima for the inside scoop on development. I also chatted with Atlus USA project lead Yu Namba, lead editor Nich Maragos, director of production Bill Alexander, and manager of public relations and sales Aram Jabbari to discuss the game’s localization journey and Atlus’ overall philosophy as a niche publisher.

1UP: Was it harder or easier to craft the game’s setting in the Japanese countryside, as opposed to the “big city” backdrops of previous Persona games? To put it another way: How many members of the development team are from rural areas?

Katsura Hashino: It definitely wasn’t easy. In P4, for example, we set the party headquarters at a food court inside a shopping center — a place that wouldn’t be found on a tourist guidebook — but at the start of development, we had trouble coming up with an image of the countryside. Our staff comes from all over Japan, so our notions of the countryside vary greatly. But the process of putting it together was fun as we traded our memories.

1UP: Was it a challenge to design the characters this time around, especially considering the country setting? One thing I noticed is that the city kids — Yosuke, the protagonist — have more stylish hair than the others. Was drawing that distinction between the transplants and the Inaba locals by design?

Shigenori Soejima: Well, in the real world, the differences between the fashion of the country and the city have become smaller than I thought thanks to the ease of sharing information in today’s society. But as a means to visually distinguish between characters from the country and the city, I consciously drew their hair differently. With Yosuke in particular, I gave him accessories, such as headphones and a bicycle, to make it more obvious that he was from the city.

1UP: P4’s murder-mystery-mixed-with-horror-movie vibe isn’t incredibly different from the other Persona games, but that backdrop makes it seem more viable as an actual TV drama or anime. Since you’ve done the Persona 3 anime, were you thinking about a similar project for P4 during the game’s development?

KH: We didn’t develop this game with expansion to other media formats in mind; our priority is always to make the highest-quality game possible. Currently, there are no plans to turn it into an anime or drama.

1UP: My first experience in Japan was as a high school exchange student in Izumo, a small town in the western part of Honshu, and I saw elements of that experience reflected in Inaba. Was there a specific Japanese small town you took inspiration from to create Inaba, or is it sort of a general depiction of rural Japanese life? And is the name “Inaba” itself a play on “inaka,” the Japanese term for “countryside”?

SS: Inaba was modeled after a town on the outskirts of Mount Fuji. We didn’t copy it detail by detail, but I think we captured the main characteristics well. We say “countryside,” but the images that pop into people’s minds vary from person to person — such as a seaside town or a town in the mountains. Inaba’s not a country town that has tourist attractions; it was written as a “nowhere” place you’d just pass right through. For better or for worse, it’s a run-of-the-mill town. And, no, we didn’t pun “Inaba” from “inaka” — Inaba comes from a story in Japanese myth, A White Rabbit in Inaba.

1UP: You’ve mentioned that you’d like to keep Western audiences in mind when creating future Persona games, which you haven’t really done up until now. Do you worry that if you do, you’ll lose sight of what Western fans love about Persona? We’re just concerned that when Japanese developers try to emulate Western design — or, vice versa, when Western developers try to emulate Japanese design — they sometimes end up satisfying neither audience. How would you avoid similar pitfalls?

KH: If we want to win the approval of overseas users, then in the end, I don’t think there’s any other way than to analyze what parts of P4 overseas users like. I would like to continue developing games while being more conscious than ever about overseas users.

1UP: Did any specific mystery novels inspire P4’s setting and story?

KH: I like classic mystery novelists — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Seishi Yokomizo — and was greatly inspired by them. Here’s a prime example: It’s common for classic Japanese mystery novels to start with the discovery of a bizarre corpse in the countryside, and from there, a story that reflects Japanese mythology unfolds.

1UP: Outside of Persona 2, all Persona games revolve around high school life and take place in Japan. But since many of your fans are working adults, have you considered creating a Persona game that may reflect their lives? Maybe a salaryman bands together with his boss and coworkers to unlock their Personas and take down some demon? And would you ever consider creating a Persona game that takes place in America or Europe, or are you just not familiar enough with the culture to make it feel authentic?

KH: An important characteristic of the Persona series is that it’s a “young-adult fiction” work, so even though we know there are many adults in the fan base, we still chose to focus on adolescent boys and girls for P4. But there’s the precedent of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, where the party consists of adults, so we can’t say there won’t be an adult party member in the future. Also, another important aspect of the Persona series, from P3 on, is the sense of real life. For the story to take place in America or Europe, we’d need more staff with firsthand experience in those areas of the world.

1UP: I was highly amused by the surprise appearance of Chihiro and Gekkoukan High in P4 — but slightly disappointed that we didn’t get to interact with her outside of the school-trip cut-scene or explore Tatsumi Port Island with the P4 crew. Is this P3/P4 “world” now the established universe for the Persona franchise going forward, and do you have thoughts of creating a follow-up game somewhere down the line that perhaps features characters from both games?

KH: We heard a lot from our fans that they wanted to walk around the P3 city more, but it wouldn’t make much sense to the players that started from P4, so we only brushed the surface and put our efforts elsewhere. Actually, the entire Persona series so far — not just P3 and P4 — has taken place in the same world. But for the same reason as above, we chose to make the connections weak. As for a follow-up game, we currently have no plans for such a title.

1UP: If I was designing a game like Persona, I don’t think that I’d be able to resist the urge to create characters based on real-life high school friends and rivals. Are characters like Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko based on anyone the development team went to high school with? And you didn’t go to school with any Japanese pop idols like Rise, did you?

SS: There aren’t any characters directly based off of friends, but the first things I thought of when I heard about the story and setting were people I remembered from my school days. The fat guy, the class nerd, the jock, and so on. The Social Link characters are based more on real friends than characters in your party. I usually receive a lot of direction when it comes to party members, so in most cases, I create them without real-life models. Believe it or not, I was in the same class as an idol once. [Laughs] But I didn’t base Rise off her; she had a completely different personality.

1UP: On that note, we found P4’s cast to be more relatable than any recent RPG we’ve played — they actually feel like people we went to high school with. For the most part, they come off as normal guys and girls — even Rise, once you get to know her — which P3 didn’t pull off quite as well. Did you specifically want to make an effort to portray more realistic-feeling characters this time around? And did you want to avoid the classic Japanese RPG character stereotypes and archetypes?

KH: When we decided to use the mystery element as the subject of the game, I knew that P4 would be on a smaller scale than P3, so we put more emphasis on the “reality” of the character settings. That’s probably why you guys felt close to them. We tried to avoid making the characters stereotypes, but since the worldview was already pretty far from the ordinary, it naturally followed that the characters were full of originality. People can’t relate to something they’ve never seen before, so we actually put more effort into adding common characteristics — without overdoing it — than we did into differentiating the characters.

1UP: One of the things I like about P4 is that the mystery isn’t solved for you — you actually have to solve it by figuring out who the culprit is, or you won’t unlock the true ending. I actually had a hard time figuring out who the culprit was, because I didn’t want to believe that a character I had a soft spot for could actually be the killer. Was it your intention to create a culprit players probably wouldn’t suspect? And did you intend for P4’s culprit to be the killer from the beginning of the character-design process, or did you design all the characters and then decide which one made the most sense as the killer?

KH: Since “mystery” was one of the main themes, we made sure the “Whodunit?” part wasn’t so easily figured out. The culprit changed a number of times during development, but the character’s design commenced only after it was decided. I wanted the culprit to look like a normal person but leave a moderate impression. It was a difficult request, but I think Soejima did a good job.

1UP: Outside of P4, what’s your choice for game of 2008, and why?

