#Kelsey Bernard is based of how I think I would be if I had to doing boring paper work and Interveiws with super heroes all day

[flowiehowie]

Tales of Heroism OC Profile #1

So about a year ago I started the Masks: A new Generation tabletop game with two of my friends. The premise of the game is basically Super heroes DnD. It was fun but didn't last as I was the only one between us with interest in super heroics and the story we were making kinda turned into an Urban Fantasy setting. However I still had deep love for my super hero characters so I kept adding to the world I was making, making a Google Doc of character profiles and plot ideas.

Now since this Quarantine has me loosing my mind I decided to post them. I dont know how many I will do, but I have a lot of love for these characters and this setting I made, so if you happen to see this, I hope you enjoy them too! Please ask me questions! If you have your own super hero OC tell me about them! Super heroes are cool. We need more of them.

SOCIETY OF CHAMPIONS HERO DOSSIERS   HERO ID: M-19T-M34 HEROIC ALIAS: Hourglass CURRENT RANK: 103 FULL NAME: Aaliyah Curtis SEX: FEMALE HEIGHT: Imperial: 6 Feet 10 inches. Metric: 208.28cm RACE: African-American HAIR COLOR: Brown EYE COLOR: Black Sclera, glowing green iris.   ANOMOLOUS APPEARANCE?: Yes. Across the left side of her face, her chest, her shoulders, and her lower back and upper thighs, she has small green stones embedded in her skin. Cracks of green energy may also appear near these stones. Her left arm has been completely replaced with a long durable spike of this green stone. DATE OF BIRTH: July 10th, 1953 (Note made by Kelsey B., Archivist; Despite knowing her DOB, the age of Hourglass is constantly in flux due to the nature of her powers. Refer to Professor Scath’s medical reports for further analysis and data regarding this) NEXT OF KIN: N/A POWER OF ATTORNEY: Cassandra Clark ORIGIN OF POWERS: Mutation( ) - Inherited Genetics ( ) - Forced Experimentation ( ) - Cybernetic augmentation ( ) - Cosmic Force (X) - Extraterrestrial ( ) - Extraterrestrial experimentation ( ) - Divine Force ( ) - ORIGIN OF POWER NOTES: Archivist Kelsey Bernard. I have spent an hour with Hourglass trying to record the exact origins and circumstances of her powers, however she was frustratingly dismissive of my attempts. All I could gather is that when she was young she somehow fell into the dimension she refers to as the ‘Eternal Epoch’. May I personal suggest that is a ridiclously pretentious name. Just call it the time zone or something. These heroes and their silly names. Anyways she fell into the ‘Eternal Epoch’, a dimension of pure time, whatever that means. Time is an illusion everyone knows that. It was there she gained her powers, and had the green crystals embedded in her chest, stomach, face, and where she lost her arm. And gained the cool sword arm. God how cool would that be having a sword arm? Randy wouldn't steal my lunches if I had a sword arm. I wonder if Hourglass could threaten Randy for me. I mean shes a hero and he is a vile criminal that keeps stealing my grilled cheeses so... POWERS:   1.) Personal Time Manipulation: Her base power and theme she based her name on. Given to her from her time trapped in the Eternal Epoch dimension. She can speed herself up or down, and any object(s) or person(s) in her line of sight. She can’rewind’ a person(s) or object(s) movement to up to a minute. 2.) Expounded attacks: A variation of her Time manipulation ability. Hourglass can manipulate the feeling of one of her attacks, and replay it rapidly. As such if she punches you once she can make it feel like 100 hits. She can do this for other physical sensations as well.   3.) Time Healing. A variation of her time manipulation ability. Hourglass may use her abilities on any wounds to regrow and repair damage. There seems to be a limit to this as Hourglass can not undo limb lose, or to heal internal injuries. 4.) Physical boost: As with all Meta Humans Hourglass has increased durability, endurance, strength, and speed. How much of this is related to her Time Manipulation ability is unclear 5.) Portal manipulation: Hourglass is able to open portals to the Eternal Enoch. It seems she can enter and exit the dimension at will. It seems as if she can be pulled into the dimension unwillingly as well. When asked  about this Hourglass simply replied “What can I say,when you time travel you learn to prank yourself in annoying ways”. PHYSICAL ABILITIES:   1.) Experienced Boxer. 2.) Basic fencing and swordplay skills. PERSONALITY AND TEMPERAMENT: Observed and documented by Archivist Kelsey Bernard.In my time spent with Hourglass one would label her as laid back. She relishes any moment to sit and rest, and will usually respond to any threats and calls to duty with a sigh and an eye roll. Despite this she seems to enjoy being active in her encounters with the League of Rouges.  More than that she also treats the villains she comes across with familiarity. In a battle I witnessed between the speedster Constance Motio AKA Motor, Hourglass would ask about her family and school life. Motor seemed happy for the talk, and even asked Hourglass for life advice. In turn Hourglass likes to involve the Reporter Cassandra Clark in these conversations as well, which leads me to Hourglass’ relationship with the reporter. Why is it heroes are always drawn to reporters? Is it like a universal law? Cassandra Clark, or as she likes to be called Cassie, was one of the first to discover Hourglass. The two seemed to form a friendship, and are never to far apart. I observed Hourglass spending much of her free time with Cassie, and despite officials of the Society asking her not to, will regularly involve Cassie in ongoing investigations. WEAKNESS: Does Orange soda count? Or as she calls it ‘Sody-pop’. Jeez showing your age a bit there Hourglass sweetie. It is fun to say though. Seriously she chugs those things. All the time. More professionally though, I have observed no physical weakness. You will need to refer to The Umber Knights Combat files. As to her powers I observed that the more she uses her time manipulation powers cracks of energy appear on her skin. She tends to not think ahead and is very reactionary in the moment.  It is easy to provoke her, and she is quick to loose her temper. Especially when dealing with Ricky Delaney, AKA Stalemate. Whenever Stalemate is involved she tends to act very petty and rash. She is also unable to assume a secret identity due to her anomalous appearance, though she does not seem to mind this. CLOSING NOTES: Archivist Kelsey Bernard. God am I glad no one really reads these general profiles. I wouldn't have nearly as much fun with them. Hourglass is hot and may I just say I totally ship her and Cassie. Am I allowed to say that? Imma do it anyways. Next time she comes in to collect her stipend I am going to ask her to go knock Randy’s head into the fridge.

