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silenzahra · 6 months ago

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✨ Anything for him: Chapter 2 ✨

One year ago, I started posting on both Tumblr and AO3 my first Super Mario fanfic, based on Luigi's Mansion. As a way of celebrating, I decided to bring back the story to Tumblr since the original posts from my old blog didn't include the chapters so that they could be read on this site as well as AO3. You can find the complete story here.

Second chapter under the cut!

Chapter 1, Chapter 3.

Chapter 2: Mario

Mario is tired of his confinement.

He ignores how long he has been trapped in that painting, but he does know that he will go crazy if he cannot get out soon. If only he could find a way to slip past the magic of the portraits... After all, some time ago, he managed to save Princess Peach and the entire Mushroom Kingdom by jumping inside paintings, getting powerful stars and then going back to Peach’s castle.

But this one works in a very different way.

In the painting in which he is, the magic of King Boo reigns.

And Mario knows nothing about its powers and workings.

Just as he knew nothing about what he would find when he entered that abandoned mansion that, allegedly, his brother had won in a contest in which he had not participated. Mario was wary about this, so he decided to go ahead and check that everything was fine before Luigi arrived, for he was not going to allow his little brother to be the victim of a scam. Not in a million years.

However, as soon as he crossed the door and found himself in the most absolute darkness, a swarm of Boos materialized in the middle of the blackness, jumped on him and pinned him down. Mario only remembers jolting and struggling with all his might to free himself, but the annoying specters must have stunned him, for he does not remember what happened next.

He only knows that, when he opened his eyes again, with a severe headache that, fortunately, has been subsiding, he was already locked in a tiny room whose only contact with the outside world consisted of a glass. A glass that, no matter how hard he has hit it since he woke up, he has not been able to break, not even crack a little.

Through that glass, however, Mario has had the chance to observe the luxurious room in which he has been trapped, with brick walls, golden moldings and three lamps full of lightbulbs that prevent the place from plunging into darkness. There are also a couple of columns with strange motifs, and right in front of the painting in which he is in, Mario can see two torches from which smoke is billowing. A little further on, behind one of the columns, he can make out two other torches, also smoking, and on the other side, he is surprised to find a stone lion’s head.

Also, to his misfortune, Mario came face to face with his captor, King Boo, who watched him from the other side of the glass with a twisted grimace on his face and emitted those shrill laughs that made his hair stand on end. Mario returned a look of rage and hit the painting with very tight fists, but his reaction only served to make the ghost double his laughter and disappear right under his nose without saying a word.

So here he is now.

Mario has no way of knowing how much time has gone by since he was locked up, but he does know that every second that goes by brings him closer and closer to madness. No matter how much he has knocked, jumped and investigated, he has not been able to find his way out of that tiny prison, which he has quickly started to detest. Dejected, he sits down, his back against the glass, his eyes fixed on the unfathomable dark infinity that surrounds him, his mind exhausted. All he can think is that he hopes for Luigi to have backed out at the last moment and have not come to the mansion, or if he has, that he has turned back as soon as he came across the sinister building. Ghosts scare him to death.

Then, to his ears comes that thunderous laughter which, even though he has only heard it once before, he has come to loathe. King Boo floats into the room; Mario does not need to turn around to know it. He remains where he is, fed up with his captivity and his captor, and folds his arms, unwilling to give the ghost the satisfaction of seeing how jaded he feels or how frightened he actually is of what might happen to him, no matter how hard he tries to hide it.

“Mario,” croons King Boo from outside the painting. The plumber closes his eyes and sighs. “I have a little surprise for you...”

The specter’s laughter chills his blood, but Mario pulls his cap down and shrinks in on himself. He has no interest in anything his kidnapper might tell him.

“Someone has arrived at the mansion,” continues King Boo, still in a singsong tone. “Someone you know very well and who is looking for you with great desperation...”

This does capture Mario’s attention. A shiver runs through him from top to bottom and he hopes, he wishes, that it is a lie, that the Boo is making fun of him, that it is not true...

However, it does not take him long to hear a voice calling him. A voice full of fear and insecurity, a voice he knows better than his own, a voice he has heard all his life and that he adores more than life itself.

A voice that has the power to give him hope and, at the same time, take it away.

“Mario?”

Startled, Mario finally turns and stands up, and he rests his hands on the glass that separates him from the outside world. Before him, suspended in the air, there is an image that King Boo has conjured up with his strange powers and around which he flutters with joy. Mario can make out what must be the corridors of the mansion, dark and gloomy, with their wallpaper walls, worn by the passage of time, and a red carpet that extends through each and every one of their corners.

The trembling light of a flashlight illuminates them. A few hesitant footsteps run through them. Blue eyes watch everything with fear and reticence.

Luigi.

Mario, unable to help it despite his initial fear, smiles as soon as he sees his little brother. His heart warms at the sight of Luigi walking in the gloom, facing his fears and calling out to him, looking for him, anxious to be reunited with him. A surge of intense affection sweeps over Mario and draws a deep sigh from him, and it takes him a few seconds to realize that the flame of hope has ignited within him, so powerful and burning that Mario is convinced that, no matter what happens, nothing can extinguish it.

Then he notices the device that Luigi is carrying on his back and looks at it with curiosity. It is some kind of vacuum cleaner from which, however, emerges the flashlight with which his brother illuminates his steps. Mario wonders what it is, where he got it from, what it is used for, but he soon notices, not without some satisfaction, that King Boo twists his face at the sight of this object. Mario squints his eyes, intrigued.

In the image, Luigi continues to advance down the corridor, slowly, looking around him in fear. Some ghost bats hanging from the ceiling fly towards him, but even though he is startled, Luigi continues forward without turning to them and increases his speed a little. Mario bites his lower lip, feeling inside him that older brother instinct that urges him to go to Luigi and protect him from those specters, but he cannot do that. He has no way to reach Luigi, so he must be content to watch his progress from the canvas in which he has been trapped.

The corridor divides into two forks and Luigi chooses to take the one on the left. Mario sees him approach the two doors that await him at the end of the hallway and try to open the first one with no success. When he tries the second, however, Luigi enters a dark bathroom that, judging by the light of his flashlight, seems very neat. Luigi takes a few steps towards the bathtub but is startled when a lilac-colored ghost appears behind him. Mario wants to scream, to warn Luigi to run away from there, that it is going to catch him, but Luigi walks a little more, letting the specter float behind him, and when it is about to pounce on him, Luigi turns around, shines his flashlight on it and leaves it petrified, dazzling by the intense beam that his machine gives off. Mario notices the pink heart that beats inside the spirit, the one that has appeared before the light, but then Luigi begins to vacuum, catching both Mario and the ghost unawares, and it tries to resist and flee, but does not succeed.

Dumbfounded and amazed, Mario watches as his little brother, the same one who has always been afraid of darkness and ghosts, captures the lilac spirit with his vacuum cleaner, the one he carries on his back and that King Boo seems to fear so much. The being resists, tries to escape, but Luigi steadies himself on the ground and grabs the vacuum cleaner’s nozzle, gritting his teeth from the effort, until, defeated, the specter is sucked inside the object. When Luigi relaxes and smiles with satisfaction, Mario does the same, admiringly.

“Yes!” he cheers, delighted. “That’s my brother!”

He knows Luigi cannot hear him, but he claps anyway, happily. He has never doubted Luigi’s abilities to achieve whatever he sets his mind to, he has always believed in him and all he has to offer, and now he is simply seeing his suspicions confirmed.

And the same thing happens next, as a new ghost materializes behind Luigi a few seconds later. Luigi acts in exactly the same way and Mario laughs, delighted, as the spirit is dragged into its personal prison. Immediately, the bathroom lights come on and Luigi breathes a sign of relief, so Mario deduces that there is no longer any danger in that room; otherwise, the place would still be dark. He smiles, elated at his brave brother’s success, and watches him pull aside the shower curtain and gently tap the sink, from which a glistening heart emerges, and Luigi deftly catches it.

Mario watches, curious and attentive, as Luigi brings the heart to his chest and takes a deep breath with his eyes closed. He sees him press his hand against the top of his overalls, fully open, and after a short sigh, Luigi lowers his arm and opens his eyes again, his smile warm and relaxed. Mario blinks slowly and it takes him a second too long to understand that Luigi’s body has absorbed that little heart. He then realizes that it must help him feel better and less tired, and imagines that, had his brother been injured, it would have healed him too.

Mario nods with a thoughtful smile. The world he and Luigi discovered by accident will never cease to amaze him.

In the meantime, Luigi has started vacuuming toward a small shelf near the shower. Mario raises an eyebrow in puzzlement, but his doubts are dispelled as soon as he sees a key falling from the shelf into Luigi’s hands. Hee grabs it with a pleased smile and puts it in the back pocket of his overalls. After giving himself only a few seconds of respite, Luigi takes hold of the flashlight again and, with a deep breath, returns to the hallway.

And, trapped inside the painting, while King Boo hovers around the image of Luigi he himself has conjured up, Mario watches, fascinated, the progress of his beloved little brother. Luigi captures those bats that he saw earlier and that were once again flying towards him, and he does it with no hesitation and no trace of fear in his bright blue eyes. He is startled when a pink ghost emerges from the ceiling and throws a bomb at him, but despite the initial fright, Luigi manages to get far enough away to avoid being hit by the detonation and, without wasting time, he aims his flashlight at the specter before sucking it up. Mario breathes a sigh of relief and puts a hand to his chest, for his heart has started to race as he believed that his brother was going to die because of that bomb.

Luigi lets out a high-pitched squeal when he discovers a golden mouse running towards him, but it only takes him a few seconds to compose himself and, once again, he directs the vacuum cleaner towards the ghostly animal. Mario is stunned again when, after the mouse disappears, piles and piles of money are left in its place. A laugh of disbelief escapes Mario’s throat as Luigi picks up each coin one by one, though he keeps looking around, alert for any specter that might approach him by surprise.

“Your little brother is getting very lucky,” mumbles King Boo, indignant.

“It’s not luck,” replies Mario, crossing his arms. “It’s bravery.”

“Bravery?” the ghost repeats, bursting into laughter. “We’ll see that when he runs into my Boos. It’ll show what a coward he truly is.”

“My brother is no coward,” Mario says slowly, clenching his fists. “He’s a lot braver than you’ll ever be, and he’ll beat the crap out of your Boos, you’ll see.”

