#and i believe this not because i think her parents were being cool and innovative by using a masculine name

[leslie057]

miss joyce adrian maldonado byers invented “free my boy he did all that but i dont care”

[breakthemystique]

I’d be fine if no one but my loved ones read anything I wrote because my mom wouldn’t be able to appreciate it anyway. Not unless I sat by her bed, elbows propping me up, reciting my work like a bed time story. She likes my voice and she likes the way I dance, so I don’t even really have to write. Though a few times a year when I can proofread an email or a resignation letter that she’ll never send, she realizes the utility of my proficiency in this silly language, and so do I. I like being useful. I like that understanding structure and the conventions of English can get things done. Others’ use of it have sparked movements. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s all play, or can be. But for a long time I stopped treating it that way. Writing in the English language is hard work! And it’s SERIOUS! And grammar! And punctuation! And can you organize a good essay?! What about a whole book! Take that! Pow!

Maybe that’s why I like the poets so much, even if poetry is that last form I’ve discovered. I like their vibe, their ethos, their air. They got something right about innovation at the level of the sentence. Ocean Vuong said something to that effect and he said so in a church, with wonder, and that’s what I want. To wonder, and wander, as if I were a child in an open field. A player on the court outside of practice and outside of games. A driver in my beat-up Corolla going anywhere at the end of the day long after anyone has stopped needing anything from me.

So I’m curious: Can I say anything that reminds you of wonder? And imagination? That would be pretty cool. And that would make me believe in life. That’s the cause I’m fighting for here. Cause with a small “c,” the teeniest one you ever did see, so microscopic it may not even matter. I’m not dying for it because I have other things that make me believe in my life as one worth living. And I think that’s a good thing. Writing as tool not as toolbox. As a flavor, not the whole chocolate box.

Now that I think of it, it helps that my parents’ first language, not even their second, is the one that I speak and read and write in. There’s an arbitrariness, a luck-ness to it. My native language could have been anything so my continued use of my native language can be anything. And the attitude of “let’s see where this goes” makes more sense than any of my ambitions. There’s a chance that something could happen, but what?

And, really, what are any of us ever doing but testing our luck every day? Oh, you lived another day? Here’s a job, maybe make some money, or have coffee with a friend. And maybe on your way out of the cafe you bend to pick up a penny, the same one your now-husband was also eyeing on the sidewalk. I don’t know. The best writing is something like that: conveying possibility, reminding us of what some might call a miracle.

[lovejustforaday]

Shoegaze Classics - Split

Split - Lush (1994)

Main Genres: Shoegaze, Indie Pop, Dream Pop

A decent sampling of: Britpop, Jangle Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Power Pop

Hot damn, it's been a minute, no? I've emerged from my online slumber and decided that, in the days leading up to the much anticipated release of Slowdive's 5th LP Everything Is Alive, that now would be a great time to do a round up of reviews on some of the more noteworthy classic shoegaze albums and bands from the 90s, but first, a few introductory words:

I'll say it right now that the 90s is my favourite era in rock music. Even if I was hardly around for any of that decade, and certainly don't have any memories of it, I have spent my adolescent days and onward loving the guitar music of my parents youthful heyday (just not necessarily the bands that they were listening to, but there's some overlap here and there). Don't get me wrong, I'm not "lewronggeneration" and I very much love the music of today too, but there is a certain something about the sounds that dominated indie and alternative rock during that period that just resonates with me the most. Whereas nowadays, I'd argue that experimental electronic music, and probably hip hop, are both at their respective peaks. But if there was any time and place in music history that I would KILL (ahem) to have been around for in my late teens and early 20s, I would have been a young shoegazer living somewhere in the British Isles during the early 90s. Long bangs and even longer sleeves most definitely included. Shoegaze is my favourite subgenre of any kind of music, followed closely by its' cousin Dream Pop. The reverberated density, the myriad of different sonic colours, the air of introspection, the often androgynous blend of vocals, and the unaffected, ego-less, unpretentious, and without any bravado or machismo, complete fucking "coolness" of its sound. Everything about it checks all of my boxes for favourite things in music and just art in general.

It's also no secret that shoegaze was one of the more diverse scenes in rock music for its time. Shoegaze bands back in the 90s were just as likely to have a male and female vocalist simultaneously, or just a female vocalist, as they were to have just a man on the mic. It is also one of the only indie/alternative rock scenes from its time that I can think of, where multiple big names in the scene being celebrated were bands with black members (the bar was pretty low back then).

Indeed, it feels like just about anybody with the taste for it can be a shoegazer. Few genres of music feel so untied to gender, race, sexuality, and class backgrounds (Granted, being able to afford all of those guitar pedals means that you probably have to be pretty financially comfortable to form a shoegaze band). Bands were usually pretty friendly with each other too, developing the reputation of going to each others shows and sometimes playing in each others bands.

Altogether, shoegaze was and is distinctly 'humanist' in its sound and its ethos, its impressionistic wash of guitars and vocals smoothing out all the edges of the individual human condition to reveal the intangible, emotional core.

But enough gushing, dammit! It's time to hone in on some of the bands from that first glorious wave of wavey guitar bands.

The Band

I've decided to start with Lush, because I believe to the uninitiated that they make for the most accessible introduction to classic shoegaze. Where most shoegaze bands were either gloomy and midtempo, or noisy and incomprehensible, Lush maintained a fairly powerful, poppy, and hard-hitting shoegaze sound that was more reminiscent of 80s UK indie pop bands, rather than existing in direct responsive opposition to these bands like many other shoegaze acts of the 90s. Lush was co-led by the creative duo of Miki Berenyi, the outgoing lead vocalist and face of the band, with her definitive, innovative 90s fashion sensibilities and famously bright frigging red dyed hair, and Emma Anderson, the more introverted primary songwriter and backing vocalist, with both of them on guitars. It was rare then and rare now for the primary creative lead to not be the face of the band, but then Miki and Emma shared a lot of songwriting credits, and the two formed a very harmonious unit that was the foundation of the bands' equilibrium.

There were also two bassists; first Steve Rippon, then Phil King, as well as one of the more animated drummers of the shoegaze scene, Chris Acland.

In a scene already full of women in prominent roles, Lush still managed to stand out as the most overtly feminist shoegaze band, and likewise one of the most lyrically focused bands in a scene where vocal texture was most often paramount to lyrics. Miki and Emma would often write songs calling out male manipulators, and lamenting about failed romantic escapades with childish men, and Miki did not shy away from calling out sexism in the later 90s britpop scene. Lush started out early in the scene with a series of critically acclaimed EPs later compiled into the compliation LP Gala. This early period contains a lot of the bands best work, so definitely check it out. Then came Spooky, the debut cohesive full-length LP released on the legendary 4AD record label and produced by Cocteau Twins' own Robin Guthrie (the band that spawned a hundred dream pop and shoegaze bands). A very solid debut record that sounds incredibly 90s, and I hate to say it as someone who respects Guthrie's work, but the production on this is hit or miss. It sounds very compressed as far as shoegaze records go, which on some tracks actually creates a beautifully dense, 'solid' shoegaze effect like on "Superblast!", but then on others like "Nothing Natural" it sounds plainly smothered with little room to breathe. Sorta like poppy shoegaze music with acoustics from inside of a cola can.

Split was the sophomore record. Oddly enough, it was also the one to receive mixed reviews from the press at the time, even though to me and many others it is a clear step up from Spooky, but then by 1994 the british music press had already very much turned off of shoegaze after hailing it as the next big thing, because britpop was quickly usurping it as the next much, much bigger thing. Lush would then follow suit with Ride and several other shoegaze bands going in a more britpop direction on their last LP Lovelife as it became the next big thing in the mid-90s. But where some bands made that transition abruptly (and some might argue cynically), Lush's transition was a lot more organic, as the band had already been writing a lot of pop music with big riffs.

The Record

Split is kind of a transition record - it's about half full of really dense, head-on shoegaze with power riffs and half full of mellow, dreamy, bittersweet indie pop and proto-britpop, and nearly all of it is about the pains of young love. And in this case, I would say the record has the best of both worlds, and I would reiterate, makes a great introduction to shoegaze for the uninitiated, because it has a lot of soft pop songs to pad it out. The opener is truly (pardon the overused term) iconic. "Light From A Dead Star" fittingly begins as a twinkle in the sky, a dreamy, romantic fairytale turned sour, with strings and jangly guitars leading in to a cautionary tale about a man who devours women's hearts.

This is followed by "Kisschase", an upbeat yet wistful shoegaze ballad continuing the themes of love gone awry. Meanwhile, "Blackout" is a punchy and LOUD shoegaze rebel anthem, with glorious angelic harmonies between Miki and Emma forming the chorus like soaring streaks of light. "Desire Lines" is the opus of the record, and Lush's other finest moment after their early peak with "Sweetness and Light". It is a solemn, slow-tempo rainy ballad of echoing guitar strums and forlorn cello, culminating in a churning vortex of shoegaze guitars during the bridge that sound utterly gorgeous but bitterly exhausted. It is a song that encapsulates the feeling of being drained that is one of the many ways that depression can manifest. It is also an example of how, just because shoegaze may often emphasize texture over melody, this does not mean that there are not brilliant moments of songwriting in the scene, and Lush were the masters of their contemporaries when it came to good melodic chord-based songwriting. One more highlight I wanted to talk about is the beautifully poetic closer "When I Die", a gleaming, stripped down dream pop and jangle pop tune. Its lyrics reflect poignantly on the permanence of the memory of past lovers, but also makes peace with the idea in a way that I think is really quite lovely. I can imagine Miki singing this to herself while playing her guitar on a small boat, as it slowly drifts away from the shoreline and into the sunset painted horizon, leaving her past relationships behind. There's a couple of moments in the b-side where the record slogs a bit, but overall Split is honestly one of the biggest landmark albums of classic 90s shoegaze. A big part of its success is not leaning into shoegaze purism, opting for pop melodies, power chords, and lyrics that are very down to earth and specific in theme. At times, it almost feels like The Smiths doing a shoegaze record, and I'm not even a big fan of The Smiths, but I genuinely love this album. Kudos to Lush.

What Came After That?

Like many original shoegaze bands, Lush did not survive the turn of the century. Though Lush's story is particularly bleak, as the band went into dissolution when drummer Chris Acland very tragically became a victim of suicide. Unfortunately, Chris' story is all too common as most young men still largely struggle to talk to their friends about depression and anxiety to this day, even the guys in more accepting and progressive social circles.

In the aftermath, Emma went on to form her own small indie band called Sing-Sing, and they put out a few records in the noughties. Honestly, I've yet to check out any of their material.

The band reformed briefly in 2015 and 2016 to release an EP, and then Miki moved on to her own new dream pop band known as Piroshka. Again, have not really properly checked it out. Just very recently, Miki Berenyi put out a memoir recently about her time in Lush and her experiences as a woman in a 90s rock scene. My excitement for this book release was a bit stifled however, as there have been rumours that Miki, like many other gen X British feminists before her, went down the mumsnet TERF rabbit hole after some younger fans noticed that she followed some less than savoury figures on twitter calling themselves gender critical. Apparently there were a few liked posts as well that were TERFy, but this one could be hearsay as I could not find anything like that after doing a quick check myself. For what its worth, she also follows a few very explicitly pro-trans accounts, so her status on transgender rights seems ambiguous. Its a shame if true, because I feel shoegaze and dream pop really lent themselves to gender freedom and pro-queer sentiments what with the lack of machismo and definite embrace of androgyny as a collective sound. Ahh the wondrous horrors of the social media age, allowing us to creep our beloved icons and learn every worst detail about them that reminds us that no one is perfect, though some are definitely worse than others. Regardless, I haven't really let that ruin the music for me. I know this is an issue people feel intensely strong about, but I have generally taken a very "vibes" based approach to art vs. the artist. Nothing in Lush's music reflects any sentiments that are deplorable, and Miki has not made any official appearances at TERF events or come out as an active anti-trans activist, so I will continue to enjoy Lush with peace of mind. Kind of an awkward spot to end things, but that's pretty much all the thoughts I have to share. I hope you enjoyed this first entry, and please do stay tuned for more ramblings about classic shoegaze bands like Ride, MBV, and Drop Nineteens. Peace out. Oh yeah, and here's the stats. 9/10 Highlights: "Desire Lines", "When I Die", "Light From A Dead Star", "Kiss Chase", "Blackout", "Undertow", "Lovelife"

[vivavanockers-blog]

I’d be fine if you didn’t read anything I wrote because my mom wouldn’t be able to appreciate it anyway. Not unless I sat by her bed, elbows propping me up, reciting my work like a bed time story. She likes my voice and she likes the way I dance, so I don’t even really have to write. Though a few times a year when I can proofread an email or a resignation letter that she’ll never send, she realizes the utility of my proficiency in this silly language, and so do I. I like being useful. I like that understanding structure and the conventions of English can get things done. Others’ use of it have sparked movements. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s all play, or can be. But for a long time I stopped treating it that way. Writing in the English language is hard work! And it’s SERIOUS! And grammar! And punctuation! And can you organize a good essay?! What about a whole book! Take that! Pow!

Maybe that’s why I like the poets so much, even if poetry is that last form I’ve discovered. I like their vibe, their ethos, their air. They got something right about innovation at the level of the sentence. Ocean Vuong said something to the effect and he said so in a church, with wonder, and that’s what I want. To wonder, and wander, as if I were a child in an open field. A player on the court outside of practice and outside of games. A driver in my beat-up Corolla going anywhere at the end of the day long after anyone has stopped needing anything from me.

So I’m curious: Can I say anything that reminds you of wonder? And imagination? That would be pretty cool. And that would make me believe in life. That’s the cause I’m fighting for here. Cause with a small “c,” the teeniest one you ever did see, so microscopic it may not even matter. I’m not dying for it exactly because I have other things that make me believe in my life as one worth living. And I think that’s a good thing. Writing as tool not as toolbox. As a flavor, not the whole damn chocolate box.

Now that I think of it, it helps that my parents’ first language, not even their second, is the one that I speak and read and write in. There’s an arbitrariness, a luck-ness to it. My native language could have been anything so my native language can be anything, still. It makes so no sense. I might call it luck. And damn does that make my jaw drop, make me realize the largeness of the world. And what are any of us ever really doing but testing our luck? Oh, you lived another day? Here’s a job, maybe makes some money, or have coffee with a friend. And you bend to pick up a penny, the same one your now-husband was also eyeing on the sidewalk. I don’t know. The best writing is something like that: containing possibility, or rather expressing it, reminding us of it. Reminding us that some action could lead to what we might call a miracle.

[nicestpamkale]

Hadley - This-Or-That

The Questions

I dunno, felt like doing something while working up the nerve to write a thing.

Coffee or tea?

Tea - But more specifically she prefers more fruity teas with softer but sweeter flavors.

Hot or Cold?

Cold - She’s not a big fan of fire, as fire is quite destructive. And she can actually like. Feel plants die so.

Sunrise or Sunset?

Sunrise - She's only ever seen one sunset but if she could see a sunrise I think she would prefer it, emotionally speaking. She’s real heavy on metaphors and emotions and so would enjoy the concept.

Neon or Pastel?

Pastel - Neon stands out too much and she sees it all the time (living in a cyber-eque dystopia,) though she likes the look of it.

Books or Movies?

Books - She’s big on thinking, and imagining, so books are definitely more her forte. Also all of the harder parts about watching movies.

Rural living or Urban Living?

Urban Living - Because of her love for nature- rather than in spite of it- she prefers finding alternative solutions to the stone towers of urban cities as opposed to just writing them off. She’s one the people who would really rather they introduce plants to everyone. 

Cats or Dogs? 

Dogs - See, I wanted to say cats, because I’m not a fan of dogs, but Hadley is- if I have to choose- a dog person, because it’s something to take care of and give attention and that’s literally all she knows how to do. 

Stability or Adventure?

Adventure - Hadley loves seeing new things and learning new things and isn’t afraid to pay the price. Not to mention Adventures means people she can help- she loves helping people.

Brutal truth or blissful lie?

Blissful lie - There’s a time and a place for the truth, but it should never be brutal. If she must either tell a brutal truth or a blissful lie, she’d rather lie. (Though honestly she’d rather tell blissful truths and brutal lies.)

Warm colors or cool colors?

Warm Colors - That’s the primary tone flowers average out to, though honestly she likes both equally.

Coziness or opulence?

Coziness - Wealth makes her feel unsafe, and guilty. Like she herself is taking from the poorer people. Though her parents are (mostly) honest workers, she doesn’t even really like the fact that they live in a two-story house.

Work or rest?

Work - It’s always been her belief that one should never lie still unless they’re working their mind. The only person that’s ever gotten her to take a break would be her girlfriend, and even those times were spent learning glitches in the games her girlfriend would play.

Baths or showers?

Baths - She likes the comfort of being surrounded. (When she was little and small enough, she’d close her eyes and pretend to be a lilypad in the tub. This caused many heart attacks for her poor mother.)

Late nights or early mornings?

Late nights - Nothing like staying up all night with your favourite gamer girl/detective boy and having lots of fun. Plus, she generally doesn’t get a lot of sleep so really this is just ideal.

Tradition or innovation?

Innovation - In the right circumstances, I can totally see her getting into unethical science. (Mainly malforming her current body. She has no love for it, personally, and only maintains herself for the benefit of those around her.) And she would rather see the world change than stay the same, generally speaking. (The world is pretty bad.)

Sweet or savory?

Savory - Sweetness is all well and good but she doesn’t find it filling. She would prefer to eat filling food than sweet candies. (Most of my characters will prefer savory for much the same reasons.)

Spicy or mild?

Mild - She doesn’t really care either way, but spicy food can injure the body sometimes and she would prefer to not deal with that.

Beach or forest?

Forest - She’s a botanist. Ofc she’d prefer the forest. Though she would likely enjoy water plants too, her father’s escapades into the ocean deter her.

Chaos or order?

Chaos - She believes there’s a certain kind of order to chaos that is particularly beautiful when properly founded and encouraged. If she had to endure rigid structure, she totally could, but she’s far more likely to dismantle it herself.

Leather or denim?

Denim - She likes the blue of denim. (And leather is Too Heavy.)

Peace or passion?

Passion - She doesn’t have strong feelings about anything other than plants. She finds passion to be a beautiful thing, and would generally choose a passion over peace if she had to. In many ways, she admires those with a strong zest for life.

Open space or closed space?

Closed space - She has a particular draw to the comfort of being compressed. A small part of it would call it the feeling of being buried.

Company or solitude?

Company - She doesn’t like being alone. That’s when the Thoughts might roll in. She'd much rather hang out with even unpleasant company than stay alone somewhere.

Shame or pride?

Fire or water?

Water - if only because she identifies with it in a strange way. Something about the way it moves and how it feels is just comforting to her. Not to mention the implications of it's complicated relationship with fire itself.

Pride - undoubtedly. She believes that whatever you are, you should be proud of it. Whether or not it's good or bad for others, you should be proud to be you. Not many people can boast being themselves.

Fight or flight?

Flight - Aside from most things not being worth the fight, she likes being chased. She likes outwitting her opponent as opposed to out-strengthing them. She finds the game of escape more fun than the force of a fight.

Past or future?

Past - It's harder to see the future, so she tends towards trying to use the past instead. For her, she doesn't have much of a future anyways.

Give or take?

Give - She has no reason or will to take. After all, that sort of thing just doesn't give her joy. She likes seeing people contented and she likes being around happy people. Taking will only ever subtract from that.

Risk or safety?

Loud or soft?

Soft - Being too loud can draw eyes to her and she would rather avoid that potentiality if- at all- possible. The effectiveness varies but she will always be of softer cloth.

Risk - if you can afford to take a risk, you absolutely should. Safety is never guaranteed, so you should naturally go with the rest of the world. In a risky world, one must live a risky life.

[keepthisholykiss]

Hoshigumi’s “Romeo and Juliet” Roundtable Discussion (2021) - Kageki March 2021

While I normally just post a bunch of musumeyaku content I wanted to share something I thought was really fun! As the livestream for RETJ B Cast has passed this month and the A Cast stream is tomorrow. I decided it would be fun to share this roundtable discussion with the cast and directors! I absolutely (from a very biased perspective) adored B Cast and am looking forward to seeing A Cast. The insights from the cast are so wonderful and everyone has clearly thought through these roles thoroughly. It brings me a lot of joy to see what everyone thinks of a show and characters I hold so near and dear to my own heart. I hope that you enjoy these words as much as I have. ✨Note: This translation is entirely for fun!! It was not done in painstaking detail and if things are not perfect then that is okay by me. I mostly just want people to enjoy the general idea or sentiment of what is here. And, while most if it should be a decent translation, I don’t hold myself to a professional standard as this is just a thing I do sometimes. Also please do not steal this translation and pass it off as your own, it is mine, thanks!

