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mandoalorian · 4 years ago

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I Believe In Love [Maxwell Lord x F!Reader] — Six: Wonder

Summary: When you find your calling to leave Themyscira, you venture out to the World of Man with intentions of helping and healing a very specific person's relationship with his son. You've heard his voice before, but only in dreams. You've felt his pain and anguish and you've never been able to relate to anything more. But things don't come easy for you, and they certainly don't come easy for him either. [This series contains spoilers for WW84 and is my interpretation of what happens after the movie ends].

Warnings: mentions of food and drink, tooth-rotting fluff and as always, a smidge of angst

Word count: 5,200>

Masterlist

Previous - Chapter Six - Next

A beam of golden sunlight shone through the small crack in the curtain, warming your exposed skin, waking you up. Maxwell was still sleeping, lightly snoring and his bare chest rising and falling underneath you. You noticed that his cozy sweater from the night before had been discarded on the floor by the bed, but he was still wearing his pants, and his arm was lazily draped around your body. He held you close and tight, like he was afraid to let you go. You snuggled into him, relishing the moment and hoping it would never end. But you were awake, and it was a new day, and you had a lot to do.

You slipped out of Max’s arms, careful not to wake him up, and smiled when you remembered the night before. Kissing a man, a man like him, felt like a dream come true. It was something you had only imagined when you had read tales of it back on Themyscira. But it was even better than you thought. His lips were sweet like honey and his touch was strong yet gentle. It was perfect, and you wished for the moment it could happen again. Realising you were still completely naked, you glanced into Maxwell’s walk-in closet and wondered if you were entitled to select something out to wear. You figured it would be rude to do so without asking him, so you picked up his forest green sweater that he wore yesterday and pulled it over your body.

You padded back downstairs into the dining room and grabbed a notepad and pen. You noted that Maxwell kept one near the front door of his home. Sitting at the table, you opened up the book. You had six days until the court date. Six days to figure out a way to bring Maxwell and Alistair together for good this time. But you had no idea where to begin. You knew nothing about the legal system or how this kind of thing worked. Back on Themyscira, if Hippolyta wished to gain justice, she would simply use the lasso of truth. You were there, many years ago, when she used the lasso on Captain Steve Trevor. You hadn’t met the pilot, only heard from your mother Hestia who provided Hippolyta with the lasso, but apparently, he revealed himself to be a spy. You considered it. You considered the implications of using your lasso in court, but doing so in front of so many people would mean you’d have to give up your powers. There had to be another way. Before you could put pen on paper, you gasped, feeling a pair of hands grab your waist.

“Good morning.” you heard Maxwell from behind you. His voice was low and husky in the morning and he was grinning, feeling happier than he’d felt in such a long time.

“Good morning handsome.” you smiled, turning around in your chair and looking up at him with doe eyes. His dark blonde hair was still wavy and disheveled, and he was wearing a plain, light grey t-shirt. It fit tight around his biceps and really highlighted the broadness of his shoulders. He looked really, really good. You spotted a pink blush creep upon Maxwell’s cheeks at your compliment.

“You look nice in my sweater,” he noticed, tugging on it slightly. “What are you doing there?”

“Oh, I was trying to figure out an approach for the court case this Sunday,” you frowned, biting your lip. “Do you think we could get one of those lawyer things like Theodore mentioned?”

“This short notice? I doubt it. But I can have Raquel make some phone calls and she’ll see what she can do. I uh- I appreciate you doing this for me. You don’t have to.” Maxwell said sheepishly, running his ring clad fingers through his hair.

You stood up from your seat and walked over to him, wrapping your arms around his body and holding him close. You pressed a kiss into his lips. He tasted just as sweet as the night before, and the skin was just as soft. “I like doing that.” you told Maxwell, completely dismissing what he said before. “Kissing you. I mean.”

Maxwell tucked a piece of hair behind your ear and cupped your face. He ran his thumb over the height of your cheekbone and stared at you in complete admiration. “I like it too,” he agreed, his voice quiet as he leaned in and kissed you again, this time swiping his tongue over your lower lip. He was so good at it, and you wondered how many women he’d kissed before. You loved the way the curve of his nose pressed against your skin and how his eyes would flutter shut as his senses overwhelmed him. You loved the way his hands navigated around your body like it was simply just meant to be. When he pulled away, it was to catch breath, and he pressed his forehead against yours. “Let me make you breakfast.” he whispered.

“Or we could just keep kissing?” you suggested, already tugging on his hair for another one. He smiled, planting a quick peck against your lips and pulled away again.

“Believe me, I want that more than anything,” he exhaled shakily, dragging his hands up and down your arms. “But you haven’t eaten since you got here. You must be hungry. What did you eat on Themyscira?”

“Hmm, fruit? Berries? We picked them fresh from the bushes every morning and they’d last us the rest of the day.” you told him and he nodded slowly.

“Well we don’t have berries, but I can do you scrambled eggs,” Maxwell shrugged, already grabbing a few eggs from the refrigerator. “Is that okay?”

“What kind of eggs…” you said, narrowing your eyes.

“Uh… chicken eggs?” Maxwell shrugged, holding an egg up into the light to analyse it.

“You eat chicken eggs?!” You gasped, your eyes widening in disbelief.

“Yeah?!” Maxwell replied, trying to suppress a grin at your reaction. “So many people do! We crack a few, whisk it and put it in a pan!” You slapped your hands over your mouth feeling shocked. Maxwell chuckled, putting the eggs back and taking your hands, pulling them away from your face. “You’re adorable, you know that?”

You scrunched up your nose. “I don’t want chicken eggs for breakfast.” you mumbled.

“That’s okay,” Max nodded. “I can do oatmeal or pancakes, or we have cereal. Check that cupboard over there.” He said, pointing in the general direction to a cupboard by the kitchen sink. You followed his finger and opened the wooden door. Inside the cupboard were a few boxes of opened miscellaneous cereal. One box in particular caught your intention. It was a red box decorated with a rainbow and a leprechaun and the words read in a bold yellow font ‘Lucky Charms’. You brought it out and presented it to Max with an eager grin. “Oh, those are Alistair’s favourite,” Max grinned, taking out a bowl, spoon and carton of milk. “Help yourself.”

You smiled with gratitude and dug your hand in the box, grabbing a handful of cereal. You looked close at the little oat pieces mixed with the multi-coloured marshmallow bits, even bringing them close to your nose to smell. They were sweet, and the vibrancy of the marshmallows intrigued you. You tried a pink one and moaned as the sugary texture dissolved in your mouth. Max looked over to you as he brewed his coffee, his eyes wide as he watched you eat the cereal out of your hands. “No no no,” he chastised softly, placing his mug back down on the counter and walking over to you. He put the cereal box in your hands and unscrewed the cap on the carton of milk. “Pour some of it in the bowl, and then pour the milk over the top. Then you eat it with a spoon.” he taught you.

“Oh,” you sighed knowingly, understanding why he’d brought out the other utensils and ingredients for you. As he turned back to his coffee, you tried one of the oat pieces. They didn’t taste as nice as the marshmallows, so you put the rest of the oat pieces back into the box and picked out only the sweet soft bits of cereal, dropping them into the bowl. You poured the milk over, careful not to spill any, just like he’d told you. “I’m getting good at this!”

“You are!” Maxwell laughed, sitting down next to you with his mug of coffee and a few slices of toast. He peeked into your bowl and shook his head. “You’re just like Alistair,” he rolled his eyes. “He only eats the marshmallows.”

“Of course he does,” you giggled, taking a spoonful of your selective cereal. “They’re delicious.”

“So I was thinking about the dreamstone,” Maxwell said, taking a sip of his coffee. “If I was possessed by Romulus, the dreamstone would have been Roman. Which means the remaining dreamstone belonged to Dolos, meaning it’s Greek. But how do we find it?”

“If only we knew someone who could help,” you sighed, shaking your head. “Someone who knows about this kind of stuff just as much as we do.”

You stared down into your bowl of cereal, watching as the colour drained from the marshmallows and created rainbow swirls in your milk.

“Actually,” Maxwell exhaled, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “There is someone.” The thought of going to see that someone again, swarmed Max with fear and dread.

“Well- who?” you asked, dropping your spoon into the bowl with a clank.

“Diana.” Maxwell replied nervously.

“Diana Princess of Themyscira?!” You gasped, your jaw dropping.

“I’m pretty sure she goes by Diana Prince but-”

“Max you’re a genius! Where can we find her?” You stood up abruptly.

“Listen, I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. The last time I saw her… I mean it was only a few days ago but it was not good.”

You took Max’s hand and pulled him up. “Diana is forgiving. Whatever happened, she holds no judgement, I assure you that,” you reassured him. “Diana could be the key to knowing where the final dreamstone is.”

Max nodded, sighing in defeat. You were right and he knew it. “She works at the Smithsonian museum. It opens to the public at nine, so we have a few hours to kill, but we’ll get down there as soon as possible.”

You smiled and enveloped him into a hug. “Thank you.” you murmured, squeezing him tightly.

“It’s okay,” he promised, hugging you back. “But there is something I gotta ask you about.”

“What is it?”

“I haven’t been out much since I renounced my wish. I went to the park with Alistair, and then Black Gold, and visited Julianna, but that’s it. I’ve been hiding from the world, living in fear that I’ll have to face some kind of repercussion for my actions. It only makes sense, right? I’m thinking about federal prison. Maybe even get sentenced to death. That’s if someone doesn’t see me on the street and kills me. But I don’t get it. I haven’t been noticed. Nobody cares. Julianna didn’t mention any of it to me, and she loves to bring up all my mistakes. Trust me. It’s just… there’s something not right.” Maxwell exclaimed. It was crazy. You were the only one he trusted to talk about this to. “I’m not sure,” you hummed, understanding his concern. “Maybe Diana will know?”

“Maybe,” Maxwell sighed. “I’m just worried about even being allowed in the Smithsonian. I kinda stole the dreamstone by nefarious means,” You tilted your head and frowned. “No don’t look at me like that!” Max pouted, raising both his eyebrows at you.

“Like what?” you questioned.

“Like you’re disappointed in me,” Maxwell huffed, running his hand through his hair. “I just want to make all of this right.”

“And you will,” you promised him. “We will. Together.”

Every little word you spoke, every action you took, filled his heart with warmth. You gave his life meaning and your presence made him feel a sense of belonging. You really cared about him. You were literally like his guardian angel, only instead coming from heaven, you’d come from the magical land of Themyscira.

“I guess if we have a few hours to kill… we should finish breakfast and find you some clothes. Something decent to wear,” Maxwell shrugged. “I don’t like the idea of leaving the house but I don’t think we have a choice,” he hummed, looking down at his green sweater that was draped over your body. You couldn’t just live in his shirts. You couldn’t keep walking around town, pant-less. And you certainly couldn’t wear your Amazonian warrior tunic and armour. “My tailor who makes my suits has her own boutique just off East Ave, I’m sure we can find something suitable.”

“It’ll be open this early?” you asked, crooking your head.

“They live there. Whenever I’ve needed last minute alterations before a charity event or gala, I’ve relied on them. Visited them during the early hours of the morning and Belinda- oh, she’s simply just a star. She works quickly and efficiently,” Maxwell praised, grabbing his car keys. He threw a coat in your direction and you quick Amazonian reflexes meant that you caught it in an instant. You smiled and mumbled a thank you before sliding your arms into his coat and zipping it up. You put on your gladiator sandals and met Maxwell in the car outside.

The journey was short, and you even vaguely recognised the area from your visit to Black Gold Cooperative. Maxwell fiddled with some buttons on the dashboard when he stopped at a red light. “What are you do-”

A loud booming melody cut you off and you jumped back into your seat.

“So don't become some background noise, a backdrop for the girls and boys, who just don't know, or just don't care, and just complain when you're not there, You had your time, you had the power, you've yet to have your finest hour, radio…”

“What is that?” you gasped and Max laughed, turning a knob down so the voice quietened down.

“You must’ve had music on Themyscira,” he chuckled. “That is Queen.”

“The Queen?!” You practically choked. “If I heard Queen Hippolyta sing like that I-”

“No,” Maxwell laughed, unable to hide his smile. “Just Queen. They’re a band. They sing songs and play instruments.”

“What do they sing about?” You quizzed curiously and Maxwell adjusted the volume once more.

“Listen.” he urged, pressing down on the ignition and drove away as the light turned green.

“All we hear is radio ga ga, radio goo goo, radio ga ga,”

You sighed and rolled your eyes. “Ga ga and goo goo? That makes no sense.”

“Keep listening!”

“Radio what’s new, radio someone still loves you.”

“It’s about love.” you smiled, feeling your cheeks heat up. You placed your hand on your heart. You loved that behind the baby-ish words, the song had a meaning so beautiful and powerful. It really illustrated that love was still the most important thing in the whole world. Maxwell’s voice brought you out of your deep chain of thought.

“Actually I think it’s about the commercialization of radio stations-” Maxwell exclaimed and looked at you in the reflection of the rear view mirror. Your smile fell and you looked even more perplexed by his words. What was he thinking? Of course you wouldn’t understand the ins and outs of how MTV had destroyed modern radio. So he decided to compromise. “Yeah okay, you’re right,” he shrugged, pursing his lips into a fine line to refrain from smiling. “It’s about love.”

You smiled once more, subconsciously swaying to the rhythm. Max couldn’t stop watching you. You were so pure, and you looked at this world with so much joy and compassion. You were always so excited to learn new things and it was so endearing. If anything, it made Maxwell want to be more like you. You helped him not take things for granted. By the time Queen sung the final verse, you had already familiarised yourself with the words, even changing some and earning a few laughs out of Maxwell. As the song finished you pointed your finger at Max who was just pulling up outside the boutique. “Maxwell Lord what’s new? Maxwell, someone still loves you!” You sang, before pressing a kiss into his jaw and then pulling back with the biggest, cheesiest grin.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Max returned the smile but he couldn’t help but think about your words. Of course you were just quoting the song, but you had deliberately directed the lyrics towards him. He sighed, not having time to over think. But what if you loved him back? It sounded too good to be true. “C’mon, we’re here.”

The boutique was beautiful inside. It was small, but filled with racks on racks of clothing. In every corner there were golden framed mirrors and an array of different flowers. The old lady, who you assumed to be the owner, was waiting half asleep by the cashier. When Max opened the front door, a little bell jingled, alerting her and waking her up.

“Oh, Mr Lord! How lovely it is to see you!” the old lady exclaimed, pottering over to Maxwell and shaking his hand. She must have only been about four foot, her perfect grey hair in tight curls and her glasses perched on the curve of her petite nose.

“Good morning Belinda,” Maxwell greeted with a charming smile. It was the same smile you recognised from when he was on television. “I’m sorry for dropping by so early. This is my friend,” Maxwell said, pushing you forward gently and introducing you by name. “She’s visiting just for 4th of July weekend and her luggage got lost at the airport so we’ll be needing a few things for her to wear.”

