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#1998 poster calendar
ataraxiaspainting · 3 months
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Sweet Hibiscus Tea.
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Yan Shalnark x F Reader.
Synopsis: After a day of finally trying to face your social anxiety, you walk home alone. The roads are empty, quiet, and eerie. But you are almost home now, aren’t you? You are not going to cry anymore. Just when you think life is starting to turn around for you, it goes in the exact opposite direction. 
Warnings: Yandere themes, violence, kidnapping, misogyny, not SFW implications, psychological horror elements, manipulation, panic attacks, Shalnark being an asshole, unhealthy relationships, and stalking.
Word Count: 5k.
Can be considered to be within the Hier Encore universe.
Ten Songs Like This Piece:
Look Who’s Inside Again by Bo Burnham
Things She Said by Chris Garneau
Baby Bride Rag by Roar
Butch 4 Butch by Rio Romeo
Appetite of a People-Pleaser by Ghost and Pals
Valentine, Texas by Mitski
I’m Yer Dad by GRLwood
Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez
Freaks by Surf Curse
Neighbour by Mother Mother
“You stay soft, you get beaten; only natural to harden up.” — Mitski, Stay Soft
*~*~*~*
Regardless of how much time has passed, this convenience store always remains the same.
There is always the familiar, tired face of the clerk behind the cash register, her gaze never on you or any other customer who walks in and out of the doors, a simple, muted hello being the only proof that she noticed you.
The lights dim and blink without fail, fading from white to a shade of daffodil to dark flaxen before disappearing and resurfacing yet again as alabaster. No matter how black the night sky is, the less-than-bright illumination never changes.
Neither does the rest of the scenery.
Next to the payment area are two vending machines, with one not functioning. It is dead, with the glass broken by a punch that left a large gaping hole in the dead center. Once when you accidentally touched the front wall while bending down to get your can of lemonade from the working one, it left a sticky residue that had you rubbing your palm on your sweater for what felt like an eternity. It somewhat helped, you guessed, but it also stained your clothes. The vending machine to its right was always out of most sweet drinks, often leaving you with the choice of coffee, lemonade, green tea, or water.
You don’t buy any snacks aside from strawberry Pocky and, if you are lucky, a chocolate bar.
But you do buy meals here because it is cheap. Usually fish with miso or a salad, but there have been times when you can find a premade sandwich.
The total cost comes to between 500 to 1000 Jenny. There is always a poster that claims the cashier is the employee of the month, though you are certain that she is the only one who works there.
The only thing that ever changes is the calendar behind her. The past dates are crossed out in red ink that is in the form of thick, scraggly lines. They remind you of the drawings you used to make as a child when your father was too busy screaming outside your door and your mother was too powerless to do anything but cry and yelp as he hit her. One time you drew them fighting, and when one of your maids saw it, it inevitably found its way to his desk.
Needless to say, he was not happy by any means.
*~*~*~*
The calendar behind the worker reads the 17th of April, 1998. On this day in 1985, your first and only ever friend, the head gardener’s apprentice, went missing. When you eventually gathered up the courage after waiting for hours outside, you went to your father’s room to ask where she was.
“She has been removed from the premises for distracting you instead of doing her job.” The answer you got was to the point, because when has he ever been warm to you? “I made sure that she had learned her lesson before she died. She was in pain the whole time. It was a shame to put a bullet between her pretty eyes. But at least she had a bit more use to me beforehand.”
You cried and cried until you threw up.
That is when your mother, the usual bandage over her left cheek this time, came in and sat on your bed gently, sadly.
She patted the area next to her and slowly you stood up from the floor where you kneeled as you sobbed and went over. She asked you if you wanted a hug and you said no. She responded with a simple nod, respecting your answer. But then what she said next turned your tear-stricken face into a glare.
“She’s alive.” She muttered, along with thanks to God and a hold of the cross on her neck. 
“...What?”
Your mother shushed you when she heard footsteps coming to the door. When the sound eventually leaves further into the hallway, she leans into your ear while pointing to your vanity. Your gaze leads you to the dusty cat statue made of garnet.
It got shattered a little while ago when a maid cleaning your room accidentally made it fall to the floor. You felt bad for her as she was a new hire, so you never told anyone aside from your mother. You knew that if your father, the head of this household, ever found out he would punish her severely, even when he did not care for the statue at all. You got to choose, if you were lucky, which part gets whipped or cut off.
“Yes.”
Her short answer leaves you almost jumping up out of your seat. “...Huh?”
“At last week’s banquet, she caught the attention of your father’s wealthiest business partner.” She turns to the curtains covering the lone window in your room, her back now facing you. “She was tricked into boarding a car when the driver claimed you were inside waiting for her. To the partner in question, she is nothing but another pretty face to add to his collection.”
At the slight turn of the doorknob next door, you two go as still as wax people in a museum. “Why did he lie to me?”
“Why? Well, he certainly did not want you rebelling against his decision.”
“But I have never rebelled against him before.”
“I know.” Your mother lets out a sharp laugh, salty and sour. “I know you are always trying to be good, trying to stay under the radar. I know, I know because you are a lot like me. but now I am going to teach you a lesson about your father and the world at large. Remember that a man’s resentful attitude will always result in a woman’s agony, physical or otherwise, always. However, when things go right for a man, a woman is either praised like a dog or ignored until something goes wrong because it is never enough.”
You can’t breathe. “But why? Why, why, why? What did I do wrong? What could I have done right?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing. There is nothing you can do or could have done. No matter what, your faults will always be found. That is how most men are raised, to find, and how most women are raised, to hide.”
“...”
“Men’s hearts are such cruel, small things. Oftentimes they can only fit themselves in them, but there have been times where even they cannot fit.” She is still holding onto the cross charm on her gold necklace, firmer than she has ever held you. “They are cold, are or are almost dead. There is no room for people like you and me. No room at all. All they see us as is something to own, something with no feelings whatsoever, and whose only purpose is to please no matter the cost. Such pigs, all of them.” She murmurs some prayers that you cannot hear. “I want you to be better. I want what is best for you, what I never have been able to accomplish; run and live.”
She opens the drawer beside your bed, and you don’t do anything to stop her. It is not like you can hide anything, from her or anyone else in this house. Whatever is buried eventually resurfaces. She pulls out your rarely used bible, a thick layer of dust on the leather cover. It smells and makes you cough. She doesn’t though.
“At least your father does not force you to read this day and night.”
“Mmhmm.”
“It is one of the few things I appreciate him not doing, I do not want you to grow up hating the church.”
“I know.”
“He has made you hate a lot of things already.”
She turns the pages, dust flying around the cold air.
“He made me hate a lot of things too. Blankets, steaks, cameras. The color white, the color black, the color red. The sounds of belts unbuckling, the sound of laughter, the sounds of doors opening and closing and locking.”
You don’t say anything, only looking at her hands. Only in the dark can you not see her scars, her blooming wrinkles, and the bruises that are always fresh. 
You don’t say anything, because you have learned from a very young age that you are her only listening ear. You are the only one who keeps her head on her shoulders. You don’t say anything, because she is right. He has made you hate plenty of things. But, but, but. But you can’t hate him, and you can’t hate your mother.
You can’t hate her, because who knows what she would do when she finds out that no one cares about her pain in this hell?
“Mother.” You mutter, putting your head on her shoulder as you scan the text on the page that she selected. She does not stop you. 
“Yes, [First]?”
“Do you hate me?” You ask, trying so very hard to not let her see the tears that threaten to come out of your eyes. “Because… because… if I wasn’t conceived, you wouldn’t be here hurting, would you?”
You could swear that you heard her heart skip a beat.
“...I would not be here, yes.”
She is honest, for once. You know at least some of this situation is all your fault.
“Do you hate me?”
“...”
“Mother, please answer me.”
You hear a sniffle as she starts mumbling the words written. “‘A gracious woman gets honor, and violent men get riches.’”
You choose not to press on the subject. You don’t want her to suffer anymore.
*~*~*~*
You buy an orange-flavored Ramune soda, a pack of pork ginger instant ramen, and strawberry Pocky.
The total would come to about 600 Jenny if your quick calculations are right. You could get something extra, like a topping for your ramen or some chips. But would it be wise? You have never been someone who finishes their plate after you had ran away, so what if you just waste your money?
So, you decide not to get anything else.
You walk to the cash register.
You hear an explosion from the back of the building. Small sparks of white and orange. The lights go off before you can place your chosen items down, and you can hear the employee cursing under her breath. The breaker. What happened?
“Damn it, I don’t get paid enough for this shit.” She grumbles, putting her thumb and pointer finger on the bridge of her nose, rubbing. “No raises whatsoever. Only one here. Without me, this place wouldn’t be working, ungrateful pricks.”
Fighting the way your heart rate shoots up, you decide that talking to her would be best. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to someone aside from your boss, right? 
Maybe your anxieties would quell, and you can eventually graduate to talking to your co-workers, that would be a dream come true for you.
You haven’t had a friend, a real friend, ever since Rose was taken from you all those years ago. You still cry whenever you think about her. You miss her. Is she dead, is she alive?
You still blame yourself. If only you hadn’t talked to her, maybe she would still be with you. What kind of adult would she have been? A kind one, a responsible one? You would still be friends at least, wouldn’t you? Or would she grow to hate you, if she didn’t already?
You keep telling yourself that she wouldn’t and didn’t, but that is not what your mind tells you.
Is she dead?
You could picture a rotting corpse six feet under. An unmarked grave. Glassy, dead, amber eyes looking upward to anyone who looks down, helpless, pleading. You always liked them, always complimenting them much to Rose’s shy chuckles. She was so pretty, that much was true. You could only imagine how beautiful she would have been as an adult.
Her looks were a personal gift from God, the heavens, and the angels.
But if she didn’t have them, would she not have been treated like she was in the estate?
“Erm, excuse me,” You mutter, taking a few steps forward. “If you want I can go check it out.”
It is what Rose would do. She always liked helping others. You just wish that people would have appreciated it more and seen past her appearance. It was a double-edged sword. It helped her become the head gardener’s apprentice but also caught the attention of both your father and his business partners. You felt bad for her, and still do.
The employee turns around, her confusion prominent despite the dark. 
“Erm,” You mutter, looking down at your hands and entangling your fingers in one another. You could feel the heat rushing to your cheeks in embarrassment. “Is that okay?”
It takes a few moments to respond. Her surprise was unexpected, as you never spoke to her outside of asking her if she had change or telling her you hoped that she had a good night. Rose would be better at this kind of thing. You once had a dream that at a fast food joint, an adult her would order for you and correct the staff when they put pickles on your burger. It’s what could have been, funny moments like that. She had always been the one to take charge, you following her like a lost puppy.
You miss her so much.
So much.
The worker slowly nods. “...Okay.”
“...It’s in the back, right? The breaker.”
This is so awkward. Rose would be better. You wish she was here. Or your mother. Anyone.
“...Uh. Um… I like your eyeliner.” As soon as you say that, you curse at yourself, not wanting to sound like a creep. The woman’s confusion becomes even more prominent.
“...Thanks, and yeah, it’s in the back.”
“...Okay.” Jesus Christ. You turn away from her, the heat on your cheeks hot enough to be mistaken for a fever. This is not what Rose would have done.
“...You can leave your stuff here.” She says, and you quickly spin your heel and put your items on the counter. “It’s not like they are going to grow legs and run off, so relax.”
“...” You both chuckle, and you feel slightly better. “...Thanks. I’ll go now.”
“...” You start walking. “Wrong way.”
You stop.
It takes you a few seconds for you to move back to first base and go off in the opposite direction. As soon as you open the creaky steel door, strong rain and cold wind greet you, along with a loud clap of thunder and lightning.
Perhaps you could go back and get your umbrella from the stand by the door. But that would be even more awkward.
“Stupid. Stupid.”
“If we are lucky, the wind simply detached it or something. Not the best at this sort of thing, though.”
“I don’t think breakers detach.” You could picture her shrugging and scoffing at your murmur. “Sorry. Sorry. Just… sorry. I’m the best at this sort of thing either.”
You close the door behind you and start looking amongst the pitter-patter of the raindrops and gusts that nearly make you fall over. 
Stupid. Why do you make everything so weird? Rose would have been so much more charismatic. It was one of her strongest traits after all.
Stupid.
It’s hard to see. Trying not to trip over stones and cracked cement, you grip onto the wall and walk forward. Soon, you feel something.
“Ew, ew, ew!” You cry out, quickly moving your hand away from the slimy slug. “Ew!”
