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normalaboutdntm · 7 months

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Signed programme from the London concert of Death Note the Musical ^.^ It reads right-to-left so this is the front cover!

[ID: a black programme which reads Death Note the Musical In Concert above the show's logo of an apple resting on an open Death Note. Ryuk's silhouette can be seen in a reflection on the apple and while the writing in the notebook isn't fully legible, one can tell it's the rules of using the Death Note. At the very bottom in small text it says copyright Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata Shueisha, Horipro. There are five autographs in golden sharpie. End ID]

They started selling autographed programmes on Saturday at the Lyric for not much more than the non-signed ones. I can't read the handwriting very well but I'm pretty sure they're signed by Light/Joaquin Pedro Valdes, Rem/Aimee Atkinson, Ryuk/George Maguire, and Misa/Jessica Lee. This particular programme is also signed by Sayu/Rachel Clare Chan, as I met her at stage door and she happened to have a pen. :) I really wish I'd thought to bring one so I could have gotten L/Dean John Wilson's autograph as well (I'm not sure why he didn't sign the programmes - maybe because Carl Mann also performed the role?) but you can't win them all I guess.

More described images of the programme and commentary below the cut. I am only including the "articles" so to speak and excluding the actor bios/ad pages because I don't have it in me to type up every bit of information in here. If you would like to see the extra pages and are willing to write image descriptions, DM me.

[ID: a text box that says "Welcome to Death Note: the Musical at the London Palladium! Tonight, we invite you to immerse yourself in the gripping world of Death Note, a story that has captivated hearts globally. With mesmerizing music, stunning performances and thought-provoking themes, our talented cast and creative team will lead you through a thrilling journey of morality, power and justice.

"As we make history at the iconic London Palladium with what will be the first ever English language performance of Death Note, we thank you for joining us on this unforgettable adventure.

"Prepare to be spellbound as the curtain rises, the music swells and Death Note unfolds before your eyes. . .

"Enjoy the show!

"Carter Dixon McGill Productions"

After the text box is a rehearsal picture. Light sings wearing a backpack and two femme actors who are also singing stand in profile next to him, holding books and wearing backpacks as well. Someone stands behind JPV almost completely blocked by him. End ID]

Two things to note here: the use of the manga font and the welcome message that specifies the Palladium. The rest of the programme mentions both the Lyric and the Palladium, so I'm not sure if the absence of the Lyric here is a mistake or if they wanted to preserve the original intent of the message, which is that the first performances at the Palladium were a really big deal.

[ID: A rehearsal pic of Light holding up the Death Note while L, Ryuk, and other cast members look on. A text box says " A message from Horipro, the original producers of Death Note: The Musical.

"The project to adapt the internationally acclaimed manga Death Note, published by Shueisha and created by Tsugumi Ohba (original story) and Takeshi Obata (illustrations), into a musical, began in 2011. Composed by Frank Wildhorn, who has collaborated with our company on numerous productions since Jekyll & Hyde in Tokyo in 2001, and directed by the renowned Japanese director Tamiya Kuriyama, Death Note: The Musical had its world premiere in Tokyo in 2015. Since then, it has garnered passionate, enthusiastic fans and has been performed multiple times in Japan and South Korea.

"Currently, HoriPro is presenting Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and School of Rock in Tokyo. Over the years we have had the pleasure of bringing numerous wonderful works born in London, such as Mary Poppins, Matilda and Billy Elliot, to Japan. It brings us immeasurable joy to now introduce a production originating from Japan to audiences in London.

"To everyone witnessing the start of Death Note: The musical as it ventures into the world, we express our heartfelt gratitude.

"We hope you enjoy the show!

"Yoshitaka Hori, HoriPro Group Chairman, President & CEO" End ID]

[ID: the panel from the manga of Light's heart attack. Text box that says, "Death Note Between Entertainment and Culture by Filippo Cervelli

"When Death Note originally appeared as a manga in 2003, it took its audience by surprise. The story of the genius high-school student Light Yagami chancing upon the magic titular Death Note, giving him the power to kill everyone on the planet just by writing their name on its pages, was a compelling tale interweaving magic with the urban Tokyo everyday environment. Dissatisfied with the judicial system, Light takes the matters of justice into his own hands, placing himself above the law and embarking on a journey to purge the world of evildoers. From this enticing premise Death Note then evolves into a psychological thriller, epitomised by Light's cat-and-mouse battle with his main antagonist, the brilliant and mysterious detective L. The numerous panels alternating the two characters playing mind games against each other, brilliantly written by Tsugumi Ohba and vividly drawn by artist Takeshi Obata, have left a long-lasting impression on the manga's readers. And yet, together with the compelling drama and carefully crafted dialogues, Death Note also struck a powerful chord in its audience, because no reader could remain insensitive to the simple yet fundamental question it asked: "What would you do if you had the power to change the world?" end ID]

[ID: the manga panel where Soichiro has just fired an empty gun at Light in the car and Misa and Light both look terrified but relieved. There are two pull-out quotes that say "Death Note has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the bestselling manga of all time" and "Death Note has successfully shown that manga aimed at 'kids' can treat very serious matters, too." The rest of the article reads: "Not only was Death Note a successful story, the context of its publication was conducive to its great impact. Japan's comics industry is heavily focused on serialisations in dedicated magazines, of which there exist a plethora, divided by frequency of publication (weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.) and genre. Death Note was in fact published in weekly instalments in Shonen Jump, Japan's most popular and iconic manga magazine which, in its 55 years of history, has published global hits such as Jojo's Bizarre Adventures (1987-2004), Dragonball (1984-1995) and the more recent Demon Slayer (2016-2020) and One Piece (1997-). While the popularity of Shonen Jump contributed to the visibility of Death Note, it also placed the story in an unusual context. As the above examples show, Shonen Jump is famous for action, comedy and sports manga catered to an audience of mainly adolescent boys. Although the categorisation does not of course preclude readers outside of this demographic, Japanese magazines do take their target audiences into serious consideration when choosing their contents. It was therefore striking that a manga not based on humour, romance or battles, which focused instead on murder and psychological thrills, could find a space among the pages of Jump. However, this supposed misplacement worked in the manga's favour, inducing in readers a sense of wonder and curiosity towards a new publication that seemed so different from its neighbours. In the end, with a serialised run of three years (2003-2006), later collected in twelve volumes (plus one with extra contents), Death Note has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the bestselling manga of all time. It has successfully shown that manga aimed at 'kids' can treat very serious matters, too.

"Beyond the numbers, Death Note has left an indelible mark on contemporary Japanese culture. Its great success solidified the reputation of Oba and Obata as one of manga's most appreciated duos, who later produced other hits such as Bakuman (2008-2012), which takes an insider's look into the world of manga publiishing in Japan, and Platinum End (2015-2021), a fantasy manga following the stories a group of contenders who are granted angelic powers in a race to become the next God. Death Note proposes a protagonist who chooses to fight for his values in a society that does not seem to give any solid models of prosperity and fails to ensure individual happiness. While Light's motives might be despicable, his actions ask fundamental questions about right and wrong and about what justice really means, which may not find immediate answers. This is possibly Death Note's deepest strength.

"All these factors have assured Death Note's success. While the original manga is read avidly around the world even today, 20 years after its original serialisation began, the story has also been expanded and adapted into various media. Together with the animated series following the original story, a live-action film version was released shortly after the manga's conclusion in 2006. Split into two parts, the films starred internationally renowned Tatsuya (Battle Royale) and Ken'ichi Matsuyama (Norwegian Wood, Gantz) as Light and L, respectively. The films, featuring a different ending from the manga version, enjoyed such popularity that they spawned a spin-off film in 2008, L Change the WorLd, focusing on the titular awkward and brilliant detective. In 2016, another spin-off film was released. Titled Death Note: Light Up the New World and set ten years after the confrontation between Light and L, it imagines a new case in which six new death notes have appeared. Filmic adaptations have also crossed Japanese borders, with a US-produced film released by Netflix in 2017. The film transposes the story to an American high school setting, changing characters' names accordingly. The TV format has also proved particularly fruitful for Death Note, with the story adapted into a series of 11 episodes in 2015, featuring in the role of L Kento Yamazaki, known to Western audiences as the lead in the Netflix show Alice in Borderland.

"With countless adaptations to other media, including novels, videogames and trading card games, Death Note's cultural impact is still strong. Together with reading the original manga and watching the various cinematic versions, London audiences now have the possibility to enjoy the musical adaptation of the manga series, adding another precious layer to the multimedia experience of this staple of contemporary Japanese creativity.

"Filippo Cervelli is a Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature at SOAS University of London." End ID]

This is all I can manage tonight. . . I'll be back with more later.

#death note the musical #death note musical #joaquin pedro valdes #dean john wilson #my post #death note

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nik-the-bik · 3 years

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Henriel Week Day 7: Alternate Ending

"The Fate of Your Soul"

Summary: A "What if Hyde didn't end up dead and Utterson spoke to him after finding everything out?" scenario

Last entry of Henriel week and I am once again thanking @corvidayyy for putting this together because I had too much fun planning these

****

Utterson squeezed the bridge of his nose as he fought off the pain and exhaustion of everything that had happened tonight.

Poole’s arrival, listening into Jekyll’s cabinet, breaking down the door, and the awful, terror infused screaming of Hyde pleading for mercy as the two charged in, pinning him to the ground as a vial of some substance clattered to the floor, the man writhing beneath them.

He didn’t think he would ever be able to escape the echoing shouts of “Not you! Not like this—please not you!” that had made his blood run cold as he called out to Bradshaw to summon the nearest policemen.

By the time the police arrived, Hyde had entered full hysteria, gasping sobs melting into unhinged laughter in a way that was overwhelmingly pitiful, if Utterson only but listened. To see the man struggle only tinged these feelings of pity with disgust. He did his best to keep his gaze averted.

And while his search of the cabinet hadn’t found Henry Jekyll, he did find the letters.

God, the letters. The information within them was all too much for his mind to process, and his head was hurting him worse than it had in years. When he had first finished Henry’s confessional, he had found himself sobbing—something that he probably hadn’t done in three decades. Too many conflicted feelings existed within him to make any sense of them, but as he composed himself with a hot cup of tea (with a healthy dose of bourbon mixed in), he brought himself to reading them a second and third time, desperate to understand.

After pouring through these pages, eyes burning from the strain of reading in the dim study, Utterson could understand nothing but a deep, deep ache in his very soul for the fate of poor old Harry Jekyll.

He pried himself out of his chair, desperate to do something—anything, but sit here for another moment with his thoughts. He turned to his coat and hat, still laying in a heap where he had tossed them after coming home, and prepared himself to step out into the brisk, dark air.

It was not long ‘til dawn when Utterson arrived at the precinct where they were holding Mr. Hyde.

After pacing the outside block a few times, Utterson finally steeled himself enough to enter the building where he almost immediately ran into a gentleman he recognized – the Newcomen who he had assisted during the Carew case. Thinking back to that time made his stomach turn anew.

“Ah, Mr. Utterson, good morning,” said Newcomen, looking tired himself. “I regret to inform you that there is no news yet of the whereabouts of Dr. Jekyll, but we have a full team dedicated to finding your man as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Inspector,” Gabriel muttered, peering around nervously. “But that’s not the only reason I’m here.”

“Oh?” Newcomen shifted, doing his best to hide his sudden burst of curiosity.

“I would like to meet with Edward Hyde.”

Newcomen laughed. “No need for that! We have everything under control with him, and before long his time before the gallows will be scheduled—”

“I insist, Inspector.”

Newcomen froze.

“I’d like to speak with him alone, sir,” Gabriel continued.

“-er---alone?”

“Why yes, of course. I’m acting as his legal counsel.”

“You—you—I'm -- sorry, what?” Newcomen was standing there, mouth agape, no longer showing any signs of fatigue. Gabriel, however, felt the exhaustion run deeper than it had before. He sighed, handed the officer his card, and asked to be shown into a private interrogation room.

As he sat in the small, cold, gray room, head in his hands, Utterson couldn’t decide whether he had made the correct choice in coming here or not. The endless ways this encounter could go were daunting, the wait unbearably long, and he suddenly found that he'd much rather be back home in front of the fire. Or in bed.

Utterson’s stomach sunk low at the sound of the door opening. Hyde was escorted in by a pair of officers, who forced him into a chair and chained his hands together and ankle to the leg of his chair. Utterson couldn't bear to watch—the whole proceeding making him nauseous. He kept his gaze on the floor as he waited for the policemen to finish. He gave a curt nod as they departed while they reminded him that they would be in the hall and at his full disposal if anything were needed.

When they were alone, Utterson finally let himself look directly at Hyde.

Before this night, Utterson had only ever seen Hyde on one other occasion. To see him now, it was almost difficult to say that it was the same man.

The Edward Hyde before him was a little taller, a little older, and much more pale and sickly than his previous self. There was also something much more feral about him, with the way that his eyes sharply dashed across the room, unnaturally tense and agitated. His body was tightly coiled inward, breathing shallow, like a snake preparing to strike. He could see his jaw working too, as though he was chewing his words before he allowed them to tumble out of his mouth.

“You, then?” was all that the creature before him managed to grunt out. His voice sounded much raspier too, raw from the screaming that had taken place earlier.

“Me.”

Another interlude of silence.

“Why are you here?”

“I would like some answers.”

“Answers to what?” Hyde asked, eyeing him suspiciously. The words were spit at Utterson like they were poison.

“I’ve read the letter. All of it. And Lanyon’s too.”

“You have?”

“Yes.”

“And yet you’re here?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know all. Henry Jekyll is gone. I can’t help you.”

“Are you sure, Harry?”

Hyde convulsed suddenly, looking as though he had been smacked. When he composed himself again, staring directly at Utterson, he seemed to soften, if only slightly. His eyes, darker than Henry’s, nonetheless held something in them that drew Utterson in.

“I’m quite sure. It’s a hopeless case. You’re pleading for a dead man,” Hyde answered, a little more gravity to his voice than the short, raspy whispers of before.

They stared at each other for another moment, Utterson desperate to find anything, anything at all that would connect the miserable creature before him to the man he used to regard as his dearest friend, his family, his—well—everything.

“Henry Jekyll was not one to abandon hope so quickly.”

Hyde laughed then, a sad, desperate cackle. “Really? Is that so? I guess you didn’t know him as well as you thought! You really think that after all this, after everything you’ve learned, that you even knew him at all? The Henry Jekyll you knew, the Henry Jekyll you WANT, is gone. In fact, he never existed. I’m all that’s left—the miserable, miserable testament to all his sin, his failure, and every twisted thing that he had always been all along. You’re wasting your time and mine, Utterson, and I have precious little of it left.”

Hyde shut his eyes then, turning his face away from Utterson, refusing to even look at him. Utterson was afraid that the pitiable hysteria of before—when they had found Hyde alone in Jekyll’s cabinet, would resurface. He could see that Hyde was restraining himself against some deep emotion.

Utterson brought his hand to his brow and groaned. It was too late, or early, and exhaustion was clutching him like a vice. He continued to watch Hyde, and that usual disgust that his presence typically inspired was beginning to wane, ever so slightly, the longer they sat with each other. Of course, he had to keep reminding himself who this man truly was in order to keep those feelings at bay.

Finally, “What are we going to do, Henry?”

Hyde sputtered. “We? I--”

“The eyewitness account doesn’t help us at all, and the fact that I had previously cooperated with the police to corroborate the testimony—”

“What on Earth are you talking about?”

“And it has been far too long since I’ve been involved in criminal law—”

“Utterson!” Hyde pleaded. Gabriel paused and brought his gaze back to Hyde. “You can’t, you can’t really be here to—”

“Have you forgotten my promise? I once promised Henry Jekyll that I would ensure Edward Hyde gets his rights, and that is exactly what I intend to do. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do anything to save you, but…”

Utterson trailed off. Hyde looked at him, dumbstruck. It was though he were finally considering the character of the man before him, and not instinctively assuming every man he faced was an enemy. Tears began to brim Hyde’s eyes again, and Utterson was on the verge of letting his own tears spill for the second time in over 30 years.

“Why are you doing this?” Hyde asked, voice trembling.

How to answer? There were so many things to say, lifetime's worth.

Utterson reached a hand across the table and grabbed hold of one of Hyde’s. The smaller man flinched and started to pull away but stopped himself. While it didn’t feel quite right to Utterson, it wasn’t the hand of Henry Jekyll, there was a bewildering comfort in it nonetheless.

“Because the fate of your soul is not sealed yet, but no matter where it goes, I refuse to let it go alone,” Utterson said.

The two sat there in silence, hands held tightly, as dawn broke in the cold London morning outside.

#henriel week 2021 #henriel #the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #jekyll and hyde #doctor jekyll #henry jekyll #gabriel utterson #mr utterson #jekyll/utterson #jekyll and hyde fanfic #nikki tries to be a writer #this is why i ship this pairing btw #utterson would die for his friends and henry is like ''damn you're amazing you're the greatest''

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sukunasbabygirl · 3 years

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The time has come for me to put some wild thoughts I have about Jekyll and Hyde and stuff I‘ve discussed with @journeys-collide

Gonna get right into it and I have no idea how long this is gonna be!

When you think of Antagonistic characters in TGS the first thought is probably Dr Moreau, Frankenstein and even sometimes Hyde himself but there is another.

And that is Dr Henry Jekyll himself.

To explain this we need to look at the definition of an antagonist

In Jekyll’s case, the person he opposes and is hostile towards is himself - Hyde.

The Glass Scientists is written from the two main perspectives of Hyde and Jekyll, only occasionally deviating from these two. With these perspectives we see shifts in how people are viewed, especially themselves.

The first perspective we get in the story is Hyde, but later switches to what we can assume is Jasper’s. And Jasper’s perspective is the perfect introduction to Jekyll. At the start he’s portrayed as he is in most media through character interactions and colours too.

He’s a benevolent and well-loved man, charming, seen by Jasper in a way that he’s literally shining. We have yet to see that much of him, and by using Jasper’s perspective, by using these soft colours, it disguises a very quick nod to his flawed self - he’s subtly manipulating the police in this.

I should say I don’t believe Jekyll is a bad person, but he’s not a good person either, and he knows exactly how to get what he wants (which is something that translates over to Hyde) and this only fails when people start to see through him.

Another important thing is the two different introductions we get of Hyde.

The first few pages of the comic are Hyde’s perspective (which makes the choice of vibrant colours so interesting and gives us an idea of how Hyde sees the world and London but I digress)

He’s not shown to be dangerous in anyway, if a little dramatic, wild and a bit rude.

But then we get this.

We see Hyde from Jekyll’s perspective and we see how Hyde can act towards him. He’s less subtle with his manipulation, but it’s still effective. He’s Jekyll. He knows what Jekyll fears, what he thinks. And he uses that. It only becomes ineffective when Jekyll, like the policemen did to him, sees through him.

At this point we have the understanding Hyde is the antagonistic character to Jekyll. It fits well, once again, with what we see frequently in media. Jekyll is the weaker one and Hyde has power of him… until he doesn’t.

This scene turns that well known narrative on its head and its Jekyll who takes charge in this scene, but it’s understandable. His logic makes sense and he’s very much on the right end here.

From Hyde’s perspective later on it feels as if Jekyll is the dramatic one, locking him away in their mind, until you realise it’s been a week at most and Hyde doesn’t have long left to go, and that’s what a simple perspective switch can do.

Jekyll here is thinking logically and is still, in this situation, acting as the story’s hero (I don’t want to use protagonist because that’s a general term for main character and antagonists can be protagonists but I again digress)

For this portion of the story, Hyde becomes an antagonist again. He torments Jekyll and lets loose the nightmares. He’s honestly pretty terrifying, and he’s doing this all for the equivalent of an illegal mall. Iconic.

