#Witty Elliott

[muzicpromotionclub]

Get Energized with Witty Elliott's Excellent Lyrical Video 'Move Close To Me' on YouTube

[timdrakesbussy]

Some of my™ Stardew Valley HCs

TW: mention of miscarriages

Emily listens to all kinds of music but despite not looking like it, she mainly listens to heavy metal. It's one of the thing that brought her and Shane's early friendship together. And because of that, Haley shares a bit of fondness to the genre that she enjoys Sam's band (but don't tell him. this will mess with her rep).

Sam is pretty educated when it comes to literature, and English was always his favorite subject when he was in school. He's the main songwriter of his band and while Sebastian could also write, Sam manages to be witty and clever with his lyrics. Other than storytelling through song, he loves his double and triple entendres. Suffice to say, he could get along pretty well with Elliott and it's one of the reason why Penny loves hanging out with him.

Ever since she was a child, Maru thinks that Sebastian is really cool and she wants to be like him one way or another. Of course, she still wants to be herself but Sebastian is just so damn cool. During her time at school, she made herself learn how to ride a motorcycle using a friend's bike because she knew Sebastian would never lend her his.

Elliott was from an esteemed family from a foreign land (just Stardew's equivalent of Europe tbh) and was a licensed lawyer until he stopped to be a writer. Needless to say, his family are not happy by this sudden decision. Not that he needs their opinion on the matter, he was pushing thirty when he made this decision.

Harvey was an ER doctor in Zuzu City until the incident™. He knew that with his line of job, he can't save everyone. However, he can't help but feel guilty and terrible afterwards. Which is why he has routine check-ups for the villagers, and if they can't visit him, then he will visit them. You cannot escape him because he will find you (affectionate).

Both Haley and Alex believed that at one point, they actually liked each other romantically. But when they had their first kiss together, they realized that they weren't meant to be. They have this deep platonic connection that even Emily doesn't really understand, but she's happy that her baby sister have someone she can rely on and trust for all her life.

Robin takes pride in her name even if her parents weren't supportive over her work at first. She have Sebastian share her last name, and when she married Demetrius, she hyphenated their surnames instead of just taking his.

Demetrius and Sebastian were close when he was a child. Sebastian was an overly curious and precocious boy and Demetrius was happy that he could share something with his stepson, their interest in biology. Although Sebastian was squeamish and even almost cried when he dissected a frog, he managed to calm him down. And even after their mutual parting as Sebastian grew older, he's the only one who knows what Demetrius' favorite animal is: moonlight jellies.

Jodi and Kent were teenagers when they had Sam. Jodi came from a highly conservative and religious family so they forced them to marry after Jodi gave them the news that she was pregnant. As they were teens, Kent took any odd jobs he could get in the city, from a corner-store clerk to a garbage man. Until he got offered into joining the military.

Pam was a trucker before she became a bus driver. In fact, she met Penny's dad in the business. But in her childhood, she was in multiple beauty pageants and even into her adulthood, she knows how to hairdo. She helped Penny with her hair since she was a child and hope that she could still do Penny's hair in her future wedding, whenever that is.

Alex's mom had multiple miscarriages before she have him, and that was into her ten years of marriage. She was beyond ecstatic with his birth that she immediately called her aging parents who also shared her happiness, they then invited her to the Valley a few days after Alex was born so they could celebrate in the Mullners' house. Lewis heard about the news and asked if they wanted to celebrate in the Saloon in which Evelyn denied because Clara wanted a small celebration with just her family.

Abigail is the only marriageable candidate to be born in the Valley. Sebastian moved in not long after Maru was born so he was close to her as he was the only child her age at that time. Penny moved in when she was seven with her parents until her dad left when she was ten. Haley moved in when she was ten years old while Sam moved in a year after. Alex often visited his grandparents but he officially moved in after Clara's death in his pre-teens. The rest moved in as adults.

Similarly to Alex, Shane only ever visited and stayed for a while in the Valley until he needed to take care of Jas. He wasn't close with his parents and they never tried to be anyways, Marnie is always the mother figure he has. So other than Marnie and Jas, the only people he considered as his family was Jas' parents. Her father, whom he met and befriended in college (as he was his roommate, before they mutually dropped out) and her mother whom he wasn't very close to at first until they both find comradery in bullying (affectionate) Jas' father.

[jbaileyfansite]

Interview with Backstage (2024)

Jonathan Bailey is still marinating in his thoughts, andthey taste pretty sweet. Top notes of red wine, he says. 

These are busy times for the witty British heartthrob. He’s speaking over Zoom from Malta, where he’s filming the next “Jurassic World” installment. And two days prior, he received his first Emmy nomination for his supporting turn on Showtime’s “Fellow Travelers.” 

What’s lingering in Bailey’s mind after reaching such a huge milestone? “The nature of the story, and how that story’s come to be told,” he says of Ron Nyswaner’s limited series, a decades-spanning gay drama that’s chock-full of steamy sex scenes. For him, the Emmy nod is “an acknowledgment of [the show] meaning something much bigger.” 

The 36-year-old actor radiates humility and surges with pride for his collaborators; “Fellow Travelers” also picked up nominations for lead actor Matt Bomer and for Nyswaner’s writing. Bailey believes the fact that executive producer Robbie Rogers was able to get the project on television at all is a “brilliant signifier” of changing times. He feels lucky to have been the right person for the job. And after a couple of decades in the industry, the actor’s star is about to go supernova. 

Childhood stage work and gigs on 2000s teen TV shows led to roles on acclaimed series like ITV’s “Broadchurch” and Channel 4’s “Crashing.” He nabbed an Olivier in 2019 for his performance in Marianne Elliott’s West End revival of “Company.” Households on the other side of the Atlantic learned his name in 2020 when he courted lockdown audiences as Anthony, the strident head of the titular family on Netflix’s period-romance smash “Bridgerton.” 

Then came the game-changing “Fellow Travelers.” Bailey plays the idealistic Tim Laughlin, a closeted congressional staffer who pursues a clandestine relationship with another man amid the witch hunts of McCarthy-era Washington. The actor is keeping up that momentum in the coming months with part one of Jon M. Chu’s highly anticipated film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked” (out Nov. 22), followed by the fourth “Jurassic World” in 2025. 

“Fellow Travelers” is a fitting inflection point for Bailey, considering it reflects aspects of his own gay identity. Tim’s story also illuminates a thread connecting the actor’s work, both in and out of character: always embracing the truth, shame be damned. 

Born in Wallingford, England, Bailey made a beeline for the arts as a kid when he began studying music and ballet. After getting a taste of performing at a young age, he secured an agent when he was a teenager. Even now, he feels the sense of joy and wonder he discovered in those early days. 

He chose not to attend drama school, instead throwing himself into professional theater, where he encountered the performance process in its most essential form. “You start with your own instincts, and then you share with others in the room in real time,” Bailey says. “You academically approach text, then you emotionally explore it. Then, you physically put it on its feet.”

Theater taught him to be observant. In rehearsals, he witnessed actors being brilliant and bold, but also making crucial mistakes. Weeks of rehearsing helped him learn how to spend time with a character as he watched his castmates play against type and expand themselves through performance. Those lessons both tested and encouraged him, and they’ve carried him throughout his career. 

Since then, Bailey has gotten the chance to see plenty of giants at work. He reverently discusses performing Stephen Sondheim’s music alongside Patti LuPone in “Company” and reciting Shakespeare opposite Ian McKellen in the Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2017 production of “King Lear.” 

