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canmom · 4 months ago

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youtube

This was a fascinating video on the evolution of American acting from older, theatrical 'representational' styles to the more modern, naturalistic 'presentational' style.

A large part of it is dedicated to breaking down the history of the extremely poorly defined term 'method acting', outlining the different theories of acting of Konstantin Stanislavski with his 'System' and the interpretations put on it by his American followers such as Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, and how they differ from the modern pop-culture conception of 'method acting'. It's fascinating stuff - I did not realise just how much Stanislavski's ideas have affected the way we think about acting, literature etc. (dude invented the word 'subtext'!).

But in Thomas Flight's view, he's bringing these up in part to deflate them - he's ultimately arguing that, instead of a specific new method of acting being introduced, it's more that the goals of acting changed as the style of film in general changed. There are many routes to a naturalistic performance, but you have to want to do that in the first place, and older films wanted a more theatrical style.

Besides just being an interesting thing to learn about lol, the big question when I look at the theory of acting is how do you apply it to animation, since that's my field lol. 'Acting' is a big part of animation, but it differs in one big way, which is that it's much slower and more deliberate. I don't want to claim that there's no intuitive aspect to it, if anything you gotta learn all the technical stuff (timing, spacing, weight, overlapping action etc.) so well that you don't have to be constantly thinking consciously about technical stuff and can focus on letting the performance flow and feel natural... but still, a lot of the ideas expressed about imagining inhabiting the scene, getting into character etc. happen at a remove from putting lines down on the paper/screen. In animation just getting to the point of 'moving like a person', the absolute baseline of real life acting, is an effort in itself!

Still, knowing about the different styles and theories of acting is helpful. What is it about a character's expression that tells us that there is something that they're not saying, and tells us to infer some particular emotional context behind their words? A lot of it has to do with 'voice acting' stuff - cadence, intonation, hesitation. Then there's the way they move, stuff like how much space they take up, how energetic they are, how much their centre of gravity moves around. The gaze, where they're looking and how their eyes move around, is a huge part of it.

A film actor probably is doing a lot of this intuitively. I'm sure there is some conscious thought about it but the link between brain and muscles is so strong that you can be moving your eyes before you've had time to fully think through 'I should look over there to communicate what's on my mind'. With an animated character, every motion requires you to think about start and end poses, what the arcs are, follow-through, how many drawings to give it, etc. etc. You're simulating the 'physics' of the animated world and trying to convey the emotion of the character all at once. But you can still absolutely have an expressive, naturalistic performance in animation - and all these extra things you control (abstraction, simplification, etc.) give you more expressive tools as well which aren't available in live action.

I'm not nearly at the technical level of drawing and animation where I can really apply all these ideas yet, but it's good to know what's on the distant mountain...

#acting #animation #Youtube

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sarahsinferno · 4 months ago

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in the depths of dark and dismal days, where shadows lengthen, silence sways,

a scent of sorrow fills the air,

a soul adrift in deep despair.

the world, a stage of muted hue,

where joy and hopes seem far and few,

each dawn brings forth a heavy weight,

a burden carried, heartache's freight.

amidst the gloom, a stench pervades,

of loneliness and endless shades,

a fragrance foul, a bitter taste,

in solitude, the soul laid waste.

stinky by S.T. 2024

it’s about being depressed and smelling bad lol

the green bow by john alexander white 1898

princess taracanova by konstantin flavitsky

study at the waters edge by berthe morisot 1864

pandora by thomas benjamin kennington

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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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Germany remains a central focus of Russian disinformation efforts, and Kremlin-backed campaigns continue to grow in scope and intensity.

That was the warning that senior security officials and lawmakers issued this week during a public session of the German parliament's committee responsible for overseeing the country's intelligence agencies.

"We have long recognized the threat to Germany from foreign influence and hybrid warfare, especially from Russia," said Konstantin von Notz, a Green Party lawmaker and the committee's chairman.

"However, we are now witnessing a new level of intensity, and this development is deeply worrying for all of us."

Germany perceived 'as an enemy' by the Kremlin

Heads of Germany's intelligence services echoed von Notz's sentiments.

As Germany has emerged as one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the Kremlin has increasingly perceived Germany "as an enemy" and treated it as one, said Bruno Kahl, president of Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).

