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midgardianweasley · 3 years ago

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Build-a-bear adventures

Build-a-bear adventures.

Natasha Romanoff x fem!reader

Summary: A top trained assassin, her girlfriend, and a build-a-bear workshop, what better way to spend a day off.

Word count: 2.1k

Warnings: Agonisingly fluffy.

I was planning on posting angst, but, decided on a fluff instead<33

“But babe. Babe. Babe.” You poked your girlfriend, fully aware that with every prod, you were only contributing to the headache worthy eye rolls she had been giving you for the past hour. You were joking, of course you were, she knew that, but she also knew that it was possible you were about to be single in 0.2 of a second if you didn’t stop poking her.

With a sarcastic smile and a deep breath, she turned her head towards you, momentarily stopping your movements as you returned a sickeningly sweet smile back.

“Yes?”

“I don’t think you understand.”

“I do understand.”

“This is life or death.” You spoke with a poker face, a weak attempt to try and make your point valid.

“I think that may be exaggerating just a little bit honey.” She chuckled lightly at your tone and the way you moved in your spot on the sofa, now having your legs crossed in front of you, hands enthusiastically moving in front of you.

“No. No, see, you don’t understand! We need to do this!”

“Is my unconditional love not enough?”

“No.”

“Ouch.” She dramatically placed her hand on her chest, a smirk plastered onto her face as she watched you rile yourself up with every sentence.

“Okay, sorry, I didn’t mean that, your unconditional love is more than enough, and while I unconditionally love you too, that doesn’t change the fact that this is a necessity.”

“Like the ones from the jungle book?”

You groaned loudly, throwing your head back as the assassin teased you.

“Baby, please!” You moved once again, now clambering onto her lap with your hands interlocked behind her neck, your faces mere inches away from hers. Her hands immediately went to your waist to steady you, pure energy coursed through your veins as you tried to convince Natasha to go ahead with your idea and she wasn’t certain you wouldn’t fall off of you if she didn’t hold you down.

“You seriously want to?”

“Yes.”

“Today?”

“Yes.”

“Instead of cuddling in bed with movies?” Her eyebrows raised in question, not faltering as she watched you pretend to ponder, stroking an imaginary beard on your chin.

“Yes.” You smiled, your inner child shining through.

Knowing she wasn’t going to win, she sighed gently, running a hand through your hair and giving you a quick kiss on your temple before tapping your thighs to signal for you to stand up.

“Alright. Get ready and we’ll go.”

“Really?” You squealed, clapping your hands together as you rocked back and forth on your heels.

“Really. Now hurry and get your shoes on, we don’t want to get stuck in traffic.”

She watched with nothing but adoration as you whizzed off to get ready to leave, swearing that she’s never seen you move so quickly in her life. Despite her playful protest, she walked over to the kitchen counter to pick up her car keys, swinging them around her pointer finger as she walked over to the doorway of the compound living room.

‘I can’t believe I'm doing this.’ She thought.

Although she’ll deny it to anyone that asks, she’s absolutely whipped for you.

“I’m ready!” Your voice called out, encouraging Natasha to shrug her leather jacket on and walk towards her smiling girlfriend, taking her hand as they walked out together with content smiles on their faces.

‘Let’s do this.’

_______________________

It didn’t take long to arrive at your destination, your eyes immediately drew themselves to the store windows filled with stuffed bears in a variety of different outfits, some bears were dressed up to fit a theme, some bears were characters from loved movies, some were just bears in dungarees.

That’s right. You’ve managed to bring a trained assassin to a build-a-bear workshop. Why?

To get matching bears.

You looked towards Natasha, a huge grin on your face, only faltering slightly as you were met with her hands and forehead on the drivers wheel. You tugged on her sleeve, ignoring her disagreement, her head not leaving the wheel, but turned to face you.

“Stop being silly, c’mon, you’re looking forward to it! I know you are!”

“Babe. We’re parked outside of a teddy store.”

“Exactly! It’s fun, you’re excited, I'm excited, let’s go!”

You didn’t hesitate to open your car door, jumping out of the car and shutting the door behind you, the redhead not far behind you as she once again took your hand, reminding you how lucky you are that she loves you. Your response was a simple kiss on her cheek, a small blush following shortly afterwards.

“You’re cute.” You pinched her cheek.

“Yeah yeah, let’s go get our bears.”

_______________________

“So, that’s both of your bears stuffed, do you guys want to put voice boxes in them?” The kind staff member asked the pair of you.

You glanced towards Natasha, silently asking if she’d like one or not. She gave you a brief smile before looking back at the woman helping you with your bears.

“Sure, I don’t see why not.” She winked at you before following the woman over to another station within the store. There were rows and rows of different shapes and coloured voice boxes to choose from.

You had the option of choosing a pre-recorded sound, like animal sounds or a bunch of different ‘i love you.’ in different voices. You didn’t mind what voice you had, honestly, you would’ve been content with an ‘i love you’ from Elsa at this point. However, you saw your girlfriend make a beeline for the ones that you record your own message into.

“You’re gonna do your own one?” You asked, moving over to stand beside her.

“Nope. I’m making one for yours.” She said proudly, holding two of the small items in her hand, holding it out for you to take one. You couldn’t help but feel your heartbeat quicken at her words. This is the sweetest thing you’ve ever done with someone else, and to think she wasn’t even that eager to come in the first place. You knew she’d have fun.

Taking the small blue speaker from her hand, you were instructed to press the button on the back of the plastic, hold it down to speak, and release it when you were finished, but it can only be a short message. The both of you tucked your bears under your arm, bringing the box to your mouth and cupping it so that it would come out loud and clear, and so the other couldn’t hear what you were saying.

Once your messages were done, you handed each other the speaker to place in the paw that had a ‘press me’ sign sewed into it. The woman ensured it was inserted correctly before taking them elsewhere to be sewn up, leaving you both to look at the racks of tiny clothes hung on the wall.

It was almost as difficult as choosing clothes for yourself, there were too many options, and every single one was adorable. How did literal children do this?

“Please tell me you can’t decide on an outfit either.” The Russian spoke from beside you, her gaze focused on the fabrics, styles and patterns in front of you.

“It’s easier trying to take a pop tart off of the demi-god at home than trying to pick a pair of jeans and a t-shirt for a stuffed animal. What the hell?” Your arms gestured to the wall in front of you, exasperated as you tried to decide whether you wanted the blue jeans or black.”

“Hi guys, here are your bears, just letting you know, there’s also some dresses over there if you want to check them out.” The woman smiled, watching as you and Natasha shared a glance of horror.

The two of you were gonna be here for a while.

______________________

Finally, you and Nat had dressed both your bears. You chose a pair of black jeans, a white t-shirt and a black leather jacket for yours, and Natasha had chosen a Y/F/O. It appeared as though each of you had made ‘mini me’s’ of the other, and they seemed pretty damn accurate too.

After successfully creating and dressing your bears, it was time to name them, pay, and then you could both go home and relax. You had no idea building a bear could be so exhausting.

Both you and Natasha had to pick a name. You thought it over, whereas Nat had just rushed right in, choosing to call her bear ‘honey.’, the nickname she always reserved for you. Gripping your bear tightly, you observed the birth certificate being printed out, the name, the owner’s name and the date clearly written in bold, black letters. You could’ve sworn you saw Natasha’s eyes light up when she was handed the sheet of paper.

“What about you, miss?” The woman asked, ready to type in whatever name you gave her. Glancing behind you quickly, you caught the eye of your girlfriend behind you, immediately knowing what to call it.

“Snoopy, please.”

You heard one loud and short laugh erupt from Natasha’s lips, her hand shot to cover her mouth, not intending to be so disruptive when she heard what you had called it.

‘Snoopy’ is the name of a cartoon character, which was probably what people would think you named the bear after. In reality, it wasn’t that at all.

When you first met the team, you were informed of what everyone’s roles were and how they contributed to the group. There were supersoldiers, scientists, a god, all different kinds of people, including the incredibly attractive spy. When you went on your first mission, she had to hack into a computer to retrieve some stolen data, but took her time to also look at some other things they had on there too, just to kill time.

The first words you said to her on that mission that wasn’t to do with what direction you were running in, was ‘Alright, hold off Snoopy, you can do that in your spare time, hurry up.’, and at first she was annoyed with the nickname, claiming she wasn’t snooping, nor does she ever ‘snoop’, but she soon took it in her stride. It was still a running joke between the pair of you 2 years down the line, and you never let her forget it.

“Nice name, babe.” She coughed, unable to fully settle down from her laughing fit.

“Why, thank you! Yours isn’t so bad yourself.” You spoke as you blew her a kiss that she grabbed in thin air and pretended to shove into her jean pocket, earning a small shake of the head before you took your printed certificate and went to purchase the bears.

_______________________

Once you got back to the compound, the both of you were completely shattered, unable to keep your eyes open to watch some TV before bed. Eager to get some sleep, the two of you just ended up changing into your pyjamas, following your shared night routine before collapsing onto your bed.

You lay beside her, still able to smell her perfume after so many hours, the scent making your eyelids feel like rocks. Grabbing your bear, you put it in between you, Natasha doing the same thing, before snuggling up close together under the covers. She reached over to put some fallen hair behind your ear, smiling gently at you as she did so, the gesture lazily returned.

“Thank you for suggesting today, baby. I really enjoyed myself.” She whispered, a murmur of agreement following her words.

“Thank you for taking us Natty, I had fun.” You mumbled with closed eyes, sleep quickly taking over.

“Get some sleep, my love.”

You nodded once before responding. “G’night Nat.”

“Goodnight baby.”

And that was you, out like a light.

Natasha reached over to give you a kiss on the forehead as her final goodnight, not realised that she’d leant on the teddy in the process, only noticing when she heard your voice in a non sleepy state.

“I’m madly in love with you, Romanoff.” She heard you laugh, followed by an excited “I’m done!”, obviously you forgot to let go of the button after you recorded the initial message, but it had made it even more special. She couldn’t help but adore you with every bone in her body.

You weren’t awake now, but when you were, she hoped to see your reaction when you listened to her message in your bear, the words spoken in Russian, but you’d heard them before, so you’d definitely know what it meant.

“Moye serdtse tvoye, lyubov' moya.” (My heart is yours, my love.)

She was right.

She’s absolutely whipped.

Taglist: @natashas-favourite-knives @eilarch @natashaswifey @lostandsearching @wandaromanova @pottahishotasf @d14n4ol @xxromanoffxx

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winterhawk-olympic-bang · 3 years ago

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How To Edit Your Writing

Guest Poster: Chronicwhimsy

Here is our final Writer Workshop post, written by Chronicwhimsy. Have a read and then head over to the Discord Server where we have a channel for you to take part in a discussion based on the post, with chances to share your own ideas too.

Editing: a drive-by guide

Hi, my name is Claire, and I’m an editor.

(Hi Claire)

I’ve been asked to give a quick guide on tips for editing your stories, as I’ve been a beta/editor for various fanfic writers over the years. I’m a professional editor, working for a publishing house in the UK, and I offer independent freelance editing too, via my website. I’ll be on the Discord server answering questions this evening, but I’m also happy to chat to people either through my website or even if you wanted to drop me a line on tumblr.

The key thing to remember about editing is that the end goal is to make your story the best it can be, and make sure your initial idea comes across as clearly and purely as you first imagined it. It’s about ensuring that the lines of communication between you and your reader are 100% open.

To do that, you need to have finished your story, because you can’t fix something that doesn’t exist.

Then you edit.

What now?

So, you’ve finished your Winterhawk Olympic Bang Fic, and you’re wondering what to do next?

The very first, and most important thing you should do? Celebrate. I mean congratulate the hell out of yourself, pat yourself on the back, and have some cake. Finishing stories is hard. Getting through a first draft is one of the trickiest parts of writing, so you should be proud of yourself, and proud of your story.

Because in a short while, editing is going to make you hate both.

I mean that in the nicest possible way of course, but you absolutely are going to be thoroughly sick of this whole thing by the time you’re done, and you’re going to question everything you’ve ever written. You’re going to get a close-up view of all your narrative bad habits which will make you think you’ve never had any skill at all, and you’re going to re-read your work so many times that it’ll feel trite, old, uninspired. This is normal and it is your brain lying to you. If you remember nothing else, remember that!

“The writing itself is no big deal. The editing, and even more than that, the self-doubt, is excruciatingly impossible.” Jonathan Safran Foer

Don’t lose faith! Editors and editing exist for a reason, no first draft is perfect. You’ve done something amazing in finishing, and now you’re going to make it incredible.

Before You Start - Take a Break

You know the phrase “can’t see the wood for the trees”? It could just as easily be “can’t see the story for the words.” It’s never recommended to go straight into editing as soon as you finish writing, and part of the reason for that is because you’re too deep in the story to be able to assess it objectively, or to catch things that are missed out because you know they’re there, but the reader wouldn’t.

“Once it's done, put it away until you can read it with new eyes. When you're ready, pick it up and read it, as if you've never read it before.” Neil Gaiman

Most writers and editors advocate putting a story away for a month or so before returning to edit, so you’re looking at it with fresh eyes. Obviously, with a Big Bang (or other fic event) this sort of time is usually at a premium! Try and make as much space as you can while still leaving yourself time to edit.

If you really don’t have any time, one trick that can help is changing your location. If you write in your room, can you relocate to your kitchen? Or a café (if you can safely)? Could you print it out? (Printing Top Tip: if you do print it, try and do it double-spaced - this makes it easier on the eyes, and gives you room to make notes. Also, serif fonts can often be easier to read than sans serif fonts, as it gives stronger distinctions between different letters.)

The Filter System

I like to think of the editing process as a series of different filters which, when used one after the other, produce a finely-sieved finished product. Each filter stage has slightly smaller holes than the one before it, as you look increasingly closely at your work.

Filter 1: Structural editing

Does the story make sense? Is the pace okay? Do all the scenes work where they are, or would they be better elsewhere? Do some scenes need to be there at all? Is the characterisation consistent? Does anyone change names halfway through? Did you forget what time of year it was set halfway through?

Filter 2: Line editing

Is this phrase as tight as it could be? Have you repeated yourself anywhere? Does this sentence add anything or does it throw the pace off? Have you gone overboard with adjectives and similes? Have you been too sparse with them?

Filter 3: Copy editing

Is your style consistent? Did you start writing in present tense and switch to past tense? Could this scene transition be snappier? Are there any bits that you want to tidy up? Have you left any half-finished sentences because you got distracted before you could end it?

Filter 4: Proofreading

Is everything spelled correctly? Have you caught all the strange grammar mistakes?

Some of these things might be picked up by your beta reader if you have one. Different beta readers have different styles, and also they will work based on their relationship with you and what you prefer. Some may stick to proofreading and consistency-checking, others may be more confident to dive right in and look at structure, pacing and characterisation. Some may work through the process with you as you write, others may only look at the story when it’s complete so they can get a full overview. There is no right or wrong answer, and having a conversation with your beta about your respective styles at the start can help you work better together!

Filter 1 - Structural Editing

For this stage, you want to read your whole story through from start to finish, and resist the urge to tweak anything to begin with! You will want a way of making notes as you go through because as you do, you’ll make yourself a cheat-sheet to help you with your line edit. Things to keep track of:

Character name spellings

Character ages

Character relationships (drawing a relationship web can be very helpful to visualise this!)

The time span of the story - the date it starts, the date it ends.