“You okay?”
“Uh, nothing. Just a bug. Yeah, just a bug.”
You hear a chuckle. Stupid.
“Sorry!” You exclaim, almost bowing your head. “Sorry! Really!”
Making sure you don’t touch the slug again, you keep moving.
Eventually, you find the breaker. But it wasn’t what you were expecting by any means. The damage almost looks like it was done on purpose, the way it was open and covered in soot. Did something get to it?
The breaker that exploded was a mass of melted metal that had been blown apart from the intense amount of heat and pressure. It was now barely recognizable as a single unit–parts of it scattered across the cement path and others having been fused and becoming something else entirely. The metal had been melted and blown upwards in the sheer force of the explosion, coating parts of the wall, wet grass, and roof with small, solidified droplets of metal. The ground around the remains of the breaker is burnt and scarred with traces of the immense fire that had consumed it.
It seems the rain put it out.
“No hope for this, huh?”
“Hey,” The employee calls out. “How bad is it? If there is nothing you can do, come back inside.”
So, you do.
The way she turns at you is robotic almost. A smile is on her face that was not there before. She nods when she sees you. Something tells you to not approach.
“It exploded into molten metal.”
“Oh well.”
Under the stormy skies, her gaze turns pale. Her eyes, seemingly captivating, lack any hint of vitality, while her lips curve in a disarming and saccharine manner. A shiver runs down your spine as you meet her gaze, every fiber of your being urging you to flee. Deep within your primal instincts, an innate awareness stirs, recognizing the smile as a charade, a mask of humanity that ventures into the realm of unease: akin to an artificial being adorned with synthetic flesh or a wax figure encased in glass. Those lifeless, white eyes, coupled with a forked tongue and an unsettlingly beautiful countenance, leave you with an undeniable sense of mistrust.
“You’re not mad? Really? Um…”
Something is off. What happened? She looks more like an imposter than anything else. But if she is, where did the real cashier go?
“Don’t worry.” She says, her voice oddly chipper and no longer confused by your awkwardness. “It’s fine. I’m quitting anyway, so it’ll be my boss’ problem.”
You turn your head. “Really?”
She nods. Something is off.
“Like really?”
You blink multiple times and you don’t think she does. She just stands there. Slowly, she nods. Something tells you to run yet again.
“Um… um… okay. Okay. I’ll just pay and leave. How much does it come up to?”
She shakes her head.
“Um. I have to pay. It’s thievery if I don’t.” You get closer. “It’s the law.”
“It’s fine.”
“I can’t just not pay.” You say, taking out your wallet from your sweater pocket. “That’s stealing. It’s wrong.”
Every action she takes is measured and precise, and she seems to move like a machine rather than a person. It’s as if she’s been programmed to act and talk in a certain way, and she doesn’t seem to have the ability to break out of that. She simply stares at you, not speaking.
Run.
You undo the metallic button, hearing the shuffling of paper Jenny within your wallet. “Um. Let me pay. Please.”
She simply shakes her head again.
“It’s fine.” The employee says, the smile still plastered on her face. There is quite more than a hint of blankness and detachment in her expression. She speaks in a mechanical and emotionless manner, her words delivered as though repeated from a script of carefully chosen sentences. Her movements are quick and precise, putting your chosen items in a plastic bag. There is no life or energy in her actions, instead, she moves like a mindless machine, performing her tasks before her without showing any personality of her own. Is it better to just accept it?
What should you do? What shouldn’t you do? Is she joking? Should you leave?
What would Rose do?
One of her hands grasps onto the plastic handles and she holds it out before you. There is no authenticity or warmth. Her eyes are blank. What happened? Should you ask? Should you just take the bag without saying anything further?
“Okay,” You murmur, obeying her silent command. “I hope you don’t get into any trouble though.”
*~*~*~*
Boss (9th May 1996 17:45)
Did you find anything?
Boss (9th May 1996 17:45)
Feitan found her heels nearby along with some blood, so she couldn’t have gotten very far.
You (9th May 1996 17:45)
Nothing yet
Boss (9th May 1996 17:47)
Try checking the stores nearby.
Boss (9th May 1996 17:47)
From the blood trail, she is most likely injured from running and trying to fix herself up in some sort of shelter.
Boss (9th May 1996 17:48)
She may have also discarded the rest of her clothes, not just the heels, and is currently wearing something else.
You (9th May 1996 18:15)
I found a dress and jewelry at the bottom of a lake
You (9th May 1996 18:18)
(image sent)
Boss (9th May 1996 18:20)
That’s it.
Boss (9th May 1996 18:20)
Disappointing. I’ll send over Pakunoda to ask people nearby.
You (9th May 1996 18:20)
K
You (9th May 1996 18:21)
Don’t cry, I’m sure we’ll find her soon :) 
Boss (9th May 1996 18:22)
I wasn’t crying.
Boss (9th May 1996 18:22)
I just thought she came around already.
Boss (9th May 1996 18:23)
This will set our heists back weeks.
Boss (9th May 1996 18:24)
She has planned this out for more than a year, it seems.
*~*~*~*
Bum, bum, bum. Dun, dun, dun. Whunnnnnn, wooooooo, ummmmmmm. You can’t hear anything else. The sounds sting your ears like an aggravated hornet. 
The darkness around you is solid, more so than the cracked, aged concrete path beneath your shoes. There is a tiny light in the distance; a streetlamp.
Silence.
“...”
“Have a good day!”
“...Thank you.”
Let there be light.
“Um…” You can’t see anything. The sounds… stopped. “...Time to go home.”
But the pain stays. 
It feels like a drill. 
It hurts.
“...” You feel deaf and blind. No, maybe something even worse. “...”
You turn around, to the dark convenience store, and you see the cashier still staring at you. “Have a good day!”
“...”
“[First]?”
…How does she know your name? Did you say it to her in the past?
When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
“[First], dear.” She starts waving as you look at her. “[First]. [First]. [First]. [First]. [First]!”
There is nothing but emptiness. Is your name all she can say? What happened to her? It is like she has regressed. Like a storm cloud in summer, you do not wish for this pain. Now you feel deaf and blind and mute now. 
You almost wish that you were dead. All there is is pain. Bum, bum, bum. Dun, dun, dun. Whunnnnnn, wooooooo, ummmmmmm. 
Interruption. The sounds returned. Is this good? Is this bad? Does it matter at all? 
You walk. You don’t speak. Only walk. You can’t breathe. You can only move. Bum, bum, bum. Dun, dun, dun. 
Whunnnnnn, wooooooo, ummmmmmm. 
A hand clamps over your mouth.
You drop the plastic bag from shock, and then you finally hear something other than those sounds; glass shattering.
“Sh…” A voice, calm, along with the smell of oranges. “It’s okay.”
“...!”
“Don’t scream.”
The touch of lips, a man’s lips, on your ear, thin and hard. 
“Breathe. Just breathe for me, okay?”
But you can’t. The wind goes down your throat. It is suffocating. You can’t breathe. You smell oranges and something rotting, blood.
It stinks. It fucking stinks.
Christ. Get away. That stink. That fucking stink. Your body rejects it by continuing to not breathe.
“Sh… Breathe. Just breathe, for me, for you, for us.”
“...St… Sto-”
“Sh…” The voice is sweet, not at all sour, like candy. “Calm down. Nothing bad is going to happen. Just breathe. You’re going to pass out.” The lips and the scent of his breath are like salted leather in a butcher’s shop, stinky and rotting. “Calm down. Don’t worry.”
“...Sto… Si-”
“Breathe. Sh… It’s okay. Breathe.”
“...Ge… Sti…”
“Sh… Breathe. Breathe, [First]. Breathe. [First]. Breathe. Breathe. It’s okay. Don’t worry about all this. Breathe.”
When you finally do, you gasp, desperate. “...Huff… Huff… Huff…”
Get off of me, I can smell you. 
“There we go!”
Your vision clears up a bit. “...Huff… Huff… Huff…”
“Just keep breathing.”
“...Huff…”
You can smell him. You can practically taste him, with his mouth so close to you.
“Whew! That was a close one!” The man exclaimed, wrapping his other arm around your waist.
Pain. Get off of me. I can smell you, I can hear you, I can taste you. Get off of me. Please.
The pain still stays, in your chest and your ears, and your head. Oranges. Blood.
Get off of me.
Please–
A pain in the back of your neck and you go limp.
Darkness. Then pain again. You can’t move. You can only breathe. Bum, bum, bum. Dun, dun, dun. Whunnnnnn, wooooooo, ummmmmmm. 
*~*~*~*
SAINTSHORE SPACE THEATRE
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF RANDOLF URASLEF, GRETEL JAMES, AND QUINCEY J. ORATICE
PAUL DONSHEL CELESTE BAKER   ANNE CROAKS
AND
THE GREAT COMET THEATRE COMPANY
SWAN LAKE
ADAPTED BY MUSIC WRITTEN BY PYOTR ILLYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
INSPIRED BY THE CHOREOGRAPHY OF JULIUS REISINGER
WITH THE WONDERFUL CAST OF
(IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
Odette, the White Swan………………………………………………………….JEAN YVETTE
Odile, the Black Swan……………………………………………………………...JUNO LILOU
Prince Siegfried……………………………………………………………(the name is illegible.)
The rest of the list’s names cannot be read just like Prince Siegfried.
“She is simply beautiful. Just so beautiful. Simply wonderful, perfect.”
As the spotlights ignite, their scorching beams engulf you, causing you to shield your eyes with futile resistance. The sheer force of the light overwhelms your feeble defense. An ethereal audience erupts with exuberant cheers, applause, and whistles, resonating from vacant seats. Champagne flutes collide, men erupt with hearty laughter from their very core, and women unleash piercing screams akin to banshees.
The temperature rises and the noise intensifies, repeatedly, enveloping you in a symphony of overwhelming sensations.
Onlookers casually share their thoughts.
“Get off the stage, we want to see the play, not some stagehand!”
“Boo!”
“Fuck off!”
You run off crying.
“Where is that Odile girl?”
You run into a dressing room. One used by a woman wearing a black dress. She is so pretty. Her long strawberry blonde hair falls off her bare shoulders, clearly just done with a flat iron. There is a burning smell in the air. Smoke. When her gold eyes meet yours, she marches towards you and slams the door shut.
You can almost hear sobbing coming from the other side. Cries.
“So lonely…” The woman mutters. “When will it ever be enough?”
The voice sounds familiar. Her eyes. Her hair.
Nostalgia. Memories you would much rather forget. The basement. The imaginary ripping of clothes and tears and men’s laughter.
“I can’t do this much longer…”
Someone else knocks on her door. You want to scream.
“Come out, dearest.”
The devil. Tall with curved horns and a forked tongue. You want to warn her. 
You want to save her. “I’m not going to harm you, I am going to make you happy.”
You are so focused on whether the woman opens the door or not that you do not notice what happens next until it is too late. A clawed hand on your mouth. A tongue licking your ear. Tasting your sweat. Your tears. Laughter. The rest of the world disappears, and the only one there aside from you is the one behind you.
Sh… Sh… Sh… Sh… Bum, bum, bum. Dun, dun, dun. Whunnnnnn, wooooooo, ummmmmmm. 
Get off of me. Please.
“Breathe. It makes things more fun for me.” The voice echoed like you two are in a cave.
You gasp for air, and the smell of blood and oranges fills your nostrils.
“...Huff…”
“That’s better.”
You turn around. There is a body of a man. 
But the scaled, furred, horrifying face of a demon.
“Good.” He says, smiling his sharp teeth. “Deep breaths, in and out, come on.”
You do what he says. He praises you again, you think. But you can’t hear it. Either that or you simply do not pay attention to it. What happened to the woman? 
“...”
“We should go.”
The woman. The devil, this other… thing.
“...Rose…”
The demon laughs.
“Wake up.”
*~*~*~*
The first things you hear come from a happy man’s voice. “My boss’ girlfriend ran away more than a year ago you see, and he’s been heartbroken ever since. I want to prevent that kind of loss from happening to me. Real pretty one, too! He didn’t expect it, but I don’t blame her. After all, she’s been held captive for more than a year, she had to try to escape eventually.”
…The first thing you feel is lace on your neck. A collar.
It does not tickle or hurt. It itches. 
A cold hand plays with it, and it almost chokes you. At your discomfort, the man laughs.
“You are so cute.”
Something metal is on the collar, and it blinks a small red light.
