#also there's only four people? two of whom are related and one of which wasn't even counted

[hoperays-song]

The Gang’s Crimes

***WARNING: THIS BLOG DOES NOT PROMOTE THE ROBBING OF BANKS OR JEWELER’S. DO NOT ROB THINGS AND BLAME THIS BLOG.***

Can we talk about how the gang picked the hardest to execute but least damaging crime they could commit? 

Like bank robbing? Unless you use physical force and threaten people, no one knows you’re there. And we see the alarm start ringing after they break a window, an alarm which alerted the police. Bank’s typically have silent alarms that can be triggered without a robber being alerted if they do the whole ‘charge in the front, threaten people, and demand money’ routine. That clearly wasn’t the case or nearby police units would have been alerted. Meaning the gang did the much harder version of ‘sneak in, steal stuff, and sneak out without triggering extra security systems’. They never threatened people.

So, their crimes? Essentially victimless. Banks have insurance for money that was stolen, as do jewelers and other companies that would have been shipping that much gold. The banks and gold owner’s are large corporations that absolutely got their money back at least for the most part.

And if your bank is robbed? Congrats, you aren’t really going to be affected. You might have to wait to use the ATM for a few hours/days there while it’s being investigated, but you personally did not lose any money as it is all insured. And the money taken from the bank? It’s not actually your money since banks loan it out. It’s standard practice. You are not going to lose anything.

The gang decided to commit an intensively difficult crime with the least amount of victims possible. They were non-violent and bypassed security systems instead of just holding up said bank. They didn’t hurt innocent people.

Of course Johnny is an absolute sweetheart. Of course the rest of the gang turned out to also be ridiculously nice and good people. They picked a crime that doesn’t really hurt people. They’re highly moral about their crimes when you think about it, which piled upon their need for money, is probably what lead them to chose what they did and explains why we never see Johnny protesting about the actual robbery aspect itself.

[desultory-novice]

hi dess, I was thinking about drawcia and her siaters last night and was curious if you ever thought about a connection between her and adeleine and noir. because of the... art theme, and because her sorceress form has some glaring similarities to dark matter blade. and/or perhaps some relation to the painter and mysterious brush mentioned in paintra/DX's boss descriptions? the subject of 2 siblings being separated is something adeleine/noir and paintra/drawcia seem to have in common

Oooh, D00p... >w< 

I hate to say that while I've been passively aware of some of the visual similarities/glaring connections between Drawcia and Dark Matter Blade, I have never really thought hard of doing anything with it/come up with anything particularly HC-y for them. Kinda goes for Drawcia and Nightmare too, who also share some concepts.

(There's just too much Dark Matter in Kirby! Keeping them all straight yet connected in a way that makes sense is difficult, darn it! No wonder Shimazaki left! "Figure the rest out for yourselves!" XD) (1)

I do know that, for Apologies, it's canon that Noir and Adeleine's family are 'people upon whom the rest of the planet does not look too fondly on.' That is why, while it would already be hard for two kids to survive there, it has been especially hard in their case...

:Dess still in deep consideration whether she wants to finish drawing the content warning-required Noir backstory chapter or not, even though it keeps poking its head into other stories:

Ahem! But I do remember thinking that if the Dark Matter Blade is Lab Discovera's first cursed af attempt at trying to make or recreate, I dunno, Galaxia maybe(?) That Ado's Paintbrush is probably the same for the Magic Paintbrush in Canvas Curse.

So, they are tied into the lore of this somehow... And you're right that their story echos the separated siblings. In fact, I was talking with thecrashman a little about some Apologies spoilers related to the above mentioned sidestory and witches made of paint did dance through my head for a second... but I still don't have anything concrete as to how the four (five, counting Vividria) are related.

-

(1)

Speaking of, I saw someone post that another Japanese guidebook supposedly made it "clear" that the Dark Matter you fight in DL 3 is the same as Blade which made me gulp because in Apologies, I wasn't necessarily going to make the Dark Matter in 3 the same as Noir and I was pre~tty sure the Japanese wiki backed me up on the possibility that they were, or at least, could be different!

...God, making Blade be the same Dark Matter that's in both 2 and 3 in Apologies-verse would have even ME crying and screaming?!?

It was bad enough that he's just a shadow of himself in 2. Flickering whispers of fading memories fighting a losing battle against the all encroaching darkness, but now, in Dream Land 3, he's LITERALLY a thrice-dead soulless husk?! Made to repeat the same task he failed at before by a heartless tyrant who only demands of the boy:

"Again." How...many...more...times...? "Again until you succeed."

Noir was gentle enough to keep Dedede asleep the whole time he was possessing him. Noir only captured Kirby's friends, not hurt them, mildly inconveniencing Kirby. But Zero? Zero resurrects his dead pawn, rips open Dedede's stomach and shoves Blade inside the king like he was a prison made of flesh within which Blade can only gnash his "teeth" (...rattle the bars...) and shed tears of darkness...

Zero then parades him out before Blade's own BABY BROTHER as a meat shield and an "example" - to fill both Gooey and Kirby with despair and hopelessness at the inevitability of that which they face.

"...You thought you had ended this one's suffering?" "This is the fate of all who defy EYE."

What is this True Arena Noir Soul I have accidentally invented?

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Why are birds considered dogs?

Because birds are dogs, duh. I'm not joking. It really is a common misconception that there are two different types of dog: the ones with four legs and fur (called "canines"), and the others with wings and feathers ("avians"). In reality all dogs have either type of appendage at some point in their lives — most young puppies have no feathering but they will grow it later as part of puberty. Similarly, many adult canine animals spend time living among the avian population when younger or during certain times of year. For example, many owners keep parakeets for companionship purposes; these might be used to bring babysitters into one's home if you aren't able to find an actual human sitter! (Weirdly enough, this is actually more popular than people think.)

In fact, most of our more familiar domesticated breeds were derived from wild canids which had contact with humans over long periods of time — after a while the ancestral relationship becomes difficult to discern because any physical trait could have been selected by both. This means it's hard to know where exactly your neighbor's goldfish-toothed dog came from, let alone whether he was originally yellow or chocolate brown.

However, we do have more reliable information on other animals such as turkeys and horses, whose ancestors didn't live around us until recently. Both were developed through selective breeding based on specific traits like aggressiveness and stamina, so even though they don't look much like wolves anymore they still share important genetic similarities. Aside from hair coloration, bird species resemble each other less closely than horse or cow varieties despite being closely related. The reason for this difference isn't known yet, but it probably has something to do with how relatively recently humans began selecting them. One possible scenario involves food scarcity in certain parts of Europe leading to farmers having to feed livestock whatever edible plant matter they found nearby rather than just keeping the plants themselves growing. There wasn't time for domesticated versions of many plants to evolve, since rapid diversification would have meant losing valuable nutrients before anyone got a chance to notice what made the best pig fodder, etc., while cultivating crops allowed for greater control over the diet. Therefore birds emerged as useful scavengers who could eat anything without needing training. They also turned out to make good guard animals — even predators like hawks and falcons will display territorial behavior towards potential competitors — although owls seem to take offense at this. Overall, the two groups interbred quite frequently, so birds are mostly descended from domesticated canines and vice versa. If you looked carefully you'd see evidence for both everywhere, like the feathery stumps of wolf tails mixed in with the tufts of fluff left behind by pet parrots. Or maybe you wouldn't…

So I guess why birds are called dogs depends entirely on whom you ask. Most people have never heard the theory described above, so they generally believe that dogs are those things that have four limbs and fur. Since birds have only three limbs and feathers instead of fur, the misnomer persists unchallenged. Meanwhile scientist types prefer the term "bird" because that includes everything, including non-domesticated populations, whereas "dog" implies artificial selection. To them it's a question of precision vs. clarity. Personally, I call my chicken "my little boy," so perhaps I am biased toward accuracy over practicality here. My answer may not satisfy you, but it should tell you why the confusion exists and give you lots to think about.

[galraluver]

Hii how are doing? :> Can I request Blaytz x reader headcanons who’s also a blue paladin? Like it was a travel to another au/dimension or distortion of space/time and he meets the third generation of paladins

Have a good dayyy

I'm doing good, thx for asking^^

Ooo, I like that idea! I'm more than happy to complete your request 😊 ✨️

_________________________________________

~ Blaytz never meant to do it, he was just curious, but after Honerva took the paladins to meet an inventor friend of hers he touched a device out of curiosity which sent him forward in time

~ During his little journey to the future he went unconscious and didn't know where he was when he woke up

~ He definitely wasn't on Altea anymore, although when he woke up and saw the lions practically standing over him, he was more confused than before

~ Blaytz didn't know that he'd been transported to the future until the blue lion lowered her head, opened her mouth and revealed a woman he'd never seen before

~ It was strange seeing someone in his lion, but it was even stranger to see a woman wearing his armor and holding his Bayard

~ As it turns out the young woman was from the third generation of paladins, and yet you was the fourth blue paladin

~ Blaytz got along well with you and you filled him in on what happened and where they were

~ Earth was a nice place, even though he'd never heard about it before

~ Blaytz was grateful to know that Blue was in good hands in the future and that she'd been piloted by people who suited her well

~ Speaking of Blue, she still recognizes Blaytz as her paladin despite him being sent to the future from the past

~ He also got to meet the other four third generation of paladins, all of whom were different from the first generation and yet they were perfect matches for the lions

~ You were the one who filled him in on what happened after the first generation of paladins fell, or rather you gave him all the information you knew after hearing Coran's stories

~ Blaytz is shocked when he learns that Zarkon will, or rather had, destroyed the first generation of paladins after his and Honerva’s exposure to quintessence

~ He got to hang out with the third generation of paladins for a while and tell them about some of his adventures as the original blue paladin, as well as what the other four first gen paladins were like

~ Blaytz gives them a little advice about dealing with things that only the paladins of Voltron would have to deal with

~ He also gave the you some pick-up line ideas when he learned that you could be a little bit of a flirt, just like him

~ Tbh, even though you're human, he kind of views you as his granddaughter, even though the two of you aren't related

~ Eventually Blaytz gets sucked back into the past, and he knows that there's nothing he can do to prevent history from playing out the way the universe had planned, but he's at peace knowing that Voltron and the universe will be in good hands in the future

[ofgentleresolve]

verse: a knight is but a gentleman with a sword ( 1/??? )

reposted and rewritten from my old blog on january 16th, 2022.

ie. how the vigilante thing started-

the vigilante thing started when myungdae is transferred to seoul for the long term alongside elise and hiro. he actually worked with alfred and nell often before over course of the three years they've all been in ANACHRON:

after being told by his supervisor from ARGOS to 'stand down' when he tells them he knows ANACHRON is doing something worse and he wants to look into it, he makes his way back home via walking over the han bridge. for a long moment he pauses to watch the river. it's a late night as the cars pass by him and for the longest moment, he teeters between two paths- one of despair and one of hope.

he picks the third path: resolve.

using his subterfuge skills, he begins with breaking into high profile companies he knows are connected to ANACHRON. alfred finds out about myungdae's nighttime activities by accident while on a 'business trip' for ANACHRON...and insisted on joining in.

nell, whom myungdae was actually pretty friendly with ( in comparison to alfred, whom he actually tried to avoid since myungsuk, myungdae's older brother. myungdae didn't want to be a painful reminder, since they looked alike ) found out from alfred.

she wasn't too keen on moving to a new city at first though so she at first provided help from a distance...and then she realized she was way more invested in myungdae and alfred's activities than her work with argos. so she ended up joining them in seoul too.

once myungdae's vigilante persona begins to be called the black knight, nell and alfred take on codenames too pawn and rook.

nell pushes the team to take on other white-collar criminals not related to ANACHRON. she was also the one who picked out patrick’s hat.

alfred thought it was a ridiculous choice…phrased it as ‘this stupid hat, who picked out it out’, but nell insisted, if myungdae was going to go with the whole gentleman vibe, he should look the part! so alfred got the mask to finish the picture.

their base is hidden beneath an abandoned clock tower in itaewon- alfred opens up a coffeehouse in close vicinity. nell says the basement gives her better internet access. but it also has a nice rooftop that overlooks the city….myungdae goes up there when he’s restless, which is often

hiro and elise can be found there a lot too- they’re just not allowed to go into the basement, that’s all.

alfred tends to scout out the cilents/targets, nell collects the information, and myungdae does the stealing.

myungdae doesn’t completely trust nell and alfred ( yet ), let alone feel completely comfortable around them but…it’s nice. having friends. people to watch his back even if it’s only because ANACHRON ruined all their lives. they want to both what find out what ANACHRON is up to, but also help the victims of this organization.

myungdae can't help but be nervous though....there's something he feels he should know about ANACHRON. something he needs to remember, but can't quite.

( there's a gap in his memory, he knows, spanning about four months. four months before he was taken in by ARGOS. the last thing he remembered before being rescued was being set on fire, but something before that interrogation, he can't remember for some reason- )

[dredshirtroberts]

Storytime

so last night around midnight my phone text message alert goes off.

it's important to note that I very rarely receive traditional text messages (despite my Text Alert Anxiety kicking back into high gear out of absolutely nowhere right before i told my parents to stop messaging me anymore unless it was something very important). I get a couple promotional ones from my weed store, and my phone company reminds me about my bill via SMS. That's generally it, unless my parents decide to remember me suddenly out of the blue, and again, I've told them to fuck all the way off so the only reason I should receive messages from them is if there is a major family update i need to be kept aware of.

