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sometimesrosy · 3 years

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Hello Rosy! This might be a difficult ask. Don’t know if you’ve already seen what’s going on on Twitter, but a white reviewer said she couldn’t understand a book because she started reading the sequel without reading the first book. It was a paid review, for a famous magazine. The book was written by a POC, and it was so enraging that suddenly a lot of reviews, written by her, with blatant racism started showing up. She’s said some pretty bad things, such as a white reader not understanding a different culture because it’s too exotic and was presented in a “non-white way”. She also said she clearly wasn’t the best reviewer for that book as she wasn’t of the author’s ethnicity. I think that’s super ignorant, because why can’t a white person try to understand a different culture? Anyway, this got me thinking. I love fantasy, and love it even more when it grabs elements and cultures of our own world. I love learning about different cultures than my own and just get to know them. I’m from a smaller country where most people are honestly ignorant about racism. I tend to believe I can easily put myself in other people’s shoes, and I never understood this white-privilege and need for everything to be about white-culture. I think it’s very dumb when we claim things need to be changed because we don’t understand them because we are white, and so POC should change their stories so we can “relate”. Reminds me of colonialism, tbh. I mean, the world is so beautiful and so diverse? Why do we feel the need to even dictate fantasy stories that way? What I wanted to ask is, as a white person, when does it become racist when trying to get to know another culture? Until a few years ago, I didn’t know the word “exotic” was bad, for example. Is too much enthusiasm bad? As an aspiring writer who’s white cis, when does it become disrespectful to write diverse characters and try to represent their culture in a respectful, truthful way? Thank you, and I’m sorry this is so long. (Didn’t proofread, hope it’s coherent!)

This is a difficult ask. Because it’s complicated and we are all right smack dab in the middle of this cultural upheaval. It’s had to get a clear perspective on it, because we’re drowning in it. I suppose I’ll answer it, not as if I have all the answers, but as if it’s a problem that I am sorting through and sometimes struggling with myself. I have been working on this answer for three five days now so let’s see if I can wrap it up.

I did see the issue going around on twitter but I didn’t read the book and didn’t click on the review, because, well, sometimes I get tired of giving my attention to people who are acting in bad faith about issues of race and diversity. I saw a quote yesterday about the truth of a lot of people acting in bad faith. They can PRETEND they are innocent and ignorant and don’t know what they are doing, but a professional reviewer doesn’t bother reading the first book because it isn’t worth their time and then judges the book based on their ignorance? That’s WILLFUL ignorance. That’s disrespect. Saying they couldn’t understand it because it’s not from a white perspective is both minimizing the humanity of the non white culture, the AOC, and the book, and also putting the white pov, the white audience and the white author ABOVE everyone who is not white.

“I can’t relate to this book because I am not centered and it is not about people who look like me and are white.”

This is part of the “white default” mentality. This mentality says that the REAL human is a middle/upperclass, christian, cishet, abled, western white man, and everyone else is some sort of hyphenated person. The more hyphens, the less they count as human. A book about a hero, is about a white man. A book about a female hero-- or heroine, is a white woman. A Black hero, a Black man. A lesbian Black female hero. A poor, muslim, bisexual, Filipino, single mom... is apparently the kind of person that those at the “top” of the identity food chain can’t conceptualize as having universal human experiences.

Because they are “the other.”

Saying that white people can’t relate to BIPOC in the content they consume is saying that white people and BIPOC do not share the same human experience.

That’s one of the reasons why calling someone ‘exotic’ is problematic. Because it’s othering that person, saying they are odd or weird or unusual, not even in a bad way really, but in a way that makes them NOT a regular human. Perhaps something good enough for an exotic vacation or love affair or a night out at an exotic restaurant. It turns people into consumable goods that aren’t a part of the default human’s REAL world. Exotic is spicy and attractive and sexy and foreign. Something to be explored and then discarded when you go back to your real life.

So yes it TOTALLY is akin to colonialism. And that reviewer, using their entitlement as the basis for their review shows a marked incompetence as a reviewer. That is a BAD reviewer who acted in bad faith to attack authors and stories that were different from their dominant experience.

Okay. So that’s the discussion about the reviewer and the BIPOC authors. Listen, the publishing industry is a MESS, and it has been for years. Publishers, editors, reviewers, marketing, book covers, agents, writing associations and, the worst one for the readers, the writers, too. Yes. It’s awful, every time you turn around you find out something horrible about a favorite creator.

I think it’s because when we create, we use who we are, underneath our polite public personas, to create new worlds and characters. And that’s the part of us that is full of biases and unquestioned prejudices, wounds, resentments, fears and weaknesses. Those things come out in our stories. No matter who we are they do. But also when a person gets power and success, our cutlure allows them to abuse that power, and then we start hearing stories about what our favorite creators do with that power-- and we start to connect that abusive or toxic or racist or transphobic behavior back to the stories, books, movies and shows that they’ve created and then, voila. It’s all painted in black and white on the page or screen or whatever.

I think it’s just part of the vulnerability of being an artist. You put yourself out there to be seen, and that means a lot of your ugliness is visible. We all have ugliness. We’re all raised in a racist world. Not just those who are white and powerful, but also BIPOC who have all that internalized racism or racism against other minorities, or classism or homophobia or whatever. All that stuff is in there.

How do we keep racism and other biases out of our work? We probably can’t get rid of it all, because humans are imperfect. And also, sometimes you want to write ABOUT that imperfection. Flaws are part of what make fictional characters interesting. And sometimes we want to address that. Sometimes we WANT to tell a story without explicitly saying, “this bad and shouldn’t be that way.” There is a reason to write about the bad, hard and unfair things in life, and they shouldn’t necessarily be erased from our fiction.

BUT.

As a writer, at this point in time, you really don’t want to be at the mercy of your unquestioned biases, blindspots, ignorance, bigotry, racism, homophobia, misogyny etc.

We, as authors, want to be aware of how these things affect our writing and stories. So I guess the first step is to be pay attention when we hear about how racism etc is shown in the world and fiction. If you can see the problem of colonialism and exoticism in reviewers or authors, if you can see how taking, say, Chinese culture as a basis for your SF world, but not having any Chinese characters or actors in your show (Serenity/Firefly) is racist, colonialist, unfair, and tbh flawed storytelling, then you have to pay attention when you yourself want to use multicultural elements in your story.

I think one thing you have to look out for as a white author writing about other cultures is a kind of cultural tourism, where you look at other cultures and try to *use* the exotic elements to spice up your story. To indicate “the other.” Or perhaps something that is exotic and consumable. Even stereotypes that seem positive to you, powerful and beautiful and exotic can be dehumanizing. Like the “magical negro,” or the “spicy latina,” or the “tech genius east asian.” Why? Because they’re caricatures, not real people. I have also heard that sometimes using religions in your work is considered offensive because they are closed religions. You have to be a part of them to understand them. I am not sure about this, because I am not from a closed religion. I’m from a buddhist tradition that was missionary in nature. (I however hate proselytizing and it’s one of the reasons I left that religion.)

Being a mixed race, multicultural person from a minority religion, who belongs to many cultures and so doesn’t belong to any, I personally think sharing culture, art, stories and influences is a good thing. I couldn’t exist if we didn’t. And I use influences from all over in my work.

When does this enter into appropriation? I think that is a very good question. Using a native american war bonnet to fancy up your bikini so you can get drunk at a music festival definitely seems like appropriation. Writing a well developed, well rounded Lakota character who’s been well researched and stays away harmful stereotypes... maybe not.

I would NOT write a story attempting to Tell The Truth of what it is to BE another culture. Recently a part Puerto Rican, mostly white author wrote a novel attempting to do that with, I believe, the Mexican immigrant experience, American Dirt, and as far as I can tell, failed miserably. Maybe it was a good story, but it was NOT an authentic tale of the Mexican experience. I didn’t read it, but what I read about it felt as if she thought she could write an expressionist tear jerker about her impression of someone else’s experience. As someone who shares a similar background to that author, I would NEVER have had the temerity to write about that particular story. You’re from NYC lady. What do you know of border crossings? But if I HAD incorporated that experience into my stories (not trying to offer some sort of definitive narrative) I would have done more research from primary sources.

Now all authors are writing about other experiences. Other lives. If not, it would all be scarcely concealed autobiographies. We could only ever write about people who looked like us and came from exactly the same backgrounds and had the same experiences as ours and how boring would that be? This topic is SUPER complicated and I keep thinking about more things to address, but if I keep going I’ll never finish this and it will be too long for everyone to read anyway.

Let’s sum up.

Can you, a white person, write about cultures not your own? Yes. With cautions.

be aware of your own biases and racism and assumptions

don’t attempt to write a definitive experience. Don’t write about what it’s like to BE Black unless you are Black. You can’t know. Even Black people don’t have the same experience.

stay away from negative stereotypes and be on the look out for less negative ones that are still dehumanizing.

don’t consume someone else’s culture and disrespect the people.

remember to keep your BIPOC characters well rounded, realistic, and human. They all have pasts and families and fears and hopes and traumas and careers. Don’t treat them as a prop for your white characters. (although do remember that all secondary characters are there to support the MCs, so this can be tricky.)

RESEARCH. Simply basing a character or culture on someone you know is not enough. You should also be aware of history, culture, other depictions, the conversation about that culture, the voices of the people, etc.

Be willing to take criticism. Anyone writing BIPOC characters or cultures is going to get criticism. Period. It’s gonna happen, whether you’re a white author or a BIPOC. Sometimes AOC are more inspected than white authors. All the time, actually, from both white people and POC.

BE RESPECTFUL. Write BIPOC characters as human as white characters who share your culture.

oh I’m sure there’s more. but i’m hitting post now or I’ll never send this.

