#Esther breaks down the common mistakes people make

[elejah4ever]

The next parts of my theory.

Elena had a major impact on Elijah due to her unknowingly being the reason why he didn’t give Klaus and Rebekah what they wanted for the first time ever, the hybrid wanted a doppelgänger to break his curse and the latter wanted revenge for Elena’s actions towards her, Elijah broke his word for the first time since he wasn’t around to protect her even though he used his family’s sacred vow on Elena which is also something he’s never done before.

Elijah’s scared of how intense his feelings are for Elena since acknowledging them means admitting them which would lead to any and all enemies of his and his family, not to mention Katherine’s enemies since almost everyone even her best friends confused the two except Elijah who would know instantly since he’s known Katherine for 500 years before he knew Elena, using her against him. That’s why he kept her at a distance, so she’d be safe. He’d rather her be happy with someone else who wasn’t him than her being chased down forever. Him using his family’s sacred vow in the letter he wrote her is the biggest clue of his feelings while also using that as an excuse to be around her more without anyone asking questions since his word and his family’s sacred vow are the two things he tries not to break.

His love for Elena would mean the possibility of him losing her and that’s something he can't afford to do, but they can't stay away from each other for long. He knew it was Elena and not Katherine which is why he took the opportunity when it was there for you to take. Not to mention the fact that they are drawn to each other like magnets, but tries to stay away because he likes to be in control and him being afraid of his own feelings for her is new territory for him after losing two previous love interests since Tatia and Celeste both died. He never let anyone know his family history and yet, he told her when he’s known her for months at the time. He doesn’t want to lose her which is why he’s distancing himself from her when that is the worst thing he could do. Elena is the doppelganger and people have already come after her. She's safer with him than she is with Stefan and Damon.

Elena's just as in love with him as he is with her because she always goes to him for safety, she kept the letter until she turned off her emotions unless she secretly still has it and just said that to see what his reaction would be, she knew he’d save her, she kept trusting him with her family and she wanted to tell him Esther's plan, but couldn't because Esther and Finn were standing within ear shot and the former probably would have k1lled her if she did tell him.

After Elena leaves, Elijah has a flashback about Katherine who says, “true love isn’t real unless it’s returned” before she asks him if he agrees. He says that he doesn’t believe in love-I think it’s possibly because of Tatia and her death-before Katherine asks him that if people cease to believe in love then why would they want to live?!?! I also noticed he says that caring for another doppelgänger is a common mistake he’s told and that he won’t make it again-which I believe is a lie from the look on his face-AFTER he has the flashback of himself and Katherine that I previously mentioned-shortly after Elena comes back and DURING that scene he has another flashback of Klaus telling him that love is a weakness!!!!!!!! I like to think that when he had the flashback of himself and Katherine is when he realized that he’s in love with Elena. The flashback of him and Klaus about how love is a weakness tells me that Elijah decided to push his feelings for Elena away and ignore them, partially because of Klaus.

I believe he fell in love with her when they were in the car, he wonders if and hopes she feels the same way when he remembers what Katherine said about true love not being real unless it’s returned before he just says fuck it due to Klaus saying love is a weakness.

She probably fell in love with him since the day they met, but didn’t realize it until she got his letter.

[saiilorstars]

The Girl in the Forest

Chapter 20: Behind the Barriers

// Story Masterlist // 

Fandom: The Originals

Pairings: Klaus Mikaelson x Original Female Character

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Ma-leh-nee

Requested tag: @queenmj10​

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: Finn makes his play against his siblings and leaves the ultimate punishment for Maleny: her biggest fear.

"It has been said that all love begins and ends with she who gave us life. A thousand years ago, my mother turned us into monsters, yet still she claimed to love her children, even as she vowed to destroy us. The noble Elijah, tormented by long-buried, shameful secrets. Kol, the wiley troublemaker, out for no one but himself. Finn, the devoted acolyte, his love all too easily walked by our mother's sick hate. Fierce Rebekah, willing to risk everything on the chance that she may one day find happiness. And me, the bastard child. My mother's greatest shame. Now, finally, we have defeated her, giving her the choice she never thought to give us, to live on as one of the monsters she created or suffer the slow, agonizing death she so deserves."

All in the meanwhile Klaus had been talking to Maleny, the blonde had been pouring some drinks into glasses, leaving him to give his common heartfelt speeches. She remembered it was one of his favorite things to do in the past, whether he wanted to admit it or not. After a win (although bittersweet) Maleny figured he deserved that much.

She turned around with a smirk, "You know, any other person would tell you you're an awful person for what you did to Esther…" she started walking back to him, the man leaning against the back of a couch, "...but she had it well deserved. So congrats," she held him his glass.

"That's all I get?" Klaus took his glass and gave her a sharp look, "Congrats?"

Maleny tilted her head, her smirk fading only slightly, "Oh? Like what? And I'd watch your answer because this," she pointed between them, "has only had 3 days so anything beyond a kiss is unlikely to happen."

"I was merely going to ask for a kiss but you apparently think so little of me," Klaus leaned off the couch and started for the threshold of the living room, when Maleny grabbed his arm, of course guilty now she'd judged him.

"Sorry, sorry," she apologetically smiled as he turned back to her, "I didn't mean to come off like that. Understand me a little, please. I'm not sure how to...deal with this thing for us - I don't want it to be different but of course it's going to be different and…" she was cut off by Klaus' sudden kiss.

"Do you know I'd actually forgotten how fun it was to watch you freak out?" Klaus asked afterwards, with his smirk letting Maleny see how he'd basically played her.

"You jerk," she hit his arm, and while he laughed she drank from her glass.

He snatched her by the waist, "Only the worst," he complemented himself, "But you already knew that..."

"Of course I do," Maleny feigned a sigh as she looked to the side, "I knew since we were kids you were a little mischievous devil. Buuuut..." she swayed her head until her eyes landed on his, "...I guess you were always my mischievous devil."

"Hey," Hayley cut into their moment with her call. They both turned to see the brunette hybrid coming into the living room, "So, has there been a plan devised?"

Confused, Maleny came forwards, "Hold on, I thought you were supposed to stay back with Elijah at the safe house…"

Hayley gave a wide grin and took Maleny's glass, "I did something better," she said and drank down the remainder of the bourbon.

"Hayley, this is no time for games," Klaus frowned and walked over to the woman as well.

"Calm down, it was nothing bad," Hayley dismissed his irritation, "So then, plan?"

"There isn't one yet," Maleny finally said, choosing to trust Hayley's decisions, "And the only one we did have Amarrah doesn't want to follow," she added with a huff. They'd tried to make Amarrah leave the Quarter for a while until things died down with Finn but the witch outright refused. She claimed there was no way she was going to let Finn Mikaelson get away with almost murder. She wanted payback, and payback she would get - she promised.

~ 0 ~

In the Lycee, Finn used a hammer to break a skull into pieces. Behind him was his father, Mikael, watching him create a spell.

"She tried to show them mercy," Finn was angrily saying in regards to his missing mother, "If they've harmed her…"

Mikael scoffed and interrupted him, "Esther's mistake was believing there was anything left in your siblings to save," he moved up to Finn, "Together, my son, we can finally destroy them."

Finn was no fool to believe Mikael was suddenly so willingly on their side, but he played along as if he did believe, " Yeah. I'm happy to hear you say this, Father. Such a powerful man. I could use your strength."

There was a clearing of throat by the entrance of the Lycee, and both men turned to see a young woman fidgeting on the spot, "The wolves...they're um, they're gathered at the cemetery," she jerked a thumb behind her shoulder, "At the gravestone you asked for..."

Finn's anger died down slightly at the news, "Excellent, tell them to dig it up. Now."

The woman was visibly confused and made the mistake of asking, "Why?"

"You don't ask 'why' to my orders, you follow them," Finn snapped, angering the woman but this time she kept her mouth shut, "Don't make me repeat myself, Yamilet, dig it up."

The woman, Yamilet, nodded, "And then what?" she preferred not to ask anymore questions but she didn't want to have to talk to him again later on.

"Take the body deep into the bayou," Finn instructed with a deep, annoyed sigh. This is what happened when Aiden resigned his leadership for the wolves of the witches. Finn had to go and name another leader instead and unfortunately that one seemed like an even bigger idiot. "The others know what to do, then," he motioned for Yamilet to leave and with a nod she turned away.

Finn then turned back to his ongoing spell and continued working on it, feeling far more confident in his future plans. Revenge would never taste so sweet.

~ o ~

Cami drove up to the Mikaelsons' safe house and looked around the solitary house (or so she thought). She checked the directions Hayley had given her earlier just to see if she'd made a mistake somewhere along the way. Why would Hayley send her to an abandoned house? Or worse, a stranger's house. She stepped out of the car and looked around, focusing in noises and scents she could get a read on.

Eventually, she got a read on two very familiar people and hurried for the front door. She would've came right in but she figured that would only cause tension. Instead, she opted for the polite knock.

A couple minutes passed and no one opened up. With a sigh, Cami turned away from the door and looked about, "I'm gonna kill Hayley for this," she muttered under her breath and made way for the car again. She was only a couple feet away from the car when she heard her name being called.

"Cami, what are you doing here?" Elijah had appeared at the doorway holding a sleepy Hope in arms.

Cami turned around and saw him, momentarily fazed by the baby she hadn't seen in quite a while. She shook her head and took a couple steps towards them, "Honestly, I have no idea," she sighed and let her arms fall to her sides, "Hayley came back to the compound early in the morning and said Klaus wanted me here for something. I just didn't know that 'something' was 'someone'. But don't worry, I'm on my way back right now," she turned for the car actually meaning her words when Elijah gave an unexpected call for her.

"You should come in," he said, surprising her momentarily, "I frankly have no idea what I'm doing…" he nodded to Hope who was slowly falling asleep on his shoulder.

Cami gave a half-smile, "Well, I'm no mother, but...I did learn a couple things from Rebekah. Are you sure you want me to stay? Because I know what you requested days ago - you didn't want me here. And know that I wouldn't have come if I knew this was the place Hayley was sending me to."

Elijah knew she was right and still felt guilty for what he'd done. However, he wasn't very repentent of it as he believed it would've been the right thing to do, "I could really use your help," he insisted again.

Cami gave in with a nod, "First thing's first, we have to put that baby to sleep…" and with that she returned to the house taking on the role of lead babysitter.

~ 0 ~

Maleny strode into Hayley's room where the hybrid and Jackson had been discussing their future mystical wedding. She had finished a rather interesting phone call with Cami and had to come and see Hayley to pay her remarks.

"You sent Cami to the safe house?" Maleny demanded with crossed arms and a tapping foot, "You savage!"

Hayley smirked and glanced at the blonde, "I told you it was good."

Maleny sighed, "She's gonna kill you for this, I hope you know," her eyes flickered over to Jackson and immediately composed herself, "So you're going to marry my friend here? I have to warn you, her moodswings are horrible. I mean, I thought they were just because she was pregnant but it turns out Hayley's just naturally moody."

"Uh…" Jackson nervously looked at Hayley.

"Hey!" Hayley hissed and made Maleny laugh, "They're not," she assured Jackson, "I don't even have mood swings."

"Liiiiies," Maleny sing-songed from her place, "But listen, while I did come in for Cami's sake, I'm the messenger of the people downstairs."

"People downstairs?" Jackson repeated and once again looked at Hayley.

"I may have done a thing," Hayley raised a finger and stood up from her chair.

"She does a lot of things, fair warning," Maleny said to Jackson as Hayley walked past her.

"Mal, shut up," Hayley called from outside, "And go get Klaus."

"The messenger job continues," Maleny swayed her head in annoyance and turned to leave. She rushed over to go find the other hybrid, eventually after coming short in two rooms finding him with Kol - who was now staying with them apparently.