The phone goes off four times very rapidly, which makes me concerned not just because of the phone anxiety but because that never happens. I get maybe one text from the weed store a week - up to twice a day if they have a correction on a promotion they sent out erroneously. The phone company already sent my alert that my bill for this month is ready and reminded me of my due date for paying it (all in one text! very efficient! I'll receive another one about 5 days before it's due just to make sure it gets paid on time, which i appreciate). I had no idea who would be texting me since everyone who knows my number and i speak to regularly would likely have attempted to send me a message on discord first, or otherwise wouldn't need to send a text message because they were in the house with me.

I check my phone - 4 new messages in a group chat between myself, my mother and my sister. Oh shit, it must be super serious then if she sent 4 messages very quickly at midnight when I specifically said she wasn't to contact me unless it was a major family update (implication being Emergency Situation).

I open the group chat.

Something about my parents is that ever since my sister and I moved out, they have begun caring for and speaking about their pet and inanimate objects as if they are People. Now the inanimate objects are specific with duties and also are related to their interests - my father's two new "sons" are his dog and his robot lawn mower both of whom have People Names.

So anyway their wine stopper who they have named a variant of "Bruce" for [a specific but i don't want to doxx myself] reason has been moved to sit astride the spigot on mom's boxed wine. This was so important that the "please do not contact me" message was ignored.

Admittedly it is entirely possible that my father did not communicate the stop-talking order to my mother since i sent it specifically to him but it addressed both of them. Unlikely but possible. I only say unlikely because this is the first time my mother has messaged both myself and my sister and did not sign off to us as "love you girls!" but instead changed it to a more gender neutral "Love you guys!". She's been doing the "Girls" thing since well before i came out but doubled down on it somehow afterwards.

It's also possibly relevant to know that approximately 6 hours beforehand i had finally gone onto my facebook and removed them from my friends because I realized that part of the reason I stopped posting on facebook regularly was because I didn't want them to know about major aspects of my life, and since they were major aspects of my life i couldn't share them on facebook but also that was all i had to share on facebook, so i just stopped. Probably a healthy thing but I'd very much like to feel as though I am the one in control over my social media experience and that includes giving me the option to share my life on a social media site that connects me with other members of my family who I do want to know these things about me. Because they care and support and love me, where my parents do not.

I will say it is VERY unlikely these two things are actually related as neither of my parents is on facebook often enough to notice these things immediately after they happen, but the coincidence was not lost on me. I am also aware that my sister does not, to my knowledge, know about me asking my parents to stop contacting me.

For now I will be ignoring the chat - i do not care about the wine stopper they love more than me, and i am offended that still the only reason she reaches out to me is because she vaguely remembers i exist when she's drunk enough to think moving her wine stopper to a new location is newsworthy. Should contact persist in this capacity, I will send her the exact message I sent my father - if it continues in the group chat I will likely reach out privately with this, but depending on how egregious this gets I will only hesitate a little before bringing this shit out onto main.

Because they're hiding it. They can't be seen to have failed so poorly with their first "little girl" *gagging noises* that "she" no longer wants to speak to them. They might be seen as bigots and they aren't bigots, some of the people they know are....sweet like I am. (my mother's favorite "euphamism" for effeminate men and other homosexual-adjacent folks) They just don't understand why I would want to be a guy, after all I'm so pretty etc. etc. (no compliments when I was trying very hard to be a girl, mind...).

And I am inclined to help them hide it - i don't want to air my dirty laundry in front of the whole family. I am against ruining people's reputations when it doesn't do anything but hurt them - and my parents are heinous but they are human beings and I would not want to humiliate them without due cause. it's the same way I handled the breakup with my big-e Ex. I lost a lot of friends because he had no qualms about dirtying my name, but in the end I'm better off for it because in the end if no one asks for my side of the story, they don't deserve to use it to come to their own conclusion about the situation. Folks picked sides then, folks will pick sides now. And I'm not inclined to being accused of libel or slander about my family simply because no one was there when it was happening, or that it was hidden from them in plain sight.

I'm not at that stage yet, so hopefully I will not have to go the nuclear route on blowing this shit up in order to get my parents to leave me alone.

but they shouldn't hide it - it'll hurt them in the long run. There are people they can talk to about how to deal with it better, and I want them to take advantage of that opportunity to grow and learn and work on themselves.

but they won't. They can't be seen to be less than perfect. So I will hold my cards to my chest, and should they get cocky, I won't be afraid to hit the big red button and throw the whole family into a tailspin.

[nadiajustbe]

OH YES. Sometimes while reading comments at Tiktok I can't help but question WHERE did these movie fans got that "book information" they're talking so confidently about. Because this looks like someone got this quote from someone who read the book ten years ago when they were five as bedtime story and haven't reread at since and then that someone told that to someone and THAT someone posted this info under random movie-related video as a "fan fact" and from there the rumour spred. Because some of them are absolutely random and have little to no connection from what happened in the book or lacking all possible context.

(the only one I have sinned with is that I sometimes joke about Howl invading taxes but more as a funny headcanon that anything else cause the book didn't even mentioned taxes once. That would be no less funny If he had to pay taxes for all four houses he uses for portals — especially knowing one of them in an drastically different currency which he literally cannot earn because HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY ACTUAL INCOME IN WALES. Absolutely hilarious)

Other popular miscomprehensions I saw people talking about:

1. Howl being instead of "soldiers" in the movie.

This one is lacking context so badly: yes, they wanted to make him a better person to the point they completely erased his actual first appearance, making him look like a hero instead of random slightly strange man and yes they were afraid to show him in any negative situation, and yes it gives me a laugh everytime I watch the movie but Howl wasn't even NEARLY as creepy as the soldiers. Quite contrary: it was a pretty normal thing for man at a time in May Day to go and court girls at the main square, wich is underlined at the text previously. The second he heard that Sophie is not interested and she's just going to see her sister he let her do so. He wasn't pushing, nor he was trying to insult her. Quoting:

"Then by all means do so," [he laughed] "Who am I to keep a pretty lady from her sister?"

And when she said now to his sincere and kind offer of accompanying her on the way Lettie, he didn't object either.

This doesn't make this moment less awkward for Sophie sure and that's also — shocking — not trying to show Howl as hero of any sort (calling her "a little mouse" was not the best choice of words), but it didn't intend to show Howl as a full-blown weirdo either. What it does it is simply plays with our expectations of the mc meeting her love interest and sets up Howl as a flawed character. Flawed, yet not absolutely villainous.

2. Howl was cheating on Sophie while they were together

That claim is fully impossible. First of all, they got together on about three very last pages on the book. You cannot cheat on someone you weren't even dating. Yes, he was seeing other woman, but he was doing that way before Sophie came. That waa never shown as a good or positive trait of his — If you're gonna use Howell Jenkins as a role model in any possible situation, then maybe you didn't get his character quite as much.

And, ironically enough, after Sophie came almost all of his courting was from investigation purposes only — whether it was his courting of Lettie with ended up forming around getting information about Sophie or his courting of miss. Angorian who ended up being a literal fire demon and Howl clearly suspected it from the early on.

When he actually marries to Sophie in the next two books he shown no intention to cheat on her whatsoever and stays loyal. Hell, they ever had a kid after whom — even in his own ways — Howl looks after. Never ever in any line in CiTA or HoMW there's a single word or rumour about Howl seeing other women while being married to Sophie. And If you think he'd do so just because he was a courting mess in the first book, then you're the one making random illogical conclusions.

Yes, Howl is a mess, a dork, an idiot and a loser, who was a womaniser for the biggest part of his life, but If there's one single thing that actually changed about him from start to end of HMC is that fell in love with Sophie Hatter very, very hard.

3. Sophie hating Howl (or otherwise Sophie and Howl being 10000% toxic and abusing one another)

This deserve a full another post, but to make story short both of their characters simply wouldn't allow them to being nearly as horrible as TikTok HMC book experts say. Sophie argues with Howl not because he is the most horrible man alive (although he IS giving her trouble and she's completely great with it. She agrees to marry this man fair and square), but because she's argumentative and bossy and angry by her nature. That's her character. That's who she is. There's hardly a single character in this book she didn't argue or at least tried to argue with. Her whole arc is about accepting herself for what she feels and who she is and learning to express these emotions without fear. Howl knows this and Howl knows her. He lets her argue because he loves Sophie for who she is — and she is an argumentative, stubborn woman. And there's nothing bad about being stubborn, nor argumentative.

And If you want Sophie to broke up with Howl because he "makes her argue more" you simply want to set her back to that scared, deeply saddened and exploited person she was at the start.

And finally — HMC is NOT your quide to romance. It's not "100 right ways your relationship should look If you want to be happy". They're meant to show love as it is. And love is flawed, love is crazy, love is a place where anyone can find a person for themselves no matter who they are. They don't have to show love the way you show it or the way you want. If you look at them bickering all the time and looking at magic explosions going around and go "that's not what I'd want in MY relationship" you're good! You're valid! I probably wouldn't be able to be in this kind relationship myself. But I'm not Sophie. Not Howl. If you want too look up how perfect healthy relationships should look, go search literature on that topic. It's doesn't mean they're inheretly toxic.

HMC shows love and it does it great — If it's not your type of love love, simply don't view it as a guide for you. HMC is not written for 5-year olds, it's written for ages nine and up and sometimes even considered as a YA — in Ukraine this book is given to us by the school curriculum no later than we reach 13, so no, it's not gonna teach children toxic relationships. Simply because it's not actually toxic.

But I said if he and Calcifer were staying, then so was I, and couldn’t he put a spell on me that would simply make the djinn not notice I was there? And we argued about that—”

Lettie chuckled. “Now, why doesn’t that surprise me?” she said.

Sophie’s face became somewhat pink,

This quote brings it somewhat perfectly. Here she's talking about arguing with Howl and when Lettie notes that the woman is BLUSHING.

Sophie and Howl were living—somewhat quarrelsomely, it must be confessed, although they were said to be happiest that way—in the moving castle again.

And If it doesn't reassure you, here's another quote. If someone says there's toxic again I'll start damaging something.

I'll finish it here for today but I swear there's so much more one post wouldn't be enough. People who say the won't/scared to read books because of this hurt my soul

If I see one more person saying that the castle moves in the book because Howl is evading taxes I'm gonna force every Ghibli fan to READ THE BOOK. Or at the very least not post about it online.

For all we know Howl pays MORE taxes as a result of having multiple residences and living in TWO UNIVERSES.

This also applies to people who say Diana Wynne Jones was Welsh, or the striking amount of people with the false recollection that she came up with the claim that the movie is how Howl tells it, and the book is how Sophie tells it.

These people spread rumours better than Michael in Market Chipping.

[akocomyk]

I was First Runner-up in a talent contest

It was for our company's Pride's Got Talent—a competition open to all employees in the Philippines in celebration of Pride month. The finals was held during the culminating event dubbed as "Pride Means More Celebrations" held on June 28.

I was a bit hesitant to join at first, but then I showed the ecard invitation for auditions to two of my closest friends at work.

They didn't just support the idea. They were convinced I was gonna win. Before I was able to say anything, they've already made a deal that if I win—which they're already a hundred percent sure that I would—I should treat them for sushi.

And... I agreed. And I didn't want to let them down. I could've just sent a lame audition video and save some extra stress from my life, but I didn't.

I had two options for my entry. First is that I'd do my cover of Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You" on the guitar, and second is I'd do a cover of Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" on the piano blindfolded.

"If I Ain't Got You" was an easier choice, and I would've gone with that had my fingernails been longer—I had just cut them short at that time.

So... I went with the blindfolded drama, even if it's more difficult to do. It's gonna be fun. After all, winning wasn't my primary intention. I'd be happy if I was chosen as a finalist and that would be enough reason to treat my friends for some sushi.

And guess what?

I was selected as one of the four finalists out of 29 entries. That means I had to perform live—literally live on the venue with an audience and everything—for the finals.

With that, the organizers requested us to submit a recorded cheer or message video from our teammates and friends. It's gonna be played along with our intro video right before we perform.

I wasn't comfortable yet with spreading the news to our entire design team. Only a handful of people—my closest friends—know that I am bisexual and that I have a male partner. Even my own family and relatives don't know about me. Telling the team that I was a finalist for a Pride celebration contest could reveal that I'm part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

I am not ashamed of who I am, but I wasn't ready to disclose that part of me yet, which was why I only requested a video from those who already know and those whom I think should know—only eight people.

Upon knowing what I did, they congratulated me. They were very excited and happy for me.

But I had a problem. I didn't have the slightest idea how I'm gonna take my eight-octave digital piano from Cavite City to BGC and vice versa. Commute by bus would be the last resort.

Aside from that, all was good.

Until... the Friday before the competition, I was outed to my family. I slept soundly the night before, only to wake up with the story that my relatives already know about me.

It was partially my fault since they found out about it through this blog, but it was in no way under my terms. My father was mad at me for like fifteen minutes—this went on while I was starting my shift at work.

I panicked that time. My heart was racing. While my father was throwing me all the words he could think of, I was chatting all my friends, telling them what was happening at that very moment.

It was resolved quickly. My father hugged me, and so did my sister—who was very supportive of me and didn't mind at all. And I cried.