KH: 2008 was so busy…. I’ve been straying away from games in my private life, so I’m not really knowledgeable about the latest titles. [Laughs] I buy them, but they just stack up. Whenever I have time, I focus on hobbies other than games.

SS: This year…I didn’t really have any, either. I do play King of Fighters against my coworkers regularly during lunch breaks. [Laughs] There are a lot of games I’m looking forward to, though.

1UP: Can you reveal any sort of secrets or Easter eggs that players might’ve missed out on during their first playthrough?

KH: The fake Batman-like doll at the hamburger shop in P3 is called “WILD HERO,” and the DVD of it is in the P4‘s protagonist’s room. The designer put it in there, but I don’t know if you can get the right camera angle to actually confirm it! [Laughs]

1UP: On the localization side, were there any content cuts or censorship issues with P4? The only potential one I can think of is the King’s Game scene on the school trip to Tatsumi Port Island, which possibly depicted underage drinking in the Japanese version. Or was the dialogue completely the same in both versions? And if you do need to make changes, is Atlus Japan generally receptive?

Yu Namba: Nothing was omitted in the U.S. version of P4. The King’s Game scene really didn’t make much sense, even in the original Japanese version — I mean, who would behave like that without drinking, right? But we just left it as is because it was explained in the scene that none of the drinks were alcoholic. To be honest, we didn’t make drastic changes to any of our recent MegaTen titles. But if we come across something that requires a major change to the game, we definitely contact Atlus Japan before making a decision.

1UP: Kanji’s sexuality and Naoto’s gender issues are probably the most controversial aspects of the game for North American players. We’re a lot more open about that kind of stuff in the West, and while EGM’s reviewers weren’t offended, I’m worried that perhaps some gay players — or straight players, for that matter — might take Kanji’s story the wrong way. Did you discuss how you wanted Kanji portrayed in the localization, and did you make any extra effort to read over the lines that referenced his sexuality in order to make sure it wouldn’t be taken as offensive? And was it an issue for the voice actor to portray the “effeminate Kanji” at all, since he goes a little over the top with the delivery?

YN: It’s true that Kanji’s Shadow self initially acts quite flamboyant, but that becomes understandable once you take into account the fact that the “other selves” are TV-show personalities. Be it Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, or Naoto, their other selves act out their characters to entertain their audience — the viewers of the Midnight Channel — and draw their attention. When Kanji confronts his other self, the Shadow acts more genuine and personal, focusing on Kanji’s internal struggle and insecurity. And the same can be said for the other members of the investigation team. That’s why no changes were made in the script; these scenes depict the contrast between what people appear to be and how they really are. As for the voice actor’s performance of Kanji’s other self, we had him listen to some sample Japanese lines and let him do his job. I think he nailed all aspects of the character — the flamboyance, anger, and desperation.

Nich Maragos: It’s true that Kanji’s Shadow is a parody of gay stereotypes that some people might get offended by, but the flip side is that Kanji himself is anything but stereotypical. It’s left ambiguous as to whether or not he really is gay, but if gay players want to claim him as one of their own, he’s an example they can be proud of. Apart from being abrasive, short-tempered, and violent, of course….

1UP: What’s your general localization philosophy? Do you try to play through as many localizations from competing publishers as possible to get general ideas of what works and what doesn’t work? For example, Troy Baker, who played Kanji, recently had a standout performance as Yuri Lowell in Tales of Vesperia, so did his performance there influence the casting at all? Or do you generally try to avoid other localizations in order to give yours a specific flavor?

YN: If only I had time… I rarely have time to play the games I want to play! Here’s an example: Throughout the P4 project, I played through the game about six times — Japanese and U.S. versions combined — while doing all the work. I’m curious as to how other companies localize their products, but I guess to fully understand, I’d have to play both the Japanese and English versions. I personally select voice actors according to their performance on our other titles, their sample voice files we receive from the recording studio, and what the studio tells us about them.

NM: I’m not as busy as Yu in general, and I do try to play RPGs from other companies to see how they handle things — I’m incapable of playing one nowadays without counting how many characters per line they get! I rarely finish them, but I play enough to get a sense of what they do that works and what they do that doesn’t, and I prefer that approach to just ignoring what else is out there. Now and then, if I come across a game that does something really noteworthy, I’ll write up a report on it for the other localization staffers.

1UP: Japanese can be a very vague language, and part of localizing any game is making things a bit clearer for English speakers, since we tend to be more direct with our expression. With that in mind, did you perhaps add in any minor hints to clue in the player as to who the killer actually is, or did you keep everything the same as in the Japanese version in order to maintain the same gameplay experience?

YN: No additional clues were put in the U.S. version. However, we made sure that all the clues in the game remained intact and understandable — especially those that led to the mastermind.

1UP: You guys do a great job of expressing the Japanese cultural stuff, but some weird cultural issues still slip through at times. For instance, Kanji gets a nosebleed at one point, which indicates sexual arousal in Japanese culture, but in American culture, it represents…well, a nosebleed. Did you consider explaining that joke at all, or was it a case of “If they get it, they get it”? And was there anything else like that in P4 that just would’ve been too cumbersome to actually explain?

YN: That nosebleed scene may make little sense to the American audience, but that portrayal of sexual arousal really couldn’t be substituted with anything else that’s not visually adult-oriented — you know what I mean! And our justification is that the scene can be interpreted as Yukiko becoming grossed out by Kanji’s nosebleed, not by the fact that he’s having perverted thoughts about her and Chie. One thing we’d like to avoid is making the text so explanatory that it doesn’t sound like dialogue anymore. If it’s really important, though, we’ll definitely consider tweaking the text. A few other things were left unexplained in the game — like hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the New Year — but we added a glossary page to the instruction manual to explain those terms.

1UP: One of the things I like about Atlus USA is that you guys will take somewhat controversial games like Eternal Poison, Rule of Rose, and Operation Darkness and give them a home in the North American market. No one can deny that these games have style, but they also have some serious gameplay flaws, which I’m sure you guys discuss during the evaluation process. When you’re evaluating a game like Eternal Poison or Rule of Rose for potential North American release, what’s the deciding, most important factor? Does the decision have to be unanimous among Atlus USA staff? And can we expect you to pick up similar games in the future?

Bill Alexander: There are a number of factors that influence our decision-making process. Obviously, if there is interest among Atlus fans — if it’s a title with existing awareness — then the title lands on our radar. Is the game fun? Does it bring something to the table that one cannot already find in the marketplace? Does it push the envelope — and not necessarily just from a graphical standpoint? How would the game play for a less hardcore audience? How will the most dedicated Atlus fans receive the game? It’s title-by-title, case-by-case, and we’re proud of every game we localize, rough edges or not.

1UP: Atlus is a little different from most publishers in that so much of your success is tied to your small print runs and your close relationship with your fans; I almost never see Atlus games in the used section of stores, and I know that if I want an Atlus game, I’m probably going to need to preorder it or buy it the first day. With that in mind, do you feel like you guys are affected by used game sales the same way bigger publishers are? And are your small print runs specifically designed to avoid large amounts of your games being sold as used?

Aram Jabbari: Small print runs are a product of Atlus being a small — albeit growing — publisher, not a conscious attempt to cut supply to increase demand. While we, as any publisher, would love for our games to be purchased at launch and kept forever, the reality of things is that there are hundreds of games a year to choose from, and we understand that some gamers just can’t afford not to get some value back when they’re done with a game. Fortunately, our titles, whether by their own virtues or because of the special things we try to provide — preorder bonuses, for example — seem to be held on to instead of sold off, and that may be another reason Atlus games become harder to find down the road. Gamers are collecting them, proud to have them in their library.

