#it is hard to embrace revolutionary points of view on the first glance

[crawlingpen]

what if i said there are some very interesting parallels between mikhail bulgakov's master and margarita and XXXbloodyrists666XXX's infamous work my immortal...

[geirskogull]

Empty Mirror and Empty Grave 

+ Notes: A Short Vampire the Masquerade AU for Danica and Alex, This is Chapter 1 of 4 for this series, from the point of view of the newly embraced Lasombra Alexander Voss for this first chapter. 

Chapter 1 - The Same Deep Water as You

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Icy water splashed hard against an even cooler face, a shaky exhale followed as the water pooled a tepid rusty pink in the ceramic bowl of the sink. Strange, what living habits clung to a dead man’s body, like memories fused to him with glue that spurned him to tears, yet twisted the salty brine that would have flowed from his eyes to a sickly vital red. 

Alexander thought then that  he should be laughing. That he should be cackling in victory over those who attempted to see him for their own personal gain, his father, his grandfather, this new vampiric patron who called himself sire. Yet his mind recognized in this end he was once again the true victim, but neither his mind nor his heart could contort the man’s memories to make them spell that out for him. Stubborn as always. Just like his sister. 

If he hadn’t known of the particularities of this curse, his curse, he may have tried to rationalize the ashy smudge that greeted him instead of his own tired, gauntface in the mirror. It would have been in vain, as  he knew better, he knew mirrors didn’t break like that. Hell he probably would have spent hours trying to scrub clean imaginary grime just to see his dead mossy green eyes. He always thought the color of rot suited him. Beyond that mournful rumination though, he also knew without his reflection, he looked a right mess if his sire, that figure of ruthlessness and shadows he met only a handful of times, counting his own death, saw him like this his new eternity would be over before it even began. 

So he returned to those empty habits he had once relied upon so much, inhaled deeply, straightened his shoulders, and ran cold hands across his face to remove the bloody tears tracks that dug their way there as best as he could with a smudgy mess as his guide. Another splash of water just in case, and another for good measure, and then a third till the pool was clear and he was sure the relics of his weakness swirled  down the drain, relics of shame he would never share. If he is to live forever, he would not allow it to be in vain.

“What do you want with me?” Terse words from an estranged sister echoed through his memory as he dried his face. “Arn’t you afraid dear old dad’ll axe you too, Alex?” She had hissed across a tiny café table that was more splinters held together with gorilla glue than actual wood then. Cross legged, angry and closed off, as he expected, but with sharp green eyes and new scars he didn’t remember being there last time he saw her. Those five years had changed them both so much. Then, he wondered if there was still anything left to save, left to salvage of their friendship. 

He laughed then, a bitter biting thing that painted fear across his twin sister’s face, only to be replaced with  sadness once its teeth were fully in her skin. A heavy silence hung around them in it’s wake, as if his cooling tea and her hot chocolate turned glorified chocolate milk were iron weights around their legs, dragging them to the ocean floor. 

He threw a clean black dress shirt over his shoulders and began to button it. Blinking away fresh bloody tears that threatened to spill over his still damp cheeks and the bittersweet memory in equal measure. As the visage of her hand reaching across that rough wooden sea to grasp his own terrified digits swelled in his minds, he paused.

“I’ve missed you so much, Dee.” Whispered words repeated from those recollections to nothing but the cold empty air around him. He dug his teeth into his lips, for he feared he was on the verge of sobbing once more. Once was more than enough for a night, thank you.

Oh if only he hadn’t traveled to this damn city on the guise of looking for school,only to actually be looking for her. If only he had taken the token acceptances thrown his way by those big name medical schools, all thanks to their father’s well placed donations and not in any way thanks to the intellect he believed he had. If only he hadn’t spent every cent he earned  on his own looking for his best friend that had been chased from their childhood by the bastard that sired them both, guilty only of the crime of dreaming. 

Perhaps then, they would still be truly alive. 

And not one unbreathing corpse masquerading as a living man, and the other... 

He dabbed a cold hand against his eyes, fearing the weakness of his resolve. Now is not the time to reflect, Alexander. He chastised himself bitterly, his own tone harsh. And even if it was, what would she think, seeing you now? Seeing you like this? A broken shell of a broken shell, huddling in his home not even willing to try this new gift out.

