#I've no self control when it comes to the rehearsal scene

[dark-and-kawaii]

Chaos

Raphael & His Daughter

⋆˙⟡♡ Sunmary: Raphael’s daughter causes chaos through the house, much to Raphael’s dismay.

⋆˙⟡♡ Notes: This is a little gift for a very lovely person, @octarinecat xoxo I hope this puts a smile on your face love and that you feel better ♡

⋆˙⟡♡ Dadphael

Prt 1. - Prt 2. - Impsy

His daughter, the heart of the house, darted through the grand halls with Impsy at her heels. As they played their little game, she collided with one of her father’s prized golden statues, a self portrait, no less.

The statue wobbled perilously before succumbing to gravity, setting off a catastrophic cascade of falling pedestals and statues, each one toppling into the next with the precision of a rehearsed performance…

Frozen in the midst of the chaos, his daughter could only muster a, "uh oh..."

Impsy quipped, "Nice knowing ya, kid. There's not enough of your mother in you to sweet talk your way out of this one..."

The ominous silence that followed was broken by the heavy footsteps of Raphael emerging from his boudoir. His eyes swept over the scene of destruction, the line of his fallen statues a testament to the chaos that had unfolded in his absence. His gaze landed on the two culprits.

With a silent accusation, she slowly extended a finger toward Impsy.

"I know you aren't pointing that little thing at me, girl."

Raphael's presence loomed over them, his composure a thin veneer over the rising tide of his displeasure. "Chaos in this house is not something I will abide, even if caused by you," his voice controlled but edged with anger.

Impsy, undeterred by the gravity of the situation, tried to interject. "Oh come now, Raph, can't you see? She did you a favor, the things were gaudy!"

Raphael's eyes narrowed, and without raising his voice, he uttered a single, resonant word, "Enough." With a snap of his fingers, Impsy vanished, banished from the scene.

Turning back to his daughter, Raphael's scowl deepened. "I've given you free will when running through this house, yet you still wish to act like a little tyrant? Your actions have consequences, and it is high time you learn what that means." The disappointment in his voice was perhaps more cutting than any punishment he could devise.

As the echoes of Raphael's condemnation faded, the silence held a weight of its own. His daughter, his little treasure, felt a pang of guilt heavier than any of the golden statues that lay in ruin around her. Her eyes, so often aglow with joy, now shimmered with the sheen of unshed tears.

"Father, I..." her voice was a mere whisper, a stark contrast to the earlier clatter of her play. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

Raphael's features softened marginally as he took in the sight of his daughter's remorse. The anger that had been so near the surface was now slowly fading with her genuine regret. He knelt down to her level, the ruler of the house not too proud to meet his child eye to eye.

"Actions, my child, come with consequences," he started, his voice gentler now. "But the intention behind the action also matters. You did not mean to cause this damage, and that, at least, is a start."

He sighed, surveying the disarray before him. He often wonders if the pursuit of legacy through an heir is worth the sacrifice of peace and quiet. But then…

She wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight embrace, her small form seeking forgiveness in the only way she knew how.

Raphael felt the tension leave his body as he returned the embrace. This little child of his, though chaotic at times, was nothing but loyal to him.

And in that embrace, he found his answer.

His little treasure, his daughter… When the time came, she would help him rule well. Raphael realized that, despite the toppled statues and the occasional chaos, having an heir, having her as a loyal heir was indeed worth his time.

[kali-tmblr]

Problematic Atlas Quotes: Volumes 1-3

All of the places on Remnant put together have not produced as many jarring incongruities and mixed messages as Atlas. These are all quotes relating to Atlas that really stood out to me at the time and have stayed with me since.

Volume 1

Penny: I am combat ready! (Yeah, but are you ready for anything else? And who would send out a cute girl robot who was ONLY ready for combat?)

Weiss: The innocent never run, Yang! (Karmic law says that one will come back to bite your ass, Weiss.)

Penny: I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things. (We haven't seen this one come back around to Penny yet. Blake, yes. Penny, no.)

Volume 2

Ironwood: But ask yourself this: Do you honestly believe your children can win a war?

Ozpin: I hope they never have to. (Note that Ozpin believes they can. It's having to fight he considers a failure. Later revelations would make his view even more tragic.)

Ruby: But why not let us know you were okay?

Penny: I... was asked not to talk to you. Or Weiss. Or Blake. Or Yang. Anybody, really.

Ruby: Was your dad that upset?