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cdaae · 5 months
Text
Why Am I Like This- Phantom Collector Edition
I’m a completionist and an obsessive so I need all the different versions of a thing so here’s a list of where I’m at right now. I wish I could say that I was anywhere near done but there’s always more phantom stuff to collect
Books
Gaston Leroux x51(This includes all 6 English translations, 8 different languages, and three levels of French)
Gaston Leroux signed by Broadway Cast
The Underground’s of the Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Bathtub
Night of the Phantom
Embrace the Night
Lessons from the Phantom of the Opera
Song of a Maiden
Madrigal
Phantom
Unmasqued
Phantom of Manhattan
Ruinsong
Roseblood
Beyond the Masque
Chanson de L’Ange
Sing Me Forgotten
The Angel of the Opera
The Phoenix of the Opera
The Phantom’s Opera
The Phantom of Paris
The Phantom’s Apprentice
Where Dreams Descend
The Phantom Cat of the Opera
Phantom Pop Up Book
George Perry’s Complete Phantom of the Opera
Phantoms of the Opera
The Trap Door Maker
Phantom Graphic Novel x2
The Phantom Cooks
2004 Companion
Geronimo Stilton
Thea Stilton
My Phantom
Phantoms in the Night
Phantom of Pemberly
Phantom of the Auditorium
Behind the Phantom’s Mask
The Phantom Returns
Phantom erotica
Book cassette
Souvenir edition OLC
Emoji of the opera
Phantom 2020
Phantom Phantasia
Songbird
The Phantom’s Lullaby
Phantom of the Little Russian Theatre
Masked Love
Treasures of Egypt
Victory
Venetian Romance
Susannah’s Secret
The Man in the Shadows
Love in the Spotlight
Let the Dream Begin
A Phantom’s Promise
Destiny’s Curse
Phantom by David Bischoff
Mini Leroux
L’Opera de Paris
Paris National Opera
Palais Garnier
Peeping Duck Gang
Out of the Darness
L’Opera De Paris Coulisses etc secrets du Garnier
Claude Rains Book
Movies/CDs/Media
Lon Chaney
Claude Rains x2
Herbert Lom x2
Phantom of Hollywood
Schell
Robert Englund
Charles Dance
David Staller
Julian Sands
2004 x17 (English x2, French x3 Germanx2, Greek, Spanish, Italian, limited(English and German), deluxe, and Ultimate, Special, Collectors(English and French)
Angel of Music
25th Anniversary
Love Never Dies
A Monster in Paris
Phantom of the Grindhouse
Anthony Mann
Phantom of the Theatre
Unmasking the Masterpiece
Love on Safari
Faust
1987 Cartoon(dvd & VHS)
Mystery Legends Phantom Game x2
2004 digital press kit(English and French)
OLC (cassette & CD)
CDs x59
Phantom of the Paradise Record
OLC small record(wywsha&motn)
Long box cd
Long box 2004
2004 VHS
Movie/book set
Long box OLC cassettes
Karaoke cassettes
Highlight cassettes
Robert Englund VHS
For Your Consideration 2004
Book casettes
Stage Fright
Props/Signed/Similar
Love Never Dies audience gift notebook
1992 tour Auction book prop
Jerry Mitchell signed LND after party invite
Phantoms Note from BWay x2
Don Juan Music from BWay x1 1/2
Ticket to 25th Anniversary Party
Majestic Theatre Phantom Barricade Cover
Photo cards, signed x16
Signed LOBs x2
Robert Englund autograph
Laird Mackintosh autograph
BWay 29th anniversary cast gift beanie
KAV’s dressing gown shoes
Manager’s BWay newspaper prop x4
Cast board name placards x3(2 BWay one Vegas)
Reopening cookies x2
London 35th anniversary rose petals and card
Il Muto page boy stockings
OBC cast member costume gloves
Printed cast member email
Cast made calendars 2006 and 2007
Full cast signed poster with Hugh
Signed trading card
Signed Michael Crawford Face mask
Signed Crawford Article
Signed 35 Poster
Signed Mask
Scrap of Christine’s wedding dress
Scrap of phantoms suit
10th anniversary invite
Opera glasses cast gift
Magazines
24/7 Magazine featuring Crivello
NYC City Guide 2014 & 2016
TODAY featuring Vegas
What’s On Vegas
Time Out New York
German LND
Theater Week 1988
In Theater 1998
Casino Player Magazine
Fate Magazine
Broadway Spotlight
Other
Megstine notebook
Mugs x7
Cups x5
Water Bottle
Ornaments x5
Phantom harmonica
Red death figure
Lon Chaney figure
Phantom Nutcracker
Phantom and Christine Barbies
Tote bag x4
Phantom creamer tops, complete set
Postcards x6
LOBs x2
Magnet x5
Stickers x12
Phantom Cat sticker set
Chibi phantom sticker set
Angel patch
Greeting cards x2
Posters x5
Art print
Calendar
Ramin based doll
Phantom doll + Ayesha
Snerik
Pen
Mardi Gras coin
Felt Raoul and Erik
Francœur bean
Small hand painted canvas
25th Anniversary limited edition boxed set
Canada gift bag
Mexico phone card
Japanese train card x2
Trading card
Lon Chaney money
Lon Chaney stamp
Pencil
Phone case
Gift bag
Japanese posters x6
Herbert Lom ad stamp
Complete LND London draft script
Blanket
Operetta
34th Anniversary blank playbill sticker sheets
Goosebumps pen
Goosebumps magnet
Goosebumps stickers x9
Bendyfigs phantom
German postcard
Angel of Music coffee
Where Dreams Descend popcorn holder
Raoul and Christine art print
Large paper bag
1994 calendar
Ireland phone card
Movie screening invite
German something?
Frame
Vegas key card
Angel of music bear
Tea towels x2
Mask sticker
Blockbuster card
Phantom press invite
Mini 2004 scrapbook
Playing cards
Assorted Japanese 2004 film memorabilia(10 pieces)
2004 film poster and booklet
1999 ticket info
2023 newspaper clippings
Gingerbread ornament
Aussie keychain
Phantom/Christine blanket
2011 wall calendar
2012 wall calendar
2013 wall calendar
Angel ornament
Universal Erik doll
Sarah/Steve Ad
1993 calendar
2004 Mylar
1995 calendar
Italy confetti
Crawford ornament
Halloween figure
Matchbox
Soap?
Heart frame
Jewelry
Pins x11
Charm bracelet
Necklace x2
Key chains x14
Replica Ring
Hair bow x2
Think of Me hair clips
Jewelry pouch
Music Boxes
Square black jewelry music box
Il Muto
Limited Edition boat scene
Boat Scene
Phantom and Christine wedding
Porcelain signs x2
Limited edition mirror scene
Mirror scene
Mirror
Limited edition MotN
Red Death
Throne water globe
Music water globe
Phantom w/ stick water globe
Rooftop water globe
Russian egg(?)
Mirror scene water globe
Phantom w/ stick
Phantom in throne
Monkey music box
Limited edition Jack in the box
Boat scene water globe(broken globe)
Russian egg (?? Missing top)
Small music box(no music)
Universal Phantom and Christine
Phantom and Christine with Marni
Opera House
Phantom Automata
Madame Alexander Christine Doll
Broken Mirror
Erik and Christine porcelain figure
Music pedestal
Clothing
Socks
Glow in the dark boxers
Night shirt
Phantom BWay x2
Sydney Harbour shirt
Christine dressing gown VTC
Peacock dress
US tour grey shirt
Christmas Sweatshirt
Toronto shirt
Candy of the Opera
1988 mask shirt
Phantom of the Opry shirt
New York shirt
Mask sweatshirt
Ghost Red Death Shirt
35th anniversary shirt
Italy shirt
Programs/Playbills/ETC
Loose understudy slips x14
Ticket stubs x11
Newspaper clippings
Mini flyers x6
Flyers x40
Ken Hill souvenir program
2004 film souvenir program
ALW souvenir programs x49
BWAY playbills x63
Signed playbills x12
Tour playbills x20
London programs x18
YK phantom playbill
World tour playbill
Melbourne playbill
Robert Englund film souvenir program
Italy program
Sweden program
Music Books
ALW piano x3(easy, intermediate, expert)
2004 film
YK phantom
LND London
I can honestly say this may not even be everything because sometimes I forget to add new acquisitions to the list. If there’s anything on the list you wanna see pics of, I’m happy to share!
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1980sactionfigures · 4 months
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MORE EBAY AUCTIONS
Hi, everyone - I am in a horrific financial situation at the moment and am letting my entire collection of, well, everything go. Here are some of the auctions I have up right now, great Christmas gifts abound:
I am selling a massive part of my animation collection on DVD including tons of RARE and OUT-OF-PRINT titles! The combined amount for these are several hundred dollars more than my Buy It Now or Starting Bid!
Also letting go of a large amount of my DISNEY Treasures and Legacy Collection sets! Again, many are out of print and rare!
Have a MSTie in your life you want to get something for? A signed 1997 Calendar, autographed by five of the cast members PLUS over a dozen MST3K, RIFFTRAX and CINEMATIC TITANIC DVDs!
Halloween may be over, but it doesn't have to be if you decorate your entire place with these 13 movie posters based on the works of STEPHEN KING!
One of the coolest MOTU Knock-off lines, I'm offering a giant collection of IMPERIAL TOYS' DRAGONS KNIGHTS AND DAGGERS! Beasts! Weapons! Chariots!
A huge collection of GODZILLA collectibles!
From the 1970s through the 2000s, over 1300 trading cards based on movies and TV most in great shape!
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skyflyinginaction · 7 months
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X/1999 Volume 2 Illustration Comments 
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1995 Monthly Asuka March Issue, Announcement Illustration 
Paper: Manuscript paper
Lines: Color pencil
Color: Colortone. whiteout Copic marker
I literally just penciled this on regular manuscript paper used for monochrome illustrations [laughs]. I've used Colortone before, but I hardly ever use it in X.
[Ed. Note: Colortone is a type of colored screentone; it's also sometimes called "overlay.”]
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2002 X Calendar illustration
This was a uniquely long, vertical format, so I had a hard time devising the composition of the illustration. Now that I look at it, the specks of light make it look like a Magical Girl transformation scene [laughs). Although this was a large illustration, I screwed up my courage and colored the background using only Copic markers [laughs]. The uniform was inked in with Lumocolor pens, but I used Liquitex afterward for some parts of the piping. The wing was drawn with an airbrush, and the Earth with acrylic gouache.
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2002 Monthly Asuka April Extra Issue
X Comic Collection 04 Illustration 
Ohkawa commented that there hadn't been any illustrations of Kamui being sad, so she asked me to make him cry. I drew an illustration for the cover of the X Comic Collection 03 of Kotori wearing a blue headdress. So he's holding that as if it's a memento. I used Liquitex to draw the beads. The other areas are done with Copic markers. I put down a layer of gray ground coat before doing the actual illustration.
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1998 Monthly Asuka November Issue
Title Page: Illustration 
Paper: BB Kent
Lines: PIGMA Graphic ink pen
Color Dr Ph Martin's Color Ink, Lumocolor ink pen, poster color, Copic marker
This is a fake Warring States Period illustration [laughs]. I drew something with a similar theme before, but I think this one looks more Warring States-like. Even though I've totally ignored the authenticity of the time period [laughs].
[Ed. Note: Poster color is also known as "poster paint" or "tempera paint."]
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1996 Monthly Asuka August Issue, Title Page Illustration 
Paper: Watson Paper
Lines: Winsor & Newton Drawing Ink (Nut Brown),PIGMA Graphic ink pen
Color: Acrylic Gouache, Dr. Ph. Martin's Color Ink, Lumocolor ink pen 
The ink I used to draw the main outline blurs a bit when it's mixed with water. so the whole illustration has a yellowish tint to it. I wanted the uniforms to look dimensional and not just pitch-black, so I used Lumocolor for them.
[Ed. Note: Watson is a brand of Japanese paper good for watercolor use.]
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1993 June. X Volume 4, Cover Illustration 
Paper: BB Kent
Lines: PIGMA Graphic ink pen
Color: Dr. Ph. Martin's Color Ink, poster color
The concept color for this illustration was gray, but his hakama would look very drab if I'd colored them gray too, so I made them light blue instead [laughs].
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2002 X TV Anime Volume 5 DVD Box illustration
For the illustrations used on the anime DVD boxes, I had decided from the beginning to make the backgrounds black and to incorporate a round element, which in this case was a window. Both Sorata and Arashi are very "Japanese" characters, so I drew them with that idea in mind. But I still put them in their school uniforms.. (laughs]. Sorata wears his uniform only once during the entire series, and that was in a flashback scene. When you see them together like this, it seems like they're from a different story. The background is colored with poster color and acrylic gouache.