“The same way you did, Mario?” mocks the King.

“I was unarmed.” He shrugs and smiles. “Unlike my brother. I’ve seen the way you look at that thing on his back.”

King Boo gasps and turns to the image he has created. In it, Luigi is putting the last of the coins in his pocket and smiling to himself, a smile that Mario mirrors, full of pride at the poise his little brother is showing in facing his fears. However, as soon as King Boo turns to him with an expression of indifference in his face, Mario gives him a look full of distrust.

“The Poltergust 3000?” he says disdainfully, crossing his tiny little arms.

“So that’s its name...” Mario murmurs, nodding.

“He won’t be able to do anything with it,” the king proudly assures him. “When all the Boos unite, we are invincible!”

“Then Luigi will find a way to make your subjects split,” Mario answers, convinced.

He does not hear the ghost’s reply, because Luigi’s voice, calling him again, demands his full attention. His brother has already finished collecting the money and moves his flashlight from one side of the corridor to the other, looking for him tirelessly. Mario feels a pang in his heart at the eagerness with which Luigi calls him, not willing to give up until he finds him. He rests his hands on the glass again and looks helplessly at Luigi, wishing he could answer him, meet up with him, tell him where he is, but he himself does not know. Where exactly is that room where he has been locked up, that kind of altar that is nothing but another mockery of King Boo? If Mario knew, if he had the slightest idea, perhaps he could try to find a way to get a message to his brother.

But he is bound hand and foot because of the magic of his captor, who made sure to stun him so as not to allow him to see even a small hint of the path to that room.

Therefore, all Mario can do is watch Luigi as he moves around the mansion, flashlight in hand, the Poltergust 3000 on his back and his big brother’s name in his throat.

Luigi stops in front of the central room in the hallway, rummages in his pockets and pulls out the key he found in the bathroom. With trembling hands, he inserts it into the lock, turns it and opens the door. He comes across a ballroom with the floor laid out like a chessboard and white walls with a few columns embedded in them. Here and there, he finds small corners arranged for the dancers to rest, with luxurious red velvet chairs and curtains of the same color and texture to provide some privacy. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling but are now turned off.

As he advances a couple of steps extremely slowly, Luigi illuminates every corner of the room more than once, wandering the beam of light around the room and not ceasing to look to one side and the other, frightened. From his portrait, Mario holds his breath, wondering what new danger his brother will now have to face.

It does not take him long to find out: around Luigi, pairs of dancing ghosts suddenly begin to appear. Upon closer inspection, Mario notices that they are Shy Guys, as they are wearing their usual masks.

Only these Shy Guys are armed.

Luigi is not intimidated by the bidents carried by his new rivals and Mario can only admire, once again, the courage of his little brother. It is obvious to him that Luigi is afraid, very much so, as he walks around trembling, swallows very often, clutches his flashlight tighter than necessary and looks at the specters as if they represented the worst of his nightmares, which, Mario knows for sure, in his brother’s case is true. However, Luigi is not paralyzed by terror, but dares to move forward step by step, and Mario thinks that would be his exact definition of bravery: to venture to do anything in spite of fear.

He sees his brother use the Poltergust 3000 to start sucking up the Shy Guys’ masks, but as he does so with one of them, the unmasked one’s partners approaches Luigi to attack him with its bident. Mario stifles a scream when he sees Luigi narrowly dodge the blow and is glad that, at that moment, his brother chooses to run away from the ghosts to safety. Mario sighs in relief when he sees that the pair of Shy Guys opt to ignore Luigi and just resume their curious and chaotic dance.

Looking for his brother with his eyes, Mario finds him cowering in a corner, clutching the flashlight of his vacuum cleaner as if his life depended on it. His legs tremble and panic has taken over his face, and once again Mario feels the imperious need to go to his side, to hug him, to comfort him, to protect him, to assure him that everything will be alright and that they will never be separated again. His desire to embrace Luigi is so intense that his chest begins to ache. He drops his forehead on the glass and wonders how much longer that will last. Has King Boo not had enough fun already? Has he not tortured both brothers enough?

Fortunately, Luigi’s expression, although not entirely free of terror, soon also reflects intense concentration, as his eyes narrow and follow the movements of the dancing Shy Guys. For a few moments, he observes from afar the three couples dancing around the room without leaving the corner where he has taken refuge. For a few moments, both brothers remain still and silent, although only one can see the other, separated and united at the same time.

Then Luigi stands up, frowns and raises the end of the vacuum cleaner on his back. He strides purposefully toward the nearest pair of Shy Guys, though he does so slowly and on tiptoes. Mario covers his mouth with one hand and holds the other to his chest, nervous about what his brother is about to do.

“Come on, Luigi,” he encourages him quietly, even though he knows Luigi cannot hear him.

In the ballroom, Luigi waits until the pair of Shy Guys are lined up in front of him, and only then does he start vacuuming. He manages to pull off the masks of both ghosts at the same time, and not wasting a second, Luigi turns on his flashlight at full power, dazzling them. Once the hearts are visible, Luigi only has to vacuum, and Mario thinks he could start applauding when he sees how Luigi manages to hook both ghosts at the same time. It is not easy for him, as both try to throw him off and trip him up, but Luigi does not lose his footing nor his concentration and does not let go of the Poltergust 3000 until both Shy Guys end up inside it.

“Yes!” Mario shouts enthusiastically, and then he does not hold back and claps his hands, still screaming with joy. He ignores the disdainful look that King Boo gives him.

Slowly but surely, Luigi does the same with the next pair of Shy Guys. This time he stumbles, loses the connection with the ghosts and has to start all over again, but he never gives up and, although he gets a small bump after a more serious fall, he gets up again, holds his vacuum cleaner and tries once more.

Mario feels like his heart could burst with pride for his little brother.

At last, there is only one couple left, the first one Luigi tried to capture, the same one that attacked him after he took off the masks of one of its members. Mario sees Luigi swallow before moving towards them, his step a little more unsure, no doubt fearing that they will pounce on him again.

Still, he walks towards them, and Mario wrings his hands inside his portrait, uneasy.

Luigi stops next to the pair of Shy Guys and bites his lip, clutching the Poltergust 3000. He waits patiently for both ghosts to line up so he can suck their masks up at the same time, just as he has done with the previous couples. Mario thinks his heart is going to burst out of his chest due to its rapid beating.

Then, Luigi begins to vacuum.

The Shy Guys’ masks shake, but Luigi is too far away and cannot get them to come off. The specters continue their dance, masks in place, spears in their hands, and Luigi is forced to take a small step forward to try again. If it were not for his gloves, Mario would be biting his nails.

Again, Luigi starts to vacuum. Again, the masks of the spirits tremble, but nothing more.

This time, however, they both turn to Luigi.

He lets out a scream of pure terror and runs away from them, but the Shy Guys chase after him. Mario screams and hits the glass of his painting helplessly, wishing to get Luigi out of there, wishing he could go to help him, wishing to warn him that the ghosts are surrounding him, but his brother runs without looking behind him, moved by fear, and does not stop to look at what the spirits are doing.

One of the Shy Guys, the first one Luigi unmasked when he entered the room, intercepts him while he is running: it appears right in front of him with its arms outstretched, making Luigi stop in his tracks and let out a new screech. Luigi turns, frightened, and starts running in the opposite direction, but the other ghost, the one that attacked him, is waiting for him with its bident raised.

And this time, it does not miss.

Mario lets out a heart-rending scream as the two prongs of the Shy Guy’s weapon plunge into his little brother’s chest. A dull ache pierces his heart, and he brings a hand to it out of pure instinct, but he cannot pay attention to it, not when his brother has just been wounded and he has not had a chance to do anything to prevent it. Luigi, in turn, stifles a cry and slowly lowers his gaze, his eyes widening in surprise as he notices the spear sticking out of his body. He drops his knees to the ground, exhaling heavily, and Mario hits the glass that keeps him apart from the world with all his might, desperate and raging.

The Shy Guy pulls out the weapon with a sharp jerk, wrenching a gasp from Luigi that turns into a groan, and floats away with a guttural chuckle as Luigi falls forward and rests his elbows on the ground, his eyes tightly shut. Mario inadvertently holds his breath, his hand still pressed hard to his chest. His brother, wheezing, slowly raises one arm and directs it towards his wound. Despite his posture, on all fours on the black and white floor, Mario can make out his pained expression, the sweat that has begun to bead across his forehead, the way he grinds his teeth, and soon after Luigi’s hand rests on his chest, his white glove begins to turn red.

King Boo’s laughter echoes throughout the room.

“And my Boos didn’t even need to show up!” he sneers.

Mario ignores him, too upset to pay attention. He gasps, his breathing as rapid as his pulse, and tells himself he has to do something to help Luigi. He cannot stand there, he cannot stand by and watch his brother die before his eyes, he cannot...

His frantic thoughts come to a screeching halt when, to his surprise, Luigi pushes himself up with one hand. King Boo’s laughter abruptly stops, and Mario allows himself to retain a modicum of hope when he sees his brother open his eyes and compose an expression full of anger that he does not hesitate to direct at the Shy Guys. His hand is still resting on his chest, his glove is still filling with blood, his breathing is becoming more and more labored, his face continues to be drenched in sweat, but in spite of all that, Luigi grinds his teeth, slowly rests his free hand on his knees and forces his legs to hold him up.

Mario lets out a silent exclamation of astonishment. Pride floods him again, stronger and more intense than the previous times. There is Luigi, his little brother, shaken by convulsions, blood pouring from his chest and staining the denim of his overalls, but still standing up to the ghosts who have dared to hurt him. Trembling, Luigi once again grabs the end of the Poltergust 3000 and points it at the Shy Guys. Without hesitation, he activates the suction mechanism while taking a trembling step forward. Mario holds his breath again.

The specters, who had gone back to dancing casually, paying no more attention to Luigi, are startled when the sound of the vacuum cleaner fills the ballroom. Mario cannot help but smile as he witnesses their vain attempts to flee from the Poltergust 3000. Luigi, relentless, moves heavily after them, making sure to remove their masks to leave them unprotected from the powerful light of his device. Mario is aware of the huge effort his brother is making, of how difficult it must be for him at this moment to stand up and fight the spirits, and pride mingles inside him with a deep admiration for his little brother, for his strength, his temperance and his courage, for his strong capacity of resistance, for his tenacity and his bravery. Silently, Mario watches Luigi catching the last two Shy Guys inside the Poltergust 3000 and smiles, a deep surge of love for his brother filling his heart and invading his insides. He wishes he could hold Luigi in his arms at that moment, cradle him, help him, heal his wound, let him rest, tell him how much he loves him and how willing he is to do anything for him, to protect him at all costs.