You waved shyly. “Oh darling, what a beautiful young girl you are!” Belinda exclaimed, pinching your cheeks excitedly. She then turned to Max, leaning into him. “You sure she’s just a friend? She’s wonderful. Definitely a keeper,” Belinda laughed and you giggled alongside her as Max stayed silent and only blushed. “Let me take your measurements and I’ll see what I can do.” Belinda told you, already grabbing some tape and sculpting your body to a suitable position. “Where do you come from, dear?”

“Themyscira.” You smiled.

“Them-a-what?” Belinda asked. “Oh pardon me, I’ve never heard of such a place.”

“Uh- small town!” Maxwell lied before you could reply. “Not really important.”

“I see,” Belinda said, holding up different materials against your body. “How long have you known Mr. Lord?”

You looked over at Max and your smile grew wider. “Honestly, it feels like forever.” you told Belinda, finding yourself lost in Maxwell’s chocolate brown eyes. He was completely mesmerizing. It was true. You might’ve only known Max for two days but you already knew so much about him. He’d been haunting your dreams and thoughts for weeks before you’d even visited the world of man. You saw his past. You knew about his struggles. He told you things that he’d never told anyone else before.

“Lucky for you I have Ralph Lauren’s new summer collection! They just shipped to us yesterday. I know that the colours will compliment your skin tone perfectly. They’re just out back, let me go grab them.” Belinda announced before padding away.

“Thank you.” Maxwell called after her.

“Who’s Ralph Lauren?” You asked, walking over to Max who was sitting on a sofa reading the business section of a broadsheet newspaper. You slipped down next to him and shuffled close.

“He’s a designer.” Max informed you, flicking to the next page of the paper.

“What are you reading?” you asked curiously, snuggling into Maxwell and leaning your head on his shoulder so you could take a look.

“Boring economic stuff,” Maxwell sighed. “Not sure why considering my business is broke now anyway. But this stuff is good to know.”

“What is the Cold War?” you frowned, reading the headline.

“Uh, there’s a war going on right now between us and the Soviet Union.” Maxwell sighed, narrowing his eyes as he focused on a piece of information presented in one of the columns.

“Us?”

“The US, United States of America.” Max confirmed with a scowl before turning the page again.

“A war… that’s impossible. Ares is dead.” you mumbled to yourself, feeling horrified. You hadn’t even noticed. You’d spent two whole days in the world of man and you would have never suspected that there was a war going on.

You pondered his words before Belinda came out holding a pile of clothes. “These should fit you perfectly,” Belinda exclaimed, shoving them into a paper bag for you.

“Will you be paying with your company card today?” Belinda asked, turning to Maxwell.

Maxwell winced, knowing that his company had absolutely no money. “Uh- no. Personal please,” Max requested, taking out his wallet. This would be coming out of his own savings which probably wasn’t very smart but, you were worth it. “While I pay, would you mind getting changed in the dressing room?” Maxwell asked of you. “And then we can go to the Smithsonian.”

You nodded, taking the paper bag filled with clothing and navigating yourself to the store’s dressing room.

“Ooh, the Smithsonian museum huh?” Belinda asked as she registered each item of clothing into the till.

“Yeah, she’s never been before,” Maxwell hummed, his anxiety rising now that it was just him and Belinda alone. Of course the little lady wasn’t going to do anything to him, but it was like you were his safety. He was beginning to rely on you more than he’d quite like to admit. “Belinda, can I ask you something?”

“Whatever is it, my dear?”

Maxwell sighed, wondering how to phrase his question. Just like Julianna, Belinda was acting like she had no idea what he’d done. “Where were you on the fourth of July?”

“At the shop, working of course.” Belinda replied.

“Ah, so you didn’t catch what was on the television?” Maxwell quizzed further.

“No, my dear.”

So she missed the broadcast completely. And Maxwell supposed there was a chance that Raquel, Julianna and Theodore missed the broadcast, although that did seem ever so unlikely. Even if they had missed it, one of Julianna’s gossip-y friends would have seen it and notified Julianna of Maxwell’s mischief. Something wasn’t adding up. He had to confront Diana about it.

Just as Maxwell finished paying, you stepped out of the dressing room wearing a white blouse tucked into a brown suede skirt. Of course you were still wearing your gladiator sandals, but they practically completed the look.

“You look… wow.” Maxwell exclaimed.

“Now it gets warm out there so here!” Belinda exclaimed, propping a pair of sunglasses on your head. “To protect your eyes!”

“You really look amazing.” Maxwell said, completely entranced by you. His gaze hadn’t left your body once.

“Thank you Max,” you hummed in delight. “I like it a lot.”

“Good,” he whispered, shaking his head in disbelief. You really were the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Belinda awkwardly cleared her throat, breaking the silence. “Right uh- thanks a lot for everything Belinda. But we better be going.”

“No problem dear,” Belinda waved cheerily. “Have a great day my darlings!”

You slid back into the passenger seat of Maxwell’s car and watched as he put his own sunglasses on. You smiled and copied, letting the brown tinted glasses fall to the bridge of your nose. “These are cool.” you beamed.

“Yeah, they look good.” Maxwell complimented as he set off to the Smithsonian.

Luckily for the both of you, Maxwell spotted Diana when he first entered the lobby of the building. Just in case of being noticed (which he usually thrived in attention), he kept his sunglasses on. He couldn’t risk being arrested for his previous actions at the museum. Diana was dressed in a royal blue pant suit, her dark brown hair curled perfectly and bouncing off her shoulders. Her eyes sparkled like diamonds and she hadn’t aged a day since you last saw her on Themyscira.

“Diana!” you called, waving your hands ecstatically. Diana recognised your voice and her head snapped in your direction, her jaw parting in shock when she saw you. She questioned your name out loud, but she knew it was you.

“Oh my goodness!” Diana cried, enveloping you into a hug. Maxwell stood a few feet behind you, rocking backwards and forwards anxiously. “What are you doing here?” She smiled, holding your hands and giving them a squeeze.

“I had my calling!” You revealed.

“I am so happy to hear that,” Diana grinned. “So who brought you the world of man?”

“A man, actually,” you laughed at the irony. “A man you might know. Uhm- Max Lord?”

Diana’s smile fell but her face softened when she saw Maxwell. “Ah yes, I’ve made his acquaintance.” She said, her voice vague and emotionless. Her glance flicked between you both.

“Hi Diana.” Maxwell waved shyly.

“How have you been?” Diana asked Maxwell, taking a few steps towards him.

“It’s been difficult, but I’m managing,” Maxwell admitted, hiding his face. “Listen, I never got the chance to thank you.”

“Don’t think anything of it,” Diana smiled. “Water under the bridge.” she promised before turning back to you. “Did you come to the museum to see me?”

“Yes, we did,” you sighed. “There’s another dreamstone out there and it is my duty from my mother to find it and destroy it. Otherwise, it could be responsible for society’s future collapse. History is known to repeat itself. If someone gets their hand on Dolos’ dreamstone, just like Max did, the same thing could happen.”

“I know all about it,” Diana frowned. “And I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been searching for the stone itself and I’ve found out it’s located in a secret cave, in Athens, Greece. If you want the stone, you’ll have to travel there.”

“Is it far?” you asked, not liking the sounds of the proposition.

“Unfortunately, yes. We’d have to get a flight.” Maxwell notified you.

“I’m going to Athens too,” Diana informed you. “I can take you to the cave.”

“You’d do that?” you smiled graciously. “What are you going to Athens for?”

“The sword of Athena,” she exhaled. “There’s a terrible war going on and if I want to save the world from Ares again, I’m going to need that sword. Do you still have the lasso of Hestia?”

“I do.” you confirmed.

“Good, hold onto it. The lasso contains the power of the truth, and by destroying Dolos’ stone, you will be destroying the God of Lies. You can only destroy the stone with the truth. But Max knows all about that…” Diana trailed off, peeking back at Maxwell.

“Thank you Diana,” you smiled courteously and Diana nodded. “Will you be taking a flight with us?”

“I have to stay late at the Smithsonian tonight, so I’ll catch up with you in Athens tomorrow. I’ll find you, don’t worry.”

“Would you like us to get your plane tickets?” Maxwell asked, thinking it was the least he could do for Diana.

“That’s okay. I’ve recently learned I have my own way of flying.” She smirked and you smiled back knowingly. Maxwell just furrowed his eyebrows in bewilderment. Everything about this interaction made him confused and uncomfortable.

“Before we leave for the airport,” Maxwell spoke up, clearing his throat. “I have something to ask you, Diana.” “Yes?”

“No one has mentioned the broadcast to me.” Maxwell started but then stopped, feeling as though his words explained enough.

“I know.” Diana replied with a small nod.

“You know?” Maxwell quizzed.

“When I renounced my wish, Steve disappeared. I lost him again. But this morning, on my way to work, I ran into the man who possessed Steve’s body and we spoke for a short while. It’s like he never even knew me. Like we had never even met. He didn’t remember me. He didn’t know me. It was like… none of it ever happened.”

“What does that mean? Everyone who renounced their wish has forgotten?”

“Almost. When you renounced your wish, the world reverted back to the way it was before Romulus possessed you.” Diana explained and Maxwell couldn’t believe it.

“That doesn’t make sense. So I get away with all of this without consequence? That’s not fair.”

“I think your consequence lies in your fate with Alistair.” Diana frowned sadly and Maxwell’s heart sank into the depths of his chest.

“No,” You shook your head profusely, interrupting their conversation. “Nothing bad is going to happen between Alistair and Max. I’m here to make sure that they stay together,” you turned to Maxwell and held his hand. “Julianna won’t split you apart. I mean it. I won’t let it happen.”

Maxwell let go off your hands and they dropped by your sides. “I’m going to wait by the car. I need some air.” Maxwell choked as anxious tears threatened to spill from his eyes. You nodded understandingly and watched as he sauntered out of the Smithsonian.

“I’m sorry to hear about Steve,” you whispered after a few moments of silence. You turned back to Diana, the princess of Themyscira. “I can’t imagine how it must feel to lose the love of your life. If I lost Max-”

Diana’s eyes widened and she stuck her hand out. “What?”

“W-what?” you repeated, realising what you had just said and immediately trying to figure out a way to retract it.

“You just implied that Max Lord is the love of your-”

“Don’t say it.” You begged.

“-Life.” Diana finished and you gasped. Hearing the words come from her only validated your feelings even more.

It was true. She was right. You were in love with Maxwell Lord.

Taglists - let me know if you wish to be added!

Permanent: @supernaturalgirl @phoenixhalliwell @ah-callie @luvzoria @stardust-galaxies @wickedfrsgrl @goth-topic @nerdypinupcrystal @wonderfulfluffer @kiwi-the-first @pedroepascal @castiel-barnes @honeymandos @rocketqueen @ladycumberbatchofcamelot @dybalalover10 @girl-obsessed-with-things @elena-myth @moth-guillotine @pedro-pascal-love @hayley-the-comet @pinkninja190 @maxiarapamaya @autumnleaves1991-blog @artsymaddie @harrys-stan @kennedywxlsh @cripplingmoon @cheekygeek05 @mrschiltoncat

I Believe In Love: @thebloodrobin @greatvaluedazzler @bxxbxy @marydjarin @the-feckless-wonder @typicalnerd98 @biharryjames @thwiso @pedrolorian @julieteagk @starsandmando @kishie8 @supernaturalcat7 @depressedchillipepper @galaxypox @cocastyle @welcometothepedroverse @galactic-rhi @honestlystop @walkerchick007 @winchesterxxi @synystersilenceinblacknwhite @why-cant-i-hold-all-my-husbanda @criminalmind1927 @seasonschange-butpeopledont @lola-max-sugar @thesadvampire @wonder-jedi @eternallyvenus @way-too-addicted-to-anime @spacedaddydinn

#maxwell lord #max lord #max lord x reader #maxwell lord x reader #pedro pascal #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal series

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yungidreamer · 4 years ago

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Aesthetic tag game

tagged by @seoultraveller

rules: bold the aesthetics you relate to and add twenty of your own aesthetic qualities for others to bold.

i’m tagging @uncommoncold @twancingyunhoe @luthenia and whoever else wants to do it. if you like this, i think you should just totally jump in and do it!! (NO OBLIGATION TO DO THIS!)

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taeheyhey · 6 years ago

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Chapter 3 - Does This Make Sense?

Taehyung x Reader - Fluff/Angst/Future Smut - 2.4K words

A/N - Welcome to chapter 3! I really hope those of you that see this are enjoying it so far, there is a lot more of this to come yet and I would really like to know if I should continue posting/editing it on here or if I should move on to another fic, please let me know, I would love to hear from you guys!

As far as the use of language in this story goes, here is how I have formatted it: Dialogue in italics is (probably poorly) Romanised Korean, and will usually be used when an English speaking character can hear a word or words being said but may not necessarily understand.Dialogue in bold is when two or more characters are speaking to one another in Korean.

Thank you again for the love, I get all giddy when a notification pops up!!! ☺

Chapter One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ Eight ~ Nine ~ Ten ~ Eleven ~ Twelve ~ Thirteen ~ Fourteen ~ Fifteen ~ Sixteen ~ Seventeen ~ Eighteen ~ Nineteen ~ Twenty ~ Twenty-One ~ Twenty-Two

You stood staring dumbly at the door he just walked out of, before touching your fingers to your lips. How on earth had your night turned out like this? Earlier that evening, just the thought of getting a quick glimpse of the upper floors seemed like such a welcome diversion to the inevitable unpleasantness you were on your way to experiencing in the restaurant. Now you were faced with the very real prospect of sleeping in one of the luxurious suites on the very top floor with the most attractive person you had ever laid eyes on.

Okay, not sleeping with him... right? That would be...no. Why had that suddenly popped in to your head? You laughed nervously to yourself, dropping your fingers from your lips and smoothing down imaginary creases out of your dress, recoiling slightly as your hand brushed over the still-damp wine stain at your thigh.

What exactly was going on here? He’d been kind to you and made you laugh and was being all chivalrous, but why? As much as you felt something drawing you to him, he had no reason at all to want to help you. And that kiss...

Your mind drifted back to the feel of his large, warm hand engulfing yours and the palpable tension in the lift after he dragged you back to stand beside him, avoiding your eyes, exuding apprehension in spite of his bold actions. Then later, the same hand squeezing your hip as his lips moved hotly over yours.

You shook yourself free from your thoughts, rubbing your hand over your face in an effort to regain some sort of equilibrium. You walked towards the room you saw him emerge from earlier with the first aid kit, hoping that splashing your face with cold water would clear your mind some.

As the light from above the mirror illuminated the bathroom you were confronted by the largest collection of beauty products you had ever seen outside of a pharmacy. You were fairly certain you hadn’t owned this much cleansing, toning and/or moisturising paraphernalia in your whole life, never mind at any one time. Weirdly, towards the back of the sink, there was a cartoonish-looking pink spotted towelling headband decorated with a bow.

Without thinking too much about it – not over-thinking things seemingly the theme of the latter part of your evening – you used the headband to push your hair back from your face and began to examine some of the many bottles littering the sink's surface. You were unable to read some of the writing on the bottles, were they Korean characters? You had recognised the patterns of the letters from the paper face masks your best friend, Hannah, always ordered off the internet and made you wear when you had a night in together. She swore by them, and they always felt nice, but you just couldn’t get over the vaguely serial killer-esque appearance they gave you.

