#Victoria's still the one he's known the longest but it's not SUCH a lead

[spookyscarydemonbabe]

Sweet Boy

Summary- Ralphie always sees you sitting on your front porch every morning while having tea and chatting with your girlfriends. He’s been so nervous to actually say anything around you, but today is the day that changes that.

Genre- Fluff

Warnings- None :)

Tag List- @wheels-of-despair

Word Count- 2.0k

Ralph took a deep breath as he made his way down the sidewalk, doing his best to think calming thoughts as one of his servants walked behind him with a large bouquet of flowers in his hand, Ralph playing with the corners of the envelope in his hands.

He had been both anticipating and dreading this day for who knows how long.

Almost every single day he’s taken a walk down this path he’s seen you, sitting so prettily on the front porch, sipping your tea and gossiping with all your friends. And of course he was a gentleman, waving and saying hello to you all whenever he walked past, but every time you gave him a little wave he couldn’t help but blush and get flustered.

You were absolutely beautiful, always wearing the prettiest dresses and always looking so bright and cheerful and you were so kind to him.

You always smiled whenever you saw him walking down the street and you gave him a little wave as he approached you and all your girlfriends, and of course you always saw the pink blush spread across his cheeks whenever he saw you. As soon as he walked away you and all the girls would giggle and fawn over him, and they always noticed how he acted differently towards you than all the rest of them.

He would perk up as soon as you saw him, he’d blush whenever you said hello back to him, and his eyes lingered on you the longest before he made his way back down the sidewalk.

He was so cute you couldn’t help but get a little crush on the sweet boy.

Overtime as you continued your routine of waving to one another whenever he was on one of his walks you learned each other’s names, and since then he’s always made sure to address you personally when he approached you and the girls on the porch.

But today he was on a different walk than normal. He had adored you and he wanted to make his feelings known. Though he knew you were under no obligation to reciprocate, he still wanted to show you how beautiful he thought you were.

He had gotten you a bouquet of flowers in the same light pink as the sundress he always saw you in and had written you a personal invitation to ask if you would let him be your escort to the party he and Victoria had planned for that evening. And of course all the other girls would be invited too, he just wanted to be able to take you himself and show you a good night, like a gentleman should.

As he made his way closer to the porch you had always sat on, he saw a few of your girlfriends getting everything set up for your usual morning routine. Fluffing the pillows on the chairs, placing the teacups and the pot onto the table, setting out the little cakes and sandwiches to snack on as you gossiped and waited for Ralphie to walk by. As soon as they saw him they waved,

“Hello Ralphie!” One of them called out to him as she waved from the porch, gasping as soon as he saw the servant behind him holding the flowers, “Those are gorgeous, whoever’s getting them must be pretty special.”

“Well, since you’ve mentioned it, they are for someone.” He said to the girls with a shy smile, clearly very nervous to be there, “Is (y/n) here?”

The two of them gasped excitedly the moment he said your name.

“Wait right here, we’ll go get her for you!”

They ran inside, shouting your name as they searched for you. Ralph had stood before the stairs leading up to the porch as he waited for your friends to bring you back out front, and he felt more nervous than anything else he had ever done before.

He made sure to make himself look a bit nicer than he usually did on these walks. His hair was slicked and his curls were waved so elegantly, he had worn out his favorite baby blue trousers with the deep blue suspenders to match over his white shirt. He wanted to make sure he looked at least a little presentable when you saw him.

He could hear the clicking of your shoes approaching closer and closer and he took one last deep breath to ready himself for your presence, and once he saw you it was like the air in his lungs was nonexistent. You had always looked so pretty from your seat on the porch but this was the first time he was able to get a good look at you close up. And you were so much more beautiful than he expected.

Your hair was still a bit messy from just being up but wisps of it framed your face so delicately, you had once again worn that beautiful pink sundress that fit your body perfectly, and you had still only been in your housecoat and shoes but he didn’t care what you wore or how you looked in the mornings, everything about you was gorgeous and when he saw the light blush sweep across your cheeks once you saw him at the steps he couldn’t help but have a slight tint of pink to his cheeks as well. He had never seen someone blush for him before, and although it wasn’t something extravagant, it made him feel so much more at ease.

As your friends dragged you onto the porch, they stood behind and watched with eager smiles in the doorway, anticipating the interaction that was about to happen between the two of you. None of them had ever received this kind of affection from a man and they were so excited that you were the very first of the three to get it. You turned to them with a giggle and tried to shush them before turning back to Ralph at the steps, doing your best to fix yourself up to look at least a little bit put together,

“Good morning Ralph.” You said to him with a smile.

He smiled back, his eyes doing their best from looking away but he couldn’t help his nerves getting the best of him,

“Good morning (y/n)…” He cleared his throat to try and recollect his thoughts, “I hope this isn’t too forward, but i’ve brought these for you.”

His servant behind him handed him the flowers and he stepped forward to give them to you. You stepped down and took the bundle of flowers into your arms, admiring each and every one of them. He must’ve put so much thought into how he wanted it to look as you could see there were all different flowers of varying sizes and shades of pink and white. They were breathtaking.

“Ralph, this is so thoughtful! They’re beautiful, thank you.” You said to him with a smile, a light blush rising to your cheeks as you held the bouquet in your arms.

Your friends were still watching from the doorway, happily whispering to one another about how adorable it was the way that Ralph was acting with you. So sweet and so kind, almost childlike with the way he was blushing and stuttering whenever he spoke to you.

“I also brought you this…” He stepped forward once more and handed you the envelope in his hands, the edges a bit bent from his nervous fidgeting, but it was still so pretty in your hands.

You handed the bouquet to your friends behind you and took the envelope from Ralph, carefully opening it and reading the letter inside.

𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 (𝓎/𝓃),

𝐼 𝒹𝑜 𝒽𝑜𝓅𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈𝓃’𝓉 𝓉𝑜𝑜 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒾 𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒾 𝑔𝑜 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓀𝓈 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔.

𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝓂𝒾𝓁𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓋𝑜𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝒶𝓈 𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓎, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓇 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓈 𝒾 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒾𝓅 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓉𝑒𝒶 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝒷𝓈𝑜𝓁𝓊𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝓈𝓉𝓊𝓃𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝒾 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓌 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽𝓉𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓊𝓅 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓎.

𝐼’𝒹 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓂𝒶𝓁 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜��� 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝒶𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓂𝓎 𝓈𝒾𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝒹 𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑜𝓌 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑒𝓈𝒸𝑜𝓇𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒.

𝐼𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝒹 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝒾𝒸𝓉𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓂𝒾𝓁𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝒶𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 ‘𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓁𝑜’ 𝓉𝑜 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓀𝓈 𝒾’𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝒷𝓈𝑜𝓁𝓊𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝓃𝑜 𝒾𝓈𝓈𝓊𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉. 𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓊𝓃𝒸𝑜𝓂𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾 𝒶𝓅𝑜𝓁𝑜𝑔𝒾𝓏𝑒 𝒾𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝓇𝒾𝒷𝓊𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝒶𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇.

𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝒾𝓂𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝑒𝓍𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝒻 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈 𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾’𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒶 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉.

- 𝑅𝒶𝓁𝓅𝒽

Your heart was beating fast as you read the letter once more, thinking that this was just a dream.

The sweet boy you had always admired from afar had felt the same way about you that you had felt about him.

All you were hoping for was that one day he might stay a bit longer than normal, maybe join you and your friends for tea or some treats and allow you to get to know him better than just your simple morning greetings and here he was, a bouquet of flowers and a handwritten letter asking you if you’d let him take you to a party.

It was a dream come true.

You looked back up to Ralph and he had looked to you with hopeful eyes, and seeing the smile on your lips made his heart flutter.

“We’d love to come tonight Ralph. And i’d love it if you would escort me there.”

He had the biggest smile on his face that you’d ever seen, and the sparkle in his eyes showed you just how ecstatic he was to hear you say yes. Though you could tell just how excited he was to hear that from you, he really wasn’t sure what to say.

You giggled and stepped down the porch steps, approaching him slowly and reaching your hand up to cup his cheek as you kissed the other side. You could feel him trembling beneath your fingers but as you pulled away and saw the blush on his cheeks you could see how badly he had wanted that.

“And you’ll still say hello to us on your walks, won’t you?”

He nodded quickly,

“Yes!” He nearly shouted, a big smile still on his lips, “Yes, of course. It’s my most favorite part of the day. I just hope tonight won’t change that. I promise i’ll show you a wonderful time!”

“We can’t wait!” You gave him one last kiss on the cheek before stepping back up the porch.

“I’ll be here at 7:30 to pick you up darling, if that’s alright with you?”

“Of course it is! We’ll be ready by then, i can’t wait!” You went back to your friends who were nearly jumping in excitement as you showed them the letter that Ralph had written for you before turning back once more to give him a little wave goodbye.

He waved back, a smile still on his lips and blush still covering his cheeks. He had taken a deep breath before him and his servant made their way back home, only to hear you shout to him from the porch,

“Goodbye my love!”

His servant had to keep him held up from nearly fainting once he heard that little pet name escape your lips.

Now he just had to find the perfect outfit to wear for the party. And of course another bouquet for you.

Roses would do perfectly.

Roses meant love, passion, beauty. All of those reminded him of you.

If he could pick you every rose on this side of the country he would do so with no hesitation, only to see that gorgeous smile he loved to see every single morning. And he couldn’t wait to see it that night.

[potsmart]

10 Historical Figures Who Used Marijuana

The legalization of marijuana in certain parts of the globe is significant, but cannabis has been a around for a long, long time and was quite popular among some of history’s greatest and most celebrated figures. After reading this, you’ll understand just how much of an impact cannabis has had on our world.

#1: George Washington

The general of the revolutionary army and the first President of the United States liked to grow hemp on his farms. The fibres of the plant were perfect for making rope, but the president also hailed it for its medicinal benefits. Washington liked to smoke marijuana to help with his chronic tooth pain. Some sources claim the president said that a pipeful of cannabis paired well with any drink. This wasn’t uncommon behaviour for the time either, with Thomas Jefferson and James Maddison being two other U.S. presidents to enjoy some ‘erb from time to time.

#2: John F. Kennedy

Perhaps there’s something about being president that leads one to take up smoking weed. John F. Kennedy was known to suffer from severe back pains. At least, that was his rationale for smoking a joint every so often. And, with the immense pressures of the Cuban missile crisis (among other things), a little doobie here and there likely served to ease his nerves as well.

#3: Christopher Columbus

There’s no hard evidence that this the troubled world explorer smoked any weed himself. However, it is known that Columbus brought hemp seeds with him on his expeditions to the new world. The crew would grow marijuana wherever they went, and never have to worry about running out. Pot was widely used on their travels across the Atlantic, so we can see certainly understand why there might be problems if supplies were to run low. It seems Columbus may have been oner of the world’s first pushers. ;)

#4: Queen Elizabeth I

Marijuana was commonly grown on farms in the early Americas, but they had to get it from somewhere. Queen Elizabeth I was supposedly a strong supporter and user of cannabis. It’s purported, that she would fine residents if they owned 60 acres of land and didn’t use any of it to grow pot. Sources say she always had a stash of quality cannabis on hand for medicinal purposes, or if she was just in the mood. Could it have been the relaxing properties of cannabis that made Queen Elizabeth I advocate for peace in her country? We’ll leave that one up to the historians (but yes, it most definitely was.) ;)

#5: Queen Victoria

Those English Queens sure knew how to party. Being the second-longest ruling monarch of Britain would have to be somewhat stressful. Perhaps that’s why Queen Victoria liked to use marijuana to treat many of her ailments. Her private physician would prescribe cannabis for everything from menstrual cramps to headaches. He wrote in his notes that marijuana is “one of the most valuable medicines we possess.” An entire era was named after Queen Victoria, due to her influence over the UK and Great Britain which, without this miracle drug, might look a lot different today.

#6: Carl Sagan

One of the most influential astronomers and authors of his time, Carl Sagan changed the way we see the universe and how we think about and contemplate life beyond our own planet. Carl Sagan also loved to smoke weed and wasn’t remotely shy about it. Although at first, he advocated in print for the destigmatization of marijuana under the alias of “Mr. X” while there was still a huge stigma around cannabis use, later in life, he left nothing to interpretation, stating unequivocally that recreational weed helped him to generate ideas for his books. 

#7: William Shakespeare

Speaking of marijuana helping to get the creative juices flowing, William Shakespeare, one of the greatest playwrights in history, was seemingly a prolific cannabis user. Clay pots on his property were found to contain traces of cannabis in them, which date back to when Shakespeare was alive. Some people believe there’s no way one person could write so much in their lifetime, but if the man was smoking reefer then that would pretty much explain it.

#8: Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas is one of the best-known French authors in the world. His fictional works entertain people to this day, while his non-fictions shape how we understand the past. The author of The Three Musketeers, has said that pot has helped him find inspiration when working on his books. If you consider his output, it’s clear that he’s “gotten inspired” quite a bit over his lifetime.  

#9: The Ancient Greeks

Weed was so common in Ancient Greece that we can’t single out any one individual. Seriously, read some Greek mythology; Zeus turned into a goose in order to seduce a woman?? It appears that everyone was smoking pot during this time period. But on a more serious note, so much of western philosophy and civilization came from the Greeks. If marijuana was so widespread during this critically formative period, then this humble plant has truly had a massive amount of influence on the entire world as we know it.

#10: Hua Tuo

This ancient Chinese physician and surgeon is arguably one of the most influential medical practitioners in history, creating the first general anesthetics to aid with surgery. But Hua Tuo is famous for another reason: He invented another herbal anesthesia called Mafeisan, a mixture of wine and hemp, to relax his patients. We presume that Hua Tuo tested his potion out before giving it to patients. Perhaps he never touched it himself though. Yeah – right. ;)

In the history of humanity, Mary Jane has been a major playa. It has impacted, influenced and inspired some of our greatest thinkers, artists and leaders. It’s hard to imagine a world without it. The importance and significance of marijuana is quite apparent, as we continue to make it more widely accessible to people today. 

