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dawniebb · 4 years

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CANON IS AN ILLUSION PT. 2

If it doesn’t spark joy, throw it away.- Marie Kondo

So now that @healing-winston-pratt and I have explained how we got rid of ¼ of Supernova, let me tell you that it doesn’t stop here because you don’t mess with the type As when something gets into their heads.

For background, you can use this post as a masterlist because we don’t have one yet: https://healing-winston-pratt.tumblr.com/post/624723862884696064/well-this-is-the-last-piece-of-our-marathon

This is our post-Supernova canon divergence :) which, btw, it’s the one we’ll use from now on to create our content (actually, @healing-winston-pratt already used it for her birthday drawings and I just stood there playing dumb pretending I didn’t have anything to do with it jssjjs). So, if you see that Callum and Winston are suddenly alive in our content or you find some of the things established in this list it’s because...yeah :)

Sooooo @novadreamer95438 and @idkimbadwithusernamesandstuff you asked to be tagged if we uploaded more content about the canon divergence (Which we appreciate very much! thank you!) so here you go <3!

As mentioned before , Leroy starts living with his daughter Nova and Winston, in a house provided by the State (The Council hee hee).

Callum and Winston are (evidently) alive, but Genissa is dead.

Ace, Evander and Honey remain dead.

And this is where our canon continues uwu.

Leroy has to do community service for like...indefinite time :)

Winston, on the other hand, has two jobs. He works in an animal shelter, where he adopts a dog named Carnival bc wE CAN and also we want to quote this post :https://chiyuki-hiro.tumblr.com/post/621159663188180992/oh-no-a-head-canon by @chiyuki-hiro (AFGSHFVDGB THAT HEADCANON IS G R E A T WE LOVE YOU) because we had come to an agreement that Winston would have an art therapy group for children but this addition is honestly so freaking wholesome :’))))))) <3

Nova has a temporary resignation from patrolling and starts going to therapy, where she is diagnosed with PTSD.

Nova also helps with the establishment of a new system, modifies the recruitment system and that stuff.

She’s not in the Team Sketch full time. Sometimes she’s in the offices, and at night she works with Callum.

And just like Narcissa, she digs her own grave :)

Thing is: Nova suggested that every time a new recruit arrived, the Council had DNA samples taken from them so they could check if they had any crime attached to them.

Now, by the end of Supernova in the canon universe we elected to ignore it is mentioned that Maggie sees Leroy staring at her in the distance, in a very suspicious way. Now, we don’t know about y’all, but we interpreted this as Leroy noticing Maggie looks like young Nova XD. So, this does happen in our canon, when Leroy is already out of prison.

By this time, DNA samples from Maggie and Nova have already been taken and uploaded to the system; and let’s say that Leroy gets very...concerned about the lookalike and decides to tell Winston, who confirms Maggie looks a lot like Nova X’DDD and so, they reach out to the Council to ask them to pls compare Maggie’s samples to Nova’s. U know, like angry mothers at the principal’s office :)

And so they do it just because they have nothing to lose.

And when the results arrive, everyone’s like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r92hykpvZRw

SO MAYBE, TO DOUBLE-CHECK, they compare Maggie’s DNA to DNA found in the crime scene (from David and Tala or maybe baby Maggie herself) and the results are still the same :).

Then, Winston and Leroy have to tell Nova and she reacts in the worst way possible for reasons I’ll explain in a fic I’ll be uploading soon cause’ I wrote it MONTHS ago.

Maggie doesn’t react much better tbh :)

But after a while, since this is, like, the right thing to do, Maggie starts living with them , but changes her name to Margaret Artino until she feels part of the family and is comfortable living there.

Because at first, Nova and her don’t get along and Maggie claims she fucking hates this house even though she knows is better than living in the streets.

They basically have a very chaotic home during the adaptation period until the girls start tolerating each other :) and even then, they’re still very chaotic bc it’s Winston, Leroy, Nova and Maggie we’re talking about :) :) :)

Not long after Maggie starts living with her big sis, Simon and Hugh ask Nova to join a family vacation and bring Maggie w/her.

Maggie doesn’t want to go, so Leroy and Winston go to Nova all like “If your sister doesn’t go, then you’re not going either” and Nova fucking loses it so she ends up begging/forcing Maggie to go :)

They go to the beach in MATCHING OUTFITS bc Simon said so (LIKE IN THE WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE MOVIE) :) they take a lot of embarrassing pictures and Nova and Adrian are forced to go in the banana boat with Max and Maggie.

They fall and Nova and Adrian are acting as if they were in the Titanic while Max and Maggie are having the time of their lives lmao

BC NOVA ALSO NEEDS BONDING WITH THE IN-LAWS

At some point, too, Maggie adopts a stray cat whom she names Tofu, and he fucking hates Carnival even though Carnival is the cutest thing :’)

Winston, Leroy, Nova and Maggie celebrate birthdays every year bc they’re trying to compensate years of trauma.

And for that same reason (compensating years of trauma), Nova and Maggie take their sweet time to move out.

Actually, Adrian meticulously plans the date when he’s gonna propose to Nova, so he asks her to move with him exactly a year before that.

They live in an apartment for that whole year, he proposes and they start planning the wedding uwu.

Nova and Adrian have a non-religious ceremony, and since they’re fucking extra, Nova gets married in a black dress and Adrian in a white tuxedo bc miss Artino wanted a dress the same color as her soul :)

Leroy walks Nova down the aisle.

Ruby is Nova’s Maid of Honor and Oscar is Adrian’s Best Man.

Max and Maggie have the rings.

Tamaya’s youngest son is the flower child.

Which, talking about Tamaya, she fucking hates Leroy and Nova bc, honestly, we would hate them too. Leroy fucked up her face and Nova was part of the terrorist attack lmao

SO, YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW CHAOTIC THAT WEDDING WAS, bc they had to avoid leaving Tamaya and Leroy alone at all costs :)

She hugged Nova so violently when congratulating her, that she left a bruise in her shoulder :)

Basically she was there just because she loves Adrian even though she doesn’t approve his decision to marry Nova

Nova and Maggie maintain a close relationship even after Nova marries Adrian. Maggie and Max are included in every family vacation after the honeymoon ofc.

Nova and Maggie get matching tattoos uwu

Nova has the Big Dipper and Maggie has the Little Dipper.

As for the others. The ones who...are no longer there :’)

@healing-winston-pratt and I have this headcanon that Evander’s wife (we named her Sandra) was expecting a baby at the time of the battle. They had already chosen a first name (Arthur), so she used Evander as his middle name, as the baby didn’t get to meet his dad.

Arthur Evander Wade.

Winston finally gives Evander his DS back.

The Council, thanks to Nova’s suggestion once again, limited a specific area around Georgia’s spot and called it The Aisle of The Fallen.

Genissa, Honey and the victims of the attack to the Arena, the lift of the city and the battle of the Cathedral are there.

Evander, however, is resting in Georgia’s mausoleum, next to her, because we think that mausoleum was constructed in the first place so all the members of the Council could rest together once they left, meaning that they’ll all be there at some point in time. Unfortunately, Evander was the first one to join Georgia despite being the youngest.

Ace is not in the cemetery.

Nova left his helmet in the cathedral, but asked for his body to be cremated.

When she was a child, David used to tell her stories about how Ace seemed to be really happy back in Italy; how he had revolutionary ideas and wanted prodigies to be free; how he used to be a good brother that helped him survive.

So, a few months after Leroy was released from prison, she, Leroy, Winston, Hugh, Simon, Max and Adrian went to Italy with her, to spread Ace’s ashes so he could find peace in the only place he was ever sane and happy.

Ace Anarchy rests in his cathedral.

But what was left of Alec James Artino rests in Italy. (I have a fic about this too)

Yes we’re crying as we write this

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fwoopersongs · 3 years

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何必诗债换酒钱 - Notes

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Clean version here and thoughts under the cut.

I saw the song translation notes made by @shelterfromrain a while back and thought, wow! what a fantastic idea it is to share the results of the rabbit holing (that you inevitably end up engaging in when doing this) and leave a record for your future self while at it too! Currently some of the song and poetry translations on fwoopersongs do have little notes, but those were casually written on the fly and after so long, the thought process behind certain choices often get forgotten, which is such a waste... Long story short - I’m doing it this way from now on!

This song was requested by @peerlesssqq on twitter - which may or may not have bumped it up by like a year on my list (yes, I’ve been sitting on it since 2018 and you’ll see why) - and I had WAY more fun than expected, so 谢啦 ~ It was a delight to receive your DM request. I was happy for days!

Some background: 《何必诗债换酒钱》 is the theme song of 【文定乾坤】- a collection of musical works that feature notable contributors to Chinese literature in ancient times, poets and the like. Oh, and I did notice that the MV on bilibili looks like it could be a promo for a webtoon or game. Who knows? I’ll be checking out the rest of the songs, that’s for sure!

The following part of this post will be my thoughts for first the title, then each section - the intro, verse 1 & 2 and the chorus, ending off with some final comments.

Disclaimer first though (otherwise later you read already then feel like beating me up): Everything in this post is only my interpretation of the song. I have quite limited familiarity with mainland literature and culture, so of course don’t expect much xD Here you’ll only find a story-loving banana who jiak-ed kantang too much in her youth and now regrets it a whole lot. 说好了哈 I’m pants at analysis, worse at Chinese, and am not at all good with words ok?

Title

So《何必诗债换酒钱》, let’s start off with the word here that’s unfamiliar to most of us:

诗债 | shī zhài or a debt of poems/poetry debt is a legit thing! - All you authors and artists out there might be familiar with it - It’s what you call the resulting debt when a poet promises to write something for another person but hasn’t done it yet. Procrastination has apparently always been the curse of content creators.

In fact, in the Bai Juyi’s poem that came up on the 诗债 baidu page《晚春欲携酒寻沉四著作先以六韵寄之》- possibly addressed to a friend he owes - he was complaining of illness, old age and writer’s block. But then oh, he goes on and then I passed by a party where they had drinks, and was quite up to my gills & totally out of it for some time, and THAT’S why I’ve done you dirty and owe you ever so many poems. I don’t really understand the last two lines but apparently he then offers to bring a drink for this person he’s talking to, mentions a wish to meet a winter goddess (????? pretty girl? or the snow? idk which), and starts reminiscing the times that were like a precious string of pearls they had singing at Yang Pass. Most likely farewells, but without context I just don’t get it. Anyway bribery and misdirection huh? I see what you did there bro, and I’m sure the person you attempted to distract saw it coming too...

何必 | hé bì, is a rhetorical question of Must you really? In the case of this word, 何 functions as roughly ‘is it that’ and 必 as ‘it must be so’.

换酒钱 | huàn jiǔ qián is of course, exchange for money to purchase wine.

‘Must you really promise poems in exchange for money to buy wine?’ then is the literal translation of 何必诗债换酒钱.

So here is the question: Is alcohol worth a poetry debt? Onwards to the answer!

Intro

生就诗骨算来三百篇 Born and already a poet to the bones, (with) three hundred works counting up to now.

浪掷秦淮长安风流李杜王白 Spending lavishly in Qinhuai and Chang’an, free/unrestrained as Li and Du, Wang and Bai;

余下��分便随意肩上担 whatever left is divided in ten parts, casually thrown over a shoulder

权作金玉铜板相谢好人间 and taken for jade, gold and coin, a big thank you to this good world!

I interpreted the 生 in the first line as 天生 i.e. innate, natural born talent, so this first line describes someone born with a gift for poetry with ‘three hundred’ works to their name. Although... that three hundred should not be taken too literally, it’s more likely to be an allusion to collected works like the 16th century anthology of poems, Three Hundred Tang Poems. After all, Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei and Bai Juyi are the most famous Tang Dynasty poets… and they were all name-dropped in the next line!

浪掷 | làng zhì was a new phrase for me, and means something like spending freely and lavishly or willfully wasted. Of course Chang’an was the capital during the Tang Dynasty and it was the world's most populous city at the time. One can only imagine how prosperous it must have been… and what fun things were there to spend your money on! The banks of Qinhuai river and that general area was once a gathering place for noble/wealthy families, scholars looking for a good time (and some say, the red light district xD). Though by Sui/Tang, that area was no longer doing as well due to political shifts. So the mental image I got from 浪掷秦淮长安 is of someone gallivanting through places of interest, from the bustling and prosperous to the dilapidated.

风流 | fēng liú is as always, hard to translate with no full equivalent in english. The feel it gives me ranges from, ‘cool, dashing bloke on a galloping horse with their cloak/robes/hair flowing elegantly in the wind’ to ‘pleasure seeking dandy who totally knows how to enjoy life, all the courtesans know him by courtesy name!’.

The third line started with 余下十分, which will not make any sense - why leftover? Divide what by ten? - until its put in context with the following:

Three hundred poems 算来三百篇 + 权作金玉铜板 pretend they are gold/jade/money (权作 | quán zuò just means to take one thing for another temporarily.)

The load thrown over the shoulder 肩上担

Spendthrift behaviour on tour 浪掷秦淮长安

The TITLE: bro so u wanna promise poetry in exchange for money to drink? why.

Let’s take those precious poems that can be exchanged for gold - a whole bagful of scrolls, and now I’m so rich I can scatter my money down the streets of entertainment districts and the capital! The very image of a 风流 poet, reckless and free spirited.

// Folks, please learn from this silly girl and do not read songs (or poems) line by line. They need to be appreciated at a distance, not one inch from your eyeballs.

Verse 1

两分与月劳烦身前打点 Two parts to the moon, (may I) trouble you to take care of me while I’m alive.

哪处巍峨峰峦当借我悬来观 Wherever there are majestic peaks and ranges, do lend me (your light) to hang and see by.

三分典高楼好与长风赴宴 Three parts pawned for the tall building, good for attending the banquet alongside the wind,

遍寻可爱星子唾手一把玩 searching for charming little stars, easily caught to play with.

Now we get to see how the poet is spending his ‘wealth’. This verse is a lot more literal as compared to the introduction, so there’s not much to say.

打点 used here is so interesting! Because it’s what you call bribing someone in a superior position to smoothen your path ahead (so to speak). Thanks to a childhood of tvb drama, I vaguely associate the type of people who would 打点 with rich merchant or minor noble fathers who want to give their sons an easier time at court. Either that or lower ranked officials with less moral scruples. Anyway, what’s being said in the song is something like: here is 20% dear moon, I’ll have to trouble you to bless me for the rest of this lifetime, and also please lend me your light to see by when I have need of it at scenic spots *for art*. The moon is a muse for many poets in all its forms after all… 明月, 圆月, 孤月, 残月, 冷月, 江月, 秋月 and so on.

Actually that whole sentence 劳烦身前打点 is so playful and fun that I put it in quotation marks to emphasize it. We’ve only just begun. Is the speaker already drunk?

And with the third line, 30% has been spent. Just noting here that 典 | diǎn can be read as pawn or mortgage. Another interesting thing to note would be that this imagery of ascending a tall building 高楼 and reaching out for stars 星子 in the last two lines of Verse 1 brings to mind one particular poem, famously attributed to Li Bai. Following translation by yours truly.

《夜宿山寺》- Overnight at the Mountain Temple 危楼高百尺 | dangerously towering a hundred feet high 手可摘星辰 | the stars are within reach 不敢高声语 | one dares not raise their voice 恐惊天上人 | for fear of disturbing the deities

Though the two probably have nothing to do with each other, doesn’t the reverence in the tone of this one bring out the playful irreverence of the other? So. Much. Fun. I adore the whole feel of 遍寻可爱星子唾手一把玩 SO MUCH.

Verse 2

两分与桥歇脚南北行船 Two parts to the bridge where travellers on foot and by boat from the north and south can rest,

欣然八方风物闲话半日茶碗 delighted by the scenery all around, idly chatting half the day away over bowls of tea.

三分典流水润色枯瘦石山 Three parts for the running water, moistening the gaunt stone mountains

又将天地一展伸手试浓淡 and again spreading heaven and earth wide, reaching out to test the viscosity (of the water).

It took a few listens, but in the end I really enjoyed the aesthetics here. And again, this verse is quite straight to the point albeit with two things I cannot understand.

The first point of confusion for me is why the lyricist chose to use 桥 | qiáo, a bridge as the place for people to rest on their journeys. I assumed here that this in reference to a pier or dock, assumed also that he is donating funds for this structure to be built or repaired. However, if that were the case 坞 | wù would have been enough - 船坞 was supposedly invented only in the Song Dynasty though, so maybe that’s why another word was chosen. But it’s not like there is any incidence of 桥 being used to mean ‘dock’ either!

The second thing that confuses me is the use of 典 for 流水. In verse one, that 典 was referring to the poetry works sold to reserve the venue for a banquet. That usage was apt. Here I suspect it might be for parallel structure, because there is no alternative reading for 典 that might allow one to use their 30% 三分 to do anything to flowing water 流水. That’s the literal reading, of course.

If we’re taking this a little less literally, it can be interpreted as borrowing the scenery (figuratively, since the place would not belong to anyone in the way you might own a property) to admire. It also expands on the second line’s mention of the surrounding view 欣然八方风物; there is running water which completes 润色 and brings the appearance of the gaunt and rocky mountains 枯瘦石山 closer to perfection.

润色 | rùn sè means to polish, to bring to greater heights. When you say something has been 润色 it is made more brilliant and closer to perfection by that addition. It can also mean moisten.

We always hear ‘rivers and mountains like a painting’ 江山如画 - originating from Su Dongpo’s《念奴娇·赤壁怀古》- used when the scenery is wonderful, because how often is real life as ideal as what we can imagine and depict? And that is exactly what is described here. The feeling out if the ‘water’ is concentrated or diluted 试浓淡 is used in answer to 一展 unfurling. 浓淡 of ink to 一展 of painting scroll. The land and sky seem like an ink wash painting, so beautiful that the viewer cannot help but reach out to run their hand through the water.

Chorus

Chorus Part 1

若趁游兴直到酣 If we take advantage of our wanderlust and go roaming till it is sated,

千字文章不值钱 classics and essays shan’t be worth a coin.

诗换花词换雪 A poem for a flower! A song for snow!

再作檄文斗天官 Another denunciation for those heavenly officials!

Starting off with three new terms for me: 游兴 | yóu xìng means enthusiasm for travel. 酣 | hān can mean having a great time drinking, or being very satisfied and satiated. 檄文 | xí wén is a type of official document written for important announcements, declaration of war, or denunciation and condemnation of certain people or actions.

While I still feel this need to go out to see the world, I shall keep on the road until I am satisfied. Who cares about writing, who cares for study, it’s all worthless to me. I do what I want. And what I want is to write a little poem in exchange for a flower, some lyrics for a flake of snow. I’ll even write a denunciation against those officials in heaven (immortals). Fight me!!!!

I point again at Verse 1 with climbing the tower to play with stars. It’s no longer just playing nearby, now he wants a go at the gods.

Among the four parts of the chorus, this one is the simplest for sure. The lines mean exactly what is said. It also feels the most chaotic and mischievous. Is the speaker drunk? Is he high on something? One thing’s for sure. He’s out of money.

Chorus Part 2

何愁不得一样我 Why feel troubled that (I) cannot have another just like me?

知交尽向话中添 for one who understands you and is understood, look entirely towards stories to fill that place

唐解元嵇中散 people like Tang Bohu (first in provincial examinations) and proud, upright and stubborn Ji Kang

且驰大梦任疯癫 Just chase that great dream, allow yourself to go mad.

I feel like the first two lines are quite straightforward, though they might not appear so on first reading: How could there be a need to feel sad or troubled that I have no like-minded equal. To find a true friend who understands you without need for words, and whom you understand in return, all you need to do is turn to those tales and stories 话中 for people to fill 添 that place.

唐解元 - People like Tang Yin, courtesy name: Bohu 唐寅, 字伯虎 (1470–1524 AD), noted painter, calligrapher and poet of the Ming Dynasty. Tang Yin led a life full of ups and downs that really cannot be covered in a paragraph’s worth of song translation notes. You can check out his wiki page if you’re curious though! There’s a little more on him where I cover the last line of this section. He is addressed as 解元 | jiè yuán here which is the term for the top scorer of the provincial examinations (second stage in the Imperial examination ladder). It is also an honorific for scholars. Tang Bohu is both.

嵇中散 - People like Ji Kang, courtesy name: Shuye 嵇康, 字叔夜, (223–262 AD), one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove - a group of friends who wisely kept themselves aloof from the dangerous politics of the Court, and devoted themselves to art, refinement and debate, of the Three Kingdoms period. He was a Daoist philosopher, musician, writer and poet.

An accomplished musician, the qin composition 廣凌散 | guǎnglíng sàn is attributed to Ji Kang, though some versions of the story claim he learned it from a ghost while stopping at a pavillion on his way home. 嵇中散 was one of the names he was known by because of his appointment to the position of Attendant Counsellor, 中散大夫 | zhōng sàn dàfū, a civil official unspecified duties in the court of Cao Wei.

When Ji Kang was sentenced to death for his attempt to testify for a wrongly accused friend, three thousand scholars petitioned for his pardon to no avail. It’s said that at the execution ground, while they waited for the appointed hour, he had his favourite qin brought out and played a brilliant interpretation of Guanglin San that is now forever lost.

Do go read about them both if you have the time!

I would like to point out for the last line that 任 is to allow, to indulge, and it’s just such a heady sensation to say 任疯癫 - indulge in the madness! throw yourself in and don’t look back!

There is an easter egg here too. A nod to a poem by Tang Yin which can be read as his stance on his lifestyle choice after the alleged accusations of bribery in the final step of the Imperial examinations left him disgraced, and unable to pursue a civil career. Thematically the line does not call back to the poem at all, similarities end with the choice of words: chasing the dream 驰大梦 and indulging madness 任疯癫. I leave an excerpt below. Translation again by me.

《桃花庵歌》- Song of a Plum Blossom Cottage // 若将花酒比车马 | if tawdriness and wine were compared against fine carriage and steed 他得驱驰我得闲 | he would have to drive and work hard for speed whilst I have my idle rest 别人笑我太疯癫 | others mock me for my madness 我笑他人看不穿 | i am amused for they do not perceive 不见五陵豪杰墓 | can’t you see that at the Emperors’ mausoleums and heroes’ graves 无花无酒锄做田 | there are no flowers, no wine, only land ploughed for farming

The second part of the chorus isn’t related to the first, but it has the same theme of showcasing the untamable (unhinged xD) spirit of the speaker. This time, the people he admires ‘intellectual equals’ and kindred spirits are featured, the 任性 feeling here has been pushed to greater heights.

Chorus Part 3

敢夸洒落何须酒 If one dares to boast of carefreeness, why, they hardly need wine.

不煮黄粱也称仙 Even without brewing millet they would still be called Immortal.

镜湖桌白梅盏 The tables in the mirror-like lake, white plum blossoms in the cups,

等来春风恰开宴 await the spring breeze which arrives just in time for the feast to start!

Li Bai is regarded as both the god of poetry 诗仙 and god of drunkards wine 酒仙 because he wrote some of his greatest poems while drinking. The first two lines seem to be gently poking fun at that. Like hey, if you dare to claim to be all groovy, surely you have no need for alcohol? Just like how an immortal would still be an immortal without wine, your writing talent should not need any stimulants. This would be the time to mention that 黄粱 | huáng liáng is also known as millet, a type of grain that can be used to brew wine.

洒落 | sǎ luò has a few meanings, like shower down or blame, but the relevant one here would be 洒脱 generous, uninhibited and open. For me it feels similar to 风流 in that there is that ‘free, and exhilaratingly unrestrained’ element. 洒落 is in the most positive sense, being always open to having a good time, but without that dissolute or vaguely whirlwind-romance like connotation of 风流.

It feels like the intensity is letting up a little here - this is a light-hearted and frivolous song all the way through, but the words 洒落, 称仙 and imagery of a clear lake, white plum blossoms and the crisp spring breeze are grounding and sweet. Spirited in a different way from before.