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1996 X Anime Movie Advertisement Illustration
Paper: BB Kent
Lines: PIGMA Graphic ink pen
Color: Dr. Ph. Martin's color ink Liquitex
Since this illustration was for the movie, I wanted to give it a heavy atmosphere, so I used Liquitex. But it took such a long time to dry that I ended up having to pull an all-nighter to make the deadline [laughs].
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1996 X Anime Movie Flyer Illustration
The scene and color palette for this illustration were created to suit the movie, since the image was going to be used on the flyer. I think I used I Watson Paper for it and colored it mostly with ink, but I used an airbrush for the Earth. I placed a thin ground coat of brown on the paper first and colored the characters after that. It's exactly the same drawing technique as I used on the posters.
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1999 Monthly Asuka May Issue, Title Page Illustration
Another illustration of Karen looking very neat and tidy. I put her in a delicate lace dress, which is a refreshing change since she's usually drawn with a bondage look. The background resembles a holy shrine of some sort. I purposely drew water in the illustration since she has the power to control fire. Originally there wasn't any lace over her cleavage, but I added it on later at Ohkawa's request.
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1993 November, X Volume 5, Cover illustration
Paper: BB Kent
Lines: PIGMA Graphic ink pen
Color: Dr. Ph. Martin's Color Ink
The building in the background is the offices of Kadokawa Shoten
Publishing Co., Led. Are the papers that are falling out of the sky just random documents? Or final drafts of manga? It'd be terrible if they were final drafts [laughs].
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2001 Monthly Newtype November Issue, Cover Illustration
Newtype has a very large cover area, so it's fun to draw illustrations for it [laughs]. I wanted the blackness of the uniform to have a heavy look to it, more of a "woolly" texture, so I used a Lumocolor pen instead of a Copic marker. If I had used a black Copic, the color would have been much lighter. They don't make that particular hue of Lumocolor anymore, unfortunately. The other parts of the uniform were drawn using Dr. Ph. Martin's, the cloth with Copic markers, and the earth using acrylic
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2003 X Calendar Illustration
This was for a desk calendar, so it wasn't a huge project, but I still did draw in a lot of detail. Fortunately, not many colors were used so it didn't take too much time. I spent the most time working on the dragon. Until this illustration, I had been drawing Asian dragons, but this dragon has a slightly Western touch. Its scales are very shiny (laughs].
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2002 X TV Anime Advertisement Poster
Fuma's head looks a little big here [laughs]. I made this when I was working on Chobits, so I had a "drawing habit" of doing things in that style. The background was colored with acrylic gouache. I wanted an ashy hue to create a tranquil, not too heavy-looking sky. The other parts were done with a Copic marker. The piping on the uniforms was too small to draw, so I added them afterwards with Liquitex
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2002 X: The Choice of Fate Play Station Game Package Illustration
I remember working really hard on the Tokyo Tower for some reason. The Tower and capes were done with acrylic gouache. Since this was an illustration for a video game, I wanted to give it a battle-like, action-y feel; it's just right for an all-out fighting game! I erased the outlines of the background to make it look like it was drawn with a computer. but it actually took a lot of time and effort.
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1996 Monthly Asuka August Issue, Title Page Illustration
Paper: BB Ken
Lines: Dr. Ph. Martin's Sepia Ink, PIGMA Graphic ink pen
Color: Dr. Ph. Martin's Color Ink
The illustration seems slightly yellowish since I did the outline using Dr. Ph. Martin's Sepia Ink and then blurred it with water afterward. The shattering glass over the image gives it an ominous feel
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1994 December. a volume 6. cover illustration
Paper: BB Kent
Lines: PIGMA Graphic ink pen
Color: Acrylic gouache, Dr. Ph. Martin's Color Ink
 I shaded the illustration with pink as a base color, and then inked in the different areas. Since Kotori’s the subject, I wanted to make it look cute, so the concept color is pink and it's got lots of flowers [Laughs]
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hallyuhighlights · 3 months
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Jeon Soyeon Script
ChatGPT
[Opening shot of Jeon So-yeon's image and name on screen]
[Background music starts] [Montage of Jeon's childhood photos] Jeon Soyeon was born on August 26 1998 in Seoul, South Korea. Her passion for ballet shone through as she participated in and conquered various competitions. But everything changed when she witnessed a performance by Big Bang, leading her to switch gears and embark on a challenging path in the music industry.
Undeterred by around 20 to 30 failed singing auditions, Jeon redirected her focus to rap, attracting interest from potential collaborators. Despite facing differences in musical direction, she chose to pivot again, this time towards street dancing.
[Montage of Jeon street dancing]
The turning point came when she spotted Cube Entertainment's 2014 audition poster. Taking a chance at the Incheon auditions, she secured a spot as a trainee at the prestigious company.
[Visuals of Cube Entertainment's audition poster]
Host: Fast forward to January 2016, Jeon represented Cube Entertainment on the first season of Produce 101. Although she gained popularity, ranking 20th on the final episode meant missing out on joining the project girl group, I.O.I.
[Clips from Produce 101]
Host: Not one to be discouraged, Jeon took the rap scene by storm in the third season of Unpretty Rapstar, finishing as the second runner-up. This led to three of her tracks being featured on the show's final compilation album.
[Clips from Unpretty Rapstar]
Host: On December 29, 2016, Jeon officially signed with Cube Entertainment and made her debut on November 5, 2017, with the digital singles "Jelly" and "Idle Song," both penned by her.
[Images from Jeon's debut]
Host: But the story doesn't end there. In 2018, Jeon took on a leadership role as the rapper of (G)I-dle, contributing to the success of hits like "Latata" and "Hann." She even collaborated with SM Station's X 0 for the song "Wow Thing."
[Clips from (G)I-dle's performances]
Host: The game-changer came with the virtual group K/DA, where Jeon, alongside (G)I-dle member Miyeon, collaborated with Riot Games for the hit song "Pop/Stars."
[Clips from K/DA's "Pop/Stars"]
Host: Jeon's journey continued with roles in True Damage and as a composer for CLC's "No." However, 2019 also brought a moment of reflection as she publicly apologized for using a pirated version of music software during her early days of learning songwriting.
[Clips from True Damage and CLC's "No"]
Host: Fast forward to 2021, (G)I-dle released the EP "I Burn," showcasing Jeon's prowess as a songwriter. In June, she dropped her solo EP, "Windy," with the lead single "Beam Beam," earning her first music program trophy on SBS MTV's "The Show."
[Clips from (G)I-dle's "Hwaa" and Jeon's "Beam Beam" performances]
Host: And the journey continues! On November 16, 2023, Jeon will be part of a special collaboration single titled "Nobody" with Ive's Liz and Aespa's Winter. Make sure to mark your calendars for this exciting release!
[Closing shot of Jeon's image]
Host: That's it for today's video! If you enjoyed this deep dive into Jeon So-yeon's incredible career, hit that like button, subscribe for more content, and let us know in the comments who you want us to feature next. Until then, stay tuned for more stories from the world of K-pop on Hallyu Highlights. Thanks for watching!
[Outro music plays]
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2023 Every Day And Weekly Planners
We get dreamy-eyed in relation to classic poster design. There's one thing about that romantic, hand-illustrated style that strikes a chord in us, pushing us to discover and follow our craft as graphic artists. With over 2,000 designs and counting, we're 2023 wall calendar persevering with the grand tradition of the Golden Age of Poster Art for an entire new technology.
Enjoy turning the web page each month to read extra amazing content material and quotes to maintain you inspired with moments that will flip into memories. What a perfect present for your self or to share with others as you anticipate the days ahead. We hope the subsequent year will convey you joy and celebration. Each 2023 wall calendar measures 12” x 12” and features stunning pictures selected as favorites by our editorial staff. Designed by unbiased artists from all over the world, Minted’s custom photo calendars are all about making a artistic and sensible reward for loved ones.
If you'll somewhat not wait for shipping and you have entry to a big format printer , you should purchase printable versions of the 2023 annual calendars. New digital items are being added to the store weekly. This tackle Minted was made by undefined from , a member of Minted's neighborhood of impartial artists.
Putting together a custom calendar can be as enjoyable as receiving one! Create an possibility that's the good measurement in your recipient and toggle between distinctive shade themes that fit your fashion and theirs. Display months and dates in colours corresponding to mint, canary, and melon to name a number of. Personalize the general look with a colour theme that matches their school colours, the colour of their room, or pairs properly with the pictures you showcase on the pages.
They are marked with days of Fasting, special Saints Days, and the Sundays of the Liturgical Year for each the Ordinary and Extraordinary Calendar. This calendar has a sweet picture every month and will be the perfect reward for my good friend. Because of beneficiant friends of the ministry, we’re capable of supply this special 2023 Foundations of Freedom wall calendar to you, free of charge. Includes a customized matte black metal hanger that's designed to be reused for future calendars.
You'll have the choice of purchasing for on-line and choosing up at our shops by choosing In-Store Pickup during checkout. If for any purpose you aren't glad together with your purchase, you may return the merchandise within ninety days for an exchange or refund within the type of the original cost. If for any cause you aren't happy together with your buy, you may return merchandise inside 90 days for a refund within the form of unique payment. Members also save 10% every single day and 20% during Member Shopping Days.
MacOS Ventura is the latest macOS working system launched to the basic public last week. Since its release, customers have taken to Twitter, the MacRumors Forums, in addition to the Apple Support discussion board to share that their Exchange calendar no... Please note that as a outcome of COVID-19 packages may be delayed up to 30 days. Double examine with 2023 wall calendar your postal and customs ministry to verify it's accepting packages from different international locations. A lifelong Star Wars fan, he lives in Chicago with his spouse and two sons. This calendar full of a yr and a half of month-at-a-glance planning pages and lovable Precious Moments illustrations appears great on any wall.
Delivery occasions may vary, especially during the holidays. Snow & Graham is a boutique stationery model with its eye on the lengthy run and its roots up to now. Since 1998 we now have been designing and producing paper merchandise that keep you connected to those you like.
Delight associates or household with a considerate present they’ll love all yr lengthy. Explore 12-month custom calendars for 2023, with assorted dimension 2023 wall calendar and personalization choices. Just make sure you request your copy before our limited provide runs out!
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hirespokemon · 4 years
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Possibly late 1997, awesome ancient-looking Kanto Map by the amazing Mitsuhiro Arita, made for the 1998 Pokémon Calendar. Click here for the 5000px download  (20Mb)
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cityofkhamoon · 4 years
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Tomb Raider III poster calendar available from Lara © in 1998.
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rabbitcruiser · 3 years
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World Sight Day
World Sight Day is an annual commemoration that falls on October 8th of this year. Vision or sight for any person is indeed a vital thing to look or see the world. The visionary problem exists from children to adults to old age people. It is an advocacy and discussions event about the vision on the eye health calendar. World Sight Day is an international observance that focuses on bringing attention, awareness on blindness and vision impairment.
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” – Helen Keller
History of World Sight Day
The second Thursday of every October is observed as World Sight Day (WSD). It was first observed in the year 2007. World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) created this day. The organizations aimed at spreading awareness about visionary problems through a large number of different events. There are so many age-related circumstances which lead to the blindness like cataract, refractive error, and glaucoma. These visionary problems can be quickly and easily treated or cured at a low cost. The timely intervention will often delay or reduce their vision consequences. The awareness event aims to educate the public globally on how to prevent and treat the loss of vision.
According to the WHO survey, people live for longer, but they tend to exist with the blindness, a chronic condition which is continuously increasing. WHO states that 45 million blind peoples in the world, i.e., nearly 80 per cent are over 50 years of age. Of about 90 per cent of the blind people reside in low-income countries. They are older people, particularly older women, who are facing difficulties in getting essential eye health care. World Sight Day was first initiated by the SightFirstCampaign of the Lions Club International Foundation originated in 2000.
Lions Clubs International in collaboration with blindness prevention organizations from all over the world commemorates the World Sight Day on October 8, 1998. Later this event was integrated into a global initiative coordinated by the IAPB named VISION 2020.  It is a joint program initiative between WHO and the IAPB. Many non-government organizations, communities, and professional associations, eye care institutions and corporations are involved. The IAPB generates theme and certain core materials for the event. Members and supporter of those organizations independently organize all the events.
