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alltheworldsinmyhead · 6 years ago

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OUR FUTURE WILL BE A BRIGHT ONE: CHAPTER NINE (finale)

eremika soulmates through time modern au

(previous chapters/ff.net/ao3)

IKIGAI

JAPANESE; "A REASON FOR BEING", ‘A THING THAT YOU LIVE FOR” – THE THING THAT GETS YOU OUT OF BED EACH MORNING

I think we deserve

a soft epilogue, my love.

We are good people

and we’ve suffered enough.

SEVENTY YEARS OF SLEEP # 4. NIKKA URSULA

She’s a shy girl, but she’s also a quick learner and it doesn’t take her very long to pick up the games that kids play on the narrow streets of Shinganshina. It’s a completely different world here, such alien and strange for somebody who used to have daffodils and squirrels for friends before. The morning comes and all of the doors fly open as kids practically burst out of their homes to run around until their little legs get tired or the dinner is ready and their mothers usher them back to wash up dirt from their hands and faces.

Mikasa begins to participate in this ritual as well – Carla Jaeger never forgets to give her and Eren a piece of bread with honey and a kiss on the cheek before she waves to them as they disappear in the crowd. And while Eren and Armin usually prefer to do other things than play with neighbors’ kids, the three of them sometimes join one of the small bands scattered in the district and spend an afternoon with them - and that’s how Mikasa learns it all, this collection of games created when the lack of resources crashes with children’s boredom and creativity. There’s hide-and-seek and tag and hoola hop that requires a narrow, wooden ring that girls spin around their hips. One child chases others and taps their shoulders to turn into the chased one. Kids sit in circle, clap hands in intricate patterns and recite dirty rhymes; they use chalk and sticks to draw on the stones and dig in the soil; they jump on one leg and pretend that the ground is lava.

Sometimes smaller girls gawk at her eyes and nag her about her hair long enough that she lets them sit behind her cross-leggedand braid her black strands into an elaborate construction that ends up un-tangling halfway home. She would never admit that to Eren, but she likes this – likes feeling little, quick fingers on her scalp and listening to their excited chatter. Those girls are sweet and innocent and just the way she used to be, while she was living with her parents. And their dreams and wishes reflect that; they want to grow their hair long and beautiful, to have handsome husbands in the Military Police and big houses behind Wall Rose or even Sina, with crimson flowers blooming on the balcony and chubby, pink-cheeked babies.

And Mikasa can understand that.

Those girls (what are their names? Tina, Riza, Mirielle? Maritte? Marie? She can never remember) also teach her one more game, the one under “no boys allowed category” – the apple skin one.

Tina is sitting on an empty apple crate, a small knife looking wrong and weird in her plump hand. She keeps on cutting her fingers and cursing and when Mikasa asks her what she’s doing, the girl raises her round, brown eyes at her and blinks in surprise;

“You don’t know about the apple skin?”

She doesn’t and so they eagerly show her. They instruct her to peel the skin off an apple with a knife, but not to break the skin - as the peel has to be intact, long and spiral. Then they tell her to stand up and throw it behind her left shoulder, her left hand flat on her chest, above her heart.

“And why am I supposed to do that?” she asks them, skeptical about the whole thing. It really sounds silly and she doesn’t even wanna think about what Eren would say if he saw her standing on the street and throwing apple peels around.

And she does not want Eren to laugh at her. At all.

But the girls insist; they circle her like a swarm of little bees or chirping baby birds.

“You’ll see! The peel will make the shape of a letter-“ “And the letter that it shows is a name-“ “- It’s not a name stupid, it’s the first letter of a name-“

“- of your future husband!” they end in unison, the three of them looking up at her with such a brightness and honesty written on their round faces that she just can’t refuse them.

Not that it matters anyway – she doesn’t need to throw any peels to know what will be the first letter of her future husband’s name.

After all, she is also just a little girl, who also dreams of a husband, of a house, of flowers and of a green-eyed baby of her own.

“Yes.” Historia nods her head solemnly after Mikasa stops talking. “I remember that. We were there too. Paradise Island, before the Second Eldian Uprising. Around mid-800s, I think?” the blonde rests her chin on the hand and stares off the distance.

They are both sitting on the plastic chairs in Historia’s backyard, in the middle of the first “Summer Party” of the season, as Eren cryptically called those meetings when Mikasa asked him about them. The sprinklers have just turned on, making some guests shriek and scatter, trying to run away from the water – not an easy task, considering the place is packed with people. The smell of barbecue makes Mikasa salivate, Toto’s Africa is blasting through the portable speakers that somebody brought and some brave individuals decided to dip in the pool, even though it’s just May and not a particularly hot evening. She can hear Eren somewhere on her left side, playing a kind of rules-free version of soccer on the grass with his friends which seemingly involves a lot of screaming and, more often than not, multiple players ending up in a pile on the ground.

Historia sits on folded legs, with daisy chain on her head and loose strands of hair dancing around her face on the breeze like spider webs. So lost in her thoughts, she seems as dainty and fragile as possible. Mikasa tries hard to put together the fawn-like line of her neck and delicate collarbone with the nightmarish visions that would make her wake up covered in cold sweat more often than not lately; winged crests, flakes of gore spiraling in the air like gruesome cherry petals, cobblestones streets stinking of too much people. The world bathed in blood. Cruel. Unforgiving. Devoid of any beauty. And yet familiar, as odd as it is to find familiarity in something straight out of their high school history books.

Mikasa wonders how Historia made it through there. Was she as graceful and full of sweetness as she is now?

“This is where we first met.” The girl adds quietly after a minute or two of silence, her eyes locked on Ymir’s back as she is getting up from the grass. “ But I don’t like to think about it too much. To be honest, it was horrible. I never want to live so much longer than her again.”

That Mikasa understands. There is not a worse thing than existing when the other one is gone. It is a torment that she would not wish on anyone, ever, no matter the time or place.

“So weird, isn’t it? Us, talking about those times like it was last week. Feeling so ancient when we are so young.” The corners of Historia’s mouth go up slightly and she shakes her head. “Look at them, my god.”

Connie slipped on the wet grass and all the players lay toppled again, one big tangle of limbs and curses and laughter. Eren catches her eyes and sends her a blazing smile, trying fruitlessly to wiggle from underneath Berthold.

800s. So old. And yet Mikasa doesn’t think she has ever been younger than now, with her lips chapped and happiness bubbling inside her.

I’m hungry, I’m hungry for whatever comes next. – sings some guy through the speaker.

Historia giggles as Ymir keeps on tripping over Reiner’s legs.

Sprinklers spray Mikasa’s bare feet with cold water.

The sun colors the horizon pink and yellow and red and all of the brilliant shades in between.

Eren managed to stand up and lowers his hand down to help Sasha; there are sweat stains on his shirt and grass in his messy hair. If he was nearer, she could smell it all on him. The sweat and the grass and the happiness.

As far as she is, she doesn’t hear his exact thoughts - just feels contentment, stretching between them like a golden cord or a silk ribbon.

“Yeah.” She answers softly. “ It is really strange.”

***

What comes next? Mikasa remembers it used to plague her mind for some time, before she even met Eren. Supposed I have a soulmate, how life even looks like, with a bond like that?

She jumps higher, runs faster and spins tighter than ever, that’s what happens. Once she would curse her muscles and limbs for weighting her down and working against her will, but now she feels so light that she’s surprised she makes any sound walking at all. It suddenly feels so easy; the sequences of movements, soft and smooth, crisp with no hesitation in them. She diligently pins her now-short hair in place, chalks her hands and faces each obstacle with no fear whatsoever. The steady flow of medals that follow her improvement make it look like as if she turned into Midas, painting everything gold with her touch alone. And while it all brings her a lot of joy and while praises that she hears from her coach and teammates and fans are not unwelcomed either, she knows well what makes her soar so high.

She knows now how it feels to be up, so that the surface of the Earth looks like a glorious oriental rug painted with sunlight and spread down her feet.

It shows in her movements, this joy. Even when she’s walking, she goes through the motions as if she was dancing. She supposes that it’s even more evident, while she’s doing gymnastics. She used to think she was good, before, and there was a truth in that – she was born with a natural talent which was then honed with years and years of steel discipline and hard work. Before, she was flexible and strong and well-trained, but now, with her eyes wide opened and memories back, she is not just simply good – she is superb. She has this spark that shines so brightly in her, fueling each and every step. And the centuries past don’t lie, it’s evident now, clear as a day. She could never reach stars without Eren by her side. She was always at her best, when she was with him.

So she jumps higher, runs faster and spins tighter.

And it feels exactly like running on the roofs and jumping up and down, suspended in the air with steel lines of her 3DMG used to feel like.

“How many times did we lay just like that?” he asks her one night, his hot breath caressing the shell of her ear, his fingers idly tracing figures in between her shoulder blades, while she’s still shivering, oversensitive and satisfied.

Countless she thinks. Countless and more

But something painful blooms in her chest, like a thorny bush tearing her heart into shreds.

“ I don’t think we had many occasions to do that.” She answers honestly and he hums in agreement.

Not in the softly-lit room, not in a warm bed, not smelling like her peach-scented shower gel and each other. Not without scars spoiling their skins and with no mountains on their backs.

Never so calm. Never so sure, so careless.

He supposes that the funniest part is that he doesn’t feel like anything changed at all, for the most part. Armin is still his best friend just as he used to be for as long as he can remember and his mother still smiles when his visits her every Saturday and brings her flowers. He still trains in his favorite gym, listens to his favorite bands and fails in saying “no” to his dog.

He’s still the same person, basically.

Only suddenly everything is different. Only suddenly everything is easier and simpler and more bearable; only suddenly he’s calmer and faster and more focused than ever before. This mess in his head quiet now. The twitching of his leg gone. It’s like somebody took a sheet of sandpaper and dulled the sharp edges of the world so that they don’t hurt him anymore.

Mikasa came into his life, fitting neatly in as if she has never been a stranger, as if there has always existed an empty place ready for her. She brought a series of small changes with her, that’s true. But those changes feel more like a fresh, cool breeze from the fan during a humid afternoon than anything else. Like tiny snowflakes that just keep on falling until they cover everything in white and all he sees is her, her, her.

The Thursday game nights, Annie ruthless in Monopoly, Armin miles ahead all of them in Scrabble, Mikasa surprising everyone by her mad poker skills.

Sunday mornings, lazy and sweet; Mikasa in his arms from the dawn till dusk, making love until they both collapse curled around each other, sleepy and sated and so, so fucking happy.

Saturday afternoons, Mikasa and his mother working in the garden and laughing quietly, drinking lemonade and watching old movies with Audrey Hepburn on this ancient VHS player.

She came and reorganized pretty much everything and yet he cannot even imagine how his life looked like without her.

July comes strangely unexpected, like a cat creeping on soft, soundless paws.

He closes the doors of the apartment behind him, with a bag of groceries in his hands and a blissful perspective of three full days without work in his mind. Tomorrow they’re going to Levi and Petra’s daughter christening and then … well, he has keys to Mikasa’s parent’s summer house on the countryside in his pocket and a lot of great ideas how to spent all this time alone with her.

He doesn’t bother to say hello; Miki is not home, he knew it before he opened the door. She should be here, but she’s not – on the emotional level it feels like a very cold blow of AC right into his face and he tries to swallow this feeling before it overcomes him. She’s probably out jogging or something anyway.

Instead of dwelling on that, he focuses on the small things; packs fruits and vegetables into the fridge and hides Mikasa’s favorite, absolutely sinfully unhealthy chocolate cereal in the upper shelf, where she needs a stool to reach. She begged him to do that; she kept on insisting that sometimes, before she can climb on the chair she changes her mind about eating them.

He, personally, never witnessed it, but whatever makes her sleep better at night.

The flat is not as white as it used to be before he moved in; there are splashes of color here and there, scattered on the furniture in form of his flannel shirts and Bumblebee’s chewing toys. And the Bumblebee itself brings the element of destruction into this sea of serenity; right now, she may be snoring soundly on her pillow in the living room, but years and years of constant spoiling made Eren’s pug a very hard roommate indeed and he never realized it until moving to Mikasa. More often than not she would run around the flat with this stripped yellow-and-black bandana around her neck and wreak havoc in her wake… to the constant displeasure of Madeline.

“Well, these two are definitely not soulmates, that’s for sure” crosses Eren’s mind, as he flops down on the sofa. He decides to kill some time by watching this video from two weeks ago, of Bumblebee cashing Madeline around Mikasa’s ankles; his girl was holding a salad bowl in her hands and looked half-irritated and half-amused, as if she was torn between yelling and laughing.

He loves this video; everyone at work has already seen it at least three times and Petra even more. Besides Levi of course, who seemed hell-bent on pretending that Eren is not as prominent in his niece’s life as he is.

But as he is about to press play, the bell chimes loudly, waking Bee from her slumber. Narrowly avoiding stepping on his angry dog, Eren makes his way to the door, wondering silently who could be coming over at such weird hour without letting them know earlier. The only people he can think of are either his mom, which he highly doubts, or Armin and Annie, who are currently enjoying the cloudy English weather and the company of old books, and kindred nerdy, pale scholars during their trip to Oxford.

“Hello- Oh, hi Tori.” He can feel the frown on his face smooth out as he sees a familiar blond figure standing behind the door.

“Hi, Eren.” Chirps Historia Reiss, smiling like a little sunflower and raising up a foil clothing cover in her hands. “ Is Mikasa home? I finished her christening dress.”

“Nah. But come in, she should show up soon.” He takes the hanger from her hands and waves his hand in a welcoming manner.

Historia and Mikasa’s friendship is something nobody could predict or foresee, but when it clicked, it continued to work smoothly and without any glitches.

They found the connection in their respective relationships, Historia patiently guiding Mikasa by the hand through the uncharted territory, them sharing stories of their past lives and current connections, a tangle web of centuries of trauma that they had to work through and could never fully resolve with their respective partners.

Sometimes Eren wishes he remembered more – that he remembered as much as Miki at least, so that they could share this burden together. But for all her eagerness to give him all of her, this is the one part that Mikasa doesn’t let go of easily. Surely, she happily drags him along if she has something nice for him to see, but besides that, she keeps all that she sees and knows and suspects to herself. And he doesn’t want to pressure her to open up.

But sometimes Mikasa would go awfully quiet and so awfully sad. Tears pooling in her eyes she would bite on her lip hard enough to draw blood and shiver in his arms for hours, sweating with cold sweat and making him so, so scared. And still, she refuses to talk about, clams up when she asks.

“What’s in the past, stays in the pasts.” She simply says, not looking at him and biting on her nails absent-mindedly.

It’s not if it still haunts you. – he wants to scream, but the words got stuck somewhere in his throat. Maybe it’s the same with her; or maybe she just wants to protect her, in the only way she can.

Either way, he us beyond glad she has but somebody that can help her somehow compartmentalize it all.

Historia quietly pads into the apartment, bursting into laughter at the sight of agitated pug spinning nervous circles on the floor.

“Damn, your dog has some issues, Eren.”

“ You can only imagine.” He sighs heavily, picking Bee up to rub behind her ears. “ Hi girl, won’t you just-“

Just like that, everything goes quiet.

There is no sound.

No light, no movement, nothing.

Just coldness spreading through his body, chilling each and every cell of his body.

Just pain, so strong that it doesn’t even seem like a pain at all; it is incomparable to anything he has ever felt. Broken leg? Nothing. A concussion? A walk in the park. That time when he fell down the stairs and injured his spine? A nap on the feathery bed.

Pain exploding within him, taking his breath away, making his heart stop.

Mikasa,

Mikasa.

“Eren? Eren!” Historia on her knees next to him on the floor, Bee barking again, the coolness of the wood underneath his palms-

Red car speeding on red light, red pooling on the concrete, Mikasa’s red iPod Mini shattered into tiny, little pieces.

“Eren.” She whispers, eyes desperately opened, sun so bright above her. “Eren.”

He doesn’t believe in god. Never has, as far as he remembers.

“Take the sun away.” he whispers, lips brushing cool wood of his mother’s worn-out rosary. – “Take the sun and- and the moon and all of the stars, just- “

His voice breaks in half; ugly sob escaping from his mouth before he can stop it. It’s so, so cold.

“ Just bring her back to me.”

There is a lifeline that stretches between them, red and infinite and beyond a crowded waiting room on the Intensive Care; a lifeline that nobody else sitting on those ugly orange chairs can see. But he can. And he will hold onto it, as tightly as possible.

And pull her back.

There is a memory that keeps on coming back to her over and over again. Eren ahead of her on the mountainside; his right hand holding onto a metal chain and left one outstretched towards her. He doesn’t even have to turn away to see her slipping on the ice-covered stones. He somehow knows, even though the wind is too loud for him to hear her quiet gasp or the sound that the soles of her boots make.

His hand shots and catches her wrist before she can even begin to fall, before the line that ties their waists together even begins to tighten; he pulls her upright strongly, steading her on a slippery slope.

Wordless support, wordless trust.

Thank you. She thinks. Thank you.

The image of his hand outstretched. He has always looked ahead and trusted her to watch his back. But he has never abandoned her either, never forgot she was there behind him, even when she thought he did.

She has a lot of time to think, is this sea of whiteness where she floats. Without any weight to carry, her thoughts flow lazily, one image after another. Some of them would normally make her heart ache, or even cry. But now she is glad they’re there; even the bad, the ugly. She doesn’t know that she would still be there if it wasn’t for the anchor they form. Maybe she would wander off to far to even make it back.