"Of course you two are drinking," Maleny rolled her eyes at the two brothers happily drinking some sort of wine, "Kol, are you even old enough now?"

Kol rolled his eyes while Klaus snickered, "Gee, Mal, like I haven't heard that one before."

"Give me time, I can come up with something better, I promise," Maleny came futher into the room and looked at Klaus, "You should go downstairs - Hayley's brought in vampires and the wolves and I fear for war, honestly."

"What's she done that for?" Klaus frowned at the news. There were so many things to begin doing and Hayley was wasting time with community meetings?

"I don't know but even Marcel's downstairs," Maleny pointed back, "I think it's something big."

The bottle Kol held in his hand suddenly shattered and spilled the wine all over the floor. Everyone looked around for the source of the shatterer to see Finn at the doorway.

"Where is she?" the man demanded, getting straight to the point.

"Well that's a way to greet someone," Maleny made a face and moved back to the other siblings.

"My, my, you look peaky," smirked Klaus who then looked at his younger brother, "Doesn't he look peaky?"

Kol agreed with a sarcastic smile, "He does look peaky."

Maleny rolled her eyes and whacked each brother on the arms, "Enough of the sarcasm," she scolded only to receive scoffs from both of them, "Did I say something funny?" she glared at each of them.

Finn was in no mood to withstand such a spectacle, "Don't make me ask again," he warned, "Where is she?"

"Well, I assume you're referring to our mother. Fear not, she's tucked away somewhere perfectly safe," Klaus promised with a wide grin, "You'll never find her."

"You think you've won," Finn shook his head and opened his arms, "Let's see how long that arrogance lasts, brothers. You'll both fall," he promised and backtracked but not before adding, "And you," he looked to Maleny, "I have something good planned for you."

Maleny swallowed down a lump in her throat and tried to remain at ease of the threat. Finn looked so sure of his threat Maleny could almost believe in it. As Finn got to leaving, Klaus slid an arm around Maleny, resting his hand on her back, knowing she'd been left shaken. It had been his concern that Finn would take leverage against him or anyone else by using the weakest - Maleny.

~ 0 ~

Down in the courtyard, Hayley was still trying to find a common ground between her wolves and the vampires, "You wolves are here because you want freedom. And, I promise you, if you stay, you will be free. But…" she glanced over to Marcel and his vampires, "We need as much help as we can get."

"My vamps and I are willing to stand with you against the witches," Marcel assured, "In return, all I want is a promise that there will be peace between our sides after the wedding."

One of the wolves, Jared, spoke up in outrage, "You're the one who spent the last one hundred years killing and cursing us!"

"Which means you might wanna listen to what I have to say," Marcel snapped.

Finn was coming down the stairs around that time and of course had to interrupt, "I see you're brokering a truce between mongrels and parasites! And just how long do you think that's really going to last? A month? A week? A day?" he laughed, "What you don't yet seem to understand is that the only thing that can exist between your two degenerate species is hatred, war, and death," he backed away towards the exit.

He stopped just outside the border of the compound before rubbing his fingers together and cast a spell. As soon as he put his hand against the doorway of the entrance. When the building stopped shaking, Gia was the first to try to get him only to come crashing into an invisible barrier that started to burn her hands as if she wore no daylight ring.

Finn now wore a clean smirk across his lips, "But, I imagine, given a little time confined together, you'll come to see things the way I do," he gave a wicked wave before leaving the place.

~ 0 ~

Upstairs, Klaus tried to see if the barrier was active as well. He tried getting out through the balcony of his bedroom but felt his hand begin to burn much like Gia's had done earlier.

Kol came into the room full blown panicked, "Did he really just trap us all in here?"

"He certainly did," Klaus turned around, "Which means we have a witch problem. You're a witch. Fix it."

"I'm already calling in Amarrah," Maleny rushed into the room holding a phone in hand, just as panicked - if not more than Kol.

"And what the bloody hell are we supposed to do about this?" Kol turned to her.

Maleny lowered her phone and stalked up to him, "You don't get it, do you? If this barrier stays up for long you and I," she tapped him on the chest, "become a three course meal to those vampires downstairs," Kol's eyes widened in realization, and horror, "Get the picture now?"

"Okay, we're gonna need a lot of help," Kol glanced back to Klaus who was smiling in amusement at the teen's horror. Kol hurried out to give a call out to Davina.

"That was a bit harsh," Klaus walked up to Maleny afterwards.

"And yet, it's the truth," Maleny wasn't too happy herself about the situation, "I meant what I said. If we're stuck in here a long time you are going to be fine but I am going to become dinner for the others."

"Not on my watch, love."

"Let's remember you called me lunch and dinner during the first days we met here," Maleny pointed at him, "Don't think I'm forgetting that anytime soon."

"I meant that playfully," Klaus tried clear his throat and tried putting away his smirk.

He had not meant that playfully...and Maleny knew it.

~ 0 ~

Elijah was leaving what he believed to be the tenth voicemail to Rebekah, now Angela Baker of course, to no avail. It'd been three days since she'd been switched bodies but hadn't made any contact with anyone since. Frankly, he was getting worried and being practically imprisoned in the safe house was driving him mad.

He returned inside the house and followed noise into the kitchen where Cami was bringing down a bottle of bourbon from a shelf, "Yahtzee!" she exclaimed and glanced back with a smile, "Ah-ha-ha! If there's one thing I've learned about you people, it's that there's always a bottle of booze around. Don't worry, though, Hope is down for her nap. You want one?" she gestured as she brought down a glass for herself.

"Sounds delightful," Elijah couldn't help respond with a hint of restraint.

Cami sighed and place down her glass on the counter, "I know you're only tolerating me for Hope's sake but really if I'm bothering you that much I could always just go and compel someone to help you."

"I'm sorry," Elijah looked to the side, cursing himself for doing exactly what he'd wanted to avoid in the first place.

Cami turned around to face him completely, "Did I do something that bothered you?" she asked in plain confusion. She really did not understand why Elijah hadn't wanted her to come along with the others. She tried looking for anything she could've done to offend him or anyone else he cared for but found nothing.

"This is about me, Cami. I assure you, you haven't done anything," Elijah promised her but it wasn't enough for Cami.

"Then why do I feel like I have done something?" Cami crossed her arms, "Is this something of Esther's? What, she told you having vampire friends is also a bad thing?"

"You're not a friend," Elijah sharply corrected her, leaving her startled and frankly insulted for a minute before he continued, "You're family. I'm sorry if I've made you feel anything less."

"I don't want your apologies, I want an explanation," Cami quietly said to him and picked up her bourbon bottle and glass, "And until you can give me one, I'll be in the living room having myself a nice drink - alone."

"Cami," Elijah wearily sighed as the blonde woman hurried past him. He was seriously hating Hayley for ever thinking of doing this foul trick of hers.

~ 0 ~

Amarrah and Davina arrived to the compound at the same time after being called upon by their friends. They stopped just outside of the courtyard where they knew the barrier was active.

"Thank God you're here," Maleny hurried up to the barrier with Kol coming in seconds later.

Amarrah could see the heavy group of people inside the compound and made a face, "Yikes, would definitely not like to be in your shoes," she remarked and earned equal irritated looks from both Maleny and Kol.

"Which is why we'd like to hurry up and get out of here," Kol replied and looked to Davina, "You ready?"

Davina nodded with a smile and looked to Amarrah, "We're ready."

"Please get it right," Maleny stepped back only to be yanked forwards by Kol, "Hey!"

"No, no, love, we're gonna need all the witches on this one," he smirked at her.

Maleny looked at Amarrah who was agreeing with a nod of her head, "He's right. The more power we have the better chances we can get the barrier down."

With a sigh, Maleny stood straight and beside Kol, awaiting to start the spell with everyone else. They chanted together the spell they'd agreed on before coming together and while it seemed not to be failing, it eventually rebounded everyone away from the barrier.

"What just happened?" Maleny fearfully looked around as everyone slowly gathered back together.

Klaus and Marcel went over to check on the progress, "Are we free to go?" Klaus asked urgently.

"No," Kol shook his head, looking at his hands in confusion, "the spell's locking us out."

"Vincent must be channeling something," Amarrah reasoned with her experience, "A dark object, maybe."

Of course neither of them could ever think Finn's source of channeling was coming from his neutralized father somewhere in a crypt.

~ 0 ~

Elijah once more left a voicemail for Rebekah, deciding if after the next time he tried there was still no answer he would be calling Klaus to discuss the matters. When done he entered the living room where, as promised, Cami was having herself a nice drink while scrolling through her phone.

"Do you know you have awful WiFi connection here?" she sarcastically asked without looking up from the screen.

"Yes, which is why I thought you would prefer this?" Elijah waved a Trivial Pursuit box in hand.

Cami raised an eyebrow, "Your solution to this problem - that's your fault by the way - is for us to play...trivial games?"

"It's either that or suffer the WiFi connection," Elijah plopped down on the couch chair beside her and set the game on the coffee table, "Take your pick."

"What I'd pick is for you to come clean," Cami put her glass down on the table as well, "Is that not one of the options here?"

"I ask for time, Cami, please?" Elijah sighed, "I would hate to be stuck inside this house with no one to talk to. Please?"

Cami stared at him a good while trying to put her best angry face on. But as the seconds ticked by and he upheld her look with his soft, brown eyes, she gave in with a small sigh.

"Fine," she raised a hand, and looked away, "but you're no where near off the hook," she reached for the box and began opening it up, "So you should probably let me win," she added with a mumble, making Elijah smile of amusement.

~ 0 ~

"Okay, so maybe we can...put a stronger spell over the one already here?" Maleny was in the middle of saying to Amarrah, Davina and Kol as they all thought of ways to break down the barrier.

"That doesn't make any sense," Kol shot her down with a look of irritation.

"You know what, this isn't what I do anymore, okay?" Maleny snapped at him, used to the more calm reactions of the others in regards to low abilities in magic.

"Maybe she's not far off," Amarrah got to thinking while she paced back and forth, "We just need to come up with something more coherent."

"Great, while you do that, Mal and I will do our best not to get devoured over here," Kol huffed.

"There's still time before any of that happens," Davina tried to calm them down with logical views.

"Maybe there's something in my mother's spellbook," Maleny gasped with the idea, feeling stupid she hadn't thought of it before. She motioned she'd be back and hurried back into the courtyard, bumping into Josh who'd rather clumsily came down the stairs, "Sorry, Josh, I…"

Josh was doubled over in pain but at the fresh scent of blood he raised his head, revealing an almost vamped-out face.

"Josh…?" Maleny, though concerned, stepped back.

"All I can think about is blood!" the young vampire said in what really sounded like agonizing pain.

Maleny looked around for some help and caught a glimpse of Marcel and Gia in the dining room, "Josh, wait here," she said but the vampire was in too much pain to hear. She made way for the dining room and became alert on the fact Josh wasn't the only one who seemed to be in pain. As she walked by, she could feel the vampires' eyes setting on her as...lunch.

"Okay, we have a problem!" she burst into the dining room and slid shut the doors in terrible fear.

"What?" Marcel barely had time to turn to the blonde when Gia fell under the same situation.

"Oh!" she doubled over.

"Gia!" Marcel went over to his friend, missing the wide eyes of Maleny behind them. Soon enough, Marcel doubled over as well and felt the tremendous hunger growing within.

Slowly, Maleny leaned off the doors, her breath hitching, "I think…" of course Finn had something to do with this sudden hunger they were feeling. She quickly opened the doors of the room, "Klaus!" she called frantically.

She hadn't needed to call so loud as he was already making way for the dining room, already seeing the problem at hand, "What the hell is going on?" he demanded as he reached the dining room, "Your vampires seem to think it's lunch-time!" he accused Marcel.