His contemporaries also made for great teachers. He worked with Phoebe Waller-Bridge on “Crashing” and Michaela Coel on “Chewing Gum”—two certified television geniuses whose creative successes Bailey likens to the magnesium flame of a meteor. It’s an apt comparison—Waller-Bridge called him “a meteorite of fun” in a 2022 interview with GQ. (“I think I’ve always been quite naughty,” he says playfully.)

“There’s so much you take on via natural osmosis,” Bailey explains. “It’s what you watch and how you interpret things.”

For example, he thinks that every actor should see Sandy Dennis’ Oscar-winning turn as Honey in Mike Nichols’ 1966 film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Her performance whet his curiosity about the craft: “She is so fluid. I mean, that might be the most exposing answer I’ve given about what my inner world is like.”

Bailey’s technique is rooted in music. He plays piano and clarinet, and he approaches acting like an instrument, too. When reading a script for the first time, he experiences his character’s arc as the phrases in a song. “The way my brain works is that I see the images of what they’re doing,” he says. “When I say ‘phrasing,’ it’s like, how you get from that image to this image.”

When he was playing the bottled-up Anthony on “Bridgerton,” Bailey found inspiration in songs by Echo and the Bunnymen and Nirvana. While filming “Fellow Travelers” in Toronto, he went on long walks while listening to expansive pop music to help him explore Tim, a character whose energy radiates outward.

Considering Bailey’s process plays like a song, connoisseurs of his work might notice a motif. Sam from “Crashing,” a party boy Bailey calls “a wild, untamed animal in a tiny little cage,” aggressively maintains a facade of heterosexuality while pining for his male housemate Fred (Amit Shah). On Season 2 of “Bridgerton,” Anthony locked himself into a prison of duty and a loveless engagement to avoid acknowledging his desire for the fiery Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).

Tim of “Fellow Travelers” is the latest in a series of sharply drawn characters confronting the tension between their assigned roles and their personal truths. Viewers first meet a straitlaced rule-follower whose Catholic piety is only matched by his loyalty to the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy. All that changes when he crosses paths with Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller (Bomer), a crystal-eyed, debonair State Department official. Their respective closets combust on contact, and they enter into a forbidden love affair just as McCarthy’s Lavender Scare has begun purging queer people from the halls of government.

Bailey’s interior work tends to be more emotional than cerebral, but he’s a generous conversation partner who’s always game to riff on the deep stuff. Whether it’s yearning, going against expectations, or facing high stakes, the phrasing is what draws him in. 

He finds a lot of gorgeous notes to play across the eight episodes of “Fellow Travelers” as the action moves from the 1950s to the ’80s, making pit stops along the way. While Hawk settles for a life of straight domesticity, Tim hurtles through a sexual and political awakening: The Beltway boy becomes an activist priest who refuses to diminish himself, especially when the AIDS crisis begins to rip his community apart.

Bailey loved being inside Tim’s head; in fact, the actor thinks of him as a hero. After experiencing the isolation of his secret relationship with Hawk, he opens himself up to the world: He comes out, moves to San Francisco, cobbles together a found family, and builds a life as his true self. 

“Ron Nyswaner has spoiled Matt and me for the operatic detail that existed between [our characters],” Bailey says, “and also with Tim’s political fervor: the truth and the honesty that he demands of himself and the world around him, and the grappling with anything that is an obstacle to his own and other’s happiness.”

You can’t talk about “Fellow Travelers” without discussing its rapturous sex scenes—and not only for titillation’s sake, though the kinky encounters between Tim and Hawk certainly call for smelling salts. These sequences gave Bailey the opportunity to commit authentic queer intimacy to the screen, which members of the LGBTQ+ community rarely come across as they search for ways to understand their identities. 

The trust between Bailey and Bomer informed everything they did onscreen. Before filming those scenes, the two actors talked through their approach at a café (Goldstruck Coffee on Cumberland Street in Toronto—a ribald little detail that still makes Bailey laugh). The filming itself was incredibly technical, and the actors worked with an intimacy coordinator on set. “We sort of hit the ground running, knowing exactly what was going to be required but also how to communicate throughout it,” Bailey says. “It felt immediately quite safe.”

He sensed an exciting opportunity to tell a story about transformative love amid the “wild, oppressive moment” of the Lavender Scare, dismissing any reservations about the explicit nature of the material. “Honestly, this is exactly why this show is going to be brilliant,” he remembers thinking.

The series’ milestone dramatic moments, with buttons still done up and no skin showing, carried that same sense of significance. No matter how much Tim grew over the course of his arc, Bailey says that his bond with Hawk remained an “extraordinary, material thing.”

This summer, the actor made a very Tim move when he founded the Shameless Fund, a charity that supports LGBTQ+ causes under the tagline: “Raising cash. Erasing shame.” The initiative grew directly out of his acting work—first inspired by the platform afforded to him by “Bridgerton” and further influenced by his experience on “Fellow Travelers.” 

Playing Tim—or, as Bailey puts it, spending “five months doing a dissertation on queer oppression and liberation”—catalyzed his thoughts about the people who created a world where such a show could even exist. “I think in ‘Fellow Travelers,’ it’s so clear what Tim wants,” he says. “But as the world around him develops, you realize there’s so much that he can’t have, but that he can help change.”

Bailey sees that progress playing out in the next generation. He has a small role on the upcoming third season of Netflix’s queer YA hit “Heartstopper” as a dreamy academic who’s the celebrity crush of the series’ protagonist, Charlie (Joe Locke). Based on creator Alice Oseman’s graphic novel series, the show has found a passionate following of young LGBTQ+ fans. 

When he watched “Heartstopper” for the first time, Bailey remembers wondering what it would have been like to see such representation on television when he was growing up. “I was so celebratory of it,” he says. “But it was obviously kind of a melancholic watch for people above a certain age, because it allowed them to grieve what they didn’t have.”

Having conquered the Regency and Cold War periods on the small screen, Bailey’s blockbuster era is imminent. He’s playing dashing love interest Fiyero in the “Wicked” films (based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel), singing and dancing alongside Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. It’s a perfect fit for the actor’s particular lens: “Musically and theatrically, I understand it massively.”

Since “Wicked” came with its own well-known songs to study, Bailey spent a lot of time with composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz’s music in his ears rather than Kurt Cobain’s. He explored Fiyero’s interiority through the musical theater form itself: What does the act of singing express for him?

And for a character whose signature number is called “Dancing Through Life,” what metaphorical direction are his steps leading him in? 

Bailey sees Fiyero as part of the same club as Tim, Anthony, and Sam, as the heightened world of Oz sends him on a journey of radical transformation. “I think about where he starts and where he ends up; he’s literally a changed person,” the actor says. “I savored the arc over two films.” 

Next year, Bailey will become an action star in Gareth Edwards’ next installment of “Jurassic World” opposite Scarlett Johansson. Though details have yet to be announced, including the movie’s title, production is well underway; Bailey just finished filming in Thailand before shooting moved to Malta. A few days before we spoke, he was interacting with a fake blue-screen dinosaur (which is only a spoiler if you thought Hollywood has actually been cloning big reptiles this whole time).

But Bailey is still keeping his theater muscles toned. Next year, he’s starring as the titular monarch in Nicholas Hytner’s production of Shakespeare’s “Richard II” at London’s Bridge Theatre. “I have to go and sharpen up,” he says of returning to the stage. “You feel so sharp and dexterous at the end of a theater run—but also, you know, without a soul. Carcass levels of absolute exhaustion.”

Bailey lights up at the prospect of getting back onstage and experiencing the kinetic energy between the actors, crew, and director. He believes that the emotional and intellectual rigor of theater leads to a tight, specific piece of work. It’s an art form that requires continuous creation night after night.

This stamina comes in handy in front of a camera, too. “When you’re exhausted, you have to rely on technique,” he explains. “Technique does get you over the finish line, and you can deliver a performance that is honest and tell the story effectively and truthfully.” 

