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starlight-vixen-emiko · 3 years

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Adrigami Week 2021 Day 4: Alternate First Meeting

@adrigamiweek

I apologize if there may be a few errors, I wanted to work on this quickly.

I won’t give any context for this one because it’s a surprise.

Enjoy!

~~~~~

As nervewracking as it was that Kagami was starting her first day of high school in France, she headed in with her head held high. Regardless, some students still made fun of her for the Japanese school outfit she choose to wear out of comfort.

Adrien wanted to break out of home-schooling for once. He looked forward to making new friends, but his lack of social skills made him a fish out of the water, and he feared some of the students considered him weird. He decided to just keep walking down the hall.

Kagami thought she was surviving her first day of high school, and then the laughter of a girl named Lila had returned. She decided to not let it bother her.

"Hey, Kaga!" Lila cried as she pushed Kagami and caused her to fall and scatter her books. "Have a nice fall!"

Kagami got on her knees and glared at the horrible girl. Lila didn't know that Kagami was skilled in kendo and archery, but now wasn't a time to fight fire with fire.

As Kagami gathered her books, she didn't realize that Adrien was in the same hallway, and the blonde-haired boy's heart gave in as he knelt beside Kagami to pick up books.

"Here, let me help you," Adrien said gently.

Kagami lifted her head and met eyes for a gorgeous boy her age with beautiful peridot eyes. Adrien was just as enchanted by her as she was with him. He didn't expect to meet such a pretty girl on the first day of school.

Even if Adrien's face was heating up, he held out his hand. "I'm sorry that happened to you. You didn't deserve that."

Kagami was too busy blushing to say anything, so she took his hand, and just then, she felt her heart rate accelerate. Adrien felt energized as well, but he didn't think much of it.

Adrien helped both of them up, and he placed his hand on the back of his neck while trying to hide a blush.

"So…" He paused.

"Thank you so much," Kagami said with a grin.

Adrien held his hands out in defense. "Oh, it's no problem at all!" He dropped his hands and composed himself. "Anyway," He paused again, trying to fight back nervousness. "Is it possible I can get your name?" Kagami was very charmed that this blonde-haired boy was both attractive and awkward.

"Kagami Tsurugi," she said with a small bow.

“Nice to meet you, Tsurugi-San.”

Kagami was stunned that this boy seemed to know a thing or two about speaking Japanese, but she didn't want him to be too formal with her.

"You can just call me Kagami."

Kagami held her book close to her.

"Can I please get your name?" She asked.

Adrien shrugged. "I am Adrien Agreste, Paris' golden boy, you know." He said with a lack of enthusiasm.

Kagami remembered now, she did see Adrien on a few billboards, but they were so over the top and superficial. The Adrien right in front of her was sincere, and his true beauty shined through.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Agreste-San."

Adrien chuckled a bit. "You just call me Adrien, Kagami."

And he had to admit the pleasure was all his. Both of them didn't realize they were lost in each other's eyes until the school bell rang. Both of them snapped out of it and took a moment to get back to reality. They smiled at each other one last time before running in different directions.

It was such a brief meeting that ended abruptly, but little did they know they would meet as superheroes the second time they would meet.

Kagami met a little kwami named Long, and even though Kagami's life was already complicated enough, she agreed to transform. Adrien met up with a kwami named Plagg, and he was super eager to become one of the superheroes he read in the comics.

Adrien was free now. He was now Chat Noir, and he belonged to himself. He wasn't Paris' golden boy who suffered from harassment from crazed fans. And he enjoyed so much traveling Paris like a superhuman without a care.

Kagami was stunned, she looked like she came out of an anime, and she had powers! She could turn into water, air, lightning, and fire. And as weird as life suddenly got, she could feel herself in tune with all the elements. She was the dragon girl Ryuuko.

She turned into air again to get a bird's eye view of Paris. And it was beautiful, not just the view, but the freedom.

Adrien decided to test his high jump skills with the pole staff he had and held felt invincible high jumping against the blue sky. Until he was face to face with a girl who came out of the air.

The two of them gasped and lost their momentum as both of them fell. But Chat Noir couldn't allow a lady to fall and get hurt, so he grabbed her hand as he landed on top of a roof with the girl cushioned by his body.

He let out a soft groan of pain, and the girl tried to get up only for her lips to nearly brush against his.

Ryuuko felt terrible for doing something reckless, and she quickly picked herself up.

"Are you alright, M'lady?" Chat Noir asked.

Ryuuko walked over to the cat boy and checked him for injury. "I should ask you that question. You saved me." She held out her hand for him.

Chat took her hand, and he felt a familiar connection, but he just brushed it off as holding hands with a pretty girl.

When the cat finally got on his feet, he took a moment to flex a muscle. "All in a day's work. I cannot allow lovely ladies like yourself get harmed."

Ryuuko smiled and shook her head. "I appreciate it, kitty, but I am perfectly capable of handling myself."

When Chat got a closer look, he had to admit this dragon girl looked absolutely gorgeous. More pretty than the female superheroes in the comics. His smile curled, and he let out a soft purr.

"I will keep that in mind, Princess." Chat held out his hand. "I'm Chat Noir, by the way."

Ryuuko smirked at the charming kitty and took his hand. "But you make such a cute kitty. My name is Ryuuko, by the way."

Chat Noir gave a dreamy sigh and looked up. "Such a lovely name. But I think "Princess" still suits you." He said with a wink.

Just then, their miraculous beeped at the same time, and the both of them knew they needed to preserve their identities. But they felt such a connection to each other that they couldn't help but feel like they could trust each other with their identities. Although their kwamis would be very disappointed.

"Gotta go!" Chat cried. He took a moment to salute Ryuuko. "Hope to see you around, Princess."

Ryuuko blushed slightly under her mask. "Likewise."

Then like a speedy kitty, Chat Noir launched himself away using his staff, and Ryuuko took a moment to watch him before fading to air and floating away.

The both of them transformed back to their civilian forms feeling stunned. For Adrien, he met two beautiful girls in one day. And Kagami, two charming boys in one day.

Both of them wondered what fate had in store for them. But before they could wonder, lightning crashed.

Neither of them saw lightning or rain coming, and both of them ran. But the rain was falling fast and hard.

Kagami ran to a closed building that only provided a bit of shelter from the rain. All she could do was lean in and wait out the storm. But then she heard panting, and before she knew it, a boy with soaked blonde hair was running toward her and ran into her arms. Kagami was stunned, but she kept a hold on the boy.

"Oh god!" Adrien cried. "I'm sorry!"

Adrien lifted his head up and ended up shocked because he just now realized he ran into Kagami.

"Kagami!" He cried. His face was either red from the weather or from blushing.

"Hello Adrien," Kagami said. She had to admit she enjoyed holding him.

And then another big lightning bolt lit up the sky, and both of them cried in shock. Adrien stood up and wrapped his arms around Kagami, protecting her.

Kagami wished she could transform and beat the storm, and Adrien wished he could transform and get both of them out in a rush, even if no one likes a wet cat. But neither of them could risk having their identities found out.

So they held each other as the rain continued to fall, and they were willing to hold on to each other for as long as the storm would hold out. But surprisingly, the rain didn't last too long. Kagami and Adrien couldn't help but look up and see the rain become softer and the grey clouds starting to move. Both of them let go of each other without saying anything and walked out of their shelter. Adrien held out his hand to check for any remaining raindrops. Then he turned to Kagami. Her adorable short hair was now soaked.

"Are you alright, Kagami?" He asked.

Kagami nodded. "I'm fine, thank you, Adrien." She let out a bit of a loud sneeze.

"Oh god!" Adrien said as he got closer to her. "I should take you home."

Kagami turned away. "My home is a little far away."

Adrien placed his hands on her shoulders. "Then I'll take you to where I live, and we can get my chauffeur to drive you."

Kagami didn't want Adrien to go through the trouble, but at the same time, it was hard to argue with a guy who was being so gentlemanly. Not to mention Adrien took her hand and guided her.

Kagami honestly didn't want to go back home where everything was strict. She wanted to stay with him, even if she just met him today.

But after some time of walking together and feeling the sunshine, the self-driving car Kagami's mother was riding crossed their path.

"Mother!" Kagami gasped.

Kagami's mother took a moment to process her daughter's voice. "Kagami!"

"Where have you been?" She said a bit sternly.

Adrien looked down on her and noticed she felt a bit of shame.

"I'm sorry, mother," Kagami said.

Adrien took a moment to squeeze her hand. "It was my idea, Madame!" Adrien said. "I was just trying to take Kagami home."

Kagami's mother paused for a moment. "And who may this be?"

"A friend!" Kagami said. "His name is Adrien."

Kagami's mother took a moment to ponder. "Well, he does sound like a trustworthy boy. But I insist you come home with me right now, Kagami."

"Yes, mother." Kagami promptly opened the car door, but she couldn't help but turn to the blonde-haired boy smiling at her.

That smile was eventually going to drive her crazy.

"We'll see each other again, right, Kagami?" Adrien said.

Any sour mood Kagami felt today was sweetened thanks to him, and she managed to smile back.

"Of course we will."

And when Kagami got in the car, she couldn't help but look back at the adorable boy as the car drove away, and he watched her as the car drove away as well.

Adrien sighed happily, thinking how much changed on his first day of high school. Then he noticed a rainbow above him. It was surprising, and then he placed his hand over his heart.

Kagami was lost in thought sitting in the car, but eventually, she noticed a rainbow through the slightly opened window. She placed her hand over her mouth at another pleasant surprise of today, then she giggled.

So much had happened on their first meeting.

Author’s Note: Finally a longer fanfic! And now I have a headcanon that Adrien likes comic books!

Really I hope you lovebugs enjoyed this...I hope there wasn’t too many errors.

I will see you lovely lovebugs tomorrow! This is Emiko Gale signing out! <3

#adrigamiweek2021 #adrigami #otp #my writing #my fanfiction

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heresince93 · 5 years

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Full transcript of Gillian’s Telegraph interview

Gillian Anderson is hard to pin down. Is she American or English? (Her accent slips between the two, depending on who she is talking to.) Guarded or warm? (She can be either, based on her mood.) Tough or vulnerable? (Or both?)

When we meet Anderson is English and warm, talking about the birthday parties she has to organise (she has three children, Piper, 24, Oscar, 12, and Felix, 10); and although she is very petite, wearing white patent stiletto boots and slender black trousers, she exudes the commanding charisma that makes her perfect for her imminent roles.

Rumour has it that she will be playing Margaret Thatcher in an upcoming series of The Crown, the Netflix series created and co-written by her partner, Peter Morgan. No one is confirming this, but no one is denying it either.

Meanwhile, this month she stars in a new Netflix series, Sex Education, in which she plays a sex therapist who lives with her teenage son (Asa Butterfield). And in February Anderson has another plum role: Margo Channing in Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove’s much-anticipated adaptation of All About Eve, also starring Lily James as Eve, with music by PJ Harvey.

The play �� a modern reinterpretation of the 1950 film, which starred Bette Davis as Channing, a blazing Broadway star who is gradually supplanted by a younger rival – is about ambition and betrayal, femininity and anger, stardom and personal sacrifice.

Anderson’s is a bravura role, one that requires not just the cool intensity that we have come to expect from her, but also humour. Channing is deliciously droll, delivering endlessly quotable lines with comic precision (‘I’ll admit I may have seen better days, but I’m still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut’).

‘A couple of years ago my boyfriend Pete said to me, “You know what would be a great role for you? Margo Channing,”’ Anderson says. ‘So I rewatched the film and I thought, “Oh my God, how much fun would that be!”’

Anderson, not one to wait for opportunity, discovered that theatre producer Sonia Friedman had the rights to the script and was working on it with van Hove – Cate Blanchett was set to be Channing. ‘So I thought, “Ah OK, I’ll just slink into the background.” Then my agents got a call to say that she [Blanchett] had backed out due to scheduling conflicts, and there was interest, and was I interested? So I was like, “Yes! When’s the meeting? Now?”’

Van Hove, on the phone from New York, is equally excited to be working with Anderson. ‘Margo needs someone who understands what the theatre is all about, someone who can carry a play, who can occupy the whole stage, and Gillian can do that; she is a fabulous theatre actress. Although, of course, she became iconic for me in the 1990s when she was in The X-Files.’

There is something a little surprising about Ivo van Hove, an avant-garde director celebrated for his reinterpretations of plays and operas such as Hedda Gabler, Antigone and Lulu, professing fandom for a mid-’90s sci-fi series; but that is to forget the huge cultural impact of The X-Files, its quality and its ingenuity.

The series was about two FBI agents, played by Anderson and David Duchovny, who attempt to unravel various natural and supernatural mysteries. No one expected it to become such a success, least of all Anderson, who was 24 when she was cast in the show. It was her first major role and it made her a star.

She won multiple awards for her portrayal of the sceptical Dr Dana Scully, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe. But such stardom often involves sacrifice and Anderson was suffering.

The production schedule for The X-Files was brutal, involving 16-hour days for nine months of the year. Furthermore, in 1994, aged 25, Anderson married Clyde Klotz, assistant art director on the series, and nine months later she gave birth to their daughter, Piper. After three years she and Klotz divorced. It was while she was pregnant that Anderson started having severe panic attacks.

‘I was having them daily,’ she explains, experiencing palpitations, numbness, ‘hallucinations, all of it’. Things didn’t get better once Piper was born. ‘I was a young mother, and shortly after that we were separating, and I was working these crazy hours. I remember periods of time when I was just crying, my make-up was being done over and over again and I was not able to stop crying.’

Anderson sought solace in meditation. ‘I went to somebody and there was a meditation we did together. We went to some quite dark places and I got to see that I could still survive those dark places, I was stronger than they were, and after that the panic attacks stopped.’

Anderson had been having panic attacks, on and off, ‘since high school’. As a teenager she was a daydreamer and a troublemaker who felt different from her peers in Michigan because of her childhood in Harringay, having left the ‘incy-bincy flat with a bathroom outside’ that she and her parents lived in when she was 11 years old, when her family moved back to the US.

‘I started falling in with groups and trying to fit in, until it got to the point when it was like, “I don’t f—ing want to fit in. I want to look completely different to all of you, and stop staring at me because I have a mohawk.” I’d shave the sides of my head with a razor blade and dye my hair different colours.’

Anderson’s parents, Rosemary and Ed, were living in Chicago and were both just 26 when she was born. Soon afterwards the family moved to London so Ed could attend film school, while Rosemary worked as a computer programmer.

‘My parents were working very hard and would often work late. I have lots of memories of playing by myself in the back garden and searching for friends in the neighbourhood because I didn’t have siblings.’