Overwhelmed by choice and concerned you may end up rubbing some kind of foot cream in to your face by mistake, you decided it would be best to just stick to what you knew, unwrapping the hotel soap and rubbing it between your palms beneath the flowing water in order to wash your make up off. As you leaned your face closer to the mirror, you were dismayed to see the dark circles under your red-rimmed eyes.

You groaned as you realised you needed to make a decision about where you were going to sleep tonight. You felt a pang of guilt when you realised how much you wanted to stay here with Taehyung, and then cursed at yourself. After the events of that evening, you rationalised that there was nothing for you to feel guilty about.

Decision made, you pulled your dress over your head and changed in to the shirt and shorts that he had brought out for you. Draping your dress over the back of a wooden chair by the window, you pulled the cord to open the blinds and felt vertigo wash over you as you saw for the first time just how high up you actually were. The lights from the buildings and roads for miles around twinkled up at you like a million multi-coloured stars, and you were stuck by how magical it looked. You considered again the strange turn of events of the evening.

Suddenly overcome with fatigue, you exhaled deeply and returned to the couch, resting on to the plush cushions and leaning your head against the back, your eyes drifting closed.

~~~

That was how Taehyung found you when he returned not long after. Holding your bag in his right hand, he gently pushed the room door closed with his left, not wanting to jolt you awake. He did a double take at his headband which had shifted down your face, obscuring one closed eye, and he smiled indulgently at how childlike you appeared in sleep.

Walking over to the couch, he placed one arm lightly around your shoulders to support your weight and he used the other to lift your legs from the floor, rotating you around in order to lay you down across the cushions. Sitting on the floor by your head, he pushed the pink material back up your forehead, a soft laugh leaving him in a breath as your nose twitched a little at the sensation.

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little disappointed that you weren’t awake as he returned, but he reasoned you had had a long night and he wasn’t entirely sure how he expected the evening to progress anyway. Prone to acts of spontaneity in general, he had to admit that he didn’t exactly think the whole situation though, but you had seemed unconcerned and willing to go with it.

He hadn’t felt that strange fluttering in the pit of his stomach since long before his debut, not since the clever girl with the glasses he'd liked at his middle school, that – even with all his popularity – Taehyung had been too shy to speak to. Back then he made up endless scenarios and possible eventualities of what might happen if he built up the courage to confess to her, and the regret from never acting on it had troubled him for a long time after he had graduated and she’d moved to Canada with her family.

That same feeling encompassed him when he saw you for the second time, walking in to the restaurant in your pretty blue dress, a strange disappointment settling in him as you sat opposite the man whose dress sense had impressed him previously. He felt a little guilty for being relieved when the man left, but surely he hadn’t misread the way you had looked at him. You felt something too, there was no mistaking it, and as irrational as it was he didn’t want to deal with what-ifs for an unknown length of time. He couldn’t place why precisely he felt such a connection to you, even with the difference in language. Maybe it felt all the more visceral because of that, rather than in spite of it.

He was shaken from his musings once again by the sound of a phone, your phone to be specific. So as not to disturb you, Taehyung opened your bag and pulled out the handset, grimacing slightly when he saw a photo of the man from earlier fill up the screen as it rang, with the name Mark displayed in the middle of his forehead. He still had no idea of what had transpired between the two of you, but he made an educated assumption that you most likely didn’t want to be woken to speak to 'Mark'. He put your ringer on silent, and placed your phone on the table by the television next to the first aid kit on his way to the bedroom to fetch a cover for you before crawling in to bed himself, testing out your name on his lips with a smile before sleep finally took him.

~~~

Jimin stood in the doorway of the suite, trying to make sense of the fact that there was a girl fast asleep on a sofa in his best friend’s hotel room. None of the possibilities he was able to come up with made the slightest bit of sense, and he wondered momentarily if he should go and get the manager from his room.

He had also struggled to amuse himself without the others the night before, and had responded more or less instantly to Taehyung’s message to the group chat, hoping it would lead to a video call so he could laugh at his friend’s silly faces and wild commentary on nothing in particular.

After 45 minutes had passed, he had given up waiting and decided to take advantage of his solitude by treating himself to an early night. He resolved to take a taxi over to see him in the morning, their respective hotels thankfully being in the same part of the city. Taehyung was usually one of the last of the members to be able to drag himself out of bed, and Jimin decided he would wake him in his favourite way – by launching himself noisily on to his bed and attacking him until he woke – as punishment for his boredom the previous evening.

If it weren’t for the fact that Taehyung had given him the additional room card he was given upon check in – as was their usual arrangement – he would have sworn he was in the wrong room. There was also the fact that the girl in question was wearing that ridiculous pink headband that was unmistakably his friend’s.

“Jimin-ah, what are you doing here?” Taehyung walked out of the bathroom, a towel draped around his shoulders catching drips from his wet hair and his toothbrush clenched between his teeth on one side of his mouth as he greeted his friend as quietly as possible given his surprise.

Without looking away from your sleeping form, his eyebrows drew close in a clear display of his confusion. “You’re up? I thought it was weird when you didn’t reply last night,” he finally turned to face his friend with a wry smile. “Is this why Taehyung-ie? You were doing...something else?” Jimin wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Taehyung rolled his eyes and pulled a reluctant Jimin in to the bathroom with him while he finished up brushing his teeth. The black-haired man stood examining his friends face in the mirror, noticing his strange expression. “What happened? Who is she?”

How could he begin to explain the series of events that led to you being in his room? The short version was that he had literally dragged you up here after seeing you fight with your...what? Your boyfriend? That he had kissed you after barely exchanging ten words with you? And that had you not fallen asleep he didn’t know exactly how far he would have let things go?

“I met her last night, she’s really...nice.” Well, you certainly seemed nice. It was sort of hard to tell when he only really understood 20% of what you said, and you understood absolutely nothing from his language.

Jimin took a breath before asking the same question that was always posed whenever any of the members interacted with a girl for the first time. “Does she know who you are?”

He sighed in response. He knew Jimin was only asking as a concerned friend, but the almost standardised question only served to remind Taehyung of the potential ramifications of him allowing the human side of him to control his actions, rather than the PR-friendly-idol side he had spent years cultivating with the help of a massive team of people.

“We need to be careful Taehyung-ah, that’s all. It’s getting more difficult to keep a low profile.”

There were times where Jimin honestly thought that his bandmate was one of the wisest people he had ever met. He just always seemed so self aware, despite how his outward behaviour had a tendency to make other people believe otherwise. Other times however, he worried Taehyung acted so much on whimsy that it would end up hurting him in the long run. He had never known him to bring a girl back to his room before though, and it had thrown him off. He tried to change tack as he saw the younger of the two rest his hands on the counter surrounding the sink, his eyes fixed low without really focusing on anything.

“She doesn’t know who we are. I’m sure.” He chewed on his bottom lip as he contemplated how much he should say. “I...kissed her” he confessed as one side of his mouth quirked up at the memory, recalling the look in your eyes as he leant down to meet your lips.

At this revelation, Jimin’s mood shifted back to playful and he clapped his hand on to his shoulder, once again just two young men in their twenties talking about girls. “Wow, this guy. You’re blushing!” The tense moment over, Jimin laughed and Taehyung joined in a second later, the former changing the conversation to a much more familiar topic. “I’m hungry, what is the food like here? Shall we have breakfast?”

Taehyung couldn’t remember what the food was like, he had been too engrossed in watching you. He didn’t tell Jimin that, settling for a non-committal answer instead. “It’s not bad. Let me leave a note for y/n in case she wakes up.”

“Y/N is it? Ah, I’m so impressed!” He teased again.

Taehyung chose not to respond but he smiled widely despite himself as he used the hotel stationery to leave you a message. “How do you write 'breakfast' in English again?” He hoped you would come and join them, so Jimin could see for himself how impossible it would have been for him to just let you go back to your own room, to just forget about the strangely beautiful moment that had passed between you. He wanted to make sure he wasn't imagining the way you looked at him.

Not long after, the note was complete and placed on the arm of the couch at your feet. The two young men left the room, Jimin wondering aloud just how he managed to talk you in to coming up to his room, having only the most basic grasp of your language. Once again, he found himself in absolute awe of Taehyung’s charisma, but carried on teasing him mercilessly all the way down to the restaurant, overjoyed to be able to see his dearest friend blush over a pretty girl for perhaps the first time he'd known him, and he found himself sincerely hoping that you were as delightful as Taehyung very clearly thought you were.

#bts smut #taehyung smut #taehyung fluff #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #bts v #bts kim taehyung #v fanfic #kim taehyung #bts fluff

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voleuxe · 7 years ago

Text

LAYER 001 : THE OUTSIDE.

NAME. Ludivine Rose Alexander / Lucy Renee Caldwell

EYE COLOR. Hazel, on the golden-brown end of things.

HAIR STYLE / COLOR. Chocolate brown, falls in natural loose waves down between her shoulder blades, often styled with added curls to accentuate the natural waves & she wears it loose a lot in her daytime tasks; favors a single braid down the center when she needs it out of her face, though will sometimes opt for a high ponytail instead. Styling it for events is like a whole event in itself for her, she goes all out (fancy twists, hair acessories, etc.)

HEIGHT. 5′8″.

CLOTHING STYLE. In a nutshell, expensive. She was raised with that in-the-limelight (albeit not full fame, just significant notoriety) and is therefore fairly appearance-conscious, i.e. knowing that one “down day” can have people questioning your abilities, especially if you’re a woman. ((Don’t get her started on that double standard. She plays by the rules most of the time with it, but absolutely despises how the focus of her efforts can be totally ignored in favor of her wardrobe. The worst part is that she does, for the most part, enjoy fancy dress --it’s more or less her artistic outlet-- but the whole Thing around it and how it affects the perception of her effectiveness as a leader is supremely irritating for her.)) She favors understated jewelry most of the time, though has been known to go big with necklaces now and then.

All that said, she’s also a sucker for a good t-shirt/jeans combo. She will ‘borrow’ your shirt given the opportunity.

BEST PHYSICAL FEATURE. Tossup for eyes/smile.

LAYER 002 : THE INSIDE.

HER FEARS. Betrayal, isolation (being left all alone), and... this just occurred to me but failure, really. Not because it would mean losing her nice things or anything, but because it’s like...this has been her whole life, if she can’t succeed at holding this life together, then...

HER GUILTY PLEASURE. Revenge. There’s some darker piece of her heart that takes genuine joy in being able to pay someone back for pain and disaster they’ve caused, and she’s not particularly comfortable with the moments in her life when that facet has caught the light in full.

HER BIGGEST PET PEEVE. Dismissal and disrespect. Everyone has something to offer, who are you to shut her or anyone else down?

HER AMBITIONS FOR THE FUTURE. To form and maintain positive relationships, to ‘prove’ herself to others, to honor and defend her family & pride, to gain love, to eliminate hardship and suffering in others, to seek ‘adventure’. (And if all of that sounds a little goalless it’s because...I mean, she’s at the top of the chain in her life right now, it’s really more of maintaining at this point, fixing what doesn’t work and otherwise just holding your ground. Staying power.((Not getting bored.)))

LAYER 003 : THOUGHTS.

HER FIRST THOUGHTS WAKING UP. Nothing super coherent but a lot of vague grumpiness. She’s not really a morning person (mostly because she’s got the whole doble-schedule thing going. Lots of late nights.)

WHAT SHE THINKS ABOUT MOST. I... don’t know? It’s actually really uncommon for her to have super regular patterns in any aspect of her life (aside from like, going to work daily) so the idea of recurring/persistent thoughts is..equally unlikely I think? She’s really in-the-moment in general -- her thoughts circle around what’s happening, so if she avoids doing too much of the same thing it stands to reason she wouldn’t be thinking too much about the same things either. (Which is probably good because if she didn’t she’d probably linger a lot over her brother and I...may have a mean-ish plot about that soon.)

WHAT SHE THINKS ABOUT BEFORE BED. The events of the day. It’s just like a decompression thing, helps her order what’s going on and keep track of what needs keeping.

SHE THINKS HER BEST QUALITY IS. Loyalty. Or maybe determination. She’s very proud of herself in general, really.

LAYER 004 : WHAT’S BETTER ?

SINGLE OR GROUP DATES. Single.

TO BE LOVED OR RESPECTED. Respected (she was very specific; “Love is valuable, but if you don’t have respect for the people you love you’re not honoring it.”)

BEAUTY OR BRAINS. "Either one without a soul is wasted.” (Again, very specific about this. I don’t think she likes the questions.)

DOGS OR CATS. (No preference.)

LAYER 005 : DOES SHE…

LIE. Constantly. Mostly by omission, but directly as well. It’s worth noting, her lies are almost always in the name of maintaining her double life. She won’t lie about 'what matters’ - though, that can be a difficult line to define. In any case, she may lie but she won’t double cross you.

EDIT: I’m like three days later with this but I needed to say that in cases with people who already know about her double standing ( @reapxrs , Emery @siondacait , and people in her life like Chris & Mallory, etc.), or whom she would have no reason to hide from them ( like @talktoten ) she doesn’t lie very often if at all. Given the chance, she wants to be honest with you, it’s really just the matter of caution and wisdom that she must. ((And she..really almost wasn’t ever given the choice not to lead a double life, really. Given, you can argue she could come clean and stop living the way she does but... pft.))

BELIEVE IN HERSELF. Yes.

BELIEVE IN LOVE. Yes.

WANT SOMEONE. ‘Main’ verse (aka “canon” if I ever put her down in a book) would puther in a relationship with Chris, so No in that regard, but when it comes to platonic relationships the answer is always, always yes.

And in the case of being multi-verse/not really having a set in stone story because RP is naturally fluid, she’s not really ever actively looking, but if there was chemistry and moments and flirting (for the love of god, so much flirting, I hate her) then it’s not something she’d snub either.

LAYER 006 : HAS SHE EVER…

BEEN ON STAGE. Yes.

DONE DRUGS. Yes. (Not with intent. (Although realistically alcohol is a drug so on that front I guess it’s technically still yes..))

CHANGED WHO SHE WAS TO FIT IN. Not to fit in, per se, but to try and reach the (impossible) standards of a former mentor, yes. She has tried to be a much colder, detached version of herself several times, in fact, searching for her belonging in her family history and her brother’s syndicate, but really can’t manage it any more than it fools anyone.

LAYER 007 : FAVORITES.

FAVORITE COLOUR. Soft pinks and rich golds, and, honestly, just about anything shimmery.

FAVORITE ANIMAL. No generic favorite animal, but bias intact her dog Delilah and her cat Sampson are her favorite animals. She loves them equally, she will not pick between them.

FAVORITE BOOK. ??? (I cannot, for the life of me, figure this out. It’s on so many character questionnaires but she either doesn’t have one or simply refuses to disclose it.)

FAVORITE GAME. ...Does sparring count as a game? In any case, fight her for fun. She loves that.

LAYER 008 : AGE.

