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felassan · 4 years ago

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Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 annotations & additional pages/art compilation

Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 is a hardcover collection of some pre-existing Dragon Age comics that was released in 2014. It comprises of all issues of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. In places, it includes additional annotations/commentaries by the illustrators and authors, as well as a few additional pages with additional art. iirc these additional annotations and pages/art aren’t featured or available anywhere else (in the franchise I mean; other people have probably put them online at some point I’m sure).

From what I can see at least, Library Edition Volume 1 is no longer in print, and as such listings for it on resale sites etc are.. price-inflated & prohibitively expensive (~£100+, which I’m sure we can all agree is just not reasonable or accessible to most people). Due to this, I’ve compiled the additional annotations and pages here in this post. Thank you and credit to @artevalentinapaz, who kindly shared the material with me. This post has been made with their permission. The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

These commentaries are in the context of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. If you notice any errors or annotations missing, or need anything clarified, just let me know. I think the annotations are in chronological order. In places I elaborated in square brackets to help explain which part of the comics an annotation is referring to. A note before you proceed further: some of the topics referenced in the annotations/additional pages are heavy or uncomfortable. The quotes here are word-for-word transcriptions of dev/creator commentaries, not my personal opinions or phrasings.

(Also, I do recommend always supporting comic creators by purchasing their comics legitimately. I own each issue of these comics having bought other editions of them all legitimately. The reason I put this post together is because this specific Library Edition volume has been discontinued and the consequently-inflated cost is so high, rendering the additional material inaccessible to most.)

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The Silent Grove annotations

Illustrator Chad Hardin: “I used to be an environmental artist for video games, so I built a 3-D model of Antiva City using the program Silo. Many of the buildings are simple cubes, but a few are more detailed. Overall, I spent the better part of a day building it, but I used it again and again throughout The Silent Grove to maintain continuity in the backgrounds.”

Script Writer Alexander Freed: “Even working with David Gaider, it took me several drafts to find Alistair’s voice. His narrative had to convey his humor and self-doubt from Dragon Age: Origins while suggesting a newfound weariness earned during his years on the throne. For readers familiar with the character, he needed to seem like a changed Alistair - but Alistair nonetheless.”

Chad Hardin: “If you read a lot of comics, you might wonder why the majority of the heroes wear skin-tight suits. Well, I can tell you: they are easy and quick to draw. In video games, you build the model once and then animate it, so details don’t slow you down. In comics, everything has to be rendered by hand. Varric and Alistair’s outfits were quite detailed. It took me a long time to get used to them, and even longer to memorize the designs until drawing them was second nature - Varric’s knee armor in particular! Oy vey!”

David Gaider: “One of my favorite scenes in the entire series [when Varric and Isabela are disarming traps and picking locks together while Alistair looks on]. Isabela and Varric, doing what rogues do. I had a suggestion for how to put it together, but Alex managed to make it fit and did a great job with it.”

Chad Hardin: “I never used to keep any of the artwork I created for comics. I would just hand the pages over to my agent to sell. This page [when Alistair, Varric and Isabela are in a tavern together, with hookah in the foreground] I kept for myself. I love the hookah-smoking elves in the second panel and Isabela’s face in the last panel. I rendered the first four chapters of The Silent Grove in grayscale using ink washes, gouache and Copie markers.”

David Gaider: “For a little while, Varric [in these comic stories] was supposed to be Zevran from Dragon Age: Origins, which would have made sense, Zevran being Antivan and all. I know that some fans would have loved to see him, but the dynamics of the group just didn’t work as well. Then a planned cameo later had to be cut for space. Ah well, Zev, another time.”

Alexander Freed: “Isabela at her most dangerous [climbing up the side of the cliff]. This scene - featuring a scantily clad, dripping-wet woman who tends to flaunt her sexuality - could easily have come across as exploitative, but Chad did a lovely drop portraying Isabela as purely focused and deadly.”

Chad Hardin: “Isabela rising out of the water and scaling the cliff with the knife in her mouth is one of my favorite parts of The Silent Grove. It is one of those moments where the writing really inspired the art. Hats off to Alex and David. This is another page I kept for myself.”

Colorist Michael Atiyeh: “This is one of my favorite Dragon Age pages. Chad is such an amazing artist; I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him.”

Chad Hardin: “I love that this page [when a guard spots Varric and shouts ‘Intruder!’] made it in uncensored. So many times in comics, I draw something and some stuffy lawyers come out of the woodwork and tell me to tone it down. Dark Horse and BioWare always let me have fun, and this turned out to be one of my favorite pages with Varric and Bianca. Any guesses to which word he is mouthing in the second panel?”

Alexander Freed: “Note the simple decency of Alistair as he gives his cloak, without comment, to Isabela. For all his flaws, he’s genuinely kind at heart - a rare enough trait in Isabela’s world that I think it’s much of what she values in him.”

Chad Hardin: “I love the opening panel to this chapter [the opening panels to Chapter 3, when the team are on a ship at sea]. It’s the image I use on the homepage of my website. This page was a gift to my cousin Wendy, who loves pirates. Seascapes with sailing ships might be clichéd in fine art, but for me it was a first.”

David Gaider: “I wanted to have this story center on the group travelling to a Witch of the Wilds other than Flemeth, and originally I had set it somewhere else - until I remembered a Codex entry from Dragon: Age Origins that offhandedly mentioned a witch in the Tellari Swamps. Brilliant! It’d look like I planned it all along. I didn’t.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love opportunities where I can show a change in the time of day as you move from panel to panel [when the ship heads towards and the team arrive in the Tellari Swamps]. I feel the palette of each panel is very distinct and beautiful.”

Alexander Freed: “Why did Alistair choose two people he barely knows to be his companions on this quest? We never make this explicit, but of course Varric is on the right track. Alistair wants to surround himself with people who don’t know him and won’t judge him, yet it’s Alistair’s idealism that Isabela and Varric work to preserve.”

Chad Hardin: “Another page where the writing inspired the art [when the group suddenly encounter a dragon]. I love the dragon bursting onto the scene and Isabela’s stare. Some writers will try to cram six or seven panels on a page like this and the pacing just doesn’t allow the artist to give each moment the right punch. Can you imagine if the first panel was crammed into a single square inch?”

Chad Hardin: “Yavana was one of the only characters that we did no preliminary sketches for. I don’t know how that happened, but thankfully it worked out.”

David Gaider: “I love how Yavana looks like a cross between Flemeth and Morrigan. Flemmigan? She’s totally Chad’s design, and it’s great. Typical for these witches, she never says things straight. In my mind, this Alistair is the one who did the Dark Ritual in Dragon Age: Origins - and I was half-tempted to have him lose his cool in this first scene [opening panels of Chapter 4] with her. Too early, though.”

Alexander Freed: “Through this whole sequence [the page when Varric aims Bianca at Yavana], Yavana is dropping cryptic hints and Alistair is refusing to play along. He’s met Flemeth and Morrigan - he knows Yavana won’t give him a straight answer, and he won’t give her the satisfaction of asking needlessly.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Sometimes it’s the little things on a page that spark my interest. Here [when the team navigate vines and mud to get to the temple], the sunset panel came out great and the mud looks really thick and gooey. It’s fun to focus on these details and make them stand out.”

Chad Hardin: “I hated drawing this scene [when Isabela gets kicked] where Isabela gets the boot to the face. Call me old fashioned, but I was raised to believe that only a coward would ever hit a woman (even a battle-hardened pirate adventurer). I draw at home, and my girls often watch me work in my studio. This was a page I didn’t want them watching me draw. I do like, though, that Isabela gets up, yanks the arrow out, and then soldiers on (and later extracts brutal revenge).”

Michael Atiyeh: “Poor Isabela. It seems I gave her more bruises and black eyes than any of the other characters. [when Isabela is yanking the arrow out]”

Chad Hardin: “It’s always interesting to go back and look at artwork because it reminds me of what was going on in my life at the time. I inked this page [opening panels of Chapter 5] at a ‘draw night’ session at an anime convention in St. George, Utah. I was one of the special guests, but I missed the first day because I was at my grandfather’s funeral in Las Vegas, Nevada. Seeing this page brought back those memories.”

David Gaider: “‘Bianca says hello.’ [quoting the panels being referenced] I adore Varric. I was tempted to have him narrate the entire series [in reference to these three comics], but then again I liked the idea of having each series center on one of the trio’s viewpoints. This book belongs to Alistair, but that doesn’t stop Varric from getting all the best lines.”

Alexander Freed: “Claudio, of course, is not a terribly sympathetic figure. But I wanted to emphasize that he takes this fight as personally as Isabela - he sincerely loved Luis and blames Isabela for the man’s death. I think it’s important to give every character, even the most loathsome, some dignity. [when Isabela and Claudio are fighting]”

Chad Hardin: “Payback! Here is where Isabela extracts her revenge on Claudio [when Isabela stabs Claudio]. I never enjoyed killing off a character so much. I particularly enjoyed putting the look of shock in his eyes. He had it coming. There is something satisfying about killing a ‘made man’.”

Chad Hardin: “Every now and then when drawing comics, I wish I could animate some panels and watch them as a cartoon. It would be great to see this sequence [when Yavana catches Claudio’s soul] in full motion as Yavana snatches Claudio’s soul, makes it reenter his corpse and then extracts information from him until he bursts into flame. It was a very Hellboy-ish moment. I enjoyed the movie that played in my mind while drawing this scene. Hope everyone liked the result.”

Chad Hardin: “As I mentioned on page 17, I rendered the first four chapters in grayscale, which made the black-and-white art look great, but had a neutralizing effect when it came to colors. By the time I drew chapter 4, I had seen the effect it was having and decided to stop using the grayscale so the colors would pop. When I saw this page [when Alistair says to Yavana ‘And we helped you find it’] in print, it confirmed to me that I made the right decision. I honestly feel this art was the best of The Silent Grove.”

Chad Hardin: “I practically painted these pages [when Yavana says ‘It is permitted. Tonight and only tonight’] in thumbnails hoping it would help me choose how to render them in ink. It is so hard trying to figure out how to get a full range of value out of just black and white. There are some artists and inkers that make this look easy. Mark Schultz comes to mind. Michael saved my bacon. Colorists really do so much work when it comes to rendering; this page came out awesome because of him.”

David Gaider: “Here we reveal the existence of Great Dragons (as opposed to High Dragons), and also that Yavana was the source of the return of dragons to Thedas after their departure for so many centuries. But why? There’s the rub, and not even Alistair can trust that she’s telling him the truth.”

David Gaider: “Here’s the controversial scene [Alistair killing Yavana]. I think some fans don’t like that Alistair did this, and have said they consider it out of character. I don’t. From his perspective, Flemeth and her daughters have been toying with the world for reasons that can’t be trusted. They dragged Maric away from his family, from him. One might think his judgement foolish, but considering what Alistair was capable of deciding even back in Dragon Age: Origins, it’s certainly not out of character.”

Chad Hardin: “[same scene as above] This was a controversial page, and there were a lot of people who thought it was out of character for Alistair to kill Yavana (I didn’t see it coming - I mean, you just don’t kill a Witch of the Wild), but here is the thing: this page is Alistair acting as a king. Yavana has been manipulating him, trying to play him like a pawn, and he just can’t allow that. There’s too much at stake, for himself and for his subjects.”

Alexander Freed: “The end? An end, at least [the trio walking off into the distance]. The series needed a note of closure while leading into Those Who Speak (which wouldn’t arrive until many months later). David tweaked the ending in the outline several times, and I did my best to balance resolving Alistair’s emotional journey without resolving the quest. It’s not as clean as I’d have liked, but fortunately, now it’s all in one volume...”

Those Who Speak annotations

Alexander Freed: “Capturing Isabela’s narrative voice was much easier for me than capturing Alistair’s - partly because I’d already written The Silent Grove, and partly because of my own writing proclivities. Rereading now, I wonder if I laid on the (mild) profanity a bit too thick. I’ll leave you to judge.”

David Gaider: “I like the additional detail Alex and Chad put in, letting us see more of Qarinus and more of Isabela’s crew. Alex wanted to give her crew more of a presence, and let her first mate have some face time, so they weren’t just parts of the scenery. Good call on his part.”

David Gaider: “I’m really fond of the formal getups Chad made for the party. Isabela’s actually comes from a concept we didn’t use from the cancelled Dragon Age 2 expansion, if I remember right. And Maevaris came from me asking for ‘someone who looks like Mae West’ - with the wonderful outfit all Chad’s doing.

Chad Hardin: “Maevaris. I love Mae. When David and Dragon Age art director Matthew Goldman spoke to me about designing Mae, they wanted her to be fully female with the exception of her biology. They told me to think ‘Mae West’. Well, when I think of Mae West, I think of her... womanly shape. So, drawing Maevaris was always walking a fine line between portraying Mae’s identity and her biology. The process endeared her to me.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Just like in The Silent Grove, we are introduced to another gentleman from Isabela’s past [when the team meet Lord Devon and Isabela threatens him]. As was the case with Claudio, he will meet his fate at her hands.”

Chad Hardin: “When I was drawing Titus, my kids asked me why I was drawing ‘angry Jesus’ or ‘evil Jesus’. I can’t remember which term they used exactly, but it made me chuckle. I was going for a mix of Rapustin and Joe Stalin, but ‘evil Jesus’ would do.”

David Gaider: “I’m not sure it’s apparent here [when Alistair says ‘I’d really rather not’], but Alistair was supposed to be using one of his Templar powers on Titus (that’s why Titus recognizes what he is on the next page) and disrupting his magic.”

Alexander Freed: “Isabela is witty and charming enough that it can be easy to forget that she’s not, in fact, a nice person. Even after finishing the outline, David was concerned about making her too unsympathetic - but I loved his approach in this series. The dark deeds Isabela commits - this murder included [Isabela killing Lord Devon] - are what make her guilt tangible and no easy matter to overcome.”

Alexander Freed: “I thought the notions of Isabela’s pride in her captaincy and dedication to her crew were some of the most interesting aspects of her character in David’s story. In scenes here [when Isabela is on her ship saying ‘Keep them focused and keep them sober’] and elsewhere, I did my best to emphasize their place at the core of Isabela’s world.”

Chad Hardin: “Most of the time I draw from imagination, but because of the complexity of this page [Qunari trying to board Isabela’s ship] I decided it would work better if I had photo reference. On this page are my nephews Jared (Varric) and Adam, my niece Melissa, my kids Erica, Tasey Michaela (Isabela) and Chad (Alistair), my friend’s daughter Amy, my wife Joy, and the neighborhood kids as Isabela’s pirate crew. (The crew member mooning the Qunari is out of my ol’ noodle.) I paid their modelling fee in pizza and root beer. Also, I had originally drawn cannons on Isabela’s ship, so if there are parts of it that look slightly wonky, chances are there was a cannon there.”

David Gaider: “Ever since the BioWare artists finally did a concept for female Qunari, I’ve been itching to include one in the game. It’s always slipped through my fingers, so I was going to be damned if I’d have a Qunari plot in a comic - without the same technical limitations - and not have one present.

Chad Hardin: “I had no idea this was the first time anyone outside of BioWare had seen a female Qunari.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I really like the lighting in this sequence [Isabela in her cell thinking ‘I haven’t eaten in days’], especially the strong white light and the characters in shadow.”

David Gaider: “The entire sequence of Rasaan interrogating Isabela was something I plotted out in detail when this series began. Here they discuss names - something treated in a manner peculiar to the Qunari, considering how much importance they apply to what things are called (and not called), because it forms the core of their identity. Isabela brushes it off, but as we find out later it’s also at the core of her identity. I liked that parallel.”

Alexander Freed: “To balance out the relatively static talking pages elsewhere in the issue, I hoped to make the interrogation and flashback sequences beautiful and full of information. I proposed an approach to Chad, and he wisely reshaped it into what you see here [the page with the scene where Isabela says ‘I’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes’]. Anything that succeeds on these pages should be credited to him; anything that fails is my fault.”

Chad Hardin: “Probably the most challenging spread I have ever done. My friend Stacie Pitt was the model for Isabela on this page, and my wife Joy was Rasaan. I saved these pages [around the scene when Rasaan says ‘Mistakes can be corrected’] for myself.”

David Gaider: “Sten from Dragon Age: Origins becoming the new Arishok of the Qunari was something we'd planned even during Dragon Age 2. This was a great opportunity to show that, and also to show that Sten didn’t acquire horns even despite the makeover the Qunari received in DA2. Hornless Qunari are considered special, and Sten is no exception.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I think that David, Alex and Chad handled Isabela’s flashback [to when she was sold by her mother] in an interesting way, and it created a nice flow to the story.”

David Gaider: “This was a controversial scene [what happened to the slaves Isabela was transporting], the end result of a lot of discussions between me and Isabela’s original writer on the team, and it went through a lot of revisions over that time. It needed to fit with the story Isabela told the player in DA2, but fill in the blanks of what she didn’t tell. We didn’t want Isabela to be someone who became who she is because she was ‘broken’ but instead as a result of her own actions - yet also not be completely beyond redemption.”

Chad Hardin: “These were hard pages [as above] to draw. It was difficult knowing that events such as this are part of human history, such as the Zong massacre in 1781, where the British courts ordered the insurers to reimburse the crew of the Zong for financial losses caused by throwing slaves overboard when faced with a lack of water. Horrifying beyond words.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Here, Isabela visits here crew, and I wanted to play up that she was in the light and they were in a dark cell. The light streaming through the bars gave me the opportunity to highlight Brand, who also had dialogue in the scene.”

Alexander Freed: “I struggled to find a way for Varric to contribute to victory without distracting from Alistair and Sten’s big fight. I’m happy with the solution: a brazen lie seemed appropriate to the character without taking away from the main show.”

David Gaider: “I believe my original plan had Isabela’s and Alistair’s fight scenes happening separately, but I like how Alex intertwined them in the script and I especially like how this ends up highlighting the differences between their characters when their fights are resolved. Isabela is defiant, revealing her name not because Rasaan demands it but because it’s her choice. In both cases, mercy is strength.”

Michael Atiyeh: “The brush I created for the clouds really gave them a nice watercolor effect here [on the deck of the ship, Sten calling Alistair ‘kadan’]. That brush has become a staple in my toolbox.”

Alexander Freed: “With the strong theme of names running through these issues, I liked the notion that Isabela had outgrown being, well, ‘Isabela’. When her name comes up in Until We Sleep, it’s largely played with ambiguity.”

Until We Sleep annotations

Alexander Freed: “The story of ‘Arthur’ is one of my favorite minor sequences [Varric infiltrating and fighting his way into the fortress]. It tells us something about Varric and it delivers plot information - and it’s also a reminder that our heroes kill an awful lot of people during these series and cope with it in their own ways. In general, writing Varric let me skirt the edge of metacommentary, which I greatly enjoyed.”

David Gaider: “Varric, as always, is my ‘voice of the narrator’. Here he’s expressing some of my own amusement at Alistair’s growing list of peculiarities [‘Your majesty is quite the special snowflake’]. To think, back at the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins he was just the player’s goofy sidekick who grew up in a barn.”

Michael Atiyeh: “By the third series, Until We Sleep, I really started to have a complete feel for what I wanted the final art to look like. As an artist, it’s important to continue to evolve and grow. The close-up of Sten’s face [same page as above] is a perfect example of how I wanted the rendering on the characters to look.”

Alexander Freed: “David’s outline called for a short, somber reveal of the Calenhad story by Sten. Fueled by my desire to avoid ‘talking heads’ sequences, I scripted it as a full-on storytelling flashback. David made sure the history worked (at least from the Qunari point of view), and Chad did a beautiful job handling it in a mere two pages.”

David Gaider: “Blood is important in Dragon Age, as a theme. Here we tie in the dragon blood that was mentioned all the way back in The Silent Grove and explain what it means at last. I was a bit hesitant to tarnish the legend of Calenhad the Great in this way, but I comfort myself with the knowledge this tale is but a viewpoint and not necessarily the entire truth.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Titus melting the attacker is a great example of classic comicbook storytelling and exactly what made me fall in love with the medium.”

David Gaider: “I was really happy with how Chad handled the reveal of Mae as transgender [the scene with Mae in the cell]. My worry was that Varric finding her disrobed might be potentially titillating, but I think he handled it nicely. I only wish there was more time to have Mae properly respond to being exposed in this manner, even to a friend.”

Chad Hardin: “I originally drew Mae as female [same scene as above], then changed her anatomy, so the psychological violation and humiliation she felt would be the focus. Hope that came across.”

Chad Hardin: “When in doubt, have Bianca shoot it [Varric shooting the artifact].”

David Gaider: “This scene [Varric and Bianca the dwarf] with Varric was one I wanted to do for a very long time. We’ve hinted that Varric’s crossbow was named after a real person, someone he never wants to talk about. Now I finally had the chance to show why.”

Chad Hardin: “Of all my Dragon Age pages, this scene was hands down my favorite, because Varric is my favorite. It was awesome to get to draw Bianca in her dwarven form. These scenes give you a glimpse of the love Varric and Bianca shared. It doesn’t tell you the whole story, but you can assume plenty from what is shown. You get to see Varric mostly naked (you’re welcome), but most of all you witness Varric’s heartbreak. I felt privileged to draw it. I got so obsessed with drawing this page I did an entire watercolor painting based on the last panel [Varric gets up to leave, ‘This isn’t right’ - ? or perhaps the scene where he opens the door to leave].”