She’d tell him to relax, to lighten up. She’d ask about his class work and bring one of the animals she was fostering to sit on his lap. That’s how he ended up with Minet, wasn’t it? A loud meow near his feet confirmed his idle musings. Red eyes looking down into one cat-like yellow one, upon  a sea of black fur interrupted only by a terribly gaudy red collar and its pretty little bell. 

The vampire sniffled, kneeling down and giving the kitten a faint but honest grin. Ah his dear little constant. He found himself drawing his cold hands through soft fur and humming gently as the small cat began to purr. 

“Ah, so deep in my melancholy I forgot the most important job in my days!” A chuckle echoed in the cool air, and was answered by another dignified meow.  “Yes, yes, I know. Food is late, let’s go my dear one.”

“He’s friendly Alex, I promise.” Danica chuckled, her sing songy voice not exactly inspiring confidence, as she held a  small black bundle of fur and claws close to her chest. He hadn’t even looked up then, far too stressed out over his classwork, a med student more anxiety and coffee than flesh and blood at the present. He had more in common with the scattered cups of the stuff over his sisters home that he did her at the moment. \

“Last time I checked, tiny felines were not a requirement for me to pass my finals.” He had snipped up at her then, only to be met in turn with a very loud, very squeaky, and most definitely disappointed meow. Thankfully it was jarring enough to force the crooked man to right his posture and gaze at the single defiant eye of the feline now held ungracefully out towards him. 

"It's not, but it'll be good for what remains of you after said finals big brother"

"I'm only like two minutes older , Dee."

"And that's the first time you haven't lorded it over me, now hold the damn cat and relax Alex."

The loud, metallic jingle of kibble into a custom red bowl, the same shade as that tacky collar,  rescued the dead man from the clutches of his memories once more. Following suit was a very content and loud purr from the aforementioned Minet, King of the Flat, as he completely forgot about Alexander, Owner of the Flat, and dove straight into his food with a vigor he showed little else. Another shakey, yet unneeded, exhale left the vampire. This time at least sounding something akin to a weak  wheezy chuckle and not a barely restrained sob. 

Good kitty. 

Very good kitty.

Alexander Voss gave the fluffy menace a few polite yet ignored pats before standing and facing his evening once again. He did have orders after all, and what else had he been his entire life but a loyal, dutiful, gopher for his father and his father’s goals. Why would that change in death? 

The comedy was not lost on him, given the orders this time were “Go, enjoy yourself for a night.” As if he even knew where to start! A bitter laugh erupted from him, consuming the silence of the apartment like a mad hungry flame. Lingering in the expanse of once pleasant memories, turning them to ash in his mouth, was definitely not a good start.

But he would not fail, not again. Not at any task.

So even with the added “difficulty” of not being able to see himself in the mirror, he silently swore to his reflection that he would forge himself anew of black shadowy steel. He would be a tool for himself, not for this new vampiric father he found himself beholden to, not for the visible ghosts of his  first victims and the invisible ghost of his sister, but for himself. A revolutionary statement in his mind that would take some getting used to, and a great deal of planning to accomplish.

With the weight of his memory as the ink upon the paper of his oath, and the cold wind beyond his door the dust sprinkled upon it, he now just needed to find the wax and the stamp and it would be eternal.. As he twisted the polished silver door handle of the apartment, he closed his eyes. A stillness taking him as he silently considered this new plan brewing in the blackness in his mind. 

He shoots a careful glance back at Minet over his shoulder as the cold winter wind knocked at his coat and mussed his long, unkempt ponytail. The one eyed feline, for his part, licked at his paws absently, full from his regal meal and oblivious to his servants troubles.

“I’ll be back.”

His words were largely ignored, but the flittering familiar shades at the edge of his vision seemed to nod, almost in approval. Strange from such stern faces, barely perceivable in the messed watercolor of their forms, but still uniquely themselves. 

Facing forward, he inhaled, the last act of his old dying world, and faced a new beginning.. A pang of thirst in his gut forced a strange wolfish smile upon his face, sharp toothed and hungry. First goal of the evening, of his first free night, find a drink.