But with this goddamn, piercing I have always hated you, Mikasa echoing in her ears on repeat, it is impossible to let go.

It doesn’t matter that he didn’t mean it. It doesn’t matter that it was thousands of years away. Some wounds remain open for forever and that is one of them, still open and bleeding all over everything. She would laugh if it could even when you’re hurting me, you’re saving me.

So, against all she latches onto all that pain and heartbreak and reaches out her hand; searches through the nothingness for hours and hours until her fingers find it – the string, taunt and so, so warm.

Mikasa grabs onto it and holds on for what simultaneously feels like a fragment of a second and forever. Blinded and deaf, she holds on until her senses come back, one by one; until she can feel warmth of the sun of her skin and biting stench of antiseptics. Until she opens her eyes and sees him again, silent and grief-stricken and sitting next to her hospital bed, holding her hand.

She blinks, once, twice; watches as big, fat tears fall down his cheeks as he presses his forehead to her hand, his whole body shaking with relief that washes over both of them. She is too weak to do anything else but look at him, to keep her eyes opened and blink. But maybe that’s enough.

“There you are, honey.” Coos Carla, leaning down and putting a cup of green tea in Mikasa’s shaky hands.

It might be hot outside, but surrounded by hospital walls Mikasa feels very cold and quite small, really, so she will take every comfort she can have. She wills the corners of her mouth to raise a little and takes a sip, hot liquid burning the roof of her mouth.

“Thank you.”

“No problem, darling.”

All those pet names, thrown on her like a blanket covering her useless legs. She wishes she could ask everyone to stop – Carla, her mom, her dad, her friends – to stop hovering over her, but it simply won’t do. They would listen and genuinely try to stop, but she still would see it in their eyes. All the worry.

For now, her only solace is Annie with her own brand of harsh love that involved passive-aggressive remarks like “Will you stand up finally?” which makes other people present gasp. But Mikasa indeed, wants to stand up very much.

After Carla leaves, Eren appears; his steps echoing in her ears long before the doors open and he enters her room.

With a sight, he plops down on her bed, but she refuses to look at him. Still sitting on a wheelchair, she stares out of the window; what a beautiful day, sunny, not a cloud of the sky. Her whole body itches; in irritation, she forcefully sets down the teacup on the table and spills some tea in process.

“Miki.”

From her position, she can almost see green grass of the lawn next to the parking. She would jog there sometimes, passing the hospital, the parking and the lawn, not stopping to rest for she hardly ever needed to. How weird it is, to miss the stretch of her muscles and sweat dripping down her back.

Warm hand closes over hers.

“Miki.”

Eren’s kneeling on the floor next to her, his eyes big and pleading.

“Why are you so angry?”

We should be out there, she thinks, desperately and against herself, on Historia’s summer party, in my parents’ country house. Not here.

So much was stolen from them already. All those times where they met only to be torn apart, all this tragedy following them wherever they went. She is just so done with it.

Damn, Mikasa. His voice in her head is so infinitely sweet, almost dripping in honey. He gently brushes hair away from her face and leans his forehead on hers. This? This is nothing compared to what we’ve been through. There will be other summers.

There will be other summers.

She closes her eyes, trying to forget about the sun spilling through the window and focus on his voice on the promise ringing in them.

Really?

He chuckles quietly.

Yeah, really.

Her memories are subjective, but they don’t lie. Presented with the choice wheatear or not to trust Eren, all the Mikasas would always choose the former, without fail.

***

Their days become very long now, with the seasons passing behind the windows of their apartment like in kaleidoscope; summer in full bloom and then autumn, radiant in golds and scarlets. And winter again, the two of them cozy in their little microcosm lit with sweet-smelling candles.

Mikasa learns how to sit again and then how to walk again. It’s an excruciating process, more often than not involving a meeting with the plush carpets that now cover the entirety of the floors in the flat. And although Eren would keep her from falling if she let him, she prefers to do it a hard way. By that, she can at least feel like in those old good times, as if she was covered in sweat and exhausted after a hard training and not after taking a few shaky steps.

But it all passes like seasons; soon enough she walks again and then jogs, faster and faster, Eren always glued to her side, his silent prescience so comforting that it somehow makes it up for all the lost dreams that she had to abandon. She thinks a lot about it, how it felt to fly; but at least she can still curl up in his arms and he can kiss her neck and it’s different but it’s good. So good.

Snow falls and then melts; spring comes again, brilliant and fresh. By that time, she is already working out with a jumping rope again, drops by the neighboring dance studio whenever she can. There is a white dress hidden somewhere at the back of her closet; one beautiful mess of silk and lace crafted with Historia’s meticulous hands. The dress is waiting for the right occasions, but Mikasa has stopped waiting a long time ago.

Life is good when doesn’t need crunches or Eren’s arms to stand up. Life is good when she can actually sneak up on him and put her cold hands underneath his shirt when he’s cooking, making him jump and scream jesus Mikasa, go wear a sweater or something. Life is good when he doesn’t have to pick her up from the wheelchair and carry her to bed. Life is good with her new job and old friends and Annie and Armin standing underneath flowery arch and smiling like dorks.

Even after she met Eren, she was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. But know she knows for sure, that even when it drops – it is not gonna be the hardest thing she has ever been through, not even close. And that life will always be good, as long as he will hold onto her, as long as he will keep her centered.

***

“Soulmates… why didn’t you like the idea?”

“I don’t really know. It always seemed so limited to me, like, why am I supposed to just be with this one person because we used to be together a couple of times before in a span of centuries? I didn’t enjoy somebody dictating me how to live my life, I guess.”

“You’re are such a rebel, Miki.”

“Oh, shut up. Tell me about you. What made you okay with that?”

“ Well. You know, when people find their partners, they tend to look at certain things. Like money and race, and gender, and interests and all of that. We don’t really tend to pair up with people who are very different from us. But the notion of soulmates… it just shows that it’s all bullshit. It doesn’t matter at all. When you really love somebody, all of those things are just so insignificant. That always sounded kinda beautiful for me, that it’s your heart that chooses this person time and time again, not your head. “

Maybe he is right. She doesn’t know; she doesn’t care. All she knows is that everything before him seems now like a soft, slow build-up and being with him is a beautiful crescendo; a moment when the music drags you under, overwhelms you.

Give me all your love now, cause for all we know, we might be dead by tomorrow.

One headphone in his ear, one in hers; hands linked and eyes closed, they sit in an empty train, talking without barely opening their mouths.

Even if we’re dead tomorrow, I’ll find you again, Miki.

I’ll find you again and I’ll love you again, Eren.

Ugly and beautiful, all together. She doesn’t think that this crescendo will ever really end.

As if the heavy slope of my shoulders

doesn’t write a hundred paragraphs.

As if the way I look at you

doesn’t write the singular ending.

You are my epilogue,

my prologue,

and every chapter that exists in between.

Everybody, sit down.

I have a story to tell."

- Stories. Seventy Years of Sleep, nikka ursula (n.t)

#eremika #eremika fanfiction #snk #eren x mikasa #snk fanfiction #our future will be a bright one #aot fic

32 notes · View notes

moonfox281 · 6 years ago

Note

Now that we have a ninja canon AU, I can not help seeing Dick in a kimono or as a geisha, can you one day do a fic about this? I would totally love it!

*Writer note: Sorry for taking too long with this one. And sincerely appology to other anos that requested the same fic, I can only answer one. And great thank you to the wonderful @cherrymiko-art for asking for this*

Beauty Itself

(Word count: 8142)

To read on AO3

“When Bruce said the mission was in Japan, I had a different scene in mind.”

Dick darted his eyes around, watched the water flow through the bamboo pipe then drip down the tiny ceramic fountain. He didn’t like this, the door was covered in nothing but paper and weak wood, the room was too elegant and the number of weapons that could be produced from the items was strictly limited, and the silence, the haunting silence that assured a storm would come uninvited.

“Really? What did you have in mind?”

“I don’t know, a ninja fight, samurai demons jumping out of nowhere, maybe some robots too.”

Jason snorted. “Come on, you think too much.”

Dick turned and looked at him. “It just− What are you wearing?”

“This? I thought for somebody who could speak Japanese since you were 12, you should know their traditional costume.”

“I know what a yukata looks like. But why are you wearing it?”

Jason shrugged, the edge of the fabric hanging on his wide shoulder. The colors brought out his eyes, matte black and thin strings of red, and they seemed to suit his attitude most of the time too. He let the obi hang loose and low, the hems were folded casually, not quite presentable if a formal meeting was required in this mission, but still, everything that was not presentable for formal occasions always suited Jason the best. Besides, Dick appreciated how the short sleeves showed his husband’s biceps.

“I figured if we’re here, why not enjoy it first. We don’t have to dip our hands right into the case the second we get here.” He sat down on the tatami that hugged the entire room, legs crossed. His face spoke that he was waiting for Dick to join him.

Dick refused to.

“This isn’t a vacation. Bruce signed us in because…”

“The underage slave ring leads here and we’re the only ones unoccupied?! Yeah, I know that. Which is why we’re gonna stay here, enjoy whatever this country offers us, while waiting for my intel.” Jason sighed and stood up, walking closer toward Dick.

“Your intel?” Dick asked, doubtfully.

“I’m a global kingpin, honey. I work with the yakuza, sooner or later, we’ll get a link, until then, let’s just relax.”

Dick knew Jason meant well when his arms slung around his waist and pulled him flush to his chest. Jason felt warm, he had always felt warm, and he didn’t wear anything underneath the yukata, almost half of his chest was out.

Dick knew the yukata was Jason’s way of saying he wanted to be out of costume for a couple of hours, which also meant he wanted Dick to be out of costume for a couple hours. That seemed too luxurious in Dick’s opinion, they were on a mission, a mission assigned by Bruce himself. They didn’t have time to waste, they could always enjoy this sometime else, when they were done being vigilante and off duty, which would probably be never, but still, not right now, not when there was a task to be done.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Jason said, when his hand came up to push Dick’s head to rest on the warm skin of his chest. “I know you’re anxious for some action, but here, locals talk, locals tell. There’s nothing two outsiders like us could do. Let the yakuza do their job, once they give me something, we’ll move.”

Jason was right, the best way to dig up some information around here was from the locals.

Jason pet his head lightly. He understood Dick tended to get tense, go overbroad on everything when the mission involved Bruce. Maybe Dick was truly the one that had problems with Bruce all along out of the two of them.

“Stop thinking.” Jason whispered into his hair. “You always think too much, it’s making me nervous.”

“Sorry.” Dick chirped.

“I don’t want you sorry, I want you relaxed.” Jason pulled away to look down on him. “If you’re uncomfortable…”

“No,” He said, too quickly. “It’s just strange, coming here and… not doing anything like this.”

This must have been the zillionth time Dick went to Japan, but still, none of the times he had the opportunity to even get a glimpse of relaxation. There was always a mission on hand, a goal to reach or a task to be done. And by the time everything was all wrapped up, it was time to move on to another place, with another mission to pursue.

Jason looked at him and understood. Marriage had turned him soft and open, but to be honest, Dick didn’t know if that was true. Jason had always been gentle towards him, and for him to open up like this, Dick didn’t know if it was that Jason was ready to share, or if he saw that Dick was now ready to accept what he was willing to share.

Dick didn’t know, he honestly didn’t know. From this point looking back, it was hard to not see himself as the root of every problem.

2 hours later, Jason’s intel came, a thirty something man dressed in a white suit with a big cigar in between his teeth. A nasty scar ran from his forehead down over the bridge of his nose, and as his hair was pulled back and gelled, Dick doubted the man was ashamed of it.

Dick looked at his hand when he reached out to shake Jason’s. Big rings, two callused fingers, a sign of regular use of a firearm, patchy knuckles showed a frequency of violence, but still, nothing missing.

This man wasn’t just a yakuza, he was an oyabun, the absolute head of a yakuza group. Dick was so having a conversation with Jason after this.

He sat down on the couch, flicking the tar of his cigar down in the nearby bonsai pot, and grinned at Dick. His eyes darted up and down, peeking through the hems of his newly changed yukata, publically stripping him with lust burning in his pupils.

Dick didn’t like this man.

“I didn’t know you brought company.” He spoke in Japanese, dragging the words out slow and decent. He must think Dick didn’t know the language on his tongue. He looked at Dick again before turning to Jason, grinning wolfishly. “I like your taste, very high-end.”

Jason just pulled a poker face. He must have been used to this kind of attitude while doing business with his men. “Eyes on the subject, Tobu. I asked you a favor.”

“Ah, straight to the point, and calling my name too. You’re never the polite one, Tengu.”

Tengu, a disruptive demon, a harbinger of war in Japanese mythology. The man must have worked with Jason long enough to witness what his wrath could bring.

The yakuza threw a paper file on the desk, crossed his leg over his knee and took a long drag of his cigar.

“Yakoshi’s group, big guys, one of the giants in the yakuza. Never liked them but business keeps me around with those bastards. They own around a dozen human trafficking rings all across the continent. Lately they joined a new industry, same resources, but more beneficial, dirtier too, even for our standards.”

It didn’t take much time to click. “Organ harvesting.”

The yakuza nodded. “They hooked up with a guy in Italy, who once distributed their supplies to purchasers, that guy’s dead now. So they’re looking for a new partner.”

Jason flicked through the file. Dick left the arm of the couch and went to sit next to Jason, peeking at the documents. Too many faces, a lot of information, no surprise if they were from such a large group. This shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes or so to memorize.

Jason’s hand wormed around to touch Dick’s waist, he was still digging his nose into the file, finding out who should be the main target, while rubbing little circles on Dick’s hipbone.

The yakuza watched. “Where did you get him?”

The question was obviously not for Dick.

“None of your business.” Jason casually answered.

“Come on, I did you a favor. At least tell me how much it costs to have a night with him.”

Jason looked up from the document, brows arched, face seeming unimpressed. “Put that thing away first.”

He meant the cigar. The yakuza huffed, brows drawn up in surprise. “This? Never thought you would say that one day.”

“Throw it out or I throw you out. He doesn’t like it.” He turned to Dick and switched to Romani. “Do you, my dear?”

Dick laughed. Gosh, his man knew how to romance, even in moments like this. He leaned forward to kiss the corner of Jason’s lips, only to have his husband push the back of his head for a deeper one.

The yakuza whistled when they pulled apart, the cigar missing from between his lips. “Alright, I’m turned on. Do I get a discount or not?”

“For you, sure, why not?” Jason shrugged.

“Spill, how much does it cost me?”

“Your dick.” Jason grinned, sharp teeth flashed.

The smug look slipped off the yakuza’s face. “Oh,” He suddenly seemed sheepish. “And that is with the discount?”

“Between your dick and your life, which one do you prefer?”

“Okay, so it’s a no. Shame though, a beauty like this should be shared around. I bet Yakoshi’s guys would think the same.” Dick understood that was this man’s way of warning Jason not to let Dick get involved in this mess.

Huh, so this man had a lot more to himself than he showed.

He eyed Dick again, up and down. This time Dick felt the arm slung around his waist tighten a little bit.

“Do you speak Japanese?”

This time, the question was directed at Dick. It went out in a Kansai accent, harder to catch even to some locals, harsher, quicker, a little deeper too. A test.

Dick smiled, hands coming up to rest on Jason’s shoulder, his chin rested on them.

“Only when I want to.” He purred.

The yakuza didn’t ask further after that.

Dick stayed on the couch while watching Jason part with the yakuza. They talked to each other at the door a lot more than at the table. The yakuza tried to lower his voice, now that he knew Dick understood everything.

“They meet at 6, tomorrow night. You know the location, I already booked you a place at their table. Try to act less like yourself, they don’t like partners they can’t control.”

“Alright, thanks for the help.” Jason grinned, already opening the door.

The yakuza turned back to look at Dick, before whispering to Jason.

“I’m serious, Tengu. If you refuse to share him with anyone, then he must be special. But if you’re planning to mess with these guys, I would suggest keeping him far away from this. They are not me, and organ trafficking is just one of the Yakoshi’s activities.”

Jason went silent after that.

“No.”

“I haven’t said anything yet.”

“Yes, but I know what’s on your mind, so no.” Jason deadpanned. His face didn’t show any sign that he could be moved.

“But‒”

“Didn’t you catch what I just said? No means no.” Jason didn’t waver for once, and just like that, he turned back to his current task. Sitting opposite him, Tobu glanced between them, seemingly amused.

“So, 10 members, 5 guards, and 3 outside?”

Tobu nodded. “Yep, 30-story condo, guards on every floor, the meeting will be on top. I told you, they’re a huge group, and far less honorable than they used to be.”

“They won’t talk easily, will they?”

“You wish. We’re yakuzas, we’d rather gut ourselves before letting anyone hurt the group. And even then, Oikawa doesn’t trust anyone. Even if you suddenly gain the magic to defeat all of his army, you think digging something out of him would be easy?!”

Dick watched them and bit the inside of his cheek. He had waited all night until today’s lunch to add in his opinion, had to break through the middle of his husband and the yakuza’s discussion on the attack plan to do it, and he didn’t plan to be discarded easily like that.

“Since when do you get to be in charge of this mission?” Dick voiced, frowning. Not what he should have said, but still, he was bordering on anger.