Alexander Freed: “Unreliable narrators are always tricky - done wrong, they can just confuse the reader. But I’m fairly happy with Varric’s lies throughout this series, most of which are used to downplay the emotional cost of events rather than whitewash the events themselves.”

Michael Atiyeh: “This palette worked perfectly [Varric standing in front of the doorway/portal in the Fade proper], but I can’t take all the credit because BioWare provided reference for the Fade. I added the hot orange energy for the doorway, which looks great with the sickly green sky.”

David Gaider: “This scene [Isabela’s Fade nightmare] was actually inspired by a fan named Allegra who did a cosplay as a Qunari version of Isabela. I knew I wanted something like this for Isabela’s Fade section of the comic, but it didn’t really solidify until I saw the cosplay.”

Chad Hardin: “Isabela is more affected by her encounter with Rasaan than we were led to believe. A portent of things to come?”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love this shot of Mae in the fourth panel [on the page where Isabela is affected by vines]. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what a great character she is in the series, and Chad captures her beautifully in this shot.”

Alexander Freed: “I saw this issue as a sort of downbeat victory lap. Over the course of the previous series, our protagonists largely came to terms with the inner demons the Fade confronts them with here. The fact they’ve come so far lets them win this last battle... but they still have scars that will never completely disappear.”

David Gaider: “Maric was in the first two novels I wrote for Dragon Age. Seeing Chad’s rendering of him as a regal, grown-up version of Alistair made me incredibly nostalgic. Some characters you just never let go of.”

Alexander Freed: “I feel Varric’s lines (‘tell yourself the stories you need to tell’ but ‘never live your own lies’) are the natural endpoint of all the exchanges he’s had with Alistair, starting from the end of Chapter 1 of The Silent Grove. And of course it plays off the story of ‘Arthur’, as well.’’

Chad Hardin: “I’m happy with the way Titus came off in these pages [Titus attacking and saying ‘The last magisters of Tevinter were so close’]. He looks threatening and powerful when fighting Alistair, Isabela and Varric, but genuinely confused by his inability to defeat Maric. Bye-bye, evil Jesus.”

Alexander Freed: “I can’t help but feel for Titus. He was unthinkably corrupt, but I see him as genuinely motivated by Tevinter’s glory. (The fact Alistair reads zealous ideology as a lust for power says a lot about both characters.)”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love the seamless transition of color from Titus’ magic to the dragon breath and then back into the orange remnants of his magic in the smoke. This was a really fun panel to color [Titus saying ‘Die by what wrought you’].”

David Gaider: “‘You are not the dreamer here. I am.’ I always have a scene or a line that’s in my head when I begin a tale, and this line of Maric’s was one I wanted all the way back when I started working on The Silent Grove.”

Chad Hardin: “I love this page [Maric and Alistair clasping hands]; Mike’s colors are spot on. We get to see all our heroes in an ideal state for the last time. This is the last Dragon Age page I saved for myself.”

David Gaider: “This scene kills me [Alistair destroying the Magrallen]. I knew it needed to happen; I knew I wanted it to happen even back when I began the story. Alistair lets Maric remain in the Fade rather than dragging him back to a world which has moved on. Alistair’s ready to move on, but forcing him to give up that hope... it makes me feel like a bad person.”

Chad Hardin: “Heartbreak for Alistair as he realizes that once again, as a king, he must kill: this time, his own father (granted, the Magrallen did most of the work). I really like how Maric crumbles away in the end. This was my last page, and the emotions on the page and in my studio were very final. Altogether, this was a year of my life in the making. On my last page, I wrote a thank you to everyone involved, the crew at Dark Horse and the crew at BioWare. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them again. It was a thrill. Finally, a huge thank-you to the Dragon Age fan community, whose support was overwhelmingly awesome.”

Michael Atiyeh: “As the story came to an end, I knew I was going to miss these characters. Writing these annotations reinforces the fact that I hope to work with this great creative team again one day. Many thanks to Dark Horse and BioWare for the opportunity to work on Dragon Age.”

Alexander Freed: “The tension between the art and the narration on this page [the one with Alistair sitting on his throne while nobles argue] is something you can only pull off in comics. Neither tells the full, bittersweet story alone. Similarly, these issues wouldn’t have been possible without everyone on the team; thanks to David, Chad, Michael, and everyone I lack space to list!”

Additional pages / art

Library Edition Volume 1 also came with some additional pages, with additional art and commentary. These are as follows (I’m including them for the sake of completion, click the links to see):

1. Alistair and dragon concepts

2. Rasaan and Maevaris concepts

3. Sten, Titus and Yavana concepts

4. A series of cover pages 1

5. A series of cover pages 2

In case anyone has trouble reading the notes that accompany these images, I’ve transcribed them below:

1. Dragon Age Sketch Book

Alistair Concept

Dragon Age / Dark Horse

Chad Hardin: “The headshot of Alistair is from a finished sketch with a rejected armor design. In order to save time, the redrawing was completed on the computer, where tweaks and changes are quick and easy, if somewhat less glorious.”

[Dragon] Head #1 / Head #2

Chad Hardin: “Everyone liked this dragon sketch so much that Dark Horse printed it for signings at conventions. You can see I did multiple proposals for the dragon’s head. It was more effective than drawing the body over and over.”

2. [arrow pointing to Mae’s sleeve] concealed [I think that’s what it says anyway] daggers / shurikens?

Chad Hardin: “When designing Rasaan and Maevaris, I wasn’t exactly sure how their roles would play out in the series. Maevaris’ outfit was inspired by brothel madams of the Wild West. I thought it would be cool to have some weapons concealed in the formal wear. These never came into play in the series, but they were there in my mind.”

3. Chad Hardin: “Although we only see Titus in his battle garb in one issue, I really liked the design of his armor. The sketch of Yavana was done on the fly and served as both a rough preliminary sketch and as a panel layout. You have to work hard and smart in comics to keep up with the deadlines.”

4. Cover Artist Anthony Palumbo: “This was my first assignment for Dark Horse, and I was both excited and nervous. I drew pencil sketches of the main characters, scanned them and played with different arrangements, poses and color schemes in Photoshop.”

5. Anthony Palumbo: “Fellow illustrator Winona Nelson helped me by sitting for photo reference. I created the mock-jewelry with gold-painted Sculpey. That’s a quick photo of my own gaping maw, to help with the image of Varric.”

#dragon age #bioware #video games #artevalentinapaz #alistair theirin #fav warden #morrigan #queen of my heart #long post #longpost

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beyoncesdragon · 4 years ago

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Sisyphean

→Pairing: Harry Styles x gender neutral reader (as far as I know? Like tell if otherwise...)

→Summary: Sisyphean. Used to describe a task that can never be completed. a damn make up look for example.

→Warnings: swearing, but else no, this is crack™️

→Wordcount: around 1.2k?

a/n: Happy whatever you want to celebrate today. If its Halloween, go for it. Ariana’s new album? Ateez’ tbcn performance? Harry’s golden mv? 2020 being over in 2 Months from tomorrow? Me being able to write a fic in one go? Go for it.

Masterlist 🦋

“How in the bleeding fuck do they do that?!” I called out, angrily staring at my laptop. The lady on screen continued to effortlessly apply dark eyeshadow on her cheekbones, unbothered by my sudden outburst.

I pressed pause and was about to get up for another mug of tea (and a treat, I deserved it) when someone came sprinted into the living room.

“Everything okay? I heard you swear like you just got a positive pregnancy test…” I looked up with a frown. “If I had a positive pregnancy test, I wouldn’t swear like that. However, does that mean, you expect me to swear like this in case I had one? And if we analyse that, does it mean you don’t want kids because you projected your own reaction onto me in that situation, and your reaction was this?” Harry stared at me for a moment without blinking.

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you should never date a psychology major.” Despite my bad mood, I had to grin.

“Sorry.” And then I pressed play again. “What are you watching?” Harry asked, sitting down next to me. His eyes trailed over the many opened make up palettes and brushes, sponges and make-up wipes. There was a little pile of them, stained black and red and dark green, because I had decided that I disliked the look when I was already half through. Consistency and patience were not one of my biggest strengths.

“I’m attempting to do this…” I pointed at the YouTube video and the woman doing her thing, before sighing deeply, “but to be honest, she lost me at applying primer because I don’t…I don’t even know if I ever even owned one.” Harry hummed and leaned closer to the screen. “I didn’t even know you were into Halloween like that.” I shrugged. “I am not. I just like doing make up. Besides, it’s not like we would go anywhere anyways. We’re in midst of a pandemic after all.” Harry nodded, carefully lifting one of my brushes in the air. “Alright. And why are you on the floor and not in the bathroom or at least at a table?” I shrugged, trying to darken the corners of my eyes like the woman. “I don’t know…we have a comfortable carpet. Ah, can you pass me that fluffy brush please…hey what the heck? Why is she done all of a sudden? She skipped the eyeliner part and the…why would she do that, I am not even done with my left eye!” Harry started to laugh loudly and that laughter only grew when the creator announced that she “did the eye liner off camera because if you followed me for some time now, you know how I do it anyways!”

“Oh she did not.” I breathed in anger, clicking away from the video consumed in self-pity and anger. I wasn’t following her and this was my first video of hers so I was appalled greatly. I scrolled through my feed, trying to find a similar look so I could at least modify the mess I had already made on my face a bit. So far, there was nothing and I felt like throwing my lap top away. “Why is this happening! I was doing so well, I don’t want to waste more make up.” I whined dramatically, flopping against Harry before placing my head in his lap, sulking in my make-up misery. Harry poked my cheek softly.

“You could improvise.” I snapped up. “I can’t even come up with an original look Harry, what do you mean.” He shrugged. “Okay, I could improvise for you.” now that was an offer.

“I could do your make up and then we cook something. And watch that Ateez performance you yelled to me about for the last two days. But you stop sulking. Deal?”

Moments like this was when I questioned if I really was living or if I was stuck in a schmaltzy rom-com or just simply daydreaming.

“For real?” he nodded, a small dimply smile appearing on his handsome face. “Yes, for real. I’m feeling generous today, you know.” I hummed, feeling as if my heart grow impossibly big with all the love I felt for him.

“How comes?” he laughed softly. “Well, first of all, I am a generous human being,” I slapped his arm softly, “Generous maybe, humble rather not.” He grinned, sending me a wink. “I never said humble. However, secondly, because I am an amazing and supportive boyfriend…” I could only nod to that; no lie detected, “and thirdly because I had a good laugh at how you dragged this one twitter user to filth this morning.”

Ah well that.

“Yeah I had to. The comment was so impossibly stupid I had to reply. What fucking dumbo calls wearing lace gloves the beginning of the end of real men? Like yeah, we get it, you’re reeking of toxic masculinity, no need to be so loud about it.” Harry grinned proudly. “I mean, I’m all in for kindness but “If “real men” describes people like you, please everyone wear lace gloves, quick. I wish you and your fragile ego a good time.” Is a pretty solid answer.” Harry hummed amused and I laughed. “I also tweeted a link to affordable gloves, did you see that? Also, he basically gave your video a free shout out because now all his dumb friends go watch it too and feel attacked. Bet he was one of those men who threw a massive mantrum when Wonder Woman came out. I bet.” I sat up from his lap and stretched my body.

“I think you would win this bet, babe. I did see your second tweet, by the way. And I retweeted it too, right before I heard your cursing.” He nodded towards the make-up products scattered across the carpet.

“Which would be a perfect transition back to the issue. Before I completely ruin all you’ve accomplished so far, any specific wishes?” I laughed shaking my head. “I just ask for you to not poke one of my eyes out or something. The look doesn’t have to become too graphic, neither does it have to be permanent.” He grinned smugly.

“If you would wholeheartedly love Halloween you would sacrifice one eye at least. It’s just an eye.” Surely an interesting take, yet I had not met anyone that was so invested in Halloween that they would go the extra mile and willingly remove an eye for authenticity.

“I said before that I am not, so you don’t even have to worry about that.” Harry pouted in fake disappointment before leaning forward clicking on a video.

“Just for inspiration…” he mumbled when he caught my questioning eyes. “Alright. Close you eyes…alright so black in this corner…” a few minutes passed quietly, only filled with the instructions of the make-up artist in the video and Harry’s whisper, since he repeated everything under his breath.

Suddenly it was quiet for a second, Harry’s muttering and brush stokes stopped. I opened my eyes, seeing him stare blankly at the screen before taking a deep breath.

“Alright, but how in the bleeding fuck does he do that?”

— ✩ thank u for reading ✩ —

#wow it's been a while #Harry Styles #also stream golden #harry edward styles #harry styles x reader #harry styles imagine #harry styles x you #fanfiction #happy halloween #reader insert #gender n #gender neutral imagine #Harry Styles x gender neutral reader #My writing #harry styles fic

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pixie-skull · 5 years ago

Text

AU Borhap # 6: Cute Moment on a Date

Before I go, yes I am going to attempt to make this open to anyone, but this creator wants more LGBTQ+ AUs, so this one just if you and x character went and the character’s thoughts. Please share your thoughts if this good or not in my ask box? :D Here are the rules too.

Another thing, this fandom includes real-life people and out of respect I do not condone anyone going to the listed and bother them, they may be celebrities, but are people too. :]

Inspired by this post and this one disclaimer, this mainly romantic fluff, but I am fine if this either read romantic or borderline sexual. I am also, curious who still making one-shots on this cast of celebrities or the Band Queen itself? I have cute ideas and want to request them. O.O Shout out to @impossiblepeggy I hope this adds good vibes to your day. :D

ONE MORE THING DEAR READER! =D 1st + 2nd + 3rd + 4th + 5th

Rami Malek: (loosely inspired by a dream I had, yes he comforted my overwhelmed/overstimulated self XD )

Rami tends to be quiet, yet he loves to do things that make those little butterflies take flight. This time he and you went to an open mic and you were getting a headache by so many stimuli. At the point during someone’s act, you sat down and he sat down next to you. You tried to keep it yourself the sounds and spotlights were too much. At a point one, he leaned over to check on you and notice you rubbing your eyelids and whispered with a hint of concern, but teasing,

“Hey Y/N are you alright?” you nod yet additionally says “I heard a solution for overstimulation is to kiss the sense that is overwhelmed, so in this case your eyelids?” and this makes you drop your hands and face this green eye gent.

“Oh is that so?” and now seeing you teasing him, a smirk grew across his mouth.

“Yes, may I try?” he asks and you want to respond and you close your eyelids and feel a gentle peck upon each lid. Only there was a moment of stillness after the last one was kissed. You peek an eye open and see him staring at you and his aura screamed for such silence his attraction. Leaning forward, to only be muttered rudely the person directly behind him;

“Excuse you, can we please watch Bri*or is that too much!?” and already overwhelmed, you rush out, sure a few more annoying grunts, but being overwhelmed never fun. Little did you know he followed and you turned around and trying to act fine, you see those emerald eyes widen more than usual in concern.

“Rami, you can go back, I am fine, I just needed to clear my mind” and turning around, you face the hallway wall. Only you heard faint footsteps and turn to see him have this soft smile. “What?”

“Now tell me why I would have any more fun without my significant other?” and when thinking, and rubbing your temples in thought going back and what to say, he leaned over to kiss your eyelids again. That gentle pressure and eventually arms around you, make your thoughts melt away. You open both eyes now and see him having his eyelids close, now you kiss each lid of his. Eventually, he opens those dark eyes and that tiny grin sneaks up again, yet this time you lean to kiss your partner.

*= I am not sure, but I dream Bri Larson doing stand up comedy. XD

---

Joseph Mazzello: (I like few sports, baseball one of them)

You two went to a baseball game, Joe’s idea though. Funny enough being at the game, just you two focusing on the game, seemed not that much of a difference of cuddling and maybe letting him flipping to the baseball channel, just to see the score. However, today was extra cute, besides more of date due more affectionate to an extent, the weather had other plans. The day was already cold and windy, yet sharing a huge blanket and attempts to warm up, seemed not too odd. Joe though gave you more of the blanket, seeing he would hop up like the little joey he is, and cheer on the team when a good hit was made, sing to “Take me out to Ball Game”, and more, even get you food. However, by the eighth innings, you see it start to drizzle. Eventually, this little rain became a downpour and Joe gave you his sports jersey, even his favorite hat (if wearing one, he just puts on top of yours), and more to keep you warm. Luckily the team you two wanted to win won but at this point, your blanket became like you soaked and cold. However, poor Joseph was shrieving for all the layers he gave to you, even if you said no, he did not care, he wanted you warm. When heading to the parking lot and driving back to his place to drop him off.

“Joe-Joe, you are chattering away with how cold you are!?” You exclaim.

“I amm fiinnneeee Y/N” he mutters, luckily you put the heater on full blast and you see already happier results.

“Joe, are you sure you want me to stay the night? It is just rain” you ask.

“Y/N I insist, this rain makes the roads more slick and dangerous, and I do not want you in danger” and you jokingly sigh. “I mean it plleeeaaaassssseeeeee stay” he playfully yet also seriously whimpers.

“Okay, but I am making us warm drinks” and you can tell he felt happier knowing the plan of your stayover, made the little pink his cold cheeks warm up.

Finally, all settled in and both in two blankets of own, to keep warm, are putting away the mugs. When placing them away you hear him shuffling behind you.

“Y/N follow me please” and you nod and laugh a bit to see his dinosaur socks as he walks you to the guest room. He pats you sit next to him and he holds you close and whispers “Y/N can you please be the big spoon tonight?” and you smile and lean over and he cuddling in close your arms, while he also kisses your forehead, but before turning his head you whisper back a similar tone,

“Joe can I kiss you to warm you?” and he looks at you and mouths ‘yes’ and you do tiny pecks until he all cozy in your arms.

---

Gwilym Lee: (sorry is shorter than the other two)

Your two’s date is cut off for a sudden reshooting a few of Gwilym’s scenes. So when waiting for him, you decide to order a pickup of your two’s favorite couple meal. He comes back to your place earlier than expected and you stand like a deer in high beams or shocked and unable to react.

“Y/N is that *meal* with extra *side*?” You nod and just see his questioning look melt to a grateful smile. “Awww I feel bad you did this and I been so busy” and you now smile back at him.

“Gwilym, it is alright, comes on you big teddy bear, let’s eat”. After a nice meal he offers to take you home and when driving you notice he took a different route. Eventually, he took you to your favorite little park and both enjoy the empty place. If pushing the other on the swings, going down the slides the fastest, or just climbing the monkey bars, which he was too tall for. At one point when back on the swing, you asked him to push you again, but this time he did less huge pushes, and when about to ask what is up, he just looked down to you, and you got up, and both kissed.

---

Ben Hardy:

One type of date you and Ben both enjoy is acting like strangers and flirting to each other. This time you two were by the gym and you acted like you just came from the library and he sees you reading after a few lifts and leg exercises.

“Hmm, if I knew there be a book section I would also exercise my mind, as you seem to be doing” he smirked and you raise an eyebrow.

“Well with that lack of exercise, I am surprised you can talk sentences?” and he made a fake gasp.

“Uncalled for, I was just complimenting you? Is that too much to be nice to strangers?” and even some people were staring now and you laughed and the sense of being watched clearly he enjoyed. “Okay, let me start over?” and you fake chuckle.

“Okay?”

“Hi, that book I heard is amazing and I am Ben by the way,” he said waving and now you just laugh and he ends up laughing too.

“So shaking hands not your thing?”

“Oh I can shake, I just thought sweat and books do not work well?”

“I mean I know what is like a book and needs to be open, that sweat can be useful in” and at this point, you were giggling at how dumb this becoming. He keeps his smirk though and even licks lower lip.

“Oh? What is that?” and you get up and whisper yet loud enough some can turn.

“Maybe that mouth of yours” and you both trace the arms of the other and eventually neck to face. At the point he even lost his act and laughed, he picked up his things, yet with your hand in the other. When out of the gym by his car you two kiss.

“Well Y/N that was umm” and he just looked at you to see you laughing still, his criticism stopped, and he just kissed you more.

---

Lucy Boynton:

You both went to a mini local community art like a festival. Not quite like a fair, but something where arts can still paintings, homemade jewelry, and even people selling their own wine. You two took a few sips, well, maybe enough to get you bit tipsy. Again homemade wine sometimes not always perfected and you felt bad for Lucy to see her not like the drinks, so in attempts to show off to your girlfriend, you drank instead toss; plus it made the sellers feel better. Luckily you were not too tipsy, but you did compliment her more and she giggled as you explain how beautiful she is in various ways. After a little more walking, she bought you two food and help absorb the alcohol.

“Y/N You are so adorable, but please do not again” Lucy smiles brightly and you nod understanding. “I just hope you know too, if you are getting tired, we can head back” her sweet voice singing to your ear.

“Lucy, I did see one thing I want us to get?” you spoke after finishing your lunch and leaned in smiling and you both kiss gently.

“And what is that Y/N?” she said after her soft lips parted yours.

“Would it be cheesy to say I want it to be a surprise?” you asked and she shook her hair, making her lovely hair bounce.

