#but yea just had to rotate the projects again. i finally figured out how i want the beginning of Alternative Systems of Nomenclature to go

[unnonexistence]

inspiration on that new silly one-shot fic ran out but luckily writing is still Going

[flightofaqrow]

adaptation to common society excerpts

jumping on the bandwagon of qrow in the tribe vs coming to vale/beacon while in a meta mood. except this is less something i have actual headcanons about, and more something i try to keep in mind, and let the muse reveal the details as i write. so here’s some excerpts.

╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾ This entire thread with @erudite-rebel is infused with Barty helping Qrow understand the communication towers:

“…these CCT things seem pretty important to protect.” intricacies of mechanical inner workings are practically second nature to qrow, but he’s still working towards full comprehension of all this advanced tech and invisible communication. he halfway hopes to instigate a tangent on that alone to help him catch up…

“They are indeed,” says Barty, unbothered by Qrow’s lack of knowledge on the subject. Once he’d gotten over the shock of things that Qrow wasn’t used to, or didn’t know how to do, he’d adapted. “The CCT towers provide communication to every corner of Remnant.”

[qrow] “every corner that can afford it.”

╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾

mountain girl [ @lifahakondotter ] and forest boy commiserate about HVAC:

Lifa: “You’re one of those Vale kids. The hell are you doing up here? Aren’t you all allergic to weather below thirties?”

qrow: “projected aura? …well that and growing up without heat.”

Lifa: “I’m more used to a hearth than the fancy heating they have in this school. Honestly, I hate the noise it makes. Part of the reason I come up here.”

qrow: “oh man, agreed! i’d take the crackle of flames over bangin’… uh,” what was the word… “ - ventilation any day. can barely hear the crickets at night with that kinda racket.”

╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾

clothing is bullshit!!! also with @lifahakondotter

qrow: sweet stars a warm fire, yes! his shoes are already kicked off by the time she says so. in short order followed by socks, and pants and… once she’s set up her supplies, he’s stripped down to burgundy boxers, hung his clothes from the mantle to dry, and laid down on his back, basking like a cat.

lifa: She turned back around to ask, “Do you like venis– ancestors above me!” He’s practically naked! ...Without an ounce of grace, she tossed [a reindeer skin] over him. “You won’t warm up like that.”

qrow: the fact that baring so much skin could itself cross the lines of decency never even occurred to him. he had found not everyone in the kingdoms had the same openness he grew up with, but that’s why he left the boxers on!

╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾

pickpocketing:

“get away with it? psh. not in the least.” he reaches into his pants pocket to pull a wallet that most certainly isn’t his, “the big guy’s payin’ for it by buyin’ our rounds tonight.”

╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾

difference in kid games with @shcdeacademy (Saphron)

“Yea you can say that again, I have Jaune to thank for that. Since most of my siblings put most of their attention on him after he was born. You know tea parties, dress up, the works.”

“dress up, was a new one the girls taught me, i gotta admit.” some manner of toys could be common across all cultures, even if materials might have changed the quality. plastic swords or sticks, robots or rag dolls. bandit games were more physical, competitive. the tea parties were real. he doesn’t speak of his past as if he felt anything had truly been missing, however, there wasn’t much room for make believe. Especially when, “…didn’t grow up with enough extra clothes for all that.”

╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾

Raven [ @boundariestcbreak ] and qrow adjusting together:

Raven didn’t understand why he’d rather lay on the floor than sit on a bed like she was. Sure, it was what they were both used to, but now that she had a bed, she intended to use it as much as possible-even if it was just to sit on instead of actually sleeping on it.

sure, beds were more comfortable, but they break. qrow has been learning that about many of the civilized little luxuries at beacon, quite literally, real fuckin’ quick.  ( qrow loves beds, but his semblance means he can’t have nice things. :[ )

...   

Raven laughs and reaches for her water bottle, holding it out for a cheers. “Cheers only work if you actually have something to cheers with, little brother.” She says with a light chuckle. It’s still taking a lot of adjusting to go from living in the woods with no electricity, indoor plumbing or anything of the like, to having all of that at their finger tips, but so far she’s actually enjoying what she has discovered. Even though she can’t quite wrap her head around some things, like the shows that some of their classmates seem so invested in. None of that makes any sense to her, if she’s being honest.

qrow rolls his eyes and reaches over his head to snatch at an empty plastic glass on the bookshelf, pulling it back to raise it over his chest upside down and toast… sort of properly. ... he holds onto it, making mental note to drop it back off in the kitchen. because they have one of those now. it feels strange not to have his own cooking duty rotation...

╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾

bad table manners and general adjustments with @whytrose​

as he pushes open the door, and the smell of all the foods in the cafeteria hall hit his nose, he supposed he could deal with missing an afternoon drink in trade for the guarantee of three square meals a day. he’s still getting used to that kind of security.

more expectations. more than him trying to keep up with responsible studies when he’s done nothing but learn through trial and error his whole life. more than figuring out how functioning in polite society even worked, right down to the proper attire, apparently.

he takes a lazy lean against the wall near the exit to the atrium, and wonders if Summer is just going to stand there and eat a lunch of only a single apple without even having a seat somewhere. he thought sitting down for lunch together was how it worked anyway. observations of the past several days made it seem so.

he tears a bite of his sandwich and cackles, rude, with his mouth full as the pieces finally fall into place. he swallows, and smacks the table with his other hand - the sound reaching even higher pitch from the contact of his ring. somehow in the combination of tearing at his food, grinning to himself, and that elbow to the ribs he chokes on his own bite and inhale. steadying hands tossed down on the table then squirt juice from a slice of his orange right into his eye. (well, this one may have just been the sloppiness of his own mirth.) one palm covers his eye and one fist smacks high on his chest to assist a cough before extending fingers for Summer to just. give him a moment.

[judithsupportsteamchampery]

Why you’ve made my winter!

- by Judith Dombrowski

My personal Team Champéry season review

This is dedicated to figure skater Deniss Vasiljevs, coach and figure skater Stéphane Lambiel and their manager Christopher Trevisan!

My very special thanks to my mother Beate. Without you nothing of this would have been possible. I can say with my whole heart that you are the best mother I ever could have imagined.