With Hyde it’s also an important thing to note that he runs on adrenaline. He doesn’t think before he acts or speaks - he’s highly impulsive.

With stuff like this it’s hard to say how true it is and how much of it is just Hyde on a rush. In the mind it’s much clearer because he’s not half-high on HJ7, but when he’s out and transformed it’s entirely different. He’s wild. Unpredictable. He’s desperate to get out because that’s what Jekyll wants. It’s not in a burning desire sort of way, more-so Jekyll’s stress and fear pushing these ideas onto him, and that’s what Hyde was created for in the end, so it makes sense for him to act the way he does.

Yet Jekyll still acts as if he’s above Hyde.

And it’s these pages that show it.

Hyde may be an antagonistic force towards Jekyll, but it goes both ways.

It’s actually quite similar to the scene where we first see Hyde and Jekyll properly interact. Despite the perspectives, there is no bias. This is truly what’s happening. There is no over exaggerating or sugar coating.

Jekyll genuinely treats himself as above Hyde here, even if they are one in the same, and he may do so without even entirely realising it. He refers to him as a stupid child for one thing. He talks down on him. Mocks him.

You could argue that his anger and mockery is understandable. Hyde tormented and tortured him for freedom he could have just waited for. He almost got them in serious dangers too. And you’d be right.

And then Jekyll does this.

And this is where Jekyll finally hits his peak as Hyde’s antagonist. As his own antagonist.

A very important thing here is the way the panels are laid out. In the image above we don’t see Hyde’s mouth but we do see is eyes which are arguably the most expressive facial feature. His eyes are wide and in fear, there are scratchy bag under his eyes and you genuinely feel for him.

Jekyll on the other hand only has his mouth visible. He’s smiling. It’s impossible to tell his true feelings and it makes it feel empty and cruel. It’s still from Hyde’s perspective, it’s MEANT to do this.

If it’s not obvious by my multiple repeats of perspective then what my dumb brain is getting at is that whoever’s perspective it is, the antagonist changes! It’s really neat honestly.

Even when we see Jekyll’s eyes, he still looks cruel. He’s practically at war with himself now. He loses nothing by getting rid of Hyde because it’s not a split down the soul, it’s more or less an addition that was filtered down to remove it of fears and anxiety and restraint. But, without Jekyll, Hyde loses everything.

Honestly writing all this has only made me love TGS Jekyll (and Hyde) more. Making him a complex and flawed character like in the book rather than the staple of good we’ve come to know is something I’d love to see more in J&H adaptations. Its made for a seriously interesting duo who function as both the protagonists and antagonists of their own story.

Honestly I had so much more stuff to say but there’s a ten image limit and I need the images so I can actually focus on my point and not go on an unrelated tangent… which I probably ended up doing anyway pff.

#the glass scientists #tgs #tgs analysis #dr jekyll and mr hyde #tgs henry jekyll #dr henry jekyll #dr Jekyll #tgs edward hyde #edward hyde #mr hyde

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ajokeformur-ray · 3 years

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Darling father, I love all of you more than you’ll ever know.

Summary: A self-indulgent thing which I wrote for myself because honestly, why the hell not?💖 In this, I tell my Father that I know his secret. Something I think of often but I’ve never bothered to write it out. Written in past tense for this reason.😊

Word count: 2, 041.

Self-shipping etc. etc. No obligation to interact.🥰💚

Source

I was slow to put the pieces of the elusive truth together but once I had assembled all of the jagged edges, rationalised the things which didn’t made sense with the logic which was available to me, and done some reflections, it came to me all at once.

Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde are one and the same.

Father and Papa are one and the same.

I sat on the truth for several days, turning every piece of ‘evidence’ I had over and over and over in my mind. I almost tortured myself with it. I was smart enough to know not to write anything down. If the papers ended up in the wrong hands or if I lost them, it would be very bad for my parents and for the household overall. I kept everything to myself until I got fed up with my theories and decided to approach the topic by going directly to the source.

Before this point had I only ever known Father and Papa to be separate. Father was kind, gentle and tender. He asked strange questions for seemingly no reason and he was always more than happy to have discussions with me at any point. Papa was rough, coarse and always made me feel safe in how apathetic he was. Those things had never been any different as I was growing up, and I knew that they would never be any different, either, but somehow had these two distinct and opposing personalities become the same fact within just a few weeks, and it had tilted my world upon its axis.

But who could I tell?

So I kept it to myself until I almost drove myself mad with it.

My parents were aware that there was something up with me. Not wrong, because those are different physical tells, but something was definitely up and though they were at first curious and then concerned as the days went by and my tells only increased with time, they respected my obvious need for alone time and didn’t question me about it.

Until a week to the day when I had first realised the startling truth and showed up in Father’s doorway, shaking. My face was pale and my eyes were red, the surrounding skin blotchy and my cheeks sticky with drying tears. I had never seen my Father stand up so quickly as he shoved his chair back so harshly that it scraped loudly against the floor as he strode across the study and reached me in just seven strides, confident is he when his family is threatened in some kind of way.

Though usually was my Father awkward in his affections, this time there was no hesitation as he wrapped an arm around my middle and pulled me into the room, shutting the large, heavy door with a quiet click before he walked with me over to the fireplace, which was crackling merrily and was the musical accompaniment to my sobbing.

“Erika,” My Father spoke my name and I looked at him, but the kindly and affectionate look of interest in his eyes only brought about a fresh wave of tears, which slid down my face hot and fast. I was beyond the point of being able to speak and he leaned forward in his chair to take both of my hands in his as he lowered me to sit down opposite him. “What is the matter?” Though he spoke calmly, there was a tinge of desperation in his voice, his mind so clearly racing. “Is this about what’s been... bothering you these last days?”

I nodded, clinging to my Father’s hands. I pressed down with my fingers and he immediately understood, for always would my Father hear me, and he opened his fingers so that I could slot mine in the spaces, tightening my hold on him. Father was my grounding in this moment and so perceptive was he that he fulfilled my needs wordlessly, understanding me better than I could ever understand myself.

“Y - you,” Father visibly sat up straighter and he took a deep breath, steadying himself to hear me out without interrupting me. He would hear everything I said, but he would listen to what I didn’t, and so I had to speak carefully. I knew I wasn’t wrong, but now it was just a matter of confession. “Father, you - “ At the thought of what I was going to say, yet another wave of tears coursed down my face and his gaze tightened upon his face. I was being analysed. “What did you do?”

Father froze and his face lost all colour. He looked in that moment as horrified as I felt and he said, “You know.” with a sense of finality. He sounded as though he was choking and I vaguely wondered who was trying to keep who quiet. Was it Papa making it so Father couldn’t speak, or was it Father holding his own self back, as so often did he?

I nodded, secretly relieved that I wouldn’t have to say it, and yet horrified and upset all the more to know that I was right.

“Ho - how could you possibly - ?”

I smiled. I didn’t often take my Father by surprise, he knew me far too well for that, and a part of me wanted to indulge in the feeling, though my despair and grief for him was too strong for any other emotion to come to the forefront. “All my life, I have never once see you and Papa in the same room together. Not only that, but sometimes you or Papa knows about something I’ve said or done even though one of you wasn’t in the room when it happened, but the other was. Neither of you are the type to gossip so the only logical explanation I could come to in this last week was that you’re...” one and the same. I trailed off; I didn’t need to finish my sentence now that Father and I were on the same page.

Silence filled the room as both of us sought to grab back onto reality, desperately trying to come to terms with what was happening. Father could see what I needed so clearly - to know that my Father was still there and he once more took control of the situation, putting me at ease in the best way he could. “Oh, my dear child. Come here.” Father used his grip on my hands to pull me out of my seat and into his lap, where I have always found safety. I got comfortable in his lap and Father wrapped his arms around me in the way he knew I loved the very most. I felt all the more upset by this and Father allowed me the courtesy of not addressing my tears, knowing that I would be embarrassed if he did. Even now, I was his concern. It made me cry harder somehow and Father and I seemed to realise at the same time that this was to be a late night affair. “What questions do you have for me? There must be something. I have never known you to be without a curiosity.” There was a smile in his voice and I looked up at my Father just in time to catch the familiar light in his eye which spoke of his pride in me.

I took a deep breath, snuggling into my Father. “Most of it I’ve figured out for myself... I’ve been so careful to put everything together before I came to you with this.” I trailed off but both of us could hear me say, I wanted to make you proud. Father dropped a kiss to the crown of my head to say, I’m always proud of you and this silent but loud admission was everything I needed.

“Yes,” He mused, “I’m afraid you’ve been upset by this.” He said it not as a question, but as a fact, and I almost wanted to laugh at the understatement. Almost.

“How could I not be? You...” I took a deep breath to steady myself. Be brave for him, Erika. “I... I have two questions. I’m not sure I want to know the answers but at the same time...”

A hand smoothed down my hair. “Your thirst for knowledge is very much like my own. Speak freely then, Erika, and I shall endeavour to satiate your curiosity.” As much as I didn’t want to know, Father didn’t want to tell, and a heavy silence fell which we both hesitated to break, but this was a needed conversation.

I shifted in Father’s lap so that I could look him in the eyes. “Does it...” I closed my eyes and Father found one of my hands and squeezed it to encourage me. “How badly does it hurt you? It can’t be easy.” Tears fell anew and this time Father did address my tears, wiping them away with the soft pads of his thumbs. “And what - do I have to have this talk with Papa, too, or does he - can he hear me? Do you both remember what the other has experienced or - “

Father held a hand up to silence me, sensing that I was beginning to lose control over myself as everything which I had held inside for the last week came spilling out like a tap had been turned on and left to run. “Breathe, Erika.”

I did as he said and felt as the heat inside my head began to subside. My own emotions could be vented when I was alone but for now, I had to concentrate. I had approached Father of my own accord and now I was getting the answers I had been wanting for so long.

“It’s a terrible pain when we transform from one to the other. I’m the... original, so to speak, and Mr. Hyde, your Papa,” A wry smile, for we both knew how deeply I had always been connected to him, “Is the second self.” To hear of the pain was more than I could take and I cried anew in grief for him. Father was analysing me again as he answered my question. “I’m not... sure what Mr Hyde feels when he’s inside me. When he’s in control it is as if I fall asleep and the events which occurred are but a stain of breath upon a mirror.” A pause and then, “What upsets you so?”

“You - the pain. Why would you do that to yourself?”

Father took a deep breath to steady himself and then, “I did not foresee... how bound up he and I would become in each other. I had no conception of what was to come. He had surely liberated me as much as he has imprisoned me, and I know not which is the worst.”

Silence fell once more, marked only by our out of sync breathing and the grandfather clock which had been sat upon the mantel of the fireplace for as long as I could remember. There was everything and nothing to say. But there was something beneath my tongue, something which I needed to say even if Father already knew it, and because of the way I was sitting, Father saw it immediately. He saw my hesitation, too, and he smiled kindly, though he said nothing.

“I love all of you, Father. There’s nothing...” I smiled, daring myself to say it but knowing I would anyway, “either of you could do which would make me love you any less or be any less proud to have you as my parent. I love you so much it hurts.”

Silence fell once more, for Father and I knew each other well enough to be able to communicate without words. The way he was holding me was a reciprocation of my love for him, and I snuggled back into where I was most comfortable and though my tears continued to flow, I felt once more at peace with myself for having had this moment with my Father. I knew not what the future held, but that didn’t matter - I had my parents. What more did I need?

#parental f/os #self-shipping #mary reilly

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asexual-hugger · 4 years

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3 YEARS AGO

Allison McQueen sits alone at a table by the window at the library downtown, a criminal justice textbook in front of her. The words blur on the page before her eyes. She pauses to run her hands down her face and then picks up a pen, twirling it in her fingers. A half-written page in her notebook stares up at her.

“An eye for an eye, as the Code says.”

“Huh?”

She glances up abruptly to find a blond boy about her age looking down at her, a lopsided smirk on his face. “Your textbook.” He nods at it. “You must be studying criminal law.”

“Oh! Right.” She flushes. “I’m actually studying to be a crime scene investigator. I always found the work fascinating.”

“Hm.” A thoughtful look crosses his handsome features. “Crime scene investigation, eh? How...unusual. You do know it’s nothing like what you see on the telly, right?”

“Of course. My professors remind us time and time again that it’s never like what you see on the telly. Probably because too many people go into that field because they hope to be the next Horatio Caine or Mac Taylor.”

She is referring to her two favorite detectives on the American television programs CSI: Miami and CSI: New York.

“What about you?” the boy asks. “Who do you aspire to be?”

“Me?” she asks. “No one. Not in pop culture, anyway. I just aspire to be a crime scene investigator that people can rely on and do my job as expected.”

“Good answer.” The boy grins. “May I?”

He nods at the empty seat across from her, and she nods.

“I’m Dylan.” He extends his hand. “I work here as an intern, so I’ve noticed you coming in here a lot.”

“I’m Allison.” She shakes his outstretched hand. “I’ve seen you walking around the shelves a lot. Are you looking into librarianship?”

Dylan shrugs. “Maybe. I’ve considered it, although I prefer to be more hands-on with shelving books than talking to people. I might just stick with being a page.”

Silence follows. Allison’s pen scratches some more notes down. Dylan speaks again.

“So...you want to get out of here?” he asks.

“Erm...is that allowed?” She’s uncertain. “You have work, right?”

“Actually, I was just going to go get some food. You’re welcome to join. I could use the company. I get an hour, tops. Come with. You look like you’ve been working up a storm in here.”

She seems grateful for the relief. “Believe it or not, I have been,” she says, rubbing her tired eyes. “I feel like the whole day has escaped me. Is it evening already?”

“Yup.” Dylan is all too eager to leave. “Come on, future CSI. Let’s go find you some scenes to investigate.”

Dylan’s car is parked in one of the front spots in the library lot. He clicks the remote on his keys and opens his passenger door for Allison. She hides a blush and grins.

“Such a gentleman. Where are we headed, good sir?”

Dylan chuckles. “Well, my dear lady, there is a cafe just a few miles up that I like to frequent. Their tea and sandwich special is simply to die for. Guaranteed fresh daily, or you can slap my arse.”

Allison giggles at the comedic accent he puts on, and the two of them share a laugh and pleasant conversation the whole drive up.

“Honestly, Allison, I do appreciate you accompanying me,” Dylan says in all seriousness again. “I’ve been coming down here by myself so many times that I’ve very nearly forgotten the joy and importance of company, preferably by the female sort.”

“What, you’ve never taken your girlfriend anywhere?” Allison is surprised that such a handsome chap would not be taken.

“Nah; we broke it off,” he replies indifferently. “Didn’t work out, she and I. She broke up with me because she thought I was too work-centered. Didn’t know how to let loose. It lasted three weeks.”

Three weeks. A girlfriend, for three weeks. Allison’s heart pours out for this lonely young man.

“I’m sorry, Dylan.” Her voice is almost a whisper. “I can’t imagine being in a relationship for only three weeks. Sounds like she was missing out on something wonderful.”

“Eh, I’m used to it, at this point.” He shrugs. “Girls never really had it for me. I must be a stroke of bad luck or something, but I appreciate your kindness.”

He suddenly slows down and pulls off the side of the road, turning off the engine.

“Wait. Why are we stopped?” Allison looks puzzled. “I thought we were going to get something to eat. Are we close?”

“Not really.” Dylan sounds as if he didn’t hear her. “Dylan? What’s going on?”

“Engine trouble,” Dylan grumbles, before he turns in the seat to face her. “You know, you have gorgeous eyes.”

“Er...thanks?” Uncertainty starts to grip Allison. “So do you.”

Dylan leans closer. The smile on his face looks almost menacing.

“Dylan, what are you doing?” Allison begins to move away. He is way too close for her liking. Was he going to kiss her? “What are you scared of, baby?” he asks in a soft voice. “I’m not gonna hurt you. I thought we’d have a bit of an adventure before we went out to eat. Just you and me.”

“An adventure?” Allison’s voice is weak. She has a bad feeling about this situation.

“An adventure,” Dylan repeats. “Just you and me. You’ll love it. I promise. It’ll be a new experience for both of us.”

He unbuckles his seatbelt and moves towards her, looming. She backs away until she can’t back away any more. Her backside presses against the passenger door.

“Kiss me,” Dylan urges. “Why are you backing away from me? I just want a kiss.”

There it goes.

“I...” Allison tries to speak, but is lost for words.

Dylan grips her shoulders, hard, and presses his mouth against hers, lingering for as long as he will allow it. She raises her hands in protest, attempting to push him off, but he doesn’t budge. Neither of them notice the dark car that has pulled up behind them or heard the crunching of footsteps on the ground until there’s a harsh pounding at the driver side door.

“Hey! Open up!” A voice barks from outside.

“What the bloody hell?” Dylan jerks up from his intimate position against Allison and glares daggers.

A fist raps on the car window. Someone is outside, and whoever it is does not sound happy.

“Open up and step out of the vehicle with your hands on your head!”

Allison has heard this being said enough times to realize what’s happening. The person rapping on the window is a COP.

Oh, thank goodness! she thinks. If Dylan continued this behavior, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to fight him off! It was as if the cop, whoever he was, showed up right when she needed him.

“Bloody hell! The fuzz???” He turns his dagger glare on Allison, still cowering against the door. “What did you do, eh? What the bloody hell did you do? Did you call the fuzz on me? Huh? DID YOU CALL THE COPS ON ME???”

“No!” Allison’s response is a squeak. She’s terrified of who this man has become. One second he was handsome and charming, and now he is a monster, unrecognizable.

Jekyll, meet Hyde.

“Sir! I will not ask you again!” The cop is still present. “Open up and step outside of the vehicle! I want your hands where I can see them!”

“F’ck you!” Dylan flips the unseen cop the bird. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here?”

There’s silence, and then the cop raps on the window again, this time with something other than his knuckles.

“Oh my God. He’s got a gun!” Allison realizes that the object being tapped against the window is a pistol. “You’d better open the door, Dylan! This guy is not playing games!”

“You think I’m gonna open the door because of some damn gun?” Snapping. “Guns don’t scare me, baby. And you don’t have to be scared of me. I’ll protect you from all the big bad boys out there. This is our time to be alone together.”

Flipping the bird at the cop outside again, he starts to lean in over Allison a second time...before his door is flung open and he is dragged out roughly by his shirt.

“Hey, whoa!” he yells. “What the hell are y—?” He doesn’t get to finish before he is thrown to the ground and forces on to his stomach.

Allison can only hear the cop’s voice as she slowly comes out of her hunched-over position. He is clearly angry, all his anger directed at Dylan.

“When I give you an order, you bloody well follow it!” he is shouting. “If you put your hands on that lady again, I will have your arse under lock and key faster than lightning!” Scuffling. Dylan sounds like he’s moaning. “Do not catch me seeing you doing what you were doing ever again, do you hear me? Do you hear me??” Inaudible. “Now get out of here and don’t come back!”

“What about my car?” Challenging.

“Your car will be towed back to your residence when I allow it.” Counterattack. “I will not see you put your hands on a woman again, do you understand? Now go!”

More moaning. Unsteady footsteps. Silence. Then a shadow passes over the open driver’s door. Allison draws her knees up to her chest, heart hammering, her body frozen in fear.

“Are you alright, miss?” An unfamiliar face appears inside the doorway. Young. Strikingly dashing.

Allison only stares, refusing to move.

“It’s all right.” A soft, gentle British accent. “I won’t hurt you. I’m here to help.” He reaches into his shirt and flashes a badge hanging around his neck. “I’m an investigator. I was in the area when I saw your car. Are you hurt?” He holds out his hand to her and gives her a very charming smile, and she nearly melts under it. “It’s all right. Your boyfriend won’t harm you again.”