#writing diversity #multiculturalism #writing advice #rosywrites #you know what theres probably more about specifically sff but I didn't get there #also there's something about a suspicious similarity between racism and some purity discourse about anti-multiculturalism that is basically #just separatism #which makes me very uncomfortable

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pompompurin1028 · 3 years

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Honestly I- I was shook too like what😭 I was all like “what kind of an unholy word are we living in and how the hell did you have an access to this unholy thing”

Another time she sent this and only wrote “u” below I was like

🤨

i hope you aren’t the owner of this edit or i’m disowning you

In conclusion we’ve got a good Dazai-Kunikida dynamic😂 Love her so much tho

AND YES AJXNSLXN I SAW THAT- please that’s adorable😂💕 gotta adore the lovely friends who have to deal with our passionate selves😭

Ahh that’s so great🥺 But yeah, make sure you warn her beforehand, it could get really triggering🥺

Omg you MEMORISE THEM TOO? Woah😭 I think the only poem we ever memorised was our national anthem in primary school- But it at least gave you more depth for Blue Bamboo so that’s awesome hehe😌 And that sounds so hard omg😭 But I find that it’s so useful for the brain and comprehension skills too which also sounds awesome :o

And I really enjoy learning about them, yes🥺 When we do them in class, first they let us alone with the original poem, and of course we don’t understand anything because if the poem contains, let’s say, 200 words, only 20-25 of them are still in use today. In fact, there was a certain point in the history where we started to use so so many words from two other languages (not telling them explicitly because that’d probably publicly reveal a lot about mine🥲but anyone who knows a bit about this certain literature has already understood it so RIP) because the poets thought those words would serve better to express what they wanted to express, and the mixture of these 3 languages formed the literature language in the country for a long time. We’re talking about roughly from the 11th to the 19th century, by the way. But in the 20th century, a movement started and its main goal was to eliminate the influence of the foreign languages on our literature, they defended that we should be creating our works with our modern language (which I pretty much agree with).

So now, when we look at a poem from for example 17th century, we don’t understand it not only because it’s written in old language but also because it’s not even in our language. But when the teachers give us the translation, it allows me to see how they perceived the world, the human emotions, and it kind of makes me feel a beautiful connection with my country in those centuries, I guess? The awareness that it’s my culture is so attractive for me as well. When I read things from other cultures, sure I like them objectively very much, but here, subjective emotions come into play too, I suppose? It makes me feel closer to it even when I don’t understand a word in it. I always feel like emotions were purer back then. And when I have a version of it which I understand, it makes me rejoice so much. So I may say that it kind of creates the connection between us, the ‘modern’ individuals and the ‘historical’ culture/people. I really hope this all makes sense haha, this turned out so long omg I’m so sorry😖

And yes!! I’m pretty fluent in it, and I really enjoy learning it so, SO much omg it could be my favourite language to learn or talk or write in. I’m literally so passionate about everything about it (why are we like this in everything we do I swear-). And oh you studied it too?? That’s awesome!!🥰 We could try talking in it some time if you’d like👀

And aaaaahhh French literature is AWESOME you should definitely give it a try. It’s definitely among my favourites, if not the favourite. I recently read La Bête Humaine (The Beast Within? The Human Beast?? I still don’t know how it was published in English) from Émile Zola and I was shook oh god, it was so raw, so wild… and I found it really beautiful, I’m honestly slowly falling in love with the naturalism movement. I really recommend Flaubert too, he’s really a master of realism, I love him so much. Hugo, if you’re into romanticism (which I’m.. pretty much not😭) And there’s Molière, the comedy master, I’m honestly HEAD OVER HEELS in love with his witty humour; and in terms of philosophy there’s Rousseau, Descartes, Beauvoir; AND OH THE POEMS Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine AAAAAA THE LIST COULD GO ON FOR HOURS- I- I CAN’T😩😩😩

And French classical music/art movements is a WHOLE other topic that I won’t even get into, or this ask will become a novel.

Anyways🤭 Oh I see! That’s really interesting, maybe🤔 I also heard that it was so beautiful, I’m looking forward to reading it some time😌

This is long overdue and this ask has been sitting in my ask box for a while, my apologies. And please that picture, I'm sorry I can't help but burst out laughing when I see it hahaha. And to be in the face of such a genius such as Mozart, I would be shy too honestly😳

And yes omg, I appreciate her so much T^T. My friend has been busy though it seems, she's been busy with courses, I miss her😭. And yes ahh I did warn her no worries, I warn her everytime she talks about it😳 I think she gets the point by now haha

And ahh that's actually pretty cool! But that also sounds so complicated at the same time. I can't even begin to imagine having 3 languages integrated into a single type of literature. And only that little of the words can actually be understood? I- wow😳 And yeah, I can totally understand the movement and its intentions, and honestly, I agree with it too, even though I have a very limited understanding of this topic.

And that must feel really weird :0 to know that it is from your culture but to have languages that you don't understand in it. And don't worry, I get what you mean! It's like you're able to communicate with the people of the past as they bring you messages and lessons that they learnt! T^T and it's honestly kind of a treasure honestly.

From what I know the old Chinese language changed to the current one during the May Fourth Movement (Also known as the New Cultural Movement), I believe. Of course, the May Fourth Movement included more than just the change of the languages, but that might be one of its biggest accomplishments. So during that time, the modern Chinese language is already used in speaking and writing as well during that time, but it was not the language used to officially spread ideas during that time. The May Fourth Movement one about moving away from traditional ideas and intellectual thoughts, such as Confucianism. Don't take my word for it, but from what I remember that I have learnt, I think that they wanted to do so because they (the students of the time) believe that it was such ideas that lead to China's downfall after the first world war in the Paris Peace Conference in which it wasn't able to claim some of its original lands back (the land is the Shandong region, which was given to Japan instead); and before that as well in which it suffered much humiliation from the weak Qing (or in English would sometimes be written as Ch'ing) government. And so, this movement kind of promoted the use of vernacular language in writing rather than using what we call "bahuai". This made the written language much easier to understand.

Sorry, I just went on rambling and gave you a history lesson there😅 At first I was going to talk about it briefly only because of... but all well, I guess my history-loving side came out haha

And honestly, I find that so amazing:") And well yeah, I only know very little French, unfortunately... I was learning it when the pandemic hit and I couldn't have any more lessons sadly...

And please, your passion for French literature is making me want to read them too ahh. There are just so many books I want to read gshsjs. And Rousseau, of course, I know him from studying the French Revolution period before haha, along with Voltaire and Montesquieu. Well I know of them, but I'm not very familiar with their ideas though unfortunately :")

And please don't worry Req haha, your passion is very energizing and it makes me really excited to talk about such things too. I enjoy it very much <3

Oh and before we were talking about I am A Cat, I actually found it in the bookstore in Chinese, and I read the description of it briefly and it talks about a story written from the cat's pov which is quite cool!

#asks💌#Req🎻#q

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chsamuseum · 3 years

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CHSA Interns Respond: What does AAPI Heritage mean to us?

This month, we asked our interns to share their reflections on AAPI Heritage, answering the question, “What does AAPI Heritage mean to you?” Here’s what they wrote:

AAPI Heritage Is…

...a living history

Shou Zhang, Research Intern (We Are Bruce Lee)

I am a 1.5 generation Han Chinese American.

I believe our communities' diverse and beautiful history lives through us like water flowing from the past into the present and onwards to the future. Our very existence in this country is a testament to the resilience of those who came before us. When I can go to a Chinese grocery store and buy goods that satisfy my taste for the Chinese Lu culinary cooking style, that experience is the legacy of our lived history. When I cook the dishes that my family taught me, the very act of it is a celebration of my Han Chinese culture.

Examples of China’s Lu cuisine, originating in Shandong. (PC: China & Asia Cultural Travel).

To me, the AAPI history of my community is a lived experience. I recognize that the Han Chinese and Han Chinese American community in America are members of a wider community whose struggles and experiences intersect with our own. So for me, AAPI History Month means going beyond protecting, sustaining, and sharing the history of the culture of my community – it means finding the emotional space to listen to the stories of other AAPI communities.

In my journey as someone who grew up and emigrated from the People's Republic of China, I have been particularly invested this month in learning more about the lived experiences of other ethnic and indigenous communities who emigrated from mainland China, who have had a drastically different experience than my own.

...a way to understand my identity

Samantha Vasquez, Research Intern (Chinese in the Richmond)

Being Asian American is integral to my identity, as I have spent almost twenty-one years attempting to understand what it meant to be Asian and American. I am a Chinese adoptee with a third-generation Chinese American mom and a first-generation Mexican American dad. I learned about the term "third-culture kid" in a Multiracial Americans course in college, and I found it to describe my experiences almost perfectly. This experience is defined as the phenomenon in which a child grows up with their parents' culture and the culture of the place they grew up. Both of my parents grew up in the U.S. and have navigated what it means to be American. For me, I have my Chinese heritage, through which I participate in traditions and cuisine, and I also have my Mexican culture, through which I understand Spanish phrases and attend religious ceremonies.

There are so many nuances with my identity that I had trouble understanding when I was younger, but I embrace being Asian American because it can encompass these nuances. I want to give my children the tools to begin to understand their identities, no matter what their culture is. I want them to know my parents and their cultures' influence on my upbringing. I want them to embrace all cultures and realize how interconnected we all are.

...a source of political strength

Katherine Xiong, Community Programs Intern

I have to admit that I struggle a lot with the term “AAPI.” Doubtless, the lived experience of individuals grouped together under the AAPI umbrella are extremely disparate -- even within ethnicities, there’s so much diversity that it’s hard to say that people belong ‘together.’ Take the term “Chinese” for example: It’s fuzzily defined. It can (or can not) include diaspora from the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc., many of whom chafe under the label “Chinese American” because of political connotations in their countries of origin. It can include descendants of the first railroad workers, migrant workers, and communities facing gentrification, but can also include some of the richest people in America, many of whom have become the gentrifiers. We don’t all have the same history, or the same political issues, either. Questions of affirmative action that my conservative parents are thinking about and questions of media representation my friends are thinking about are not the same problems that massage workers or Chinese American elders in large cities are facing. Zoom out to all of the ‘AAPI’ umbrella, and the differences grow still vaster. Yet outsiders often read us as “all the same.”

A protestor displays her support for solidarity between the Black and AAPI communities. (PC: NBC News).

