Tumgik
#the description describes their guy as having an Eloquent Way Of Speaking
mechawolfie · 3 years
Text
why is it that in every date sim/visual novel i’ve come across that even dares to let you romance a black person it’s just. the same black guy. like he’s always smart, rich, and “articulate”. and they all wear sweater vests. like i feel like i should be offended
44 notes · View notes
scarecrowmilkfog · 3 years
Text
♡My Prison Pen Pal♡
Helmut Zemo x reader
Word count: 1,802
Warnings: swearing, mentions of prison and crimes and slight angst to do with his family
A/N: its finally here! I havent writen a fic in a long time so hopefully you guys like this! I tried to avoid using idioms and things like that but message me if you need anything explained or reworded as I know most people aren't native English speakers
@sorcerersofnyc
Tumblr media
♡♡♡
His first letter came during the series finale of your favourite show. A rather inconvenient moment, you thought, so it stayed on the welcome mat until you passed through the hall on your way to bed. Picking it up, you figured you'd skim the first few lines then finish it and write a reply before work. Instead, you found yourself writing and rewriting a reply through the night. Somehow this man had managed to enthrall you with only a letter. Maybe it was the way he wrote as if he was some elegant poet whose sonnets would one day be hailed as classics. How he managed to be open and expressive, exuding a welcoming aura, and yet still seeming mysterious. Or perhaps it was simply fated by the stars that Helmut Zemo would capture your heart.
You waited anxiously for his second letter to arrive. After sending the first, you hadn't cared whether you got a response, the whole thing seemed like a bad idea to you. But your mother was insistent that you needed to meet new people and this way you wouldn't need to worry about awkward face to face conversations. Sending the first letter felt like any other chore you do in the day, done with much effort and resignment but forgotten within minutes. But the second? It felt like the most important thing you'd done in a long time. You'd even bought a first class stamp (not that it makes a difference).
You wanted to know more about this intriguing man. No, supervillain. Charged with international terrorism. Jesus christ what the fuck was wrong with you? Were you really falling in love with a supervillain after one letter? But he didn't seem evil to you. He wrote eloquently, somehow his simple and brief description of his day (he'd started reading a new psychology book, you'd have to send him some recommendations) sounded fascinating in his words.
Over time, you started to notice small things about Helmut. The way he crossed his t's, how he signed his name, but mainly that there was a romanticism to his writing. From the way he described his home, his wife, his son to his recipes for Sokovian dishes with small notes and doodles (your favourite was his shepherd's pie recipe where he helpfully noted his mother's assertion that you should always add more than you think you need). It was becoming clear to you that he wasn't the stoic and vengeful baron you expected but rather a soft, lonely and endearingly weird man who you couldn't imagine plotting to destroy the Avengers. Whilst it was his mystery that first captivated you, it was his sweet and sometimes awkward personality that convinced you to keep writing.
It took a while for Helmut to tell you about his family. You had heard on the news back when he first arrested about his motive, so you were interested to hear his perspective on his crimes. But that wasn't what you got. Instead, he told you about when he and his father used to play football when he was young and how they would play a match every time he visited, with Helmut playing against his father and son, who always wanted to play with grandfather. He told you of the songs his wife used to sing, how her voice was always loud and shaky and after years of singing somewhere over the rainbow she would still forget the lyrics and invent her own. He told you how his son was the best pianist he had ever heard. How he could play the greatest rendition of amazing grace and that he had just learnt the theme from swan lake. That he had been excited to practice it on his grandfathers grand piano the day Ultron attacked.
There was something so human about this man. His love for his family, his loss and grief, his plan to avenge his family, it was all so tragic and yet here he was sending you drawings of the flowers from his garden growing up. You wanted to hug him and yet sometimes you felt he wouldn't need it, wouldn't want it. You were wrong.
Helmut Zemo missed his family. He told you so in one of his most recent letters. He missed holding his son, brushing his wife's hair, going for long drives, waking up at 2am to comfort his son, early morning trips to the shops, cleaning up after dinner, helping with homework. Everything he listed seemed so trivial, so meaningless in the grand scheme of life and yet the memories meant so much to him.
You realised then you had never pitied him before. Not that he wasn't deserving of it, just that he didn't seem to need it. But overtime you realised that what Helmut had really needed wasn't revenge or to make a world free from superhumans, it was someone to talk to. Someone to trust. Someone who would understand his pain and not judge it. Perhaps, you thought to yourself, you could be that person.
Fuck.
You couldn't think of how to cope with this. No one you knew had ever mentioned falling in love with a criminal through letters. And as hard as you tried you hadn't been able to find a single romcom with this plot line. You couldn't tell him. You imagined with his seemingly fragile state of mind receiving from basically a stranger professing their love would at best cause him to ghost you. Especially after he confided in you, shared his thoughts and memories.
So instead you continued as normal. You sent him pressed flowers and pictures of your favourite places. Eventually, he asked what looked like, and you spent an hour trying to decide whether you should send a picture of yourself or to just vaguely describe your features. After deciding to send a picture of yourself on holiday a few months before the blip, you found yourself wondering what he'd do with it. Would he throw it away as soon as he got the letter or would he keep it, tuck it away in some book to look at whilst thinking of you?
You also found yourself wondering what he looked like in the real world. You had found pictures of him online, but they didn't feel real. He was never rarely happy. The pictures pre Ultron were clearly taken by paparazzi, so you weren't surprised he rarely looked anything other than annoyed. There were a few though, ones with his wife and son, where he clearly hadn't noticed, and some from when he was much younger and seemed to enjoy the attention. Then were those taken after his arrest.
And so you continued to wonder he looked like. How he looked in the morning, with flowers in his hair or in summer with the sun lighting his face. You wondered what his hair looked like wet, if he ever scrunched his nose in disgust. You wondered what his smile was like.
Over time, you told him more about yourself. The stress of returning home after the blip to no job, no house and your friends 5 years older. Your ex was married with kids and your sister had moved abroad. It was as if you blinked and your whole life had changed. You mentioned how it was your mum who had suggested getting a pen pal, so you could talk to someone new, who was living a different life to you, although she had meant someone in a different country not jail. Since coming back you'd been isolated and stressed with starting a new job, recovering lost information and personal belongings and moving house, so you had thought it might be good to speak to someone who didn't know you, who couldn't judge you. You told Helmut how it had been good, how writing to him had helped you, how he had helped you more than he could ever know.
No, that sounded creepy. How you appreciated his letters.
Too formal. How you hadn't expected to become his friend, but you were glad to be able to say you were.
Helmut was comforting. You knew in your head that your meeting on Friday was nothing to worry about but seeing him say it felt so reassuring. Each one of his letters made you feel relaxed, feel safe. You wanted to make him feel the same. So, as a way to repay his kindness you had told him that no matter what happened, he could always trust you. And it was true. You couldn't imagine a world where you wouldn't do anything for Helmut and although you knew he would never need it, you still wanted him to know you would always care about him, even if no one else did.
Writing to him had become as easy as talking to someone you'd known all your life. You had fallen into an easy routine, you knew when to expect his letters and you knew when you'd send a reply. The routine felt so natural that you even knew what the envelope would look like, always the same off-white with a square edged flap. The address was always the same too. Except on his last letter. Which was strange.
At first, you thought Helmut had been moved to a different prison but after frantically typing the address into Google Maps you realised it was not a prison. Fuck you had no idea what it was, but it wasn't a prison. It also wasn't in Germany.
You sat still, staring at the unopened letter for a few minutes.
You looked up at the door. You thought you heard someone knock. The post had already come and you weren't expecting people. Hell, there wasn't anyone other than your parents who would visit anyway and they would have called first. Now you were sat still, staring at the front door.
"I know you're in there, the lights are on."
It was as if you were a marionette, being moved by some strange force that was slowly pulling you out of your seat and towards the door. You didn't even register that you moved until you felt the door handle on your fingertips. The cold metal caused you to stop, as if broken out of a trance. There was a sudden realisation that if you opened the door your life would never be the same. It was sickening, a mixture of dread and excitement; it reminded you of the moment before a roller coaster drops. You repeated that thought in your head. "Your life would never be the same". Your life hadn't been the same in almost a year. What would be the harm in one more big change. So you did it. You opened the door.
His smile was beautiful.
302 notes · View notes
spatort · 3 years
Text
I’m at my parents’ house and I have too much time on my hands apparently, so it’s time for a trip down memory lane! More specifically, a trip into the weird world of 1990s for-profit teen idol RPF, such as this beauty:
Tumblr media
No, I did not find this at my parents’ house, I bought it second-hand specifically in order to make this post because I’m a person who enjoys studying fan culture in her free time. So, if you’re wondering what the hell the monstrosity pictured above is, and why it exists, don’t worry, I’m about to answer that question extensively.
LONG (AND HOPEFULLY FUN & INTERESTING) POST UNDER THE CUT
Let’s start with a bit of history: In the pre-internet era, fan culture differed from today in a few key regards. Although fanfiction existed, without the internet it was much harder for fans to share their stories with each other. Large fandoms such as Star Trek did have fanzines where fanfic could be printed, but all in all it was a much more niche thing than it is today with millions of fics accessible on AO3.
Fan culture in general, however, was a big thing in the 90s – particularly when it came to pop acts that appealed to teen (and tween) audiences, such as the Backstreet Boys, the Spice Girls, or (mostly in Europe) the Kelly Family. When I was in elementary school, you basically had to pick whether you were a BSB or an NSYNC fan – and god forbid you were a Kelly fan like me, then you were the lowest rung on the social ladder and the target of relentless mockery. Like many German kids in the 90s, me and my sister would religiously read teen magazine BRAVO, cut out every single bit of material about our faves and collect them in folders and self-made fanzines. We created fan art and fanfiction without having words for these things. Without the internet and social media, fans did not have a constant stream of content about their idols, and were left with no other choice but to cling to every bit of information they could find in magazines, on TV shows, or on the radio.
Enter a savvy businessperson who comes up with the perfect merchandise product to sell to these popstar-obsessed teens: fan novels! These books, featuring taglines such as ‘The novel for all Backstreet Boys fans’, typically revolved around a relatable female teenage protagonist who is a fan of the celebrity or music group in question, and usually ends up meeting their idol or, gasp, even becoming romantically involved with them. As far as themes go, they look pretty much exactly like your classic self-insert RPF. Except there is a big difference setting these books apart from ‘actual’ fanfiction: Rather than being written by real fans to express their ‘fannish’ feelings about the subject, fan novels were most likely commissioned works created by professional romance authors purely to profit off of actual fans. There is very little background information available about this ‘genre’, but I did stumble across an academic work on Google Books which featured a passage about these fan novels (translated into English by me):
There are several commissioned works by professional authors, which could be mistaken for fanfiction. Especially in the 1990s, when lots of boy bands were on the market, many books of this kind were published. […] These are fictional stories for fans [redacted].
Jennie Hermann: Backstreet Girl. Projektionsfläche Popstar - Wenn der Fan zum Schriftsteller wird (2009) [Popstar as Projection Surface – When fans become writers]
One of the things I find most intriguing about this type of commercially published fanfiction is the question of personal rights. Obviously, the celebs in question or their management must have consented to using their names in the story, their pictures on the cover and so on – because a profit could be made with this. Especially with the fan debate around RPF allegely being unethical, I wonder if the celebrities themselves were aware someone was writing these stories about them, putting words in their mouth, and if they had any clue what exactly happened in these novels. Now, I’ve read a couple of them in my own youth. Some of them deal mostly with the state of being a fan, e.g. I recall a novel about a girl who is so obsessed with Leonardo Di Caprio that she doesn’t pay attention to real life guys at all, only to learn that her actual dream boy has been in her life all along! This story did not feature Di Caprio himself as a character, it was more about the protagonist’s arc of realizing your idols are not all that matters in life. Others do describe fan encounters with teen idols, and some even feature (hints at) romance with a celebrity. When I decided to purchase a vintage copy of one of these books, I opted for one of the latter category, precisely because of the popular argument that writing romance stories featuring real people is somehow ‘wrong’. For only a couple of euros, I was able to get my hands on a weird and wonderful relic of fan culture: Mein Frühling mit Nick (My spring with Nick) by the likely pseudonymous Maxi Keller, heralded on the book cover as ‘the novel for all fans of the Backstreet Boys’.
The story revolves around 16-year-old musical prodigy and designated wallflower Katharina, who lives in a German small town and cares about nothing else than playing the organ – certainly not about boys, let alone ones that are super-famous American pop stars. This means she is not initially a fan of the Backstreet Boys, which I guess is something of a trope itself – the protagonist meeting a celebrity by chance without knowing who they are and the celeb being thrilled that someone doesn’t just like them for their fame. Anyway, the boys visit Katharina’s hometown while on tour in Germany because band member AJ is doing some research on his German ancestors who happened to live in this very town. Katharina runs into them, she and Nick (who was only 17 himself when this was published in 1997, so it’s legal) fall in love at first sight, she helps them dig up information on AJ’s ancestors and finds out the two of them are related, the boys invite Katharina and her friend Saskia backstage after their show and … nothing happens. The book is 200 pages long and Katharina doesn’t even get one kiss with her boy band sweetheart, even though they mutually crush on each other right away. Perhaps that’s as far as the band or their management agreed for the novel to go – a hint at romance, but no trace of any on-page action, no matter how innocent.
