#after all his way of showing affection is primarily by being a menace and being annoying to those closest to him. which tends to come with- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

enbyleighlines · 4 years

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Since canonically wwx is a terrible cook and wn is actually really good at it what about everyones fave qpps making dinner for lan wangji and a yuan's family birthday dinner (not required but bonus if the whole family is coming over/comes over)? I think wn likes feeding people!

Ooooh, what a cute idea! I absolutely adore it, thank you. I hope you enjoy this drabble, my anonymous friend~

—

Wei Wuxian is a famously bad cook. It is a well known fact about him, primarily because he comes from a family which owns and runs its own restaurant.

But Wen Ning is an optimistic sort of person. He believes, fully in his heart, that anyone can be good at anything if they work hard enough. That includes Wei Wuxian, a man who once burned a hole through a saucepan. Even he, Wen Ning believes, can become a decent cook with time and effort.

Even so, Wei Wuxian is currently wearing Wen Ning’s faith thin.

“What is that?” Wen Ning asks.

On the cutting board, there lies a mass of... something. To Wen Ning’s best estimate, it’s a mishmash of different vegetables. The bits and pieces are all in various shapes and sizes. They also happen to be lying in a puddle of their mixed fluids.

Wei Wuxian looks between the cutting board and Wen Ning. The knife in his hand is disturbingly wet. “I diced up the vegetables,” he says.

Wen Ning wordlessly takes the knife Wei Wuxian is holding. It’s difficult to see under all the pulp, but Wen Ning notices that the edge is rather dull. “This is a bread knife,” Wen Ning tells Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian pouts. Really, he’s a master at playing the petulant child. “So? A knife is a knife! Does it matter what kind I use?”

“Yes,” Wen Ning answers. He doesn’t want to show any frustration. After all, this is meant to be a bonding experience for the two of them. And, he does love Wei Wuxian dearly. “This knife isn’t sharp enough for vegetables. Wasn’t it difficult to cut into them?”

Wei Wuxian enters a thinking pose. “Ah,” he says, “You’re right! But I didn’t want to dirty another knife...”

“That would have been fine,” Wen Ning assures him, “See, the problem with using a bread knife for cutting vegetables is that you have to apply a lot of extra pressure, and sometimes you end up mashing everything into a pulp.”

To Wen Ning’s amusement, Wei Wuxian listens diligently. He even looks regretful.

“I’m sorry,” Wei Wuxian says, after a pause, “Should I go to the store and pick up some more veggies?”

“No, it’s fine.” Wen Ning grabs a sharper knife from the drawer and gets to work cutting the larger pieces into proper cube shapes. “It shouldn’t affect the flavor of the dish,” Wen Ning tells his partner, “But they should all be bite-sized. Also, if they’re all the same size, they’ll be evenly cooked.”

Wen Ning can feel Wei Wuxian’s gaze on his hands as he chops with practiced ease. Soon, the vegetables look a little more edible than before.

When Wen Ning finishes, Wei Wuxian lets out a held breath.

“You know, I always get so nervous seeing you hold sharp objects,” Wei Wuxian admits, while placing a hand on Wen Ning’s shoulder, “It feels like it shouldn’t be allowed.”

Wen Ning frowns at Wei Wuxian. “Why’s that?”

“You used to be so accident prone,” Wei Wuxian explains, “I remember, in high school, you got accused of skipping class because you called sick in so often. Your immune system was basically nonexistent. And there was that time you twisted your ankle so bad in gym that the teacher had to carry you to the nurse’s office. And that time in college you slipped on a patch of black ice and got a concussion—”

“Yes, okay, I get it,” Wen Ning cuts him off.

“My point is,” Wei Wuxian continues with a chuckle, “I guess I’m just got into the habit of always watching out for you, to ensure you don’t get hurt. Letting you handle a knife seems counterintuitive.”

Wen Ning puffs out his cheeks, but it’s mainly to hide a very real hurt.

“Hey,” Wei Wuxian says, clutching Wen Ning’s arm, “I just want to protect my partner. Isn’t that a good thing?”

Wen Ning feels heat overtaking his face, and turns his head to hide the blush from Wei Wuxian’s perceptive eyes. He feels— well, he doesn’t have the language to describe it. Full of light, perhaps. Or fizzy, like a carbonated beverage. It’s neither entirely good nor entirely unpleasant.

Of course Wen Ning appreciates the concern. And the verbal confirmation of their queerplatonic bond thrills him. But there’s something else. After a second of thought, Wen Ning realizes what is bothering him.

“I suppose,” Wen Ning replies, “But... I’m not a child.”

“Oh?” Wei Wuxian releases his grip on Wen Ning’s arm. He moves into Wen Ning’s line of sight, connecting their gazes before speaking again. “I’m sorry,” he says, “I didn’t mean to imply you’re childish. Just that I care about you.”

“I know,” Wen Ning assures him. He pauses a moment, and then pulls Wei Wuxian into an embrace. The warmth of his friend’s body loosens some of the tension in his muscles. It gives Wen Ning the strength to be vulnerable. “I’m glad you care about me,” he murmurs into Wei Wuxian’s shoulder, “I care about you, too. But I don’t want to be treated like a child. Other people do that a lot, when they find out I’m... not interested in sex.”

“Oh?” Wei Wuxian says again. “I... didn’t know that. That sucks. I’m sorry.”

“I know.” Wen Ning doesn’t believe for a second that Wei Wuxian would say anything to intentionally hurt him.

“I mean,” Wei Wuxian adds, “if anything, I’m the child here. Look at the complete mess I made out of the vegetables. I’m surprised you even asked me to help you cook dinner. Unless you want to give our entire extended family food poisoning?”

Wen Ning pulls back from Wei Wuxian with a sigh. “I won’t let you give anyone food poisoning,” he promises.

“Not even Jin Zixuan?”

Wen Ning snorts. “Not even him. Why are you even still pretending to hate him?”

“Hmm... to keep things interesting, I guess!” Wei Wuxian grins one of his dashing devil smiles. It might look menacing, if it didn’t also light up his eyes like heavenly beacons.

As usual, Wen Ning cannot help but reflexively mirror Wei Wuxian’s good mood. “If you say so. Anyway, we should get back to business. Do you know anything about making the dough for steamed buns?”

“From scratch?” Wei Wuxian asks, “Absolutely nothing.”

Wen Ning perks up. He personally finds making and kneading dough incredibly therapeutic. “Okay,” he says, “Let me show you.”

—

When Wei Wuxian said ‘entire extended family’, he wasn’t exaggerating. For better or for worse, they collectively consider a large expanse of people their family.

There’s Wei Wuxian’s adoptive parents and siblings, Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng. Jiang Yanli brought her husband and son, while Jiang Cheng brought his lovers Wen Qing and Nie Huaisang, the former being Wen Ning’s Jiejie.

Aside from Wen Qing, Wen Ning’s family includes Granny, and a few aunts and uncles.

And then Lan Wangji invited his Shufu and Fuqin, plus Lan Xichen, Lan Xichen’s wife Nie Yuyan, and their son, Lan Jingyi. And since it always feels weird to extend invitations to Nie Huaisang and Nie Yuyan without including Nie Mingjue, he’s also there.

Lan Wangji’s apartment is big, but it’s still an apartment. Fitting everyone inside is possible, but not ideal. By the time everyone has arrived, Wen Ning is starting to get just a little claustrophobic.

And he hasn’t even left the kitchen yet.

Wei Wuxian initially went out to socialize, but now he returns to Wen Ning’s side. Or rather, he hangs himself over Wen Ning’s shoulders like a backpack.

“How are you doing?” He asks gently.

Wen Ning almost plays it off, almost gets defensive. But then he swallows down the urge to reiterate that he is not a child. The truth is, he does have social anxiety, and he is feeling overwhelmed.

So instead Wen Ning squeezes one of Wei Wuxian’s hands. “It’s a lot of people,” he answers.

“Yeah... we might have invited too many people,” Wei Wuxian admits.

His breath tickles Wen Ning’s neck, but somehow it doesn’t feel suffocating. If anything, having a Wei Wuxian flesh barrier makes Wen Ning feel more secure.

“Maybe,” Wen Ning says, “but who would you choose not to invite in a hypothetical do-over? Everyone here is family.”

“True.” Wei Wuxian nuzzles their cheeks together. “I suppose, in the future, we can just invite one side of the family at a time. But that doesn’t sound quite as fun as having everyone together at once.”

Wen Ning nods his agreement. He grips Wei Wuxian’s hand tighter, not wanting the embrace to end so soon.

Wei Wuxian gets the message and cuddles closer.

“I’m having fun,” Wen Ning tells Wei Wuxian, “Even if I feel claustrophobic, I’m still glad that everyone is here. I might just need to retreat to the kitchen once in a while.”

“Okay,” Wei Wuxian agrees, “To be fair, I think Lan Zhan feels the same way, though he’s too stubborn to admit it. Basically, I’m dating two introverts. Luckily for you guys, I thrive best in chaotic environments. I’ll handle all the socializing, whenever you want to take a breather.”

Wen Ning chuckles. “Thanks, A-Xian.”

They continue to cling for another moment. Wei Wuxian’s presence takes some of the edge off of Wen Ning’s anxiety, replacing the nervous energy with a calm warmth. When Wei Wuxian finally does draw back, Wen Ning feels rejuvenated.

“Okay,” Wen Ning says, and picks up a tray of vegetable spring rolls. “I’m ready.”

#asks #ningxian #mdzs modern au #mo dao zu shi #anon #anonymous #drabbles #leigh’s writing

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mst3kproject · 5 years

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Tarantula

I don’t know that this movie requires any introduction. I’m sure we’re all aware that Leo G. Carroll was over a barrel when Tarantula took to the hills! This time the film actually does have a tarantula in it, as well as Mara Corday from The Black Scorpion and the (hopefully) inimitable John Agar. I’m pretty sure the only reason it was never MST3Ked was because somebody felt one black and white giant spider movie was plenty. Somebody was wrong.

Matt Hastings is the town doctor in some middle-of-nowhere or other, who gets asked to look into a very unusual death – the corpse appears to be that of a hunchbacked ape-man in striped pajamas! The dead man is identified as a Dr. Jacobs, but he didn’t look like that a week ago. Jacobs worked for local Reclusive Scientist Professor Deemer, so Matt obviously asks him what happened, but Deemer won’t say. Over the next few weeks, Matt’s ongoing romance with Deemer’s new assistant Steve gives him an excuse to head out to the lab over and over, and he starts to learn the truth. Deemer has developed a super-nutrient that produces uncontrolled cell growth. Humans who take it turn into lumpy mutants, but other animals simply grow to tremendous size. Even worse, one of those experimental subjects has escaped from the lab… and it wasn’t one of the bunnies, that’s a different movie entirely.

The humans who are injected with the super-nutrient are described as developing ‘acromegalia’, a dysfunction of the pituitary gland that causes the head, hands, and feet to grow and deform. This is true – it was the condition that afflicted both Rondo Hatton (of The Brute Man) and Richard Kiel of (The Human Duplicators), and while its victims look nothing like the ape-faced sufferers in Tarantula, the side effects can definitely be fatal. Somebody did do their research there, which makes it really quite annoying that they never bothered to spell-check – it’s actually acromegaly, not acromegalia. Once again a movie gets the details right but blows it on the fucking obvious. Similar gaffes happen elsewhere, too, as when Deemer carefully fills a syringe inside an isolation chamber as if handling something incredibly dangerous, then just squirts the bubbles out in the open air.

After watching The Choppers, it’s a relief to see that Tarantula actually had a budget and in many respects the movie looks pretty good. The makeup may look nothing like actual acromegaly but it’s pretty impressive, especially the subtle changes we see in Professor Deemer as he responds more slowly than his colleagues. The giant spider is achieved through Bert I. Gordon type matte shots and some miniature work, but all of this is of a very high quality. There’s a shot of it scurrying across the road just after Matt and Steve’s car has gone by that’s practically seamless. The desert scenery is gorgeous and the cinematography makes good use of light and shadow to show it off. The only real failures are the nighttime attack scenes, which as usual are mostly too dark to tell what’s going on. Since these are the only action pieces in the movie, that’s very disappointing.

Like The Black Scorpion, Tarantula is intended as a ripoff of Them! and the inspiration is much more obvious here even when the plot is not followed nearly so slavishly – we’ve got a story that starts in an investigation, here medical instead of police, and only gradually gets around to the giant insects. Like the ants that could be anywhere, the spider lurks in the background of the movie, able to strike at any moment, but it just doesn’t work the way it did in Them!, because in Tarantula the characters are primarily concerned with things other than the title menace. The opening shot of the movie is the deformed Dr. Jacobs staggering through the desert, and the rest of the film is much more about his death and those of his colleagues than it is about the spider.

We don’t see the process by which Deemer’s assistants were slowly altered and killed, but we do get to watch it happen to Deemer himself. We know, furthermore, that he saw the same thing happen to others, and that he is unable to stop the process. That’s a far more potent source of horror than an absurd giant spider, and Matt’s investigation for most of the movie is interested in what triggered this baffling illness. The giant tarantula is only a side effect of this work, and for most of the movie the characters aren’t even aware of it as it wanders the desert eating cows. It’s only slightly more relevant than the Giant Gila Monster was to its movie, and once Deemer is dead and the movie’s focus changes, it feels like the writing simply gives up. So far, this movie has been telling a story about science gone wrong, and the writers, makeup people, and actors were each giving it their all. Now it’s just shooting at a spider, and effort is no longer required.

The tarantula-centric portions of the movie are also when we get the only really risible effects moments, which include the spider looking in a window to watch a woman undress, disappearing behind hills that aren’t there, and roaring as it destroys a police car in a POV shot.

Deemer dies when the spider knocks his house down on top of him, which I guess is a suitable mad scientist death in that he is destroyed by his own creation. The odd part is that it’s completely unnecessary, because Deemer was on the point of death anyway! Like his colleagues he has contracted acromegaly from the nutrient, and it’s clear from his appearance and behaviour that the condition is on the point of overwhelming him. The feeling one gets is that the writers felt the movie had to end in a victory and there could be no victory over the acromegaly. The spider is there to be defeated.

Obviously this is a distraction rather than a conclusion, and it’s a shame because if Tarantula had been about the nutrient and the acromegaly rather than about a giant arachnid, it could have been about the consequences of getting ahead of yourself in science. The events at the beginning of Tarantula are literally a drug trial carried out too early and gone horribly wrong, but perhaps that didn’t have the same resonance it would have after things like Thalidomide. Worse, the defeat of the spider is a big anticlimax. There’s not enough time for a real rampage to happen, and then the monster dies when the air force drops napalm on it. Not that this wouldn’t kill a spider no matter how big, but it’s over way too quickly and mostly just makes us think the tarantula wasn’t that formidable after all.

John Agar’s character is too bland to be really detestable but he is a slimy sexist douchebag as per usual. There’s a bit where a woman opens her mouth to simply introduce herself and he still feels the need to interrupt and speak over her. At another point he remarks, “you give women the vote and look what happens – girl scientists!” as if their very existence is a joke. He’s a dick to the men, too. When it seems that Deemer’s proven him wrong about something, Matt obsesses over it for days and actually does research specifically to try to show that he’s in the right. And Tom and Crow would have loved that this is another movie in which John Agar seems to have the authority to evacuate a town and call in the national guard without saying why.

To the movie’s credit, not everybody in it is a sexist jerk. Tarantula is very short on women, as old movies tend to be, but one of those women is a scientist and it’s not treated as ‘cute’ by anyone but Matt. Deemer actually seems quite supportive of the idea of women in science. He constantly urges his female colleague to be careful but this comes across as being more because he’s a worrier than because he thinks she’s not competent. She was hired on the strength of a paper she wrote, and if Deemer is surprised that she turns out to be a woman he doesn’t let it affect his perception of her work. She also has ‘feminine’ interests like shopping and going to the beauty parlour, and Deemer never shows any sign that he considers these incompatible with a scientific career. When he scolds her, it is in a situation where he would almost certainly have done the same to a male colleague.

Matt’s relationship with Steve is utterly lifeless and the scenes in which the two attempt to be romantic are nothing more than dull. This isn’t surprising, when Steve is basically a plot device rather than a character – Matt needs a reason to return to Deemer’s house repeatedly even though Deemer doesn’t want him there, therefore have him fall in love with one of the employees. Steve doesn’t look into it at all, and frankly, neither does Agar. There’s a bit where he seems more enthusiastic about meeting a rabbit than he does about spending time with Steve! When Steve runs into his arms as the tarantula destroys the house, we just really, really, really don’t care.