Themes of World Sight Day
2005 – The Right to Sight
2006 – Low Vision
2007 – Vision for Children
2008 – Fighting Vision Impairment in Later Life
2009 – Gender and Eye Health
2010 – Countdown to 2020
2013 – Universal Eye Health
2014 – No more Avoidable Blindness
2015 – Eyecare for all
2016 – Stronger Together
2017 – Make Vision Count
2018 – Eye Care Everywhere
2019 – Vision First
2020 – Hope In Sight
How to Celebrate World Sight Day
Indulge yourself to raise public awareness about blindness and vision impairment. You can educate people about VISION 2020 and blindness prevention. Take part in awareness-raising walks or distribute pamphlets, posters, bookmarks, booklets that carry information the raise awareness about preventable blindness. Plant trees to commemorate this Day. You can submit a photo for an international photo montage that focuses on the theme of blindness.
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antiquatedfuture · 4 years
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Zine Care Packages (Antiquated Future Spring Newsletter)
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What a challenging time. Things have felt pretty bleak and I debated about whether to send this spring newsletter a lot, but friends convinced me we're all in need of good news. If nothing else, I want to say two things: 1) We'll still be shipping orders (with plenty of hand-washing and sanitizing) several times a week. 2) While we always appreciate and need your financial support, we'd also like to offer the resources we have to any of you who are having a hard time. 
In short: We're offering free zines (and tapes and books) to anyone who's currently struggling financially, mentally, or physically right now. No need to tell us details, just email and say "I'd like a package," and we'll send one your way. Let it be a surprise or make a list of what you'd like and we'll send you what we can. Feel free to spread the word to your friends and community through our Facebook or Twitter posts. It's not much, admittedly, but hopefully it's something.
In more general distro news: we have a few more calendars & planners in stock (and very very on sale), we’ve been restocking things as much as we can, and we accidentally left up our temporary store-wide cassette sale (that also includes a decent handful of LPs and CDs) as well as our zine sale on select titles. We also just posted a newsletter from the record label side of Antiquated Future. We're currently lending some small financial assistance to Portland writer Martha Grover as she recovers from a brain surgery by selling a fundraiser pack of her Somnambulist zine. And if you're in the Portland area, we're helping do porch deliveries of food, baby supplies, and various resources. Please reach out if you'd like one or you know someone in need.
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NEW ZINES Antonia- A rare, almost-sublime zine about place, memory, and lost history. About the ways things change and stay the same. About how the place you're from shapes who you become. About growing up in a small Midwestern town without a zip code, a place not on most maps. ($5) Behind the Zines #9: A Zine About Zines- The latest issue of newest best zine about zines around. Within: the evolution of DIY comics culture, zine-fest history, imagined zines, One Punk's Guide to collaborative zines, a history of that one Crimethinc poster, The Most Unwanted Zine, confessions of a sex-zine zinester. Contributions from our own Gina Sarti, as well as John Porcellino and so many others. ($3) Brainscan #34: A Dabbler's Week of DIY Witchery- In the wake of the controversy surrounding a recent viral article about spending a week "becoming a witch," Alex considers what her guide to a witchcraft practice would look like. The results are a day-by-day guide to trying out her particular variety of secular witchcraft (that she lovingly refers to as "DIY witchery"). ($4)
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Caboose #12: Jury Duty- A personal story of serving as a juror on a medical malpractice suit. As usual, Liz Mason's playful, endlessly curious take on the world makes this a ride worth taking. A peek into the court system through the eyes of this long-running zine-star. ($4) Clock Tower Nine #15- One of our favorite Seattle zines is back with tales from the record store counter, long walks in various locales, dangerous doppelgängers, and 8-track tapes. As Clock Tower Nine ringleader Danny Noonan describes it in the introduction: "This fanzine is like a bunch of people sitting around a fire in late fall, all taking turns telling a story." ($3) Cometbus #59: Post-Mortem- How does Cometbus, after 38 years as a zine, just get better and better? It's a mystery, but it does. Issue 59 is a deep dive into both death and longevity in the underground. In short: what does sustainability look like in counterculture? This question takes Aaron on a journey from the Epitaph Records and Thrasher magazine offices to hanging out at a punk-owned vegan donut shop and a tamale stand at the farmer's market with Allison Wolfe (of Bratmobile). ($5)
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Doris #23- A back-issue fave from one of the best zines ever. Long personal stories that look both outward and inward in surprising ways. ($2) Doris #26- Shy-punk-girl comics, social ecology, the cynical hour, a grandpa who built malls, hammer and nail history, and more. ($2) Eulalia #3- Two issues of the art zine Eulalia in one. Grief and romance, hand-in-hand. Gorgeously designed! Letterpress-printed covers. Each issue is bound with a special do-si-do binding, so each half can be read separately. ($10) Fluke Fanzine #17- Since 1991, Fluke has been creating great variety zines covering all realms of punk and underground culture. Graphic novelist Nate Powell, skateboard magazine historians, Maximum Rocknroll, R.E.M., '90s women-led punk, the Soophie Nun Squad family tree, more. ($3)
Forever & Everything #5- Comics on parenting, depression, coffee, therapy, alcohol, Willie Nelson, Charlie Brown, and living in New Orleans. ($5) Good Days Gone Cold Days- A photography zine/art zine made while living and working in "a house without heat, without doorknobs, and without much insulation or electricity to speak of" for a late fall in western Pennsylvania. Comes with homemade bookmark, building permit, and banjo tab. ($12) Keep Loving, Keep Fighting #8- A reprint of this 2008 issue of Keep Loving, Keep Fighting. Forty pages of feeling at home in New Orleans, communication between friends, death, visiting Montreal, and moving away. ($5)
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Learning Good Consent- An essential compilation zine about consent. From personal stories to worksheets, approaches, definitions, resources, and beyond, Learning Good Consent is here to help us all feel more comfortable and be more respectful. ($4)
Little Leagues #1- The companion comics scrapbook to Simon Moreton's epic Minor Leagues series. Prose, comics and photos about being in Japan, making chutney, experiencing autumn. ($3) Little Leagues #2- Comics about being in the snow. Drawings and photos of spring. A fold-out cover with facts about lesser-spotted dogfish. ($3) Our Lady of Near Death Experiences- Jodi Darby writes about becoming a cross-country truck driver as a 23-year-old woman in the mid 1990s. A mini-memoir told in vignettes, Our Lady is a twisted love song to the road in all its complexities. A gorgeous reprint of this zine classic from 1998. (And we have the last few copies before it goes out of print!) ($10)
The Paruretic #1: The Story of a Guy Who's Pee Shy- The first issue of one of our favorite new zine series. The Paruretic tells what the intricacies and complexities of life with parusesis, the social phobia of being pee shy. Illuminating, accessible, and worth reading every issue. ($2)
The Paruretic #2: The Story of a Guy Who's Pee Shy (College)- In this issue, Mark recalls figuring out the debilitating effects of his bladder issues when he goes to college and, for the first time, navigates living in dorms, drinking at college-town bars, and hooking-up. ($3)
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The Paruretic #3: The Story of a Guy Who's Pee Shy (Vacation)- In this issue: searching out acceptable bathrooms while on the road, not urinating for ten hours while in the air, and a bathroom-by-bathroom diary of experiences. ($3) The Paruretic #4: The Story of a Guy Who's Pee Shy (The Search for Help)- In this issue, Mark reaches out, looking for help, and is met with a less-than-sympathetic medical system. Within: clueless medical professionals, almost losing a job over a urinalysis, and finally finding someone who understands. ($3) The Paruretic #5: The Story of a Guy Who's Pee Shy (Dating)- The dating issue covers how Mark handled (or avoided handling) dating in high school and college. It's a chronicle of, as Mark says, "how my shy bladder has driven every part of my love life." ($3)
Somnambulist Zine Pack Fundraiser- For the past 17 years, Portland memoirist and illustrator Martha Grover has been publishing Somnambulist zine, an expansive and playful look at the world at large (and easily one of the best zines running today). This pack includes all nine in-print issues of Somnambulist (a $40 value for $25!). All proceeds go straight to Martha's brain surgery recovery fund. Help a great writer, get nine amazing zines. ($25) Somnambulist #33: How to Survive the Portland Winter- A fun how-to guide from Portland-born writer Martha Grover. Within: dealing with all the rain, taking care of your mental health, venturing out, staying in, eating soup (with recipes!), and the truth about umbrellas. Illustrated by Liz Yerby. ($5)
Somnambulist #34: The Starfish- A single, long-form essay about Martha's journey through Cushing's disease and Addison's disease, and the lingering tumor she's chosen to not demonize or see as something separate. The Starfish is a surprising and exciting meditation on what it means to be in a body. ($3) Surely, They'll Tear it Down- A short zine letter about gender, race, identity, and not-knowing from the author of Fixer Eraser and We, the Drowned. ($2) Tattoo Punk Fanzine, Issue 3- A jam-packed new issue of Tattoo Punk, the fanzine about tattoos, punks, and tattooed punks. Edited by Ben Trogdon of everyone's favorite artsy punk paper, Nuts! ($15) Valentines Every Day- Weirdo anytime-valentines from zine-seller extraordinaire, Julie Wade. Funny, bizarre, off-kilter, occasionally unsettling. The perfect gift for that especially-odd someone. ($6) What Happened- A dreamy comic from UK artist Simon Moreton. Set in a '90s boyhood of meadows, sci-fi VHS tapes, MTV, crushes, first kisses. ($5) 
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NEW BOOKS & MISCELLANY The Collected Plays by Portland Preschoolers- In short: One of our favorite little books around! A modern classic, even. Five years of collected plays written by Portland, Oregon preschoolers. Hilarious, invariably bizarre, oddly brilliant, sometimes surprisingly profound. Perfect for putting out on the coffee table, reading aloud to friends, impromptu group performances. ($10) Four-Year Depression- A book about figuring out how to love your family in the Trump era. From Billy McCall of Proof I Exist and Behind the Zines. ($10) Zine Game- A long-time favorite in the zine community, now in a fancy, professionally-made version accessible to all game lovers. Playing like a cross between canasta and Magic: The Gathering, Zine Game is all about building your own zines. A really fun time with tons of possibilities. ($16)
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NEW MUSIC & SPOKEN WORD Alice Notley "Live in Seattle"- An LP of one of the most adored living poets. Alice Notley pushes boundaries, and it's an absolute joy to hear her reading her work. (LP + digital download) ($16.95) Annelyse Gelman & Jason Grier "About Repulsion"- A collaboration between poet Annelyse Gelman and sound artist Jason Grier. About Repulsion mixes songs, sampled poems, textural walls, beats, noise, to create this EP of one-of-a-kind soundscapes. (LP + digital download) ($16.95) Eileen Myles "Aloha / Irish Trees"- The legendary poet Eileen Myles, on vinyl for the first time. Aloha/Irish Trees features nearly an hour of Myles live in the studio, reading past and present poems. Intimate, playful, raw. (LP + digital download) ($16.95)
Harmony Holiday "The Black Saint and the Sinnerman"- Harmony Holiday's record of poems and sound collage. Adventurous and accessible, twisting cultural images into something surprising, political, socially aware. In conversation with Charles Mingus’ classic 1963 album The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. (LP + digital download) ($16.95) Rae Armantrout "Conflation"- Fifty-four surprising and gloriously unique poems from Rae Armantrout, a Pulitzer-winning poet of great gifts. (LP + digital download) ($16.95) Susan Howe & Nathaniel Mackey  "Stray: A Graphic Tone"- Made in collaboration with Shannon Ebner, Stray: A Graphic Tone juxtaposes historic and recent material from poets Susan Howe and Nathaniel Mackey. An adventurous LP of spoken word delights. (LP + digital download) ($16.95)
Stay well, take care of each other as much as possible. Xo, Antiquated Future
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ladyadalicialove · 5 years
Text
MLB Dupain-Cheng Wedding and Marinette’s Birthday theory!!
An updated version of this theory can be found here. Some new info was revealed and I decided to talk about it.
Here I have developed two theories; when Sabine and Tom got married and Marinette’s Birthday. I have finalised two dates as to when they got married and when Marinette was born. This is pure speculation by the way, so take what I say with a grain of salt!!! 
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The Dupain-Chengs Wedding Date THEORY:
To figure out when they were married I gathered clues from all available episodes.
Lets start with “Timebreaker”! In this episode Sabine says they are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary with a special dinner. And since “Timebreaker” was in season 1, this episode is speculated to have occurred sometime sometime in February-April.