Luigi staggers for a few moments, panting, after capturing the specters. He lets go of the end of his vacuum cleaner, which slips from his fingers and dangles to the side of his body, and closes his eyes with a prolonged wheeze. Mario’s alarms go off again, and he straightens up, uneasy, as he sees his brother fall to his knees once more. Luigi leans back on his heels and, very slowly, with increasingly louder pants, raises his hand back to his chest, from which blood has not stopped gushing. His breathing becomes more and more irregular and resounding, as if he was having trouble filling his lungs with air, and Mario rests his palm on the glass with his heart in his mouth. He watches Luigi slump to the side, he watches him clench his eyelids and teeth as he twists the fabric of his overalls between his fingers, and Mario hits the glass again, his brother’s name escaping his lips in a hysterical scream, as Luigi’s head falls, inert, to the ground, followed by his blood-stained hand.

Mario gasps, overwhelmed, anxious, nervous. He ignores King Boo’s raucous laughter and tries to concentrate. He needs to get out of there, he needs to get to Luigi and help him, he needs to… But how? He is trapped inside the painting, he ignores the rules or the boundaries that govern King Boo’s magic, and he does not have time to stop and try to understand them now either. He should have done it before, before his captor allowed him to see Luigi, because now it is too late, and his brother is going to die, and he cannot do anything...

But Mario will not give up.

He will not let his brother bleed to death. He is not going to let Luigi pay for his own thoughtlessness, for his impulsiveness in going to the mansion earlier, for his anxiousness to make sure that everything was in order and nothing could harm Luigi. How ironic, he thinks to himself bitterly, that his intention was always to protect his brother, and, in the end, Luigi was seriously injured.

All because of him.

But Mario has not time to berate himself. His brother needs him. He has to go to his side; he has to manage to break the magical barriers that enclose him and get to Luigi as soon as possible.

He has to help him.

“I’m coming, Lu.”

With his eyes fixed on Luigi, who lies motionless on the floor of the ballroom, Mario begins to step back. He does it slowly, so as not to attract the attention of his captor, but King Boo is too busy laughing, so he does not notice his prisoner’s movements.

Therefore, Mario keeps retroceding, as far as he can, as much as the space inside the frame allows him, and when he thinks he will get enough momentum, he starts to run. He clenches his fists, frowns, and braces himself for the blow, for his attempt will most likely come to nothing, his idea will come to nothing, but he does not for a second consider stopping running.

Luigi needs him.

So Mario runs, gaining speed and momentum, and just as he is about to run into the glass of the painting, he jumps.

He cannot help but let out a scream from deep his gut.

To his surprise, his body crosses the edge of the canvas, remains suspended in the air for a few seconds between the painting and the image of the mansion, and then falls into the latter.

Due to his speed, Mario is unable to brake in time and rolls across the floor of the ballroom until he collides with one of the embedded columns. He immediately gets to his feet, however, and gives himself just a few seconds to collect himself despite the dizziness that assails him. After shaking his head a little to clear his head, Mario turns around, desperately looking for his brother with his eyes.

He finds him very close, with his back to him, completely motionless.

“Lu!” he exclaims, anguish permeating his voice.

Before he even finishes uttering that single syllable, Mario gets up in a hurry and runs to Luigi. He circles his body so he can see his face and his heart breaks a little more at the close-up view of the wounds whose blood stains the black and white tiles of the floor red. With a gasp, Mario drops to his knees beside his brother and places a hand on his forehead and the other on his cheek in an attempt to cradle his face.

“Luigi,” he whispers, wiping away with his palm the sweat from his brother’s forehead.

But Luigi’s eyelids remain firmly closed.

Mario finds it hard to breathe, but he forces himself to remain calm. Carefully, he puts one of his brother’s arms through the handle of the Poltergust 3000 and then lifts his body a little to remove the machine completely. He places it on the floor, behind Luigi’s back, and looks anxiously at his brother again, hoping that that has made him react in some way, but Luigi does not show any sign of having noticed anything. Mario then slips an arm under Luigi’s head and pulls him to himself, gently cradling his brother. He watches Luigi’s unconscious face for a second and his heart shrinks as if a claw were squeezing it. In a sudden rush, Mario wraps his free arm around Luigi’s body and lifts him up a little, holding him close as he shuts his eyes tightly and breathes in, breathes out, breathes in, breathes out, in a vain attempt to calm himself. If only he had been there to protect Luigi, if only he could have stopped it from happening, if only...

But not all is lost. Luigi is wounded, but his heart is still beating. His breathing is slow, paused, irregular, but existing. Slowly, Mario lays his brother on his lap, his eyes fixed on Luigi’s closed eyelids, and runs his hand over Luigi’s forehead once more before daring to look down at his brother’s chest. Mario’s blood runs cold in his veins as he discovers the two wounds, just two small red dots on the denim, through which his little brother’s life is escaping, and he wrinkles his forehead in dismay.

“Mamma mia, Lu...” he mumbles in a broken voice.

With trembling hands due to the nerves that grip his heart, Mario undoes the straps of his brother’s overalls and slowly opens the top buttons of his green shirt. Both garments are heavily stained with blood, as are Mario’s gloves and his own overall after the quick hug he has given Luigi, but he does not care. None of that matters.

All that matters is plugging the wounds and trying to stop the bleeding.

At the last second, however, Mario lets his hand hover, not daring to lay it on Luigi’s pale skin. What if, in trying to help him, he ends up hurting Luigi even more? What if he makes his already bad condition even worse? But the blood will not stop flowing, and his brother is breathing harder and harder, so Mario has to do something. And he has to do it now.

Straining to ignore the worry that runs through his limbs, Mario focuses on his task. He grabs his left sleeve roughly and begins to pull. The fabric is tough and resilient, but Mario is overcome with a panic that gives him more strength than he already possesses by his very nature, so that, in the end, his shirt eventually gives way and Mario manages to tear it. He grasps the resulting piece with both hands and, despite the tremors that shake him with nervousness, he folds it as deftly as he can and lays it over both wounds. Fortunately, they are so close that he does not need to spread the piece of cloth, as he manages to cover them both with ease.

Mario purses his lips and looks again at his brother’s face. He raises a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead again and ends up turning the gesture into a soft caress, but Luigi remains motionless, inert, unable to feel his presence or the touch of his fingers on his pale skin. Mario takes a deep breath, the knot in his heart tightening with every second he feels he is losing his brother, and he struggles to summon the courage to take the next step. Slowly, he returns his hand to its place next to the other, on Luigi’s chest, and biting his lips, he begins to exert light pressure.

He is not completely sure about what he is doing, but the first squeeze causes a slight whimper to escape Luigi’s throat. Mario is startled, and his heart begins to flutter as he sees Luigi shake his head slightly and feels his brother’s fingers, weak and trembling, rest on his. Relief washes over Mario with the force of a raging sea as Luigi’s eyes widen, and in the midst of worry, Mario composes a wide smile.

“Luigi!” he exclaims and moves one of his hands to place it on Luigi’s. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you, but...”

“M-Mario?” Luigi mumbles, trying hard to keep his eyes open. “I-is it... really you?”

“Of course it is!” Mario assures him, leaning over Luigi so he can see him better, and caresses his cheek affectionately. “I’m here, Lu. I’m with you and I’m not going anywhere.”

Despite not being fully conscious, Luigi manages to smile and raises his other hand to place it on Mario’s. Mario is still trying to plug his wounds, but the blood continues to flow, and his brother soon drops his arm, fainting again. The hand he had taken to the wound slips over Mario’s fingers until it touches the ground, and Mario gives it a quick worried glance before looking back at Luigi.

He feels devastated, but at the same time, seeing his brother awaken, even if only for a very brief moment, has filled him with a fierce determination. Moreover, he is well aware that he has to act quickly, for he has not forgotten King Boo for an instant. If he does not manage to help Luigi, if he does not find a way to heal him, the ghost will reach them, and Mario will not have another chance to try and save his brother’s life.

So, after exerting some more pressure on both wounds, Mario takes off his cap and carefully removes Luigi’s too. He feels the urge to ruffle Luigi’s hair, as he always does when they are joking, but he restrains himself, as it is not the right moment. With extreme gentleness, Mario holds Luigi’s head and begins to pull his own legs out from under his brother’s body. He quickly replaces them with both hats, positioned in such a way that they function as a pillow, trying to get Luigi as comfortable as possible despite his situation. A pang pierces Mario’s heart as he looks at his unconscious face again, and filled with anguish, he places his hands on Luigi’s cheeks, leans over him and deposits a soft and deep kiss on his forehead. If only Luigi could feel it, if only he could feel all the love and affection Mario intends to express with that gesture, if only he could feel how much Mario cares for him and how he wished he could have found a way to spare him all that suffering.

Slowly, Mario turns away from Luigi, gently but firmly presses the wounds again and stands up. He looks around and wonders where he might find the solution to all his problems.

“There has to be something...” he mumbles, undecided.

Unfortunately, there is hardly any furniture in that room, since it is designed only for dancing, so Mario knocks on the walls, shakes the curtains and the chairs, and even kicks a few tiles that seem to be loose, just in case there is a heart hidden in the least unexpected nook. Mario remembers the heart that sprang from the sink, and without hesitation, he tears the red velvet cushions of the chairs with his bloodstained hands, but inside he finds nothing but feathers.

There is nothing.

But it cannot be. There has to be something – there has to. Luigi’s life depends on it. Mario needs that there is something in the ballroom. He cannot consider any other possibility.

A faint whimper catches his attention. As he turns to Luigi, he notices that his facial features have contracted, the sweat has increased, and his head has tilted slightly to the left. Luigi gasps and then turns to the right, and Mario rushes to his side, panic welling up inside him again.

“Lu?” he calls out to his brother, stretching out his hands.

