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sanstropfremir · 3 years

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Stray Kids redid their "Wolfgang" performance but without the wolf hoodies. I haven't seen all of it yet but how are we feeling about that.

honestly they fixed a couple of the major things that i think were the biggest flaws, but they also did some things that toned it down to make it more palatable, but in doing that they also made it more boring? i had to go back and check what i wrote about it in my review because i have the memory of a goldfish but! i feel more positively about this version!

as per my episode 10 review i cited:

the costumes

the trampolines

the set dec and integration

the chaotic lighting

the projections, particularly the intro

and the lack of b movie schlock

as the main problem points, and it's safe to say that they fixed three of these, and improved but in the wrong direction on the others.

i think the biggest thing that they did to make it more watchable was the steadicam. this is what ALL the kingdom stages should have looked like, the consistent single perspective looks SO good. and when they do cut its with specific intention. as far as the stuff they fixed, that's the set dec, the projections, and the lighting. that stuff is a pretty easy fix, and i think the lack of set dec was more of a fault of the time constraints of the live finale than the intent of the designers. because the camerawork is so tight the lighting is a lot more pointed and it isn't as overwhelmingly twitchy until the end, which i'm fine with because it's the climax of this psychotic episode anyways. it also REALLY helps that they've got a hazer AND a fog machine*** running at full blast, because for parts like changbin's verse it adds much needed atmosphere and shapes the light in a really interesting way that i don't remember any of the kingdom stages being able to do. i actually really like this section it looks really sharp.

i'm glad they got rid of the mozart bit because it was distracting and confusing, and the projections are a lot less crazy in general because of the tightness of the camera. with all the crazy wideshot cuts that mnet did in their editing it puts emphasis on a lot of things that didn't need it, which was mostly the projections because those screens are so fucking big.

i don't really understand why they went for sparkly capes with epaulettes in replacement of the wolf hoodies? like i said it makes the stage less obnoxious but it also makes it more boring because they're taking another step into serious terrority and not further steps into schlock territory. also why did they put more clothes on bang chan. for shame!!! his thottery was the best part!!! i know i said the wolf hoodies were stupid but also they had time to make the wolf hoodies look less stupid (by less stupid i mean more stupid, actually). like there's really not enough fur in this stage.

they didn't do anything substantive about the trampolines and i minded them less in the actual segment they were used in because the lighting/camera now reveals less of the flaws. but really they needed to clear them out of camera when they weren't being used because they just look extremely awkward otherwise.

*** a hazer and a fog machine are kind of the same, except a hazer is for atmospheric effect and a fog machine is for like, that heavy ground-based fog. they use different fluid i believe and they're usually mounted in different places according to purpose. fog machines are usually on the ground or close to ground level, and hazers are usually mounted from a lighting rig or closer to the ceiling. you don't really see the effects of a hazer in a normal or house lighting state, they're meant specfically to give shape light beams from stage lights by adding particulates to the air; not as extreme as a fog machine, but enough to be visible in specific circumstances. the aftereffects/dispersion of fog will create a similar effect, but a hazer is a more consistent.

#thank u hanya this flew under my radar because i was too distracted by the mountain of fucking comeback news we've gotten in the last day #skz i know you want to be taken seriously but this concept works so much better if its ironic trust me #hey i can add something new to the kingdom reviews tag!!#i am glad baby spice got to have a part though #very happy for him #also i dont know if people have an image they associate with me other than my profile picture #but if you associate me with a goldfish please make it one of those pretty veiltail ones #my hair is the right colour at least!#lmao do people associate me with anything visually im kinda curious #kingdom #kingdom reviews #stray kids #kpop analysis #kpop questions #text #answers #stray kids w

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hunterbahamut · 3 years

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Here is a new story, and my first actual writing commission.

This was done for PictorisAurora, and this is a story involving their own sci-fi world and aliens; the Anura, and one of their characters; Rhrellia.

Rhrellia is a new member to a hatchery for the Anura, and this is the story of their first day on the job.

More information about their characters and setting can be found on their twitter, but I can do my best to provide links for some references.

Anura: https://twitter.com/PictorisAurora/status/1191223903600959488 https://twitter.com/PictorisAurora/status/1191553450796077057

Ursrapod: https://twitter.com/PictorisAurora/status/1272683960854691840

Rhrellia: (Warning, this link does contain spoilers for the story) https://twitter.com/PictorisAurora/status/1271588082203181061

But, I hope you enjoy reading it!

First Day

It was their first day, and Rhrellia was feeling rather nervous. It seemed a little silly; this was something they had been trained for and were excited to have finally happen, but there was still that nervous feeling fluttering in their stomach. They took a deep breath and worked to keep themselves calm, but when they reached the top of the hill, they got their first good look of the hatchery.

“Oh wow...” The hatchery was one of the complexes that was established for the breeding and development of young Anura tadpoles, situated in a large area of marshland. And it was huge. There were a few buildings spread out over the area, but the vast area was just marsh and wetlands surrounded by a large fence to keep the wilderness out. It was both impressive and intimidating, adding to Rhrellia's nervousness, but they took in a deep breath, slowly calming their nerves before continuing down along the path towards the main gate.

The main entrance wasn't very big and seemed to have only a simple guardhouse; something that surprised Rhrellia at first. As they approached, they could see two other Anura ahead; a taller one dressed in simple armor and holding a spear while the other, stockier one was wearing more simple clothing. The two noticed Rhrellia's approach and the stocky Anura raised their hand up in greeting. “Hello there!” They called out, “You must be the new caretaker!”

“That's right.” They replied, “I'm Rhrellia.”

The stocky Anura nodded, “Pleasure to meet you! I'm Seralha, I'm the supervisor of the care grounds here.” They introduced the other guard, “This is Crvohk, one of the senior patrol guards. They'll be your partner here to help show you around and help you get acclimated to how we do things here.”

Rhrellia nodded, looking to the taller Anura, “Nice to meet you!”

Crvohk nodded, “And you.”

Seralha smiled and nodded, “Right! Let's get you inside and situated before the day really starts! I hope you're not too tired from your trip.”

“Oh not at all.” Rhrellia said, “I'm actually really excited to get started here! This has been something I've been looking forward to for the past few months!”

“Excellent!” Seralha smiled, “Well right this way, we'll show you to your room!” The two Anura lead Rhrellia into the compound proper, even inside they were still amazed by the size they of the place. Their first stop was to the bunk house, where most of the guards and caretakers stayed. They were shown their new room and was able to drop off their traveling gear, before heading out to the see the rest of compound.

“The marsh is separated into six different pools.” Seralha explained, “It helps makes watching over the tadpoles easier for the guardians, as well as help keep up with our roll call.” As the morning came and the sun started to rise into the sky, the area started to wake up and come alive. The tadpoles were waking up and started to play around while other Anura caretakers started their work. Seralha showed Rhrellia around the area they would be working, instructing them about their procedures for meals and the times for school and play time. Crvohk then took them around the perimeter, explaining their patrol routes and showing them where the guard stations, armories and first aid stations were placed.

“We usually rotate and take turns on certain duties.” Crvohk explained, “Some days we'll take care of the manual labor, feeding and cleaning, the other times we'll be on patrol to chase away any of the larger predators. Thankfully, over the years, things have been pretty quiet since most of the predators know to stay away.”

“That's good.” Rhrellia said, nodding before they smiled. “So when do I start?”

Seralha laughed, “You are an eager one!” They smiled, “Well, I think that covers about everything, so I think you can get started whenever Crvohk says.”

They nodded at that, “We'll be working in the east section, we've been short-handed after one of our older caretakers retired. We won't have you start on patrol just yet, so you'll be helping with the the feeding and manual labor tasks. This way you can get meet the tadpoles and they can learn who you are as well.”

Rhrellia smiles and nodded. “Alright, that sounds good! Ready when you are!”

Seralha left the two as they headed to the eastern marsh area. The different ponds were separated by natural raised walls made of more solid earth with natural pathways set up so the older Anura could walk around while carrying supplies. Along the sides were several wooden docks that lead into the waters where there were other caretakers and teachers with schools of tadpoles all gathered around. Some of the tadpoles noticed Rhrellia and swam over to them and almost immediately started asking many different questions, making Rhrellia laugh a little before the teacher managed to wrangle them back over to continue their lessons.

The rest of the morning went by and Rhrellia was proving to be a natural at this. They worked well with the other caretakers, going about the tasks quiet well, and taking time to meet and talk with some of the other tadpole schools they got to meet. By the afternoon, Crvohk came over with some of the other caretakers. “C'mere Rhrellia. It's about time to start the afternoon roll call, we'll show you how that works and how we handle that.”

Rhrellia nodded and walked with the group as they approached the edge of the pool. The schools all gathered and they started to do their head count, calling out the names. While it was slow, it seemed pretty simple and straightforward. However, an uneasy silence fell over the caretakers. “Is something wrong?” Rhrellia asked.

Crvohk didn't answer right away. “....we're a few numbers short.” They said, “This isn't too uncommon though; but this is why we do multiple counts throughout the day...”

“Do we have anything to be worried about?”

“I hope not.” Crvohk replied, “They might be playing or hiding and just didn't hear the call.” They made the call again and redid the count, but they arrived at the same number. “Okay...now we have to worry.”

Rhrellia's ears twitched, starting to feel nervous. “What do we do in this case?”

“We don't panic, first of all.” Crvohk said. “The caretakers here will check the immediate area and see if they're nearby. We'll go and check the perimeter fence and just make sure things are alright there.”

With a plan in mind, two of the caretakers went int the water while Crvohk took Rhrellia and headed for the tall outer fence. “We'll just do a quick check of the fencing, just make sure there isn't anything strange or damaged.” Crvohk said, the two jumping into the water and swam towards lower sections. The fencing was made mostly of hard wood, held together by lengths of metal wiring, leaving little to now space for anything to slip in or out. At first glance, everything appeared to be sturdy, but the two moved in closer and started to inspect it, rapping and pushing against the sections. Rhrellia was tapping along until they came to a section that rattled. Startled, they gave it a firm push, discovering a section that could be pushed out, creating an opening that lead right out into the marsh beyond.

Crvohk saw this and he had a worried look on his face. “Oh no...”

Rhrellia pushed on the board and looked out, letting out a gasp, “I see one of them!” They said and started to squeeze through the opening, despite Crvohk's protests. They quickly swam over to the scared looking tadpole. “It's okay, you're gonna be safe.” They said, reassuring the young Anura and gently coaxed, them out of their hiding spot holding onto their arm. Rhrellia then swam back to the fence; Crvohk pushing on it so they could let the tadpole swim back in.

“The others must have snuck out through here then.” Crvohk said, the worry now clear in his voice. “We'll need to warn the others and get a search party together.”

“Right, but we need to hurry!” Rhrellia said, “I can start on ahead!”

“What? No!” Crvohk said, “We have a lot of area to search, and there are still predators out there! We need to gather the others.”

“But the longer we take, the greater the risk they'll get lost, or worse!” Rhrellia argued back. “I'm already out here, I can go on ahead and start the search, then I can meet up with you!”

Crvohk seemed to groan, but they relented. “Alright...” They said in a disapproving tone, “But take this with you.” They pushed the fence open again and pushed their spear out for them. “It's still dangerous out there. Don't get into anything you don't think you can handle!”

“Thanks, I'll be careful!” Rhrellia took the spear and quickly turned and started to swim out further into the wild marsh. Crvohk let out a small, worrying grumble. “Be careful you.”

Trying to track down and find a group of tadpoles was not an easy task; there was no way of knowing how long they were out here or how far they could have gone. Still, Rhrellia had to stay calm; getting worried or panicky wasn't going to help anyone. They quickly started the search by exploring the immediate area; checking around rocks and reeds, but so far there wasn't any sign of them. Slowly, they started to expand their search and moved further out.

And further still.

This was starting to scare Rhrellia. They were now pretty far from the hatchery, too far for any of the lookouts to spot anything. Would the kids really have gone this far out? Rhrellia climbed out of the water and onto the marshy shore, looking up into the sky. It was slowly turning over into evening now; while there was still some daylight, it would only last few a few short hours at most.

“Not sure how much more I can do.” They let out a sigh as they started to feel rather defeated. They turned to head back to the water, but that was when something caught their attention. Close to where they were, they could see what looked like tracks in the marshy ground. As they moved in closer to investigate, they could see that they were animal tracks of some kind. There weren't many but they were big; bigger than anything they thought was around here, and they actually seemed familiar. Before they could give it any more thought, something else grabbed Rhrellia's attention; it was the sound of reeds clicking together, despite the lack of any wind blowing. They turned and looked around, seeing the many clusters of reeds and plants at the edge of the water. “Ah! That's it! They must be hiding there!”

There was a huge sigh of relief and Rhrellia started to move to the water's edge, but they stopped suddenly again when they picked up a new sound. They stayed still and listened close; it was more clicking but this time it was different. This wasn't the sound of reeds or plants rustling against, this one was more distinct. And it was one they recognized. They gasped, suddenly realizing what it was: the size of the prints and the sound of the clicking, the clicking of echo-location. It was an Ursrapod.

That couldn't be right though, what was a dangerous apex predator doing so far out of their normal habitat? Now Rhrellia was scared and they held their spear in a tight grip. While they were trained to fight, most of it was against smaller creatures that were expected to be in the area, not something as dangerous as an Ursrapod. They stood still and slowly started to look around, trying to scan the area There was a chance that they were already discovered by the Ursra's echo-location...

And they were right.

Despite its size, the predator came charging out from the brush, taking them by surprise. It swung its large forearm out and slammed it against the smaller Anura, sending them off their feet and landing hard in the muck with their spear landing a few feet from them.

“Uuuhhh...” Rhrellia's head spun as they tried to recover, forcing themselves back up. They looked up in time to see the Ursrapod bring their tail around; the flower-like bulb on the end opening up to reveal the tail mouth, hundreds of sharp spines lining the 'petals' and the sharp teeth around the central opening. They let out a gasp and jumped out of the way as the tail mouth came down, snapping the air where they were just seconds ago. Rhrellia tried to stay up, but they slipped and fell back down and started to scramble, trying to reach the the spear. The Ursra moved quickly though and soon it was on hovering over them again. Just as Rhrellia grabbed hold, the tail mouth came streaking down again. They tried to roll out of the way, but this time the mouth snapped down and grabbed hold of one of their ear tendrils. Rhrellia's breath caught in their throat as they tensed up, but the Ursrapod started to pull its tail back, causing the Anura's reflexes to kicked in and they tried to jerk back.

For a brief second, there was the sickening sound of flesh tearing. Rhrellia let out a sharp, loud cry as pain hit them hard and flooded over their head and face. They tumbled forward and hit the soft muck again, letting out a gasp of pain as they could feel blood start to flow from their missing ear and onto their shoulder. Rhrellia pushed themselves up, using the spear to help as they gritted their teeth and head ached. They had to try and fight through the pain, else the predator was going to get more than just an ear.

