#sanda has friends

[pan-gya]

[croquis-el]

Naruhodō doesn't find being a lawyer difficult

I've been thinking about writing about this for a long time, but I doubted that I would find confirmation of this in the Japanese version

I had no reason to doubt it, and now I’ll tell you in more detail why I came to this conclusion.

Even at the very beginning of the game, we are told how Chihiro (Mia) characterizes Naruhodō. And although she jokes about the fact that with his experience the defendants will face a guilty verdict, she still throws out one short phrase that shows Naruhodō’s true abilities

…彼は天才よ

… kare wa tensai yo”

...He's a genius"

天才(てんさい) [tensai] - genius; prodigy; natural gift

まさに 《恐怖のツッコミ男》 と いったところかしら

masani “kyōfu no tsukkomi otoko” to itta tokoro kashira

He is able to "strike fear into the hearts of his opponents."

Chihiro literally says: He's talented.

And this is not surprising, because Hodō began studying law and preparing for the exam in 2012-2013. How this is confirmed: Hodo himself says that he made this decision after reading an article about Mitsurugi in the newspaper (he also became a prosecutor at the age of 20 - his first trial was on September 10, 2012). Plus Case 3-1, where it turns out that he meets a lady in the courthouse library in August 2013 (the day the lawyer was poisoned in the cafeteria) and talks about his determination to help his friend.

And already on August 3, 2016 he stands behind the defense counter. Considering that in Japan, judicial practice is mandatory for all lawyers for 1-1.5 years, this skill machine was able to achieve enormous results in just 2-3 years.

どうすれば証明できるの! あの人が、灰根さんだ、って……。

dōsureba shōmei dekiru no! Ano hito ga, Hai ne-sanda, tte…….

How can you prove that that person is Haine-san...

だいじょうぶだよ。カンタンな方法がある。

daijōbuda yo. Kantan'na hōhō ga aru.

Don't worry. There's a simple way to do this.

Repeatedly during court hearings, he says the phrases: “It’s easy to prove,” “The answer lies on the surface,” “I know that I’m right and I’ll prove it.” Hodo has very well developed logical thinking, which he skillfully operates with (which, by the way, Mitsurugi was impressed with - show him the evidence in 1-4 in the detention center after the first day of the trial and see for yourself)

(ファイルを調べるのが メンドウなだけじゃないか････)

(fairu o shiraberu no ga mendōna dake janai ka)

(It's not that difficult - just study the files).

Even a brief comment about working with documents shows us his attitude towards work.

___________________________________________

And then - the cherry on the cake. Dialogue with Odoroki in 4-1.

一晩中、最悪のカードを配られても 勝てる、ただひとつのゲーム････

hitobanjū, saiaku no kādo o kubara rete mo kateru, tada hitotsu no gēmu

The only game you can win even if you're dealt the worst cards all night...

････それがポーカーだ。

sore ga pōkā da.

... that's poker.

ポーカーの本質は、 心理を “読み合う ”ところにある。

pōkā no honshitsu wa, shinri o “yomi au” tokoro ni aru.

The essence of poker is to "read each other's minds."

･･･そうだな。ある種、 法廷戦術に通じるものがあるね。

sōda na. Aru tane, hōtei senjutsu ni tsūjiru mono ga aru ne.

That's right. It's kind of similar to courtroom tactics.

ポーカーが････法廷戦術!

pōkā ga hōtei senjutsu!

Poker like...courtroom tactics!

相手が何を考えているかを、知る。それができれば、勝つ。

aite ga nani o kangaete iru ka o, shiru. Sore ga dekireba, katsu.

Know what your opponent is thinking. If you can do that, you'll win.

そりゃそうですけど。

そんなコト、できるハズが････

sorya-sōdesukedo. Son'na Koto, dekiru hazu ga

That's true. I mean, it's not like I can do that...

できるんだよ。

dekiru nda yo.

You can do that.

人間の思考・感情というものは ････かならず。ningen no shikō kanjō to iu mono wa kanarazu.

Human thoughts and emotions are... always...

身体から“情報”として 発信されている。

karada kara “jōhō” to shite hasshin sa rete iru.

...sent out as "information" from the body.

Naruhodō literally compares court hearings to a game of poker and gives advice to carefully listen to the words of witnesses and opponents and try to predict their next action. And this comparison is very much in the spirit of Hodō: bad cards = bad evidence (which must be used correctly); opponents trying to deceive = witnesses who give false testimony; a dealer who was bribed = a prosecutor who pulls the judge to his side. It may seem like he's only setting up Odoroki to use his ability (to find people's nervous habits), but he puts a share of his three years of experience in court and seven years of experience at the poker table (whatever, he acted the same there) into it. It is impossible to compare something that you have not experienced.

Yes, Naruhodo is nervous, worried, and faces difficulties in court and beyond, but for him this is not something that can disturb his inner harmony. He knows his worth and always does what he is capable of (and sometimes demands the impossible from himself).

[discordiansamba]

The thought of Krolia taking over Shiro's role on the Kerberos mission is so funny to me. All she wants to do is a.) figure out a way to get back to her own body and b.) spend time with her son in the meantime, but the human who she has swapped with has obligations that are important to his people's development and more importantly, are very important to the human himself, so it's not like she can just shuck it off on someone else. That would be very rude. This Shiro sounds like he has a very strong sense of responsibility, and she would certainly hate to make the reputation of the man who has been looking after her son take a dive.

Krolia getting a crash course on Earth's space faring technology. She crashes the sim twice while learning the controls, but she gets the hang of it pretty quickly. Krolia pouring over all the details of the Kerberos mission with only like, two months to get a grasp on the whole thing. Thankfully she is an extremely quick study, and if anyone asks, she just claims she's 'reviewing the mission parameters again to make sure she has everything down'. But also Adam having to drag this woman to bed because she is unused to having a human sleep cycle. It's 3 AM Krolia, go the fuck to sleep.

(She also has to get a crash course on how to treat Shiro's disease. She thinks she understands just a little, his drive to get out there and do something great by the standards of his people.)

Also she has to do this all while putting up with Admiral Sanda. She does not like this woman. Adam tells her that she cannot challenge her to combat for her role. Shame. It would make things much simpler. At least the two humans who are to accompany her on this mission are pleasant company, even if she's quite certain she's not entirely fooling Commander Holt. Good thing the truth is so outlandish that no one would ever possibly guess that she is an alien lifeform who has unintentionally taken over this human's body.

(Does she try and push Matt and Keith to become friends? Yes. Absolutely. She gets Adam's full backing on that one.)

Then when she gets to Kerberos, she and the two humans get abducted. By the Galra Empire. She just stares up at the ship for a good few seconds with an incredibly are you fucking kidding me expression on her face.

Sigh. These are not the ideal conditions in which to plan an escape from a Galra cruiser, but she supposes she will have to make do. Thankfully she has not skimped on her training in this body.

[shuttershocky]

Do you think the magic prosthetic arm touko gave shiki can be used to grab objects from across the room or is it only for choking ghosts out sith style

It probably only works on non-corporeal entities, but it's cooler to think that Ryougi can just sucker punch you from across the room so I want to believe that extended arm could work on flesh and blood too. It would be so cool if she just has a range of Devil Breakers arms to use in battle.

But also now that you bring that up there's a rant I've been wanting to go on for a while.

I legitimately think Nasu forgot she can do that. Fate/Extra and Fate/Grand Order certainly forgot she could do that, if they even remember that she's got a prosthetic arm at all (which they don't)

Kara No Kyoukai is filled with so much incredibly cool shit that gets mentioned or brought up once or only written in material books and then (sadly, but probably for the better) get ignored afterwards in favor of Ryougi and Kokutou's love story, cool shit that I keep waiting for Sanda or Narita to bring back in some form because they weren't necessary to Kara No Kyoukai but, god. They were just so fucking cool.

Some examples

The aforementioned magic prosthetic arm Shiki wields. It can extend to grab enemies, is incredibly tough (an elephant can sit on it no problem) and has secret compartments to hold extra weapons

Azaka has no magic circuits at all and perceives the act of spellweaving by thinking of the spell as musical notes, which raises SO many questions about what it means to have magic potential in Type-Moon if someone without the most basic of requirements is still able to do it

Fujino developed short-ranged clairvoyance during her battle with Shiki, which she uses to get a bird's eye view of her surroundings. Given that she ends up bending the entire bridge while still being under it and bends a lamp post behind her in Extra Chorus, this implies that Fujino doesn't just use her Mystic Eyes of Distortion through her physical eyes, but can use it from the sight granted to her by clairvoyance since she can twist objects she's not even looking at.

Fujino becomes blind in Extra Chorus, and must go around with a walking stick. However, her control over her Mystic Eyes has not diminished in the slightest, and if Shiki is to be believed, Fujino will only become more powerful as she grows up.

Ryougi's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are also growing in power over time. What this means is not entirely clear (perhaps she will be able to perceive death even on beings normally without the concept of death), but they're not killing her like they're killing Tohno.

