Strange Girl... Part 6: Balex and The Council

It didn't take long for the guards to find Diana. After all, she was a confused girl dressed in funny clothes lost in the labyrinth of hallways.

Diana turned towards the sounds of the boots booming down the hall and saw two guards. The one guard looked jittery and hung back while the second guard approached Diana cautiously. The second guard spoke first. “Tineh Gallenos?” Diana furrowed her eyebrows. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand you.” His expression softened as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small device the size of a deck of playing card.  He began pushing buttons on it as he spoke again. “Are you Diana Gallenos, daughter of Xiomara and Rioden Gallenos?” Um, I think so.”

Both guard visibly relaxed. “We've come to escort you back to your mother. People are asking for you. Would you please follow us?” A feeling in the back of Diana’s mind told her that something wasn't quite right but she pushed it aside because she just might be feeling paranoid after the confrontation in the Grand Hall. “Thank you. My mother isn’t too worried about me, is she?” “No, Tineh Gallenos. Please, if you could follow us,” said the guard, speaking as he guided her down the hallway.

Diana gathered her thoughts together to figure out a way to explain all that happened to Mara with minimal chances of hearing a lecture about her combative attitude. She hardly noticed that the guard had fell behind and followed her for small distance.

From the other end of the tunnel, Diana saw the Blonde girl from the Grand Hall being identically escorted. Wordlessly, the two companies combined and turned down another hall. She realized that this wasn't a act of kindness, they were marching her back because she was in trouble. She looked to the girl with a regretful look only to see a pair of round, blue eyes in a resigned face. Diana decided to break the silence by whispering to her. “Hello again.” The blond girl did not respond so Diana tried again. “I know it might be a bit late for this but I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Diana Gallagher or Galla-something. I forgot what my last name is.”

She felt a bit foolish for trying until she heard the girl reply. “My name is Balex. I am sorry that I got you involved in all of this. I am not quite sure how this escalated.” “Don’t worry. I’m kind of confused too. Where are they taking us?”

“Well, I suspect we have summoned before the High Council.” Diana’s heart sank as she grimaced. “And that would be the same council that my mom is talking to right now, isn't?”  Balex nodded. “I‘m afraid so.” Neither of them spoke for the rest of the walk.

At last, they reached a set of ornate double doors, much like the ones Diana saw earlier with Mara. Two guards came forward and opened the doors, revealing a room Diana could only describe as hallow. The auditorium felt almost like a cathedral, ancient and sacred with a large skylight, making the room seem even more impressive.

In the midst of the room, Diana could see a group of 15 people sitting at a large table in a half circle with a vast window that overlooked much of the academy’s rolling grounds and looming trees.  Standing in front of them was Mara with a frustrated tension in her body, speaking in rapidly strange language. As Diana drew closer to Mara, Diana saw all of the council members but only two of them stood out to her, a man and a woman. The Man had a boyish face that compliment his peppered cropped hair. He didn’t appear to be anxious or upset like the other in the room but bored stiff.

The Woman, however, never took her eyes from Mara. She had a caramel complexion and had the sort of face that made it impossible to guess her age. Though she was too sitting, she sat with a proud and dutiful posture. As Mara implored and argued, the people seated squirmed and cough, trying their best to avoid Mara’s gaze, the Woman only appear to be humoring her.

One of the guards stepped forward towards the Council and bowed sharply. The Council members shifted their attention to the guard and he began to speak. Mara walked over to Diana and looked at the remaining guards and Balex. “Diana, what happened?”, she asked.

Diana gave her a sheepish smile. “Good question. Um, this is Balex. We met in the Grand Hall after you left and then we um, ran into a bit of trouble and then the guards find us and told us to go with them and now we‘re here! You probably didn't think that was a funny or interesting story but I found it very thrilling.”  She noticed the guard getting more animated as he spoke and that members of the council glancing at her and speaking to each other in hushed voices. Even the Man who was bored seemed more interested.

Diana leaned over to Mara and whispered. “What is he saying?” Mara whispered n returned “He’s saying you attacked someone in the Grand Hall but I might be hearing it wrong.”  Diana frowned. “Oh.” The guard finished his tales and bowed again to the council. The Councilwoman waved her hand in his direction and the guard took his leave. The councilwoman smiled at Mara and spoke in the foreign tongue in a haughty tone. Mara crossed her arms and replied in a stony voice. “It might be best to speak in the Earth’s language. She doesn't quite understand the Tayven language and she should understand what we’re saying.”

The Councilwoman straighten her posture and her voice flowed with false sympathy. “As we were suggesting before your daughter appeared, we think it best that she should remain on Earth to train. It would be one thing if she had been more… in tune with the atmosphere of the school. Now you tell us that she cannot even speak the language of her own people? A few years ago, this might have been possible but now? It would be near impossible for her to acclimate herself into our culture, into our world. We merely want what’s best for her and I apologize but it is not with us.”

Marvel Week!!!

Like some of you might know, I am a movie lover. Not quite a cinephile because a lot of movies that are called "Guilty Pleasures", I call "Household Classics" but a movie lover nonetheless. As my love of movies and love of sci-fi grew and prospered together, there was the great duo of movies and Stan Lee was present. As one of my past posts said, X-Men was the movie that turned me into a geek and with the recent influx of comic book movies (CBMs), Marvel has wormed even further into my good graces. On the darker side of that, they have taught me that no franchise is invulnerable to bad acting, directing and overall bad storytelling but I digress.