Until then—and until he’s back on set with those fake dinosaurs—he’s going to soak up that Emmy-nomination afterglow for a little while longer. 

“I’m actually going to go and have another glass of wine to celebrate,” he says.

Source

[lily-alphonse]

Emily and Elliott for the rarepair?

Oooo man okay that's.... that's rare.

Hmmmmmm let me think

He kinda matches her freak doesn't he lol. He comes in with his pompous clothing spouting his "Barkeep! Your finest ale please!" and Emily's eyeing him like oooo he's a weirdo I like him.

And he of course spots her big feather earrings and colorful style and is immediately curious. He strikes up a conversation with her and she matches his pompous speech patterns with a sparkle in her eye as if they're playing a game together. She says some off the wall shit about energies and Elliott can’t believe she’s real.

More than that, he’s never had banter flow quite like this. It has his mind sparking, firing on all cylinders. Emily is witty, and he’s never met anyone quite like her. There is the wit you find in theater class, that’s tried and tired and painted on like clown rouge— and then there is Emily.

She just does it all for the sake of fun. She doesn’t care how she’s perceived.

When Elliott gets back to his shack that night he spends all night poring over his books and reference texts for mention of her name. There is something more to her. She must be every one of these Emilys; she is infinite, she is a muse incarnate.

Beyond the mutual curiosity though, they sort of complete each other. Emily is wacky and does some things that seem nonsensical sometimes but she always has her reasons, and she is actually very practical. She is good at managing a household, keeping a job, and managing her relationships.

Which is why she notices when Elliott disappears in a multi-day writing frenzy, and pries him from his typewriter to take a shower and eat. She offsets Elliott’s drama and impracticality by actually often being the voice of reason. And when he has a depressive burnout spiral there is nothing that helps him quite like lying his head in her lap as she places crystals on his forehead and hums along to their frequencies to realign his chakras.

He doesn't understand it, but he doesn't understand what's going on inside him anyway, so he puts his heart in her hands and she is so gentle with it.

I like it. Emmiott? Crystal feathers? Crystal Quill perhaps?

Send me any Stardew Valley rarepair and I will tell you how I would make them work! (Even non-marriage npcs) If youre lucky you may get a mini fic out of it. Check the list below to see if Ive already answered yours

Rarepair Masterlist

[ther3alsweetheart]

My Redacted Boys Ranking

(this is just my opinion please don't come for me 🙏)

Milo (MY MAN)

Guy (Hes so silly, hes me but as a guy tehe)

Lasko (I ❤ subby men)

Sam (My country boy)

Hush (I don't know why I want him so bad)

Gavin (he's sassy and I love it)

Vincent (my first love)

Geordi (I love him I would have never treated him that way)

David (Daviey is such a cutie pie)

Anton (Hes a softie and I love the accent)

Porter (I have a thing for British people)

Elliott (Friends to lovers is so cute)

Asher (Love the personality but his voice sometimes makes me mad)

Aaron (Mean and sarcastic=Hot)

Ollie (He calls the listener Baby I want to be called baby)

Damien (He would be such a fun guy to annoy)

Huxley (Would be my best friend)

Morgan (His tired audio made me giggle)

Caelum (sweet baby boy)

Vega (I dont love his morals but I do love his bonus audios)

Avior (I like how sarcastic and witty he is)

James (I haven't listened to all of his audios but he's chill)

Xavier (I cried when he died)

Brachium (Thank you for saving sunshine and Elliott pooks)

Cam (I don't really know who he is)

Marcus (Hes a bit freaky but not the worst)

Blake (#free sunshine)

Adam (You deserved to get your head ripped off)

Ivan (Getting kidnapped is not hot)

Regulus (same for you also he's invisible is weird)

Kody (No words just hate)

Echo (You know what you've done)

(I had no idea there where so many characters and this took me an ungodly amount of time to make)

[m00n-pr1sm]

Amy Dunne Character Analysis

Disclaimer

This analysis will be of Amy’s character from both the book and the movie, although the 2014 movie adaption takes greater precedence with only some additional details and quotes included from the book as it does delve deeper into Amy’s psyche and add further characterization. Thus some traits may be accentuated further than they are in the movie, not being completely faithful to either story. It’s an analysis of Amy in her totality across mediums, of course being entirely my opinion. There are of course adaptational differences but I will not include the major ones from the books (ex. her relationship with Hillary Hand). This is an analysis focusing primarily on Amy’s neuroses she demonstrates and the childhood links to them, it doesn’t cover in-depth the events nor themes of Gone Girl.

Amy Elliott Dunne, the ever enigmatic dual protagonist- antagonist of Gone Girl is one of the most iconic female villains in modern memory, and one of the paragons of the “good for her” trope in media, is, frankly, one of my favorite characters of all time. As such I have been dying to write a full analysis examining her neuroses and characterization. Beneath the cultural perception of just another “crazy psycho” for girls to claim “she did no wrong” or “she just like me fr!”, lies a fascinating character who is masterfully written and developed by Gillian Flynn, as well as perfectly portrayed by Rosamund Pike. Amy Dunne is a character with a deep, complex psychology that I will do my best to thoroughly explore in this analysis.

From Amy’s childhood we first see the emergence of a literal high ego ideal, Amazing Amy. Of course this is the children’s book series created by her parents with a fictionalized version of Amy being the eponymous protagonist. This was a version of herself that rectified her own personal failures. Amazing Amy became a prodigy at cello, when Amy quit at 10, Amazing Amy made varsity volleyball, Amy got cut freshman year. Even in the (at time) final book in the series, Amazing Amy got married, a task Amy had not yet done. The entire book series revolved around Amy always making the most virtuous, the most selfless, the most perfect decisions.

>”With me, regular, flawed, real Amy, jealous, as always, of the golden child.”

An interesting detail in the book that is omitted from the movie is Marybeth’s numerous miscarriages and stillbirths (which totaled 7). All of these girls were named Hope, until Amy was born. Amy expresses her jealousy towards them, as they were always seen as perfect without ever living; meanwhile Amy herself has to live life everyday knowing that she will never truly live up to the Hopes. That she has to try everyday to be the best she can be. Her very birth was mired in the expectation of a perfect child; given that she was practically a gift from the heavens to her parents.

This sets up Amy’s perfectionism, as the childhood experience of never living up to a projected ideal led her to want to be perfect (and as we’ll later see, the expectation that everyone else is too), to live life always through the gaze of another. Evidently this leads to a loss of one’s inner essence, one’s individuality and sense of self.

>“-I’d never really felt like a person, because I was always a product” (Book Quote)

Amy’s obsession with personas can be seen as emerging from this, as she adapts a personality depending on who she’s interacting with, as to always be the most appealing she can, she is Amazing Amy after all.

>”I’m not sure, exactly, how to be Dead Amy. I’m trying to figure out what that means for me, what I become for the next few months. Anyone, I suppose, except people I’ve already been: Amazing Amy. Preppy ’80s Girl. Ultimate-Frisbee Granola and Blushing Ingenue and Witty Hepburnian Sophisticate. Brainy Ironic Girl and Boho Babe (the latest version of Frisbee Granola). Cool Girl and Loved Wife and Unloved Wife and Vengeful Scorned Wife. Diary Amy.” (Book Quote)

This general attitude leads to people trying to impress her as she places herself as someone special and especially someone to keep around. She entices both the characters and viewers of the film through her manufactured charisma and enchantment. However, we’ll see this dramatically backfire in her relationship with Nick, just you wait!

For now we can focus on the beginning of their relationship as well as what I believe to be Amy’s view on romance.