Penny: No, it wasn't my father... (Ironwood speaks next. An early sign of Ironwood's controlling nature.)

Penny: I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura. (Tell me more.)

Penny: One day, it will be my job to save the world (The whole world? Seriously, tell me more.)

Penny: It's okay, Ruby. They're not bad people; I just don't want to get you in trouble. (And why would talking to you get Ruby in trouble? And why send her to a festival that encourages students to talk to each other if you won't let her talk?)

Penny: Just promise me you won't tell anyone else my secret. Okay?

Ruby: I promise.(If she HAD told Pyrrha, the whole debacle might not have happened. Will this come up again?)

Roman: As some of you may have heard, this right here... (Taps the giant mech) ...is Atlas's newest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my "employer", we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, "hit the shelves".  (Damn, Atlas, y'all got a lot worse security problems than Ruby.)

(The image of Penny dancing by herself at the ball surrounded by uniformed guards. Say what?)

Ironwood: Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a Huntress is all about. You recognized a threat. You took action. And you did the very best you could. (Ah well, that's nice. Doesn't entirely fit in with the rest of your character James, but it's nice.)

Ruby: Wait. You think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?

Ozpin: It's possible. But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together.

Ruby: Actually, I... I think I remember her saying something about a hideout, or something, in the southeast. Just outside the Kingdom.

Ozpin: Interesting.

Glynda: I thought you said the intruder never—

Ozpin: Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby. Why don't you go and spend some time with your team? You have a big day ahead of you.

Ruby: Any time.

Ozpin: And Miss Rose, please try and be ... discreet about this matter.

Ruby: Yes sir. (This tells Ironwood several things. It tells him that Ruby will lie for Ozpin, that Ozpin will cover up Ruby's lie to protect her, and most importantly that Ruby and Ozpin TRUST EACH OTHER.)

Glynda: Why must your answer to everything involve a triumphant display of military bravado!? You treat every situation like it's a contest of measuring di—!

Ozpin: Glynda!

Glynda: Well, he does. (Tell me more, Glynda.)

Ozpin: You're a general, James. So tell me, when you prepare to go to war, which do you send in first? The flag bearers, or the scouts? (Why is a civilian Headmaster schooling a general with a lesson taught to greenhorn Lieutenants? And why does he have to?)

Ozpin:  We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression. (SOME kingdom has control issues.)

Glynda: You're a good person, James. You've always done what you think is best for the people, even against strong protest. It's admirable. But it's high time you stopped talking about trust and started showing it. (So Ironwood's trust issues are not new. Tell me more.)

Councilman 1: You've left us no choice! The Vytal Festival tournament cannot be broadcast, let alone held, if we are unable to ensure the safety of the citizens.

Councilman 1: Ahem... Therefore, we have reached out to the Atlas Council and together have decided that the best action is to appoint General Ironwood as head of security for the event.

Ironwood: Thank you, Councilman. Our Kingdom is happy to lend as many troops as it takes to ensure that the event runs smoothly and safely as possible.

Councilman 1: And we thank you, General.

Ozpin: Will that be all?

Councilman 1: For now. But after this festival comes to a close, we are going to have a serious discussion about your position at Beacon Academy. General Ironwood's reports over the last few weeks have left us somewhat... concerned. I am sure you understand.

Ironwood: This is the right move, Ozpin. I promise, I will keep our people safe, you have to trust me.(Damn dude, what did Glynda just say about trusting people? And why do you expect Ozpin to trust you when you clearly have tattled behind his back?)

Ironwood: You brought this on yourself. (Yeah, he did. By trusting you.)

Volume 3

I have already written a detailed post on the vast discrepancies between how Winter Schnee behaves and what she is trying to convey in her first scenes, titled "Snowbirds of a Feather". Suffice to say Ironwood isn't the only Atlesian sending mixed messages.

Ironwood: If you were one of my men, I would have you shot!

Qrow: If I was one of your men, I'd shoot myself.(So y'all have an acrimonious history as well. Okay.)

Goodwitch: While I wouldn't condone his behavior, retaliating like you did certainly didn't help the situation. ("Call yourself a grown-up? I've seen better behavior from first-year students! Why do I even have to say anything to you? Don't answer that.")

Qrow: You sent me to get intel on our enemy, and I'm telling you, our enemy is here.

Ironwood: We know.

Qrow: Oh! Oh, you know! Well, thank goodness I'm out there risking my life to keep you all informed!