Touko's prosthetics aren't entirely magical. You can see her programming them and hooking them up to her laptop while she inserts circuitry inside in the first movie. A mage using modern technology is rare, but Touko is straight up doing magic tech. Cybernetics with magecraft. Both Touko and Shiki are technically cyborgs.

The Hollow Shrine once had to produce an anime

Touko has a ring that renders the wearer invisible, even to powerful mages like Cornelius Alba. This gets never brought up again.

Shiki's family katana is able to destroy bounded fields around a mage's base merely by unsheathing, due to its advanced age.

Kurogiri is from Atlas

Touko and Riesbyfe are old friends. Riesbyfe is the headmaster of Reien Girls' Academy. People might argue this is a different RIesbyfe entirely due to how much that conflicts with Melty Blood, but Mother Riesbyfe has a violin in her room. It's likely meant to be the same character, retconned and repurposed for Melty Blood

Azaka met Touko and became her apprentice in a completely separate case that did not involve Mikiya at all. In fact, Tobimaru from Mahoyo is the one involved in their meeting. This story hasn't been written by Nasu yet lol.

[uniquecellest]

Adam and Shiro being in RWRB AU

* Adam and Shiro coming from very established families especially at the Garrison, though Adam's not only help contributes but also helped found the Garrison

* Shiro secretly having a crush on Adam but didn't know it at first

* then it hits him one night

*Adam is aware he has strong feelings for Shiro he just doesn't know where they lie

*the two are the biggest rivals ever competing for top spot

*Shiro asks for class changes due to Adam being in most and once he realizes his crush can't blushing around him

* Adam assumes Shiro wants more rivalry than friendship and goes with it

*Matt and Keith are done with their shit obviously

*Adam starts to be colder to Shiro and throws himself into his studies since he doesn't have Shiro in many of his classes anymore

*there's a formal gathering where they make fools of themselves so they have to be besties at things

*it starts with them being roommates and being in all the same classes together

*they start getting along

*at the next big event when Adam sees Shiro talking to someone (he thinks it's flirting) not to mention his over stimulation he goes outside

*Shiro finds him

*Adam kisses Shiro and freaks out and leaves.

*Adam like leaves leaves, when Shiro goes back to their dorm Adam is gone along with all of his things. All of their friends haven't seen Adam either

*Adam's family forces him back for his mid terms/end of term exams and he completely ignores Shiro acting like Shiro doesn't even exist

*Shiro finds Adam asleep one night in the library. Shiro takes Adam back to their dorm (Shiro still refers to it as theirs despite now rooming with Matt and taking on Keith). Shiro sleeps on the couch putting Adam in his bed

*The two start a secret relationship though they act like friends to the public. Only Matt and Keith know

*The two go away for Spring Break together. They're saying 'I love you' at this point but Shiro confides how hard he has fallen for Adam, which freaks Adam out so he leaves. (Not due to Shiros feelings but due to his own bc he realizes how deep his feelings for Shiro goes and it scares him)

*Adam doesn't resurface at the Garrison for a while after spring break so Shiro throws himself into his studies.

*Someone who is jealous of them, their spots, their grades, shares photos with the Garrison of Adam and Shiro kissing and holding hands (person thinks that Adam and Shiro only got their spots bc of their families) as an expose (person could also have a thing for Adam or Shiro)

*Matt and Keith become Shiros saving grace at the Garrison while it turns out Veronica and Adam are besties and she's his saving grace at home

*Veronica and Matt plot together to get Shiro to Adam

*Shiro is upset at Adam for ghosting and not even responding once the photos came to light

*Adam then confesses how deep his feelings for Shiro goes and how it scares him and when the photos came out he was only worried for Shiros safety not his own

*the two reconcile

*to everyone's surprise it's not Adam's family they have to convince its Sanda bc she's too busy trying to "protect" the reputation of Adam's family

*Adam and Shiro live happily ever after with their gremlin little brother/son Keith

[levbolton]

man.... blue period chapter 59 was quite the begining for something big

it's murai's backstory, he was always poor, his mother was neglectful, barely at home so he barely wanted to be home too. he was working as a middle schooler, got taken in by someone and one day in highschool he was struck by a painting so powerfully that he started to like painting, as in want to become a painter and thus he started to get prepared for the geidai exam (bcs it's the cheapest)

he failed the first attempt, and he got really stressed out by the living expenses in tokyo, including the art materials, so he works by day and paints by night, he met sanda at an evening prep school and that's how the chapter ends

someone on discord did point out how yakumo and yatora are quite the parallels, there's a few arguments for that so it makes sense

i wonder if we'll learn the reason why sanada was killed, and how it has an impact on art world because when meeting sanda, in prep school, as in before university, sanda was eating molded bread, but after we know that sanda's paintings were quite the big hit with a lot of money....

yakumo is not from hiroshima, by this point momo and hachiro were not yet introduced, but we know that sanda's house is in hiroshima, so i think that sanda and murai became friends and sanada introduced murai to momo and hachiro, since we know that yakumo was momo's art teacher before geidai... so yeah, i get it why yakumo was so attached to sanada....

[whileiamdying]

Remembering Maria Schneider, the Star of “Last Tango in Paris”

Photograph by Jack Mitchell / Getty

In a new book, translated by Molly Ringwald, Maria’s cousin recalls the fame and turbulence that followed the release of Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial film.

By Vanessa Schneider

April 13, 2023

Did you know, Maria, that you were almost not cast in “Last Tango in Paris”? You weren’t Bernardo Bertolucci’s first choice. Legend has it that he originally wanted to do a story between two men before quickly abandoning the idea. He was a hot director at the time. His film “The Conformist,” from 1970, which starred Jean-Louis Trintignant and Dominique Sanda, had been a great critical success. With “Tango,” he wanted to show the dark side of the sexual revolution, exploring sex and psychological violence between two people in a Parisian apartment: a run-down forty-five-year-old man named Paul, whose wife has just committed suicide, and a young woman named Jeanne.

In the beginning, the Italian director went to Paris, hoping to re-cast Trintignant and Sanda as Paul and Jeanne. Bertolucci recalled that Trintignant turned it down, saying, “In your film, they’re having sex all the time. Sorry, but I just can’t go nude.” Sanda was pregnant and declined the offer as well. Next, Bertolucci tried to meet with the two biggest actors in France, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon. Never the type to waste time, Belmondo refused to even see him. “I don’t do porn films,” he said. Delon’s response was more ambiguous but classic Delon—he said neither yes nor no. Bertolucci’s casting process broke down. And then someone suggested Marlon Brando. The mythic actor of American cinema was older and heavier than he had been in his prime. A string of commercial flops had placed him in the category of Hollywood “has-beens” and he needed cash after having purchased a Polynesian island, which had turned into a money pit. He didn’t know it yet, but his comeback was just on the horizon, percolating in the desire of two young filmmakers—Francis Ford Coppola, who thought of him for the title role in “The Godfather,” in 1971, and Bertolucci for “Tango.”

The first meeting between Brando and Bertolucci took place at the Hôtel Raphael in Paris. Bertolucci described the project to the American actor as the story of a man and a woman who renounce their social identities and only communicate carnally, through their bodies. Brando told him that he wanted to first watch “The Conformist,” so Bertolucci set up a screening for him the same day. Afterward, Brando invited the director to his home in Los Angeles, to discuss the film in detail before the shoot in Paris. The actor agreed to play the role of Paul in exchange for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and ten per cent of the film’s gross—a significant sum of money at the time.

The director first caught sight of you in a photograph with Dominique Sanda, who had become a friend of yours. His Parisian friends tried to talk him out of casting you. “Everyone said that she’s just a girl who spends all night dancing at Castel’s,” he recounted years later, referring to the Parisian night club. “No one saw in her what I saw, something wild behind the androgynous body with the enormous breasts.” At one point, before you started filming, he asked you to have breast surgery to “re-do” them. You refused. It was your sole act of rebellion. From then on, nothing would be asked, only demanded.

You hesitated to do the film at first, you later admitted, since you “didn’t totally understand the script,” though you did recognize that it was daring. Your agent swept away your reservations. “You can’t refuse a leading role opposite Marlon Brando!”

You’re nineteen years old, still a minor, about to embark on one of the most scandalous films of the nineteen-seventies. Your mother had to sign the contract on your behalf so that you could accept the role.

The first scenes you film are with Jean-Pierre Léaud, the favored actor of Truffaut and Godard, who plays your fiancé and an aspiring filmmaker. Bertolucci didn’t want to put you face to face with the icon right away, fearing you would be intimidated.

When you do meet Marlon Brando for the first time, it’s on the Pont de Passy, just as you’re about to shoot the film’s opening sequence, where your characters cross each other on the bridge. You find it funny that he’s wearing lifts in his shoes and think, Oh, he’s not as big as all that. There’s a childlike sweetness you perceive in him as he initiates small talk with you. He asks you what your zodiac sign is.

“Aries,” you tell him.