Even though he feels Luigi’s forehead with his glove on, Mario immediately senses the fever. Anguish oppresses his heart, and he feels on the verge of tears, but he must remain calm. His brother needs him more than ever, so he must keep a level head and try to find a solution as soon as possible.

Luigi shakes and mumbles in delirium. Mario carefully wipes his forehead and covers his wounds again, feeling helpless for not being able to do more for his brother. His mind is racing, and he comes up with the crazy idea of leaving Luigi there and venturing into the corridor in search of a heart. He dismisses it immediately, as he refuses to leave the room without Luigi. Whatever happens, he will not leave his brother behind.

Not to mention that, without the Poltergust 3000, Mario would not stand a chance against the ghosts that undoubtedly await him on the other side of the door.

He purses his lips and gently rests his brother’s head on his lap. He continues to press Luigi’s wounds and wipe the sweat from his forehead, and suddenly notices that Luigi’s constricted face appears blurred before his eyes. Angrily, Mario runs his unbroken sleeve over his face and wipes away the tears that were threatening to overflow, but despair floods him and he needs to let it out somehow or he will go mad.

Mario throws his head back with his eyes tightly closed, and from his throat escapes a heart-rending cry that, in a way, is liberating for him. He runs his hand through his disheveled hair, his teeth clenched, his eyes watering again, and wonders what he will do, how he will save Luigi, if he will even find a solution...

He half opens his eyelids a crack, his head still tilted back, and tries to swallow to undo the knot in his throat.

However, something catches his attention so much that it compels him to open his eyes fully.

Something... red.

Mario succeeds hi swallowing when he realizes that what has caught his eye, what rests on the huge ceiling lamp, is nothing but a huge, gleaming heart.

There, at last, lies the answer he has been searching for.

A deep sigh of relief escapes from his lips, which, without him even realizing, have drawn a smile. Mario looks down at his brother and gently caresses his cheek.

“You’ll be all right soon, Lu,” he promises in a faint whisper.

He then turns his attention to the Poltergust 3000, which remains on Luigi’s other side, and observes it for a few seconds, before he dares to extend an arm towards it and pick it up carefully. He lifts it over Luigi and places it on his other side, under the lamp. A bit unsure, as he feels he is meddling in something that does not concern him, Mario grabs the end of the machine, where both the flashlight and the vacuum cleaner are located, and examines the buttons, trying to understand how they work. He fumbles carefully but ends up inadvertently activating the vacuum function. After a brief start, Mario hastens to aim at the ceiling, at the lamp, which shakes and shakes back and forth.

And to Mario’s delight, the glowing heart falls out of it.

The plumber lets out a cry of joy and pulls Luigi tightly against him.

His beloved brother is saved.

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clash-of-the-wizards · 1 year ago

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CLASH OF THE WIZARDS ROUND 1-B ROUND 12

THE GREEN MAGE (Everhood) VS LEIF (Bug Fables)

Propaganda under the cut!

PROPAGANDA

GREEN MAGE "THEY'RE SO SILLY! Green Mage *literally* has the word Mage in their name! They're just a silly lil guy(gender neutral) that just wants to have fun! They're also literal millions of years old. ALSO THEY PLAY DND! They're a DM for their own campaigns!!! They have BANGER fight music ( https://youtu.be/9nH8UZEHvXc?si=ntmGNQcgcTbFc2N_ in case you're interested) and, to loop back to my first point... THEY'RE SILLY!"

LEIF "they're bug. they're mushroom. they're ice magic and make puns about it. they're grandpa. they're play card games. they're amnesia and time shenanigans. they're family issues related to time shenanigans. they're found family member. they're trying to adopt every small animal in sight. they're eating poison just because they can. and even, they're autism"

"TOP TEN FUNGI TO CAST ICE MAGIC WITH. #6 will surprise you! He's a silly little moth guy with eight trillion counts of Identity Fuckery and he casts ICE WIZARD BLAST at like half the creatures in this game."

#clash of the wizards #clash of the wizards polls #everhood #bug fables #green mage #leif bug fables

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annymation · 1 year ago

Note

for the asks requests:

1: DARIO BACKSTORY NOW

2: I wanna hear abt bravo

3: Florian reaction to everything

4: SYMBOLISM. PLEASE. 🍽️

Oh I actually didn't expect for all of these to be asked all of the same time, as they're kinda long answers... Specially number 3. But I can work with that :)

I think you guys might really like what's down here:

1- What Did Dario Not Tell Them At The Campfire

So when asked if he had any bad experiences with the king, Dario just answered he'd rather not talk about it. The reason isn't because Magnifico did something to him directly, but rather indirectly. See, Dario's dad is the royal announcer and his mother is a singer, both jobs that require their voices, and they value their voices a lot, while Dario was born with a speech impediment.

One day, Dario overheard them talking in their room, and they said how they hoped when Dario turned 18 he'd wish for the king to give him a voice.

Now, to some that may seem like a good wish, "who wouldn't want to have a voice?" you may ask, thing is that most disabled people don't want to be changed, what they want is to be accepted. Obviously though I can't speak for the whole ASL community, however I did study the basics of sign language in college, and my teacher, who is deaf, taught us about deaf culture, and how you shouldn't assume someone WANTS to be like you, to be "Fixed".

Dario didn't want to change himself, but in that moment he felt like his parents saw him as someone broken and hoped the king could fix him...

So yeah I didn't have him explain all that because it's way too depressing even for me.

2- Where Did Bravo Come From

A more wholesome little story with our faaaaaaavorite evil duo! Yay!

So, Amaya often goes to the woods to get ingredients for her potions, mushrooms, herbs, animal parts, you name it. She goes alone, just wearing a hooded cloak so she's not recognized.

One day, during her foraging, she heard a sound coming from behind her:

"Miirrrau!"

It was a quiet, growly meow

And she kept hearing it over and over, like it was asking for help. Now although the queen has a heart as cold as ice, she felt moved by the tiny cries, so she followed them into the woods.

And here's what she found:

"Awwwwwwwn~" Her iced heart melted at the sight of what she thought was a little kitten "Are you lost, little one?"

"Miaurrr!" the kitten had a weirdly growly voice, but still high pitched like any kitten, he seemed to be scared and lost, looking for him mom

"Don't fret, you're safe now" she takes him and puts him in her basket full of mushrooms "I'll take you to your new home. Heh heh heh my love will have quite the surprise when he sees you"

So she goes back to the palace, Magnifico is busy changing some wishes when she arrives

"Daaaaarliiiiing~ Look what I found in the woods today!" She says showing him the kitten

Magnifico looks quite surprised, although he has seen Amaya do some REALLY messed up things, he never thought she'd use a whole kitten as a potion ingredient

"Hmmm... How nice dear, but uh- If you don't mind me asking- What kind of potion requires a kitten sacrifice?" He asks smiling, trying to be supportive of her weird hobbies

"SACRIFICE???" She holds the kitten close to her, looking very offended that her husband would imply that "I don't want to kill him! I want to keep him!"

"OOOOOH I see, I see. That makes more sense" The king says kinda relieved

(They have murdered and ruined the lives of millions, but they draw the line at killing a kitten)

"Well then, if that's your desire then he's all yours, my beldam. But don't expect me to take care of him as well" He said

And that basically went like one of those "Dad said he didn't want the dog" memes, because Magnifico really liked the cat and took care of him just as much as Amaya.

They named him "Bravo" because it's both what you say to cheer for someone after a performance, and their whole thing is that they're constantly acting to their people, and also means angry in Spanish, and the kitten often looked grumpy.

But as time went on, and Bravo grew... They noticed he just wouldn't stop growing. And soon enough they realized... That wasn't a cat, that was a lynx.

And thats how the situation went from good to GREAT!

Like, they just raised their own killing machine without even knowing it was a killing machine, they were beyond ecstatic, they were running around like "YES YES YEEEES!!!" ya feel me?

3- How Florian Reacts To Everything

Now, to answer this one, I'll tell you a story... About something that happened in the chapter "Into The Eye Of The Storm".

Something that happened from Magnifico's perspective... After he got struck by lightning.

So let me set the scene.

...

He felt excruciating pain he never imagine possible course through his body, and light was all he could see.

Until it wasn't.

Everything went black.

Magnifico shot his eyes open, and all he could see was a dark emptiness surrounding him, and feel water beneath his feet.

The king looked around completely lost, one moment he was in the storm with that star, and in the next he was here... His staff wasn't with him, he was powerless.

He hears a voice

"Huh... Took much longer than I would've liked, but oh well, looks like you finally got what you deserved."

Magnus gets startled by the voice coming from all around him, but tries to hide his fear by masking it with anger "Who's there?!" he demands to know

"Really? After just 25 years you've already forgotten my voice?" The youthful but voice says, bitterness dripping from his tone. Magnifico's eyes widen as he indeed starts to recognize the voice... The voice he celebrated he'd never would have to hear all those years ago. The figure starts to manifest itself in front of him as it says "But then again, you never were the type to listen much, were you, Mag?" Florian calls him by the nickname he used to affectionally call his older sibling.

Magnus sees his younger brother floating in front of him, but the expression on his face is one the king has never seen before. Florian was always happy, always kind and sympathetic, innocent, he was like the personification of sunshine itself. Now? Now his expression was so full of hatred, hiding behind a mocking smile, like Florian has been waiting for this a long time.

"See you grew a beard heh heh you look just like dad" The spirit jokes

Magnifico is staring at the apparition before him with wide eyes, his mind is racing, trying to make sense of any of this, how could he go from fighting with the star to thi-... Wait... He remembers something he read about wishing stars, they have the power to give people dreams... He must have been knocked out and the star is trying to play a trick on him... Yeah, that's gotta be it.

He smiles thinking he just figured this all out "Hahah guilt tripping? Really? Didn't think that was your style, Aster, I'm almost impresse-"

"You died." Florian just gives it to him straight.

Magnifico freezes.

"You flew too close to the sun brother, or rather, too close to the storm." The spirit explains, and starts to float circles around his older brother "And soon, your soul will completely leave this plane, and I will finally rest in peace knowing MY people are free from you." The spirit speaks almost spitting on Magnus face, emphasizing how the people of Rosas are his people, his kingdom that Magnus stole.