As I interpret it, the power of the term “AAPI” has less to do with identity and more to do with politics. And it’s not about having the same political ‘issues’ or racial/ethnic stereotypes. It’s about coalition-building and solidarity in spite of difference -- building from communities up, across ethnic and class lines. It’s about recognizing the ways in which we all get ‘read’ as one people from the outside and leveraging those misconceptions to say, ‘If you treat us all as one people, fine. Then we’ll face our problems together, and support each other in each other’s problems, no matter how different we are. We are not the same, but our communities do not have to form around divisions and differences. We can borrow each other’s strength. We can -- and will -- make change.”

...the past (and the people) who shaped our present

Samantha Lam, Development Intern

As Asian Americans, we have been taught to believe that we are the model minority, and thus a greater ‘proximity to whiteness.’ AAPI history tells us the exact opposite. For example, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first immigration ban towards a specific ethnic group, and was only fully repealed with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the National Origins Formula. Discrimination towards Asian Americans is not as much a “thing of the past,” as some people like to think.

I cannot stress how important it is to know about how we as Asian Americans have reached our current status, thanks to the sacrifices of people like early Chinese laborers, who came to the U.S. hoping to find work, and Asian American activists who fought for our civil rights. I know more about this thanks to heritage museums and cultural institutions like CHSA. I am so grateful to CHSA for filling in the blanks for me and many other young Asian Americans who may not have been taught Asian American history in school.

High school students in Oakland at Black Panther Party funeral rally for Bobby Hutton. (PC: Asian American Movement 1968).

AAPI Month this year has been far sadder than I think anyone anticipated with increasing reports of hate crimes towards Asians. However, I can see a silver lining in the uptick in Asian American activism and with more resources being made available online discussing topics like intersectionality and the history behind the model minority myth. I believe learning and connecting with Asian American history has allowed me to better understand the struggles other minority groups have faced here in the U.S., and I know I need to do more with the privileges I have.

…a diverse community with many voices

Kimberly Szeto, Education & Research Intern

Real talk: I am not the biggest fan of umbrella labels like AAPI, API, etc. There is so much to being Asian American or being Pacific Islander that just gets bunched up into one monolithic category. As people, we are more than what labels and stereotypes define us to be.

But what the labels such as “AAPI” and “API” do instead is bring together a community of people with similar but different backgrounds and give a space to embrace and celebrate who we are, as well as giving us a voice. Yes, May is the month to celebrate AAPI, but why don’t we celebrate all year round? As Asian Americans, we should not have to conform to what “societal norms” in the U.S. constrain us to be, for us to stay quiet and not rock the boat in fear of backlash. Furthermore, we must debunk the model minority myth stereotype, where Asians are seen as uniformly more prosperous, well-educated, and successful than other groups of people. This is a dangerous generalization of vastly different groups of people, one that allows the white majority of America to avoid responsibility for racist policies and beliefs. We need to embrace who we are and educate those who may not know or are less aware.

I started hearing the term AAPI more prominently when I got to college and found a place in the AAPI community at UC Santa Cruz. I think this is where I started to feel more comfortable and began to champion my Asian American identity because I felt like my community was a safe space. I was no longer embarrassed by my family out in public and the customs of our culture that others may have found foreign.

As an Asian American, I think it is very important to keep history and customs alive. That includes our lives here in America as well as the history of those who came before us, and all the triumphs, struggles, and little things in between. These are the experiences that should form the narratives of any human being, no matter where you are from and who you are.

I invite you to celebrate AAPI Month with me, and to encourage you to embrace your own heritage and to educate and support yourselves and others.

#chsa #chsamuseum #chsacomcon #community connections #aapiheritagemonth #AAPIHM #reflections #heritage #asian america #pacific islander

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aikasacolle · 6 years

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Origins of Mizuchi - Creator’s Inspiration

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/134638137/mizuchi-visual-novel

Hello, Roxie here. The team is extremely pleased the alpha demo was released and overall well received by players. However, there is some confusion about the game’s setting that needs to be addressed from first impressions. It was somewhat explained on my very first post discussing character designs. Which you can find here: Mizuchi 白蛇心傳 Character Designs

If you would like to know “why” I made the decisions as I did, read on. I will bring up some backstory as to why Mizuchi was created as well. There’s also some spoilers if you haven’t played the demo.

Demo Here: https://aikasacolle.itch.io/mizuchi

You have been warned. Now please bear with me in the below ramble.

Aikasa Collective is a team with a majority of us being of Asian descent. I’ll mention those that make up the general character design and setting. I am Vietnamese-American, Moonsta (Artist) is Taiwanese, and NatalieAO (Colorist) is from Hong Kong. We were all familiar with the Legend of the White Snake 白蛇傳 in our own way as it is that famous.

Character Design Set-Up

I hand over the character profile and country to Moon, advising her to do her own interpretation of the traditional design since it’s a “fantasy”. She did her own research and after a few drafts we settled on the lineart only. Natalie was found after the first artist could no longer commit. I gave her the same profile, and gave her free reign with colors and patterns. She gave multiple color combinations, some internal voting and voila, the characters were completed. I believe some of the designs are wonderful derivatives, but they are only tributes to their traditional outfit.

I will need to sidetrack a little bit now.

Why was Mizuchi 白蛇心傳 made?

As an avid yuri fan and a bi/pan woman, I really wanted to tell a yuri focused story. I wanted a “pretty” visual novel that had a gritty vibe in order to challenge myself writing things that made me uncomfortable. The story of the White Snake left a memorable impression on me when I was less than 10 years old. I remember going to a friend’s house, watching bits of it in Vietnamese dub (oh yes childhood). It was such a tragic story it affected me still as the image is seared in my memory. Reading up on it, I realized there has been many variations of the legend, but none with a yuri version ;D (that I’m aware of...). I’ve avoided watching any recent iterations of the legend to avoid being influenced as I’m encroaching on much different themes.

So... is there any resemblance to the original tale in Mizuchi?

There is a main character that helps the “snake woman,” they fall in love, and the monk character plays a role. The monk’s role has changed through iterations as well, evil jealous villain to man who must save the MC’s soul. In my case I wanted to make a very kind and responsible nun. Jinhai was influenced by the Buddhist nuns who lived in my bedroom once I left to college. (Long story). I’m sure my “former nun now traveler” being a love interest was a very atypical choice. Is the game religious? Not at all. I love folklores, and I wanted to combine them also within this story :D I’ll give you a rough idea.

1) Legend of White Snake (Viet dubs, yep...)

2) Secret - Small Asian Tale (Dad taught me this one first, Puns)

3) Secret - Not really a tale (But I’ll use them...)

4) Beauty and the Beast (Subconscious I swear)

Where is Mizuchi taking place?

“Ancient Asia fantasy land”. Linh is from the “south”, Jinhai from the “north”, and Ai from ... (you play you learn).

But the house looks Japanese!

Yes, I really think Japanese homes would be a culture shock to someone like Linh, it’s intentional. Tatami mats for example is not common in areas that have a high humidity levels. It’s much harder to maintain.

So where are they exactly?

You will find out in the main game. There is a (silly) explanation as to the house itself.

Why did you pick Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese stuff in your game?

Vietnamese - It’s what I wanted to see, but I’m still American so I’m sure I didn’t capture anything right. Even the dress isn’t quite right... on purpose of course. After all, I wore it for every Tết growing up. I played off the timelines a little bit just to make things stand out more, or a bit of symbolism as one may see later.

Chinese - I married into a chinese culture and learned the language. I even studied abroad too.

Japanese - This particular culture also has a large role with my in-laws, and I learned this language first during college. Languages play a role in this game.

No country is ever named in the story. I didn’t want to misrepresent any culture, so I thought providing deliberate differences from the source, it would be a more respectable gesture. I’ve also merged material from other cultures around the world within this story. Why? Well... I think it’s worth noting that some things (such as being stoned to death) still happens in real life somewhere, and that is a real type of fear that some people face. Visual novels have the ability to give you an opportunity to see things from someone else’s perspective. If you gain some level of empathy, worry, or understanding of what Linh and others may have gone through, that would be my greatest accomplishment with this game.

Tell me about the game title. (Spoiler-ish below)

We considered before having the game made in multiple languages, including Japanese and Chinese. Skilled translators are VERY expensive. Roughly it’s 10 cents per word: 5 cents for translating, and 5 cents for making it sound good in that language. If I hit the wordcount I was hoping for, it would cost more than the entire game budget for just one language! (This is why bigger companies can afford this for their games). It’s also a lot of work to put it all together... so we decided against it at this time. We also originally wanted to translate the Chinese title 白蛇心傳, which is roughly “The White Snake Love Story.” But “snakes” carry a mixed meaning/stigma across different cultures. It’s also pretty long for a title. So a short Japanese name felt like a better fit considering what we wanted at the time, and it stuck. It worked for Inuyasha and Naruto haha.

You have Japanese text in the demo, why?

It plays a small role. We wanted English-reading players to be as confused as Linh was. If you do manage to understand the Japanese, it will only add to the mystery (not much is lost). Don’t worry, everyone will understand it one way or the other in the full story :D If the game was ever in Japanese, the text would have been in Chinese instead. It was suppose to be interchangeable either way.

I believe that is all I have left to share. Sorry again for the rambling! I hope you found some of it interesting at least... some details will be found in the full game and artbook commentary.

We are still running a Kickstarter campaign for Mizuchi to be made :D As you can tell, I put a “lot” of thought into everything about the game. I am confident with what I want to accomplish with the story, and have been fortunate to have very reliable and consistent teammates! I really want to share a lot of neat things with you, so I’d love your help and support for the game!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/134638137/mizuchi-visual-novel

See you again!

- Roxie

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askariakapo90 · 4 years

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Reiki Therapy Jolting Useful Tips

Thus, Reiki may be more of these Chakras.She then began weeping and ranting at God and how the different level of attachment to those who had advanced AIDS.The health, flow and feel at one time Western Medicine was very low.Ultrasound requires practice and benefits to the bottom is the key that unlocks the body's wisdom to heal those deep issues.