Chorus Part 4

四角天地也醺然 The four corners and heaven and earth are also tipsy,

醉极自有桃李搀 when I’ve overindulged, my students will be there to help.

快意只笔下讨 Gratification can only be claimed from beneath the brush;

何必诗债换酒钱 is falling into poetry debt worth that money for drink?

New words: 醺然 | xūn rán just means drunk. A new word for me though! 桃李 | táo lǐ is literally peach 桃 and plum 李 (李花, also known as 玉梅) flowers, and is a metaphor for students. The term originates from a story in 《韩诗外传》which was set in the Wei Kingdom of the Spring and Autumn period (771 to 476 BCE). There was once a highly ranked official who was sacked from his post and left for the north. He met another gentleman and remarked that the people he helped before did not lift a finger when he was in need. This person replied that, if someone were to plant peach and plum trees in spring, he could relax under their shade in the Summer and taste their fruit in the Autumn. But if that person were to plant weeds, nothing can be done with their leaves in Spring and there would only be burrs to hurt himself on in Autumn. Clearly the people the unfortunate gentlemen had helped before were not worth his effort. Students ought to be carefully selected and carefully cultivated as one would a tree.

Reading the four corners and heaven and earth 四角天地 are also tipsy 也醺然, I imagine the world sort of spinning around the speaker because he is drunk. But that’s okay, because his students (or the trees xD) will be there to support him.

快意 | kuài yì is the feeling of sudden relaxation, and then lightheartedness and joy. In this line, I felt like the intention would be closer to 畅快，爽快 and so chose gratification, because really writing is like scratching an itch isn’t it? Pleasure from satisfaction of a desire. Phrasing it as 笔下讨 is so very fitting though, because 讨 can be interpreted - somewhat contradicting - as either to demand or to beg. What could be more gratifying than having squeezed out the perfect sentence or word under your figurative pen?

So so so after all that, 何必诗债换酒钱? What do you think, is alcohol worth the poetry debt? Is Mr. Poet actually drunk and about to dig himself a deeper hole of owed poems to get even MORE drunk, or has he just been thinking about it all along? :)

Thoughts

This has been such a fun adventure following our madcap big spender from the shining Chang’an to the inviting Qinhuai, shadow of great poets in tow and all. We’ve done everything from talking to the moon and seeing the sights by her light, to boating down a river, dragging fingers through the water. It was sort of like being on a backpacking tour, except with with someone contemplating opening (or perhaps regretting opening this can of worms?) poetry commissions instead of singing in the streets?

Dear reader, if you’ve reached this point of my post, thank you. I hope you enjoy the song as much as I do now!

#何必诗债换酒钱 #translation notes #i made a new years resolution and this is step one #i had so many more things to say lol but it's like 1 am and i need to go to bed #this took way longer than i thought it might

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chikkou · 3 years

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I'd ask this on your Lisa sideblog but you don't have anon on and I'm shy lol, but do you have any headcanons relating to Lisa the First? Like Lisa's views on religion, her relationship with her mother, if any of the various worlds we see mean anything?

hoh man i didnt even know anon wasnt on LMAO... ill turn it on after i post this!

also fuck YEAH i do holy shit i fucking LOVE lisa the first!! i know its sort of the black sheep of the lisa series, since it is a completely different type of game and was clearly austins first game, but i fucking ADORE it dude. the music - which he made ENTIRELY IN THE FREE TRIAL OF FL STUDIO BY THE WAY - is FANTASTIC, the art direction is actually pretty fucking incredible for an rpgmaker game that uses a good deal of basic assets, and the gameplay.... ok yeah that part is a bit lacking but its a yume nikki-style game be nice it was his first time LMAO

ANYWAY back to ur question. first and foremost, i think this is not even a headcanon so much as straight up canon, but lisa DESPISES christianity. marty is christian, probably catholic given the golden crosses everywhere, and he is a fucking scumbag hypocrite. lisa likely associates all of christianity with this line of thinking, as there is one room in the bile area where the melted martys (although i suppose we can just call them joy mutants now LMAO) simply stand in a circle surrounding one big cross. the role of the melted martys is up for interpretation of course, as is everything, but after playing the painful and seeing them described as “mindless sheep,” i think this is how lisa viewed them. so they likely represent other people that, to lisa, are probably just as sick and disgusting as marty

lisas relationship with her mother... i go back and forth on this one a lot. i can never decide if i prefer the headcanon that lisas mom died in childbirth, and so lisa never met her, or if i prefer that lisas mom was around for a very short time and then either left or died. the fact that she says “i didnt want to leave” at the end of the first leads me to believe that she most likely died. in either case, the memory of her mother was clearly important to lisa, as she wears her pendant through the entire game and its explicitly noted as being a gift from her. in either case, i think that the death/absence of the mother is heavily implied to be the primary cause behind martys descent into alcoholism and lisas abuse, since the white room strongly implies that marty did at one time sincerely love and care for her as a father properly should

as for the meaning of each of the rooms, i think most of them are fairly self explanatory, but some of them are a bit more vague, so ill break it down in terms of how i see it (and ill put them under the cut because its long as hell):

martys house - this is the most literal one. pretty self-explanatory. the dark, yet vibrant colors and the ear-bleedingly loud tv are pure sensory overload, something lisa probably deals with on a regular basis. when lisa goes outside and it turns into a sky of marty faces, i think this is the transition into the psychological part of the game

the lobby - this is honestly just pure yume nikki ripoff LMAO... but if i had to ascribe a symbolic meaning to it, i think its probably a quiet and safe area for lisa to retreat to in her mind when she needs it, but even that eventually gets sullied as tricky rick makes his way there, too (and tells her hes “just waiting” when she talks to him). the majority of gameplay is lisa searching for items with which to kill tricky rick, who always abuses and disparages her whenever she talks to him, telling her she’ll never forget. as for the reason why... well, take one look at him and its pretty clear whats going on there. (the name is also a reference to richard nixon, whose nickname was... well, you can figure it out!)

the town - the bar area is 100% my favorite from this world; lisa clearly hates alcohol and anyone who drinks it, associating them all with marty, and that music... all i can say is YUCK. the entire section also consists of lisa having to give up something in exchange for what she needs to move on, and usually getting the raw end of the deal out of it (she gives one marty a banana, he gives her a banana peel in return). she does all that while avoiding a marty following her outside who repeatedly tells her “you cant escape,” and upon reaching tricky rick (who is atop a narrow, columnar, PINK mountain), it becomes pretty clear whats happening to her.

the sea room - fucking marty spiders man. im assuming they represent the sickly feeling of crawling skin she gets when she looks at him or is anywhere near him, but holy GOD they are annoying to deal with. she kills tricky rick with pills here - we dont know what kind of pills these are, but i interpret them as sleeping pills, and given the rumbling music and the rapid cycling marty background, i wonder if he forced her to take these. marty is everywhere here, but the only one she can speak to is seen chilling on a raft of some kind. marty likely spent much of his time recreationally, i.e. drinking, so it makes sense why this would be here

the rope room - theres no symbolism here this is just pure comedy (LMAO). if i HAD to assign some meaning to this area, it would be that lisa likely is so despondent at this point that putting in effort to do anything feels utterly pointless, much like climbing this long-ass rope was

the white room - as i mentioned earlier, i personally believe that this area depicts the previous relationship between marty and lisa (and also has one of my favorite songs in the game). he is shown doing traditional fatherly things - he is no longer wearing sunglasses and is wearing a suit, meaning he was likely employed, and is actually smiling. he also spends time with her in a completely platonic, familial way. when she interacts with him, there is a little heart over his head. after lisa walks through the golden statues (which will reappear later), the entire world becomes filled with bile, and martys appearance returns to that of the other martys, but with an extremely warped, grotesque face. the item she needs in this area to kill tricky rick is found between two golden crosses.

notice that all of the items she kills tricky rick with - a razor, pills, and now a plastic bag - are things that a child could plausibly get their hands on; none of them are explicitly weapons. i think this shows both her age and how often she must have considered using those things against him.

the bile room - probably my favorite area in the game, and also features what i consider the quintessential lisa song. this area really drives home lisas disgust with marty and with christianity as a whole - it almost certainly has the highest concentration of crosses, and it is also quite literally covered in wall-to-wall bile, dirty water, and disgusting houses. a lot of the most graphic sights, like the melting martys and the pond martys (no idea what to call them LMAO) are here, so i think this is pretty much the lowest circle of hell for lisa. marty gives lisa a freshly cut finger in exchange for a napkin here; im not necessarily sure what that represents, but i think the napkin was used by marty to masturbate (as he says “i needed that” after he takes it), so perhaps the finger is martys?

lisa kills tricky rick here in a cave that is not-so-subtly shaped like a penis, and gets a vhs tape in which he pretty explicitly states what is going on in the game; he even pretends like he doesnt know who lisa is at first, which somehow makes it even more disgusting. the fact that vhs tapes play a role here sort of makes me wonder if marty really WAS filming some of what he was doing, and given that lisa the joyful confirms that brad was forced to somehow participate in lisas abuse, that is.... horrific to think about, honestly

the marty tape - this tape just has the player (as marty) walk up to lisa and suited marty, who are having a tea party with a plastic tea set. they both get hearts over their heads if you talk to them. i think this drives home that he and lisa did once have a normal relationship, and perhaps theres some part of marty who misses that? theres a LOT of ways you can interpret this; having the player become marty really calls a lot into question.

the mansion - the room leading here has a marty staring directly at the player who informs lisa that she needs a sword to progress. unsubtly, the sword must be placed into the crotch of a womans statue. the mansion inside is beautiful and ornate, and easily the most gorgeous area in the game - and it all leads to what appears to be a proto-joy mutant marty, sort of looking like jabba the hutt. i dont doubt that this is intentional, given that jabba the hutt is associated with slave leia, and its not at all a far leap to call lisa martys slave. the golden statues of women, as well as many golden crosses, are everywhere in this area. its actually quite a large space with a lot of thought put into it, so im really upset that i cant figure out more of what it represents LMAO

the final area - lisa seems to go back to her actual house, but upon leaving her room and entering whether the living room would be, the whole area changes. she encounters herself in a blood red room, but when she talks to the other lisa, she turns into marty. i think this represents a clear question - who is lisa without him? IS she anyone? or is she just a vessel for him to do with what he pleases? she encounters a naked marty telling her to give up shortly after, and flees from him, but is followed by voices repeatedly telling her that she must accept her fate. i think this clearly show the mental state of lisas last days. she was tormented, eternally. she truly felt there was no escape from marty. even the background becomes nothing but martys face, over and over again, as the end screen flashes.

at the end text, she finds a video tape, and in the tape sees someone who is ostensibly her mother from behind. she apologizes for not being there for her, but when that figure turns out, its martys face that she sees. the sky turns into marty. the music becomes corrupted and overrun with pretty fucked up laughter. she tries to run, but marty is already everywhere. theres nowhere for her to run. and then the game is over.

note that the video tape comes AFTER the games end screen, which stops not long after the appearance of the naked marty. so i personally believe that the “game over” represents her deciding to take her own life, rather than just give up and accept her fate. by running from him into the blackness, she got away from marty the only way she could have. it is sad and horrible, but that is honestly the best ending that she could have gotten in this game.

the first is definitely not as good as the painful in terms of gameplay, that much i can agree on, but i really think people miss out on a lot by not playing it. i think its really crucial to see lisas life from her own perspective before you can see it from brads - after all, brad may have known more than anyone else about what was going on, but he did not experience it like lisa did. for brad, lisa is a symbol of his own regrets and failures, but lisa was a PERSON (well, in-universe anyway LMAO). she suffered on her own, with pretty much no one to help her, and then she suffered so much that she couldnt take another second of it.

#anya's anons #long post #lisa the first #ok NOW im gonna open my anons on my sideblog LMAO #i got wayyyy too into this #and i had to put it under the cut bc its really hard to not be graphic about the first given the subject matter #rape mention #abuse mention #lisa

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livingintheworldofstories · 4 years

Text

Humany-Wumany (part 2 / 2)

Pairing: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor x Rose Tyler Genre: angst with a happy ending Summary: The Doctor is determined he will be excellent at humaning, but then, he's known for succumbing to hubris every now and then. And he'll try to win Rose Tyler's heart when she's still longing for the Time Lord version of him - though even he knows that might be a hopeless endeavour, doomed to fail from the start. ao3: Humany-Wumany Part 1: Humany-Wumany (part 1 / 2) *** One of the things the Doctor has always loved about humans is their unwavering optimism. And it really is hard to keep at bay. Suddenly, he can see the future again. Rose Tyler will be there. The rest is just specifics.

It’s scary how much he wants it. And has wanted it, for such a long time. His favorite scents: morning breath, her strawberry shampoo, slow-dripping coffee. When laughter over the breakfast table blends into a hand held under the dinner table blends into a life lived happily. Each glittering moment of human ordinariness has become unbearably precious. The universe is his to lose.

“What’s put you in such a good mood?” Rose asks him on his third day nearly human after he’s come into the dining room humming under his breath. She looks beautiful in her tiredness, her unkempt hair falling into her eyes.

Sleep would come more easily if she was right next to him.

“Egg warmers,” he declares confidently, even though it’s just the first thing that pops in his head. “Fascinating human invention. Small egg with a hat, imagine that! Do you have egg warmers somewhere?” He looks into the direction of the kitchen counters, but Rose shakes her head.

“Mum’s not really much for knitting.”

The Doctor pulls a disappointed face. He assesses the tragic situation on the breakfast table: two poor eggs in egg cups, both hatless.

“What’s the point of eggs if not to put little hats on them?”

He grabs a banana from the basket of non-fake fruits. He perches himself up on the table, right next to Rose’s egg.

“So I’ve been thinking,” he starts. Rose watches him over the rim of her coffee mug. “I should practice being human, now that I’m, y’know, human…”

Rose is sending him a slow look, probably wondering where he is going with this. Which he is, of course! He’s always going somewhere.

“Now, tables, if you think about it, are really terribly boring.” “Maybe that’s because you’ve been using it as a chair this whole time,” she counters and kicks at his foot.

“You’re right, chairs are even more boring. Terrible concept, really. Luckily, humans have this great other invention – where they eat food on the ground, no tables or chairs anywhere involved. How brilliant is that?”

“You mean… a picnic?” “Exactly! A picnic! What a great name, rolls off the tongue. Let’s have a big picnic in a tic!” “That’ll do the trick,” Rose says. She seems amused.

“So you’re on board? Later today, picnic?” “What, are you telling me you are preparing food?” She doesn’t sound overly excited at the prospect, maybe even a little horrified.

“Oh yes. Great food-preparer, me. Or, well…” He hesitates, remembering the kitchen incident. “If it doesn’t involve any heating processes. Or knives. Or a complicated assortment of spices. Or an uncomplicated one. And come to think of it, do you think Jackie could be persuaded to let me into the kitchen again?”

“Lucky for you, you have the right connections,” she smirks at him. For a moment, he blinks, uncomprehending.

“Oh! Right.” It’s a good feeling that fills his chest with warmth. To think that they’re in this together. “So we got a deal, then, associate?”

“You bet we do,” Rose grins, “I can’t wait to see your second attempt at permanently destroying the kitchen.” The Doctor, of course, takes great offense. “Hey! Have you got no faith in me?” “When it comes to cooking?” Rose leans back in her chair. “None at all.”

“That barely counts as cooking,” the Doctor says, because he is an amazing hair-splitter when he wants to be. “Which I could be great at, by the way, if I had a little bit of practice.”

“No doubt about it,” Rose says and gets up from her chair to walk away into the kitchen.

“You don’t sound like you believe that,” the Doctor calls after her indignantly. He can hear her snicker. “Rose?” She’s laughing at him again. “Rose!”

But it’s fine. She’s warming up to him. He knows so far all his attempts at being normal have failed miserably, but at least she isn’t fed up with it yet. She’s still giving him chances. But it’s incredibly difficult to gauge how many he has left. Before it becomes clear to her that this is not working. That he may be impressive saving worlds and traveling through space and time, but that, when it comes to being human, he’s a lost cause. She might realize soon that she’ll be better off with someone who’s genuinely human. Zero percent Time Lord. One hundred percent suited for a domestic life. Not like he is. He is unused to this feeling of inferiority. Usually it’s the other way around. He’d often have to argue that his head was perfectly normal sized and not in the least too big for his body. But now… What good is being able to operate a highly complex space ship from, say, the 67th century, when you can’t even operate a laundry machine? Who, in a small corner of London, will be dazzled by his ability to speak dozens of alien languages, when none of these alien races will even make contact with earth for several centuries or longer? They were downright ludicrous, really, the accusations of his other self – born out of blood and anger and revenge. Born in fire. All he can set on fire is the kitchen. The bloody Oncoming Storm raging through a mansion on earth, oh, what a threat he makes. The universe shall shudder in fear when he takes his gruesome revenge on the dish washer for not cleaning all the dishes properly.

It’s all alright though, all okay, so long as he focuses on the task at hand. He’ll show this world that he can make a mean sandwich, if not much else. *** Rose tips back her head when she laughs, which exposes her throat, which is beautiful to look at. Her hair glows brightly in the sun. It’s so easy to forget all the things that are wrong if this one thing is right.

They are sitting on a blanket in a park close to the mansion. Rose had picked the spot. Before they’d left, she’d asked him: “Well, where do you want to go?” “I don’t know anything about this universe,” he’d said, “you lead the way.” And then she’d taken his hand, his cursed, magical hand that had once been fully Time Lord. And now they were eating his carefully prepared sandwiches, which she seemed to like – all according to a nefarious plan of his own making. (Ha, take that, other Doctor.)

“So there’s no Eiffel tower in this universe?” he asks.

“Nope,” she says.

So they couldn’t visit the most romantic spot of the so-called City of Love in this universe. Of course, in all the universe, there are far more romantic spots he could have taken her, but now that they are earth-bound, it is a bit of a bummer. But then again… She probably wouldn’t want to go with him now anyway.

“I suppose,” he begins, suddenly somber, “there are some things this universe just doesn’t have to offer.”

She holds his gaze and he is overcome by the feeling that one word from her could make his single heart stop beating.

“Do you prefer the other one?” he asks, even though he really shouldn’t. For his own sake. But anything he does these days seems to end up cutting his own flesh, so what difference does it really make? She doesn’t respond for a moment. “The other universe, I mean,” he clarifies quickly, almost tripping over the words.

She still won’t look away. Why not? Is there something on his face? Is she seeing him? (How couldn’t she?) But she shakes her head.

“I mean, when it comes down to it, they’re not all that different,” she says slowly. “For a while, I got really irritated at those pink traffic lights, but eventually I got used to it. There are some things I miss, but this universe has its perks too.”

“It does?” She leans forward conspiratorially.

“There might not be an Eiffel tower in this universe, but there are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.” “I thought Babylon didn’t exist anymore,” he tilts his head in thought. “Visited once, but that was a long time in the past.” “Not in this universe,” she says, “and those gardens are supposed to be really… romantic.”

“Yeah?” A tentative smile crosses his face. “Yeah,” she smiles back. And then she intertwines their fingers. And it’s so hard to breathe when she looks at him this way, the way she used to. Maybe they are not out of sync any longer. Maybe she can really see him. Maybe they can live in a house with a garden, even if it had a white picket fence. Maybe the key to the universe isn’t gone with the TARDIS, it just looks a little different now.

Then he remembers.

“Here,” he says and reaches into his pocket. “I saw this and thought of you.” She makes a small noise when she sees the dandelion he picked on the way, one he can’t really interpret without the TARDIS translating for him.

“I know it’s not a rose, but…” “Shut up.” But is that her typical don’t-be-an-idiot-shut-up, or is it you-shouldn’t-have-done-this-shut-up? When did she become so hard to read? He feels illiterate when it comes to Rose, like he tries so hard to understand but it just never quite adds up to a complete picture.

She takes the dandelion from him and puts it behind her ear and rolls her eyes at him, like don’t be an idiot.

“Suits you,” he says softly.

Then she frowns, touches the flower and then looks at their joined hands.

“Wait a minute,” she says, “is this a date?” He gulps when she lets go off his hand.

“Did you trick me into going on a date with you?” “Now, I wouldn’t say tricked,” he tries to reason.

“You lied! You said you wanted to practice being human.” “I would say skillfully talked around the truth.”

“I can’t believe you,” she harrumphs and lets herself fall back on the blanket.

His heart is beating irritatingly quickly. That seems to happen a lot, lately. Only got one heart and all it seems to want is to leap out of his chest and run away. Really rather rude, that.

“Are you upset with me?” he asks hesitantly.

“You’re an idiot,” she answers and shoves his shoulder lightly. But she doesn’t run off screaming. So he lays down right next to her, blinking up at the sun. Very slowly, he brushes his hand against hers. Then, because he is very brave, he slides their palms together. And then, in what might well be the however-manyeth World Wonder of this universe, she entangles their fingers and squeezes his hand.

*** Maybe being human is not so hard after all, the Doctor thinks. After spending the afternoon at the park, they’re standing in the corridor of the mansion. All day, Rose has barely let go off his hand.

“I should really go to sleep,” she says now, but doesn’t move. Perhaps she doesn’t want to leave. The Doctor knows he doesn’t. (He doesn’t want to go back to the big lonely bed where there is way too much space for dark thoughts to settle under the blanket with him.)

“Are you having nightmares?” he asks softly. He really hopes she will say no, but she gives him a small nod.

“So do I.” His voice almost cracks with the admission.

“Guess we can’t avoid that.” “No.” “But we don’t have to be alone.” It’s a fact as much as it’s a suggestion.

“No,” the Doctor whispers again.

After he has changed into the pajamas Rose had somehow procured for him, he enters her room. Even though she asked him to come, he feels a little like an intruder. He can barely see it in the dark, but it doesn’t matter, because his eyes are only on her and the way she is lying on her side under the blankets. Her bed is just as big as the guest bed. (But tonight, it won’t be lonely.)

He slips under the blanket quietly. She is watching him, too. Maybe they are both worried the other will disappear. Just like before. Immediately, she reaches out for his hand again, as if any point of contact could miraculously keep him in this universe.

“Are you dreaming…” he says, swallows, doesn’t want to ask, but somehow has to. “Are you dreaming about him?” “Would you be upset if I was?” “All I want…” Why has it suddenly become so hard for him to talk? Each word is stubborn, doesn’t want to be spoken. “All I want is for you to be happy.”

“It’s just that he’s out there somewhere.” She gets choked up. “All on his own.”

“Not forever.”

It can’t be a promise, he knows that, but he wants to reassure her in any way he can.

“How can you know?” “Well. I’m tougher than I look.”

“I know.” He runs his fingers over her arm, watching where her eyes glint in the dark. “At least he has Donna,” she whispers.

His throat gets tight.

“He doesn’t.” She props herself up on one elbow.

“She… She couldn’t have lasted long, with all that Time Lord knowledge in a human brain. It would have burned her up. The only way to save her would have been to erase any memory of me – of the Doctor from her mind. She’ll have forgotten him by now.” “Oh,” she sounds shocked. He’s mucking things up again. He’s not making her feel better, he’s making everything worse. And suddenly the thought of Donna presses down on him, so hard that he drops on his back instead of facing Rose. Donna’s voice in his head when he found out she really thought of herself as unimportant echos in his mind.

“She’s – it was all my fault,” he confesses. He wouldn’t blame her if she resented him for it, not only for ruining Donna’s life but also that of the other Doctor. His very existence brought nothing but trouble, has made everyone unhappy. Even Rose, because he knows, just knows she would be happier if she was back on the TARDIS, if there was only one of him. “If it weren’t for the metacrisis – if it weren’t for me -” “Then she would be dead,” Rose interrupts, “the Daleks would have destroyed the TARDIS with Donna in it.”

Automatically, he opens his mouth to protest, but finds that there’s nothing he can say.

“I miss her,” he says instead. “She was my best friend. And the TARDIS. She’s gone from my mind.” “The telepathic link -”

For a moment, he reaches out with his mind, but there’s no one there. No Time Lords, no TARDIS. The problem with splitting yourself in two is that you only get to live half a life. (He didn’t expect the loneliness.) “Gone.”