“Me, too,” he says. “Rising?”

“Libra.”

“We’ll get along just fine,” he says, “which is good, because I believe we have a few intimate scenes. . . .” He gives you a kiss on the cheek, as a father would give to his daughter.

Your first real scene with him takes place in the apartment. Any doubt about the nature of the film is immediately gone. For the sex scenes, or any scenes with nudity, Brando requests a closed set and Bertolucci complies, making the set off limits to anyone not directly involved with the film. Photographers and other onlookers wait on the sidewalk every day for the actors to appear. Some even rent apartments across the street, hoping to get a shot.

Gossip spreads throughout Paris that the Italian director is making something risqué and disturbing.

Brando imposes rules and conditions for everyone involved with the shoot. He does away with the usual hierarchies of film production. It’s out of the question for him that the crew should eat less well than the actors. During breaks, he offers drinks and sandwiches to everyone, paid for out of his own pocket. “He respected all people,” you later say. “No matter how big or small. . . . I’ll always remember him as generous, a man of integrity.”

Brando goes back to his hotel every day at 6 p.m. and refuses to work on the weekends. Bertolucci doesn’t object. For you, however, there is no such reprieve. You film take after take until midnight, and on Saturdays you film with Léaud. It’s more brutal than a marathon. By the end of the three-month shoot, you’re drained and exhausted and you’ve lost twenty-two pounds. The crew often finds you in tears. Some try to comfort you with a word or a look; others say nothing, pretending not to notice. She’s lucky, this little unknown, sharing the screen with the great Brando. . . . She doesn’t get to complain. Once you dare protest to the director: it’s too much filming, fourteen hours a day, every day. You later tell me that Bertolucci responded without even looking you in the eye. “You’re nothing. I discovered you. Go fuck yourself.”

The Italian director knows that he is making something volcanic—as captivating as it is incendiary. The crew members must have been sworn to secrecy. The pairing of you and Brando works well, and Bertolucci is jubilant. The girl is docile, he thinks, and the actor brings his wounds to the role with an intensity beyond the director’s wildest dreams. Brando gives him advice about camera placement and actors’ performances. Bertolucci is fascinated by the experience of this Hollywood giant. You observe their dynamic, intrigued, watching as Brando asserts his authority. At the last moment, you are brought in to shoot your scenes. Eventually, Bertolucci barely speaks to you, only to Brando.

The director is fixated on the cinematography. He wants the film to be orange, the color of the seventies—of hippies, of the California sun, of Indian spices. The first rushes are reassuring; they have the tint he’s looking for, but he’s not quite satisfied. In the apartment, with the shutters closed, it seems that he still feels there’s something missing—some climactic event that can push the film beyond what would be considered merely audacious.

One morning, Bertolucci takes Brando aside and suggests a scene that isn’t in the script. The men agree that nothing should be said to tip you off—that it’s better if you are taken totally by surprise. Did you sense a particular atmosphere on the set that day, see complicit looks among the director, actor, and crew? Or were you too tired by that point to question anything? Who thought of the butter? Was it Brando, Bertolucci, or both?

Rolling, action . . . . You and Brando are lying on the floor, dressed. Suddenly, Brando turns you over, roughly pulls down your jeans, and, grasping a mound of butter in his hand, he shoves it between your legs while thrusting his pelvis against your backside. You fight, you scream and cry. It’s impossible to escape; Brando’s body is pinning you to the floor. Bertolucci keeps the camera trained on your anger and terror. There’s only one take. It doesn’t last long, but for you it’s an eternity. Brando releases his grip and you scramble up, staring at the two of them with murderous rage. In your fury, you destroy the set. After, you go to your dressing room and remain prostrate for hours. The director couldn’t care less; he got what he wanted. He couldn’t have dreamed of better. “She raged against me, against Marlon, against all men,” Bertolucci would comment years later, remembering the scene.

You come out of the filming shattered, sensing this one scene has marked you forever, like a bad tattoo you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to cover up. It doesn’t matter that the sodomy was simulated—it makes you feel dirty and violated. You don’t understand that you could’ve prevented this scene from appearing in the film, since it wasn’t in the script that you had agreed to. You could’ve called a lawyer, filed suit against the producers, and made Bertolucci cut it, but you’re young, alone, and poorly counselled. You know nothing yet about the rules and regulations of the film world. The perfect victim.

Rumors swirl preceding the film’s release. It’s the return of the great Brando! A beautiful, provocative newcomer lights up the film! Bertolucci has really gone too far! At the French première, a few weeks before Christmas, people rush to find a seat. During the opening sequence, a malaise settles over the audience. Jean-Luc Godard storms out after ten minutes, furious and outraged, yelling, “Horrible!” You’re waiting outside the theatre and don’t hear him. You’re probably wearing jeans with boots and a coat that’s too thin to keep you warm. You pace and stomp your feet to prevent them going numb, smoking cigarette after cigarette, listening to the muffled noises coming from the screening room. At the end, the audience departs the theatre in embarrassed silence. They pass by without looking at you.

There’s only one person who approaches you: the actress Jean Seberg. She’s fourteen years your senior, as fair as you are dark. You’ve seen her in Otto Preminger’s “Saint Joan,” Godard’s “Breathless,” and the Romain Gary films. You don’t know it, but the two of you have Marlon Brando in common. It was her admiration of Brando that made her decide, at twelve years old, to become an actress.

Seberg, the American icon of French New Wave cinema, looks different. Her face has been ravaged by a series of sad love affairs and a chronic depression that she attempts to drown in alcohol. She divorced Romain Gary, and two years before the release of “Tango” her baby daughter, Nina, died. In September, 1979, after multiple previous suicide attempts, her naked body will be found wrapped in a blanket in the back of her white Renault, on a street in the Sixteenth Arrondissement.

It’s the first time you’ve met her, but she wraps her arms around you and holds you tight against her chest. She’s small and bony like a malnourished child, but the warmth of her body feels familiar. She buries her face in your brown curls and whispers in your ear, “Take care of yourself.”

“Last Tango in Paris” comes out in theatres on the fifteenth of December, 1972. It fails to pass the censors and receives the rating “forbidden for anyone under eighteen,” which only piques the public’s curiosity. Immediately, it becomes the preordained object of scandal. Catholics mobilize, and a complaint is filed in Italy, which the far left views as an affront to freedom of expression. “Tango” becomes the latest symbol in an ancient fight between the guardians of a certain moral order and the defenders of the artist’s right to create—the wet blankets versus the squeaky wheels. An Italian court condemns Bertolucci, Brando, and you to a two-month suspended prison sentence. Copies of the film are destroyed.

For Bertolucci, the controversy is a triumph. His film has succeeded in garnering the passionate response he desired. It’s discussed in bars and restaurants, debated by artists as well as by elected officials. It’s forbidden in the dictatorships of the Soviet Union and Franco’s Spain. Democracies, on the other hand, make a point of defending it. The film is released in New York in only one theatre, where tickets are sold out weeks in advance. It’s your first taste of success, but you stay on your guard. It’s hard for you to know what to think when you are as likely to be booed as you are to be showered with compliments. You’re twenty years old.

Meanwhile, just as your career is taking off, Brigitte Bardot, a friend with whom you’ve been staying, announces that she will retire. She’s had it with films. From now on, she wants to devote her life to animals, insisting they are far better than humans. You don’t bother to try to talk her out of it, since you know there’s no changing her mind. She goes on to say that she’s moving to Saint-Tropez, where she vacationed with her family as a child and where she filmed her great success “And God Created Woman.” When you leave her apartment on the Avenue Paul Doumer, you’re not sure where you’ll go next.

The release of “Tango” is an explosion whose shock waves consume you within a couple of weeks. Nothing has prepared you for what’s coming. The insults on the street, the aggression, and then, conversely, the adulation and the fawning. Doors suddenly swing open, offers come from the directors everyone is dying to work with. There is suddenly too much of everything in your life, too much desire, too much temptation, too much violence and criticism. With the wild grasping of someone drowning, you fall back onto a clichéd pun to explain the excesses of your behavior. “Il vaut mieux être belle et rebelle que moche et re-moche.” (“It’s better to be beautiful and rebellious than ugly and ugly again.”) It’s delivered with a sardonic smile, like you only half believe it.

Since the press has portrayed you as a wanton muse, you play the assigned role. You will be as electric and without boundaries as what’s expected of you. Your first public statements whet the appetites of the gossipmongers. A girl who has grown up too fast, who still has the bloom of youth, taking aim at everything. As a journalist now, I shudder when I read the interviews. You settle the score with your father, the actor Daniel Gélin, with all the rage and sadness of a neglected child. This father who took so long to acknowledge you, who now, as his film roles dwindle, cozies up to the smoldering fire of your success. You take him down with an assassin’s precision: “A bitter man jealous of his own son.” Your famous co-star fares no better. “The Brando myth? Whatever! . . . He’s obsessed with getting old and pays special attention to his makeup. Every morning, someone had to go get him; otherwise he wouldn’t come. He’s also lazy and slow. He never knew his lines; he just improvised. Between takes he went back to his dressing room, supposedly to ‘center himself’ . . . Marlon is temperamental, a big drinker.” I can easily picture the journalists laughing nervously, unsure how to respond.

