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felassan · 4 years ago

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Mass Effect development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

This is the Mass Effect version of this post.

[In case you can’t read it the subtitle in the bottom left logo above is “Guardians of the Citadel”]

Note: Drug use is mentioned.

Cut for length.

Mass Effect 1

ME began its life in a vision document in fall 2003

Codenamed “SFX”

Conceived of by Casey Hudson and a core team from KotOR. Its genesis was the intention to create an epic sci-fi RPG in an original setting that BioWare owned (so they could have full creative control), and in a setting that was conceived of first and foremost as a video game

Initially players could control any squadmate, but they wanted it to be about Shep and for players to be focused on Shep being a battlefield commander, rather than on switching bodies

By the start of 2004 its story was shaping up. Initially humans landed on Mars in 2250 and discovered evidence of an ancient alien race and a powerful substance, Black Sand, which rapidly advanced tech to the point that FTL travel was possible. (My note: obviously now the Prothean artifacts on Mars & associated mass effect force tech enabled this in the final canon, but I wonder if aspects of the ‘Black Sand’ naming-type & powerful substance stuff was rolled into red sand from final canon) Humans were suddenly capable of travel to multiple star systems and made contact with a multitude of other species. At the start of the first game, these species together with humans had a fragile peace, with focus placed on the political center of the galaxy, a hub known as Star City, later renamed the Citadel

Multiplayer was a vision for the series as far back as 2003. The plan was for ME1, an Xbox exclusive at launch, to take advantage of the platform’s online components. Early designs saw players meeting in one of the central hubs to interact and trade items in their otherwise SP adventures

By 2006 it had the name ME and the story was more specific, with the theme of conflict between organic and synthetic lifeforms. The story’s scope now stretched across 3 games and included scope for full co-op MP

They tried to do MP in every game, discussing it from the get-go, but it always just fell by the wayside. “When you’re trying to build something that is a new IP, on a new platform, with a new engine, you’ve got to really focus on the core elements of the game.”

The conversation system prototype was made in Jade Empire, and some of ME’s earliest writing was done in an old JE build. At first there was no conversation wheel. Paragon was “Friendly” and Renegade “Hostile”. In the prototype Shep was a silent unnamed Spectre. Many conversations in the prototype about the player’s choice in smuggling a weapon through Noveria made it into the game

In said prototype a merchant referred to themselves as “this one”, though the word hanar never appeared. The PC in it also had the option to end a conversation with “I should go”. In the prototype also, Harkin was voiced by Mark Meer

An early version of the Mako got used as the krogan truck in ME2

Early concepts of the Citadel were drawn in pencil by CH. A piece of concept art of its final design was painted based on a photo of a sculpture near Aswan, Egypt

As with any new IP naming it was a struggle. They put out a call to all staff for ideas, did polls, made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways and made pretend logos of ones they liked in Photoshop to see if they could make themselves love the name or find visual potential in it. (Some of these names are in the pic at the top of this post.) CH liked “Unearthed” as it was a reference to Prothean ruins dug up on Mars and humanity’s ascendance going away from Earth. They knew the game would have a central space station featuring prominently so some of the ideas were based on that - “The Citadel”, “The Optigon”, “The Oculon”. “Element” was another one they had in mind due to the rare substance in the game

CH: “I was a big fan of John Harris’ book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear) so the word ‘effect’ came up pretty often.” Ultimately none of the ideas really felt right. One Monday morning they were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: “Mass Effect!” CH: “I said, ‘I don’t hate it’, which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!”

CH on Shep’s Prothean vision from the beacon: “It was hard to imagine how we would do this. CG was - and is - really expensive. Instead I wanted to try doing it through photography and video editing. So I went to a local grocery store and bought a few packages of the weirdest looking meat that I could find. Then I set up a little photoshoot in my basement, complete with some electronics parts and some red wine for juicyness.” He used these props to create a video sequence where the photos were rapidly cycled and blurred, along with production paintings, to create the scary vision an organic/machine experiment on the Protheans. These mashups were also used as inspiration for concept artists and level designers who were working on these themes

Tali used to be called Talsi

On the licensing side they often joke that they’re licensing N7 not “Mass Effect” due to N7′s popularity

There was a confidential internal guide to the IP in 2007 to help devs along and summarize/synthesize the vision etc. Some excerpts from it are shown in the book and this is the first time the public have ever seen them

Early versions of Asari had hair

Asari were designed as a nod to classic TV sci-fi (with human actors wearing obvious makeup and prosthetics to play aliens)

The turian design guideline was “we want them to be birds of prey”. They also wanted a range of alien types, some close to human like Asari, while others were to be a lot further away, like turians

BioWare patented the conversation wheel, which was a first for them. CH had been frustrated with reviews of Jade Empire that said that the actioncentric game was too wordy [with its list dialogue]. “I’m like, story is words. [...] What is it about our games that is making people feel like they’re wordy?” Then he thought “In a game you kind of need to feel like you’re continuing to play it. Maybe you should continue feeling like you’re playing it actively into the dialogue.” “[The wheel] kind of gave a new experience with dialogue when you did start to react based on emotion, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to bring out in our games”

The original krogan concept was based on a bat “with a really wide squidgy face. We just used its face on top of this weird body and it kinda worked”

Geth musculature was based on fiber-optic cables, with flexible plates of armor attached

The vision for the IP was 80s sci-fi inspired space opera

The concept art of Saren lifting Shep by the throat inspired a similar scene in-game. The staging wasn’t planned til designers saw that art

A squadmate with Shepard on the way to meet Ash in an old storyboard was called Carter. Early name of Kaidan or Jenkins?

Bono from U2 was kinda instrumental in bringing us ME lol

Finding the right cover art for ME1 was notably tricky

Matt Rhodes got his start drawing helmets for ME1, including one which would become Shep’s “second face”. He estimates he drew between 250-270 different ones

Some of the sounds in-game were people smashing watermelons with sledgehammers and sticking fists into various goos

The audio team had fun trying to slip the iconic main theme into unexpected places throughout the MET. “We were very aware of how powerful that track was for the fans and it was tempting to overuse it for any moment we wanted to make really emotional”.

The theme was creatively repurposed in ME3: slowed down and reworked as the ambient sound for the SR-2. “If you listen to it for a really long time, just stand in the Normandy and listen, you’ll actually hear the notes change slowly. It doesn’t sound like music, it sounds like a background ambiance, but it’s there.” (My note: Well no wonder the Normandy feels so much like home?? 😭 sneaky..)

Bug report: “Mako Tornado”. There wasn’t enough friction between the tires and the ground, causing testers to lose control of the vehicle and send it spinning into the air like a tornado. “As it turns, the front end comes up, and then it starts spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning faster and faster and faster until it just flies up in the sky” (My note: Sounds like a regular day in the Mako to me)

Cerberus originally had a bigger role in this game. It was cut but they had a whole explorable outpost. “I called it Misery,” says Mac Walters, “It was this planet with a little outpost that said ‘Welcome to Misery’”. Everything on the outpost was shit - dirty worn stuff, no windows, no kitchen, the vehicle bay was open to the elements etc

The Reaper sound is literal garbage. Some audio designers went on a recording trip to a national park. One of them got fixated on a garbage can, “a metal bear-proof receptacle with a heavy lid that creaked horribly when opened”. “It was like, ominous, spooky, tonal and almost musical. I decided to throw a mic into the garbage and record it moving. I didn’t know what it was going to be until later”

They were making lots of noises to record like throwing logs and rocks around. An old couple peered at them through the window of their camper van in the woods and must have called the cops because then the cops showed up, pulled them over and told them to stop. The cops towed their car (the driver’s plates were Cali plates and expired), drove them to Edmonton outskirts and then the audio producer Shauna got a call and had to go pick them up “like three little boys”. “We got a stern talking to”. Once back they were playing around with the garbage sound, editing it etc. Casey heard it and proclaimed “That’s the sound of the Reapers”

Preston Watamaniuk: “There are things I could have done to Mass 1 to make it an infinitely better game with better UIs” and some simple cuts and changes. “But when you’re living with it, it’s very hard to see those things”

BioWare Labs

As social media and smartphone games exploded, BioWare dedicated a small team dedicated to exploring opportunities here - BioWare Labs

Mass Effect: Galaxy used a unique graphic art style and static visual presentation common in visual novels. It has the distinction of being the only iOS game BW have made during their first 25 years

Scrapped ideas were a 3rd person space shooter called Mass Effect: Corsair and 2 DA titles - a strategy game and a top-down dungeon crawler starring young Wynne. (My note: Maybe the corsairs stuff was rolled into Jacob’s backstory in 2, the Alliance Corsairs)

Corsair was a very short-lived project that never got its feet under it. It was a spin-off on Nintendo DS featuring a behind-the-ship perspective and branching dialogue. At one point it had MP. The idea behind it was basically “ME: Freelancer” - fly your ship around, do missions, get credits. It had a limited branching story but was a gameplay-centered experience intended to fill the gap between ME1 and 2. That gap ended up being filled by Galaxy

Galaxy and Corsair’s smaller screen allowed concept artists to use bold colors and a simplistic character design style to help those games stand out from Shep’s story

Nick Thornborrow did some art for Corsair but was worried his art style didn’t fit ME. He moved to DA where he feels his art style fits better

Lots of BioWare VAs and even a lead writer and the VO director are drawn from Edmonton’s local community theater scene, which is vibrant. Think this is how Mark Meer got involved

Mass Effect 2

Player choices carrying over was a first for BW

Dirty Dozen-inspired plot

Its plot is a web of conditionals (see Suicide Mission)

Was more of a shooter than anything BW had made since Shattered Steel

There was 2 camps on the team, those who wanted to push combat and systems forward and redefine the ME experience and those who wanted to make a true sequel, with the same gameplay and systems but a new story. Karin Weekes: “I think it ended up being a good push-pull. It felt like a pretty healthy creative conflict”

“ME2 was a game you could hold up to someone who argues that games aren’t a serious medium and go ‘Oh yeah, then why is Martin Sheen in this?’” Sheen was their first pick for TIM

The idea for TIM came from a mash-up of concepts CH had collected over the years. The name “Illusive” originally came from his pitch for naming DAO’s Eclipse engine, a word inspired by Obi-Wan’s line “It’s not about the mission, Master. It’s something... elsewhere. Elusive”. “I thought, what if we called our next engine 'Elusive', but used an ‘I’, and then it’s like ‘Illusion’. [...] I still really like the word with an ‘I’ and what it conjures”

When ME1 DLC was in production, CH had been watching a lot of CNN, specifically Anderson Cooper. “How is one guy travelling to all these places and never looking tired and always being able to speak with clarity?” CH says it seemed almost superhuman. “What if there was someone who is the absolute maximum of the things you would aspire to be, but also the worst of humanity?” Cooper, though not evil, became an inspiration for TIM down to the gray hair and piercing blue eyes

Inspiration for TIM’s behind-the-scenes role pulling political strings came from Jack Bauer’s brother Graem in 24. Graem “can call up the president and tell him what to do and hang up, because he’s so connected and so influential”. Sheen had played a president and his performance brought gravitas and wisdom to the role. He had quit smoking, but the character smokes. He didn’t want to fake it, but he also didn’t want to smoke, “so he actually asked for a cigarette” to hold so he could stop his words to take drags with natural cadence

Writing was still pushing to write and revise lines hours before VO started. A series of problems like injury and some writers leaving for other opportunities left it so that Karin, Lukas Kristjanson and editor Cookie Everman hand to land the story safely, with PW helping where they could. Lukas: “We took over the writing bug and task list, and I can’t stress enough how much [Karin and Cookie] did to get ME2 out the door. There’s no part of that thing we didn’t touch”. Karin: “That was the most dramatic 2 weeks of my life”

Initial fan reaction when they started promo-ing ME2 was very negative because people didn’t want to know about new chars like Jack and Mordin. “[fans were like] ‘Get them out of here. We want our characters from the first game’. But then when they played them, those became some of the most popular chars [of the series]”

Concept art of Thane has an idea annotation saying “Face can shapeshift?”

At one point when designing Thane concept artists sent multiple variations of him to the team asking them to vote on which was the most attractive

Most of the Normandy crew was written by lead level designer Dusty Everman. Lukas gave him advice in the evenings between bugs

BioWare Montreal made ME2 and 3 cinematics

CC for Shep was based on tools used by char designers to create in-game chars. Under the hood similar tools existed to create aliens

Aliens were much easier to animate than humans. When something is human it’s very difficult to make it look realistic and you can see all the mistakes and everything

Over the holiday period in 2007 CH worked out a diagram on a single piece of paper that would define the entire scope and structure of the game. The diagram is included in the book

Bug report: “I shot a krogan so hard that his textures fell off”. At one point shotgun blast damage was applied to each of the pellets fired, and shot enemies ended up with just the default checkerboard Unreal texture on them after their textures got blown off

Blasto was meant to be 1 step above an Easter egg but his fan popularity prompted them to bring him back in ME3

They rewrote chunks of Jack 2 days before she went to VO. She was the only one they could change because all the other NPCs were recorded. They redesigned her mission by juggling locked NPC lines and changing Shep’s reactions by rewriting text paraphrases to change the context of the already-recorded VO

Lukas snuck obscure nods ito ME2′s distress calls. In the general distress call for the Hugo Gernsback, there’s BW’s initial’s and Edmonton’s phone number backwards. In a fault in a beacon protocol there’s the initials and backward phone number from Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny”. In 2 other general distress calls there’s initials and numbers from Glenn Miller Orchestra’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000″ and initials and numbers from Geddy Lee and Rush’s “2112″ respectively

Mass Effect 3

“The end of an era marks the beginning of another”

ME3 “marked the end of Shep’s story”

Saying bye to Shep was as difficult for devs as it was for players

JHale’s final VO session included Anderson’s death and romanced Garrus’ goodbye. “We were in the session and we both just started crying”, Caroline says. “I couldn’t come on the line to give her notes because I was crying, and she was crying. And so there was just this minute-long pause of like, nothing, nothing, nothing - just silence through the airwaves. And then I came on and just told her that I was crying and she said ‘I’m crying!’” They talked about these anecdotes also here on the N7 Day reunion panel

The Microsoft Kinect voice support required devs to teach Kinect hundreds of commands in a variety of accents across multiple languages. The result was useful but made for some awkward moments. Numerous players accidentally said “geth” or “quarian” while making a particular decision and accidentally killed Tali

MP chars were voiced by cops and military people

The helmet on one of the MP chars was originally designed for cancelled project Revolver

The payload device at the end needed to attach to the Citadel while essentially serving as a giant trigger. “It ended up becoming quite the engineering feet just to visualize how this thing would move and connect to the Citadel”

Concept artists explored creating an anti-team, where Kai Leng was almost an anti-Shepard essentially, with an elite squad to counteract your team. This idea never went beyond concept phase

ME3 Special Edition was released on Nintendo Wii U exclusively. This exclusive version of the game includes Genesis 2 (a sequel to the original Genesis comic) and unique gameplay features that took advantage of the touchscreen GamePad. For years Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood had had the honor of being BW’s only game made for a Nintendo console

FemShep regrettably didn’t feature in major ME marketing til ME3. Later releases like DAI, MEA and Anthem have taken increasing care not to gender their protagonists in cover art

To capture combat sounds they took a trip to CFB Wainwright, a military base southeast of Edmonton. They got a big tour of it and were allowed to record anything they could find. The tour ended with them getting to drive and shoot tanks (real shells). The force of doing that sent waves through Joel Green, he felt his whole chest compress when it went off; the perfect sound for the Black Widow! After the trip the soldiers let him keep the shell he fired and it’s been passed on like a torch to various devs since

Kakliosaurs began life as a joke in the writers’ room after John Dombrow placed a Grunt figure on a t-rex toy he had on his desk. Lore was brainstormed to justify the mash-up before someone asked, “Why don’t we put this in the game?” They loved it so much Karin had custom coffee mugs made

Bug report: For a while Tali’s final romance scene would fire when she was supposed to be dead

“Balancing combat: how designers in ME3 entered an ‘arms race’” - the solution to players feeling OP vs players feeling frustrated by really strong enemies is to find a good middle ground, but for designers Corey Gaspur and Brenon Holmes, it was war. Brenon designed enemies, Corey designed guns. Corey “was obsessed with bigger, heavier guns. We had this sort of informal competition where he’d make this crazy overturned gun that would just murder all the enemies, and then I tuned some stuff up to compensate”

Brenon had to invent new ways to “stop Corey” and this led to the Phantoms. Corey had in turn designed consumable rockets that could wipe out entire waves of enemies. He must’ve figured this would make short work of Brenon’s space ninjas, but Brenon had other plans: “I had just added the ability for her to cut rockets [when Corey was playing MP and he was watching]. She cut the rocket in half... Corey just turns and looks at me and is like: ‘Really dude? I just shot a rocket at this Phantom and she’s fine? Not even damaged? Zero damage?’”