In the past 5 years, Marvel has decided to step up their game, in the past with the release of Iron Man movies and recently with the release of release of Thor, X-Men: First Class and the upcoming Captain America. My little heart could barely take all of the wonderful cornucopia and I decided to do a week where I would watch at least one Marvel movie all week and finish it with Captain America. I might post Sunday my thoughts and feelings about it all.

Movie stubs

Growing up, I didn't really go to the movie theater a lot. My famaily regularly raided the Blockbusters and just load up on movies or just randomly watch whatever was cable (which is why Hudson Hawk, Rock-A-Doodle and The Princess Bride are some of the most quoted movies in my family. Still, the movie theater just seemed like something to do on special occasions. Even now, I only go see the theaters if it's a movie I'm really excited about or if I'm going with a lot of friends.

I'm not sure if it because of the Special Level O' Fanciness or bragging rights of "I was there that night" , I started collecting my movie stubs over the year. A few are missing: My Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Star Trek 11 and Transformers 2 (though that possibility of me throwing out the last two are fairly high.) but it's okay. I have the memories and the studios still have my money.

Movies above: Men In Black 2, Return To Neverland, Wild Thornberries: The Movie, X-Men 2, Ocean's Twelve, Dodgeball, Serenity, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Longest Yard.

Movies above: Last Holiday, Mission Impossible 2 (Twice), Over The Hedge, Superman Returns, Casino Royale, Rocky Balboa, Iron Man (Twice in 24 hours because I missed the Nick Fury cameo)

Above: Spiderman 3, Fantastic Four, National Treasure 2, Transformers and Hairspray

Speed Racer (Twice. I love that movie), Iron Man again, Indiana Jones 4, The Dark Knight, Bolt, Bedtime Stories, TMNT

Above: Avatar, Iron Man 2, Jane Eyre, X-Men: First Class, Transformers 3, Jane Eyre again and Green Lantern.

As you see, I've saw a few movies more than once in the theater. I have an addictive personally at times. As for why I'm doing this, why not?

Period Dramas and Sci-fi - Not That Different

As I have stated before, I love period dramas. I'm not sure about the idea of people 300 years ago dealing with the same problems that we deal with now, the language or the costumes but I love it, have for years. Earlier this week, I had the idea that the line between period dramas and sci-fi movie and shows aren't that clear. I'm not saying that they're practially siblings, more like cousins. Here's the reasons why I feel this way:

1. Costumes.

Granted, the different between a 1840s dress and the Starfleet uniform are pretty vast but bear with me. They give us an idea of the times in which they lived, stark contrast between our lives and gives a feeling of another world, even if it is on Earth. It not only affect the audience but the actors as well. For example, Richard Armitage said that a darned button on his costume in the miniseries North & South helped him get into character by creating a backstory for it; Tom Hiddleston said the the hat he wore during Thor was uncomfortable and channeled his discomfort through out the movie and when Anthony Hopkins and Chris Hemworth saw each in their full armor onthe set of Thor, Hopkins said "God, there's no acting required here, is there?"
Sure, people might be able to talk the talk and walk the walk but can you do both in someone else's clothes? Very hard.

2. Same ole crap, different day.

 Once you take out the spaceships, alien planets and phasers, Star Trek is about ship full of explorers who depend on each to survive their expeditions to strange lands, Star Wars becomes a movie about a group of people who believe that they can change the world by one movement. Once you take away the horses and all the fanciful language, Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility becomes a coming of age tale for Elinor and Marianne, Wuthering Heights is now a simple story of the darker side of love, and A Midsummer Night's Dream is the last house party that 50% of the people there really can't remember. A genre is like a medium: no matter if it's animation, live action or victorian as long as the story is still preserved.

3. "Is that guy just in everything?!"
Mark Sheppard, Patrick Stewart, Harrison Ford, Clancy Brown, Hugh Jackman. One of the things that links these actors together is that they all have down at least 5 different sci-fi movies/tv show appearances about 15 different franchises (Warning: I merely glanced at their IMBD pages so please excuse me if I'm wrong). These aren't all the actor who could be called "Sci-Fi Actors"! There's tons more. On the other side, we've got Period Drama Actors: Alun Armstrong, Francesca Annis, Hayley Atwell, Helena Botham Carter. Between these 5, I counted about 35 different movies but I'm pretty sure that my math is off by a lot. After a while, it does kinda seem like they're recycling the same old actors for everything but they're really good actors.

So for those who just skimmed this whole thing and just want to the vague idea of it, here it is: Cool clothes,  plot lines that matters, great actors that are well known in the genres are not exclusive to only one genre and you should shouldn't look down on one if you prefer the other.

Who Scarf

I didn't start this with the idea of making a Dr. Who scarf  because, alas, I have never seen Dr. Who (I know, I know). I got the idea of hte scarf from a Korean drama where one of the lead characters had this ridiculously long scarf and I wanted one too. It wasn't until I was about 1/3 into it that I saw and accepted the Who-ness of it.