The press can’t decide what to make of you—whether to love you or to hate you. Feminists wage war over the film. According to them, it goes too far under the guise of sexual freedom. Pointing out your youth—the apple cheeks and the look of confusion in your eyes about what’s being asked of you—they wonder whether what was captured on film was not art but abuse. They underline the nearly thirty-year age difference between you and Brando and note that in almost every scene you’re naked while he remains clothed. And then there’s the infamous sodomy scene. Some sense genuine protest and suffering in your cries.

In our home, we don’t speak about the film. The first time I hear anyone mention it is on the playground when I’m five or six years old: a group of kids laugh and yell, “Pass me the butter!” At first, I pay no attention to them, though what they say confuses me. They repeat it, day after day, and I don’t know why. Finally, I ask my mother about it.

“It’s because of the film,” she snaps, annoyed, then quickly tells me not to worry about it.

This scene becomes your cross to bear. For your entire life, you will have to endure unsavory jokes and cruel pranks. Once, in a restaurant, a waiter asks, with an obnoxious wink, whether you’d like some butter. On an airplane, a smirking flight attendant puts a pat of butter on your plate when you haven’t asked for any. In Rome, where you are filming René Clément’s “Wanted: Babysitter,” you’re insulted on the street. More than once you are physically attacked. Faced with seemingly endless questions about it, you hide your pain behind a forced laugh and respond with a quip: “I only cook with olive oil.”

As a child, I keep everything about you in a red plastic folder, the kind with the two rubber bands angled at the corners to keep it closed. Inside are photos of you that I’ve torn from magazines, along with interviews and press clippings from your films. I’m in elementary school, and I collect everything ever written about you with a perseverance that borders on obsession. I beg my mother to entrust me with the pictures of you at my age, along with your first drawings, and I decorate the folder with star-shaped stickers and rainbow glitter. On the front of the folder, I glue a black-and-white photo of you from a newspaper. In the picture, your cheeks are round, your smile radiant. I cover the picture with Scotch Tape to safeguard it from age, a childish attempt to protect you from life’s contamination.

On the rare occasions that I open my red folder in front of friends, I receive looks of bewilderment and suspicion. Who is this supposedly successful actress whom no one’s ever heard of? I’m suspected of lying, of inventing a famous relative to get attention.

Over the years, as the file grows, I notice with disappointment that each piece I collect has less to do with your films and more to do with the turbulence of your personal life. The features and reviews are replaced by tabloid stories with salacious headlines. As I get older, even these articles begin to disappear, and there’s rarely anything new to put in the red folder. Occasionally, you have a role in the kind of low-budget international film that’s sure never to be released in France, but you’re no longer considered for lead roles, and after a while you cease to interest even the journalists. Like so many others of your generation, you join the troop of discarded stars, rejected by a new era that has no place for rebels. You’re no longer the celebrity of my childhood, the one strangers recognize on the street with a frisson of excitement and envy, but you remain my special cousin for whom I harbor a tender and morbid fascination. A precious, broken family jewel, hidden away in a secret drawer.

I keep the red folder at our family’s house in the French countryside. The old farmhouse is a repository of memories. In a room that’s ostensibly my father’s office (although I never saw him work there), he keeps the archives from an extreme-left Maoist political organization to which he once belonged. There’s also a collection of drawings, some by you, thrown together in colorful disarray, alongside stacks of the very first issues of Libération, the left-wing newspaper founded in 1973 by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July, where I will later work as a journalist. The farmhouse suits you: wallpaper with big orange and chartreuse flowers, patched furniture, salvaged objects. There’s a sprawling, overgrown garden, which during my childhood was regularly transformed into a hippie haven, a place where men and women dressed in tunics gathered around a campfire and strummed guitars while smoking enormous joints. It seems the perfect place to keep the folder safe.

Throughout my adolescence, I keep track of the red folder—a testament to your former glory. I read and reread the fragments of your life. I don’t always recognize the girl in the stories that the press chooses to tell. They are half-truths, approximations, fantasies, and some blatant falsehoods. But, even so, there is usually some element of truth. A young girl ravaged by an explosive public début.

In a profile from Elle in 1972, the journalist Marie-Laure Bouly, perhaps in an attempt to reconcile the public’s fascination with Maria Schneider and the scandal of “Tango,” begins her article with a systematic evisceration of the movie: “A crude film that further pushes the limits of just how far is too far.”

She goes on to describe you as both a capricious child and a femme fatale, dressed in a dramatic fur coat bought at Kensington Market in London. You’re free-spirited—too free. The journalist doesn’t seem to have found much to sink her teeth into, so she sprinkles her feature with quotes of yours taken out of context, which she doesn’t bother to explain. Then the story comes to an end with the sudden departure of its subject. Bouly concludes: “Maria Schneider is always on the go—already well on her way.”

Every time I visit the house in the country, I perform my ritual of taking the red folder out of the drawer to examine its contents. As the years pass, the smell of dust grows stronger. The photos fade, and the paper begins to erode from the humidity. One day, I can’t find the folder at all. It seems to have vanished entirely. I’m heartbroken. I can’t shake the feeling that the folder—the pride and embarrassment it brought me, its comforting omnipresence, its gradual, eventual disappearance—somehow represents you. Once the folder is gone, I know that one day I will write about you. Not the story that you would write, which belongs only to you, but ours. ♦

(Translated, from the French [Tu t'appelais Maris Schneider], by Molly Ringwald.)

This is drawn from “My Cousin Maria Schneider.”

[starswallowingsea]

Hi~ I came across your post talking about sexism and female idols, and I just wanted to add that the producer course at Yumenosaki could be separated into two.

younger students in the producer course who admire her.

students who have transferred to Yumenosaki who have more or less a background in the field and are therefore not starting out as complete beginners as producers and who are jealous of the fact that she is favoured by the idols who have known her since the previous year.

Also, the only friend she has in this producer course is a boy called Hitsugi. Personally, I wish they'd added producers who have more or less the same experience (if not more) as Anzu as a producer but who aren't jealous of her.

i will be so real with you. i dont remember what my answer to that ask was nor do i want to go find it because i know i just pulled shit out of my ass and i do not want to make myself cringe at 8 in the morning. but cool? i mean that could be an interesting addition to the story especially now that we are getting sanda yoshihide/nice arneb thunder as a producer to contrast anzu but yeah.

[project-paranoia]

Show recommendation

Title: S.C.I., SCI Mystery

Origin: China (youku)

Topics: crime solving, (b)romance, friendly rivalry, supernatural occurrences (in a way)

Length: 24 episodes

Summary (without spoilers): Bai Yutong works at the Hong Kong police department, when a series of seemingly supernatural incidents forces him to join forces with his childhood friend/rival/love interest Zhan Yao in the newly-founded S.C.I. – the Special Crimes Investigation unit. Zhan Yao is a professor of psychology, a genius with a severely lacking sense of self-preservation, while Bai Yutong is an accomplished police officer, a Sanda fighter and in general quite impulsive. The two of them – and their team, consisting of sniper Ma Han, hacker Jiang Ling and a few others – are trying to solve a series of crimes that seem supernatural at first (much to rationalist Zhan Yao’s dismay).

You will like this if you enjoyed: Guardian, Detective L, The Lost Tomb

Opinion: There are a lot of reasons to love this show, the first being the dynamics between the two main characters. Gao Hanyu and Ji Xiaobing are amazing with each other, and their relationship tests the limits of Chinese censorship ;) There are two more couples in the show, one of which I personally find rather annoying, but fortunately their scenes are skippable without losing any plot points ^^ The cases are quite interesting and almost never end as you expected, also each case arc has its own intro, which I find very cool. The script does have a few weak points, but all in all the plot is comprehensible and belieavable.

Pros: dynamics between the main couple characters, interesting cases, adorable minor characters

Cons: a bit stereotypical at times (it is a Chinese police show, with everything that entails), quite low budget (and it shows)

Conclusion: ★★★★☆

Where to watch:

youtube

/mj

[lizhly-writes]

i wish you would write a fic where chen liwei's backstory pre-transmigrating was explored.

Right, so, some context for this ask that mentions a character that I've never mentioned ever on this blog:

Chen Liwei is the result of me fucking around in my villain fiance universe.

First change: our transmigrator mc guy NOT getting reincarnated as Yang Haoran and instead ending up Chen Lihua’s role (hence: Chen Liwei).  The thing is, he’s really not as resilient as Chen Lihua, so he does not hold up nearly as well against her backstory.  By the time the plot starts, he’s hopeless and emotionally-dead, and he ends up accidentally turning the novel into abusive misery porn.