He would need the energy for what he had planned.

[behindheremeraldeyes]

SasuSaku Fest 2017 Day 4- Sasuke’s Regrets . Title: I Should’ve Killed You . Summary: Sasuke’s rescue mission told from his point of view. They’re trapped in that sinful, life-saving embrace and all he could think of was how he regretted not killing that pink annoyance before. . A/N: Okay, first of all, I HATED THIS THEME! I mean, Sasuke barely has any regrets in his life, right? AHH! How annoying! Well, apart from that, I also have to thank @ tanubhatnagar for sending me a request that actually matched the idea I had. It’s not long and it’s basically all about descriptions, but I’m quite happy with the way it turned out in the end! I literally slept with three manga volumes this night, and I’ve lost count of how many times I kept looking at those beautiful SasuSaku panels XD Thank you, @ tanubhatnagar , I hope you and everyone else enjoy what I did to your idea! Please, leave me a comment with your opinion! Feedback is always important! . . . He knew he shouldn’t have done that.

He knew it, as soon as he laid his eyes on her, that he shouldn’t have done what he did. He shouldn’t have hoped, longed and certainly not struggled so hard to reach that closing opening created by Haruno Sakura’s absurd strength.

He shouldn’t have held her like that.

Blame the heat to which his body was exposed to just moments before, or even the sudden need to use his immature powers, but Uchiha Sasuke had done the one thing he could have never imagined doing during the war. He had his hand resting against the exposed skin of her arm, her body pressed against his chest and he could feel his fingers grazing a rough, wet bruise that he soon realized to be a scald.

Her perfectly pale skin was entirely ripped, as it burned red against his palm. His touch was probably stinging like hell, but in the state she was currently found, the Uchiha doubted she could even feel her arm at all. Whatever had happened to her during the time he was away, he could see her body and easily tell that she had gone through hell, barely coming out alive from it.

Sakura was sweating more than he was, as her pink hair was sticking to her head, only the end of her locks blowing with a passing breeze that hit their bodies. She was clearly defeated and vulnerable, as her entire weight was released on his chest. That girl couldn’t take a single step by herself without him, and the reason behind that was clearly the fact that she had depleted her chakra levels in order to bring him back.

He owed her a lot at that moment, and yet, he regretted being there by her side, holding her up.

That action, he could feel, had changed not only what she thought of his current self, but also exposed a part of him he wished he could have long forgotten already. They were in the middle of a war against a goddess and his revolutionary ideas were still there, knocking on his mind and forcing him to keep going. Itachi’s ideals could not go to waste, therefore he could neither die nor allow himself to have a change of heart because of a pink haired girl, who was all fucked up and who perfectly fitted his half embrace.

The avenger Sasuke could not let the annoying Sakura get in the middle of his mission. He could not let her get so close to his heart, for he knew- oh, and how he knew- that single, pink hired girl was strong enough to make a disaster out of his concealed and objective personality.

But what could he do, right? His body just moved on its own, not caring about the future consequences his actions could bring upon them, only thinking about doing something to protect that fragile, beautiful and strong warrior that was about to fall back.

She was going to hit her head, and that was definitely going to hurt. Someway, he had spared her from a concussion, and yet, he just knew that had been the wrong choice.

He should’ve let her fall flat on that stony floor and not held her close. He should’ve offered her another one of his risky words and not established such an intimate eye contact.

He should’ve killed her when he had the chance. When he had his fingers around her neck, compressing her carotid and a kunai in hands. He should’ve killed her, but he didn’t and at that very moment, the Uchiha was aware that allowing her to live was his biggest regret.

And it was all because of their eyes, he knew. Just like back then, they were the ones to be blamed, in the end.

Those stupid, stunning emeralds he couldn’t keep himself from drowning into.

Fuck those eyes.

By the way their gaze connected, the raven haired boy knew that getting lost in those deep, exhausted emeralds of hers had been the wrong choice, especially when his bloody heritage was activated. Through his red orb, he could see and record all the details and all the changes that were now decorating that girl's- woman’s face.