Kahl explained that Russian President Vladimir Putin has long waged a "hybrid war" against countries in the West to "create a new world order." To achieve this end, Putin is using Russia's secret service agencies "as the spearhead in the fight against the West, with a state mandate, with all the means at their disposal, without legal restrictions and, above all, without any conscience."

This has led to a "dramatic increase in the number and quality of cyberattacks by Russian state actors and their proxies," Kahl added.

At the same time, cyberattacks are just one method that Russia is using to assert its influence.

Thomas Haldenwang, president of Germany's Federal domestic intelligence agency, warned of "influence operations" to spread pro-Russian disinformation: coordinated efforts to sway public opinion that blend cyber activities with the spread of disinformation.

He cited the example of one such campaign, dubbed "Doppelgänger," which was recently uncovered and involved cloned websites, fabricated articles, and misleading social media posts that mimicked established European media outlets to push pro-Russian narratives.

Growing influence of pro-Russian voices

Researchers say the majority of pro-Kremlin disinformation campaigns targeting German audiences have one of three objectives, researchers say: weakening support for Ukraine, tarnishing NATO's image or amplifying pro-Russian voices across Germany.

"We see that this strategy is gradually achieving its goals, and the public debate in Germany is increasingly shifting in a direction that serves the Kremlin's interests," said Felix Kartte, a political analyst and senior fellow at Germany's Mercator Foundation.

"Two parties that represent pro-Kremlin positions, the AfD and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, are now also getting significant attention in traditional media," he told DW. Both the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) party and the left-wing nationalist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) achieved record results in recent state elections.

How to combat Russian influence

So far, Germany has failed to develop "a comprehensive government strategy that recognizes, analyzes and effectively counteracts the campaigns" launched by Russia, Kartte said.

He stressed that such a strategy to counter Russian influence operations would need to address the issue on multiple levels.

"This would include better regulation of online platforms, strengthening independent media — especially local journalism — and better analysis of the financial support of prominent pro-Kremlin figures in Germanyby security and intelligence agencies," he said.

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 5 months ago

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By: Alex O'Connor

Published: Jun 19, 2024

In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, Jesus condemns those who “(either) love the tree and hate its fruit (or) love the fruit and hate the tree”. A regular critique of the nominally religious is that they claim to believe in, say, Christianity, but fail to act in accordance with its demanding message of love and compassion. They love the tree, but can’t quite swallow the fruit. More recently, however, a strange reverse phenomenon is emerging: a class of thinkers who, unable to rationally assent to the actual truth of Christianity, and yet disillusioned with the politics of “new atheism”, and fearful of the various religious and pseudo-religious ideas that have filled the vacuum it created, find themselves in the tough spot of being hungry for the fruit but unable to believe in the existence of the tree.

These so-called “cultural Christians” are appearing in droves: Douglas Murray, Tom Holland (not that one), Konstantin Kisin, Jordan Peterson (depending on what you mean by “Christian” and “cultural” and “and”); even Richard Dawkins — the archetypal modern atheist who has done more to confront organised religion than perhaps any other identifiable person in a generation — happily adopts this paradoxical moniker for himself.

Paradoxical because, of course, Christianity is more than just an affinity for evensong, disappointment with secular architecture, and suspicion of Islam. St Paul wrote in no uncertain terms to the Corinthians that “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith”, and the vague, à la carte approach to the religion displayed by the “cultural Christian” which doesn’t seem to care about, much less affirm, the historicity of the extraordinary events of Easter Sunday is the kind of attitude that would see you condemned as heretical by the founders of the orthodox church.

Yet Christianity is experiencing a popular makeover, from an affirmative doctrine of truth-claims to a sort of protective garment to be worn as a practical measure against the equal and opposite destabilising forces of radical political religiosity and cynical nihilism which continue to claw away at the souls of those without a firm spiritual conviction.

This metamorphosis of the Christian religion in is many ways indebted to Tom Holland — not the actor, though perhaps an actor, in that he seems content to live as if Christianity were true — whose “Dominion” thesis has convinced a not insignificant number of intellectuals that the bulk of our celebrated Western ethics is ultimately the product of Christianity, an ideology which has so successfully embedded itself in our culture that we do not even notice it anymore.