Participants (Adaptation and Direction) Koike Shuuichirou (Direction) Inaba Daichi (Production) Takeuchi Jun [TL note: this isn’t a staff member I was familiar or could easily find the accurate name translation of so I went with this] (Senka) Ema Naoki (Hoshigumi) Miki Chigusa, Shirotae Natsu, Tenju Mitsuki, Yumeki Anru, Aizuki Hikaru, Rei Makoto, Seo Yuria, Ayaki Hikari, Arisa Hitomi, Amahana Ema, Kiwami Shin, Maisora Hitomi

Production Staff: Hoshigumi’s performance at Takarazuka Grand Theatre until March 29 will be the musical presented by Sumitomo Mitsui VISA Card, “Romeo and Juliet.” And it is directed and adapted by Koike Shuuichirou and co-directed by Inaba Daichi. This is an adaptation of Gérard Presgurvic’s musical which is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It was first performed in 2010 with Koike-sensei’s adaptation and direction. Rei Makoto, who played Romeo in the shinjin kouen in 2013, will play Romeo again as the top star of Hoshigumi. Additionally, Ema Naoki who has played the role of Father Laurence three times before (including the first performance) will appear again from Senka.

Everyone: Thank you very much.

Production Staff: We are looking forward to working together with all the performers so that you can feel the passion of the new Hoshigumi, including all of the new members.

Koike: “Romeo and Juliet” will be performed in Takarazuka for the first time in 8 years. The reason for performing it with Hoshigumi again is of course because so many people want to see Rei Makoto’s Romeo. And there are many people who have been in the play’s first performance as well as the second, so they have a deep understanding of the work. It is almost like jumping over a bar you have set for yourself. You want to challenge yourself again and again, to clear that bar, and show a great performance of “Romeo and Juliet” for current Hoshigumi. This time, we have Inaba Diachi as co-director and Noguchi Kousaku as assistant director. The two of them, who were young at the time of the first performance, have grown up so much since then! (laughs).

Inaba: (laughs)

Koike: Just like how Rei Makoto has grown, so have the directors. This is one of the wonderful things about Takarazuka. I feel that this is a performance that shows this off very well.

Inaba: When we are rehearsing now, I remember the crying and frustration in the rehearsal room 10 years ago. (laughs)

Koike: The agony! (laughs)

Inaba: At the time of the first performance I had watched a few versions of the “Romeo and Juliet” musical including the French, Hungarian, and Russian versions. I wondered how the work could be adapted for Takarazuka. Koike-sensei wrote lyrics for not only “Romeo and Juliet,” but also for other Shakespeare adaptations. I feel that is one of the reasons why this work can keep being performed. When I watch the rehearsals now, I see that every scene has become very elaborate in such a short period of time. This time we have a new cast as well as a change in roles, so we will keep our rehearsals fresh each day and hope to present the 2021 version of “Romeo and Juliet.”

💕- A Beautiful Love Story Returns - 💕

Koike: Now, let’s discuss the roles starting with Rei-san.

Rei: Right. When the curtain opened for the first performance, I can still vividly remember the shock of the audience at the opening and the start of the scene. I was really excited about having a rock musical because it was so fresh and the costumes and sets were so innovative. There are a lot of rock musicals, but “Romeo and Juliet” was really cool and thrilling. It was a turning point for me and a chance to work beyond my fears and challenge myself in many ways. I feel that even now it is a chance to encounter a new me again. When I played Romeo in the shinjin kouen I watched Yuzuki-san as much as I could and thought about how I could get close to her performance. So even now I find myself thinking of Chie-san’s Romeo. However, I don’t think of that as a bad thing! I think it’s because Chie-san is the one who breathed life into Romeo for the first performance and now the show has continued to be performed since then. I would like to find my own way of expressing myself and expressing my emotions for the first day of the show, while working on the details.

Koike: The powerful singing was also praised in that shinjin kouen and, in some sense, I think it was one of the best parts. But that might be the hardest thing about this new performance because now the audience is expecting it. I hope that this will be a Romeo that only the current Rei Makoto can show. When there was that first performance we had members that could have only been there, then. And now that we have the current performance we have members who are only here, now. So I think it is better not to think about it too much in the sense of putting pressure on yourself in a way that may make your vision smaller. Inaba-sensei, what do you think?

Inaba: Mako-chan (Rei) has played the roles of Ai, Benvolio, and Romeo in the shinjin kouen and really seems to be the embodiment of “Romeo and Juliet.” That’s why when I watch the rehearsals I can see so much of the previous cast members through them. If we can channel that feeling into confidence then I think Mako-chan’s Romeo can be born into a new type of Romeo on the stage.

Rei: Yes, thank you very much.

Koike: Let’s discuss the role of Juliet, played by Maisora.

Maisora: This is my first time to perform in this production and I have learned so much from each piece of advice I have received from the staff and upperclassmen who have performed in it before. I would like to learn and absorb even more! I had imagined before this that Juliet was pure, innocent, and straightforward but Koike-sensei told me that she was a person with a strong conviction and willingness to take action. I felt that I couldn’t be Juliet without strength. Usually, I think about how to express myself as a musumeyaku in the presence of otokoyaku. But this time I want to learn how to break out of my shell and expose what can come from me, and go beyond myself.

Koike: That’s right, Juliet is very independent. If she had been a passive girl, Romeo might not have come back from Mantua. The times are far more trying in this time of the story, going against your parents requires a lot of energy. She is waking up more and more to what it is that she wants. I think it is more interesting for her to gradually wake up to what she wants throughout the story, to let her world become more three-dimensional. It helps move the conversation. Maisora is very good at doing everything, a perfect student. But this could be an issue for the audience, having that perfection already. I think striving for imperfection and breaking out of your shell is a good thing.

Maisora: Yes!

Inaba: That’s right. When we think of “Romeo and Juliet” we have this image of Juliet who stands beside Romeo, but it’s not like that. Juliet is a key person who changes something with her own actions. It’s an older work but I think it still reflects the way of life for women today. I think Hitton (Maisora) has a strong core and I hope she uses this in her performance. Also I would like to see this used in Juliet’s transformation of girl to woman after her marriage to Romeo.

💙 - Thoughts of Those Living in Verona - ❤️

Koike: I’d like to start by talking with the members of the Capulet family, but we will of course speak to everyone.

Everyone: (reactions of excitement)

Koike: We can discuss your beliefs in your roles, I think that will be interesting! So let’s start with Lord Capulet.

Tenju: What is most important to me is the Capulet family, which has been around for generations, continues to thrive for years and decades and that my family can be happy. Now that my only daughter, who I have devoted my life to, is 16 years old, the question is who she should marry. When I look at my daughter (Maisora), I remember so many things about her growth, but I can never say what I am thinking. But I also feel that she is similar to me in some ways, and that is what I love about her.

Koike: Where is your daughter’s happiness?

Tenju: My daughter’s happiness is based on money and status. I believe that the strength of that status will protect her.

Koike: What about your wife?

Tenju: I love her, but I can’t express my feelings to her face to face. I feel frustrated because we haven’t had the time to spend together.

Koike: And how can you fix that?

Tenju: If we were to face each other honestly, it would be fixed. I that maybe… there is a possibility.

Koike: If you are thinking about it, then why don’t you?

Tenju: Our pride won’t allow it.

Koike: I see. What about you, Mrs. Capulet?

Yumeki: I wouldn’t want to say this in front of my husband but…

Koike: Say it as if he wasn’t here. (laughs)

Yumeki: To tell you the truth, I think that Juliet might not be the daughter of my current husband.

Koike: You think so? (laughs)

Yumeki: Yes (laughs) But I told him, “She’s our child.” I was forced into a political marriage for money and to protect my family. And then Juliet was born. But I really wanted to live my life according to my own desires and not just give up on being a woman. So I also have my nephew Tybalt and a few others. But as for my husband, I can’t say much.

Everyone: (laughs)

Yumeki: When I see my husband flirting with the maids I don’t say anything to them! (laughs)

Koike: Right. When the play was performed in Paris again, it was added in that Juliet was her mother’s illegitimate child. I felt it would be better to show her sincerity in seeking Tybalt’s help against her husband’s lack of understanding. She actually uses him as a confidant. At the end of the story, when she is with Lady Montague, she finally awakens her own love of her daughter. I think it is better to focus on the parents’ grief after the suicide because it is a difficult concept to convey for understanding. She wishes she had thought more about Juliet. But I think it’s great to have a role of a woman who truly feels that there are many arguments and demands for freedom on her own side. Now let’s look at the A Cast and start with Aizuki-san as Tybalt.

Aizuki: I have been fighting with my family each day since I was born, but I’m fighting to protect the Capulets and my beloved cousin. Even if she’s not being who she really wants to be. I am also fed up with my aunt, Juliet’s mother, who has been wooing me for years.

Everyone: (laughs)

Koike: What do you want to do now?

Aizuki: To be the person that will inherit the Capulet family.

Koike: What do you like about Juliet?

Aizuki: She is strong to her core. I think I am drawn to her because she has a strength that I do not.

Koike: I see. And what do you think of the Montagues?

Aizuki: Of course we hate each other, but we’ve been taught to hate each other since we were born, we were raised that way. So it’s natural for us to hate each other after all. But when Juliet marries Romeo, those feelings [of hatred] change.

Koike: Right. Well, let’s talk to the nurse.

Arisa: Juliet is a gift, the reason for my life, so I don’t have to think about what she wants to do. I just say, “I understand.” I can understand how she wants to become a wife to her husband, to be an adult. But I still respect the pure heart of Juliet. I am proud of her for living true to her heart.

Koike: Where is your love for Juliet?

Arisa: I did some research on the character of the nurse and learned that she herself had lost a small child. I think that she wanted to raise Juliet even at the risk of her own life. I think that Juliet’s existence itself is the source of her love. That’s why I still have regrets of not following Juliet’s wishes before her death. That’s how I can continue to grow.

Koike: In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” there are many scenes where the nurse speaks from her heart and in the musical a song takes the place of that. The reason why that scene looks how it does is because the nurse is so loving and nurturing, wanting Juliet to have a happy marriage. I think the song reflects the emotions of the nurse that are not told on stage, so I would like the focus to be on that. Since now the nurse and Juliet are close in age I think she tends to be more like a strong older sister. But in the first performance, when she was played by Reimi-san she was the same class as Nene-san and really had a sense of someone who took care of Juliet.

Inaba: It felt as though Remi-chan was supporting Nene-chan regularly!

Koike: If Juliet needed support, I think there could be many great nurses! But Maisora-san is very capable so it feels as if she doesn’t need a lot of help.

Maisora: No, no!

Koike: I think it could be good also if we could somehow turn that dynamic around somewhere!

Arisa: Yes!

Koike: Alright, we started with the Capulets, now it’s time for Count Paris.

Ayaki: Well, I have the most money in Verona. And I might be the origin of the concept of the “three highs,” - high education, high status, and high income - a concept that would become more popular in the distant future.

Everyone: (laughs)

Ayaki: When I see the Montagues and Capulets fighting every day, I wonder what they are doing wasting their time. But it is true that they rule Verona, so if I want to rule Verona as well then I must become involved with one of their sides. When I heard that there was a very pretty girl named Juliet, I thought, “I should go there.” But, I heard that there was a troublesome successor named Tybalt. However, even if he took over I could be something like a stockholder.

Everyone: (laughs)

Ayaki: I will be in charge of Verona. But, now that everyone is dead, I am wondering how I will manage Verona.

Koike: In the original story, Paris is killed by Romeo, but in this one he doesn’t get killed. So surely he would survive. I think he’d probably have his eyes on other Montague and Capulet girls as well. (laughs)

Inaba: (laughs)

Koike: That was very interesting. Now, let’s move on to the Montague family, starting with Lord Montague.

Miki: As the head of the family, my most important responsibility is to protect the Montague family. There is no doubt that Lord Montague has been at odds with the Capulets since birth. However, unlike Lord Capulet’s complicated family, Lord Montague has a deep love for his wife as well as Romeo. However, as the only Montague son, Lord Montague imposes his own ideas of how things should be onto Romeo. He is not able to be close to his feelings. Therefore, Romeo’s mother is the one that can help him best. This is why Romeo’s mother is the only place he finds comfort. It is only when Lord Montague loses his beloved son that he realizes how much he means to him.

Koike: I think part of why Romeo is able to grow up a bit more carefree is because his parent-child relationship was fairly good. It might not have been a very close relationship. But I still think that Lord Montague was an average father figure at least. Romeo was a poetic son in a way.

Rei: (laughs)

Koike: I think that he is a fun child for the times, but his father remains fairly bureaucratic. So, what about Lady Montague?

Shirotae: I have to admit that I have always wondered why the Capulets and Montagues hate each other so much, after fighting for generations. I have been trying to persuade Benvolio and Mercutio to stop fighting. I think the biggest difference between myself and Lady Capulet is that I have doubts about conflict. Romeo is the son that Lady Montague has taken good care of and raised, so when he commits suicide, she realizes her own mistakes and helplessness.

Rei: (reacts sadly)

Shirotae: I believe that I am the first one to truly take in Romeo and Juliet’s feelings. So I hope that I can lead the house of Montague to move forward without letting their deaths be in vain.

Koike: While Juliet’s mother is more pretentious, Romeo’s mother is more of a motherly type. In this, the Montagues may have hired a nurse themselves but Lady Montague may have raised Romeo on her own as well. So if we can present it correctly, the audience will understand that Romeo is a representative of his mother as well. I think that Lady Montague now has the atmosphere of a mother.

Shirotae: Yes.

Koike: Here’s Benvolio.

Seo: Romeo and I are cousins and Mercutio lives nearby, so we’ve all been playing together since we were kids. Whenever we were studying, Mercutio would always ask us to stop and leave but Romeo would always fail to do so. We’ve always been close, with all the good and bad in each other. When we’re alone we cannot do much but somehow when we’re together the three of us have a strange power that makes us invincible. Even in the midst of the war between the Montagues and the Capulets, I feel like our power is growing. When I do something bad, I always get Romeo’s attention. But when he does something wrong, Lady Montague will find out and scold Romeo for it.

Miki: (laughs)

Koike: What kind of games have you played with Romeo and Mercutio?

Seo: When we were little, I think we used to play-fight. But as we’ve gotten older it has gotten more practical.

Koike: I see. The young people of Verona are all delinquent, as in other versions. I went on a trip to Verona a long time ago with a friend of mine. She was a tall woman and as we walked together in the park, the young people around us were teasing us. (laughs) I thought of the young friends of Romeo. I think there’s even something like that in Benvolio that’s bad-natured, even if he’s pure at heart. The bad pattern may be the least present for Seo. (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Seo: (smiles embarrassingly)

Koike: I think it also comes down to a question of how to display this story. I think it’s the kind of people who are born and raised in the city, who form cliques, hang out with girls, and they go to places like the local club. WEST SIDE STORY is a story about poor immigrants but it’s somewhere you can expand this story to as well.

Seo: Yes.

Koike: Here is Mercutio.

Kiwami: Yes. I was lonely because I had no one to talk to when I went home.

Koike: Oh, I didn’t know that. (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Kiwami: I was very lonely and dark inside. But Romeo, Benvolio, and Lady and Lord Montague taught me what love is. When I was with Romeo and my friends, they filled the loneliness inside of me and were more than just my family, they became invaluable. I want to be the shield that can protect Romeo.

Koike: When I see Kiwami in the rehearsal room, I feel that Mercutio is not a boy who has grown up without knowing affection but rather someone who has had love all of his life. I think he is a young man who is dependent on those around him, or somewhat spoiled. Inaba-sensei, do you think this is easier to understand in “WEST SIDE STORY?”

Inaba: It’s easy to see that conflict there. The Polish immigrants come first and then the Puerto Ricans come in.

Koike: I think that the Yankee-like image of an uptight older brother gives off a “cool” image. Everyone is doing a great job creating this appearance but I think it would be good if we could act it out similarly to how you mentioned. If the characters are played by someone who fits them it will come out clearly but if they don’t fit the character, then it will be difficult to display the role. I believe that an actor’s every move can make people feel what is inside of them. For example, when a first-year student comes into the troupe, you can tell just by how they walk when they are under a lot of pressure or if they are very happy. So, I think it is better to create a way to make audiences feel “this is how this person is,” in the little things like how someone dances. How do you feel about this Inaba-sensei?

Inaba: That’s an interesting way of thinking. I think it would be interesting for me if Mercutio could see things differently. He is dependent on Romeo and Romeo’s home, right? Like how Riff lives in Tony’s house because he doesn’t have a home.

Koike: That’s right. In the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” Mercutio is portrayed in a very interesting way. The actor who plays him is not very good, but when he dies his performance does make you cry. I think it is a good example about why how you play a role matters.

Kiwami: Right.

Koike: Now, let’s go to Friar Laurence.

Ema: Yes, I’m sorry for not quite making it.

Everyone: (laughs)

Ema: He’s been around a long time, a priest serving God, and yet he still has misgivings. I’ve played Doc in “WEST SIDE STORY” so I’m familiar with the angle of being depressed by the helplessness of adults. But in the end everyone, including the adults, have hope for recovery so that is what saves me.

Koike: What about Romeo?

Ema: For Romeo, Friar Laurence was a different person than his parents. He loved Romeo so much that it was a shame to let him die.

Koike: After 8 years, what new discoveries have you made?

Ema: I have had a lot to think about since becoming a member of Senka and my role has changed. I am looking forward to appearing again!

Everyone: (laughs)

Ema: I also think it is impossible for any adult to present the right things and move the world alone.

Koike: I see. Next, is Death.

Amahana: Death is always behind each of use or waiting for us at the end of our lives so I hope I can bring that kind of atmosphere to the stage. I want to express that I felt something beautiful in Romeo’s soul and was very attracted to it. This story begins because Death wants that soul. I think this is a story with two sides to the same coin, Love and Death, and I want to express that in the end.

Koike: I hope you can continue to display that resistance to one another, between Love and Death.

Amahana: Yes.

Koike: When I was watching your Death yesterday I felt like it was Romeo’s alter ego during “Kowai.” I thought it was interesting that the creeping shadows seemed to synchronize with each other, like a phantom that sticks to you and won’t leave you. I thought it would be interesting to have them stick close to each other. Even if the choreography is the same, it won’t look the same if the performers are different, so you can color it your own way. I’m sure it’s a lot of work playing two roles. I’m sorry for that. (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Koike: Let’s move to B Cast, shall we? Here’s Tybalt.

Seo: The people around him say he’s a dangerous man who will lose his temper at any moment. Some people worship him, but in reality he has no real friends. When I was a child, I had a straightforward admiration for heroes just like those I saw around me. But the Capulets suppressed that admiration. I fell in love with Juliet, the one bright spot in my life, and her presence helped me. I’ve been carrying around a lot of resentment, wondering how to get out of this situation, and these feelings come out in me towards the Montagues. But my main desire is to carry on the Capulet family.

Koike: Because he loves Juliet, he gets very upset when she is married in secret. It is nice to see that anger revealed.

Seo: Yes.

Koike: It is interesting that he gets to the point where he is willing to kill because of how he loves her. Anyway, here’s Benvolio.

Ayaki: My cousin Romeo has been like a brother to me since he was born, but he is the heir to the Montague family so we are in very different positions. It’s not something I want to be, but I am a little jealous of him. I also admire Mercutio’s recklessness, which is something I don’t have. When I’m with both of them, they show me a world that I can’t see on my own. I think that’s why I can stick by them even when we have different personalities. Although I do think Romeo himself might be unaware of this situation.

Rei: (sulking)

Everyone: (laughs)

Ayaki: This is why I think it is important for me, as the person closest to them, to teach them. I believe that when we are together, there is nothing to be afraid of, and time will last forever. I actually think ignorance is Benvolio’s biggest sin. It would have been easier if he had died along with Romeo and Mercutio. But, by surviving, he was able to realize what Mercutio realized right before he died as well as Romeo’s teachings of what it means to love. However, I became aware that I let Juliet die because I was in a hurry to tell Romeo she was dead. So the next time something happens I will think about it more carefully and do my best to lead the Montagues and make Verona a city full of love.

Koike: Well I guess either way, Verona can be yours someday. (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Ayaki: Benvolio is the one who wants to make Verona everyone’s city and Paris is wondering how to make the city his. (laughs)

Koike: I see, well let’s discuss Mercutio.

