#glad i went and watched the EX related videos to clear that up

[shadeswift99]

that is a facinating evil x take shade

Thank you! Honestly I think it's one of my oldest Hermit headcanons, I can't think of one older off the top of my head

[storiesforallfandoms]

my oh my! ~ jeff wittek

word count: 1672

request?: no

description: in which the good girl meets the older ex-con and sparks fly between them

pairing: jeff wittek x female!reader

warnings: swearing, panic attack

based on this song

masterlist

You weren’t usually a club type of person, but your friends managed to convince you to come out on this night, and by the end of the night you were very happy they had.

The club scene always made you feel awkward; a large crowd of drunk people dancing way too close together, standing way too close together at the bar, and guys who were too drunk to really give a shit trying to force themselves onto girls who were too drunk to know what they were doing. You didn’t like any of it, so that’s why you were basically stood in the corner sipping your drink as you watched your friends dance together.

They were already enough drinks deep to be tipsy while you were still on your first. You weren’t a drinker, and honestly the thought of getting drunk in this crowded place really scared you. But they were having a good time, and you were glad that they were.

One of your friends spotted you standing alone and pushed out of the crowd of people towards you. “Come on! Come dance with us!”

You shake your head. “No thank you! I’m not good with crowds of people, especially not drunk people!”

“It’ll be fun! If you don’t like it, you can come back over here, I promise!”

You sighed and agreed to it. Your friend smiled brightly and took hold of your hand. She led you into the crowd of people to your group of friends, who cheered excitedly when you joined them. You couldn’t help but laugh a little at the reaction.

The group of you danced together and for a minute, you were actually getting into everything. But just as soon as that moment came, it was gone again when the people around you started to crowd you and you suddenly realized how close everyone was and how tight of a space you felt like you were in. You felt like you couldn’t breathe anymore and everything was spinning.

You pushed out of the crowd without telling your friends where you were going, although they didn’t seem to notice your departure. You stumbled towards the bathroom and tried to turn the knob, only to find it locked. You banged on the door as hard as you could, only to be met with a voice calling, “It’s taken!”

You stood with your back against the door. Everything was spinning so fast you were starting to feel like you were about to pass out, and you could barley breathe. You could feel your hands shaking before you looked down at them, your heart was beating so fast you felt like it was about to burst from your chest. You knew you needed to get out of there to somewhere more silent, but you were so flustered you didn’t even feel like you could move.

“Hey, are you okay?”

You looked up to see a tall guy wearing a leather jacket standing in front of you with a concerned look on his face. You shook your head in response.

“Here, come with me, I’ll get you some fresh air.”

You knew in the back of your mind that this was a bad idea. This was how girls got abducted or sexually assaulted, but you knew you needed to get outside. Once your head was clear you’d be able to fight back if he tried to do anything anyways.

You took his outstretched hand and he led you through the crowded club, one hand extended in front of him to push anyone out of his way. The minute you were outside the club, you took a deep breath and it felt like the best thing in the world.

You leaned back against the wall of the club, regaining your breath. You could finally see straight and you could feel your shakes starting to subside. Your face felt cold and you realized you had been crying and now the tears were drying onto your face.

“Thank you so much,” you told the guy. “I really appreciated it.”

“It’s no problem. You looked like you needed some help,” he said. “My name’s Jeff by the way.”

“I’m (Y/N).”

“Are you here with anyone, (Y/N)?” When you looked up at him with a confused look, he quickly corrected himself, “I mean like friend wise, but also like a guy or-or something. I’m not trying to hit on you, just wondering if there’s anyone in there who’s gonna think I was kidnapping you.”

You giggled as his awkwardness. “I was here with a group of friends, but I don’t think they even noticed I left. They were too busy dancing to really noticed what was happening.”

“Would they notice if you were gone for a while?”

Your eyes widened, suddenly starting to panic again.

“No, not like that. I’m sorry, that sounds so creepy. I was just gonna ask if you to go for a walk to try and calm down.”

“God, I’d love that,” you sighed. Jeff chuckled and offered you his arm. You looped your arm through his and the two of you started walking.

The walk was quiet, but you weren’t about to complain. You were enjoying the calming silence as opposed to the thumping music from the club.

Your walk brought you to the mostly empty beach. You decided to walk the beach a ways before sitting down on the sand. Jeff sat next to you.

“So, what’s your story Jeff?” you asked him. “Are you a born and raised Los Angelite?”

He chuckled. “Oh no, I’m originally from Staten Island. I’m a barber and an influencer here now.”

“A barber?” you question. “An influencer makes sense, most people in LA are trying to be influencers, but a barber? Like on the side or your videos are you cutting hair?”

“A bit of both. I do hair cuts outside of YouTube, but I also have a series called Jeff’s Barbershop, and basically I cut either my friends hair or the hair of other influencers and I’ll make jokes and little sketches and stuff.”

“Sounds interesting. I’ll have to check the series out.”

“Maybe I could cut your hair sometime.”

That got the conversation rolling. You talked for a long time about each other. You told him how you had grown up in LA but had no desire to follow the “Los Angeles lifestyle”. You told him your dream was to live in New York, or to just visit for Christmas at least.

“Maybe I can take you this Christmas,” he said when you told him that. You felt yourself blush and had to look away so he wouldn’t see.

When you asked about Jeff’s past, he seemed a little hesitant to answer. You weren’t going to make him tell you anything if he was uncomfortable, but now you were intrigued on why he was being hesitant.

“There’s one thing you need to know about me,” he said after some time. “I...have been to prison about four times.”

“Whoa!” you said. “Really? For how long?”

“The longest was four months. And before you ask, it was for drug related charges.” Jeff laughed at the expression on your face. “I dealt drugs when I was young. I thought I was big shit until I got arrested. I turned myself around after that. It was like nearly 10 years ago, I’m a changed man.”

“10 years? How old are you?”

“I just turned 30.”

You gasped. “Oh my God, you’re so old!”

“Oh no, how old are you? Don’t tell me you’re some teenager who used a fake ID to get into the bar.”

“No! you laugh. “No, I’m 23.”

“Practically a baby!”

You both laugh together. You found yourself leaning into Jeff, resting your head on his shoulder. You felt his head resting against yours.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Like I don’t want to go back to that club.”

Jeff chuckled. “We can stay here if you want.”

You nodded. “I’d like that. I guess I should let the girls know I’m okay before we sit here for who knows how long.”

You both sat there in silence, watching the water as it crashed to the shore. It was so peaceful. You’d take this over the club setting any night, especially if you could experience it with Jeff.

Eventually you had to get up to go home. Jeff linked your arms together again as you walked. He walked you right up to your apartment door, claiming he wanted to make sure you were safe.

“I really appreciate everything you did for me tonight,” you tell him. “I’m sorry if I dragged you away from your friends or anything.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” he said, waving away your apology. “I wasn’t drinking so I was basically just watching them act like drunk idiots. I liked spending the night with you better.”

You smiled and looked down at your feet.

“I meant what I said about taking you to New York,” he added. “It’s beautiful around Christmas time. You’ll love it.”