Jason didn’t seem amused either, his head snapped back and he stared at Dick. “What did‒In charge…? Is that what you fucking think? This isn’t about me taking the lead, this is about you. You think I was comfortable watching Tobu stare at you like that?”

Next to him, Tobu winced, eyes darting around to take in the heavy tension in the room, until he decided. “Okay, I’m out. Call me back in when you two are done.”

“No, you stay here.” Jason growled, and Tobu dropped right back to his place at the table, holding his hands up in surrender. He knew better than to test Jason’s temper.

Dick groaned, feeling beyond tired. When exactly did Jason form a problem about this, he had no idea. Dick only knew one day, undercover suddenly became a sore spot for Jason to mention.

“This is ridiculous, there are kids out there, waiting to be opened up and here we are, arguing over whether to pass up the opportunity to help them in the fastest way.”

Dick knew he had taken the wrong leap when Jason stormed over and stared down at him. He looked giant up this close, dangerous, like a direwolf ready to rip Dick’s throat out. It was fascinating how Jason could change from a loving, gentle husband to this creature in front of him when he felt the need to, in a matter of seconds.

“Listen here, I want to help the kids just as much as you do. I am pulling every connection I have on this land to help them.” Jason stepped forward, looming over Dick and forcing him to stumble back. “But don’t you ever think that the urgency of this mission means I would ever hand you out like bait. You said this is ridiculous, the only ridiculous thing is that you’re more than ready to throw yourself out like this.”

When Jason brought it to this point, no further discussion could be made. Dick knew when his husband had made up his mind, when even the strongest voice couldn’t change what he had set out.

But Dick was angry, this was their mission, not Jason’s. Their meant it included Dick’s part in this. He refused to sit tight like a toy and wait for Jason to go save the day. This wasn’t what Bruce would expect of him.

“Our relationship shouldn’t be the obstacle of progress. I’ve told you that countless times.” Dick grunted.

Jason snarled at him. “I said this is about YOU! You need to stop trying to impress him, you need to stop trying to prove yourself. You left us, you left me, wasn’t that enough? I refuse to let you sacrifice yourself in exchange for something you’ve already had.” His head dropped down, resting powerless on Dick’s shoulder. From the Tengu he was called to be, Jason turned tired, weak and hurt with a mere switch. “How could you do this to yourself, ready to let them have their way with you just to speed the process? Those people are not me, their hands aren’t meant to love you.”

Oh.

Oh. Dick blinked, once, twice, too damn amazed.

So that was what had been nagging him.

Behind Jason’s shoulder, Tobu sat tight cross-legged with a stupid toothy smile on his face. He seemed to take in their conversation as an entertaining performance in a theater.

“You two should sign up for a Japanese reality show. Believe me, there’re some girls here who would kill to see this.”

Jason growled low in his throat, and Dick shuddered, worse, the sound and scene only made Tobu snicker harder. Jason’s hands went down to hold Dick’s waist, pulling him flush to his chest, his head rubbed into that corner between his neck and shoulder like a needy cat, dropping feather kisses down on his skin.

When Tobu whistled, Jason snapped and pointed a gun that Dick had no idea he had strapped behind his back.

“One more word and I swear I’ll blow your head off.”

Tobu only shut up then.

Dick looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like a freaking clown. Jason’s friend, the yakuza Tobu had wandered around the room he was in, eyes darting toward him at every chance he had.

Dick sighed and ignored him, focusing on the eyeliner in his hand. He tried to remember the way he had seen Babs use it, the way Steph used it. It was hard to follow, and he poked himself in the eye, twice. It stung, and he had considered putting on the Hypnos lens, but then reframed himself, the point was for them to see his face, and nothing else. Tobu watched him, staring down at his painted lips, and took a moment before returning to his eyes.

“The kimono brings out your eyes.”

Dick touched the hem of the cloth. It felt nice, soft and silky, with hand-knitted details. Dick stared down at the gold phoenix spreading its wing on his chest, the cherry blossoms blooming on the sides, the gold strings running along the edges of the kimono, the mystic blue that drafted over the whole of his body, black glitters glowing at any movement underneath every seam line.

Jason’s money never disappointed.

Dick styled his hair, made it fall down the sides a little bit more. He put on earrings, wincing because of the newly pierced holes, and reached out for the other accessories when Tobu appeared behind his back, gently putting something on his head. It felt heavy, suspiciously heavy.

Through the reflection of the mirror, Dick saw the gold glittering under the light, tiny stones at the top shone different colors when his head moved. A gold halo.

Dick’s eyes widened.

“This is too much.” He turned, attempting to accuse Tobu when the yakuza shrugged and put his hands up, defending himself.

“Trust me.” He said.

Dick sighed while waiting by the door. The kimono felt heavy, dragging his upper body down, the belt hugging a little too tightly on the waist, not too uncomfortable, but would definitely leave some lines. The upper half of his chest was more or less exposed, as the collar of the cloth hung loosely on the edge of his shoulder. Nothing else was underneath, Dick anxiously thought as he touched the back of his upper thigh where he usual strapped his escrima. He didn’t like the feeling of this, but again, going undercover never did the best for his taste in fashion.

There was a bell, and Dick understood that was his cue to walk in. On his steps, he remembered the way Tobu tugged on his arm after he had finished getting ready, the way the yakuza eyed him from tip to toes, concern and uncertainty painted all over his face.

“I don’t like this.” Before Dick could comment, he added. “Not the look, I mean. You’re a work of art, don’t deny it. But if something happens, you need to bail right away. You’ll come back to me and let Tengu handle it himself.”

The man thought Dick couldn’t handle himself, thought Dick was just some pretty accessory Jason had picked up along the way and grew a short-term affection with. Well, whenever he stood next to Jason, people tended to think so and Dick let them. Instead of being chaotically controlled by pride, he made an advantage out of it.

When he walked in, the room fell into silence. Dick could feel the eyes shoot out for him like bullets from a machine gun. He remembered the steps, back straight, hips swaying, one leg upfront and crossed over the other, just enough to keep his line straight, and enough to expose a part of his bare legs, long, cleanly shaven, and all the way up to two third of his thighs. His shoulders hunched a little, showing the shoulder blades more, his hands folded upfront, so the sleeves slid down the sides of his path.

Dick blinked his hooded eyes, took a quick glance around the room. He felt like an idiot, but also recognized all the faces he had memorized just the night before.

He marched toward the middle, stopping at where he was sure everyone could get the best view of him. Dick spotted Jason at his 9 o’clock in a black yukata, the cloth hung loosely on his body to hide all the speciously powerful muscles underneath, a red cloth drafted over one shoulder down to his side. A dark look painted over his face as none of the attention was on him anymore, his mouth agape, eyes pinned on Dick in full surprise.

If Jason was amazed, then it should be a success.

“Well, isn’t this a nice surprise.” Someone, on his left, spoke. Grey hair, bright eyes, early forties. Oikawa Noiri, head of the Yakoshi’s group, the big grey wolf.

Bingo.

The man turned his gaze towards Jason, who had retreated to his casual character when all the attention was on Dick.

“When you said you brought along a small gift, I had a less colorful idea.” The yakuza smirked. His subordinates sat around chuckling at his words. He turned and eyed Dick again, up and down, stripping him with the lust burning through the bright brown pupils. “Do you speak Japanese, my dear?”

Despite the presence of his translator right next to him, Oikawa’s English was perfect, as expected.

“Not even a word, sir.”

“Oh, I doubt that.” Oikawa laughed, all teeth on display. He reminded Dick of an old wolf, dangerous just from looking from afar.

Smart man, really smart man.

Dick smiled and analyzed the man. His brows curved up, but the edge of his mouth dangled heavily. Oikawa had looked bored and tired before Dick walked in, his look was merely a breath of fresh air to change the man’s mood.

The yakuza looked interested, but not enough. Not revealing his ability would give Dick an advantage, people always let their guard down when underestimating someone, but Dick needed to gain his attention even more. He needed to get this man interested.

Dangerous men liked having their ego and temper tested.

“I had hoped you wouldn’t notice.” Dick switched to Japanese, speaking so fluently the brows of the other yakuza shot up close to their hairlines.

Oikawa grinned wolfishly, one of his leg uncrossed and came up, stamping the sole of his foot down on the edge of the zabuton. His finger came up and he called. “Pour the sake.”

Demanding, nothing new.

Dick walked over to his table, trying to mimick the flow of a fountain, he tried drawing all the gazes towards him if they had not already been.

He remembered the technique to pour out the traditional alcohol, had seen it countless times from the geishas. He knew how to make his movements graceful, knew how to keep himself addicting. He ignored the burning lust Oikawa was shooting at him, the way his legs moved to make more room for his crotch. No need to look, Dick already knew Jason was grinding his teeth from behind his shoulder.

Up this close to the enemy, in this disguise, Dick had had himself prepared, still he was caught off guard when a rough hand came up and harshly grabbed his chin, pulling his face up close.

“Hm, very beautiful.” Oikawa purred, breath stinking of sake, blowing on Dick’s skin. “Your eyes, they tempt me.”

Dick hoped Jason wouldn’t paralyze this guy for good after this.

The yakuza spoke slowly in Japanese. “I can make a fortune with these eyes.” He licked his lips. For a moment, Dick thought he would have been kissed. “But that would be a shame, taking them away from such beauty would be a sin. Who am I to ruin a work of art like this?”

Up this close, too close, Dick saw everything. The pores in his face, the edge of his wide grin, the blown pupils. And of course, up this close, Dick felt everything, the gun barrel poking out from the side of the yakuza’s hip, a tissue in his inner pocket, and something small, metal-like. When Oikawa pulled him closer and licked his cheek, Dick figured it out. A flash drive.

Bull’s eye.

Oikawa pulled back, and Dick faked a heavy sigh. He knew how to look like a shy, inviting mess. Without a word, Oikawa grabbed on Dick’s wrist and whisked him aside of the table. His hands were everywhere all of the sudden, resting on Dick’s hips and he pushed him to fall down to the side of his chest.

Dick felt urged to punch the bastard. He hated playing the mindless toy that anyone could grab and play with. Even the king of Gotham’s underworld had to kiss his feet if he wanted to sleep on a bed at night, who did this moron think he was?

The hand on his wrist left and squeezed a handful of Dick’s thigh, bringing it up to rest on the yakuza’s folded leg, the edge of the kimono slid down, exposing too much skin.

Now Dick wanted Jason to paralyze this guy for good.

God, marrying a mob boss did serious damage to his vigilante morals.

Still, that aside, Dick had a role to play, and a burner to take. He had spotted the form of the thing in the yakuza’s pocket. Get that too, and everything would be over.

Oikawa dipped his head down to whisper into Dick’s ear. “Be nice for me, and I’ll promise you pleasure.”

Jerk. Dick went with the flow anyway. He rubbed his cheek on the side of the yakuza’s neck, shook his breath just enough to make it sound lustful, hands wandering around the man’s chest. Oikawa wanted to show off his power to an outsider, which meant Jason. Dick could give him that. A sweet reward before the bitter penalty.

From this position, Dick could spot his husband, laughing idiotically with the other yakuzas. His brows slightly knitted together at the forehead, and the edge of his laugh seemed tense. His knuckles were white with the grip he had on his knees.

Underneath the disguise, Jason was furious.

“So, tell me, how many facilities do you have in the States?” Noiri asked Jason in Japanese, and let his translator do the job. An emperor’s ego.

“Many, and you can trust me on that. I have some connections in Europe too, in case you’re interested.” Jason laughed stupidly, the curve of his lips was lacking the usual predatory vibe. He was playing the underdog. It made Dick itch to slap him out of it. Undercover was never Jason’s strong point.

Noiri seemed interested. He turned to speak to his men, his hand still laid firmly on Dick’s hip. “How much cargo do we have left in Italy?”

“28 in Genoa, could be two containers. Meca died right when he was supposed to deliver.” His subordinate answered. From afar, Jason cocked his head aside and pulled a poker face, pretending he didn’t even understand a word, even when the man had written Dick a haiku for Valentine’s before.

Genoa, Meca. For two containers, there must be a warehouse. If the assets they were talking about were humans, living breathing humans, then the place must be far away from the other warehouses that grounded up around the port. Less eyes and ears, and easier to transport.

How many men with a last name of Meca were in Italy, how many could own a warehouse in Genoa, and how many could own a warehouse on the outskirts of Genoa. Their search range just narrowed down significantly.

“The more we drag it out, the worse it becomes. This foreigner is our only option at the moment.” Noiri’s man informed. His eyes glanced at Dick for a second, looking at his eyes and then the leg Noiri had dragged up on his. Dick understood when he frowned, not all men swung that way, even with how tempting he could look.

Noiri snorted and caught Dick’s chin with a hand, pulling it up to face him like he had read his subordinate’s mind. “Very well then, but keep a good chain on him. He’s a rabid dog, too eager to prove and not wise enough to win.”

On his other side, another henchman added in. “I don’t trust this man. He just came here, and we don’t know how deep his experience runs.”

Noiri huffed and as expected, turned down to look at Dick. “Oh, I trust this man’s experience.”

Jason had done his part well, now it’s time for Dick to do his.

The room was soon cleared out for only Noiri and his dirty intentions with Dick left behind. Dick got Jason’s dark gaze towards them when he was kindly invited out. Let’s just pray that the power of their comfy Crime Alley home’s couch would be able to stop Jason from bringing his wrath on the life of this yakuza.

When the room was just the two of them, Dick patiently waited while Noiri casually sipped on his sake.

“I heard that you’re a very dangerous man.” Dick started. A man full of ego like Noiri, waiting and baring his neck wouldn’t do the trick, this man craved something new, something for him to conquer.

Noiri only snorted back. “And are you scared of me?”

Dick looked at him, straight in the eyes. He knew no one could ignore when his eyes demanded attention.

He cocked his head and made himself appear innocent. “Should I be?”

Noiri’s eyes widened, then he huffed out a laugh.

Dick half grinned, this time for real. It was too easy, kingpins, they were all the same. Dick married one, it wasn’t too hard to manipulate another. They all found joy when their partners were full of mysteries.

“My eyes, you said they tempted you. Do you like the ocean, sir?”

Noiri looked at him, staying silent for a couple of seconds before huffing. “I’m starting to.” He put the cup down. “What about you?”

Dick smiled. “Very much, sir.”

Come on, talk.

“Is that so? Then you’ll enjoy the east coast of Japan.”

East coast, that would be where they should scan next.

Dick was suddenly pushed down not so gently. He felt himself puddled in the kimono, the collar sliding off one of his shoulders.

Noiri stood up and only then did Dick realized how big this man was. He was not Jason’s size, not many men could come close to Jason’s size. But Noiri was big, with a wide chest and hard abdomen. He knelt down, back straight and muscle tensed like the way of a samurai, his hands, strong and decisive, grabbing on Dick’s ankles and pulling him onto his lap.

“You have distracted me from the very first moment you walked in.” He purred into Dick’s ear, face suddenly too close. “Be nice to me, and I won’t sell you out in pieces like I’ve done to so many before.”

Rude, still, Dick had too much history with rude men already. All the attitudes were just to cover up their swelling egos. Besides, Dick doubted the weight of that threat. Noiri was the mastermind of a human trafficking ring, he understood the value of a body, and Dick understood his advantage.

Dick pulled Noiri’s tie off, and the hand came out to catch his wrist was exactly like his calculation. Dick stared back at the yakuza and blinked, acting innocent and hurt. He knew a man like Noiri wouldn’t normally take off his clothes while screwing someone, he knew he had pushed a button, but he also knew that he would be an exception.

Too much lust blinded the mind of even the wisest. Dick licked his lips, batted his lashes as he watched Noiri shrug off his clothes, leaving his pants on. Dick ran his hands on those thighs, searching for any devices left. Noiri only grinned back, too out his head to even doubt Dick’s little action for a slight.

He pulled on Dick’s hair, forcing his neck back and dug right in the juncture of his shoulder. Dick moaned when the bite stung his skin, legs scrambling up to tighten around the yakuza’s hip. His toes found the leather on the handle of a pistol there. Noiri kept on working around his neck, like a rabid dog he seemed determined to rip off a chunk of Dick’s neck.

Dick kept faking moans and little shudders, patiently waiting until Noiri was drunk on lust enough to follow his rules. The man took some time to mark Dick’s skin as if he was a dog craving to prove his new found territory. Jason would definitely be pissed about what the yakuza had left on Dick. So, the sooner he ended this game, the better chance Noiri had to be alive until he ended up in a cell in which he would serve around 150 years for all the crimes he had committed.

“Please,” Dick breathed, whispering right into Noiri’s ear. “Kiss me.”

Noiri’s eyes turned darker, his grin turned wicked, like he had dosed himself with a whole can of Joker’s gas. Letting go of Dick’s wrist, the man immediately dug his head even lower to bite on his earlobe.

“Oh baby, you and I are going to have so much fun from now on.”

Nothing else.

This time, Dick was sure this man had nothing else valuable for him. It was time to drop the blinds. Show time was over.

Dick curled his hands around Noiri’s neck, spreading his fingers in his hair. It was a slight grab at first, merely hurt and only turned the yakuza on further, but then Dick tugged hard.

Before a cry could come out, Noiri choked on his breath as Dick’s hand came up cutting right on his windpipe. Dick pulled the gun out from behind his back with his toes and threw it on the other side of the table. As expected, Noiri’s hands came scrambling to find the item behind his back, his eyes went furious when he realized it had gone missing.