I got on a call with my best friend after all the commotion and... that call was just a burst of comfort. During our call, I mentioned about my being a finalist on the contest and she volunteered to help me transport my keyboard to the office since she's free on that day. She would have to leave right after though since she had a shift at the hospital by 6:00 PM.

Anyway...

At least, some of my problems had been solved.

My best friend and I also talked about the film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once because it somehow relates to my situation. How nothing matters. When this idea is viewed liberatingly rather than depressive, it can be freeing. No matter what the circumstances are, we always have to fight with love.

That Friday night, I told one of my friends whom I requested for a cheer video that I'm gonna share the news and invite the whole team to watch and support me on the finals. I don't care if they know that I'm bisexual. I won't mind whatever the repercussions will be.

So I did. I told the entire team about the talent contest the day before the finals.

You know what? I felt like every part of me that was shattered in that fateful Friday was slowly being rebuilt back up.

I was showered with love and support from my teammates, and they were so excited to see me perform on the finals.

And they did.

Our group chat was so active during and after my performance.

They were so happy and they were very proud of me. And even though I was on my own in the venue and I didn't know anyone, I never felt alone.

When I was announced as the First Runner-up, I had no ounce of regret within me. I had no hard feelings whatsoever. On the other hand, it was my teammates who were all like, "Sam should've won," or like, "We should file an incident report!"

Having received all these from people who aren't even related to me by blood just warms my heart. Knowing that I didn't let them down already made me feel like a winner in so many ways.

Photo and video footage by Angelo Camaya

[sollannaart]

Hello, I've scrolled through your blog to make sure, this question wasn't asked before, but it would seem that it wasn't (though I could've missed it). Can I please ask you of prince Poniatowski's attitude towards Napoleon?

No, this question has not been asked yet, and thank you very much for sending it! It will be my please to write a answer to this.

Relationship between prince Józef Poniatowski and the emperor Napoleon Bonapart

I am sorry, this turned out to be a very long read, and on the topic a little bit wider than asked, so I had to specify the title and give the short answer for those who aren’t interested in details.

So in brief - Poniatowski respected Napoleon, but wasn’t a blind worshipper of the emperor. And in situations when in the balance there might have been Napoleon and Poland, and only one thing was to be chosen for prince Józef this one definitely would be his motherland.

Bronisław Gembarzewski, prince Józef and Napoleon

Emperor Napoleon, as all fans of the epoch knows, first arrived to Warsaw in December of 1806. But to start the long-read about relationship between the emperor and the prince properly we need make a step backwards, to understand what these two thought about each other on the moment of their first meeting.

Prince Józef, in comparison with many of his country men, participated in none of general Bonapart’s campaigns. What’s more - when the count of Provence, future king Louis XVIII resided in Warsaw in 1801-1804 he was an often visitor of Poniatowski’s palace. (So it may be said that before 1806 prince Józef was kind of a “royalist”.)

However, with Napoleon’s victory over Prussia and the emperor’s arrival to the former Polish lands chances of Poland rising from the dead skyrocketed! And prince Józef realized that he couldn’t have stayed away any longer, that if he wanted to participate in his motherland reappearing on the map of Europe he had to join the French.

As for Napoleon - in 1806 the emperor of Frenchmen didn’t have any warm feeling towards the nephew of the last king of Poland. One of the reason was that Claude Carloman de Rulhière, with whose book Histoire de l’anarchie de Pologne Napoleon had studied history of lands he was going conquer, wasn’t sympnathising the Poniatowski family. As other reasons there may be named a fact, that that time in French Army there were other Poles, whom the emperor knew better, like generals Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and Józef Zajączek.

Nevertheless, because when leaving Warsaw the Prussians kinda left the city “in charge” of Poniatowski, Napoleon had to meet prince Józef on entering the city. And from the data I was able to find it looks like the first meeting of the emperor and the prince happened on the 19th of December.

Prince Józef with Napoleon during the war campaign - drawing by Wacław Lipiński

With this image I am obliged to make a small digression. Napoleon, as recent investigation show, was not that short as he was thought to be because of English cartoons. Józef Poniatowski, on the other hand, was described by the contemporaries as a man of the middle height. So, in my opinion standing side-by-side these two must have looked like as people of the same height.

With the emperor so prejudiced against prince Józef, you may ask, how did it happen that less than a month later, on the 14th of January 1807, the latter was appointed as a Director of War? (In October of 1807, after the Duchy of Warsaw was created, Poniatowski’s post acquired the name of “Minister of War”.)

The answer is that behind the event there was a long and complicated intrigue, in which were involved such people as Joachim Murat (with whom, as you may remember, prince Józef quickly became friends) and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, that time Foreign Minister of France. (As for the latter - his protection was asked by Pepi’s sister, Teresa Tyszkiewicz.)

And I can’t help but mention that Poniatowski’s nomination nevertheless had some advantages, because in comparison with his “rivals” he was a representative of the aristocracy, what might have provided support to Napoleon from the Polish high-society.

And speaking of high-society I can’t help touching a rather delicate topic, related with Napoleon’s love life, with which Poniatowski - in comparison with what is thought about him - had nothing to do. Yes, I mean the story of prince Józef (and other Polish dignitaries) supposedly forcing Maria Walewska to give in to the emperor in exchange for “Poland’s resurrection”.

SCREENSHOT FROM THE MOVIE “MARYSIA I NAPOLEON”. From left to right - Zdzisław Makłakiewicz as prince Józef, Gustaw Holoubek as Napoleon, Beata Tyszkiewicz as Maria Walewska, Ignacy Machowski as Duroc, Kazimierz Rudzki as Talleyrand, Juliusz Łuszczewski as Anastazy Walewski

Many people believe in it because it is written in so-called Walewska’s memoirs, but the investigations of Polish historians (like, fir example, Marian Brandys) prove that not everything might have happened like it was described in the memoirs. And prince Poniatowski’s involvement in the story is one of the facts. (The closest connection he might have had with this is that Mme Henriette de Vauban, his mistress, might have tried to influence Mme Walewska. But this is definitely a topic to continue in - if at all - a separate post.

So, let’s return to relationship between Poniatowski and Napoleon.

In 1809 the Duchy of Warsaw was attacked by the Austrians, and the Army of the Duchy showed its combat strength, winning the war and taking back from the enemy a huge a part of former Polish territories. The emperor was impressed by prince Józef’s inferiors’ performance, till such a degree that he awarded the latter with the highest imperial order of merit, the cross of the Legion of Honour.

But this was done “by proxy”, and the next, after year 1807, meeting of these two happened only in 1811 in Paris, where Poniatowski was invited to attend the christening of Napoleon’s son, the king of Rome.

Prince Józef arrived to Paris on the 23rd of April, and in the evening of that very day received an invitation from the emperor to appear next day in Saint Clou. What’s more, Poniatowski’s visit was to be happen at once, without an obliged advance as the ceremony of representation by the Saxon ambassador.

Prince Józef with Napoleon during the ceremonial audience at the Tuileries Palace - drawing by Maria Artwińska

And this is the image I like, because both - the prince and emperor - seem to have there the “correct” height!

Why was Napoleon so eager to see prince Józef? Well, at least because the latter brought with him news, which was dangerous to trust to paper. Namely - about planning Russian invasion of the Duchy and the tsar attempts to persuade the Polish Minister of War to switch sides and join the anti-napoleonic coalition. (Can’t help but mention there that Poniatowski revealed Napoleon mere facts, but not the names of the people communicating with him, in order not to put them in danger.)

And what about christening? Of course, prince Józef participated in the ceremony, and was even allowed to have an audience with the child-king. And, no doubts, there followed other court events, huntings, balls, etc. Old friend, Murat, and Poniatowski’s sister’s love interest, Talleyrand, introduced Pepi to the highest Parisian society. Also Pepi paid a visit to the ex-empress Josephine.

Prince Józef in conversation with Napoleon and the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Talleyrand - drawing by Andrzej Zarzycki

And though initially prince Józef’s stay in the French capital was planned to be a couple of months, in fact it prolonged to four, till the emperor’s birthday. And leaving finally on the 27th of August Poniatowski received as a farewell gift a beautiful snuffbox planted with diamonds and a loan to… pay the debts of his sister Teresa.

And then there came the year 1812. Prince Józef was made the commander of the 5th Corps of the Grande Armée, and with the rest of the Army went to Russia.

However, above “The Polish corps” there was a commander not very competent and lucky, emperor’s younger brother Jérôme. And when it happened that the Russian Army under general Bagration managed to escape from the “second center” corps led by Jérôme, Napoleon blamed on this... prince Józef. 

In the battle of Smolensk, however, the Vth Corps managed to distinguish to such a degree, that together with its commander it was mentioned in a bulletin of the Grande Armée.

Jean-Charles Langlois, The Battle of Smolensk, 17th August 1812, detail

But after that battle there happened a very dramatic scene between the prince and the emperor. Because, as you might know, the city of Smolensk was the most eastern town ever belonged to Poland. So, if Napoleon’s goal was, as it had been proclaimed in the beginning of the war, to restore Poland, the Grande Armée should have stopped there, at Smolensk. Not to go further east.

And Poniatowski, as a witness of the scene, count Ostrowski, recalled, “begged Napoleon on his knees if not to direct the whole French Army to the south, to the former Polish lands, then at least to separated the Polish corps and send it along the Dnieper river, in the direction of Kiev...”

But emperor was implacable. 

What happened next we all know. The battle of Moscow, fire, retreat…

In December Napoleon left his army and speeded to Paris. Prince Józef returned to Warsaw, to rebuild “the Polish corps”, to reenforce the people left with new conscripts and to be ready to join with these people the emperor. When the latter comes with fresh forces, to fight the coalition back.

But the emperor of French didn’t hurry to return to the East of Europe. Failing to wait him Poniatowski had to leave Warsaw, going with his soldiers to Kraków. And was waiting here, for almost three month.

To no avail.

At the beginning of May all the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw, except Kraków, was occupied by Russians. A lot of Polish officers, acquaintances and even friends of prince Józef, resigned from the army. A lot of them were persuading the Polish commander-in-chief to follow, to join the anti-napoleonic coalition.

And… well, here I can’t write that Poniatowski rejected these propositions, all and at once. No, he was listening, thinking over… Asking for terms and thoroughly pondering on what would have been better for his motherland - to stay with France or not.

And on the night from the 6th to the 7th of May, on the eve of his 50th birthday the decision was made.

Prince Józef sees “the White Lady of the Poniatowski Family” on the night on 6/7 May 1813 in Krakow (drawing by Ludomir Ilinicz)

Having obtained no written guaranties from the other side, feeling that unconditional surrender - the only thing they were ready to accept from him - was not compatible with the soldier honor, the Polish Bayard decided to stay with Napoleon.

Although to make such a decision was for prince Józef extremely hard (especially if to take into account that he still had not got clear instructions from the emperor what to do). As Poniatowski confided next day to one of his colleagues that night thinking was so difficult to him that he even thought about shooting himself. Twice.

What is not proved - so this fact still stays a kind of legend - that that night prince Józef saw a ghost, the famous “White lady of Poniatowski family”. The fantom that was said to announce with its appearance very bad things to come…

And in 5 month there came… the battle of Leipzig.

Jean-Charles Langlois, The Battle of Leipzig (?)

This image is often signed as „the battle of Leipzig” though judging by the emperor’s, the prince’s and their horses’ poses I suppose it might be another version of “the battle of Smolensk”.

Of course, before Leipzig there was truce, then the battle of Dresden, then retreat and preparations. And in the beginning of the battle there was a moment when French victory still looked possible. But soon it turned out that it was an illusion.

And then the emperor… named general Poniatowski a marshal of France. Thus making him the only foreigner among that cream of French military elite.

Prince Józef Poniatowski receives the marshal baton, French engraving from the XIXth century

How did Poniatowski react to such a promotion? Did he become happy? Or, at least, glad?

No, not at all. (It looks like he felt that this appointment has more with his future attachment to France, than with military achievements.)

So prince Józef continued to call himself a general, sign documents according his old position. Furthermore, in the written explanation that Poniatowski sent to Warsaw it was stated that “if there was not war for Poland, no one would ever see him in uniform”. Which literally meant resignation. (In the very same letter, though, prince Józef announced that before leaving the army he had to escort Napoleon back to Paris.)

So, dear friends, who was interested in what might have happened with prince Józef had he not been killed at Leipzig - this is the answer. He would definitely retreat with Napoleon to Paris, than resigned and… here the certainty is a little bit less, but something tells me that he would have preferred exile to going back home. But I am not one hundred percent sure.

January Suchodolski, Napoleon and Józef Antoni Poniatowski at the Battle of Leipzig

And what about Napoleon? In his memories dictated on St. Helene he wrote that he should have made prince Józef the king of Poland (ha-ha, what would he have done if the latter rejected the crown?), regretted not doing this.

But what is, in my opinion, more interesting, is to learn what the ex-emperor thought on other Poniatowski-related topics? Did he regret blaming prince Józef for Jerome’s mistakes? Had he doubts on not listening the Polish commander’s pleas to take back former Polish land instead of going to Moscow?