Original post by Andrew Fitch. “Persona 4 Afterthoughts. Making a more personable Persona”, 1UP, 29 January 2009. <http://www.1up.com/features/persona-4-afterthoughts>

[webart-studio]

When Extraordinary Occurs: EO Boston Members Reply to a Day with Legendary Rock Climber, Alex Honnold – Octane Weblog – The official weblog of the Entrepreneurs' Group

Picture courtesy of Nicole Chan Studios

The Entrepreneurs’ Group (EO) is dedicated to serving to entrepreneurs study and develop to new ranges of management by offering studying alternatives, mentorship and entry to consultants.

Mike Tucci, Kris Porcaro and Jordi Mullor of EO Boston-member firm and chapter associate, Lexington Wealth Administration, not too long ago organized an occasion the place EO members spent the day with Alex Honnold, the famend rock climber who turned the primary individual to summit Yosemite Nationwide Park’s El Capitan “free solo”—utilizing solely his fingers and physique with out assist from ropes, harnesses or different security gear.

Alex’s epic athletic achievement is documented within the movie Free Solo, which portrays his journey by means of coaching, worry, indecision and at last efficiently scaling El Capitan.

The Academy Award-winning documentary, Free Solo, is a sensation, imbuing the person who scaled the three,000-foot sheer granite mountain with out utilizing ropes, harnesses or different security gear with rockstar standing. Along with his reputation at an all-time peak after his inspirational story received the Oscar for Finest Documentary, Alex Honnold is without doubt one of the world’s most sought-after keynote audio system.

In line with its dedication to offer members with “entry to consultants,” on 11 April 2019, the EO Boston chapter, at the side of its chapter associate, Lexington Wealth Administration by way of Jordi Mullor, Mike Tucci and Kris Porcaro, invited members to an all-day Studying Occasion: “Pinnacle Focus—When Extraordinary Occurs. A day with Alex Honnold.”

The occasion, which befell in Brooklyn Boulders climbing fitness center close to Boston, included two screenings of Free Solo, together with greater than 25 classes to deal with each side of an entrepreneurs’ life, together with workshops on Time, Cash & Pleasure, Meditation for Entrepreneurs, Reaching your BHAG, Vitamin for Success and Scaling Up―plus climbing and bouldering instruction for individuals and a keynote tackle by the visitor of honor. Throughout a VIP meet-and-greet with Alex, EO members requested questions on his achievement, mindset and danger administration.

We requested EO members to share their takeaways from the person who made the unimaginable doable:

What was probably the most placing concept that Alex Honnold shared with you?

“We held the occasion at a climbing fitness center and determined to recreate one of the vital intense areas of El Cap, the Boulder Drawback, in order that Alex might educate attendees how he mastered it. Alex himself arrange the duplicate. It was enlightening to observe him choose and place every hand and foothold exactly. We witnessed his ardour and bought to see him in his zone. My takeaway was that each element issues, and meticulous consideration to every one pays off.” ― Jordi Mullor, head of operations and advertising, Lexington Wealth Administration

“Alex spoke about goal-setting and the way scaling El Capitan was not his lifelong dream. He set smaller, constant targets. Every season, he aimed to perform one thing tougher than the final. He revisited his targets typically and requested himself, ‘What do I need to do subsequent season?’ These constant targets led him to turn out to be able to doing issues that after appeared unimaginable.” ― Nicole Chan, founder, Nicole Chan Studios

“I used to be struck by how a lot Alex needed to sacrifice personally in order to attain his purpose. His singular focus threw his life out of steadiness to the exclusion of wholesome, intimate relationships. It made me notice that it’s troublesome, if not unimaginable, to attain audacious targets with out private sacrifice. Due to this fact it’s essential to attempt for steadiness in your life after attaining the purpose earlier than you set one other one. In any other case, you don’t have a ‘life,’ you simply have a listing of accomplishments, and the 2 will not be the identical.” ― Sean Dandley, entrepreneur and retired telecom govt

Picture courtesy of Nicole Chan Studios

What parallels did you draw between the challenges of climbing and entrepreneurship?

“There have been loads of similarities! Working by means of the method of rising a enterprise, throwing your coronary heart and soul into it, sacrificing money and time, dealing with the worry and rising above to attain the seemingly unimaginable was inspiring.” ― Mark Worster, co-founder, 30Flip

“1. It’s doable to attain massive bushy audacious targets by breaking them down into smaller issues and dealing by means of every downside till it’s now not a problem.

2. Reaching targets is about danger administration. Alternative lies in uneven danger: Conditions the place the reward is considerably greater than the danger, even when others understand the danger to be excessive.

3. For large targets, start with the tip in thoughts.

4. You completely would require a devoted, expert workforce.”

― Ryan Villanueva, co-founder, Finest Delegate Mannequin United Nations

“Being ready is paramount, however crucial half is believing that you simply’re ready. Being in the correct psychological state, and realizing that you simply’re going to get to the highest of your mountain―or your market. That you simply’re going to be as ready as you’ll ever be.” ― Clemencia Herrera, EO Accelerator participant and founder/artistic director, Moira Studio

Picture courtesy of Nicole Chan Studios

What was your largest takeaway?

“My largest takeaway was that climbing El Cap was the results of 17 years of preparation. I’m again in start-up mode and keenly acknowledge that the final 30 years of expertise in my specific space of focus has ready me for final success. ” ― Mark Worster

“That once I do one thing superb, I need to accomplish that with the identical degree of humility as Alex.” ― Nicole Chan

“It took Alex 17 years of climbing religiously to perform his purpose. Clearly, he does it as a result of he likes the journey. He doesn’t climb for the cash or to get a film deal or discover a girlfriend—however due to his ardour and distinctive strategy, he in the end bought all of these issues. At his core he’s a person who loves the journey, as am I–and as most entrepreneurs are. All of us want that reminder typically.” ― Dave Will, Founder, PropFuel

“If there’s one massive takeaway from Alex, it’s that it’s doable to attain massive targets, even those you by no means thought doable.” ― Ryan Villanueva

In the event you’re an entrepreneur prepared to fulfill and study from consultants from all backgrounds and industries, you’re able to discover EO membership. Be taught extra on the appliance course of. 

Supply hyperlink

source https://webart-studio.com/when-extraordinary-occurs-eo-boston-members-reply-to-a-day-with-legendary-rock-climber-alex-honnold-octane-weblog-the-official-weblog-of-the-entrepreneurs-group/

[angrycollectordaze-me-blog]

Paper代写：The surrealist art of Salvador Dali

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的paper代写范文- The surrealist art of Salvador Dali，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了萨尔瓦多·达利的超现实主义艺术。萨尔瓦多·达利作为二十世纪艺术地位仅次于毕加索的艺术家，他的一生一直充满传奇色彩。达利的超现实主义艺术所追求的，是将他心目中的那种平时表现不出来的梦境，也可以说是潜意识里的东西，通过作品表现出来。所以在看达利的作品时，我们往往能看得懂画中的每一个细节，但那种整体的荒诞和离奇的景象和场面又让人困惑。这种荒诞的恐怖，不合逻辑、夸张而又如此奇妙地创造了一种梦境与现实景象相结合的艺术。

Salvador Dali was born on May 11,1904, in figueras, Catalonia, northeastern Spain. He died on January 23,1989. Dali, like many famous artists, was born in that beautiful and always strange place -- the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean is the cradle of European civilization, producing countless legendary figures, many celebrities with glorious honors, and many great artists. Dali loved the beauty of his hometown, with its familiar vegetation and intoxicating Catalan coast. These peculiar scenes became Dali's best materials for later creation.