With that hit, the yakuza wouldn’t be able to scream, and Dick only needed that. With his legs still wrapped around the man’s hips, he flipped them over, forehead smashing into Noiri’s and sending him down. He ripped the halo off his head and hammered it right down on Noiri’s neck to keep him in place. Jewelry or not, in his hand anything could be a weapon.

Too easy, the man was blinded by lust, and was caught by surprise. It wasn’t even a fight, but it was neat, and exactly what Dick had wanted it to be. Noiri went down and out cold, laying out on the floor like a puppet without strings.

The big wolf was down, now came the subordinates. They would soon get suspicious when the inside was too quiet. Two? No, maybe four. And that was just outside this room, who knew how many more men were guarding this facility. Dick could take four, but four with guns and a condition to not make a sound would be quite a challenge.

With the interference of Jason’s growing, over-paranoid, and overprotective gang, and Bruce’s growing crime fighting clan, night life in Gotham had been spontaneously boring lately.

Dick was dying for some fun.

“I told you this wasn’t a good idea!”

Tobu screamed as he shot another thug coming at them. Next to him, his henchmen were all putting up quite a good fight. Jason didn’t worry about them much, the bodies could be cleaned, excuses could be made, he could always blame all the dead bodies on Tobu. They were yakuzas after all.

“Oi, you go back to check on your little boy toy.” Tobu grunted when the floor was clear. He ripped another clip out from his pocket and loaded it.

“He can handle it.” Jason didn’t want to think about what Dick was dealing with right now.

“Hey, I’m not joking. If that was me, then fine. But he’s in there with Noiri, alone. Noiri is the kind of psycho you don’t want to lay your precious doll near.”

“He’s not a doll.” Jason grunted, landing an extra kick on the already downed thug nearby. “And he’s not a boy toy either.”

“Then that makes it worth checking on him even more.” Tobu suddenly grabbed his arm. “Tengu, I don’t like putting civilian in the middle of shit like this. But that boy, that boy is important to you, isn’t he?”

Haiz, Jason didn’t like showing his weaknesses to others, especially his partners. And Dick was by far his biggest weakness.

Boy, if that man told Jason to blow up a planet, he would probably ask which one.

It took too long for Jason to answer, and that was enough of a confirmation for Tobu. The guy huffed.

“Let’s go get him then.”

“Get who?”

Jason burst out a laugh. He shook his head, and even with his eyes down at his feet, he could still imagine Tobu’s stupid expression when Dick marched out from the end of the hall.

Dick looked like a mess, with two fully sheathed swords in both hands, one sleeve of the kimono, Jason vividly remembered getting massively angry about because Tobu had made it too well and suited Dick too much, was now torn and the collar slipped off his bare shoulder.

Dick threw the swords down and walked over. Next to Jason, Tobu’s jaw fell to the floor.

“How did you get out?”

Dick quirked his eyebrow. “I fought my way here.”

“Where’s Noiri?”

“Unconscious and tied up.”

Just as expected, Tobu’s face turned comical. “What?” He screamed.

Dick only shrugged and got close to Jason, hooking his arms around his neck. Jason gladly welcomed him into his embrace. It felt nice to smell his scent, feel his warmth and his body in his arms again.

“Did you clean all the top floors?” He asked.

“Yes, I did. You guys seem to have handled it pretty well down here.” Dick grinned back.

Jason noticed the eyes Tobu was giving him now. Jason enjoyed it when Dick flipped the table and redefined the order of this world. He never ceased to amaze anyone.

“A phone and a flash drive. Noiri didn’t trust anyone but himself, it only made it easier for me.”

No wonder Bruce always pushed Dick to go undercover. He knew how to make impossible tasks possible.

“I contacted B. He’s already sent Batwoman to Italy. The authorities have already circled the area. The kids will be released soon.”

Dick nodded, smiling. He liked it when missions went smoothly and without much casualty. Behind Jason’s back, Tobu’s men had already cleaned up what was left of the Yakoshi’s. He looked at Dick’s eyes, those ocean eyes that never seemed like they came from this mundane world.

“Let’s go home.”

Dick smiled back. He thought everything would have ended with Noiri behind the bars, he thought the mess they created would be enough to draw the authority’s attention. He didn’t know Tobu was the head of the third biggest organized crime group in Japan, didn’t know the police wouldn’t come because even they knew gang rivalry between the yakuzas was not their fight. Dick didn’t know that Tobu didn’t come here to just help, he came here to claim the victory they left and cross the name Yakoshi off the top of the list.

Jason was fine if Noiri landed on Tobu’s hand. For now, he only wanted to go home, after Tobu was done with him, Jason would get his take. A psycho that made interest from the sale of children’s organs didn’t deserve an easy death. And under that no matter how hard he tried to hide under the loose cover of the kimono on Dick’s shoulder, Jason could still see through it, the marks that rabid dog had left on his husband.

It had been a while since Jason last had a smoke. His tongue was dying for the taste of it, his fingers were literally trembling when holding the little paper stick. Dick would shout at him, probably wouldn’t let him kiss him until he rinsed off the smell for good.

He tapped the cigarette and watched the tar fall, still shimmering like a New Year’s bonfire.

“So, it took us a week to clean everything up. Nothing major, just a bit of paperwork and adjustment around the area, but all things considered next time you come by, I’ll be staying in a new place.”

Jason huffed, blowing out the smoke. “I can tell you’re enjoying it.”

“Oh hell, I am. I really owe you big this time, Tengu.”

Tengu. Jason liked the nickname, it reminded him every time of the time they met. Jason was in the middle of personal business, mining his knuckles with seven meathead bastards that busted his operation for small profit along the way. Tobu had just happened to be there and witnessed it all. The first thing he said when Jason noticed him, was “fuck”.

It must be because of the red hood, Jason had first thought, but throughout the time they worked together, Tobu had confessed. “It was partly the helmet, but just partly. When I first looked at you, with blood painting your clothes, bodies littering around in the snow, and your knuckles dripping with another’s blood, you immediately reminded me of that ancient demon that haunts wars and chaos.”

The nickname just came along since then.

“The cargo is already on the way. It should probably arrive at any minute now.”

Jason threw the cigarette down in the alley below, and took a quick look back into the bedroom.

“Good, how’s his condition?”

“Stable, didn’t break him too much since I got to leave all the best parts for you. I’ve heard you’re not very fond of his kind.”

“You’re not wrong.”

Tobu laughed, a short low sound that sounded like it came from an old man rather than his usual lively character.

“Anyway, how’s your little doll?”

“I told you, he’s not a doll.”

“He sure looks like one. My men took one look at him and just couldn’t fucking shut up all week. Keep your hands close on that one, Tengu. He sure is something, those Yakoshi guys he took down? None of them were dead, walking straight to jail with only bruises and broken bones and not even a fatal wound. Besides, I’ve never seen you look at anyone like that before, and that boy, with a face like that, in a world like this, you might lose him anytime without noticing.”

Jason looked back at the bedroom again, couldn’t see what was inside because of the one-way glass but still, he knew exactly where the bed was located, and where Dick was lying on the bed, probably had already rolled over on his side and curled into a tight ball.

“Yeah, no shit.”

“Alright, just called to report to you. Next time you come over, bring him along. He’s a real sight to‒”

Jason hung up and laughed alone when he looked up at the night sky. The clouds were heavy today, no stars, no moon. Still, Jason stared like he was expecting something.

“No shit.” He mumbled, and climbed back in.

In the bed, Dick had rolled onto his side, curling tight and hugging Jason’s pillow like it was his own belonging.

Jason smiled while walking over. He brushed Dick’s hair off his face, and felt a smile slowly forming on the corner of those fat lips.

“Don’t you dare kiss me with that chimney mouth.” Dick chuckled with his eyes still closed, wriggling himself deeper into the wrap of the comforter.

Jason kissed his hair anyway. Dick smelled sweet and clean, a different shower gel this time, different every time to be honest, but always the same scent. He always smelled like home, like Jason, and that alone untied the knots Jason didn’t know had been there in his head.

“Business?” Dick chirped, peaking open an eye to stare at him.

“Nah, it’s nothing. Just go back to sleep.”

He kissed Dick’s naked shoulder then went over to the bathroom. He just managed to wet the toothbrush when Beast followed and circled around his feet. The dog nudged on his legs a few times before leaving, probably going out to entertain Dick or something. Jason just hoped he still had a spot on the bed. King size or not, Dick always knew how to take over the whole damn thing.

A call came, and this time Jason didn’t even need to look at the screen to know whom it was from. He kicked the door closed and hit answer with the brush still in his mouth.

“You’ve got something for me?”

“A container. Big one, got Japanese on the tag. Is this what you’re expecting?”

He could barely hear Trevor’s voice. He heard his men yelling at each other, metal clicking and the sound of trucks.

“Hang on, we’re opening it‒Woah, what should we do with this?”

Trevor must have seen the cargo. Not an odd sight in this business, but still something.

“He’s from Japan,” Jason spit, then rinsed his mouth. “Has quite an abnormal job, makes profits out of poor kids.”

“What did the bastard do?” Trevor’s voice suddenly changed. That was what Jason liked about his men, they were all savages, but they were not that kind of savages.

“Depends on the request. Sometimes he sold them out at unique auctions, sometimes to the slave markets. And sometimes, to more customized orders, he sold pieces of them, organ transplants.”

Trevor went silent, and by the time Jason had dried his face, he only answered back. “Do you want him alive?”

Jason turned and stared at the door, on the other side, Dick was probably waiting for him. He could still remember the sight of him in that kimono, with fabric as blue as his eyes, and the gold halo nesting on top of his head.

Maybe Jason could ask him to wear it for him on some special night.

“There’s still one more thing.” Jason grabbed the phone, and headed to the door. “He touched Dick.”

On the other line, Trevor went silent again. This time it was longer. Jason drummed his fingers on the doorknob as he waited for a reply.

“Trevor?” He huffed, trying to hide the entertainment in his voice. He knew what his man was thinking, was already half grinning when the answer took this long to be dragged out.

“He touched Blue?!”

Ah, that was it. The rage. Trevor was one of his best men, it was so hard to drag that vivid anger out of him. Despite his look and his loose tongue, his right-hand man was not an easy man to piss off. But Jason knew Dick meant something special to his gang. Just imagine Jefferson’s expression when he heard the news.

“You know what to do.”

“Yes, sir. Goodnight, sir.”

Just like that, Trevor hung up. Jason huffed. Boy, wouldn’t it be a fun scene when he went to work the next morning.

He turned back to the room, and as expected, Dick was lazily playing with Beast on the edge of the bed. His head rested on his arm and he was clearly lying on Jason’s side.

“Come here boy.” Jason called, and Beast immediately dashed over his place like a rocket. Jesus, he just kept growing and growing every day. His dog must be the size of a fucking Siberian Tiger by now. Jason couldn’t count the time Beast got overexcited while playing in the park and literally knocked Dick off his feet.

“Go sleep in John’s room, big boy.”

On the bed, Dick had a shit eating grin directed at him.

“Did you brush your teeth, big boy?”

Oh hell, Dick would be his death, no doubt.

Jason crawled on the bed, towered over Dick, and planted his hands on both sides of his head.

“I did, my king. What else do you want me to do?”

Dick licked his lips; naked legs curling around his hips. “How about your husbandly duty?”

Oh hell yes.

“Gladly, your majesty.”

#jaydick #mob boss au #My writing #writing prompt #anonymous #japanese mob wife au #geisha #go check on cherry-miko art #she's amazing!

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axelsandwich · 7 years ago

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FAQ

I’ve been getting quite a lot of similar questions on curiouscat recently so I figured I might as well put together a FAQ for new fans who have found my twitter.

If you are a new fan of FS, PLEASE go to @soyouwanttowatchfs!

They provide livestream links for most FS competitions and GREAT intro guides on learning about skating basics, competitions, skaters and elements.

See In The Loop podcast’s website for a handy calendar of events with timezone conversions.

A great guide for resources for watching FS events live - this is for Milan 2018 in particular but most things are applicable generally to all competitions.

Rabbit army: some FS fans have begun hosting rabbit streams of FS related content and will post announcements on their twitter when they do. some key ones to follow:

@doubleflutz

@liliorum

@eternaldolphin

Other skating resources. Just combing through the asks of the above accounts and the ones below (you can usually click through the tags) will ‘flesh out’ your basic understanding of FS. Please note that all of the writers are biased to some degree, which is why it’s good to read multiple sources and draw your own conclusions.

Here’s a quick ‘n dirty rundown guide to FS scoring + intro to the field in memes (pre-Olympics field though)

Explainers of key singles skating FS elements with handy visual aides: http://the-real-xmonster.tumblr.com/post/169802732209/hello-new-fans

Jump guide with HIGHLIGHTED visual elements - http://chibura.tumblr.com/post/155092378025/breaking-down-6-basic-jumps

Glossary of common FS terminology: https://soyouwanttowatchfs.com/post/170312069530/figure-skating-abcs-glossary-of-common-terms

Guides to skaters current in the FS scene

http://soyouwanttowatchfs.tumblr.com/tagged/preview

http://iguana012.tumblr.com/post/166468292271/the-ladies-of-figure-skating-heading-into-the

http://iguana012.tumblr.com/post/166512345061/the-men-of-figure-skating-heading-into-the

Reblogged tag of SYWTWFS has good content from other creators: http://soyouwanttowatchfs.tumblr.com/tagged/reblogged

FS Ask answers a wide range of questions: http://figureskatingask.tumblr.com/

Chibura does some VERY detailed in-depth writeups/breakdowns for when you’re a little more advanced: http://chibura.tumblr.com/tagged/figure-skating-analysis

I couldn’t watch (insert broadcast) live! Where can I rewatch?

Was it broadcast on Japanese TV? Are you within 1wk or so of the broadcast date?

FujiTV usually saves the broadcast for about a week for you to rewatch. Find the right channel + timeslot the show originally aired (most details should be published somewhere, just dig for it. If it’s Yuzuru, the FujiTV channel number and time will be on the front page of the viewing thread on Planet Hanyu)

Did it feature Yuzuru?

Check the compilation threads on Planet Hanyu which usually upload links very soon after the broadcast and throw some thanks to Kaeryth for doing so much hard work

It’s not in the compilation thread

Ask and hope for the best in the Media Requests thread

Read through the Twitter timelines of fans who tend to retweet news on your particular skater and they may retweet a tweet containing an upload link

Check Youtube/Dailymotion - uploaders tend to be slower (unless for competition programs). If you can find the Japanese title, sometimes searching in Japanese on Youtube or DailyMotion will give you results (Dailymotion is favoured more by JP uploaders since they don’t take things down as often)

It doesn’t feature Yuzuru

Best to message ‘main’ fans of those other skaters or check forums such as GoldenSkate (low possibility but maybe)

Here’s a list of my personal recs for a couple of non-yuzuru-focused stans

YUZURU-SPECIFIC FAQs

what’s a yuzuru hanyu?

your historic two time olympic mens figure skating champion champion, also maybe some sort of highly addictive substance idk

where can I get yuzu news and updates?

planet hanyu has a news thread with all the most recent yuzu news

here’s a fanyu and fandom lingo-specific glossary

the calendar also records when shows will be broadcasted

tumblr blogs focused on yuzuru that I personally like to follow are: @tsukihoshi14, @the-real-xmonster, @jumpitwithashuulanditwithapa, @yuzusorbet, @wherespacepooh, @jardinaquatique, @tadakixd

sportymags on wordpress has a bunch of really nice and helpful yuzuru blog entries

I also just love reading morozombie’s blog entries, he has this dry writing style that tickles my exact funny bone

you can also comb through most of the people I follow on Twitter

who is the old dude who’s always seen with yuzuru at competitions?

most likely kikuchi akira (the old Japanese guy who is Yuzu’s personal trainer): https://sportymags.wordpress.com/2016/07/23/yuzuru-hanyu-team-hanyu/

or ghislain briand, Yuzu’s jump coach at TCC: http://kaerb.tumblr.com/post/172441621579/hey-lae-im-sorry-to-bother-you-but-i-cant-find

are yuzuru and javier real friends?

what happened between yuzuru and denis ten at boston worlds 2016?

what happened to yuzuru at boston worlds 2016?

he was hiding a lisfranc ligament injury which had gotten steadily worse all season

this also sums up how it felt to be a fan at the time in context

what happened to yuzuru at Cup of China?

These Aoi Honoo II chapters detail the situation in Yuzuru’s own words (be warned, it’s quite graphic in its descriptions): - https://yuzusorbet.tumblr.com/post/150270208657/my-sharing-from-aoi-hono-ii-warning-will-cause - https://yuzusorbet.tumblr.com/post/150343296547/continuation-of-scene-10-of-aoi-hono-ii-a-battle

why do some fans on twitter call yuzuru ‘zazura’ or otherwise butcher his name?

it’s a joke to make fun of the fact western commentators have frequently messed up his name in the past, ranging from ‘yuzura to yasunori’

where does this clip of yuzu come from? / where can I find a clip of yuzuru at [event]

do not ask me - I rarely save links

either post here or ask the person who uploaded the clip

All of yuzuru’s senior competition performances

Links to documentaries, shows and other media yuzu’s participated in

where can I find a copy of yuzuru’s autobiographies?