“You’ll have to take me out before I go out of state with you,” you joked.

“Okay,” Jeff said with a shrug. “Can I have your number?”

You were shocked. You didn’t think he was going to respond that way. He smiled a you stuttered out your number and he punched it into his phone.

“Okay, I’ll text you.” He winked at you before turning to leave, stopping once to wave at you before you couldn’t see him anymore.

You fumbled with your keys until you finally got your door open. You leaned back against it and let out a dreamy sigh. “Wow.”

You phone buzzed in your back pocket. You pulled it out, thinking it was one of your friends checking in on you. You were met with a message from an unknown number that read, “Is it too soon to text you? - Jeff.”

You smiled to yourself. For once, you were happy you went out with your friends.

Okay it’s not just like the song or anything but I liked the imagine a lot so I hope you guys did too!

[popculturebuffet]

The Casagrandes Reviews: Operation Dad

In my first look at The Casagrandes, We meet Ronnie Anne and Bobby’s dad Arturo as Ronnie tries to get him to start working in the city to be closer to them.. and when a genuine honest appeal dosen’t work, shenanigans will have to do. Dad stuff under the cut. 

This is one i’ve had in the works since my labor day catchup binge of shows, but kept getting pushed back either due to regular coverage or specifically timed things like the bi visalblity day review of “What Was Missing.  And with Halloween next month, my time to cover this is running out a bit and I feel it’s a great place to start covering this show so, pitter patter.  The Casagrandes didn’t really hook me in at first: It did have two things going for it: An intresting premise A blended family coming together, with our heroine and her big bro being fish out of water in a new family situation. Wheras with the Loud House Lincoln, and by extension most of his sisters, is used to how his house runs, knows the score and knows how to manuvre around it, Ronnie Anne was being dropped into a new situation, with people she KNEW, but only likely from seeing them breifly. It’s one thing to see your cousin once or twice a year, as I did with mine at that age, it’s another to live with them. It had a lot of potential. The other thing was Bobby Santiago, Ronnie Anne’s brother, and one of my faviorite characters across both shows, an endlessly nice guy who while suffering from a terminal case of dumbass, is utterly likeable, helped by his VA Carlos PenaVega, with the spinoff and i’ts build up only fleshing him out more by giving him his job at the Mercado, and showing he has serious buisness acumen  in addition to his many other talents. 

But what made me wary was the lead: Ronnie Anne didn’t get the best intro on the loud house. You know this, I know this. We all know this. No sense beating around the bush: She was a bully, who had a crush on lincoln and masked it by pummeling him. And this was seen as okay by the show which isn’t as suprising in hindsight as Chris Savino clearly has messed up views about women and harassment, and is thankfully no longer part of this. She did get slightly better once she actually showed up, getting genuine chemstiry with Lincoln and being shown underneath the bully exteriror was a pretty nice kid who shared his intress. Granted it wasn’t perfect as the show madei t clear he was terrified of her, but it did at least also make it clear he no longer had a reason to be, and while she’d prank her boyfriend, or assits his sister during her dark time once a year in doing it, and if your wondering if i’m ever going to watch or cover the april fools episodes .. yeah i’m just waiting you know.. for april fools. 

My point is it was kinda mixed and their solution was to soften her up a bit but also act like she and LIncoln weren’t intrested in each other all of a sudden instead of you know, dealing with her past actions and having her make up for them. It was sloppy is what i’m saying and the character while not bad wasn’t in the best positoin to tkae the reigns of her own show. They did add some intresting depth with the move though, showing that Ronnie Anne and Bobby were often on their own, and that Maria moved them to the casagrande household simply because she felt her daughter would be happier NOT having to be the strong one or take care of herself all the time and actually have someone look out for her instead. It was a good emotional reason for hte move and both casagrandes showed up ocasoinally, mostly Bobbi whose still with Lori to this day as seen in the season 5 premiere.  It was an okay foundatoin but it would depend on what they did with her character.. and i’m glad to say.. they made it work. The show still has rough edges, mostly having the same problem ducktales and the loud house itself had during season 1 of juggling such a large cast: Most of them outside of Ronnie Anen and Bobby have only gotten 1 episode, and even then CJ feels underutlized despite being amazing, while the adults outside the grandparents feel underutlized.  Buuut the show is funny, intresting, has good pacing and unlike the loud house, having already learned that lesson, while Ronnie Anne does get more episodes than the rest of the family, it does feel more like an ensemble show and the focus on her feels less like the show not knowing what it has and more like easing the viewers into the rest of the cast by using her as a viewpoint.  Ronnie herself is better, the bully aspects gone. She can still take care of herself, and is still fairly indpentent and clever, but she’s got a sharp sense of humor and a clear love of her family and the fish out of water aspect I hoped for, while not used a ton, still comes up in intresting ways.  Overall i’d say the show is off to a good start.. and it has Melissa Joan Heart and Ken Jeong as a married couple and let’s Ken play a diffrent role for once: A dorky, kind dad instaed of any degree of lunatic. That being said given his character her’s last name is Chang, I can’t help but think this and community are in the same universe and that the Changs have just had to put up with whatever insane phase Senor Chang was going througha t the time every time he visted. I mean i’d love to hear Sid tell ronnie anne the time her uncle came over in a napoleon outfit and revaled he’d taken over his community college with the help of a bunch of children.  But i’m getting off topic, I gots an episdoe to cover and out of the ones I watched this felt both like a great re-introduction into the cast and was easily one fo the best with a great emotional core and great jokes and LOTS to dig into. So i’ve jawjacked enough, pitter pater. Again!

It’s with this episode we properly meet Arturo Santiago, Ronnie Anne and Bobby’s father, Maria’s ex, and owner of one hell of a beard. Ronnie mentioned him back in friended aka the pilot because fuck that airing structure but not the time or place for that moving on. 

We see he video chats his daughter once a day, though today she made hte mistake of doing so on a crowded subway while with her best friend and future wife Sid. NOW we can talk about Sid. Sid was introduced in Friended! over on the loud houd house as part of that mini arc I keep yelling about and will again and again. Sid is Ronnie Anne’s clyde: A best friend whose there as her sidekick, emotoinal support and resident goofus, being a bit of a weirdo and given i’m a giant ass weirdo, you can see why I like her/want to keep her safe from the nightmare that is at last half this fandom. Plus she and ronnie anne are adorable together and have more chemstiry than she and lincoln did.. thoguh the two do have OT3 energy together in his one episode, but that’s for another time. 