“No, not all, just lead the way Y/N” and she stands up from the small table, you take her hand, and head near where you started. At last, you found it and she even let out a small giggle. “Huh, caricatures?” as she asked you paid and you both sat down. As you both talked a bit to the artist, while posing, you got lost in her eyes and hands, you squeezed her hands loving. She squeezed back and held fix eyes and when the artist implied done, you moved your hands up, as she held your face too, to kiss.

#bohemian rapsody movie #Bohemian Rhapsody #RamI Malek #joe mazzello #Gwilym Lee #Ben Hardy #Lucy Boynton #AU #alternative universe

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winchest09 · 6 years ago

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Unwritten

Title: Unwritten

Pairing: Dean Winchester x OFC Eileen (AU)

Word Count: 9126 (Not even sorry ha)

Summary: Eileen was an aspiring author who had lost all hope in herself and her writing...so what happens when a certain green eyed Winchester comes along and turns her world upside down?

Warnings: Like two swear words, fluff. FLUFFFFF. Fluff. Bit of angst, mention of character not caring about herself, but thats basically it!

A/N: Ok this is my first ever oneshot and I’ve wrote it in dedication to the gorgeous @squirrel-moose-winchester She’s been feeling a little low lately and she’s been the first amazing person on here to take the time to talk to me, encourage me and without her, Shatter Me wouldn’t have been posted! So when I noticed she was feeling a little low, I told her I was writing her a one shot to cheer her up and I can only hope you like it my lovely <3

Also any mistakes are my own, please do not repost my work anywhere however reblogs are fine and welcome :) I’ll give you a virtual hug if you did <3 Main Masterlist

Let me know what you think!

The late afternoon sun streamed the through the slightly dusted windows of the apartment. The rays of sun streaking across the floorboards as a faint tapping was echoing throughout the space. Sat at a mahogany desk, a young woman with long black hair sat. Her legs crossed, eyes shut tight, her head in her palm and a pen tapping in her other hand. Opening her eyes, Eileen stared down at the empty word document on her laptop in front of her. No words littered the page, just the odd sentence of dialogue here or there. She grumbled in frustration, throwing her pen and slamming her laptop lid down before her delicate hands brushed through her long dark hair, bringing it over one shoulder.

On a normal day, Eileen worked at the local coffee shop in town, a quaint little place titled ‘Coffee n Crumbs’. Yet when she was free from the constraints of work, Eileen was an aspiring author, working till the early hours of a morning on a book she was hoping to send over to some publishers very soon. However, writers block had struck. She’d lost all confidence in her story and she had no idea which way to lead with it next. Eileen had sent off two ideas previously to publishers, only to hear nothing back from them. She was hoping third time would be the charm yet here she was, with a creative wall higher and longer than the wall of China.

Getting up, she stretched and padded her way across her wooden floorboards to the bathroom, intent on taking an incredibly long bath whilst listening to the soft rock of Bon Jovi “Maybe his songs will give me inspiration” she thought, whilst quietly humming ‘Bed of Roses’. Yes, her latest fiction was a romance but inspiration was at a minimum. Eileen was single, her last relationship being well over a year ago and chivalry was practically dead with each boyfriend she’d had. Looking at the clock, she knew she didn’t have to be at work for another two hours so she knew she could take her time. So, an incredibly long bubble bath it was, soothing her aching muscles and trying hard to recharge her creative mind before it was going to be mindlessly numbed by her employer.

Once she was dry, she pulled on a pair of dark jeans with rips in just over the knee to go along with the dark blouse she had to wear with her works logo on. Wrapping her hair around a chopstick into a bun, she dusted her face with a little bit of make up before grabbing her notepad and pen. She placed it in her handbag and let her and linger on it slightly. Sometimes she thought she was crazy taking it wherever she went but sometimes, inspiration can hit in the weirdest of places. She had an idea for her first fiction when she was in line at a mall and the idea for her second was when she was when she was in the middle of a yoga class. She will never forget the looks on people’s faces when she gave up doing the downward dog to scribble down key notes. Smiling slightly, she zipped up her bag and headed out of her front door ready for another busy shift at Coffee n Crumbs.

Rushing through the front door of the business, the little bell above the door announced her entry. The blonde behind the counter turned towards her and smiled. Kind hearted Donna. Donna was Eileen’s best friend and confidant at work. She knew all about Eileen’s creative struggles, ambitions, relationships and more. She was a bubbling ball of joy on Eileen’s rainy days and she had never appreciated a friend more. Donna was the assistant manager at the shop and she was a dab hand at making all different kinds of pies, cakes and pastries. She’d taught Eileen all she knew about baking.

Stripping herself of her coat and bag, Eileen took her notepad out of her bag and tucked it down the side of the till before placing an apron over her front. Donna took note of her notepad as she dusted the flour off her hands down her apron, fresh from her pie making “You still suffering with that creators block sugar?”

“You better believe it” Eileen sighed “Do you need any help?”

Donna smiled sympathetically “Sure honey, these pies are fresh out the oven. Just need dusting with some icing sugar”

Eileen nodded, a few dark strands of hair freeing themselves from her bun as she did so. Grabbing the sieve and icing sugar from the side, she starting gently patting the utensil against her hand, laying the pies delicately with a delicious sugary layer “Donna, is there honestly any point in me doing this for a third time?” She asked her friend, hoping for an honest answer.

Donna slapped her dough down on the freshly floured surface “Are you kidding? Leen, you’re dreaming with your eyes wide open” She stated like a matter of fact “and that’s a good thing” using her finger to point towards Eileen.

Before Eileen could respond, a deep British accent filled the back room “Ladies, I pay you to work, not to stand around and chat”

Donna rolled her eyes as she carried on kneading her dough “Women can multitask Crowley and well, we’re just talkin’ bout Leen here’s new book. As we’re workin’.” Donna emphasised, knowing the boss of the business too well, knowing he would look for any loophole he could.

Eileen just took a deep breath and tried to hide the smile that was trying to break free across her lips. Donna always had the balls to stand up to the demon of a boss that was Crowley and it always made her smile.

“Eileen, piece of advice” Crowley barked, his tone sharp and impatient “If it’s not happened by now, it’s not ever gonna happen so please do your job and get out there and serve my customers!” He almost shouted, his voice gravelly and to the point before he made his way to his office, just off the side of the kitchen.

Eileen just nodded as she placed down her sieve, ready to go out to be the front of house but was stopped by a gentle hand.

“Oh don’t listen to him, he’s just an old grump” Donna comforted, waving Crowley off like he was a fly to be swatted “He has no idea what he’s talking about”

“I know that I will fire one of you if you don’t do your jobs!” Crowley shouted through his door, clearly listening in to what Donna had said. She patted your shoulder before getting back to her pastries, letting you take charge at the front.

Flustered, Eileen wiped her hands down her apron and carried out the few pies that were ready to be ordered and eaten by customers. As she got to the shop front, she expected a mile long queue with how Crowley was talking, however there was only one customer waiting who was casually glancing around the room.

Placing the freshly made pies in the counter, Eileen took a deep breath and painted on a smile, looking up to greet the customer “Sorry to keep you waiting, just needed to get these freshly made pies from the oven. What can I get you?”

At the sound of Eileen’s voice, the customer turned and took off his dark ray ban sunglasses. He came forward and placed one hand on the counter, casually tapping his fingers “I’ll take a coffee and a slice of pie to go, thanks”

One look at him and Eileen’s mouth became dry. The gentlemen in front of her was a 6ft god, she was sure of it. Brown hair, bow legs and striking green eyes. “S-sure” She stuttered as she bustled around to make him his coffee. Eileen shook her head discreetly as she shifted the weight of her frame from one foot to the other. She couldn’t help but to keep stealing glances at this handsome stranger over her shoulder, if she was looking for inspiration for a new male protagonist for any story, he was it. Strong jawline, broad shoulders and lips that looked delectable. The handsome green eyed stranger however had clocked on to Eileen’s small glances and the corner of his lip turned upward into a smile.

Eileen gently covered his coffee with the take out lid before sliding it over the counter towards him “What flavour pie would you like?” She asked softly.

Leaning forward on the counter, he looked up into Eileen’s dark eyes, determined to make her blush “Well what would you recommend?”

Eileen cleared her throat, discreetly wiping the sweat off her palms onto her apron hidden by the counter “Well all of our pies are handmade here by either myself or Donna so if I’m being biased, I’d recommend all of them. They’re all pretty good” She honestly answered.

The stranger nodded, leaning to one side on his arm as he scoured the counter to the left of him “Ok then which one did you make”

“The pecan” Eileen smiled softly

The customer looked at the pecan pie that sat in the stands and nodded in approval “I’ll take half”

Eileen scoffed, the shock on her face evident “Are you serious?”

“I love pie” He said nonchalantly “and I want to see if you’re pie is as good as you say it is” He winked as he watched Eileen’s cheek burn red and he chuckled softly to himself.

Eileen grabbed one of thee to go pie boxes and proceeded to cut the handsome customer half of the pecan pie as ordered. Once his order was complete, Eileen told him the total and he handed over a bundle of notes, letting his hand brush with hers softly before leaving the store with a soft wave. As Eileen stood there with his money in her hand, Donna appeared at the side of her “What a dish” she muttered as they both watched the mysterious stranger cross the street, his tight behind in perfect view “Lord save me, my lower lips are trembling” Donna announced, no shame in her outburst.

“DONNA!” Eileen scolded playfully, striking her arm with the money the stranger had paid with, a laugh escaping her lips. Donna just winked and retreated back into the kitchen as Eileen went to put the money into the till, noticing that the handsome stranger had left her a sizeable tip to which she smiled. Today wasn’t going to be that bad.

The afternoon past steadily, customers coming and going but as time went on, the quieter it got. Eileen was leaning on the front desk, her notepad underneath her as she brainstormed plot points and directions for the next chapter of her book. Donna was on her last break and Eileen was due to go home when she came back so she was looking forward to sitting with a tub of ice cream in front of Netflix and losing herself into some sort of series. However those hopes were shattered when Crowley made an appearance.

“Eileen!” He snapped, causing the dark haired beauty to stand straight “Eileen, I’m going to need you to close up for me tonight”

Eileen frowned “But Sir, I’m due to finish in fifteen minutes, I have plans” Plans were an exaggeration but they were her plans nonetheless.

Crowley growled lowly, turning to face his member of staff and trying to summon some sliver of patience “I’m the boss darling. I say when you go home. In this case, I have a deal that I need to ensure goes through which means if you want to keep your job, you’ll close the shop for me” He bellowed, his voice slowly getting louder with each word he said “Understood?”

Eileen just nodded “Perfectly”

“Good” Crowley sighed “Make sure this place is squeaky clean for tomorrow, seems you’ve got nothing better to do” The demon of a man made his way to the exit “Oh and don’t let me catch you with your notepad scribbling down your feelings or fantasy worlds. I pay you to work, remember that Eileen” and with that, he slammed the shop door.

Eileen’s lips trembled as she fought to stop the tears from falling. Sure she didn’t have any major plans tonight but it was still her life and to tell her she had to stay for another 3 hours, on her own made her blood boil. For one, it was against health and safety but of course, Crowley didn’t care about that. He only cared about his profits.

Donna came back from her break and Eileen told her what had been said and in true Donna fashion, she managed to cheer up Eileen no end while she was there. They stole pie for themselves and hid in the cameras blind spots so Crowley wouldn’t see when he checked the camera the next day. However, it was soon time for Donna to go home and even though they had done most of the cleaning between them, there was still a bit to do.

The night was quiet, only two customers had come in during the hour and a half that Eileen had been on her own. She had mopped the floors, cleaned the coffee machine and was in the process of cleaning the counters when an idea popped into her head. Taking the pen from the side, she slid her notepad in front of her and started to write down her thoughts but soon enough she came to a block and became increasingly frustrated. Crowley’s words echoing in her mind as she stared at the paper and it all got too much. So, in anger, she picked up her notepad and threw it across the counter towards the display of pastries that were to be thrown later that day.

“Are you ok?”

“Oh my-” Eileen shrieks, her heart racing as she slips on some cream that had spilled on the floor in the panic.

“Oh god, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you” The deep voice apologised Eileen shook her head.

“It’s fine. It’s my own fault” She muttered, looking up to be greeted with the green eyes of the delectable stranger from earlier that day, leaning over the counter at her. A wave of embarrassment hits her as she realises what just happened. She felt like she was never going to catch a break. Dusting herself off, she pulled herself up and put on an unconvincing smile “What can I get you, we’ve not got much left”

The customer leant back on the counter, smiling adoringly up at Eileen, charm oozing from him “Well I had this slice of amazing pecan pie earlier and I wondered if you had any more left?”

Eileen scoffed in disbelief “You liked my pecan pie?”

“You bet. Best damn pie I’ve ever tasted. So naturally, I had to come back for more” The customer sounded honest, his smile making his cheeks ache.

Eileen studied him, looking around for any signs of being set up but when the customer appeared to be on his own, she eased up a bit “Well, we have nearly a whole other pecan pie left-”

“I’ll take it all” The customer interrupted before Eileen had a chance to offer anything else. The dark haired woman just stared at the customer as if he had grown two heads to which the customer laughed “Hey, I’ll need some for my lunch tomorrow too”

Eileen chuckled as she got another take out pie box ready “You’re insane”

“Insanely good at eating pie” He responded to which Eileen chuckled loudly, placing the pie into the box. Just who was this pie man? He eyes seemed to ask him that question as she slid the box of pie over to him.

“Dean. Dean Winchester” He stated, holding his hand out to shake.

Tucking a loose bit of hair behind her ear, Eileen took Dean’s hand “Eileen” She greeted.

Dean smiled as he handed over the money for his order, watching the woman in front of him intently. He was curious, curious about her. When he came into the store earlier that day, he was surprised to see someone so striking behind the counter, it knocked the wind out of his sails. The normal confident Dean Winchester lost all his mojo as soon as he saw her and turned into a bashful teenage boy. So, after giving himself a good talking too when eating the delicious pie, he worked up the courage to come back this evening to ask her for her number.

Naturally however, when he saw Eileen’s outburst of frustration, he grew concerned “So, Eileen, if you don’t mind me asking” Dean started as he flipped open the pie box, ogling the contents “What’s got you throwing notepads at innocent pastries?”

A new wave of embarrassment flood through Eileen as she tried to look anywhere but at Dean “It doesn’t matter” She muttered

Dean frowned as he grabbed a fork from the cutlery holder on the side “Clearly does if it’s upset you so much”

Eileen takes a moment to ponder. Yes, she had let Crowley’s words affect her. Being here till close had pissed her off and the fact she couldn’t get over this damn writers block hurdle was killing her but why would a sexy stranger, in this case Dean Winchester, want to know all of her woes?

Taking a cloth, she began to work on the surfaces she had left to clean “Honestly, Dean. There’s no point in talking about it because nothings ever going to come of it anyway”

Cocking his head, he replied “...and how do you know that?”

She stopped what she was doing and stared incredulously at Dean “Who are you? Dr Phil?” Eileen snapped.

“More like Dr Sexy” Dean smirked, pulling his pie covered fork clean through his lips.

Eileen’s face went blank, her mind trying to register the action and the reply he just gave, her stomach doing somersaults against her wishes “Did…did you actually just”

“Hey, it’s a legit TV show, one I might add that is a guilty pleasure of mine” Dean admitted like it was nothing as he carried on eating his pie from the box on the counter.

Eileen shook her head as she went back to wiping down the surfaces, moving on to wipe down the tables “You don’t even know me, yet you’re telling me you’re guilty pleasures?!”

Dean just shrugged “Isn’t that how you get to know someone?”

Eileen frowned in thought “I…well I wouldn’t start with telling you my guilty pleasures. Maybe like my favourite alcohol beverage or worst fear” She stated, like it was the right thing to do.

Dean took a second to think as he picked up his pie, a second fork and made his way over to where Eileen was cleaning “Probably whiskey and I hate flying”

She threw the wet cloth on the table, disbelief flooding through her “You’re insatiable”

“I’m adorable” Dean quipped, smiling a smile that made Eileen go weak in the knees. Dean placed his pie on the table in front of Eileen, gesturing to the empty seat on the opposite side as he sits down “Come on, talk to me, promise I won’t judge” He said sweetly as he offered Eileen the fresh fork.

Going against her better judgement, Eileen took the empty seat that Dean was gesturing too. She looked towards the clock and noticing that it was nearly time for her to clock off, helped her feel a bit more at ease about eating her own pie with someone she’d met twice in one day. However, there was something about Dean Winchester that made her feel comfortable, she opened up to him and found that he was incredibly easy to talk too. Maybe it was because he didn’t know her, or maybe it was because he would walk out that door with his pie and she may never see him again. Either way, talking to this handsome man, offloading her problems and indulging into this pie made her feel a whole lot better.

She explained all about her failed chances at trying to get published, how she suffers with writers block and lastly, how unappreciative and cruel her boss Crowley could be.

Dean wiped his mouth on a napkin, mopping up the few crumbs that had stuck to the corners of his lips “So this Crowley dude, does he know much about the publishing business?”

Eileen shook her head, spinning her fork around in the pie box “I…I don’t think so”

Dean nodded, screwing up his napkin “Does he write fiction in his spare time?”

“I honestly don’t think he has spare time. He puts his soul into this place” Eileen scowled as she looked around

Dean took a pause as he leant back on his chair “Then why does his opinion matter?”

Eileen let her fork fall into the box as she forced herself back in her seat, staring into Dean’s incredible green eyes “Because he’s right. I love writing, I do but I can never seem to get a story finished. I get so many chapters in and this block forms in my mind and I can never get past it. Whenever I’ve sent a preview to a publisher, I’m just ignored” She sighed, feeling defeated “There’s just no point”

Dean took both forks out of the pie box and placed them side by side, casually asking “Where do you do your writing?”

Eileen shrugged, playing with the hem of her apron “Either at home or here. What does that matter?”

“It matters” Dean nodded, an idea forming in his mind as he packed up the rest of his pie “You working tomorrow?”

Eileen shook her head, her face wearing her confusion “No it’s my day off”

Dean nodded as he stood up, smiling “Good. Meet me here, tomorrow, 12pm” He stated, excitement bubbling within him as he walked towards the exit of the shop, pie in hand “Oh and bring your notepad” He encouraged

“What? Why?” Eileen questioned quickly as she stood, trying to keep Dean in view.

Dean just smiled at her as he held onto the front door “Because Eileen, tomorrow will be the day where your story begins” With that, he left the shop and left Eileen feeling all bewildered, just wondering what the hell had just happened.

She couldn’t help the smile that seemed to be stuck on her face after Dean had left. There was something about the charming bow legged man that made her hope. He also made her weak at the knees but it wasn’t too hard to figure out why that was. That night, Eileen closed up shop with hope in her heart and a spring in her step. She was taking a chance on meeting Dean Winchester tomorrow and her heart skipped a beat when she thought of their date. Wait…was it date? She wasn’t sure and she stopped her stride as she thought. Either way, she was spending some time with an incredibly good looking man and she hadn’t had that in a long time.

The next day, as soon as Eileen woke up, she couldn’t help but text Donna and tell her everything that had happened. Naturally, Donna was jealous but she was quick to tell her to ensure she ready for action, just in case. Eileen just reiterated that no matter how long it had been, she wouldn’t be jumping into bed with the first handsome, green eyed man she saw. No matter how delectable his lips were.

That morning, it was a long battle to figure out what to wear but after half an hour and many outfit changes, Eileen settled with a yellow summer’s dress, a white belt tying around the middle with white flat tennis shoes. Simple but elegant and she felt comfortable. Her makeup was minimal and her hair was put into a fishtail braid, over her right shoulder. It wasn’t a lie when she said that she felt as nervous as hell meeting Dean, as well as a little sceptical of whether he would actually turn up but she strapped in her nerves, picked up her notepad and made her way to the meeting point, wondering just how the day was going to go.

As promised, just before 12pm, Eileen heard a soft rumble coming towards her and turned her head to see the most gorgeous sleek black car pull up to the sidewalk, with the most gorgeous green eyed man inside. Dean put the Impala in park and hopped out, excited to see that Eileen was waiting for him. She trusted him. He felt his mouth go dry when he let his eyes wander over her outfit, she looked positively beautiful.

“Hi” Dean smiled as he come round the front of his car “You ready?”

Eileen just nodded softly “Ready as ever for whatever you’ve got planned”

“Great, hop in. Just gotta grab something first” Dean stated as he walked quickly into your place of work. Intent on getting another pie.

Eileen just watched him from the passenger side window. She admired his form and what he was wearing. His dark blue jeans, the dark blue shirt and the mustard and blue flannel that he adorned on top just made him look even better than he had the night before, if that was possible. She looked away and smiled as she studied his car. There was no telling that it was a classic, and it was in a remarkable condition. She noticed the box of tapes and studied them also, admiring the man’s taste in music.

Before Eileen could look around anymore, the driver’s side door swung open and Dean entered, a fresh pie in his hands and Eileen just rolled her eyes playfully. She swore he had an addiction. With a nod and a smile from Dean, he fired up the impala’s engine and took off towards his destination. It wasn’t far out of town, to be honest, anyone could have actually walked to where Dean had parked the car although it would have obviously taken longer to get to the location. Eileen looked around and frowned slightly at their destination. Dean had pulled onto what could only be described as a gravel car park, with metal bars all around and the odd few trees here and there.