I have theorised that “Backwarder” is set in either April of 2011 or May of 2018 This is because Adrien, Gabriel, Kagami and her mother are going to attend a Royal Wedding in England. And Thomas Astruc must have been inspired by a royal wedding and since this episode aired in 2016, Astruc would not have known about Harry and Meghan meaning that Kate and William was probably his source of inspiration.
So if Tom and Sabine are celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary in February-April 2011 or 2018, that means they were married in 1991 or 1998.
However in consideration to the style of Sabine’s dress, it is more likely to be in 1998. 1991 Wedding dresses were extremely puffy, most likely due to the after effects of the 80s fashion. Sabine’s wedding dress actually closely resembles the wedding dresses of the 2000s. Meaning that it is highly likely the wedding happened in 1998, here’s a photo comparison.
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(Credit: Me, I googled some pics of both 1991 and 1998 wedding dresses and created this collage.)
Basically since Sabine doesn’t look like any of the snow beast brides of 1991 and closer to 1998 wedding dresses, I think it’s a safe bet that it was set in 1998. FYI: I did loads of wedding dress research and her dress is closest to the 2002 bridal styles, especially with the BOHO-chic fashion trend. 
Now fun fact, this means we actually know when the exact date they were married because of Marinette’s calendar (which is basically Adrien’s Schedule) back in “Timebreaker”. The episode as we know starts off with Sabine talking about their 20th wedding anniversary. However in this episode, Alix and Kim have their rollerblade race, This is the only episode we know of to have rollerskating in it, and in Marinette’s calendar April 6th is marked as “Roller Time”.
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(Credit: https://amour-chasse-croise.tumblr.com/post/142955283453/miraculous-ladybug-timeline-complete )
This means that April 6th is the day that Tom and Sabine were married!! (And Alix’s birthday lol)
So this concludes that…
Tom and Sabine were married on April 6th of 1998.
Also this means that Tom married Sabine when he was twenty!!! Because he turned 40 in Bakerix which is set in 2018, we knows this because the events in “Bakerix” happen before "Backwarder", as the inauguration of Startrain is shown. And we know “Backwarder” is set in May of 2018, meaniNG BAKERIX IS HAPPENING IN EARLY 2018!!!!
Our bakery boi snatched his wife with that broom-stache at 20 holy moly. I wondered how old Sabine was, I think she might have been 19, making her 39 in “Bakerix”. Love to hear anyone’s theory on Sabine’s age.
This means that Tom and Sabine totally dated in high school. oMG SO CUTE!! Can’t wait to draw the art for that one!
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The Date of Marinette’s birthday THEORY:
This theory isn’t as concrete as the previous but I had to do some hard core predications and assumptions!! So don’t take my word for it!
It took Tom and Sabine a couple of years before they had Marinette. Because we know she is 14 in “Befana”, that means she was born in 2003 or 2004 if this episode took place in 2017 or 2018. And according to the MLB wiki timeline, Befana takes place in July, meaning Marinette is born in July. No joke the wiki has a timeline. 
If we look at her personality we can actually determine what part of July her birthday is on with zodiac signs!! July 1st to July 22nd are members of the Cancer zodiac sign, and July 22nd to July 31st, are a part of the Leo zodiac sign.
I did a little research for Cancer because as a Leo myself, I know that sign pretty well. And guys, “Cancers are born people-pleasers and emotional caretakers.” and not just that but “You’ll often see Cancer women busting their butts behind the scenes building props on theatre or movie sets, or as head chefs making magic in the kitchens of busy restaurants. These women prefer to work with their hands, and do work that they feel emotionally connected to, rather than spending hours staring at spreadsheets or mathematical abstractions.” (source:https://www.astrology.com/cancer-woman.html)
MARINETTE IS A MEMBER OF THE CANCER ZODIAC SIGN CONFIRMED SHE IS A CRAB!!!!! CAN YOU IMAGINE HER LIKE THAT I CAN 
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So we can confidently say her birthday is between July 1st and 22nd, we just gotta find the specific date!! Here’s another clue I found thanks to another birthday theory on Amino; In the Webisode "My Birthday Party", Marinette's voice over says "It's my birthday on Saturday". (In the English Dub)
Now the webisode was released in 2016, while “Befana” was released in 2017. In 2016 would have been 12 if Marinette was born in 2004, which is inaccurate as she was 13 when she received the miraculous. Meaning she is born in 2003 making her thirteen in 2016 the year of the webisode aired!!
Now if her birthday in that webisode was set in 2016, the Saturday’s between between July 1st and 22nd land on three dates. The 2nd, 9th and the 16th of July.
How do we narrow the three dates down to one I hear you ask? Well Kung Food is set sometime after July 14th according to this tumblr user, meaning we can eliminate the 16th because her Great Uncle would have mentioned her birthday but he didn’t.
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(Credit: https://ladybug-x-chatnoir.tumblr.com/post/138842131342/here-is-a-visual-timeline-based-off-of )
Now that means it’s either the 2nd or the 9th. I think if we look at the school dates when the year “Befana” takes place we may determine her birthday.
So if Marinette is turning 14 in “Befana” and if she is born in 2003, that means “Befana” occurs in 2017. In the episode she talked about being at school that week, and “yesterday” she caught Nino listening to her fav song at school , however she did not mention being at school on her actual birthday. Which in 2017, Mari’s birthday is on a Sunday and I had to check but France does have Middle and High schools that choose to have courses on Saturdays. So we are deficiently in the right timeframe!
It occurred to me that July is when Summer Holidays begin for France. And according to this website, France’s summer holidays begun on July 8th in 2017.
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(Credit: https://www.renestance.com/blog/2017-school-holidays-in-france/ )
Now if we rewatch “Befana”, we can see that the classroom is bare of any school work or posters. Now everyone who has been to middle or high school knows there are big clean ups that happen the day Summer Holidays begin. And that’s what I think we are seeing here. A completely clean classroom ready for a new year.
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(Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTz8SC39s24)
I can conclude then that Marinette’s Birthday is on the 9th of July, and she was born in 2003!! THE PROOF IS IN DA PUDDIN THAT IS ADRIEN LOL!
So to quickly resummarise this double theory of mine:
Tom and Sabine were married on April 6th of 1998.
and
Marinette’s Birthday is on the 9th of July, and she was born in 2003.
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Wow I spent six hours researching all this and now I’m super tired, I’m posting these theories because I will be MIA during May and possibly June because of Exams and Assignments for Uni. Enjoy reading this and I hope to hear your opinions and thoughts!!
REMEMBER THIS IS JUST A THEORY
Posted on 5th of July in 2019, sometime after Bakerix aired.
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virtual-lara · 4 years
Text
Gamespot UK Interview With Susie Hamilton - Tomb Raider 3
Interview appeared on Gamespot UK website, dated to 27th November 1998
In this exclusive interview Susie Hamilton talks about Lara's most successful year yet, plus she tells us about Lara's new range of merchandise.
GameSpot UK:
In terms of Lara what's been this years highlight?
Susie Hamilton:
The debut appearance of Virtual Lara at E3 was one of the major highlights, although it took a massive effort from several people to set this up. We had to fly in a special team from Germany, plus all their equipment, and it took nearly three days to get the system working properly. After several rehearsals, we finally got it right at about 2am the morning the show opened. Fortunately, most of the questions from the audience were pretty straightforward, but there were a couple that really threw us, even though we had spent the past couple of weeks trying to think of the kind of questions people would be asking Lara. The team, plus Lara's voice and myself operated from a very small room at the back of the stand. We had two monitors - one to see the audience and one to see the actual screen at the front of the stand. So, 'Lara' was able to pick out certain individuals from the crowd and ask them questions herself. However, once they were picked-on, most of them became very shy - perhaps they were over-awed! The software itself was quite complicated and required 2 operators as well as Lara. One person was responsible for Lara's movements - each move corresponded to a key on the computer. Obviously, Lara's movements had to fit in with what she was actually saying, so the operator had to work extremely closely with Lara's voice to get this right.
GameSpot UK:
Any other moments that stick in the memory?
Susie Hamilton:
Another highlight was the press tour - we took Nell McAndrew [the model how plays Lara] to Italy, Spain, Germany, the US and Australia to promote TRIII. Nell made personal appearances on TV shows, radio stations, department stores etc. The response was completely overwhelming and she was treated like a major celebrity! Although the tour was very tiring (hopping from hotel to airport to hotel is not very glamorous, believe me!), all those who participated, including Nell, were very pleasantly surprised by Lara's popularity.
Other highlights for Lara included front cover images and great features in nearly all of the UK's games magazines, a TV advertisement for the French car manufacturer, SEAT, and a pop video for German band 'Die Arzte' (the song reached no.1 and stayed there for several weeks).
GameSpot UK:
Apart from Tomb Raider III what else has Lara been involved with?
Susie Hamilton:
Lara has just launched her own range of clothing and merchandise. The Lara C range has been designed and manufactured by 'Animal' and is now available via the website and also from catalogues packed with Eidos titles.
GameSpot UK:
Ok, so tell us more about Lara's new range of clothes and accessories?
Susie Hamilton:
Well, there are two 'ranges': The LARA (c) merchandise range comprises 'street-wear' items designed and manufactured exclusively by Animal. The LARA (c) items are all black and white and labelled with the LARA (c) logo only. Most games merchandise features huge pictures and logos, so we really wanted to something a bit different. By using the Lara c logo, we hope to establish a range that is much more 'wearable'. Since all items are designed by Animal, they are very trendy and the quality is superb! Clothing Items include men's t-shirt, women's t-shirt, Polo shirt, sweatshirt, 1/2 zip fleece, 'Team' jacket, dressing gown, baseball cap and a knitted beanie (ski hat). Other items include a briefcase bag, girl's mini rucksack, bath towel, CD case, wallet, watch (men's and women's), watch-strap and key fob.
GameSpot UK:
Any other Lara stuff available?
Susie Hamilton:
We've another range of items that prominently features Lara Croft herself. The Diffusion range offers a selection of items that incorporate the Tomb Raider III logo and Lara Croft signature; all items are high quality collectibles for the avid Tomb Raider fan! Items include posters (2 designs), calendar, mousemats (3 designs), t-shirts (2 designs), beach towel, backlit analogue watch, Lara figurine & 5ft freestanding Lara cut-out.
GameSpot UK:
So where can we get all these goodies?
Susie Hamilton:
The LARA (c) and Diffusion items are available from the LARA (c) catalogue packed into Eidos games from the end of November. The catalogue will also feature on the Eidos, Core and Lara Croft websites. Advertising will appear in national, lifestyle and computer games press.
GameSpot UK:
How many emails do you get each day about Lara?
Susie Hamilton:
Usually around 20-30
GameSpot UK:
What kind of advertising are we going to see for Tomb Raider III?
Susie Hamilton:
Press advertising: Specialist and lifestyle advertising (two separate ad concepts) TV advert - due to start early December Radio advertising Billboards Back-of-buses In store: Posters, oversize boxes, standees, stacking cubes, shelf wobblers, window stickers, open/closed signs. Cinemas: Collectable postcards in foyers.
GameSpot UK:
Any news on the Tomb Raider film?
Susie Hamilton:
No more news yet - we've heard that paramount will be casting early next year so we'll let you know as soon as we have the vital information!
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southeastasianists · 5 years
Link
In 1998, when Thet Swe Win was in the ninth grade, he picked up a propaganda booklet at school in downtown Yangon. In it, he read that his race and religion were under threat. If Muslims were allowed to spread, the booklet claimed, it would not be long before Burmese Buddhists would vanish.
“After I read that, I was anti-Muslim,” says Thet Swe Win. He boycotted Muslim-owned businesses. He stopped eating biryani, one of his favourite foods. He regularly beat up the smaller of the two Muslim boys in his class. “The book said we had to do something about it,” he explains. “One teacher asked me why and I said, don’t you know this book? Muslims are very bad and we have to do this back to them.”
Meanwhile, 300 miles to the north in Rakhine State, 17-year-old Sujauddin Karimuddin was experiencing the increasingly militant fallout of this “hateful incitement”, as Thet Swe Win calls it. A member of the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority, Sujauddin first realised he was an outsider at age five, during enrollment on his first day of school in the small town of Kyauktaw. A teacher told him that his name was unacceptable; he should call himself the Burmese name Khin Maung Lay instead.