Also special thanks to:

Anastasia, Charlie, Estephanía, Jelena, Laia, Maria R., Maria T., Marina, P., Susanne, Szilvia

You all have become amazing and true friends. I love you with my whole heart!

And to everyone else whom I met because of Team Champéry this winter, either personally or via the internet. We are the best fan community I can imagine.

On March 2nd 2019, after I had been able to take THAT picture, that picture thousands of skating fans dream of, that picture I would never ever had imagined to happen, I turned around and thanked both of you: “Thank you so much for everything!“, I said. Then I looked at you, Deniss, and said: “You’ve really made my winter! Thanks!“ You looked flattered and surprised but didn’t respond anything. But you, Stéph, said something like: “Wow, you are really so positive!“ It was the second time you said that that afternoon and I do understand why you said it in this situation: For the two of you it definitely hadn’t been the winter you’ve dreamed of. It must have been a hard winter full of worries, concerns and disappointments. It seemed to surprise you, Stéph, why you’ve made somebody’s winter even though so much seemed to have gone wrong for you.

So I am writing this blog post / article / review to explain to the two of you and to everyone interested, why this sentence was incredibly true. Why I actually couldn’t have thanked you in a more accurate way. Beware, this might gonna be long. I usually fail saying things short and there has been really a lot going on this winter relating to the two of you. I will also miss out some moments because it has just been too much.

When to start? Should it be the moment when we decided to go to Grenoble? The moment I started to be your fan, Deniss? Should I go back to Worlds 2005 when I had my first big crush on that handsome Swiss figure skater? This would turn into a novel so lets start right at the beginning… of… this winter:

October

“Hey, I just wanted to tell you that I am free earlier than expected today. So if you’d like we can meet earlier?“

“I am sorry I fear I won’t be able to come over before 18.30? Hope that’s still alright?“, I replied to a good friend of mine on WhatsApp.

“Haha, yea, sure, thought you have holidays…“

“Well, yea“, … she was a really good friend so I could be honest, “but my Mom doesn’t. She’s only free from 3pm and we’ll have to watch a movie together this afternoon. This is like the only possibility before next weekend. Will explain you later!“

“Okayyyy…!“

It was a Wednesday afternoon in early October during my autumn holidays and I spent the week in South Germany with my mother and tried to meet up with as many old friends as possible. It was also the week before Japan Open, the first time you, Deniss, were supposed to skate your new free program. And it finally had leaked that you would be skating to the soundtrack of the movie “Last Samurai“. So to totally understand the program my mother and I watched the movie together, listened to the music very precisely, discussed about the plot, read and learned about the history of the samurai on Wikipedia.

We liked and appreciated the theme and that music choice right away. As we did with the whole program when it had finally been uploaded. Despite technical difficulties we saw the efforts and the great thoughts behind the choreography of this program right away and were really looking forward to see this program grow and bloom over the season.

It was different with the Short Program. When “Papa was a rolling stone“ was posted first, I listened to the song in the car and it left me quite puzzled… How was that supposed to be the song of a skating program? And those lyrics? Well… I liked the beat and the rhythm of the song from the beginning and I put all my trust in your good taste and I wasn’t going to be disappointed.

The figure skating season was speeding up: The first Grand Prix was coming along together with a small competition called “Minsk Ice Star“ - the warm up contest for you, Deniss. I spent that weekend in the Netherlands where a friend celebrated her birthday. The moment I remember best of these days is myself walking up and down at the beach streaming the free program in bad quality on my phone screaming and jumping up and down at every landed jump. This weekend brought the first fully rotated and landed Quad in competition for you, Deniss, and the first gold medal of the season. For me this weekend made me like and appreciate the short program and I “met“ my “soulmate“ because of this competition:

Until then I hadn’t been too active about figure skating on social media, because most of my followers on Instagram were my real life friends who didn’t care about this sport at all. There was no official livestream of Minsk Ice Star. But I found some Russian girls via Instagram who were in the arena and were so kind to stream the practices and the competition. That’s how I met my today very very good and close friend Maria. We started texting since then, we went through this winter together, kept each other updated all the time and finally went to Innsbruck together. But that happened many moments and stories later.

November

NHK Trophy was after all the only competition this entire season I didn’t manage to follow live. Despite all efforts I didn’t make it home from work in time for the SP, and I also missed the LP the next day because of my tennis practice. I did come home when Shoma Uno was about to start his Free Skate performance but of course he skated deep in the second group. I clicked on “pause“ and scrolled back to start watching the competition from the beginning. There had been a number though in the left upper corner of my screen I couldn’t have avoided seeing: The leading skater at the moment Shoma started to skate had the technical score of 70 points. 70 Points! DAMN! That was…. low. Very low for that moment in the competition. And 70… that was a number you, Deniss, were likely to score. My heart started racing. Could it be possible? If you were the leader at that moment you were… about to win a medal.

“It was hard to see how excited you still were!“, my Mom told me on the phone an hour later when I was full of disappointment. She had been able to watch everything live and knew that it unfortunately hadn’t been you, Deniss, who had scored those 70 points, it had been Matteo Rizzo. I felt really sorry for you, missing that opportunity. “Keep your head up, keep your heart strong…“, I kept listening on repeat during that weekend and I wished you could also hear that motivating song by Ben Howard. The next competition was going to be better. I was sure! And the next competition was: IdF in Grenoble. THE competition. Our competition. Where my mother and I would go to see and support you live. The weekend I had been waiting for since the end of June when the assignments came out. And now it was not even two weeks away…The Sunday after NHK I spent in the kitchen baking my gifts for the two of you: The lion and the ladybug as German gingerbread. I am not the most artistically talented person, and I didn’t honestly expect this project to be successful, especially drawing a lion with chocolate and sugar icing on a piece of cookie seemed like a far too motivated project for me. But I did it, every millimeter drawn with concentration and passion. And succeeded: I had baked a lion and a ladybug gingerbread. The presents were ready, the flags had arrived and got inked, all tickets were printed, we were ready to go.

You probably all remember a weekend or an event you once desperately had been waiting for. And then the moment when it is really happening. So you can probably imagine how I felt: I see myself as if it was yesterday walking from the parking lot in Mainz to the station where I had to take the train to Frankfurt airport, feeling like I was flying: It was real, yes, it was. I was on my way to Grenoble, I had everything prepared, I had gotten the extra day off at school, I had the gifts and the banners in my bag, I had your program music in my ears, I was so so ready for it!