Her cheeks were bonier, her eyes deeper and her lips fuller, making him gulp unconsciously. She looked absurdly weak and useless without those lines spread around her body, and that scent of iron and dirt was invading his nostrils, proving him that even Haruno Sakura could, indeed, bleed.

She could bleed and fight, and she could certainly bring him back from wherever the hell he had been sent to. She could charge a full attack against Madara in order to create a diversion, and she could heal her broken self until she seemed to be fixed. He could see and read her through his bloody eyes, and even if that was probably his last chance of ridding himself from another regret, Sasuke knew he wasn’t strong enough for that.

Not while looking at her hurt form. Not while supporting her from falling and not when she had done it all for him.

Damn you, Haruno Sakura, he thought, as his own eyes sent hers a silent and deep ‘thank you’. Those unsaid words had been the death of him, but by that time, the shit had already hit the fan. He was trapped in that trance of recording every single detail of her green irises, as he also scanned her brave and perfect body. At that moment, not even if he wanted, Sasuke wouldn't be able to say anything.

Fuck, she was beautiful. Even more than when they were kids, and even more than when she tried to kill him. For the first time since he first joined the battlefield, the Uchiha had completely forgotten about the enemy, as he just wanted to hold onto that moment, as he observed her in such pure and raw state.

But it was not like he had time to waste on her like that, right?

His eyes followed the salty, sweat droplets that originated from her skin pores and watched them sliding down, brushing her dirty skin. For her head was resting against his shoulder, he had complete visual access to her hidden skin, and apart from the small scratches spread all around, there was that one bruise on her sweaty neck that-

“ …How?”

A hoarse voice broke him from his thoughts, making him protectively bring her body closer to his. She was still looking at him, trying her best to force her abdominal muscles to breath, and he soon realized his heart was beating a lot faster than he would’ve expected it to beat at such times.  At first, he didn’t break eye contact- another regret, for sure- as he tried to build enough strength to articulate an answer. He released a sigh he didn’t know was trapped inside his chest, and he could feel her muscles relaxing against him as soon as they broke their deep connection.

With those eyes closed, at last, he could return to being himself.

“ It’s one of my abilities. I can shift myself between spaces… Though only over a finite distance.” He looked down at her once again, secretly disappointed not to have her eyes on him anymore. He took a deep breath before allowing his right eye to turn the darkest shade of black. “ But thanks to you, I made it.”

The other Uchiha allowed his head to fall, with an amused smirk decorating his face as he tried his best to recover himself. Obito would still have to transport them home, so he consider it a good idea to take some minutes so he could rebuild some strength. The three of them spent some good minutes still, not being able to move a single muscle. That dimension created a calm and serene atmosphere that helped them forget a little about the war going on back where Naruto and Kakashi were.

It was peaceful and silent, and hell, they could all stay there forever.

But their responsibilities kicked in, and as always, the pink haired girl was the first to answer to that call.

As soon as they heard the flat sound of Obito’s body crashing against the floor, he felt her body shifting under his touch, and he soon realized she was trying to create a distance between them. She was going to check on the man that was clearly as exhausted as she was, clearly not caring about her own situation. Sakura tried to move, but as expected of her very first attempt on doing so, she failed and fell back to her previous spot.

“ Don’t.”

“W-We need to… I need to-“

“ Rest a bit more. He’ll wake up soon.”

“ But Sasuke-kun, we need him to get you back to where the others are. I need to see if he’s okay and-“

“ I said rest. You’ve done more than enough for us now.”He tch-ed.” Damn it, since when have you become so stubborn, Sakura?”

At his words, the girl could feel her body finally weighting down and her bruises finally starting to bring pain all over her body. Her arm hurt like hell, and soon she realized her consciousness was drifting away.

Soon, she would be just like Obito. She would succumb to her body’s needs, but unlike him, Sakura knew he would be there to hold her. Even if she wasn’t supposed to trust that, and even if she wasn’t supposed to fully trust him, the pinkette knew, by the way they had exchanged glances, that he wouldn’t let her fall.