After moving back to America, Rosemary and Ed had two more children, a son and a daughter. Anderson admits that her adolescent waywardness might have been related to the arrival of two new babies in the house. ‘I made trouble and I got attention that way.’

Acting is another way to get attention, something Anderson learnt early on. ‘I remember being in a play when I was in primary school. I was meant to be a Chelsea fan. I started chewing gum on stage and blowing bubbles and got all the attention. I thought, “This is all right, everybody is watching me!”’

But when she reached 16 and started doing more professional productions in America, performing became fundamentally important to her. ‘I enjoyed the connection between performer and audience, the control. And I remember thinking, “I can do this. They are showing me I can do this.”

'It changed everything in my life, knowing I could do something. Prior to that there hadn’t been that moment yet when I found purpose and direction.’

Anderson decided that she wanted to pursue acting as a career and was accepted at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago. ‘From the very start of school I didn’t go into the dorms, instead I found an apartment with a roommate in a funky neighbourhood. I was the only one who was living out of school. That is my pattern, carving my own thing.

'All through [theatre] school I dressed like I was a member of The Cure. That was how I was in the world, grungy, not considered, not mature. I was forthright and gutsy – I drove myself to Chicago in my dad’s VW van – but slightly falling apart.’

She always knew she would return to England. ‘My childhood here, the smell of north London, it has such a massive tug on me. I really felt, when we moved to the States, that I would eventually have a life back here.’

She and Piper moved to the city after The X-Files ended its original run, and she went on to have two more children, Oscar and Felix, with her now ex-boyfriend, businessman Mark Griffiths (there was also a marriage to British documentary maker Julian Ozanne, which lasted for two years, with the couple separating in 2006).

Anderson, as DSI Stella Gibson, was imperious in her white silk shirts and high heels, unwavering in her pursuit of the serial killer played by Jamie Dornan. The screenwriter Allan Cubitt created the role of Gibson with Anderson in mind. ‘I wanted Gibson to be an enigmatic figure. Gillian is a riveting actress, but there is an aloofness to her as well. Also I was attempting to reclaim the idea of the powerful femme fatale, without the fatale; someone who is aware that her beauty can be used to help her ends. That she is unafraid of that was radical.’

Anderson was deeply involved in the creation of Gibson’s look, altering the way she thought about herself in the process. ‘What fascinated me about her, and I feel that we were able to find that in the costume design, was that the way she dressed never felt like it was for anyone else but her. I don’t think I have necessarily changed the way I dress since her, but I feel like I am certainly more conscious of what I wear and what it says.’

As a younger woman her style was ‘messy, like a discarded urchin’. She would wear oversized suits and ‘floppy dresses that I had probably stolen from the thrift store’. Whereas now her look is sleek, and she favours brands like Jil Sander, Prada and Dries Van Noten.

The Fall was about gender, power and desire; and it was while filming it in Belfast that Anderson began thinking more about the struggles that women face in the 21st century. ‘I was reading all these statistics about young girls being suicidal and having such low self-esteem and I thought, “Surely, given everything that we know, and the fact we are all having these feelings, can we not start a conversation about whether we want this and how to deal with it?”’

This morphed into her writing a book, We: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere, with her friend, the writer and activist Jennifer Nadel, in 2017. Alternating between pieces by Anderson and Nadel, it details their own personal struggles, and includes practical sections on how to deal with issues such as anxiety and low self-esteem using practices such as meditation, affirmations and gratitude lists.

‘We both know how it feels to be in emotional pain,’ says Nadel. ‘Both of us have felt lost, and found a spiritual way out. Both of us have experienced radical transformation as a result of the things that we wrote about in that book.’

Cubitt and Nadel each say that among the most impressive things about Anderson, as a collaborator, are her focus and drive.

‘I have never met anyone with Gillian’s ability to focus. And she has a certainty about things, she is not mired in indecision,’ says Nadel. What this means is not just an incredibly long CV, but numerous satellite projects. Anderson has a line of smart, grown-up clothes that she has developed with the brand Winser London (‘I didn’t realise I was so opinionated about buttons!’).

She also works for numerous charities, focusing especially on women’s rights and environmental issues. ‘Because of my work ethic and also having had such high expectations, both of myself and other people’s of me, at such a young age, I think it became near to impossible for me to relax at all, to do anything that wasn’t work-related, so a lot of my later adult life has been trying to force myself to do that, and I struggle so hard, and sometimes I lose sight of it. So there is a part of me that wonders if I am slightly addicted [to work], I learnt it so young.’

The scant spare time that Anderson allows herself is spent ‘going to the cinema, to the theatre, watching documentaries’.

Piper, who has just completed a degree in production and costume design, is now living in her mother’s basement, and the two of them recently went on a trip to Amsterdam to see van Hove’s four-hour stage adaptation of the Hanya Yanagihara novel A Little Life. That might not sound like everyone’s cup of tea, but Anderson loved it.

And despite all the seriousness and the self-examination (or perhaps because of it), she is good company, thoughtful and witty. She has, she says, got happier as she has got older, less self-critical, more self-accepting.

‘I am constantly reminded of the fact that I am not normal. But fortunately I have enough abnormal people around me to help me feel that it is actually OK.’

All About Eve is running at the Noël Coward Theatre from 2 February to 11 May 2019

#gillian anderson

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flexiblefish · 5 years

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Source:[X]

by Gavanndra Hodge 12 JANUARY 2019

'‘Because my parents were American and we lived here in the UK, there was always a sense of not quite fitting in. Because of that I’ve always felt a bit of an outsider. I have perpetuated that because that is what feels familiar to me, it is what feels comfortable,’ she explains. When we meet Anderson is English and warm, talking about the birthday parties she has to organise (she has three children, Piper, 24, Oscar, 12, and Felix, 10); and although she is very petite, wearing white patent stiletto boots and slender black trousers, she exudes the commanding charisma that makes her perfect for her imminent roles. Rumour has it that she will be playing Margaret Thatcher in an upcoming series of The Crown, the Netflix series created and co-written by her partner, Peter Morgan. No one is confirming this, but no one is denying it either. Meanwhile, this month she stars in a new Netflix series, Sex Education, in which she plays a sex therapist who lives with her teenage son (Asa Butterfield). And in February Anderson has another plum role: Margo Channing in Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove’s much-anticipated adaptation of All About Eve, also starring Lily James as Eve, with music by PJ Harvey. The play – a modern reinterpretation of the 1950 film, which starred Bette Davis as Channing, a blazing Broadway star who is gradually supplanted by a younger rival – is about ambition and betrayal, femininity and anger, stardom and personal sacrifice. Anderson’s is a bravura role, one that requires not just the cool intensity that we have come to expect from her, but also humour. Channing is deliciously droll, delivering endlessly quotable lines with comic precision (‘I’ll admit I may have seen better days, but I’m still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut’). ‘A couple of years ago my boyfriend Pete said to me, “You know what would be a great role for you? Margo Channing,”’ Anderson says. ‘So I rewatched the film and I thought, “Oh my God, how much fun would that be!”’ Anderson, not one to wait for opportunity, discovered that theatre producer Sonia Friedman had the rights to the script and was working on it with van Hove – Cate Blanchett was set to be Channing. ‘So I thought, “Ah OK, I’ll just slink into the background.” Then my agents got a call to say that she [Blanchett] had backed out due to scheduling conflicts, and there was interest, and was I interested? So I was like, “Yes! When’s the meeting? Now?”’ Van Hove, on the phone from New York, is equally excited to be working with Anderson. ‘Margo needs someone who understands what the theatre is all about, someone who can carry a play, who can occupy the whole stage, and Gillian can do that; she is a fabulous theatre actress. Although, of course, she became iconic for me in the 1990s when she was in The X-Files.’ There is something a little surprising about Ivo van Hove, an avant-garde director celebrated for his reinterpretations of plays and operas such as Hedda Gabler, Antigone and Lulu, professing fandom for a mid-’90s sci-fi series; but that is to forget the huge cultural impact of The X-Files, its quality and its ingenuity. The series was about two FBI agents, played by Anderson and David Duchovny, who attempt to unravel various natural and supernatural mysteries. No one expected it to become such a success, least of all Anderson, who was 24 when she was cast in the show. It was her first major role and it made her a star. She won multiple awards for her portrayal of the sceptical Dr Dana Scully, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe. But such stardom often involves sacrifice and Anderson was suffering. The production schedule for The X-Files was brutal, involving 16-hour days for nine months of the year. Furthermore, in 1994, aged 25, Anderson married Clyde Klotz, assistant art director on the series, and nine months later she gave birth to their daughter, Piper. After three years she and Klotz divorced. It was while she was pregnant that Anderson started having severe panic attacks. ‘I was having them daily,’ she explains, experiencing palpitations, numbness, ‘hallucinations, all of it’. Things didn’t get better once Piper was born. ‘I was a young mother, and shortly after that we were separating, and I was working these crazy hours. I remember periods of time when I was just crying, my make-up was being done over and over again and I was not able to stop crying.’ Anderson sought solace in meditation. ‘I went to somebody and there was a meditation we did together. We went to some quite dark places and I got to see that I could still survive those dark places, I was stronger than they were, and after that the panic attacks stopped.’ Anderson had been having panic attacks, on and off, ‘since high school’. As a teenager she was a daydreamer and a troublemaker who felt different from her peers in Michigan because of her childhood in Harringay, having left the ‘incy-bincy flat with a bathroom outside’ that she and her parents lived in when she was 11 years old, when her family moved back to the US. ‘I started falling in with groups and trying to fit in, until it got to the point when it was like, “I don’t f—ing want to fit in. I want to look completely different to all of you, and stop staring at me because I have a mohawk.” I’d shave the sides of my head with a razor blade and dye my hair different colours.’ Anderson’s parents, Rosemary and Ed, were living in Chicago and were both just 26 when she was born. Soon afterwards the family moved to London so Ed could attend film school, while Rosemary worked as a computer programmer. ‘My parents were working very hard and would often work late. I have lots of memories of playing by myself in the back garden and searching for friends in the neighbourhood because I didn’t have siblings.’ After moving back to America, Rosemary and Ed had two more children, a son and a daughter. Anderson admits that her adolescent waywardness might have been related to the arrival of two new babies in the house. ‘I made trouble and I got attention that way.’ Acting is another way to get attention, something Anderson learnt early on. ‘I remember being in a play when I was in primary school. I was meant to be a Chelsea fan. I started chewing gum on stage and blowing bubbles and got all the attention. I thought, “This is all right, everybody is watching me!”’ But when she reached 16 and started doing more professional productions in America, performing became fundamentally important to her. ‘I enjoyed the connection between performer and audience, the control. And I remember thinking, “I can do this. They are showing me I can do this.” 'It changed everything in my life, knowing I could do something. Prior to that there hadn’t been that moment yet when I found purpose and direction.’ Anderson decided that she wanted to pursue acting as a career and was accepted at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago. ‘From the very start of school I didn’t go into the dorms, instead I found an apartment with a roommate in a funky neighbourhood. I was the only one who was living out of school. That is my pattern, carving my own thing. 'All through [theatre] school I dressed like I was a member of The Cure. That was how I was in the world, grungy, not considered, not mature. I was forthright and gutsy – I drove myself to Chicago in my dad’s VW van – but slightly falling apart.’ She always knew she would return to England. ‘My childhood here, the smell of north London, it has such a massive tug on me. I really felt, when we moved to the States, that I would eventually have a life back here.’ She and Piper moved to the city after The X-Files ended its original run, and she went on to have two more children, Oscar and Felix, with her now ex-boyfriend, businessman Mark Griffiths (there was also a marriage to British documentary maker Julian Ozanne, which lasted for two years, with the couple separating in 2006).

In the UK Anderson’s career developed in a way that might not have been expected for the golden girl of ’90s sci-fi. She took juicy roles in big-budget period dramas – Lady Dedlock in Bleak House, Miss Havisham in Great Expectations – and appeared on stage, at the Royal Court and the Donmar Warehouse. But it was her performance in the BBC detective drama The Fall, starting in 2013, that solidified her reputation as the go-to actor for female characters who are charismatic and powerful. Anderson, as DSI Stella Gibson, was imperious in her white silk shirts and high heels, unwavering in her pursuit of the serial killer played by Jamie Dornan. The screenwriter Allan Cubitt created the role of Gibson with Anderson in mind. ‘I wanted Gibson to be an enigmatic figure. Gillian is a riveting actress, but there is an aloofness to her as well. Also I was attempting to reclaim the idea of the powerful femme fatale, without the fatale; someone who is aware that her beauty can be used to help her ends. That she is unafraid of that was radical.’ Anderson was deeply involved in the creation of Gibson’s look, altering the way she thought about herself in the process. ‘What fascinated me about her, and I feel that we were able to find that in the costume design, was that the way she dressed never felt like it was for anyone else but her. I don’t think I have necessarily changed the way I dress since her, but I feel like I am certainly more conscious of what I wear and what it says.’ As a younger woman her style was ‘messy, like a discarded urchin’. She would wear oversized suits and ‘floppy dresses that I had probably stolen from the thrift store’. Whereas now her look is sleek, and she favours brands like Jil Sander, Prada and Dries Van Noten. The Fall was about gender, power and desire; and it was while filming it in Belfast that Anderson began thinking more about the struggles that women face in the 21st century. ‘I was reading all these statistics about young girls being suicidal and having such low self-esteem and I thought, “Surely, given everything that we know, and the fact we are all having these feelings, can we not start a conversation about whether we want this and how to deal with it?”’ This morphed into her writing a book, We: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere, with her friend, the writer and activist Jennifer Nadel, in 2017. Alternating between pieces by Anderson and Nadel, it details their own personal struggles, and includes practical sections on how to deal with issues such as anxiety and low self-esteem using practices such as meditation, affirmations and gratitude lists. ‘We both know how it feels to be in emotional pain,’ says Nadel. ‘Both of us have felt lost, and found a spiritual way out. Both of us have experienced radical transformation as a result of the things that we wrote about in that book.’ Cubitt and Nadel each say that among the most impressive things about Anderson, as a collaborator, are her focus and drive. ‘I have never met anyone with Gillian’s ability to focus. And she has a certainty about things, she is not mired in indecision,’ says Nadel. What this means is not just an incredibly long CV, but numerous satellite projects. Anderson has a line of smart, grown-up clothes that she has developed with the brand Winser London (‘I didn’t realise I was so opinionated about buttons!’). She also works for numerous charities, focusing especially on women’s rights and environmental issues. ‘Because of my work ethic and also having had such high expectations, both of myself and other people’s of me, at such a young age, I think it became near to impossible for me to relax at all, to do anything that wasn’t work-related, so a lot of my later adult life has been trying to force myself to do that, and I struggle so hard, and sometimes I lose sight of it. So there is a part of me that wonders if I am slightly addicted [to work], I learnt it so young.’ The scant spare time that Anderson allows herself is spent ‘going to the cinema, to the theatre, watching documentaries’. Piper, who has just completed a degree in production and costume design, is now living in her mother’s basement, and the two of them recently went on a trip to Amsterdam to see van Hove’s four-hour stage adaptation of the Hanya Yanagihara novel A Little Life. That might not sound like everyone’s cup of tea, but Anderson loved it. And despite all the seriousness and the self-examination (or perhaps because of it), she is good company, thoughtful and witty. She has, she says, got happier as she has got older, less self-critical, more self-accepting. ‘I am constantly reminded of the fact that I am not normal. But fortunately I have enough abnormal people around me to help me feel that it is actually OK.’