Ironwood:Qrow-

Qrow: Communication's a two-way street, pal. You see this? That's the SEND button.

Winter: They had reason to assume you'd been compromised. (So, Ironwood, explain to me WHY, if you seriously think Qrow has been compromised, you haven't brought it up with HIS BOSS before now? Isn't that information kind of important?)

Qrow: Despite what the world thinks, we're not just teachers, or generals, or headmasters. The people in this room, the leaders of the other two academies, we're the ones that keep the world safe from the evils no one even knows about! It's why we meet behind closed doors, why we work in the shadows. So you tell me, James, when you brought your army to Vale, did you think you were being discreet, or did you just not give a damn!?

Ironwood: Discreet wasn't working. (Explain.)

 I'm here because this is what was necessary. (Explain.)

Qrow: You're here because Ozpin wanted you here! (Is it just me, or does anyone else think this sounds like it was an unpopular decision?)

Ciel: Ruby Rose. 15. Hails from Patch. Leader of Team RWBY. Status: Questionable. (Daaaammmn son. We need to talk. You ordered a full background check on a teenage girl just because she talked to your android? And then you gave it to your android's handler? And on top of all that, a gifted honor student from a multigenerational Huntsmen family who leads Beacon's first-year star team, who Ozpin clearly trusts, only rates as "Questionable"? Who doesn't rate as "Questionable"? Oh that's right. Qrow is also "Questionable", and so is Ozpin. Tell me, do you rate yourself as "Questionable"?)

Ciel: Penny? I believe it is best if we move on to our next location.

Penny: Could we have just a minute to talk? (No seriously, is Penny now not allowed any free time?)

Ciel: It's been precisely one minute, ma'am.(Apparently not.)

Penny: Ruby, there's something I've been wanting to talk to you about. I want to stay at Beacon.

Ruby: Penny, they'll never let you do that.

Penny: I know, but I have a plan.(Tell me more.)

Yang: You're from Atlas. What could we expect?

Weiss: Well, seeing as their Kingdom, academy and armed forces are all merged as one, I think we can expect strict, militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully rehearsed strategies.  ... Or whatever they are.(So even other Atlesians think Atlesians send mixed messages.)

Ironwood: For the past few years, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific standpoint; how it works, what's it made of, how it can be used. We've made... significant strides. And we believe we've found a way to capture it.

Qrow: Capture it and cram it into something else. (Dude, exactly WHERE did Penny's Aura come from?)

Ironwood: What I believe and hope this to be is nothing more than the result of stress and adrenaline. When you're out on the battlefield, your judgment can become clouded in an instant. Sometimes you see things that simply aren't there. Even after the fight is past... (That answers that question. You don't trust yourself either. What happened to you?)

Ironwood: Ozpin, the girl... I-I can explain! (You've got a full scale Grimm invasion going on and you're more terrified of OZPIN? What did you do to create Penny, James? How ELSE have you betrayed Oz?)

Ironwood: Qrow! This isn't my doing! (Why did you automatically assume Qrow is attacking you instead of looking behind you? Guilt?)

This post is long enough already, so I'll finish later. While I may be overreacting to some of these statements, that doesn't explain all of them. It's looked from the beginning like there was something fishy going on in Atlas, especially having to do with Ironwood.

[olireadingcollege-blog]

What I've come to realize over this year as an acting student:

Below I have listed and explained in detail the key things I have come to realise over the past year at Reading college when I’m on stage or in a rehearsal process. These points are key pieces of information that I myself have learnt in which I’ve put into my own words.

It is information that I will never forget in my life…

1. Relating to the character

Acting gives you the chance to reflect one’s truest self. Acting is an art form. When acting, it allows you to reveal different parts of yourself that you are too afraid of revealing in every day life. Yes, it’s a cliché saying that, but it’s true. How often to do get to scream and slap a student who you don’t like? When do you feel comfortable to start weeping in tears in front of a bunch of people you are unfamiliar with? In life, we don’t want to show our vulnerability to people. We want to give a good impression to everyone. We want to be polite, friendly, funny. cheerful, etc. We act for a living. It’s in our human nature to act. Show me a person who never lies, or pretends to be somebody else in front of other people and I’ll say, yes, God has made something from another planet. There’s no such thing as a person who cannot act. I’ve heard people whisper to others saying “this person cannot act”. The people who said that obviously doesn’t understand what acting really means. You see a person giving a bad performance on stage. well, maybe that person is extremely nervous and tense. If that’s the case, then not even the greatest of actor could pull off a great performance. It’s all about training your instrument (your body) to be relaxed, calm and warmed up to perform. I see actors as emotional athletes, so why shouldn’t we warm up? My point is, is that with the right training, we can all act on stage.