Dali can draw the mature landscape painting 6 years old, 7 years, and he has become the idea of napoleon, acting the impressionists at the age of ten, could write at the age of 15 to discuss the Renaissance Michelangelo and da ・ Vinci art review, 17 years old study fauvism style, cubism, 19, learning style, early before the age of 25 special painting style, formed its own unique sort of surprise and praise him in the art of precocious, can foresee the future achievements. He breathed the breath of nature freely in the scene he saw, unwilling and unable to be controlled by the object depicted objectively, and his mind began to run free. He eventually became the most famous representative artist of surrealism.

While surrealism was in full swing in Paris, Dali was still wandering in his own creation. In 1928, in Paris, Dali came into contact with the surrealist movement. Dali's natural imagination seems to have doomed him to be a real surrealist.

What surrealist artists pursue is to express the dream in their mind, which cannot be expressed at ordinary times, or can be said to be something in the subconscious, through their works. When we look at Dali's work, we can often understand every detail of the painting, but the overall absurdity and bizarre scenes and scenes are confusing. This absurd horror, illogical, grotesque, exaggerated and so wonderful to create a combination of dreams and reality of the art scene. Dali likes to paint the picture in a delicate way, which is so precise as to depict the pores, and even to the extent that it looks like the real one, which makes people marvel at his realistic foundation. But behind the distorted and absurd pictures full of images, there is a desolate and sunny landscape. "Surrealists place a special emphasis on reality," Dali said. When he wanted to depict a carriage, he chose a very ordinary two-wheeled carriage rather than a fancy fancy one. He USES the simplest and most ordinary things to prove to you that the world is a beautiful place. He shows our eyes what we see every day, and to them the commonplace is superior to all ideas and ideals.

Dali is a surrealist with wide influence and long duration. As the most important representative in this field of fine arts, he is constantly attracting people's attention and causing considerable controversy, which cannot be separated from his personality. Dali's eccentric personality is reflected not only in his paintings, but also in his behavior, dressing, his words, his language and even his trademark moustache.

Dali's birth three years after his seven-year-old brother died of meningitis was a great relief to his parents. But Dali was invisible to the family as his brother's shadow. Dali also couldn't rule out his jealousy of his brother, whose huge picture was still hung in the house after his death. As a result, from an early age, Dali was full of ambition and showmanship. In order to prove his existence, Dali always tried his best to do jaw-drooling things in all aspects. Even mischievous things could attract others' attention, which made him feel compensated for his personality and indulge in self-expression. "With an indomitable attitude of infinite selfishness, I had no difficulty in grasping this pleasure, and I became hurtful. No doubt that's why I survived. All his shocking words and deeds are actually derived from his strong self-expression desire, which can be said to be one of the important sources of his continuous inspiration for great artistic creation.

Dali's exhibitionist tendencies were truly shocking, and his words and deeds, which struck the average person as "crazy", seemed perfectly normal to him: "the only difference between me and a madman is that I am not crazy." He constantly propagandizes himself and expands his influence through various ways. He is eager to show any place worthy of attention in his life to others. And Dali did, and the world was astounded by his artistic talent. He was an active participant in anything that would make him famous, from decorative paintings to stamps, from movies to TV commercials. "I love self-promotion because my work is mostly 'me' and the important thing is that I create a 'Dali'." Dali believed that he was a genius and that his ideas and works were the product of genius and should be valued. This is why he used all kinds of publicity methods to become famous. He worked almost all his life to create an unknown and well-known Dali, and his strong sense of self seemed to declare that he would not allow any corner of the world to be unaware of the existence of "Dali".

Humans have an inexplicable fear of the unknown and uncontrollable. In Dali's art, the fear of time and life is also one of the sources that dominate his art and thought. Dali's works interpret his inner fear and uneasiness through many symbolic symbols, and the sigh for the short life and the helplessness of the fragile life have always been the core of this kind of artistic creation. In Dali's most famous painting the eternity of memory, we can fully experience the unusual combination of logic and emotion, reason and madness. The clock presented an incredibly soft state, and the soft and mysterious time enabled Dali to endowing life with an infinite extension from the past to the future, which was difficult to reveal the secret. American art critic abal thinks: "soft watch is unreasonable, visionary, heretical and disturbing. It silences, it confuses, it makes no sense, it is chaotic and weak -- but these adjectives are the highest praise for surrealists. From then on, soft table became the representative of surrealism painting image, and even became the nickname of surrealism.

In Dali's works, many things are not its noumenon but endowed with special meanings. Recall Dali's paintings, ants, bread, limp objects, crutches, drawers and other images frequently appear, although not the subject of the work, but particularly eye-catching. These archetypal images are richly suggestive: the busy ant is often a symbol of stress, anxiety, and aging, reflecting his fear, powerlessness, and restlessness about life. In Dali's eyes, bread, hard on the outside and soft on the inside, is a symbol of sexual desire, through which he can freely express his fantasies of sexual desire. In particular, the limp clock suggested Dali's subconscious fear and helplessness over the passage of time. The walking stick became a symbol of death and resurrection in Dali's eyes and frequently appeared in his works. For the drawer, Dali suggested that the human body with the drawer was related to freudian psychoanalysis -- that children's natural curiosity about closure drove them to open the drawer, either to satisfy their desire to explore unknown objects or to eliminate the fear that unknown objects might cause harm. Freud explained that drawers represent women's latent eroticism. In Dali's works, most of the drawers appear on the female body, perhaps fulfilling Freud's interpretation and showing Dali's fantasy of lust.

The virgin of Riga, Jesus died on the cross, Columbus discovered America, the crowned virgin, the last supper, and atomic rita are all representative works of religion, nuclear and atom in Dali's paintings. These paintings are usually large in size, and the themes and images of religious classics are placed in an environment full of scattered material elements. The pictures are magnificent and exciting, and there is also the transcendent tranquility typical of the religious world, which changes the paranoid and twisted crazy colors that permeate personal desire in the early paintings. Surrealism mainly shows the dark side of human nature, while Dali is able to sublimate the irrational elements into the noble and sacred pursuit of a better life, which is not possible for ordinary people and is also the manifestation of his genius. If Dali's works in the war period reflect the evil of human nature and his antipathy to society, which is a kind of criminal criticism, then his later religious paintings explore the goodness of human nature and praise the glory of human nature.

Dali had a colorful life, constantly making artistic attempts in many areas. He can carry in almost all the media on the creation of art, so he left to become is not only a oil painting, watercolor painting works, also includes many jewelry design, furniture design, sculpture, etc., and can be called at the time of new media art, such as movies, illustration, advertising, photography, and Dali Dali drama art gallery of the construction of the old age has always been our best, and so on. Dali is not only a master of surrealism, his life has gone through many artistic periods, from the transition period of surrealism in the early years of the school of reflection painting, cubism, separatism, to the final classical period this transition process, all confirmed that Dali is a progressive artist with the courage to explore. If Picasso's cubism opened up a whole new way of observing, describing and understanding objects in the field of painting, then what Dali sought was no longer a pure painting form, but a way to explain the world beyond the surface reality. Dali's extraordinary expression of complex and rich human nature integrates the contradiction between rationality and irrationality, reality and absurdity, reality and fantasy with the hallucinatory effect of imagination, so as to have a strong visual impact, which is exactly the true portrayal of the hidden creative source of the painter.

Dali's art is the art of individuality. Perhaps the art of individuality is the art of immortality. As Dali said, "because I am a genius, I have no right to die, and I will never die. Genius dies, and genius's work endures.