#gillian anderson #all about eve #nice article #a little more depth than usual

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gorogues · 5 years

Text

Johns and Kolins interviews, part 3

Cut for length.

Part One and Part Two are available at the links. This was supposed to be posted more three years ago, and it’s been sitting in my Drafts folder all this time. Oops.

I occasionally clarify things or add my comments in [ ] brackets and italics.

Geoff Johns

CBG: Here's a fanboy question: One of the familiar aspects of the Silver Age Flash was silly plots and transformations taken with utmost seriousness. Is this light-hearted element toast in today's grim-and-gritty environment? Or will you sometimes turn someone into a puppet just for fun?

Johns: You know, it all depends on the story. For Flash: Rebirth, there's going to be a lot of heart in that series, but we're not going to go back to 1960s-style stories where we have stand-alone stories where Barry Allen turns into a puppet. That stuff's fun and if you have Abra Kadabra, you can have a story incorporating those elements. But it's certainly not the main thrust of where I'm taking the book.

CBG: So you're saying there's no editorial edict, you're just following your story.

Johns: Yeah, there's no editorial edict saying “you have to do this or that.” I'm just kinda exploring what I want to explore with The Flash. For me [Flash] being turned into a puppet or being turned fat, those are `60s stories that are the same thing like with Superman, where they did a lot of great Superman stories back in the day involving red kryptonite, and since then they've done kinda modern-day versions of that.

<<snip>>

CBG: Another topic: I guess the Rogues are no longer guilty of murder with the return of Bart? Maybe just attempted murder?

Johns: They're all each guilty of murders multiple times over.

CBG: And they're still going to be a major element of the title?

Johns: Absolutely. For my money, I can't do a Flash book without the Rogues.

CBG: And Flash: Rebirth #1 brought back Mr. Element. Haven't seen him for a while.

Johns: I used him in my Flash run.

CBG: Which name was he using?

Johns: Dr. Alchemy. But I never really got into him and he's a character that might be coming soon.

CBG: Well, with the Philosopher's Stone, he's not exactly a lightweight.

Johns: No. To me, he's always the character that the Rogues were kinda like "We don't want to be anywhere near him".

CBG: Because he's crazy? Or dangerous?

Johns: Yeah, he's psychotic. The Rogues each have their issues, and they're all psychotic in their own way. But they're also sane enough, and lucid enough, to understand camaraderie and loyalty and stuff like that. They have their own code, and that's something Dr. Alchemy....he's just too far gone. The Rogues think they have honorable motivation at times, especially Captain Cold -- he knows he's a criminal, but he has standards. Alchemy doesn't have standards. He's scary.

CBG: I guess they regard Professor Zoom the same way?

Johns: Professor Zoom -- when's this [interview] come out?

CBG: June.

Johns: I can't really talk about Professor Zoom yet.

CBG: OK. But just in regard to how the Rogues think of him, though, do the Rogues kinda exclude him from the ‘clubhouse’ because he's kinda wacky?

Johns: Absolutely. But he also doesn't want to have anything to do with the Rogues.

CBG: Because he considers himself a hero, he helps heroes grow--

Johns: He has his own motivations.

*****************

Geoff Johns

Geoff Johns: I got a Facebook message today from someone who had never read a Superman comic book, even though they work at a comic store, until Superman: Secret Origin #1. And now, for the first time, she is reading a Superman comic and enjoying it. There are so many discussions about accessibility to today's monthly comics and my purpose with both Green Lantern: Secret Origin and Superman: Secret Origin is to introduce them, and in the case of current readers re-introduce them, to these characters. My hope is to continue these, most likely with The Flash: Secret Origin, which would include the beginning of the Rogues as well.

[Something we've never gotten, at least yet.. --Lia]

******************

Scott Kolins

Q: You've done a bit of work with The Flash of late with "Rogues' Revenge" and the upcoming "Blackest Night: The Flash," but are you excited to be back with The Flash on an ongoing basis?

Scott Kolins: Yes, very much. Working with Geoff is always a dream job, but it feels really nice right now to be back in the Flash universe for a while. It's very exciting. I love drawing Flash and the supporting cast. And he's got some of the best villains.

Q: Of The Flash's rogues do you have any favorites to draw and will we be seeing him during your run on the book?

SK: Grodd's always been my favorite and Geoff has planned a special Grodd story for me somewhere along the line. But really, I like them all. I'd love to do another Weather Wizard story. And of course Cold and Zoom are incredible so anytime to draw them is special. Geoff even mentioned another Cicada story he'd like to get to sometime. And there are others I haven't really gotten to, like Computron, or even bring in other aliens, like the Dominators.

*****************

Geoff Johns

CBR: The other project you announced this weekend was "Blackest Night: Flash." When you were developing "Blackest Night" as a maxiseries, was a Flash tie-in series always in the plans?

Geoff Johns: Yes. It's always been part of the project. There's so much you can do with 'Blackest Night' and the Black Lanterns. If we were going to explore other characters, it was going to be Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, JSA and Titans. And so I always knew Flash was going to be a part of it. And I knew Scott was going to do it. We have a lot of dead Rogues and a lot of live Rogues, and Flash has to fight them, so it should be fun.

CBR: You and Scott obviously have a special bond. I mean, you always have a great relationship with the artists you work with, Ethan [Van Sciver] and Ivan [Reis] and Dale [Eaglesham] and Gary [Frank] and all the others, but you and Scott, appear to anyway, to feed off one another. Is it the character of Flash that you both love? Or just similar takes on storytelling? What is it that makes Scott such a perfect fit for you?

Geoff Johns: I think for me and Scott, it goes deeper than that. Scott and I started off together. We started off working on "Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E." So we did issues of "Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E " and then we did "Flash" when nobody else wanted to do it. They said, "You and Scott are following Mark Waid." And it was going to be a disaster. But we did our own take and our own spin and took Flash in a different direction, especially with the Rogues and Keystone and everything else.

With me and Scott, it's almost like a childhood friend. It's a different kind of bond, and I think with the Rogues, and Flash in particular, we're just extremely comfortable together in that universe. We're really happy to be working with those characters and we feel like we helped usher in those characters and again, especially with the Rogues. We actually first worked together when I first got into comics. So there's just something special about working with Scott.

In "Blackest Night: Flash," it's the Rogues versus the Black Lantern Rogues and Flash is caught in the middle. And Captain Cold will be facing off against Black Lantern Golden Glider. And Scott can do that. Scott can excel at that. There's just something about working with Scott that's just really a lot of fun and kind of magical for me. I love working with Scott Kolins.

CBR: When you were plotting "Blackest Night," were the dead Rogues characters that immediately came top of mind as possible Black Lanterns?

Geoff Johns: Absolutely, because there are so many dead ones. You've got Mirror Master, you've got Trickster, you've got Captain Boomerang, you've got a lot of dead Rogues and a lot of speedsters too.

***************

Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver

Geoff Johns: For a lot of the work, both on the Flash and his villains and surroundings, what we're harkening back to and looking at are the original comics by Carmine Infantino.

Ethan Van Sciver: Oh, and he was a genius! Geoff, I wasn't a big fan of that stuff until you turned me on to it.

GJ: He's a genius.

EVS: Really, you go back and you read those first 25 issues of Barry Allen, and that guy created some of the most original, interesting, compelling-looking characters, and not just The Flash, but all those Rogues were so...

GJ: They're so varied. I love that you've got, like, Abra Kadabra from the 64th Century, you've got Gorilla Grodd and the Gorilla City.

EVS: As good as Spider-Man villains, at least.

Newsarama: Will the Flash Rogues be in The Flash: Rebirth?

EVS: A few of them.

GJ: It can't be a Flash book without his Rogues, in my opinion.

****************

Geoff Johns

Q: Mark Bailie is a long-time fan and was wondering about a plot thread from your previous run on "The Flash." "At the end of your run on "The Flash" Vol. 2, we see Captain Boomerang dropped into the future during The Flash/Reverse Flash battle, and we also have the re-animated Captain Boomerang telling Ashley Zolomon that Owen's mother is Meloni Thawne; thus making Bart Allen the half-brother of Owen Mercer/Harkness. Has this been touched upon at all, and if not, will this be an eventual topic in your new run on "The Flash?"

GJ: It has not been touched on at all. But yes, that happened.

Q: Frank W. wanted you to know that he recognized Paul Gambi from "The Flash" #239 on the last page of "The Flash: Rebirth" #5.

GJ: Thanks, I'm glad somebody recognized him. Gambi will be in "The Flash" in 2010. For those of you who don't know Gambi, he's a tailor in Central City. He was the guy who created the Rogues' uniforms, and one thing that I am really proud of that Scott Kolins and I did in "Rogues' Revenge" is the subplot where he gets the hell beat out of him by these fake Rogues and Heatwave confronts one of them and says, "Did Gambi make your uniform? Because he made mine and it can withstand insane temperatures."

And he burns the other guy's costume right off because Gambi is the guy who makes their uniforms. And though his tastes are a little wacky, you can tell by their uniforms, he builds them to last and to take the kind of beating the Rogues usually take on a daily basis. The Rogues will be a major force in the new "Flash" book.

***************

Geoff Johns

Alex Segura: Geoff, first off -- thanks for doing this. The Flash is a special character and it's only fitting that we make his return to monthly comics special here on The Source. Now, being a huge fan of The Flash myself, and Barry Allen in particular, I have a very vivid memory of my first encounter with the character -- what about you? What's your earliest Barry/Flash memory? What made him a cool character for you even then?

Geoff Johns: My first encounter with Barry Allen, outside of comics, was in animation in the Challenge of the Super-Friends cartoon. I guess that's where I also met Captain Cold. Those two characters, the Flash and Captain Cold, became my favorites. (Oh, and does anyone remember how Hal Jordan had that weird tan? I guess because he was from California? :) ) Anyway, those are my very memories, along with the Flash Super Powers figure, but when I finally got into comic books one of my very first comics was CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #8, which featured the death of the Flash. I don't remember the details well, but I do remember I was blown away by the issue. From there, I started buying back issues of the Flash. It was before everything was collected, before eBay, so I really had to hunt those comics down to read the stories. The powers, the Rogues and the uniform were what always drew me in.

AS: It's often said that you can judge a hero by his villains, and one of the things I remember most about your initial Flash run — and was very thankful for, being a fan of Barry -- was how you not only brought back and polished some of the classic Flash villains -- Captain Cold is a great example -- but also reinvigorated the Rogues with some great, creepy new additions like Murmur and most notably Hunter Zolomon/Zoom. What makes a great villain? What do you look for when you sit down and create one? And, in addition to reuniting Barry with some of his deadliest foes, are we going to see new ones appear in your first year?

GJ: The Flash has arguably the best villains in comics. Batman's are amazing and psychological, but the Flash's are from the far future and super scientific Gorilla Cities. Not to mention the core group of Flash's foes, the Rogues. They were always a massive part of what made the Flash cool to me. He fought all these guys, sometimes at once because he could. When I first worked on the Flash the Rogues hadn't been touched really more than an odd appearance here and there. I knew that they were going to be a huge focus for me and I continued using them in Rogues' Revenge and Blackest Night: The Flash, but now with the new monthly book they'll be playing a bigger and ongoing role in Barry's life. There are some pretty big changes for the Rogues coming up that tie in to the very center of the DC Universe. Barry will be meeting some new villains, one in particular that is going to be the strangest killer he's ever faced. And I think with 64th Century magicians and talking gorillas that's saying a lot.

*****************

Scott Kolins

Q: What can you tell us about the Blackest Night: Flash mini you’re working on with Geoff Johns?

Scott Kolins: That’s it’s gonna be great! Geoff has really moved into high gear with this Blackest Night stuff and he’s got some amazing stuff planned. Both and Wally and Barry will be in the story – and the Rogues! Dead or Alive! How awesome is that?! I’ve been waiting years to draw a book like this! This will be even better than Blitz or Rogue’s Revenge!

Q: Who are some of your favorite characters to draw?

Scott Kolins: I have very few I don’t like to draw. I love super-heroes and monsters and fun stuff and serious stuff. Monsters like Grundy, Bizarro and Grodd are pure delight. Villains Zoom and Cold are great too. I’d love to get to Sinestro or Brainiac. But I’m dying to do a big Wonder Woman story or Shazam! Hawkman or Aquaman! I LOVE Kirby stuff, so Omac, New Gods, or I’d love to do a Mister Miracle & Big Barda book! Or even the Legion of Super-heroes! I love it all. Plus I’d really love a chance to add to some of the mythologies. I wanna create incredible villains for Hawkman or Aquaman!

****************

Scott Kolins

GL SPOTLIGHT: Well first let’s dive into Blackest Night: Flash, the miniseries that reunites the highly praised Flash team of you and writer Geoff Johns. How different were these three issues than your time on Flash previously? Have Geoff's scripts become any more visually demanding than before?

SCOTT KOLINS: Rogues Revenge was only loosely connected to Final Crisis. The Blackest Night Flash series story is tied more to the central plot of Blackest Night. Barry is a pivotal figure on Blackest Night and he's 1/2 the story in Blackest Night Flash. The Rogues 1/2 of this story is a little looser but still connected as they fight some Black Lantern Rogues. Geoff's scripts are about the same - which means great and very much based on the core story being told. In Rogues Revenge was about revenge (Duh!), and here it was more about survival - against undead friends and villains! The only new thing - which is actually very old school is that Geoff was so busy working on all aspects of Blackest Night that he would sometimes call me on the phone and we'd discuss the next page or scene and break it down over the phone. Then I'd rough out the page or pages and email that back to him for his approval. It was actually kinda fun this way and we got the book done on time!

GL Spotlight: It was definitely a fun read. We know that Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver designed many of the Black Lanterns for this event. Were you able to design the Black Lantern outfits for the Rogues, Reverse-Flash, and even Solomon Grundy, yourself?

SCOTT: Yes I did. Design may be a bit too big a credit because they’re all working off the basic Black Lantern design already set up – but I did sketch out Solomon Grundy and Black Lantern Reverse Flash. Grundy’s was a natural as he is already a walking dead creation - just add the triangle and some pants stripes. I played more with Black Lantern Reverse Flash. The five “fingers” on top of the inverted triangle were squared off at first but I showed a pointy version to Geoff which he preferred. Then balance out how much lightning would work with the extra pant Black Lantern lines and he was done. The Black Lanterns are an awesome concept and were tons of fun to draw.

