#With one of the largest being that I lost a lot of the icons for muses over here a short while back

[ouroboros-hideout]

WIP WHENEVER

@chevvy-yates tagged me for this. Thank you a lot 💚

This will be a huge wall of text aswell, since I am not really of the „visual“ side of creating atm.

Writing // Worldbuilding

I'm still writing the next two chapters for my fanfiction, but would rather briefly introduce my other OCs here (yes, Aon isn´t the only one by now). Maybe I can create all of them ingame at some point, depending on how stupid I´ll act with modding etc. when I start. Since things can change quickly in the story while I'm writing, I wouldn't say that everything is 100% set in stone, a lot of it isn't finished yet. But it's a good base. Most of them appear in my „Like Napalm“ fic. Some of them will be in my main GARMR fic aswell. So prepare for half backed character data entries and some rambling.

Gan

Gan Tomobataar, or Iron as he is usually called, is a mysterious man. Many stories surround the Mongolian giant and it always depends on who asks him whether he affirms or denies these tales. It is therefore uncertain which of them are true or fictional and he really enjoys keeping his past in the dark. He is said to have served in an elite military unit. The metal teeth that earned him his iconic nickname are said to have been lost in numerous boxing matches as he tried to turn pro to make a better life for himself and his family, and he is allegedly a descendant of Ginghis Khan (which is probably one of his favorite rumors). One can assume that his closest confidants have more clarity, but none of them would dare say a word about it. Undeniably true is that he has two brothers, of whom he is the second-born. Together with them, he leads one of the largest nomadic clans in eastern Europe and Asia. The Tomobataar nomads are divided into three large families, each led by one of the three brothers. Iron's family stays mainly in Mongolia and Russia, but he would also travel to more distant parts of the Soviet Union for profitable contracts. He doesn't have many vices, but one of them is definitely greed.

By sheer luck, at least that's what he claimed, he picked up Aon on the street when she was trying to flee Moscow on her own. He promised to protect her from the Secret Police and other bounty hunters if she proved to be a useful member of his clan. However, his methods for testing her worth would put the young woman to the test.

Yakov

Yakov always had problems finding his place in the world. He grew up in St. Petersburg, studying or an education other than working in his father's car repair shop were never an option financially, but the young man always yearned for something greater than being stuck in the alleys and streets of his childhood. He decided to join the military when he was old enough, but was discharged immediately after basic training for insubordination and general unsuitability. What remained for him was to work in his father's garage until he died after a long illness. Yakov tried to keep the store running on his own for a while, but he found it difficult to do good business without proper management and eventually had to sell the store. This was followed by a relatively dark period. He saw himself as a failure, was unable to find a new job and drank away the money he had received for the workshop in the bars in his neighborhood. One evening, a man came into his local pub. His car had broken down outside, he wouldn't get any further that night and kept him company for a few hours. The next day, Yakov repaired his car for the man called Gan and left the town with him to live with the Tomobataar nomads.

Gregori

Gregori's mother, a singer from New York, came to the Russian capital for a gig and met a military officer there. The two got together and the result was little Greg. Shortly afterwards, however, the couple fell apart and she took her son back to America, where he spent most of his childhood and youth being raised by babysitters and nannies, while the singer preferred to spend her time on tour or in the recording studio. Gregori at least inherited much of her creativity, starting to make music himself at an early age and drawing a lot. Just what small children do when they need to keep themselves busy.

When he was 16 years old, his mother died of an overdose. As she never bothered to write down a testament or anything similar, her entire fortune goes to her greedy manager, who leaves Gregori penniless.

The boy, who has spent his whole life sheltered without much contact with the outside world, is left with nothing and doesn't know exactly what to do. So he scrapes together the last of his money and buys a ticket to Moscow, where he tries to find his father, but in vain. He quickly goes off the rails, barely speaks a word of Russian, is recruited by a gang and gets exploited. An arms deal with a group of nomads goes wrong, a shootout ensues and Gegori is the only one left of the gang because he hides instead of fighting. Yakov, who was on the other side of the deal, takes pity on him and eventually takes him to his new family where he tries to find his place within the group.

Anna

Anna grew up with the Tomobataar nomads from an early age. Her parents were killed in a botched mission when she was just four years old. Iron, who in a way blamed himself for this, took on a guardianship for her and looked after the little girl like the apple of his eye. As the years passed and Anna grew older, the relationship between her and her foster father changed. He became increasingly demanding, punished misbehavior and put the still young girl under pressure. Aon, who had already earned her place in the clan by this time, could not tolerate this behavior as she herself had grown up under similar circumstances. No one else in the clan interfered with Iron's "parenting methods", which is why she ended up doing it. Anna and Aon then became inseparable and she naturally followed her later when they left the clan along with many others.

Anatoly

Anatoly, or Tolik as Aon calls him, belongs to the Russian working class in Moscow and cannot claim to own much. As a boy, he dreamed of studying mechanical engineering in order to open his own workshop or business. A dream that his father would never have been able to afford in this life. So after school, Tolik started working at his father's scrap yard on the outskirts of Moscow, not an easy job. He regularly drives into the city to pick up old components and scrap metal from SovOil and other big corporations, where he meets Alyona one day. The two strike up a conversation, exchange banter and hit it off straight away, which over time develops into a teenage love story. Aon spends a lot of time with him at the scrapyard, where she can test and improve her skills on old machines and has a place to hide from her hated stepfather. He, in return, benefits from the knowledge she brings with her from university, and his dream of building his own big thing soon becomes her dream too. Together they consider leaving the city at some point and make plans for the future

unnamed_chromed_up_terrifying_SovOil_Secret_Police_agent

Yea well, I don't know yet how to call him. After Aon has fled Moscow, the officers of the normal police force give up the search for her, as it theoretically no longer falls within their area of responsibility. However, since Kristof claims that Aon stole the data he wanted to sell to Petrochem, SovOil is naturally very interested in finding her and the data chip. So they send a Secret Police agent after her, who, together with a small unit, tries to track her down. He actually already had a kind of "Easter Egg" appearance in my other AU. He would have been the agent sitting next to Kurt if he hadn't switched the cards on the table. Funny how differently things can go. Anyway, he doesn't really have much of a backstory other than he used to work for the KGB and is a bloodthirsty hound dog who chases Aon halfway across the country (spoiler: and finds her). If I were to compare him to another character from movies etc, he would probably have the closest vibe to Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds. The character was very well written, even though I would probably make my namesless_pig a bit younger than him. But since he'll be pumped full of cyberware anyway, it probably doesn't matter much in the end. It's just supposed to be a fucking horrible character and Aon's nightmare.

Robert Walker

Robert is one of the key-characters in my main fanfiction. I haven't thought about him in depth yet, but the general concept is there. He's a British journalist and photographer who wanted to go high by exposing wrongdoings in society. For him, there is nothing more exciting than achieving "fame and notoriety" as a whistleblower. He's not necessarily stupid or doesn't know what he's doing, he's just unlucky. He gets into trouble with the wrong people and upsets the even worse ones, which is why he has to flee the UK and ends up in NC. There he tries to start over and stay out of trouble. However, he soon develops an "unhealthy" obsession with Kurt Hansen. He is incredibly fascinated by him and spends every free minute in Dogtown so that he can perhaps take a photo (or two, or ten) of his idol. At some point, he goes so far as to seek direct contact and wants to interview him. Kurt is flattered at first, but has little desire to reveal information about himself in some strange blog or gossip magazine. But that didn't stop Robert from continuing to stalk him and even trying to become a member of Barghest. At some point, Hansen got too pissed off and gave him the choice of leaving Dogtown or catching a bullet. Robbie chose the second option. After all, he hadn't forbid him to camp outside the gates of Dogtown, had he?

Technically I could tell something about Aon´s mom and her stepfather too, but I don´t have that much yet. So will keep em for the next WIP together with the other OCs for my main fic. There will be three more. A general, a corpo guy and the last is still up for discussion with my brain. Considering somekind of warlord or a netrunner.

Art

I tried to do something different than a full rendered piece of artwork. I am not yet confinced that I like it. I like, that it was finished really fast lmao but...I dunno.

Aon and Tolik - 2055

But happy that Aon is actually recognizable in the end. During the process she looked so much like So Mi at a point that my brain went: WHO ARE YOU GIRL. But I like the long hair. Will give it back to her in her 2078+ appearance. Not exactly like this, but longer than her normal style.

Not quite sure about Anatoly tho. I mean, he looks like this in my head, but I will reconsidere if he will get some cyberarms. He is poor like a mouse, so probably can´t afford expensive tech like this, but he feels kind of „empty“ without anything.

Congrats and huge thanks if you read this far. Brainrot stronk!

Tagging some ppl aswell. Everyone else is invited too to show off some awesome stuff ofc, no pressure as always!

@blackrevell @olath124 @cyberholic77 @cybervesna @pinkyjulien @theviridianbunny @therealnightcity @wanderingaldecaldo @miss--river @barghestapologist @kdval @streetkid-named-desire @aggravateddurian @androgymess

[you-cant-fuck-megaman]

so, as mentioned before, 30XX is a lot of fun. (i'm going to get back to updates soon, this game has simply siphoned my soul and now i am a child again experiencing the entire spectrum of megaman emotions at once.)

but one thing that's really starting to annoy me is the story. or rather, the complete lack of it. i guess it's true to the source material, given that the story in megaman isn't really all that great either, but at least it's straightforward before we hit the zero series. you know what you're doing, you're a little guy about three apples tall and there's a bad guy sending out robots you have to shoot. then you hit the zero series and it's just someone forgetting their meds and thinking Mechanical Violator Hakaider was a good movie (it was ok) then you hit ZX and fuck it we Kamen Rider now

point is, it's all pretty firmly straightforward shit. we know what's going on, there's an evil scientist destroying things with his robots. stop him. pls

30XX doesn't really tell you squat.

spoilers below, in case you're a moron like me and you're deeply emotionally invested in the story of megaman-alikes.

the opening tutorial cutscene features ace dying to wake up nina, who just says there's work to do. and then you hop out, shoot a robot, and end up in a space station base where a tiny lesbian tells you there's work to do. also ace is ok, you can jump into a capsule to turn into him. either that or nina is the fastest transitioning icon in media but go her i guess (go him??? idk how trans-ing works) you jump into the levels, shoot the bosses, and see a tall lesbian that tells you she's doing work and that you can't stop her work, and then the second largest cock i've seen comes out of the interdimensional hole and you mount it and you fight AU tiny lesbian and Alpha 1.0 pre-transition Nina and Ace in there.

what the fuck?

what am i doing? why am i here? what is happening? what the fuCK IS GOING ON???? WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR?????????

the cursory idea is that you have to find the data terminals to learn what's going on in the world, but near as i can tell the tall lesbian isn't actually an evil scientist destroying things with her robots, because the world is already dying and so that's different because but it seems the more i get into things, the more lost i'm getting

characters will just randomly appear on the ship and i'm just expected to accept it. who is Delta, outside of being a dashing, charismatic, sexuality-threateningly handsome cool guy who likes a challenge? who is the scrap salvager, outside of maybe being Vika from 20XX? tiny lesbian says that if i vouched for them then they're all right to havE AROUND BUT I DIDN'T VOUCHE FOR THEM I HAVE NO CLUE WHO THEY UFCKING ARE!!!!!!!!!!

i suspect it's because of the expansion in scope in trying to make a bigger game. there's not really a lot of ways to really justify the plot of a roguelite, there's only so many methods you can explain away death and rebirth happening in-universe. last time i asked my doctor about the cycle of samsara he just told me "you have to wake up, the accident wasn't your fault". in 20XX, you're just a pair of flash-cloned experiments doing experimental runs. and that's really all the context you need; you have a setup, a goal, an antagonistic force, and a reason to do things there's the question about how the game world continues after you win the game and destroy everything and escape the space station, but i didn't say it was perfect. but it was good! it made sense!

meanwhile, 30XX seems to be about multiversal collapsing and each run is a separate world disparate from each other. there's too many worlds and each world is trying to share in the same place because the infinite universe is actually finite. and nina was demonized after 20XX because of her super-power because despite Sharp and Flat both being idiots they were actually, like, super-geniuses that made the strongest robots ever. (these are the same guys that mass-produced buzzsaw hamsters) oh, and everyone's already dead??? man this sure is some tonal dissonance from how fucking goofy everything is. not three minutes ago i saw the universe's second-largest cock plunge through time and space. midgard? more like midhard hah hah hah hahhhhhh

at the end of the day they're focused on the gameplay instead of the story. and that's perfectly fine. admirable, even, for a megaman-style project. a lot of megaman fanstuff creators (myself included) tend to masturbate text out with forces rivaling the niagara falls. oh baby, expand that wordcount. it's good to see something that just wants to focus on jumping and shooting instead of trying to write the next masterpiece exploring the nature of the human condition. but i'll admit it's a little underwhelming. i liked nina and ace and i cared about what they were doing, and 30xx doesn't seem to be willing to really flesh them out.

oh well, time for another run! 9/10 game tbh

[princesssarcastia]

I posted 21,227 times in 2022

That's 5,091 more posts than 2021!

174 posts created (1%)

21,053 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@wabblebees

@absentlyabbie

@mandaloriandy

@theunofficiallibrarian

@aniseandspearmint

I tagged 1,803 of my posts in 2022

#pretty - 188 posts

#art - 159 posts

#star wars - 82 posts

#dc - 36 posts

#meta - 30 posts

#that's my wife - 28 posts

#star trek - 28 posts

#tags tags tags - 24 posts

#fashion - 22 posts

#anyway - 20 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#play stupid games (allow the corporate surveillance state into your home) win stupid prizes (unsuable tech you made essential to your life a

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

alright all the irl people who know anything about this actually LIKE the man so this is the only place i can say it, but

harry styles gets on my nerves.  the REASON he gets on my nerves is that he gives off the vibe of like—he’s like the human embodiment of being gay but not queer.  i don’t think he’s even gay (he may be, he may not, i don’t even really care) but that’s what it feels like to me.  it’s like the essence of the thing people are upset about, with pride being commercialized and becoming hollow and meaningless.

oh!  i know.  seeing harry styles speak (or sing.  or apparently do some fashion icon thing) and people get excited about it, is like watching other queer gay people go up to the amazon booth at the pride festival excited for free swag and thinking its cool that amazon is here.  that’s what its like.

60 notes - Posted September 7, 2022

#4

“Because the unavoidable truth here is that the system is already rigged.  And its rigged in a way that has allowed a party without popular support to drastically reshape an entire branch of government for the foreseeable future by appealing almost exclusively to white voters in some of the least populous regions in the country.  That is not a mandate, and its not democracy.  It’s a fucking travesty! 

“We are at the end of a generational battle, and the heartbreaking thing is, we lost.

“And that hurts.  It’s going to hurt for a long time, for a lot of people, in ways that could take a while to fully comprehend.  But the next battle has to start right now; and it will be long—we didn’t get here overnight, and we won’t get out of here overnight.  But we must be willing to fight tirelessly and with every tool and tactic at our disposal.”

As always, John Oliver says it better than I ever could.  This is his episode from just after Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, which was the point of no return on the path to overturning Roe v. Wade.  We were always going to end up here, but got does the knife still hurt slipping into your gut, even if you saw it coming.

77 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#3

to be honest i feel like both AOS canon and aos fandom don’t treat the vulcan genocide in the first movie with enough gravity.  like.  80-90% of the time people don’t even call it what it is, let alone focus on what the effects would be on the remaining vulcans.  we actually spend way more time talking about tarsus iv as a fandom than nero’s destruction of vulcan.  and the more I write for AOS the more that wigs me out a bit.

the WHOLE PLANET is GONE.  SIX BILLION PEOPLE were MURDERED in a matter of HOURS.  it’s mass death on the largest scale in what I assume is recorded federation history.  we could uh.  dwell on that.  a bit more.  there’s probably something there worth talking about.

78 notes - Posted January 23, 2022

#2

next steps re: lizzy biting the big one

starting with india, kenya, pakistan, grenada, or cyprus, countries begin to leave the commonwealth

liz truss tries to do some diplomacy about it and it doesn’t work

charles the third of his name or what the fuck ever tries to do some diplomacy about it, says something BREATHTAKINGLY RACIST and actively makes it worse.  countries start leaving even faster.

australia peaces out

scotland announces a new independence vote before the end of the year

wales, not to be outdone, announces an independence vote before the end of the MONTH

canada peaces out

someone starts a conspiracy theory on tiktok that liz truss had the queen poisoned just after their official meeting

Ireland announces the affirmative results of the reunification vote it held while you motherfuckers were distracted via the Sinn Féin twitter.   britain pulls a spain circa 2017 and tries to prevent it

king charles III dies of a heart attack from stress, smh guys he just wanted to live out the remainder of his life in peace while directly profiting from the imperial and colonial violence of his mother ancestors, he wasn’t expecting to actually have to WORK for it

king arthur returns, sword in hand, to reclaim his rightful place as king.  the tories, desperate at this point for some kind of miracle, let him do it. 

his first act as king is to demand the abolition of the british monarchy, because “strange women lying in ponds and distributing swords is no basis for a system of government”

someone calls a vote of no confidence in liz truss.  she fails it (in large part due to the conspiracy theory), they hold an election

Christopher eccleston becomes the prime minister

242 notes - Posted September 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

ao3 crashing just as i try to click through to the last chapter of the fic i stayed up all night to finish is just fucking typical

2,347 notes - Posted June 6, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[kytedevlin]

Fortnite and Success

So I’ve been playing fortnite for a while, it really took off from launch. After having played Save The World, the original draw i had to the game i can say that i enjoy it but i feel like with its popularity it lost a lot that makes it unique. Truly with all of the changes and new additions its added to its signature battle royale game mode, its original design seems to have been left far in the dust. With pop culture icons from music to comics and back to video games Fortnite has become a platform that everything and everyone can get involved in. But where was that love for “Save The World”. Despite its many events and unique gameplay, the use of some of that ingenuity and pop culture dis not extend to it, whether it be new heroes to play with or survivors to use as attributes or even defenders to help you protect your base it just didn’t come full circle. Vehicles did not make it to Save The World and Save The Worlds signature abilities did not make it to battle royale. This may not always be the case but 9 seasons with no hint of these of any prospect of new characters or vehicles entering into Save The World, or Zombie integration with Battle Royale, leads one to a single conclusion towards the future. I think despite its success Fortnite will remain a reminder of what marketing and popularity can do to a franchise. And those who enjoy video games or other forms of media will have to one day ask themselves has it gotten past the appoint of originality, is originality worth it? How many original designs kept their integrity and failed, or is everything simply a new ship for the hot new content on the market or whatever the local pop culture icons decide for us. If something doesn't try it cannot truly fail, perhaps that was just the ticket for Fortnite. If it had followed its original design, what was its design roadmap, what would we have seen? Adventure mode, with a story line similar to the quests it offers. A true survival mode, where you have to simply survive and building a base for yourself is the true goal? Would we have seen, newer more incredible zombies, or behemoths? And even still with all its popularity, why have we not already seen, new defenders, survivors, and heroes based on all of the pop culture icons, video games, comics, and other storybook characters to join the fight in Save The World. I think the harrowing fact remains that we will never know. And that despite its huge success, it really is a vessel of so many mediums it might as well just be paper. The small portion of its original design that it reserves for itself, is a far cry from the ingenuity that they dedicate to the rest of the game. It's not the only game that I believe has suffered this fate recently, but I do think by being one of the largest to date, for those who follow games from beginning to end, this will be a significant portion of a decade's worth of media, and though all of its positives will surely be mentioned, only those who had watched its original trailers will know anything close to what I have stated. It's not a bad thing to reach success, but on the road that it is on, could that be what its considered? Is that success Fortnite's? Or is it unreal engines and epic games' ?, and are there those who believe they are one and the same? From a person like me, I think Fortnite is doing great, It still has time to do a lot more, and the changes I want to see probably won't make it into Save The World or the larger Battle Royale, but in reality, you can't argue with success wherever it is made. That said, to go years without a hint of anything revolving around its original design, is a bit defeating to anyone who viewed its original trailers. Though I am sure those people are satisfied as well.

[plutominho]

start of something new || han

✧ WRITTEN BY: galaxy

✧ GENRE: college au, new year’s eve au, strangers to lovers/love interests, fluff

✧ PAIRING: han x reader

✧ SUMMARY: this is quite literally your and jisung’s disney channel moment

✧ WORD COUNT: 4.1k

✧ NOTES/WARNINGS: mild language + very brief mention of alcohol. confident!reader has pipes that the writer can only dream of. jisung is a fratboy that gets easily (and adorably) shy. speaking of fratboys, wingman! + fratboy!felix knows how to make a party interesting (max and i have this headcanon that jisung and felix are both fratboys but in different fonts and this fic basically fueled that agenda). short appearance of bestfriend!ryujin. yes this imagine was inspired by a certain iconic ‘00s disney movie, yes i was a disney kid, and yes i royally fucked up my sleep schedule for the sake of writing this imagine so pls don’t let it flop :/

HAPPY NEW YEAR BESTIES!! i hope y’all like this imagine and have a happy 2022 💖💫

on an unrelated note i literally bought the song used in this imagine and had it on repeat every night till 3-3:30 a.m. for the past four nights to write this can u tell i’ve lost my mind

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

you let out a shaky breath, shivering lightly as you leaned against the railing and admired the city lights. the ski lodge that your university’s student body had rented out for the annual new year’s party was absolutely gorgeous. the main rooms inside looked like something out of a movie, and the back area outside where you stood featured hot tubs, as well as a breathtaking view of the city that stood miles away from the venue. definitely worth the $80 fee to rsvp a spot for the trip.

you looked around you, and it seemed like you were the only one outside. a group of boys had come out to grab food from the grill earlier, so you only assumed they went inside.

after a minute, you decided to do the same, entering the ski lodge through the glass door and shutting it behind you. you figured you could find something interesting inside. after all, you were here for a good time. it’d be a waste not to seek it while you could.

as you stepped in, you found yourself back in the common room, the largest room in the resort, where the majority of the other students on the trip were gathered. most of the people formed a crowd around the middle of the room, eating and chatting amongst themselves as music blasted from the surround speakers.

at the center of the room was a small karaoke stage, right in front of a vacant dj stand. you watched a girl standing upon the karaoke stage, slurring the lyrics to “all i want for christmas is you” off-key into the mic as you navigated your way to the front of the crowd. you bit your lip to hold back a grimace; the university had banned alcohol from the party due to some students being underage, and it was painfully obvious she had snuck some in anyway.

what caught your attention the most, however, was someone else singing the same song. a male voice carried amongst the chatter, and you could still hear it from your spot towards the left of the stage. he was singing circles around the girl with the mic. and god was he loud.