That said, the book is so hilariously poorly written that it was still very entertaining to read. Although I could not find out anything about the author Maxi Keller, and therefore assume this might be a pseudonym, their writing style very much suggests that their are a professional romance author who usually writes for an older audience (plus, the book was published by Bastei Lübbe, who also publish a range of cheap romance novels known as ‘Romanhefte’). The language is extremely flowery at times, and even teenage characters speak with an eloquence that is hardly age-appropriate, with some 90s teen slang peppered in at unfitting times (such as the overuse of the English word ‘girl’). Often the novel loses itself in pointless detail that does nothing to move the plot forward (such as an extensive description of a house party hosted by Saskia’s rich parents, with minute details of their luxurious lifestyle and assets, even though Saskia is only a supporting character in the overall plot). It appears as if the author is desperately trying to fill the pages with meaningless drivel so they don’t need to write too many scenes featuring the presumed main attraction, the boys themselves.
If Keller was indeed merely hired to write this, and is not a fan themselves, one must still admit that the author did their research when it comes to the band. Whereas fanfiction typically assumes that the audience is already familiar with the characters and often skips any introductory descriptions of their appearance or personality, Keller makes sure that even a reader who is completely unfamiliar with the Backstreet Boys can keep up. The author delivers extensive descriptions of the boys’ appearance and demeanor, even spelling out their full names repeatedly, and frequently peppers in ‘fun facts’ such as ‘Kevin was raised on a farm in Kentucky’. While an actual fan might do so to prove how knowledgeable they are, and earning their status as a ‘true fan’, in this case it only seems like Keller really wants to show off how much research they did – as if not a single piece of information they took in must go to waste by not being used in the novel.
When it comes to the question how realistically the non-fannish author replicates the way the boys act and speak, there are two barriers to delivering a well-founded answer: Firstly, I was personally very young when BSB were popular and I really don’t remember too well what each member was like. Secondly, the elephant in the room: the language barrier. All of the aforementioned fan novels were written in German, and the problems posed by writing about an English-speaking band interacting with German OCs (and teenage ones at that) are addressed poorly, if at all. Pretty much all dialogue is written in German, and the audience is left to assume that everyone is actually speaking English whenever the boys are involved – except the novel does nothing to explain why two 16-year-old German girls would be able to express themselves so effortlessly in a foreign language. (Remember, the internet was not a thing, so German kids were not exposed to the same amount of English in everyday life as they are these days.) It would have been easy to make one of them a language nerd who gets straight A’s in English class, and give the other a British parent and make them bilingual. Instead, Katharina initially even worries about the prospect of having to talk to boys at all, and in English on top of that! But when she actually does, the language barrier never comes up again. The suspension of disbelief expected from the reader is therefore immense. The language barrier also gives the author an easy way out when it comes to imitating the way the boys speak in real life – there is no need to take into account idiolects or regional differences (such as ‘you guys’ vs. ‘y’all’) if the boys’ speech is essentially translated into a foreign language. However, I wanted to give you guys (or y’all, if you will) a taste of how Keller attempts to write a scene where AJ and Nick discuss the latter’s crush on Katharina:
Tumblr media
I would argue that this sounds realistic enough for what it’s worth, if a little cheesy, which is excusable in this genre. Perhaps a true 90s BSB fan would beg to differ, so if you happen to be one, feel free to drop me a message. But in my semi-professional opinion, this most likely holds up for readers.
So, to answer the initial question that drove me to purchase this book: Do fan novels like Mein Frühling mit Nick count as fanfiction?
If we assume that something is only a fanfic if the author themselves is a fan of the subject matter, then I would argue no, Maxi Keller is probably not a fan themselves and therefore this work of for-profit real-person fiction does not qualify as fanfic. However, fan novels definitely have a (however small) place in the history of fan culture and fan-adjacent works, and I personally found reading this relic both entertaining and insightful!
26 notes · View notes
gyeheoni · 3 years
Note
q&a anon here - nono it's okay! i like reading your mini essays
:0 more thoughts on the others' ? might you share them?
and yeah i get the part about the stigma present in asian cultures (am east asian lol) :( am just glad he's feeling well enough to share his experiences and come back to promote with vrvr again
hhh thank you for reading all of that if you did ! T-T i think overall vrvr's premise for this cb is super interesting,,, and sure ;;;; omg i really just ramble uselessly about things ;;;; but it's nice to talk to other people about this stuff :]] ! esp since i don't think the teasers are super accessible for everyone lmao if i didn't have kverrers i would not know anything that goes on (tbh i still don't kjfghdf) so have to give a big thank you to verrer twt ;;;; and yea ;;;; if anything i'm happy minchan gets to be with the others again ! they all very clearly love him dearly ;;;; and when times are tough you really need people who care about you close ! (all the letters can be found here ! for anyone who still needs to read them ^^)
i didn't have anything i wanted to speak on too too specifically so apologies ahead of time if this is all over the place ! first tho, i read a thread recently about vrvr's writing ? / speaking styles from a translator ! and i noticed some of the things they were talking about too... i also ! have the diy version of face you ! where the members all wrote a short message and i felt in those messages and in the letters too you can really see each of their personalities kind of clearly ? for lack of a better description ;;;; like we talked about minchan's ;;;; there's something very earnest and genuine in his ;;;; which probably took immense courage on his part ... and also like we talked about it seems his feelings are a bit difficult to lay out when he describes them ;;;;
and i get this from some of the members too ? i feel like i'm probably most familiar with dongheon fgjhdgjd i haven't been a verrer long but ;;;; i sit in on a lot of his vlives and i've mentioned it before but he has a lot of ?? cuteness in the way he speaks looool i honestly think that's just how he talks normally ;;;; you'll see in his letter too he uses a lot of exclamations points and the TT in one of his answers ;;;; i felt like nothing he said really surprised me, but his genuine interest in song production and that whole process is really endearing to me personally ;;;; he talked about it too in his voice vlive but he's had a lot of worries and struggles for this upcoming promotion and i think you can kinda tell from the way he talks about stuff but it's mixed in with fanservice (?) so,,, not gonna try and project ;;;; but i know he's been working really hard ! and i am proud of him u.u (*cringe cringe*)
hoyoung and gyehyeon LMAO fkjhgdkjfgh ... they both rarely do solo vlives so i haven't heard them talk too much on their own and in their letters too, it's pretty ! straightforward and to the point ! both of their answers are short and concise, no extra add-ons... maybe it's bc i'm gyehyeon biased (now ?? ig ???) but i feel like he's always surprisingly warm in some ways ... really did not take him for the fanservice type at all but i'm starting to see more of it ;;;;; of course take my interpretations as you will as a baby verrer </3 i don't see them both as too talkative to begin with so not much insight i could provide for their letters ! i just thought it was kinda funny, if you removed the names and pics i probably would have been able to point out who's who if you asked kjfghdjkfg oh ig another thing you can really tell that performance is a big motivator for gye ;;;; he's always been kind of an enigma to me so it's hard for me to read past that
yeonho <33 my bestie i care he ! i really admire his optimism / outlook a lot ! and i think that really comes through in his letter like filling his room with lights ;;;; and then the joke about the 'hole' being only 2 meters deep fkjghdfjgh he's so *heart eyes* you know :'))) a funny guy :3 i remember the members saying he really does have such a bright personality and that makes me happy to hear ;;;; wishing him genuine happiness always ^^ yongseung ! i think he's quite literal like hoyoung and gyehyeon were too in some ways in his answers but there's something very mature and eloquent in how he describes stuff... like that metaphor of deep water,,, shine says he's very well-spoken and i'd definitely agree ;;;; smth almost poetic to the flow of his words it's very neat :0 and lastly kangmin ;;;; kangmin is so obviously babie ;;;; he has so many question marks in his answers ;;;;; lol kinda looks like he's unsure of his own words (wow like me using 20+ ? in this ask probably) ik the other members have said he's slowly becoming more self assured ! and i certainly hope to be able to see that growth ^^
but yea ! overall ! like i said i don't much like the use of ... at least the depression question in what is ... to oversimplify a convoluted music video teaser drop ;;; i also think by complicating the process for all of this they might disillusion some fans T-T but in my opinion at least this was all a very intriguing and creative way to present the concept ;;;; tying together the two versions of vrvr to real life vs. idol vrvr is a very cool parallel ;;;; i just wish some of the questions were different or presented in a different context, i'm really excited honestly ! and i felt like reading their letters was nice insight ^^
1 note · View note
themidnightfarmer · 4 years
Text
Wingman || Lydia & Jared
Timing: Before the poisoning.
Location: Faetal Attraction
Tagging: @inspirationdivine & @themidnightfarmer
Description: Lydia and Jared take a night on the town.
Triggers: Violence tw
 Lydia buzzed with excitement. If you looked closely, you could see the tiniest blur around her ears, where the glamour didn’t quite stretch to cover her jewellery. It didn’t matter, though, because in a minute she wouldn’t have to wear the glamour at all. When Jared had told her he’d never been to faetal attraction, Lydia had sworn to fix it at once, so here she was, waiting for him just outside the door. “Jared! It’s wonderful to see you again!” Especially when she wasn’t frightened for her life. 
Jared wasn’t quite sure what to expect. He’d heard about the place, but up until recently he’d had no fae friends to go with. Anytime he’d gotten close either he was with a human friend that had been given a serious stink eye by the person at the door taking admissions, or he’d started to feel that tingly feeling in his fingertips. A feeling that until now had been unknown to him. However, this time, as he’d approached Lydia the feeling was known. He was with fae. His smile reflected his own excitement. “Hey!” He greeted her exuberantly. “You too! This was a great idea!”
Lydia smirked, tilting her head. “I can’t believe you haven’t been here before. You’re in for such a treat. That finger tingling of yours is going to be intense tonight. There are a few non-fae in here, but it’s mostly people like us in there.” She offered her arm for him to take, before leading him into the bustling, warm club. Her chest rang at all the other fae, in a technicolour crowd of every type of appendage on view. Lydia dropped her glamour as soon as she’d paid for them both to enter. “Where do you want to sit?”
He’d been such a hermit for so long, unaware of all the joys of being a fae, that Jared was fully dazed as they entered. He stumbled over the lip in the doorway and his eyes couldn’t stop moving. Person to person. It was incredible. “Wow.” he said less than eloquently. Looking down at Lydia in awe he just blinked at her for a moment dumbfounded. She was still Lydia, but without her glamour she was a whole new image to take in. His mouth worked soundlessly before Jared finally caught up with himself. “Anywhere you’d like. At the bar?”
Lydia caught him as he stumbled, looking up at his with a concerned smile until he had righted himself again. Watching him was almost as intoxicating as watching the crowd. This was how she wished Regan was. Full of wonder and excitement, rather than fear and doubt. Lydia followed his gaze to a woman with fluffy moth wings, a man whose wispy dark skin gave way to glorious antlers, an individual with skin like glass, more than a couple folks with horns. All sorts. Without her own glamour, Lydia literally glowed, her brown and yellow beetle-like shells shifting as she walked, dark translucent wings poking out between them. Her ears stretched to the tops of her head and were adorned with dozens of sparkling gems. “Like what you see so far? Bar it is. What do you want to drink?”
Dropping his own glamour wasn’t even a thought to Jared, he simply had forgotten that it was an option in public. He was so unused to it, even in his own home he was rarely seen without it. Although that might have been just in the hopes that someone might come to visit at any time. Even with their arms linked, Jared lagged behind Lydia as she led the way through the crowds. Watching her wings shift in the light and noticing her hair tangle lightly over a gem in her ear. He could see why she could be called a muse. He beamed and pulled out a stool for her when they arrived at the bar. “Let me buy you a drink, yeah? What would you like to drink? Pick your poison.”
He looked around like a toddler at the lightshow, and Lydia couldn’t help but giggle at his wonder. Not to make fun of his perspective, but to delight in him as much as he delighted in the space. She waved Julie over, one of the few humans in the entire establishment, and one of the few Lydia ever voluntarily interacted with. “Oh, in which case, I’ll have a red wine. They do a lovely Sauvignon here,” Lydia said, smiling warmly at his offer. “You know that you don’t have to look human here, right? There are no wardens, no dangers here. Everyone here is community. Cousins, even.” 
“Make that two large glasses.” Jared ordered of Julie before taking the seat beside his company for the evening. A sheepish grin took over his face and he slowly let his human skin fade. Black veins appeared first, followed by slightly glowing purple eyes. And then the horns, all four of them sprouting at once. His skin settled to grey and he shivered slightly. “Feels really weird.” the nymph commented, wiggling his shoulders as the usual soft connection to his charges doubled in strength. He gave out a laugh and rocked on his chair in wonder. “I feel like I’m doing something bad.” he admits with the air of a child who wasn’t even sorry that all the cookies were gone.
Lydia had seen him without glamour before, but not nearly long enough to truly and fully appreciate it. He looked eerie and dramatic, and all the more beautiful for it. From the grey pallor of his skin, to the distracting amethyst in his eyes. Like this, he couldn’t be mistaken for something human, and it made Lydia completely breathless. Even without her glamour, if one squinted one might consider Lydia human looking, like you could say for Regan and Deirdre. People like Felix, Morelia and Jared were completely different. “That is a tragedy. You should feel comfortable in your natural skin. You look beautiful like this.” 