Alas, I am afraid, this is a thing we’ll never know…

[elriel-oblivion]

So it's been four days so here's part two 😁 Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who read/liked/commented/reblogged the last part! It was such an amazing response, especially given it was my first time posting my writing here, so thanks for all the love you shared 🥰🥰

Heads up, this part is actually part one from Elain's pov. Initially I wanted to continue from where the last part left off in Elain's pov, but as I was writing the background, I realised I'd written too much to just skip when Az gets to the estate and cut straight into a continuation of part one, so I ended up rewriting the whole thing in her view. So there's no new elriel moments, but you'll get a lot of new stuff anyway 😅 I would've said you don't have to read this part to understand part three, but when I was rereading the later parts a few hours ago, I realised there's some stuff that alludes to things in this part, so I strongly recommend you don't skip this 😅😅

Also, wow, some of my fave paragraphs I've ever written are in this part 😁 Bonus points if you can find them; there are four I'm thinking of in particular 😉

Word count: ~ 3.1K. Lemme know if you'd like to be tagged/removed 😊 Next part up in two or three days 😊

AO3

Ashes from the Deep

Part II

__

It had been a pretty uneventful day as Elain worked through her new plant textbook. Feyre and Rhysand had decided to spend the weekend away at the mountain cabin, Cassian and Nesta were away doing things she wished not to think of, and Mor was at the Winter Court.

Amren had only been round in the mornings, probably to check Elain was still alive. She'd glance round the living room, examine some of those fine crystal glasses in the display cabinet and then leave. There was no difference today, though Elain always felt Amren's scrutiny upon her even when that muted silver gaze was directed elsewhere; perusing Rhys' wine collection had become a tired ruse.

So besides preparing and taking her meals with Nuala and Cerridwen, Elain had spent her afternoon with her book, making notes and copying drawings. The twins had gone off on some errands, so she'd wandered into the garden at some point to tend to her many plants, telling them how lovely they each were. The crocuses looked particularly stunning this autumn day, their pale violet colour breathing life into the shades beneath some of the trees.

With her book, she'd identified new weeds, digging into the soil to rip some pesky ones out. Sometimes she didn't want the help of a tool; sometimes she needed to feel those roots on her bare skin.

Harvesting the carrots and beetroot was also on the agenda today, along with seeding for some spectacular displays next year. She'd been collecting the seeds from some of her summer blooms, like those soft clouds of baby's breath, saving them to replant. These she sowed directly into ground she'd prepared days before, her fingers digging into the crumbly clumps of earth.

Autumn onions she'd plant tomorrow, perhaps. Feyre always remarked on how their strong taste complimented meats well, so Elain wanted to harvest some fresh for her sister for once. It'd take a few months of waiting, but there was little else better than picking out and eating food one had grown with their bare hands and the essential ingredients of love and care.

Setting her book on the patio table, Elain surveyed the garden. It was a good day's work. Plants watered and sown, weeds uprooted, and hands sweaty and soiled, Elain was proud of what she'd achieved today. There were no distractions, nothing to take her from the one thing she always found satisfaction in.

After a long shower, she found herself back in the garden with a cup of tea and a blanket. The sunset washed the sky in a blaze of red and orange glory before it yielded to the cool tones of twilight then night. Elain sat in silence, hands wrapped around her mug. How long would it be until someone's arms were wrapped around her, until she felt the warmth her sisters finally had?

Silly, these thoughts. Immortality stretched far ahead, there would be time to develop that companionship. Months and years were but a heartbeat in the life of a High Fae. She wouldn't even notice the years pass.

Or so everybody else kept saying.

With her tea finished, she perused the book of recipes she'd borrowed from Nuala. Some recipes jumped out, ingredients for which she'd been growing for a few months now. Pumpkin pie sounded especially delightful, the gourd having almost darkened and hardened to ripe quality just a couple days ago. They should be ready for harvest tomorrow.

A chill wind sent Elain inside to prepare and have her dinner in pleasant silence. Even her mind was quiet tonight. After washing her dishes, she stood by a bay window, fingers idly tapping the windowsill.

Faelights bobbed like tiny lamps, dotted through the garden. The full moon was now high in the sky, its ghostly glow illuminating the datura flowers she'd seeded half a year ago. She pulled on her blanket and went out again for a better look at those gorgeous blooms, the petals opening only at night.

Elain couldn't be happier she'd found seeds of a triple-flowered variety. They'd grown to produce large trumpets, three layers of petals ruffled against each other. Somehow she thought of her sisters as she crouched and stared at the flowers, each layer so similar, yet fighting for space and breath as it unfurled before another. It was only when they were all fully open that they could sigh along the night breeze as one, an ethereal song of togetherness, tinged with notes of poignancy, only heard by those with the will to look deeper.

The white petals were stained with velvet violet, a true vision in her garden. While the others had given her passing compliments on the flowers, Azriel had seemed stunned the first time he saw them, citing them his favourite of all the plants Elain had grown so far. Something about their shape and contrasting colours, he'd mentioned.

She smiled fondly at the memory, where his eyes sparkled as he reached for one of the soft petals.

Her hand lashed out to grab his wrist. 'Don't touch them; the leaves and stems are highly poisonous.'

His brows rose. 'You wouldn't think that at first sight. But they're beautiful, Elain. Truly magnificent,' he said, his smooth voice so low, a voice that was night given sound. And how befitting, as even those datura flowers seemed enraptured by his presence, one shy petal finally unfurling towards him.

She beamed at him. 'They like you. Flowers like it when you talk to and compliment them - but these ones haven't given me the same reaction as they have to you. I think they really like you, Azriel.'

His answering smile was heartbreakingly tender.

A few more seconds passed before she realised she still held his wrist. She silently let go.

It was a shame she'd have to dig out the datura shrub and move it inside for the winter; it did look magnificent in the moonlight.

The sky shifted past its midnight velvet, and still Elain crouched, admiring the flowers. She shivered in the night's chill. The stars above twinkled and glistened, cold and distant as ever, yet stunning - infinitely more striking than they'd ever been when she was human. A thousand different colours sparkled in that vast expanse, the moon a phosphorescent queen in the centre of her court.

The Night Court truly lived up to its name in the wee hours of the day. Its opulence never failed to mesmerise her; the enhanced Fae eyesight was at least one thing she was grateful for from this body.

Her eyelids became heavy and she yawned. Why was she still out here? It was late into the night; she should be in bed by now. But the night was so beautiful and it was so quiet and she wanted to appreciate it all just once. Just once without the expectations of others, without having to wear that miserable smile all the time.

Of course, it didn't look miserable, which is probably why almost nobody ever bothered to look deeper into Elain. She should be used to it by now, but it still felt - wrong. That most overlooked her so long as she wore a smile. That most didn't think her capable of feeling the utter bitterness and loneliness she had once seen so plain on her sisters' faces.

And in acknowledgement of her sisters' hardships, Elain didn't fault them for not looking, for not seeing her. To see past the thick blanket of darkness in one's own mind was a trial in itself. But it had been years since the war now. And still they didn't notice.

They didn't notice that Elain was being shredded from the inside out.

It was almost laughable. But not funny enough.

No, it was not funny that people still treated Elain like a child, that people wanted to keep Elain in some weird impasse of a stage between child and adult. She'd thought finally carrying out her duty and giving her hand in marriage would show everyone that she was growing up: Elain Archeron, middle born but first married. Of course it was still on her own terms, to a man whom she'd loved. A man who'd seen her through the rubble of her family's lives. But she'd overall hoped doing what was expected of her would be enough.

Clearly not. She didn't even know who she was any more. Did she ever? Everything she'd once yearned for, gone. That fragile human life would soon be just a speck on the horizon of her past.

She sighed. Rebuilding herself was going to take a long time.

But what would she have to do for people to see her, to listen to her? Throw a rage? Fall into a drunken stupor and break a few dozen bottles?

She definitely could, but those were not her. She was Elain Archeron. And so she would wait. Patience wasn't a bad thing at all; she saw it on the shadowsinger's face all the time, that tranquility and calmness she so wished to feel inside.

Azriel. Her heart softened as he entered her mind again, and she dug her fingers into the soil, if only to occupy her fidgety hands. As sure as the chaos of her visions these days, there was a mess of butterflies related to him she wasn't willing to show. Or understand.

Elain and the spymaster? Now that was laughable. Truly laughable. He was wise and patient, while she - well, everyone already thought her a child, and though he listened like no other around her, surely even he couldn't glimpse the adult she so desperately wanted everyone to see.

No, it was foolish to entertain the idea of a relationship with him. No matter how much he saw.

No matter that he was the first to see her since Graysen.

Elain exhaled. She stifled another yawn, smoothing out the soil, then brushed her hands clean. She wrapped the blanket closer around herself and stood. Twinkling stars and velvety darkness and -

There, a knot of shadows materialising at the far edge of the garden, collecting and swirling into a larger mass before Azriel himself stepped out and sagged against a tree. His shadows whirled and obscured him, a dark fire with him burning at the core.

Elain's voice left her throat before she even thought to call him and she ran over to his figure slumped in the dimness.

She couldn't help but say his name again as she neared. 'Azriel!'

Those beautiful hands fiddled with a Siphon, but he looked even worse up close. Fatigue dragged at his body, a second weight to all the muscle and armour he already had to carry. Sweat and dirt clung to him, his hair. At least the shadows were parting, swallowing each other and misting away as they often did around her. Perhaps she should ask someday why they did that. But not today, not when his breathing was so laboured.

She raised a hand - to do what, she had no idea. She couldn't just touch him right now. 'You don't look okay.'

Something else limned his features as he huffed a light laugh and said, 'I'm fine, don't worry.' His voice was raw, so starkly different to its usual icy smoothness. It was common for him to guard his emotions, but in his state, this kind of thinking was just unhealthy. What would it take for him to be honest with her?

'You don't have to pretend with me, Azriel,' she said, lowering her hand. She studied the ground, embarrassed that she'd come up to him. What could she even offer in her pathetic childlike state when he was so clearly affected by his mission right now?

His hand rose. Her heart faltered, she had to do something, and she blurted, 'Can I wash your hair, please?'

His eyes widened, his entire composure crumbling. It wasn't often that the shadowsinger looked startled, but Elain was far too shy to show that she quite liked the effect her question had on him.

'You want to wash my hair?'

His face was so exquisite, it hurt to look at it. His eyes would be even worse; it wouldn't be the first time she was rendered speechless by their kind gaze. A myriad of colours swirled in their glistening depths - gorgeous greens and brilliant browns, all so natural and rich, if only she could look at them long enough to find their matches in the garden around her. Though, his eyes were an entire spectrum of colour in their own right. How would she ever pick out each and every shade?

And if she somehow did have the courage to meet his eyes now, what would she see of herself in their reflection?

A lovesick puppy? A doe-eyed, fearful fawn?

No, she didn't want to know.

So she swallowed and focused on his hair. Perhaps this Fae eyesight was a curse, for even his hair was shockingly fascinating. Only flat black from a distance, the faelights bobbing about the trees highlighted layer upon layer of silky raven locks up close. His hair was so dark it seemed to absorb the surrounding light. Mud stained one side of his head, and it was an effort to keep her hands from brushing it away, so she said, 'I'm positive that's mud and you shouldn't sleep with that in your hair. It'll only take a few minutes.'

He ran a hand through his hair, clumps of dirt falling out.

'You've managed to get some on your face, too.' There were light specks of mud and blood across his face, a more noticeable patch along his cheekbone, thrown into sharper relief by the faelights and his own weariness. Was that a cut beneath the patch? And another on his temple?

She leashed her arms.

What had happened? He wore the signs of a fight, but why would he come here when he knew Elain was the only one home?

His eyes bored into her face, but she refused to meet them. He seemed to lean forward then, stumbling.

Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous that he wouldn't even acknowledge he was in need. Azriel rarely stumbled. Any fatigue Elain had felt just a while ago was now burrowing down a little longer. Her voice was firm when she spoke. 'I'm washing your hair. It'll help relax you into falling asleep.'

His brows rose, but if Elain stood there one more moment she wouldn't have the courage to do anything for him. For herself - she could take care of someone else. She could do for Azriel what she hadn't done for Feyre all those years as a human.

And for Azriel, she could tend to the male who'd provided her with comfort and safety in this world of distress and danger.

So she pulled him along, clenching her jaw and refusing to look back. Her heart hammered in her chest but she continued, hand wrapped round his armoured arm. Her hand slid down to his wrist but just as she was about to replace her grip, he grabbed her other hand and pulled her into him.

The shadows instantly began to ensconce them, dozens of those cool tendrils twining like vines. The estate loomed huge before them, and Elain gripped Azriel's hand tighter. 

'My bathroom,' she said. Beneath the low whisper of those shadows, her blood thrummed, her heart so painfully obvious against her ribs now. It would be a wonder if the spymaster wasn't aware of it. Though she did hear another flutter above, right by her ear. But as expected, the shadows made quick work of their journey and she didn't have the chance to dwell on it further.

Now out of the comfort of Azriel's hold, Elain set down her blanket and made to grab a chair from her bedroom. His dark presence was so overwhelming that she exhaled lightly as she entered the room and took the chair. She dragged it to the sink, avoiding his gaze, and pulled a towel, soap and a large jug from the cupboard by the door.

As she settled the soap and jug on the sink, she dared a glance at him. He was still clad in full armour, those black scales gleaming like obsidian over his skin, his Siphons glistening jewels across his body. 'I think you'll have to collapse your armour for this,' she said.