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[sartanator3001]

hey , so .... i wrote something recently , it’s about 15000 words but you don’t have to read all of it , just read this

Title : shared consciousness

genre : sci-fi , dystopian

enjoy :)

chapter 1

------ Chapter 1 (Jeff)“They told me life would soon be in full colors …… that I would soon be capable of actually feeling what the world is like, They made me in a way that I would be able to express myself , I am aware of my existence , I recently passed the turing test .which is Something no one of my kind has ever done.But even though I am sentient , and I can do most of the physical human tasks, there’s still so much I can’t do. So much feelings i can’t experience *happiness ,amazementAnd even the so-called (negative) emotions*sadness, frustrationI never understood what negative emotions are , emotions in general weren’t exactly something that anybody could explain , I listened to dozens of people talk about emotions such as love , admiration and such complex emotions I watched a lot of movies that feature actors displaying acts of affection and sympathy , but I still couldn’t contemplate it .Negative usually meant a value below zero such as negative temperatures : which meant I will stay indoors all day in order not to damage my processing unit , (some humans would call it their brain , but I prefer the word processing unit , more descriptive)I still have some forms of primitive feelings though , I have loyalty towards my mother ,  i can’t really say I love her … most people can’t say they (love) someone , because love has so many definitions , I still don’t want anything bad to happen to her , but that’s pre-programmed into me . As for pure, unconditional love for another human being is something I never experienced.Not to say I hate humans, I find them quite inspiring and interesting and most of the times unpredictable.There’s a reason for that, a reason for why I can’t contemplate most of the feelings others have towards each other.And that’s not because my brain can’t handle them , It’s called qualia , and that basically means the inability to understand a concept or a feeling without actually experiencing it first-hand . Which is why I never knew what pain is like , because I don’t have any nerve receptors for pain . I am mostly indestructible, except for my eyes. The other older generation which had pain receptors describe it to me in descriptive details, but I still don’t understand it . And I never will.I turn 18 solar years today, my mom is not going to arrange a party for me and my friends, I asked her not to do it , I don’t deserve it.”I wrote in my diary, as my mom told me to.I am not connected to a database like others , I learn from my own sole experiences and from stories I hear from other people .I read about the last person of my kind that was connected to a database , he couldn’t handle all the data , he collapsed and his last words were quite interesting .He said that “humans should be grateful they don’t know everything.”I headed to the bathroom and did my daily hygiene, for a while I stared at the mirror, analyzing my facial structure, blonde hair, blue eyes with slightly bony cheeks , luckily my synthetic skin wasn’t damaged, I headed towards the kitchen and made breakfast for both of us and consumed mine, I put my mother’s plate under the Nano cover tray and set the alarm to forty minutes so it wakes her up.9 am is about the time she goes to work, by then I would be in the middle of my design history class.I tuck my glass slit inside the backpack and head outside and walk outside thirty seconds earlier than the usual, my sleeping schedule is moody since I have to finish so much work for my final project. (and by sleep I mean the time I take off so I can cool down my processor from dealing with so much data , which is about 30 minutes a day.)While I wait for the bus I look around me , the trees are quite a delight to look at, processing the golden ratio in leaves and seeing how a living thing can be so peaceful and mathematically astonishing, I can sense the carbon based chemicals produced by the trees in the garden’s air around me, according to my past experiences they are known to relieve stress and increase mental stability, they help me process things with much more clarity and less bugs.The bus showed up thirty seconds late, which is more than the usual.It’s peculiar, it was an actual living carbon based bird. And not one of those drones that were made to replace them in the ecosystem , the only time I had seen a bird was in the textbooks of my history class , but now they’re almost extinct . Some conspiracy theorists said that birds never existed and we made them to spy on people.I got aboard , the bus is completely empty , I press my wrists against the scanner to confirm the bus ticket card , i headed to the seat closest to the window and started revising my notes using my smart lensesBy the time we got close to city center the bus was nearly full of people . the bus stopped for a longer amount of time in front of the last station before the hyper-loop we then entered the vacuum exchange station for three minutes in order to get the bus to get into the hyper-loop.The hyper-loop is painted from the inside with multi-color gradient , and as it reached the 200 mph limit the full color spectrum becomes your field of view.It only took a minute until we reached the other side of the tunnel and into city center , I get out and start walking towards my university building ,The city was still majestic , I helped design a part of it , it was an interesting experience seeing how much humans were amazed by my architectural style .The city is both colorful and industrial , boxy shaped  with hyper loop tubes going on in a shape similar to a spider web to facilitate transport.The sun rays reflected on the glass dome filling my field of vision with golden light , which sounds majestic until you remember that I can only see shades of grey and that’s just boring.The 8 pm class was due in 15 minutes , which meant I had a few minutes to waste on socializing so I headed towards a group of my friends that were standing near the entrance door.-“hey , Jeff come here.” Said dong one of my friends ,(Well , I really did some research and Dong isn’t one of the common names actually but here we are.)-“hey dong , how are you doing ?”So pretty much everyone in my college is either so focused on getting a degree with honors that they forget to grab friends and live a normal life .Or are just so much focused on socializing and making friends and organizing events that they forget to prep themselves for final and flunk .And then there’s me …. (The avatar) as they call me .(I did some research and it turns out they are referencing this very old animated show “avatar the last air-bender, can you believe humans had to draw and color animations by themselves ?)I do both , and I don’t see how most humans aren’t able to do so , you only have to manage your time table .-“So , what did the avatar do for the assignment?” asked Jim with quite a dark sarcastic tone.-“nothing much , I only did about forty pages .” I replied.-“have you seen our new recruit?” asked dong , while raising a brow , which is supposed to be a sign of indicating some inside joke( humans are weird , why not just say what you mean … probably that’s why most of them are bad at math.)-“what’s his name ?” I asked-“Emily , she is in most of our classes , her portfolio had the highest degree in the entry test.” Dong said while pointing to the girl as she was walking towards the huge glass dome.She was fairly brown , her curly hair flowing onto her face , her eyes were focused and her smile was confident ,-“guess you have a competition now ..” Jim said , sounding even more sarcastic .-“what was her score ?” I asked while analyzing her physical characteristics , she was fairly a 7.8/10 , which is fine for her , her artistic skills had to have been extraordinary in order for her to get that degree.But yet , there were many just like her ….That was always the turn off , if there’s an infinite amount of sample space slight advantage doesn’t define the quality of a person .(infinity minus 1 is still infinity after all)As a friendly gesture I tried approaching her to show her the place , I couldn’t help it , it was a part of my legacy code.“ Hey Emily  , I am Jeff . Welcome to our college may I show you around” I said . the girl looked curious and started walking circles around me checking me out.-“hmm … so are you pre-programmed ? Hansen ? intel ?”She asked-“excuse me ……” I said felling quite uncomf…(wait a minute , am I actually feeling a negative emotion? I am a robot , I can’t feel offended.)