#unification park

[visualcamper]

Exploring the Imjingak Peace Park: A Unique Experience

[themagothyriverdragon]

I’m trying to think of times that a tv show has accurately predicted the future. One example that comes to mind is the Parks and Recreation episode 7.02 “Ron & Jammy” (originally aired January 13, 2015) that predicted the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series in 2016. Anyone have any other examples?

"The Committee said on Tuesday that its newly-published report is the first output from a series of meetings exploring what a united Ireland would mean and examines the current economic relationship between the jurisdictions on the island and the potential of the all-island economy.

The report, the Committee said, goes on to examine the cost of a united Ireland and makes the case for planning and preparation for a united Ireland to begin."

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[whatisonthemoon]

Korean Evangelism (1974)

Korean Evangelism By Jonathan Marshall Pacific Research, 5 (September-October 1974), 1-5

Lenin may have exaggerated when he charged that “religion is the opiate of the people,” but his words have long had a ring of truth for Asia. From the days when Christian missionaries were sent to China and Korea to open up new markets for American manufacturers, to the more recent efforts of the American CIA to finance anti-communist religious minority groups in Southeast Asia, the West has consistently used religion as a spearhead of cultural and economic penetration in the Orient. Since World War II, America’s politico-religious programs have been chiefly aimed at stirring up anti-communist sentiment around the world to promote the containment or rollback of leftist regimes. Thus the CIA has at various times backed everything from Asian Buddhist monks to reactionary Russian orthodox churches catering to Eastern European émigrés, to Pope Paul’s Italian anti-communist youth movements.1 Most anti-communist religious fronts, however, are supported by wealthy right-wing individuals or foreign governments, but all have similar ends. Many of these “religious” groups are now affiliated with worldwide anti-communist organizations, especially the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League (formed by Chiang Kai-shek and Korean President Syngman Rhee, in 1954) and its umbrella organization, the World Anti-Communist League. These two groups, although confined largely to propaganda activities . (APACL’s role in the 1954, CIA-organized Vietnam refugee resettlement is one of several exceptions), help coordinate the activities of the world’s leading anti-communists and of regional organizations such as the irredentist Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, the European Freedom Council, and the Free Pacific Association. Also associated with APACL is the International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture headed by an ex-Foreign Minister under Spain’s Franco, and composed of former German Abwehr agents, Ukrainian Catholic activists, professional American anti-Semites, John Birch Society spokesmen, and a former advisor to Syngman Rhee, James Cromwell. Other religious groups represented in APACL/WACL conventions include the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade (American), the Asian Lay-Christian Association (South Korean), and the Asian Christian Anti-Communist Association. All are dedicated to winning the hearts and minds of the world’s many non-Christians and turning them away from the lure of communism.2 South Korea has long been a center of anti-communist Christian agitation in Asia because of its large Christian population (one out of eight South Koreans is Christian, and the number is rising rapidly) and because of the highly favorable political climate offered first by Syngman Rhee and now by General Park, who have subsidized right-wing Christian groups and promoted a “Christianizing” campaign in the military. Evangelists who consider the Third World to be of great “strategic significance” point out that South Korea now boasts over 8,500 seminary and Bible school students. And South Korea has another advantage for Christian activists -- a convenient enemy. During Billy Graham’s famous Crusade to South Korea in mid-1973, which drew over two million people (thanks to some official pressure), chants like “Fifty million for Christ” were instigated to agitate for a roll back of Communism and unification of the Korean Peninsula’s fifty million inhabitants. Thus it was fitting that Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was the home of the first All-Asia Mission Consultation, a meeting of Asian missionaries to plan the evangelization of Asia’s 98 percent non-Christians.3 One American evangelical organization has been quick to exploit the opportunities provided by South Korea: Campus Crusade for Christ International. Founded by ex-California businessman William R. Bright in 1951, Campus Crusade is headquartered in a multimillion dollar luxury hotel located on a 1,735 acre estate at Arrowhead Springs, near San Bernardino. With a full-time staff of over 3,009 people in fifty countries and an annual budget over $15 million, Bright’s organization is dedicated to sparking off a “spiritual explosion across America and around the world” which will Christianize the world in the next decade.4 Campus Crusade experienced a remarkable growth in the past five years through the use of sophisticated computerized marketing techniques and an almost embarrassingly oversimplified set of theological principles. It has, however, met with some opposition from established Christian organizations thanks to its conservative fundamentalist principles and resistance to social change. Campus Crusade speakers typically cite the “great red dragon” of Revelation 12 to warn of the threat of Chinese Communism, and the group’s film, “Berkeley -- A New Kind of Revolution” portrays Martin Luther King and the peace movement, tinted red, as examples of what is wrong with America. The evangelist organ Christianity Today reports that at EXPLO ’72, a student congress on evangelism sponsored by Campus Crusade in Dallas (featuring Billy Graham), “The Peoples’ Christian Coalition, an anti-war group.., kept Crusade officials hopping to head off leafleting and pint-sized demonstrations. Two dozen Coalition members and Mennonites one night in the Cotton Bowl held up a large banner reading ‘Cross or flag, God or country?’ and chanted ’Stop the war’ but were promptly shushed by the crowd.” Indeed, the atmosphere of Campus Crusade’s EXPLO ’72 seemed best described by the popular chant, “Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar. All who’re for Jesus, stand up and holler!’’5 Even as EXPLO ’72 was ending, Bill Bright began planning Campus Crusade’s next and even more ambitious venture -- EXPLO ’74 in South Korea. Slated to cost $1.5 million, EXPLO ’74 was planned for an attendance conservatively estimated at 300,000, well over three times the draw of its 1972 predecessor. Campus Crusade got a big boost when Billy Graham plugged his friend’s project during his 1973 expedition to Seoul. Campus Crusade’s high-rise headquarters in central Seoul (on land donated by the government after a battle in 1968 to remove squatters) was mobilized to prepare for the event. And Campus Crusade’s chief representative in Seoul, Joon Gon Kim, drawing upon the organization’s experience in fighting communism in Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand, as well as the strong encouragement of his government, directed the entire project.6 Bright suffered a temporary set-back last year when the Korean National Council of Churches officially expressed its “lack of concern” about the evangelical crusade, according to the Washington Post, for “fear it would be used as a tool in the government’s struggle with church groups over social policy, political freedoms and human rights.” Sophisticated Koreans viewed the Graham/Bright efforts as simply a further extension of the government’s program of “undermining strongly anti-government mobilizations among the country’s four million Christians,” writes an informed Japanese journalist.7 Since then, probably to Bright’s embarrassment, the Park regime has greatly stepped up this “struggle,” not only against Church groups, but also to crush students, lawyers, and dissident intellectuals. Since Park suspended the Constitution and promulgated his Emergency Decrees last January, his government has convicted by military tribunal almost two hundred suspected political dissenters and interrogated -- often by torture -- hundreds more. Korea’s only living ex-President was arrested and convicted under the Decrees. Sentences ranging from five years to death have been meted out by these tribunals to large numbers of Protestant clergymen, a famous Catholic bishop, the country’s best known poet, South Korea’s foremost expert on Abraham Lincoln (and Boston University Ph. D.), a dean of theology at a major Korean University, who graduated from Union Theological Seminary, a civil liberties lawyer from Yale University, and many others whose exposure to Western political, values brought them only trouble. Thousands of Korean Catholics (at great personal risk) have attended mass rallies and vigils to protest the jailing of Bishop Daniel Chi Hak Soun. Korea’s Protestant National Council of Churches recently denounced the repression under Park. Christian groups around the world, including the American Jesuit Missions Conference and the World Council of Churches have joined in the protest against the American-backed regime.8 None of this, of course, disturbs veteran anti-communist Bill Bright, whose EXPLO ’74, with government backing, attracted several hundred thousand South Koreans last August. “In no country in the world, including the U.S., is there more freedom to talk about Jesus Christ than in South Korea,” he explains by way of justification. “There is no religious repression here. It is only political, and I believe it is for a good cause.” Bright says that “those in prison” -- presumably including his fellow Christians -- “are involved in things they shouldn’t be involved in.” The slightest expression of dissent, he feels, may cause North Korea to instantly “pounce upon the republic.” He accuses the U.S. press as well as the jailed Korean critics of slandering the Park regime and claims, “Those who oppose the regime are militant in their attack on anything that speaks of God, and if they had their way every Christian in South Korea today would be slaughtered.” Joon Gon Kim, executive director of EXPLO ’74, is no less outspoken in his defense of Campus Crusade’s holy mission against world communism: “When the Korean church becomes aflame with the Holy Spirit God can rend the iron curtain of North Korea, China, Russia and Eastern Europe and the walls will collapse so that the Gospel can be preached.’’9 William Bright in the service of General Park’s dictatorship might seem an extreme case, but his allies, especially those in the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League, are no less fervent or dedicated. Just as Bright claims that General Park is working in the service of God by crushing his opponents, so did Bright’s ally and Korean counterpart, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, achieve notoriety when he announced last year in full page newspaper advertisements across the United States that President Nixon had been put into office by God and could be removed only by His will. Sun Myung Moon’s National Prayer and Fast Committee stuck by Nixon to the bitter end. (Thus did Moon inevitably meet Rabbi Korff, who then obligingly spoke before a Moon-affiliated organization on “The Fact of Communism and America’s Future.” 10 The Reverend Moon is a new phenomenon in America, but not in Asia where his following now totals nearly a million people, concentrated in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Moon found his calling back in 1936 when Jesus Christ approached him on a mountainside and asked him to devote himself to God’s service as an evangelist. Moon waited until 1954, however, before organizing a new world religion, the Genri Undo, or Unification Church, formerly called the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. (Detractors claim he got off to a slow start because of three arrests for sexual offenses.)11 Despite his wide following in Asia, and his whirlwind American tour last year, Moon has not attracted a wide following in the United States, where he can claim only about 25,000 supporters. Now that he can no longer lead the campaign to save President Nixon, Sun Myung Moon has fallen back on more traditional approaches. Recently he spent $350,000 on radio, TV, and other advertising to promote a major evangelical rally at Madison Square Garden to stimulate new support in the East. The event was held September 18 and attracted a large crowd of curious onlookers, hostile fundamentalists, leftist demonstrators, policemen, and atheists.12 Once described as a “Korean-style Elmer Gantry” but preferring the title, “God’s Hope for America,” the Reverend Moon preaches about the many dangers of communism along with his personal interpretations of the Bible. One Japanese source describes his movement as “less a religion than an anti-communist front group.” Rabbi Mark Tannenbaum of the American Jewish Committee observes that “Moon seems to be exploiting the emotional power of religion in order to indoctrinate his anti-communist ideology. The tragedy is that so many young people respond to this emotional appeal.” And he has predictably drawn fire from concerned clergymen, in the words of one, for his “seemingly cozy relationships with the dictatorial Park Chung Hee regime in South Korea.” In reply to these charges a Moon spokesman insists, “Many religions acknowledge the threat of Communism.”13 Sun Myung Moon can afford to lavishly finance his propaganda activities. Time estimated his personal fortune at $15 million, derived from investments in a tea company, titanium mines, retreat ranches, pharmaceutical firms, and shot gun manufacturers. Recently his Unification Church purchased several estates and an old seminary in New York for about $3 million. The question remains: is this vast international effort just a personal undertaking?14 Moon and his close associates are predictably silent, but disturbing evidence is emerging of his church’s close ties to anti-communist political organizations with less spiritual ends. For example, Moon’s closest associate and English interpreter, Colonel Bo Hi Pak (“God’s Colonel”), formerly a Korean military attaché, has strong links to both Korean intelligence and the American CIA. He heads the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation (KCFF) which operates “Radio Free Asia,” possibly an outgrowth of a project by the American organization, Committee for a Free Asia (now the Asia Foundation), funded by the CIA. KCFF also conducts propaganda operations in Vietnam. Its legal counsel is none other than Robert Amory, Jr., former deputy director of the CIA. In 1962 Amory almost became head of the Asia Foundation (he was turned down to avoid blowing the CIA cover); now he is a law partner in Corcoran, Roley, Youngman & Rowe, a firm which has long handled the legal work for CIA proprietaries.15 The possibility of CIA involvement with a right-wing movement now entering the United States is frightening enough. But just as troubling are the close financial ties of Moon’s church to the world of wealthy neo-fascist Japanese capitalists, who seek not only a rollback of Communism but a new “Greater Asia” under the Emperor, based on the integration of Korea and Formosa into the Japanese orbit. In Japan, the chief financial backer and organizer of the Genri Undo is Sasagawa Ryoichi, the 75 year old former Class A war criminal. Back in 1931, with the notorious Kodama Yoshio, he formed a chauvinist patriotic party and intelligence organization that siphoned off enormous wealth from China during the Japanese occupation and ultimately provided much of the postwar financial backing for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In 1939 he set in motion the negotiations leading to the ’Tripartite Pact between Japan, Germany, and Italy; three years later he was elected to the Diet on an ultranationalist platform of southward expansion. His stint in the Sagumo Prison after World War II for suspected war crimes set back his career only a short while, for he and fellow inmates like Kodama Yoshio and former Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke used their influence and time to plan the resurrection of the postwar Japanese Right.16 Both Sasagawa and Kodama still exercise enormous influence in Japan, and are described as “kuromaku” -- powers behind the throne. The New York Times description of Kodama applies identically to Sasagawa: “Yoshio Kodama is among the most powerful men in Japan. He was instrumental in founding the nation’s governing party, he has had a hand in naming several Premiers, he has settled dozens of disputes among top businessmen. He also commands the allegiance of Japan’s ultra-right wing and has strong influence over the yakuza, or gangsters, of the underworld here.”17 Both are dedicated to restoring the power of the Emperor and crushing opposition to the Right. Sasagawa, as president of the Japan-Indonesia Association and Japan-Philippine Association, both reminiscent of the prewar imperialist South Seas Association, has helped to spearhead the southward Japanese commercial advance in Asia. He funded the anti-Sukarno forces which organized the Indonesian coup d’état of September 30, 1965; he likewise supported the Lon Nol faction which overthrew King Sihanouk in Cambodia in 1970, and arranged for Japanese economic aid to prop up the new government. Currently he is active in strengthening Japanese ties with the strategic Arabian peninsula, through his Japan-Oman Association. Most significantly, Sasagawa has long been a leading light in the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League, and was behind the recent organization of the World Anti-Communist League. With his vast fortune acquired from shipbuilding, gambling, and organized crime, Sasagawa not only influences the Japanese government but acts as a powerful force in all of “Greater Asia.” His support of Moon’s Unification Church is thus just one of many elements in the constellation of interlocking activities surrounding the Japanese, Asian, and world right-wing movements which still thrive in many forms. American “Bible Belt” fundamentalism has long been known as a source of the most extreme conservatism and almost fanatic anti-communism. Evangelical movements from this tradition,, refined and directed by sophisticated “religious entrepreneurs” with modern marketing techniques and lavish funding, are “going international” on a larger scale than ever before in the service of established right-wing governments and organizations. Linked to old and well established anti-communist fronts composed of Eastern European émigrés, embittered Cuban refugees, and Nationalist Chinese officials, these popular new evangelical movements are the forefront of a new wave of political propaganda, disguised as religion and designed to distract Third World peoples from their more pressing social needs and concerns. Whether this theology of anti-communism will have any appeal to the masses of Asia is doubtful, but it does represent a new level of struggle in the cold war that is still with us. SIDEBAR: CHRISTIAN ANTI-COMMUNIST CRUSADE The Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, although affiliated with APACL, specializes in rooting Communists out of Latin America. Headed by “the amazing Aussie Communist-hunter” Fred Schwartz, CACC is based in southern California at Long Beach, where it draws financial support from such right-wingers as Walter Knott (Knott’s Berry Farm) and Patrick J. Frawley (Schick, Eversharp). Its $350,000 annual income supports many activities, including a Latin American literature project. Back in 1961, Schwartz’s Crusade worked With the U.S. Information Agency (and the CIA) to defeat Marxist candidate Cheddi Jagan in British Guyana’s presidential election. Schwartz admitted spending $76,0.00 to influence the election in favor of the right-wing United Force party. The Crusade’s money allegedly helped finance anti-Jagan street gangs and rioters to discredit his government. Shortly thereafter the CIA began a major campaign to undermine Jagan by infiltrating Guyana’s powerful black labor unions with the help of the CIA-funded American Institute for Free Labor Development. Though no one has ever proven any connection between Schwartz and the US government, his activities closely parallel those of the CIA. US embassy officials have never questioned his work. If he is not a CIA man, he ought to be.