Second change: that misery porn is now the og novel.  The transmigrator is not Li Yichang but instead the original Yang Haoran.  Not that he was ever Yang Haoran, from his point of view.  No, he was Li Yirui, son of Li Shirong and Zhang Meilan, brother to Li Yizhen.  He would die in an earthquake at age 16 and be reborn in Chen Liwei’s body, and, after a happy childhood cut short, he’d grimly power through this life fueled by both incredible drive and incredible rage.

Ah, but we’re not talking about that last part yet.  We’re talking about his life pre transmigration.  

So.  Let’s talk about Li Yirui.

...

Your name is Li Yirui, or David Li.  You are fourteen years old, and you have a busy, busy life as the most overachieving teenager to ever exist, or so your sister tells you.

“Listen to me,” she says, hands on your shoulders as if she is about to shake you like a particularly large set of maracas.  “I want you to know that you’ve shoved every extracurricular onto your plate like a little baby grabbing every single thing they see at a buffet.”

“Are you trying to tell me something new?”

“I’m trying to say you’re going to choke and die,” she says. Behind her, her best friend snorts.  You make a face at him.  He salutes you with a ridiculous sparkly light-up pen that is bright enough to burn your eyes out.  You kind of hate him.

“You’re not allowed to tell me that,” you say.  You wave your hand at the stack of textbooks on the kitchen table, which consists of every AP and Honors textbook she was humanly capable of getting, because her courseload consists of every AP and Honors class she was humanly capable of getting.  Pot, kettle: you’re black.

“First of all, that’s perfectly doable,” she says.  For most people, this would be a false statement, but this is your sister, who has never seriously struggled with schoolwork once in her entire life, so, speaking for herself, she’s probably right.

This does not stop you from saying, “You’re going to choke and die.”

Your sister’s friend makes a noise that could be called a cough but would be more accurately described as incoherent glee.

She grabs your face, squeezes your cheeks together.  “Wrong!  Also? Rude.  Really rude!”

“You said it first,” you say.  It sounds wrong, because your face is no longer in its usual configuration.  You bat her hands away.

“You said it first,” she repeats in singsong.  “Fine, whatever.  If you want to take orchestra and language school and taekwondo–”

“Sanda.”

“--sanda, fine.  But like, there’s one thing I really want to know: why are you running for class rep.”

“What, do you have a problem with that?”

“Nonono, don’t give me that.  Really, seriously, why? You know if you’re class rep, you’re going to have to actually talk to people?  You hate people.”

“I don’t hate people.”

“You hate people,” says your sister’s friend.  You can’t believe this is the first thing he’s said to you all day.

Your sister smiles, triumphant.  “See?” she says, turning you around by the shoulders to face him.  “Two against one, I win.”

“Fuck off,” says you.

Your sister cackles.  Your sister’s friend smiles, just a bit.  It’s incredibly noticeable. You really hate him.

“Stop touching me,” you say, shaking her off.  She holds her hands up in mock-surrender.

“I bet you’re just doing this to prove somebody wrong,” she says.  “Did someone say you’d do bad at the class rep thing, Rui-Rui?  Aiya, your ego is really–”

“That’s got nothing to do with anything.” Whether or not it’s true isn’t any of her business.

“What’s with the face?  I’m not saying you’ll do a bad job! My baby brother is naturally, fantastically, an overachieving little shit!”

“Was that supposed to be a compliment.”

She spreads her arms.  “I just think it’s out of character!  I just think you’ll hate it!”

She’s probably right.  You probably are going to hate it.  

Naturally, you do not acknowledge this. Instead, you determinedly head over to your own stack of textbooks and schoolwork on the kitchen table.  As you sit down, your sister’s friend offers you a pen. It’s as sparkly and obnoxious and neon as the one he’s currently using.  You don’t need it.  You have your own pens that actually don’t hurt your eyes when you try writing with them.

You take the stupid pen anyway.  

He smiles at you.  It’s a nice smile.  You busy yourself with digging out your notebook so you don’t stare at him like an idiot.

You wish you actually hated him.

God, you’re lucky your sister is oblivious as a brick shithouse. You’re lucky that your sister’s best friend is oblivious as a brick shithouse.  You’re just lucky, in general.

[kieradumpzz081927]

Another OC! (old one btw) Name: Sanada Rogers (don't ask why) Fake/Disguised name : Fransico Rodgers Gender: Male (He/Him) Age: 25 years old Species: Experimented human Height: 178cm Hobby: Making machines, traps, and bombs. Personality: Bored, Calm, Serious, Patient, Understanding person, Smart, Skilled, Intelligent, kind, dangerous and strong. Jobs: Mechanist, Inventor, Murderer

Sanada is one of the greatest inventor on china and japan even canada. He was once fun but things change when traumas got into him. Relationships: Characters from Nezha Reborn: Li yunxiang: Sanada was requested by Li yunxiang to be his teacher as being a inventor which sanada boringly sighed and agreed. Sanada finds him like a younger brother, they are on good terms also Kasha: Sanada attends kasha's singing performance. Sanada is impressed and asked kasha of being a friend to sanada which of course, kasaha agreed and they both hangout peacefully and that's the time they get to know eachother before kasha introduces li yunxiang. Ao bing: Ao bing is sanada's enemy, and to say sanada finds ao bing annoying and greedy even an idiot. Sanada does hates ao bing as much how li yunxiang hates ao bing. Now, characters from lego monkie kid: MK: Sanada and MK gets along very well, ever since Mei introduces MK to Sanada. Sanada finds MK as his other younger brother like li yunxiang. Mei: Mei was the first person that sanada met in megapolis. They met at Sanada's garage, well, mei randomly barge in and was amazed by sanada's invention of motorbikes, cars, and machines. That is how Mei and Sanada got along eachother, and sanda finds Mei as his younger sister. Sun wukong/Monkey king: Never met him in person, yet, sanada always knows the great sage equal to heaven... Six-eared macaque: Casually finds macaque a frenemy but mostly friends. Nezha: Sanada, of course did the same how he got along with li yunxiang but didn't told nezha that sanada can travel other worlds and nezha's alt self has a reborn self. Sanda kept quiet for that til' it nezha being curious or just asked. Sandy&Pigsy&Tang: Sanada got along with the three very well. Now relationship with my other OCs: Temna: Sanada and Temna get along famously well since they met at the same lab together. Temna is like an older sister to sanada. George: Sanada is the only one can cheer and comfort george up. They are on good terms. Skel: Sanada and skel are also in the same lab, yet, became famously good buddies towards eachother. (That is all and fun fact! Sanada can travel 3 worlds which is: A) His current world B) LMK world C) The nezha reborn world. ) Now that is all, folks. See yah soon! I have school tomorrow adios! Edit: Sanada's white strands of hair is a stress hair. Sanada always overworks and he is workaholic when inventing stuff. EDIT 2 : Also, nezha reborn characters and lego monkie kid characters belongs to the rightful owners!

[ask-the-godzilla-whisper]

“Incredible, unstoppable titan of terror! It's alive! An enraged monster wipes out an entire city! CIVILIZATION CRUMBLES as its death rays blast a city of 6 million from the face of the earth! Raging through the world on a rampage of destruction! The Spectacle That Created World Sensation - The monster of the century awakened to life by the H-Bomb, Godzilla! A weapon of science! a great battle of wonder and terror! A violent giant monster exhaling radioactivity plunges Japan into the depths of fear!"

Plot: “in 1954, the Tokyo hellfire incident occurred, an event that lasted up until 1956, where during the course of those two years. an giant monster that is known in ancient Odo island folklore as a god of death and destruction, gojira. Rose from the depths, and laid waste to Tokyo over and over, fighting against another of his kind, and then fighting against an trio of giant Mutated ankylosauruses. Over the course. Tokyo was left an radiation filled barren wasteland engulfed in nuclear fire. Very few survived. Over many years. Godzilla would continue to reign as the unstoppable king of monsters. Where more rose in his wake. An female, a child. An god monster, and so much more. Some were on our side, others were not. But over the years. Dagon has grown soft… “

“that all changed when an gigantic beast known only as Yamato no Orochi arose, and Dagon was suddenly back to his old ways, only far more powerful… and on the verge of a nuclear meltdown. The Godzilla exterminator squad and MONARCH made a joint operation to use serizawa’s weapon, the oxygen destroyer, to bring the Menace down and it worked, at the cost of daisuke serizawa’s life… but it was hard to believe that Godzilla was the last of his kind. Should nuclear tests continue. Another shall appear… and this is where my story begins. My name is William Byers, and Ive unintentionally become friends and the surrogate father to the literal king of monsters. The third generation Godzilla. Whom I’ve called Rex. And after my incident in the upside down, both of our lives were gonna change… it was gonna change a whole lot. And I feel like that this… is only just the beginning.”