Allison slowly crawls forward and takes his hand, allowing him to help her out of the car. “Dylan’s not my boyfriend,” she says in a low voice. “He was starting his break at work and invited me to dinner. We were on our way to a cafe he mentioned before he pulled over and got all weird with me.” She looks up at him and seems to notice him for the first time.

Damn, she mutters in her mind. You are CUTE!

“You’re a cop?” she asks coolly, not wanting her feelings to get in the way. “You have a badge...and a pistol.” She notices that the pistol is now holstered at his right hip. “I’m a private investigator, actually,” he answers. “I get called in on special cases to help clients find what they’re looking for. My agency is just a few miles down the road from here. I was in the area on a case when I saw your car pulled over, and judging by what I could make out in the rear window, there was definitely a struggle going on. Are you hurt?”

He is genuinely concerned. His handsome face distorts into a frown as he looks her over, checking for injuries.

“I’m fine. I’m just shaken,” she answers. “I wasn’t expecting Dylan to snap like that. It was like a wire had gone bonkers inside of him or something. I’m really thankful you showed up when you did; I don’t think I would’ve been able to fight him off. I froze up.” She looks around, not knowing any of her surroundings. “I’m sorry. I know you probably have a case to get back to, investigator...er, what was your name?”

“I believe I didn’t give it yet. That’s on me. It’s Sinclaire. Detective Ernest Sinclaire, Private Investigator. I work at the Ledford Park Detective Agency as the only lone private eye. And the case can wait. A lovely lady such as yourself who has just been pushed to trauma is way more important to me at the moment, miss...?”

“McQueen. Allison. McQueen. It’s nice to officially meet the investigator who became my knight in shining police armor. Can you tell me, Detective Sinclaire, where I am? I really don’t know this part of town and I would like to go home. I’ve been studying at the library literally all day.”

“Studying?” Sinclaire looks intrigued. “May I ask what you are studying, Miss McQueen?”

“Criminal justice,” Allison replies. “I, er...” She suddenly looks embarrassed about admitting her field of study to an actual law enforcement officer. “I want to be a crime scene investigator.”

“A CSI?” The detective’s eyes sparkle. “Well, I can definitely teach you a thing or two about that. As a matter of fact, I’ve been on the lookout for an assistant to work with me at my agency, and so far none of them have met the qualifications. I can give you my information if it interests you, although I know we just met. Where do you live? I’ll drive you home and we can talk some more.”

An assistant. Detective Ernest Sinclaire, whom Allison knew next to nothing about, just said he was looking for an assistant. At Ledford Park Detective Agency, whatever and wherever that was. Still, though...

“Miss McQueen?” Allison jumps out of her thoughts to find Sinclaire’s piercing blue eyes trained on her. “I asked you where you lived. I want to drive you home. You shouldn’t be out here alone. Did I lose you there?”

“Sorry,” she says. “I was just thinking about your job offer. I actually live at Edgewater Estates. I’m not sure if you...”

“I know where that is,” Sinclaire assures her. “Shall we, then? As for the job, you don’t have to decide just yet. We’ve only just met. I’ll give you my business card and we can go from there. I’ve been trying to find an assistant for a long time now.”

#choices stories you play #desire and decorum #fanfiction ideas #detective story #pixelberry #choices game #play choices

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two-dolla-bills · 5 years

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I noticed something about this week's page. In the first panel, we see a hand on Jekyll's shoulder.

It could be taken as being just another nightmare, but in the next panel, two hands are seen on his shoulders.

Some of you might say that it was the smiley nightmare that was touching Jekyll, but it has thouched him before

and it's hands weren't clawed.

After Jekyll tells Frankenstein to shut up, those hands aren't seen again, but the black fog is. The black fog can be seen surrounding Jekyll in the second panel and after his eyes turn green.

Also in the panel where green eyed Jekyll is first seen it toolks like he's almost emerging out of the fog. Another detail in the second panel is that the background turns red and hiding just behind the speech bubble is a toothy smile.

I might be looking to far into this, but I'd rather leave no rock left unturned and include it here.

More than a few people have speculated that Jekyll and Hyde aren't two sides of the same coin, but rather two ends of a spectrum. I would like to support that theory and say that whatever is holding onto Jekyll in panels 1 and 2 is what is speaking right now and not Jekyll. I don't know what part the fog of eyes play into all of this, but like I said, I'd rather not leave any stone unturned

#the glass scientists #tgs jekyll #theory #long post #woo this was a doozy

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sailor-freak · 4 years

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Halestorm: ‘Prepare to Enter the Gates of Hale’ Magazine Article

So I found this Kerrang! magazine article on the Halestorm VK community on Halestorm doing a ghost hunt in The Shrieve’s House in Stratford-upon-Avon a few years ago, and it’s very entertaining reading 😂. However considering the size of the image (the photo is actually bigger than this I just edited the 2 pages together) some people might not be able to read it, so I’m gonna write it up below! Enjoy hahahaha.

Ghosts, ghouls, things that go bump in the night... Halestorm love them all. But can they handle ghost-hunting in Britain’s most haunted house? K! finds out how they fare as they...

PREPARE TO ENTER THE GATES OF HALE.

On Halestorm’s latest album, The Strange Case Of... singer Lzzy Hale declared herself a Daughter of Darkness. The album title is a reference to classic horror novella The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and the singer claims to have a closet gothic side. “We all love horror movies and dark, intense books” she says. “I like old exploitation movies with lots of gore and no real dialogue”. Tonight we’re putting Lzzy and her band’s capacity for creepiness to the test. We’ve come to Warwickshire’s Falstaff Experience, a scare-fest set in Shrieve’s House, one of Britain’s most haunted houses, where, hopefully, Halestorm will have the scariest night of their lives. We pieced together a timeline from our shaky, tear-stained notes. Brace yourselves, folks, we’re heading into the supernatural...

10:05pm Halestorm roll up to the Shireve’s House in Stratford-upon-Avon, reputedly one of the most haunted buildings in the country.

10:10pm Our guide for the evening is psychic medium Kevin Bowen, ably assisted by two ladies who are both, spookily enough, called Janet. The medium channels spirits to give each band member a ‘reading’. We found out that Lzzy has something of a split personality, that brother Arejay (drums) is a livewire, that Josh Smith (bass) sometimes fails to speak up for himself, and that Joe Hottinger (guitar) has some connection with an old man of military bearing. “Some of that was accurate”, Lzzy says. “I don’t know if he’s psychic or just good at sizing people up”. “I don’t know what mine was supposed to be about”, laments Joe.

11:15pm Kevin leads us up to an attic and seats us around an antique table. It’s darker than the inside of a sealed tomb up here. We’re asked to place our hands on the table and concentrate. “I’ve never done a seance before”, Josh notes, “this should be pretty interesting”. Kevin points out that we’re looking to contact spirits, not ghosts. Ghosts are sort of residual echoes that repeat the same action over and over again. Spirits are sentient and able to interact and communicate. “This has been an education already”, the bassist adds, having clearly learned something tonight.

11:35pm Kevin senses a presence. It is, he says, the spirit of a pickpocket named Lucy, who lived in the 16th century. She was somewhere between eight and eleven years old when she died, but apparently she looks more like a six-year-old with long, blonde, unkempt hair. Unfortunately, none of the band can see her. “Touch me on the shoulder, Lucy”, Arejay invites. He puts some coins on the table to tempt her and Lzzy adds a bunch of jewellery to the pile.

11:37pm An electromagnetic field (EMF) meter is deployed. This has a green light that should turn red if any spirits approach. The band watch it intently. It merely flickers occasionally.

12:00am The clock strikes midnight. The witching hour is upon us, when the boundaries between realities blur and literally anything could happen.

12:01am Nothing happens.

12:03am Nothing continues to happen.

12:21am “Do you feel the table moving?”, asks Kevin. It may be a combination of sensory deprivation and suggestion, but it does feel like there’s a subtle motion. “It’s almost like a wave”, Joe confirms.

12:47am There’s some sort of banging noise downstairs. The Janets take Lzzy off to investigate. When she comes back, she’s in a bit of a tizzy. “I felt something move my hair across my forehead in a really weird way”, she explains. “The girls said they sensed a spirit called John Davies who used to murder and mutilate women. I was sitting there in the dark and it creeped me out a little bit”.

01:10am In an attempt to coax the spirits out of hiding, a Tibetan singing bowl is produced. Apparently they like that sort of thing. Arejay turns out to be a natural at making it sing, and at one point the table appears to shudder and jerk. John the 18th century serial killer is up here with us now, Kevin says. So is a hooded figure with glowing red eyes who looks like a monk but is actually an ‘elemental’ - a spirit that never lived as a person. “I can’t see a thing”, Josh complains. We also try a ghost box, which should allow any passing spirits to manipulate radio signals to communicate. The resulting fragments of words, music and white noise sound freaky but inconclusive.

01:45am “It’s like a fishing trip”, says Kevin, as we finally abandon the seance. “The spirits don’t always appear on cue, and they don’t always perform just because you want them to. If I asked you to get up on the table and dance, would you do it?”. Arejay probably would.

02:10am We now move on to scrying, which means looking for spirits in a medium such as crystals, stone, or glass. Tonight, it involves one person staring into a mirror in dim light, while the others watch from the periphery for any changes in the reflection. This can be a sign of spirits coming through. “Your cheekbones look weirder”, says Lzzy, as her brother stares intently into the glass. “It must be your inner girl coming through”. The session temporarily descends into a spirited rendition of Sweet Transvestite from The Rocky Horror Show.

02:35am It’s time for the Oujia board. The band head back up to the attic and attempt to make contact with Lucy, John or any of the other 40 or so individual spirits that have been identified within the building. The glass resolutely refuses to move.

03:01am Arejay is placed under a vortex. This was popular in Victorian ghost-hunting times and is thought to amplify spiritual activity, and basically consists of a pyramidal structure of metal tubes. It doesn’t really help.

03:30am Kevin splits everyone up. Arejay is left under the vortex. Lzzy is placed at the feet of a taxidermy bear and Joe and Josh are lead further into the pitch black interior of the building. Arejay’s constant stream of verbiage can still be heard from everywhere in the building. “Lucy, touch the light if you like the way I look. What, you think I’m ugly? Tap on the ground. Can you do that? Do you want me to ring the bell some more?”. On and on it goes...

04:15am The nights activities are finally, mercifully, called to a halt. “That was the strangest way I’ve ever spent a Saturday evening”, Lzzy laughs. So did any of you experience anything that convinced you of the supernatural? “I went in with an open mind and came out the same”, says Arejay. “I don’t think any of us will ever know what happens or where we go when we die, but I’ve not seen anything to really convince me tonight”. Yeah, us too, Arejay. Hang on, did anyone else feel something brush past them?

#halestorm #lzzy hale #arejay hale #joe hottinger #josh smith #magazine article

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zixoha1-blog · 4 years

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Bars and Bars in Edinburgh Have Something for Everyone - Even One or Two Hangovers!

Maybe you're arranging a stag gathering or hen party...Edinburgh is one of the UK's most famous goals for libertine end of the week breaks!

For a city of just 477,000 individuals, we have an incredibly high number of bars, bars, clubs and music scenes.

How would they all endure? Well...one reason is, the individuals of Edinburgh have a genuine craving for entertainment only and love to relax!

Another explanation is the crowds of wild partiers from somewhere else who are attracted to Edinburgh to check whether its notoriety satisfies its charging!

With such a gigantic assortment to look over, it very well may be hard to choose where to go. That is the place this page comes in. I will part this page into six areas to keep things clear and to-the-point - stylish bars, conventional bars, themed bars, understudy bars and sports bars.

Obviously, I can't cover completely every critical bar and bar in the city of Edinburgh. Not by any means a multi year old nearby man could deal with that! In any case, I have chosen a fair number of astounding bars and bars in Edinburgh that will kick you off and give you a kind of what's accessible right now.

Conventional Pubs

Out of sheer regard for the history and culture of my old neighborhood, I will start with our very spiffing conventional bars.

When in doubt of thumb, you will discover customary bars specked all over town, be that as it may, there is an over-proportionate number in the Grassmarket, on the Royal Mile and on Rose Street legitimately behind Princes Street.

What was at one time a position of execution, the Grassmarket is currently a shelter for close, comfortable bars each with a diverting name and character. Jumping from bar to bar is a straightforward assignment as the Castle side of the Grassmarket is for all intents and purposes a continuous terraced working of various conventional bars. Try not to like one? Go nearby!

A two-minute walk from the Grassmarket towards the Cowgate and up Candlemaker Row will take you to the Greyfriars Bar.

Situated inverse Greyfriars Bobby, this bar is the best spot around to find out about the tale of Bobby, Edinburgh's most steadfast canine and test some conventional lager while chomping on splitting sandwiches. It is unquestionably one of the most well known bars and bars in Edinburgh.

From that point, stroll up George IV Bridge towards the Royal Mile where you will discover Deacon Brodie's Tavern on the corner. Named after the man who motivated Robert Louis Stevenson to compose the novel 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', Deacon Brodie's Tavern is about at least somewhat customary is well known with voyagers and local people the same. Remember to peruse the interesting story of Deacon Brodie outwardly divider!

In case you're despite everything standing, go for a walk down the Royal Mile where there are a lot of customary bars and bistros to look over. That may be sufficient for one day,Sylvain however in case you're all around prepared or in preparing, head on over to Rose Street behind Princes Street.

Rose Street is to some degree amazing as it has the most elevated grouping of bars and bars in Edinburgh with comfortable little emporiums on the two sides of the road. Gossip has it that you will be given the opportunity of the city on the off chance that you can complete one beverage in each bar on Rose Street inside 24 hours.

At the East End of Princes Street behind Burger King (don't look down right now) is the Cafe Royal, a wonderfully elaborate bar with the serving region in the center, noteworthy compositions on the dividers and metal fittings all over the place. This would be an extraordinary decision for an evening half quart or chomp to eat with your accomplice or a few companions.

In vogue Bars

In spite of the fact that George Street and the West End are eminent for their up-showcase home bases and places in which to be seen, in vogue bars are spotted all over Edinburgh.

Hudson's at the West End by the House of Fraser retail establishment has just been open a couple of years and is a stunningly beautified bar with lodgings upstairs. They typically hold the lights down low which can make a marginally sultry state of mind. This could be a decent date-bar. On the off chance that your date isn't holding your consideration, there are various TVs on the dividers indicating the most recent game!

A stroll across Charlotte Square will take you to the beginning of George Street, Edinburgh's center for innovators. Bars, for example, Browns, Candy Bar, All Bar One and Le Monde are especially well known. A significant number of George Street's bars set tables and seats outside on the wide asphalts when the climate is pleasant.

Le Monde has three unmistakable zones each fusing the styles predominant in Paris, Vienna and Milan nightspots.

Two of my preferred bars in Edinburgh, Amicus Apple and Oloroso are situated on Frederick Street and Castle Street individually which are opposite to George Street.

In any case, their areas and approach couldn't be increasingly unique. Amicus Apple is set in the storm cellar of its structure and Oloroso is a housetop bar. With dazzling perspectives on Edinburgh Castle, Oloroso is the sort of bar you go to with your accomplice for a sentimental beverage to appreciate the outdoors and amazing perspectives.

Amicus Apple, while genuinely unwinding during the day, is a genuine gathering area around evening time with ordinary themed gatherings and heaps of insane enjoyment. A tranquil beverage at their tables outside on a late spring's day comes energetically prescribed!

In the event that you are eager to wander somewhat farther of the way, I can energetically prescribe Medina on Lothian Street around the bend from the Museum of Scotland.

I can just depict Medina as a sort of North African hippy-lair with style. They don't do tables and they don't do seats. Rather they have loungers, beds and little stools with gaps to hold your beverages. Anticipate profound reds, oranges and tans in the decorations, dividers and roof. I can't think about a superior spot in Edinburgh for a comfortable beverage with your accomplice.

Themed Bars

My preferred sort of bar is a themed bar and fortunately we have many amazing themed bars and bars in Edinburgh. How about we start on George IV Bridge where they have two bars with totally different subjects.

Initially, Bar Kohl is a vodka authority stocking great more than 100 unique vodkas from around the vodka-creating world and their mixed drink list is one of the longest in the city.

The thing I love about this spot is the various sorts of vodka they have composed on a blackboard on the divider. Local people love to pick an arbitrary number without taking a gander at the board and seeing what they end up with. Balance is the expression of the day...

Over the road you will discover Frankensteins, the most-renowned of all themed bars and bars in Edinburgh.

Every one of the three stories of this changed over chapel depends on the exemplary Mary Shelley epic so expect close to murkiness, a lot of electric balls and a nourishment and beverages menu to coordinate the mind-set. Gracious and be careful with the somewhat creepy amazement around midnight...I'll state no more.

Staying with this topic of murkiness, the Jekyll and Hyde bar is definitely justified even despite a visit. Most likely the darkest bar in Edinburgh, your eyes may require time to change when you stroll in. In light of the Robert Louis Stevenson tale, this bar is designed in an innovatively evil manner illustrative of Mr Hyde's character. Make certain to discover the can when you show up as its attentive area could leave you humiliated!

On an increasingly Celtic note, Edinburgh's remarkable Scottish bar at the West End by the Caledonian Hotel, Ghillie Dhu, centers around good country music, move and culture.

Ghillie Dhu is unquestionably the most great new bar around. Ground floor you will locate an enormous bar territory with a wide determination of Scottish lagers and whiskies and mixers served by men in kilts. Behind the bar, you and your companions can involve a private corner with little cantina style swing entryways.

A meander up the winding staircase in the passageway lobby will bring you into the ceilidh corridor where live people groups lead Scottish nation moving. On the off chance that you haven't the foggiest thought what to do, the artist will depict the moves to you and afterward you will be astonished by how rapidly you get it as the disposition and your moving accomplices swing you along!

The most striking and satisfying part of this bar is the wide scope old enough gatherings in participation. It's exceptionally invigorating to see the youthful, more youthful and most youthful mingle and move together. Of the considerable number of bars and bars in Edinburgh, this is the spot to go to test Scottish culture. While Ghillie Dhu has a dedicated after, voyagers will discover it the understanding into the way of life, language and move of Scotland intriguing and exciting.

Understudy Bars

With three colleges around, Edinburgh University, Heriot-Watt University and Napier University and various schools there is a critical understudy populace in the city. Understudy Unions aside, there are many engaging understudy bars and bars in Edinburgh. We should investigate three of the best.

My understudy days are a distant memory, yet I despite everything appreciate a decent night in The Tron. Arranged simply off the Royal Mile at Hunter Square, The Tron has three stories and a mezzanine-of-sorts. The video jukebox rules at The Tron with the bar giving you full control of the ambient melodies.

The Tron additionally has a 'yellow card' framework whereby limits can be had on various well known beverages. With its area near the bars and clubs of the Cowgate, The Tron is frequently utilized as a launchpad for a night-out.

A stone's-toss starting from the tron the side road beside the Bank Hotel on the Royal Mile is The Globe, another popular understudy home base. As it is for all intents and purposes underground, the bar is described by angled stone roofs.

The bar is additionally portrayed by modest beverages. This makes it extremely famous among understudies and explorers making a jovial climate. The Globe has large TV screens toward the finish of little sinkholes which is fantastic for observing live games with a gathering of companions.

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comicteaparty · 5 years

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February 7th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on February 7th, 2019, from 5PM - 7PM PST. The chat focused on MK’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Marika Kapogeorgakis (or MK_Wizard).

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing MK’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Marika Kapogeorgakis (or MK_Wizard)~! (http://mksjekyllandhyde.thecomicseries.com/)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

Archangel

I'd have to say the first real heart-to-heart that Hyde had with Lucy.