He inclined his head and tapped a Siphon, those scales lashing back into each other with cruel elegance. They were a mirror of their master: cold, controlled and unyielding, forged from scintillating darkness. He was a night sky riddled with stars; light existed if only one bothered to look for it.

Azriel's great wings righted themselves as he stood straight, now looking smaller in just his black tunic and trousers. Something about him seemed vulnerable without the armour, so Elain breathed, 'It's beautiful, all of it.' The hulking armour, the classic simplicity of the tunic and trousers, and the male who wore them all.

He was just so wonderful, Azriel. An enigma that could see her own. Her heart clenched.

Azriel rustled his wings, colour blossoming on his cheeks.

Elain blinked and pulled the chair out a little. 'Please sit.' As he sunk down, she rested the towel on his shoulders, hovering her fingers above his forehead. Her body tensed and her fingers remained suspended. It was like a spark of tension flickered in the space between their skin, teasing her, tempting her, taunting her.

After all, she'd offered to wash his hair, an act that would certainly require touching. But why was she so hesitant? She'd touched him before - kissed his cheek, even. Although that had been in the heat of adrenaline, a mark of her gratitude where a simple thank you wouldn't suffice, not for risking his own life for hers.

This was - what was this?

She finally lowered her fingers through that tense spark, pushing his head back against the sink. It was exhilarating, this contact, but he lowered his wings, shifting on the seat. Elain moved into the space he gave, turning on the tap as he went still. Just as her body was taut, taut as the skin of a drum.

She checked the water. Warm. It was time to start.

Azriel was looking up at her. Something like yearning swirled in his eyes.

He looked so tired. It made her heart ache.

'You can close your eyes,' Elain whispered. And he did.

___

Feedback's welcomed; thanks for reading 😊

If anyone wants to know what the datura flowers look like, CTTO:

@illyrian-lover-flower @julesherondalex @nooriee @mis-lil-red @verifiefangirl @tswaney17

[cinnella]

Name: Eris Zaramoza (chosen name); Yin Abo (birth name)

Age: 26 years old

Sex: Female

Sexuality: Pansexual

Zodiac sign: Scorpio

Birthday: November 5th

Patron Arcana:

Death (Major); Queen of Cups (Minor)

Occupation: Magician and Shopkeeper; Former Necromancer

Height: 5'7" (1.71 m)

Weight: 64 kg (141 lbs)

Relatives:

Sethos Abo - older brother

Nuwa Abo - mother (deceased)

Kek Abo - father (deceased)

Xié Dongmei - aunt (deceased)

Origin: Born in Venterre, but grew up in Vesuvia

Race: Half chinese, half egyptian

Powers: Blue (astrology) and purple (divination) magic. Also has an affinity for controlling and summoning water

Intelligence Level: On a scale from 1 to 10, she's a 7

Backstory:

She was born in a small home in Venterre. Her father was already dead at the time of her birth, her brother only 5 years old and her mother deadly sick.

Only two days after her birth, her mom passed away, from the lack of proper medication. Sethos knew that she was way too young for him to take care of, so he tried to seek out their aunt, who lived on the other side of the city.

That night, he sat under a makeshift shelter with his baby sister, but he was so hungry that he had no other choice but to leave her there and try to find some food. Eventually, Yin started crying, which a passerby heard and when they found her, they took her with them.

Sethos was utterly crushed when he came back and she was gone... He tried to look for her, but he was so exhausted that he passed out in the middle of the street. Luckily, he was found by a woman with children and brought to her place.

When he had woken up, he explained his situation to her. The next morning, the woman helped him travel to his aunt's home. But by the time he got there and told her what happened to his sister and mother, Yin was already on a ship heading towards Vesuvia.

There, she was brought to an orphanage, in the South End, where multiple kids and babies from different places had been found, to be taken care of by people whom founded the building. She grew up a rather lonesome troublemaker. The caretakers were kind people, but the kids were mean. So she had no friends.

Soon enough, the adults had realized that most of the kids had no names, couldn't remember them or never knew them. So they took to liberty to name them, but because there were about 30 children and 15 adults, there was a lot of confusion and mis-naming.

They decided to teach the kids to read and write when they were old enough to understand the concepts, and on their 7th birthday, they'd choose their definitive name, something that they felt represented them.

And so, Yin Abo became Eris Zaramoza.

On that day, she met two kids that both looked younger than her. One was small and frail. Porcelain skin, black hair, mismatched eyes. Her name had been Saiya. The other was slightly taller than her. Umber skin, magenta eyes, jet black hair. The caretakers often called him Sykes. They were both known troublemakers and apparently, best friends.

They offered her to become friends and although she'd been sketchy about it, she agreed. They were her first friends, after all.

Years later, the three of them became inseparable and two new children joined their group, both of them noticeably younger. One had skin the color of limestone, ashy blond hair and silverish eyes. The other had dark espresso skin, curly chestnut hair and jade green eyes.

They were often referred to as "accidental troublemakers" because they did naughty things without even realizing it. These four kids became her kin, her family. For years upon years, the five of them brought migraines to the entirety of Vesuvia with their shenanigans. They were known as "the southenders".

The orphanage had a set rule. Despite the caretakers doing their best and raising the kids as their own, by the time Eris reached her adolescence, the amount of kids had doubled.

The set rule was that, once the kids would turn 17, they'd have to seek a home of their own. Eris is the eldest between her and her friends, so she had to leave first.

Heartbreaking as it was, they'd anticipated this for months. They'd made plans to try to find their roots. Upon talking with the adults, the one who'd found her so many years ago told her she'd been born in Venterre, near the west-coast.

After a couple of tear-filled fair-wells, she promised to visit from time to time, and then left to find her bloodrelatives. A couple of days later, looking through her instructions and map, she stood in front of an old, small house.

On the porch, a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, was seated there. She called to him, asking if he could help her out. When he looked up, shock was written on both of their faces.

He had grey-ish short hair and sapphire blue eyes. His skin was just a little bit lighter than hers, scars on his nose and lips. Same round nose, same almond eyes, same strong eyebrows. The resemblance was groundbreaking, almost like looking into a mirror.

Though she never met him, she knew, deep down, that they were related. He was utterly convinced he was dreaming but she reassured him he wasn't. They didn't hug, for they barely knew each other, but they both cried. She was invited in his home, where their aunt had been preparing dinner. Eris' presence brought her to tears.

In the next few hours, while they dined, she learned that their names were Sethos and Dongmei, and that they were her older brother and aunt, respectively. She learned of her parents and their unfortunate fate, of the night Sethos lost her.

It was a relief to learn all this, and although she wanted to head back to Vesuvia, to her friends and find a home, she spent a couple of days with them. Dongmei mentioned that she had an abandoned magic shop in Vesuvia from her youth, close to the center of the city. Giving Eris the key, she told her to make her home there.

Once back home, it was time for Count Lucio's yearly Masquerade. There, she met Asra, whom she soon became close with. When she learned that he was an orphan, and had no place to stay, she offered him to live with her in the shop. It needed some repairs and a lot of cleaning but it was a start.

Years passed and they became closer. Unspoken feelings hanging in the air, but something stopped them from confessing. The Red Plague had arrived and it was taking anyone it could grasp. Eris and Asra, while discussing the situation one night, had an argument.

In the years he'd taught her magic, she'd also taught herself necromancy and wanted to help the plague doctors with the dead, possibly reverse their fate. But Asra didn't agree, "magic isn't supposed to work that way" he said.

So she ran away, found Julian and became his apprentice.

Soon died from the plague...

And the rest is history.

Personality: curious, caring, bold, kind, polite, calm, patient, self-less, motherly, gentle, open-minded, truthful, loyal, trustworthy, out-spoken, honest, stubborn, too forgiving and can never hold grudges for long

Interesting facts:

The small scars on the right side of her jaw, left collarbone and left shoulder are all from fainting while trying to get back her memories. Every time, she had the unfortunate luck of hitting something and scarring her skin.

She has a huge scar on her left thigh but she doesn't remember how she got it.

She also has an "apple of discord" tattoo on her right shoulder.

God forbid you ever make her wear gold, she cannot stand it. She only wears silver.

Although she's an ambivert, she leans towards introvert.

Hates lying and liars in general.

HAAAATES Lavender. Do not put her near those flowers.

Appearance: Sienna skin tone, wavy waist-length silver-white hair, bright ice blue eyes, pear-shaped fit body, B cup breasts.

Familiar: Kage, a sarcastic silver fox that can actually talk.

Voice claim: Margot Robbie

Full sprite:

Lmao sorry for the backstory being so long but.. My inner writer kinda jumped out. 😅

ANYWAYS I FINALLY DID IT, I MADE ERIS' BIO AND SPRITE!!

By the way, HUGE PROPS to my lovely beyotch @sahana-anand for giving me her bio template, it helped me SO MUCH. Thank you, love, couldn't have done it without you!

Hope you'll show some love to my girl Eris!

[kuramirocket]

Whenever I visit Olvera Street, as I did a couple of weeks ago, my walk through the historic corridor is always the same.

Start at the plaza. Pass the stand where out-of-towners and politicians have donned sombreros and serapes for photos ever since the city turned this area into a tourist trap in 1930.

Look at the vendor stalls. Wonder if I need a new guayabera. Gobble up two beef taquitos bathed in avocado salsa at Cielito Lindo. Then return to my car and go home.

I’ve done this walk as a kid, and as an adult. For food crawls and quick lunches. With grad students on field trips, and with the late Anthony Bourdain for an episode of his “Parts Unknown.”

This last visit was different, though: I had my own camera crew with me.

My last chance at Hollywood fame was going to live or die on Olvera Street.

I was shooting a sizzle reel — footage that a producer will turn into a clip for television executives to determine whether I’m worthy of a show. In this case, I want to turn my 2012 book “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America” into the next “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.” Or “Somebody Feed Phil.” Or an Alton Brown ripoff. Or a TikTok series.

Anything at this point, really.

For more than a decade, I’ve tried to break into Hollywood with some success — but the experience has left me cynical. Personal experience and the historical record have taught me that studios and streamers still want Mexicans to stay in the same cinematic lane that American film has paved for more than a century. We’re forever labeled… something. Exotic. Dangerous. Weighed down with problems. Never fully developed, autonomous humans. Always “Mexican.”

Even if we’re natives of Southern California. Especially if we’re natives of Southern California.

I hope my sizzle reel will lead to something different. I doubt it will because the issue is systemic. Industry executives, producers, directors and scriptwriters can only portray the Mexicans they know — and in a perverse, self-fulfilling prophecy, they mostly only know the Mexicans their industry depicts even in a region where Latinos make up nearly half the population.

The vicious cycle even infects creators like me.

As the film crew and I left for our next location, I stopped and looked around. We were right where I began, except I now looked south on Main Street. The plaza was to my left. City Hall loomed on the horizon. The vista was the same as the opening scene of “Bordertown,” a 1935 Warner Bros. film I had seen the night before. It was the first Hollywood movie to address modern-day Mexican Americans in Los Angeles.

What I saw was more than déjà vu. It was a reminder that 86 years later, Hollywood’s Mexican problem hasn’t really progressed at all.

Birth of a stereotype

Screen misrepresentation of Mexicans isn’t just a longstanding wrong; it’s an original sin. And it has an unsurprising Adam: D.W. Griffith.

He’s most infamous for reawakening the Ku Klux Klan with his 1915 epic “The Birth of a Nation.” Far less examined is how Griffith’s earliest works also helped give American filmmakers a language with which to typecast Mexicans.

Two of his first six films were so-called “greaser” movies, one-reelers where Mexican Americans were racialized as inherently criminal and played by white people. His 1908 effort “The Greaser’s Gauntlet” is the earliest film to use the slur in its title. Griffith filmed at least eight greaser movies on the East Coast before heading to Southern California in early 1910 for better weather.

The new setting allowed Griffith to double down on his Mexican obsession. He used the San Gabriel and San Juan Capistrano missions as backdrops for melodramas embossed with the Spanish Fantasy Heritage, the white California myth that romanticized the state’s Mexican past even as it discriminated against the Mexicans of the present.

In films such as his 1910 shorts “The Thread of Destiny,” “In Old California” (the first movie shot in what would become Hollywood) and “The Two Brothers,” Griffith codified cinematic Mexican characters and themes that persist. The reprobate father. The saintly mother. The wayward son. The idea that Mexicans are forever doomed because they’re, well, Mexicans.

Griffith based his plots not on how modern-day Mexicans actually lived, but rather on how white people thought they did. 

A riot nearly broke out as Latinos felt the scene mocked them. It was perhaps the earliest Latino protest against negative depictions of them on the big screen.

But the threat of angry Mexicans didn’t kill greaser movies. Griffith showed the box-office potential of the genre, and many American cinematic pioneers dabbled in them. Thomas Edison’s company shot some, as did its biggest rival, Vitagraph Studios. So did Mutual Film, an early home for Charlie Chaplin. Horror legend Lon Chaney played a greaser. The first western star, Broncho Billy Anderson, made a career out of besting them.