******************

Geoff Johns

Q: Will Barry face any new villains in his series?

Geoff Johns: You will see new characters in "The Flash" #1.

Q: But he asked about new villains?

Geoff Johns: I will not say anything other than you will see new characters in "The Flash" #1. But they're kinda villains. Kinda.

[He's talking about the Renegades. --Lia]

********************

Geoff Johns

Q: Let’s start with “The Flash.” The first story arc is a lot of fun and Francis [Manapul] is really bringing his ‘A’ game.

Geoff Johns: Francis is a genius. And that’s the tone I wanted to do, very accessible and a lot of fun. That’s what The Flash is all about. I wanted the book to have a lot of heart, a bit like our run with Superboy in “Adventure Comics.” I love writing that book. Coming up, we’ll see a new supporting cast member, a new villain, the return of the Pied Piper, more on Captain Boomerang and, of course, the Flash Family as we race towards “Flashpoint.”

[I'm including this because we did not in fact see Piper in the book. --Lia]

Q: William Schwartz had a question about continuity. He asked that you explain the continuity of Professor Zoom, a.k.a. Reverse Flash, between “Blackest Night,” “Blackest Night: Flash,” “Flash: Rebirth” and “Brightest Day.” He's alive and then imprisoned in “Flash: Rebirth,” which also hints at his soon-to-come resurrection. He's a Black Lantern in “Blackest Night: Flash” but also alive and imprisoned before being frozen by Captain Cold. He's then resurrected at the end of “Blackest Night” and escapes, yet he is still in prison. Is that right?

GJ: You’ll see more with Reverse Flash in “Brightest Day” and then “The Flash.” But he definitely has the timeline right. I mean, if you look at it from our point of view, in a linear timeline, he was resurrected by the Black Ring, brought back to life by the White Lantern, he then time traveled, brings Barry Allen back, gets stopped by Barry Allen and he’s get imprisoned in Iron Heights. I know. [laughs] Does anyone have an aspirin?

********************

Geoff Johns

WILSON: Do you still draw and do you include thumbnails with your scripts for artists?

JOHNS: I do thumbnails when I write my scripts, but I never send them off. It’s just for me really to get a visual sense of how the pages are going to lay out. I make these grids that are divided into six sections that essentially represent six pages and I take a stack of them and staple them together, and it then represents one comic book. From there, I draw it out, very bare bones, just to see what it’ll look like visually flipping through it because you want it to vary anyway. You know, where is it going to open up because there’s a big moment? So I illustrate that way.

I do some design work. I designed Pied Piper’s current costume. I’ve done some other design work here and there. I leave the illustration to the professionals. I just like doing it for fun.

WILSON: With such an avid love of comics and putting so much of yourself and your time into producing them, what is the most important thing you would like readers to take away from your body of work?

JOHNS: Well, I hope a positive message. I think superheroes are positive and have positive messages. I’ve never thought about it in that way, but people are going to take what they’re going to take; I hope it’s something they can apply to their life. You meet a lot of people who are inspired by heroes to be better people or to live a certain way. I hope they love the heroes. I do it because I loved Captain Cold. Great character, but crazy, so why do I love him? He’s this blue-collar, down-and-out super-thug, but he has a weird moral code and he has a heart deep down in there despite the cold exterior. He has a heart that is beating and I explored that in an issue with Scott Kolins in The Flash #182, which is one of my favorite issues I’ve ever written. Scott did a great job on it and I got to explore Captain Cold. People are always asking Scott at conventions for sketches of Captain Cold, and I still get to work with the character and I think he resonates for people. I hope they take away a growing love and appreciation for these characters and what they represent, but what they take away is going to be up to the audience.

******************

Scott Kolins

Q: Well the big thing to talk about is Citizen Cold. That’s a three issue mini-series?

Scott Kolins: Three issues that are self-contained but are part of the whole Flashpoint hoopla this summer.

Q: I know it has already been hinted in the books that are out that Cold may not be the hero that everyone thinks he is. Can you hint a little more about what to expect?

SK: You’ll find out in the first issue (out this week!!) that even Iron Heights that was the prison for the Flash villains before had an area called the Pipeline. It was a special place for all Flash’s super villains. Now it’s the special place for all of Citizen Cold’s villains and they call it the Freezer. And you’ll see a bunch of the Rogues are in there and you’ll see they’ve all suffered for the fact that Citizen Cold is now the hero.

He’s not a nice guy who puts them in prison. They’re all hurt pretty bad for tangling with him and being villains in his city. One of the fun bits is that you’ll actually see that the Rogues form because of Citizen Cold. That’s part of the plot of the story is that they really aren’t happy with him at all.

Q: Since this is an alternate reality story or a kind of reboot did you think about tweaking Captain Cold’s costume or did you know you wanted to keep it the same?

SK: No, that was definitely part of the process. Should I tweak stuff, how much should I tweak stuff? I did do some changes to Trickster; his pants and even his color scheme. I added some red to it, where before it was mostly yellow and blue. I got to do something that Geoff Johns laughed about; I gave Weather Wizard that goatee. It’s a reference to when we had originally changed his costume in the Flash books years ago and made his pattern green with yellow stripes on it. At that time when I did sketches for him to show DC what we wanted to do I had given him facial hair; at that point it was a handle bar mustache. Geoff was like, “This looks great...lose the handlebar mustache.” So this time when he saw the goatee he was like, “All right, fine. You finally get to put it on him.” I also think he looks more like a wizard this way. Stuff like this is mostly just fun for me, but they can either use it later if they think it’s cool or we can just use it for this one time thing.

Q: You mentioned the Trickster, is it going to be Jesse or Axel?

SK: No, it’s still Axel the kid. I know everyone likes James Jesse and I do too. That was one of the fun, personal things I got to add to the Flash universe. When we were working on the Rogues, James Jesse was already set up as an FBI agent. So he was definitely in the good guy camp, so we couldn’t use him as a Rogue. So I suggested what if we made Trickster like an evil Robin. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a kid with all those tricks, toys, and everything? Geoff thought it was an awesome idea, so we went with it from there. So when ever we can use him, I push him because he was my idea.

Q: The surprise to me when the new Trickster came out was you had a full grown Flash socking a teenager and no one objected, “Hey you’re hitting a kid!” Obviously he was a villain, but you never saw a reaction to that.

SK: That is an issue that we’ve kind of side-stepped. It is something I wanted to get into with Citizen Cold, but I don’t think I’m going to get into that one since I have so much going on with Cold himself. In my mind even though he looks young, but he might be on the cusp of 18. At least 16, so in some areas he’d be tried as an adult.

[More details on Axel’s age. --Lia]

Q: You probably can’t say what it is, but do you have your next book lined up?

SK: Yeah, I do have my next assignmnt lined up. It’s nothing I can talk about at this time. But I will be doing more writing and drawing. They’re very happy with that, Geoff was extremely happy with how Citizen Cold has come about and fit into the whole Flashpoint package. DC has been too. They’re like, you’ve really come a long with Grundy and everything else you’ve been doing and they are really cool with it.

Q: Any new Rogues popping up in Citizen Cold or just the established ones?

SK: Mostly just the established. There are some changes for them. Not even just Weather Wizard’s goatee. I don’t want to spoil the real cool one. But one of the favorites of the bunch that I changed, it’s just the context of the story they are stuck in. There are hints on the cover as to how it is different for one of the Rogues. It’s big time different, but no new Rogues.

*****************

From Geoff Johns’ AMA on Reddit

Q: Why do you love Captain Cold so much?

Geoff Johns: I love Captain Cold because he doesn't want to rule the world or kill people. He's just some dude who stole a cold-gun and is trying to get by in this crazy, insane super-powered world.

*******************

Geoff Johns introduces some of the Rogues for new readers

Leonard Snart was a career criminal who would pull heists and often work with a crew, until one day this blur, this speedster, shows up and suddenly he has to contend with this brand new thing called a super hero who’s stopping criminals like him from doing what they do. In order to continue, Snart has to up his game. He’s not a scientist. He’s not a doctor. He’s a career criminal. So he steals a cold gun that’s capable of slowing things down to absolute zero.

The thing that makes Snart so interesting to me is that cold is actually the opposite of speed. We talk about this a bit in the [Captain Cold] episode. Speed is defined by how fast things are moving. Temperature is also defined by the same thing—how fast things are moving at the atomic level. The faster they’re moving, the warmer something is. When things stop moving at the atomic level, the lower temperature it has. It’s called absolute zero when there’s absolutely no movement at all.

That I found very fascinating. Temperature and speed—it was all connected. Cold was essentially the opposite of Barry Allen in every way. He was a normal person who had to equip himself to become more than he was.

The character doesn’t want to rule the world. He doesn’t necessarily want to kill the Flash because, at the end of the day, the Flash is celebrated by everybody, and killing him would bring a lot of heat. Also, he’s not a killer. He just wants to pull his jobs and continue doing what he’s doing, and in order to work in a city that’s protected by a super hero, he has to become something more than he is. Until finally, working alone isn’t enough and he has to gather with others that are in the same situation. Like Heat Wave, a pyromaniac who Snart’s worked with before.

Everyone knows that Mick Rory, AKA Heat Wave, has a problem. His love for fire and the arsonist that he is will often divert him away from the mission at hand. But Cold is able to wrangle that pyromaniac. He gives him a heat gun and basically gives him a gimmick. He tells him that if he holds on to the gimmick, he’s not going to be sick anymore. He’ll fit in and belong.

He does that with each one of the Rogues. When he brings in Axel Walker, the Trickster, he’s a kid who’s out of control. He doesn’t have any focus, and Cold brings him focus. Same with someone like Mark Mardon, the Weather Wizard, who’s obsessed by guilt because of the way he got the weather wand. His brother’s death is really a big part of who he is.

It goes on and on with all the Rogues and we’ve talked about a lot of these characters and bringing them onto the show. They work for The Flash because only someone like the Flash could take on five guys at once. What Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and I are trying to do is slowly bring in these wonderful villains, and really they become characters all their own. They have their own stories. They’re more than just villains-of-the-week characters. They’re a part of this world. They live in this world, and we’ll be seeing them again and again.

#Captain Cold #Dr Alchemy #the Trickster #Axel #Heat Wave #Weather Wizard #Professor Zoom #The Renegades #Interviews #the more you know #Johns era #ages #queue

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easy-tae-breezy · 7 years

Text

Unexpected Enthusiast | Neighbour!au Chapter 2

Members: Ten/Reader

Genre: Neighbour!au | Fluff

Word Count: 2,000

Chapter: 1 2 3

Mini Recap- You’re a manhwa artist locked out of your apartment after grocery shopping. When none of your friends want to help you, fate decides for you to go seek help from your neighbour, Ten.

As much as you wanted to decline his offer, you knew that the ice cream you just bought would inevitably melt and no longer be the same glorious confection that it used to if you were not to let Ten take your shopping. And with that, you were convinced –

‘Perhaps this is for the best..? I’ll just double check no one else is available…’

You rapid-fire-text your best friend to win her over and get her to help you out instead of your neighbour.

You, 16:13 PM

Yo, Ten’s helping me out with my groceries. A COMPLETE stranger is being a better friend than you, man. Step up ya game 😏

You, 16:13 PM

I’m safe by the way, thanks for asking…

A+ Amigo, 16:13 PM

Y/n???? who tf is Ten?? 😮😮😮

You, 16:14 PM

You know that dude you passed by when you visited last Tuesday? The one you called ‘super duper cute’? Yeah, him. MY neighbour.

A+Amigo, 16:14 PM

HoLY Cow!! Bro, if I come pick you up… promise to introduce me??

You, 16:14 PM

Hahaha, I knew you’d pull through 😘

A+ Amigo, 16:14 PM

I’m on my way y/n’s cute neighbour!

‘Wow…So much for being busy, huh? Such a snake haha,’ you mentally roll your eyes at how your friend was easily swayed into helping you as soon as an attractive male was involved.

Somewhat hesitantly you step into his familiarly constructed apartment and take off your shoes at the doorway. Looking around, the layout was similar enough to your flat next door: a simple bathroom to the right, an open space studio and kitchenette tucked into the far left beside the veranda. However, this flat was personalised and furbished completely differently to your minimalistic, light focused flat. Instead, Ten’s walls were the complete opposite: painted black with one entire side shielded by a large mirror and a hi-fi set strategically placed against it. His home screamed dancer and swag. The studio barely had any litter or long forgotten laundry that boys his age would usually have, totally throwing you off guard even more.

‘How strange..?’

The flat was tastefully peppered with red features and decor, such as burgundy shelves pent up above his crimson sofa and a red bookshelf alongside it to match.

Ten was now kneeling in front of his fridge, carefully clearing space for some of your groceries while flowing into idle, easily-flowing conversation.

“So what are you gonna do now that the landlord is temporarily away? Have you found a place to stay yet?”

“Yeah, luckily a friend gave in and said she’d pick me up in a bit,” you explain as you continue to aimlessly looked out of his studio window.

Ten turns his head temporarily revealing a glimpse of his slightly saddened, puppy-eyed expression but quickly returns to his task thinking that you hadn’t noticed.

“Honestly though, you must think it’s pathetic that a grown woman can barely remember her own key code.” You bitterly chuckle at yourself under your breath.

Your eyelids flutter shut with internal frustration and disappointment. Never had you been so forgetful in all your years of life.

It was embarrassing.

The recent move completely changed you. Despite the freedom thrust upon you, the liberty you had once wished for finally being granted right before you, you now wanted nothing more than to be semi-dependent on someone. Not fully leaning on a person, just faintly - or at least enough to know that you weren’t alone in the new city.

“I just haven’t been able to fully settle and feel comfortable after moving out here on my own…”

You sigh as a gloominess begins to engulf you while you stand awkwardly in the middle of his flat.

“No!” Ten exclaims as he rises from the fridge, shutting its door as he did so. “That’s such a brave move on your part! Do you remember when I asked if you needed help moving your boxes up the stairs on that day the elevator stopped working?”

You nod and smile at the strangely fond memory. Never had you felt your thigh muscles burn so much.

“And you immediately shot me down! Said it was your ‘duty’ to do this alone?,” he continues, air quoting as he strides towards you.

“And honestly, I’ve never been rejected so fast. And with such an unusual reason too! And it showed to me that you really were a strong, independent woman,” He exaggeratedly Z-line snaps.

“I did find your multiple trips up the stairs extremely entertaining and endearing too,” Ten nudges you and winks.

You shake your head and shine a small smile as the memory replays and internally cheers you up.

He smiles in satisfaction.

“Go ahead and take a seat, I’ll only be a minute with the coffee,” he says while gesturing to his comfortable looking couch. Your attempts at being a helpful guest were quickly dismissed, you merely nod and continue to project your small smile of gratitude towards his generous words.