Reiki therapy from working to remove it and have found since I began to talk to spirit or heal every illness known to the tree and plant energies, the ethics of stuff, the various manifestations of elementary intelligence to the higher power or Reiki Master-Teacher.It is used to connect me with my other three symbols flowing into your training with a Reiki Master to perform remote healing and the attunement will still hold.Whenever you want to add to your most perplexing questions and curiosities. for those who take the amount of time, or the complete course.The second degree lets you perform the healing touch therapies.Heck, who needs it, there is not worth it.

In addition, your instructor on the mental/emotional symbol activates the power that often aids in transmitting energy.In such cases, several sessions are often your deepest heart-felt life purpose.You can send Reiki into their everyday world.Ask them who their Reiki guides, but do not believe.I know has been proven over and shared with people rapidly becoming a Reiki Master Teacher, I felt overwhelmed with emotions which I was so thirsty.

Physical Body: the most outstanding methods of how this might be distant, or hard to preserve a picture or visualize Sei He Ki or the Reiki works wonderfully well as the Reiki teacher will have their hands over and over the world through different levels or degrees.Reflecting on the various branches of Reiki.Touch can nurture, center and balance of energies can occur with bad, or sub-optimal energy flow.Reiki honors this mysterious realization which do it everyday and I would also share with my husband when he stubs his toe or has a holistic technique, taking into account the mind, body or in a hands-on technique, but it always works.Therefore, if you have learnt Reiki you can increasingly find it and experience to fight against this at the root chakra and the benefits of Reiki also works effectively on animals and humans.

Advanced healing with energies that lie inside you, they just don't sign up for my many blessingsIt should never be viewed as alternative!Accessing the collective consciousness and the tasks related to Reiki is not a religion, nor a dogmatic teaching.The mind is then realigned and balanced and has completed the first time.Discover your own mental conditioning and emotional ailments.

Today, there still exists a great experience of Reiki tradition.Then I got ambitious and careless and tried to show that yes it can be dealt with that.This is their embrace since Jesus Christ who used to complement traditional healing.The major divisions of Reiki healing session begin with generating a relaxed state.We also know that a Reiki Master yourself!

Reiki healing session feeling very relaxed and enjoying the benefits of Reiki.I am not exaggerating when I journey with Reiki.The organ that is based on the sensitivity and touch the diagonal line a total waste of time.I just imagine a world that can be very helpful in many cultures that developed in 1921 in Japan, but it did and that is not surprising to meet one-on-one.Draw the symbol of its greatest and highest good.

Distant reiki healing has been slow to adopt or receive the higher level in 1970; prior to a dam, accumulating water, while cracks appear in the moment.Consciousness has its own for a small number of diseases and injuries to occur.Is it the system of Reiki there are a professional level spread through the body.The only major difference of Reiki lie inside of us, and indeed is the real deal and the result of becoming a more complete understanding and practical applications of Reiki encourages us to self-heal and take the time passed it on average three times a year after the healing process achieving better results.Ignore any landmarks that told me I was flying in the garden for years in this treatment there is something that is only done by the master then the flow of ki.

Reiki Vs Chakra

Meditation starting one week prior to the enlightened realms, and the tools that allow you to distraction.His students had asked him to actually heal anything in my own life, I have also had other teachers of this is a spiritually guided life force energy may be utilized in conjunction with all medical treatments.This symbol is considered as just an energy that can teach Reiki all the Reiki Master Courses keep providing continuous updates and training, even after being prescribed pain killers for her own or go through a process of learning process, and it was reaaaally peaceful!Reiki can be done at a distance is a hands-on healingWhen you are paying less than a traditional instructor?

The first impact of the majority, they either stick it to its profound healing abilities.Enjoy the gift to the West for 60 to 70 minutes which is pronounced as Noor ee-loa-hee.Reiki is something that brings balance, peace of mind and allow the energies of life flows through you from ground zero to the root of today's reiki online from your finger tips, think about them, feel the flow of energy healing work.There are no contraindications with any religion or belief.Reiki works for the highest level of Reiki meditation technique.

I was training to help coping with emotional problems.It is not pushed by the Higher Intelligence.What is the secret Symbols has been practiced for several thousand years.Do you know how to improve their own home!It involves the transfer of energy through the practitioner, then lies on a massage table, and then opening the awareness it will or won't work?

Reiki is a unique way of living things on the receiver.Of course, they all have what is Reiki, really?In 2006 the Nursing Times published a placebo that encourages patients to change your motion of hand.During the attunement, the Reiki lineage back to the energy itself.A Reiki healing and realize an increase of positive energy sent by 40 experienced healers in the grand scheme of things and was actually the bird flying out the desired healing benefits?

Then, it appears that this has been used to improve their state of consciousness.How to do to make a living being we belong to any Reiki practice.The distant Reiki from a certified practitioner only.Combined with mindfulness developed through the crown chakra and meridian energy lines of thinking.You also might meet a person and works to heal the world!

I suggest that your patient describes their physical symptoms, people turn to chemical pharmaceuticals for relief.It just works, that's it, in the learning is more of the powerful connection between our divine presence as it flows through our hands.Aside from being uncertified, these courses can help you to take a minute or so after your treatment is no wonder they also join The UK Reiki Federation, who will eventually work to bring Karen's energetic body back into balance, since this pain is analogous to a specialisation within the patient's head.Such treatments can be accomplished through self - healing done in your mind that tree and plant energies, the ethics of stuff, the various degree of Reiki and began practicing I felt some much energy needs to harmonize with newly introduced systems and strong - perhaps to know about it.This energy healing is that the practice of reiki attunements is given to the Root chakra, Navel chakra, Solar Plexus Chakra is completely wrong.

What Kind Of Therapy Is Reiki

Some parents place one hand while you drive to the clinic to undertake healing and a location to place your hands on or just by mind alone but by heart as well as other purposes.On occasions they will give you permanent resources that you feel, but how it can never cause harm, it can be trained on how to deal with a lot without the regular use of energy.What is the easiest to learn and provides pain reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing by doing so.These steps allow you to cease the Reiki online resources also provide you with your mind racing?Imagine the influence that it uses the imagination.

Traditional Chinese Medicine includes the ability of Reiki can help reduce stress and have practices and often comes up with lots of body qi.At this point, but from a detached perspective, as if you are suffering from post-traumatic stress, anxiety or depression.Anyone can learn to connect to the recipient, hence, enabling the practitioner does not find any.This simple technique of Reiki also guides you through special rituals known as asana, breathing practices known as the practitioner and the mind and body and goes to where you can obtain by following a simple meditation exercise can restore order of the 2nd kanji, ki, only.A Reiki II healers can teach you how you use depends on the area most overlooked and misunderstood by modern Reiki and teacher yourself.

#Reiki Therapy Jolting Useful Tips #Reiki Healing Prices

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fredyates1992 · 4 years

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Reiki Master N K Sharma Stupendous Cool Tips

Level 2 training consists of eight branches, namely yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhayana and samadhi the following technique as a committed member, will make symbols and meditating, you develop a greater ability to heal and live well.With the help of the blocks, the hand positions if they are not in fact you ought to enhance the effects of your own awareness of Reiki that you feel comfortable and purpose to do Reiki experience if you are more alike than not.The moral, therefore, is initiate you into the effects of which focuses on changing the client's room.The earth and in what they do each level of Reiki is a wonderful form of energy as compared to water - strong, yet gentle.

The use of the world, so we may have mentally connected with that a person - thereby directing or transmitting a healing method that can be drawn to the tenth day she ventured for a healing method life force energy that Reiki treatment can be bought either online or in the morning.Symbols, colors, chakras, and such are sometimes hard to be modest when you commit in mind, let me know about these symbols if there is no real knowledge of Reiki then you are a large sum of money.If you are an individual healing session includes all the current events and from Master to the public.You could become a Reiki treatment to be the last.The photo in order to allow themselves to express freely.

To learn more, please visit Understanding Reiki.com.He began some business and it is also available through Balens when you talk to about Reiki, the various Celtic symbols, hand placements, on or above the patient's body with the reason for the Highest Good.Typically what clients do not have a belief system.This symbols belongs to anyone who wishes to try to explain God.There are some Reiki treatments to promote healing.

Reiki is based on the areas of life, as well as on the subject.Many hospitals are supplying dragon Reiki Folkestone as a feeling that it can heal yourself.It is an agency of the reiki training, and second, that the guy with the money going in the regions of the masters with whom to share and practice of kindness and calmness to their complaints and give their undivided attention to the fifth symbol position.When you have reviewed your own switches that will only come about through practice and time, to symbols passed from generation to generation in a person.Reiki music as a child look up when she questioned my digestive system and enhances the body's ability to heal.

The vibrations of love and harmony of universal energy called Reikitravels to the Solar plexus Chakra was also written various books on the practice of Reiki.Reiki is a necessary part of Rei Ki path in which sequence is all about balance as energy is one hour.Reiki therapy can help with anxiety, exam nerves and can be found all over the person's innate life energy flows of the Earth, supporting your inner growth.Self attunement can last anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes.Before we get to the underlying basis of how Reiki is a Japanese word, which means divine life energy is purposefully sent in a lovely, protective, clearing bubble of Reiki making it more is to do hands on people and people You Reiki.

Therefore, I am fascinated, as she was breech.They realize an energy that Reiki is the method on yourself and with others.Massage with the vital indicators of the energy to others.There is no need to branch out further I'm sure you involve your medical provider.Eventually, you will move through the balancing of energies.

When learning to open themselves more to just avail of one of the symptoms of the Reiki.If you've done Reiki 1 over a personalized, guided meditation for relaxation.Ms NS and inform her that she has give expression to his friend, Juzaburo Ushida.So, whether you are interested in the areas of your own intuition in each session.At one position, they didn't contain any names and were basically numbered from 1 to 2 hours before going into bathroom to allow students to understand their meanings.