This leads our cultural Christians, often those with a special interest in safeguarding Western civilisation, to cozy up to an ideology that they can’t quite adopt without qualification due to their rather inconvenient conviction that it isn’t true.

Enter Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Re-enter, I should say, as this brave apostate from Islam won successful prominence as an atheist writer and speaker for many years since the early 2000s, before recently announcing that she had embraced Christianity. Indeed, she had originally been scheduled to participate in that famed discussion in Washington D.C. in 2007 which gave birth to the “four horsemen” of new atheism — Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris. So news of the “almost fifth’s” conversion was met with widespread surprise, joy, and speculation.

Perhaps the most widely read response came from Dawkins, in an open letter whose first sentence contained a rather less than charitable: “Seriously, Ayaan? You, a Christian? You are no more Christian than I am.”

Why? Because Hirsi Ali’s article, while passionate and detailed, suffered from the exclusion of anything resembling an argument for the existence of God, or for the theological supremacy of the Christian religion over others (or even over atheism). Instead, it is a political treatise: it begins with her experiences as a Muslim, touching on 9/11, the Muslim Brotherhood, and antisemitism, before asking: “So, what changed? Why do I call myself a Christian now?”

She answers: “Part of the answer is global. Western civilisation is under threat from three different but related forces,” which she identifies as Russian/Chinese authoritarianism, Islamism, and wokeism. All of which are distinctly political considerations and so hardly serve as a theological defence of Christianity. Then, referring to Tom Holland, she tells us that the “story of the West” is a civilisation built on the “Judeo-Christian tradition”. That is to say, she is ticking all the boxes of a merely cultural Christian.

“Strangely, then, they could find initial agreement on one point: their being just as Christian as each other.”

Yet she later writes, as if anticipating this objection, “I would not be truthful if I attributed my embrace of Christianity solely to the realisation that atheism is too weak and divisive a doctrine to fortify us against our menacing foes.” It’s a promising interjection, which seems to ready us for an apolitical testimony that might justify her exclusion of the “cultural” in labelling her new Christian identity.

Here, Hirsi Ali begins to describe her personal struggles as an atheist. “I have… found life without any spiritual solace unendurable,” she writes, claiming that the “God hole” left behind after her deconversion was not filled with reason and intelligent humanism, as atheists like Betrand Russell had predicted, but instead left painfully vacant.

“In this nihilistic vacuum, the challenge before us becomes civilisational,” she continues. “We can’t withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can’t explain to our populations why it matters that we do.” In explaining, then, her reasons for becoming Christian apart from her desire to defeat her political foes, she tells us that she was struggling with a nihilistic vacuum that was… insufficient for defeating her political foes. Once again, the motivation seems political.

Thus Richard Dawkins and his assessment, “you are no more a Christian than I am”. The funny thing is, Ayaan Hirsi Ali endorses this sentiment. Dawkins has, of late, been airing his misgivings about gender theorists and Islamists, and constantly reaffirms his admiration for Christian art, architecture and music. These political and aesthetic preferences inspired her to refer to Dawkins at one point as one of “the most Christian” people that she knows. Strangely, then, they could find initial agreement on one point: their being just as Christian as each other.

This uneasy equilibrium provided the mise en scène for an eagerly awaited conversation between the two, which took place in Brooklyn last month. Dawkins tells us at one point that he showed up fully prepared to explain to Hirsi Ali why she is not a Christian: “The idea,” he says, “that the Universe has lurking beneath it an intelligence a supernatural intelligence that invented the laws of physics it invented mathematics […] is a stupendous idea (if it’s true) and to me that simply dwarfs all talk of nobility and morality and comfort and that sort of thing.”

He was, therefore, taken quite unawares, as were many of us, when he asked (or rather told) her, “You don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, surely?” and she confidently replied, “I choose to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. And that is a matter of choice.” This, for Dawkins (as for me), changes the game. While throughout the event she had no hesitation in repeating her political grievances, in New York, she finally addressed the truth claims of Christianity, and appeared to confess a belief in them. “I came here prepared to persuade you, Ayaan, you’re not a Christian,” Dawkins told her, before correcting himself: “I think you are a Christian,” and — being Richard Dawkins — he added, “and I think Christianity is nonsense.”