Continuing your observations regarding his interior design, your eyes land upon his bookshelf and you notice some very familiar books. Almost half of the romantic comedy manhwas that you had worked so hard to produce over the course of three years were perfectly lined up in order on your college student neighbour’s book shelf.

You inwardly gasp and begin to giggle at how a grown man could be such a fan of your teen manhwa and curiously raise a brow.

‘So this was how he was able to flirt so easily without being flustered, he must have picked up some lines from my comic haha…’ You thought.

Not soon after, Ten arrives with two mugs of steaming, warm, golden coffee and sets them in front of you on the table. He quickly notices the comic you’ve picked up and is easily tinted a shade of embarrassment. He -almost- instinctively throws his hands out along with multiple whiny requests for you to give it back, only to have you react by pulling the book out of his reach and laugh.

“Haha! Alright! Alright…”You slow down the hectic moment,

“Do tell me, Ten… Why does a grown man, such as yourself, have a collection of romantic comedy manwhas?” you breathlessly say as the two of you finally calm down after a short game of ‘grab the book’.

He knows he’s been caught and with an exaggerated sigh he complies and explains himself.

“Ah, they’re not mine I swear,” he scratches the back of his neck while shaking the other free hand in the air in a denying manner “my sister left them while visiting so I thought I’d tidy them”.

A small, silent pause embraces the two of you… You quickly break it by drumming on your lap vigorously, mimicking a drum roll.

“And the most unconvincing story of 2017 goes to… Ten!” you exclaim in your best announcer voice, laughing at his cute bashful side that was being unveiled right before you. The man before you no longer seemed so overly confident and indifferent, he was flustered and glowed a heartwarming pink flush. A complete polar opposite.

“If your sister really did leave them, a book or two would have been believable, but she definitely wouldn’t have left an entire series that was large enough to fit in 2 boxes,” you explain.

He lowers his rose tinted face in defeat and chuckles along with your point.

“Okay, you got me,” he exaggeratedly whimpers “but what I said was partially true! She did visit and leave a few volumes, I was gonna throw them out but the art was so pretty and unique. I was drawn to read them! The character design is perfectly tailored to each character’s traits and the background art is so detailed and unlike any other artists work that I’ve come across. It was difficult to put the books down and lead to me purchase a few more and before I knew it, I had almost half of the series! I really recommend it, y/n!” He beams despite his red cheeks and ears.

You sat there slightly blank and dumbfounded by his kind words. That totally wasn’t what you expected. Usually when people complimented your artwork, you’d immediately argue that it definitely lacked in some areas and could totally improve. Your self-depreciation would often prevent you from truly seeing eye-to-eye with your publisher and fans, causing a lot of release date delays and unhappy teens. However, when Ten gave you his honest opinion on your work you couldn’t help but feel gushy and warm on the inside, his sincere and animated words gave you pride and a deep sense of happiness.

His comments were somehow different.

The genuine and thoughtful words burned their rightful mark into your memory, forever embellishing themselves in your mind.

“Thank you,” you say in a small voice as a blush similar to the young man’s grazes your cheeks.

“What? Haha, you want to borrow one?” He chortles with a hint of confusion in his voice.

You simply hold the book up and point to the artist’s name, your name.

His eyes widen in surprise, he covers his mouth and notably resembles a deer caught in headlights.

‘How is he so cute?’ You think to yourself.

Ten’s emotions go through a rapid melt of confusion, surprise and utter glee. The man now gleamed with joy and admiration. Ten takes a seat beside you while effortlessly grasping your small hands in his own large, strong and sturdy ones.

An instant feeling of protection, safety and content surge through you at his affectionate skin-ship. He leans a bit closer, excitement pouring out of his every word.

“No way! Tell me, please, does Jae Min end up with David- No! Does Yoo In come back from her spy mission in Japan? Or is she really dead? Ah, don’t tell me! It’ll spoil the surprise,” he concludes with a pout.

“…Or tell me if you want?” He later contradicts in a quiet voice.

You inwardly snicker at his twinkling, child-like expression. To reply to his questions, you merely wiggle your brows to the best of your ability and say:

“A mystery’s a mystery, and girl’s gotta keep some secrets… Buuuut, Yoo In is alive” you whisper ever so slightly in his direction.

You wink, beam a broad, beautiful smile and decide to leave it at that.

‘Hopefully that’ll keep him intrigued for at least another three volumes,’ you laugh to yourself.

Ten comes to his senses, remembering that the two of you had only just formally met half an hour ago. He removes his hands with a minor jump and instead clasps them in front of his chest. Acting melodramatically, he nods whilst still wearing his adorable pout, as if already coming to terms with your statement.

“I knew you wouldn’t let her die, y/n,” he softly sends an angelic smile to you.

“Hey, how about this, if I ever get to open my door, I’ll let you have a sneak peek at the next volume, sounds good?” You attempt to enhance his bright mood and also return the enormous favour that Ten had done you. Not only had he welcomed you into his home and saved your ice-cream, but he essentially helped you quick-start your self-confidence in a way no one else ever had.

Ten had easily proven to you to not judge a book by its cover; a man once so chic and cold looking had a compellingly delicate, angelic and excitable personality within him that was easily uncovered with a bit of encouragement. And to top it all off, he was apparently skilled in the arts of dancing and acting, but to you, that didn't matter too much, because to you, he was in fact the walking art-piece.

He shone you one of his brightest, pearliest smile and eagerly nodded in reply to your offer.

Ring. Ring…

Your phone slices through the light atmosphere and forces you to answer. Your friend had impeccable timing and was ready in the lobby to pick you up. After hanging up you sigh and turn towards Ten, informing him that your friend had arrived much to your dismay. The events thereafter the phone call flashed before your eyes as time began to seem inconstant.

Ten helps you gather your belongings and leads you down to the lobby. You edge out of the elevator, reluctantly furthering yourself away from such a sparkling and kind-hearted being.

The two of you part with alike smiles containing a hint of sorrow. The two of you truly matching one another’s current inner emotions.

You were totally oblivious to the fact that you’d bound to be back in less than a week, after all, you did live next door…

As the car door shut, Ten waves and quietly laughs to himself at the situation he got caught up in and with no one other than one of his favourite artists, and one with such an endearing and appealing personality at that.

“See ya ‘round, neighbour.”

Thank you for reading this! <3 What did you think? I found this really lovely to write and had lots of fun. Should I continue the scenario and see where Ten and his neighbour end up? ^^ Don’t mind any grammar mistakes, I’m on my way to proof reading it again for the 5th time haha

Edit: Another chapter of this series will be added soon! Thank you to all the people who sent in support and kind words towards this series. <3

#ten #nct #ten scenarios #nct scenarios #ten fluff #nct u #Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul #unexpected enthusiast

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baahsu · 7 years

Text

—I want him (you)—

After an interview Jungkook has some trouble expressing his feelings. Yoongi gives him a little push.

yoonkook | mature | 6.9k words | canon compliant | AO3

They were at another one of those radio interviews, with cameras everywhere, a live broadcast on the station website and people behind glasses taking pictures of every move they made. Nothing they weren't used to, especially now that the promotions for their new album were over and they were set to appear in countless radio shows and variety programs.

The host, Hyunsoo, a thin but vigorous man that was probably in his early thirties, judging by the small crinkles at the corners of his eyes, talked to them in a familiar way, making sure they were comfortable during their first visit at his show.

Looking at the paper in his hands, after listening to Hoseok and Taehyung discuss the last topic they were assigned with—something about being the group mood makers, which was unsurprisingly answered with a random set of aegyo from Hoseok and a funny face from Taehyung—, Hyunsoo directed the next question to the group's youngest member.

"Jungkook-ssi," he started, "as the youngest you probably receive lots of love from your hyungs," the boy nodded in agreement, a small smile appearing on his lips, "and, as I imagine, there are a few of them you're more comfortable around—which is totally normal considering the size of your group." He quickly added, making sure of clearing any misunderstandings before they could be voiced. "So, with that in mind, if you had to choose, which one of your hyungs would you want to get closer to? In a 'ah, I haven't really talked to this hyung in a while, it'd be nice if we could spend some more time together' kind of way." Hyunsoo finished his question by setting his papers back down on the desk. He looked intently at Jungkook, who now had his eyes a tiny bit wider than usual, his raised eyebrows being covered by his fringe.

While Jungkook looked a bit taken aback by the question, the room filled with concerned murmurs and whispered screams of "Kookie, I spend enough time with you already, but you better pick me anyway, you brat!"

The sudden outburst caused Hyunsoo to say a few hushed words to calm the boys down, flailing his arms around and reassuring them that whichever choice Jungkook made it would be a very difficult one, since he was sure the maknae loved all of them just the same.

Nevertheless, in the end, an answer was still needed, and after politely telling them to not "pressure the poor maknae", Hyunsoo waited for Jungkook to give them his answer.

The boy only stared blankly at his group members. How could they make so much fuss over such a simple question… He sighed and shook his head.

Jungkook, however, had read the script beforehand and had already thought about his answer. His intention was to say something that could pass as being true while still being somewhat funny, which was kind of contrary to what they usually did in these cases, especially himself, who preferred to give short and not overly detailed answers. More often than not, when they had to answer this type of question, they'd reply with what would please their fans the most, regardless of that being their true opinions or not, or they'd simply stall and avoid the question altogether.

While lost in thoughts, Jungkook saw Jimin raising his arms and waving at him, a silent gesture that screamed "pick me!" and, at his side, Hoseok was laughing uncontrollably. Well, Jungkook thought, if those hyungs weren't already out of question they would, for sure, be now.

What really made him choose his answer, though, weren't the weird antics of some of his hyungs, but instead thinking about what could possibly please his fans while also not making him cringe.

Easily enough, when he remembered the fans' recent rise of interest in lamb skewers—or their rise of interest in his and Yoongi's interest in lamb skewers—he decided that this was the perfect opportunity to consolidate this trait to their group dynamics. There was no fun in pandering to the majority of people they usually targeted and, after a while, repeating the same old jokes became too boring and extremely predictable, he just couldn't stand it anymore.

So, with his mind set to indulge that new, and rather small, portion of the fandom that seemed way too invested in a simple and ordinary aspect of his life, he breathed out and fixed the microphone in front of him, ready to speak.

"Huh… Suga hyung?" He said, scratching his cheek and looking half at Hyunsoo and half at Yoongi, who was conveniently sitting right next to the older man.

Around the studio's desk, each member of the group sported a different expression on their faces; some seemed to not really care about his answer, like Jin, who only had his brows raised in mischievous curiosity while his eyes sparked with some kind of suspicious glint—he knew fully well Jungkook had to had something up his sleeve, he wouldn't pick Yoongi just because, there was an ulterior motive hidden somewhere in there—, and namjoon, who displayed a mixed expression of curiosity and fear, slightly tipping back on his chair as if expecting Jungkook to say something else next that'd be worth running away from; while others were just devastated, like Jimin—oh, in reality, that was only him—, who had turned to Hoseok and were now pretending to cry on his shoulders, with Taehyung exaggeratedly patting his back in a feign comforting manner.

Meanwhile, Yoongi displayed an almost blank expression, his closed eyes and head slowly bobbing back and forth being the only signs that he had listened to Jungkook's answer. Of course he would've been chosen, he was the genius Min Suga after all (not that his self-proclaimed title had anything to do with being chosen for "needs to love the maknae more", but still, genius Min Suga).

After everyone's nerves had calmed down, Hyunsoo directed his attention to Jungkook once again, eager to get more information from the boy. "And why did you choose him?"

"Well," Jungkook chuckled, deciding last minute to be cheeky instead of giving them the real reason (not that they were mutually exclusive, Jungkook thought, smirking to himself), "we're already close with each other, but I feel like it's not really enough? So I guess you could say I'd like some more of that sugar." The last word was said in English, for emphasis.

The room erupted with a combination of disgusted sounds—Jimin positively looked like Jungkook had grown another head right before his two own eyes—and Hoseok's hysterical laugher accompanied by the intense clapping of his hands.

Being a pun enthusiast himself (Jin might've been the group's resident pun maker, but Hoseok also had his moments, thank you very much), the rapper felt proud of Jungkook; no wonder he was known as the golden maknae.

That was a good pun, it reminded himself of the Suga & Kookie logo they had used in one of their fansigns—was Jungkook, perhaps, going for a more elaborate pun, Suga, Kookie, sugar cookies? Regardless, it was still a bit too bold for Hoseok's personal taste, though he could tell Jin had loved it, if those fingers guns and the smirk on his face were any indication. Nonetheless, it was a pun worth storing in his own repertory for a possible, but highly unlikely, future use.

Yoongi opened his eyes and his face distorted into an exaggerated and comical expression of disgust, the corners of his lips barely turned downwards, nose crinkling and eyes a bit squirmed.

The rapper should've expected that Jungkook would give such a silly explanation. Despite his age—and size, Yoongi grimaced—, it was in the maknae's nature to be a brat, and overall little shit, and annoy his elders to no end. There was no way he would've let this opportunity pass.

But the point was, Yoongi was kind of offended, and maybe a bit mad—or more in a "I just want to melt to the ground right now, please" state—, he just didn't who to blame, Jungkook, for actually saying what he said, or himself, for not really anticipating it. Shaking his head, he let his face relax to its usual expression and sighed, deciding that sliding from his chair to the floor wouldn't cause a good impression of himself.

As everyone else was slowly recovering from their fits, Jungkook scratched the back of his neck, half embarrassed, half proud of his own antics, a shaky grin on his lips. Sparing a glance at Hyunsoo he saw the man nodding his head in approval while scribbling something down in a paper. Well, at least he wasn't going to be kicked out of the show.

Later that day, after another interview, one that required them to change from their normal clothes to their comeback outfits, they were back at the dressing room in the Bighit building, exhausted and wanting nothing else other than to go home to a relaxing shower and a warm bed.

The members were almost done with packing their stuff, faces finally without make up and free from their tight and uncomfortable pieces of clothing. Some were even exiting the place already, shirts half unbuttoned, shoes untied, eager to finally get to their van.

And soon enough, they were all out.

Except for Yoongi.

Not that the rapper wasn't as tired as the others, but he was requested to stay behind with Namjoon to address a few more topics their last interviewer was still curious about, most of them being specifically about writing and composing songs, something the other members weren't exactly versed in.

Namjoon, however, had to leave with their manager immediately after that with the excuse of having to do "leader things" and, predictably, no one really bothered to ask him what that meant, it was probably just a bunch of paperwork that needed his signature or some boring meeting to discuss their next schedule, nothing that interested them in the slightest. In spite of that, Namjoon would probably still return with plenty of time to take the van back to their dorm along with everybody else.