But the older brother is almost blocking out the sound of his voice, too busy processing that if what he's saying is true then... "Amaya... It can't end like this, I can't leave her no-"

"HAH! That's what you worry about? That wretched witch?!" Florian now has a mocking smile on his face, it's a smile Magnifico has never seen from his caring little brother in life... It doesn't even look like him anymore.

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL HER THAT!" He yells, now starting to accept that yes, that is indeed his brother's ghost, and he's enraged to see him again.

"Pretty sure I get to call the woman who poisoned me whatever I want." Florian says nonchalantly

"Tsk not our fault you made it so easy" the older brother smirks, trying to come out on top of the situation "I mean, a random mystery woman shows up out of nowhere, and you just invites her to be the royal potion maker? What did you think was gonna happe-"

"I thought you'd finally be happy." Florian interrupts him with a serious expression, Magnus stops talking and stares at him confused, so Florian continues "When you first locked eyes with her, I saw a spark in you... A gleam of happiness you never shown in all the years we lived together... I knew you were in love with her... THATS why I let her stay." He explains with every word dripping with bitterness "I thought "Finally, my big brother won't be so lonely and angry all the time! Love will surely make him move on from the fact he wasn't meant to be king!"" Florian makes a slightly more high pitched and cheerful voice as if to mimic how he used to sound like when he was alive "Hahah It's quite the tragic comedy, ain't it? I helped in your union... Unaware I was digging my own grave."

"... And do you think I care? We would've ended up together regardless. And I would take the crown that is RIGHTFULLY MINE regardless of whatever you did!" Magnus exclaims. If he's really dead and this is just the limbo between the land of the living and the after life, then he might as well take this opportunity to let out everything he wanted to tell his little brat of a brother all those years "The throne was MY RIGHT! But he said "NoOooO son! You must learn magic! So you may grant their wishes" WELL what if I don't WANT to grant all their whiny little pleas, like I'm some kind of SERVANT?! I wanted to follow my own path! I dreamed of being a good king! But then YOU showed up!"

"Sorry for being born, I guess" Florian says sarcastically

"YEARS watching them give you everything I ever wanted... I was pushed aside like I was NOTHING." Magnus sounds more and more deranged as he begins to smile sadistically at his brother "WELL GUESS WHAT! Now I "grant" more wishes than YOU and all of those old fools EVER DID! The people ADORE ME! And no one even remembers you!" Magnus spats out like he just won this argument, Florian is raising one eyebrow, looking at him like this is quite pathetic. The older king walks closer to him with a grin "So, how does it feel huh? Knowing your legacy will forever be "Just King Magnifico's little brother that fell ill and died""

Florian looks at him serious for a moment, before smiling confident again "I never did it to be remembered, I did it because I wanted to make my people happy, and I can rest easy knowing I did just that... While you lived a meaningless life, trying soooo desperately to make everyone love you, hoping that would make it up for the years you were ignored... Did it work?" Magnus looks shocked by those words, he tries to respond but Florian doesn't let him "Of course it didn't, you'll never be satisfied. And now, as if making my people suffer all these years wasn't enough, you try to steal the magic of a star, but oh-oh that didn't work, it got you killed in the most foolish way possible!... Now it won't be long until people find out the truth, then NO ONE will "Adore you" nor "Remember you"." Florian smiles widely as he asks "So, how does it feel huh? Knowing your legacy will forever be... Nothing."

Magnus has no words... His brother had never spoken to him like that... No one has ever spoken to him like that.

Florian looks satisfied, but he already know that... Unfortunately, Magnus time hasn't come just yet

"*sigh* Karma really does work in mysterious ways... Looks like the witch comes to your rescue, Mag... Again." Florian says with his arms crossed.

Magnus doesn't understand what he's talking about "Wha-"

"When you get back, if you even remember any of this... Tell Amaya that I lied, her tea tasted terrible." He says with a cheeky grin while waving his brother goodbye.

Magnus feels him sink into the water beneath his feet. He screams and-

His eyes are shot open.

He gasps for air.

Amaya brought him back from the dead with her kiss.

...

So yeah, that's dead Florian, his personality is waaaay different when he was alive by the way, but I enjoyed writing someone that can spit some facts on Magnifico's face.

4- Symbolism

I've wrote a whole lot in this, so I'll just end on a simple note:

I like the symbolism of Asha's family always being with her, from her wearing her mother's cloak and her ability to draw being what saved her, to her singing to inspire the people like her father, and playing her grandfather's mandolin, it really feels like even though they weren't THERE they were essential characters in her journey. And I'm proud of this little detail.

There's more juicy symbolism but now I'm exhausted from writing because MY GOSH Florian was intense, I really got into the mindset of a 20 year old that got murdered by the brother he once admired and I don't feel well. OOF. Imma take a break lmao

Thank you for the ask and

Thank You For Reading!

#wish rewrite #wish reimagined #kingdom of wishes

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lele-o-north · 1 year ago

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Web Of Life

Last week I had the opportunity to watch Web of Life at the cinema. I was so mind-blown that I needed to take notes 🍄

Those who know me also know how interested I am on the relationship between soil organisms and plants. Specifically, I spent the last year of university checking the colonisation rate of mycorrhizal fungi on basil (Ocimum basilicum) roots 🌱 I am grateful I could observe these small but fascinating beings ❤️

This film has been a source of great inspiration thanks to Merlin Sheldrake’s glowing charisma and immense passion-transfer skills ✨The way his eyes sparkled while talking about the essentiality of fungi for world survival was enough to make my arms go full on goosebumps 😍 Last but not least, Björk (the singer, yes!) is also the narrator 🔥

These are 5 facts that hit me the hardest:

1. Fungal genes carry A LOT of information. They are the living proof that you don’t have to have a brain to solve problems (i) 🧠

2. They have been around for millions of years, and during the most catastrophic events of Earth’s history they THRIVED (ii)💥

3. Fungal mycelium connects entire ecosystems, and if we would spread the world hyphae network, its length would be about HALF OF THE WIDTH of the Milky Way Galaxy (iii) 🪐

4. Plastic has been around for a relatively short time compared to fungi. Yet, they have the ‘chemical arsenal’ capable of breaking down polymers (iv) ♻️

5. Every year, around 50 MILLION TONNES worth of fungal spores are released into the atmosphere (v) 🌫️ Enormous amounts of species of fungi dispersing spores into the air can affect atmospheric moisture levels, which consequently trigger rainfall able to support their own as well as entire ecosystems survival 😱

Pic 1 - Basil roots colonised by mycorrhizal fungi I observed in 2020 (microscope);

Pic 2 - Mushroom seen from below I found during a walk in the Northumberland National Park;

Pic 3 - Popped fungal spore.

References:

i - https://arnosvale.org.uk/fungi-whos-really-in-control/#:~:text=Mycelium%20can%20be%20thought%20of,to%20solve%20complex%20microscopic%20mazes.

ii - https://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/mycokids/how-old-are-fungi

iii - https://www.positive.news/environment/the-project-to-map-mycorrhizal-fungal-networks-and-why-it-matters/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CGlobally%2C%20the%20total%20length%20of,wonders%20of%20the%20living%20world.%E2%80%9D

iv - https://earth.org/plastic-eating-mushroom-of-the-amazon-and-ecuadors-development-dilemma/#:~:text=When%20Yale%20University%20students%20found,oxygen%2Dstarved%20environments%20like%20landfills.

v - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4624964/

#climate change #sustainability #environment #wild fungi #fungi #mycelium #mycology #mushrooms #hyphae #wood wide web #mushroom spores #nature #environmental science

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sirenjose · 2 years ago

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Extra Notes about COA 5 Details

(Meant to include this with my COA 5 Analysis but forgot. Mostly just looking at the various posters and such references that appear somewhere in COA 5, primarily the pre-registration)

Moulin Rouge (which Golden Rose Theater has connections to) Aired in the 19th-20th century. Means "red windmill" (and we can see a small red windmill in the background of the poster).

Victoria Bicycle Factory - Nürnberg

1910 German poster for the Victoria Bicycle brand

1917 Russian Tobacco advertisement

The Saturday Evening Post

From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influential magazines within the American middle class, with fiction, non-fiction, cartoons and features that reached two million homes every week

Blackbird theater may be a reference to the "Blackbirds of 1928" or "Blackbird Revue", which ran for several months at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, France.

"Tea Makes Everything Better" advertisement

May be a reference to the East Side of New York. Upper East Side is one of the wealthiest parts of the city

Cigarette ad

"vice" makes me think of the Pre-registration event referencing the scene where Robot Maria "bewitches the men of Metropolis". The words on the image comes from that scene: „Alle sieben Todsünden um ihretwillen-!" = “All seven deadly sins for her sake!"

Paramount Pictures was founded in 1914, and is currently the oldest running American studio and 5th oldest surviving film studio. It even had a theater built in Brooklyn, New York

Advertisement for Hawaii

The Lava Planet May reference a real thing, as a lava planet is a hypothetical type of planet mostly covered in hot lava. 1 candidate is K2-141b, which has hot lava on one side, but extreme cold on the other, with a magma ocean, rock vapor atmosphere, and supersonic winds

1 sign says "Museum", which may be a reference to COA 3 (to Pickman's art museum). The other I can't read, but the man is holding a pipe, so it could be another smoking related ad.

A few more pictures that can't be made out well or I haven't found references for yet 2nd picture has the word "Cup" 3rd picture has the word "Neo" 4th picture has one sign with the word "Colt" and the other sign seems to end in an "ee"

"A Trip to the Moon". A film inspired by Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Around the Moon". A group of scientists build a spaceship and are shot to the moon by a group of women, where they hit the man in the moon's eye.

They find a cave with giant mushrooms + soil fertile enough to let their umbrellas take root. An alien disappears when tapped with an umbrella. They're captured & taken to the moon's ruler + his lobster guard. They escape, return to Earth, land in the ocean, & picked up by a ship.

#idv #identity v #call of the abyss #coa #idv coa #identity v call of the abyss #coa 5 #call of the abyss 5 #idv coa 5 #identity v call of the abyss 5 #sirenjose analyses and theories

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girlactionfigure · 2 years ago

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*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

▪️IDF ATTACKS SYRIA… (enemy reports) IDF attacked air defense systems that were deployed to several outposts in recent days and also attacked weapons depots of the pro-Iranian militias that included air defense missiles and drones.