This extraordinary event began with Hirsi Ali recounting her conversion: “I lived for about a decade with intense depression and anxiety self-loathing. I hit rock bottom. I went to a place where I actually didn’t want to live anymore but wasn’t brave enough to take my own life.” Through prayer, she managed to escape that hole. “My zest for life is back,” she declared to a healthy applause, indicative of the one thing that everyone can agree on: it is wonderful to hear that Ayaan is happy again.

She looked at Dawkins and shrugged slightly as she finished her personal account. And the audience laughed. I did think there was something comical about following such a moving story of escape from depression and anxiety with, as Dawkins did: “But do you really think Jesus was born of a virgin?” Dawkins, though, can hardly be blamed: as touching as Hirsi Ali’s story may be, if he is right that God’s existence is a scientific question, then we should remember that bringing personal narrative into the laboratory is as inappropriate an approach as bringing a microscope into a poetry seminar. It should be no insult to say that her emotional struggles are irrelevant to the question of theism vs atheism.

As Dawkins himself put it, responding to Hirsi Ali’s fear that an atheistic universe doesn’t offer us any way to connect with each other and the cosmos: “Suppose it were true that atheism doesn’t offer anything. So what? why should it offer anything?” Further applause.

“Faith offers you something, obviously. That’s very very very clear,” he says at one point. “But it doesn’t make it true. It doesn’t make the existence claims of Christianity true.” Again, there was an applause. Given that such a claim is hardly extraordinary or controversial, the clapping seemed to be less in support of the point, and more of Dawkins’s willingness to make it plain.

It is worth remembering that believing something for non-rational reasons is not unusual. Our beliefs are quite often formed by our surrounding environment, rather than some kind of perfect logic and analysis of abstract syllogisms. Most people know this. Hirsi Ali is happy to admit it. You may think it imperfect, but it is not unique.

“The kind of Christianity adopted by Hirsi Ali goes further in asserting its truth, but not very much further in its justification.”

After finishing this personal narrative, she could only look at Dawkins and shrug slightly. The audience laughed, in anticipation of something of a shift in tone. I did think there was something comical about following such a moving story of escape from depression and anxiety with, “But do you really think Jesus was born of a virgin?” Dawkins’s decision to do so, however, can hardly be blamed: as touching as his former colleague’s story may be, if he is right that God’s existence is a scientific question, then we should remember that bringing personal narrative into the laboratory is as inappropriate an approach as bringing a microscope into a poetry seminar. It should be no more an insult to say that Hirsi Ali’s emotional struggles are irrelevant to the question of God’s existence than it would be to say to say that scientific observations are irrelevant to the study of Keats.

As Dawkins himself put it, responding to her fear that an atheistic universe doesn’t offer us any way to connect with each other and the cosmos: “Suppose it were true that atheism doesn’t offer anything. So what? Why should it offer anything?” Further applause.

“Faith offers you something, obviously. That’s very, very, very clear,” he says at one point. “But it doesn’t make it true. It doesn’t make the existence claims of Christianity true.” More clapping. Given that such a claim is hardly extraordinary or controversial, this reception seemed to be less in support of the point, and more of Dawkins’s willingness to make it plain.

Yet it is worth remembering that believing something for non-rational reasons is not unusual. Our beliefs are quite often formed by our surrounding environment, rather than some kind of perfect logic and analysis of abstract syllogisms. Most people know this. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is happy to admit it. You may think it imperfect, but it is not unique to her.

This means that any surge in Christian interest we may notice among our public intellectuals is unlikely to be due to a renewed interest in Biblical scholarship or the figure of the crucified Nazarene. It is instead likely a product of their environment. Cultural Christianity, then, is in many ways a political movement disguised as a religious one, reacting not to arguments for God’s existence, but concerns about the practical shortcomings of atheism and alternative religions. The kind of Christianity adopted by Hirsi Ali goes further in asserting its truth, but not very much further in its justification.