[fancybois]

So a few weeks ago Sophie ( @buzzfeedworthit​) and I came up with this AU based off of the In Control With Kelsey Worth It episodes and she complied it. It’s not a fleshed out fic at all but the idea is there and it would be a dope long length fic 

Vampire!andrew’s outfit from the sims

He’s a vampire gang boss (?) who runs an underground gambling ring/casino behind a restaurant

Casino is v fabulous and opulent

Steven is a rookie detective who is trying to take down the upper crusts

Upper crusts are an organization involved in bribery/financial corruption in local politics posing as a food club

Steven asks around and is referred to andrew

Steven goes to the underground casino trying not to reek of cop to meet andrew

He is v intimidated but andrew is such a character who loves cats and immediately takes to steven “yeah i do crime but what r u gonna do abt it if u need my help” dynamic

Steven begrudgingly moves forward w getting andrew’s help and andrew makes him part of the crew so he can go undercover

TENSION everyone else can feel too

Andrew’s underlings just roll their eyes every time andrew tries to flirt w steven but steven just thinks that is how andrew is

He gets flustered anyway

Underlings @ andrew: ur getting awful close to him, boss… whats ur game here

Andrew wants to drinks stevens blood too but in a sexy way

Eventually they infiltrate upper crusts

Steven starts a thing w sophia to get close to the mom (leader) for info

Andrew is salty

Steven confronts andrew about why he is so pissy and tension keeps mission from really making any progress bc of petty things andrew does bc he is jealous

Steven: andrew, this is my case i gotta do this tf

Andrew sabotages every interaction w sophia

Jealous? Logical next step? Kill the competition (andrew considers)

Conveniently, andrew finds out sophias treachery and that she has found out abt steven and andrew’s true intentions w upper crusts and esp her mother

S and A find out theyve been compromised and andrew offers to “take care of her”

Steven is like wtf no?!

Steven: ANDREW NO

Andrew: ANDREW YES

Andrew: trust me

But steven is adamant that andrew cant kill her so he turns her which forces her to switch allegiance to s and a and join A’s coven

So steven sees vampire!andrew in action and THATS how he finds out A is a vampire and  is like i didnt sign up for this shit

Andrew is like im pretty sure u approached me sweetie

Turning someone into a vampire looks to be a sensual thing w sharing blood

With loyalty from sophia they get the info they need on her mom but it also makes steven jealous that she is now in andrew’s coven (involves doing vampire rituals together and just more time spent together doing vampire shit)

Prompts steven to reevaluate his feelings and deal w shock of finding out andrews… condition (and realises that andrew spending time w sophia bothers him but not because he is into sophia….hmmm)

Im jealous of my ex fake gf???