DAY HER NEXT BIRTHDAY WILL BE. November 26th (a Monday this year, ew.)

HOW OLD WILL SHE BE. 24.

LAYER 009 : FINISH THE SENTENCE.

I LOVE my family.

I FEEL responsible.

I HIDE what I have to.

I MISS my brother.

I WISH to honor all that I can.

tagged by stolen from: @sampatii

tagging: Everyone. No one. (Steal it and @ me >:) )

#( destined & designed to be dangerous / study. )

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raygoodwinmajournal · 4 years ago

Photo

Epochal Territories Shoot #1 - 14/11/2020

Getting back into the swing of creating can be rather difficult when one doesn’t necessarily know where they are going. This is partly where I found myself when starting my MA, because I wasn’t all too sure where I was going to take my work and what would be appropriate for postgraduate study. Yet, there were a number of things that I knew for definite which was returning back to my older work of documenting urban landscapes and trying go evoke feelings of alienation, estrangement and the dichotomy of hypermodernity.

Epochal Territories is really a gestalt of our fast paced, instant gratifying and estranging society, which aims to deconstruct these notions and investigate how these banal and bleak landscapes can convey these feelings. This all goes back to researching Karl Marx and his theory of alienation, and its multifaceted aspects:

Product of Labour

Activity of Labour

One’s Own Self

Alienation from Others

Marx’s theory of alienation spans from these four aspects, which including being alienated from production, activity, oneself and others. For the purpose of my project, the final two are more centred around what I am conveying, which is the alienation from myself, as well as the people around me.

My own alienation stems from how I view the world: my weltanschauung. From my own personal views, I see the world through the lens with a certain causticity, where everything becomes rather estranging, whether that is how people use social media, using social media at all, the way we act, what we eat, how we travel, how we make money, what money is and how the world operates. What my photographs try to convey is this feeling of alienation. The way I can describe my work is the feeling of being stuck in traffic or seeing that the train is getting more and more delayed - the feeling of complete disappointment, malaise, listlessness and ennui.

Where we live is incredibly important. Our homes and where we live is where we spend a lot of time, building bonds, creating families and living our lives. Yet, looking inward towards the home is a different experience, especially when your home is on the brink of demolition to make way for brand new, upmarket houses in an attempt to gentrify a dilapidated and crime ridden low social class area.

The Talbot Gardens estate is just that kind of place. Situated in Barne Barton, Plymouth, Talbot Gardens is home to a number of multi-storey flats and apartments. The estate was largely built to house the large number of Naval workers for Devonport in the 1960′s, but as the numbers of workers dwindled, the estate was handed over to Plymouth City Council, and the Devon and Cornwall Housing Association. These buildings - even for me - are rather ugly and completely dilapidated and certainly a reminder of another time. The concrete is extremely dull, covered in water marks and remnants of people’s homes lays in the street, such as the fridge and bed above. The area did feel rather unsafe, with some local occupants of the buildings glaring as I wandered around the ghostly estate.

There was a certain spectrality of the estate, knowing it was going to be demolished in coming years in addition to the lack of noise of people. The weather as abysmal, with rain beating down on the concrete paths and the wind whipping up a fine mist of rain. The only cover to be had was the entrance to the flats, which contained a number of wooden doors akin to what you would find on a shed or an outhouse. The entrance did however sometimes act as a wind tunnel, firing a jet of cold, wet wind through the walkway.

Shooting the Talbot Gardens estate was fairly straight forward, and oddly enough for me shot digitally. I am trying to keep costs down and shoot film as little as possible, if not at all purely because of the costs. I don’t want to not shoot it, so I am trying to keep film usage to a minimum. I shot entirely on my Canon 5D and the wonderfully cheap and cheerful Yongnuo 35mm F2, which I have had a love/hate relationship with because it has been idiosyncratic in the past. Yet, since wearing glasses, I have a newfound respect for the lens as I can see properly how it renders the image, and it does it rather well! It is also a way for me to get used to the 35mm focal length. I am a stickler for a 50mm only way of shooting, but 35mm just is that little bit wider to incorporate more of the surroundings, and features a wider depth of field when stopped down.

Something I have wanted to do is shoot a project entirely in black and white, which is sometimes easier said than done. I feel that B&W is a lot harder to shoot, as not everything can work. It has a way of rendering a space timeless, and focusing more on the form rather than the reality of the place. This was seamless to do, as I have the ability to create colour presets on the 5D, despite it being 13 years old. I wanted a very specific look to my B&W, as I am not a fan of heavy contrast and weak dynamic range. For this, I created a preset in the camera to have low contrast, slightly more sharpness and the addition of an internal replication of a green filter to bring out some more shadow detail.

The B&W preset was initially a fluke, because I set the parameters to what I thought would be correct. Low and behold, they were exactly what I was looking for. The only issue is that when shooting RAW, the image is automatically colour but has to be converted when post-processing. This is easy to do simply by reducing the saturation to zero which reverts it back to B&W.

I always know when a shoot is going well when I can feel a level of alienation within a space. I knew I didn’t belong in this area, and that it was, in it’s entirety, out of place. I felt as if I shouldn’t have been there, and time seemed out of joint. There was something askew about wandering around a housing estate which is going to be demolished to make way for brand new homes which would be entirely out of reach to the general population of the occupants of the current Talbot Gardens. I get the feeling that the people who live here are of a lower social and economic class compared to what would be coming in the next number of years, which seems to come across as an eradication of lower class workers and benefit claimants.

On the opposite side of the estate is a row of new houses, as well two boarded up areas where a building used to stand before an arson attack, and where a play park used to be. There was something odd about these barricaded areas hiding these anonymous areas, filled with dirt and tiles. The mountains of earth tower over the barricades, and are over shadowed by the new builds looming in the background. These in themselves are out of place, because they don’t fit with the surrounding run-down aesthetic, but offer an insight to what the area will eventually look like. The crest turning to the left acts as a compositional piece that flows from the bottom and leads to the middle of the scene, with the houses acting as the middle point. I am trying to compose the photographs in a similar fashion, with the point of focus being from a similar point and keeping the composition consistent across the board.

Something intrigued me about the boat on the trailer, and acted as a perfect model to be situated in the middle of the frame, with the surrounding ephemera encompassing the rest of the scene. The completely bare trees add to the spectrality of the estate, acting rather ghostly in the frame. I feel that with the trees in full bloom wouldn’t be the same compared to them being bare in the winter drawl.

My favourite photograph from this shoot is an entrance to the previously mentioned barricaded anonymous spaces. The gates are badly put together, barely matching up and attached to the walls by threads. Behind the gate is a pile of interior tiles - many of which were fine - in addition to a number of other collective pieces of detritus. You can see the other mound of earth on the left of the image, which shows how much it towers of the walls. These mounds of earth are in fact made from the ground around where the building(s) were, which on closer inspection contain pieces of the property such as bricks, drywall and insulation. Once bundled together, they become mountains of earth and collective house bits.

A touch to the side of the previous image, looks towards the estate once again, but still includes the precarious gates and features an empty trailer which presumably would hold another motorboat. Something I like about this image is how the estate isn’t the main focus, but instead of the car park in the foreground, with the surrounding trees and the estate being slowly included in the background. I also like the tones of the B&W preset that I created, with the high dynamic range and a nice selection of greys and low contrast.

After the estate, I made my way down towards the River Tamar near the Tamar Bridge and the Royal Albert Bridge. I found this area rather odd, because only a stones throw away is Cornwall and you can walk underneath both of the famous bridges. Amongst the wealth of fishing vessels is a small play park which has a set of swings and a sit on digger which is operated by ones hands. I found the empty swings to be somewhat ominous, and rather out of place being only a few feet from the river bank, albeit protected by a wall and some fencing.

A coda. The first shoot of the newly named Epochal Territories was in my eyes a success. I have created some photographs that I thoroughly enjoy and gained some insight into what I want to create, and how I want to create it. Shooting digitally in a setting that wasn’t commercial was also odd to undertake, because I am used to shooting my personal project work on film. But saying that, I did enjoy using the 5D for something that isn’t for work, and with my glasses can appreciate more that this now ancient full frame DSLR can do - I am amazed at how good the 5D MKi can do now that I can see properly. It was also good to discover a new location, which is exactly what I need for this project. Something I tend to do is replicate shots and reuse locations which I don’t want to do, and with this project I would like to explore more places in Plymouth with either unknown places, or places that I haven’t visited in a long time.

Bibliography

Asher Horowitz (no date). [Online]. Available at http://www.yorku.ca/horowitz/courses/lectures/35_marx_alienation.html. [Accessed on 21/12/2020]

#101

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hydrus · 6 years ago

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Version 346

youtube

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a great week. There's a bunch of fixes and thumbnail improvements, a more powerful manage urls dialog, and a prototype OR search to try out.

thumbnails

Last week's big thumbnail change seems to have gone fairly well overall. There do not seem to be any huge errors anywhere, and the simpler file system and code is great, but I was annoyed by how slow certain regeneration scenarios turned out to be, and how some thumbnail resizes were a bit blurry.

To address this, this week I have cleaned and improved a bunch of thumbnail loading code. It was much nicer to do now I only have one thumbnail file to juggle. Thumbnails should now be a less blurry when they scale up, and they should generally load a bit faster whenever a lot of regenerations need to be done (you should notice CPU-expensive video thumbs load last of all, while easy ones like pdfs and pictures should come in first).

I was also annoyed that even small changes in desired thumbnail size would force a complete regen, which was particularly laggy when scaling up. So, to smooth out the loading time when you have recently changed the desired thumbnail resolution, I have added an experimental regeneration throttle. When the difference between what is available and what is desired is just a few pixels (and so a scale will not be too fuzzy), rather than regenerating from source, the client will now mostly just scale up or down what it already has. When the difference is great, it is more worth spending the CPU on a full regeneration to get a clear thumbnail, so it will regenerate more often. It still eventually regenerates everything, but when the difference is slight, the real workload will be spread over several loads. For some example numbers, if the thumb on your disk is 120x120 and your options want 125x125, the client will expensively regenerate from source only about 29% of the time and scale up the original 120x120 about 71% of the time. But 120x120 vs a desired 250x250 will regenerate/rescale about 84%/12% of the time. This is a big experiment, but I am generally pleased with it: it does speed up thumbnail load in many situations that were previously needlessly slow, and the relative fuzziness is generally not a noticeable problem. I hacked the percentage ratios out of some statistical polling that I can definitely tune in future, so please let me know if your situation produces too many very fuzzy thumbs.

Also, if you are in 'advanced mode', the thumbnail right-click menu now has more 'regenerate' options: as well as doing a complete file reparse and thumb regen, you can now choose to just regenerate thumbnails or only regenerate thumbs if their size is wrong. If you are an advanced user, please feel free to play with these new commands, particularly if you notice fuzzy thumbs from the throttle above, and let me know how it goes.

I expect to do more work on thumbs in the coming weeks. As well as tuning the new regeneration throttle, I would like to expand the new database-level thumbnail regeneration modes to work during maintenance time. I have long planned a 'file reparse' db maintenance mode so I can finally fix all the ancient mistaken animation frame counts and mime mismatches like apngs/pngs and mkvs/webms, and now this same maintenance command can also just do thumbs, I would love to let users say 'please regen all thumbs that are the wrong size in the background during idle time, no more than 20mins/day'. There's no reason why this stuff should be only on command for advanced users, so now I need to build the maintenance structure for it.

I'd also like to extend the current thumbnail location override under migrate database to work just like the files, so you can balance thumbnails over multiple weighted locations.

Linux and OS X users: You may not have received an error, but it is decently likely that last week's 'rxx' folder delete did not work for you. This was due to a permissions-setting mistake on my end. I have fixed this permissions code, and on this 346 update, if you still have some rxx folders in your db, the client will attempt to re-do the delete. If it wants to do this, it will give you another popup message as you update, informing you of the situation before it goes ahead.

or search

Several things came together this week, and I managed to get an early prototype of OR search working completely. I am keen to get users' thoughts on how to finish it off.

To start an OR search, hold down shift when you enter a tag in a search page. Rather than adding this tag to a search, it will now place it in a new box just above the input box. Further shift-enter actions will increase the OR 'chain', making 'tag A OR tag B OR tag c', and a final non-shift enter will cap the chain and send the OR search predicate up to the main search. It works! You can even add system predicates!

However, this entry method is not finished. Have a play with it and you will see what I mean. There is no neat way to cap off an OR chain early (i.e. without typing anything new: if you hit a bare enter on it, you'll get system:everything or system:inbox on the end), nor to 'go back one' if you put the wrong tag in. Also, system predicates that need additional panel infomation before 'going through' do not hold on to the shift status. Beyond the bugs, I am interested in what you would like for the workflow here--would you rather the OR-chain under creation be inserted as the top item in the list below, rather than in the new box above? Should it be highlighted as under construction somehow? Should it have a dangling OR while under construction, such as 'blue eyes OR green eyes OR' rather than 'blue eyes OR green eyes'? How should it be cancelled, or undone a step? What would be the best way to say 'ok, I have A OR B OR C entered, and I don't have a D to add, so I want to enter what I have now'?

the rest

I made two more stupid errors last week--one that draws white frames over animations on certain media update events, and one that occaisonally set the 'include current tags' value on search pages to 'false' on reloads. I have fixed both of these issues, and as a one-time for this update, all 'include current tags' values are forced back to true. I am sorry for the inconvenience here. The white frame stuff drove me nuts all week.

Beyond that, I extended the 'manage urls' dialog to support multiple thumbnail selections, which allows for easy mass-deletion of bad URLs. The URL list on this dialog also now supports multi-selection and accepts the delete key. It also supports adding URLs to multiple files, but when opened on multiple files it presents a little red-text warning to remind you that adding a URL to multiple files only makes sense for gallery URLs. I expect to do a little more work on this in future, cleaning the workflow a little more and detecting the url class of urls you attempt to add to multiple files, specifically testing what is and is not appropriate to add. In any case, like everything else this week, please give it ago and let me know how it works for you!