“he’s good, isn’t he?”

you turned your head to the freckled, blonde boy who had asked you the question. you recognized him from around campus; you had heard from your best friend, ryujin, who was also at the party but catching up with other friends, that he was an officer of the student body as well as a fraternity member, so you always saw him at campus events. looking at his white hoodie with the university logo on the upper right corner, you figured he was one of the students in charge of the ski lodge party—you had seen several other people donning the same hoodie, so it made sense.

you glanced at the general direction of the singing boy before nodding at the blonde. “oh, yeah.”

“you know,” he motioned for you to lean closer, “he’s enjoying himself an awful lot for someone who didn’t want to be here.”

you let out a chuckle. “you’re kidding, right?”

“nope,” he said, popping the p. 

“well… maybe he did want to come, but just needed convincing? it’s not everyday you see a frat boy at a student gov event.”

“i mean, maybe. or maybe i’m just a god at peer pressure.”

you shook your head as the two of you laughed. was that foul of him? sure. but was it genius? absolutely. you liked him already.

you heard a few claps as the drunk girl finished the song, dramatically bowing before stepping offstage. the blonde boy lightly placed his hand on your shoulder, taking his cue to leave and telling you to enjoy the party. 

you watched him slip into the crowd, and before you knew it, he was at the center of the small stage.

“alright, let’s give it up for her, everyone!” he spoke into the mic, prompting another round of applause. “who’s up next?”

the crowd murmured softly, everyone trying to convince their friends to volunteer, but to no avail. eventually, all the chatter died down as everyone began looking around, wondering who would take the bait. 

the blonde sighed a little, clicking his tongue a few times and shaking his head. “come on guys,” he said. “we were doing so well, what happened?”

still nothing. not a single word from the crowd. 

he huffed a little, laughing softly into the mic as he tried one more time. “come onnnn guysss, or i’ll start volunteering people myself.”

the crowd froze. no one dared to make a move in fear of being singled out. the room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. 

you pursed your lips as your eyes darted around the room. not even the loud boy was in sight to save everyone’s ass. shrugging, you hesitated for another moment before raising your hand. you were here for a good time, so why not?

“i’ll go.”

several heads turned your direction, and you saw people trying to follow the sound of your voice, scanning the crowd. 

the freckled, blonde boy saw you, and he smiled warmly from ear to ear. as you made your way onstage and grabbed a mic, he mouthed a ‘thank you’ to which you just smiled and nodded your head. 

“alright, that’s what i’m talking about!” he said, letting out a whoop.

you chuckled a little, looking at the corner of the room for a moment.

“and you know,” he added, prompting you to look back at him. “since you were kind enough to volunteer—what’s your name?”

“y/n.”

“y/n,” the blonde repeated before continuing. “since you were kind enough to volunteer, y/n, i’ll give you a duet partner! if you’re okay with that, of course.”

you smiled and nodded, going along. “that would be great, thank you!”

“alright!” he chirped. “now let’s see…”

the boy ran a hand through his hair as he scanned the crowd. you glanced at the crowd, too, for a second, before turning your head to look at him again, and you got front row seats as an evil smirk slowly creeped on his face. you especially took note of the cocky chuckle he did, as if he was imagining all the things that could go wrong. 

what was he planning?

“jisung! get up here!”

he pointed into the crowd, and you followed his finger, which was clearly set on a specific person. your gaze landed on a brunette boy in a leather jacket over an off-yellow hoodie (with skinny jeans to complete the look), who you assumed was jisung by the look on his face. 

the brunette’s face displayed a look of utter betrayal, and you couldn’t help but laugh at his expression. 

“FELIX I THOUGHT WE HAD A DEAL, C’MON!”

you looked back at the blonde—felix—whose evil grin hadn’t left his face. “i know, but i never said i wouldn’t make you sing!” 

“BRO I DON’T SING.” 

even without a microphone, the brunette’s voice was loud enough for everyone to hear. the poor people standing around him, you thought to yourself as you watched with a smile. 

“well, that seems like a you problem!” the blonde turned back to you, motioning for you to come with him to the dj stand, where the song catalog was. “anyway, y/n, what would you like to sing?” 

“I DON’T EVEN GET TO CHOOSE THE SONG I’M SINGING?!”

“well, you didn’t seem very invested in this when i called on you so… no.” felix chuckled before moving the mic away from his mouth and looking over your shoulder at the song catalog. you mouthed to him, asking if jisung was the boy he was talking about a few minutes ago, which he confirmed with a nod. 

meanwhile, jisung continued his protests, which were only ignored by the both of you. 

“he said you looked good when you came in earlier, by the way,” felix deadpanned.

“WHAT.”

your head whipped around, but you were only met by the back of felix’s head as he had gone back to entertaining the crowd (and jisung’s complaints) at the karaoke stage.

you turned back around, shaking the thought from your mind as you continued browsing songs for duets. you found one you liked and went back to the karaoke stage to show felix your pick.

“what about this one?” 

felix turned around, before looking at the song you were pointing to. “a bit cliche, don’t you think?”

you shrugged. “he just sang his heart out to ‘all i want for christmas’, i think he’ll enjoy this.”

by this point, the brunette had scurried up to the stage to grab a mic, stopping at the front edge of the stage just in time to hear your last comment. it was enough to make his ears turn red in embarrassment, which you noticed with a smile. 

“oh, no no, you did great, baby! i wasn’t making fun of you.” you reassured jisung with a wink as you made your way to the karaoke machine. 

he turned his head, following your motion from his spot as he ran his hands through his hair. “oh, i know i did great, thank you.”

you gave the boy a look as if to say, ‘really?’ to which he shrugged cockily. but you could see in his face that he was embarrassed, nevermind the rosy tint on his cheeks. your eyes lingered on him for a few more seconds before turning back around. you couldn’t help but be endeared by the way he reacted to your taunts, as much as you hated to admit it. 

you called felix over for help with the machine, to which he gladly came over again. as he helped you select the song, he turned to jisung. “hey, ji, i think you’re gonna need this,” he spoke into his mic before tossing it to the brunette.

jisung fumbled with the mic, barely able to catch it which made you and felix snicker to yourselves. his confident yet embarrassed demeanor piqued your interest, and boy were you going to have some fun with it. 

not giving him any time to react, you started the song, and the first beats of “start of something new” filled the room. 

“high school musical?!” 

“what, you scared of some disney channel?” you teased into the mic, a confident smile on your face. 

“I TOLD YOU YOU WOULDN’T REGRET THIS!” you recognized the now distant voice of felix, who had to yell from his spot in the crowd as he had given his mic to the boy standing offstage. 

“i don’t deserve this—” jisung groaned.

you watched the brunette in amusement, debating whether you should take the first lines of the song. with how much he was rambling complaints into his microphone, it looked like you were going to end up doing troy’s part.

after a few beats, the cue started, and so did you. “🎵living in—🎵”

“🎵living in my own world~🎵” jisung started before you could finish, cutting the note short so he could throw in a pointed comment at his friend. “FUCK YOU FELIX! 🎵didn’t understand~🎵”

you stopped singing and let him have the solo, laughing with the crowd at his sudden change of demeanor.

“🎵that anything can happen~ when you take a chance~🎵” he continued, and you couldn’t help but watch him in amusement, your mouth slightly agape. he was good, really good. and he knew it too. you could tell by the way he stood and the way he sang into the mic that this wasn’t his first rodeo. 

but it wasn’t yours either. 

“🎵 i never believed in what i couldn’t see~🎵” you sang gabriella’s part, slowly making your way to center stage. you felt everyone’s eyes on you, especially jisung’s. “🎵i never opened my heart~🎵”

“🎵oh~🎵” jisung chimed in.

“🎵to all the possibilities…🎵”

you glanced briefly at felix, whose jaw was dropped in astonishment, and he was frozen in place. but he caught your eye, which snapped him out of his trance. a slow smile spread across his face, and his eyes lit up. you both knew you had the crowd at your feet, and you were going to take advantage of every second of it.

you turned back to the crowd, a playful, confident grin on your face. “🎵ooh~🎵”

this was going to be fun.

“🎵i know...🎵” you sang, jisung harmonizing with you before you sang the next line by yourself, “🎵that something has changed…🎵”

“🎵never felt this way~🎵” jisung harmonized with you again.

you locked eyes with the brunette as you sang the next line. “🎵and right here tonight…🎵”

“🎵this could be the start of something new~🎵”

you began the chorus together, your voices blending perfectly. you followed his movement as he slowly made his way to you and he attempted to hoist himself onto the stage, despite the stairs being a few feet away from him.

“🎵it feels so right to be here with you, oh~🎵”

you continued singing together as you went to help him onto the stage, extending out your free hand for him to take as you rolled your eyes. 

“🎵and now, looking in your eyes,🎵” you sang, pulling him up, “🎵i feel in my heart~🎵”

“🎵feel in my heart~🎵” jisung ad-libbed.

“🎵the start of something new~🎵” you two finished the chorus.

if you had blinked you would’ve missed him flashing his eyebrows at you. “🎵oh... yeah~🎵”

for the first time during the song, you were finally able to see jisung up close. you had no clue what you had set off in this boy within the past three minutes, but what you did know—from the confident gleam in his eyes—was that you had a lot more coming your way.

and were you right. the whole second verse couldn’t have gone by faster, and it all seemed like a blur. 

the only memories of the second verse you remembered were coy looks from across the stage, stolen glances, and jisung taking your hand to spin you around once playfully. 

the adrenaline rushing through your veins certainly didn’t help matters; you couldn’t focus on anything except the boy in front of you. the crowd seemed to disappear, and you were having the time of your life. 

you began to move to center stage as you neared the bridge of the song, jisung right behind you as you closed out the second chorus. 

“🎵the start of something new~🎵” you sang as you felt him take your hand. the light pull on your arm as you took another step prompted you to turn around, and you were so taken aback by the sight in front of you that you let the last note falter.

“🎵i never knew that it could happen till it happened to me~🎵”

you were met with the boy on one knee as he sang his line with his eyes closed, holding your hand in his free one. you felt your breath hitch in your throat and you froze, your other arm dropping to your side. you hoped to god that whenever he’d look up, he wouldn’t notice the blush slowly creeping onto your face.

jisung finally opened his eyes and looked up at you, immediately softening when he saw your state. he got so into his part, he didn’t realize just how tensed up your hand felt in his.

he stayed quiet for a beat, missing troy’s ad-lib. the climax of the song was coming up and you were about to miss your cue, so he had to think of something quick.

he decided to cover you, singing your line as he gave your hand a gentle squeeze.

“🎵i didn’t know it before, but now…🎵”

it was just enough to get you back on track, and you joined in time to hit the high note as he switched to the harmony. 

“🎵now it’s easy to see, ohh~!🎵” you two sang together, jisung squeezing your hand one more time.

jisung gave you a small smile, and you smiled back, gently squeezing his hand as a ‘thank you’ before letting go and dropping your hand.

your slight falter didn’t faze you, and you were able to sing the final chorus without a hitch. jisung’s attempts at flirting with you couldn’t have landed farther from his goal. whether it was singing up close to you, or looking at you for just a little too long, you kept yourself focused as you came back to center stage, him following you like a stray puppy. 

out of all the strangers you had sung karaoke with, jisung was the most fun partner you’ve ever had. he seemed to pick up on all your cues, and was able to bounce off all of your gestures with one of his own. 

oh, what you would’ve given for this moment to go on forever. but alas, all good things must come to an end, and you two naturally made your way back to the center of the stage as you wrapped up the song. 

“🎵and now, looking in your eyes~🎵” you both sang, giving it your all as you stepped closer to each other.

“🎵i feel in my heart~🎵” you took one more step towards jisung, gazing into his eyes.

“🎵feel in my heart~🎵” jisung ad-libbed once more, smiling at you sweetly.

“🎵the start of something new~🎵”

you smiled back at the boy, your heart pounding out of your chest as one final burst of adrenaline shot through you. 

“🎵the start of something new~🎵”

jisung took your free hand in this, spinning you, making you laugh to yourself. when you turned back to face him, he locked eyes with you briefly before leaning you backwards into a dip, resting one hand on the small of your back, the other still around his mic. 

you reached up your free hand to support yourself, gently wrapping it around the back of his neck as the two of you finished the song. 

“🎵the start of something new.🎵”

you could barely hear cheers erupt from the crowd as you found jisung’s eyes and held his gaze. your heart pounded in your chest as you caught your breath, the adrenaline in your body finally calming down.

jisung held the pose for another moment as he looked into your eyes, and gave you a shy smile. you smiled back, letting out a small laugh as he helped you back up.

as you got back on your feet, you smiled at your partner one more time and took a bow. he did the same, letting out a giggle as the crowd’s cheers grew louder.

you saw felix approach the stage from behind jisung, and you took this as your cue to leave. you waved goodbye to the brunette as you walked down the steps and past felix, high-fiving the beaming blonde before disappearing into the crowd.

you decided to stick around for a bit as felix took the stage. a few people around you noticed you and complimented you, and you smiled and mumbled ‘thank you’s as you watched the boys on stage.

felix lightheartedly poked fun at jisung for a minute, the brunette groaning and covering his face in embarrassment as his friend made comments like “‘bro i don’t sing!’ my ASS”. the crowd let out a laugh and you couldn’t help but do the same, not only out of adoration of jisung’s flustered reactions, but also simply because felix was right.

“bro i don’t sing!” my ass.

after the crowd cheered for you and jisung one more time, you dipped out of the room to grab a water bottle from the kitchen, and in hopes of preparing for the countdown.

you had completely lost track of ryujin at this point, and you had about an hour to kill before midnight. that was still plenty of time to find her, so you just decided to find something else to do.

you spent a good chunk of the time making one more round around the ski resort, and eventually you found yourself back at the common room. you watched a few performances from the back of the crowd, but you couldn’t help but scan the crowd for jisung, hoping you could see him again. 

but you didn’t see him, or ryujin, for that matter.

you huffed a little and went outside as a group of three boys took the stage.

you shivered a little, taking in the fresh winter air that nipped at your cheeks. you took a minute to adjust before walking around, looking for any hints of your friend or…

jisung.

out of the corner of your eye, you noticed a boy wearing a black leather over an off-yellow hoodie looking out at the city lights. you turned and smiled to yourself, and made your way over.

“hey.”

the boy turned to you and smiled a little. “oh, hey!”

you smiled back, and stayed quiet for a beat before speaking again.

“so… what was that about you not singing?” you asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at him.

jisung let out an awkward chuckle at this, and not even the dim lighting outside could hide his blush. “um…” he scratched at the back of his neck, “that’s a really funny question actually.”

you rolled your eyes playfully. cute.

“okay but really,” he said after a minute, and you nodded, prompting him to continue.

“it doesn’t… really fit my frat boy image.”

you let out a laugh at this. it wasn’t the response you were expecting, but it was a fitting one at that.

“i’m serious!” he said before letting out a groan. “i’m gonna be fighting for my life in the group chat, and you’re laughing!”

you laughed again before nodding along. “you know what, so will i.”

jisung chuckled lightly, looking down as he shook his head. “you… you don’t have to.”

“but i want to.”

there was a comfortable silence that lingered between the two of you as your laughs died down. you found yourself staring into his eyes, a warm brown in the cold winter night, and you gave him a small smile. he smiled back and looked back down at the ground as he blushed again. 

cute.

“oh my god, you guys did so good!”

you were snapped out of your daze by the sound of your friend’s voice, and you turned around to see her quickly walking towards the two of you. you were slightly disappointed that you had been interrupted, but hid it with a smile as you thanked her. 

“hi, jisung, i’m ryujin.” she briefly introduced herself as jisung nodded politely. “anyway, you two had the best chemistry. i swear to god at least two people out there might think you’re a couple.”

she looked at you suggestively to which you rolled your eyes and fixed your hair to cover your ears, which you knew would turn red. 

you exchanged an awkward glance with jisung, who gave you a shy smile. 

ryujin laughed at your flustered states. “i’m kidding, i’m kidding… kind of. anyway, the countdown’s in like five minutes, so we gotta go!” 

you were surprised, completely having lost track of time. ryujin grabbed your hand and began to pull you away before you stopped and dropped her hand. 

grabbing a napkin from a table nearby, you took a spare pen on one of the tables and scribbled down your number.

you turned to jisung, and cradled one of his hands in yours, turning his palm upwards. 

“i think you’re gonna want this.”

you placed the piece of paper in his hand before closing it with your other hand, keeping his hand in yours for just a bit longer.

“don’t lose it. call me next year so we can do this again, yeah?”

you took ryujin’s still extended hand, sending him a wink before turning around and disappearing into the crowd. 

the whole countdown your mind never stopped thinking about jisung. from the second by second countdown, to the celebratory hugs, and even as you greeted everyone around you a happy new year, you wished you could’ve spent the occasion with the boy you just met. 

it hadn’t been a minute after the countdown when you felt your phone vibrate repeatedly in your pocket. you excused yourself, finding a quieter spot in the resort to check who was calling you.

the number wasn’t one you recognized, but you knew who it was right away. 

“hello?” you answered, bringing the receiver up to your ear, and you couldn’t help but smile once you heard the voice at the other end of the line.

“happy new year, y/n.”

[introvertguide]

Influential Directors of the Silent Film Era

Upon hearing that I am a fan of silent era film, people will ask if I have a favorite actor or movie from the time period. However, when I am asked about my favorites from other fans of silent film, it tends to involve my favorite director. This is because silent film actors had to over gesticulate and performed in an unrealistic way and could not use their tone or words to convey emotion. The directors also did not have a way to review as they shot and would have to use editing skills and strategic cover shots to make sure that everything was done properly and come out the way they imagined it. It was up to the director to be creative and they were forced to be innovative and create ways to convey their vision. Luckily for many average or poor directors of the time, audiences were easily impressed. However, today's more demanding and sophisticated audiences can look back at some of the genius behind the films of silent era Hollywood.

Alice Guy-Blache: Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913) and The Fairy of the Cabbages (1896)

Art director of the film studio The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood movie studio, and camera operator for the France based Gaumont Studio headed up by Louis Lemiere, this woman was a director before any kind of gender expectations were even established. She was a pioneer of the use of audio recordings in conjunction with images and the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filming. Guy-Blanche didn't just record an image but used editing and juxtaposition to reveal a story behind the moving pictures. In 1914, when Hollywood studios hired almost exclusively upper class white men as directors, she famously said that there was nothing involved in the staging of a movie that a woman could not do just as easily as a man.

Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1923), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940)

It is unfortunate that many people today think of Chaplin as silly or for screwball comedy when, in fact, he was a great satirist of the time. He created his comedy through the eyes of the lower economic class that suffered indignities over which they had no control. He traversed the world as his "Tramp" character who found his fortune by being amiable and lucky. The idea that a good attitude and a turn of luck could result in happiness was all that many Americans had during the World Wars and the Great Depression. He played the part of the sad clown and he was eventually kicked out of the country for poking fun at American society. Today he is beloved for his work, but he was more infamous than famous during a large part of his life.

Buster Keaton: Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928).

That man that performed the most dangerous of stunts with a deadpan expression, Buster Keaton was a great actor, athlete, stuntman, writer, producer, and director. It is amazing that you could get so much emotion out of a silent actor who does not emote, but Keaton managed to do it. He was also never afraid to go big, often putting his own well being at risk to capture a good shot. Not as well known for his cinematography or editing as many of the other directors of the time, he instead captured performances that were amazing no matter how they were filmed. Famous stunts include the side of a house falling down around him, standing on the front of a moving train, sitting on the side rail of a moving train, and grabbing on to a speeding car with one hand to hitch a ride. If you like films by Jackie Chan, know that he models his films after the work of Buster Keaton: high action and high comedy.

Cecil B. Demille: The Cheat (1915), Male and Female (1919), and The Ten Commandments (1923)

Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Demille was the first director to make a real box office hit. He is likely best known for making The Ten Commandments in 1923 and then remaking it again in 1956. If not that, he was also known for his scandalous dramas that depicted women in the nude. This was pre-Code silent film so the rules about what could be shown had not been established. Demille made 30 large production successful films in the silent era and was the most famous director of the time which gave him a lot of freedom. His trademarks were Roman orgies, battles with large wild animals, and large bath scenes. His films are not what most modern film watchers think of when they are considering silent films. That famous quote from the movie Sunset Boulevard in 1950 in which the fading silent actress says "All right, Mr. Demille. I'm ready for my close-up," is referring to this director.