Anyways as Sid helps her rangle wifi by them by doing the mecha shiva we soon find out Arturo is coming home! Home lord he’s been off in Peru for too longggg. Point is Ronnie Anne is excited, Bobby is excited, everyone’s excited except for Hector who hates him.. and honestly I can see why the contrast. For everyone else, Arturo is a charming, friendly guy who genuinely loves his kids and only is away from them because he has a lot of important work to do and even with that is still an active part of their lives. Buuuut Hector likely sees it diffrently and is likely homing in more on the fact Arturo is barely there in person for his kids and left Maria to do all the raising them by herself, with her own demanding job.  It’s not a black and white situation is what i’m saying and.. I genuinely love that. It’s a complex thing to deal with: A parent who isn’t there for his kids but it’s hard to say if he’s being selfish or not. He’s not david from roseanne doing this so he can feel good about not wanting to deal with being a father or the death of his brother, Arturo genuinely just wants to help those who need him, even if he has to sacrifice a lot to do it.  Ronnie Anne naturally wants him to move here though and convince him during his visit, and her plan nicely shows off the duality of her charcter: She’s clever and can easily think things through, as his originzation has it’s home office in Great Lakes City so he could still help those in need, just more from the organizational end, as well as i’m assuming GLC’s own homeless and needy. But she also has an 11 year olds understading of complex issues and thus thinks the easiest way to convince him is to take him on a fun daddy daughter day that will make him love the city. Bobby is less optimistic about the plan though.. and that’s because he’s been through this with Arturo already. Granted his job for him was at weenier on a stick because it’s bobby, the boy is a peach of a human being but has the plkanning skills and common sense of a basset hound on qualudes.  He just sugest she enjoy the time. And this says a lot about BOBBY too: He’s used to his dad being out of his life, he’s probably been gone for most of it and while he loves him, he’s had ot get used to the fact he’s probably never going to be regularly in his life and while he understands why his sister’s trying this he wants to spare her the pain he went through. It’s interactions like this that to me show the series at it’s best and what it could be: deeper character interactions that really let the characters and voice cast shine, that still mix well with the usual nonsense.  Arturo arrives and everyone loves him.. and again it’s easy to see why: he’s kind, friendly and to the kids, he’s their cool uncle who lives in another country and as someone with one of those, It does feel neat. Hell he was my cool uncle when he just lived in chicago or seattle, but somehow he had to top those by moving to fricking ireland. So I get where they come from and really relate to it.. I mean I met mine in high school, my family tree is complicated, but still.  So while everyone but Hector is happily remeetinmg their uncle Maria shows up. And it’s awkward, the two not knowing how to greet each other, but it’s very obvious Maria and Arturo are on good terms, it’s just hard when theres so much history there.  Speaking of Maria let’s talk about her since this is one of her only scene’s this episode. Maria is one of my faviorites. She isn’t used a ton, but this is more excusable than it is with the Casagrande parents, as the whole point of Maria uprooting her kids to Great Lakes City was to give them company and someone to take care of them while Maria worked the long and varied hours of being a nurse. She’s a good parent, who just picked a rough career, and made the hard decision to uproot her kids, not for her sake, as it can’t be easy living with both your elderly parents, your sister and her husband not to mention 5 kids, a giant adorable pupper and an obnoxious parrot, but so they’d be happy.. which given Ronnie Anne went from having no friends and largely having to be the rock in the house, to having a sizeable friend group plus her cousins, as well as generally being happy while Bobby went from bouncing from job to job to running the family buisness and planning to expand it when he gets older. She’s a good gentle person who still makes time for her kids, and I wish we saw more of her with her spotlight episode, which was about Ronnie Anne trying to spend more time with her, being one of my faviorites so far. I also like the fact that for once in a cartoon a parent with a time sink of a career isn’t demonized for trying to put food on the table and rather than just quit or have a mean boss or the usual cliches, Maria just found a way her kids wouldn’t be alone. She’s awesome.  Ronnie Anne first tries showing him how great the city is with home cooking and a warm bed, but the first while nice is something he still gets, and the latter in a nice touch is just.. too soft for him. Ronnie meant well, but understadably he’s just not used to it and makes a cot under the stars instead.. he’s not trying to be ungreatful, he’s just sued to it. 

Anyways Ronnie indeed takes him on a montage, with some cab headbonks beacause why use an uber that’s cheeper and safer huh? Anyways our father and daughter do have a montage, and hector gets beaten up by a luchadore because this promotion apparently dosen’t get not to attack the crowd. They really need to stop booking that guy.

Ending on our article image, which is really sweet and a real beautiful shot, Ronnie Anne finally gets to her Ronnie Plan. First Arturo cycles through two diffrent assumptions about what she’s asking him about. He first thinks she’s about to tell him about a special boy or girl in his life, his exact words. He backspaces to include that. She says no which.. I guess okay you have other things in mind but you can’t put off him meeting Sid forever. That aside I do think it’s a good indication Ronnie Anne might be bi, and both her parents just easily accepted it which is great. I could be reading too much into this, and I probably am, but I’ve thought I was before on nickeodeon and look how legend of korra ended. 

The next is just hilarious as Arturo tries to let her down gently that he’s not getting back with maria which Ronnie Anne agrees with and was not remotely her point, but I do like as it shows their well and truly done, and it’s nice to see that sort of dynamic with a divorced couple in fiction where it’s not because of lingering sexual tension or anything, just that their apart but have kids to think about and presumibly the split was amicable if again still awkward. Finally Ronnie asks him.. but he gently refuses, since the people he helped need him as much as he wants to stay.. but part of what makes Arturo likeable, especially since he’s in the REALLY throny situation of not being in his kid’s lives in person despite having the opprountiy now, is that he genuinely tries to compromoise, saying he’ll try to up the calls to two a day, and he’ll visit more often. Ronnie Anne sadly and half heartdly says it’s fine and walks off.  So Ronnie Anne vents to that girlfriend she apparently dosen’t have that he cares more about her patients than him and Sid sidgests that part of that is simple: He dosen’t feel she and bobby need him since, as I pointed out earlier, their doing better than ever. So Ronnie Anne intitates a second Ronnie Plan: to convince him she’s a troubled youth and get him to stay and reasssmbles her cousins to help.  Before we move onto this plan that’s totally a good idea and not a borderline Zach Morris evil scheme, let’s talk about those cousins real quick. Quick fire: CJ is really great, a sweet kid and I wish they’d use him more and generally do nto get why they don’t, Carlota is fine but not all that defined at this point but Alexa PenaVega tries.. and why yes it is kinda weird Carlos PenaVega’s wife and the former star of spy kids is playing his sister. And Carl.. I don’t likes him. I just don’t. He did give me a really good episode, which we’ll be covering next month, but he’s just a little asshole with out the charm of fellow little asshole Louie Duck, who alsos cams people but actually gets consqeunces more often. 

That quickfire done Carl does a forgery which depsite me being eh on him, clearly, is a funny bit, to make Ronnie Anne look like she’s failing, but that fails as you’d expect when he can help her with that from Peru.  So it’s on to the actual plan: Which really boils down to this. 

I mean.. that’s essentially the plan convince him she’s running with a dangerous crowd and is breaking bad, dressing up in punk clothes and making a scene at breakfast. She also gets a really neat new haircut, similar to luna’s but spiky which.. why isn’t this her normal hair? and why dosen’t she at least keep the cool leather jacket? I always get annoyed when a character’s temporary costume change is even better than their default design and htey fail to realize it but whatever.  IT starts to work a little but clearly a breakfast tauntrum won’t be enough so Ronnie Anne enlists Sid.. who is frightend,d osen’t recognize her and dosen’t want to get shoved into a locker. .. who hurt you.. tell me.. I have a box to deliver. Just let me pop a quick H on there real quick. 