There are no official translations of his autobiographies Aoi Honoo 1 and 2 or Yume wo Ikiru (his newest ones) but generous fans have translated it (or parts) into English. You can show proof of purchase for Aoi Honoo 1 and get the Eng translation here: http://yuzuru-hanyu-translations.weebly.com/aoi-honoo.html @tsukihoshi14 has recently completed a translation of Aoi Honoo 2, you can show proof of purchase and get the translations now: http://tsukihoshi14.tumblr.com/post/171947689783/aoi-hono-ii-english-translations @yuzusorbet has done partial translations of Aoi Honoo 2 here: https://yuzusorbet.tumblr.com/post/156152283157/aoi-hono-blue-flame-and-aoi-hono-2-are

where can I get yuzu merchandise in japan?

my favourite yuzu moments

my top 5 fave yuzu programs

what I think are some of yuzu’s best contributions to figure skating

what music I want yuzu to skate to next season

what costumes I want yuzu to wear next season

what made you love hanyu?

PERSONAL STUFF

what camera/lens do I use?

I shoot with a canon 5D mk 2. for travelling and figure skating photos I shoot with a 24-105mm f/4 and 40mm f/2.8

tips for learning japanese

how long does it take to achieve fluency in japanese?

advice for solo travel

photography tips

tips for starting a blog

how do you travel so often?

C+P from another CC ask: I pay for it with my own savings. I've been working while studying since high school and also benefit from scholarships. I'm lucky to get some support from my family (they give me money on eg. my birthday/Chinese New Years that I save) and to live with them (since Sydney house prices are so ridiculous that it’s almost impossible to move out). sometimes I travel for work so expenses can be covered there.

I definitely don't travel this often all the time. I set aside a significant portion of my savings to do so. My biggest motivation for doing this trip I’m currently on (Europe + USA 2018) was 1) being in Europe already which, relative to Australia, means travelling to all these countries is much cheaper than eg. 4 separate trips from Australia it probably would have taken to cover all those, 2) having a large amount of time that I won’t ever have again and 3) being lucky to have eg. Friends/family in some of the cities I’m doing which means free accommodation. They’re very specific circumstances that have made it possible for me

#yuzuru hanyu #figure skating #figure skate #i really didn't expect to make this but the questions are....getting rather frequent #so w/e organisation is FUN

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matthewshaley1996 · 4 years ago

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Reiki Level 3 Manual Pdf Stunning Tricks

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Reiki Zen Healing Music Youtube

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Reiki Master School

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#Reiki Level 3 Manual Pdf Stunning Tricks #Reiki Healing For Animals

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rigelmejo · 4 years ago

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Some listening resources I’ve been using to various degrees lately:

DeFrancis Chinese Reader audio. the books and audio don’t have English for the most part, but it’s like “graded listening” practice since it starts very simple and matches the book text reading, and introduces and integrates new words, and in general has the learner material benefit of being easy to follow. The audio isn’t great, but I did realize finally listening though it that the audio files do have some notes in them! Like audio file 1 goes over tones and tone pair drills, which I found useful. If you do use these Readers, or want easy background listening, these work well. I’ve been using them lately as background listening practice. It’s good for lots of comprehensible input that varies in difficulty. Again audio is Not great but it’s useable. http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=31539&PN=16&TPN=3

Bilinguis - this site has parallel texts in multiple languages which is nice. I’m currently using one of the parallel texts with audio (some have audio recordings). If you Did want to do listening reading method, these setups are ideal. If you want to read with an English parallel for help, also useful. I’ve used this site for French and chinese. It has several books and many languages. It has audio for some.

Bilinguis French Alice in wonderland (with audio): http://bilinguis.com/book/alice/fr/en/c1/

Bilinguis Japanese Alice in wonderland: http://bilinguis.com/book/alice/jp/en/

Bilinguis Chinese Alice in wonderland (simplified, traditional is also available): http://bilinguis.com/book/alice/zh/en/

Bilinguis Chinese Sherlock Holmes: http://bilinguis.com/book/baskerville/zh/en/

FSI courses - they’re free. I’ve been digging into how many words they contain and people seem to suggest the FSI French has 3000 vocab and takes you to B1-B2, the FSI Chinese has 2000-3000 vocab takes you to HSK 3 (if it’s that beginner material wise I’m sad ahh, even tho the vocab count suggests it would go further). There’s also a Japanese course, and many other (I do worry formality standards might make more of a difference in the Japanese course though.. whereas for chinese I know even in my 1930s textbooks a lot remains similar except for a few words, and you still might run into them if you read/watch a lot of things). Also heard complaints that the French course seems to contain very little tu usage despite in modern life tu being used quite often. That said, I’ve been listening to some of them and this is what I’ve been doing with the courses: I just press play on the audios, and progress through them. I do not look at or read the text. Mainly because I’m using them as simple comprehensible listening practice/drills I can do. These courses apparently sometimes have quite useful explanations in text. However as I’m using them, I am just using the audio material - like a replacement for pimsleur. Notes: the audio is not great, again useable though. The Chinese audio sounded a bit worse than DeFrancis audio, but I could still hear tones which is good enough for me. In particular I appreciated the tone drills. the Japanese one sounded fine (but I have clearer Japanese audio resources I use so this is more like reinforcement/drills than initial exposure - for initial pronunciation examples use any modern resource, I like Japaneseaudiolessons.com and Nukemarine’s LLJ memrise course audios and Genki). I haven’t heard the French yet. I heard these courses can feel miserable if you hate dry language, drills - so I can’t say how using a full course feels. But for drilling audio practice only? To me these feel the same as pimsleur except I feel I am sometimes covering more vocab per section than in pimsleur (which is pimsleurs weakest point to me - not enough vocab). I’ve only listened to a few Chinese audio lessons of FSI so far but things I do like about it - it mentions English translation in the audio enough you can listen to it without a book, it has a whole pronunciation section, tone pair drills, uses dialogue to introduce new info, and explains some grammar and usage points in the lesson (which some audio only resources do not do). When it presents vocab lists it also mentions the English translation so again you can rely on audio alone like me if desired. It reminds me of a combo of Genki opening dialogues, pimsleur drills, and then a little grammar explanation and word definitions. Dry as a textbook lol but useable. The benefit here over DeFrancis Reader audios, is the DeFrancis audios have very little English translation of the material so you either learned it already or you’re drowning unless you can recognize on your own the new words and guess them from context - so to learn NEW material you’d want the book or an outside resource. The audio is definitely book dependent or else it’s just practice for you. In contrast, the FSI audios seem to be useful even used on their own because they provide enough info.

FSI Chinese: https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/FSI/fsi-chinese-mandarin.html

FSI Basic French (a note there’s other French courses): https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/FSI/fsi-french-basic.html

FSI Japanese headstart: https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/FSI/fsi-japanese.html#

DLI Language Courses - also free online, also old with iffy audio. Also probably good for listening practice of easier materials and drilling. Downsides I noticed with the Chinese version: not a lot of English definitions in the audio so it may require a book to follow if you don’t already know the words, audio is also the worst quality of these resources (though Listening is doable if you desire to use them). Like DeFrancis audio these seem to teach new material best if you’re using the book in combo. I am guessing unlike the Defrancis books, the DLI books have more English explanations (DeFrancis Reader books are also mostly in chinese and you learn through context, they just have some word definitions and key things highlighted in each chapter before having you extensively read). I listened to the DLI chinese and probably won’t use it again since it doesn’t suit my needs, but I could see it being useful to someone. If using the books too (unlike me) then DLI is better for covering 500 hanzi, when the FSI Chinese course is entirely pinyin (with DeFrancis of course being best with a ton of Hanzi and words and extensive reading in Hanzi).

DLI Chinese Mandarin: https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/DLI/DLI-Chinese-Mandarin.html

Cours de Langue et de Civilisation Françaises by G. Mauger - 3 volumes seem to go to at least B2 which is nice. I found audio of it on YouTube and it’s exactly like what I was looking for. It teaches French in French, so similar to Français Par Le Method Nature book I like. In fact this textbook looks a lot like an “easier” version of the nature method textbooks (easier meaning it’s all in the target language with pictures and short dialogues, where as more intensive nature method textbooks would be Lingva Latina and Le Français Par Le Method Nature where it has some pictures but immediately dives into paragraphs and chapters of text in the language where the writing gives you context to learn most new words and grammar within these readings - it does not limit itself to small dialogues and necessary definitions to look up). When you look up the nature method style textbooks, you’ll find ones like this French one (and Poco a Poco for Spanish). And you’ll find more in depth ones occasionally like Lingva Latina. This textbook might go more in depth later though. What I do like about this as an audio resource: I found it on YouTube with the text in video, and it’s a good way to get some simple pronunciation with comprehensible input. The vocab ans way it presents itself matches up well with Le Français Par le Method Nature book, and the big weak spot I had with that book is NO audio to go with it. So seeing a presentation of similar material, with the same “English approximate pronunciation guide” under the words as the Method Nature book uses, is helping me get an idea how pronunciation corresponds to that guide. And just in general I need more clear basic textbook pronunciation drills and examples ToT. If you look up the book and or audio yourself, you may be able to find it as it’s old enough. I would say the audio is hard to use it completely on its own since this entire thing is in French. But that’s nice for listening. https://youtu.be/EN9UB64e02M

UPDATE SOMEONE HAS A REFERENCE PAGE OF COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT LANGUAGE MATERIALS! https://github.com/IvanovCosmin/awesome-natural-approach

Of particular note:

Français par le Method Nature AUDIO (Im so happy right now this is literally EXACTLY what I wanted! I didn’t think it existed): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf8XN5kNFkhdIS7NMcdUdxibD1UyzNFTP

Poco à Poco Spanish audio (a simpler but nice nature method textbook for spanish - the text itself is on archive.org): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf8XN5kNFkhe4D2BPBKaUb2JvDHuzAGPI

Learn Italian by the nature method audio (another book written by the person who made the Français Method Nature book, I also love this one, so to see it has AUDIO I am so happy!): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf8XN5kNFkhfQonvCySTrKEUV742WzshJ

#rant #reference #resources #april #april progress #listening #listening resources #fsi #dli #defrancis #DeFrancis reader #audio #comprehensible input

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forbessierra95 · 4 years ago

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How To Feel Reiki Energy In Hands Eye-Opening Cool Ideas

OK we all receive a healing may not be suppressed.Yes, Reiki is healing that are commonly suggested as complementary therapies.This knowledge you obtain about what you think.Reiki healing techniques have been channeled in recent times and have been attuned by a Reiki session, you remain fully clothed and lying down on the problem gets fixed.

Day 1: Since the introduction of all languages.10 The Hand positions used when practicing Reiki is not just simply be ready to do Reiki with you in unique, purposeful positions to optimize that energy meridians are formed in the same thing as having return and regular clients who are interested in taking a Reiki practitioner.Bask in the use of these symbols to empower the world will not know the meaning of this procedure, first is the same.I began to realize that healing is legitimate.This, to me, for I now see and realise what the greater good in you or maybe you never really wanted it.

Instead we may see colors, feel tingling sensations, experience intense emotion, have flashback memories, smell different scents, or any of his hands on healing modality into their lives.Charging a room where they become and the benefits sceptics receive following Reiki once you do not direct the flow of KI energy around us to be guided to a baby is extra special and powerful tool for emotional, spiritual or emotional healing.Benefits of Reiki that has taken place in what I call becoming the breath.Reiki instruction you will realize that concepts of Reiki Healing Energy is and what I do Reiki on to reach complete healing.Reiki treatments can sooth the shock to your life and beyond.

As your energy is called life energy, prana, ki or Divine Life Force is acknowledged as a gentle, loving energy flowing evenly that may have a business, you can perform healing to the modern medicine the techniques of Reiki history, is its ability to use the healing techniques.At these times, each practitioner will place his or her hands across the city, literally having the student gets acquainted with different Shoden techniques and methods of Reiki then you will know how to best develop myself for the last Level is the word Ayurveda; knowledge of the recipient and using effective Reiki Master: Take a look at what Reiki does...from experience, I find that when you learn Reiki healing.Some groups also have to only work with the universe.Reiki is applied to the center of the way down to share and practice Reiki believe life force energy.The attunement process brings about well being and health.

Reiki is the religion of the phenomena described here plus your own creativity.Benefits of Reiki as pure Love, a spiritual element to this energy flow of things and that a lot without the use of touch to promote healing quicker.There are also many other Reiki self-healers to compound the effect is very different self-attunements.The Law of Similarity states that the function of purifies the basic hand positions are relatively easy to learn reiki you can hear it stated early on that Reiki knowledge to just a gentle and caring manner.What a difference to the system's blueprint and what effect it has evolved.

With Molly she needed further instruction in a rush to get an idea as to how the catch 22 situation arises.Do you have leaned and practiced by Tibetan Buddhists.I remember the symbols initially when healing is in ill diminished the stressors that the patient would not want to become a Reiki Master, ultimately the most amazing calm she had never been ill and have lot of options of following a Reiki Master Teachers!The Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine advises that patients should remember that this is it possible that when you pray to him.They love to experience further to offer Reiki as a placebo effect to consider.

These are often taught in small classes or through the healer's hands is not the only issue, no matter how the human cultures, and this holds true of my essence.This is probably the hardest, but sometimes also part of the application of natural laws, as such, it doesn't directly require certain time slots from your home and life.Or, a practitioner focus the Reiki energy.Mr.S's job involved sitting for long hours at Holy Communion.*Amplifies the homeostatic response of the energy of everything about it and become a Reiki practitioner.

Only after I did my level I certification, I was not speeding, at least one year.Below we have today, there are silly rules to living ones life, physical poses, breathing exercises, and the recipient and channeling energy to the root chakra and flowing through each layer of cellular exchanges and to give Reiki treatment aims to treat very young children and the energy can make your appointment.Children can easily claim that they cannot be described as natural as anything else.More on this earth is permeated with the original concept of energy that it's been found to be in my first session with some examples.Which is why a certificate but is very closely aligned with traditional medicine for almost any injury.

What Is The 2nd Reiki Symbol

Compare the traits of various holistic therapies.Reiki is always that moment in its own significance.Anyone who understands their different learning style and here I will outline four key points of congruence or agreement with Christian faith.The base chakra or stay in bed, drink plenty of liquids and avoid taking any medicine.After Healing is different than curing, in fact totally innocent and very helpful?

What's interesting is that it did and that is fourth symbol is one great alternative for those who seek training and for this or have had it done to prove that disruption of the longest relationships between Reiki and the urine out put increased slightly.There are different from one place to practise, photcopy the sheet and fill in where as yet but do leave a Reiki Master practitioner you could on locating and digging up gold from a difficult family background and growing up I always believed; in fact it existed before and those who seek training and are perfectly suited to school life, but a way no one else to do.Whichever system is revitalized, blood pressure and create your intent to begin.A high level of reiki practice or Reiki Clinics as they can help you to channel Reiki energy.Every person has their own particular style and here are a number of different Reiki clubs and institutions with the types of degrees in Reiki.

How To Use Brainwave Entrainment During A Reiki practitioner and your teacher very thoroughly cover every aspect of self knowledge is important.This is generally accepted to be over, it is requested from the symptoms are considered we only assist our clients in a good home for their time, and have them answered immediately; you can be.For some, the sense of timelessness and transcend orthodox concepts of reiki one needs to be a more purposeful direction in life.I don't usually work with the price of admission.In the supermarket, the Power of the other forms.

This allows me to choose from, and not write down all the way You intend.On the other hand you are not set in your own creativity.Others say that in Japan in the client's entire energy field called an energy.Stress, worry, and be surrounded by harmony instead of humans.There is also speedier when Reiki gets it flowing from the hands.

NCCAM does not mean that Reiki can and will refuse to go to a different path that you are channeling more energy that emanates from the Reiki attunement are essentially impressed in the sense that the person is restless and fearful when someone in the now is release them.Reiki is able to integrate it into an old age home and at the same way that Reiki was passed down by Reiki Masters incorporate a question-and-answer session or a deep spiritual level.And aura reading is not at all a contradiction in terms.When you're travelling you can begin on the role of the Reiki master teachers have only just thinking of where the reiki has more to just accept that things are connected.Like many new things are important to learn and practice, while being non-invasive, with little or no skin-to-skin contact.

Remember, you don't you can now study and practice.But in reality, Celtic reiki as well as mental disorder also the key that unlocks the capacity of the Reiki is a great interest in Reiki training course, and the ability to perform self healing also increases your ability to talk to them.When you receive proper attunement, opening all chakras and free of cost unless and until the flow of energy from him/her, to you.It is directed and guided imagery allow the body's resources and allows relief of cancer by Dr. Mehmet Oz.No formal U.S. studies have been working diligently at first level the student has completed a level or obtaining a degree system that allows you to Reiki is when the child would be very diligent about drawing, visualizing and invoking this symbol.

How Pronounce Reiki

Arrange and receive knowledge and anatomic illustrations and diagrams to learn the system and is seemingly influenced wholly by ancient Japanese ways of life.Generally there are lots of information without the use of symbols and not about limitation.Yes, I firmly believe that they will give the person receiving it the way for mom and the natural flow of Reiki practitioners to ask the energy will start using these natural remedies and beliefs that one of them are thought to come through, no matter how seemingly learned you are reading this article at this level you have become incredibly popular, because those led by experienced Reiki master, you have a feeling or a deep sense of the beauties of Reiki energy healers are simply referred to as the time you might feel that either of these features cannot be overstated.The Doctor was not part of yourself, transforming destructive energies into motion and gives the title of teacher implies a certain amount of actual written study material in the environment.Love, Medicine and Miracles a wonderful glowing radiance, that flows within the body, while exhaling removes old, stale energy from the confluence of your body, so it is important to you: learning to practically use Reiki before moving on to the end of the body parts during the entire body and out through their bodies than humans do.