"It'a Finn, it's got to be," Maleny turned him to the courtyard where they saw all the other vampires feeling the same hunger while the wolves were in complete peace, "Do you realize the massive buffet they have…" she slowly hugged herself, "...including me...and Kol."

Klaus wasted no time in getting her away from the courtyard and into his bedroom where he shut the doors, "You're no longer allowed out of this room, love."

"For once I've got nothing against that," Maleny mumbled as he went for his phone sitting on his nightstand, "What are you doing?" she inquired when he began making a call.

"Getting us out of here," he pointed at her for a silent period before speaking into the phone - to Finn.

"Klaus! Willing to concede so soon?" Finn's sarcastic tone exclaimed through the other line.

Klaus rolled his eyes, "I merely seek to negotiate. You want our mother, I want out of this bloody compound. The economics of what comes next should be easy to grasp, even for you."

"You can't give him Esther," Maleny hissed, moving to take his phone away but of course was easily handled with one arm grabbing down her two hands.

"What I want, brother, is to exterminate the plague that is your kind," Finn was busy saying over the line, "What I want is to watch the flames flicker over your smoldering corpse-"

Klaus rolled his eyes at the tedious speech he was being forced to listen to. Even Maleny had stayed put when she caught some of the words being said.

"-What I want is to hear the silence once you finally stop screaming."

In the end, his impatience won the better of himself. Klaus made a static-y noise with his mouth, "I'm sorry, we must have a bad connection. Could you repeat everything you said after "What I want?"

"Oh, I'm so happy to hear that hunger hasn't yet sapped your humor," Finn had a good laugh, 'But, I should warn you, brother, if those vampires even attempt to feed, they'll find themselves ravenous. Unable to stop. So, every moment that you waste with me will only lead you to the inevitable carnage."

"Don't you dare do it," Maleny whispered to Klaus, while locked with his arm still more than ready to put up a fight, "Don't give him E-"

"Esther for our freedom. Do we have a deal?"

"Well, I think I know better than to trust your honesty. But, yes, if I find our mother unharmed, then I might consider granting your reprieve," was Finn's response.

"Saint Roc Number 1. The Delphine tomb," Klaus finally said and promptly hung up, also releasing Maleny from his grip.

"Are you kidding me!?" she erupted into angry shouts, "After everything we went to to put that demon woman down you'll just hand her over!? What in the hell are you thinking!?"

"Your safety if you haven't noticed," Klaus was genuinely surprised he'd managed not to shout back at her, "I'd like to prevent your demise and if that's the way to do it then so be it. Besides, when Finn sees what Esther probably chose she's not going to be escaping any time soon."

Maleny calmed down slightly but still had pursed lips and crossed arms, "I still think this could've been handled differently," she murmured and headed out for the doors when Klaus yanked her back.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I needed to get my mother's spell book for the others to see if there's anything that can help. C'mon, even you know that's a good idea."

"Doesn't mean I like it," Klaus muttered but in the end opened the doors himself, "Let's go - but you're staying upstairs afterwards."

"If nothing works, believe me, I'll be up here out of my own accord," Maleny promised him with a nervous smile.

~ 0 ~

Cami was quite ready to throw the board game out the window with each loss she endured. She read off one card to Elijah, "What three European countries begin with the letter "A?""

"Albania, Austria, Andorra," Elijah replied almost instantly.

Frustrated, she flung the card over her shoulder and read off the next one, "Agh! Okay, hey! Who was the only U.S. president to earn a Ph.D?"

Once again, Elijah answered within seconds, "The rather tedious Woodrow Wilson."

"Oh, c'mon!" Cami went for the next card, "Who rode secretariat to the triple crown in 1973?"

"Ron Turket."

Cami let the rest of the cards fall from her hands as she glared at the man, "No! I refuse to believe that you just happened to know that! You were supposed to let me win because I'm mad at you!" with her pointing she accidentally spilled Elijah's drink on the table and partly on his sleeve, "I'm sorry!" she panicked and handed him a towel to get himself cleaned up while she took care of the table, "Sorry, I didn't mean to. I'm just kind of competitive sometimes and you just know literally everything there is to know which is kind of annoying and…" she trailed off when she noticed Elijah's furious scrubbing over his sleeve, "Elijah? Are you okay? Hey, Elijah," she reached out for his hand but instead was harshly grabbed her wrist. Momentarily alarmed, she remained still.

"I'm not as fragile as the others have said," Elijah quietly said and let go of Cami's wrist.

"I...I didn't think that," she nervously said, slowly taking her seat again. Feeling awkward, she coughed and tried going through more of the cards that hadn't been ruined with her accident. Thankfully, Elijah's phone went off to interrupt them.

"Rebekah," he barely got to say when the woman on the other line began to speak. Cami could hear everything perfectly and so when Elijah hung up, apologizing to Angelica Barker, the Angelica, she was just as distressed as Elijah.

"We need to call Klaus," she announced seconds later, "Because if Angelica is still herself Rebekah is...who knows where…"

Agreeing with her, Elijah began dialing again, this time for Klaus.

~ 0 ~

The vampires were getting restless in the courtyard, having to resist the urge to drink blood from the wolves.

"Things are getting testy out there. Come on, we better move this along," Marcel told Kol and Maleny inside the dining room. Maleny had brought down her mother's spell book for Kol to analyze.

"Okay, so Finn's boundary is too strong. But, we can cast a destruction spell," Kol pointed to an excerpt in the book, "It would temporarily neutralize all magical objects in the compound, including the compound itself. If it works, well, then it will give us sixty seconds to escape whilst the boundary is shut down."

"Alright, alright, that sounds good to me," Marcel nodded and urged them to get started fast.

"Um, there is just one little flaw," Maleny regretted to inform, "If the spell works, it will suppress all magical objects in the vicinity. That means your rings."

Marcel groaned as he realized what it meant, "And if we go outside in the sun without our rings, we're dead."

"Unless you wait for nightfall," Klaus offered but it did not do much.

"Agh," Marcel looked back into the courtyard where the vampires were, "They're also new. They're not going to be able to fight the hunger. We can't wait until nightfall. We're going to have a bloodbath on our hands before we even get close."

"Then we're going to have to start now," Maleny looked at Kol, "Can we do it?"

"Yes, but we'll need some things from the Lycee. I figured since Finn is out looking for Esther Davina and Amarrah shouldn't have a problem retrieving them."

"Good, so go tell them," Maleny nodded for him to go outside.

"What?" Kol frowned at the idea. He was barely calm with Marcel in the same room and she wanted him to cross a courtyard full of hungry wolves?

"I'm not going out there alone," Maleny crossed her arms, "You go. And hurry up," grumbling, Kol took the spell book and went out, making a dash across the courtyard to tell the other witches what the plan was.

~ 0 ~

After putting away the Trivial Pursuit game, Cami found Elijah once again staring blankly out the window in the living room. Though still crossed with him, she didn't stop worrying over his mental health. Esther had really done a number with him after all. If only she knew what he was seeing within his mind.

"Elijah?" she called quietly and walked him, "Elijah, are you okay?" she only heard the sharp intake of breath as a response, "Hey, I know you're worried about Rebekah…" she reached to touch his shoulder but he whirled and swatted her hand away. Cami gasped as his faced vamped-out against her as if she were the enemy, "Elijah…?" her tremulous voice called to him but he started going for her, " Elijah? Elijah, please. Calm down," but her calls did nothing as he backed her up against a wall. She shut her eyes in terror, "Elijah, please calm down!" she knew she could put up some kind of fight but the man was an Original in the end and far more skilled to fight. Perhaps one attempt of hers for a kick and he pulled her heart out as an instinct.

After a couple seconds of nothing happening, she opened one eye and saw Elijah was no where to be seen. She released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and relaxed. She didn't know what to do next but in the end, Hope's cries upstairs called her attention. And needing it herself, Cami rushed to go attend to the infant instead.

~ 0 ~

The witches had gathered up their ingredients to begin the spell that would temporarily bring down the barrier for the wolves to escape from the compound. Behind them things were no better between vampires and werewolves. Fights were ensuing and blood was looming to be shed.

"We need to hurry," Maleny mumbled as she caught sight of even Cami's friend, Gia, getting into the fight. And though she was stopping a friend, she was looking more and more weary of the wolves.

"Okay, we're set," Amarrah announced and rose to her feet with Davina.

All four raised their hands in parallel to the others across the barrier. They began with the spell and seconds later a gust of wind came through and blew out candles they'd prepared. Kol was the first to try out the barrier, and upon seeing it was no more he called to the others, "It's time to go!"

Hayley had her wolves set for the escape and began urging them out, "Let's go! Now!"

Meanwhile, the vampires were glued to the dark corners of the compound, hiding out from the sunlight which would then burn them up.

"Remember, sixty seconds!" Maleny called for any last wolves still in the vicinity before she herself fleet to the other side.

Just as Kol was going to do the same, Klaus yanked him back to the courtyard. On falling down, Kol hit his head and earned a cut of blood.

"Slight change of plans, brother. I no longer have to treat you as anything but the treacherous liar that you truly are," Klaus blocked all ways for Kol to leave the compound.

"What are you doing?" Maleny frowned at this new brotherly antic she thought had just been formed.

"Rebekah is not in Angelica Barker's body because Kol didn't put her there," Klaus angrily explained while glaring at Kol, "Where is she?"

"Please! They'll kill him!" Davina pleaded, the sixty seconds almost up.

"Well, he should have thought about that before he betrayed our sister! Rebekah never made it to her new body, did she? And, seeing as you cast the spell and, well, you're you, I'd hardly call it an uncrackable case!"

"Are you kidding me?" Amarrah believed she would never understand what ran through the Mikaelsons' heads in regards to their siblings.

"Rebekah's fine, Nik!" Kol tried to assure, but his frustration and fear were getting the best of him, "It was a prank, nothing more than anything you lot have done to me, but I bet it's different when it's one of y... aah!" upon trying to cross the barrier he found it was back on.

"Oooh. Barrier's back up," Klaus smirked as the vampires started coming out of their dark corners, "And those vampires look oh-so hungry. Now, I was willing to welcome you back in my home! But you had to return to your petty, selfish jealousies! Well, let's see how well they help you survive when you're stuck in there!" he stormed off ready to go find Finn or Rebekah or whoever came first.

Davina was terrified as she saw the vampires getting closer to Kol, all overly hungry. Amarrah nudged Maleny from behind and whispered, "We can't really leave him there, he'll get killed."

Maleny deeply sighed, "Yeah, I know. C'mon, we need to go find Rebekah or another spell to get Kol out. Either way it's the only way to save his life."

~ 0 ~

Cami had set a restless Hope down in her playpen after a near hour of useless napping attempts. She'd placed a couple of her toys down for Hope as well then walked over to the empty crib to fix it up for when she hoped Hope would soon fall asleep later on. She was rather restless herself. Elijah was no where to be seen, Rebekah was apparently lost somewhere in a new body, Marcel and his vampires were still stuck at the compound going crazy with hunger and she was...babysitting. As much as she loved Hope she wished she could be actively helping in the Quarter.

Hope gurgled from her playpen and made Cami turn around, "Well…" the blonde considered out loud, "Stuck in a house with your innocent self isn't that bad either," she returned to the playpen and tickled Hope on the stomach, causing the baby to giggle, "Definitely not as bad," a couple more minutes passed by before she felt the presence of someone else in the house.

"I thought you left," Cami looked up from the playpen to see Elijah by the entrance.

"I owe you an apology," Elijah came forwards.

Cami shook her head, "I told you I don't need one-"

"Yes, you do," Elijah cut her off sharply, "My sister's missing, my family's in jeopardy, I am... uh, utterly powerless to help them. This is not a state of affairs I'm accustomed to."