Amahana: I am the nephew of the Prince, so I’ve been ostracized since I was a child. But after meeting Romeo and Benvolio, I realized there were people who would look out for me that weren’t my uncle. When I met them, I realized that there were people who could see me for who I really was. Romeo was from a good family, he was kind to everyone, and said things with a pure innocence. Things like, “we are the kings of the world,” which made me admire him more than any family or other friends. When he does something stupid, Benvolio stops him. I really love the atmosphere of being with them, I feel like I am my strongest. When I’m fighting, I feel like it is my reason to live. But sometimes I cannot admit things to myself, which is part of why I explode in the final duel. In the end, Mercutio realizes that he really wanted to stop what he was doing and that fighting was futile. In the end, he dies with the hope that his dear friend Romeo will be happy.

Koike: Right. Listening to you now, Mercutio seems like a very happy guy. It might be more likely that he is happy singing with his friends as kings of the world. Even though he is happy, I think there is a part of him that’s escaping from everyone else and it is important to see him feel that.

Amahana: Yes.

Inaba: There is a void that cannot be filled even if you are the “king of the world.” That’s why they fight for something.

Koike: That’s right. I think that quarrels and fights are an outlet for stress. So it would be interesting to learn the types of stress they are under. Now, let’s talk about Paris.

Kiwami: Paris has money and, when he looks at himself in the mirror, he sees that he is beautiful. There is nothing that he cannot have. He is surprised to find that for the first time in his life, Juliet, the woman he went out of his way to marry, avoids him. I thought I would get what I wanted but she married Romeo instead and I am stuck where I was before.

Koike: I think he probably is one of the first to get the message about Juliet’s death. He is probably thinking, ‘What’s so bad about me that she died before the ceremony tomorrow?’ (laughs) Now, let’s talk about Death.

Aizuki: Death loves to hate people. The hatred of the people in the city fills Death with a sense of love. Romeo is the one who is different from the others, I want to get into his head and turn his fate with my own hands. It’s exciting to see fate take a turn for the worse.

Rei: (looking scared with her hands on her chest)

Everyone: (laughs)

Aizuki: I would like to control the ending. Where Romeo and Juliet’s love is fulfilled by Death.

Koike: I think that can be cool and a little creepy. In the case of Ai-chan I think they are more distant so it would be good to create an overview of all that happens in the world. Piisuke on the other hand, seems to be a bit more introverted and human-like, so I think it would be good to have an image of them getting involved in people’s deaths. I think both are possible. Even if the songs are the same, the impression will change depending on how you approach it, and the audience will perceive it differently.

Aizuki and Amahana: Yes!

✨ - 2021: Hoshigumi’s New “Romeo and Juliet” - ✨

Koike: From your perspective, Ema-san, how is Rei-san’s Romeo?

Rei: (shaking head)

Ema: I’m sure everyone will say, ‘Good!’ but more than that, ‘Romeo is charming! Romeo is attractive!’

Koike: That’s right. When I worked as an assistant director for “Romeo and Juliet” 40 years ago, Mine Saori and Daichi Mao were the role of Romeo in the plays. Mine-san played the role with a sense of, ‘this is what a good lead is.’ Rei Makoto is Rei Makoto and this is the only way this Romeo can be done. I think it is better for Rei Makoto to show us something that says, ‘this is the only way this can be done!’ I think everyone will say that [Rei Makoto] has great skills but can always add more to that.

Rei: Right.

Koike: What do you think about Maisora?

Ema: The role she played in “Golden Desert” was very good, even if she didn’t have any lines. She still has a lot of room to grow, so I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of Juliet she will become.

Koike: I see, thank you very much. Lastly, why don’t you tell us about your own enthusiasm?

Maisora: Once again, I realize that Juliet involves those around her. I believe that she has a strength and straightforwardness because she grew up with a strong father, mother, and nurse who accepted her. I would like to live my life as Juliet without lying, with honesty and love for Romeo from the bottom of my heart while doing my best.

Rei: I am filled with gratitude for being able to perform in spite of the current situation. I want to take the feelings of the audience to heart and hope that they will bring home the best of that feeling for having come to the theatre. There are still many weak points for me personally and for Hoshigumi as a whole, so I want to work harder toward the first day of the show to create a performance that will impress the audience.

Inaba: I have been involved with this work for a long time, with this being the fifth time it has been performed at Takarazuka. To be honest, there was a part of me that thought I would get bored after five performances. (laughs) However, now that we are rehearsing in with a fresh mind I can feel everyone’s spirit of, ‘We must do it!’ I think the charm of “Romeo and Juliet” is its freshness. And after all this practicing, I want to be able to share this new time of Romeo and Juliet with audiences.

Koike: I am really looking forward to it because I think everyone will grow and the members will be refreshed by the rotations. I know that it is hard with a double cast but even so, I hope there will be synergy where one role can influence the perspective of the other. I believe that the enthusiasm of Hoshigumi is very much intact and I hope we can create “Romeo and Juliet” 2021 together.

[flwrbo]

We’ll Always Have Paris (part 2)

Chapter Synopsis: The old Seijoh group hangs out but Iwa still can’t get you out of his mind.

cw : Drug Use, Alcohol

part 1

The gym is colder than usual today. Iwa runs a hand over his arm, pushing the goosebumps down. Two women drinking water in the corner giggle and fawn over the man as he works his way to his spot in the back. “Hi, ladies,” He waves and sends a flirtatious smile. No, he didn’t like them. Yes, he found them amusing. He feels his phone buzzing in his pocket and sees a text message from you telling him to “have a good day at work!! :D”

After lunch a week ago, the two of you immediately hit it off and numbers were pretty quickly exchanged. The two of you have a lot in common, like enjoying coffee from small bakeries and being film enjoyers. Though, you did give him hell when you found out his favorite movie was Godzilla. Yes - the 1998 version. He rambled about how the movie was innovative for its time, and something about CGI but hardly any of it was retained in your mind because of how ridiculous it was. All you could do was laugh as his ears got hot from embarrassment.

He sets up for his client that was coming in five minutes and thinks about how he can ask you to hang out soon. Was he rushing it? No, right? You guys text constantly and even FaceTimed for thirty minutes while you showed off your movie collection. Maybe he should wait.

His client walks up and settles into her stretches before he gets the day started. He walks towards her and instructs, “Get on your back for me,” He can hear more giggles from the two women from earlier as he helps stretch her out. Even though the day was going pretty easy, he knows time would inevitably drag on with every hour he can’t text you. Oh, well.

He finally clocks out and makes his way home after three sessions with clients. The heat was almost killing him, and it was even worse in his black leather seats. While he waits for his car to cool down, he checks his phone for messages from you.

No New Notifications

Great.

He saw he had one from Makki asking him to pick up some pizza and he sighs before setting his phone down and driving home. The drive isn’t so bad when the car cools, but all he can think of is the shower he takes once he’s back to his apartment. Iwa turns on the faucet and texts you while he waits for the water to heat up.

“No complaints here.” Lie. “How are you? (:”

The glass is steamy when he finally walks out. Ruffling his hair dry with his towel, he checks his phone. No message. He sighs and gets dressed before heading to a pizza place nearby.

As he’s walking up the stairs to Makki’s and Mattsun’s apartment he can already hear the loud chatter and smell the smoke in the air; briefly he marvels at how they all bring each other back to the locker room energy they had when they were seventeen again. He chuckles and pushes the door open, garnering “Whoop Whoop!”s amongst other cheerful sounds as the group sees their friend with two large pizza boxes in his hand.

Issei and Hanamaki never really cared too much for interior design and that was very much clear as Iwa made his way towards the kitchen. It was a cute little place with a living room and a kitchen and a hallway with room doors all along both walls. Little figurines littered the living room, along with some beer bottles, an old band poster Issei wanted printed out, and a torn magazine with Oikawa’s face on it from his famous era back in Argentina. The pizza boxes are set on the table and are immediately ripped into.

Settling into the couch, Iwa is immediately passed a pipe which he accepts gracefully while another round of beer is passed. There’s some soccer game that no one is paying attention to in the background as they all talk excitedly amongst themselves. It feels good to be back with everyone, Iwa decided, especially when he takes his third hit of Kunimi’s very kindly offered weed. He passes back to Kunimi and opens a bottle for himself before laying back on the couch. Issei comes in with a slice of pizza and Iwa immediately stands to greet him. “Hey! Long time, no see,” They tap fists and both sit beside one another on the couch.

“We missed you at lunch last week,” Iwa says, bringing his bottle back up to his mouth.

“Had to work,” Issei shrugs before taking the pipe from Kunimi.

“Do you ever think you get, like, haunted?” Yahaba asks from the ground where he’s laying. Everyone stops and looks at him for a long second before they all start laughing. “Dude, what the fuck are you talking about?” Iwa’s shoulders jump up and down as he laughs. He can hear someone ask, “Who invited this dude?” and he giggles even more.

“You better not bring any demons around here,” Makki comes and joins the circle. “I’ll kick your fucking ass,”

“Yeah, right,” Kunimi rolls his eyes as he takes his pipe back. “The only thing Mattsun brings around here is a new girl every week,”

“Excuse me,” Issei cuts in. “I’ve slowed down in the last few months, alright?” He smirks behind his beer. In a weird way, he’s proud of it. Who cares? He’s attractive, he knows that, and he's twenty-five. His twenties don’t last forever and the coffins he sees every day remind him of that.

“Yeah, ever since you got tied down,” Kunimi snorts and crawls over to get a can of soda. Mattsun kicks him with his foot as he passes and tells him not to talk about his girl like that. “Yeah, yeah, my bad,” he grumbles as he rubs out the sore spot on his ass.

Makki reaches over to take a sip from Kunimi’s drink. “I think it’s kinda nice to see you as a relationship man,” The strawberry-haired man smiled. “Now I don’t have to keep remembering a bunch of new names every month,”

Iwaizumi lets out a small laugh at this, garnering the attention of Issei sitting next to him. “Enough about me and my sex life. What about you, Iwa?” Mattsun rests his arm behind Hajime and leans in slightly. “You must see the hottest women all the time,” he smirks.

“Those hot milfs with fat asses,” Yahaba fawns and holds his hand out in front of him as if he’s sizing a woman’s butt.

Iwa rolls his eyes. “I’m a professional. I don’t ogle the women’s bodies,”

Kunimi quirks an eyebrow. “What, are you gay?” Laughter booms around the room and Iwa yells at them all to shut up.

“Kunimi, you literally like men,” Yahaba leans up on his elbows to stare at his friend.

“Yeah but I still appreciate a woman’s hot bod if she’s in front of me,”

“Iwa, there’s not a single person you like? I mean you work with and around people all the time, there must be someone,” Makki says as he grabs his grinder from the table.

He suddenly feels his hand itching to reach for his phone to check for any new messages from you. “Well,” he taps the side of his beer absentmindedly. “I’ve been kinda alone mostly. I mean, I definitely get horny, not from my clients,” He cuts off Yahaba’s incoming interruption. “I just don’t really go around meeting people that often.” He takes a sip and contemplates telling them about you. What’s the harm? He hopes Makki doesn’t mind since he’s the one who introduced the two of you, and it’s hard to believe no one noticed him eye-fucking you across the table. “Well-” The door suddenly receives three knocks on the door, cutting him off.

“DoorDash delivery for Eye-Say Mattsun-Kee-Wa?” Kunimi opens the door and Oikawa stands there with a box in his hands. “It’s beer, you alcoholics,”

Just like the pizza, everyone clambers over to get refreshments while laughing and greeting Tooru. “Issei is a lightweight,” Makki muses and grabs two beers. “I can easily drink him under the table,”

Yahaba starts chanting for some sort of drinking competition, and Iwa just grabs another beer and sits back at the table. He pulls his phone out again to find a message from his mom, and some news article. Huffing, he pushes his phone back in his pocket and decides to reply later and not drunk text his parent. Somewhere behind him, two shot glasses are slammed on the table, so Iwa removes the cap off his drink before downing half and rejoining his friends.

By the time he hears from you, it’s already nightfall. He rubs the tiredness from his eyes and tries to not appear too happy to see your text. Kunimi and Issei are cleaning around the kitchen while Yahaba, Makki, and Oikawa all lay next to Iwa and watch some Rocky movie that’s slowly lulling them to sleep.

“hey!!”

…

Your typing bubble goes on for what feels like minutes until it stops. Iwa’s eyebrows furrow and his fingers hover over his keyboard before they pop back to life.

“i’m at work right now. it’s such a nice night, though, i’d hate to see it go to waste ):”

Iwa’s eyes light up and suddenly he doesn’t feel so tired anymore.

 “I’m free tonight. I’d love to see you”

The bubbles appear again. This time, it only takes a second before your location is on his screen. Only a twelve-minute drive.

“Hey, guys, I’m gonna head out,”

The boys next to Iwa all stir and turn their heads to look at him. “You sure you’re good, bro?” Mattsun asks with a trash bag in his hand.

Iwa grabs his keys from the table and snags a bottle of water on the way out. “I could pass a sobriety test right now,” He pulls his shoes on. “Next get-together is at mine!” He says as he walks out of the apartment and tries to refrain from running down the apartment stairs to his car.

 “On my way (:” 

He sends before pulling up the directions to a café and driving away.

[missmillyashford]

Eight Hundred Eyes Are Better Than One - Reaction

I should have done this a long time ago but I just reread this chapter and reacted to it as I went if you’re interested @anbu-legacy

Because I’ve had a grudge against canon Jiraiya for so long it’s been an interesting but slow process of adjusting to this (better) version of him where his awful traits either don’t exist or are slightly more subdued, and traits I could actually appreciate are more emphasized. And saying that, I love this image of this giant, flamboyant man being so unsubtle about his summons that he just wakes up not just Kakashi but his entire FLOOR. Nice one. This man is a spy theoretically and I love that juxtaposition. At least it makes it easy to let Ryouma know they’re leaving.

“Dodomeki?” he said quietly. 

Boyfriends, Kakashi reflected, were supposed to be reassuring. “I’ll bring you an eyeball,” he promised. 

“Gross.” 

This reminds me of that time Kakashi found a weird creepy bug in that one cave during the kiri mission and instead of leaving it be like a normal person he decides to pick it up and bring it all the way back to the team to scare Ryouma with it. I always find it super funny when Kakashi pulls stuff like this, terrorizing his poor teammates with gross unwanted show and tell. I personally would love a gift like that, though. I am totally someone who would probably keep particularly interesting animal body parts preserved in a jar somewhere in my house because I find anatomy and physiology interesting. I once had the opportunity in one of my university classes to hold a horse’s brain and was quite enthralled. I just wanted a good look at it and was really curious what it would feel like.

“Just bring yourself home safe.” 

“Always do,” Kakashi said, which was mostly true. “Captain, too.” 

I’m reacting to this on a reread so hahaaaaaaa. Nice one, Kakashi. Your poor hands.

I would say I can’t believe that Kakashi actually WENT INTO THE ROOM to wake up Raidou and Genma, but this is Kakashi, so I can. He could have just knocked on the bedroom window, or just gone to the door, like a person with basic social skills and a modicum of decency. Kids these days. No respect for the general concept of privacy. Sheesh. Boundaries. I’m glad I’m not them. I will admit that I laughed though.

Raidou jerked, sat up wildly, and blurted, “What the hell?” 

“Taichou,” Kakashi said, with a little wave. 

Genma exhaled, tweaked the sheet so that it covered Kurenai more fully, then sat up — a much smoother operation. “Hatake,” he said tightly, visibly trying for calm. 

“Lieutenant,” Kakashi said. And, for good measure: “Yuuhi. Well done.” 

Asdfghgfds. This bastard. I love and hate him. DK is always so good at this sort of humour with Kakashi and it never fails to get me.

I feel bad for Genma and Raidou and Kurenai right now though because they didn’t even get to TALK properly the next day after getting together before Raidou had to leave.

Kakashi felt his spine stiffen. Reflexive, pointless defense of his parents, who had raised him on legends and myths, told in the few quiet moments between everything else. 

I really love the callback to Don’t Fear the Dark. It’s really interesting when we get little glimpses at what Sakumo was like, and what his family was like before it fell apart. The defensiveness about it has my heart hurting, because it’s one of the few tiny pieces he still has of his father. Speaking of Sakumo, mythology/legends, and Don’t Fear the Dark, I remember that there were traditional masks of demons and things in their home. For a very long time I’ve been very curious to see what the Hatake estate looks like, and what other personal items from Sakumo and their life before are still there. Here’s to hoping we’ll get to see it one day?

I like how these legends have been woven into the worldbuilding too.

Usagi thumped him on the shoulder. “Better dodge, then. We’ll bring some of her scrapings back in a jar for the lab.”

Genma would probably appreciate some jar-scrapings, though. 

Genma’s my type of person. I appreciate him.

I’m really enjoying getting to know a little more about the relationship dynamics of the members of team thirteen. Ginta and Usagi’s relationship is so fun.

I love Goya purely on the basis that she’s a badass archer lady with wicked aim and I feel like that’s understandable and valid.

While Raidou and Usagi bartered for shelter, and Jiraiya signed autographs for the goat herder’s starstruck daughter, Kakashi watched a handful of goat kids bounce back and forth over a fence with blithe disregard for its actual purpose.

The goats hopping over the fence makes such a great image. I adore Tarama the goat village, purely because of the goats. And the Katsuko callback.

I am weak to the characters being dumb reckless idiots experimenting with jutsu for science so I was LIVING for the thunderstorm Ginta-Kakashi shenanigans. I’ve also always loved thunderstorms so I might be extra weak to lightning users. Just casually detonating each other’s jutsu and hoping they don’t explode each other irreparably in the process. Good fun.

Actually getting so see Kakashi split lightning was so cool. We keep hearing about it in canon and legacy so to finally see it is so satisfying. I like the description of sharingan vision as “he tracked the bolt zig-zagging down as if it were made of syrup, oozing through superheated air, long, lethal fingers branching out towards them.” And I also particularly liked this line:

The lightning snapped towards him like a massive, elemental predator scenting blood. 

I am very amused:

In the dizzying aftermath, Kakashi had just enough time to think ow and awesome before the next strike threatened, and they both ran like hell for the village. 

Usagi’s childish glee is so great. And yeah, I feel both her reaction AND Raidou’s are pretty appropriate. But still, lol:

“When did you turn three hundred? Your rookie just did the coolest thing ever. Stop being miserable about it.” 

“You want him?” Raidou said. 

“Yes,” said Usagi instantly. “Hatake, you’re mine, get over here.” 

“Wait, no,” Raidou said. 

I’m glad Kakashi is being appreciated.

The conversation Raidou and Kakashi had about KureGenRai hook up was veeeeery interesting. I wasn’t expecting Kakashi to react so harshly. I guess it is hypocritical of Raidou to say what he said then do that, though Raidou has a point that it’s to protect rookies from senior officers. Lieutenants and Captains are different since they’re closer in rank. I’m guessing that Kakashi is kind of frustrated with how he and Ryouma have felt like they’ve had to keep their relationship secret for fear of getting in trouble, even if same rank liaisons are technically not against the rules, unwritten or otherwise. Because of Raidou’s whole boundaries thing and general testiness about that kind of thing?

I’m curious to see how keeping it a secret from Ryouma will go. How long will they even want to keep it from him, and if they do want to keep the secret how will Ryouma feel about both the relationship and Kakashi’s secret keeping once he finds out?

Another thing I’ll be curious to see is if this at all changes if Kakashi wants to keep his relationship with Ryouma secret still, and if so from who. I’d doubt it would since there are other factors but still. I am looking forward for when people find out, but at the same time I’ve been enjoying it being private. I think a temporary shared secret like this can feel kinda intimate so long as it doesn’t overstay its welcome. And we get scenes like Kakashi panicking and hiding in Ryouma’s bathroom while Ryouma clumsily lies and implies he may have hooked up with an Uchiha to evade arrest so that’s a bonus. I think being able to have their own relationship exist in isolation from judgements and comments from the outside allows them to take some pressure off their relationship, and gives them time to figure each other out and how to just be together unhindered. I can see why they’re doing this the way they are.

A mass grave. Whoever had dug it — Kusa ninja, most likely — had missed the small body on the hill. 

“Poor bastards,” Usagi said quietly. 

Kasumi, of all people, went back for the body. 

I like this detail about Kasumi.

“Now we track,” Jiraiya said. He gave a little wave in Kakashi’s direction. “Do the nose thing.” 

Some days, Kakashi didn’t feel entirely respected in his workplace. 