Eventually comes to terms w it but is convinced andrew is not into him bc he has read all their interactions as andrew being flirty w everyone is just his personality

Also how could be possibly be w a vampire--one who already has a lady vampire conveniently in his coven

Steven decides he needs distance

Ignores andrew

Angst ensues

Decides he has enough info and it is time to get the boss of upper crusts and take her down

Problem is andrew is his only ally but steven is not thinking clearly and goes after her by himself

Gets into dangerous situation

PLOT TWIST: dangerous situation is that clara has control over bernard and she commands Bernard to possess steven

Compels steven (bernard as steven) to do bad shit

Then he is made out to be bad guy after getting caught doing crime

Gets arrested and cops think he has been feeding info to baddies or is even a baddie boss himself (of upper crusts which effectively stops cops being interested in them bc they think they caught the boss)

Ryan and shane are cops and they have to arrest steven even tho theyre friends and it is sad “how could u steven”

Andrew knows something is wrong, this isnt steven and he confronts clara willing to do anything to get bernard out of steven

He confronts clara in mysterious and tense and elegant meeting at jazz bar

Andrew: cut the shit clara what did u do

Clara sippin that martini “shame about your lover but bernard is so enjoying himself”

Andrew is like wtf so hes possessed???

Clara: u have something of mine

Andrew: ur daughter isnt a possession?? (andrew and sophia have bonded and are homies by this time)

Becomes apparent clara doesnt give a shit abt her daughter and just thinks it would be beneficial to have a vampire for upper crusts’ dynamic

Andrew goes to sophia and tells her what happened

Sophia knows he loves steven so she agrees saying it will be ok and a good chance to re-infiltrate

Bernard leaves steven and then she waits til the right moment and BLEEDS HER MOM DRY

Clara: go get ur man, andrew

Steven is locked up and andrew seeks out ryan and shane and tells them everything

But hes a criminal and as a consequence of approaching the PD he gets taken in

Steven is disoriented when bernard leaves his body (violent exit, body wracking, vomiting) and he is suddenly like What am i doing here what is happening??

Andrew has explained but nobody believes possession (cops r like yeah wow that was quite the stomach flu steven had)

So andrew is like: fine… and bc he needs to redeem steven he owns up to everything and says he was controlling steven

So steven gets let out as andrew is booked

They tell steven he was being “controlled” but the term means different things to the police and to steven (bc he knows he was at least blacked out)

Leaving steven heartbroken that he was manipulated (the tale andrew told to save steven)

Steven goes to confront andrew

Why, if any of their tension was real

Andrew responds by speaking in code that yes it was real and that he lied to get steve out so that he can finish the mission (and bc he loves steven)

Steven is confused but goes to sophia who tells him what the code means and helps plan to break andrew out

Steven is ready to do illegal shit and break laws to get andrew out bc love

Steven could confess to his undercover work and tell everyone that andrew was helping

What andrew was booked for no longer valid bc govt sanctioned task to help them bring down actual culprits

Andrew knows that steven doing illegal shit would change steven and he doesnt want steven to do that and convinces him otherwise and do do (above) rather than jailbreak and run away together

Suddenly Steven and andrew told theyre good to go and steven is like how? (he was in middle of planning how to explain but doesnt have means to prove it bc it was super under cover and involves supernatural)

Suddenly rie (police boss) comes out as the one who assigned steven the task and backs him up (thus why they were let free)

Upper crusts taken down w info provided by sophia- paper trail bc clara is gone leaving everyone in gang in disarray

Someone had tried to step up and strongman it by ordering a hit on another group to strengthen their position but it goes awry bc they suck at crime and leadership

BUT dun dun hit is on andrew and steven

Could one of them die???