By the Potmaster General, for Potsmart

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Londerland Bloodlines -- Already Editing The Pre-Game Timeline

Mostly because, the day after I posted it, I had a better idea for triggering Victor's move to Los Angeles while trying to remember when you meet Samantha in the main game (whom Victoria is replacing -- turns out it's right after you get the "Dead Ex" quest from Isaac). Rather than Victoria sending him a letter saying her parents (and thus she) aren't moving back to Burtonsville, I imagine it going down closer to this:

-->First of all, I've compressed the timeline down some -- I felt like Victor and Victoria were dating for way too long, especially given their canonical relationship is formed in a much, much shorter period of time. So I've moved the date of their first meeting to late April, and the date of the "Corpse Bride" incident to late June. This means Victor and Victoria were dating for roughly two months, and then the below also takes place over roughly two months, which feels more realistic (Victoria is willing to put up with a lot from her parents, but not quite THIS much)

-->Anyway, yes, at the end of June, after the kidnapping and Emily and all of that, Maudeline, Finis, Victoria, and Hildegarde all go to the summer house to destress, and for a while, everything is okay

-->Maudeline and Finis decide to take the opportunity of being away from the Van Dorts to start introducing Victoria to new suitors once more; an annoyed Victoria, not ready to date again, turns them down

-->There are an increasing number of fights about this -- Victoria finally forces herself to go out on a date with one Augustus Giovanni one evening in September, but she hates the experience (not in the least because Augustus refuses to eat anything and creeps her out) and fakes illness to get out of it early

-->Victoria finally has enough shortly after Augustus and decides she wants out -- with Hildegarde's help, she scrapes up enough money for a plane ticket and a hotel for a little while and flies out to Los Angeles herself

-->Her intention was to send Victor a letter explaining she'd moved so he'd know where to contact her going forward, leaving it with Hildegarde to post -- however, poor Hildegarde loses the letter when Maudeline interrogates her about Victoria's flight. Maudeline takes the letter, destroys it, and sends her own letter to Victor telling him Victoria is "gone" and not to contact them again

-->Victor receives the letter and is stunned, with his brain bouncing back and forth between "did she even care for me, maybe she got sick of me while she was away" and "what the hell did her parents do to make her just up and leave like that" -- either way, he knows he's never finding out where she went from the Everglots, and decides if Victoria can leave her parents, he can too

I feel like this scenario works better with the characters as they're established -- Victoria didn't want to break permanently with Victor, after all, she just wanted some time to get herself back together after a traumatic experience. And then her parents started retraumatizing her and -- well, it all got to be a little much. AND this allows me to note when she met one of the Giovanni clan! So good news all around. :)

Oh! And an idea that I just had while posting this -- maybe the reason she’s coming out of the Cavoletti Cafe when she encounters Victor and Alice isn’t because she’s a patron, it’s because she’s a waitress. She needs a job if she’s been in L.A. the longest out of the mains, after all! So maybe she’s just coming off her shift when she spots her ex? Oooh, I like that. . .

[neacle]

also all of the ship asks for Dinahboose because themmmmmm ;-;

PRE-RELATIONSHIP

How did they first meet? Well, they've known each other the longest, and they met when C.B arrived to Apollo Victoria. Dinah has lived there her whole life.

What was their first impression of each other? Dinah thought C.B was funny and sweet, and C.B thought Dinah was sweet and caring, they got along quickly, and complimented each other well

Did any of their friends or family want them to get together? A few months after the race, Ashley and Buffy started to sense some tension between them and kinda tried to spur Dinah on. Meanwhile, Dustin is quick to spot feelings blooming and tried to encourage C.B.

Who felt romantic feelings first? Hard to say, both started to feel them gradually and over time pretty much at the same time.

Did either of them try to resist their feelings? Yes lmao, Dinah because she didn't want to jump into another thing after being so long with Greaseball, and also because C.B has never expressed any sort of interests in girls before, so she tried to keep it to herself. And C.B was unsure about his feelings and wanted to work out why and how he suddenly felt this way about his best friend, that happened to be a girl. And it's not like she'd ever go for a scrawny little guy like him after she's been with a big engine like Greaseball....

If you had told one of them that the other would be their soulmate, what would they think? "What? That's silly, he's my best friend and he likes guys" "What? That's silly, she's my best friend and I like guys"

What would their lives be like if they had never met? I think Dinah would be even more unsure of herself than if she didn't have C.B in her life, and Greaseball and a lot f other guys would have walked over her even more. And C.B would still continue with his crashes and sabotaging, and maybe it'd go so bad that he'd just get worse and worse (even if i personally HC him as only crashing trains in races to help GB win, otherwise he's mostly full of shit and lies lmao)

GENERAL

Who initiated the relationship, and how did it go? Dinah did I guess, she got caught in a moment and went in for a kiss 😌 It went surprisingly well

Did they have an official first date? If so, what was it like? I guess so! Damn I haven't thought about a date yet hmmmm But yes ofc they'd go on a official date, and it would be a little awkward but very sweet

What was their first kiss like? Sweet and unsure, and then hungry and passionate. They're both very greedy lol

Were they each other’s first anything (kiss, relationship, etc.)? Well, I guess this is C.B's first real relationship, with any person, and specifically with a girl. Before that he just fucked around like a horny little gremlin

What’s their height difference? Age difference? Dinah is 160 cm, and C.B is 162 cm (so 5,2 and 5,3 ft) And Dinah is 30 years old, and C.B 29

What’s their relationship with each other’s families? Well, Ashley and Buffy are supportive, even if they're a little careful with his history with sabotaging. Pearl is still on the offense, but wants to be a good sport for Dinah. Greaseball was shocked at first, he didn't see it coming, and it takes a while for him to warm up to the idea. The freight all like Dinah, so they're on board, and Dustin and Ashley are besties so

Who takes the lead in social situations? Both? They're very socially adept and likes to mingle, tho Dinah is shy when she doesn't know the person, so then C.B steps in

Who gets jealous easier? Dinah I think, once she's in a relationship she tends to get clingy. But C.B isn't far behind, tho he tends to show it in more quiet and self concious ways

Who whispers inappropriate things in the other’s ear? C.B lmao, he loves to make Dinah blush

LOVE

Who said “I love you” first? Dinah, she's more comfortable and vocal about things overall

What are their primary love languages? Cute nicknames, touches, handholding, stroking the hair, cuddling

Who uses cheesy pick-up lines? C.B, they're terrible, but they make Dinah laugh so

How often do they cuddle/engage in PDA? Very, very much. They hold hands like all the time, and cuddle whenever they sit together, and Dinah loves to kiss his red cheeks

Who initiates kisses? Both, they're like i mentioned very greedy lmao

Who’s the big and little spoon? Dinah has always been the little spoon, so she tends to cuddle up to C.B, but they sometimes switch or just sleep embracing eachother

What are their favorite things to do together? Sing, dance, bake, braid flowers. In the winter they switch their wheels to blades and go ice skating on the nearest lake, but they've always done that lol

Who’s better at comforting the other? C.B is better at comforting Dinah, he's done it for most of their friendship after all. But Dinah is slowly starting to see outside her own bubble too, and she's very good at comforting as soon as she leans into it

Who’s more protective? Dinah lmao She a moma bear

Do they prefer verbal or physical affection? Both? Or well, Dinah prefers both, while C.B is more physical

What are some songs that apply to their relationship, in-universe or otherwise? All Shook Up by Elvis Presley Ganz Allein, naturally lol (preferably with Kapa or Hans) Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye I will Always Love You by Dolly Parton

What kind of nicknames do they call each other? C.B calls Dinah "Dee, Dee-dee, babe" Dinah calls C.B "Cee, Ceeb, sugah, honey, my guy, my lil' man"

Who remembers the little things? Both, they're very good at remembering things lol

DOMESTIC LIFE

If they get married, who proposes? C.B would, tho i don't think they'll ever get officially coupled, but we'll see lol

What’s the wedding like? Who attends? Small and intimate, lots of flowers, their closest friends and family

How many kids do they have, if any? What are they like? No kids. I imagine Dinah would perhaps want some, but C.B is not parent-material, they'll take it when and if they get there

Do they have any pets? I imagine that they would love to have some small critters around, and no this is not only because it's you Jenny, but i can see them have chickens lol Dinah would use the eggs for baking and cooking

Who’s the stricter parent? Again, no kids prob But Dinah would be stricter

Who worries the most? Dinah, she's used to certain things going her way and she's used to being in control and wanting everything to look good and function. C.B goes more with the flow

Who kills the bugs in the house? Both? Or Dinah lets them out

How do they celebrate holidays? Huge dinners, and lovely desserts, with their close kin

Who’s more likely to convince the other to come back to sleep in the morning? Both of them lmao, but they also work the same hours so they pretty much get up at the same time anyway

Who’s the better cook? Again, they don't really *need* to eat, but Dinah, definitely. But C.B is very observant and likes to learn

Who likes to dance? Booooth, they dance a lot, and have for a long time

[lu-undy]

Chapter 18 - SBT

Here it is!

"Hey, M!"

"Eddy. Oh, sorry, is it your lunch break?" 

Mundy had opened the door to the hunting shop only to find his friend devouring a sandwich on the counter, a slice of tomato peeking out of it. 

"Y-mmh, yeah, it's alright though, pal.  C'mere and sit down."

Mundy pulled "his" stool and sat opposite his friend. 

"So, what's up? Got any news about Johnson's stuff?"

"I got a lead."

Eddy's eyes shone in excitement. 

"Oh man! Did you come to me 'cause you need a rifle?" Eddy dropped his sandwich on the counter.

"Eddy."

"I got exactly what you need? Look, I received those brand news models, they're super good-" 

"Eddy." 

The small man grabbed one of the rifles behind him and showed it to Mundy. 

"Now, they got this new system where basically-"

"Eddy!" Mundy's voice got louder to interrupt his friend. It startled him. 

"What?" 

Mundy sighed. 

"I said I wouldn't touch a rifle again and I intend to keep that promise. Get it out of my sight." 

"No harm in just looking…?" Eddy pushed the end of his sandwich away and laid the rifle on the counter. "Now, as I was sayin' - oh…" 

When he put the rifle on the counter, Mundy got off his stool and took a few steps back as if the gun was radiating death itself. 

"Take it away." Mundy calmly asked, but Eddy saw him gritting his teeth.

"A-Alright…" And he did as he was told. 

"I have a lead but it doesn't mean that I need a gun. No one ever needs a gun. No one, and especially not me." Mundy said, still a few feet away from the counter. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and got close to the counter again. 

"So what's your lead then?" 

"Not sure exactly but I don't need that filth." Mundy nodded at the row of rifles behind his friend. 

"Fair enough. What's the plan then?" Eddy asked. 

"Kill time until dinner time." 

Eddy watched as his friend fell deep in thought again, his gaze was empty. The little man knew what he had to do in that case and that was to ignore Mundy and get back to his normal life. He grabbed the end of his sandwich and turned the radio on. 

Unbeknownst to the shopkeeper, Mundy was trying to plan the evening. He would need some clothes, a shave, and nicer hair no doubt. He looked at the nearest display case and saw his reflection. His messy stumble and slightly long hair wouldn't do. But he didn't want to go to a barber. He didn't have the strength to go and interact with yet another human being. Mundy had already been back for a few weeks and he had depleted his social energy.

He would shave on his own and tie his hair in a ponytail. That would do. For his clothes, he had an old suit somewhere in his van. It was black, but it would do. Black was classy, right? Good, he had a plan now.

"Right…" He got up and collected his hat.

"Good luck, but I know you won't need it." 

"Thanks, mate." Mundy left and found his van again. He slipped in and fastened his seatbelt. A good nap somewhere calm would be nice, to charge his batteries and be efficient in the evening. 

She drove, the van, and he enjoyed the low purrs of the engine, the vibrations and the sound. He switched gears and was now out of town on a strip of asphalt that split the desert. Her constant rumble lulled him and he rolled the window down. He rested his elbow on the door and tilted his head in the hollow of his hand. 

After a long drive on a lonely road, she parked in front of the lake. Mundy hopped off and took a minute to take in the view and stretch, smell some fresh air too. He removed his boots and socks and walked to the shore barefoot. He let the cold water hug his feet and the coolness slapped some life into him.

"Ah…" 

He looked at the water lazily hugging his toes before withdrawing slowly, and coming back with the next gentle wave. Mundy had time to kill so he took his time and enjoyed the wet and cool sensation. He pulled his trousers legs up and took a step more. Now the water was at the level of his ankles. Ah, he needed a chair… 

He went to the back of the van and grabbed his foldable chair, placed it on the shore of the lake and sat down under the sun, the water coming and going to his feet. Mundy relaxed, leaned back on his chair and pulled his hat to cover his eyes from the very bright sun. The heat on his body and the rhythmic embrace of the water at his feet was like a lullaby to a baby and he fell asleep. 

Mundy woke up hours later, rested and warm. 

"Right, gotta get ready for this." 

He bathed in the lake and went to the back of his van, a towel around his waist. He then took his razor and everything he needed to make his face look decent again. He went back to the lake and sat on his chair, before starting shaving. The surface of the water acted like his mirror. He stared at a face that he thought hadn't changed in a decade. But of course it did. 

"Ouch!"

He cut himself. Mundy ignored it and finished shaving. When he was done, he went back to his van. He opened the cupboard that contained his clothes and pushed the polo shirts aside. There was one thing hung there.

"Here it is." 

The black suit. His only suit. It hadn't been touched in ten years. White shirt, black jacket, black trousers. No vest though, he couldn't stand it. Vests were always too tight, they suffocated him. The bowtie was efficient enough on its own to do that…! 

Mundy's fingers hovered to the suit. They were trembling. Last time he had put this suit on… 

"C'mon." 

He took it off the cupboard and put it on as fast as he could, to not let his mind think about it all too much. He then rummaged through his drawers to find something to tie his hair with. 

"Ah, bugger…"

Mundy only found some elastic bands or bits of fabrics. He used one of the elastic bands and added a black long piece of fabric like a ribbon, to cover the cheap rubber, before adding a touch of deodorant.