When I’m at college, I’ve notice how different all the students act in lesson in front of the teacher compared to at lunch time. We show different parts of ourselves.

And what I believe in, is that we are our worst parts of ourselves when we are left alone - because there isn’t any reason to be acting. We are all mean bastards. We are all lying deceptive people. We are all funny, manipulative, selfish. We are all everything. When you look at a character on the page of the script, don’t separate yourself from that character! Don’t look at ‘Lady Macbeth’ as “the bad gal” because that is two-dimensional. When have you ever met anybody who is two-dimensional? Humans are three-dimensional. If you were looking at the character ‘Tybalt’ in Romeo and Juliet, don’t separate yourself from that character by saying he’s the “bad guy”. Look at it and say “I have those parts of that character in me, and I’m going to reveal that  part of myself on the stage. Find a reason to support every decision your character makes! Adolf Hitler wasn’t a bad guy! He was an artist, a husband, a human being! THREE-DIMENSIONAL.

So to conclude this point I’m making…I don’t want to ever be playing a part unless I am really there. I don’t want to be playing a prick, unless I reveal the prick in me. I won’t ever dare to say to myself that “this isn’t me, it’s the character”. No, we are all everything. That’s why I said at the start of the blog that acting gives you the chance to reveal one’s truest self. Marlon Brando, a great actor in his time was so good because he showed his vulnerability in his such masculine, tough body he had (e.g. ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’).

I think the most difficult part about being an actor is to admit those parts of yourself by saying “Yes, that’s me. That mean bastard is me!”

Being revealing involves being fearless - and the best actors are fearless.

2. Being in the moment

In life, what I think people sometimes do is that we lie to ourselves constantly. This is how I feel anyway. It’s sometimes hard to realize how painful life is. If we’re coming close to some realization about yourself, you jump off like a hot furnace. For example, if someone tells you something about yourself that’s painful, it’s like sitting on a hot furnace - you jump off. And in life we go through jumping off that which is painful. I honestly and truly think that our conscious part of us is the least part of ourselves, that we, like it or not, most of us go through life based on what our unconscious tells us to do. The problem with the unconscious is that it’s unconscious, so it’s slippery. You can’t find it. In a performance you want that unconscious to take control of you.

What I say (and many will disagree) is that as an actor, you should not worry about where the scene is going. Just be in the moment (another cliché). Whatever instincts you have at that moment, use it. Don’t be afraid to go someplace that you haven’t gone before. That’s how you get surprising results. The audience is there to be surprised. The actors job is to be surprising, and that’s why (like I said in the first point) the actor must be fearless. Don’t be afraid of where the scene is going. Don’t be afraid to fail, or mess up the scene. I believe there is no such thing as a messed up scene…. Unless you truly do mess up.

This, for me, is what being in the moment means - and it take a heck of a lot of concentration. Actors needs to be good at concentrating as much as being good listeners.

3. Being a good listener

Acting is about listening and reacting. Morgan Freeman famously said that “being a good actor is being a good listener”. It’s a famous quote because it’s completely true. Let’s say an actor shouts the line “Go to your room!” and the other actor responds by storming off to his room - good acting, huh? well what if the actors plays the scene again, this time the actor shouts the same line but in a calm, polite tone, and then the other actor responds by storming off to his room. That’s bad acting because the actor wasn’t listening. If he was listening, then his response would be different. Why would you storm off after someone politely saying to go to your room?… I mean the character might still want to storm off, so I guess it’s a bad example I said, but you get the point I am making.

4. Having a great imagination

Actors should go through the script and list all the facts about your character, and from there you work out your backstory. If a character hasn’t got many facts about them in the script, create them yourself. Create your own backstory to the character. Be creative about it. Tell yourself that I have bad anxiety because I got bullied a lot when I was younger, and that’s why I have this stutter now.

I think the actors should give themselves the problems. The audience doesn’t need to know about their problems because they’ll be invested in the characters problems in the story. If the actor can relate to the characters problem in any way, if say, the actor has been in a similar situation of a sense of loss like the character in the scene has, use that. Personalize the problem to yourself. The audience won’t know you’ve personalized the problem. They’ll be thinking you are crying about losing your wife to Riff Raff in Rocky Horror, but really you’re upset because of that sense of loss you had when you were 16 when your girlfriend broke up with you.