Loooool

It took two more days to even get close to the Dodomeki. For Kakashi, it was like living in dual headspaces — the clean, sleek arrowhead mind of a predator, and the disordered tangle of everything human. Team Thirteen, with their… themness. Jiraiya — firmly, unignorably himself. The discomfort of Raidou and the unhappy friction between them. No Genma to smooth down the rough edges. No Ryouma to distract with chatter or an unexpected, brilliant idea. 

I really liked this section for a couple reasons:

1)    I like how when certain members of the team are absent it highlights just how important they are to the entire team. Genma the vital lynchpin and mediator; Ryouma the emotional heart, friend, and innovator. I also appreciate that it’s not just their skillsets that are addressed either. They’re valuable for things like their kindness, level-headedness, and company.

2)    I love the acknowledgment of duality of Kakashi’s headspace and social interactions. The headspace required to do his job as a tracker vs. working as part of a team of antsy, ridiculous people are very different. The interactions he is going to be having with the wolfdogs that don’t even so much as speak human vs. his human coworkers are going to be very different too. Kakashi having an entirely different headspace with the dogs  to the point he actually separates it from being entirely human (like referring to “humans” as if it were a group he isn’t entirely part of) reminds me of all the way back to the thread Lost in the Dark when Raidou sees Kakashi speaking to the entire pack for the first time. He realizes Kakashi’s social skills have likely been influenced by his exposure to the dogs he grew up with. It was such an interesting revelation to me. This is the part I mean if you’re curious:

What followed was one of the strangest conversations Raidou had ever witnessed. Kakashi, with his economy of speech and movement that seemed so disjointed in human interaction, slotted into place as naturally as breathing. Raidou recognized that questioning head tilt echoed back by listening dogs; the silent, watchful glances that lingered a second beyond comfortable; the predatory edge polished like a fine weapon. Here, Kakashi’s hair and mask just looked like markings, no more notable than that shepherd’s black-tipped ears, or that hound’s white-ticked coat.

It explained a lot.

I really liked seeing Raidou defend Kakashi from Kasumi’s crochety and unjustified remarks. Progress!!! I’m proud.

I’ve probably said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but I always love your dialogue. There’s so much personality and liveliness in it. The banter is so entertaining. Usagi and Ginta especially right now.

I know the mythology the Dodomeki comes from is very different, but there is something about the descriptions of her that make me think a lot of what I felt watching the Netflix the Witcher series. Which might not mean anything to you if you haven’t seen it. Similarly horrifying and deadly and gross. It’s great.

The entire fight scene had my heart pounding. It was so intense and fast-paced. So many close calls and how fast she was was so terrifying. We just saw Kakashi with his sharingan so fast he was able to split a lightning strike in half, yet she’s so fast he can’t even hope to keep up. Fuck.

Abe had to chase him nervously around, attending to whatever bits of Jiraiya’s face he could reach, until the medic finally lost his temper and ordered Jiraiya to sit. 

I loved this.

I don’t have anything interesting to say about them theorizing about her sickly state, but I am very intrigued. I also love when little bits of real life actual science are incorporated in fantasy like this (ex. the mention of ketosis).

I am still very very worried for Kakashi’s hands. I suspect he won’t get out of this entirely unscathed even after treatment.

[inscribed-in-asteroids]

AN: Here’s chapter three!

Title: The Ripple Effect

Characters: Hordak, Entrapta, Odessa, features others including OCs

Pairing: Entrapdak

Rating: M

Read on AO3.

                                                        Tower

Odessa has her gear prepped to go. Extravehicular Mobility Units were not used too often anymore, however, Entrapta and Hordak took extra precautions with the EMUs, and have even modified Tristan’s and Hydrangea’s spacesuits as well, to account for their height, weight, and metabolic rate. Darla had been upgraded continuously throughout the years, but has since been retired for this mission. Which didn’t bother Odessa in the slightest, as her parents believed she should have a ship of her own.

Celeste sits in the hangar, a cavern that had been excavated to accommodate for the growing number of people that now resided on Beast Island. The chatter of pookas echo through the vicinity. Her uncles had learned to live on the island, and that included taming some of the beasts that resided here. Pookas were not too dissimilar from the usual pet once their behavior was understood. She notes a few resting on Celeste’s roof, chittering at her as she walks beneath them. Odessa glides her fingers along the metallic surface, “Hey, it’s been a while since I used you.”

The ship whirs on, responsive to touch, but only from the genetic makeup of those that have been programmed into her system. Her parents, her siblings, Tristan and Hydrangea, and herself, are the ones that have been given permission to access her ship. However, it’s meant to be hers and no one else’s.

“This is so exciting!” Entrapta shouts. Hordak strides over, Entrapta shuffling beside him on her hair. Her father lugs heavy equipment bags with ease. Settling them on the ground, Entrapta beams at the two of them, “I wonder what our baby will find on the flagship!”

“It may be overrun with vegetation,” Hordak says. “None of us have bothered to go to it since the war.”

“There were collections of weapons and tech on the flagship as well that might be useful,” Entrapta says. She turns to Odessa, handing her a communicator. “I hacked into the mainframe of the ship and managed to give you a map of it, using old data from my past devices to navigate it. This one should be better, and I also updated its ability to detect heat signatures.”

Odessa looks at the screen, before smiling at her mother, “Thanks, Mom. This is going to be helpful. But, did none of you ever check the ship once Adora helped to defeat Prime?”

Hordak’s ears flick down for a moment, “It was no longer a concern, at the time. We only regrouped the rest of my brothers that had been left aboard. And when your mother and I had gotten closer to finishing up the repairs for Beast Island, turning the Fright Zone into New Chelicerata, and aiding everywhere else, we had not believed it necessary to investigate it further. There simply was no purpose to a flagship that was decimated of its original functions.”

Odessa nods, “It makes sense that it wouldn't work any longer. It’s hard to do that when a large amount of trees are protruding out of it.”

“With that, the atmosphere is not safe to breathe, of course,” Entrapta adds. “I have ensured that your oxygen tanks will last for nine hours—an improvement from the usual amount!—but you should be cautious, regardless of how confident you are that the tanks will not deplete their air supply too fast.”

Hordak opens the hatch, walking into the ship. He places all the equipment down, hooking the bags onto steel clasps. He points to weapons that he lines up along the wall, pressing a button for them to stick to magnetically, “Should you need any of them, they’re here.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Odessa replies. Walking up to him, she grins, resembling her mother, “I think we’ll be fine, but it’s good to be prepared, right?”

Hordak smiles at her, patting the top of her head, smoothing back her hair. Affectionately, Odessa pushes her head up into his palm, the way she used to as a child.

“I know we said we’d only be here for six weeks, but I do appreciate being allowed to pursue this,” she tells him.

“Your mother and I wouldn’t discourage you from curiosity,” Hordak replies.

Odessa beams up at him, shaking with excitement.

Her friends arrive ten minutes later, on time. They know how punctual Odessa and her family are, and after making her wait once, they learned to not do it again.

Entrapta, excited, bounds over to them, “Look! I upgraded your suits!”

“Ooh, cool!” Tristan says, holding up his. “I love the sheen going on.”

“I thought you might!”

Hydrangea grins at her, “Ooh, you changed up the texture for my fingers!”

“I even added these new features where you can get a snack and drink if you need it,” Entrapta tells them, explaining how to access it. Tristan and Hydrangea clap at her innovative features, thankful at her thoughtfulness.

Hordak, pleased at their display of gratitude, walks over to them, “In case of emergency, we have extra suits tucked away in the hatch, in addition to oxygen tanks stacked in storage. The distance is not far, but we made sure that you will all be comfortable on your journey to the flagship.”

“Thank you—both of you,” Hydrangea says. Entrapta hugs her tight, mimicking Scorpia surprisingly well.

Hordak pats Tristan’s shoulder, “The three of you be mindful. We will be on the communicator whenever one of you is in trouble, and we will send a portal your way.”

“Yes sir,” Tristan says. “We wouldn’t put Odessa in danger.”

Hordak smiles, touched, “I know you wouldn’t.”

                                                                 -

Odessa always feels at home in space.

The endless darkness, speckled with shining stars, leaves her breathless each time. Space is too amazing to leave unexplored. There’s so much left to find out there.

She turns to her friends, “It won’t be long now. The flagship went further away, but thankfully it remains reachable.”

Hydrangea flips back her hair, “Des, do you believe we’ll find anything? The flagship had been overrun with plants, and I’m quite sure it had grown.”

“I don’t doubt there’s an abundance of it,” Odessa replies. She grins at her, “But that’s where your powers come in.”

Tristan zips up Hydrangea’s spacesuit, lifting her hair, “We’ll need to make sure there aren’t any living organisms on it. That thing’s been floating around Etheria for two whole decades. It’s likely made itself home to another alien creature by now.”

Odessa holds out her pad, “Whatever is on there will show up on the monitor. But, frankly, we shouldn’t find much else except for whatever bodies were left behind.”

Hydrangea walks over to the window, looking out. She hasn’t been up here for a good few years. There are shimmering sights beyond where they are, and she wonders if they’ll find what Odessa is looking for. Her friend has a determination that knows no bounds, but she doesn’t want to risk that there’s a chance she might not succeed. Although, she should give Odessa more credit. If an experiment or hypothesis proves incorrect, she is the sort to accept that it isn’t possible and move on to the next project. Hydrangea glances at Odessa, red eyes fixated on the pad, brows knitted together as she maps out the best course to head in.

Smiling, Hydrangea touches her shoulder, “You’re excited.”

Odessa grins at her, “Of course! It’s been a long time coming since you, Tris and I were on an adventure together.”

Tristan leans against the wall, “Hopefully, this won’t turn into a mess like last time.”

“Last time we were younger—inexperienced and kind of dumb,” Odessa answers. “We are perfectly equipped this time around. We’re not going to be reckless when we land.”

Hydrangea giggles, “You have to admit, the mess made it a little more exciting. And even then, we didn’t get into too much trouble. We just got lost.”

Odessa looks at Tristan, “Besides, why are you worried? You winged it when we were on R-175. You were more than fine.”

“Just because I know how to improvise doesn’t mean I’d like to do it again. I’d like to take it easy,” he replies. Moving over to them, he smiles, “I’d rather not play babysitter to the two of you.”

“Ooh, what an adult!” Odessa says, squishing her cheeks together. She then folds her arms, smirking, “This is coming from the guy who sulked at not having the last bowl of ice cream.”

“Uh, I called dibs and you swiped it, right under my nose. Yeah, I was gonna be a little upset.”

“Doesn’t help your case, Tris. Honestly, you’re not much older than Des and I,” Hydrangea says.

“Yet I know that if something goes wrong, I’ll probably get more shit for it. ‘You’re almost 18! This is on you!’” Tristan mocks, wagging a finger. He crosses his arms, “Like the two of you can't make up your own minds.”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head,” Odessa replies, pointing to the communicator. “You know my parents never discouraged us from exploring, and they do know we’re all capable of making our own decisions. I’m leading this expedition, so if anything does happen, it’s on me.”

Hydrangea leans over to check the monitor. She looks at Odessa, “Do you know where we’ll be landing on the Velvet Glove?”

Tristan snickers, “That name I swear…”

Shaking her head, Hydrangea feigns a sigh, "So sad. I wonder if he compensated for something.”

“Do you think that’s what he called his dick?”

“No, that’s the name of Horde Prime brand condoms,” Odessa says. “His dick was probably something like ‘The Illustrious Rod of Justice.’”

Giggling, Hydrangea adds, “He did go around ‘impregnating’ hundreds of galaxies. That guy had a loooot of repressed sexual feelings, I think.”

“Yeah, like, he did and didn’t?” Tristan says. “He was bizarre. He got boners over rules and oppressed people with his holier-than-thou morality.”

“Seriously. Did he have shitty parents that couldn’t go ‘hey son, maybe bullying people into following your rigid, black and white laws is pretty messed up’ or what?”

“Well, whatever he was,” Odessa says, looking out the window, “Prime’s remnants are still in the Velvet Glove. His, hopefully, very much intact and preserved genetic material.”

“Des, that sounded so wrong!” Hydrangea laughs.

Tristan makes jerking off motions and makes a ‘sploosh’ sound.

Odessa grins at them, turning back to the monitor, “But to answer your question, my father informed me of an open bay area that should still be functioning. We’ll dock there.”

Tristan bends down, voice low, “By the way, we’re all aware of the two red dots above us, right?”

Odessa whispers, “Yes, it’s been there for a while. But I didn’t want to alert anything to make sure we could sneak up on it.”

Hydrangea nods, “How should we proceed?”

“Gea, leave for the main corridor. Send an electric shock through the air duct to incapacitate, not kill the intruders or damage Celeste. Tris, you stay to the side and be alert in case that doesn’t knock it out—take my spear from me. I’ll stand here to look vulnerable. Countdown now to 120 seconds.”

Tristan removes her weapon without trouble. Hydrangea walks out of the cockpit, the doors whooshing open and closed. Glancing over his shoulder, Tristan meets Odessa’s eyes.

Suddenly, sparks of electricity crackle into the vent. Cries of shock reverberate through the duct, followed by loud banging as something hurries along within. Odessa narrows her eyes as Tristan rushes toward her, both stances offensive.

From the opening, two bodies fall down in front of them. Electricity fluffs up tufts of fur, as Adam and Molly look up at them.

Hydrangea bolts back inside, “Hey, what came fr— Oh!”

The three look down at two of the quadruplets.

Adam grins, lightning coursing over his whiskers, “What’s up, everyone! Fuck Prime, am I right?”

Molly groans, thunking her forehead onto the floor.

                                                              -

“I am so, so, so sorry!” Hydrangea says again, handing Molly and Adam packets of food. “I do hope the shock wasn’t too much.”

Adam waves a hand, “Nah, we’re fine, aren’t we?”

Molly sighs, wishing she was anywhere else.

Tristan kneels down in front of her, “Why didn’t you tell us you were here?”

At Molly's silence, Adam grins, scratching his cheek, “Weeeeell, you see, I thought it would be fun if we came to visit. I saw Odessa’s ship, thought, ‘Hey, that seems cool!’ so I got in—”

“—I tried to stop him.” Molly adds, giving a small glare to the floor. “But he was climbing in anyway—”

“And ta-daaaa, we’re here! In space,” Adam finishes. “It was really nothing more than the lust for adventure.”

“That was very dangerous,” Hydrangea scolds, placing a hand on her forehead. “We could’ve killed you by accident.”

“Now it will be on purpose,” Odessa hisses, stalking toward them. “You two fools could’ve endangered your lives, that of my crew, and neither of you have experience in space travel. You are liabilities that may impede our progress.”

“Odessa,” Tristan begins. “Your parents provided us with extra supplies. It’ll be okay.”

“I have to agree with Odessa,” Hydrangea says, staring at Adam and Molly. “What the two of you did was irresponsible.”

Molly remains mute, looking away.

Adam stands up, “Hold on, we'll be okay keeping up with the three of you.”

“That’s not the point,” Odessa snarls, hair slightly curling. “I don’t even know how you snuck inside Celeste, much less evaded detection for almost three days.”

“See? We’re very quiet! You didn’t even notice us until now. I think we’ve proven our capability to you,” Adam insists.

Arms in a placating position, Tristan remarks, “I think we need to take time to reflect on the next course of action. Adam, why don’t you and Molly go wait in one of the rooms?”

“Aww, that’s no fun,” Adam says, irritated.

“If it’s fun you want, I’m more than willing to tear it into you,” Odessa threatens.

“Yeesh! Okay, okay, I’m going,” Adam complains. But he exits the cockpit to enter a room down the hall.

Tristan stretches out a hand to Molly. She looks at it for a moment before taking it in hers. Guiding her to the door, Tristan nods at Molly, who gives him a small smile.

Once gone, Odessa says aloud, “Celeste, lock the two of them in their quarters.”

“Affirmative,” the ship answers.

Hydrangea sighs, claws rubbing her temples, “I have to admit, this isn’t the sort of conflict I was expecting immediately.”

Tristan returns Odessa’s staff to her, “Perhaps we should consider allowing them to tag along.”

Frowning, Odessa glares out the window. Arms folded, she shakes her head, “I would prefer not.”

“It may serve better to deal with them directly,” Tristan says. “I doubt you would want to allow Adam free rein of Celeste.”

“Ooh, yeah, that would not be good,” Hydrangea agrees.

Growling deep in her chest, Odessa throws her hands up in the air, “Fine! Fine, but if they step one toe out of line, I’m leaving them on the flagship. Don’t think I won’t!”

“Got it,” they say together, very aware she’s serious.

                                                            -

Reaching their destination, Celeste is docked. Odessa steps out onto the flagship, staring around at the expanse of white and grey. Once sleek walls have indeed been overgrown by flora—vines weaving through its corpse, leaves scraping its sides. There’s no oxygen in space, but they were correct to assume it’s only grown. The plants were called forth by She-Ra, and seem to contain a magical property that prevents them from wilting in zero gravity.

Odessa collects a sample in a small test tube. Plugging it closed, she says, “No one touch anything. The flagship isn’t moving, but there’s no certainty that Prime had not built back-up systems into it. Should one of you find something of merit, call me over.”

Adam pumps his fists, “Whoo-hoo! Let’s go exploring!”

Rolling her eyes, she turns around to face him, “Adam. Look at me. Are you looking? Look at me. Do. Not. Touch. Anything.”

“You just told everyone that,” Adam replies.

“Yes, but I have to make direct eye contact with you to ensure that you will, indeed, in the back of your brain, not touch anything.”

“Relaaaax,” Adam says, wrapping his arm around her, ignoring her scathing leer. “You’re talking to the King of Cool. I’m not going to mess anything up.”

“You better not,” Odessa threatens before stalking away. Not peering over her shoulder, she adds, “Tris, take Molly. Gea, take Adam.”

Pulling out her own pad—quickly modified by Odessa due to unwanted company—Hydrangea smiles at him, “Let’s go see what’s around, hm? I think heading east leads upwards to the elevators.”

“Sounds fun!” Adam says, breaking into a sprint. “I’ll race you!”

“Adam, that leads to the supply closets!” Hydrangea yells, running after him.

Tristan looks down at Molly, “Why don’t we go west, then?”

“Yeah, um, that sounds okay…” she whispers, feeling cramped in the EMU.

He smiles at her, unsure of what to talk about. Settling on silence, they walk in the opposite direction.

                                                            -

Hydrangea catches up with Adam, “Hey! You can’t go wandering off like that.”

Adam grins, “I know where I’m going. I have an excellent sense of direction.”

Shaking her head, Hydrangea walks alongside him, “Alright, but I think following the map will yield better results. This mission is very significant to Odessa, and we should make an effort to find what she needs.”

He glances at her, “What exactly are we looking for?”

“Pardon?”

Shrugging, Adam says, “She didn’t specify what she needed, so how can we put in any effort for things we’re unsure of?”

“Honestly, none of us are too sure of what we may find here. The flagship has been abandoned for so long, whatever may have been here might not even hold up anymore.”

“If I was her, I’d go scout for any leftover weapons.”

“Why’s that?”

“They wouldn’t be of any use floating around in the nether regions of space. Wouldn’t her family want them?”

“Her family would not,” Hydrangea states. There have been no wars, no battles, no unrest on Etheria since the Horde invasion came about. She knows that Odessa’s father and uncles have done their best to make reparations for past injustices towards her people, and what she is aware of is bringing back weaponry may instill fear and distrust again.

It had not been easy the first few years—the first decade—since Hordak and his brothers made a genuine attempt to make Etheria their home. Etherians, understandably, had very little faith and charity towards the Horde clones. Glimmer, Bow, and Adora vouched that things will change between the two factions of race. Adora assured the people that Prime’s defeat would bring a new dawn for them all, and Catra, having been Hordak’s very own second-in-command, stepped forward to aid him in making peace with the Etherians. For it did not matter that she was She-Ra’s lover. She, too, had caused destruction. Had tormented and ravaged Etheria, and even admitted that she was the mastermind behind the majority of attacks, much to Hordak’s chagrin. There were many villages who remembered her for that.

The idea of bringing Horde weapons onto Etheria would have consequences. The years go by, and she knows plenty of Etherians who welcomed them eventually. As of now, it’s nearly the majority. They have integrated into Etherian society remarkably well. Known in their respective communities, Talon and Hordak are two, in particular, that chose partners who were as equally recognized for their achievements in the realms of magic and science, respectfully. She knew Entrapta had not been accepted prior to the war, and had to prove herself after. Nyxia, from what she’d been told, had raised several eyebrows for taking a Horde clone as her husband, though no one commented on it. To her face, at least.

Hydrangea comprehends the value of peace. The lack of war was not the issue, for dissent can be riled without impending doom. Civil unrest depends on power structures. Everything continues to hinge on the belief that harm is not what the Horde desires.