And with a shy smile paying on her lips, her eyelids finally closed, as she muttered an almost inaudible 'thank you’ before collapsing. At that moment, the Uchiha held her even more carefully, slowly shifting her body so they could both reach the floor safely. Sasuke realized himself he was also exhausted, and taking some moments to let his strength get back wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Once again, he was taking care of the girl he was supposed to have killed, as he was now sitting on the floor, with her body brought close to his chest. Her pink hair was falling over his exposed chest, as her eyes were completely shut. Her chest was rising and falling along with his, and as he brought his fingers to brush a faint dirt from her cheeks, the Uchiha was aware of how screwed he was. After that moment, his plan would no longer be the same, and if he were to be honest, he couldn’t care less about that at such time.

Another regret was born in his heart, and once again, it was all her fault.

He should’ve definitely killed her when he had the chance because if he had, he probably wouldn’t be falling for her all over again.

Had Uchiha Sasuke killed Haruno Sakura, his regrets as an avenger wouldn’t be so peaceful.

“ Tch, how annoying.”

[albinohare]

Can augmented reality really give us a vision of the future of sailing?

See further, see more and sail faster… Will Bruton investigates the navigation benefits that augmented reality is bringing

High definition cameras can provide the live image for the plotter, stabilised by a separate sensor to counter pitch and roll

Google’s mission statement is ‘to organise the world’s information.’ This almost impossibly ambitious declaration of intent underpins the technology giant’s ventures into everything up to and including Space. The message is clear: in a world where information is abundant, how we organise and access it is fundamental to it being useful.

Step on board a yacht equipped with an early electronic plotter and you can quickly find yourself the slave to a complex and far from intuitive menu system. It can take forever to get to what you need to know, making it quicker to pick up the almanac, and do things the old fashioned way.

Fortunately, things have improved since those first electronic plotters. We are now entering an age of innovative and user-orientated design where the influence of mainstream consumer technology has finally reached marine electronic products. But what does it all mean for the sailing we stepped on board a boat for in the first place?

Knut Frostad carefully considered where sailing information was positioned on his Outremer 5X

Make it relevant

Former Volvo Ocean Race CEO and Olympian sailor Knut Frostad bears rather more brutal scars of marine electronics than mere frustration, once nearly losing his eye to an errant antenna while racing offshore. Since leaving the shore-based role of CEO at the Volvo Ocean Race he has taken the helm at Navico as head of digital products. Navico is the parent company to three marine electronics brands, including B&G.

On a particularly revealing video on the company’s YouTube channel we see how the ex-Olympian uses technology on his family’s yacht, an Outremer 5X. Screens are positioned precisely at eye line height, electronic plotters are visible from all (four) helming positions and everything is carefully refined to show only the information that is useful.

It’s an attention to detail more likely associated with a German luxury car, where everything sits just right. The take-away is one we can all learn from; by filtering out what’s not necessary, the sailing experience is optimised. Retaining a firm grasp on the technology is what empowers successful sailing, not an abundance of raw data.

The challenge faced by designers is not simply to provide data, but to make information useful. Raymarine currently employs around 100 people in its development team. Improvements in how software is developed have changed things. Marine brands now design plotter interfaces on the same platforms as mobile phone software; making the process of development faster.

The result is interfaces that are inherently more intuitive to use, making the much thumbed paper manuals of the past redundant. The less obvious and more exciting prospect is the scope for increased capability of a single piece of hardware as time goes on, adding capability as new external components are released.

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All of this has made the marine electronics market more competitive, with each manufacturer driving hard to capture the market at the point of purchase. After all, once purchased, you often commit to that brand of electronics throughout your yacht.

Augmented reality, something achieved by linking cameras, GPS, image stabilisation and software technology, is perhaps the most exciting realisation of how the humble electronic plotter has become much more than an interactive chart. It’s changed my sceptical view of how much more can be done to make things better. By presenting data overlaid on a live camera view, we see much more, without having to connect the dots.

Military precision

For many years Raymarine’s parent company FLIR has been building military and aviation technology. Unsurprisingly, this knowledge has percolated through to consumer marine electronics. In the sky, the possibilities of augmented reality became mainstream years ago, giving pilots what they call ‘increased situational awareness’ or information about the stationary and moving objects they must negotiate their way around.