This friendly rivalry helped elevate ME3′s gameplay. Corey had a knack for making a gun feel so good to fire it had his fellow designers scrambling to keep up. It was his version of balancing. Before Corey sadly passed away he mentored Boldwin Li in all things weapon design and the arms race continued

Corey designed the Arc Pistol. It was causing problems for enemies because it was too powerful. It seemed hell bent on staying that way, Boldwin would tune down all its stats and it was still doing 3x the damage it should have been doing. “I was like ‘What the hell?’, and then I looked closer. It secretly fired 3 bullets for every pull of the trigger! Corey, you sneaky jerk”

The day it launched there were midnight launch parties across North America including one near the BW building. Numerous devs sat at long tables greeting fans and signing autographs as the fans picked up preorders. When midnight struck the line was long enough that it took several hours for some fans to get their game. One particular fan is remembered: “It was 3am. Some guy drove up from Calgary with his friends. He was like one of the last people in line. I think he was sort of tired-drunk. He threw himself across the tables, pulled up his shirt and shouted ‘Guys, sign my abs!’ And like I did, because he waited so long. It felt impolite not to. So I hope he enjoyed his copy of ME3″

For designing Protheans concept artists had free reign to design something that read as ancient

Before the concept art team had the story of the game to work toward, they explored wild ideas of their own including an image of the crew stealing back the Normandy to go after the Reapers

Jen Cheverie was testing scenes and was initially excited to be testing Mordin scenes, til she saw she was testing the Renegade version of his death. “This is even before like all of the audio and everything was in, so you didn’t even have the sad music. I remember sitting at my desk and my hands just went to my face when I saw that the gun Shep pulls on Mordin is the gun he gives Shep in ME2. I burst into tears and was crying for the rest of the day. People are waving to me as they walk by and I’m like, ‘It’s ok, I’m just killing my best friend’”

There’s a segment called “Shepard’s story ends”. Casey on the ending: “There’s a whole bunch of things that come together to make it incredibly tense and emotional for players. I think the biggest one was the sense of finality, that whatever it was that happened in that very last moment... was it.”

Wrapping up the story was a massive feat. In a way all of ME3 is an ending. Its final moments were the players’ last with a char they’d been with all the way from Eden Prime

“And while the critical reception of the game was extremely positive, many fans were unsatisfied with the ending, which became one of the most controversial in the history of games.” CH: “We were, on one hand, at the end of a marathon trying to finish the game and the series. But as devs we also knew that there would be more. We knew that we would continue to tell the story. In retrospect, we didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous sense of finality that it would have for people”. He envisioned an ending that posed new questions, something in the tradition of high sci-fi that left players dreaming about what that particular galaxy’s future could hold. “Frankly, there’s a lot more that we could have and should have done to honor the work players put in, to give them a stronger sense of reward and closure”

AAA games are massive undertakings with a million moving parts. Somehow they come together but even the best-planned projects don’t turn out quite like devs hope. From start to end video game production is a series of compromises. It’s rare if not impossible for devs to ship a game they’re entirely happy with. “I think that people imagine that when you finish a game, it’s exactly the way you wanted it to be. But whether people end up loving or hating the final result, we work hard to finish it the best we can, knowing that there’s a lot we would have wanted to do better. I think that’s true of any creative work”

As the dust settled after the initial reaction to the ending and later its epilogue, meant to show the wide-reaching ripple effects of Shep’s final choice, “players emerged mostly asking for one thing”. CH: “Now, most of what we hear, after both ME3 and MEA, is ‘Hey, just go make more Mass Effect’. And that to me is the most important thing. Knowing that players want to return to the ME universe is what inspires us to press on and imagine what comes next”

Mass Effect: Andromeda

By creating a new ME in a new galaxy the team was challenged to put their own visual stamp on the game while keeping it true to the franchise

Being the first ME game on a new gen of consoles meant for more detail

“Massive transport ships called arks populated with salarians, turians, humans, asari and quarians” made the risky jump to the Cluster

MEA was the first time BW had truly codeveloped across 3 studios: Edmonton, Montreal and Austin. The bulk of the work especially early on was done in Montreal, which was composed of a handful of Edmonton expats and heaps of experienced devs who joined from elsewhere specifically to bring a new ME experience to life. Series vets in Edmonton then came on to contribute writing, cinematics, design and QA, along with leadership from creative director Mac Walters and the core Production team. Austin writers and level designers also joined the fray

“It took a new team to take ME beyond the Milky Way”

Mac: “A lot of people in Montreal joined BW as fans of the franchise, so they just had this passion, and it felt like it was more like the days of Jade Empire, where a smaller younger team gets to do something for the first time. Even though it wasn’t necessarily a new IP for me, it felt fresh and new because of that. The team was just super excited to be working on it”

Early plans had the player exploring hundreds of worlds, procedurally generated, allowing for a nearly infinite variety of experiences. But as development wore on, it became clear that the game narrative required more specific, hand-touched level design on each world to keep the story focused and the experience engaging. “The plan was to give players numerous uncharted worlds to explore. Designers worked hard to come up with procedural elements that would make such planets special. Eventually the team made the difficult decision to abandon procedural planets in favor of more memorable hand-touched alien worlds, each with a specific story to tell”

One challenge was defining what ME meant without Shep. Care was given to include many of the MET’s key species. “Ryder recruited turian, asari, krogan and salarian followers”. Like Shep Ryder represents humanity’s hope for a peaceful coexistence among aliens who had long operated without human contact

Beginning with MEA the team decided that with few exceptions vehicles in ME have 6 wheels. Early Nomad concepts were bulkier. Later ones focused on its ability to move over its ability to protect itself from hostile fire, underlining the themes of exploration

German concept designer and auto-motive futurist Daniel Simon was contracted to create the Nomad and Tempest. The Tempest’s final design took inspo from the Concorde

Concepts for angaran fighter ships have the following notes: “Two doors swing open, wings rotate down to function as landing struts, the landing struts split open. It has a spinning turbine engine

Despite being set a galaxy away and some 600 years after Mordin’s death, there was a time when he had a cameo. It wasn’t cut due to running out of time however, it was cut due to drug references. John Dombrow explains: “One day I had to write a small quest for Kadara. I thought it’d be amusing if these 2 guys living way out on the fringes in a shack were growing plants for uh, medicinal purposes, and needed Ryder’s help with it. It occurred to me, wouldn’t it be amusing if Ryder had the option of actually trying ‘the medicine’ to see what would happen? And I thought, what if it turned into some hallucination that somehow involved SAM - like maybe SAM would sing? But why? How could I motivate that? Then it hit me. Who else in the ME game sings unexpectedly? MORDIN. As a nod to him I wrote SAM singing Modern Major-General. It got even better when our cine designer John Ebenger wanted to take it even further. Bless him, he came in on a Saturday to do a special hallucination showing Mordin himself. It was great. Til the fateful day we were told MEA had already been submitted to the ratings board. That’s when you declare things like drug references in your game. Mordin fell under that category which meant it was a no-go. We were too late”

Ryder’s white AI armor contrasts Shep’s iconic dark armor (intentional design)

Concept art for Ryder involved experiments with cloth (cloaks, ponchos, capes - “Pull here to release cloak”) and asymmetrical design elements

For alien design, there’s a few exceptions but humanoid figures are the ME standard and this persisted into MEA

Kett and angara concepts explored striking lines and textures

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

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ihatetaxes99 · 3 years ago

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A Brief Retrospective Look At MVA (In The Anime)

Well. Here we are. Every end of the time is another begun. After what has felt like years of anticipation (mostly because it actually has been years), My Villain Academia has been fully animated. Well, "fully" may be the wrong word here, but that's something I'll get into later.

To honour the end of the arc, I decided to do two things: One, I re-read the entirety of the arc in the manga all in one sitting; Two, I rewatched all five episodes of the anime's adaptation back to back once again. My life is pain and I know not of sleep. Anyway, the reason I did this is because of a little project I proposed to myself back just before the first episode aired; Once MVA was done and dusted, I would go back and give my own retrospective on the whole thing. Because why the hell not, sounds like fun. This will also hopefully be less emotional than my thoughts I shared as the episodes were still airing, but who knows?

So, let's begin. And I wish to start by stating that My Villain Academia is my absolute favourite arc in the manga. It did a lot of things right. It focused entirely on my favourite faction, the villains. It offers a glimpse into their lives and goes a long way in humanising them, particularly Spinner and Shigaraki. It sets up key points for others too, such as Mr. Compress' habit of thinking more about the bigger picture than the others, which would factor into his major reveal during the Paranormal Liberation War and of course the formation of the Front itself. It introduced us to Rikiya Yotsubashi, one of my favourite characters in the manga, even if he honestly peaked in this arc and was never as good again. And it gave us a large-scale, grueling fight for supremacy in which I found myself actively rooting for the League. It is, in my mind, the very best of BNHA, the only arc I would want them to do well in the anime. They could screw up literally everything else and I would be happy if MVA was even just as good as the manga, it didn't even need to be better. I would have been delighted to have an excuse to experience the arc all over again, seeing my favourite moments with the sublime soundtrack and voice acting.

Yeah…

But before I get to that, let us take a little trip of sorts down memory lane to see the road to MVA, what led to it. So, 2021 rolls around. What a fun year. It's just 2020 without the excitement of everything being so uncertain, and frankly it's been really fucking boring as a year. However, BNHA Season Five was announced. In February, we get the first trailer for the upcoming season. It's... It's fine. Obviously, it focuses heavily on the Joint Training Arc (in fact, that is all it shows) and although I despise that arc with a passion, it's not too bad. I had not watched the anime since Overhaul ended, so my plan was I just wouldn't watch JTA and would wait until the big attraction, MVA. And so, Joint Training starts. And it goes on. And on. And on. I checked back almost two months later to discover it still wasn't over yet. Now I found this odd. Joint Training Arc was horrible for many reasons, but the big one was that it dragged on for so long as a result of Horikoshi's health complications, which is by no means his fault. But, surely the anime, which would consistently release on a weekly basis, wouldn't have the issues associated with this. Episodes of BNHA have always encompassed around three to five chapters, and Joint Training's were shorter than usual, so why was it taking more than ten episodes to adapt it?

Very strange, but I didn't question it much. Then, the key visuals released, confirming that MVA was at the very least happening. Great, wonderful. I love it. We've got the whole gang there, seeming like they're in Deika, looks pretty good.

Wait, did I say whole gang? Yeah, my bad, there was someone missing. Spinner. Now, I am not the biggest Spinner fan so I wasn't prepared to riot over his exclusion like I would have been if Compress wasn't in it. But this was starting to get strange. Spinner was the main narrator of MVA. Even if his importance was not on the level of Shigaraki, Twice and Toga, it was certainly more than Dabi and Compress, who did both appear in the art. Why was he excluded? Obviously, I bet you're all having a good old chuckle to yourselves right now because in retrospect, this makes perfect sense now.

Alright, then. I heard from a friend around June time that Joint Training was finally over. Awesome, great, time for the good stuff- why is there a Christmas episode here?

Yes, this was probably what really started to get the alarm bells in my mind going. The Christmas episode- in June. Very, very strange. Also, absolutely no mention of Rikiya, which even if they were reshuffling things, I would have expected him to appear in the episode of Bakugo and Todoroki getting their licenses, since it directly ties in. Concern levels rising, I shrugged it off and waited for next week.

Bam. Major reshuffling. Now, Endeavour Agency comes first, fuck you if you want context for who the hell the PLF are or the significance of Destro's memoirs. This was really starting to worry me now. I told myself that the key visual meant that MVA had to be happening, but it was starting to seem like the villains were being shafted. A fact not helped by the new OP.

Look, I'm sorry. I don't mean to complain or whine, but season five's second OP is just bad. The music is fine, I have no problem there. But the visuals are just awful. Not only is there an extended focus on that stupid bloody trio of Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki, not only is there more screentime given to characters who don't appear in MVA or EA than the main cast of the former, but the animation itself is just so stiff and lacking. It had potential, but the visuals are the worst out of any recent anime opening I've seen in a good few years and this was what got me really panicking.

Boom, a beach episode smack in the middle of Endeavour Agency to promote the upcoming movie. Boom, adapting two chapters per episode during EA. Boom, the Shirakumo episode, which I always thought was part of the War Arc and not EA. But finally, mercifully, the title leaks came and it was revealed that episode 20 of season five would be the start of MVA.

20. Out of 25. And it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to end the season with MVA, so really, up to 24. Ohhh no…

But hey, I'm an optimist sometimes. I was excited to just finally be clear of all this nonsense and get to the real good stuff. Hell, in preparation, I watched the entirety of the season up to that point. I finally realised why JTA took so long and it's one of the most depressing things I've ever learned, in a bad way. Were all those flashbacks really necessary? EA was okay, as someone who as a manga reader, already had the necessary context for the PLF stuff. The beach episode, I watched half of, got too bored and skipped the rest of. And you know what, I liked the Shirakumo chapters. They weren't as good in the anime, but it was nice to see.

And then, finally, in comes episode one of My Villain Academia, on a cold, dark August morning. I even bought Crunchyroll Premium to watch it as soon as possible, I was excited. All the messing around, all the crap, it was finally over and the time had come to enjoy what this season was really all about.

I can now safely say why Bones kept pushing back MVA, because if I was them, I would be embarrassed to show this.

No, that's not fair. I promised I wouldn't get too snarky, so let's reek things back in. As a whole, MVA has been… fine. Just fine. Not good enough to justify the bullshit, but not horrendous (mostly.) In fact, right now, I'll give a ranking of the episodes, my worst to best:

5) Episode One

4) Episode Two

3) Episode Three

2) Episode Five

1) Episode Four

Yeah. So, there's a clear pattern here, that things more or less got better as time went on. From just straight up bad, to still not great, to alright, to the final two episodes being what I would comfortably call good. This is not a good look. I'm sorry, but Episode One, an episode that I just called bad, is still one of the season's best in spite of that. That spells out awful things for this season as a whole. But what exactly made this such a disaster?

Well, cut content is the big thing. MVA in the anime cuts out:

The League's battle with the CRC

Their struggle with poverty

The sushi joke setup

All of Spinner's character

All of Rikiya's character, including most mentions of Detnerat and Miyashita

Fairly integral pieces of Skeptic's character

Most of Giran's integrity and bravery

This doesn't look too bad at first. It could be far worse. We got basically everything else from the arc, so what? Well, I would already be annoyed about all of these cuts, but the issue is that they cause a knock on effect. Without the establishment of the League's poverty, the payoff of Toga's duffle coat now makes no sense. Without the setup of Spinner's characterisation, his battle with Hanabata now feels hollow. Rikiya's surrender to the League now makes even less sense, as his love of human life and desire to cause no more death is completely non-existent. The first time Rikiya being a CEO is mentioned is in the closing minutes of the arc. The sushi scene is hamfisted into a two second flashback just so that the payoff makes some sort of sense, but again, it is hollow without it being at the start (this is also the first mention of the League's poverty and it literally happens just as they are freed from it.) Can you see how these little seemingly unimportant cuts spiral into bigger problems? I would have been pissed even if they hadn't caused some tremendous cascades, but the fact that they did just makes this from a subjective issue to an objective one.

Yes. They did some things well. Toga's backstory is mostly intact, SMP is just as satisfying as the manga, Tenko's backstory is one of the best things the anime has ever done, the awakening is very well done, I adore the PLF formation as much as I did in the manga. Everything important is intact, but as I keep saying, you cannot just keep the bare minimum and expect it to work. How about in the next arc, they decide to cut everything involving Bakugo out, and only keep him jumping in front of Midoriya because it's the only absolutely necessary thing he does in the arc? People would be pissed, and it's the same thing that's happening here. It's a problem, it's not just a bad adaptation, it leads to bad storytelling in general.

The animation. Now, I do not believe this is a be all, end all. BNHA's anime is never going to look as gorgeous as Horikoshi's art, that is a fact and I do not begrudge them for that. They have a week to draw hundreds upon hundreds of frames, it's not a process that lends itself well to good looks and the animators and artists do their best with what they have. This does not change the fact that it is extremely hit or miss. Some things, Tenko's backstory in particular, look fantastic. Other things, mostly every action scene, make me laugh at how bad they can look and some things, particularly Twice and Re-Destro's hideous designs in the anime, make me cringe. The lighting is also an issue. Garaki's lab looked fantastic, but every other scene is just boring mid-afternoon with dull, basic lighting. I don't expect huge detail, but sometimes, it fails to achieve competency and as an extremely popular show, I don't think that's okay. I don't blame the animators, I blame the higher ups. And while I wouldn't mind the poor animation and art in an MVA that at least has all the story content, this does not have that and so I am even harsher than I would have been.