I believe that Amy has an impossibly high standard of love, one that stems from her perfectionism and general inability to let down her guise of being amazing. Not to mention how her parents were a perfect match, Amy even referring to them as soul-mates.

>”They have no harsh edges with each other, no spiny conflicts, they ride through life like conjoined jellyfish—expanding and contracting instinctively, filling each other’s spaces liquidly. Making it look easy, the soul-mate thing.” (Book Quote)

In her childhood it’s implied that she was into romance novels, specifically Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which obviously contributes to the idealization of romance, of a literal scripted love.

>”You were an alienated teen and only Elizabeth Bennet understood you”

I think this little quote is incredibly indicative; it establishes a sense of alienation, of Amy never quite fitting in and blending with others.

>”So many lessons and opportunities and advantages, and they never taught me how to be happy. I remember always being baffled by other children. I would be at a birthday party and watch the other kids giggling and making faces, and I would try to do that too, but I wouldn’t understand why. I would sit there with the tight elastic thread of the birthday hat parting the pudge of my underchin, with the grainy frosting of the cake bluing my teeth, and I would try to figure out why it was fun.” (Book Quote)

Back to the topic of romance, through these stories it allowed her to imagine her perfect romance: if Amy could find that one person that truly understood her, beyond the illusion, that then would constitute a perfect union of love. She does deep down (whether consciously or not) want to be loved for who she is; not the idealized, palatable, literal marketed version of herself. Thus she holds trust as a premium, expecting that if she does the Herculean task of unspooling and revealing herself to another, that the other person would love her no matter what.

>”Can you imagine, finally showing your true self to your spouse, your soul mate, and having him not like you?” (Book Quote)

However all of this culminates in an impossibly high standard of a lover, of a practically divine mythical love; where one loves totally and absolutely. Of course where this neurosis is most demonstrated is in Nick and Amy’s relationship.

Amy comments that after meeting Nick she finally felt like a person as he brought out a side of herself that hadn’t been seen, in her own words “a lightness and an ease”, something that Amy enjoyed. In her eyes they had the perfect relationship in the beginning, Nick was her compliment with the witty banter, with their inside jokes, and charm.

However this doesn’t just vanquish her childhood neuroses, through her desire to be seen as perfect, she modifies herself to be a “cool girl” for Nick, complying endlessly to standards to maintain this perception.

>” When I met Nick Dunne, I knew he wanted a cool girl and for him, I’ll admit, I was willing to try.”

Amy essentially became Nick’s image of a perfect girl, witty, fun, and most of all easy-going and forgiving.

Yet one cannot live forever in images and ideas; and as such, the real, true Amy emerged. The Amy that cares too much, that’s hard to get along with, that is a controlling perfectionist. She also tests Nick through the treasure hunts, weaving in little details about their relationship as to challenge Nick and hope that he remembers the things they do together as deeply as she does. Combined with the 2008 recession and declining health of Nick’s mother (the consequences of which will be explored later). As well as Nick’s growing dissatisfaction in the relationship (evidenced by his worsening performances in the treasure hunts, the cheating, using her for sex and ignoring her otherwise, etc). The illusion both Nick and Amy were living in crumbled; they couldn’t possibly sustain their relationship as they were both striving to fulfill reciprocating images for the other.

One of the biggest parts of her character is Amy’s elitism and entitlement, in which she thinks of herself as someone superior, someone that deserves to be loved absolutely for who she is, although only to people she considers worthy.

>”She’s easy to like. I’ve never understood why that’s considered a compliment—that just anyone could like you.” (Book Quote)

Once again this stems from her childhood, in a seemingly contradictory way, she also sees herself as special for being the one that survived from her mother’s attempts, as well as the fact that her birth was so tumultuous that she would be an only child. From this also stems her entitlement for love.

Amy actively looks down upon women she considers “average”, whom she sees as coming from mediocrity and continuously perpetuating that in their lives. She scoffs at them with her wealthy parents and NYC background until her marriage with Nick crumbles. Only then does she realize that she’s become the very woman she would previously disdain. A woman with a failing marriage, the loss of her previous wealth following the recession, and moving to a failed development in Missouri (What the hell’s in Missouri?) for Nick’s mother.

I truly believe this, combined with Nick’s infidelity, and most importantly the loss of her idyllic love culminated in the iconic Gone Girl plan.

>”Nick took and took from me until I no longer existed, that’s murder. Let the punishment fit the crime”.

Nick took Amy’s identity, her sense of self that she so generously revealed to him and rejected her. Implying that she would only be loved if played the role of the “cool girl”; stripping her of who she really was, losing herself in yet another persona. Although Amy admits she doesn’t really have a personality and lives through personas, she still has a semblance of self that she holds dear.

>”-made me realize that there was a Real Amy in there, and she was so much better, more interesting and complicated and challenging, than Cool Amy”. (Book Quote)

Worse yet, Nick had cheated on her with a “newer, younger, bouncer Cool Girl”, leaving Amy in the dust, surely damaging her pride.

But Amy truly fell in love with her idealized version of Nick, believing that she was responsible for shaping that version of Nick. That she deserved that man in his entirety, of course what gets Amy to come back to Nick is the Sharon Scheiber interview, in which he promises to make up with Amy in just the way that makes her think that Nick is the one person who gets her. He makes the little references to their inside jokes (2 fingers on the chin when they’re not bullshitting the other) and a reference to the end of the treasure hunt (always a contentious issue in their relationship). She’s reminded of who he was, that he was once perfect for her, who else could know how to appeal to her heart in just the right way? With the same passion and conviction she reverses the judgment on Nick, clawing her way back to him. She does so in an especially brutal manner, slashing Desi’s throat with a boxcutter right after he climaxes. Putting aside my enormous personal bias against Desi, he was technically an innocent man, taking a great risk in sheltering Amy. However it’s clear that Amy sees him as merely an asset and something to be disposed of once he serves his value, as another prop in her ever evolving masterplan; she did string him along for years through their letter correspondences. He was just another casualty in Amy’s search for idyllic love. She comes back dramatically, literally falling into Nick’s arms while still covered in Desi’s blood like a dress; fabricating an elaborate story about a love obsessed former boyfriend kidnapping and violating her. Despite the glaring holes in her whole story (If Amy’s marriage was as bad as she made it out to be, why did she go back to Nick so easily? How did she get access to a knife and kill him so seamlessly? Why didn’t Amy do anything when she discovered the stuff in Margo’s shed? etc), law enforcement, media, and the public all fully believe it, infatuated with the persona and narrative that Amy’s created for herself. In the end she traps Nick into the marriage and eventually, the family. The last shot of the film is a haunting recall to the beginning shot of the film, as Amy has both revealed and secured herself to be the master of the narrative, finally obtaining her perfect love, no matter what the cost may have been.

Conclusion

Through a constant demand in Amy’s childhood emerges a need for perfection, simultaneously bringing about a sense of superiority and entitlement. The use of personas and façades facilitate this, painting Amy as the most amazing cool girl for whomever she’s performing for, to feed her need to be seen as perfect and desirable. Yet there emerges a psychological detachment from others; as the need to perform inevitably leads to an internal hollowness. However underneath all these layers there also lies the true Amy who has the deep unconscious desire of wanting to be loved absolutely, to have a perfect union of love where she can reveal herself fully and be loved for who she is truly.

>disclaimer for tumblr lol, this is not me trying to claim Amy was innocent I am fully aware that she’s a terribly entitled and narcissistic person but she can still be complex and have relatable desires & be a person even if she’s massively fucked up!!