When he raised his head again, he saw his reflection on the window and barely recognised himself. His face was very…. visible now. There was no hair or hat to hide it. 

Mundy's eyes darted left and right before he found his glasses and put them on again. Now he felt better, not as naked as before. After taking a glance at his watch, he hopped at the front of his van and drove to town. It was high time he got his dinner. 

-- The Queen Victoria -- 

"That's a lot of people…" Mundy mumbled to himself. 

"Sir?" 

"Huh?" The Aussie landed back to reality. He had entered the restaurant and was looking left, right, up and down. Never had he set foot in a place that fancy before. His eyes took it all in and he pretended it was normal. The patrons dressed as if they were about to meet the Queen herself, the walls draped in dark blue, the massive chandeliers above his head and his own reflection on the tiled floor. 

"Did you book in advance, Sir?" 

The penguin-like waiter was addressing the hunter. 

"Yes… Name's Emme."

The waiter checked the lengthy register below his eyes.

"Ah, yes, I see. Pray follow the young man here." 

Mundy followed the other waiter and noticed he was wearing a dark blue and golden attire, just like the one his dear Antonio Sanchez did. But it wasn't him. The name embroidered on it wasn't the one he was looking for. 

"If you would be so kind as to take a seat here, Sir." The waiter pulled the chair for Mundy to sit. "Here is the menu, I shall be back shortly." 

The Aussie nodded and looked around him. Couples, business partners, friends,  all filthy rich people. And then there was this man with a pony tail and yellow tinted aviator glasses… He took the menu and glanced over it. 

"Bugger…" 

He couldn't afford much of what was there so he flipped the pages straight to the desserts. He would order the cheapest one and would take his longest to eat it. 

Mundy's eyes wandered left and right. Any time he saw a waiter, he would squint to read the name on their jacket, but didn't see Sanchez. One of them stopped at his table and he ordered whatever that chocolate thing was that only cost one single eyeball...

"Ladies and Gentlemen…"

Oh what now…? Mundy thought, before the lights in the dining area turned down low and his attention was drawn naturally to the stage. 

"Here is the man you have all been waiting for…" The conductor was talking in a microphone. "After a brilliant career in the heart of France where he sang for kings and queens, legends of the movies and famous celebrities known worldwide, here he is… Lulu!" 

A man in a black suit walked forward to the microphone on the stage. Mundy looked left and right. People seemed very eager to hear him. No wonder, the man had apparently sung for rich and famous people!

But that did mean that the attention of all the people around Mundy weren't on him. Perfect window to strike… 

The Aussie had noticed the CCTV cameras. There were enough to spot the moves of the tiniest mouse. His eyes scanned the crowd intensely. The waiters came and went. 

Mundy's dessert landed in front of him and he nodded in thanks. He saw a leaflet slip to the table. 

"Oh, you dropped that."

"No, Sir, it's for you."

Mundy looked down at the small piece of paper. It was a… an advert? Mundy flipped it and on the back was a coupon. Half price on a dessert for the next show with that overly fancy French singer. Mundy slipped it in his pocket and looked at the plate in front of him.

He had chosen a chocolate cake of some sort. God knew what it was but the smell made his mouth water instantly and his attention was drawn back to his plate. He took a spoonful of it and the sweet pastry melted on his tongue. Oh it was rich and the chocolate was dark and strong, powerful even. The chocolate powder that was sprinkled on top stuck to his palate and as his tongue wiped it away, he felt the exquisite bitterness of cocoa. 

Gosh, that's good… 

His eyes went back up to the orchestra. It was quite big in terms of the number of musicians. The brass section was complete, the woods too. Mundy's gaze stopped at the saxophones. He used to play it, the sax, and he loved it. Ah, but those were other days, days where he actually would make a bit of money out of it, playing in pubs and local festivals… Mundy sighed. Those events had happened in a whole other life.

His eyes got pulled back to the front of the scene, where the man with the elegant suit was singing. That bloke sure looked like a suit was comfortable to wear… His vest had white wavy patterns that shone but not too brightly. It must have been velvet or something. There were the same patterns on his trousers on the sides, but they were black on black, much more discreet. 

Ah… 

That man knew what he was doing with his voice and the posters around town didn't lie… Mundy looked at him intensely. There he was, singing as if it was his last song, his brow furrowed at times, under the intensity of his words, and he would close his eyes. Other times, he would relax, his shoulders would sink, his eyes open slowly, revealing in between the long black eyelashes some very light blue eyes. 

Hm. 

Yeah, right there, right now, Mundy wished he had someone he could hold hands with, on the table. Someone who would slide his fingers through his own, keep him warm inside, make his chest shrink and burn and burst. 

Hm… 

Mundy rubbed his eyes and took more of his dessert. He wished the singer could stop. Mundy's musical ear from his days with the sax taught him how to appreciate a voice and damn that man had a bloody good one! And the lyrics… 

"When you knew that it was over

Were you suddenly aware

That the autumn leaves were turning

To the colour of her hair…"

Mundy shivered and his shoulders wiggled as he tensed on his seat. He had stopped listening to music for that exact reason, even the radio on the van. Since the events ten years ago, music hurt him. Melodies sliced him on the inside but words, lyrics…? They were absolute agony. Not only did they hurt him, they stayed carved in his memory.

That was one of the multiple curses Mundy was afflicted with. He was a professional killer with a sensitive soul. It was a curse but also necessary for him, for his work. Without empathy, he wouldn't want to save those animals. Without empathy, he wouldn't care for those alligators. And without empathy, he wouldn't have put back this black suit. 

Mundy sighed. It didn't suffocate him as much as it did last time he had put it on. No, it's true.

"Round,

Like a circle in a spiral, 

Like a wheel within a wheel,

Never ending or beginning,

In a ever spinning reel"

Well said, mate, well said. Mundy thought that time had rolled exactly in that fashion for the past decade. Round and round. He raised his eyes and they met with the singer's. His hair betrayed his age and gave Mundy the impression he was a bit older than him. His temples and front tuft were more salt than pepper. There were a few lines on his slim face too. But for that, the Aussie was the same. The only difference was that it wasn't time who traced those lines on Mundy's face, but the Australian sun.

"As the images unwind,

Like the circles that you find,

In the windmills of your mind." 

Mundy blinked and that's when it dawned on him. He had been resting his head on his hand, his elbow on the table, looking up at the singer, drinking the poetry in the lyrics of the song. Ah he wished… He wished he had the luxury to dwell on it longer, to let the wave of bittersweetness invade him, wash him, flush him on the inside. 

But nah. He had to find that Sanchez man… 

Mundy managed to unstick his eyes from the show and put his spoon on the empty plate. 

"Everything was alright, Sir?" 

Mundy raised his eyes to the waiter.

"Yeah, very good, thanks." 

"Perfect." The waiter in the blue and golden uniform bowed slightly to take the plate and his name caught Mundy's eye. 

Antonio Sanchez

His eyes popped wide and went back to the young man's face. His skin was darker than Mundy. He had a short, black beard, neatly cut black hair and seemed only a bit younger than Mundy himself. Sanchez spun on his heels and went away. 

That was it! Mundy now had a visual! He knew what the guys looked like! He couldn't follow him in the restaurant but at least he knew his face.

Mundy waited for the singer to finish and the crowd to applaud. He rose from his seat and went back to the counter. He paid what he owed and left to his van.

When the cold night air hit his skin, Mundy took a deep breath and put his hand on his chest. Ooh, he had needed that air, where had it all gone?! 

He walked for quite a while. He didn't want the van to be spotted and noticed. And an old van in a parking lot surrounded by Italian cars just wouldn't do…! 

Mundy let the van drive him back to where he was himself again: the lake. When she braked and parked, he threw the bowtie on the passenger’s seat as well as the ribbon and elastic band from his hair, freeing his brown wavy locks. He sighed as he did so. He hadn’t realised that it was constricting him so tightly. 

He spent his night on his bed as lightly dressed as he could. The suit had been a nightmare to wear but the music had made it somewhat bearable.

[bringmetolife-pwff]

Part One : Chapter Twenty - Nine - Families Coming Together

February 2008

It was now February 1st and William as well as Eric had some leave time in the military to make it back home.  It also meant that it was thirteen days until Evelyn's twenty-fifth birthday.  

The couple had decided that this week they would have both of their families meet officially, without the hassle of running like chickens in different directions.  They had decided to meet up an hour before they had their families meeting up.  

Evelyn had decided to dress up nice for the happy occasion and wore her favourite cowl neck jumper which was a tan a colour and paired with black legging pants and black heels with a red sole from Christian Louboutin.  Her hair was down straight and she wore a bit more makeup than she usually did for the special occasion.  She hoped that it went well and was excited to see how everyone would get along.    

"Can you believe that we've been dating for seven months?" William asked her as she handed him a cuppa tea.  

"I know," Evelyn smiled at him.  "Best seven months of my life so far."

"Mine as well," he brought a hand up to his heart.  "Evelyn, I love you," he told her as he looked into her blue-grayish eyes.

"I love you too," she said back with complete certainty.

"Really?"

"Yes," she exclaimed with a laugh as she walked toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him closer to her.  "Completely.  I feel like in a sense I've always loved you.  I've just been too afraid to admit it," she told him feeling shy as she felt her ears burning up from blushing.  

They had been dating for seven months now and the two of them couldn't be happier.  Of course, they were slightly bummed that they couldn't be with the other more - but with Evelyn's busy career and William's military career it made it slightly impossible.  Therefore, they cherished the times they do get to be with each other which was more than the normal military guy in a relationship.

He brought her closer to him as they made out before they left.

*

They went on through the day with smiles on their faces, knowing how the each other really truly felt about the other.  They felt at peace knowing that and therefore the experience of having their families blend together for the first official time.

Unfortunately Harry wasn't home to make the meeting lighter and make some jokes but the couple was okay with it.

Evelyn had discussed with her family beforehand how to greet the Royal family.  That the women should curtsy and the men bow their heads out of respect to Prince Charles and Camilla.  The Queen would not be joining them today but they were okay with that.  In a way, they welcomed that as it would be a wee bit less stressful for her family.  Evelyn tried calming down her parents, especially her mum, who seemed to be a bit of a nervous wreck weeks leading up to this day.

"Has your mum calmed down a bit?" William asked his girlfriend as she drove to her parents home.

They had decided that since they were still pretty under the radar of the world that they should meet in private.  Not in some other place where they could easily be recognised by the public or paparazzi.  Charles and Camilla thought it was a lovely idea and only wanted her family to be comfortable.

"I think she has," Evelyn told him as she turned left.  "Now she's talking about how excited she is to meet your dad and Camilla."

"Good," William nodded his head.  "She has no reason to be worried.  They already like her based from what they saw at the concert.  All they care about is that she's welcomed me into your family."

"See, I tried telling her that but now I'm thinking you should have been the one to talk to her."

He laughs and shakes his head.  If he were being honest - he was quite excited about this meeting and had been looking forward to it since he had first talked to Evelyn about it.  It was actually her idea with wanting the four parents to meet.  He wanted it to be on her timing not wanting to rush her at all especially with how her last relationship ended.  William respected his girlfriend and loved how much she had grown since the beginning of their relationship.  

"I love your parents, especially your mum.  She's great.  They must really love me if they're allowing you to date me."

"All they care about is how well you treat me and they know you treat me very well," she leaned over and kissed him when they stopped at a red light.

His RPO, Paul, was also with them but he was in a separate car behind them wanting to give them their privacy on the way over.  He trusted Evelyn and so did the Royal family.  At the beginning of their relationship - the family had done an extensive background check on her as well as her family.  She hadn't known it at the time but had found out about it a couple of weeks into them being only friends.  She knew from William that wasn't uncommon especially with a family as prominent and well-known as his.  Prince Charles' and Camilla's RPO's would be with them as well making sure the place was well secured for them that no harm would come to them from any outsiders that might cross the well-gated home.  

*

After finally making it to her parents home, she and William got out of her car as they made their way into the home.  But not before Paul had done his search making sure it was clear which it was.  

It wasn't because Paul didn't trust the Bennett family.  It was because he didn't trust it was because he didn't trust outsiders.  He knew being a protection officer and also being in the Special Forces to always think about everything and always stay focused.  To never assume that anyone has good intentions and stay alert.  

Paul was very loyal to the Royal family and felt it was an honor to serve them, especially Prince William.

"All clear," Paul alerts the couple to which they thank him and enter her parents home.

"Thanks Paul," William thanked his protection officer as he smiled and the couple entered the familiar home.

William loved her parents home.  Although it was very big, her parents made it warm and inviting.  They didn't make it cold.  The Christmas decorations were gone and the decorations from before were back up.

Bran, the english pointer, came running through and almost ran into William he was so excited.  Will's let out a laugh and bent down to pet the old dog.  One thing William had missed about being able to come to her parents home was her dog.  They had a very close bond already as the english pointer licked the princes face making him laugh.  Evelyn took some pictures of William and Bran together before they went into the kitchen where she knew her mum might be.

The couple had brought a dessert that Evelyn made as she sat it down on the counter and hugged her mum.  William's pa and Camilla weren't there yet and they had a few moments to chat with her family before the meeting.

"William," Natasha greeted the boy who had stolen her daughter's heart with a smile.  "So good to see you again," she said as they hugged and kissed on both cheeks.

"Natasha, always a pleasure.  How've you been?"

"I've been well, thanks.  Just making sure everything is all right for your father and Camilla.  And you?"

"I can't complain.  I've been well.  Everything looks great."

"Thanks.  I hope Charles and Camilla will like it."

"They will love it.  Remember they are mainly coming to meet you all.  The food is secondary."

"I know, I know," Natasha smiled at the young prince.  "Why don't you go into the living room and have a chat with Evelyn's siblings?"

"Actually is Peter here?  I wanted to speak to him."

"Of course," Natasha nodded her head.  "He's in his study."

"Thanks.  I'll be back, darling," William told his girlfriend as he looked down at her with a small smile on his face and placed a sweet kiss to her lips.

"Okay," she smiled back as she watched him walk out and in search for her father.  "I wonder what he has to talk to dad about?"