It didn’t help. After the government intensified its persecution of Muslims in 1991, forcing 200,000 people across the border into Bangladesh, school life became increasingly difficult for Sujauddin. Despite being an A-grade student, he was forced out of classes by Buddhist classmates and told to ‘know his place’ when he complained. Physical attacks and insults like ‘cockroach’ and ‘rat’ were frequent. Muslims were referred to as ‘it’. The friend he’d often skip school to smoke cigarettes with told him coolly: “If I were king, in one day I would kill all you guys”.
Initially protected from the worst abuses by the community standing of his father, a prosperous businessman, Sujauddin’s luck eventually wore thin. In the name of patriotic duty, he was repeatedly arrested by the army and subjected to forced labour. In 1995, his village was stormed by militants and his family’s farmland confiscated; they remained trapped for a year after resisting “relocation” to an unlivable jungle outpost. In 1998 Sujauddin left, alone, for Australia.
Few of his fellow Rohingyas were as lucky. Following vicious riots in Rakhine State in 2012, more than 112,000 Rohingyas fled, most of them by boat. Those remaining were excluded from the country’s first democratic vote in 2015. Tensions mounted, and in October 2016, 300 men from an insurgent group calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) killed nine Burmese border guards, triggering a military crackdown that escalated into a genocide. In less than a year, at least 10,000 Rohingyas were killed. A million more fled to Bangladesh.
Ethnic violence on this scale is orchestrated by Myanmar’s brutal and politically unaccountable Tatmadaw army, which has dominated control of the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1948. The military is far from alone in driving the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, however. A small but influential cohort of the country’s revered, red-robed monks now lends vocal support to the violence, justified by highly contentious interpretations of Buddhist scripture.
In reality, though, these justifications all boil down to the same fear espoused by Thet Swe Win’s propaganda booklet: that Buddhist culture is under siege and could be usurped by Islam and other minority groups. Again, this paranoia isn’t new, despite the fact that Buddhists enjoy overwhelming majorities (of 70%, 88% and 93% respectively) in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
Militant Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka claim that the minority Hindu Tamil population is really just the vanguard of India’s 74-million-strong Tamil Nadu state, poised and ready to invade. In Myanmar, members of the broader, ultranationalist 969 movement insist that the country’s Muslims – who make up less than 4% of the population – are quietly plotting to take over the country. Notwithstanding, that the Islamic calendar still has 560 years to go, some even claim that the number 786, symbolic in Islam, is a secret code denoting a plot to take over the world in the 21st Century (7+8+6 = 21). Sujauddin vividly recalls seeing posters “everywhere”, especially in immigration offices, warning that it would not be a natural disaster that wiped out Burmese Buddhists, but the Rohingya.
In Myanmar, this militant Buddhism is spearheaded by ultranationalist monks like Ashin Wirathu of the Ma Ba Tha organisation and the rebel Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), started by the late monk Thuzana in 1992. The phenomenon is far from limited to Myanmar: Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka have played a key role in stirring up Sinhalese nationalism and religious hatreds for decades, while in Thailand’s troubled deep south, “bad” monks have been known to take up arms in guerilla warfare between Buddhist and Muslim fighters.
What’s more, some of these violence-supporting monks have begun forming international networks to support and learn from each other. “The Sri Lanka and Myanmar Buddhist monks have signed a memorandum of understanding,” says Burmese activist Ro Nay San Lwin. “They are working closely”.
To many in the monkhood and outside it, such behaviour is deeply shocking. Buddhist monks are widely expected to eschew any form of political engagement, even in cases where this appears benign.
“Militant Buddhists are those who are resorting to political violence to achieve their aims and who violate this founding principle of Buddhism that’s ahimsa, ‘do no harm’,” explains Peter Lehr, author of Militant Buddhism and lecturer in Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrew’s, and who also studied as a Buddhist monk in Thailand.
Dr. Lehr relates how he saw this rift manifest between a pair of twin brothers, both monks, in the deep south of Thailand, where attacks on mosques and on Buddhist temples are commonplace. While one called upon the monks to assist in the fight against anti-Buddhist attacks, his twin brother insisted that temples can be rebuilt, and while the deaths of monks are always regrettable, it is for the monks to step back and allow karma to run its course.
But monks who are critical of their colleagues for breaking their apolitical religious stance by encouraging violence are also reluctant to break it themselves to call for tolerance, integration or laws that protect ethnic minorities. As Dr. Lehr explains, most Buddhists disapprove of monks that speak out, making it extremely difficult for them to defend minorities or model the ethnic cohesion that is so badly needed in their communities. Thus the violent side tends to hold greater sway in the public sphere.
Yet at times, peaceful political contributions by monks can be powerful. For Thet Swe Win, now a civil society activist who speaks out on behalf of minorities in Myanmar, the turning point came with the Saffron Revolution in 2007. Joining a protest in Yangon that was led by Buddhist monks, he was surprised to see the city’s Muslims donating generously to support the protesters, even giving their slippers to the barefoot monks.
“I realised we are all just the same people, all being oppressed,” he says. “We live in the same areas but we don’t communicate. We’re isolated.”
If mobilising the Buddhist population against ethnic minorities is intended to help autocrats divide and conquer, it seems to be working. In Myanmar, the social and religious rifts created by militant Buddhism continue to tear apart mixed communities, frustrating attempts to move the country forward and keeping power in the hands of the military, even as the nation struggles towards democratic rule. In Sri Lanka, violence led by Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalists in the historically peaceful Kandy province led to a state of emergency being declared in 2018, curtailing civil rights and endangering the lives of Muslims and Buddhists alike.
Unchecked, these militant movements may eventually pose a risk to the governments that allow them to grow. After a year of playing down the ongoing genocide in Rakhine State, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National Democratic Party finally stepped in to outlaw Ma Ba Tha in July 2017, but the group is still going strong, largely thanks to the financial support of the army.
At the same time, the Rohingya genocide has attracted the attention of ISIS, Al-Qaeda and Indonesia’s Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), all of which have called for their supporters to wage jihad in Rakhine state. In Thailand, Malay-Muslim insurgents have established links with ISIS supporters in Malaysia, which could potentially support the flow of ideology into Thailand as well as weapons into Malaysia. The Easter bombing campaign that swept across Sri Lanka on 21 April demonstrated either that homegrown terror groups are alarmingly well-organised or that they’re dealing with one that’s supported by a jihadist network such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda.
As religious polarisation intensifies throughout Southeast Asia, the last thing a country like Myanmar or Sri Lanka needs is to turn a fabricated threat into a reality by pushing minorities towards groups keen to exploit them. By ignoring and even encouraging militant Buddhist movements, these leaders risk sparking ethnic conflicts that spread beyond their borders – and back again.
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deuterium51614 · 5 years
Text
I put more effort into this than some essays I’ve done for school/college
There are two confirmed dates we know in the Boueibu timeline.
In LOVE LOVE, March 13th is on a Friday. (Shown on Kinshirou’s omen calendar.)
In Happy Kiss, August 31st is on a Friday 10 years later. (Shown on Rashio’s calendar and a wall calendar in the Kurotama.)
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In Robihachi, we know the moon landing happened on July 18, 1969 (in real life it was July 20th), which was marked as Galaxy Century 0001. The current timeline is happening in GC 0051, so sometime after July 18, 2019 (unless the GC is added to on New Year’s, but I’ll get to that).
Let’s start off with when Boueibu can’t take place. (The main timeline, at least. Flashbacks are possible.)
The 70s. The only March 13th that’s on a Friday is in 1970. This would put all of LOVE in 1969, and Happy Kiss in 1979. We know the beginning of LOVE takes place pre-July, so this wouldn’t work because it’s before the first contact. There’s also the case of all the flashbacks – Goura being a hero, the Beppu’s father’s job… Aliens had definitely made contact, so none of that could’ve taken place in the 60s.
The 00s. While March 13, 2009 is on a Friday, it would mean Happy Kiss takes place in 2018. The technology in Robihachi seems too advanced for it to take place the year after Happy Kiss, unless Binan went untouched by the technological advances shown in Neo-Tokyo. Plus, Boueibu LOVE and LOVE LOVE merch and posters were shown on a planet that loves mainly retro anime. It was most likely CIDER rebranded as Boueibu. The 00s is too recent to be retro.
So, there are three possibilities for where Boueibu fits in:
LOVE – 1980-81, HK – 1990
LOVE – 1991-92, HK – 2001
LOVE – 1997-98, HK – 2007
As of now, we can only speculate which option is correct. Under the cut, I’ll explain which of the options I think it is, and why.
We may be able to narrow it down further based on the events that Atsushi asks En if he’s thinking about:
The tax increase – L
The Olympics – L, LL, and LLL
The constitution – LL
Chikuwabu – LL
Toyosu – LLL
Trump - LLL
Chikuwabu being brought up in the second season is a reference to the first season, but it’s also a hint – none of the subjects Atsushi brings up is random. Everything he mentions is something En has talked about in the past in a similar train of thought conversation, though off-screen. So it doesn’t necessarily need to be a current event for Atsushi to bring it up – after all, En ranted about chikuwabu in what was probably April or May, only for Atsushi to guess it in November.
Something to keep in mind for Atsushi’s comments is they were probably meant to be references to current events from when the seasons/OVA came out. However, I still was able to find things relating to them in the 80s and 90s. Their timeline is also split off our own – changes started happening July 18, 1969. So, these could be references to things that never happened in our timeline, or things that could have happened but didn’t. So these points are really in a gray area.
The one constant through LOVE, LOVE LOVE, and LOVE LOVE LOVE is the Olympics, so let’s start with that. I looked up Olympic years to see what the overlap was with the timeline estimates.
1980 – winter was in the US, summer was in the Soviet Union
1992 – winter was in France, summer was in Spain
1996 – summer, in the US
1998 – winter, in Japan
The tax increase – According to Wikipedia, there was a tax increase to 5% in April 1997. For tax-related things in general, “Japan introduced the national consumption tax of three percent in 1989” (Wikipedia).
The constitution – According to Wikipedia, “From the 1960s to the 1980s, Constitutional revision was rarely debated.” There were some suggestions for revisions in the 1990s.
Toyosu –Urban Dock LaLaPort opened in the 1980s – it’s a huge shopping mall with a cinema, restaurants, and cafes.
Trump – It could be referring to anything for these three estimates – financial losses in the 1980s, the Grand Hyatt Hotel was opened in 1980, and in the 90s he was dropped from the Forbes List, had some bankruptcies, got a divorce, and met his current wife. There’s probably more, but that’s really what I could find on Wikipedia.
Now, you may be thinking, “This was supposed to narrow it all down! There’s too many options!” Like I said, these are events that were current for when the anime was airing, but I wanted to prove that they could apply to all three options.
To narrow things down for real, there are a few things we have to look at.
When the twins are watching Maximum Gorar, they have an old TV and a strange looking remote control. Takamatsu tweeted about it back in 2016, and the remote is based on one that actually existed – the Zubacon. He said it came out in the early 1970s, and I found it came out in 1971, to be exact.
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The second flashback is in Happy Kiss. In the treasure hunt/time capsule episode, there’s a flashback with a poster of a GameCube-style system with the kanji 新発売 – which translates to “new product/model.” In reality, it came out in 2001, but there were some updated models that were released until it was discontinued in 2007.
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According to Yang, Binan Shonen Love-Love was an anime from when he was in grade school – specifically he says 小​学​生 which is elementary school, so first to sixth grade. He would have been anywhere from six to twelve. The art style doesn’t look like Hizakuriger, so we know it’s not a retro-retro anime, but we don’t have Yang’s official age. We also don’t know if Binan Shonen Love-Love was based off of Boueibu or if Binan was chosen in CIDER due to the anime’s popularity.
Until we get an official age, let’s say Yang’s 30 at the youngest, and 45 at the oldest. If he’s 45, he would have entered first grade in 1980 and left sixth grade in 1986. If he’s 30, he would have entered first grade in 1995 and left sixth grade in 2001. So Binan Shonen aired sometime between 1980 and 2001.
Finally, there’s references to other anime.
In LOVE’s beach episode, Atsushi references Detective Conan. That started in Shonen Jump in 1994.
On the stats screen for the idol battle in LOVE LOVE, Ryuu is making a Sailor Moon pose. Sailor Moon started in 1991.
In Happy Kiss’s beach/vacation episode, Karurusu references the Sazae-san anime, which began airing in 1969 and is the longest running animated television series. (While Sazae-san won’t help us on the timeline, I just want to point out it’s interesting that it started the same year as the moon landing – GC 0001.)
Putting all of this together, from what we know I think it’s safe to say Boueibu took place during the third option – 1997-98, with Happy Kiss in 2007.
Why?