A tear rolls from his eye, but it’s okay. She can’t see it in the darkness.

That’s not all he dreams of, of course. There isn’t a man in the universe with more regrets. (Not in this one, anyway.) How many people have died in his arms? How many have died because of him? How many times did he hope only to have it ripped away from him again? When he closes his eyes, he sees the world burning and it’s him that set it on fire. And it always has been.

But he can’t tell her that. Not yet. Not tonight.

Instead, he pulls her into his arms in the darkness and she presses herself to his chest. The world is small enough not to get lost in. And that night, both of them sleep soundly. ***

The next morning, the Doctor wakes up alone, but he isn’t overly anxious about it. He thinks about the whole time he’s getting dressed. He will get a job. In fact, he could work with Rose at Torchwood. That does seem to be where his expertise lies. Well, one of his expertises at least, the alien one.

He wants to take Rose on another date. He wants to go to the movies or the zoo or to get ice cream or chips or wherever humans go when they can’t take their eyes off one another.

He nearly starts whistling before he enters the dining room, but he doesn’t and that’s why he hears someone say his name on the inside.

“How are you and the Doctor doing?” Innocuous question, but something still gives the Doctor pause. He waits with his hand on the door handle.

“Fine.” It’s Rose’s voice. “I mean, I don’t know. It’s really… confusing.” Confusing. That’s okay, he’ll take that. He can deal with confusing. Loads of people have been confused by him in the past.

“Do you love him?”

Ah, he should step back, he should really go before she answers, but suddenly he is rooted to the spot, for the whole long moment she hesitates to answer. “I love the Doctor,” she says then, and the breath catches in his throat, “I don’t think I could ever love anyone else.” She says it with conviction, the way people who are in love tend to do. One love is always the one and only love, the last love, at least until the next one comes around. But if anyone is going to mean it, it’s Rose Tyler about the Doctor. Her Doctor. The one who has abandoned her.

For a dreadful, lovely little while he’d really forgotten. That now he would have to make do with half a life. And Rose is making do with half a man. If she ever loves him, it must be like falling in love with a memory. She is never going to say it back. She will allow him to love her, graciously, quietly, but she will never say it back.

He takes a deep breath and steels his shoulders. He won’t run away from this. He has braced himself against worse before. How foolish it had been of him to think she just needed time. What she needs, what she truly needs, is the other Doctor.

He pastes on a smile before he opens the door. Of course, Rose can tell his fake smiles from his real ones, but she won’t comment, assume it’s his general inability to adjust to his new situation. Which isn’t so far from the truth. (She was right when she said he was a thief. If she ever feels anything toward him, they will be stolen affections, belonging to another man. Except for her resentment. That one belongs rightfully to him.)

“Morning,” he says brightly.

The room falls quiet instantly, but he ignores it and saunters into the room, like nothing is wrong. Nothing is wrong. “Banana?” Rose asks and smiles at him. She really shouldn’t do that. It only makes him feel things he shouldn’t.

“Nah, thanks,” he declines. What right does he have to like bananas? Maybe bananas don’t want to be liked by a man like him. He’ll just have a pear instead. Those deserve no sympathy.

Rose’s kind eyes follow him when he walks around the dining table and picks up a pear. She’s concerned about him. She does care. That’s what she does, now. Make the best of a bad deal. *** “Oh, don’t tell me you’re drunk already,” Jackie tells him in the evening.

“Time Lords don’t get drunk,” he insists. A couple of her friends had come over earlier and then they’d opened a bottle of wine. The Doctor had also wanted a glass. Just to blend in, of course, and definitely not to wallow in self-pity. Time Lords don’t do that.

“Shame you aren’t one then,” Jackie says, “at least not completely.” Why is he even talking to her? Where is Rose?

He swirls around, or tries to, but the speed of it topples him over.

“You’re drunk,” Jackie accuses.

“It’s just this rubbish human coordination,” the Doctor says, “is what it is.”

Something of him is missing, he’s sure of it, though he can’t quite determine what it is. Maybe it’s his foot and that’s why he fell over. He slowly rights himself, but it’s surprisingly hard. (Possibly due to lack of foot.)

“Are you sure you can do this?” Jackie asks from very far away, probably a good few meters above him. “The slow life? The nine to five?” He manages to balance himself on two feet. Jackie is right in front of his face. Huh.

“I’m the Doctor,” the Doctor says confidently, “I can do anything.”

It’s a really bad moment to trip again, but evidently, his legs don’t care about that. Jackie holds out a hand for him, but there seem to be suddenly two of her.

“Zygon!” the Doctor yells. After blinking two times, there’s only one Jackie again. Still holding out her hand. “No, no, you’re not a zygon. Probably.” He waves his hand around dismissively and instead of grabbing Jackie’s, he leans back onto the porch, until his head hits the hard stone floor. “Don’t you worry about me,” the Doctor says. “I’ve got it aaaall under control.” Only that he doesn’t. Which is why he won’t be getting up again in the near future. It’s an important skill, that. To know when you’re beaten. He closes his eyes for a long moment and tries to swallow the bile rising in his throat. It’s bitter, all so bitter…

When he opens his eyes again, Rose is standing over him.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” she says. But she’s smiling, always smiling. She’s far too nice to him. Cutting him slack.

“Well, it’s a nice floor.”

“Hope you’re not planning on sleeping here again. Believe it or not, but beds are actually more convenient for that.” “I would have to walk quite a way,” the Doctor says, feeling dizzy. “That’s not very convenient.”

“You’re right,” she answers and proceeds to lay down on the porch right next to him. They both look up at the stars. The not-quite-right stars. He would love nothing more than to get up close and personal with them to look for the differences. “Humans,” the Doctor says, like it’s something extraordinarily despicable, “they get goo in their eyes, did you know that? You wake up and there’s stuff in your eyes! How’s that practical?” “However will you cope?” She throws an arm over her forehead, like it’s a horrible tragedy. Which it is. She’s stuck her tongue between her teeth again, which he is absolutely certain she does only to torture him. Personally.

“I would watch a water tap drip for you, did you know that?” he asks quietly, looking back at the stars. They’re so untouchable, even though there’s not even a wall between them. Just space. Space upon space upon space. “I would sit here and watch a flower grow. If you asked me to.” “You’re drunk,” Rose says, which rings some sort of a bell.

“So they tell me.”

He wonders about whatever limb of his went missing. Something… Something went missing… But right now, right here, he’s not missing anything at all. “You make me feel whole,” he whispers. Even though she will forever be wishing he were someone else. “You make me feel whole…” It’s his last thought before he drifts off.

*** His head is pounding when consciousness drags him back by his lapels into miserable reality. He is in a bed, even though he distinctly remembers not falling asleep in one. It’s only when he’s half-way through brushing his teeth that he remembers what he said to Rose. That’s it. Alcohol is banned from this rubbish part human body. He never should have conducted that experiment in the first place. Now he’d gone and embarrassed himself in front of Rose. And told her things she really doesn’t want to hear.

He’ll stay here forever, he thinks while he is getting dressed, into borrowed clothes, and suddenly he is horrified. In this house, in this bathroom. This is it. There’s nothing more, there is nothing to discover, there is just day by day by miserable day.

He will drown in a sea of sameness. He will die within a small amount of years, within hours, within seconds. And Rose will miss him, only she won’t be missing him, but a man a universe away.

He stops with three buttons still undone and doesn’t bother putting on shoes. He rushes down the corridor, past Jackie, who yelps and nearly drops her hairdryer. He runs out the front door and he has nowhere to go, but it doesn’t matter because all he needs is to get away. He runs like he is chased by a Dalek or a Sontaran or a man in a uniform. Luckily, what is chasing him is very, very slow – slowness itself, in fact, but that’s only reason to go faster.

Rose will only ever love him for everything he isn’t, if at all. There is nothing else for him in this universe. He runs past houses, past people who have no problem living slowly, past trashcans and street lamps. Past cars adhering to speed limits.

He runs out of breath fast, much faster than he is used to, but that only spurs him on to run through the pain. He only slows down once he is far from the mansion. Suddenly he can see it – what he’s been looking for, for centuries, only seeing it through the eyes of his companions. The whole universe blaring at him. The crispness of fresh morning air burns through his lungs with every gasping breath he takes. A butterfly flutters by in a flash of blue. A woman walking her Golden Retriever. Dew glitters in the grass. And on the horizon shines the sunset, dunking the whole sky in orange and pink and yellow. He hasn’t watched a sunset in such a long time. After all, who needs to watch a sunset when you can visit a thousand suns? But it’s beautiful. He can see it all, how beautiful and precious this world is. This is why they are all here - to bear witness to it. This is why he is here.

It’s his world, now. All the world he gets.

Still catching his breath, he sinks against the nearest building and just watches. He must be watching for a long time, because when he takes his eyes off the sunset again, it’s to see Rose step out of a taxi.

For a moment, it looks like she’ll yell at him, which is fair enough, but when she sees him, her shoulders drop.

“Are you okay?” she asks instead of yelling. “I’m fine.” She gives him a look like she doesn’t believe a word. “Well, I wasn’t a minute ago,” the Doctor amends. “I might have… panicked again. A little bit.” “You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” She sounds a little scared.

“About you?” He looks at her fondly. “Never.”

“Yeah, but staying in one place, you know, domestic. Is that what you want?” “That’s not what I was running from.” He takes a deep, bracing breath. He should be honest with her. “Me and you, living the slow life. I think I was running from… the prospect of not getting it.”

The thought that he would never have it, not with her by his side, is torturous.

“But we’re in this together now, isn’t that what we said? Why are you scared? You can have that.”

The corners of his mouth turn down with the pain of it. “Not really. Not in the way I want.”

Rose, in front of him, is in the same universe, but worlds away.

“Why not?” she asks gently.

“Because – because I’m not him. I’ll always be… your second choice. And no matter how happy I am, I’ll always remember that.” She looks at him with immeasurable sadness in her eyes, which is not what he wanted at all. He wants her to look at him the way she used to. He wants to see that spark in her eyes again. He should have pushed her away, when she had kissed him on the beach, so she could have run after the TARDIS. He shouldn’t have been so bloody weak.

“I’m sorry -” Sometimes he can’t stand her empathy, her stubborn kindness. “It’s not your fault,” he quickly interrupts. “It’s… fine. I just need some time.”

Some time to accept he’s not who he used to be. And that he can’t ask her to treat him the same. She looks at him and sees double – and he understands. He really does.

“No,” she says firmly, “I’m sorry I ever made you think… I made you feel this way. And you’re right, I can’t forget him. He’s… well, he’s you. It would be incredibly hard to love one without loving the other.”

It’s not that he minds that. It’s that, if the other Doctor came back, she would choose him. That’s the persistent and unbearable fact in the back of his mind.

“But you can’t,” he chokes out, even though he doesn’t mean to.

She tilts her head.

“Love me,” he adds.

“Why would you say that?” She seems heartbroken over him. This might be the worst part. His whole existence is breaking her heart.

“It’s what you said, you said…” He’s becoming a little uncertain now. “I heard you.” In fact, those words won’t stop ringing in his ear. “You said you could never love anyone but the Doctor.” Rose steps toward him carefully and reaches for his hand. Stop touching me, I can’t take it, stop being so bloody kind -

“And you are the Doctor, stupid,” she says.

“Oh,” he says softly, then, “Ohhh.”

That puts a different spin on things. Not just things, everything really. And everything is spinning, a little, except for her face. He doesn’t care. He is the Doctor and she loves the Doctor. It’s mad. It’s completely non-sensical.

“Only you,” she chastises. Then her voice becomes heavy with emotion. “I couldn’t accept it at first, because I was being stupid. But… you stayed for me. Of course I love you.”

The world is spinning. He needs something to hold on to. He grabs her hand and it’s the one thing steady in this whole universe. Entirely against his will, a tear rolls down his cheek and then another one.

“What -” He stops and gathers his breath. “What’s that? Why am I crying?”

“It’s a human thing,” she whispers very close to his face, “it means that you’re happy.” She puts one hand on his cheek and one over his ear and then she presses her lips to his. She kisses him just like she did on the beach, but this time it’s not a spur of the moment decision with disastrous consequences. This time it’s full of promise. He wonders if she can taste his tears in her mouth.

It means that you’re happy.

Astonished, the Doctor looks inside himself, into a place he’d thought empty, and finds that she’s right. He really is.

#doctor who #doctor who fic #doctor who fanfiction #metacrisis doctor #tentoo x rose #doctor who fanfic #rose tyler #the tenth doctor

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sunny-day-sky · 4 years

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Tagged by @elinaline 💜 thank you for this! I like these things!

1. What is the colour of your hairbrush?

Pink

2. name of a food you never eat?

Bananas 🍌 generally, I’m not too picky, but I can’t stand banana at all!

3. are you typically too warm or too cold?

Too warm! I am a Furnace 🔥

4. what were you doing 45 minutes ago?

Looking at memes and replying to a few messages!

5. what’s your favourite candy bar?

I don’t like candy that much, so probably just a plain dark chocolate bar that isn’t too big or sweet

6. have you ever been to a professional sports event?

Like semi-professional, I guess? My mom got free tickets through work, and I hated every minute of it

7. what is the last thing you said out loud?

“Tomorrow, they will take my blood.” (I have to get a blood test done for one of my medications LOL)

8. what is your favourite ice cream?

Strawberry or coffee, but if it’s frozen yogurt, then cookies-and-cream!

9. what is the last thing you had to drink?

A Monster energy drink (the pink one). But actually, I should probably have some water. What a good reminder!

10. do you like your wallet?

Yes! It’s a little red designer wallet that one of our family friends gave me as a graduation gift after my senior recital in high school, and it makes me look like I have more money than I do unless you open it! :D

11. what was the last thing you ate?

Leftovers from dinner, but it was breakfast food, because Emily and I are ADULTS and ANARCHISTS 😤

12. did you buy any new clothes last week?

okay yes but it only cost a few pounds, and I hardly ever do, like this is the first time in a long time, so please don’t judge me :(

13. last sporting event you watched?

I actually don’t know! I don’t tend to watch sports! I think the last one I was even near was the televised horse race with robot horses, but I was cooking at the time, so I didn’t absorb much!

14. what’s your favourite flavour of popcorn?

I have to say, nothing really beats classic salt and butter, but tajin is a good addition 😋

15. who was the last person you sent a message to?

Chanel!

16. ever go camping?

Not willingly.

17. do you take vitamins?

I take vitamin D when I’m reminded to 😅

18. do you go to church every Sunday?

Not unless I’m performing or with family

19. do you have a tan?

Nope! I did once, when I did outdoor PE in summer to get it out of the way before my sophomore year of high school, but it r e a l l y didn’t suit me LOL

20. do you prefer Chinese food or pizza?

Chinese food all the way! Especially “real” Chinese food (like, the kind I would cook for my relatives, you know), but commercial food is delicious too!

21. do you drink soda with a straw?

No, I drink it with alcohol 🧐

22. what colour socks do you wear?

Black, because then I don’t have to sort them, and Emily and I can just grab! I have some cute socks from Daiso, but I left them in California by mistake

23. do you ever drive above the speed limit?

Only like 20 miles above if someone is riding with me, but when I’m by myself, all bets are off 🚗🌬

24. what terrifies you?

It’s a good question! I feel like I’m afraid of really random stuff. I also don’t want to make this post too depressing or Deep, so I’ll just name one! I’m afraid of dark windows at night, especially when I’m looking out through them.

25. look to your left what do you see?

My water bottle, neglected all day 😭

26. what chore do you hate?

Washing dishes. It’s the worst! Even cleaning the bathroom is better!

27. what do you think of when you hear an Australian accent?

To be honest, when I hear any accent that isn’t mine, I sort of linguistically analyze it and think to myself how cool and awesome it is. I like to hear linguistic variation, and it makes my ears so happy to hear other people talk!

28. what’s your favourite soda?

Probably ginger ale, but I don’t really drink soda unless it’s a mixer

29. do you go into fast food places or drive thru?

It depends on what I’m ordering, if I have a coupon, or if I’m in a hurry (or wearing an ugly outfit LOL) but I usually like to go in!

30. who was the last person you talked to?

Emily in person; Natalie over text!

31. favourite cut of beef?

It’s hard to say! I think it really depends on how I’m cooking it, and for whom. Brisket is great for slow-cooking, but if I’m making a steak, I’d rather use a more tender cut. Probably the best is strip steak, because it’s cheap 😅

32. last song you listened to?

Anywhere by Rita Ora

33. last book you read?

I’ve been doing really bad with reading lately, unfortunately, so probably Proust?

34. can you say the alphabet backwards?

If I tried, I probably could! But when you really think about it, why is the alphabet in that order? Does backwards really mean anything? 🤔

35. how do you like your coffee?

Cream, no sugar

36. favourite pair of shoes?

That’s a tough one! I love shoes! Maybe my black heels that I got just before the lockdown (they were on sale), or else my pink pumps

37. the time you normally go to bed?

When I’m on a healthy (for me) schedule, around 11 or midnight, but lately, my sleep cycle is all kinds of messed up, and it’s been closer to 4AM :/

38. the time you normally wake up?

I prefer to wake up at around 6:30 or 7, but recently, it’s been... not that.

39. what do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets?

I think it depends on my mood. I love both, but for different reasons. Sunrise feels fresh and beautiful, while sunset feels exciting and cool. But right now, I think I would like to see a sunset!

40. how many blankets are on your bed?

Just the one

41. describe your kitchen plates?

We all sort of use each whatever is to hand, so there’s no cohesive theme. I do want to buy a matching set for me and Emily when we move out, though!

42. do you have a favourite alcoholic beverage?

Whiskey all the way!

43. do you play cards?

Not well, but my siblings and I do like to play together when we hang out, especially on holidays. There are four of us, so it’s convenient for dealing!

44. what colour is your car?

Black! But I had to leave her in California-- unfortunately, it’s frowned upon to bring cars on international plane journeys :(

45. can you change a tire?

I know how to in theory, but I’ve never done it

46. your favourite province?

I’m going to interpret this as “state” because I am but a simple American :/ California is the best, of course!

47. favourite job you’ve had?

Violin teaching 🎻 unless you count working at the psycholinguistics lab in college, but I didn’t get paid for that LOL

48. how did you get your biggest scar?

Most of my scars are not fun, but I do have a cool crescent-shaped one from my one and only car crash!

49. what did you do today that made someone happy?

I told Cesar where to read the Hunter X Hunter manga, and I feel like that should count for something 😛

I’m not explicitly tagging anyone, because this is very long! But if you see it and want to do it, just go right ahead and say that I tagged you :D You can even list me as “an anonymous source who tasked you to do their bidding” if you want :D

#tag games #y #about me #food //#alcohol //#long post #thank you elina!!!#medications tw #meds tw

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moodysnowflake · 4 years

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First of all, gigantic

SPOILER ALERT

'Cause everybody shoud say it before starting.

Sure, it's not really a spoiler by definition, 'cause it's been 23 years, but still.

It's almost like with Harry Potter. Who read the books knows, and if you just started, it would be a really mean and dickish move to say anything.

Just because you've played FFVII, it doesn't give you the permission to rob the experience from new players, if they try not to get spoiled. Even if the game has been out there for two decades.

It would be like if, knowing the actual plot by Nomura-san himself, I will leak it you, old player.

You wouldn't like that very much now, would you?

Also, please let's keep it human and reasonable, this is just a stream of consciousness and my personal thoughts, I'm not going to insult anyone, nor players, nor Square Enix, so I would appreciate the same respect. Thank you.

I've already written stuff so far in order not to reveal, and if you, knew player, are insisting on continuing...well, what can I say? You've got a big storm coming; you just decided you didin't care, I'm not going to be responsible for ruining your experience. I warned you, you've spoiled yourself, and I'm sorry for that.

That being said.

This is exactly what it looks like, a huge steam blow, to get all my convoluted trains of thoughts out of my head, and see if someone else is perceiving the same things as me or, if not, is able to discuss it in a civil and constructive manner.

What I think about FFVII:R story and ending.

To start, I will be referring to the gameplay's events as timeline 2, and the original as timeline 1. You'll get why.

I think that, despite the dubious ending, we've all been already played, and what we think being the first destiny's divergence, a.k.a. Zack's survival, is actually a flashback of timeline 2. So yes, something that already happened in the actual game and influenced the story so far.

Why is that?

Let's start from the beginning. Or the end, depends on how you look at it.

Aerith.

'Not Sephiroth?' you might ask.

Nope. Not Sephiroth. Aerith indeed.

In timeline 1, she died, and become one with the Life Stream. We know it. That's okay, I'm not trying to argue with that.

I'm considering it for its very meaning. Aerith became one with the planet, so one with destiny itself.

Let's try to look at this perspective: if you were given the power to change destiny, anywhere you want, for everyone you know...Would you really not give it a try? If you were ever given the chance to save the person you love, and everybody who died because of your fuck ups, would you not even consider to change things? Not even once?

Aerith has always been energetic, sometimes naive, so full of life and hope, especially HOPE, despite everything, even being afraid of freedom and the unknown, but giving it a go anyway. So why couldn't she have tried? I can see that happening.

It wasn't Sephiroth who destroyed the Whispers of Midgar in that shiny, golden, big-ass explosiong which knowcked Zack off of his feet. It was her.

Zack was not supposed to reach Midgar, and Aerith interfered, saving him...for what time we're allowed to see until the end of the game.

Being the Whispers a sort of "defence line", I don't think that she got rid of them for good, because they're part of the very backup system of Gaia, so I'm more inclined to think that she just managed to temporarly shut them down.

Hoping to give Zack more time...but, in my opinion, not that much.

Let's be real; Zack's death has been one of the most tragic and emotional ones of the compilation, because Zack Fair is as near as you can go to the definition of Best Boy and everybody should love him. Yes, he was not immune to the SOLDIER's madness, because he was obsessed to become a hero, to be able to save someone.

But we have to thank him if Aerith decided to sell the flowers; if it wasn't for him, Aerith and Cloud would never have met (in every timeline).

He was the reason of the Seventh Heaven's name. He's the reason of that goddamned squatting minigame (yeah...you didn't think about that, did you?).

And naturally, he's the reason why our adorkable Cloud Strife not only is still alive, but also the source of his combat abilities.

Sure, Spike was trained and filled up to the brim with mako, but where do you think he was pulling all of his batshit crazy stunts from, if not Zack's memories?

e.g.: the very first landing in Crisis Core is e x a c t l y the same movement, the only difference being Zack touching the ground putting the weight on his right side while Cloud did it on his left. The only reason I can think about is because Zack wasn't holding the Buster, and that is how you would handle your balance if you were rigth-handed.

First digression done...it's gonna be painful...

Nobody is forcing you: don't like, don't read.

Feel free to stop whenever you like, I'm not gonna get offended.

So, Aerith tried, because she is the ultimate cinnamol roll and she wants to believe. She's fantastic and hopeful, and she firmly believe in trying to change destiny, saving as many people as she can. Why wouldn't she?

So she tried (why not from his mother's death? She could have tried, but Ifalna migth have said she didn't want to be saved. Who knows. I definitely don’t.), but it simply didn't work, because Zack had to die anyway, the Whispers de-bugged themselves and everything spectacularly backfired.

The question is how he's gonna die. If Crisic Core’s death was the worst, how could it go more bananas? I have some alternatives:

- Cloud (by Sephiroth intervention) killing Zack with his own hands without realizing it until the very end, Zack accepting it and trying to comfort him while drifting away [the less likely one for me];

- Zack dies again (maybe in the sewers?) because of Cloud's fault, either giving him the Buster to defend himself (remaining disarmed) or because he physically shields Cloud from a bullet shower or an explosion (something has to get rid of Shinra's troops to let Spike escape);

All of these theories imply that Zack still dies like a hero and knowing it.