MVA was rushed. That's not up for debate. It took forever to get to it and once it came, things moved so quickly that they gave me whiplash, with no time to think or lament. Now, this could be attributed to the story structure of the arc, which is essentially a series of big fights, and it just isn't as bad in the manga because I can stop at any time to catch my breath. But I think it's worth noting that the anime at least highlights these issues. Curious dies in the same episode where she first appears, really driving home how pointless she was in the end. Episode Two alone tries to cover everything from the journey to Deika up until Jin finding Toga's body. That's a lot of content to fit in one twenty minute period and it was bound to feel messy in the end. I will say that, much like everything aside from the animation, this did get better as time went on, with episodes three, four and five adapting more reasonable amounts of content, compared to one giving us almost nothing and two giving us too much.

At the end of the day, that was it. The show's over. MVA has been closed in the anime. It will never be given a chance to improve, to go from just fine to anything even close to the manga. Why did this happen? I don't think we'll ever truly know. Some blame the new movie, others the studio's lack of faith in the villains, and there are those who say that it's just how fate turned out. I personally think it's a combination of all of these things. Without the movie, that beach episode wouldn't exist, giving more time to MVA, without the studio's hesitation, we'd perhaps get stuff like an actual good OP and perhaps some more general hype for it (I mean, MVA didn't even get a trailer.) Whatever the reason is, we got what we got. My verdict is something that's very overplayed as of late, but seriously, just read the manga with the fantastic soundtrack playing in the background. The anime's adaptation of MVA is not worth the time investment, when you could read the manga in roughly the same length of time and get more content, a more coherent plot and beautiful artwork.

So, what may come next for Season Six? I don't know. Season Five has definitely been one of the most unpopular seasons in the anime, with a lot of people speaking out against it, but this mostly seems to come from the Western fanbase, so it's up in the air if Bones will learn from their mistakes. Since they'll have a full season to do presumably the War and Rouge Deku arcs, then I feel like they'll put on a better show. But we just don't know. Spinner had his spotlight stolen this time around, will Compress suffer the same fate in Season Six? Dabi and Toga will probably be handled well, since they have inexplicably high amounts of popularity, but with his own lack of recognition rivalling Spinner's, I can see Sako ending up much the same way. Time will tell, I suppose.

#my villain academia #mva #league of villains #Meta Liberation Army #studio bones #bnha season 5

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kerikaaria · 4 years ago

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If I Never Met You: Chapter 24

(??? X Reader) Idol!AU, Manager!Reader

Genre: (PG13) Fluff

WC: 3.7k

Warnings: None

Series Masterlist

Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25

The rest of the boys returned from Japan today, the day after Yoongi’s surgery, but after today we wouldn’t see them for the next three days since they’d be out of town for fan sign events. They were going to Busan, Daegu, and Daejeon which were hours away from Seoul but not too far from each other, so rather than them go back and forth they won’t return until after the last one.

Obviously he was an adult and could take care of himself, but Bang also insisted that I stay back with Yoongi. I wasn’t complaining, and it seemed like he wasn’t either. I didn’t think he liked the idea of being left alone for such a long period of time.

I sat next to Yoongi while he worked on the computer in his studio. He was doing something on a music program to put together a song, but I couldn’t make any sense of what he was doing. Yoongi had asked me if we could come to the company today so he could work on music rather than just lay around at home. I had been curious how this worked anyway, so I couldn’t argue with the idea.

Yoongi glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes a couple of times before pausing what he was doing. “Do you have to sit that close?” he asked.

I hadn’t noticed that I had slowly inched closer to him and the screen. I scooched back into my seat. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I got that close. I was just trying to figure out how this all works.”

“You’re really that curious?” he asked, removing his headphones.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve actually been curious for a while.”

“I think Bang was right when he pegged you as someone ‘hungry for knowledge’.” He chuckled. “But you have an interest in music, noona?” His eyes lit up a bit.

I smiled. “I’ve always had an interest.”

“You’ve never said anything before.” He turned in his chair to face me.

“I’ve kind of been busy with everything else since I’ve been here, so I didn’t really try to put any time aside for it. Besides, I don’t think I could write music myself. I am just curious.”

“It doesn’t hurt to give it a shot if you’re interested,” he smiled. “Do you have any musical background?”

I nodded. “I’ve played instruments since I was young. And I have some very basic music theory knowledge that I learned in high school and my year in college back home. But not much else other than that.”

“That sounds like quite a lot to me. And to be honest, you don’t need to be knee-deep in musical theory to start trying to write songs if you want. It’s helpful, but if you have an ear for music then you can just kind of figure it out on your own as you go.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“What instruments do you play?”

“Well at school I played the flute. And I’ve played piano on my own since I was young.”

He smiled. “I haven’t seen or heard you play at all. Have you played recently?”

I shook my head. “It’s been a while. I think I may have played a little bit just a couple of times after I started working here, but that’s about it. I definitely haven’t for months.”

“You should play something. I want to hear it.”

My eyes widened. “I think I’ll pass.” I chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of my head. “I’ve heard you play and you’re absolutely amazing. I’m not that great.”

Yoongi shook his head. “I won’t judge you, noona. I just want to hear you play.”

I scrunched my face in contemplation. “It’s still been a while, though. I don’t know if I can play well…”

“Like I said, I won’t judge.” When I still hesitated, he crossed his arms. “Well, I can’t force you. But if you play for me I’ll show you how to use the program and some basics on making music.”

“Really?” I asked, excited.

He laughed. “Yeah, really.”

I thought for another moment before deciding. “Alright then. Just one song.”

We both stood up to go to the nearby practice room that had a piano. I sat at the bench while he stood next to me and I contemplated what piece I should play. While I recalled the library of songs I knew without sheet music, one song jumped out to me. It was simple enough that being a bit out of practice shouldn’t affect my playing as much as others. I hovered my hands over the keys, but hesitated. It was a song with lyrics.

“What’s wrong?” Yoongi asked.

“There was a song I was thinking of playing, but…” I hummed as I contemplated if I should play it or not. “It has lyrics, and without singing the song sounds pretty empty. Most of the piano part can’t really stand on its own…”

“Then sing too,” he said simply.

I turned to him and blinked a few times. “I’m already going to embarrass myself with my piano skills that are nowhere near matching yours, and now you’re asking me to sing? In front of a musician? Whose group has singers with absolutely amazing voices?”

He nodded with a confident smile. “Come on. I’m sure it’s not that bad, noona. You’re always hard on yourself. I’m sure you’re better than you give yourself credit for.”

I bit the inside of my cheek nervously. “I don’t know…”

“Or we could just forget this and I can go back to my studio alone.”

I thought for another moment, and he started backing towards the door. “Okay, okay. Fine. I’ll do it.” I felt butterflies in my stomach at the realization I was about to embarrass myself in front of him. “Let me just warm up my hands a bit.”

He smiled triumphantly and gestured for me to go ahead.

I played some basic warm up scales and exercises in the key the song was in, and then a couple of the main chords the song used to make sure I wouldn’t fumble around quite as much.

It was a song I really loved and listened to a lot in high school. Vanessa Carlton played the piano herself and wrote her own music. She was mostly known for A Thousand Miles, which of course was a classic for her. But she had a lot of great songs and this one, Home, was one of my absolute favorites of hers. It was simple enough that I learned to play it myself just by ear, but it was still a beautiful song. I closed my eyes and collected myself before playing the first chord of the song.

After the first few measures, I took in a breath and started singing the lyrics. I still felt nervous, so my voice shook a bit at first. But as I continued, I started feeling more comfortable and relaxed a bit. The music picked up a bit for the second part of the first verse, and even more so when the chorus came around. I was a bit nervous at that point because that part of the melody was heading towards the top of my vocal range. But I was luckily able to hit the notes steadily and without faltering on the keys.

When the second verse came, I felt completely in my element. I was focused on my hands moving and periodically closed my eyes to feel the music even more, forgetting that I had an audience listening and watching.

After the chorus repeated, there was a brief break from singing while the piano melody calmed down before a short third and final verse. Knowing the lyrics that were coming, I felt a warmth in my heart. “For me, it’s a glance and the smile on your face.” I pictured him smiling and laughing. “And the touch of your hands, an honest embrace.” I could almost feel the strength of his arms around me. “For where I lay it’s you I keep. This changing world, I fall asleep. With you, all I know is I’m coming home, coming home.”

I continued to play the rest of the piano part that mimicked the chorus after the singing was over and slowly died down until it sounded like it was over. But the piano part continued, starting soft and slowly building up and getting stronger. It built until the part that I was most worried about getting right. It wasn’t very difficult even if it sounded like it to a listener, but the challenge was in maintaining a lot of control to keep the tempo and not get your fingers tangled. I managed to make it through without fumbling and then the music calmed down again to just the main chords quietly ringing. I finished the song and lifted my hands from the keys.

I realized how I thought of him again while playing the song. I had been noticing he’d been on my mind more lately, but I hadn’t been thinking much of it.

There was no way that I… No I couldn’t. It wasn’t possible.

Right?

I was startled from my thoughts when I heard a few slow claps come from Yoongi, still standing next to the piano. I had almost forgotten he was there.

“That was really great, noona.” He smiled sweetly, big enough that his gums showed. “I don’t know what you were so worried about. Yeah, it might not be a high-level piece, but that doesn’t matter. It was a beautiful song and you played it wonderfully. And also, your singing voice sounds lovely. You shouldn’t be so insecure about it.”

I nervously rubbed my hands together in my lap, staring at them and feeling my face flush from the compliments. “Thanks, Yoongi.”

“You seem like you have a really nice talent for music,” he said. “Why’d you stop?”

“Well, when I graduated high school I wanted to be a music teacher,” I said. “That was my original goal.”

“You weren’t studying music when you transferred here though, were you?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No. During my first year of college back home I realized that it would probably be difficult to find a stable job. A lot of schools care more about sports than the arts. It happened to my school after I graduated too. They got a new principle that didn’t care about music or arts and he cut the really wonderful music program in half. I decided to just keep music as a hobby.”

“That really sucks,” he said.

I nodded. “Yeah. I felt bad for the students still there. It wasn’t fair what he did to the program. Especially because he had also bought one of the sports teams new uniforms even though the ones they already had weren’t even old.” I sighed, remembering how frustrated I was to hear to news. “But I didn’t feel like I lost a dream or anything like that. I was still figuring myself out, and I found something else I enjoyed studying and went down that path. But now obviously I have a completely new one that I am perfectly happy with.” I looked up to smile at my friend.

“You looked so happy and free while you played,” Yoongi said. “You should really keep up with music. No matter how you choose to do so. It seems to be a part of you and I think it would be a shame if you let that piece of you die when you clearly love it so much.”

“I’ll do my best not to.”

“Come on, let me show you around the music software.”

I got up excitedly to follow him back into his studio to learn something new.

If Yoongi were to say that he didn’t enjoy the past few days with (Y/n) he’d be lying. It was strangely comfortable, it being just the two of them in the house. He could cook fine on his own, but she still cooked all of their meals, and he was pleasantly surprised that she had gotten really good at cooking Korean food. Most of the time they spent at home was just comfortable, quiet companionship. But he also found himself talking quite a bit more than he was used to. Maybe it was because he wasn’t competing against six others to get a word in.

After she played that song for him, he asked her the name so he could look it up and found a translation to Korean of the lyrics. The song itself was very nice, and the lyrics were rather poetic as well. The last verse made him smile, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she had anyone specific on her mind when she sang it. He knew he definitely did.

The time they spent together in his studio was nice as well. He kept to his word of showing her how to work the program and basics on putting a song together. He wouldn’t let her listen to his current projects, but did let her check out ones he already finished. She soaked up information like a sponge, and he was pleasantly surprised both by how eager she was to learn, and how well she did. He really did hope she wouldn’t let the fire she harbored for music die.

Bang was also happy they were spending time at the company, having stopped by a few times to check on him and how he was doing. It was such a comfort to know that he was more worried about his employees being healthy than getting a little more money out of them. He’d seen people from other groups in this industry get injured or sick and not have much, if any, time to recover before their bosses forced them on the stage again. Even if their company was small and they weren’t very popular, he thought that he was far happier here than he would have been somewhere else.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t spend as much time at his studio as he had wanted to. His body was still tired and wanting him to sleep half of the day away while he recovered. And while sometimes he felt like she was overdoing it, he couldn’t deny that it was nice to have (Y/n) take care of him and just be here.

Spending so much time with (Y/n) just felt so comfortable to Yoongi. He was lowkey upset that the others would be returning later today and things would go back to normal. It was of course a good thing and he missed his members, but he wanted to savor every moment of this while it lasted.

They ate the lunch (Y/n) made together, a comfortable silence hanging between them. Yoongi glanced at (Y/n)’s face where she sat across from him and had to hide a smile at how adorable she looked, her cheeks puffed out when she took a bite that was a little too big. He also noticed how tired she looked, her eyes staying closed just half a second too long when she blinked. She said she’d been getting enough sleep, but he recalled her saying shortly after they moved to their new houses about how she takes a while to get comfortable in a new bed. She was probably having trouble sleeping in Jin’s bed.

Not to mention, she was basically still being a manager, just on a more personal level for Yoongi. He felt like she was overworking herself even though it wasn’t a big deal and he could still do basically anything he wanted to on his own. He couldn’t help but wonder why (Y/n) went so far for him. Yeah, she was a kind-hearted person and of course he knew that. But, would she have done as much as she has for any of the others too?

“You want to go back to your studio today?” (Y/n) asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“Let’s stay here today, noona,” Yoongi responded. “You look really tired, I don’t want you driving like that.”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” She smiled, her exhaustion still evident in her expression.

“I know you’re eager to learn more about writing music,” Yoongi said, “but I don’t think it’s worth getting into an accident on the way.”

“I don’t want you to have to sit around the house all day though,” she said frowning.

“Don’t worry about me, I can survive. You should go take a nap.” She hesitated, looking unsure if it was okay to be selfish for once. “Noona, you’ve been spending so much time worrying about me, but you’re not taking care of yourself. I don’t want you getting sick on my account.” Yoongi collected some of the dishes to take into the kitchen, both of them having finished their meal.

“Are you really sure?” she asked, following him with what he didn’t have enough hands for.

“Of course. I’m actually a little tired myself, could probably use a nap as well before the others come back and I can’t get any more peace and quiet.”

She giggled and Yoongi couldn’t hold back his smile at the sound.

“Okay then,” she said. “I guess we’ll take a nap. Once I get these dishes clean, at least. You can go first.” She barely got the last sentence out as she started to yawn.

“Let me clean them,” Yoongi insisted. “You really can barely keep your eyes open. I got this, noona.” She opened her mouth to protest, but Yoongi responded before she could say anything. “I won’t tear my stitches by doing dishes.”

When she didn’t move, he stood behind her, pushing on her shoulders to direct her towards the bedroom and next to Jin’s bed. He gave her a pointed look, and she caved in and climbed the ladder, laying down on the bed. He nodded in approval before going back to the kitchen to clean.

It was quick, since (Y/n) was good at not making a mess when she cooked and used minimal dishes, which was saying something for Korean meals that had multiple side dishes. Even though it didn’t take him long, when he returned to the bedroom Yoongi found (Y/n) already asleep.

He smiled, taking a moment to step on the ladder to the bunk so he could look at the peaceful expression on her face as she slept. He couldn’t count how many times he caught himself catching glimpses of her when she wasn’t looking these past few days. After a few moments, Yoongi laid down in his own bed, and was soon enough about to drift into sleep himself.

Until he heard (Y/n) making a noise in her sleep and pried his eyes open quickly. As far as he could tell, she was a pretty quiet sleeper and the noise had sounded a bit distressed so it seemed unusual. He turned to look in the direction of Jin’s bed, listening carefully. There it was again.

He quickly got up and climbed up to the bunk to see if she was okay. He found her with her eyebrows furrowed, breathing ragged, and knees curled into her chest. She whimpered, and it was obvious she was having a nightmare.

“Noona,” Yoongi said, crawling onto the bed and gently shaking her shoulder. “Noona, wake up.” She wasn’t budging, and now she was even sweating. Even if it was just a dream, Yoongi couldn’t stand seeing her so distressed. “Come on, wake up,” he said more loudly and shaking her shoulder a little more roughly to try to force her awake.

Her eyes flew open and she took in a deep shaky breath as she quickly sat up. “It’s okay, noona,” Yoongi said, making her look at him. “It’s all right, you were just dreaming. What were you dreaming about?”

She lowered her gaze and shook her head. “I don’t… I don’t want to think about it right now.” She was still trying to catch her breath and tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

“Okay,” Yoongi replied. “That’s fair.” He took a good look at her and saw that she still seemed scared, so he wrapped his arms around her securely. (Y/n) was surprised at the action; Yoongi didn’t usually initiate hugs. But she relaxed a bit and returned the gesture, gripping tightly.