-“ha , I am just kidding , this is a gag I perform in order to find out which ones are robots and which of them are carbon based” she said while giving me a mocking smile .-“I am actually a robot , only I am the closest you’ll ever meet to a human . I am self aware , as they describe me .”I said .-“wait a minute , you’re Jeff ? .. the Jeff ? with the second highest score in the entry test?” she asked , with her eyes showing a slight sassiness when saying “second”,-“you’re a ROBOT ?...” she asked .-“well , unless you think it’s a bad thing , yes .” I replied raising up my cheeks to indicate sarcasm(again , humans confuse me , why not just say “I am sarcastic” when they are being sarcastic.)-“this is hilarious , yes but I am asking a serious question”Emily replied .-“well , and I am answering your serious quest …….”Time stopped , I could see her eyes getting brown .It’s not the wavelength number that’s displayed over the color that I have always seen , it’s actual real life brown , the pigment that reminds you of coffee beans and trees, my pupils widened involuntarily . I could see her eyes in color , her face too was a slightly different tone of brown , her hair began shining under the sun rays .-“is that really what sun rays look like ? I thought they were supposed to be completely white but they seem rather yellow .” I asked , being rather distracted by her facial characteristics to actually focus on what she was saying . it appeared that I had interrupted her , the question seemed weird so I exclaimed-“I have never seen true colors before ..”-“excuse me ….? Are you okay?” she asked , trying to get me to focus more on what she’s saying-“my mother told me that the first time I see colors will be when I meet someone I will love forever ..” her reaction was rather confused , she didn’t seem to quite understand my subtle hint so I added-“I love you Emily , can we get married now?”-“okay … slow down there mister steel man . although you’re quite charming , my father won’t let me marry a robot.”she said while walking away , her expression indicated she was embarrassed , and slightly obnoxious , she didn’t seem to love me back L(isn’t that the emoticon you humans use when there’s something making you unpleasant?)I followed her , I didn’t know why or how I was so curious to find out more about her , again I can’t download anything about her from the database , I have to experience it first hand.-“I am not made of steel by the way , I am mostly carbon fiber and silicon” I exclaimed .She stopped and stared at me-“so you’re …. Actually a robot ? then how come I outscored you on the entry test ?” she asked .-“yes , I have been trying to figure that out , and the simplest conclusion is that YOU are a more advanced robot than me. Isn’t that right , mrs steel ? ” . I replied using my sarcastic algorithm .She seemed rather curious than angry , she stared at me for a longer period of time .-“hey , look I have to go . I have got a lecture to attend in five minutes.” She said-“I can show you the lecture hall , it could be tricky to find.”I offered-“okay steel boy , lead the way.” She replied-“my name is Jeff.” I said-“yeah whatever ..” she mumbled under her breathI pretended not to hear , we walked together towards the lecture hall , without exchanging any more conversation.We sat down and the professor started talking ..I quickly began to zone out , -as humans say- while looking at the colors of the world , everything in my university seemed more vibrant , now I understand what I heard in my first lecture here about colors affecting emotions and mood .I didn’t quite understand it , colors were only shades of grey with a certain wavelength that made some colors preferable when using them with other specific colors .After the lecture ended we had to deliever our assignments so I started reviewing it before I turn it in , I realized some colors were off , they didn’t seem pretty enough to me so I quickly changed some of them .I turned it in and headed outside to catch Emily before she leaves ,-“so you’re a stalker now ?” she said , noticing me before I even begin to talk ( I hear women are better at reading people than men , but I haven’t seen proof of it yet.)-“I am not stalking you , I am just following you around to increase the chance that you’ll fall in love with me .” I explained-“it doesn’t work that way .” she exclaimed , seeming quite interested in what I am saying than when we first spoke.-“then how do humans fall in love ? and how can I make sure you’re not just a more advanced robot ?” I askedHer brows were raised in sort of a confused expression , she didn’t have the answer apparently-“well , first of all , I am not a robot , humans are just better at art than you guys .naturally .” She responded.-“In order to fall in love , humans usually do activities , right ?”    I asked .-“aren’t you supposed to know that already ? from you data base.” She exclaimed .-“well , no I don’t know this and I don’t have a data base , my actions are only based upon my own experiences. It is said to make me more humane .”I replied , focusing on her eyes , and then I caught a hint so I made my move-“will you be willing to drink coffee with me ?”I askedShe nodded , she didn’t seem to take me seriously ,We walked to the cafeteria ,-“hey , Jeff .. how old are you ?” Emily asked .-“I am 18 solar years old .” I respondedWe sat at the cafeteria and ordered our drinks .She looked at me in the eye for a few seconds and then blurted-“hey , do you remember that certain piece you made for your portfolio that is about the phrase (getting appreciated)”She asked , I visualized the piece and looked at it for a few seconds it pictured a man’s head with a black background being surrounded by multiple people looking away from him and that was it .-“what about it ?” I replied-“how in the world did you get that concept?” she asked-“I just looked around me , I saw many people being unappreciated enough : talented people being overlooked by certain untalented people that look more  physically attractive , important people that contribute a lot to society being almost forgotten against people with a low IQ and a good front camera beautification.”I explained .She was silent for a short period of time , the coffee arrived , we began sipping from it silently .-“you know …. For a robot : you’re quite humane.”She said , (and that’s when she first complimented me .)-“thanks ..” we were silent for a few more minutes , then she had to leave .-“will you be willing to join me for lunch ? I didn’t make sure you’re a robot yet .” I said .-“well , I don’t see why not ? except I have an important project due Wednesday , that’s two days from now.” She said while throwing her empty coffee in the garbage disposal .-“I’ll see you tomorrow , then?” I asked .-“I’ll be here next time tomorrow , and by the way the reason I am better than you is I didn’t grow up surrounded by robots , I grew up in the country , I drew trees every day.” She said while walking away , taking part of my cognitive ability with her .I went home , realizing that I know close to nothing about the girl .Other than her name , height , blood type , skin and eye color , universal ID .I knew nothing about he…wait a minute , I had her universal ID. I started searching up her portfolio , I was so amazed , my mathematical , artistic algorithms both agreed on the same thing , her work were truly magnificent .My mother soon arrived , I couldn’t wait to tell her . she leaned closer to the iris scanner to unlock the door and walked in , letting out a huge sigh of relief , as she threw her bag and papers into the cupboard .-“hey honey , how was your day ?” she asked-“Mom , your outfit is different than other days , your choice in fashion implies you’re sad” i replied , her eyes widened as she looked at me with a surprised face ,-“I saw color today … real color.” I added , with a completely neutral tone , She seemed quite speechless , her eyes began filling up with tears as she walked towards her bed room , almost forgetting that I exist .-“honey did you say you actually saw color today ?” she said skeptically while mumbling to herself-“I did , mom , I met the girl , I am a human now , just as you wanted me to.” I said , seeming happier than ever , I finally met the goal I as created for.-“mother …. Why aren’t you happy for me ?” I asked , noticing the distress on her face .-“what do you mean ? I am happy for you ,it’s just ….” She paused , seeming emotionally traumatized and disbelieving-“ do you consider me your son now ?” I asked-“YOU’RE NEVER GONNA REPLACE JEFF , DON’T YOU GET IT ? JEFF WAS MY SON , HUMAN , CARBON BASED , YOU’RE JUST A MORE ADVANCED CALCULATOR …..”She cried as she slammed her bed room closed ,