Sources and footnotes below

(Sources: William Turner, Power Out the Right (Berkeley: Ramparts Press, 1971); Jane Kramer, “Letter From Guyana,” New Yorker (September 16, 1974), pp. 100-128; Cheddi Japan, The West on Trial (London, 1966), p. 307). FOOTNOTES 1. Stanley Karnow, “The CIA in Flux,” New Republic, December 8, 1973. Between 1961 and 1963 CIA foundations gave $142,500 to the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church outside of Russia. 2. Peter Dale Scott, “Watergate, Cuba, and the China-Vietnam Lobby” (unpublished manuscript); APACL, All Roads Lead to Freedom: First Report (Taipei, 1955); APACL, Proceedings of the First WACL Conference; APACL, Proceedings of the Third WACL Conference. 3. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 17; Christianity Today, August 16, 1974, pp. 28-9; June 22, 1973, pp. 33-4; September 28, 1973, pp. 52-3. 4. Christianity Today, January 1, 1971, p. 43; June 9, 1972, pp. 38-9; Christian Century, December 24, 1969, pp. 1650-1651. Despite its name, Campus Crusade is “not a student-led program” but is controlled by Bright’s central staff. (Christianity Today, April 12, 1968, p. 4O.} 5. Christian Century, May 10, 1972, pp. 549-51; July 19, 1972, pp. 778-80; Christianity Today, July 7, 1972, pp. 31-2. 6, AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 16; Christianity Today, June 22, 1973, pp. 33-4; June 9, 1972, pp. 38-39. Campus Crusade actually has staff members at work in over fifty countries, where, as in the United States, its chief target group is students. 7. Washington Post, August 19, 1974; AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 17. 8. The American press, especially the Washington Post and the New York Times, provided extensive coverage of the growing repression in Korea during the summer of 1974. 9. Washington Post, August 19, 1974; New York Times, August 19, 1974. 10. On Korff’s close relationship to Moon, see Washington Post, July 25, 1974; New York Post, September 16, 1974. Rabbi Korff’s latest project is to force Congress to impose severe curbs on the media, which he blames for President Nixon’s downfall (Washington Post, August 17, 1974). 11. Daily News (New York), September 13, 1974; Christianity Today, March 1, 1974, pp. 101-02; AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Times, September 16, 1974; Village Voice, September 12, 1974. Estimates vary as to the size of Moon’s worldwide following; Moon’s chief associate put the figure at over two million (New York Times, September 16, 1974). 12. New York Times, September 16, 1974 (including full-page advertisement on p. 40); Daily News, September 13, 1974; New York Times, September 19, 1974; UPI dispatch, September 19, 1974; Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1974. 13. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Post, September 16, 1974. Moon’s organization has created a number of secular anti-communist front groups including the ]nfernationai Federation for Victory over Communism, the World Freedom Institute, and the Freedom Leadership Foundation. The South Korean Government sends its civil servants to an anti-communist indoctrination center in Seoul operated by the Church (Village Voice, September 12, 1974; New York Times, September 17, 1974). 14. Time, October 15, 1973, pp. 129-30; Daily News, September 13, 1974; Christianity Today, March 1, 1974, pp. 101-02. Moon’s church is worth “far more” than Moon’s personal $15 million (New York Times, September 16, 1974). 15. Village Voice, September 12, 1974; Steve Weissman and John Shoch, “CIAsia Foundation,” Pacific Research, September~October, 1972. One of Corcoran’s earliest projects for the CIA was representing Chennault’s Civil Air Transport, now Air America. CIA officials deny any ties to Moon’s Unification Church, but funding of the Church remains mysterious (Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1974). 16. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Times, July 2, 1974; Don Kurzman, Kishi and Japan (Astor-Honor). 17. New York Times, July 2, 1974. Sasagawa has been implicated in recent Japanese election irregularities. See Far Eastern Economic Review, September 6, 1974, p. 28. 18. AMPO, Winter, 1974, pp. 43-5.