"I can tell," Cami crossed her arms, "But, that's not what I needed and you know it."

"Yes, you'd like to know the reason of my sudden request," Elijah came up to the playpen, momentarily looking down to Hope who was more than interested in a teddy bear.

"I would," agreed Cami, "but I don't see it happening any moment. I get it. You're troubled and believe me I don't like seeing you like this."

"And I don't like seeing you scared of me," Elijah said back, leaving her startled.

"I...I w-wasn't-"

"Yes you were, and that is exactly the reason I didn't want you here."

It took a minute for Cami to understand everything but even then she wasn't very clear, "You're ridiculous, do you know that?"

"Am I?" Elijah did his best not to raise his voice for his niece, "It's no use to lie, Camille. I saw your face - you were terrified. And justly so. I didn't want you here because I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want you to see me like this. I am not the noble man you think I am - not the one anyone thinks I am."

Cami smiled a little, slowly understanding his reasons. She moved over to him and put her hands on his face, with thinking about it actually, "Hey, I like you because you're you. I'm not here for the noble stag title, I'm here because you're my friend and I want you to get better. I'm pretty sure everyone else thinks the same. And I get it, I get that you're dealing with things I have no idea about. But if you ever want to talk about it... It's kind of what I do, It can even be over a game of chess if you'd like. But fair warning, you will have to let me win that game or else…"

Elijah chuckled at her, taking her hands from his face and keeping them in his own, "I believe that sounds fair enough," Cami responded with her own laugh, hoping her blush wasn't too visible.

~ 0 ~

Amarrah and Davina were setting up runes of salt on St. Ann's church floor, right in front of the sacristy. The spell was meant to find the location of Finn for Klaus to finally get to.

"Do you guys get the feeling we're being watched?" Maleny came down the aisle from the entrance. She'd been looking out into the newest of festivals the Quarter was celebrating when she felt like there was someone watching her and preferred to go inside where it was a little more safe.

"I doubt it, Finn's too preoccupied blocking our spell," Amarrah huffed in annoyance as once again the spell failed.

"I must say, for a witch of your caliber, your spells are not particularly efficient," Klaus remarked to the French woman.

"Hey, I'm not used to going up against centuries old witches," Amarrah snapped, "We're doing our best."

"But it would help a lot if you would stop standing over us like a stalker," Davina added with a frown.

Maleny sighed and cut into the conversation, "Can we not do the fighting thing? It's a waste of time when we're all reaching for the same goal."

"Really?" Davina scoffed, "Because my goal is to get Kol out of the compound alive. Which seems to be about number ten on his list," she threw a glare towards Klaus who took it in with amusement.

"Number nine, at least!"

Maleny elbowed him for his childish remark, "Be quiet. She's not wrong - what you did with Kol was out of the question. But what he did to Rebekah was also out of the question. So, in other words, both of you," she pointed between the teen and the hybrid, "be quiet and get to work."

"Agreed," Amarrah held a hand for Davina, "Let's start."

Begrudgingly, Davina took the woman's hand and began chanting a spell together. As they chanted however, they began seeing visions of Finn doing his own spell.

"We saw glimpses of him," Amarrah gasped and looked at the others, "He's combining sacred objects. Totems. Representational magic."

"Where?" Klaus asked urgently.

The two witches returned to their spell in hopes of seeing more visions. Davina came to first and replied, "Lafayette No. 1. The Lyonne tomb."

"What exactly is he using for this spell?" Maleny dreaded to ask.

"He's channeling your parents!" Amarrah gasped in horror, "You people are sick."

Klaus hadn't taken it that way with his wide smile, "And here I thought I was the poster-child for least grateful offspring!"

"No time to be cocky," Maleny pointed at him, "With that kind of power under Finn's arm we're going to have some problems - bigger ones than the ones we already have."

"Then we need to get going," Klaus turned back for the entrance doors, but after taking a couple steps he abruptly froze.

"What is it now?" Davina rolled her eyes, unable to see his expressions from behind.

"Klaus…?" Maleny slowly said and turned to him just as he dropped to the floor, unconscious, "Oh my God! Davina!"

"Hey!" the teen scowled at the insinuation, "It wasn't me!"

Maleny frantically got to her knees and tried waking him up herself, "C'mon, wake up! Wake up, dammit!"

"This wasn't his choice, Mal," Amarrah forced the blonde to her feet.

"What are you talking about about?" Maleny shook her off.

"This has to be what Finn was doing with his spell, remember?"

Maleny blinked as it dawned her it was true. Just then her cellphone buzzed in her pocket and upon pulling it out she saw it was Cami, "Cami, I love you, but I don't have time-"

"Elijah collapsed and he's not waking up!" Cami exclaimed abruptly, "One moment we were talking and the next - bam! What do I do?"

"Elijah too? It's one of Finn's tricks, I'm afraid," Maleny ran a hand through her hair, "Listen, just...don't leave the house," and with that she hung up.

"So you have a plan?" Davina asked in high hopes. She realized if this was the case with all the brothers then Kol was left in the compound on his own with a bunch of hungry vampires.

"Hm?" Maleny blinked, "Oh I don't have a plan. I was kinda hoping the Harvest girl and the powerful French witch would have one," the three women looked at each other, completely lose on their next move.

~ 0 ~

Finn had built an elaborate form of prison for his brothers through the mind and was taking full advantage of it to get the information he needed. He did, however, release Kol simply to allow him to tell Marcel and his vampires what would happen at sundown - the barrier would come down and with the ravenous vampires being released into the festival blood would ensue.

"So," he proudly sat on a chair across Klaus and Elijah, "what shall we talk about while we wait for nightfall? Oh! I know! Let's talk about our parents."

Klaus rolled his eyes, "You know, I figured you wouldn't be kind to Mother, but imagine my surprise to learn that Mikael met the same fate! Bravo, brother."

"You see, the parent I was interested in talking about was your father. Your real one? I mean, you longed to know him your whole life, yet at the first opportunity, you murdered him! Why, I wonder?"

"Possibly the same reason you took out Esther. Severing parental ties has a way of freeing one up to recognize one's true potential."

"Quite," Finn agreed, "But, Esther was no fool. She pinpointed your wants, and knowing your true father was at the top of the list! No, something else occupies the top of your list of affections. And it's not your favorite city because I'm about to take that from you, using your own vampires, and I barely get a rise out of you! I thought maybe it was Rebekah, but you remain calm, even when the one who knows her fate probably just met his.

Elijah was making a round in the cabin pretending to be more interested in the decorations, "I am fighting the monumental urge to mount your severed head upon one of these walls…

Finn promptly ignored him and continued on, "I then thought it was your favorite brother, but Mother broke him into a thousand pieces, and rather than fix him, you left him to fend for himself God knows where. And Kol...well, he's not much of your devotion right now, right?" Finn shook his head but momentarily paused, smirking in that devious way the two brothers knew he had something else up his sleeve, "That really only leaves Kol and...Maleny?"

Klaus stalked over to the man on the chair, "She has nothing to do with this! Leave her alone!"

Finn sucked air between his teeth, "It's a bit late for that. See, my wolves are already acting on it."

"LEAVE HER!" Klaus momentarily forgot he couldn't even touch Finn and tried to grasp him from the neck.

Finn produced an aneurysm that forced Klaus to his knees, "I said she'd pay for this as well. That's the thing about her, she's almost a Mikaelson and with all the pain that comes with it. It's only a matter of time."

~ 0 ~

"Wake up!" it was now Davina who was trying to wake Klaus up...only her attempts consisted of hard slaps across the face, "C'mon! Wake up!"

Over at the altar sat Amarrah and Maleny on the small steps, both staring at the teen in resignation. There was nothing to do but wait for Finn to bring down the spell. However, as time ticked by and Kol's body remained at the compound - as the teen hadn't known that Kol had been returned - she grew more and more frustrated.

"Wake up!"

"Aren't you going to stop her?" Amarrah took her gaze off Davina to look at Maleny beside her.

Maleny had her chin resting on her palm and looked far too calm for someone whose practically boyfriend was being slapped by a teenage witch. The blonde hummed, "I figure this is a way for her to release anger. This way she wins, I don't lose either of them, and Klaus won't ever know about it."

Suddenly, the doors of the church opened with a blast and in came a swarm of Finn's wolves. Davina jumped to her feet at the same time Maleny and Amarrah got up.

"Maleny Rowan, we came to collect you," a middle aged woman, unlike the others a witch, stepped forwards.

"Good, no thank you," Maleny shook her head, "You can go now."

The woman rolled her eyes and glanced back to the wolves, "Well, you know what to do."

"Stay back!" Davina had pulled aneurysms on the looming wolves. Amarrah tried flinging others back but there was simply too many. Maleny quickly saw it would be tough to escape.

"Ah!" Amarrah gasped as she was yanked by one of the wolves.

"Amarrah!" Maleny tried going for her but then she heard Davina's gasp as well and turned to see the teen being held by another wolf.

The middle-aged witch stepped forwards once more, this time wearing a smirk as she probably knew what would happen, "Let's try this again, shall we? Maleny Rowan, we came to collect you. Will you go easily or will we have to tear the hearts out from your two lovely friends?"

"Don't go with them, Mal," Davina struggled to get free from her captive.

Maleny ran her hands through her hair as she questioned her best option. It was quite obvious and even she knew what she would have to decide for. With a shaky breath she stepped forwards, motioning she was coming in peace, "I go and you leave them alone?"

The witch gave a nod, "Of course. We've no interest in silly witches and certainly in an unconscious hybrid."

"Maleny, what are you doing!?" Amarrah angrily stopped fighting to glare at her friend.

"It's okay," Maleny assured, "When Klaus wakes up you'll tell him...and he'll know what to do," she lowered her hands and walked towards the group, "I'll go willingly."

The witch looked at the two wolves holding Amarrah and Davina captive, "Hold them until we're out of the building," she instructed and grabbed Maleny by the arm, "And know if you try anything we'll kill your friends on the spot."

"I won't," Maleny gritted her teeth and was pushed out for the doors.

Behind them Davina and Amarrah could only watch as Maleny willingly walked out with the wolves. They all correctly assumed she would come to rue the moment she walked out of the church.

~ 0 ~

"You should realize the trouble you're getting yourself into by doing this," Maleny warned in vain as she was pushed towards a car, now bound by the wrists.

The witch that had taken her, now identified as Ela, snapped her fingers for one of the wolves. She was handed some gray duct tape.

Maleny frowned at what was coming, "Seriously?" she momentarily stopped walking to turn to her but was pushed into a walk by a wolf behind, "You already have my voluntary kidnapping."

"Precautions," Ela plainly said and stopped by the car, opening up the door to the backseat. She pulled on the tape and cut it with her teeth, "Wouldn't want you shouting out to people you're kidnapped. Especially when there's a silly festival going on."

"You get that thing away from me," Maleny backtracked and hit a wolf behind, "No!"

Ela stepped forwards as the wolf behind Maleny grabbed her arms and kept her locked for Ela to place the tape over Maleny's mouth. Maleny now openly struggled against the two and went as far as putting her feet up on the side of the car so as to not be forced inside. In the end however, the wolves overpowered her easily and stuffed her inside. Ela rolled her eyes at the fiasco and got in after the blonde.

"Hurry up," she told the driver, another of the wolves, "Yamilet holds the corpse deep in the bayou."

"Yes," the driver nodded and started the car.

"And I wouldn't think about plotting an escape from the bayou," Ela warned Maleny with a smirk, "Finn has made sure it's very deep. It'll take you at least two days to get to the roadside," Maleny visibly swallowed hard and of course remained still. Content, Ela looked ahead as the car was finally driving off.