Anyways, once Sid realizes “Oh that’s not a bully come to shove me in a locker that’s just my girlfriend in the middle of a zack morris grade elabroate manipulative scheme”, which happens once a week their fine, she comes up with one last plan: Have her friends, who are neat but need more filling out, dress up like punks bullying her friend sameer.  This plan.. makes no sense. For one she was already a bully back home.. granted it was because she liked the kid, which no just no, but it’s heavily implied she did the same to the rest of the lincrew too. .which aside from Rusty isn’t a good look. I mean his face is punchable and he mocked hte idea of them being together despite next season hitting on Lincoln’s sisters, there’s a 1:1 chance he hit on her and she shoved him in a locker as is the natural response to anyone getting asked out by that goober. No matter how hard the show tries to pretend that didn’t happen it did. If her bullying kids didn’t get him to move home back in royal woods it won’t work now. 

So they had behind the fish market for their plan, Arturo is directed there.. and sees through it. I mean she’s probably sent him pictures of her friends, he knows who they are and no amount of costumes is going to fix that. I mean you really only changed Nikki’s hair. Why not just have a dance fight. i’m legitly asking dance fights are rad and this reminds me of the venture bros episode where hank, to impress his date, has billy and white pretend to be a street gang to impress his date. Just do that for sid instead of trying to gaslight your dad into staying.  But no while he pulls her into the car, Arturo knows this was a stunt and asks why. When Ronnie Anne tearfully reveals she just wanted him to stay.. he hugs his child.. and agrees. He realizes that if she’s willing to go to these lengths to get him to stay, she must REALLY miss her papa. So he plans to call the office to transfer.  But then while helping her dad unpack, Ronnie Anne finds something and we get another emotional scene: Ronnie Anne finds the letters he got from the various kids he’s helped, and is moved to tears. Props to Izabella Alvarez for her performance here as she reads the letter and realizes just what her dad’s work does ,and why it means so much to him. He truly helps those who need it and she decides she can’t take that awy from it: Sure her dad won’t be around.. but other kids need her dad more. She has a big family, she misses her dad.. but she can live without her dad. They need a doctor. 

So Arutro heads out with a tearful goodbye and Ronnie Anne leaves him a scrapbook of their time together. We then cut to the Santiago sibs playing cards, and being sad about their dad and all that.. when Arturo calls.. and then shows up in person. He took the Headquarters job after all, though a close friend of his we met earlier in the episode but I ddin’t mention will be taking over in Peru, and from earlier clearly wanted to get back out in the field, so it all works out. And it’s a nice character moment; Arturo realizes while his work is important, and as mentioned he does make sure a compient replacment will continue it.. his family can be too and it’s okay to think of himself and them for once. As I said he’ll still be able to help just in a diffrent way and there are probably needy kids who need him here too, if not in the same ways obviously as a doctors without borders type project. So eveyrone shares a group hug and even Hector bursts into tears. And Maria comes in wondering what she missed whiel Sergio asks who wants to tell her. oh sergio.. why didn’t you stay away when you ran away in a future episode.  Final Thoughts: Not much more to say. It’s a well done episode with high emotinal stakes, great acting and some great jokes I didn’t get to, and while the plot of “Make absent parent stay by pretending things are bad’ isn’t new, it’s done well enough here. Overall just a really good episode that shows what this show can do and why it’s unique family setup makes for intresting stories a lot of shows can’t tell, and validates this spinoffs existnace. The episode also really fleshes out Ronnie Anne’s character, and givne Arutro’s been gone since the divorce if not longer, it’s resonable to supsect her earlier bullying might have been lashing out at her parents divorce. It’s just good stuff. Keep an eye peeeld to this blog for my regular loud house and ducktales coverage , and some more casagrandes this october. ANd until then, Go Team Venture!

[evilisk]

Reading Len’En Profiles Pt 3

We’re rounding off the cast of EMS by looking at the “Yachie-length”* profiles of Sukune and the Snakes.

(*No seriously, these profiles are frigging big)

= = =

So the three upcoming profiles don’t just give us details about each individual character. The information between the three characters give us a complete backstory to the events of Earthen Miraculous Sword. This backstory can be summarized as:

In Len’En’s version of the Orochi myth, Orochi’s corpse lead to the birth of 7 Adagumo Siblings (with Yaorochi being the sword wielding arm of Orochi, and Saragimaru being one of their Eyes).

Though they were born from Orochi’s corpse and vowed revenge on those that killed them, Yaorochi only really had eyes for the sword stolen from them, the Kusanagi / Tasouken. Their obsession with Tasouken even lead to them attacking Saragimaru at some point.

Yaorochi went after the Tasouken when it was lost at sea during, what I think is, the Len’En version of the Tale of Genji (I’m only vaguely familiar with the Tale of Genji between the Warriors Orochi and Genji series of games, so I might be wrong on this). Saragimaru waited for their return by the shore while the remaining Adagumo siblings perished without completing their revenge.

Yaorochi returned with Tasouken, but it was completely rusted at this point. Saragimaru witnessed this return, but Yaorochi did not seem to be aware of who they were (it is mentioned in Saragimaru’s profile that they did not get to reveal themselves as family to Yaorochi, which means they certainly met at one point).

For a time it seemed that Yaorochi had been lifted from their obsession with the blade. Then Yaorochi vanishes. There’s a big timeskip between the next “meeting” of Saragimaru and Yaorochi. Yaorochi begins to fall into a type of depression.

Saragimaru eventually notices Yaorochi in Mugenri. They realize that Yaorochi has become hollow due to the state of the sword. They become sickened by this, as they fear Yaorochi’s obsession with Tasouken, as well as Tasouken’s true power, but they cannot bring back the “true” Yaorochi without reviving Tasouken.

Saragimaru commissions Sukune to create the clay replica, but they don’t pick up the completed sword. Despite this, Yaorochi eventually runs into Sukune and notices the blade.

Yaorochi lies to Sukune, pretending to be a holy servant who can make Sukune’s works complete (there’s this whole bit about crafting and divine spirits in Sukune’s profile that you can check out on your own). They plan the ritual to transfer the power of Tasouken into the clay replica.

The story ends at “designated protagonist breaking into the ritual chamber, about to confront Yaoorchi”

As for my personal thoughts on this backstory... this backstory is so sad :/ It’s also really compelling. But it’s just really sad T_T, like will somebody please give Saragimaru a hug?? They have been through so much.

Before I go on, I should mention that Tasouken, the secret boss of Stage 6, also has a profile, though I don’t feel like talking about it as Tasouken isn’t really a character. The most relevant info here is that Tasouken apparently can’t be wielded by humans. This basically confirms that Orochi was a youkai (this was not clear just from Yaorochi’s profile) which his leads me to wonder if Saragimaru’s dislike of humans comes from Orochi’s death by trickery...