D.W. Griffith: Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

Griffith started making films in 1908 and put out just about everything that he recorded. He made 482 films between 1908 and 1914, although most of these were shorts. His most famous film today is absolutely Birth of a Nation and it is one of the most outlandishly racist films of the time. The depiction of black Americans as evil and the Klu Klux Klan as heroes who are protecting the nation didn't even really go over well at that time. Some believe that his follow up the next year called Intolerance was an apology, but the film actually addresses religious and class intolerance and avoids the topic of racism. At the time, Griffith films were known for the massive sets and casts of thousands of extras, but today he is known for his racist social commentary.

Sergei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925)

This eccentric Russian director was a pioneer of film theory and the use of montage to show the passage of time. His reputation at the time would probably be similar to Tim Burton or maybe David Lynch. He had a very specific strange style that made his films different from any others. The film Battleship Potemkin is considered to be one of the best movies of all time as rated by Sight and Sound, and generally considered as a great experimental film that found fame in Hollywood as well as Russia.

F.W. Murnau: Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1926), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I think that most people would know the bald-headed long-nailed vampire Nosferatu that was a silent era phenomena. It was so iconic that the German film studio that produced the movie was sued by the estate of Bram Stoker and had to close. Faust was his last big budget German film and has an iconic shot of the demon Mephisto raining plague down on a town that was the inspiration for the Demon Mountain in Fantasia (1940). Also, Sunrise is considered one of the best movies of all time by the AFI and by Sight and Sound as well as my favorite silent film. Fun facts: 1) more of Murnau's films have been lost then are still watchable and 2) he died in a car wreck at only 40 when he hired a car to drive up the California coast and the driver was only 14.

Erich von Stroheim: Greed (1924)

Maker of very strange German Expressionist films, Stroheim films are often listed as Horror or Mystery even though he considered himself a dramatic film maker. His most famous movie Greed was supposed to be amazing with an 8 hour run time but it was cut drastically to the point that it makes no sense and was both critically and publicly panned when an extremely abridged version was released in the U.S. Over half the film was lost and a complete version no longer exists. Besides this film, Stroheim was even better known for being the butler in the film Sunset Boulevard as a former director who retired to be with an aging silent film star. He also made a movie called Between Two Women (1937) that told the story of a female burn victim that was inspired by the story of his wife being burned in an explosion in a shop on the actual Sunset Boulevard.

Victor Fleming: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone With the Wind (1939)

Although not known for his silent films, Fleming did get his start during the silent era. He was a cinematographer for D.W. Griffith and then Fleming directed his first film in 1919. Most of his silent films were swashbuckling action movies with Douglas Fairbanks or formulaic westerns. He is the only director to have two films on the AFI top 10 and they happened to have come out the same year.

Hal Roach: Lonesome Luke films starring Harold Lloyd, Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts, and Of Mice and Men (1939)

It is not really fair to put Hal Roach in the silent era directors because he was influential at the time but he had a 75 year career. He was a producer and film studio head and even had a studio named after himself. His biggest contribution to the silent era was his production of Harold Lloyd short comedies and he continued to produce films in the early talkies including Laurel and Hardy shorts, Our Gang shorts, and Wil Rogers films. Roach was the inspiration for the film Sullivan's Travels, in which a famous director who only did frivolous comedies goes out into the world to find inspiration to find a serious drama. Roach did direct a single serious drama, Of Mice and Men, but it came out in 1939 and was buried underneath the works of Victor Fleming. The wealthy cigar smoking studio head that many people think of when they picture a film studio suit is based on this guy. The man would not quit and stayed in the business into his 90s and lived to the ripe old age of 100.

[weirwoodking]

what do you think sansa's endgame is? and i'm not talking ships. like what do you think she'll be doing by the time the books end.

Anon, you accidentally made me write an essay.

So, to try and guess where Sansa could be at the end of the story, we have to look at where she’s heading currently.

She’s currently in the Vale, stuck under the control of Littlefinger. I think Sansa’s arc in TWOW will revolve around breaking free of his manipulation. There’s a line in Bran’s first ASOS chapter that seems to foreshadow this:

Sometimes he could sense them, though, as if they were still with him, only hidden from his sight by a boulder or a stand of trees. He could not smell them, nor hear their howls by night, yet he felt their presence at his back . . . all but the sister they had lost. His tail drooped when he remembered her. Four now, not five. Four and one more, the white who has no voice.

These woods belonged to them, the snowy slopes and stony hills, the great green pines and the golden leaf oaks, the rushing streams and blue lakes fringed with fingers of white frost. But his sister had left the wilds, to walk in the halls of man-rock where other hunters ruled, and once within those halls it was hard to find the path back out. The wolf prince remembered.

—Bran I, A Storm of Swords

It’s hard to find the path back out, but not impossible. I do believe Sansa will return to “the wilds” that belong to her and her siblings.

George was asked once if Sansa still has skinchanging powers even though Lady is gone, and he said she does. We’ll probably see that aspect of her character start to make an appearance in Winds, especially since the presence of magic ramps up with each book. I think it would make sense if she bonded with a bird (such as a falcon or a hawk), seeing as she has quite a lot of bird imagery (particularly caged bird imagery) in her story. Sansa “flying free”, both literally and figuratively, seems like a logical step for her arc.

I do wonder how her connection with the “pack” will be handled. All of the Stark kids except for Sansa have the telepathic bond through their wolves, so I wonder what GRRM will do with Sansa there. It’s heartbreaking, that she doesn’t have that mental connection that the others do. I don’t know if that could somehow be reformed without Lady? There are a lot of unanswered questions about the Stark kids skinchanging powers (and the telepathic bond). Why did their powers only show up when the wolves did? How far do their powers go? How powerful could they become once they’re properly trained? How does the telepathic bond work? Is that a thing that other skinchangers can do? Is it there because of the wolves or is it through the kids themselves? Is it forever broken with Sansa because Lady is gone, or could Sansa reform that connection through another wolf that joins the Stark warg pack? Would it make sense narratively and thematically for GRRM to give Sansa another wolf?

Anyway, no idea what he’ll do with that. (Some sort of scene where Sansa is like “I don’t have a wolf anymore”, and then all the other Starklings crowd around her for a giant group hug and say “that’s okay, you’re still a part of the pack no matter what” is something I could see happening. It’s not like the other kids would treat her any less for not having a direwolf, she’s still their sister.)

A common speculation I see for Sansa’s endgame is that she could become the new head of House Arryn. And, well, the aesthetic of Sansa being Lady of the Eyrie/Lord Protector of the Vale/Warden of the East is definitely cool. The Queen of Birds up in a mountain palace with her flock all around her like a winged army? That’s some gorgeous imagery.

But...

I don’t think Sansa would ever willingly choose to stay in the Vale if she had the option to go home to Winterfell:

She awoke all at once, every nerve atingle. For a moment she did not remember where she was. She had dreamt that she was little, still sharing a bedchamber with her sister Arya. But it was her maid she heard tossing in sleep, not her sister, and this was not Winterfell, but the Eyrie. And I am Alayne Stone, a bastard girl. The room was cold and black, though she was warm beneath the blankets. Dawn had not yet come. Sometimes she dreamed of Ser Ilyn Payne and woke with her heart thumping, but this dream had not been like that. Home. It was a dream of home.

The Eyrie was no home.

—Sansa VII, A Storm of Swords

One of the largest themes in the stories of the younger POV characters (Theon, Jon, Dany, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon (even though he’s not a POV character)) is that of home. Just go on A Search of Ice and Fire and search for the word “home” in each of those characters’ chapters. I think Sansa will end up at her home, with her pack. We know she must return at Winterfell at some point, as she has the final part of this prophecy to fulfill:

"I dreamt a wolf howling in the rain, but no one heard his grief," the dwarf woman was saying. "I dreamt such a clangor I thought my head might burst, drums and horns and pipes and screams, but the saddest sound was the little bells. I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs. And later I dreamt that maid again, slaying a savage giant in a castle built of snow."

—Arya VIII, A Storm of Swords

The wolf howling in the rain is Grey Wind (or Shaggydog/Rickon, since it’s raining on Skagos when Jon dreams of his “black brother”), the clangor is the Red Wedding and the bells are the ones on Jinglebell’s hat when Catelyn sawed at his throat, and the maid at the feast is Sansa. And Sansa will “slay a savage giant in a castle built of snow.” That castle is obviously Winterfell, although the fandom has yet to concretely agree on who the “savage giant” is.

Evidently, Sansa will return to Winterfell, and she probably has to get there before winter really starts setting in, or else the journey would be nearly impossible in the deadly weather. So, probably at some point in the next book.

Now, I believe that there’s a big moment coming for Sansa in TWOW: the moment where she unrepresses/uncovers her memories. Sansa knows a lot of important things. She knows the truth about Jon Arryn, she knows that her hair net was used to poison Joffrey, she knows that Littlefinger was involved in the disappearance of Jeyne Poole. Sansa’s memory swapping/adjusting/erasing/repressing (whatever you wanna call it) is important to her character. It’s her brain’s way of coping with the trauma she’s been through.

I think that one of these memories coming to the forefront is going to trigger something big: Littlefinger’s downfall. I speculate that what will most likely come out in the open first is what happened to Jeyne Poole. Sansa finding out what Baelish did to her closest childhood friend could definitely be what turns her against him.

Warning, I’m going to mention the sh*w here for a second. George has said that he wrote Sansa and Jeyne’s interactions into season 1, and that he tried to build Jeyne as a character, but her scenes were cut by the showrunners. Clearly, George cares about her, her friendship with Sansa, and her value in the story, he was very upset about the deletion of her character and of Sansa’s friendship with her.* I believe the reveal of what happened to Jeyne will be a major part of Sansa’s story in Winds. She’s repressed her memories of Jeyne and her disappearance because it is, understandably, too much for her mind to handle thinking about.

The reveal of this memory could be a catalyst to the other memories coming forward, especially since they involve Littlefinger. I think Sansa will be a key part in wrapping up the political aspect of the story, she can reveal the truth of why the Stark-Lannister conflict began all the way back in book 1. She can expose Littlefinger’s lies and schemes. That’s where I think her narrative is heading, at least in TWOW.

I’m not sure what Sansa’s story arc will be in ADOS (I’m not sure what anyone’s story will be in ADOS, but Sansa’s is a bit more of a blank page than others). If the Littlefinger conflict gets wrapped up in TWOW, I don’t know where her story will go from there. Supposedly, she could be in Winterfell at that point. What will happen then… well, then it’s Long Night time. Sansa is not one of the “key five players” (Tyrion, Dany, Arya, Bran, and Jon), but I still think she’ll have an important role in the book. I think Sansa and Arya’s relationship is something that will be focused on a lot through both of their chapters in the final novel. We’re going to see Ned’s quote, “you need her, as she needs you”, really matter.

No matter where her arc goes over the next two books, though, I do think she’ll end up at Winterfell. And like I said, I don’t think Sansa would choose to leave her home again after returning. I think that her story will end with her staying at Winterfell with the other kids. The Stark children would never willingly leave each other after reuniting. Jon literally describes the separation from his siblings as “a deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness.” And, of course, the iconic line Ned delivers to Arya: “The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.” I don’t see any of their endings being them as “lone wolves” again.

So, to answer your question, I think the endgame for Sansa will be her back in Winterfell with her family, where she belongs, where she is strongest. I do suspect, however, that there will be some sort of epilogue at the end of ADOS, possibly a “10 years later” or somewhere along those lines. Where she’ll be then, I have no idea. She’ll probably be involved with something politically by then, like ruling or advising.

*Based on what George himself has said about the show’s post-season 4 portrayal of Sansa, I don’t think her story will be similar in any way to the show’s very different version of her character (same goes for everyone). George is typically very mild when talking about the show, saying stuff like “they chose to go down a different path with the story”, but this is one of the only times he flat out criticized the show for how wrong it is. He was very upset the show cut out her storyline. He has also said that “every character has a different end” in the books. So take from that what you will.

[sp00kworm]

A Cave in the Emerald Mountains

Pairing: Nazzog x Gender Neutral Reader, Dragon x Reader, Dragon x Human 

Warnings: Animal death, threat of violence. 

A/N: The artwork below was done for me by a close friend, @sleepybatart​ , for my icon, and was based on my beloved Nazzog, the dragon featured in this work! Please go check out his work!! This is my first attempt at writing something quite original so I hope it lives up to everyone’s expectations. 

---

---

The woodlands were cool this time of day, hiding you from the heat of the sun with the shade of new summer leaves. The trees stood tall and proud over you as you pulled away the leaves on the floor and rummaged for the truffles hidden deep under the roots. You turned the soil with a little trowel and whistled softly as you worked, picking through roots before you snatched the singular fungus from the ground and tucked it into a small cloth. You wrapped it with twine before making sure it sat at the bottom of your bag, out of the reach of any naughty animals that might come snuffling on your way back to the village. You shook dirt from the trowel before tucking it back into your belt and looking around the trees. Pine needles and some herbs were left on the list. Wild garlic was probably the thing you could pick up easily before you stopped off at the lair of the dragon you had come to know. The beast was hidden deep within a grove, hidden in a deep cave reaching into the base of the smallest of the looming Emerald Mountains. Carefully, you plucked a garlic bulb free before thumping the dirt off against the tree. You tucked them into your leather satchel, in the deep pocket behind the products you had stored away for the trip. With another two bulbs in your bag, you moved on from the garlic cluster and looked out for the pine trees. When the largest one appeared, you knew to veer to the left to enter the grove of the giant, old dragon you had come to know.

The trees grew a little thinner towards the grove, yet they stood tall, ancient in the face of the stone structures around them, facing a curling wall of smog. The grove was like another world. You stepped through the fog, breathing deeply as it whipped around you, dragging your hair upwards before it parted like a puddle, spewing to the sides, and revealed a moist grove. Moss covered the floor and you stepped over the moss in your heavy duty boots with a smile, looking up in time to see the lights in the vines float a little lower, revealing cheeky, butterfly-like Fae, smiling with razor sharp teeth as they tugged at your bag and hair.

“Nazzog is sleeping.” One of them sung before giggling as you plucked a cake from your bag for them. Three of them snatched the cupcake and you nodded at the one floating before your face. She shrugged, “He won’t like it. He told you to stop coming.” And sang.

You ran your hand over the weeping willow tree’s leaves and shrugged, “Since when do I listen to him?” You joked before waving to the little Fae and continuing towards the looming cave entrance. Fog followed your ankles as you stood before the great cavernous entrance. Water dripped down the side of the stone, the mineral deposits hanging in small stalactites from the ceiling. You ducked as you entered, despite the hole being large enough for a crouched, twenty-five-foot dragon to enter.

 Inside the cave was even cooler. You tugged your thin travelling cloak closer to you, tucking your arms through it as you walked along the long passageway. It ended with two new passageways and you took the right one, making sure not to step in the mushroom circles as you headed further in and followed the glowing trail of bioluminescent mushrooms down the left side of the passageway. A great gust of hot air made you smile. Nazzog was sleeping, just as the mischievous Fae said. Trudging along, you finally reached the glow of Nazzog’s centre most chamber. With a quiet, deep breath, you gazed up at the piles of treasure adorning either side of the open cavern and huffed at the immense candles burning near them, dripping oozing piles of enormous wax across the floor. You climbed one of the piles before heading towards the dragon’s snout. Nazzog was a massive beast. His black scales glimmered with a purple sheen in the candlelight. Smoke curled from his nostrils as he slept and you walked closer to his snout with a soft laugh, laying a hand on one of his great, downwards curling horns, stroking the hardened scales around them as you sat in one of his giant cushions, making sure to put your feet down by his exposed teeth. The dragon rumbled from his slumber, smoke curling through his teeth as giant, orange eyes opened. Gold sliced through his pupils as he peered closely as your body, sprawled awkwardly over one giant cushion that you couldn’t sit in properly.

 Nazzog raised his head with a stretch, pointed tongue dipping from his mouth as he moved his head from his crossed paws. After giving a smoke filled yawn, Nazzog peered down at you, one, burning eye lowered to your level as his talons reached for the pillow you were sat on, pushing it away from his eye. Dragons had bad eyesight close-up. Their eyes were made for hunting and looking at prey from amazing heights.

“I told you to stay away.” He growled as he laid his head back on his talons.

“I know, but I know you need that wound seeing to. Its been a week since the last lot of salve and I know you’ve probably been licking it again.” You teased him as you reached into your satchel to draw out the large jar of green medicinal salve.

Nazzog’s eye closed as he grunted, “It is fine.”

You wiggled your way off the pillow, clutching the salve close, walking towards his leg, “Leg, Nazzog.” You scolded the dragon, poking his scaled leg.

“Persistent pest.” He growled as he span his leg over, revealing the almost healed cut on the soft part just above his paw. He flashed his talons as you poked at the tender flesh around it. Nazzog growled, “Be careful. Its tender.”

“Stop being a big baby. You’re older than the village, Nazzog!” You joked as you opened the salve and began to smear it on the cut. It was barely a graze now thanks to your attention and hard work in the apothecary.

 Nazzog watched you apply the salve quietly, great head bowed to observe a little closer as you poured the last of the mixture on and patted it gently. He turned his nose towards your bag on the pillow and huffed at the smell of the garlic.

“Why do you always come in here with the most pungent smelling things.” He complained as you went to put the jar back in your bag, “I could give you these things from my own supplies every time you come.” He offered gruffly as you closed your bag.

You smiled up at the old dragon, “I like to get it myself.” You denied his offer, “Plus if people get suspicious about me coming back with all these things already dried, it could put you in danger…and you’re already hurt because of me.”

Nazzog gave a smile full of daggers, “The spear nicked me.” He soothed, “They didn’t live long enough to tell anyone about my home. You worry far too much.” The dragon leaned down before shoving you back towards the entrance with one huge paw. Before you could leave, he draped a purple heavy cloak over your shoulders, a garb fit for royalty, “This should ward off the evening chill a lot better.” He nudged you towards the tunnel and turned his neck to coil back around his bed of silk pillows and scattered gold trinkets.

 A fire roared in the cavern the next time you arrived. The summer was beginning to give way to autumn, yet the grove was still blissfully warm and in full season. The Fae tittered at the silver spoon you offered before revealing the great entrance to Nazzog’s home. The cave was cool, quickly turning cold, and you hugged the royal purple cloak closer to yourself as you navigated the mushroom traps and approached the flames. Nazzog was awake this time, dragging his claws through his treasure as though he was searching for something among the piles of gold. He speared a chalice and tossed it down by his tail before he hummed at a small treasure box. The dragon slammed it open and shifted through the jewels that poured out with another huff. Evidently those were not what he was looking for either.

“Have you lost something, Nazzog?” You asked as you pulled the hood of the cloak down onto your shoulders. The dragon turned his fiery eye on you before turning with a few thunderous steps.

“Its none of your business.” He answered before settling on his paws, perched, watching you with curiosity, “Are you so bored that you need to come and harass me still?” He asked as his spiked tail coiled through golden coins, scattering the coins with a whipping motion, obscuring the jewels and evidence of his sorting.

 “I came to see you again. I know for sure that wound is healed now.” You stood looking up at the ashen dragon with a determined smile.

“Are you that confident in your work?” He snarled before softening when you grinned, “Thank you for your work. I can pay you for the inconvenience. You humans like gold still, correct?” The dragon pulled a pile of coins forward and you laughed at him.

“I don’t want payment. You saved me. I paid you back by helping heal you.” You insisted as the dragon stretched his neck and stood in the tall cavern, “Plus…I enjoy talking to you. Looking after you wasn’t that much of a big deal.” You placed a gentle hand on his leg before watching the dragon spread his wings and shudder. With a stretch of his jaws, smoke poured from the dragon’s mouth, wrapping around his form as he let out a echoing cry and disappeared in the cloud of smoke. A foot stepped out of the smog and your eyes went wide as you gazed at the figure of a prince that came out of it.

“You can’t wear the skin of a dead prince!” You hissed at the dragon as he tossed dark hair from his eyes and bent down to pick up something to cover himself.

“This is better for moving outside, is it not?” Nazzog grumbled as he shuffled closer, golden chains dripping from his body around the silk cover.

 “You’re being stubborn and annoying on purpose at this point.” You sighed, “I don’t have to be seen walking around with a human. I’m not scared of you or of what people will think if they saw us, just scared of what they will do to you... You’re the last of your kind, Nazzog.”

Nazzog’s golden, human eyes widened before he hid himself behind the curtain of his dark hair and walked back behind a great pile of gold. Smoke rushed over the metal in a wave before the black dragon’s wings burst from the cloud and he slammed his great paws down in his lair once more.

“Fine. Then we shall take to the skies.” His great head lowered, grazing the pile, knocking gold coins free, until his chin rested on the floor by your feet, “Climb on, human, or I will hold you in my claws.” Nazzog scoffed playfully at your hesitance before snatching you in his paw, like he said and depositing you in the groove behind his horns.

“Hold my horns or you will fall.” He rumbled with mischief as he ducked his body and began to slither along the passageway back towards the entrance of his lair. The mushrooms were dark, their natural light gone as the dragon weaved his way out of his den. Tentatively, he stuck his nose out of the entrance and sniffed, smelling for danger before he glanced around and crawled free, out into the clearing. The Fae snickered and rested in his horns, tugging on your cloak as the dragon stuck his head through the trees and sniffed again, peering around for any signs of danger once more before he turned and slammed his claws into the rock face.

 “We’re going up this way?” You asked as you wrapped your hands around the base of his horns, your fingers encompassing about half of the circumference.