[annesoftheisland]

Anne's House of Dreams-

Chapter 16 New Year's Eve at the Light

The Green Gables folk went home after Christmas, Marilla under solemn covenant to return for a month in the spring. More snow came before New Year's, and the harbor froze over, but the gulf still was free, beyond the white, imprisoned fields. The last day of the old year was one of those bright, cold, dazzling winter days, which bombard us with their brilliancy, and command our admiration but never our love. The sky was sharp and blue; the snow diamonds sparkled insistently; the stark trees were bare and shameless, with a kind of brazen beauty; the hills shot assaulting lances of crystal. Even the shadows were sharp and stiff and clear-cut, as no proper shadows should be. Everything that was handsome seemed ten times handsomer and less attractive in the glaring splendor; and everything that was ugly seemed ten times uglier, and everything was either handsome or ugly. There was no soft blending, or kind obscurity, or elusive mistiness in that searching glitter. The only things that held their own individuality were the firs--for the fir is the tree of mystery and shadow, and yields never to the encroachments of crude radiance.

But finally the day began to realise that she was growing old. Then a certain pensiveness fell over her beauty which dimmed yet intensified it; sharp angles, glittering points, melted away into curves and enticing gleams. The white harbor put on soft grays and pinks; the far-away hills turned amethyst.

"The old year is going away beautifully," said Anne.

She and Leslie and Gilbert were on their way to the Four Winds Point, having plotted with Captain Jim to watch the New Year in at the light. The sun had set and in the southwestern sky hung Venus, glorious and golden, having drawn as near to her earth-sister as is possible for her. For the first time Anne and Gilbert saw the shadow cast by that brilliant star of evening, that faint, mysterious shadow, never seen save when there is white snow to reveal it, and then only with averted vision, vanishing when you gaze at it directly.

"It's like the spirit of a shadow, isn't it?" whispered Anne. "You can see it so plainly haunting your side when you look ahead; but when you turn and look at it--it's gone."

"I have heard that you can see the shadow of Venus only once in a lifetime, and that within a year of seeing it your life's most wonderful gift will come to you," said Leslie. But she spoke rather hardly; perhaps she thought that even the shadow of Venus could bring her no gift of life. Anne smiled in the soft twilight; she felt quite sure what the mystic shadow promised her.

They found Marshall Elliott at the lighthouse. At first Anne felt inclined to resent the intrusion of this long-haired, long-bearded eccentric into the familiar little circle. But Marshall Elliott soon proved his legitimate claim to membership in the household of Joseph. He was a witty, intelligent, well-read man, rivalling Captain Jim himself in the knack of telling a good story. They were all glad when he agreed to watch the old year out with them.

Captain Jim's small nephew Joe had come down to spend New Year's with his great-uncle, and had fallen asleep on the sofa with the First Mate curled up in a huge golden ball at his feet.

"Ain't he a dear little man?" said Captain Jim gloatingly. "I do love to watch a little child asleep, Mistress Blythe. It's the most beautiful sight in the world, I reckon. Joe does love to get down here for a night, because I have him sleep with me. At home he has to sleep with the other two boys, and he doesn't like it. "Why can't I sleep with father, Uncle Jim?" says he. `Everybody in the Bible slept with their fathers.' As for the questions he asks, the minister himself couldn't answer them. They fair swamp me. `Uncle Jim, if I wasn't me who'd I be?' and, `Uncle Jim, what would happen if God died?' He fired them two off at me tonight, afore he went to sleep. As for his imagination, it sails away from everything. He makes up the most remarkable yarns--and then his mother shuts him up in the closet for telling stories . And he sits down and makes up another one, and has it ready to relate to her when she lets him out. He had one for me when he come down tonight. `Uncle Jim,' says he, solemn as a tombstone, `I had a 'venture in the Glen today.' `Yes, what was it?' says I, expecting something quite startling, but nowise prepared for what I really got. `I met a wolf in the street,' says he, `a 'normous wolf with a big, red mouf and awful long teeth, Uncle Jim.' `I didn't know there was any wolves up at the Glen,' says I. `Oh, he comed there from far, far away,' says Joe, `and I fought he was going to eat me up, Uncle Jim.' `Were you scared?' says I. `No, 'cause I had a big gun,' says Joe, `and I shot the wolf dead, Uncle Jim,--solid dead--and then he went up to heaven and bit God,' says he. Well, I was fair staggered, Mistress Blythe."

The hours bloomed into mirth around the driftwood fire. Captain Jim told tales, and Marshall Elliott sang old Scotch ballads in a fine tenor voice; finally Captain Jim took down his old brown fiddle from the wall and began to play. He had a tolerable knack of fiddling, which all appreciated save the First Mate, who sprang from the sofa as if he had been shot, emitted a shriek of protest, and fled wildly up the stairs.

"Can't cultivate an ear for music in that cat nohow," said Captain Jim. "He won't stay long enough to learn to like it. When we got the organ up at the Glen church old Elder Richards bounced up from his seat the minute the organist began to play and scuttled down the aisle and out of the church at the rate of no-man's-business. It reminded me so strong of the First Mate tearing loose as soon as I begin to fiddle that I come nearer to laughing out loud in church than I ever did before or since."

There was something so infectious in the rollicking tunes which Captain Jim played that very soon Marshall Elliott's feet began to twitch. He had been a noted dancer in his youth. Presently he started up and held out his hands to Leslie. Instantly she responded. Round and round the firelit room they circled with a rhythmic grace that was wonderful. Leslie danced like one inspired; the wild, sweet abandon of the music seemed to have entered into and possessed her. Anne watched her in fascinated admiration. She had never seen her like this. All the innate richness and color and charm of her nature seemed to have broken loose and overflowed in crimson cheek and glowing eye and grace of motion. Even the aspect of Marshall Elliott, with his long beard and hair, could not spoil the picture. On the contrary, it seemed to enhance it. Marshall Elliott looked like a Viking of elder days, dancing with one of the blue-eyed, golden-haired daughters of the Northland.

"The purtiest dancing I ever saw, and I've seen some in my time," declared Captain Jim, when at last the bow fell from his tired hand. Leslie dropped into her chair, laughing, breathless.

"I love dancing," she said apart to Anne. "I haven't danced since I was sixteen--but I love it. The music seems to run through my veins like quicksilver and I forget everything--everything--except the delight of keeping time to it. There isn't any floor beneath me, or walls about me, or roof over me--I'm floating amid the stars."

Captain Jim hung his fiddle up in its place, beside a large frame enclosing several banknotes.

"Is there anybody else of your acquaintance who can afford to hang his walls with banknotes for pictures?" he asked. "There's twenty ten-dollar notes there, not worth the glass over them. They're old Bank of P. E. Island notes. Had them by me when the bank failed, and I had 'em framed and hung up, partly as a reminder not to put your trust in banks, and partly to give me a real luxurious, millionairy feeling. Hullo, Matey, don't be scared. You can come back now. The music and revelry is over for tonight. The old year has just another hour to stay with us. I've seen seventy-six New Years come in over that gulf yonder, Mistress Blythe."

"You'll see a hundred," said Marshall Elliott.

Captain Jim shook his head.

"No; and I don't want to--at least, I think I don't. Death grows friendlier as we grow older. Not that one of us really wants to die though, Marshall. Tennyson spoke truth when he said that. There's old Mrs. Wallace up at the Glen. She's had heaps of trouble all her life, poor soul, and she's lost almost everyone she cared about. She's always saying that she'll be glad when her time comes, and she doesn't want to sojourn any longer in this vale of tears. But when she takes a sick spell there's a fuss! Doctors from town, and a trained nurse, and enough medicine to kill a dog. Life may be a vale of tears, all right, but there are some folks who enjoy weeping, I reckon."

They spent the old year's last hour quietly around the fire. A few minutes before twelve Captain Jim rose and opened the door.