▪️SHIPPING AND THE HOUTHIS… report of another ship attack this morning off the coast of Yemen / Red Sea. Egypt has so far lost $100 million in revenue generated by the Suez Canal as a result of the Houthi activity. The U.S. has moved up the Eisenhower aircraft carrier battle group. 20 million barrels of oil PER DAY pass the Yemen coast on the way to Europe. The Houthis have upped their threats, threatening the U.S., the aircraft carrier, and Israel with “weapons you have never seen” and “deep attacks”.

▪️IDF TAKES OUT HEZBOLLAH “LARGE ROCKET” DEPOT… IDF attacked the "Burkan" rocket depot in the village of Yaron in southern Lebanon yesterday. Smoke mushrooms rising from the ground as a result of the explosion of dozens of heavy rockets. The "Burkan" rockets carry a 250 kg warhead (3x normal rockets), have been fired into Israeli territory during the war.

▪️IDF EMPHASIZING DIPLOMATIC SOLUTION FOR LEBANON… we are not sure why the IDF Chief of Staff is emphasizing the diplomatic solution and not being intimidating… “Until there is an effective solution in place that ensures the security of our people” and “Until and unless a diplomatic solution is found and implemented: We will continue making the necessary preparations to remove the threat from our border.”

▪️4 HERO SOLDIERS FELL.

▪️HAMAS TERRORIST KILLED WEARING TZITZIT… on an army-green beged. ???

▪️ATTACK PLANS CAPTURED, INVASION PLAN FROM 2015… (Ch. 13) The fighters in Gaza captured Hamas documents in Khan Yunis, which prove that the terrorist organization had been preparing for the murderous attack for at least 8 years. Among the classified papers, which originated in 2015, swere found photos of the then Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, and current Defense Minister Yoav Galant.

▪️ISRAEL POLITICS… (1) Boogie Ya’alon ordered by the court to pay NIS 88,000 to Netanyahu’s former attorney after falsely accusing him as part of a group receiving bribes as part of the ‘submarine affair’. In a related point, the submarines and navy ships that were part of that accusation are now the ones protecting Israel in the Red Sea and from marine attacks from Gaza and Lebanon.

(2) The police leaked that they transferred to the prosecutor's office the “Younet Credit case” in which, among other things, the former finance minister Moshe Kahalon is suspected of fraud, breach of trust and reporting offenses. This leak comes a week after his name was mentioned as an option to bring into the National Unity party as a senior leader for next elections.

▪️CAPTURED HAMAS LEADER’S HOME INCLUDES NIS 5 MILLION… in cash. The IDF appreciates the contribution.

▪️CYBER OFFENSE… Iran suffers a cyber attack shutting down gas stations nationwide.

#Israel #October 7 massacre #HamasisISIS #IDF #Iron Sword #Realtime Updates

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eretzyisrael · 2 years ago

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With no shame or sign of humanity, the enemies of Israel have doubled down on their insistence that Israel is an illegitimate state that must be destroyed and that the savage slaughter of 1,200 innocent Jews was justified—all based on five “Big Lies” about the Jewish state.

They condone savagery based on utter lies

What are the facts?

The world for Jews and Israel will never be the same. Wellesley College students receive official messages saying Zionists (i.e. most Jewish students) are not welcome in the school’s dorms. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad in a TV rant swears Hamas will repeat October 7 over and over until Israel is annihilated. West Bank Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi says “What Hitler did to you was a joke—we will drink your blood and eat your skull.”

While Hamas’s October 7 atrocity shattered the hope of many Palestinian supporters, causing them to rethink their positions, the event only ignited an explosion of hate from other of Israel’s enemies. Tens of thousands of demonstrators made clear they no longer support two states living side by side in peace. Rather they demand “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free . . . by any means necessary”—meaning, clearly, slaughter of civilians.

Power of Big Lies: Though Israel was the victim of a mass murder of innocent Jews, its enemies blame the Jewish state—not only for the Hamas massacre, but also for responding in defense. The reasons many blame Israel for the atrocity are based on five Big Lies. Big Lies were used by Nazi leader Goebbels, who noted that if he told an outrageous lie often enough, people would begin to believe it. Alternatively, if you use truth as a basis for your judgments, you may these facts useful:

Lie #1: Israel is a colonial state that stole Palestinian land. A colonizer is a foreign nation that conquers and exploits another nation. First, the Palestinians have never controlled any land in Palestine: They were also never a nation. Nothing was stolen. Second, Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel. They have lived there continuously for 3,000 years and had two commonwealths for over 1,000 years: They are not foreigners. No colonial state.

Lie #2: Israel commits genocide. Genocide is the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members. Israel does not, nor has ever, targeted innocent Palestinian civilians for killing—no mass murders, no pogroms. All Palestinian civilian deaths have occurred as collateral damage while fighting terrorists who hide in residential or other public areas. Tellingly, the population in in and around Israel has mushroomed since Israel’s founding in 1948—from about 700,000 to seven million today: Zero genocide.

Lie #3: Israel practices apartheid. Apartheid is a system of legalized racial segregation in which one racial group is deprived of political and civil rights. Israel has no laws or policies separating or limiting the rights of any of its citizens—including two million Arab-Israeli citizens—nor any Palestinians outside Israel. Political and civil rights of all Palestinians outside Israel are controlled by their respective dictatorships, who allow virtually no freedoms, such as speech or the vote. No apartheid.

Lie #4: Israel is committing war crimes. War crimes include torture, hostage taking, acts of terrorism, rape and intentional targeting of civilians. While Hamas committed all these acts on October 7, Israel commits none. Though some media bristle at what they consider excessive civilian deaths during Israeli military efforts, in fact, Israel attacks only military structures and personnel—never civilian-only targets. Unfortunately, Hamas places its fighters in dense residential areas or in tunnels beneath them, endangering civilians. No Israeli war crimes.

Lie #5: Israel brutally oppresses the Palestinians daily. Oppression is the malicious exercise of power to discriminate against some groups. Because Israel completely exited Gaza in 2005, it has no power over of the daily lives of Gazans. However, because of Hamas’s continuous terror, especially efforts to kill Jews and destroy the Jewish state, Israel and Egypt have placed Gaza under a strict blockade to prevent terror attacks. Likewise, because of the Oslo Accords, Israel and the Palestinian Authority share governance of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Thus, Israel plays virtually no role governing Palestinians daily lives and only enters Palestinian-controlled areas when terrorists flee to and hide in them. No oppression.

Above all, Israel and the U.N. have made numerous offers of land for an independent Palestinian state. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have turned down five offers of land for peace since 1948, three of them over the last 23 years. Apparently, their dream of conquering Israel “from the land to the sea” is more important.

The bestiality of the October 7 massacre shocked us—beheadings, incineration, rape, torture, heartless executions, brutal kidnappings. Even worse, the gates have opened to unlimited Jew hatred on American streets and campuses—to condoning savagery with the excuse of Palestinian liberation . . . based on utter lies about the Jewish state. But Hamas and the haters should know that “Never Again,” means fighting and defeating evil forever.

#hamas #gaza #flame #the big lie

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chef-mordo · 2 years ago

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The First King of the Monsters (Part One)

“The demolition of Tokyo”

[This Series is heavily inspired by Trollmans’ “FOLLY OF MAN” series on DeviantArt, so be sure to follow him if you enjoyed my work] On March 1, 1954 the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test was conducted at Bikini Atoll. The first of many thermonuclear weapon tests, it was the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon tested by the US government at the time, a massive mushroom cloud 40 kilometers high rose above the now blazing landscape with a shockwave so large that it shook the land and sea…

Some time afterwards, a spike in radiation was picked up under ten miles off of the northern coast of Palau. When investigations were launched, the wreckage of several burned fishing vessels were found. An additional unusual trail of radiation was discovered leading North. This worried many world powers at the time as it indicated the presence of some unique, powerful source of radiation not yet known to man. The greatest fears of mankind would soon become true. Subsequently, over the following months, several ships in the Pacific Ocean were reported missing. This prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send out the investigative “Monarch Task Force” research team to study the spike in radiation and missing vessels. Eventually, on the night of August 13, 1954, a distress signal from the fishing vessel Eiko Maru was received by the Japanese Coast Guard. Another ship, the Bingo Maru, was sent to investigate the wreckage and rescue any survivors. However, neither ship returned. The following evening, a raft washed ashore on Odo Island. The sole survivor from the wreckage Masaji Yamada told the locals of a bright beam of light consuming the ship. He later reported to Monarch officials that he saw a massive, reptilian shape crest the water before it dove back down into the depths of the sea.

The following morning, the Monarch research team along with JCG officials arrived on Odo island to interview locals and investigate the wreckage. As the boat neared the island, the sea seemed to turn red. Upon arrival, the island had seemed to be shut down; according to locals, an exorcism was performed on the island the previous night after a violent storm had apparently partially destroyed the island. A local elder reported that the island’s ocean deity had been angered and would come to feed off of the islanders. The island mythology states that women had been sacrificed in the past to appease “Gojira” who was stated to be the “King of the Monsters”. A gargantuan footprint was discovered irradiating nuclear energy. Massive aggressive mutated trilobites were additionally found on the shore of the island. Dubbed “Shokkirasu” after insectoid flesh-eating demons from the island’s mythology. The village alarm was later set off, followed by an ear-splitting shrieking roar. A hulking, seemingly saurian figure of titanic proportions rose from the sea on the northwestern side of the island. Japanese paleontologist, Doctor Kyohei Yamane managed to take a photo of the beast raising its ugly head over the hill before it turned to terrorize the town. While many attempted to hide on the island, a few locals managed to escape back on the ships that Monarch and the JCG had taken.

The photo would later be presented to an emergency meeting at the National Diet Building in Tokyo. Doctor Yamane would propose that this creature was awoken by nuclear testing in the South Pacific Ocean and had been the cause of sunken ships throughout the past few months. It had been decided to release this information to the public and in addition, JMSDF forces had been sent to locate and dispatch the creature, now referred to as “Godzilla”. Following this, a fleet of battleships and submarines had been sent into the red, now boiling waters of Tokyo Bay armed with hundreds of depth charges. Eventually, the monster had been located and surrounded by a massive line of explosives. As millions of litres of water shot up into the air, the beast emerged unfazed as it rose onto the shore of Tokyo’s Shinagawa ward. It tore through buildings and ended the lives of at least a thousand. Turning from the rubble, the beast then broke through the aquatic barricade, destroying massive cruisers with little effort.