“I have to find a place to take off. This is the easiest way. Once I climb high enough, we can go.” Nazzog rumbled as he began climbing up the rock face, easily propelling himself upwards with his great, black talons. The stone held steady as you both reached a reasonable height above the trees, and Nazzog quickly pulled you both over onto a great platform on the mountain. It was wide and long enough for the dragon to make a running leap into the air.

“Hold on.” He shouted at you before rushing towards the edge of the sheer drop. Subconsciously, you clenched your eyes shut and grabbed hold of Nazzog’s neck tight, holding on for dear life as the dragon jumped from the rocks and opened his shining wings. The leathery, black skin rippled before going taut, the sun shining shades of purple over them, the skin snapping as the wind slammed against you both. You opened your eyes as Nazzog gave a great beat of his wings and soared upwards with three more powerful strokes. The ascent was hard work, but you gasped as you both burst over the top of the smaller mountain in the range. The snowy peaks ahead made you smile in awe, gazing at the cold sprinkling of white snow with glee as Nazzog swerved towards the highest mountain and dipped to dive slowly, heading towards the highland fields where the weather was cool but the air was fresh.

 “This is amazing!” You cheered as you pushed your fingers under his chin, listening to Nazzog rumble happily as you grazed a scent gland beneath his hard scales.

“Don’t expect me to do it again. I’m not a horse you can saddle.” The black dragon snorted as he banked to the left and slowly circled lower and lower, churning the white fluff of the clouds around you as he made his descent to the highland fields below. The heavy, long grass came into view as the dragon flapped his wings hard, blowing great gusts of air that pushed the grass down against the earth. His back feet connected with a rock structure before he grasped the front of the rock with his front paws, talons chipping the stone. His wings fluttered, shaking before he planted them in the rock as well, the hooked claws on the end tucking into the structure with ease. He laid his neck on the rock and turned his head to the left, letting you down from your seat.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” He asked with a purr.

You looked around at the rocky field with a smile, “That was astounding. I never thought I’d see the world from the air like that. It makes me wish I was like you.” You sighed wistfully as you held your bag and sat down, resting against his thick neck as you gazed up at the cloudy sky.

 The cold bit at your nose and you tugged your cloak closer before nestling close to the gas glands in Nazzog’s neck, soaking in the heat they generated as he peered around, tucking himself close, making himself appear like another heavy rock atop the structure you were both sat on.

“I don’t think my life would suit you. Hiding from kings who wish for magic and my bones isn’t the life I ever wanted.” He growled against the stone, shooting smoke from between his teeth as he thought of darker things, “I would like the company of my own kind again though. Perhaps if you did become Draconic we could share tales and tear open brigades of merchants for their jewels?”

Your nose wrinkled at the idea of such slaughter, “I would rather not.”

The dragon laughed, “Of course, but you forget such trivialities when faced with a life as long as mine.” Nazzog watched you grow contemplative with a sigh of smoke.

“Has anyone ever become a Dragon?” You asked curiously as Nazzog spewed more smoke, making fire in his throat to keep you warm.

 Nazzog peered at your face, quiet and solemn, before answering carefully, “There was a tale once. As a hatchling my Mother told it to me. A princess once became a dragon. The beast of the volcano in the far west kidnapped her for a ransom from her father, an evil man that wished to sell her off to the highest bidder. His gold never came yet he found himself adoring the human. She did not cry when he took her, and never tried to leave. She read him poetry and sang songs of her people when he could not rest. The Red Beast offered her a life with him, away from the agony and pain the King had put her through. She accepted his offer. One night she wished for the Mother of the Forest, the Queen of the Fae, to give her more time in her life to spend with her beloved dragon. The Fae Queen appeared to them both in the churning lava, offering to change her into a dragon for the price of his greatest jewel. The dragon plunged into the lava and returned with a grin. He gave the Fae Queen a diamond from the depths of the volcano. The Fae Queen took the Princess’ human life and bathed her in the flames of the volcano, hardening her skin to scales and changing her into a Draconic creature that could spend eternity with her lover. It is said that only that diamond holds the power to change someone so, and if two lovers hold it, they can become what they desire.”

 You gazed at Nazzog and smiled, “That is a beautiful story.”

Nazzog scoffed against the stone, “A tale for children. I have mastered magic and studied the Fae. They hold no such power.” He wrapped a protective set of talons around you, “Besides, who would want to be a beast such as a Dragon?” The black dragon teased as you wrapped a hand around one of his toes, careful to avoid the razor-sharp edge of his claws.

“I would if it meant I could see the world and if I could…”

Nazzog hushed you as he curled himself tight, exposing the jagged plating of his body as he whispered a hiding spell in his own, hissing language, hiding himself from whatever was approaching. You grumbled as you sat on top of his foot, trying to appear as though you were resting against a large rock as a young man walked over, his dog following, nipping at his heels.

 “Hey there! Its not often we get walkers or travellers up here! You sure you ain’t lost?” The young man was a sheep farmer, clad in woollen layers with a sheepskin cloak tied around his shoulders. He had a pale, freckled face, dark eyes, and a bright smile. They probably didn’t get many visitors up in the highlands, never mind people from the villages below the mountains.  

You pushed yourself up against Nazzog and smiled politely, “I’m okay, thank you! I just came to the field for a walk.” You insisted. Fear laced in your gut as the boy started to climb the stones. You admired Nazzog for not throwing the boy away as he set one foot on his leg. He could only see a very bumpy boulder.

“You ain’t from here though. Nor the next village.” He looked at your expensive cloak, gifted to you by Nazzog and your plain travelling clothes beneath it, not made for the highlands, “How have you got up here? You’re from the villages…” He scowled but didn’t say anything else, “Hush Betty, I’ll be down in a minute!” He scolded his dog, whistling her away as he sat himself down.

Before he could say anything else, you stood up, “Well I better be on my way!”

He held your cloak with a curious look, “Hey I ain’t gonna bite ya!” He drawled, “Just wanted to talk to a cutie like you is all.”

 You felt Nazzog rumble underneath you, and so did the poor Shepard. In a sudden flick of his foot, you watched Nazzog send the poor boy flying off the rocks. His neck whipped around with his great, spiked tail, extending himself to his full height, teeth on display as he snatched at you protectively, grabbing you between his two front paws.

“What right do you have to speak in such a manner?!” He hissed, fire burning in his mouth as he passed you to his other clawed paw and watched the boy’s dog howl at him. He scared Betty away with a roar and a blast of fire, scorching the grass to black ash in a fiery display.

“DRAGON!” The boy screamed as he sprinted after his dog, rushing towards the barn and the flock of sheep. Nazzog roared again, tongue out, spit flying, and rushed into the air with three great beats of his wings. He soared behind the boy before snatching one of his flock with a snap of his talons. The sheep bleated in his grasp before going quiet. You grunted in his grasp and tried to look away from the bleeding animal as Nazzog rushed back down the mountains, towards his lair in the grotto.

 The sheep was bones now. Nazzog picked at his teeth with the animal’s leg, ignoring you, his tail coiled around himself and his spiney back facing you. You moved towards his pillow pile and kicked at his tail.

“Are we not going to talk about what just happened up there? You could have killed me!” You scolded as Nazzog turned one fiery eye on you. He regarded your pathetic tantrum before shifting, lugging his body around to face you, his paw scooping you closer gently, easing you on top of the pillow pile, underneath his chest. You poked at his thick, plated chest, admiring the grey plating and scales underneath his belly, even as you tried to appear upset.

“Are you used to such attention from other humans?” He asked quietly, peering down at you, the lines of his scaley snout amplified by the downwards curl of the horns framing his face. It was like looking at a crowned beast.

You cocked an eyebrow, “Not really. No one wants to marry the one that smells like herbal medicines constantly.”  

Nazzog revealed his teeth in something akin to a smile, “Not even the pig farmer?”

You scoffed at him, “I wouldn’t want their attention!” and scowled, “Apparently even they have senses of smell.”

 Nazzog hummed, “No marriage proposals…” He raked his claws through his treasure pile before turning away again, “I find that odd.” He commented before he turned in his bed again and went to the other piles, searching through them with a determined gaze.

“Why do you care, Nazzog. You’ve wanted rid of me since I started coming here!” You huffed before grabbing your bag, “Which is fine, because I’m leaving.”

The dragon turned to catch you with one great paw, pulling you over to the pile of treasure as he pulled free a great chest with one claw, sending gold cascading down the pile, “There is something I want to give you…” He offered before tipping the chest open, “I know what I did was rude, but…” He opened his paw, “I do not like you speaking to humans like that one. It seems as though I have grown fond of you in these months…” The dragon confessed as he plucked free a giant emerald from the pile of treasure that had spilled out of the chest.

“Why are you giving me this?” You asked as Nazzog raised the jewel towards you. It was huge and a rich, dark green, shining brilliantly in the light of the candles of his lair.

Nazzog purred, lowering his head towards your own to press his muzzle to the side of your head, “It is a gift. My own kind give each other their greatest treasures to prove their worth.”

You choked on your words, “Are you proposing to me?!”

 Nazzog’s tail trailed through the piles of treasure before he let out a great laugh, fire bursting from his teeth. Smoke curled from his nose as he dipped his head, “I suppose it is a proposal.” He offered the gem again and watched you take it with a purr, “I would not just let anyone do what you have. No one has ever been allowed to touch me…let alone ride upon my back.” He declared.

You were silent, looking at the emerald in your hands with a small frown.

“I am truly sorry for my behaviour, gem.” He rumbled as he nudged you again, pressing your hand to the tip of his snout.

“You should be.” You grumbled before smiling at the immense emerald in your hands, “But I forgive you. You only gave him a fright.” With a small laugh you hugged Nazzog’s head and felt hot tears burn behind your eyes.

“I love you…at least I think I do. I just want to escape everything, Nazzog. Home. People. I want to know about the world!” You pulled away from his scales and laughed as his tongue licked away your tears.

“You will have the world.” He promised as he took you into his paws and tucked you close to his chest once more.

[giantroboticplatypusbutt218]

Since I’m the kind of weirdo that unironically likes things like the Shadow The Hedgehog video game I decided to watch Loonatics Unleashed because I figured even if it’s bad I’ll probably still like it anyway.

My numerous thoughts on what I’ve watched so far are below the cut. There’s not any major spoilers.

I’m almost through season one and HOO BOY is the pacing in some episodes just like... the absolute worst I’ve ever seen in a cartoon. I never even knew a cartoon’s mere structure could give me whip lash but here we are. It should really say something that that’s the first problem I thought about. Sometimes there are like, no rising actions. They just introduce the baddy of the week and then it’s the climax for 20 minutes until the conclusion hits 20 seconds before credits roll. It’s either “things are fine” or “EVERYTHING’S ON FIRE” and hardly ever anything in between. The last handful of episodes I watched seems to be better, but that could also be because I was dead tired while watching them. 

Also this is literally the first show where I just... don’t care about the main character. I know it’s a team of six but obviously with Ace being the leader you’d kinda expect him to be the most interesting... but he’s not. He just feels like homeopathic dilution Bugs Bunny, and the fact he spouts off most of the “iconic” lines compared to all the characters doesn’t help. This is unrelated but he also seems to have only one super power? And it’s a kinda boring one? I guess he just needed laser eyes so he could get into Harry Potter esque energy beam battles with the bad guys... I mean most of the team doesn’t have very original powers but you’d at least expect the leader to have something cool. Like, why doesn’t trickster god Bugs Bun- I mean Ace have transformation powers or something? That could be cool.

Speaking of the team’s powers... they’re alright. Slam is just beefy Taz which is fine. I still don’t get the tornado thing but maybe it’s based off of dust devils IDK. Lexi has super hearing and like... psychic sonic boom stuff going on, which I guess is neat but doesn’t really seem to match her character or backstory. Duck uh... can teleport and throw magic eggs. Makes for good comedic moments but again... why are those his powers? Rev can fly which barely matters since the entire team has jet packs, but he also has super speed which like... it would be weird if he didn’t. Honestly Tech got the best powers by a mile. Magnetic manipulation perfectly fits and aids his affinity for building contraptions, and regeneration matches Wile E. Coyote’s tendency to get obliterated as a result of his failures but never actually die from them. 

In terms of the actual plots of the episodes... Well, they introduce some neat if a little cliche concepts that could work but hardly ever get developed properly. Again, the pacing is probably the largest factor. Since the majority of the episode is them dealing with the bad guy at full power and control, every time there’s setback it’s almost always resolved immediately and by the end it just feels like they’re throwing themselves at a wall until it cracks. Like, having swapped powers is cool. Having no powers is cool. But then 2 minutes later it’s like, “Wow! Tech literally solved the problem and sapped most of the tension with an invention he built in five minutes off screen! Haha! Now it’s time to fight this stereotyped to hell villain with no setbacks!” ...Cool.

So far I like every team member except for Ace and Lexi. I don’t hate them they’re just... kinda bland so far. I already talked a little about Ace, but Lexi... just feels like the “girl” of the team. Like the writers were required to have a female main character but they’ve never written one in their life, so all Lexi does outside of battle is get jealous of other women and gush about cute things. Hopefully that gets better over time. Her backstory of being a great cheerleader was neat... until the sexist writing kicked in and she lost the tryout because the female judge was jealous and disqualified her. 

Slam is a very simple character. He’s big, he’s strong, he eats a lot, and he’s a bit of a doof. I like him. Duck is literally just Daffy and Daffy’s my objective pick for best Looney Tunes character besides Bugs so I love him. He’s also by far the funniest character in the show. I knew I was going to love Rev before watching and guess what? I love Rev. The Roadrunner is my subjective pick for best Looney Tunes character and this roadrunner who is now a fast talker is voiced by mister United States Canada Mexico Panama himself. He’s a dork, and he’s smart, and he runs a lot, and I couldn’t ask for more. Onto Tech, I love him too. He is also a dork who is smart, but he’s also a little cocky which is fun to watch. I feel bad seeing him routinely obliterated but it is kinda funny sometimes. 

So far the show is about what I was expecting. Not very good, but that’s okay because half of my thoughts are dedicated to giving imaginary head pats to fictional animal characters. Tech deserves the most head pats, btw, because I’m shocked he hasn’t been crushed under the weight of carrying the entire team. Seriously if he wasn’t an established character everything he does could count as a deus ex machina. 

So yeah. The show’s not very good, but I’ve still been having fun watching it. I hope it improves as I keep going.

[astrognossienne]

scandalous icon: orson welles -an analysis

"I prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out." - Orson Welles

I've always had a serious thing for Taurus men, in or out of Hollywood, and Orson Welles is hands down one of my all-time favourites; so thoroughly fascinating is this man to me that this analysis is gonna be a bit longer than usual. He was a polymath with an IQ of 185 who excelled as an actor, writer, director, and producer on radio, film, and television. He’s been (rightfully) hailed as a genius. He was a man like no other. By the time he was 30, the man had become the myth. He often behaved in extravagant, bewildering, self-defeating ways, but equally often with magnificent, inspiring generosity. He was funny, terrifying, creative, destructive, kind, cruel, and all on the largest scale. A stubborn lack of self-knowledge condemned him to repeat his errors. His successes and his failures were equally titanic; he created some of the most memorable films and striking theater of the 20th century. Citizen Kane—which he co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in at the age of 25—is generally championed by the cognoscenti as the greatest film ever made. As the creator of cinematic masterpieces like The Thin Man and Touch of Evil, the legacy of Welles has been immortalized in the very fabric of cinema itself. In a long and illustrious film and theater career, nobody came close to Welles in being feted and adored by his peers.

However, Welles was notoriously difficult, didn’t suffer fools gladly, and as such, had a low opinion of many of the stars who were then icons of Hollywood. He branded Charlie Chaplin “arrogant” (I agree), Laurence Olivier “stupid” (I totally disagree), Spencer Tracy "hateful” (no comment), James Stewart “a bad actor” (wow) and “couldn't stand” looking at thee Bette Davis. He snubbed the so-called golden couple of Tinsel Town: when Richard Burton tried to introduce his wife Elizabeth Taylor as he had lunch at a restaurant, he said about the actor that he was a “joke with a celebrity wife”. Welles had no time for a lot of actresses in the thirties and forties. Joan Fontaine who had “two expressions, and that's it” and to him, Norma Shearer was “one of the most minimally talented ladies to appear on the silver screen”. But as dismissive as he was of his fellow actresses, he also had an eye for some of them, famously landing iconic Latina actress (and my last star analysis), Dolores del Río, as well as snagging another Spanish Hollywood icon and beauty, Rita Hayworth. He also had a brief dalliance with Eartha Kitt. Love him or hate him, Welles was and remains one of the most important cultural figures in the history of Hollywood.

Orson Welles, according to astrotheme, was a Taurus sun and Aquarius moon.  Born on May 6, 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, George Orson Welles lost his mother to hepatitis when he was nine. His father, an alcoholic inventor who hailed from a wealthy Virginia family, took young Orson on business trips soon after his mother’s death. A child prodigy, he lived a peripatetic life in and out of public schools, before he was placed in the Todd Seminary for Boys, a private school in Woodstock, Illinois. There, Welles' creative life blossomed under the tutelage of teachers who encouraged the precocious young man. He was adept at the piano and violin, acting, drawing, painting, and writing verse; he also was a magician, and entertained his friends by performing magic tricks and staging mini productions of William Shakespeare’s plays. Welles acted in stage plays, and wrote and performed radio dramas. After his father's death, Welles became the ward of Dr. Maurice Bernstein, a Chicago physician (rumoured to be his late mother’s lover). Welles turned down a scholarship to Harvard to travel, bluffing his way into an audition for the Gate Theatre in Dublin, where he made his stage debut at age 16.  He appeared in several roles in Ireland, and even produced his own plays, before returning to the States. He returned to the United States in 1932, tried out for several Broadway roles and resumed his travels when he was turned down. He went to Morocco and Spain--where he learned bullfighting--before returning once more to New York and won a role with actress Katherine Cornell’s road company.

Welles made his Broadway debut with Cornell in 1934 in “Romeo and Juliet,” playing both the Chorus and Tybalt. In the same year, he married Chicago socialite and actress Virginia Nicholson, co-directed a four-minute motion picture called “The Hearts of Age” and gave his first radio performance. At about the same time, the young actor met Houseman; soon afterward, Welles and Houseman formed the Mercury Theatre Project in 1937. The next year, the troupe evolved into the highly experimental Mercury Theatre of the Air, a weekly radio anthology which produced probably the most famous radio program: his adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds”. Intended as a kind of Halloween prank, the documentary style of this broadcast was so realistic that thousands of listeners panicked and evacuated their homes. Largely because of the radio show’s success, he was brought to Hollywood in 1940 by RKO, where he began shooting his first feature-length film in July: Citizen Kane.

He co-wrote (with Herman J. Mankiewicz), directed, produced and starred in the film, which traced the career of an American newspaper tycoon whose life paralleled in many ways that of powerful publisher William Randolph Hearst, who attempted to suppress the film. Hearst’s star movie columnist, Louella Parsons, tried to get motion picture studios to blacklist Welles. The movie’s innovative techniques have influenced generations of film makers who followed. As influential and critically acclaimed as it was (and still is), it actually was not a commercial hit. While Welles was never formally blacklisted, he did become virtually unemployable because of his apparent inability to finish projects such as the films The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and a version of MacBeth which featured an all-black cast (1948), which were completed by others. The last major Hollywood film he directed was Touch of Evil in 1957. Welles, who was a known womanizer, lived a life that was dotted with affairs with various women. His first love was actress Virginia Nicolson, with whom he eloped with in 1934 when they were 19. While Nicolson was pregnant with the couple's child, Welles began affairs with actresses Geraldine Fitzgerald and Dolores del Río. After Nicolson divorced him in 1940, Welles married actress Rita Hayworth in 1943, after seeing her famous photograph kneeling on a bed in a negligee of satin and lace that appeared in Life magazine in 1941. When he saw the photograph while filming in South America, he told his friends that upon his return to the United States he would marry Hayworth, even though he had not yet set eyes on the actress in person. He co-starred with her in The Lady From Shanghai (1947), a picture he wrote, directed and produced. Their marriage resulted in divorce in 1948 after his extra-marital affairs plagued the relationship. Welles went into self-exile in Europe not long after the divorce from Hayworth, taking roles in dozens of films, but it wasn’t until he starred in his best-known role as the sinister Harry Lime in the 1949 British hit The Third Man that made him an international star.

Soon after, Welles went to Europe and met and impregnated Italian actress and aristocrat Paola di Gerfalco, Contessa di Girafalco (who acted in Italian films as Paola Mori), which prompted a shotgun wedding in 1955 but the couple soon drifted apart. Welles fathered a daughter from each marriage: Christopher Marlowe with Nicolson, Rebecca with Hayworth, and Beatrice with Mori. He also had an illegitimate son by actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, the baronet and film director Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Welles was an enthusiastic eater and a drinker of incredible capacity, according to friends, and was addicted to large, long cigars. He was physically huge—6 feet, 2 inches tall and usually weighed about 300 pounds. He was also politically aligned with the left and identified himself as a progressive and was an outspoken critic of racism in the United States and the practice of segregation: when he was at nightclubs in Paris, it was at one of these clubs that African-American entertainer Eartha Kitt met Orson Welles, who declared her "the most exciting woman in the world," and signed her to play Helen of Troy in his legendary stage production of “Dr. Faust”.