“It’s okay, noona.” His voice was muffled by her hair. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t real. You should get some sleep, you weren’t even asleep for very long.” He pulled away from her and gave her a soft smile.

(Y/n) nodded, calming down. “Okay. I’m sorry I woke you.”

“I hadn’t fallen asleep yet, it’s okay.” He sat next to her for another minute while she laid back down and readjusted herself to go back to sleep. Once he was convinced she was relaxed again he walked back to his own bunk. “Sleep well, noona. Don’t get any more nightmares, okay?”

She chuckled. “Alright, I’ll try not to. Thank you, Yoongi.”

“Of course, noona,” Yoongi said as he made himself comfortable again, facing toward the bed she lay in. “You know I’m always here for you, just like how you’re always there for us.”

After a few minutes, (Y/n) stirred a little bit. “Yoongi,” she said very sleepily.

“Is something wrong?” Yoongi asked.

“Could you come here?” she asked.

He was confused but complied, walking back over to her. “What’s wrong, noona?”

“I’d feel better if you’re close.” (Y/n)’s speech was really slurred from how tired she was, but he could still understand her. “That dream… I just want to know you’re okay.”

He wondered what happened in the nightmare if she was concerned about his safety. “If I sleep in the bunk next to you is that okay?” Yoongi asked quietly.

She lazily patted the spot on the bed next to her. “Can you stay here?”

Yoongi’s eyes widened. She was asking him to sleep next to her. On the same bed. He blinked rapidly as his face flushed.

“Yoongi?” she called when he didn’t answer. “Please?”

“O-okay,” he finally replied as he finished climbing the ladder and gently lay down beside her, being careful not to make any contact with her. He thought it’d be fine just as long as he could keep a little bit of room in between them.

“Thank you,” (Y/n) said, half-asleep.

Yoongi lay on his side facing her, watching her fall asleep until he heard (Y/n)’s breath steady to a slow rhythm. He fell asleep as well, knowing that when they woke up this beautiful dream he’d been living the past few days would be over.

Series Masterlist

Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25

Tags: @calling-dips-on-j-hope @misohime @netflix-batman-sleep @smallbaby-cat @leitholdwithlove @ramyagovindraj @leesalts @rjsmochii

Send me a message or ask if you want tagged! And also feel free to leave comments or send asks to just talk to me!

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handmadecp · 4 years ago

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Bucket Bag Build Along Pics.

The Bucket Bag. Original idea and pattern from Dieselpunkro.

Pic 1 : At last, I have some me time to put the build along pics up for the Bucket bag. Firstly, Sorry for the long wait for any one that has been wondering where I’ve been but with life as it is for everyone these days lets just say ‘LIFE’ once again got in the way. So, moving on. Credit for the Original design and the Pattern goes to ‘Tony See’ of Dieselpunkro in Spain, find them on Y/Tube. The construction and any alterations from the original design is all me. Let’s start. Here I have bought the pattern from Dieselpunkro, downloaded it and printed.

Pic 2 : I cut out each pattern and I have punched the some of the holes, Some times I do it before taping to the leather and other times I find it’s easier to tape it down and ‘then’ do the smaller ones as sometimes the smaller ones are easier to do with the patterns taped down to the leather. I’m sure you’ll find your own way, as long as you make sure you’ve punched ‘all’ holes you’ll be ok. Also’ a very important point, look on the patterns for any holes marked as ‘stitching’ holes or ‘start here’ holes and keep marking them as you go along and eventually transfer them to the leather as these are the holes where you will begin the stitching and if you don’t mark then it’s a royal pain trying to figure it out...believe me...I’ve done it a few times. So check and double check.

Pic 3 : Patterns transferred to leather , here’s one of the sections that was ready, , shaped and all holes punched, needing a liner, here I’m about to cut some material for that. This is the ‘wrong’ side of the liner material. You can see the other side further on.

Pic 4 : I wasn’t aware of it at this point but i had cut a piece wrong, this turned out to be the bottom section of the bag and somehow I’ve managed to take my eye off the ball ( due to tiredness ) and I’ve punched holes around the edge of the ‘bottom’ hence why I thought it was the top, anyway...there’s another tip, this stuff is expensive, so don’t do it when you are tired, lesson learned and as luck would have it, this will work for another project I have lined up for 2021. Anyway, you get ‘warts and all’ on here as promised. you may notice the ‘change’ as we go along and now you will know why.

Pic 5 : I use anything to hand when glueing stuff together to press them down

Pic 6 : This is the pattern transfer tor the Veg Tan Leather bottom piece, this was one of those times when I punched the holes through the pattern and the leather in one go.

Pic 7 : sometimes you will find that the punched holes are a tad too small but it’s an easy fix, just a quick once round pass using a slighty..very slightly, bigger punch, Note at the bottom an ‘x,’ this is me keeping track of the ‘Start stitch here’ hole as mentioned earlier. the white gloves, as those long time followers will already know,... but just for those who may be new to my blog,..they are to prevent my nails dragging and marking the leather.

Pic 8 : On the inside I wanted to put a liner of the ‘softer’ material that will be used for the upper section of the bag, but so that you could see the lovely bright color of the ‘wrong’ side of it as you will see. first I had to rough up the whole area as shown here, I used an actual ‘rougher’ tool seen in the picture but you can use a knife edge or anything that will get the job done, this helps the glue to bond the two sections together better.

Pic 9 : Ok, so, those keen eyed amongst you will probably be wondering, why , if he has already glued a liner onto the base, is he now gluing another piece. Well I messed up twice on the day I was tired, I did eventually stop to avoid making more, this was me the next day putting the mistakes right. I realised I hadn’t used the soft leather ‘upside-down’ for the inside color / effect. It will all come clear at the end.

Pic 10 : When I first started this blog showing my little project builds I promised to show any and all mistakes, and I do, in the hope of saving you yourself some time, money and effort if you decide to have a go yourself. But now..I’m Back on track, new pieces cut for lower section and the correct liner is on and waiting to be trimmed.

Pic 11 : Next after the larger sections comes the straps and assorted leather sections, the process is the same just on a smaller scale, no big deal, but takes a lot of patience as there are lots of holes to punch, hundreds in fact. If you have no patience, this is not the hobby for you.

Pic 12 : Straps and assorted pieces done. Time to start the build.

Pic 13 : Here I’ve taken the thin ‘skirt’ section and using a rolling stitch with a waxed thread I stitched all around one way as seen here fixing it to the veg tan base and then went all the way back to fill the gaps as shown in Pic 14.

Pic 14 : Skirting stitched on ready to go the other way to comlete the stitching.

Pic 15 : Stitching the side pieces together using a cross over stitch to give this effect on the outside. I’ve used a waxed thread in Purple.

Pic 16 : Once both sides are done it made a nice shape and was quite sturdy already.

Pic 17 : Here you can see the rivets in position for the next step and you can now see the actual ‘right’ side of the liner.

Pic 18 : Here you see the pattern placed over the project to show how it’s coming together so precisely. The patterns from Dieselpunkro are not only great value for your money but they are very precise.

Pic 19 : You can see the inside showing the rivets. once the strap sections are fitted you won’t see the outside of the rivets and once done they will add to the strength of the whole structure.

Pic 20 : All the strapping has been treated with Tan Kote straight onto the straps, left to dry and then buffed up to a shine.( though in other circumstances I would wipe it off quickly, I am aiming to darken the color as will show later. )

Pic 21 : The strapping sections all put together and placed over the rivets.

Pic 22: Then using the purple thread again and a ‘Saddle’ stitch this time I have stitched the whole piece over the rivets following the pattern holes as always.

Pic 23 : Straps, Done. and used a few buckles lying around to ‘test’ fit, they are ‘not’ fitted yet as I want antique brass not shiny brass.

Pic 24 : Next I fit the bottom section as shown, thread the two needles used for a saddle stitch with the purple waxed thread and begin to stitch it to the main body of the bag.

Pic 25 : after the bottom is stitched on you can now see what I was saying about the nice color on the ‘wrong’ side of the soft leather I glued on as a liner.

Pic 26 : Showing the bottom section finished and looking very solid as the main body becomes even more solid now.

Pic 27 : These two side secions are part of the handle / strap section. I punched a small hole in each using the pattern marks and added a Chicago screw on each as seen here. and I have added a small ‘Stay’ strap around each using a stitch or two on the back to hold them together.

Pic 28 : This pic and pic 29 show me fitting the eyelets. I used some gunsmoke blue/grey colored ones.

Pic 29 : The punch tool used to fit them.

Pic 30 : I fitted the antique brass buckles and used antique brass rivets to hold the straps permanently in place. I also fitted antique brass ‘Stays’ as seen in this pic. Note how the strap coloring is the same as the base, that was achieved by A) Using leather from the same roll and B) using the Tan Kote for the same amount of time on everything before buffing..which time wise in this case was just ..put it on and wait for it to dry completely, then buff it. It seems to have done the trick as you’ll soon see.

Pic 31 : the base is now done, time to add the upper section to it.

Pic 32 : First I attached the side pieces as shown here, I stitched them to the base using a saddle stitch and the usual Purple waxed thread a seen here, I did both sides the same way.

Pic 33 : You can see here the struggle to get to the stitch holes which could barely be seen on the inside due to the material used, but again this comes down to a lot of patience. It’s worth it at the end.

Pic 34 : You can see here that you have to start at the bottom of the strap section ( I know most of you have figured it out, but for anyone wondering..I mean the ‘pointy bit’ ). I came up with the stitch and right to the top, then I doubled that stitch back down till it met the ‘upper’ material being stitched on. Here if you look carefully I made a few passes back and forwards to give extra strength at these points, I then started along the edge joing the soft ‘upper’ section to the now solid ‘Base’ section as shown.

Pic 35 : Here you can see the upper is now stitched to the base. As I reached the far side I again had to stitch the ‘pointy’ bit, I joined onto it, went to the top as before and doubled it back down then carried it to the bottom around the point and back up the other side doing exactly the same again until I had joined back onto the upper and base sections and then carried on along the edge on the opposite side finishing off with a few back stitched, snipped it and used a lighter to melt the ends to secure it.

Pic 36 : Next I changed the main shoulder strap for my own design, I cut a normal strap a half inch wide, wet it ( ’Cased’ it ) and stamped a nice flower design on then stamped a center for each one. as seen here. I edged it all around and then used Tan Kote in the same way as before and allowed to dry rather than removing it, then buffed it to a shine, it came out the same color as the rest. Once it was complete I punched and slit the holes as shown on the patter , threaded the strap into place and connected it using the chicago screws pushed through the punched/slit holes.

Pic 37 : I used leather off the same roll to cut a thin ‘tie’ piece for the ‘Pull-Tie’. I treated it the same way with the Tan Kote and achieved the same color again bringing together the whole look.

Pic 38 : A view of the inside of the Bucket bag. You can see now that re-doing the bottom was worth it as it now matches the top inside section. You can see the Pull tie threaded through the eyelets. One thing I almost forgot, see the top edge, I rolled it over and saddle stitched it all around to give a much tougher top edge.

Pic 39 : The finished bag, the only other things I did were to make the small leather piece that holds the pull tie pieces together as seen here, no big deal.

Pic 40 : And I cut the leather pull through into two pieces once threaded and once passed through the small leather ‘stay’ piece I knotted the ends and as you can see here..You now pull each side closed seperately, making for an easier closure.

Pic 41 : done.

And Voila, One Christmas Present Finished. That’s it guys, this was the last Project I did in 2020. I’m looking forward to starting new projects soon but I have a few things around the house to sort out first. I will probably get back to it around about mid February. Thank you to all those of you who have waited a long time to see this and didn’t unfollow me, I appreciate it, sometimes life just gets in the way as I’m sure you all know. I hope you will go check out Dieselpunkro you might be inspired if I haven’t quite inspired you enough hahaha. See you all again soon with another project and good luck with your own. Until then, stay safe and as always, ‘Stay crafty’.

#Bags #leather #leathercraft #shoulderbags #gifts #bucketbag #crafts and hobbies #unusual

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yikesharringrove · 4 years ago

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GOD this is soft but i can just imagine the boys picking up new hobbies w steve's pregnancies, maybe billy beginning to play the piano again (his mum used to play it for him and would sing for him when neil wasn't around) and steve just beginning to stress bake and stress knit rather than indulging in old bad habits (bonus maybe billy putting on a lil weight too bc he hasn't been working out as much and definitely indulged in steve's baking and steve loves it) mina still loves to hear billy play

Masterlist

Part 25

- This jumps all over the timeline rip

When Steve first got pregnant, he had terrible insomnia in the beginning.

He didn’t want to keep Billy awake on the nights he snuck out of his house to stay with Steve, so he would sit down on the couch in the sitting room. He would usually just sit in the quiet, just him and the little pup growing inside of him.

But then Billy would wake up, cold and alone and would manhandle Steve until he was laying on top of him.

That’s where they were when Billy first spotted the grand piano in the room. He slid out from under Steve and took a seat.

A few of the keys were out of tune, hadn’t been played in years, but he plonked out a few scales.

His mom used to play. He had vivid memories of sitting on her lap, his hands on hers as she played. She taught him once upon a time.

He struggled through one of the songs he could kind of remember, one hit the wrong key before correcting himself. He stumbled through what he could of Hey Jude before turning back to Steve.

He was dead asleep on the couch, both hands resting over his tummy. He wasn’t showing yet, not unless you really knew what to look for.

Billy carried him up to bed.

That became their ritual on nights Steve couldn’t sleep.

He had gone out and bought Billy lots of sheet music, just grabbed random stuff, had ended up with the weirdest assortment of things.

Billy sifted through to find the easier stuff. He could still read sheet music well enough to decipher notes, but had to remind himself which keys corresponded to which note.

Steve was just content to sit next to him as he did it.

Sometimes, Steve’s anxiety would get the best of him.

He would be thinking about the pup and just spiral, every fear he could possibly have coming out of the woodwork, from having a miscarriage, to accidentally becoming abusive to the pup.

He would usually go on a run when he got like this, but his body constantly ached, and running felt like it would suck.

Or he would sit on the front porch and have a smoke, and that shit, was right out. Even Billy, who was practically a fucking chimney, had quit smoking cold turkey when he found out Steve was pregnant.

So he started baking.

He would look at old recipes, would experiment with new ones, even created a few of his own.

Whenever Billy let himself into Steve’s house to smell something in the oven, he would just quietly come up behind him, would wrap his arms tightly around him.

“Everything’s gonna be okay, Pretty Boy.”

When Steve ended up living with the Byers, he would buy plenty of baking supplies, and make them all kinds of stuff. Joyce said she would be offended if he paid her rent, and he didn’t really know how else to thank her, especially once Billy got kicked out of his house and she insisted they take her room, started sleeping on the couch.

“That couch isn’t good for you, Steve, especially now that Billy’s here.”

In the end Jonathan made them take his room, didn’t want his mom on the old sofa.

So Steve baked for them. For everyone that was helping them in one way or another.

Even when they found their own place, Steve would Joyce in the mornings before her shifts with a muffin for her breakfast.

But even with how much he was giving away, they still had lots of leftovers. And Billy would be loathe to let it all go to waste.

“You need to quit stress baking. I’m getting fat.” Billy was pinching at the soft layer that had settled over his abs. Steve turned to him slowly, giving him a dark look.

“Don’t even talk to me about getting fat.” But, God, Billy loved Steve’s body, thought he looked especially beautiful, even as he was drawing closer to his due date, even as his ankles and feet began to swell. He pulled Steve into his chest.

“I’m sorry, Baby. And you’re not fat, you need to gain weight. For our pup.” He kissed Steve’s cheek. “Plus I don’t think you’ve ever looked more gorgeous. You know I just like to look a certain way.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know why you’re complainin’. You’re still a hunk of grade A premium corn fed beef.” Billy laughed into his shoulder. “Plus, you’re like, somebody’s dad now. You really gotta be that hot?”

“I guess you’re right. How could I ever be the hot dad when you’re in the equation.”

When they moved to California, they made quick friends with their neighbor across the hall, Maggie.

She was sweet, and loved Mina, would let her come over to play for awhile.

She also had a small piano in her apartment.

When Mina had excitedly told Billy and Steve that she had one, Billy had gone to speak with her, had asked for piano lessons. So he went over to her place Friday mornings for two hours to have a lesson, gave her five bucks and whatever Steve had baked that week.

He missed playing piano, missed sitting in the dark Harrington living room, thunking out soft melodies to get Steve to sleep. He missed how close to his mom he felt in those moments, just a kid with a pup on the way, trying to make it work as best as he could.

Mina would come with him to Maggie’s, would sit next to him as she taught him songs and exercises, would sometimes worm her way onto his lap, but her small hands on his as he played.