I had high expectations for this weekend just as you probably had as well, Deniss. Unfortunately yours weren’t totally fulfilled again especially in the long program. Mine instead were outreached by far:

That moment, when I saw the two of you live right ahead of me in practice. The moment you really nailed your SP, how I was screaming and celebrating of relief. The moment I was able to give you the gifts after the second practice. The moment when you walked around proudly showing my baked lion to other fans. All those moments of wonderful and magical performances by your fellow skaters, all those people I had been admiring in front of the TV screen for years: Evgenia Medvedeva, Rika Kihira, Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, Nathan Chen, Jason Brown and Dimitri Aliev just to name a few…

And that moment, Saturday 24th of November, 6 pm during the Ice Dance medal ceremony when I checked on my emails and my heart skipped for sure more than one beat: Email by Christopher Trevisan: “Sorry for the short notice, if you are still interested you can have a fan meeting with Deniss tomorrow morning either at 10 or 11 o’clock. Let me know if you are still interested.“ If I was interested? Hell, YES. But: Our bus to the airport was booked tomorrow at 10 o’clock from the main station in Grenoble. Our flight home was leaving Lyon at 2 pm. I was in shock, excited and concerned at the same time. It was hard to think straight.

I will never forget the night from November 24th to November 25th in my entire life. So many insecurities: When exactly? Where? Who will come? How will we get home? Take the train instead of flying? Take a taxi to the airport? Skip the whole fan meeting myself?

Charlie, my mother and I were sitting together until far after midnight without having any solutions. The three of us mainly discussed the question: Where? There was no nice café that had opened Sunday morning just around the corner…

We noticed that the only space we had available on this short notice were our own hotel rooms. Probably our entire hotel woke up by us laughing loudly about the joke: “Imagine, when I come home, I will be able to say: There was Stéphane Lambiel… in my hotel room!“ We weren’t sure back then if you’d accompany Deniss, Stéph.

Sometime during the night after sleeping for a few hours I was able to calm down and think more straight again. I checked the Lufthansa App and found out that it was actually possible to change our booking to a flight that flew to Frankfurt four hours later than our original one. I got the idea to ask in our hotel if there was a possibility to hold the meeting in a free conference room or another silent place. It was all coming together. We got a space in our hotel, we had people who messaged they would come to the meeting, we had the time to sit down and think about some questions that I wanted to ask you, Deniss. You came, you had quite some time, you were incredibly nice and the two of us got more and more relaxed while the interview / meeting went on and I had the feeling that I could continue talking with you forever. You are such an interesting, intelligent, nice, humble and funny person. Before Grenoble I had liked you mostly because of your beautiful and amazing skating, after Grenoble I knew where this was coming from. Before Grenoble I had been amazed by you, after Grenoble I was totally enchanted.

December

I was on endorphins for the next weeks straight. That weekend had been far better and beyond all my expectations.

But at the same time I was afraid: Was it ever going to be that perfect again? Should I maybe keep this one perfect weekend as one magic memory and not let it get destroyed maybe by disappointments coming in the near future? Would I maybe expect too much from future events? I told around: “That weekend was perfect. I will not go again this season. Next season again!“

What a luck I hadn’t been able to resist. Because my heart, longing to see the two of you again, won over my anxious head.

Christmas time came, I followed the Grand Prix Final together with my Mom, we got up in the middle of the night to cheer for Koshiro, we were worried when you, Deniss, withdrew from a competition in Zagreb, were relieved when it was announced that it wasn’t an injury. And we decided that it was finally about time to see you skate live as well, Stéph! So we ordered our tickets for Art on Ice in Davos in February. And with booking those tickets my plan not to go anymore this season had already faded away. I spent hours on the internet searching for possibilities to make it to Minsk for the European Championships. Meanwhile I knew many fans via social media and almost all of them were about to be in Minsk to support you, Deniss. I wanted to be part of it really  badly. As a teacher though it is hard to get days off apart from the public holidays. Flights for the weekend only costed a fortune. It seemed impossible. My frustration grew. I am a person who fights really hard if she really wants something and usually tries everything to make it happen.

January

New years eve came along, together with a very nice and enthusiastic video of the two of you: “We hope to see you in Bellinzona for Music on Ice!“, you said, Stéph. And after countless times watching this lovely video and a sleepless and crazy night from the 1st to the 2nd of January my decision was made: Instead of the impossible mission going to Minsk, I would to go to Music on Ice in Bellinzona. I was going to take a train from my hometown Osnabrück in the Northwest of Germany on Friday afternoon to Stuttgart in the South of Germany. The next morning I was going to take the earliest train to continue traveling all the way to Switzerland where I would arrive in Bellinzona on January 12th at 11 am. I would go to the show on Saturday night and early Sunday morning I was going to take the train back, 10 hours all the way up to Osnabrück where I would arrive at 6 pm, ready to go back to school on Monday morning. But going to the show wasn’t the only plan I had. With help of the amazing Jelena from Daugavpils who runs the official Fan Club on Facebook we activated fans from all over the world to send me pictures with good luck wishes for you for Europeans. I was overwhelmed by the positive responses on the project. I received exactly 50 pictures, most of them amazingly creative.

When I entered the train on Friday afternoon, January 11th 2019, I felt the company of all those 50 people. I was nervous because I hadn’t heard of Chris yet, whom I had messaged with the idea of the project and had asked for an opportunity to give you the album personally.

But the sun was shining, I had motivating music in my ears, the train was riding further and further South and I felt the support of all of my friends and of my mom, who unfortunately couldn’t accompany me this weekend, so the nervousness turned into major excitement.

In Bellinzona I also wasn’t alone at all: I teamed up with two friends that I had both met in Grenoble. After our arrival we checked out the ice rink and sat down on a bench nearby the arena. The girls went through your album, Deniss, when suddenly my phone vibrated and I saw the message: Christopher Trevisan had written: “Hey Judith, can you be at the rink at 15.00?”