However, when they both got out of the car, Dean opened the trunk to grab a picnic basket and held his free hand out to Eileen “Trust me?” He questioned and Eileen took his hand, nodding slightly.

Dean led them off the gravel and down the side of a few random electric outlet buildings, Eileen having to watch her step a few times to ensure she didn’t trip on the uneven surface. She had to duck when Dean ducked, to avoid low hanging tree branches and match his steps to ensure she didn’t step in the wrong place. Soon enough, Dean whisked around and nearly made Eileen run into his chest.

“Wait here?” He asked, his eyes lighting up.

“Sure?” Eileen agreed, although questioning he motives.

Dean moved some branches out of his path before jogging off towards his destination, taking the picnic basket with him. Soon enough, he was coming back, moving the branches out the way again to greet Eileen with a wide grin.

“Ok, close your eyes” He said excitedly

“You’re not gonna murder me are you?” Eileen joked as she closed one eye, peaking at him through the other.

Dean laughed and shook his head “Not a chance”

Closing her eyes, she felt two strong hands encase her own as she was gently pulled forward. She felt the terrain beneath her feet change to something softer and the noise of the city seemed to have faded away. Dean didn’t have to walk her far before he asked her to sit, which she did and she placed her hands on the ground, feeling soft blades of grass between her fingers. With a nudge, Dean encouraged Eileen to open her eyes and when she grew accustomed to the light, she was in awe.

Dean had them sitting close to the river bed, leaning their backs against the trunk of a willow tree, the wilted branches encasing them in their own private world. The willow tree over looked the edge of a lake that conveyed into a river, it was tranquil and a place that Eileen fell in love with straight away “It’s beautiful” She whispered.

“Yeah” Dean breathed, sitting down next her.

Eileen was still struggling with how amazing this place was “How do you know of this place?” She questioned, looking towards Dean.

Dean smiled as he crossed his legs in front of him, he loved the way Eileen’s eyes had lit up “My mum used to bring me and my brother here when we were kids. Not many people know if it. It’s very secluded. I come down here to think sometimes” Dean stated as he leant to his left, pulling the picnic basket into view “Sandwich?”

“You brought a picnic?” Eileen chuckled, shaking her head slightly at the thoughtfulness of the man in front of her.

Dean just stared into Eileen’s dark brown orbs, unsure of why she was even asking that questions, the answer was obvious “Of course I brought a picnic” He stated as a matter of fact “Wouldn’t be a good date if I didn’t provide food”

“What?” Eileen whipped her head back around to look at Dean as he started to lay out the food in front of them on a blanket he had just put down. Date, this is a date? Internally she was screaming. She hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up but he had called it what it was.

“Leen, you don’t mind me calling you Leen do you?” Eileen just shook her head, biting at her bottom lip to stop the massive grin from breaking out. She watched as Dean started picking at a bag of pretzels that he had bought along as he went on with his thoughts “You’ve been writing in places that has caged your creativity. An apartment that, to you, is dull and your work place that provides a million and one distractions” He brushed his hands off of pretzel crumbs and looked deep into Eileen’s eyes and told her “Close your eyes and listen”

She did as instructed, the smile that she tried to hide now spreading across her lips “I can’t hear anything”

“That’s the point” Dean said quietly as she opened her eyes and bore straight into his. She noticed at this distance, the cluster of freckles that dusted over his nose and cheeks. The small specks of gold that mixed in with the mossy green of his orbs. Dean also noticed for the first time just how tanned her skin was, just how detailed her features were, how dark her eyes were. The air was charged around them and it took the gentle breeze of the wind knocking over the pretzel pack for Dean to snap away from her gaze.

Clearing his throat, he gestured towards the layout of the picnic “Take some food, a moment to yourself and just enjoy the peace” He smiled, taking his headphones out of a separate bag and looking towards her “See what flows”

“Dean” Eileen said softly, finding it hard to speak. Her stomach was in knots after the way he had just looked at her. The fact her had done all this for her, bringing her out to this personal private spot, making a picnic and just caring, meant the world to her.

“Trust me, I’m not going anywhere” Dean stated, as he placed his headphones on his head “I’ll be here, just giving you the peace you require” He smiled, as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes, enjoying his music and the feeling of the beautiful woman next to him.

It took a while for Eileen to move, she just couldn’t help but stare at this incredibly kind and sweet man next to her. Out of all the relationships she had been in before, not one of them had ever done something so special. So, she leant forward for a sandwich and ate quietly as she retrieved her notepad and pen from her bag. She looked around her and took every little detail in about this place, she listed to the tiniest of sounds and the flow of water and she was surprised at how relaxed she felt.

Before long, words were flowing through her, ideas were appearing in her mind one after the other and Eileen had never felt so excited. What she didn’t realise was that every now and again, Dean would open one eye just to check on her to make sure she was ok and he loved the sight of her next to him. He would smile to himself, shuffle slightly to get comfy again before going back to his music.

“I did it!” Eileen exclaimed suddenly, holding her pad in both hands as she shot up. Her feet bare upon the grass as she had taken off her shoes earlier on in the afternoon.

Dean heard her exclaim of the music, that and he felt the movement next to him. He moved his headphones off his head “You got past your block?” He questioned, hopefully.

Eileen nodded, pulling her pad to her chest “All thanks to you” She breathed honestly, admiration shining in her eyes at Dean.

Dean smiled but just shrugged as he got up “I didn’t do anything”

Eileen stepped closer to Dean, wanting to hug him but not wanting to overstep any boundaries “You did more thank you think” She said softly, looking towards the floor.

Dean noticed and gently placed his fingers under her chin “I know what it’s like to feel like you should give up on your dreams” He said, carefully tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear, which only made Eileen blush hard when his hand lingered there “Luckily I have a little brother who talked sense into me and here I am, years later with my own garage”

When Dean’s hand dropped back to his side, Eileen questioned “You’re a mechanic?”

“I am” Dean smiled, looking a bit bashful as he placed his hands in his pockets, kicking at the first on the floor “Looking at opening my second garage soon”

“That’s amazing” Eileen gushed, genuinely impressed at the businessman in front of her.

A sense of peace fell over the pair as they looked out towards the river. Eileen took a moment to think about how in the space of twenty four hours, her life had drastically changed for the better, all thanks to this one man. She was ready to give up on her dreams until Dean Winchester walked into her life.

Looking to the side of her, she smiled and asked quietly “How’d do you do it?”

“Do what? Open a garage?” Dean chuckled, side eyeing Eileen.

“No silly” She batted him playfully on the arm “How do you stay so positive?”

Dean smiled, the truth was he hadn’t always been so positive but things had happened in his life that had made him change his outlook and now he lives for the day. Tomorrow technically doesn’t exist yet, a thought he always had and he was always grateful for the day he had.

Dean turned towards Eileen, hands still in his pockets “You have to live your life with your arms wide open. Every day is an opportunity, grab it with both hands” He states, getting his hands free and making the grabbing gesture.

Eileen just nodded and held her stare with Dean, the tension between them palpable. Dean looked just behind her and noticed how the weather had quickly changed. “Come on, storm clouds are rolling in, let’s get you home”

With that, Eileen nodded and helped Dean pack the picnic away. He held out his free hand to her once again as he guided her back to his impala. They made the walk back to the car in a comfortable silence but Eileen couldn’t help but notice the feeling of Dean’s hand in hers. It was like her skin was burning from his touch. She couldn’t quell the feeling in her chest at the thought of him. Just where had he come from? She couldn’t believe her luck.

Being the gentlemen, Dean drove Eileen all the way back to her apartment building as the rain had started to come down heavily. Eileen was still on cloud nine, she had a whole new chapter to write up and some amazing new plot points to jot down to work with and she couldn’t thank Dean enough.

“Thank you Dean, today has been amazing” Eileen gushed, holding her handbag tight in her arms.

Dean turned towards Eileen as he rested his free arm on the back of the bench seat of the car “I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it, Leen. See you tomorrow? A man needs his pie” He joked.

Eileen laughed and nodded “See you tomorrow”

She didn’t even think when she leant forward and placed a soft kiss on his cheek as a thank you. Dean’s breath hitched in his throat and he swore his heart stopped for a second.

“Hey, do you think I could get your number? You know, in case of a pie emergency?” He rushed out

Eileen just grabbed his phone and entered her number before sending a text to herself. Her cheeks were burning with her previous actions and she just wanted to bury her head into a pillow and squeal with excitement. She waved a soft goodbye as she entered her apartment complex and rested her head against the wood of her door. Did that day really just happen?

Eileen raced around her apartment, flinging off her shoes and heading towards her laptop. She was eager to get this chapter typed up before the fresh creative juices left her. She was scared it would go away as quickly as it came but when she had a whole two chapters written three hours later, she let out a shriek of excitement and did her own little victory dance through her study. With this new found confidence, all thanks to Dean, she opened her emails and dared to send a new preview to a few publishers, hoping this time, her luck will be different.

As soon as she sent the email, she opened up her phone to text the man that was responsible for it all.

9.07PM To: Dean Hey you. Just so you know, I’ve sent off a preview of my new fiction to a few publishers. All because of you. I can’t thank you enough. I may have to make you a few hundred pies. E xx

Soon enough, a reply popped up in her inbox and she couldn’t help but grin widely at seeing his name on her phones screen.

9.09PM From: Dean

That’s amazing news! I’ll keep everything crossed for you and hey, won’t say no to those pies. One a day over the next few hundred days? Sounds like a winner ;) D xx

That night, Eileen went to bed feeling positive and so very happy and the feeling continued when she got into work the next morning, something that Donna definitely picked up on. Eileen had a spring in her step as she hung up her bag and a massive smile on her face.

“Look at the grin on you, what’s got you all smiley?” Donna encouraged, gently nudging her friend and colleague to gather more information.

“May have gone on a date yesterday?” Eileen said all coyly as she danced around the bakery.

“DATE? With who?” Donna may as well have screamed her response.

Eileen leant against the counter Donna was currently working on, mixing some flour between her fingers “Dean Winchester, the man who brought a pie from me two days ago”

“Lips trembling guy?!” Donna exclaimed, her mouth almost touching the floor.

“Don-” Eileen was just about to playfully tell off her friend when she was rudely interrupted.

“EILEEN! My office, now!” Crowley bellowed, his British tone ringing through the kitchen to which both of the girls winced.

Eileen had to admit that her stomach flipped over when she entered Crowley’s office, it felt seedy and cheap. Black velvet seats with red lining. It made her feel ill. Nevertheless, Eileen hugged her body as she sat down in front of her boss’s desk “Everything ok?” She questioned

“No Eileen, everything is NOT ok” Crowley snapped before he turned the monitor of computer around to face her “Take a look at this” Eileen was stared at the monitor screen where CCTV of two nights ago was being played, the night Dean found her beating up pastries with her notebook. She felt the colour drain out of her skin at what was to come.

Crowley turned the monitor back to face him before proceeding to scold his employee “Firstly, you vandalise my shop by having a tantrum, then you decide on works time to sit down and eat stock with a customer?” He scoffed, the volume of his voice getting louder.

Eileen was quick to defend herself “He paid for it and I didn’t vandalise you store, I admit I shouldn’t have lost my temper but I tided up after myself. He insisted that I sit down with him, I thought it was good customer service” She admitted honestly, her hands in front of her now on her lap.

Crowley held up his hand, as if to stop Eileen’s explanation “You know what, I’m through explaining myself to you. I’m through explaining things to my superiors because of you. I caught you fraternising with a customer and you think its ok. I’m sorry Eileen but you’re fired”

“What, you can’t” Eileen panicked, her hands now on his desk, pleading with him.

“I can. Get you coat, your wages will be in the bank by Friday” Crowley stated with no emotion at all.

“Fuck you!” Eileen shouted in anger as she stormed out of his office, grabbing her bag and running from the store. Not stopping for Donna’s calls, not stopping for traffic, not stopping for anything as she ran as fast as her legs could take her. She had no idea where to go, she didn’t want to go home so she went to the only other place she knew which would make her calm.

Back at the shop, Donna was in a spin. She can’t believe that Crowley had just fired the only other employee that they had and she ensured that she gave him a piece of her mind. Something that Crowley just shrugged off. Donna had never been so angry, as she slung the dough around the kitchen in between serving customers. She had just managed to get five minutes to herself when she heard the doorbell go, alerting her of a new customer.

With a sigh, she placed down her drink and shouted through from the kitchen “I’ll be with ya in two seconds” Donna bustled about, flinging some more pies into the over before showing her flour covered face to the new customer in her store. As she came around the counter, she certainly recognised the broad bow legged beauty in front of her “Oh Dean right?” She acknowledged

“Yeah…wait…how did you?” Dean agreed in confusion.

Donna just waved him off with her impatience “Eileen. Listen sugar, she’s not here. She ran out of this store, ridiculously upset. You need to find her” She stated bluntly as she pointed out of the store.

Without even answering Donna, Dean ran out of that shop as quickly as he could, intent on finding Eileen. He was worried, he didn’t like the idea of her being upset and the thought of her being upset and on her own, made his heart break. Racing to his car, he pulled out his phone and tried to call Eileen but she wasn’t picking up so he threw his phone to the side of him in frustration. He wasted no time in getting to her apartment complex and searching for her name on the buzzers outside.

“Come on dammit” He growled as he kept pressing her buzzer, however there was no answer. He looked up and down the street as he tried to think of where she could have gone. He didn’t know her that well, they’d been on one date and he didn’t know much about her but that’s when it hit him. He moved quickly back to his car as he thought about where he took her just yesterday on their first date, he hoped she was there. He hoped she was safe.

Sitting close to the willow trunk, Eileen wiggled her toes into the grassy bank. It was late afternoon on a cloudy day, every now and then strong breezes came through the wilted branches of the willow. Her eyes were closed, enjoying the peaceful sounds of nature as she willed the tears away that were threatening to fall. She didn’t know what she was doing here, it’s just where her mind seemed to take her when she was running. She liked that no one knew about this place, or so Dean said, so no one would be able to find her and right now, Eileen just wanted to be alone. She brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them, leaning her face to one side as she finally stopped holding her sobs back.

Eileen didn’t know how long she had been there, sobbing and letting her tears fall but she soon fell silent when she heard footsteps behind her. Just as they got close enough, she found a heavy stone to the side of her and swung her stone wielding arm around in defence.

“Woah hey now” Dean immediately dodged and held his hands up in surrender. His eyes scanning Eileen’s tiny form, looking to see if she was hurt.

She quickly wiped her eyes with her free hand as she laid down her stone “What are you doing here?” Eileen questioned, shamefully looking away from Dean.

Dean proceeded to step forward to get closer to Eileen “I came to see you on my lunch like I promised, Donna said-”

“What? That I’ve been fired?!” Eileen snapped, interrupting his sentence as she bolted upright into standing.

Dean was shocked as she took in Eileen’s facial expression. She looked broken and defeated, the sparkle in her eyes had gone and it was killing him“…what? No she said that something had happened and you’d ran out the shop” His face said it all, he wanted to hold her and comfort her, so he took a step forward intending to do just that “Eileen, I’m so sorry”

But Eileen stepped back, one hand in front of her “Just…don’t. You don’t even know me” It was true, he had only known her for 48 hours but her mind was playing tricks on her. Telling her that she couldn’t possibly be happy, that she was living in a fairy tale.

“But I want too” Deans voice broke through her thoughts and Eileen snapped her eyes up from the ground to look into his.

“I have no idea why” She stated honestly as she started to curl into herself, one arm wrapping around her stomach. Dean went to say something but she stopped him before he even started “No, before you even start, I don’t want to hear it” She lied, her mind was saying things differently than what her heart was telling her “I don’t need to hear words of comfort because you don’t mean them. Why would you?” Eileen shouted.

Eileen’s question lingered in the air as she started to walk backwards away from Dean, towards the river. Fresh storm clouds overheard brought fresh onsets of heavy rain and as she turned to walk away from him, the heavens opened. Rods of rain hammered down upon her but she didn’t care, thankfully however, Dean did.

“Because believe it or not, I do care about you” He shouted as he followed her into the rain. Those few simple words making Eileen stop in her tracks “The other day I was just a mechanic who came into your coffee shop for some pie” Dean continued through the rain, pacing so he was now standing in front of her, looking into her red rimmed eyes, her dark hair stuck to her face “Now I’m a mechanic, with a name, standing in front of this gorgeous aspiring author, asking her to breathe” He said gently as he placed his hands either side of her face.

Eileen growled as she pulled his hands away from her face “I can’t breathe Dean, I’ve lost my job” She shouted as she started to pace around in front of him, her arms flailing “Which means I can’t pay my bills, I can’t pay my rent, I-” Eileen walked in front of Dean but as she was throwing her arms around in a panic, her green eyed knight came up behind her and pulled her back flush to his chest. He then held her hands in his as he stretched her arms out widely to the sides.

Winded by the sudden motion and contact, Eileen felt her heart racing in her chest “What are you doing?” She whispered, gently twisting her wrists in his grip.

“Close your eyes and concentrate” Dean whispered softly into her ear, his breath ghosting her neck and Eileen did as she was told. She was concentrating on everything around her. The way the rain sounded as it hit the floor and the river, the way the wind felt against her skin, the way Dean felt against her skin. Dean hadn’t moved, his lips were still dangerously close to her ear “Feel the rain on your skin?” He asked

Eileen merely nodded, not trust her voice to say more than one word “Yes” She couldn’t trust herself not to whimper against him.

“How does it feel?” He asked again, a soothing tone to his voice, his body still pressed against hers, the rain still coming down heavy upon the couple.

Eileen took a deep breath, keeping her eyes closed and concentrated on how she felt “Cold, refreshing, relaxing”

Gently Dean let go of Eileen and took a step back, he saw how calm she had become as she gently lowered her arms before turning around and looking at him. He thanked his lucky stars that he found her and he couldn’t believe that she hadn’t felt the way his heart was racing as she was pulled tightly to his chest.

He gestured towards her “No one else can feel that for you Leen. You’re in control of you so every time you feel like you can’t breathe, take that moment and see what you can feel” He stepped forward, his thumb on her chin as his other hand wiped the soaking wet hair from her brow “Concentrate on the now” He whispered.

That’s all it took. That and a mutual glance at each other’s lips before they connected in a kiss that made them both breathless. Eileen brought her hands up to his shoulders, one hand playing with the hair at the nape of his neck as she tried to deepen the kiss. Dean merely smiling into her lips as he noticed she was on her tiptoes due to her 5ft1 stature.

Unwillingly pulling away, but having too due to her legs hurting from stretching, Eileen’s was sure her cheeks had never been so red. Dean just beamed ear to ear as he cupped her face in his large hands “Now that, that was very good concentration” He grinned and Eileen just slapped him playfully. Chuckling he, takes her hand in his and pulls her back towards the willow “Let’s get out of the rain”

Cuddling at the base of the willow tree, Dean shrugged off his jacket to place around Eileen’s shoulders all the while explaining to her that he’s like a radiator and hardly feels the cold. She’s grateful as she pulls it closer, the smell of the leather and Dean was intoxicating. Eileen may have lost her job, but she had gained something so much more precious in Dean and as she sat there, under the willow tree, wrapped in his arms, she realised that. She made sure that she kept stealing kisses from him when he wasn’t looking which made him smile. He had never been so happy.

The heavy rain started to turn into a light shower, Dean looking through the willows branches to see if it was safe to make the dash to the impala and he could see that the sun was trying to break through the clouds. Just as they were about to move however, a notification came though on Eileen’s phone, prompting her to pull it from her back pocket to take a look.

“Oh my god” She uttered, her free hand coming to cover her mouth.

“What?” Dean panicked, thinking the worst.

Eileen looked straight at Dean, her eyes brimming with tears “Dean, it’s the publishers”

“What!” Dean exclaimed, scooting closer to her “Read it, read it” he urged, running his hand through her hair in encouragement.

This was it, this was the moment of truth and Eileen couldn’t deny the feeling of dread she had in her stomach. She couldn’t face another rejection not today. So she opened the email and shoved it into Dean’s face, letting him read it to her, all the while keep her eyes tightly closed.

Dean broke into a grin when he read the email and nudged her gently, encouraging her to open her eyes. When she did, he nodded at her phone which made her look down and read her own email.

“They loved my idea, they want to discuss publication details with me” Eileen squealed, her legs shaking with excitement.

Dean laughed at her reaction, using the arm that was wrapped around her shoulders to bring her in for a kiss “Congratulations sweetheart” He muttered against her hair as he placed a gently kiss on her temple.

Eileen was on cloud nine, reading the email over and over again. She nearly missed Dean’s question “How is your story going?”

Placing her phone back into her pocket, she nodded, tucking her hair behind her ears “Good, I’m at the chapter where the two protagonists have realised their feelings for each other” She joked, coyly smiling towards Dean.

“Oh really?” The green eyed Winchester raised his eyebrows, quickly cottoning on to what Eileen was implying.

“Uh – huh” She smiled, leaning closer towards his plump lips.

“So what will happen next?” He whispered, his nose brushing against hers.

“You’ll have to read it to find out” She replied, her lips merely inches away from his.

Dean leant down for a simply kiss, sighing in contentment as he spoke softly “Need some inspiration?”

All Eileen could do was nod.