She would fall asleep against his chest as he played for her. Made him think of his mom, of Steve, of their perfect little family, strung together from a few broken ones.

#yikes writes #mango #steve harrington #billy hargrove #harringrove #harringrove abo #steve harrington x billy hargrove #billy hargrove x steve harrington #omega steve harrington #alpha billy hargrove #mpreg #harringrove fic #harringrove ficlet #harringrove drabble

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amandajeanwrites · 4 years ago

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The End of an Era

Seven years ago, yes count those, SEVEN years ago, in late 2014, at the peak of internet fashion hauls and makeup tutorials, during the rise of YouTube and Pinterest and Tumblr, I moved from podunk Montana to the big urban areas in and around Portland, Oregon. Portlandia was airing, hipsters were growing mustaches and wearing plaid on a global scale, and I was ready to drink craft beer and breathe in as much pine scent as I could muster.

I wanted to be a Blogger or a Vlogger. I wanted to talk about travel, but also film, but also also makeup and fashion because I was growing into my fashionista-ness. I wanted to infiltrate little boutiques and hold events and start social media campaigns, you know, really get ahead of the curve. So my first(ish) job when I moved out here was working as a sales associate for a tiny boutique.

Now, this boutique was a chain based in Austin or Houston or something, so I wasn’t going to head their social media anytime soon, and I was just working as a lowly sales associate at minimum wage, and I’m pretty sure I only worked about twenty hours to start out, but I had confidence in myself and my abilities to grow up and out.

God, I remember during my interview, I wore this NEON FLORAL swing dress that I’d bought in Portland with my Mom that July, paired with a neon sports bra that matched the colors in the dress, all topped off with a God awful cobalt blue cropped cardigan and probably some glitter-embellished shoes. For those of you who have grown to love and appreciate my new sense of style (emo-chic), you’ll understand how mind-boggling that would have been. Oh God, I probably also had matching neon lipstick and eyeliner or something.

The point is, I was young and adorable and confident in my skin and my outfit decisions. I remember panicking throughout the interview, noticing bright colors on the racks of the stock room over the manager’s head and just talking about how much I loved color… the ENTIRE interview. It’s honestly a miracle she hired me.

The reason I’m talking about this now, and the reason it’s all come surging back into my memory so damn vividly, is because Sean and I were walking through that little shopping center over the weekend (the entire mall has been and always will be one of my favorite places in my area), and we walked by this little boutique to see it’s Closing. We hopped in and bought four pairs of earrings as a last donation to the cause, and I immediately felt bitter sweet and melancholy and nostalgic for everything I learned and did there.

I talk about my outfits, my prospects at that time in my life, to reflect on just how much I’ve grown. I was so young, on the edge of 23, and I moved away from home for the very first time. I dragged my boyfriend along with me, and we overstayed our welcome at my Grandma’s. I actually remember driving the 40 minutes to work and 40 minutes back in the middle of the night, fog coating the road and my car, cranking One Direction’s Four album. (A premonition that Zayn was leaving, don’t we think!?)

I was experimenting with a social media presence, with blogging, with fashion and makeup, absorbing everything I could. I explored Portland and the surrounding areas. We went to the coast constantly. I just wanted to get out and see the world, be whoever I didn’t think I could back home. I was making new friends and trying to figure out who I was without college or Musicals or the country western bars or Perkins.

The biggest issues I had were suburban Moms from Lake Oswego that wheeled strollers through our claustrophobic boutique, knocking breakables off the gift table and then scoffing at us before they left. I spent hours irritated with my boss for being a controlling 25-year-old (an actual child). I clung to the drama of my past, not understanding how to be without thinking of how much my hometown had “wronged me”. Dear God, I was dramatic.

I had prejudices, against suburban Moms! And against sex workers and against hipsters and against Big City people that didn’t understand Little City people and against Little City people that didn’t understand me.

I talked too much and didn’t work hard. My only real memories of actual work from that boutique were untangling the God damn necklaces, which TRUST me was an 8 hour task. Mainly, though, we dusted the room for the 40th time and gossiped about senseless things like boyfriends that wouldn’t hurry up and propose already! (Sean did two and a half years later.)

I met my best friend there, unexpectedly. I remember meeting her and thinking she was way too cool for me. She’s stunning, hip, knows how to style a French tuck, and she seemed to rule the boutique in a way that I couldn’t ever match. The actual manager hated it too, always trying to undermine her to appear superior. None of us could live up to the grace and beauty that was Rochelle.

We bonded over our hatred for retail and our love for One Direction and YouTube and conspiracy theories, and I’m so so glad we did. I also met at least three of my other best friends as an extension, and if any of you are reading this, I love you all.

I took up writing again in 2014. First, little blog pieces, like I mentioned before. I wrote about my favorite products and all the places I wanted to visit in Oregon (some of them, I still haven’t crossed off my list. Sean? Get the car!). But then, something in me whispered that I needed to try creative writing again. I don’t think I’d written a story for years, not since freshman year of college when I’d write dramatic love stories about the boys I had crushes on. (Do you remember that, Aubrie? So embarrassing!)

So I sat down, the day after Christmas, at my grandma’s countertop, and I decided to start writing a tiny piece of fiction every single day for a year. That was my goal, just a year. Until I couldn’t stop. I think I did just over 550 days, and even then, I never thought that someday I’d call myself a “writer”. I was still working retail, planning on social media management and fashion blogging, at a different boutique and a different stage in my life. But that’s a story for another time.

I guess the point of all this, the reminiscing and nostalgia, is that if I could go back and pay that girl a visit, walk into that store and help her untangle those necklaces, I’d tell her her colored mascara is fierce and that she should keep at it. I’d tell her that someday, she would laugh at all of the drama from back home. I’d tell her that she’d move on to bigger and better jobs, and she’d kick ass at them until she realized her true calling. I’d tell her to keep writing because nothing will make her happier. I’d tell her to buy less furniture, because she’s going to be in that apartment too damn long.

But mostly, I’d tell her that time moves on and people change and interests change and the weather changes, so just have a total blast with everything you’re doing right now, in the moment. I want to look back in another 7 years with twice the amount of fondness, knowing that I was struggling with silly, minute qualms that won’t matter then. Knowing how much I’ve grown and learned and shaped, I can’t wait to see how much I’ll grow and learn and shape in the future.

Although, I do hope, in 7 years, I’m still wearing strictly black and white. Hahaha!

What were you wearing in 2014? It’s important I know.

Thank you so much for sticking around all of these years and putting up with me and supporting me. And thank you, as always, for reading xo

#writeblr #time capsule #end of an era #nostalgia post #looking back #seven years ago #2014

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ask-de-writer · 4 years ago

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SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : Part 25 of 83 : World of Sea

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

Part 25 of 83

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

written 2007

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story? Read from the beginning. PART 1 is here

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Mord breathed a huge sigh of relief. Sarfin held up his hands, and the Longin’s Captain held his thanks.

“Not done yet. I know that some sailors have been telling him tales about what happened to the last two who were cast off, because he asked me if it was true that they drowned when the rafts were stored back on the bottom. I had to say yes.

“If you give the boat and all to the fleet, to give him, then when he sees where it came from, perhaps he’ll know he’s not been wholly abandoned.

“If you feel that you can’t do that because of the ‘your boats’ provision, the fleet can provide it all, but you’ll have to pay for it.”

Mord felt some measure of peace settle over him. “A good boat and all that is necessary will be delivered to the Dorton in two, or at most, three hours.”

Barad stood, delighted that, for once, all had gone as he planned. Mord pointed to him. “I cannot tell you how relieved I am to see a solution to this problem. The Grandalor stands ready to help now that I can see a way clear to do so. I will give a sun cooker and good pots to help save this young man who’s so important to you.”

Mord could only accept. It triggered a breaking wave of similar contributions. The water maker, blankets, fishing gear, including a small drag net that could be used while under way, even the provisions, and candle-lanterns with candles. All that Mord could do was accept. As Barad intended, all of the mixed gifts would serve to hide the origins of Silor’s help. The Council broke up. Relieved Captains went to their errands of mercy.

The shadows were beginning to lengthen as Silor, arms aching from being tied, watched a pile of supplies being made at the western boat landing area of the market rafts. Sailors that he recognized as being from the Dorton delivered a day-cabin fishing boat and began to load and stow the pile of things in an organized and efficient way. The little boat was being fitted for a long journey.

Captain Sarfin approached over the slightly rolling deck of the raft, and spoke to him. “Silor, lad, you ran aground so hard that you may never float on the safety of water again, but we are going to give you the chance.” Hope flared within him. I’m going to the Dorton! thought Silor as Sarfin cut his bonds with a Strong Skin tooth knife.

His hopes were dashed by the next words that he heard. Sarfin was pointing at the boat that he’d just watch get fitted out. “You’ve spoiled things here so bad that no ship will take a chance on you. The Council, however, agreed that you have done nothing to die for, unlike those two murderers before you. The Pallant fleet is about a thousand miles west. This boat and its equipment ought to get you a berth, with a clean parchment. If you are not a fool there, as you were here, you should be alright. If you are seen in these waters again, I am afraid it will not go so well for you.”

Sarfin carried Silor’s duffel, while Silor massaged the circulation back into his arms. They went to the boat. The market crowds pulled back around them, giving them space. As if I have the fire-cough, Silor thought.

Just then Kurin ran up. “Captain Sarfin, I just finished this. It is for you. I would appreciate it, if it you gave it to Silor before he goes. Thank you.” She turned on heel and ran, white hair blowing back in the wind, tears on her cheeks. She could not outrun the sorrow of losing yet another that she had known all of her young life. Even if he had not been the best friend, he had been there, a shipmate. It left a hole that hurt.

Kurin had put a knife into Sarfin’s hands, The handle, sticking up from the scabbard, was made of laminations of four different colors of nacreous shell, shaped to fit the hand perfectly and glowing with purples, reds, blues and greens in the late afternoon sun. A dot of ivory at the end of the handle showed that the tang ran the full length of the handle, making it as strong as it could be. The scabbard was of hard, pebbly, armor-scaled Wing Ray hide, finished to a high polish. When he pulled the blade out of the scabbard, it was the slightly curved, fourteen inch, naturally serrated fang of a large Wing Ray. It was the hardest, toughest material known for knives, and honed to a razor edge. It was scrimshawed with a scene of the Great Sea Dragon, Blind Mecat, helping the First Folk to build the First True Ship. On the other side was a two part scene. The first half showed Cat, in human form, preparing to dive from the Wedding Rafts, with the Dragon Moons overhead and the Great Sea Dragon, Dark Iren, waiting while his Orca Whales sported about the rafts. The second part of the scene was the same rafts and moons, but two Great Sea Dragons, the black Dark Iren, and the white Blind Mecat side by side, Orcas leaping about them.

“If you give me that,” said Silor, in a rage, “will throw it overboard! I don’t want anything that Dragon-witch has made! She’s the only reason that all this has happened to me!” His eyes were wild and there was spittle flying from his mouth as he finished. A fair sized crowd had gathered, drawn by his outburst.

Sarfin looked at him sadly. “Son, if you think that, you have run hard aground on the reef of folly and are sinking fast, but you won’t drown. Your wits are so far onto dry land that they will never see safe water again. This knife would have bought you a fleet of boats such as this, with all the gear thrown in. I’ll give it back to her. Somehow.” He heaved a sigh, and put Silor’s duffel into the boat.

As Silor got into the boat, Sarfin added, “If you really don’t want anything from Kurin then step over the side and swim. She asked Captain Mord to do something. He pulled together the Council that got you this.” He gestured at the boat.

Casting off the stern line and then the bow line, he pushed the boat free of the docking area and said, “Sail west, young man.”

One of Sarfin’s aides found him and handed him a note, explaining, “The Grandalor is going to test some new sails and rigging. They plan to sail south until moons-fall and then return. With this easterly breeze, they should have a simple reach each way. It’s just a confirmation. Captain Barad told me about it a little before this Council meeting.”

Sarfin read it, nodded, initialed it and handed it back. “File it. It’s not important. Oh, reminds me, enter this into the ledger and reserve the main square for noon, two days hence. The Grandalor’s crew wants to do something in public.” He gave his aide a small fistful of scrip.

Silor’s little boat could be seen making good time, straight west, toward the lowering sun. The sails of the Grandalor could be seen, through the multitude of masts, yards and rigging between, going away, straight south.

Chapter 8: Visits

Kurin, with the permission of Captain Mord, went to spend the night aboard the Dark Dragon. There, she got a small surprise. She found the fierce Captain Sula sitting cross-legged on a cushion in a cabin hung with tapestries and woven decorations. Like most of the crewmen and women that Kurin had seen when she came aboard, Sula was wearing a light colored hood whose eye openings seemed molded to her face, keeping them perfectly aligned. A small bump in the fabric showed Kurin that Sula’s tongue was in the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on a piece of Longin Lace, making careful notes as she tried to unravel it.

Kurin couldn’t help herself. She giggled. “You can’t do it that way. Hundreds of expert weavers have tried, and failed for something like fifteen Gatherings. Besides, that is the Iren’s Orca pattern, absolutely the nastiest one that I make.”

Sula looked up, startled, “You make this? I am the head of the Corlis fleet Weaver’s Guild, and I am amazed by it. We have nothing similar. How do you keep all of the different spacings so neatly?”

“I will show you. There are two rules. One, don’t let anyone in the Naral fleet find out how you do it and two, call what I show you, and any other patterns made by the same tools and methods, Longin Lace. Cat taught me to make it, and I don’t share it out to just anyone. In our Weaving Shop, only people who won’t marry off the Longin are taught how to make it.”

“I am honored,” said Sula, bowing her head, hands together, fingers pointing down. “Why do you chose me?”

“You are strong, in more than muscle, and not afraid to be a weaver too. You remind me of Cat. She would do any task that needed doing. Also, I want you to show me your ship, so that I can learn how it was made. I have never seen a catamaran ship before.”

“I will be delighted to show you my ship. I am proud of the Dark Dragon and would have shown you without the incentive of Longin Lace or tales of Mecat. — — So the Dragon herself showed you how to make lace?”

“That and much else. As I told you and Huld, she was my mentor for most of a Gathering.”

“So, what do we need to make this lace?” asked Sula, leaning back on a large cushion, exposing the odd scabbard on her right leg to Kurin’s view. It was still filled by the strange looking ax that Kurin had seen earlier. “I will have it brought, bought or made.”

“You will need a dozen very small netting needles, — I will show you the pattern — a cushion, firm, with a hard back on one side, longer than it is wide, a lot of bone pins, fine and polished, and writing skin —” The two women put their heads together and began to work, the sea Captain learning from the child. As they worked, Kurin told Sula of her time with Cat and what she had seen and heard. Sula listened intently.

“Sula,” asked Kurin, as they took a break to stretch fingers, stiff from the lace-work, “If you came all this way to hear these things, shouldn’t you write them down?”

“Huld does write what you say as you say it,” said Captain Sula, regarding Kurin with curiosity. “I have no need to do so. What you say is word perfect in my memory. I have never been able to forget anything that I see or hear. It is one reason why the Corlis fleet chose me to come. I will write it all down, never fear.”

Kurin nodded acceptance of Sula’s statement and asked a question that was bothering her from the time that she had seen the young sailor Lenhe respond so violently to the attempt to unmask her. “Sula, how violent are your people? You go armed everywhere and your sailors are either armed or have several empty scabbards. I saw a sailor of yours named Lenhe beat up a man far bigger than herself. He was just playing about at grabbing her mask and if she’d had her ax in the scabbard, I think that she would have killed him.”

Sula regarded Kurin carefully for a moment before replying, “I heard about that. Mistress of Armory Culark told me about it. Lenhe was fully justified in her defense against face rape but should not have gone so far out of control. She is only a tailor’s apprentice, not some skilled warrior. To any of the Winternight born, face rape is one of the few things that we will kill to prevent.

“To answer your question though, we are not a violent people. We have had to defend our host fleet in three unprovoked wars, so we do train and keep our edge. We also follow the Meditations of Dark Iren to find and hold our inner peace.”

Kurin looked up sharply at Sula and said, “You worship Dark Iren, the Dragon of Death?”

Sula made a sign in front of her face and told Kurin, “That was a smile. No, we do not worship the Dragon of Death. We follow the Meditations of the Dragon of Life. Dark Iren kills nothing but the fish that he eats. His task is to take our lives and reweave them into the web of all life on Sea. Another time I will be happy to tell you more.

“I spent the afternoon inquiring about you. You are something of a legend, yourself. You learn new things at a prodigious rate. Every Craft aboard the Longin would be willing to have you as an apprentice. Several, Clard, Master of Drums, Cirde, Master Weaver, Mistress Daeron of the Rope Walk and Juris, Master Boat-builder, have said that you are fully qualified in their Crafts.