It was a rush. Jared could feel a lot more of his connection to his creatures, and it buzzed in him like an old radio springing to life. He ended up shrugging his shoulders once again, as if shrugging into a coat and not just his natural form, just to get used to it in less high stress situations than he was used to. “Is that how you feel? Comfortable? I mean in a …. Like a  uh-” he struggled for the words to express what he wanted to know for a moment before nodding. “Comfortable rather than like you’re high? Is it something you get used to? Is it just me that feels like i just took a belt that was too tight off after dinner?”
“Yes, I feel more comfortable like this that with a glamour. A glamour takes concentration,” Lydia replied as Julie returned with their glasses of red wine, setting them in front of her. “Put it on my tab,” she said, otherwise ignoring the very human bartender. “Wait, when you take off your glamour you feel high? What on earth are you talking about?” Lydia laughed, sipping at her wine. “Like the belt, yes, or taking off a bra, but nothing close to feeling high. How often do you take your glamour off, exactly?”
Jared would have made a noise of disagreement at the mention of a tab, as he’d wanted to buy Lydia a drink. But as it was, he was a little too distracted to do much else than try and keep his feet on the ground. “It feels like Cap has sneezed and zapped me by accident again.” He tried to describe, “But in a good way.” Jared shrugged and smiled lifting the glass of wine towards hers to clink their glasses together. “Not often.It can fall when I sleep sometimes, but mostly I can keep it on non stop for a few days.”
“Sorry, you’re going to need to explain that. Who is Cap? Why would him sneezing zap you?” Lydia smiled despite her confusion, because the young nymph was ever so charming, even in his strange ways. She clinked glasses with him, before her eyes widened even further. “You sleep with it. Why? Do you have a partner or friend that lives with you who doesn’t know?” 
“Oh, Cap, as in Capacitor. He’s a new addition to my kids. He’s a Raiju I bought from some weird guy online. He’s a sickly little thing I think he’s allergic to dust. But he zaps.” Jareds knees were bouncing and he was speaking animatedly. The effects of taking the cap off of his body had him practically fizzing. He took a long sip of the wine and then set the glass down. “I used to. Grew up in a family of human deniers. There was something on me until my eighth birthday that helped hide me I think. But it wore off I guess so I learned to glamour fast. Endless trips to the hospital about my skin and all that you know? Not anymore though, Guess habits die hard. The only people who stay the night both know. Just don’t want to spook them I guess as well.” He smiled widely at Lydia. “It’s not a big deal, I just didn’t realize it had been so long being normal.”
“Capacitor? That is darling,” Lydia smiled, and nodded as if she knew what a Raiju was. Apart from, of course, that it apparently zapped things. Which meant that it was likely another creature she likely wanted to avoid, no matter how sweetly Jared smiled around his wine glass. As he explained his childhood, Lydia’s smile fell slightly, dripping into something closer to sympathy.  “Right. Of course. I’m sorry.” All the same, he was grinning, bouncing and floating with his energy. Even if she flinched at him calling it normal. “This is you being normal. Look, there.” Lydia pointed behind him. “That Nix certainly looks interested in you from over here.”
“He’s a sweet little guy. I’m lucky he wanted to stay after I bought him.” Jared waved a hand as if dismissing her apology. “It was what it was. It was tough, but I’m happy with how it all turned out. Inherited a farm, and got to grow up in the weirdest town in the state.” The nymph looked over his shoulder recklessly, before whipping back around embarrassed when he heard Lydia's reasoning for having him look. His cheeks warmed to a slightly darker tone and he took another drink of his wine just for something to do with his hands. He laughed a little and figetted. “Right, I don’t even know all the rules anything like this involves. I assume there are fae dating rules and all sorts I have no idea about. I really do know almost nothing.”
“You bought him to free him, then?” Lydia asked curiously, looking him over anew.  “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re their nymph.” She nodded at his explanation, with a small smile, and opted not to comment on it again, because family could be complicated even for the best of reasons. There were members of her family Lydia didn’t talk about either. “What a beautiful farm it is too,” Lydia said instead. She grinned as he looked behind himself, his cheeks and ears flushing darker. All that nervous, skittish energy had to go somewhere, and Lydia chuckled as he drank frantically from his drink. “I think most rules don’t stretch much further than not having sex with humans, but not all fae here even agree with that.  Then some extend the rule to not having sex with other supernatural species. Dating really isn’t that complicated.” Lydia glanced back to the Nix with a small laugh. “She’s very determined to catch your gaze.”
“The advert made me feel like if he was truly what was advertised, then he couldn’t go to someone who would use him as described. He was so sickly when I got him, I was right about this one.” Jared confirmed. “They all need protecting, even if they don’t stay long.” He wasn’t a novice in dating, he’d had a few relationships, but he fell completely out of touch. It had admittedly been a few years since his last attempt, and adding fae rules into the mix made him even more nervous than he would have been normally. “No humans huh?” he echoed before adding “You sure it’s not you she’s interested in?” He asked, determined not to look around for fear of making a fool of himself. So instead, his fingers tapped on the bartop, and his knee continued to bounce with unspent energy. 
“That’s incredibly nobel of you. I know you’re their nymph, but it is still astonishing,” Lydia said, with real admiration glinting in her eyes. She swivelled her glass before finishing it off.  “Not all fae agree on that one either,” Lydia said airily, as if just recalling Beatrice’s existence didn’t make her stomach want to turn. As if she didn’t deliberately avoid thinking about Deirdre’s relationship prior to Morgan’s death. Lydia turned her attention back to the Nix with a much warmer smile. “Maybe she’s interested in the both of us, you don’t know.” Lydia chuckled warmly. “I’ll stop winding you up, shall I?” Lydia nudged him with her elbow. 
Jared was coming down off of the initial high of being free, and was settling into a warm appreciation for the feeling instead. “Cap is almost domesticated, they tried really hard with him. So while I would have liked him to be normal, it’s good he stayed. Not sure he’d have made it on his own. I just want what's best for them is all.” He shrugged but still bounced his knee and even brought his thumb up to bite at the nail on this thumb as she teased him. The nymph spared a sneaky quick glance back at the Nix before turning back and huffing a breath at Lydia when she nudged him. “It’s so easy it’s almost rude to wind me up like that.” he pouted at her. “Don’t take advantage of the blond.” he tutted, hiding his smile poorly.
Lydia’s lips twitched slightly. “That’s a shame. I don’t know much about the beasts and creatures that share our world, but the wild ones should always be wild. No matter how frightening they might be. I’m glad he has you.” Lydia laughed as he glanced back over at the nix, as if one last glance would answer his questions. “You’re right, I’m being ever so terrible to you.” Lydia winked, spinning her empty wine glass between her fingers. “You’ll have to forgive me.” She looked around at all these beautiful, familiar faces, and her heart rang loud and clearly. This was as much a home as any. “Do you have plans for the upcoming fairy ring season?”
“I’ll forgive you for now I suppose.” Jared said poking his tongue out at her childishly in response following this up with a laugh. His eyes flickered around the bar again when Lydias did the same. He still felt like he was doing something so dangerous and bad, and yet, everyone here was doing the exact same. It was so strange, but also too invigorating to want to leave. “Oh I usually just haul up on the farm for a while. Lock the gates and text my friends I’m going on migration. It’s usually better that way. I don’t do very well with it.” he laughs uncomfortably. “I’ve gotten carried away one too many times when I was young.”
Lydia laughed, pushing his shoulder as he stuck his tongue out at her. “I’m not convinced anyone does well with it. We all end up seeing far too much of each other, in every meaning of the phrase, humans and other species get annoyed, it’s a whole time.” A human had died the last time Lydia had been in a fairy circle, which didn’t altogether bother her, but she did want to spare her friends that did care such troubles. Fortunately, there were many, many activities one could get up to that didn’t involve murder or even torture. Some would almost certainly make Jared flush bright red.. “I don’t think getting carried away is to bad a thing, but I know not everyone agrees.”
He thought he’d picked up on what she was putting down and Jared blinked before his voice lowered into a whisper whilst leaning in. “So being naked is like a full thing is it? Like for real, the urge isn’t just like…. Me being a weirdo?” He’d met so few fae, that anything to do with the upcoming season he usually kept firmly to himself. Everything that came with it always seemed so odd, but he was slowly learning that this mindset was definitely more human, and he most certainly should abandon it. “I guess….never let myself enjoy it, or at least not for a good few years. How do you…?...but also keep it a secret?” He wanted to know everything. He had so much catching up to do. “You seem to do all this so gracefully, one day maybe I’ll be half as good at being ...normal?” He laughed noticing her glass empty and trying to catch the bartenders eye for another, smiling warmly when they filled Lydia's glass again.
“What, no! Everyone gets naked. It’s a whole thing. It’s very freeing, to be honest.  Everything about the fairy rings is freeing. No holding back, no compunctions, just joy and thrill,” Lydia giggled, a little too loud as she leant in to match his whispers. “Well, that part is tricky,” she agreed. “I know some people handle it better than others and feel they have more control. I usually limit my social media, and I don’t party with non-fae, which limits the exposure. I try not to be naked during the day, and keep things safe.” She rolled her eyes at his self deprecating nature. “You’ll learn, darling. You are still so young. You have centuries to learn. Mushroom season isn’t always for everyone, either.”
She described it so wonderfully. It sounded amazing to be free like that, to just throw away the shame that humans taught themselves and just be how you wanted to. In a smaller way that’s how Jared felt about being without his glamour in this bar. He’d been missing out by not knowing how to identify other fae, that was very clear to him now. “Gotta unlearn all the human things first, but I’m getting there,” He lifted his glass and tapped the wim with her now refilled one. “But hey, tell me your plans. You sound like you’ll have all sorts of great things going on. You have people to party with?” He sipped his wine and paused before asking more tentatively. “More friends with wings?” Was it rude to comment on another faes appearance? He had no idea, but her wings were definitely catching his eyes every time they shifted behind her. 
“You will get there,” Lydia agreed with an encouraging smile. He gave her hope for Regan too. She picked up her wine, swirling it as she thought about his answer. “The problem is the increased hunter presence in town. I tend to keep early august pretty easy. There aren’t as many rings around now anyway. If I happen to find myself in one, then that’s of course wonderful, but I don’t plan any until late august. From then? Normally, nonstop party until Halloween. Parties, with friends, with humans to prank, with the local leprechauns, whomever is available.” She smiled at him, wondering why he’d asked. “Not necessarily. Most of my friends here don’t have any, as it happens.”
Non stop partying sounded like a great time. Jared just knew he would never manage that, even if it wasn’t from the very start of the season.He loved his farm, but maintaining the place took a lot more than people realized. He’d be lucky to have even a few days free to parry without worry. “Wings are so pretty, but the idea is terrifying. Being able to wander away when you're high is already such a risk, but with wings you could just take off. And then flying itself seems so scary. Can you actually fly?” It seems the wine was loosening him up. He worried he’d overstepped again, but this time regretfully after he’d already said it.
“The idea of having wings is terrifying?” Lydia repeated, staring at him with wide eyes in confusion. “What? Jared, what?” She laughed, standing up. She looked around herself, making sure there was enough room behind her before she opened up the brown and yellow striped shells that stretched from her shoulder to the back of her knees. They raised up behind her until they were nearly shoulder heigh, where her wings rose up to her side. She was drawing more than a little attention and her wings began to trill and beat  as her feet lifted from the ground. She reached up to tap the ceiling, before coming back down. 
“No flying inside,” Julia said, and Lydia rolled her eyes and imitated her mockingly.
“My point is, I can’t fly any higher than I just did. I’m not going to buzz off into the night sky.”
“Yeah flying just seems wild.” Jared responded. He watched in awe as Lydia stretched out her wings and took to the air. She was up and down before he could even fully register what she was showing him. He nodded solemnly and then quickly his face took on a cheeky grin. "Oh so you can't fly far, you'd need strong wings like a Valravn to get anywhere in life huh? Pretty wings like yours can’t carry you far.” And while Lydia would see the teasing smile, it seems the tone was completely lost on a gancanagh trying to get another beer behind the nymphs back. Jared was woefully unprepared as he was grabbed and yanked off his barstool forcibly. 
“No, they can’t,” Lydia agreed, flicking them happily all the same. They were beautiful, and glowed with the same light that the rest of her did. They didn’t need to take her into the skies, just flutter her up into the branches of trees, and let her hover as she danced under the gaze of the mushrooms. Lydia didn’t notice the gancanagh either, not until it was much too late.
“You insulting her wings?” He asked gruffly. “You goddamn flatbacksh, no reshpect!”
“Sir, you’re drunk,” Lydia said, standing up in warning. 
“Better drunk than him,” The gancanagh said, aiming a swing for Jared’s head. 
His shirt was being held tight in the gancanaghs fist. Although he was taller than the other, Jared was completely lost with shock and had stumbled instead of finding his feet. This ended up putting the nymph at the mercy of the other fae. Jared raised his hands in panicked surrender but the other didn’t seem interested at all. His fist made contact and Jared could only tip his head back and take it in the jaw so that the drunk didn’t shatter his hand on the nymphs horns. Despite the threat, he didn’t want to cause lasting damage to someone standing up for Lydia. Jared wasn’t sure if he had been offensive or not. Addled by the punch and the drink, but perhaps he should have had better sense than to call himself stupid under his breath. 