Series Planned So Far: 4, maybe 5, who knows (Series 1 Is Ruler Of Monsters, Series 2 is Monster Of Justice, Series 3 Is Fallen Kingdom, And Series 4 is Reign Of Godzilla, Series 5 aka The Epilogue, may be called Monster Planet)

Planned Stories for Series 1, Ruler Of Monsters: -King Of The Monsters -Return Of Godzilla -Pretender To The Throne -Godzilla Raids Again -Godzilla Vs Kong -Angel Of Life  -Three Headed Monster -Godzilla Against the Space Monsters -Frankenstein Vs Godzilla -Horrific Garbage Day -The Unknown Invasion -Godzilla Vs The Legendary Wolfman -The Atomic Nightmare -Three Godzillas?! -Mirrored Reflection -Battle For The Earth

Kaijus Appearing: (subjected to change) Gojira Gyottos Dagon Black Rodan Mothra Molsa Gigantis Gamera Gyaos Zigra Zedus Salunga Parasyte Muto Prime Krystalak Obsidius Yamato-No-Orochi Rokmutul Pterodactyl Quartz Godzilla Shocklirious Fairy Mothra Gorosaurus Radon Giant Sea Serpent RoboMusume Gryphon Godzuki Dart San Ichi Ni Zilla Jirass Zone Fighter The-Runt Baragon Varan Anguirus Gaw Death-Runners SkullCrawlers Elasmosaurus Meat-Eater King Kong Berserk Mothra Battra Rodan Ghidorah Gorath Maguma Mogu Gigan Moguera  Frankenstein The Human Vapor Oodako Ginko Sanda Gaira Hedorah Shinomura Shadzilla Makadaiju Hokmuto Femuto Barb Echo Godwilla Dadzilla Cyber-Godzilla Madzilla RokuGoji Ahthrae Rhedosaurus Dust Sunodoragon Legendary-Wolfman Richi-Gostu Projira Kurushimi Legendary-Godzilla Maguro Evolved Shadzilla Elzilla Cybersaur MechaniKong Mirror!Godzilla Flayed Molsa Trauma Gamera Megalon Jet Jaguar Maguro-San Mind Flayer

[storms-path]

FFXIV 2023 Day 14 - Clear

The morning air of Radz-at-Han was already sweltering, and the Washi sisters were deeply regretting their choice of attire. Arashi in her thick Ala Mhigan coat at least had the luxury of (mostly) bare sleeves. Sanda, however, suffered. Not for the first time she looked at her sister’s recently shorn short hair and wondered if she might benefit from the same. But then Arashi would get that look in her eye and find some way to call Sanda a base imitator and she would not allow that. She had her pride still.

The pair were on a mission from the satrap himself: locate and bring in Zero for the next expedition into the Void. It should have been easy enough, but the city itself was already bustling even at the early hour, and somehow the voidsent visitor had made herself almost entirely scarce. Still, it meant a chance to catch up with her sister. Arashi having been bundled up and sent to a distant island without a linkpearl (minus one for emergencies) had left little time for conversation. It was for her own good, though. Honestly.

“So,” Arashi said as the pair walked through the blessedly shaded interior. “How’s our new friend been treating you?” There was something strange in her voice, a hint of something under her conversational tone. “Hasn’t tried to eat anyone, I trust?”

That earned her a sharp shoulder to the ribs. “She’s been perfectly courteous,” Sanda responded curtly. It seemed a moon on idyllic island luxury had only given Arashi a poor sense of humour. Zero had been… intense, perhaps, but she had done nothing to cause alarm while in the city or its surrounding area. And she was insatiably curious about the world and its people too. It had taken the joint efforts of Sanda, Stalwart and Fareena (well, mostly Sanda) to answer her myraid questions. Not that Sanda minded, really...

Arashi was looking at Sanda with an odd expression. It took Sanda a moment to place it. Was she… smirking? “What is it?” Sanda couldn’t quite hide the irritation in her voice.

“I knew it,” was Arashi’s only response, her smile growing wider. Then she was off again, tail swishing playfully in her wake. Sanda was forced to jog to catch up with her, trying not to let Arashi’s obvious teasing get to her. She failed miserably.

“Explain, sister! What do you know?” Sanda grabbed hold of Arashi’s arm, twisting her around and staring her in the eye. The mirth in Arashi’s eyes only made the annoyance worse. Did she have to be so unbearably smug?

“Fine, if you must know so badly. You’ve caught feelings for her, haven’t you?” Sanda resisted the sudden, intense urge to disown her sister. It wouldn’t be right. No matter how tempted it was when Arashi had the audacity to laugh triumphantly. “I knew it! You’re as red as a rolanberry!”

“It’s the heat, damn you!” Sanda knew how terrible a lie it was as soon as she said it, which only made the embarrassment worse. Several people were looking at the pair now, eyebrows raised. While they were well-known as the satrap’s honoured guests (among other accolades), there was a time and a place to be making a ruckus, and the city streets in the early morning was not one of them. Sanda grabbed Arashi’s arm and dragged her into a nearby alley.

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” said Arashi as she allowed herself to be tugged along. “Truly, I think it’s lovely that my wayward sister has found herself someone to settle down with. But you do have… interesting taste, dear Sanda.”

She’s the Warrior of Light and your sister besides. It wouldn’t do to leave her here with a dagger in the side for company. Sanda, with difficulty, bit back thoughts of sororicide and settled for glaring daggers at her insufferable sister instead. Not for the first time she wished she had just a few extra inches of height so she didn’t have to look up to do so. Arashi was unflappable in her unjust amusement. Bastard.

“One more word, sister dearest. One more swiving word.” Sanda’s tone was granite through gritted teeth. Arashi, still smiling smug as smug could be, leaned down and whispered against Sanda’s horn.

“Lovebird.”

In the end, Zero found them, along with several confused Radiants, a very amused Y’shtola and a rather bemused Varshahn. Arashi, after a brief struggle, had managed to overpower her younger sister and was sitting on top of her. Sanda, for her part, had stopped swearing in every language she had learned in her short life and was instead settling for some very colourful (and descriptive) threats if Arashi didn’t move.

It was not the best start to the morning, to say the least.

[uniquecellest]

This is for my Klance people:

AU idea for when Allura becomes a Paladin. Lance has been dealing with his insecurities and spot on the team for a while before Allura became a Paladin and Lance always thought of taking a break from Voltron but never did until Allura. One night he tells the others that he's been having thoughts of just taking a break (Keith is not present). Pidge and Hunk try and get Lance to stay but Shiro interrupts saying that everyone has their own moments of rest and for Lance it's now until he's ready to come back in which the others will be waiting for him.

Lance leaves early the next morning, as everyone has already said their goodbyes (ne Keith because no one informed him). So at first Keith thinks Lance is just in his room in a depressive episode and goes to cheer him up only to find Lance nowhere in the Castle of Lions. It's then that Shiro realizes what happened and informs Keith, which ticks Keith off more that Lance told everyone but him.

Now here are two ways I can see it diverge:

1) with a small space pod from the Castle, Lance makes it back to Earth and (after the extreme quarantine) goes back to his piloting classes and even beats James and ends up becoming a protégé to Adam for MFE's. The two talk, and Adam helps Lance deal with being on Earth while the ones he cares about are in space. Then the Galra invade and Sendak remembers Lance from his time as Paladin and kidnaps him as bait for the others (Sendak also kidnaps Adam, Veronica, Rachel, Lisa, Marco, Luis, Nadia and Sylvio to bait Lance); so when the others find out the Earth has been invaded it stresses them out even more. When they get to base Sanda informs them that Lance's family that was captured along with Adam are considered dead. When inquired about it, Sanda shows them a video they received earlier that day of Lance being alive but any videos about Adam and Lance's family have stopped coming as quick as Lance got captured, which has been months with Colleen and Sam trying to think of ways to save them.

The Paladins still get on the ship with being captured themselves and Sanda still betraying them. Eventually they get free and who's shooting at them? Lance. Clearly, they think, he's under some mind control. Until he calls Keith mullet. Lance informs them that he has to do this. He has to fight his friends. Which Hunk, Allura, and Pidge are not happy about and are ready to fight. Even Shiro can't believe what he hears. Then they hear young children crying. The voices calling out to Lance that they're scared. Lance says he's got them. That he'll protect them until the end.

That's when it dawns on them that Lance is working with/for Sendak for his family (in which Sendak is hospitable - as he can be - to Lance's family so Lance doesn't turn on him and angering the other Paladins more). Sendak calls Lance back to him. Lance leaves a key for the other Paladins to get his family and Adam out. Once they're off the ship, Lance starts fighting Sendak and when Keith goes back to Lance because they can't leave him behind, the ship explodes. Lance didn't die though, his Paladin armor got some upgrades that's to Sam and survived the explosion.

Once they're all down on the ground the group celebrates.