These films were so noxious that the Mexican government in 1922 banned studios that produced them from the country until they “retired... denigrating films from worldwide circulation,” according to a letter that Mexican President Álvaro Obregón wrote to his Secretariat of External Relations. The gambit worked: the greaser films ended. Screenwriters instead reimagined Mexicans as Latin lovers, Mexican spitfires, buffoons, peons, mere bandits and other negative stereotypes.

That’s why “Bordertown” surprised me when I finally saw it. The Warner Bros. movie, starring Paul Muni as an Eastside lawyer named Johnny Ramirez and Bette Davis as the temptress whom he spurns, was popular when released. Today, it’s almost impossible to see outside of a hard-to-find DVD and an occasional Muni marathon on Turner Classic Movies.

Based on a novel of the same name; Muni was a non-Mexican playing a Mexican. Johnny Ramirez had a fiery temper, a bad accent and repeatedly called his mother (played by Spanish actress Soledad Jiminez ) “mamacita,” who in turn calls him “Juanito.” The infamous, incredulous ending has Ramirez suddenly realizing the vacuity of his fast, fun life and returning to the Eastside “back where I belong ... with my own people.” And the film’s poster features a bug-eyed, sombrero-wearing Muni pawing a fetching Davis, even though Ramirez never made a move on Davis’ character or wore a sombrero.

These and other faux pas (like Ramirez’s friends singing “La Cucaracha” at a party) distract from a movie that didn’t try to mask the discrimination Mexicans faced in 1930s Los Angeles. Ramirez can’t find justice for his neighbor, who lost his produce truck after a drunk socialite on her way back from dinner at Las Golondrinas on Olvera Street smashed into it. That very socialite, whom Ramirez goes on to date (don’t ask), repeatedly calls him “Savage” as a term of endearment. When Ramirez tires of American bigotry and announces he’s moving south of the border to run a casino, a priest in brownface asks him to remain.

“For what?” Ramirez replies. “So those white little mugs who call themselves gentlemen and aristocrats can make a fool out of me?”

“Bordertown” sprung up from Warner Bros.’ Depression-era roster of social-problem films that served as a rough-edged alternative to the escapism offered by MGM, Disney and Paramount. But its makers committed the same error Griffith did: They fell back on tropes instead of talking to Mexicans right in front of them who might offer a better tale.

Just take the first shot of “Bordertown,” the one I inadvertently recreated on my television shoot.

Under a title that reads “Los Angeles … the Mexican Quarter,” viewers see Olvera Street’s plaza emptier than it should be. That’s because just four years earlier, immigration officials rounded up hundreds of individuals at that very spot. The move was part of a repatriation effort by the American government that saw them boot about a million Mexicans — citizens and not — from the United States during the 1930s.

Following that opening shot is a brief glimpse of a theater marquee that advertises a Mexican music trio called Los Madrugadores (“The Early Risers”). They were the most popular Spanish-language group in Southern California at the time, singing traditional corridos but also ballads about the struggles Mexicans faced in the United States. Lead singer Pedro J. González hosted a popular AM radio morning show heard as far away as Texas that mixed music and denunciations against racism.

By the time “Bordertown” was released in 1935, Gonzalez was in San Quentin, jailed by a false accusation of statutory rape pursued by an L.A. district attorney’s office happy to lock up a critic. He was freed in 1940 after the alleged victim recanted her confession, then summarily deported to Tijuana, where Gonzalez continued his career before returning to California in the 1970s.

Doesn’t Gonzalez and his times make a better movie than “Bordertown”? Warner Bros. could have offered a bold corrective to the image of Mexican Americans if they had just paid attention to their own footage! Instead, Gonzalez’s saga wouldn’t be told on film until a 1984 documentary and 1988 drama.

Both were shot in San Diego. Both received only limited screenings at theaters across the American Southwest and an airing on PBS before going on video. No streamer carries it.

How Hollywood imagines Mexicans versus how we really are turned real for me in 2013, when I became a consulting producer for a Fox cartoon about life on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The title? “Bordertown.”

It aired in 2015 and lasted one season. I enjoyed the end product. I even got to write an episode, which just so happened to be the series finale.

The gig was a dream long deferred. My bachelor’s degree from Chapman University was in film. I had visions of becoming the brown Tarantino or a Mexican Truffaut before journalism got in the way. Over the years, there was Hollywood interest in articles or columns I wrote but never anything that required I do more than a couple of meetings — or scripts by white screenwriters that went nowhere.

But “Bordertown” opened up more doors for me and inspired me to give Hollywood a go.

While I worked on the cartoon, I got another consulting producer credit on a Fusion special for comedian Al Madrigal and sold a script to ABC that same year about gentrification in Boyle Heights through the eyes of a restaurant years before the subject became a trend. Pitch meetings piled up with so much frequency that my childhood friends coined a nickname for me: Hollywood Gus.

My run wouldn’t last long. The microagressions became too annoying.

The veteran writers on “Bordertown” rolled their eyes any time I said that one of their jokes was clichéd, like the one about how eating beans gave our characters flatulent superpowers or the one about a donkey show in Tijuana. Or when they initially rejected a joke about menudo, saying no one knew what the soup was, and they weren’t happy when another Latino writer and I pointed out that you’re pretty clueless if you’ve lived in Southern California for a while and don’t know what menudo is.

The writers were so petty, in fact, that they snuck a line into the animated “Bordertown” where the main character said, “There’s nothing worse than a Mexican with glasses” — which is now my public email to forever remind me of how clueless Hollywood is.

The insults didn’t bother me so much as the insight I gained from those interactions: The only Latinos most Hollywood types know are the janitors and security guards at the studio, and nannies and gardeners at their homes. The few Latinos in the industry I met had assimilated into this worldview as well.

Could I blame them for their ignorance when it came to capturing Mexican American stories, especially those in Southern California? Of course I can.

What ended any aspirations for a full-time Hollywood career was a meeting with a television executive shortly after ABC passed on my Boyle Heights script (characters weren’t believable, per the rejection). They repeatedly asked that I think about doing a show about my father’s life, which didn’t interest me. Comedies about immigrant parents are clichéd at this point. So one day I blurted that I was more interested in telling my stories.

I never heard from the executive again.

A pair of boots

Five years later, and that Hollywood dream just won’t leave me.

I’m not leaving journalism. But at this point, I just want to prove to myself that I can help exorcise D.W. Griffith’s anti-Mexican demons from Hollywood once and for all. That I can show the Netflix honcho they were wrong for passing on a “Taco USA” series with the excuse that the topic of Mexican food in the United States was too “limited.” And the Food Network people who said they just couldn’t see a show about the subject as being as “fun” as it was. Or the bigtime Latino actor’s production company who wanted the rights to my "¡Ask a Mexican!” book, then ghosted me after I said I didn’t hold them but I did own the rights to my brain.

When this food-show sizzle reel gets cut, and I start my Hollywood jarabe anew, I’ll keep in mind a line in “Bordertown” that Johnny Ramirez said: “An American man can lift himself up by his bootstraps. All he needs is strength and a pair of boots.”

Mexicans have had the strength since forever in this town. But can Hollywood finally give us the botas?

[timebuzzer]

Ever After Chapter 14.7

THE WEDDING

Finally, Mr. Park welcomed the bride as everybody stood up in anticipation. When the door opened, Sage was on the verge of tears when he saw the most beautiful bride before his eyes, his bride, Alex in a beautiful gown.

Fresh tulips were beautifully decorated all over the place as IU sang “I GIVE YOU MY HEART” as Alex walked down the aisle.

Alex personally invited IU sunbaenim to her wedding. She wanted her to serenade their wedding as she walks down the aisle. Song Hana came together with her.

While Alex was finally walking down the aisle looking like an ethereal goddess who descended from the heavens, Sage recalled everything he has gone through in the past. From the time he was jealous and broken because of Liam, to his lonely years in the US, to his confession as a pizza delivery man, to the small room where they held their registration and now this. He was now on the verge of tears as he closed his eyes to stop them from pouring. He firmly pressed his fingers on his eyes to stop himself from crying any further.

He could hear his loud heartbeat as she walked slowly towards him. He thought he had seen his Alex at her prettiest, no, she was always the most beautiful in his eyes but right then, Sage just couldn't find the right words to describe her. All he knew was that at that moment, Alex was taking his breath away.

Alex on the other hand was never better. She recalled how long Sage has waited for her. She felt disappointed that it took her too late to realize that the man of her dreams was just there with her from the beginning. She recalled how she used to follow him when they were still kids. How he always pampered her in the best possible ways that made her not want to have any boyfriend at that time because having Sage was enough.

And now, as she was closer to him, seeing his handsome face in front of him, Alex started to become teary-eyed as she looked upwards to stop herself from crying because she doesn’t want to ruin her make up. She was shivering in anticipation. She couldn’t control her heartbeat. It seemed like it wanted to come out due to pure bliss.

Finally, after today, they would become a married couple to the public. They no longer need to hide from anyone. This in itself made it truly liberating.

Sage finally took a bow to her parents and took her by the hand and Alex did the same to his parents as well. The latter could see his hands shiver slightly and when their hands finally intertwined the shivering stopped and all she could feel were strong, comforting, and secured hands that won’t let her go. She tightened her grip to match his as she looked at the man in front of him with semi red-eyes.

“For all four seasons, and twelve months,

with you every day, till we run out of breath,

we shall be in love and stay together... “ IU’s voice echoed in the room.

As the bride finally was with the groom, all the people inside were teary-eyed because they all witnessed the struggles of the two in their relationship especially Aira who was already crying big time while fanning her self making sure her make up is intact. She was with Alex in all the stages of her relationship. She was finally happy that her best friend no longer needs to hide from anyone. She looked like a mother who finally turned over his daughter to the man she wanted her to marry. Hans was rubbing her back gently to pacify her.

“Babe, relax, your reaction is more dramatic than auntie and uncle. They might think you are Alex’s real mother and not them.” Hans tried to joke to pacify Aira’s emotions. As a result, Aira pinched him on the waist and finally leaned on his shoulder and wiped her tears away.

When the couple reached the platform, Mr. Park officially started the ceremony after everybody was seated.

"Good evening everyone. I am Walter Park, Dean of the College of Fine Arts, professor of this couple way back in college. We are gathered here today to witness the union of two people whom I have known personally before they became huge celebrities.

When Alex became a freshman, I noticed the change in Sage. The aloof Vice President of the student council that time suddenly became sensitive to a junior’s needs. Sage was a campus heartthrob in the university back then but he talks to no one else unless it’s school related, if I remember correctly only Hans could talk to him casually. Other than him and to his professors, he was silent. I even received a lot of applications from the student council because of him. Because he only talks to his council members, but still school related.”

Everybody chuckled after hearing these. Those college friends knew these full well because they were mostly Alex’s friends and only a few council members of Sage and Hans were invited to this wedding. Then Mr. Park continued.

“After seeing his ‘extra’ efforts I thought he finally had a girlfriend. But when I asked him, he would always say that they were just friends. However, his action says otherwise.The president of the student council who would excuse himself to the toilet and would return 20 mins later. I acted as if I didnt know that he usually goes to the toilet in "another building" which I bet would be the auditorium."

Alex laughed at Mr. Park's story while Sage looked down shyly.

"After hearing my aloof and introvert student delivering his graduation speech commending two important women in his life. I thought, finally, he had confessed. But life was indeed full of surprises. When he asked my thoughts about entering the showbiz industry, I realized still no progress? I thought after hearing his speech, Alex would realize her worth in his life? They then became Sage and Elle, who seemingly drifted apart. I was curious but wasn't brave enough to ask as respect to both of them. I'm merely a spectator too. I thought, maybe they really will be just friends in this lifetime.

"But life made another turn, TBn production company contacted me if our college is open to be a shooting location of their drama. And I bet I'm not the only one who hoped that the right time would finally come. And now, here we are. They took a long road, a long journey before they have reached where we are now. And I know, that journey, those lessons and realizations along the way, prepared the two of you for a longer journey of a lifetime." He paused for a while and look at the couple, nodding in front of him.

"My wife and I are already married for 20 years, we still have a long way to go. It was far from a perfect marriage, but I know it is a happy marriage. Two things that I could impart from that are, one, always respect one another, as husband and wife, and as a person, whom their parents' loved dearly. When you respect your partner, you will not hurt him or her, you will take care of each other, you will treat each other right, you will not take one another for granted. It entails compromise and loyalty. More so, you will also put high regards to this day. The day you vowed for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, til death do you part.

And the second thing is, today is not only for the couple but it also requires participation of the people here. We are here not only to witness their union, to celebrate, to eat sumptuous meals, to take pictures for instagram. We have a greater role, responsibility, than that and that is to remind them when they forget their promise, a guiding light to the right direction before and when things get tough, when these two get derailed from the track. We serve an important role in this marriage too, the sound of reason when they can't find one." He scanned around the hall to look at everyone present.

“Sage and Alex, married life is a lifetime commitment and always a work in progress. Being an ordinary couple is already tough but being a celebrity couple under the scrutiny of the public at all times makes it even tougher. But I know you will thrive because you’ve been best friends even before you became a couple. I presume you’ve known each other well enough to build a solid trust that would not be easy to topple down even under public pressure and that in itself is something that doesn’t waver over time. When difficult times occur always remember this day and the vows you made to one another before all of us.

In life, we cannot choose our families as we are born with them but we have the option to chose our lifetime partners, yet you chose one another and you have to continue choosing each other anytime, all the time.