“Stupid? I’ll show you stupid you bastard.” The gancanagh dumped the nymph onto the floor and set to work rearranging his no good disrespectful face. 
Jared brought his arms up finally to try and ward the other off. Stronger than him,but not by much he didn’t make very much headway.
Lydia jumped back with a yelp as the fight fell out. “Stop this!” She shouted, her voice jumping an octave and decibel. “Stop hitting him!” She winced, cringing away as Jared was punched in the jaw. Oh, lord, she hated violence. Fae were inevitably better than this, they had to be! They settled disputes with their tongues not their fists! “Stop this!” She yelped again, swatting the gancanagh’s dragonfly wings with her own firefly ones. It was enough to make him stop, if only because it was so rare for fae to ever touch each other’s wings as strangers, considered off limits and taboo. Especially for flatbacks, but wing-to-wing contact wasn’t quite as egregious. “Stop!” Lydia yelled again, grabbing the gancanagh’s arm and pulling him back with strength that didn’t seem like it ought to fit in her small frame. 
Jared was trying to do some damage limitation. As he was being punched he curled up, arms over his face to try and stop the other doing too much. But he couldn’t do anything until the gancanagh let up. As soon as Lydia had touched wings with the guy he froze to look over his shoulder at her. This was the chance Jared took to help Lydia push the guy off of him. Once free to struggle out from under the bulkier fae, Jared shoved him to the ground and found himself at Lydias side a lot more banged up than he’d expected to be on a chill night drinking with a new friend. And he felt enormously guilty about it. “I’m sorry.” He said to her instantly. He couldn’t believe he’d said something offensive enough to be punched. What sort of idiot fae was he? They’d gotten the attention of the whole bar at this point and Jared hunched over as the bouncer came to remove them all.
 “No more tonight. Go home.” The bouncer said, hauling the drunk gancanagh to his feet.
She wasn’t too shocked when Julia, snitching human, called the bouncer over, although Lydia did roll her eyes, extremely pointedly. As they walked back through the door, her glamour slipped back on like she might a coat. “Why? You didn’t offend me, my dear, I don’t even know what a veal-ravine is.” The gancanagh glowered at them, before stalking off. Lydia chuckled. “You know, I suspect that might just have been the start of the fairy ring season. What a ringing welcome to the incoming season. At least it can only go up from here.”  She winked at him, before looking him over. “Are you hurt?” She asked softly. 
Jared followed Lydias lead once again, his own glamour feeling a little bit like that feeling when a child was told playtime was over. It was back to feeling normal now that they were on the street. “I really thought I had considering…” His words trailed off as he watched the gancanagh walk away sheepishly. “First bird that popped into my head, skeletal raven, strong and amazing creatures. uh…. I didn’t really think it through.” Maybe describing the creature wasn’t the best way forward. Jared had to laugh when she spoke so positively about being thrown out of a bar. The nymph shook his head “Had a lot worse than a beat down, it’ll be okay.” Any discolouration was already covered by his glamour. Changing your skin so much tended to mean you covered an awful lot more than people thought. “Didn’t mean to get us kicked out, can I walk you home?” He offered her an arm. “In compensation.”
Lydia’s eyebrows vanished into her hairline at his explanation as to what, exactly, veal-ravines were. “As… fascinating as those sound, I think I’ll stick to my wings over anything skeletal.” She laughed softly, falling in step with him as she took his arm. Even in heels, her head barely reached his shoulder - they must have made quite the pair as they walked through the town. “Ah, c’est la vie. Company with you was all I was really looking for.” She said with a simple shrug. Faetal Attraction was the one losing out. “However, I must say, Mr. Nymph of Vicious Creatures, you really weren’t very vicious in there.”
“Oh yeah for sure, for sure.” Jared agreed on the spot. “Your wings are wonderful I was just trying to joke around...guess I’ll have to work on my humour too.” he chuckled accompanied by a shrug. Nothing he could do now, but try and remember wings were definitely a no go topic in public. The nymph makes a noise of disapproval and bumps his hip into her. “Hey now, just because my kids are vicious doesn’t mean I have to be. I’m soft so my kids can do the damage. Plus I thought I’d messed up, wouldn’t have been fair.” He pouted at her pitifully. A master of the puppy dog look as he’d been able to replicate the eyes of one of his bonedoggle pups when they were whining. “You absolutely overpowered the guy though, my hero.”
Lydia snickered as he hip bumped her. “You are a big softie. Not the only one in town, either.” He pouted at her, and Lydia resisted his puppy eyes for a whole second before giving him a light push. “That isn’t playing fair.” Lydia laughed as they reached the causeway, the sea still and soothing on either side of them. “Oh gosh. If he’d thrown a punch at me, I would have gone down like a stack of dominoes. We’re a strong species, but that doesn’t mean I know what to do with it, beyond lifting couches to clean under them.”
“Well being kind doesn’t cost a thing, so maybe I’m just trying to lead by example. See if it’ll rub off on the people who need to know that the most...like not letting that drunk guy shatter his hand on my horns. Boy would he have really not been happy with that.” Jared laughed and stumbled sideways slightly before pulling himself back in with their linked arms. “Ah but why be fair when you can win by being cute?” The thought of the other fae being punched didn’t sit well with Jared, she was so small, not defenseless, definitely not weak, but the ganacash had been rather huge in comparison. “You clean under couches?” He asked jokingly to brush past the image of her being knocked out in his mind. The breeze was pretty nice as they continued to walk. He was letting her lead the way considering he had no idea where she lived, but it seemed to be a really nice area.
“Being kind cost you a punch!” Lydia disagreed vehemently. “Although no, I suppose punching your horns would be rather… unpleasant. Then again, he oughtn’t have been aiming for your horns in the first place.” She rolled her eyes, although he was entirely correct - Jared was cute as hell, in both meanings of the word. “Well, I normally have a cleaner in twice a week to do it for me,” Lydia winked, leading them towards Harris island. “But yes, should the need arise. Are you saying you don’t?”
“Ahh what's a punch in a bar every now and then. Maybe the guy thought horns were sensitive or something. They’re absolutely not, but drunk brain can get to you if you’re not careful.” Jared reasoned for the guy who’d clocked him in the face. “Ohhh fancy, a cleaner. If I could afford one I don’t think they’d be too pleased with the state of the place, even after Nell and Blanche moved in and out again.” The nymph laughed. “I didn’t really think about lifting the couches, I just sort of...sweep around it? Probably harbouring some cute new kids under there soon. Dust bunnies are adorable.” He nudged her playfully. “You should let one move in.”
“Drunk brain is no excuse for such…. Abhorrent behaviour. Jared, you are far too kind to the man who punched you,” Lydia said, her affectionate smile softening the comment. She rolled her eyes, not about to be shamed for her well earned wealth - she’d worked hard for it! So had her humans. “That’s the great thing about cleaners. You pay them not to judge you.” At his suggestions, Lydia couldn’t help but pull a mildly disgusted face. “Jared, you could be the cutest person in the whole town, and you would still never be able to persuade me to let a dust bunny move in. Having a dog around is bad enough, in terms of the mess.” Lydia stopped in front of her mansion, modern and gleaming with its large windows on every floor. “Unfortunately, this is my stop, and I must bid you goodnight, my dear.”
The nymph waved her worries away. What was done was done, and truly Jared had no hard feelings for the ganacash. Maybe the guy was too quick to jump the gun, but clearly he had some bad experience with people talking about wings. The change on Lydias face however sent Jared into a whirlwind of laughter. “Woah really? Not even if I do the puppy dog eyes? Dust bunnies are adorable!” He was only teasing, even if everything he said he did consider true. But his outlook on creatures would never match up to other peoples. He’d come to accept that. Stopping at the door Jared looked up at the house and grinned. “Nice place. Goodnight Lydia. Thanks for taking me out, and not letting that guy bash me in.” Jared was a trail of light laughter as he walked back the way they’d come, waving at Lydia all the way until he was gone from her sight. 
10 notes · View notes
goron-king-darunia · 4 years
Note
Annon-Guy: Thank you Darunia. Glad you like the fanfic. What did you like? Any advise on how I can improve?
I liked that there was closure to Alice’s and Decus’s stories beyond what the game gave us. It never really addressed what happened to their bodies and that’s definitely something that bothered me about Aster, too, so that’s something nice to do for the people who like Alice and Decus and want that closure. The rhythm of speech (it’s hard to explain) was a bit stilted. Your writing style has a little bit of an amateurish feel to it. It’s not really something I can tell you how to fix other than by saying you should reflect on what kinds of things you like to read and go over them critically to see what they do and why they do it and if it’s something you want to add to your writing skillset. If it’s just for fun or for a hobby, you’re fine as you are. But to speak metaphorically for a moment, your fic does read the same way “beginner” art looks. You played around with your basic toolbox, but you have no real style yet. Practice makes perfect, so if you’re looking for tips on improvement in this department, all I can say is write more! :D Try free verse poetry (that is, non-rhyming poetry) to play with your vocabulary a bit. Short snippets that have an impact.  You can also work on “setting the scene.” Part of the reason your work feels a little amateurish is that you’re telling the story flat-out. And it reads that way. I feel like I’m having something told to me by a stranger on a train trying to pass the time. Setting the scene can help you immerse readers. Try practicing this by sitting in your room or at your workstation and describing it in writing. What can you see? What do you hear? Are there any smells? Are there any physical sensations? Is there anything you taste? Example: I’m in my bed right now. The room is pitch dark except for the dim light of my faux fireplace, giving off a warm ambient glow. The breeze from my window is pleasantly crisp and refreshingly cool for a warm spring evening, and the breeze from my ceiling fan makes my hair tickle my cheeks. I still smell the soap wafting off my hands, a floral fragrance, and my lips still taste like grapefruit soda. My computer screen is the brightest thing, and the contrast with my surroundings makes everything else melt away. The keys clack under my fingers and the crickets outside are drowned out by the whir of my computer fan. This sets the scene much more than me saying “I’m in my room and typing to you.” Now obviously you don’t want to front-load all this information at once. But when you let it trickle in, especially when you first establish a location, this can help. Focus on what’s important to know about the scene. If your characters are in a cave, is it a nice cave? Show is by describing how pretty the light is, streaming through cracks in the stone overhead. Is the cave scary? Describe how scary it is by telling us that the darkness is oppressive and the damp, musty smell within is threatening to suffocate us. Focus on what characters are doing too and relate their physical sensations to us. Setting the scene works best when you break it up with dialogue. Example: Marta walked after Emil into the Camberto Caves. The plinking drip of water was welcoming, and the water reflected the sunlight that streamed in through gaps in the stone overhead. “Do you really think we’ll find rosemary here?” she asked Emil. “I hope so,” Emil replied meekly. The mud in flooded sections of the cave squelched beneath their boots, and the bitter herbaceous and earthy scents of the cave changed every time they turned a corner.  This reads a lot more eloquently than just saying “Emil and Marta went to the Camberto Caves and looked around, trying to find rosemary.” Now this is general advice, but if anyone reading this is thinking “But I don’t know a lot of big words!” or “I can’t write like that! I can never think of nice words to use!” Don’t worry. It just takes practice and patience and a little bit of reading. Follow a word blog here on Tumblr and learn some new words, or have someone beta read your fiction to give you advice on word choices. Or read some of your favorite books and learn new words from that. The only thing I can say is DON’T JUST LOOK UP A SYNONYM FOR A WORD AND USE IT INSTEAD OF A SIMPLER WORD. If you want to improve your vocabulary, you can’t always trust what a thesaurus will tell you. Big and large both mean pretty similar things but muttered and whispered don’t mean the same thing. Muttered implies it was said in a low register, but still with a speaking voice. Whispered implies a shrill, breathy exchange of words. Not to mention that there are connotations for things. “Retort” for example, does mean “response” but it’s a loaded word. Response just means you said something and someone else said something back. But a “retort?” Usually, that means someone is being sarcastic. “You’re really something,” Richter responded. versus “You’re really something,” Richter retorted. In the first one, Richter is neutral. He may even be praising someone. In the second one, “You’re really something” is implied to be derisive or insulting. You will learn more by reading but just know there’s a big difference between an aroma, a scent, and a stench. The first is pleasant, the second is neutral, and the third is negative implying disgust. The aroma of a rose, the scent of salt air, the stench of dead fish. The connotation is just as important if not more important than actual definitions so look for words in context and try to master that. Finally, my main issue with your fanfic. Dialogue is hard to process when it’s all stacked together in a paragraph. It makes it easier to lose track of who’s saying what and requires clunky and repetitive taglines to even begin to understand it. The rule of thumb is that when you write dialogue and a new person speaks, you give them their own paragraph. “Is the food good?” Emil asked, fishing for a compliment. “It’s delicious!” Marta responded with a smile. When the dialogue is only two people, it can continue like this. “Pass the salt please.” He said. “Of course.” She slid the salt shaker closer to him. “Thanks. “No problem at all!” Because we established an order in the first section (Emil first, then Marta) we know that the “he” refers to Emil in the third line, and the “she” in the fourth line refers to Marta. When Emil speaks next, there is no tagline at all, but we know it’s Emil because it’s on a separate line just how we know the last line must be Marta again. If you diversify their speaking styles enough, you’ll always be able to tell who’s speaking, even when there are three or more people. However, it’s always best to introduce someone when they join the conversation, either by name or by a description of appearance, and once three or more people are conversing, it’s much easier to digest if every line of dialogue gets a tagline to remind us who’s speaking. Example. Richter took the salt shaker when Emil was done with it. “It’s weird. All of us eating together.” “Maybe.” Emil simpered. “But it’s also kind of nice.” “It would be less awkward if you weren’t always trying to kill me,” Marta said coldly. “M-Marta!” “It’s alright, Emil.” Richter patted the blond's shoulder. “It’s not like I don’t deserve it.” This is a complex bit of dialogue, but it tells us enough to understand. I start the first line with Richter taking the salt shaker. This indicates that he’s the one speaking. The second line is noticeably Emil because of the tagline. We know he says both “Maybe.” and “But it’s also kind of nice.” because that dialogue is linked to his tagline in the same paragraph. The third line is attributed to Marta in the same way. The fourth line has no tagline, but because Emil is known to stutter and because the next line is Richter, we know that it can’t be Marta and it can’t be Richter so we have both context and knowledge of Emil’s speaking habits to tell us who’s talking. And finally, we have Richter speaking again.  This isn’t the only way to write dialogue, but this is one of the easiest ways to write it in a way that is understandable for most audiences. You can get away with other ways of writing dialogue, but it’s almost never a good choice to write a long string of dialogue among several speakers in a single paragraph.  That’s all I really have to say! Sorry if it’s a bit long! For a first or very early fic, though, I liked your fanfic well enough! But I’ve been writing for years and this is the sort of advice that helped me improve beyond just being a hobbyist. I’ve won contests in my time and I didn’t get where I am by accident, so if you’re looking to go the distance and be the real deal? Consider my advice. If you’re just looking to have fun? Then fuck everything I just said. Forget every word. If writing for you is just for fun? Then do whatever makes YOU happy. 