Also, the 'move files now' button on database->migrate database now lets you limit the max time it will run to 10/30/60 minutes! This is a nice stopgap if you, say, have 600,000 thumbnails to move and don't want to do it all at once.

full list

or search:

extended the search predicate object to handle more OR stuff

extended the tag list to handle list objects that have multiple colours

extended the new OR search predicate to report multiple text-snippet-and-colour pairs based on sub-predicates

extended tag search input to handle prototype OR predicate creation--hold shift when you enter the tag, and it'll start an OR chain. shift-enter continues the chain, enter alone completes it

fleshed out the predicate unit tests to cover more of this

wrote unit tests for OR search predicates. it seems good!

improved some search logic to apply system preds better in certain edge cases and spend less CPU on OR-search-only searches

thumbnails:

thumbnails will now queue for load in a more intelligent order based on estimated difficulty to regenerate, which will tend to put more thumbs on screen faster

the decision to regenerate a thumbnail from source is now tempered by how different the current thumbnail is from what is desired--the more similar the two sizes, the more (randomly) likely the client will decide to just use the current (resized) this time. this smooths out change-lag while limiting the number of really fuzzy thumbs you get. feedback on how this works IRL would be appreciated--it uses some voodoo distribution polling to figure it out, which I can definitely tweak

improved visual quality of thumbnail scale-up optimisations

fixed an issue where a multipage thumbnail grid would incorrectly recalculate the new virtual height after a thumbnail size change event, leading to a bit of invalid extra scrollspace (with noclip rendering errors) at the bottom

the thumbnail right-click menu's reparse files entry is now extended to a new 'regenerate' submenu with three options: reparse file and regen thumbs (the old action), force regen thumbs, and regen thumbs if wrong size!

the new 'regen if thumbs wrong size' action sends how many thumbs needed resize up to the popup window, as well

moved some old thumbnail regen code responsibility out of the db and into the files manager

cleaned out some old redundant file/thumbnail code

cleaned and refactored a bunch of general image handling and resizing code

the rest:

fixed some bad serialisation code that was making file search objects set their 'include current tags' value to false/true on interleaving loads. on this update, all 'include current tags' values are blanket reset to true

fixed an issue that was drawing animation canvases pure white on various media update events

extended manage urls dialog to support multiple files when launched from a selection of thumbnails. there is a warning in this case, noting that only gallery-style urls are appropriate to be added to multiple files

manage urls dialog now supports multiple selections, including shift-select, and accepts delete key presses for easy mass deletion

when you ask the database migration dialog to move some files, it now pops up a confirmation dialog that also asks if you would like to limit the max time for the job as 10, 30, or 60 minutes

improved file permission setting code across the program to be more sensible for non-Windows

if you are a non-Windows user and were hit with directory permission problems last week on the thumbnail update--which resulted in the rxx directories not being deleted--the update this week will attempt to do the delete again, this time correcting the now missing execute permission bit. if it finds outstanding rxx directories to delete, it will give a popup beforehand summarising the situation and giving you a chance to bail out

fixed yet another problem that was stopping client api url requests from finding the correct page by name

when a client api url request includes fixed tags, these tags should now propagate in all scenarios where the single url produces multiple files

updated sqlite dll and console for windows

misc fixes and cleanup

next week

Next week is a 'cleanup' week. I'll keep chipping away at the listctrl rewrite and other boring jobs, and I'll see if I can finish up the OR search entry workflow in a sane way.

Thanks everyone!

#release

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britesparc · 6 years ago

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Weekend Top Ten #360

Top Ten Favourite Things About the Xbox 360

Well wouldja lookit that. Three hundred and sixty of these silly top tens (tops ten?). I actually had a whole other list lined up, one that chimed with some relatively-recent news, but I've decided to bump it as I feel the synchronicity of 360 cannot go unnoticed. Sadly because the next two weeks are earmarked for other date-relevant lists, this means my once-contemporary tenner will be old news by the time all of you (both of you) get to read it.

But wait! What is this synchronicity of which I speak, that means “three sixty” must be secured for a specific ten of tops? Could it be erstwhile ITV post production facility, threesixty media, whose services I utilised for a decade whilst at CITV?

No, it’s the Xbox. It even says so at the top of the page.

Yes, the Xbox 360. In many ways probably my favourite console. Sure, it had its faults - I went through three of them due to red-ring meltdowns, and the beast was noisier than a rhino in a blender – but it was gorgeous, and for a little while there totally represented gaming for me.

Yeah, there was lots to love, and the protracted nature of the last console generation meant that it saw a lot of evolution in its lifetime. And, really, gaming in general changed quite a bit in the noughties, and the Xbox 360 was at the forefront of that in a lot of ways. Resurgent indie gaming, online, casual, micropayments, DLC, achievements, annual release schedules for triple-A franchises... the list goes on. Microsoft didn’t lead the way in all of those areas, but for most of the last generation they were light on their feet and quick to exploit shifting trends, and the 360 strongly benefited as a result (also Sony faceplanted pre-launch with the tone and price of the PlayStation 3, which also benefited Xbox hugely; how weird that the tables turned so utterly come the launches of PS4 and Xbox One). It felt like a landmark generation and the 360 was a landmark console and I loved it.

Anyway, here are my favourite things about it. Ten of then, not three hundred and sixty. That’d be daft.

The Look: at a time when the prevailing trend for consoles seemed to be fairly inoffensive black or grey lumps (the delightfully purple GameCube notwithstanding), Xbox 360 bucked the trend with a sleek and sexy white design, complete with subtle curves that echoed throughout the interface, and a natty chrome trim to the disc tray. It was different, it felt new, it felt simultaneously cool and friendly. It was more of a piece with Apple’s then-recent iMac redesign than anything you’d expect from as utilitarian a company as Microsoft. It made the 360 stand out from the crowd, and also helped differentiate it from the huge black number that was (eventually) the PS3.

The Controller: Halo: Combat Evolved was the original Xbox launch game, and it sold a lot of Xboxes. It was really the first game that made first-person shooters really work on console. Part of this was down to the beautifully handled sticks and triggers of the original Xbox pad. The controller was subsequently redesigned and evolved into what became the 360 pad: better trigger placement; shoulder buttons; even nicer sticks; a much-improved d-pad; and the famous Guide button, that with a press brought up a nifty UI overlay that allowed for chatting, achievement checking, and all manner of things, across all games. It was probably the best game controller of all time, and although it’s been refined and, I’d argue, improved by the Xbox One controller, there’s something revolutionary about the 360 design that always makes it feel stand-out.

Achievements: ah, yes. I mentioned them in passing just now, but really, the concept of cross-title points and awards might not necessarily have been Microsoft’s (I’m hazy on the details) but their implementation was a game-changer. Suddenly people were clamouring to find secrets, to beat the top scores, to better themselves in the games, because there was now a tangible reward, an icon, bragging rights associated with it. It fostered competition and – in the best cases – encouraged repeated playthroughs. I know that, for me, I set myself goals in certain games based on the achievements. It’s something to work towards beyond “just” playing the game, and it’s something I still do to this day, even after the lustre of Gamerscore glory has faded somewhat with time.

Gamertags: of course, Achievements would be nothing without your associated Gamertag. Obviously the idea of having a “handle” online was not new, but I know that when I played Quake III Arena or Counter-Strike on PC, I didn’t always keep to the same tag (I usually did, mind, as “britesparc” had been my default online identity for a while). But a persistent username, across all titles, with an associated score, rewards, settings (I’m still baffled as to how and why the Xbox One lost the ability to set a default controller preference for all games across your profile – now I have to invert look on each individual title, and it’s a massive pain!). This would be a strategy eventually adopted across the whole industry, and although I guess it’s fair to say that Steam had already sort-of got there, and even Microsoft themselves (as Gamertags were necessary in the early, OG Xbox-days of Xbox Live), your profile’s implementation on Xbox 360 was a massive step-up.

Xbox Live: what is an Xbox without Xbox Live? Again, it’s something that premiered on the original Xbox (although I never took advantage of it; I don’t think I had a broadband connection back then, to be honest) but it really came to fruition with the 360. A fully-integrated online environment with matchmaking and voice-chat built into the console itself, it offered the best of PC gaming in a convenient form-factor that slid under the telly. I played online much more on my 360 than on the PC, simply because it was a lot easier and more user-friendly. And that’s before we begin to factor in the creative decisions made when you knew your audience was always online: downloading patches, DLC, online-only games, a digital storefront… the fact that you automatically got access to all of that with the free “Silver” subscription was like a gateway drug to the actual “Gold” multiplayer bonus. The decision to charge for multiplayer access, whereas it was free on PS3, was a touch controversial, but the money was funnelled into better, faster matchmaking services, meaning the 360 became the go-to console for online gaming. Eventually Sony, and even Nintendo, followed suit.

Xbox Live Arcade: speaking of downloading… the idea of small, indie downloadable games – games that weren’t the usual full-3D physics-fests filled with explosions coloured lights and deformable terrain – was quietly revolutionary. Sure, the indie movement was already in full swing on PC, but here it was delivered, curated, advertised, cheap to purchase and ready to enjoy in bite-size chunks, on your telly-box. At the time I just wasn’t really aware of the scale of indie, retro, and homebrew gaming efforts, and it totally blew me away. It gave new developers a fantastic opportunity to showcase their wares, and – eventually – it offered a new lease of life to older games. Braid probably remains the big XBLA success story – both critically adored and financially hugely successful – but from ‘Splosion Man to Trials HD to Limbo to Castle Crashers, it was a jumping-off point for a bevvy of new franchises and developers. The fact that Hexic HD came pre-installed was a masterstroke: a brilliant game, of course, but also a terrific proof-of-concept for just what XBLA was.

Keeping it Casual: Microsoft, as usual, had its eye on Sony, and in many ways the 360 stole the PlayStation 2’s crown. What Microsoft didn’t bank on, however, was a resurgent Nintendo, who had one of their biggest successes ever with the Wii. It brought new audiences into the gaming fold (I’m still overjoyed at the memory of how angry my brother got when our dad totally trounced him at Bowling in Wii Sports; “But he doesn’t even like games!”). Microsoft leant into this, and whilst it’s arguable that they went too far and began to take their core audience for granted, they did a great job in making the Xbox 360 family-friendly. From some genuinely very good and user-friendly content settings to the raft of all-ages XBLA titles, right from the start the 360 was a good all-round console for the whole family. Games like Scene It? and Lips attempted to do for Xbox what Buzz! and SingStar did for PlayStation. But it was when they went full-tilt after the Wii market that they scored their biggest success and sowed the seeds for their biggest failure: Kinect. Billed as revolutionary, in truth it was mostly a very fun gimmick that struggled to fit inside mainstream gaming (nowhere near as comprehensively as Nintendo’s motion control did, at least); but all the same it was impressive tech for what it was, and some Kinect games – notably Rare’s Kinect Sports, but also Dance Central and the child-focused Sesame Street TV – did great things with the camera and were fun to play. I’d say that Microsoft’s commitment to casual and family gaming continues, but to be honest I feel like it’s become entrenched industry-wide now, and that remains a very good thing.

The Games: I guess this should be the top reason, shouldn’t it? But all consoles have good games. However, the 360 had some absolute belters. Halo 3 is probably, on balance, the best Halo. Fable II is one of my favourite games of all time. Crackdown is a delightful and wildly original blast. From solid blockbusters like the Gears of War trilogy to delightful curios like Viva Pinata, the depth of the Xbox 360’s library is phenomenal. And that’s before we get to the multi-format games like the Mass Effect trilogy, BioShock, the first two Batman: Arkham games, Red Dead Redemption, and many more… most of which performed better or felt otherwise “definitive” on Microsoft’s machine. The last generation was just incredible in terms of solid-gold masterpieces, and that’s before we mention the exclusives on other platforms (hello, Super Mario Galaxy). Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, there were some great games on the Xbox 360.

The Apps: as the 360 aged, more and more non-game applications became available for it. there were flirtations with things like Twitter, but really it was the media apps – Netflix, Amazon Video, Sky Go – that established the machine as a viable home entertainment hub. During its lifespan, the 360 went from “games machine” to “centre of the living room” as we evolved from consumers of scheduled entertainment to people who could pick and choose their media. As broadband speeds increased (during the time I had a 360 we went from a 1mb connection to 20mb) streaming became commonplace, and I seem to recall that by the time of the Xbox One’s release more people were using the 360 to watch Netflix than to play games. Amazing, really, when you think how noisy the bloody thing was. All the same, the non-game content on the 360 was a harbinger of things to come and a flower in Microsoft’s cap. Too bad that, like with Kinect, they misread the tea leaves and bet the farm on a gesture-controlled multimedia future.

The Evolution: the Xbox 360 in 2005 was markedly different from the Xbox 360 in 2013, when its successor console was released. Not just physically, although two hardware revisions meant it looked very different too; but software-wise, operationally, it was practically a new machine. The beloved “blades” interface – the UI mirroring the curves of the machine – had been replaced by the so-called “New Xbox Experience”, which brought friend management and multimedia apps to the foreground, as well as showcasing the new Xbox Avatars. These Avatars were somewhat controversial, but gave the 360 a refreshing and friendly kick up the bum, adding a degree of spice to games where you could now play “as you” (A Kingdom for Keflings, Joyride Turbo, etc), as well as offering new unlockable rewards or purchasable items in the form of Avatar clothes or accessories. The interface would then be further refined one more time before the console’s retirement, but this evolution was representative of Microsoft’s philosophy with Xbox at the time. they entered the generation as an also-ran; the OG Xbox was certainly powerful, and surprised many with the quality of its games, but it was almost a proof-of-concept console. They wanted the 360 to win, and although the broadside of the Wii meant it never managed to be market leader, it still – just about – beat PS3 into second place. They did this by changing with the times, nimbly adapting to an evolving market; offering increased casual focus, new control methods, peripherals, multimedia functionality… Microsoft did a great job of continuing to make the 360 feel relevant, to feel like an essential console, despite the technical superiority of the PS3 or the absolute juggernaut that was the Wii. Again, it’s true that their ability to divine the market abandoned them come the design and release of the Xbox One, but throughout its life the Xbox 360 remained a fantastic, ever-changing yet thoroughly constant console.

So there we go. Ten reasons why, to this day, I adore the Xbox 360. My relationship with console gaming came of age, and really it’s that generation where I moved from being a PC gamer to a console gamer (apart from Civilization, pretty much). So bravo, 360; we may never see your like again.

#top ten #xbox #xbox 360 #games #gaming #microsoft

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filtration-products · 7 years ago

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Burmese Tattoos

In this article I am not only writing about ‘Burmese tattoos’ but put this topic into the relevant historical and cultural context. Let us begin with our journey into the realm of tattoos.

What do you remember from or know about the year 1991? Not much? Let me help you to remember. It was the year in which the 1st Gulf War began, the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated and the Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Cape Canaveral to take Spacelab into the orbit. With respect to the topic of this article the most important event of the year 1991, was the discovery of ‘Oetzi’ the Iceman on 19 September 1991 in Europe. The extremely well preserved mummy was frozen in ice high on the glacier of the Fineilspitze, a mountain in the Austrian Alps on the Austrian/Tyrolean (Italian) border at a height of 10.530 ft/3.210 m.

Now I can clearly see the question marks in your eyes and hear your questions for what on earth so-called Burmese tattoos have to do with a place in Europe, 4.140 nautical miles/7.670 kilometres away from Burma and who for God’s sake Oetzi’, the Iceman’ is. Do not get impatient I will give you the answers right now; you will be surprised.

Firstly, I will tell you who or what Oetzi’ is. Oetzi’ is the nickname Oetzi, because he was found in the Oetztal Alps) given to a middle aged man (about 46 years old) who was most likely of higher status (he carried a copper axe with him what back then was a status symbol). His life found at some time between 3239 and 3105 BCE a violent end (because he was murdered) at the place where he (what is left of him) was found or in close vicinity to it. He (his mummy) is at the time of this writing some 5.300 years old and remains to this day a treasure trove of valuable information for scientists.