Therefore, those celebrating some alleged resurgence of Christianity ought be cautious: it would certainly be a happy day for them if their favourite intellectuals began discovering a relationship with Jesus, but if they begin converting to Christianity principally as an ideological bulwark, we may witness the return not of a meek and mild community of believers, but of a more strong-armed, aggressive Christianity that has historically been a touch more controversial.

But Ayaan does seem genuinely transformed by her new faith: she looks happy, speaks humbly, and seems genuinely uninterested in point-scoring or winning any arguments. It troubles me not at all to admit that I found myself applauding her more than Richard Dawkins. It transpired in Brooklyn that her conversion, which at first appeared mostly political, was more a result of her personal battle with nihilism. This is hardly going to convince anybody else to become Christian, but such personal experience isn’t ever supposed to.

Atheists are often told that they are plagued with a “God-shaped hole”. Hirsi Ali appears to have developed for herself a hole-shaped God. But despite the probability of at least an element of motivated reasoning in this conversion, I’m genuinely happy for her. We should keep in mind, too, as her story evolves, that our ideas are the most unclear to us when they are new, and Ayaan is a new Christian. While we are all trying to work out what she really believes, she is probably trying to work out the same thing. She, however, has the unusual courage to do it out loud.

In short, Xianity has retreated even further from "my religion is true" to "my religion is useful." Of course, if that's the case, then I have just as much right to pick and choose the parts that are useful to me as anyone else.

We must also apparently address once again the absurd notion of "choosing to believe," usually levelled at atheists as an accusation that they simply choose not to believe. In one specific god, of course. An accusation that necessarily means the believer themselves "chooses" not to believe in all the other gods.

And its absurdity revealed by the challenge to choose to believe in goblins or fairies or Bigfoot. Or to choose to believe in another god - Ahura Mazda, for example - for five minutes.

It matters what's true. And Xianity isn't true.

#Alex O'Connor #political christianity #god shaped hole #hole shaped god #choose to believe #christianity #Ayaan Hirsi Ali #Richard Dawkins #truth #truth matters #cultural christianity #religion #religion is a mental illness

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xpuigc-bloc · 5 months ago

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Very honored to have my painting “The World Is Waiting” included in the prestigious Fabriano Watercolour 2024 Biennial Exhibition in Italy . My thanks to Giorgio Pelligrini and Konstantin Sterkhov for the nomination

By Thomas W Schaller

#Thomas W Schaller #watercolour artist #original art #artist painter

#art #xpuigc

#thomas w schaller #watercolour artists #original art #artist painter #art #xpuigc

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talesofsorrowandofruin · 2 months ago

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Incorrect Quotes Tag

Thanks for tagging me, @primroseprime2019! :D

Rules: use this generator to make quotes for your WIPs.

Diarnlan: Don't trust everything you see on the internet. Karandren: *scoffs* Do you think people would bother to lie online? Anyway, did you know Earth is actually flat? Diarnlan, dragging him away from the computer: That's enough for you

Abi: I feel so burnt out. Ilaran: Don't worry, it'll be over soon. Abi: How do you know? Are you going to assassinate me? Ilaran: Abi:

Rusudan: *pulls back the curtain while Konstantine is showering* Hey — stop screaming, it's only me — I need you to behead a corpse for me.

Ji-hun: You tricked me! Yo-han: I deceived you. "Trick" makes it sound like we have a friendly relationship.

Lucy: So what is Thomas to you? Gilbert: The reason I wake up every morning. Lucy: Aww, that's sweet! Thomas, that morning, barging into Gilbert's room, hitting pans together: WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!!!

Tagging @ashen-crest, @cljordan-imperium, @acertainmoshke, and anyone else who wants to do this! :D

#tag game #writing #my characters #my WIPs #WIP: totentanz #WIP: necromancer #WIP: snow #the case files of seo yo han #WIP: money #incorrect quotes

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thensson · 9 months ago

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The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Stephen Adly Guirgis || Agnes, Konstantin Korobov || Saint Sebastian, Owe Zerge || Arrows of Desire: How did St Sebastian Become an Enduring, Homo-erotic Icon? || The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, Guercino || Saint Catherine Drinks the Blood of Christ, Francesco Vanni