MK_Wizard

For me (the writer), my favourite scene was when Jekyll finally stood up for his niece Emily.

khkddn

that was one of my favorites too

MK_Wizard

PS, thanks to everyone who came. You all rock!

khkddn

it was so sad when he didn't stand up for her at first

MK_Wizard

@lomcia (princess_lom) Please don't do that.

lomcia (princess_lom)

so you want me to discrabe which one i like?

MK_Wizard

Yes please.

RebelVampire

for the record images, whether emotes or w/e, dont get archived anyway. so text and links are always better

lomcia (princess_lom)

So. I like when he said that he won't have glasses on his face. World NEVER ihere is making me laugh

MK_Wizard

Yes, but... I don't feel comfortable when people take "snaps" of my pictures and show them elsewhere. It's something I was taught not to do to others.

If you must share, please share through a link.

lomcia (princess_lom)

Act 2 page 21 when they look into a mirror xD he look so happy in first panel and then when he realised that its not him xD i love it

MK_Wizard

That was fun for me to do that part.

lomcia (princess_lom)

Act 3 page 7! When he sees our lovely Lucy

that first panel!

Archangel

I must admit to having a bit of a crush on Lucy myself.

lomcia (princess_lom)

It was perfect

MK_Wizard

I have to admit that Lucy is one of the characters I proudest of. I worked very hard on her to not only make her progressive, but also deep. I wanted to give her a reason for being as she is.

Archangel

More historically plausible in our world than you may realize, too

lomcia (princess_lom)

I prefer as a female Hyde

Archangel

lol

Actually, have we seen any lady trolls?

Can't recall

MK_Wizard

Not yet.

lomcia (princess_lom)

not yet so there will be xD

MK_Wizard

Maybe, maybe not.

lomcia (princess_lom)

I hope Albert Ode will find nice woman

RebelVampire

for me, my favorite scene is probably the one where jekyll is in the mirror having given hyde full control and resigning himself to be gone forever. and then hyde comes back and tells him nah dude well work this out. i really just loved the subtle build-up looks where hyde is looking at things like the letter jekyll was leaving and such. it was also very touching and really showed hyde's heart through all the huffing and puffing

lomcia (princess_lom)

I like him i hope he never change

Rebel that was so sad scene , so emotional!

I really enjoy as I said Albert Ode, I hope to see him more offten, hes charming

Archangel

I think somebody has her own crush.

lomcia (princess_lom)

yeah, on all trolls Albert and Hyde

MK_Wizard

I felt is was high time the world got a version of Hyde who was good and still "Hyde" enough. In every adaptation I've seen, Hyde is always bad. And the very concept Robert Louis Stevenson had on good and evil was deep at the time, but now, we know that it's not true. What I did was bold and maybe "wrong" to some people, but it's the truth.

Archangel

I like how both Doc and Hyde have a plausible and sensible mix of good and bad personal qualities. Their interplay is more akin to 'The Odd Couple" than the usual metaphors of id vs superego or drug addiction that I see in other adaptations of the story.

MK_Wizard

Ha! Well, I like to think that by troll standards, Hyde doe faced.

I did that purpose too. If we did what was expected and made Jekyll completely submit to Hyde, that would be expected and dull.

No offence to webcomic writers who take that route.

Archangel

Well, tropes can either be used to a good purpose, subverted to a good purpose, or just blindly followed.

khkddn

Robert Louis Stevenson's take wasn't true?

MK_Wizard

If anything, I can tell you all this: between the two of them, Hyde is more dependent on Jekyll than Jekyll is on Hyde.

lomcia (princess_lom)

MK I really enjoy your story, and I would love to chat more but my eyes don't listen to me :< I wish you all the best, meaby when I'll wake up I will answer for questions which people left as a feedback for you

MK_Wizard

It was true for the psychological view of human nature at the time. So he was just as right as everyone else. But now, we have come a long way with psychology.

So yes and no @khkddn

Thanks @lomcia (princess_lom)

Archangel

It's been a long time since I read the original, but I seem to recall interpreting Jeckyl as the superego and Hyde as the id

Which could be considered good and evil, respectively, in a Victorian mind? Maybe? Not really my period of history, so I don't feel comfortable being definite.

khkddn

I interpreted it as subverting what people of the time thought the "professional gentlemanly man" was supposed to be

Archangel

Hmm. I see that.

MK_Wizard

It could be interpreted many ways. That's the beauty of the original tale.

khkddn

the victorian professional gentleman was supposed to be all good and proper, but here we have this guy turning into an evil man at night

but that's pretty far removed from mk's version

MK_Wizard

Jekyll and Hyde had a lot of complex themes when it came to duality don't forget such as having dark secrets one would be very ashamed of for the Victorian age especially.

khkddn

it's a happier story for one thing. i like how your writing isn't mean-spirited mk.

like there are mean people who do terrible things, but it's never framed as a funny thing or as just something that happens in life that we can't change

RebelVampire

yes i agree, i like this is a more upbeat version. not to say sad things dont happen, but i dont get the impression that its trying to be dark and edgy just to be dark and edgy. sad things happen right when they should

MK_Wizard

I'm not into meanness. I find at one point in the media, being mean got passed off as cool. I don't like that.

mathtans

Little one is asleep in crib (again). ^^ Happening place tonight! I got as far as end of Act 5.

RebelVampire

hi math~!

MK_Wizard

Hello!

mathtans

Fave bit of what I've read was probably at the ball, when we get the extra whammy of who Emma was with. I hadn't expected that. Then when Jekyll is trying to shrug it off, Emily interjects, that was awesome. I really like Emily.

MK_Wizard

Nice to see an Emily fan. I feared people overlooked her.

Archangel

She's a keeper, for sure

I had actually forgotten about her since we haven't seen her in a while. If it's any consolation, I do that to real people too.

RebelVampire

oh really? i 100% expected emma to be with him cause the world was really intent on kicking jekyll down. what i did enjoy was her trying to put all the blame on jekyll tho. cause that is something real ppl do when they get caught as such.

mathtans

Emily is the kick in the pants that Jekyll needs sometimes. I also like Lucy for similar reasons, actually (standing up for herself, whereas with Emily it's for her uncle).

MK_Wizard

@RebelVampire Definitely. I see it happen all to often with cheaters.

mathtans

Rebel: I guess I hadn't anticipated that plot point to still be dangling. Really felt bad for Jekyll at the start on account of kicking him when he was down though, like ouch. Also, agree, it was true to form.

Archangel

The hardest thing to blame is one's self, after all

RebelVampire

i appreciated that emily didnt forgive jekyll for the tennis thing and for not standing up for her. cause that was a point where i was glad she was gonna stop being an enabler of jekyll's flaws in a more slap in the face wake up call kind of way

mathtans

Like, talking could still be a thing. I know that sometimes people avoid, but when you're proposed to, I think that's the time to talk.

MK_Wizard

In Emily's defence, what Jekyll did was cowardly and hurtful.

Archangel

Def

mathtans

Rebel: Yeah, I'm kind of in the middle of that now, but that hurt. Since she was always standing up for him.

MK_Wizard

And don't forget. Emily's a teenager. She will have teen moments.

Archangel

He did correct his mistake and learn from it. Credit where it's due.

mathtans

Oooh, spoilers. (j/k)

Archangel

Oh right, sorry

hehe

mathtans

Heh, it's cool, talk about all the stuff. I do this every week, and never manage to clear the archive half the time.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. Two major themes of the comic are what it means to be a better person in the face of personal flaws and how one might learn to be better. Insofar, what has been your favorite moment of growth for any of the characters showcased in the comic? What about this moment struck you as particularly strong? In the larger picture, do you think Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde really will continue to help each other to grow? Further, in what ways do you think the two characters can grow further as people? Alternatively, might the two reach a limit where they are no longer able to help each other in this manner? What flaws might both still continue to deal with long term? Overall, how do you think these changes will affect how both characters deal with life, and what can we personally learn from it as readers?

MK_Wizard

I'm afraid there's no way I can answer this without giving things away

Archangel

Good God, where to start. Give me a minute.

mathtans

It's kind of interesting, because Hyde never even had a memory before the transformation. So in some sense, he's a blank slate, and thus everything is growth.

In the beginning, Hyde was doing it for himself, but he inadvertantly helped people. Some part of him must have liked that, because now he does it to help and fight against the system.

Archangel

Okay, so obviously each of our protagonists has a massive, salient character flaw that comes out fairly early on. Jeckyl is too afraid of confrontation, and would rather get shafted than make a scene. Meanwhile Hyde, as @mathtans noted, is very self-centered--in rather a childish way, which makes sense in the context that Mat noted.

Each is well-placed to advise the other and point out that he's being a tool and why.

And -- very importantly -- they can't ignore each other

While each man is far from perfect, we're already seeing them improve in the face of the other's prodding, and finding themselves happier for it

mathtans

They have much to "reflect" on.

Archangel

/facedesk

Bravo, sir

Now I have to wipe soda off my monitor

MK_Wizard

I don't deny that there are tons of metaphors and symbolism in my story.

khkddn

there were earlier times when jekyll became more of a courageous person but i liked in act 8 when lanyon showed up at his door pretending to be friendly and jekyll is not having ANY of it

RebelVampire

be careful with that soda cause math is here to be the pun master

Archangel

Noted

Anyway, to @khkddn 's point, I wonder if it's because it was just the two of them? Maybe J's problem is more social anxiety? Interesting thought.

RebelVampire

yeah seeing jekyll just being like nope was a really satisfying in that moment. like seeing your little boy suddenly grow up.

MK_Wizard

It's a lot of things and it's complex which will be explained more and more as the story goes on.

RebelVampire

my favorite moment of growth is actually when hyde apologizes to lucy. because apologies are legit one of the hardest things to do i think for ppl. because thats a lot of stabbing for the personal ego, and the more prideful, the harder it is. so heres hyde, probably one of the most prideful ppl in the comic, admitting that he said some messed up shit and screwed up. that was a beautiful moment cause taking that many stabs to his ego was a showcase of how far hed come that hed go through such a grand gesture and damage his pride.

mathtans

Hyde also really has no filter when he's talking, while Jekyll has like, massive overthinking of everything before he speaks. It's a live-in-the-moment attitude versus thinking about the future. So if there is a "limit" where they can't help each other, I imagine Jekyll would see it coming.

MK_Wizard

They are opposites @mathtans

mathtans

True. I guess I'm saying that's conveyed well.

Archangel

@RebelVampire it also shows just how deeply Hyde cares for Lucy, that he's willing to basically abase himself like that.

khkddn

i agree w @RebelVampire about that scene, it shows that even if hyde is an opposite to jekyll personality wise, he isn't morally opposite and can be a good person who admits mistakes

mathtans

Speaking of opposites, here's a fun thing I realized. Jekyll loses his job, and his girl, and we feel badly for him. That thug guy Tom ALSO loses his "job" and his "girl" (if shaking down stores can be a job), but because he's on the wrong side of the law (and a jerk), we don't feel badly for him.

Archangel

Well, neither of their flaws are really things that need to be completely removed. They just need to be moderated. Hyde needs to learn a bit of impulse control, and Jeckyl needs to learn to loosen up a bit.

mathtans

Yeah, "Tom" might be the moral opposite.

Archangel

But neither of their attitudes towards life are bad per se, so long as they're not taken to extremes... as they have been doing

Huh, interesting

Or perhaps "there but for the grace of God go I" type of thing?

MK_Wizard

@mathtans Tom is a bad person. Do you all remember how he hit Lucy? Imagine how much worse it would have been if Hyde wasn't there.

RebelVampire

yeah im really interested to see if jekyll's biggest challenge in growing is moderation. cause i didnt entirely disagree with him in certain contexts. like at the party, i was kind of on his side that sometimes just letting things go is better and that theres a time and place for certain...coversations as it were.

Archangel

I'm amazed Lucy doesn't carry a knife or something. Most prostitutes in cities carry something for self-defense (if they're smart), and the habit would likely carry over into working at a bar. Plus Victorian ladies' clothes are REALLY good for concealing weapons. You have to see it to believe it

mathtans

Yeah, jerk as I indicated. Just, similar stuff happened to him. Just thought it was interesting. He's more evil than Hyde is, for sure.

Archangel

Oh absolutely

khkddn

tom doesnt have a cool top hat like hyde and that's why i'll never root for him even if he weren't a bad person(edited)

MK_Wizard

@Archangel Lucy does own a knife, but she knows Tom would have overpowered her.

Archangel

If she'd given him a chance. But I see your point.

The hardest part of hurting or killing someone is actually deciding to do so.

Damaging somebody is terrifyingly easy... if you can bring yourself to do it.

Anyway. off topic.

MK_Wizard

There's a reason she has scars. Like Lucy said, her getting slapped wasn't the worst assault a man had ever done on her. She is brave and tough, but she's not super strong. Lots of men can overpower her and have, but she's not prostitute. She's a waitress, but she is poor so that still makes her an easy target.

Archangel

She started out as a sex worker, though, right? Or am I misremembering.

mathtans

Again, to be clear, I don't think anyone should root for Tom. Just, he had similar stuff happen and approached things in a way that neither Jekyll nor Hyde would. (Very wrongly.)

khkddn

lucy would also need an exit strategy if she used the knife on tom. she would probably have to run away and lay low, which could be more dangerous than staying with him.

mathtans

Lucy is kickass. I liked her remark of an apology shouldn't have a "but".

MK_Wizard

She was a showgirl and eventually had to sort of become a prostitute, but she isn't one anymore.

Archangel

Very true, hadn't thought that through

Seebee

is here to show support

Woo, go MK

Archangel

lol

MK_Wizard

Hey Seebee!

Seebee

Yoooo~

MK_Wizard

Glad you could join us.

You rock!

Seebee

GASP, I'MMA ROCK?!

looks at self

no wonder I got craters on my skiiiin

Archangel

Hope you're a pet rock. Then you get a nice box with straw and everything

MK_Wizard

Just because Lucy is no muscle woman doesn't mean she's a pushover. And now that she doesn't have to submit to people to make a living, she sure as heck never does.

RebelVampire

yeah i think that was a great line, @mathtans cause its really such a simplistic but smart way of weeding a good apology from a bad apology

MK_Wizard

Her having her body belong to herself again is something that is very precious to her.

Archangel

Understandably

Not many people could have gone through as much bad as Lucy has and come out walking erect, as the saying goes. I think that's why admire her so much. I don't think I could ever be that strong.

mathtans

(I'm continuing my read in the background, btw. The April Fools strip with the green hair is a riot. Speaking of bodies belonging to other people.)

khkddn

yeah lucy is one of my favorite characters, she's cool

MK_Wizard

She had to be. No one else was there for her. Back in the day, being of mixed ethnicity was a taboo.

That was the reason she had it rough. It's not right, but... it was not uncommon.

khkddn

if a random person during the time saw lucy would they assume she is mixed? or does she pass as not being mixed?

i'm wondering if this would change how she is treated

Archangel

Speaking for the USA, it depended entirely on the place and the person's specific appearance

But rarely would it be ignored

MK_Wizard

Ha. Well.... she's a cartoon, but if she were real, yes. You would tell because her skin is a bit too dark, she has the eyes and lips, as well as the physique.

mathtans

Just an aside on the topic of cartoons, I feel like it takes a while to draw the hairdos. ^^

MK_Wizard

She can't pass off not being mixed. She's one of those very obvious cases.

Oh ho ho ho. Jekyll's hair IS tedious to draw, but it's worth it because it makes him stand out.

Archangel

Also, her hair isn't right. One of the more dominant traits of African heritage is the way hair behaves--very bristly and stand-outy (I don't know the right word). To get it to flow like Lucy's does, one needs a good deal of product every morning. Or so a friend told me once.

mathtans

Well done, MK. Also for having Emily's be similar, what with the family resemblance.

MK_Wizard

Thanks

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. In the current story, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have become aware of a mysterious alchemist causing trouble. Who exactly is this mysterious alchemist? Why is this alchemist helping Governor Carew? Exactly what do you think this project is that the board of governors is looking to fund by using the alchemist’s talents? Do you think Mr. Hyde’s previous actions will put the board on extra alert for their investigations? How might this affect Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll’s success in stopping Carew’s villainy, if so? Alternatively, how might the various things the alchemist is able to do (like create gold) change the characters’ views on how the world works? All in all, how do you feel this arc of cases will wind up be solved (or go unsolved)?

Archangel

I do know that one of the standard "tests" of somebody's background back in the bad old days was to look at their hair, precisely because this trait is so dominant.

mathtans

Well, I'm obviously not there yet, but I feel like this was set up very well with the mercury poisoning stuff happening in the background of what I have read.

Archangel

Well, creating gold is always a bad idea when the economy is based on gold. Every mage's guild I've ever seen in any universe has a big fat rule against it

MK_Wizard

In Lucy's case, it's her skin, eyes and lips. Plus, her body type as she got older. Don't forget, coloured people go far beyond the hair and skin.

But back to the subject, it was explicitly stated that making your own gold is 100% illegal.

Archangel

So they have to be either utterly stupid or they don't care about devaluing the currency. Not something for men of means (and thus knowledge of at least some finance and economics) to take lightly

My bad, but my second point stands re: their scheme with the unfortunate chickens

RebelVampire

youre making a huge assumption they understand how the economy works. XD i dont get the impression most of the men of means care, as long as they get theirs and get to have their fancy stuff.

MK_Wizard

Plus, the board of governors have a lot of influence.

mathtans

What about making gold for someone else?

Archangel

I'd like to argue with you, RV, but I can't.

Presumably charged as an accessory, @mathtans

MK_Wizard

@Seebee, you got anything to add to this?

Archangel

Given that we're talking chemistry, though, the other classic thing that comes up aside from gold is some sort of immortality potion. I don't recall any hints to that effect, though.

mathtans

"You made a gold chain for my locket?" "Yes, now it's an accessory."

Seebee

Hmmm... not at the moment

I will be honest, I am ded inside from being out all day))

mathtans

I'm reminded of how Jekyll's first attempts at his formula involved trying almost all elements on the periodic table. He must have certain resources that might be helpful for going after an alchemist.

MK_Wizard

That and Jekyll has the most valuable resource of all: his own genius

Archangel

Mmm. He can certainly analyze any samples or whatnot that Hyde acquires.

RebelVampire

maybe thatll be the next arc, where theyre trying to find an immortality potion.

khkddn

i imagine the alchemist is helping governor carew because he's deeply involved w the plan somehow. it'd be weird if he were just a hired alchemist, because, what're they gonna pay him in? gold?? couldn't he just make the gold himself

Archangel

Perhaps the deal is that they'll put him beyond the law

So he can actually get away with it

No point to crime if you can't enjoy the result

MK_Wizard

It's definitely something big and it also shows how heinous the board of governors really are.

RebelVampire

i kind of think the previous arc has made it more difficult though. cause if i was on the board, i would def be on high alert. all it takes is one guy saying "hey i saw hyde snooping around stopping our gold operation"

MK_Wizard

Actually, nobody can say or do anything.

The alchemist burnt the evidence and place to the ground.

mathtans

Everything probably points back to Carew. That guy is shady as anything. (Incidentally, good job emphasizing his character with that statue debacle near the start. Not a nice man.)

RebelVampire

i can only think the alchemist is in it for the secret project. cause i agree with khkddn, its not like the alchemist needs gold

Archangel

I don't think we've seen any bent cops to this point, which means that the Governors either need enough evidence to fool honest cops (not so easy to fake), or to keep mum

MK_Wizard

It's a bit of both. Not enough evidence and some cops are crooked much to Sgt. Drumwell's dismay.

Archangel

There's always a few, and they always get promoted. >_<

Kei Esteban

Hello! Sorry I'm Late!