Have you ever been waiting for a message to come in for five consecutive days? Do you know that feeling that whenever you get a message you have that slight hope inside you that it could be the one you are waiting for and you get disappointed over and over again? And then the releasing moment comes? And you know my temper, right? Then you can maybe imagine how I screamed and jumped up and down when seeing that message. Did you maybe even hear that scream from somewhere far away that afternoon? Quite possible since Bellinzona isn’t that big and my joy was… LOUD! My two friends shared my joy and enthusiasm but not as loud. We had an “appointment”! I messaged all of my good friends right away: “Appointment at 3 pm!” I was so happy and excited. I carried the hopes and wishes of 50 people in my bag and now I knew I wouldn’t disappoint them.

That moment on the bench had only been the beginning of a day that again turned out so much better than all my expectations:

Hearing you say: “So nice to see you again!”, and being really thankful for the book. Being able to watch all three hours of show rehearsal, including the two of you practicing throw jumps.  Recording an successfully landed throw jump for all my friends and many other fans. Seeing you, Stéph, skate live for the first time in my life. You, that man that had carried me through my teenage years with all your wonderful programs. Finally seeing you perform in person was magical. Seeing that wonderful and touching duet of the two of you. I had tears of joy in my eyes. And that moment after the show when you, Deniss, were walking beneath us and you turned around and came back thanking me for the album: “Thanks for the book. It’s fantastic!” These six words meant so much to me and to all those who had participated. My heart was full of joy and my body full of dancing endorphins again. It didn’t matter at all that the train ride the next day didn’t last ten but twelve hours. I was the happiest and luckiest girl on the planet.

Thanks to my amazing two girls who were my company during these crazy 21 hours I have spent in Bellinzona. Wouldn’t have been the same without those two and we do have an appointment at our “Appointment Bench” next year.

Still… after the Bellinzona - Fun it was getting serious! Europeans were on their way and it felt like the most important competition for you this season, Deniss. The season hadn’t gone as planed yet for sure… plus: Skating really well there would give you the chance to medal. Even though I had been in Bellinzona it was really hard for me to follow the action in Minsk from home. But that week showed me what great friends I had got to know because of you, Deniss. Those girls, who kept me updated the entire week, and never forgot about me were my personal heros. Some special mentions: Jelena, who waved at me through the TV stream during the Ladies Short program. That was so hilarious and made my day. Szilvia, whom I would have loved to share that horrible hostel with. Maybe with the two of us that place would have been less spooky? And thanks to her for sending birthday wishes to my mom during the live stream of your fan meeting, Stéph. Marina, for telling me the “they-only-want-me”- story right after it had happened and for asking Brian Joubert about his inspiration for the tiger jacket. And my amazing girl Maria. Thanks for just everything. I felt with her and like her at every moment during the entire week. I shared her excitement, her fears, worries, tears and joy. And I am proud and thankful to all of the girls who organized both fan meetings and streamed it for us at home. You’ve got the most amazing fans, I really hope you know that both.

Deniss? We all know you gave your best! You wanted it so much and we know you actually are able to do everything you had planed. That makes the outcome of this competition so sad. Thanks for keeping your smile for us fans, thanks for still performing amazingly. Thanks for that intense gala-program. “Iron“ is now one of my personal top 5 programs of all times.

And Stéph? Your week must have been nerve-wracking and cruel. Thanks for being there for your students, giving them strength and confidence. Thanks for trying everything you could to support Deniss and Emmi and still staying that nice and friendly to us fans. The pressure must have been immense. Maria summed it up so perfectly as an Instagram caption, so I will quote her here: “Thanks for being in the world!”

February

During Euros you were so nice to confirm that Team Champéry would keep its tradition and would come to the Cup of Tyrol in Innsbruck, Stéph. The planing for us attending and supporting you at that event started the moment Europeans were over. That Sunday still after watching the Gala my mother and I booked the last available cheap apartment in the city centre of Innsbruck. All February long we were busy planing that trip but hadn’t there been another appointment in February? My second 10 hour long train ride was scheduled from February 15th to February 17th. Osnabrück - Davos and back. Art on Ice was about to happen. I imagined that trip to maybe be a little less exciting. I expected to watch the show, see you perform two wonderful programs and was also looking forward to see James Blunt live again after more than 10 years. Back in 2006 James Blunts concert had been the first concert I had ever visited, so it was going to be a bit nostalgic… But… probably no surprise anymore: Also this trip turned out to be so much better than expected.

The afternoon in Davos was beautiful already, the sun was shining brightly and we had an amazing walk through the snowy landscape. We managed to sneak in to watch the practice again and: I  got the opportunity to talk to you, Stéph. It was short and since totally unexpected I also didn’t really know what to say but it was extremely special for me. And I could take a selfie with you. A picture I had wanted to have ever since my teenage years. I am not the type of person who collects pictures with celebrities. I think asking for a picture is such an unreal and awkward situation. But I really longed for that picture with you, Stéph. With the guy I used to tell all of my friends about, who all didn’t know you, because figure skating is not too popular in Germany. With the guy I had admired ever since my teenage years. With the guy that is in my opinion the most passionate and elegant skater ever. With the guy that touched me to tears and overwhelmed my emotions when skating to the song Goodbye my Lover some hours later. With the guy who gave his second last performance at Art on Ice ever that night.

I read your post about quitting Art on Ice when my train had almost reached Osnabrück again. I felt incredibly sad and incredibly blessed at the same time: I had still been able to see your magic. Art on Ice will miss you incredibly, Stéph. But you surely made the right decision for yourself and we as fans will support you and keep loving you no matter what projects will come for you in the future.

I had two more weeks until the crazy road trip to Innsbruck was about to happen but well… there was one weekend in between. And I found the perfect place to go for that weekend: Barcelona, Spain.

You have already heard some names of great people I got to know because of you two, but I haven’t told you about Laia yet what is a shame because, Deniss, you would certainly like Laia as much as I like her: She’s an artist, she draws amazingly. She’s a baker and an excellent cook. She’s a bit of a philosopher. She is a big Star Wars fan. She’s incredibly funny and sarcastic but at the same time a bit shy and introverted. And she is a big fan of the two of you. Even though you know the story how Laia and I met already, Deniss, I think it’s worth telling it here again: Laia was also at the Grand Prix in Grenoble. I didn’t know her back then. And we also didn’t meet at the event itself. But she was the girl who took the picture of you holding my baked gingerbread lion. I discovered that picture on Instagram some weeks later. We started to chat, and we chatted even more. I talked with her for hours because, Deniss, in many ways she seems like a female version of you.