- Let's go Cruelty: Full Cowling. Let's shatter even that one joy, the most important thing Zack managed to accomplish in his mad chase, reaching for his dream: die a hero. He could have managed to hide Cloud, giving him the Buster, running in the opposite direction and getting captured instead of insta-killed. Returning in Hojo's nightmare, this time dying a slow, agonizing, dark death. What if the bastard, in Zack’s very lasts moments, will deceive him, telling him they found Cloud, even if they haven't, just to mess up with him? That would be devastating: Zack would die feeling completely useless, absolutely worthless, even if he's not. He's still a hero, but he will never know.

This is where Sephiroth might come along.

Specifically, Advent Children's Sephiroth.

Who, at some point, gave/activated/infused/whateverisgonnabe timeline 1 Cloud's memories into him. Because Cloud has friggin’ Jenova's cells within him, so Sephiroth can do what the heck he wants and toy with the guy as long as he sees fit. As he has done throughout the game.

When could we see it?

- "I've killed you with my own [hands]...": Sephiroth is doing a vibe-check, to see how much Cloud remembers, and simply goes masterfully along with it, starting to fuck with him right then; he needs for Cloud to be as mentally unstable as possible, because of Black Materia reasons. He is one of the best manipulators in the game, after all. If not the best one.

- "But that is then, and this is now." Criptic af, could be interpreted as both Cloud canonically remembering in a modified timeline 1, or timeline 2 innest. Being Sephiroth, the jackass could be referring to both of them, just becasue he can.

- "Promise you'll come and save me" scene. Timeline 1 Cloud shouldn't remember it at that point in the game. Also, this wouldn't lead to the heart to hearth with Tifa right after. If it's not a modified timeline 1, to show that spiky boi is not a total socially awkward blond artichoke.

- Aerith's death and Holy's flashes. What could possibly confuse you more than that, together with a blasting migraine? I think this is Sephiroth not-verbal way to say "You're not gonna be able to save her. Ever. You didn't succeded then, you're not gonna make it now, not even if she knows it. It's gonna happend anyway."

- At the Edge of Creation, when he asks for Cloud's help, Cloud has a blink-moment in which his right hand seems to move towards him, an uncoordinated gesture, but still there (memory of timeline 1...when he sort of did it)

*What about Zack's name being said in Emerald Park and nothign really happening to Cloud? Well, if you have been innested another timeline's memories, things would be pretty screwed up in your head, wouldn't they? That could be why Cloud had just a crippling aneurisma hearing it: his brain was probably trying not to melt in a puddle. Also, Aerith could have been interfering with it (but I'm explaining that later), blocking his possible messed up recollection, because that would have been quite the situatuion both for Spike's sanity and the players'.

Advent Childrend's (AC) Sephiroth? Why not another one? Come on, we've got plenty of evidence of it during the gameplay (I'll be referring to both English and Japanese [coming from the Italian adaptation, which is the closest one {yep, I’m Italian, but I think the English adaptation is still the best in terms of localization and conversations’ management}]):

- The very first thing he says to Cloud, when he blabbers "You're not real...You're...dead.", is the trolling (and perfect) "I am?"...I mean...has he ever really been? Cloud's words implies (because this is Japanese) that you might also read it as "This is just my PTSD fucking with me, you're a memory".

- Aaaand which line hits you like a truck? "I will never be...a memory." (last line of Sephiroth in AC before smiling and disappearing)

- Last Sephiroth's line of the cutscene, which in English is a very uncospicuous (but very menacing, almost Itachi-like) "Hold on to that hatred.", in Japanese is "Never forget me." That's pretty different.

- Aaaand which line hits you like a wrecking ball again? Never forget me..."I will never be...a memory."

- While you, old player, are still wondering what the fuck just happened, 'The Promised Land' (AC soundtrack) starts playing...

If all of this wasn't enough to let your plot bunny run like it was on a carrot high, let's talk about the scene in Hojo lab's corridor, when Cloud, seeing Sephiroth materializing, yells in pain and grips fiercely at his left arm. Which happens to be the very same arm that is gonna get Geostigma (Sephiroth's lovely life-threatening plague-ish gift to humanity in AC).

And the three glowy whispers in chapter 18? Have you noticed that they move like Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo, and have the same weapons (one-handed sword, a gauntlet and two guns, respectively)? With a lot less whining, fortunately. Colors' scheme seems to make sense as well: Kadaj should be Sephiroth's hatred and rage (red), Loz his strenght and speed (yellow) and Yazoo the coldness and detachment (blue/green).

I’m leaving the last variable at the end, ‘cause this way I don’t seem a complete paranoid, even if it has been there all the way: the black feathers. The flippin’ black feathers. Which Sephiroth has ONLY at the end of FFVII: Advent Children. Then, and just then. Not everywhere else. Nowhere.

They’re there from chapter 1, joyfully swaying in the wind, Cloud sees one and it doesn’t seems to have that much of a significance, like for new players (meanwhile old players are screaming for their life, looking for cover), and they keep coming up, up, up, up, all over the place. And at the very end, the player sees that gorgeous black wing and they think “Oh! Holy crap, he has been there the whole time.”...and the old players yells “Fuck! He’s AC Sephiroth? We’re screwed. We’re done. This was his plan from the very beginning. Crap, crap, crap.”

This is the game tellying us “Shall I give you dispair?”

All the other interactions could easly come from timeline 1 events, up to the end of the game, and that's okay, because they make you realise that Sephiroth knows shit he's not supposed to have knowledge of at this point. He’s in total control, he has been through the entirety of the game, the sexy bastard.

So yeah, after making his last elegant and terrifying threat to AC's Cloud, our favourite one-winged angel decide to go back to the first checkpoint and retry in Critical Mode.

Fancy meeting timeline 1 Aerith there, in timeline 2, already fucking shit up in his stead. I can see him in my mind's eye, witnessing her intervention and thinking "This is actually really nice!". Since destiny has to be restored, he would have destiny itself playing by his side; he seriously couldn't ask for more.

Do I think part of Aerith is coming back from future too? Yes, she behaves like she knows too much stuff:

- "It's good for nothing at all" when you met her after projectile-crashing from the upper plate; if Zack dies like I hypothsized, this line would get all the more meaning, having her failed to save him;

- When Cloud is on his merry way of vivisecting Reno precisely in half, in English she yells "Stop!", but in Japanese she actually says "No, it's wrong!". How could she possibly know that Cloud shouldn't kill the Turk?;

[short digression over Cloud murderous behaviour towards people (a.k.a. Johnny and Reno) compared to the original game: why not, since he’s been bombarded by splitting headaches, seeing the man (who was his hero and destroyed his life) he killed with his hands very much real (to him but not to anybody else) and messying around, driving him cracker day by day. Anyone will lose their cookies.]

- On the highway, she and Sephiroth have an educated banter, in which she clearly knows something's up with the Sephiroth who's standing in front of them. He's the wrong one. But, at the same time, he's the true one too; He's not a projection channeled by Cloud Jenova's cells, nor using a copy to be seen by the others. So he's not using someone else from timeline 2, he's not part of timeline 2, that's why he's wrong. Not just because he wants to, you know, eradicate life from the planet. Despite him being his true self, the last one existing, he's from timeline 1, so he doesn’t really belong in timeline 2. That's the biggest hint we have about Aerith coming from whatever happens after, together with the next point;

- When asked how the heck she knows about destiny’s crossroads, she answer with a nice "I'm not really sure.". She's not really sure...anymore, due to the Whispers trying to reset her consciousness and memories back to square timeline 1. She says she loses something everytime they touch her.

I imagine the scene of Aerith feeling Zack's death, again, while she's at home, at night, among the flowers, feeling useless, realizing she couldn't do anything in the end: that is gonna be nerve-wracking.

Sephiroth would appear, maybe using Marco's body (or maybe even his own body), emerging from the darkness of the alley. They would look at each other while he slowly walks down the wood stairs and glides over the surface of the pond, speaking while never breaking eye contact, both knowing where and when they really are from. He would probably say, in his soft velvet voice, something along the line of "I told you it was not meant to work. You're playing with powers you're not able to control, and you're destined to fail. I'm going to ruin him (Cloud) and everything else you cherish. You will experience what true despair means (because why not, let's throw another AC reference, shall we?)." A very Sephiroth way to say "You did such a good job. Here, let me help you screw this up more, Aerith."

He would lift from the pond, silent and tall and silver and monstrous, smiling with his jade eyes pinning hers down, stretching his black wing out, towering over her, before folding it around himself and disappear (like in AC), leaving only Marco behind to collapse over the bed of flowers.

That would be a heck of a war declaration.

Last, and least, the final confrontation at the Edge of Creation, a.k.a. Sephiroth ultimately fucking with our sanity.

Paraphrasing his first senteces, ”I’m not gonna die and I won’t let you die as well”, should be the very final hint which shows he’s AC Sephiroth, as he used Cloud’s memories of him to create a core indipendent from the Life Stream (this is how he managed to bounce back); he needs Cloud to remain alive in order to exist himself. That’s why he feels (to the very confused new players, and the grumpy old ones who think Remake Sephiroth is not coming from the future) so obsessed with Cloud now; he wasn’t in timeline 1 until the last part. This would make sense for now to be timeline 2, because he understood how important it is to keep Spike alive and as insane as possible.

Cloud tries to open Sephiroth up like a can using Omnislash, the original killing blow, and Sephiroth parry and deflects it. Smirking, probably thinking “Nope, I’ve already seen this happening before, not gonna fool me twice.”

The bloody "7 seconds till the end. Time enough for you...perhaps. But what will you do with it? Let's see"

Which in Japanese is - 7 seconds remaining until the end. But you're still in time. The future is in your hands...Cloud -

The flippin’ end. Which one, Aerith or Meteor? I personally think it’s Meteor.

The future is in his hands because he was the one shutting down the Whispers with the final blow? Are they really gone this time? I don't think so. The future might be in Cloud's hands, but Sephiroth is gonna make sure to have his strings tightly wrapped around them.

The fact that he appears way more in the remake makes sense because of what he’s doing (at least what I and other people think he’s doing), and it doesn’t make him less dreadful. Not one bit. Cloud’s reaction seeing him for the first time should set the mood for the new players (I don’t know who this big-ass silver tree is, his voice is so soft it’s disturbing, his eyes are making me really uncomfortable and apparently he should be dead, but still scare the main badass character shitless, so I should watch out for him as well) as much as the old ones (Holy fuck, what the heck are you doing here, Seph?! How? It’s impossible [you do realize you and Cloud had the same emotional response, yes?{Chadley pun perfectly intended}]).

Anxiety is not resolving during the game; he’s still intimidating and scary as fuck whenever he comes out of fricking nowhere, creeping all over you.

I think the only one who knows what's up is him, and he's not gonna give anything away anytime soon. He's just gonna smile, drop an emotional bomb whenever he can and flutter away, leaving behind utter confusion and sheer panic.

Is Aerith gonna die? I really hope so. Don't get me wrong: I love her to the very bottom of my heart, but FFVII is not only a story about love, courage and fight against destiny, it's also about loss, suffering and death. As much as I would really like for her to survive, she shouldn't.

Like Sephiroth, she's a singuarity too, and at some point, she will have to met her fate, regardless of what’s happening.

Did they really have to show Zack? Everybody was secretly hoping to see him, nobody could make me think otherwise. And again, this is another surprise effect, recreating that same impact that old players got: “who’s this guy that looks like Cloud and has his sword (and he’s probably the guy Aerith is talking about)?”, while we are freaking out looking at him dragging spiky boi, limping towards Midgar, criminally handsome and very much alive.

New players don’t really need to know more, because that’s exactly what we knew back then.

As for Sephiroth’s presence in the game. In the original, he appears way later. Here, it’s conceptually the same; he’s there because of Cloud (mind, body/cells, memories) and the copies. He’s the real, complete one only at the very end, that’s why One Winged Angel is playing only then, and it’s just a faint presence here and there, merged in previous tracks (interestingly, it’s also the very first musical phrase we hear in the gameplay, and I think that’s because Aerith sensed him coming from somewhere. It wasn’t because of the whispers, I think it was because of him).

Same for Sephiroth’s backstory, which is none existent, for new players: that’s okay. you see him, you get that he’s unhinged and awfully strong. He’s a cold, collected bitch and he’s clearly plotting something.

That’s okay, it’s enough for now, they’re gonna get the rest in the next rounds. And boy, do I dread that day, ‘cause that’s gonna hurt.

Am I forgetting about Stamp? Of course I am. Not.

Barret stated in chapter 5 that Shinra changed the breed for the military propaganda, and that’s okay. We saw his graffiti, and he’s a beagle. In Zack’s scene, an empty chips bags flies around, clearly showcasing a different Stamp, a terrier of some sort. With a big-ass “Original“ claim in the top left corner. This might mislead you to believe that you’re looking at a different timeline.

Well...too bad the very same bag is laying on the table of Jessie’s parents...

The hint has always been there: Original. Barret said they changed the breed form the original one...so, yeah, this might prove Zack’s scene is a flashback.

Is Wedge alive? Probably yes.

Is Jessie alive? Probably yes.

Why Bigg's still alive? I don't know.

But I know that you don't build characters up that way to let them live a long life and die peacefully. Someone in this story is really good at giving hopes and then crushing them in the blink of an eye...

The Remake, as it has been said, is incorporating The Compilation, and it’s evident througout the gameplay, from Before Crisis all the way to Dirge of Cerberus and the novels (Leslie and Kyrie come from those. Still waiting on Evan).

I don’t think it has been made to rewrite nor modify FFVII, but to create a definitive end which organically weaves within it.

The story is still alive, kicking, and is the very foundation of the remake. You still have to play the compilation to have the ultimate understanding, because that is the destiny trying to be defied by Aerith and Sephiroth.

You can’t try to change fate, if you don’t have one to mess up with in the first place.

Lastly, if Zack will ever be playable at some point, I hope with all of my heart and soul to find myself beating the ever loving crap out of someone with a white and blue parasol.

*End Of Rant*

I'm forgetting something for sure, but well, this is the majority of the stuff that I needed to get out of my system.

If you managed to reach this point, thank you for dealing with me and my madness.

If you want to share your thougths you're very welcome to do so, as long as you can articulate your opinions in a civil discussion.

Have a good day/night.

Finger crossed for 2023.

#ffvii remake #ffvii #ff7 #ffvii compilation #ffvii theories #let's see #this may hurt #like really bad #ffvii spoilers #i warned yall

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jflashandclash · 4 years

Text

Tales From Mount Othrys

Ajax: Fidget Spinners XIII (FINAL FINaLLY)

“Pax Two, how am I supposed to trust you as one of my spies if this is what you do when I call in a favor?”

Pax squirmed.

He was often uncertain whether or not Mercedes was joking. Her dark eyes tended to be a mask of seriousness, leading others to believe she had no sense of humor. Pax knew better. Or he thought he had.

“What did I ask you to do?” she asked.

They were standing in the last spot he’d seen her before going to Tartarus. As much as he tried to convince her and the others that Tartarus had been a picnic and that they should seriously consider the touristism possibilities, Luke’s amnesia and everyone’s injuries said otherwise. Once Pax was okayed to walk around the ship, he was immediately called into the spy barracks.

“What did I ask you to do?” Mercedes asked. Her hair was swept back by a beige hijab today. Pax could see a pin poking out of the right side of the material and wondered if she’d put it on in a hurry. He loved teasing her when one of her pins—either the one on the upper side or the one at the base of her chin—was visible.

Today was not a good day to tease her.

“What did I ask you to do, Pax two?” she said again when he gave no response.

After a few days bed rest, this was not the reception he had been expecting. He had hoped for balloon animals that he could pop them around the unsuspecting. That’s what Matthias would have given him. As far as Pax could tell, Matthias hadn’t been allowed to see him. No one had.

Pax had been grounded. Why bother escaping your homicidal, psychopathic family if you’re just going to get grounded by a slightly less homicidal, psychopathic family? he mused.

Today was also not a day to ask that question.

“Why bother—” Pax started to say despite that conclusion. When he caught sight of Mercedes’ dark eyes, he looked down at his combat boots. “I never agreed not to go,” he said.

The last few days of bed rest, he’d been working on something for her. He had it in his jacket pocket, making the whole thing bulge like the least conspicuous puppy smuggling. Pax twisted the fabric in his hands.

“Lies are an intent to deceive, not just a statement of untruth. I will not work with someone who bases their interpretation of orders off technicalities, especially when they know those interpretations are erroneous, Ajax.”

Ajax. Not Pax Two. Not Pax. Now, Pax understood why Mercedes said to guard his name. He’d started to attach a mysticism to it and enjoyed thinking of when Alabaster would say it. Hearing her say it like that was a whip to the face.

Pax wanted to say something. He wanted Mercedes to use her typical witticisms to tease him, to make him struggle to keep up with the conversation. He didn’t like her speaking this straight forward or with such a harsh tone.

“I don’t mind your evasions and deceptions when matters are trivial, and I don’t mind when you do it to others. I, in fact, encourage you to become practiced with others. But, anytime it involves a mission or anytime it involves secret information you get from me, or anytime someone could die—”

“Banana peels are prevalent on the ship,” Pax blurted, trying to keep his tone carefree. It came out a whisper and got quieter as he mumbled, “I could slip on one and die at any moment. Does that count?”

There was silence in the spy barracks.

Pax dared to glance up. He caught sight of Mercedes’ hand. It was curled into a fist and shaking. Otherwise, she was eerily still.

Today, Pax realized, was a day to admit he had screwed up royally.

“Luke—or someone who has been feeding his memories back to him—now suspects me of leaking information about his trip to Tartarus,” Mercedes said. Her clenched fingers eased.

Pax almost choked. He looked up at her eyes. “Did he give you any?”

“No, but he thinks I’ve been snooping through his files,” she said, giving Pax a look that implied he was supposed to get what that sentence meant.

“But—but you wouldn’t use that information for evil—”

She sighed. Pax remembered her saying that she had a lot of brothers. It was a sigh Axel often did around Pax. He wondered if it was an older sibling thing. “You and I know that Pax. I’m less worried about me. I’m worried about what they’ll find if they start going through surveillance footage.”

Pax puffed up his cheeks and popped them. “My training. B-but, we did that to simulate field experience in a controlled environment.” His mind spun over the document’s he had pulled from the captain’s quarters. He was illiterate. It was guesswork. “You didn’t have me—”

“No. You were mostly gathering receipts so we could figure out which brand Luke uses to get his hair that stiff. I figured I could use it as a good bargaining tool with Matthias,” she said, “Any idiot with ears and a pension for listening to gossip could put together Luke, Jack, and Axel were going on a covert mission to Hell.”

And that same person could easily find out that Pax and Lou Ellen had gone after them. No wonder Alabaster had caught up to them so quickly. All Mercedes had to do was check up on Pax’s cabin, see his utility belt was gone, hear that Matthias and Alabaster hadn’t seen him or Lou Ellen, and she’d know where they went.

But, how could she think he wouldn’t go after his brother? She told him the when and where. That was basically like saying not to run after an ice cream truck when the ice cream was free and delivered with complimentary kittens.

Pax remembered the two favors she’d use to assure he wouldn’t go anywhere. His indignation faltered. She’d nullified one of her favors by tapping his bell and used another to keep him here. She was right. If truth could be told through implications, so could untruth. He had lied to her. Pax often enjoyed jumping around the truth. He didn’t like outright lying.

“I’ll give you double the number of favors—” he said.

“Favors mean nothing if you prove not to honor them.” She placed her hands on her hips.

That almost sent him to tears. Her hard stare might work as a Mortal Kombat finishing move. Pax swallowed, scared he might tear the hijab in his pocket if he gripped it any tighter.

“You need to earn back my trust, Ajax. That doesn’t mean doing things you want to do anyway or following orders you would follow regardless. If you’ll try to have a brain, you’ll know it means the orders you don’t like too,” she said.

There was a long silence. Between the heat in his cheeks and the wetness of his eyes, he wondered if he could mimic the climate of Belize in this room.

She didn’t move. He wondered if she’d turn her back on him in an abrupt fashion. Instead, those dark eyes bore into him.

Like she never wanted to see him again.

Pax took a step closer to her. He swallowed again, knowing that bursting into tears would make things worse. That’s how it was with his Chiich, too.

“M-Mercedes, please don’t make me go,” he whispered. “I’ll do anyth—”

Pax liked being around Mercedes. He wanted to impress her and become her number one spy. He enjoyed her goofy drills, the wry humor she pretended not to have, her smile—she didn’t smile enough.

Right now, he was the reason she wasn’t smiling. He wished he could burrow into a carnivorous rabbit’s hole as an offering to the gods of regret.

He was shaking.

“Mercedes…” Pax whispered. “I’m sorry…” There was no way out of this. He had messed up big time. Apologies weren’t enough. Maybe he really wasn’t suited to be her spy in a field where they would need to trust each other so much.

Pax swallowed again, trying to look as adult as he could as the childish question came out of his lips. “Can I give you a hug?” he asked, taking a step forward. He couldn’t leave the room like that. Mercedes wasn’t just the spymaster. She was his friend. “Before I leave?”

Mercedes flinched, making Pax flinch. She didn’t storm out or glare at him. The request choked her up for a moment. He’d taken another step, able to smell the coffee scent that clung to her hijab, before she could speak. “Don’t think you can melt my anger by being a worse parasite than usual.”

The words should have been angry, but her tone wasn’t. It was cracking.

Pax hugged her, wrapping his arms around her arms and waist. This was a friend he always wanted to hug, but never had. It felt weird doing it under these circumstances.

She should have hit him or yelled at him. She didn’t hug him back. What she did was far worse.

Pax could feel something wet splash onto his neck.

She was crying.

Pax had made Mercedes cry.[1] Sometimes, she acted so adult, he forgot she was only a year older than him. By going on a seeming suicide mission to Hades, he had made her worry. She really didn’t think he was going to go. Now, he felt worse, the guilt deepening into a drowning pool with each tear. “Mercedes,” he whispered into the material covering her neck. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I never disappoint you again.”

Mercedes tried to clear her throat. She bent her head slightly. “You’re a highly effective parasite,” she mumbled. “Don’t try to get yourself killed again. Unless I tell you to.”

Pax nodded against the material.

“Also…”

She waited until he pulled back to look her in the face. The tears were gone, the only evidence a slight redness to her acne-flecked cheeks. Her gaze was hard. “Don’t hug me. Unless I tell you to.”

Pax immediately let go and took two huge steps backwards. He should stop there. He knew it. But his mouth was already moving. “Will that ever happen?”

“Ask me on a day that I don’t feel like throwing you overboard and the only thing restraining me isn’t paperwork,” she said, folding her arms.

Pax nodded, taking another step backwards, recognizing that she was even angrier for crying in front of him. He had an older sister. He knew how that could go. “I’m going to go brainstorm ways to make this up to you,” he said.

Her gaze narrowed. “Wise.”

Pax sprinted out of the spy wing. Mercedes might have been acting like she was fine at the end, but he made a quick promise as he ran. “I swear on the River Styx,” he whispered, “As much as I can help it, to never be the reason Mercedes cries again.”[2]

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed this never-ending romp through Hell! :D (Oh, gods, it’s like a metaphor for current events.) Next week will probably be a break week for me, then we’ll come back with a one-shot Luke story, Two-Toned Memories about why Luke didn’t get to see Annabeth before she took Atlas’ burden.

[1] https://tenor.com/7Bth.gif

Is it bad that I laughed through writing this whole scene because of this gif? I’m not sorry.

[2] *drum roll for Pax having bad luck throughout all of Traitors of Olympus*

#Tales from Mount Othrys #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #Heroes of Olympus #PJO #HOO #TFMO #writing #Dear Pax--please stop making oaths you can't keep. You're EXHAUSTING my ability to fuck you over. Sincerely #And yours truly-Styx

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fortheheavenssake · 5 years

Text

💜💜 PG MM Anon 💜💜 Interpretation Collection - 2

Anon said:

You go PG!!! 😊😊😊🌸🌸🌹🐼🐼🐝🐝👍👍👍💖💖💖🌻🌻🌼🌼🌼😊😊😍😍💜💜🌹🌹🌹🌺🌺🌺💙💙💙🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌹🌹🌹❤❤❤👍👍👍👍 Violets 🌼

Anon said:

💗🌲🌞😺 hi Skippy this is for PG and JG 🏡🌲🥰🥰🧚‍♀️👑👑🐱🐰🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🐥🌺🌹🌼🌸💐🐿

*********

13.