The Ursrapod continued to advance on its prey. Rhrellia saw it coming and tried to ready themselves as it charged. They dodged around it and ducked down, but they slipped in the muck again and lost their balance. They were able to catch themselves this time, but they stumbled as they turned to attack back. They swung the spear, aiming for the predator's softer underbelly. The blade made contact, but with their failing strength and the awkward swing, the blade only made slight purchase, hitting more on the tougher upper hit and only scratching the softer flesh below. The Ursra was quick to retaliate and used its hind legs to kick backwards. Rhrellia tried to deflect, raising the spear up quickly, but the kick still made contact, sending the Anura spinning backwards and crashing into one of the rock formations behind them. They landed awkwardly and the impact caused the spear shaft to shatter in their hands and the hooked blade sliced into their arm as they tried to catch themselves.

Rhrellia gasped out in pain, shaking in pain and fear as the world was spinning all around them. “Oh no no no...” Their mind was racing, trying to think of what to do as they could hear the Ursrapod advancing on them, ready to finish them off. There was little time to think and they just let reacted instinctively as adrenaline surged through them. They dove down to the ground and grabbed hold of the spear head as the larger creature reared back up on it's hind legs, ready to slam down on top of them. Using all of their strength, Rhrellia pushed themselves up and lunged forward. They weren't aiming, but they managed to plunge the hooked blade right into the Ursrapod's forepaw, using their momentum to push forward, digging the blade in and dragging it up its' leg before they lost their grip and fell forward.

The Ursrapod let a loud, low groaning sound from the pain and pulled back. It had taken enough damage now that it lost interest in its prey and it started to retreat back into the brush at a quick pace.

Everything was suddenly quiet. Rhrellia didn't move for a few moments, laying still as their mind buzzed from the pain and body shook from adrenaline. Slowly, they pushed themselves up and looked around, “Is...is it gone...?” All they could see was the broken spear pieces amongst the blood-splattered mud. As much as their body demanded rest, Rhrellia had to make sure that the tadpoles were safe. They pushed themselves up and slipped back into the water; the cold immediately hitting them and giving them a moment of relief as it dulled the pain. Slowly, they made their way over to the reed patch and started to look around. It was hard to see with the fading light, but after a few brief moments, they were able to see several pairs of eyes looking back out at them, followed by the smaller Anura tadpoles as they started to come out of hiding.

Finally, there was a huge sense of relief and Rhrellia nodded. “It's okay little ones, you're safe now. Lets get you back home.”

“There! Over there!”

Rhrellia was taken by surprise and they looked up and finally saw a group of the other caretakers approaching, including Crvohk. “Rhrellia!” The called out, shocked when they saw how injured they were. “What happened?!”

“Ur...Ursrapod...” They managed to say, “But...I found...found them.” They pointed over to the reeds as more of the tadpoles started to come out of hiding.

The other caretakers started to gather the tadpoles while Crvohk helped Rhrellia to the surface, settling down on the bank as Seralha came rushing over with a first aid kit. “What did you say? An Ursra? Are you sure?”

Rhrellia nodded slowly. “I...I managed to chase it off...” They started to recount the events of what happened and the encounter while the other two worked on bandaging them up. “Do you realize how dangerous it was to go off like that by yourself?” Seralha said, looking and sounding rather flustered, “It's already dangerous out here for anyone by themselves with the just the normal predators, but to face off with an Ursrapod?”

Crvohk lowered their head down before speaking up, “They're not the only guilty one here, I let them go on ahead..”

“I should reprimand you both for it!” Seralha before they let out a heavy sigh. “But...I'm just glad things didn't turn out worse than they did. I'm also rather impressed that you were able to chase something like that off by yourself” They looked to Rhrellia, “...first day on the job and you fight off an Ursra...”

Rhrellia looked down, at a loss for words, but Crvohk helped them back up to their feet. “Come on, let's get back to the compound, we can discuss all of this in safer waters.”

It was slow going, but soon the three made it back; Rhrellia never felt a sense of relief like they did when they were back inside. “Did we...get all of them?”

Seralha slowly shook their head, hesitating to answer for a moment. “Not all of them...we're still missing one.” They sighed, “I don't like to admit this, but with an Ursrapod out there...” They didn't finish the sentence, the others knew full well what that meant.

“What's an Ursra even doing out here in the first place?” Crvohk asked. “We're a long way off from any of their swamps.”

Rhrellia sighed as they held their head for a moment, “Something must have chased it or forced it out?”

“Maybe,” Seralha said, “But Ursrapods don't leave their grounds very easily. It would need to be something either very big or very devastating.” They let out a sigh, “I think we can think on that some other time. Crvohk, could you escort Rhrellia back to their room? I think we all need to get some rest after all of this. I'll need to speak with the others and make sure the fence is mended and we have extra patrols for the night. Just in case.”

“Of course.” Crvohk nodded and he helped Rhrellia back to the bunkhouse and up to their room. “Well, I have to say...you have a heck of a way of making a first impression.”

Rhrellia just let out a dry laugh, “It wasn't my intention.”

“I'm sure.” Crvohk said, “But you've certainly impressed me, just by going off like that to look for the missing 'poles. I don't think many newbies would be willing to do that.”

Rhrellia sat down onto the bed. “I just thought...it would be a bad idea to wait any longer.”

“And you could have very well be right.” Crvohk said, “I wish I had gone with you though...could have saved you from loosing your ear like that.”

Rhrellia sighed, “It...I'll be aright.”

Crvohk nodded, “Well, you'll be off duty for a while I wager, and then on light duty after that. Just make sure you don't make a habit of it, okay?”

“I'll try.”

Crvohk nodded, “You'll have a good story to tell the others at least.” They reached into their pouch and pulled out the broken spear head and sat it on the side table. “And a good trophy to go along with it.”

Rhrellia looked at the stained metal blade and shivered. “Yeah...I guess so...” They slowly shook their head, “Still...I'm sad that we lost one of them.”

“I know.” Crvohk said. “That's a feeling you'll never get used to...but sadly it's one of the risks of our job. We do everything we can to watch and protect them, but sometimes, even with all of that, it can't be helped.” They reached over and put a hand on their shoulder. “Just remember, you saved many more today, and that's nothing to be taken lightly. Okay?”

Rhrellia sighed, “I'll try.” They looked up and gave them a weak smile. “Thanks.”

Crvohk nodded and turned to head out. Rhrellia watched them before their gaze fell onto the blade again before letting out a sigh. Exhaustion was finally starting to over take them and they laid back, finally letting themselves rest.

In the following days, the story of the Ursrapod encounter had spread through the compound, to both adult Anura and tadpoles alike. Rhrellia found themselves retelling a few times, even showing off the spear head to those that asked. The tadpoles would immediately recognize Rhrellia now, some even referring to them as the 'Ursra slayer'. It was odd, but kind of flattering as well, so they were willing to roll with it.

There was still concern about the Ursrapod; many wondering if it was still out there as well as wondering what could have brought it all the way out here. It was scary to think about, but Rhrellia seemed to be even more committed to their duties: this was their home now and they were going to protect it and everyone inside it.

#bahamut writing #commission #pictorisaurora #anura #rhrellia #first day

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prorevenge · 5 years

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Shitty neighbor bullies struggling immigrants for 15 years. Their kid gets revenge, and the shitty neighbor loses custody of her kid & is forced to move out of their house.

I'm sorry it's long, but I think it's worth it!

Spoiler alert: I'm the kid.

A bit of context first:

I'm an only child, born in the USA to older parents (they were both 45 when I was born) who immigrated from Venezuela in the 90's. When I was 2, my Dad was shot in the head. He lived for another 13 years, but the incident permanently damaged certain parts of his brain, and he was a completely different person for those last 13 years. He went from being the most loving, incredible, caring, compassionate person around, to an aggressive, violent, asshole who blew up over the smallest things, but only ever at his inner circle (me, my mother, or other close family). He always managed to keep his composure around strangers for fear of someone calling the police and him getting arrested, but he would later let it all out on my Mom and myself (admittedly mostly me). After the shooting, he could never work again, and my Mom was forced into the position of being the family's sole breadwinner. We lived in poverty for many, many years, because the USA wouldn't recognize her college degree and she couldn't afford to go to college again, so she couldn't work in her field and had to start "at the bottom of the ladder." Dad eventually died when I was 15, of issues related to his shooting.

Now, when I was 7, my parents decided to move into a town with a better reputation for their schools than the one we were currently living in, so that I could attend a better school. They bought a house literally on the edge of town. Most of this town is incredibly expensive, but because on the other side of our street (and across the town line) there's a big complex of government-subsidized housing, our area is much cheaper. This is the house with the asshole neighbor. The house is a three-family. For the last 16 years, we have owned and occupied the first floor, while the terrible neighbor lived on the second floor (until recently). The third floor has been occupied by over 10 owners and tenants over these years; None have stayed more than 3 or 4 years and some have stayed as little as a handful of months.

Now, the second floor bitch, let's call her "Karen." Because, obviously. She has a husband, who we'll call Bill, and they have a young son, Henry.

Here's the story:

When we moved in, Karen and Bill had already been here for a few short months. The three of us (us on the first floor, Karen and Bill on the second, and the original third floor's owners) bought the house from the same crew, who had bought it and turned it into a three-family, "fixing it up" in the process.

Karen quickly showed her true colors as a bully. Over the years, there's been countless examples of nasty shit she's pulled. Her husband, Bill, is an immigrant himself, and doesn't speak very good English. He's very submissive to her and does whatever she wants, but in front of other people makes himself out to be physically dominant. In our first years here, they used to fight a lot, which we regularly heard from downstairs. They would yell, sometimes for hours, and occasionally it seemed like things got violent. Henry was born maybe 10 years ago. He doesn't factor into the story until much later. But anyways, the point is: Whatever Karen's done, she's always gotten away with it. Here are some highlights:

My Mom always took pride in how well she took care of our trash bin & recycling bin. Every month she'd give them a quick rinse after that week's trash day, just to make sure that they wouldn't develop a smell or a colony of bacteria wouldn't move in. Karen, apparently, wasn't so diligent, and one time, her recycling been got really nasty. And I mean really nasty. So, she just left it out back (context: Behind the house isn't a backyard, it's just pavement with a parking spot designated for each unit), and began using ours. Lo and behold, ours started to get nasty, and Mom quickly went from spending a quick 3 minutes rinsing it out every month to about 45 minutes scrubbing with soap and water to clean it out. Eventually, we decided we'd had enough, and she and Dad sent Karen and the third-floor-tenants of the time a polite, but firm, e-mail, that basically said, "Whoever started using our recycling bin, please stop and use your own. You never asked our permission, and we take good care of it, and ever since you began using it it's become disgusting." We knew it was Karen and Bill, but Mom & Dad figured it was more polite without a call-out and they "didn't want to start anything." Within a week, 2 things happened: Karen & Bill got a brand-spanking new recycling bin, and one week we found ours had been mysteriously destroyed. Someone took a knife to it and cut it to pieces. We had no way of knowing who it was, but we had a pretty good feeling we knew exactly who it was. (Yes, we had to get a new one.) Because we had no evidence of who did it though, my parents didn't say anything about it.

Back when we could afford a car (we haven't had one since our first few years here), we used our parking space out back. Every time that Karen & Bill hosted a party (which back then was surprisingly frequently), they would toss their trash over their balcony "into the general vicinity of the trash & recycling bins out back," which is literally right next to our designated parking space. Most of the dents we had on our old '88 Toyota were from bottles thrown from the second floor balcony. We had windows break a couple times; Same deal. Each time it happened, my parents would politely go upstairs, knock on Karen & Bill's door, and respectfully ask them to stop throwing stuff over the balcony because "sometimes it accidentally hits our car." Each time they went and did that, Karen & Bill stopped, but they would do it again until they got caught during their next party. Again though, my parents never wanted to escalate the situation, so they never justified taking it further than knocking on her door and politely asking them to stop.

This is another example of Karen's utter shit behavior, but it's also relevant for the revenge part of the story, so I'm putting it after the bullet point section. Our basement is shared between all 3 units. Each unit has its designated space boxed out (kind of like office cubicles), and there's some designated "common area" in between. Years ago (maybe like 8 or 9), Karen and Bill completely filled their designated basement cubicle, so they just started piling shit all over the common area. Eventually, they developed this enormous pile of junk in front of Unit 1's (our unit) oil tank (for heating). My Mom & Dad never said anything because it happened over a long period of time and they didn't want to start a fight, and as far as I know none of the third floor folks ever said anything either, but it got to the point where she and her husband were taking up common area space that was easily twice the size of their designated cubicle.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that for many years my parents and I weren't great neighbors, either. We didn't bully anyone, but due to my Dad's condition, he could be triggered (ayyyyyyy) by seemingly anything, and suddenly he'd be in a rage and we'd all be yelling. I grew up in that generally chaotic environment, and, yeah, there were several times when the police were called to our house for noise disturbances. But we kept our shit to ourselves, and we were nothing but polite and respectful to all our neighbors, always.

That said, you can imagine that our first priority was always my Dad and his stability, and we had enough on our hands with that, so he & Mom always swallowed their pride and avoided doing anything to antagonize Karen, no matter how shitty her behavior got.

After my Dad died, I developed my own issues for a while, with mental health. Growing up in a constantly chaotic, violent, aggressive environment took its toll on me, and for a time I had deeply depressive tendencies. I struggled with suicidality for years, and eventually wound up graduating high school after 8 years of attending classes in some form or another. Similar to when my Dad was sick, I became my mother's top priority at that point, so again, Karen and Bill kept getting away with all her bullshit.

I got better though. Nowadays, I'm even off my psychiatric medication. I got my shit together and graduated high school, and even college. I have my Bachelor's, and I'm doing some postgrad stuff for a Master's. Most of the way has been paid for by scholarships. But, I recently decided that, as an adult now and therefore as someone with a little more say in things around the house than when I was a kid, I had had enough of watching Karen bully my parents, particularly my mother, for so many years. I want revenge.

Phase One of my plan was to ease my way into the adult, condo-administration dialogue. I began helping out more around the house -- as in, around the common area parts:

I single-handedly redid the back porch's flooring (it sounds like more than it is -- I just pulled out all the floorboards and nailed new ones in).

I replaced both storm doors (about 6 months apart) when each one began having problems (different kinds of problems, it doesn't matter what they were).

I also took care of some comparatively smaller things -- I weedwhacked out back for a couple hours, cut the grass out front a few times, and got up early so that I could beat everyone else to the shoveling every time it snowed one winter (not '18-'19, but '17-'18). I also began wheeling back everyone's recycling & trash bins after trash week every week, not just our own.