‘Steve’ is short for ‘Stephanie’ by the way. I didn’t mention that earlier because I’m a jerk.

As an attempt to cash in on Them!, Tarantula is okay but that’s about it. It’s not very good, but it’s not memorably bad, and as a result it’s not very interesting. The Black Scorpion used a more exotic setting and some fabulous stop-motion to give itself it’s own personality, but Tarantula has very little personality at all. I’m getting so tired of films that ignore all their own best ideas… but don’t worry, I don’t intend to ever get tired of hating John Agar.

#mst3k #reviews #tarantula #episodes that never were #tw: spiders #oh shit it's john agar #50s #giant arthropod hours

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twilight-adamo · 5 years

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Author’s Notes: Brave New World, Chapter 1: The Parting of the Ways

In April 2018, the same day I posted the epilogue to As Dreams Are Made On, I wrote the first scene of Brave New World, and most of the second. And then I got stuck, for quite a long time. I lost myself in research, tried to build out my plans, tried to focus on other things for a time, particularly These Our Actors, which posed its own challenges - but I’ll cover that in my author’s notes on Rosalie’s installment. I had a difficult year for a number of reasons. For a time I wasn’t writing at all.

I see from the revision history that I only came back to Brave New World in February of this year, spent a couple days on it, and left it alone again until June. June was when I finally realized that there was one particular thing in my life that was destroying my mental health and my ability to create, and that I was carrying on with it out of a sense of obligation, but I’d help no one - least of all myself - if I wore myself down on it. So, reluctantly, I dropped the obligation that was dominating my mental landscape, I took a step back, and I allowed myself to breathe. I’m still not working at a hundred percent, but I am getting better. And over the last few days, I’ve been able to write again.

My original plan for this chapter had been to focus on the wedding of Charlie and Kate, and I threw myself into a ton of wedding research, wanting to get everything just right. I figured Carlisle would officiate, so I researched Anglican marriage services and drew heavily on what I found. I looked at venues and considered colors and organized the wedding party and stopped just short of actually planning an entire wedding. And I got through the ceremony, which felt shorter than it should be, and I was beginning to write what came after, and I was thinking about what I had planned for the reception (notably what probably would have been an even cheesier musical moment than the rendition of “The Best Is Yet To Come” from the epilogue of As Dreams Are Made On), and I realized...none of it was working from me. It was indulgent in a story which is already going to get indulgent in parts, but worse, it was dull. My protagonist didn’t have much to do aside from stand and watch and react.

I also wanted to have a family meeting scene where we got some sense of where everyone was going over the summer, what they were doing, and I had a choice between tacking it onto the end of an overstuffed and boring first chapter or onto the beginning of the second chapter, which I’d planned to set primarily in Jacksonville. So I finally looked at the ten or so pages of wedding stuff I’d already written, considered how much more I would need to get through and how little I would enjoy it, and decided it all had to go. The first chapter would focus entirely on the family meeting, a last goodbye to Forks before I started the grand road trip that would take up the first few chapters of the book. Once I’d figured that out, I finished the first chapter in a day or two. It’s still a little more talking than I’d like and a little less action, but I think it sets up the next chunk of story nicely, at least.

As for the stuff I didn’t cut: as I said, Bella’s nightmare was the very first thing I wrote. I’ve made some minor tweaks here and there, but it’s pretty close to what I originally wrote over a year ago. I wanted to show some of the psychological effect of Bella’s decision to start a fight with the Volturi, I wanted to show that Eleazar’s panicked reaction to whatever he saw had affected her, and I wanted to start things off with a sense of menace hanging over our heroes. The Cullens and their extended network of friends and family may not be in a state of outright war, but there is still danger lurking at the edges of their lives, and unresolved mysteries hiding just below the surface of things. I wanted to spin a vision of something that could yet be, and establish that “happily ever after” is still a long way away, down a dark and twisted road.

It was also just enormous fun to write.

And it was a nice segue into a domestic scene with Alice and Bella, a glimpse of their lives a few weeks on from our last visit with them. We already got such a glimpse in the epilogue of the last volume, but seeing as that chapter was focused largely on prom, I thought they deserved a little alone time.

I spent a great deal of time trying to work out the plan for the summer - where everyone would be going, what they would be doing. I actually nearly forgot to include Eleanor in those plans, up until the last minute. I’m sorry to say that, focused as Brave New World is on Bella’s perspective, we’re not going to see much of the others’ adventures in this text, but they’re certainly fodder for future installments of These Our Actors, and Bella will get updates here and there, particularly once everyone is reunited in Forks. Bella, Alice, Rosalie and Emmett will all have quite enough on their own plates, so hopefully none of you will be bored.

There will be much more of Renée - and Phil - in the next chapter, which will cover the gang’s time in Jacksonville. I confess I’ve never been to Jacksonville (I��ve really only visited Florida for the theme parks) so I’ve got a bit of research to do. “I’ve got a bit of research to do” is likely to be my recurring mantra on this story, as I’m trying to blow out the boundaries of this world, introduce vampires we never met in the Twilight novels from places that were never really touched on, and perhaps bring in stranger things besides. But that’s a way off. For now, I’m a little ways into Chapter 2 (and have even written a bit of Chapter 3), and having great fun writing Bella’s free-spirited mother. I hope you’ll love my take on her as much as I do.

And now, as a bonus, I present the raw text cut from Chapter 1 of Brave New World. I’ve held onto it for reference, in case I decide to draw on it for flashbacks or a future installment of These Our Actors, and it’s possible the details may change, but since I don’t have any plans for it now, I thought I’d share what I came up with before I changed directions. It’s under the cut. I’m afraid not all my formatting carried over into Tumblr’s interface, but you should get the gist.

(Picking up from the end of the scene with Bella and Alice in bed at the cottage.)

I’d been pretty scarce around Forks the last few weeks, since school let out - I’d completely missed late spring giving way to high summer. Officially, I had been busy helping my dad and his new bride with wedding preparations. In actuality, I’d spent most of that time dropping into comas, recovering from them, and moving on to the next. I’d had a limited window of opportunity to turn a few select vampires human, and no time to waste. Edward had been the first to volunteer - he’d told Angela the truth, and she’d eventually decided she wanted to be with him regardless, but he still wanted to lose his bloodlust for the time being, and needed a bit of a break from everyone else’s thoughts after the past few months. I had carefully packed his powers away for safekeeping, then taken his vampirism from him. At his request, we were leaving him human until he reached his long-delayed eighteenth birthday.

Rosalie, Eleanor and Emmett had decided to turn human, too, and I had requested that they stay that way until Carlisle had finished identifying effective birth control techniques for hybrids, or at least until the summer ended. Kate hadn’t become pregnant just yet - and I really didn’t want to consider just how miraculous that was - but I didn’t want to push our luck with another extremely sexual and potentially fertile couple. Or thruple, as the case seemed to be - they had become much more open in their mutual affections toward Eleanor since she and Jessamine had moved to Forks.

Jasper and his sister - now going by Mina to avoid confusion - had decided to stay vampires for the time being, as had Carlisle, Esme, Tanya and Irina, though I had made my tweaks to the new arrivals so they and the shifters would no longer find one another offensive, assuming the vampires all stuck to non-human blood. It was just as well. With a five day coma after each de-vamping exercise and a day for recovery, I’d been cutting things awfully close to the rehearsal and the wedding itself. And no matter what dad said, I still felt a little guilty about that, even if he and Kate had plenty of help from everyone else. Especially since I was in the wedding party, if not precisely in the role I’d expected. At least I wasn’t maid of honor or best man, so to speak - those particular honors had gone to Irina and to Harry Clearwater, respectively. But I was still expected to stand at the altar.

After a luxurious spell in bed, followed by a relaxed breakfast and a shower, Alice “helped” me dress in the tuxedo she’d made for me, complete with high-collared blouse, fitted waistcoat, and a navy blue bow tie and cummerbund, all of it tailored perfectly to my frame. In all honesty, it was a blatant excuse to get her hands all over me and take me in one last time before the ceremony, but I can’t say I minded. At last, she finished, tying my hair back with a navy ribbon and kissing me softly, leaving me to finish my makeup while she hurried to meet Kate, Irina and the other bridesmaids.

Once I’d finished preparing, there wasn’t much left to do but head for the Cullens’ house, where dad and the rest of his party would be waiting until the time came to head for the venue. A mixed crowd of humans, hybrids, werewolves and most importantly vampires meant we were taking no chances with an outdoor wedding, and we were probably one of the few wedding parties this summer hoping for rain, or at least overcast skies. Fortunately, we’d gotten the latter, at least long enough to get the vampires into the hall, and by the time the reception was over with, it would be well past sunset.

It didn’t take too long to walk to the main house from the love nest Alice and I had made of Pine Cottage, and I arrived to find the others gathered around a table in the den, in the middle of a game of poker. There were two other groomsmen after Harry and myself: Emmett, and dad’s Deputy Chief, Joe Miller. From the pile of chips in front of him and the enormous frat boy grin on his face, it looked like Emmett was taking the others for all they were worth.

“Hey Bella!” he called out, waving as I came in and gesturing at the empty seat beside my father. “Want us to deal you in?”

I chuckled, taking the seat but shaking my head. “Thanks, but Alice already warned me about you. Hey, dad. Please tell me you didn’t put your honeymoon fund on the line.”

I nudged him with my shoulder, and he slung his arm around me, giving me a brief hug. “Hi, kiddo. The honeymoon fund’s safe. Kate would kill me. You girls didn’t think to warn me?”

“Well, you know, I’ve been busy. Distracted. And I figured Emmett would be too much of a gentleman to take advantage of a man on his wedding day,” I added, shooting a mock glare at the ex-vampire in question.

“Your first mistake was assuming I’m any kind of gentleman,” Emmett returned, with a broad smirk. “Besides, I respect Charlie too much to just let him win.”

Dad gave him a deadpan look. “I’m touched. Really. You can respect me a little less, though.”

“Can’t do it, sir.” Emmett drew himself up, looking impossibly earnest, save for the twinkle in his eye. “Did I ever tell you you’re my hero? You’re everything I wish I could be.”

“He’s been like this for the last hour. I’m starting to think he’s just always on,” Deputy Chief Miller remarked, glancing my way. “How’s your summer been, Bella?”

“Trust me, this is just the tip of the iceberg with him,” I replied, gesturing at Emmett, who chuckled. “Oh, you know, good. Busy with wedding stuff, getting ready to leave town, all that. Alice and I are heading to Jacksonville with mom and Phil after the wedding, we’ll be back in August.”

“Your, uh, girlfriend’s going on vacation with you?” he said, his eyebrows rising.

“Don’t worry, Rose and me will be chaperoning,” Emmett interjected cheerfully.

Dad cleared his throat. “More importantly, Renée and her husband will be providing adult supervision. And separate guest rooms.”

I bit my lip to hide my smile. I still didn’t really have memories of my mom - or, rather, the mom I had here and now - and I’d only recently gotten to spend any time with her, since she and Phil had come to town for the wedding. It had all been e-mail and phone calls before that. But from my memory of the books, and based on my interactions with her so far, I would not really call Renée Dwyer a responsible adult, and Phil was friendly and level-headed but not really a parent to me. That suited me fine - I didn’t really feel like an actual teenager, even now, and I didn’t need active parenting - but it was apparently important to dad to keep up the convenient fiction.

What he wasn’t saying, of course, was that Jacksonville was only part of our trip. That just about everyone except Edward was leaving Forks for the summer, and that in fact he had no honeymoon fund to worry about, because Alice had arranged everything.

“Huh. Well, uh...have fun down in Florida. Is Jacksonville anywhere near the theme parks?” Miller asked, clearly ready to change the subject.

“It’s not - not any of the big ones, anyway - but Carlisle and Esme are going to join us down in Orlando for a few days before we head back,” I lied - another little fiction, this one mainly for my mom’s sake, but we were all keeping to a consistent narrative. “So we’ll be going to Disney World, anyway. The Cullens have never been, and they’ve been nice enough to invite me along.”

The deputy chief’s eyebrows shot up, and he glanced at Emmett, the lone Cullen in the room. “Seriously? What with this house and all, I sort of figured you’d be going every year.”

“Oh, we don’t travel much once we put down roots. It’s mainly just camping trips,” Emmett said. “Can’t wait to ride Space Mountain, though.”

“Gentlemen, I think we have a hand to finish?” Harry interjected at last, a little smirk on his face. “And then maybe we can find something to do that doesn’t give Emmett a chance to shake us down.”

“We have a pool table,” Emmett suggested innocently.

“We are not falling for that twice, kid,” dad said firmly. “Joe, I think it was your bet.”

“God help me,” Miller said, shaking his head as he pushed in his chips.

*****

After the game came to its merciful conclusion, we had just enough time for a movie before it was time to head for the venue. Neither dad nor Kate had been especially invested in the idea of a church wedding, so they’d picked out a lodge in the nearby woods, and asked Carlisle to officiate. I’d only seen the venue in photos. Seeing it in person, nestled among the towering pines, decorated in fairy lights and banners of blue and silver and lavender, the whole scene accompanied by the sounds of the wind in the trees and the river flowing nearby...I was simply awestruck by everything that lay before me.

“Well then. Guess this is our cue to go around back and get in position,” Harry said, clapping my dad on the shoulder. “You ready for this, Charlie?”

I looked over at dad. He, too, seemed briefly stunned and frozen. But when Harry spoke, he started to break into a grin. “Yeah,” he agreed quietly. “Yeah, I think I am.”

“You’ve got this, dad.” I turned to him and gave him a loose hug. “I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“I love you, too, Bells,” he said, hugging me back and kissing the top of my head. “Go on, then, I know you’re eager to see Alice.”

“God, you make it sound like we’re codependent,” I complained, lightly, pulling back. Not that he was entirely wrong: I could definitely feel a tingle of excitement running through me as I headed inside with Emmett and the deputy chief.

The rest of the wedding party was gathered in the lodge’s tiny lobby, preparing for their grand entrance to the great room. We didn’t have a ring bearer or a flower girl - Harry had the rings - but everyone else was prepared to play their role. I wasted no time making my way to Alice’s side, slipping my arm around her waist, while Emmett followed me at a more sedate pace, chuckling softly as he joined Rosalie.

“We were never that bad,” he remarked to Rose, looking at the two of us.

“Oh, you were worse,” she returned, smirking up at him. He made a scandalized noise in response.

“Is that how we’re going to play it, Rose? ‘Cause I seem to recall a particularly insatiable little -”

“How did the wedding prep go?” I asked Alice, tuning the two of them out as I turned to kiss her cheek. “You look gorgeous.”

“Mmm, I’d hope so, after all that. It was nice to be pampered. The makeup artist was a bit of a perfectionist, but Kate got the worst of it,” she replied, looking up at me through her lush, dark eyelashes, a smile curving her red lips. Her hair framed her face in messy waves, and of course she looked amazing in her bridesmaid’s dress - lavender, strapless, accented in silver, tailored to fit the individual figures of each woman in Kate’s wedding party. “It’s possible the poor woman suffered a static shock or two.”

“I told Kate to use her powers for good,” I joked, my eyes sweeping over the room. Eleanor and Deputy Chief Miller, who’d be escorting her up the aisle, had joined Emmett and Rose, and the deputy chief seemed a little lost and perhaps slightly scandalized by the increasingly shameless flirting among the trio. And Kate, as might be expected, was sandwiched between her maid of honor, Irina, and Tanya, who’d be giving Kate away in the place of their mother.

Kate, naturally, looked absolutely incredible. Her normally straight blonde hair had been curled and bound up in an elaborate updo, and dangling silver and sapphire earrings glittered at her earlobes. A brass pendant, formed in a sort of hammer shape and decorated with elaborate, curling lines, hung from a chain about her neck. Her wedding dress was also strapless, all white and silver, the bodice clinging tightly to her figure as it swept down to the full skirts that frothed about her legs, interrupted only by a lavender sash tied about her waist. She looked radiantly happy, her joy outshining her natural hybrid glow.

Alice and I made our way over to her, and I offered a slightly hesitant one-armed hug. “You look amazing, Kate. I just wanted to wish you and dad all the best, one more time, before we get started.”