"No idea," Natasha shrugged her shoulders.  "But whilst they are chatting d'you want to help me set up the table along with Vivienne?"

"'Course," she nodded her head and grabbed some silverware and plates as well as napkins to put on the table.  "You look beautiful, mum."

Evelyn complimented her mum as she was helping her set the table.  Natasha's blonde hair was down straight as she had on a bit more makeup on than she normally did.  

"Thank you, my sweet girl."

*

"Hello, Pa," William greeted his father and then Camilla.

William didn't like Camilla for the longest time, knowing that this woman was the reason his parents marriage didn't work out.  But then he had learned that his parents marriage was an arranged marriage and not one where they truly loved each other.  Where it was completely natural.  Not like him and Evelyn.  William had his hand on Evelyn's lower back after she greeted Charles and Camilla as her family was now greeting them and she stepped back, allowing them their time.

They had started to curtsy to the prince and duchess but Charles waved his hand and laughed with his rosy cheeks becoming more obvious.

"Please, don't curtsy to us.  At least in private.  Although, I must say, Natasha - that was a very good curtsy indeed."

"Thank you," she blushed at the princes' comment.  "I've been practicing."

"Well, I can certainly tell."

"And your dress is beautiful," Camilla told the mum.  "May I ask where you bought it?"

"Oh thank you!  It's actually one of Victoria Beckham's designs that she gifted me after my husband designed one of David's tuxedos for an event."

"Lovely," the duchess smiled.  "And how do you do?" Camilla asked Peter.

"Very well, ma'am," Peter greeted the duchess with his charming smile.

Evelyn always thought that her dad was handsome.  It seemed the older he got the more handsome he was.  It seemed as though her dad charmed everyone as Camilla herself had red blushed on her cheeks and laughed to cover it up.  Evelyn's other siblings then greeted the prince and duchess as Mia and Jake along with their twins Samuel and David were there as well.

After they all greeted each other, they headed over to the dining table as Natasha, Evelyn and Vivienne had put the food down on the table allowing everyone to get what they wanted themselves.  

"So Peter, any plans for a new collection anytime soon?" Charles asked with small talk wanting to know more about Peter and his business.

"I am actually releasing a new cologne coming out in May.  I took a step back from releasing so much as I used to and only release new items when I feel like it.  I let Evelyn fill in those gaps with her business."

"Very nice," Charles replied with a smile.  "Well I wish you nothing but success.  You'll have to let me know when you release it so that we can attend."

"I will.  I'll even send it to you so that you can try it out if you would like?"

"I would love that," Charles smiled at Peter.

Natasha had made quite a bit of food as Mia and Vivienne had brought over some things as well. They had a buffet of sorts that had toad in the hole, fish and chips as well as bangers and mash.  Evelyn had made knickerbocker glory which was a layered ice cream sundae that is served in a tall conical glass and she also made jam roly-poly for those who didn't want ice cream.  

Through out dinner Charles and Camilla as well as Evelyn's family started to be more familiar with the other and grew more and more interested in each other.  Jake found out that the Royal family loved to hunt and Charles offered to have Jake and Peter join them some time as well as Evelyn to which they were delighted to.  

*

At one point through out the meeting, David went and sat on Charles' lap making the room be quiet for a moment.

"David get down, you can't -" Mia started to say.

"It's quite alright dear," Charles put a hand up to calm Mia's worries.  "And how old are you?"

"Four," he exclaimed and held up four fingers for the prince making him smile and laugh.

"Hey David," Evelyn gets the attention of her little nephew.  "Why don't you tell him when your birthday is."

"March fifth."

"Really?" Charles asks intrigued as though he was faking a thinking face.  "Well, I'd say we have to do something for both yours and Samuel's birthday.  How about that?"

"Yeah!" the twins exclaimed making Charles and Camilla chuckle.

"Oh you really don't have to do anything," Mia said not wanting them to feel obligated.

"Nonsense.  You all are family now.  And we love little kids so it seems only logical we would throw a party for them.  Would you think so?"

"Don't argue with him, Mia, because he won't give in," Evelyn tells her speaking from experience.

"Okay," Mia smiles at the prince.  "Thank you.  That's so incredibly kind of you both."

"It's our pleasure."

*

"How've you been dear?  Since the tabloid article..." Charles asked Evelyn in private as they were sitting out back and looking out onto the sun set.

"I've been all right," she shrugged her shoulders and tried to muster the best smile she could but Charles could see right through.  "It was hard the morning after but it helped when Harry came over and provided me comfort."

"Ah yes, such a great boy.  You two seem as though you have a very close relationship."

"We do," she nodded her head.  "Both of your sons are great."

"Thank you, I appreciate that dear," he told the blonde and patted her hand in comfort.  "D'you mind if I ask what happened that night?  I understand it's not my place to ask but I have been asked about it quite a lot recently what I think of it and I would just like to get some input on what happened."

"It's all right," Evelyn nodded her head in agreement to the prince.  "I'm okay with talking about it now."

And so she told him.  The prince had let her speak and say what had happened that night.  She told him how wonderful of a friend Harry and the girls were to her and that she eventually told William one night and how absolutely gutted he was.  How he wished he was there to protect her more and that it made him slightly nervous for when they do come out as a couple to the rest of the world.  At the end he gave his input on what he thinks about the whole thing which was quite helpful to Evelyn since he had been in her shoes before.  But not in the same way.  

All in all it was a lovely evening and by the end of night the two families even became friends.  Charles and Camilla gave them their personal mobile numbers to ring them in case they were ever in any trouble or wanted to get together as well.  

*

"How do you think it went?" William asked his girlfriend as they were now back at her place.

"Awkward at first but got better as the day went on," she nodded her head with a smile on her face.  "What did you think?"

"I thought the same.  I think some people have a hard time of trying to be normal around my family and I.  But once they get past the titles and the pleasantries - it makes it easier to just treat us normal."

"I think it helped that Charles and Camilla ended up relaxing later on," she told him as she ran her fingers through his hair and he closed his eyes at the comforting feeling, loving it.  "My family likes to get a little wild at times and it was lovely seeing how your pa was with the twins."

"Your family?  Wild?" William joked they were sitting on her sofa.

"Shut up," Eve pouted knowing he was joking.  "Can you stay the night tonight or do you need to go back to your place?"

"I can stay the night," he told her as he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers.  "God I love you."

"I love you too."

--

Chapter 30 is going to be a special one :)  Sorry for the lateish update.  Last Saturday was my birthday and I started school this week for college.  Please be patient with me as I'm not sure when the next time I can post will be but I try writing through out the week.  hope you all are doing well! thought they might as well say 'i love you' in chapter 29.  Also I have 11 more chapters left of Part 1 to write maybe 10 if I decide to not have 40 chapters.  

[nadineeb]

Hey, it’s Nadine and this is my first blog!

Welcome my dear readers to my first blog post! I want to extend my arms to all of you for reading this blog and the future ones. I’m delighted that I found this platform on the internet which makes me give a stand and voice on things that matters to me and the people around me. All the blogs that I will post here at Tumblr are only my thoughts and opinions. If we don’t have the same stand regarding a matter, feel free to exit. I believe that we all have the right to express ourselves with utmost freedom we can have. I hope we all vibe together. -XOXO, Nads <3

Allow me to introduce myself to the blogging world!

I’m Bernadine Bayangos, a teen from a small town in Isabela, Philippines.

A LOT of people I met outside Region 2 and in the upper part of Luzon, they always tell me “Where is that place?” or sometimes, “Isa - what?? I haven’t heard of it before! It really is a place huh?”. Hearing these things I don’t know how to react to be honest.

Most of the time I try to explain where it is but sometimes, I just shrugged them off because some of the people especially those I met who came from well-known cities offend me. They ask me if we got a mall here or just the random, common sense questions.

Let me tell you, yes, we’ve got malls here where we get our stuff from our day to day living. I felt so lucky that we still have to shop at the farmers’ market. It’s available and open anytime of the day. We can find cheap-priced things and foods that are essential to our daily lives. Some grocery store-bought vegetables cost a fortune unlike in the farmers’ markets.

Well as for clothes, I usually go to Manila every month but since it’s locked down, I order online. The Internet + my love for clothes really make a huge difference especially now that we’re locked down in our areas and can’t travel that far.

I grew up with my family and some extended relatives which are way older than me - my grandparents. I learn my instincts from them - self-defense, way of life, how to be smart, and most importantly, my virtues. That’s also explains why I’m a bit talkative.

I want my Tumblr to be my avenue to express things to others which I cannot do since face to face chatting with your dear friends is not really advisable at this moment.

One of my favorite things to do back then and now, is to read books. I can remember when I was like 6 to 12 years old, when we go to Manila, I could never go back here in the province without the 4 big bags of books and school supplies that I bought from a famous bookstore. Thinking of it now, I quite made my dad go broke. Yikes!

Feeding my love for learning, I’m always a girl that is curious about a lot of things. If I’m not satisfied, I will surely ask about it. Though now, that I’ve grown so much, I refrain myself from asking now that I can solve issues that affects me.

I also love travelling! When I’m somewhere near the ocean or the mountains, I feel that I’m at peace. Not much of a city girl, that I’m tired of being it since then. My favorite place to visit here in the Ph is Cagayan de Oro and its nearby towns. The Dahilayan Adventure Park which has the longest zipline in Asia. You can also visit the Del Monte pineapple plantations and see acres of pineapples while eating a medium-rare steak at their restaurant. If you’re also fond of adventures in line with having to see the beauty of nature, I highly suggest to visit this place!

The people, they are heartwarmingly hospitable. In the hotel we stayed, Limketkai Luxe hotel, the accommodation was amazing. Also, I love to stay there every time because when mom and dad leave me for meetings, there’s a backdoor and an overpass which leads to the entrance of the shopping mall. How I miss!

Cagayan de Oro also holds a special place in my heart because as what I’ve said earlier, I’m fond of reading books whether it is online or a hard copy one. I’ve read the Montefalco Series on Wattpad by Jonaxx, the author, I’ve fallen in love with the place immediately. I feel like one of the main characters whenever I go to CDO.

When I travel I always tend to adapt to the cultures of the place I’m going. It’s a sign of respect to the. Being able to mix in with the crowd is a great advantage for me in the future especially that after I finish my studies, I want to go abroad to master my skills. That’s why I’m always day-dreaming at things that may be going on for the next few years of my life.

After 10 years, I will be 26 by then, I suppose I’m with my family in Australia by then. I’m working as a business associate while studying law at one of the prestigious schools in Victoria.  From then, I can continue to work at the Parliament of Australia in Melbourne. I may still be single by that time, busy building my career, and play with my cats at home after a stressful day.

This is me at the Parliament.

Let’s talk about the 2019 Corona Virus disease that had struck our world last months. I can say that it’s getting a lot worse that I had imagined. I know that our scientists have done great work in finding solutions to this. Money isn’t everything once you’ve get a hit by this virus. I myself can prove that.

I have this auntie who is a doctor and she’s very successful in her field. She even had one of the biggest shares at a hospital but then things got out of hand, she had the disease. There’s nothing she can do except to lie down her bed, get better, fight for it so that once she gets better, she can continue curing her patients.

My grandfather’s cousin, a former senator of the Philippines, also died from this virus. I’m proud to think that he had served our country well, but I’m devastated that he had to die this way, I didn’t even saw his last moments nor his dead body. He is immediately cremated and left the hospital bill with millions of pesos.

This shows that even the strongest person, the most kind, the rich, the nobody – can’t get away if we all are not taking care of our own health. We should love our body more! Think about ourselves more!

Before this pandemic, I did not have this realizations yet. I realized that more than taking care of our body, we should express to our loved ones how we care and love them dearly. We never know when death comes our way. Yes, we do know that we can’t escape it but the thing is, we know that it’ll happen and we can’t accept the fact the God will take them soon. I think that’s the problem, we, people, tend to just shrug it off and don’t make the best out of someone that we love because they will stay, what we can’t accept is that they will stay but not forever. That is why we have regrets.

(one of my best times before this outbreak)

Indeed, life is short as they say. If you’re dealing with your what ifs’ I recommend you don’t. Just make it happen. If you don’t, you’ll spend your life thinking about that `what if’s’ it’ll only make your life nonsense. So for me, I’d rather do it. If it fails, stand up again, fix yourself, and go on. Instead of letting yourself not doing it because of what might happen on the way. Your happiness depends on you. Choose it. Don’t wait for the things  to happen right before your eyes. Act on it and make it happen.

My first blog is a bit long now and I’m getting emotional, I’ll have to say goodbye for now. I’ll see you on my next one. Ciao!

[ofadan]

Soulmate AU // Victoria

notes:  it’s  all  pretty  similar  to  the  current  universe.  the  mark  is  a  timer  for  when  the  other  dies,  but  only  the  person  who  has  it  can  see  it.

          he  doesn’t  believe  in  soulmates  —  he  never  has.  that  is  until  he  meets  victoria.

          the  moment  he  lays  his  eyes  upon  the  light-haired  blonde,  with  a  confident  aura  enveloping  her  in  her  entirety,  everything  clicks.  even  though  there’s  no  foundation  to  build  this  knowledge  on,  he  still  knows  that  she  will  be  the  one  to  guide  him  through  the  tunnels  of  his  own  oblivion  and  help  him  escape.  when  she  smiles  at  him  for  the  first  time,  shyly  as  if  she’s  only  testing  the  waters,  adan  is  overfilled  with  joy  that  is  unlike  any  other  feeling  he  has  ever  experienced  his  entire  life.

          they  find  out  they’re  soulmates  when  they’re  laying  in  bed,  tangled  in  the  mess  of  their  limbs,  panting  and  a  little  awkward  because  of  their  lack  of  experience  in  this  field.  still,  adan  is  beaming,  making  light  of  the  situation  until  his  gaze  lands  on  his  wrist  and  —  oh.  it’s  somewhat  of  a  cliché  to  discover  it  like  this  and  it’s  so  unlike  them  yet  it  makes  sense,  and  the  boy  pokes  at  the  inscription  of  her  name.  there’s  a  timer  under  it;  he’s  heard  tales  about  possessing  the  blessed  or  excruciating  knowledge  of  the  exact  time  of  their  soulmate’s  death.  supposedly,  it’s  to  encourage  you  to  live  a  full  life  with  your  partner  and  help  them  grow  until  they  die,  but  if  you  ask  adan  …  it’s  pretty  fucked  up.  62  years,  107  days,  8  hours,  17  minutes,  and  9  seconds.  that’s  all  she’s  got.  truth  be  told,  it’s  a  relief.  knowing  their  families,  he’s  kind  of  assumed  that  none  of  them  would  ever  get  past  their  thirties.