After the first 2 bullet point stuff, each time I sent out an e-mail to everyone in the condo to let them know that I had taken care of it, and that all I asked of the other 2 units was for them to reimburse me 1/3rd of the cost of materials, on their timetable, because of course I hadn't given them a heads-up so it was only fair that I allow them to pay me when they can. The smaller stuff from the last bullet point I obviously didn't need to announce, the idea was just that over time, the neighbors would see me taking more initiative in things and being more active, which would go on to justify me participating more in inter-condo politics. I also made a point to keep conversations to e-mails, so that there would be a written record of every interaction.

Phase Two of my plan ran pretty much concurrently to Phase One, but had an entirely different purpose and was overall entirely different: I began gathering evidence of everything I could.

I asked my Mom to track down all the old e-mails she & Dad had exchanged with the neighbors, documenting many instances that Karen & Bill had pulled shit

I went downstairs and took a video of Karen and Bill's shit all over the common area, particularly emphasizing all the highly flammable wooden and cardboard shit they had piled up in front of our oil tank.

I dug up and pored over the deed to our apartment, specifically the sections that detailed the rules around common areas and the limitations of our unit as compared to the others and vice versa.

To my utter joy, Mom & Dad never threw out that old recycling bin that Karen and/or Bill had knifed up, apparently because they just never knew what to do with it and never wanted anyone to ask questions. Naturally, I dug it up and took plenty of photos.

I did one other evidence-gathering thing that needs a bit more explanation: Karen & Bill are awful parents. Mom & I regularly hear the shit they do to Henry through the very thin ceiling we have here. I'm decidedly not going to go into detail because, even though I changed his name, he's still underage and I feel it would be disrespectful to him to do that, but let's say it crosses far into the realm of child abuse. This is a topic I'm particularly sensitive about because I grew up in a shitty situation myself, so believe me when I say this part is the most satisfying part of my revenge. Let's just say that every time I could hear shit through the ceiling, I took out my phone and started a recording until it stopped.

Finally, Phase Three of my plan was basically to bait Karen and/or Bill into a trap I set, that, as it turns out, would have humongous consequences (for them).

Mom & I have this old treadmill that we got for free. It's in the kitchen, and lately we've come to the conclusion that it just takes up a little too much space. We both use it a little, but not enough to justify keeping it. She wanted to toss it out, but I argued hard to keep it around, because I knew I could use it for this plan. It would be my only shot.

Remember how I mentioned we haven't had a car for years? Well, eventually, I convinced Mom to let me put the treadmill outside, in our parking space out back. I bought a large tarp to cover it with, so it would be protected from the rain, and I told her I'd start using it more if it was outside because it's nicer to do exercise in the fresh air.

I also sent out an e-mail to Karen, cc'd to Bill and the current third-floor-folks, asking her to move all the things in front of our oil tank in the basement "somewhere else." Despite the fact that those things had been there for many years, I justified addressing it now because I'm the one addressing it, and that's different from before because before I was a child and now I'm an adult who actively participates in the inter-condo dialogue. I asked her to because the way she currently had it set up is a safety hazard, and "I'm just following the rules." I further let her know that if she and Bill didn't take care of it within a handful of weeks, that I would have no choice but to take care of it myself. In the same e-mail, I let everyone know that I was putting our treadmill in our parking space out back, so that if anyone had any trouble with getting into their spot to please let me know. The same day I sent out the e-mail, I put the treadmill out back.

Now, I figured nothing was going to change from all the other e-mails I had sent about matters regarding the condo's administration, and nothing did: She and Bill never acknowledged anything. The current third-floor guy didn't want anything to do with going up against Karen, so he just thanked me for the heads-up about the treadmill and said nothing else.

It's also important to note here that my real reason for mentioning the treadmill in that e-mail wasn't "in case anyone has trouble getting into their parking spot." Needless to say, sure, a treadmill in a kitchen is pretty fucking big and obnoxious, but a treadmill off to the side of an automobile parking space isn't really big at all. Plus, I placed it in such a way that it wasn't in anyone's way, giving everyone ample room to maneuver around. It was just there, off to the side. The reason I mentioned the treadmill in that e-mail was to alert her to its presence, and perhaps associate it in her mind with my request for her to move all her shit in the basement.

I also began using it, at least three mornings a week. I timed it so that sometimes, Karen and Bill would run into me as they left to drive Henry to school. Every time I saw them, I waved and greeted, to ensure they'd notice me on the treadmill. Mom also used it a few times, but she wasn't part of my plan so I've no idea if she ever ran into them while on it.

Here's the other thing I did: I set up a video camera in our laundry basket. See, we have it permanently in the pantry, next to the pantry window that faces the back area. I buried it beneath clothing so that from outside you can't even see it, but I bought a few massive (memory storage wise, not physically) SD cards and kept the thing recording 24/7, with a timestamp.

For 2 weeks, nothing happened. The camera recorded nothing suspicious, and Karen & Bill didn't move their shit in the basement.

Their time was up, so one night, I got up at around 1AM when everyone else was asleep so nobody would hear me, and went downstairs to move their shit.

Reddit, I can't express to you how much I enjoyed this. I bought a GoPro, put it on my noggin, and carefully recorded the entire hour and a half of moving shit around. I took the enormous pile of junk in front of Mom & I's oil tank, and found a way to fit all of it into their designated storage cubicle. In the end, it was packed. I have mild OCD and I nearly had an orgasm at the end from how well organized (physically) everything was, so that everything was neatly packed together and all the space was used at maximum efficiency. It was glorious. Packed from floor to ceiling, and almost wall-to-wall all around. If you can just imagine one massive, near-perfect rectangular prism of junk, that's what I had created. It was a masterpiece. I was so proud. On the side the door was on, there was enough space to walk to either wall, but you couldn't move "into" it anywhere.

I got back upstairs to our apartment and couldn't sleep the rest of the night. I was beyond excited. I wound up watching Infinity War to prepare for Ant-Man and the Wasp's then-upcoming release. Ayyy.

Sure enough, Karen & Bill took the bait. I must've been at school or work when they first discovered the basement, because I never heard a thing about it. In hindsight, it's probably best I was out, even though I would've savored those angry shrieks like nothing ever before. In any case, within a few days, we discovered our treadmill destroyed. Similarly to the recycling bin of years past, it had been knifed up. I can imagine they probably wanted to straight-up take a hammer to it, but they didn't want to make much noise, so they wound up just tearing the thing apart with a really big and really sharp knife. They had seen that we were using it, and aside from our trash & recycling bins it was our only property that they had access to at that point (several years back I filled up the rest of the wall of our basement cubicle and installed a door with a lock, so our cubicle is now sealed off to everyone else but the others are open and anyone can enter), plus I can imagine destroying a $1000 treadmill is infinitely more tempting than a trash or recycling bin, so they went for it in retaliation for my stunt in the basement.

After moving their shit in the basement, I started timing my treadmill use differently so that I wouldn't run into them. As soon as I saw it after they destroyed it, I went straight to the camera I had set up in the pantry. It caught the whole thing. In true fashion of their relationship, Bill brandished an enormous knife and single-handedly destroyed the whole thing himself, while she stood next to him and seemingly ordered him to do it.

With that in hand, I called the police, reported the incident, told them that my mother and I felt threatened by their presence and we filed a restraining order against both Karen and Bill with the police that same day. I turned over all the evidence I had gathered of all their shit over the years, and I also turned over all the audio clips I had of Karen & Bill terrorizing Henry. I figured since it was all audio and no video, it wouldn't be enough to get him out of their care, but maybe it'd at least get the Department of Children & Families involved.

Karen & Bill immediately claimed that I had broke a bunch of their shit while moving it around in the basement (shit that they no doubt had broken themselves), so I offered my GoPro recordings as proof that I had not, in fact, broken any of their shit while moving it at all.

The restraining order a person is allowed to file with a police report is always temporary, but you can always petition the court to extend it. Once Mom & I did that, it was granted. At that point, Karen & Bill hadn't been legally allowed to go back home for about a week, and since it became a longer-term restraining order, they were basically not going to be allowed to live in their own home for several years, so they made the obvious choice to sell the house and move elsewhere. Needless to say, selling a house you're not allowed to be near is a difficult task, and moving all your stuff out of said house is even more difficult -- particularly when you have so much of it. They wound up coordinating the entire house's sale from afar, with their realtor being the only person who came around to show the house. Once it was time for them to move, some relatives of theirs came around and packed everything up and loaded it into a truck.

Also, I was right, based on my recordings alone Henry wasn't taken from their custody, but DCF did get involved. I heard from their family that came around to pack up their shit though that Karen & Bill did wind up losing custody of him. They didn't say much as to why, but they basically implied that the abuse ramped up a lot after everything went down between me and Karen & Bill (which is the only part I feel guilty about, but in the end I hope this is a situation where the end justifies the means), at which point DCF was already sniffing around, so they wound up losing custody of him anyways. I've no idea where Henry wound up, but wherever he is I obviously have nothing against him and I hope he winds up in a much better situation than he was.

Finally, I will say, for two such inordinately obtuse and disgusting human beings, they had surprisingly decent family members. The few times I ran into them and made small talk when they were around they were pretty apologetic about the whole thing. I got the impression that this isn't the first time they're apologizing on Karen & Bill's behalf. I hope Henry is taken in by one of them, and not chucked into the foster system. Here's hoping, kid.

(source) story by (/u/dorkofthesnorkelkind)

#prorevenge #by /u/dorkofthesnorkelkind #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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drcsmdws-blog · 5 years

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have you been re-introduced to DORCAS MEADOWES? last we heard, the PUREBLOOD was most familiar with TIMELINE ONE. I don’t recall if they were always a RAVENCLAW, but I’ve heard the SEVENTH YEAR. is still LOYAL, STRATEGIC, OBSERVANT and INDECISIVE, OVERTHINKING, RETICENT, so that’s familiar. at least SHE remembers her way around the castle.

PINTEREST. | PLAYLIST.

CHARACTER INSPO: Astrid Leong ( Crazy Rich Asians ), Veronica Lodge ( Riverdale - i’m so sorry ), Rory Gilmore ( Gilmore Girls ), Peyton Charles ( iZombie ), Prue Halliwell( Charmed ), Celeste Wright ( Big Little Lies ),Carla Rosón ( Elite )

character history ( mentions of suicide, death, ocd, alcoholism )

HISTORY:

MEMORY ONE: THE FIRST WIN AGAINST BELARUS MEADOWES.

“Dad, why is my name Dorcas?”

“Why is the sky blue?”

The two had a chess date every Saturday afternoon that carried into her Hogwarts years. He’d make the trip to the castle just to spend some quality time and when Dorcas was old enough to go on Hogsmeade trips, they’d find their spot in Madame Puddifoots amidst the couples and giggling girls in the shop. Belarus loved being surrounded by so many happy and smitten people, Dorcas could see how he thrived, how he practically fed off of it like he was in deficit of it – of love. If Dorcas was being honest with herself ( which, she rarely was)she knew that things with her parents weren’t right, she knew her father and her mother didn’t really love each other the way they should’ve, the way the couples around them did, but she didn’t concern herself with that then.

She was playing to win and this chess game she might’ve had a chance.

Belarus gave a knowing smile, he knew his daughter well, he knew she was really really trying this time, but he was not going to give her the win. No matter how much she tried to distract him with nonsensical questions.

“It’s because it fits you,” he started, while Dorcas shot him look that said how could you think the name Dorcas fits anyone. “I’m serious, I knew you’d be a dork the minute you came out of your mother’s womb.”

“You think you’re so funny, don’t you?”

“I like to think I’m clever, yes.”

“You’re not quick, though,” Dorcas announced triumphantly as the final move was made, a checkmate about to be declared. A semi-stunned Belarus leaned back in his chair and admired his daughter’s resourcefulness, her quick wit, he didn’t know if in that moment she’d have made a better Slytherin than Ravenclaw, but he thought she could’ve been a brilliant one. An argument could’ve been made that Dorcas, in another life, would’ve been a Slytherin, maybe if she’d grown up differently, maybe if she had to rely more on self-preservation than she did at cleverly hiding things away she didn’t want the world to know. If she had a quick wit that stung because hers soared, it carried her above the masses, it made her a formidable chess rival because she was able to see more from the towers than the dungeons. From Afar. Observant for the sake of learning, not just for survival.

Maybe she’d learned from the best, watching her father all these years, an imitation act that became an identity.

“Checkmate,” Dorcas smiled, bouncing in her seat, a bright smile on her face. In that moment, she could’ve screamed with joy, but it wasn’t the victory that was the most important to her – it was finally giving her father a worthy opponent. It wasn’t just student surpassing teacher, it was finally a meeting of EQUALS. Belarus would always complain to Dorcas about how dull the people at the pureblood societal events they went to were, the older she got the more he felt comfortable complaining and being so open, but he was never open enough. Even though he was her father, Dorcas knew he needed a friend, she hoped she could be as much as a friend to him as he was to her.

Dorcas had a ready mind, she could tell that her father was not happy, that he was pretending more often than not, it was something they had in common. At least they could brave this world. Together.

MEMORY TWO: THE FUNERAL OF BELARUS MEADOWES.

No one gave any speeches. No one remembered Belarus like Dorcas did. Her father, her monument, her soul – no one gave a shit, not a real one, besides Dorcas. No one wanted to give more attention to the shameful tragedy that was Belarus ending his life, they all thought him weak, unmanly, pathetic. Some say that death sweetens the memory but for Belarus, for everyone else but Dorcas, it made the memory of his existence and how it ended left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouths. They barely spoke his name. The family who he’d left behind barely able to comprehend what he’d done – Dorcas was no exception. She was the closest to him. She remembers begging her mother to let her give a eulogy, to do something for her father’s memory, but it was all a cut and dry affair. There could be no tragedy if they didn’t mourn him like one, denial was their friend, her mother would coo into her ear and though Dorcas knew she was right ( denial had been a dear friend over the years ) it didn’t feel like the right thing when it came to her father’s passing.

This struck Dorcas Meadowes as she was often NOT concerned on whether or not she was doing the right thing.

Every year she leaves a charmed Peace Lily that lasts an entire month without any additional care ( because who else besides Dorcas would visit him? ), every year there’s a period of time where Dorcas just shuts herself in her bathtub and reads. Not the Prophet, which once held Belarus’ obituary and a small section reserved for the Meadowes family and their contribution to society, but the books she used to read with her father that she doesn’t touch any other days of the year. Dorcas, who has always had various preparations for anything she did now lived by the little rituals to help her get through the monotony of her life without her father. The extensive skin care routine. The bi-weekly hair masks made by her own hands, diligently crafted in her cauldron. The way she redid and color coded the notes she had for all her classes every Saturday afternoon at the end of the week. Making her bed, the corners perfectly in place, every morning. Rituals which help her maintain some semblance of balance without him around, to help her cope, that have become staples in her life that help her gather up the endurance to continue being her.