Upper crusts set up a hit and then sophia tells S and A bc she had stayed on and so they set up a trap

BUT audience doesn’t know that sophia has told them and helped them so threat of ch death hangs

Lets hit go thru and then it is explained that they knew and baddie is like WTF man

Sophia had to let it go until last minute in order to catch rest of crusts and involve PD

Case ends and epilogue is S and A in hawaii (classic) one brings the other a drink and they kiss before being like u ready?? And steven is like u bet babe (bc they’re actually there for a mission as crime fighting duo)

THE END <3

[postguiltypleasures]

Goodbye to Younger

Unfortunate to say, I don’t think I have ever seen Sutton Foster on Broadway. I watched her previous show, the one season wonder, Bunheads, and felt obliged to follow her to Younger. I don’t have particularly strong feelings about Sex and the City, show runner Darren Star’s previous hit. There are huge gaps in the episodes I’ve seen, and I haven’t seen any since the first movie came out. I enjoyed watching it with friends, but never tried it alone. I bring this up, because I have mostly watched Younger all alone. The series about a recently divorced forty year old woman named Liza who lies about her age to get a job in publishing after years of being a stay at home mom. She lives with an artist friend her real age (Maggie), befriends a colleague her fake age (Kelsey) and quickly get in a love triangle with men from each age group (Charles and Josh, respectively). The first season wasn’t that well received. There were times while watching it that if felt cringeworthy. Criticism of being out of touch with the publishing industry was definitely warranted. I remember reading a review that called out an early plot involving Joyce Carol Oates not having a Twitter account when she really does have one and frequently trends for not great reasons. I cringed while watching that episode. (The reviewer, Miriam Krule was wrong about the long term treatment of the character of Diana. Younger would have been unwatchable if she were right long term.) After the first season Breanne L Heldman published an interesting interview on Yahoo! News with Darren Star and Marti Noxon about having buzzy shows on unexpected networks. But also Kate Dries at Jezebel also wrote an item about Hilary Duff, who plays Kelsey, covering Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” that doubles as a “who’s actually watching Duff’s new show?” bit.

With the second season the press got immediately better. New Yorker critic (and long time SATC fan) Emily Nussbaum wrote a positive review about how the show mixes froth with more serious subjects like agism and difficult divorces. And from then on the critical response was generally good-but inclined to dismiss as fluff.

(I have to interject, the episodes that Liza’s ex-husband showed up seem to dampen the real reasons for their divorce and I am torn between seeing this as a sign of him actually being charming, and the show needing to move on quickly from exploring too dark topics.)

The ensemble gelled and I wanted to highlight this charming interview Molly Bernard, who played Lauren, did an

interview with Maria Elena Fernandez back in 2016. I liked this interview. She talks a lot about what her grandfather meant to her, as a person and acting coach. It covers too many of her gigs to be really insightful for Younger, but that is part of the charm. It’s interesting to focus on Lauren as a character representing the spirit of the series. My first impression was an impersonal, crass caricature of a millennial, what Liza had to work against to convince people that she is a millennial. At the end of the first season she threw herself a “Hot-Mitzvah”, like a Bat Mitzvah for when the awkward years the celebration normally occurs during are over a. The first episode of the final season includes a party for her thirtieth birthday, making something of a full circle moment. The first party definitely worked more for the show’s dramatic purposes, which is related to a theme in this good bye.

During the penultimate season, while the show was was at its peak of being loved by the people, Alissa Wilkinson dedicated one of Vox’s (now defunct) Episode of the Week columns to her changing thoughts on the series’s central love triangle. wrote about. I chose to include this article while I started drafting this, before the season actually aired, in the hopes that I would finish writing by the end of the season. (Obviously, it really didn’t work out.) The article covers Wilkinson’s impression of the show from the beginning. She was Team Charles in the love triangle, but plot points within the first four episodes of the sixth season made her rethink that. As the final season disappointed some of the show’s biggest supporters were disappointed, I thought of it as insightful on how the show could make terrible missteps, and that the love triangle was not as well weighted as viewers hoped earlier on.

The first article I saw going into the final season was on the AV Club written by Innes Bellina. The headline promised that the new episode would remind fans why they love it. Interestingly, it seems positive to optimistic about some aspects of the plot that others would later said made the season terrible, such as Maggie’s plot. It’s even warm towards a plot involving a Greta Thuneberg stand in, that I watched wondering, “will people who like this show more than me love this?” Based on Twitter anecdotes, they mostly didn’t.

At TVLine there were a couple of interviews with the cast. The first, written by Andy Swift is filled with assurances that despite the extended hiatus things will be exactly as intended and as the viewers have always loved. The second is also by Andy Swift and focuses on the Josh/Liza/Charles love triangle. Interestingly they insist that the Love Triangle was never that big a deal, it was always about Team Liza. There is a certain amount of sense to this, but it might also be related to one of the bigger problems fans had with the final season, which is how isolated Josh felt from the rest of cast, especially if they were going to have (spoiler) the implied rekindling of his relationship with Liza that the final scene suggests.