Maleny thought about the chances of her making an escape on her own. But there were wolves involved with their supernatural strength and she didn't feel like being mauled to the point of losing a limb. With no options, she had to sit there and let time pass as they headed to God knows where. The moon was up high and bright when the car finally came to a stop, and Maleny felt even more nervous when she realized they were actually very deep in the bayou - as Ela promised.

"Where the hell are we?" she whispered her demand as soon as Ela yanked the tape off her.

Ela got out the car and Maleny was escorted out on her side. The two wolves held her tightly around the arms and faced her in the direction of a cabin.

There was a young man standing by the threshold of the cabin, apparently waiting for them. Ela walked up to him, her eyes making a clear observation of the quietness in the area.

"Is it done?" she asked.

"Yes, just like Vincent, ordered," a young man replied. "She's down."

Ela looked back as Maleny was brought forwards. The blonde was nervously looking around, "What are we doing here? I don't get it..."

The smirk that broke across Ela's lips made Maleny fear there was a horrible punishment on the other side of the cabin door. With a motion of her fingers, the wolves half-dragged Maleny towards the cabin.

"We should get started, then," Ela declared as she entered first.

As soon as Maleny was brought in - and forced to her feet - she could see on a metal table her previous corpse, in perfect condition. Immediately she started shaking her head and trying to back away in horror as she assumed what was going to happen. She whimpered and threw her feet up in attempts to make it harder for the wolves to drag her closer.

"NO! NO! Please don't! Anything but this! PLEASE!"

Ela was clearly satisfied by the reaction and gave a small chuckle, "This is exactly what Finn said he hoped to hear from you."

"Please! Don't make go back to that!" Maleny was near to tears as the wolves forced her onto the table beside the one with her corpse, "I'm begging you! Not the curse! Not the curse!"

"Benson," Ela called and the young man that received them walked over, "Bring her in," she ordered.

With a nod of his head, Benson went into another room of the cabin. In the meantime, Ela walked up to the table Maleny was on and smirked.

"Are you ready little witch?"

Maleny was busy screaming her head off and budging against the ropes binding her to the table, "NO! NO! STOP! NOT THIS! I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK!" The tears fell like rain pouring from the sky. Maleny knew that this time Klaus would not be coming to save her - no one was.

Finn would have his way; he would make her pay in the worst way possible.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Suits: Prisoner's Dilemma (9x08)

I guess I'm just feeling antsy for this show to end, so I can spend some more time with Mike in the final two episodes. This episode should have been great, what with returning villains and allies from the past, and a connection to Mike's prison story-line, but something about it didn't totally click into place for me. It was good, not great.

Cons:

This episode is called "Prisoner's Dilemma," and that references the way that Malik pits Cahill and Harvey against each other. Harvey stays loyal, but Cahill flips. But then Harvey finds a piece of information, with Donna's help, and the two men are able to leverage Malik and both get away free. There are a few things that annoy me here - the first is that Cahill has every right to save his own ass in this situation. Harvey is all about loyalty or whatever, but Cahill isn't one of his people. He has manipulated and pressured Cahill over and over again. Sure, he was doing it for Mike, and so as a viewer of this show, I'm on Harvey's side. But Cahill feeling guilty, Cahill trying to help Harvey however he can... none of that really makes a lot of sense to me in the context of their characters. I guess the idea is that they've been through a lot together, but even that doesn't really justify the pseudo-friendship they're trying to show here.

I did not at all hate the subplot with Esther. There were many good things about it. I'm always a fan of TV shows shedding light on the real issues that women face when it comes to sexual assault and coming forward about their experiences. I will say, though, it felt a little shoe-horned in, especially at this late stage - this entire subplot could have been lifted and put anywhere in the season, and it could have remained the same. With just two episodes left after this one, why was this how Louis, Katrina, and Samantha all spent the episode? On a more specific note, I found it odd that Louis was motivated by this experience to want to marry Sheila before the baby comes. How are these two stories connected, other than by "family is important"? I feel like this is just an excuse to have a wedding in the finale.

Pros:

As I said, I enjoyed the subplot with Esther. Stories like this are always going to have the veneer of "very special episodes" in the sense that they're clearly making a clear-cut moral stand and are there to teach a lesson and make a point. And honestly? Good. I'm not going to complain about the black and white nature of a story about a man who has sexually assaulted multiple women throughout his career and has gotten away with it by paying them off and gas-lighting. It's good to see a character like that portrayed as uniformly the bad guy. It's good that the episode points out how common this sort of thing is, and explains the reasons why women often don't want to come forward. And it's good that Esther gets that cathartic moment of confrontation, and the bad guy loses. Unfortunately, no matter how much times are changing, things don't often go well for accusers. I'm really okay with seeing an uncomplicated moral and practical victory for a woman who really deserves it.

In terms of the story's impact on our core cast of characters, I like that this was an example of Louis getting fired up and making a mistake, as he often does, but then recognizing that he was wrong, listening to women (not only his sister, but Samantha and Katrina too) and then working to put it right. It was nice that Esther thanked Louis for helping her at the end, but I like that the victory belonged to Esther alone. She's the one who got to put the smack-down on her former boss and attacker. And Samantha and Katrina got to assist.

In the main plot, it was nice to see some of Harvey's old decisions nearly come back to bite him. We got to see Charles Forstman behind bars, which was satisfying, we got to see Harvey take down Malik one final time. We got to see how the things that Harvey did to save Mike had their own consequences. It was almost a cleaning of the slate as we get ready to go in for these final two episodes, with Faye as our last big bad. Part of my frustration here is that it seemed kind of pointless, since we see Harvey get arrested, but he immediately figures out a way to beat Malik so it doesn't go anywhere. That said, I would probably have been more frustrated if the final two episodes were suddenly Harvey vs. Malik, when all season we've been building up Faye. So ultimately I think this episode was a good chance to bring back some familiar faces just before we step in to the final two.

The Mike stuff here was pretty great - Harvey insists again and again that everything he did with regards to the prison plot, he'd do again. It doesn't matter to him what the outcome was, he did what he did to get Mike out of danger, and that's the bottom line. I like that he describes Mike as someone who's never hurt anybody. The point is clear. In comparison with Frank Gallo, Mike is a harmless person. But it just goes to show Harvey's blind spot. Mike is far from innocent, and whether they want to admit it or not, their years of fraud did hurt a lot of people.

As the episode ends, we see Donna giving Harvey some bad news - his mother died. What are the odds that Donna is the one to break the news about both of Harvey's parents dying over the years? Poor thing. Poor both of them. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. It came in at the final moment of the episode, so I'll have to see how this is integrated as the show ends. As it is, I certainly feel very bad for Harvey.

And that's that! We've got just two weeks left before we say goodbye for good, and I do believe we've also just had our last Mike Ross-less episode of Suits! That's something to celebrate indeed!

7/10

[gwynne-fics]

jeonjuns replied to your post “Stolen throne, Rachel&Youngdo, 91”

Aww young and innocent love��

\o/ I wanted them to get some soft, cute moments before things get angsty and hard. I’m glad you enjoyed it! =^_^=

wei50-blog replied to your post “Stolen throne, Rachel&Youngdo, 91”

Aw, our couple is getting closer to each other, already head over heels! Love watching them spend time together! Young-Do jumps at the chance to be together with Rachel on a ‘date,’ just spending normal time together. Such an intimate scene between the two when she is dressing! Can see the longing that pulls at them. They have wanted to be each others’ for so long. Foresee difficult times ahead because of circumstances.

Cuties being cute! Their foundation needs to be strong :D

Like that Young-Do doesn’t push, he lets Rachel make the decision to ask him for a ‘date,’ to accept this gift to ‘his woman.’ Young-Do smart to build trust with her, by providing information that others are not. There must be some way she verifies the reports he brings to her are accurate? Rachel already starting to step away from her mother’s influence in her own way because she is not satisfied with her mother’s timing of transitioning to/ transferring of power.

So another resource Rachel has right now, that isn’t in the forefront of these pieces is Bo-Na. Bo-Na is very adept at getting information, slipping in and out of place unnoticed, and verifying things for Rachel. So while Rachel is a blushing cutie around Young-Do, she is trying to be careful.

Rachel is also questioning her mother why the reports seem to be lacking information. She points out the holes and asks that they be filled. She is coming at this from as many directions as possible.

Esther does not see that her daughter is more ready than she thinks she is and has miscalculated a bit, even though she does have good intentions. Mistake was limiting her, in information, in restricting her access, and trying to censor her thoughts. Erodes Rachel’s trust in her mother. She is chafing under Esther’s control.

>.>

Myung-Soo, out of his love and concern for him, is right to warn Young-Do. (does know him well!) He doesn’t quite understand like Nam-Il does, that Young-Do is too far gone already to pull back. Not obsessed, but Young-Do has been working for this time with Rachel, to have this place in her life for too long, 3 years? He has invested too much to back down now.

Myung-Soo is a little confused, because he’s been working on this project with Young-Do. Their family kind of built it together. He thinks it’s just to be able to buy and sell information that will put them in a good place just in case they can’t assimilate into the current court. Young-Do is letting his feelings leak out and Myung-Soo is worried. (But he will support Young-Do once he finds out. He misses his little sister, too. He has good feelings towards Rachel but he think she doesn’t remember them.)

Love how Nam-Il has the trust of Young-Do. His father gives him the information, the truths he needs, but also knows he can’t stop his son. He gives everything he can so Young-Do can protect himself as best he can, and even actively protects his son! So purpose of introducing Young-Do (assuming Myung-Soo too) to the court? Just to start giving them a place in society? Give them a chance to inherit, to have a name?

It will allow them to stabilize their family a bit and inherit both land and title. Having those will go a long way to legitimizing Young-Do’s place closer to Rachel.

Nam-Il knows his sons well. Young-Do will not like sharing Rachel with anyone else, even if she has a consort. Likely Rachel will not want to either? Hm, she has said as Queen, she will be able to do what she wants, and she has already demanded her consort be a virgin, and that she will wait as long as it takes, even if she becomes queen before finding one. (and a commoner is ok!) Is Young-Do even a choice given who he is? Oh, please, a happy ending for our couple!!!

Rachel is going to try her hardest to make Young-Do a viable consort but she’s going to have a lot of opposition. Hyo-Shin really is going to be the next best thing.

Not sure if like Lee Hyo-Shin as a consort? Because he would do it from a sense of repayment. Like the idea of a partner, someone who contributes and adds to Rachel, versus someone who is with her because he owes her, even if there is affection for her. Rachel did seem to be ok with the fact that Hyo-Shin was likely not a virgin? She does have Esther’s example, and her facts of life training, so will have to see if Rachel herself will be with anyone before being married!

A lot of those reasons you listed are Esther’s reasons that Rachel has had to parrot to protect herself. Rachel views Hyo-Shin as her friend. She’s visited him a few times over the years while he’s been in exile and while he is grateful she saved his life, he has been one of the few people to be honest when giving advice.

Rachel wants a consort who will think of her first, that’s why she made the virgin requirement (also because she believed Young-Do when he said he was a virgin because he felt loyal to her). Hyo-Shin might be capable of that and he’s been nice to her. Never underestimate the power of being nice to a young queen >.>

Bodyguard was Bo-Na? Guessing that she has not caught Rachel and Young-Do together before today? Or maybe she does know, but had not said anything before because the couple had remained inside? Wow, is Myung-Soo right about Kyung-Ran? Can see how she could turn to bitterness given the circumstances, but to go as far as to kill her son?

Bodyguard was Bo-Na! Who knows Something Is Up with her princess and she is protecting her secret but quietly flipping out when she realized Rachel had snuck out without her.

So Kyung-Ran had something of a mental break after being deposed. She is not well and she goes into rages where she throws things and sometimes hurts herself and others. Young-Do is the one who tries to calm her down and he’s been hurt a few times for it. Myung-Soo is worried this will throw her into a rage she will no safely come out of. If I ever get that far, Rachel will learn of Kyung-Ran’s illness and try to help.