Now I will let you know what the connection between him and Burma is. ‘Oetzi’ is the so far oldest definite proof ever found that already in the copper age people wore tattoos because he had 61 of them spread over 19 parts (wrists, lower legs, lower back and chest, etc) of his body. Some sources speak of 49 tattoos, which was the first amount of tattoos that were found on him in 1991 when he was discovered. This number increased over time because more and more tattoos, which are sometimes barely visible against the dark background of the skin, were found. The last one was discovered in December 2015 what has increased the total count to 61.

Although there are connections in form of migrating and travelling people from Western Europe to central Europe Eastern Europe Russia and China (some mummies found in China are definitely Caucasian and Eurasian of European origin) I do by no means want to claim that the art of tattooing spread from Europe to Burma because it would – I think – be rather foolish to assume that tattooing originated at one specific place and started to spread throughout the world then and from there.

Archaeological findings that are hinting at the existence of tattoos have been reported from different places from all over the world what makes it more likely that at the very beginning tattooing started at different times and in different cultures independently from one another and spread from these regions and cultures into the respective neighbouring regions and cultures until there wasn’t any place on this planet left in which tattooing was not known and practised. No one will ever know how it really was but this is my idea of how it has most likely been.

Into regions and cultures that do nowadays belong to those that make up Burma (since 1989 also called Myanmar), tattooing was introduced long after it was already integral part of many cultures in other parts of the world.

I admit that at one time I have seriously contemplated getting a tattoo myself. I have, finally, decided against it for fear of health problems such as HIV and do not have one. The same goes for my wife, daughter and grandson (OK, the latter is still much too small to be tattooed). But otherwise I see them (the tattoos) every day. Everywhere and from morning to evening they are around me in all qualities and from unichrome to multi-coloured.

Burmese – especially men – without at least one tattoo are a very rare thing to see for tattoos are an integral part of what is called ‘Burmese Culture’ and are much treasured by the predominantly highly superstitious Burmese people. That is why I have decided to write an article on Burmese tattoos.

All I knew about tattoos when I decided to write about them was that a tattoo is a picture that is more or less artfully inserted into the skin. Believing that that was all with respect to tattoos I assumed that to write about them would not be a big deal, I was afraid even that I would not have enough stuff to fill a single page; far off the mark. To be sure, what I knew about tattoos was not wrong, but to think that was all that there is to know about it was. It was like believing that all that maths comprises of are the multiplication tables. Quickly I found out that there is much more to the topic ‘tattoo’ but, alas, only a few authentic, reliable and not easily to find sources (most of what you can see on the internet are plagiarism or copyright infringement) on the subject of tattoos and that tackling the topic ‘body art’ better known as ‘tattoo’ means to embark on a huge and vastly complex albeit tremendously interesting subject. Subsequently, this article isn’t meant to cover and explain everything about tattoos, tattooing and related matters. I will confine myself in this article to what I deem the minimum needed to cover the topic tattoos, in general, and ‘Burmese Tattoos’, in particular, as brief as possible and as detailed as necessary.

Let’s go back to the very beginning of the topic ‘tattoo’, shall we? To me the beginning means to, firstly, find answers to the general questions, which are when, where and why people started to get tattooed or to tattooing other people?

When did people begin to get tattooed or to have people tattooed?

Body modification in form of tattoos is proven to be an ancient art and the question for when and how tattooing really began is wide open to speculation and will never be answered. I agree with the assumption that most likely at the very beginning was an abrasion with a penetration of dirt that remained visible in the skin after the wound was healed. From this accidental result of an injury the art of tattooing developed; makes sense to me. The question for the time that is proving that people were tattooed we have already sufficiently answered in that we have identified ‘Oetzi’ the Iceman as the so far oldest known tattooed human being.

But this does not mean that there have not been tattoos in earlier cultures and that there are not older tattooed mummies waiting to be unearthed. However, all other at this time existing archaeological finds, such as bowls with remnants of pigments of black, blue and red pigments and small, pointed and sharp flint stone splinter, long needles made of fishbone and horn, etc. that could have been used for tattooing are mere evidence. These things that were discovered in different countries on different continents with some of them dating back even to before the last Great Ice Age (12.000 years ago or 9500 BC, the Neolithic Era) allow the hypothetical conclusion that tattooing has probably been known and practised already back then are as previously said mere evidence and no conclusive proof. Definite proof would require discovering tattoos on a mummified human body or at the very least a piece of preserved skin identified as human skin with a tattoo older than that of ‘Oetzi’.

Where did people begin to get tattooed?

The first proof of tattooed human beings and answer to the question where people most likely began to get tattooed or to tattoo people we do already have: it was on the European continent – more precisely phrased in the region of present days Austria and Italy as well as most probably in neighbouring countries – as irrefutably proven by ‘Oetzi’.

From later eras such as the times of the Persian Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Mongolian Empire, Chinese Dynasties and the South American Inca, Mayan and Aztecs Empires as well as all regions that these Empires included exists ample proof in form of whole mummies or parts of mummies that the respective cultures have been tattooing cultures.

Here are some examples. The mummified Ukok ‘princess’ found in Siberia is 2.500 years old, a 3.000 years old Egyptian female mummy was discovered close to the ‘Valley of the Kings’ and the remains of a 4.500 years old mummified woman have been found by archaeologists in northern Peru.

Around 2000 BC tattooing became a part of Chinese culture from where it spread all over mainland south-east Asia. Some of the earliest tattooed mummies from China that have been found on graveyards in the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang/west China date from about 2000 BC to 300 BC

Why did people start to get tattooed and tattoo other people?

From discovering that it is possible to insert permanent pictures into the skin to the development of tattooing as an art it was but a small step.

The meaning and symbolic of tattoos that developed over time do always and everywhere cover the same aspects of life physical as well as spiritual. That is why the purposes tattoos are serving are e.g. expression of feelings (love and hate), beautification, expression of physical strengths and/or magical power, ethnic identity (tribal membership, nationality), personal identity, social class and financial status, group membership (club, army, criminal organisation), religious affiliation and related symbols and/or texts, medical treatment (acupuncture), punishment or protection from sickness and/or daemons.

Before entering into the topic ‘Burmese Tattoos’ we should briefly deal with two more topics that belong to the rather general part of tattooing, namely the ink(s) used and techniques and methods applied.

Ink

One would think that tattoo ink is an ordinary writing/pen ink and comprises just like any other kind of ink pigments for different colours and liquid as solvent also called carrier. However, this is not quite so. The fact that it is possible (but for health reasons not recommendable) to make a tattoo with pan ink does not mean that there is no difference between pen ink and tattoo ink;. The most notable difference is that in contrast to writing ink/ for the colouring of which dyes are added to the carrier that distributes the ink evenly, tattoo ink is made of pigments (not dyes) to provide colours and carrier that is needed to smoothly inject the pigments into the dermis and have them there spread evenly.

Ancient/traditional tattoo inks did basically use to be a concoction of soot, carbon, calcium and lithium as pigments and water and/or other liquids such as alcohol as carrier. However, according to and depending on traditional recipes handed down from older generations, availability of natural (organic and inorganic) ingredients these were additionally added. Examples for this are barks from different trees, insect egg deposits, charcoal, metallic salts and albumin as pigment and breast milk (yes, breast milk!) and leek juice as carrier

The Different Tattooing Methods

Since ancient times mainly 3 different techniques/methods are applied in the process of tattooing, namely puncturing, piercing and cutting. What exactly is it that differentiates these three methods of body modification from one another? The answers to these questions are already more or less clearly recognisable in the names. In other words, the names are pretty much self-explanatory.

Puncturing

Puncturing refers to a technique in which a rake-like device and a stick are used as tools to puncture the skin. Protruding from the rake head’s underside are (up to 50!) sharp, thin and pointed needles made of different materials. The points of these needles, also called pins, are placed in a right angle on the skin that is stretched either with the help of the tattooer’s feet or an assistant. The upper side of the head is hit with the stick in rapid succession (several times per second) what drives the ink-dipped needle points vertically into the skin and out of the very hole made by being driven into the skin.

This is repeated thousands of times. During this process the rake is systematically moved in the directions needed to form the lines, fillings and shadings of the design. For lines of different thickness, fillings and shadings rakes with varying numbers and thicknesses of pins are used.

Piercing

Piercing refers to a technique in which an up to about 4 ft/122 cm long tapered rod also called tube made of brass, wood or bamboo is used as tattooing tool. The rod is equipped with either a needle-sharp tip or a pronged piece made of different materials at its front end. The handle side is adorned with a tattoo weight in form of a mythical being or magical figure such Mintha (a Burmese hero prince), Zawgyi (an alchemist with supernatural powers) or Belu (a demon). These tattoo weights are serving 2 purposes one of which being to give the forward thrust of the rod more force and the other to lend a good measure extra mythical power to the tattoo itself. The tattooing is performed in that the rod with the ink-dipped tip is while the tattooer (with his feet) or his assistant is stretching the skin fast and in an ongoing process (comparable with the movement of the needle of a sewing machine) at a 90 degrees angle to the skin moved back and forth thereby piercing the skin and injecting the tattoo ink into it.

Although different tools are used for puncturing (rod/tube) and piercing (rake and stick) the results are not so different.

Cutting

Cutting also called scratching or scraping, however, is a method that differs significantly from puncturing and piercing. As the name implies, the cutting method requires that up to 5 mm deep cuts are made literally ‘carving’ the tattoo into the skin,. Once the cuts are made the tattoo ink is rubbed in. This method does inflict excruciating pain on the tattooed what explains that the ‘cutting’ of tattoos is not merely seen as tattooing but moreover as an act of sacrificing.

Having a magic tattoo does by far not suffice to be for instance, protected from harm or have supernatural powers. In order to develop its magic powers to the full the tattooer needs to be a monk. This monk needs to say prayers during the tattooing process and does also need to blow onto the finished tattoo in order to activate its capabilities of performing magic tasks. The place of the tattoo is also of decisive importance. If, for instance, the snake tattoo is not placed on the ankle it will not protect you from snakebite.

Other tattooing methods are the Tebori technique, the methods applied by the Maoris on New Zealand (Maori Mask) and the method used by the in Alaska and Canada living Inuit tribes, which I mention here for the sake of completion without intending to further elaborate on them at this place and time.

At the outset of this chapter I want to make a quick excursion into Burma’s past because this will help you to better understand the following. I do often hear or read things such as ‘Tattoos have always had their place in Burmese culture ever since the Shans acquired the craft in Southern China, before bringing it to the Burmese’. Formulations like this or words to this effect testify to a severe lack of knowledge on the topic ‘Burmese History’ on the part of those writing or saying such things. Why is this so? This is so because it simply isn’t true, grossly misleading, to say the least. Let me explain; words like the a.m. create the impression that at the time in question (200 BC or hundreds of years thereafter) Burma and a Burmese Culture already existed. This is definitely not so. Why not? At the time that tattoos and the art of tattooing became part of the Shan culture the arrival of the first Burman in the region that is nowadays part of Burma was still more than 1.100 years away. When the Burmans arrived tattooing did already play an important role in the cultures of many different ethnicities that make up the population of what is nowadays Burma (since 1989 also called Myanmar). And, by the by, the Mon a once very powerful people with their mighty kingdoms in what is now south Burma and Thailand were also tattooing cultures long before the appearance of the first Burman. Keep in mind that at the times we are talking about neither Burma nor Thailand existed. What existed were the Mon kingdoms, the Pyu kingdoms and the Shan kingdoms.

The independent country Burma is only 68 years old (Myanmar as it is also called since 1989 only 27 years) thus Burma/Myanmar is a very young country and in the light of this it is not correct to speak of Burmese tattoos, let alone ancient Burmese tattoos or Burmese culture. What existed prior to 1948 (the year British Colonial Burma was granted independence from the British) was British Colonial Burma and before that several kingdoms such as the Mon kingdoms, the Pyu kingdoms, the Arakan kingdoms, Shan kingdoms, and several smaller and larger Bamar kingdoms. But for the sake of a better understanding I will continue calling it ‘Burmese culture’ and ‘Burmese tattoos’.

So let’s go back to our topic ‘Burmese Tattoos’. Prior to the answering of the question what exactly it is that makes so-called ‘Burmese Tattoos’ being ‘Burmese Tattoos’. The answer to this is: ‘beyond the fact that they are made in Burma and that some tattoos include or are confined to Burmese writing frighteningly little’. In other words, there is almost nothing typically Burmese about them. You may now say, ‘what, almost every Burmese is tattooed what goes especially for the males and there is no ‘Burmese tattoo?’ My answer is yes, there are many tattoos in Burma and if you find it OK to inadmissibly generalise things to the point of indiscriminately saying that everything in Burma with respect to tattoos and otherwise is Burmese then you can – although it is not correct – speak of ‘Burmese Tattoos’. However, I suggest you pay close attention to the historical facts I have mentioned at the beginning as well as to the following.

That the majority of the Burmese is tattooed does not mean that their tattoos are typical ‘Burmese-style tattoos’. The culture of the Bamar/Burman after which the country is named because they are the largest ethnic group here was not a tattooing culture when the Bamar arrived in present-day Burma but they adopted the art of tattooing from the already existing people and their cultures. That is to say, they had no own tattoos when they arrived and have not developed own distinctively Bamar/Burman tattoo styles and designs afterwards. And there is also no Burmese race i.e. a people of same stock with a common culture that could rightfully be called ‘Burmese culture’.

Burma is a country with a rich ethnic diversity and almost as of these ethnic minorities have their own tattoo designs to differentiate themselves from other tribes. This kind of tattoo are tribal tattoos and of these there many in Burma, but they are not ‘Burmese tattoos’. In Burma you have also a large number of Buddhist tattoos, animistic tattoos and a mixture thereof, but then again, these are not typical ‘Burmese-style tattoos’. Not enough examples? OK, here is one more. You also see a lot of ‘healing tattoos’ in Burma but they too are not uniquely Burmese because that kind of tattoos is like in any other tattooing culture using a combination of dots, stokes and lines on and within the system of acupuncture points. Again, there is nothing in the way of a ‘specifically Burmese design’.

You will have no problem to identify e.g. a Chinese tattoo as being Chinese and Japanese tattoo as being Japanese the instant you see them because of their highly distinctive designs and patterns but this is not so with so-called ‘Burmese tattoos’ because the Buddhist designs and pattern they are using are identical with those used in other Buddhist countries of southeast Asia and the Animist designs and patterns they are using are not perceivably different from those used in the neighbouring Buddhist countries and cultures of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Thus the ‘Burmese’ Buddhist tattoo is not bearing any distinctive mark not even in case script is part of the tattoo because the text will be in Pali.

However, there are highly interesting and decorative tattoo designs and pattern such as facial tattoos of the Chin tribes and pants tattoos of the Shan for which – although they too are not uniquely Burmese – Burma is still famous for. The facial tattoos are not made anymore because they are since 1962 forbidden by law and the pants tattoo lost its original function and became, ‘outdated’.