“I wonder — Do you ever forget what you hear or see?”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS NEXT==>

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea

#SEA DRAGON’S GIFT #Part 25 of 83 #World of Sea #Written by De Writer

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robinruns · 6 years ago

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TW: disordered eating, vomiting, seasonal depression

In December 2014 I started at my current job. This job gives a $100 bonus every Christmas season and so the night I got that check I promptly went to the bank, deposited it and went straight to target and bought my first fitbit.

At that point I had run my first 5k but was struggling to lose the 60 extra pounds I had on my body.

I started tracking my intake via the app which was very eye opening. I didn't realize how much I really was taking in, but with that knowledge I was able to adjust.

Weight loss was more of a weekday thing. When my boyfriend would come over, or I'd go visit him, I just ate whatever and I was certainly not working out on the weekend.

This changed when I moved in with my boyfriend and started training for my first 10k in October 2015. I was totally in control of my eating, as opposed to when I was living with my friend Molly but still going to my parent's home for dinner most nights since I was in town still.

I just kept at it and kept at it and then I was out of the overweight BMI category by mid-November 2015. I kept up the good eating habits and set my sights on the half marathon.

Somewhere in I wanna say September 2016 things got fucked up.

I started binge eating. The harder I tried to control myself the harder something in me fought back and I had to stop buying certain food items just so I couldn't binge on them.

The night before the Zoo Run Run in 2016 I ate so many snacks and then dinner on top of that I got sick. I didn't force myself to throw up, I couldn't help it. I almost did the same at my future cousin's bridal shower, although I never for sick, but I ruined the trip for myself.

When I was marathon training in spring 2017 I had always heard it's impossible to lose weight marathon training. I was so paranoid that I'd gain weight I didn't properly fuel for the training or the race. I knew how important it was to train with your fuel strategy, but I couldn't bring myself to do it until I got to my last couple very long runs. I know it impacted my race. I wasn't trained right at all.

Cut to 2018. I wanted to run a 25 minute 5k, I wanted to run a sub 2 hour half, I wanted new PRs across the board and I wanted to win age groups.

So I spent my spring training upper body and phoning in my runs. I let my weight go from what I thought was too high at the mid 150s, into the 160s.

I knew I wanted to lose weight before I went to California. I didn't. I continued on the bizarre binging cycles that I always found myself in.

I knew that I wanted to lose weight to run better this fall when I was really going hard at my sub 2 hour goal. I know how I felt when I was down a little bit and how much easier it felt. I knew how it felt to run with my weight up. Heavy. Slow. Angry with myself.

I am at least past the neurosis of being "the healthy girl" at work, but now it's to the point where I've swung too far back the other way. I've over corrected too far. I'm to the point of saying eh fuck it. I hated how my coworkers would talk about healthy and unhealthy food. Looking back it was because even though I could easily identify that what they were saying wasn't coming from a healthy relationship with food, where I was at wasn't either.

So where am I at now?

This week I've struggled. Hard. I went way hard on Monday and Tuesday with eating little, too little, and then not seeing what I thought I should have seen on the scale on Wednesday I swung way back the other way. Of course the office kitchen was filled to the rafters with things like cookies, chocolates, donuts, whatever. Wednesday I even skipped the gym. Thursday and Friday were no better, but I forced myself to go to the gym on Friday.

My environment reflected the low point I was wallowing. Our bedroom floor was a mess, our kitchen was a mess. I am a mess. I’m blaming it on some kind of seasonal depression thing since it’s only recently started with the nights getting quite long and I do feel better on sunny days. It makes me kinda mad though because I love winter, I love the cozy dark nights. But my brain doesn’t.

I've felt like a fraud for a while now in the "fitblr" community. That's why I've been distracting myself with everything else. I don't have goals for next year because I'm at a point of being like "can I even really achieve this? What I'd I don't? What do I need to get myself back to my old self?"

I don't want to go in to my ideas for next year on this post. I'm intentionally posting it late on a holiday weekend in hopes no will see it , but I still wanted to get it up here. I know I need accountability. If you read this far, maybe you care enough to help me with that? Please don't feel like you have to, especially if you're in a difficult place as well.

#personal #tw: disordered eating #tw: vomiting #tw: seasonal depression #please don't feel like you need to read this #it's so redundant from so many other posts I've made

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thepropertylovers · 6 years ago

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Feature Friday with Corey & Dan Prince

Happy Friday! This week’s Feature Friday is a married couple who love the life they share together in their upstate NY town. They discuss how a break years ago saved their relationship, how easy it was to decide who’s name to take, and a certain obsession with a certain Queen B. These guys seem like they would be a blast to hang out with, and we think you’ll agree. Take a look below to see what we mean…

Where are you from? Corey: I am from a little town in Upstate New York called Hoosick Falls lived there until I was 6 then moved to Hendersonville TN until I was 10 then moved to Ohio until I was 15 and back to good ol’ Hoosick Falls and have been in New York ever since.

Dan: I grew up in a town just outside of Albany, called Colonie New York and have lived there my whole life.

Where do you live? We bought our first house together last August in one of our favorite places Troy, NY. Its like a mini Brooklyn in Upstate. Cute shops, and wine bars, and restaraunts. Always something new going on from farmers markets and summer concerts but somewhere that’s just nice to walk around and see the buildings and history.

Instagram handle: Corey: @CORBOR2, Dan: @dprince2

Age: Corey: 26, Dan: 27

Where is your favorite place you’ve ever travelled to and why? Corey: This is tough. Before Dan I never travelled. The furthest I had gone was Maine and Florida. When we first met Dan begged me to go on a cruise and I was in school at the time, but I went and realized there is much more to the world than both Maine and Florida. But my favorite place is called Shorelands Guest Resort in Kennebunkport Maine, it’s just a little place with cute cottages that has bikes that you can take down a road with horses on the way and to a very secluded beach. I have always just felt so relaxed and collected there.

With Dan being a travel agent on the side of his full-time job we are always looking to go new places and see new things so maybe our favorite place is still out there. A lot of the world to see!

Dan: Playa Mujeres, Mexico. Rightfully so my favorite destination was where we went on our honeymoon. I am an independent travel agent and was always searching for the perfect place, but it was a task to find a gay friendly resort. The Finest Resort by Excellence was everything we wanted. Playa Mujeres is just north of Cancun. It was relaxing we met another couple Liz and Tina there and got invited to their wedding earlier in October. We couldn’t go but the memories there and the treatment and relaxation made it my absolute most favorite place.

How did you two meet? Oh goodness, well I was talking to his best friend at the time, we hadn’t met but once before that but then things didn’t work out with him and then Dan and I were talking to the same person not knowing it and then we realized, and he apologized for talking to the same person I was. It wasn’t long after that he asked me to a movie and the rest is history!

Who proposed to whom? Corey: We always planned a getaway for my Mimi and Aunt’s birthday and we went to Old Orchard Beach in Maine in 2015. We told Dan’s family about it and so by the time we were actually booked we had about 20-25 family members and friends on this trip and it was my Aunt and Uncle’s 17th wedding anniversary and a few birthdays so we got some champagne and went out to the beach to do a cheers and Dan was saying the cheers and then he stopped and was like I also have another cheers I would like to do and he pulled his shirt off to reveal another shirt that said Feyonce got down on his knee and asked me to marry him.

Of course, I said yes!

The next year we planned a trip to Kennebunkport and we took a trip back to the beach that we got engaged at with a smaller group but in the same spot a year later I proposed to him 😊

How did you decide who's name to take? Oh, that was a no brainer. Dan’s last name was just easier, Prince. My last name just wouldn’t have worked. I don’t think it was even a thought of like hyphenating or him taking my last name and who doesn’t want to be a Prince?

You two took a break in 2014. What happened? Corey: I was so young when we met in 2011 and I was starting to not feel a connection or feel happy so as hard as it was for both of us I needed to make sure that this is what I wanted. it was about a month a half that we weren’t together still would talk occasionally. We met one day for a “first date” and opened about why we felt certain ways and made a pact to always be forward, honest, and not let feelings build up. It was rough. That’s never an easy thing to go through and we worked together and got through it and here we are living a beautiful imperfectly perfect life together.

What did you learn from the break? Corey: That communication is key. That things are not always rainbows and glitter. Relationships take work and compromise. It gave us a new start to learn about each other and build in new ways.

Dan: A break in a relationship can sometimes save it and can lead to a more fulfilling relationship.’ While a break doesn’t always prove to be a good thing, it can work to help you discover what you really want. If you’re questioning taking a break from your relationship, don’t be put off by the fact it may mean the end. Because it may also mean the beginning of getting your relationship back to the way it should be.

Tell us about the wedding! (click here to see their wedding pictures) The wedding! With keeping the theme of Dan’s last name, we went with The Royal Wedding theme. We were looking for every way to take a traditional wedding and flip it. We had looked at multiple castles in New York and Vermont and reached out to them to check availability and take tours. We ended up looking at Highlands Castle in Bolton Landing New York. Absolutely stunning, we called, and we had too many people for there, so he said, I have a friend in Altamont who owns a castle… don’t we all? So, we found Breitenbach Castle. The owner was an artist Thomas Breitenbach who built the castle from the ground up out of the rock from his land. Very talented. So, we did it. booked it in 2015 and chose the date of 9/9/17. We loved every aspect of planning. We had so much time to do it the right way where we didn’t put any stress on ourselves to plan something on a large scale in a short amount of time. I pitched the idea to Dan about doing a surprise wedding. Have the guests not know where they are going, give them the address on the invitation to the caterer’s venue and hotel where our room block was. We rented trolleys and had everyone shuttled in to the castle. It was a gamble. But it left everyone trying to figure it out for 2 years only like 10 people knew. It was magical. We just had the best day. The weather cleared up right around our ceremony, our amazing 18 groomsmaids, friends, and family all together celebrating love just made us want to go back and restart the minute it was over.

What is your favorite thing about one another? Corey: This is gonna sound so cliché, but Dan is truly one of a kind. He is so handsome, He is so passionate about everything he touches or does. He is organized. He is so responsible in every aspect. He supports my Beyoncé obsession. He just wants the best of life. I am honestly and truly very lucky that I get to call such a genuine, true human being my husband. I could go on…and on.

Dan: We both share a passion for an alternative life. We are happy homeowners and are proud parents to our wonderful chocolate lab named Blue Ivy Prince! We are great at compromising with decisions. Not all the time! But most of the times. We both have the want to see what the world has to offer. Our home is our pride and joy. Constantly making updates, as you know it never ends. Although we share a lot in common Corey has this crazy Beyoncé obsession, the first thing he does in the morning is google her to make sure she didn’t drop an album or a new picture or something while he was asleep. and I am completely opposite country music is my lane. I always tell him all my country concerts for a summer would take 2 years to pay for his one Beyoncé ticket. He usually says, “look at who we are talking about here sir”. Our differences set us apart but make for a great team that will just go with the flow. He is kind, caring, supportive, and compassionate. What more can you want?

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emma-what-son · 6 years ago

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Anniversary Month - A Himmmm Blind Item

If you’re familiar with the CDAN blog, then you’ll know that Enty isn’t the only one who posts there. There’s also a guy who goes by the alias Himmmm who is an industry insider. This person doesn’t just write short blind item’s, but long articles exposing people. Some think it’s an actor. Some even thought that it was Robert Downey Jr, who denied it. He recently wrote another post and Emma was mentioned in it.

This is a tough one to write, simply for the challenge of not giving it away and damaging anything before it happens. It's amazing it has been kept this quiet for so long, but I'm sure it'll leak out after the Oscars. Anything this big is bound to. Like the old saying goes: "If you want to keep a secret between three people in Hollywood – two of them better be dead". No, there's no murders or deaths surrounding this film, yet. But the story it is based on sure had plenty. What I'm talking about is a movie. A big movie that will be one of those rarities that is both Oscar lure and box office success. A+ list all the way, big budgets, big talent, and every A+ list actress/actor in the industry wanting to be a part of it. The secrecy around it is unlike anything in history. They're not even using a fake name as cover, it's totally off-book. Right now, they have more attorneys involved in this project than filmmakers, crew, or elements. Maybe the first time in history a Hollywood studio has employed publicists to PREVENT people from knowing about it. They even hired social media ninjas to comb the internet to shoot down and remove mentions of it. I even wonder if it'll stay long on CDAN. I've not seen this much secrecy on a film since Jurassic Park. Even Avengers, or Star Wars Force Awakens wasn't this paranoid. So why all the fuss?

It's a porno. Yep. Uh-huh. A porno. Okay, to be fair – it's about a porno star, not an actual porno. So if you're thinking Boogie Nights or those Deep Throat – Linda Lovelace films, you're asking: So what? What's the big deal? They even have The Deuce on HBO. Why so secretive? Because comparing this film project to those is like comparing Plan 9 From Outer Space or Lost In Space to the entire Star Wars saga or Avatar. Point is that this project is so huge and prestigious that it makes the others look like a "Skin-emax" soft core indie film. Mostly though, it is because in the current social/scandal climate surrounding Hollywood these days they put the lock-down on this project for good reason. They don't want leaks leading to people accusing the filmmakers of being tone-deaf insensitive; and they also absolutely do not want to get flooded by every perv in Hollywood trying to get a part or be part of it. A single casting couch rumor on this project would torpedo it. So they've gone to insane lengths to protect it. Not long ago, this (disgraced A list director/Brett Ratner) was set to do a big-budget adult-themed project (about a permanent A list celebrity/Hefner Film) that got torpedoed over his abuse accusations. When a studio already has tens of millions sunk in a project, they cannot let that happen. Especially in high-dollar ironclad play-or-pay deals (not to be confused with pay-for-play, tit-for-tat, barter, couching, or land yachting). It's like this: This movie is about one very specific female actress who was known mainly in the 1980s era of porn. It is a biopic in that sense. But her fame was such in her time that she crossed over to more mainstream top-shelf publications, and even television interviews. Possibly the most beautiful all-American girl next door to ever have a hardcore career. If you're thinking it is (former underage porn star/Traci Lords) you would be wrong. But she's a featured character in it too. Thing is, the star of the story disappeared. Vanished into thin air after her last film. Not vanished dead, because she went on to have a different life. She went to law school, became an attorney, changed her name and had a nice family. Typical soccer mom, Sunday-school teacher, holly homemaker type. Until a few years ago when she was contacted by people who represented the last big mafia family. They were looking to sell their holdings in porn to a legit media company for big bucks. Problem is, she was one of their most popular stars and she had a unique contract in her day (which allegedly she co-wrote herself back then with her law professor). She quit and vanished from porn due to the mob taking over her porn studio, and killing many of the owners of it. Years later, turns out she was owed millions in back royalties – and her contract was still legally enforceable. The legit media buyers wouldn't proceed without her signature on a new contract; or her accepting a settlement; or…her death certificate. Yep. The mob had to either pay her or kill her. Which was tricky to do, because even if they found her – the FBI still wanted to bring her in as a witness against the mob hits of her bosses. Then it got ugly for her, and turned into quite a ride. Turns out, she lived and prevailed. Using her brilliance instead of her body. But it was one hell of a bumpy ride. Best of all? It was ALL TRUE. It resulted in the FBI actually getting plea deals with mobsters; clearing 30 year-old mob hit murders; and solving money laundering cases worth tons of money globally. The legit media company got the old porn library titles and reaped a billion from it. And it all really happened. She also got her money, and peace. It's one of the best scripts to come through Hollywood in decades, and has an amazing role for the lead actress. Best of all it includes life rights, and the lady ex-porn star's willingness to promote it. It is a package that includes documentaries, media stories, and specials. The studio that bought it agreed to use cross-promotion synergy from many of their media divisions to tell her story. In any era of the entertainment industry it would be a welcome change for such great material and a big project. But, as you all know – this isn't any era. It is a very sensitive era, especially telling women's stories, porn stories, and having lots of sex and nudity on a project. If the project isn't done right, in the right tone with the right people? It'll be destroyed before it ever opens purely by social media, rumors, and speculations from knee-jerkers who will attack it without any idea of it. That has happened or nearly happened many times in the past. So the conglomerate/studio who is producing it has set up a massive legal, security, and IT security team that would rival a government's. Everything to do with the project is kept on off-line isolated secure computers. Nothing is allowed to be taken in, or out. They do not even let the team working on the movie bring in mobile phones or devices. An entire 25% of the studio's legal staff are devoted to this one project. Clearing rights, contracts, and mostly NDA's that would make an intelligence agency jealous. The punishment for violation by actors? So severe and massive that it would basically blacklist and possibly bankrupt not just the actor, but their agents and managers. It's that extreme. But few would risk that anyway, since even (permanent A list mostly movie actress/Meryl Streep) has supposedly offered to do a small role in the project for scale just to be part of it. Somehow, I don't think they want her for the lead. Of course, nothing is totally foolproof or totally private. When the studio (they have wide ranging entertainment industries/Warner) first pre-emptively gobbled up the rights to it a year ago, they originally did it with this star (disgraced former A list mostly movie actor/Kevin Space) in mind for the older male lead. Whoops. Then when this company (disgraced A list director's company/Ratpac Dune) got slammed in scandal, the studio had to find a quick co-financing partner. Whoops again. So they shared the project with a few select investors. They too were subject to the legal lockdown but the studio needs them more than they need the studio, so not much threat there. Interestingly, one investor stepped right up and wrote the studio a blank check because the project is so good. Recently, the investor swallowed up the entire project, buying the rights from the studio, and has threatened to take it to (a studio that owns a theme park/Universal) is this studio doesn't shape up. The producers got the best director (A lister who had a very good 2017/Christopher Nolan) for this project. As picky as he is, he jumped at this project. He's not known for his heartfelt movies, but with this script and his recent hit (Dunkirk) he's given wide berth. He's one of the few that could be trusted with this material, and do it proper without risk of any problems derailing it. The studio used this project as bait to try and lure him to other projects (his old project/Batman), but he won't commit to those. Meanwhile, the studio and director have held semi-formal casting sessions very, very, very secretly. Every actress is told to bring an attorney or manager; a studio attorney is present; a female casting director; and every meeting is video recorded. All because of the "casting couch" temptations – not by the director, but by eager actresses. Also due to the adult nature of the story, and the fact that it will have reams of nudity and sex. This will not be one of those PG-13 movies about sex, it'll be very true to the script. This actress (A list mostly movie actress who worked with the director before/Ane Hathaway) already said she'd do anything for the lead; as did (foreign born A- list mostly movie actress/Marion Cotillard), and (foreign born B+ list mostly movie actress who was barely old enough to drive when that gross French actor had sex with her before casting her/Melanie Laurent), and (A+ list mostly movie actress who is an Oscar winner/nominee/Jennifer Lawrence), and (A list mostly movie actress who is an Oscar winner/nominee/Jessica Chastain). It's crazy, but only one of those even has a shot at the lead. Even (former A+ list mostly movie actress/America's sweetheart/Sandra Bullock) and (foreign born A- list mostly movie actress who had a franchise back in the day and could use a career boost/Emma Watson) have told their agents to get them auditions. Actresses who "never read" or audition are jumping at it. These actresses are offering to work for scale, do anything required onscreen, and sign unprecedented promotion agreements. This actress (foreign born A list mostly movie actress who is a recent Oscar nominee/Margot Robbie) has already auditioned for a supporting role. Funny enough, this actress (former A list singer/number one box office star in a different country/Jessica Simpson) auditioned for the same role. I don't think it'll be a fair fight to see who wins that one although I can see the box-office appeal of the latter's scenes being a big draw. I've heard (A-/B+ list mostly movie actress who was married to a celebrity offspring/Diane Lane) has given one of the best reads thus far. For male leads, this actor (foreign born A+ list mostly movie actor/Christian Bale) has said he too would waive his fee, and possibly return to a franchise for the studio. Guess he's getting pumped up for it. Meanwhile, it's said (permanent A list mostly movie actor who started in television and had a nice run there/George Clooney), and (permanent A list mostly movie actor despite his relatively young age/Leonardo DiCaprio), and this actor (permanent A list mostly movie actor who has made a ton of money in a superhero franchise/Robert Downey Jr.) have all agreed to audition and read. I cannot tell you how unusual that is. It is one of the rare times lately when the material really seems to be king (and not how many toys you can sell – although toys related to this movie sure wouldn't be sold in Wal-Mart). During the hoopla around the Golden Globes, many A+ listers were fighting the urge to discuss the project though they knew the others knew. Sort of like a secret club. Many actresses used it as a cover story to happen to be in town at the same time auditions were ongoing. Likewise, during the coming Oscars week, the director and studio will be wrapping up major casting under the same cover of people all being in town. Yes, it is that big of a deal. I personally cannot wait, and hope it comes off without a hitch. We probably won't have to wait too long. Any project with that much heat will get a quick greenlight. That's the sexiest thing of all. Especially if you're producing it.