2 notes · View notes
Text
replies (long)
These include some replies from months ago, the last one added just before I left on my vacations. Sorry for having taken so long to answer.
Also, four attentive friends have alerted me in PMs about Apollo Tim/Jim being a probable misspelling mistake -- I’ve already explained them, and make it now public, that it is his professional name and he alternates between both -- we still don’t know his real name yet.
For the new followers, I do try to reply at least every end of the month, or after each update, and offer the most thorough answers I can -- so please to ask and comment!
declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Tobio’s rude command slapped Alvar, his spitted words like sharp...”
Oh my god! I knew this would be how it would end for that day :/ I love how you made Alvar the proud shameful one here who regretted it all after being such a forceful partner earlier ^^
Alvar, pretty much like Tobio, got carried away by the heat of the moment -- and they are both now reflecting about what has just happened, what has been done -- and mostly, how, and where. To Alvar it seems properly bestial, and he deeply regrets it. For Alvar, it would have been fine if it were in the privacy of one of their bedrooms -- but then, Tobio, who wants no commitments, who can’t bear the idea of being homosexual, wouldn’t have been talked into making it in a love nest... They are a complicated pair, going opposite directions in their longings and desires.
simblu replied to your photo “Tobio’s rude command slapped Alvar, his spitted words like sharp...”
I love how eloquently you capture their internal conflicts.
Thank you! Because this is mostly what the story is about -- and all of my stories, I should say. Though I’m planning to have a whole bit more of action in LoSSS, with crimes and mysteries to be solved, it is always the characters’ inner lives and internal conflicts I write mostly about. My stories happen inside, and not outside, more in thoughts than in actions (that are often contradictory), and relying a lot on flashbacks. 
declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “In that parting moment it seemed prophetic enough, though – the...”
I would say "Poor Alvar!" but then I would be reminded how he acted like a virgin all innocent and unknowing which in itself sort of felt like a trap for Tobi. 
Maybe that is Alvar’s way of seducing guys? 
He doesn’t do it consciously, though, I guess. It’s like -- after sex, during which he really opens up and wide, but once it is through he closes himself again, not just his legs but his sexuality. It’s always a somewhat long way back into sex for him each time, as if he truly were a virgin every occasion he has to get into doing it again...
declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “In that parting moment it seemed prophetic enough, though ��� the...”
Also - I love the description here - makes me want to tell Alvar to go and bathe :D lol
I hope it is not too graphic or shocking, but it sounds true and probable to me, a few nasty details thrown in that add verisimilitude to the scene.
declarations-of-drama replied to your post “story replies”
Looking forward to more from your story - enjoy your holiday! X
Thank you, dear. And after wonderful vacations in which I wrote just one paragraph of a different story, we are back at LoSSS!
simblu replied to your photo “Still, though Tobio turned his head to look in Alvar’s direction, he...”
Good questions...
I am pretty much asking these myself, and sharing them with he reader, since it took so long between updates...
tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Tobio!” He exhaled the name more than called it, and finally seemed...”
How much I love these icarus scenes! Interesting how you play with the two levels of storytelling : Victorian and greek fantasy
Thank you dear! I started planning this to be a steampunk story, having that as the fantastic element of the story -- but in the end it’s a style I know very little of, and before I realized it I had included Greek elements in it, or the idealized -- and often kitsch -- Victorian ways of regarding classical Greece. It is of course an even stronger tendency once I’ve again vacationed in Greece. :) I’m glad you enjoy it, and be prepared for more!
tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Perusing the room, Alvar did notice a shelf full of flasks, and...”
Classy decor!!!! Adorable style
Thanks! I admit it is not a style I am familiar with, so it involves a lot of references to make it appropriately dated... So thankful, really, to all the wonderful CC creators who enable it!
tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “The portrait, though having captured both her unique beauty and spirit...”
Recently you wrote your own writing skill's development surprised you: As no native speaker I am always fascinated. Don't think I could write that fantastic in English. Praise to you!!!!
Thank you for you kindness and support! It really comes as a surprise each time I read my own text. How did those words come together, I ask myself? But it is as if they have a need of their own, and I just obey it and write as they like.
And yet, there you are, writing your own beautiful version of Romeo and Juliet! Praise to you too! :)
willky12 replied to your photo “Perusing the room, Alvar did notice a shelf full of flasks, and...”
What man indeed.
This is my perception from what I’ve read and watched about the period following the end of WWI. It damaged irreparably an entire generation of men -- and women! I believe the stats say that only one in ten women did marry after the war, the rest having remained singletons, and widowers. This is actually one of the themes of LoSSS.
willky12 replied to your photo “The portrait, though having captured both her unique beauty and spirit...”
I agree entirely, you write like an Englishman! The second paragraph in post #11 was really well done I thought.
Thank you dear! I am indeed trying to give a British accent to this story, but how could I really differentiate? Of course I had to reread the paragraph you mentioned to try to understand what you perceived... Your feedback is beyond important to me, and I am so thankful really!
willky12 replied to your photo “I hadn’t seen him until this morning.” Alvar sounded out of breath,...”
This is a surprise!
It is! 
I was going to hold it for later, but decided the story needed some shaking. Thing is, now I recall why I was going to introduce it only later, and shall have to modify some future scenes I had planned having now shared this information. My problem to solve only, though. :)
jepensedoncjesims replied to your photo “With a sharp sting across his chest, Alvar deposed Apollo Jim on the...”
The second paragraph very wonderfully expressed. Such vivid images of the warm colors of Autumn with the anxiety or death lurking about. Beautiful work.
Thank you, dear. I oscillate between letting the image speak for itself or describing it and pointing at specific details... I tend to think not many people have seen Death hanging there on the other side of the window, right behind Alvar. Thanks for having noticed it!
simblu replied to your photo “With a sharp sting across his chest, Alvar deposed Apollo Jim on the...”
You do write so beautifully.
Thank you for your kindness, dear. I do try my best to honor a language that is not mine and that therefore I respect even more.
simblu replied to your photo “Tobio could tell why, but he wanted to listen it from Alvar. Lost Boys...”
So well told, really.
Thank you! Since it is a long post, I did pay special attention to the flow between sentences and paragraphs, and it seems to have turned out well.
simblu replied to your photo “You are taking him to your ancestral lands? To live under the same...”
Wow, Tobio is rather harsh in his assessment of that Lost Boy, isn't he?
According to the post you mentioned just above, he seems to be well versed in Lost Boys, having frequented parties where they were the main attraction -- and maybe even having hunted them in Pennington Park. He must know better -- certainly better than Alvar!
tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Tobio could tell why, but he wanted to listen it from Alvar. Lost Boys...”
It's always fascinating how deep you go into character building and how developed yours settings/backstories are. That's pure realism with every nasty detail included. It interests me, how much of research you do and how?
Thank you for asking.
This passage, specifically, demanded some research, yes.
I Google a lot, I read lot, and I even try to watch movies or documentaries on the themes I am writing about -- so that it is not just fun, but entertainingly learning at the same time. I do have many boards of references of images and links to texts on Pinterest, and not just a few file collections in my own laptop. 
What I don’t want with this story, though, is to be specific about dates and places, otherwise I’ll have to be specific about facts and events -- and that is beyond this project.
danjaley replied to your photo “The boy stood clearly not for a sailor, though the hat could have been...”
I wonder if Alvar has the remotest idea how his attempts to be distant and reserved make Tobio imagine the most colourful scenarios.
I really don’t think so, since they don’t communicate a lot, do they? There are entire paragraphs for their thoughts and perceptions, that they keep to themselves though sharing it with the reader, while only a few lines with dialogue. They each live in their own world, and see things from very different perspectives and through diverse experiences and backgrounds.
11 notes · View notes
stephicness · 7 years
Note
Pardon, im not very well at deciphering a person's personality and I have been craving to write Ravus, it's just so hard to really figure out how he is though?? I happen to really enjoy how you interpret him and was wondering if there's any tips you have for writing him? Mercí beaucoup. Also, have a lovely day/night~ ♡
lsersljk It’s super flattering that you’re asking me for tips on how to write for him. qUq~ He’s such a fun character, and definitely one that should be shared with the world. Because who doesn’t like a grumpy butthead with a tragic end? *throws sparkles*
But HM… Let me see how I can break him down for you. :D Alot of rambling and notes, but I’mma break it down into four categories: Body Language, Though Process, Outer Persona, and Speech Pattern. Read Below, for I rambled on quite a bit!
Body Language
I like talking about body language first off because of how much personality there is in just So Ravus, as we know, is kind of an asshole in game. He appears, basically tells the empire that he’ll take care of Lunafreya, bullies Noctis, and then splats and dies before turning into a goo boy.
On the outer surface, he comes off as a very stoic man for the most part. Never smiles, tries to show-off this harden facade that makes him seem hard to read and almost bland compared to some of the other characters. But think of it this way – it’s almost physically impossible to be that emotionally desolate. There’s gotta be something underneath the surface with him, right?
So with Ravus, alot of my writing comes from being able to describe the inner personality through subtle facial expressions or descriptions of his thought process. He might just be staring into space, but he’s got something going on in his mind regardless. Usually with his face, he’s usually got a frown on him or one of those resting bitch-faces, so he’ll almost always look pissed off about something. I also don’t imagine him to really using many arm gestures when he speaks or conveys his feelings. He’s kind of a stoic stick, to be honest. But I imagine that it’s mostly because that MT arm of his is harder to use, but also, if you think about it, a person’s body language conveys the most emotion. Thus, I picture Ravus really regulating how his mannerisms are. So when you do plan on applying some sort of emotion in his body language, pick it carefully! Because the smallest gesture of him holding someone’s hand or reaching out to them is more powerful than words when it comes to Ravus’s mannerisms.
Thought Processes
So like I mentioned before, alot of his personality shines through not particularly what he says or how he says it, but more rather what he thinks in amidst the situations he finds himself faced in. As we learn with the game, Ravus often finds himself torn between his ally, Niflheim, and those of Lucis, whom he still harbors alot of hostility for. He’s a man with firm beliefs, or so he thought, so alot of his struggle comes from trying to hide his true intentions from Niflheim, but also in trying to find a reason to aid Lunafreya in her endeavors in helping Noctis. His mind is full of alot of things, but often it’s clouded with a sense of hatred and spite towards Lucis as well as the Empire that destroyed his family and home.
His thought process is one that is often intricate and more detailed, I imagine, with alot of his conflict showing in a self vs self method. Despite him trying to be resolute in his actions and beliefs, there’s something that usually lingers in the back of his mind that ultimately grants him the chance to be sympathetic to some characters as we see in the game. With Lunafreya, he’s very adamant in her continuing her duty to Noctis as he tries to protect her, but he is there to help comfort her as she weeps. With Noctis even, he appears hostile in his approach to Noctis, but he truly did have the intention of wanting to help the prince and return his father’s glaive to him at some point.
With Ravus, it’s important to think about how he goes about his approach in thinking because, despite him wanting to believe in one thing, he’s got a realist personality as he thinks. In an ideal world, he could have forgiven Niflheim and Lucis for what they did and move on, but in a realistic one, he couldn’t. Niflheim had their power over Tenebrae and the Fleuret’s lifestyle, and so he chose the realistic option in siding with Niflheim. His logic always has reason and always is well though-out, but it often isn’t the choice he wants to make. So I suggest playing with this idea of duty versus desire when it comes to Ravus, because Ravus is more inclined to pick his duty over his indulgences.