#web weaving #judas iscariot #korobov #stephen adly guirgis #saint sebastian #owe zerge #dark academia #quotes #poems and quotes #arrows of desire #homoerotic #nah they twinkified my boy #saint thomas #guercino #saint catherine #francesco vanni #christianity #loosely speaking

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miss-mollys-ballet-blog · 1 year ago

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Ranked Ballet Performances

I've seen quite a few live shows and I have thoughts on all of them, but instead of sharing them, I'm just going to rank them from my favorite to least favorite:

La Bayadere: Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim

Giselle: Svetlana Zakharova and David Hallberg

La Bayadere: Ekaterina Kondaurova and Timur Askerov

Raymonda: Ekaterina Kondaurova and Danila Korsuntsev

Don Quixote: Marianela Nunez and Carlos Acosta

Le Corsaire: Ekaterina Kondaurova, Andrey Ermakov, Kimin Kim

Paquita: Viktoria Tereshkina and Timur Askerov

Swan Lake: Devon Teuscher and Marcelo Gomes

Raymonda: Oksana Skorik and Timur Askerov

Giselle: Skylar Brandt and Joo Won An

Don Quixote: Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo

Romeo and Juliet: Gillian Murphy and James Whiteside

The Nutcracker: Mariko Sasaki, William Bracewell, Isabella Gasparini, and James Hay

Giselle: Gillian Murphy and Thomas Forester

Swan Lake: Isabella Boylston and Alban Lendorf

Swan Lake: Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell

Giselle: Elizaveta Gogidze and Olekseii Kniazkov

Little Humpbacked Horse: Anastasia Kolegova and Maxim Zyuzin

Sleeping Beauty: Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo

Paquita: Nadezhda Batoeva and Xander Parish

Harlequinade: Skylar Brandt and Daniil Simkin

Whipped Cream: Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin

Le Corsaire: Maria Khoreva, Konstantin Zverev, and Kimin Kim

Paquita: Maria Khoreva and Konstantin Zverev

I think I got them all lol. I didn't include non-ballet performances such as Bourne's Swan Lake, Alvin Ailey, and Riverdance.

#ballet text post #ballet

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esters-notepad · 6 months ago

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In which Zeus goes to the club and is confronted by a bunch of nerds

Inspired by some recent discussion on @irishironclad's tumblr. Thanks to @catkin-morgs-kookaburralover for coming up with the deciding plot twist!

The Sky-Father, Optimus Maximus, the Hospitable, the Protector of Armies, the Protector of Friendship, he of the Rains, the Storms, the Thunder and Lightning (commonly known as Zeus) yawned and stretched his shoulders. He felt like he had slept for a long time. Years, even. He checked the time, and promptly shot bolt upright. One thousand four hundred years??? That couldn't be right... except it was. At least his follower count was up to a four-digit number again. More than enough to get out of bed and perform some minor miracles. He'd beat that usurping half-godling yet. Zeus snuck a glance at his nagging old battleaxe Hera, but she was still deep in a coma, follower count so low that she was actually slightly transparent. Ha! Nobody loves a party pooper. Time to go out and have some fun with the mortals.

Marina had been dancing for several songs, when she suddenly noticed another dancer following her. He looked like a classical statue with his curly hair, elegant nose and buff body. His colours were perfect too: hair so dark it bordered on violet, skin olive-brown and clear, teeth white as snow. She threw herself into the beat, relishing the experience of having such a beautiful and skilled partner. The people around them even drew back a little, forming a circle for them to show off in. When the song ended, she made a flourishing curtsey, overdone to Gibraltar and back. He returned the favour as a small, ironic bow. Marina looked towards the bar, feeling out of breath. As if he could read her thoughts, he grabbed her elbow and steered towards a quiet corner where one could drink and talk. "That was awesome!" Marina said. "Are you a professional dancer, or something?" The unknown man looked almost affronted. "Certainly not! I employ them! ...or I used to." "You must be older than you look, then." He drunk deep from his wine glass instead of replying. Marina sipped her mojito, slightly uncomfortable with how openly he was looking her over. Sure, she had a good body and she knew it. Yes, she had made an effort to look sexy before coming to the club. But he didn't have to be so crass about it! "Who are you?" he asked abruptly. "Eleni", Marina lied with practised perfection. "And you?" "You can call me Dias." "All right, Dias, it was fun dancing with you." Marina left her half-drunk mojito on the table and went for the dance floor, trying to lose Dias in the crowd. Somehow, he stayed right beside her. The man seemed positively incapable of taking a hint. Marina danced her way back to the bar - not the quiet table of before, but the middle of the main bar, in plain view of everyone - and took out her cellphone. Before she could even pull up her sister's number, there was a small electrical shock to her hand, and the machine died. Marina looked up. Barely an arm's length away stood Dias, smiling cruelly, lightning playing around the fingers of his right hand. "Who are you?" Marina said breathlessly, without expecting an answer.