          “  well?  ”  he  starts  as  he  rolls  over  to  hover  above  victoria,  bracing  himself  on  his  bent  elbows  resting  on  both  sides  of  her  head.  adan  is  in  a  good  mood  —  great  even  —  but  the  girl  seems  to  be  a  little  pale  in  comparison.  “  do  we  get  to  annoy  each  other  for  long?  ”  that’s  the  thing:  they’re  not  allowed  to  explicitly  tell  each  other  how  much  time  they  have  left  or  else,  it  will  decrease  the  numbers.  something  about  keeping  the  balance  of  the  universe  or  some  shit,  but  they  can  still  hint  it.  his  soulmate  offers  a  strained  smile  and  a  nod  before  she  tells  him  she’s  sleepy  and  that  they  will  talk  about  it  tomorrow,  and  he  doesn’t  think  much  of  it.  if  anything,  it  makes  him  proud;  looks  like  his  performance  was  better  than  anticipated.

          they  form  an  unusual  relationship.  as  they  mature  and  grow  older,  they  explore  themselves  outside  their  bond.  it’s  a  silent  agreement  of  theirs,  a  permission;  however,  in  the  end,  it’s  always  just  them,  adan  and  victoria.  it’s  their  job  as  soulmates  to  help  each  other  prosper  in  life  and  become  the  true  version  of  themselves,  but  even  then,  it  feels  natural  and  easy.  the  man  knows  that  if  things  came  to  worst,  they’d  be  there  for  each  other.  they  would  find  one  another.  

          when  adan  turns  eighteen,  he’s  at  the  worst  point  of  his  life.  his  thoughts  are  dark,  drowning  him  in  his  suffocating  depression,  and  each  scar  on  his  body  only  reminds  him  of  the  twisted  life  he’s  living,  even  though  they  don’t  stay  there  for  long  thanks  to  vampire  blood.  thankfully,  he  has  victoria.  it’s  well  known  that  soulmates  have  heightened  empathy  for  each  other  and  they  can  sense  each  other’s  feelings  in  the  matter  of  seconds;  it’s  the  only  thing  that  saves  him  from  the  brink  of  death.  well,  almost.  

          he  should  have  known,  should  have  recognized  the  odd  energy  that  day.  he  smells  worry  and  fear  on  his  soulmate,  but  doesn’t  question  it  —  both  of  them  lead  pretty  dangerous  lives  and  it’s  not  their  first  or  last  time  of  being  concerned  about  each  other.  victoria  convinces  him  to  stay  home  for  breakfast  instead  of  going  out  and  they  have  the  longest  conversation  for  weeks,  and  it’s  nice.  he’s  missed  that,  just  spending  time  with  her,  fingers  laced  together  as  their  hearts  beat  to  the  same  rhythm,  and  it’s  the  kind  of  intimacy  that  is  unusual  to  them  but  welcomed.  they  stay  in  to  watch  movies  under  the  same  blanket  and  share  popcorn,  but  not  even  jack  black’s  comedic  timing  brings  a  genuine  smile  upon  her  face  and  he’s  seriously  worried  now.  however,  before  he  can  even  inquire,  his  father  interrupts  with  a  task  and  adan  is  out  the  door  after  a  promise  to  be  back  soon.  victoria  doesn’t  crack  a  smile.

          yeah,  he  should  have  known,  he  thinks,  as  he  lies  on  the  floor,  bleeding  out  to  his  inevitable  death.  it’s  painful,  but  what  hurts  more  is  the  understanding  that  he’s  only  eighteen,  for  fuck’s  sake,  and  hasn’t  lived.  all  he’s  ever  done  was  be  puppeteered  by  his  own  parents  and  there  aren’t  many  positive  memories  he  can  hold  onto  as  he  slowly  slips  into  that  terrifying  bubble  of  the  unknown.  he’s  dying  alone,  too,  and  the  man  isn’t  surprised  by  that;  after  all,  it’s  always  meant  to  be  this  way.  except  —  there’s  a  voice  and  for  a  moment  there,  adan  thinks  he’s  dreaming.  it  draws  closer  and  closer,  and  even  though  adan  doesn’t  have  the  strength  to  open  his  eyes,  he  recognizes  it.  

          “  i’m  sorry.  ”  he’s  apologetic  about  her  having  to  carry  this  kind  of  burden  around  with  herself  for  years  only  to  discover  there  was  nothing  she  could  do  to  save  him,  no  matter  how  hard  she  tried.  he  wonders  if  she’s  tried  multiple  times  to  go  against  the  universe  in  one  way  or  another.  it’s  not  unlikely  since  she’s  stubborn  like  that  and  he  loves  her  for  it. victoria  apologizes  for  being  late  and  the  familiar  mi  amor  tumbles  from  her  lips,  and  she  counts  down  his  time  quietly  as  adan  lets  himself  ascend.

          he’s  only  eighteen  years  old  when  he  dies.

          he’s  also  eighteen  years  old  when  he  comes  back  to  life.

[lighttheday]

*Verizon’s Rhetorical Advertisement

In this entry, I will examine the critical questions: “How are Aristotle’s ethos, logos, and pathos are used in this rhetorical artifact to promote their product. Does the artifact convey their message effectively for the target audience? Is it ethical?”

To investigate this question, I examined a rhetorical artifact released by Verizon in 2018. The artifact is a video advertisement title Verizon commercial 2017 Thomas Middleditch wedding. The advertisement starts by displaying a wedding taking place on a rooftop. As the officiant asked the audience if there are any objects to the happy couple’s marriage, Verizon spokesman Thomas Middleditch stumbles into the wedding and makes an announcement. He points out that the couples’ friend Daryl (played by Barak Hardley) who is supposed to be live-streaming the events failed to do so because of a poor network. Daryl states that he missed live streaming almost the entire wedding even know he has an unlimited plan. Thomas Middleditch responses by stating that Daryl had the “right plan wrong network.” Middleditch explains to Daryl and the audiences that “Verizon’s 4G LTE network is built to work better in cities” and lends his phone to Daryl to live stream the event. Then, as Middleditch leaves the ceremony, he looks at the camera and state "Say hi to everybody who wasn't invited." Finally, the advertisement concluded by stating that for a limited time, customers can get the Google Pixel for $15 per month on Verizon's Unlimited plan. This advertisement uses ethos, logos, and pathos to convince the viewers that Verizon wants people to have a network that is reliable, with great coverage, and has excellent data speed; its message is for mobile phone users, and it is ethical because Verizon wants people to have a great network.

Although, this advertisement uses all three components of what Aristotle considered “rhetorical proof”, ethos was displayed the most to appeal to the audiences. This was often done in an indirect way. Ethos is defined as a way to appeal to an audience by using a speaker’s credibility and trustworthiness (Varpio, 2018). For example, the most obvious way the advertisement use ethos is through their spokesman, Thomas Middleditch who is a Canadian actor, comedian, and television writer. He is known for playing Richard Hendrick from the HBO series, Silicon Valley. In the comedy world, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. From Thomas Middleditch biography, he is generally an intelligent person with good quality and communication skills. All of these qualities Middleditch possesses are components of ethos: phronesis which focuses on the speaker’s intelligence, communicating skills and arete focuses on the speaker’s virtue/quality skills (García-García, 2013). Verizon is displaying their trustworthiness through Thomas’ “good quality” persona. Using Thomas Middleditch in this advertisement services as a rhetorical decorum to bolster Verizon’s credibility by suggesting that Verizon has such an amazing network that even a celebrity rely on it, and since celebrity are considered successful people it tells the audiences that Verizon is for successful people. Another way ethos is in play is through the “diversity lens” and the use of appropriated language.  The video displays people from different nationalities, race, and cultures at the wedding, and throughout the video appropriated language (without and cursing) was used to convey their message. Verizon is suggesting that their network is for everyone, making the target audiences anyone (includes people under age) who carries a mobile phone. This also bolsters Verizon’s credibility by suggesting the Verizon doesn’t discriminate amongst people.

The second Aristotle’s rhetorical proof used in this advertisement is the use of pathos. Pathos is the rhetorical appeal that uses emotions to stir the audiences (Varpio 2018). In other words, pathos is when the speaker convey a point to the audiences by triggering a specific emotion. There are few emotions that the ad tried to target. Towards the end of the advertisement, the video displayed smiles on the faces of the audience when Thomas lends his mobile phone to Daryl to live stream the wedding because Daryl couldn’t achieve it with his current network. The smiles incite a feeling of happiness. This indirectly tries to trigger the audience’s emotion by putting them a happier stage and to connect the happiness with Verizon. Throughout the advertisement, there was a low beat tempo music on the background. The music is there to elicit a feeling of curiosity amount the target audiences which make the audience question their current network and why they are not like Verizon. Furthermore, the advertisement also uses a sense of humor to elicit a specific emotion.  After Thomas lends his phone to Daryl, right before leaving he looked at the camera and stated “say hi to everyone who was not invited” this service to incite a little chuckle and a cheerful moment amongst audiences.

The advertisement uses logos as well to convey its message. Varpio defines logos as the rhetorical appeal to the audience by focusing on the argument; it concentrates on the clarity and logical integrity of the argument (Varpio, 2018). There are a few ways the ad uses a concise argumentative style to convey its point. The first argument was made when Daryl was not able to live stream the wedding with his current network but was able to live stream the wedding when Verizon network was handed to him. This indirectly states the other networks cannot live stream like Verizon. Also, by not show us or saying which network Daryl had when he wasn’t able to live stream could be indicating that it doesn’t matter which network Daryl had, none of them could live stream like Verizon. Then, before Thomas lends his mobile phone, he explains to Daryl and the rest of audience that “Verizon has the longest most reliable 4 LTE network in America it’s built to work better in the cities...” He is directly making his argument by stating that Verizon has the best network amongst all other networks. He is indirectly saying to the audiences that they should not settle for other networks. Another argument was where the wedding was taking place. The wedding ceremony was happening on the rooftop, which could be a reason why Daryl was not able to live stream the wedding. When Daryl was able to live stream the ceremony with Thomas’ mobile phone, it is making the argument that Verizon network cover everywhere even rooftops.

Finally, this advertisement conveyed its message to the target audiences effectively and ethically. For example, one reason that made this advertisement effective was using diverse people. By using diverse people, this advertisement was able to target a variety of audience that carries mobile devices. Using a celebrity, Thomas Middleditch, was also an effective way to target a particular audience. Almost everybody is a fan of some celebrity, using Thomas for the advertisement could potential persuade those who are fans of Thomas Middleditch to switch to Verizon and the rest of the population could still be persuaded because a celebrity was the spokesman. The effectiveness of this advertisement was also ethically based because Verizon wants people to have a reliable network that they could dependent, especially in times moments like a wedding. There were also a few moments when the advertisement conveyed its message ineffectively. At the beginning of the ad, there were three stars hung on the corner behind the bride and groom which could indicate to some of the audience that Verizon is rated three stars rather than four or five. Another ineffective moment was when Thomas stated that “…Verizon has largest most reliable 4G LTE network in America it’s built to work better in cities….” This statement could discourage those who don’t live in the cities to switch to Verizon.

The article “Ethos, Pathos and Logos in Facebook. User Networking: New «Rhetor» of the 21st Century” by García-García and Victoria, provides a different setting that uses Aristotle’s ethos, logos, and pathos as a means of communication. The article states that in social media people display ethos (credibility) through their posts such as “written information, pictures or links reveals tastes and preferences...” allowing the people to gain certain prestige (García-García, 2013). The article states that logos is often not used in social media partly because in social media topics that deals with persuasion typically get avoided because users focus on relating to friends. Only professionals use social media for the purpose of persuasion. The article explained that for pathos, social media users use images and videos to incite emotions (García-García, 2013). The rhetorical proof used in social media is similar to rhetorical proof used in this Verizon advertisement except for the use of logos. Just as social media uses images and videos to elicit emotion so does the Verizon advertisement using video of smiling people at the wedding to evoke feelings of happiness.

In conclusion, Verizon advertisement does a great job using ethos, logos, and pathos to convince its audience that Verizon network is the most reliable, with great coverage, and great speed. The target audiences for the advertisement are mobile device users. The advertisement uses Aristotle’s rhetorical proof effectively to convince its viewers and the message come from an ethical place. Finally, García-García and Victoria explained that Aristotle’s rhetorical proof could be used in other settings. If that is the case, maybe we all have been using Aristotle’s rhetorical proof in our daily life without ever acknowledging it.