So at that last weekend in February I took a plane to Barcelona to finally meet her in person. She showed me some skating tricks on the ice and I showed her that the mediterranean sea is not too cold to swim in in February. She introduced me to traditional Catalan food and I brought her some Swiss Chocolate I had bought in Davos.

And she gave me the most precious gift I ever received from anyone: An amazing drawing of you, Deniss, skating to “Iron“. You have seen it in Innsbruck yourself and I am quite sure you will remember it.

So that weekend was another amazing experience thanks to the two of you.

March

“Good morning everyone”, I told my Instagram followers totally excited at the morning of February 28th, “my last big journey of the figure skating season is about to start. I will drive to work first and then I will drive from my school via Frankfurt airport and Munich airport all the way to Innsbruck. It will be a really long journey but I will pick up some amazing girls on the way. And I actually can’t wait to see Deniss and Stéph tomorrow.”

The Cup of Tyrol in Innsbruck was the smallest event I visited this season but it highlighted up everything that had happened before. At the beginning of the season my mom and I had been alone. The trip to Innsbruck ended with seven good friends from five different countries sitting together in a small apartment, laughing and celebrating you, ourselves and life.

Marina had flown to Frankfurt from Kyiv and Szilvia from Budapest. Maria had come from Chelyabinsk, Russia, to Munich. I met both, Marina and Maria for the first time in real life and that alone was really special. Suddenly sitting with those three girls together in my small car, singing along to Britney Spears songs was unreal and amazing enough. But of course we were here to support you, Deniss.

All three of you, Chris included, seemed quite surprised to see us around. Cup of Tyrol was such a small competition. Why should anyone go there? Well, we were and we weren’t the only ones, even though probably the loudest ones. Here are again some very special moments picked from many special moments:

Imitating your car karaoke to Britney’s Toxic on our way to Innsbruck with Marina and Szilvia.

Stepping out of our apartment early Friday morning in Innsbruck and seeing this city in all of its beauty: The river, the colorful houses and the mountains in the beautiful morning sun.

Watching you skate a nice and clean short program after some struggles during practice.

Chris laughing loudly about our designed shirt for you, Deniss: “I am not coaching Stéph!” Do you wear it from time to time? If you don’t I am sure Chris would…

Giving you my self knitted hat in Latvia colors.

Showing you Laias drawing and you complimenting her amazing “shade work”.

You, Stéph, telling us that we were just about to hang up our “Team Champéry banner” mirror converted. Oh dear…

Suffering with every quad attempt. Cheering for every jump that seemed “okay” somehow- especially for underrotated quads…sorry Stéph, but that’s what fans are there for.

Crying with Matilda after her Free Program. It was hard to see this but those moments belong to the sport just as tears of joy at another time. Please, Stéph, tell Matilda, that she is a very beautiful skater. She is very graceful and a joy to watch on the ice and we all hope to see her shining on the ice sometime again.

Calling ourselves to be the “Crazy Rabbit Crew” after constantly eating carrots and joking about what to throw on the ice. Carrots, maybe?

Watching your little extra show on the ice after you won the title, Deniss.

Joking with you, Stéph about our petition to bring Britney Spears to Art on Ice.

And for me, personally, receiving the compliment from you, Stéph, of being such a positive person. I am aware that you, the first time you said it, thought that my positivity was even a bit too much when we discussed the success of your Quad attempts, Deniss, but when we all said goodbye I had the honest feeling that you liked me, Stéph. And that means more than a lot to me!

And of course THAT picture. Yes, again a celebrity picture. But what a special one. Standing in the middle of both of you. In the middle of the two people who made my winter. You didn’t understand it back then, right?

I am sure you understand it now!

Of course Innsbruck hadn’t been the end of the season yet: Worlds were yet to come. Far away in Japan. The competition where you wanted to show everyone what you actually could do. In the country that you love so much and where your season had started. The country on which history your free program was built. The Last Samurai. The last dance of the season. It was a hard week for us as fans because it was obviously a hard week for your whole team. I watched the Short Program locked into the music room of my school during our break. Afterwards I had to teach a Music lesson, singing cheerful and happy songs with eight year olds. It was tough. But I can hardly imagine how tough it was for you.

The free program was a huge fight. After everything you had gone through that week, it was even an incredible fight. The score still wasn’t probably what you had dreamed of neither the placement in the end.

But you can be incredibly proud of that fight, Deniss. This whole season was surely a hard learning process. It was a season without a single competition you were completely happy with. After all the hard work you put in every single day it must be horribly frustrating. I got to know you though as a person who is thinking thoroughly about everything. And I got to know you as a person who is able to see this season as a learning process for the future. You never stopped performing no matter what happened to the jumps. All three programs this year were incredibly well choreographed and performed even better. And during that hard and rocky road you made so many people incredibly happy.

Stéph, this winter was surely also a hard one for you. One of the reasons why I like you that much is that you, just as I do myself, put your whole heart and passion into everything you do. I could feel your pain when things didn’t turn out as you wanted them to go for your skaters. It must be so hard to just watch and not being able to actually do something in those moments. I do imagine those intense emotions you had during your last Art on Ice shows. Thanks so much for sharing some of these moments with us.

And equally I want to thank you, Chris: Thank you so much for being there for the whole team whenever you are needed. Thanks for staying calm, positive and objective throughout the season. Thanks for sometimes probably being the connection between the two artists. I am sure it hasn’t always been easy. Thanks for the great cooperation with us fans. You are doing an amazing job in every way.

You as a team managed to go through this season together and I hope with my whole heart that it brought you even closer together. Success, failure, joy and sorrow are so close together in this sport. The future seasons will bring all of that again. And I am looking forward to laugh, cry and celebrate with you again next winter and hopefully many more winters. Until then I will spend time with some of the amazing people I met on the road. Next weekend Szilvia and I will visit Marina in Kyiv. It will be another amazing trip. You are about to make my spring, too!