“Thank you, Bella,” she replied, returning the hug, awkwardly at first, but we both relaxed into a genuine embrace after a moment. “I’m...well I’m glad you’ve accepted all this so easily. And that your mother has been so welcoming. I wasn’t sure…”

“Please, don’t worry about it,” I told her softly, though I could feel that slight, uneasy shift in the pit of my stomach, even now. I tried to quiet it: I’d seen how happy dad and Kate were, how good they were for each other. They were the same people they’d always been, or at least dad was, but happier. Still...the mating bond hadn’t given either of them much choice. I worried about that, as I still, sometimes, worried about Alice. As fast as I’d fallen for her, I’d still been able to do so on my own terms. That was something Alice never got to do, and a chance dad and Kate would never have.

I forced a smile nonetheless as I continued, practiced enough now to make it genuine - which it was, really, mostly, despite my doubts. “Both of us just want dad to be happy. And you make him so happy - I’ve seen it, and now mom’s seen it, and she’s already remarried. She loves my dad but...they didn’t work. You two do. You just...fit.”

Maybe Kate caught something in my body language or my tone, despite all my best efforts, because she looked at me with faintly troubled eyes. But just as she was opening her mouth to say something more, we all heard the music starting in the other room, and Irina clapped her hands.

“Positions, everyone! Bridesmaids and groomsmen, go,” she announced, loud and clear. There was no more time to chat.

Alice and I were last in the procession of groomsmen and bridesmaids, and she nudged me gently as we swept into the room, murmuring softly. “You all right? You just seem…”

“I’m fine,” I whispered, through my smile, as we walked down the aisle under Carlisle’s benevolent gaze, surrounded by our family, friends and loved ones, going to meet dad and Harry at the altar. “Just getting in my own head a little.”

“Mmmm. Stop it,” she said, squeezing my arm as our moment came to part. “We’ll talk later.”

I nodded, very slightly, and we took our positions on either side of the aisle, watching Irina walk up last of all. The music changed, shifting to a classic bridal march, and everyone’s eyes were on Kate as Tanya walked her slowly and gracefully up the aisle. She was smiling brightly enough to transform her face into something even more beautiful, and broadly enough that it seemed like her face might crack in two, and I knew without looking that dad’s gaze was locked on her, his smile just as bright. Love and passion just radiated off the two of them, a palpable force filling the room from wall to wall. The room fell to a reverent hush, and for a moment I would have sworn I could hear their two hearts beating as one.

At last, the moment was broken by Carlisle’s voice, deceptively soft and yet resonant enough to fill the room. “Cherished friends, we come together today to witness the joining of Charles Geoffrey Swan and Katrina Sashova in holy matrimony, to ask for God’s blessing upon their union, to share in their joy, and to celebrate their love. For of all the gifts bestowed upon us by our Creator, love is the most precious, the most fragile, and the most important. As it is written in First Corinthians, love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

“We are taught that marriage is a gift of love, for God is love. It is a gift of God in creation and a means of God’s grace, for through this holy mystery, two become as one. Marriage is given that each partner might help the other, living faithfully in need and in plenty, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy. It is given that with delight and with tenderness those so joined might know each other in love, and that through the joy of spiritual and of bodily union, they may strengthen the connection between their hearts and minds. Marriage is a grace visited not only upon those joined in matrimony but upon all their loved ones - not only upon any children that may arise from the union but also upon their beloved community.

“In marriage, those so joined belong to one another, and embark upon a new life within their community. It is not a gift to be taken lightly, carelessly, or selfishly, but reverently, responsibly, and after serious thought. This is the way of life that Charles and Katrina are now to begin. I have been privileged to know them, and privileged to witness their love for one another. I believe with all my heart that these two are meant to be one. And now I must ask: if anyone here knows of any reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Silence followed. I wasn’t expecting anything else, but even so, it felt like the world had let out a breath it didn’t know it had been holding. Dad and Kate beamed at one another once again.

“Very well,” Carlisle said, breaking into a warm smile of his own. “Charles and Katrina, I now invite you to join hands and to deliver your vows in the presence of God and of all assembled here. May you speak honestly and without reservation, from the bottom of your hearts.”

Dad and Kate stepped forward, closer to one another, joining hands, and for a moment dad seemed at a loss for words, until his perfect hybrid memory kicked in and he found his place once more. He cleared his throat and chuckled nervously under his breath. “I, Charles Swan, take you, Katrina Sashova, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward: for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. I swear to love, cherish, and honor you each day, from now until my last day on this Earth, in God’s name and by God’s grace.”

“I, Katrina Sashova, take you, Charles Swan, to be my lawfully wedded husband,” Kate returned, her eyes shining just slightly, her face aglow with more than the usual hybrid radiance. “To have and to hold from this day forward: for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. I swear to love, cherish, and honor you each day, from now until my last day on this Earth, in God’s name and by God’s grace.”

“I believe the best man has the rings?” Carlisle said, taking them gently as Harry offered them, and cradling one in each hand. “God, by your blessing, let these rings to be to Charles and Katrina be a symbol of unending love and faithfulness, to remind them of the vow and the covenant which they have made this day in your holy presence. Amen.”

With that, he handed the rings off, and I could see dad’s fingers tremble just a little, almost imperceptibly, as he slipped Kate’s ring on her finger. “With this ring, I pledge myself to you, giving you all that I am, and sharing with you all that I have.”

Kate echoed his words softly, slipping his ring onto his finger in turn, and Carlisle joined their hands together, covering them loosely with his own.

“What God has seen fit to join, let no man put asunder,” he pronounced solemnly. “And by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Charlie, you may kiss your bride.”

They were moving before he was done talking, and somehow mustered enough restraint to move slow enough for the human eye to follow, though I heard more than a little laughter at their eagerness nonetheless. Charlie swept Kate readily into his arms, tilting her back just a little as they kissed fiercely, her bouquet dropping to the ground as her hands reached up to cup his cheek.

The room broke into wild applause, with a few hoots and whistles mixed in, and my eyes caught Alice’s as we clapped. For one wild, breathless moment, I wanted to throw caution to the wind, speed to her side and take her in my arms as well, hell, maybe even tell Carlisle to marry us here and there. But just a split second later, I felt a sort of coolness rushing through me, like a cold shower inside my mind, and my gaze swept into the audience, where Jasper raised one eyebrow at me expressively and inclined his head. I gave him a sheepish grin, then looked back at Alice, who winked and blew me a kiss before turning her attention back to the matter at hand. A triumphant march played as the wedding party swept back outside for photos and drinks and all the rest while the lodge staff moved everything around again for the reception.

*****

“I’ll be honest, that was way more God than I was expecting,” Callie remarked to me, once I’d been excused from modeling duty and we had a moment alone.

I shrugged. “Dad and Kate believe in a vague something. It was enough to have a vaguely religious ceremony. Besides, Carlisle’s dad was an Anglican pastor.”

Callie downed some of her sparkling cider, her eyes narrowing at me. “Is that a ‘lingering obsession with Twilight factoid’ or an ‘I spend all my time around the Cullens’ factoid?”

“Column A, column B,” I said, with another slight shrug. “I already knew about it, but I mean, we do talk. Anyway, Carlisle’s not nearly as hardcore as his father was, but he’s religious enough and in the know, so…”

“Vaguely religious ceremony. Right. Gotta say it was probably also the shortest wedding I’ve ever been to,” Callie replied, before looking sadly at her half-full glass. “And it’s the most sober wedding I’ve been to in a while. For us, anyway.”

“Yeah, being legally underage definitely has its downside. And please, you saw that kiss - I don’t think we could’ve gotten those two to wait much longer.”

Callie snorted. “True. Hell, you and Alice probably won’t even make it past ‘dearly beloved’.”

Mom chose that moment to come up just behind Callie, her eyebrows rising at the remark, and I immediately started laughing just a little too loudly. “Ha ha! Like we’re about to get married - which we’re not - because I’m seventeen! I am still just...seventeen. And in high school. And not even thinking about getting married. Yep. Good one, Cal, mom, you remember Callie.”

Callie stared at me and shook her head slightly before turning to face my mother. “Nice to see you again, Mrs. Dwyer. Did you enjoy the ceremony?”

“I did, thank you,” mom said, granting me a brief respite as she smiled warmly at Cal. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything over here.”

I shot Callie a pleading glance, and she looked in my direction just long enough to smirk at me before shaking her head. “No, not at all. I should probably go meet up with my parents. You two should catch up. See you later.”

“Of course. We’ll see you around,” mom agreed, and Callie gave a slight wave and moved off. I glared daggers at her retreating back, just for a moment, while mom watched her leave and shook her head. “I still have no idea how you get a nickname like ‘Callie’ out of a name like ‘Tara Chen’.”

“It just suits her,” I mumbled, sighing. “Long story.”

“If you say so. Now, let me look at you.” Mom turned back to me, putting her hands on my shoulders, taking me in. “I still can’t believe how big you’ve gotten, Bella. Or how...oh, what’s the word....dashing, maybe? How dashing you look in that suit.”

#twilight #twilight fanfiction #twilight fanfic #twilight au #the tempest trilogy #the tempestverse #bellice #brave new world

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thankyoumskobayashi · 5 years

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I just misread an earlier part of TGCF (CH.~41-50) and it said that E-Ming was rumored to have been made with the blood of innocents. However, knowing Hua Cheng, I wouldn't be surprised if that scimitar was made with the blood of the cliquey martial and literature gods who made fun of Xie Lian (and were subsequently murdered simultaneously by the demon king Crimson Rain Sought Flower). Knowing now from recent chapters how many boundless oodles of power Hua Cheng has, only a sword made from the remains of gods themselves would be able to handle that much strength without shattering under the power of its master.

And from the perspectives of the rest of the gods in the heavens, the ones who died were "innocent" because these gods don't consider "making fun of Xie Lian" to be a criminal offence. However, a certain idiot prone to falling (both physically & metaphorically) DOES consider that a criminal offence, one for which he Can & Will mete out punishment.

I think it's cool how MXTX explores reframing narratives through misunderstandings, mindsets, and cultural paradigms. This one event can be analyzed from multiple characters' perspectives: "Crimson Rain Sought Flower challenged all the martial gods and all the literature gods to a contest. Everyone except Xie Lian's former assistants participated and all of them lost their lives as a result of being humiliated and reneging on the wager." Hua Cheng, the one setting the wager and doing the killing, probably saw it as dealing with useless trash. Those gods themselves must have seen it as injustice. The newer gods in the heavens don't know Hua Cheng's motives, so they consider him capricious and dangerous. They regard him with fear, and attempt to pass along that fear to Xie Lian, who hasn't been to the heavens for hundreds of years and therefore doesn't know any of the news or gossip.

It's also interesting to see Xie Lian's opinions grow as he meets Hua Cheng first, then listens to hearsay afterwards. He gets to know Hua Cheng, and sees him as a carefree, knowledgeable, generous person who likes to joke around. Then he is told that Hua Cheng is a capricious and dangerous person liable to turn on you at any moment. His motives are shrouded in mystery. However, these rumors end up slam-dunked in the garbage by Xie Lian because he sees Hua Cheng differently than the rest of the gods in the heavens. Hua Cheng is generous towards and protective of him, to the point of actually fighting well when he defended Xie Lian against Pei Su and the snakes. He fought seriously that time, according to Xie Lian, not allowing a single scratch to land on the Flower Crown Prince.

The play that was performed at the Lantern-counting festival which depicted the blossoming romance between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian probably baffled some, but perhaps some of the gods now believe that Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are in love. I just realized this play might have been written by Wind Master, who saw those two get stuck together with RuoYe during the sandstorm lol

Anyways, I forget where this was supposed to go, but maybe it doesn't have a point so I can write whatever I want. Hua Cheng could have future sight which is why he warned Xie Lian to avoid Wind, Earth & Water Masters, Ling Wen, and the rest of the Heavens for a time. He could be haunted by visions of Xie Lian getting falsely accused & slandered again. We already know this is the worst torment to him, he admitted it during the dice game which was a ploy to test if Earth Master was the Reverend of Empty Words. After this each paragraph is its own idea. They aren't always connected, except through my own convoluted train of thought.

Even though Hua Cheng set his Divine SkypeTM password to something super lovey dovey and/or horny I bet he can communicate telepathically with E-Ming.

After Xie Lian gave Hua Cheng his bamboo hat when they were planting rice, I bet Hua Cheng was hyped up on "he gave me his hat to show everyone that I'm his" energy. He was probably annoyed that these lowly mortals were harassing his love about the Demon King's relationship status and sauntered over to say "I'm already married." But he was silently adding after that, "in my heart...."

After Hua Cheng denied that whole business about having a lover, Xie Lian smiled and told him, "you liar." Mind you, this is after that scene in the QianDang Temple where Xie Lian holds up the white flower that Hua Cheng once made a symbol for him, and asks "This is the flower you are pursuing, right?" Hua Cheng is under the impression that Xie Lian is aware of his romantic intentions towards him. So he goes, "yeah that thing about me having a lover is a lie. I just haven't won them over yet." Not realizing that Xie Lian is still hurt about the joking about marriage thing from the other day.

From Hua Cheng's perspective, that joke was only considered a joke to lessen (for him) the pain of not being immediately engaged to Xie Lian. He was probably trying to see if Xie Lian was into him or not, gauge how he was doing at winning his lifelong crush's affections. Since Xie Lian has been a depressed wanderer for literal centuries, the concept of getting married and having someone to live with must be something he fundamentally believed wasn't for him. Besides, there was that whole "being the laughingstock of the heavens" thing, so he probably internalized the idea that no one would ever want him.

Hubris was Xie Lian's tragic flaw, and for that he paid with his country, the existences of every place he loved, his family, his people, his temples, his reputation + corresponding godly powers, and most importantly, his confidence. He learned humility the hard way, and now hesitates to trust other people. These are mental health problems Hua Cheng can encourage him to overcome, but ultimately the hard work must be done by Xie Lian.

Another thing working against Hua Cheng is the fact that Xie Lian is so old. Hua Cheng is as well, probably around 790 years to Xie Lian's 800, but that is not what I mean by that. Xie Lian being so old means he's gotten used to meeting people, living with them for a while, and then moving on in life as he wanders away or they kick him out or something. He considers Hua Cheng's presence an unlikely yet welcome one, but doesn't expect him to stay in his life for very long. Unless this is addressed directly in words by Crimson Rain Sought Flower, I foresee Xie Lian continuing to act like Hua Cheng is an extended houseguest when the latter believes "I live here." Even if they do end up moving to another small shrine.

Speaking of shrines, Hua Cheng never promised Xie Lian to build him shrines but did anyway. In contrast, the humans who were saved by Xie Lian end up making empty promises of shrines and such. However, Hua Cheng not only built him a shrine, he made a huge fuckin' Sword Collection just to impress Xie Lian because of the one time he got lectured on swords by Xie Lian. I haven't reread that part recently but I know the gist of it was "swords don't seem like your thing so you should use a scimitar instead that'd work really well for you." Boom: 800 years later Hua Cheng wields a legendary scimitar, E-Ming. In the times when Xian Le was still around, Hua Cheng listened to Xie Lian on everything except "forget about me." Because that would have meant ignoring Xie Lian's earlier request, "make me your reason for living." If Hua Cheng had ignored that previous request, which was filled with genuine concern for his wellbeing, he would have had no reason to live and probably would've met a miserable end. But instead, he determined to follow Xie Lian to the godly realm - by becoming a god himself. Probably a martial god, too. He had to be exactly like his hero.

Speaking of being just like his hero, I have some thoughts on why Hua Cheng didn't accept Xie Lian's offer to live at the Palace. One might think it's primarily because Qi Rong would attempt to kill him again but I bet that was simply a minor extra reason. The main reason he didn't stay at the Palace was bc Xie Lian wasn't there most of the time, either due to Crown Princely duties or cultivation at the mountain temple. Hua Cheng, even as a kid, wanted Xie Lian to pay attention to him. Hearing "live for me" was probably as much of a lifeline because Xie Lian was paying attention to him at that critical moment, an equal reason I believe to the content of the message Xie Lian gave itself. "Being encouraged by someone you look up to is a wonderful feeling" is a message MXTX also put in MDZS, when Wei Wuxian encourages the Cloud Kids during the Yi City arc. And the timing of that encouragement holds just as much weight for Hua Cheng as having his hero give him a reason to keep living.