“Always”

A/N: What do you guys think? Let me know HERE!:)

Any feedback would mean the absolute world to me so if you have the time, i’ll love you forever!

#supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural one shot #supernatural x ofc #dean #dean winchester #dean winchester x ofc #dean winchester x au #dean imagine #dean winchester imagine #dean winchester oneshot #dean oneshot #dean winchester fanfiction #spn #spnfamily

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ginnyzero · 5 years ago

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Being a Fanfic Writer is Okay

AKA I love Fanfiction

Fan Fiction, a bit controversial and a bit time worn topic in writing and fandom circles. But let’s face it, fan fiction is older than dirt (Shakespeare anyone?) and isn’t about to go away any time soon. So, we might as well face the pink elephant in the room and address the issue. Besides, fan fiction is really personal to me. Of course, before I get all maudlin about my experiences with fan fiction, maybe we better discuss what fan fiction is, a bit of history and where to find it.

Fan fiction is at its core, a story written by someone who isn’t the original owner of a story. They are simply a fan writing in someone else’s world using someone else’s characters. After that, the possibilities are pretty much limitless and maybe we can discuss some of the more interesting aspects of fan fiction later. Some of our favorite classic stories might be considered fan fiction, Homer’s take on the Trojan War for example. Shakespeare wrote wild interpretations of the lives of British Kings. And modern day published fan fiction would be the books based on favorite television shows or popular games, video, role playing or even board games. A type of visual fan fiction would be the movie Clue! Based on the popular Clue board game. (Sadly not really an action movie, drat.) Star Wars Expanded Universe is a type of authorized published fan fiction. And who can forget the hundreds and hundreds of Star Trek novels based upon the episodes and later expounding upon the universe.

Speaking of Star Trek, the modern take on fan fiction really took off with the introduction of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Before the internet (what a phrase,) ambitious Trekkies created magazines that writers could submit their own stories about the Starship Enterprise and her crew and receive subscriptions of them in the mail. Many of these stories revolved around Kirk and Spock in a romantic relationship, which is still a huge pairing today. Other fandom groups copied this magazine model and later as the internet took off, they created online email groups, forums, journaling sites, chat rooms and individual sites, until someone got ambitious enough to create the first fan fiction archive. And suddenly, there was a place where any writer of any talent could post their work to one place and read everyone else’s work no matter the quality or fandom. And with the introduction of Japanese anime to America, the concept of fan fiction exploded.

And Sturgeon’s Law reared its ugly head. 90% of it is crap.

But that’s okay.

A lot of archives came and went. There are only a few that stayed the course; fanfiction.net, mediaminer.org, adult-fanfiction.org and the baby of the family, archiveofourown.org (AO3). Each of these rather interesting archives have a tumultuous history and interesting backstories, which I really don’t want to get into right now. Just saying, if you have a bunch of free time, want to read some free stories and have some fandoms you really love, then these are the places to go. It might take some time to wade through the truly awful stories to find the gems, but the side effect of fan fiction archives, are fan fiction recommendation lists! These handy lists have the best fan fiction from certain fandoms in the compliers subjective viewpoint! Always a good starting place.

As I said, fan fiction is really personal to me. As it says in my bio, I have no formal education about writing outside some interesting English classes in college. I got a C in research papers and grammar; a B in creating a pitch and an A in narrative storytelling. This probably should have told me something. What I do have, is a very long history and experience in fan fiction. I’m not comfortable with putting my pen name out there, let’s just say I’ve been writing fan fiction for over fifteen years in a variety of fandoms under a couple of different names. And in the beginning, I was one of those probably writing crap. And I didn’t care. I was writing and I was having fun. Writing fan fiction helped me through my bad high school experience (a lot of people have them) and it helped others too. And that was important to me. Is still important to me. I grew. I improved. I got to focus on things in fan fiction that I would never have focused on if I had been trying to write original works. And it helped me churn out idea after idea and see how I could string these ideas together to create good concepts and make better stories.

The greatest thing about fan fiction in my opinion, is that it gets people of every age (I have met as many forty year olds as I have twelve year olds) writing. And when people write, they also tend to read. Okay, so maybe they are reading in this vacuum bubble of fan fiction where 90% of it is crap and they may or may not improve, yet, they are reading and you know, that is okay. Because, let’s face it, 90% of the published world of books is crap too. And let us not get started on this idea of self-publishing. Seriously, anything that introduces a little bit of literacy to the world I’m all for. I’m not going to discourage anyone from taking up a pen or sitting down at a computer or type writer and taking these ideas they have in their head and getting them out there. Because, there is a certain magic to it. Let’s not stifle any form of creativity of the arts here.

Now writing and posting fan fiction are two completely different things. And if someone wants to write a story based on 10 Things I Hate About You (which in itself was an authorized fan fiction of the Taming of the Shrew, which is based on classic literature tropes) and keep on their computer for only themselves to read. That is fine! However, if they want to take that fantastical leap of courage and post it the internet in one fashion or another for the public to see, then that, is inspirational. Posting, which in this case is essentially publishing, something you have created from your heart for others to see and consume is perhaps one of the scariest things you can do. And I applaud them for their courage because the public is not a safe place and you never know what will happen. Now, I will say that a lot of fandom communities can be nice and welcoming. And then there are the communities that are insular and full of drama. And sometimes, publishing in the fan fiction world is like shouting into a canyon and hearing the echo and you might have to shout several times (meaning publish more than one story or more than one chapter of a story) to get any sort of response. Hey, being popular in one fandom, doesn’t automatically guarantee being popular in another fandom!

And that is where the sense of community steps in. Sure, you will probably get a lot of ‘squee, I love it, write more!’ responses, which are good for the ego and the soul. But there will be rare times, where you will meet people who love the same things you do and want to squee and discuss writing. About characterization, and plot bunnies hopping out of control and multiplying and isn’t so and so just hot as this character. And suddenly, one isn’t so alone anymore. You don’t feel exactly strange or like a hermit who sits alone in their bedroom typing for hours at a time. Out there, in the world, there are people just like you, doing the same things. And it is okay. People, as a community who like a certain thing, are being creative and sharing ideas. And that is wonderful. So, the execution of said ideas might not be wonderful, but now, the idea is out there in the universal consciousness waiting to be picked up by someone else, tinkered with and fine-tuned and maybe a better version of it, or maybe one just as bad, will be published to be seen and shared by more people so more interesting and diverse stories can be born. (Or, as it is so easy to see in fan fiction if you pay attention, a new fad of fiction tropes and mish mash of nonsensical ideas put together to create something absolutely crazy but mind numbingly fun that you have to go ‘what the fuck, who came up with this bullshit and how did it become so popular and why wasn’t it me? [Superwholock, Omegaverse, Soulbonding])

Now we could discuss the legality of fan fiction, or some of the crazy views that published authors have about fan fiction (Anne McCaffery, George RR Martin), or some of the awesome things that have happened to people because of their fan fiction and the original creators being okay with it (Avatar: The Last Air Bender, Joss Whedon). Or the crazy things that some fan fiction writers do to take their fan fiction and make it into original fiction (Cassandra Claire, 50 Shades of Grey.) But those could take a couple thousand more words and some of it sincerely bewilders me.

Fan fiction is great. I enjoy writing it. And I also enjoy reading it when I have time. There is nothing wrong with people, in their spare time, writing fluffy and sometimes not so fluffy stories about their favorite characters in their favorite universes. There are a lot more horrible things they could be doing than writing stories about fictional people and posting it on the internet.

Now, when I get published (and I say when, not if because I must believe in the when), as a matter of course and a, for your information, I won’t be reading any fan fiction of my own works. (Though, I’d love to keep track of statistics for it, that would be amusing.) It comes down to the universal consciousness once again. If one of those stories someone writes about my work has an amazing idea and I read it, later forget about it, and then think I come up with it on my own and use that idea, then, well, I could be sued. (It has happened.) It is unlikely that the fan fiction writer will win (there is precedent about this), but I would still feel awful. So it is just better all around if I don’t read fan fiction of my own work. Which for me is kind of sadness, but hey, it is a fact of life.

That being said. I hope that I do inspire people to write their own crazy times using my characters or creating their own characters and putting them in my world, or crossing my world into their other favorite worlds. Because, if I wasn’t so busy writing the original world, I’d probably be doing the same thing. There is nothing wrong with people having a good time and enjoying themselves. In fact, if it helps get them through a bad place in their life, then good for them.

Not that the die hard fan fiction writers need permission from me. But those who aren’t so certain, and maybe worry a bit too much or have been told that writing original is superior to writing fan fiction and believed it. Writing fan fiction is okay. Don’t beat yourself up over it and go out there and have fun. Go on, get your fanfic on!

#fan fiction #fan fic #fan fic history #writing #writblr #writeblr

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ktaebwi · 7 years ago

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[TRANS] 180128 Yonhap News Interview w/ BTS (2/3)

Source Part 1 | Part 3

② BTS “Topics we introduced through music, hope you could think about them together with us”

- During the last 5 years, you have released a lot of non-formal tracks on Soundcloud, this ‘consistency’ differentiates you from other idols.

▲ SUGA: Consistency is an amazing thing. There isn’t any special reason, I just like music and find releasing music fun. You need to be so to understand the non-formal tracks. A creator should not approach commercially. I heard many say ‘Why would you release this?’ but there’s only one reason, because it’s fun. I can make and release it, get feedback, express what is hard to deliver with words or my sincerity with music. They say we express ourselves a lot and make use of SNS well, and releasing non-formal tracks is also a method. It’s not an easy decision to release as 10 original tracks, I can’t use any word to describe it other than that I just wanted to it. The non-formal tracks released long ago were made when I was thoughtful and not so sociable, so I have some regrets personally, but it feels like thanks to it the sharp edges are now carved. It was one of the turning points in my life and marked my improvement in terms of music.

- I know that until before releasing the youth series ‘Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa’, you concerned a lot about your music direction. Were there any trial and error and how did you set your direction?

▲ RM: Leaving Billboard chart entrance and Melon chart ranking aside, there are always trials and errors in music. In the past, ours were about “how can we attract the public and fans but still keep our identity", now we have more listeners so we’re working with the upcoming title track following ‘DNA’. Like how visible results come out through big and small trials and errors, the next title track will go through countless trials and errors as well. 4 years ago, ‘Danger’ entered the Melon chart at No.54 but fell out in just one day and never climbed back again. It makes me emotional remembering how there used to be times like that and in the future, we need to continue to go through trials and errors again.

▲ J-HOPE: As we’re active as BTS, we study too. When we set a subject, we think a lot about how to deliver our stories.

- Looking at the albums you have released so far, each has different themes but all deliver the messages that connect to the youth. How do you gather different thoughts of 7 members?

▲ SUGA: How we make music is, everybody participates in one beat and one subject. There has to be a standard, so the producers will pick out the best and arrange them. We always do what comes with clear standards, since we talked a lot about what’s right and wrong. We start from what anyone can think, like ‘This is obviously right, this is obviously wrong’, maybe that’s the reason why we can earn empathy.

- Your lyrics give the feels of Seo Taiji & Kids from the 90s in the sense that you both talk about what someone needs to say but no one did.

▲ SUGA, RM: Seo Taiji-hyungnim told us that. He also invited us to join his stage. (BTS participated in Seo Taiji’s 25th debut anniversary remake project and joined Seo Taiji’s celebratory concert held at Jamsil Olympic stadium, Seoul.)

- Any lyrics that you feel pleased with whenever you sing?

▲ SUGA: My favorite is ‘The dawn before the sun rises is the darkest’ from ‘Tomorrow’. When I wrote that line it just flowed out naturally.

▲ JUNGKOOK: ‘Where there is hope, there are trials’ from ‘Sea’, I don’t know why but it makes me emotional. (‘Sea’ is a track RM made inspired from 1Q84’s ‘Where there is hope, there are trials’ quote.)

▲ RM: Among lyrics I wrote recently, I like ‘Best Of Me’. There’s a line that’s dedicated to our fans ARMY, ‘I wanted to be a gentle wave but why didn’t I know you were the sea’. It means that I thought I wanted to be helpful to the fans like a gentle wave, but then I realized they are already much bigger waves than me and they made me.

▲ J-HOPE: I have two. One is ‘(So thanks) For becoming the flowers of my most beautiful moment in life’, it’s dedicated to our fans and it’s beautiful. Every time I sing the song, I feel emotional. ‘Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa’ is a meaningful album to us and it brought the fans to become our beautiful flowers. Another one is ‘I want to forever be a boy’ from ‘Epilogue: Young Forever’, it gets me thinking more and more as time passes. (Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa: 화양연화 = The most beautiful moment in life, 화 = Flower)

▲ JIMIN: The entire lyrics of ‘Epilogue: Young Forever’. It holds the thoughts we had after finishing a concert so it made me cry a lot.

▲ V: I like every lyrics RM-hyung wrote. All lyrics of ‘Epilogue: Young Forever’ are good but if I have to pick one line, it’d be ‘I was able to make someone shout’ and ‘I want to forever be a boy’.

▲ JIN: ‘It’s okay, forget it all when I say 1, 2, 3’ from ‘2!3!’. I’m the dodger type of person so I forget all bad memories. I always try to be happy so the lyrics came home to me. I have always believed if I want to be happy at the moment, I need to forget the unhappy memories.

- You’re currently preparing for the next album, so which kind of messages do you plan to follow up with?

▲ SUGA: So far we’ve only had the big picture so we can’t say anything for sure yet. Since last year’s tour, we have been talking with each other about happiness, what is happiness and how we can achieve it. Although I think we can’t become happier just by trying to be happy, I also believe we need to make efforts to be happy no matter how. We need to learn and research. Since I was young, I have been thinking a lot about what is happiness and how we can achieve it. No one has ever taught us that. I think if we introduce this topic, it’ll get many people to discuss about this matter.

▲ RM: I had been fixated on the keyword ‘happiness’ until early last year. But a while ago when I came to Japan, I read a newspaper column that said humans can never achieve the happiness we desire. It’s in our genes, we can’t be happy forever. It said that humanity achieved many goals like the industrial revolution or the advancement of science, but once we attain something, we would feel lacking in something else. We too thought we would be happy if we win first place, but there came the next goal. That column makes perfect sense to me. So rather than happiness, I think we should try and find our own conclusion about ‘Love Yourself’, which is what we’re talking about now. ‘Love Yourself’ is finding the way to love oneself. My dream is not to top the Billboard, it’s to love myself properly, because I think no matter how many times I face the ugly and insignificant sides of me, I can’t reach them. I was lucky to meet this ‘Love Yourself’ concept, so I want to stay true to this emotion and take a step closer towards the way to loving myself. There’s a lot that can be said on this subject, including darkness and loneliness.

- Many of your lyrics are inspired by literature works like ‘1Q84’ and ‘Demian’, even ‘Spring Day’ music video used ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’ from ‘The Wind’s Twelve Quarters’ as motive. Which book have you been reading recently?

▲ SUGA: I’ve been reading a lot recently. I used to love digital machines so much like an early adopter, but I went back to analog. I started writing and reading books like when I was small. Not long ago, I read ‘Life Lessons’ by psychiatrist and writer Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. I have several of her books. Right now I’m currently reading Yoshimoto Banana’s ‘About Her’.

▲ RM: I have Yoshimoto Banana’s ‘Kitchen’ at home so I’m reading it.

▲ J-HOPE: I’m planning to go back to childhood and read what I used to read back then, the classic science fiction ‘20 Thousand Leagues Under The Sea’ and ‘Around The World In 80 Days’ by French writer Jules Vernes. Lately thoughts of childhood have been keeping me relaxed.

▲ V: Recently I’ve been trying to read Phillip Chesterfield’s ‘Letters To His Son’.

- As the leader of K-pop, what do you think is the value or DNA that makes K-pop loved despite the fact that K-pop songs are in Korean?

▲ RM: K-pop is like a total art package. It’s a genre with lots of entertainment factors like music and music video, characteristics of each member, contents published on SNS and Youtube, fashion. It allows the public to enjoy in an intimate and diverse way. Fans relate to our lyrics and get to know our personalities, feel the closeness through photos, videos and everyday events we share on Twitter. K-pop creates lots of black holes that attract people in.

▲ SUGA: It hasn’t been long since the word ‘K-pop’ was born, so we still have a lot to do until we can characterize what is K-pop exactly. With Billboard opening the K-pop category again, it’s like our steps began again. I feel like it’s too soon to bring any conclusion to what it is.

#bts #bangtan #ot7 #yonhap int #translation #trans:in

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eng-hypnosismic · 7 years ago

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SPOON 2Di Vol. 34: Song Commentary of Producers from EVIL LINE RECORDS

This interview was taken from Spoon Magazine vol. 34. Make sure to buy it to support the producers!

Buster Bros!!!

Ore ga Ichiro

Yamada Ichiro’s song “Ore ga Ichiro” is based on the classic street style track, spun into a dramatic arrangement by Creator Guild’s Gesshoku Kaigi. Cola Bintarou-san (a.k.a Kimura Subaru) oversaw and compiled the whole project, complete with lyrics that shine with overflowing manliness. (Hirano)

Sensenfukoku

Yamada Jiro’s aggressive nature takes form in “Sensenfukoku”, a song with a hardy sound similar to Prophets of Rage. Based on a mixture of rock bands like ROTTENGRAFFTY, Dragon Ash, and others; we wanted to make sure that it’d make the crowd scream at live performances. This is another way that Gesshoku Kaigi unifies its creative processes. (Hirano)

New Star

For the brilliant yet cheeky second year middle schooler, Yamada Saburo, Miura Koushi incorporated a sampling of classical music in the production of “New Star”. In contrast to Jiro’s powerful strikes, we wondered how could we make Saburo’s song feel like a chuuni’s fantasy. After our discussion, Miura-san chose to include “Aria on G String”, a delicate melody that everyone recognizes from their music lessons. (Hirano)

Mad Trigger Crew

G anthem of Y-CITY

Much like Samatoki himself, his song is straight up self-boasting and brutal. Since his early life is touched upon as well, I aimed for a GANGSTA-RAP theme. While it takes inspiration from legendary gangsta crew songs, sound effects that reminds people of the Yakuza were also added. I think with its unrefined yet simple feeling, the song becomes addictive the more you listen to it. (Nagashima)

Bayside Smoking Blues

Due to Juto’s cool and mature atmosphere, I aimed for his song to be trendy and stylish; different from the other two. Since he’s known as a “dirty cop”, I tried referring to the atmosphere of main themes of some Japanese movies. I think this is the easiest song to listen in Yokohama. In fact, he says a lot of vulgar words that it almost sound like an AV (laughs). (Nagashima)

What’s My Name?

This is completely G-Funk! As ordered. I also referenced European military songs. I thought of adding a call-and-response rap for the hook. “Survival Cooking”, the catchy yet scary punchline, is the real deal but it’s quite a struggle to come up with. I hope you will enjoy shouting along while listening to it. (Nagashima)

Matenrou

Labyrinth Wall

GADORO-kun, a new and rising rapper, who recently dominated at KOK 2017(1), wrote the rap. Conveniently, Hayami-san was challenged with a poetry reading rap, which is GADORO-kun’s specialty. It’s amazing how Hayami-san could follow through breathlessly. The track was composed by Yokoyama Masaru-kun, in reference to the BGM “White Comet” from the movie Space Battleship Yamato(2). Jinguji Jakurai's character is shown to hold within him a "cold flame". (Miyamoto)

Champagne Gold

The best host, Izanami Hifumi, made a party tune that everyone could enjoy. Torio-san of Gesshoku Kaigi did the arrangement and Fujimori Shingo-san wrote the lyrics. Anyways, I thought we could include a call part in the character song as a way to loosen up. Kijima Ryuichi-san also gave out ideas of how to approach singing the song at the recording site. (Hirano)

Tigridia

Everyone requested for the hip-hop band AFRO PARKER-san to write the song for the salaryman. The gap between the song title "Tigridia" and the contents of Doppo's rap is amusing, so please look up it’s meaning in the language of flowers(3). Itou Kento-san's skills were surprising and the parts with overlapping voices were all approached in different manners of rap. (Mori)

Fling Posse

Drops

The concept behind the song was “Ramuda skipping with a lollipop in his mouth”. Ramuda is both cute and cunning, and Shirai Yuusuke-san was able to convey both sides of his character through his singing. Maybe you can see a glimpse of Ramuda’s hidden strength in the rap parts. (Mori)

Scenario Liar

When Yumeno Gentaro speaks of his past, he narrates as if telling a story. What is a lie, what is a truth - all of his remarks are a mystery; this song was made this way because it’s Yumeno Gentaro. The line “It’s just a lie” was set on top of the track, and Soma Saito-san’s murmured whispers were mixed in. I want people to feel Gentaro’s sexiness. (Mori)

3$EVEN

The notation of the title “3$EVEN” using the combination of “$” and “even” to read “seven” is a common way of expression used not only in hip-hop but also in english speaking countries. This time, I tried expressing the gambling theme by focusing on slot machines. It might be interesting to look up the sound effects used in the track and the pachinko slot terms used in the lyrics. Nozuyama Yukihiro-san’s “It’s was a dream!” line was very Dice-like. I like it. (Mori)

Director’s Comment (on the project)

In order to show the strong personalities of the four Divisions, the music production was divided amongst the four production directors of EVIL LINE RECORDS. I, Hirano, am responsible for Ikebukuro, the head of EVIL LINE RECORDS label - Miyamoto for Shinjuku, Hip-hop culture guru Nagashima for Yokohama, and the youngest director - Mori mainly follows Shibuya. There are multiple people in the production, so I think there’s a wide range of musical ideas, and an extraordinary richness in character. As the battles unfold in the story of Hypmic, our battles as production directors also unfolds behind the scenes. (Hirano)

1. “King of Kings 2017” was a freestyle rapping championship held in Japan.