She holds up the pad, showing Adam a different route, “We can go to another room. You can even pick.”

“Fucking awesome,” Adam says, pointing to another hallway.

                                                            -

Tristan continues along through the hallway, minding his business.

Molly does the same, but with an inclination toward anxiety, her thoughts bounce back and forth between not caring that he’s here, and wondering how anyone can stand her being here. Adam had to go and sneak into the cargo hold. Adam had to drag her along by grabbing her against her will and making her jump in. Adam had to insist on climbing into the vents instead of saying they were onboard, wound up electrocuted, and got Odessa mad at them.

Odessa isn’t a person she knows too well, but Molly would prefer not being viewed as a pest by the one leading them into unknown territory. She wouldn’t blame Odessa if she did abandon them on this empty hunk of junk.

“We’re coming up to a divide, which way should we go?” Tristan asks, breaking her from the reverie.

Molly crosses her arms, “I don’t know…”

“Do you want to go left?”

Glancing that direction, she frowns. Shaking her head, she says, “I’d rather go right. If that’s okay!”

Tristan smiles, “Right it is.”

Keeping up with his long strides, Molly sighs to herself.

“Not exactly what you planned on,” he states, attempting, once more, to make conversation.

“No, I definitely did not expect to be out in space for three days,” Molly complains, crossing her arms. “I don’t really care for it.”

“Space travel isn’t for everyone,” he says. “I’ve only gotten to go a handful of times.”

Looking up at him, she lightly clears her throat, “When?”

“When I was younger, I went on a trip with Gea, Des, and her parents. It was amazing! Normally, we talked with her via telecommunicator.”

“All the time?”

“Every day if possible.”

Molly gives a small nod, “That sounds nice…”

“It was,” Tristan replies. “Granted, like I said, it was a handful of times. Our parents weren’t too keen on Gea and I being gone for extended periods of time.”

“What was the longest you were gone?”

“Five months. Half a year was too much for them, I think,” Tristan laughs. Not that he would’ve minded being gone for that time, or longer. There was so much out there to investigate, it didn’t make sense to stay in one place. That, and he didn’t venture out of his room unless it was to spend time with his friends. He’s considered a homebody by his parents, but truthfully, he doesn’t spend much time at Salineas.

“Right,” Molly remarks to herself. “There was a festival a couple years back. You and your friends weren’t there.”

“Right, the Fresian Festival,” Tristan replies. He smiles at her. “I’m amazed you remembered.”

“Oh! People commented on it. I only just connected the dots,” she says, chuckling nervously.

“Even so,” Tristan says. Stopping in front of a large entrance, he reaches his hand out. Ensuring there’s no barrier, he walks through. A table sits, unobtrusive, in the center. He inspects it all around, kneeling to peer at its underside.

Molly rubs her arm, feeling more stifled. She tilts her head, “What is a table doing here?”

“Not sure,” Tristan replies. He looks at its edge, noting the faintest outline of a pad. He shrugs, “It must’ve been used for something.”

“I guess it’d be bad if we checked…”

“It may not work anymore,” he says. “It could be a control pad for navigation, or releasing dozens of soldiers at once.”

“Maybe it’s a hologram for entertainment,” Molly lightly jokes.

He grins at her, “Maybe!”

Returning the smile, she clicks her claws against each other, “Um, well, Odessa said not to touch anything. So we should probably leave it alone.”

“We’ll bring her back to look at it,” Tristan replies.

Exiting the odd room, they begin down the other corridor.

                                                             -

Dangling from wires that stretch deep into black, hundreds of bodies hang suspended where Odessa walks. Being the main goal for this expedition, she steps past several columns before pausing in front of a random case. Wiping off imaginary dust, observing the weathered face inside, she wonders if it’s even viable. The system has continued to function. She spent the first few hours merely inspecting an aspect of her life that she only heard about. The weapons were kept in storage, and she found the pool of liquid where her father had been stripped of all free will. Further along, she encountered an odd room with a single table, its buttons and pad faintly outlined. Pressing it, it opened a hole where copious amounts of surgical tools were kept, laid in neat rows. She took them for herself, and some were medical instruments she never saw before.

With that accomplished, she ventured out to find this room. Approaching another container, she looks within to see a similar individual with long, white locks, eyes closed. Prime. Or one of him. All of these must be him. The actual Prime was never retrieved from the chasm of the flagship. No one wanted to bury him, and she doesn’t blame them. She wouldn’t either.

But this… this is another of his forms. An impressive specimen, she must admit. Even in this state, at his peak, he would’ve stood out among her father and uncles. Likely as a way of preserving their species’ capabilities of agility and strength, while keeping their physical bodies weaker than his own to overpower and dominate.

Touching the glass, she presses her face closer to the vitrine. Her father told her that he’s dead, but there had been a way of accessing his memories. Prime had done it before. She surmised that his previous bodies were kept on hand for knowledge. The body may be inanimate, but the brain, if preserved, could be examined. A corpse with a living mind. Its own special little coffin. Such a thing would frighten Etherians, who, despite their alliance with her people, still have a difficult time comprehending—or, rather, accepting—what science can do.

Odessa touches the black pad wrapping around the case. It turns on, and she balls her hand in a light fist, gently pricking her palm with her fingernails, uncertain of what to do. Rubbing her thumbs underneath her fingertips, she decides to press down on a few buttons. Nothing. She slides her digits over the longer, colored section, and it hums with energy. The vitrine lights up within, haloing the body. Its eyes remain closed but she sees his form better.

Odessa taps a few more combinations, and it glows even brighter—

Right before it opens and spills the contents out onto the ground.

“Shit,” she murmurs to herself, kneeling in front of the body. Glancing at its case, she knows there’s no way to put it back in. Tugging its face toward her, she inspects the body. It really is remarkable how preserved it is for all the decades it's been deceased.

Setting down her bag, she pulls out cotton swabs to collect skin samples, trims off claws, and pulls out teeth with a plier. Then she stares at the head for a good moment or two.

Pulling out the trephine, a gift from the table earlier, she drills a hole in the head to relieve pressure, as well as to remove excess liquid so that nothing sprays out at her. Once complete, having opted for a full removal, she puts away her tool for favor of a small, circular blade. Shearing off the hair, and some wires, from the scalp, Odessa marks where to cut with a pen. She digs into the skin and stops for a second when it makes contact with bone. Clicking it on, the blade begins to gingerly whir, and she follows the path.

Brain fluid and blood seep out onto the floor, mixing with the liquid from the vitrine. Carefully, she pulls away the bone flap, and inspects the brain for possible damage. Taking out a small scalpel, she slices at the thin layers of membrane that cling to the inside of the skull. The meninges cut, more cerebrospinal fluid spills out. Tugging it out inch by inch, she snips the connection at the brainstem and spinal cord; Odessa holds the brain in her free hand, its weight sinking into her palm. Holding up the organ, she inspects it: perfectly intact.

Laying it down on a towel, she wipes her hands off the edge of it. Odessa brings out a large jar from her bag, filling the container with any of the remaining liquid from the vitrine. She needs every bit of it though.

Holding down her helmet’s interphone, she says, “Tristan, do you copy?”

“I do, what’s up?”

“Can you come to my location and help me with something?”

“I’ll be right over,” he says.

It doesn’t take him long before he arrives, and the first thing she hears is Molly yell.

“What is that?! Is that a body?!” she demands, jumping back in disgust.

Odessa crosses her arms, “Yes, obviously.”

Tristan walks over, looking down at it. Then he turns to her, smirking, “I hope he was dead already.”

“He was,” Odessa smirks back. “I need you to move some liquid left in the vitrine into the jar behind me. I took some but it needs more.”

Molly wrinkles her nose, bothered by the nonchalance displayed by the two of them.

Tristan moves his hands in a flowing arc, pouring the water into the jar until it reaches the top. Odessa spins the cap back on, pleased with her work.

Groaning, Molly keeps her eyes on the door.

Tucking all her items with care into her bag, Odessa says, “What did you find?”

“We came across a room with a table in it, but we didn’t touch it,” Tristan replies.

"Was it before you came here?"

"Yes, why?"

Odessa gives her bag a slight shake, "These were from there!"

"Nice," he says. "Good thing we didn't open it, that'd be anticlimactic."

“Anything else?”

“We came across the kitchens, the holding cells, the area where it seems clones are born, all that fun stuff,” he says.

“Interesting,” Odessa answers. “It seems that the flagship was to keep the amount of soldiers he had, and different areas were few and far in between.”

“Seems to be,” Tristan says, walking with her and Molly to the exit. “I guess interior decorating wasn’t his thing.”

Odessa laughs, “No, I suppose not.”

Heading down the hall, they contact Hydrangea, who says she is nearby Celeste. Odessa is led by Tristan to the room with the single table, and she remarks, “I wish there were more instruments in here."

"Didn't you already have these things on hand with you?"

"Yes, but it doesn't hurt to have more!"

“I guess...” Molly murmurs.

Continuing down the corridor, Odessa asks, “Did you explore that area?”

Tristan shakes her head, “No, Molly and I checked everything else. Gea, maybe?”

“Hey, Gea, did you happen to investigate the northern corridor?” Odessa queries, clicking her interphone on.

“No, I didn’t,” her voice comes through the intercom.

“Tris, why don’t you two head back to Celeste? I’ll only take a minute. And for the love of all that’s good, keep Adam from the controls.”

“Will do, Captain,” he replies.

With that, she takes her leave. The hallway is covered with the faintest layer of dust, floating, never settling onto the surface. Odessa notes cracks in the walls, stepping over foliage that wraps through the metal. She finds a room filled with keepsakes, creatures and objects lining the walls. At the forefront, she notices shattered glass on the ground. Bending down, she raises it to her eye level, its surface poorly shining. The colors are strong, however, and it seems to have formed a particular shape at one point.

Compelled, Odessa gathers every broken fragment and places it inside her bag.

                                                              -

“What is it?” Hydrangea asks, combing through Tristan’s hair. They have bid their unwelcome guests, as Odessa puts it, goodnight, and are congregated in Hydrangea's sleeping quarters.

“I’m not sure,” Odessa says, holding up a small piece of glass. “It doesn’t seem to hold much value anymore, that’s for certain.”

Tristan tilts his head down, letting Hydrangea brush better, “A treasure from a conquered planet. Doesn’t seem to be anything else, aside from a sad reminder.”

Peering at it, Odessa checks every bit of its blue, dulled by time, but no less impressive in its sheen; its delicate thinness reveals a species that valued aesthetic beauty. Whoever this belonged to stood no chance against Prime.

Twirling the fragment in her hand, Odessa says, “But we found much more than we believed, which counts for something.”

“Which is exciting!” Hydrangea says, switching places with Tristan. “We don’t know what all this means yet, but I’m sure we will eventually.”

Odessa smiles, shaking her hands at the possibilities. Any object or clue that they find has potential. She isn’t sure where this will go, but she wants to learn as much as she can.

Like her mother always says: for science!

[myrandomfandomramblings]

Arrowverse Science Fair AU

~2004 National Highschool (Gr. 8-12) Science Fair

Projects:

Felicity Smoak (Gr. 9) – Computer software to detect card counters. She may or may not have hacked into online card games to test it (this wasn’t included in/on her project.)

Cisco Ramon (Gr. 8 or 9) – Piano playing robot. He thought it played better than Dante. His parents didn’t agree.

Caitlin Snow (Gr. 9) – Analysis of physiological response to various stimuli. She wanted to find stimuli that would help kids cope with traumatic experiences (say crashing their bike or losing their father.) If she was able to find something that made her mom show some/any emotion that would be a bonus.

Barry Allen (Gr. 9) – Growing crystals (lots of different and cool ones). His project started out as an attempt to make something special for Iris for her birthday but turned into an elaborate project. It ended up being a good choice because 1) it reminded Barry of his parents (the first science experiment they did together was grow Borax crystals on pipecleaner and 2) it followed Joe’s ‘your science fair project must make, not destroy things’ rule instated after Barry’s Gr. 6 project.

Alex (Gr. 9) and Kara (Gr. 8) Danvers – Birds in my Backyard. Eliza had insisted on Alex getting Kara involved in her science fair project this year. Alex was excited to show Kara the science fair experience she enjoyed but wanted to pick a topic she knew more about that Kara (her knowledge of math and science was intimidating enough without the superpowers). Seeing Kara’s interest in birds they decided to study birds in their backyard. With Alex’s design and Kara’s powers they built tall post’s and attached bird houses and feeders with differing properties. They then monitored which kinds of birds built nests and ate from where (with some help from Kara’s flight and X-ray vision). Alex also picked 5 nests from different species to chronicle the embryo and chick development. Kara enjoyed doing the project and learning about birds from Alex. The actual science fairs, not so much but those were Alex’s favourite part. Note: Streaky was locked in the house for the duration of the project so he wouldn’t eat any of the birds.

Winn Schott (Gr. 11) – Pop-up room/ room in a suitcase. Being in the foster system for the last couple years inspired Winn to design a room that collapsed to the size of a suitcase for easy transport but could expand in less than a minute into a nice-sized, fully-furnished, sound-proof room, so no matter how many times a foster kid was moved around they always had their own space and stuff. Also good for camping, travel and special short-term events (like waiting in line at conventions).

Lena Luthor (Gr. 5) – Oxygen absorbing/releasing crystal that could allow breathing underwater. After her Mum drown when Lena was four, she was determined to develop a simple way for people to breath under water. She was able to do just that by synthesizing a substance that absorbed and stored large amounts of oxygen then released it slowly (so if someone held in in their mouth, they could breathe underwater). She was happy and excited that her mom and older brother were interested in her project but a little frustrated and concerned that they were so focused on its ability to absorb all the oxygen from a room (in a big enough amount). Although she supposed it could be used in that capacity to control/extinguish fires. Note: although in elementary school, Lena got to compete against the high schoolers since her project was so advanced for her age.

Sara Lance (Gr. 11) – The Biomechanics of Dance and Martial Arts. As punishment for skipping classes, then sassing her teacher and principal when they tried to discipline her for skipping classes, Sara had to complete a science fair project. To make the best of it Sara chose something that interested her. In hindsight she wished she hadn’t. Her project was so good she was chosen to represent her school at the state and national science fair.

Ronnie Raymond (Gr. 9-12?)- Structural design to minimize Superman related damage in Metropolis. Ronnie was proud of his project and had enjoyed analyzing the powers of Metropolis’ hero, but he lost any chance he had at winning when he decided to leave his project to go flirt with Caitlin. At least Kara, whose project was next to his, seemed interested.

Hartley Rathaway – something to do with sound waves

Lily Stein (Gr. 11) – designing and comparing different miniaturized forms of renewable energy sources. She had some help from her dad.

Patty Spivot – Recreation of crime scene evidence using food models. A bunch of her friends (her whole cabin actually) from her summer camp for those interested in law enforcement came to support her.

-       Maggie Sawyer – seemed really interested in the bird project

-       Ralph Dibny – found every project that said it was OK to touch. His favourite was slime. To Patty’s surprise he didn’t break anything.

-       Dinah Drake – hung out with Patty most of the time. Talked to Hartley, beside her, about his project on sound waves for a bit (seemed kinda interested). Patty joined her when she got into a conversation with Sara, across the way, and Laurel about the implications of her biomechanics project in fighting and self-defence. The rest of the time they talked about that Vince guy from camp Dinah thought was cute.

-       Eddie Thawne – he hung out with Patty most of the time too but did do a lap of the fair with Iris, who was there supporting Barry, when she accepted his offer to buy her something at the concession.

Notable events:

- Clark came to see Alex and Kara’s project and brought James and Lois with him. Kara and Clark (very subtly) tested the models on the project beside them that had been abandoned and were said to be superman proof/resistant. They were very impressed to discover the models did indeed stand-up to heat vison, freeze breath and super-strength leading Clark to believe the student had a bright future. James spent most of his time talking to Winn about his pop-up room project because, “Don’t you think these would be way better than cubicles, the Daily Planet should definitely purchase some.”

- Cat Grant, a young reporter from the National City Tribune pushing a stroller, came around and interviewed all the contestants because, “What better place to find the next world changing innovator or innovation” as she put it when she stopped to talk to Clark (more like flirt Kara thought). Alex used Clark distracting Cat as an opportunity to play with the baby in the stroller. This was the only time during the entire science fair Alex was distracted, except maybe when Maggie had come, but they mainly talked about the project like Alex did with everyone, which left Alex wondering why it felt different. During their entire interview Cat called Kara Kira, much to her annoyance. At least the baby seemed to like her. This interview sparked a conversation between Kara, Lois and Clark about journalism which Iris overhead while she was visiting Barry and joined in.

- Graduate students Ray Palmer and Curtis Holt were volunteer judges and ticket takers. Curtis wore a varsity jacket over his shirt and tie which covered his name tag, but at every project he judged he would describe every aspect as terrific, so the contestants started calling him Mr. Terrific. While judging Barry’s project they began a discussion about their favourite elements/minerals/gems. Barry couldn’t decide so joked he liked Barium. Ray shared his love for dwarf star alloy with a ‘quick’ lecture about its rumoured properties and potential uses. Curtis listed at least 10 compounds essential for modern tech as he flip-flopped back and forth trying to decide a favourite and Lex Luthor who was visiting his sister’s project beside them interjected that he favoured kryptonite. While taking tickets Curtis witnessed the following interaction. He asked Damian Darhk, who was carrying baby Nora, what brought him to the science fair. He responded with “These are the brightest young minds in the country and being young means they are malleable. So, there is nowhere better to recruit future talent for my enterprise.” Malcolm Merlyn, who was behind, him added “I know exactly what you mean with what the world’s coming to we’re going to need a bright mind to save it.” This led Tommy, who was accompanying him, to say “I thought we were just here to support the Queen’s.” Then one of the other judges, Dr. Harrison Wells aka Eobard Thawne in disguise, added “No your Dad is right. This world’s next HERO could be in this very room. I’ve already made a list of students to keep my eye on.” He pulled out a small piece of paper from his pocket. On it Curtis saw four names: Hartley Rathaway, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond. This led to a long conversation between the three men about numerous threats to society, the country and the world and the possible drastic solutions that would need to be employed to stop them. When they left Curtis turned to Ray and asked, “Was it just me or were those Doomsday Dudes really creepy?” “What” Ray replied his attention clearly being pulled from elsewhere. But before Curtis could answer a voice behind him said “Doomsday Dudes is a terrible nickname you should call them the Legion of Doom.” Curtis turned to find Cisco. “Just saying,” he continued, “anyway I heard there’s free Big Belly Burger for the contestants. When’s that coming?” Ray had missed the entire conversation Curtis was asking about because he had been making funny faces at baby Nora the whole time hoping to make her smile or laugh but she had just stared at him with her big blue eyes.

- Queen consolidated gave out a $1500 scholarship and a summer internship at the applied sciences division. This year Moira and Robert had made Oliver come and brought 9-year-old Thea. Oliver was tasked with watching Thea who ran around the entire science fair wanting to look at and touch all the projects even the ones with big ‘Do Not Touch’ signs on them. She spent at least an hour trying to get everybody around the robot pianist to sing and dance with her. Most people ignored her although she was able to get Cisco, Winn, Stein, Joe, Kara (who kept trying to get Alex to join) and to Oliver’s surprise Malcolm Merlyn all to sing with her and they were all surprisingly good. She also got many people to dance including the Lance girls. She even convinced Cisco to make the robot play some of her favourite songs from Disney movies. Barry was very happy that he was able to convince Iris to dance with him for a couple songs with just a little encouragement from Thea and despite Kara’s constant encouragement Alex only agreed to dance when Maggie asked. Oliver had to present his family’s award which went to Felicity. When her name was announced Donna yelled “Woohoo, that’s my daughter! Way to go sweetie!” which earned a whispered “Mom, ssshh” and accompanied eye roll from Felicity as she headed to the stage with her head down and cheeks flushed. When she got onstage Oliver presented her with her award and Felicity began to babble, “Thanks. This is so cool. I’m such a big fan of yours… well not yours… your company… your family’s company. But uh you seem cool too. I could be a fan of yours, but not like a creepy stalker fan just like a normal supportive fan, ya know. I’m sorry, I’m rambling, it’s just, I don’t know what to say. Your very handsome… and I just said that out loud. I’m so sorry.” She stops and whispers “come on Smoak, pull yourself together,” then takes a deep breath before addressing Oliver again, “Thank-you again for the award and I look forward to working with you, or for you. I’m just gonna go now.” Oliver couldn’t help smiling as she left and thinking that just maybe if she had been around when Thea was partnering everyone up to dance he may have just participated.