[sinetheta]

Conversation with Sad Asian Girls (formerly Esther Fan & Olivia Park)

As Fan and Park, known collectively as Sad Asian Girls, announced the dissolution of their partnership about two months ago, we decided to post the interview that Sine Theta magazine’s art director Elisabeth Siegel conducted with the duo last November in full as a fun retrospective and tribute to their amazing work. The interview is available in print form in Sine Theta Issue 3: “LIGHT 阴.” We at Sine Theta are excited for what’s to come for Fan and Park!

Esther Fan and Olivia Park, current seniors at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the U.S., founded Sad Asian Girls (SAG) as a duo, in order to carve out a creative space for Asian femmes, and to encourage them to create content and break out of the stereotypical mold prescribed by other non-Asians or non-femmes.

I met Esther and Olivia in person for the first time deep in Yale’s underground library, where they gave a casual graphic design workshop. While at Yale, they also participated in a conversation about being Asian femme creators at the Asian American Cultural Center (AACC). The way they shared their expertise along with the constructive criticism they gave attendees was reminiscent of the SAG brand and style: they’d package their thoughts into seemingly simplistic bundles or iconography, yet the underlying messages contained within were fresh, completely accessible, and totally effective.

I had the chance to chat with them over Skype and pick their brain about Asian femme identity, as well as their current and future plans as a collective.

Elisabeth Siegel: So just to start out, how did you two meet? How did SAG get started?

Olivia Park: We met essentially through classes, and then while working together on non-SAG related projects, we noticed similarities regarding our identities, and through that we decided to make work related to the Asian femme experience.

Esther Fan: We both realized that we both seemed to be the few students in our department interested in social issues or making work about it, and also the first time we collaborated it was about millennial culture, and then we moved on to things more specific to ourselves.

ES: So, the “Asian femme experience” — could you talk more about what you define that as, and what you find unique to the Asian femme identity versus Asians in general?

EF: I think at the moment there is a lot of talk about feminism and the various experiences that women have in a mostly male dominated society. Once you add Asian to that label, the experience is narrowed down, yet the experience is still so common.

OP: One thing that is unique is invisibility of Asian presence, especially in media, and healthcare in general, specifically mental health awareness — almost everything. We’re kind of just not regarded. On the one hand, I understand, because we’re only 5% or 6% of the population [in America], but we still are part of the population, and we’re the fastest growing, so America just really needs to be aware at this point.

EF: I think the experience of an Asian femme is so specific because the expectations put on women in Asian culture is quite different from the western expectations of women. It’s still similar in the fact that we need to be secondary to men and things like that, and also it depends on each family. But for us, both of our parents were or are still Christian and conservative, and the kind of things that they try to teach us in how to be a perfect woman and be the perfect “wife-y package” contributed a lot to us trying to tell our stories about Asian femmes.

ES: I definitely know what you mean. When it comes to western versus eastern as a binary — even though I think calling it an absolute binary can be quite harmful — in general, the experience for women is very different.

As you know, Sine Theta is specifically by and for those experiencing the Sino diaspora. How does the more unique experience of being part of a diaspora shaped or informed your art, on an individual level or in your collaborated projects?

OP: There are so many moments where we have identity crises. It just becomes more and more important to find something to hold onto and identify with, and so things like food become a cultural recognition and almost an awakening, and conversations happen through those moments. The “Have You Eaten?” video was a lot about the conversations we would have [with our families], and a way to have that initiated was by eating the food of our motherland.

ES: I wanted to ask you guys about specifically the name “Sad Asian Girls.” I get the asian girls part, that’s pretty obvious. I was wondering if you could talk about the inspiration behind “sad” and why you settled on SAG.

EF: It really started off just as having to think of a name really quickly so we could make a YouTube account to upload the [“Have You Eaten?”] video. It was a parody of the “sad girls club” that happens on Tumblr, and it seemed natural. Over time, when we gained a following, it started to take on a meaning of its own. In a later video, we mentioned that the term “Sad” could refer to the frustrations of having to live with both our parents’ cultures and western cultures, and the type of identity crisis that usually comes with that. Now, we just kind of kept the term sad and Asian, for consistency, and it’s kind of created an identity of its own.

ES: What sort of identity would that be? Also, as for the “identity crisis,” do you think sadness is a part of what causes the crisis, or a result of it?

EF: Maybe both, but probably more so a result of it. We’re born into having to juggle between two different identities. I think when people hear SAG, it sounds something they can resonate with, usually more ironically than seriously.

OP: I also think the name has done a lot for us. You almost immediately get an idea of what we’re about. If we were called the “Asian Student Art Collective” that might just sound like we’re trying to foster a community of neutral art that could be even purely aesthetic. But SAG says something that signals oppression, something that signals hurt, and I think that’s where the root of our work comes from. It’s from the hurt. At the same time, if you look at our work, it’s about being proactive and storing that sadness into something positive.

ES: Sometimes within activism against oppression, it can be difficult to maintain a certain level of sadness or anger, because it gets tiring...I’ve experienced this in some activist circles, that as you move forward it can be harder and harder to maintain emotional momentum.

OP: So you’re asking, how do we feel motivated to do things despite sadness?

ES: That’s definitely part of it. And with “Sad” in your name, how is “sadness” maintained in your art? Does that ever get tiring?

OP: I think also that our visuals matter a lot. If we were to use a grungy filter with blue and green it might appear to be a little more soft, mellow, kind of like “Flickr-artsy.” But we intentionally use high contrast. We blow up our typography, we use bold reds. Our site is like 255 RGB red. We always use 255 because that’s the brightest red the computer’s got so we’re going to use it. We also changed our typeface to Noto, which is Google’s free typeface that can be translated into every language. These are all very intentional design choices that we’ve made and it’s loud and it’s clear and it’s sad. Some people have said that our visual language comes off as more angry than sad, but anger to me is a more intensified form of sadness. Anger is what results when you experience sadness with no resolution. I think it’s fitting.

EF: The thing is, being a marginalized group, and this goes for any marginalized group, things aren’t ever wholly resolved. We can make progress little by little, but there is always going to be something else that is making us “sad.” In terms of a resolution for sadness, simply use that sadness as a tool or a motivation for making, a fuel for making activist art. It sounds kind of pessimistic, but without sadness and without frustration and things like that, there wouldn’t be powerful art. The strongest pieces that work come from hardships. So to answer your question as best as I can, every project that we make is based on an existing issue in the world that makes us “sad.”

ES: This issue’s theme is “Light,” and we’re going with that as also talking about the Chinese concepts yin and yang, and the tons of meaning imbued in both yin and yang. Yin has various meanings, but some of the ones that we’re looking at also have to do with femininity, as well as passivity. You mentioned “Sad Asian Girls” was an ironic title you were giving yourselves — how do you go about subverting that title within self-application?

OP: First of all, I think no matter what people are going to interpret it wrong. Some people will. So it’s all about clarity. After repeating ourselves so many times in interviews, we only solidified our stance. At first, I don’t think we explained it well enough or enforced the idea. It’s good to start out strong and confidently and go with that and stand up for it, instead of starting weak and having to explain yourself and have to apologize over and over again, going back to changing your idea or your message. Know what you’re doing. Make it strong, make it unapologetic.

EF: I think transparency is also important. Most people who start out activist work are really excited or really angry and they want to make their content as fast as they can, sometimes without thinking how that’s going to happen or how that’s going to be successful. And I think that’s okay, you need to keep that fire going, but if you do make a mistake or decide that you want to go in a different direction, that has to be clear in your work too, and so that’s why in our presentations and things we’ve kind of discussed our successes and our failures, and why we took a break, things like that. Somebody in my class last night was talking about how a lot of the time when people want to be activists or go to protests or do something, they are really excited and they do too much and they go overboard and there ends up being consequences or it fails or their project doesn’t work, and then that discourages them from doing anything else ever again. But I think after you’re excited it’s important to step back and really think critically about how you’re going to move forward and how to make whatever impact you make last and not be impulsive.

ES: To step back and look more at SAG’s presence as a collective — your site in November said you were in the process of re-branding. What is that process like?

OP: Mostly using accessible typefaces, things that people can get for free. We were using Futura before, and a lot of that typeface some people won’t have, so we thought that everybody should be able to mimic Sad Asian Girls’ vernacular. So we’re basically making it easier for people to copy us and to share the same visuals.

EF: Also making it more legible. We cut down on a lot of text on the website and different sections where everything was displayed out on one page.

OP: We don’t want to look like you have to be an angry tattooed girl.

EF: And that’s why we added that dinky little sad face. It’s a cheeky way of holding onto the sad sentiment but in a way that is still bold. It implies that there’s more that you can do with it. [Rebranding] is more about making projects in the future with the same language. I think once we generate more content with the visual language as the same as our website, with our new logo, the new brand will be more solidified.

ES: What has been your favorite work that you worked on together for SAG?

OP: It’s definitely the next project. We always get super excited about the next project, because every time, we improve. Every project gives us more experience on what we like and what we don’t like, and how to work better or narrow down our process, or things like that. It’s kind of like how your favorite song is the last song you’ve heard.

EF: Nice analogy. Wow.

ES: You guys probably don’t want to spoil what it’s going to be…

OP: It’s probably going to be about the lack of visibility in galleries, which are white spaces. It’s a commentary more specific to the art field and scene. Since we’re both graphic designers and we’re both graduating soon, it’s kind of expected that we immerse into that field. Just seeing the lack of example, and also lack of invitation of femme identities makes us worried or concerned and so we’re kind of making a statement about that.

EF: Being in art school you definitely learn a lot about the art world, and how it’s programmed to benefit white male artists. Our entire curriculum is based on white male artists. The few times that there are female artists, it’s almost in a tokenizing way. Like how the Guerilla Girls did their thing about more women in museums, and last weekend we went to the MOMA just to look around, and they were selling Guerilla Girls’ merch for profit, but we aren’t seeing any more women in museums. Their work was there just for show, basically. I think this upcoming project focuses more on actually trying to inject the Asian femme identity into these faces that are mostly predominantly white, male and old.

ES: Right! One of the topics that I heard come out of the discussion at the Asian American Cultural Center while you were at Yale was the room full of silence whenever an artist makes a work concerning race. Could you elaborate on that?

EF: We talked about how another group in our school, called Black Artists and Designers, made a project called the Room of Silence, which is what happens when a student of color decides to make a project about their race, and the different dynamics that come with that. The room full of silence occurs because nobody else who isn’t a person of color knows how to critique it, out of fear of seeming racist or they’re just indifferent, or they just don’t think it applies to them.

OP: This was a video of several interviews of mostly black students, there was asian and latinx students in their too.

EF: It kind of went viral in our school, and some professors showed it to their students. Our professor showed it to us, and I feel like it was again just to show that they know that it exists, and to show that “I’m not like other professors.” They also attempted to have a conversation and at Yale we also talked about how when our class was shown the video, nobody still knew how to talk about it. Some people were falling asleep, some people didn’t watch the whole thing, and the professor said, “Are we done talking about it? Do you want to move on? Okay…,” and then Olivia got mad about it, and she said, “No, I think you need to force the students to talk about it. It’s such an important thing that’s happening in our school, and you can’t brush it off like a snazzy project.”

OP: And even Esther added on to that conversation, but that was kind of the end, though.

EF: The last thing I said about that was that I called out one white male student in our class who consistently makes average work, but the professors would always be into it, because his being a white male makes it seem like his work is conceptual and more than it really is. Other students whose English isn’t that great, or who have accents, the professors tend to skip over them because they subconsciously feel like people who have accents are less intelligent, and that’s what I talked about. Even though that video happened, and we also had a protest last year, the school has kind of gone back to the way it was, it kind of seen as those students of color just being angry again.