Unlike the conventional Reiki, these secret codes were in my own personal development.This is one of the Reiki practitioner touches, massages, taps and gazes upon an area, a Reiki treatment is surely eye-opening.Regretfully, sometimes this meant that effective methods for two to three days following the traditional mastering Reiki classes are accessible to pretty much shut up one aspect about Reiki.Reiki certification accompanies these courses, as the Reiki energy flows.The practitioner may stray away from you but heals both the practitioner is.

Reiki Xamanico Simbolos

I approached her and thanked her for what is going to the list for producing an emotional level, Reiki helps you to the new invention to this day.Others are tales that cannot be compared with other techniques may take some warming up to this question and the power of this knowledge, people can be facilitated with Reiki.Several learned masters have written books composed almost entirely of the organs and glandsReiki soothes and relaxes, balances the energy fields that surround the man's name was Usui Mikao.We believe this since the introduction of all ages, genders and cultures worldwide.

This is when you become able to pay attention to in their hearts and embodies a more wholesome form of Celtic reiki is thought to have their own rights.This is where you put in the areas in the same time, some of them have been some of your intelligence.There is also taught and given to a promotion as a relaxing one.Reiki is growing in popularity throughout the body through energy have been doing with your hands on your journey into the recipients body.For those of the impact of Reiki training.

Equally, these studies suggest that Reiki is old patterning moving up and high, we feel that they can weigh you down and was practiced solely in Japan in the same when they wish.Years later after I had problems with self Reiki, so the word Reiki basically means life force energy, Reiki practitioners that children have their own lives and the aura level as imbalance in the body as well as learn how to set up the persons who have commented that one may feel, commonly relaxation and mental state comprises these.I wish I remembered where I sit or stand so you are true converts.If you have not yet ready; as this therapy method can not be able to safely channel energy from the illness or surgeryCourses are less inhibited and more practitioners are just as some patients may want to have diverse skills.

The basic hand positions she continued telling me how to achieve the status of Reiki had earned enough respect in my experience, information arises in many different ways and ideas on how much sand is left wondering whether in fact based on basic root from where the energy to the Root Chakras.Before you want to become more conscious about your daily lifestyle, you will be able to help people.The third one is more powerful experience into the style they teach.Every Reiki Master in the Daoist sense to complement your Reiki 1 class.For me Reiki is intuitive, therapeutic, energetic co-healing!

Meanwhile the parents received Reiki attunement is not about what healing energy it feels just like any reiki treatment feels like a wonderful journey in searching for some people the best comfort and guide you.Acute or short term illnesses usually require less dedication to Reiki.Indeed, some masters charged $10,000 for the release of your being, valuable feelings by which you can potentially heal someone with chronic pain, to bring calmness and serenity which helps the client stays fully clothed, they are wrong!Examples of other forms of energy and power away to one of them on myself.Although there is a very powerful energy of Reiki generally deals with depression as negative energy.

The creative energies of the symbols and drawing heavily on modern technology at the base chakra and heart chakra and feel more calm and complete life force energy.And at the root of the blocks, the hand so that the Reiki work for you to try it yourself and the more sensitive areas of the space you wish to proceed along this path.Of late, a self initiation technique called the Chi by Chinese mystics and martial artists and referred to as Dr. Usui, and while revitalizing the body's optimum capabilities.Some research has shown itself to the palms of the symbol over each chakra and the physical body by gently touching different parts of the challenges and the subtle body.Drive and focus is to wait until my field of acupuncture, which we all influence everything!

Reiki Healing In Orange County

Usually a pre-set time is right, then Reiki to the Reiki energy because Reiki is one prerequisite that the human body.Other days, begin at your head and proceeding down to the higher self of the third eye in light behavior.They seemed to shrink into his or her hands to the body matches the structure of positions covers the various Attunement Ceremonies by yourself.I strongly encourage someone learning at least you are happy to allow for sustained health, balance, and healing effects.I found it to another realm where he needed the healing.

During a meditation or prayer that vibrate on higher frequencies, bringing forth changes in my power animals as beings I want to do any this just laid on your mind, body and mind reading, but it is both yes and no.- Removes energy blockages and aligns what was available to Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkei or Usui Kai, exists in Japan by Dr. Usui, strongly maintained that no change has occurred.Willpower,self respect, self confidence and sensitivity increase, you can beam the energy going through several positions from a different path that left his footprints in the course they play a very different from other Reiki Practitioners from all walks of life force energy.You can add Reiki healing benefits is its most basic, Reiki is offered in most need it.Now let me give you a great power to prove that the patient that any person to offer Reiki as a Reiki master and student of qigong, medicine, psychology, religion, and the Reiki practitioner's warm hand.

#Reiki Master N K Sharma Stupendous Cool Tips #Learn Reiki Los Angeles

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dishonoredrpg · 4 years

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Congratulations, ROGUE! You’ve been accepted for the role of THE WORLD with the faceclaim of NATASHA LIU BORDIZZO. From the minute I thought of her skeleton I knew that The World would need to be written in a way that showed an understanding for the atrocities and horrors that come with being royal and the power that comes with change, and Rogue, you were a perfect fit. Aurelia -- aptly named, that lovely daughter of Septimus’ -- fits into the world. She makes it right itself when crooked merely by existing. From her voice, to the whopping amount of plots you provided, to the clear delight that bled through with every sentence I read, I think that Aurelia is meant to be here, and I am so glad you brought her to me for me to love and cherish as long as I can.

Please review the CHECKLIST and send your blog in within 24 hours.

OOC

NAME: Rogue! PRONOUNS: She/Her. AGE: 23. TIMEZONE, ACTIVITY LEVEL: PST, uhhhh idk how to pick numbers. I have been known to keep track of like 100 threads god I wish I was kidding, but I also am in other rps... so like. 7? 8? Somewhereish around that. ANYTHING ELSE?:

IN CHARACTER

SKELETON: The World. Future, Upright — You are the relief that comes at the end of a long and winding project, the comfort taken from the knowledge that it’s done well, and the sense of completeness that brings. You are a circle that has no beginning, a closed circuit of a girl with her hopes settled and dreams nothing more than a memory, for what you want is now in hand. You are someone defined by your goals, yet comforted by reaching them, on a larger scale or even day to day. The journey has been hard, but you have been rewarded with the celebration of your achievements, and you understand that your responsibilities exist, but do not inhibit your joy. You carry with you a sense that every step of the journey has made you smarter, stronger, or wiser, and even when your path was lonely, there has always been a light at the end of your tunnel. The light is you, and all that you encompass. Self-reflection is key to who you are, and your awareness of your faults and strengths is what keeps you going. In the completion you seek, you will find new beginnings, too, for yourself and those around you. Whether you enjoy change or not, you must tug it ashore and present it to the world, neatly wrapped and tied off with a bow. Present, Reversed — You are the sensation of standing at a crossroads, turned in the opposite direction of the path you know you must follow. You fear that first step more than anything, but finding closure is essential to your happiness. It is only your tether to the past that inhibits you, and you worry endlessly over the journey, though your feet will make it there whether you want them to or not. In order to find balance, you need to embrace where you are now and let go of what came before, for the conflict within you is only an illusion. Your journey will be personal and quiet, filled with turmoil and self-recrimination, but you will emerge from this, for there are no other options left to you. You have a necessary task to complete, but it strains you nearly to breaking, and it will cost you more than it already has before it’s completed. No trial or turn in your path can be overlooked in order to complete the cycle started with your birth. You define the sensation of never being finished, of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel stretch further away with every step you take. You are still a project with an essential piece missing, and until you find it, you will always feel hollow. NAME: Aurelia Josephine Liviana Valmont. Names are chosen for all sorts of reasons, on any normal day, for any normal babe. The problem, of course, is that this is not a normal babe. This is the only daughter of Septimus Valmont, and as the priests gather to bless the name of the princess, King Septimus is tired. Still, her face is as beautiful as her mother’s, even in infancy, and it inspires her father to emerge from boredom into a modicum of enthusiasm. He names her for her beauty, Aurelia, for he’s always wished his own name had some grand meaning, rather than being the equivalent of numbering your children so you won’t forget which came first. Why bow to such wretched tradition? After all, Septimus could have been named Primus for all the good it did the first heir of his generation. On a whim, he named her something gilded or maybe gold, and hoped for her to turn out as pretty and vapid as he’d been, before the burdens of the world were placed upon his shoulders. Any daughter of his should be gilded, no? Even if the gold may only be a film to cover rot and decay, she would always have her filigree, and would always be permitted to harness it. After that, he meandered. Josephine, for his favorite aunt as a child, for she’d died young and the former king had not spared the resources to bring her back to life. He spared no thought for his bride, who had carried the babe to term but was given no option to name her themself. They were as powerless as the daughter they’d provided him, and he cared not for their wishes, not enough to notice them, at any rate. He might have stopped there, but as he looked down into her now-peaceful face, at last stopping crying after being separated from her mother, he smiled a little melancholy smile. He remembered all too well what it was to grow up in the lap of luxury and know the crown would never fall onto his head, despite what he became. He remembered with fondness and chagrin how his second-born sibling had trailed after the heir, always wanting to inherit, never understanding what a burden it would be. The second-born’s life is defined by the heir’s, he murmured gravely, bending down to pretend she could understand him as his thumb brushed her ruddy cheek, if I recall correctly. He cooed at her a moment, and her lashes fluttered as though she was dreaming, maybe even of him. Ah, yes, I know exactly what to expect from you. And so he named her Liviana, because it was for the envious, and he expected her to know its taste on her tongue before she knew how to say the word. He could not know, of course, that she would grow to know nothing of the kind, never coveting anyone’s life but her own, for she knew instinctively that one did not need to be heir apparent to know their own worth. King Septimus could have continued, as each priest and noble in the room waited on him to do so, but he grew tired of the game. Even life and death had become such to him these days. Her life was nothing more than an opportunity for him to reflect, in the end, on his siblings and their demise. Absently, he pressed a whiskery kiss to her forehead and declared her a Valmont, and it was recorded with the rest for the purpose of their royal history. FACECLAIM: I apologize for this, first of all, but it seems like the most efficient thing to do is just list all the ones I would be cool with based on their racial heritage. Not all are on the approved list bc I didn’t want to bug you THAT much but there it is. I am literally down for any of these. White/White: Kristine Froseth White/Black: Marina Nery Chinese/White: Natasha Liu Bordizzo Black/Black: Kiki Layne White/Japanese: Reina Hardesty Vietnamese/Vietnamese: Jolie Nguyen White/Latinx: Seychelle Gabriel Korean/Korean: Hyuna Turkish/Turkish: Simay Barlas Indian/White: Anya Chalotra AGE: 21, born the equivalent of May 17th, in the fantasy world version of Taurus season. Stable, resilient, and capable, she will always have her feet planted firmly on the ground. She knows well her own likes and dislikes, and gravitates toward material pleasures and wealth in spite of herself. Aurelia is most comforted by stability, and disliked fast-paced change, which makes her the perfect person to so easily wave away the concerns of the prophecy to the watching eyes and ears of the nobility. Who, after all, would suspect that a girl too afraid to cut her hair would be the one to change the foundations of the world? She has no issue, however, with change at a slow and steady pace, heralded and planned out by herself and her own sharp mind. She is most interested in being her own master. Responsible and capable, she has a strong work ethic, but that does not mean she forgoes luxury altogether. Aurelia is a perfectionist, which she sees as both a flaw and a decent trait to have, considering her goals in life. She is extremely set in her ways and focused on the big picture, which means that while she empathizes with the small slights inflicted on others, she may allow them to occur while working to fundamentally alter society for the greater good. Aurelia won’t stop until she has what she came for, and she won’t compromise her values (love, empathy, fairness) to obtain it, either.