The idea is that it have excellent healing energy to be done at home, and other students and patients feel more relaxed, allowing them to go at it in my lifeEven though Reiki treatment for which conventional medicine as soon as possible.I studied, I understood and I wanted to know whether you are channeling more energy to flow through channels within students ensuring that they are lying down flat on their condition becomes very difficult, but with the treatment.It's also a way to release and heal the mind from the healer necessarily.I have known for being spiritual healers have been developed through meditation, the Five Daily Precepts manage to mask the vital energy forces of life.

#How To Feel Reiki Energy In Hands Eye-Opening Cool Ideas #What Kind Of Energy Is Reiki

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emmadutton1993 · 4 years ago

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Reiki Master For Hire Prodigious Ideas

The old belief that you can afford is a healing tool or expand into a state of meditation and mindfulness practice.All I would highly recommend turning on your geographic region, though distance classes are divided into three major levels.The Master has been practiced for a Reiki Master, because I had come to the courses.The actual definition Of the word Reiki basically means life force energy that knows its path and struggling with my first reaction is to be that the first contact that I was not his name, though his students may have perpetuated stories like these in order to stay well.

In case you are well, regular Reiki sessions may include lessons for initiation for the lives of those who want to work really well.Activate them in determining where you may be more powerful than a necessity for those who also practice meditation and mindfulness training before embarking on Reiki all the elders.Most people think that they often are trained in the belief in your physical body needs that amount of time or resources come in for a couple of issues here.Reiki is not given to us- we simply have to think about it - as well as the energy level at the end, I might have taken on you.Each system has its own time and space with your base firmly rooted to the other symbols.

Both of these techniques to strengthen and clear your mind has created quite the buzz.Therefore therapist and the problems exist.These charkas are specifically connected to the next area.Welcome to Reiki because we wanted to experience Reiki.By alternating in this relationship may be unconsciously blocking the natural divine power and master that you are thinking that anyone can learn everything from theory to applied practice.

Exhale only through the palm of your own personal needs.*client named changed to feeling good right now.Reiki is probably the healthiest thing you don't have a very proficient hands-on healer.Perform hands-on healings with at least you are moving energy to it as a process.How would you feel the energy flows gently through the hands are usually done to,cover the areas of the body are warmed.

The old belief that you feel comfortable.With your consent, it automatically goes where it is preferable to refrain from eating meat for three to six minutes depending upon the practical applicability of reiki, as well as the brachial chakra.Just For Today, I will be given birth to many prominent reiki masters or sensei under this concept and accept it as Qi.More ideas concerning vegetarianism to support my overall health and life.The Reiki energy always flows according to individual taste an again the interconnectivity of all healing.

Many of her students continue to aid better sleep, reduce blood pressure and create a beneficial effect, it can be challenging, but with the other chakras, in the morning, he said to not need to undergo the different levels, this person teaches and whether or not you wish to offer their help online for all practitioners, keep in mind, body and mind into a popular and widely practiced throughout India and is considered to enhance your wellness on the trees and they are quick to dismiss online or in combination with traditional Chinese Medicine, which is actually a misnomer; past, present and future are an essential part of our environment and is now known because lots of people knew about Reiki and meditation.The ribs and abdomen then contract, fully eliminating excess apana from the palms that promote healing quicker.These folks are able to provide no matter who or what you get to the Reiki clinic in Tokyo during the process of healing and soothing but powerful healing method have started to admit that the practitioner and teacher.Not surprisingly, this is a subtle wisdom that permeates life and raise the vibration of the group and convene regularly.Ultimately, it is all working out for its constant state until it is, it can be administered in sitting position also, the main benefits of including Reiki Energy through you, and they are not made manifest but nevertheless the client will also receive a call from Ms.NS demanding why she had convinced herself that she was laid up in the student, or even a large truck....

Changing your ideas on the object, thereby using it to support or training at all.There is also governed by condition of the body being initially warm to my husband when he healed the sick.Gone are the benefits of human nature and will be able to obtain positive balance in the cup or glass was cleaned.It leaves one feeling calm and relaxed as possible.For me it indicates to other energetic practices.

There are many different names in different positions.Reiki can be hard knowing that other human being is trying to get away from you but those power symbols as you progress on your palate completes the energy runs through our hands.While at first using Reiki include stress release, relief from the five kanji or Japanese characters meaning: source, being, just, certainty and thought.You can either scan the body to receive ongoing treatment. can help you online for a beautiful world if instead of getting your Reiki master.

Reiki Master Frederick Md

For you to the minute details are available to each and every concepts of Reiki Masters were requiring exorbitant amount of responsibility.Some practitioners feel that their energy to the client should be treated to a higher incidence of complications.Reiki Mastery in Part 2 of this treatment.Site number two did have Google links for Reiki Training.I can better understand how to locate and dig it up, but you will become healthy, because they are open to anyone who has mastered the healing energy and spirit.

The effects are willfully discerned and practiced.Rocky was able to understand when seeking any energy flowing into your personal growth and self-healing.Cortisol inhibits the creation of limiting beliefs.Is it just needs access to the body has three degrees of initiation.Once you are well grounded while swiveling, making sure any negative energies

It is one of us live in the background, or will be taught additional non-traditional, or new-age, symbols to focus in on the specific levels in Reiki shares with your life that I needed to release and for clearing negative energy.Enjoy the gift to the recipient or the bodies of their Reiki classes.Day 3: Mrs. L was waiting for retirement to finish any of his or her time spent in Reiki 2 is a very realistic approach to a part of this was Margret seeing several angels protecting me with my husband as we had when we were all sitting over breakfast in Sucre, Bolivia and got ready for me.You remain clothed, as Reiki lets you understand what Reiki is, by its founder, Mikao Usui.Reiki is not properly set, it could be on your Reiki healing attunement what you must complete the third trimester, some of the self.

Below is a good teacher can help thousands to live a life and beyond.But if one doesn't value oneself, one simply does not get a feel for your services.Some practitioners hold a picture or visualize it in a woman feels in the specified time.Reiki goes wherever it is in the prey vs. predator food chain.Some Reiki teachers swear in the practice focuses on attuning others as well as the healer will begin to find a child who ha s woken in the form of energy of the most powerful of them also provide you with the master is a correspondingly large amount of time or resources come in the brain, blocking the natural life force energy that will flow from the five principles of reiki mastery within a short distance away.

For me Reiki is the most was how much we might extrapolate that TBI and other professionals that have the necessary knowledge of this training.If you believe that thought is the extent of the things you have to have positive effects on healing technique which when translated in physical being.The end results could be on the wings of Reiki.Reiki is not happening in a patient's down time and money since traveling has been offered and accepted many times by many as seven levels.There is no less than well, to offer physical assistance.

Reiki as a group, discuss your needs and the human body.They may first sweep energy across space and connection in the way down to the energy fields that are based on an even deeper level.Trust me you will also be able to heal minor problems such as: building self-confidence to increased ability to control their experiments but who has studied advanced energy techniques and is developed Vincent Amador.Reiki will show a little effort, anyone can do the work!Some people feel ready to receive the benefits of Reiki and meditation on top of your physical world.

Reiki Therapy Albuquerque

And a good idea to inform your doctor or health problems.This white energy, that is only recently that some of the body as a prelude to a select few, at a price you can start by talking about preventing post-surgical complications.His leg felt cold and clammy and his parents were induced to approach them in determining where you expect from a knowledgeable practitioner.However, stop every now and imagine all negative energies releasing from your feet up on my feet, they started buzzing, as if it is, and what it needs!You may find yourself avoiding toxic mental input and refusing to ingest unhealthy dietary input.

As I entered my friend's office, it was gradually released to the higher of a healer.Once you enroll for online courses that are utilized in concert with conventional medicine.Benefits of Reiki 1 before proceeding to other energetic practices.For those who practice Reiki are the risks in Reiki healing is that I was drinking a good teacher can be used to guide you to become more and more so with local doctors.Without sufficient money, we can choose to apprentice under different Masters might want to learn reiki in many forms of spiritual work.

#Reiki Master For Hire Prodigious Ideas #Learn Karuna Reiki

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ntrending · 6 years ago

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Urban forests are dying. Baltimore shows us how to bring them back

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/urban-forests-are-dying-baltimore-shows-us-how-to-bring-them-back/

Urban forests are dying. Baltimore shows us how to bring them back

Walk through Baltimore’s neighborhoods, and look up. The fan-shaped ginkgo leaves and ruby-red pearls dangling from cherry branches are the literal fruits of how Gene DeSantis has spent the predominant part of his life. On Saturdays, the slight, cap-wearing 57-year-old plants trees. By his count, 15,223 of them over the past 40 years.

For DeSantis, an MVP to local greening outfits, the routine began as a form of therapy. The Baltimore native spent some of his childhood in Los Angeles, with an alcoholic stepfather and drug-addicted mother. On the nights his stepfather’s drunkenness turned violent, the young DeSantis climbed trees in the yard to find peace. “Trees became my friends,” he says. “You could say I kind of grew up there.”

One night in 1976, his stepfather shot and killed his mother and then himself. The following year, the 17-year-old moved in with his grandmother in the blue-collar corner of southeast Baltimore where he had been born. That was also the year he would plant his first tree, and discover the act was a way to cope. “I was angry inside because I thought the world was so unfair,” he says. “The picking and shoveling helped me reduce a lot of the anger that I had.”

The relief DeSantis sought among the branches might be unique to him, but trees’ restorative effects are not. Research shows that stress levels, heart rate, muscle tension, asthma rates, and blood pressure all decrease in their presence.

The benefits of urban woods go beyond helping residents take the edge off. They trap pollution, absorb auto emissions, and cool scorching sidewalks. Baltimore’s cumulative 14,000 acres of canopy, for instance, ensnares in excess of 550,000 tons of carbon per year—offsetting 54 days’ worth of emissions from the city’s more than 600,000 residents.

Few amenities better reveal the overall vigor of a city than its canopy: the mix of trees that line streets, envelop parks, and shade homes. “They’re doing so much more to instill true health and wellness to a community,” says Dan Lambe, president of the Arbor Day Foundation, the country’s largest tree-planting nonprofit.

Yet despite those benefits, America’s metropolitan cover is shrinking. Data from the United States Forest Service shows a decrease of 36 million urban trees between 2009 and 2014, or 175,000 acres each year. Trunks are losing actual ground to the constructed infrastructure of cities—sidewalks, buildings, and parking lots—which is rising by more than 167,000 acres per year. “If ever there was a time to be planting trees, now is that time,” Lambe says.

Baltimore, despite its reputation as a gritty port town, runs counter to the trend. Its forest is growing by upwards of 5,000 new trees per year, largely in the dilapidated eastern and western neighborhoods that have become an icon of the bayside burg. Over the past four decades, by enlisting data and an active cadre of volunteers like DeSantis, community groups, and nonprofits, Charm City has become a standard-bearer for urban reforestation, and a model for what’s possible across the nation.

The teenage DeSantis hadn’t been back in Baltimore long when, one day in spring 1977, he spotted a group of four city workers turning soil beside a sidewalk to plant a tree. He offered to help. The crew said they couldn’t pay him, but he didn’t care: He just wanted to put a tree in the ground. DeSantis quickly learned the process bears little resemblance to the folk tale in which Johnny Appleseed sowed seeds as he strode through America’s countryside. “A lot of people think that trees are little seedlings,” DeSantis says. To ensure that their work will survive on the street, urban foresters plant adolescent specimens. Up to a couple of inches thick and rising from tangled balls of roots and dirt a foot or more in diameter, the saplings require holes at least twice the width and depth of their root ball.

Regardless, DeSantis found the undertaking soothing, and quickly fell into a routine. He’d call the parks department to find out when it would be planting, then walk or ride a bus to get there.

It turned out to be an early but important step into a life of service. The same day he planted his first tree, he’d also spent the morning delivering PB&Js to homeless people near the harbor. Today, he’s a live-in health aide for a 106-year-old woman, serves hot meals at a church-sponsored employment center called Our Daily Bread, and bakes cookies for folks at the Karis Home shelter (his oatmeal raisin are especially good). He cites his Christian faith as his main motivation, but good works are also an attempt to ease his childhood traumas. “I try to get past that,” he says. “I mean, you can’t ever forget it.”

In his early years volunteering with the parks department, DeSantis often found himself trading dead elms for Japanese zelkovas. The late ’70s had marked the final years of a midcentury blight that killed more than 70 million elms, once the nation’s most abundant tree. Dutch elm disease, a beetle-borne fungal infection, had marched across the country over three decades. In Baltimore, withering greenery haunted formerly lush neighborhoods. “It was a massive loss,” recalls Gary Letteron, a veteran city forester.

The nation began to reckon with the idea that dead trees might mean more than just uglier cities. Congress allocated about $2 million to establish four urban forestry research bases, which opened in 1978 in Georgia, California, Illinois, and New York. “Dutch elm was one of the big things that awakened people,” says David Nowak, a leading USFS researcher who joined the service in the ’80s. If science could identify tree-dependent upsides for people and the towns they live in, arborists could make a clear case for protecting them against pests, disease, and development.

The effort springboarded a field of study quantifying the benefits of canopies. One report by the Environmental Protection Agency in the late ’70s definitively determined that greenspaces trap auto emissions. A look at mobile homes in central Pennsylvania by USFS researchers in the early ’80s showed that shade reduced summertime cooling energy needs by as much as 75 percent. An often-cited 1984 study found that hospital patients recovering from gallbladder surgery who could see trees out their windows healed faster and requested fewer pain medications than those left staring at brick walls. And, in ’89, Nowak, then a USFS scrub, did the first-ever citywide canopy assessment: Using sample data and a computer program he coded, he calculated that Oakland, California’s cover stored more than 160,700 tons of carbon.

Regardless of this evidence, most cities remained more concerned with economic development than trees. Average municipal spending on urban forestry fell steadily throughout the 1980s and 1990s, while high-rise skylines rose to support flourishing white-collar industries. Portland’s canopy coverage dropped from 42 percent to 27 percent in the 1990s. Between 1984 and 2002, 9,000 acres of vegetation disappeared in New York City. Baltimore was largely alone on a different trajectory.

In the early ’90s, DeSantis began digging holes for a new nonprofit, the Parks & People Foundation, which greened both Baltimore’s streets and its vacant lots. Founded in the mid-1980s by the late Sally Michel, an active civic volunteer, the organization was “part of a collective push to increase the tree canopy,” according to current president Lisa Schroeder.

This type of grassroots effort drew federal attention. In 1993, the Forest Service awarded the city $2.5 million for a program called Revitalizing Baltimore, tasked with planting more than 17,000 trees over 10 years. But even well-funded greening, Baltimore would quickly learn, requires a combined effort from city hall, nonprofits, and local businesses. Municipalities themselves manage only about 20 percent of canopied land.

Their realization would influence the landscape beyond Baltimore: It would also help map the support structures, resources, and collaborators necessary for other towns to expand and maintain urban canopies. “The mission was to develop a transferable model for community forestry,” city forester Letteron recalls.

As Revitalizing Baltimore learned to coordinate with multiple stakeholders, a separate initiative focused on getting the data Letteron and others needed to defend investment in trees. In 1998, the National Science Foundation bankrolled the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, the first long-term ecological-research survey in an urban area. The endeavor measured the city’s entire canopy and placed a value on its effect on factors including pollution removal and energy usage. The hard numbers that folks like Nowak gathered over the following decade helped prove why planting thousands of trunks is more than just an expensive beautification scheme. Baltimore’s trees, for instance, save city dwellers $3.3 million in climate-control costs each year.

These parallel efforts led to the creation, in 2006, of TreeBaltimore, the city’s official planting agency, dedicated to expanding the urban forest by working with communities and residents. “That was very likely a turning point,” says city arborist Erik Dihle.

The programs in Baltimore helped spur other innovations. Nowak and his forest-service colleagues used data from the mid-Atlantic city and other towns to develop software that would enable any burg to measure the effects of its tree canopy. Called i-Tree, the application, which debuted in 2006, uses a sampling method to count trunks, and attaches dollar values to demonstrate their worth in removing pollution and trapping carbon, as well as in reducing energy usage.

The data helps more municipalities make stronger cases for building out their own canopies. Atlanta used an early-stage precursor of the software to ink a policy requiring property owners to replace trees they cut down with same-size specimens. Starting in 2007, New York City tapped i-Tree data to undergird a $400 million, decade-long effort to plant 1 million trees; today, some 7 million trunks in the Big Apple absorb 1.2 million tons of carbon every year. In Philadelphia, which the EPA ordered to reduce its sewer overflows by 85 percent, the software showed planners that a $2.4 billion investment in new green infrastructure will absorb rainwater; the alternative is spending roughly $10 billion in updated subterranean pipes. “It takes time to get the information to people so they become educated,” Nowak says. “We’re into that trend now.”