2. Feel the epicness

3. For those curious “Tigridia” refers to the tiger lily. Its meaning in the language of flowers is “love me, help me”.

#hypnosis mic #hypnosis microphone #hypmic #t:interview #miyamoto #mori #nagashima #hirano souichirou

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lavender-lotion · 7 years ago

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Steter Creators Appreciation Week

guess I found the time after all! to all the people i didn’t mention: keep up the good work!

@thegirlwhoknits is one of my favourite people. An amazing Beta and a better friend, their work is wonderful. Anytime I want to read something soft and emotional, it’s them that I think of them.

The High is Worth the Pain is a wonderful story, one I personally need to re-read, and one of the very first Steter fics that I have ever read. It holds a special place in my heart, and is so good.

Sniffing You Out is another great Steter fic of theirs, and is just incredibly soft.

Find their work on AO3 here: thegirlwhoknits

@platypusesrneat I became aware of Gwen when she made a mood board off my fic Silver Glitter, and then she made a few more off other fics, before I finally just messaged her. Gwen is wonderful. she makes amazing boards, but I think she is often overlooked for her writing. She has written me some amazing feel good drabbles that turned a bad day into a wonderful one, and I am thankful for her friendship.

I’ll Be There is just ridiculously sweet, and so much fun to read!

Find their work on AO3 here: platypusesrneat

@merwin-me is a wonderful person. Not only are they a complete sweetheart, but hilarious. Always willing to help me through my own writing, theirs is a freaking joy to read. An extra shout out to Merwin, who just hit 100k words posted to AO3! Keep up all the wonderful work!

Scent Experiment is a great fic, and I am not just reccing it because It was written for me! Check it out, it is adorable!

Find their work on AO3 here: Merwin_Me

@bloody-bee-tea is another amazing person that I have had the pleasure of meeting through this fandom. With 200+ fics posted to AO3 over various fandoms, they inspire me to keep writing. They come up with some of the best ideas, and everything they write is a pleasure to read.

You Got Me Now is one of my favourite fics by Bee. It is filled with hurt/comfort goodness, and they have a whole bunch of other amazing Steter fics.

Find their work on AO3 here: Syriala

@theotherrulerofallpotatos a blast to talk to, and someone who always has new ideas, Kira is a great person to know!

Don’t Touch My Puppers is a fun read, and one I strongly recommend.

Find their work on AO3 here: kiranightshade

@lostwithoutmyanchor is awesome! Always a blast to talk with, and such a genuinely nice person!

Don’t Get Lucky was the first fic of Lost’s that I read, and it is such an enjoyable read!

Find their work on AO3 here: lostwithoutmyanchor

@oceanandspaceandfandom Ocean is a joy! Incredibly nice and welcoming, she is a sweetheart.

quiet times after rushed violence is Ocean’s most recent Steter fic, though that isn’t to say they aren’t all wonderful! This story is so sweet, and is such a wonderful Steter fic to feel good!

Find their work on AO3 here: OceanAndSpace

@ohthepretty is not only a wonderful fic writer, but a published author (which is in so, so inspiring and also makes me seethe with jealousy). I have yet to read any of her original fiction, but quite a few stories on in my amazon cart!

Two Hours and Eleven Minutes is an adorable fic, that made me smile crazy wide. It is a very, very fun read!

You can find their website here and their work on AO3 here: CinnamonLily

#SCAW #Steter Creators Appreciation Week #Steter #Teen Wolf

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thelionshoarde · 7 years ago

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the magnificent @sabraeal got me, :3 :3

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

It’s from an unfinished short story I wrote back in 2014: It was awful business working in the Lion’s Hoarde Inn. I think I just enjoyed the sound of it, (:

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/favorites, follows/subscriptions, visitor hits, kudos)

Some Nights, my first Teen Wolf fic. People really love pack mom!Stiles, apparently lol.

3. What is your FFnNet/AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

O PUREST ONE. It’s from a fanart I’m still chipping away at. Because: it made @superhappybubbleslove go WAAAAHHHHHH MY HEAAARRRRTT and I enjoy making wonderful people suffer! :D

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

Things are about to get real lengthy, so...

@sabraeal, of course, is a dream come true, and is currently back at it with her long reviews, and BE STILL MY HEART. @superhappybubbleslove kicks ass every Saturday with her amazingness (and often is the only, or one of the only ones, to comment on a very particular thing that i really loved about a story or art, and i always fist pump whenever she does that hahaha) @claudeng80 has given me some of my favorite comments, EVER, and I often have to take a day or more to process my emotions before I can actually respond coherently haha, I GET VERY EXCITED, OKAY. @hidetheremote is one of my most faithful and kind and generous commenters, I am always thrilled to receive them and she’s been showering me with encouragement since the beginning, so she has a VERY special place in my heart! I have a few commenters on my ot3 things that are incredibly kind, or people who have bookmarked/kudo’d almost all of them, and while I do not believe I know their tumblr handles, but I would sell my first born for you. :| special shout out to @vfordii and @stuffaeamade and @raediation who are always SO supportive of my obizenyuki feels hahaha! @youseimanami is a one woman cheer squad and AMAZING, so kind and so so sweet, and her comments always feel SO genuine, they just make my heart get all swelled up and fuzzy and warm, I love her! I know I’m forgetting people, but I LOVE YOU ALL, YOU ARE ALL MY FAVORITES D;

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

I cycle through over time. There are a lot of older, long fics in other fandoms that I occasionally go back to when I need a pick-me up lol. Currently, there is I KID YOU NOT a south park kenny/kyle fic that I’m in love with and have read 2-3 times in the last couple months since I first read it and I WILL PROBABLY INDULGE AGAIN, SOON. (gold digger, IT IS AMAZING, OKAY)

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I actually never figured out how to subscribe! 8D I have 86 bookmarks, but it should be more. I went through a year long period I think where I never signed into ao3 lol.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

MAGIC. In some form or another lol.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

163 user subscriptions, and 2604 bookmarks. (some nights has 1912 bookmarks all on its own, okay, teen wolf is a v v large ocean of a fandom haha)

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

N O P E, i have no shame filter 8D .....ok, wait, the a/b/o one because it’s omega!obi and i’ve been a tad leery of the response i may receive for how very, uh, not your usual obiyuki dynamic in bed i want to make it. >_>

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

Hn, yes and yes and yes and yes. My big thing is: I want to learn how to finish lengthier things. I got into fandom to try and do that, and it’s my goal for this year, especially.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

Rarepairs, I think! Even when I write popular ships I usually write them in the less popular fashion haha. But mostly, I just write whatever I want, which is often a myriad of different pairings!

12. How many stories have you posted on FFNet/AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

13 stories on ffnet, and a few of those were also on my livejournal. I don’t have an exact number for livejournal, but it’s over 100. I’ve started moving some of those fics from my livejournal to ao3, now, so I’m up to 40. Only 23 of my ao3 stories aren’t also on livejournal at this moment lol. And there are a couple of things on tumblr I haven’t moved onto ao3 yet.

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

I am unwilling to go down that dark and dangerous path. :|

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I try and write down whatever jumps in my head, because I WILL forget things, otherwise. But I’ll spend days mulling over an idea, sometimes, before I am able to sit down and write it.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Back in eljay days I wrote stories with other people on occasion. Sometimes it was just writing comment fic back and forth at each other. Or writing different scenes in the same universe that went together. Nothing big.

16. How did you discover FFNet/AO3?

I know I stumbled on ffnet myself, but I don’t remember for ao3. O: Pretty certain someone told me about it, but when I had livejournal I didn’t really use anything else.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on FFNet/AO3?

Hm, I’ve never been a widely popular anything, though I was lucky enough to have some excellent fans on eljay, who would jump fandoms with me just because they wanted to read my stuff. And folk who were incredibly kind and generous with their praise no matter how many random things I churned out haha. I’ve always been thrilled if there’s just ONE person who enjoyed a story I put out! I’m pretty easy to please!

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

My darlings!

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Anyone who writes is an inspiration to me. I see people putting up fic and publishing novels, and I go I WANT TO DO THAT, UGH. Because I’ve always been a writer, ever since I was teeny, and have never stopped wanting to do it. I’ve always been in love with words, and stories. (As I’m sure many others can relate: I used to get in trouble in elementary school because I would read as I walked, and it was EARLY elementary school, where you had to walk in lines with your class because they were afraid they were gonna lose you, and I could read while I walked because I would just follow whoever was in front of me to wherever we were going haha)

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

It’s 100% okay if you write something, and you’re really proud of it, and you go back later -- a week, a day, a month, two years, whatever -- and think: THIS IS THE WORST. That doesn’t ever really go away, because as creators we are constantly evolving and looking to improve, and often times something that is actually quite solid and gives many readers joy will be a thing that you facepalm over, later. Use that to keep writing, and try to remember that you are most definitely your own worst critic. At the end of the day, keep doing this thing because you love it. Your work IS worthy, even when you think it should be set on fire and scattered across the deepest ocean never to be seen again!

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

A combo! Sometimes, especially for shorter things, I just get an idea, and sometimes I just think about it for a little while, and then I open a doc and I just go to town until it’s finished. Other times I start off by writing out the thoughts and building off of that, and sometimes I slip into actually writing it and then back to outlining. USUALLY I start writing a thing because I have a tiny spark of an idea, or a situation/concept I find interesting, and I have no idea where it’s going, and I just write to see what happens, and THEN I start plotting things out as I go, which can be one of the MOST frustrating ways to write a story. Anything big I’ve ever written (and I’ve written several drafts of several novels) starts out like this, where I have a random idea and I sit down and I write out whatever scenes crop up in my head, and then I start filling in the blanks, later. A lot of my longer fandom things also are like this. heading for a small disaster was me just sort of sitting around and thinking about an entirely different story, and then I had like, a half-formed idea for a single scene in my head, so I sat down and started writing chapter 1 to GET to that scene, coming up with stuff as I needed it, and by the time I hit the end of ch1 I was no where near my original idea, and had a bunch of other ideas, and THEN I started plotting things out.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

I’m sure I have! Though I haven’t posted fandom anything for a long time, so I don’t really remember. One comment I do recall was not a BAD comment, it was a comment about a bad thing I had done in neglecting to tag something, and then I got all defensive because I was younger and even more stupid than I am now, and I was an asshole, which I regret. ):

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

Action! Also, stationary scenes with multiple people that DOESN’T have action! Okay, ANY scene that has more than one person is tricky, though two people at least helps in pacing because it’s easier to intersperse dialogue, but you add one more person into a scene and I’m laying my head on my desk and CRYING. Transition scenes are also my bane, I have the hardest time figuring out how to move from point a to b. Basically: EVERYTHING IS DIFFICULT. That’s half the fun of writing something, though.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

Too many, but I’m trying to focus on finishing up some longer things this year. Of course, despite that having been my resolution before the year even began, I have somehow found myself with two new longer fics than WHEN THE YEAR STARTED, ugh. disaster, magic!cowboy au, lyrias center, unicorn au, soulmate tattoo au, a second part to we can make our own way, the full version of back alley complete with smut and EMOTIONS, fight club au, ot3 modern day neighbors au, and all the christmas prompts I haven’t done yet, and I have like, two more chapters of picture perfect planned out that I just haven’t written yet, I AM HAVING A DIFFICULT TIME THINNING THE HERD, I 100% come up with more ideas than ever get written, as I’m sure most writers do haha.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

HAHAHA

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

Nah, I almost never succeed at stuff like that, and I get pissy if I fail, so I’ve learned not to put myself into that position if I can, because it just hurts my writing. I just write when I want, or when I have time even if I don’t want.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

Hopefully! Though posting old stuff to ao3 has made me aware that my vocabulary has actually suffered over time, and I’m hoping to fix that!

28. What is your favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

I don’t entirely love anything that I’ve written. There are aspects of many things that I love dearly, though none of it really wins out against another. I’ll say: three of my orig novels are probably closest to being no 1.

29. What is your least favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

There was this one HP fic I wrote when I was like, 14?? I don’t know, but apparently I was VERY ANGRY, and wrote some really messed up stuff, and I wouldn’t mind being able to bury that shit haha. But truthfully -- I probably grew a lot from it, as embarrassing as it is to me, now. ...okay, there was a LOT of HP fic wherein I was in my DARK AND ANGSTY years, that, whew! I’m glad I’m not that person anymore haha.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Still writing, hopefully. :3

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

CRYING. Crying is very easy, and so is laying my head on my desk and despairing that I will ever figure out how to make things work.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

WORKING THROUGH THE TEARS. It is very easy to give up, and mope, much more difficult to grit your teeth and wrangle a story into submission.

33. Why do you write?

Because I love the power of words. It’s magic. A written story is essentially an illusion spell. You put the right words on the page in the correct order, and behold! An entire world, with living characters, is born within the mind of a reader. And a single, minute change to any one of those words may shift the whole thing. It’s a constantly evolving formula, and full of surprises, and if you are particularly lucky and diligent you might even be able to spin an entire tale that grips people, shakes them up and makes them believe in something impossible, something that YOU created, from nearly nothing. That kind of power is pretty damned addictive.

#writing meme #about me #personal

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ammeh7 · 7 years ago

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7KPP week - Day 7 (Winter) - NSFW version

So I apparently lied when I said I was only writing for one day of 7KPP week. I blame all you amazing Adorable Army creators for showering my brain in 7KPP inspiration and tempting me away from the fic I was trying to finish. XD

This is for the “winter” prompt–but it’s really more “the rainy season,” because Shahira running out and dancing in her first Hisean rainstorm is something that’s been kicking around in my head for ages.

When I started writing it I was fully intending for the fic to be entirely SFW…but then my brain was like “Okay but seriously, look at the scenario you’re putting them in, do you actually think this would end without anyone getting frisky?” and I was like “Okay brain that’s a fair point.”

If you prefer your fic SFW, there’s a version here with the frisky bits mostly removed. Otherwise, here’s the full uncensored version.

Shahira had, in the long days of speculation before departing for the Summit, wondered if she might return to somewhere where the leaves bloomed red and gold in autumn, where flakes of ice fell from the sky in winter. At the dinner to see them off, she’d cupped her hand around the tiny bowl of kulfi, a rare treat, and wondered what it would feel like to step outside and have that chill envelop her whole body.

Instead, she ended up in Hise, where it’s green year-round, where the heat doesn’t quite reach the street-sizzling levels of Corvali summers but comes paired with a muggy humidity that presses in on all sides and manages to make it feel even more oppressive.

And where she’s free to do whatever she wants.

In some cases, though, what she wants to do is precisely what she was doing before. She’s hardly about to let her sterling reputation as a party-planner go to seed merely because she’s moved to a country with no courtly culture, for example. So here she is in a side room of her new father-in-law’s office, huddled over a menu with a no-nonsense chef who once served Revairan nobility, planning a welcome dinner for the group of Corvali ambassadors arriving to next week to hash out all manner of negotiations on matters that were that were too trivial to quibble over during the Summit. The chef hadn’t offered her name, and Shahira hasn’t asked, just in case she was supposed to have known already. She’ll figure it out after the woman leaves. She knows she’s probably being silly, projecting inner court machinations onto a guileless interaction, but some habits are hard to shake.

“This menu will make them feel at home, for certain,” Shahira muses, trailing her finger down a list of hors d’oeuvres, “but you don’t want them to feel like they’re at home. That will just invite comparison, and you don’t want to end up in a Corvali cuisine competition against a Corvali noble’s mental ideal of Corvali food. You’d be setting yourself up to lose. No, you want them to feel like they’re in Hise.”

The woman snorts. “I’ve tried serving Hisean food to foreign dignitaries. A lot of them stare at their plates like I dumped a live crab and a rock on there and told them to figure it out.”

“There was a dressmaker who visited Corval court every few years,” Shahira begins, “whose gowns always had a selection of features perfectly calculated to make the ladies of Corval go ‘Ooo, so Wellish!’ and the ladies of Wellin go ‘Ooo, so Corvali!’ He travelled back and forth between the two countries, selling gowns faster than he could make them, because they were so exotic. You want your menu to be those gowns.”

The chef narrow her eyes. “Gowns, huh?”

Shahira nods, and continues her story. “Eventually word of those gowns’ popularity got out to a proper Wellish dressmaker, who sent an assistant with a selection of his wares all the way to Corval court, hoping to make a fortune—and after a month, his assistant had to pack every last gown back up for the trip home, because not a single lady of the inner court wanted one of those odd-looking bulky things. The key is to offer something that’s familiar enough to be comfortable, but foreign enough to feel exotic.”

“I think I could make that work.” The woman purses her lips in thought as she scans back over the menu. “Sounds fun, actually.”

Whatever else she might have been going to add is cut off when Hamin bursts into the room, giving the two of them a jaunty wave as he swipes one of the dessert samples from the plate in front of them. “You might want to head home, Norna,” he says when he’s done chewing. “Big storm coming in an hour or so.”

She nods, gathering up her papers and heading out the door with a quick promise to check in the next day once she’s had time to put some ideas together.

Shahira grabs another one of the samples herself, absently takes a demure bite. She has got to get this Norna to teach her how to cook.

“And here I thought I was making progress on training you out of your court table manners,” Hamin sighs, shaking his head exaggeratedly. “That is, at best, a two-bite pastry.”

Shahira blinks down at the dainty in her hand, still mostly whole with a nibble off of one end, and shoves the rest of it in her mouth in one go. Her cheeks puff out like a ground squirrel and she has to fight to keep any of it from spilling out as she struggles not to laugh, but it’s worth it for Hamin’s face.

“I was serious about the rain,” he says, chuckling, once she’s finally managed to swallow it down. “We should probably head home too.” He grins like a giddy child over the word “home”—it’s barely been a week yet that that’s been the same place for both of them.

“Do we have to go hole up inside?” she asks, even as she stands and brushes off her skirts. “I haven’t seen a proper Hisean rainstorm, yet.” People had told her she’d arrived towards the end of the dry season—which was hardly dry compared to Corval, but all the rain so far had been in the middle of the night, or come and gone so fast that it had already tapered off by the time she’d ended her conversation and gotten to a window.

Hamin frowns thoughtfully. “It can be pretty dangerous to be outside during one, Glitter. The winds can be fierce, and sometimes trees get knocked over. It’s not safe to be standing under them.” He strokes his chin, considering, and finally grins. “If you are set on experiencing a Hisean storm out in the open, I think I know just the place, though.”

To her inexperienced eye, the skies look clear when they step outside—but as Hamin leads her through the town and down a footpath into the forest, he points out the signs on the horizon, the slight change in the air.

“You are sure about this, right?” He asks as they walk. “Once the storm starts, we won’t really be able to turn around and head back home until it’s over.”

Shahira nods. “We didn’t see much rain in Corval, believe it or not. I want a chance to properly marvel at it before I become jaded and desensitized like all you strange folk who grew up with ‘rainy seasons.’”

Thinking back on it, she’s been waiting for that chance for years. One wall of the Imperial palace had looked out onto a bustling market. There were plenty of windows where a lady of the court might look down and watch the activity below, posh merchants bartering with wealthy clients over silks and jewelry and perfumed oils. There was one particular window, though—in an area of the palace where Shahira was not, strictly speaking, supposed to be—that was perfectly situated to offer a glimpse of the true heart of the market in the distance, where harried mothers and brassy housekeepers haggled fiercely with plainly-attired but shrewd merchants over things like fish and soap and lamp oil.

Shahira had been peeping out that window between teas one day when the first rain in several months rolled over the city, covering the market in a sudden downpour. She’d watched the farmers who’d ridden from miles outside the city to peddle fruits and vegetables from a worn blanket tear off the scarves they’d been wearing to shield their heads from the sun, tilt their laughing faces to the sky and dance in the street with competitors they’d been trying to out-shout moments earlier, celebrating the simple miracle of rain.

She’d never wished so badly to be part of the world she could see outside her window.

Hamin leads them through the forest for quite a ways, down a well-hidden footpath and then along the edge of the stream it leads into. The stream starts to follow the edge of a cliff, and eventually widens into a shallow pool, shielded on three sides by the cliff face, with a waterfall tumbling over the far edge. Along one side the cliff curves inward, creating a slight natural shelter over some mossy boulders.

“It looks like something out of a painting,” she marvels, hitching up her skirt and splashing over to inspect some pink and orange flowers growing out of a crevice in the cliffs.

Hamin grins. “Thought you’d like it.”

In the time they’ve been walking, the sky has started to darken, and by the time Shahira has explored every corner of the pool, there are black clouds overhead, sounds of wind shaking the trees in the distance.

Hamin strips off his vest and sets it on one of the boulders under where the stone creates an overhang. “I figure we don’t want to walk back in wet clothes,” he says, untying the scarf that he uses as a belt and tossing it over to join his vest. “So you should probably get naked.” He waggles his eyebrows.