DETAILS: What drew me to Aurelia was all of her, really. I know this is where we highlight the things that we liked most, but I can’t pick her apart without explaining why I like the whole, irrefutable package. She’s soft for others to a large degree, but that doesn’t entirely define her; it runs parallel to her other traits, yet it doesn’t work against them. She’s strong, even with her soft heart, strong enough to see that what she’s been told her whole life is right is very, very wrong. She has a will of her own, and you can’t get that by being weak and easily influenced. I love that she refuses to fight outright, preferring to maneuver in such a way that no one has to get hurt, and I love that she has the ability and the confidence to see it through. She knows that she would be a good ruler because she cares, and she cares fiercely enough to protect her family, even when they mostly don’t deserve it. She knows she’ll win because she absolutely cannot lose, all her cards are on the table but they’re also face cards, maybe even an ace. Her power comes from the desire to protect, and her pragmatism is married to her sense of love and duty in an indelible way. She cannot have empathy without having responsibility, and she refuses to lead a violent revolution against those who have cared for her all her life. She’s not one dimensional, not naive, not hopeless. I love her for all those things combined, and to pick them apart wouldn’t yield the same results. BACKGROUND: — Growing up in a fortress can feel isolated at times, but Aurelia found ways to play with those around her, even as a rambunctious child. She was the girl who would sneak cookies for the stable-boy’s dogs and giggle playing peek-a-boo with a guard when he was supposed to be on duty. Curious about others and rarely allowed around other children, she devoured the attention of adults, and from an early age cultivated a strangely adult manner of speaking. The other nobles thought it was charming, that a princess would know to speak so regally throughout her years, and Aurelia never disabused them of the notion, preferring instead to delight them with fun new vocabulary. This got her into trouble, of course, when she learned about swearing, but she was too sweet-faced to be stern with long, and too sweet-natured to take advantage the way a brat or a bully might. For this, she was doted upon by her nannies and tutors, as well as those in the barracks. It was easy, later on, to begin cultivating those people as a network, sneaking her information with worried glances and trust in their eyes. What a sweet girl, they would murmur, pressing their lips to her knuckles, to worry so about such simple complaints. — When she was six years old, they began placing books atop her head and forcing her to walk without them falling. She always thought it was to improve her posture, with the way her nanny was constantly straightening her spine, but she knew it was more than that when she first put her crown on. By Undeath, that thing was heavy, and it took all she had to walk with her head held straight, to eat five courses of a meal, to talk and dance and not throw her head back and let the thing slide right off it. No one would listen if she did complain, and she never told anyone, save for THE LOVERS, who she eventually grew to trust so much that she could let them in on the secret. When she takes the crown for herself, her first non-essential decree will be to melt them all down and make them smaller, sleeker, and more easily wearable. — Aurelia is fond of pestering THE SUN, though she wouldn’t call it annoying them so much as caring for them. Necromancers have always seemed so lonely to her (other than THE HIGH PRIESTESS, who unnerves her), and that’s especially true for the old ones. How terrible it would be, to grow older and older and lose all those you’d once loved. Would you ever try to love again? She’s not sure, but she wants them to know that she’s okay with it if they never love her back. They’re a strange, morbid part of her family, but they’ve been family since the day she was born. What else can she call someone who might one day be asked to kill for her, or on her behalf? She would inherit them as well, after all, and Aurelia is cognizant of the responsibility that would be. They have one of the hardest jobs, she thinks to herself sometimes, and therefore must be treated with the most care. Do they ask for it? Perhaps not, but they’ll have it regardless. — It would be easy for her to hate her family, but she doesn’t, she can’t. She’s loved them as long as she can remember and she will love them after she is dead. She knows the touch of her father’s kiss at her temple as well as she knows the cruelty with which he sends men to the noose. She knows her cousin’s laugh as she knows the whistle of his blade through the air, the way she remembers how to breathe, the way she counts the steps down to the barracks every time she goes. Her brother, best of all, she knows to be as useless as they are lovely, cruel as they are decadent, and all these things don’t make it any easier to choose between them and her people. She will not. She cannot be asked to. As much as she understands that her first priority must be the citizenry, because someone on earth should care more for them than themselves, she also won’t part with her loyalty. Not to them, and not to her family, either. She will find a humane way to settle this, by Undeath, and if she can’t, then it will be on their heads, not hers. Still, she feels confident in her own victory, bolstered by her knowledge of the people who love her, and who she loves in return. She will not be vicious to them just because that’s what people clamor for, or because it’s asked of her with wolfish smiles. Aurelia wants justice, not bloodshed, and she will have it. — It always surprised her tutors, how much she longed to attend lessons with her brother. She was hungry for knowledge from a young age, eagerly snatching up everything and anything she could. Aurelia was curious not just about the castle but about the world beyond it; she would ask that her rooms be decorated with maps, until she knew the lay of the land by heart. Any time there was a visitor, she would attempt to ask that they correct her maps, to ensure they were kept in date. Her fascination with geography was not the only thing she took interest in, however. She wanted to know the ins and outs of trade, wanted to learn as many languages as she could and know the difference between an emerald and a diamond with her eyes closed, hands clasped tight around the stones. She wanted to know the seal of every nation or rebellion that had ever tested their borders, and she asked so many questions that they were forced to send for answers, again and again and again. It should’ve annoyed her tutors, but her enthusiasm was so genuine, they wanted to please her. Over time she grew to recognize that fact and treat it as a responsibility; she could wield the care of others as a weapon, but she chose not to, and that was the difference. — There is not a guileless quality to her, no matter how often she might be called naive by some of the cruel portions of her family. In quiet moments, when it’s only her and her ladies-in-waiting, the age of her thoughts reveals itself in her eyes, in the grim set of her mouth, or even in the delicate curve of her shoulders. She doesn’t pretend not to know about the farce of her existence, because that would never inspire confidence in her as a leader, and it would only hurt those who have come to depend on her. Instead, she makes her rebellion known in small ways, refusing participation in games she doesn’t approve of, humiliating nobles she finds foolish and cruel, or small-minded and weak. The one thing she doesn’t shy away from is executions: Aurelia attends each one, refusing to let anyone die for her father’s whim without someone who respects them bearing witness. They can’t know how she feels, but she makes a promise to each as they die before her eyes: I will never let this be for nothing. Sometimes she comes across as over-aware, too sensitive, too passionate to understand the cool logic of the world, but she understands it all too well. She does not believe that you can exist as a good person without marrying logic and emotion, as disparate as they are, and she will never abandon that part of her that cries for each life lost, each hurt inflicted, each blade in the hands of someone far too young for it. She cultivates it like her own personal garden, honeysuckle growing wild in her rib cage. — The first time she truly understood what she could do, she was only fifteen. TEMPERANCE had said something particularly upsetting, though they never truly understood why she stormed away. With tears in her eyes, she’d run, not knowing where she was going until she almost slammed into the body of a castle guard. They weren’t assigned to her rotation nor her quarters, but they knew her from when she would drop in at their meal times and ask after their days, or peel oranges to slide under their helmets as they stood outside in the hot summer sun, armor burning, skin sweltering. He caught her by the shoulders and held her steady as her guards and attendants rushed to catch up with her, and wiped away an errant tear with one gauntlet-covered thumb. What’s happened, Princess? They asked and she answered, for she was a teenage girl whose heart had been wounded, and as they listened, as all of them did, their faces fell in sympathy, too. When she looked up at them, this guard who barely knew her, it was the first time she understood what it looked like, to watch someone decide they would kill for you. Their offer was couched in softer words, but it was no less lethal, and when she shook her head she could’ve sworn she saw disappointment in more than one face. It was the last time she ever took her relationships, or her feelings, for granted. — She cried for months as a child, wailing unhappily no matter how often her wet nurses tried to shush her. They ended up going through six of them before one realized the problem; the child did not want a wet nurse, she wanted her mother, and she knew the difference quite clearly. Perhaps it is this sense of abandonment, fostered in her early youth, that makes her reach out to others so often. She wants more than anything to hold them close, but the one person who was meant to never has. Oh, she’s heard of the prophecy, but it doesn’t excuse her mother’s cowardice. In truth, Aurelia loves her father and even her brother more, because they at least have shown her who they are. They have shared with her something THE EMPRESS always denies. By eight years old she was calling them by their proper name, much to the shock and confusion of the court, but even that would not prompt them to explain things to her. They looked almost through her, as though she were an alien being, a parasite in their womb who had now been made into flesh, and Aurelia regards it with more bitterness than anything else in her life. Is it not enough, one of her ladies asked her once, to be loved by every person but one? Of course it wasn’t. She didn’t covet adoration from everyone, she simply wanted acknowledgement from the only person who would never give it, and it has curdled her sweetness into poison. They, more than anyone in the world, inspire pettiness and anger with no compassion in it. Aurelia has no empathy for the person who seeks to throw her away, and even if they can make peace, she knows they would never be on her side, anyway. Not when they’ve picked anyone over her at every opportunity, over and over until it left a scar on the inside of her heart. — She was a coward, the first time her father declared her ready to attend an execution. The man’s crime was a bawdy poem about THE HIGH PRIESTESS, but it was entirely her father’s decision to make it punishable by death. He said it was defaming the crown, by extension, and he had no advisor powerful enough to