[stra-tek]

765874 Unification DEEP DIVE!

There's a lot to unpack on this little video, including lots not at all explained in it and only behind the scenes. Is it dreamy and ambiguous, or is there a solid background?

First of all, is Kirk dead and in heaven? Is he alive? A hologram? The answers are shown in the intro, prior 765874 videos and built from Easter Eggs in Picard season 3. Eagle-eyed viewers spotted Kirk's remains in the Section 31 Daystrom vault. The readout mentioned something called "Project Phoenix". James T. Kirk has been resurrected.

The park Kirk starts out in? It's not just any park. It's inside the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-J, just look at the Roddenberry Archive Ent-J interior. We're in the 26th century, that's why Saavik looks so old. And speaking of Saavik, the Roddenberry Archive say they consider the Vulcan's Heart novel canon. Which means Saavik is Spock's wife. And the Vulcan man next to her? That's Sorak, the son she had with Spock following the Pon Farr in Star Trek III, according to OTOY.

It gets weirder. The old man wearing a white TNG movie era dress uniform? He's credited as "Crusher". That's an elderly version of our time travelling Wesley, dressed as he was in Star Trek Nemesis.

This sinister character, who gives Kirk his badge back and takes him through time? Temporal soldier Yor, from Discovery 3.09. From the Kelvin timeline, he jumped forward in time and across timelines during the 30th century temporal wars, eventually resulting in sickness and an agonising death. Here he takes Kirk from the 26th century Enterprise-J to 23rd century New Vulcan in the Kelvin timeline.

But why was Kirk resurrected? Just to zip though time and be with Spock at his death?

And what role does Yeoman Colt (whose Starfleet serial number these shorts are named for) play? She's seen in all of them, even the start of this one in a Kelvin Universe uniform looking at Project Phoenix stuff. I guess time will tell...

[vestaignis]

Одна из альтернативных достопримечательностей Берлина - Шпреепарк, заброшенный парк аттракционов с трагической судьбой.

Парк открыли в 1969 году на берлинском полуострове Плэнтервальд, и до 1989 года он оставался единственным парком развлечений в ГДР. Для учредителей было важно, что место несет не только увеселительный, но и образовательный характер.Так появилось название “Культурный парк” — Kulturpark Plänterwald. Кроме катания на аттракционах и американских горках в Kulturpark можно было сходить на концерт или танцевальный вечер.После объединения Германии стало понятно: старому парку не место в новом Берлине. Берлинский сенат организовал тендер среди подрядчиков, чтобы превратить уже не модный Культурный парк в настоящую мекку развлечений по лучшим западным образц��м: в берлинский Диснейленд.

Новыми владельцами парка стала семья Витте. Они переименовали место в Spreepark («Парк у реки Шпрее»), закупили огромное количество новых аттракционов, ввели плату за вход в парк и устроили реорганизацию. Многие аттракционы они привезли из разорившегося французского парка Мираполис, в том числе знаменитую железную дорогу и карусель с чашками, на которых был изображен старый талисман компании Nesquik — кролик Groquik. Из Франции в Германию также переехали трех- и четырехметровые динозавры и два мамонта: огромные фигуры сразу стали в Шпреепарке любимцами публики. Стегозавр, тираннозавр, апатозавр, стиракозавр с товарищами встречали гостей у входа в парк, возвышались над деревьями и приводили в восторг посетителей.

До 2000 года дела у Шпреепарка шли неплохо.  Но цена билетов постоянно росла, при этом мест для парковки не хватало, а сами аттракционы стремительно старели. Число посетителей упало с полутора миллиона до четырехсот тысяч, у парка появились долги, и компанию-учредителя признали банкротом. И в 2001 году парк закрылся. Но на владельце Spreepark по-прежнему висел долг в € 11 млн, поэтому он решился…открыть новый парк! На этот раз в Перу, для чего он перенаправил туда шесть своих аттракционов. Но и там дело не пошло. 

Сейчас в парке остались многие аттракционы, на которых можно сделать интересные фотографии. Самый большой аттракцион – колесо обозрения, до сих пор крутится благодаря ветру. Также здесь есть американские горки, ракеты, машинки. С марта 2019 года  в Шпреепарке проводятся организованные экскурсии (на немецком и английском языках). Посетители могут ознакомиться с историей парка, осмотреть еще сохранившиеся аттракционы, постройки. Их продолжительность – 1,5 часа. Помимо этого, парк стал местом проведения различных выставок уличного искусства, вечеров и встреч с ��удожниками и музыкантами.

One of Berlin's alternative attractions is Spreepark, an abandoned amusement park with a tragic fate.

The park opened in 1969 on Berlin's Planterwald peninsula, and until 1989 it remained the only amusement park in the GDR. It was important to the founders that the place not only had an entertaining, but also an educational character. This is how the name "Culture Park" - Kulturpark Plänterwald - appeared. In addition to riding the rides and roller coasters, you could go to a concert or dance evening in Kulturpark. After the unification of Germany, it became clear: the old park had no place in the new Berlin. The Berlin Senate organized a tender among contractors to turn the no longer fashionable Kulturpark into a real mecca of entertainment according to the best Western examples: Berlin Disneyland.

The Witte family became the new owners of the park. They renamed the place Spreepark, bought a huge number of new rides, introduced an entrance fee and reorganized the park. They brought many rides from the bankrupt French park Mirapolis, including the famous railway and the carousel with cups, which depicted the old mascot of the Nesquik company - the Groquik rabbit. Three- and four-meter dinosaurs and two mammoths also moved from France to Germany: huge figures immediately became favorites of the public in Spreepark. Stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus, apatosaurus, styracosaurus and friends greeted guests at the entrance to the park, towered over the trees and delighted visitors.

Until 2000, Spreepark was doing well. But the price of tickets was constantly rising, there was a shortage of parking spaces, and the rides themselves were rapidly aging. The number of visitors dropped from one and a half million to four hundred thousand, the park got into debt, and the parent company was declared bankrupt. And in 2001, the park closed. But the owner of Spreepark still had a debt of € 11 million, so he decided to… open a new park! This time to Peru, for which he redirected six of his rides there. But things didn’t work out there either.

Now the park still has many rides on which you can take interesting photos. The largest ride is the Ferris wheel, which still spins thanks to the wind. There are also roller coasters, rockets, cars. Since March 2019, Spreepark has been offering organized tours (in German and English). Visitors can learn about the history of the park, see the remaining rides and buildings. They last 1.5 hours. In addition, the park has become a venue for various street art exhibitions, evenings and meetings with artists and musicians.

Источник:/stalkers.info/zabroshennyj-park-attraktsionov-spreepark/, //www.gavailer.ru/journal/685.html,/ru-travel.livejournal.com / 27731230.html,/andrreas.livejournal.com/756034.html,/berlin24.ru/ru/news/novosti-germanii-segodnja-v-novostjah/6733-urban-trip-v-berline.html,/directfromberlin.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/abandoned-amusement-park-spreepark-in-berlin/,/samokatus.ru/shpreepark-ot-rascveta-do-zakata/.

[trashmouth-richie]

the boy is mine // ziggy’s version ♡

@carolmunson prompt

♡firstly, i’m so excited about this, for the unification this could have for all of us fandom wide— hopefully there are more ideas like this in the future 💕

tw: depictions of hard times, established relationship, blue collar (?) vibes, money troubles, but you’re in love so it’s a non issue. fluffy, illusions to smut but nothing mentioned.

1.3k

the scene: a romantic night in at the trailer.

props included/mentioned (in passing or can hold bigger meaning): a throw pillow, vanilla frosting, a small notebook.

dialogue included (can be manipulated slightly if needed, can be placed in any order):- "i ran out of like, nice cups, is this okay?" - "aw, don't be like that. that's not even true."- "and you like that?"- "if you don't stop, we're gonna have a problem."

Birthdays.

Something rarely celebrated between the two of you. Even though you both agree every year would be different, every new year’s resolution—sworn to do it, but always falling short.

Until this year.

It wasn’t a pony or a working television, and still with the daily struggle of bills piling up and work slowing down— Eddie promised himself, your day would be special.

He dipped into the ‘broken window’ fund— started when some little shits tossed rocks at the “freak’s house”. It consisted of an empty pickle jar that lived in the same dark bottom cabinet holding the potatoes.

Just a few bucks, that’s all he would need until payday on friday.

The shopping basket was nearly pathetic looking as he scoured aisles for a special treat, realizing he had come up short when he needed an extra few bucks for gas.

Putting back the cake mix, the card, and a pack of twizzlers—Eddie left the store with a single can of vanilla frosting, the off brand kind.

He rushed home, hoping to still have enough time to beat you there before your shift ended at work.

Scrounging for the small notebook you got him for christmas, he flipped through the pages filled with past conversations about the pros and cons of leaving the trailer park, a forgotten list for groceries, and an even shorter list of bills that could be pushed back a few days.

He finally finds a clean sheet, clear of pen marks and gets to work. His hands flew with D&D esque inspired calligraphy, scrawling “happy birthday baby!” with a tiny jagged heart at the bottom with his initials.

A car door slams on creaky hinges and he knew you were home before even hearing your soft footsteps on the worn concrete— giving him only seconds to do a quick sniff of his pits and rake through his hair with his fingers— rings getting stuck along the way.

Your keys jingle on your finger as you lug your purse by its strap, nearly to the ground like you were walking a dog on a leash.