“It’s good to know you’re always looking out for my best interests,” she chuckles, pulling off the loose open vest she’s been wearing over the strip of cloth crossed over her breasts. (All the exposed stomachs in Hisean attire make a great deal of sense now that she’s experienced how the humidity here makes fabric cling suffocatingly to the skin.)

She pulls off her skirt next—an airy orange fabric covered in silver embroidery dotted with chips of turquoise and flat mirror-like disks of silver. It’s one of the things she brought from Corval, taken up a few inches to end at the ankle instead of the floor but otherwise left alone. Under it, she has a plain white underskirt that falls a little past her knees to protect the fabric from sweat and oil.

She pauses a moment to forcibly remind the part of her brain devoted to guarding her reputation that she’s married, and in Hise where getting caught carousing in public would result in a few weeks of good-natured ribbing rather than a lifetime scandal. She’s distracted, though, by a rumble of thunder in the distance, and blinks in startlement as a fat drop of water plops down on the bridge of her nose.

Another two fall on her head and shoulder in rapid succession, and she holds out her hand to catch one—but she barely has time to examine the size of that lone drop before they’re swarming, the bead of water in her hand quickly swallowed into a puddle. She throws her arms out and tilts her face to the sky, twirls around in amazed delight.

“It’s raining!” she exclaims.

“I’m guessing this is a Corval thing?” Hamin calls back over the drone of rain hitting the pool and the surprisingly loud sound of trees shaking in the wind. “We should kidnap more of you, if all of you are this cute when you see rain.”

“Don’t you dare ruin my treaty right after I’ve managed to wrangle our countries into an accord, Hamin of Hise,” she threatens, laughing, then grabs his hand and pulls him into a wild dance, jumping in joyous circles like the farmers she’d watched in the street so many years ago.

It doesn’t take long before she’s soaking, hair plastered to her face and back, underskirt clinging to her thighs, no longer sure where she’s wet from the rain and what’s been splashed up by their dancing.

Hamin picks her up by the waist and lifts her. He grins up at her, blinking the water out of his (still) startlingly green eyes, and spins them around in a circle.

Her body slides against his front as he sets her down, and she throws her arms around his neck and kisses him, tangling her fingers in his wet braids.

“You know, you never did finish getting naked,” he husks into her ear when they finally part.

“Good point,” she says, looking down at the sopping fabric clinging to her body. “I’d hate for my clothes to get wet.”

She unwraps the cloth crossed over her breasts, wiggles out of the underskirt stuck to her skin. They can’t actually get much wetter, but she listens to the little voice in her head that manages to simultaneously sound like a bit like every ladies’ maid she’s ever had, and brings them over to the boulder with the rest of her clothes rather than just dropping them into the pool.

When she looks back up, Hamin has shed his pants and is watching her with an exaggerated leer, his prick fattened with interest but still hanging heavy between his legs. He tugs her close and slots her back against his front, slides his hand up her stomach towards her chest, only to hook his finger into the chain of her necklace and tug it up for inspection. Not quite what she was expecting.

“You know, when you showed up to the Matchmaker’s banquet wearing this, I didn’t think it was possible for it to look any better,” he says, letting the gold coin fall back down between her breasts. “But I think I like it even better like this.”

“All that time I spent trying to look nice for you at the Summit, and now I find out you would have just preferred me naked,” she sighs in mock affront, rolling her hips back against his groin.

“Naked and wearing my presents. It’s an important distinction!” He thrusts forward into her movements, his prick nestling between the cheeks of her rear, sliding through the rainwater on her skin.

She’s soaking in yet another sense of the word by the time his hand finds its way between her legs, two fingers pressing inside her while the base of his palm grinds up against her clit. Torn between pushing forward into his hand and backward against his cock, she clenches around the fingers inside her, groans when they press hard into the new, inner sensitive spot that she’s just recently discovered. She’d only known she had the one down there.

She rocks back against him as he strokes her inner walls, the air around them still teeming with rain. Her nipples are already long pebbled up from the chill when he cups her chest with his other hand and rolls one between his fingers. She digs her nails into his thigh, keens without meaning to as the movement of his hand picks up.

He thrusts against her rear in little aborted pushes, the water not slick enough for their bodies to slide together as easily as could be desired, but the groan in her ear is far from a frustrated one. It shouldn’t be as good as it is, but the open air, the thrum of rain splashing onto their skin, is thrilling in a way that soon has her gasping into the soaked air, knees trembling with the effort of continuing to stand.

Before the rain can wash her slick from his hand Hamin grabs his cock and gives it a few frantic pumps, his teeth muffling a shout into her shoulder as his seed splashes hot onto her back between the cool raindrops. (It’s funny…she’d come into this expecting him to be loud, based on her admittedly gossip-based knowledge of how people behave in bed—and he’s certainly vocal, but years of sharing quarters on a ship mean his first instinct is always to muffle it.)

She turns around and kisses him, reaching behind herself to assist the rain in washing her skin clean—and frowns in confusion as rather than washing away like liquid, his seed sort of—rolls into a rubbery little ball under her fingers. She picks it up and brings it around for inspection, staring in bemusement. “What kind of bizarre liquid turns solid when it comes into contact with water?”

Hamin laughs at her baffled expression. “The kind that comes out of pricks, Glitter,” he says rhetorically, kissing the confused frown off her face as the rain starts to lighten around them.

Once it’s stopped entirely, they wring the worst of the rain from their clothes. Hamin laughs again at her disgusted face when she pulls on her damp underskirt. “You’ve never worn wet clothes before, have you?”

“Historically my clothes and I have seldom had opportunities to get soaked in water unless one of us is bathing,” she replies. “I’m grateful to have the opportunity.” She tugs at the underskirt sticking to her leg and wrinkles her nose. “Less so for the wet clothes.”

“I’d happily take something like that over wet pants.” He points at the way his pants are clinging to his inner thighs. “Less chafing.”

She looks at her embroidered skirt, considering. “I do have one to spare, if you’re interested.”

Hamin’s second mate is just walking away from the porch when they get back home—clothes rumpled, hair in damp disarray, and Hamin resplendent in an orange skirt embellished with turquoise.

It says something about Hise, or perhaps his relationship with Hamin, that after a brief double-take he just falls in step with a grin and starts talking their ears off.

Humidity or no, she thinks she’ll like it here.

(If you noticed that Shahira uses weird terms to describe the fact that it’s raining--that’s not me trying to be poetic, it’s intended to be a joke about the fact that she hasn’t had enough exposure to rain to drill the phrases stereotypically used to describe it into her subconscious.

The idea of the palace having windows from which ladies of the inner court could observe part of the market is based on the Hawa Mahal.)

#7kppnsfw #7kppnsfw2018

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adelmortescryche · 7 years ago

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Fic Writers Week - Day One

Almost missed out on participating in time, because I’ve been sick and out of touch with the actual date. But! I noticed that it was the 11/26 in time, and here I am, @ficwritersweek. (you’ve probably already heard it a whole lot, but. this is such a lovely idea.)

Day 1: Words of Validation

There’s always those comments that stick, the ones that help you push through a story or personal favorites that you just have to reread from time to time. Writers, this is the day to share some of those!

Since it’s day one and I’m a writer/creator alongside being a reader, I just wanted to give a shout out to all the wonderful people who choose to read and comment on my stuff! I wish I could just name everyone who’s commented or left a kudos on my fics, but that probably isn’t too feasible in terms of post length, eh. *wry grin*

I used to be better at responding to people immediately, but health reasons, both mental and physical, have made it harder for me to reply as quickly or as often as I used to. But the comments I’ve received have not only given me something to look forward to, but they also fill me with joy and delight, almost leaving me feeling euphoric, because they let me know that I’ve made other people happy. And have given them something to be excited about.

I’m hesitant to add actual screenshots or too many long-running excerpts from people’s comments, since I know not everyone is comfortable with what they say being aired in a relatively public setting like this, but let’s see how to show some appreciation anyway. I’ve given excerpts where I can, too.

Here’s a couple commenters and comments that stuck with me, over time. I don’t actually know if all of you are on tumblr, but if you (or anyone else who recognizes you) are here and happen to see this, hit me up so I can tag you properly? *winces* Sorry for how long this got, guys, I found it really difficult to control myself!

MidnightCharm18188, whose comment on He Says She Says made me almost ridiculously happy. The fic was written when I was a lot younger and a lot more confused about my own orientation, etc., so having someone show up and tell me it felt like a relatable and realistic description of asexuality made me very relieved. And made it easier to consider writing other asexual takes on characters, like Tsuna in Cloud!Tsuna, well after this fic was posted.

@typervoxilations (here’s hoping this is actually your tumblr, since I’ve only interacted with you on ao3) - she’s shown up on a bunch of my KHR fics and dear god, comments like hers make me happy to be a writer. Long, ramble-y, filled with lots of thoughts about the canon and how it relates to the fic, and seemingly ready to throw ideas back and forth any time. *grins* Bless you for whatever you’ve said to me till date, friend, even if we don’t talk as much as we used to!

@msleilei for what they said on my fic On Courting, and actually leaving a review on both ffnet and ao3. Angsty X27 really is rare these days, isn’t it. Or it used to be, at least. There were so many oddly fluffy X27 fics coming out around the time I posted this fic, so your comment made me laugh out loud. *grins*

Like...dude. I'm just sitting here, browsing through the list and I saw an angsty X27 and I'm like, that's rare nowadays so I'm curious and holy mother of god I didn't even stay for the X27, I'm mostly impressed with how you told their story and how you built the world... it's fucking amazing I mean seriously. Ugh. I can't even express myself properly

Hope for what they said on my fic On Courting, because it managed to capture so many thoughts I had in my head while writing the fic.

Therefore this story is in all honesty the very antipodal of what I loved about the series. It's raw in the most honest and inconceivable way whether it be about the workings of the mafia or in the portrayal of the emotional and mental damage experienced by the individuals all originating from the strain of the mafia. The story is intricate with layer upon layer in ways the manga never was, the characters are no more two dimensional than me or you, they exude complexity, unprecedented. So when I read it for the first time months ago, it left me utterly taken aback. It was everything I hadn't sought out in the manga, but I loved every single damn thing about this story.

Friend, even if you never see this post, you made me happy to have posted that fic. Since it’s the first purely KHR fic I ever wrote.

Tripucchi, whose comments make me scream when they show up. Every damn time, seriously.

Witch of Perception, who’s left comments on even my weirder fics. Thank you for everything you’ve said, I grin rather happily whenever I see a comment from you pop up. Especially this one from Expectations, though, because it was one of those fics that I really hesitated to post. For obvious reasons, I think. And this comment made me happy to have bitten the bullet and posted it.

To be quite honest, I mostly read this because you wrote it. It wasn't something I'd have clicked on without some other incentive (in this case, it's that I know for a fact that I've loved everything I've read of yours, so I was practically guaranteed good writing), for all that I really like the idea of this OT3-- but man am I glad that I did.

I adored this Byakuran's characterization, and her relationship with this Tsuna. I love that sharp edge that you gave to this Tsuna, too, and the in-between conversations the two had, and what worldbuilding they gave. The Guardians' bickering and bantering was fun; I loved this Kikyou... and this Gokudera and Yamamoto. Basically everyone and everything. So, all in all I'm very glad you posted this. I feel like there isn't nearly enough of this pairing, and certainly not enough of this OT3. Thank you for the story, and I look forward to the other one.

asoftheart, who left me with this gem in Amber Heart, the first part of my Cloud!Tsuna series.

Okay so I finally got around to reading this and god was it perfect! The more of your KHR pieces I read the more delighted I become. I feel like I'm discovering Lys Ap Adin and Branch's works all over again!

Do I need any more reasons to want to squeak with joy about it? Do I? No, I don’t think I do. And yet the rest of your comment made me squeal loudly anyway.

Temper Tantrum and narue naru chan, for leaving comments on all my KHR fics, one after another, in what seemed like a single sitting. I was watching my inbox with wide eyes and a lot of glee, guys, thank you for blowing it up.

StarryNightSkyinaBottle, for their comment on It Takes Two.

This story absolutely enraptured me, I was giddy the whole way through. The flow dragged me along for the ride and the feeling of dread and of loneliness broke my heart. When it was revealed that it was HDW!Tsuna taking over the whole time, I wanted to shout to the rooftops (but i shan't, bc it's 6:47am and I don't want to wake anyone up). I had a bit of an inkling when "Self sabotage. It had to be." popped up, that part also broke my heart, but it definitely opened the doorway to figuring out the whole story and I love you for that.

I haven’t had the chance to respond to you on ao3 yet, but here I am saying that your comment captures so much of what I was trying to put across in the fic. Thank you.

aHostileRainbow, for their comment on Age as Fireflies at Dusk, because it made me cackle rather maniacally. With a whole lot of empathy, too, because THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I REACTED TO OTHER WRITERS I KNOW GETTING INTO THE YOI FANDOM DAMNIT.

What the fuck am I doing here I am not in this fandom at all but you wrote an amazing SAO crossover and now I'm hooked and I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR ANOTHER FANDOM YOU TERRIBLY TALENTED PERSON. This is unfairly lovely.

bonehandledknife(lady winter)’s comment on c.02 of A Heart of Blades, which was a transcript of a real time chat they had with a friend while reading this chapter. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I was while reading this comment, seriously. I think I self-combusted with delight. And it’s sadly not in a format conducive to excerpts, and is probably too long to screenshot to share here. Friend, I suspect I might have scared you off with my exuberance, but know that the comments you left on this fic made me very happy.

hundredpercentwool’s comment on c.02 of A Heart of Blades.

...This image signals what the dynamics of their relationship will be like in the this AU, with Victor being Victor, but Yurri being more of a pillar of strength that Victor can lean on. I do think that they can or will be alternatively leaning on each other for their various weaknesses and personal demons. In Canon, Yuuri leaned on Victor more than the other way around and it was Victor descending to Yuuri from the heavens like some divine being to be his coach. But in this AU, it was more like Yuuri appearing to Victor in his numb despair, like a Muse appearing to an artist, and Victor really throwing himself after Yuuri because Yuuri seems to have some kind of secret strength about him that amazes Victor.

This is just an excerpt, but this comment helped me cotton onto something that I hadn’t actually noticed while writing the fic myself! Talk about comments that are inspirational and food for thought, whoof. Thank you so much, Elaine.

@onceabluemoonwrites, whose comments leave me with an unhealthily red face and a heart full of joy. How in the world am I supposed to give any excerpts of your comments, friend, you build them so well with fic-excerpts and gifs and reactions and- aaaah.

@voxofthevoid, for their comment on With War Drums Blazing. We didn’t actually know each other too well when you left this comment, D, so in retrospect I know exactly why you reacted this way to it. But I’d just been happy to get a comment that captured what I loved about the idea, back then. *grins*

I adore the altered dynamic here and am glad to hear it's high on your list on probable long fics. Yuuri as Death is a wonderful concept and his softer and sharper sides are wonderful representations.

Viktor, with that weird blend of efficiency and remorse, makes a fascinating character and it's amazing how much you've packed into these few thousand words.

And, obviously, @insanescriptist, who’s probably the singular cause of the majority of my weirder KHR fic ideas. Including the ones that I haven’t actually managed to finish writing and posting yet. I hope I’ve made obvious just how much fun I have throwing ideas back and forth with you, friend. SO much fun. I can’t even mention individual comments - I love them all. And they feel like a conversation, anyway, so it’s probably redundant to mention individual comments...

Again, thank you everyone who’s left me comments on my fics! Even if I haven’t mentioned you by name here, I read every comment I get. And they all make me squeal and flail in happiness. And make me run about telling everyone who’ll listen about the lovely words I’ve received. I mean, look at all you lovely people, taking the time to talk about why you like what you’ve read. You’re all so-

For all that my responses have slowed down because of ill health, as mentioned above, I hope to get back to all of you! Tumblr seems to be making me a bit more active and interactive, at the least, so there’s that. *awkward grin*

#ficwritersweek #day one #katekyo hitman reborn #yuri!!! on ice #khr #yoi #comments #i appreciate each and every one of you guys #you're so kind to me #even if ive gotten terrible about responding #i will respond #i will #reader appreciation #harry potter #hp #tagging that even if there's only one fic mentioned from that fandom #stop with the self flagellation adel #this is supposed to be a happy post

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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OPINION: Here's Why Berserk Is the Perfect Blend of Shonen and Shoujo

My tastes in media have shifted in all sorts of directions throughout the years, but there’s one constant: Berserk is still my favorite manga and my favorite work of fiction, period. It was an absolute game-changer for me when I first experienced Miura’s hellish fantasy in early high school. I was amazed to see a manga that amalgamated so many appealing and variegated concepts, emotions, and aesthetic elements into one cohesive package. Miura’s world was not only frightening, but also beautiful, and even in my adolescent opinion, I thought it had the most painstakingly gorgeous hand-drawn illustrations I had ever seen. I was shocked a dark fantasy existed that blended the best of shounen and seinen, with the emotional depth and character development more native to shoujo.

In recent times, I found out my personal interpretation of Berserk might be more factually on point than I realized. Kentaro Miura, the creator, remarked in one of a Crunchyroll interview that Fist of the North Star greatly influenced Berserk. Miura also mentioned in the official Berserk Official Guidebook that the character Serpico was meant to mirror Andre from the acclaimed European-inspired shoujo Rose of Versailles. To celebrate the anniversary of the Berserk manga, I’ll explore how the depressingly overlooked Lost Children Arc — in particular, volumes 14-16 — embodies Miura’s unique mesh of the best of both shounen and shoujo, resulting in an entirely original and moving narrative. Because of this, Berserk is rightfully branded (pun intended, tee-hee) as a monolithic manga masterpiece for the ages. Read on for more.

Image via Dark Horse Comics

The Lost Children Arc is, in my opinion, the most underrated of all Berserk arcs. The short saga rarely gets discussed in online circles and has been skipped in both anime and game incarnations of the series (even in the most recent musou-style PS4 Berserk title). There are good reasons why, as the arc features some very graphic depictions of abuse and violence toward children. Despite its sensitive and graphic nature, the Lost Children Arc provides very cautionary insights about the cyclical nature/consequences of abuse toward kids. Miura is at his most compassionate here, encouraging readers to look at the ugliness of life straight in the eye while simultaneously showing the beauty of humanity’s indomitable will to survive.

Berserk's central character, Guts, meets Jill — a young girl and the protagonist of the arc — in a manner somewhat similar to the first meeting between Kenshiro and Rin in Fist of the North Star: The Movie. Guts saves Jill from a cruel group of men who kidnapped her, just as Kenshiro saves Rin from, well, a cruel group of violent men too. Guts goes to Jill’s hometown, which is plagued by demonic elves who eat humans and steal the children in the village. The central antagonist is Rosine, an Apostle who sacrificed the lives of her parents in order to obtain demonic powers, and who turns stolen children into murderous elves. Rosine and Jill were the closest of friends growing up, and both experienced the same level of abuse from their respective fathers. These two abusive father figures exemplify the unique way Berserk departs from shounen like Fist of the North Star.

Berserk borrows FotNS's depiction of the dreary lives led by many of the average inhabitants of its bleak universe. But whereas FotNS almost always portrays the average person/family of the post-apocalyptic world within a positive light, Berserk offers no easy dichotomy. Outside of the main characters and villains, FotNS is a roughly binary world split between the muscular roaming murderers and the hapless, regular people trying to survive their grim existence. Berserk injects a much starker component by locating the grisly realities of household abuse, refusing to portray the average family as uniformly faultless, saintly individuals. Jill’s father is an embittered alcoholic who abuses both his wife and daughter, and Rosine’s father does the same to her. Miura’s Berserk, unlike FotNS, is a disturbing — yet sadly realistic — world where even average individuals embody the same cruelty of their environment, where horror is focalized within the everyday, as well. Showing that disenfranchised, suffering individuals are capable of continuing cycles of abuse gives Berserk a nuanced edge that sets it apart from other shounen/seinen.

Image via Dark Horse Comics

In a more overt way, the Lost Children Arc further drives home its realist message via heavily deconstructed fantasy shoujo tropes that contrast from the norm. In a show like Sailor Moon, for example, Usagi and the Sailor Guardians must transform into their magical forms, and use their magical powers to fend off demons and save their loved ones along with the Earth. Their "regular" day-to-day human selves are not enough to defeat the evil beings and trials they face. Though it’s debatable, as I could see someone referencing love and friendship as the "true" means of triumph in Sailor Moon, I see its fantastical elements as the primary vehicles through which salvation, unity, and victory is achieved.

In contrast, Berserk does the inverse and uses escapist fantasy elements and magical powers to express a disturbing, sobering message. In one sequence, Jill is horrified that the demon elves actually kill each other in their mock warfare activities, and Rosine tells her they’re simply "playing human" in those games. Here, Miura uses the fantastical, mystical environment of Rosine and her misty valley to reenact and highlight the gruesome realities of human cruelty. In this way, fantasy is a vehicle to point toward the grim, bare facts of human reality, rather than the typical usage of fantasy as an escape from the hard truths of our existence. However, even though Miura uses Rosine’s fantastical powers as a means to communicate the ugliness of human behavior, he simultaneously adds a sympathetic layer to her character that expresses a deeply compassionate look at how enduring exploitation can easily reproduce horror and suffering.