Anyway, onto the character relevant parts of each profile. 

= = =

Stage 5 Boss - Sukune Katano

Original Opinion: I can’t lie here, I kind of knew about Sukune before my deep dive into this series. Ages ago, I watched a video of Earthen Miraculous Sword (I think it was probably Jaimers’ clear of the game). The bosses didn’t really impress me at the time... up until I got to Sukune’s fight. Sukune’s fight kind of blew me away. It’s hard not to be impressed by like, giant Haniwa and Haniwa artilleries. Their fight also helped me *get* what Len’En’s aesthetic is meant to be (it’s drab and low technology af)

When I finally got the chance to fight them for myself, I was just as impressed as the first time I saw them in action, though Sukune’s personality didn’t seem very appealing (again, I don’t like ditzy characters). Now that I’ve gone through and recorded all their conversations for my side-blog, and have also played RMI, I think I can say I honestly like Sukune. When I get to making a “Top Len’En Characters” post, I’ll probably go into more detail there, but all you need to know is Sukune is a character that’s interesting in their first appearance and only gets more interesting the further you get into the series.

Thoughts on their profile: 

Most of their profile is lore about how divine spirits work and that’s whatever. I mean, I get why it’s there. It’s to explain the backstory and how Yaorochi’s plot works. I just don’t have any meaningful commentary about it.

When the profile mentioned how Sukune feels most of their works are incomplete failures, I really felt that. Also, now I can’t help but feel Kuroji is kind of a jerk for dismissing their works.

Though I also feel bad about Sukune being tricked by Yaorochi too.

Sukune loving to open sake bottles but not actually liking to drink alcohol is the funniest thing.

New Opinion: I don’t think my opinion has changed of them, but they’re still really, really cool and I’m so glad that they became one of the series’ recurring player characters

= = =

Stage 6 Boss - Adagumo no Yaorochi

Original Opinion: I didn’t really care for Yaorochi in EMS. I felt they were outshone by every other boss (in terms of personality and musical theme), though their fight was still kind of fun. RMI made me like them a bit more between their powerful shot type, their cool Team theme and their depiction in their route. They give off a really strong “why did I leave my house, I should have just stayed indoors with Tasouken” and it is honestly hilarious. 

Basically, EMS Yaorochi is a cheesy, boring villain, while RMI Yaorochi is more like a single-minded, anti-social dork who immediately regrets trying to get out of their comfort zone

Thoughts on their profile: 

Yaorochi still seems like a massive dork, but the bit about them basically having had depression makes them so much more relatable now.

I think the strange “love triangle” going on between Yaorochi, Tasouken and Saragimaru is fascinating. Saragimaru cares for Yaorochi, Yaorochi only cares for Tasouken, and Tasouken’s full potential can seemingly only be used by Saragimaru, but Saragimaru has no interest in anything other than Yaorochi’s happiness. It’s just all so interesting. It’s just a shame that Yaorochi is the least interesting character in this dynamic, since they know absolutely nothing about what’s going on.

I’m glad that Yaorochi is at least mentioned as feeling bad for tricking Sukune, though I’m not sure how I feel about Yaorochi and Sukune still being a thing in RMI.

New Opinion: While I like Yaorochi a bit more, I still think I’d have to rank them low on the EMS cast. No offense to Yaorochi at all, but someone’s gotta be last, and if I have to choose between Sluggo and Snek being in that spot, well...

= = =

Stage EX Boss - Adagumo no Saragimaru

Original Opinion: I also felt Saragimaru was a little underwhelming in EMS, though I still ended up liking them over their sibling for their design and their amazing boss theme. RMI made it easier to like them since they got partnered with my favourite MC and gave them hilarious banter with them. I wouldn’t put them over Sukune or Hibaru, but I’d say they’re comfortably tied with Lumen and Jun for third. In all, I like ‘em for the fun banter and the dorky Youmu-esque vibes I get from them.

Thoughts on their profile: 

Somebody please give this snek a hug, they have been through so much T_T

More seriously, the whole “can’t seem to approach Yaorochi” thing explains why Saragimaru acts like such a weirdo when you encounter them in RMI as Yaorochi

As I mentioned before, the whole Yaorochi -> Tasouken -> Saragimaru -> Yaorochi triangle is just so fascinating. It’s rather interesting that Saragimaru can theoretically use Tasouken to its full potential (wait, is it “can” is it “could have”, now that Tasouken is a bottle opener)

I just realized that Yaorochi/Saragimaru is the Koishi/Satori and Flandre/Remilia dynamic but more compelling. 

Wait, this weird “unappreciated sibling” dynamic is why they got paired up with Kuroji isn’t it? That pairing makes so much more sense now.

New Opinion: Yeah okay, I think after reading through their profile, Saragimaru is easily my third favourite Earthen Miraculous Sword character. It’s a bit unfair to Lumen and Jun as they’re side characters that get much smaller profiles, but Saragimaru is so incredibly interesting to me now.

= = =

Final Thoughts

I am actually really impressed with JynX’s writing in this game. Evanescent Existence’s story and characters didn’t really impress me, even if it was conceptually very interesting. Earthen Miraculous Sword was not only an immediate improvement (since one of my favourite characters is a flippin’ Stage 1 Boss) but I actually feel that the writing is on par with the Touhou series. And I’m not one of those people that dismisses the writing in Touhou either; the whole Tasouken / Saragimaru / Yaorochi backstory and dynamic is easily as compelling as Touhou’s best. 

If there’s one thing I take issue with, it’s that all the best writing in this game is confined to the profiles rather than the in-game banter... even that’s not a huge issue to me since it’s an issue that could just as easily be said of the official Touhou games (the shooters at least). 

= = =

Ranking the EMS Cast:

Hibaru Kokutenshi

Sukune Katano

Adagumo no Saragimaru

Jun Amanomiya / Lumen Celeritas

Shou Amanomori

Adagumo no Yaorochi

[paulineguillouzichnd1]

Artisan

Overview of the project:

I have chose to do a video on Freedom Bakery, that is a “Social Enterprise” based in Glasgow. They are making bread and pastries and are working with a lot of restaurants in Glasgow but also some shops (Locavore in the Southside for instance).

Freedom Bakery is also linked to the Progressive prisoner rehabilitation schemes and is working with several people who haven’t been released yet.

“By teaching new skills, from baking to logistics, Freedom Bakery rebuilds confidence and hopefulness before prisoners are released. “

As a teacher, and a French person, I was also curious and interested myself in seeing how bread is made, and also share this experience with people.

I wanted to show both the working conditions (physical work, working time that are different from usual jobs, fast pace) but also the conviviality of the place and people working there.

I got in touch with them by email and phoning them. I had to explain what I was doing, what for and who for.

I then went for a Recee, and asked permission to employers and employees to video/take pictures of them. It’s illegal to take pictures of people who haven’t been released from prison, so I made sure I had a conversion with these people in particular and was careful of not having any shot/clip of them.