#blind item

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tolkien-fandom-history · 6 years ago

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Interview with Angela P. Nicholas--author of "Aragorn: J.R.R. Tolkien's Undervalued Hero"

We were very excited to have the opportunity to interview author Angela P. Nicholas. Her book "Aragorn: J.R.R. Tolkien's Undervalued Hero" is an extremely detailed, in depth examination of Tolkien's Aragorn--his life, his relationships, his achievements, his skills, and his personality. It is a very worthwhile addition to any Tolkien library. She has some fascinating insights into Aragorn, book vs movie representations of the character, thoughts on the upcoming Amazon series and fan fiction as part of the Tolkien fandom. Hope you enjoy reading it!

1. How did you first become interested in Tolkien?

Answer:

Although The Lord of the Rings was very much in fashion during my student days in the late sixties and early seventies I wasn't interested in it at that stage – probably because I didn't tend to follow fashions! It was not until a few years later, in 1973, that a friend persuaded me to read it. He stressed that it would be a good idea to read The Hobbit first and promised me that I was "in for a treat". I was hooked immediately and when I got together with my future husband soon afterwards I wasted no time in introducing him to Tolkien's works as well! I re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings several times during the seventies and bought The Silmarillion as soon as it was published in 1977. Further readings have followed since, especially while working on Aragorn, extending to Unfinished Tales, the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth and Tolkien's Letters as well.*

2. Aside from reading the books, have you had any other immersion in the Tolkien fandom? Online, through societies, other venues?

Answer:

My Tolkien-related activities include membership of the Tolkien Society since 2005, leading to attendance at Oxonmoot (most years) plus a number of AGMs, the occasional seminar and the event in Loughborough in 2012. I've contributed several articles to Amon Hen and also gave a talk about Aragorn at Oxonmoot a few years ago. In addition I attend meetings of my local smial (Southfarthing) which is actually a Tolkien Reading Group.

3. There are so many richly written, deeply compelling characters in Tolkien. How did you decide to focus on Aragorn?

Answer:

There wasn't really any decision to make, as right from the start I found Aragorn the most complex and appealing character in the book. Every time I re-read The Lord of the Rings - including delving into the Appendices - I found new depths to his character and significance.

4. What prompted you to write this book? How did the impetus to write about him, in such rich detail, come about?

Answer:

The actual impetus came from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. Although I enjoyed his portrayal of Aragorn in some ways, it was clear that there were significant differences between the film and book versions of the character. For my own satisfaction I decided to re-discover Tolkien's Aragorn by studying all the Middle-earth writings and making detailed notes on anything of interest. I did not, at that stage, see myself actually writing a book.

5. Did you initially plan such an exhaustive and detailed study of this character, when you first decided to write the book?

Answer:

No, I didn't envisage anything so detailed. It just got out of hand: the more notes I made the more ideas I had and the thing just grew exponentially!

6. The title makes use of the word ‘undervalued’—how do you define that in terms of Aragorn and how did you come to associate that word with him?

Answer:

While studying Aragorn it became clear to me that his role in the story is a lot more significant than is immediately apparent. This is partly because the book is “hobbito-centric”, to use Tolkien's own word [see end of Letter 181 in The Letters of J R R Tolkien edited by Humphrey Carpenter], so is largely written from the hobbit viewpoint. For this reason Aragorn's ancestry and earlier life are only described in the Appendices, which not everyone reads. Thus his deeds - and their significance - are often overlooked, causing him and his role to be undervalued. Chapter 1.5 of my book in particular aims to address this problem by concentrating on the story of The Lord of the Rings from Aragorn's point of view. He does many crucial things behind the scenes, for example: the lengthy search for Gollum; standing in for Gandalf as shown by the secret vigil he conducts over Frodo during the months before the latter's departure from the Shire; and - the most significant achievement - confronting Sauron in the Palantír of Orthanc thus implying that he himself has the Ring and so diverting Sauron's attention away from Frodo.

7. If you were to consider writing a similar book about another character from Tolkien’s legendarium who would you choose to focus on?

Answer:

I find Finrod Felagund, Galadriel and Elrond interesting, especially in the light of their impact on Aragorn and his ancestry. Among the hobbits, Merry Brandybuck is rather appealing. However I have to say that I am not planning to do another book on this scale!

8. What were your thoughts on the portrayal of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies?

Answer:

Given “book” Aragorn's lengthy struggle to regain the kingships of Arnor and Gondor and to be deemed worthy of marrying his beloved Arwen, it was extremely disappointing to be presented with the image of “Aragorn the reluctant king” who breaks off his engagement so Arwen can sail west.

In general I felt there was too much emphasis on Aragorn as a fighter, along with almost total neglect of his formidable healing skills, impressive foresight and knowledge of history and lore.

Another great disappointment was the omission of the challenge to Sauron in the Orthanc Stone. Yes, this incident was included in the extended version of The Return of the King, but it appeared in the wrong place and also gave the impression that Aragorn lost the confrontation. (The credit for seeing the enemy's plans in the Stone was actually given to Pippin!)

In addition I found the beheading of the Mouth of Sauron particularly disturbing.

9. Did you find Viggo Mortensen believable and appealing as Aragorn?

Answer:

In spite of my answer to the previous question I liked Viggo Mortensen's performance. He did actually look something like my image of Aragorn and he seemed to capture the sadness, remoteness, physical courage and protectiveness I associate with the character. Basically I thought that Mortensen did very well with the part he was given to play - but the part was not that of Tolkien's Aragorn!

10. Amazon has bought the rights to the appendices of the Lord of the Rings and is planning a 5 part series. Rumor has it that the first season will focus on young Aragorn. What do you hope to see in this adaptation and are there any particular incidents/scenes/events that you think merit particular attention or inclusion?

Answer: The following seem to me to be important:

- Putting Aragorn's early life in the context of “Estel”, the Hope of the Dúnedain, who has been prophesied to be the one who will atone for Isildur's failure to destroy the Ring, and who will restore the kingship of Men.

- Some emphasis on his family members: Ivorwen, Dírhael, Gilraen, the death of Arathorn, subsequent fostering by Elrond, and training by Elladan and Elrohir. Some indication of the close relationship with his foster-father would be good: Elrond loved Aragorn as much as his own children but this was not made apparent in the Peter Jackson films.

- The scene when Elrond tells the 20-year-old Aragorn his true identity.

- First meeting with Arwen

- Friendship with Gandalf from age 25 onward

- Betrothal to Arwen, and Galadriel's involvement: he was 49 by this time, so that may not be considered part of his early life (though 49 would be young for one of the Dúnedain!)

- Perhaps some reference to the events of The Hobbit in 2941-2 when we know that 10/11-year-old Aragorn was living in Rivendell.

11. What do you find most inspiring about Tolkien’s world?

Answer:

The depiction of such a complete and seemingly realistic world, and the fact that one can pick up extra hidden depths in both story and characters on each re-reading. There is always something else to discover or a new interpretation of a familiar passage.

12. Are you involved in any more projects involving Tolkien?

Answer:

Not at the moment. I have one or two ideas for possible short articles.

13. What advice would you give to those first encountering Tolkien’s work and wanting to learn more about Middle-earth and its inhabitants?

Answer:

Speaking from my own experience I would say: Read The Hobbit first then The Lord of the Rings several times, including the Appendices, before delving into other works: The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth and Tolkien's Letters, plus critical works, etc. - and of course online sources which were not available when I first became interested in Tolkien.

14. In the preface to your book you mention discovering the online Tolkien fanfiction community—what are your thoughts on Tolkien fanfiction? What time frame was this and did you join the fanfiction community at that time?

Answer:

I started writing fanfiction during 2003 and continued doing it until about 2007 which was when I made the decision to write a serious work about Aragorn. One piece of fanfiction appeared in Amon Hen, and the rest on a couple of websites which I think no longer exist.

My main thought about fanfiction is that it was this which started me off writing. It was very much an experiment as my last attempts at creative writing dated back to my school English lessons in the 1960s! Without trying the fanfiction first I don't think I would ever have got round to writing articles for Amon Hen, let alone my book.

15. Did encountering fanfiction or even writing it have an effect on your thoughts on Aragorn and the salient points of his character that truly defined him?

Answer:

Yes - because the chief aim of the fanfiction (mine and, I suspect, that of other fanfiction writers) was to fill in the gaps in Aragorn's story. I scoured the text for possible motives and feelings of the people I was writing about. My fanfiction was always based on the “book” version of the story and characters (never on the film version). I did sometimes use invented characters but only to add detail and interest to the story. For exampIe this approach was used when writing about Aragorn's Rangers and when describing his interactions with the inhabitants of Bree. Some stories were actually based on invented characters, in order to try and see Aragorn through the eyes of others. This probably helped me when writing the “Relationship” chapters [see next question.]

16. One aspect of your book that to me is truly unique is Part 2, where you study and interpret his interactions and relationships with the other races and individuals he encounters in Middle-earth. What made you decide to pursue this format?

Answer:

It just seemed the most logical approach. I couldn't study Aragorn's relationships properly without also studying the other half of each different relationship. There was so much to be revealed about both parties in these studies, many of which were based around families and generations (such as in Rohan, and Gondor, and in the Rivendell and Lothlórien communities).

17. Aragorn as a character brings together elements and bloodlines from the First Age into the Fourth Age—you outline these genealogies and relationships quite thoroughly in your book. How do you think this knowledge of his genealogy affected him in his transition from youth to Ranger to King? Is there a character from the earlier Ages that you think had a more significant impact on him or that he resembles the most in character?

Answer: Aragorn would presumably have learnt about these people as a child during his history lessons, but would not have connected them specifically with himself until he was made aware of his true identity at the age of 20.

Elendil, Isildur and Anárion stand out as the obvious significant ancestors whom Aragorn would have striven to emulate - plus, in the case of Isildur, also to atone for his failure to destroy the Ring.

Other ancestors who may well have inspired admiration and/or gratitude in Aragorn include:

- Elendur the self-sacrificing eldest son of Isildur. A passage in Unfinished Tales refers to Elrond seeing a huge similarity between Elendur and Aragorn, both physically and in character. [See footnote 26 at the end of The Disaster of the Gladden Fields.]

- Amandil, the father of Elendil, who advised his son to gather his family and possessions in secret and plan an escape from Númenor in the event of a disaster, before himself courageously setting out for the Undying Lands to plead for mercy for the Númenóreans. He was never heard of again, but the Númenórean race was saved due to Elendil's successful escape to Middle-earth after following his father's instructions.

- Tar-Elendil the 4th King of Númenor and his daughter Silmarien. The royal line of Númenor and its heirlooms only survived via this female line.

- Tar-Palantir the penultimate King of Númenor who resisted the influence of Sauron and tried to turn the Númenóreans back to friendship with the Eldar.

Another notable ancestor for a different reason was Arvedui, the last King of the North Kingdom, who tried to claim the throne of Gondor as well but was rejected and ended up losing both kingdoms before fleeing to the frozen north where he died in a shipwreck. Aragorn must have regarded his own mission to reunite the two kingdoms just over 1,000 years later with some apprehension.

Ar-Pharazôn would clearly have served as a dire warning!

I wonder if Aragorn felt any unease about his namesake, Aragorn I, being killed by wolves!

A comment in Appendix AI(i) of The Lord of the Rings states that the Númenóreans came to resent the choice of Elros to be mortal, thus triggering their yearning for immortality and their subsequent downfall. Did Aragorn ever resent his ancestor's choice? Personally I think he would have had the knowledge and wisdom to understand Ilúvatar's purpose in reuniting the immortal line of Elrond with the mortal line of Elros (through the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn) in order to strengthen the royal line prior to the departure of the Elves and the beginning of the Age of Men.

18. What are your thoughts on the original premise that Aragorn was Trotter, a hobbit?

Answer:

Eeek! The grinning and the wooden shoes! I don't think that the book could possibly have had the same impact, depth and sense of history if the main characters had all been hobbits. I seem to remember that the name “Trotter” still survived for a while after he became a man. “Strider” sounds much better. I'm so glad Tolkien didn't pursue the original idea.

19. Do you have any advice for budding Tolkien acolytes and scholars who are first delving into the legendarium?

Answer:

Read and re-read, record thoughts, ideas, passages worth quoting. Read what JRRT wrote and what others have written. This worked for me, over a very long period - more by accident than design.

*this answer is the same as Angela's answer in the Luna Press interview with her as it has not changed! Take a look at that article for more information on Angela and her book. https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/single-post/2017/09/04/Aragorn---A-Companion-Book

Interviewed by @maedhrosrussandol

July 14th 2018

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betweenandbeloved · 6 years ago

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O Little Town of Bethlehem

What a great day. Today is a day I will remember for the rest of my life. There’s something magical about being here in this holy place just after Christmas and looking towards the preparation for Easter.