- Kara quickly got bored of standing by her project and started wandering around to talk to the other contestants. She spent a good chunk of time talking to Barry. Tried to join in on a heated debate between Felicity, Cisco and Winn about the best language to code in but quickly left when she had no idea what they were talking about. She ended up spending most of her time with Lena. They talked about their projects, their lives and interests and about dealing with new and scary situations especially when you feel different from everyone else and learnt that they were both adopted. However, the whole time they were talking Lena’s eyes kept scanning the room as if waiting for something to jump out and scare her. Kara learnt why when a woman Kara thought must be Lena’s mother showed up and menacingly questioned why she was distracting her daughter.

- J’onn came in disguise to check out the Danvers sister’s project

[revangerang]

Oh boy I really got in my feelings and wrote way too much lmao

Tagged by: @edithpattou86

Tags your friends to do their own lists: @chierafied @mother-ishvara @doughygraduatestudent @kazoomajor @pagan-assassin

[[MORE]]

Top 5 animated movies:

1. Whisper of the Heart - Such a cute and whimsical slice-of-life coming of age story, and so inspiring for creative types! I love how Shizuku sees her fantasies come to life in the world around her, and how she just follows her whims to wander the city and treats each day like an adventure. I see a lot of myself in her. The grandpa and his shop are so cool! I want to find a place like that in my city! I love how she and Seiji inspire and encourage each other to improve themselves. Even though they’re so young and I usually hate that kind of thing, I think it’s a very realistic portrayal of what true love and a healthy relationship should be. The way her writing is treated as a creative process and something she can polish with hard work is just such a wonderful message and so inspiring to me.

2. Spirited Away - I love the Japanese culture and mythology, and the serene, still tone of the film. Truly beautiful. The way it doesn’t paint the spirits and gods in a bad light is good and correct: they were the careless humans who went into their world and took what they shouldn’t have. But it still focuses on the supernatural and eerie elements, often without even explaining anything, which I love. And the bathhouse feels like a real functioning place with workplace culture and all. And of course it’s great that Chihiro steps up and learns to be strong. I just love it.

3. Howl’s Moving Castle - I love all the characters so much, and all the magic and whimsy. The fantasy European setting is so charming, and they did a good job depicting Western magic. Ghibli movies really have such mundane magic, and they make me feel like my life is magic too. Sophie is so good and strong and I love seeing her come into her own. And Howl is hot. lmao

4. My Neighbor Totoro - I had the original Fox dub of this on a bootleg VHS my grandma made us when I was literally like an infant. My parents threw it away when I was still young- like no older than 5- because it “has Eastern religion in it” 🙄 Too bad for them the damage was already done lmfao. It was definitely one of the biggest influences of my formative years, I loved it so much and I’m so grateful to it. That mundane magic I talked about before, and just introducing me to a totally different worldview from my sheltered white American Christian bubble. I was fascinated by every single aspect from the traditional Japanese-style home to the bentos to the shrines... I really admired Satsuki and how grown up she was, taking care of her little sister like she did, making the lunches, all that. It’s really such a charming movie with great music and such a realistic depiction of childhood. Plus who doesn’t love Totoro himself?? And catbus! Iconicccc. I still look for little portholes in bushes and trees to this day lmao

5. Mulan - My little 8-year-old enby ass crying in the living room and repeatedly playing the Reflections scene over and over makes so much more sense now 😂 But really it’s just such a great film with a unique art style, fun characters, and great music. I love how Mulan fights for what she believes is right, and wants to protect her father. And I think it’s great how she also fights to find her own place in the world. I like how they don’t make it a “not like other girls” thing, but just that she personally somehow doesn’t feel comfortable in her own skin with the makeup and all that. Between her living as a man and the clear romantic relationship between “Ping” and Shang, it’s pretty good queer representation for a 2000s Disney movie lol. Also Mulan and Shang can both get it I mean what.

Honorable Mention: Prince of Egypt - That animation tho! So fucking cinematic!! And the music and everything just ugh so good! The characters are really compelling too and you can totally feel the brotherly love and familial issues.

Top 5 live action movies:

1. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - This is a movie where you can’t look away for a moment or you’ll miss something important. It really is just one entire heck of a day for the main character like howwww does so much happen. It’s really just written so well honestly that they manage to pack so much into a single movie and a single day. I aspire to that level. The 30s setting is so great with the costumes and set and music ahh I get so much inspiration from it. Every single character (and actor for that matter) is just fantastic. It’s super funny- that situational comedy is my jam. And there are touching moments that give me inspiration for my own life. I relate to Miss Pettigrew with her clear social anxiety, and perhaps neurodivergency? But I love how the events of the film bring out the best in her. And Delysia is just so charming! I want her confidence

2. La La Land - Such a fun and whimsical musical about life for creatives in Los Angeles~ It makes me feel nostalgic and proud to live here. I love all the different homages to classic Hollywood, and the music is so good!! The love story feels realistic and I actually really like that they don’t end up together in the end. They just encourage each other to be better, and if that means being apart, they’re willing to do it. It is another one that gives me inspiration for my life and creative endeavors, especially The Fools Who Dream 😭 Gets me every time.

3. Mamma Mia - This is my shameless feel-good movie. I love just putting it on in the background as I clean or whatever. It’s just so upbeat and fun!! I love Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep especially. And I like that the main character learns what she wants (and doesn’t want) out of life right now. And I love that they depict older characters and women!! having full and rich lives including romance and sex. The message that it’s never too late for love is so great! And also just like please communicate and you will probably save yourself so much heartache lmao.

4. Across the Universe - I have an affinity for the 60s and 70s, and I love how this movie kind of takes you through that era with the various characters. It’s such a fun movie with great costumes, cinematography, and music! I just love all the covers of the Beatles songs!! I honestly like them just as much as I like the originals. This is one of the first things I ever saw with positive/neutral queer representation?? Like Sadie is presented just as she is, without it being like WHAT SHE LIKES WOMEN?????? I”MPOSSIBLE !! Or making it all about sex or whatever. It’s literally just like “I want to hold your hand.” Also the whole bit with Eddie Izzard is just incredible lmfao

5. LOTR - My first fandom~ I love these movies so much ughhh. The music! The costumes! The characters! The world! The high fantasy!! I think PJ was so true to the books, or at least as much as he was able in just 10-ish hours. I love that they just went for it and filmed all three in one go, and made them over 3 hours long, which was basically unheard of at the time for blockbuster films. They did so good fully representing the different races through costume, language, culture, and the music too. I literally used to just lay on my bed for hours at a time in junior high, listening to the soundtracks and being immersed in the world. My friends and I would often play pretend that we were in Middle Earth (so lame for middle schoolers lmaooo). I love every single (not-evil) character and I will fight for them. I will especially fight Denethor I don’t even cARE !

Honorable mention: A Little Princess - Sooo whimsical and lovely, even when the girls are going through hardship! I love Sarah and how she literally does magic and even puts a curse on what’s her face omgg. She’s so charming and a genuinely good person too, even though she could have been a spoiled brat. The big climactic scene is so !! Omg I still get the adrenaline when she’s crossing the board and then hiding from the police even though I’ve seen this countless times since I was a small child. And it’s so wonderful that she’s reunited with her father, and they adopt the other girl. It taught me at a young age that the world isn’t fair and people will be nasty and abusive for no reason, but that you can still believe in magic and “fancy yourself a princess.” And the neighbor guy taught me that strangers will step in to help out of the goodness of their heart.

Top 5 TV shows:

1. ATLA - One of the best series of all time. The worldbuilding, lore, storyline, character development, animation, music, etc, are all incredible. If they had gone with the original intention of making Zutara canon it would have been literally perfect and so subversive and innovative! As it is it is still nearly perfect and they still did an amazing job with Zuko’s redemption arc. I just ignore that very last scene tbh. In my mind, it didn’t happen. The series addresses so many issues like imperialism, sexism, abuse, family, disability, war, etc, in a very realistic way. Uncle Iroh is literally a treasure.

2. Steven Universe - So charming and wonderful!! I just love it so much!! It is so goddamn queer, it makes me so happy. Stevonnie is the nonbinary representation we don’t even deserve!! I love every single character. I love the animation and the music too! The bgm is so bubbly and glitchy and cool, super on point for trends these days. And the original songs are so charming~ It also deals with a ton of important issues like imperialism, interpersonal relationships, oppression, self-identity, abuse, leadership, mental health, boundaries, consent, brain-washing, unlearning unhealthy behavior, etc. I love that every single character, even minor ones, get character development and a chance to be strong and improve themselves. And it shows that even the ones we initially think are super strong and have it all together, actually have their own issues that they struggle with too.

3. Yuuri!!! On Ice - This show!!!! Oh my goddddddd. Literally perfect. I love that it just subverts every single trope???? Especially with the events at the beginning and the big spoiler in episode 10. Simply incredible. I love every single character so much??? Even ones I was expecting to hate, like how Yurio is a little shit at the beginning, and then when Lilia is introduced as this super severe tyrant, but she ends up just being a good, yet strict coach because she really wants Yurio to succeed. It’s honestly just so wholesome! The music is so amazing and the ice skating is really realistic too! It really shows that they had an actual skating choreographer and worked off video of him performing. I love how realistic the whole show is like with lots of social media, youtube, instagram, etc. And it does a queer romance without it being a gimmick. It’s just a sports anime with a side plot of a romance but it just happens to be gay. And Kubo-sensei has stated that homophobia doesn’t exist at all in their world which makes me so happy. It’s honestly so queer and I adore how all three main characters are genderfucks a bit. I also love how realistically Yuuri’s anxiety and depression are portrayed. I relate so much to him, especially because mine exhibit in the exact same ways as his. It’s another one that inspires me to fight to be better and live the life I want to live.

4. OTGW - So charming. A perfect addition to the canon of New England fairy tales. The music is great, the animation is wonderful and nostalgic, the characters are fun and interesting and spooky. I love how liminal it is and you aren’t really sure where they are or what’s going on for the majority of the episodes. Greg is the most realistic depiction of a small child and the brothers’ relationship is the most realistic I think I’ve ever seen in my life lmao. He’s just so random and weird and has such Little Kid Logic I love it so much lmao. The story is perfectly contained in its 10 short episodes, and it gives a very satisfying ending. I still can’t get over how many huge stars were in it too?? Like fucking Tim Curry as Auntie Whispers???? I can not believe.

5. Inuyasha - I’m weeb trash and this show is also trash but I love it so much okay. As a big fan I hold so much against the anime for changing things from the manga, but even so I love it. Overall I think the animation, music, and voice acting is perfect. It’s so cool with all the mythos of youkai and the shikon jewel, plus I love traditional Japanese culture stuff. And isekai type stuff is my jam. If I found a portal to another world or to the past you bet your ass I’d go through it. I totally don’t still look for portals as a 30 year old adult, I don’t know what you’re talking about 😂 Kagome is such a great mc tbh like she’s so smart and strong and talented and kind I just love her so much??? I want to be more like her. And I love all the characters honestly. I have to overlook some questionable 90s anime tropes for certain ones, but I still love them. As much as we rag on the constant upgrades thing, the battles and stuff are pretty thrilling, and overall the series is good fun. And yes Sesshoumaru is my husbando, next question.

Honorable Mention: Doctor Who - I love how this show manages to be like every single genre?? SciFi, historical, comedy, thriller, mystery, slice of life, etc. I love all of the Doctors, and all of their companions. I just love how much the Doctor loves humans, and how much faith they have in humanity. And again it’s that whole isekai, time travel, normal modern human goes on magical adventures thing. I would go with the Doctor in a heartbeat. I still cry over Donna 😭

[outhereontheprairie]

Sheyenne River Academy Campus, North Dakota 1

Those of you who know me, know that ever since I could talk I would point to places and ask, “Who lives there?” As I got older I zeroed in on abandoned houses and then abandoned places in general. There’s a pull about them. They call to me. But no matter how many abandoned places I explored, no matter how cool or historical, there was always my white whale in the back of my mind. Sheyenne River Academy. I asked dad for years and years to take me there. I could photograph and explore all the abandoned places in the world, but if I didn’t see SRA, what was the point?

You see, SRA is where my parents met. Several of my grandparents went there, too. In fact, most of my family members attended SRA before it closed in the late 1970s. There is such history about this place. And yet I only saw it briefly on an old video or two. One taken in the 50s, one in the 90s after it had been abandoned. 

My parents were the second-to-last graduating class of SRA: 1976. After the class of 1977, everyone went on to the place where I attended high school: DAA. SRA was near Harvey out in the country. DAA was near Bismarck out in the country. SRA was a classic brick and mortar campus with many buildings. DAA was all in one - a strange building, shaped like a spider. Some say that the goodness left the school after SRA closed, and with DAA it was never the same. All of this has culminated in creating a place that I have been obsessed with visiting, no matter the state it is in. 

Especially since my mom passed away in 2012, I wanted to visit. I wanted to see where she “endured” high school, where she and my dad met. And although the tour wasn’t as thorough as I would have liked (SRA continues to be a bit of my “white whale”) I had a blast exploring this place and hearing dad’s stories. 

I’ll do my best to recreate our time there for you. I’m not a great photographer, not a perfect writer, and don’t have a super clear memory about all I learned that day. But here is my level best to share Sheyenne River Academy with you all.

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Would you like a full, immersive experience of our visit to SRA? Let the music take you back while you scroll along!

Click here for the secular playlist for 1970s SRA.

And click here for the special SDA playlist!

Let’s go! 

When we first arrived at SRA, it was shrouded by trees. Taunting me. I was close. So close. But not there yet. Dad ran around (literally) trying to find the person who owns it now to get permission for us to walk around. After quite awhile he got it. We were in. 

While dad ran around, I prowled the perimeter taking photos from a distance. 

I couldn’t miss the overgrown driveway, nor the brick columns. So fancy. So formal. So overgrown and mysterious. 

We couldn’t have picked a more beautiful day. A perfect fall day. However the light was very harsh, which didn’t help my photos. 

Here’s a photo from the old 1976 SRA yearbook taken around this same area. Dad thinks these two guys did a week of prayer that school year.

When we first arrived, I noticed there was a sign . . .

. . .and a curious cow. 

There were also many houses surrounding the campus. If you didn't know what this place was, you’d probably be confused. The houses you see were where the teachers and staff lived.

The sign once said Sheyenne River, but now had a pretty painting with the words, “Villa Bonacci Peaceful Valley” on it. I did hear that after the school closed, someone tried to reopen it as a health retreat of some sort. 

Finally it was time! We parked at a house that used to belong to the principal and walked down the road to SRA. 

Sheyenne River Academy first opened in approximately 1904 (so says my dad). Being open over 70 years doesn’t feel long enough for this beautiful old campus. 

I couldn’t wait to hear dad’s memories - he was the best tour guide, as I knew he would be. Dad is very unsentimental on the whole, so instead of being upset at the state of his alma mater, he was simply curious and recalled all sorts of stories and facts about the place. 

We first arrived at the boys’ dorm. The building to the left was the Ad Building, and we will get to that later. 

Immediately dad pointed out the window to his old dorm room from his senior year - it has an auger sticking out of it. 

Since his room was right at the end on the ground floor - could we see it? 

Yes, we could! 

Here is is! Dad’s dorm room. He said it was old even when he lived there - the pipe was still sticking out of the ceiling then, too. Although it was considerably less...cluttered. However, one of dad's friends apparently says it looks much neater now than when he lived there. Ha! 

Look past the clutter and picture it has it would have been. And enjoy this story dad shared with me that deeply impressed me. 

I asked dad if they were allowed to have music in their dorm rooms (that policy was fairly lax by the time I got to DAA and dad of course had me set up with a great stereo my years in the dorm) because I figured if anyone would have had a stereo in their dorm room it would have been my dad. He said radios were in fact not allowed until his senior year. So they rigged up a system. Because when you live at your school, you have to find a way around the arbitrary rules! (Believe me, I know!) 

Dad says that many guys, himself included (of course - I’m guessing he was a pioneer of this system*), had their rooms “wired”. I was picturing a Ferris Beuller situation as he said this and, it turns out, I wasn’t far off. 

These guys used wires and switches to set up their radio so that if someone (the dean) came in while you had your music on, it would shut off when the door opened. Dad also had a switch wired in the dresser drawer so you could subtly turn the music on/off as well. 

I have to say I’m proud to be related to one of the people who did this. So innovative! It made my dorm shenanigans look pathetic in comparison! 

* Update from dad: Clandestine sound wiring (with door switches and drawer switch cutoffs) was around for years before I got to SRA, so definitely not my invention.  I just followed how the pioneers did it!

And here is the hallway. More junk. 

The dorm room across from my dad’s room - he said to belonged to his lifelong friend, Lynn. 

Lynn, your room needs cleaning. It’s full of old foam insulation.

Back out we went. Lots more to see! 

Here is the back of the boy’s dorm. The original structure was built sometime in the late 1920s. 

You can see the added-on shower wing. It was built in the early 1960s.

Here you can tell the difference in brick - the original structure vs the add on. 

The original portion is quite old - my grandparents would have been familiar with it. 

Below: a page from the 1976 SRA yearbook, a bunch of cool guys rock out by the boys’ dorm in the spot pictured above.

Dad noted that this picture had the negative reversed when it was put in the annual.

Cars littered the property. The owner uses it as a wrecking yard now. Not for the first time did I find myself thinking, “What a waste.”

This building looked quite old, so it caught my eye. 

Dad said it was just a maintenance/storage building. 

Looking back at the boys’ dorm. 

Here we have the cafeteria and gym! Look closely - someone ran dirt (which eventually grew grass) up the steps so it would be a ramp instead of stairs. 

We headed around the side. 

This may be storage now, but back in the day it was the cafeteria! 

I was shocked. At DAA, where I attended, the cafe was the most beautiful part of the school, overlooking the Missouri River valley. One of my favorite things was seeing the mist rise off the river on a chilly fall morning. SRA’s cafeteria is so...well it’s a basement! This is where the students would eat chili and cinnamon rolls on Friday evenings (a tradition carried on at DAA). Where people agonized over who to sit beside. I just had trouble picturing it, even though I was right there. 

I remember mom telling me that at the entrance to the cafe there was a ledge where a boy would sit and when she and her friends would pass through he would swing down and scare them.  

A photo from the 1976 SRA yearbook below, taken in the same spot. 

Below: a photo from the 1975 SRA yearbook.

Dad pointed out that to the back on the right was where they served the food. I wanted to go back but dad said no. 

Fun facts: dad’s favorite breakfast was Friday morning coffee cake. My mom got the recipe and made it for us more than once when we were growing up. I still have it somewhere. One of dad’s favorite meals was Friday evening, which I mentioned above, chili or fruit soup and cinnamon rolls. I didn’t mind that particular meal when I attended DAA, but got sick of it after awhile. Dad’s only real negative comment about the cafe (when I asked him) was that sometimes, as a growing teenage boy, it felt like you didn't get enough food. However, on the whole it was good, he said. 

Below: a photo taken in roughly the same location, from the SRA 1976 yearbook. That’s my mom with the long blonde hair, somewhat facing the camera on the left.

I heard from my mom that the food in this cafe was good, and she even had some hand written recipes she got from the cooks here! I believe one of them is for “melting moments” cookies. I have that recipe card, and made those cookies with her as a child. SRA students - what food did you enjoy eating here? And what made you cringe? 

I looked down at the muddy floor. How many bell bottom jeans brushed across that floor in the last days of SRA? 

Below: photos from the 1976 SRA yearbook - a banquet! 

This banquet - “Nights in Satin” according to the yearbook. Most of our banquets at DAA were just as cheesy.

Note from dad: It was "Nights in White Satin", a popular song of the day by the Moody Blues. I think they made the student banquet organizers change it to "Knights in White Satin" to remove any suggestive/amorous connotations. Of course, this spelling made no sense, but I think Kathy Diede, class artist, drew up a picture of a knight along with the chosen theme to hang on the cafeteria wall to decorate for the event.

We walked around the back of the cafe/gym. 

Dad told us the tale of how part of this building exploded. Yes, exploded. In 1973. He didn’t recall from exactly what, but possible natural gas build up he speculated. 

They rebuilt it with food delivery in mind - there you can see my husband peering into the window where there was a “slide” for the food boxes to go down. 

Looking down the ramp of the food delivery system. 

I really wanted to see inside the gym portion of the building. But this is as close as I got. 

You can tell it was massive and had a beautiful wooden floor (now buckled from water damage - see the ceiling?) and I sure wish I could have gotten closer. 

Goodbye cafe and gym! 

If any SRA alumni have tales to tell about this building, please comment! 

Here is a photo from the 1975 SRA yearbook of the same building.