MK_Wizard

It's cool!

Archangel

*Hi ho

khkddn

heya

Kei Esteban

Thanks

RebelVampire

tbf its not like these are modern csi times. so theres only so many ways they can analyze evidence in the first place

MK_Wizard

Exactly

khkddn

do they even have fingerprint technology at this point?

Archangel

The techniques were fully established by that point, but not so widely accepted

MK_Wizard

They do have a way of detecting fingerprints, but fire destroys everything.

mathtans

Gotta make themselves a time machine.

Archangel

Wiki "Henry Classification System" sometime for an interesting insight into pre-fingerprint policing

khkddn

ah well to get anything out of ashes i think they would need chemical analysis that doesn't exist yet. it'd prolly be faster to build a time machine yep

Archangel

The problem with fire is that it alters the chemical composition of everything

MK_Wizard

Exactly. The alchemist knew precisely what he was doing.

Archangel

So unless you have research data, it's pretty much impossible to ID the source substances.

khkddn

they need chemical analysis that doesn't even exist in OUR time yet

Archangel

Well, the good guys do have a genius (al)chemist on their side...

Speaking of, @MK_Wizard , is there an actual technical distinction between chemistry and alchemy, or is it just po-tay-to/po-tah-to?

mathtans

Maybe someone will Hyde the evidence.

MK_Wizard

Yes and no.

khkddn

if only the chickens could speak english. then the truth would be out there

MK_Wizard

To explain, alchemy has some spirituality and magical properties behind it. Basically, it was the stepping stone to chemistry. People discovered that magic did have a science behind it and upon further research, people discovered that magic had a direct link to nature.

khkddn

i have to work on a school project and this is distracting me way too much so i'm gonna go. it's been fun chatting!

Archangel

glhf

MK_Wizard

With that, human beings who have no magic invented a way to "use magic" without having any themselves. Alchemy. They would use ways of manipulating nature in supernatural ways and through that, they discovered how to make chemicals and made other marvels through science.

@khkddn thanks for joining us

Of course, it wasn't just humans who used magic. Other races did too.

Kei Esteban

Ah, Other than Trolls and Humans, do you have any interest in having other Races show up?

mathtans

Interesting bringing that up, what with trolls being a thing common enough to be known with police. I wondered too.(edited)

MK_Wizard

Definitely. In fact, you already saw two and didn't know it.

Remember the short guy Biggs? He's a gnome.

Archangel

Oh cool

Kei Esteban

Ah Neat ^_^

Archangel

I still say he needs a buddy named Wedge

Kei Esteban

RebelVampire

thats interesting. cause i was curious why everyone was like shrugging to the presence of trolls

MK_Wizard

The other one is Tyler the redhead, but what HE is... you're going to see

mathtans

Now I'm picturing Biggs renting himself out to stand in gardens during the day.

Archangel

"If I parked a tank outside your office, after a week it would be just another car." --one of my vet buddies

Kei Esteban

I look forward to finding out ^_^

Archangel

(as in my buddy who's a vet. I was never in the Service)

Also, London in our world is one of the most metropolitan environments on earth. I bet it's the same in the story.

MK_Wizard

Most definitely,

mathtans

I now kind of wonder about interracial breeding.

MK_Wizard

It's like the "New York" of Europe in my comic. You'll find anyone there.

Archangel

Just like in real life

MK_Wizard

You've seen it already. Sgt. Drumwell is half troll and half human.

mathtans

Like, troll and human must be a thing given how Hyde and Lucy.... oh, yeah? Hummmm.

MK_Wizard

Hence his human appearance, but he has yellow fangs and his eyes.

Kei Esteban

Settings like that are always nice too see

MK_Wizard

It's also why he's compassionate. He was lucky because his parents were very wealthy so their money protected them. Plus, he passes off as a human mostly, but his eyes, teeth and height give him away.

Archangel

Well, it's for MK to say for sure, but one of the definitions of separate species is the inability to interbreed. There are exceptions, but that's the general rule. It would be interesting to see Hyde and Lucy have little ones, though. In due course.

Kei Esteban

indeed

RebelVampire

are laws applied equally or is there inequality as far as different species go? like is there special laws that only exist for trolls, etc.?

mathtans

Actually, Sgt Drumwell is their child. Eventually Jekyll perfects the time machine and sends him back.

MK_Wizard

lol no

Archangel

lmao

MK_Wizard

Here's how it works. It's generally a taboo socially, but if you're very rich, you can get away with a lot. You just won't be respected for it.

For example... there's another non-human you saw without knowing it. Utterson's redheaded wife Camilla. She's a wizard.

AND he married her without making her convert to his faith/human lifestyle. He allows her to continue living openly as a wizard and practicing her culture.

Archangel

Fascinating. And again, makes sense that people would regard sentient species the way they regarded other races at the time.

Kei Esteban

Well he is a Great guy, so that's not too surprising he would be respectful of her completely

MK_Wizard

Her hair was also an Easter Egg to her race. In old lore, red heads were often thought to be witches.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. Despite working together, Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll still argue quite often and risk their own safety a lot. How might their shared injury and pain help or hurt their ability to function in their own daily lives in the future? Do you believe that at some point the two’s shared identity of sorts will be revealed? If so, how do you envision this coming about? Given the growing relationship between Mr. Hyde and Lucy, will Mr. Hyde be compelled to tell her at some point? What about Dr. Jekyll with his niece and nephew? Do you think the two’s shared arrangement with the body will work long term, or will they at some point need to make alterations to their living situation? Ultimately, how do you feel their living arrangement will affect their future adventures, whatever you think those future adventures might be?

Kei Esteban

@MK_Wizard Oh no! They are on too me! (I'm a Red head XD)(edited)

MK_Wizard

Ok, for this... I leave entirely up to all of you. So... bring on the fan theories!

Archangel

Let's see. Well, Lucy absolutely has a right to know. How she'll react, I have no idea.

As to Emily & Will... I think Emily should be briefed in, if only so she won't freak out if Hyde has to come get them to prevent a kidnapping or something by the opposition.

MK_Wizard

Keep in mind. Nobody knows yet.

Nobody except Louis and he's not talking.

Archangel

Right. I think Lucy can keep a secret. Emily... honestly don't know her well enough to say.

RebelVampire

yeah i think as far as a long term arrangement, its not gonna work. because assuming hyde wants to marry lucy at some point, thatd be problematic. even worse, what if jekyll meets somebody. they are fooling themselves if they think this can work out indefinitely. so jekyll is gonna need to put that genius to work.

Kei Esteban

I think it would be best in the long run for those closest to them to know. Lucy and Emily would be a great start indeed

Archangel

Knowledge of the situation would be all that Carew & Lanyon need to discredit anything Jeckyl says, ever, so it certainly can't become public knowledge.

MK_Wizard

Lanyon is out of the picture for good. It's the one thing I can confirm. He's defeated for good.

Archangel

Yay!

He was a good bad guy, though

Kei Esteban

I love how he effectively defeated himself! XD

MK_Wizard

That was the point. And it was also karma. Lanyon got successful by riding on Jekyll's tail and taking everything that was his.

In the end, doing this was his undoing.

Sure he didn't have Jekyll's money to do stuff, but it didn't make being a skunk ok especially because Jekyll really did see him as a friend and would have hlped him.

Kei Esteban

It was such a Creative way to end the conflict ^_^

Archangel

I don't think he'd believe you if you'd told him that to his face. People like that seem to get that way because they assume that everybody's out to get everybody. At least in my (blessedly limited) contact with the species.

Kei Esteban

That's an unfortunate way to look at the world. By that i mean the "everybody out to get everybody" bit.(edited)

MK_Wizard

I wanted to show that there are good and bad people from every social standing.

Basically, different kinds of good and bad people.

mathtans

Back. (Had to see to the little one briefly.)

MK_Wizard

Aww

mathtans

In terms of people knowing, would they believe without seeing the transformation?

Archangel

Good question

MK_Wizard

Would you? I don't think so.

mathtans

It's not like people have iPhones to video record it.

Archangel

That might help them keep the secret

mathtans

I mean, there's the argument of they haven't been in the same room together.

RebelVampire

nah i highly doubt it. in fact, far more likely the person claiming this is a thing that happened would get sent to an asylum

MK_Wizard

Yeah, but... who would believe the two share a body that transforms without seeing it?

mathtans

Though I agree with Rebel that they'll need to figure something out so that relationship things don't become an issue.

Someone with MPD?

MK_Wizard

Not talking (teasing)

I will share one tidbit... At the end of the true end of the story, there will be no loose ends.

For anything. And that is all.

mathtans

Just got to the bit with Lanyon, btw, that you were referencing earlier. That was very clever, coming full circle, and good final shot of him in the mirror.

RebelVampire

actually ya know tbf, didnt louis take some of the potion. you could use louis to show its a real thing

in the sense of the transformation

mathtans

Crazy theory time: Jekyll figures out how to shift Hyde to share a body with someone else instead. Hyde and Lucy decide to become "one", and ride off into the sunset.

MK_Wizard

I will say this now... no.

That sounds romantic on paper, but that would actually be bad.

Because how would they be a couple?

mathtans

Kissing mirrors.

Archangel

That'd make it like that one movie where the knight and the lady each shapeshift, but they alternate states at dawn and can never be together. That was one weird movie.

Good curse, though

MK_Wizard

That sounds like the worst kind of hell for two people deeply in love. To be so close, yet completely separate.

Kei Esteban

@MK_Wizard like Garnet, from Steven Universe? XD

Archangel

Actually, what Mat describes would be a truly horrible curse for a couple. I might use that someday.

MK_Wizard

Garnet is not Ruby and Sapphie per se. She is the embodiment of their love.

mathtans

Yeah, you're not wrong. Okay, so Hyde and Poole...?

Archangel

Poole's not getting any younger

What happens when one half dies?

MK_Wizard

They both die.

Kei Esteban

@MK_Wizard Very True (I guess we can't use Gem logic here)(edited)

mathtans

Yeah, I think that was stated. When they hurt, the other hurts too.

RebelVampire

yeah i feel the fact they share pain and death is gonna be weaponized against them. cause if i needed to get rid of hyde, id go for jekyll if i knew that fact. cause whats jekyll gonna do? slap me a little?

Kei Esteban

then how about Hyde and Carew? (Hyde just takes over full time)

MK_Wizard

You all really hit the nail on the head that them sharing a body, but not lives and such is going to become a challenge.

Archangel

Good point. Though you'd have to bump Jeckyl right away rather than keeping him around. Come sunset...

mathtans

Just to talk about Emily again (because she's cool), I feel like she'd understand, if the truth came out. Though I wonder if she'd be hurt that Jekyll didn't say anything sooner.

Archangel

Ooo, I like Kei's idea. Not sure it works that way, though.

MK_Wizard

And I will disprove the theory now.... Hyde and Jekyll cannot suddenly be shifted to another person. Neither soul is a "disease" you can hand onto someone else.

Archangel

@mathtans I agree. My concern would be whether she can keep a secret. She is a teenage girl, after all.

MK_Wizard

They are a person.

Archangel

And keeping a cool secret is hard at any age

MK_Wizard

They are two people.

Kei Esteban

indeed

mathtans

Archangel: She's pretty mature for her age though. Granted, she's also pretty outspoken. I don't think she'd say anything intentionally, but it might come out in the heart of the moment or something. (Which is maybe why she could accept not having been told.)

RebelVampire

i think emily could keep a secret. now will on the otherhand

MK_Wizard

So all theories of them being put onto someone else will not come to pass because that's impossible.

RebelVampire

will i would believe couldnt keep a secret cause hes even younger(edited)

Archangel

Perhaps with the materials to 'construct' a new body, and the proper spellwork, each can be embodied separately? Sort of a siamese twin operation?

Will is right out at his age.

Kei Esteban

Will being a kid, might even think it's cool (Which he would be right)(edited)

mathtans

So maybe one of them decides to sacrifice themselves for the good of the two of them. Jekyll already tried that once.

MK_Wizard

I won't say much about who can keep a secret, but in my experience, it goes with personality not age.

Archangel

I will say that almost nobody under the age of 10 can keep a secret in my experience. But aside from that, agreed.

mathtans

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Nellie couldn't keep a secret.

MK_Wizard

You've also seen that Hyde would never have that. He's not an active killer. And he loves Jekyll as a brother. He wouldn't kill him if he asked him to.

And taking over essentially does that.

Archangel

I'm not sure Nellie's bright enough to grasp the core concept XD

Kei Esteban

Archangel

Here's a really trippy question, MK: do J&D have separate souls, or do they share one?

mathtans

(And I had to go to the cast page to look up the name, and now I see how "half troll" is right there in Drumwell's bio, nice.)

MK_Wizard

They have separate souls.

Archangel

Obviously their minds are separate, but I'm questioning their spiritual state in the technical sense

Okay, so it's reasonable to theorize that they could be separated and embodied separately. It would certainly take high magic, though.

MK_Wizard

The Hyde Formula has magical properties. For example, did you know that in reincarnation, the soul splits? Hence why some people who get reincarnated can be reincarnated as multiple people.

Archangel

I've never heard that.

mathtans

Well, if the original intention was a sort of "Disney" Jekyll and Hyde, maybe there will be a Disney ending? Somehow?

Archangel

Pillars of Eternity has this whole thing about souls fragmenting, but that's more like chips off a rock over time.

MK_Wizard

In the case of Jekyll and Hyde, Hyde came from a piece of Jekyll's own soul, but it became its own unique being.

Yes, You got it!

Archangel

Makes sense.

MK_Wizard

Keep in mind, even Disney endings aren't always perfect.

RebelVampire

the disney ending will be hyde and lucy riding off in a carriage with the just got married sign and jekyll will come to cause they decided to just make it a threesome

although that joke aside i wonder if jekyll and lucy will ever interact

MK_Wizard

Uh, no lol

Lucy is not Jekyll's type and Hyde would not share his woman with anyone.

Nor would Jekyll do that.

Jekyll is as monogamous as they come lol.

mathtans

Hmmm, and is it too late to ship Lucy and Emma?

Archangel

RV is right insofar as it would be interesting to see how Jeckyl and Lucy get along socially. I imagine that after some initial sounding out, they'll manage well enough. After all, Lucy is a lady and Jeckyl is a gentleman. That goes a long way.

lmao

Kei Esteban

It would be nice to see Jekyll meet someone new, that is actually good for him

Archangel

MK_Wizard

@mathtans That ship is solely wish fulfilment and a fan fantasy.

RebelVampire

i more wonder the social interaction cause that could make hyde jealous. if jekyll and lucy got along even if it was totally platonic

Archangel

Actually, someone like Emily would be very good for Jeckyl... in the sense of personality, not age.

mathtans

(I always ship the ladies... ) And actually, the thought that it's a fan fantasy already amuses me.

Archangel

Cue the "I ship it, I don't care" song

MK_Wizard

I made this comic knowing people would do ships if the comic caught on. All I say is that, as long as you accept that it is not the official storyline.

mathtans

Maybe Jekyll can be the best man at the Hyde/Lucy wedding?

Archangel

Only if Poole is the Father of the Bride

Otherwise J would slide down to second place IMO

mathtans

What's official is definitely up to the author. All the best with it! It's an interesting take.

MK_Wizard

Thanks

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Marika Kapogeorgakis (or MK_Wizard), as well, for making MK’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Marika Kapogeorgakis (or MK_Wizard)’s efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: http://mksjekyllandhyde.thecomicseries.com/

Marika’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MK_Wizard

Marika’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/mkwizard

Marika’s Storenvy: https://mkomics.storenvy.com/

Marika’s Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/MK_Wizard

Marika’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/MKJekyllAndHyde

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic book club #webcomic bookclub #comic tea party #ctp #mk's the strange case of dr. jekyll & mr. hyde #mk's dr. jekyll & mr. hyde #marika kapogeorgakis #mk_wizard

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jarienn972 · 6 years

Text

Only a Little Superstitious - Chapter 15

I'm going to preface this chapter with the revelation that it came together as the result of a very stressful couple of weeks for me. So, that said, this one is going to be heavy on the angst - with just a couple of major developments playing out both in Phoenix as well as back home in Storybrooke. I promise, there is going to be a happy ending, but there's still a bumpy road ahead for both Emma and Killian.. @killian-whump, I’d forgotten to tag you on the last couple of chapters, but I didn’t want you to miss out on some juicy angst.

AO3 FF.net

From the beginning on Tumblr: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Evening was quickly descending on Storybrooke as Regina yanked open the heavy front door of the town library, here thanks to an urgent message from Belle stating she'd discovered something very important. Regina didn't see the brunette librarian anywhere as she entered but she could hear a couple of muffled voices off in the distance.

"Belle?" Regina called out, having recognized Belle's voice as well as a male one – David. "You've got news?"

"Regina!" Belle's voice shouted back from further back in the dusty, musty building. "We're back here – in the computer room."

"We?" Regina asked. She had only made out two voices so she wondered who else might be present.

"David and I," Belle replied as Regina came around the corner into the library's make-shift computer room which also housed most of the reference section. David, clad in a blue plaid flannel shirt and jeans, was leaning against the wall across from Belle. "I figured he should be here as acting Sheriff so he could hear this as well…"

"Must relate to Emma and Hook then," Regina said in what came across as a perpetually annoyed tone.

"Sort of…," was Belle's cryptic response as she took a couple of steps over to a huge, solid oak library table stacked with piles of leather-bound first editions and reference materials. Belle pushed one of the stacks to the side and produced a fistful of papers. "Actually, it has more to do with Yzma's partner, Kronk…"

"Kronk? The guy who stabbed Hook then followed my daughter and son-in-law through the portal to Arizona?" David queried.

"That Kronk," Belle confirmed, plucking the first page from her pile of papers, one that looked like a poor quality photocopy. "I've been doing some research into both of our recent troublemakers, both Yzma and Kronk."

"Okay…" Regina hadn't expected the the petite librarian to continue looking into the pair once they'd been identified, but maybe this was a good thing.

"Well, we know that they arrived here with Mr. Hyde and his cronies from the Land of Untold Stories," David stated, curious as to what else Belle might have uncovered.

"Yes, they did come from the Land of Untold Stories," Belle verified. "I confirmed that through some of the journals found with both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's belongings. Each seemed to be trying to keep records which partially identified the story book characters trapped in that realm. Thing was, neither of them made any mention of Nehemiah Kronk or what his story was. That got me very curious so I started to do a little digging and, with the help of some modern technology, I found something very interesting…"

"Are you going to kill us with suspense?" Regina deadpanned, eager to get home after a long day.

"Sorry, let me get to the point," Belle responded, voice dripping with sarcasm as she had no intention of being bullied by the mayor's insolence. "Nehemiah Kronk isn't a fairytale character at all…"

"What?!" both David and Regina chimed in unison.

"What do you mean he isn't a fairytale character?" Regina repeated Belle's revelation. "He has to be…"

"He's most certainly not," Belle replied very matter-of-factly as she passed the paper clutched in her hand to Regina. "Nehemiah Kronk is from this world, the Land Without Magic. Look…"

Regina perused the slightly blurry page before her which appeared to be a badly preserved copy of a very old newspaper article. "What exactly am I looking at? Old news?"

"That is a printout of an article I uncovered, published by the Arizona Republican newspaper in 1892…" Belle started to say as Regina handed the barely legible page to David.

"This says something about a missing US Marshal?" David asked as he glanced down at the page, confused as to what this had to do with Yzma's dangerous henchman. "I guess I'm missing something here…"

"Let me finish?" Belle asked, to which both David and Regina agreed, promising not to interrupt again. "That article talks about the mysterious disappearance of United States Marshal Nehemiah Kronk who vanished somewhere outside of the city Phoenix, then in the Arizona territories, while escorting a prisoner from Denver to Los Angeles. He and his partner turned their prisoner over to the California team, but when his partner checked in the next morning before they were to board the train back to Denver, Kronk was nowhere to be found. Witnesses reported he was last seen in a tavern talking to an old man. No one ever saw Kronk again and he was suspected of becoming a victim of one of several Apache attacks that week."