It’s mainly because of the last point – the anime references. However, this shouldn’t be the driving factor of the timeline theory. After all, because of the contact with aliens, these series could have all started sooner. However, let me back up and explain with the other points.
It places the third years’ births in 1979, the second years in 1980, and Yumoto in 1981. With the twins being born in 1980, this would make them start elementary school in 1986. While their remote is from the early 70s, it’s plausible they would still be using it in the 80s to watch Maximum Gorar. Because really, how often do you change your remote?
Now, the GameCube lookalike. Kingo is a first year, so if Happy Kiss takes place in 2007, the flashback could have taken place around 2001, possibly a few years earlier if alien technology sped up the process in which the GameCube was released.
From the glimpse we saw, Binan Shonen Love-Love doesn’t look like an 80s anime. It could have aired in the gap between the OVA and Happy Kiss, based off the popularity of CIDER – sometime between 1998 and 2001, when Yang was still in elementary school. However, if CIDER chose Binan because of the anime, it could have taken place as early as 1980.
Having LOVE take place in 1997-98 makes sense for their current technology – their phones appear to be the model Sony Xperia S, which was released in 2012, but due to alien technology could have been released sooner – especially since the first touchscreen phone was released in 1992.
In the New Year’s episode, the remote control doesn’t look modern – it could pass as one from our 90s or 00s. Plus, Atsushi has a DVD boxed set, not Blu-rays. The first DVDs came out in the late 90s.
In Happy Kiss, the Kurotama now has a flat screen TV that looks like an older model (for us). Yumoto uses an older looking instant Polaroid camera in Ata’s flashback in Happy Kiss. They’re still used today, but they were popular in the 90s.
In conclusion, LOVE takes place in 1997-98, and Happy Kiss takes place in 2007.
Now, to find out what Galaxy Centuries they take place. 1969 is counted as 0001 – which makes the math slightly confusing. It’s not like birthdays, where you count the anniversaries and not the actual birth. This makes 2019 GC 0051.
Assuming that Galaxy Centuries start in July and years are counted separately (because of the New Year episode), LOVE takes place in GC 28-29, and Happy Kiss takes place in GC 38-39.
If the next GC starts on New Year’s, then LOVE takes place in GC 29-30, and Happy Kiss takes place in GC 39.
Anyway, onto how old the LOVE and Happy Kiss boys would be if they appear in Robihachi!
LOVE:
Third years – 40
Second years – 39
Yumoto – 38
Happy Kiss:
Third years – 30
Second years – 29
First years – 28
(Also, if Hatchi really is 18 like his bio says (instead of being older and hiding his age to keep his identity as the moon prince secret) his birth year would be 2001, three years after the OVA, making it possible that Kinshirou could be his father if he had him at 22.)
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thecomicsnexus · 5 years
Text
Death at the Dawn of Time!
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CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #10 JANUARY 1986 BY MARV WOLFMAN, GEORGE PEREZ, JERRY ORDWAY, ANTHONY TOLLIN, ROBERT GREENBERGER, LEN WEIN AND TOM MCCRAW (RECOLORED VERSION)
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SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)
After destroying Brainiac's shell, Psimon turns his attention towards Lex Luthor. He plans on taking over the united villains after killing Luthor. What Psimon doesn't realize however is that Brainiac's consciousness is downloaded into the circuitry of his ship. He forges a new body for himself and blasts the top off of Psimon's crown with a beam of energy.
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On Earth-One at the dawn of mankind, Anthro continues to see wild streaks of red lightning flashing across the sky. He ponders whether he should tell the rest of the tribe, but fears that they may find him crazy.
On Earth-Four, Chemo stands next to the ruins of the Statue of Liberty. All about him, the waters surrounding Manhattan island are bubbling with deadly poisonous fumes. Negative Woman flies about him, ensnaring the gigantic villain with bands of shadow energy. The bands constrict until they eventually succeed in destroying Chemo's artificial shell. In Manhattan, Black Adam fights up against Robotman and Dove. Kole of the New Teen Titans flies up behind him and turns his body into solid crystal. Robotman is prepared to shatter him, but Dove holds him back. Meanwhile, Cyborg and Celsius tackle Quakemaster.
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Meanwhile, Aqualad races back to Atlantis carrying Aquagirl's body. He hands her over to the city's medical specialists, but there is nothing they can do. Aquagirl is dead.
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In the frozen wastelands of Earth-S, Doctor Sivana, Doctor Cyber, Per Degaton, Houngan, Phobia, Despero, Deathbolt, Hector Hammond and Professor T.O. Morrow keep watch over the captured members of the Marvel Family. While Sivana is in the midst of gloating, the Martian Manhunter burrows through the ice and attacks them. He blasts at Deathbolt with his Martian vision. The Atom and Platinum of the Metal Men arrive to give him back-up. Phobia tries to use her powers on Platinum, but they fail, enabling the Atom enough time to loose the gag around Billy Batson's mouth. Billy shouts the magic word, "Shazam" and transforms into Captain Marvel.
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On Earth-X , Batman and the original Atom fight up against Calendar Man while the Outsiders and Infinity, Inc. take on the Dummy. Hawkwoman and Tin fight Lightning Lord, and Firestorm and Vixen fight up against Captain Cold and Icicle. Green Arrow of Earth-Two assists Changeling and Mento in combating the Shaggy Man. Green Arrow defeats the Shaggy Man with an explosive-tipped arrow.
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Suddenly, the Spectre makes his presence known across the five partially merged Earths. He warns all of the heroes that the Anti-Monitor is still alive and that he has retreated into the past to change the course of history at the dawn of time itself.
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The heroes migrate to Earth-One to coordinate their efforts. They form their teams and develop a strategy using the time-traveling capabilities of the Time Masters, the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Lord of Time. Flash (Jay Garrick) and Kid Flash are outfitted with converter technology to help bridge the gap. With the aid of Magno Lad, Cosmic Boy and Gold, the team creates a large magnetic conductor, which shunts the assemblage backwards in time.
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Meanwhile, Lex Luthor and his allies travel backwards in time ten billion years to the planet Oa. They arrive on the fateful day when the scientist Krona is destined to witness the hand of creation and inadvertently create the Multiverse. They burst into his laboratory, but Krona is ready for them. He kills Icicle, Mirror Master and Maaldor.
At the dawn of time, the heroes face the Anti-Monitor. They channel all of their energy into him, but this only serves to make the Anti-Monitor more powerful. He requires their energy so that when Krona opens the doorway between the positive matter universe and the antimatter universe, the Anti-Monitor will then be able to obliterate the positive matter universe entirely.
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The Spectre appears before the Anti-Monitor, channeling all of the mystical energy of Earth's most powerful sorcerers. He attacks the Anti-Monitor directly and their fight unleashes an explosion of energy, which appears to consume all reality.
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NOTORIOUS DEATHS IN THIS ISSUE
The Multiverse
Earth-1
Earth-2
Earth-4
Earth-S
Earth-X
Earth-Prime
Mirror Master
Icicle
Maaldor
Aquagirl (Tula, confirmed dead)
REVIEW
This is it, ladies and gentlemen or whatever fits you best... the end of the multiverse!
Not a hoax, not an imaginary story, THE END.
Unfortunately, it is the end of Earth-1 as well, so out heroes will need to run against the clock to stay in existence.
One small detail that I have been thinking since Superboy Prime was introduced, is about why Earth-Prime is never mentioned when they say only five earths survived. Well, my guess is they forgot about it (as it was technically, not a real earth). But the problem was that they actually needed a Superboy (every DC character needs to be in this story, and Superboy became Superman). The solution was to introduce a new Superboy, this time from the readers’ earth.
I can understand the reasons not to include that Earth in the crisis. If that earth dies... who is reading the story?
This issue had more deaths than usual, and the stakes are very high, and our heroes are totally screwed from the get-go.
Even if they succeeded in preventing the incident in Oa, the multiverse would have never be born, so the battle was always going to be half a victory at best.
Wally West is finally becoming a sacrificing hero as well. The stakes are very high for him. He knows he will die if he runs fast, but how can he refuse saving existence?
Perez pencils in the “tapes of the Monitor” are very hard to print, so that is another reason to buy the hardcover (personally I like the 1998 version, but I recently bought the one that came a few years ago that includes the History of the DCU, it’s good, but the slipcase from 1998 includes a poster).
Perez already tried this on New Teen Titans (Terror of Trigon) but there the coloring was also present. But it is hard to guess if it was harder to print with color separation.
To be continued
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magog-on-the-march · 5 years
Link
"I worked on the Star Wars projects, the SDI projects that were happening under Reagan," he explained. "We were visualizing real space weapons, weapons that people wouldn't even know existed today. So that was kind of my Orwellian period."
Full article has been copied below for posterity.
Newsweek,  BY JEN GLENNON ON 6/6/19 AT 11:00 AM EDT
There isn't really a "typical" path to a career in the video games industry, but Lorne Lanning's road to this year's E3 in Los Angeles has to be among the least conventional. The creator of the award-winning Oddworld series left art school in the 1980s to work in the defense industry. Ahead of the biggest event on the gaming calendar, Lanning told Newsweek his experiences working on top secret projects at the tail-end of the Cold War played a pivotal role in shaping his worldview and the creative aims of the studio he co-founded, Oddworld Inhabitants.
The studio's latest, Oddworld: Soulstorm is a reimagining of the second game in a long-planned quintilogy, 1998's Abe's Exoddus. It continues the tale of the blue-skinned titular humanoid as he attempts to rescue his fellow Mudokons from the exploitative master-race known as the Glukkons, one comrade at a time. Developed on the Unity engine, Soulstorm adds new locations and more Mudokons for Abe to protect. A fresh crafting mechanic allows him to fashion weapons and other items to navigate each scenario by resorting to violence or sticking with non-violent trickery.
Fresh out of college and hoping to find a job designing visual effects for films, Lanning found himself in a lousy job market, and was eventually recruited by a major government contractor in southern California. He was part of a small team tasked with essentially translating the laboratory jargon of scientists into a visual representation that top military brass could immediately understand.
"I worked on the Star Wars projects, the SDI projects that were happening under Reagan," he explained. "We were visualizing real space weapons, weapons that people wouldn't even know existed today. So that was kind of my Orwellian period."
Lanning, a self-described "bleeding-heart, environmentalist hippie" with long hair, was reluctant to take the job but he decided to go against his preconceived notions about the kinds of people who worked there. Looking back, he says the experience shocked and surprised him, but not in the way he expected.
"These ideas that I was exposed to made the world seem like a very fragile, small place with lots of problems," he explained. "That made me want to be a storyteller all the more ... as an artist, I was always wanting to reflect the ideas of of larger problems that we face into commercial work."
It's been more than two decades since Lanning first conceived of the Oddworld quintilogy. The Cold War is long over and much has changed; so, too, has Lanning's vision for Abe's story. He explained that while the first rebooted game, 2014's New N' Tasty, hewed rather closely to 1997's inaugural entry in the series Soulstorm and its successors will diverge from his original plans. In the 1990s, he explained, he believed globalization, militarism and corporate exploitation were the source of many of the world's problems. Now, he argues humankind is imperiled by "commerce, modern slavery and the theft of the resources of nations under the guise of lies and deception."
The struggle of the Mudokon underclass in the Oddworld games is very much informed by Lanning's views about these unseen machinations. It's far more complex than good guys and bad guys: the whole system is toxic. "The hypocrisy of how we perceive ourselves to be, versus the reality of what a lot of people are trying to live through is the core of what I wanted to shape our world around," he explained. "I wanted to find a cast of characters that would somehow muster the endurance and the capability to make it through that plight from the bottom ... from hanging at the bottom of the food chain, just by a thread, to actually climbing up it."
While he acknowledged hopes that Soulstorm and its successors would inspire players to think more deeply and critically about the world around them, Lanning emphatically asserted that Oddworld is not a politically driven franchise. He explained the development team develops a lot of time and energy to thinking about Abe's characterization and motivations, asking questions like: "How do we create a character that you could see yourself in his shoes, and it's not political? They're finding out that their life was scheduled to be short, unfairly, for the profit and greed of someone else. Who can we identify with, if someone is just trying to stay alive, but they haven't done anything wrong?"
Lanning speculated that Abe's relatability to players across the political spectrum has allowed the franchise to endure for more than 20 years. "It becomes harder to find, you know, where those truths are, what connects us," Lanning said. "They're trying to divide us from all directions, right?"
Oddworld: Soulstorm is slated to release sometime in 2020.
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