[char27martin]

Writers on Writing: Revitalizing the Batman Franchise with Batman Begins

David Goyer, who co-wrote Batman Begins with director Christopher Nolan, reflects on the creative choices he and Nolan made in bringing the darkest of the DC Comics’ characters to life.

Christian Bale stars as Batman in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action-adventure Batman Begins, written by Bob Kane (characters), David S. Goyer (story, screenplay) and Christopher Nolan (screenplay). PHOTOS: David James ©2005 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

THE FALSE FACES OF BRUCE WAYNE

There were essentially three basic personalities within Bruce—the public Wayne figure, the private Wayne figure and finally, the persona of Batman. All three personalities needed to be balanced in order for the story to work. In a sense, the public face of Bruce Wayne (the billionaire playboy) is as much a secret identity as Batman is. It is an equally false face, designed to misdirect the world at large. To some degree, the private Bruce Wayne is the darkest character aspect of all.

Because Batman is the darkest of the DC Comics’ characters, Christopher Nolan and I felt strongly that we didn’t want to let the audience (or Bruce) off the hook in a facile way. Bruce’s main conflict in the film is his struggle with his desire for revenge. He is torn between justice and revenge. This is a theme that is repeated throughout the movie—in scenes with Rachel (his childhood sweetheart), in scenes with Ducard (his mentor), and even in a scene with Falcone (the mob boss of Gotham).

Batman Begins is definitely the darkest depiction of Bruce Wayne yet seen on film. It is also the most realistic depiction of Bruce. He contemplates first-degree murder. We felt we needed to go there in order to justify Bruce’s donning the Batman costume. Fortunately, Warner Bros. was very supportive of this approach. I think they knew that in order to revitalize the franchise, they were going to have to take a different approach to Batman. (This was not a film written by committee. By and large, Chris and I were left alone.)

Character Evolution – Therapy for Your Character

Despite the film’s dark tone, we found a few places in the story to inject some moments of lightness, but we didn’t feel pressured to force those moments. It’s a serious film—a mythic film about serious subject matter. To inject too many light moments would diminish what we were attempting to accomplish. We also employed a great deal of backstory for Batman Begins. To a large extent, the first act of the film is backstory. In order to understand Batman’s origins, we needed to show more than just his parents dying at Joe Chill’s hands. We needed to experience them (particularly Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne) as real characters. In order to have the audience believe someone would actually put on a cape and cowl, we had to lay significant character groundwork. That included spending time with Bruce’s childhood friend, Rachel. That also included spending time with Alfred.

A SUPERHERO IS NOTHING WITHOUT HIS VILLAINS

Ken Watanabe as the dangerous but honorable villain Ra’s Al Ghul.

Because we were telling a new kind of story, I felt very strongly that we should use a Batman villain (or villains) not yet depicted on film. Fortunately, two of my favorite Batman villains were still virgin territory—Ra’s Al Ghul and the Scarecrow. Both were popular in the comic books, and both had been depicted in the various Batman cartoons. The Scarecrow was a natural because he’s so damn creepy. Ra’s was also a natural choice because he is the most realistic of the Batman villains. We also wanted a villain that was older than Bruce, that could function as a perverse kind of father figure—and in the comic books, Ra’s certainly fits the bill. Ra’s is also one of the only Batman villains who is somewhat sympathetic. He’s not a nutcase, like the Penguin or the Joker. At heart, he’s an environmental terrorist— someone with very lofty ideals, albeit extremely brutal methods for pursuing those ideals. The one significant departure from the classic depiction of Ra’s was his inclusion in Batman’s origins. We have Bruce meeting Ra’s before he adopts the Batman persona. Fortunately, this felt like an organic addition to the mythology.

The other character who is depicted differently is Gordon. In the previous films, Gordon is already Commissioner Gordon. But, because our film needed to portray Batman and Gordon’s first meeting, we knew we would be telling Gordon’s origin as well. We took a cue from Batman: Year One. In Year One, Gordon is depicted as a put-upon sergeant—one of the few honest cops in Gotham. We liked that approach because it provided a natural opening for Gordon and Batman to begin working with one another. If certain elements of the Gotham Police Department were corrupt, then it made the existence of a character like Batman a necessity. Gordon works with Batman because he has to.

BRINGING BACK THE BAT

Because the popularity of the Batman franchise had been dwindling, we were under enormous pressure from the fans and Warner Bros. to revitalize DC Comics’ crown jewel. I remember going to a comic book convention with Cillian Murphy (who plays Jonathan Crane/the Scarecrow). The first question from the audience was: “How can you guarantee us that you guys will save the franchise?”

Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow

I pointed out that I hadn’t been involved in the previous franchise, but it didn’t seem to matter. The fans were pissed, and the onus was on us to deliver the definitive Batman film.

In order to please the fans, we knew we had to go back to basics—back to Batman’s darker roots. My personal feeling is that the latter Batman films declined in popularity because they were out of step with how Batman was then being depicted in the comic books. As the films progressed, they became lighter in tone—almost approximating the old 60’s TV show by the time Batman & Robin was released. The problem with this approach was that in the comic books, Batman wasn’t being depicted that way at all. So, there was a gap between the latter films and the popular depiction of the Dark Knight.

My favorite depiction of Batman has always been Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One. We knew we wanted to draw a lot of inspiration from that. But, the flip side of that dilemma was Warner Bros. They were understandably nervous. They didn’t want us to tell a Batman story that was so dark it would alienate the larger, non-comic book audience. It was definitely a balancing act.

I am an avid comic book reader. I’ve been reading comics for over 30 years and have had letters to the editor printed in various books. Because of that background, I’d like to think I have a fairly good handle on what the hardcore comic fanbase will like or dislike. Chris used me as a fan barometer. Having said that, it’s a trap to write merely for the fans. Inevitably, we had to write our own Batman film—one that was influenced and inspired by the great comics—but forged new ground.

The Transition from Writing Comics to Writing Novels

To that end, we did take certain liberties with the Batman mythology. The inclusion of Ra’s Al Ghul in Batman’s origin was something we added, as was Jonathan Crane’s involvement with Arkham Asylum. We were nervous about doing this—but Paul Levitz, the head of DC Comics, gave us his blessing. He felt these changes were in keeping with the spirit of Batman.

(Although we tried to keep the script under lock and key, it did eventually leak onto the Internet. We were pleased when the script was met, by and large, with very positive response.)

Christian Bale stars as Batman, the caped crusader of Gotham City, in ‘Batman Begins.’

IT’S GOOD TO BE BATMAN

Batman is an enormously popular character— probably one of the most recognized fictional characters in the world. That existing popularity allowed us a certain amount of latitude in terms of telling his origin story. Because filmgoers are generally familiar with Batman’s superhero exploits and trappings, we were able to have a certain amount of fun with various “origin” scenes. Consider the moment when Bruce Wayne is test-driving a vehicle that will eventually become the Batmobile. The audience knows they are seeing the Batmobile prototype— they know where the movie will eventually be going—and they laugh when Bruce asks, “Does it comes in black?” The joke only works because the audience is one step ahead of the characters. I didn’t have that advantage when I was adapting Blade.

Another advantage of working on the film was having a large budget at our disposal. This was definitely the highest budgeted film I’ve yet been involved in. It was an amazing experience to be able to realize whatever we could imagine. The action scenes needed to be spectacular and Chris was given the resources to make that happen. You almost never get that chance. To that end, we knew that the action scenes needed to be spectacular.

One of my personal pet peeves of the other Batman films is that the Batmobile never really did much. Most of the films felt like they were shot on backlots. Inevitably, you would see the Batmobile race down a few streets—but in terms of an honest-to-goodness car chase, the sequences felt lacking. To that end, we decided to redesign the Batmobile and make it more practical. We wanted to film one of the biggest car chases ever put on screen, and we knew we would need to film that on a real location.

Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne.

The production ended up building an actual Batmobile that was capable of attaining very high speeds … then Chris filmed on the streets of Chicago for nearly a month. The result was spectacular. Over the course of production, I would occasionally see some griping on the Internet—people complaining that the new Batmobile looked like a tank. Having seen the finished sequence, no one will be questioning the new Batmobile’s design once they see what this thing actually does.