Before the season premiered, Scarlet Harris published an essay in Bitch praising the female friendships, in particular between Liza and Kelsey and Liza and Diana. The essay clearly loves this aspect of the show, but also highlights how dissappointing the the men and the cis hit romantic relationships with them are frustrating. It comes with the hope and the final season would have Liza choosing herself and focusing on her and Kelsey’s friendship and professional goals. It’s an interesting pice to look back on and consider why the final season didn’t satisfy many fans. Ultimately the show was attempting to spin off Kelsey, (in the final episode she announces plans to move to Los Angeles) and it spent a lot the season with her trying to make her job after demotion better, but ultimately deciding that she had to move on. I did kind of like how Kelsey being demoted and Charles returning to his position as publisher wasn’t treated as a reset. That there were lingering frustrations all around. It’s just that some of these frustrations led to real non starters of plots.

If anything prepared me for the change in temperature for this season when the New York Times ran an article by Alexis Soloski pondering if Younger and The Bold Type ending this season meant that this was the end of portraying media jobs as glamorous, well paying and aspirational. It focuses more on The Bold Type, but the general idea that Younger was out of step with the now.

Then came some surprise tweets from Emily Nussbaum:

Man, Younger is bad this season The Maggie plot feels ripped from Californication, of all bad influences A full-on bummer-wish they found a way to just tie things up & end it. It’s not even parodying publishing anymore (and avoiding subjects like race entirely.)

Also, I’m happy to suspend belief, but in what universe would Kelssey [sic], a hardened, trend-spotting Millenial publisher, and Lauren, an influencer publicist, credulously join a reality show & non imagine a bad edit? C’mon.

It’s so bizarre that Younder has shriveled into full hate-watchability in a single season. I can’t remember a steeper quality decline! What the hell happened over there.

So the things that I thought of as quirks of the series that I learned to leave on a curve, were actually things that made people who loved the series deeply dislike the season. This confused me. How to make sense of it?

I'm going to look at a couple of final season interviews and try and make sense from that side.

Laura Benanti, who played the Billionaire (and Liza’s romantic rival) Quinn, was interviewed by Vulture Devon Ivie. She discusses her character’s Sound of Music speech in which she identifies as the Baroness and identifies Liza as Maria. Benanti relates to this speech as she has played both roles. They discuss how the fans frustration with the love triangle directs most of the anger towards Charles, instead of Quinn. While they praise this as an enlightened response, it might also be fans turning on the show. Why invest in a story about Liza’s relationship with Charles when he doesn’t seem worth ending up with?

After the season ended, Sutton Foster gave an interview to Elizabeth Wagmeister at Variety. Foster is very enthusiastic about the final season. She loves how open ended it is about Liza’s love life, (she and Josh reenact their meet cute in the final scene) and that Liza is in a good place professionally. The various frustrating steps getting there aren’t addressed. I like that she and Charles realize they aren’t going to work out and ending things. That might have played better if so much of the season wasn’t about pining for him while he got in a bad relationship with Quinn. The possibility of rekindling things with Josh might have played better if they interacted more in the season. (That said, Josh was always closer to the spirit of the show than Charles. Also this is at least the third show I’ve watched in which the solution to a cis-het couple disagreeing about having children, where the man wants one and the woman doesn’t is resolved by him having a child with another woman. Individually I’m fine with the stories, but I hate that it’s a trend.) Foster also discusses how the show is escapist, and a fantasy while talking about how the show didn’t address COVID-19.

Earlier, I wondered how the show would address the Trump administration, and ultimately, they didn’t. Part of me thinks the thing that went wrong for former fans is related to the attempt to stay light and fantasy like in the face of so many painful changes. For most of the show’s existence I wanted someone to talk to about it in comparison to Sex and the City. It had a more regular plots about not having money and gentrification. Its take on its main four female leads romantic lives ended up differently, but they may have had similar problems with the romantic relationships. Somehow, trying to stay a light fantasy seems to turn into not really learning. I’m not sure if the final season was disappointing because of a decline in quality, or circumstances highlighting its worst tendencies. In any case, it was the show ending I was most ready to say good bye to, and now I have.