She goes on that way, the Dorcas Meadowes shown to the world is clever and knows what to say, know how to say the right things and when, is kind and is your friend, but not your best friend. She’s popular and known, she’s warm but distant, she’s an enigma to some but really she’s just a girl who knew the art of surviving and knew how to make the best out of a situation that was impossible. That she couldn’t escape from. That she wouldn’t dream to escape from because why should she? The money, the access, the lack of personal fulfillment was easy to mask, she had the privilege to do so much – she could do so much more from within should she ever want to lift a finger to do more than she did. There was nothing morally against her life, it might’ve killed her father, but how could she leave? Her friends who meant the world to her were still by her side, the ones she’d grown up with, her mother may not have loved her but she had a legacy, a birthright, she had a place in society that was too precious to give up and she knew it. Dorcas knew it, even if it killed her too, that her life was textbook-ly too good to leave.

Still, she wondered, why couldn’t her father have stayed? At his funeral she looked at him, his body, one last time before he was put into the ground and could only wonder why?

She always thought she understood him, that she understood how he felt, but had she? Had she ever? Had she really? When she could still stay in this world while he was gone?

MEMORY THREE: THE MOURNING OF BELARUS MEADOWES: BARGAINING.

Had Dorcas Meadowes ever been loved by her mother? Truly loved? Given a hug not based on merit but because when you love someone so much you just can’t help but to physically cherish them, their existence, to express it in physical touch. Had she ever given her daughter a kiss on the cheek before bed, wishing her sweet dreams, reading bedtime story upon bed time story until her imagination was quelled into a sleep filled with dreams&technicolor fantasies?

( Dorcas doesn’t dream anymore. If it’s not a dark sleep, it’s a scene. It’s a flashback. It’s the coroner’s report. Her father’s casket buried into the ground. Bottles of Merlot broken upon marble floors – was his blood that red too when he passed? It’s question after question, It’s maze after maze. Dorcas doesn’t dream anymore. )

Had her mother ever made her laugh so hard her mascara smudged, had she ever ever spent hours upon hours playing chess with her? Had they read in their library in tandem, sitting in a comfortable silence for hours on end? Had they ever sat on the balcony in their villa at Lake Como and talked about the world, about the stars ( she never listened or cared much about them but when Belarus talked about the stars, about anything, you listened ). Had she ever gone to Paris with her and serenaded her on the tip top of the Eiffel tower? Had her mother spent hours answering every question Dorcas ever had? Had she run through the streets of Rome with her, flown on a broomstick at night around the Colosseum ( What fun would being a wizard be if we can’t break into muggle monuments, my Doe? ). Had she jumped in the turquoise waters of Santorini and spoken extremely horrible Greek with a tired Dorcas carried on her shoulders?

Had she ever helped her when it wasn’t in her best interest to do so? Had she ever let her daughter have the option of being ANYTHING but her own personal Atlas?

( Her mother spent hours lost in booze, lost in anger, in a rage that Dorcas could understand, could feel herself some days but with a Sterling Silver Role Model like her mother she vowed to never ever be like her. Her children would never know their mother blacked out, slurred speech, screaming, her children would only know chess, kindness, laughter, charms&gentleness – this she VOWS. )

Dorcas wishes she could’ve lightened the load he felt, she hopes, she ( dreams ) knows that having just one month with him she could finally understand why he did what he did, why he left her, why she wasn’t enough to tie him to this Earth for even a few years more when theyboth could’ve made their escape? Didn’t he know she’d follow him to the ends of the Earth, didn’t he know he was her world, her stars, her sky, her ocean? If she had told him more, if only she had written him more letters. It kept her up at night, thinking of why she wasn’t enough and what more she could’ve done because when she looked back, she knew there was always so much more she could’ve been & done for him, Dorcas wondered too – did he know something she didn’t about leaving this society? Was she forever trapped like him, wasdeath the only way out, was that why he did it? Why, why, why, she made herself sick with the why but that wasn’t as important as the gift that having one more month with him would be. Maybe, with their minds combined – she could bring him back. Permanently.

( At least with a month she could let him know she loved him, she’d go to the ends of the world with & for him, that he was so so loved by her, that at least if she could onlyhaveonemonth, if life was to be even crueler than it already had been by giving her so much yet so little time, Dorcas could let her father know he was loved. Some people would be angry, sure, she was angry, but not at him. At everyone else around him. At his wife, her mother, but Merlin, he was loved. That would be enough. )

Lie. She needed so much more.

REACTION:

Dorcas lets herself live in such denial, lets herself push down every doubt she has and any intent on acting on it easily because there is no need to act. But in the other timelines? There was. In one, Voldemort won – she knows deep down she couldn’t have stood idly by and feels a deep sense of agony at the idea of doing so & getting confirmation that she didn’t is both relieving and terrifying. Abandoning the people she grew up with ( because that’s what it is at the end of the day to those in pureblood society, abandonment ) is something she couldn’t see herself doing in her original timeline, but knowing she could should the political climate call for it, that her morals won out, that they always will – gives her hope. It’s intriguing as well, getting proof that other timelines and alternative universes exist. Fascinating for someone who’s already interested in the great beyond and fantasy worlds she’s read in her books but realizing she was living in a utopia compared to the other timelines is sobering. Seeing the people she cares about in other timelines suffering through other universes while she’s in her ivory tower is guilt-inducing as well. It’s a wake up call, because Dorcas never would’ve described herself as unhappy in her timeline now but seeing other timelines makes her realize things she’s been trying to hide from herself for so long and it’s scary.

#diversions.i #i decided to copy and paste my app bc im TOO LAZY TO MAKE AN INTRO #ill post wanted connections soon #also ill never use the gif of her playing cello in game SO here's a gif of gayoung playing cello

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kz-i-co · 6 years

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Coffee Stains: Part II

» Summary: You know the truth about Moonbin but you were waiting for him to officially tell you the truth.

» Pairing: Moonbin/ Reader

» Genre: fluff

» Words: 2.7k

» Part 1 ╫ Part 3

» m.list ╫ astro masterlist

"Hello? (Y/N) did you hear me?" Your mother said as you zoned out.

"Sorry what?"

"Are you taking your sister to her concert tomorrow?"

"What? No." You asked.

"Alex told me you were."

You felt angry immediately. You told her you didn't want to go. Even though it was before you found out about Moonbin but now you definitely couldn't go. What if he sees you? He will probably think you are some stalker pretending not to know him. You didn't want to risk it.

"I'm not." You shrugged.

"Please, you're sister loves you and she really wants you to go."

"But mom, I don't want to go to a concert where I'm not going to understand what they are saying." You complained.

"You should just want to go to have some fun with your sister, not the music." Your mother gave you that stern look to make you feel guilty.

Maybe you should just go. It's not like he would see you anyway from the seats you'll probably have.

You were curious of the new boy you liked, but on the other hand you were upset that he didn't even mentioned to you that he was a freaking star.

"I guess I'll have to take her." Please....she secretly wanted to go.

....

You stared at your phone too scared to text him. Just ask if he's busy.

You took a deep breath and grabbed your phone.

To Moonbin: 11:36am Heyyy are you busy :)

You simply put, you were never clingy when it came to dating and you didn't want to make that impression on him already....even though you only had one date and it was the best date you have ever had.

Maybe seeing him on your sisters wall was all just a dream. Or not.

You haven't received a text from him as soon as you wanted and it was unhealthy to wait around so you just got dressed into your bathing suit and sat on the edge of the pool.

After waiting about a half hour, you decided to lay down peacefully on top of a floaty still dry and you could easily drift off to sleep any second.

You heard your phone ring but you were too relaxed to even answer it.

"Your phone is ringing sweetie." Your mother's voice appeared out of no where. "Who is Moonbin?"

Your eyes alerted open and you saw your mother reach down to grab your phone and you flew off the floaty falling into the pool getting soak and wet as your mother looked at you amused as she answered the phone.

"Hello (Y/N)'s phone."

"Mom." You jumped off the phone.

"Are you the boy from the other-"

"Hi, sorry about that." You finally had your phone into your hand and your mother arched her eyebrows.

"Hey sorry, I didn't text you back I just got out of work." Hum...work?

"That's okay." You just giggled.

"Are you doing anything?" You looked at your mother through the back door to see if she was there.

"No, I'm home."

"Do you want to do something?" It was already past 3 so you weren't sure what he had in mind.

"If you want we can watch movies here or I have a pool."

"Sounds like fun, I'll be right over."

You blushed from his positive attitude. Luckily Alex was sleeping over Brianna's house because she is going to the concert tomorrow with her and my mom. You weren't sure what your mother's plans were but you hoped that she wasn't going to be home. Not that you were thinking of doing anything R rated. You just met the guy but you didn't want your mom clinging onto you and ruin your night.

....

You redid your hair quickly, since it got wet earlier and you put on a different bathing suit that was a little more exposed and a little more dry then the other one. You placed a cute outfit over it and waited patiently for Moonbin to come over.

"What are you doing?" Your mother asked as she saw you cleaning up the living room.

"Just cleaning up a bit, tired of the mess."

"You cleaned up without me asking....Hum?" Your mother was suspicious and made her way to the kitchen. "You cleaned the kitchen also? What gives?" She crossed her arms.

"Nothing." You thought hard on a lie to get you out of her suspicion. "Dad told me the case you're working on is getting you stressed so I wanted to help out." You smiled.

"Really?"

"Yes, mom." You were hoping she was going to leave soon. "You still have a lot of work to do, don't you." You tried to push her out.

"Yes, I do."

"I'll help you, you go up stairs and finish your work and I'll cook dinner and get you necessary needs when you want them."

"Why?"

"I told you, I feel bad that you have to go through so much so I just want to help out."

"You're a true angel Miss (Y/N) but I know when you're hiding something." She glared at you.

Then all of a sudden you heard a knock.

"Please go up stairs....quickly." You were already pushing your mother past the living room and up the stairs.

"Oh I get it."

"Mom please I'll do anything. I'll do extra chores or cook dinner anything but please leave us alone."

"Ok fine....I'll pretend I'm not here....but no funny business....I hear one grunt I'll throw you both out."

"Ew mom."

"I was a teenager once to dear.....I know those feelings you can hav-"

"Mom please go hurry." You went to the door.

She went upstairs and you nervously opened the door.

"Sorry.......I was......in the bathroom?" You blushed.

"Are you asking me?" He laughed.

"Um." You stuttered. "I was just cleaning up."

"I should have brought extra clothes." He looked nervous but with humor behind it.

"Stop....I'm not dangerous." You laughed nervously. "You want to go swimming first?"

"Sure."

It was the perfect time as the sun was going down at the moment. You followed him and you saw you mom watching upstairs.

You glared and gestured her to go away. She smiled and left and you were outside with him.

"You okay?" He asked amused.

No....You Just wanted to be alone with him and your mother had to be in the way and you didn't want to tell him that because he might be weirded out.

"Yeah...just thinking."

He smiled and took off his t-shirt and started for his pants.

You couldn't help but stare from.his perfect toned figure that got you in trouble last time.

"You're staring again."

"Am not."

He finally had all his clothes diguared besides his bathing suit of course. "Come on slow poke." He dived into the pool.

You quickly took off your shirt and bottoms and once you looked up it was his turn to get in trouble for staring.

"Stop." You laughed covering your stomach.

"Now you know how it feels." He smiled.

"But you have a perfect body." You whined.

"So do you." He said causing you to blush.

You were on the last step of the kiddy section, too cold to go in. The water was only up to your knees and you just stood there with hesitation.

"Come on." He was talking to you like a baby.

"Its cold."

"Aw." He pouted.

"Don't mock me." You squinted.

He grabbed your hand and tried to tug you in slowly. You winced from the chill but started to get used to it slowly.

"Yay....You did it." He cheered.

"Hey." You splashed water at him and you instantly regretted it from the look he was giving you. "I'm sorry- no"

He splashed you right back and your hair you nicely waved was now drench.

"I'm going to get you." You jumped on him drowning him into the pool.

You felt him grab your hips from underwater and all of a sudden he was right in front of you with a mouth full of water.

"Wh-" You couldn't even get out before he spit all the water into your face.

"Okay, time to get out." You started to turn around but he stopped you and you finally opened your eyes once the water was clear from your face and you saw the deviant looking at you with a look full of innocence. "I swear if you do anyth-"

He cut you off from his lips coming towards yours. You instantly melted into his arms and all your anger was forgiven. That was the problem from these cute guys, can't even stay mad at them. You can't be weak. You cant.

"Oh no." You slightly pushed him away. "You're not getting away with it that easy."

He gave you the cutest look you have ever seen. Like a puppy begging for your attention.

"No."

"I'm sorry." He pouted and got closer to you, trying to kiss you again. You quickly covered your mouth to prevent him but you felt shivers once you felt his lips on your neck.

You felt hard butterflies in your stomach, making you queasy and you were frozen.

You couldn't help but tilt your head letting him have more access. You felt his hands around your hips bring you in closer.

You accidently let a moan slip out as you were getting more in depth from his touch. He looked back at you with an amused look. "Does that mean you forgive me?"

"Ummm......nope."

"I'll make it up to you."

"How?" You challenged.

"You want to get out?" He asked.

"Um...."

He sensed you were nervous. "We can watch a movie."

....

Once you got back inside the house smelled delicious. There was food waiting on the kitchen counter that your mother obviously set up. You just hoped she didn't see anything happen in the pool even though it would be a hard sight all the way from the house.

Moonbin looked at you confused as he rubbed the towel through his drenched hair.

"I ordered food for us." You lied.

"They come in your house to deliver it?"

"I maybe hired someone." He arched his eyebrows and you just sighed.

"Okay, my mom is home but she's not going to bother us because she's working."

"That's okay (Y/N) not a big deal." He laughed.

He finished wiping all the water off his beautiful toned abs and you were being overwhelmed in the process.

"Please get dressed."

He smirked. "Okay."

....

You threw your hair in a bun as it was still damp and you put on nice warm clothing since you were finishing your date on the couch. The food your mom made was delicious and even Moonbin asked if he could hire her.

"Here." You threw down a blanket and you also had a few pillows.

"You're cute."

"Stop." You blushed. You sat down next to him.and grabbed the remote. "Horror?"

"Sure." He cuddle next to you under the blanket. "No evil dolls."

"But Annabelle is so good."

"No."

You giggled and put on a different scary movie.

By half way through the movie you accidentally brushed your hand over his lap and blushed from the tension.

He looked over at you sucking on your lips with pure horror. "Its okay (Y/N)." He laughed.

"I touched your-"

"No you didn't." He looked back at the screen. "You touched my sunglasses." He showed you the evidence.

"Oh." You felt even more embarrassed.

You felt his hand brush over your thigh. "Now we're even."

You couldn't even think about the movie at this point. He made you flustered and you felt like your body was gonna shut down.