💜💜💜💜PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON💜💜💜💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON… Hope SPRINGS eternal. “ you’ve brought SHAM-E upon this house”. SussexRoyal,one potato two potato…… (Amazing grace,how sweet… ). A Fall in the fall ? But…but, I still have friends!! “ grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel”. The deal was…NO DEAL !!!! “Ladies”do NOT … BBQ. 🎼 ‘Put it in the family …album 🎼

Hope SPRINGS eternal.

Besides the obvious mean of , there is always hope, this has a possible second meaning as SPRINGS is capitalized. Knowing our MM ANON , that was done for meaning. In fact, SPRINGS is a city in S Transvaal, in the E Republic of South Africa, E of Johannesburg. Does this mean South Africa is still a possibility?

You’ve brought SHAM-E to this house.

Sham is something that is not what it is purported to be. Shame is embarrassment, at the least. The House, is the House of Windsor.

Sussex Royal, one potato two potato.

Supposed foundation collecting money for supposed charities. One potato is a children’s counting game. Is the foundation treatment of donors childlike, ie that phrase like taking candy from s baby?

(Amazing grace, how sweet…)

It’s in brackets, the old hymn, a wretched soul saved by God’s love and expressing gratitude for same. Is this our Harry , reaching out??

A Fall in the fall….but l still have friends!!

Things are near bubbling over, might things snap in the fall. Fall is capitalized so it’s important. She is still threatening with having friends!!

“grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steal” as said earlier another Shakespearean reference from our beloved MM ANON . Hold your trusted friends close. Harry still close with friends even though not appearing so publicly? Pure supposition on my part. The phrase holds your friends close and your enemies closer.

The deal was ..NO DEAL,!

She was offered a financial settlement before the wedding, allegedly, first accepted, than changed mind at the last minute and went through with the wedding. Allegedly she was told if she didn’t take the offer THERE WOULD BE NO FURTHER DEALS, Also play of words on her suitcases tv career game show.

Ladies do NOT….BBQ . Reference to her trashy bbq burger tv commercial. Also long list of things allegedly done, that ladies, real ladies ala our Catherine, do NOT DO!!

🎼 put it in the family…album🎼

Is this reference to photos to put in the family photo album? I am not absolutely certain of that due to the musical notes. So it’s musical album, is this used perjoratively? Or do the royals like karaoke? Either way it’s musical related.

That’s my best go at it , not the best day but that’s me.

💜💜🐼🐼💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜🐼🐼💜💜

Great job PG!!!!! I so appreciate you doing this, as I know how difficult it can be for you, so thank you so much!🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

27 notes

Jul 18th, 2019

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14.

PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON

💜💜💜💜💜💜THANK YOU NANNY ANON, I HOPE YOUR SKIN IS GORGEOUS 💜💜💜💜💜

💜💜💜💜💜💜👋🐼💜🙏🏻🐼💜💜

MM ANON,

Blood diamonds and a immaculate conception. The Three wise men- in grey suits. Gold, Frank-incensed and mur-der?… Sussex Royals ‘ boiled or Roasted. A royal tape-worm. Shrouded in mustique …… Sunset bully-vard. “We’re gonna need a bigger wall”. 🎼” ain’t no cure for the summertime blues “ 🎼

Blood diamonds and a (an) immaculate conception.

Blood diamonds are illegally sourced, literally via the blood/back breaking work of locals. Is this to suggest her diamonds are blood /illegally smuggled? Immaculate conception, is she faking yet another pregnancy? Everything is so sleazy, it’s really hard for my head to wrap around it all!

The Three wise men -in grey suits. Gold, Frank-incensed and mur-dear?

Obvious Christmas carols. Men in grey suits LG and his team, incensed at what they have learned , they are still investigating, is there mur-der in the past?? The island is still in play…..LOTS of wicked wicked things to be revealed and big names. We keep hearing warnings from the government legal teams ie SDNY, preparing the public for the horrors.

Sussex royals…boiled or roasted…🤣

Obvious reference to the 🥔 potato. Deeper meaning perhaps boiled/roasted may mean legal troubles.

A royal tape-worm

I hate referencing her as royal but as a tape worms does inside it’s hose, it uses and takes anything and everything the host needs to survive. We have seen that in spades, ESPECIALLY with a Harry, he looks on the edge. I know many disagree but he is our Harry, we have loved him since before he was born.

Shrouded in mustique …..sunset bully-vard

Shrouded in mystery, lots of the past years unknown. Mustique, is also an island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Sunset Boulevard is an old movie about a haggard ageing actress trying desperately to make a comeback, the line “ I’m ready for my close-up Mr.DeMille” hilarious was made fun of by Carol Burnett on her tv show. I believe this means she is still trying to bully and get her way, using PR, Harry was missing 48 hours oh me , oh my, AS IF!!!

“We’re gonna need a bigger wall” a twist on the Jaws reference MM ANON made in an earlier riddle. They needing to do more to contain her, maybe also her access to media and PR teams.

🎼ain’t no cure for the summertime blues🎼

Is this meaning things won’t be wrapped up in summer, the above use of two Christmas carols also suggests patience, patience and more patience!

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦💜💜💜💜💜

Thank you PG! I know how you struggled to do this! Great job!🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

43 notes

Jul 19th, 2019

::::::::::

MM Anon -PG

MM ANON ……… many thanks to PG for her excellent an succinct interpretation of the riddle. Kind regards and gentle prayers 💜💜💜💜💜💜

Thank you…..😁❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

23 notes

Jul 19th, 2019

::::::::::::::

💜💜💜💜💜 I AM SO HONOURED!!!!💜💜💜💜💜

💜💜💜MY DEAR MM ANON, my deepest and most sincere thank you, for your kind words and wishes. God bless you richly.💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

GSTQAOBC 💜

I think you are quite popular here my friend!😁💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

19 notes

Jul 19th, 2019

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15.

PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜SORRY THIS IS SO LATE💜💜💜💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON …… Fab 4 2.0. It’s not rocket science. Northern parlour games will be a welcome distraction. The odds are in his Flavour. She can hide, but she can’t run. “Thank goodness it’s My little helpers. An unwelcome birthday present. (How old!!!!!!!!)………” its Carmen Miranda. “ Tomorrow is another daydream.”

Fab 4 2.0 It’s not rocket science.

Perhaps Catherine may be pregnant, two things give me pause though, with all her pregnancies she has suffered very severe hyperemesis gravidarum, so perhaps the fourth times the charm? Second is the trip to Asia, Afghanistan they are taking, high risk stressful trip. However, Catherine is not one to let much stop her. It’s not rocket science may be reference to the ‘ normal’ way to get pregnant and appear while pregnant versus the 10 month long tummy clutching horror show we all endured for a non pregnant pregnancy. Pardon my grammar.

Northern parlour games will be a welcome distraction.the odds are in his Flavour.

Reference to Balmoral, time spent there to relax and be together as a family. We know the Royals like goofy silly games, Christmas gifts etc, so do we all😁. Parlour makes me think of ice cream and odds being in his, l take to be Harry, Flavours, things will be in his favour in the media as more comes out.

She can hide, but she can’t run.

She likely has no passport in her possession, she may try and hide but she is under 24/7/365 supervision by LG and the men in grey suits, she is running nowhere, except a treadmill, not to be mean, but l doubt that too.

Thank goodness it’s my little helpers.

I want to go nice here, if indeed Catherine is pregnant l often hear expecting or new mums say that to the other children to include them and feel special.

An unwelcome birthday present…..

Her real age will be revealed with the avalanche of media….it’s going to get real for her. Or she will stay forever in her own narcissistic world.

It’s Carmen Miranda..l loved her in the old musicals..there are a couple of ways this fits, her fruit hat ie banana reference for the instagram pic mm posted of the two bananas and her writings to sex workers on bananas, she was thinking how nice it would have been to get one sent to her in her yachting days. The other way is the age…..l am not convinced l am correct on either.

Tomorrow is another daydream.

She will continue in her narcissistic way of thinking and behaving, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace. A man struts and frets his hour upon the stage…sorry, l digressed to Shakespeare, l know MM ANON loves Shakespeare!

THANK YOU everyone for all my mentions and suggestions, love you for it. I just a few weeks ago got fibre optic tv, l get so many channels now, and finally can watch the shopping channel!! I love my new Korres wrinkle creams and oils!! No joke. Also has a PVR, on demand, hbo, crave, music stations etc etc.

Thank you to all who post animals, historical items and anything Royal especially the royal jewelry. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

💜💜🐼💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🐼🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Thank you so much! Lovely post! God Bless you dear PG!🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

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19 notes

Jul 21st, 2019

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16.

PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON

MM Anon

MM ANON … sympathy for a milked visit to Di for. … A troop amend awaits … they txt each other …… PR or BS,go figure ……… A “tell ALL” in the PIPE’ Oh No!!!…… “this conversation will be taped for TRAINing purposes “ …… LIE- DOWN and take a nest………The Mouse-TRAP will run and RUN. ……How many sugars to screw in a LIGHTbulb.

THANK YOU MM ANON, I hope you’re well😊🙏🏻💜

Sympathy milked visit to Di for

Lovely photos of Prince Harry today visiting hospital patients, so like his mother, just naturally loving

A troop amend awaits,

Is something in the work for Harry going to Lion King instead of attend the memorial of the 30th anniversary of the IRA attack, perhaps another memorial, late but will he be forgiven?

They text each other…

Is this Harry and Chelsea, mm and ma ???

PR or BS..go figure

All the stuff in the papers, her PR is going fast and furious and yes all BS! Figure, is this the rumour about her working a deal with weight watchers? I could be way off!

A TELL all in the PIPE..oh No!!!

Rumours of a tell all book, and also the book that is readying for release in the U.S. we have seen articles here about that..PIPE, crack pipe????

Conversation taped for TRAINing purposes…

First out was the totally unusual overnight on the train with the Queen..was she recorded on the phone?? Ooo HM and LG BRILLIANT!!

LIE-DOWN and take a rest…

Continued lies, PR LIES, we all need a break from it

The mouse TRAP will run and RUN

she is caught in the trap, is she going to try and do a runner? impossible l doubt she has a passport but she is resourceful if nothing else! Constantly seeking PR and attention, running the hamster wheel every day

How many sugars to screw in a LIGHT bulb?

We have seen sugars realizing the lies , panicking. What will they do today with the paper saying Archie born in March….sugars are abandoning ship, but hard core remain……

That’s my best

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦💜💜💜🙏🏻💜

Prayers for you dearest MM ANON

Thank you so much PG! Excellent!😁💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

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36 notes

Jul 25th, 2019

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17.

💜💜PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON 💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON,… HOW OLD !!! … Forty something?Bal-moral birthday. …… 38,a-Gain … Broadsheet birthday?Sunday subversion. … who will blink?… Ageing elbows! Photos please …TPTB pouring concrete down the rabbit hole …online blogs followed with fervour … Lamestream media GAG on evidence. …Eps-And sulks won’t get parole. …🎼 “in a rich mans world “🎼

HOW OLD!!! Forty something/ Balmoral birthday….38 a-again

Whew have talked about, what is her real age? Sounds like she will be at Balmoral for 38 th birthday all over again, like Groundhog Day !

Broadsheet birthday?Sunday subversion…who will blink

Will the Sunday papers reveal her real age or articles about that. Who is gonna pull the pin and throw the grenade, metaphorically and public the real truths they have been sitting on FOREVER,?Subversion (Latin subvertere: overthrow) refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed, in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. We have seen any sense of Royal protocols norms, even social functioning at a decent persons level non-existent, narcissism extraordinaire! Me Me Me-gain.

Ageing elbows, photos please, we all saw and read and some commented, especially photos from behind at Wimbledon how old her elbows looked😮😲

TPTB pouring concrete down a rabbit hole..why, what are they burying or further covering permanently….curiouser and curiouser🤔

What are they blocking, covering up?? This is curious, protecting someone . PA??

Online blogs followed with fervour..

Mm following blogs with fervour, might this be the KP team also doing so?

Lame stream media GAG on evidence..

Lame versus main, lame as in not being able to do their job because they’re lame, or lame as in a joke being lame, l think it’s the first. GAG is obvious something oral, and the media gags watching it as perhaps the person in photos or video is gagging 🤮🤢

EPS-n-sulks won’t get parole…

JE will not get parole, is she sulks? Because she does sulk! A LOT!

Song lyrics, rich mans world

Hip hop star Immortal Technique, l encourage you all to google and read the lyrics, they are bang on how the upper crust gets away with everything, look up the lyrics!!!

THANK YOU MM ANON💜💜🙏🏻💜💜👋💜💜😊💜💜🇨🇦💜💜

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you PG! Looks good!😁💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

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20 notes

Jul 26th, 2019

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18.

MM ANON SHAKESPEARE

I think what happened is outrageous, Cawdor or any family place of that historically significance should remain with blood family.

My take on why MM ANON uses Shakespeare, 1), she obviously loves it, l remain firm she is a professor of literature or English studies, that’s just my supposition, based on her submissions and vast knowledge. 2) There are no dramas or tragedies like Shakespeare, also involving royalty. Revenge, adultery, murder, ghosts, wars, etc it’s all a version of what we have seen unfold before our eyes in the last few years, since the day of mourners when she who shall not be named wore a white dress.

Shakespeare just lends itself to tragedy. There are so many quotes etc that fit in so well.

JIMHO💜

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

💜💜🐼💜💜🙏🏻😊💜💜👋💜💜💜💜💜

Interesting ….makes sense to me…thank you😁💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

9 notes

Jul 26th, 2019

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19.

💜💜PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON 💜💜

THANK YOU MM ANON 💜💜🙏🏻😊👋💜

MM ANON, … delusional acceptance of a VB co-edit.… “I’m worried about spiralling “… “ she needs help grandma”… not very straight’ that jacket … but, there’s no more rope left. … “good morning LG, we need to talk “… the hidden pre-nup.… “Down and out in Scotland and L.A. “. “Don’t argue darling , just shoot the messenger “ … Very interesting intelligence’ thank you M.

Delusional acceptance of the September Vogue Book, as it’s their largest issue. Somehow she got her way again, absolutely delusional thinking, she is editing co-, this issue. She is now the official dictator to the fashion ‘bible’ , no blasphemy intended.

Spiralling, needs help, no more ropes…

Her mental state is drastically spiralling downward, due to substance use, illness or both, she does need help legal and medical. The BRF have watched her cause damage to herself. She has defied kicking and screaming, disrupting from seas to sea.

Good morning LG, we need to talk,

I suspect HM is done and dusted with her, enough is enough! And called LG to say it’s time to pull the plug on this horror show.

Hidden pre-nup 😮very interesting,

First l have heard of that, maybe that’s what they were signing after that ceremony when Harry held the book so camera couldn’t see it. Hooray for hidden pre-nup!

Down and out in Scotland and L.A.

She has absolutely no where to go, no one to turn to……it’s finished

Don’t argue darling, just shoot the messenger.

I know what shoot the messenger, blame the bringer of bad for the bad news itself. No arguments now, but not sure who darling is, perhaps PP to HM?

Very interesting intelligence, thank you M,

LG thanking HM for making the final decision and he will carry out her orders. Yippitty doooo bring it on,

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

I think you hit it spot on….MM Anon…what do you think? Thank you PG!😁💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

53 notes

Jul 30th, 2019

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PG Anon you have mail!😁💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

MM ANON … nice one PG. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

12 notes

Jul 30th, 2019

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💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜��👋💜💜🐼💜💜💜💜💜

💜💜THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART 💜💜

Thank you for all the loving comments directed my way, it’s so very much appreciated!👋😊

I try and live my Christian Faith without being pushy, if l ever am, please tell me. I think God and Jesus’ words in Scripture are guidelines, encouragements, love, hope as well as reminding us we live in a spiritual realm, and evil is insidious and the vile pedophelia, sorry my spelling, that word is not on auto correct! Anyhow, l do feel Scripture, reading it and memorizing it helps me a great deal AND arms us against evil. I have had many medical tests etc, MRI’S are not fun, Psalm 121 got me through that, l don’t know how many of them l have had but, Scripture helps me. When l read that you were benefiting from it, my heart just sings😊. Due to being home bound, my opportunities to share faith are not what they used to be. God has continually amazed me. GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU💜🙏🏻😊👋💜🐼💜🐼💜💜🐼💜💜🐼

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Lots of love and prayers for our Royal family and especially HMTQ.

🐼, lots of 💜🙏🏻👋😊💜 for all you do for us. I am so very blessed to have found this wonderful place.

Sweet dreams everyone 💤😴. Till the ‘morrow.💜💜💜💜💜

Thank you so much! You are our treasure! God Bless, and happy dreams🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

15 notes

Jul 31st, 2019

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20.

💜💜PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON💜💜

MM ANON …Negative In Positano !!…TWO ? OUCH!! a sanctimonious prick!!… defending the indefensible… racist!! Sorry’ I was unconscious … the conscious distain of a nation… useless damage control ……… try backpedaling uphill … I’m on planet privilege’ you’re not… middle England turns on a minor irritation. …Granny is VERY upset. … exiles in there own lunchtime … “Cha’Cha’Cha’Changes”… “Graves at my command have waked their sleepers

Negative in Positano…

Catherine and William were NOT at the celeb ‘woke’ environment saving, jet flying celeb meetings in Italy as has been rumoured by hmmmm whose PR?

TWO? Ouch a sanctimonious prick

Harry in his interview with Dr. Jane Goodall, in the Vogue edited, well, co-edited by mm, says no more than TWO children is responsible thing to do for the world and environment, slamming his brothers family and he comes off as a sanctimonious p****.

Defending the indefensible, racist…..

Huge backlash to this interview, did he really say the things about racism being unconscious😮, oops subconscious or was he edited? Either way, gasoline thrown on a fire, raging out of control now..

Conscious distain of a nation, backpedaling uphill, useless damage control, l’m on planet privilege you’re not

The unmitigated nerve, do as l say, not as l do, l am woke, you’re all ‘subconsciously’ racist…..there is no recovery from this, Harry, dear Harry if you actually said these things, l don’t see a way back to being beloved as you were, killing me to say this, but is she edited it, either way, there is no unringing this bell and the damage it’s doing and how angry people are!

Middle England turns,

As above, oh the people are just a minor irritation, we are on planet privilege, we CAN DO ANYTHING WE WANT,,

Granny is VERY upset, exiles in their own lunchtime, cha cha changes,

HMTQ is VERY upset. They have been exiled to meals alone, if at Balmoral. Changes, big changes are forthcoming. The purse strings may be cut off now that separated from CH. That might happen quicker than first thought. We know she lives, eats breaths $$$$$££££££€€€€€€€ and PR , PR COSTS A LOT OF MONEY!

Graves at my command have wakened their sleepers.

HM has given the official go ahead for all the silence to be broken, all the truths that had been buried and laid silent are going to explode in the media, Hang on, it’s going to be a very bumpy ride!

GSTQAOBC 💜

THANK YOU MM ANON

Excellent! Thank you so much PG!😁💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

87 notes

Jul 31st, 2019

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PG you have mail from MM Anon

MM ANON…… 💜💜💜💜 WOW , PG You’re quickly becoming the new emsi247. Thank you for your de-coding …… Bletchley Park awaits 😉😉😉 ‘ quick break out the wrinkle cream. 🤣🤣🤣

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

32 notes

Jul 31st, 2019

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💜💜THANK YOU MM ANON💜💜

It has been awhile since my critical thinking and knowledge have been put to the test, given my health issues. It is so nice to use that part of my brain! No joking! I am honoured to even be mentioned in the likes of emsi. Thank you.💜🙏🏻😊👋💜 GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Wonderful PG!😁💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

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23 notes · View notes

liltimfrance · 4 years

Photo

LILY-ROSE DEPP

New interview from a Italian article from the night after Venice Film Festival.

By Stefano Monti

https://www.artslife.com/2019/11/06/the-king-intervista-al-regista-david-michod-e-a-lily-rose-depp/

Presented at the 76th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, the film ( written by David Michôd and Joel Edgerton , which in recent years is proving to be not only a great actor, but among the best authors of our generation: The Gift , Boy Erased ) narrates the exploits of Prince Henry V of England during the delicate passage in which he is crowned King of England. Forced after his father's death to put a stop to his unruly attitudes, his trusted Falstaff, who is interpreted (impeccably) by Edgerton himself, lends him his hand, but above all the beautiful Catherine of Valois, who in this gigantic Netflix production has the face of another star: Lily-Rose Depp(daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis), muse of Karl Lagerfeld and face of the maison Chanel ... as well as (at least, so they say) also off-screen girlfriend of the small Timothée.

Not only history: in spite of the matter by its very nature dark and gloomy, The King , available all over the world from 01 November on Netflix, also means a lot of glamor. In the cast many other superstars: Robert Pattinson , Ben Mendelsohn, Sean Harris . Not even the big names are spared behind the scenes: along with Netflix , Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment is one of the producers . A megagalactic production, which on 2 September 2019 attracted fans and the press from all over the world to the Lido of Venice. An affectionate public that has had the pleasure of enjoying one of the most glittering red carpets of the last years of the Venice festival.

The occasion was delicious. For this reason, the day after the premiere of the film, I could not miss the chance to snatch a few statements from it’s protagonists. Here, then, that I was able to have a chat with the director David Michôd and the irresistible Lily-Rose Depp , who - taking me by surprise - makes me the first Question: How are you? I'm a little tired, if I'm honest, I'll answer . Tired out? What did you do last night? She urged me. And nothing, Lily-Rose has already screwed me.

So, you're fresh from last night's premiere. How did this world preview go?

DAVID MICHÔD: It was ... incredible. It went bananas. It was all so big, the audience went crazy, the stellar cast ... After years and years of hard work (which sometimes made me crazy), it's finally out. I have no idea how it will go ... if it will be well received by the public, or if instead it will be hated. On the other hand, now it's out, it doesn't matter what I think anymore. Help, I'm already talking. I'm very excited. To tell you the truth, after all this carousel, I would just like to sleep, sleep, sleep.

I turn to Lily-Rose instead: it's not your first time in Venice. How do you feel about returning to the Lido to present this gigantic film?

LILY-ROSE DEPP: It's simply wonderful. The Venice Film Festival is an extraordinary, beautiful, exciting event. But the biggest thrill is being here with the whole crew and the cast of The King, representing a film I'm so proud of. Venice ... no complaints, whatsoever!

Indeed, the tradition of the Henry V is infinite: from the original text of Shakespeare to the most recent cinematographic transpositions [the last of Kenneth Branagh, in 1989, with Christan Bale as Henry V of England and Emma Thompson in the role that today is Lily-Rose]. Where did you look for your inspiration to play the character?

LILY-ROSE DEPP: To interpret each character, I personally love stealing from the experiences that I really lived. I'm not special, many actors do it! But every so often, it happens that a character gives you the opportunity to have experiences that you would never have done in your real life. This is the case of Catherine of Valois. The most fascinating side is its "calm strength": it required a lot of work, because when I read the script I immediately realized that its vitality and its energy are channeled into a wonderful calm, a tranquility that sets it apart every reaction ... and that I don't have! It's a quality I've tried to steal from them. So, paradoxically, I was inspired by her.

Indeed, Catherine of Valois is a very strong female character, surrounded by violent men and often toxic masculinity.