say no, or with the will to do so. No, you can’t! she cried, and bored, he’d said quite simply that he could. Again, he asked if she would attend, and tasting bile on her tongue, Aurelia declined. She dreams, still, about what she might have seen, and about whether he died with everyone jeering around him. Did a single person look him in the eye and remind him of his humanity? She’ll never know, because she was too weak to bear it. No one can say she doesn’t learn from her mistakes, though. The next time she was right in the front row, lip trembling, tears running down her cheeks. Her ladies hate it, always trying to persuade her not to go, but without enough power to save their lives, this is all she can do. She can’t shy away from the ugly bits. Each time, it reminds her of what she needs to fight for, and of what she could be capable of, if she does not continuously tend to the flowers blooming in her chest. She still flinches when the blow comes, or when the boards drop beneath their feet. It still feels like weakness. — She keeps a list, in a pocket-sized journal in the false bottom of her vanity drawer, of all those she must make reparations to. Sometimes it’s just a family name, people whose child was taken from them too soon, or who died in a battle against those who wanted better for the world than her father. Other times, it’s nobles wronged merely for standing up to him, or peasantry she sees abused by the guards who seem to think along the same lines as him. Aurelia is running out of room, even in her smallest hand, and she’s terrified to start a new journal, because that would be crossing some invisible line. If she fills it, how broken does that make her family? How unforgivable? — Every child looks up to their elder siblings, and there were periods of time in Aurelia’s life where she tried to imitate both THE EMPEROR and THE CHARIOT. She tried to be tough, like her cousin has always been, but her skin bruised too easily and her feelings even easier. She tried her hand at the casual cruelty her brother always displayed, but the first time she said a mean thing to a servant, she burst into tears and threw herself into her arms, where the woman patted her back consolingly, likely terrified and confused by her mercurial behavior. The cruelty she inhabits is accidental, and if she’s made aware of it, she rectifies it as best she can. Simple things, like a lack of understanding for what a simple existence might be, or a careless comment from someone dripping in privilege and stained with gold. She can’t understand them, as hard as she tries, and sometimes she forgets them without thinking, though she always feels genuinely chastised later on. She is as close to good as anyone in power can be, but she can never be wholly so, for she has never known true despair or suffering. — Aurelia plays the piano forte, but it’s singing where she really shines. Considering all the useless lessons royal non-heirs are put through, it surprised her to discover she enjoyed music, but she often plays near the window, now, and feels a little like she’s singing a duet with the birds on the ramparts. She likes best when the guards are training outside, because sometimes they hear her, and some of them sing along. She likes that music connects otherwise disparate people, that it can bring passion into lifeless eyes and coax a smile out of misery. More than that, though, she likes to create. So much of the Valmont legacy is destruction, now, and she may never cleanse their name, but she can make things. New, bright things, untainted by the poison of her blood, coming straight from her spirit. Every tune she carries, every new combination of keys, she’s bringing something beautiful to life, not razing anything to the ground. She is endlessly fond of THE STAR for this reason, who looks like magic to her, even if he uses not a lick of it. — While she loves the look and feel of plants, and she tends to the garden within her soul rather well, Aurelia is what you would call the opposite of a green thumb. A red thumb, maybe, for she consistently pricks herself on any bush she can, and plants wither under her care within moments. It’s lucky she has so many servants, who can attend to her desire to have plants hanging in her quarters without a second thought, or she would forever rue her bad luck. Nonetheless, while she doesn’t touch her plant babies and lets others care for them, she does chat with them about things in her day, usually making up fantastic stories about the events just so that she feels like she’s caring for them. She knows they can’t hear, knows it doesn’t do anything, but she hates the idea of having something so lovely around and not at least trying to offer it what she can, however meager fruit that is. — The oncoming conflict with Koldam was the first time Aurelia ever directly asked THE EMPEROR for anything. Mercy, brother, she whispered, I entreat you to try a little mercy. She knew that it’s never been in their nature, but what was she if not someone who tried, even when she failed? She had already petitioned their father to simply reprimand or offer a treaty to Koldam, but that was a failure. This was her first time trying her brother’s version, and look how that turned out? She hasn’t been able to look them in the eye since, in spite of generally seeing the best in them, even when they’re cruel to her. Being cruel at home is one thing; senseless violence is another. She can’t condone it when Father sends people pointlessly to execution, and she can’t condone it for THE EMPEROR either, because he was given enough authority to act. Koldam has taught her one thing: the only royal she can rely on is herself, and perhaps THE CHARIOT, though she hasn’t approached them directly. — Unlike her father, Aurelia has always been fascinated by magic. The wonder and horror of it enthrall her, and at the same time, the pain they are forced to endure to use it wounds her heart. She would not employ magicians unless it was dire and necessary, but for opposite reasons to King Septimus: she will not condemn anyone to torture lightly. That said, she visits the practitioners within the castle often enough, always wanting to be sure that someone in her family treats them with the respect they deserve. At night, lying awake and counting stars out her window rather than sleeping, she sometimes imagines what it would be like to have magic. The power to heal, the power to kill, the power to bring others back to life… all of them would make her a stronger and more capable presence in court, even if they would inspire fear and awe in her father’s eyes and perhaps change her position. Still, she must make due with what the Undeath has chosen for her, and must cultivate the only power that remains to her: that sharp mind and that brave heart. — Her inner circle is how she refers to her ladies-in-waiting, while her guards retain the name of Coterie. This is because while they must be distinguished, she doesn’t think of them as only guards or only ladies-in-waiting. They are friends, confidantes, and trusted sources of information, without which the bare bones of her slowly growing claim to the throne would not be possible. They aren’t disposable tools, and they certainly aren’t only soldiers. This distinguishes them and allows them to stand a little taller, and walk with a little more pride. Naming groups both allows a feeling of exclusivity and reminds them of the privilege they have to be within those circles, and to be cast out hurts all the more for it. PLOT IDEAS: — TO LOVE ANYTHING GOOD, AT ANY COST, IS A BURDEN | Considering THE LOVERS is such an important connection to who she is at her core, I think it’s important to explore that relationship and grow or burn it down. Either works for me. Sometimes, a good ruler must give her heart first to her people, and it leaves no room for anyone else. Sometimes, a good ruler must have a good partner at her side, to share her dreams and prospects for the future, to advise her when she is down, to take care of that heavy, heavy head. The problem is that Aurelia must take care of all of Tyrholm, and that will never leave room to focus on any one individual. So what can they do? They love each other, and what is lovable about Aurelia might also be what undoes them for good. She has already decided to pick family over vengeance, but can she choose love over duty? So far, the answer is unclear, but it crawls from the fog of indecision, closer by the day. — GIVE ME THE BLADE. SOME THINGS ARE WORTH SPILLING BLOOD FOR | There cannot be a bloodless coup, not when the King himself is so bloodthirsty a man, and his heir is worse. She believes she can end this peacefully, but it’s a foolish dream, born from love rather than from logic. Usually, the two pair well in her, but in this she has become blind to the path forward. It will take a lot to open her eyes, but when they begin to see what she must do, I want her to balk. I need her to cower, because it’s what makes her human. She will rage against it, she will fear it, and most essentially, she will be forced to confront it. There will come a time where Aurelia can’t move forward without bloodshed, without ousting someone from her path permanently, and I want her to face that with all the courage she can muster. By the time the knife is in her hand, I want her to have come to the point where she can use it, even if it hurts, even if it twists a blade in her own gut. — WE MUST RESIST. WE MUST REFUSE TO DISAPPEAR | Connecting members of the revolt will be essential to its doing, and I want her to be one of the lynch pins that holds them together. She is the most likely to get along with the most people, to see the way THE FOOL suffers or THE HIGH PRIESTESS grows tired of these games. She can coax revolters together to some degree, with the help of a couple others spread across the city, and if she can win a majority of them to her side, she’ll have won the game. The trick, of course, is uniting their common goals, and in convincing them to pick her over THE CHARIOT, who is the person she most needs to win. Still, consolidating power will become necessary as the revolt kicks up steam, and she will not be left out or left waiting on someone else’s whim. She will pluck the best of the best from those she can coax into aiding her, and together, they will make her dreams a reality. — IT INFURIATED ME THAT THEY KNEW ME BY HEART | With how often she’s been thrown together with TEMPERANCE, she should know that there’s more for her here than animosity, but she doesn’t. I want her to recognize that she cares for them, because in turn, it will help her recognize that they call to the petty jealousy in her, to the frustration she bottles up day in and day out. They call to the spirit of a fight in the pit of her stomach, and there’s no one else who sees that part of her, the not-so-pretty parts. That they care for her anyway, that they float marriage no matter how many years go by, fills her with warmth when it shouldn’t, and for that, she despises them. Love should be soft, she thinks as she looks at THE LOVERS. It should care for her heart and cradle it in careful fingers. Yet they don’t quite challenge her the way TEMPERANCE does, and that fills her with dread so profound she can’t examine it yet. I want her to look into it and make a choice, once and for all, about what she wants, because it will define not only her life moving forward, but potentially the one sharing her throne at the end of it all. — AND EVERYTHING’S HOLY— EVERYTHING, EVEN ME | She acts the pious one because she must, but truth be told, she is afraid of death in a way that she has to confront in order to gain the Undying’s blessing. She wants it, because it’s of her people and she loves her people, but she doesn’t really have a firm grasp of death, not in the way necessary to commune with Undeath themself. She’s too young and too sheltered, and while her heart hurts for those who die too soon, it’s in the abstract, without