You felt him sit up a bit more and you looked over at him. He was blushing and you realized their was a heated scene playing during the movie. He looked over at you and you blushed as well.

You grabbed the remote and quickly turned it off. You put on a more pg-13 rated movie causing him to laugh.

You could feel the tension in the air. "That movie was too scary for me." You said nervously.

Another 20 minutes passed by and you felt like there was still tension. You wanted to warm up the environment a little so you slouched farther down next to him again and tried to go back into your cuddle space.

You tried to get more comfortable accidentally brushing up his thigh once again, but before you can move your hand away he grabbed it, interlocking his hand with yours. You gulped from the sudden feeling and felt the butterflies strongly in your stomach.

He looked up at you and you felt the room stop as he leaned in forward. You couldn't get over the feeling of him kissing you. Almost like it was the first time over and over again.

He was lucky because you wouldn't let your last boyfriends touch you this much. There was always a wall between you and them so you always wanted to take it slow, but Moonbin was different. You felt jittery and excited around him, like you wanted to explore.

You fell farther back against the couch cusions as he kissed you deeper. You felt your heart rate picking up quickly and your breathing was becoming hard to steady. He could sense your struggle and moved down kissing your neck for the second time that evening. His hands wandered up your shirt and you felt something stab your thigh, it it wasn't his sunglassess this time.

His lips went back towards yours and you moaned feeling him rock against you. This was the farthest you have ever gone on a date so you weren't experienced and never felt more nervous in your entire life.

Your curious hand wandered down in between your legs and you felt up his clothes member. He grabbed your hand stopping you and placed it over your head.

You moved your left hand this time and did the same thing causing him to laugh against your lips.

"Not yet." He stopped. "Not when your mom is home." He blushed.

You stared at his down and started moving your hand up his shirt, feeling his abs. He starred at you with a hint of humor as you were being touchy.

He sat back and you followed quickly. "No." You pouted.

He laughed and brought your lips together for a small simple kiss but it sadly got interrupted as your mother made noise coming down the steps.

"This is a pg house." She walked into the kitchen.

You both blushed and moved farther away from each other. You felt anger boiling up.

"Its getting late-"

"Mom." You warned.

"Okay." She walked back up the stairs.

"Sorry." You slouched.

"I probably should get going."

"You don't have to-" You pouted.

"I have to be up early tomorrow for work." He said.

"Oh....of course." You tried not to sound upset.

"I'm sorry." He pouted. "But I'll see you soon." He kissed your cheek before getting up.

"Okay." You followed him to the door.

"Bye." He gave you his famous puppy dog smile and you couldn't help but blush.

He loomed at you with sadness, not because he was leaving but from something else.

Did he want to tell you his big secret? Was there more to it?

After Moonbin left you ran upstairs and barged into your mother's office. She was typing on her computer and then she suddenly looked up with her glasses right at the tip of her nose.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Can I go to the concert tomorrow?"

"Why from the sudden change?" She arched her eyebrows.

"I have nothing to do tomorrow." You shrugged.

"I figured you would change your mind." She smiled.

"How do you know that?" You asked.

"You have a habit of feeling left out."

"Do not." You argued.

"Hun....yes you do." She looked at you amused.

You rolled your eyes playfully and left her office.

You were just too curious about his career. You just hope he wouldn't spot you.

#astro imagines #astro fanfic #astro scenarios #astro fluff #moonbin scenario #moonbin fluff #moonbin imagine #moonbin fanfic #moonbin oneshot

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sweet-xoxo-thatcares · 3 years

Text

I remember when dad couldn't pick me up after our 2nd transfer bus got pulled out from dropping me and the other kids in my neighborhood. It was bus 130.

That whole end of my 7th grade year, I walked the way home by myself. I cut through northern high parking lot and around that big ol' man made water basin that they had there. It stood across the view of a gas station and a Publix. Man, did they have some good ass chocolate chip cookies, not too hard and not too doughy. It was like a soft, hard cookie dough cookie that barely browned in the oven, but just enough for the thick chocolate chunks to melt in your mouth with that buttery dough. I never walked over there though because...mom wouldn't have allowed it...and I was way too scared and nervous to run across the street with those cars there. (Vs now, I do that as a fun, little escape running super speed as soon as the walk light comes on lol 😆 mom and dad think I'm nuts for doing that cause they're afraid I could get hit. But when you blast Jasiah, Denzel Curry, and Suicide Boys in your Ear you feel like you can do anything. So I kick in nitro)

Anyways, the walk was about two to three miles, and at the time that was the longest mom and dad had ever let me walk by myself. Mom wasn't there because she had already moved to Mississippi for her new job. I wanted to help out Dad, since he had to pick up my sisters from school at the same time I got to our base for school bus dropoffs. It was so fun back then to ride the school bus. I always sat near the window, or at least tried....I hated sitting by people I didn't know because I was afraid people were gonna make fun of me for being big or having sweaty armpits. I have noooo idea why, but even my sisters went through it to around their puberty time. It's like our glands produced so much more sweat when we were stressed, working out, or just barely even sweating in Florida. Like all of my shirts always had this itchy, cracked, dry spots in the armpits because I had to swipe sooooo much deodorant on it was crazy. I remember counting it out, like 16, 27 times I would whip cream my damn armpits because kids make fun of you for being fat, now everytime they saw my sweaty, funky pits and yes they used to get that bad it was annoying as hellll. And Bighead used to make fun of me for that. I used to call him all types of names cause he was such an asshole to me and my friends, practically tortured me for fun all through out middle school until we later on had to move to Mississippi too from Florida.

I walked that walk because I never wanted to put my pride to the side and just ask Bighead, the idiot who lived in the same neighborhood as me, like I literally stayed about 10 min walk away...and I could see him and his mom and his sister, who I was friends with...drive pass me each and every day. I would listen to music on the radio with my earbuds in my turquoise mp3 player. They kept playing "There goes my baby" by Usher alot at that time.

I even remember reading The Giver on the walk home, because I really didn't wanna miss my favorite home TV shows like iCarly, sometimes Arthur or whatever cartoons on Cartoon Network.

I used to think about Bighead alot when that song would play at the same time his mom drove by. I still hated his guts though, always picking on me, being a hassle...it was a honest waste of a crush to have even liked him. He never changed as I found out later on in high school when we both reached back out to each other, on and off. Total jackass. Probably a narcissist...

Speaking of books, Ms. Simmons gave us this book about the holocaust called Night by Elie Wiesel. It was a good book and Im shocked crazy earring Ms. Simmons thought it was ok for us to read about kids and people getting hung, but I was glad she did. It had an audio book that cams with it, I almost wanted to watch it if they ever made it into a movie.

I think Ms. Simmons might have inspired me to wear different, quirky earrings like that. Cause she was the 1st white woman I ever seen wear them like that or even asymmetrical earrings. She loved alot of color and if she wore cherries, she had cherry earrings, sorta like that. Matchy-matchy. She even had a candy cart after school so I sorta liked her for being creative. That was until she pissed me off about a test,

And I don't play about my tests.

My ass was on the line, that's why.

I hated getting bad grades at home, because who do you think starts checking up on you more??

Yea, and I hate being micromanaged...if I even got a C or a low B, dad would lecture me on doing a better job cause he didn't want my grades to fall 😒 I always tried to explain myself when I felt like it was an unfair grade cause some people put trick questions or essay sections. And I used to hate those. Now I double check everything and I have alot more to say, instead of being afraid that I'll get it wrong, fucking up my chances to get a closer chance at an A or a B. Daddy said to always go for A's, always do your best. But that meant cramming my short term, photographic memory with alot more papers and notes.

Boy did I used to hate taking notes. Now after everything, I see I need notes to keep up on knowledge and bullshit from misinformation given to me by other people.

I used to actually be so innocent, only caring about not disappointing my parents and not making them look bad when we go to school or go out with them in public. And of course kicking Bighead in the nuts everytime he made me feel like the ugliest girl in school just because he made a comment about my fat rolls popping out in my bright, tight, stretchy cotton tshirts or from me not smelling good from being sweaty 🙃 he had a whole bunch of people I didn't even know, just laughing at me just because he made it seem like it was ok for them to laugh at me because he was. He started it. And it kept going 6th and 7th grade...it followed me all the way until I....well until I realized Darius wasn't my person either 😑

Fairytales and movies blew up these love scenarios, and even in anime or Korean dramas (based on Japanese anime) where the quiet, shy girl ends up falling for the aloof, emotionally unavailable guy who's cute and he's popular, "but oh, he would never talk to me or look at me that way" sighhhh, babygirl feeling.

Then at the end he reveals his true feelings and it turns out he made her suffer and wait for him for so long, just because he was too shy to tell her or too ashamed because he didn't want to be made fun of by his friends. And then they kiss and live happily ever after.

That's what the old me in middle school and high school used to think of love in high school was like. Boy, was I stupid 🤣 that's the most dumbest shit I ever heard. People wtfff???!! Why the fuck is it expected for us to be submissive, take this boy's bullshit and commital issues to just you, as if him showing you any kind of attention is worthwhile the wait as if he's the best thing in the world, letting you into his circle like he's vip. Which is not true. Because when you look at somebody like that for so long and then you let them get away with treating you like shit, just because you like them...is so not cool and you deserve better. Looks can only last so long.

And maybe that's why I had to look at that lesson again from somebody like Jay, chubby, but cute, but still not as masculine as Bighead, where at home in Florida, boys who didn't care about you as much, athletes, and mixed/black/white/Asian skinnier people were popular and you weren't....because of your clothes, shoes, your big hands, big feet so you had to wear boy shoes, your thick, strong legs, your height, your double chin, your sweaty gland disorder from puberty, your fat rolls on your back, and even your backpack....was not cool or even popular.

You were different so you just didn't fit in with everybody. But it made me feel alone, cause nobody new looked at me, talked to me, or even asked me where I got my new Adidas (cause I actually did like Adidas).

After awhile I stopped caring and didn't care to give new people a try. I'd rather eat by myself than to eat with people who made me feel unwelcome with stares, stressing me out because I don't know what they're judging me on or was gonna comment on me next. It was so aggravating for me just to speak to someone random unless we had to because of class. I really don't remember nobody was calling me ugly, but just for them to comment on anything little thing or how my hair looked like momma did, really hurt.

And it was mindfucking me. Because the people I ended up running away to, did the same thing as them. Reminding me of home in Florida, where comments felt like mom's pinches. Reminding me that I'm not doing a good enough job of representing her, or just looking good enough to be liked or told I looked great today. Because I rarely got compliments until I got a perm redid, or I got braids. I'm glad I rebeled against perms because my ends kept breaking off and I would hate how rough the texture would get and I wore bonnets/wraps that kept falling off because I'm a wild sleeper, always kicking and moving around. Maybe that wasn't a good mattress match for me idk....but taking care of permed hair was so frustrating. They said don't use too much heat to flat iron or flat iron too much, but your hair don't look good as is, not being straight and I hated how that Florida humidity would poof up my hair because our school was not an all indoor school. There was only the 7th grade hallway and the gym in AC, but everything was fucking outdoor, concrete style. So you was always hot, always sweaty. So not the same in Michigan. I always thought I looked like Dora with my orange tan and black Bob hair. I never liked taking pictures in middle school because I felt so ugly just because no boy at school had asked me out, and the boy I wanted was a little ass, scrawny, bony bully, picking on me at school for how I looked and how I dressed, and my sweaty, funky pits and even my boobs. He made me hate my big boobs. He always made fun of them in how I ran when he would pass me on the track with his friends. It was hard enough to have older boys say something when you got DD's at such a young age....I hated them. I would have donated mine to the girl with A cups because I hated them being made fun of or being commented on. It was embarrassing for me when ppl would ask me what size are they and I felt pressured to say what size. I hated when a group of people would come up to me to say something, I would go defensive, excited, anxious, tense, and then almost ready to fight if they said something I didn't like to hear cause constant criticism made me not wanna hear any of it. And mom didn't make it no better "do you want people talking about you?" It was just a hassle to please her and she almost always bought clothes that either felt uncomfortable to wear, but was cute for her, so she made me wear it, or she just wanted it because of the patterns she liked. I rarely had a choice or say in anything. And that I didn't like too, because it's my body. But to them, it belonged to them and I had to do what they said. Wearing clothes that felt unreal, unmanageable because most of it in my closet weren't really mine, they were hers.

I guess she got the memo, so she started doing gift cards. I can't believe I used to wear fuchsia or hot pink so much and my skin color down there looked like a browned, golden-orange. We used to wear alot of orange and bright green too. Green and gold used to be mom's favorite colors. It reminded me of Christmas 🎄 which I also miss too.

Christmas in Florida used to be the greatest because we had a house full with aunty and uncle and the cousins. Flint used to feel the warmest because when we visited got the holidays, everybody was there. All in one place. We were together, celebrating, eating homemade country style, traditional food all night long, with the kids in my other grandma's basement watching movies and playing games, and the adults upstairs. I always felt like the baby and later on the middle child between both, child and adult.

And I'm kinda seeing now I got stuck this way, people pleasing towards both sides, between the adults and the kids because I was so used to being the middle man, the negotiator, the even-steven, fair and square, Charlie Brown in my family as being the oldest. I always felt the need to keep both sides on one accord, because sometimes we misunderstood each other. Cause that's the way dad brought it to me, he was Mr.negotiator between me and my mom growing up. He got to have fun and play games and sports, watch cartoons with me as a kid, and then at home with mom he would do romantic, adult stuff for mom like drink out of these expensive looking wine glasses and chocolate strawberries 🍓

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alexbrockart · 7 years

Text

Gargoyle Process

This painting started from a sketch in 2015 that I didn't touch for a bout a year, then came back to after ruminating on it on and off over that lapse. It's loosely centered around this legend of the walled city of Agartha, and the guarding demons and djinn that would keep the unworthy from entering.

Here I sketched out the environment surrounding the figure and arranged the composition a bit. I wanted the environment to have a sort of Mediterranean feel to it, almost classical ancient Greek/Roman with a little hint of tropical. I ended up changing the perspective quite a bit because I wanted to paint in a lot of texture in the landscape of the background, and also wanted to drive home a feeling of the figure standing on a really high wall far above the ground below. So I raised the horizon line almost to the top of the canvas and redid a lot of the figure to fit in with a more top down perspective.

Here you can see the new perspective and wings, and my attempt at dumping colors all over the place that I felt gave off the feeling I wanted for the piece, which was a sort of bright and sunny warm day in the afternoon, soon approaching the golden hour.