[thenerdytomboynewb96]

Samantha Allan Park Ch. #5

Chapter #5

All week I had been trying to read the documents that were held on the flash drive, and every time I began to read anything, my computer was hacked by whoever was on the other side. I basically had to run every time I finally got everything set up and started. Tonight was the last chance I really had to view anything on that drive. I had visited all the locations I been brought to except for the university that Jay attends, and I was running out of disguises. I didn’t know anything about make-up except for how to make my skin look lighter or darker with concealers and foundation, and I had basically used all my wigs and contacts. Since tonight was my last chance, I decided to just go as me. I had a feeling some type of confrontation was coming soon anyways because of how fast this person had been hacking into whatever computer I was using. Their speed and skill made it clear that they were catching up to me, so tonight I made sure to dress appropriately for a fight.

I wore a sporty gray t-shirt underneath a black zip up jacket, denim colored jeggings, and black tennis shoes. Tonight, just like the past few nights, I carried a backpack on my back where on the inside I was sandwiching my tonfa in between a few AP textbooks, and on an outside holder on the back was holding my skateboard, which at the moment was condensed into one thin rod that could extend when a button was pressed. This way I looked like I was just an everyday college student while at the same time I was prepared to defend myself. I also made sure to wear my ring with the blade inside just to be safe. I also had a small pouch inside the bag that had the basics: phone, keys, etc.

It was about nine at night when I left my apartment. Jay was meeting up with some friends to work on a project for one of his classes and told me that he wouldn’t be home until sometime tomorrow afternoon, so I was free to leave and come back home whenever. I decided to take advantage of this and leave later in the day than usual in order to try and mix up when I was leaving to go view these documents. I even skipped school yesterday and still the hacker was ready and waiting for me, and they even stole back some of their documents. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the flash drive after tonight. Maybe I would plug it into a random computer somewhere and just give this person back their information. It was interesting, but it didn’t seem like anything illegal or anything that I would want to hold onto.

Theme: Skillet (Feel Invincible) Skillet (Resistance)

I walked out the back door of the building and made sure it closed all the way and locked. I began walking down the alley when I heard a noise, the sound of something falling. I stopped and stood still, I thought that this might happen. From what I heard, the sound came from further behind me down the opposite side of the alley. I couldn’t tell if this person was by themselves, or if there were multiple people. Luckily, there was a manhole cover a few steps away from where I was. I took a breath, let it out, and darted forward. I picked up the cover and launched it behind me. I don’t know who it was, but I heard a male voice say “Whoa!” and then saw a large dark figure duck and dodge the cover. I wasn’t able to get a good look at the guy because I was already sliding down the ladder that lead into the sewers.

At this point I was just running blind, trying to remember the paths I had gone down this same time last week and trying to avoid them since that would lead me right back to where this person was staying. Hopefully, the further I was away from their main home location, the safer I would be. Right now I was mentally thanking my coach for making us run so many laps and hills during practice, because right now all that training was really paying off.

My main problem was that I had no idea where I was. None of these tunnels seemed familiar, but hopefully that meant I was nowhere near where their base was. Suddenly, I saw some light coming in from the top right side of the wall.  I ran over and looked up through the sewer drain and saw that I must have been under a road near one of the quieter parts of town. I lifted up the drain cover and looked around. I was at a street that was surrounded by small local shops and food markets. No wonder it was so quiet, no one shopped at these places this late on a Friday night.

I went into my bag and pulled out my phone and pulled up a GPS system. I typed in the name of the first street I saw and realized I was actually pretty far away from where I had started running. I then checked the time and saw that it was now 9:20. Dang, I ran pretty far within that amount of time. I put my phone away as I was mentally bragging about how proud I was of myself. In doing so, I had lost my focus, and because of this ridiculous screw up, I hadn’t realized that I was being watched.

I heard the sound of something fly through the air, and the next thing I knew, all the street lights had been blown out. If I had been focused then I would have been prepared for what came next. I went to reach for my tonfa when I heard someone shout “wait, no!” and that fast everything went dark.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I heard some faint noises as my eyes started to open, or at least they tried to open, why couldn’t I open my eyes? As my senses started to come back, I realized that I was wearing a blindfold. I made sure to keep completely still so that whoever had hit me wouldn’t realize that I was beginning to wake back up. I tried to listen carefully to what was going on around me. “You could have been a lot gentler dude.” “She threw a manhole cover at your face! What twiggy girl has the strength to do that?! And her accuracy to! She threw it so fast and her aim was so spot on I actually thought it was gonna hit you!” “Aww you do care.” “Now is not the time for jokes you little-” “Enough! We need to figure out how we’re going to handle this.” “Yeah, since not using force sure worked well, right fearless?” “Oh, and please share how you punching her in the jaw worked out as a much better plan for us.” “Yea man, no wonder she wanted to run away.” “She ran away BEFORE she even saw us, she was never going to handle the situation peacefully!”

So far I had heard three different voices talking. It seemed that the voices were coming from behind me, so my back must have be facing my kidnappers. I felt a bit of a rocking, so I assumed I was in some kind of vehicle, probably the van I had seen in their hideout the other night.

“Well no offense, but if someone hadn’t been goofing off then she never would have heard us in the first place and we could have handled the situation better.”

Okay, now there had been a total of four different voices, so four vs. one, fantastic.

Sam gently tried to move her wrists to see what she could get her hands on. When she moved them backward, she felt something soft. It felt like she was sitting on a couch. That was a bit odd, but then again, there was nothing normal about any part of this situation. It felt like there was just rope tied around her wrists, so she gently started to lean back some, as if her limp body was just moving slightly due to the fact that she was in a moving vehicle. Once her back was against the couch, she then began pushing her finger against the trigger on the ring. It took a few minutes, but finally the blade popped up. While the four voices continued arguing, Sam slowly began cutting away at the rope that kept her wrists bound together.