Website: https://www.freedombakery.org/

Address: Unit E5 Rosemount Business Park 145 Charles Street Glasgow G21 2QA

Phone number:  +44 (0)141 328 7886

Contact: Scott, scott@freedombakery.org 

Cinematographic techniques:

Extreme long shot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRD7f2Wo0CM)

The extreme long shot captures a very wide area to show the scale of subjects in relation to their environment, like tiny birds in a forest. Whether it is the desert or outer space, the audience should get a feel for the time and the place they are about to spend the next few minutes. It is typically used as an establishing shot when changing from one big area or city to another

Bird’s eye shot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWMueRbVLvk)

Like the extreme long shot, the bird’s eye shot shows massive scale but from a much higher angle, to the point where land starts to show abstract shapes and lines out of roads, buildings, and trees. It is also typically used as an establishing shot for introductions and scene transitions.

Long shot

A wide shot, often referred to as a long shot, puts characters in context to the backdrop you establish in an extreme wide shot. The characters can be seen from head to toe and you see them in relation to the location or each other. You can use a wide shot to show how your character is small in relation to the vast surroundings. When the term long shot is emphasized, it can mean that the camera is farther away from the subject, making them even smaller. It gives the audience a sense of geography so when the camera goes in tighter, they can understand who is where.

Full shot

A full shot is different from the wide because it focuses more on the character in the frame. The character is full body from head to toe again, but the location is no longer the focus. In this shot you might want to show how a character dresses or how a character moves: awkwardly, confidently, etc. You can also reveal what they are doing, like packing a suitcase or ordering a train ticket. You can give the viewer information but not all of it, yet.

Medium Shot

The medium shot shows your character from the waist up. In the old westerns, the character was often shown from the hip up which is now known as a cowboy shot. Again, this shot is about revealing information. You can see more detail than you can in a wide shot. The reason the westerns had to reveal the hips is because of the gun holsters. If you didn’t show the hips, when a cowboy was ready to draw you would lose a lot of important action.

Medium shots are often used in dialog scenes. As we get closer to our subjects we can see things that we wouldn’t catch in a wide, like body language. We can see crossed arms or someone who talks with their hands.

Close-up shot

A close-up frames the character’s face. In a close-up shot one can see even more detail that tells us how a character feels. A close-up highlights emotional clues in the eyes and you can see a twitch or a tear that you might miss in a medium shot. It is by its nature more intimate so the effect is often that the audience can feel what the character is feeling.

A close-up can also be used to show things such as a tapping foot or the sliding of a ring on a finger.

Extreme close-up shot

An extreme close-up frames even tighter on a face (or subject), highlighting facial features more. It usually frames a particular part of the face like the eyes or the mouth. It is even more intimate than the close-up and is almost uncomfortably close, so the viewer is more apt to feel whatever the Actor is conveying, which is why it is used to show more intense emotion and is often used as drama increases.

1st example:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwA3XyNeD3I

Long shot -> to locate the place where the bakery is

Long shot -> to refine and give this idea of entering the bakery as a normal client.

Close-up on the food ->  that’s been sold by the bakery (foreground) and the lady selling the pastries + client (background)

Complementary research:

Video explaining camera movement based on examples: Here Very easy and straighforward and also entertaining! Helped a lot to understand what to put in my storyboard

1° STORYBOARD: Link

When doing my research, I was mostly working from films and examples of films whilst I was aware that we were more meant to be doing a ‘documentary’ of an artisan. 

 At first, I didn’t really know what a storyboard was and I did some research mostly to understand how to make an effective storyboard, but also because I saw a few of my classmates struggling understanding the point of making a storyboard. What type of information is it meant to contain? What is the purpose of it? How precise does it need to be? How do you effectively give a sum-up of movement with a static format (storyboard is not the film itself but are meant to explain what movement is going to happen). 

 I felt that it was quite easy to make for an advert as we were just copying another add, but we didn’t have to actually think it through: what shot size, shot type, camera movement did we need? 

  Also, as photographers, we’d focus on the composition that would involve a 3D aspect but no consideration for the movement/sequence of a shot. The storytelling was also limited, whereas here, with a rack focus for instance, I get to give a lot more of information about the subject’s thougths for instance.

Storyboard vidéo: Link

Ratio video: Link

Rack Focus: Link

2° Deciding on a template for my storyboard

Based on different storyboard I looked at on the Internet, and the help provided both by tutors and my own research, I decided on a template for my storyboard that I then created on PowerPoint, and printed on a A3 format:

This included the drawing/picture on the left, shot size, shot type, camera movement, lighting, equipment and subject movement. The template is made of boxes to tick in order to make it more straightforward to read and use.

3° Studying 5 examples of videos and taking notes of movement I wanted to include in my own video.

I watched a few videos that were on the same subject as my own video and made up for each of them storyboards to then decide on aspects of the video I liked and incorporate them in my own videos

VIDEO 1 : Link

VIDEO 2 : Link

VIDEO 3: Link

VIDEO 4: Link

VIDEO 5: Link

4° My final storyboard

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Slide 4

Slide 5

Slide 6

Slide 7

                                                 Conclusion

STORYBOARD

Effective tool: I think that it wasn’t really clear for me what the point of a storyboard was, and how to use it as an effective tool. But also for instance, who might need it: just me as a ‘director’ or the actors/people in the documentary? After shooting, I added some more clips to my final video that I didn’t think of when preparing my storyboard.  I was also glad I got to practise making storyboards with people’s videos when preparing my own video project.

RECEE

Effective tool:  If I was to do another video, I’d probably get more information about what a Recee is and what information you need to get from there, what you need to bring with you. I think this is a crucial part of making a video and I didn’t realise how important this was: get some pictures not just of the tools they’re using but people’s clothes, what they are doing, general movement within the kitchen. I had a list of things to pay attention to when going there but I felt that I could have gotten more details in order to make the storyboard more effective and accurate. 

SHOOTING THE VIDEO

Video teachnique: I realised I had a limited knowledge of the video vocabulary (shot size, shot type, camera movement) and I wish I had spent more time practising them individually in order to feel more confident when going to the bakery.

Material: I felt that although in class, we had a go at using the material, it would have been useful for me to spend time at home using the material, maybe before the video recording and be more familiar. As I was the one acting when donig the advert, I couldn’t really try out the tripod or lights.

PREMIER PRO

Montage: I had zero knowledge of Premier Pro and I think that in the end, it was a pretty straightforward  tool to use, somehow similar to Photoshop (to an extent). I really struggled with transition, because I didn’t think of them as something as important as it is. Also the pace of the video. I realised that some clips couldn’t be used as they wouldn’t be coherent (people had different clothes, white balance or dought was at different levels in the kneading machine)

Getting more information: I wouldhave benefitted from watching more videos to add more stuff to my video: transition, music, how to slow down/speed up the pace of my video, what and how to film scene

OVERALL: It was an extremely challenging project on every aspects but I overall enjoyed it, mostly because I found out about other dimensions and ways of telling stories, while using a visual media. I found the fact of using movement and directing the viewer’s eye extremely fascinating. I decided to enroll in a video evening class to learn more about techniques.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

“We grew up in a cult...”

https://youtu.be/XcpIHvsQMBk                  Kate Flowers

Published on May 8, 2018

Kate: “This is a sensitive subject that I never thought I'd share but hey, I share just about everything else with you guys so why not! My brother Elijah and I grew up in a cult and this video explains a bit of what that was like for us and how it all took place.