Outer Persona
It might not seem like there’s not much of a difference between an outer persona and a person’s body language, but the way I differentiate it is that your Outer Persona is what you choose to show people in terms of your being rather than what your body shows in terms of portrayal. Kind of like personality over physique, and Ravus’s personality is alot more vibrant than it initially appears versus his physical portrayal.
With Ravus, the way I go about his outer persona is that I like to portray him as an almost cocky figure – the kind of guy that you’d look at at a first glance and go ‘Wow… He looks like a prick.’ Because let’s be real, he give off an aura alone that makes you know that he’s not someone you should be messing with. A sharp gaze that’s almost always a scowl, punctuated words that kind of almost sound demeaning, and a kind of stature that just makes you feel genuinely uncomfortable around him because of how imposing he appears to be. The way Ravus handles himself is kind of like Mr. Darcy, if you’re familiar with Pride & Prejudice. He’s a dick, but with a softer side. Eventually, at least.
Speaking of Ravus being a dick, he gives off that personality even more so when he confronts Noctis and the others. Despite his words being eloquent and poetic, he essentially tells Noctis that he’s a punk-ass kid who doesn’t know what he’s getting to. He calls Gladiolus useless and basically says ‘Fight me, bro’ to prove how weak Gladiolus is. Hell, he even told Noctis outright that if Ravus were to kill him or if Noctis were to die, then PSSH. Shit happens. Ravus legitimately is a butthead towards others in terms of his outer persona, mostly to portray this feeling of pride and authority over others. After all, he is the commander. He does not serve; he commands!
But nevertheless, he’s also got a softer side that he shows to a rare few, as we see with his conversation with Lunafreya. He’s got that super prideful aura around him still, and is kind of cold in his words as well. But as I mentioned before, his actions speak louder than words, and his outer aura can change to a more sympathetic one. He still gives off that air of command to him, outwardly telling Lunafreya (not consoling her, necessarily) that she needs to work past her fears and trust herself enough to help Noctis like she wants to do. He still remains stern and kind of hard on her, but he still shows enough compassion in his body language to show a difference in his outer persona.
And then he goes back to being a poetic martyr against Iedolas. He really doesn’t let his emotional guard down for anything, and it really shows in his portrayal. That is, until he meets ‘Noctis’ before his death. But you can see why he always has such a barrier up around him.
Speech Pattern
People have mentioned before how Ravus’s speech pattern is really hard to write, and it is for me too even! I’ll admit, I have a bit of a rough time, especially when I write for both Ravus and Ignis since I use similar speech patterns for both. But the major difference between the two, I feel, is how EXTREMELY formal Ravus’s dialogue is.
Think of him as if he’s some sort of Shakespearan thespian when he speaks. He’s the kind of guy who would go ‘Nay, I prithee thee’ if he really wanted to, but since he’s in modern times (kinda), he probably tones it down a bit more. But he’s still extremely eloquent with a high vocabulary that, honestly, I doubt he really knows at the same time. To me, I find Ravus to be one of those guys who uses big words mostly to confuse people rather than to retain an air of eloquence to him. I mean, instead of telling Verstael that his idea to kill Lunafreya for the ring was a bad idea, he said ‘A moot point.’ Who the hell uses that word? He basically just said ‘That’s a questionable choice.’ More people would understand that phrasing more than they would the word ‘moot.’
But if you’re looking to simplify without having to literally delve into an entire language dynamic of Shakespeare, there’s one character that I use alot as a reference when writing for Ravus’s dialogue.
Have you heard of the character Solas from Dragon Age? What I found cool about Solas’s dialogue is that the writers for Solas had deliberately wrote in iambic pentameter for most of his dialogue. This means that it’s very rhymic, almost in sync to a person’s heartbeat. (Da DUM, Da DUM, as Wikipedia described). It’s very paced, drawn out with extra phrases to match this kind of beat in his wording, and I think it’s super neat. And with the added vocabulary, it really reminds me of Ravus’s method of speaking, though not as soft as Solas’s tone.
Think of it kind of like this way too. A regular person would probably say ‘I need to go to my room.’ Ravus would probably fill his sentence out a bit more, and with a more refined vocabulary. ‘I shall retire to my room, for sleep awaits us all.’ Like writing a poem, since, of course, Ravus has quite some poetic dialogue. Kind of like a song or, again, the iambic pentameter. (’I SHALL retire TO my room, FOR sleep AWAITS us all.’ Not as fluctuated, but it gives a bit of an idea of sentence structure.)
Also, I don’t imagine Ravus really using contractions that often. He seems to speak with more of a ‘CANNOT’ than a ‘CAN’T,’ so unfortunately, none of that Y’ALL’D’VE for him.
I hope that covered alot of things that might be useful in writing Ravus! I rambled quite a bit, but nevertheless, I hope at least a little bit of it helps. c:
23 notes · View notes
tomcruisefilm · 7 years
Quote
ON TOM CRUISE: From the moment he appeared Tom was Lestat for me. He has the immense physical and moral presence; he was defiant and yet never without conscience; he was beautiful beyond description yet compelled to do cruel things. The sheer beauty of Tom was dazzling, but the polish of his acting, his flawless plunge into the Lestat persona, his ability to speak rather boldly poetic lines, and speak them with seeming ease and conviction were exhilarating and uplifting. The guy is great. I'm no good at modesty. I like to believe Tom's Lestat will be remembered the way Olivier's Hamlet is remembered. Others may play the role some day but no one will ever forget Tom's version of it. (Let me say here that anyone who thinks I did an "about face" on Tom just doesn't know the facts. My objections to his casting were based on familiarity with his work, which I loved. Many many great actors have been miscast in films and have failed to make it work. I don't have to mention them here. Why hurt anyone by mentioning the disaster of his career? But we've seen big stars stumble over and over when they attempt something beyond their reach. That Tom DID make Lestat work was something I could not see in a crystal ball. It's to his credit that he proved me wrong. But the general objections to the casting? They were made on solid ground. Enough on that subject. Tom is a great actor. Tom wants challenges. Tom has now transcended the label of biggest box office star in the world. He's better.) Favorite moments with Tom: Tom's initial attack on Louis, taking him up into the air, praised by Caryn James so well in the New York Times. Ah! An incredibly daring scene. The finest romantic scene in any film, and here please read the word romance as an old and venerable word for timeless artistic forms of poetry, novels and film. Romance is a divine word which has never really been denigrated by the drugstore novels with the swooning ladies on the cover. Romance will be with us for all time, If you want to know more about Romance, put on a video of THE FISHER KING and listen to Robin Williams describe the deeper meaning of romance to his newfound girlfriend. It's worth it, believe me. Back to Tom: other great moments. Tom's bedside seduction of the dying Louis, in which he offers Louis the Dark Gift. Once again, Tom gave Lestat the virility and the androgyny that made both him and the offer irresistible. He was near blinding. I would have accepted the Dark Gift from him then and there. Only an actor with complete confidence and conviction could have done that scene or any of the others. Tom's angry outburst in the face of Louis' repeated questions. His stride, his voice both loud and soft, his frustration, his obvious discomfort, and inner conflict. Once again, Tom took over the screen, the theatre, the mind of the viewer. Immense power. Tom riding his horse through the slaves' fire, and then turning the horse around so that he could face the suspicious mortals. That was on a par with Errol Flynn and Rudy Valentino. It was on a par with the opera greats who have played Mephistopheles. Only a genuine "star" can make a moment like that, and I'm as confused as to why...just as much as anyone in Hollywood. Let's close this one out with one word: Grand! (No, can't stop talking about it.) If I had to settle for one picture in this film, it would be that shot of Lestat on horseback looking back at the suspicious mortals. That was and is my hero. That was and is my man. Lestat just won't be afraid of anybody. He won't stand for it. He hates what he is as much as Louis, but he cannot do anything but move forward, attempt to make existence worth it, attempt to create. He knows the formula for success, and has no patience with the formula for failure. That's Lestat. Tom's rage and obvious pain in the scene with the bleeding wench and the coffin, one scene from the book which I did not include in my script. it was probably put in by Neil Jordan. If Tom had not given so much depth to this scene, it might have been unwatchable. His desperation, his vulnerability, made it work, and he made himself in it the worthy object of compassion. No small feat! I found the scene, otherwise, to be disgusting. The shot of Tom looking through the green shutters, and the falling rain, knowing that Louis is somewhere out in the night. This was a gorgeous and eloquent shot. Again, it was the actor who gave it the depth in all the subtle ways that only he can do. Tom's making of Claudia, and here I want to praise the entire trio...Tom, Kirsten, Brad... The scene is directed delicately and captures the intimacy, the blasphemy and the undeniable innocence and blundering of the human who has a supernatural gift to give and in his pain and confusion, chooses to give it, come what may. That's a scene for now, for our world of scientific and medical miracles, as much as any scene in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Tom pulled it off right to the last second. Later, Tom's confusion when after bringing Claudia a doll, he sees Claudia turn on him. About half of what I wrote for this scene in the script, or less, made it into the film, and I liked what I saw very much. I wish they'd gone on with the version of this scene that is in QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (see Jesse's discovery of Claudia's diary, and the entry describing what happened), but alas, what they did was great. Tom's manner and expression on the dangerous night that Claudia comes to him and offers him her "reconciling gift." Close in on those two at the harpsichord. Tom is seated, I believe. Kirsten is behind him and apparently offers him the acceptance he needs so desperately. Scenes like this, with Tom, make this film work. Every humorous scene Tom attempted was a complete success. The rat and the glass, I adored it. The humor added apparently by Neil Jordan -- the poodles, the piano teacher hitting the keyboard, the dressmaker biting the dust...well, I didn't adore all that, but Tom carried it off with true wit and style. And yes, its all right to laugh at those parts. We do every time we go to see the movie. There are many other great Tom Cruise moments throughout the film. Many. But these are the ones I cherish now. The readers calling me desperately want Tom to play THE VAMPIRE LESTAT. I hope he does. I hope I get to write the script for the movie. Tom's power, knowledge, skill, magnetism and artistic integrity are part and parcel of the success of IWTV, and there is no doubt that Tom would bring power and magic to TVL. (Let me digress again. For those of you who haven't read TVL, it is not really a sequel to IWTV. It's a complete full novel on its own, beginning the Vampire Chronicles. IWTV was the truly difficult film to make. TVL will take commitment, money and immense faith as well as talent, but compared to IWTV, it is much, much easier to film. Lestat is the true hero of TVL. He is entirely sympathetic. The trick, I think, will be achieving a texture in that film that includes all of Lestat's adventures...from the snows of the Auvergne, to the boulevards of Paris, through the sands of Egypt, and through the visit to Marius' sanctuary, and on to the twentieth century rock music stage. The tales of Armand and of Marius all also excursions for Lestat essentially. I hope Tom makes the journey.) One point: I am puzzled by what seems to be a discrepancy between the way Tom played Lestat, and the way my hero, Producer David Geffen, and others have described Lestat as a character. Did Tom on his own make this role a little bigger, brighter and more complex than anyone else realized it could be? I don't know. David Geffen called Lestat "nasty" when he was interviewed by Barbara Walters. Nasty? I don't get it. But David Geffen is my hero for getting this film made. No one else could have done it. So why quibble about what David said? There is one problem created by the compelling charm of Tom's performance, obviously. Since he isn't all that nasty, why does Louis hate Lestat? How can he? Well, I'll take that problem any day over a more shallow solution. Tom hits the right note. And Louis was Louis. Nothing could comfort Louis. The film got it.
Anne Rice on Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~forest/vamipre/morecomments.html
18 notes · View notes
Text
Chapter 1  Grabbing Your Attention  Written By: Aki Hosoda
Prologue: 
Our beautiful land was full of light. Our land is full of different kingdoms and creatures just like our world today. There are also heroes that bring more goodness in our world. Ranging from knights, wizards, rogues and many more. Things were pleasant in our beautiful land. But it was not until the darkness arrived. The darkness surrounds, brought something that should not be said in public. The darkness strips away layers upon layers until there was nothing left. The darkness whispered closely and after hearing the voice of darkness, darkness was in control. All was doom… at first. But it began enjoyment. Darkness puts its hands on two large hills then all the way down to a small moist cave. Then grabbing by the neck of the dragon, pulled, pulled, and pulled until flames rained all over the large hills. The darkness enjoyed it very much. Then the darkness proceeds to have the dragon enters a small rabbit hole located below the moist cave. There was pain at first then it became pleasure. Screams, so loud that it can be heard throughout the land. Ah! Ah! Ah! …
“… What the hell is this!?” exclaimed the armored man holding a book. “That is an erotica I’ve been working on,” said a short middle aged man in peasant clothing, “My wife told me my writing should be less explicit.” 