And that reason, as was evidenced by Hua Cheng's descent from godhood to becoming a Supreme Level Demon (I think they're the strongest/rarest type? There were 4 categories mentioned in the beginning. Below Supreme is Menace), is to become strong enough to protect the love of his life. The first thing Hua Cheng did once he crashed the Volcano Party to become the strongest Demon was challenging all the gods in the heavens to the wager and killing them once they lost and didn't uphold their ends of the bargain. He was full of the same wrath that Xie Lian was filled with during his second ascension- that time Xie Lian ascended to the heavens, started an all-out brawl in Jun Wu's courtroom, and then got kicked/demoted after like 5 mins. So people were making fun of Xie Lian after this event too, and Hua Cheng, filled with righteous anger that NO ONE in the so-called "just" heavens was standing up for the love of his life, decided to take matters into his own hands. (I think one of the two assistants in the beginning mentions Hua Cheng became a Demon Supreme after Xie Lian's second ascension and before his third ascension, but I just didn't remember it until now.)

If Hua Cheng was a meme, he'd be that "I've only known Xie Lian for 800 years, and if anything happened to him I'd kill everyone in the heavens and then Qi Rong."

Because he knows if something happens to HIM, Demon Lord Supreme, there will be a power vacuum and Xie Lian's safety won't be guaranteed. Ok so that's abt it. Sorry to everyone on mobile, I threw a readmore in there but you wouldn't know that as you have to scroll through all of this rambling.

#tian guan ci fu #time for my nightly essay #thanks to mo xiang tong xiu for writing her novels and everyone who takes the time to read these #you're amazing!!#spoilers up to chapter 114 discussed here

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goldenworldsabound · 6 years

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Here There Be Dragons II

Sequel to this

They escorted her as far as they could. It was like a funeral procession to the dragon’s dungeon. The King and Queen were allegedly too heartsick to make the journey - but the Princess was far from alone. She was surrounded by her four elite guards, all wearing bitter and serious expressions. The five of them sat in a horse drawn carriage with the top open. Behind the carriage was, at least for the first part of the journey, a collection of citizens who were particularly devastated by the fate of their princess. And lastly, both in front and behind were battalions of soldiers.

An air of gloom hung over everyone. Some of the citizens were even crying.

But the Princess held her head high and smiled, as if they were out on some kind of jaunt. Even now, as the sun began to set and they neared the dragon’s lair, she was calm and composed.

The guards were clearly distressed. Spock seemed deep in thought, almost as if one could see the gears turning in his head. Akabayashi grimaced but hardly moved the entire trip, glaring as he let his gaze do a full sweep around the carriage. Urbosa had her arms crossed and shook her head slightly every so often, sighing heavily. Shizuo trembled, the least composed of the four, glancing at the Princess and barely suppressing a whine, eyes wide with fear at the thought of what was to come.

By the time they reached the lair, all the citizens had gone home. Wendy was glad for this. It would be hard enough as it was. The fewer people watching, the better.

The dragon’s lair took the form of a cave. However, the entrance to the cave was pitch black, impenetrable. The soldiers stared curiously and fearfully at it.

“It’s dragon magic. The lairs have an entrance that only lets things in, and an exit that only lets things out.” Wendy responded to the unasked question concisely, smiling. “It’s rather intriguing. It’s such a strong magic that you simply can’t create a one way entrance without a one way exit...it’s balance. All magic has a balance like that, though.” She seemed lost in thought. All that was left was to enter the lair.

She wasn’t meant to fight, she wasn’t meant to survive. She was dressed in an elaborate ceremonial dress, the kind that restricted movement and was primarily for show. With a nod of her head, she jumped down from the carriage, refusing help from her guards, who followed after her. The soldiers parted and she stood about 20 ft from the entrance of the cave, eyeing it contemplatively.

Finally she turned around, facing her four guards, who were lined up. They were clearly trying to hide their emotions, but she knew them all to well for that. She motioned for them to kneel.

“Spock...Mizuki...Urbosa...Shizuo…” She kissed each of their foreheads. “You have served me admirably.” They rose as she finished. They had each felt the slight tremble in her lips. “I could never have - never have asked for better guards. I had the best.” She closed her eyes, successfully fighting back tears. She tried to ignore the fact that Shizuo was shaking, tears in the corner of his eyes, that Mizuki looked bitterly angry, that she could see that Spock was upset with himself, that Urbosa couldn’t hide the devastated look in her eyes.

Even now, even now, in what she presumed were the last few moments of her life, she was too well groomed to show the affections she wanted to. It would have consequences for her guards, even if not for herself. And she knew, if she let herself look weak, if she let herself admit to being scared in any capacity, she might not be able to go through with it.

“Thank you, for everything.” She said. “It was an honor to be your Princess.”

She turned then, taking purposeful, slow steps to the cave. She didn’t look back. If she looked back, she didn’t know if she could continue.

She reached the cave, the darkness an impenetrable curtain across it. She put one hand in it - she could no longer turn back. Nothing mattered now. She put on a final smile, conjuring up all the happy moments with everyone, determined for it to be a genuine smile.

She looked back over her shoulder even as her arm slid further into the darkness, meeting the gazes of her lovers with the warmest smile she could muster. A tear slid down her face as she observed that all of their cheeks were wet with tears. She couldn’t bear to look any longer. She turned, and walked directly towards death, head held high.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

“We have to figure something out.” Urbosa murmured. The carriage was on the way back, the top pulled up this time, at a much quicker pace than the slow procession on the way to the lair.

“I can’t say I’m surprised it happened.” Mizuki replied, grinning wryly. “I can’t say I didn’t want to do the same thing.”

Wendy had disappeared into the darkness of the dragon’s lair. Spock had fallen to his knees, the magic severing the emotional bond he’d shared with Wendy. Shizuo had lost his mind.

He tried to run in after her, taking out several soldiers who tried to stop him in the process. It was only through the combined powers of the other three guards, especially Spock’s Vulcan Nerve Pinch knocking him out, that they stopped him.

It had been an unpleasant scene. Now Shizuo was tied up (they all knew it was a worthless gesture) in the carriage with them, still unconscious. He was considered a traitor to the royal family for his actions.

“And Wendy.” Spock mumbled.

They were silent.

Mizuki grinned suddenly, closing his eye. “I might have a plan, but...I dunno if you’re gonna like it…”

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

“Your Highness! We’ve received word from Urbosa and Spock that Shizuo and Mizuko have turned traitor and run off! There was a violent battle.” An aide reported to the King, looking nervous.

The King narrowed his eyes. “It was only a matter of time with those two...and even after they successfully subdued Shizuo with his little outburst at the lair…” He shook his head. “We don’t need to go after them aggressively. Just have them put up wanted posters or something…” He seemed tired.

The citizens were rioting after all - they were not pleased to see their Princess thrown like meat to a dragon. Had they forgotten what the cost would have been if she had stayed in the castle? Ungrateful. And all of this on top of the loss of his daughter, his political chess piece.

“Don’t disturb me further unless anything of this caliber happens again.” The King announced, turning on his heel to head to his quarters. “And get this situation with the citizens under control!”

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

The cave was dark. It took some time before her eyes adjusted to the gently glowing rocks that were the only illumination. Everything was tinged with soft blues and purples. It would have been beautiful if the circumstances were different. Water dripped occasionally from all around her, running down stalactites and dripping onto the stalagmites that rose up in an attempt to meet their counterparts.

She walked slowly forward, listening carefully to the splishing of her feet in the puddles of water pooling on the floor.

She was terrified. Her heart was pounding in her ears.

The dragon appeared suddenly in front of her, it’s head snaking out of a side tunnel to gaze at her hungrily. It’s shimmering purple and black scales were further menacing in the odd lighting, the razor sharp teeth highlighted dramatically. The dragon’s head was larger than Wendy’s entire body.

She shrieked a little, throwing up a tight spherical shield around herself as the dragon’s mouth closed around her. The dragon’s teeth bounced off the shield with a loud clanging sound, the dragon hissing angrily.

“Oh, please, drop it. You’re my meal now, dear.” The dragon grinned mockingly, even as it winced from biting the impossibly hard shield.

Wendy didn’t respond, trembling with fear inside her shield.

The dragon rolled it’s eyes. “Well. Sooner or later. You’ll run out of energy for that shield. There’s no food or water for you here, my delectable little morsel. And then that shield will be mine.” The dragon’s head disappeared down the tunnel from which it had came.

Wendy collapsed to the ground, the shield still up, and began to sob, clutching her legs to her chest.

I don’t want to die…

#fic #self insert #royalty au #ANGST ANGST ANGST!!!

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dailynewswebsite · 3 years

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How COVID-19 led to Donald Trump’s defeat

U.S. President Donald Trump removes his masks as he stands on the Blue Room Balcony upon returning to the White Home Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, in Washington, after spending time in hospital with a COVID-19 an infection. (AP Photograph/Alex Brandon)

Did the COVID-19 pandemic doom Donald Trump’s re-election? Our research inspecting the impact of COVID-19 instances on county-level voting in the US exhibits that the pandemic led to Trump’s defeat on Nov. 3.

Our evaluation means that, all issues being equal, Trump would probably have received re-election if COVID-19 instances had been between 5 and 10 per cent decrease. Particularly, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — which President-elect Joe Biden received by a slim margin — would have remained pink if instances had been 5 per cent decrease.

Trump would have additionally added Michigan to this record if instances had been 10 per cent decrease.

This discovering is at odds with some preliminary information analyses that indicated areas with the worst COVID-19 outbreaks voted for Trump.

Actually, nationwide polls and educational research recommend that Trump’s voters are considerably much less more likely to put on masks and adjust to social distancing, which in flip enhance the chance of outbreaks. So Trump voters in Trump-friendly jurisdictions, resulting from their aversion to carrying masks, had extra dramatic COVID-19 outbreaks main as much as the election.

Principally maskless Trump supporters collect for a rally in Miami on Nov. 1, 2020. (AP Photograph/Rebecca Blackwell)

The COVID-19 impact

We estimated the impact of COVID-19 instances and deaths on the change in Trump’s county-level share of votes between 2016 and 2020.

To account for potential various explanations, we included a lot of pandemic-related controls, together with measures of social distancing, that captured variations in virus containment measures which may have affected instances and had an impression on Trump assist.

In an try and measure the causal relationship between COVID-19 instances and votes for Trump, we used the share of employees employed in meat-processing factories related to COVID-19 outbreaks as a supply of exterior variations in COVID-19 instances. Doing so mitigated the danger of a spurious correlation between the incidence of the pandemic and Trump assist.

We discovered that voters residing in counties with a excessive variety of COVID-19 instances had been much less more likely to vote for Trump. This impact seems strongest in city areas and in swing states. The robust ends in cities are probably pushed by suburban areas, the place Trump carried out significantly better in 2016 than he did in 2020.

These outcomes recommend that some Trump voters might have switched to Biden due to the pandemic. As well as, we discovered no proof that counties with a big enhance in unemployment in comparison with the pre-pandemic interval had been extra more likely to swap from Trump to Biden. This final outcome appears to point that well being considerations trumped — pardon the pun — financial situations.

Retrospective voting

Now that we have now a solution to our preliminary query, how can we clarify these outcomes? There are two potential explanations as to why the pandemic determined the 2020 presidential election.

On the one hand, voters might have electorally sanctioned Trump for the way he dealt with the pandemic. Previous to the pandemic, the U.S. financial system was performing effectively, and Trump, whereas extraordinarily polarizing, loved robust assist amongst Republican voters.

The virus modified the narrative, and Trump’s response was extensively criticized. He constantly downplayed the dangers of the illness, refused to embrace fundamental well being precautions equivalent to masks and repeatedly criticized epidemiologists and scientists, together with these advising him.

Protesters stand outdoors the White Home to show in opposition to Trump’s lax dealing with of COVID-19. (AP Photograph/Evan Vucci)

His response, in distinction to leaders in different developed democracies, was profoundly unsuccessful, because the current dramatic surge of instances has demonstrated as soon as extra.

This clarification is in step with a well-established principle in political science: retrospective voting. In a nutshell, that’s when residents consider and vote primarily based on their perceptions of the incumbent’s efficiency. If incumbents are perceived as incompetent, residents vote them out of workplace.

Whereas intuitive, this principle has not been all the time empirically true. Nonetheless, it does appear to have some worth in explaining the result of the 2020 presidential election.

Financial fears, want of social security web

Then again, some voters might have switched to Biden from Trump because of the pandemic-fuelled recession. A extreme public well being menace and main financial losses might have shifted preferences in favour of an growth of the social security web, together with well being care and unemployment insurance coverage packages.

Volunteers load containers of meals into automobiles throughout a Better Pittsburgh Neighborhood Meals financial institution drive-up meals distribution in Duquesne, Pa., on Nov. 23, 2020. (AP Photograph/Gene J. Puskar)

For the reason that Democratic Occasion and its presidential candidate usually tend to champion these insurance policies, Biden reaped the electoral advantages of this swap in voters’ preferences.

This clarification is in step with research that recommend political preferences are formed by private expertise. The identical research present this swap in political preferences is commonly long-lasting.

For example, there may be proof that folks rising up in a recession usually tend to favour state intervention and enormous social welfare packages.

This second clarification can be excellent news for the Democratic Occasion even in subsequent elections, when, hopefully, the pandemic won’t dictate the narrative of the marketing campaign however should be contemporary within the recollections of voters.

Leonardo Baccini receives funding from SSHRC (Canada).

Abel Brodeur and Stephen Weymouth don’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that might profit from this text, and have disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/how-covid-19-led-to-donald-trumps-defeat/ via https://growthnews.in

#Growth News

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youngbloodinitiative · 4 years

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Creative Creatures - Rosie Gibbens

Video still from “Domestic Bliss”. Filmed by Alessia Palombo

Turning our heads to London where we have a hub since 2016, Candy is having a conversation with artist Rosie Gibbens for the next Creative Creatures.

Rosie Gibbens is a graduate from an MA in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art and a BA in Performance Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins. In her performances, videos and sculptural installations she uses absurdity to explore issues around consumerist desire, gender performativity and sexual politics, questioning socially constructed rules about how to behave through art that is simultaneously silly and serious.

Candy: Hi Rosie, how are you doing in lockdown London? I saw that a few of your scheduled performances were postponed, which is a bummer. It’s lovely to have you here with us though.

Rosie: I’m doing fine thank you. I’m getting used to the change in pace and enjoying making artwork with no deadlines.

Candy: That doesn’t sound so bad! It has been a while since we met when I started YBI London. I remember looking at your piece “ironing” back then, and I really liked it - it transformed a simple and seemingly mundane domestic task. I don’t know if I said it back then, but I am quite drawn by the aesthetics, the hue of the video and the set up. A few years have passed, I noticed your works evolved a lot! Although your love of using everyday, domestic objects is still there. What draws you to them? Are they still ‘re-purposed’ in your works as you said? And why do you use them to subvert learnt behaviours?

Rosie: I think it was four years ago that we met. That was one of the first videos I made. It included an ironing board with an electric guitar embedded into it, so that the strings could be ‘played’ with an iron. I remember wanting to use only pastels for that video, so that the loud jarring sound would contrast with the slightly cute visuals. Aesthetic choices have always been important to me and I think about colour and framing quite carefully.

Since then, the fundamental basis of my work has stayed similar. I’m still creating absurd scenes and combining or re-making objects in playful ways. I’m drawn to everyday objects because I’m interested in the ways that we interact with the products surrounding us and how they extend our bodies, modify our movements and define our identities. Using objects differently to their intended function satisfies me because it can expose oddities within mundane life.

vimeo

“Ironing”, filmed by Benjamin Neustadt

Candy: Indeed. Interesting investigation about how they extend our bodies. I could tell that you are highly conscious of the aesthetic choices. It is something that really pleases me when the aesthetics feel right to my eyes. The female body parts also have a dominant presence in your pieces. I see quite some symbols of a stereotypical ‘sexy’ woman: high heels, big red lips, bras with lace. It’s funny because in a sense, this idea of a woman is rather dated, though still prevalent in our society. Do you mean to challenge that with your performances?