We spent the night in Bethlehem which, spoiler alert, is the place where Jesus was born! The earliest known reference to Bethlehem goes back to 1300 BCE when it was under Canaanite control. Bethlehem is surrounded on three sides by the wall Israel is constructing around Palestinian territory.

(The wall surrounding Bethlehem)

We traveled through Bethlehem to visit the Shepherds Field, the field/hills where it is likely the shepherds would have been when “an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were absolutely terrified. But the angel said to them ‘Do not be afraid! Listen Carefully, for I proclaim to you good news that brings great joy to all the people: Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:8-10).

(Looking over the field of the Shepherds)

It was quite moving to sit on the side of one of the hills, looking out over the land and imagining how beautiful it would have been without all the buildings, while singing Angels We Have Heard on High. It’s not every day you get to sing the song in the place where it happened.

After spending some time in devotion and visiting the Chapel of the Shepherd’s Field, we had the opportunity to do some shopping at a shop owned by a Palestinian Christian family. More than 80% of the Christians of Bethlehem live off the tourism dollars so it was a privilege to give them our business. I bought an olive wood nativity set from Bethlehem - the one thing I wanted to bring home from this country. Bethlehem is the only town that still makes olive wood items so this was a really special purchase. I don’t have a picture of it so you’ll have to wait until I get home; but let me tell you, it is beautiful.

After some sustainable tourist shopping, we moved on to the Church of the Nativity to see the place where Jesus might have been/was born. Let’s be real, no one can really be sure where exactly Jesus was born, but since the 4th Century CE when Constantine the Great and his mother Helena built the first church over the cave. Over time it changed hands and today is a shared space between Catholic, Orthodox, and Armenian churches.

Just being near to the cave took my breath away and brought me to tears and going down into the cave was a moving experience. The reality is, this could not be the place Jesus was born, and that’s okay because this place is a reminder of our faith and our belief in the God who came to us in human form in the lowliest of places. Jesus is born every day in all of us. Every day that we wake up and proclaim the gospel in our thoughts, words, and deeds, Jesus comes again and again, through each and every single person. Today I was reminded of this, and I hope it is a reminder to all of you.

(The place where it is believed Jesus was born)

After leaving the church we went over to Hebron, the Cave of the Patriarchs/Matriarchs (Christians), Cave of Machpelah (Jews), or Sanctuary of Abraham (Muslims). Today, this place is 37% Muslim Mosque and 63% Jewish Synagogue - a place of worship and study for both Jewish and Muslim people. These holy places are home to the tombs of Abraham, Sarah, Esau, Leah, Jacob, Isaac, and Rebekah. The actual tombs are in caves well below the foundation of the buildings, but monuments were erected above for people to admire and worship with.

(Looking up towards the Tomb of the Patriarchs)

99.9% of tourists don’t go to Hebron, probably out of fear. It was not always a place of peace between Israeli’s and Palestinian’s, and even today there is still tension in the area. It was fine for us to visit, but our tour guide was stopped and questioned before we could enter the Synagogue side of the building. After viewing the caves we went through two checkpoints to get to the Mosque side. The city of Hebron has 25 different checkpoints; 5 of which are around the Mosque and Synagogue.

Despite seeing signs of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict firsthand, it was an amazing experience to visit both a Mosque and a Synagogue, actively in use, and right next to each other. We removed our shoes going into the Mosque and the women were given capes to wear out of respect for the sanctity of the space.

We were running behind on time so we decided to switch up the schedule (again). At this point, I really don’t know what we are doing when because we’ve switched so many things around (which is totally fine!). We decided to go into Jerusalem and visit the Israel Museum; the largest museum in the country.

The first part of the museum was a model of the old city of Jerusalem from 60 CE; roughly the way it would have looked in Jesus’ time. The old city was truly beautiful, probably because Herod the Great built it. I have to say, he was a jerk, but he built some beautiful cities. Looking at the model we were able to point out the different places we will visit in the next few days and see what they looked like in Jesus’ time.

(The model of Jerusalem in a 1/50 scale)

After spending a long time admiring the model, we went into the Shrine of the Book museum dedicated to the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls were originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, a few in ancient Hebrew, a handful in Greek, and even a few in secret writing meant to conceal mysteries; I don’t know if they were ever translated or not. The scrolls were a combination of parchment and a few on papyrus paper. It was cool to see some of the actual scrolls on display, but they are really taking a beating after being exposed to the air. We weren’t allowed to take any photos of the scrolls, but if you can imagine writing on a piece of printer paper, dapping a tea bag across to make it look old, setting the edges on fire, and then rubbing the whole thing in ash - you’ve got a decent picture of what it might look like.

We ended the day at the Archaeological Museum looking at artifacts that were found at all the ancient sites we’ve visited over the last week. There were lots of old pieces of pottery, lots of jewelry, and some actual pieces of buildings that were moved to the museum. The original altar found at Beersheba was in the museum as well as the carved sone of a god from the city of Bethsaida in roughly 9-8th BCE. These statues of gods would have been marked at the entrance to a city and visitors would need to make sacrifices to the god’s to show their intentions for entering the city. We talked a lot about them when visiting the ruins over the last few days so it was really cool to finally see what they would look like.

(Cultic god from Bethsaida in 9th-8th Century BCE)

Today was pretty great, you’re getting more of the information side and less of the reflecting on how everything made me feel side, but I’ll work on getting that into a blog or sermon or conversation eventually. As for right now, it’s time to figure out how to pack my bag with the souvenirs I bought today because we are moving to Jerusalem tomorrow to see more sites where Jesus did his thing!

#ipj2019 #the holy land #peace #love #learn #grow #explore

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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They wanted democracy for Belarus. Instead they say they were beaten and raped by police Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) — Sergei stood on a small sheet of ice in the Dnieper River and breathed in the icy air hard. He had escaped, but that relief was overwhelmed by both the pain of leaving his homeland and the fear he might not survive the rest of his perilous journey. His was a particularly remarkable run to freedom. He crossed the border into Ukraine illegally, and was not able to walk through the forest and across sheet ice, like many before him had done. In a hurry, and surrounded by melting ice, Sergei put on a wetsuit and flippers he had bought — and swam. In a video he filmed on his phone half-way through his two-hour journey, on New Year’s Eve, he recorded part of his escape, which involved not only swimming in freezing temperatures and through dense reed, but stumbling over sheet ice and crawling through thick sludge. Such was his desperation to leave. “My socks are freezing right to the ice. I will try to crawl there and hope that I will not freeze,” he said at one point in his video. “I’m navigating by the stars,” he said, audibly cold. “The feeling is indescribable, and I am all alone here.” Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians attended mass protests across the country last year following Lukashenko’s declaration of victory in the August vote. The US and EU declared the vote fraudulent and imposed sanctions on Belarusian officials over the fraud and the brutal crackdown that followed. Sergei — who asked CNN not to reveal some details of his story and his real identity — has now claimed asylum in another country, and he wanted to share his story with CNN so that the relatives he left behind might one day read what had happened to him. “I left my country, my friends and family, with the bitterness of defeat,” he said. “I simply became a refugee and had to start again, as if all I had achieved for years was suddenly nothing. To this day, I am mentally exhausted, and sleepless worrying about those left behind.” CNN has spoken to several other Belarusians who have fled the repression of Lukashenko’s regime, illegally across the border into Ukraine, as part of a two-month investigation into the crackdown inside the country. In dozens of interviews, protesters and opposition activists have spoken of torture — from systematic beatings, to rape with a police baton. Defectors from the police force have also supplied CNN with videos from the police’s own archives — bodycam, dashcam and surveillance footage — that display the extraordinary ferocity of riot police against protesters who are unarmed and peaceful, many of them teenagers. Footage obtained by CNN shows Belarusian officers aggressively apprehending protesters on September 13, 2020. The Lukashenko regime has, activists say, slightly softened its tactics in the past weeks, as fear has gripped the opposition movement. Yet there are concerns among activists the crackdown will intensify again ahead of a nationwide call to the streets on March 25. The fate of the Belarusian protest movement has gained greater significance in the past months as anti-government protests spread inside neighboring Russia against the attempted murder and imprisonment of Alexey Navalny. Russian President Vladimir Putin swiftly moved to support Lukashenko in August with a $1.5 billion loan and other unspecified assistance. The Belarusian protests, however, have continued. Analysts say the Kremlin is concerned both by a persistent protest movement for democracy on its doorstep, and the impact of unprecedented levels of police violence on how a younger generation of Belarusians view Moscow. After being presented with a summary of CNN’s findings, a State Department spokesperson said the US “strongly condemns the months-long post-election brutality carried out by the Lukashenka regime against peaceful protesters.” The statement added there were over 500 documented cases of severe abuse, 290 political prisoners and “a number of individuals still reported missing.” “These violent actions have destroyed the Belarusian authorities’ legitimacy among their own people and the international community,” they said, demanding the “immediate release of political prisoners and all those unjustly detained, and … for those responsible for severe abuses to be held to account.” ‘He cut my underwear using this knife’ The police dashcam footage begins with a police car following a white SUV full of protesters. It is September 13, 2020, and the vehicle is carrying activists away from a demonstration in central Minsk. The car pulls over, and then the devastating police onslaught begins. Protesters are violently detained in bodycam video shared with CNN by former Belarusian police officers. The footage shows batons hitting the car’s windows. A police officer fires a live round into the vehicle. The protesters are yanked out violently, and forced to lie face down on the ground. Two men in the group are bleeding, one heavily, and another from his cheek after the side of his face is ground into the asphalt. The detainees lie motionless. Sometimes their heads are pulled back and they state their names. A police body cam shows an officer busy treating a small cut on his hand from the glass. The heavily bleeding protester is eventually given a bandage for his head. A police officer repeatedly kicks a detainee who is handcuffed and lying face down on the ground. The scene — in video given exclusively to CNN by BYPOL, an opposition activist group of former Belarusian police officers who have defected — is one of dozens they have released that detail police ferocity. In some, detainees are seen on camera, visibly beaten, and marked with red paint, a grim sign of the police’s “traffic lights” system of grading protesters in detention. Those painted red should receive the worst treatment. Sexual assault allegations have also been made by men and women against the police. Andrey, a protester from Minsk, told CNN he was raped with a police baton in a bid by officers to make him unlock his phone. They wanted the identity of his fellow protesters, he said, asking that some details of his experience and real name not be disclosed for his safety. Andrey says he refused to give the password, and was beaten. “They just hit me again. At this time, I probably had brain trauma, as I started to feel really dizzy. It was hard to move at all,” he said. The police officer then threatened to assault him with his baton, asked his colleagues for a condom to sheath the weapon, and took a knife from a colleague. “He cut my underwear using this knife. He asked me again to give him the password. I refused again, and then he did what he did.” Andrey felt pain, but also shock that a person could do this to another. “It’s not just police anger — they train to do this,” he said. “We are just seeing it now at a huge scale for the first time. It’s touched nearly every family in Belarus now.” The Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for response to what the footage of police tactics and violence shows and the allegations of abuse made. Mass arrests at protests in Belarus are also often met with such brutalities. Another leaked police video from BYPOL shows the aftermath of an October protest, in which dozens of demonstrators are forced to stand in a packed police station corridor, facing the wall, their heads bowed, some bleeding on the walls, others suffering from beatings or tear gas they appear to have been exposed to in the earlier protest. In the video, the police officer passes between detainees asking for their details, and why they were at the protest. One man has had seven teeth smashed out. They are all visibly shaken, and the majority would go on to face criminal charges for protesting, activists said. The footage also chillingly shows police walking over the unconscious body of a teenage boy on the floor. CNN has learned the detainee likely suffered from an epileptic fit, and was left on the floor by police, who pass over him. Witnesses said the boy was occasionally kicked by police to see if he was responsive. “Are you a boy or girl?” one witness recalled the police shouting. The minor was later released from police custody, according to witnesses, who did not want to be named. Police in that central station that night were also busy locating those who had escaped riot police, CNN has learned. One was Anya, a teenager, who also did not want to reveal her real name for her safety. She fled an advancing line of riot police, who were throwing stun grenades at protesters. The explosion that caught her was captured on video. “I didn’t fall,” she said. “I froze like a deer. I just stood, thought, breathed, looked around.” She said she did not believe she was deliberately targeted, and was swiftly put in a taxi by protesters as the ambulances nearby were overloaded. In hospital, she was put next to a man who had been trampled by police until his hip broke, she said. “I started screaming that I need help,” she said. “Seven people came in the room. Everyone looked at me and at my body. Like ‘Wow. What happened to you?’ They didn’t help. They just looked at me.” Doctors gave her basic treatment and painkillers, but also prioritized a blood alcohol test and told the police of her whereabouts and injuries. She feared for her safety and left with her mother. But the police were not done with her, she said. She shared with CNN images of the injuries to her legs as she lay on a couch at home. That evening, her phone rang. “It was the police asking where I had been,” Anya said. “I began making up stories. They said they would come and get me, a unit of them. And if they take me, I thought, then I can say goodbye to my limbs, because no one will look after me. I was worried they would torture me on my injuries.” She left Belarus shortly afterwards and shows CNN the fragments of grenade removed from her leg. One fragment is still lodged in her thigh. Anya hopes for change in Belarus for her generation, and said that while the current peaceful protests haven’t worked, it has led to an awakening. “There is a saying among Belarusians now that we didn’t really know each other until the summer,” she said, of the protests’ beginning. Her generation’s desire for wholesale change is a thorn not only in Lukashenko’s side, but also the Kremlin’s. Some analysts suggest Putin is wary of siding too closely with Lukashenko’s brutal crackdown, in case it turns younger Belarusians against Moscow permanently. For that, it may be too late. “Lukashenko wouldn’t be so arrogant and cruel without the assurance of Russia always having his back,” Anya said. “We are not their people, we are strangers. Russia does not care what happens to us.” Source link Orbem News #beaten #Belarus #Democracy #Police #raped #wanted

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ask-de-writer · 6 years ago

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SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 25

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

written 2007

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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New to the story? Read from the beginning. PART 1 is here

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Mord breathed a huge sigh of relief. Sarfin held up his hands, and the Longin’s Captain held his thanks.

“If you give the boat and all to the fleet, to give him, then when he sees where it came from, perhaps he’ll know he’s not been wholly abandoned.

“If you feel that you can’t do that because of the ‘your boats’ provision, the fleet can provide it all, but you’ll have to pay for it.”

Mord felt some measure of peace settle over him. “A good boat and all that is necessary will be delivered to the Dorton in two, or at most, three hours.”

Casting off the stern line and then the bow line, he pushed the boat free of the docking area and said, “Sail west, young man.”

Chapter 8: Visits

Kurin, with the permission of Captain Mord, went to spend the night aboard the Dark Dragon. There, she got a small surprise. She found the fierce Captain Sula sitting cross-legged on a cushion in a cabin hung with tapestries and woven decorations. Like most of the crewmen and women that Kurin had seen when she came aboard, Sula was wearing a light colored hood whose eye openings seemed molded to her face, keeping them perfectly aligned. A small bump in the fabric showed Kurin that Sula's tongue was in the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on a piece of Longin Lace, making careful notes as she tried to unravel it.

“I am honored,” said Sula, bowing her head, hands together, fingers pointing down. “Why do you chose me?”

“That and much else. As I told you and Huld, she was my mentor for most of a Gathering.”

“So, what do we need to make this lace?” asked Sula, leaning back on a large cushion, exposing the odd scabbard on her right leg to Kurin's view. It was still filled by the strange looking ax that Kurin had seen earlier. “I will have it brought, bought or made.”

“Sula,” asked Kurin, as they took a break to stretch fingers, stiff from the lace-work, “If you came all this way to hear these things, shouldn’t you write them down?”

Kurin nodded acceptance of Sula's statement and asked a question that was bothering her from the time that she had seen the young sailor Lenhe respond so violently to the attempt to unmask her. “Sula, how violent are your people? You go armed everywhere and your sailors are either armed or have several empty scabbards. I saw a sailor of yours named Lenhe beat up a man far bigger than herself. He was just playing about at grabbing her mask and if she'd had her ax in the scabbard, I think that she would have killed him.”

Sula regarded Kurin carefully for a moment before replying, “I heard about that. Mistress of Armory Culark told me about it. Lenhe was fully justified in her defense against face rape but should not have gone so far out of control. She is only a tailor's apprentice, not some skilled warrior. To any of the Winternight born, face rape is one of the few things that we will kill to prevent.

Kurin looked up sharply at Sula and said, “You worship Dark Iren, the Dragon of Death?”

“I wonder — Do you ever forget what you hear or see?”

TO BE CONTINUED

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#SEA DRAGON’S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 25

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