As a subset of this, I find it can be very helpful to set up a spreadsheet with a timeline of what happens in the story, and who is involved. Doing this both chronologically for the characters and in order of how it happens in the story can help you keep track of what characters know when, and also when the readers find out certain information. You might have one of these from when you were planning your story (as detailed in Sara Holmes’ workshop). If you’ve kept it up to date with changes to the plot and structure as you’ve written, this will be super helpful.

At this stage, you’re looking to see if everything works as a consistent story. You want to check to see if it feels like it’s the right pace, or if there are bits where it drags or rushes through the action. Why is this? Are there scenes which aren’t adding anything to the progress? Could they just be referred to in passing, or removed entirely without impacting the story? Are there other scenes which need to be added to provide more detail and growth? Is there anything that you as a writer know that is essential to the story, but you forgot to actually put in the text?

“Crafty writers...don't allow Exposition to form Lumps. They break up the information, grind it fine, and make it into bricks to build the story with.” Ursula K. Le Guin

You’re also looking to see if the characters feel true to themselves all the way through. Do the relationships spark? Do they sound like themselves? Can you hear them in your head?

Some people recommend doing several structural edits, with a different focus each time. One pass to look at the pacing, one pass to look at the characters, one to look at the story arc. You’ll work out what floats your boat, but you will be re-reading this story a lot of times before you’re done editing - which is why it’s very important to write what you love and want to read! You’ll go through many stages of hating this story before you let it go, and that will be even harder if it wasn’t something you enjoyed in the first place.

Filter 2 - Line Editing

So you remember I told you to make all those notes during your structural edit? Here’s where you’re going to use them. Now’s the time to go through your story line by line and check that the details in your cheat sheet are correct all the way through the story. I’ve written a novel that I initially set in November, but by the time I finished it, I’d decided it was taking place in early May. I had to go back and fix all the dates and weather descriptions to make sure the action hadn’t actually been yeeted forward six months spontaneously in the middle of a conversation.

Arguably, the line edit will be the most painful part of editing. At this stage, you will be taking a fine-tooth comb to everything you have written, examining it to within an inch of its life, and casting judgement. You’re going to find every stylistic tic you have (for me, everyone is constantly quirking their eyebrows and smirking like they’ve got cramp in their facial muscles), and you’re going to get rid of them (a person only has so many eyebrows, and they can only quirk so far). Now is the time to kill your darlings - don’t hang on to anything unless you feel it’s really doing a job to further the story and the characters.

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings.” Stephen King

If you have ever worried about the unbearable sensation of being Known, the line edit is where you will experience that with every word, and you’ll be doing it to yourself. This is when the doubts will really start to creep in and you will maybe feel like everything you write is unoriginal, derivative trash and unfit for human eyes.

Here I’ll reiterate what I said above:

This is a normal feeling, everyone experiences it when editing. E V E R Y O N E.

It’s a lie. No-one else will ever read your story in this state, no-one else will ever read your story this closely. Of course it feels obvious and uninspired to you - you wrote it. It’s your idea, and you’ve read it several times, it holds no surprises for you. (I may be projecting my feelings from every time I’ve edited something here, but…)

You’ll also be catching any ELEPHANTS or whatever your mammal of choice for placeholder text is that you’ve stationed throughout the story as a flag for you to come back and add in a name, or a food, or a song title later. You know, the things you decided were a problem for Future!You. I have bad news, the future is now.

Top Tip: if you have changed someone’s name halfway through, DON’T for the love of Mike, just do a straight find and replace to correct it. Because that’s when you suddenly find out how many other words actually contain names (Mark became Bill? That’s great, until your characters are going to the superBillet to buy groceries). Some word processing programmes have a “whole word” option which is your friend, otherwise ensure to put spaces either side of the word when you search. If you don’t, you’ve just made another horrible job for yourself...

Filter 3 - Copy Editing

Once you’ve made it out the other side of the Line Edit (and given yourself a nice treat to congratulate yourself because that stage is HARD), we get onto copy editing. This is basically the set-dressing stage. You’ve built the house, you’ve decorated the room, and now you’re just making sure every bit of furniture is in the right place for optimal feng shui.

Here’s where you go through and go, do I really need a dash here, or could I just use a comma? Could I use fewer commas? Could I go in and move all of @kangofu_cb’s commas around because I’m the sort of person who will come into your house and change how you hang your toilet paper or where you keep your ketchup.

Now is the time to be as picky as possible, like you’re an interior designer for the most demanding client in the world and the ornament must be exactly equidistant from both ends of the mantlepiece and facing precisely south-west. Things that may have just survived your line edit will be measured again, and if they’re found wanting, then they get binned.

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” Mark Twain

Another thing you might like to do here is check that all your features and things are correct. Did you make a wild claim about the lifecycle of salamanders, or the average price of corn and then never go back to verify this? Take a second to just do that now. It may be that you decide it’s not a problem (I received one copy edit note saying that an idiom used in a book wasn’t recorded until 200 years later, and I made the editorial decision that no-one would care), but for bigger things you may want to make sure you’re accurate.

If you google it (as I just did, to make sure I was definitely giving you the right information), copy editing is often conflated with line editing, and that’s because in reality a lot of the elements of copy editing actually wouldn’t usually be done by the author, and are probably irrelevant to fanfic. The copy editor is responsible for ensuring the book has a consistent grammatical style in line with the preferences of the publisher (em-dash or en-dash, curly quote marks or straight ones, how you deal with acronyms, what needs to be italicised, etc. etc.), which isn’t necessarily required for fanfic. In reality, for fanfic I’d use this stage as a second, lighter line-edit to see where things can be tightened up in phrasing, as well as perhaps a preliminary proofread where you start to mark up any spelling errors.

Filter 4 - Proofreading

By this stage, you’ll be exhausted, and sick to death of the blasted thing. But the end is in sight! Now you’re onto the proofread. This is another close read, where you go through and check for spelling errors, typos, missing full stops, strange formatting stuff (which probably will be less of an issue as AO3 basically makes everything uniform anyway).

Before you even start this, change your font.

We’ve all been there, thought we’d caught every spelling error, every weird typo, only to spot six immediately after posting. That’s because after a certain point our brain becomes used to the font we’ve written in, and will automatically correct things that aren’t right. AO3 has its own unique formatting - colour, spacing, font - and the minute your fic appears on there in this new format you brain wakes up and is like “oh shit, yeah, that’s not how it should be.”

By changing the font before you proofread, you preempt this step.

Another thing to remember: it’s unlikely you will ever catch every mistake. Published books regularly go out with a smattering of typographical errors throughout the text - how many first editions of books are valuable because of misspellings that slipped through the net? You’re only human.

“Connie's other job was proof-editing which she did very badly. Transferring the author's corrections to a clean sheet of proofs was something Connie was unable to do without missing an average of three corrections a page, or transcribing newly inserted material all wrong... she put angry authors' letters about the mutilation of their books under the cushion of her chair to deal with later.” Muriel Spark, A Far Cry from Kensington

Often, spelling errors and things you would look for in a proofread are things that a beta reader will pick up as they go, as they’re the easiest things to spot, but it’s also worth looking over yourself for anything your beta might have missed.

Whether you decide to follow any or all of these steps, always do the proofread last.There is no point carefully spellchecking a chapter you are then going to delete, or proofreading the whole thing, but adding loads of new paragraphs later that either don’t get looked at or mean you end up having to proofread twice. That’s the only hard and fast rule when it comes to editing, and it will save you a lot of unnecessary work!

FREEDOM

And then, finally, unbelievably - you’re done. Your literary child is ready to leave the nest. Resist the urge to keep re-reading and tweaking. Instead, click “publish” and give yourself a nice little treat. You’ve earned it.

Miscellany and Disclaimers

These editing stages are ones that would be applied to a published novel. An author would probably do this several times - once on their own to get it ready for submission, then perhaps again with their agent, but the really heavy work would be done with their editor. The structural edit would be done under the advice of an agent or editor where the author looks at their comments, rejigs things accordingly, and lather, rinse, repeat until everyone’s happy. The editor would undertake the line edit, and the author would decide what they wanted to keep or change. The copy edit and proofread would be done in-house or sent to freelancers, with queries and changes wafted past the author for clarification or approval.

Self-published authors will often hire freelancers to help at various stages to get feedback and advice.

Very rarely would an author go from draft to final published piece by doing all their editing alone. Because it’s hard fucking work, and because your brain will get exhausted.

In light of that, you need to remember:

You’ve written a fanfic

The editorial standards of fanfic are significantly less stringent than published books

Editing by yourself is really hard work that many people are often paid to do for published books

No-one is paying you for your fanfic

Fanfic is supposed to be fun

Some published authors will edit and rewrite and edit and rewrite again and again. At a panel I attended, Joanne Harris said that if she didn’t rewrite her work at least five times she was being too easy on herself, while Joe Hill said he usually aimed for three rewrites - Joe edited as he went along, going over the previous day’s pages before continuing, where Joanne completed her manuscripts before editing. Elizabeth May has talked about her stages of drafting, starting with her Trash Draft, then her Clean Draft, and then rewriting and editing after that.

These are people who are writing professionally, getting paid for their work, and so the time they put in has monetary results. If you want to write original fiction, their advice is extremely valuable.

For fanfiction, it’s a large time investment for something you’re doing as a hobby for free. If I’m strictly honest, I’m fairly lax with my fanfiction editing. I do structural discussions and tweaks with my beta reader as I write, and then a spell check. I’m also aware that my fanfics aren’t narratively complex, nor do they seem as polished, rich and deep as some of the other works out there. That’s fine by me. You simply need to find the level you’re happy at, where you can still feel proud of your work but you’re enjoying the experience.

In the end - it’s all for fun!

Resources:

Online

Curtis Brown Creative: An Editor’s Guide to Editing Your Novel

Joanne Harris: Ten Tweets About Editing

Joanne Harris: Writing Resources

NerdsLikeMe: Beta Reading vs Proofreading vs Editing

Books

Stephen King - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Ursula K. Le Guin - Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

#winterhawk #winterhawk olympic bang #whob #writer workshops #writer workshop: editing #guest post #chronicwhimsy

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meetmeatthecoda · 3 years ago

Note

What activities do you think Red and Liz do together as a hobby? What's their domestic scene like? I have a head full of things I imagine them doing together.

I imagine park walking (perhaps a dog Liz and Agnes persuaded Red around) is a given, Red regaling them with tales and knowledge. Slow dancing by a fire place lit room, with little Agnes pouting on the side lines cause she's wanting a dance with her daddy and we know Red wouldn't be able to refuse her. Red teaches Agnes everything he knows some of which Liz scolds him cause it's probably skills that would never be needed.

But Red likes his little girl to be prepared. Red and Liz also love taking pictures and making home videos. Red scrapbooks the pictures they take while Liz manages the home movie reels. It's a fun thing for the family to do.

Red probably takes on cooking, cleaning and other house keeping/maintenance duties cause he's the mother hen of their little family. And also because he's just a domestic god and Liz appreciates it. Red tinkers away in his workshop, he probably does some woodworking or some sort of crafts. Liz often tries her hand at them, but isn't very successful.

Red and Liz probably spend afternoons just in the comfort of each other's presence and silence. Reading books recommended by the other in their little book nook in their library that they all love.

I imagine Liz and Agnes trying to get Red to like some of the contemporary pop music but Red still insists he prefers the classics, jazz, standards. He probably does secretly likes some of the modern music he's been forced to listen but he'd never admit that.

And there's probably regular game nights for Red, Liz and Agnes. The girls like to gang up on Red, beating him in many games. He doesn't like losing so many times, but Agnes has him wrapped around her little finger. Liz has sway over him too. So the boy is powerless against his two special ladies.

Ooooh, anon, domestic!Lizzington headcanons, my favorite!! 😍 I'm certainly flattered that you asked, but I almost don't want to add anything to all the lovely things you described here!! 😂 I mean... Liz & Agnes convincing Red to get a dog (not that I think it would take much convincing, he's such an animal lover, the softie) is adorable. Agnes seeing her parents dancing & giving Red the Patented Puppy Dog Eyes until Red asks her for a dance & she gets twirled around the living room standing on her daddy's feet while Liz looks on with tears in her eyes. Red teaching an older Agnes how to pick a lock & hot wire a car, which drives Liz crazy, but she grudgingly admits it may be useful & Red pointing out that Sam taught her when she was younger than Agnes. Liz taking videos of Red & Agnes playing on her phone & showing Red how take pictures while he prefers the old-fashioned way of getting them developed & printed & framed for their house. Mother-Hen/Domestic-God!Red cooking Liz & Agnes's favorite meals & teaching them both a little about baking, flicking flour & powered sugar & soap bubbles with Agnes & - once she goes to bed - making a different kind of kitchen mess with Liz. Red doing his crafts & wood-working & mechanical tinkering while Agnes sits on his lap so she can watch & learn & Liz keeps them company, maybe doing some simple knitting or sewing or just reading or pretending to read while actually watching her daughter & husband being adorable. Speaking of reading, of course they would have a beautiful library, maybe with a window seat or a spiral staircase to a lovely "little book nook" as you so beautifully put it, anon, somewhere for Red & Liz to read quietly together or one of them to read Agnes her bedtime stories. Liz & Agnes dancing around the house to pop music on the radio while Red tries not to smile & join in, professing his only musical love is for playing jazz on the record player in the library but secretly liking that Carly Rae Jepson song about someone maybe calling somebody. And omg, game nights. Absolutely. Red adores being beaten by his girls & can only smile & shake hands as Agnes & Lizzie crow with victory, while - once Agnes goes to bed - he & Lizzie get playfully competitive with strip poker or some other adult game. And then - .....well, it turns out I did have things to add. Whoops 👀😂😅 Sorry about that, anon, but all my ramblings were completely inspired by your lovely message, so you surely get all the credit!! 🥰 Thank you so much for sharing this, anon, I dearly enjoyed this little foray into our beautiful domestic!Lizzington AU!! Much love to you, my friend!! ❤️

#The Blacklist #Lizzington #Agnesgate #thoughts #headcanons #mine #ask #anon #ahhhhhhhh #domestic!Lizzington #and Agnesgate #the blessed place we all wish to live #:')#thank you so much for sharing anon!!#:D #much love!!#<3

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eddie-kasalivich · 3 years ago

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I promised y’all an analysis of Eddie’s room / workshop, and it is HERE in its full glory.

I would like to begin by saying that I don’t have access to the scene where Ford, Doyle, and the FBI investigators are going through Eddie’s apartment, because that has amazing views of several additional rooms in the apartment. As such, I will be analyzing the few screencaps I have with great reverence and scrutiny.

First, his wall is absolutely COVERED in books. It’s impossible to see what the books are, but he obviously has quite a collection of all titles, sizes, and colors. My guess is that they’re informational books about machines, energy sources, etc., all the stuff he works with, but who knows? Maybe Eddie is obsessed with 1950s sci-fi novels or history textbooks or something else unusual.

He has a scarf (AN EXTRA ONE) hanging near his work table. It is so precious that I’ve made multiple posts about it.

Eddie kinda goes against what you might expect his room to look like. He’s very much surrounded by bright colors and light sources, which is not what you might expect from a black-leather-jacket-wearing, motorcycle-riding bad boy (I actually laugh at the thought of the writers trying to make Eddie seem like a “bad boy” stereotype). His pillars are painted red and yellow, his phone is bright green, his TV screen is brilliant purple, his workshop materials are all shiny and colorful—it’s just not what you might expect from him. Eddie is a man of contradictions, and I love that so much.