It definitely took some level of courage to make this video. It's a personal topic for both of us and we hope that in sharing our story we are able to spread some awareness of how these things happen in the first place. Thank you for watching and being supportive as always <3 ”

Comments:

Keia Kato-Berndt Kate Flowers hollllyyy sh*t! Ive never ever commented on a youtube video before but i love your channel and when i saw this i was like “huh. I grew up in a cult too. I wonder which one?” And then you mentioned mass weddings and I KNEW IT WAS THE SAME ONE! Anyway it was funny watching this and so glad you both are following your own path. Much love from another ex church kid.

Zonbi's Workshop Holy cow. I watched this video and know exactly what cult you're talking about. I grew up in it too and went through a lot of the same weird stuff. It's not something I really talk about, so it's a huge relief to watch this and know someone else out there and can be so open about it. Thank you guys for doing what you do!

The mass wedding makes me think of the unification church, the Moon cult

Joe Pearson When I was growing up they were called "moonies". They came to mind right away for me too.

Hakuna Matata Very educational, thank you. Love bombing really hit me, it is very present and not just in cults. It reminded me of one gathering I went to when I was a child. Sometimes bombers genuinely believe they're doing good and friendliness is not fake while in other scenarios love showering can be a powerful manipulation tactic. I think I'm vulnerable to this and feel extremely stupid now. Obviously both you and your parents are very intelligent, the fact that you laugh about it now says a lot.

Kaitlin Oetting To Hakuna Matata Don't feel stupid about being vulnerable to "love bombing", most people are. You should always accept love from people but know their motives. That's the part that makes you prepared and aware that yes, you need accept love because it's a beautiful thing but understanding that not everyone will give it without expecting something in return.

Sarah Johnson We don’t have to speculate which cult or the specifics of things. Take it at face value and just be easy on them! Thanks for sharing that vulnerable story. It’s very cautionary and informative. Loved this video so much!

Sarah Jane Thank you Kate & Elijah for sharing such a personal and intimate story. I know it took courage to make this video. Light & Love

Su-hyun Mcknight I'm almost positive I grew up in the exact same cult. I was only in my teens when I started realising something wasn't right. I would feel so guilty for dating or even liking a boy because they would tell us the ideal way was to get matched. It's good to see you got out because they basically will brain wash.

LilacsAdore As I am watching this, I think it may be UC after all because they are using the right terminology. "Matching" is what they call setups in the church. However, it really isn't as crazy as many people think. My best friend's family is in this church; in fact my best friend was recently matched herself because she didn't want to break up the family. Many are just normal people like us, attending university and going out, etc.

Katie Grant Thanks for sharing, and thanks for what you said at the beginning to humanize people that are in cults. I think it is important that people realize and understand their perspective !

veridian roots Scientology doesn't do the mass weddings and they couldn't care less about people's lives – they care about their "thetans' and clearing them. They bring you in via personality tests, not through intellectually stimulating talks. And they definitely don't work towards world peace lol

Joie Lynn I think that this video is so effective when entering any type of new theology, small or large. Research is so important before commitment. It's almost like sometimes people commit before they are fully aware of the "consequences" that come with these "groups". Hopefully this will help encourage other people with similar experiences to speak up. Thanks Kate!! Love your channel lady! Your more of a support than you know!!

Krista Belle My parents were also in this cult. They had 5 kids in hopes of us joining the next generation of the “church”, but none of us are part of it. Thanks so much for sharing, I rarely speak upon this touchy subject and it helped me not feel so alone.

Jessica Ayanoglu wow! i never comment on youtube videos but, i was born from the same movement as you guys were. As i watching I was thinking " wait.. noo.. are they talking about....?? Ahhh!" haha  really cool to hear you guys share this, thank you.

aeonlives I can relate in ways, growing up myself in a crazy church following, it really messed with my head and it was very fear based and not positive at all. Still dealing with the fall out from that 17 years later.

Cassie Says If I am correct in guessing which cult you were raised in. I was also raised in this movement and have since separated myself. It is nice to feel connected and find others who have gone through similar upbringings.

GreenieLo Holy ... Yeah, me too guys. Same church, basically same parent stories getting together, literally same church. Man, y'all have grown, cudos. But seriously, I'm glad you didn't get any of the lasting affects most of the bc's I know have to deal with after stepping off, either by themselves, or even their whole family finally stepping off.

Ra Sunlight Thank you for making this video. I also grew up in a cult. It took me many years to undo all the conditioning I was subject to. I really appreciate you talking so openly about it. Thanks again.

peacexo11 'Parents are intellectuals' ya right, is that why they were dumb enough to get caught up in a freaking cult ? Lol

Bree Gullette To peacexo11.  I’m going to have to respectfully disagree after watching the documentaries and reading about people getting out of cults. It has to do with what the people are searching for. Even the smartest people want to belong and if they are searching for something like a higher power or a greater purpose and that can be found in a group. Scientology is a prime example. Very smart and powerful people got pulled in with the promise of getting a higher understanding of life and their purpose here. Some people are just looking for a sense of purpose.

Cassandra Lexie Definitely reminds me of the cult by Sun Myung Moon

[fueledbywriting]

A Journey Back to the Past and to the Unknown

I remember when the trip to the Philippine High School for the Arts, PHSA for short, was first announced in class, my initial reaction was excitement. I felt really excited visiting again because it's been six (or three, if you count the one time we went up there to watch a string ensemble's performance) years since I last went up the school on the mountain. The first time I went there, it was when I took the talent test for incoming freshmen.

Reminiscing aside, the trip on the way to the bus stop at the University gate was one of the most stressful things I've experienced that day. We were informed that the call time for the bus that will take us up was 2:30, so I sprinted, along with my friends, to the bus stop in order to get on the bus on time. To my surprise, I saw my classmates not getting on the bus and instead, are still sitting on the waiting shed, as if they're waiting for someone to arrive. I was personally amazed with the bus we got on because as far as I remember, the bus I rode on the way to PHSA six years ago was small and old-looking, unlike the bus we were in that moment, which was slightly bigger than the one I remember and newer.

As we went up the mountain, the bus was full of different emotions. Amazement, happiness, but mostly excitement was the common feeling we have. We took pictures of ourselves together with our seatmates, and of the scenery outside.

I was amazed when we passed by the church up the mountains because it looked unusual. Instead of having a carving of the body of Jesus Christ nailed on the cross, there was a cross made of concrete with a hole at the middle, depicting His body.

We were greeted with students having fun, playing with their toy guns and shooting each other with water, and some of us felt quite jealous of them because it seems as if they don't have requirements to accomplish and deadlines to meet any more, unlike us. When we got down on the bus, the first thing that entered my mind was the design of the classroom buildings was still as captivating as the first time I saw them.