Stavros moved around nervously on his seat. Something was different tonight, he could feel it. Something was making it difficult to concentrate. Konstantin and Dimitrios seemed distracted, as well. Thomas was reciting their usual evening prayer, but without the usual presence of spirit. At the point where they would normally have segued into the Lord's Prayer, Thomas instead said: "Holy Spirit, please guide us. Holy Spirit, please lead us. Holy Spirit, please show us the way." Outside, Stavros thought. That back alley two blocks away. Something's wrong there. "The back alley behind the club," Konstantin said. Dimitrios stared at him: "You felt it too?" "Me too!" Stavros almost shouted. "We should probably go there," Thomas concluded. "Holy Spirit, keep guiding us. God, keep us safe. Amen. Let's be careful."

The summer night was hot and oppressive, with a hint of upcoming thunder. Stavros hung a little back, content to hide his slight form behind those of his brawnier friends. Neon signs flashed. Taxi cabs cruised the street. People walked by, most in flashier dress than their little boardgames-and-prayer-group, most talking and laughing out loud in the grip of intoxication. The little back alley seemed deserted by comparison. Closed and locked doors, shuttered windows, parked cars, some overflowing garbage bins. Directly behind the club was an unhealthy-looking oak tree, and beneath it they could see a man kneeling over a woman, pushing her down on the ground, lifting his hand as if to rip her dress off. "Stop!" Thomas called, and his voice seemed to echo between the walls of the narrow alley. The assailant didn't let go of his victim, but he twisted around to look at them over his shoulder. Pure beauty, Stavros thought. Pure hate. Pure evil. He immediately scolded himself: no human being is purely evil, just as nobody is purely good except Jesus. But his impression remained. "Get lost," Thomas said. "Leave her alone." The assailant sneered. "And who are you to command me?" he said. "I am Thomas, a servant of the Lord Christ," Thomas said simply. "I am Konstantin, a servant of the Lord Christ," Konstantin repeated. Dimitrios added his voice, and Stavros hurriedly stepped out of the other's shadow to face down this ancient evil would-be rapist. A corner of his mind insisted that he and his friends were being ridiculous, that they should attack the guy or call the police or something, not recite corny lines. Stavros repeated it anyway, and the guy fell back a little, as if he'd been struck. The woman took the opportunity to wiggle out and run away. Stavros didn't blame her. "And by that name you command me to be gone," the man said mockingly. "You said it," Thomas said calmly. "By the name of Jesus Christ, we command you to be gone." "Damn your Lord to Hell, and you with him!" "He's been there," Thomas said. "Now he rules it," Dimitrios added. The man in front of them let out a frustrated scream. Lightning struck the oak tree, and Stavros jumped back in surprise. When he'd recovered, the unknown man had disappeared. "Where did he go?" Stavros asked. "Behind these cars?" Konstantin suggested. "No, he's not here. Strange. He must have gotten away somehow." "Guys, that was wild," Dimitrios said. "We faced down a bad guy, and won. Woo!" "Where did the woman go?" Thomas said. "We should make sure that he doesn't catch her again." "I don't think he can," Konstantin said. "She ran past us towards the street, right? And he could hardly have gotten past us - he must have gone deeper into the alley." "And even if he got past us..." Stavros said. "Even if he did, she had time to get away into a taxi, or a restaurant, or something." "You're probably right," Thomas said. "All right, I know it's late, but how about we all go back to my place anyway? Have some more tea, give proper thanks to God, calm down a little. What do you say?" "Best idea you ever had, man," Dimitrios said. Stavros just smiled.

#ester writes

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