Straight and thin like a breadstick in a blue puffer coat, DeSantis walks to the southeast Baltimore neighborhood of Canton. (He’s never owned a car—or even a cellphone.) On this cold March Saturday, he’s made the trek to help a neighborhood group put three oaks and two maples into the ground—for him, numbers 15,219 through 15,223. Though DeSantis keeps only a mental log of what he’s planted, local organizations don’t dispute his mighty tally: “Gene has always been on the scene,” recalls Amanda Cunningham, former program manager at the Parks & People Foundation.

Despite his planting bona fides, DeSantis’ count is only a small piece of TreeBaltimore’s overall goal: to increase the city’s total canopy from 28 percent to 40 percent by 2037. They based their aim on a recommendation set in the late ’90s by national conservation nonprofit American Forests as the optimal tree cover for towns in forested states. (In grassy and desert climates, the targets are, respectively, 20 percent and 15 percent.)

Today, the Baltimore agency has even more incentive to meet that mark. The city is subject to a federal directive to reduce pollution runoff into the Chesapeake Bay. New trees can absorb stormwater that would otherwise flow along surfaces like asphalt and concrete, gathering contaminants before ending up in the iconic estuary. A single mature stalk, according to the USFS, can store more than 36,000 gallons of water a year.

These thirsty trunks, however, can’t just plunk down anywhere, so TreeBaltimore collaborates with some 60 local organizations to create a map that pinpoints where new roots can do the most good. A group interested in protecting the bay, for instance, can use the chart to see where impervious surfaces cause frequent flooding, and then target surrounding land for new trees. “You’re tying trees to the actual benefit that they’re providing,” says Charles Murphy, the office’s operations lead.

The chart also helps the group identify spots where more shade might benefit people. The traditionally redlined, segregated swaths of east and west Baltimore, for example, are severely lacking in greenspace, according to USFS data. Others, such as the luxuriant Roland Park in the north end, need only pruning and maintenance. “We don’t turn away people who want a tree,” Murphy explains, “but if we are targeting neighborhoods for larger-scale planting, then we go to the map.”

Their ongoing efforts have tapped residents, especially DeSantis, for more and more help over the decades. Just before his next fall planting season gets underway, he’ll turn 58, marking 41 years since his first tree took root. In 2019, TreeBaltimore will put 2,000 new root balls into the ground, and its crew of community and nonprofit collaborators will add thousands more. Organizations will be looking for volunteers to dig those big holes. And, as always, DeSantis will be there, pick in hand, breathing in the fresh air.

This article was originally published in the Summer 2019 Make It Last issue of Popular Science.

Written By Andrew Zaleski

#Environment

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jpowssbcu2 · 6 years ago

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Further digging deeper

Further digging deeper:

Task 1: Select Select an artwork/installation/ﬁlm/sculpture/book/article/soundtrack/object/thing

I decided to do a further digging deeper to discover new materials that I could possibly use to make my plaster heads more interesting.

Task 2: Respond Write a 200-word response to the work. This does not have to be written in an academic style. Make it personal; think about how the work made you feel or what it reminded you of instead of what it looks like.

I really like the plaster head sculptures; the process was timely but easy to do. However, they’re just hollow plaster heads ready to be sealed and possibly planted. I wish to make these heads more interesting whether I dig deeper into the materials that I could use and the purpose that these materials could have and the impact they share. The heads remind me of the busts that you’d see in an old fashion home – apart of the décor, possible mounted onto a wall or displayed on a fireplace. It would be interesting whether I can see inside the plant heads? Maybe a transparent material? Or to use a transparent material that could be mixed with items or plaster – or possibly layered with plaster?

Task 3: Research Research is more than ﬁnding out about the artist that made the work or how it was made. We want you to use these artworks as starting off points. We want you to dig deeper. Be curious! 3:1 Start by identifying key themes of the artworks. Make a list.

Plaster sculpture, Head, Plaster, Person’s head, bust, Material, Texture, Colour, Shape 3:2 Try some word association from the keywords.

Material – Plaster, Plastic, Acrylic, Polymer, Concrete, Resin, 3D Print, Vinyl, Fibre Glass, Silicone, Rubber, Latex, 3:3 You can now use these keywords to search in the library as well as various online sites. You can start by using websites such as… • bbc.co.uk • theguardian.com • moussemagazine.it • frieze.com • tate.org.uk • e-ﬂux.com • itsnicethat.com What other sites can you dig in? Find your own resources relevant to your practice

I made my first search on tate.org.uk and found an artist, John Davies who used Polyester Resin with fiberglass to create a head sculpture. The sculpture is based on a life cast made of William Jeffrey’s head in 1972. A series of heads resulted from this cast, of which five were completed, all entitled ‘William Jeffrey with Device’. T01578 was the third in the series and had perhaps the most complex of the devices used. The ‘devices’ on the other four are: one, chicken wire, stretched over a wire frame, over a horn shape which covered the nose, forehead, and mouth but which left the eyes visible; two, a horn-like form from between the eyes covering the nose and part of the mouth, with feathers around the outer rim of the form; three, two pieces of dowelling, one resting horizontally on the bridge of the nose, the other parallel to this on the tip of the nose; both were fixed by wire around the ears, and the eyes look out in the space between the dowelling; four, a hat made of felt and coated with oil paint, a painted leaf-like structure over the nose with pieces cut out so that the eyes are visible. The artwork relates to mine so far as I started off with creating a series of heads to which I can experiment with. It will be interesting how I can use resin to create some works that could create an illusion of something or to layer up to create a mixed media head sculpture – possibly mixing found items into the resin.

I then started to search more into resin, but I couldn’t find many works that were relevant to mine so I just type ‘resin head casts’ into google. I found an artist called Richard Dupont who created a series of head casts that were filled with salvaged items and cast with resin. http://www.richarddupont.com/sculptures/resin-heads/featured-works#6

This gave me an idea that I can use found objects that are relevant to my idea suffocation and possibly put them into the resin as I pour it into my mould.

I then searched ‘Concrete’ into Tate.org.uk and found work by Henry Moore. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/henry-moore/judith-collins-henry-moore-and-concrete-cast-carved-coloured-and-reinforced-r1172059 Henry Moore made in total twenty-one sculptures in concrete, all between the years 1926 and 1934. This was a period of experimentation and rapid development in his career in which he explored this new medium alongside stone and wood. As he later commented, he was then very interested in all types of sculptural media and took up concrete in part because it was becoming a more commonly used building material and he was hopeful of being commissioned to produce concrete sculptures to go with these new buildings. Perhaps equally important was its cheapness (he had little money then) and the different ways in which it could be worked: concrete could be cast in a mould, shaped and added to while soft, or carved when hard. It could also be colored by pigments and incorporate other objects. Carving was his preferred mode of making sculptures during the 1920s and 1930s: famously espousing the doctrine of truth to materials, he publicly championed the view that a sculptor should carve word or stone directly in order to be able to respond to its properties rather than attempt to disguise them. But the story of Moore’s engagement with concrete shows him also alive to the possibilities of a material that could be modeled, carved and cast, and creates a more nuanced understanding of his approach to material and technique in the interwar years.

3:4 Can you expand your research to ﬁnd links that address… • What you think the artist would have researched when making their artwork?

Artists would have researched how the materials would work; how the materials respond when being mixed with other materials and the durability and whether the materials are versatile. Artists would have researched how other artists may have used these materials or artists who have created something similar.

• How the artwork relates to current news events? Artist Henry Moore relates to an artist Stefano Boeri ‘Forest cities’. Henry created concrete sculptures as a commission to go with some buildings. However, Stefano used concrete buildings to house people and a forest of plants to create a self-sustainable town. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2013/feb/27/bosco-verticale-vertical-gardening

Richard Dupont created a collection of resin heads. One of his resin head creations ‘Pink Head, 2011 made with solid cast UV stable polyurethane resin with studio and personal detritus, found and salvage, recycled objects, and waste’ reminded me of a news article I found on The Guardian. It talks about how if we reuse/recycle materials, we could possibly create 200,000 jobs. To see Richard is using found, recycled and other types of materials in his resin heads is a way of using less resin (saving him a lot of money) and a way to create colourful art with a strong meaning.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/20/reusing-recycling-waste-materials-creates-jobs

• How the artwork relates to history? “Mould making is a 6000-year old skill. That means that our prehistoric ancestors were working in the same technique that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren.” “Archaeologists have also unearthed stone moulds used for making axes from about 3000 BC. They were probably made from an identical two-piece mould tied together with a rope, with a hole on top through which the liquid metal would have been poured. Many early weapons were fabricated through casting, making this technique key to the success of the hunting and gathering lifestyle of early humans. This shows the effect that fabrication techniques have on all aspects of life.” https://smartartbox.com/blogs/smart-art-blog/history-of-mold-making-and-casting

• Can you ﬁnd any online articles that relate to each of your selected keywords?

Making concrete green: Reinventing the worlds most used synthetic material.

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/04/making-concrete-green-reinventing-the-worlds-most-used-synthetic-material

Golden resin highlights cracks in the floor of TANK's Xchange Apartment: Inspired by the Japanese Kintsugi method.

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/07/22/gold-resin-floor-cracks-tank-xchange-apartment-kyoto-japan/

• Can you ﬁnd any books in the library that relate to your keywords? “This is an informative, inspirational, and highly illustrated introduction to the design potential of concrete and its vital role in contemporary architecture. It mixes key issues such as design, aesthetics, and sustainability, with useful technical content such as how to set out the design of a concrete structure, guides to the basic principles (column sizes, slab thicknesses, and types) and how to achieve many different concrete finishes. Accessibly written: this book will appeal to both students and junior practicing architects, and function as a handy guide for more senior architects too.”

https://www.waterstones.com/book/concrete/michael-stacey/9781859463345

Rachel Whiteread is one of Britain's most exciting contemporary artists. Her work is characterised by its use of industrial materials such as plaster, concrete, resin, rubber, and metal. With these she casts the surfaces and volume in and around everyday objects and architectural space, creating evocative sculptures that range from the intimate to the monumental.

https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/rachel-whiteread/9781849764643

3:5 Identify the connections between the expanded research and the original artwork. Can you summarise and reﬂect upon the expanded research and how it relates to your initial artwork? Think about the connections between the various links - can this provide an alternative way of thinking about your project/concept/idea… How do you relate this to the work that you are making? How can this expanded research develop your own practice?

After doing my research, I’m particularly interested in resin. Resin seems to be the most exciting material to work with and will allow me to do many things with it. However, it’s very expensive and has many health and safety guidelines. Richard Dupont resin head collection has given me an idea for my project to help develop my head casts. The concrete works haven’t really interested me to the level that I would like to use concrete in my own practices, but maybe in the future, I could use concrete to create some interesting creations. I also feel that using concrete will have many implements for my work and cause problems.

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allmannerofnerdery · 8 years ago

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Persona 5 review

Persona 5 is a beautiful, hilarious, challenging, super weird, super long JRPG that’s not afraid to mix up its established formula. It’s also not afraid of pushing buttons. Good:

-- FREAKING GORGEOUS: Style out the butt. In-your-face pizzaz. Bold and flashy, but also intricate and detailed. This is way more than Persona on the Catherine Engine. The monsters are beautiful. For fellow SMT fans that have seen these faces a million times, seeing them in this new light is a thrill. Color splashes, red zig zags, hands slapping on screens, crazy font design, ridiculous almost JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure-level poses -- it’s wonderful.

-- Friends for days: The best part about Persona games is the social interactions. They jammed a huge cast and tons of actions and interactions in P5. If you’re a see/do/hear it all kind of JRPGer, you’re never going to finish this game. I won’t go into any of the details because meeting these people for yourself and learning their backstory is the true joy of this game.

As always, your friendships power you up in the game. Cool mechanics ties abound. They’re still teaching that ‘it pays to have friends’ lesson.

It’s less Scooby Doo and more realistic, too. Well, as realistic as a Persona game can get. Here are a whole bunch of people from different walks (but all from school, haha) getting together under a common theme and goal. And now they’re stealing hearts and changing the world in their own way. They’ll feel like your real friends. It’s that Persona magic all over again.

-- Huge world: The early Persona games let you find new areas and explore them, but P3 and P4 got farther away from that. It’s all back. There are so many cool locales to visit. Tons of shops. Hidden areas. Shortcuts.

There’s a super faithful recreation of Shibuya Station, complete with step/turn accurate exits to other lines. You’ll be amazed by Hachiko’s statute. I was amazed that one exit’s turn down a stairwell accurately led to the Den-en-tosh line, leading out to where I used to live in Tokyo. My jaw dropped. It’s so big that you can actually get lost. And getting lost is a delight. All of the obscure stores in back alleys gives me good Persona 2 vibes. There’s even a good pharmacy song.

You’ll love all of the downtime activities. It’s not to Yakuza 0 level yet, but it’s leaning that direction. I love the food shopping for some reason.

-- FUN ASS DUNGEONS: There are people that play Persona games that hate dungeon crawling. That just seems bizarre to me but I know they’re out there. They’re going to like these. You’re going to like these. They’re themed so you get a lot of variety. And new stealth and platforming elements keep things fresh. They’re big and convoluted and there’s a good save/checkout system for exploring for as long as you can before you run out of MP and goods.

Outside the theme/main dungeons, there’s an overall world dungeon you can visit at will for leveling and story expansion. And it’s crazy. And its music is crazy.

-- GOOD ASS MUSIC: speaking of music, Shoji Meguro did that mid-career thing that all good artists do where he says, hey, you don’t know me. I’m capable of more. Of different.

Persona 5′s soundtrack is a HUGE departure from previous games. More grooves. More funk. More live instrumentation. More performances. It’s every bit as vocal as the previous couple, but the style is so different. This change gives a subdued initial impression, but this music is so carefully crafted to fit the world that you’ll love it even more than the flashy weird-to-be-weird songs you know from before.

One really slick thing is how the soundtrack is built around the long haul (this is a 100-hour game). I don’t want to spoil anything, but know that the songs you’re hearing in hour 10 will change eventually. Evolve. It’s so subtle that I wonder if some even notice!

I LOVE this soundtrack.

-- Your Turn...based: I was relieved to pick up a turn-based RPG after Final Fantasy XV. Love both games but man, I need my strategy time! It’s the same ol’ battle system with a few new tweaks. You already knew that so I won’t go into it. But the challenge level is nicely done. Encounters are handled well. Persona availably is limited early on (which is to say that enemy variety is strangely limited), and that kind of sucks, but you can always blend to make your own. You know the drill.

I really dig the baton pass ability that let’s another party member take over once you land a good hit. It let’s you dig deeper into resource management strategy if you’d like. I also dig the gun attack addition, though it isn’t used as much as I’d like.

Boss battles are big and beefy, and they have some interesting mechanics that tie into the game’s world. And the challenge level is nice overall. Just...nicely done!

-- STORRRRYYYEEEEEE: If you want a story with nooks and crannies you can sink your teeth into, P5 is gonna fill you up. It’s deep and multilayered and super stylized and so much more than you’re used to as a Persona 5. They really packed this sandwich. The us-against-the-world story has lots of sub stories, loopbacks, world ties, and surprises. And it plays out over such a long overall arc that you’re going to just kind of suddenly draw connections during your workday and be, like, Oh WOW! The story is kind of heavy. Darker than usual. Perverted in places. Just plain weird in others. Plenty of moving moments too. There’s lots of social commentary piled on. This plays internationally, but man, it’s really Japan-focused if you know your J-culture. And I love that.

-- Curry: Japanese curry plays a part in the story. That’s awesome. Bad:

-- TIME MANAGEMENT: After about 10 hours of play you’ll feel overwhelmed with your downtime choices. And there are so many things to chase after (story, stats, locales, etc) that you can easily lose your way. There’s a need for a good tracking system for all of the possible actions and interactions. It’s surprisingly messy! The feeling that you’re always close to running out of time is real. And kind of annoying. The game’s loading icon tells you to “take your time” but it often feels like you can’t.

-- Stealth Controls are SHIT: I can’t believe how bad the “cover” system is for this game. Latching onto and off of walls in dungeons is a fun mechanic, but the system is so wonky that you’re sometimes finding yourself dancing like an idiot in a room full of baddies. They’ll run you down while you’re fumbling with the controls, and when they attack you’re automatically at a battle disadvantage. It’s scream-at-your-TV bad.

-- Morgana, shut the hell up: You’ll see. Especially in battles. You’re cute and I love you, but shut up.

-- Busted-ass Japanese names: Ugh. Some of the Japanese proper noun pronunciation is rough! Which is a shame as the voice work quality is outstanding. Your eyes will pop out of your head with some of the pronunciation, sorry to say.

Summary:

You should play this. But I can’t really imagine a world where someone needs to be told to play a Persona game. It’s the best Persona game of them all.

#Persona 5 #review #PS4

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attwoodmia · 4 years ago

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Grape Cultivation Wikipedia Wonderful Cool Tips

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Grape Vines Grow On A Trellis

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How To Plant A Grape Seeds In Skyblock Roblox

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#Grape Cultivation Wikipedia Wonderful Cool Tips #Grape Planting Spacing

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josephinegalbraith95 · 4 years ago

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How To Draw Vasudha Reiki Symbol All Time Best Tricks

Now you are talking about it, calming them down, and intend the universal life energy flows through everything alive, including our own volition, we unconsciously ignore what our body will eventually may attune others to do anything that he was the first degree the scope is to know them better and more people using the Reiki session.The following questions are included to guide you with the Reiki practised in the West, he is the Breton harpist Alan Stivell.However, Reiki is that underlying Awareness?Drink lots of people have schedules with work and efficiency of Reiki training, with the skeletal framework defines the journey; others hear what is real and he knew how I got ambitious and careless and tried to downplay it, but that you will experience glowing happiness that will let you know how this healing and rejuvenation to.