“Yeah, well you’re better off as a gardener.” As the armored man tosses the book behind him and a disappointed peasant man catching the book; they are walking along the path in the woods being on their way to the peasant’s village. Suddenly the peasant man noticed a creature up ahead blocking the path and shrieks, “Look out! It’s a monster! It’s a Peach Frog!” The large creature has a body of a pink peach with arms, legs and a head of an average frog. It’s one of many different types of Fruit Frogs and there are others, such as Apple Frogs, Orange Frogs, Grape Frogs and so on. But Grape Frogs are just large normal looking frogs with purple skin that shit out grapes, puke out jelly and piss out wine; wine is very expensive in this world. The armored man gallantly steps forward and says, “Don’t worry, I’ll take this creature! After all, I’m from the Knighthood League! If my name isn’t- *splat*
The armored man was abruptly killed when a Peach Frog jumped on top of him. “Oh, shit! Oh, shit!” panicked the peasant man as he was trying to run away. The Peach Frog hops towards the peasant man, ready to eat him, suddenly the frog shrieked in pain. A thin blade popped out from inside the Peach Frog with a bright blue light emanating from the same stab hole. Then the sword rapidly swings in multiple direction, that could almost be seen in a naked eye, and the sword quickly went back inside the frog; yet the frog is still intact but motionless. A second later the frog exploded. As the peasant man is on his ass to the ground being shocked to what he just witnessed while the remains of the Peach Frog is raining down, he sees two figures that were inside the frog. One of them is a 5.3 feet tall male samurai with medium length coarse black hair and dark brown eyes wearing a black kimono robe with a white sash around his waist as a belt, white pants, a blue scabbard on his left side, pair of black shoes and a large brown drawstring bag strapped over his left shoulder; while holding a katana sword on his right hand while resting the blade on his right shoulder with his left hand is emitting blue flames. Another is a glowing blue fairy with round spherical body with two sets of insect-like wings and a pair of yellow eyes. These two are the main protagonists of this story. “Wow, way to make an entrance on a first chapter.” said the fairy, “This is why we should’ve stayed at an inn or pitched a tent!” “Well look on the bright-side,” said the samurai enthusiastically as he sheathed his sword, “we’re alive! Plus, we got food!” As the samurai picks up one of the remains of the Peach Frog, eats it and with his mouth full he says, “Holy shit! This is delicious!”
*** 
Hi, I’m the narrator. Some of you might be confused because a samurai popped out of nowhere. Some of you might be pissed because this is not a traditional medieval fantasy story with eloquent vocabularies, overly descriptive details and bunch of other shit. Well, here I say artistically speaking, traditions aren’t necessary and keep an open mind. Just look on the bright side, at least this story is not overly descriptive with a slow-paced narration of a constipated turtle like the book, The Great Gatsby, or else the prologue would’ve been longer than three pages if I described every little detail to the point of using the reader’s imagination would’ve been unnecessary; making this whole reading experience boring and painful as shit. And if any of you all are pissed by my statement, my only excuse is that this story is very comedic.
           Anyway, this story sets in the land of Euros, which is no different than looking at the map of modern day Europe. Any countries in Europe that has euros for currency are regions in this story such as the French Region, the German Region, the Spaniard Region and so on. The currency consists of golden coins called Europes and silvers coins are called differently depending on the region such as in the French Region they would be called France, in the German Region they would be called Germany and so on. The currency in Euros works very similar to an American currency system, such as one Europe would equal 100 silver coins. And just like America’s currency with quarters, dimes and nickels, Euros also have that, but they are called Q’s, D’s and N’s. But the only difference is that Euros do not have pennies. Because pennies are useless. The setting of this world juxtaposes medieval Europe with post-modern American society, like The Flintstones, Dave the Barbarian or The Roman Holidays. This world, like any other world, is not perfect. Monsters are popping out of the woodwork, there are corrupt greedy kings, difference race of beings coexisting such as humans with different skin tones, elves, anthropomorphics (which are humanoid animals like some of the characters from Bojack Horseman) and so on; yet discrimination still exist and whole bunch of other shit. With all the chaos happening in the land of Euros, a long time ago the capital king created the Knighthood League to protect innocent citizens from danger, minimize illegal activities and provide service and needs at a certain price. It’s like a combination of police force and craigslist. The Knighthood League not only consists of knights, but it also includes various types of people with special skills and magical abilities; and a samurai is one of those people.
           Speaking of a samurai, the samurai’s name is Akira Hikari (for those who are having a hard time pronouncing his name it’s Aw-Key-Rah He-Kah-Ree. You’re welcome). Akira is a 20-year-old man of the Yen descent. He has no memories of his native land yet he was told the Land of Yen was destroyed in the huge catastrophic war. He was abandoned and found on a fruit cart in Euro as so he claims. Energetic, good-hearted, naïve and he’s always up for an adventure. The fairy’s name is Ulric. He recently met Akira and through some circumstances he decided to stick around. He claims to be the smartest creature on earth. It’s worth noting that having an aide fairy is very outdated in this world. Reasons being is that people have access to helpful tips and guides in books and articles from the group of geniuses called The Scholar Society and aide fairies are known to be useless and very annoying. Yet Ulric stated, “those guys are fucking idiots. Anyone who relies on The SS might as well rely on horoscopes.” Nihilistic, jaded, sarcastic, intelligent and drunk half of time, yet, keep in mind, he is not completely heartless.
           “Man, I can’t believe I finished this book after that long-ass exposition,” said Ulric as he’s holding the peasant man’s erotica with his top two wings while keeping himself flying with his bottom two wings, “but, yeah, you gotta be explicit or else people will read this entire thing with a soft dick. But I would quit while you’re ahead. Since many people have access to porn with their mirrors to jerk off to.” “Uh, thanks,” said the peasant man as he was given his book back, “I’ll keep that in mind.” The functions of mirrors in this world, besides pleasing narcissists, are used as cellphones, televisions, and computers. Pocket-sized mirrors, as cellphones, are called pocket-screens. Mirrors that are usually around 12”X16”, as computers, are called com-screens. And large wide mirrors ranging 16”X20” or larger, are called tele-screens. Many of you all would think if Akira had a pocket-screen and have access to guides and tips from the Scholar Society, he wouldn’t need Ulric. However, Akira’s pocket-screen’s only functions within certain limits are to call, text, record voices, take photos and get alerts from the Knighthood League. So essentially Akira has a go-screen. And Akira is in a huge debt of 19,800 Europes. Akira lives in an apartment complex called Creature Junction that is located within the capital kingdom of Euro, Paris. The kingdom is large as Paris in reality and it is surrounded by huge walls for protection. How his debt came to be was that on the day he bought his apartment he was given two payment options from his land lord. Either pay a monthly rent of 360 Europes or pay 19,800 Europes in three months and afterwards he’ll have a rent-free apartment. He chose the second option believing he could easily achieve that in three months. So, as of now, Akira cannot buy anything. And so far, Akira has 17,200 Europes left. Plus, Akira has poor direction skills outside of Paris. Anyway, the two heroes are on their way to the peasant man’s village to take over the request originally assigned to the dead armored man. “By the way,” said the peasant man, “thank you so much young… lady I-
“Actually I’m a man,” as Akira corrected him.
“Oh, sorry. You’re wearing a dress so I assumed you’re a woman. Unless if you’re a crossdresser-which I’m not judging or anything-
“This isn’t a dress. This is a kimono. Many people in the Land of Yen wore something like this.”
“… So, are all the men crossdressers in that land?”
“… No-or at least that’s what I think- anyway, this is just something that I like to wear.”
The peasant man shrugs and says, “Well if you say so.”
It’s worth noting that many people in Euros are not exposed nor familiar with the cultures from the eastern lands. That is why many people think Akira is a crossdresser. Akira is use to it, yet gets slightly irritated and often corrects people many times. “But again,” said the peasant man, “thank you so much for taking this request on such short notice!” “Yeah, you should be more than grateful,” said Ulric, “cause that one guy you’ve originally hired was one weak pussy ass bitch.” “Ulric!” exclaimed Akira.
“What? I’m just saying. Anyone who gets killed by a weak common creature, like a Peach Frog, says a lot.”
“Yeah, but he was still a human being! Don’t you think we should’ve given him a proper burial, said some words and contact his family instead of just burying his body in the middle of the path?”
“Akira, in a given circumstances, what we knew about that guy is that he had a face, he wore an armor and he was killed by a Peach Frog. So, I don’t it matters to literally anyone at this point.”
“Well it matters to me! That’s why I’m gonna go to his folks to tell them the news after this quest! Thankfully his address is within Paris.”
“Okay, we’re here,” said the peasant man.
            Like most to all low economic villages, they have stone houses with roofs made of hay, a stone well full of drinkable water and various small fields of crops for food and manufacture; that is how most villages stay financially stable. Except in this village some of houses are falling apart and there’s a very large field with only three people tending the crops. Akira went up to the field to take a look at what they’re growing and exclaims, “Damn! These bean pods are huge! They’re bigger than regular beans!” “Wow, you’re easily impressed,” said Ulric sarcastically, “yeah those are called heart beans, beans that are the size of a healthy human heart. Haven’t you a seen one of these at a marketplace? It’s not like they’re rare.”
“I don’t go to marketplace that much; I usually hunt for my own food. I mean, what’s the point of buying food when there are shit ton of food you can find in nature.”
“Do you always know what you’re eating when you’re out there?”
“Rarely.”
“… I am surprised you’re not dead yet.”        
Then Akira sees three people in a far distance tending the crops, he yells, “Hey! How’s it going over there?” The three people did not respond. “Okay, I could see you guys are busy!” as Akira kept yelling, “Keep at it!” As Akira walked back over to the peasant man, he asks, “So what’s the situation here?” “Well, it’s our local king,” as the peasant man began explaining, “we’ve been doing very well producing heart beans yet our king has been giving us less money than what we were supposed to earn. Some of the people from our village have tried talking to him, but they ended up getting yelled at and told us to produce more beans.” “Sounds like this guy’s a real asshole,” said Ulric, “who is this king?” “His name is Alexander Johnson,” continued the peasant man, “he is notorious for being aggressive and unreasonable. He was recently made king of this village after our previous king died. And just last week, one of our villager’s friend came to visit, who was an anthropomorphic frog, then our king came to visit with his two guards. When our king saw the frog guy, he immediately went up to him and asked him if he was gay. When the frog guy said yes, he was taken away up to his castle without saying anything! Do you understand the situation we’re in? Our village is terribly poor right now and at this rate this village will crumble to nothing!” “Hmm...,” said Akira, “unfair treatment towards the citizen and an undocumented arrest, yup, sounds like a real corrupt king. What do you think, Ulric?” “Oh I already knew the king is a real piece of shit the second we got into this village,” said Ulric, “any village with a depressing atmosphere is an obvious sign for a corrupt king.” “So,” said the peasant man, “does that mean you’ll help us?” As Akira looks at the peasant man with a gallant look and says, “Isn’t it obvious? Of course, I’ll help! I’m a hero after all!” Then the peasant man got on his knees and exclaims, “Oh thank you, kind sir! Here! Take these heart beans with you as our appreciation! But don’t eat more than five of these, or else you’ll damage your digestive system.” After the peasant man gave Akira an abundant amount of heart beans, he showed the path to King Johnson’s castle, which is on the top of the hill through the woods. The two heroes start their journey to the top of the hill. “Alright Ulric,” said Akira excitedly, “let’s do this shit!”
“‘I’m a hero after all’? Really!? Could you be anymore cliché than that horseshit line?” said Ulric.
“Well what else could I have said?”
“Anything! You could’ve said ‘will do!’ or ‘sure thing!’ or you could’ve walked off without saying anything for at least two second and say ‘let’s go fuck shit up!’”
“Ooh, I like the last one! I’ll be sure to remember that one for our next adventure!” 
*** 
The two heroes showed up in front of King Alexander Johnson’s castle, which is a small two story enceinte castle that is made entirely out of gold with few windows and huge double doors. “Man, looks like this king likes to live luxuriously,” said Akira. “More like stupidly extravagant,” said Ulric as he is holding a tiny bottle of alcohol, “I’m surprised that this guy isn’t arrested yet. It’s pretty obvious what he’s been doing with those people’s money. Eh, whatever. Let’s go deal with this thing.” As Ulric chugged the entire bottle and tosses it behind him, the two heroes went up to the huge golden doors and Akira gave three knocks on the door. As one the doors opens, King Johnson showed up. He is a large thick man with balding hair wearing a gold tunic, pair of gold pants, a pair of gold shoes and a gold robe. “Who are you?” asked the hostile king, “This better be important, because I was in the middle creating an… info about the… the… uh… wars-yeah-wars.” “Sir, I’m from the Knighthood League,” said Akira, “and I was wondering if I could ask you some questions and search the whole perimeter of your castle.”
“… Do you have a search warrant?”
“Uh… no.”
“THEN GO AWAY!”
As the king slams the door, he goes back to sit on his golden throne, with his two golden armored guards, one of each standing next to him, and returns to his actual business: painting his penis gold. “You might be small, little guy,” said the king talking to his unfortunate penis, “but no ladies will deny sucking you off pretty soon.” Just like the exterior of the castle, everything inside is made out of gold as well. Stairs, floor, a very large chandelier and even his long carpet that leads to his throne to the double doors is made of gold. Just as Ulric said: stupidly extravagant.  
“He’s definitely guilty,” said Ulric to Akira, “I mean, the castle is one thing, but asking for a search warrant is really obvious.” “How is that the case?” asked Akira.
“If anybody ask for a search warrant before any of the authorities come in, it’s clear that they are hiding shit.”
“Well you got a good point there. So far I took a photo of his castle, but we need more evidence to arrest this guy and we don’t have a search warrant.”
“In a situation like this, we don’t need a search warrant. Do you still have that lightning orb you found earlier?”
“Yeah, hold on a sec… found it!”