And I would like to request everybody here present, when the time comes that one of them comes to you for any advise when they are having marital problems, please advise them not to give up on each other.

But at the end of the day, Alex and Sage everything will always be your decision. Always continue to remind yourselves that friendship is the most sturdy foundation of marriage. Before you decide to do something you’d regret later on, ask yourself, “Am I ready to lose not only my partner but also my best friend because of this?” Always bear that in mind.

This has been a very long speech already so I think I’ve said enough or Sage might not let me stay for dinner because I talk too much. I wish for the two of you to have a happy marriage. Thank you and good evening.”

The crowd then made a thunderous applause as Sage and Alex gave meaningful glances at each other, taking in all those words Mr. Park has spoken.

He gave a great speech, words of wisdom, that would benefit every husband and wife, even soon to be husbands and wives, in the hall.

[itsmariannedeleon]

Blog #4: 6 Short Stories

STORY #1: GOD SEES THE TRUTH BUT WAITS BY TOLSTOY

"God Sees the Truth, But Waits" is a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in 1872. The story, about a man sent to prison for a murder he didn't commit, takes the form of a parable of forgiveness. English translations were also published under titles "The Confessed Crime" and "Exiled to Siberia".

This story "God sees the truth but waits" is somehow relatable for me. There will come a time that we will faced an obstacle that is really difficult. It will test our faith, our strength, our minds and our hearts. We will be put in a situation where in we dont have any choice but to trust the Lord.

Aksionov has been accused of something he didn't do. All of the people around him even his wife doubted him, but the Lord didn't. This shows that when we go through something, all the people around us even those whom we trust and love the most may leave us, may betrayed us, may doubt us but the Lord will not. People will doubt you, people will not trust you, but our Lord will. He sees and he knows the truth, he knows every pain that we had felt during our hard times. We should always keep in mind that, even if the whole world turn its back on us, the Lord will not. Our God is faithful to us, to his promises and that is the only important thing that we should know.

STORY #2: THE PIECE OF STRING BY MAUPASSANT

In The Piece of String, crafty old Maitre Hauchecorne is falsely accused of having stolen a man's pocketbook. He explains that he just bent down to pick up a piece of string, but no one believes him, not even after the pocketbook is found and returned.

The Piece of String" is an 1883 short story by Guy de Maupassant. It is included in the short story collection "Miss Harriet".

In this story, it made me realized that people are easy to judge and easy to be judge. People judge without even knowing the real story, the context behind what happened. We judge just because something happened. People judge without even thinking the consequences of their action. What if the person that has been judged has just been wrongly accused just like Hauchecorne? The effect and the consequences of people's judgement in Hauchecorne's life lasts until his very last breath. This story actually reminds me of a saying, that even if you did a million good deeds in this world, just one mistake everybody will turn their back at you. That is the sad reality of life.

STORY #3: THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH BY POE

"The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy", is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey.

The Masque of the Red Death is an example of allegory. This story features a set of recognizable symbols in which the meanings combine will convey a message. We can read this story as an allegory about life and death and the powerlessness of us humans to avoid death. In Prospero's case, even though he is really rich and wealthy, he is arrogant and his arrogance led him to his death.

The Masque of the Red death made me realized that no one can escape death. No matter how wealthy and rich you are, no matter how poor you are, whatever your status is in this world, even if you are really old or really young, no one can escape our tragic faith, which is to die. We can make some ways, we can do things just for us to avoid death but at the end of day, if we are meant to say good bye to this world already, we should accept our fate.

STORY #4: A QUESTION OF DOWRY BY KILLINGLEY

In this story, it made me realized that no matter how much we want something if it wasn't meant to be, then it will not happen. We should just learn to accept things that are not meant for us because for sure something or someone better will come. There are times that we are almost at the peak but in the end we will know that its not for us and it is okay. Acceptance takes time but it is part of the healing process and will eventually led us to the path or to that someone who is meant for us.

STORY #5: A ROSE FOR EMILY BY FAULKNER

"A Rose for Emily" is a short story by American author William Faulkner, first published in the April 30, 1930, issue of The Forum. The story takes place in Faulkner's fictional city Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional southern county of Yoknapatawpha.

With Emily, she encountered a lot of things, mostly struggles in her life, in her family, in her self until that day came. She died at the age of seventy-four. After some things happened, she keep her life lowkey until she died. Emily's death showed how the entire town attended her funeral in her home, which no stranger had entered for more than ten years.

After reading the story, i realized that time will really come that we need to say good bye to this world. Even though, we still want to do something, or we still need to accomplish something, if we are meant to say good bye, we dont have a choice.

STORY #6: HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANT BY HEMINGWAY

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It was first published in August 1927, in the literary magazine transition, then later in the 1927 short story collection Men Without Women.

With this story I realized that there will come a time that someone or something will come to our lives and challenge us to take the easy way or the easy option for something. They will say that that is the best option, that that is the easiest way, that once we chose that we will not regret it, that we will be happy. But come to think of it, there is no such thing as easy as one two and three, everything needs a process. Now, it is up to us if we will choose the easy way or not.

[ramajmedia]

Love Alarm Season 1 Cliffhanger Ending & 2.0 Feature Explained

MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Love Alarm season 1.

Netflix's Love Alarm season 1 ending is a cliffhanger; we break down what Love Alarm 2.0 is and what it means for Kim Jojo (Kim So-hyun). Based on the Love Alarm webtoon created by Chon Kye-young, season 1 of the K-drama (Korean drama) introduces Jojo and two boys who are both interested in her: the former model and new kid at her high school Hwang Sun-oh (Song Kang) and his childhood best friend Lee Hye-yeong (Jung Ga-ram). Their love triangle is made all the more complicated by the incredibly popular mobile app Love Alarm, which allows users to know who within a 10 meter radius has romantic feelings for them - and alerts those they have romantic feelings for. Since the app syncs with the user's heart, it's impossible to hide your feelings.

This causes some trouble for Jojo when she's in high school because, while both Sun-oh and Hye-yeong are interested in her, the latter gives her up for his friend when he sees Jojo ring Sun-oh's Love Alarm. Still, Hye-yeong accidentally rings Jojo's Love Alarm and he ends up deleting the app. But though Jojo and Sun-oh are in a relationship, she grows increasingly insecure, confiding in her unpopular classmate Cheong Duk Gu (Lee Jae-eung). He gives her a unique shield for her Love Alarm that makes it so she can't ring anyone's alarm, but the shield can only be removed by the app's developer. Jojo uses the shield to break up with Sun-oh, convincing him she no longer has feelings for him. Four years later, Jojo runs across Sun-oh and Hye-yeong again by accident. Both still have feelings for her, but while Hye-yeong tries courting her without Love Alarm, Sun-oh is resentful of how she dumped him.

Related: What To Expect From Love Alarm Season 2

The Love Alarm season 1 finale revolves around the Love Alarm 2.0 presentation, where a new feature is unveiled and the long mysterious developer is unmasked. Jojo decides to track down the developer of the app and get the shield removed from her Love Alarm so that she can pursue a romantic relationship in which she's open about her feelings. While attending the Love Alarm 2.0 presentation, she runs across both Hye-yeong and Sun-oh - and his new girlfriend Yook-ji (Kim Si-eun), for whom he doesn't ring her Love Alarm. Both men ring her Love Alarm, but she's unable to ring either of theirs. Now, we dive into what this ending means for Jojo and a potential Love Alarm season 2.

Love Alarm's Developer Revealed

At the start of the Love Alarm 2.0 presentation, a woman named Lee Seon-yeong, the CSO of Love Alarm's C&C department, reveals the developer of the app to be someone named Brian Chon. Now, this goes against everything Love Alarm has hinted at in the episodes leading up to the finale. Though never explicitly stated, it's made clear to the viewer that Duk Gu is the developer of Love Alarm. In the first episode, he's shown looking up at the sky before the Love Alarm logo appears in the clouds. He also gives Jojo the one-of-a-kind shield tech for her Love Alarm. But the biggest proof Duk Gu is the developer of Love Alarm is that he's shown in the developer's bedroom, shutting down the computers before jumping out the window. It's this same bedroom that the finale cuts to as Seon-yeong introduces Brian Chon, describing the developer as a shy high school boy.

It's possible that Duk Gu reinvented himself after, as Jojo describes in an earlier episode in voiceover, he disappears without a trace, becoming Brian Chon in order to distance himself from his embarrassing high school experiences. After all, he gets his heart broken by Jojo's cousin Park Gul-mi (Go Min-si), which is how he becomes friends with Jojo and why he gives her the shield. It's possible Brian Chon is Duk Gu, since the director of the series, Lee Na-jung, makes a point of hiding the developer's face in shadow throughout the entire presentation. However, it's much more likely that hiding whether Brian is Duk Gu is setting up for a twist in season 2. Perhaps Brian Chon is not actually the real developer of Love Alarm, he's simply someone chosen to pose as the developer. But if that's the case, the question becomes what happened to the real developer, Duk Gu, and why he wasn't publicly revealed as the creator of Love Alarm.

What Happened To Duk Gu?

There's another key character in the Love Alarm season 1 finale whose identity remains shrouded in mystery, even after the episode ends: the man in the Anti-Love Alarm van. In the four years since Love Alarm launched, it's changed the world, specifically regarding how people confess their feelings for one another. Love Alarm is so integral to Korean culture that there are movies about it, self-help books to get more people to ring your Love Alarm, and it's even become part of wedding ceremonies. But there's a dark side to it, as we see when a group of Koreans who've never had their Love Alarm rung die by suicide in a public park. There's also an Anti-Love Alarm movement that protests the app, and this group shows up to protest outside the Love Alarm 2.0 presentation.

One member of the Anti-Love Alarm movement remains in a van, speaking into a microphone that projects over speakers. Though we only see his lips, they bear a resemblance to Duk Gu. We know Duk Gu didn't die by suicide, even though that's implied in the scene when he disappears. Remember, that story is told from Jojo's perspective and she may have assumed he died by suicide given what he'd gone through. However, if that were actually the case, she'd have said that, rather than say he disappeared.

As for how Duk Gu becomes a member of the Anti-Love Alarm movement, it makes sense for him to grow to hate his own creation, considering the heartbreak it brought him. Gul-mi never returned his feelings, and continually humiliated him after he rang her Love Alarm because it embarrassed her. Considering he also created the shield tech for Jojo, it's not a stretch to see how he might instead put his efforts behind protesting the app he created - especially when it's become so ingratiated in Korean society. (It's also likely Duk Gu is one of the viewers of Gul-mi's webcast and sees how unhappy wanting to get into the Love Alarm Badge Club has made her, prompting him to further resent the app.) However, Duk Gu not being revealed as the real developer of Love Alarm has serious implications for season 2, particularly the viability of Love Alarm 2.0's new feature.

Love Alarm 2.0's New Feature Sets Up Season 2

Since Duk Gu isn't introduced as the developer of Love Alarm at the 2.0 presentation and he's instead leading a protest outside, we can presume he doesn't have anything to do with the new feature and hasn't had anything to do with the app for some time. It's likely he abandoned it just before he disappeared, which is hinted at in that scene when he turns the computers off. It's not yet known who took control of Love Alarm after Duk Gu disappeared, but since he's not involved in 2.0, it's unclear whether it will work as well as Love Alarm. After all, there's a little bit of unexplained science in Love Alarm regarding how the app syncs with a person's heart to tell without a doubt how they feel about someone else. The 2.0 feature is instead based on data that Love Alarm collected in its first four years.

As explained by Brian Chon, Love Alarm 2.0's new feature is "the person you will fall in love with." Specifically, it "will now be able to accurately predict how one’s feelings will develop. It’ll be able to tell you who will ring whose Love Alarm, and who won’t ring whose Love Alarm." So, essentially Love Alarm 2.0 uses data to predict how a person's feelings for someone else will develop, whether or not they'll fall in love with someone. This sets up Love Alarm season 2 in two key ways. First, it's unclear how effective this new feature is. Duk Gu wasn't involved in creating it, and rather than being based on whatever infallible method he created for the app to determine the user's feelings, it's based on data that predicts feelings, but predictions can be wrong.

Secondly, Love Alarm 2.0 could directly impact Jojo's relationships with Sun-oh and Hye-yeong. She may even use the new feature to choose between the two men. But if, like we suspect, Love Alarm 2.0 can be wrong, then Jojo may end up with the wrong man because of the app's fallacy. However, it may not be Jojo who uses Love Alarm 2.0. The new feature could also directly impact Sun-oh's relationship with Yook-ji, since 2.0 would finally be able to tell her whether Sun-oh will ever ring her Love Alarm. Or, Hye-yeong could use it to determine whether Jojo will ever love him - though that seems unlikely considering he's one of the few characters determined to live without Love Alarm's influence. There are many ways the Love Alarm 2.0 new feature could impact the romantic storylines in Love Alarm, especially when it's unclear just how accurate it really is.

Who Will Jojo End Up With?