Here's some images that I felt captured the mood and lighting I wanted to portray

Let the render fest begin! As I was painting the torso my power supply for my computer started crapping out and it was pretty terrifying to paint for fear of losing work. I had finished just about the entire torso and arms when it crashed when I tried to save it, and had to do it over, about 5 hours of work. The second version definitely came out better though. I threw in a crazy weird mandala-lever-table-mechanism I thought would be interesting but ended up chucking it for the sake of time and it threw off the composition a bit. It's inspired by this talk I listened to about the physicist Wolfgang Pauli and his therapy sessions with C. G. Jung. From what I remember, through deep trance or in a dream, Pauli saw this mandala that represented perfect rationality and other dimensions or concepts like increments of time integrated into each other. The idea was to sort of have the Gargoyle in control of one of the levers, hinting that your perception of reality may be manipulated or something along those lines. I mostly wanted an excuse to make a shiny 3D object and render it so that I could have perfect shiny reflection in the painting. I got my jollies in that regard with the mace that I replaced this mandala with.

Here's the talk and a picture of the mandala:

Here's some of the references for the skin and torso. In the old master painting with the man pointing toward the sky I really liked the way their skin looked really pale in some parts and very tan or oily/dirty in others and tried to replicate that effect on the figure with a sort of red-grayish green and a more yellow green. I imagine there being less callous spots that would be lighter and more "juicy" like when the skin is stretched it'll lighten up in those areas, kind of like when some plastic bends it gets lighter in those spots that are really stretched out. It's sort of an effect or look that produces a sensation that I wanted to portray and think looks cool and not much more.

Here's about where I had gotten before I lost my file to the dark lords of psd corruption. Lots of rendering and minute fiddling, pulling and pushing forms and moving around muscles underneath the skin. Reference is a lifesaver when it comes to anatomy, or anything really, but especially anatomy because of how complex it is and how easy it is for people (who all have bodies) to recognize when something is off. I remember this is where I really felt like I was going somewhere with the painting and it had some potential.

Got the rest of the human parts nailed down. I almost went fully Egyptian with his undergarments but decided against it. I found out the name for this type of clothing though, "shendyt" if you ever need to know that. Lots of challenging but enjoyable intricacies worked out here. If I could give a tip on picking color it would be to learn how to really feel it out. If you try to do this with only your intellect and calculate every aspect of surface color and lighting and reflection you mostly end up getting in your own way (not that this isn't important). If you can grab a color that feels ok and run with it you're better off than being indecisive and worrying that the color isn't perfectly accurate. Make a choice and observe the result. What happens when you lay that color next to the others, how does it feel deep down in your gut and heart. What does it need more of? It's like tasting pudding, when you put it on your tongue and smack it around in your mouth how does it taste? What would make it taste more like the most perfect pudding you can imagine? You also have to have good taste to make things that taste good.

Focused heavily on the wings and tree here. I took a big leap with the dappled lighting and just went for it. I knew it would be really hard to make it look realistic and it kind of became abstracted, but I learned a lot. After having finished it I've seen multiple images that would have been much better reference for the dappled lighting than what I used, but such is life. In place of accurate lighting effects I had fun making cool shapes and swirlies. I tried to create an effect similar to some sort of vectoring of light blobs where their outer edge sort of merges with the nearby blobs, similar to when you squint your eyes and look at lights out of focus. On the upper/outer edges of the wings I tried to pull of the effect of something being in shadow on a sunny day and heavily reflecting the blue of the sky. Since that surface isn't being blown out by sunlight you can really see other ambient light sources reflecting on it.

I darkened the shindyt loin cloth by plopping a multiply layer over it and touching it up a bit. I though the lightness of the previous color was attracting a little too much attention and contrast. But when I look at it now I almost like it better.

I also tried to get down some of the awesome patterning on eucalyptus trees that I see here around town. They're some of the coolest looking trees in my opinion and really wanted to capture that dramatic contrast of values and colors they have on them along with the smooth swirly lumps. This tree was extremely difficult and I redid it at least once. I still don't think I pulled off the look I was going for with it but I like it in it's own right.

Here's the bottom before and after the redo. I really wanted to pull off a section of surface that's lit evenly but has two different values/surface materials and have it look cohesive. This was a pain but I'm starting to come around to the idea of doing stuff over even if it's really close to what you want or it feels like too much work. It almost always comes out better.

I also had a friend help out and do a paintover to try and tie up the values which explains the darkened corner on the ground. Much more moody and dramatic. He also taught me this technique to strategically adjust the levels with brush strokes using a mask.

Create a levels adjustment layer. Depending on how you want to adjust the levels (lights, darks or midtones) move the sliders around to a spot you like, and this is the awesome part is it doesn't have to affect the whole image, so you can pick an area you want to change the levels of, adjust accordingly, and target that spot. To do this click on the blank white square (red X) and paint bucket it fully black, then go back to the levels adjustments (click on the layer name or graph square) and start painting or lassoing in white in the spot that you wanted changed. This helps a TON.

More progress! I started experiment with texture in the background by making some brushes and messing with them. I was really inspired by the way Craig Mullins can pull off seemingly intricate detail with abstract shapes and textures and wanted to try something similar. Maybe next time lol. I was also inspired by Dean Cornwell and looking at his work for the texture on the ground, trying to make nice big juicy blobs of paint that almost look like clumps of mud or stones. I also really had fun with trying to make a compelling pattern that was still in perspective. For the background I was looking at the Walter Everett painting above a lot, trying to get a beautiful harmony of really light values and colors, having forms be defined with only hue and not much value change at all. It's really hard to pull off.

I went nuts on the background. I replaced the original idea of a golden glittering canyon with a more earthy and gradient filled landscape. I also tweaked the values much brighter, which I think I darkened back down later. I was heavily inspired by Whit Brachna and had at least one of his paintings open the entire time I was working on the background.

These are some of my all time favorite paintings. Just look at them, gotdang.

3D mace! Mostly inspired by spiky black metal aesthetic. I made a very rough (but that's really all I needed) model of the mace in Cinema 4D. The most tedious part was obviously all the spikes. There's probably a way you could pull them out of the sphere in 2 seconds but I'm not versed enough to avoid tediously scooting each individual spike one at a time. I then took it into ZBrush and just scrubbed it over with a cool texture brush that gave it a bunch of amazing details that you can't even see in the painting. I tried to set up a scenario in C4D that was as close to the painting as I could muster to get the lighting right. I copied a bunch of disc tubes to try and replicate leaves and branches. Since the figures hand, and most of his upper body was cast in shadow I tried to strategically place some "leaves" over the top half of the mace.

I messed with a bunch of different surface materials and render settings and ended up going with the shiniest one, heh.

Here it is before and after being painted on, very minute adjustments.

I'd say the rest is pretty straightforward and can't really think of any extraordinary advice except maybe doing more quick studies of your weak spots. I'm realizing I could get a lot of benefit from doing a higher quantity of less elaborate stuff to really improve more.

I really hoped this helped and if there's anything you'd like me to elaborate on or that you felt was left out please don't hesitate to ask!

Here's some meaty juice for you. I made a 2000px tall resolution gif of all the process images which is included in the .zip, containing over 30 of the aforementioned 2000px res process pics, some full resolution (8000px) crops of the final image, and a few other random in progress shots. And finally here's the full resolution (8000px) final .jpg, the final .psd file (2000px), and my brush presets. Enjoy!

I'm not sure how to export your presets as new brushes and you may already need the .abr file for the presets to work, so if you have any tips on that let me know. Most of the brushes I use are straight from other sets or slightly tweaked and saved as a preset.

Anyway, I think this will conclude this massive post. I truly hope it's helpful, or at the very least mildly interesting. Thanks for reading!

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smallwondersproject · 4 years

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Research into presenting and the final form

After looking at the types of cameras I will use and concluding that I want to use an instant camera I now have the trouble of looking for a way to present my work. This can be done in many forms from a book, to hanging work up to even the simple idea of sticking them onto a wall.

I’ve done some research into artists and ways of presenting and here are my results, I will be updating this section as I go along in the hopes to keep all my presenting ideas here.

My first artist/ style of presenting I’m going to look at is the simple book, this is such a big topic as there are lots of different styles from neat and artist books to big, messy scrapbooks but I will look at a range of them

James jay

James jay is a photographer who works mainly with zines when presenting, a zine is self-published bit of work and I think works very well for the idea of small polaroid pictures.

One such zine is called “love the world I see” this is a series of images from James who just goes around his community taking pictures and snapshots into middle American lives. While the content is nice its not what I’m looking at, the way the artist has presented the work with just the image, a title and then the camera he used. I think the simplicity of Is what draws me in. the way that its all about the image and not the design of the book or how much content is in there.

While it’s a good way of presenting I don’t know if I will be able to copy such simplicity as I will have to add a small sentence or two for each small wonder, as I need to show the explanation of why it means a lot to me. This will add way more content into the book/zine and I think it would overload the viewer with how crammed it is within my book.

Jeff Rothstein

Another book that follows this vein of simplicity is the book “todays special, New York city images 1969-2006” by Jeff Rothstein, this book is a documentation book based upon New York and its changing nature from the 70s to the late 2000s. the way it is presented is basically the same kind of style as the book before but this time the images are much bigger and have even less space for any writing or work. the main thing I like from this book is the range of images and how each image is presented slightly different. Some images might be done in a portrait mode and some could be done landscape.

When put into the book there is a sense of speed, no thought given into the neatness or straight edges which is something I am into, I don’t want to be focused on how neat my images look in a book or how neat the page is I just want to show off my work and the meaning behind and move on.

Nigel Shafran

My last idea based around some of themes in the last book I looked at, being messy and not caring too much about the look of the book as its about the photograph, one artist called Nigel Shafran. This photographer doesn’t care too much about the look of the book, they keep it dirty, messy and used which is what I am like with my books and work so this really speaks to me.

This example here has part of an image cut out and stuck in different ways and on one side no picture apart from some words. This I think screams Owen when ways of presenting our involved. Just the effort gone into the work is probably a lot however its just so messy and simple that I want to do it, while I would need a bigger book so I could follow my ideas of adding a small description however the messy, simple and cut and stick effort its perfect.

Non book ideas

When I started this project, I wanted to do something more stylized and not in a book and my idea came from a game, “life is strange” in this game you play as a character with a polaroid camera and you can take pictures within the game. By the end of the main game you see all your photos hanging up from the ceiling and this sparked joy for me, and I think following this idea would be really cool, having all my images there and you have to walk though them would be super cool. As its like your walking though my day to day life and you can see what date and time I had my small wonder and on the back of the images there would be a short description so you don’t lose the meaning.

This however crashed and burned once I spoke to my tutor, we pointed the good things such as it’s a nice way to present, it can be semi-interactive (walking though the “cloud” of images) but then we discussed the bad parts.

Would there be enough small wonders, I had planned there would be about 50-60 small wonders hanging up which seems like a lot but as we discussed it isn’t many, the film is 8 by 5 cm which is tiny when compared to the room it would be hanging up in. not only this but it was pointed out that my work may get “lost” when surrounded by much bigger pieces and may lose its importance, and if there isn’t a clear understanding of the way you should walk within the cloud things will get messy.

These were all valid points which now I have seen I think I will need to work within a book or a different way.

AFTER THE RESEARCH

I have gone back and forth on many ideas when it comes to the presenting of my work, and now we have moved online I will have to work in the style I choose but figure out a way to present online.

after many tutorials I can say that I want to present my work in a form similar to Nigel Shafran but bigger, having a big sketch book that has enough space for my images but also my small description. More of an artist’s book mixed with a scrapbook is what I was going for, and this was fine. I got some coloured paper and scrap items and began sticking them in with my work creating pages and spreads like this.

This however was not what I envisioned and by the end of the process I was unhappy with it, and when it came to the crit and me showing my work I grew unhappy so I decide to though it all up and change how I presented it within the book.

When it looking at styles I went back to Nigel Shafran who had a more collage way of doing things so I redid my book into a style more collage with some inspiration from David Carson, whom works with editing images with newspaper and I did a similar thing but instead worked with real paper and my images so it was all done handmade. This is the outcome.

Overall im much happier with how this came out compared to before the crit and I think it works well with the busy news surrounding the small innocent wonder that is the main focal point of the work, rather than being overwhelmed by the news I myself take on the small wonder and focused on that. As that’s my identity.

Something I need to add to presenting is how I have moved online, while a book on its own is okay it doesn’t work online, so I had to video myself turning the pages, leaving enough time on the page for it to be read. This on its own wasn’t enough so I recorded myself speaking and talking about each small wonder so rather than reading yourself the viewer can listen to me and look at the design and image on the page.

#small wonders project

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kimamanitranslatesnovels · 7 years

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Armoured Girl Monette c6

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Chapter 6: The Bodyguard Knight’s Strange Midnight Activities

“Would you prefer to sleep on the floor in the great hall or in the wine cellar in the basement? You may also stay in a shed outside,” asks Monette.

Percival glares at Monette, his eyes so very sharp. In response, Monette sticks out her tongue in her helmet. Naturally, no one can see it as she’s encased in iron, but Percival furrows his eyebrows, sensing something. He has sharp instincts.

“This castle is big enough that it must have guest rooms.”

“Oh, were you not aware, Percival? Guest rooms are meant for guests.”

After Monette explains bluntly that they were not guests, Percival understands what she means. His eyebrows furrow further. But he probably realizes that they did barge in on her. All he does is glance at her with a dissatisfied expression. At his frustrated look, Monette does a little victory dance in her heart –

“Prince Alexis is tired. Please hurry up and take us to a guest room… a quiet room, where the floor won’t cave in, the bed won’t break, a bird won’t crash through the window, the night section of a tap-dancing club won’t hold their tap dancing competition on the floor above, and a surprise clown won’t accidentally enter the room because of the late night party held in the room next to us.”

“Have you ever stayed in a room where the bed broke, a bird crashed through the window, the night section of a tap-dancing club held their tap dancing competition on the floor above, and a surprise clown accidentally entered your room because of the late night party held in the room next to you?”

“… Don’t ask me that, it brings back bad memories.”

Apparently the examples he gave were just a small fraction of what they’ve gone through. Percival murmurs that they haven’t been able to sleep soundly for the past year.

The only thing Monette can sense from his voice is exhaustion. She does another little victory dance in her heart. Her imaginary self finishes up her dance by tracing with her feet the words ‘Serves you right!’ with a flourish.

Monette can’t help but cheer up at their sorry state. Feeling generous, she lets them stay in a quiet guest room where the floor is not caved in. It’s the room she lends to the very few people who stop by the old castle.

Naturally, the bed won’t break and the night section of a tap-dancing club won’t hold their tap dancing competition upstairs. A surprise clown won’t accidentally enter their room instead of the room next door where a party is being held. But well, as they are inside a forest, it’s possible that a bird may crash through the window.

“Prince Alexis, please use this room. Percival, you may use the room next door.”

“No, I’m fine in this room as well.”

“… Ah.”

“What’s the matter?”

“No, I mean, I understand. D – do not worry about it. I am fine with it so long as you wash the sheets yourselves afterwards.”