(Photo by @pusang-ligaw)

Upon arriving at the place, the owner of the exhibit, Lora Noreen Domingo, has been waiting for our arrival outside the building where the exhibit takes place. She introduced ourselves to the visitors and to my surprise, she's just the same age as us, a Grade 12 student who is finally graduating a week after our visit.

Pagsulang, the title of Noreen's exhibit, is centered on her immersion with the Manobo - Lapaknon tribe in Butuan. Through her chapbook of the same title and with the help of her classmates who are specializing in other majors, she was able to show her visitors what she learned from her immersion. She slowly introduced to us the tribe in her hometown by asking if we were familiar with the indigenous tribes in the Philippines and what are the things we know about them. Noreen asked some of my classmates about common knowledge, like things related to Lapu-Lapu.

 She showed us what Pagsulang is through a video. I didn't understand at first what the word means because I was too busy staring at the wall paintings, appreciating them as much as possible. However, when Noreen presented to us a video of her accompanying the members of the Manobo - Lapaknon tribe, I was able to understand what the title means. Pagsulang means to go against the flow. It is also an activity of the tribe members to collect shellfish while struggling to fight the current of the river.

Noreen shared the legends of the Manobo - Lapaknon tribe, and the one that caught my attention the most is the story of the ikugan. They are a group of tailed cannibals who invaded the Lapaknon kingdom. The ikugan dared Datu Calixtro, a warrior from the kingdom, to kill a pregnant woman. The people of the Lapaknon kingdom would only be set free if he were to do it. The cannibals doubted the warrior and thought he wouldn't do it, but Datu Calixtro did exceed their expectations. He tore open the pregnant woman's belly and ate her intestines. The ikugan felt threatened, and therefore set Datu Calixtro and the people of the Lapaknon kingdom free.

Aside from the legends, the exhibit also featured the shells the tribe members are collecting, the common medicinal plants in the area, and the outfits woven by the Manobo - Lapaknon people. We were also given the chance to reply to the messages posted on the wall, and I tried my best to reply to one of theme. The message contained a story of a native, her clearing out the misconceptions the outsiders think about her tribe, and what are their wishes for herself and her tribe.

Before leaving the exhibit room, I didn’t forget to buy a copy of Noreen’s chapbook, and took one of the postcards as a memento. I had a moment of hesitation whether I’ll have my copy signed or not, but I decided to have it signed. Noreen asked for my name, then wrote it and a shell pun with the lyrics from Ex Battalion’s song Hayaan Mo Sila on my copy. I took the opportunity to take a picture with her as well.

As I looked back on the exhibit and the place before leaving, the new memories from that day are added to my stash of memories of the place. The experience I had in that place may be bad six years ago, but thanks to the exhibit and my new set of friends, I got to enjoy the place and I am extremely glad.

[furynewsnetwork]

LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST:

By Kody Fairfield

In a joint press conference from Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attempted to show the world that even amid the tension between the two nations, they could still have dialogue on how to peacefully move forward. But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t any stone throwing.

With most of the tension between Washington and Moscow hanging over the interactions of the US in Syria, a long time Russian ally, the question about how the nations work together, when they look so far apart inevitably came up. After all, it was only a short time ago, that Tillerson stated that the reign of Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, is ending.

“We want to create a future for Syria that is stable and secure,” Tillerson said. “Russia can be part of that future and play an important role or Russia can maintain its alliance with this group which we believe is not going to serve Russia’s interest longer term.”

“Stockpiles and continued use demonstrate that Russia has failed in its responsibility to deliver on its 2013 commitment,” he continued. “It is unclear whether Russia failed to take this obligation seriously or Russia has been incompetent, but this distinction doesn’t much matter to the dead. We can’t let this happen again.”

“It is clear to all of us that reign of the Assad family is coming to an end, but the question of how that ends and the transition itself could be very important in our view to the durability, the stability inside a unified Syria.”

When Lavrov was asked about the situation, he railed into what he called the foreign policies of the west, and “NATO” countries, criticizing their interventionism of “this or that dictator, an authoritarian or totalitarian.” He even stated, “A successful ouster of a dictator is for me very hard to remember, if you have any example I’d be glad if you could share them with me.”

“I for one would like to say I do not think that Russia and the US are so great a distance that it cannot be bridged on many issues of the International agenda, both in regard to Syria and Ukraine it’s not impossible. In our introductory remarks with Rex Tillerson we mentioned the agreements that are related, not just to preserving, but to intensifying communication channels with regard to Syria and Ukraine. As for Syria, Bashar al-Assad, we have had sort of a historical background. Rex said he is a ‘new guy’ and that he prefers not looking into history, but the thing is, the world is built in such a fashion that if we do not take lessons from the past we will hardly be able to achieve success in the present.”

“And I recalled certain situations when groups of countries, primarily in the west, NATO countries, were sort of fixated on eliminating this or that dictator, an authoritarian or totalitarian leader, that to oust president of ex-Yugoslavia NATO launched a war in 1999 in gross violation of the UN charter, as well as the Helsinki Final Act. The TV station was bombed which incidentally is a military crime, however you interpret the Geneva Conventions, presidential areas were shelled, the Chinese Embassy was also attacked, civil trains and bridges bombed, the shelling went on for three months and then they run out of targets that could be qualified as dual-use facilities.”

“There was another dictator, Saddam Hussein who was hanged after the invasion, we know how this invasion was justified, since then I think Tony Blair was the only one to repent, publically admitting that it had been a fake, all the grounds for the Iraq invasion. There was another when Muammar Gaddafi, it had been said that there had been no place for this dictator in his country. It was said that democracy would prevail. But we know full well what is happening in Libya right now. The Libyan State is all but nonexistent. Our president talked about that yesterday with the Italian President. Right now we are trying to restore Libyan statehood through the process of national reconciliation, we are trying to put an end to the situation in which this country turned into a channel of human trafficking, as your media reported today.”

“Incidentally there are other examples not so risend. The President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, there has been a warrant for his arrest issued by the international court and several days later the Obama administration decided that in order to settle this problem sudan had to be split into two parts. South Sudan was established and the Obama administration help them secure al-Bashir’s agreement to this splitting. Pres al-Bashir held up his end of the bargain, he cooperated, Sudan was split into two parts in accordance with Obama administration’s plan and then Washington insisted that sanctions should be created against the nation they helped create. So this fixation on trying to oust this or that dictator, an authoritarian, or totalitarian leader is well known to us and we know how it ends. A successful ouster of a dictator is for me very hard to remember, if you have any example id be glad if you could share them with me.“

Based on his statements, it appears that Russia has no intentions on cooperating with the deposing of the Syrian President, and it also appears that the Russian government, and Lavrov specifically, is not afraid to confront the United States on foreign policy.

Sec. of State Tillerson did not immediately address any of the contentions made by Lavrov, as the two moved on to other matters.

WATCH: (comments by Lavrov at 28:40 mark)

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