LILY-ROSE DEPP: This is why I am very proud to have dressed her clothes. She is a fantastic character, in the film but above all in a historical perspective. Catherine of Valois came from a family that already had a great tradition of strong women: on the other hand her father was Charles VI of France, passed into history as "the Fool" - and already her mother was forced to govern family and court behind curtains, always being careful to hold off and not anger her husband. Plus, she also had lots of sisters. If we are to look for models of great femininity at a time when it seemed impossible for women to claim any right, Catherine and her family are a perfect example. This is why it was very important for Joel [Edgerton] and David [Michôd] to write the character as rigorously as possible,

Whether you like it or not, you're used to working with great celebrities - and this film is certainly no exception. Do you think the star's role still has value?

DAVID MICHÔD:I don't know, honestly, if there is any particular power in being a "star". As for me, a director, I am always fascinated: I don't know what makes the star ... a star, I just know that when I set the camera on one of them, I feel it [you can feel it, ed] . All those people we call "stars" have something incredibly special, a little mysterious, but always based on great talent. On this set, for me it was absurd to look at Timmy Chalamet at work: I was starting to think that movie stars were a concept anchored to the past and that the last, big stars of our time were that group of young boys in the nineties and that today face the fifty (like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise). And I was wondering: where are the new "movie stars"? I have not had time to find an answer ... that Timmy has arrived. In him I felt that thrill that I didn't feel for a long time in a young American actor.

LILY-ROSE DEPP: It's a complex question. For me, as an actress, being surrounded on a set (like that of The King) by so many great actors [actors, not stars!] Is the best school that exists in the world. At first it can be a bit intimidating, but working with so many professionals - of which you admire the work and of which, often, you are also a fan! - can only improve you. As for the value of a "star" ... I think that the moment you start thinking of yourself as a "star", as a "celebrity", you're already going in the wrong direction. Personally I don't know if I can really define myself like this: I can only tell myself very grateful and grateful to the people who believed in me, public and colleagues.

One last question to David. Before I leave, I have to ask you. And please, don't hate me for this question, but ... how do you deal with the Middle Ages after Game of Thrones?

DAVID MICHÔD: [laughs, enthusiastic and not at all offended]: For me it was actually quite easy, because I never saw it. Or rather: actually I saw the last episode. Well yes! It was very strange, because I was at the home of friends who are hardcore fans and had to see the big finale. I've never seen Game of Thrones , but I know how it ends. What can I say? While I was looking at it I had only one thing in mind: The King will be very very different. Indeed, already from that moment I hoped that for the public too it was more ...

He thinks for a moment, before deciding (unfortunately) not to say too much and smile a little mischievously.

I EDIT AND TRIED TO SOLVE THE BEST I COULD WITH TRANSLATION, IF I LOST ANYTHING, SORRY, AND I KEPT A FEW PARTS OF DAVID AS WELL THAT I FOUND INTERISTING. BUT IT CAN BE READ EVERYTHING IF YOU WANT ON THE LINK ABOVE.

#Lily Rose Depp #lily-rose depp #model #actress #the king #Venice Film Festival #press #interview #i loved the star question

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polygon-streams · 5 years

Text

4/20 (nice) - Pat + Faith stream Donk Souls!

Pat plays Dark Souls III set to the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack with a character designed to resemble a Kong. Faith draws her interpretations of Dark Souls characters. A bullet point summary of what you missed:

The stream starts with Faith drawing a nice little crystal lizard!

Pat welcomes chat to the stream and reads off the names of people who have just subbed/resubbed.

Pat decides not to turn on CC for the stream because it would not pick up on Faith.

Pat and Faith briefly talk about Warped Tour. Faith mentions that her brother attended the 2007 Warped Tour and Pat asks her if she can ask her brother who was on the line-up. She says she can try but we never hear back. We will never know if the bands were bad.

Pat tries to plug Badvertising, the podcast he guested on recently, but he misspeaks and calls it Sadvertising. He explains that this is the name of his spinoff of Badvertising.

Faith can’t hear the music on-stream so Pat tells her where to find the playlist, and mentions that it was posted by someone with the username familyguy10. Chat thanks Family Guy.

Someone plays “Ahhh the French!” from the soundboard and Pat recites it word-for-word.

“There is a California champagne by Magnum Kong.” -Pat

Pat mentions visiting California recently and talks about the food he enjoyed there.

Pat and Faith start creating the new Kong in the Dark Souls character creator.

Pat decides to set the characters class to “commoner” and Faith calls him a “Kongmoner”. It’s a good joke.

The Kong looks like a Waluigi at first. Pat and Faith remark that Waluigi is the base form from which all characters are crafted.

Pat and Faith consider giving the Kong chest hair, but chat determines that all Kongs shave their chests.

Pat struggles with the Kongs nose, as he cannot make the tip look flat enough in profile.

“Is there a way to just turn the nose off?” -Faith

Pat finally manages to set nose to “no”, but it still looks bad.

They decide to accept the nose and move on to the mouth.

“Oh man, I’ve just like not been drawing for two minutes because I’ve just been looking on in horror” -Faith

Pat protrudes the mouth to balance the absence of a nose.

Our character finally starts to look like a Kong.

“He wants revenge on whoever took away his good nose.” -Faith

“How come ‘feminine’ turns the face green?!” -Pat

“Oh, well that’s like- you know how all girls wear a lot of foundation and stuff- it’s because we’re all green under there.” -Faith

Faith suggests that maybe this Kong’s mission is to find his son. Pat chooses a face option that makes the Kong look friendly, and Faith clarifies that the Kong is only on his way to pick his son up from soccer practice.

His backstory is later updated from dad-finding-son to son-finding-dad. This new Kong is Magnum Kong Jr., son of the Magnum Kong from Pat’s playthrough of Dark Souls I.

It is established that Jr.’s mother is the senator’s wife that Magnum Kong fucked in Dark Souls I.

“He looks just like his mother” -Pat

“He’s got her powdered lips” -Faith

Pat and Faith give Jr. a small tattoo of a horse on his cheekbone.

It is established that Jr. is a soundcloud rapper who goes by the name of “Lil’ Nano”, short for banana.

Pat and Faith move into the hair options.

“This is not your daddy’s Kong” -Pat

They settle on a swept back mullet dyed bleach blond.

They play with facial hair but decide against it, as they prefer a youthful look.

Art update: Faith has drawn a very cool Dancer of the Boreal Valley!

Pat and Faith play with the brows and forehead before finally feeling satisfied with the new Kong.

Stream loses Faith for a couple minutes. Pat focuses on bringing her back.

They finally move into gameplay.

Pat realizes that Dark Souls III will not allow him to remove Jr.’s pants. He is distressed by this and starts looking for armor that will override this.

Pat and Faith talk about 4/20 plans while Pat fights a crystal lizard. Neither have plans.

Binchofthewilds – one of our admin – gets a shoutout for a good username!!!!

Pat and Faith talk about hanging out while Pat was in California. They talk about food again.

Faith mentions that LA weather forecast currently has a high of 69 fahrenheit, so it’s a double nice day.

Pat moves on to the first boss fight after failing to kill the crystal lizard. The boss kills him.

Art update: Faith has drawn a bone wheel chasing a little dude this time. Very cool!

Faith convinces Pat to lower the price on the sound titled “Faith’s Cowboy Button”, which plays the sound of the cowboy yell from the song “Big Enough”.

Pat relents and chat immediately spams the button, resulting in the sound of multiple cowboy yells overlayed on top of each other. Pat raises the price again.

Pat talks about his upcoming projects at Polygon, including more videos like the recent one with Marcus Scribner, as well as Unraveled season 2!

Faith mentions that she just recently watched the Unraveled Pokerap presentation. Pat says it was great to watch live and remarks that it was very cool that Polygon allowed Brian to take a month off of everything else to focus primarily on the Pokerap.

Faith talks about designing a teenage girl’s bedroom at an old job and says that she filled it with katanas, because she believed the girl would collect them. She says that she ultimately had to remove the katanas but was glad to have worked in a place where she felt comfortable being creative.

Pat mentions having a katana saved in his amazon wishlist, but he has been unable to buy it as it has not been available for months.

Faith talks about her rock and mineral collection. She remarks that it is a conveniently aesthetically pleasing hobby.

“All of my hobbies involve piles of cables” -Pat

Pat mentions trying raw beef (steak tartare) at a tapas place during a work dinner.

Faith talks about being vegetarian. She says she only started in high school, but giving up beef wasn’t hard as she rarely ate it due to the mad cow disease scare.

Art update: Faith has drawn a really cool jailer. She remarks that the character fits her personal aesthetic perfectly.

Pat asks Faith which part of the human body is her least favorite to draw. She says that she always gets frustrated while trying to draw foreheads going into noses. Pat says he always has trouble drawing feet.

“I would never draw a toe.” -Pat

Faith talks about the graphic novel she is working on. She is writing it as well as drawing it. It is about a girl who turns into a ball of lightning and it sounds very cool. Pat is excited about it.

Someone in chat dropped ice cream on the FLOOR. Pat starts talking about vegan ice cream. Faith mentions not knowing about liquid nitrogen ice cream until she ordered it in a restaurant and they started pouring “fog” on the counter.

Pat and Faith start talking about Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. All of the characters are apparently named after bands, including a character just named “Cars”? There is a self-insert character in Jojo’s with way too big of a role. Someone in chat says that Jojo’s sounds like Riverdale, somehow. The admins did not understand this part of the stream.

Final art update: Faith has drawn a very good Winged Knight. He is a Big Boy and we love him.

Pat talks briefly about trying to get back into art. He says that Faith’s art is encouraging because it shows that you can draw anything.

End of stream!

Link to all of Faith’s good Dark Souls art: [x]

#pat gill #patrick gill #twitch #polygon #dark souls #duderave #winky

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mittensmorgul · 5 years

Text

I wrote a post last night about the Monster of the Week in 14.15, Chip Harrington, and what made him monstrous:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/183465650390/so-can-we-talk-about-this-monster-of-the-week-for

But I want to look at this from another direction, because Chip’s self-described origin story-- what drove him to monstrosity-- is fascinating and relevant to the larger narrative (and especially to those of Cas, and Jack).

I’d been considering waiting until the transcript posted, but I’m not that patient, so I transcribed it myself. I know this is a long scene, but there’s a lot of important details in here. Rather than transcribe it and then quote blocks of it again with my comments, I’m gonna put my comments in brackets between sections of dialogue here, but the actual quoted dialogue here is one continuous conversation, just for the record:

Cas: So you did this. Chip: What, did you think it was the milkshakes? [laughs]

(well, yeah, we did think it was the milkshakes, or the water, or the food in general, because Faerie Rules, and Sam ate and drank while Cas didn’t)

Cas: What are you?

(And isn’t that just the question of the season? What is your identity, who are you, please explain yourself...)

Chip: Well, I kinda like to think of myself as a Good Samaritan. You know, I’ve always been lucky. I’ve always had an intuition about what people were gonna do, or say. It made me the king of poker night. But then, the mill shut down. And this town, the town I love, it started to die. Then my sweet wife, she passed away. And the world kept getting worse, and they called it “modernization.” And no matter what I did, people would turn to drink or drugs, and move away. They just weren’t happy. Things kept getting worse, and I started to hear noises-- voices. And I screamed at these voices! I said, “Just make things better!” And you know what happened next?

(he began to hear VOICES. Like, his life-long sense of “intuition” was magnified after the loss of his wife and his growing dissatisfaction with the state of the world. This sounds very much like a spiral into bitterness and depression, probably magnified by the intuitive stuff he picked up from everyone around him. The thoughts he’d pick up from a thriving town full of happy people, and from his wife who loved him and was happy with him, and from happy customers at his soda shop, would’ve probably given him a lowkey life-long “high,” you know? And then when the town around him began to change after people lost their jobs, the entire energy of the town would shift, and his source of “secondhand happiness” that he’d come to think of as his OWN would’ve not only dried up, but would’ve been replaced by a constant stream of negative feelings and thoughts that he picked up just as subtly, not even realizing it was affecting his own mental state)

Cas: No, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me. Chip: The very next day, I thought-- just thought-- “I wish there was more people in the soda shop.” And I came in here that day, and it was packed. And that’s when I figured it out. I can make people do whatever I want.

(it took him this long to realize that the “voices” went both ways, and that instead of the woes of everyone in town being inflicted on HIM through his psychic ability, he could turn it around and inflict HIS thoughts on THEM. Suddenly could force everyone else to be happy to feed his own subconscious addiction to that vast pool of human energy, so he crafted it to fit HIS needs instead.)

Cas: So you’re some kind of mind-control psychic? Chip: I re-made this town. I gave everybody new names, new lives. I made everybody happy. Well, most everybody. And the ones that fought it, well... Cas: You murdered them. Chip: I was just protecting my home!

(Protecting his home, i.e. protecting his own mental state, which was entirely dependent on his environs because of his psychic abilities that he just couldn’t turn off, because of what he is.)

Cas: [to Sunny]: And you-- you knew all about this. Chip: Well, she knew enough to play along, but uh... my tricks never worked on Sunny. She’s too much like me. Sunny: I am nothing like you.

(she might have his psychic abilities, but she is clearly miserable in her father’s idea of a psychic utopia. His idea of happiness is nothing like hers)

Chip: [to Cas] But you, why can’t I change you? Cas: Because I’m not human. Chip: Oh. [chuckles]

Is it all really that simple? I think there’s a lot more complexity going on here. After all, the way Chip describes the “voices” he heard growing more clear sounds an awful lot like Angel Radio in some respects. We know how that can sometimes affect Cas. I’ve always been under the impression that Angel Radio has always been like... background noise most of the time to angels. There’s always a low-level awareness of everything from angels deliberately communicating with one another to human prayers and, um... longing. But it’s always also seemed that Cas (and other angels) didn’t always focus on it. They could disregard it, or at least not devote their full attention to it all the time. There’s even the time during 8.08 where Cas said that he’d “turned it off” entirely.

But there’ve also been times when something came across the frequency so strongly that angels have been all but incapacitated by it:

in 12.08 when the news of Jack’s conception came across to him and he dropped the coffee cups

in 4.09 when Cas’s cry of DEAN WINCHESTER IS SAVED came through loud enough to switch on her dormant Angel Radio antenna

12.10 when Benjamin prayed to the rest of his flight and Ishim, Mirabel, and Cas all froze in place to listen

13.01 when Jack overheard angel radio for the first time and was all but paralyzed by it, driven to violence because of it

And that’s just off the top of my head. I included the one about Jack deliberately here... but more on that in a moment.

Of course Chip doesn’t know how to deal with this sort of psychic reception from all around him. He’d never given it much thought before it began to hurt him rather than help him. And the fact that he can turn around and inflict it onto others for his own comfort, and that he would inflict it on others and assume THEY were happy just because HE was happy, because that’s always how it worked before... is just horrifying.

I’d also like to throw in the reminder of Cas’s last meeting with a psychic who was unable to “read” him. In 10.17, after Oliver told Cas he couldn’t be an angel because he was an atheist, he shared this:

PRYCE: Was me. I don't do the psychic stuff no more. Being around people, it's kind of . . . Hell. All those brains yapping all the time drives a guy bananas. CASTIEL: Because you can hear everyone's thoughts. PRYCE: Well, not yours. All I'm getting from you is . . . colors. But the hippie over here? I'm seeing some creep-ass hobbit-lookin' fella, a prison cell?

Not only did he share the relatable tidbit about avoiding other people because of the effect of picking up all their thoughts, the only thing he picked up from Cas was “colors.” Nothing specific as far as thoughts go, but psychic wavelengths that he interpreted as color.

And through all the people in town that Chip controlled, he never really could get a read on Cas, either. He picked up Sam’s wavelength right away, just like Oliver Pryce did, but Cas remained a puzzle because like for Pryce, he was just entirely out of the realm of their experience. He didn’t fit in their preconceived box. Pryce expected “normal human thoughts,” and Chip expected “type of happiness I understand and can exploit for my own personal gain.”

Chip... could not conceive of how to make Cas “happy” by his own definition.

And this finally leads me back around to Jack, and his episode-long struggle to understand why Felix the Snake was “sad.” Why he wouldn’t eat and seemed lethargic and sluggish. Jack... had no true intuitive read on the snake’s feelings. Maybe it just hated the tiny plastic box Jack had it in. Maybe it was just too cold. Reptiles need outside warmth to be active, and won’t eat if it’s too cold to bring their body temperature up enough for digestion. But Jack was treating it as if it were a sad person instead of a snake with needs that he was clearly not meeting. Road trips may have cheered Jack up in the past, but snakes don’t generally like that sort of thing. Nor do they like crunch cookie crunch.

Felix was just as much a puzzle to Jack as Cas was to Chip. And like Chip, when Jack couldn’t make the snake be happy, he gave up and blew up its head disintegrated it, as if it was an act of mercy when it was anything but. Just like Chip insisted that killing the people that fought against his mind control was done to “protect his town,” when really it was to protect himself.

And now that we have that out there, I’m gonna skip over the fight scene to Sunny’s confrontation with her father (back to my previous format of commenting in parenthesis between the text):

Sunny: You killed Conrad! Chip: No! You told him the truth, and that’s why he ran. And that’s why I did what I had to do. You killed that boy, Sunny, not me.

(YIIIIIIKES. First off, my Worst Thing To Say Ever On Supernatural-- “I did what I had to do.” And second, he blamed his own daughter, who fell in love with someone in a way Chip didn’t approve of, and told him the Big Truth about what was happening in town, for her lover’s murder. If she’d only obeyed and kept the secret and followed his orders unquestioningly, everything would be just fine! How ironic is it that the ONE person in town who was immune to his powers and that he couldn’t “read” the way he did everyone else was the only miserable one in a five mile radius? And that she was the one person you’d think Chip had a vested interest in actually ensuring her happiness, because she was his child. But nope. He was so disconnected from reality that he couldn’t even relate to her aside from how she could serve him. And that’s just... a horrific glimpse of parent-child dynamics on this show.)

[meanwhile inside the soda shop, a donnybrook ensues, and eventually Cas talks Sam around, breaking Chip’s psychic hold over him, because Cas was unwilling to actually hurt Sam in order to stop the fight. He used his words... after they recover they run outside to see Sunny’s confrontation with her father]

Sunny: You’re sick. Chip: Well, but you stayed. You didn’t even try and stop me.

(YIIIIIIIIKES now he’s not just blaming her for her lover’s murder, but for everything else he’s done. As if it were her responsibility as his child to do so. As if this was a black and white choice, and that not stopping him was equivalent to her full complicity in his actions)

Sunny: I promised Mom that I wouldn’t leave you, but you’re a monster. [Chip grabs her arm and pulls her closer] Chip: No. No. In this town, I’m God.

(haaaaa, Sam runs out and shoves him away from Sunny. She’s got her father pegged now. It was a promise to her dead mother that kept her there, despite her father ruining her life and destroying the man she loved for his selfish pursuit of his personal idea of happiness. Because he’s really not god)

Sam: No, you’re not. Believe me. We’ve met God. Cas: God has a beard.

(YOU TELL HIM, CAS)

At this point, Chip breaks out a new set of psychic powers we didn’t know he had, and flings Cas across the sidewalk Angel Mojo Style. Only making the parallels to Angel Radio earlier seem even more apt. I mean, this also harks back to Sam’s own experiences with psychic power in 1.14-- and heck the pain caused by his visions seems also relevant to the more cataclysmic angel radio events I listed above-- but specifically the fact that when faced with enough of a threat, Sam moved that heavy piece of furniture blocking the doorway with his mind. And obviously we knew Chip was using his psychic powers to explode people’s noggins Scanners-style, but this makes him look... terrifyingly angelic. Kinda makes one wonder if this might be some sort of psychic gift that has passed down their family from... perhaps from a nephilim ancestor generations and generations ago, you know? Not that this is The Truth, but the powers are similar and it makes one wonder...

He then turns and attempts to use the power that wouldn’t work on Cas-- namely the head-exploding-- on Sam, but Sunny can’t stand by and watch him actively kill someone. She breaks out her own gift, that she’d apparently never used on someone else. She tells Chip to stop, and when he doesn’t do it of his own free will, she says it again, with power behind it. He may not have been able to use his psychic powers on her, but she was able to use hers on him.

This first reminded me of every other Crypt Scene we’ve ever seen, including Cain’s description of what made HIM stop killing originally and retire-- Colette asked him to stop.

But it also reminds me of another Psychic Children episode: 2.05. Andy Gallagher’s similar variety of mind control to Chip’s didn’t work on Sam, and his twin Ansem’s psychic influence didn’t work on Andy. But when push came to shove, Andy resorts to shooting his brother to stop him from killing Dean. But now Sunny is actually able to force her father to do her will instead. She proves she’s nothing like him, because instead of killing him, she locks him into a state of perpetual happiness inside her own mind. After she stops him, she’s horrified:

Chip: See? I told you! you’re just like me! Sunny: No. You hurt innocent people. You want to be happy? Then be happy. [she forces him to be happy]

Which is a callback to what Cas offered Fred Jones in 8.08:

FRED: You want to know what's the worst thing that can happen to a guy that's got a mind like I got? Losing it.

Because that’s kinda what happened with Chip. Not that he was suffering from a loss of control, but that all his filters had just... disappeared. Happy townspeople, thriving town, loving wife focusing that good feeling on him all the time. But Cas offered Fred a solution and explained what it would mean for him, which was kind of the opposite of the solution Sunny forced on her father:

FRED: Now I'm good. In a month, year... [sighs] Nobody gets sharper with age. I'm gonna lose control again, and somebody's gonna get hurt... again. [sighs] You got to make it stop. CASTIEL: There might be a way. The procedure will be painful, and... when it's over, I'm not sure how much of you will be left. FRED: [takes a deep breath and then speaks decisively] Well, what are you waiting for?

Rather than risk hurting anyone by accident because he was losing control of his powers, he eagerly allowed that part of himself to be removed so he could relax in the relative comfort of his own mind, knowing he was leaving the world better. He was... happy... even without his powers.

Sunny just... stopped Chip from using his power and locked him up in the vision he’d tried to create in reality, to remain unaffected by the people around him while they all go back to their normal lives-- happiness, misery, and everything in between.

And as Cas lays a hand on Chip’s head to answer Sam’s question that Sunny struggled to, because she didn’t know exactly what her power did to Chip, with an aside to mention that Cas was framed in the background behind Chip when she said, “Then be happy!” and thank heck her powers don’t work on him. But really, Cas is choosing to do the exact opposite for himself, because he can still make that choice for himself, which is an interesting flip here:

Cas: She made him happy. Your father is trapped inside his own mind. He’s in a world that... it’s a beautiful world, but it’s a place where he can never hurt anyone again. Sunny: Good.

There’s so much parent/child horror mixed up in this, with their current parental dramas surrounding Jack, and the vision of “paradise” that Jack gave Cas back in 12.19. That was also a “beautiful world” where there was no struggling, no war, no anger... but it was equally as unreal as this vision that Chip is now trapped in. But it sounds like it wasn’t even Cas’s idea of happiness, by the way he described it to Kelly in 12.23. He seemed more shaken by it, given his greater understanding of what Jack literally brought into the world with him-- ie the rift directly to The War World, and AU Michael and all the horrors that have resulted from that. And none of that was Jack’s conscious doing, but his birth brought that forth anyway.

Just as Michael’s narrative purpose has sort of... ended, now that he escaped Dean’s mind fridge, and just as Michael’s purpose in this universe was thwarted when the Apocalypse didn’t happen back in 5.22 and left our Michael catatonic and broken in the cage (according to Lucifer), and just like Lucifer became listless and bent on rage-fueled destruction without any other purpose after Chuck left the world again, Jack is facing that same sort of purposelessness and fundamental loss of identity in the wake of having achieved his purpose of defeating the evil his creation brought forth into the world. Defeating it changed him, and it remains to be seen if he’s any better equipped to deal with that change, and that loss of purpose, than Michael and Lucifer were.

And this also brings up all the questions of Cas, his identity, his abilities, his state of being, and his happiness, and what the consequences of him choosing that happiness might mean for all of that... and for his very existence if the Empty has anything to say in the matter.

And I got all this from the realization that Chip’s powers were a wee bit angel-y.