"We must let the New Year in," he said.

Outside was a fine blue night. A sparkling ribbon of moonlight garlanded the gulf. Inside the bar the harbor shone like a pavement of pearl. They stood before the door and waited--Captain Jim with his ripe, full experience, Marshall Elliott in his vigorous but empty middle life, Gilbert and Anne with their precious memories and exquisite hopes, Leslie with her record of starved years and her hopeless future. The clock on the little shelf above the fireplace struck twelve.

"Welcome, New Year," said Captain Jim, bowing low as the last stroke died away. "I wish you all the best year of your lives, mates. I reckon that whatever the New Year brings us will be the best the Great Captain has for us--and somehow or other we'll all make port in a good harbor."

[galacticwarpedlense]

Tattoos

I saw a picture with one of the bachelors with a tattoo and now that got me thinking of all the bachelors with tattoos.

Of all the characters, I think the ones that would absolutely NEVER get tattoos would be like Penny (she's very VERY traditional so I don't think she'd want them but it would be friggin hilarious to see this hyper-traditional woman tatted out), Maru (Idk, it just doesn't seem like something she would want) and Harvey (He's a doctor, he knows ink in your body isn't healthy). And maaaaaybe Sam (He seems like he would be a baby with pain or afraid of needles).

The rest, I can see getting some.

Abigail and Sebastian would probably get a decent amount of tattoos as they get older. Dare I say, Abigail would get more. Like an entire sleeve of alt tattoos. Skulls, bones, roses, quotes, funky little designs. All the Alt shit. And if you dare say anything about the tattoos being permanent, she will roast you.

Seb on the other hand may have some back tattoos and arm tattoos, not an entire sleeve but more dispersed, each showing how his style evolves while staying somewhat related. Like a story. And if they are black and white tattoos, you bet that he's letting any future children of his doodle the shit out of those tattoos with their little markers.

Elliott...A part of me knows, he probably wouldn't get tattoos either because of the cost or the reputation but also I am a simp for the idea of the writer man having some sort of book quote that he found inspirational on his collarbone so he can wake up in the morning and see it in the mirror every day. And you can't take that away from me. Ever.

Even if Emily and Haley don't get along and seem like opposites, I feel like their tattoos would be very similar. Like very flowery and cute and on their wrist or something and when they realize they have the same tattoo it's like they have witty banter about who copied who.

Leah, just artsy shit. Artsy shit everywhere. Arms, legs, back. Just little artsy tattoos everywhere with little correlation. Fuck it, this bitch MADE her own tattoos. If not the tattoo itself then at least the design.

Alex, I'm indecisive. I can see him not having any tattoos. But also a big tattoo on his arm of the name of his spouse sounds like the cheesy but kinda dumb thing he would do. Lucky him, we're using a scenario where the farmer doesn't dump him so it's a nice romantic gesture.

Shane would probably have tattoos from his past. If the beta versions of Shane were anything to go by, he seemed to be almost Alex-like in his youth so he would probably be pretty impulsive (especially at the start of whatever made him so depressed as he tries to do things to feel better) and get a few tats that now are a reflection of his past.

[alessandro55]

Elliott Erwitt

Vertliebte (und andere unverbesserliche Optimisten)

Knesebeck, München 2004, ca. 70 Seiten, ISBN 3-89660-216-0

euro 20,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Original edition: Lovers (and other extreme optimists).

 A lovely selection of his most charming photographs. A photographer identified with irrepressible vitality, in this gem of a sequence, he is in full romantic bloom. As such, it isn't cloying at all and is instead, witty and lighthearted in the trademark Erwitt vein: The joys and silliness and warmth of human connection captured in some of his finest and most famous images. An absolute "must-have" collectible, not just memorabilia, set for Elliott Erwitt collectors.

20/07/24

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

Lacey Chabert & Brennan Elliott Reunite For 10th Time In ‘His & Hers’ For Hallmark (Deadline Exclusive)

EXCLUSIVE: Hallmark Channel is reuniting Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott for His & Hers (working title), a new movie set to premiere later this year during the network’s annual Fall into Love programming event.

The movie follows married couple Dana (Chabert) and Mark (Elliott), a pair of high-powered lawyers at two separate New York City law firms who find themselves on opposing sides of a messy divorce between two reality stars. When both clients are unable to compromise, everyone heads to the that results in tensions infiltrating Dana and Mark’s otherwise happy household.

“We are so excited to reunite Hallmark’s perennial fan-favorite Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott in this all-new movie. Three years having passed since they’ve appeared together on screen, this witty and playful romcom will showcase their undeniable chemistry – a treat for our Hallmark viewers,” said Ayse Francis, Director of Programming, Hallmark Media. 

“A chance to reunite with my dear friend, Brennan Elliot and bringing these stories to the audience together is always such a joyful experience. I hope the fans enjoy these new characters!,” Chabert added.

Continued Elliott, “I have been so blessed and lucky to have been able to star in 10 films with Lacey Chabert! She is a great friend, and collaborating with her on screen has been one of the most treasured and impactful joys of my career.”

To read the full article at Deadline, click this LINK.

[systastic]

Hi dearest!❤️

Currently helping some sysmates as they just formed and loosely latched to some people, but! Would you be comfortable doing a Freminet and/or a Dahlia (Genshin Impact both!) alter?? It’s perfectly fine if not!!❤️

Lots of love, don’t forget to take care of yourself!! -⚰️🍎

ur brain has good taste -🐝

absolutely we can!! :3 n thank mew for the love ♡ -🍥

level 1 freminet

name :: freminet, emmett, elliott, claude, antoine, florent, issac, bastien

age :: 16 to 18

pronouns :: he/him, ce/cer, ae/aer, nae/nym

roles :: dissonaut, daydream inducer, emotional suppressor, entrancer, faucet

species :: fontanian pre-prophecy

gender identity :: quoigender ; deepseain & abyssgender

orientation :: queer, greyrose (alterous and sexual), polyromantic ; tends towards close bonds of friendship or romance over sexual ones. cy desires closeness to another person; whether or not it’s romantic doesn’t matter.

source :: genshin impact

level 2 dahlia

name :: dahlia, elio, cedric, benediction (ben), theodore (theo), finneas, jude, loretto/loreto, eredis

age :: physically 15 to 18 , mentally over several thousand years old (around for the end of the archon war and the installation of the church of favonius)

pronouns :: he/him, she/her, she/he (alternating), fy/fyr/fyrself, hal/hael/halo/haloself, bat/bats/batself

roles :: secret keeper, shusher, confuser, instigator, antagonizer, religious persecutor (unintentionally)

species :: human blessed by barbatos ; functionally immortal (tied to the church)

gender identity :: bigender

orientation :: achillean, apothisexual ; had a crush on barbatos/venti when the two first met

source :: genshin impact (leaks)

aesthetic :: fallen angel, gothic, vampire goth, darkest academia

appearance description :: in spite of his status as a deacon of the church of favonius, dahlia prefers shades of black and red to white and blue. it is this eclectic taste that sets her apart from the sisters: having such colors makes him stand out, drawing people’s eyes and ears in his direction. ben does not crave this spotlight. he would much rather grant it to the sisters as they can often help the people who visit more than dahlia can. hal is a bit of a recluse, and as such does not often think of what haels outfit looks like. this often causes confusion for visitors who meet the deacon as fyrs appearance is vastly different from what is expected. finneas secretly enjoys this momentary confusion. looking at him with that dumbstruck expression makes him feel like he could get away with anything.

personality description :: a bit of a brat and brutally straightforward, dahlia does not and will not beat around the bush. lengthy messages are a pain to receive and an even greater pain to write. he is fond of witty wordplay and jokes, and is a master of passive aggressive commentary. in truth, dahlia is somewhat manipulative in terms of not telling everyone the truth all of the time, and uses the church and its funds as a coverup for his real goals: discovering a way to end his immortality and return to being normal. he’s a bastard of a man who hides behind passive aggressive comments to avoid invoking the fury of others. people don’t defy him due to his status as the deacon, though — so he can get away with quite a bit. he does genuinely love the people and makes sure that the city knows this through special events, daily devotionals for those who desire it, and pardoning any supposed sins that citizens feel they have committed. (especially the fountain brother and sister duo.) he is fiercely loyal to the church and the sisters within - particularly rosaria due to seeing himself in her - viewing them as a sort of extended, everlasting “family” he can find solace in.

image source here

[celeluwhenfics]

Me when I try to write a line for an OC based on Anne Elliott, but it comes out as a witty, snarky comeback that would fit right in the Netflix 2022 Persuasion adaptation:

Don't worry, it went straight to the trash can as soon as it was out of my system.