Welles returned to Hollywood, where he continued to self-finance his film and television projects. His great appetites soon got the better of his health, and he suffered from heart failure and diabetes. The last decade of his life saw Welles continuing to stay busy. Among his many projects, he served as the spokesman for Paul Masson wine, and notoriously got himself drunk on the product; the infamous commercial outtakes, originally released as a bootleg VHS tape, now circulate the web. Croatian actress Oja Kodar, who was 26 years his junior, became his partner for the final 24 years of his life but he never divorced Mori and often returned to her. While offers to act, narrate and host continued, Welles also found himself in great demand on television talk shows. He did his last interview on October 10, 1985, just two hours before his death, when he appeared on The Merv Griffin Show. Not long after returning to his Los Angeles home, he suffered a heart attack and died. Even though he made it clear that he didn’t want a funeral, a brief private funeral was nonetheless held and attended by a few close friends, including Paola Mori and Welles's three daughters—the first time they had ever been together. In 1987 the ashes of Welles and Mori (killed in a 1986 car crash) were taken to Ronda, Spain, and buried in an old well covered by flowers on the rural estate of a longtime friend, bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez. He was fearless in his experiments, and he never did any of it for the money, just for the sheer joy of making films. Because of this, he has inspired more directors than any other film-maker, but he leaves no legacy: he really was a one-off.

Next, I focus on another force of nature and a most accomplished actress in her own right. Equally as tortured as she was beautiful and talented: Scorpio Vivien Leigh.

Stats

birthdate: May 6, 1915

major planets:

Sun: Taurus

Moon: Aquarius

Rising: Gemini

Mercury: Taurus

Venus: Aries

Mars: Aries

Midheaven: Aquarius

Jupiter: Pisces

Saturn: Gemini

Uranus: Aquarius

Neptune: Cancer

Pluto: Cancer

Overall personality snapshot: His was a winning combination because he backed up his high ideals and broad vision with hard work and perseverance. He didn’t lose touch with reality; rather, he brought humanitarian values down to earth and put them to use in a productive way, for himself and for others. People respected him because he was utterly honest and they knew he employed the same scrutiny to himself as he did to them. He was born with a strong sense of self which was very hard to dent. This was not because he was defensive; rather it was due to his staunch humane conservatism and his tenacious loyalty to sound ideals. He respected himself, felt he deserved what he wanted, and was willing to work hard to get it. His creations expressed his uniqueness and his strong sense of identity in a very tangible way. The freedom to be himself, to work patiently towards the marriage of his ideals and his bank account, and to enjoy with loved ones the fruits of his hard-headed genius, was to a large extent what made him tick. One of his strongest points was his clear-headed, frank and forthright manner of communication. He had a sound intellect, grasped essential facts and figures readily, and told it like it was. He enjoyed imparting knowledge to others which made their lives more rational, productive and ecological in every sense of the word. He therefore made a good instructor – helpful, friendly and egalitarian, although he knew in the end everyone had to be their own teacher and live according to their own principles.

And certainly he never abandoned his; they are the central hub around which his life revolved, and he had a natural way of persuading others of the soundness of his views. He did not like conflict and felt, really, that it was beneath him. He tried to find ‘civilized’ ways of circumventing obstacles, for which his amiable, pleasant personality was a great asset. He was drawn towards areas of work which could express both his natural love of freedom and his sound sense of material values. Because of his strong independence, he was well-suited to self-employment. Because he was gregarious as well, however, he was a natural for working with the public. He often went for progressive ideas which served his fundamental well-being – and that meant the body. Indeed, it was quite likely that he was very in tune with the needs and rhythms of the body, and he could be attracted to practices that highlight the mind-body relationship, such as t’ai chi or yoga. He loved good food and intelligent company, although he may have swung between gourmet indulgence and religious fasting. Essentially he wanted to be in control of himself. For him, this was all part of being a competent maverick – and he knew that meant being in control of his considerable sensual appetites as well.

He had the most youthful-looking of the zodiac with veritable Peter Pan looks. He had neat, sharp facial features and a wiry frame. He was lithe and agile with slender hands. He was quick-witted, decisive and competitive. He was practical, steady and patient, but he could be inflexible in his views. One thing he did have was plenty of common sense and good powers of concentration, although he tended to think that purely abstract thought was a waste of time. His thought processes weren’t as quick as others, but his decisions were made with a lot of thought behind them. He also had a gloriously resonant speaking-voice. He needed to be able to show his originality and independence in any job for complete satisfaction. He was capable of routine work, but ultimately found it too dull and boring. He needed scope for his inventiveness, because he was able to bring a fresh view to any job. He had trouble trusting those who had authority over him. He tended to be fairly materialistically oriented, working hard for eventual success. He was naturally compassionate, humane and sympathetic towards others. His good humour and easy-going ways permeated his entire personality, but he needed to counteract the restless and indecisive elements within him. At times, he could also be just a little unreliable, extravagant and self-indulgent. He may have had problems defining his objectives and accepting responsibilities. However, once he did find a goal to work towards, the sky is the limit considering the vast resources that he had at his disposal.    

Sometimes he may have found it difficult communicating effectively, and in such cases he relied on the facts to speak for themselves. His attitudes and ideas tended to be on the conservative side, but they were profound and he was able to constructively develop and apply them. He was very serious about everything that gained his attention, although high nervous tension plunged him into periods of depression. At times, he could lack emotional warmth, preferring his life to be ordered and disciplined. When things didn’t go his way, he could fall into a bout of depression or feel very bitter and vindictive. His sense of humour tended to be rather black and low-key. He belonged to a generation in which humanitarian ideals became extremely important, as well as the belief in absolute freedom for every individual. As a members of this generation, he came up with radical new ideas which he  stubbornly followed. Knowledge was acknowledged as bringing freedom. As a member of this generation, he felt deep spiritual convictions, although he may not have seen himself as religious in the traditional sense of the word. He was part of an emotionally sensitive generation that was extremely conscious of the domestic environment and the atmosphere surrounding their home place and home country. In fact, he could be quite nostalgic about his homeland, religion and traditions, often seeing them in a romantic light. He felt a degree of escapism from everyday reality, and was very sensitive to the moods of those around him. Welles embodied all of these Cancer Neptunian ideals. Changes were also experienced in the relationships between parents and children, with the ties becoming looser. He was part of a generation known for its devastating social upheavals concerning home and family. The whole general pattern of family life experiences enormous changes and upheavals; as a Cancer Plutonian, this aspect is highlighted with Welles not having too much time for any of his children.

Love/sex life: He had no capacity for soft words or gentle persuasion. He won hearts with the explosive force of his ego or not at all. The intensity of  his lovemaking along with his aggressive, sometimes even belligerent approach to relationships will likely frighten away many prospective partners. But those brave enough to weather the storms found him a passionate, caring and fiercely loyal lover. The real problem in his sex life was finding a stopping place. He developed intense bonds with his sexual partners but he rarely gave himself a chance to stop and enjoy the fruits of these relationships. He was always moving away from, or struggling against comfort and complacency. This made him a restless and inconsistent lover who, despite all his fiery passion and loyalty, often had difficulty holding onto love. At a time when he was the “golden boy” of  Hollywood, Welles began a frenetic pursuit of the reigning female sex symbol of the era, Rita Hayworth. After Welles succeeded in making the volatile and emotionally immature Hayworth his bride he quickly lost interest in the relationship and seemed almost relieved when another Mars in Aries lover, Aly Khan, began to woo her.

minor asteroids and points:

North Node: Aquarius

Lilith: Taurus

Vertex: Scorpio

Fortune: Pisces

East Point: Gemini

His North Node in Aquarius dictated that he needed to try not to let himself fall in the trap of overemphasizing his own importance. He needed to be able to share with others more readily and to be prepared to see issues from their perspective. His Lilith in Taurus dictated that he was dangerously attracted to women who were unabashed sensualists. These women were earthy, smutty, and totally without apology for their perfectly natural needs. He fell for women whose gut instincts were impeccable, their libido formidable, and whose sexual life-forces operated above and beyond petty morality. His Vertex in Scorpio, 6th house dictated that, he had a desire or continual need for feeling irresistible and irreplaceable on all levels of intimacy, whether spiritual, intellectual, emotional, or physical. From the fires of hell to the heights of heaven, the further and deeper the range of interaction he could experience with another the more fulfilling. He had an attitude of duty, obligation and sacrifice when it came to heartfelt interactions. He could become hypochondriacal or martyristic to get the love he so desperately wanted. There was a need for others to appreciate the sincerity of his intentions, to the daily tasks he executed in a conscientious and caring way and for others to know that his actions, no matter how routine they may seem, were based on devoted love.

The dark side was that when the reality of his partner does not fit this model (and it rarely did totally) he had a difficult time adjusting if faced with a breach of contract of any sort. Once badly hurt there was a tendency to become jaded and guarded in future relationships, thereby passing up the opportunity to explore interactions which might just fulfill out his intense needs perfectly. His Part of Fortune in Pisces and Part of Spirit in Virgo dictated that his destiny lied in cultivating compassion, faith and his imagination. His destiny and happiness came from following the path indicated by his intuition. His soul’s purpose asked him to clear away issues from the past in a dispassionate way and develop tolerance. He felt spiritual connections and the spark of the divine when able to bring order out of chaos. East Point in Gemini dictated that she was often insatiably curious and loved to collect little bits of (what seems to be useless) information and trivia. His interests were quite varied, and he may have been somewhat scattered. Sometimes his curiosity could appear cold and callous as his level of objectivity was potentially high. There was usually an openness to learning in any situation.  

elemental dominance:

air

earth

He was communicative, quick and mentally agile, and he liked to stir things up. He was likely a havoc-seeker on some level. He was oriented more toward thinking than feeling. He carried information and the seeds of ideas. Out of balance, he lived in his head and could be insensitive to the feelings of others. But at his best, he helped others form connections in all spheres of their daily lives. He was a practical, reliable man and could provide structure and protection. He was oriented toward practical experience and thought in terms of doing rather than thinking, feeling, or imagining. Could be materialistic, unimaginative, and resistant to change. But at his best, he provided the practical resources, analysis, and leadership to make dreams come true.

modality dominance:

fixed

He liked the challenge of managing existing routines with ever more efficiency, rather than starting new enterprises or finding new ways of doing things. He likely had trouble delegating duties and had a very hard time seeing other points of view; he tried to implement the human need to create stability and order in the wake of change.

house dominants:

9th

12th

1st

Traveling, whether physically across the globe, on a mental plane or expanding through study was a major theme in his life. He was not only concerned with learning facts, but also wanted to understand the connections formed between them and the philosophies and concepts they stand for. His conscience, as well as foreign travel, people and places was also of paramount importance in his life. He had great interest in the unconscious, and indulged in a lot of hidden and secret affairs. His life was defined by seclusion and escapism. He had a certain mysticism and hidden sensitivity, as well as an intense need for privacy. His personality, disposition and temperament is highlighted in his life. The manner in which he expressed himself and the way he approached other people is also highlighted. The way he approached new situations and circumstances contributed to show how he set about his life’s goals. The general state of his health is also shown, as well as his early childhood experiences defining the rest of his life.

planet dominants:

Uranus

Saturn

Pluto

He was unique and protected his individuality. He had disruptions appear in his life that brought unpleasant and unexpected surprises and he immersed himself in areas of his life in which these disruptions occurred. Change galvanized him. He was inventive, creative, and original. He believed in the fact that lessons in life were sometimes harsh, that structure and foundation was a great issue in his life, and he had to be taught through through experience what he needed in order to grow. He paid attention to limitations he had and had to learn the rules of the game in this physical reality. He tended to have a practical, prudent outlook. He also likely held rigid beliefs. He brought about complete and profound transformations in his life, good or bad. He felt the need to let go of what was familiar to him and accept new and different ways of being and doing things. There were areas in his life where he had to accept regeneration, which involved the destruction of the old and the creation of the new.

sign dominants:

Aquarius

Gemini

Taurus

He was an original thinker, often eccentric, who prized individuality and freedom above all else. His compassion, while genuine, rose from the intellect rather than the heart. He was hard to figure out because he was so often a paradox. He was patient but impatient; a nonconformist who conformed when it suited his; rebellious but peace-loving; stubborn and yet compliant when he wanted to be. He chafed at the restrictions placed upon him by society and sought to follow his own path. He ventured out to see what else was there and seized upon new ideas that expanded his community. His innate curiosity kept him on the move. He used his rational, intellectual mind to explore and understand his personal world. He needed to answer the single burning question in his mind: why? This applied to most facets of his life, from the personal to the impersonal. This need to know sent him off to foreign countries, where his need to explore other cultures and traditions ranked high. He was changeable and often moody. This meant that he was often at odds with himself—the mind demanding one thing, the heart demanding the opposite. To someone else, this internal conflict often manifested as two very different people. His stubbornness and determination kept his around for the long haul on any project or endeavour. He was incredibly patient, singular in his pursuit of goals, and determined to attain what he wanted. Although he lacked versatility, he compensated for it by enduring whatever he had to in order to get what he wanted. He enjoyed being surrounded by nice things. He liked fine art and music, and may have had considerable musical ability. He also had a talent for working with his hands—gardening, woodworking, and sculpting. He was a physically oriented individual who took pride in his body.

Read more about him under the cut:

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was orphaned at 15 after his father's death in 1930 and became the ward of Dr. Maurice Bernstein of Chicago. In 1931, he graduated from the Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois. He turned down college offers for a sketching tour of Ireland. He tried unsuccessfully to enter the London and Broadway stages, traveling some more in Morocco and Spain. where he fought in the bullring Recommendations by Thornton Wilder and Alexander Woollcott got him into Katharine Cornell's road company, with which he made his New York debut as Tybalt in 1934. The same year, he married, directed his first short, and appeared on radio for the first time. He began working with John Houseman and formed the Mercury Theatre with him in 1937. In 1938, they produced "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", famous for its broadcast version of "The War of the Worlds" (intended as a Halloween prank). His first film to be seen by the public was Citizen Kane (1941), a commercial failure losing RKO $150,000, but regarded by many as the best film ever made. Many of his subsequent films were commercial failures and he exiled himself to Europe in 1948. In 1956, he directed Touch of Evil (1958); it failed in the United States but won a prize at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1975, in spite of all his box-office failures, he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1984, the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. His reputation as a filmmaker steadily climbed thereafter. . (x)

[nadineeb]

CRAZY RICH ASIANS -  MOVIE REVIEW

Hi dears! It’s me again. After my tech review, I’m navigated to this 2016 movie -  Crazy Rich Asians which came from the first book of its trilogy novel. This is always at the top of my list and my favourite movie. Hope you’ll enjoy this movie review as it feels like you’re watching it when you’re really just reading. All credits goes to the owner of the photos and GIFs. Thank you so much!! Enjoy it as much as I do. 

- XOXO, Nads <3

New York City - Rachel Chu, a young, lovely, part-timer economic professor who dates for over a year now, a hunk, eye-turner, history professor, Nick Young, at New York University. Rachel already introduced Nick at their family dinners but since Nick's family are from Singapore, he hasn't presented Rachel formally to them.

Nick's closest female cousin, a double - heiress in her family, an icon in the fashion industry, had already chatted with Rachel. She's the only one that has known her cousin's girlfriend. Astrid was always busy with the Paris' fashion week, shopping spree every week, buying ancient jewelries that costs a fortune and building her own family with her only son and her husband who's also busy gaining investors in his technology business. 

(Astrid down below)

Being that it's Araminta and Colin's wedding, Colin, who happens to be Nick's bestfriend and cousin since their diaper days. Colin wants him to come home for he is his bestman in his wedding. He wants to take this chance for Rachel to meet his gigantic family and have her experience his childhood in the country where he grew up. It's also a great opportunity for her to visit her college bestfriend, Peik Lin , who always asks her to come to Singapore where she lives.

Excitedly, Rachel asks his mom for help with what dress will she be wearing when she meets his boyfriend's Ah-ma (grandmother in Chinese) during the family dinner to welcome the guests of the wedding. She forcibly agrees when her mom tries to get her wear the red dress. Her mom says that red is a color of good luck in Chinese traditions and also a little bit more of a plus point from Nick's Ah-ma though she also got a pure Chinese blood but grew up in America which promotes an entirely different culture.

Amazed by their First Class seats and soft silk pair of pj's given by the airlines, Rachel couldn't contain her happiness while sipping on their glass of champagnes on their flight to Singapore. Astonished as she seemed, she nags Nick on why he can afford the First Class tickets to a country miles away from them while Nick uses her Netflix password. He admits that they are living "comfortably" which what exactly a member of a crazy rich family says.

As soon as they land in Singapore, Araminta and Colin, the soon-to-be wedded couple was there at the airport with balloons in their hands and joy in their auras. After introducing them to Rachel, they plan to eat Newton Food Centre, a place where they serve delicious street foods especially laksa curry and satay bowls from street food vendors which gained Michelin stars.

Right before the Nick's family welcome dinner, Rachel visits Peik Lin in her house which everything is brilliantly gold-plated and was inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. While catching up over their food for lunch, Peik Lin's mom interrogates her about her coming to Singapore. When she said that it's for the wedding of his boyfriend's bestfriend Colin, Peik Lin's family were shocked, they said that it is the wedding of the year and even them having that rich, they aren't invited to the wedding. It seems like Rachel didn't do a research at his boyfriend's family!

Peik Lin also warned Rachel that the Youngs are kind of snobbish that would belittle a commoner. She would not let Rachel wear that little red dress to the dinner so she gathered all of her fancy clothes and choose the best for Rachel to wear.

The Youngs - migrated in the 1800's to the small island of Singapore from their main land, China  with a vast amount of fortune. They started real-estates business until this family became most probably the landlords of Singapore.

Nick escorted Rachel and Peik Lin to his Ah-ma's house which is the largest, most beautiful house that Rachel didn't expect to see. A house that Nick and Astrid grew up in. A house that has lots of wings that you'll probably get lost once you enter the wrong one.

Finally, Nick introduces Rachel to all of his cousins. Nick's mom, Eleanor, is busy in the kitchen scrutinizing every detail of the food to serve to their guests. When the couple went down to the kitchen, Rachel thrillingly hugs Eleanor which made Eleanor uncomfortable around Rachel. That is why Rachel immediately concluded that Eleanor doesn't want her for his son.

In the middle of the garden, sits a fragrant Tan Hua flower which usually blooms fully once a year, a great opportunity for the guests to see this once in a year. While waiting for it to fully bloom, Nick introduced Rachel to his Ah-ma, surprisingly, she likes Rachel the moment they talked in Chinese. She said that Rachel should come back to the mansion when there are no more craining necks so that she can teach Rachel how to make their family's traditional dumpling recipe which was passed to generations.

The Bachelor and Bachelorette's  Party where Nick and Rachel's love was tested. The Bachelor's party is located literally in the middle of the ocean, filled the cargo-like ship with sexy girls and men that is enjoying the scenery. As they are talking about anything under the sun and with the influence of alcohol, some men questions Nick on Rachel's details. Though the men want to know more about Rachel, Nick went hot-headed as the men start to sexualize his girlfriend. He decides to leave the ship that day with Colin, the bachelor, to an island with a small wooden floating house and a raft.

On the other hand, Rachel met Nick's ex-girlfriend, Amanda, in Araminta's Bachelorette party at a private island. She did not know that Amanda wants to be friends with her so that she and her mean friends can pull off their plans and that Rachel would want to leave. Their plans succeeded, while crying Rachel went to her villa to get her things and leave, she bumped into Astrid. They two found that Rachel's bed was covered in tuna's blood with a tuna head at her headboard.

That incident led to them to the seashore talking about why Amanda is like that. Astrid also opened up to Rachel how she found out that her husband is not really busy going to business trips but rather he is busy having an affair with a woman she doesn't know. It seems like the two found comfort in each other.

Dumpling day comes and also another day to test their relationship. While making dumplings, Rachel found out that Ah-ma doesn't want Eleanor for Nick's father way back then and she doesn't have the heirloom engangement ring of the Youngs since Ah-ma didn't approve of her. Ah-ma arrived at the dining table exactly after Rachel knew the backstory of Eleanor and Nick's father. Ah-ma was pleased after seeing Rachel again. She adoringly expressed her interest in Rachel's face features which made Eleanor jealous of Rachel.

On her way to the toilet, Rachel's lost in the mansion and was shocked that Eleanor found her. Eleanor talked to Rachel and frankly told her that she will never be enough for her son.

(Rachel and Eleanor Scene)

The wedding of the year came, famous business elites and the royalties attended. Rachel wore a pretty blue elegant dress paid respects to Eleanor and Nick's aunties though Eleanor doesn't want her to sit with her.

Princess Inta, who demanded a whole row of the front seats to herself so she would not be bothered by anyone, approached by Rachel who doesn't have seats, she talked about the princess' book about economics and that they have the same stand. They immediately been comfortable with each other. Escorted by Astrid, Ah-ma came and everyone was shocked at her presence. They said that Ah-ma never came to such events.

Not long after Ah-ma arrived, the grand wedding started which left everyone in awe on how beautiful the oriental, Gothic-themed was.

After the ceremony, the program continued at the Gardens by the Bay, a reception for the wedding. It was filled with laughters, everyone is having a great time dancing and enjoying the beat. In contrast with this, stands Rachel and Nick called by Ah-ma and Eleanor for the truth behind Rachel's identity. They said that they cannot let Rachel join their family for the fact that she lied to them about his father after they hired a peivate investigator. Little did they know that Rachel only found out then that her mom's husband, which all throughout her life she believed wa sher father, isnt really her biological father. Rachel walked out for she is deeply hurt by their actions. Ah-ma later then gave Nick an ultimatum. Once he leave, he can't come back. Who will he choose? His family or Rachel?