Of course I had to ask dad about this odd building with a big chimney. And he was very familiar with it because this building was related to one of his jobs he had while he attended school here! 

You see, everyone who goes to SRA or DAA had/has a job. As a freshman at DAA I worked in the cafe, and after that for the development office, and senior year I had a job in town. 

Here is a quick view from the side of this building - SRA has quite a beautiful location! 

Anyway, up top here was a garage type setup with a carwash in one area, says dad. 

It looked like there was a fire in this building after it was no longer SRA. 

Here is the road that goes down to the lower part of the building. 

As you can see, it is two stories. Dad’s job was on the lower level. 

For his junior year, dad worked hauling coal from Harvey to the coal fired boiler that heated the school. There was a tunnel network that led from this building to each major building on campus, quite the setup) It was hard work, but kind of a coveted job because you only worked one day a week! Sundays. 

However, dad said went on to other work his senior year because they changed the pay for the job and it became less desirable. 

The boiler house structure was where the "firemen" worked, one guy on duty to make sure the boiler was correctly operating, usually around the clock, particularly in winter. 

Flashback time! Here is a photo from the SRA 1976 yearbook featuring Ted (on the right), one of my dad’s lifelong friends, who took over the job after dad left it.

There were desirable jobs when I was at academy too. Some things never change. I didn’t always have a desirable job at academy - I would say working for development was as good as it got. Working in the cafe was a freshman job because it was not cool. But my freshman buddies and I made it fun by singing our hearts out while washing dishes! Anyway, what were the most desirable jobs? Maintenance (you had the run of the school in some aspects), working as a reader for certain teachers was cool, and being an RA was usually desirable. I’m sure there are others, but I just don’t remember them. 

We moved away from one back edge of the campus and on to the other.

Here is the back of the Ad building. We’re coming to that soon.

When we reached this garage, dad had another interesting tidbit for us. 

This was where some staff kept their cars. Somehow, my dad was allowed to bring his dad’s snowmobile (!) to school one winter, and the dean allowed him to store in his stall!

Ok. This somewhat blew my mind. 

First of all. A personal snowmobile. What!? 

Second - he got to keep it in a staff garage!? At DAA we certainly wouldn’t have been allowed to mix our things with those of the faculty.

Third - dad had access to this snowmobile, and got to ride it in the winter, and  remembers taking it out and getting it up to a high speed on the road outside of campus.

I suppose, approaching this with a 2019 mindset instead of a 1970s one, this just sounds crazy. The liability alone for a student having their own snowmobile is insane to me. 

We walked over to the farm area of SRA. Yes, SRA had its own farm! 

Note the giant barn and silo. A few students worked there! I think that job was less desirable than dad’s once a week coal hauling job. 

Here’s a photo taken in the same area from the 1976 SRA yearbook. You can see the south end of the barn on the left.

Looking toward the girl’s dorm. 

Here is some staff housing, dad didn't remember any specifics about who lived here.

Here is our tour guide himself. 

Looking back at the Ad Building from the back corner of campus.

A closer view.

We headed down the road to a building I very much wanted to see - the Girls’ Dorm. It looked shabbier than the boys’ dorm, and was in terrible shape. I so badly wanted to see the rooms where my mom lived during her time here. 

As you can see, it’s terribly overgrown.

My mom had various room mates over the years. One of them was my dad’s sister (her future sister in law!) and another was her lifelong friend Karlene. They had such fun stories of their time in the dorm! 

Mom actually was a very quiet, shy, homebody. So living in the dorm was very hard for her. She wanted to go home quite a lot. 

I saw something in the distance.

Can you spot it? 

The flag pole, still standing strong. A remnant of when this was a pretty and organized campus. 

Dad said it was his friend Lynn’s job to raise, lower and fold the flag each day. 

Here is the ad building again. From a distance it looks ok. 

We’ll get there soon enough! 

We headed toward the girls’ dorm.

You can hardly see it now, it’s so overgrown. It looks like it doesn’t have the same nice additions as the boys’ dorm. I don’t understand that. 

We had to push through a lot of overgrowth to get inside. The doors were just hanging open. 

The glass was out of one door anyway. Why bother closing it?

Immediately the smell of decay hit me. It was bad. My husband ran out practically gagging from the mold smell. Dad immediately wrinkled up his nose and left. 

It was clear this place was in terrible shape. I knew it wouldn’t be safe to explore. I was so disappointed. I wanted to see where my mom and many aunts and family friends lived! 

A quick side story: during a recent holiday, I was able to speak with two great aunts on my dad’s side of the family. They told me how it felt to go to SRA during WW2. They talked about how that time was permeated with worry. How many of their male classmates were drafted. "You mean, after graduation?" I asked. No, they said. During the school year. 

They also recalled how nylon stockings were required to be worn at school for the women. That made me cringe! One my great aunts then informed me that her job on campus was to mend the nylon stockings with a tiny hooked needle. She said it was very difficult. And often, by the time the stocking was repaired, it cost more to repair than it was worth. But nylon stockings were terribly hard to come by during the war. 

It was wonderful to talk with these two great women who have seen so much change in their lives. And to hear them reflect on what an absolutely beautiful campus SRA used to be. They made it clear they were not pleased about the campus being closed, and a new one being constructed. "We thought the conference had all this money, back then." They said. They indicated they had to be sold on the idea, and trusted people they shouldn’t have. It sounded like a very controversial time. 

How many girls came sweeping out of this entryway in their church clothes, all dolled up in their 1970s best? How many boys stood outside these doors wishing to be on the other side? 

The mold and decay smells overpowered me and I had to leave. I knew mom would be heartsick if she saw what happened to a place she lived for three years. A place where she met lifelong friends and met my dad. I felt awful seeing the state of it all. 

I caught up to my dad who was explaining to my husband about how the campus was heated. He pointed to the sidewalks and said that underneath them were the tunnels that piped coal-powered boiler heat to the entire campus. 

My husband headed closer to the Ad building. 

There was a hole just cut out of where doors used to be. I looked inside. 

I was sick at heart to a) see the state of it and b) see HORSES living in this! They looked so lonely. I was afraid the ceiling was going to collapse in on them. 

And here is what remains of this side of the Ad Building.

We followed dad to the front of the Ad building. There were still some paths left around campus. 

I love the front of the Ad Building. I think it’s imposing. There used to be a sign over this entrance that indicated it was built in 1948.

Another hole cut right in the side of a beautiful building to store an old grain truck. What a shame. 

You can see how many windows are knocked out.

Here is the entrance to the Ad Building. 

And don’t you love this architecture? I think it’s so art deco and cool. 

Dad says that this is where the boys would say goodnight to their girlfriends under the watchful eye of a faculty member. Then the girls would head to the left and and boys to the right to their dorms.

Here is a photo of the same building via the 1975 school yearbook. 

Below: a photo from the 1976 SRA yearbook taken kind of in the area above between the Ad Building and the Boys’ Dorm. That’s my mom, second from left!

I made my way away from the front of the Ad Building.  I never even went here and it was getting depressing. However, my dad didn't seem to feel that way which was good.

I love finding little details like this buried in the brush. Little brick columns, just adding to the pretty campus. From what I’ve seen on old video, this campus was so nice.

Here is a yearbook photo taken in 1975 near the same spot. One of my mom’s good friends, Karlene, second from right.  She’s still my friend today!

Here’s a view of the columns (you can hardly see them) as seen from the front of the Ad Building. 

We headed back to this Auditorium building which is near the Ad Building. 

Dad said they’d go here for rec time after supper. He’d walk with mom to the front of the Ad Building and they would say goodnight. 

We went around the side. 

Dad said there used to be a weight room back here he would use. He of course made a comment about how he recognized the full potential of how "ripped” he could be. Those who know my dad know his sense of humor. 

Flashback! Here are some photos of the gym from the 1976 SRA yearbook:

Backing away from the auditorium building. The building on the left were the bathrooms that campers and cabin dwellers used to use during camp meeting (we’ll get to that!) And on occasion students would meet there for boy/girl shenanigans. Scandalous. 

In part two we will continue to explore this part of campus - the camp meeting cabins, and circle back around for a tour of the boy’s dorm and more! Stay tuned for part two!

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*Please be kind to me and others! No need for nasty comments.*

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Thank you for taking the tour with us! It takes time to photograph these places and edit the photos, and I happily share for all to enjoy. If you’ve enjoyed or appreciated this trip back in time to SRA, please consider supporting me with a donation of a couple bucks! You can donate here, or if you’re interested in prints you can find them here! If you can’t find the print you’re looking for, please let me know and I’ll be happy to help.

[fairskyabove]

are you still into hadestown? because i'm really curious about what you think of the broadway version if you've listened to its audio, or at least the london version, since i know you hated the edmonton one.

i’m still super into hadestown and i actually saw the broadway production two weeks ago, i just never actually posted my thoughts about it! but i had literally so many, so here they are now! 

ok a couple things before i go off. i’m going to talk about the things i loved first and the things i didn’t love as much after that. all of these are my personal opinions. feel free to disagree with me, and i’m always so happy to talk about the show so dm me or send me asks if you want to talk about anything more or just tell me your opinions because i really want to hear what other people think! but if you’re just going to tell me i’m wrong maybe don’t do that because it’s not productive and i’m not interested! 

also i didn’t spoil a lot of the things that i thought were really cool reveals but i did talk about some things so if you’re trying to go into the show blind maybe don’t read beyond this. ok here we go!

things i loved:

ok the absolute most striking thing for me was the tech of this show in all aspects. it’s maybe the most impressive and innovative i’ve ever seen, and i’m so glad i got to see it after i’ve started working on theater tech so i have some appreciation of what it took to put it together. i could literally talk about this for hours so i’ll just briefly talk about set and lighting so this isn’t 5000 words long.

the set is so well thought out, it looks simple but polished at the top of the show, and then it slowly reveals all of its tricks as the show goes on, and every reveal is so striking and well done and had such an effect on me. also in a post-ham.ilton time when a lot of shows are using turntables, this is maybe the best use of it that i’ve seen. it fits so well with the themes of the show (movement, uncertainty, wind/storms) and it’s used so sparingly and thoughtfully. and the ELEVATOR wow it’s used so well! everything in the set that would be gimmicky in any other show is so effective in this one.

the lighting is also so effective and impressive, the way the cues work with the music enhances both of them so well, and the way light was used was really exciting. even just the overhead lights were doing really interesting things (hey, little songbird is the song that still sticks out the most to me for this), but then they also have the orange lights lining the stage and the swinging lamps and the headlights and all of it was just amazing i loved it so much.

this cast!! this has been talked about so many times so i won’t go into it a ton but highlights: 

amber gr.ay is doing something amazing up there, all of her choices were way different from what i expected from the audios, the way she moves her body is so interesting and disturbing in a great way 

patrick p.age is perfect as we all know, he has such a presence and he was made for this role. nothing new here

eva n.oblezada can do anything i love her and her version of eurydice. even though she’s not given ideal characterization she does so much with it and did i mention i love her

things i didn’t love:

alright let’s talk about re.eve. on the bright side, his singing is miles better than it was in edmonton and definitely fine to listen to, but i was never especially impressed by his voice, especially for such a vocally impressive role. i also genuinely didn’t like his acting choices, they don’t fit at all with my idea of the character. he plays orpheus super awkward and nervous and uncomfortable the entire time, which made it hard for me to believe that he could change the world like he does. also, playing against eva’s super confident and brash eurydice, i didn’t really see any reason for them to be in love, which is a huge problem because then i had no reason to root for them and it really undermined the tragedy of the ending. the way it is now, hades and persephone are way more interesting as a love story than orpheus and eurydice which is a combination of some acting choices and some rewrites that make their story a lot less complex and take a lot away from both of their characterizations, but it kind of sucks when i know how much i’m supposed to care about them.

story/lyric changes: again, i have a lot to say about this so i’ll only talk about a couple because otherwise literally no one is going to make it through this post

i’m going to start with the epics, because i’m really frustrated about them. the original versions of these songs were so lyrically complex and interesting and some of the best lyrics i’ve ever heard. they’ve been completely changed and and lyrics have been simplified so much that now they’re all repetitive and boring and obvious, it sounds like orpheus is just singing the thoughts that come to mind about persephone and hades to an aimless melody and it’s not even enjoyable to listen to. this also makes epic iii lose all of its dramatic power and honestly makes it unclear why hades would change his mind just based on the song. i saw it with my friend who didn’t know anything about the show or any of its previous versions, and she said she thought epic iii was a really stupid moment in the show and i agree, i have no idea why they decided to change the lyrics like that

they changed a lot of hermes’ lines so now he’s a parental figure to orpheus and apparently raised him? which i guess i don’t necessarily hate it’s just a weird change and confused me

and finally, promises. i made a huge deal about this after edmonton and i do appreciate that they put it back to being an actual song, but the entire point of the song is still ruined. orpheus and eurydice never realize that they don’t trust each other and they never call each other out on anything, they just make up without ever doing any work on their relationship which just takes away so much of what makes their story complex and interesting. the reason orpheus turns around has also changed, now it’s because he thinks hades tricked him instead of him losing faith in eurydice, which again just glosses over all the issues in their relationship. i could talk about this forever but overall i’m just really disappointed that there was a really intriguing and tragic love story and they took out all of the interesting things about it.

if you read this far you’re my hero. i’m sure you’re tired of hearing what i think by this point but if not feel free to ask about more specific things! i still have thoughts i didn’t talk about! also tell me what you think!!

[taz-writes]

Introduction to Nymia/Colorverse

I mentioned making a post about that other secondary storyverse the other day, right? Well, here it is! (Fair warning, this is less of an active WIP than a concept I like to play with—I probably won’t create any finished product for this world for a WHILE. It’s more of a creative sandbox than a proper novel-in-the-making.)

TLDR; magical girls/boys in a fantastical 1800s steampunk-adjacent setting work together (with varying levels of success) to right the wrongs of the world they live in. Although they were all trained together for a few years in their early teens, it’s been a while since they’ve reunited, and they’ll have to contend with challenging geography, a generations-long war, and their own clashing ideologies before they’ll be able to start figuring out what the problem is. The whole thing’s 90% driven by my love of dramatic irony and secret identities.

Genre-wise, this is another fantasy, but it has a very different flavor from Feilan. It’s also a bit more mature in general, straddling the YA/NA line because of the ages of the protagonists. The timeline flipflops and some scenes are set during the squad’s Academy days as young teenagers, but the real plot happens when they’re in their early 20s. I wouldn’t say this is darker--Feilan gets super fucked up in places--but it’s probably going to feel a little less optimistic, and there are more shades of grey. 

The Colors

Regardless of where in Nymia one hails from, everyone knows of the colors. You may know them as gods, or archetypes, or spirits, or ancestors, but their influence is ever-present and ever-powerful regardless.

The colors are manifestations of human symbolism and belief. They began as formless congregations of a natural energy that flows throughout the planet, and as early humans developed civilization and encountered them, they began to take on the traits of certain colors in the spectrum of light. They are influenced by humanity, and influence humanity in turn—more like primal forces of nature than thinking, feeling beings. Despite this, though, they have clear wills of their own and personalities. They’re sort of... human-adjacent, but ultimately something greater. Human mages are able to draw on the powers of the colors and cast magic based on their color of choice!

The precise meanings and powers of the colors vary by the culture and social class of the believer, but they are worshipped across Nymia, and plenty of patterns pop up. Unfortunately, most of Nymia doesn’t get along—of the four realms consisting the continent, two have been at war for generations, and the remaining two are somewhat isolated from both the warring countries and each other.

Each generation, the colors choose humans to wield their powers and enact their will to encourage peace and balance throughout the realms. These humans are called the Paladins. They’re not very well-known, though, because the last few generations of paladins were not strong enough to make a significant difference or achieve much of anything. This generation, those paladins are our protagonists! Which brings me to...

The Characters

This storyverse is WAY more character-driven than my other WIP, which is why I keep dodging around it and hiding from a plot, but the characters are the best thing I’ve got going here. I won’t beat around the bush, just introduce them.

Talxin Zatruc is the Paladin of Red! He’s really short, he barely hits 5’3”, but there’s a lot of intensity packed into that petite form. Red is the color of plague, poison, decay, and death. As such, they tend to be vilified in most places, and redmages aren’t winning any popularity contests. To Talxin, though, red means something else. He was raised dirt-poor in the country by parents trapped in Elcrin’s broken legal system, and to them, red is the color of justice. All things are equal in death, after all. His red magic isn’t limited to just killing people. He’s not a very trusting person, and he tends to stammer a lot and bow out of conflict, but there’s a core of steel under his surface. He’ll cross any line if it means achieving a better world. He’s like, my way of protesting about how badass Anakin Skywalker could’ve been if the Star Wars writers gave a shit.

Syzyga Lazuli is not in fact associated with the color blue! She’s the Paladin of Orange, who represents exploration, navigation, innovation, and human ingenuity. In her native country of Kelrie, she’s in constant demand fixing trade ships and assisting mapmakers, but her true passion lies elsewhere. Syz is an avid inventor, constantly creating new ways to make the world a better and more exciting place. Remember Master Builders from the LEGO movie? That’s basically what Syz’s orange magic does, it’s pretty cool. One of her trickiest creations is the wired mechanical “exoskeleton” she wears on her arms (cooler name pending), which compensates for an extreme hypermobility disorder she’s dealt with since childhood. Her ultimate dream is to create a functional flying machine—something that many orangemages have attempted, but none have succeeded in so far. She likes pointy things, stargazing, and using said hypermobile hands to occasionally one-up Nyrene’s attempts to freak people out.

Soenya Arrenya is the Paladin of Yellow. The emoticon :} is an accurate summary of her personality. Yellow is associated with weather and natural disasters as a trickster archetype, but they are also a patron of underdogs and comedians. They’re one of those archetypes whose interpretations vary wildly by location. Soenya hails from a remote town in the northern Sapiran tundra, the kind of place where ice tornadoes are things that exist, and her notion of practicality is... we’ll just say, it’s a bit different from the city-dwellers’. She doesn’t have much concept of property damage (or property). She’s really flirtatious and will hit on just about anyone, which embarrasses her colleagues sometimes, to the point where most of the other paladins figure she’s just doing it to mess with them. She and Nyrene do NOT get along.

Darrus Colere is the Paladin of DICK MAGIC Green, and I did NOT draw him buff enough in this picture. He needs to be like twice as buff and twice as Big. He’s almost 6’4” and deserves to be built like an Olympic deadlifter. Green is associated with healing, plant life, fertility, and sexuality. They’re one of the only two colors ever given a gender, as in Sapir Green also represents masculinity. Darrus is valid to fuck. Unfortunately he’s also easily flustered and a little bit dense, he tends to get strange ideas in his head and it takes a LOT of pushing to redirect him. He’s got inertia. Darrus cares more about plants than most people, he will run after you crying if you step on “his” grass. He and Talxin shared a room at the Academy as baby 13-year-olds and they’d fight constantly because Talxin kept accidentally killing Darrus’s houseplants with poorly-controlled red magic. Also, he’s genuinely terrified of Talxin, which in terms of sheer physicality is hilarious. At his core, he’s a very caring person! He expresses affection by lecturing people on your behalf. It’s kind of sweet. He’s from Kelrie like Syz, but the other side of the country.

Anlied Atidae is the elusive Paladin of Blue. Raised in the upper echelons of Sapiran society, she’s still grappling with the extremely repressed behavior she was raised to exhibit, but even behind her veil of mystery she’s a strange and deeply thoughtful individual. Blue is the archetype of thought, philosophy, emotion, and the human mind. In Sapir, Blue represents femininity. Although private, Anlied is very sincere in her desire to help others. Her life of privilege and nobility tends to blind her to the reality she lives in, though, and even as an adult she is very naive. She’s all about the conceptual thought exercise of fixing the world but stalls short in horror when presented with an actual problem. Despite using magic that specializes in emotion and the mind, she has very little awareness and understanding of her own emotional experience. Rationality is prized above all else in Sapiran society, particularly in the noble circles Anlied grew up in, and it is considered taboo to express any kind of emotion outside of a Blue temple. As emotions are sacred to Blue, they should be shown to Blue alone. Some Sapiran royals will even veil their faces in blue fabric as the ultimate expression of non-expression. This culture.... this culture seriously messed with Anlied’s head.