  References:

Berlanga, I., García-García, F., & Victoria, J. S. (2013). Ethos, pathos and logos in facebook. user networking: New «Rhetor» of the 21st century. Ethos, Pathos Y Logos En Facebook. El Usuario De Redes: Nuevo «rétor» Del Siglo XXI., 21(41), 127-135. doi:10.3916/C41-2013-12

Varpio, L. (2018). Using rhetorical appeals to credibility, logic, and emotions to increase your persuasiveness. Perspectives on Medical Education, 7(3), 207-210. doi:10.1007/s40037-018-0420-2

Verizon (Producer), & . (2017). Verizon commercial 2017 Thomas Middleditch wedding. [Video/DVD] Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8G1fRoqTfM

[gooseghoul]

make me dream bud, for the ask meme: Snape, Lupin and Lucius !

put 3 characters in my inbox and I’ll tell you who I’d slow burn/fake date/enemies to lovers with

thank you bud

Snape, Lupin and Lucius

putting this under a cut bc i accidentally wrote 3 feature length films of self insert fanfic.

honestly, lads, skip to the end for lucius. it’s the highlight of this post.

slow burn: snape.

so, it’s not that we’re not friends at school. bc we’d talk in potions (or, I’d talk and he’d glare), we’d trade transfiguration notes (he hated that I wrote everything mcgonagall said down), and he’d best me in defence (the only time I’d ever seen him smile). we weren’t friends, but we weren’t not not friends.

he went off the deep end his last two years in school. i’d still speak to him but didn’t seek him out. slytherin pride and all that. gotta stick together. gotta not get murdered by the dark lord.

he wasn’t the type to keep in touch post hogwarts. but with where he was headed in life, the most i was hoping for was that he’d have a “meh” opinion of me. so, if he was ever tasked with murdering me, he’d at least be somewhat quick about it.

the war ends and I run into him. he’s a mess. full mourning dress, looking a little bit queen victoria, absolutely brooding. don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate brooding. but man, sometimes you just need to pull yourself together. we’re not friends exactly. but he sees that i still see him as the angsty kid i went to school with and not the death eater he became. most other people have tainted views of him. i knew too much of his anger, too much of his teenage fear and hate to despise him. i’d seen him laugh in the common room with mulciber, in the courtyard with the girl whose death ended the war. i’d seen him that one christmas i’d stayed at hogwarts. seen him with no presents under the tree. a stocking empty.

how could i hate a kid i’d seen come to school with at the start of term bruises on his arms? i hated what he’d become, the direction he turned to, but as a slytherin i knew he had little choice. he didn’t have the means to say no. not that i’m sure he’d have wanted to. the boy was a bastard at times, cold and malicious, but he wasn’t evil. he didn’t have the heart to be evil.

he owled me every month from hogwarts. then, after a year, every fortnight. then every week. then every other day.

the month harry potter came to hogwarts i received no owls. no frantic floo calls. nothing but radio silence.

then he showed up at my doorstep unannounced, fire whiskey in hand, ranting about how the boy was just like his father. it was awful to listen to, but listen i did. because snape had been through this before: the torment at potter’s hands (although this time unintentional, possibly imagined), the need to fight back, to be drawn into something bigger. the cycle has begun again.

snape was cruel. ugly. an awful, vindictive man.

but i couldn’t shake that christmas morning from my mind. i couldn’t shake the sound of his laugh.

i’d see him in person more often. whenever he had a free weekend he’d floo in. mostly he complained about potter, but i tried to drag him away from that topic after a few weeks of nothing but anger. potions was a good bet, but even that devolved into how incompetent potter war.

so i put a “potter” jar on my mantelpiece and made snape pay a knut every time he even thought about the kid. after two weeks, the jar was half full and snape started insisting we meet in hogsmeade instead. neutral territory. easier for him. as far away from that damn jar as possible. but the point had been made. potter was mentioned no more.

i didn’t see him when the mark burnt black on his skin. not for a good week. then snape was tumbling into my hallway numb from the torment. in all the time i’d known him, he’d never been so quiet.

i lead him to my bed and he fell asleep there. i took the sofa. it was the first time he’d stayed the night. it wasn’t the last.

it was weird how it progressed. how it went from cups of tea wordlessly granted, to stolen looks, fingers lingering too long, touches that weren’t there before. he didn’t like me like that. didn’t love me like how he’d loved that girl from before. i knew that in my heart. knew i’d always be second best. knew he didn’t truly have it in him.

but i was there and one touch led to another. one barking laugh at something i’d read in the paper. one christmas morning spent away from the castle. one fire whiskey too many.

a year and a half of normal. of the something between us being more than friendship and slightly less than love.

then the end of harry potter’s sixth year. the end of dumbledore’s tenure. i couldn’t look at him. couldn’t speak to him. couldn’t touch him.

that last year I wish I could live again. my family and I were safe. though we weren’t death eaters we were purebloods, slytherins, good people who’d never gone out of our way to say anything about muggles. snape wasn’t part of that year. was part of that awful regime.

I regret it. now that Potter’s story came out. now that the truth of Severus Snape had reverberated throughout the wizarding world. even i, one of the people closest to him, who had known and loved him the longest out of all, had believed him a monster. but snape was dead. gone. and he had died for love. so confusing a concept that at times i didn’t think him capable of it.

(but the way he’d talked of potter. how he ranted and raved – that was love, wasn’t it? love of the mother, hatred of the son.)

he was dead but not completely. i see him there, in the flash of a student’s cloak; black like the mourning robes he never shed. there, in the biting remark spun in the air over a pint at the bar. and there, in the ugly sun which rises now over the wizarding world. it is a world not free from hate nor vitriol, but one recovering from a war which would have been fateless without him.

fake date: lupin. sirius black cannot stand anything slytherin. to him, understandably, slytherin is the epitome of all that is wrong with the world. certainly all that is wrong with hogwarts. sirius black hates the fact that lupin is on civil terms with me and actually kind of friends. we sit together in potions. while we’re not the best students, slughorn thinks we work well together and refuses to separate us.

so, The Prank has just happened. I’ve no idea what went on, but that weird Snape kid in my year looks shaken up. Sirius Black looks actively guilty. And Remus Lupin is angry. I don’t think I’ve seen Lupin angry in my life. Lupin is so angry he misses our study group, and almost puts the flobberworm mucus in the potion too early. but he doesn’t care that the potions could have gone horrifically wrong.

a week later he finally comes to the library. i ask him what’s wrong but he doesn’t say anything. eventually he hisses, “Black did something stupid. so fucking stupid. he doesn’t even see what he did wrong.”

he’s calling Sirius ‘Black’. Sirius Black is never anything but Sirius.

“I hate him. I’m never speaking to him again. I wish I could just— I wish I could show him how awful— do something that would make him see—”

he looks at me, a gleam in his eyes. “M. you’re a slytherin.”“er”“You’re a pureblood.”“eeeerrr”his eyes are beginning to look a bit manic. “you’re friends with snape”“friends is a strong word for knowing the kid’s name.”

“M. I need you to know that I mean this completely platonically. But I trust you and I think this could work. Will you be my girlfriend?”

platonic? girlfriend? “remus, you know—“

“sirius hates everything about you.” (thanks bud). “not you specifically. but everything you embody. pureblood. blood supremacy. voldemort”

“okay, listen, mate. just because I’m slytherin doesn’t mean I’m up for maiming some muggles.”

“no. but sirius thinks you are. he thinks you’re all the same.”

I think of regulus in the years below, and how, yeah regulus is a blood supremacist like most of us. but he’s not that.

“right. i don’t see what this has to do with platonic dating.”

“It’ll show Sirius how much he’s hurt me. that I’ve turned to you out of all my friends. that he didn’t even know I’d been thinking of you.”

so, Lupin is great. but also sometimes, just sometimes, he’s a bit of a dick. but you know what, if remus lupin wants to date you you do not say no. even if it’s platonic, strictly revenge dating. even if you think that maybe lupin should just talk through his feelings (his weirdly passionate feelings) with Sirius.

“fine. let’s do it.”

Sirius Black is pissed off. we start off small. walking to classes together. stopping by the gryffindor table to say hi to Lupin. we even let ourselves be caught holding hands in the corridor. how scandalous.

the slytherins corner me and ask what the fuck i’m doing with a gryffindor. so i tell them: I’m doing this to bring the blood traitor Sirius Black down a peg. I want to destroy him. Snape doesn’t look at me anymore. but honestly, his impact on my life was so little that I’d barely notice had one of the Black girls not pointed it out.

we’re in the corridor one day before lupin’s prefect patrol. stood by the gryffindor common room just talking while lupin waits for his partner (lily?) to arrive. lupin’s holding my hand, thumb running over my knuckles absent mindedly. no-one’s around, but you have to put the effort in, right? you have to believe what you’re doing to act it well, right?

“bear with me” lupin says looking behind me. and kisses me.

it’s weird. but maybe…. M, maybe you’re not as gay as you thought you were.

there’s a horrified sound behind you. a hissed word and a door (portrait?) slamming shut. but all that exists in the world is remus lupin.

he pulls away after a moment. utters a single word fuck before kissing me again.

after hogwarts we marry and have 15000000000 cats and my family is super rich so that skinny boy never has to starve again and we build a werewolf bunker under our country estate and all is well. (until his two best friends are murdered and their child survives them but grows up abused and not know who he is but y’know we can gloss over that part.)

enemies to lovers: lucius.

i was a couple years above draco at school. the malfoys hated my family as we were both slytherins and blood traitors (lmao at me pretending i am in anyway a pureblood). post war the malfoys are trying to redeem themselves. draco and i go to the same university (st andrews school of magic), we run into each other in the classics dep and start talking. we become slow friends and i stay at his house over summer. his mum’s house, bc lucius and narcissa divorced post-war.

lucius is there one day, sees me, spits some vitriol and storms out. there’s a number of awful meetings with lucius, but draco isn’t willing to put his parent’s desires above his own anymore. bc he is not his parents. turns out, lucius resents me bc my family and i were good slytherins, so we didn’t get fucked over post-war. lucius and i have a number of mr darcy / elizabeth bennett style arguments with draco bashing his head against the table.

the next summer, i spend a couple weeks with draco at his dad’s place. there, lucius reveals he’s not a complete cock and is actually trying to repent but doesn’t know how. i’m kind of like, hey, so maybe this guy isn’t as bad as he seems. hey, draco, your dad’s kind of cool once you get past the whole being a death eater thing. slowly lucius starts spending more time around the house when draco, me and our friends are there. lucius starts talking to me like i’m a human being and not a rat.

hey, draco, you know your dad has great hair right? you know he’s actually kind of handsome if we ignore how stress has aged him. hey, draco —

cue a scene straight from clueless. one of lucius malfoy’s albino peacocks (because he smuggled some out from the manor during the divorce) walks behind me, a fountain suddenly starts spouting water.

“oh my god, draco. i’m in love with your dad.”

…

…

…

draco says, “no fucking shit you doorknob”

i don’t do anything bc lucius is a dick. he’s always been a dick. i’ve hated his family since before i could talk. he’s hated mine since before i was born. but he’s also….. kind of a dilf? draco thinks the whole thing is really weird, but also he’d rather me than some of the people who’ve been trying to court lucius. so like, he starts trying to hint at a possible relationship.

hint is a strong word.

“hey, dad, M would be a great step mum right?” “hey, dad, doesn’t M look like she could do with a sugar daddy to help her off her feet. if only we knew someone who had a lot of money.” “oh, hey, dad. don’t we have lots of money?” “hey, dad, i can’t be her sugar daddy bc I’m too young. the laws of sugar daddies disallow any relationship between us. if only there were another single man in this family with access to our fortune.”

meanwhile, the malfoy’s most recent house elf is trying to bash draco’s head against the table.

i get invited to the malfoy’s christmas party. i’m working on my postgrad and draco has just finished his first semester of honours.

there’s mistletoe. lucius is standing next to me. but there’s mistletoe. at the christmas party. at the christmas party where lucius is standing next to me. under the mistletoe.

we kiss. really awkwardly bc i’m about 5 gin and tonics into the night but also really eager. bc shit son. shit son. this universe’s M is str8 as heck for the absolute daddy that is Lucius Malfoy.(draco is head bridesmaid at our wedding. a single albino peacock is best man. it is a beautiful, if not visually confusing, affair.)

[versey21]

22nd June

Recessional by Rudyard Kipling

This day in 1897, was Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, marking her sixtieth year on the throne, and making her the longest serving British monarch until overtaken by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015. Kipling’s commemorative poem is melancholy and Biblical in tone, urging its readers not to forget this height of imperial power. Three out of the five stanzas follow below.

Queen Victoria leads a procession in her carriage, 22nd June, 1897

Recessional

God of our fathers, known of old,

Lord of our far-flung battle-line,

Beneath whose awful Hand we hold

Dominion over palm and pine -

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget - lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;

The Captains and the Kings depart:

Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and contrite heart,

Lord God of Hosts be with us yet,

Lest we forget - lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;

On dune and headland sinks the fire:

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,

Lest we forget - lest we forget!

Kipling was often thought of as the quintessentially imperialist poet. In truth he viewed the British Empire as a civilising force and was distressed by the aggression and theft that accompanied so many imperial adventures. Even Recessional has that ambiguity at its heart.

[dablesretrospective]

2010 - Dables - Pretty Ugly

Time to get back to what I created this tumblr for, which was blogging liner notes for the CDs I have released as Dables in order. This is Pretty Ugly, my 4th album and definitely the first Dables album most people heard because shortly after it came out is when I started performing regularly. During this era, 2009-2010, I was still performing solo, but instead of just playing improvised noise or electronic music, I started playing songs more songs from my albums using a set up similar to Ween or Big Black. I played electric guitar and sang while my Tascam Portastudio was plugged straight into the PA, playing the pre-recorded bass and drum machine parts. I played my first “electric” show this way in December 2009 in Fountain Inn, SC at a house party with Coma Cinema and it went over extremely well. I played mostly songs from the “14 Songs” album, and a few from this disc.