After a few days of crying, Rachel's mom found her in Peik-Lin's house and not eating. Her mom admitted that she left her husband because she was impregnated by Rachel's father and that her husband was not kind after all. She flew all the way to America to start a new life with her baby, Rachel.

Before leaving Singapore, Rachel wanted to talk to two people; Nick and Eleanor. She ended her relationship with Nick and declined Nick's offer to marry her and start a new life in New York as he will cut his ties with his family.

Rachel meets Eleanor at a Mahjong Parlour where they had a mahjong game along with two deaf players. She told Eleanor everything that had happened before she met with her and that she knew that Nick loves his family so much that even though Nick decided to leave his family for her, she couldn't stand to see Nick away from them. He is the only son that would inherit their wealth. She decides to let him go.

Also broken-hearted with her cousin Nick, Astrid decides to leave his husband for she cannot be blinded by her husband's affair. She decides to take their son with her.

Rachel and her mom are boarding the aircraft when Nick chased her to fly to New York with her.   She don't want to listen to Nick at first but when she realized what Nick's doing, she decided to  clisten to him and is completely speechless when Nick get down on one knee. Her face brightened when she saw the small box with the emerald stone ring embedded in diamonds that Eleanor wore on their engagement with Nick's father is vividly shining right infront of her eyes. She said Yes!

Them three left the aircraft to celebrate their engagement with their friends at the top of Singapore's most popular hotel - Marina Bay Sands. Ended as Eleanor genuinely smiles at Rachel as Rachel shows her engagement ring.

This movie taught me that you can’t choose who you’ll love. If you're looking for someone with the same wealth level as yours or even the same race as yours, you may never find your true love. Given the circumstances of Rachel and Nick, they don’t want their wealth status to be a hindrance in their relationship.

Though family always comes first, if it's a matter of going through what your family wants for you or going through what you want for your future family, always choose the latter. I only get one chance to live and I don’t want any regrets, so for as long as possible, if my decisions don't violate a person's right, i’ll do everything and whatever it takes.

This part below, where Rachel met Eleanor at the Mahjong Place where they talked about why Eleanor didn’t want Rachel for Nick the second she arrived in Singapore. Eleanor said that there is a Hokkien phrase “Ka ki lang” which means “Our own kind of people.” This is why the Chinese people tend to want to marry the same ethnicity as them because they want to preserve their traditions and would want to keep it going for as long as possible, which Rachel is not. Not because she is not wealthy, but because she is a foreigner, an American, although the Chinese blood runs through her, she grew up in America and Eleanor doesn’t want that.

One of the Chinese’s cultures is that they are taught to build things that last and not to feed in what they want, but in what they need. I understand Eleanor in this part because as an Asian, we are taught by these things - to prioritize our needs and build connections that will benefit us in the future. But for me, we should give respect to other cultures and not close our circle entirely. We all have different perspectives regardless of our race, that is why we should not judge one’s personality based on their race.

Rachel said that Nick proposed to him the day before and she turned him down, though Nick stated that he will stay away from his family for good. She said that if Nick would choose Rachel, he would lose his family, and if Nick would choose his family, he might spend the rest of his life resenting Eleanor.

Eleanor shows her Mahjong tiles which she thought she won, but Rachel looks at her, sighs, and says,

“ I’m not leaving because I’m scared, or because I think I’m not enough, because maybe for the first time in my life, I know I am. I just love Nick so much. I don’t want him to lose his mom again, so I just wanted you to know that one day, when he marries another lucky girl, who is enough for you, and you’re playing with your grandkids, while the Tan Hua’s are blooming, and the birds are chirping, that is was because of me. A poor, low-class immigrant nobody.”

Then she showed her Mahjong tiles and she won to Eleanor. She left the table and fetched her mother with a smile at the other table to leave the place. What a queen! Powerful. That is the best scene ever. The feels, the script, the emotions, they are just so perfect.

Astrid, my favorite character, not just she is stunningly beautiful but among all the cousins, she has the purest heart. She doesn’t want the people around her to feel that they are left out when they are with her. She wanted everything to be perfect when it comes to her family. Though her shopping spree every time she’s going to Paris fashion week is a bit overwhelming to commoners, she deserves all of it.

Astrid and I have similarities in our personalities. I’m also calm when there are problems that are coming my way. I can remain composed and I buy my time until I can find solutions to it. I remember the time when the man I loved cheated on me just like when Michael (Astrid’s husband) cheated on Astrid.

I can relate to her when she said that she’s wrong when she’s turning down jobs because Michael might feel lesser than her. I used to lower myself when I’m with him because I worry that he might feel that I’m the superior one between the two of us. But when he cheated, I realized that it shouldn’t be like that. It will be his fault for being insecure in me. Just like what Astrid said,

“It’s not my job to make you feel like a man. I can’t make you something you’re not.”

[academicsunflower]

Studyblr Intro

Hello. My name is Saffi Grace and I have decided to rejoin the wonderful Studyblr community. Over the past year I have started to lose sight of my goals and stopped believing in my potential. I created this account a while back but am resposting this because I never used it due to mental health and I lost who I am. I hope the studyblr community will help me get back some of my passion for learning about the things that interest me. Icon by @cheruib

About me

I am taking a gap year

I am 19

I live in Europe

I am an INFJ

My ultimate dream is to be a clinical psychotherapist  and write a book. This is really important to me because I want to help people and at the same time, I enjoy the academic challenge that comes with learning something I enjoy.

Interests

Criminology (love Buzzfeed unsolved)

Tennis, Swimming, Dance 

Volunteering

Debate

I listen to music almost constantly

Photography and Scrapbooking

Reading and writing

Poetry (Slam)

Cooking

Sewing 

Puzzles

My classes

None, but I am learning Spanish. 

Next year, I will take Psychology, Philosophy, Childhood Development and Law

Random facts about me

I am pretty analytical and love to communicate with others as well as interpret the things around me

I love creating new concepts and connecting things from all different areas of learning

Fall is my favourite season and I love flowers

I want to change the world for the better

One of my largest wants is to have a family, and I am looking forward to that one day. I want to be able to stay at home with my kids if I have them. 

I am queer 

If I don’t do college, I want to be an event planner

My favorite thing in school is critical thinking

The most important value to me is empathy

I am a perfectionist and afraid of failure (and I worry a lot)

I am trying to learn to read body language better.

I always need to be doing something and am very curious, always asking about everything

I love egg and avocado

Why a Studyblr

I have a pretty big imagination (and would rather spend my time dreaming up new concepts then studying certain subjects) and can be pretty chaotic. Which leads to me procrastinating and not being disciplined and not getting the grades I know I could be getting. I hope this studyblr will motivate me. Also, I want to improve my notetaking. I have a pretty strong will and I hope that I can apply that to school.

I struggle with  depression and I hope that this studyblr will motivate me to continue with my goals even when I feel as if nothing will work out.

Goal

Create my own content

Productivity challenge

Make friends

Learn to love what I do

My Favorite Studyblrs

@hannybstudies @coffeeandpies @rylie-studies @emmastudies @a-study-in-letters @khatulati @studylustre @amenastudies @depressed-student @psychologyhermione @studyquill @studyxpsych @intellectys @problematicprocrastinator @adelinestudiess @piscesstudies @myhoneststudyblr @smilestudy @study-aquarius @stu-dna @studynostalgic  @lantern-hill-studies @florencestudiesstuff @fahmidas-world @made-by-a-student @bookworm-with-glasses @cyclicstudies @studyfajr @indiaisstudying @bright-goals @serendistudy @rivkahstudies @sonderstudy @starrystvdy @a-students-lifebuoy @studyblr @athenastudying @coffeerevision @revisicn @coffitivity

Can’t wait to start an adventure with all of you. You are all amazing people.

[aion-rsa]

The Cinematic Legacy of Lupin: Arsène Lupin’s Live-Action Filmography

https://ift.tt/2ToNPSY

When Netflix premiered the first season of Lupin last January, 70 million sheltered-in-place households ravenously binged it, making the series the most-watched non-English show for its premiere month on the streamer so far. Lupin steals a page from French literature. The hero of Lupin, Assane Diop (Omar Sy) is inspired by France’s iconic ‘Gentleman Thief’ Arsène Lupin, a fictional figure created by French writer Maurice Leblanc in 1905. 

Lupin was the subject of some two dozen books by Leblanc, who continued adding into his literary franchise until well into the 1930s. Akin to Robin Hood, Lupin stole from the rich, and often did good deeds despite his thieving capers. He was a master of deception and disguise, a lady killer who always operated with a classy panache. With a legacy spanning more than a century, there have been plenty of live-action depictions in film and TV.

The First Lupin Films are Over a Hundred Years Old

The earliest cinematic portrayals of Lupin were in black and white, and many have been lost. One of the very first was a U.S. production, a short film titled The Gentleman Burglar in 1908. William Ranows, a veteran of over sixty films, played Lupin. It was directed by one of the first film directors ever, Edwin Porter, who worked for Edison. 

Leblanc was a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Consequently, Holmes appears in a few Lupin stories. Doyle took legal action against Leblanc, forcing the name change in Lupin stories to the thinly disguised ‘Herlock Sholmes.’ As Holmes is loved by the British, Lupin is cherished by the French, and both characters became global icons. Consequently, among the many film and TV adaptations, several that depicted their rivalry regardless of copyright issues. In 1910, a German film serial titled Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes starred Paul Otto as Lupin and Viggo Larsen as Holmes (Larsen also served as director.) There were allegedly five installments in the series, but they’ve all been lost. 

France produced Arsène Lupin contre Ganimard in 1914 with Georges Tréville as Lupin (Inspector Ganimard was constantly on Lupin’s trail). The silent film Arsène Lupin came out of Britain in 1916 with Gerald Ames in the titular role, followed by more U.S. productions: Arsène Lupin (1917) starring Earle Williams, The Teeth of the Tiger (1919) with David Powell, which is also lost, and 813 starring Wedgwood Nowell. 813 was the title of Leblanc’s fourth Lupin book. 

Lupin and the Barrymore Clan of Actors

The legendary thespian John Barrymore played Lupin in 1932’s Arsène Lupin. He took on the role under one of Lupin’s aliases, the Duke of Charmerace. His brother, Lionel Barrymore, played another Lupin nemesis, Detective Guerchard. Given the illustrious cast, this is a standout Lupin film, although there isn’t a shred of Frenchness in Barrymore’s interpretation. Coincidentally, John Barrymore also played Holmes in Sherlock Holmes a decade earlier. He is also the grandfather of Drew Barrymore. 

Barrymore’s Arsène Lupin revolved around the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Historically, the Da Vinci masterpiece was stolen in 1911 and recovered in 1913. This inspired a Lupin short story, a parody akin to early fanfiction that was not written by Leblanc. In 1912, mystery writer Carolyn Wells published The Adventure Of The Mona Lisa which imagined Holmes and Lupin to be part of the International Society of Infallible Detectives alongside A. J. Raffles, Monsieur Lecoq, and other crime-solving luminaries. Barrymore’s Arsène Lupin does not retell this tale, but the theft of the Mona Lisa comes up again in other Lupin films because it’s France so robbing the Louvre is a common plot point. Netflix’s Lupin begins with Diop’s heist of the Queen’s necklace from the Louvre, an Easter egg referring to Leblanc’s original Lupin short story, ‘The Queen’s Necklace’ published in 1906.

The ‘30s delivered two more Lupin films. The French-made Arsène Lupin detective (1937) starred Jules Berry as Lupin and the American-made Arsène Lupin Returns (1938) with Melvyn Douglas who was credited under another Lupin alias Rene Farrand (Lupin has a lot of aliases). Despite being a completely different production, Douglas’ film was an attempt to capitalize on the success of Barrymore’s film as both films were from MGM. Universal Studios entered the fray soon after with their version Enter Arsène Lupin (1944) starring Charles Korvin. The following year, the Mexican-made Arsenio Lupin (1945) featured Ramón Pereda as the French thief. That film also starred José Baviera as Sherlock. 

The Early Japanese Lupin Adaptations

Lupin captured the hearts of the Japanese. Ironically, Japanese speakers have a difficult time pronouncing ‘L’s so Lupin is usually renamed as ‘Rupan’ or ‘Wolf’ (Lupine means wolf-like – remember Remus Lupin from Harry Potter). As early as 1923, Japan also delivered a silent version of 813, retitled Hachi Ichi San, starring Komei Minami as the renamed Lupin character of Akira Naruse. 

In the ‘50s, Japan produced 3 films that credit Leblanc: Nanatsu-no Houseki (1950) with Keiji Sada, Tora no-Kiba (1951) with Ken Uehara, and Kao-no Nai Otoko (1955) with Eiji Okada. However, post-WWII Japan has obscured most of the details on these films. Like Hachi Ichi San, these Japanese versions laid the foundations for the Lupin III, which debuted as a manga in 1967 and spawned a major manga and anime franchise. In karmic retribution for Leblanc poaching Sherlock, Japan stole Lupin. Lupin III was Arsène Lupin’s grandson. 

Notably, the second Lupin III feature film, The Castle of Cagliostro, marked the directorial debut of famed animator Hayao Miyazaki and is considered a groundbreaking classic that inspired Pixar and Disney (Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective (1986) pilfered the finale clockwork fight from The Castle of Cagliostro). In the wake of the anime Lupin III Part I (1971), Japan produced some anime films that were more loyal to Leblanc, notably Kaitō Lupin: 813 no Nazo (1979) and Lupin tai Holmes (1981). However, this article is focused upon live-action adaptations. Lupin III is another topic entirely. 

In the late ‘50s and into the ‘70s, France reclaimed her celebrated son. Robert Lamoureux became Lupin for two films, Les aventures d’Arsène Lupin (1957) and Signé Arsène Lupin (1959). A comedy version pitted rival sons of Lupin against each other in Arsène Lupin contre Arsène Lupin (1962). Playing the Lupin brothers were Jean-Pierre Cassel and Jean-Claude Brialy. 

Lupin on the Small Screen

Read more

TV

From Lupin III to Inspector Gadget: Examining the Heirs of Arsène Lupin

By Natalie Zutter

France also delivered several TV series. Arsène Lupin ran from 1971 to 1974 and starred Georges Descrières. It encompassed 26 60-minute episodes. L’Île aux trente cercueils (1979) is often included in Lupin filmographies because it is based on a Leblanc novel published in 1919 in which Lupin makes a guest appearance. However, he was omitted from this six-episode miniseries, so it doesn’t quite count. Arsène Lupin joue et perd (1980) was another six-episode miniseries loosely based on ‘813’ with Jean-Claude Brialy from the 1962 comedy. 

One more French TV show, Le Retour d’Arsène Lupin, was televised in two seasons, 1989-1990 and 1995-1996. These were 90-minute episodes with 12 in season 1 and eight in season 2. François Dunoyer starred as Lupin.

And in 2007, the largest Lupin TV show ran for a whopping 96 episodes plus one special. Lupin was made in the Philippines no less, starring Richard Gutierrez as André Lupin

Lupin in the Last Decade 

In 2011, Japan delivered one more live-action film Lupin no Kiganjo starring Kōichi Yamadera. Based on Leblanc’s 3rd Lupin book, L’aiguille Creuse, the film is reset in modern Japan.

In the strangest permutation of Japanese Lupins, Daughter of Lupin was a TV series that is an odd hybrid of Lupin III and Leblanc’s work. A campy sitcom in the tradition of Romeo and Juliet, Hana (Kyoko Fukada) comes from a family of thieves known as the L clan who are inspired by Lupin. Her lover, Kazuma (Koji Seto), is from a family of cops. When in thief mode, Hana wears a carnival mask and a velvet catsuit. It’s goofy, sort of a live action version of anime. It ran for two seasons in 2019 and 2020.

The Lupin Adaptation You Should See 

The strongest modern adaptation of Leblanc’s iconic burglar is the period film Arsène Lupin (2004). It’s an actioner, a creation story for Lupin, starting from his childhood and moving rapidly to him becoming a master gentleman thief. Romain Duris plays the titular role, and the film is in French. Backing Duris are veteran actresses Kristin Scott Thomas as Comtesse de Cagliostro and Eva Green as Clarisse de Dreux-Soubise. The story is absurd, like a mash-up between a superhero film and the DaVinci code, and it gets a bit muddled in the telling. However, it’s shot on location (including the Louvre) and encapsulates the spirit of Leblanc’s character in an updated fashion. It’s a perfect primer for Lupin Season 2.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Lupin seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Netflix now.

The post The Cinematic Legacy of Lupin: Arsène Lupin’s Live-Action Filmography appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2U0px1N

[msclaritea]

"An insurrection of upper-middle class white people | Will Bunch Newsletter

They flew from their affluent suburbs to the U.S. Capitol, ready to die for the cause of white privilege

The stunning pro-President-Trump insurrection that occurred at the U.S. Capitol less than a week ago must have been a carnival for one’s olfactory bulb, as the stinging aroma of tear gas blended with the pungent odors of the occasional joint, or maybe the piles of dung that some of the cruder mob members left in the hallways once graced by icons like Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and LBJ. The only thing that wasn’t in the air on Wednesday was the smell of what so many have falsely tied to Trump’s authoritarian movement — any whiff of “economic anxiety.”

When fascism finally came to America in the form of an attempted coup to halt our presidential election, it came from lush-green suburbs all across this land, flying business class on Delta or United and staying in four-star hotels with three-martini lobby bars — the better to keep warm after a long day of taking selfies with friendly cops or pummeling the unfriendly ones, chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” and generally standing athwart democracy yelling “Halt!”

Long ridiculed as deplorables rising up from the muck of Rust Belt trailer parks, the Donald Trump counter-revolution has finally revealed itself as an upper-middle-class affair.

What else can one think after seeing the photo of Jenna Ryan, real-estate broker from the upscale Dallas exurb of Frisco (also a “conservative” radio talker) posing in front of the private jet that whisked her to the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally and subsequent storming of the Capitol, where she smiled in front of a window broken by other rioters and tweeted that “if the news doesn’t stop lying about us we’re going to come after their studios next”?

Maybe Ryan is an extreme example, but her compatriots in rushing Capitol Hill on Wednesday included a father of three from another upscale Dallas suburb named Larry Rendall Brock Jr., whose 1989 degree in international relations from the Air Force Academy apparently never taught him that it’s a bad idea to be photographed leaving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in a combat helmet, tactical gear, and holding zip-tie handcuffs.

One might also expect a criminal defense lawyer like McCall Calhoun of Americus, Ga., to know that it’s surely illegal to surge past a line of cops into the U.S. Capitol, even if, as you later told a newspaper, you believed your fellow rioters wer people who “don’t want to lose their democratic republic.” Or that it’s bad form to do this after tweeting about a looming civil war or the potential hanging of President-elect Joe Biden.

Political junkies like us remember 2000′s “Brooks Brothers riot” of well-heeled GOP activists and lobbyists that successfully halted Florida vote recounting in populous Dade County. Apparently what we witnessed Wednesday was the “Pottery Barn insurrection.” As key figures who invaded the Capitol have been steadily identified over the last five or six days, it’s remarkable how many alleged lawbreakers emerged from upscale zip codes.

The stay-at-home dad husband of a physician. The son of an elected judge in Brooklyn. The owners of numerous small businesses, as well as assorted state legislators. The New York Times spent four years looking for Trump voters in Ohio diners, but apparently that’s not where they would have found failed actor Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. Jake Angeli, the infamous shirtless rioter with the painted face and horns, who reportedly hasn’t eaten since his arrest because there’s no organic food in jail.

Yes, many of the 74 million citizens who voted for the guy who then incited an attempted coup do fit the stereotype of struggling or laid-off blue-collar worker in a rusted-out rural community. But those folks aren’t the ones who can take a Wednesday off and fly hundreds of miles, let alone plunk down hundreds of dollars, to get to the nation’s hub. While the Capitol mob was bulked up with other Trumpists — including an alarming number of off-duty police officers, as well as some neo-Nazi or KKK types who’ve been around forever — it was the 401(k) crowd that formed the front line of America’s first real putsch.

If that surprises you, then you weren’t really paying attention. For the last four years, political scientists have been trying to wrap their brains around Trump’s shocking 2016 victory in the Electoral College while trying to tell us that the 45th president’s true base is a lot of things — but it’s not poor. In fact, polling guru Nate Silver noted during 2016′s primaries that the average Trump voter had a median household income of $72,000, which was both higher than the national average and also higher than the numbers that year for supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Interestingly, Silver and other analysts have found that Trump performs particularly well with voters with high incomes yet often without college diplomas (although he also does better with degree holders than he gets credit for). A researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, the political scientist Diana Mutz, found that Trump voters generally weren’t struggling economically yet did feel great anxiety about their status — whether the threat was the rise of a foreign power like China or the idea that America, and its government, was becoming increasingly nonwhite.

That explains a lot. It explains why the Republican Party, arguably in a long downward moral spiral, lost its mind when America elected its first Black president in Barack Obama. It explains why so many people with the luxuries of a laptop and free time (things that actual poor folks have in short supply) look for conspiracies like QAnon to explain a society that no longer makes sense for them, or why so much of the hatred on the right is expended not at the CEOs who outsourced American jobs but at the cap-and-gown-wearing eggheads like journalists or scientists they find intellectually arrogant.

The main reason that so many reasonably well-off folks tried to shut down American democracy wasn’t because they feared losing their paycheck, but because they feared losing their white privilege. Donald Trump had promised that “I alone can fix it” — that he’d protect them from a society where Black and brown essential workers could expect help from their government during a pandemic or ask the police to stop killing them, a world that where just being white no longer guaranteed the status they were promised as kids. They truly believed that Biden, Kamala Harris, and the 82 million were going to end their white power, and they saw Jan. 6 as their last chance to save it. The Capitol still stands, but the rest of us are going to be spending decades cleaning up their mess.

