Let’s talk about Fatebook. Have you guessed what we’re ripping off this time?

  Think of the name: Fatebook.

  Think of a series.

  It’s an anime series.

  It would have originally been popular either at the time or not long prior to when I was having my maladaptive daydreams, in the 2010s.

  Have you figured it out? I’ll tell you now. It’s Death Note. And what the fuck is Death Note? You should Google it if you’re not already familiar with it. It is, in essence, an anime series about a notebook that, once you write someone’s name in it, they die. Simple as that. The series is a bit of a mental game of cat and mouse about the owner of the Death Note not getting caught by the police.

  You can watch the series if you want, I really enjoy it and am in fact watching it for the second time during the time I’m writing these entries. It’s a bit aged, I’ll admit. It’s not as captivating to me as it was when I was younger, but the soul is still there. You don’t have to, though, not for the purpose of this blog. I’ll explain what’s necessary.

  How much are we ripping off Death Note? When I originally conceived of Fatebook, it was actually quite a bit different from the anime series. It still had the main character, who owned the notebook and was killing people; the otherworldly Shinigami, in the case of Fatebook simply called a Death God; the primary antagonist, who would stop at nothing to keep the main character from practicing his godlike powers. The two characters end up working closely together, the main character under pretense that he’s trying to catch the killer, too (his identity as the killer a secret).

  Victor played Main Character, Gloriana played Antagonist. One of the concubine/wives played the Death God, maybe the best friend we spoke about earlier. The Death God, I think, looked a bit like a really dark jester, with a jester’s mask.

  Fatebook was shot in a very cinematographically intense way. Like an A24 film, except one that had mainstream appeal. It was also very dark and dreary, very goth. It stuck with the Halloween theme V&G had going on.

  Death Note is a perfect thing to rip off for Victor Graves. A hyper intelligent young man with grand ambitions receives a tool with which to project his will upon the world. That and the main character was the true villain. Remember, irony is a big thing with the Graves Spirit, the Geist. The pilot and subsequent episodes were short and episodic, always ending on some cliff hanger, much to the chagrin of the audience, who felt this practice was done a bit too heavy handedly. It was overall something that people genuinely wanted to watch, though. It was a sensation in its own right. Would it have been as big of a sensation had it been released on its own, without the name of V&G attached to it? Probably not, but it would still be, in my opinion, pretty popular in its own right.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Fatebook allowed them to assault the movie theaters with a steady beat. Coming out with short, hour long movies at a quick rate, once per month, enough to start causing Hollywood insiders to become a bit irritated by them. V&G were soaking up all the headline space.

  And now, there’s a few different directions we can take on what happened next. Sometimes I have Victor and Gloriana Graves come out on the offensive, castigating Hollywood as a corrupt den of adders. It was, after all, a time around the Me Too movement, or at least it was with the Millenial Victor Graves. I’ll have to check my time table and see if we have room for the gen-z Graves to make a name for themselves at that same time. I don’t think we do, so what will have to be done is we eliminate the Me Too movement from the Gravesverse for now, but we haven’t forgotten about it entirely. We’re inspired by it for our fictional universe.

  And now here we are having mentioned something political again. Victor and Gloriana were well aware of the growing political tensions in the society they were a part of, make no mistake about it. It was at this time, though, that they didn’t want to pick a side. When pressed on this fact by the media, they always tended to air on the side of caution, waffling a bit. They’d say something like:

  ‘It’s a very tricky issue, dealing with politics. I feel like I’m too young to get into it in earnest. I need more time to consider things. Ask me again in a few years. For right now, though, the Gravers belong to both sides of the political spectrum, and I like that about them. And I have them not talk politics during official functions. Both sides setting aside their differences and coming and being together. I think that’s the idea we should strive for in the country. I want us to be more united, generally, but, again, ask me in a few years.”

  Anyway, sometimes V&G come out on the attack against Hollywood and sometimes they’re more passive. Sometimes Hollywood likes them, sometimes it hates them. I think, for this blog, I want to get to a scene I created of them at the Oscars, though. They were still, generally speaking, the big hot ticket item. People liked them. Actors and directors and other industry artists praised their work and what they were doing for the industry itself, giving it a real breath of fresh air. And so Victor and Gloriana Graves kept quiet their opinion about Hollywood, and didn’t quite yet start the conquest. They would, soon, though.