"Okay, but this is from the 1890s… How could someone from this world still be alive and unaged over a century later?" David wondered. "I'm sure the frozen time aspect of the Land of Untold Stories had something to do with it, but how did he get there if he isn't from a story? And how did he manage to hook up with Yzma?"

"I can't give you answers to those questions, but it's definitely the same guy…" Belle peeled the second page from her pile which contained a grainy, black and white photograph of the missing Marshal and while the hairstyle, attire and facial hair were different, David recognized the face of the man he'd fought alongside his son-in-law.

"Damn… that's him…" David sighed, unsure what this would mean for his daughter and her wounded husband.

"Well, at least we now have something that explains how they ended up in Arizona," Regina spoke up. "If Emma's right about the dagger being the object that opened the portal, not the scepter, Kronk may have had an impact on their destination."

"You think Kronk had a reason to go back to Arizona after all of these years?" David asked.

"Maybe. There are a lot of things we aren't going to be able to answer, but maybe this information would help Emma's friends track him down before he finds them?" Belle questioned. "Maybe we should call her?"

"She's still waiting for the dagger and potion to arrive," Regina said as she glanced down at her gold, diamond encrusted watch. "It won't get there for a few more hours but she's supposed to call when the package arrives and let us know if the potion works."

"Emma's got enough on her mind right now," David began. "Let's wait until we know the potion worked before we give her something else to worry about…"

"Agreed," Regina said. "Let's not bother her with a story about a century and a half year old former Federal Agent until the dark magic is dealt with. As for me, I'm heading home. If you happen to hear from your daughter sooner, let me know."

Sunsets in the Valley of the Sun were always spectacular and Carlos found his eyes immediately drawn to the blaze of color stretching across the Western sky as he exited his battered old pickup truck. The last few rays of sunlight could be seen reflecting off of the front windows of the nondescript office building in Scottsdale that he'd parked in front of, one which housed the National Parks Service field office. At nearly 6pm, only a few of his fellow government employees would still be here, most swapping their assigned Parks Service SUVs for their personal vehicles after a long day of patrolling the surrounding expanse of Federal lands.

He tapped his ID badge against the electronic security panel to the right of the entrance, tugging the door open when the panel buzzed and flashed a green light. Ana, their receptionist, glanced up from her desk as he entered, momentarily startling her as few people entered through the front door at this hour.

"Littlecreek? What are you doing at the office at this hour?" she asked, her dark eyes narrowing in confusion. "And isn't it your day off?"

"Hey, Ana," he greeted her with a friendly smile, hoping he could sell her on the basic story without going into a lot of detail. "Yeah, sorry for the confusion. I've got a package being delivered here from back East. It's pretty important so I didn't really want to risk having it dropped off at my place."

"Ooh, the mystery deepens, huh?" Ana teased him as he pulled one of the waiting area chairs away from the window and flopped down onto it. "Must be pretty important for you to show up here on your day off…"

"Yes, it is. Important enough to warrant private, same-day courier delivery. Good thing it's not on my tab. Figured I'd get over here early though in case the plane lands earlier than scheduled."

"Okay, well, you're on your own. I'm not sticking around while you wait," Ana stated as the clock on her desk now read six o'clock. "My day is over and I'm heading home. See you later, Littlecreek."

"Goodnight, Ana," he replied as she retrieved her purse from beneath her desk and scurried out the door. While he would have preferred the company, the less prying eyes, the better. He didn't want to have to go over the story of the package's contents more times than necessary.

He'd nearly drifted off from boredom when a loud knock sounded against the thick glass door forty-five minutes later. Carlos sprang to his feet and took a step towards the door, taking in the sight of a slight, blond haired man in his early to mid twenties dressed in a navy blue uniform and clutching a small box wrapped tightly in clear tape.

"Evening," the courier greeted Carlos from the opposite side of the thick glass door. "I've got a package here for a Mrs. Emma Jones, care of a Ranger Carlos Littlecreek?"

"And that would be me," Carlos replied. "One moment. Let me buzz you in…" Carlos found the button to his left and pressed it before pushing the door open for the courier to enter the office lobby.

"Thank you," the courier said as he took a few steps inside toward the reception desk. He rested the package on the desk while fumbling through his pocket with his free hand to find his tablet so he could collect Carlos' signature confirming the delivery. It was only as the package was placed atop the counter that Carlos noticed that one side was dented significantly. "I just need you to sign here but I'd also like you to take a look over the package and the contents and make sure they're intact in case you need to file a claim. We had a pretty bumpy flight and everything in the cargo hold got jostled around a lot. 'Found this package beneath a heavier one that got bounced on top of it and since the manifest stated it contained medicine, I was a little concerned…"

"Yeah, it contains some cough medicine for a colleague of mine. Desert air doesn't quite agree with her," Carlos chuckled as he hunted around Ana's desk for a pair of scissors so he could cut through the many layers of tape securing the box. Upon closer inspection, it appeared the courier had valid reason for his concern. He could see that beneath the tape, corners of the cardboard seemed to be damp with a reddish liquid and as he lifted it, the bottom was sticky against his palm. It was all adding up to be a little disconcerting. What if the potion bottles were damaged? There might not be time to wait for another batch… He cautiously cut through the tape securing the top flaps of the box and pulled them open to reveal layer after layer of bubble wrap lining the carton. He dug into it, easily finding the first prescription bottle and breathing a small sigh of relief upon discovering it was intact. They'd have one dose at least.

Unfortunately, as he discovered more of the sticky liquid clinging to the plastic, it became fairly evident that the second container hadn't been spared and as much as he hated it, he was right. He found the second bottle positioned against the dented side of the box sporting a large crack down the side. Grabbing what looked to be a clean coffee mug from Ana's desktop, he carefully extracted the second bottle, trying to preserve as much of the precious liquid inside as he could. He dropped the damaged container into the mug so it could catch any additional spillage, then slowly removed layer upon layer of bubble wrap, pouring what he could salvage into the mug.

"Damn…," the courier sighed. "I'm so sorry about that. We'll notify the sender so they can put in a damage claim if they want."

"Nothing you could do about the turbulence," Carlos assured the courier, not blaming him for this setback. At least one bottle had survived so they had one full dose and he was doing all he could to collect every drop he could rescue from the broken bottle. "Here, let me sign that so you can get out of here and I can get this stuff over to my colleague." The courier handed him the tablet and a rubber tipped stylus to sign and Carlos scrawled out his name as best he could with his now very sticky fingers. Once the transaction was all completed, he buzzed the courier out and tried to decide if he should call Emma now to warn her or just explain it all in person. Neither option was particularly pleasant at the moment.

Deciding it preferable to explain face to face, Carlos packaged the borrowed mug inside the box with the unblemished container and the still wrapped dagger then hurried out to his truck. He headed south toward Mesa, driving as quickly as he could without drawing too much unnecessary attention. Last thing he needed was to get pulled over for speeding and lengthen the delay the snarled traffic was already causing.

He finally arrived back at the hospital just after 7:30pm, box carefully tucked under his left arm. The unusual package had gotten a bit of scrutiny from security, but a casual mention of Tim Stillwater's name managed to get him through without too many questions. As he at last approached the room, it looked like Killian was asleep. Emma's back was to him but Grandmother spotted him lurking in the corridor and waved him inside.

"Why were you standing out there just staring?" Grandmother scolded him. "You could have just entered."

"I saw that Killian was sleeping and I didn't want to disturb him," Carlos replied in defense of his stalling.

"Right now, I don't care who you wake," Emma stated, standing up and hurriedly retrieving the box Carlos was carrying. "This package right here is the only thing I'm worried about right now."

"Well, the potion is definitely in there, as was the dagger," Carlos told her. "I wasn't even gonna try to bring that thing in here though so it's locked in my truck, but unfortunately, we may have a small problem…"

"Problem?" Emma's gaze shot up to meet Carlos', the earlier eagerness now tempered with a hint of trepidation. "What kind of problem?" She had already placed the cardboard box atop the rolling side table and was lifting the flaps to open it, not yet noticing that the corners were damp and discolored, but Grandmother's eagle eyes had spotted the stains.

Sharing a knowing glance with her grandson, the old woman was already asking "What happened?" even before Emma had the lid open, knowing not all of the potion had survived the journey from Storybrooke. Grandmother's intuitive suspicions were confirmed when Emma peeled back the sticky bubble wrap to discover the ceramic mug holding the cracked prescription bottle and the remnants that Carlos had managed to salvage.

"One of the bottles was broken?" Emma asked with a very audible sigh, lifting the mug carefully from the box so she wouldn't spill any more of its valuable contents. "It's all soaked through the box…"

"The courier said they hit some nasty turbulence and some other boxes fell on top of this one," Carlos explained. "I salvaged what I could from the broken one, even what I could manage to save from inside the layers of bubble wrap. 'Borrowed a friend's mug so I'd have something to catch it all. Looks like there's maybe a third of the original amount left…"

"The other bottle is intact?" Grandmother asked just wanting to be certain.

"Yes, it's fine," Emma responded as she withdrew the undamaged bottle from the package and placed it atop the table. Resting the mug beside the prescription container, she extracted the broken bottle and removed its lid, dumping the remaining contents into the mug. The thick, reddish-brown liquid certainly looked and even smelled like cough syrup. Regina had done well disguising it, but they had only a little more than a single dose. "Might as well have him drink all of it now," Emma decided, raising the second bottle to remove its cap and emptying it into the mug as well. Now all she had to do was get Killian to drink it.

"You're not worried it might be too much?" Carlos wondered, figuring there had to be a reason it was split into two separate doses. He didn't really expect Emma to answer as there definitely wasn't enough left to make a second dose that would likely have any effect, but he was still curious that too much could be equally as troubling as not enough.

"I don't see much of a choice," Emma replied as she gently nudged her husband's shoulder in an attempt to get him to stir. "Killian? If you can hear me, you need to wake up…" There was little response from her first effort so she had to try a bit harder this time, stroking his upper arm as she called out to him once again. "Killian – we've got the potion… You need to wake up so you can drink it…" This time, his head lolled toward the sound of her voice, followed by a faint, pained groan of displeasure. "That's it…" Emma continued to encourage him out of his drowsiness. "C'mon, talk to me…"

"'M tired, Swan…" Killian complained, eyes still closed tightly.

"I know," she apologized. Emma hated forcing him, but deep down, she knew it was for the best. "You've got to wake up and drink this to fight off that dark magic that has a hold on you." Killian's eyelids parted to slits, barely enough to make out the shape of his wife's face as she leaned over him. He took another moment to allow his sleepy eyes to adjust until he could discern a mug clutched in her right hand.

"Regina's potion?" Killian asked, his left eyebrow arching with suspicion.

"Yes," Emma smiled at him. "It's the potion we've been waiting for." She gently took a seat beside him on the narrow bed. "Let me help you sit up…" She found the controls for the adjustable bed and pressed the button to raise his head, slipping her left hand behind his shoulder to help ease him forward until he was seated upright, nearly eye level with her. He immediately grimaced and nearly tumbled back against the pillows as a twinge of pain shot through his chest. "Ooh, sorry… Shouldn't have done that so fast…"

"Be fine in a moment…," Killian insisted, gritting his teeth until the discomfort lessened. "Where is it?"

"Here," Emma replied, offering the ceramic mug. He managed to wrap his fingers around it, but found his hand shaking too much to keep a grip on the handle. "Maybe I should hold it?" his wife offered, to which he nodded in agreement. "Okay… take it slowly, but you'll have to drink it all." She raised the mug to his lips and gradually tipped it. When he nearly gagged on the first mouthful, she instinctively pulled the offending vessel away, fearful that it might be too much right now, but Killian shook his head and reached for her.

"It's fine, Love," Killian assured her despite a crinkled nose and a frown stretching across his lips. "It's a bit much. Rather distasteful, to be honest, but I can do this…" The frown melted into a weak smile as he cupped his hand around hers, still trembling from even such a slight exertion. His fingers stayed with hers as she brought the mug back to his open mouth again. Killian wasn't shy about displaying his displeasure at the foul-tasting liquid but he drank all of it. Emma lowered the mug and passed it to Grandmother as Killian forced himself to swallow the last of the potion.

"Feel any different?" Emma asked, remaining at her husband's side while Grandmother placed the mug on the counter next to the sink to wash later.

"Burns a little," Killian responded, his fingers latching onto Emma's upper arm for support. "Kinda like heartburn after eating that noxious substance Granny calls chili…" That statement had Emma trying to stifle a chuckle even as she felt his grip tighten.

"You sure you're okay?" Emma asked, no longer amused. "You've got a death grip on my arm."

"Sorry… Don't know my own strength…" Killian grinned, but the forced smile was soon betrayed by a powerful spasm that sent his body tumbling into his wife's arms.

"Killian?!" Her arms immediately wrapped around his torso as she caught him crashing into her, nearly knocking her over. His heart was thumping against his chest wall; his breaths coming rapid and shallow and suddenly, the electronic monitor behind him was beeping in time with his racing heart. This was definitely going to draw attention they didn't need.

Sensing what was happening, Grandmother shooed Carlos away from the door as Emma clung to her trembling husband. These spirits weren't going to give him up without a fight, but the old woman recognized that an interruption by medical personnel at this critical moment would disrupt the process so she moved swiftly to intercept the nurse before she entered.

"Is everything alright here?" the nurse asked suspiciously as she saw her patient clenched in his wife's embrace, apparently wrought with tremors. The first thought as the monitors had lit up with alarms was that Killian Jones was suffering another seizure. "This might be another seizure so if you'd please, move out of my way so I can examine my patient."

"Everything is fine," Grandmother insisted, voice calm and steady so that she might sound more convincing. "It's not a seizure. Mr. Jones merely woke from a very visceral nightmare – the poor man forced to relive the horror of being stabbed by an assailant that has yet to be captured. His wife is attempting to comfort him. She gave him a little bit of water and is holding him while the shaking subsides. Please, give her some time before you interrupt them. You might startle him anew." The nurse relented, partially because she noticed that the monitor displaying the patient's heart rate showed his pulse returning to normal and partially because she didn't want to argue with this old woman standing before her.

"I'll be back in two minutes to check his vitals," the nurse insisted. Grandmother responded only with a nod, returning to the room to find that Killian had passed out, his body slack in Emma's arms as she eased him back against the mattress, lowering the bed's angle to a more comfortable sleeping position.

Once Killian was resting seemingly peacefully, Emma drew her arms back from beneath him, but then raised her right hand to sweep away the unruly strands of dark brown hair that had cascaded over his temple when he'd fallen forward. His forehead still felt a bit warm to her touch, but perhaps not as much as earlier? "Please let this work." Her plea came out in a barely audible whisper.

"I don't sense the evil spirits here in this room any longer," Grandmother stated as she extended a hand to help Emma to her feet. Emma's gaze remained fixed on Killian as she stood, allowing him to rest without crowding him.

"I sure hope you're right," Emma responded, her voice quivering as she allowed only a single tear to escape. "I guess only a little time will tell us for sure…"

#cs ff #cs fanfic #cs fan fiction #captain swan ff #only a little superstitious

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epochxp · 3 years

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Review of ‘Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army’

By Catherine Merridale

484 Pages

Published by Metropolitan Books

Released on April 1, 2007

4.5 out of 5 Stars

The number of books that existed that gave a picture of the Soviet Army during World War II was rather limited in the West during the Cold War. Much of what we understood about the Soviet Army and the Eastern Front came to us through the prism of the German experience, as men such as Erich Von Manstein, and Franz Hadler wrote a view of the war in the East that bore little resemblance to the reality (as much to whitewash the crimes of the Wehrmacht in the East as to “restore the reputation of the German soldier.”)

These works portrayed the Soviet Army as a faceless, remorseless horde in the vein of the Terminator. Recent scholarship, such as this book and Mr. Glantz’s works, have done much to reverse this view. Ms. Merridale has done a fine job in this “grunt’s eye” view of the Soviet Army in World War II, demonstrating her skill as a researcher and writer.

It has only been since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and opening of the Soviet archives, and the availability of Soviet veterans to Western researchers that this balanced picture has emerged. Thirty million served in the Soviet Armed Forces during the entirety of the war, and Ms. Merridale has put a human face on this seeming mass of millions. These were ordinary folks, for the most part, caught between two totalitarian systems, who died in the millions to stop a cruel invader. But, as we shall see, the Soviet Union could mete out a large amount of cruelty of its own. Ms. Merridale has shown in a masterwork that the stereotypical “Ivan” of the Soviet Army never really existed. Soviet soldiers came from one of fifteen Soviet republics, and many of these young men knew little to no Russian, which was the dominant language of the military.

The book portrays a Soviet army that, in 1939, was large, crippled by Stalin’s purges, and amateurish in the extreme. Worse, living conditions were nothing short of disease-ridden and bestial, with corruption and outright theft common. A system of politruks -political officers, who were the eyes and ears of the party were everywhere, seeking out the slightest whiff of potential disloyalty. There were shortages of equipment, and when the Soviet army invaded Finland, it showed a large behemoth that was far competent or capable. It was this campaign that convinced Hitler that the Soviet state was on shaky ground and:

We have only to kick in the door, and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down (Hitler, June 1941)

However, the size of the disaster in Finland never reached the ears of the Soviet people, and their views were cynically fueled by clumsy state propaganda that convinced the Soviet people that if war came, they would bring glorious revolution to the world, all this came to a crashing end in June 1941. Merridale shows a state that was like Jekyll and Hyde. It was a seeming paradise to its citizens and a blood-soaked nightmare to its enemies - all carried out by the overzealous secret police apparatus working overtime to murder millions and crush any form of dissent. But this clumsy colossus had feet made of clay, and not every Soviet soldier was all that motivated to fight for communism before the invasion of June 1941, as this passage describes:

“…Two young deserters whose unit was also bound for the north were locked up when they were returned to base. ‘As soon as we get to the front,’ one of them said ‘I’ll kill the deputy Politruk.’ It may have been to spite the party that soldiers daubed swastikas on their barracks walls The fact that many politruks, whose education tended to be better than the average, were Jews, was probably a factor too.” (Merridale p.66)

Ms. Merridale then goes on to show the Soviet army on the brink of disaster as the Germans invade and confusion reigns. The Soviets were seemingly unable to stop the Germans no matter what they did until they were at the very gates of Moscow itself. But what comes through is a Soviet army that learned on the job and did a good job of digesting these lessons. It learned the lessons the Germans taught and then did a fine job of applying what they had learned. By 1943, with the Battle of Kursk, the student had indeed become the master.

The rest of the book goes into the feelings of Soviet troops in their march westward into what the contemporary Soviet press referred to as the “lair of the fascist beast.” The veterans Ms. Merridale speaks to aren’t shy about talking about witnessing individual Soviet soldiers and groups of Soviet soldiers take revenge on German civilians for the atrocities of the German military in the Soviet Union. Murder and especially rape were common, and Ms. Merridale manages to get more than a few sources to confirm it.

We get a look at Soviet women in the military and how they were really seen versus the wartime propaganda and how they earned their own place in the ranks. We see stories of loss, death, and life in the Soviet Army, all told masterfully. We hear stories unfiltered by Soviet officialdom and the lens of the Cold War.