The following morning another summit was called and it was decided that a line of electrical towers would be built along Tokyo’s coastline. This would send 50,000 volts of electricity into the monster, hopefully ending its life. An emergency evacuation of Tokyo was also called in case that the plan failed. Additionally, due to the previous failed efforts, the USAF had sent 5 “Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress” aircrafts filled with Mark 65 explosives to arrive the following day.

Later that night the primordial horror once again rose from the red, boiling sea. With another air-splitting roar, it crawled onto the shore and tore through the electric fence. Following a bombardment from ground units, it bent over and began to flood Tokyo with a red mist. Seemingly irritated by the constant firing of missiles towards the creature, it’s dorsal plates began to turn from a light pink to a glowing light blue. It faced up towards the sky and shrieked before activating its atomic breath and setting the coastline aflame…

I hope y’all enjoyed the first story-based entry for “GODZILLA: Age of Monsters”. Only one more post for this first chapter focusing on Godzilla’s initial demolition of Tokyo (Alongside a drawing!). Feel free to share any thoughts, questions, praise, or criticisms of my work. As always, likes, comments, and reposts are welcome! The next few posts will be posted at 10:00 AM (CDT) within the following days.

Tune in for more updates and future posts. Peace and love! ✌️🏽

#GODZILLA: Age of Monsters #godzilla #godzilla au #gojira #kaiju #kaiju redesign #godzilla redesign #artwork #art #godzilla fanart #king of the monsters #long post #story #fangoji

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elomnusk-official · 1 year ago

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The Money and Drugs That Tie Elon Musk to Some Tesla Directors

Board members at Elon Musk’s electric-car maker, Tesla, were facing a dilemma.

One longtime director, the venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, had left his firm after an internal investigation found he had slept with multiple women in the tech industry and used illegal drugs.

Some of the details had been splashed across the press in 2017, and Tesla directors informally discussed how they should handle it, according to people familiar with the situation. Some urged him to resign.

Luckily, Jurvetson, even though the company designated him an independent director, had a good friend with whom he had deep financial ties and also attended parties with, using ecstasy and LSD: Musk.

Musk pushed directors in private conversations to allow Jurvetson to take an unusual leave of absence from the board of the public company, and then step down on his own accord in 2020, the people said. Jurvetson remains a director at Musk’s privately held rocket company, SpaceX.

“The answer was do nothing and see what happens," said another former independent Tesla director and good friend of Musk’s, Antonio Gracias, in a 2021 court deposition, when asked how the board handled the Jurvetson situation. Gracias and his venture-capital firm held investments recently valued at about $1.5 billion in Musk companies.

Multiple other directors of Musk companies have deep personal and financial ties to the billionaire entrepreneur, and have profited enormously from the relationship. The connections are an extreme blurring of friendship and fortune and raise questions among some shareholders about the independence of the board members charged with overseeing the chief executive. Such conflicts could run afoul of the loose rules governing what qualifies as independence at publicly traded companies.

On Tuesday, a Delaware judge struck down Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package at Tesla, saying board members who signed off on it in 2018 were beholden to Musk.

Several current or former directors at Tesla and SpaceX attend parties with him, go on exotic vacations and hang out at Burning Man, the Nevada arts and music festival.

Musk and these directors, including venture capitalists Gracias and Ira Ehrenpreis, tech mogul Larry Ellison, former media executive James Murdoch, as well as Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, have invested tens of millions of dollars in each other’s companies—Ellison held billions of dollars in Tesla shares with about a 1.5% holding in 2022. Some also received career support and help from Elon Musk.

Most members of Tesla’s current eight-person board have amassed shares worth hundreds of millions of dollars from their seats over the years, significantly more than what board members at other companies make for their service.

Tesla pays its directors mostly in stock options, and the current board, not including Musk himself, collectively has made more than $650 million selling shares from those options. They hold additional options valued at nearly $1 billion. Some directors agreed to return a portion of that compensation to Tesla to resolve a shareholder lawsuit about their compensation while denying any wrongdoing. A judge has yet to approve the settlement.

Some current and former Tesla and SpaceX directors have knowledge of Musk’s illegal drug use but haven’t taken public action, according to people who have witnessed the drug use or were briefed on it.

The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Musk has used drugs including cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms, and that leaders at Tesla and SpaceX were concerned about it, particularly his recreational use of ketamine, for which Musk has said he has a prescription. The illegal drugs violate strict antidrug policies at Musk’s companies and could put SpaceX’s federal contracts and Musk’s security clearance at risk.

At the upscale Austin Proper Hotel, Musk has attended social gatherings in recent years with Tesla board member Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder and a friend of his, where Musk took ketamine recreationally through a nasal spray bottle multiple times, according to people familiar with the drug use and the parties.

Other directors, Gracias, Jurvetson and Kimbal Musk, have consumed drugs with him, according to people who have witnessed the drug use and others with knowledge of it.

Musk and some people close to him, including Kimbal Musk, attend parties at Hotel El Ganzo, a boutique hotel in San José del Cabo, Mexico, known for its art and music scene as well as drug-fueled events, according to people familiar with the parties.

The volume of drug use by Musk and with board members has become concerning, some of these people said.

In the culture Musk has created around him, some friends, including directors, feel there is an expectation to consume drugs with him because they think refraining could upset the billionaire, who has made them a lot of money, some of the people said. More so, they don’t want to risk losing the social capital that comes from being close to Musk, which for some feels akin to having proximity to a king.

Musk and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In response to the Journal article in January about Musk’s illegal drug use, Spiro said Musk is “regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test."

After that article, Musk tweeted that in three years of undergoing random drug testing after a pot-smoking incident in 2018, “Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol. @WSJ is not fit to line a parrot cage for bird [poop emoji]." He later tweeted: “If drugs actually helped improve my net productivity over time, I would definitely take them!"

Tesla’s general counsel and a SpaceX spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Ellison offer

Some board members worry about the negative effects of Musk’s behavior on the six companies he oversees and the roughly $800 billion in assets held by investors, according to people close to Musk.

Despite the concerns, the Tesla board hasn’t investigated his drug use or recorded their worries into official board minutes, which could become public.

Around the winter of 2022, Musk’s good friend and former Tesla board member, Ellison, urged him to come to his Hawaiian island to relax from work and dry out from the drugs, according to people familiar with the offer.

The outreach came as friends and others close to Musk worried that his drug use was getting worse, and some asked him to go to rehab, some of the people said.

Around the same time as the Ellison offer, Musk attended a party in the Hollywood Hills where he consumed a liquid form of ecstasy from a water bottle, according to a person who was there. Musk’s security guards asked people to leave the floor of the house for privacy before Musk took the drug.

Across Silicon Valley, executives sometimes invest in each others’ companies and ventures, and might have one or two personal friendships on a company board, especially before it goes public.

Musk, because of the extent of his personal and professional board ties and the enormous amount of money involved, is the most prominent example of a chief executive who is intertwined with directors. The Journal traced connections by reviewing hundreds of pages of court documents and depositions, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and other public records.

The amount Tesla pays its directors is far more than the average compensation for boards at most U.S. companies. The average total compensation for board members in the largest 200 U.S. companies was $329,351 in 2023, according to a new report from the National Association of Corporate Directors and compensation consultant Pearl Meyer. By comparison, current Alphabet board members hold stock valued at about $8 million, and received an average annual compensation for board service of about $475,000 since 2015.

Beyond board pay, some Tesla and SpaceX directors have tens of millions of dollars in additional investments in Musk’s companies, including his brain implant startup, Neuralink, and his tunneling venture, The Boring Co.

Musk, in turn, invests in some directors’ companies. Board members also have invested in Kimbal Musk’s Kitchen Restaurant Group and in SolarCity, a company run by Musk’s cousins that was acquired by Tesla.

Governance experts, such as longtime board members and advisers to boards, say the personal and financial ties could muddy directors’ views, and that it is highly unusual at U.S. public companies.

According to the rules of Nasdaq, where Tesla trades, an independent director can’t be an employee, a family member or someone whose relationship “would interfere with the exercise of independent judgment." Nasdaq requires a majority independent board.

While rules governing independent directors across the country are murky, financial entanglement is one area where courts have sometimes found public companies at fault for claiming directors’ independence while they hold investments tied to one another.

Amalgamated Bank, which managed around $180 million of investments in Tesla as of September, signed a shareholder letter last year asking Tesla board members to step up their “meager oversight" of Musk.

The investors expressed concern that the close ties between Musk and several Tesla directors make the board ill-equipped to act in the best interest of shareholders.

CEO with leeway

Some directors view Musk as a once-in-a-generation genius, with a brilliant mind and unusual methods. In depositions and courtroom testimony, directors have said they think Musk’s leadership is crucial to both Tesla and SpaceX, and believe in his long-held mission to colonize Mars. He is seen as the soul of his companies and intertwined with their success. Tesla’s stock is up more than 300% in the past four years, but has dropped about 25% since the beginning of January.

When striking down Musk’s pay package on Tuesday, the Delaware Court of Chancery judge called the process for approving it “deeply flawed" and cited Musk’s “extensive ties" to some of the directors who negotiated it. A Tesla shareholder had sued, alleging Musk played too big a role in deciding his own pay.

Musk “enjoyed thick ties with the directors tasked with negotiating on behalf of Tesla, and dominated the process that led to board approval of his compensation plan," wrote Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick in the opinion. She described board Chair Robyn Denholm’s approach to her oversight obligations as “lackadaisical."

Tesla board members can appeal the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court. After the ruling, Musk posted on X saying, “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware" and said Tesla would hold a shareholder vote about incorporating in Texas.

Board members had signed off on the pay deal in 2018, with Tesla valuing it at a maximum of $55.8 billion. It was the biggest pay package ever to the chief executive of a U.S. public company, according to governance-data firm Equilar.

While negotiating the pay package, Musk emailed the company’s top lawyer explaining how he would use the additional compensation. “The added comp is just so that I can put as much as possible towards minimizing existential risk by putting the money towards Mars," Musk wrote. Ehrenpreis, a yearslong friend, was head of the board’s compensation committee.

Company directors frequently allowed Musk an unusual amount of leeway on issues big and small.