There are lots of gorgeous sketches and prints around his apartment, usually hanging where he can see them. Several of them look like they were drawn by hand, which really shows the level of detail Eddie considers when he’s working on a project or brainstorming ideas. This one shown below honestly looks like the prints for some fancy contraption he designed and then built and photographed! He must have been really proud of how it turned out to hang it right next to his work table 😊

Eddie’s coffee cup is something I’ve never been able to quite figure out. It’s white with a black symbol and words of some kind, but it’s very hard to get a good look at. To the best of my knowledge, it’s a space capsule, a tunnel, the planet Saturn, or a stack of pancakes (thanks @brokennecksfeatherweights for that idea)!

One of the main things that really stands out to me about Eddie’s apartment is how neat and clean and organized everything is. He’s not messy or cluttered in his work style; you can tell this is his comfortable safe space, and he knows exactly where everything is. Everything is practically pristine, which is just adorable :D

Look at these shelves!! They are SO organized and cool. Eddie clearly collects anything he can find that he might be able to turn into a machine part, which speaks to his forward-thinking and his orderly way of living. I wish we could get a closer look at the things on the shelves, but it’s pretty clear that they’re metal machine parts organized by type. Also, the fact that THIS is the first time we see Eddie—in his own home, surrounded by machines and tools and looking effortlessly perfect in The White Shirt™—is such a gift.

Again, you can see the very organized, very well-kept desk / work table in the background. Very cool. It is incredibly hard to write a thoughtful, well-constructed essay when Eddie just looks like that all the time.

Here you can see a little staircase leading up to a small landing (probably the exit outside his apartment) where he hangs stuff. You can see the flannel shirt that he uses to wrap his frequency converter hanging on the post as he works in this scene. Also, it’s painted pale blue—another little color detail that I love.

Once again, the light streaming into the apartment contradicts the stereotype we might create for Eddie—grungy guy working in his dark workshop—and turns it into a place filled with light and color and creativity. Everything about this apartment screams Eddie and I really love that about it because I also scream that a lot.

Another wall completely covered in sketches and photos. Eddie must really love to sketch his ideas. I should write a fic about that…

I’m really curious about all this stuff on his left. It’s hard to tell exactly what it is (thanks to my horrendous-quality screencaps), but whatever it is, it’s very well organized and clearly functional for what he’s building.

I am obsessed with lighthouses and have several little figures of my own, so I’m going to choose to believe that that’s a lighthouse on Eddie’s windowsill right behind him. Anything to make me feel connected to my love :)

Also, is that another coffee cup????? It totally is, it’s a different shape. HA.

There are so many little things in Eddie’s apartment that really make it feel lived in!! The keyboard, the sketches, the Motor Oil sign, the shirts and scarves hanging on corners, the empty coffee cups—all of it speaks to his gentle nature and the way he lives such a quiet, unpretentious life. His apartment is a beautiful reflection of his character. Also, I would move in with him at the drop of a hat.

Anyway, that’s my analysis of the screencaps I have of Eddie’s apartment!! Someday I’ll have some screencaps from the FBI agents scene and be able to analyze those as well, but I hope y’all enjoyed reading this and getting a glimpse at some of the unique features of Eddie Kasalivich’s living space! :)

#wow this took a long time #but it was totally worth it #i love analyzing things that no one else analyzes :)#it's my biggest thrill #eddie i love you even more now #analysis #eddie kasalivich #chain reaction #keanu reeves

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sanstropfremir · 4 years ago

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I absolutely LOVED reading your kingdom review. You gave me such an insight in things I never even considered, especially since our rankings are so different from each other. The Boyz was my favorite, the narrative was about RTK. How they felt bad for having to compete against their friends but eventually the groups only lifted each other up and it helped TBZ grow into the group they are now through the hardships and mental dilemma, falling into the next challenge right after they reached the top. It should have been more obvious though, I agree, it wasn't really visible for anyone who didn't know. I was wondering how you felt about the dancing in general? my reason for not ranking BTOB high was lack of choreo (and Peniel's verse), same goes for SF9. Mostly because I don't feel the hype when watching, it doesn't keep my focus on the stage. As a baby-performer myself, my goal is to make the viewer curious about what's next. is that the wrong way to look at it? that's what I've always been told, building the tension up and down to create focus. would love to hear your feedback on that! thank you so much for sharing, we need more reviews of people who actually know what they're talking about.

i'm glad that you got some insight from it! like i answered in the previous ask im here to hopefully bring some more depth and understanding for people that care and are curious!

you unintentionally proved my point about tbz’s performance: that is way too complicated! even the most talented solo dancers i can think of would have trouble distilling that down to something readable in 100 seconds, much less a group of like, a dozen people! the introductory stages are meant to show us the character of the group and their abilities in the most concise way possible, it's not the stage to do deep philosophical and emotional introspection. for a full stage? absolutely, go hog wild! but for this stage it was too ambitious and ultimately was ineffective to anyone that isn't a fan of them specifically.

by dancing in general do you mean like, every group? i put most of my opinions on the dancing where i had them in each of the individual rankings but honestly? unless there is something that really stands out positively or negatively, a lot of ‘average’ kpop dance looks the same to me. i know it’s not, obviously, and if pressed i probably could do a more serious breakdown, but dance is only one element of performance. it has equal weight with all the others in my mind, and therefore i notice when it is either

very good

does something unique

very bad, or

interferes with another element

which is the same as how i evaluate every element, if that makes sense.

hmmmm. i thought about this a lot in the shower and turns out i had more opinions that i expected so i'll put them under a cut.

firstly, i don't think lack of choreo should be penalized or considered an ‘incomplete’ performance. at the end of the day, these are bands, and a part of their brand/product they sell is the music. complex choreo does not need to be attached to that to make it a successful performance. also, btob did have choreo. any movement on stage is technically choreography. but this terminology can cause confusion so usually non-dance choreo is referred to as ‘blocking.’ but they also did include the song’s original point choreo at 1.41. the blocking in their performance was well thought out and suited the arrangement, by placing spatial emphasis on each part of the song that needed it. obviously it comes down to personal taste if the performance is ultimately ‘successful,’ because all art is subjective, but just because something isn't as visually complex as something else doesn’t mean it doesn't have the same level of thought. think of it like this: one is a super clean-lined post-post-modern grey/white living room, and the other is a kitsch goth basement. both share interior design principles and have obvious care put into the space, but they are vastly different styles that appeal to different tastes.

part of the job of production designer/AD is to decide what gets emphasis. a question you're always asking yourself is ‘is this important to the story that we’re trying to tell?’ and btob/their AD made a very smart choice with their introductory stage because it says a lot about them and their abilities in a short amount of time. that stage said ‘our foundation is strong, we have the training and experience and confidence to be up here and not rely on visual tricks.’ because they know they physically cannot do the things the 4th gen groups can; they're a decade older and they only have four members, it's just not feasible. something you learn with experience is the power that specific and pointed emphasis holds, which segues into my answer to your last question. i don't necessarily think that ‘building hype’ is the wrong way to perform something, but i do think it is a flawed way to approach creating a performance.

i think that ‘hype’ is flawed concept at its core, and one that focuses on the idea that there’s always being something more, something next, beyond the work itself. now there’s nothing wrong with playing with tension within the internal structure of a piece, that's exactly how constructing a narrative happens. however, the flaws come once we extrapolate beyond the boundaries of that individual work. the idea of ‘whats next’ implies that you have to constantly be promoting, have a sequel coming, building hype etc so people will keep engaged with your work. which is deeply capitalistic in nature and operates on the assumption that art exists purely as a product to be sold. and in order to keep selling you need to keep making a bigger and better and more spectacular product. and this is not the case at all. marketability is not the essence of art, it merely a factor of creating it under this insufferable system. kpop in particular suffers from this because the industry is specifically fabricated to produce capitol. we can have discussions all day about idols and their artistic integrity but at the end of that day, they are all cogs working with a system that was specifically made up by essentially one person to be culturally exported and to just print buckets of money. so in following that train of thought, there is a constant attitude of bigger and better because shock value (whether positive or negative) gets social media attention and therefore it sells. and it has become exponentially easier (and also seemingly required) to make things that are bigger and better than ever before. i remember being blown away by the projection floor at the sochi 2014 olympics because something of that scale and complexity would never have been possible without literally having the funding of the olympics. now that technology is easily accessible to anyone with an amazon account and the time to learn how isadora works. in comparison, it took 2400 YEARS for just the job of a ‘theatre designer’ to be even become a job at all.

because of kpop’s fan culture it is especially prone to ‘hype’ behaviour. in general with the accessibility of the internet and social media, everything has turned into a competition, and who can generate the most buzz ‘wins’. but ultimately that has taken away the general public’s ability to recognize that you can enjoy something quietly and you can enjoy something slowly. that the enjoyment of something doesn’t need to be all exclamation marks and keysmashes and trending hashtags on twitter. there is value in a work engaging in an emotion within you that is not just excitement. most of the artists and companies that i consume the work of i don’t do so because their work makes me excited, i do so because i liked the experience of engaging with that work. several years ago i saw the eternal tides by legend lin dance theatre, which you can watch a really short clip of here. that is not slow motion, that is actually how slow the dancers are moving. and 90% of the show is performed like that. and its two hours long. and it was one of the most incredible performances i've ever seen. if i ever get the chance I will go see another one of their shows again, not because i care about how they can top that experience i had, but because i know they can produce that experience, and that is enough to make me want to seek them out again. the speed of the internet has also loosened the general public’s understanding of just exactly how long creating a performance work can take. the lead dancer in the eternal tides was with the company for eight years before she and the piece were ready enough to be performed. large scale operas, musicals, and plays often have a year or more of pre-production before they even get to rehearsal. smaller theatre companies workshop new pieces for years at a time. performance is hard and it takes time. you can eliminate some of that with sheer amounts of money and people, which is what the kpop industry has done, but it speeds up the cycle of consumption to a degree that is not sustainable, especially for companies and creators who do not have that kind of access. performers and performance makers often don't put enough trust in their audiences. if they like what they see, they will come back. they dont need to be constantly bombarded with content at all times.

now that i’ve said a bit about why i think hype is a flawed concept, let's bring it back to kingdom. sf9 did something very interesting with their stage in that they actively chose to limit their dance time. and this plays very well off the performance film stage that taeyang did a couple of weeks ago. taeyang is talented and confident (for good reason), and his solo was incredible. but when it came to the intro stage, instead of trying to one-up the solo stage, the group instead said ‘well people are going to be looking at us because taeyang is insanely talented, so let's show them that we ALL have the confidence and the attitude to be up here.’ no need for flashy theatrics, they had the foresight to do something that would make them stand out from the rest of the groups. even if i was just casually watching the stages without doing any analysis on them (like i did for rtk), i would still be able to distinguish them because they had the stones to stand around for half their stage time. now i recognize them and would like to see what else they can do. same principle as what btob and also what ikon did. there is a fine line between anticipation and hype that gets equated in media consumption nowadays, but the two are not the same.

i think the tldr on this is that you dont need to ‘build hype’ or ‘go all out’ to make an interesting work. just focus on telling the narrative that you want to tell, and the people that recognize that will come. i could have a lot more things to say about peoples shrinking attention spans and the constant stream of information that we consume on a daily basis that devalues the labour done by artists in the eyes of the public and promotes hustle culture that is burning out and damaging creators at a rate that is both exponential and frightening, but that’s probably for another time, because this is SO LONG

#kingdom #kpop questions #this was a very interesting ask thank you anon!#the consumption and production of art is fascinating and also as an artist it gives me a fucking headache #many thoughts head too full #i hope this provided you with some more insight anon #none of your opinions are wrong i just have different ones and thats ok! i love discussions like this #Anonymous #kpop analysis #text #general design questions #kingdom review responses #answers #kingdom asks

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sinagrace · 4 years ago

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This summer marks the tenth anniversary since the announcement of The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman’s Skybound imprint at Image Comics, and today is eight years since I left the company as its Editorial Director. I had no intention of waxing nostalgic or posting about this fun and weird chapter of my life, but I’ve been cooped up in an apartment watching my dog as he recovers from surgery… so I’ve got nothing better to do than look at old pictures and post on social media. Being a comic book editor is not an easy job at all. Most folks think it just means emailing people about deadlines and checking for spelling errors, but there’s so much more that goes into the job, especially when you’re working in the field of creator-owned comics. The list of responsibilities is absolutely boring to recount, but I’ll just say that for as mind numbing or menial the tasks may seem, the consequences of going on autopilot and not double checking everyone’s work can lead to catastrophic printing errors with all the blame set on who??? The editor. What’s funny is that I didn’t necessarily want the job. I was really content working part-time on Rodeo Drive and growing my illustration portfolio (I’d been doing the Li’l Depressed Boy with Mx Struble and had finished illustrating a Middle Grade book for Amber Benson at Simon and Schuster). The opportunity to work full-time in comics and learn under a guy as respected as Robert appealed to me. Of his books, I was a fan of Invincible, and more to the point: I really appreciated his brazen defense of creator-owned comics in a Big Two market. Politically, I felt okay giving so much of my life to his journey. At one point in the interview process, Robert asked me if I was familiar with him and his work. My answer was sincere: “I’ve read some of your stuff. I respect you, but I’d never wait in line to meet you.” When I got the job offer, I was still on the fence. My friend Tyler always reminds me that he basically told me to just take the job and decide whether I liked it after I was there. He pointed out that the first ninety days are a mutual trial period for employee and employer. It would totally be fair for me to say in the first three months that the job wasn’t right for me. I’m glad that I listened to his advice, because being present for The Walking Dead’s ascension from beloved bestselling comic book to actual factual international phenomenon was an experience that I deeply treasure and will never have access to for the rest of my life. Even though my main duties were about the comics, I found myself getting tipsy at award show after parties, handling business affairs in talk show green rooms, sitting in development meetings with video game creators, picking up props from creature design workshops, and- the most bizarre scenario of them all- driving my tiny car around big rigs to drop off a pallet of merch at a shipping yard in the South Bay. My first year at Skybound was absolutely crazy, and getting my friend Shawn in the position of Director of Business Development was all too necessary at that point. Between the show’s success and the launch of a handful of original comics, my responsibilities grew to include foreign licensing, copyright filing, convention planning, editing the collected editions, liaising with collaborative partners, and the occasional bit of merchandise design. It was a lot to handle, and I look back fondly on the late nights when Shawn and I would walk down to Pinches for dinner, devouring burritos and chips before putting more hours at the office. We formed intense bonds with the production folks at Image Comics who were putting in the same hours at the Berkeley office. The stress and hard work was always worth it when you’d pull off a miracle like shipping Walking Dead every three weeks on time for a 100th issue to come out at Comic-Con with a smattering of variant covers- including a chromium cover that required multiple printers and so much advance planning. (As I’m typing this, I also am remembering that I was still drawing The Li’l Depressed Boy and working on my graphic novel Not My Bag on the side. Considering I hadn’t done any drugs at that point, I have no clue how I did all of that and still found time to sleep.) Being an editor is a pretty intense grind, and if you’re not a career editor, then the eventual burnout will hit super hard. I loved my job, and I loved the artists Robert chose to work with… for the most part, they were all kind and hardworking folks dedicated to the craft. I met one of my best friends on the job, and I was able to bring in my favorite people along for conventions across the continent. There were extraordinary highs, but the gig was taking a toll on me. I was answering work emails in Texas on Mx. Struble’s wedding day. I worked six out of the seven days I was in France for my sister’s wedding, and still got yelled at for something going wrong. How do you delegate instincts to someone? “Double check the file size because sometimes so-and-so will scan things wonky,” or “zoom in at 300% because the clipping path will look fine in the preview image but the sword is actually creeping into the logo.” I was starting to mess up, and after a point, it became clear that I needed to transition as a full-time writer and illustrator. It’s eight years later, and I’m still so very happy that I took the job. I may have pulled a lot of hair out, but I learned so much about storytelling and the business of making comics from one of the most iconic guys in the business. I always let my editors know how much compassion I have for the work they have to do, and try to never add problems to their already busy days. Some production designers may still hate me, because I learned all the tricks in terms of how late you can push something at the printer… but I’m getting better, I promise!! I know how valuable it is to connect with local retailers and with readers, because they’re all coming from a place of just loving comic books so darn much, and they’re the ones doing the major work in helping build successful titles. Skybound is now a decade old and has a staff of over fifty or sixty individuals pushing the brand to new and exciting places. Robert is still someone I admire for how hard he tries to inject vitality into the direct market. I *still* get people coming up to me saying that they thought I was a girl because of my name in the Walking Dead letters column. For as crazy as the freelance creator lifestyle has been the last eight years, I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s been scary, and sometimes hand-to-mouth, but I’d never have had the bandwidth to take on all the opportunities that started coming in recent years if I was still an editor, and I wouldn’t have been as great an advocate for myself in business dealings if i hadn’t learned from Robert. HBD Skybound. X.