Although the facial tattoos are banned the Chin tribes kept on practicing their face tattooing tradition till the end of the 1990s and there are rumours that the law banning the facial tattoos is in remote rural areas still not always abided by. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the tradition of both facial and pants tattoos are on the brink of extinction. For this reason are the in their majority older members of Chin and Shan communities who are still proudly wearing these tattoos and are often living in remote villages in Arakan State (facial tattoos), Chin State (facial tattoos) and Shan State (pants tattoos) highly sought after as the last living pants and face tattooed generation by professional photographer, anthropologists, ethnologists and tourists.

I will in the following briefly describe the facial and pants tattoo designs, their origins and the tattooing processes. As for the latter I will, however, confine myself to the ‘technical’ part and not include other aspects such as the religious and ceremonial ones.

Pants Tattoos

Pants tattoos found their way into what was much, much later to become Burma from China through Laos the Shan.

The name of this tattoo design is self-explanatory as it describes a tattoo; more precisely phrased a series of tattoos that once ready is covering just like short pants do the entire skin area from slightly below the kneecaps upwards to the waist.

Tattooing is always a painful affair but pants and facial tattoos are those that belong into the category extremely painful, because they are (at least partly) placed on the human body’s most sensitive skin areas for which reason they cannot be completed within one single session. Also, in order to keep the perception of the near unbearable physical pain (especially when the highly sensitive areas of inner thighs, groin, genitals and buttocks are tattooed) best possible at bay praying and meditating alone did (or do) not suffice. For this reason the tattooed persons were allowed to smoke opium, what they did in considerable amounts.

The technique used by the tattooists was predominantly piercing with a smaller bamboo rod and the colour used for pants tattoos is exclusively a very dark, almost black, blue. The individual tattoo designs chosen to completely fill the ‘pants area’ vary can also be used as single/stand-alone design. Pants tattoos were the privilege of men.

First the design is part by part drawn on the skin and then tracing the lines of this the tattoo is applied with the inked tip of the rod. The final step of this is to gently rub the ink into the skin. The completion of a pant tattoo in traditional fashion takes depending on the tattooed person’s pain tolerance usually 2 or more sessions stretching over weeks (if not months for one has to include the healing times into the schedule). The tattooed is often accompanied by friends to stretch the skin and give moral support.

Tattoos that were known to take a longer time to complete were usually made during rainy season when no outside work can or needs to be done.

How intensive the pain inflicted during the process of tattooing and later during the healing process is. is definitely unimaginable and known only by those courageous men who already went through this ordeal.

It does certainly require a vast amount of courage, superstitiousness, willpower, religious belief and moral support to decide to voluntarily undergo the immensely painful procedure of getting oneself a pants tattoo or facial tattoo, for that matter, what brings as to the next topic, the full face tattoo.

Facial Tattoos

Facial tattoos have their origin in China where these tattoos were very famous amongst the Derung, Li and Dai Tribe women and have a very long tradition. In Burma it is the Chin tribes that are famous for facial tattoos although not all of them share this millennia-old tradition.

The women of the Chin tribe learn from young age on the art of making facial tattoos and only the women were/are allowed to tattoo and be tattooed. Especially for non-Asians facial tattoos are certainly something that needs getting used to because it is not exactly what they call beautiful. So, when facial tattoos are not beauty enhancing why do Chin women tattoo their faces? If you ask Chin women this question or if you look for answers to this in publications you will get or find several answers. Here are the most common; make your pick.

a) To disguise their beauty in order to prevent being kidnapped by the king and made one of his many consorts.

b) To prevent being kidnapped by slave traders and sold.

c) To prevent being raped by enemy soldiers.

d) As a protection against demons.

e) As sign to be mature and ready for marriage.

f) As beautification.

g) As sign of tribal identity.

h) To gain access to heaven after death.

Personally I believe the reason for the Chin women having facial (and neck) tattoos is a mixture of all or most of the a.m. explanations.

What concerns the facial tattoo designs each tribe has a different one. Some comprise of several geometric shapes, some of vertical lines and dots, some of spider nets, some of butterflies and bees, etc.

The ink used for these tattoos is black. Getting a facial tattoo means to expose oneself to extreme physical pain. The process that usually starts with a tattoo on the forehead, continuous with the eyebrows, eyelids, the space between the eyes, cheeks, chin and often additionally the neck as neck tattoo is briefly described in the following.

First the design is drawn on the skin. Then with a small stick dipped in ink the almost paste-like tattoo ink is drawn on the skin. Next an about 2 inch/5 cm long lime thorn with a needle-sharp tip either inserted into the tip of a bamboo stick or simply used by holding it firmly between thumb and index finger the skin under the ink is with rapid up and down movements similar to movement of a sewing machine needle perforated what at the same time injects the ink into the skin. Finally, the ink is carefully rubbed deeper into the skin. The most painful parts of the tattoo are on the eyebrows and eyelids.

How long it takes to complete a facial tattoo depends as always on the pain tolerance of the tattooed person. Completing a full face tattoo can take more than 1 year.

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susiemedina93 · 7 years ago

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Pepper Spray UK

When it comes to self-defence, the laws in the UK are very strict and rightly so. This can cause a problem for the general law abiding public, how can you effectively defend yourself from an attacker but still stay on the right side of the law. Mace is not legal in the UK, but there is a pepper spray UK equivalent which might just do the job and help buy you precious seconds to enact your escape, it’s the perfect self defence spray.

The choice of weapons which you can use to defend your family and yourself is limited, and is controlled by the government in order to stop the defensive weapons from being used in an offensive manor. You cannot and should not walk around with a 50 inch sword strapped to your back, nor can you carry a handgun or any other sort of weapon, even if you claim it’s for self-defence only. In all fairness, I know I feel safer knowing that it’s very unlikely that I’ll be a victim of gun crime.

A weapon is still a weapon, no matter what the intention for carrying one was. If you’re caught carrying a weapon then it’s implied that the intention to use the weapon was there, which can of course mean you were prepared to seriously injure or even kill another human being. Which no matter how you try to spin it, it’s simply not cool.

So when it comes to defending yourself effectively the choices and responsible options available to you are limited. The act of even holding and pointing a knife at a would be aggressor is against the law in the UK, the consequences of doing so can be very serious and are even worse if you actually use it.

The crime rate in the UK has been dropping steadily for the last 20 years, but that by no means that crime is not a problem. Muggings, theft and breaks-ins are still a common occurrence, especially in the major cities.

So, what can you do to defend yourself? You cannot legally carry a weapon with you to defend yourself, we’ll need to look into alternative UK legal methods of protecting ourselves, our children and our families.

One of the most effective non-lethal weapons that has been proven to effectively deter an attacker is the pepper spray. Many police forces and other authorities around the world use these sprays, and they are an extremely effective deterrent. However, pepper spray in the uk is considered an offensive weapon, which makes it illegal to own and carry.

I can wholeheartedly empathise with the law makers in the UK, they have a very hard task of protecting the public from harm, but that is doubly difficult when we consider that any self-defence tool can be just as easily used for offence.

But what about the general law abiding public, surely we have rights when it comes to defending ourselves in some way? The answer is there isn’t a whole lot we can do and unfortunately the criminal element will rarely if ever adhere to the same rules as the rest of us, meaning we’re already at a disadvantage.

The law is very clear when it comes to pepper spray in the UK, it’s laid out in Section 5(1) (b) of the firearms act 1968: This act prohibits any weapon of any description, designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other substance.

Basically, the law categorically states that any sort of pepper spray, the type typically used by law enforcement around the world, that contains a noxious gas or liquid would be considered illegal to carry and illegal to use by any UK citizen.

So what are the pepper spray uk legal alternatives that any member of the public can use and buy?

The only legal alternative that the public has at their disposal and is in some ways the uk version of pepper spray would be one of the Deterrent Self Defence sprays. These sprays are typically:

Non Toxic

UK Legal

Can be carried by any adult

Compact & Discreet

Non-Lethal Criminal Identifier

Contain No Harmful Chemicals

Accurate to 4 Metres

Proven to be highly effective

We’ve tested three different types of these sprays and we must say that despite their rather small dimensions, they are very capable of giving any would be attacker pause for thought.

If sprayed at the face they are very capable of completely disorientating an attacker, giving even the most determined attacker pause for thought and kicks in the natural instinct to turn away or move away from the spray. If the spray gets in the eyes the attackers vision will be blurred and it’ll be very difficult for them to see effectively.

Our testing showed that someone sprayed with these canisters will have very little choice other than backing off and trying to protect their face from the stream. Any attempts to wipe away the gel can actually impair the vision further, and can lead to no small amount of panic, I can attest to this directly.

Having a foreign liquid sprayed in your face and then finding it very difficult to see is not at all fun, it’s even worse when attempt to wipe the stuff away and your left with blood red hands, your mind immediately goes into overdrive thinking that your haemorrhaging from your eyeballs. It’s not at all a pleasant experience and that’s with prior knowledge of what’s about to happen. I can only imagine the sheer panic that would engulf an attacker sprayed with this stuff, I would be inclined to do a runner.

To add insult to injury, the gel is very hard to remove completely, and can remain on the skin and clothes for several days afterwards. Some varieties even come with a UV dye, so even when the visible traces are gone, they are still going to light up under a UV light. Both of these factors can make police efforts to find the attacker much easier.

All the products we tested where cheap, under £15 in most circumstances, which for an effective self-defence tool is a brilliant price.

Safehaus Mini Self Defence Spray Criminal Identifier – Review

The Safehaus Mini Self Defence Spray Criminal Identifier comes in a compact but easily handled discrete package. The spray container measures in at 85 × 34 mm, which means it can fit in most pockets and won’t take up much room in a rucksack or handbag. I found it very easy to manoeuvre and find the trigger, even when not looking at what I was doing. The spray is very powerful, I think it easily exceeded 4 metres, but the power is diminished at this range. The stopping power is decent and I can definitely see it stopping a would be attacker.

Great range and power

Small and easily concealed

Good stopping power

The gel makes it very difficult to see

TIW FARB Gel Spray Criminal identifier self defence – Review

This farb gel spray is very similar to the Safehaus version, other than a difference between the packaging I would say they are the same product. They share the same dimensions and the spray looks identical. All in all the characteristics are the same, same range, stopping power and characteristics. That’s not a bad thing as I was impressed with the Safehaus version. The good points are it’s possible to get different buying options, such as holsters and multi-packs. Great product.

Great range and power

Small and easily concealed

Good stopping power

The gel makes it very difficult to see

SABRE DID19 19 ml Deterrent Marking Spray – Review

The Sabre system utilises a purple dye unlike the previous two sprays and it additionally has a UV dye included, which should make identifying the attacker easier for the police. The range was around 5 metres, it definitely has a lot of power behind the spray which exceeds the other products we tested, which is perhaps down the slightly larger volume. In my testing the staining ability of this spray was superior to the other two sprays, it took more washes and scrubbing to remove all traces and even then some spots still showed up under UV light. This spray definitely gets my Best Buy award.

Fantastic range and power

Great staining ability

Handy size

All round brilliant product

Conclusion

The farb gel spray and the others have been specifically designed to be fully UK legal, they are completely fine to own and carry, so any member of the public has concerns over their safety or for their family members should consider buying one of these defensive sprays.

All of my family has one, as do I.

One of the best things about these sprays is that the red colour will stain the attacker for several days, making them easy to identify and publicly outing them as potential criminal.

Source: https://www.bladespro.co.uk/blogs/news/pepper-spray-uk

from BladesPro https://bladesproco.wordpress.com/2017/07/28/pepper-spray-uk/

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petegriffinuk · 7 years ago

Text

Pepper Spray UK

So what are the pepper spray uk legal alternatives that any member of the public can use and buy?

The only legal alternative that the public has at their disposal and is in some ways the uk version of pepper spray would be one of the Deterrent Self Defence sprays. These sprays are typically:

Non Toxic

UK Legal

Can be carried by any adult

Compact & Discreet

Non-Lethal Criminal Identifier

Contain No Harmful Chemicals

Accurate to 4 Metres

Proven to be highly effective

We’ve tested three different types of these sprays and we must say that despite their rather small dimensions, they are very capable of giving any would be attacker pause for thought.

All the products we tested where cheap, under £15 in most circumstances, which for an effective self-defence tool is a brilliant price.

Safehaus Mini Self Defence Spray Criminal Identifier – Review

Great range and power

Small and easily concealed

Good stopping power

The gel makes it very difficult to see

TIW FARB Gel Spray Criminal identifier self defence – Review

Great range and power

Small and easily concealed

Good stopping power

The gel makes it very difficult to see

SABRE DID19 19 ml Deterrent Marking Spray – Review

Fantastic range and power

Great staining ability

Handy size

All round brilliant product

Conclusion

All of my family has one, as do I.

One of the best things about these sprays is that the red colour will stain the attacker for several days, making them easy to identify and publicly outing them as potential criminal.

from Bladespro.co.uk - Blog https://www.bladespro.co.uk/blogs/news/pepper-spray-uk from BladesPro https://bladesproco.tumblr.com/post/163535212887

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bladesproco · 7 years ago

Text

Pepper Spray UK

So what are the pepper spray uk legal alternatives that any member of the public can use and buy?

The only legal alternative that the public has at their disposal and is in some ways the uk version of pepper spray would be one of the Deterrent Self Defence sprays. These sprays are typically:

Non Toxic

UK Legal

Can be carried by any adult

Compact & Discreet

Non-Lethal Criminal Identifier

Contain No Harmful Chemicals

Accurate to 4 Metres

Proven to be highly effective

We’ve tested three different types of these sprays and we must say that despite their rather small dimensions, they are very capable of giving any would be attacker pause for thought.

All the products we tested where cheap, under £15 in most circumstances, which for an effective self-defence tool is a brilliant price.

Safehaus Mini Self Defence Spray Criminal Identifier – Review

Great range and power

Small and easily concealed

Good stopping power

The gel makes it very difficult to see

TIW FARB Gel Spray Criminal identifier self defence – Review

Great range and power

Small and easily concealed

Good stopping power

The gel makes it very difficult to see

SABRE DID19 19 ml Deterrent Marking Spray – Review

Fantastic range and power

Great staining ability

Handy size

All round brilliant product

Conclusion

All of my family has one, as do I.

One of the best things about these sprays is that the red colour will stain the attacker for several days, making them easy to identify and publicly outing them as potential criminal.

from Bladespro.co.uk - Blog https://www.bladespro.co.uk/blogs/news/pepper-spray-uk

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tammyhybrid21 · 8 years ago

Text

Shinobi Genetics

So, I don’t know if anyone remembers back when I done up that sheet for Body Modifications and Blood Types do you? No, well okay this is going to be a bit more in-depth... Kind of anyway since I’m not a professional in this area or anything.

Okay, so let’s get started.

Warnings: Genetics, Pseudo-science, actual science, character headcanons, Clan headcanons, Impending Headache

Blood

Type O: People with this blood type can give their blood to anyone as a donation but they can only receive blood of the same type if they need a transfusion.

Type A: People with this blood type can only donate blood to other’s with type A blood or people who’re type AB. They can also only receive from people of the same blood type or type O blood.

Type B: People with type B blood can only donate to others with type B blood or people with type AB blood. They can only receive blood from people with type O blood or blood of the same type.