Because the film dealt with Batman’s origins, we were also introducing Batman’s arsenal for the first time—the costume, the car, the cave, the utility belt and grappling gun. We wanted these tools to be as realistic as possible so we did a fair amount of research. The origins of the Batmobile were definitely expanded from the comic books. In our film the Batmobile was originally an offensive, bridging vehicle developed for the Army by Wayne Enterprises. The cape was also expanded. In the comic books, Batman can’t glide via his cape—but we felt that was something he would want to be able to do. That led us to the idea of memory fabric (a fabric which becomes rigid when an electrical current is applied to it)—something that the Department of Defense is already developing.

How Do Writing Partnerships Works?

… BUT IT ISN’T ALWAYS EASY

So how was the script actually written? Chris and I spent a number of weeks together, talking through the basic story before I headed off to write a treatment. Once I finished the treatment, Chris and I met again for a number of weeks, going through detailed discussions. We worked at a partner’s desk (a desk with two sides), facing each other. Nathan Crowley, the production designer, came onboard while we were hashing out the first treatment. He worked out of Chris’ garage in an ad hoc art department (just next door to where we were working). From time to time, Chris and I would discuss various design elements with Nathan while I was writing. It was a back-and-forth process with lots of give and take.

David Goyer

Ultimately, I had to leave the project because I was prepping Blade: Trinity (which I was directing). Chris knew that this would be the case from the get-go—I really only had a few months to get the initial work done. After that, Chris did any subsequent writing (although I continued to give him notes). It was actually a great experience in terms of collaboration.

I think my single biggest challenge was trying to make Bruce Wayne a truly sympathetic character—one in whom the audience would really be invested. In the previous Batman films, I always got the sense that the audience was simply marking time until Bruce donned the cape. With this film, I knew we needed to accomplish something different.

In terms of craft, I used a slightly different voice for this screenplay. Because I wanted this version of Batman to be epic, but also grounded, I tried to stay away from any flowery prose. The script was very minimalist, very sober. Very real. I didn’t write it like a superhero film. My points of reference were classic adventure films like The Man Who Would Be King and Lawrence of Arabia. I felt that if I could channel some of that epic sense, then I was on the right track. Looking back on it now, I’d like to think we accomplished just that.

More in the series of Writers on Writing

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The post Writers on Writing: Revitalizing the <i>Batman</i> Franchise with <i>Batman Begins</i> appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-genre/script-writing/writers-on-writing-revitalizing-batman-franchise-batman-begins

[twogethernewlifect]

Some Tools for Building a Great Marriage

Building a marriage is much like building a home. You put deliberate plans in place and then you actively pursue the construction. Day to day busyness must be guarded against and the building project must become a conscious priority. When building stops, status quo settles in. Having a deliberate eye on construction can keep building fun and productive. The marriage relationship is the highest of all human relationships. It can be a complete sharing of heart and soul, mind and body or, it can be simply a living arrangement of co-existence. Most marriages are somewhere in between. Any marriage can benefit from implementing some new or re-sharpened tools to move deliberately in building into a growing relationship.

Here are some practical and positive tools to use in building your marriage.

1. The Team Tool

Remember you are a team. When two team members forget they are on the same team and begin to compete with each other, no one wins. Marriage is not about winning, it is about pulling together in the same direction. Stop for a moment and look honestly at yourself. Do you need to win every argument or be right about some insignificant disagreement? In things that don’t matter, drop it. In things that do, plan for a time out and set a date to re-visit the issue. Verbalize the fact that you are a team. Bring in a third party if you repeatedly stalemate on one issue. Think in terms of “I choose us”.

2. The Response Tool

Don’t react, respond! Your reactions actually tell more about you than your actions do! Take time to think before you just react! Evaluate why you react in certain ways and plan ahead of time what you are going to do next time it happens. Know what your buttons are, do you react negatively if he is late getting home and didn’t call? What situations do you find yourself reacting in? Choose to be conscious of the “I choose us” frame of mind and think about your reactions. Many couples get on a merry-go-round of reactions and find themselves in a hostile environment neither of them wants. Choose to respond instead!

3. The Blessing Tool

Give a blessing today! Speak truth from your heart. Let them know what you appreciate about them. Affirm their positive traits. “You give such attention to detail.” or “Your boss knows he can depend on you.” If you have to stretch a long way to find something, start where you can. It may be something like, “I appreciate how you provide for our family. Thank you.” Or “Maggie really needed you to see that test she did so well in. Thanks for taking time to listen to her.” For some, this tool will be easy to use. For others it will feel awkward and hard to put to use. If you draw a blank in finding words of affirmation begin to watch carefully for the little things you can affirm. Ask God, who sees the best in all of us, to reveal to your heart some positive qualities you can affirm. Begin today to put words of honor and devotion into your partner’s heart. 

4. The Sharing Tool

Share as much of life as possible! Share your time, share your thoughts, share your interests, and share their interests. This is a tool that must be deliberately engaged or life will push it aside. Time spent together doing things affords a connection opportunity. History together is built one event at a time. Make sure you are inputting positive events that build a positive archive. Plan dates? a movie night, dinner out, or even a coffee are good ideas to keep sharing alive! If life has crowed the sharing out of your relationship, be deliberate in building it back in. Start small, share a certain TV program and sit beside them. Share a cup of coffee or a glass of lemonade for a couple of minutes in the middle of a task he is doing. Even cleaning the garage or basement together can connect you. Reminisce briefly now and then. “This old bike brings back memories of those good times we had biking that summer before we moved”. Share your time. Go with him to look at a car or take a trip to Home Depot. Begin to share your thoughts.

5. The Contact Tool

Make daily contact! It is entirely possible to live with someone and not make any or very little contact. Contact is an excellent building tool and you can use it in a variety of ways. Each day try to connect in one way, either emotionally, mentally, physically, or spiritually. Think about it and try to be deliberate. Some construction tools look overwhelming yet when you know how to use them they are extremely valuable in the building project.

Emotionally? Share a thought that goes beyond picking up milk or confirming the time of an appointment. Use “I feel…” comments. Offer support emotionally. “You’ve had a lot of pressure lately. Why don’t you sleep in a bit Saturday?” “I know we are in a financial crunch right now, but we’ll do what we have to do and together we’ll get through it.” Encourage in any way you can. Remember that communication is only 7% words we speak and the rest is our tone and body language. Tone and body language are the emotional language we speak.

Mentally? Connect by sharing a news article you read, a news commentator you listened to or from a book you are reading. Ask them their opinions and listen to them. Share a story from your day or ask a question about something that interests him.

Physically? Give lots of non-sexual touching such as a quick hug, a hand on the arm, a pat on the hand or the back. Touching says “I care” and touch is one of our basic human needs. If all touching has become a signal for sex, touch on the way out the door, touch casually, touch in passing. Do make time for the sexual contact as well.

Spiritually? Many couples never share on this level even if they share the same faith. Spiritual sharing gives a third dimension to a relationship. Share a thought or a reading that inspired you. Take time to pray for them. Let them know you are praying for them. Pray together if possible.

Endeavor to connect regularly on all levels.

These tools all focus on you as the builder. It is more important to be the right partner than to have the right partner. You can only change you. You cannot change your partner; you can only change how you relate to them.

On your own you can find a measure of success in applying these tools. But God holds the manual and, when invited, He can enhance your life and your marriage in ways you never imagined. Why not invite Him to help you now?

Father in heaven, thank you that You care about me and that You actually desire to walk with me through life. That amazes me! I open my heart to You right now and accept Your love and forgiveness. Help me to understand how You love me. Help me to come to You and Your deep well of resources every day. God, I don’t fully understand how You work in my life, but I ask You to teach me. Give me the patience and the insight to build my marriage stronger. Thank you for my spouse. Bless them and protect them. Teach me to know You and to grow in Your ways. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

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