Rosie: I’m interested in how these stereotypical symbols of sexiness affect identity construction. I’ve always been drawn to an idealised glamourous femininity despite my understanding of its many problematic aspects. There is a kind of cognitive dissonance in being both attracted to and repelled by items that traditionally fetishise or objectify the body. I think that many girls grow up hyper aware of how they are looked at - it’s a sort of socially induced vanity. My idea of adulthood as a teenager was somehow linked to being sexy and desired. In my work I’m interested in showing absurd failed attempts to live up to this embarrassing and unattainable fantasy of elegance and seduction.

“Dirty Pillows”

Candy: And that is brilliant. Is there a certain point something sparked you to create focusing on the female body?

Rosie: To start with, I was making performances with my own body just because it was free and available. Over time I realised that I had to think more carefully about the associations of using myself as both subject and object in the work. It was a slow build up and a result of using my body more explicitly.

Candy: You mentioned your works take ‘sex sells’ to an illogical conclusion. I am actually also thinking about ‘sex sells’, but in another angle. Do you feel like, by addressing sexual politics, your pieces attract more attention somehow? Especially on social media? Gender politics is a topic as heated as ever. Do you think there is a general ‘need’ for art to address that? When I saw some of your latest works, my immediate response was like ‘Yes! We need something like that. That’s brilliant!’, as if you have expressed some deep down frustrations in me. I am sure I am not alone in that.

Rosie: Thank you, I’m glad! I don’t know whether it attracts more attention online because of sexual politics. I suspect my work is partly popular on social media partly because it often uses visual puns and suits being consumed in images or short clips. Instagram is swimming with different types of self-representation so my posts sometimes respond to this. For example, I have made strange selfies using massive body parts or taken make-up tips from ‘Britain’s sexiest cow’.

Sometimes it can feel a bit frustrating making work within the context of gender politics. I think because I feel expected to say something universal when I’m primarily exploring my own gender identity. I would hate to speak for someone else’s experience because how people move through the world is dependent on so many different factors and privileges. I hope that some people can relate to my own confusions around gender and femininity but there is a need for all different experiences to be heard and addressed in art.

“Carrot and Sticks”. Photo by Jon Baker

Candy: I wonder how the male audience finds your pieces.

Rosie: You’d have to ask them!

Candy: Haha, true that! Visual elements play a key role in your works, you seem to have a strong awareness of colours, shapes and textures and the reactions certain symbols trigger. How do they affect your performances? Do you also see them as an indispensable part of you as an artist?

Rosie: This is probably the bit that I find the most fun about making art. I love choosing textures and colours and often think of these before I work out the actions in a performance. I’m really attracted to shiny fabrics like PVC or satin because, for me, they indicate both medical and fetish wear. I also love animal print because of its changing associations throughout history. I hope that the clean and bright visual language in my work is something that binds different projects together.

“Blinds”. Photo by Manuel Vason Candy: Interesting. I do believe the visual language is impartial in many performance artists’ works, and in some sense, they send out the message even before any actions are performed. Is there an artist who inspired you to be the artist you are today?

Rosie: So many! Performance artists including Bobby Baker, La Ribot and Rebecca Horn influenced me when I was starting to make art. Now I’m most inspired by contemporary artists like Rebecca Moss, Sophie Jung and Laure Prouvost.

Candy: Apart from the visual elements, I noticed that you also played quite a bit with other senses like sound and scent. I find the sound element especially powerful in one of your recent pieces “Domestic Bliss”. I absolutely love it. The sound alone could be a stand alone piece by itself. I am curious to know more about this installation - how it comes together, the choice of the domestic objects and having a strong sonic presence.

Rosie: Domestic Bliss was made in 2017 using actions developed for different performances before that. I wanted the video to look vaguely like a toothpaste or face cream advert because I was interested in the way that bodies are used to demonstrate or advertise products. I was also intrugued by the Freudian definition of a fetish - where objects are used as distractions for the cis female lack of penis due to male castration fear. The actions in the video use objects to replace sexual anatomy in a humorous and slightly violent way and so I was hoping to ridicule this outdated, misogynist concept.The sound was a secondary aspect which I think works well because it’s a sort of clinical, menacing noise.

vimeo

“Domestic Bliss”. Filmed by Alessia Palombo

Candy: It certainly adds intensity to the piece. What about the soundscape made from children’s toys and amplified dildos from “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman”? Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the performance. How did that come about? Did you create the soundscape yourself?

Rosie: I was asked by DATEAGLE ART to make a performance for their show ‘Recreational Grounds’ in an unused underground car park so I wanted to use a remote control car and other children’s car toys. The scale between myself and these toys reminded me of the poster for the film ‘Attack of the 50 Foot Woman’ where the protagonist picks up cars from the city with her massive body. The woman is both sexy and monstrous. I wanted to embody the alienation of this character and the way she confusedly interacts with the tiny world around her.

I amplified the sounds of the toys using small microphones which made a messy electronic noise. I was imagining it was the sound of the city she’s destroying.

vimeo

Moment from ‘Attack of the 50 Foot Woman’

Candy: Fascinating! This story gives me so much to imagine. Do you feel like absurdity is the best cure in this surreal time? Like Dadaism after WWI.

Rosie: I’m not sure if it’s a cure but for me it’s an appropriate way to interpret a confusing world. A kind of bewildered befuddlement is present in all my favourite artwork. However, to make real change we need good direct activism. Good art is often more ambiguous.

Candy: Good point. Art and activism is actually a subject YBI has been actively investigating, it’s interesting that you mentioned that good art tends to be more ambiguous and to make real change there needs to be more direct activism. We would have to save this big subject for the next interview sadly! So what is next for you? Is there going to be a new core in your works after domestic objects and the female body?

Rosie: I’ve been moving away from domestic things over the last couple of years and started to hand make objects to interact with in performances. These are made using fabric, often printed with photographs of body parts. At the moment I feel inclined to remove myself from the work. I’m hoping that I can make some performances involving no humans, with objects interacting with one another like puppets or maybe operated by animals...

Candy: Looking forward to seeing what is coming next. Did this corona crisis give you new inspirations?

Rosie: Because I’ve had no performances coming up, I have been making 2D work for the first time in a few years. I have fallen in love with drawing again and am sewing together applique banners with coloured fabric. I’ve also been experimenting with green screen keying. I hope to make a new film where green paint on the skin becomes a portal to absurd goings on inside the body.

Candy: Exciting. I would love to talk to you so much more about your performance works and inspirations, but unfortunately we don’t have all day! Thank you for joining me in this conversation, Rosie. Looking forward to seeing your new works!

Rosie: Thank you!

Rosie Gibbens http://www.rosiegibbens.com

Young Blood Initiative http://www.youngbloodinitiative.com

#performance art #art installation #contemporary art #absurd #london #london artist #rca

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linkspooky · 7 years

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Tokyo Ghoul vs Literature: Red Dragon - A Metaphor for Hide and Kaneki’s Relationship

Sorry about the delay in this one, I actually lost the book Red Dragon fro awhile and I had to go find it. Anyway this time around we’re gong to look at a character I don’t talk about as often, Hide. During one of the flashes to Hide’s room we’re presented with a brief collection of his interests as mostly a background element. While the various manga volumes do show how his tastes clash with Kaneki, the one that stands out the most in a Red Dragon poster.

Let’s explore the connection between the two underneath the cut.

Hide’s tastes tend to be more mainstream, at least from a western perspective. Apparently he also enjoys watching American movies and listening to American music, I’m not sure exactly how distinct that is from a japanese perspective but I think even from a mainstream taste Red Dragon sticks out as a weird thing to fixate on. It’s more on the pulp side of things.

In particular it’s a pulp detective novel, or crime focus novel that belongs to the hannibal series. This is a series which primarily focuses on the FBI trying to investigate serial killers with distinct profiles and one of the main characters Hannibal, is a psychologist who eats people. The connection to Tokyo Ghoul is rather obvious on a surface level, this poster is even drawn attention to while Hide is watching on the news about the expanding investigations in Aogiri’s 11th ward base.

While at the same time thinking of Kaneki.

A Book About Relationships

So while one could say that Red Dragon is connected to Tokyo Ghoul because it features a character who is a serial killer who also eats people and Tokyo Ghoul has two such characters (Torso, and Donato who is the much clearer Hannibal Parallel), I think the much stronger link is that Red Dragon itself is a metaphor for Hide and Kaneki’s relationship. Especially since the Red Draon poster is specifically shown when Hide is thinking about Kaneki.

There’s also another reason I think that supports this interpreted connection of mine, that being that Red Dragon itself while still being a crime novel that plot wise revolves around solving a crime, is thematically about the people and circumstances that surround that crime and one of the most prominent and repeating circumstances is all of the unhealthy relationships shown again and again throughout the novel.

To make my point consider that the novel Red Dragon at this point has three primary adaptations, two movies Red Dragon (2002) and Manhunter (1986). Red Dragon being a remake which recast Hannibal as Anthony Hopkins after he popularized the role in the film adaptation of Silence of the Lambs. The third adaptation is a Hannibal Tv Series that ran from (2013-2015) and while featuring a lot of original content is primarily an adaptation of once again the content of Red Dragon, serving as a prequel, midquel and sort of sequel? Anyway my point is Manhunter the original film focused on the crime, and just like in the novel Hannibal has minimal scenes because Silence of the Lambs had yet to popularize the character. When it was remade then in 2002 into Red Dragon, Anthony Hopkins was given more screentime and inevitably more interaction between the character of Will Graham and Hannibal. Which finally culminates in the series Hannibal which is almost entirely about exploring the strange relationship between Will and Hannibal.

The question is why did this escalating change of focus from a straightforward serial killer story, to a thriller that focuses primarily on the personal relationship between protagonist and antagonist. Is it because Hannibal is a popular character and he just got increasingly more screentime? However, if Red Dragon were all along about portraying unhealthy relationships, then these successive adaptations could just be getting closer and closer to portraying what is the real meat of the story as time went on. Which is really what a good adaptation should do, find out what the meat is, what worked about the original and retain that part while adding your own. The hannibal TV series which is generally considered to be a good and well liked adaptation primarily focuses on that, the characters and character relationships that come about surrounding the crimes, while the crimes themselves are more of a framing device.

Then the question is if Red Dragon is a novel primarily about exploring unhealthy relationships, then how does that relate to Tokyo Ghoul, or particularly the unhealthy elements of Hide and Kaneki’s relationship.

A Dangerous Empathy

Red Dragon’s main plot is as follows, Detective Will Graham is called out from a peaceful existence he is currently living in, in attempt to recover after retiring frm the FBI near permanently after capturing Hannibal severely hurt him mentally. The place he lives in is nearly a soft paradise of sorts, with a wife who fell in love with him specifically to heal him and her son, and several large dogs. However an old friend pressures him to help him take up a new serial killer case.

“What you did for Crawford was bad for you. He has a whole lot of people - the whole damn government I guess - why can’t he just leave us alone?” - Molly

“Didn’t Crawford tell you that? He was my supervisor those two times I left the FBI academy to go back to the field. Those two cases were the only ones like this he’s ever had, and Jack’s been working a long time. Now he’s got a new one. That kind of psycopath is very rare and he knows I’ve got... experience.”

-Will

Red Dragon page 7

Jack Crawford and Will Graham are by the way, the first unhealthy relationship set up in the book. Jack while confident in Will’s abilities also seems fixated on him in a way. He believes only Will is capable of solving these crimes, and therefore drags him back in by guilt tripping him that it specifically has to be him to save these human lives on the line. Even though Will himself is not mentally ready to be back on the field, Jack specifically manipulates his relationship with Will to propel him there anyway.

Will is a character with many parallels to Kaneki, in particular he has an overdeveloped sense of empathy despite having no social skills whatsoever. In the same way that Kaneki seems to paradoxically have well developed empathy but also an inability to practically apply that and form normal working relationships with those around him.

The particular way in which Graham parallels Kaneki though is that he is a crimminal profiler with the FBI, and one who is particularly famous for being able to understand the minds of serial killers.

“You took off your gloves didn’t you, the powder came out of a rubber glove as you pulled it off to touch her, DIDN’T IT YOU SON OF A BITCH.” - Will Red Dragon, page 25

This quite clearly relates to Kaneki’s ability not only to relate to ghouls, but also to see himself in the worst types of people. As you can see though the connection Will makes are intensive, and he lives with a constant fear that because he’s able to think so much like a Serial Killer, that he in fact relates to them because of their militarizes.

Will then realizes after an examination of the killer’s crimescene that he has been called to investigate (currently nicknamed the Toothfairy for his habit of taking teeth), that he can only proceed further with the case by consulting with the serial killer he captured on his previous case, a psychologist known as Hannibal Lecter. The relationship between Hannibal Lecter and Graham represent the second major unhealthy relationship in the series. Rather than pressuring Will into doing things he does not want though, Lecter is much more antagonistic and seems to want to prove that he and Will are similar. His reasons for doing so are vague, and either boil down to some genuine affection for somebody who was capable of matching him as an equal, or a want to prove that Graham despite imprisoning him wasn’t an equal and will fall to his level (those sound like two completely different things but as I said it’s ambiguous).

This is another relationship that is mirrored in Tokyo Ghoul which I will touch upon briefly, and that is in the strange cooperation and respect that Donato and Sasaki seem to share.

The narrative brings this up specifically, that Donato is an unrepetant killer who sells out other ghouls in order to sustain his own safety while in the Cochlea. Captured, he’s almost pathetic no matter how much menace he is able to muster. Even while he was free, the only thing he could think of to do to sustain his so called ‘peaceful’ existence was to kill children. Beings that are fundamentally too weak to fight back, his self survival, his sustenance is always done by taking advantage of those weaker than him, and in that way all of his strength is a lie. It’s based on a twisted self value. An assumed self importance that he is above these things. Just like Donato, Haise relates to that, that impending feeling of his own demise that makes him want to indulge in peace even if it’s a lie rather than face his own feelings.

The comparison raises the question is Haise living the same as Donato to an extent? Even if he does not relish the murders, isn’t the CCG providing him with both a continued secure way of living, people above and under him to make him feel secure, and also an outlet for his violence that tells him it’s good actually to kill these people because ghouls are bad and deserve to die. Isn’t Haise killing ghouls en masse (he’s an osthmanthus award winner) and without mercy, not because he believes it will protect people but merely to protect his own existence?

That’s all I am going to talk about Donato though, because this is supposed to be primarily a thread about Hide. The question is what part of the novel reminds me of Hide and Kaneki’s relationship, and that lies in the last part of the novel.

There are two more unhealthy relationships, that between Will and the Tooth Fairy as he begins to investigate the other, and also the Tooth Fairy and a Blind Girl which he meets and starts a romantic relationship with.

I think these two things, 1) this element of pursuit and investigation is something that parallels the general arc of Kaneki and Hide’s relationship quite strongly and 2) the codepdendence that emerges from the relationship between the Tooth Fairy and the blind woman, parallels the fatal flaw in their relationship that caused it’s tragic end at the end of Tokyo Ghoul.

The rest of this analysis will be broken down into disseminating those two parts.

Pursuing the Red Dragon

The second half of the novel is an investigation where Graham purses the Tooth Fairy, while the Tooth Fairy pursues his own obsession. See, the book is called Red Dragon because of a characteristic picture of a Red Dragon on the killer’s back.

It is actually a watercolour painting by English Poet William Blake, called ‘The Great Red DRagon, and the Woman Clothed in Sun’ which is based off of a passage from the revelations.

And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.

— (Rev. 12:3-4,KJV)

Interpreting revelations is weird, so I’m just going to give you the short of it, the Red Dragon is basically symbolic for Lucifer/Satan. In the same way that the Black Goat, and Kaneki’s journey through that narrative is a parallel to the mythological role of Lucifer as a challenger of God’s authority.

Kaneki is tied to Lucifer just like the main serial killer in Red Dragon but it goes beyond this. The tooth fairy’s reason for pursuing the Red Dragon is because he believes through his obsession with this painting, he can achieve perfection and then transform into the Red Dragon. The Red Dragon is like a developing second personality that he attempts to grow, and then control, the same way the centipede Kakuja is something Kaneki nurtures and a power he tries to make use of in order to become a perfect and whole ghoul through cannibalism.

The Red Dragon starts to overtake him, the same way that Kaneki is unable to control his centipede Kakuja. In a last ditcha ttempt to control it, the Tooth Fairy even eats the Red Dragon painting thinking that consuming it will somehow give him domination, but the Red Dragon instead eats him from the inside.