The maltreatment and alienation that led Rosine to sacrifice her parents and become a terrifying demonic being feel very understandable given the circumstances of her life. Although Rosine’s actions are utterly indefensible, the manga still invites a somewhat compassionate reading of her character. It’s hard not to feel some degree of empathy for Rosine, a young girl who simply longed to live in a better world where adults did not beat her and make others suffer needlessly. Gaining power with the Behelit was an anguished cry from her inconsolable heart that understandably — though not justifiably — rejected the endless harshities of life.

Finally, Miura creates further sympathetic nuance around this unique take on fantasy the moment Rosine dies. Rosine personally identified with a fairytale about a lonely outcast child named Peekaf and expressed deep sorrow that she found no elves when she visited the Misty Valley. Puck — the Elf that follows Guts and provides much-needed comedic relief throughout all of Berserk — reveals that Elves likely did live in the Misty Valley, and his very existence proves the meaning of the story of tragic Peekaf. Rosine experiences a brief blip of comfort in her last moments as she tearfully realizes the fantasy story she clung to for dear life was not entirely false or meaningless. Here Miura adds another layer of complexity by reminding us that make-believe has traces of important truths, and those fantastical narratives can still help us even if the reality of life isn’t as bright or as happy as we hoped.

Image via Dark Horse Comics

In addition to the complexity given to both secondary "regular" characters and antagonists, Berserk uses Guts to defy common tropes of male shonen protagonists. Unlike the rather "righteous" stoic purity of someone like Kenshiro, Guts is gleefully ruthless against his enemies and does some dastardly stuff to achieve a win. Throughout the arc, Guts uses Jill as a hostage, almost slices her in half, and then kills what turns out to be demonic versions of formerly human children. This makes Guts appear to be more of a "villain" on the surface than even Rosine and her elves, which is a rather uncommon inversion within the world of shonen. Jill outright refers to Guts as the one who looked more like a "terrifying monster" at the end of Volume 15, and Farnese and her men are all convinced that Guts is the feared Hawk of Darkness, an ominous harbinger of world chaos. Despite this, Miura graces Guts with immense in-depth emotional development and refuses to keep him in a stationary, one-dimensional box.

In one example, Guts recognizes the bruises on Jill’s body with an empathetic look, having also been victimized by a surrogate father figure named Gambino. At the end of the arc, Guts tells Jill to look around him at all the darkness, and tells Jill with tenderness, “There is no paradise for you to escape to.” Guts says she’ll only find a battlefield, and tells Jill to return to the personal battlefield that is her life. Both these moments carefully and touchingly imbue Guts with a compassionate side beneath his veil of ruthlessness, giving him a level of sympathetic intricacy more common to shoujo characters. I love most shonen protagonists, but I admit their emotional palette is often woefully limited to masculinist tenacity/stoicism. This makes a figure like Guts stand out all the more due to his multifaceted, organic character development.

In the last scene of the arc, Jill remarks after Guts leaves that "the mist was pushed out by the flames," leaving only a clear view that did not possess the spectacle of flying in the sky with Rosine. Jill realizes she can’t be as violent as Guts or run away like Rosine, but she can at least try "crying and shouting and biting" her way through, and "maybe change something." These last words by Jill highlight the most powerful message of the arc: The world is overwhelmingly cruel, but so long as we can accept and address it with eyes clear and open, there is hope to survive and live to see a better day. For me, I have never seen another shonen or shoujo express this notion with the same audacity, depth, and idiosyncrasy as Berserk. I think I'll carry Miura’s words through my own battlefield. What do you think Berserk does best as a manga? Which Berserk arc is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

Do you love anime? Do you love writing? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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studiobowesart · 7 years ago

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Music, Time and Long-Term Thinking: Brian Eno Expands the Vocabulary of Human Feeling

Brian Eno’s creative activities defy categorization. Widely known as a musician and producer, Eno has expanded the frontiers of audio and visual art for decades, and posited new ways of approaching creativity in general. He is a thinker and speaker, activist and eccentric. He formulated the idea of the Big Here and Long Now—a central conceptual underpinning of The Long Now Foundation, which he helped found with Stewart Brand and Danny Hillis in 01996. Eno’s artistic career has often dealt closely with concepts of time, scale, and, as he puts it in the liner notes to Apollo“expanding the vocabulary of human feeling.”

Ambient and Generative Art

Brian Eno coined the term ‘ambient music’ to describe a kind of music meant to influence an ambience without necessarily demanding the listener’s full attention. The notes accompanying his 01978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports differentiate it from the commercial music produced specifically for background listening by companies such as Muzak, Inc. in the mid-01900s. Eno explains that ambient music should enhance — not blanket — an environment’s acoustic and atmospheric characteristics, to calming and thought-inducing effect. It has to accommodate various levels of listening engagement, and therefore “must be as ignorable as it is interesting” (Eno 296).

Ambient music can have a timeless quality to it. The absence of a traditional structure of musical development withholds a clear beginning or end or middle, tapping into a sense of deeper, slower processes. It lets you “settle into time a little bit,” as Eno said in the first of Long Now’s SALT talks. As TimeMagazine writes, “the theme of time, foreshortened or elongated, is a defining feature of Eno’s musical and visual adventures. But it takes a long lens, pointing back, to bring into focus the ways in which his influence has seeped into the mainstream.”

Eno’s use of the term ‘ambient’ was, however, a product of a long process of musical development. He had been thinking specifically about this kind of music for several years already, and the influence of minimalist artists such as Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass had long shaped his musical ideas and techniques. He also drew on many other genres, including Krautrockbands such as Tangerine Dream and Can, whose music was contemporaneous and influential in Eno’s early collaborations with Robert Fripp, e.g. (No Pussyfooting). While their music might not necessarily fall into the genre ‘ambient,’ David Sheppard notes that “Eno and Fripp’s lengthy essays shared with Krautrock a disavowal of verse/chorus orthodoxy and instead relied on an essentially static musical core with only gradual internal harmonic developments” (142). In his autobiography, Eno also points to developments in audio technology as key in the development of the genre, as well as one particularly insightful experience he had while bedridden after an accident:

New sound-shaping and space-making devices appeared on the market weekly (and still do), synthesizers made their clumsy but crucial debut, and people like me just sat at home night after night fiddling around with all this stuff, amazed at what was now possible, immersed in the new sonic worlds we could create.

And immersion was really the point: we were making music to swim in, to float in, to get lost inside.

This became clear to me when I was confined to bed, immobilized by an accident in early 01975. My friend Judy Nylon had visited, and brought with her a record of 17th-century harp music. I asked her to put it on as she left, which she did, but it wasn’t until she’d gone that I realized that the hi-fi was much too quiet and one of the speakers had given up anyway. It was raining hard outside, and I could hardly hear the music above the rain — just the loudest notes, like little crystals, sonic icebergs rising out of the storm. I couldn’t get up and change it, so I just lay there waiting for my next visitor to come and sort it out, and gradually I was seduced by this listening experience. I realized that this was what I wanted music to be — a place, a feeling, an all-around tint to my sonic environment.

It was not long after this realization that Eno released the album Discreet Music, which he considers to be an ambient work, mentioning a conceptual likeness to Erik Satie’s Furniture Music. One of the premises behind its creation was that it would be background for Robert Fripp to play over in concerts, and the title track is about half an hour long — as much time as was available to Eno on one side of a record.

It is also an early example in his discography of what later became another genre closely associated with Eno and with ambient: generative music. In the liner notes — which include the story of the broken speaker epiphany — he writes:

Since I have always preferred making plans to executing them, I have gravitated towards situations and systems that, once set into operation, could create music with little or no intervention on my part.

That is to say, I tend towards the roles of planner and programmer, and then become an audience to the results.

This notion of creating a system that generates an output is an idea that artists had considered previously. In fact, in the 18th century even Mozart and others experimented with a ‘musical dice game’ in which the numerical results of rolling dice ‘generated’ a song. More relevant to Brian Eno’s use of generative systems, however, was the influence of 20th century composers such as John Cage. David Sheppard’s biography of Brian Eno describes how Tom Phillips — a teacher at Ipswich School of Art where Eno studied painting in the mid 01960s — introduced him to the musical avant garde scene with the works of Cage, Cornelius Cardew, and the previously mentioned minimalists Reich, Glass and Riley (Sheppard 35–41). These and other artists exposed Eno to ideas such as aleatory and minimalist music, tape experimentation, and performance or process-based musical concepts.

Eno notes Steve Reich’s influence on his generative music, acknowledging that “indeed a lot of my interest was directly inspired by Steve Reich’s sixties tape pieces such as Come Out) and It’s Gonna Rain” (Eno 332). And looking back on a 01970 performance by the Philip Glass Ensemble at the Royal College of Art, Brian Eno highlights its impact on him:

This was one of the most extraordinary musical experiences of my life — sound made completely physical and as dense as concrete by sheer volume and repetition. For me it was like a viscous bath of pure, thick energy. Though he was at that time described as a minimalist, this was actually one of the most detailed musics I’d ever heard. It was all intricacy and exotic harmonics. (Sheppard 63–64)

The relationship between minimalism and intricacy, in a sense, is what underlies the concept of generative music. The artist designs a system with inputs which, when compared to the plethora of outputs, appear quite simple. Steve Reich’s It’s Gonna Rain is, in fact, simply a single 1.8 second recording of a preacher shouting “It’s gonna rain!” played simultaneously on two tape recorders. Due to the inconsistencies in the two devices’ hardware, however, the recordings play at slightly different speeds, producing over 17 minutes of phasing in which the relationship between the two recordings constantly changes.

Brian Eno has taken this capacity for generative music to create complexity out of simplicity much further. Discreet Music (01975) used a similar approach, but started with recordings of different lengths, used an echo system, and altered timbre over time. The sonic possibilities opened by adding just a few more variables are vast.

This experimental approach to creativity is just one of many that Eno explored, including some non-musical means of prompting unexpected outputs. The same year that Discreet Music was released, he collaborated with painter Peter Schmidt to produce Oblique Strategies: Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas.

The work is a set of cards, each one with an aphorism designed to help people think differently or to approach a problem from a different angle. These include phrases such as “Honour thy error as a hidden intention,” “Work at a different speed,” and “Use an old idea.” Schmidt had created something a few years earlier along the same lines that he called ‘Thoughts Behind the Thoughts.’ There was also inspiration to be drawn from John Cage’s use of the I Ching to direct his musical compositions and George Brecht’s 01963 Water Yam Box. Like a generative system, the Oblique Strategies provides a guiding rule or principle that is specific enough to focus creativity but general enough to yield an unknown outcome, dependent on a multitude of variables interacting within the framework of the strategy.

Three decades later, generative systems remained a central inspiration for Eno and a source of interesting cross-disciplinary collaboration. In 02006, he discussed them with Will Wright, creator of popular video game series The Sims, at a Long Now SALT talk:

Wright observed that science is all about compressing reality to minimal rule sets, but generative creation goes the opposite direction. You look for a combination of the fewest rules that can generate a whole complex world that will always surprise you, yet within a framework that stays recognizable. “It’s not engineering and design,” he said, “so much as it is gardening. You plant seeds. Richard Dawkins says that a willow seed has only about 800K of data in it.” — Stewart Brand

Brian Eno has always been interested in this explosion of possibilities, and has in recent years created generative art that incorporates both audio and visuals. He notes that his work 77 Million Paintings would take about 10,000 years to run through all of its possibilities — at its slowest setting. Long Now produced the North American premiere of 77 Million Paintings at Yerba Buena center for the Arts in 02007, and members were treated to a surprise visit from Mr. Eno who spoke about his work and Long Now.

Eno also designed an art installation for The Interval, Long Now’s cafe-bar-museum venue in San Francisco. “Ambient Painting #1” is the only example of Brian’s generative light work in America, and the only ambient painting of his that is currently on permanent public display anywhere.

Ambient Painting #1, by Brian Eno. Photo by Gary Wilson.

Another generative work called Bloom, created with Peter Chilvers, is available as an app.

Part instrument, part composition and part artwork, Bloom’s innovative controls allow anyone to create elaborate patterns and unique melodies by simply tapping the screen. A generative music player takes over when Bloom is left idle, creating an infinite selection of compositions and their accompanying visualisations. — Generativemusic.com

Eno’s interest in time and scale (among other things) was shared by Long Now co-founder Stewart Brand, and they were in close correspondence in the years leading up to the creation of The Long Now Foundation. Eno’s 01995 diary, published in part in his autobiography, describes that correspondence in its introduction:

My conversation with Stewart Brand is primarily a written one — in the form of e-mail that I routinely save, and which in 1995 alone came to about 100,000 words. Often I discuss things with him in much greater detail than I would write about them for my own benefit in the diary, and occasionally I’ve excerpted from that correspondence. — Eno, ix

Out of Eno’s involvement with the establishment of The Long Now Foundation emerged in his essay “The Big Here and Long Now”, which describes his experiences with small-scale perspectives and the need for larger ones, as well as the artist’s role in social change.

This imaginative process can be seeded and nurtured by artists and designers, for, since the beginning of the 20th century, artists have been moving away from an idea of art as something finished, perfect, definitive and unchanging towards a view of artworks as processes or the seeds for processes — things that exist and change in time, things that are never finished. Sometimes this is quite explicit — as in Walter de Maria’s “Lightning Field,” a huge grid of metal poles designed to attract lightning. Many musical compositions don’t have one form, but change unrepeatingly over time — many of my own pieces and Jem Finer’s Artangel installation “LongPlayer” are like this. Artworks in general are increasingly regarded as seeds — seeds for processes that need a viewer’s (or a whole culture’s) active mind in which to develop. Increasingly working with time, culture-makers see themselves as people who start things, not finish them.

And what is possible in art becomes thinkable in life. We become our new selves first in simulacrum, through style and fashion and art, our deliberate immersions in virtual worlds. Through them we sense what it would be like to be another kind of person with other kinds of values. We rehearse new feelings and sensitivities. We imagine other ways of thinking about our world and its future.

[…] In this, the 21st century, we may need icons more than ever before. Our conversation about time and the future must necessarily be global, so it needs to be inspired and consolidated by images that can transcend language and geography. As artists and culture-makers begin making time, change and continuity their subject-matter, they will legitimise and make emotionally attractive a new and important conversation.

The Chime Generator and January 07003

Brian Eno’s involvement with Long Now began through his discussions with Stewart Brand about time and long-term thinking, and the need for a carefully crafted sonic experience to help The Clock evoke deep time for its visitors posed a challenge Eno was uniquely suited to take on.

From its earliest conception, the imagined visit to the 10,000-Year Clock has had aural experience at its core. One of Danny Hillis’ earliest refrains about The Clock evokes this:

It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium. —Danny Hillis

In the years of brainstorming and design that have molded this vision into a tangible object, a much more detailed and complicated picture has come into focus, but sound has remained central; one of the largest components of the 10,000-Year Clock will be its Chime Generator.

Rather than a bong per century, visitors to the Clock will have the opportunity to hear it chime 10 bells in a unique sequence each day at noon. The story of how this came to be is told by Mr. Eno himself in the liner notes of January 07003: Bell Studies for The Clock of the Long Now, a collection of musical experiments he synthesized and recorded in 02003:

When we started thinking about The Clock of the Long Now, we naturally wondered what kind of sound it could make to announce the passage of time. Bells have stood the test of time in their relationship to clocks, and the technology of making them is highly evolved and still evolving. I began reading about bells, discovering the physics of their sounds, and became interested in thinking about what other sorts of bells might exist. My speculations quickly took me out of the bounds of current physical and material possibilities, but I considered some license allowable since the project was conceived in a time scale of thousands of years, and I might therefore imagine bells with quite different physical properties from those we now know (Eno 3).

Bells have a long history of marking time, so their inclusion in The Clock is a natural fit. Throughout this long history, they’ve also commonly been used in churches, meditation halls and yoga studios to offer a resonant ambiance in which to contemplate a connection to something bigger, much as The Clock’s vibrations will help inspire an awareness of one’s place in deep time. Furthermore, bells were central to some early forms of generative music. While learning about their history, Eno found a vast literature on the ways bells had been used in Britain to explore the combinatorial possibilities afforded by following a few simple rules:

Stated briefly, change-ringing is the art (or, to many practitioners, the science) of ringing a given number of bells such that all possible sequences are used without any being repeated. The mathematics of this idea are fairly simple: n bells will yield n! sequences or changes. The ! is not an expression of surprise but the sign for a factorial: a direction to multiply the number by all those lower than it. So 3 bells will yield 3 x 2 x 1 = 6 changes, while 4 bells will yield 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24 changes. The ! process does become rather surprising as you continue it for higher values of n: 5! = 120, and 6! = 720 — and you watch the number of changes increasing dramatically with the number of bells. — Eno 4

Eno noticed that 10 bells in this context will provide 3,628,800 sequences. Ring one of those each day and you’ll be occupied for almost exactly 10,000 years, the proposed lifespan of The Clock.

Following this line of thinking, he imagined using the patterns played by the bells as a method of encoding the amount of time that had elapsed since The Clock had started ringing them. Writing in 02003, he says:

I wanted to hear the bells of the month of January, 07003 — approximately halfway through the life of the Clock.

I had no idea how to generate this series, but I had a good idea who would.

I wrote to Danny Hillis asking whether he could come up with an algorithm for the job. Yes, he wrote back, and in fact he could come up with an algorithm for generating all the possible algorithms for that job. Not having the storage space for a lot of extra algorithms in my studio, I decided to settle for just the one. — Eno 6

And so, the pattern The Clock’s bells will ring was set. Using a start point (02003 in this case), one can extrapolate the order in which the Bells will ring for a given day in the future. The title track of the album features the synthesized bells played in each of the 31 sequences for the month of January in the year 07003. Other tracks on the album use different algorithms or different bells to explore alternative possibilities; taken together, the album is distinctly “ambient” in Eno’s tradition, but also unique within his work for its minimalism and procedurality.

The procedures guiding the composition are strict enough that they can be written in computer code. A Long Now Member named Sean Burke was kind enough to create a webpage that illustrates how this works. The site allows visitors to enter a future date and receive a MIDI file of the chimes from that day. You can also download the algorithm itself in the form of a Perl script or just grab the MIDI data for all 10,000 years and synthesize your own bells.

If the bell ringing algorithm is a seed, in what soil can it be planted and expected to live its full life? Compact disks, Perl scripts and MIDI files have their uses, of course, but The Clock has to really last in a physical, functional sense for many thousands of years. To serve this purpose, the Chime Generator manifests the algorithm in stainless steel Geneva wheels rotating on bearings of silicon nitride.

Eno’s Chime Generator prototype. Photo by Because We Can

One of the first prototypes for this mechanism resides at The Interval. In its operation, one can see that the Geneva wheels rotate at different intervals because of their varying numbers of slots. Together, the Geneva wheels represent the ringing algorithm and sequentially engage the hammers in all 3.6 million permutations. For this prototype, the hammers strike Tibetan Bowl Gongs to sound the notes, but any type of bell can be used.

The full scale Chime Generator will be vertically suspended in the Clock shaft within the mountain. The Geneva wheels will be about 8 feet in diameter, with the full mechanism standing over seventy feet in height.

The bells for the full scale Chime Generator won’t be Tibetan Bowl Gongs like in the smaller prototype above. Though testing has been done within the Clock chamber to find its resonant frequency, the exact tuning and design of the Clock’s bells will be left until the chamber is finished and most of the Clock is installed in order to maximize their ability to resonate within the space.

Like much of Brian Eno’s work, the chimes in the 10,000-Year Clock draw together far-flung traditions, high and low tech, and science and art to create a meditative experience, unique in a given moment, but expansive in scale and scope. They encourage the listener to live and to be present in the moment, the “now,” but to feel that moment expanding forward and backward through time, literally to experience the “Long Now.”

Written by Austin Brown and Alex Mensing. Edited and updated by Ahmed Kabil.

Works Cited & Where to Learn More

Autobiography

Eno, Brian. A Year With Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary.London: Faber and Faber, 01996.

Biography

Sheppard, David. On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno.London: Orion Books, 02008.

Talks

Talk on Generative Music for In Motion Magazine. June 01996.

“The Long Now,” Long Now SALT talk, November 02003.

“Playing With Time,” Long Now SALT talk with Will Wright, June 02006.

Brian Eno speaks in Moscow, 02011. via Austin Kleon.

“The Long Now, Now”, Long Now SALT talk, January 02014.

Articles

“The Big Here and Long Now” by Brian Eno for The Long Now Foundation. 01996.

“Light Years into the Future” by Michael Brunton for Time Magazine. November 02006.

“New Eno Music Gets ‘Generative’” by Noah Shachtman for Wired. October 02001.

New Yorker article on Long Now board member David Eagleman, including an experiment with Brian Eno on time & rhythm perception

01979 interview with Brian Eno by Lester Bangs

History and description of generative music, excerpted from dissertation by Norbert Herber.

“Brian Eno designs Sound and Light Art for The Interval at Long Now” by mikl em for Long Now blog. July 16, 02013.

This is the first of a series of articles, “Music, Time and Long-Term Thinking,” in which we will discuss music and musicians who have engaged various aspects of long-term thinking, both historically and in the contemporary scene.

from The Long Now Blog http://ift.tt/2ikIAgZ

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