OP: I think that people do want to make change, but it’s an institution after all, and for an institution to work well while pleasing everyone that is in power right now, there’s not much change that can be done, except for maybe cultural attitudes. That’s what activists and artists are doing right now, to give a voice to who we are and what we want versus what is actually happening.

ES: Could each of you talk about what your favorite thing is when working with the other person?

OP: That’s a good question. Why don’t you go first? [Laughs.]

EF: There’s a lot of things I love, there’s a lot of things I hate. Let’s do that thing from Kindergarten where you say two compliments and one criticism. When we work together, we generate ideas in conversations at the same time, but usually Olivia comes up with better ideas for execution, or places we can go, or like forms that we can use. And then I’m the person who’s doing the tweaks and how to make things say something more clearly. I’m really picky about language, like I need every sentence to say exactly what it needs to say. But I think that’s fine. I think we make a good pair in that sense, where I have things I want to talk about, and sometimes I introduce them to Olivia, and then we sit down and we discuss ideas. We have really different aesthetic tastes, and sometimes we argue over that—

OP: And that’s over stupid stuff, like over whether to make one thing twenty percent desaturated or not. We will fight for a day and I’ll be like, Okay, I don’t really care about this project anyway. And I’ll be super petty. So I think [Esther] summed it up pretty well, like I’ll come up with a weird idea, and Esther will come up with how to make it more practical, more economical. So I guess Esther really puts it together.

EF: Awww.

OP: I also spend so much fucking time on the internet that I feel like a lot of things that come up in Internet culture or social media, the different things that people talk about I like to inject in our projects sometimes.

ES: As seniors are your plans for graduation, post-graduation? Do you plan on still working together as a collective?

OP: I think that’s a really good question actually. I think we both know that we can’t undo being activist-artists anymore. At first, I really cared about food packaging or whatnot, and I couldn’t give less of a shit right now. So I think we’ll be working closely with the Asian community no matter what we do, or where we end up.

EF: Because we don’t know where we’re going to end up, as in we’re probably going to be in different states or different countries, even if we aren’t able to continue managing this Sad Asian label, I think we still will continue to make work that is relevant to our identities, or at least some type of activist work. When I’ve said this to other friends, that Sad Asian Girls probably isn’t going to be forever, they saw it as this tragic thing. But people don’t need a snazzy name to make activist work. And I think what we’ve been doing so far is encouraging other Asian femmes to continue making work, knowing that we might not continue doing it together. Ideally, people will still make work and not really need a group like us to do it.

OP: What’s more important is that young people — we’re millennials, but what about gen z? — need to get it together and make work and that’s what we’re trying to do, have some type of presence so that they know it’s an option to make work, and that’s important to me. It’s also so easy. Executing a project or thinking up ideas is so simple, and I feel like based on what I’ve read about your generation, you guys are so much more active, and you guys care so much more about social issues than previous generations, and that kind of excites me, because I wonder where you guys are going to go with that. Hopefully it’s not the new high school phase, hopefully you all bring that to college with you.

EF: You’re born on the internet. Everyone’s on the internet, so you have a bigger audience. It’s better for you. You can get your stuff out. That’s why design matters more and more. You can only get more publicity and more circulation if you have a strong voice and what you say matters to a lot of people.

ES: I’ve noticed very recently [during November] on your Instagram there’s been a lot of posts styled after what you’ve just talked about. What was that project?

OP: We went to New York a couple days ago, and there was an event called “Scamming the Patriarchy,” at the New Museum, and a ton of small art collectives got together and made art installations and also talks. Our assignment was to do some kind of instagram takeover, so we posted one video on the main museum page, and on our Instagram we got submissions from femme creatives in general to send encouraging words to other femmes. We got 90 submissions or so, and we had a lot of positive feedback.

EF: That project again came from an issue that has frustrated a lot of marginalized groups in America. We planned that project as a result of the election. During that time, what people really wanted to hear was not more facts about Trump. They wanted to hear from other people, who were in similar situations, about how to move forward, and also how to take care of yourself and where we can look to at this time. Having so many statements and just bombarding everybody who follows us with those posts also had an effect.

ES: In the same style as the Instagram posts, what sort of advice would you give to other sad Asian femmes right now?

OP: If you have a good idea, try to find the people that would love your idea, and do something with them. Even if it’s just one random small thing that you don’t even know will make a difference, if it reaches out to at least one person, I think it’s so worth it. Just make work, and generate content, and think about the way that you’re going to publish it. The web is an amazing place, and you should take advantage of it.

EF: I probably have less of a place to say anything [post-election], because I’m Canadian, but I do think that in times of turmoil, or in the event of tragic occurrences, it is important to grieve and process what is happening and be around people if that’s what you need (or be alone if that’s what you need). But also keep in mind that staying in that state of depression, not that it doesn’t change anything, but it also will hurt you in the long run. While it is trying to process things and maybe isolate yourself, I think self-care also includes doing something about it, or expressing your thoughts in a productive way that other people can resonate with. And creating community is a really crucial part of self-care.

OP: You are not alone! Don’t forget that. •

Interview & Illustrations by Elisabeth Siegel

sinθ is an international print-based creative arts magazine made by and for the sino diaspora. Values include creative expression, connection, and empowerment. Find out more here. 

Follow our Sino arts blog for daily posts featuring Sino creatives and their works.

Issue 5 will be released in August 2017.

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[med20]

CANNES, FRANCE—As Lions Health wrapped up another year, attendees sifted their notes and pulled out a few common threads. Technology, for one, but not just for the sake of using a shiny new tool. Or as one Sanofi exec put it, "Technology in the service of creativity."

Marketing for good was another: aka, applying sharp communications brains to thorny public health problems. And then there were what Leigh Householder of Syneos Health called "secret messages," exemplified in one campaign using crossword puzzle clues to spread the word about elder abuse in a way abusive family members might not catch—but their puzzling seniors would.

Overall? It's a big world out there, but while appealing to global markets is key for pharma success, sometimes scaling up a creative local campaign is the way to really reach consumers and their doctors. Read on for more.

Tuesday

Doctors aren't robots. Forget the charts and graphs, sales reps. Lead with your heart instead. That’s the message from Attila Cansun, a chief marketing officer at the newly rebranded P&G Health. Adapting a consumer marketing framework dubbed LoveBrands, Cansun and his team use a similar evaluation-and-revamp for the company’s doctor relationships. Story

The trust tour. GW Pharmaceuticals' strategy for promoting its new cannabinoid drug Epidiolex to doctors sounded simple—earn their trust. But that's easier said than done, no thanks to Kim Kardashian and her CBD-themed baby shower. So the company decided to take physicians to the source, namely its massive marijuana greenhouse, and show them cannabis-derived drugs are the real deal. Story

Get out the tissues. In the U.S., when seasonal sneezes come on, there’s no mystery about what to do next: Go to the drugstore for allergy medication. But what if that decision weren’t automatic? For Sanofi, as it launched its drug Allegra over the counter in Brazil, the answer was a mobile, augmented-reality campaign that could outfit users with red noses and watery eyes, similar to a Snapchat filter. It even animated sneezes, complete with droplets on the phone screen. Story

Hemophilia, humor and a hipster host. A reality show about hemophilia? And it's a comedy? That would be Roche’s Genentech and ad agency 21 Gram’s new YouTube series called “Challenge Accepted.” Each 15-minute episode of the show, which premiered last week, features a different patient, coach and lesson targeting boys and young men with hemophilia. And it gets that lesson across using humor—and some magic tricks. Story

Monday

Big winner. It’s been a long three years since a pharma jury here handed out Grand Prix honors. But Monday night, GlaxoSmithKline and its ad agency McCann Health broke through with a mobile app called Breath of Life, used to detect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in older adults in China. Eli Lilly, ViiV and Merck were among the other pharma winners. Story

No-ad advertising. Marketers need to think big. Like saving-the-world big. That’s the advice McCann Health’s global chief creative officer, Matt Eastwood, offered up to kick off the Cannes Lions Health confab Monday. And what that means to Eastwood is advertising that “may not look like advertising,” he said. “It’s advertising while doing good.” Story

New light on MS. Multiple sclerosis symptoms can be confusing: They differ person to person and even day to day for the same patients. Roche's Floodlight Open app aims to clear that confusion for individuals by gathering personal health data every day and delivering real-world evidence for broader understanding of the disease. Story

Procter & Gamble showed up for Cannes Lions Health—and no wonder. The consumer packaged goods giant recently bought Merck KGaA’s consumer health division and rebranded it as P&G Health. Now, with teams of brand managers and concept demos on display here, it's serving notice—at least to consumer healthcare companies—that it’s in play. Story

Sunday

Shorted shortlist? The Pharma Lions shortlist for 2019 lives up to its name. Just 31 entries cleared the finalist bar this year, down from 53 last year. But it’s still good news for the 12 multinational pharmas in the running—and for the pharma marketers looking to eye the industry’s best at Monday night’s awards. Story

Breakout scouts. As Cannes Lions Health kicked off its sixth year Monday, attendees were looking for some breakouts. As in breakthrough technology, creativity that breaks barriers, groundbreaking global ideas and a chance to finally break with the backhanded compliment that Lions Health work is “good for pharma.” Story

Escaping the same-same. Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s roster of literal A-list clients—Audi, Absolut and AstraZeneca—earns it center stage at Lions Health with a consumer-to-pharma creative crossover pitch. Hint? Brand differentiation is job one, and to do that, drugmakers need to pull cliché imagery out by the root. Story

Heard around the Palais

Winning outside the pharma and healthcare box. Johnson & Johnson and partners picked up the Grand Prix for Entertainment on Tuesday night for the film “5B.” The film about the nurses who founded and opened the first AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital, called Ward 5B in 1983 was picked up in May by Verizon for broader distribution and officially debuted June 14. “5B” was created by Oscar-nominated director Dan Krauss and Saville Productions, known for its branded ad and film work. Saville tweeted in May after Verizon picked up “5B”: “The film is an HIV/AIDS crisis doc, commissioned by Johnson & Johnson, & shows how brands can authentically get behind global issues.” The film also won a Lions Health & Wellness silver statue on Monday night.

Stand up for nontraditional creative. Getting the green light for a brand film targeted at physicians at a pharma company is not for the faint of heart. Even the best ideas face multiple hurdles. AstraZeneca’s Lions Health award-winning "The Attack" film from last year highlighted the risk of repeat heart attacks, but was "that close" to being killed, said Kyriakos Konstantinidis, global strategy director at AstraZeneca. That's what his boss told him later after winning four more global awards and industry impact, feedback and successes rolled in. It helped that Konstantinidis understood the vision that ad agency Havas Lynx brought with its ideas—his father had worked in the film industry and he grew up in and around it. Konstantinidis and Havas' perseverance not only led to the creation of "The Attack," but another new disease awareness film about cardiovascular risks around Type 2 diabetes that debuted recently. That patient-targeted film features a fisherman talking about the dangers of heart disease for Type 2 patients while his boat engine stalls, noting, "That's how dangerous Type 2 diabetes is. It can cause your heart, your engine, to fail." Konstantinidis urged the audience and pharma in general to take risks, albeit calculated ones with a strategy meets creativity foundation. "When you're working in the pharmaceutical industry which has a very conservative approach to these sort of ideas, and you have your colleagues and peers coming to you (after the campaign) to say, apart from congratulations, 'How did you do that? We want to copy that, we want to do the same brief. ... What is the direction I need to take internally to make this a success in order to get the buy in?' Then you know you have created a new area," he said.