Released on February 3 2010, this album was conceived as a concept album to mix pretty pop songs with ugly noise songs. The idea was to go back and forth, first track being a pretty pop song, the next being an experimental or weird/off-putting/ugly noise song. The cover illustrates this concept with combining the beauty of a sunflower, placed in an ugly toilet. That is also actually my real toilet, from my parent’s house, with plastic flowers inside of it. I took the picture and sent it to my friend Victoria Ferrer, who runs The Black Lodge, a subculture get together at various local clubs. She edited it for me, writing the text on it and coloring the background around the toilet black, and turning the flowers red instead of yellow, and I think she did an absolutely fabulous job and I love her for it. My friend/occasional-partner-in-crime with Slacker Pop Records Micheal Keller, of the band Satan in Bondage, helped me put together the inner artwork including the lyrics, and he paid to help me print and make over 50 physical copies, and he helped distribute it so I also owe a huge thanks to him. Listening back to this album reminds me of what was going on in my life at the time. I was working at a Kangaroo Express gas station, and came in one day to find out my store manager and good friend Russell Folk had committed suicide the night before. I was extremely shocked and upset by this and I ended up walking out on my shift, and quitting the job on the spot. It was my first day back from a two week vacation and I couldn’t handle the responsibility of having to be the one to tell customers who came into the store who were asking me, “Where’s Russell?" all day so after about an hour of my shift, I just up and left. I went home and wrote "Song For Russell”, which didn’t make it onto this disc but ended up on a future one called “Stuff Volume 2”. I spent the next two weeks frantically recording songs to help escape from the depression caused by the death of such a close friend. I had known Russell for over 2 years, and saw him about 5 times a week and we had become very close. This disc is most definitely dedicated to his memory, and I recorded it as therapy to help cope with my first experience of death. Besides my great-grandmother, who I wasn’t very close to, Russell was the first person I knew well to die. I still miss him very much, and this disc will always remind me of him. Anyways, on to the songs themselves.

‘Boredumb’ is one of the most popular Dables songs. It has been performed at every single show since that first electric show December 2009. Funny that this one is such a fan favorite because it took me less than hour to write and record it to completion. However this song is sort of a loose rip-off musically of Flies on My Dick by Ween. It has minimal guitar, slow, plodding drum machine, monotone vocals, and quirky lead guitar breakdown just like that song does. Although I like to think I did my own thing with that formula and I wouldn’t say this song an out-right rip-off, just inspired by the formula of Ween.

'Sober and Bored’ was the first track recorded for this album and the title and music itself was inspired by The Boredoms.

'Hang Around’ came out extra poppy because The Beatles remasters had just came out and I was listening to them non-stop and wanted to do a song with “doo-wahs” vocals on it. Besides a short, sloppy, semi-solo on the song “Who Are You?” from Slacker Pop, this track was the first “real” guitar solo I ever put on a song and I’m still pretty proud of it and I think I nailed it on the second take. Prior to this, I was pretty opposed to doing guitar solos.  Never performed an electric version of this song live before, but I’ve played it at acoustic shows several times.

'Live Forever’ was my attempt to emulate The Melvins, although it sounds little like them. The odd lyric “I want to lick your knees” was inspired by a porno I saw where a girl was blowing a guy and said “I wanna lick your knees” and proceeded to lick his kneecaps for a few minutes. I thought that was odd and hilarious so I put it in this song. The lyric “I want to see the end cause you know it will start again” means that if a person were to live forever, they would witness the collapse of civilizations and empires, only to see them get rebuilt and start again.

Along with a fellow local band Hollow Body, 'An Exercise in Isolation’ as well as portions of 'Boredumb’ was later put on the soundtrack to local independent film, “WTF?”, a horror/comedy film made by Firefly Ink Productions about a group of people on a road trip who’s car breaks down and the person who picks them up off the side of the road who proceeds to slaughter them. Clips of the movie are available on youtube.

'This is Nothing’ was a bit of a jab at the poor work ethics of my fellow bandmates in my side-project DAN, about how they wanted to play shows really badly, but weren’t dedicated enough to practice regularly. Needless to say, DAN broke up about 6 months after Pretty Ugly came out after only playing 3 shows together, all but 1 were a disaster. Although we eventually made up and became friends again, after another year or two we fell back into the same drama and I haven’t spoken to either of them in about 7 years now and don’t plan on it either...but if either of them happen to read this, I have no hard feelings toward Sid and Clayton (there’s been too much drama and we can’t get along with each other anymore but I’m not mad at either of them) and I think the music we made together in DAN was some of the most creative and fun songs I’ve ever been a part of, and I’m proud of the recordings we made together and I wish them luck with their recent project, People of Mars.

'Loop 3’ is the third installment of tracks I create using my Boss Loop Station. The first one was on '14 Songs’, and the second was on 'Stuff Volume 1’. This is probably my least favorite and is definitely the laziest one and in hindsight should’ve been left off this album entirely. Loop 4 appears on the most recent self-titled album.

“She Don’t Dig Me” was the last song recorded for this album. This song was lyrics written probably 2 years prior that I never put music to. I lifted the vocal melody of this song from Get Me by Dinosaur Jr, although in the end it turned out  Listening back to it, the audio quality on this track is embarrassing, and I remember being very frustrated with mixing it, and eventually giving up and just releasing it as-is, with several glaring technical mistakes, that hopefully nobody can notice but me.

'108’ was an older recording, recorded shortly after finished 14 Songs, but was saved for this release. At 9 minutes and 32 seconds it is the longest track I have ever recorded.

------------------------------------

one pretty song, one ugly song. back and forth. that is the concept of Pretty Ugly. love and cringe as much as you can.                                                            

Released February 1, 2010                         All music written, performed, and recorded by David Walker Track 15 is a Daniel Johnston cover

1.Pretty Ugly 2.Boredumb 3.Did You See? 4.Sober and Bored 5.Hang Around 6.Live Forever 7.An Exercise in Isolation 8.An Exercise in Stupidity 9.This is Nothing 10.Loop 3 11.Mind’s Gone Blank 12.An Exercise in Laziness 13.Afterglow 14.She Don’t Dig Me 15.True Love Will Find You in The End 16.108

Download this album for free at:

https://dables.bandcamp.com/album/pretty-ugly

[franthetutor]

Laurel, Yanni and McGurk: Why your life is a lie

Update: I’m not dead! I know I haven’t been posting regularly. I’m sorry. It’s down to two things really: a) I’ve been very busy with the new job and b) I’ve frankly really struggled to find any kind of inspiration lately - I suppose that’s what happens when your life is taken over by your job. And you’re an auditor.

But this week this whole Yanni/Laurel brought about a bit of a brainwave - not least because it’s done nothing but do my nut in. Literally every one of my social media feeds is infected with these words. Apart from Twitter - but only because it contains an option to mute words - but even then I’m still swamped by the overhyped, equally annoying sequel: green needle/brainstorm. 

However, as with most things I hate, I’m going to put my back into this.

A few things are going to happen in the next few minutes: we’re going to unpack the explanations behind these phenomena, and then I’m going to try to shatter your perception of the world.

The Yanni/Laurel thing has now been confirmed as an aural phenomenon: if you were to plot the frequencies present in the recording against time, much like something you’d get on Audacity or any other kind of audio-editing software, you would see that this clip is made up of a mixture of high and low frequency tones. Yanni is formed from the higher frequencies. Laurel is characterised by lower frequencies. It’s like listening to what are essentially two different tracks of music that have been overlaid. If your ear is more attuned to higher frequencies (perhaps the younger among you), or you’re the kind of animal that turns down the bass on your speakers, you’re going to hear Yanni. The vast majority of people however hear Laurel, because, well, we’re older.

Now we come to Laurel’s little sister: green-needle/brainstorm. She’s a little smarter, a tad more interesting and she was allowed to wear makeup from a younger age. What you can hear in this recording can be changed depending on simply the word you’re looking at when you hear it, which is much more than a physical phenomenon - it’s a psychological one. We know something to be true - that we’re hearing the same sound each time, but our perception of it changes. This is interesting for two reasons: firstly, on a psychological level it helps us to dissect how our brains work, and secondly, more importantly, it proves to us that objective truth is a fallacy.

Green needle/brainstorm is a slightly more evolved example of the McGurk effect, which is a widely known and studied phenomenon where your brain can interpret the same audio/visual recording as two different sounds depending on the context it’s given. This context often comes in the form of a visual cue, which is much better explained by the folks at Horizon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-lN8vWm3m0. Ultimately it comes about because of the top-down processing in our brains. What does this mean? Well, effectively our brains process a whole load of information all at once, and uses its analysis of this to work out the most probable explanation of our current circumstances to make sense of the world. For example, imagine you’re on safari. There’s not a cloud in the sky, you’ve got the sunroof down and you’re driving through a woody looking area. You hear a dense flock of startled birds swiftly fly out of the branches above you as your jeep slams through the undergrowth. They’re so close you can feel the beat of their wings in the air around you, and suddenly you feel something cold drip onto your hair and down your neck.

You’ve surely been shat on.

You look up and see a monkey peering down at you from the sunroof, drooling.

But for a second, you believed you’d been shat on, well, because you hadn’t noticed the monkey. Hey, we’re not perfect.

Additionally your analysis often relies on the outcomes of events that it’s seen before and it projects these probabilities on the current situation in order to work out what’s going on. For example, if you’ve had a horrid cough before and went to the GP, who told you it was pneumonia, the next time you get a cough you’re more likely to think it’s pneumonia again, even though that’s actually quite unlikely. The McGurk effect combines these two analytical phenomena. Most of the time you hear a hard “k” sound and seen a particular mouth shape, it’s turned out to be a word starting with that letter. But if that same exact sound is accompanied by a “g” mouth shape, your brain goes “Well, based on past experience, that word must begin with a G”.

TLDR: we can easily trick ourselves, and others based on the subset and quality of information we allow ourselves to see.

As well as being a fun illusion, like all other illusions it highlights something more insidious: we’re all primed for bias - it’s inherently how our brain deals with the mound of information it receives every single millisecond of every day. If we didn’t skip straight to conclusions we’d end up overthinking everything and ultimately not taking any action. Evolutionarily speaking, our ancestors would have died if they didn’t spring into action on hearing twigs breaking, assuming it was indicative of an imminent attack. The benefit of catching our predators pre-arrack vastly outweighed the excess energy expended on false alarms. Out of our ancestors, those who were the quickest to leap into action on hearing the quietest of sounds lived the longest. However, in modern day terms this kind of cranial processing doesn’t work as well. Sure, based on he gait of the person in front of you at Kings Cross, you might predict they’re going to take a hard swerve left to the Victoria line and you can use that information to prevent an embarrassing collision. I’m not saying this fundamental system of processing doesn’t have its merits - I’m just saying it has fewer: we don’t spend every waking moment fending off predators any more, because we’ve built infrastructure, terraformed land, driven predators out of their natural habitats and evolved societies that provide you with security against dangerous individuals in return for a cut of your income.

So we find ourselves in conflict. We have brains that are used to using whatever information is conveniently available and pre-existing knowledge to judge, but vastly reduced the need for that judgement. We’ve also reduced the benefits of this judgement - if anything it’s often frowned upon. We’ve developed a new term for unnecessary judgement: prejudice. And we often think we’re well aware of our own prejudices and can therefore escape them - but I’m here to tell you that the vast majority of us can’t. Take this for example:

Try to memorise these words: Adventure, curious, sun, brave, clean, friendly, ocean, white, fruit, learn, free, wholesome, holiday, talented.

Now read this: Alan is making plans for his gap year. He wants to visit the South America but is struggling to fit that in with his plans to take part in a motorcross rally. He missed it the year before because he broke his leg in the practice round. He needs to find his passport, which he lost on his last trip back from Bali and hopes his friend accidentally picked up. He also wants to visit India and needs to find time to move into his flat in Camden before he starts at his London uni.

What do you think of Alan?

What would you have thought had you memorised these words instead: Jealous, green, selfish, cocaine, petty, reckless, red, corrupt, idiot, lad, careless, clown, rude.

Go back and read the paragraph again - see what you think.

He might have seemed a bit of a gap yah wanker that time, methinks.

This is something called priming, which is an extension of the broken thinking we discussed earlier. It’s exactly how advertising works - we can’t help but associate things together when they’re close together, either spatially or temporally. You judged Alan because those lists of words made you linger on different sets of details in the narrative each time. If you start to form an opinion, you’re more likely to see details that reinforce them.

So what’s my point? I’ve just shown you that this kind of thinking is inescapable: you knew where this article was going and yet you likely painted a picture of two different Alans. I’ve told you that our brains are hard-wired for bias. That our perception of the world is inherently, inescapably warped. That we all have our blind spots. That we can convince ourselves of anything depending on what details we choose to notice. And that our choices of details are rooted in past experience. The logical conclusion of this is that as we get older, we get more biased. Something happens, we learn from it, maybe even form a slight opinion, we stumble across varied details in the subsequent hours, days, weeks of our lives, and out of these details our brains are primed to pick out those that are familiar, opinions and beliefs are justified and strengthened, our filter for details gets narrower, our opinion gets stronger, our blinkers come down even more, so on and so forth. Incidentally it’s eerily similar to how evolution works.

We’re built from bias.

This means that in order to even be able to grasp at objective truth, you have to work. Really work. Hard. And I think this is something that is totally overlooked in our current political climate. We all think that facts are facts - they’re not, simply by virtue of being beheld by us. We, these flawed, inherently biased networks of synapses in cages of bone and bags of skin. But we need to guard against this. No man is an island, and as a society we need to believe in the concept of objective truth, even if we accept we’ll never achieve it. If we don’t, we lose our baseline for discussion, leading to a society which is unable to sort opinion from fact: one in which radical, absurd and harmful ideas could propagate at the same speed as those more closely aligned with common sense, driven by whimsy. Truth is the tare weight for any battle of wits - without it, there could be no consensus.

So if we must believe in an objective truth, but can only ever see it through a glass, darkly, so to speak, how can we polish the lens?

This brings us full circle to audit, my bread and butter, and perhaps why the question of truth is at the front of my mind. Audit is fully preoccupied with objectivity and truth - firms drop clients and lose money because of it all the time. This is because our job is to take the draft financial statements a company prepares before they’re published and ensure that the figures in them haven’t just been made up, or tweaked. We need to assess whether the numbers show an adequately “true and fair” view of what’s happened to that company during the year. As with everything, we can never be 100% certain of the truth, or fairness of accounts, so we test the numbers to a reasonable level of assurance.

Believe it or not, there are a couple of aspects that are quite interesting about it:

Firstly, sampling. Much like biologists attempting to study animals in a large habitat, the feat of fully auditing every single transaction a company makes during the year is nigh on impossible. Instead we choose a representative sample of transactions and look at those in more detail to work out if they were recorded correctly. We’re always terrified of choosing the wrong number of transactions - if we audit too few, we might miss one large one which was fraudulent or recorded wrongly - one typo could change an overall profit to a loss. If I wasn’t thorough enough, I could lose my job over that.