Now that Yoongi was all by himself he ran a hand though his face and released a frustrated grunt, aimlessly walking around the room in search for his beanie. Honestly, if there was someone who really wanted the comfort of a bed right now, that person was Min Yoongi, and he absolutely had no time for this bullshit.

Ever so distracted by his search, he failed to realize Jungkook had come back and closed the door behind him, locking it with a soft click that was nowhere near enough to startle the elder.

The vocalist stayed with his back pressed to the door for a few minutes, shifting from one foot to the other while waiting for the rapper to finally notice him there.

Since that didn't happen, Jungkook swallowed, fumbling with his fingers then rubbing his sweaty hands on his jeans.

After a couple of deep breaths he put on a determined expression and marched in Yoongi's direction with steps not as firm as he wished they were. Jungkook had never been good with dealing with the anticipation and insecurity that came right before he acted on something big.

"Yoongi hyung?"

When Yoongi lifted his eyes from the bag he was looking into, Jungkook was already right at his side, towering over him.

The rapper eyed him up and down, an eyebrow raised. That kid really didn't know what personal space was.

"Look, Jungkookie, if you're worried about that answer you gave earlier, don't. It was just a joke, I'm not mad or anything." He walked past Jungkook, reaching for another bag, beanie not found yet.

"That's not it, hyung," Jungkook said in a whisper, following Yoongi like a lost puppy.

"Ok, what is it, then?" Yoongi stopped scrunching through the bag and faced Jungkook, mindful of the small distance between them but still concerned as to what could be bothering the youngest of their group.

"When I said that during the radio show," Jungkook paused, taking a breath and willing his voice not to shake, "I actually meant it." He paused again, seeming to think back at his response during the interview. "Kind of…" He added carefully in a soft murmur.

A few seconds of silence passed with Yoongi staring at Jungkook and Jungkook staring at the ground.

"Huh?" Yoongi mumbled. He looked baffled, to say the least, mind leaving its state of slumber and starting to race.

Jungkook couldn't possibly be insinuating what he thought he was.

Yeah, there was no way, he must have mistaken what the younger was trying to convey with those words, that was the only rational explanation for it.

"What do you mean?" Yoongi asked again, as calm as possible, just to be sure.

"I want you, hyung." Jungkook answered quickly, afraid he would lose his courage if he tried to think of a less blunt way of saying it, and with a surprisingly steady voice.

Now both of Yoongi's eyebrows were raised in disbelief. Since when was this kid so bold?

Yoongi could feel the beginning of throbbing headache approaching and he didn't want to continue this conversation. He was tired, in fact, both of them were, and his beanie was nowhere to be found. He just wanted to sleep.

"You don't know what you're saying." He said, hurriedly. "Today was a busy day and you're exhausted and confused. Let's focus on resting for now, we can talk later." And with that he grabbed his bag, mourning a little for his lost beanie, and turned towards the door. The room was starting to suffocate him.

As soon as he took the first step, though, a strong hand grabbed his arm, slender fingers applying more force than necessary and causing him to flinch slightly.

Not a second later Jungkook was in his line of vision, hand sliding down to grip tightly at Yoongi's wrist, and his taller frame hunching a few centimeters down to stare at the elder deeply in the eyes.

Startled, Yoongi noticed that Jungkook's face was now really close to his and he could feel the hot puffs of his breath hitting his forehead. He swallowed then looked up, fixing Jungkook with a stern gaze. What was this kid thinking, had he lost his mind?

Upon receiving such an intense and cold glare Jungkook didn't even wait to see if the elder was going to say something in pure fear of what it could be, and instantly let go of his wrist as if it had suddenly burnt him, stuttering a rushed and breathless sorry.

Yoongi just observed the quick change on the younger's behavior and snorted, walking away and pretending to resume the search for his beanie—not that he would be able to concentrate on that task, or any other, for that matter, with Jungkook's lingering presence in the room.

Deeming his search worthless, Yoongi scratched his head, closing his eyes and letting out a tired sigh. There was no use staying in the dressing room anymore, he'd be better off going back home to get some rest.

But things didn't go as he planned (what a fucking surprise, at this point), since as soon as he stepped towards the door Jungkook grabbed his arm again.

Yoongi looked at the younger up and down and up one more time, then stared at him with his mouth slightly opened and brows raised in incredulity.

Jungkook felt a shiver run down his spine, which almost made his shoulders shake involuntarily, and backed off immediately, clutching his hands at his chest while he took a few steps back, too shocked by the intensity of Yoongi's scrutiny to mutter an apology.

The elder didn't even need to say anything in order for Jungkook to realize he had crossed some boundaries, something he should've been attentive to not let happen in the first place if he wanted to successfully confess to him. But now that the realization had downed on him, heavy and suffocating, and he was left feeling embarrassed and smaller than ever, so much that his bottom lip started to tremble and the corner of his eyes started to prickle, vision blurring, he wanted nothing more than dig a hole for himself, dive into it and never have to face Yoongi again.

Before any tears could spill out, though, Jungkook closed his eyes shut and ducked his head down, shakily gathering the last bits of his pride in an attempt to prevent the other from seeing his broken expression.

Looking at Jungkook from the corners of his eyes, Yoongi cursed under his breath.

He had refrained from saying anything in regards to the boy's behavior in fear of sounding rude as a result of his straight forward and fairly sarcastic personality, but, apparently, his choice of remaining silent had had the same effect despite his efforts.

All the times he had mentioned not being good at feelings and at expressing himself he was honest, those weren't his strong points, and never would be, unless he had a pen and notebook in his hands and the beginnings of a melody in his head. One day, he marveled, if he didn't start being more careful, he'd majorly screw up his relationship with someone important and dear to him, with no chances of emends. That day, though, wasn't going to be today.

Yoongi seriously feared that Jungkook would start crying at any moment, standing there all awkward and kind of curled up in himself, looking at him with apologetic and desperate eyes.

The rapper ran a hand through his hair. Why was he in this situation? Why were he and Jungkook, the maknae, in this situation? Of all the things he could imagine happening to him, this wasn't one of them, this was definitely not one of them, and he needed to quickly find a way to fix it before it turned into a bigger mess.

"Listen, Jungkook," he took a deep breath, "I'm not sure about what you want with this, all I know is that whatever it is it isn't a very good idea. You're confused, you're letting your emotions and hormones and the pressure of being in a live show take over yourself, so let's just forget everything that just happened, okay?" He finished with the most reassuring voice he could muster.

As Jungkook didn't reply nor moved a single muscle Yoongi sighed. This had, somehow, become out of hand—or as out of hand as any situation could get before Min Yoongi either lost his temper and stomped out of a door in frustration or opted to ignore an issue and stomped out of a door just as frustrated.

Something was off with Jungkook, that much Yoongi could tell. Sure the boy was usually shy and bad at expressing himself, but not to the point of stuttering and trembling when next to one of his hyungs. Jungkook wanted to say something, or do something, but he clearly had no clue on how to proceed and Yoongi had had just about enough of it.

"Come on, Jungkook, spit it out." Jungkook snapped his head up like a deer caught in the headlights. "What is it that you want?"

Jungkook diverted his gaze, looking around the room as if expecting the chairs and tables and mirrors to help him. They didn't, of course, and the boy took his time to think about an acceptable answer.

He knew pretty well what he wanted; the problem was precisely how to say it. And how to say it to Yoongi, of all people.

"I..." He trailed off, looking at the ceiling and biting his lips.

He breathed loudly, letting go of the last bit of shame he surprisingly still had, and stared directly into Yoongi's eyes, pronouncing his next words with more confidence than he had had the first time he had said them, "I want you, hyung."

And Yoongi's reaction wasn't what he was expecting at all.

The black haired man solely looked at him with a hardly surprised expression and a raised eyebrow, as if Jungkook had said he scored a five on an English test instead of a three. Maybe he thought the younger was joking?

Jungkook was about to panic again, but Yoongi was quick to get a hold of the situation and break the silence.

"So, you thought pinning me against a wall was the best plan of action to accomplish that? You think too little of me, Jungkook-ah…" He snorted. "That or you've been watching too many dramas lately." Yoongi approached Jungkook while still snickering and raised his hand to stroke the younger's hair that was falling over his forehead.

Jungkook was taken aback. Yoongi seemed weirdly comfortable and accepting of his outburst, completely differed from before. And were those the rapper's fingers fixing his hair and putting a few strains behind his ear? Just what was happening??

Yoongi's hand traveled from the younger's hair to his chin, caressing the sharp jawline, slow and careful. "I was wondering when you'd finally do something..." He marveled.

"Huh?"

The older chuckled.

"You know, your stares; they're not as discrete as you think they are." He paused, weighing his words. "And yes, I must admit that in order to notice them I'd have to be observing you myself, but at least I did a better job at hiding it than you."

"Wait, w-what?! H-hyung! That's not fair!" Jungkook squealed and pouted at the elder, a deep blush on his cheeks. Yoongi laughed loudly at his offended, but extremely endearing, expression.

"You can be cute sometimes, Jungkookie, especially when you're not trying to force yourself on me."

Jungkook gulped and looked at him apologetically.

"S-sorry, I just... I didn't know what to do..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Yoongi said in a calming tone. "I know. It's fine now. I'm glad we've settled this. Just don't do it again." He leaned closer to Jungkook, brushing his lips against his, and Jungkook hold in a breath, body frozen.

When Yoongi didn't see any signs of resistance, only natural hesitance emanating from the other, he closed the distance between them, kissing Jungkook softly.

Jungkook hummed in surprise, but didn't break the kiss. Instead, he kissed back, eager, hands reaching for the back of Yoongi's neck.

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes, until Yoongi broke them apart and fondly stared at the younger. They were both panting, a tinge of pink covering Jungkook's cheeks and the tips of his ears.

"We should get going." Yoongi breathed, averting Jungkook's gaze, a blush of his own spreading on his pale cheeks. However, even though he had said that, he didn't make any actual effort to move.

Jungkook raised both his eyebrows. It may not have been Yoongi's intention, but he looked kind of adorable saying that, all worked up and embarrassed and pretending he wasn't affected by the kiss.

A few seconds passed with Jungkook staring at the rapper, lost in thoughts. As none of them made any movements, nor said anything, Yoongi removed his hands from the younger's neck and turned around.

"Hyuuung," Jungkook pleaded with big eyes while dragging the syllables in an almost whiny voice. He reached for Yoongi's hand, silently asking him to stay.

Yoongi wasn't one for aegyo, but it wasn't like Jungkook was either, besides, he didn't even want to leave the room in the first place; he tried to resist the younger, but one could only take so much (in Yoongi's case, "so much" meant "a simply bat of eyelashes from the younger", though he'd never admit it).

"You know what," Yoongi decided, "they've been waiting for us for a while now, they can wait a bit longer." And he lunched forward, latching himself to Jungkook's mouth again.

They kissed without care, wet and sloppy, savoring the moment.

Yoongi's hands trailed up Jungkook's shoulders, aiming for his hair, where his long fingers closed around a handful of the strands, tugging slightly. Jungkook's own hands circled around Yoongi's waist, tracing abstract patterns at the small of his back and at his shoulder blades.

They both hummed into the kiss and Yoongi soon separated their lips to peck at the younger's neck, biting and sucking at the skin, but still wary of any visible marks that could be left behind and require an explanation later.

As Jungkook's breath fastened and he lifted a hand to rest on Yoongi's shoulder for support, the rapper connected their lips again, a hand reaching down to the hem of Jungkook's jeans.

Yoongi played a little with the rough fabric, brushing the tips of his fingers on the skin of Jungkook's hips and carefully watching his flushed expression. Soft pink covered Jungkook's cheeks, slowly spreading to his ears and neck, and Yoongi couldn't help but admire how lustful the younger looked before finally opening the button on Jungkook's pants and pulling the zipper down.

Jungkook swallowed, his eyes focusing on Yoongi, completely drawn to the slow movements of his hands.

When Yoongi met Jungkook's gaze the younger's desire was evident by his blown out pupils, and he wasted no time to palm him through his boxers after getting his jeans out of the way.

Jungkook sucked in a deep breath and let his head rest on the wall behind him to try and stop it from spinning, but eventually, when Yoongi grew tired of the teasing and lack of direct contact, and hurriedly pulled his underwear to his mid-thighs, Jungkook couldn't do much more besides close his eyes and let shallow breathes escape out of his trembling lips as the elder finally got on his knees and took his whole length into his mouth.

Jungkook tugged hard at Yoongi's hair, hissing in pleasure and bucking his hips forward, but not sufficient to make the elder gag. Yoongi hummed in approval, the sound sending small vibrations that ran from Jungkook's dick to the pit of his stomach, causing him to pant heavily. Yoongi hummed again, a smirk barely visible on his lips, as they were stretched over Jungkook's member, and he repeated his action, forcing his head down until it reached the base of Jungkook's cock.

Yoongi was really good at what he was doing, Jungkook realized hazily. Every single squeeze from his hand and every flick of his tongue almost enough to send him over the edge, and Yoongi seemed well aware of that, if the sudden loss of contact between his mouth and Jungkook's cock was any indication. Jungkook groaned in disapproval, hands curling into fists and hitting the wall.

Looking up at Jungkook, Yoongi smirked and gave him a few lazy pumps with his hand, then gently slid his thumb across the vein on the underside of Jungkook's cock, from the base until the tip, just so he could press down onto the slit, precum promptly pooling around the digit. Jungkook grunted again, removing one of his hands from the black strands of hair to join the other in hopelessly punching the wall at his back instead. If only Yoongi would stop being such a tease.

When the younger's grip on his hair seemed to ease a little, Yoongi readjusted himself on his knees and took in his mouth as much of Jungkook's length as he could, bobbing his head back and forth to match the small thrusts of Jungkook's hips.

He held the boy's tights for support, lean fingers digging onto the firm muscles and leaving red marks around the area. Jungkook's breath hitched and he stood there with his mouth hanging open and eyes squinted, massaging Yoongi's scalp and enjoying the feeling of his cock sliding further and further into the rapper's throat.

And Yoongi kept teasing him for as long as he could while the feeling of his own pants getting tighter and tighter with each swirl of his tongue didn't become too unbearable.

Licking a long stripe from Jungkook's base to his tip, the younger watched as Yoongi wrapped his flushed lips around the head of his cock, the elder's mouth forming a pretty "o" while he sucked hard on it and repeatedly pressed his tongue into the slit. Jungkook could barely contain the grunts of pleasure bubbling in his throat, head unconsciously tilting backwards and eyes tightly shut.

As soon as Yoongi felt Jungkook stiffen he pulled back, letting his cock slide on top of his tongue and out of his mouth, slapping onto the boy's stomach. The rapper admired the younger's body, how his muscles tensed with the exertion and his thighs trembled, and how his dick throbbed with only only small guts of air hitting it, beads of precum already leaking from it.