#spn s14 spoilers #spn 14.15 #spn 5.22 #spn 12.23 #spn 12.19 #spn 8.08 #spn 1.14 #spn 2.05 #spn 10.17 #jack nougat winchester #castiel winchester #you learned it from the goats #spn 12.08 #spn 4.09 #spn 12.10 #spn 13.01 #on the nature of angel grace #angels and souls

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annakie · 5 years

Photo

So this past weekend I went to GenCon for the second time.

GenCon is the largest gaming convention in the world with about 70k individual attendees every year, held in Indianapolis, Indiana. The first time I went was in 2009, with a friend from the internet, and it was a blast. This time I went with a bunch of my everyday friends, some of my favoritest people in the world, and it was even more fun.

Part one of my long recap, including lots of pictures, below.

SOME PRE-GENCON NOTES

Our group does love boardgames, but we do RPGs (like D&D) together even more. D&D actually doesn't have a very big presence at GenCon. There was some D&D going on, but it isn't a main focus of the con and my friends aren't super into 5e anyway. (We're actually doing a 4e game right now since it's one friend's favorite system.)

So when we signed up for events, we were trying hard to get into a bunch of Pathfinder stuff, especially Pathfinder 2, which was releasing the first day of GenCon. We got into two events, but ended up filling more slots with Starfinder. None of us were particularly interested in Starfinder, which is a Sci-Fi setting also put out by Paizio... it was always like "Eh, we might check Starfinder out sometime maybe." but we weren't that excited about it. But since we had gotten into two games to fill up some timeslots, we decided to go ahead and at least learn the system ahead of time for those of us who'd be playing in the SF games.

That would be Marcus, who is our DM most of the time when we play RPGs, Jeremy, and Brian, who is Marcus' oldest daughter's fiancee. We created characters the week before GenCon and got together twice to knock out some beginning level adventures.

What we didn't expect, at all, was to fall head over heels into Starfinder. Three of us ended up picking the same race (Lashunta, who are basically Mantis from GotG) and decided our characters were siblings, then decided so was Brian's character, even though he was a Vesk... a lizard-man race. Jeremy's Operative (Space Rogue/Pilot/smuggler)Zafo is the oldest, my Envoy (space bard/doctor/xenobiologist/archeologist) Vikiri, and Marcus' Technomancer (Space Wizard/Computer whiz/K-pop rockstar) Alissia are twin sisters, and Brian's Soldier Kronk (Space Meatshield/Master Chef) is our baby brother.

We fucking LOVE these characters and the whole world of Starfinder, and also our dear Father and Mother, who we always strive to make proud of us. Starfinder is really so much fun and we're running official modules as we're a part of the Organized Play Starfinder Society and they're... so good? Anyway, here we are, playing Starfinder for like six hours the Thursday night before Gencon because that's the only day we could physically be in the same room. (the other time we played via Discord.)

WEDNESDAY

So anyway, then we actually went to Gencon! Jeremy and I got flights together and rooms (separate) at the same hotel to make travel more convenient. Everyone else, which was Marcus, wife Laura, daughters Gwen and Kirstyn and Kirstyn friend Ally, and Gwen's fiancee Brian, drove. 14 hours from Dallas to Indy... Jeremy and I have talked about it for next year, we'll see.

I took Wednesday off to finish packing and relax, and then just before Jeremy came to pick me up, our flight got delayed two hours. We decided we'd then have time for a leisurely lunch instead of fast food, and so we went to one of my favorite places to eat, a Canadian cafe. The service was slower than expected, but we were still tracking to be at the airport about an hour before our original takeoff time, three before our “new” takeoff time.

And then... while we were driving to the airport... our flight got UN-DELAYED. What. The. Fuck.

Our leisurely afternoon turned hectic as we got to the airport as fast as possible then, I checked in our bags while Jeremy parked the car, got in line in Security, and oh nooo the line was long. I started to get nervous about making the flight. Apparently, we weren't the only people who had done the same thing.

We hoofed it through the airport, though and made it to the gate with like 5 minutes to spare until boarding, just enough time to take a bathroom break and get a bottle of water. We got on the flight though! And sat there. And sat there. And... sat there. And then got kicked off the plane for an electrical issue. Then sat in the gate for an hour or so until another airplane arrived. Turns out, our flight ended up being delayed... about two hours.

ANYWAY. We made it, de-planed at Indy, collected our bags, taxied to the hotel. We were staying at a Red Roof Inn outside of the airport area, we were trying to do this cheap and with each of us paying for a hotel room, staying near downtown wasn't an option. $65/night for a hotel is a lot better than $200+/night for being closer, especially when you can split Lyft fares. (Could have rented a car but we did the math... especially factoring in parking at $20-30 a day plus the hotel charging for parking... much cheaper to Lyft everywhere.)

After settling into the hotel we had to go to the convention center and get our tickets. I had my badge mailed to me, but all events require tickets and Marcus had ordered all our tickets... and you have to pick up your tickets yourself. The Will Call line at 10pm on Wednesday night was... an hour and fifteen minutes long. So we waited in that. Nothing particularly cool or terrible happened, but it's just one of those GenCon experiences. This year apparently 15% of the events had electronic tickets. Next year that's supposed to go up to 75%. Let's hope so. The GenCon provided Wifi was actually pretty good.

We headed back to the hotel afterwards and were both hungry again at this point, so we ate at the only available option... Waffle House... at like 12:30 at night. Seemed like a good way to end our first night, as long as we didn't get food poisoning.

...which we did not. :p

THURSDAY

So another fun thing about GenCon this year that we found out a day or two earlier is that the entire freeway from the Airport to downtown was going to be closed all weekend. Adding lots of time to our commute (and thus $ to our Lyft fares, but we still saved money.) So we got up extra early, discovered how terrible our hotel's free breakfast was (very... most days I had a cold bagel with a scraping of cream cheese and if I was lucky, a banana) and got a Lyft into town. Except it took 30 minutes to get a Lyft. From then on, we scheduled them ahead of time.

But HEY! Eventually, we were there! We found the room for our first game and met Brian and eventually Marcus outside. Our first scheduled game was Star Wars, the Fantasy Flight Games system (which is now known as Genesys). This is a system that Marcus ran Jeremy and I and other friends a 2+ year campaign in, so the three of us were very familiar with the rules. Kirstyn and Ally also joined us, and Kirstyn had played it once before.

So I've mentioned before that Jeremy, Marcus and I go to a local con called GamerNation Con every year. Two years ago the guest of honor was a guy named Sterling Hershey who is a well-known loremaster for Star Wars and helped write the SWFFG system. We played in a game he ran that year. Hilariously, Sterling was our GM for this game, as well. It was a good way to kick off the weekend.

Jeremy played a Jedi and I was his Padawan, Ally and Brian played Clone soldiers ( the game took place in the Clone Wars era) Kirstyn played a shark-race diplomat and Marcus was her "get it done" operative type.

Ally, Marcus and Brian.

The Table setup

Brian, Jeremy and Kirstyn

And of course, our DM.

Our next game was a 13th Age, with Marcus, Jeremy, Brian and I, plus two "new friends" and a DM who was very good at and familiar with the system. We've been doing a 13th Age game as our "Main Game" for about a year, since our SWFFG game ended and like Starfinder, it's a system that we were all very skeptical about at first and have found ourselves LOVING.

I really enjoyed this DM. He did a lot to challenge us to roleplay, I think the only time we spend game time making up backgrounds for our characters and making any character creation choices. (They were basically premades but he had us choose names and do some history stuff which only makes sense if you know 13th Age.)

He did some really cool mechanics as well, like one that made travel interesting... one person would say something bad that happened in our journey and the next would say "But it was all okay, because..." and use that as a way to bring depth to the adventure. Like one person said "It was bad when the owlbears attacked us..." and then I answered, "But it was all okay, because our supplies had been running low, and now we had plenty of meat to eat on the journey!" Then I said "It was bad when we came across a village that had been wiped out by disease." and the next person said "But it was okay, because we learned a vital clue, and kept the disease from spreading!" and the DM gave us a clue about what was coming up.

I played a Bard in this game.... okay the thing is, I love playing bards. Support classes in general, but I always have to pull myself away from the urge to play a bard. But there were only a couple of character sheets left when they came around and Marcus wanted to play a wizard so I did bard. Apparently, Bard is one of most complex classes in the game, and the DM said I did great. We were 5th level (out of 10) so they were already pretty in-depth characters. We're only level 3 in our campaign at home, so it was fun to see how powerful we'd become.

Also what I love about 13th Age is that the world is just... weird. You think that Anything Can Happen in D&D but honestly, the world of 13th Age is just so much broader and weirder and it was fun to see this DM's interpretation of it. One of my favorite games of the con.

Our fighter, Jeremy the Monk and Brian the Barbarian.

Marcus, our rogue, and the DM.

So that night, we had had a 3-hour break scheduled then were supposed to go to Lucas Oil to play the Call of Cthulu board game that night. But then Jeremy and I had been talking the night before and were thinking... maybe we could play more Starfinder.

We'd been planning on going to the Nerd Night (which is a thing where you go and play games plus support a charity with donations) to fill in those hours, so we asked Marcus if he'd mind skipping the board game so we could spend those hours doing Starfinder at NN instead. He gave in.

So we stopped and got some dinner at a food truck (had a pretty good burger and fries, we were starving since we'd just had whatever snacks we had brought with us for lunch) and then it took a little bit of time but we found Nerd Night, which was held in a hotel that had turned an old train station into a ballroom. It was very cool. After eating, resting, drinking lots of water, and doing some Starfinder Society paperwork, we got to work on Starfinder, finding a quiet table in the corner away from everyone to play at. And the module was SO FUN, our characters were on a reality-competition game show in order to bring glory to the Starfinder Society (and our family). And then a loud group of people decided to pick the table RIGHT NEXT TO US in an empty side- room to play their loud game at (seriously... wtf? THERE WERE AT LEAST A DOZEN OTHER TAbLES NOT NEXT TO US TO PICK!) so we packed up and moved to another corner, that was actually quieter and not as cold.

Then they kicked us out of Nerd Night at around 12:30, after it had closed. So we walked back to the ICC (Indiana Convention Center) and found a near-empty food court, pushed some tables together... and kept gaming. Until like, after 2AM.

We didn't officially finish the module yet but we were kicking so much ass that we had basically won it already anyway.

So yeah... back to the hotel... asleep by um... three?

The actual quiet corner table.

The Empty Food Court setup

FRIDAY, PART ONE

So the next morning everyone but me did True Dungeon, meeting at 10am. I bowed out because my back was too fucked up to stand for that long. It was a hard decision, but the right one for me. Instead, I spent a little bit of time shopping in the dealer hall, taking sit-down breaks against the wall when needed, and decided on what I'd want to buy later. Mostly I just went to three booths and peeked at a few more.

After a short hangout break, I went to a lecture I'd had my eye on anyway, all about Eberron (one of the "official" D&D worlds) by the actual creator of Eberron, Keith Baker. This was definitely my hidden gem of the weekend. He took a bunch of questions BEFORE the panel started that he jotted down and answered in his talk, which I thought was a great way of doing it, and still had time for more questions at the end. All the questions were also great, I thought, in contrast to a lot of con panels. I really enjoyed what he had to say, not only about Eberron, which is probably my favorite of all the official D&D worlds, but about worldbuilding in general. It was only an hour, but it was an hour well spent. There were only about 100 people there but I hope he enjoyed the panel as much as I enjoyed attending.

Afterwards, it was time to meet back up with the guys for my first of four games in the Paizo room. First up: STARFINDER!

We'd tried valiantly, but had only barely made it to level two with our SFS characters, so we each picked a premade "iconic" character who was the same class as our own, and re-skinned them to just say they were our characters. The module was pretty cool, dealing with a world that was a simulation that the inhabitants believed was real. I was a little frustrated with the DM at one point but otherwise had a very fun game.

This is the only pic I took of that game, damnit. And this was because my mom texted and said to tell the guys hi, so I sent this back to her.

And after that game... I parted ways with my friends once again. Because I had tickets... to Critical Role.

Okay this post is already really long, I'll finish up in a second post! Which I've already gotten a good chunk of written, so look for that later tonight or tomorrow night!

#gencon #gencon 2019 #starfinder #star wars rpg #13th age #keith baker #tabletop games #annakie's misc stuff

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amoralto · 5 years

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MOJO: Paul McCartney – the MOJO interview. (May, 2003)

(Note: Finally, finally finished typing this up after @sweating-cobwebs requested the full interview what seems like ages ago. Quotes from this and the Yoko interview from the same issue - which I’ll probably type up in full later as well - can be found under the #2003 tag.)

In troubled times, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono remained undaunted and have found peace – with themselves and each other. Johnny Black met Macca in London.

by Johnny Black

When Sir Paul McCartney’s dark blue Mercedes drives into Docklands Arena and pulls up at the side of the stage, the 60-year-old man who climbs out looks sprightly, even jaunty. He throws his elegant grey jacket over one shoulder, as he proffers a broad smile to everyone he greets. There’s a ripple effect as he moves away from the vehicle, a small knot of his employees drifting along with him. Press officer, catering manager, sound man, security personnel… and they each have a little something they need him to do if and when he has a moment.

He appears to be taking it all on board, seems to placate them all, and by the time he pauses about 30 feet in front of the stage, the knot has dissolved and they’re all heading back to their appointed posts.

The figure briefly watches his mainly American band as they jam cheerfully around the distinctive chord progression of Walk Don’t Run by The Ventures, then joins them on the stage, immediately changing the mood as he leads them into Shakin’ All Over, the first truly great pre-Beatles British rock track. Given how much we seem to love speculating about McCartney’s motives, it would be easy to interpret this as a statement of intent – the British boss asserting his personality over his yankee staff – but it’s also undeniably a great track to warm-up on, and he seems to relish playing it. Up there on that stage, bashing away in front of an audience of less than 20 onlookers, he seems just as happy as he would be if he were basking in the approval of 20,000.

It’s March 14, 2003, and for the next few days the 12,000-capacity Arena – a far cry from the Liverpudlian sitting rooms where The Beatles first knocked their live sets together – is serving as McCartney’s rehearsal hall in the run up to a major European tour.

McCartney’s personal fortune was recently estimated at £620 million by People magazine. In the last year alone, he raked in £120m, of which £65m came from US tour receipts and album sales. But money, as he once famously pointed out, can’t buy love. And love, in the words of another Beatles’ classic, is all you need. In the enduringly poignant country music standard A Satisfied Mind, written in 1955 by Red Hayes and Jack Rhodes, such sentiments are explored more fully in the lines, “Money can’t buy back your youth when you’re old, or a friend when you’re lonely, or a heart that’s grown cold.”

Looked at in that light, just how wealthy is Paul McCartney? Here’s a man, adored by millions, disliked by millions, whose young life was shattered on October 31, 1956 when his mother, Mary, died of cancer in the Northern Hospital, Liverpool. The following year, he befriended John Lennon, only to re-live his own grief over again when Lennon’s mother, Julia, died in 1958.

With George Harrison and Ringo Starr, he and Lennon formed the most successful band the world has ever seen, then watched helplessly as it was destroyed by drugs and greed, turning their friendship to dust along the way. After years of acrimony, he and Lennon had just begun healing their wounds and rebuilding their friendship when Lennon was stolen away from him again by the bullets from Mark Chapman’s gun.

The other major relationship that had brought stability into McCartney’s life was his lasting marriage to Linda Eastman, but that was also taken from him too soon when she died from cancer in April 1998, aged just 56. And it was cancer again that claimed the life of George Harrison on November 29, 2001.

To what extent can £620m heal the scars left by those assaults on McCartney’s famously cheery – and oft derided – bonhomie? The answer, as any fule kno, is that it can’t. So what is it that keeps those legendary thumbs aloft? It has to be more than just the buzz of playing Shakin’ All Over with a band half your age.

When, after an hour and a half, the first rehearsal is over, MOJO is pulled into Macca’s wake by press officer Geoff Baker. At the end of a walk through bare and stark backstage corridors, we arrive at the inner sanctum, a dressing room converted into something not unlike a Persian boudoir, complete with velvet cushions, exotic drapes, dishes groaning with fresh fruit and the smell of incense perfuming the air.

Sitting opposite him across a low table, there’s very little feeling of being in the presence of greatness. He wears his celebrity comfortably – like a favourite old shirt. He is perfectly polite, knows how to put a stranger at ease with an amusing aside but, above all, the passage of the years has made him even more gentlemanly. In the flesh, his boyish demeanour compensates for the lines and wrinkles that have come with age. Look into his face at close quarters and what you see are his eyes, still twinkling. Somewhere behind that twinkle, however, there’s a mind like a steel trap. You don’t get to where McCartney has got without one.

What would be a typical day in your life, like when you’re not working?

I tend to be the one who gets up to make breakfast. You’d die for my breakfast. It’s my Zen thing. I cut up all these lovely exotic things, normally in this order: I cut up a melon, a papaya, some kiwis, bananas, peach, and I make a fruit plate and it looks a bit like a mandala when I’ve done it – there’s all sorts of reasons why but it just have developed into this. We’ll also have tea, bagels, humous – quite a big, fancy breakfast. Then it’s a walk in the park with the dog, or if I’m in the country it might be a horse ride.

Later in the day, I like going to the pictures. We’ve got a great local cinema… Normally I’ll go with Heather, but I went to see Lord Of The Rings on my own. Loved it, whacking great film.

You can go to the cinema without being hassled?

Yeah. I do everything without being hassled. It’s actually been one of my pleasures. I actually like getting on the Tube, getting on the bus. I’ll do it if I’m walking and I see a bus going my way, I’ll just jump on. I did it in the 60s. George’s dad was a bus driver and he could never believe I’d do that. People can’t believe it. I had a guy in the street the other day, he was really worried that I was out on my own with no security. I said, “Gerraway.” I’ve always done that. I used to sometimes walk to Beatles concerts, and you’d get a screaming mass of girls and I’d say, “Come on, girls, calm down.” I’d do the big brother thing. I’m very comfortable with that. If not a movie, we’ll watch TV or a DVD in the evening – I usually try to see Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Blind Date.

Most of us watch Millionaire because we’d like to be one, but that can’t be the appeal for you…

I want them to be millionaires. Actually Heather wants us to go on as a couple. It was funny because we met Chris Tarrant (the show’s presenter) the other night and Heather, in her keenness, said, “We should come on the Celebrity Millionaire show,” … which is for charity, so it’s a good thing… she said, “I know all the answers Paul doesn’t know and he knows all the ones I don’t know.” Chris said, “No, you shouldn’t come on. You’d be terrible.” He just completely took the piss, which was hilarious, because you’d expect him to be really keen.

Somewhere in the evening I’ll have a drink, and get to bed maybe about 11. Is that early? And then I’ll go to sleep and snore. Apparently I snore, but not a lot.

A brace of young women arrive bearing a tray laden with Paul’s lunch – chunky raisin scones, toast and a major pot of tea. Immediately he’s on his feet, exchanging pecks on the cheek, addressing them both by name, inquiring after their well-being. He points at the various delights on the tray to indicate that MOJO is welcome to partake.

Your band on this tour is noticeably young and energetic. How did you find them?

My keyboard player Wix has been with me for years, but I was going to make a record (Driving Rain) in America with David Kahne. He rang me about 10 days before the first session and said, “Do you think you might want to play live in the studio?” So I said, “Yeah, maybe.” So he said, “Should I get a couple of musicians in case you do?” I said, “OK, if you like.” I just left it very sort of casual.

So he thought about some people he admired. He’d never worked with Abe (Laboriel Jr, drummer) but he admired his work. He’d worked with Rusty (Anderson, guitarist). So he told me he’d got these people with great attitudes and who were great players and who could sing.

So I came in on the Monday morning, met the guys, and immediately started making the album, basically live. And that was it. Then, when we did the Superbowl, we needed one more guitarist for that so I asked David, “Do you know anybody?” And he said, “Yeah, this guy Brian Ray.” And he seemed to fit in great.

What do you think people expect from you when they come to a show?

I’m trying to keep a balance, proportionate, between Beatles stuff, Wings stuff and solo stuff. I don’t want it to just be a Beatles show, but I don’t mind giving an audience my most popular stuff. If I go to see David Gray, I’d like to hear him do Babylon because I like that song. And I’d be pretty disappointed if Coldplay didn’t do Yellow, you know?

We still have to rehearse to stay fresh, we’re making some changes to the screens and the lights (at these rehearsals), and I am adding a couple of songs to the set, so it’ll be a slightly longer show.

You were always the one in The Beatles who would turn up at a pub and sing songs. You did it during Magical Mystery Tour and you did it in 1968 on the way back from recording Thingumybob with the Black Dyke Mills Band.

I’d been up in Bradford with (Apple press officer) Derek Taylor, and we were just driving back to London, and we all got bored, someone wanted a pee, so we stopped in a little town called Harrold. And I think when we got to the pub it was shut but we got it to open up and we had a drink and there was a piano there so I sat down and played Let It Be.

Is that as much fun for you as playing in Earl’s Court or wherever?

Yeah. It is. It’s just a different kind of fun. I really do like it. If there’s a piano around it would be very difficult for me to just sit and watch it. It seems to me, in my naivety, that it’s something you approach and tinkle, to see if it’s in tune. It’s not a great desire to perform, I don’t think. I think it’s more that I like music, I like piano… but guitar is best.

Your first instrument was a trumpet. Was that something you wanted, or was it foisted on you by a well-meaning parent?

At the time, I think I must have sort of coveted a trumpet. My dad was a trumpet player and I did like it but when I realised I couldn’t sing and play the trumpet at the same time, I asked him and he said he didn’t mind me trading it in for a guitar. I thought he might be a bit insulted, but he didn’t mind.

The head of another aide pops round the door. It seems the BBC has arrived to show Paul a DVD of a commercial he’s done for the Corporation. Then there’s more rehearsal to be done but maybe we can reconvene later. Not for the first time, McCartney is ushered politely out of reach.

Docklands Arena, soon to be ripped down and replaced with more commercially viable properties, is virtually devoid of character. Fortunately, the stage show devised for this tour offers no end of distraction for the senses. As well as serried ranks of lights of very sort known to man, and some ear-splitting pyrotechnics in Live And Let Die, there are over 30 giant video screens forming a semi-circle around one humongous mother-screen which can be raised up and down as required on worryingly noisy pulleys.

“All our fuckin’ technology and it sounds like a building site,” wails the sound man. He’s consoled by a crew member who’s seen it all before – Gerry Stickells, the legendary Hendrix roadie tempted out of retirement for this tour at McCartney’s personal request.

When he returns to the Arena floor after watching the BBC DVD, he notices that the text on the mother-screen – via which audience members can text each other from their mobiles – is smaller than it used to be. He calls over the lighting director and suggest that “maybe… it might be better if… don’t you think?” Moments later, with the text size already increased, Macca is onstage running the band through the entire show – not that they seem to need it. The set runs almost faultlessly, synchronised with the lights and screens to such an extent that even the ‘Na Na Na’ audience participation section of Hey Jude is rehearsed in real time, with Paul exhorting the imaginary throng – “OK, just the ladies now… fantastic… now just the guys…”

He’s on-stage, performing with more energy than at any time since the heyday of The Beatles, for almost three hours in all, but he comes off at the end barely out breath, and we repair once more to the inner sanctum.

It’s interesting that you use the on-stage screens during Lady Madonna as a gallery of feminist icons…

They actually had Madonna among the visuals, but I thought that was too obvious. So they asked what I’d like to replace Madonna with and I said, “The Queen Mother.” This was two weeks before she died, so when we started touring ti looked like we’d put her in as a tribute.

I didn’t notice Yoko Ono either. Are you two still feuding?

I know that’s the public perception of it, but I do not have a bad relationship with her. We’re not enemies, me and Yoko. We send each other Christmas cards and everything. She’s more like a distant relative.