Fighting fake news. Panelists from Johnson & Johnson, McCann Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tackled the thorny problem of combating disinformation about vaccines. "It won't be a TV campaign," said Seema Kumar, J&J's vice president for innovation in global health and science policy. Social media might play a role, but it's really peer-to-peer and face-to-face that's most important, the panelists decided. How to make that happen? "I'm challenging you," panel moderator Rajesh Mirchandani, chief communications officer of the UN Foundation, told the audience. In another session moderated by Conde Nast’s health chief Jen Mormile, Self editor in chief Carolyn Kylstra said their research found that while fake health news is not new—snake oil has been around a long time—it’s an issue because of social media and the rapid way disinformation now spreads, exacerbated by the lack of trust in authority figures. To combat it, Self is doubling down on health news editing, fact checking and vetting sources including celebrities. Meanwhile, co-panelist physician Esther Choo said doctors can do their part by going beyond traditional journal model of publish-and-done model. Today physicians need to follow up and make sure other scientists are misusing or misconstruing their work, she said.

VR for VR's sake. Too many pharma marketers are making the mistake of recruiting tech tools for jobs they can't do, or just using those tech tools poorly, said Sam Glassenberg, founder and CEO of LevelEx, which makes mobile games for physician training. For example, method-of-action presentations that used to be on big screens have moved into virtual reality. But zooming around a molecule in the virtual world while sitting still in the real one tends to make people nauseous. "The last thing you want a doctor to associate with your drug is nausea," Glassenberg said. The moral of the story is to use VR only when it's the only way to tell a particular story—and when you do, make it a spectator sport, he said.

Real-world evidence and technology are natural partners, said Alex Gilbert, head of partnerships at app developer Medopad, as he ticked off the ways his company’s working with life sciences companies such as Novartis to help collect the sort of patient data that can help drugmakers add new indications to existing drugs. “We’re now creating a living, breathing document of a patient," Gilbert said. “Your health record doesn’t have to be in the hospital. It’s here, created by you.”

Spending on real-world evidence has hit $1.48 billion, according to Simone Seymour, founder and CEO of the biometric textiles company Supa. Real-world evidence is “really hot right now” for personalizing products but “also for understanding how drugs are actually working.” Companies are tapping Supa’s tech—and its network of app users—to monitor and recruit patients for real-world evidence trials.

A GlaxoSmithKline toothpaste made to alleviate bleeding gums served as an example of why design should be at the heart of marketing in one session led by GSK's vice president of design and innovation Andrew Barraclough. "It's all about spitting blood," he noted, and blood imagery appeared on everything from the platelet-like motif on the toothpaste tube to the smartphone screen that started bloody and cleared from there. Then, in the Czech Republic, GSK flipped the idea to promote blood donations. "Don't spit blood, give blood" was the tagline for GSK's #bloodforgood campaign there.

[azveille]

Lions Health wrap: Roche's reality show, Sanofi's sneezy AR push, SRO for Epidiolex and more

CANNES, FRANCE—As Lions Health wrapped up another year, attendees sifted their notes and pulled out a few common threads. Technology, for one, but not just for the sake of using a shiny new tool. Or as one Sanofi exec put it, "Technology in the service of creativity."

Marketing for good was another: aka, applying sharp communications brains to thorny public health problems. And then there were what Leigh Householder of Syneos Health called "secret messages," exemplified in one campaign using crossword puzzle clues to spread the word about elder abuse in a way abusive family members might not catch—but their puzzling seniors would.

Overall? It's a big world out there, but while appealing to global markets is key for pharma success, sometimes scaling up a creative local campaign is the way to really reach consumers and their doctors. Read on for more.

Tuesday

Doctors aren't robots. Forget the charts and graphs, sales reps. Lead with your heart instead. That’s the message from Attila Cansun, a chief marketing officer at the newly rebranded P&G Health. Adapting a consumer marketing framework dubbed LoveBrands, Cansun and his team use a similar evaluation-and-revamp for the company’s doctor relationships. Story

The trust tour. GW Pharmaceuticals' strategy for promoting its new cannabinoid drug Epidiolex to doctors sounded simple—earn their trust. But that's easier said than done, no thanks to Kim Kardashian and her CBD-themed baby shower. So the company decided to take physicians to the source, namely its massive marijuana greenhouse, and show them cannabis-derived drugs are the real deal. Story

Get out the tissues. In the U.S., when seasonal sneezes come on, there’s no mystery about what to do next: Go to the drugstore for allergy medication. But what if that decision weren’t automatic? For Sanofi, as it launched its drug Allegra over the counter in Brazil, the answer was a mobile, augmented-reality campaign that could outfit users with red noses and watery eyes, similar to a Snapchat filter. It even animated sneezes, complete with droplets on the phone screen. Story

Hemophilia, humor and a hipster host. A reality show about hemophilia? And it's a comedy? That would be Roche’s Genentech and ad agency 21 Gram’s new YouTube series called “Challenge Accepted.” Each 15-minute episode of the show, which premiered last week, features a different patient, coach and lesson targeting boys and young men with hemophilia. And it gets that lesson across using humor—and some magic tricks. Story

Monday

Big winner. It’s been a long three years since a pharma jury here handed out Grand Prix honors. But Monday night, GlaxoSmithKline and its ad agency McCann Health broke through with a mobile app called Breath of Life, used to detect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in older adults in China. Eli Lilly, ViiV and Merck were among the other pharma winners. Story

No-ad advertising. Marketers need to think big. Like saving-the-world big. That’s the advice McCann Health’s global chief creative officer, Matt Eastwood, offered up to kick off the Cannes Lions Health confab Monday. And what that means to Eastwood is advertising that “may not look like advertising,” he said. “It’s advertising while doing good.” Story

New light on MS. Multiple sclerosis symptoms can be confusing: They differ person to person and even day to day for the same patients. Roche's Floodlight Open app aims to clear that confusion for individuals by gathering personal health data every day and delivering real-world evidence for broader understanding of the disease. Story

Procter & Gamble showed up for Cannes Lions Health—and no wonder. The consumer packaged goods giant recently bought Merck KGaA’s consumer health division and rebranded it as P&G Health. Now, with teams of brand managers and concept demos on display here, it's serving notice—at least to consumer healthcare companies—that it’s in play. Story

Sunday

Shorted shortlist? The Pharma Lions shortlist for 2019 lives up to its name. Just 31 entries cleared the finalist bar this year, down from 53 last year. But it’s still good news for the 12 multinational pharmas in the running—and for the pharma marketers looking to eye the industry’s best at Monday night’s awards. Story

Breakout scouts. As Cannes Lions Health kicked off its sixth year Monday, attendees were looking for some breakouts. As in breakthrough technology, creativity that breaks barriers, groundbreaking global ideas and a chance to finally break with the backhanded compliment that Lions Health work is “good for pharma.” Story

Escaping the same-same. Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s roster of literal A-list clients—Audi, Absolut and AstraZeneca—earns it center stage at Lions Health with a consumer-to-pharma creative crossover pitch. Hint? Brand differentiation is job one, and to do that, drugmakers need to pull cliché imagery out by the root. Story

Heard around the Palais

Winning outside the pharma and healthcare box. Johnson & Johnson and partners picked up the Grand Prix for Entertainment on Tuesday night for the film “5B.” The film about the nurses who founded and opened the first AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital, called Ward 5B in 1983 was picked up in May by Verizon for broader distribution and officially debuted June 14. “5B” was created by Oscar-nominated director Dan Krauss and Saville Productions, known for its branded ad and film work. Saville tweeted in May after Verizon picked up “5B”: “The film is an HIV/AIDS crisis doc, commissioned by Johnson & Johnson, & shows how brands can authentically get behind global issues.” The film also won a Lions Health & Wellness silver statue on Monday night.

Stand up for nontraditional creative. Getting the green light for a brand film targeted at physicians at a pharma company is not for the faint of heart. Even the best ideas face multiple hurdles. AstraZeneca’s Lions Health award-winning "The Attack" film from last year highlighted the risk of repeat heart attacks, but was "that close" to being killed, said Kyriakos Konstantinidis, global strategy director at AstraZeneca. That's what his boss told him later after winning four more global awards and industry impact, feedback and successes rolled in. It helped that Konstantinidis understood the vision that ad agency Havas Lynx brought with its ideas—his father had worked in the film industry and he grew up in and around it. Konstantinidis and Havas' perseverance not only led to the creation of "The Attack," but another new disease awareness film about cardiovascular risks around Type 2 diabetes that debuted recently. That patient-targeted film features a fisherman talking about the dangers of heart disease for Type 2 patients while his boat engine stalls, noting, "That's how dangerous Type 2 diabetes is. It can cause your heart, your engine, to fail." Konstantinidis urged the audience and pharma in general to take risks, albeit calculated ones with a strategy meets creativity foundation. "When you're working in the pharmaceutical industry which has a very conservative approach to these sort of ideas, and you have your colleagues and peers coming to you (after the campaign) to say, apart from congratulations, 'How did you do that? We want to copy that, we want to do the same brief. ... What is the direction I need to take internally to make this a success in order to get the buy in?' Then you know you have created a new area," he said.

Fighting fake news. Panelists from Johnson & Johnson, McCann Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tackled the thorny problem of combating disinformation about vaccines. "It won't be a TV campaign," said Seema Kumar, J&J's vice president for innovation in global health and science policy. Social media might play a role, but it's really peer-to-peer and face-to-face that's most important, the panelists decided. How to make that happen? "I'm challenging you," panel moderator Rajesh Mirchandani, chief communications officer of the UN Foundation, told the audience. In another session moderated by Conde Nast’s health chief Jen Mormile, Self editor in chief Carolyn Kylstra said their research found that while fake health news is not new—snake oil has been around a long time—it’s an issue because of social media and the rapid way disinformation now spreads, exacerbated by the lack of trust in authority figures. To combat it, Self is doubling down on health news editing, fact checking and vetting sources including celebrities. Meanwhile, co-panelist physician Esther Choo said doctors can do their part by going beyond traditional journal model of publish-and-done model. Today physicians need to follow up and make sure other scientists are misusing or misconstruing their work, she said.

VR for VR's sake. Too many pharma marketers are making the mistake of recruiting tech tools for jobs they can't do, or just using those tech tools poorly, said Sam Glassenberg, founder and CEO of LevelEx, which makes mobile games for physician training. For example, method-of-action presentations that used to be on big screens have moved into virtual reality. But zooming around a molecule in the virtual world while sitting still in the real one tends to make people nauseous. "The last thing you want a doctor to associate with your drug is nausea," Glassenberg said. The moral of the story is to use VR only when it's the only way to tell a particular story—and when you do, make it a spectator sport, he said.

Real-world evidence and technology are natural partners, said Alex Gilbert, head of partnerships at app developer Medopad, as he ticked off the ways his company’s working with life sciences companies such as Novartis to help collect the sort of patient data that can help drugmakers add new indications to existing drugs. “We’re now creating a living, breathing document of a patient," Gilbert said. “Your health record doesn’t have to be in the hospital. It’s here, created by you.”

Spending on real-world evidence has hit $1.48 billion, according to Simone Seymour, founder and CEO of the biometric textiles company Supa. Real-world evidence is “really hot right now” for personalizing products but “also for understanding how drugs are actually working.” Companies are tapping Supa’s tech—and its network of app users—to monitor and recruit patients for real-world evidence trials.

A GlaxoSmithKline toothpaste made to alleviate bleeding gums served as an example of why design should be at the heart of marketing in one session led by GSK's vice president of design and innovation Andrew Barraclough. "It's all about spitting blood," he noted, and blood imagery appeared on everything from the platelet-like motif on the toothpaste tube to the smartphone screen that started bloody and cleared from there. Then, in the Czech Republic, GSK flipped the idea to promote blood donations. "Don't spit blood, give blood" was the tagline for GSK's #bloodforgood campaign there.