Yoongi got on his feet, his unsteady legs causing him to try to support himself with a hand on his knee. With the back of his free hand he whipped the droplets of precum that had gotten on the corner of his mouth and looked up at Jungkook, admiring the pleasured expression that took the place of his usual soft features.

The boy had his eyes closed, eyebrows furrowed in frustration for having his orgasm denied, and heavy pants were coming out of his mouth. It was indeed a great sight to be seen, and Yoongi unconsciously licked his lips.

The rapper tugged at the bottom of Jungkook's shirt; they both were still almost fully dressed, and Yoongi briefly wondered how and why, but quickly dismissed the thought—it's not like they'd have enough time to do this properly anyway—and pulled Jungkook onto one of the benches that surrounded the large white table in the middle of the room.

Jungkook stumbled forward, gripping Yoongi's arm in an instinctive reaction to reach for something to keep him from falling, and hit the seat with a soft thud, Yoongi following right after and landing on top of him.

Yoongi let out a soft chuckle, amused by Jungkook's clumsy actions. He nuzzled his nose on the crook of the boy's neck and placed a quick kiss there before adjusting himself on top of him, each leg on one side of Jungkook's tights.

Yoongi grinded down and the friction between his jeans and Jungkook's exposed cock earned him a guttural moan from the younger. A smirk appeared on his lips and he repeated the movement, harder this time.

Jungkook tried to contain his moans by biting his lips, which proved to be somewhat successful, and gripped Yoongi's waist under his shirt, the pressure of his fingers causing the already pale skin to go even whiter. Red marks were definitely bound to appear there in a few hours, but neither of them seemed to give that much thought at the moment, not when Yoongi let out a grunt, raising his body from Jungkook's lap to hurriedly pull his own pants and boxers down, carelessly tossing them to the side along with his shoes after retrieving a small package from his jeans' back pocket.

Following Yoongi's actions with half lidded eyes, Jungkook hurriedly snatched the condom out of his grasp to open it, but stopped when Yoongi hunched his torso over the center table, blocking his hands.

The elder was struggling to get his hands on something that could be used as lube while Jungkook didn't do much besides keeping him in place by holding his hips with firm hands, the boy's lips and tongue now incessantly running from Yoongi's neck down to his chest.

When Yoongi finally felt a cylindrical and rather cold surface come in contact with the tip of his fingers he quickly got a hold of whatever it was and returned to face Jungkook, draping one arm over his shoulder to give the younger more access to his nipples. Fuck, the amount of hickeys he'd have the next day… But to be completely honest, he couldn't care less about it, Jungkook was definitely doing a damn fine job at marking him and making his body shiver every time he touched a spot Yoongi didn't even know he was sensitive at.

Turning his head to the side, Yoongi pursed his lips and squinted at the bottle he had in hands trying to focus on it—no, he wasn't trying to keep himself from moaning when Jungkook sucked hard at one of his nipples, totally not—and analyze its content. It was filled with clear liquid. Body oil, the label said. Yoongi raised an eyebrow, could that be used as lube? Hell if he knew, but it was either that or not be able to walk properly for a couple of days, so, body oil it was.

Leaning on Jungkook for support, Yoongi opened the bottle and squeezed a generous amount of the oil on two of his fingers, rubbing them with his thumb to warm them up a little. He settled the flask on the table then reached for his back, sliding his fingers between his cheeks and teasing over the rim a little before pushing one of them in.

Yoongi whimpered at the feeling of discomfort that came from having something inside of him, but they didn't have much time—it was still a mystery to him how no one had knocked on the door looking for them (not that he was looking forward to explaining why he and Jungkook were behind locked doors, far from that, but he couldn't help but wonder what the others were doing, though, whatever it was, he was thankful that they weren't bothering him)—so he added a second finger without waiting, holding back a cry due to the sting he felt as he started to stretch himself.

Jungkook groaned loudly. He knew Yoongi's intention wasn't exactly to tease him, but fuck, was he turned on by the sight of the elder fingering himself.

Holding Yoongi closer and tighter than before, Jungkook buried his face on Yoongi's neck, mercilessly nibbling at it and at his collarbone, hickeys be damned. He wanted the elder to scream more, but in pleasure instead of pain.

"Ah!" Yoongi screamed after an especially hard bite from the younger that was more than sure to leave a purple blooming mark on his pale shoulder. He panted heavily, squeezing Jungkook's shoulder with his free hand.

A few more thrusts and Yoongi deemed his preparations good enough. He removed his fingers from inside his hole and reached one more time for the oil bottle.

Yoongi poured a fair amount of the liquid over Jungkook's hardened member, pumping it slowly until it was completely covered with the crystal substance, and discarded the bottle once again.

Yoongi raised himself higher and aligned his entrance with the younger's dick, making sure his weight was fully supported by his knees and tights. He paused and stared down at Jungkook, serious.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked, the words coming out between short puffs of air. Even though Jungkook had clearly stated his wants already and seemed completely into what was happening on top of him (quite literally on top), Yoongi needed to be sure, that little voice at the back of his head still telling him that "maybe it's just the spur of the moment, he doesn't really want this." He didn't want their relationship to be ruined, he cared far too much about the younger to let that happen, loved him too much to be able to withstand the awkwardness that could follow if Jungkook didn't really feel the same.

Jungkook removed his face from where it was buried on Yoongi's neck to stare back at him, confusion creeping up on his expression. "Of course I want this! If I didn't I wouldn't have made that awful pun at the interview. I love you, hyung!" He blurted out in a single breath. When he realized what he had said his eyes immediately widened, hands quickly covering his mouth. He didn't mean to say it, what if it screwed everything up? What if that's not what Yoongi wanted? What if—

But his questions were cut short by Yoongi's lips pressing over his forehead, the tip of his nose, his cheeks, until Yoongi's own hands hold onto his, easing them over his lap, and their lips met.

The kiss was short, each of them barely feeling it, their mouths simply grazing each other, yet, it was enough for Jungkook to relax and press closer. His heart was beating so fast he was sure Yoongi could hear it, but he didn't care, not at all, not when he could also feel the quick beat of Yoongi's own heart through his heated skin.

With their lips still connected, Yoongi lowered himself on Jungkook's member, the sloppy kiss muffling his whimpers.

Yoongi let his head fall forward on the other's shoulder, taking sharp breaths as he tried to get used to the feeling of having something that big inside of him.

"Fuck, hyung," Jungkook gasped, "you're so tight."

Yoongi laughed low, breathless, "Shut up."

Jungkook hold back a small laugh of his own, opting to rub small soothing circles on Yoongi's back instead.

When Yoongi finally felt comfortable enough he raised himself up, hands on Jungkook's shoulders to help him with the movement, and sunk back down, swiftly, head thrown backwards and a wicked grin on his lips.

"Fuck," Jungkook groaned, and if they were in any other situation Yoongi would've scolded him for his bad language already.

A few more tentative lifts and Yoongi set a steady rhythm for himself, bobbing up and down on Jungkook's lap as the boy kept both hands firm on his ass, squeezing it in time with the thrusts.

It didn't take long for Yoongi to get tired of all the exertion and start to feel the strain on his legs—with how much they danced one would imagine he'd have more stamina, but all of this was just so overwhelming Yoongi's body was trembling even before he had Jungkook inside of him—just like it also didn't take long for Jungkook to notice his pace faltering.

Shifting on the bench to get to a more comfortable position, Jungkook gripped harder at Yoongi's hips, using the muscles of his arms to raise the rapper up then bring him back down again.

Yoongi screamed, Jungkook's member going deeper inside of him and filling him up completely. He dig his nails on the younger's back, dragging them up to his shoulders and leaving angry red marks on their way.

Jungkook kept a powerful and steady rhythm as Yoongi's whines become more frequent and loud, all thoughts leaving the rapper's mind with each new precise hit to his prostate.

Soon the squealing noises gave way to low, stuttered moans. Yoongi felt the heat and tightness that indicated the closeness to his climax in the lower of his abdomen and clung onto Jungkook with the little bit of strength he still had on his jelly like limbs.

With a few more thrusts from Jungkook Yoongi came all over his stomach, a ragged scream caught in his throat.

Jungkook's hold tightened around him and his rhythm weakened, quick movements turning into small rolls of his hips as Yoongi clenched around him.

Not long after, Jungkook also reached his orgasm with a low grunt, riding the pleasure out with a few more erratic thrusts until Yoongi started to whine softly and he finally eased to a stop.

They remained still in that position for a few moments; Yoongi's head resting on Jungkook's shoulder as he breathed heavily and Jungkook's arms loosely around Yoongi's waist, holding him close.

Yoongi separated himself from the younger by placing both hands on his chest to prop himself backwards, and, looking at him, he saw the corners of Jungkook's eyes crinkle to accompany a lazy smile.

He sighed, contently, and placed a quick kiss on Jungkook's lips before getting up from his lap and standing on wobbling legs. He looked around for his discarded pants and fixed the remaining of his clothing, signaling to the younger to do the same.

When everything seemed in place—Yoongi spared a last glance to the huge mirror hung on the wall, just in case—he extended a hand out for Jungkook to grab, pointing at the door with a motion of his head, a silent "let's get out of here."

Jungkook smiled widely, bunny teeth cutely showing, and extended his own hand towards Yoongi.

On their way out Yoongi pondered what kind of excuse he should tell the other members. Should he reference the interview, saying he decided to give little Jungkookie a taste of his "sugar", or simply state they were both tired and accidentally fell asleep?

Without much thought he deemed the second option too convincing and boring and opted for the first one with a sly smile.

What came with no surprise later, after they had arrived at the parking lot where their van was waiting to pick them up, was the members mocking them for sticking with the ridiculous pun Jungkook had uttered earlier.

Running a hand through his face, Namjoon shut everyone up and halfheartedly scolded the two late members before getting to his seat at the front of the van. "If you were so tired then you should've hurried up to get to the dorm as soon as possible. How dumb can you guys be?" Namjoon rolled his eyes, strapping the seatbelt over his body. "Also, stop with these stupid puns, they're not funny."

From the back seats came an offended "Hey!" from Jin. Puns were the best form of humor, how could Namjoon not understand the beauty of them, even Yoongi had surrendered to such complex art.

Yoongi and Jungkook pointedly ignored the upcoming discussion and discreetly glanced at each other before stepping to the back of the vehicle, a knowing look on their eyes, their hands brushing.

#yoonkook #sugakookie #bts #fanfic #bts fanfic #my fics

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mylifeatwar · 6 years

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Book 2, Chapter 2, Page 9

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Hey Everyone!

First, sorry for not replying to everyone’s comments as much as I normally do. Things have been hectic at work and other boring excuses.

Now onto things that are actually interesting. Where the fuck did Amalia come from? I don’t just mean her country of origin (The Federative Republic of Salbhaca) but I mean her character from a writing perspective.

So, when MLaW was first starting out, we had forums. Later on we canned them because it was too hard to keep them spam free and forums are already going the way of the dinosaur, hence our comment system. However, when the forums were still up a user called ‘Lemonade’ showed up and talked about the Bechdel test, which is basically a quick and dirty method of seeing whether or not there are meaningful female characters in a given story.

Now, I’m assuming that Lemonade is female because I’ve never heard a guy open with a discussion of the Bechdel test, but I could be wrong. Either way the comic was still in the intro phase and there was some confusion about where the comic was heading. Betsy-Ray’s antagonistic feelings towards Missy and Lulu-Belle for their attractiveness was supposed to show that Betsy-Ray can be insecure and petty, just like all people. This was also supposed to help set up the revelation that Missy and Lulu-Belle are actually pretty good folks who have their own reasons for the way they dress and act. Lemonade was asserting that our characters didn’t really have a proper voice and that they were falling into old, familiar ruts of fiction. Lemonade asked why I wasn’t trying very different characters.

We went back and forth on this and I asserted that characters different from the ones we had didn’t fit the MLaW-verse and that to request otherwise was unfair to the story we had planned. Not my proudest moment really.

Her reply basically boiled down to “This is fiction. You’re writing about giant fucking robots. This mercenary company could be entirely composed of latina lesbians if you wanted to. You can do anything you want.” I replied to this basically with the fact that MLaW was going to end up being very different from what it was at the moment, but I couldn’t reveal anything because Spoilers. This was kind of a ho-hum response in my opinion. I think really I said that because I didn’t think I could write that characters like that (more on that in a second).

A few days later I was alone and drunk in my kitchen (a lot of my writing revelations happen like this) and I was mulling that exchange over. “Wait a second, why couldn’t I write that character? I’m a writer, making things up is like… all I’m good at”.

Just as an experiment I started trying to write a hispanic, lesbian character within the context of MLaW and Amalia just kind of… happened. Before I knew it, it was very hard to think of MLaW without her.

I think that, at least initially, I was scared of writing a character like Amalia because she’s so different than myself that I’d have no point of reference. This means that she could be inaccurate at best or insulting at worst, which isn’t a possibility I relished. Eventually I just fell back on the things that Amalia and I have in common:

We both like girls (*rimshot*)

We’ve both spent time in unfamiliar cultures trying to fit in

We both use assertive behavior to mask nervousness about social situations

It became a lot easier after that and it made me realize that, in all frankness, I was being cowardly about the characters I was making.

Did I alter anything about the MLaW universe or story to make this character? No, Matt and I intended this to be a mecha comic with a lot of female characters from the get-go because it seemed like a cool idea at the time. Salbhaca was in the MLaW fiction from the beginning and always had a Brazillian/Mayan/1960’s Space Race feel to it

We imported a lot of the forum discussions, I think you can still find that discussion in the archives somewhere (it’s on Page 13). So, while I doubt Lemonade still reads MLaW I can still say “Lemonade, this one’s for you”.

Thanks for reading,

– Luther out

PS: Yes, I realize the humor of having a butch-ish lesbian character whose job title is ‘Bull’. That was not intentional, but fuck it, I’m keeping it.

Comment Text Follows:

Iarei - Poor Amalia, that is some spectacular lack of concerned over personal space. Looks like she’s about ready to swallow that cigaro. I do remember Lemon referencing the Bechdel test in the comments section. It was the first I’d heard of it, and really the test struck me as a bit old fashioned. It only really applies to that one ‘Blondie’ stereotype. (See: Chic Young) If you had a female character that talked about nothing but makeup and clothes that would be another sexist stereotype. If you had a man who is powered by nothing but adrenaline and voltage. . . see where I’m going with this? What’s important is that you have (and I believe you do, have) characters that act consistently according to MANY character traits and/or flaws, rather than falling back on easy/familiar formulas or getting hung up on one trait. Sexuality is both a hugely important trait, and an incredibly private trait, so it can be overdone or crammed into a safe, comfortable stereotype easily. So, for what my opinion’s worth, I think you’ve handled it well, thus far. As much as I love Limbs breaking heads I think I look forward more to your character development. Oh, and it’s amusing to have a character act consistently based on flawed premises. (see: Dizzy’s perspective on Dhuvallian soldiers.) Do you have like, a mini biography to reference for each character when you’re planing out a scene? Ooh! Zat reminds me! I wonder is [REDACTED] is still good or if it’ll turn to crap behind the filter of years of matured (or at least well aged) brain. Sorry, I ramble when it’s 5 am. g’night.