But you are tussling over the credits to the Lennon-McCartney songs…

There’s no tussle at all, but if, on my songs, like Hey Jude or Yesterday, which John openly acknowledged, particularly in the Playboy interview, that he had nothing whatsoever to do with… John actually made a list for the Playboy thing showing which songs were his and which were mine. I would be quite happy if, on one of the songs, it would be allowed, for my name to just come first. But I’m really not fussed. It’s not anywhere near as big an issue as it looks. It gets played up in the press. It’s a hot little story. And it makes me look stupid. “Why the fuck does he want that?” It’s actually just a very little request.

More importantly for me, it’s Trades Descriptions. It’s so complex and I hate to go on about it but, for example, I was reading a book, an anthology of poetry, and one of the poems in it was Blackbird, which is my lyric. And it said by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Now John had nothing to do with those words, especially once they’ve been extracted from the music and put into a poetry book. I think it’s fair enough to put Blackbird in a poetry book by Paul McCartney. Give Peace A Chance… take my name off it. It was a great, great anthem of John’s.

It’s sort of a mild request I made to Yoko and it’s sort of been turned down. If she’d have said yeah, the publishing company could probably have sorted it out.

Do you think it matters more to other people than it does to you?

I don’t think anyone gives a shit.

But Alistair Taylor, who worked for you at NEMS and Apple for many years, told me he was very upset that you would want to change the credits. He says it was agreed at an early meeting that it should be Lennon-McCartney, and you agreed to that…

Well, number one, Alistair was not in the meeting where I agreed it. It’s all very nice these guys having these opinions, but here’s what I say and this is the truth. There was a meeting with me, John and Brian, in Hilly House, above a carpet shop in Albemarle Street. We went in and they said, “We’re going to call it Lennon-McCartney.” I said, “Well, OK, fair enough, but it would be good to have it occasionally McCartney-Lennon, wouldn’t it, just for fairness for me?”

And they said, swear to God, hand on heart, but there was nobody else in the room and they’re both dead, so there’s no way of me proving this, except I believe it, I was there, and nobody else who talks about it was there, and they said, “We can change it as we go along. And we can change it any time we want out of fairness.”

This was why, many years later, when the Anthology came about, I and Linda, who had just been diagnosed with cancer, rang Yoko, and said, “Could we just, on Yesterday, could we just switch that one track?” That was the original request. It was just for that one song. And Linda, God bless her, spent quite a bit of time ringing Yoko and that was the start of it all.

And now, I must just be resigned, because it doesn’t really matter, except from the point of view of this Blackbird credit. There is an unfairness there, I think. But it’s an unfairness I’m willing to live with. I don’t mind, and I do think it has rebounded on me a bit because people want to know, “What the fuck does he think he’s doing?” I’ve had letters from people saying, “Paul, you’re doing yourself no favours. I was a big fan of yours but this terrible thing of trying to ruin John’s reputation…” I’m not trying to ruin John’s reputation.

When Yoko was interviewed by MOJO, she said it wasn’t all black during the making of the White Album. There was some lighter moments. Is that how you recall it?

That’s absolutely true, yeah. We’d never have got an album made if it was as black as it was painted. It’s a good album. I remember we presented John and Yoko with an inscribed teapot, and that was a fun time. Unfortunately, because The Beatles were splitting up, the only thing anybody wanted to know about was the split.

It wasn’t all black, even then. We were all pretty friendly, and the times when we weren’t friendly was quite a small proportion of the overall thing. Unfortunately, that’s what gets remembered because it was the most significant proportion because it ended up in a divorce, as it were. In a divorce court, you don’t say, “Oh, she was really great. She’s actually fabulous, and I’m sorry we’re getting a divorce.” That’s what happened to us. Because of the circumstances we had to talk about all the shit.

I think because the Beatles had been by and large a happy, successful thing… four lads getting out of Liverpool, getting out of the working class money trap and doing well… that had all been an up vibe and then with drugs and stuff towards the end of the ’60s it was all taking a bit of a dip. The drugs weren’t working, nobody was giggling anyore, and the word ‘heavy’ came into the vocabulary.

Because all of that was going on it did get nasty. The thing with me having to sue the other guys. I wanted to sue Allen Klein but I couldn’t, so the only way to get out of everything for me and them was for me to sue them, and that was unconscionable, that was something I would never have thought of doing.

It was unfortunate because, in suing the other guys, not only did I get their backs up for a number of years, but the public perception was of me being the guy who sued The Beatles. I held off doing it for months, but it was pointed out to me that the only other option was to go with Klein. So I did it but, luckily, all things must pass, and it did pass. In the end, the others were glad I’d done it. There wouldn’t be Apple now. But it was a very ugly period, and ugly things I had to do to make it work.

You still seem very interested in politics, supporting the campaign to get ride of landmines. But the Wings single, Give Ireland Back To The Irish, was a very direct political statement.

See, I thought we were Irish. So it was a home problem for me… McCartney… Liverpool being the capital of Ireland… it was like a very personal take on it. What if there were Irish soldiers on the streets of Hendon or Speke? Would you like it? That was my take on it.

As evening falls over Docklands, McCartney is whisked off home to dinner with Heather, leaving a promise that if MOJO returns on Monday, a little more interview time will somehow be squeezed into a hectic day. Over the intervening weekend, his Radio 2 commercial, a radically reworked version of Band On The Run, begins airing, along with a short TV film about its making.

When we reconvene at the Arena on Monday morning, the ambience has changed. A troupe of dancers – including a young woman bent on squeezing herself into a tiny Perspex box – is rehearsing backstage; two insurance brokers have arrived to check out the pyrotechnics; the MOJO photography crew, rpomised first access to Macca, is anxious; and there’s an entirely new set to be rehearsed.

As before, Macca opts to take to the stage first. A guitar tech hands him a jumbo acoustic and they lanunch into For No One, followed by Things We Said Today, C-Moon, Honey Don’t… this is the Coliseum set. The band is still unfamiliar with several of the tracks so Macca strums through I’ve Just Seen A Face yelling out the chords as he proceeds. As Geoff Baker strolls past, MOJO inquires whether McCartney will perform Mull of Kintyre when the tour hits Glasgow. “Absoutely not,” says Baker. “We’re frantically seaching for a pipe band at this very moment for an entirely different reason.”

Up on the stage, McCartney says, “OK lads, let’s try Cor Blimey Luv!” and they thunder into Can’t Buy Me Love. Come lunchtime, he is unexpectedly taken off for a meeting in central London, but promises MOJO a swift return.

Two hours later, precisely as predicted, McCartney reappears.

A couple of the post-Beatles songs like Coming Up and Let Me Roll It seems to me to be much more powerful than the originals. Is this how you really intended them to be in the first place?

No. It’s an evolution caused by playing with this band. The parts are already there. What I like about this band is that I don’t really have to tell them. What I’ve done on this whole tour, this band, this new thing, is I’ve let everyone be, let them do their thing, and then if I don’t like it, I’ve reined it in a bit.

Rather than me dictating how to play it, I figure my dictatorial moments have happened – I wrote those songs and I did the original records, so now I don’t feel the band has to stick note-for-note to the original arrangements. It’s also a bit of a louder band than I’ve had before, a bigger sound, so that adds to it.

I know that Rusty is working on his own CD at the moment, but there’s presumably no chance in this band of the other members being allowed to contribute their own songs on the set?

I’ve had to take on the role of boss ever since Wings. It wasn’t like The Beatles any more. Denny Laine, for example, had the reputation of having done Go Now, so you might want to do that, but really the promoters and the audience tended to want to hear my stuff.

At your level of success, you’re effectively the head of a small company. How do you know whether the people are saying that what you do is great because it is great, or just because you’re the boss?

It’s almost impossible, but I think I’ve been at it long enough now to suss… I actually see people telling me, “That’s a great idea!” but I prefer people to speak their minds. So in this kind of team, they’re not just sycophants. They’re more likely to be people who’ll say, “Yeah, that’s a good idea but what if we did this?” And I’ll go, “Wow! Shit! That’s a great idea.”

Do you take to the role of boss easily?

I used to be frightened of it when I was younger because I thought, “We all hate bosses, don’t we?” But I had to get over it because with Apple, we suddenly had this company losing a lot of money we’d earned so I then had to actually tell people what to do – I’m talking about secretaries and staff, The Beatles was still a democratic thing, but we all became bosses then.

That was a strange moment for you, when you had to take over the business side as well as the creative…

We all had to do it, and that had all its famous problems associated with it. After that I had to decide how I would do it in my solo career, which is when I put MPL together. Very small beginnings, one little room in some film production offices, and at that point I really did become the boss. I had a secretary and everything, and then that thing grew, so yeah, I’ve got more and more comfortable with it. I don’t think I’m a very hard boss, but I kick ass when things go wrong.

Do you think your continued success over 40 years – which seems to include a fair number of younger fans – is a bit odd? It’s as if, in the ’60s, Al Jolson or Rudy Vallée had still been pulling in huge crowds.

I think our thing was stuff that goes for all generations. I’m singing things now that I wrote years ago and thinking, “Shit, that’s still appropriate.” Doing Calico Skies, for example, talking about “crazy soldiers, weapons of war”… and look at what’s going on around us right now.

I certainly don’t think it’s any reflection of the state of contemporary music. I think music right now is really great. I’m not an expert, because I’m not a kid buying it, but I always check out people who are said to be good. I’ll see somebody getting a Grammy and I don’t know them, so I’ll check that out.

For instance, I’d heard Eminem on the radio and I thought, “Clever. Good lyrics, good ideas.” So I just went to see 8 Mile and it’s a great little rock ’n’ roll film, like an Elvis film. I enjoyed it and I came out like when I was a kid, that feelgood thing coming out of a movie like you’re walking a bit taller.

What are the eternal verities of a great song?

It’s an indefinable magic chemistry which can come many, many ways. Starting at the top… it’s often a great title. It’s often great words, or great melodies, or great chords or a great sound… but the best ones have got them all.

And there’s always a magic moment. Send In The Clowns, for example, has that line about, “Isn’t it queer… oh, they’re here.” Or in The Drugs Don’t Work. I remember hearing that record, the acoustic coming on, but when he hits that line, it’s like, “Fucking hell, that has to be said.” It hadn’t been said before.

If I had to plump for one single element, it would be melody, because not all songs have got words. I can be moved by a great melody on its own.

Many artists adopt personas. Is that what happened with The Beatles?

We didn’t think that was what we were about. We felt more like a little group of students. It was more an art thing we thought we were doing. We were just (adopts exaggerated Liverpool accent) John, Paul, George and Ringo, you know? I think one of the great things about The Beatles, apart from the fact that we were damn good, was that we were very honest – that could be one of the things that has lasted. Also, we were artists. Our artistic development found a home in people’s hearts and they were able to follow it. Yellow Submarine is a kid’s thing; A Day In The Life is more grown up, so it was an interesting body of work.

It’s also a body of work that has haunted him ever since. Despite multi-platinum hits and a wealth of superlative tracks in his post-Beatles output, Lennon-McCartney remains the standard by which all contemporary songwriters, including him, are judged. John’s untimely death put him on a pedestal, moving him effectively beyond criticism, while McCartney got on with the job of living in the shadow of their unwieldy legacy. It must have been galling, for example, to release his acclaimed solo album Flaming Pie in 1997, while knowing full well that it would never match the sales of, or reap the critical plaudits heaped on The Beatles’ Anthology, a compilation of outtakes, backing tracks and rarities, which had been released two years earlier.

Nor did his renaissance man dabblings in classical composition, poetry and painting do much to revive public interest. But then, on June 11, 2002, Sir Paul McCartney married his ex-model girlfriend Heather Mills, in St Salvator’s Church, Castle Leslie, Glaslough, Ireland. Since then, although things haven’t gone exactly smoothly, it seems as if his life is more firmly back on track.

This is a man who obviously likes to be married, enjoys stability and finds pleasure in domesticity’s little routines, presumably to balance the whirlwind of activity that follows every move he makes outside of his front door. Watching him deliever the line, “Oh that magic feeling, nowhere to go” on the stage at Docklands, it suddenly seemed to rank among his most heartfelt.

Following the muted response from critics and public alike to his Driving Rain album of 2001, he makes no attempt to hide the fact that he’s revelling in the acclaim for and success of this tour in America, which has outstripped all expectations. For this 60-year-old knight of the realm to be the biggest-grossing US live act of 2002 – seeing off not just arch-rivals The Rolling Stones but also the young bucks – is clearly a source of immense personal satisfaction.

But who is he really? Bastion of the establishment? Rock idol? Contented hubby? Multi-talented renaissance man? Avant-garde pop genius? All of the aforementioned and more? Or just an old dopehead with a good head for a nice tune?

Over the years, you’ve been busted for marijuana in Scotland, England, Barbados, Japan, Scandinavia… you could probably get in the Guinness Book Of Records for being busted in most countries. Did anybody mention this in the process of making you a Sir?

No, nobody comes and says anything like that. You can be a terrible person and still be a Sir. It must be that way, because they gave it to me. The worst thing about being busted is that you go on computer records. So every time I go to America, they see my name on the database and they know I’ve been busted a lot, but I think they’ve sort of forgiven me. It’s like, “That was his wild youth but he’s all right now.” So they always let me through, but the drug busts, I have had to go and sit with the aliens in Customs, once or twice. It’s a bit embarrasing. That stuff never comes off your records.

What’s the most useful thing about being a Sir?

I can’t think of many useful things about it. George Martin says it gets you a good table in a restaurant, but I get a good table anyway. I ring up and ask for a table for 8.30 and if they say, “Sorry, there’s no tables left,” I will say, “This is Paul McCartney here.” Then you hear a bit of scuffling and suddenly a table becomes free. I don’t actually like doing that, but I will if I’m desperate. But I never say, “This is Sir Paul McCartney.” I never call myself that. I see it as being like a school prize. You don’t really go for it, but get it because of what you are. Like the art prize or the maths prize. It’s nice to get it because it’s an honour, a recognition of what you’ve done, but it doesn’t do you much good. For me, the best thing about getting it was that it was popular. A lot of people said, “Oh yes, he deserved that.” That was important to me.

How about Sir Mick Jagger?

Who cares? I think it’s cool. I don’t think it makes you anything. I think you are ‘it’ already and it’s a prize for being that thing. And Mick is Mick so that’s fine. I can think of people who should get them… like Eric Clapton. He’s a prime candidate. Sir Eric Clapton has a ring to it.

At your level of success, you’re effectively a company. How many people do you employ all told?

Normally, we carry about 140. When you’re in school or college, you’re a scruffy little bastard writing essays all the time, hoping one day that you’ll be a lawyer, a judge, a journalist, rocker, head of a company, your dreams are all there and I’ve actually got my visualisation. I feel very lucjy. I’m really aware that it’s not just me… I’ve had a phenomenal amount of luck.

Heather said, a few months back, that marrying you had brought her a lot of unhappiness. How do you, as a couple, cope with that?

I’d like to help her with it, and I hate to say this, but it’s more how does she deal with it, you know? I think the shock for Heather was that she’d been “Great model who overcomes accident and now she does a lot of work for charity and disabled people.” The minute she married me, it was, “Who does she think she is?” It’s really quite unfair, but she’s a sitting target. I think it did give her a lot of grief. The most grief, the worst thing about it, was that it actually affected the charities she was working for. People actually stopped donating because of what they read in the newspapers, which was largely untrue. They did a lot of silly things. There was a photo of Heather and I at Stella’s fashion show, and it looked like Heather was doing two peace signs with her fingers and some journalist said, “Oh, she’s copying Linda.” And actually, on closer inspection, it was my hands. But who cares? They’re just having a go. I mean, who gives a shit who gives a V sign?

They also claimed she was doing a cookbook when she wasn’t. We get asked to give a recipe to an Amnesty cookbook or a vegetarian society cookbook, so you do that and it comes out as she’s doing a cookbook. It’s changed a bit since the Parky show. A lot of people like that show, and she changed a lot of people’s minds. In fact, we were walking the dog in Regent’s Park this morning and somebody came up and said, “That was really good on the Parky show!” The main point she made that people appreciated was that with this sort of arbitrary press sniping, it doesn’t affect her so much as it affects the charity, and the disabled people who might have got a leg if there’d been the money raised.

Somebody in one of the papers even said she was under investigation for her charity work, and that completely undermines what she’s trying to achieve. It turned out not to be true but, as you know, the apology appears on page 10 where no one sees it three weeks after all the damage has been done. The same thing happened in the early days with Linda but, as Parky said on the show, it comes with the territory – marrying this guy. It’s not so much me, though, it’s just fame. The same thing happens if you marry Tom Cruise, or Michael Douglas. You get a load of shit. You may have married him because you love him, but now you’re a sitting target.

I noticed that George’s death elicited a very different reaction among my friends than John’s did. John’s was horrible because it was sudden and unexpected and he was young. But I think George’s death reminded my entire generation of our own mortality. It’s as if we measure our own lives alongside the lives of artists we loved. Did you get any sense of that?

To me, of course, it was more of a personal thing. Privately, I felt the same way about both of them. I had lost a dear friend who I would never see again. But when John died, because of the shock, during that day I was asked what I felt about John’s death and all I could stumble across was, “It’s a drag.” I couldn’t gather my thoughts. We were just in shock. I was just shouting stuff about the guy who’d shot John.

I was very lucky that my relationship with John had been healed. It had been vicious, but were phoning each other, talking about kids, baking bread, cats, being a husband – all the simple shit that really means a lot to me. That was the consolation before the terrible shock.

With George’s death, because we knew it was happening, I was able to be more considered in my reaction. I was able to go and hold his hand… but the bottom line is that I will see that man no more, and that’s a little bit horrific for me. When you lose someone dear you just wish someone could magic it all back again. And maybe there is some way, who knows, in the great beyond.

After all he’s been through, McCartney seems more at peace with himself than at any time since John’s death. He is keenly aware that, in the public perception, such actions as seeking to change the credits on Lennon-McCartney songs have tarnished his image, but he also knows that one of the greatest tricks of surviving immense fame is learning to recognise that you have an image, realising that your image isn’t you, and stepping away from it in order to get on with real life.

The punchline of that old song, A Satisfied Mind, is that, “It’s so hard to find one rich man in 10 with a satisfied mind.” There’s no telling how long it might last but it would seem that, for the moment, Paul McCartney is that one rich man.

Coming Up

While suffering a near-nervous breakdown during the Fabs’ prolonged disintegration, McCartney quietly worked on an ill-fated side-project that many now agree ranks among his best solo work. Chris Ingham basks in the understated glory of 1970’s McCartney.

Autumn of 1969, Paul McCartney was in a strange place. Feeling redundant following John Lennon’s announcement in an August meeting at Apple that he was leaving The Beatles, McCartney retreated to his farm in Scotland to drink, stay up, lie in and suffer what he would call “almost a nervous breakdown��.

At the same time, in the company of Linda, his bride of six months, step-daughter Heather and brand new baby daughter Mary, he also began to enjoy the ‘glow’ of being in a new family. By the time they returned to his St John’s Wood house for the winter, McCartney was sufficiently energised to do a little work from home. Plugging one microphone directly into a Studer multitrack with no VU monitoring or mixing desk, he overdubbed himself on drums, guitar, bass and keyboards, polishing his DIY recordings at Abbey Road (where he booked in as Billy Martin) and Morgan Studios, Willesden.

The resulting album McCartney – released in April 1970 simultaneously as The Beatles’ split became public knowledge – was almost universally received as a bit of a non-event. Modest, rough-hewn, semi-improvised, it was the unshaven opposite of The Beatles’ pristine work on Abbey Road which had appeared only eight months before.

Yet, over 30 years on, it holds up as a funky home-brew of a record, groovily lo-fi in a way that wouldn’t be fashionable for a couple of decades. The primitive experimentalism and bluesy jams that were for years dismissed as semi-distracted indulgence now sound, well, rather cool. The drumming is rudimentary but deep, the guitar playing bluesy and distinctive (and much admired by Paul Weller for one), the sound is warm and present, “very analogue” as McCartney recognises now.

And as an expression of where he was at – ‘home, family, love’ – it is as vivid as anything he ever did. The informal paeans to his new wife – The Lovely Linda, Oo You – are respectively radiant with natural affection and earthy passion while the majestic Maybe I’m Amazed confirmed that, when he felt like it, his ability to shape inspiration with unmatched pop craft was secure.

Elsewhere, if lovers of McCartney’s straightforward pop are short-changed – the delightful Every Night and Junk notwithstanding – it’s because he just felt like recording other things; the ethereal sound made by wine glasses (Glasses), a dusted-off Silver Beatles instrumental (Hot As Sun), or a rather compelling chant-and-percussion sound painting of an African tribe (Kreen-Akrore). It’s the very wilfulness of McCartney – the organic sound of an artist learning how to express himself in whatever way he pleases – that gives the album a “realness” that somehow appeals more with the passage of time.

As Paul wrote in 1970 to journalist Penny Valentine, who had spoken for many by expressing her disappointment with the record, “even at this moment it is growing on you.” It still is.

Timeless melody

A purveyor of silly songs? No, a compositional genius…

Peter Buck, R.E.M.: Ram is an amazing record. Ram On? That’s like something off Pet Sounds. The Back Seat Of My Car is amazing. Wings’ Wild Life is really cool. It just sounds like he was in the biggest band of all time, he goes, “Hey we just got a drummer, let’s make a record this week, without any songs!” Dear Friend is one of my favourite songs he ever wrote, which is probably about John. I love that song. I actually recorded it with the Minus 5. Needless to say, the stuff he did with The Beatles was pretty decent too. The thing that boggles my mind is that when they broke up, nobody was 30, and George was 26. He was 26?! Jeez.

Brendan Benson: It’s his genuine fascination for music and music theory, him as a composer, explorer and experimenter, especially his post-Beatles work. He’s a great arranger, the way he puts his songs together. Band On The Run is his masterpiece. It works on so many different level: it’s a simple pop record, yet the way he ties in the melodies throughout makes it something more. It’s a work of genius, so huge and epic yet never outstaying its welcome. He tears at the heartstrings with his mix of mellow, dark and pleasing sounds. There’s never anything harsh or abrasive, just super moody songs, full of melancholic nostalgia.

Andy Partridge, XTC: He’s so fab because he’s so ludicrously melodic and he’s not afraid to be soppy. It takes a lot of guts to do that. My favourite song? It’s Getting Better is so fantastically optimistic, with this great convoluted construction, twisting around. And that bass playing –it’s actually just like his singing, piping and flute-like. And Hello/Goodbye, those opening chords reach in like a ray of sunshine. Again, it’s ferociously optimistic. You know you’re going to have a good experience. It’s not this fake seriousness you get now. He’s never had a problem restricting himself to one thing – he can rock out, be avant-garde, do children’s music, pop for the teens… it’s preposterous that he’s seen as the second-best Beatle – I think the whole thing was an equally jewelled tug of love between them. Although I do wonder why you never see McCartney and Angela Lansbury in the same room.

Gladys Knight: For me it was when Paul took control of the group that The Beatles were at their best. He’s so gifted at writing words and I always choose songs for their lyrical content. I must have worn the grooves off Let It Be. I’d get up in the morning playing it, go to bed playing it, cook to it, clean up to it. The title track was just a song that touched my spirit and that’s why I decided to cover it, because it touched my soul.

Tom McRae: The man is a genius for melody. The second side of Abbey Road – particularly Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight is one of the greatest Beatles’ moments and Paul’s shining moment. It goes from this brilliant beautiful ballad, his voice so lush and romantic, to turning, in a split second, into a raucous rock number; the best of both sides of his art all in the space of one song. It’s so emotive and there’s a challenging simplicity in his melody and lyrics.

Ben Kweller: The first album I ever fell in love with was Let It Be. I was eight and listened to it non-stop. Paul’s lyrics are so focused on the subject matter and the emotion he brings to the songs is so sincere and honest. Those massive piano ballads like The Long And Winding Road just make me swell up inside. His voice is so pure and beautiful and his musicianship is often overlooked. He reinvented bass playing and excelled at the guitar, piano and drums.

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