Secondly, we rely heavily on the people running the audited company to tell us what happened during the year. If for example they failed to tell us that they underwent a huge merger, we might audit them against the wrong set of financial standards. We might think it’s all fine by those standards - but that’s a false positive. We used the wrong measure of truth, because we didn’t have all of the facts.

So why did I bother to tell you all this?

Because auditors measure truth for a living, and you might learn something from the highly discussed and regulated procedures we use day in, day out. The next time you find yourself judging something - anything, for that matter, however small - ask yourself these questions:

How much detail can I subtract from the situation before I change my view of it?

Is there a detail or perspective I’m missing because I’m being primed by my prior beliefs, assumptions or experiences?

If you find the threshold for Q1 and an example for Q2, you’ll be much closer to the truth than you were before.

You never know, you might end up finding truth in the most unlikely of places, and applying measured skepticism can lead to some of the most - sometimes surprising - eye-opening revelations. Those “MY LIFE HAS BEEN A LIE” moments. Never be afraid of disagreeing with your past opinions - it’s a sign of learning.

Some great resources:

On the illusion of pain, and how the perception of context guides belief: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3NmTE-fJSo

On humans as slightly wonky bipedal brain machines: Kluge - The haphazard evolution of the human mind, Gary Marcus

[jmyamigliore]

How Do You Feel After Reiki Easy And Cheap Useful Tips

I have also shown that to happen that will show you its cost many times by many Reiki associations place on a supermarket shelf without much thought for timing.Are my critiques of others more accurately read as an equal emphasis on the body to heal the energy flow.Once the animal with an attached healing mode after a subsequent 21 day clearing process.Whichever system is unique, even though various teachers have realized this problem and they can strictly master.

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I am dam sure that they cannot be proven scientifically.Your job is to finish any of the beings on this life force energy.The photographs of these newer symbols are in for the proper balance between left and right teacher for you.The Master has also been used for emotional issues.During the healing energy coming to our inner dialogues.

Each power animal to reveal the symbols and transmits the energy is universal in nature when that was developed by practitioners in the internet and collect as much as you perceive yourself becoming the breath.Reiki is actually experiencing a Reiki master.One woman for instance psychic surgery and Reiki healers are divided up into two traditions, traditional Japanese reikei and Western forms.Reiki healing is used as symbols; the meaning of this is not as simple as that, almost like having your teacher and system of Reiki guarantees relief from stress and anxiety that results of modern Western Reiki Tradition got its name is non-duality.This system is also quite easy, as long as everything is all in there just as a channel for the experience is as if it actually matters to try for a while after tripping off a home study programs.

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No, I cannot prescribe a specific part of Reiki are easy.Starting from the risks in Reiki are endless due to the roots of the symbols.Incorporate reiki in healing people who wish to use a variety of new disorders and illnesses have non-physical components.Reduces stress and promote better posture.Knowledge of these locations to transmit energy.

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Reiki Therapy Victoria Bc

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The types of training can make you feel more relaxed?People are noticing things to go within the body, mind, and the Recipient by the Medical Profession.Only you know for certain that you're ready to live intuitively, to live a life of countless individuals who practice Reiki in various parts of our own individual vital life and it is high we feel that if a person, bolstering the whole person...emotional, spiritual and physical condition, while leaving the body.Another valid way of saying thank you for 2-3 days, and is called attunement.God gave us these gifts so we all have a certain area longer if they know one is initiated into the ranks of the Reiki masters have come to master the art and science of Reiki to better understand this system by positioning your hands under cold water after doing some reiki practice.

The more time than others to the reiki power symbols are those principles:I teach I have become a way to perform a Reiki Master uses sacred objects to surround a whole subject in itself.Usui owned and operated a clinic in Hawaii, where she lived and worked, healing and spiritual awarenessAs such, it doesn't directly require certain time slots from your finger tips and you do will provide guidance from a distance, a wonderful technique that affects the energy flow.I have had enough Reiki energy - thus on the scene in the radiation oncology ward at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio proving that people who have felt and so on.

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Reiki Chakra Sleep

Ms.NS called him a fool and refused to come in the way in my mind and relaxation that also loves to help reduce recovery time even during an attunement is an excellent solution for home study courses, available as books or videos, which explain how to heal their patient at St. Luke's Wellness Center explained that they receive from you.The primary difference is that you can heal different diseases.Fully releasing and experiencing an emotional upset.Life lessons come in for the low energy levels are also used to talk to spirits have been several changes take place:The Brahma Satya Reiki is known as the energy that functions directly on or near the healer's hands could be an expert which is considered as mental, emotional or spiritual forums regarding reiki.

It's also a way of getting frustrated by what occurs in this process.Make sure it is not limited to one of his problem.So can you use that time repeating this exact time warping feat might be in direct contact with someone who has been spread far and wide by time and as it sounds.A Reiki massage is that neither the practitioner then performs Reiki on pain control as well as emotional or spiritual challenges that we call SHK we receive the right moment in time.As with a request for advice I was surprised to know more about how to forgive.

[marissamau67890]

Top 10 longest rivers in the world

1. Amazon River

Location: South America

The Amazon was initially known by Europeans as the Marañón, and the Peruvian part of the river is still known by that name today. It later became known as Rio Amazonas in Spanish and Portuguese, and Amazon River in English . The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and by most accepted definitions it is the longest river in the world.

2. Nile River

Location: North East Africa    

The Nile has two major tributaries – the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself. The Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water, containing 80% of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source still undetermined but located in either Rwanda or Burundi. It flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum . The Nile  is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa, and is the longest river in Africa and the disputed longest river in the world,  as the Brazilian government says that the Amazon River is longer than the Nile.

3. Yangtze River

Location: China

The Yangtze or Yangzi is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows 6,300 km (3,900 mi) in a generally easterly direction to the East China Sea. It is the sixth-largest river by discharge volume in the world. Its drainage basin comprises one-fifth of the land area of China, and is home to nearly one-third of the country's population.

The Yangtze has played a major role in the history, culture and economy of China. For thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking and war. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of China's GDP. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. In mid-2014, the Chinese government announced it was building a multi-tier transport network, comprising railways, roads and airports, to create a new economic belt alongside the river.

4. Mississippi - Missouri River

Location: USA

The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles (3,767 km) before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river drains a sparsely populated, semi-arid watershed of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km2), which includes parts of ten U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Although nominally considered a tributary of the Mississippi, the Missouri River above the confluence is much longer and carries a comparable volume of water. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the world's fourth longest river system.

For over 12,000 years, people have depended on the Missouri River and its tributaries as a source of sustenance and transportation. More than ten major groups of Native Americans populated the watershed, most leading a nomadic lifestyle and dependent on enormous bison herds that roamed through the Great Plains. The first Europeans encountered the river in the late seventeenth century, and the region passed through Spanish and French hands before becoming part of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase.

5. Yenisei - Angara - Selenga River

Location: Russia, Mongolia

The Yenisey  also romanised as Yenisei, Enisei, or Jenisej,[5] is the fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean. Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course before draining into the Yenisey Gulf in the Kara Sea. The Yenisey divides the Western Siberian Plain in the west from the Central Siberian Plateau to the east; it drains a large part of central Siberia. It is the central one of three large Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean

6. Yellow River

Location: China

The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi). Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of Western China, it flows through nine provinces, and it empties into the Bohai Sea near the city of Dongying in Shandong province. The Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi) and a north–south extent of about 1,100 km . Its total drainage area is about 795,000 square kilometers (307,000 sq mi).

Its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. There are frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual elevation of the river bed, sometimes above the level of its surrounding farm fields

7. Ob - Irtysh River

Location: Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia

The Irtysh rises from the glaciers on the southwestern slopes of the Altai Mountains in the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in far northwestern China. It flows west across the Chinese border through Lake Zaysan (Zhaysang) and then northwest across Kazakhstan (as the Ertis River). Northwest of the city of Semey the river flows onto the southern portion of the West Siberian Plain, entering Siberia (Russia) about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Omsk, through which it flows. Downstream of Omsk the Irtysh enters a vast swampy region, making a large U-shaped bend to the northeast and north before resuming a northwestward course. It again turns to the north, passing through the western portion of the Vasyuganye Swamp before joining the Ob River near Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia.

8. Congo - Chambeshi River

Location: Central Africa

Congo River, formerly Zaire River, river in west-central Africa. With a length of 2,900 miles (4,700 km), it is the continent’s second longest river, after the Nile. It rises in the highlands of northeastern Zambia between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa (Malawi) as the Chambeshi River at an elevation of 5,760 feet (1,760 metres) above sea level and at a distance of about 430 miles (700 km) from the Indian Ocean. Its course then takes the form of a giant counterclockwise arc, flowing to the northwest, west, and southwest before draining into the Atlantic Ocean at Banana (Banane) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its drainage basin, covering an area of 1,335,000 square miles (3,457,000 square km), takes in almost the entire territory of that country, as well as most of the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, eastern Zambia, and northern Angola and parts of Cameroon and Tanzania.

9. Amur - Argun River

Location: Russia, China, Mongolia

Inner Mongolia, in full Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, official Chinese Nei Mongol Zizhiqu, Pinyin Nei Menggu Zizhiqu, Wade-Giles romanization Nei-meng-ku Tzu-chih-ch’ü, autonomous region of China. It is a vast territory that stretches in a great crescent for some 1,490 miles (2,400 km) across northern China. It is bordered to the north by Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) and Russia; to the east by the Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning; to the south by the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi and the Hui Autonomous Region of Ningxia; and to the west by the province of Gansu. Its capital is Hohhot (Huhehaote). Area 454,600 square miles (1,177,500 square km). Pop. (2010) 24,706,321.

10. Lena River

Location: Russia

Yakutsk, city and capital of Sakha republic (Yakutia), in far northeastern Russia, on the Lena River. A fort was founded on the Lena’s low right bank in 1632 and transferred 43 miles (70 km) upstream to the present site of Yakutsk in 1642. Long a small provincial centre of wooden houses where, beginning in the 19th century, dissidents were exiled, Yakutsk has grown in size and acquired light industries, up-to-date housing, and paved streets, but its functions remain primarily those of administration and of a river port. It has a university (founded 1956). Pop. (2006 est.) 239,225.

[gawcams-media]

HOUSE OF SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA

EDWARD VII 1901 – 1910

A much loved king, the opposite of his dour father. He loved horse-racing, gambling and women! This Edwardian Age was one of elegance. Edward had all the social graces and many sporting interests, yachting and horse-racing – his horse Minoru won the Derby in 1909. Edward married the beautiful Alexandra of Denmark in 1863 and they had six children. The eldest, Edward Duke of Clarence, died in 1892 just before he was to marry Princess Mary of Teck. When Edward died in 1910 it is said that Queen Alexandra brought his current mistress Mrs. Keppel to his bedside to take her farewell. His best known mistress was Lillie Langtry, the ‘Jersey Lily’.

HOUSE OF WINDSOR

Name changed in 1917

GEORGE V 1910 – 1936

George had not expected to be king, but when his elder brother died he became the heir-apparent. He had joined the Navy as a cadet in 1877 and loved the sea. He was a bluff, hearty man with a ‘quarter-deck’ manner. In 1893 he married Princess Mary of Teck, his dead brother’s fiancee. His years on the throne were difficult; the First World War in 1914 – 1918 and the troubles in Ireland which lead to the creation of the Irish Free State were considerable problems. In 1932 he began the royal broadcasts on Christmas Day and in 1935 he celebrated his Silver Jubilee. His latter years were overshadowed by his concern about the Prince of Wales and his infatuation with Mrs. Simpson.

EDWARD VIII June 1936 – abdicated December 1936

Edward was the most popular Prince of Wales Britain has ever had. Consequently when he renounced the throne to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson the country found it almost impossible to believe. The people as a whole knew nothing about Mrs. Simpson until early in December 1936. Mrs. Simpson was an American, a divorcee and had two husbands still living. This was unacceptable to the Church, as Edward had stated that he wanted her to be crowned with him at the Coronation which was to take place the following May. Edward abdicated in favour of his brother and took the title, Duke of Windsor. He went to live abroad.

GEORGE VI 1936 – 1952

George was a shy and nervous man with a very bad stutter, the exact opposite of his brother the Duke of Windsor, but he had inherited the steady virtues of his father George V. He was very popular and well loved by the British people. The prestige of the throne was low when he became king, but his wife Elizabeth and his mother Queen Mary were outstanding in their support of him.

The Second World War started in 1939 and throughout the King and Queen set an example of courage and fortitude. They remained at Buckingham Palace for the duration of the war in spite of the bombing. The Palace was bombed more than once. The two Princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, spent the war years at Windsor Castle. George was in close touch with the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill throughout the war and both had to be dissuaded from landing with the troops in Normandy on D-Day! The post-war years of his reign were ones of great social change and saw the start of the National Health Service. The whole country flocked to the Festival of Britain held in London in 1951, 100 years after the Great Exhibition during Victoria’s reign.

ELIZABETH II 1952 –

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, or ‘Lilibet’ to close family, was born in London on 21 April 1926. Like her parents, Elizabeth was heavily involved in the war effort during the Second World War, serving in the women’s branch of the British Army known as the Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and mechanic. Elizabeth and her sister Margaret anonymously joined the crowded streets of London on VE Day to celebrate the end of the war. She married her cousin Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and they had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. When her father George VI died, Elizabeth became Queen of seven Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 was the first to be televised, serving to increase popularity in the medium and doubling television licence numbers in the UK. The huge popularity of the royal wedding in 2011 between the Queen’s grandson, Prince William and the commoner Kate Middleton, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, reflected the high profile of the British Monarchy at home and abroad. 2012 was also an important year for the royal family, as the nation celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, her 60th year as Queen.

On 9th September 2015, Elizabeth became Britain’s longest serving monarch, ruling longer than her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria who reigned for 63 years and 216 days. Congratulations Ma’am; God Save the Queen!

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