[jonsaremembers]

Reading Tag Game!

Thanks @the-lincyclopedia this is my jam!! I tag @thatgirlnevershutsup @castrotophic @infiniteseriesofhalfways @notsosaucystuff and @whatsitcalledfromthingy - if you wanna play, of course!

Last book I read: Becoming Ella Fitzgerald by Judith Tick. It was...sort of dry and boring. I was hoping for something more personal. But honestly it was so eye opening, in that sometimes there are gaps in the history of her life and they have to assemble a timeline piecemeal from venue records and such, which is...I wonder about it

A book I recommend: Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark. Her prose is unbelievable. Some of the best writing I have ever read, ever - wry and witty and so so heartfelt. It was in the running for my favorite book of the year until I read Babel. 

Book I couldn't put down: One by One by Ruth Ware. I don't love EVERY Ruth Ware title, but I consider myself a connoisseur of Thrillers for Scaredy Cats, and this is an absolute masterpiece in that arena. 

Book I've read twice: I reread ALL the time, but how about I mention (again) the fact that I have read my least favorite book of all time twice, just to be sure. (It's Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. I loathe that book.)

A book on my TBR: My Goodreads TBR is legit in the four figures, but the latest one I added is called The Mistresses of Cliveden and it was rec'd to me by my sister, with whom I share a love of intimate accounts of historical women's lives. 

A book I have put down: I assume this means I DNFed. This list is pretty short! I have a different shelf for "books I didn't finish but want to try again someday" than for "giving up bc I hate it." The most recent one was The Montessori Baby by Simone Davies, which I picked up when my kid was about 8 months old and promptly began to internalize a TON of guilt about everything I wasn't doing, so I said NOPE. 

A book on my wish list: I Didn't Do the Thing Today by Madeline Dore, which was basically written for me, personally, and may indeed change your life as well. Completely changed how I see my life and productivity and creativity and and and.

A favorite book from childhood: Oh God, all of them. But somehow I have not yet mentioned my favorite author of all time, Madeleine L'Engle, so I will mention her now, and shout out A Wrinkle In Time and A House Like a Lotus. 

A book I would give a friend: The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo. I love this book so so so much. It's about sisterhood, and parenting, and how we can hurt the people we love without doing anything wrong per se. I actually did force a copy on my mother in law because I happened to visit a bookstore the same day she and I had been chatting about it. 

A book of poetry or lyrics I own: I have a collection of C. S. Lewis' poems I bought in Sweden.

A non-fiction book I own: Upstairs at the White House by J. B. West, who served as Chief Usher at the White House from the tail end of the FDR presidency to the beginning of Nixon. It's absolutely fascinating. I've read this like five times. 

Currently reading: Anna Karenina on audio. I've been slogging through it since the beginning of this year. I really want to finish it this time (I've started and stalled on AK at least twice, maybe 3 times?!).

Planning on reading next: My hold on The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot just came through!

[thenxghtwemxt]

"I could be the way forward, only if they pay for it.."

Prince Elliott Bonaparte | He/Him | 30 | Northern Spain | FC: Patrick Gibson

Basics:

NAME: Elliott Bonaparte

TITLE: Prince of Spain

AGE: 30

FACECLAIM: Patrick Gibson

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

MARITAL STATUS: Single

POSITIVE TRAITS: Vivacious, Conversational, Witty, Savvy

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Desperate, Zealous, Combative, Manipulative

Secret: During your time in exile, you sold your talents of charm and political intelligence to Spain's enemies to secure the Bonaparte's restoration.

The Story (So Far) - TW: Sex Work

The heir, the spare, and the darling. As the third-born son to the illustrious Bonaparte's, that is who Elliott was designed to be; the darling of Spain. A birth right that he took as seriously as his siblings took to their respective posts. Elliott tended to a gentleman's pursuits - fencing, arithmetic, geography, and especially politics. He sunk his teeth in, determined to be the very best.

The Bonaparte's longstanding tenure crumbled when he was well into the prime of her youth and beauty. A damning, unfair turn of events that made him bristle and scream. His eldest brother, the natural heir, lost and never to be seen again. The spare - trained as a supporting character and nothing more, forced to mount the Bonaparte legacy.

In exile, Elliott fought valiantly for the Bonaparte restoration. Often, resorting to selling his charms and wits to highest bidders with the resources needed to aid in their plight. It was a masterclass in politicking and economics, with Elliott quickly accumulating enough support to take back Northern Spain.

The reckoning was precisely that; a break from the vicious cycle he'd become accustomed to. Finally, the Spanish people were speaking out - and they were crying for their beloved Bonaparte's and darling Prince. An opportunist at heart - Elliott lunges for the chance. Now, with half of Spain under the Bonaparte's hand, Elliott is determined to restore his former glory... Regardless of which of his siblings sits on the throne.

And if it has to be him, so be it.

SIMILAR CHARACTERS: Finnick Odair from The Hunger Games, Tashi Donaldson from Challengers

[pointesdulac]

Tell me about a spider or your fav oc (I still can't think of my own favorite of so don't worry about taking long with this)

SPIDERS.... I'll tell you about the spider family in my superhero story.

Alexander Wolfe and his adopted son Elliott Wolfe are the spiders--honourary position to Avery, biological son but not spider-coded (he's Normal).

Alexander Wolfe haunts the narrative!! When superpowers started emerging in the world, he changed the focus of his prestigious family business to helping people navigate their powers. Have a baby with a sonic scream destroying your house? They can help with that. You keep disappearing and can't come back? They can help with that. Etc etc. This developed into them funding and assisting the city's superhero team!! The Wolfes were considered a huge philanthropists and idealists for all the good they did in the changing world around them--but Alexander and Avery alike aren't good with 'publicity', so Elliott acted as the 'face' for all their good work. He was the 'human' face you could trust in the scary unknown. Charming and witty, Elliott is universally adored!

Then it came out that Alexander was moonlighting as a giant spider and sowing chaos through the city.

Nick, our protagonist and technically my fave OC, unfortunately stumbles on evidence of Alexander's identity. They clash and Nick accidentally takes Alexander's life in self defense. Elliott witnesses this happen, knows to address the monster by his father's name, and in his grief reveals that he also was in on his father's crimes. This is a horrific event that shatters a system the city so adored, ruins Nick's life, and completely ravages his relationship with Elliott. Alexander dies and the age of villainy dies with him: when a hero can kill a villain, no one wants to play the game anymore.

Elliott is locked away as an accomplice and, given that the city adores him, this is considered unjust!! Where is the proof?? How can he be blamed?? He's just a little guy!! (he's not). After a suspiciously short time, Elliott is released, and Nick's regular depression surges into hyper-pissed-off-depression. After being forced to hang up his costume, and barely coping with what he's done, Nick relives it all over again. At the same place where he faced Alexander, he fights a revenant: a man in a mechanical spider suit, who seems to recognize him, and who laughs when he calls him 'Wolfe.'