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purplesurveys · 4 years ago

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1006

(found at xxbieberburnham)

“The rest of your life”

Are you independent or dependent? Dependent as all hell. I’ll put my foot down on very certain things, but most of the time I prefer hearing input or suggestions from people I trust. I definitely think it’s something I still have to work on because I know I’ll have to be mostly independent at some point.

If you could put your life into a category, where would it go? I feel like this would be easier to answer if you gave a list of categories. I don’t know what kind of insight you’re looking for.

How many animals do you have? I have two, but I call them pets.

Are you popular? Idk and I don’t care. All I know is I don’t actively seek to be so.

What time were you born? 9:11 in the evening.

Have you had any candy this week? Yeah, I had a gummy worm this morning. Mom bought a box of Halloween-themed sweets and there were cupcakes had gummy worms on them alongside marshmallows designed to look like a tombstone.

Are you more afraid of tornadoes or hurricanes? Hurricanes are terrifying, but I’m used to them. We don’t get tornadoes at all so I’ll not only be unprepared for those, but would definitely be more afraid of them too.

Do you like those nerd glasses? Sure, I still think they’re cute and look good on people but I never called them nerd glasses lol. Mine are kinda shaped like one.

Have you ever been in a fist fight? Nah, I’d be wiped out pretty fast.

What color is your house? A light shade of beige.

When was the last time you saw a rainbow? More than a year ago, I’m sure. It was during our ride back home from a journalism workshop, which if I remember correctly was all the way in Cavite. Goddamn we traveled a lot for those workshops.

Have you ever ate a crayon? I’ve never bitten off a piece but I’m not ruling out at least licking.

Ever rode in a helicopter? Nope. Would love to.

Do you like rabbits? Sure.

Do you like mushrooms? For the most part I don’t even think they taste like anything, so I never really had a problem with mushrooms.

“It’s like you step into the room and just press play”

What was the last movie you cried at? That Thing Called Tadhana. I had watched it five years ago after my first breakup; I got to go to Sagada shortly after that breakup, so that movie was actually very therapeutic for me at the time because it allowed me to release my feelings the way Mace did, also in Sagada. Now I’m stuck at home and can’t travel and that movie just hurt too much to finish.

What ice cream flavor best describes your personality? I don’t really...pair ice cream flavors with types of personalities.

Would you rather work for a small or large company? Large, because I feel like I’d be challenged more in those and thus learn more. Also it just looks nicer on resumés, if I’m being honest. Smaller companies are ok too but I prefer those that already have a rep for churning excellent results and having a good track record for workplace culture, like the company I’m currently working with.

Where's your favorite place to buy clothes? Ukays. I used to not like them, but my mom and sister did a great job reeling me in and making me see the appeal.

How many languages do you speak? Two.

What was the worst movie you've ever seen? Me Before You was such a waste of my time. Predictable, cheesy, and typical asshole-guy-softens-up-over-time-oh-and-just-as-you-start-to-root-for-him-we’re-gonna-kill-him-off. But idk, I was with friends who were into movies like those and I wanted to support them, so I went along to watch.

What video game have you played the most? Cumulatively, pretty sure it’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

What was your favorite TV show as a child? I was a Nickelodeon girl and Spongebob, Fairly OddParents, and My Life as a Teenage Robot were my top 3, with Jimmy Neutron closely trailing at #4. I loved Disney shows too but wasn’t really able to appreciate them as much until I got a little older and could understand their humor better.

What's your favorite sport? My answer won’t change - if it counts, pro wrestling. If it doesn’t, my next favorite is table tennis.

If you were given a brand new yacht, what would you name it? Nothing creative is coming to me at the moment.

Do you believe there’s life on other planets? Yes. Maybe not the ones in our solar system, but those out in the distant universe for sure.

What was the worst place you ever traveled to? Can’t say I’ve truly disliked a particular place we’ve been to. I will say that Chinese people have a...culture that I’m not used to, and I did not enjoy touring with a bunch of them during my cruise. They had buffet habits that I would consider unhygienic, they would sit at the same table my mom and I were eating at if there were available seats(??????? imagine if I just sat beside you at a diner while you’re having lunch?), and apparently it’s acceptable for them to actually look you in the eyes and point directly at you if they’re talking about you with other people. It was honestly a lot to put up with for six days, and the only reason I didn’t lose my temper was because my dad works in the ship and I didn’t want to cause him any trouble.

What is one thing you’re really bad at? Making art.

Do you believe in angels? No. I like referring to my grandpa as my guardian angel, but I don’t actually believe in angels.

Would you rather be a famous actor or musician? I know I’m awful at either, but I’d much rather act.

“where have you been all my life?”

If you could have invented one thing, what would it have been? It’d be cool to come up with something that ends up being widely popular and/or beneficial to society, but do it accidentally; like how popsicles came to be. Imagine building a legacy from your own oopsie lmao sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

What's your favorite exercise workout? I don’t do workouts.

What's your favorite thing to do? Wow, very straightforward. Hmm these days I’m slowly inching back to wrestling, so I’ve been watching compilations and documentaries and doing some catching-up here and there. Lately I’d say that’s my favorite thing to do, but that can always change.

What did you do for your 17th birthday? Gab and I went to Pinto and she brought me to Filio after. Then I got back home to see what Athenna had done to my room while I was out, which was to cover the floor with balloons and the walls with printed photos of Zayn Malik.

Does your local Wal Mart have benches in them to rest? First, we’ll need to have local Wal-Mart stores here.

Was your favorite stuffed animal really a teddy bear growing up? I never liked stuffed animals, so I didn’t even have a teddy bear.

If your house was haunted, what would you do? Not fuck with the ghosts/spirits.

Are you crazy in love currently? Not crazily, but in love.

Are you good at swimming? I can tread and do several strokes, but I also tend to panic so I think that eliminates the concept of me being a good swimmer.

What's worse: Slow internet or slow walkers? Slow internet. I can get around slow walkers; but unless I have mobile data, slow internet is out of my control for the most part.

What is the rudest thing a guy has ever done to you? I can’t pick between whistling at me, catcalling me, lunging at me, or flirtatiously harass me in front of his friends while I was minding my goddamn business carrying a goddamn box of cake at the mall. Yeah, not a very big fan of men.

Do you sleep with the sheets tucked in or out? Out.

What do you do to fall asleep faster? Put on a YouTube video and let autoplay take over.

Do you carry a bottle of water wherever you go? Yeah I used to, until I lost it.

Ae you afraid that one day you might get cancer? The fear of the possibility is there, but it’s not predominantly in our family history and so I’m more afraid of other issues I have a higher chance of getting, like high blood pressure.

“Letters to Juliet”

Are you a fast or slow walker? Fast if I’m running errands, slow-ish if I’m out for leisure.

Do you usually have to wear a belt with your pants? No.

Does it bother you when people's underwear hangs out? Kinda. Even more when their crack decides to show up too.

Are you usually the person to try new things with your hair? No, I am one of the last people in line when it comes to that.

When's your birthday? April 21st.

Do you own a bobble-head toy? Nopes.

What color was the towel you used to dry off with today after a shower? Turquoise.

Has anyone ever walked you home? I’ve had someone drive me home. Walking isn’t really applicable here.

Have you ever liked someone and they were taken? That’s never happened to me.

When was the last time you went fishing? In my past life, maybe.

True or false: You've read the book Lord of the Flies? False.

Have you heard of the band Yellowcard? Yes.

Have you ever seen the show Teen Wolf? I’ve seen an episode and oh my god it was so boring.

Do you have any quotes, lyrics etc on your walls? I used to until my mom took it down while I was in school. I made it myself, so it stung.

Are you a fan of Star Wars? No.

“Our parents never let us cross the street, but we did it anyway”

Has anyone ever told you that you have nice hair? Whenever it was actually nice, yeah. It was never my best feature though.

What brand of camera do you own? I have...an iPhone, if it counts, ha. My old DSLR was a Nikon.

Is there something you're not looking forward to? The next day. Having to go through rounds of anxiety is not enjoyable.

Have you ever read the book Thirteen Reasons Why? Have not read the book nor seen the show, but have read enough of the premise to know I am not a fan.

Do you wear white pants? Sure, I have a pair of white jeans that I absolutely love.

When was the last time you were really angry? Yesterday. My sister and I were ordering KFC from a food delivery app and no driver was taking it because drivers in that company are notoriously picky bitches about their destinations. They kept canceling our orders and at some point I had enough and proposed that we just get Pizza Hut, this time straight from the Pizza Hut website, which has always worked out for us before. So Pizza Hut confirms the order, calls me up and says the ETA, so far so good. Around 15 minutes later the doorbell rings and it’s...KFC? With our original orders? Apparently that stupid ass app took our order anyway after repeatedly canceling it, and I never got one fucking notification that our order was received. Tried to cancel Pizza Hut but they said they had already started making the pizzas, so in the end we had to pay for both meals. I had never been so angry.

Have you ever made a 3 pointer in a basketball game? Hah, of course not. I’ve barely made one of those free throws that are worth one point.

Do you think you look better with your hair up or down? I’ve gotten more compliments whenever it’s up, so that must look better on me even if I personally don’t necessarily agree.

Do you warm up before you hardcore exercise? I don’t exercise, but isn’t warming up recommended anyway?

Do you want a pair of Converse shoes? Not really; I suppose they’re alright. It’s not my favorite brand in the world, but I wouldn’t turn down a free pair either.

Are you more of a studs or hoops type of person when it comes to earrings? Hoooooooooops for days.

How many shirts do you have of your favorite band? Just one. I’m not a band shirt person.

Turn on the TV. What channel are you on? There’s no TV in this room.

Have you ever wore a tie before? Yeah, as a kid my mom sometimes made me wear neckties. They made me SO uncomfortable I was having internal breakdowns about being seen in public. I was 7 years old. Neckties to me were a boy thing and I felt 0% boy; and so it gave me such serious dysphoria. It’s like making a boy wear a pink tutu even if he’s already visibly distressed. Whenever I told my mom I felt uncomfortable, she would just tell me it “looks good.” Jesus Christ. Why did no one ever drag my mom to a parenting seminar? Did no one seriously see the signs???

What did you have for breakfast this morning? Garlic rice, bacon strips, and glazed ham.

“For the Krusty Krab”

Are you good at art? Of course not.

How many times have you read your favorite book? I don’t have one.

Name one thing that you really hate. Raisins, on their own and incorporated in a dish.

Have you ever tried walking on stilts? I haven’t.

Is there a war that you find interesting? Eh, not really. So many of historical accounts are bombarded with war narratives as it is, and I’ve just never really found disputes or tensions among countries to be the most interesting part about history. Plus women were mostly absent, and that makes it even more boring.

Would you rather live in the city or country? City.

Do you think $7 is too much for a movie ticket? Not always. $7 or ₱350 is actually pretty reasonable if you wanna see a movie at an upscale mall; people who watch movies in places like that shouldn’t be complaining about movie tickets that cost that much. But all movie theaters are the same anyway - pitch black, freezing, comfy chairs - so I just go to midscale malls where tickets would be like a hundred bucks cheaper since it’s gonna give me the same experience anyway.

Would you like to be a newscast person? For a long time I thought I wanted to be one because that’s what my entire family was rooting me to become. Eventually I realized reading from a teleprompter, interviewing guests, and asking questions to reporters is not a career I want.

Do you like word searches, coloring or crosswords better? Word searches, then coloring, then crosswords.

Close your eyes and press a random key on the keyboard. U.

How many William’s do you know? I don’t think I know anyone. It’s too foreign-sounding a name.

What time did you wake up this morning? I woke up at around 6 AM, but I fell back asleep immediately and woke up again around 30 minutes later.

Do you enjoy crutches? ...No? That seems a little insensitive for people who actually need them.

What's better: Snapple or Arizona tea? Arizona. It’s because I’ve never had the Snapple one, but tbh Arizona is already pretty delicious anyway.

Make a word out of the word: Dinosaur. Round.

“she said I love this song, I’ve heard it before”

When you were younger, did you play with legos? Yes. I was never a creative kid, but I liked playing with them anyway.

Do you like Trix cereal? It was only my absolute favorite cereal as a kid, no biggie.

Do you get nervous easily? Ugh, yes. My parents asked me to get water containers from our local water station last Saturday and I literally had to allot like two hours to brace myself and make a script in my head. I constantly rehearse shit nearly every time I have to go out of the house.

How long is your Facebook password? I’m not sharing that.

Do you like the movie Mean Girls? No, I didn’t find it funny the first time and that made me uninterested in giving it a second chance.

How do you want your wedding to be? Big, grand. Lots of friends, lots of food. Not Catholic/Christian.

Have you seen the movie or show Catfish? Nope.

Do you hate it when you arrive to something early? Not usually. Being early is my goal in most situations, unless I’m headed to like a party.

Have you ever been on Omegle? A few times as a teenager.

Are you still in love with one of your exes? Yes. It’s not going away for a while.

Do you think it's attractive when guys wear beanies? I don’t necessarily seek out men with beanies lol but I don’t think it looks bad on them either.

What's something that makes you feel shy in public? Unfamiliar situations.

Do you like the shows on MTV? No.

If you could go back and relive one day, what day? That last Friday I was in school before the lockdown happened. If I knew what the next eight months were going to look like, I would’ve stayed much longer in school, dragged my friends out to drink, blew my money on food, had more fun basically.

What's one word you hate to be called? Exhausting. Like being told I’m exhausting to be with. How does that not hurt?

#survey #surveys

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dasilvaartii · 4 years ago

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Personal Evaluation - House Of Cards Brief - Remediated

For this brief we had to firstly create our own interpretation and timeline for the project. My timeline i made an extended way rather than a day to day basis as for me that is more realistic in terms of progress, gives me the freedom to go back and forward exploring my work, while still giving me the deadlines for each step.

One of my mood boards I went with a topic I've worked on in the past and I enjoy exploring as it can bring you to different directions, exploring dark imagery, macabre, apocalyptic, death, some items of steampunk, etc. While researching, I found some information about origins and meaning of the cards and their suits, that shown how they’ve evolved along the centuries, This was quite interesting as i wasn't aware of it.