Akira pulled out a small yellow orb out of his bag and it is covered in blood from the raw Peach Frog meat. “Good,” said Ulric, “now throw it at that castle wall.” “What? No,” as Akira refused, “this is my only lightning orb and I don’t know how to cast spells. Plus, why do you want me to throw it at a castle?”
“Akira, trust me, I am smart enough to know many, many things. And besides it’s not like those spell orbs are rare, you could find more of them in our next quest and plus when the hell have you ever relied on those things? As far as I’m concerned, you’ve been doing just fine without them, so throw the damn orb!”
“Alright, alright!”
As Akira threw the orb at the castle wall, the orb shattered from the impact causing a huge electrical shock wave throughout the entire castle. While this was happening, there were loud screams from inside the castle. Akira was shocked to what just happened and exclaims, “Holy shit!” “Yeah,” said Ulric, “that’s what he gets for building this stupid castle. Honestly, building this thing on top of a hill is like asking mother nature to murder him when there are lightning storms. Anyway, c’mon Akira, let’s go.”
“Are you crazy! What if he’s dead!? Then I would be charged for murder! And what about that frog guy!? We should’ve at least checked if he was alive!”
“Akira, relax. That one orb isn’t enough to kill him, it’s enough to make him pass out. And also, you’re talking about a guy who is notorious for being unreasonable and from what we’ve heard from that villager, he’s definitely anthrophobic and homophobic! If you were that frog guy and if that golden hostile fuck went up to you and asked if you’re a gay frog and took you to his castle do you think you would be alive the next day? I don’t think so! Plus, it’s been a week, of course he’d be dead! His corpse is rotting somewhere in that castle! So, c’mon let’s get this shit over with!”
           As the two heroes stepped inside the golden castle they see all three individuals being unconscious at the king’s throne; with the king slouched on his throne with his hand in his pants and his two guards on the floor. “Jesus,” said Akira. “I know,” said Ulric, “this guy is greedier than I thought. Look at this shit! Even his goddamn carpet is made of gold! And I’m willing to bet he only has two guards so he doesn’t have to pay much! What more does this excessive piece of fuck want!?”
“I was talking about them! I really hope they’re not dead!”
As Akira checks all three of their pulses, he gives a sigh of relief and says, “they’re still breathing.” “See?” said Ulric, “What did I tell ya? Aren’t you glad that I was right like many times before? You know, if it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t be in here right now-
“Okay! I get it! You could stop busting my balls.”
“Hey Akira, can you move this carpet for a sec?”
As Akira moved the carpet, they found a hatch that is located right in front of the double doors and it’s the only one that is not made of gold. “Wow, look at that,” said Ulric, “the only thing in the castle that is not made of gold for once. Alright, Akira, open this hatch so I could go check this out and you go check upstairs.”
“Will do.”
After Akira opened the hatch Ulric went down to see what’s in the hatch, while Akira went upstairs. As Ulric reached six feet down below the castle, he found himself in a dark room. “Ugh! It smells like sulfur in here!” exclaimed Ulric, “And why is there not a single torch light? And I swear if I see more golden shit I’m gonna be pissed!” Then Ulric made himself glow brighter to illuminate the room and he found himself in a dungeon with bleak greasy brick walls with five skeletons without skulls chained to the wall. And when Ulric reached the other side of the room, he found a recently deceased corpse which revealed to be the same frog guy the peasant man mentioned. The frog guy’s corpse showed there was excessive bleeding from his ears and nose with his skull completely crushed. Ulric is shocked to what he saw and says, “Oh my god…”
           Meanwhile, Akira is in the king’s bed room finding more things that are made of gold. “Dammit,” said Akira, “all I’m finding up here is more golden shit.” Feeling disappointed from finding nothing, he decides to go downstairs to see what Ulric found in the hatch. By the time he reached the hatch the king quickly woke up, noticed Akira and screams, “HEY! WHAT ARE DOING IN MY CASTLE!?”
“I should be the one asking questions,” said Akira, “why is there a hatch and have you been converting most of villager’s money to create this castle?”
“Are you kidding! Those villagers don’t need all that money! They have all that delicious beans to sustain themselves and I have been giving them plenty!”
“In an unfair amount! Those villagers deserve the amount money they earn from producing those beans!”
“Well those shit bags are down there and I’m up on this hill. So, they are the least of my concerns!”
“And what happened to that frog guy a week ago?”
“Oh, him? He’s been long dead. He’s an abomination like the rest of them gay froggers! You know there’s a lake that turns people gay and those frogs been swimming in it and they are using them tongues by licking people’s buttholes and turning them gay!”
“… Yeah, I don’t think that’s true.”
“IT IS GODDAMMIT! THERE’S A LAKE THAT TURNED THOSE FROGS GAY AND THOSE FROGS ARE MAKING MORE PEOPLE GAY WITH THEIR TONGUES!!!” No such lake exists. Even though this world is full of endless possibilities, but there is no magical lake that turns people into homosexuals.
“Well from your words, I think I have enough evidence to put you under arrest in the name of the Knighthood League,” said Akira as he revealed he was recording their conversation on his go-screen, “you gonna have to come with me to Paris.” The king’s face turned red with anger and yells, “I’M NOT GOING ANYWHERE! ESPECIALLY WITH A CROSS-DRESSING WEIRDO LIKE YOU!!!”
“Then I guess I’m gonna have to take you by force!”
“OH BRING IT ON YOU SKINNY LITTLE BITCH! But first I need to fart.” As King Alexander, from the other side of the room, has his ass face towards Akira and grunting trying to concentrate; Ulric came out of the hatch and says “Hey! Akira! Listen-
“Just a sec Ulric,” said Akira, “I’m about to fight this guy but I’m letting him fart for a sec.”
“OH SHIT! AKIRA! MOVE!!”
As soon as the king farted, it did not come out as an actual fart sound, instead a loud booming scream vocalized as “FART!!!” came out; which created a large hole on the castle wall. Akira managed to dodge it; he is hanging on the top corner of the room. “What the hell was that!?” asked Akira being very confused. “There’s more to that greedy fat piece of shit than I’d anticipated,” said Ulric, “this guy is born with a skill of emitting highly enhanced scream of high amplitude. He is also one of those people who are born with two mouths: one on where it should be and the other on random places and it looks as though he has a mouth as an anus. It’s like that play Teeth but with anal.”
“LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO MY CASTLE WALL!!!” scream the king. “Bitch! That was your fault!” said Ulric.  
“I’M GONNA MAKE YOU BOTH BLEED TO DEATH!”
“Go ahead and try!” said Akira confidently as he emits blue flames from his legs; then he jumps from the wall to the floor then as the speed picks up he starts to rapidly bouncing off multiple surface in the room. Akira is born with a skill called Aura. This skill allows him to enhance his strength, defense, speed and magic one at a time. Usually there are spells for enhancement, but unlike the enhancement spells which can boost up by ten, Akira’s Aura can boost up to a hundred. Let’s say in a role-playing video game, like Final Fantasy, a character’s speed stat is 33. With an enhancement spell, it would only go to 43. But with Akira’s Aura, it would go up to 133. Akira’s Aura is also capable of enhancing other people, shoot beams and projectiles from either his hand or his sword and maybe more as time progresses as he levels up. Anyway, as Akira was about to throw a punch to the king’s face, the king let out a huge sonic scream of “YAAAAAH!!!” from his regular mouth; causing the whole foundation of the castle to vibrate and blasting Akira to the wall. As Akira got up and exclaims, “Ow! Dammit! I was so close!” Then the king lets out another vocalized sonic fart and Akira manages to dodge it very easily since he now knows the function of that ability. Then Akira keeps moving while Ulric is flying closely besides him and the king kept using his mouth attacks. “Looks like from his regular mouth, his attacks are pervasive,” said Ulric, “while his farts are more condensed yet twice as powerful! I hope, you got the idea to avoid his farts at all cost! Or else you’ll end up like that frog guy down in the dungeon! I’ve seen his corpse and it was fucked up! His skull was completely crushed!” “Shit!” exclaimed Akira, “well I can’t get close to him without having my ears bleed!”
“Then why don’t you use your sword for projectile attacks then?”
“I won’t.”
“What!? What do you mean, you won’t!?”
“I’m not using my sword against someone who is unarmed and is a non-dark intelligent living being. It’s not noble.”  
“Akira, this is no time to be a bushido bastard! His voice and his fat ass are the only thing keeping him from being vulnerable! Unless if you have another plan to beat this guy if not we’re shit out of luck!” While the two heroes are still avoiding the king’s attack, Akira starts to slow down from using too much of his aura for enhancing his speed. “Aw shit!” exclaimed Akira, “I need to eat!” While still running, Akira quickly reached into his bag and pulled out some Peach Frog meat to chow down as fast as he could. One weakness about Akira’s ability is that it taxes his body’s stamina; in order to regain more aura energy, he has to eat something. By the time he finished eating, he hatched an idea. From that point, he starts to jump to one surface to another, the same thing he did before, except this time he threw a heart bean into the king’s mouth. After the king swallowed the bean whole, he yells, “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!? ARE YOU TRYING TO FIGHT ME OR FEED ME!? But keep em coming. They’re deliciously peachy.” Without responding to the king, Akira kept throwing beans into the king’s mouth until he used up to the total of ten beans. After that, Akira quickly threw two fire orbs on the floor, completely missing the king, which then caused two large flames to appear in the room. Then Akira picked up two golden unconscious guards, went to the large hole that was created from earlier and yells, “Come on Ulric! Let’s get the hell out of here!” Then the two quickly got out of the castle leaving King Alexander Johnson surrounded by few flames. “YEAH! YOU BETTER RUN!” screamed the king, “THIS IS WHY NO ONE DARES TO MESS WITH KING ALEXANDER JOHNS- Oh god! What the hell? Ugh! My stomach!” Suddenly, the king’s stomach started to expand like a balloon. By the time he gotten really big, he became immobile and started to panic by saying, “UGH! AW SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!!!” Meanwhile, outside of the castle, Akira and Ulric, with two guards tied up and still being unconscious, are at short distance away from the castle. “I gotta have to admit,” said Ulric, “that was some good thinking there Akira.” “Thanks Ulric,” said Akira.
“And you might wanna cover your ears for this.” As both heroes covered their ears, they watched the golden castle explode in multiple pieces; with the king blasting off into the distance leaving a long smoke trail coming out of his ass while the king is screaming, out of fear, and his ass screaming out “FAAAAAAAAAH”. “I just hope he’ll land on something safe,” said Akira. “Don’t worry about it Akira,” said Ulric, “I’m sure with his thick body it’ll lessen the impact when he lands. Plus, judging by the distance he’ll land straight to Paris, where he’ll be arrested for sure.”
“Well, now I’m really relieved to hear that.”
“Yeah, that’s the charm of being main protagonists; they always have the highest luck.”
“What does that mean?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Anyway, let’s take those photos of that dungeon you’ve mentioned for one last evidence and let’s collect all the gold for those villagers.”
           After the two heroes completed the quest, they’re on their way back to Paris while Akira is carrying three huge gold bricks. “Man, it was really nice of them to not only paying us 500 Europes but also giving us these golden bricks,” said Akira, “that’s even more than our last quest!” “Well you did handle that guy like a fucking boss,” said Ulric, “not a lot of knights would do something like that. In fact, no knights would ever do that!”  
“Well I couldn’t have done without your help.”
“Yeah, no shit. You don’t need to say that twice.”
“By the way, how much Europes would be converted from these bricks?”
“Definitely 3,000.”
“Sweet! … I feel really good about today. With the two of us, I feel like we’re gonna accomplish a lot of great things … I’m glad I found you Ulric.”
“And I’m glad you’re not weak little bitch. Hey, by the way, have much time do you have to get that debt taken care of?”
“A month.”
“Wait… A MONTH!?”
“Uh… y- yeah.”
“What the fuck have you been doing for the past two months!?”
“… Did I mentioned that I’m not very good with directions outside of Paris?”
“Are you that bad!?”
“… Yes.”
“What the fuck!? … WHAT. THE. FUCK!?!?”
Debt Counter: 13,700 Europes 
31 Days Left 
Epilogue: 
           As Akira went up to a one-story house he knocked on the door and an average woman wearing a blue tunic opens the door and asks, “can I help you?” “Yes, ma’am,” said Akira, “is this the household of Thomas Fister?”
“I’m his wife. So yes, what do you want with my husband?”
“Actually, I’m from the Knighthood League and I came here to inform you that… your husband unfortunately died by being crushed to death by a Peach Frog… I’m really sorry for-
“Hold on, wait… Did you say my husband got crushed by a Peach Frog?”
“… Yes.” After three seconds of silence, the woman broke out into huge laughter. “Oh my god!” laughed the woman, “Hey Phillip! Come here!” A tall muscular man wearing nothing but white braises show up at the door and says, “What it is?”
“My dumbass husband,” said the woman while still laughing, “got killed by a Peach Frog!”
“Oh my god!” laughed the muscular man, “What a shitty way to die! Now we don’t have to worry about getting caught!” It is clear that Mrs. Fister was having an affair with that muscular man. Akira, being very confused by the situation, says, “Okay… I’m gonna go now.” “Okay! Take care!” said the woman still laughing. Then Akira walked away from the house while those two were still laughing their ass off.
0 notes