Acting isn’t about having a good ability to concentrate, it’s having the ability to have a great imagination. Concentration always moves to the most interesting thing around. Telling an actor to concentrate doesn’t help them because they will naturally focus on whatever is the most interesting thing on the stage. Now what if the thing on the stage is boring? An actor must choose something interesting to focus on, and by this they need to create an objective for themselves to strive towards.

If concentration is a problem for the actor, it will be for the audience.

What actors do is they fantasize for a living. Directors dream for a living. The whole creative process is about using your imagination. Acting is reacting honestly in imaginary circumstances.

5. Why my acting can (sometimes) become mechanical

‘If you speak any lines, or do anything, mechanically, without fully realising who you are, where you came from, why you came from there, what you want, where you are going, what you will do when you get there, then you’ll be acting without imagination’ - That was written in Constantin Stanislavski’s book on ‘An actor prepares’.

I’ve come to realize from acting on stage in college is that the actor needs an objective to focus on, otherwise he or she will only be focusing only on themselves. If your concentration is on yourself, it can’t be on what you are trying to achieve In the scene. The thing you want to achieve is called the ‘objective’. This doesn’t have to be something that will necessarily happen in the scene. More or less the objective is just an interior adjustment to the actor. If a director told an actor “Get her to hit you”, it’s not necessarily going to happen because it’s not in the script, but it’s an interior adjustment to the actor, and it might cause the scene to have a bit more tension.

Often I find that my acting becomes mechanical because I’m not giving myself an objective to focus on - but sometimes it’s okay to be mechanical. I’ve been taught at college that sometimes I just have to do it, even if it is mechanical. At the end of the day, the audience is the final author of the story. I don’t literally need to get angry in a scene. What I could do is get my voice to break through the wall on the other side of the room, and that will cause a shout. It’s mechanical but the audience will easily work out that I’m angry on stage even though I’m really not. So for me, mechanical acting can work and sometimes I should use it, but I strongly feel that being mechanical takes away the fun from acting.

What I want to do on stage is to be organic. What the organic actor is going to do is to strive to understand what the character wants, and to go on stage every night and try to accomplish that. Mix this in with what the other actors do on stage to get what they want will create an improvisation within the acting. This creates fresh, organic life every night on stage - meaning, every performance on stage will be different from the last.

That’s the kind of actor I want to be.

6. Transforming into the character

When you see an actor ‘transform’ into the character on the screen or on stage, it’s an illusion. To the audience they’re somebody else but to the actor they’re still the same person. I find that it’s a strain when an actor hears the words “I need you to transform into the character.” It’s impossible to do so. From an actors point of view, we are using our own body, our own voice, it’s still us - we’re just revealing a part of ourselves that people may or may not usually see from us. At the end of the day, their is no character, just words on the page. I create the character through myself and my instruments.

7. Being fearless

The biggest thing I have learnt from this year at college is how to overcome fear when performing in front of an audience. Through experiencing in different performances, I’ve realised that it makes such a difference when you are not scared to perform in front of people. I remember my first ever performance in front of people at college. I was incredibly scared, especially how I was the lead character in the piece. I remember having to start the story off by pretending to be on a phone call to my mother. I probably rushed the conversation, making it look unrealistic. Then after that I had to shout at the top of my voice to two people who I’ve never met before. I thought it would be easy but in rehearsal I couldn’t get my voice out well enough - and that was caused by fear. Before the performance my ‘ego’ hat came on and I told myself that I needed to nail this performance. I need to show everyone my amazing talent as an actor. Coming into a performance with this attitude is the worst thing to do because it is literally setting yourself up to fail. I find that if I come in with the almost complete opposite attitude, I perform much better. This works for me anyway. I seek to fail.

When I’m on stage, I want to follow my instincts, I want to create something honest and surprising. When fear is on my mind then I can’t think of anything else. “Relax Oli, let your mind drift” I tell myself. The biggest thing I want from myself during a performance is to not be afraid of following my instincts. And if I can say I’ve done that after a performance, then I can say “That was worth my time”.

What Reading college brought me this year was experience. I’ve gained experience in performing in front of an audience many times, and that’s the biggest ingredient I need to improve my craft.

Thank you for reading.

P.S. I wrote this blog post more for my own enjoyment than anything else.