It spirals from there: Wolf Spider is back!! Nick knows it's Elliott in the suit, and yet no one wants to believe him. Elliott declares war on every hero left in the city, bringing back villains under his command, and Nick has to endure the consequences. He doesn't feel like he deserves to be a hero anymore, but his heart won't let him stand idly by. Elliott is the first life that Nick ever saved in his superhero career, and now he's fighting tooth and nail to stop Elliott from hurting people, while knowing he's wronged Elliott in a way no one else possibly ever could. They feel mutually betrayed by one another, too tangled up in each other to be rational, and they keep making out when they're not supposed to.

I just think they're neat <:

[themollyzone]

for alan

My friend Alan died about a month ago. He was one of the first friends my then-boyfriend Chris ever introduced me to. I was coming from my friend's apartment in Manhattan and I met Chris, Alan and their other friend Matthew at Beauty Bar in Park Slope. It was a freezing winter, the first one I remember really disseminating the term "polar vortex," and I remember I was wearing snow boots and a big lumpy sweater. Not exactly dressed to impress, but I needn't have been worried about impressing anyone. The conversation flowed easily, and I felt included. I remember thinking, "Wow, Chris has such smart and funny friends." Alan was witty and warm. I was charmed by him immediately. Now Beauty Bar is closed, Chris is my husband, Matthew is my dear friend, and Alan is gone. I'm not sure if I've ever felt so old. There are stamps on the narrative that won't wash off now. It's a moment like this when the outer layer of the universe gets peeled back and you see the grinding gears of loss underneath, powering everything in secret the whole time. Soon after I started dating Chris, Alan moved back to California, where he grew up. We saw each other over the years in New York and in LA, and stayed in touch on Twitter. In some ways, I feel like I knew him better online than off — his writing was where I felt like I really was able to understand him fully. He was a writer and a poet. He had a Substack called Take Surface Streets where he'd write about Los Angeles culture and history through the city's geography. He had the sharpest mind and the most unique way of describing things. Chris was saying how it's wild that people might not even know how influential he was. Secretly influential — that's the power of Alan. He's the reason you all use the term "softboy," and the reason brands try and mostly fail to be funny on social media. He was down with the sacred and the profane: he could bust out the most gorgeous prose about some heady and romantic scenario, and then you'd remember his handle was @iluvbutts247.

He cared about people. He cared about people who everyone else had left behind. He fought for those people, literally. There's no other way to describe it: he was one of one. Like, look at this tweet. He just tweeted this out one night:

We had just been emailing about a project of his. He had been publishing these great little pamphlet zines — one of them made it with me from LA to NYC and back here in a box of books, thank god — and he was going to publish a new one, and asked if I wanted to write about music for it. I responded enthusiastically: yes! Actually I just looked at the email and I wrote "YES!!!" That someone like Alan found my words worth printing on real paper...it made my whole week, honestly. I was going to sit down and bang out out the piece the night I found out he had passed. I was going to write a few short blurbs about different local musicians who I had been randomly meeting out and about, because I thought he'd like that: people meeting people, in person, in Los Angeles, city of dreams, musical and otherwise.

It's weird that I feel like I owe him some copy. I thought about writing what I would have written for his zine, but I didn't want the musicians I'd write about getting unwittingly tied up in grief for someone they didn't know. I thought the best thing to do would be to take surface streets, as his newsletter suggested, so I went on a walk from Highland Park over to Glassell Park. For walking music, I first played Elliott Smith, who he wrote about in his newsletter — songs from Figure 8, the first record he made after moving to Los Angeles and the last record that came out when he was alive. Elliott Smith has always been a favorite of mine because he's totally unstuck from time. He'd already been dead for a year by the time I got my hands on XO my freshman year of high school, and his music sounded like it could have been made at any point in time in the past couple of decades. The arrangement on "Junk Bond Trader" is still one of the coolest things I've ever heard, with its layers of sound gracefully bowing to each other before getting out of the way.

Then I thought I'd be silly and play early Red Hot Chili Peppers, enjoying the juvenile funk of some Cali dirtbags with jester's privilege. It's funny how "Los Angeles music" can mean so many different things. Walter Becker from Steely Dan said that LA had a "laboratory-like sterile atmosphere to work in" — spoken like someone who has spent a lot of time riding around in a car, the ultimate sterile atmosphere. Dry AC, carefully calibrated stereo. Once you start walking, you start catching the real vibe of a place. Alan knew that and he celebrated it.

"Out In L.A" banging in my headphones, I turned around at the Glassell Park recreation center, where teenage boys were running dusty laps, and the pool was subdivided into lanes and sparkled sapphire, looking almost drinkable. I admired the Glassellland sign, a new sight to me. When I went home I looked up its origins: an artist named Justin put up the sign three times without permission, and after three teardowns, it finally stuck, with the help of a little local politicking that shepherded its status from "vandalism" to "public art." Ain't that just the way, I thought, smoking an imaginary cigarette.

It was hot, 85 degrees, with perfunctory sunshine curated by the "Visit California" tourism organization. Cold in New York, hot in LA. We were going to hang out when he came back to the city. "cannot wait for you to return and show us ur fave sights" was what I had emailed him. I'm honestly just lucky that he left a paper trail, and now I can follow it on my own.

When someone dies, especially someone young, you often hear some version of the sentiment of "I wish I had told them I loved them more," or "I wish I had told them what they meant to me." I understand this feeling, of course. It is only natural to want to go back in time and express your adoration to someone who's no longer here, and one of life's silliest jokes on human beings is the essential impossibility of communicating the entirety of your emotions to others: saying exactly what you mean, hoping they precisely understand.

And I can even look at our tweet history and see the times when I did tell him I cared about him, which is a strange gift of modernity: receipts. The nuance and near-misses and unsaid stuff, though — that's the friction that keeps everything humming. That's where the poetry is, painful as it may be. And I believe that when you think of someone after they've left this earth, they can feel it, wherever they are. And I believe that just thinking of them and remembering them will honor them, and will let them know, on some kind of quantum, cosmic-dust level, what you didn't say enough when they were alive. I believe that, because I simply have to. Alan, I'm going to remember you forever, I'm going to be reminded of you forever, I'm going to tell everyone I know about how cool you were for the rest of my life. Every time I see someone post about how sad they are that you are gone, it makes me sad but it makes me happy too, because that's another person on my team: Team Alan. Another person who gets it. I hope you are resting easy now.

To close out, I'm reprinting a bit of a post he wrote on Take Surface Streets back in February of this year about addiction, and deaths by overdose. It seems right to repeat what he wrote as I'm writing about his own passing, and if you read this, I hope you take his words with you — like everything else he wrote, they are true, and they are on fire.

When we lose a brother or sister in this community it is so often silent and secret. The cause of death isn’t mentioned right away, not in the news or the Instagram post captions. There is an ask of respect for the family’s grief. Of course! And then later we find out. Like it was some dark shame that should be hidden and snuffed out from community knowledge. But part of harm reduction is destigmatization. Not bullshit platitudes like “check in on your friends,” but screaming out loud: if you are a drug user, if you are shutting down your depression with opiates or anything else, I will help you. I will accept you and love you. Carry Narcan and carry hope. I don’t mean to sound like a sappy son-of-a-bitch, but we will hold each other when no one else will. The silence we seek in quieting our awful thoughts is the only silence that should be struck out when one of us dies. None of us are alone—and the culture of cutting out this part of our lives abandons those in need.

I won't be a party to it.