“So sir fearless, what’s the plan now?” “We take her back to the lair and we’ll talk to her there. I’ll decide what to do next based on how that goes.” “That’s it?!” “And what do you suppose we do then?” “Well first I saw we challenge her! Let’s see how she likes it when we throw shit her way! Then we keep questioning her until we get some answers!” “And if that doesn’t work?” “We go back to using force, that’s what lead us to finally capturing her!” “Well technically it was my planning tha-” “Yea yea I know that your genius is why we were able to track her down, but if we let her keep running then-” “Maaaaaaybe we could have actually talked to her?” “You have no right to talk since you’re the reason she got away in the first place!” “Whoa! Chill bruh……..okay maybe it was my fault a little bit, heh.” “A LITTLE BIT!? Are you seri-”

Before Raph could finish his sentence, he froze as he saw the girl that had been behind them stand up. She was facing the back of the van while Mikey sat in a chair against the back of the couch, so the two had their backs to each other. The girl’s arms were free, and as she stood up she swung her right leg around as she turned her hips to her left and rotated her whole body around. As she swung, her right foot went up in the air. She moved so fast that Raph couldn’t do anything to stop the girl from slamming her foot right against Mikey’s face. Now Raph was more furious than ever. Deep down he had thought that maybe things would have gone better if Mikey hadn’t accidentally slipped and dropped one of his nunchucks and startled the girl, but now all he believed was that this girl was pure scum. If she was really innocent, then she wouldn’t have just kicked his baby brother in the face.

“THAT’S IT!” Raph charged towards the back of the van, but right after Sam had attacked, she immediately turned, ripped of the blindfold, and ran towards the back of the vehicle. Before Raph could get to her, she had already opened the door and swung around to the other side.

Raph quickly backed up, not knowing how to react. He so badly wanted to chase this girl down, but at the moment they were on a highway, and if he wasn’t careful then someone might see him and his brothers through the opening in the back of the van. Luckily there were no cars behind them at the moment, but to Raph’s surprise, the girl was no longer hanging onto the back of the door anymore.

Once Sam had officially gotten out of the van, she tried reaching for the ledge of the roof of the vehicle. She swung herself to the side and was able to get her hand on the ledge. She then swung hard to the right and was able to also get her leg caught on the ledge as well. She carefully pulled herself up onto the top of the truck. Sam had no idea where she was or what to do when suddenly she saw that a refrigerator truck was driving towards them in the oncoming lane. She slowly began to stand up, preparing for a quick and risky leap.

“Donnie where’d she go!?” Leo began to panic as things continued to get out of hand. “I don’t know I haven’t seen her…yet.”

As Donnie was scanning his mirrors to see where the girl was, he saw a figure move from the top of their truck onto the ladder on the back of a larger truck passing by. Donnie stopped the vehicle and sat there staring at the mirror in shock. “She jumped” he said with a dropped jaw. “SHE JUMPED!?” Raph was beyond pissed. He couldn’t wait to start fighting this girl since obviously she had some strength to her and all night she had been asking for a fight. “Dang that chick has a good foot on her, sucks I learned that the hard way though. Ow!” Raph quickly got a cold soda can from the fridge in the back of the van and handed it to his brother. Mikey took the can and smiled. “Hey thanks man!” he said as he opened the can and started to take a sip. Raph flicked his brother on the back of the head. “It’s for you to put on your cheek not to drink!” He rolled his eyes and looked up towards his other two brothers in the front seats. “So how do we get her back now?” he snarled. “Don’t worry, I’m already tracking her coordinates based on the directions that truck is able to follow. A truck that size can only follow select routes coming up, and I know a short cut that will lead us to her.” And with that, the brothers sped away in the van, mentally preparing themselves for what could possibly come next. ______________________________________________________________________________

Once the truck had lead me back to the city, I jumped off at the first red light it stopped for. I winced from the pain in my foot. I was used to foot injuries, but wow that was a hard hit! It felt like I had just run up and kicked a bowling ball. I never expected the kick to hurt my foot anywhere near as much as it did, but luckily I could still walk on it, there were just some sharp pains when certain spots hit the ground. I had experienced similar feelings during some of my soccer games and the pain now was about the same as then, so I just needed to carefully keep walking it off and then I would be okay. Once I got onto the sidewalk, I immediately got my tonfa and put them in the side holders of my backpack, making sure that this time I would be prepared for an attack. I started walking down the sidewalk and looked around at the shops and street signs. I had been here before, but it had been a long while, so overall I was in unfamiliar territory. The next thing I knew, all the street lights went out again. Really? We were going through the exact same routine as last time? I stood completely still, waiting to hear any type of sound. It was incredibly quiet for what seemed life forever. I refused to move unless I heard any suspicious sounds, since running away the first time obviously was the wrong choice based on the conversation I had heard in the van. I now regretted making that decision, but at the time I just quickly reacted to what could have been a dangerous situation. How was I supposed to know whether these guys wanted to peacefully chat or not?

After what felt like years of waiting, I heard the slightest sound of footsteps coming from behind me. I instantly pulled out my tonfa and spun around in time to block what I assumed was an arm that was aiming to hit me in the back. I pushed off and slid backwards some while trying to keep my balance. I heard footsteps quickly coming towards me, but since I didn’t know what this person looked like, I had no idea where to aim a hit. For now I decided to try and fight defensively until I could gain any type of intel on what this person looked like or how they fought, or at least that WAS the plan until I heard what sounded like a sword being unsheathed. Shit, this was bad. I heard the swish from the movement of the blade coming from the right, so I dodged to the left and began to run. I had no idea what direction I was running in and tried to use my tonfa to feel around me so that I wouldn’t run into something.

I felt a wall on my right and just continued to run straight, hoping that it would lead me somewhere safe. Lucky me I ran into a dead end in a dark alley. Now I was really scared and was afraid of what my brother would do to himself if he found out I had been killed. I tried feeling around for anything I could throw and to my surprise I found a pile of bricks. I must have been near a construction zone of some type. I ran along the wall until I was in a corner, and once I heard footsteps again I began launching the bricks in that direction. I still couldn’t see, but I could hear the sound of the swords connecting with and breaking the bricks.  Wow, this guy had to have some muscle to him, and incredible strength in durability to the blades as well if he could actually break the bricks with his swings. I reached down for another brick, but I felt nothing. I kept moving my hands around on the ground as I began to panic, this couldn’t be the end for me already. I stood back up in order to defend myself, but it was too late. As soon as I was up I was hit on my temple, and once again everything went dark. ______________________________________________________________________________

As I started to gain consciousness, I felt a huge pain in the back of my head. I was really feeling the effects of getting hit in the face twice within about an hour.