“There she is,”

The same cheesy charmer line he had greeted you with since you were teens meeting between classes by your locker, faces wedged almost as one to kiss as much as you could before being late. Hormones on fire.

Eddie ‘benjamin button’ Munson aged backwards, you were sure of it. Where you looked exhausted at any given hour, Eddie's puppy dog eyes grew bigger every day, not a single wrinkle on his cherub face.

“Hey babe,” you yawned with a hand covering your mouth, “did’y have a good day?”

His smile, all dimples and porcelain teeth stretched a mile wide along with his arms as you walked into them, pressing your cheek to the middle of his chest, arms slung lazy on his hips.

“Always a good day babe, never bad. And..someone, not sure who, has a birthday.”

Lifting your head his chin is dipped to you, “someone doesn’t like their birthday, Eddie— it’s a waste.”

You never had, it was never happy before Eddie— stemming from divorced parents fighting about which one should pick up the cake, and who was buying the gifts because ‘I did it last year’ which ultimately dissolved into you telling them not to worry about it because it was just another day.

“Aw don’t be like that,” Eddie frowns, “that’s not even true.”

You grumble into his shirt tossing your head further into him inhaling his scent. He kisses your hairline and strokes your back before working to remove your coat.

“Five years we’ve been together, it’s time we celebrate shit, sweetheart.”

Mumbling a drawn out ‘fiiine’ into him he tips your chin, with a curl of his forefinger, a little smirk on his lips.

“You’re really cute when you pout y’know it?”

“and you like that?”

His lips slot against yours, and you hum with content, “oh darlin’” he says with a fake southern drawl, “I love it.”

-

The tub was filled with the warmest temperature the water heater would allow— which wasn’t a lot, but still, it felt nice on your sore muscles from your shift at the same plant both Eddie and Wayne worked at, opposite shifts from you.

Eddie’s rings clacked on the plastic edge as he slid his long legs around yours into the water, sitting on the other end of the tub. He had helped you undress, hanging your coat on the back of a chair, giving you the beautiful homemade card that made tears spring to your eyes.

He followed behind you into the bathroom, running the water and putting the drain stopper into the drain before he ran back out to the kitchen returning with arms filled with stuff that he kept hidden from you until you were comfortably sitting in the cramped bathtub.

He plugged in an emerald strand of colorful christmas lights that you didn’t even know you had. It filled the cluttered countertop, weaving around the bar of soap and kitchen cup designated for holding your toothbrushes, lighting the bathroom in a cozy Christmas ambience… in April.

“We ran out of like, nice cups— is this okay?” He asked before pouring a can of Busch light into two red cups that were nabbed from Benny’s before it shut down.

Scrunching your face you move your arms from the depths of the water to reach out for his extended offering of warm beer, “when have we ever had nice cups?”

He laughed shrugging, “yeah, you’re right.”

Sitting square in front of you, long legs bent and wide open, Eddie holds up his cup in a cheers, “to you, my love, my sweet beautiful hotter than hell girl who for some reason fell for my charm, happy birthday.”

Clinking a his cup with yours you both smile before taking a swig of the cheap warm beer.

“mm, that’s nice.. what year?” you tease, never even having wine in your life.

He plays along like he always does, swirling the cup and putting the tip of his nose to the rim, “ah yes, a refined 1989 I believe— a good year for Busch I've heard.”

You both laugh until your sides ache. This is why you adored him, making a normal day special by just being him—corny, cheesy, poor— and you had never been happier.

“Oh, wait!” he exclaimed, reaching out of the tub, ribs stretching taunt against his skin, soap sliding down them.

He grabs a lighter from the counter and opens the tub of frosting. Brandishing a white waxed candle tucked behind his ear with the flair of a magician, he plants it in the center before lighting the wick and sitting down roughly in the tub, water splashing onto the floor.

The flame lit up his features, his tongue poked out in concentration, the yellow light filling his dark pudding eyes with a boyish glee, and then they met yours.

“Should I sing?”

You shake your head, happy tears stinging your eyes, “no, this is perfect,”

“Well make a wish.”

You close your eyes tight not knowing what to wish for because all you’ve ever wanted is right in front of you. Blowing out the candle you lean forward and kiss him square on the mouth, hard and deep.

The beer tipped into the tub and was long forgotten as your lips worked down his neck, wet strands of hair curled around, his arms pulling you in, making you sit on his naked lap, the frosting birthday cake sitting on the floor.

You kiss for awhile, your chest pressed into his, his hands squeezing your ass, the heel of his foot knocking the plug from the drain.

“If you don’t stop,” you mutter between kisses, “we’re gonna have a problem.”

Eddie smirks, dimples poking out, stroking your cheek thumb sweeping your swollen bit lip, “throw pillow is already on the bed, besides, I’m not afraid of a little trouble baby.”

[jack-kellys]

k so yall voted to see my 2023 final essay for a class called london in performance. which wasnt too serious. basically i compared the national theatre's phaedra [which i did not like that much tbh. one of the lines in my paper is "to truly send the criticism home, compared to the white critics who praised the play with four stars, Polish editor Andrzej Lukowski and Pakistani critic Arifa Akbar are the ones to only give two stars on the story that centers an illegal immigrant (The Stage)." just saying] as an adaptation of a classic greek play to the west end's general cash-in commercialization. and then my argument was that the center of that pendulum is somehow fucking newsies @ the troub im so sorry.

HERE ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS:

first of all i got to cite myself as like. an expert which was SO funny

"To preface, because of my five years of close knowledge about this subject matter, its multiple stagings, scripts, and casts, I am well aware that this musical as a whole is quite average."

importantly, my definition of a revival in this paper is "creating something accessible to a modern audience for the sake of improving and adapting an original source material into a performance". if it doesnt improve and/or adapt it then it fails imo

"Lines [in the script] that hold weight are sort of dropped, in favor of keeping the show hopeful at all times. The reflection lies in the younger generation taking hold of a new age, rather than in workers rights, child poverty and abuse, and unification.  Newsies at Wembley Park, the first professional revival and first iteration of the musical outside of the United States, flips this as a performance."

i called newsies 2012/livesies staging "left-right up-down" like a video game combo lmfao

"Wembley Park’s revival inserts viewers into the action of the city by default, but also the events that befall the newsboys.... Two police officers stalk in front of the audience as a scene with a new sense of impending doom plays out on the stage. The strikebreaking battle is... level with many of the audience’s seats, and boys escape officers and grown men through the aisles helping each other stand upright while shouts of “Move, move!” are called out .... as a pair hurry away up a ladder behind my aisle seat."

"The expansive take on staging (since as I said before, the musical itself is average) almost takes the place of design. ... Pulitzer’s desk resides on top of a platform of newspaper stacks, emphasizing his position in the hierarchy over the children selling those papers especially as the newsboys push it on with much effort. The towers are made to look like black metal with rust and peels. The lighting is white and natural during scenes. The ensemble’s costumes look more similar to each other, making them appear more unified visually compared to Broadway. The design is in the ensemble’s interactions, dance, and fluid movement through the city of the show, letting the performance and the dancers speak for themselves."

then mandatory michael section:

"What struck me the most watching it had to be Jack’s casting, and new character positionality within the context of the story. Never before has Jack Kelly been a Black newsboy union leader, not in any professional production. Played by Michael Ahomka-Lindsay, Jack’s role was much more electric. His fear of leading the strike became more personal, his baggage with the reform center gained more onstage intersectionality, his relationship with Katherine became even more complex and out of reach. It changes many of those past dropped lines, it made me hear lines differently than I had used to. It’s a more effective reflection that makes the events in the story a bit more tangible to an audience that could have initially been caught up in the grandiose dance numbers- not to mention the performance opening amidst strikes nationwide."

best part:

jack-kellys. "Welcome to..." Jack-Kellys, 23 Jan 2023, 3:46AM, this-is-what-i-mean-by-five-years-of-close-experience. 

[luimnigh]

Day Six (Epilogue) of Luim in New York!

Well, I'm not in New York. I'm now back home in Ireland. Though because my flight landed at 6am local time, but only 1am according to my body clock, I slept through all the daylight and thus haven't seen the sun since Queens.

Not much happened on Day 6. We checked out, my Aunt did some last minute shopping, there was a small electrical fire in the diner attached to the hotel so while we sat in the lobby we ended up surrounded by the FDNY:

But apart from that, most of the day was dedicated to going home.

So now let's show the details that would have doxxed me.

I stayed at the New Yorker Hotel, a fairly famous Manhattan hotel. There's been some famous clientele over the years, as depicted in a little museum exhibit in the basement, including Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and Muhammad Ali.

Most famously of all, however, was that it was the home of Nikola Tesla for the last ten years of his life. It's even where he announced his Death Ray.

They have plaques up on the doors of the rooms he stayed in:

I unfortunately was not as fortunate to get those rooms.

Did get a direct view of the Empire State Building, though:

It's also right next to Penn Station and Madison Square Gardens.

And while the hotel is operated by Wyndham, it's owned by the Unification Church. The cult. The one that Shinzo Abe was involved with, and was subsequently shot for his involvement with them.

Yeah I didn't know that until my Aunt had booked and paid for it. But there's nothing more American than accidentally getting involved in fringe religious movements, so really it added to the authenticity of the trip.

And that's a wrap for my first visit to America. It's gonna be a while before I see it again.

And by that I mean my family is planning a trip in July.

Yeah, you wait twenty years to go somewhere and end up going twice in twelve-month period. It's like buses.

[royalty-nobility]

Portrait of Napoleon III

Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter  (German, 1805–1873)

Date: circa 1853

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Napoleonic Museum, Rome, Italy

Napoleon III

Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was the first president of France from 1848 to 1852, and the last monarch of France as the second Emperor of the French from 1852 until he was deposed on 4 September 1870.