One of the artists that most inspired me was Emil Melmoth. If i recall correctly i found his work on instagram, and it's just amazing! His sculptures are absolutely stunning! (in some dark macabre way) But the composition of them and the ideas he merges I find it so attractive, even though they will definitely shock a lot of the audience, but that's something I appreciate in art! Also one of my favorites, HR Giger, but for this project I focused more on some mechanical imagery of his.

Started by making some quick thumbnails to generate ideas. This was a good way to start because I got some different and interesting things to explore. So from here I designed each suit.

Being a printmaking course, even though this year we didn't get much access to the college facilities, i didn't want to make my work only in digital format, i wanted to have still the image of a printing technique integrated in my designs, so i decided to go for Lino Printing, as its accessible from home and i enjoy this method a lot.

So, as you can see from the record posts on my tumblr, i design each suit, firstly as a drawing, and then proceed to create the lino cuts, which for the purpose of details i made in A5, as any smaller (normal deck of cards size) in my opinion would love quality in the design.

My other moodboard was focused on colours, contrasts, and a more abstract concept. I did some research on it and found some interesting artists like Sonia Delaunay, who has created her own deck of cards designs, which was quite fun to see. She explores the interactions between depth and movements with colour contrasts, and even though it is not my “cup of tea” i found it very interesting how it works together. Using some of these artists' ideas and inspirations we did a workshop with colours and painting with sponges. Personally this wasn't something very exciting for me, but i ended up using some of it as background and development work further ahead.

After having my Linocuts set up and ready, I made some initial prints, from which I created digitally a first idea towards the finals. I think it worked well but for me it wasn't quite there yet...they needed something more!

Sometimes it is good to step away from something to give you a better view, to look back at it with clearer eyes, so i decided to focus for a while in creating my box design.

For this i played with some mark making, collage, drawings, as i had the idea already in my head to give it a mechanical look for the cover, which i would also use on the back of the cards. After I manipulated that imagery on Photoshop, playing with layers, contrast, twisting the images, stretching them to their potential. I am very pleased as to how these turn out.

Coming back to my suits designs...

i decided to work more with mix media on the prints, see where i could take them, and if I could get closer to the idea i had in my head as to how i wanted them to look. In order to create a frame, I used masking tape before using materials like watercolours, pens, posca pens and textures to add some mask making. I am really happy with how these turned out, felt as they have potential and it was getting closer to a final result.

For my finals, I decided to clean my prints digitally using photoshop, and created some displays of the cards as if they were on a table, and the game being played. I used the suits I designed into the usual format of the deck of cards to make it simple and understandable to the viewer to recognize, while still leaving my own trade on the cards. The font I use resembles as if it was a print itself so I feel it works with the designs. Each of the face cards I used was a different design of the actual suit (On my tumblr i show that with the suit of hearts) all designed by me.

Overall i felt this project was challenging as i never did anything like this, at some point a bit frustrating not sure on where it was heading and due to the current circumstances and working a full time job. But once I got my gears right, I picked up the rhythm and I found my way back to what I was making and I really enjoyed and am pleased and excited with the result! In terms of time management i feel i did and handled quite well. Kept updating my page as i went by also to keep myself straight in covering all the necessary topics of the brief. I’m happy with the topic i choose, as i mention before, it kept me interested and wanting to create a more professional looking prints for my finals. I feel they connect with each other in the concept i choose to take forward with developing.

If I was to develop further, I would probably experiment with different backgrounds on the face of the cards. I would love to actually physically create them to make them possible to play because i really like how they turned out. Possibly would make some changes to the box design. Not so much changes but to make it look less digital, i guess i would try the design with screen printing layers! I think that could turn out to be very interesting.

#hnd2 #HOC_HNDCPM2 #hoc hndcpm2 #print #printmaking #creativeprintmaking #creative #cogc #evaluation #development #deck of cards #card suits

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nerdy-bits · 5 years ago

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XCOM: Chimera Squad Review

XCOM Chimera Squad is my definition of a pleasant surprise. Just soldiering through quarantine on a lazy April Tuesday afternoon, across my news feed comes the improbable: a new XCOM game getting shadow dropped. Just a short ten days away, Chimera Squad would be releasing. What’s more? If you preordered, or purchased before May first, the game was only ten dollars.

Now I fully recognize, it may be the trying times we’re enduring, but that lazy tuesday suddenly felt like Christmas.

I’ve been a huge fan of XCOM since the reboot, Enemy Unknown, was released in 2012. I remember doing my research and discovering XCOM had first launched in 1994, but I never had the chance to play those games. Regardless, ten minutes into Enemy Unknown I knew I was sold.

Where Chimera Squad differs from its predecessors is, well, in a lot of places. Where XCOM 1 and 2 finds you operating as the Commander of XCOM, at first an international force assembled to fight back alien invasion, then as a resistance seeking to overthrow alien overlords, Chimera Squad is the result of an XCOM initiative called the Reclamation Project. With the war against the occupying aliens won, XCOM tasks an interspecies team of operatives to support the police of City 31. The former hub of Advent control, City 31 has become the world’s model city for human and alien integration.

As Chimera Squad, as directed by the Reclamation Project, you are tasked with seeking out and pacifying rogue groups in the city hoping to hamper its lofty goals, and simultaneously track down and reclaim scattered wartime technologies. But, of course, things don’t go specifically to plan. In the first moments of the game you are tasked with saving the life of Mayor Nightingale. Taken hostage by dissidents, 31PD is at a standstill and calls in the cavalry. With Chimera Squad so newly formed, Verge, your Sectoid Psionic teammate has to take a cab and catch up with the team on site.

That is the other way that Chimera Squad breaks the mold. Where other XCOM games give you a force of editable, backstory-less characters, this title has twelve operatives with names, backstories, voice actors, and personality. I wasn’t sure how I would like this change at first. Part of my love of the series is the stories that I can attach to the characters as I grow familiar with each of their abilities. And losing those soldiers becomes so much more personal when they fall in battle.

In Chimera Squad there is no such thing as losing a character. In fact, character death results in a game over screen and a “Load Checkpoint” prompt. Gravely wounded soldiers have an increased chance at earning a scar, a semipermanent debuff that can only be cleared by sending them to rehabilitative training. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about these changes. I have moments from previous games that have stuck with me for years, based on the deaths or retrieval of lost characters. Chimera Squad axes that in the interest of telling a story with its characters, and for such a radical change, it really pays off.

Dialogue in-mission feels largely the same. Conversations back at base however, really lend to the depth of the characters. I found myself constantly bemused by the tidbits of information I could glean from these operatives interacting with each other. It only takes a couple of lines to understand where Godmother gets her callsign. In one instance, Cherub - the affectionate mascot of the squad - asks Godmother to sign off on paperwork allowing the soldier and scientist who found him to adopt him. See Cherub is a clone soldier. Created by Advent for war, but woken after the Ethereal mind control had been lifted. He explains that the two people who found him, set him free, had gotten married a few years later and now they wanted to adopt him.

I truly had no expectation that I would be charmed this much by an XCOM title. But it didn’t end there.

Later in the game, given the opportunity to recruit another unit to Chimera’s ranks, I chose Zephyr, a Hybrid bruiser whose only wield-able weapons were her fists. I rarely choose melee characters, but because Chimera Squad is so unique, I figured I would try something new. In her first mission she was a blast to use. Her attack rooted enemies, meaning they can’t move on their next turn, and after her attack she is granted an additional action point so that she can distance herself from enemies that would take advantage of her close range to shoot her. I was convinced. Then we went back to base.

In her one and only base-dialogue I heard, she asked Cherub to be her training dummy. Except, she didn’t call him by his name, she called him Knock-Off. When confronted by Terminal (another agent) that he has a name Zephyr waved them away and called for Knock-Off to come along. Always the team morale agent, he complied, telling his defender that it was ok.

I never used Zephyr again. She literally developed workshop projects for the next 20 hours of my campaign.

Again, I never expected that an XCOM game would make me feel like this about my soldiers. And quite frankly, I absolutely fell in love with this game because of it.

Chimera Squad is clearly built on the XCOM 2 engine. As one would assume, with that fact comes the realization that a lot of the combat mechanics for this iteration of the game are immediately familiar. This lends to Chimera Squad feeling like an expansion in a way that few stand-alones achieve. After learning the non-complex intricacies of the Breach phase, a shock and awe stage that starts every encounter, combat falls into a rhythm that fans of the series will be comfortable with. With one major adjustment.

Rather than the “I go, you go” turn-based nature of games previous, this title takes an approach that feels far more like an initiative roll in a game of Dungeons & Dragons. The devs at Firaxis re-appropriate the term “Interleaved” here. Traditionally meaning to place blank pages between printed pages of a book, here it simply means that your enemy will take turns with you, within a timeline displayed on the right side of the screen.

This forces players, otherwise familiar with the privilege of running through all of their characters before the enemy gets a chance to act, to plan more carefully. You may only have one agent in line at the start of a fight before hostiles get to retaliate. This leads to an increase in the importance of finding the most synergistic combination of agent abilities. Who can manipulate that timeline? Who can debuff, incapacitate, or eliminate targets the fastest and with the most cascading effect?

I found myself, at the halfway point of my playthrough (about 15 hours), settling into my squad. Godmother, a mobile, agile, hard hitting, shotgun wielding enforcer. Verge, a Sectoid psionic, with the ability to disable, berserk, and mind control assailants. Patchwork, a techie drone pilot whose drone shock can arc between enemies with a chance of debuffing every target zapped. And Finally, Blueblood a gunslinger with two pistols, one that ignores cover, and the ability to fire multiple times per turn.

In any situation, I could finagle my way into disabling or dispatching two targets fully or up to eight targets partially within my first four actions. Add to this the few odds and ends you can nab from the Scavenger Market, a transient market that visits every week, or side mission rewards, and you can find yourself with a few epic weapons, specialized buff grenades like the Motile Inducer. Two free actions, immediately, to whomever you throw it at.

Finding these synergies and supplements, is at the core of Chimera Squad, and while the process isn’t entirely unique to this title, it certainly feels more important when the turns are interleaved, the quarters are close, and your innate advantage lasts a single, Rainbow Six-esque, breaching action.

Over the course of your game you will investigate three factions in City 31: The Progeny, Grey Phoenix, and Sacred Coil. Each faction has different units, abilities, and motivations, and as you take out each faction, the surviving factions will scale up in response. It is your job to root out their goals, foil their plans, and neutralize the threatening potential they hold. As illustrated by the comic book-styled cutscenes, Chimera Squad is against the wall and the clock, as unrest in the city rises you have to manage threats based on their cost to your levels of unrest in the nine districts of the city. You will forgo missions that have good rewards to manage the unrest in an unruly district. Spend your investigation points to deploy Security, Technology, or Financial teams in each district to access buffs that give you the ability to stave off increased unrest, decrease unrest in specific districts, or in the city overall.

At its core Chimera Squad is truly an XCOM game, forcing its players to train their soldiers, research projects in the workshop, manage unrest across a map, and manage resources, all while fielding an active combat team in harrowing and varied encounters. Is it XCOM 3? No, not at all, but one shouldn’t conflate the two. Chimera squad is a $20 exploration into the ways that XCOM can, and I believe will, evolve. Expect to see hero characters in the future, with backstories and voice acting. Expect to see multiple paths in the campaign, with escalative properties as the game progresses. But more than anything, expect to feel right at home with Chimera Squad, despite the ways it alters the formula. You’ve simply moved on from Sazerac to Vieux Carre. Your rye whiskey is still there, just this time you have some sweet vermouth. Enjoy.

#xcom #chimera squad #review #video #nerdybits #strategy games #firaxis #pc

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lady-divine-writes · 5 years ago

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Alas, Poor Yorick! This Is Gonna Suck! (Rated T)

Summary: It's been two years since the Apoca-didn't and Aziraphale and Crowley still aren't a couple - much to Crowley's dismay. Aziraphale has his reasons, but Crowley doesn't feel those apply to them. But if Aziraphale won't listen to him on the subject, maybe he'll listen to their good friend Shakespeare.

-or-

Crowley professes his love for Aziraphale through virtue of a single, passionate kiss and traumatizes a room full of pre-teens in the process. (2932 words)

Notes: Written for the tumblr inbox ask prompt - 'Crowley and Aziraphale perform/inspire Shakespeare'

(AO3)

“Are we really going to do this?” Crowley groans, re-reading the flier Aziraphale had printed for his recent venture, one that he’s managed to strong-arm Crowley into participating in against his will and better judgement.

“Of course we are!” Aziraphale lightly punches Crowley on the shoulder in a gesture that makes the demon lean away suspiciously. “Buck up! It’s going to be fun!”

“Your definition of fun and my definition of fun seem to vary greatly, angel.”

“Look …” Aziraphale rounds up old rags and a bottle of wood polish and begins tidying up a space he has affectionately begun to refer to as his Globe Theater West “… we made a pledge ...”

“You. You made a pledge.”

“... to help support youth theater in Soho. And putting on a performance of Shakespeare is the easiest way to start.”

“You could have donated the play books. That would have been easier.”

Aziraphale peeks up from the bookshelf he’s polishing and glares at the demon reclining a short distance away. “Bite. your. tongue. Besides, whether you realize it or not, we’ve been presented with a golden opportunity.”

“And what’s that?”

“It seems an inordinate amount of young men signed up for my workshop as opposed to young women, so this gives us the perfect excuse to perform Shakespeare’s works the way they were done from the beginning.”

“In a large, open-air theater that smells like horse shit, where a handful of audience members die before the end of the second act?”

“No, where men play most of the roles, including the ladies’ parts.”

“That’s going to go over well.” Crowley chuckles. “Did you set aside enough money to pay for therapy and legal fees? ‘cause you might just need it.”

“Nonsense. And to kick things off, you and I are going to show them how easy it will be.”

Crowley arches a brow. “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“And what, pray tell, have you chosen for us to perform?”

“Romeo and Juliet,” Aziraphale answers with a wistful sigh.

Crowley lowers his glasses, fixing Aziraphale with a cold, yellow stare. “It better be the scene where they both die.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! We’re going to do an uplifting scene. One that everyone knows and loves. One of the most popular scenes in the play.”

“Them dying is pretty damned popular. Especially among thirteen-year-olds.”

“Yes, but anyone can die.”

Crowley sighs. Without being told, he knows exactly what scene Aziraphale is referring to, and try as he might, there’s no way he’s going to win this argument. If he leaves now, that doesn’t mean he’s getting out of this. Aziraphale can miracle anywhere Crowley ends up with a snap of his fingers.

Or he could bless the front doors so he can’t leave.

He’s not opposed to performing Romeo and Juliet. He’s performed plenty of Shakespeare in his time. But with regard to this scene in particular, there does happen to be one tiny catch.

He stands from his seat and walks over to the bookcase Aziraphale has scrubbed nearly spotless. “I’ve never kissed you before, angel.”

“Neither have I,” Aziraphale replies without looking up. “Kissed you, I mean. But we’ll be actors plying a craft. I’m sure we can do it for the sake of the performance.”

“Is that really how you want your first kiss?”

“I …” Aziraphale stops what he’s doing, kneels up and rests his hands on his thighs “… how do you know it would be my first?”

Crowley shrugs. “Lucky guess.”

“It’s just a kiss.” Aziraphale goes back to his polishing. “Part of the scene. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

“Oh, it doesn’t have to mean anything,” Crowley snaps sarcastically. “All right then. It won’t mean anything.”

“You don’t have to take a tone with me.”

“Tone? Tone? What tone? There’s no tone. I don’t have a tone.”

But there was a tone, and Crowley couldn’t help having it.