The parallel to Kaneki is pretty clear, but then what of Hide? Remember though, just as Kaneki spends the latter half of Tokyo Ghoul paralleling the Red Dragon, then Hide is the clear parallel to the detective pursuing the Red Dragon.

Hide’s arc in the second half of TG is joining with the CCG with the explicit purpose fo tracking down kaneki who has disappeared without a word. Hide in general displays two qualities that are very detective like, deductive reasoning ability that follows his natural curiosity, and also quick thinking.

He uses this at one point to be able to plant a tracking device on Yamori, which is part of what tips the CCG off to the location of the 11th ward. This might just be a natural tendency that comes from Hide’s personality and also his most significant relationship.

Let me explain simply, in their relationship Hide acts as a detective who pursues Kaneki, even before one of them was ghoulified. This is for two reasons, one that he has the ability too. Hide is for the most part shown to be unempathic. Not that that makes him a bad person, but he is basically able to set up several ghouls who were threatening him, up for their deaths by CCG officers without really blinking. While he is curious about ghouls he doesn’t really empathize with them. There is only a few people he seems to emotionally invest in, and that is Kaneki. The rest of the people he is able to manage with his advanced social skills without even needing to empathize with them. Unlike Kaneki, Hide is easily able to socialize with people, but has a hard time empathically connecting to them. he is the inverse in a way that compliments Kaneki, which is often when Kaneki is being socially indecisive, Hide is the one to interject directly for him.

As observed here in champter six where Kaneki isn’t even able to do something as simple as say no to an offhand request for him to join a club and Hide has to do it for him basically.

Kaneki relies on Hide to basically notice things on his own, and then speak up for him. Things that are personal to Kaneki, that Kaneki really should be figuring out for himself. Hide is Kaneki’s sole positive relationship at this point yes, but also Kaneki derives basically all of his emotional intelligence and funcitonality by relying on Hide. Hide is his place in the world in more way then one.

It’s a comfortable existence more than anything else. Kaneki was not truly happy before he turned into a ghoul, but he was comfortable, and unchallenged and managed to keep his anxiety mainly under wraps. When Kaneki mourns his former life one has to wonder, does he mourn the happy days gone by with Hide, or the fact that he used to be able to just live his life simply by relying on Hide.

Much later we get to see Hide’s perspective on their own friendship, and Hide is not presented as the omnipotent detective Kaneki shows at the beginning of the story, but rather as a person filled with his own worries and concerns.

Kaneki always hiding his troubles from Hide meant, Hide had to as a result if he wanted to understand Kaneki, get good at investigating others personality’s. It was a skill he develops to compliment Kaneki. The two of them seem to fit rather well together, Kaneki who hides everything and puts a smile on his face, and Hide who is able to see through that act and able to know and help him figure out his own emotions.

That is their relationship, much like the detective and his target Kaneki recedes into himself and Hide chases trying to investigate him to figure it out.

However, a complimentary codependence =/= a good relationship. Not only are Hide and Kaneki both fixated on one another that they’d go to great lengths to save each other (some would say unhealthy lengths), but Kaneki also seems to carry an overly idealized image of Hide as a ‘cool savior’ rather than just somebody who genuinely cared about him, and felt anxiety and worry too when Kaneki withheld and hid his pain.

In good circumstances they can actually learn from each other. Hide can learn about empathy from Kaneki, because he obviously admires Kaneki’s own caring for other people and soft nature. While from Hide, Kaneki can learn social skills so he can actually put his empathy into work in deliberately forming relationships instead of passively just hoping for them to happen.

However in bad circumstances you get the unwinding that is experienced at the end of Tokyo Ghoul and parts of :Re where Kaneki and Hide are not allowed to stand side by side of each other as friends.

Love Doesn’t Actually Redeem

At least love without communication doesn’t. That is the main problem with Kaneki and Hide’s relationship, they don’t properly communicate so the two of them end up having really warped and partially idealized versions of the other in their head.

In Red Dragon there is a romantic subplot between the killer and a blind woman. This could obviously also be connected to Hide and Kaneki as Hide is generally kept symbolically blind of Kaneki’s activities as a ghoul, the same way the blind woman is unable to see that the Tooth Fairy is a killer due to her disability. She gets close to instead his civilian personality, and for what it is worth he genuinely does start to care about her.

However he believes love will fix him, while at the same time lying to her about a significant part of himself. That he is in fact a killer. While doing so he really denies himself the possibility of having a genuine relationship with her.

This resembles the way Kaneki decided to abandon Hide halfway through the manga while also placing far too much importance on him. Kaneki admits this in :Re, that he was too paralyzed by the desire to see him again to actually try to do something about his separation from Hide. That, and his words to Amon that are specifically about Hide, that even if Hide were to return he would be too afraid that he would lose him again.

Kaneki projects so much importance to Hide that it gets in the way of their actual friendship. He lets his fear of separation from Hide control him, and then physically seaparates himself from Hide, it’s very self defeating in the end.

That is in a way the same way the Tooth Fairy is defeated. Love fails to redeem him, but it opens up just a big enough hole in his psyche that he starts to make mistakes and spiral towards his own downfall. When Kaneki remembers himself finally, the first thing he remembers is Hide. His idealization starts back up againto the point where it starts to control him entirely. Rather than trying to become the centipede this time around though, Kaneki tries to become like Hide. (This is also after devouring him, lots of devouring connections to Red Dragon).

In a way though in this scene Kaneki isn’t just idealizing Hide, he’s using the ideal of him as an excuse. This is where Kaneki’s behavior change from passive to active. He knows that Hide was trying to save him, but now uses Hide’s name and memory as an excuse basically to throw away his own life. Something he knows subonsciously is the last thing Hide would want, but also elects to ignore. It’s not until Hide physically manifests within him (the same way the Red Dragon also appeared as hallucinatory before the tooth fairy), that Kaneki began to see what he was doing.

The most important thing that Brain Ghost Hide! imparts upon Kaneki though is that simple fact, that he’s not real. The image of Hide that Kaneki carried with him all along was a false one, Hide the smart one, Hide my chain to ther est of the world, Hide the symbol of my human untained self, Hide the perfect savior, those were all a projection on Kaneki’s part.

All Hide ever wanted was to walk by Kaneki’s side. That is why their codependency as it stands in the manga right now was unhealthy, because Kaneki’s fixation on Hide is exactly what prevented them from just simply being together as equals.

#meta #tg meta #tokyo ghoul meta #hideyoshi nagachika #kaneki ken #tokyo ghoul theory #red dragon #donato porpora

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wildlyhardphilosopher-blog · 5 years

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ciceroprofacto · 7 years

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A Winter’s Ball (pt.III)

pt. 1: November, 1777

pt. 2: December 1779

February 1780 Hamilton attended a dance with Kitty Livingston…who invited her friend Elizabeth. Determined to get time alone with his date, Hamilton invites his own chaperone.

Are we doing this again? Are we really doing this again, oh my god.

February 1780

“Truly, Bets, it’s a menace,” Kitty glared down at the fasteners as her handmaid worked nimble fingers through the stomacher. “I asked Suky to tell me everything her husband was sharing with her. My father likes to talk about the war when he has officers over for dinners- wouldn’t it just shock them if I had some thoughts of their plans,” Kitty smirked at the thought, but it quickly turned sour, “She must have mentioned it to Alec and he just…” she shook her head with a huff, “It was not an invitation to court me.”

Betsey raised both brows, suppressing an amused grin.

Kitty hated that playful look sometimes. Betsey was clever for her age, but she always thought she could see what others were thinking. And, really- it’s not like Kitty actually liked Hamilton…no matter how sweet he could be between her legs. “I mean that, Betsey. This…dalliance or whatever it is- it’s going nowhere.”

Betsey cocked her head back. She blinked as if she really did think Kitty was just playing coy with the boy, as if she was really entertaining notions of one day marrying him. “But…I thought…well you accepted his invitation to this, and…” she glanced at Kitty’s servant and lowered her voice, “you’ve laid with him.”

Kitty laughed, “And, I’ll probably lay with him again.” She also found that look so painfully endearing when it soured. There were times Betsey made it difficult to resist the urge to ruffle her hair like a little girl…but they had spent far too long twisting it into prettily-styled knots for the ball to ruin it now.

In his invitation, Alec had heavily implied that he would expect them to spend time together after the formal celebrations had ceased- probably rekindle their seasonal flame despite the fact that he’d rudely neglected her this past year.

So, he would need to duly amend himself- show his commitment before he got any reward from her- and not by proposing marriage again. It would mean positively no stumbling into bed together to avoid the subject.

She’d asked Betsey to attend primarily to give herself someone to talk to when conversation would inevitably lag- so perhaps this time the lull in conversation wouldn’t lead to shedding clothes for an easier form of interaction, but the girl was pretty enough herself. She might make a good distraction for Hamilton in her own right.

…

“Tench, I will not beg you to join us, but there is a good case to be made that you would enjoy the excursion-” Alex raised his brows suggestively, but the elder aide was already walking away. He quickened his step, “And! A good case can also be made that I’m qualified to…answer the General’s letters with Knox…”

Tilghman turned, interested in the bribe, but he was obviously not sold.

“She’s invited her friend,” Alex complained, “Just help me this once, I will owe you, truly…”

“I’m leaving for Trenton next week, I can’t afford to be taking nights off.”

A reasonable excuse and a dismissive one. Alexander had hoped not to mention it, lest Tilghman demand he play cupid for his pursuit of a delightful fox that he had been unable to stop talking about all month. Supposedly he had met her at a dinner with Lord Livingston, but Alex had no recollection of him spending time with any girl in that meeting, so it was far more likely that Tench had seen her and made eyes at her from a distance- and would need all the help he could get to win her- or speak to her at all. Of course, Alex had also spent half the party buried under Kitty’s skirts, so he may not be the best witness.

“Her friend is the Schuyler girl.”

Tench froze. His jaw clicked. “Fine.”

“You’ll go?”

“I’m going.”

…

When Kitty’s father’s valet brought in the letter, she could see where this was going very quickly. Tearing open General Washington’s seal, she recognized the name Tench Tilghman, though not as an interesting character by her own judgment.

“We could’ve had a servant drive the carriage,” Betsey said, sitting back with her hands folded in her lap.

“Yes, Bets,” Kitty said slowly, “We could have. He’s bringing his friend to distract you from me so we can be alone.”

“Ah…I see.” Elizabeth frowned, understanding slowly, and on days like this, Kitty wondered what it was like to be the daughter of one of the continent’s feared generals- the gift of innocence she was indulged, not to have to learn how to see these tactics from suitors for her own safety. All the officers that were constantly in her home, sharing all sorts of stories about the war...and all of them too afraid of her father to try anything untoward. “That’s clever…”

“It would be clever if I hadn’t wanted you to come.”

Betsey’s brows knit in confusion, “You think…he thinks you didn’t want me to come?” she reeled at that, “Does he think I’m there as what- your father’s escort?”

“Probably.”

Understanding was still coming slow, but Betsey looked at her and seemed to see, “You wanted me to distract him, didn’t you?”

…

Tench was not going to forgive this anytime soon.

And, Alexander’s pride was not going to recover with any more ease. He should have known Kitty would be bitter with his silence over the last year, but really, how could he have known she would be cunning about it? Why should he expect a trap?

He had heard of Elizabeth Schuyler often enough from Tench and all the officers who had served with the girl’s father to expect that she would be as kind and agreeable as everyone said. By name, he couldn’t recall having met her…

But those eyes were certainly familiar. Ink-black and colder than the winter had ever been- even in John’s absence. The Elizabeth Schuyler he remembered at once was sharp-tongued and deceivingly polite.

And, her snubs were as delicate and graceful as they were decisive. Tench scooped her hand delicately and kissed it in greeting. “That is a lovely dress, Miss Schuyler.”

“It’s Kitty’s dress,” she said with a sweet smile.

To his credit, Tench waned only a little, “Then it looks lovely on you.”

“It’s quite nice on her as well.”

“I…I’m sure that’s the case…”

“You should really see her wear it. She has a bonnet that goes so nicely with her eyes and the blue really suits her beautifully.”

“That…sounds nice?”

Alex wanted to cringe, and even though Tench was serving his purpose and distracting his girl’s escort, and though he would still cover the other aide’s correspondences for him as promised, he could only watch three of these fumbled exchanges before surrendering his time with Kitty to draw miss Schuyler away from him. He could brag of the elder aide’s finer qualities himself then perhaps send her away, happier to converse with him.

…

It was brutal to watch, but Kitty felt no shame in enjoying Betsey’s destruction of Colonel Tilghman’s lofty hopes with her. She did it so kindly the man would hardly be able to hate her for it, though he would certainly understand she had no interest in him.

Maybe she’d underestimated her friend in a way- though blind to the boys’ manipulation, she was artfully delivering her honest sentiments in a way they could hardly protest…

Perhaps she had never needed to learn the sorts of tactics Kitty had seen.

Still, when Alec turned to talk to her, Kitty was keen to watch them, and relieved when he stayed his course and only spoke praises of his friend- not even realizing Betsey was wise to Colonel Tilghman’s purpose here, and she’d be immune to such charms-

…

This game was obviously fixed against their favor. Miss Schuyler’s smile betrayed nothing, but she would have no need for such a mask if she wasn’t aware of it’s purpose. She knew Alex had brought Tench for her. All he could do was show his friend support in hopes Tench wouldn’t realize the setup and might overlook his oversight.

He really just wanted privacy, the freedom to tell this girl his honest intention without Tilghman’s scrutiny.

…

Perfectly content that Alec’s diversion had failed, Kitty took Colonel Tilghman’s hand to be escorted from the carriage. Through the years of their flirting and banter, Hamilton always assumed her affection was assured, and treated her as such. She knew the teasing in his letters was harmless and she understood the intention, but his ribbings were…cocky.

It would do him some good to see that he did not own her. It would certainly make it easier to deny him with whatever game at courtship he was trying this time.

After all, he wasn’t the marrying type.

…

Alex had been wrong to underestimate Kitty, but she did him the same favor when, upon arriving at the manor and stepping out of the carriage, she took Tilghman’s hand and led him inside and away from him.

Elizabeth snubbed his assistance down from the carriage.

He still waited at the step, hand still extended for her. “Miss Kitty told you I brought him to court you,” he said bluntly, turning to watch Tench walk his girl down the path into the manor.

Elizabeth took his hand, “Distract me would be a more precise translation of what she said.”

He laughed, lightly squeezing the hand in his own and starting their walk down the path. “Well, that’s cynical of her.”

“Can you fault her for that?” miss Schuyler smirked darkly, a truer expression and one Alex took some small satisfaction in, then- “She can hardly be alone with you without you trying to lead her off to just…romp with her.”

Despite how true that accusation cut, Alexander couldn’t restrain the belt of laughter it pulled from him. “Romp with her?”

“Yes!” she huffed as if offended she was being made to speak of it further. “I’ve seen how you are. You can hardly speak two words to a lady without trying to dig yourself into her skirts!”

Alex caught his breath, guiding their steps forward and stopping to bow to their hosts, generals and dignitaries each as they passed in step. “Not to be contrary with you, miss, but I like to think you are yourself a lady, and if I’ve been digging for your skirts I’ve kept my hands remarkably clean this time.”

He smirked at her immediate glare and gave her wrist a light slap when she nearly failed to curtsey Count Pulaski.

“Besides,” he said, straightening up, “I find it interesting that you assume it’s always been me who was eager to dash off for a romp.” Implication aside that he was such a lusty tramp- an insult he was so familiar with it hardly struck him anymore, “I think I’m attractive enough that any lady with a healthy sense of desire might approach me- have you thought of that?”

“A healthy sense of desire.”

“Or any desire at all, really.”

“You flatter yourself.”

He huffed a laugh and they stopped to bow and curtsey again. Righting themselves, they were shuffled inside and he looked over at her, “Well, I don’t expect you to do it.”

“That’s wise.”

Alex wanted to take offense, but the wit was blunt enough he found himself chuckling instead, wanting to hold her hand more casually to match the ease in this banter. He looked for where Tench had walked off with Kitty, but Elizabeth hadn’t released his hand. He glanced at her, “So Kitty told you I invited Tench to distract you from your sacred duty: to protect her…so that I can’t…” he smirked, “take her away and ravish her?”

“You too quickly assume women like you, mister Hamilton.”

“And you too quickly take the word of your friends without allowing contrary evidence.”

“It’s called loyalty, Colonel.”