“Don’t show us consideration we don’t want. I’m a bodyguard, just a bodyguard.”

Monette is berated for messing around and so she sticks her tongue out in her helmet again. Alexis, looking tired at their back-and-forth, approaches the bed and verifies its make and softness.

“The bed legs seem sturdy – the bottom shouldn’t fall out.”

“Milord, what about the mattress and pillow?”

“Mm, looks like there’s no ticks.”

“How rude.”

“Milord, I’ll verify under the bed.”

“No, it’s fine. There isn’t a man with a scythe or a woman with bloodshot eyes hiding under the bed this time around.”

“I’m telling you that you don’t need to– this time around!? People like that have hidden under your bed before!?” cries Monette, “What in the world!? That’s scary!”

Apparently they ran about quite a bit before coming to Monette’s old castle. At a certain inn they stayed at during their journey, a man whose wife was having an affair determined where the man she was having an affair with stayed. Aiming to kill this man, he snuck into their room by mistake. Another time, a woman stalking a man who had disappeared snuck into their room, again by mistake. From this trauma, they began to always check under their beds.

At their story, Monette is dumbfounded. This is enough to make even Monette feel sorry for them rather than think that they deserve it.

And so, she takes out a piece of parchment and a pen from the pouch on her waist and smoothly draws a cute kitty-cat with an experienced hand. She places the charm on the bed’s headboard.

“What a dreadful creature you’ve drawn… oh I see, you’re telling us to dream of being chased by this creature…”

“It’s a cute kitty-cat!”

“Look, Prince Alexis, half of this creature’s face has caved in. No doubt she’s telling us to go get our faces burned off in our dreams.”

“It’s a cute winking kitty-cat! It’s a curse ward!”

“A curse ward?” Percival and Alexis parrot in unison.

Monette lets out a humph and looks away from them. Though well, the sound of her humph is absorbed by her thick helmet – all they see is her suddenly looking the other way with a grinding noise.

On a side note, this cute winking kitty-cat charm is most definitely a curse ward.

Though well, despite being called a curse ward it doesn’t work indefinitely – it works for at most a half-day. And if Monette sleeps or goes away, the effect lessens.

Even with magic, there’s nothing that works universally no matter where you may be in the world. This goes double-fold for those of the House of Idira, who had nothing to do with magic for so long.

As she doesn’t know anything about who cast the curse or how it works, the only thing she can do is ward off the disasters as they come.

“Still, it should protect you enough to let you sleep soundly tonight.”

At Monette’s explanation, Percival lets out a small sigh of admiration and some slight relief, while Alexis’ expression softens… and he falls onto the bed like he fell unconscious.

Immediately after, his breathing slows, seemingly sleeping. He must have been very tired – in both mind and body.

“As that’s the way it is, I would suggest that you sleep in the room next door, Percival.”

“No, I’ll stay here,” Percival declines firmly.

Monette shrugs, thinking him obstinate, then leaves the room.

Two hours later, after finishing some research she had been doing in her room, she puts on her armour on top of her dressing gown and heads to Alexis and Percival’s room again.

On knocking on the guest room’s door, after a while, the door slowly opens. Percival peeks his head out.

“My apologies for interrupting your fun.”

“… Hm? What’s the matter?”

“Er, that is… I found a stronger curse ward than the one I used originally, so I thought I would swap it out for the new one.”

“… I see. Alright, then I’m counting on you,” Percival responds slowly, opening the door.

Monette had thought that he would glare at her and hurl an insult or two – what a disappointment.

“This is kind of disconcerting,” murmurs Monette.

But she still enters the room. She hears Alexis’ steady breathing as he sleeps. It seems like he’s sleeping really deeply – he’ll definitely sleep soundly until morning. At this rate, Monette just hopes that he wakes up in the morning rather than after it.

“With this charm, Prince Alexis should be fine even if he sleeps until the afternoon… Percival? Are you listening?” Monette asks.

After a ten second interval, Percival, resting on the sofa, responds.

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

From his slow response and the tone of his voice, Monette realizes he hadn’t been listening in the slightest. She glares at him. What a rude person.

But the next moment, Monette’s eyes widen. Percival is gesturing for her to come over.

Gesturing her over after ignoring her – how terribly rude. But Monette still approaches him… only to have her arm – or to be more precise, her gauntlet – gripped tightly to pull her forcibly into a hug.

Monette’s body… or rather armour is pressed against his chest. His sturdy arms envelop her.

“Percival!?”

“Lady Monette…”

“W- What are you doing!?”

“Lady Monette, you’re such a good girl.”

“… Excuse me?”

“You even researched for us – Lady Monette, you’re really a kind and good girl.”

“U- um, Percival?”

He pats her helmet with his large hands. Monette is bewildered – she has no idea what’s going on.

His current behaviour is completely different from how he acted during the day. Not only is he saying positive things like “You’re kind,” and “Thank you,” he’s also embracing her and patting her helmet.

There’s no way she wouldn’t be shocked by this.

On a side note, although she’s being embraced, the iron armour doesn’t let any body heat through, so her heartbeat doesn’t increase in the slightest. Rather, the more Percival praises her, the colder Monette feels. From the slightly cold air, naturally.

“Lady Monette, thank you. You’re really a kind person.”

“Percival, please return to your senses!”

“You redid the charm for us too, huh? It really is a cute kitty-cat, you’re good at drawing.”

“What happened to you, Percival, are you going to die!? If you’re going to die, die somewhere else!” Monette screams.

But Percival continues to happily shower her compliments, ignoring her scream. He embraces her tightly and continues patting her on the helmet.

Fifteen minutes later.

“… It happens sometimes,” explains Percival. He’s sitting on the sofa, looking downwards, face covered with by hands. The air was thick around him.

“Sometimes?” asks Monette, standing right in front of him.

“… Like when I’m tired.”

“Please sleep.”

“No, but the prince-“

“Sleep. Right. Now.”

Percival murmurs “A bodyguard…”, but after glancing at Monette he obediently heads to the room next door.

No doubt after coming to his senses and calmly looking back at his actions – a brief moment of clarity for him - along with realizing his wrongdoings at the sight of Monette, he decided to obediently go to sleep.

… After seeing Monette covered in fingerprints from all his patting.

T/N:

Today’s fun phrase: 祝杯をあげる

Literal meaning: A celebratory salute done by firing guns into the air.

I translated this as ‘do a victory dance’ as I felt that would flow better while conveying the same ‘celebratory’ meaning. Later on, she mentions:

紙吹雪と共に垂れる幕にはファンシーな文字で『ざまぁみろ』と書かれている

This would be literally translated as “’Serves you right” is written in fancy script on the curtains that are closed as confetti flies about.” I presume that since it mentions closing curtains, this is just supposed to evoke the imagery that the celebratory salute concludes with a fancy declaration of Serves them right!

So I transposed the ‘fancy script’ to ‘with a flourish’ and had imaginary Monette finish her dance by tracing the words in question.

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#Armoured Girl Monette #The Heavily Armoured Noble Girl Monette: How To Break a Curse You Don't Remember Casting #web novel

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the5stringfury · 4 years

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Songs that were a major pain for me to learn on Bass

Since I started playing the bass guitar there have been plenty of opportunities for me to learn new songs. Usually I can pick them up pretty quickly but there have been a few songs that really had me scratching my head. Either because of my lack of experience or the sheer complexity of the bass line this songs were a challenge for me. Here are 5 songs that really kicked my butt.

Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder

Written and Performed by Stevie Wonder as a tribute to Big Band Jazz Composer Duke Ellington, this tune highlights that classic sound with a powerful horn section. The tune is very upbeat and catch and the chorus is sometimes followed by this extended unison run that dances all the way up the fret board and walks back down to a solid landing right before either ending the song or heading back into the main groove. Its not something you can fake because the whole band is playing the line at the same time. For me it was just as fun as it was challenging to learn.

Salvation is here! - Hillsong United

This was a new praise song we were doing at Keystone. Hillsong put out songs that just seemed different and had more interesting guitar parts that our lead guitarist at the time really enjoyed. After really listening to this song a couple of times while the guitar part was really rocking. It was the bass line that kept me up at night. Pretty much driving 16th notes sprinkled through out the song were bad enough but, the bridge nearly did me in. This song will remain a nemesis song just for the bridge. The bridge drops to focus on just the bass and drums with the bass line doing some 14th fret string crossings with an up-tempo 16th note pattern. Jumping from string to string until it walks down an octave and repeats the pattern before landing with a big final chorus of Salvation is here! If I could actually perform the riff right and land in the right spot I would usually flub the easy 8th note driving final chorus because I would be too excited about actually pulling it off. I will note that Lincoln Brewster redid the song and the bridge section is a bit more chill than the original. Doesn't have the same effect to me

Tom Sayer - Rush

This prog rock classic features odd time signatures and interesting rhythmic shifts through out the song. The church band got together to play this at our drummers senior recital at Cornerstone University. This was an intense song to learn but it was amplified when we were doing it for his grade. Sure the highlight was his drumming prowess but, I didn't want him to get a ding because I lost count in the middle of this well known song.

Blue Sky -The Allman Brothers Band

This is a true Guitar jam song, but the bass line isn't boring by any stretch. The bass line moves all over the place and flows like a long solo. The key was realizing that the pattern was a series of arpeggios moving from chord to chord. I think the time crunch to learn this song didn't help either. I know playing this at church helped because most people would be focused on the dueling guitar solos and not notice that I didn't "exactly" play the bass line note for note, but lets keep that quiet.

Monster - Edge From Falling

If you look at the liner notes for the EP this song was released on you'll notice that the bass player for this song is called out as Yours Truly. That might lead you to wonder why that bass line is on this list. Honestly I would really need to get in the shed to even play it again. I used to be an active member of Edge From Falling but I stepped down to focus more on family. The band continued on and had rotating bass players for a bit. When it came time for them to head into the studio again I was asked to write and record a fitting bass line for this new track. When I first heard the bass less track I could not "hear" a bass line. I was stressed. I asked for a chord transcription of the guitar parts to try and spark ideas but I was coming up blank. As the studio date approached my stress level increased until I hit some kind of Zen level of calm and made up the beginning bass line days before the recording. We made adjustments during the session and finally the lead guitarist had to play the final riff because I couldn't quite match the rhythm of his guitar solo. He played his part on my bass for the last two bars of the song and the rest is history. If I was ever called to sub for the band I would definitely need to sit in the shed with it for a good while to pull it off live. They might want to prep the recording just in case.

What challenges have you had to over come in your journey? How did you feel when you finally climbed that mountain. Do yo still struggle with them or are they child’s play now. Leave a comment and let me know.

See you next time!

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lilac-milk-moon · 5 years

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How to Create Massive Wealth Investing in Multi-Family Apartments

Note from Mr. SR: There are many approaches to investing. I personally have several self-imposed rules for investing in the stock market. But another great option is real estate! You should consider different investment approaches and choose an investment strategy that fits your own financial goals.

My friend Jeff from The Kickass Entrepreneur is a real estate investing veteran, so I’m excited to share some of his insights with you today!

Do you want to create massive wealth investing in multi-family apartments via investment real estate?

Let me show you how.

Most people believe the best way to build wealth in real estate is to buy a REIT (real estate investment trust), which you can easily buy on the stock market.

And there’s nothing wrong with investing in the stock market, or, buying a REIT for that matter, but, the serious wealth, the kind of money that propels you into the top 1%, is made by those individuals who understand the fundamentals of how to strategically value, buy, upgrade, and sell their own properties.

According to this Forbes magazine article, “How the World’s Billionaires Got So Rich,” real estate and business ownership are at the top of the list.

And that’s what I am going to explain in this post. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a real estate guru to buy your first property, I will show you, step-by-step:

how investment real estate is valued, and specifically multi-family apartments

examples of how to make a return on your investment

how I made a 344% return in two months

And then I’ll walk you through an example of a property that I am considering, where I stand to make over $4.5 million profit inside three years.

I wrote this post with the beginner investor in mind. The things I write about are things I wish someone had explained to me before I started down my real estate path over ten years ago.

First, I want to share with you a simple concept you need to understand before you begin the hunt for your first investment property.

At the heart of investment real estate is a concept called the capitalization rate, otherwise known as the CAP rate.

What is the CAP rate?

I’m going to spend some time reviewing this, as it’s important you understand how it impacts your investment and returns.

The CAP rate is the building’s profit (before taxes and building depreciation) divided by the purchase price of the building.

Let me illustrate, first with the formula and then with an example:

CAP Rate = Net Operating Income (NOI) ÷ Building Value (BV)

Let’s say there’s a building on the market that’s selling for $1 million. Let’s assume that the building is netting $100,000 (after expenses like hydro, maintenance, and building management).

The very simplified income statement looks like this:

Revenue = $175,000

Expenses (maintenance, utilities, management) = $75,000

Net Operating Income (NOI) = $100,000

In the above example, this building’s CAP rate = $100,000 ÷ $1 million= 10%.

Why is the CAP rate number so important?

All commercial real estate properties, multi-family apartments included, trade on their CAP rate. This is the first number a discerning buyer looks at when evaluating a building.

CAP rates vary from city to city and, even then, vary within pockets of a city.

It’s likely that a building in one section of a city has a CAP rate of 5% and then a few blocks over, perhaps in a less desirable area, has a higher CAP rate of 8%.

The less desirable the area, the less the building is worth and, hence, the higher the CAP rate.

It’s not that dissimilar from how a stock’s PE ratio works. Stocks of similar companies and industries have a similar PE ratio. If there’s a variance, there’s almost always a reason.

The same holds true with CAP rates.

Now, imagine a scenario where a building on 123 Main Street with a net profit of $100,000 just sold for a 5% CAP rate, and the building next door at 125 Main Street (which is identical in size, apartments, and every respect other than the rent rates and income) has just been put on the market

Value of 123 Main Street

Let’s review some basic math and solve for the value of the building (BV).

The profit of the building at 123 Main Street, which just sold for a 5% CAP rate, is $100,000.

Remember, the formula is CAP Rate = Income ÷ Building Value.

5% = $100,000 ÷ BV

In this case, BV = $2,000,000.

Now, the building owner at 125 Main Street is going to put their building on the market.

Remember what I explained earlier: buildings are sold based on CAP rate. So the building at 125 Main Street will likely sell at a similar CAP rate, but in this case, let’s imagine the income at 125 Main Street is $120,000.

Value of 125 Main Street

Using the same math as above, let’s solve for BV:

5% = $120,000 ÷ BV

BV = $2,400,000

Notice that the value between the two buildings is $400,000, even though they are identical in every way other than the $20,000 yearly difference in the net operating income.

In the above example, for every extra dollar you’re able to raise rents or lower expenses, the net operating income increased by $1. At a 5% CAP rate, every extra dollar in NOI increases the value of the building by $20.