Prior to his reign, Napoleon III was known as Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. He was born in Paris as the son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland (r. 1806–1810), and Hortense de Beauharnais. Napoleon I was Louis Napoleon's paternal uncle, and one of his cousins was the disputed Napoleon II. Louis Napoleon was the first and only president of the French Second Republic, elected in 1848. He seized power by force in 1851 when he could not constitutionally be re-elected. He later proclaimed himself Emperor of the French and founded the Second Empire, reigning until the defeat of the French Army and his capture by Prussia and its allies at the Battle of Sedan in 1870.

Napoleon III was a popular monarch who oversaw the modernization of the French economy and filled Paris with new boulevards and parks. He expanded the French colonial empire, made the French merchant navy the second largest in the world, and personally engaged in two wars. Maintaining leadership for 22 years, he was the longest-reigning French head of state since the fall of the Ancien Régime, although his reign would ultimately end on the battlefield.

Napoleon III commissioned a grand reconstruction of Paris carried out by prefect of the Seine, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. He expanded and consolidated the railway system throughout the nation and modernized the banking system. Napoleon promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, which ended famines in France and made the country an agricultural exporter. He negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier Free Trade Agreement with Britain and similar agreements with France's other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike, the right to organize, and the right for women to be admitted to a French university.

In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and around the world. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War (1853–1856). His regime assisted Italian unification by defeating the Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence and later annexed Savoy and Nice through the Treaty of Turin as its deferred reward. At the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. He was also favourable towards the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities, which resulted in the establishment of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Napoleon doubled the area of the French colonial empire with expansions in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. On the other hand, the intervention in Mexico, which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection, ended in total failure.

From 1866, Napoleon had to face the mounting power of Prussia as its minister president Otto von Bismarck sought German unification under Prussian leadership. In July 1870, Napoleon reluctantly declared war on Prussia after pressure from the general public. The French Army was rapidly defeated, and Napoleon was captured at Sedan. He was swiftly dethroned and the Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris. After he was released from German custody, he went into exile in England, where he died in 1873.

[rgr-pop]

i really want to buy myself a copy of jeremy milloy’s blood sweat and fear at long last. i wanted to listen to it after bring the war home but it’s not on audiobook. PAIR THESE TWO BOOKS!

i want to look closely at more labor histories that look at a lot of grievances. reading about robert miles yesterday has me puzzling over pontiac motors. (recap) miles was one of the pillars of the white power movement, more well known in his development of a militia-adjacent christian identity compound in michigan as part of the white power unification of the 1980s—as outlined in bring the war home. miles is the primary reason why howell has a reputation for being a klan hub, a history that is different from, but overlaps, the longer history of rural right wing populism in michigan—he was not from michigan, he bought land here in the sixties with the intention of developing a white power organizing base, and as early as the sixties he was organizing within the klan and with wallacecels (and others, but these stand out) toward this end. he was grand dragon of michigan when, if you look at the history, that sort of didn’t mean anything. (you do not want to know how much klan parliamentary procedure i have read this summer…)

where i’m from miles is more well known for that event not a lot of people remember but which looms huge for me: the klan’s 1971 bombing of 10 empty school buses in pontiac, where my mom was probably in fourth grade. miles would spend a few years in prison over this in the 70s (and it’s worth noting that one of his most important contributions to the white power movement was in developing prisoner organizing and outreach), along with I think five other klan-affiliated men. because miles would get out and sort of disaffiliate with the klan, their role in the bombing is i think retroactively underrated—but, ultimately, what it meant to be klan in industrial michigan 1967-1974 is another more complicated thing.

unsurprisingly, miles’s co-conspirators—the boys he had living on his farm, training up—were mostly 20 years younger than him, entering white power from a different historical juncture, which miles understood well. my interest in almost all of this klan stuff from this era revolves around getting a sense of the class nature of this moment. and in the other “pontiac six” there are echoes of the black legion in detroit and highland park a generation earlier, a surprising amount of shop floor conflict. can go into this more later!

one of those men was wallace fruit, in his 20s, who was watched pretty heavily during the useless fed infiltration era of the early 70s, he shows up all over. some local news coverage of fruit reported on a series of grievances he filed with GM over his discipline for (what i saw) klan organizing at work, and targeted racist behavior. he won these grievances. from what i can tell, he was organizing in the local, and i want to see more of that. there is an obvious story of right wing agitation on the shop floor, but i want to say that i think some of this is misrepresented in posterity, and tells us more about the tactics of the right than the uaw per se. but it’s particularly interesting to see this as a piece in this really pivotal moment for uaw shop floor organizing. ultimately, what we see by the mid seventies, is a retreat from industrial labor by these guys—probably obviously—with i think a kind of underrated alignment with farmers during the farm crisis. i mean the farm crisis is wildly underrated in the stories we tell about this stuff compared to the focus on industrial workers, which tbh i find a little chauvinist. (and the collision is exactly the story of timothy mcveigh!)

there are some collections holding grievances from this local in the 60s at the reuther, and boy do i want to look. but first i must establish what i’d do with them!

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 726: Sakamichi until the Central Sports Park

Pag 1

1: Two hours earlier, Sohoku High School racing team is on the mountain road towards the training camp

2: Are you alright, Onoda-san!?

Ugh....

Y- your condition... ahh, ahhhh

Captain!!

3: We were descending at a high speed, and then the moment we entered the mountain road his face turned... white

What do we do about this training camp

Is- is.... is he going to be alright?

4: Yeah, don't worry

It's Onoda-kun's specialty that we've gotten used to – car sickenss!!

I didn't think it would happen three years in a row

Pag 2

1: At the same place!!

2: I'm- alright, Naru.... ko... kun

Yeah you don't look alright at all

Your face is as white as paper

3: During these three years.... I've learned... and

I've come..... prepared....

4: Go ahead before me

5: There's no need to contact Toji-san either

6: From here....

Pag 3

1: To the Cycling Sports Park it's 18km....

I realized that on this mountain road

Pag 4

1: If I go with my bike, I'm sure I won't feel sick!!

Pag 5

1: I don't feel faint and I don't feel sick either

And I won't bother everyone

Ahhh... bikes really are the best...!!

2: But I'll be a little later for the start

I'll hurry as much as possible

(Time display)

4: But

5: The air is sweet, and I'm able to slowly enjoy the scenery

Ah, I can see the sea

6: I even started humming without noticing

Hm hm hm

Ahhh the “Love Hime”'s third season announcement PV only has the chorsu part of the song.... I want to listen to the opening!!

Even though I'm pedaling like this

Pag 6

1: There's many things to discover

2: 3km to go!!

3: This climb, and then the descent after it!!

4: Alright, I'm at the top

5: Hm hm hm

6: Hime hime

Pag 7

1: Hime.....

2: Waaaaaaaa, he's deaaad!!

3: Someone- someone's collapsed

Waaaaa my first dscorvery

Wh- wh- what should I do

4: My phone, my phone

Pag 8

1: I'm alive

A- i- u- e- o

Pag 9

1: See, I can even speak Japanese

2: I'm just resting

On the ground

3: You can go

Goodbye

4: O-okay

Sorry, you surprised me

5: What a strange person....

Well, then....

He was wearing a unifer, is he a student.....?

Pag 10

1: Hakone Academy is around here, maybe he's an Hakone Academy's student?

2: Uh-oh, I'm on my way to training camp! I have to hurry

I left the start to Naruko-kun, but....

4: Huh?!

This smell....

5: Just now the smell of plants was mixed a little with the smell of blood!!

Pag 11

1: He's injured!!

2: Maybe I'm wrong? Maybe I'm making a mistake?

Maybe he'll brush me off again!?

3: But

4: Let's turn back!!

Aaaaaaaa

Pag 12

2: Oh?

3: The four-eyes from before

Pag 13

1: I'm just resting, you can go

Yo-yo-you're injured!!

2: I have water and bandages!!

Oh

3: Are you kidding me

4: No way something so convenient

5: is... happe.... ning

Waa-

6: Are you alright!? Were you hit by car!?

Are you alright!?

7: Huh? No... on my own.....

On your own!?

Pag 14

1: Just for a moment, I looked away just a little

And then there was a hole and I fell

2: This is so hard, this is so hard

3: He's not listening

5: He's so bad at this....

6: But

Pag 15

1: You saved me

Thanks a lot

5: I'm glad!

7: By the way, that

Is the same as the one that a famous guy from Chiba rides

The bicycle

Pag 16

1: Huh

2: You know bicycles very well?

Yeah

3: I was riding one earlier

4: Earlier?

5: Now it's a little....

Waaa- It's fallen to the bottom of the valley...!!

6: I was riding, then I got caught in a hole

Kinda like that

Pag 17

1: Leave it to me, I'll bring it to you

2: I'll....

Ohhh, what a kind guy!!

3: I-!!

Waa--!!

5: …. well then, I'll go

Somehow now it feels reversed and I feel sorry

6: By the way....

Ahead of here

7: There's only the Cycling Sports Park

And from today for the next four days it's reserved so you can't use it

So where are you going, Four-eyes-san?

Pag 18

1: To the Cycling Sports Park

2: I'm Chiba's.... Sohoku High School's cap.... captain

Do you know of it?

My name is Onoda Sakamichi

We're having a training camp there from today

Pag 19

2: Who?

Huh- ah, no- haha it's it's just a name

He doesn't know me....!! This is so embarassing!!

3: You're kidding me.....

4: The super famous person of Chiba!!

5: This is baad... I was s surprised I bluffed and pretended not to know

Ah... uhm, and you?

6: Huh, me?

I'm- I'm!!

Pag 20

1: I'm Hakone Academy first year, the super rookie!! I'm Tobirama!!

2: It hurts

This person's head looks like a scrubbing brush

[whatisonthemoon]

Reverend Moon Rises Above Ailing Businesses (1999)

By Don Kirk, International Herald Tribune Feb. 5, 1999

▲ Pictured: Reverend Sun Myung Moon addresses the Third International Ocean Challenge in Kodiak Alaska, September 9 through October 18, 1998. Peter Kim translates. (source: tparents.org)

The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church, opened a "world culture and sports festival" Thursday night asking participants: "What happens to us when we die?" His temporal business empire in South Korea, meanwhile, was asking: How do we repay debts approaching $2 billion

Weakness emerged within the Tong Il group, a conglomerate whose name means "unification," as Mr. Moon toured South Korea over the past week drumming up support for his church and his companies.