“Yes,” Alex agreed. “Loyalty to friends. A very quick way to be associated with hurtful injustices, look-” tugging her hand, he stopped by the dance floor where the guests were preparing for the first dance to commence. “You’ve seen me in a very unflattering light.”

She replied with an impatient glare of agreement.

He gathered up her hands, stepping over her so that she backed away a step and the folds of her skirts shifted around his legs. “But if your reputation precedes you, you’ll do me the kindness of believing me when I say my intentions are true with your friend.”

Black eyes narrowed, “True…?”

“I intend to court her properly,” Alex said. It was the first time such words had ever left his mouth with full honesty and he didn’t like the taste of it.

Even with permission, it felt like a betrayal. If not to John, at least to himself.

It felt like surrender to the world…to the way everyone else wanted things to be. At least with Kitty, the terms of that surrender were familiar. But, there were far more pleasurable ways to surrender to her than proper courtship- namely immobilized under her thighs…

But marriage? It was hateful as much as it was necessary. He could do it, be comfortable and happy with a woman in the same way that he could be comfortable, conceding a footrace where all bets were against him- he’d catch his breath and his muscles would relax, but he’d lose…the race, his pride, the satisfaction of knowing he had given all he had and finished at a sprint, of knowing that he’d defied all those who wanted him to lose…to sacrifice his own happiness for the comfort of others…he’d rather deny them all out of spite- punish them for ever demanding such a thing…

Sure, he loved women- their bodies and wit and sensibility. But, he loved himself first, and he hated this concession.

He wanted to stay with John, and he should damn well do it.

“Do you love her?” Elizabeth said.

“What?” Alex found himself staring at their hands.

“Kitty. Are you in love with her?”

No… That was a bold question and the right one to ask, but Alex could tell she would see it if he lied about this. John had said lying wasn’t in his nature anyway. Though, lately, it all felt like lies...

John had freed him to concede a part of his heart to ensure his own happiness- he had never said how large a percentage it must be, so what did it matter if he barely loved his girl at all? If he could do so just a little, that love would still be true enough and- “I was…” he said, voice dropping to a whisper. “There was a time I loved Kitty so much I could hardly stand it.”

A lie. He thought he loved her. He hadn’t even known what love was...yet.

“But that changed?”

Yes, it had changed, but Alexander couldn’t exactly explain that he had fallen deeply, hopelessly in love with his friend- his lover in camp. A man. He dropped her hands and stepped back towards the floor where the dancers were finding their pairs. “Look. I loved her before and I know that I am very capable of doing so again. Unless you have an objection to a man, intent on committing to a woman he wants to someday marry, I’ll ask you not to interfere.”

She grabbed his arm, pulling him back, “Wait-”

He turned, frowning. Maybe Kitty had told her something he didn’t know.

“She said…”

He braced himself for the inevitable. His girl had been promised to someone else and she simply hadn’t found a way to tell him. He should have known better than to raise his hopes- Kitty was wealthy and well-bred. But, why would her father have ever allowed her to attend this ball with him if that was so?

Elizabeth hesitated, “well, I think you hurt her badly these last few months. She was convinced you had fallen for someone else.”

So then, all was not lost. He closed his mouth, stepping back towards her and holding out his hand. “Dance with me. Please.”

Elizabeth looked past him to the floor.

…

This was a surprising development, though perhaps not a shocking one. Kitty dropped the folds of her skirt where she’d been walking to meet Alec for the opening dance. Their hosts would begin the ceremonies and the guests would each take partners for the minuet and the following line dances.

Betsey had come with her to help distract Alec and in that regard, she was effective, but there was no satisfaction in giving her a nod from across the room when the girl looked for her permission.

There would’ve been no harm in dancing with him…

Kitty glanced back to Colonel Tilghman, his eyes fixed on the same scene and drawing his own bottom lip to chew it, a heavy curl of guilt for the crestfallen expression he wore. It would be simple to walk over and cut in, free Betsey to his hand and take Alec away to the dance floor with her where he had intended to be anyway…but there was a danger in coming too close to that boy and his mouth, in imagining how she could have him with a simple command…

Not now…but maybe…

She stepped to Tilghman’s side, “Should I assume I’m not your first choice of dance partner?” she said, giving him a careful smile.

He collected himself as if he hadn’t realized he’d had her audience, composing himself and holding a hand out politely. “You are my best choice, it seems.”

It was the kindest thing to say.

…

Elizabeth understood the steps and moved with all the grace that Alex’s former dance partners had been known to want. The complicated series’ of steps and hops in the first few sets granted little time to conversation and far too much for his own reflections.

He’d only been gone for a week, but all Alexander could hear was John’s laughter, the tight-chested fondness to watch his clipped steps and small stumbles, the warmth of dancing in this stuffy ballroom style in their own cabin, perverting the movements to their own taste and reclaiming them their own…

And the night that followed.

John had said his dancing partner here would be able to keep up with him, but it was he who was struggling to maintain his usual grace, expecting longer limbs for the twirls and a taller partner to spin.

“Was Kitty right?” Elizabeth said, watching his feet- likely to avoid being stepped on, “That you’d fallen for someone else?” She looked up to his eyes, and when he didn’t want to answer, her tone accused, “Because you don’t seem to be dancing with me-” she stepped under his arm, “and if you had wanted to dance with her, you would’ve just asked.”

There were enough ladies that trailed behind the army to follow their families or work- she would have no reason to suspect- "Someone in camp,” he admitted.

Elizabeth frowned. “And you’ve come back to Kitty…because this girl in camp-”

“We would never work,” Alex said, clasping her hand again, “our…families…” John’s family would be ruined forever. He would be hanged by his political enemies. Washington’s reputation…all that had happened under the General’s watch… “I need to be serious about my future- consider things like marriage.”

“The infamous Tomcat, truly speaking of proper courtship.”

There was a smirk in her tone “Is that really so hard to believe?”

“No. I don’t think you’re being insincere,” she met his eyes as they dipped in unison, “But, I’ve heard stories…and, knowing that you love this girl in camp-”

He wished she would stop calling John a girl- “I admit, I have a terrible weakness,” he said, and for a moment, he wasn’t sure what he had intended to say. Then, Elizabeth’s dark eyes were locked on his, stepping close to him and sharing the same breaths and it was easy to explain, “I have a foolish, hopeful heart.” A strange topic to touch again. It wasn’t exactly a secret that he guarded, but it was one he didn’t speak of- or…had only spoken of with John, an inky black place in his chest, touched only by him. “See, I’m inexplicably drawn to fall in love with the ones I can never keep.”

Black eyes turned from him, staring past his shoulder on the party where Kitty twirled under the next man’s arm. “I think,” she wet her lips and glanced down toward his feet, “that’s not…your fault…”

That- he had not expected and, “How?” he blurted. Suddenly at a disadvantage, he didn’t want to seem confused, lagging behind her, “I mean, I know the heart wants what the heart wants- or some such adage, but-”

“But, that’s not what I’m saying,” she smiled, surprisingly kind. “I just mean…I think, when you allow it, your heart follows easily where it’s lead and that’s not a bad thing. It’s certainly not foolish.”

He didn’t know what to say to that, feeling raw in a familiar and unwelcome way.

“I think,” Betsey turned away, dropping the folds of her dress as the music slowed, “you shouldn’t be with someone who doesn’t see that…” Or worse- someone who saw it and let him fall in love nonetheless.

“You…don’t think Kitty sees it…” he realized this almost as he said it aloud, staring at her. “So if I told her I’d had a lover in camp- that that’s the cause of my silence, she wouldn’t forgive it.”

“I think…” the music had stopped and Elizabeth stepped back towards their friends, “that’s something you should ask her.”

It was Alexander’s turn to grab her arm and say, “Wait- you see her better than I do, I’m sure. I think you see me as well, and- even knowing and believing my intentions, you’ve diverted me from her… you don’t think I should pursue it further.”

“She enjoys you-”

“Yes, between her legs, what about her heart?” Alex nearly bit his own tongue, shocked with himself for saying such a thing to a lady- especially one he didn’t know in such a way. But, Elizabeth just raised her brows at his language. He slowed himself, “I mean, would it be unwise to let myself love her again? Please be honest.”

“Well,” she bit her lip and her hands smoothed out the front of her dress restlessly, fidgeting with his proximity “I think you’re attractive enough…you have many options. I certainly can’t control where your heart is leading.”

The response was so simple, Alex could hardly help himself from lowering his voice, sultry, “Don’t be so quick to doubt yourself there…” He grinned when that earned a high flush and her hands flattening out over her skirts.

Kitty and Tench stepped from the crowd of dancers, walking to join them. Unaware of their approach, Elizabeth stepped towards him to say, “We will be friends, if anything, mister Hamilton.”

She was close enough to convey her anger and he smiled, “I don’t keep ladies as friends, miss Schuyler.”

“Well, that is too bad,” she huffed, “because we will not be nothing.” Turning away from him, she nearly crashed into Tilghman’s chest.

Alex was still smiling when Kitty accepted his hand and walked him towards the ballroom floor once more.

…

It wasn’t until later- after the girls had spent some time together and Kitty had approached him, pulled him aside to borrow the carriage for a few hours, find some privacy, and shared kisses and touches, groans and sighs that spoke of dismissal…he realized his dear girl’s play.

Her friend, Elizabeth…Betsey- had been a demand for proof of his love, for him to show the lengths to which he’d go to have her like this again. But, hiking her leg over his shoulder to find a deeper place in her, he realized, he was only given this after she’d been reassured that she had him still- that the part of him he had forfeit was not lost in his silence.

She would never be his. He would never have that part of himself back. That was hers. He would surrender…

and surrender…

And there, in the inky black water, the depths of himself that were ugly and comfortable and John’s, there would be an intruder.

And, she would have whatever was left.

#ficlet #SOA #Song of Alexander #pretty uncomfortable with this #Hamliza #this was suppose to be funnier #then it turned into ham/liza banter #I don't know how to write straight women without them arguing the men they're suppose to like

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quotespicture · 5 years

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Man of Steel (2013) Movie Review

By Patrick Tchakounte (Austin, Texas)

Art expresses something of the symbol of the natural world, it is an imitation of life, for it seeks to convey through symbol, audio and visual image, a reflection, a truth, and the goodness of life itself. In contemporary life, there subsists a strained relation between the artistic expression and aesthetics — the philosophy of beauty — and it is certain that, this results from the loss of the religious sentiment of life: the contemplation of Beauty, found in the permanence of God, has ceded the place for praxis, that is, technology and a certain affection for only the consumerist production of things.

Zack Snyder foremost known for his comic book film direction, as evidenced in his successful Watchmen (2009) adaptation, once held a vision for the DC Extended Universe; a vision not shared nor accepted by all. Yet, it was ground-breaking, fresh, and took creative chances. It involved a re-telling of DC Comics characters, grounding them truly in reality and expanding their world to grant them more human motivations; while, however, robing them in the mythology characteristic of the DC Comics universe. The re-imagining of Superman is Man of Steel appears part of that conception, found in the tale of an alien among humans, who, despite their ignorance, their unbelief, and their innate xenophobia, chooses to become their greatest champion in the face of an alien invasion.

The world created by Zach Snyder seems an antithesis of Richard Donner’s; a vibrant world with landscapes teeming with animal creatures, on land and on air, which though harsh contrasts obliquely with the cold, lifeless world of the first Superman: The Movie. Both films are consistent in portraying the almost organic relation of Kryptonian technology with their home world, and Snyder’s visual tour de force is on display in the first twenty minutes where political debate over Krypton’s coming implosion yields way to unrelenting actions. Superman, indeed, is a man of action, and Snyder wastes no time in emphasizing this reality, showing that, even scientist Jor-El shows battle prowess against the battle-tested military leader Zod.

Zack Snyder appears to be comfortable with philosophical questions, addressing problems that are related with the fate of civilizations, and advanced races. The prospects of a world of superhumans is one, that, depending on the person and the taste, may have some appeal, though, not without their own perils. Comic book lore is well documented, here. It is a well-known fact, that, Krypton was an advanced alien civilization that had adopted an almost totalitarian political structure, or perhaps, a theocratic structure where science and religion collaborated to form a population where Kryptonians from birth were genetically engineered to fulfill a pre-determined role using as, revealed, in Man of Steel, the registry of citizens called the Codex — this, is the danger of genetic engineering, of a world, where following upon an unfortunate development, population control is established, space exploration and cultural contact are banned, and a civilization exhausts its planet’s resources. In our own day, this raises our current ecological problems as well as the continued philosophical questions raised by technology and its use by governments that in their Leviathan conquest are continually putting to silence the notions of human liberty and rights.

The element of choice — Man of Steel reinvents Superman for post-modern audiences drawing upon comic book materials as Superman: Secret Origin and Superman: Birthright. What separates Henry Cavill’s iteration of Superman is that, here, Superman is clearly a man of destiny, one formed by his parents to elect his own destiny: “Krypton’s first natural birth in centuries”. Hence, everything in Man of Steel‘s narrative emphasizes Kal-El’s uniqueness from the animals greeting his natural birth, to the bonding of the Codex within his individual cells, to his being rocketed to Earth in a space ship as Krypton explodes, to his gradual discovery of his powers and alien heritage, and finally, the controversial death of his father, the loss of his remaining alien ancestry as the invading Kryptonians are sucked into a black hole, to his murder of Zod, the villain of the movie — Superman, is truly in this movie, the Last Son of Krypton, a victim of prejudice and xenophobia from a young age and throughout his life, growing up an outcast journeying the world in search of clues offering answers to his questioning.

“What if a child dreamed of becoming something other than what society had intended? What if a child aspired to something greater?”

Man of Steel received mixed reviews criticized for being too serious, lacking heart and joy — Superman barely smiles — and being characterized by overblown destruction reminiscent, in fact, of 9/11. Zach Snyder has been criticized during his career, for poor storytelling skills, and there are, indeed, instances in the film where this is glaring. The Man of Steel IGN review claimed that “Superman is reborn in high fashion”. Some reviews have pointed out that the film is a religious allegory, one that seems to align Superman with the historical figure of Jesus Christ. These claims are true, and though the movie presents primarily as science fiction with themes of alien invasion, it also incorporates religious symbology.

The film is inherently a visual spectacle and when Superman appears in costume for the first time, there is a sense of greatness. Zack Snyder excels at visual cinematography, action sequences and the First Flight features great displays of power. Superman soars for the first time, after having leapt in single bounds! This is a scene reminiscent of the evolution of Superman’s powers over his storied history: from the ability to leap, to the transcendent power of flight that surpasses the force of gravity. Superman succeeds in re-connecting with his heritage, finding a Kryptonian scout ship that had been in a glacier in the Canadian Arctic for 18,000 years. This triggers a distress beacon that alerts General Zod and the surviving Kryptonian insurgents freed from the Phantom Zone by the explosion of the planet Krypton.

The second act of the movie commences with the first alien contact with the Kryptonians. On every screen on Earth and in every language, the phrase “You are not alone” is transcribed before the menacing voice of General Zod speaks. Superman is faced with the prophecy of his father: to stand proud in front of the human race or choose to oppose them by joining his Kryptonian heritage. What is revealed, is the fact, that, despite his mother’s guidance and his budding affection for Lois Lane, Clark Kent remains alone to face his own choices and bear the burdens of his destiny. Perhaps, here is raised the fact that, The Last Son of Krypton is eminently a figure of tragedy, a giant who, for all his otherworldly power, must continually be willing to take a leap of faith, and make the sacrifice for the benefit of the human race.

The Battle of Smallville, is the highlight of the movie for it literally puts to the fore the human element enmeshed in a battle between alien gods. Superman’s confrontation of Zod, and Faora and Nam-Ek is spectacular and visually satisfying. There is drama and action, and Faora is allowed to shine through her philosophical intelligence and her military code. When Kryptonians battle, there is ample destruction! And Superman is fast busy to fight off the invaders while protecting the U.S. Army soldiers. Superman’s punches are explosive and the apparition of heat vision reveals the certain madness and angst characteristic of the Kryptonian loner. Man of Steel appears definitely patriotic for it seems to paint the U.S. Army in a heroic light: they are visibly outmatched, both genetically and technologically by the more advanced aliens, and yet, they fight on with courage and dedication. Science fictions, here, is painted in a realistic setting, a small town with its IHOP restaurant and its shopping centers, amidst a battle of epic proportions. Here, Man of Steel succeeds in well-choreographed battles that foretell the future of Dragon Ball Z cinematic adaptations.