Gillsing - I don’t see what’s ‘old fashioned’ about the Bechdel test, or how it would even apply to individuals. As far as I’ve understood it, it’s mainly supposed to show how rare women are in a lot of fiction, and not judge the female characters or the work itself, whether it passes the test or not. That thing about ‘talking about something other than a man’ is not there because the women would be incapable of talking about something else, but rather because the story might only care about that part of their lives, so that’s the only thing that gets shown. Again, as far as I’ve understood it. I’m not an expert on the subject.

Iarei - Just that I interpret that part as stemming from the mercifully dated concept that women exist to support their men. Be good wives / daughters / sisters rather than, as you aptly put it, focusing on other parts of their lives.

tkg - There is also the issue of the test being woefully limited. When you consider that in a good story a character may change or develop you have to ask when the B-Test is appropriate. More so if such a character changes then is it fair to label a story with the b-test based not on what the major characters become but what they were? Somehow the b-test seems like unnecessary stratification.

Iarei - “unnecessary stratification” Those are some pretty words. I believe I shall steal them and probably misuse them.

Beanman - The Bechdel Test has been described as ‘the standard by which feminist critics judge television, movies, books and other media’ It simply judges if the characters in the story a meaningful to an extent. A film/book/comic ect passes the Bechdel test if: 1.It has at lest two women in it, 2.who talk to each other, 3.about something besides a man I am not certain about this particular conversation as Betsy initially seems to want to talk about men, however she is shut down fairly quickly and on the next page the conversation takes a much more serious tone. Personally I think it passes the test, others may disagree. http://www.mylifeatwar.com/?p=319 This conversation I feel, passes without issue. Again a male character is mentioned but as nothing more than a co-worker and the conversation is certainly not about him. http://www.mylifeatwar.com/?p=432 So I would hope that feminists would applaud the efforts of the MLaW team for portraying meaningful female characters. I know I do.

dwwolf - I told ya’all I saw a pickup line coming up.

Matti - If anybody cares, I know good BattleTech fan fic about two all woman mercenary units working together: http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,12316.0.html No mechas in that story though (no ‘Mechs either), but good read anyway

Killercow - I love this page.

Plaintextman - Most interesting. As others have said, the Bechdel test is a very simple and concise test that can go a long way demonstrating lack of female characters with substance. But it is really inadequate for properly judging fiction. Kind of like the “is it dissipating an unusual amount of heat lately?” test for checking whether a transistor still works. A great way to scan for problems, but it won’t tell you whether the thing’s gain curve is sane or not. Heck, a lot of times the heat is just a normal part of operation. So I might be stretching the analogy a little there, but I don’t believe that ∀x(GendersOK(x)→Bechdel(x)); they say Mulan is an example of a work that fails the test. Anyhow, I read an article the other day with which I can’t disagree: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/i-hate-strong-female-characters . In my opinion, having various gendered/cultured/whateverd characters with proper _agency_ is the most important. And so far I think you guys are doing a good job with MLAW in this regard.

Plaintextman - Hey! That golden dot besides Amalia’s right eye… wireless transmitter or other tech implant? IIRC it was mentioned that Salbhaca has “big plans for space” so I assume they are technologically advanced. Possibly also situated close to Dhuvalia and sharing tech?

nweismuller - It just looks like a facial piercing to me. I’ve seen similar piercings before in Real Life.

Plaintextman - Oh… that makes way more sense. It looked to me like it was flat against her skin until you mentioned that.

Killercow - Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was mentioned in the comments by the author as such.

#comic #webcomic #got a light

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newstechreviews · 7 years

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Over the past 20 years, horror fans have seen some exceptionally wonderful horror movies. We're living in a golden era of modern horror where filmmakers don't have to rely on witty supernatural villains spouting terrible one-liners while killing off their victims one by one. Now, both indie and major studios are producing memorable films that mix horror with other genres to create something unique and wonderful, like this year's Get Out, which won big at the box office.

We're taking a look at the past two decades of horror and picking out the best movie, year by year. Some years were better than others, but all of these movies should be on your watch list, especially with Halloween right around the corner.

1997: Event Horizon

1997 was not a great year for horror movies. It was a summer filled with movies like Scream 2, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Relic, and a slew of other very forgettable films. That year, Event Horizon was released, a sci-fi/horror hybrid about the reappearance of a ship that went into a black hole. The rescue team discovers something horrifying inside. Sure, it's not an amazing movie, but it's fun, and there are plenty of memorable moments, like when one character's eyes get sewn shut.

1998: Ringu

Ringu kicked off what eventually become America's love affair with Asian horror cinema. A reporter and her ex-husband investigate a mysterious tape that reportedly kills you seven days after you watch it. The vast majority of people are much more familiar with the 2002 American remake, which had a much bigger budget, but the original Ringu is a much better horror film with some great scares, even if a couple effects sequences are dated.

1999: The Blair Witch Project

For better or worse, depending on your outlook, The Blair Witch Project started a revolution when it came to "found footage" movies. This was a new genre for horror to jump into and part of the allure was the audience wondering if what they were watching was actually real. The Blair Witch Project follows three film students that head into the Maryland wilderness to shoot a documentary about local myth the Blair Witch. Obviously, things don't go well for them.

Runners-up: The Sixth Sense and Audition

2000: American Psycho

In 2000, the world fell in love with potential sociopath Patrick Bateman, a wealthy white-collar worker during the '80s who fantasizes about murdering everyone around him while discussing Huey Lewis and the News. American Psycho isn't just a horror film; it mixes and bends genres to tell its tale. However, the amount of blood, brutality, and violence in this film makes it feel like a precursor to the modern gore sub-genre that came a few years later. American Psycho isn't just a good horror movie, it's a great movie in general.

Runner-up: Ginger Snaps

2001: The Devil's Backbone

Spanish director Guillermo del Toro is a name you're going to see a few times on this list because he is not only a fantastic director when it comes to horror, but he puts his name behind some incredibly memorable films. In The Devil's Backbone, a young boy, who lost his father in the Spanish Civil War in 1939, is forced to live in an orphanage. He never feels quite comfortable in his new surroundings as there's a groundskeeper who doesn't want him looking in a storage locker, and the building is haunted by ghosts. This is one of del Toro's most underrated films.

Runner-up: Session 9

2002: 28 Days Later

While 1985's campy Return of the Living Dead was the first time a fast zombie appeared on screen, 28 Days Later popularized the idea of fast-moving infected/undead chasing down their prey. The diseased in 28 Days Later are not traditional zombies nor are they the living dead, but Danny Boyle's frantic and intense film was terrifying and helped usher in a resurgence in zombie films and media. In 2003, the comic series The Walking Dead started and in 2004, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake came to theaters. Fans of the genre owe a lot to Boyle's film.

Runner-up: The Ring

2003: A Tale of Two Sisters

While South Korea's A Tale of Two Sisters may not be as well-known or regarded for ushering in Asian horror renaissance like Japan's Ringu, it's a great example of Korea's style of horror filmmaking: a genre-mixing, intense process that leaves the viewers on the edge of their seats. A teenage girl returns home from a stint in a mental hospital, and is terrorized by her cruel step-mother and ghosts within the family home. A Tale of Two Sisters balances psychological horror and a mystery exceptionally well and makes that year's biggest American horror film, Freddy vs. Jason, look like child's play.

Runner-up: 2LDK

2004: Shaun of the Dead

In Shaun of the Dead, Shaun decides to try and win back his ex-girlfriend; however, the only problem is that there's a zombie apocalypse happening around them. This movie is one of the best horror/comedies of all time, thanks to the witty writing of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, and let's not forget how amazingly this movie is edited as well. While the focus is a bit more on Pegg's character, Shaun, and his best friend Ed, played by Nick Frost, there are a few jump scares and classic "trapped by zombies" moments that make this a legitimately great film.

Runners-up: Dawn of the Dead and Saw

2005: The Descent

If you're claustrophobic, then The Descent is a total nightmare. A group of explorers head out on an adventure to search an uncharted cave system, only to find monsters in the darkness that are hunting them all down, one by one. Aside from the scares coming from the man-eating beasts, what sets The Descent apart from other horror movies that year is the feeling of being trapped, thanks to the way it was filmed, which--believe it or not--was all in a studio outside of London, as filming in an actual cave was deemed too dangerous. The Descent is a must-watch for horror fans, and one of the better movies on this list.

2006: Pan's Labyrinth

Once again, director Guillermo del Toro makes the list. Pan's Labyrinth takes place in Spain in the mid-1940s and follows a young girl obsessed with fairy tales. One day, she finds a faun who tells her she's a princess but must complete three tasks in order to prove she's royalty. Pan's Labyrinth has a narrative setup that could easily be used for a children's film, but del Toro takes it down a dark path, setting it against a war, and creating some haunting creatures, like the one above. It's a movie that appears to be a fantasy, but upon closer inspection, is filled with unimaginable horrors.

Runner-up: The Host

2007: The Orphanage

2007 may have been one the best years for horror. It was a year that produced The Mist, 28 Weeks Later, 30 Days of Night, and 1408 to name a few, but none of those films hold a candle to The Orphanage, which was executive produced by Guillermo del Toro. In the movie, a young woman (Laura) and her husband raise their son in an old house that used to be an orphanage that Laura was raised in. Soon, her son begins talking to invisible friends and quickly disappears, so Laura enlists outside help to figure out what's going on. Obviously, the little boy in the mask is creepy, but this movie shines in its use of location, sound, and overall tone. There's a reason del Toro put his name on this movie: It's haunting.

Runners-up: Paranormal Activity and REC

2008: Let The Right One In

Sweden's romantic horror film is bizarre and haunting, and the American adaptation--Let Me In--just isn't the same. Let The Right One In follows a young bullied boy who is befriended by a strange girl, who turns out to be a vampire, of sorts. It's one of the early adopters of the the new age of horror that puts the focus on a slow-building tension that immerses the audience into the world where the real horror is rooted in realistic fears, even if said fears are coming from something supernatural. It's a film that's best enjoyed on your own, and we won't say much else about the film because there are so many twists and turns to it.

Runner-up: Quarantine

2009: Drag Me To Hell

Sam Raimi--known for the Evil Dead franchise--made a return to horror in 2009 with Drag Me To Hell. A loan officer has to evict an old woman from her home, and after doing so, finds herself cursed and on a mission to save her own soul. This movie is pure Sam Raimi, who has a knack for blurring the lines between comedy and horror at times. Are we supposed to laugh when the main character has blood/bugs/vomit/black tar dumped on her face or are we supposed to be disgusted? Sadly, Raimi doesn't direct as much anymore, but he did produce one of the best horror films in the past decade, Don't Breathe.

Runner-up: Pandorum

2010: I Saw The Devil

2010 was another great year for horror films: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Black Swan, Rare Exports, and The Dead were all released. However, South Korea's I Saw The Devil was easily the best horror film of the year. It brilliantly mixes the genre with a Korean favorite: the revenge film, as a serial killer murders a secret agent's fiance, and he takes vengeance into his own hands, even if it means becoming a monster himself. Where this movie truly succeeds is with the character arc of the lead, Kim Soo-hyeon, as he morphs into what he is hunting down, in a sense.

Runners-up: Let Me In and Insidious

2011: You're Next

You're Next was one of two good horror films to come out of 2011, which was a pretty bogus year. Luckily, both of those films are pretty fantastic. You're Next has a new spin on the home-invasion story. A family on an anniversary vacation find themselves being hunted down by masked killers; however, one of the hunted has a secret: they know how to fight back. This genre of horror has been overdone, but the twist gives this story some new life.

Runner-up: Grave Encounters

2012: Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods is a really weird movie, in all the right ways. It starts as a typical horror film featuring a group of attractive young adults, heading to a remote cabin, where they're hunted down by zombies. However, what sets this movie apart is the turn, which happens during the first act--and we won't spoil it in case you've never seen it. Cabin in the Woods is ingenious and actually pretty funny at times. In addition, it's the only horror movie that will have you rooting for a gross merman to kill someone.

Runners-up: Sinister and VHS

2013: The Conjuring

Ed and Lorraine Warren's alleged supernatural encounters have been made into countless movies, with the most memorable being The Amityville Horror. However, in 2013, The Conjuring came out, which recounts one of the Warren's early investigations of a Rhode Island farmhouse that is under attack by a supernatural force. It is, by far, one of the best horror films of the decade and launched a fantastic franchise as well.

Runners-up: Oculus and VHS 2

2014: The Babadook

Jennifer Kent's 2014 film, The Babadook, follows a widow trying to take care of her problematic child who thinks there is a monster in the house. The mother quickly discovers a creature called the Babadook is terrorizing the family. Much like a few other films on the list, The Babadook slowly builds tension, and while the film has a few jump scares, it doesn't rely on them to horrify the audience.

Runners-up: REC 4 and Housebound

2015: It Follows

It Follows is a great way to promote abstinence. Joking aside, the 2015 film does revolve around a curse that can only be passed on by intercourse, and that curse comes in the form of a slow-moving, supernatural being that kills you if it reaches you. The movie centers around a young woman who becomes cursed after a sexual encounter with a young man who mysteriously disappears. She and a group of friends do what they can to keep her from being reached by the creature. The story is unique and keeps the viewers on the edge of their seats for the entire film. At no point does the tension let up.

Runners-up: They Look Like People and The Visit

2016: The Witch

On this list, 2016 was the best year for horror, as you can see from the long list of runners-up below. The film that beat out everything else that year was the slow-paced movie The Witch. This movie is an extremely slow burn that follows a family in the 1600s who believe their daughter may have been influenced by witches. What makes this such a great film is the attention to detail, from the clothing to the insanely specific dialect. In addition, it has some of the best cinematography in modern horror. It is a beautiful movie with some chilling undertones.

Runners-up: Don't Breathe, Green Room, Hush, The Conjuring 2, Train to Busan, Under The Shadow, The Shallows, and The Wailing

2017: Get Out

2017 may not be over, but as of October, the best horror film of the year is Get Out. The Jordan Peele-directed film follows Chris, a young black man who is on his way to meet his white girlfriend's parents for the first time. He quickly learns that something is off about the family and everyone in the circle of friends. Get Out has such a good story that weaves mystery and thriller genres into it as the movie progresses--along with a little comedy. What makes this such a great film is that while some of the elements in the film are "out of this world," it has its rooting in reality. Not only is it a great horror film, it's one of the best films of the year.

Runners-up: Split and It

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