"The Tong Il companies suffer from bad management," said Huh Man Jo, who is monitoring the restructuring efforts of Korea's chaebol, or conglomerates, for the government's newly formed financial supervisory service. "They relied too much on church donations. It was a kind of moral hazard."

Mr. Huh said the debts of the group's 16 companies exceed 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion).

Its four leading companies, which manufacture products ranging from ginseng tea to tank guns, were all bankrupt awaiting reorganization under court supervision, he said.

Mr. Moon appeared oblivious to his earthly problems Thursday night. Alexander Haig, a former secretary of state and White House chief of staff during Richard Nixon's presidency, introduced him as "a leading force for inter-religious dialogue and understanding between peoples of all backgrounds."

The closest Mr. Moon came to mentioning the companies that he founded in the 1960s as the basis for his worldwide ministry was when he told a rapt audience that "Earth is but a speck of dust."

The spirit world that people enter after death transcends time and space, Mr. Moon said, speaking in Korean after a six-course banquet. Interpreters translated into seven languages for an audience that included former Third World heads of state and ambassadors. "There are no factories there to produce food," Mr. Moon said. "There are no automobile factories. There is nothing like that."

In the real world, the Tong Il group's flagship Tong Il Heavy Industries Co., founded in 1962, has suffered the most of any of the companies in the group.

The factory, which produces motor vehicle transmissions, has had to lay off 40 percent of its or conglomerates, for the government.

2,000 workers as a result of sagging car sales in South Korea, said Seo Pyong Kyu, a manager in the group's financial planning department.

"There is a cash flow deficit," Mr. Seo said. "Production is very low."

Church donations, a traditional source of funding in hard times, "have helped but are very much limited," said Mr. Seo. "Maybe we can expect the Reverend Moon to help, but it is not certain."

Mr. Moon, who maintains a headquarters in New York but has been spending much of his time on a vast farm project in Brazil, focused throughout his speaking tour of South Korea on the theme of "family ethics and world peace," the topic of a three-day series of seminars sponsored by the church. The festival is scheduled to wind up Sunday with a mass wedding in which 40,000 couples will exchange vows in Seoul's Olympic Stadium in a ceremony broadcast worldwide by cable. As in previous mass weddings, Mr. Moon himself has personally selected many of the marriage partners flying in from throughout the world, from submitted photographs and brief biographies.

Periodically, however, the realities of South Korea's economic crisis intruded upon his national tour.

At stops on the way, workers who had lost their jobs staged demonstrations accusing Mr. Moon's lieutenants of illegally dismissing them without pay. During an appearance in Pusan, South Korea's largest port city, workers from Tong Il Oil Heavy Industries briefly threatened violence.

Mr. Moon did not talk directly to the workers, leaving negotiations to his lieutenants. The response from management was not sympathetic.

"They want to get money from the company," said Ahn Ho Yeol, vice president in charge of the Korean branch of its Youth Federation for World Peace. "We cannot make money. They did not work. We did not offer them money."

Mr. Moon opened his remarks Thursday night by calling for "the realization of a culture of love, a global culture of heart."

Pak Bo Hee, who co-founded The Washington Times with Mr. Moon, goes to North Korea on Monday to negotiate the rights to open a tourist service to the North and to join the celebration of the 57th birthday of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Feb. 16.

Tong Il Heavy Industries, meanwhile, survives on military contracts that it first obtained during the rule of Park Chung Hee, a former general who ruled South Korea for 18 years until his assassination in 1979. "We make rifles and cannon for tanks," said a company official. "The contract is going on."

Source: NY Times

Related articles and notes

Two articles below shed light on the relationship between Moon and Alexander Haig, who in the article above called Moon “ a leading force for inter-religious dialogue and understanding between peoples of all backgrounds."

Excerpted from article: taken from a Facts and Details article n Sun Myung Moon

“After Moon’s release from a US prison after serving 13 months he was still welcomed by the great and good. At various times he met or received support from the British prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and Edward Heath, ex-presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush Sr, Canadian ex-premier Brian Mulroney, US senators Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, William Fulbright and Orrin Hatch, Reagan’s defence secretary Caspar Weinberger, the former Nato chief general Alexander Haig, former US education secretary William Bennett, Boston University president John Silber, Christian Coalition ex-chief Ralph Reed, and the rightwing Christian leader the Rev Jerry Falwell.

Excerpted from a paper: The Unificationist Funerary Tradition by Lukas Pokorny describes the seunghwa’s role and evolution in UC/FFWPU history

“[“Honoring a Legacy of Peace”] was held on 18 March 2010 in the New York UN headquarters, 37 “involving” the spirits of Alexander Haig (1924–2010), a general and Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; p. 1981–1989); 38 former South Korean president and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kim Tae-jung 김대중/金大中 (1924–2009; p. 1998–2003); Hédi Annabi (1943–2010), the head of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, and some one-hundred of his staff, who died when the Port-au-Prince UN Headquarters collapsed during the Haiti Earthquake; former Costa Rican president Rodrigo Carazo Odio (1926–2009; p. 1978–82) called by Mun a Peace President (p’yŏnghwa’ŭi taet’ongnyŏng 평화의 대통령) for his role in the establishment of the University for Peace; former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid (1940–2009; p. 1999–2001); former Icelandic prime minister Steingrímur Hermannsson (1928–2010), who hosted the 1986 Reykjavík Summit between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931); the Senegalese head of the Tijaniyyah Sufi order Hassan Cissé 1945–2008); and the Indian politician and diplomat Laxmi Mall Singhvi (1931–2007), whom Mun called an Ambassador of Reconciliation and Peace (hwahae’wa p’yŏnghwa’ŭi taesa 화해와 평화의 대사). On 13 April 2010, the first of a corresponding series of events held in South Korea—the World Peace Leaders Memorial Unification Seunghwa Festival Commemoration Meeting (segye p’yŏnghwa chidoja ch’umo t’ongil sŭnghwa ch’ukche kinyŏm taehoe 세계평화지도자추모통일승화축제기념대회/世界平和指導者追慕統一昇華祝祭紀念大會)—was staged in Seoul. 39 There the Seunghwa Blessing was once again given to Haig, Kim, Annabi, Carazo Odio, and Wahid. Additional receivers were Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964); the former South Korean minister of labour Cho Ch’ŏl-gwŏn 조철권/趙澈權 (1929–2007); the former Nepalese prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala (1924–2010); the naval diver Han Chu-ho 한주호/韓主浩 (1958–2010), who died on a rescue mission for the Ch’ŏnan corvette which was scuppered by a North Korean torpedo in March 2010; 40 and, surprisingly, also the Unificationist elder Kim Wŏn-p’il 김원필/金元弼 (1928–2010), who had already obtained a World Seunghwa Ceremony a few days prior.

Excerpted from article: The below excerpt is from a Forbes article ‘Reaching for the Stars’ by Toni Fitzgerald that reveals that Paul Rogers, a professional Moonie, was able to make profit with Moon-associated businesses during the South Korean financial crisis. Rogers is known to have had strong business relationships with notable UC leaders, such as both Kwak and Pak. 

In the late 1990s, the darkest days of South Korea’s financial crisis, operators such as Paul Rogers of Lehman Brothers were parachuting in to pick through the bargains. But amid all the moneylosing units being shed by the country’s conglomerates, what caught his eye was something that wasn’t for sale: a vacant 12-acre lot. It was in the heart of Yeouido, the island in the Han River that serves as Seoul’s financial and broadcasting district.

Owned by Reverend Moon Song-myung’s Unification Church Foundation, the giant lot had sat empty for three decades. Best known internationally for its cultish practices and its members, called Moonies, the church is also a business empire with interests ranging from media properties to North Korean industrial ventures. And like other Korean conglomerates, it needed money. “Investment banks were making a quick buck from acquiring and flipping distressed assets,” says Rogers, then Lehman’s head of structured finance for Asia. “I saw a much bigger opportunity: developing whole city blocks and making an impact on Asian cities which are sorely in need of iconic but commercially successful projects.”

Excerpt from article: Excerpted from Joongang Daily's 2010 article on Kook Jin Moon, 'Business Engine Of A Global Faith' by Kim Hyung-eun

Chairman [Kook Jin Moon] Moon, in a recent interview with Forbes, said he has high hopes for TIC, and that he is proud the company produces axles for armored vehicles. TIC was established by merging several subsidiaries of Tongil Heavy Industries, which previously supplied hardware for the Korean armed forces.

Other units include building management company Seilo, helicopter operator Tongil Air Systems and agricultural company Pyeongnong.

Through these entities, Tongil Group finances about 20 religious and educational institutions, including the Sun Moon University, Sunhwa Arts High School, music group the Little Angels and others.

But Tongil Group is not the only fiefdom in the Unification Church's business empire. It's not to be confused with Unification Church International, which is run by Kook-jin's older brother Hyun-jin and whose major businesses include the The Washington Times and True World Foods in the U.S. as well as Marriott hotels and the Central City complex in Korea.

Video: A 1 minute clip from the Japanese news of a Japanese UC service in 1998 where a church leader begged and guilted members to make a donation. This was a year after the South Korean financial crash and UC families in Japan were forced to make a $16,000 donation. This was during Japan’s decade(s) of economic stagnation. 

[g4zdtechtv]

Cinematech's Trailer Park - Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars (Multiplatform)

A hero’s destiny is written in the Stars.

[paperboy-pb]

10 Fun Facts: Andrea Beltran! 💣

Andrea, as things currently stand, is a child of the state. She's been in-and-out of foster care ever since she was six years old & re-unification finally seems to no longer be an option for her. She's actually left & re-entered P.S. 361 a few times due to placement issues.

Most of her outfits nowadays are hand-me-downs (or just stolen out of the drawers) from her current 4 foster brothers. And she LOVES it.

Andrea chipped her tooth during one of her stays at another school. She refers to it ominously as "the tetherball incident."