Now that you’re a real estate guru and understand the math and CAP rate, I want to illustrate how to create wealth, but I want to illustrate with a story first.

How I made a 344% return in 2 months investing in multi-family apartments

I got a call in 2014 from my insurance company about a 21-unit building I own. The insurance company no longer wanted to insure the property unless we provided a written guarantee that there was no knob and tube wiring in the building.

As an aside, knob and tube is an older type of electrical wiring that was used until the late 1930s. Given the increased age of the wiring and higher probability of electrical and fire problems, many insurance companies are reluctant to insure buildings with this older style of electrical cable because of a perceived increase in risk.

The insurance company gave me only two months to comply. After this, I had to sign an affidavit confirming there was no knob and tube in the building, otherwise, I had to find a new insurance company.

Fortunately, only two of the units had knob and tube.

Unfortunately, both units were occupied by very long-term (30+ years) tenants, and their rents were well below market because of rent control.

It was only going to cost a few thousand dollars to replace the wiring, re-patch all the holes, and clean up the unit. But I saw an opportunity to completely gut the units and significantly raise rents. The problem with rent control, though, is that you can’t just kick out a tenant.

My big return

The tenants in the two units were paying approximately $900 per month each in rent. The going rate for a renovated unit in the same building at the time was approximately $1,500 per month, a difference of $600 per month – $7,200 per unit per year extra.

I couldn’t kick the tenants out. I had the option of asking each to vacate for two months while I redid the electrical.

Once completed, because of rent control, I would have to give them their units back at the same rent. There was a negative return on my dollar.

In the end, I paid each tenant approximately $5,000 to vacate their units. I then spent approximately $40,000 in upgrade costs per unit and re-rented the units for $1,500 each per month.

When we were done renovating, the units were gorgeous.

Let’s look at the math: $45,000 in upgrades ÷ $7,200 per year in rent increase = 6.25 years until payback.

The 6.25-year return on my initial investment isn’t bad, but that’s not where the big returns come from.

This particular building has a CAP rate of 3.5%. I increased the rents by $7,200 per year per unit. This translates to an increase in the value of the building of $205,000.

3.5% = $7,200 ÷ BV

BV = $205,000

Between the two units, I spent $90,000 in upgrade costs and increased the valuation of the building by more than $400,000. That’s a 344% return on investment, in just two months!

If I had put the building on the market two days after the units were rented, the new buyer would calculate the building’s value based on the new rent roll. (Now, given that I have a long-term buy-and-hold strategy, I held the building.)

But I have another interesting example of how I intend to make over a 100% return in three years on my invested dollar investing in multi-family apartments.

How to make 110% return, or $4.7 million, in 3 years

As I mentioned earlier, the CAP rates vary by city to city, and even within areas in a city.

As an example, according to the 2018 CBRE North American research report, the average CAP rate for a multifamily Class A building for most North American cities is between 3% and 5.5%.

A few example CAP rates from different North American cities for multi-family apartments

Toronto = 3% to 3.75%

Boston = 3.75% to 4.75%

San Francisco = 3.75% to 4.25%

Atlanta = 4.25% to 5%

St Louis = 5.5% to 5.75%

I am currently considering an offer on a 32-unit apartment building. The listed asking price of the building is $5.65 million, with a stated CAP rate of 3.6%. Normally, I wouldn’t be interested in purchasing a building with such a low CAP rate, but in this particular case, the rents are well below market, and given the illustration of what I explained above with the knob and tube example, there’s the potential to make over $4 million inside 3 years.

The current financials of the building are as follows:

CAP Rate = $203,541 (NOI) ÷ $5,650,000 (BV; asking price) = 3.6%

Assuming we keep the CAP rate constant at 3.6%, every additional dollar in NOI will result in an increased value of the building of $27.78 ($1 ÷ 3.6%).

I estimate that if I spend $1,664,000 in upgrade costs on the building, I can increase the rents by approximately $17,250 per month.

I estimate that I can gut all the units and replace the tenants inside three years. That improves the value of the building, based on a constant 3.6% CAP rate, to approximately $11.4 million.

There’s clearly a much longer story, which I am not going to address at length here. You can read the full background, along with all the numbers, in this blog post: “Here’s How to Buy an Apartment Building and Make a Whopping 110% in Three Years.”

For all of you complaining that CAP rates are too low, the irony is this: if you’re looking to buy, renovate, and raise the rents, then a lower CAP rate is better.

I have been buying investment real estate for many years, so I have a decent sense of how to spot an opportunity and take advantage of CAP rates. I also have more dollars available to invest into a project.

However, the math and mechanics work the same whether you are buying a 4-plex in St Louis for $400,000 or a 35-plex in San Francisco for $8,000,000.

On a much larger scale, the above is an example of how REITs make money with their projects and how they can buy a property in what seems like an overinflated market and still make millions in return on their invested dollar.

They understand how and where to spot an opportunity and invest their capital.

Enter the entrepreneur and real estate

Are you running a profitable business?

If so, then have you ever wondered how to appropriately invest your profits?

Perhaps you’ve spoken with an investment advisor?

Most financial advisors will look at the amount of cash you have available to invest, check the optimal investment strategy and investment horizon for someone your age, come up with a percentage of stocks and bonds based on your available cash, and then design a supposedly “perfect” asset allocation model for you.

There’s just one problem: that conventional asset allocation model doesn’t work for entrepreneurs.

Your investment and cash requirements are different from the regular investor. You already have a large percentage of your wealth tied up in your business, which is equity.

A downturn in the market will result in not only a downturn in your stock portfolio. If the economy enters a recession, there’s a good chance your business will be in need of extra cash.

Most financial advisors simply don’t understand that. They also fail to take an appropriate approach to asset allocation.

Entrepreneurs must understand how to make risk-appropriate decisions when it comes to both investing and their businesses overall.

As a business owner, when you invest in yourself and your business, you take control of the outcome. You also maintain control by finding your own opportunities and capitalizing on them.

With careful diligence, planning, research, and education, you can influence the outcome of your investments without having to rely on the stock market. That’s where, to a great extent, real estate comes into play.

So what is an appropriate asset allocation for an entrepreneur?

I have a three-bucket investment strategy approach that I designed and used for over 30 years. It’s produced a 30% compounded year-on-year return since 1991, which is when I started my business.

Yes, 30% is a large number.

Much of that growth was a result of three things:

my business doing well and producing healthy dividends year after year

the successful sale of my business to private equity in 2017

strategically investing in real estate (the way I describe above with multi-family apartments), the capital appreciation of the real estate, and then the ensuing profits that the buildings produce year after year

Very little of the growth was from the stock market.

My investment allocation strategy, in a quick nutshell, is to divide your assets into three equal buckets.

Cash in bucket one. Real estate in bucket two. And the value of your business in bucket three.

My investment allocation strategy is time-tested: 2,000 years old, in fact. It’s not one I created, of course, but a strategy I followed and continue to follow to this day.

I write extensively about this strategy in my book, The Kickass Entrepreneur’s Guide to Investing, which was number one on Amazon business and nonfiction for quite a few weeks during the summer of 2018. You can download a free copy from the above link.

Real estate should be part of your overall asset allocation strategy. You definitely don’t want all of your eggs in one basket, but with proper diversification across a set of somewhat uncorrelated asset classes, you, too, can create massive wealth through real estate. And in case you’re wondering, what net worth makes you rich? The average net worth to make it into the top 1% and how to get there, you can read this post.

Hopefully, you’re now feeling like a real estate guru! Good luck with your first investment.

This post was written by Jeff Weiner from The Kickass Entrepreneur and originally appeared on The Money Mix. It is republished here with permission.

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The #1 Secret To Create Wealth In Real Estate – Multi-Family Apartments

[Editor’s Note: The following article is from Jeff Wiener. He blogs over at The Kick Ass Entrepreneur which focuses on helping entrepreneurs expand their business, improve profits, and create wealth. Jeff ran his business for 26-years, sold to private equity for 8-figures in 2017, and semi-retired at the age of 49. Throughout the years, Jeff built a portfolio of apartment buildings that he continues to manage until today. Now that my main focus of this site is helping other docs to acquire real estate assets without dealing with the hassles of managing property, I love featuring others for you to continue to learn from another point of view Enjoy the post.]

Do you want to create massive wealth investing in multi-family apartments via investment real estate?

Let me show you how.

Most people believe the best way to build wealth in real estate is to buy a REIT (real estate investment trust), which you can easily buy on the stock market.

According to the Forbes magazine article, “How the World’s Billionaires Got So Rich,” real estate and business ownership are at the top of the list.

And that’s what I am going to explain today for you. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a real estate guru to buy your first property, I will show you, step-by-step:

how investment real estate is valued, specifically multi-family apartments

examples of how to make a return on your investment

how I made a 344% return in two months

And then I’ll walk you through an example of a property that I am considering, where I stand to make over $4.5 million profit inside three years.

I wrote this post with the beginner investor in mind. The things I write about are things I wish someone had explained to me before I started down my real estate path over ten years ago.

How to Create Massive Wealth Investing in Multi-Family Apartments

First, I want to share with you a simple concept you need to understand before you begin the hunt for your first investment property.

At the heart of investment real estate is a concept called the capitalization rate, otherwise known as the CAP rate.

What is the CAP rate?

I’m going to spend some time reviewing this, as it’s important you understand how it impacts your investment and returns.

The CAP rate is the building’s profit (before taxes and building depreciation) divided by the purchase price of the building.

Let me illustrate, first with the formula and then with an example:

CAP Rate = Net Operating Income (NOI) ÷ Building Value (BV)

Let’s say there’s a building on the market that’s selling for $1 million. Let’s assume that the building is netting $100,000 (after expenses like maintenance and building management).

The very simplified income statement looks like this:

Revenue = $175,000

Expenses (maintenance, utilities, management) = $75,000

Net Operating Income (NOI) = $100,000

In the above example, this building’s CAP rate = $100,000 ÷ $1 million= 10%.

Why Is the CAP Rate Number So Important?

All commercial real estate properties, multi-family apartments included, trade on their CAP rate. This is the first number a discerning buyer looks at when evaluating a building.

CAP rates vary from city to city and, even then, vary within pockets of a city.

It’s likely that a building in one section of a city has a CAP rate of 5% and then a few blocks over, perhaps in a less desirable area, has a higher CAP rate of 8%.

The less desirable the area, the less the building is worth and, hence, the higher the CAP rate.

It’s not that dissimilar from how a stock’s price-to-earnings (PE) ratio works. Stocks of similar companies and industries have a similar PE ratio. If there’s a variance, there’s almost always a reason.

The same holds true with CAP rates.

Value of 123 Main Street

Let’s review some basic math and solve for the value of the building (BV).

The profit of the building at 123 Main Street, which just sold for a 5% CAP rate, is $100,000.

Remember, the formula:

CAP Rate = Income ÷ Building Value.

5% = $100,000 ÷ BV

In this case, BV = $2,000,000.

Now, the building owner at 125 Main Street is going to put their building on the market.

Value of 125 Main Street

Using the same math as above, let’s solve for BV:

5% = $120,000 ÷ BV

BV = $2,400,000

Notice that the value between the two buildings is $400,000 (2 million vs 2.4 million), even though they are identical in every way other than the $20,000 yearly difference in the net operating income.

Now that you’re a real estate guru and understand the math and CAP rate, I want to illustrate how to create wealth, but I want to illustrate with a story first.

How I Made a 344% Return in 2 Months Investing in Multi-Family Apartments

As an aside, knob and tube is an older type of electrical wiring that was used until the late 1930’s. Given the increased age of the wiring and higher probability of electrical and fire problems, many insurance companies are reluctant to insure buildings with this older style of electrical cable because of a perceived increase in risk.

Fortunately, only two of the units had knob and tube.

Unfortunately, both units were occupied by very long-term (30+ years) tenants, and their rents were well below market because of rent control.

It was only going to cost a few thousand dollars to replace the wiring, repatch all the holes, and clean up the unit. But I saw an opportunity to completely gut the units and significantly raise rents. The problem with rent control, though, is that you can’t just kick a tenant out.

My Big Return

I couldn’t kick the tenants out. I had the option of asking each to vacate for two months while I redid the electrical.

Once completed, because of rent control, I would have to give them their units back at the same rent. There was a negative return on my dollar.

In the end, I paid each tenant approximately $5,000 to vacate their units. I then spent approximately $40,000 in upgrade costs per unit and rerented the units for $1,500 each per month.

When we were done renovating, the units were gorgeous.

Let’s look at the math: $45,000 in upgrades ÷ $7,200 per year in rent increase = 6.25 years until payback.

The 6.25-year return on my initial investment isn’t bad, but that’s not where the big returns come from.

This particular building has a CAP rate of 3.5%. I increased the rents by $7,200 per year per unit. This translates to an increase in the value of the building of $205,000.

Cap Rate = NOI / BV

3.5% = $7,200 ÷ BV

BV = $205,000

Between the two units, I spent $90,000 in upgrade costs and increased the valuation of the building by more than $400,000. That’s a 344% return on investment, in just two months!

But I have another interesting example of how I intend to make over a 100% return in three years on my invested dollar investing in multi-family apartments.

How to Make 110% Return, or $4.7 Million, in 3 Years

As I mentioned earlier, the CAP rates vary by city to city, and even within areas in a city.

As an example, according to the 2018 CBRE North American research report, the average CAP rate for a multifamily Class A building for most North American cities is between 3% and 5.5%.

A few example CAP rates from different North American cities for Multi-Family Apartments

Toronto = 3% to 3.75%

Boston = 3.75% to 4.75%

San Francisco = 3.75% to 4.25%

Atlanta = 4.25% to 5%

St Louis = 5.5% to 5.75%

The current financials of the building are as follows:

CAP Rate = $203,541 (NOI) ÷ $5,650,000 (BV; asking price) = 3.6%

Assuming we keep the CAP rate constant at 3.6%, every additional dollar in NOI will result in an increased value of the building of $27.78 ($1 ÷ 3.6%).

I estimate that if I spend $1,664,000 in upgrade costs on the building, I can increase the rents by approximately $17,250 per month.

I estimate that I can gut all the units and replace the tenants inside three years. That improves the value of the building, based on a constant 3.6% CAP rate, to approximately $11.4 million.

For all of you complaining that CAP rates are too low, the irony is this: “If you’re looking to buy, renovate, and raise the rents, then a lower CAP rate is better.”

However, the math and mechanics work the same whether you are buying a 4-plex in St. Louis for $400,000 or a 35-plex in San Francisco for $8,000,000.

On a much larger scale, the above is an example of how REITs make money with their projects and how they can buy a property in what seems like an over inflated market and still make millions in return on their invested dollar.

They understand how and where to spot an opportunity and invest their capital.

Enter the Entrepreneur and Real Estate

Are you running a profitable business?

If so, have you ever wondered how to appropriately invest your profits?