After he bought Twitter in 2022, for example, Musk tapped Tesla employees to review the social-media platform’s engineering talent. Also around that time, SpaceX signed off on an unusual $1 billion loan to its chief executive, the Journal has reported.

A 2018 settlement with the SEC, following Musk’s tweet about plans to take Tesla private, required Tesla to establish more controls and form a new committee of independent board members to oversee Musk’s communications. But according to court documents, Denholm said Musk “does self-regulate" compliance, and some directors said they don’t review his tweets.

Tesla disclosed in 2022 that it had received a subpoena from the SEC seeking information about how the company was complying with the settlement.

Musk’s freewheeling commentary on Twitter, now X, and in interviews has injected volatility into Tesla’s share price and affected his other companies. In 2020, Tesla’s stock closed down more than 7% for the day after Musk tweeted, “Tesla stock price is too high imo." Last year, major companies stopped advertising on X after he described an antisemitic post on X as “the actual truth."

Investors have for decades pressed for independent directors, especially at public companies, because it allows them to push back against management and closely monitor what is happening inside the business.

The sweeping set of rules known as Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002 mandated that public companies have independent directors, including on the audit committee. The rules came after the collapse of energy trading giant Enron, which later was found to have hidden its financials amid improper board oversight.

Stock exchanges generally spell out how they define independence on boards and other expectations. At private companies, there are no requirements for the number of independent directors, or what constitutes one. At Nasdaq, if a company doesn’t comply with its majority independent board rule, it gives the company one year or until its next shareholder meeting to make a change; if not, it may be delisted.

Questions about a public director’s independence have gone to the courts, with judges sometimes finding problems with deep financial ties.

The Delaware Supreme Court in 2016 ruled that the majority of videogame developer Zynga’s board weren’t independent. Among the reasons was that a venture-capital firm two directors worked for had invested in a startup the CEO’s wife co-founded and that another director and her husband co-owned a private plane with the CEO.

Following the court’s decision, Zynga expanded its board and formed a special litigation committee to investigate insider trading allegations. Zynga settled the suit in 2019 for $11 million.

“To me, it’s really: Are you capable of making a disinterested, objective decision uninfluenced by the relationship?" said Lawrence Hamermesh, former director of the Widener Institute of Delaware Corporate and Business Law, who has also served as senior special counsel in the SEC’s corporate finance division.

Surrounded by friends

When Tesla was looking to replace a departing director, it turned to a familiar face in JB Straubel. The board believed the company’s former chief technology officer, whom Tesla considers a co-founder, was someone Musk would listen to, could fill Ellison’s shoes and had technical expertise, according to people with knowledge of the board’s thinking.

Last year, ahead of a vote to approve Straubel, some shareholders pushed back over his close ties to the company, saying if he were added to the board then at least five of the eight members would lack independence. Straubel was elected anyway. A Nasdaq spokesman said it doesn’t comment on specific companies and referred a Journal question on how Straubel can be classified as an independent director to Tesla.

Musk has long surrounded himself with close friends as he built his business empire. He has turned to them for advice on new business ventures and on daily operational help.

In addition to Musk on the Tesla board, his brother, Kimbal Musk, is a member. He previously served on the SpaceX board and has counseled Musk on numerous ventures, including whether to start OpenAI and Neuralink. He and Musk are also close personally, often attending the same events and parties.

Ehrenpreis, who chairs two of four committees on the Tesla board, is designated independent by the company and has been close to Musk for years.

The venture capitalist held the right to buy the first Tesla Model 3—which some covet for bragging rights. Around Musk’s 46th birthday in 2017, he gave it to Musk, tweeting, “Much love and respect for everything you do."

Ehrenpreis has personally or through his venture-capital firm, DBL Partners, invested in many of Musk’s ventures, totaling about $70 million.

On the Tesla board, he has made more than $220 million on stock sales earned through board service and has additional options worth more than $200 million at recent prices.

James Murdoch, former chief executive of 21st Century Fox, also is classified independent by Tesla. His friendship with Musk dates back to around 2006, and he has vacationed with Musk and their families, including on trips to Israel and Mexico.

In court testimony in 2022, Musk said he didn’t know Murdoch well, though Murdoch in an earlier deposition affirmed his friendship with Musk.

Murdoch, who is the younger son of Rupert Murdoch, chairman emeritus of News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, has said in court testimony he considers himself independent and has described a director as “having an ability to exercise independence of thought in governance and oversight as a member of a public company."

Murdoch poured $20 million into SpaceX, and a company controlled by him invested about $50 million in the space company, court records show.

Denholm, who is designated independent, is based in Australia and doesn’t socialize with Musk. She has said in court testimony she doesn’t have personal investments in Musk’s other companies.

Her decadelong position on the Tesla board has been lucrative, earning her more than $625 million in the company’s equity. Denholm has exercised about half her options, profiting more than $280 million from the sales.

Denholm runs Tesla board meetings as informal, family-style occasions. Directors sometimes ask softball questions of Musk, such as future Tesla product colors, according to people familiar with the board.

Musk, meanwhile, would sometimes arrive two hours late, or hours early, and then blame his staff for not getting him there at the appropriate time, according to one of the people.

Musk said he handpicked Denholm, who replaced him as board chair in 2018 under an agreement with the SEC, according to an interview on “60 Minutes" that year.

The idea Denholm would watch over him was “not realistic" given his status as the company’s largest shareholder, he said in the interview, adding: “I can just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want." Musk later tweeted that the show had edited the interview in a misleading way. A “60 Minutes" spokeswoman said the show stands by its reporting.

Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder and friend of Musk’s, joined the Tesla board in 2022, lives in Texas and is designated an independent director.

Former Walgreens Boots Alliance executive Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, who joined the board in 2018, is designated independent and doesn’t have public ties to Musk.

Deal with ex-girlfriend

Three current and former Tesla and SpaceX board members have been among Musk’s closest personal and financial partners.

Ellison, the co-founder and current chief technology officer of Oracle, was designated independent during his board tenure at Tesla between 2018 and 2022. He has said “I’m very close friends" with Musk and has hosted him multiple times at his Hawaiian island, Lanai.

When Musk revealed his plans to buy Twitter, Ellison committed $1 billion in 2022, while still on the Tesla board, to help fund it, surpassing the investments of many of the venture-capital firms involved in the deal.

Gracias, whom Tesla classified as the company’s lead independent director from 2010 until 2019, has been close friends with Musk for more than two decades. Musk turned to Gracias for support after his baby son died in the early 2000s, according to a 2021 court deposition.

He is also one of the friends who attends private parties around the world and sometimes consumes illegal drugs with Musk.

In court testimony in 2022, he called Musk “extraordinary," “an amazing engineer" and “a product genius."

For his work on the Tesla board, he has made more than $100 million by selling shares he earned.

When Musk needed cash, Gracias lent him $1 million, Gracias said in a court deposition, though it is unclear when he gave the money or what it was for. Musk has also personally invested about $10 million in Gracias’s Valor Equity Partners.

When asked in a court deposition whether his close friendship and business relationships with Musk affected his ability to act as an independent director at Tesla, particularly related to Musk’s 2018 pay package, Gracias said it didn’t. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it," he said.

Gracias stepped down from the Tesla board after more than a decade in 2021 in response to the pressure to improve its corporate governance. He remains a SpaceX director.

Jurvetson is one of Musk’s closest friends, and the two have mixed friendship and business for years. Jurveston was an early investor in SpaceX, and the two have used LSD and ecstasy together.

Jurvetson, who is an amateur rocket enthusiast, often hosts Elon and Kimbal Musk for parties at his house at Half Moon Bay, a small beachside city south of San Francisco.

One episode, soon after the 2017 scandal that led to Musk and Jurvetson working to keep his Tesla board seat, shows the extreme intertwining of personal and business relationships around Musk.

Tesla’s general counsel at the time, Todd Maron—who had been a divorce lawyer for Musk—helped negotiate an understanding with one of Jurvetson’s ex-girlfriends, Keri Kukral, according to emails between the company and Kukral reviewed by the Journal.

As part of the 2018 arrangement, Kukral was given permission by Maron to review and approve public messaging, such as press releases, related to Jurvetson and his Tesla board seat, the emails show. After Maron left Tesla, his successor general counsel, Jonathan Chang, continued to communicate with her, the emails show.

In return, Kukral wrote a professional recommendation of Jurvetson to Tesla as he campaigned to keep his board seat.

It is highly unusual for a company’s general counsel to get involved in such personal matters of board members, or to give an outside person the power to review company messaging, corporate governance experts said.

Musk also tried to persuade board members to let Jurvetson vote while he was on a leave of absence, people familiar with the conversations said. Kimbal Musk, Murdoch and Denholm pushed back, the people said.

Jurvetson made more than $9 million selling Tesla shares received as a director before leaving the board in 2020, according to the documents reviewed by the Journal.

At least two former board members have bristled at the company’s lack of corporate governance and deference to Musk.

Former Tesla board member Linda Johnson Rice wasn’t close with Musk or other directors outside of work, although she sometimes saw fellow director Gracias at work events in Chicago, where they are both based.

She didn’t stand for re-election to the board in 2019 after serving less than two years over frustration with Musk’s volatile behavior, including his drug use, the Journal reported. She informally asked whether the board should investigate and was brushed off.

“She served her term and that was it," Musk tweeted about Rice, following the Journal’s January article about his drug use. “No negativity at all with Linda!"

Similarly, Hiromichi Mizuno, a former chief investment officer of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, left the Tesla board in 2023 after three years in part because of the lack of ability he felt he had to work on improving the company’s governance-related practices. At issue was the board’s deference to Musk, who had different priorities for Tesla, according to people familiar with the board.

Mizuno found the board to operate more like a family company with fiefdoms, rather than a public company with stringent rules and regulations, even if it did usually perform well. He has made a practice of avoiding close relationships with others in the workplace to remain objective. While Mizuno was sometimes invited for a drink with Musk, he never attended his private parties or events, according to the people.

Musk has been recently pushing for even greater control over Tesla. He currently owns around 13% of the company.

In mid-January, before the Delaware court ruling on his pay package, he wrote in a post on X that he was uncomfortable transforming the electric vehicle giant into a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without voting control over roughly 25% of the company.

“Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla," Musk wrote.

The tweet was effectively an ultimatum for Tesla board members to revisit his compensation. The board so far hasn’t acted.

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