I could tell that I had been blindfolded again, but this time my hands were bound with twist ties rather than with just rope. I could feel that I no longer had my ring on either, I figured that that was going to happen. I listened for the voices that I had heard earlier that night. I heard them, but they were very faint, hopefully meaning that they were further away from me than they were the last time I woke up. My surroundings were still and I thought I heard the sound of running water, so I assumed they had taken me back to their hideout. I couldn’t tell from sound alone where exactly I was located within the gigantic room, so I wasn’t sure what I should do. This time I woke up on my side rather than sitting upright, so I tried to gently move my legs around to see if there was anything I could feel that would give any type of clue as to where my location was. I also tried reaching my arms forward, since my hands had been twist tied in the front instead of the back. I couldn’t feel anything, so I rolled over and faced the other direction and tried again. My foot kicked against a wall, and when I tried to scoot back I hit another wall, so I was probably in one of the corner spots within the large space. My foot seemed to be feeling a little better now, so that was a good sign at least.

The water now sounded like it had been coming from behind me, so I was guessing, based on what I could remember from last week, I was probably in the corner that was almost directly across the room from where I had entered when I came here alone. I listened for the four voices again and they still seemed to be coming from farther across the room. As scared as I was of being punched again (I don’t know how much more of that I could take) I knew that I had to take this chance to escape. I was able to stand up by leaning and pushing off the walls. I lifted my arms upwards in a straight position over my head when I heard a rough male voice yell “OH COME ON! AGAIN!?” followed by loud footsteps coming closer towards where I was standing.

I then quickly and swiftly yanked my arms down, pulling my elbows in towards my sides as I did so, and was able to break the twist ties. I spun around and yanked off the blindfold as I tried to face my body in the direction that I was about to run to, but once the blindfold came off I stood there in shock.

Standing in front of me was a giant, intimidating, weapon holding…turtle?

[jasonbyronnelson]

So for a long time now, I’ve been working on a commercial project, an ongoing project that I wasn’t including on this blog. In fact, that project was keeping me off this blog due to the secrecy of it. Secret because I didn’t want to reveal the designs until the company had a chance to do it first. Well now the work is everywhere so finally, here I am to talk about it and show off some of the work. It’s for Flying Tiger Brewery in Monroe, LA. I designed their logo, their beer cans, and some social media and swag along the way.

By the way, nowhere in this long post am i going into any detail about what a flying tiger is or was, or what historical significance the plane and the pilots hold – suffice it to say, they made a difference and one outstanding man has ties to the region where the brewery is located, hence the name – alas, this isn’t a history blog. If you want more insight, there’s wikipedia.

The logo. Here’s the original “approved” logo…

The shark-mouth-circle, based upon the traditional flying tiger nose design, was supposed to go along with the word mark as a secondary image to make up the logo.

It’s a cool, little illustration and while we still use it here and there (shirts, hats), it ended up not being the final logo. Nope, the final logo happened as I was designing a possible sticker or coaster to add to their collection of goods. But once the powers-that-be saw it, they preferred it over mr. shark mouth and the rest is history. And here we are…

See how the propeller cuts into the red circle? Originally it cut into the letters too but that just didn’t translate well. Also, the original design had blasts of fire near the 2 guns (barely visible) on the wings, but somewhere along the way those were removed. But the real meat of this project is the can designs. I had never designed anything for cans before and began the project without realizing there are certain limitations within the medium. Which is a good thing, limitations are anti-creative.

I knew i wanted to give the cans some common elements other than colors so the stripes were implemented early on; they changed shape and color a time or two but remained until the very end. Also, from nearly the very beginning, I thought of using different “characters” to represent different beer styles/flavors. And while this idea also stood the test of time, the characters themselves changed radically.

The following are a few preliminary attempts/roughs, including the original sketch for Mr. Heroic Hops himself when he was single (and also before he grew his exquisite facial hair). While we figured out what look we wanted to give the cans, things naturally evolved and developed, essentially creating the look of the company. Enjoy.

  One of my favorite flavors to work on was the Burma Blonde. But while i was figuring out the look, somewhere along the way i should’ve zigged instead of zagged or something and i produced this homely specimen:

Yea, i’m not sure what happened there. But then when i was finding my footing again, i over-rotated and went a little too far on the sex-appeal meter. Exhibit A:

I like her.

But they thought her face was a little too cartoony. And when compared to the other designs, it is. So you’ll see below that her look is a little more realistic and her shirt is a little less revealing.

I want to mention the dots real quick. I was using dots, or a halftone pattern, or both, a lot on the first designs. It reminded me of old news print, which i thought reflected the era i was going for somehow – but due to color limitations, those were eventually lost.

Above is the final burma blonde design in all her glory, with her Indian motorcycle and white as a ghost complexion (color limitations and all, i’m hoping to add a little pigment once we put her on a shirt).

And here are the other two:

And here’s the Nitro Bomb Milk, along with the illustration before all the bells and whistles were added:

  The nitro bomb has yet to actually be printed (and it may not as a nitrogenized beer is hard to replicate in a can i’m told) which is why the design looks so much different than the other three. I never got to the point of finalizing it for the manufacture’s specifications.

There’s also a fifth design that i’m very proud of featuring a tank. I’m not including it here because it’s yet to be printed. Hopefully it will see the light of day because next to the nitro design, it’s my favorite.

Now that i understand the methodology a little better regarding ink on cans, i would probably do things a little differently. But with that said, i’m very happy with the outcome. And luckily, the beer is fantastic. It would suck to have my designs on a product i didn’t care for. If you’re in the Monroe area, check out the brewery. I can’t recommend the nitro bomb enough… so good.

And i would be remiss not to thank Rob Brewer and James Simpson for coming to me with this project in the first place. Thanks guys. You have a stellar product, I hope you enjoy the designs as much as i enjoy the beer… probably depends on how many i’ve had… moving on.

On a side note, because i feel the need to mention it – there are several band posters that follow this post -I did those when i just needed to take a mental break from the Flying Tiger stuff. If you feel the need to continue reading after all this, you’ll see them below. I designed each of those with some rules in place – the first being that i had to use the same color scheme, and the second is that i only gave myself an hour for each. Why rules? I don’t know. Maybe i liked the challenge. Maybe i’m lazy and an hour was all i was willing to give to a non-paying project. Do we have to question everything?

Thanks for reading.

Flying Tiger Brewery So for a long time now, I've been working on a commercial project, an ongoing project that I wasn't including on this blog.