The book also gets into what happened to the veterans when the war ended, and how their hopes for a better Soviet Union were dashed, most of them shunted aside by a cynical Soviet government (at one point, Stalin rounded up all the amputee beggars, many of them wounded at the front, and had them sent to Siberia), till Brezhnev mythologized the war that the Soviet veteran began to get his due. But even at the time of the book’s writing, most of them had not received any sort of pension or assistance now that they were in their old age.

How is This Book Useful to Wargamers?

While this book is a social history on the “softer” side of the Soviet army and dealing more with a conscript’s view of the war, it’s important to remember that this book is of value to the wargamer in that it tells a balanced view of the Soviet soldier. He wasn’t a remorseless Terminator who was indifferent to loss and bereft of any tactical skill. Nor was he the perpetually cheerfully brave fellow of Soviet propaganda. He was most likely a peasant, far from home, serving a state he didn’t particularly care for that would kill him if he demonstrated the slightest disloyalty. Many wargame rules are still caught in that “Hadler” trap of how they handle the Soviets. If this book does one thing, let it destroy those self-serving myths.

The tactical skill of the Soviets improved as the war went on, and it helped that the German skill declined as well. Like my review of Case Red, this book does a fine job of making ground beef out of the sacred cow and does so in a very readable style.

While there is some stuff that is not of interest to the wargamer, most of this book is good meat for any wargamer interested in the Eastern Front, and especially the Soviet soldier. Aside from it’s minor flaws, I would give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. The book is available in hardback, softback, and Kindle from Amazon.

At Epoch Xperience, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse Epoch Xperience’s service on our parent site, SJR Research.

(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

#Wargame Reviews #wargames #history #novel

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fuckyeahevanrwood · 7 years

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'Westworld' Star Evan Rachel Wood Talks "Evil" Dolores Twist, Season 2

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for the season one finale of HBO's Westworld.]

Before Westworld became the internet's favorite water-cooler conversation, its theories as thoroughly dissected as the livestock butchers working on their hosts (an admittedly lopsided comparison skewing in the web's favor), there was the original fan — and she's also the original host.

Evan Rachel Wood not only stars in Westworld as the deeply driven Dolores, but she's among the show's very first theorists, according to many of her colleagues, and even according to the actress herself.

"After work, I would just sit and think about the show and try to figure it out," she told The Hollywood Reporter during an interview Monday. "Out of my thousands of theories, I got a few right."

Wood can relate to the masses of Westworld fans who feverishly worked to piece the puzzle together all through the season, having done so herself while on set. And indeed, Wood managed to correctly guess a few major twists, including one that involved her own character. It's not just William (Jimmi Simpson) and the Man in Black (Ed Harris) who share an identity, as revealed in the season finale; Dolores and the mysterious villain Wyatt are one and the same as well — though to hear Wood tell it, there's very little Dolores left these days.

Read on for Wood's reflections on the finale, her thoughts on Wyatt's Dolores takeover, the intense pressure that comes with holding a gun against Anthony Hopkins' head, and the show's expansion into samurai territory and beyond, as well as several of her own theories about the second season.

For what it's worth, this interview is taking place right as I'm watching the finale for a third time. I paused before you started beating up Ed Harris.

I have watched it over 10 times. I can't stop. I'm obsessed. It's really good. It blew me away. It was better than I expected. When I read the script, it was one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I had ever had in my hands. I couldn't believe how good it was.

It's a very active episode for you. We learn a lot about Dolores. We learn that she's Wyatt, for instance. She kills Anthony Hopkins' character Robert Ford at the end. The list goes on. What was your first reaction when you read the script and learned the scope of Dolores' arc?

Well, I had my suspicions. It was hilarious. While we filmed the first season, we didn't know our character arcs. I would be instructed to be "dark and menacing" in weird moments. I thought nothing of it. I thought it was part of Dolores waking up. Then they introduced this looming character of Wyatt, and I kept asking people on the set: "Have we cast him yet? When is he going to show up? Who's playing him? Who's Wyatt?" I went and looked everywhere, turned over every stone, and came up with nothing — and then I realized I hadn't turned over mine. I looked everywhere else, and figured it had to be me. So I asked [co-creator Jonathan Nolan], and he laughed and walked away. It wasn't confirmed until the [finale], and I was so excited. I thought it was a genius move on their part. This whole season, she's been going through this Jekyll and Hyde thing. We've seen Wyatt poke his head out at multiple times. When she slashes Logan's [Ben Barnes] face, or during her last speech to Ed Harris; halfway through, her voice shifts and the eyes get darker. That's totally Wyatt.

What are some of the differences in how you approach the two characters of Dolores and Wyatt?

It's funny. I kind of had to play five different characters. There's Dolores the character; there's Dolores analysis, when they're able to talk to the characters in an office; there's straight analysis mode; then there's Wyatt; and then there's Dolores' subconscious. Dolores' subconscious, I didn't realize that's what it was when I was playing it. They just kind of instructed me on the vibe. I thought I would just play this like Ford. I would make my subconscious as close to Ford as I can. (Laughs.) Not that that's how it was supposed to be, but as an actor, that's just what I did!

When in doubt, pretend to be Anthony Hopkins.

Yeah! (Laughs.) When I did realize what I was doing, we changed the makeup slightly. The eyes are a little darker. We contoured my face more. We darkened my eyebrows a little bit. I just tried to channel the most badass cowboy that we possibly could. The first time we see in Teddy's [James Marsden] memory Dolores walking in slow motion, that was the first time I got to walk over kind of hunched over with this weird strut. Dolores walks the same way every time. It's always shoulders out, arms folded in front of my chest. To be able to change it and walk with purpose and strength as this beast was really fun. I lowered my voice a lot and I dropped the accent slightly. Little details here and there. I'm really excited for season two, because … it was sad for me when I watched the finale. I didn't realize that in a way, Dolores' character does get killed off.

That's how you view it? When Dolores achieves consciousness, she's committing to Wyatt?

Yes. The way I interpret it, when she finds the center of the maze and is talking to herself at the end, consciousness is a conversation with yourself. It represents to me that Dolores is fully conscious. When she realizes who she has to become and it becomes her choice, Ford has just gotten through telling her that the divine lives in our minds. She unlocks Wyatt and allows him to take over and Dolores disappears. So that was very bittersweet.

What was your take on finding out that you were pulling the trigger on Robert Ford and taking Anthony Hopkins' character out of the equation?

I felt terrible! I read [the finale] and didn't know it was coming. It was on the very last page. I threw the script down and walked away with my mouth open for a good hour. I just couldn't believe it. When I got to set the first time I saw Anthony after I read it, I walked up to him and said, "I am so sorry. I am so sorry I have to kill you!" And he went, "No, no, no. It's all right. It's beautiful! It's really beautiful!" (Laughs.) He forgave me. He saw the poetry in it. I will say that shooting that scene was one of the most nerve-racking things I have ever had to do, because we're using real guns. We're very safe with them and they're not loaded. But dear god, I had to hold a gun up against Anthony Hopkins' head and pull the trigger, and after every take, I would go, "Please god, do not let this be the time that something goes horribly wrong and I am responsible for killing Anthony Hopkins. I won't be able to handle that." (Laughs.) That was terrifying. It was horrible.

Dolores turns the gun on the crowd, and we see her through Teddy's eyes. He looks terrified, and you can understand why. He and Dolores are star-crossed lovers, but he's also Wyatt's sworn adversary. Teddy is looking at his great love and his great enemy in the same person. Did you sense that conflict in the character?

Yes. I think the question on a lot of people's minds is if they're now going to be enemies, or are they going to join forces? I think that's a good question. I did love filming that scene. I think I really surprised James with my delivery. In my first take, I came up behind him and just pulled him into me and whispered in his ear, and when they yelled cut, he was just like, "Jesus Christ, Evan! What the hell?" (Laughs.) I had been this sweet and innocent Dolores with him, and now here was this sultry, primal, evil thing. I think I made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up a bit.

This episode confirmed that William and the Man in Black are the same person. How did you first find out about this twist?

I didn't know that Jimmi had guessed early on, but I will say that in episode two, when Jimmi and I filmed our first scene together — and really, that was the day we met, when he picks up the can and hands it to me and looks into my eyes … that was really us meeting each other for the first time. I remember, since I'd already shot the pilot and I had done that same scene with Ed, when we did it in episode two, my first thought was, "Oh my God, wouldn't that be so upsetting if Jimmi's character was Ed? But that wouldn't make sense." And as the show went on … at one point I thought Jimmi might be a host. I kept making up these backstories, and then it was around episode seven where I started getting the feeling that that's where it was going. All we were told about our storyline was that it was a beautiful and tragic love story, so we knew we were heading toward destruction, and we were nervous about that. At one point I kept saying, "God, I really hope you're not the Man in Black. That's so sad. And I really don't want to have to kill you!" (Laughs.) So there was that. But it was amazing storytelling, so we were excited by it, and it made us want to make the love story that much more believable in an evil way, to break people's hearts more. But it turns out that we were probably the most heartbroken people watching [the finale] last night. We didn't realize we would be. Jimmi and I hopped on FaceTime right after we watched the finale, and both of our faces were wet, we had tears streaming down our faces. We both didn't think it would hurt this much. Jimmi said it so beautifully: "We spent so much time building them up. I had no idea it was going to hurt so much watching them fall." As actors, we worked on that relationship for a year together. We really kind of experienced Westworld more than anybody else. We were given these characters, we weren't told our narratives, we were sent out into the desert, and since we only found out what was going on episode by episode, we really got to live in the moment, and live in the shock of certain moments. So much of it felt very real. So we were so heartbroken last night, just because we realized Dolores and William will never be in love like that again. The experience meant so much to us, and I love what we did together. And the good thing about Westworld is we've established we can move forward and backward in time. Nobody's ever truly gone. So who knows what the story will be with young William and Dolores — if it's over or if it's done. Who knows?

Another major moment in the finale involves the reveal of what fans are calling "Samurai World." Are you practicing your sword training for season two?

I have no idea what's going to happen with that. One can only hope that I'm going to eventually have to start taking some classes and learn how to sword fight. The only thing I do know is that when I met with [co-creator Lisa Joy] and Jonah for the first time, I said, "This is great, because if there's any action on the show, I'm a black belt in Tae Kwon Do." And Lisa's eyebrows perked right up. She looked over at Jonah and said: "Mm! That might come in handy!" So I don't know. It did come in handy for when I [fought] Ed Harris. I got to set and asked how we were going to do this. Is he going to be in a pulley or in a rig? Jonah told me that I was just going to drag him. And I said, "You know I'm not really a robot, right? I'm not saying I can't drag him, but I might not be able to make it look cool." But we did it. That was just dead Ed Harris weight.

In interviews with some of your Westworld colleagues, you're often described as someone who was always trying to solve the mysteries of the show. It's interesting, considering the fandom around the show. There's this feverish appetite to puzzle out what's going to happen next. Do you relate to those fans?

So hard. It makes me so excited that other people are just as crazy about it as me, because I would get to set and somebody would say, "Good morning, Evan!" And I would say, "Oh my God, what if it's this." I would just jump in with a theory. After work, I would just sit and think about the show and try to figure it out. I questioned the Man in Black theory in episode two, but didn't pick it up again until later in the season. I didn't know Bernard was going to be a host. I did, however, guess he was going to be Arnold, and I kind of guessed that I was Wyatt. Out of my thousands of theories, I got a few right! But I did get surprised a few times.

What are some of your biggest questions heading into season two, then?

Well, the only thing I know is that we'll see a very different side of Dolores, and that Wyatt has fully taken over. If I can speak just in theories now, literally basing this off of nothing — these are Evan Rachel Wood's theories and I'm taking no clues or cues, only what's coming out of my brain.

Fair enough. You're the original theorist, we're just following your lead.

I'm hoping that over the years, I'll get to play many, many different characters. That would be my hope. I think that's a lot of the actors' hopes, the ones who are playing hosts at least. Technically, we could be anybody or anything. That leaves the possibilities wide open. I'm really excited to see the many incarnations of Dolores, if that is in fact true; I really don't know. I really want to know where Westworld is. They have not told us, or at least they did not tell me. I do have theories! (Laughs.) But I really want that question answered. And I'm curious to see what the other worlds are, aside from the one we saw in the finale. I don't think they will be the same as the film, obviously. There are endless possibilities there. I'm curious to see how they keep playing with the timelines, and if we'll remain in the past, present, future, all in one. And I want to know what's going to happen if and when Maeve finds her daughter — and if it's still her daughter, or if her daughter has turned into someone else.

Hopefully it won't require too much arm-twisting to get Dolores and Maeve in a scene together.

I'm really looking forward to that. I only got one scene with Thandie, and that was a real bummer. I think she's just incredible. I would certainly look forward to this newfound Dolores and newfound Maeve either joining forces or going toe to toe.

#evan rachel wood #articles #the hollywood reporter #Interviews #westworld #westworld season 2 #article #interview #articles 2017 #interviews 2017 #westworld spoilers

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ameerawritesstuff · 6 years

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know-better tag-game^^

I was tagged by @nooneknowiblogthis

Rules: tag 10 people you want to get to know better. (idk if I’ll tag that many)

NAME: Anna

SIGN: Taurus

HEIGHT: 5′4″

MIDDLE NAME: Marie

PUT YOUR ITUNES ON SHUFFLE, WHAT ARE THE FIRST SIX SONGS THAT POPPED UP?

1. Soul of a Man - Kinky Boots

2. Raise Your Glass [Explicit] - P!nk

3. Take Me As I Am (LP Version) - Jekyll & Hyde the Musical

4. We Dance - Once On This Island

5. Stars - Les Miserables

6. Song of Love - Once Upon a Mattress

Wow... lot of musicals. I mean, I swear I have non-musical songs XD

GRAB THE BOOK NEAREST TO YOU AND TURN TO PAGE 23. WHAT’S LINE 17?

“Under those conditions, allegiance between adjacent quarks could not be unambiguously established,” -Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

EVER HAD A POEM OR SONG WRITTEN ABOUT YOU?

Yes! Twice actually! My friend was really high and I texted him saying I had cookies waiting for him so he started to rap about me, lol. Then, when I was on medical leave and honestly in the worst place of my life mentally, I found out my dad wrote me a song about my depression and how he wished he could just wish away all of my troubles. I had him play it for me and I cried. I love my dad <3

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PLAYED AIR GUITAR?

The last time I can actually remember playing air guitar was when they talked about air guitar on an oooolllllld episode of NCIS and Ziva was like “what is the point??” And young me was like, “yeeee! Air guitar!” But I can’t remember another time since.

WHO IS YOUR CELEBRITY CRUSH?

There are too many tbh so I’m just gonna name one:

RONAN FARROW.

Not only was he instrumental in revealing the Harvey Weinstein scandal, he’s the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen and he has publicly denounced Woody Allen MULTIPLE TIMES. Like, the man is incredible and even worked for Obama. He’s only 30, still unmarried and pretty easy on the eyes. Just saying ;)

WHAT’S A SOUND YOU HATE?

There was this certain way of saying “um” that my first roommate would do. If she began with that, you knew she was about to be super condescending and nasty. I heard her do it to someone else months ago and I literally cringed at just the sound of it.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS? HOW ABOUT ALIENS?

I definitely don’t believe in ghosts, sorry. Alien lifeforms 100% exists. Intelligent alien life? No idea. But totally some single celled organisms and such.

DO YOU DRIVE? IF SO HAVE YOU EVER CRASHED?

Yes I do! Finally got my license! I haven’t ever crashed but I was crashed INTO on an awful merge literally the day I got my own car. We had to replace it. Ugh. Now I’m afraid of merges.

WHAT’S THE LAST BOOK YOU READ?

Still reading Astrophysics for People in a Hurry since I just started it and I’m slowly perusing through Fire and Fury just because it’s such a big deal in the news and everything. Last book I finished was The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish. READ IT. It’s hysterical.

DO YOU LIKE THE SMELL OF PETROL?

Nope.

WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE YOU SAW?

Just watched The Producers (the musical version) again with friends who had never seen it before.

WHAT’S THE WORST INJURY YOU’VE EVER HAD?

My ankle got sprained (right after my class ran the mile in gym so I didn’t get to get out of it XP) really bad when I was in sixth grade and I was on crutches for at least two weeks and then needed physical therapy.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OBSESSIONS RIGHT NOW?

I mean, obviously Star Trek. Peaky Blinders and Hannibal are pretty constant obsessions too tbh. OH! Brooklyn 99 is definitely an obsession.

DO YOU TEND TO HOLD GRUDGES AGAINST ANYONE WHOSE DONE YOU WRONG?

It’s very hard for me to and I’ve learned that I actually have to hold grudges to keep myself safe. A mistake is a mistake, but when someone purposefully screws you over? The trust is gone by that point. I often have moments of “you know, they weren’t that bad” or “I miss them” but I have to remind myself that these people really hurt me, show no remorse, and can never be allowed back into my life again.

IN A RELATIONSHIP?

Nope. I’d like one, but I’m not gonna rush or force anything. If it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen.

I tag @little-vulcan

#about me

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mindfulwrath · 7 years

Text

Silver, Part VIII

Lanyon and Utterson pick a plan, and Rachel plans a picnic.

Words: 4,522 Warnings: None

Part I Part VII

"Gabriel, I swear, you are going to be the death of me," Lanyon said, rubbing his eyebrow. Light was pouring into the conservatory, the first real sunlight they'd had in days. Two glasses of cabernet sauvignon sat on the table. Utterson had so far resisted drinking any of his, which drove home how serious he found the whole situation.

"It's gone on long enough," Utterson said. "Something must be done."

"What can be done? If Mr. Hyde eludes us and Jekyll refuses to listen to us, what else is there?"

"I don't know," said Utterson. "But something must be done."

"Yes yes, I agree with you, clearly it's all highly irregular and unpleasant—"

"He's written a will, Robert."

Lanyon pulled up short.

"He's done what?"

"He's written a will," Utterson repeated. "Didn't I tell you? He gave it to me yesterday. It's a troubling document, although I'm legally forbidden to tell you why."

"If I were to assume its troublesomeness had to do with a certain Mr. Hyde?"

"Legally I would be forbidden to tell you if you were right."

"Ah," said Lanyon. He had a sip of his wine and stared out the window. "Did he mention why he'd written this will?"

"As a precaution, he said."

"You don't believe him?"

"I don't know that I do. I'm certain he was being dishonest on some point, but I don't know what it was."

Lanyon shook his head. "Yes, welcome to my past year," he sighed. "He's been keeping something back ever since that Hyde fellow turned up. It all hinges on him, and it's got no right to."

"Something must be done," Utterson said for the third time.

"But what, Gabriel? What is there left to do?"

Utterson was quiet for a while, wiggling his mustache.

"Hyde must be findable, somewhere," he concluded at last. "We must simply be more persistent. If he be Mr. Hyde, we shall be—"

"Gabriel, please, have mercy," Lanyon said, putting a hand over his eyes. Utterson grumbled, stymied.

"We know he calls at the Society frequently," he said instead. "We could wait there for him. Perhaps he visits Jekyll at home—we could inquire with Poole."

Lanyon shuddered. "Don't make me think of that horrid creature hanging about in Henry's home," he said, his lip curling. "I shall be ill."

"Then I will ask Poole, and if the answer is yes, I won't tell you," said Utterson. "Something is profoundly wrong, Robert. It has fallen to us to put it right. If we fail, we may lose Henry completely."

"Lose him to what?" Lanyon said, frowning.

Utterson shrugged. "I wouldn't like to speculate."

Letting out a long sigh, Lanyon shook his head. "Neither would I, if I'm honest. All right—what shall we do with Mr. Hyde once we find him? I have admittedly enlisted the help of the Society's cook to help net him."

"Oh?" said Utterson.

"Yes," said Lanyon. "I don't know that she'll come up with anything, but I asked her to send him my way if she couldn't convince him to leave Jekyll alone. Which I somehow doubt she will be able to do."