History lesson

Philadelphia Police carry a protester away from a July 4, 1966 anti-Vietnam War protest held at Independence Hall. A new study proves police are twice as likely to break up a left-wing demonstration than a right-wing one, like Wednesday's storming of the U.S. Capitol.

In the end, as the FBI and other agencies step up their investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection, there will likely be hundreds of arrests. But the now-under-fire Capitol Police arrested only 13 rioters while the attack was underway, and only a few dozen more were busted by cops for violating the 6 p.m. curfew. No one must have been more shocked by this than the survivors of the May 1971 anti-Vietnam War protests in Washington, one of the largest demonstrations in American history. In marked contrast to last week’s light police presence, the heavy-handed tactics from the administration of Richard Nixon included secretly canceling a national-park permit for the protests and then sending in a whopping 12,000 military troops to augment an already sizable police and National Guard presence. Over three days, an astonishing 12,614 people — many who were protesting peacefully and not violating any laws — were rounded up in the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. Authorities detained thousands at RFK Stadium because there was nowhere else to put them.

The shameful 1971 incident proved a point that seemed clear last Wednesday and has now been established with research: Police who are aggressive with leftist social-justice protesters treat right-wing disturbances with kid gloves. Last year’s Black Lives Matter protests as well as anti-lockdown rallies on the far right inspired the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project to dig deeper. It found police were twice as likely to break up the left-wing protests, and when they did disperse a gathering, cops used force against leftists more often (51% of the time) than against right-wingers (34%.) This unequal treatment under the law is one more way that American policing is broken."

[xmxisxforxmaybe]

Decryption_Error: “Catastrophic Failure”

Summary: Y/N does everything she can to help Elliot one last time.

Warnings: Angst, Discussion of DID and Mental Health

A/N: * = dialogue taken directly and/or paraphrased from the show; ** = researched tech stuff (not my thoughts/ideas)

Word Count: 6767

Decryption_Error: All Chapters

I blinked away a drugged sleep as my phone blared. I thought I had silenced it, but then again, my overreliance on my anxiety meds was making everything muddled.

Elliot 🖤

I had to be dreaming.

I hadn’t heard from Elliot since he walked away from me on Coney Island a week ago.

I had to be dreaming, but I could still hear the warble of my ringtone and I could feel the vibrations of my phone as I stared at his name.

I touched my thumb stupidly to the green icon and slid it to answer, expecting no one to be on the other end.

“Hello?”

“I need you to come out to your parents’ house. There’s not a lot … not a lot of time. Please.”  

“Elliot?” I questioned, my pulse quickening at the edge of desperation in his voice. “Please tell me this is really you.”

A harsh, shuffling sound made me pull the phone slightly away from my ear, then the line went dead.

I lowered my phone to stare at the screen as it went black, but the persistent hammering of my heart reminded me that really did happen and I needed to move … fast.

I fumbled my way through the dark and into the bathroom to splash cold water on my face to clear my head. I brushed my teeth as I walked into the closet and pulled on my still-sandy jeans and jostled into my also-still-sandy sweater from the night not-Elliot walked away from me. I yanked my sweater down as it caught on my toothbrush before I rushed back into the bathroom to rinse.

I stumbled as I slid into my sneakers, but when a small pile of sand fell out of the tread, I stared at it, remembering the story Elliot told me about a day he and his father played hooky and went to the beach. When he got home, his sneakers were full of sand and he dumped them on his bedroom floor. His mother was furious, but his father wasn’t. Elliot had said he often thought about that moment, about how difficult it would be to take enough sand away from that beach, shoe-full by shoe-full to make a difference in the landscape.*

“Is that what you really want, El?” I asked as his fingers ran through my hair while I laid with my head in his lap, looking up and watching his chin move as he spoke. “To change the world?”

“I don’t know. It takes so long to make any real change. What if I don’t have the stomach for it?”*

“Well,” I said slowly, smiling as I reached up to angle his face so he looked down at me, his own mouth mirroring my soft smile as he waited for me to continue. “It didn’t take you all that long to change my life.”

“Has it been a good change?” he asked as his smile grew to a grin.

“The best change,” I answered as my happy grin paralleled Elliot’s, our exchange of mirrored smiles offering the perfect evidence for how we had changed each other’s lives for the best.

I gasped for a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding as that memory assaulted me.  

“Fuck!” I yelled into the void of my closet as I pushed away the sweetness of the memory and forced my mind back to the agony of the present.

I adjusted my shoes, and tore out of the bedroom, only slowing my pace as I passed the guest room. I offered a prayer to anything listening that my parents stayed fast asleep.

After Elliot was fired and I didn’t answer my dad’s phone calls, he came to my apartment. I had managed to keep myself together for the rest of the work week, but the second I saw my dad, the dam inside of me broke.

I clung to him as he cradled me on the sofa, reduced to an inconsolable child as the heartbreak of losing Elliot flooded through me.

Mom and Dad cancelled their Memorial Day plans, even though it was going to be the first once since they had officially moved into the Greenwich house. Kath decided to host Josh’s family at their place, and Erin, Ryan, and Charlie decided to fly down to Palm Beach for the weekend. Each of my siblings did their best to cajole me into joining them, but they all knew I wasn’t going to.

Mom then made a very loud proclamation to anyone who would listen that she and my dad would stay with me in the city until I was “feeling more like myself.”

I didn’t have the strength to fight her, and although I was hesitant to admit it, having my parents to take care of me as my world fell apart helped.

After grabbing my bag, I shut the door to my apartment as quietly as I could, and as I waited for the elevator, I glanced at my phone to check the time.

2:07 am

I tried not to think that exactly one year ago, Elliot was asleep in my bed after we had a picnic and had gotten high, both of us basking in feelings that came at the beginning of a relationship, both of our hearts identical twins of hope for the possibility of an “us.”

I fumbled with the door to my SUV and settled in, slapping my cheeks to shake off the remnants of my meds. As a final thought, I checked my call history just to make sure everything still had really happened.

Elliot 🖤 1:54 am

I put the car in reverse, and quickly made my way out of the city.

* * * * *

I was rigid with fear as I finally pulled into my parents’ house, my stomach in knots and my head aching from clenching my jaw for the entire drive.

Considering Elliot’s phone call, I was unsurprised that the front door was unlocked.

Opening it slowly, I stepped into the pitch-black entryway, my eyes scanning the dark for any movement. I moved to check the alarm system, but it had already been disabled.

As my eyes adjusted, I looked to the staircase but changed my mind and made my way to my dad’s office—the office where Elliot and I had stopped the hackers over the Fourth of July weekend.

There was a light coming from Dad’s office, the familiar muted wash of a computer screen’s glow.

I pushed into the room with caution, my gaze settling on Elliot as he was seated at my dad’s computer, his fingers working at a pace that would’ve been deemed brutal for anyone else.

“Elliot?”

He never took his eyes off the screen, nor did his fingers falter as he replied, “No.”

“Why would you call me?”

“I didn’t,” not-Elliot said as he finally stopped typing and raised his eyes to mine, his cheek bright red with what would surely be a nasty bruise in a few hours.

“You hurt him?”

“He was getting in our way.”

“Our? As in you and Mr. Robot? So you’re a team now?”

Anger spurned my body into motion. I rushed to the desk and kicked the chair so it rolled him away from the computer.

He didn’t fight me.

I glared at him, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. I turned away to look at the monitor, my eyes narrowing in concentration as I worked to figure out what he was running.

My mouth dropped open when I realized I was looking at Dream Market, one of the largest data dump markets on the Dark Web. It had only been running for a little over a year and was only accessible with anonymity software, but it was the place to go if you wanted data … or drugs. **

He had used Tor to access Dream Market. Tor was an acronym derived from The Onion Project, which used onion routers to effectively encrypt user traffic that passed IP addresses through a complex of Tor nodes. Those “onion layers” protected any user's anonymity by providing access to similarly protected websites, thus a virtual, back-alley marketplace was born. **

“You dumped Precision Machining’s data. You—you put it up for sale.”

“Only the board members’ data.”

“Why? Why?!” I asked as I bent over the keyboard, too far out of my skillset to even know how to start retrieving the stolen information.

“This can all go away, sweetheart.”

I froze at the switched intonation which meant I was now dealing with Mr. Robot. I stepped back and looked over at him, Elliot’s entire demeanor changed from focused on the hack and disconnected in his interaction with me, to disconnected from the hack and very, very focused on me.

“This can all go away if I leave Elliot alone.”

“Elliot does like a girl with a brain,” Mr. Robot said as he put his hands on top of his head and leaned back in my dad’s chair.

“What happened to … the other one? The hacker?”

Mr. Robot laughed as he leaned farther back in the chair, confident in his knowledge that he had total control of this situation.

“I’m the only one Elliot really needs. Problem was he lost sight of our plan, thanks to you.”

“Plan?”

Mr. Robot leaned forward, shifting his feet before he stood up, slowly. His movements were more relaxed, more confident than Elliot’s; the way he walked with purpose and the fact that he never dropped his gaze made me understand why he was Elliot’s protector.  

“Elliot needs to keep busy. It’s good for him. And the shit you had him doing at his cushy Wall Street job wasn’t cutting it. Not to mention all the lovey-dovey crap—'let’s talk about our feeelings’ all the fucking time. Jesus Christ.

“It was only a matter of time before he needed a … a challenge. You see, sometimes he dreams about saving the world. Saving everyone from an invisible hand, one that brands them with an employee badge. One that forces them to work for people like your old man. People who control us every day without us knowing it. Except that Elliot does know it because I never let him forget it.”*

I listened, unsurprised by Mr. Robot’s words. I knew Elliot thought about those things. I knew he struggled to reconcile being normal with being complacent. But I also knew now that Elliot was angry about something that had nothing to do with the injustices of the world, something that Mr. Robot was working his ass off to keep from him.

“That’s not what this is about and you know it. This,” I said gesturing to the screen, “is an illusion. It’s something you’ve come up with to stop him from getting too close to the secret you’ve worked so hard to protect. Aren’t you tired, Mr. Robot? Aren’t you tired of hurting him for the sake of protecting him? Of keeping Elliot from a truth he needs to know in order to move on—”

“There is no moving on because there is no hard reset that can be done if Elliot remembers!” Mr. Robot growled as he stepped toward me, his face inches from mine.

I stumbled back, my hip bumping against the desk.

“If he remembers, if he learns the truth, it will break him.”

I will never forget the way Mr. Robot’s eyes, the same yet not at all the same as Elliot’s, flashed with pain as I said, “Maybe you’re too scared he won’t need you anymore if he learns the truth. Maybe it’s you that can’t handle the possibility of it healing him instead of breaking him.”

“You know nothing about Elliot, nothing about us! You were just our playground, little girl,” Mr. Robot spat as he grabbed my arm and twisted me toward the computer screen. He grabbed a handful of my hair and pushed my head close to the monitor.

“Everything a hacker would need to take down the company your father built is right there, waiting for the highest bidder,” he said with a final shove of my head before he let me go.  

I held myself up with shaky arms, tears stinging at my eyes as I realized this was his ultimatum. There was no reasoning with Mr. Robot because he only had one source of hunger; he desired nothing other than to protect Elliot, even if that meant sacrificing the thing that had made him the happiest he had been in his adult life.

I finally accepted that I didn’t have the strength to fight Mr. Robot. If he was already able to use the only other part of Elliot I got close to against me, it was two against one. It would tear Elliot apart to keep him—if I fought for him, I would be the one breaking him.

“If—” my voice faltered, choked by the sob of despair that had built within me as I realized what I had to do.

“If I swear to—to delete Elliot from my life, will you give him back control? Will you take back the hack?”

Before Mr. Robot could answer, the sound of sirens infiltrated my dad’s office. My head whipped toward the door and I could see lights flashing through the house as the police pulled into the driveway.

“You called the police?” Mr. Robot asked, panic evident in his normally confident tone.

He moved to the office door and peered out into the house, the sound of footsteps pounding across the porch causing his mouth to drop open as he drew in deeper breaths.

I shook my head.

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“Well someone sure as fuck did!”

“Maybe my dad heard me leave. Maybe—”

“Maybe I don’t give a fuck! Now listen to me,” Mr. Robot said, his teeth bared as he walked back to stand in front of me. “If I go to jail, Elliot goes to jail. Is that what you want?”

“No.”

“Get him out of this and I’ll make sure the hack is reversed.”

“THIS IS THE POLICE! Y/N Y/L/N, IF YOU ARE ABLE, COME TO THE DOOR.”

“How am I supposed to help him if you won’t let me see him again?”

“Do you really want me to bring him back now? Into this mess?!”

“Y/N Y/L/N! ARE YOU IN DANGER? IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND IN 30 SECONDS, WE WILL BREAK DOWN THE DOOR.”

“Promise I’ll see him again? Please.”

“You don’t have the power to bargain!”

“Let me at least say goodbye and I’ll make sure he stays out of jail. Money talks, in case you’re too high on your fucking horse to remember that!”

Mr. Robot’s eyes bore into mine as he decided whether to trust me or to take his luck with the penal system.

I pressed, “And you still have to reverse the hack—I can’t help Elliot stay out of jail if that data gets sold.”

The front door splintered and my foot jumped to the powerstrip under my dad’s desk. I paused near the button, waiting for Mr. Robot’s answer before plunging us into darkness.

“Fine—I undo the hack, you get to say goodbye, then you stay the fuck out of his life. Or else we do this alllll over again, princess.”

I nodded my agreement to his terms.

Mr. Robot jumped back from the doorway as a crunch of noise indicated the front door had been flung open.

A rush of movement flooded into the house.

“Put your hands on your head and don’t move!” I ordered as I kicked off the powerstrip under dad’s desk before rushing out of the office, my hands on my head as I stood in front of the door.

“He’s unarmed! He’s not a threat! He’s not a threat!” I repeated as an officer moved toward me and pulled me away from the office door, ushering me outside to safety.

The other two policemen entered Dad’s office and instructed Mr. Robot to get down on his knees.

As soon as my feet touched the sidewalk, I saw my dad pull in behind one of the cruisers. He leapt out of the car, not even bothering to cut the ignition.

I was bubbling with anger as I shook off the policeman’s grasp and crossed the lawn.

“How could you?!” I yelled before my mouth went dry and I felt a churning in my gut. As I was forced to quell my anger or end up being sick on our front lawn, I looked at my dad’s face; it was so filled with worry that for the first time in my life, he looked every bit his age.

He never stopped moving toward me and grabbed me in a fierce hug when he finally reached me. He tried to shield me from watching who he knew as Elliot being escorted into the police cruiser, but I pushed out of his grasp, needing to know that Mr. Robot hadn’t abandoned the person we both loved at a time when he really did need his protector.

There was nothing in his demeanor that signaled a return to Elliot as Mr. Robot calmly slid into the backseat of the cruiser, his hands cuffed, his face a stoical mask.

“You need to tell the police why he broke into our home, Y/N,” my dad said from somewhere behind me.

“Absolutely not.”

“I love you, Y/N, but you are not thinking clearly!” my dad reprimanded, uncharacteristically raising his voice.

“Of course I am!”

“It’s been him all along. All the hacks—I know it has.”

“That wasn’t him—not entirely.”

“What? Like a hacking ring?”

I laughed, a crazy tittering that felt so out of place on our pristine lawn in front of our huge house. My father had no idea how right he was.

I turned to him to explain, “The person who broke in tonight wasn’t the Elliot you’ve met. He has Dissociative Identity Disorder but he doesn’t know he has it. It’s complicated.”

My father’s face didn’t lose its sternness as he considered what I just told him.

“I know you love him, sweetheart, but—”

“He needs help, Dad,” I begged. “He needs us to be the family he doesn’t have.”  

As an officer approached and began asking a series of questions, my mind wondered back to all the quiet dreams I had about a future with Elliot, many of those dreams beginning in this house over the Fourth of July. Now, I felt like my whole world had gone grey; there was no bright goodness to be found in white, no rift of black to clearly signal evil, and no limitless possibilities held within all the bright colors between. Everything was just … grey.

“At this time, are you aware of any reason the subject in custody may have broken into your home?”

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at my father.

“… No. No, officer. I am not.”

I leaned into him, welcoming his strong arm as it wrapped protectively around my shoulders.  

* * * * *

A few hours later, our family lawyer, Thea, met us at the Greenwich Police Department. My dad filled her in as we sat in the waiting area, but I could tell by the frown on her face that Elliot’s case had the potential to be difficult.

“Connecticut has pretty strict laws on burglary—”

“He wasn’t stealing.”

Thea knew better than to ask anything else.

“It’s very helpful you aren’t filing additional charges. If I can swing it, I’d like to get the burglary charge changed to trespassing, then plead out at arraignment. That’s only if I can’t get it dismissed.”

I took a deep breath and spoke slowly, scared that somehow Mr. Robot would hear me.

“The charge can’t be dismissed because Elliot needs court-mandated therapy. He … he won’t go otherwise.”

“Does he have a documented mental illness?”

“Not documented, no. I was thinking … what if you could get him ordered to therapy for anger management?”

“Did he destroy any property at the house?”

“What if he intended to, but was interrupted? There’s … the possibility of establishing a pattern of behavior.”

Thea thought for a moment, then put her hand up when she saw me open my mouth again.

“I don’t want to know anything else until I talk to Mr. Alderson. Based on the police report and your cooperation, I have enough now to try to downgrade to a trespassing charge. We aren’t in the city, so I don’t know anything about the judge on the docket. I’m going to make a few calls and see if I can find anything out.

“Elliot should be out of booking by now and in a holding room.”  

“Can I see him?”

“Not until I do.”

“Charles Y/L/N?” interrupted a policeman who introduced himself as Captain Neiley. “The Chief told me to make sure you had anything you needed—Tony gave him a call early this morning.”

“Thank you,” Dad replied earnestly, shaking the Captain’s hand.

Because of my father’s connections, I soon found myself peering into a small, concrete room from behind the glass of a very small window, much smaller than the ones on television, as Elliot, or rather Mr. Robot, interacted with Thea.

I could tell it was not going well by the twist of Thea’s mouth and by the way Mr. Robot refused to look in her direction, much less sit down and talk to her. He was distrustful, and clearly, angry.

I looked around for an officer and when I found one, I asked her if she could get my attorney out. She nodded and unlocked the door, signaling for Thea.

“You shouldn’t be here right now, Y/N.”

“He’ll talk, but not to you … not yet. I need to tell him it’s safe.”

Thea sighed and bowed her head. She shrugged her shoulders as she looked back up and answered, “Go ahead. But anything he says to you is not going to help—he needs to talk to me.”

The officer opened the door again and when I walked into the room, I saw that Mr. Robot had finally sat down. As he looked at me, a war started to take place behind his eyes. He was silent for a long, long time and I just stood by the door with my back pressed against it, waiting to see if Mr. Robot would let go.

Finally, I saw it—the same subtle fluttering of his eyes as the night in my apartment.

“Y/N?” Elliot asked, both his voice and his eyes raw with vulnerability.

“Elliot,” I stated, unable to hold back my tears at finally seeing him again.  

“I’m here to help, El,” I choked out, “but you—all of you--have to let me help you.”

Elliot’s eyes filled with pools of tears before he shifted, his gaze on the steel of the table and his hands cradling his head.

“I can’t remember … only fragments and—” he looked up suddenly, his face turning to stare into the empty corner of the room where Mr. Robot had been standing before he sat down.

“He’s here, isn’t he?”

Elliot’s head whipped back in my direction, his eyes widening, his mouth falling open in horror.

“I know about Mr. Robot. It’s okay, Elliot. I’ve met him.”

“No—nobody knows about him.”

“He protects you.”

“Can you see him, too?”

“No, El. I can’t. I just know … it’s hard to explain, but I know you sometimes see him. It’s rare, but sometimes that’s just what happens with people like you.”

“In my mind,” Elliot groaned. “He’s only supposed to be in my mind.”

“I know. I know. I’m sorry things have gotten this bad.”

“Oh god,” he moaned, his hands pulling hard at his hair as he rocked back in his seat. “I’m crazy—I’m a fucking schizo and you’re committing me.”  

“Tell him what happened tonight,” I said, my eyes flicking to the corner to indicate I wanted Mr. Robot to talk to Elliot.

Elliot looked to the corner again. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the room was silent. Whatever happened between Elliot and Mr. Robot did, indeed, only happen in his mind.

As I waited, I thought back to my research on DID, and I knew Elliot was in an extremely vulnerable state. I also knew what it meant to have his alters interact with me—I needed to be very careful not to break Mr. Robot’s trust since we had made a deal.

After a few minutes passed, Elliot sprang out of his chair and leapt toward the wall, his fist slamming into the concrete with a sick thud.

Elliot left his fist against the wall and leaned into it, tears streaming down his face as he broke down.

I rushed to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, molding my body to his and pressing into his back.

“It’s okay, Elliot. It’s okay. I’m here,” I soothed, my own tears flowing in a fresh wave because of his pain.

His hand fell away from the wall and he brought it to rest over my arms.  

I pulled him away from the wall and turned him to face me, his legs buckling and both of us sliding to the floor. I pulled him to me, so much like that night in my closet during the Fourth of July.

“I’m here. I’m here, Elliot. I’m here.”

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I’m so fucking sorry,” he said, his voice muffled as he pressed his face into my neck, his tears wet and smearing into my skin.