Despite being a skinny & short kid, Andrea is VERY capable of throwing down in a street fight and hits harder than you'd think. She usually swings first, but only after somebody actively provokes her.

Andrea's birthday is September 10th. That makes her the 4th youngest member of the class!

Speaking of Matthew, he's actually NOT the only art kid in this room! Andrea can draw, too. And she can arguably do it better than he can. She just isn't super into art & doesn't do it as often.

Her favorite food may unironically be hot dogs. Which sounds stupid... until you remember that she currently lives very close to THE original Nathaniel's (this world's equivalent of Nathan's) & Luna Amusement Park.

She always carries a lighter. Much to everybody's dismay.

Andrea has a lot of trauma revolving around literature. She secretly enjoys writing stories but doesn't dare tell anyone about it, and refuses to enter any sort of library unless absolutely necessary.

Her dinosaur phase is infinite. A lot of her personal accessories (IE: Keychain, bracelets at home, hoodies, etc.) tend to be dinosaur themed. Her favorite one is the Brachiosaurus.

[tomtortillasoup]

Marigold

Summary: A normal day for V and Johnny as they enjoy eachother company without saying it to one another.

A/N: My favorite chapter solely because it’s just the two having fun! It was fun to write as well, I was trying to think of things Johnny would like to do if he was back amongst the living. It’s pretty short compared to the other chapters but I hope you guys enjoy it nonetheless. Also started posting these on AO3 if you guys want to check me out there :) same username.

EDIT: I went back and posted the original I had written, I had cut it down because I thought it was boring but my friend pushed me to post the og version so here you go! If you’ve read this please read so again:) also went back and fixed some spelling errors.

Word Count: 4,047

Chapter 4: I’ll Try Anything Once

“You’re still shuffling around a little, but believe me - you’re dead.”

“What?” You asked hesitantly, voice getting caught in your throat.

For the last couple days you had been tracking down Delamain’s rouge little car children thing, deciding to return the favor to the AI after he fixed your ride. It was already a hunk of junk but it looked brand new as it rolled out the garage, so you were indebted to him.

Most of the car’s personality were weird, like really fucking weird but this one - this one made you stop in your tracks.

“The talking is over. I’m going back.”

Watching the cab roll away you stood still, you didn’t have time to even worry about what it said before Delamain contacted you for a job well done.

You called your car, once inside you sat there for, fuck, who knows how long you hadn’t really been keeping count. The words the AI used hitting you like a bunch of bricks, why were you being such a sensitive little prick.

“V, how you feeling?”

Johnny appeared beside you, guess you really were out of it.

You groaned and laid back against the seat as you held your hands to your face, “Fuckin’ splendid Johnny, seems like everyone knows the I’m fucking dead except for me.” This wasn’t the first time someone pointed out your ‘death’, still didn’t make it any easier hearing it.

The first instance was when some food vendor asked for help against some thugs, you hadn’t even let out a full sentence before one of the guys recognized you as ‘that dead chick’ and ran off, second time was a fucking SCSM machine and now you have a talking car telling you that.

“Well it’s the fuckin’ truth, better start accepting it since you’re doing dogshit to fix our chip problem.”

“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you fuck you…” You muttered to yourself as you still held your head.

Johnny ignored your comments as his eyes started wondering the outside world, Pacifica was nice enough. He enjoyed listening to the waves crashing, the smell of the saltwater air, even now as his senses became delayed and not as strong he still relished it.

What the fuck is that?

Johnny’s gaze stopped at a ferris wheel - well fuck him, he didn’t know Pacifica got an upgrade.

“V, let’s go.” He said as he took off his sunglasses.

You looked up at him confusedly, he pointed at the rundown ferris wheel with his aviators, he had a bright look in his eyes.

“You know those don’t work right? Corpos stopped building after the Unification war, eddies went dry.” The media couldn’t get enough of this new beacon of money and power, you were pretty young back then but you had flashes of it if you focused hard enough.

“Ferris wheel.”

You were defeated, starting the engine you started driving towards the teetering structure.

-

“Choom, you seein’ all those guns out there, I’m not going in there whether that ferris wheel works or not.”

Both of you looked out the window to see the entrance to the park be overrun by scavs, yeah no way in hell you’re attempting to go in there.

Johnny didn’t answer as he kept looking out the window.

“There’s your ferris wheel now c'mon let’s delta.” You told the engram, starting the car and ready to drive off before Johnny coughed, rather loudly and obnoxiously.

“Okay what now?” You killed the engine and threw your hands out in despair.

“The rollercoaster, look, we can walk it.”

Before you could get a word out, Johnny had quickly disappeared, you knew you could just walk away but then you’d hear his non stop moping about how we never do things he wants to do.

Whining man in your head for the rest of the day or an extra five minute walk before going home when he realizes it’s broken?

You started making your way towards the amusement park ride.

-

Once you had gotten to the rollercoaster it was surprisingly empty, you had quickly scanned it and found the power supply. After changing a couple cords and a flick, the machinery roared to life.

“We’re doing this, V.”

Johnny was set and ready in his seat once you had made your way back from the electrical box.

Fuck, were you really thinking of doing this?

You looked up at the rollercoaster, it went up pretty high, made your stomach churn just at the sight.

“All right, fine.”

Fuck it. At least if you die it won’t be by Johnny’s hand, if anything you both die and neither get your body so that was good enough for you.

You stepped onto the cart, the metal creaked under your weight, making you doubt yourself.

“Cmon V, you got this.” You muttered to yourself as you sat down, slowly lowering the safety guards over you, making sure it didn't budge as you pulled on it multiple times.

“Bet you anything you’re going to scream like a little girl.”

You heard a loud beep and the cart started going forward, well no going back now. Anxiety grew in your body as the ride kept moving, you sneaked a glance to Johnny who looked calm if anything.

The cart was on a peak when you looked forward again, this is it, you were finally going to die because of a stupid ride.

Time seemed to slow down as the cart started teetering downwards.

“Oh shiiiiit.” Johnny yelled out with a smile, you on the other hand started screaming.

“Fuuuuck!”

The ride started going really fast, your screams of fear suddenly coming to a stop when you realized you weren’t dead. It felt different, never in your life had you felt a thrill like this, the pit in your stomach started to slowly dissipate. You still yelled as you raised your hands up in the air, all the anxiety you had from earlier immediately replaced with excitement.

“Woah!” You exclaimed with a smile, looking back to Johnny only to see that he was already staring at you with the happiest smile you’d ever seen on his face. You only laughed harder at that, your cheeks were aching from all the smiling and screaming.

He grinned like an idiot but you knew you had that same stupid fucking smile. He really was contagious.

There were butterflies in your stomach each time there was a drop, and got even more intense when you went through a loop de loop. Both of you were basically giggling like kids the whole time, there was joy shared between you two. You literally couldn’t stop the laughter that slipped through your lips.

When was the last time you laughed like this?

At the highest point you could see all of Pacifica and the rest of NIght City in the back, you would assume the whole city would look small from here but no - it looked huge. You were quickly pulled from your trance as Johnny hollered beside you, another steep drop coming.

The ride came to a stop where it originally started, you were breathing hard and your hair was a tangled mess by the end of it. Your eyes looked towards Johnny again, and he looked back, a silly grin on his face. This smile was different from all the other ones you knew, they held no malice or sarcasm, it was genuine.

Johnny disappeared once the safety mechanism went up, you held onto his expression before he left - you’ll take that as a thank you.

You basically wobbled your way over to your car, your head was spinning and it seemed your body was still mentally on that rollercoaster.

Seemed that things were really going your way, when you went to turn on your car your favorite song started playing on the radio.

The smile from earlier was still plastered on your face and you sang loudly over the song and ran just a couple of red lights.

-

You were in a good mood, which seemed rare nowadays as most of the time you were trying to figure out how to save your own skin.

Constantly preoccupied with new leads, taking up any gigs for eddies to make ends meet, having no time for basically anything.

But today, today seemed different. I mean when does one get to ride on a rollercoaster nowadays, that was the best thrill you’ve gotten. And fuck anyone who thinks you weren’t going to make the most of it, it was like a sign that things were going this well.

Hell, you’d be lying to yourself if you weren’t glad to have Johnny here for once. It seems you guys were somewhat friends in the way you talked to each other, you were glad to share that joy with him up in the air - glad to not experience it alone. Wasn’t the first time he’d been nice like that before either.

When he played nice you’d reward him with a smoke and you guys would just sit in silence in your apartment, it was oddly comfortable, felt somewhat like he'd been there forever. And today he seemed to be playing extra nice, giving you space in your own head for once after making his little thrill ride come to life. You had a couple of packs around your place now, one at your place, one in your car, and one on you at all times.

Oh yeah that's another thing you picked up, smoking - at first they tasted disgusting and made you nauseous but after a couple times your mouth was constantly itching for one.

Johnny truly was a bad habit to have around.

You took one last bite of your scopdog - extra caliente, and lit up a cigarette as you watched the city. It never stopped, the people, cars, buildings, seemed like they were always moving, always growing.

The sun was beginning to set, you stared at the clouds peeking through the massive buildings - they were beautiful. It was painted in a stunning orange pink color, you forget how pretty the things around you truly are.

As you smoked you noticed a record store nearby, must be new considering you’ve passed here millions of times. Then again, you’ve never really looked at the city around you, just stared straight ahead to what you wanted. Maybe it really had been there all along, you quickly threw down your cigarette and stomped it out, making your way inside to the flashy store.

Immediately you were greeted by the loud music, you recognized it as something by Tinnitus but you weren’t too into them to recognize the track. The walls were decorated with many band posters and the place itself looked pretty decent, you walked over to the section of vinyls and started looking through any section.

You already had a vinyl under your arm, Lizzy Wizzy, when you came across the Samurai section. Slowly, you set the vinyl down as you started looking through what they had in stock for Samurai, you picked up ‘Blistering Love’.

“Can’t go wrong with the debut album.” Johnny said as he appeared on the aisle across from you.