"Hm," said Utterson.

There was a moment of quiet. Utterson frowned, and Lanyon sipped his cabernet, and a cloud drifted over the sun.

"Robert," Utterson said. "I have had an idea."

"You don't sound terribly pleased about it."

"I'm not," said Utterson. "Would you like to hear it anyway?"

"Yes, I think so."

"My idea is this: we report Hyde as the cause of the fire regardless of Jekyll's wishes."

Lanyon stared at him.

"My dearest Gabriel, and I mean this in the kindest possible way, but have you lost your mind?" he said.

"It was only an idea," said Utterson.

"Henry would never forgive us."

"Perhaps not," said Utterson. "But Hyde would be forced to leave him be, whether from behind bars or on the lam."

"Quite frankly, it's worse than your first idea," Lanyon said. "I was rather looking forward to having Hyde roughed up a bit, and there's no guarantee Jekyll would ever put together the fact that we hired the—the rougher-uppers. He'd know we were behind it instantly if Hyde were to be arrested."

"Which do you find more distasteful," Utterson said. "Having an innocent man arrested, or having him beaten in the streets?"

"He's hardly innocent."

"And yet you must still have a preference."

Lanyon chewed on it for some time, swishing it between his cheeks.

"I suppose having the police out for him would be more effective," said Lanyon. "Although doubtless the man has other enemies than us who could reliably be blamed for an—incident."

"Very well," said Utterson. "Since your moral compass requires recalibrating, I'll do the decent thing and admit I was wrong. I made my initial suggestion under the influence of a not inconsiderable amount of Claret. It was a foolish suggestion, and cruel. If Hyde is imprisoned, his name can eventually be cleared. I will take the case on myself, if need be. He cannot be un-beaten, Robert."

Lanyon flushed. He squirmed in his seat, suddenly quite taken with the view out the windows.

"But Henry—"

"Is Henry's regard more important to you than his wellbeing?" Utterson interrupted.

Lanyon shut his mouth. Utterson had never, in their ten year acquaintance, been so frankly and clearly annoyed with him.

"You're right," Lanyon mumbled. "You're right, of course." He rubbed his face. The wine was sitting uneasy in his stomach. He set his glass aside and rested his head on his hand.

"I know that it's difficult," Utterson said. "He's my friend, too. But he may come to understand, in time. And even if he doesn't—"

He made a restrained, helpless gesture. Lanyon understood what he meant.

"Even if he doesn't," he agreed.

A silence fell. Lanyon laughed to himself, although not particularly with amusement.

"I should have listened to you, Gabriel," he said. "We really ought not to have meddled."

"Perhaps not," said Utterson. "But now that we have, we must see it through."

"You're convinced, then?"

"Committed."

"Perhaps we all ought to be committed," Lanyon muttered. "Whatever happened to your inclining to Cain's heresy?"

"That," Utterson said, "was before I had seen the Devil."

"I would hardly call Mr. Hyde a devil."

"I wasn't talking about Hyde," said Utterson.

Rachel knocked on Jekyll's door and smoothed out her skirts. She wasn't sure what sort of reception she would receive—there was no telling if Lanyon had spoken with him yet, and even if he had, whether Jekyll had taken the recommendations to heart. She might find herself summarily thrown out. She wanted to believe that was out of character for Jekyll, but he'd been acting so strangely of late that she wasn't sure what his character actually was anymore.

"Come in!" he called. Rachel slipped inside, closing the door behind her.

The lab was slightly neater than usual, as though it had undergone a recent clean-up. It was still messy, but in a way that indicated some sort of personally comprehensible order. Jekyll was at his desk, laying aside a pen and paper.

"Dr. Jekyll," Rachel said, by way of greeting.

"Miss Pidgley," he said, matching her stiff formality note for note. "What can I do for you?"

"Er, well," she said. She kicked herself in the ankle. She was supposed to be assertive about this. "I know I said I quit, but . . . I'd like to un-quit, if possible."

"Oh," said Jekyll, looking pleasantly surprised. "Yes, of course. To be honest, I was rather hoping you would."

"Well," said Rachel. "Great."

Jekyll made a face. His shoulders slumped, and he fiddled with his pen.

"I . . . I'm sorry, Rachel," he said. "I'm sorry about . . . Jasper. It was unfair of me and it won't happen again. I know how you feel about him, and—"

"It's not about him," she said. Jekyll looked up at her, perplexed. She went on, consequences be damned. "It's about you. It's about the fact that I asked you to help me, and you said you would, and then the first chance you got, you went behind my back."

"That's not . . . precisely how it happened," Jekyll said, sounding strained. "It wasn't an intentional slight against you, Rachel."

"No, I know," she said. "It was just that you completely forgot about promising to help me. It was just that I mattered so little to you that you didn't even think about it."

"Rachel—"

"It's not about Jasper," she said again. "It's about the fact that somebody I thought was my friend clearly wasn't. I don't know why I'm surprised. As if somebody like you would ever be friends with somebody like me."

"Don't make this a class thing, Rachel, it's not a class thing," Jekyll pleaded.

"Then what sort of a thing is it?"

"It's a Henry Jekyll is an idiot sort of thing," he said. "I am deeply sorry that I hurt you. I truly am. I understand if you would like to keep our future interactions as minimal and professional as possible, I couldn't possibly blame you for that. But please, please understand that I don't think any less of you because of your station. I'm just—an idiot, Rachel. I'm just an idiot."

"Not arguing with you there," she said nastily.

Jekyll sighed and rubbed his eyebrow with two fingers. She saw the quick, perhaps involuntary flick of his eyes to the bottle of wine on his desk. She was briefly tempted to pick it up and take it out with her, for reasons she preferred not to articulate.

"Was there anything else?" he asked.

"Not really."

"All right. For financial purposes, we'll behave as though your employment was uninterrupted. You were due for some time off anyway."

"That's very kind of you," she said diplomatically.

"And I would appreciate it if you didn't mention this to anyone," he said. "Please. I know how gossip spreads in this place, but I can't afford this getting out. Not just for my sake, but for Jasper's."

Rachel lifted her chin and braced herself.

"Then I'd appreciate it if you could tell Mr. Hyde I'd like to speak with him."

A series of expressions flicked across Jekyll's face like pages of a book flipping under someone's thumb—surprise, respect, annoyance, resignation—and he inclined his head and folded his hands.

"What should I say it's about?" he asked.

"That's not your business," said Rachel, although her voice shook and her knees were going to give out any second.

Jekyll raised his eyebrows, the corner of his mouth turning up.

"All right," he said. "I'll tell him you're looking for him."

"Good!" said Rachel. "And I won't tell anyone you've been snogging boys half your age."

He let out a long, tired sigh.

"Thank you," he said, his voice hollow with pain.

"You're disgusting," she told him, irritated by his refusal to be anything but decent to her.

"Well, at least we agree on one thing," he said. He turned his gaze back to his paperwork. "Good morning, Miss Pidgley."

Rachel left without a further word. He didn't deserve the courtesy.

How dare he make her feel sorry for him.

Most of the day passed in a blur of activity as everyone scrambled to get things together for the exhibition. Several people were now of the opinion that Frankenstein and the monster had left London altogether and were writing them off as a loss. Others were whispering that Moreau's body had never been found after the fire. Luckett and Sinett were in a huff about that one, because Moreau's body had been found, it had just been very very crispy (as had his flamethrower, which is what they were actually upset about). The lodgers who had been taken in by the police were back at work like nothing had ever happened, although the tales of their time in prison were rapidly inflating. Mr. Hyde, too, had apparently had some sort of run-in that had left him screaming bloody murder at five o'clock in the morning. According to Virginia, there had been a truly disturbing amount of blood, and it was only thanks to Jasper that he wasn't dead.

She didn't see Jasper around anywhere. She would have liked to know that he was all right, too.

From needling a few of the other lodgers, she discovered that he was mainly staying in his flat, tending to his creatures—or so they supposed. Evidently he had been singularly uncommunicative last night. Rachel tried not to worry about it, but in the end decided it was better to look foolish than to risk letting Jasper suffer in silence. One of the benefits of being day manager was that, should any of the lodgers have current or former non-Society addresses, she was privy to them. Under normal circumstances, she would never have visited a lodger at home, as it was a serious breach of privacy, but these were not normal circumstances and she was not taking any chances. She packed up a large picnic basket full of food, shrugged on a heavy coat, and went to visit him.

Even if Rachel hadn't known Jasper's flat number, it would have been impossible to miss. The noise was the first giveaway, shortly followed by the smell. When she knocked, there was an explosion of hooting and screeching and yapping that could only have been exceeded by a zoo on fire.

Jasper answered the door already looking apologetic. When he saw Rachel, he blushed bright red and gulped.

"Oh," he said. "Er. Hello."

"Hi," she said. "Um."

They stared at each other for a moment. Rachel lifted up the picnic basket.

"Brought you lunch," she said.

"You're very—" he said, and gestured. "Red."

Rachel looked down at herself. The coat was, indeed, very red, and here she was with a picnic basket, and there he was being a werewolf—

"That wasn't intentional!" she blurted, boiling hot. "I wasn't—I really wasn't—"

He smiled at her. "We can go someplace less noisy," he offered.

"That sounds good," she said, flooded with relief.

"You can actually get to the roof from my window—here, I'll take that—"

Jasper gingerly took the basket from her arm, then ducked back into his room. Rachel followed, biting her lips. The animal smell was overpowering inside, the clutter immense. There was a little stove that had been extensively and shoddily modified into some sort of makeshift chemistry set. There were bags of seed and boxes and crates, newspapers strewn all over the floor. Two dozen different cages rattled and clanked as Jasper moved to the window. Rachel noted that half of his bed was currently occupied by a mournful-looking serpopard, its long neck curled over its own back. Jasper stepped up on the bed to open the window.

"'Scuse me, Mina," he said, mincing around the serpopard. He shoved the window open and climbed out. He scrambled upward and out of sight with impressive dexterity for a man carrying a picnic basket.

Rachel picked her way over. The serpopard blinked up at her with huge, soulful eyes and licked its chops. The tufted tip of its tail twitched hopefully.

"Er, hi," said Rachel. She picked her way around the creature and stuck her torso out the window. There was a sturdy drainpipe right next to the window, leading upward. Jasper was peeking out over the ledge of the roof. Rachel glanced down.

The fall was truly precipitous.

"It's really not difficult," Jasper called down to her. "The pipe's very sturdy."

"Uh-huh?" said Rachel, who was not wording very well.

"You won't fall," Jasper said.

"Uh-huh," said Rachel. She tore her eyes off the ground and mustered her courage. She planted one foot on the windowsill and reached out for the drainpipe. It was farther away than she would have liked—Jasper, in all his lanking glory, probably had no difficulty with the distance.

Rachel was forced to make a leap of faith.

It was more like a lurch, and based more in spite than in faith, but she did make it to the drainpipe without having to ask for help, which was the only thing that mattered. She clambered up, her skirts hitched up around her hips so that she wouldn't step on them and go plummeting to her death.

Jasper offered his hand to her when she got close, and Rachel's confidence was shaken enough that she accepted it. He helped pull her up the last few feet and over the ledge, and soon she was standing next to him, her hand in his, a little sweaty and a little breathless and very alone.

"Well that was easy," she said, like an idiot.

"Yeah," he said. "I mean."

They both looked anywhere but each other. Rachel cleared her throat. Jasper rubbed the back of his neck. He took a deep breath like he was about to say something difficult.

Instead, he kissed her hand.

Rachel went so hot she must have glowed. She ducked her head and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and smiled so wide it made her cheeks hurt.

"Oh," she said, her voice high-pitched and thin. "Thank you."

"I'm—welcome," said Jasper. "Wait—no, that—"

Rachel burst out laughing. He joined in, obviously still embarrassed. She tugged on his hand and stood up on her toes and kissed his cheek.

"You are welcome," she said.

He grinned, a great big goofy grin that was prettier than all the stars in heaven. Rachel found herself grinning right back.

"So um," he said. "Food? And stuff?"

"Food and stuff," she said.

After some awkward shuffling, they both sat down. Jasper flipped open the picnic basket and was immediately absorbed, rifling through its contents.

"So, um," Rachel said, hands clasped in her lap, eyes cast skyward. "What's your like, field? In science. I know you've got the whole wolf thing but that's not really an occupation."

"Oh!" said Jasper. He had found the roast beef sandwich and was busily unwrapping it. "I'm a crypto-biologist. That's what all the creatures are about."

"So like, what Miss Lavender and Mrs. Cantilupe do?"

"Ssssssort of," Jasper said. "They're more into the whole organism, I'm into the . . . the mechanism. Sort of a thing. Like why are some animals more, er, cryptish than others? What is it makes them different? On a sort of, very small level."

"Oooooh," said Rachel. "This might be a stupid question, but is that why you got bit?"

"Yeah," said Jasper, sheepish. He took a huge bite out of the sandwich and continued talking out the side of his mouth. "No' like, on purpofe, juft, acfidentally. Whilst doing ovver ftuff."

"Right, no, yeah, of course," said Rachel, rolling her eyes and laughing like that hadn't been what she was thinking.

"Bu' anyway, it'f pretty well acfepted that like—" he swallowed and wiped his mouth on his hand— "it's got something to do with bacteria, probably. You know germ theory?"

"I live with a load of scientists, of course I know germ theory," Rachel said, bristling.

"Right, sorry, sorry, that was—yeah, sorry," he said, blushing. "Well. It's got something to do with that. I was going to try and make my own microscope but . . . never could get the lenses right."

"Oof, that's rough," said Rachel.

Jasper had dove back into his sandwich, and there was a bit of a lull. Rachel went for a rifle through the basket and got out the swing top bottle of tea which, despite its swaddling, had gone lukewarm. She was starting to wish she'd brought something a little stronger.

"What about you?" Jasper asked.

"What—what about me?" Rachel said, thrown.

He gestured. "I mean, I know you're like, the day manager and cook and butcher and everything, but—what d'you like, do? Not—sorry, that sounded really bad, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like—but like what d'you—what're your . . . dreams and aspirations and stuff."

He finished at a mumble. Rachel nudged him with an elbow.

"I dunno," she admitted. "I used to want to do sciencey stuff, but then I found out I didn't much like it. I like the people, and everything, don't get me wrong, but it just . . . wasn't for me. I thought for a bit I might want to do like, library work or something, but that wasn't right either. I've sort of been bouncing round for a while, and I happened to land at the Society, and—I dunno. It's not glamorous or anything, but the people are good and the pay's good and I've got enough time off to do stuff I like doing."

"What d'you like doing?" Jasper asked.

"Well," said Rachel, flattered by the sincerity of his interest. "I—do loads of stuff. Like . . . read. I like to read."

"What sorts of things d'you read?"

"Oh, everything," she said, dismissive. "I . . . actually write a bit, too."

"Really?" said Jasper, as though this was an impressive and esoteric talent. "What sorts of things d'you write?"

"Er, well . . . ever read Poe's Auguste Dupin stories?"

"No," said Jasper. "What're they about?"

"They're like, about this detective, only he's only detecting for fun, he's not a policeman or anything," said Rachel. "He's very rich and very bored and very brilliant. I sort of fell in love with them when I was a kid. At first I wanted to be a detective, but—I dunno, it didn't work out for loads of reasons. So I just started writing my own stories, instead. Mine . . . mine are about this woman, she's named Halima, she runs a private detective business in London and solves all sorts of crimes and stuff. Like, by herself. It started out just normal stuff like murders but then once I started working at the Society I thought it—it might be neat to have her solve, like, science crimes. Like with monsters and things."

"That sounds amazing!" Jasper said. "D'you think I could read them, at some point?"

"I, pffff, well, I dunno," said Rachel, thinking with considerable discomfort of the story where Halima had valiantly slain a serial-killing werewolf from the sewers. "They're not any good."

"I've barely read anything except textbooks my whole life," Jasper said earnestly. "I wouldn't know the difference between good stories and bad stories. I'm sure I'd really like them no matter what."

In that instant, Rachel fell more in love with him than she'd ever been with anyone before in her life. She turned her face away and punched him in the arm.

"You're only saying that," she said.

"I'm not," he said.

Rachel couldn't find anything to say, so instead she just leaned over and bumped him with her shoulder, then handed him the tea. He bumped her in turn, then accepted the tea, took a long drink of it, and handed it back. Rachel had a sip, too, and definitely not because his lips had just been on the bottle, where hers were now, and it was almost like a kiss. . . .

"I um, I heard you were a bit of a hero last night," she said, before she could get to thinking too much.

"Oh," said Jasper. "Yeah. I guess."

"They said you saved Hyde's life," said Rachel.

"I—I guess," said Jasper. He was all hunched in on himself, like he was embarrassed. She wrinkled her nose at him.

"Don't get all humble about it," she said. "Hyde's inevitably going to twist it to where he's the hero of the whole thing and you were barely involved. That's what he does."

"I really didn't do much, honestly," Jasper said. "Honestly I was going home because the moon was up but . . . there were six of them and—"

"Six of them?" Rachel cried.

"Yeah, and they had like, knives and crossbows, but he didn't have anything so far as I knew, so—"

"You fought six people?"

"No, I didn't fight anybody, I just sort of . . . stood there looking scary, I s'pose," he said.

"While they pointed knives and crossbows at you."

"It's not like they were silver or anything. Werewolves are awfully hard to kill, it's one of the benefits."

"Ugh, you're ridiculous," said Rachel. She took his arm and leaned her head on his shoulder. "You're like a proper hero, and you're sitting up here all it was nothing."

"I honestly didn't do much," said Jasper.

"Obviously it was enough," said Rachel. "And it's more than nearly anybody would do for Hyde. Lucky you were there, honestly."

"Y-yeah," said Jasper. "Lucky."

Rachel took her head off his arm and frowned at him.

"Why d'you say it like that?" she said.

"I—it's maybe not completely luck," said Jasper, squirming.

"How so?"

"I—I sort of. . . ."

"Sort of what?"

"Sort of . . . ran into him at the Blackfog Bazaar," said Jasper, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at his own knees. "And I might've . . . tagged along with him for a bit. Until he got chased out. By the Forty Elephants. At which point I sort of chased them. Because—yeah."

"Aww," said Rachel. "Honestly I don't blame you. From what I've heard, Blackfog's a madhouse. I'd've latched onto a familiar face, too."

"Mm-hm," said Jasper. He went back in the picnic basket and came up with an apple. Rachel watched him out of the corner of her eye.

"So the Forty Elephants, huh?" Rachel said.

"Yeah," said Jasper. "Only there weren't forty of them. Just six, from what I saw."

"And they went after Hyde?"

"Yep."

"How come?"

"Dunno. He went off to flirt with one of them and then they started chasing him."

"Hah! Serves him right," said Rachel.

"One of them shot him, Rachel," Jasper said, put upon.

"Wait, seriously? With—"

"A crossbow. There was blood all over the place. I can't half still smell it," he said, rubbing his nose with his thumb.

Rachel reconsidered her approach.

"That must've been pretty terrifying," she said.

"I thought I was going to die," Jasper said earnestly. "I saw him start running and they all started chasing him and I wasn't nearly as fast, and then when I got up on the roofs the moon was up and I—sort of lost track of some stuff, my head gets funny when I turn sometimes, but then they were running and . . . I dunno. You've got to chase things that run from you. Next thing I knew it was all crossbows and knives."

She hesitated, then linked her arm with his and kissed his cheek again.

"I'm glad you didn't die," she said.

He looked over at her, great big orange eyes and that soft puppy smile.

"Me too," he said.

#tgs #the glass scientists #fanfic #silver #p.s. look up serpopards they're ridiculous

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