“He didn’t give me a choice—I had to do the ha—”

“You can’t talk about any of that right now. Not until you talk to the lawyer.”

“I hurt you—your father, your family,” Elliot said, his voice a dull rasp as he finally looked up at me, his cheeks a wet mess. I shifted to my knees so I could cradle his face in my hands; I wiped at his tears, careful to avoid the bruise on his cheek that had changed from red to an ugly burgundy, smoothed his brows, and swiped at his nose with the sleeve of my sweater.

As I touched him, he hiccupped, his breath evening out as he pulled himself together.

I kissed his forehead, then the tip of his nose.

“Listen,” I said, holding his face in my hands and pushing his chin up with my thumbs. “I need you to talk to Thea, our lawyer. She’s going to help us.”

“Us,” Elliot whispered, a single tear falling from the corner of his eye and sliding down the side of my thumb.

“For now, but Mr. Robot wants me to let you go.”

Elliot frowned and leaned back, his head resting on the wall as I let my hands fall away from his face. A part of him clearly still hoped I could be in this with him, but we both knew I couldn’t be.

“I’m so tired of fighting him, Y/N. He’s … persistent.”

“Yeah. So I noticed,” I said with a quick upturn of my lips, watching as Elliot’s eyes continued to look at the ceiling.

“You need to be the one to talk to Thea. Mr. Robot needs to let you stay in control. Will you, and I mean YOU, I said waving in the direction of Mr. Robot but keeping my eyes trained on Elliot’s face, stay buried so he can get out of this mess?”  

Elliot looked over and up at Mr. Robot with a ferocity I hadn’t seen before.

His eyes returned to mine and he nodded.

“There’s something else.”

Elliot’s brows contracted as he looked at my face.

I moved close to him, slowly wrapping my arms around his neck in a hug. I turned toward his ear, whispering, “The data dump on the Dark Web—can you make it disappear?”

Elliot pulled me into the hug, his mouth nestling in next to my ear as he reached up to grasp my hair, burying his face in it.

“I built a security during the hack. If a password wasn’t entered every 45 minutes, the data would disappear from the Market. It’s gone now.”

I squeezed him and he tightened his grip as he inhaled, trying to lose himself in the scent of me.  

“Just like that night I needed to find you. Coney Island. You left your computer logged on.”

“Yes,” he answered, his confirmation a low, comforting rumble.  

“Can you—will you stay with me until this is all over?”

“Thea has to talk to you alone, but I’ll be right outside. I’ll go every step of the way that I can with you—as long as Mr. Robot lets me.”

Elliot swallowed thickly, and I pulled away from him. We looked into each other’s eyes until the door opened, then he cast his gaze to the floor.

“Ready to talk, Mr. Alderson?”

* * * * *

Over an hour later, I almost jumped out of my skin when Thea finally emerged from the holding room.

Dad had insisted I eat something, but since I refused to leave, he ran out and got breakfast. I ate enough to make him satisfied, but just as I rounded the corner to throw away our trash, I heard the door open.

I rushed back and caught the door, needing to see Elliot again.

“You’re right, Y/N,” Thea said quietly. “Elliot doesn’t belong in prison, but he needs, at a minimum, a few months of court-mandated therapy. He … destroyed some servers at CIStech?”

My dad frowned, remembering the incident that brought Elliot and I together.

“It was never a romantic story to begin with, Dad,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

I turned my attention back to Thea and asked what that had to do with anything.

“You took care of that one, huh?”

“I did.”

Thea looked at me for a long moment, then began, “There is no way for the DA to prove that Elliot had the intent of committing a criminal act while on your property unless you or your dad have something—”

“We don’t.”

My father shook his head no, and Thea’s mouth quirked up at the corner, “Of course not.”

“How long will this take?”

“I’m taking my offer to the DA now. If they agree to it, the judge may rule at arraignment and this whole thing could be over today.”

“Thank you, Thea. Can I say goodbye?”

“Be quick because Elliot is going to be moved to a holding room outside of the court, soon. I’ll see you over there.”

“Thank you,” I said again before pulling the door open.

Before the door even shut, Elliot stood and began pacing, his voice raspy with overuse as he started talking.

“I have to give you up. He’s not going to leave me alone until I do. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for everything I did. I’m sorry for letting him do this to you. I’m sorry—"

“Elliot, slow down,” I said as I crossed the room and intercepted his pacing. He stopped with a start in front of me and stuffed his hands in his hoodie’s pockets.

I reached out and lightly squeezed his shoulders, moving my hands down his biceps, and over his forearms. I felt him relax under my repetitive touches, and when it was clear he wasn’t about to climb the wall, I stepped closer and slid my hands into his hoodie’s pockets.

“How’s your hand?” I asked, feeling the swollen knuckles of his right hand in comparison to the unaffected left.

“That’s how this whole thing started,” Elliot said, pulling both of our hands out of his pockets. His shook as he held onto mine. “You took such good care of me.”

“I kept you prisoner in my apartment.”

“And here we are now,” Elliot said with a small smile.

My heart ached at how easy this was with him … how easy it was when it was just him.

“I hate this,” Elliot said in agony as he searched my face, surely sensing that I was on the verge of falling apart again.

I looked into his big grey eyes and let myself get lost, swept back into the love I felt for him, knowing this could be the last time I ever saw him.

“I’m sorry, too. I’m sorry for whatever happened that made you need Mr. Robot. You need to figure out what’s at the root of all of this, why you keep forgetting, and I’m not the one who can do that for you. But you know what? I am going to make sure you have a real chance at getting professional help.”

“I know,” Elliot said, lowering his eyes but still holding on to my hands.

“Know what else? I love you.”

Elliot’s eyes snapped back up to mine, and again, I saw a fierce determination unlike anything I’d ever seen in his eyes before.

“I’m gonna be happy with you someday, Y/N. I’m gonna love you like you love me.”

I held his gaze as I shook off the grip of his hands to reach up and cradle his face.

“You have to love yourself first, Elliot. Mr. Robot is never going to let go of his control as long as you need him to…meet whatever need it is you need met.”

“I’m never going to forget you loved me first—never.”

As if all the pieces of my heart weren’t already broken, I knew that wasn’t true. Mr. Robot was going to delete me. Elliot was never going to remember that someone loved him first. All I could hope for was that Mr. Robot was listening right now, a part of him feeling compassionate enough to allow Elliot to one day restore a previous version of himself, this version.

“Will you wait for me? I know I don’t have a right to ask, but have I earned the right to hope that you will?”

Before I could answer him, an officer opened the door and said it was time to move to the courthouse.

I melted into Elliot’s arms, and he hugged me. I felt determination radiate from him.

He’s so much stronger than Mr. Robot thinks.

I pulled back, knowing the officer was waiting, and I reached up to cup his face one more time. I memorized his face until my eyes filled with tears and he became a blur. I blinked away those tears and I tried to absorb the love that so clearly emanated from his beautiful eyes.

I leaned in to kiss Elliot, and he pressed his entire body into mine, molding his lips against mine as if our mouths had been designed from conception just to connect like this in this single moment.

I knew he could taste the salt of my tears as I broke the kiss and managed to look at him one last time before my vision blurred again and I rushed out the door. I only just made it to the bathroom in time to throw up everything I ate, and as I knelt on the worn, green and white bathroom floor, surrounded by the smell of bleach that tried its best to cover up the stench of urine and failed, my grief finally pulled me under and I let myself drown. Then, for the second time in less than a week, I felt my father’s arms tighten around me as I fell apart.

—Narrator—

November 2014

Mr. Robot whispered to Elliot as he worked, reassuring him this was for the best. Seeing Darlene on Halloween for the first time in over five months reopened a chasm of loneliness Elliot hadn’t felt since—

“You’re really fucking this up, kiddo,” Mr. Robot said from where he was leaning against the wall. “This is what happens when you don’t stick to the plan. You’ve got to get that job at Allsafe with Angela.”

“I know. For fuck’s sake, I know,” Elliot growled as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

His hand reached to click the mouse as he dragged all of the pictures on his phone onto the CD sitting in his drive.

“No, son,” Mr. Robot said as Elliot popped the disk out of the drive. “You’re not done yet.”

Elliot looked at him, his brows drawn in confusion.

“Why can’t you just tell me why we have to keep doing this?”

“You’re not ready to know, Elliot. You created me to be your protector; you have to trust me to do what’s best to keep you safe. So … be a part of this, or I can do it myself. Either way, everything, except Angela, has got to go.”

As Elliot pushed the CD that would hold all of his memories back into the drive, Master Mind watched.

And more importantly, Master Mind waited.

He knew he had one chance at this, exactly one chance to take control and to fix everything Mr. Robot had done. He had one chance to make the world a place where Elliot could finally be happy without condition. He had one chance to restore Elliot’s previous version, effectively recovering all the data Mr. Robot had been deleting over the past few months.

“Alright, kiddo,” Mr. Robot said as Elliot tucked the unlabeled CD into the otherwise empty black binder and tossed it to the floor, kicking it under his bookshelf. “It’s time.

Elliot took a deep breath as he prepared to relinquish control to Mr. Robot, trusting in his protector, but just before Mr. Robot could take over, Master Mind seized his chance.

Elliot’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening, but it was too late; as Master Mind took complete control for the first time, Elliot slipped into a black void.

* * * * *

Elliot Alderson sat in the waiting room of the third cybersecurity firm he had interviewed with. This one, though, seemed different. He liked that it didn’t hide who it was.

“CIStech: Always Vigilant” read the sign on the glass door he had pushed open only a few minutes ago.

Yes, Elliot decided he definitely liked this company, so far. Being vigilant was smart. Too many people were happy to live without awareness, happy to live in their bubbles of the naïve just so they could feel good until someone told them what else they neededto have to keep feeling good.*

Elliot cleared his throat as he heard his name announced over the intercom at the secretary’s desk.

“Jayne? Bring in Mr. Alderson, please.”

He was drawn to that voice on the intercom. He liked it—confident, but kind.

Elliot shifted in his seat, ready to stand.

He took a deep breath as he followed the secretary into what was clearly meant to be a friendly, comfortable atmosphere. Instead of a large panel of interviewers, it was just three people. Instead of interviewing in a board room, it was in an office with a round table.

Like equals, Elliot thought. Except they’ve got the power to decide what happens next in my life.

“Mr. Alderson,” a man began, extending his hand. “I’m Colin Greene, Supervisor.

Fuck. They’re hand-shakers.

Elliot followed protocol, reminding himself that his was how to play the game. He shook the second Supervisor’s hand, and then—

“I’m Y/N Y/L/N, Senior Manager.”

Elliot stared at Y/N, finally remembering that she was waiting for him to shake her hand, but Elliot felt afraid to touch her.

What if I touch her and she disappears? Like some kind of dream?

Elliot almost laughed out loud at that thought, but something pulsed inside of him, something that made him long to touch this stranger who seemed so familiar to him, who seemed like someone so much more important than a Supervisor at a mediocre cybersecurity firm.

A surge of excitement coursed through Elliot as he extended his hand, not knowing what was going to happen next. As his eyes locked onto the stranger’s, he watched as a sweet smile pulled at her lips, a smile that made him feel safe.

And for a reason he couldn’t explain, made him feel loved.

GIF Credit: @s-k-y-w-a-l-k-e-r

A/N 2.0: Thank you, thank you, thank you for going on this journey with me. Your comments, likes, and reblogs kept me moving along even when I wanted nothing more than to throw my computer out of the window and give up. I put a lot into this story, and it is the longest thing I’ve ever written. I would love to know how you felt about the story or if you have anything you want to ask/discuss, so hit me up with a comment or an ask.

I love Elliot, and I am so glad you do, too. Thank you for indulging me, as always. -xMx ❤️

Tags: @sherlollydramoine​ @rami-malek-trash​ @teamwolf2411 @limabein​ @txmel​ @alottanothing​ @ouatlovr @backoftheroomandnotbelonging​ @moon-stars-soul​ @free-rami @ramimedley​ @hopplessdreamer​ @sweet-charmie @polarcrystall​ @hah0106​ @clumsybookworm18​ @diasimar​ @ramisgirl512​ @aboutthatmelancholystorm​

And a special thank you tag to my cheerleader who gives me the best comments with so many pterodactyl screeches that my heart soars every time I read them. Thank you @alottanothing​! 

A/N 3.0: All of my research on DID indicates that while there are many commonalities, every system is pretty unique. For example, while many folks who have DID may have a “protector” figure, their protector will function uniquely for the needs of their system. The way I treated DID in this particular fic is a combination of my informal research and just taking what Sam Esmail gave us and working within his parameters. It’s actually super uncommon for alters to manifest and be “seen,” but I stuck with that idea because it was Sam’s and was so integral to the show. I am a singleton, so I am not an expert, nor do I claim to be an authority of any kind when it comes to the incredible complexities of being a system. 

[veridium]

fuck it, queer meta.

About a year ago I wrote one of my first and largest meta posts about why I consider Cassandra a prime example of queerbaiting despite her being a character who explicitly says she is heterosexual. This lead to quite the day of inbox hate mail from people throughout the fandom. Most were upset I used the “q slur” and left it untagged as such in the big DA meta tags. I can imagine for those folks, the substance of what I had to say mattered little as a result. 

I deleted most of those messages and my responses soon afterward. They upset me greatly even as I took it all in stride. However, given that it’s been about 365 days since that fiasco, and some interesting events have happened with regards to current and former DA writers, I thought it would be “fun” to write a recap and reflection on why, generally, I still feel the way I did when I wrote that post. With some changes and growth, of course. 

The gist of it is, as we have come to learn in past, recent, and ongoing discourses in fandom, that much to the chagrin of a lot of folks in this fandom: BioWare, and in this instance DA writers, are not your SJW Icons. Furthermore, they never should have been, or should be, considered as such. 

The gist (part two) for me, is: for as much as diverse characters, worlds, and societies are being uplifted by Games these days, the counterbalance of bullshit is still there. And I think it survives most sturdily in the kind of logic the BioWare writing culture throughout the years. This sense of egalitarian, “of course” logic, that appears to make socially deviant identities normalized but really just falsely positions those identities as meant to be in lock-step with the norm. Representation to gaming, and most of media writ large, all-too-easily falls into the trap of “we want what the privileged have,” which it to say, we want our existence to be a no-brainer, even if it means we lost the essence of why our stories are so profound, important, and necessary to do justice. 

I really can’t imagine accepting the way characters like Cassandra were written because I don’t accept the writer(s) who wrote her. Why?

Come with me, and we’ll be, in a world, of pure fuckery...but with citations...because I’m an Academic and that’s my roll.*

*Please see tags for pertinent content warnings before clicking.**

**if you reblog and tag this shit with “q slur,” I will take all the reserves of understanding I have as a DA fic writer for all of the enraged womxn in the series and express it accordingly. And, as a femslash-oriented author, I can promise you: that expression will be consumptive. 

Hm, I wonder, what with the predominant writer for her character inquires on Twitter for “lesbian fanfic porn” recommendations for writing “research,” but seems to be unable to hire appropriate creatives to write, consult, etc. for the project. 

Or that the writers room made, and continues to make, space for a writer who continually does Black and queer characters dirty with his mediocre-at-best work, in both game and novel form (because, plot twist, he’s a shit writer) (1) (2) (3). 

Or that the writer’s room, and specifically Ga*der, attesting that the development of the Qunari was based on Arab cultures around the time of “Medieval Europe,” which is somehow his way of getting out of the thematic botching of the Qunari language, social structure, etc. from Islamic tradition. 

Or, the writers who intentionally shaped the story so that Vivienne, one of the limited number of Black women characters in the entire series to have a role as an ally, to be a red herring of an distrustful and conceited antagonist, to the point where her treatment by fandom has been incredibly racist, heinous, and lazy for years.

These are a few of MANY reasons, with thorough exposition, why the veneer of “progressive inclusion” studios like BioWare claim to be authentic. Having “diverse” writers in the room -- and I’m using that word incredibly tenuously here -- didn’t change the result of any of these harmful scenarios. In fact, it created them. This, combined with the tale as old as time: toxic fandom culture with white, anglo-centric, cisheterosexual masculinist ideals at the fore, have gotten us here. 

So, do I hold all of the reasons why I am angry about Cassandra’s character writing the same way now, as I did then? No. Certainly not. In fact, there are parts where I would correct myself. On the other hand, the thesis for me remains largely preserved: I revile G*ider, I revile that he gets the accolades he does by fandom for his “diversity” of characters when he exploits, erases, and uses slippery morality to get out of admitting he has shortcomings in his work. I hate that the exaltation for representation still funnels itself onto the heads of white writers and predominantly white-staffed studios. 

And, underneath it all, I am mad that some of ya’ll see no problem with that. Because what does it matter, if you do not come from communities, cultures, and coalitions that get the brunt of this misrepresentation? What does it matter if it angers a lesbian fan that the writers who have a long history of misusing and conveniently copping themselves out when they write women and queer characters, seem to use that “expertise” as permission to do what they are supposedly combating?

G*ider, the hero himself, is on written record saying that it should not be second guessed as to why Cassandra is straight, just as he thinks it should not be second guessed that Dorian is gay. Yet, when he asked on Twitter if there was some moral significance to people modding character’s sexuality (in this specific instance, Dorian, actually), G*ider said that in the end, people’s mods “do not change” what he wrote, and that unless they claim their changes “supercede” canon, there’s no harm done. 

So, really, I’m just over here like -- is this ya’lls hero?

Why in the fuck would someone be modding a gay character to be bisexual or heterosexual, if they didn’t somehow believe that version “supercedes” the canon rendition? Secondly, where is the attention to the fact that, in an ensemble of multiple romanceable characters, Dorian has to be the one that has to be sexually and romantically accessible to those outside of his canonical realm of attraction?

I mean, for fuck’s sake, it’s the whole virtue grounding his companion side quest, the fact that he is estranged from his Father who tried to magically change his orientation! This is a crucial part of Dorian’s entire journey to serving the Inquisition, and serving Tevinter as a dissident.

But, you know, it doesn’t change what G*ider wrote. And he’s correct, it doesn’t change what he wrote, which he got credit, money, and esteem for. It doesn’t change that if you load up the base game, Dorian’s gay. In G*ider’s head, that is the protective force: the parts where he has ties, and not the culture of the fandom, the culture the fans who helped fill his pockets from that game have to dwell within. This isn’t revolutionary, this isn’t good-faith representation. This is getting a piece of the rotten-sweet pie and saying “let bygones be bygones, you toxic, funky heteronormative assholes!”

But, where are my manners. I’m getting heated, aren’t I?

Basically, if you condemn queer fans for calling out queer bating -- or any marginalized fan for throwing up the alarm for bullshit -- and your first reaction is to side with folks like G*ider who got theirs and said screw everything else, fuck off. Literally, fuck off. I call Cassandra’s circumstance queerbaiting because she’s one example of writers getting their cake and eating it, too. If they are so aware of just how much of their fanbase is marginalized folks, they don’t get to say they don’t have fingerprints on things like queerbaiting. You don’t get to be acclaimed and excused for the shit you say you are combating, which is the source of that acclaim. And if your claim is happy ignorance, then you definitely don’t get to blithely equivocate when fans do ask you why the story happened the way it did. 

I also just want to keep in mind here that there’s a deductive conclusion to be had about this, given how La*idlaw explicitly stated they endeavored to make Cassandra extremely hot, “really enticing.” That conclusion is: 

(1) Either they aren’t/weren’t nearly as attuned to their queer audiences as they generally claim to be, or 

(2) They were, and had no intention of developing compassion or empathy passed G*ider talking out of his ass about why Cassandra was developed as straight. Which, ultimately, does coincide with conclusion (1) more than not. 

No matter what, the contour to the conclusion is: wow, a taste of nauseating objectification, in the BioWare writer’s room. Who knew!

It’s no wild accusation to make to a writer like him and his colleagues, that they don’t know how to handle sapphic, wlw, and/or queer-related storylines, especially with women. Especially when the answer seems to be, “well, it was decided before I took the lead, and in any case, why question it! You wouldn’t question a gay character’s orientation!”

But that’s just it, you complete and utter turnip. People did question Dorian’s sexuality. People do question Dorian’s sexuality. That fantasy world of equal bearings is as insincere as it is out-of-touch. And why not, when, as you said, 

it doesn’t change what you got paid for.

The ethos seems to be crudely reflexive: people’s phobic interpretations and alterations of the canon do not matter, but then again, why would you even question why a character is straight? Why would you question my narrative vision, in all of its beautiful shittery?

It’s all a game of dodge, ya’ll. Dodge, dodge, dodge. With a strong and acidic dose of vanity. 

So. In summation, folks: I could care less for your false equivalences. I could care less about my contribution of queer content fucking up your good time in the meta tags. Obviously you aren’t there to actually engage in creative, exploratory thought, so why bother reasoning. There is more to the possibilities of queerbaiting than stringing along a could-be, would-be, should-be queer storyline directly. There’s knowing your audience enough to exploit your good graces with them. There’s benefitting from a charade of liberal progressive clout. There’s the ability to foresee that queer people will cathect to a given character, and not only denying an experience they could have, but denying it so harshly that the character says they can’t love yours because you’re female. 

And I am so, so, so sick of these people continually enriching themselves off of the “nobody’s perfect” grace. To me, that grace is the promise of good faith, and the intention to do right by people. When that isn’t there, the grace isn’t going somewhere where it’ll be appreciated, that it will be nourished by. I mean, fucking hell, people, this is rainbow capitalism: don’t you taste it?

That’s that, then. “Cassandra and Queerbaiting Rant,” one year on. An extra dose of salt, just for the haters.