Nyrene Enkeli is the Paladin of Purple and the team’s most infamous wildcard. She’s tall, skinny, pointy, and an avatar of mayhem—literally. Purple is, among other things, the archetype of chaos. They also represent cycles, wisdom, and the passage of time. Nyrene really likes knocking people off-guard, and can produce an impressive variety of disturbing noises. She also swallows swords, spits fire, and juggles like a fiend. She’s the sole representative among the paladins of Nemmonay—an elusive free state off the coast of Kelrie that shelters pirates, outlaws, and a dozen other criminal elements holding each other together in a perilous state of organized anarchy. Nyrene is the embodiment of that trope where a character has to remove all their weapons, and holds up the line for 20 minutes picking tiny knives out of their hair and bootsoles. Upon first glance, she seems like she’s totally off her rocker. She says weird stuff that doesn’t make sense, and does weird stuff for shock value alone, and generally moves like a cat that’s seen a ghost in the corner. What she really is, though, is a bona fide genius. Nyrene’s purple magic allows her to travel through time to a certain extent, and she’s often balancing two or more perfect loops at once, with some really bizarre caveats added to make sure the streams don’t cross. She has a lot of ulterior motives. She considers Syzyga her best friend, because Syzyga is the only person who hasn’t panicked at the sight of spontaneous sword-swallowing. She really doesn’t get along well with Soenya.

Pariya Spinel is the current Paladin of Pink, though she wasn’t the first in this generation. The OG pink paladin turned out to be such an unspeakably awful person that Pink themself appeared to strip her of her status. Pariya joined the group late and didn’t have much time to get to know the others, which she’s rather self-conscious about, but pretty much everyone likes her. She doesn’t have too much to worry about. Pink is a tricky archetype to pin down. They’re associated with creation, they’re the pantheon leader, and they have symbolic ties to space and the heavens. In practice, this means Pariya has the power to create things like energy constructs or even just simple objects. It’s a difficult and tiring power to use but has the potential to be super broken. Pariya isn’t very good with her magic, and she’s extremely anxious and self-conscious about it, to the point where her nerves may be preventing her from doing much of anything at all. She’ll get there, one day...

So, yeah! That’s the squad! Not pictured is Rovato, whom I’ve mentioned briefly on this blog before—he’s the main antagonist in this universe. He’s a paladin of Silver. Silver used to be part of the pantheon, once upon a time, but they’ve been forgotten over the last few generations for an assortment of reasons. Most of those reasons have to do with Rovato. As purple represents chaos, silver represents order, and the exertion of will upon the whims of the natural world. Silver once had different aspects in the same way the other colors do, and in Sapir they actually represented change and manipulation—this is the aspect Rovato exploits. He’s used some loopholes in the magic system to make himself into a near-immortal shapeshifter and he wants power and stuff. I’m still working out the plot, so this could change, but that’s what I have right now. 

The general backstory is that the Paladins were gathered together by the elusive headmaster of the Academy, a school on an unclaimed island meant specifically to train each generation’s set of paladins and prepare them to bring peace to the world. While at the Academy, they were not allowed to share their real names or anything about their origins, so that they couldn’t judge each other for their differences and stuff. The paladins are spread across the continent to represent all four realms and every end of the class spectrum and the whole point of the team is to encourage unity. Can’t have them being racist at each other! Unfortunately, the status quo of the war between Sapir and Elcrin shifted dramatically during their third year at school, and they were sent back home before being allowed to learn each other’s names and origins and all that stuff. Now, approximately five or six years after the Academy disbanded, something is happening that can only be resolved by the paladins themselves. So now they have to get the team back together, and seek each other out across national borders and geographic obstacles and LOTS of weird culture clash. I’m still working on figuring out what’s happening. Like I said, the plot’s a work in progress.

And that’s that! I don’t know how much I’ll talk about these guys here, since the colorverse story has been on my back burner for a LOOOOONG time, and I still want to get through Feilan in the next century. But I wanted to introduce them, so I could talk about them without confusing literally everyone. They’re my second-oldest set of OCs after the fairies and I care about them quite a lot. 

[graciecatfamilyband]

Leia, Princess of Alderaaan Review*

*Really just a mixture of my thoughts/impressions/feelings. Way too long. 

Note: So, after almost a year of “defending” certain choices made in Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray, I decided to actually read the darn thing. It might surprise people to hear I hadn’t yet, since in some ways I was a very vocal “supporter.” The truth is, I usually don’t enjoy Star Wars books very much, and prefer whatever I or my fellow fans make up instead, so I was never particularly interested. When the “controversy” hit, I never “defended” it out of any attachment to the book or its author, but out of a belief that most of the storytelling choices that were decried as out-of-character were actually legitimate possibilities for Leia’s history either in this book or in fanfiction stories, regardless of whether or not they were a part of anyone’s personal canon. It was entirely possible that LPOA itself was out-of-character trash. Based on the excerpts and summaries and spoilers I’d read to engage with the criticisms of it, it did not seem to me that it was- but I hadn’t read it, so I couldn’t definitively say. If it were trash, though, the fact that Leia speaks to people her own age or had a boyfriend (also her own age) weren’t to me among the reasons why. And that in particular is what I was so vocal about.  

Finally, however, I figured if I was gonna go down in fandom history as one of the people who “supported” LPOA, I might as well actually read it and find out whether or not I actually liked it.

I’m so glad I did. I liked it *immensely.* Far beyond what I would have thought.

Here’s the TL;DR version, and then I’ll post a more detailed gushing review under the cut. Spoilers included. 

1. It is as much a political thriller as it was a coming of age novel. Which is exactly my jam. 🙏🏻 I knew every major plot point going into it, and it still somehow left me dying to know what would happen next. Sure, it’s written at a “young adult” level so it’s not incredibly “advanced” as a “political thriller” goes- but it got the job done much better than I thought it could have. (And for a YA political thriller, I think it is actually incredibly advanced.) I had SO MUCH FUN reading it. SO MUCH. 

2. It was practically perfect as a “prequel”. It managed to do its own thing without “stepping“ on the original trilogy at all. The backstory for Leia is good, plausible, in-character, and manages to allow her to grow (essential for a coming-of-age novel) while leaving tons of room for the character growth we see in the OT. It inevitably won’t be everyone’s personal backstory for Leia, and that’s okay. But I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t a legitimate, sensible possibility. 

3. It captured this stage of Leia’s development so well, which it turns out is something that’s really important to me. 

Leia was to me the perfect balance of intelligent/well-educated/innovative/tenacious and still learning the ropes as a political player. Navigating a tyrannical government and wrestling with how to respond in a way that is likely to be effective is something almost every character in this book wrestles with (save characters like Tarkin), and Leia engages with it on a level that is sophisticated even though it’s also age-appropriate. I knew a couple more things than the Leia of this book, but that’s understandable- I am much older than she is in this book, and if she knew everything already, there would be no development, no story, and indeed, there would have been no childhood for her. She is coming out of childhood in this book and learning as much as she can, and it’s just so…. appropriate, believable, wonderful. And she’s no fool; she knows a LOT, she was well and duly educated in her childhood, and she pieces together things very quickly. (I must say, she’s also much braver and more ballsy than I, which is also in-character.) 

I also loved the way the book handled the changing attachment/relationship to one’s parents and the anxiety and distress that comes with that (especially when one has had a close relationship to one’s parents) in adolescence. I loved how that resolves as both the young adult and their parents learn to have a new, more adult-to-adult relationship. (It also fit my headcanon of the Organas being a loving and close-knit family, which I deeply enjoyed.) 

I love how the book allowed Leia to start building much closer relationships with same-age peers, and that this was both a part of her learning to separate from her parents and define herself (not to become the same as any of her peers but to learn from them and accept certain ideas and reject others) as well as a part of her laying the foundations for the coming civil war (after all, they are going to need as many allies as they can get). 

This is probably my favorite thing about it, because I am a nerd interested in and care about adolescent development. I don’t think I’ve ever read a Star Wars book that cared as much about character, character development and growth, and psychological motivations, which is why I enjoyed it so thoroughly, especially as compared to other SW books.

5. I could not recommend it more highly. 

Spoiler-y unnecessary ramblings under the cut. 

More Things I Loved About It 

Leia loves storms. YAS.

We get to see Leia spearheading her first (legitimate) diplomatic missions!!!! And doing things on her own for the first time as an Apprentice Legislator (rather than simply as her father’s intern)!!!! And learning to exercise leadership with people who’ve known her since she was a kid! And fucking up in very understandable ways- ways that don’t infantalize her, but are normal for a young politician learning to navigate her way through this political terrain with limited information, and sometimes in ways that still trip up seasoned politicians because they are literally traps laid by the Empire. We need to see Leia make mistakes in a book like this / in any story of her adolescence, and to learn from them- and they need to be mistakes that don’t take away from her overall competence or character. This book does that very well. 

I loved reading about the ways Leia attempted to learn all her parents knew and to help them in their respective positions throughout her childhood. I love that Leia interned for her dad for several years in the Imperial Senate by this point! 😍😍😍 And all the little “her dad always told her”, “her mom always said” moments in this book are just beautiful and very in-character for both Bail and Breha. I love that as Princess of Alderaan and as a member of the Organa family, Leia has always looked to them for guidance on how to rule, who to be, what skills she needs, etc. and worked hard at those things. That all seemed very in-character to me. 

I love the familial and parent relationships, period. I’ve already said how much I adored the way this book represented the push-pull of the parent-adolescent relationship, and how much I love that this book nevertheless gives her loving familial relationships as her foundation. It was so wonderful to read these little moments of the Organa family, both when they were struggling and when they were finding more common ground. These relationships were also very “3D” to me, human, what I personally would “ideally” want for Leia without being “too” ideal or unreal. I didn’t know how much I needed to ready more of the Organa family all together until I read this book.

I love that this book was able to make me angry at Bail Organa (my bae 💚)- sometimes quite repeatedly- without making him out-of-character or an ass; that’s not easy to do. It was clear he had his own character struggle work through, and as difficult as that was for me as a Bail fan, it seemed in-character to me, came from a place of deep love, added layers to him, and made the intimate moments between him and Leia and the resolution between them that much more satisfying. 

Breha Organa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 💜🙏🏻😍🙌🏻👑🙌🏻😍🙏🏻💛💜 What a queen, what a leader, what a mother. I loved watching her differ in her opinions from Bail, and handling some of the differences between them including how to approach the Rebellion, and their daughter. I found it interesting and unexpected that she accepted the reality that the Rebellion would eventually mean civil war sooner than Bail did, but in a way that worked very well.  

Bail and Breha’s marriage. It’s so wonderful that they have such a beautiful partnership, in which they can wrestle with difficult questions, and disagree, and even need space from each other, and yet always come back to each other and support each other in their endeavors (and enjoy a bit of romance too). It’s exactly what I’ve always wanted and headcanoned between them. 

I thought it might be distracting to me that Bail and Breha and Alderaan might vary in small ways from the ways that I have headcanoned them. For example, the pulmonodes thing is kind of aesthetically cool, and it is nice to see someone in the GFFA with some robotic/mechanical parts who is described as the opposite of evil/ the embodiment of warmth, but is a major departure from how I’ve seen Breha for years, and that kind of thing is always a struggle for me. But it turns out it’s much more difficult for me to engage with when it’s an abstract post on Tumblr. In the book, it didn’t bother me almost at all? It was subtly and well-integrated, and the character was so well-done, that it didn’t matter that’s not how I had seen Breha and is not (as of now) part of my personal headcanon. 

 Candlewick flowers 🕯🌹 are such a gorgeous addition to the GFFA.

I think it’s great that there was a process for Leia declaring her intention to pursue the throne and at minimum a very challenging ceremonial way she had to earn it, even if it’s not the way I would have chosen. 

I’m going to go ahead and say on Alderaan they have basic guaranteed income. 👌🏻

It was so good to see the Captain Antilles of the Tantive IV and spend time on Alderaan itself (sad as it is too 😪). Like so many of the characters, I liked him and I’m incredibly sorry he’s dead within the first few minutes of ANH.

Lieutenant Res Batton is a treasure. 

Queen Dalné of Naboo is a character I’d actually love to see appear in later stories (including fics) that occur during the OT or afterward. Do she and Leia meet again? In what context? What is that like??? Although her reign has probably ended by then, Dalné help with the Rebellion in any way or with the rebuilding that comes after the Empire’s fall? I like the way they connected in this book, and I’d love for her and Leia to become friends. 

I had mixed feelings about Amilyn Holdo, but I appreciate that the inclusion of a female character who could be a peer to Leia and that she ultimately ended up being an important and foundational relationship both personally and “professionally.” @otterandterrier summed the good qualities of her character up to me nicely, saying, “I do appreciate [Amilyn] becomes closer to Leia, is a person who will inform her to not be set on her first impressions of people, and by TLJ is a long-time friend her age, rather than thinking all her childhood friends died.” Agreed. 

Mon Mothma 😍 🙌🏻. This book cemented Mon as a new fave of mine. Great to see her be such a positive and wise mentor to Leia, and to see her be able to see things that her parents (especially Bail) cannot yet. 

The cameos worked beautifully without being “too much.” Threepio’s was excellent, but Artoo’s was even better. Also, I was incredibly skeptical at the fact that there was a Millennium Falcon cameo, but it worked just perfectly. They succeeded at making the reader feel clever and “in on” it, which is 👌🏻. 

Thank the Alderaanian goddess that the romance was a side-plot and not the focus! 🙌🏻 It was great to see Leia have a book that allowed her to have so many different sides, and that her romance was one of those sides but not the exclusive or even the most important focus. The book could have survived without it, but Leia’s relationship seemed to me to add to the narrative rather than take away from it. 

It was such a great first romance, from a writing and story-telling standpoint. It absolutely did not threaten to overshadow the major romance of Leia’s life that most readers are so invested in, which is essential in a prequel story like this, but it was also a good experience for Leia even if it ended so sadly. I really like that the relationship was good and meaningful at the time, but it was also clearly not a relationship with longevity. This post on why Kier works so well as first love is a very good one. I also just really genuinely liked Kier as a character, even if ultimately I disagreed with him and of course don’t want him to end up with Leia “forever.” 

The Chalhuddan storyline was 😍😍😍. I loved that they insist that Leia require something of them before accepting her mercy mission donation and calling out her “wealthy saviorism.” I love that she exercises good diplomatic judgment in how she handles that, and that it ultimately turns into the beginning of a potentially lasting political alliance between her and them. Again, I just love the political elements of this book in general, and this was 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻. I’d love to see them again in fic or wherever. 

I had a list of things that I did not like. I’ve already spoken about some of these in other posts. But honestly, this book gets so much vitriol hurled at it, and I loved it so much, that I just don’t want to include those things at this time. 

[serynuh]

i never know how to make my intros sound Cool™ and With the Times™, so i’m just gonna throw my name out there — it’s dri (she/her) !! — and Never Stop Talking. i’m eighteen, pst, and running on... not very many hours of sleep, so please excuse me if i seem all over the place. midterm season is here and it’s ready to Kick My Ass !!! anyway, here’s the lowdown on my girl seryna aka phantasm !! ( tw: death, murder )

°✧｡ [ BAE SUZY, SHE/HER ] it’s been two years since PHANTASM joined velia from NEVADA, USA. apparently their name is SERYNA KWON. they’ve been fighting as a SOLO member for a while now. didn’t people say they WERE a beta tester? i heard they turned TWENTY-TWO this year. let’s hope they make it out alive.

before velia:

seryna grew up in san diego, california, but she moved to nevada a few months after graduating from university (marketing with a minor in graphic design) for a job opportunity.

she had always been into video games as a young girl, but she gravitated toward dating sim-type games. she loved the ea imagine games (makeup artist was her favorite).

as she grew up, she continued to harbor a preference for games that had a romantic aspect to them, but her best friend, evelyn, took to mmorpgs and competitive gaming.

seryna being an only child, evelyn was the closest thing she had to a sister. she might as well have been a part of her family, seeing how often she was at their house. she had a helicopter mom, and seryna took any opportunity to feel less suffocated by her. it helped that her parents liked evelyn’s family.

the two of them shared a gaming channel on youtube since they were seventeen (if u kno geekremix, that’s basically how their channel would be like), and it had a fair amount of attention with a few hundred thousand subs. evelyn would stream on twitch as well, but their youtube channel was seryna’s baby, and she put a lot of energy and devotion into it.

seryna knew that evelyn was more popular among the two, but she tried to suppress any envious feelings she had.

she ended up becoming a beta tester mainly through evelyn’s influence. the only exposure she had to mmos was watching evelyn play, but the prospect of vr seemed to get her off the fence because it seemed innovative and interesting.

inside velia:

it’s safe to say that once they put on their headsets in the beta, she was Sold, so naturally, she came back for the full release.

and oddly enough, it seemed that she was waaaay more invested in the game than evelyn was. she wanted to know all the ins and outs of the game, try out all the items she could get her hands on. her enthusiasm was unbounding.

she and evelyn formed a small guild (wayfarers of polaris) with a guy and a girl that they knew from the gaming community. they weren’t beta testers, so seryna and evelyn served as guides to them at the start of the game, and seryna was their guild master.

being guild master was monumental for seryna because there was finally something she was better than evelyn at, even though it was in a game.

they made great progress and seemed to be leveling up well, not too far behind the front lines but also trying not to draw too much attention to themselves. however, on a fateful night toward the end of their first year in the game, seryna left them to buy food and items in celebration of defeating a monster. when she got back, though, no one was to be found, for they were eliminated (by a circus player, i’m thinking).

she feels guilty for what happened and truly believes that it’s her fault that they died. if she had been there, maybe they could have stood a chance.

also somewhat deluded into the idea that they’re not actually dead in real life despite all the proof that they are.

this event became a turning point for seryna. their eliminations sent her on a rampage. she wanted to know who killed her guild members, and she wanted nothing but vengeance. adrenaline high with anger, she encountered a male who made a joke about a “tough battle” (implying that players were lost). seryna took this as a threat, and she accused him of being the culprit. long story short, she eliminated him without hesitation, despite the fact that he was innocent. she wanted answers and her instinct settled on whatever lie she could tell herself.

she had never killed another player in the game, so just imagine her dropping her staff and staring at her hands after doing so, then bursting into tears. 

seryna is a mage and a really good one at that. direct combat... not so much, but she’s looking to improve for her own sake.

from then until now, she’s just doing whatever it takes to survive. she wants to survive, to get out of this game, and to see her friends again because of her belief that they’re not dead and the game master is lying to them. another part of her, however, doesn’t want to leave in fear of confronting the truth of the matter, which is that they’re gone for good.

so she’s strayed from the front lines, which halted her leveling progress. she also left the guild’s headquarters because all it does is remind her of her guilt, and the memory itself is a big enough burden to carry.

she’s fearful of joining another guild due to her guilt -- she’d rather be eliminated on her own than under someone else’s command -- and has trouble thinking about the concept of potentially replacing her lost friends.

since becoming a solo player, she spends a lot of time level grinding in lower-level areas. honestly, it’s turned into a form of stress relief.

the only people that really called her by real name were her irl friends. everyone else knows her as phantasm.

she’s got this thing going with a black hooded cloak. makes her feel cool and mysterious.

personality:

naturally creative, caring, and compassionate, which honestly showed up more evidently in real life, but she’s does little things here and there in game that make u go uwu owo u feel??

acts on instinct; she rly trusts her gut feeling

never apologizes first

earlier on in the game, she was quite willing to help out new players who hadn’t beta tested velia. she’s pretty generous, but after the Incident, she’s starting to look at people asking for help with caution

short-tempered. that’s all i gotta say about that.

i haven’t done any personality tests for her yet because she’s a new muse, but i’m feeling like she’s somewhere on the introvert side when it comes to myers-briggs and probably a chaotic/true neutral

after losing her guild, she became distrustful and aggressive, but it’s in her character to look for the good in people which makes her conflicted about her own actions

she’s a fake tsundere??? she can get attached to people suuuper easily, but she pulls tsundere antics because shes angery reax only

she just has to warm up to people because she’s a smol angery KDJLFHSK she gets so heated sometimes??? like, put her in a fridge... damn...

hot tip: don’t make a joke when she’s angry because u will end up like the guy she accused of eliminating her entire team

potential connections:

these are honestly just starting points we can build off of, and they can go anywhere tbh. i’m also chill with no established connections and working off of chemistry!

your character was a circus member that attacked and eliminated seryna’s guild. she clearly doesn’t know it’s them, but she has her suspicions about the circus’ involvement.

seryna met your character in the beta

seryna met your character at the start of the game, either before or after they found out they were trapped inside

your character has a relation with the guy seryna accused for attacking her guild. they could be thankful for her doing so for whatever reason, seek vengeance, or anything, really! it’s up to u!

they knew each other in the real world, whether it be online or in real life

your character is a solo player she partied up with before (she avoids partying up with the same person twice due to trust/abandonment issues but who knows)

someone give me angst  

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