Bonus: once the celebration of the Galra being gone and they survived Adam and Keith call out to Shiro and Lance respectfully in which Shiro and Lance look at each other due to the furry in Adam and Keith's eyes. Those two run, because Adam definitely was the one to teach Keith how to fight and Shiro never won in hand-to-hand combat with Adam. Ever. Or even verbal combat. Keith confronts Lance on leaving and not telling him. Keith doesn't have an issue with the fact he told everyone, he just wants to know why he was excluded. Lance admitted that his feelings for Keith at the time were being weird and he didn't know what was going on and he did want to tell Keith but with his confusing feelings he wasn't sure if telling Keith was the best idea. Lance then confesses that aside from their rivalry also being a friendship he was starting to see Keith in a romantic way and he wasn't sure if they were genuine or if it was because they were in space and Allura was the only girl - Lance considers Pidge a sibling so gross - so he needed time to clear his head. Keith inquires about Lance's current feelings for him, Lance admits that he does have romantic feelings for Keith still but he's going to start talking to someone so he can move on, leaving Keith confused so Lance informs him that he's sure that Keith, that he's sure Keith has no feelings for him whatsoever in which Keith tells Lance to shut up because yeah, Keith does love him and any minute that Lance wasn't there was torture and not knowing where or how he was was even worse and knowing Earht got invaded then Lance got captured to the brief moment that Keith thought Lance actually turned on them was worse than any hell could conjure up to torture him with.

Added bonus: Matt makes a comment about what Keith did in s4 ep 7 and Sam remarks when Adam was in his plane and nearly died and father and son remark how Adam and Keith did not seem to have a care in the moments leading up to their potential deaths so Shiro and Lance then and go scold their boyfriends for being idiots.

2) Lance still helps out in space but not in anything major to not overstep Voltron. He goes to some smaller planets/systems and typically stays for a few days after he's done helping sometimes a week. Eventually the other Paladins encounter him on a planet he's been staying on for the last several months, all the aliens on the planet are androgynous and hermaphroditic and there's this one person that Lance seems particularly close to. Keith has come to realize with Lance gone he loves him and vowed to tell him when he saw him next. But seeing him again and with a potential partner, Keith couldn't do that. Not to Lance or himself. So while Keith trains more to work off his jealousy so he can be around Lance and his partner. At some point Lance and Keith get to be alone and have a sunset moment and Keith, realizing how beautiful Lance looks in the setting sun, has to leave because if he doesn't he's going to ruin whatever little relationship he has with Lance. Lance gets irritated because Keith is running away, Keith remarks he's not the run who ran. Lance shoots back with what Keith have done had Lance not left? Besides Keith never voiced to anyone else about leaving Lance did. Lance took a break he wasn't leaving Voltron forever but for Keith, all their adventures without Lance felt like a lifetime. The two continue to argue to which leads them rolling down a hill and kissing. Keith is stiff. Lance is frozen. Both enjoy the kiss but don't know how to progress. Keith goes back to his room in the Castle trying to process everything because while he enjoyed the kiss he could've practically ruined a relationship, one Lance actually seemed genuinely happy in and ruined even his own relationship with the former Paladin.

Meanwhile Lance goes back to his best friend on the planet that Keith mistook for Lance's partner. The bsf freaks when they hear Lance and Keith kissed amd congratulates Lance only for Lance to stop them. Despite having enjoyed the kiss Keith most likely didn't because he ran off.

The next morning Lance is seeing his friends off. "Have you made your mind up about coming back with us?" Wonders Allura.

Keith's head snaps up. Eyes now focused on the former Blue Paladin. "You're.. . . . You're joining us again?"

"N-not this time. But I'm sure I'll be joining you guys again soon." With that everyone but Keith and Lance hug and say goodbye. Just days after Team Voltron leaves another alien species (not the Galra) invade as they have had rocky balance remaining peace between the two alien species. Lance gets into his former armor sending a distress signal that instantly goes to the Castle. However, something goes wrong so Team Voltron doesn't get the distress signal until months after so when they go back the planet is completely demolished. The kind species and Lance are nowhere to be found. Hunk is the one to find the piece of armor that Lance sent the signal with but there's no Lance. It looks as if there are no survivors. They then come across some guards from the invasive species that is keeping the kind one as slaves. The kicker? Lance is set to marry the heir to the throne to keep a peace between the two as he is a Paladin and to them a Paladin is as good as royalty. Everyone else tries to volunteer to take Lances place but since Lance offered first he is the one to be Wed. The only thing that can stop it is if they find a rare item (gem, flower, etc) that shows true love. It glows differently for different people. They go and find it. When Keith touches it is glows red and blue.

Meanwhile, Lance is in his own separate room from the heir having doubts. Yes, he came up and still plans on going through with the marriage however, he can't help but think of Keith when he pictures himself getting married. The heir uses magic to spy on Lance and sees Keith in his heart. Frustrated the heir slips a love potion into Lance's drink at dinner and Lance thinks he's been in love with heir this whole time. He gets excited to see his friends again and goes on and on about how fantastic the heir is. This crushes Keith. When Lance sees Keith holding the rare item he asks to hold it. It doesn't change. Team Voltron wants to stop the wedding but if their friend seems to be genuinely happy how can they? They don't want to seem selfish when Lance only asked for a break/space only to drag him back if he doesn't want to. Later, Hunk and Allura over hear the heir plotting to take out the kinder alien race which they want to put a stop to. In fear that the other members might find out their plot the heir grabs the others - Pidge from some of the techs, Coran with the cooks, Keith training with some of the fighters, and Shiro as he's just simply walking around - and throws them in a dungeon to prevent them from intervening at the wedding.

Cut to Lance with his bsf and the spare. They see the rare item and interested they ask to see it. That's when Lance notes it changing colors as his bsf and their lovers colors are a yellow-green color and lilac. That's when Lance gets informed of what the item really is. Taking it back, Lance goes to confront the heir. He asks the heir to hold the item. It goes from Lance's blue and red to pure obsidian - no room for any type of love in their heart. Lance is furious. Despite knowing that Keith is now his soul mate he's still under the love potion and still has love for the heir. The heir then makes Lance take the rest of the potion which makes him forget about everything and anyone else aside from the heir.

In their prison Team Voltron is frustrated in what to do. They need to escape but their cell is made up of lasers that could burn them easily if they try to escape. Keith doesn't care, even if Lance does genuinely care for the heir it's clear the heir does not return his feelings and wants to free Lance from a marriage that will eventually go down. Shiro has to stop him from being an idiot and getting hurt. Soon a sound similar to a bell chimes meaning that the first part prior to the actual ceremony for 'I do's' is about to start. Even if they were lucky enough to get out there was no way that they'd be able to make it to Lance in time. Just then the spare comes and sets them free with four speed bikes and they set off to the ceremony (Keith and the spare going at ungodly amount of speed).

In his room getting ready, Lance feels down and he doesn't know why; he loves the heir utterly and completely so why does it feel wrong? Because his friends and family aren't there? That's when his bsf talks about Keith. Lance is confused because why Keith? Yes they've gotten to a point of rivalry and friendship but why not bring up everyone else? Bsf then reminds Lance of everything Lance has ever mentioned about Keith. This infuriates Lance because if he ever did feel or Keith in the romantic way whatever happened to that? How did he stop and start falling for the heir? However, Lance starts feeling ill and that's when bsf realizes that Lance has been given a love potion and an exaggerous amount which his body is not handling well. Lance insists on going through with the wedding potion or no potion. At the altar, Team Voltron arrives just as the ceremony is getting started. Lance is happy to see his friends but they aren't happy to see the couple. Lance then starts hiccuping to the point that he passes out. The heir laughs and says that the only way Lance will wake is if the person his heart beats for kisses him. The heir looks smug as she taunts that Lance's heart only beats for them. The heir then kisses Lance on the lips which also solidifies their marriage. Lance doesn't wake, doesn't make a sound. The bsf, their lover, and most of Team Voltron looks at Keith. Keith kisses Lance's forehead begging for the former Paladin to wake up. Everything is still for a few moments, Keith thinking that the rare item got it wrong and that he and Lance aren't meant to be together. Lance then starts stirring and is confused about what is going on as the last thing he remembers is sending out the distress signal then offering the marriage of convenience. The heir is frustrated then starts telling the guards to take away the Paladins and start executing the kinder aliens. The spare then comes in and challenges the heir to a fight so the spare can take the throne. The heir laughs but accepts the challenge. The heir loses. In a irritated cry asks how the younger sibling what they plan to do with the other aliens. The now crowned heir remarks 'peace' and proposes to bsf.

Happy, Lance promises to come back for the big day. Which isn't that necessary since most things are already set up so they marry that day.

Afterwards, the two alien species start rebuilding the damaged planet with some guidance from Lance. As the Paladins get ready to say goodbye the newly wed couple starts saying goodbye to Lance, wondering if they could convince him to stay just a little bit longer. Keith, Pidge, and Hunk are confused that's when Lance reveals he's going with them again, if they don't mind. Pidge and Hunk tackle him to the ground happy to have their best friend/brother back. Lance informs them that he still doesn't remember much only offering the marriage: Shiro, Pidge and Hunk get a similar look on their faces as they know they're going to be teasing Keith for a l o n g time for the whole true love/soul mate thing. Keith gets irritated and starts chasing them to they can knock it off.