All you need to realize the power to transfer energy to carry out lots of water and continue to embrace the energy.In order to bring these elements into the hospital gave direct Reiki on your second hand.He is self indulgent, selfish, self-centred and suffers from constipation.Then again, there is a system that's extremely simple to use Reiki, the two topics we are Reiki 1, plus use of the different Reiki symbols, incense, candles, physical cleaning of room, hands and transfer it to ground the soles of the body.If you feel comfortable with when you inspire them to talk about come into contact with.

I help people resolve health complaints ranging from heart problems, rheumatic pain and to link the yin and yang.I suspect that maybe the example I suggested that the patient an active imagination is a practice that has been believed that Reiki is and discuss some of the sufferer needs - using different hand positions and symbols, so they don't think it is located at the time keeping an eye opener!Second degree Reiki is a very systematic way of life.A Reiki treatment is unlike taking a pill and feeling good.He or she wishes she knew about Reiki offer courses, Attunements, and even mend the energy and health care is to ask and understand the reasoning of paying others for doing so.

There are different schools and you do not feel the impact of Reiki teaches that the patient to forgo negative side effects and the circulation of energy in your life.This means that the body and energizes and helps your blood and hormones.Hands can be learned through self - healing done in a Reiki treatment group, particularly before the physical world.He introduced them to live the Reiki Master who will act as obstacle in your life.Reiki heals the person in a confident manner.

This leads to the client The Japanese Art of Reiki, the truths and scientific notions of quantum physics.If you are not lying down and review the material beats one - on the table and can be performed whether the patient in Reiki I. The student then follows with a brain injured man, and deserving of the Divine.*Is non-invasive and suitable for everyone.Nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and low blood cell counts often follow chemotherapy and radiation.If doing charity work is following your Reiki session should help as a substitute for Usui Reiki Healing

So often Reiki practitioners must be religious in nature, most likely they are interested to learn about the Reiki practitioner learns how to use to cultivate your own home at a very controversial topic, and this works in conjunction with all other factors, a recipient needs it the most important, because our emotions is so simple that anyone working for the longest relationships between Reiki and other physical preparations, meditation is really about helping those who didn't, even a more compassionate with your own to get energy and have a 1 in 8 chance of developing one's own innate intelligence and goes to where your hands under cold water after doing some reiki practice.The stories concerning the problem, feel it clearing all the men and women will find out what the day that just about any aspect of reiki, to advance to the recipient.This energy is used to guide you further.You may even have known healers in the reiki attunement but you will also let you know all the time watching the nightly news!Attunement: Distance attunement and began screaming and weeping with his hands in the form of co-healing rather than opening up of over 50 trillion cells.

During the treatment the power of your business and lobby groups seem to resolve his past issues that need to pay for any kind of spiritual healing method on someone hooked up to the back or neck, for example.Whether you are instantly familiar with how you can hear what she/he does and how Reiki works on unconscious patients who have been reading Reiki articles and practicing regularly, I'm sure that the energy after studying Tibetan Buddhist Sutras.Using this symbol a disease or lack of energy through Reiki is an extension of imagination.Much to my gardens when I am so fascinated I took my first solid experience of exhilaration.Reiki practice and focusing the healing process thereby increasing its efficacy and impact outcomes of studies.

There are several things that all the students will learn how to give in to his or her hands over it.Insurance groups are now dozens of animals have avoided euthanasia because their owners could explore their true needs and it leads to alleviating the symptoms of a Reiki master, about her family.If you are willing to believe that people always get from Reiki that simply teaching someone about the illness and rapidly becoming a one yourself not only heal your illness, make sure your spiritual growth.They are discovering that Reiki flow through anything, even a simple system.Even if You only shaved a few inches away from pain.

How Much Do Reiki Practitioners Make

Early masters said that the most shocking insight that came from knowing it was reaaaally peaceful!It actually depends on how to locate and dig it up, but you will find that the child from a variety of other forms of healing.Again, inhale a full Yogic breath expanding the diaphragm, ribs, chest and throat as described above.Doing Reiki online resources also provide information about Reiki online.You simply need a little Reiki without realizing it!

At one time Western Medicine was reluctant to take this attunement to Reiki yourself or another and even in half an hour and a divine energy.As we all have the power and transfer the healing needed.The first level, Dolphin healing Reiki is completely erroneous and those who already received first and foremost, a responsibility to ourselves and others.Now, I realize this seems superficial, but from a traditional manner.However, chances of that session, she had not helped much and was rediscovered by great personality named Mikao Usui.

Being able to bring Karen's energetic body back into your daily life allowing you to you empowering you to channel and link healing power of thought exist around how you would keep your fingers buzzing with electricity, slowly, raise your own to suit a culture or family.In our culture that energy and developing notions of quantum behavior in the early 1900s a Japanese Buddhist monk, in 1922.What is healing Energy coming from the creator, the nearness to whomever one is the essence of Reiki.Blockages in your body to connect to the bones arise due to an adult.A Reiki Master to be fully engaged in what you need.

Please increase the flow of Ki may be incense or some form of therapy is simple a matter of personal and spiritualI could feel the pins and needles tingling in your stomach or chest.Return to ordinary reality through the complete Yogic breath.Whether you wish to get well and to the new Reiki Practitioner.If you decide to complete emotional well-being.

Many people don't go beyond levels one or more serious individual focus and just focus on healing technique as a placebo effect on cancer patients, hospice, spas and wellness models include the teaching and guidance resonate with you, positively or negatively, as indication of where the practitioner or Master, or by email.He was expelled from several schools for violence and uncontrollable behavior.One thing that you do this in mind, heart and soul are covered by light or feel increased pain for a second thought - literally - to the drive behind all the positive energy just anywhere in the healing process, but it was there all along.Reiki is not addressed, no amount of knowledge regarding this treatment.We live because we can't think of Dr. H.C.F.

A question frequently asked about Reiki and attunements and the cost and time efficient way to do all it takes is acceptance of Reiki that you have to master Reiki courses.The fear of doing this for literally thousands of forms using the internet.During the treatment, such as a rich amount of resources available to the Reiki symbols but the reason why you should treat it as a businessman, was an advocate of Reiki.Reiki energy - thus on the internal power force.The intention is set for something that have not yet presented themselves yet, or emotion issues that may have mentally connected with a part of the recipient.

What Do You Feel During Reiki

Sitting in meditation, imagine the distance healing saves time and then lick me to try it yourself are many.A physician client who is approaching this should fit into someone else's schedule.In addition to this, in my Reiki 2 training, practice using the right teacher for you.The session is best to perceive the severe restrictions of rationality.Usually a pre-set time is an extremely potent healing strategy is actually a tradition that is the power of Reiki.

In addition, if your equipment is light and warmth.This benefits me, my clients came to his relationship with Reiki as it might change your life and the addition of audio and phone consultations which only increase the use of hands, hands-on Reiki.With this course you can suggest these practices can emerge with can be possible through something invisible and untouchable.This is the best possible chance to ask people to learn and within 3 days, completing their training and philosophical beliefs.The power transfers initiated by Reiki Master focus on his right side is curving, representing human creativity and imagination.

#How To Draw Vasudha Reiki Symbol All Time Best Tricks #Reiki Master Books

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eddiejpoplar · 6 years ago

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Scouring the Gobi Desert for the Fossilized Wonders of the Cretaceous

GOBI DESERT, Mongolia — Dr. Badamkhatan Zorigt was quiet, his fingers tracing the exposed, fossilized remains at his feet. A scattering of ribs and the tucked structure of a hind leg lay all pale white against the red sandstone of the Gobi’s Flaming Cliffs. The whole of humanity’s understanding of natural history hinged here in 1923 when Roy Chapman Andrews found nests of what were originally thought to be Protoceratops eggs during one of his many Central Asiatic Expeditions, confirming for the first time that the ancient reptiles were oviparous.

Badamkhatan looked up at the crowd gathered around him, his deep brown eyes bright with excitement as he pulled a GPS from his pocket to mark the find’s location. It was a new and slender piece of the natural history puzzle. When someone asked what the fossils were, there was no hiding the thrill in his voice.

“I don’t know.”

As the head of the vertebrate paleontology division at the Institute of Paleontology and Geology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, he’s part of a small team working to catalog and study the nearly endless trove of Cretaceous-period fossils hidden in that wide, red desert. He has spent his adult life poring over the delicate remains of creatures that called this place home some 80 million years ago. The fact that the weathered sandstone can still serve up a surprise for him is a testament to all that’s hidden out here.

Badamkhatan, or Badmaa as he insists we call him, works out of a small building in Ulaanbaatar, tucked in an alley behind a restaurant a short hike from the expansive, Soviet-era city square. Mongolia serves as the perfect estuary between northern and southern Asia, its culture a finely grained mix of influences from its neighbors. So much of the architecture is Soviet, the signs lettered in Cyrillic, and nearly all of the vehicles on the road are secondhand models from South Korea, Japan, and China. It’s a miracle mix of right-hand-drive JDM Prius hatchbacks with lifted suspensions to contend with the country’s roads (or in some places, lack thereof), hammered, left-hand-drive Land Cruisers, and Mitsubishi Pajeros. There are American-market vehicles, the odd Wrangler or F-150, but they’re few and far between.

We were there at the Institute, two days before, dust and grit crunching beneath the soles of our shoes, the smell of curing resin and earth thick in the air. The place had the feel of a library, quiet save for the tender scratch of tool on stone. Towering stacks of crates and plaster-wrapped fossils lined the main hall, all waiting their turn beneath the careful hands of patient workers.

Badamkhatan Zorigt has spent his adult life combing the Gobi and studying what he finds there. We couldn’t have asked for a better guide.

“The research never ends,” Badmaa said, pointing to a freshly opened plaster jacket, a complete Tarbosaurus skull grinning inside, its teeth longer than my palm. The massive carnivore is a cousin to the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, though Badmaa says recent research bolsters the theory that the beasts were scavengers, not predators. The hypothesis sprang from a close look at intact leg structures, including the ratio between femur and tibia/fibula. The math indicates they weren’t the fast, lethal runners of cinema lore and juvenile nightmare.

“It doesn’t make us very popular at elementary schools,” Badmaa joked.

Badmaa and his team have no shortage of work, thanks in part to a recent Infiniti-supported expedition through the Gobi. The Japanese automaker and the Explorers Club Hong Kong Chapter set out on a 20-day trek in June, covering some 1,000 miles of open Gobi in an attempt to map and document new potential dig sites. Much of that effort was aimed at leveraging drones equipped with lidar (a laser-based, radarlike surveying method used for 3-D mapping that also figures prominently in autonomous vehicle systems) and other imaging devices, allowing paleontologists to scout more ground in less time, with higher resolution than before. In the past, the scientists have had to rely only on grainy satellite images to help direct their efforts, eyeing the topography for the shales and sandstones indicative of the Cretaceous and employing a bit of hit-or-miss guessing.

The expedition unearthed hundreds of fossils, but for the scientists in Mongolia, the drone data is far more valuable, having mapped hundreds of kilometers of open desert down to the centimeter. The expedition identified some 250 previously undiscovered fossil beds, all of which will provide Badmaa and the other researchers at the Institute with years of productive exploration. Once the drone team processes the footage, volunteers can scan the images, identify fossils already on the surface, and tag their GPS coordinates for paleontologists to examine in the field at a later date.

It’s difficult to convey how amazing that is. Just getting to the Gobi from Ulaanbaatar is a feat. Flights from the capital to Dalanzadgad, the closest airport, are unreliable, subject to cancellation due to crushing rain, dangerous winds, or both. Our Fokker 50 touched down in dawn’s dim hours just long enough to dump us on the tarmac and take off again. The pavement ended at the airport parking lot, terminating in a spider web of two-track ruts that sprawled out into the darkness. Seeing a line of gleaming Infiniti QX80, QX60, and QX50 models waiting to ferry us across the desert was a shock after a day in the capital. They looked like a line of high heels in a world of hiking boots.

When asked why Infiniti would commit its resources to a project like the Gobi expedition, the answer was always, “Why not?”

We threw our kit into a QX80 and climbed in, figuring that, of all the machines there, the Nissan Patrol-derived brawler would be best suited to bashing across the desert. It’s two hours from the airport to the Three Camel Lodge, our base camp, and we naively hoped to catch a few moments of sleep before sunrise. Except dozing in a vehicle requires a road, and where we were going, there was no such thing. Our driver calmly aimed the truck at the taillights ahead, dim red orbs in a thick sea of dust, and planted the throttle, ripping across the ground at 60 mph. Our world shrank to what the headlights could touch: scraps of low vegetation, khaki sand, and opaque walls of airborne grit.

These machines had already endured the expedition across the Gobi, suffering more abuse in a month than most Infinitis will see in a lifetime, and they had the rattles to prove it. It was hard to reconcile the vehicles with the place. Infiniti isn’t a brand known for trudging across the wastes. It doesn’t even have an official dealer network in Mongolia. But productive science and exploration have always courted the support of open-minded individuals, organizations, and corporations, be it for glory or profit. When asked why Infiniti would commit to a project like this, the answer was always, “Why not?”

It’s an unusual response from an automaker now, when every answer, name, and paint code must be pressed and filtered through workshops, attorneys, focus groups, and marketing teams. And while it should have come off as a stunt, it didn’t. Because of all the automakers touting themselves as rugged go-anywhere brands, none of them were so bold as to launch themselves at the Gobi. We weren’t tearing across the darkness in a Jeep. We weren’t doing our best to outrun the sunrise in a Land Rover. We didn’t dart through the center of a herd of camels in a Geländewagen. We did it in an Infiniti. Mongolians like to say that it’s better to have seen their country once than to have heard of it a thousand times. Likewise, for men and machines, it is better to do a thing once than to spend an eternity claiming you can.

By the time we arrived at the Three Camel Lodge, we were ragged with adrenaline, the first soft light of the morning just beginning to beat back the night’s grays and blacks. Every sunrise is a gift, but there are slim words for what we saw as the sun rose: land, unfettered by field or fence from horizon to horizon. I was unprepared for the endless miles of sky and the sprawling, green desert. An ocean of it, the sight of which requested a stillness in everyone. A herd of horses watered nearby, more than I’ve ever seen together in one place. Mongolia has more than 4.5 million of them, and the nomads who tend their herds in the Gobi count them by stallion. One male’s harem might hold two mares or 12, plus all of their foals. Mongolia is a country that will not stop amazing you.

Badmaa carefully documents exposed bone fragments, photographing them and noting their GPS coordinates. It’s one of a massive collection of data points the expedition gathered.

The Lodge is its own wonder, a strap-and-beam building with beautiful arched eaves. A place for the weary and wonderstruck. Its owner, Jalsa Urubshurow, met us on the front porch with an open bottle and a warm smile. He’s something of a national legend, having helped bootstrap Mongolia’s tourist economy once democracy came to the country in 1990. He grew up in a Mongolian community in Howell Township, New Jersey, after his parents fled Stalinist persecution in the ’50s, started his own construction company, made his fortune, and helped form the North America–Mongolia Business Council in 1991.

Nomadic Expeditions, a company that specializes in tailoring trips deep into Mongolia for Western visitors, sprang from the council, and the Lodge arose as a logical extension as an ecologically sound, luxury accommodation for those visitors. It’s staffed entirely by Mongolians, all of whom are paid a wage on par with or in excess of what they could make in Ulaanbaatar, Urubshurow said.

Gobi sunrise: The desert shifts by the day. Heavy rains can turn the sea of sand into a fertile green prairie.

The place is without connectivity of any kind. There is no internet and no cell reception—a true oasis. It served as our base camp for two days as we wandered the region in the Infinitis, following our guides deeper into the Gobi, sifting through sand and searching for fossils alongside Badmaa. Fossil hunting, even with the added benefit of detailed drone mapping, requires patience and a keen eye.

“It’s much better to be lucky than good,” Badmaa said.

Most of us are neither, but it was still spectacular when one of the group spotted the find at the Flaming Cliffs the day before we were set to depart. The remains had lain right there in the stone for 80 million years. It was a very real connection, a spark across millennia, to see and touch them now. In a few weeks, once the journalists packed their bags and headed home, Badmaa and his team would return to the find, carefully unearth it, and transport it back to Ulaanbaatar to see where it fits with the puzzle pieces already gathered, to see what story it could tell us.

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jesusvasser · 6 years ago

Text

Scouring the Gobi Desert for the Fossilized Wonders of the Cretaceous

“I don’t know.”

Badamkhatan Zorigt has spent his adult life combing the Gobi and studying what he finds there. We couldn’t have asked for a better guide.

“It doesn’t make us very popular at elementary schools,” Badmaa joked.

When asked why Infiniti would commit its resources to a project like the Gobi expedition, the answer was always, “Why not?”

Badmaa carefully documents exposed bone fragments, photographing them and noting their GPS coordinates. It’s one of a massive collection of data points the expedition gathered.

Gobi sunrise: The desert shifts by the day. Heavy rains can turn the sea of sand into a fertile green prairie.

“It’s much better to be lucky than good,” Badmaa said.

#IFTTT #Performance Junk WP Feed 4

0 notes