Zod’s master plan is revealed in the third act of the movie: He intends to terraform the Earth and create a New Krypton where the atmosphere and topography of the Earth are modified to fit Kryptonian physiology using a gravity weapon called a World Engine. Alien invasions are not new in literature and cinema, and it is safe to say, neither in Hollywood. The film raises the important question of evolution and of its associated precept — “the survival of the fittest” — where the strong prey on the weak. Is it defensible for a more advanced alien race to eradicate another species for the purpose of re-claiming its lost heritage and re-live the long past glory days of its civilization? Zod and Faora are guided by an evolutionary morality that seems to justify genocide on the basis that their more advanced alien heritage entitles them to eradicate an entire population of human beings. Basically, a form of Social Darwinism that recalls the historical practice of eugenics during the 20th century and the myth of improving the genetic pool of humanity by eradicating its least fit members. For Superman, however, “Krypton had its chance!”

Superman and the U.S. Army succeed in thwarting the Kryptonian invasion, sending them into the Phantom Zone. The final battle with Zod, seems to deprive the audience of its energy and be the expression of a certain depression by its director. In fact, it appears excessive though, spectacular. Man of Steel seems to introduce in Zod, an interesting villain, who despite his cruelty, has mitigating circumstances for, he was genetically engineered to act in the best interests of his species. The neck snap, remains one of the most controversial decisions of Zack Snyder’s career, for, by making Superman a killer, the film seems to question his own morality and contradict decades of on-screen portrayal of Superman as a morally upright person committed to never take a life, instead always finding another way in order to protect it.

For all its criticism, Man of Steel was a financially successful film. Though, it revealed the cultural disconnect that exists in the general audiences for the character of Superman, who at times, seems to appear too much as Jesus Christ. Superman Returns seems to have voiced the perceptible impression that post-modern man does not need a savior, but would rather, save himself.

The film stands as An Ideal of Hope, one that attempts to re-assert the place of Superman as an alien, one who is not human, in a world that holds him in distrust, and who, nevertheless is willing to sacrifice his life in order to be its protector. In contemporary culture, art plays the important function of entertainment; at the same time, it generates questioning for it continues to create wonder and seize the imagination. This is only a reflection of one fact: art continues to move culture, and is the final bulwark against totalitarian power. The story of Superman, is one that reveals the power of life and in this particular iteration, evidences the current zeitgeist, one of a people that has grown disaffected with its ideals and standing in distrust of the alien in response to the threat of terrorism and financial instability.

The myths of yesteryear, used to function as the cultural narrative that united the people. Since the 20th century, science fiction has steadily replaced that role because science has become the final authority. Today, art continues its important work of defining an era, but also of paving the way for the future. The degree of freedom of a civilization, can be measured in its artistic activity. The greatest threat to the totalitarianism of Communism is not the philosopher, theologian or political activist; it is the artist.

Rating: 3/5

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usatrendingsports · 6 years

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UFC Shanghai — Michael Bisping vs. Kelvin Gastelum: Preview, prediction, combat card

Michael Bisping does not must show something to anybody. Not after a legendary 17-year profession wherein he is tied for probably the most victories in UFC historical past. And never after just lately dropping the middleweight championship he dramatically got here into late in his profession.

But for some cause, the 38-year-old Bisping has determined upon a transfer — returning Saturday as a late alternative to headline UFC Battle Night time in Shanghai — that may finest be summed up as half cussed and half loopy.

Bisping (30-Eight) yielded his title on Nov. four to a returning Georges St-Pierre through third-round submission at UFC 217 in New York. Primarily based upon the Englishman’s personal feedback main as much as the combat, most anticipated him to retire if defeated.

He did not. And on simply two weeks’ discover, Bisping as an alternative accepted a possibility to exchange Anderson Silva, his former foe, after the longtime champion failed a drug take a look at.

So when Bisping enters the cage on Saturday for UFC’s first journey to mainland China (Bisping beforehand headlined their 2014 card in Macau), he’ll face revered contender Kelvin Gastelum simply 21 days faraway from his final combat.

Sounds loopy, proper? Regardless of the considered many who Bisping, already in form from the GSP bout, merely determined to just accept the headlining position on such excessive brief discover as a option to to finish his profession on his personal phrases ought to he show victorious. However that wasn’t the case both, as Bisping introduced he desires his finale to come back on the UFC’s return to London in March.

This combat is all about competitors for Bisping and the chance to take away the bitter style of defeat so rapidly.

“The truth that I misplaced [to St-Pierre], it bothers me,” Bisping advised MMAFighting.com final week. “I do know if I had that combat 10 occasions, I might win that combat 10 occasions. I do know I’d, however I misplaced to Georges and right here we’re with this present from the Gods.

“I get an opportunity to exorcise my demons. I get an opportunity to get again within the win column — all good issues.”

That does not imply Bisping’s determination is a brilliant one. The oddsmakers agreed, putting in him as a Three-1 underdog.

Lengthy an organization man, Bisping gained his lone UFC title in comparable vogue in 2016 by accepting a rematch towards Luke Rockhold on 17 days’ discover and recording a stunning first-round knockout. He heard the information this time round about Silva being pulled whereas listening to the radio in a automobile and immediately reached out to UFC president Dana White.

“I textual content Dana, I mentioned, ‘Pay attention, I do know a man that fought final week who has no accidents that may combat in Shanghai,'” Bisping mentioned. “He texts again, ‘fascinating,’ and I textual content again, ‘very.’ Twenty minutes later, I get a cellphone name. We agreed, we mentioned we might do it.”

Initially given a 30-day medical suspension from the New York State Athletic Fee for the damages accrued at UFC 217, Bisping was compelled to bear testing, together with an MRI, to get cleared for Gastelum. It is a course of he known as “a ache within the ass,” however finally value it.

UFC Shanghai combat card

Kelvin Gastelum -305

Michael Bisping +255

Middleweight

Li Jingliang -175

Zak Ottow +150

Welterweight

Alex Caceres -150

Wang Guan +130

Featherweight

Muslim Salikhov -220

Alex Garcia +185

Welterweight

“I bought a name from authorized division saying, ‘Mike, we have to know that you simply’re there mentally and bodily, how do you’re feeling?'” Bisping mentioned. “I mentioned bodily I am tremendous, however mentally I am wounded. The one factor that is going to make that proper is that if I will combat once more. I am emotionally and mentally scarred, however bodily I am tremendous.”

The transfer was a shocking one, particularly contemplating his combat with GSP went into the third spherical with Bisping absorbing injury from strikes.

Initially upset about Silva pulling out, Gastelum (13-Three) was overjoyed to get a big-name alternative. The previous “Final Fighter” winner is simply hoping to get the credit score he deserves for dealing with Bisping and, if issues go his means, profitable it.

“It does not matter to me, however it could be cool if I bought slightly little bit of credit score, too, for stepping up and accepting the combat,” Gastelum advised MMAjunkie.com this week. “This will likely be my third or fourth former champion that I’ve fought within the final 12 months. I do not suppose folks have been giving me credit score for the fights I have been taking within the final 12 months. This will likely be my third principal occasion in a row. I am simply using the wave.”

Gastelum, 26, snapped a formidable three-fight streak in July when he was submitted by former champion Chris Weidman and is not certain whether or not middleweight or a return to 170 will likely be in his future after Bisping.

Prediction

Regardless of the brief turnaround, Bisping enters the bout with clear benefits in expertise and dimension, with each a four-inch peak and attain edge. Contemplating Gastelum is a blown-up welterweight who depends on his velocity at 185 kilos, that might play a key half in how the combat performs out.

Neither is way of a menace to manage or end the combat on the bottom as Gastelum’s wrestling will seemingly be canceled out by Bisping’s traditionally stingy takedown protection. This combat will likely be gained and misplaced within the standup. Ought to Gastelum look as explosive as he did in ending Vitor Belfort in March (a victory that was modified to a no contest when Gastelum examined optimistic for marijuana), this may very well be a harmful outing for Bisping. However it’s not that simple to foretell.

Bisping stays a superb kickboxer who is aware of the right way to management house. He has additionally maintained a really excessive tempo and skill degree regardless of closing in on 40. The identical stubbornness that compelled Bisping to just accept this problem has additionally helped him intestine out shut fights lately.

The previous champion’s sturdiness ought to serve him nicely right here, making it a powerful probability the combat goes the gap. It’s going to seemingly come down as to whether the grind of a brief turnaround and a visit midway throughout the globe finally ends up affecting Bisping negatively. Contemplating consistency has been the calling card of his profession and an excellent cause for his success as a striker, it makes it laborious to guess towards him.

Decide: Bisping through majority determination

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vitalmindandbody · 7 years

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‘ We craved democracy ‘: is Hong Kong’s two-systems experimentation over?

As China stiffens its traction on the city over which British convention intent 20 years ago, pro-democracy activists are still fighting against erosion of freedoms

For President Xi Jinping, the 20th anniversary of Hong Kongs return toChina is a moment to toast the reunification of a nation and acclaim its unstoppable rise. But for activists such as Eddie Chu, one of the leading lights of a new generation of pro-democracy legislators, it has become an party for something totally different.

Boot-licking. Unprecedented boot-licking! he suggests, a smile smashing across his look as he reflects on how many members of the neighbourhood nobility have chosen to celebrate two decades of Chinese convention by plastering their homes and enterprises with patriotic slogans and red flag in the hope, he supposes, of currying economic favour.

That is quite the opposite of what Hong Kong people wanted to see in 1997. We wanted to see democracy. Democracy is not boot-licking.

On Saturday morning, Chinas authoritarian ruler, who is forming a rare three-day tour of the former British settlement, will result fetes of two decades of Chinese ascendancy alongside Hong Kongs incoming chief executive, Carrie Lam.

At a flag-raising formality just down the road from where the umbrella revolution happened an extraordinary rash of difference in the autumn of 2014 the pair will remember the moment this city of 7. 3 million tenants turned over to China after 156 years of colonial govern. A flypast and a sea parade are as follows. By night, the skies over Victoria harbour, from where the royal yacht Britannia differed on 1 July 1997, is likely to be illuminated by a dazzling 23 -minute blaze of fireworks.

The moving opportunity of Hong Kongs return to the motherland like a long-separated infant coming back here to the heated embrace of his mother, is still color in our recollection, Xi told a dinner on Friday night.

But of the membership of Hong Kongs democracy movement, the anniversary are complying with a profound sense of uncertainty and trepidation.

Eddie Chu and partisans express against the two arrested of 26 parties opposed to the Chinese government. Photograph: Yan Lerval/ Sipa/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Twenty times after Britains departure thrust this hyperactive lair of capitalism into the sides of a Leninist dictatorship, activists such as Chu fear Beijing is about to up the ante in its combat for control.

Ten pro-democracy legislators, of which “hes one”, are at risk of losing their jobs as a result of government-backed legal challenges against them. There are fears that under Hong Kongs new commander, who was elected by a tightly limited collection committee, there will be a regenerated pushing to legislate contentious anti-subversion legislation.

And while Xi has sought to strike an upbeat tint during his visit, recent remarks by another senior Communist party figure who dedicated to consolidate Chinas control of the former colony has put activists on edge.

The relationship between the central government and Hong Kong is that of delegation of ability , not power-sharing, Zhang Dejiang, Chinas number three official, supposed, adding that Hong Kong could only be governed by the individuals who posed no menace to[ its] prosperity and stability.

Feeding into activists appreciation of foreboding is the feeling that many western governments have now cut them release for fear of damaging their economic relationships with the worlds second largest economy.

Martin Lee, 79, the elder statesman of Hong Kongs democracy movement. Photograph: The Guardian

The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, questioned a carefully worded account about the commemoration on Thursday, saying it was vital that Hong Kongs autonomy be preserved. But Johnson realized no direct mention of thriving horrors about the deterioration of Hong Kongs liberties, or even of Beijings alleged abduction of a local bookseller who harboured a British passport.

The British government is just awful. Im afraid I cannot find any kind words to say about that, tells Martin Lee, a 79 -year-old barrister who is the elder statesman of Hong Kongs democracy movement.

Like many, Lee is convinced that China is gradually stripping away the freedom of the media promised to Hong Kongs citizens for the purposes of the the different countries, two systems formula and that Britain has done nothing to occur.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for Chinas foreign ministry appeared to confirm those frights, telling reporters that the joint declaration, a deal negotiated by London and Beijing securing Hong Kongs way of life for 50 years, was a historical record that no longer had any practical relevance.

Suzanne Pepper, a veteran chronicler of the citys quest for democracy, tells campaigners can no longer count on London or Washington for assist: As long as there is not blood in wall street, they dont care.

Not everyone is mourning Saturdays landmark anniversary, however. The streets around Xis waterfront hotel are speck with the groups of pro-government backers and decorated with flags that read I affection Hong Kong and One country, two systems has the strong vitality. Lilac postings hanging from bridges and lampposts carry the celebrations official catchline: Together. Progress. Opportunity. Skyscrapers have been decked out in shining cherry-red flags and neon displays that speak: Warmly celebrate the 20 th anniversary of Hong Kongs return to China.

Amid the omnipresent propaganda, there is also genuine patriotic ardour. Hong Kong people should be proud of the achievements of the motherland and all the progress our country has stirred, enthused Li Li, a template at a government-sponsored exhibit about Chinas space programme that has been erected in Victoria Park to coincide with this weeks party.

Many more have reacted the anniversary and the presidential visit with carelessnes.

Chu estimated that about a third of the population was divided between pro-democracy and pro-government boosters. The residual couldnt care less about the commemoration, and were most to be concerned about the traffic jams caused by the massive insurance operation to protect Xi.

Swaths of the citys waterfront are sealed off with towering white and off-color obstructions, with agents patrolling wall street with assault rifles in their hands. Too numerous police! jokes one of hundreds of officers patrolling the orbit, sweat beading on his neck.

Lee reads the lack of interest many young people are showing in Xis visit underscore how unplugged they experience from mainland China and how Beijings plans have lost their hearts and souls.

Oh, this is the ruler of a neighbour thats what they experience, he adds, pointing to a recent referendum suggesting that only 3% of 18-to-29-year-olds consider themselves Chinese, the lowest charge since 1997. The young people want republic. They dont want to be brainwashed.

For all the insignificance and confusion, Hong Kongs protest movement shall be published in buoyant feeling. Tens of thousands are expected to turn out on Saturday afternoon for an annual procession recognizing the return to China. Their rallying cry will be Twenty years of lies.[ It] was going to be Communist party officials, get out of Hong Kong, but they decided that was a bit more provocative, replies Pepper.

Last September, a record number of young anti-Beijing activists were elected to Hong Kongs legislative council, or Legco, in what one victor called a democratic miracle. However, many of them could now be forced from power, primarily because of government legal challenges over protests the activists took its participation in while being blasphemed in last year.

If two to three of them lose their sets, then the whole political equilibrium will change totally, and then Beijing will have absolute control of this legislature, warns Chu, which was intended to scream Democracy and self-determination and Tyranny must die while taking his oath.

Xi Jinping at a variety show to celebrate the handover commemoration. Image: Keith Tsuji/ Getty Images

Pepper said she was not rosy that Beijing would give concessions to activists, although there are Hong Kongs incoming ruler has pledged to healed the segment and build bridges. This is a bridge between republic and dictatorship, told Pepper. How she is going to connection that, I dont know.

Chris Patten, Hong Kongs last minister, has offered a more upbeat rating of the city he once guided, saying he was encouraged by the really profound gumption of citizenship of its young activists. Above all, I contemplate I am pleased about the way in which Hong Kong beings themselves are the reason for it still being a reason of confidence rather than pessimism.

Lee, who is famed for an impassioned defence of republic that he rendered after Britains withdrawal, says he is an eternal optimist about his flows opportunities under a new, young leader. These young person are our hope for the future. Im very proud of them.

Sitting in his chambers between a failure of Winston Churchill and a statuette of the Goddess of Democracy, the symbol of the 1989 Tiananmen Square declarations, Lee remembers strolling through the umbrella shifts main clique, a sprawling of tents and political debate, three days before police ultimately cleared it, in December 2015.

There were two little chicks singing on the field.[ It was as if they were saying :] I wish I were free, you know? The breeze was fresh, he remembers. I miss those days.

Additional reporting by Benjamin Haas and Wang Zhen .