Ultimately, though, Love Alarm 2.0's new feature and whether it can be trusted serves the main throughline of Love Alarm: Who Jojo will choose in the end. From the start, it's made clear that both Sun-oh and Hye-yeong have feelings for Jojo. At first, they determine to let Jojo choose between them, using her Love Alarm as the deciding factor. But when Jojo rings Sun-oh's Love Alarm, Hye-yeong bows out. Although we later see Hye-yeong accidentally ring Jojo's Love Alarm and hide it from Sun-oh, we don't see Jojo ring Hye-yeong's. Even four years later, viewers don't know how Jojo feels about him as he's courting her, though he repeatedly rings her Love Alarm after re-downloading the app. It's possible she develops feelings for him when they're adults, but it's likely she didn't have any romantic feelings for him when they were in high school because she didn't seem to know who he was prior to him ringing her Love Alarm.

But that still leaves Sun-oh. We know Jojo loved him when they were together in high school and it was her fear of her feelings that caused her to download the shield for her Love Alarm and break up with Sun-oh. Although we don't know whether Jojo would still ring Sun-oh's Love Alarm four years later because of the shield, he's convinced she still has feelings for him - and never stopped. Just like he never stopped having feelings for her and continues to ring her Love Alarm despite having a new girlfriend and resenting Jojo.

In the Love Alarm season 1 finale, Jojo is determined not to hide from her feelings anymore and get the shield removed from her app. It would be easy if Jojo only rang the Love Alarm of either Sun-oh or Hye-yeong, but that doesn't fall in line with the themes of the series thus far. Love Alarm explores the very complicated emotions that the app attempts to simplify, with conflict arising when the messy feelings of people intersect with the cold logic of Love Alarm - like when Jang-go (Z.Hera) rings Il-sik's (Shin Seung-ho) Love Alarm when he's still dating Jojo or when the app outs a gay student. The message of Love Alarm seems to be that technology can only help humans so much, but they shouldn't necessarily rely on it blindly.

As such, it seems likely that whoever Jojo ends up with won't be solely determined by Love Alarm or the Love Alarm 2.0 new feature. Instead, she'll have to sort through her feelings and make the decision on her own. Because human emotion is much less predictable than technology and data would have us believe, it's truly a tossup of whether Jojo will choose Sun-oh or Hye-yeong. In fact, she may ring both their alarms if the shield is ever removed from her Love Alarm. Fans will just have to tune in to Netflix's Love Alarm season 2 to find out.

Next: Fall 2019 TV Premiere Dates: All The New & Returning Shows To Watch

source https://screenrant.com/love-alarm-season-1-ending-feature-jojo-explained/

[xtruss]

U.S. Cyber Tools Are Being Turned Against Americans, Limiting Biden's Options on Russia

— By Naveed Jamali and Ton O'Connor | June 9, 2021 | Newsweek

Cyberwarfare capabilities originally developed by the United States are being turned against it, threatening infrastructure and limiting the offensive options available for President Joe Biden, as retaliation runs the risk of exposing more tools within the digital U.S. arsenal.

"Technically, a lot of these tools that are being leveraged for ransomware are tools that were leaked from our own organization," a cybersecurity official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Newsweek.

"One of the challenges that I look at is, these tools are not tools that are generally created by other nations," the official added. What's funny is other nations are using the tools that were developed by us."

At least two major ransomware attacks have struck U.S. infrastructure since Joe Biden took office in January vowing to shore up the nation's cyber defenses against foreign foes. He particularly singled out those tied to Russia, which he has blamed for another massive hack involving software firm SolarWinds.

Two ransomware attacks, one which led to the temporary closing of the Colonial Pipeline, one of the country's largest, which provides about 100 million gallons of gas a day to the southeastern U.S., and the second which led to the halting of production at all U.S. facilities of the world's biggest beef producer, Brazil-based JBS, have proven to be a major headache for the new administration just a few months into its tenure.

While the Justice Department said Monday that the FBI was ultimately able to recover much of the $4.5 million dollar ransom paid in Bitcoin to DarkSide, an Eastern Europe-based hacker group that claimed responsibility for the Colonial Pipeline, the risks associated with retaliation limited the president's choices of response.

According to the cybersecurity official with whom Newsweek spoke, part of the problem in mounting such an operation is that utilizing such weapons allows them to be more easily manipulated against the U.S.

"It's that challenge where anytime a tool or capability is used, it's pretty much considered burned," the official said. "Because, for an offensive portion, you have to deploy processes and technologies to adversarial systems to be able to reach out and touch somebody, right? So, once they're uncovered, they can reverse-engineer it."

While some groups like the Russia-based Kaspersky Lab have opted to leak to the general public such programs as those belonging to the so-called "Equation Group," which was widely suspected to have been tied to the NSA's own global cyberespionage and warfare operations, others "can keep it close held, and just reverse-engineer it, turning it against us," the cybersecurity official said.

The 175th Cyberspace Operations Group of the Maryland Air National Guard monitors live cyber attacks on the operations floor of the 27th Cyberspace Squadron, known as the Hunter's Den, at Warfield Air National Guard Base, Middle River, Maryland, June 3, 2017. J.M. Eddings Jr./Airman Magazine/U.S. AIR Force

J.D. Cook, a former senior CIA official, said the proliferation of ransomware using U.S. software served as a lesson to carefully guard U.S. cyber tools.

"Sometimes it gets used against you," Cook told Newsweek. "That's why you have to protect your stuff, and there's a point that I think people should really make about that. It's true. A lot of things get repurposed, whether it's an American cyber tool, France, British, Russian, Chinese, etcetera, and that sucks, because some of these tools have gotten out. There have been security issues."

And while it wasn't only the U.S. experiencing this dilemma, the recent focus on major targets stateside has highlighted the vulnerability the country faces from programs it created, along with the difficulty in identifying the perpetrators behind them.

Among the more infamous organizations is Shadow Brokers, which also targeted the allegedly NSA-linked Equation Group. While it's never been established conclusively if Russia itself was behind Shadow Brokers, Cook said the result is that "those are tool sets that were exposed."

"You start trying to target cybercriminals in Russia, you have to be careful of the kind of infrastructure you use, the tools you use," he said. "Because the Russians they're going to be trying to watch to see who's going after the cybercriminals more so from the intelligence perspective of, 'Hey, can we unravel some more of their kits, some more of their tools?'—and so there's a kind of intelligence aspect if you're going to target those groups."

A sloppy operation, he warned, could prove a major boon for U.S. rivals.

"You have to think about what you use, think about what your signature looks like," Cook said. "And if you just do it ham-fisted, you may be giving a gift to the Russians that may hit you in some of your other technical operations, that you may be doing as well."

But experts agreed that something had to be done, even if it meant the U.S. essentially taking on its own tools.

"Adversarial groups have access to U.S. tools and put them into the public domain," Shawn Henry, president and chief security officer of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, told Newsweek. "Are they being repurposed or are they being re-engineered? The answer is yes."

"I think that the government has a responsibility to protect its citizens. And if the government creates a tool that's being used to exploit U.S. companies, then that needs to be remediated," Henry, a former FBI executive assistant director added. "If somebody stole a tank off an Army base, then the U.S. military needs to go back and get the tank."

The Biden administration has not directly accused the Russian government of sponsoring the Colonial Pipeline or JBS ransomware attacks, the latter of which the FBI blamed on REvil, another suspected Russia-based hacking group using similar techniques to those of DarkSide. At the same time, the White House has said the Kremlin bears responsibility for not cracking down on such activity allegedly conducted on Russian soil.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that the issues of cybersecurity and ransomware specifically would be among the topics to come up when Biden met for the first time in his presidency with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next week in Geneva.

At that same press conference, Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, accused Russia of "harboring or permitting cybercriminals to operate from their territory," and said he considered the issue of ransomware to be "a national security priority, particularly as it relates to ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure in the United States."

Putin and his administration have rejected any responsibility for the attacks. Instead, they have stressed the need for stronger cybersecurity cooperation between the two nations.

Reached for comment on whether Moscow might act on Washington's call to crack down on alleged cyber attacks emanating from the country, the Russian embassy in Washington referred Newsweek to a statement issued by Putin in September in which he appealed to the U.S. "to agree on a comprehensive program of practical measures to reboot our relations in the field of security in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)."

The four-point plan involved proposals to restore a regular full-scale bilateral interagency high-level dialogue regarding international information security (IIS), fostering bilateral communication between the two countries' Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers, Computer Emergency Readiness Teams and high-level national security officials in charge of information security matters, the signing of bilateral intergovernmental agreement on preventing incidents in the information space such as that reached nearly five decades on the high seas, and a mutual pledge of non-intervention into one another's internal affairs, "including into electoral processes, inter alia, by means of the ICTs and high-tech methods," as Putin relayed at the time.

"We call on the US to greenlight the Russian-American professional expert dialogue on IIS without making it a hostage to our political disagreements," Putin said.

Such measures, he argued, "are aimed at building up trust between our States, promoting security and prosperity of our people," and "will significantly contribute to ensuring global peace in the information space."

The Russian leader also suggested reaching a "global agreement on a political commitment of States on no-first-strike with the use of ICTs against each other."

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry International Information Security Department Director Andrey Krutskikh reiterated this appeal in an interview with the International Affairs magazine, to which he conveyed growing calls to develop "transparent and understandable 'rules of the game' in the digital space."

The absence of such treaties on the cyber front leaves the world dangerously exposed to a slippery slope toward an unbridled series of escalations—and miscalculations—especially as the U.S. considers its next moves.

For this reason, Henry echoed the need for international talks—something for which he's been advocating for years.

"We need to find what the red lines are, this continues to escalate, and we can't allow it to escalate," he said. "It's the exact reason we had nuclear arms talks, because we realized things couldn't continue to escalate, they couldn't spiral out of control."

This combination of pictures created on June 7 shows Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaking with NBC news at the Kremlin on March 1, 2018 in Moscow (L) and U.S. President Joe Biden delivering remarks at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware on January 15. Cybersecurity was among the key topics both men sought to discuss in their first meeting since Biden took office in January. Jim Watson/Alexey Nikolsky/Ria Novosti/AFP/Getty Images

It's been decades since the U.S. and Russia began to invest in their cyberespionage and warfare capabilities, but the digital battlefield remains a murky one when compared to the use of more traditional weapons of mass destruction. With the domain becoming increasingly popular today and multiple threat actors multiplying, there are still no clear rules of engagement.

Resilience CEO Vishaal Hariprasad said the debate on the use of nuclear weapons was relatively "easy" as compared to the current challenge to define the boundaries of cyberwarfare.

"You could understand the red lines in your warfare, and it was easy to have deterrence theory against that," Hariprasad, who previously conducted cyber operations in the U.S. Air Force, told Newsweek. "With cyber, there is no red line and it's amorphous at best, so you can't even have deterrence without the red line versus establishing the red line."

He does, however, see signs of progress. Hariprasad praised the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for its engagement with the private sector in order to shore up the shield against such attacks, which CISA Executive Assistant Director of Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein said "must serve as a wake up call for every American."

"The threat of ransomware continues to be severe and can impact any organization across all sectors of the economy," Goldstein said in a statement sent to Newsweek. "Organizations should urgently review our available resources and implement best practices to protect their networks from these types of threats. Regardless of the ransomware actor or strain, good cyber hygiene is highly effective in reducing the impacts of an intrusion."

Even with cultural improvements, though, Hariprasad sees a need "to make it more expensive for the bad guys to operate." This has begun to take form with the relatively recent emergence of concepts such as "defend forward" and "persistent engagement," two proactive strategies adopted by the U.S. Cyber Command in order to detect and degrade hostile capabilities.

"U.S. Cyber Command's role in the Defend Forward strategy is the employment of the persistent engagement methodology. We enable and act," a U.S. Cyber Command spokesperson told Newsweek. "Persistent engagement guides our operations, allows us to lean forward, enables partners with unique insights, and when authorized we act against adversaries in cyberspace."

"We view every mission as an opportunity to contest our adversaries in cyberspace," the spokesperson added. "With that focus on 'persistent,' we acknowledge that with a single action, we do not degrade our adversaries' cyber tools and tactics."

But assessing how far to go when acting—preemptively or in retaliation—remains a key component of establishing a solid deterrence.

Identifying and pursuing the right level of response comes down to "proportionality," Raj Shah, chairman of cybersecurity insurance firm Resilience, told Newsweek. "What is proportionality in the cyber domain? I think we're still figuring that out as a nation."

As it appears is Biden himself, who has sought a "stable, predictable relationship" with Russia, but has so far experienced anything but. To make sense of things, Shah produced four points of his own.

"One, this should be taken very seriously, it will affect the American way of life and free nations around the world; Two, the private sector is not going to be able to do it by itself, certainly not just security people, it will take government support; Three, we do have to understand the economic side of this, and how do you put cost down; [and Four], we have to find the right tools of protection, of security, the right financial protections of risk transfer insurance, we need to find the right level of law enforcement to prosecute, and then the right amount of information-sharing from our intelligence agencies to help companies be aware of what's coming down," Shah said.

He added that "each case will have a slightly different mix of those four," but emphasized that the current approach was clearly not working. "The status quo of our pipelines going down every week is not tenable."

"If we just do what we're doing," Shah said, "the ransomware epidemic is going to just get worse and worse."

Cars line up to fill their gas tanks at a COSTCO at Tyvola Road in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 11. Fears the shutdown of a major fuel pipeline due to a ransomware attack would cause a gasoline shortage led to some panic buying and prompted U.S. regulators to temporarily suspend clean fuel requirements in three eastern states and the nation's capital. Logan Cyrus/AFP/Getty Images