Later that evening when Lance is alone on the bridge he pulls out a small piece from the rare item still glowing red and blue, because Lance remembers most of what happened just not who kissed him. He decides to keep it to himself. Until he's sure both he and Keith are ready to talk about it. Shiro goes to the bridge and catches Lance with the piece. Lance then confides in Shiro most of what he's comfortable with (meaning the first drop of the love potion) Keith spots them and instead of joining starts eavesdropping. He hears them. That when Lance confesses to a gap in his memory of his bsf reminding him off all the things he said about Keith. And Shiro, like the big brother he is, calls Keith out for eavesdropping and forces the two alone together to talk.

Lance starts chasing Pidge and Hunk the next day for their teasing with Keith chases Shiro.

[sarahderpy]

Abdulrahman Alazzawi

Abdulrahman

Alazzawi

I’ve been passionate about martial arts and self-defense since I was a kid. Now, I’m an expert! I’ve participated in national events in France and represented my club in Paris. I’m also a poet, having written many poems in Arabic and a few short ones in English. I’m a dedicated photographer with excellent mobile photography skills. Additionally, I work as an English-Arabic translator and know some French. I’m a father to two wonderful kids. I enjoy photo editing and video production and am constantly working to improve my skills. Photography is my escape and my endless little world .

How did your passion for martial arts and self-defense begin, & what has driven you to become an expert in this field? - Can you share a memorable experience from participating in national events in France or representing your club in Paris?

Well, it all started when I was 6 years old,

I was an active kid, and I didn’t like football. I had seen Mortal Kombat movies, and I started imitating the movies, which led my father to finding a training hall.

My father had planned a surprise for me , and registered me! I was so happy!

I kept on with training for 6 years then I stopped because kung fu championships and tournaments were banned in Iraq. I then joined Sanda club for three years, then moved to Muay Thai for two years and continued onto kickboxing for two years which led me to participating for the first time in official fight in the north of Iraq.

I stopped after that when my mother passed away.

A lot of things happened, and Iraq was attacked by Isis.

Then I met that one girl!

We got engaged then moved to France.

I joined a Muay Thai Dojo there in the south of France ,

I moved near Paris where

joined a kickboxing club.

Shortly after a few months

I participated for the first time there.

I won my first fight ever in Paris

and my coach was super happy

I had finally made my Father and my coach proud of me!

What inspires your poetry, and how do you find the process of writing in both Arabic and English? - Would you share one of your favorite poems and the story behind its creation?

Poetry in Iraq is a culture of more than 5000 years old .

It’s part of our identity as Iraqis.

My inspiration remains inspired by the nomads and the desert .

Knowing several various accents helps a lot to open the gates of imagination widely with what I do and envision! I don’t write often, but when there is something happening or has happened, you could call it situational (I don’t know if there is a specific term for that).

I write for many events that have happened throughout my life and through the experiences of life itself, and to tell the story of others (friends, family, relatives, etc.) in my writing.

I developed my skills of writing when I attended The College of Arts.

I wrote more than 50 poems.

Here is a translated version of an Arabic poem I wrote 16 June 2013:

There in a quiet corner...

May my love settle forever...

As You’ve settled you’ve enlightened my heart...

The way I could see it...(through your eyes) Brightening Like a pearly lake...

It's not like that. And sure not fake..

But her eyes are magical...

Drawing me of the Horizons of the earth...

Without an effort or intention...

Oh, I miss you ...

How loneliness is killing me...

How it scares me the distance between us...

It feel like I have no identity...

And My poem is without a title...

you meant To be

the title of my poems...

This is just a translation I hope it gives an idea about my writing and once I found other poems that I have written in English I plan to share more -( for a poem doesn't belong to the poet but to the audience ! )

How did you develop your interest in photography, and what do you enjoy most about capturing images with your mobile device? -Around what age did you first pick up a camera and realize photography was your passion? How has your interest in capturing photos evolved since then? - What does photography mean to you, and how does it serve as an escape and a creative outlet? -what’s your inspiration, this could include life experiences or other artists and if others perhaps a particular artist you even just have an eye for .

My photography passion started in France

( Aix en Provence ) south of France.

I fell in love with the old buildings, statues and roads.

Everything was so beautiful and captivating I had old phone with blurry photos.

My wife bought me my first iPhone .

This gift from her while there Is when I began my photography passion.

From watching videos of other photographers explaining certain ways of technique with photo shooting, I would start outside and apply what I was learning. I kept up doing this for over two years (actually I’m still sowing this not often but when I see new technique.)

During my learning, my entire family in law were my best supporters. In my life they have always supported me all that I do. During this time a friend from there who has had a company, wanted to make interviews with some personals in France for a business and had asked me If I would like to be the photographer!

I was so happy! There it was. This would be my first step into the photography world.

As my journey began, I continued to learn and grow with my techniques. At this same time in my life, I worked in the royal historical Chateau (château de Vaux-le-Vicomte) that helped me a lot to upgrade my skills .

I came back to Iraq and started doing street photography . I created car drifting reels, Safari and touristic photos and videos. Finally. I started working as a photographer for the international NGOs.

How did you get started with photo editing and video production, and what motivates you to continually improve your skills? - Can you describe a project you’re particularly proud of in either photo editing or video production?

At the beginning photography was just a hobby for me,

something I like to learn and practice.

But the more I learned, the more I discovered, that it’s not just photography!

It’s about how to maintain the original shot with the best enhancements

and to edit without going far off from the original shot!

I needed to learn how to transmit the view that I see with my eyes to the photo editing.

The thing is, I’m still learning and will continue be learning as I continue.

The day I fail will be the day I stop learning.

I plan to never stop

How did you get started with photo editing and video production, and what motivates you to continually improve your skills? - Can you describe a project you’re particularly proud of in either photo editing or video production?

For the videography and production ,

I have been always asked by people around me to pile up my photos and video and create a video.

It would work better to attract people , rather than just silent , still-life photos.

So I started learning, by understanding beats, transitions, effects, use of

Timelapse and slow-mo techniques and so on..

One of my best works was a series of a few collected videos.

I think around 5 videos for a BMW team I had put together.

A reel for the Château de Volle Vicomte in France.

Along with video of success story for an international NGO.

In addition to other videos and photos you can watch in my insta account.

What led you to become an English-Arabic translator, and how do your skills in French complement this work?

- What challenges do you face in translation

I was the weakest in English among all my family members which my family would laugh at me about.

I decided however to improve my language while attending high school.

After one year I had improved my English so much better!

Then I decided to join the college of Arts- translation Dept.

I officially became the first translator among my family 😄

I knew from that point on that I could do more than just translating!

This opened many doors for me as a translator .

So one day,

I was interviewed by a local radio channel, where I was asked to summarize

the study of translation.

I described it by saying :

“Translation is the science

of studying everything "

-AA.

Because you need to know what you are going to translate.

As a father, poet, martial arts expert, photographer, and translator, how do you balance your diverse interests and responsibilities?

- How do your children influence and inspire your creative pursuits and professional work?

-How do you keep balance?

Well, to be honest

I don’t know how to answer this question

as I am constantly running all the time in my work 😅

I would have to give thanks to my wife to make this all possible!

Without her,

It wouldn’t be possible

if it wasn’t for her by my side!!

She is my rock !

What are your future goals in each of your passions: martial arts, poetry, photography, and translation? - How do you envision your skills and interests evolving over the next few years?

I’m currently working on a project with a friend to open a sport center where martial arts

and kickboxing will be the focus.

I will be there as the Coach.

My goal is to continue

or transmit the legacy of it all.

Poetry:

As Iraqis we are bonded

with poetry for life !

Poetry

will always be

my hideout

to relieve my feelings

and my thoughts.

-A.A

Photography: I’m focusing to achieve more in the coming years !

I see myself,

being somewhere in the list of the worlds top photographers ,

to be recognized for finding and creating a new techniques to capturing unique photos

(AGAINST THE SUN LIGHT )

maybe 😊 Definitely there will be less focus on my

personal interests and my skills because parenting comes first !

I’m going slow for now but I refuse to give up!

Message to Self or Audience ::

Simplicity is the key to your success!

No matter what you do or achieve, please stay the same person you are !!

You have reached this level with this person you are !!

—Abdulrahman Alazzawi

To See more of A. Alazzawi’s work , please make sure to check out his

Facebook and Instagram pages ,

ScreenName @ :

Iphonegraphers_academy

IPhonegrapher's Academy (@iphonegraphers_academy) • Instagram photos and videos

or contact at : alazzawi.abdu@gmail.com

Thank you so much for allowing me

to share your amazing story, and feature your

talents and amazing eye for capturing life!

-Sarah Slurpie

[levbolton]

when will yamaguchi reveal the 14th cover (bet it has sanada)

and then i wonder who will volume 15 focus on... could it be hachiro? (it's either him or momo that don't have a cover volume among the group) since we learned through yakumo's backstory that he isn't japanese, he's quite old to try again for an art career, and he was close friends with sanda too so her death affected him too...