He’d thought that after the Apoca-didn’t, things would change between them. That they’d be together. But every time he brought it up, Aziraphale changed the subject. Eventually the subject simply drifted away. But it’s not that Aziraphale ignored it. He admitted that he was afraid of things changing between them if they took any further steps, but he didn’t exactly specify which changes in particular frightened him. So in order not to lose Crowley altogether, he chose ‘standing still’ to ‘moving forward’.

Crowley understood that sort of, but it still bruised his ego.

More than that - it hurt his feelings.

What Aziraphale said made sense … for humans. But they weren’t humans. And they weren’t invincible. Even though they’d managed to get Heaven and Hell off their backs, that didn’t mean there weren’t targets painted on them.

Immortal they may be, but eternity isn’t assured for anyone.

Crowley could ask poor Ligur about that one.

Or, more to the point, he can’t.

It’s been nearly two years and Crowley still looks over his shoulder from time to time.

In Crowley’s opinion, if there’s something they want to say or do, they should consider doing it now.

“I’m just sayin’, if that’s how you feel about it ...”

“Yes,” Aziraphale says softly, speaking to his own reflection in the gleaming wood. “That’s how I feel about it.”

“End of discussion, I take it?”

“End of discussion.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic, that is.”

“Dearest …” Aziraphale peeks over the side of the bookcase at the persnickety demon pacing between the stacks “… can we please try and make this a pleasant afternoon for the children? No need to get them caught up in our personal melodrama when there’s so much of Shakespeare’s to be explored.”

“Absolutely. No problem at all. Completely pleasant, me. I swear. There’s no alcohol in that scene, if I remember correctly,” Crowley jokes, attempting, in some small measure, to diffuse the tension he helped create.

Aziraphale rewards his efforts with an understanding smile. “None at all.”

“Well ...” Crowley drops down on the sofa and starts pouring himself a drink anyway – the first of many. “This is going to be a long afternoon.”

***

“All right, ladies and gentlemen!” Aziraphale addresses the nine boys and three girls on the roster with a giddy clap. “Welcome, welcome, welcome to our first ever youth theater workshop! I’m so so glad you all could make it! Thank you for your interest!”

“We’re here cuz Adam signed us up,” Wensleydale rats out his friend.

“Not me,” Warlock says. “I don’t bend to the will of my peers.”

“Then why are you here?” Brian asks, not at all impressed with Adam’s recent addition to their group - the dark-haired, occasionally foul-mouthed miscreant with moony eyes for Adam.

Warlock’s gaze falls to his boot as he worries a spot on the floor with his toe. “Nanny made me come.”

Adam elbows Warlock in the side.

Warlock smirks.

Brian rolls his eyes.

“Okay then. I’ve printed up the scene we’ll be performing so you can follow along.” Aziraphale passes around handouts while Crowley lurks in the corner, as helpful as a bronze statue. “Brian and Adam, you both said you were interested in playing Romeo …”

“Yup,” Adam replies.

“I … I was.” Brian glances nervously around at the other boys in the room and the three girls, one of them his best friend Pepper. “Now I’m not so sure …”

“Great!” Aziraphale rallies on, ignoring Brian’s anxiety. “We’ll sort out Juliet later.” He winks at the young ladies. “No need to assume.”

“Why can’t we start with one of the fighting scenes?” Pepper asks.

“Yeah, why can’t we start with one of the fighting scenes?” Crowley groans.

“Because fighting is easy. There’s a lot of fighting in Romeo and Julie, don’t you worry. But the meat of this play is the love story. Two households, both alike in dignity, and yet …”

“… they couldn’t get their act together for the sake of their kids,” Pepper finishes.

“Exactly,” Aziraphale says proudly. “But the love Romeo and Juliet shared, their connection to one another …”

“… was probably hormonal,” Crowley finishes.

“Crowley!”

“It was! They knew one another for what? All of four days? And in that time, six people died! Their adolescent urges weren’t just insatiable! They had a body count!”

“That definitely sucks all the romance out of it, doesn’t it?” one of the non-Pepper girls says.

“Just giving you the facts, miss,” Crowley says. “To be honest, those statistics are pretty light considering an average weekend in Verona during the Renaissance ...”

“I think that’s a discussion best left for another time,” Aziraphale says, reigning the class back in. He grabs a chair, sets it in the center of the space in front of the twelve children, and sits down in it. “Why don’t we get a move on so we can start assigning the rest of the roles? Hmm?”

“Yay,” Crowley cheers dismally, dragging over a second chair, scraping two of its feet loudly along the surface of the wood floor. He flips it around and straddles it facing Aziraphale because sitting in a chair the way it’s meant would be too easy.

Aziraphale leans towards the sullen demon. “Now please, try and do your best,” he says in a low voice. “We don’t have to be the greatest Shakespearean actors that ever lived, but we should give it a decent go.”

“Sure. Anything you say,” Crowley agrees, unenthused as he may be.

“You start. Whenever you’re ready.”

Crowley looks at his script, a single cursory glance to make sure he remembers the scene correctly. He may prefer Shakespeare’s comedies, but he’s seen Romeo and Juliet a number of times, if only for the extreme absurdity of it.

Though, admittedly, several of those times have been because of Aziraphale.

Aziraphale positively adores Romeo and Juliet. Absurd or not, it’s one of Aziraphale’s all-time favorites, and in a rare moment of sentimentality, Crowley decides to do his best not to ruin that.

It’s not until he’s prepared to start that Crowley sees an opportunity.

Aziraphale hasn’t been listening to him, not where it pertains to the two of them. Of course, Crowley has never exactly been good with words. He’s more of a show, don’t tell sort of demon. And he has to give himself credit for the fact that he’s been showing Aziraphale for thousands of years how he feels about him.

But maybe this time around, good old Willy could lend him a hand.

Crowley had originally planned on being detached for this scene – good enough for youth theater, but not necessarily award worthy. Instead, he puts down his script, takes Aziraphale’s hand, and gets ready to knock the angel out of his socks.

Besides, if that kiss at the end isn’t going to mean anything, there’s no reason for him not to put his all into it.

Aziraphale sees Crowley take his hand and his eyes go wide. He hadn’t expected this. He’d been prepared for the bare minimum, if not less. Maybe it’s written in the script, he thinks, looking at the page he printed, searching for any hint of stage direction (of which there is none). This scene is often performed with the actors holding hands. Crowley would know that, but Aziraphale didn’t think he would do it. He looks from their hands up to Crowley’s eyes, and that seems to be Crowley’s cue to speak.

“If I profane with my unworthiest hand,” he begins with an air of soft intimacy, but enunciating so the kids gathered can hear, “This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”

Aziraphale sits up straighter and clears his throat, mildly uncomfortable by the amount of emotion Crowley was able to invest into those few lines. He, too, sets his script aside, pale blue eyes staring deeply into Crowley’s and not looking away, almost as if the demon had presented him a challenge.

“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this;

For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,

And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.”

Aziraphale doesn’t play it campy. He opted for a pared down, actors’ studio inspired version of this scene – no floofy costumes, no backdrops, no props, no music. Just two performers and Shakespeare’s words to set the scene. And he didn’t change his voice, try to make it high-pitched so the kids would know he was playing a girl. The gender of the characters doesn’t matter. The words, the emotions, the conflicts – those are the things that matter in this scene. Aziraphale chose to perform the role of Juliet as another aspect of himself, in love with someone he isn’t supposed to love. Someone he’s terrified of losing.

Whom he fell in love with all the same.

But unlike Juliet, he’d rather that love go cold than see the object of his affections perish because of it.

He does have to admit that after 6000 years, it’s wearing on him.

Does he really want to stand still when moving forward could be so exciting?

He’s spent his entire existence inspiring love in others. If he lets an opportunity for love pass him by, would another 6000 years be worth it?

“Have not saints lips,” Crowley says, “and holy palmers too?”

“Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.”

“O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.” Crowley inches closer, moving his chair with demonic power to keep it silent – preserve the mood. He’s nose to nose with Aziraphale when he says, “They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.”

“Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.”

“Then move not,” Crowley says in a velvety whisper against Aziraphale’s lips that the angel has never heard before, “while my prayer’s effect I take.” He raises a hand, runs the back of it down Aziraphale’s cheek, ending with a finger beneath his chin. He glances at Aziraphale’s mouth, his breath hitching when Aziraphale holds his.

And here it is – the kiss that will mean nothing.

Not for Crowley. For him, this kiss means everything.

Can a single kiss translate all the love he has for his angel? How continuing on the way they are has been slowly shattering him to pieces?

He prays it can. He’s never been able to put it into words.

He leans closer, the chair he’s on tipping to reach, but before their lips touch, Aziraphale leans away.

Crowley jerks back, staring at Aziraphale in agony, his stony eyes drenched in heartache. But Aziraphale smiles. He reaches up with his free hand and passes it over Crowley’s eyes. Then he carefully removes the demon’s glasses. In a second of mild panic, Crowley turns away, searching out of sight of the audience for a reflective surface to look into.

What was Aziraphale doing?

What had he done!?

Crowley finds one over Aziraphale’s shoulder – the sliver of a mirror peeking out from behind one of the bookshelves. At first blush, he sees himself with hazel human eyes. But they shimmer with magic – Aziraphale’s magic. If he concentrates, Crowley can see his yellow eyes underneath. But for the benefit of those who don’t know he’s a demon, Aziraphale has come up with this.

Because he does want to kiss Crowley, more than anything. More than he ever let on.

And he doesn’t want anything getting in the way.

Aziraphale leans in – innocent Juliet luring Romeo back - but Crowley catches him, capturing his mouth with his own and breathing him in as if Aziraphale is his first breath of air in forever. Their hands, only politely grasping before this point, hold one another, fingers weaving together, so infinitely matched nothing could break them apart.

Crowley doesn’t move farther than an inch away when that kiss ends and he recites his next line. But he has to, because it’s too fitting not to say. “Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.”

Aziraphale doesn’t open his eyes when they part, too star struck to remember where they are, what they’re doing … or the fact that twelve pairs of eyes are watching them at this moment.

In retrospect, perhaps Crowley was right. Maybe he should have had Crowley kiss him once before this … for practice. So he wouldn’t be caught out of left field.

But he’s waited this long for perfection.

And that kiss definitely left perfection in the dust.

“Then have my lips the sin that they have took,” he manages in a trembling voice.

“Sin from thy lips?” Crowley murmurs, eyes sweeping over Aziraphale’s face, drinking him in. “O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again.”

“Yes, please,” Aziraphale whispers.

Crowley grins. “That’s not the next line, angel.”

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a fu---“

Crowley swallows his angel’s profanity with another kiss, sliding a hand up the back of Aziraphale’s neck and into his hair, grabbing gently and pulling him closer. Aziraphale’s hand finds Crowley’s neck and does the same. And with that one kiss, Crowley and Aziraphale have jumped straight from Act I to Act III.

Twelve jaws drop.

Brian looks at Pepper, but Pepper shakes her head. “Don’t even think about it,” she says. “I’m playing Mercutio.”

He turns and looks at Wensleydale, but Wensleydale backs away. “Look, you’re one of my best friends in the universe, but I’m not doing that.”

Adam looks over at Warlock, eyebrows raised. Warlock shrugs. “Yeah, all right,” he says. “Go grab a chair.”

#good omens #ineffable husbands #crowley x aziraphale #aziraphale x crowley #frankie writes

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marvelficrec · 6 years ago

Note

do you have any 100k stony?¿

Massive list of 100k+ stevetony fics for your slow burn needs (under the cut cause there’s 20+ fics!!)

REBIRTH SERIES - 300k - i love

If you think of life and death on a continuum, finding the point where it tips is complicated. It cuts across all political lines and gets to the root of our humanity. It requires faith informed by years of intimacy that you’re doing what’s right for your loved one.

But Tony is just a man. And there’s only so much he can do.

(Or that time when Tony does what is necessary to survive just so that he can continue to fix things and makes extremely rash decisions; because even if Steve may have left him behind, doesn’t mean Tony would do the same. Kind of.)

Deep in the Heart of Me - 256k

Veteran single dad Steve runs a tattoo shop. For his 40th birthday, Pepper arranges for Tony to get that tattoo he always wanted, and he winds up with the mother of all crushes instead. Jumping out of airplanes is one thing, but falling in love is something else entirely. Steve struggles with the idea of actually letting someone into his life. Tony is left trying to keep his heart from being broken while Steve figures things out.

I Said “I Love You,” What Does it Matter if I Lie to You? - 96k (its almost 100k, I love it too much to not rec)

18 year old Tony Stark is your typical teenager. Well, except for how he’s the playboy billionaire heir to Stark Industries and working on two PhDs. Oh, and 6 months ago he was kidnapped by - well, no one really knows who. Since his rescue (excuse you, Tony liberated himself), he’s also been keeping a pretty big secret. Here’s a hint: it’s shiny, red and gold, and flies. Tony’s had a productive couple of months, but the fact that his grandfather keeps trying to hire bodyguards for his “safety” is really putting a cramp in his ability to keep his secret superhero identity, well, a secret.

Steve Rogers wakes up in 2015 and finds out that he’s missed 70 years (Oh god, does this mean he’s 94?), a revelation that he handles with much less grace than usual. Mostly, Steve just wants to be Captain America again, but on his own terms and without a lot of fanfare. To fill the time while Steve tries to figure out the best way to resurrect a dead superhero, his good friend Isaac Stark offers him a job: bodyguard to Isaac’s grandson, Tony Stark - who seems to get into a surprising amount of trouble for a teenager. “There’s no better introduction to the 21st century than through Tony,” says Isaac. Somehow, Steve is not reassured.

Paved With Good Intentions (I’m on the road to hell) - 194k

When the mysterious group of vigilante assassins known only as ‘The Avengers’ are tipped off about the dirty secrets that lie within Stark Industries, Steve Rogers has his heart set on taking out Tony Stark for good in order to protect the rest of the world from his evil. He’s seen the footage, after all- Stark is a man who fights only for himself. And of course, when a job arises as chief bodyguard for Stark, to protect him from the growing threat of an ominously infatuated stalker, the opportunity is way too good for him to miss out on. It’s the perfect placement, and the perfect way to find out whether or not their tipoff is genuine.

But as Steve falls into rank as the new bodyguard for Mr. Stark and he spends time getting to know and protect him, his initial hatred begins to falter and merge into something different, something far more terrifying than the prospect of killing the face of Stark Industries.

Steve Rogers may just be falling in love with him instead.

America Isn’t Chicken - 130k - eh.

After a Civil War, death, rebirth, a takeover by Osborn, brain deletion, and the fall of Asgard, Steve and Tony might just be starting to get back on solid ground with one another. Things aren’t perfect, not yet, but they can be in the same room as each other without resorting to violence, and they’ve even managed to share a smile or two.Seems like the perfect time, then, for Tony to try and fuck it all up with a stupid game of gay chicken.

Meanwhile, as if he didn’t have enough to worry about, Tony realizes some kind of supervillainous trouble is brewing when increasingly advanced armors start popping up all over Manhattan, looking strangely reminiscent of his tech. On the other side of the world, Steve gets news that Zola is on the move in Russia, with some sort of nefarious plan at work.

Which will ruin them first? Will it be this unknown armored villain who is after Tony’s tech? Or will it be Zola unleashing his mysterious plan on the world? Or will Steve and Tony prove to be their own worst enemies, destroying the tentative truce they managed to forge with their own stubbornness?

Blue Lips, Blue Veins verse - 307k

Tony Stark is Iron Man.