Type AB: People with type AB blood can only donate blood to those of the same type but can receive donations from anyone with any type of blood.

AB and O are the rarest blood types, with O been recessive and the blood types A and B been more dominant, in the case of those with blood type AB, both are equally as dominant. Each of them has a trait, like blood type O is signified by been OO, not AO/BO, and people with blood type B either have BB or BO. It’s all genetics really, and generally the parents blood type will carry over to their child.

Blood is of course rather important. Much like in our world it flows throughout the entire body and carries oxygen around. Points between arteries and veins do of course match up with the tenketsu and pressure points, linking the chakra coils and nervous system together. Special blood replenishing pills can be used to boost the amount of blood a shinobi has, or to replenish lost blood after a battle. Blood replenishing pills also give a small boost to the level of chakra being processed by the body as well, at least for the duration that they’re working.

Of course, there are some clans that have “special” blood types. Such as the Urushi, Scintilla, Aburame, Death, Nemoris, Lupin, Inlassable, Sasagani, and the Oglivie Clan.

Clans like the Scintilla and Lupin have special blood due to their Kekkei Genkai, the Kagakugijutsu and Confixus respectively. Both of these kekkei genkai make transfusing blood to others tricky, but otherwise their blood types are more or less the same and they can accept transfusions.

Clans like the Death, Nemoris and Niwashi, Inlassable and Oglivie have different blood that’s in line with the way that they live. Considering the Death Clan’s closeness to the realm of the dead, and the Shinigami their blood is tainted with death and when they bleed it’s kind of purple, the Nemoris and Niwashi Clans are described as having greenish blood and they smell of cut grass when bleeding. The Inlassable have another strange blood which is caused due to their bloodline, and impacts their ability to never sleep, same with the Oglivie, but it’s in regards to their speed. All four of the clans can’t accept transfusions unless the blood been given is treated in a certain way, and they can’t donate blood unless it’s purified.

The Aburame(I know what canon says but this is where I stick fingers in my ears and go lalala) and Sasagani Clan both have special blood types, that only turn up in their clans, and other clans that work with insects. The C, D and CD blood types(replacing A, B and AB), luckily they do still have members with the O blood type. Unfortunately this does of course mean that the insect Clans have to be more careful and tend to keep the transfusions between members of their clans.

Finally there’s the Urushi Clan, who’s kekkei genkai the Yakusatsu means that their blood is toxic to others, even fellow members of their clan. And they can’t accept transfusions either, because of the poison in their blood.

Eyes

Oh boy, this is going to be fun! Let’s talk about eye colour. Including fantasy eye colours like Red, Purple(violet) and the oh so fun yellow-white(since the closest we actually get is rich Amber-orange). So let’s get started then won’t we? Oh, also for anyone Black is also an fantasy specific colour, since people can have grey eyes but not black.

Okay so straight up, everyone knows brown eyes are the most dominant. Yes, even typically over black. The biggest exception to this is with the Uchiha Clan because their eyes are linked with their Kekkei Genkai. Which I’ll be explaining later on, further down along with the schematics of how that all works.

So moving on. Brown > Most other colours, except those linked to Kekkei Genkai, such as the Uchiha-Black or the Hyuga-White. Of course there are exceptions to this rule, such as Boruto and Himawari, but that’s because their father is Naruto who’s well the main character, so because of his signature look of course they’d get his eyes...

So, general rule of thumb there:

Brown>Green>Blue>Grey>Black>Purple>Red>Yellow>White

Blue>Pink>Red(Albinism)

Brown>Black(theoretical Melanism)

If you need a quick idea of it anyway. But the thing is eye colours are seriously complicated because there’s about 16(or more) different genes that actually determine eye colour and then also the shade, and the general rule of thumb is the lighter the colour the more recessive it is, and therefore less likely to be passed on. The exception is black, because as said, there’s a lot of genes going into eye colour so it gets pigmented colour... and there’s a reason why the different shades of brown are the most common.

And then I chucked in the whole Albinism and Melanism thing, because yes, genetics. Although the latter has not been reported(to my knowledge) in humans but has been observed in several different animal species. As both conditions are recessive genes, they’re shoved into a lower section. Because you need two(or more) of the genes active for it to show. Also with this comes sensitivity, because the lack of pigmentation in albinism leads to poorer filtering and protection from the light. Anyway, in regards to these, it’s pretty obvious. Albinism>Melanism when they do show up in people.

But honestly, all this is confusing because of the blending of genes and the odds are weird. Also, add to this other conditions that can impact eye colour such as heterochromia which is the presence of two distinct pigments in the eyes, two different colours. Which can either be two differently coloured eyes, or just segmented eyes.

And this isn’t even touching on the genetics of some of the stranger pupils in people’s eyes... but for a rule of thumb regarding those things. Also the weird blending when it’s more or less one colour for the whole eye(sclera, iris and pupil). Which is generally clan/family linked. So it’s a more dominant trait linked in with chakra. But for the outlier cases, you can look below for my ideas on that.

Normal>Blended Iris

Hair

Brown>Black>Blue>Silver/Grey>Blond/Blonde>Pink>Red/Ginger>Purple>Green>White

There.

That’s the way it generally goes. In regards to what’s more dominant. But at the same time, since there’s two main genes that work with the colour, one for shade the other for vibrancy, we get this weird thing where brown is slightly more common than black(no but seriously, I see more people with brown hair than I ever do with black[At least that’s how it is in my everyday life]).

But honestly the genetics here are again somewhat weird. Because as said there are really two main ones. The ones for shade, and the other for vibrancy, or really colour clarity. Which pretty regularly is the recessive red/ginger gene. It’s sort of why a lot of people have this slight red tinge to their hair when dying it. And that tint is also why so many people have brown hair because it mixes. But right after is of course black, and with people in fantasy at least, the red/ginger trait can be replaced with a slight blue one, or the even more recessive green.

It sort of piles up weirdly though, because hair colours(and eye colours tbh) can remain dormant in family lines for a while buried under the more dominant genes before suddenly emerging. You see this in reality with those sudden gingers. Where two people with brown/black/blond(e) hair have a ginger. Or if you want a Naruto example I guess you could take Sakura’s pink hair over her parents pink and blonde(Going by my chart, it would have been more likely for her to have blonde...)

Again, like with eye colour there’s a fair bit of blending that goes along in the genes to determine hair colour. And children can have slightly darker/lighter shades compared to their parents, or a completely different colour again if both of their parents passed down recessive genes.

And then there’s those in fantasy with multi-coloured hair. Which is either an indication of a chimera-child, or a fluke in the genes. This is a recessive trait again. The maximin amount of colours someone could potentially show up with is three, and that’s only if they’re a chimera-child. Normally the most you might get is two hair colours, split pretty evenly.

Solid>Two Toned>Three Toned

And just to fit it in of course I’m going to finish it off with Albinism and the theoretical Melanism in humans.

Silver>White(Albinism)

Black>Dark(deep) Brown(Melanism)

Wait no, that’s not where I’m going to finish. Nope. Because I still have my quick sheet for hair colour shorthands that people probably should know because otherwise you’re all going to get confused/annoyed with whatever’s going on in the story. And I’ll point you to where it is here in that case.

Skin Tone

Okay, welcome to the deepest pit of genetics hell that you can reach because this... This is where things just get annoying. Because the inheritance of skin tone is not straight forwards at all. You would expect someone with darker skin to be slightly more likely to pass that on to their children in a dark-light skin pairing... but actually the issue here is that skin tone is inherited through incomplete dominance. So neither gene is any more dominant than the other and instead they mix much more to blend somewhere in between.

Of course your skin does get relatively darker as you age, because of the exposure that you get to the ultraviolet coming from the sun and you need a little bit less as you grow older to maintain a healthy level of vitamin D within your body. But seriously, skin tone is hard. Because you won’t inherit it perfectly from your parents despite what most cartoons and fantasy tries to say. So a lot of the skin tones shown in Naruto are wrong simply because they’re not represented accurately... but it’s a cartoon it’s fantasy who really cares about that am I right?

Anyway...

Just as a clearer way of explaining this... both me and my brother have paler skin compared to either of our parents. Just slightly but still... Also, going back to the dark-light pairing from earlier, it also depends I guess on how well everything goes, location and what’s going on. But generally expect blended tones, so it’ll be somewhere in between the parents, and lean one way or the other slightly more.

Oh and also we should know how Albinism and Melanism would affect this... and if you don’t... well google is your friend. But anyway, for the simple of it, Albinism= lack of pigment, and Melanism= overproduction of pigment.

Chakra Nature

And finally, the Naruto specific stuff. Beginning of course with chakra natures. Fun. So straight up, I still have the mental image of primary-secondary and then buried elements. So that hasn’t changed at all, because it’s related to the way that the elements fit into and work with the world around them. So there’s the main four of course, the “solid” elements and the secondary four, before the final three come in.

And all of these are related to nature and how the Acror in the air interacts with a person’s chakra system... not to say that there’s not a map and set of genes to go with it. Because there’s got to be some logical explanation in regards to who and how someone can inherit a particular chakra nature right? Right. So here you go, first of all let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way.

Primary Elements>Secondary Elements

It merely means the ones in the primary category are more dominant than the ones in the secondary category... and therefore more common. But that’s something that’s always been pre-established really. And everyone knows which elements are the primary ones. So here you go for the rest of the list.

Primary: Doton>Suiton>Katon>Futon

Secondary: Raiton>Aneiton>Tenpiton>Jikuuton

As for the final ones. Vacivaton, Inton, Yōton and Onmyōton they’re much deeper and so aren’t really linked to any particular genes since theoretically anyone could learn them. Technically speaking, Jikuuton falls into this category as well, since most time-space jutsu are typically used with the help of seals it’s in a weird place. But to be fair, almost any element can be used via fuinjutsu as long as the user knows the words to do it. But that’s not what you’re here for so let’s continue on because there’s no way I’m done yet. So people in Naruto can theoretically learn jutsu for all the natures. Everyone can learn basic “camp” jutsu. So there’s a kind of weird blending here as well.

Which leads me to the assumption that with chakra natures the genes have another case of incomplete dominance, which is also how you get people with natures that have blended together. But still, there is the fact that while the primary elements have the incomplete dominance, the secondary ones are still recessive. Which means that they will fade out a bit, come and go. Two genes are needed for them to show, but still. Raiton has become common enough. Although considering it like this.

There are likely multiple genes at work all at once here. Because people can have multiple chakra natures as I’ve already said. So it’s not quite as clear cut as my mother had a katon nature and father a suiton and I inherited katon, because the child may very well inherit both natures... but you can only really pass on one of the primary natures, and one of the secondary ones, because they’re carried on different genes.

So basically when we think about how it carries the Primary elements would be represented of course by capital letters. K(aton), D(oton), S(uiton), F(uton) and the secondary elements by lowercase r(aiton), a(neiton), t(enpiton) and j(ikuuton). But that would be if they were carried by the same genes... which they aren’t.

So it aligns more like this: DF, rt. KK rr, And there you have two people. One of them with a Doton-Futon nature and two recessive natures that aren’t quite showing... But because genetics are weird and really this whole thing is weird, that’s not how it works, because passing down the genetics, it would be passing down one from the primary one from the secondary. Which yeah, you can think punnet square. But really considering how weird it all is... the best rule of thumb that I can really say is...

Make sure that it makes sense because it’s as confusing as hell in my head. Because people can have a maximum of three natures naturally, but that number can be boosted/altered depending on what they do and while there is some genetics and inheritance behind it all ultimately it’s up to determination and well... How in tune with nature someone can get. Not even mentioning the fact that Hagoromo had the ability to use all the natures. So there’s that. Fun.

I’m done.

Kekkei Genkai

Oh... right, last thing.

Kekkei Genkai inheritance. And honestly, straight away, I’ll say this. It depends on exactly which kekkei genkai we’re talking about here. Because I can say straight away, the Hyuga’s Byakuran is a dominant trait considering how pretty much every Hyuga has it, and we know that Himawari has it despite her eyes being blue. So it’s pretty obvious that the Byakuran is a domninant kekkei genkai... and Also on the subject of Dōjutsu let’s wander over to the Uchiha... and honestly. I headcanon the sharingan as a dominant trait as well... despite how “rare” it supposedly is.

And here’s why.

It’s in the eyes. Both of these traits are linked to the eyes, and eye colour and yada yada. And while the Hyuga one is more obvious, the sharingan also has a secondary link that’s more important. In the mental part of things, and here’s the thing... I don’t like to generalize something but, all the Uchiha have supercharged emotions, I have the same issue. Along with this, the way that they view the world... yeah, you can’t really call it the same as everyone else around them. Which leads to one conclusion that I just take and run with, Autism. The entire clan is Autistic and I just, love that, because it explains so much... And then we come to the “Curse of Hatred” and how it interacts. The thing is, people forget things for a reason, or if not forget the memories fade, and scab over so that you can move on and heal from them... but with the Sharingan, their kekkei genkai(and something I’ve personally dealt with because of the way my emotions run linked with my own autism), this doesn’t happen. So events just keep affecting them... And this is where I come in to say that it’s not a recessive gene.

Because while the eyes linked to the sharingan vary from dark brown-black normally, it can show up with other colours. The real indicator will be memory. Processing and understanding. More on the mental-emotional side of things... despite what people may think... and the main reason people mistake it for recessive is precisely why it’s linked more with the mental side of things... triggering. It needs a trigger. And honestly, while some people can argue the stability vs instability of a childhood, it doesn’t really matter honestly. Because the main trigger is somewhere between determination-desperation...

That said, while both traits are dominant, not all kekkei genkai are... for an obvious example we can use the Kaguya Clan’s Shikotsumyaku. And really inheritance is weird with kekkei genkai because it’s just linked with other genes. Like how any dōjutsu will have at least minor links to eye colour, the Shikotsumyaku to the genes regarding bone development, my Urushi Clan’s kekkei genkai is linked to their blood, more figuratively there, because it’s covered somewhat under blood types, and it’s incredibly dominant. But also... because kekkei genkai’s are more likely to be passed down by a mother.

Because of exposure.

If the mother is the one with the right genetics, then the potential for inheritance increases by roughly 10% but that’s not all that much considering that for most kekkei genkai I have the odds of inheritance at around 1 in three, or around 33%. Which isn’t too bad if you think about it. But again, that’s only because most of them are dominant and not recessive.

That’s not even getting into Kekkei Genkai that come with the added pressure of an increased chance of other diseases. Or sickness. Consider the Kurama Clan with their own history of mental instability because their own kekkei genkai becomes a danger to them. Creating a split personality... Among other kekkei genkai that cause problems, like the Inlassable’s Pervigil, their inability to sleep. Many of the Scintilla Clan also have ADD/ADHD because of their Kagakugijutsu giving them far too much energy and too many thoughts at one time.

And that’s not even going into the ones that block off the ability to use chakra normally.

But hey, what do I know...

I’m just someone who’s thinking far too much about this kind of thing...

#THybrid Speaks #THybrid Narutos #Genetics #Simplified stuff #because otherwise this would be seriously overcomplicated #too much information #fantasy #THybrid Teaches

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