You flipped the vinyl over to read the tracks on the back, you knew a handful of songs.

“It has my favorite song, ‘Ballad of Buck Ravers’.”

You debated putting it back, you didn’t really need it and honestly needed a way to avoid stroking Johnny’s ego.

A sigh escaped your lips as you grabbed your two picks of today and made a beeline to the register, ignoring Johnny's proud smirk he had before disappearing. Those were the usual smiles you were used to, fuckin’ prick.

You hadn’t even shut the door when Johnny reappeared in the passenger seat, “Didn’t know you were a Samurai fan.” He had that same smug smile as he lowered his aviators slightly.

“I once tried learning how to play one of your songs, fucking gave up after 10 minutes.” You told him as you started your car and drove towards your apartment.

“Woah I was just teasin’ kid, didn’t know you were actually a Samurai fan.” The smirk only grew wider as he looked proud of himself, what a gonk.

“Like a couple of your songs, don’t go jizzing your pants just yet.”

“No can do V, pants are jizzed.”

You rolled your eyes at him, “Har-har, no but seriously, one time Jack tried teaching me how to play one of your songs and me obviously never played before sucked, hard.”

Jackie had to literally hold you back from smashing his guitar into pieces, you were so pissed that night, especially after he kept showing off afterwards. The guitar still stayed in your place somewhere, it was a solid acoustic guitar - a pretty brown color. It was probably collecting dust as the last time Jackie played was probably when he taught you. He left it for you to practice, and for him to mess with whenever he crashed at your place.

Johnny hummed at your comment, seemingly trying to grasp onto your thoughts to see your memories.

“Even though I can’t play for shit, I understand it now.”

“What?” Johnny looked at you questioningly as you snapped him from his thoughts.

“Y’know, the chords and stuff - I can kind of make sense of it, like if I hear a song I can decipher what they’re playing. I think it’s you though, or at least the relic.”

“Shit. It’s the gun thing all over again.”

Both of you had come to the realization that a lot of Johnny’s skill somehow made itself over to you about a week ago when you noticed your aim around a gun got good, like a lot fucking better. You solely used katanas since you’ve always had horrible aim with guns but now when you picked up a gun you hit your targets where it hurt the most. The only explanation that made sense was the relic, you had remembered how Hellman did tell you its job was to delete your own data and replace it with Johnny’s, but you hadn’t noticed any of your own skills worsen.

“Yeah, think so.”

“Well fuck, let’s go test it out.”

-

You walk into your small mega building apartment and are immediately greeted by Johnny who’s splayed on the couch like he pays rent.

“Beat you.” He says with a smirk, you noticed that he’d smile a lot more, even when he was being a dick.

“Don't count asshole, you can basically teleport anywhere.”

“You’re a sore loser V.”

You flipped him off, he looked surprised before he sat up and flipped you off - with both his hands.

Real fucking mature.

You walked over to a shelf nearby and put your new additions to where the rest of your records were kept. Okay V, time to look for that guitar and maybe embarrass yourself in front of your imaginary friend if you can’t actually play.

The last time you had seen the guitar was in your stash room, you had put it there since the last time, Jackie left his guitar on the floor where you proceeded to eat shit and chipped a tooth when you had woken up in the middle of the night.

That same night you drove to Jackie’s, angrily, might you add and waltzed into his room where you promptly scare the fuck out of him and had him drive you to a ripper to fix your tooth. You were grateful that Mama Welles never took away your access card to her home, telling you it’s your home no matter what.

You were right though, there in all it’s dusty glory was Jackie’s guitar, looked pretty old - even when he had first shown it to you. Padding over to the couch you made yourself comfortable across from Johnny as he started lighting up a cigarette.

The guitar felt big and clunky in your hands, it was quite obvious that you’d never held a damn instrument in your life yet it felt so familiar. There were small flashes in your head, hands playing guitar carefully in front of so much greenery in an open field - you’d never seen something so calming and beautiful.

You took a quick glance at Johnny, he was already staring at you with an emotionless expression - you didn’t have to ask to know it was his memory.

It didn’t look like Night City, no way there was ever that much nature here. Wait, is Johnny even from here? You realized you don’t know much about the guy, other than the basics of musician and terrorist. You wanted to know more about him, felt only fair as he could see anything about your life and literally live through it - but you know Johnny wasn’t the sharing type.

Deciding not to ask about it you fiddled with the guitar as some sort of distraction, you tried tuning it to the best of your abilities til you became satisfied, or more so Johnny as he nodded when you did it correctly.

“Uh okay so now what, what do I play.”

“Christ V, I don’t know - you said you could do this.” Johnny scolded, removing his aviators so he could give you a look.

“Fuck okay, okay, geez choom.”

You hesitated for a moment, testing out a couple strums before deciding what to play. Nervously, you played in the empty room, sound echoing throughout making it sound even louder.

Johnny couldn’t believe what he was hearing, V was playing - and real fucking well too. He recognized immediately that it was one of his songs, fuck it even sounded like the way he played. Wasn’t perfected like his but he was still surprised it was this good.

“How the fuck are you doing that.”

You stopped playing abruptly, surprised at yourself that it sounded way better than you had thought.

“Have no fuckin’ idea.” You replied, looking down at the guitar and back at him. “It’s fun though, now I get why you play.”

“Correction, it’s only fun when you know what you’re doing.” Johnny said smugly as he kicked his feet up on the coffee table. “Don’t think I didn’t see your memory of the first time you played.”

You ignored his comment as you absentmindedly started strumming whatever sounded good to you. Johnny seemingly relaxed into the couch as he listened to you play, still smoking as always. The silence was comfortable as you two shared this moment of peace amidst the cluster fuck that was your lives.

Well, what better time to ruin the peace.

“So…”

“Mhm. You want something from me.”

Great, you were caught red handed as he could read your face or maybe it was your thoughts. Good job on ruining the mood V.

“I uh, I saw something.” You confessed as you searched his face for any type of reaction.

He didn’t say anything as he waited for you to continue.

“I saw myself, playing guitar on a porch - staring at an field of flowers, it was nice.” You mumbled, still paying with the strings. You looked up and Johnny still laid from where he was, not moving an inch. “Except it was actually me, didn’t recognize that memory as one of my own.”

Silence.

“It’s your memory, right?”

“Yeah.” He confessed, looking somewhat defeated. Guess he didn’t ever want you to see any parts of his life, wasn’t much he could do to stop it, it was a two way road anyways. It fucking terrified him, having some random chick know everything about you that even those closest to you didn’t know.

Yeah he enjoyed your company but his memories were his, he spent too much time hiding his old life and identity for it to come undone for you.

“Where were you?” You asked with caution.

“Home. Texas.”

Now this was news, you didn’t know he was from Texas, didn’t exactly have country bumpkin written over him - no accent either.

“Didn’t know you were a Texan native, must’ve been a long time ago, y'know seein’ that you had both your ‘ganic arms and all.”

“Yup.” Johnny said, popping the p.

You wanted to keep going, you weren’t satisfied with the short answers. You so badly wanted to know more about the man that shared the same headspace as you. All the things strangers knew about him, it couldn’t be the whole picture of Johnny Silverhand.

Which one of them would know that loud reckless Johnny liked the quiet smog filled mornings of Night City. That he liked his coffee with sugar and cream after but he bitched to you that all you drink was bitter shit coffee. That he liked making you laugh, doing things in your line of sight just to make you smile, knowing damn well that no one else can see him other than you.

Johnny Silverhand was a fucking softie.

You stopped mid strum, “Cig for your thoughts?”

You let the question linger in the air between you two, Johnny seemed deep in though - maybe even considering your words.

“Can see what you’re doin’, ain’t workin’ the way you want to V.”

Well shit, can’t blame you for trying.

He didn’t seem angry at you for asking, but you decided to stop poking at him. Not really wanting to push your luck, instead you played a familiar tune and started softly singing along with it. Johnny looked to be more relaxed at the fact you moved on, analyzing you as you sang some shit song the radio would play now and then.

You wondered what would happen once Johnny was gone, like actually zapped and out your head. Would you still get to keep all his skills? Would you still somehow hold Johnny’s memories? Would you even remember Johnny or will it be like he was never there.

Secretly glancing at Johnny, you heard him quietly humming alongside you, you slightly smiled as you kept singing.

Bastard really is a musician at heart. You found it only slightly endearing, it was nice when your entwining lives came to a calm pause. Felt almost domestic, that scared you.

Your singing came to a halt as you slowly started freaking out internally, if Johnny took notice of it he didn’t show it as he continued humming to himself, eyes out the window.

Even when you lived with Jackie and Mama Welles - it scared you to have someone to rely on but later you accepted with open arms, with Johnny it was different. Not entirely a friend, definitely not your family, but also not your enemy - at least not anymore.

You dreaded the day that would come when you’d see Johnny as something other than an intruder in your body, someone that you’d come to care for.

No matter, not like that’d change that your life was your own and you’d do anything to keep it.

Anything.

Sighing, you grabbed a pack of cigarettes out of your pocket and grabbed one. You looked down to see you were already halfway through the pack, you only barely started smoking this shit, what the fuck man. You silently light it up, moving the guitar out of your lap to lay down on the couch.

“You got the guitar and nicotine addiction down, all you need now is to lead a shitty riot girl band and you could truly be a musician.”

Seems like Johnny always knew when you were overthinking, does he actually hear every single thought you had or did he just have crazy good luck.

“Kind of fucked that you’d think I’d play some riot girl stuff, kind of cliche no?” You complained, not bothering to look up from where you laid. The shitty taste of nicotine filled your mouth, it felt comforting now - god you really did sound like a fucking addict.

Maybe he just knew you.

“All musicians are walking cliche, you’ll fit right in kid.”

Maybe he knew you better than you did yourself.

You rolled your eyes but you held a smile on your face, Johnny's expression mirrored yours. There it was again, no ulterior motives under it, just a genuine, innocent smile.

Today was a good day, least for Night City standards, and you weren’t going to ruin that tonight.