Before that, he was an man with bigger heart than brain. Before that, he was an asshole with a bigger mouth than sense. And before that, he was was a scared little boy. Not that it matters. Stark’s always have had iron in their backbone.

Scatterlings and Orphans - 210k

It’s really got to say something about a guy when you can defeat Doombots, AIM, Interdimentional Yeti, SHIELD’s systemic obfuscation, Asgardian Gods, Fox News, and also kick some serious Alien ass with a guy, and still want to punch him in the head over dinner, hasn’t it? Tony’s sure that means something.

Wipe Your Tears Away - 121k

Steve likes taking care of his team. It gives him focus in a confusing new world. But one member of the team never learned that it’s okay to be taken care of. Until the night Tony gets a concussion, and his deepest secret - that, when he’s absolutely sure he’s alone, he likes to role play being a toddler - comes out into the open and affords Steve the perfect opportunity.

Sixpence In His Shoe - 103k

Steve and Tony should really read the fine print on what they’re signing. Then again, some mistakes are not really mistakes.

almeno tu nell'universo - 114k - good! nice!

Tony drives off.

Well, he wants to.

But he can’t.

Because.

Steve Rogers is in front of his car.

Steve fucking Rogers. Is in front of Tony’s fucking car.

Double Time - 123k

Cassino, Italy, December 1943. Special Agent Tony Stark, former Marvels adventurer, is sent to investigate a Cosmic Cube found by the Invaders – and it’s the perfect opportunity for him to rekindle his secret romance with Steve Rogers. But when Hydra attempts to steal the Cube, an inadvertent wish for help leads to the appearance of a Tony from the future of another world: Director Stark of SHIELD. This Tony is a man with a lot on his mind. He refuses to tell them anything about the future, but he seems to know much more than he should about Captain America. And something’s happened that’s clearly killing him inside, but he’s not talking. When Director Stark’s failed attempt to return home leads to the unexpected appearance of another visitor from his universe, all the lies come undone. Now there are two wars to fight, and the second one could ruin all of them.

Irreparable - 131k - WIP but good

Forgiveness is a journey, or so Tony was maybe told a long time ago. He doesn’t know about any of that and doesn’t particularly care to. In the wake of civil war, the Avengers remain, as do their enemies. And Tony Stark rebuilds, as always.

He destroys the phone, he burns the letter. But he can’t (he won’t) eliminate Steve Rogers from his mind.

Blank Space - 113k

During a fight with Doom, Steve is hit with a spell that takes all of his memories from his time as a Super Soldier. The last thing he remembers is going in for the Project Rebirth experiment. Now he’s being told it is 80 years later, he’s a Super Soldier called Captain America, and he leads a team of other super powered people.

One week earlier Tony finally takes the leap and makes a move on Steve. It works out great and they start dating, without telling anyone. Now Steve doesn’t even remember ever knowing him and Tony doesn’t know how to tell the guy from the 1940’s that they are in a relationship.

Sins of Omission - 155k - another WIP but good

A Post-Civil War, Pre-Secret Invasion AU where Steve is dead, Tony’s a mess, and everything sucks.

In which Tony deals poorly with Steve’s death, falls off the wagon, sees ghosts, and misses a lot.

Oh, and the Skrulls are about to invade.

Resurrection Verse - 338k

Doom brings Steve back from the dead. Hijinks ensue, some of which might vaugely be considered plot.

Even the Light is an Illusion - 102k

Death threats are an unfortunate side-effect of being Tony Stark, so he’s learned to ignore them. The problem is, when someone really wants you dead, hiding your head in the sand just kinda exposes your ass.

But it’s not just Tony’s behind on the line. Whoever wants him dead wants him to suffer first, and they’re willing to do anything to make that happen. Tony knows there’s only one way out. To save Steve, the Avengers, and the general public, Tony has to die. Of course, death isn’t always the end, and Tony does what any other self-disrespecting scientist would do: he finds a way to fake his death and avenge his own murder.

The trouble is, terrible decisions usually have a terrible price, and this one is no different. Tony has a chance to save the day, but the cost may be more than Tony was ever expecting to pay…

In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury) - 343k

Steve takes things like personal responsibility and respect seriously. Tony’s got people he pays to take care of that kind of thing, and anyway, he’s pretty sure that he’s going to die of some exotic disease in his workshop, because Dummy’s still a little spotty about what is 'clean’ enough to put on an open wound. The rest of the Avengers are in this for personal gain, except for Clint, he just enjoys being a dick.

And some things shouldn’t be a chore.

Earth-1796 - 619k

Captain America respectfully requests that all complaints be addressed to him in writing. On paper, the nice old-fashioned way, because the computer screen hurts his eyes.

Put your phone down, Tony.

Road To War verse - 177k

Tony rebuilds, modifies. Takes fragments and gives them new order. He does not create. He can’t, not anymore. Not after this.

Or: After the events of Ultron, Tony rebuilds the tower by himself and shuts everything out to the point that Pepper takes desperate measures and asks Steve to come and help.

Pulse, Beat, and Measure verse - 134k

You should always meet your heroes. (Or: Tony Stark, formerly of Marvels magazine, encounters Captain America, formerly nobody special, at a party in 1942.)

Tales of the Bots - 514k

When Tony Stark was seventeen years old, he built his first AI. On that day, he ceased to be his father’s creation, and became a creating force in his own right.

That one act likely saved his life, and not always in the most obvious ways.

Truth Behind Masks - 98k - close enough, and its good so

Steve Rogers has plenty of friends. He just doesn’t know two of them are the same man.

That’s just how Tony Stark/Iron Man likes it. Until he comes to regret it.

#ope thats a lot #asks #long #stevetony #tony stark #stony #tonysteve #Steve Rogers #fic rec #stony fic rec

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camdenfringe · 5 years ago

Text

CHANGES TO THE PRINTED PROGRAMME

Since we printed the glossy A5 brochure for the Camden Fringe there have been a number of additions to the line-up and a couple of cancellations. Here is a list of forthcoming changes. Always check our website for the most up to date line-up information

**ALTERATIONS**

The times for this show are different to those printed in the brochure You Have Absolutely No Sense Of Time The Black Box Theatre 2, 9-11 August at 4.30pm, 3-4 August at 6pm, Hen and Chickens https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2453

Isabelle Farah: Ellipsis Now on 7.45pm on 21 August at the Albany (moved from 4 August) https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2505

Dannie Grufferty: How Brexit sent us all slightly mad 9pm 5-7 August + 9pm 18 August at The Albany (4 August cancelled) https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2421

**EXTRA SHOWS**

Remember Tonight Vortex Collision Arts Company 9.30pm 2-3 August at London Irish Centre A young man brings home a stranger who was beaten up on the street. His desperate attempt to help the person in need leads him to discover wounds he wasn’t meant to deal with. Soon, they will be unexpectedly engulfed in a loop where there will be nothing that could not happen.

Joseph Parsons: Baggy Point 5.30pm 4 August The Bill Murray Joseph Parsons (as seen on Channel 4) presents his uplifting, sell-out stand up comedy show, Baggy Point. With his lovable and electric energy on stage, Joseph tells the story of discovering his sexuality as he clumsily navigates his way through social gatherings, love and living in a different country. Joseph also looks at how the perceptions of sexuality in smaller towns and homophobia in football affect younger people growing up. All proceeds to this show will go to Football v Homophobia. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2708

Sea Changes Marina Jenkyns Productions 12.30pm 5-9 August Etcetera Theatre Sharon; `You know what? He was jealous. Never been outside Shepherd's Bush. Imagine fucking a man who's never flown!'Mair: `Soft on my face. Her skin, her tears. Must go on. Mustn't stop. Must do it'.Maeve: `Sally and I lay down, sun on our faces, just touching, like our hands.Understanding the past in order to create the future. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2719

The Feminazis Curious Dispute 4.30pm 5-7 August Etcetera Theatre The Feminazis' juxtaposes a classical duo comedy format with explicit imagery, presenting the question 'how far is too far'? Frustrated with the lack of progression in modern day society regarding gender equality, Sal and Libby decide to take matters into their own hands by creating a terrorist organisation. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2716

The Party Pilgrim Productions 9pm 5-9 August The Cockpit In September 2018, the president's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, was accused by a woman of sexual assault 36 years earlier. This revelation, broadcast worldwide at a Senate committee hearing, has since become a major cause celebre. 'The Party' by Sam J. Stewart is a 2-act play which re-lives and examines this drama. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2688

Jet Set Go! Pump House CYT 7.30pm 9 – 10 August Theatro Technis A delightful, inventive and witty new musical about 24 hours in the ordinary working life of a transatlantic airline cabin crew; sex, romance, optimism and jaded cynicism are thrown together into a bitchy, campy but essentially tender-hearted cocktail. "A production that’s warm, funny and wonderfully scored” **** The Scotsman. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2720

Love Is... Spitball Theatre Company 9.30pm 9-10 August at London Irish Centre Two women and one non-binary person delve into love, in all its many forms. We all remember our first love, don’t we? Have you tried to block out that painful memory? Does that fleeting eye contact still play on your mind? Featuring movement, music and true stories we take you through loves lost and won. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2698

Fraser Gibson: Self-ish 3.45pm 10-August The Bill Murray Fraser Gibson's debut show is a wrestle with the Self-ish pursuit of being a stand-up comedian. Explained through tall tales, uncanny impressions and a good ol' song or two... A hilarious session of self-therapy! https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2711

Matt Blair – Mattinée 3pm 11 August The Bill Murray An hour of musical comedy, jokes and references from the mind of a movie fanatic. Join Matt on his journey to find out why we love movies so much. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2556

Ordinary Days Pump Priming Productions 7.30pm 11 August Theatro Technis A romance on the rocks, an artist's vision stalled, and a graduates thesis in peril lead four young New Yorkers through a series of humorous and touching musical, intersecting vignettes, as they search for fulfilment, happiness, love and cabs.This melodious one act musical, performed by an award winning cast, is a hidden gem. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2721

Si Deaves - Si's Matters 8pm 11 August Camden Comedy Club Nuclear annihilation!! Brexit?! Rabies?? There are so many issues in the world today, yet Si Deaves still finds time to worry about the little things, in his own unique way. Join Si‚Äôs world as he tackles "inspiration", fears of inadequacy, *that* drunk guy at the pub and much more in his official debut stand-up hour, Si’s Matters. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2722

G(L)ORY Ocular Seven Productions 9pm 11-13 August The Hen and Chickens True crime, murder mystery, serial killer docs, you name it Bobby's binged it. Just like everyone else in the office, so what makes him so different? Through Bobby, we explore the public and media fascination and glorification of violence. Why do we keep watching? https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2712

Be More Bee 12.30pm 13-14 August Etcetera Theatre Feeling broken or lost in a scary world? Looking for a Marie Kondo type, but more Home Counties? Well Bea has got just the ticket to cheer you up. It’s the bees! They’ve got the secret to happiness! Let her guide you through the honey-soaked life-hacks of the British Bee. Preposterous new comedy by Jenni Mackenzie-Jones. With a tombola. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2717

Together For Seven BearFoot 2.30pm 13 – 15 August Etcetera Theatre This is the last place you would expect to find yourself; a police station. You cast your mind back to the good, the bad and the ugly. Teetering on the edge of disaster, wondering whether forgiveness will find you, do you favour the truth or favour yourself? What risks would you take to protect your family when the odds are stacked against you? https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2706

Dougie Dixon: Proper Belter 8pm 13-14 August Camden Comedy Club Meet Dougie Dixon. He's the reality TV star you didn't know you knew. Original TOWIE cast member. As seen on Tipping Point Lucky Stars, Celebs On The Farm (reserve contestant) & Embarrassing Celebrity Bodies. Series winner of The Celebrity Etch-A-Sketch Challenge. Come join Dougie as he launches his first ever debut autobiography; Proper Belter! https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2723

Sam Mitchell: Wham Bam Thank You Sam 9.30pm 13 August The Bill Murray 45 mins of stand up comedy from one of the greats* about growing up**, committing*** and M+M World. * if you ask him ** trying to *** see above. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2707

Faye Treacy is a Work in Progress 8pm 15-17 August Camden Comedy Club As seen on BBC Three and heard on Radio Four, Faye Treacy is back with a new work in progress show. "One of the most unique performances you'll see at the Fringe this year... simultaneously childish, genius and inescapably memorable." **** (1/2) (ShortCom) https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2715

Dan Horrigan's Riot to Heaven Sky or the Bird 8.30pm 16-20 August at Aces and Eights High octane stories from men who would steal the eyes of ya and you wouldn't know until you went to read the paper. Laugh, weep and laugh again as we break into heaven. Raconteuring, storytelling, and theatre of the highest calibre. Second chances are rarer than rocking horse manure so get your ticket before we're off to rob another town. Cheers. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2549

Fatiha El-Ghorri & Katherine Atkinson: Mocking Birds Fat Kat Comedy 4.15pm 18 August at The Bill Murray Join Fatiha El-Ghorri and Katherine Atkinson (both 2017 Funny Women Awards Regional Finalists) for an hour of stand up as Fatiha smashes Muslim stereotypes and challenges you to re-think what you think you know about Islam and Muslims, and Katherine offers up an acerbic, sideways view of motherhood, if she can be bothered. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2728

Dane Baptiste: Work in progress 9.30pm 18 August at The Bill Murray Star of Live at the Apollo (BBC Two), Tonight at the London Palladium (ITV1) and 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (Channel 4) - Join Baptiste as he workshops brand new material for his next tour show. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2727

Red Richardson: Red Notice 8.15pm 21-22, 9pm 23-24 August The Taproom In 2017 Red Richardson left a building in Central London to see thousands of people running down the street screaming, for the next 35 minutes the whole of the country (Thanks to Pop star Ollie Murs tweeting from a basement in H and M) believed it was a terrorist attack. It wasn't. This is an hour of stand up about the human condition in crisis. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2390

Leave this World Alive 9.30pm 21 August at Water Rats 'I hope the exit is joyful' - wrote Frida Kahlo, only days before she died. When was the last time YOU thought about your end? And how does it make you feel? Powerless? Awake? Does it help you appreciate the moment you live in? We will reach out for a topic which brings all these questions on the table: assisted dying - determining our own end. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2731

Nico. No Regrets. 8.30pm 23 August The Chapel Playhouse A show by and with Margherita Remotti in association with Actors East London. Directed by Alberto Barbi. Text by Fernando Coratelli and Margherita Remotti. In this one woman show, we explore the life of Nico, better known as Andy Warhol's superstar, muse and rockstar singer of the Velvet Underground. But you will discover this was only the surface. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2729

The Golden Child William Desmond 5pm 24-25 August The Chapel Playhouse William Desmond has always considered himself the Golden Child. Today, people need to standout in a crowd of hundreds of faces. Will is a twin, and during this 60 minute show he explores what it is like to be in constant competition with his brother. With musical parody and silliness, Will explains being good at everything isn't always the answer. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2718

Ross Drummond & Harry Monaghan: The Orb 5.30pm 25 August The Bill Murray Have you touched The Orb? Want to meet two that have? A mainstay of science, wonder and amazement since its inception in the late 80s, The Orb is science’s greatest invention. What’s its purpose? We’re not sure. Perhaps it merely exists to inspire us. Anything is possible with The Orb. https://camdenfringe.com/show.php?acts_id=2709

**CANCELLED**

Darius Tabai: Schrodinger's Mum Comic Quartets Lloyd Langford: New Things (A Work in Progress) Steve McNeil: Video Games

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rafaelafranzen · 5 years ago

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In which I answer many questions about books

I came across this survey from @drawlight and I thought it’d be fun to fill! Fun fact: I’ve been an unabashed devotee of literature and stories all my life and am a stalwart champion of connecting people with stories – I’ve spent most of the last decade attending and volunteering at literature festivals and crossed fingers, am trying to get a job there. I don’t do the tagging thing, but if you’d like to fill this tag me back so I can discover your literary world!