The Raymarine FLIR system’s ability to track targets with thermal imaging has many potential uses

What is striking about how this has manifested itself in Raymarine’s yacht systems is how chart and traffic information appears in a three-dimensional format that is genuinely intuitive. Unlike relating the chart to what’s seen with the naked eye as we have always done, with augmented reality, the relation of a buoy or vessel is done for you; bridging the gap in a way that seems entirely natural. No brain power necessary.

Everything appears automatically, in the place you would expect it, supplemented with data that’s directly relevant to that specific point up ahead. How much information you see is easily controlled by choosing what data you wish to see. Furthermore, on the screen, buoys are visible before you see them with the naked eye.

The view on the screen in a busy Southampton water, even with all data points (AIS, buoyage and waypoints) switched on, is clear rather than crowded. A high definition camera fuels the system with a live image, while AIS data, buoyage and waypoints are overlaid on top.

Augmented reality places information about a vessel or mark in the same place as you see it with the naked eye, removing the need to interpret from a standard plotter view

“What you see on the screen is a feed from a fixed camera, however the image is digitally stabilised,” explains Richard Marsden from Raymarine. “Our independent sensor is taking into consideration the pitch, roll and yaw of the vessel, so when the seas get rough the image remains stable. There’s a lot of vessel data being processed to achieve such clarity.”

Sure enough, as we encounter wake from a passing tanker, the image is noticeably smoothed out whilst the boat continues to pitch and roll. Coupled with Raymarine’s Axiom plotter, which is available up to a whopping 24in screen, it’s a far cry from the greyscale interrogation exercise many of us were familiar with from using older plotters.

Coming into a channel is where the augmented reality system really comes into its own. It would be easy to discount a technology that quite literally alters what we can see as something likely to produce the tunnel vision so many experienced instructors warn us against.

Valuable nav data is displayed in an easy to understand format

But because drawing information from augmented reality is so instantaneous, I found myself using it to confirm my own visual navigation rather than the other way round. I had to squint at a channel marker in the distance, yet I could confirm what it was on the screen with a half-second glance, while keeping my eyes up rather than down. Being able to see further than the naked eye makes navigation a more predictable exercise, because everything is seen earlier.

A step forward for safety?

The US Coast Guard cites the most common contributing factor to sailing yacht accidents as operator inattention, followed by improper lookout and operator inexperience.

When it comes to active navigation, doubt about our position leads our attention away from the immediate indicators surrounding us – like buoyage – and onto other sources of information that might take longer to process. Augmented reality, though, is an instant reference tool.

Augmented reality software can identify and label the high definition view from a boat’s onboard camera

Raymarine has also added other complementary technologies that work fluidly as part of the system. In a MOB situation at night a rotating camera with thermal imaging technology can track a target automatically in the water, based upon the temperature difference it can detect. The Axiom plotter then tells the helmsman which way to steer towards it. Unlike many bits of kit related to that worst of worst-case scenarios, this potentially lifesaving tool takes no time to set up. It just works.

What next?

With a change of pace of development for marine electronics comes a market that is working harder than ever to be first to the next big thing.

Garmin, a company whose products cover many sports, is paying an increasing amount of attention to body-worn technologies. Though not strictly speaking augmented reality, their latest Nautix kit places key sailing data directly in front of one eye. Mounting to your existing sunglasses frame, this eyepiece is similar to those worn by combat helicopter pilots. It is also wireless, perhaps making it the next big thing for racing crews, including those usually left in the dark at the bow.

Garmin’s Nautix system monitor links wirelessly with the yacht’s instruments, making data accessible to anyone wearing the headset

Will such a Star Trek like device draw ridicule amongst a crew of old hands? Perhaps to begin with, but if it delivers results, that will quickly fade. For Raymarine, linking cameras to onboard systems is something being explored even further, using them to develop automatic berthing in marinas – a prospect that, once refined, will certainly be embraced by the motor yacht market.

For sailing yacht owners, blindly adopting the latest electronics innovations has sometimes been a fast track to running hard aground. But what augmented reality does is bring aboard essential information and present it in a more concise and effective way than ever before. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!

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