I, like everyone else, am drowning in Good Omens right now, including the script book and original publication, so I’ll omit them from my responses for a bit of variety.

1. What book are you reading now?

Kraken – China Miéville. Yet another book about an impending apocalypse set in London, because I’m a sucker for undercurrents of fantasy in places I’ve walked in. This one’s a dark comedy about a squid-worshiping cult, where the initiating event for The End of the World is a forty-foot giant squid specimen being stolen from the Natural History Museum.

2. What are your favourite books?

I’m a bit of an odd duck in that my favourites change all the time at different points in my life. I hate to do the thing where you divide things up by genre because I think stories are valid in so many shapes and forms but it’s an easy shorthand – a few top favourites:

Literary Fiction: Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither – Sara Baume (a book about a misfit man who brings a misfit dog into his life. I’ll never get tired of recommending this. The poetic turn of prose in this book is astonishing, and I’m reminded of it every time I read something by Drawlight, actually).

SF/F: Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman (again pushes all my right buttons with undercurrents of another world in places I’ve been) and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu – the titular story in this anthology made me cry on the train, in public – you can find it in full here. It’s a quick and heartbreaking read about the tenuous relationship one so often has with their parents.

Short Story: The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble – Julian Gough (A economic satire and the first fiction piece ever published by the Financial Times, which was subsequently adapted to a Radio Play by the BBC which is also available in the link if you prefer listening. Will make you clutch your sides with laughter, teach you about securitizations, futures and hedge funds and global market forces without the need for you to get a degree in economics first, and ensure you never look at goats the same way again.)

3. How did you learn to read?

Other than the obvious – school, my mother used to take me to the library each weekend when I was a kid and let me borrow 4 books using my library card, and another 4 books with hers. I’d devour all 8 and rinse and repeat the next weekend.

4. What foreign languages do you read?

I studied Chinese as my second language for 12 years and subsequently lost pretty much all of it due to lack of usage after. I can still muddle my way through a menu but that’s about it.

5. What’s the funniest book you ever read?

The Teenage Textbook – Adrian Tan (I’m sure I’ve read plenty since that are better, but this is always the first one I think of. A bit of local nostalgia.)

6. What books have changed the way you look at the world or the way you live your life?

Without a doubt, This Is What Inequality Looks Like by Teo You Yenn. It is a non-fiction book told through the lens of people in poverty, and just as equally, from vantage point of the privileged, us folk who are more or less living in the median of society and the different frames of ‘common sense’ that need to be considered from these perspectives. It is a book about how acknowledging poverty and inequality leads to uncomfortable revelations about our society and ourselves. And it is about how once we see, we cannot, must not, unsee. It is a book that might sober you up for the rest of your life.

It was one of the books heavily drawn on to produce a play titled “Underclass” which I once described to a friend as “the wokest shit sandwich you’ll ever eat”, and I mean this in the best kind of way – it’s the most difficult pill I was ever made to swallow. It left me questioning every assumption I had about poverty, inequality and human dignity, left me squirming and uncomfortable in the way we gloss over the marginalized, and forced me to ask hard questions about the systems of society and who provides for those who fall through the cracks. I saw it a year ago and I still can’t stop thinking about it.

7. What books have affirmed what you believe about life or the way you look at things?

Not entirely sure how to answer this one, I take away bits from every book and media property I encounter. I suppose if I would recommend anything, especially from the perspective of a writer, that rejection is par for the course so long as you keep forging on, and keep at it, then Stephen King’s On Writing. And on the love for the parts of your life that are odd, glorious and to be cherished, Sue Perkins Spectacles. Her letter to her dog Pickles in the book, available here, is one of the greatest confessions of adoration I’ve ever read, and will speak to every love you’ve held close in your life)

8. What are some of the scariest books you ever read?

To be frank I don’t read much horror, though I used to as a kid. I don’t have enough memory of any specifics to give titles.

9. About how many books do you think you have read in your life?

I’ve not the slightest idea. Probably hundreds.

10. About how many books do you own?

Currently, probably between 50-100, only limited by my bookshelf and now much it can hold. Most of my major book-purchases come around during the Singapore Writers Festival, so annually I drop between $100-200 on new books signed by authors I’ve met in person. Every 2-3 years I cycle out books from my bookshelf I no longer care to go back to and donate it to the book exchange shelf in my local library to make room for new titles.

12. How much would you say you’ve paid in library fines in your life?

Probably less than $5. I’m pretty neurotic about returning things on time.

11. How many books per month do you usually borrow from the library?

Probably less than one to be honest, but when the Writers Festival swings around, loads, to get an advance look at the authors that are coming I may enjoy the work of. Nowadays I usually buy my books.

13. Do you read in bed?

A resounding yes. It’s how I screwed up my eyesight as a kid!

14. Do you ever read while walking or driving?

Sometimes when walking but often I’m just scrolling reddit or catching up on current affairs and UK politics (I don’t live there but I can’t help following it). I don’t drive but I do read books when I commute on public transport.

15. OK, let’s get real. Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever read a book?

What, pray, be a strange place to read a book?

16. Do you listen to audiobooks?

Not particularly, as I find I can absorb information much faster reading words on a page. I also find it hard to multitask when something’s being read out because I want to pay attention to the story. I do, however, listen to radio plays adapted from books!

17. Has anyone ever read aloud to you or you to them?

Plenty, being on the receiving end of readings from many authors from attending the Writers Festival and events at independent bookstores. For me reading: loads of times workshopping my own work while I was pursuing my creative writing minor in university.

18. What was the most difficult book to read?

I attempted Lolita by Nabokov when I was about 14 or 15 and don’t think I got past the first 50 pages.

19. What books do you intend to read but keep putting off?

Craptons. Including the aforementioned Good Omens which I’ve owned for 7 years but never finished. Others that have been sitting on my shelf for the longest time now include The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and The Book of Dust by Phillip Pullman (Lyra, my chosen name that I now use professionally, came from the protagonist of Pullman’s His Dark Materials). As you can see my stable of books mainly tend towards SF/F.

20. Do you buy new or used books, paperbacks or hardcovers, leather or collector’s?

Absolutely! I buy mostly new – see Writers Festival book acquisitions from the earlier question. Mostly paperbacks but occasionally hardcovers if the price difference isn’t too dear. Secondhand bookstores are a dying trade here so I don’t get much opportunity to shop for used. I’m also constantly wary about how much room I have on my shelves and pick my purchases carefully. I usually don’t buy collectors editions because I don’t like having to be precious with my books - they’re there to enjoy, to crack the spines in and get their corners banged up from being hastily stuffed into bags. With special editions I feel an odd obligation to keep them pristine.

21. How do you feel about writing in books?

Depends. If it’s a book I specifically want for reference, especially non-fiction I don’t mind marking them up. Otherwise I typically don’t.

22. Do you lend books?

I do! There have been books I’ve lent out for years and not sought back though. I do prefer to get them back eventually because books I do keep on my shelves usually hold the memory of the time I had with them, and are usually paperback editions whose covers I enjoyed and are no longer in print. It never feels quite the same to just get a new copy.

23. What were your favourite books as a child?

I read with such volume and variety when I was a child I actually hardly remember specific titles. I’m sure there was Dahl in there somewhere. An awful lot of Blyton and Nancy Drew/Famous Five which are now horrendously outdated but from which I still hold onto fond imagined memories of British summer days and mysterious nights, which are experiences I still sort of seek out when I go to the UK on rambles or hikes.

24. What children’s books do you enjoy as an adult or young adult?

If we’re talking specifically Children’s books and not YA, almost anything written by Kes Gray (Oi Frog!/The Trouble with Daisy series) and Julian Gough (Rabbit and Bear series, whose first book is a great introduction to the concept of gravity, hibernation, and the nutrition of rabbit poo). I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Terry Pratchett’s Discword series, which includes several YA titles but even the main books in the series are fantastic reading for kids I think.

25. Do you ever read the ending first?

Oh gosh, why would anyone do that to themselves?

26. grab the book nearest to you (I picked something non-GO related), go to page 29 and type line 17 (if there isnt a line 17 type line 3)

“You always tell me that when someone is special, then the system has to make an exception." Connect (Julian Gough) – a cheeky one-of a kind signed edition I got from Julian’s apartment in Berlin when I visited him a couple months ago, combining the UK book jacket with US deckled-edge hardback. He started out as a writer I admired, then a mentor, and is now a fond friend.

#personal #wew long post is long #it was fun to look back and think about the books that were notable to me though!

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jessicasellsnashville-blog · 5 years ago

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Springfield, Miles From Ordinary

The town of Springfield was established in 1798 with a plan of 50 acres to use for a public square. This square included 10 streets and 66 lots that were sold to the public for just $8 each. The first Courthouse was made of hand-hewn logs.

This public square is still flourishing today with many locally owned businesses that reside in renovated buildings dating back to the 19th century. The restored court house sits in the middle of this downtown commercial district with a bell that still chimes at every hour.

This charming town is just a 30 minute drive from Nashville and a true breath of fresh air. There is no lack of friendly faces, hand crafted shops and artisan foods. Not to mention the scenic tobacco farms and greenways. You can spend a day, two or lifetime in this town and never get bored.

I have spent the last two years living and falling in love with this small, quirky town. From the people to the places I feel at home here. I am excited to share my love for this place in my very first blog post by highlighting some of my favorite places to go and things to do. I hope you enjoy reading it and decide to come visit!

My first stop on the square is always Historic Perk. This coffee shop welcomes you with the delightful smell and delicious taste of their in house brewed coffee. The is my favorite rainy day spot; the friendly, cozy atmosphere is perfect to get lost in your work or a good book. https://www.historicperk.com/

Maybe coffee isn’t your thing? Don’t worry the square has something for you. Burdett’s Tea Shop is not even a block away and if granny chic is a thing this place would be it. From the decor to the delicious varieties of tea and comforting food; you really feel as if you are at grandma’s for lunch. http://www.burdettsteashop.com/

After your caffeine fix now it’s time to do some shopping. Most of the boutiques and shops are stocked with handmade locally sourced items. Shopping small businesses is always a plus; especially when you are getting one of a kind treasures.

Wild Hearts Trading Company is one of my favorites; you can find a variety of local products from plants and decor to bath and body products. Their speciality is custom made shirts with adorable designs. They even take special orders! https://www.wildheartstrading.com/

If you like unique boutique clothing you have to check out Hey Belle. They offer a variety of different styles from casual to formal. If you are tired of trying to find something that stands out at these department stores; this is the place to go. You’ll be able to get some special pieces to add to your wardrobe or that perfect dress for any occasion! http://www.heybelletn.com/

Main Street Boutique is another place you can find boutique clothing, jewelry, home decor, and a variety of uniquely designed kitchen ware. There is even a section in the store dedicated to children, with clothing, toys, and other necessities. https://www.facebook.com/mainstreetboutiquespringfield/

Speaking of children, just up from Main Street Boutique is Pretty Opossum; a children’s boutique! There are always some really cute choices here; not only for children but for the expecting mother as well. I highly suggest stopping here first for all of your baby shower gifts; you can’t go wrong with anything they have to offer; trust me. https://www.theprettyopossum.com/

The owner is also an artist; she has many of her creations for purchase inside the store such as stamp prints, mugs, and candles. She had made stamps for many of the local farms and businesses around town! The majority of her creations can be found in her online store; Dusty Rose Block Press. https://dustyroseblockpress.bigcartel.com/

If you are wanting some natural, local foods and remedies for you and your pets I suggest you check out Our Serenity Shop. They have a multitude of products including essential oils, CBD products, organic and local foods, and so much more.The pet section is my absolute favorite. I’ve found products for my cat’s skin irritation and nervous behavior; both have worked wonders in my fur baby’s life. https://www.ourserenityshop.com/

Among all these shops there are a couple of places you have to go into just because! Maker Table is a metal fabrication shop and these guys are a hoot. They have created many things around town such as the dog park sign, bike racks, and the newest addition to the square the Jail Alley gate. The alley was once used to take prisoners over to the court house. Maker Table offer custom pieces you can take home as well. https://makertable.com/

Another creator’s shop is Caleb Woodard Furniture Co. There is a workshop in the back of this place where these guys create one of a kind pieces of furniture. From tables, to cutting boards you can appreciate the craftsmanship of everything in this place. https://www.calebwoodardfurniture.com/

If you are wanting to explore your own creative side I suggest stopping by Willow Oak Center for Arts and Learning. This is a space that host numerous art centered events not only in the center but around the community. You can take music lessons, a cuisine class, attend a painting party or just admire some amazing art work at one of their gallery events. Check out their website to see the upcoming activities! http://www.willowoakarts.org/

After a day of exploring the town it’s probably time to get your grub on again. There are some one of a kind dinner choices around the square with chef created menus. You will be in for some outstanding dining experiences that your taste buds will surely thank you for.

The Depot Bar and Grill located right next to the train tracks offers a full menu as well as daily specials. This is probably the only place that you will be able to find Smoked Duck Breast Quesadillas and Texas Tails on the menu. There is a full service bar and a specific menu for wines and dessert. From the delicious food to the friendly staff, I think you will find yourself wanting to come back again and again! http://www.thedepotbarandgrill.com/

If you are looking for a place that offers vegan options The Copper Vault is the place to go. They offer a vegan specific menu with some unique options including their impossible burger and kimchi sweet potato fries. There is a cafe inside as well if you are looking for a day time place to catch a bite and do some work. The dinner room is beautifully staged and makes for the perfect date night atmosphere. Their traveling chef brings back things to incorporate into the dishes so I suggest you keep up with them on social media so you don’t miss out on some delicious meal options! https://www.coppervault.co/

📸: @coppervault on Facebook

Public House is another great place to grab some drinks and some tasty food. They just launched a brand new menu and I am excited to try it all. Though my favorite at the moment is the Pimento Cheese BLT. You can dine in this cozy place or you can have them cater any of your events. They have some really nice dinnerware options and the food is exceptional! https://m.facebook.com/PublicHouseTN

Though I think this town is absolute perfection already it keeps expanding. There are a few places in the works to open up this year that are just going to add to the overall Springfield experience, making it even more exceptional. Born and Raised Market is one that I am most excited about! They have been hard at work remodeling the little white building to bring us a deli and general store where you can grab lunch. https://www.bornandraisedmarket.com/

BS Brew Works has been bringing a building back to life to bring their brew out of the kitchen and into a place for us all to enjoy. I know that this brewery and taproom is going to be a fantastic place to socialize and enjoy some cold ones! https://www.bsbrewers.com/

Though an opening date has yet to be set on the old movie theater on the square it has recently been purchased and a dumpster has been filling up from the start of their renovation process. The plan is for the space to be used for ongoing events including live music, shows and movies.

Before you head back home I suggest you take a sunset cruise down some back roads. Those breathtaking views and sweet country air really do the soul good. Springfield is truly a gem, far from Ordinary.

📸: @imagoluxphotography on Instagram

Find me on other social sites: @jessicasellsnashville

#lifestyle #hometown #nashvilletn #springfieldtn #realtor #real estate #realtorlife #places to go #places to see #places to eat #art #create #shop #boutique #locally owned #locally made

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