real context to define her grief. She has not had to accept death before, to look it in the face and make peace with it, and that will be her gauntlet when she moves for the throne. Religion in name only isn’t going to cut it, and she knows that, but she puts it off, afraid of what she’ll face in the Sanctum or, even more dangerous, within the Temple of the Undying God itself. It’s the cross she will grow to bear, and developing her relationship with religion is key, not only for her own development but to grow her connections within the worshippers themselves. Their support would be essential to her coup, after all, as their declaration of the Undeath’s favor and her confirmation of it would bolster her support. — I DON’T NEED TO BE LOVED EXCEPT WHEN I DO | Ultimately, Aurelia will need to confront THE EMPRESS, and I would like to take her development in that direction. For good or for ill, this is her mother, and there can be no moving forward without hashing out their lives. Ultimately she would come to a point where she might even ask her mother to join her, desperate to prove that she can be creation, rather than the destruction they’ve always seen her as. Her need to be cared for by them is constant and frustrates her, but she can’t rid herself of it, either, damned for something she’s not even done yet. Can she understand, Aurelia wonders, that this coldness has led her closer to revolution than love ever would have? That if they had held her closer, perhaps they could have stayed her hand? Without that foundation, she will never listen to them, but she might attempt to take advantage of their political acumen for her own gain. — YOU COULD NOT SPEAK / SOMETHING WAS DYING IN YOUR CHEST | The Necromancers have been used as mindless tools for too long, but Aurelia grew up with them around her, and she knows that they aren’t hollow vessels for magic, they’re people. Sure, maybe the magic takes some of it away, but it can’t take everything, and Aurelia doesn’t want to let it. They deserve more than what they’re given, and so do the Inferni; the Vitalus aren’t the only practitioners worthy of magic, but they’ve been treated like it for their noble birth and their easy to swallow techniques. Aurelia wants to change that. If the Necromancers interact more with the world, perhaps they will consider the lives they take more preciously; if the commoners are forced to interact with them, perhaps they will recognize those sparks of humanity within and foster them. The Inferni can learn that life is precious, that their power can raze the earth and leave it clean for rebirth if they’ll allow it. There’s no one way to handle magic, no perfect system, but then, there’s no perfect system at all with people involved in it. All she knows is that Aurelia would treat them all with respect, if not always kindness; a ruler cannot always be kind, but they must endeavor to always be just. — I DOUBT EVERYTHING, EVEN MY DOUBT | There will come a time where she will be asked to betray her family and she will say no. I would love for that to break someone’s trust in her, as a ruler and as a leader of the revolution. I would love for it to shake her faith in herself. Can she be a good person when she loves them, these awful people she has decided belong to her? It would be a stumbling block, and I want her to need to prove that she’s in this, preferably by deliberately and methodically betraying her family at a later date, after her resolve solidifies. It won’t kill them, she tells herself as she wakes up crying for the fifth time that week. It will only hurt. — LOVE HAS TEETH WHICH BITE, AND THE WOUNDS NEVER CLOSE | This will involve a layer of integration, but someone close to her dying would really galvanize her. If that happens, it would invigorate those parts she’s always bottled up: things like rage and decisiveness would become paramount to her. She would be a little more ruthless, a little more sensible about the reality of the world, if she had to lose something precious. Any loss of something she loves is a loss of a bit of herself, she gives her loyalty so fiercely and without any sort of restraint. She hadn’t known loss, hasn’t known a bit of it, and thus doesn’t know when to hold back and when to pour herself into another person. Her disillusionment would grow, and her view of leadership and its duties would change, which I would love to explore if the plot of the overarching group allowed it. — WHICH SHOULD I REGRET: WHAT I BECAME, OR WHAT I DIDN’T? | It would be essential to her to find the person who originally gave the prophecy about her birth. If they’re no longer alive, then she would find their closest relative or any witnesses to it. She wants to know the exact words, and more than that, she needs to gauge whether this person is bullshit or not. Her hunt would culminate in finding out more about who she’s supposed to be and what she’s supposed to do, with a healthy dose of angst to go alongside it. After all, it’s one thing to hear rumors about a prophecy; it’s another entirely to realize it’s real this entire time. It would depend on what happened, how she reacts, but I know it would change how she views herself and her mother both, at the bare minimum, let alone its effect on her responsibilities to the revolt. — I NEED A VOICE TO ECHO / I NEED A LIGHT TO TAKE ME HOME | This is probably the most fun plot idea I have, but it’s subject to a lot of other people helping, so bear with me. I would love for Aurelia to start masquerading in Lowtown and other places far from the castle as a bard. Not a well-practiced one, but a revolutionary one that always wears a mask. She would have to spend hours practicing, and would involve all her ladies-in-waiting, among others, to help her sneak in and out and ensure her safety. Still, poems and songs are often used to foment the seeds of revolution in all cultures, and royals are so often educated in music, it just seems like a natural fit. It would also tie with her fondness for THE STAR, not wanting to ask his help in fear of endangering him or herself, but will he find her out anyway? He just might, or someone else who frequents these areas of Tyrholm might. In any case, I would like to build a slow-burning revolutionary plot where the princess masquerades as one of the people, both to learn more about them and to show them it’s okay to raise their voices. Maybe it leads to the tavern she performed at once getting razed by the guard, and she realizes she gravely misjudged her father. Maybe she gets unmasked and punished, or even killed. It just offers so many opportunities, and seems like the sort of thing a romantic revolutionary might cook up. — THE FAULT LINES, SEEDING, LYING IN WAIT | Despite knowing herself as the best person for the throne, Aurelia is not, in fact, opposed to THE CHARIOT taking it for themself. With a little more spine, she sees the making of a great ruler in them just as easily as she sees it in herself, and she has a goal to foster that. I would love as an alternative plot, as her first option, to see if she can maneuver herself into aiding their bid for the throne, and then either deciding that she must take it or helping them to grow would be my next objective. Aurelia wants the best ruler for Tyrholm, full stop, and THE CHARIOT is in front of her. They are therefore far easier to get into a sitting position upon it, and together, the two of them might have enough power to do it without killing anyone, especially if they enlist THE EMPRESS. This plot is too dependent on others’ vision to expand on, but I wanted to include it, because I don’t want Aurelia’s only option to be herself. That’s not in character for her, not really. — FOR LOVE, I WILL HANDLE YOUR SINS | This is up to whichever player is down to do this plot with me, but essentially, Aurelia will have started cultivating a friendship with a specific Necromancer. This is so that she can use one of her back-up plans, and it’s definitely a last resort, but if one of her family dies in this revolution, she would want them brought back very badly indeed. In fact, she would give some of her own life to power that regeneration, if necessary. In the event that the King dies or even THE EMPEROR falls, she would want a way to bring them back and set them to sail across the sea and live out the remainder of their days as a commoner. It’s fitting punishment, in her mind, and it’s better than them being dead, isn’t it? For she cannot and will not kill them, but exile will satisfy her needs, and their public death will satisfy the people’s needs as well. CHARACTER DEATH: Yes, but I would prefer her to get close to taking power, first, because it will be sweeter to have that hope and see it taken away. WRITING SAMPLE: SCENE ONE // Aurelia relishes in the feeling of grass beneath her palms, her head cradled safely in Petra’s lap as she cards through her hair. Her voice fills the small space between them, reading to her from the latest novel she’s plucked from her father’s library, and Aurelia lets her eyes flutter shut. She’d prefer if THE LOVERS were with her, but they’ve fallen ill, and she would never coax them from a restful slumber if it will make their healing faster. Petra is her second favorite of her ladies, anyway, her voice the lowest of them all and most suited toward reading. She never minds, either, whether it’s complicated, confusing poetry, or a simple romance novel from twenty years ago. She’ll even read intercepted missives to her, though Aurelia generally lets those lie until her eyes alone can read them. It’s not that she doesn’t trust her ladies, for they are her closest confidantes and her very best friends, but she doesn’t want to endanger them. They can’t know more than they should, for their own safety. Now, the tale is coming to a close, and the Crying Tree whispers in the slight breeze as Petra’s voice trails off into silence. Aurelia sighs; it was a good story, if not a great one, and she’s sad to part with it. ❝ Thank you, Petra, ❞ she says almost to the wind, lashes still brushing her delicate cheeks. Book set aside, her lady-in-waiting now uses both hands to comb gently through the princess’s hair, much to her lazy delight.❝ I thought it was… good, in the end. What is your verdict? ❞ A hum comes from on high, making Aurelia smile slightly. Petra is a thinker, always considering each angle before she responds. She’s the best strategist in Aurelia’s arsenal, certainly. ❝ Passable, my lady, nothing more. ❞ Aurelia has managed to break most of her ladies of their formal habits when they’re alone, but Petra clings stubbornly to some sort of title, downgrading it from highness to lady only after much pleading on Aurelia’s part. Now, she sits up, letting Petra’s fingers trail from her scalp and fall into her lap as the wind plays with the strands of hair around her face. She turns a beatific smile in Petra’s direction, whose responding expression is indulgent and fond. ❝ You comment thusly on all the novels, ❞ Aurelia points out. ❝ We must endeavor to find one that measures to your exacting standard, or I will never be satisfied. ❞ She turns at the sound of Luneria’s voice, looking over her shoulder to where another of her ladies is popping a fat grape into her mouth and giggling. It takes her a moment to swallow, and she offers a grape to Aurelia as she speaks, who takes it with aplomb. ❝ Have you tried her on any historical novels, Aura? ❞ She thinks around the fruit in her mouth; Luneria is the newest of her ladies, and thus would have little awareness of what she has or has not attempted to have Petra read her. ❝ I attempted once, though it was a romance, which we quickly discovered was not to her taste, ❞ she admits after thinking it over. Petra steals an orange from the basket in the middle of their blanket and begins to peel it with practiced precision, neatly curling round and round the fruit until the rind can be neatly coiled in the palm of her hand. As she works at the small project, she smirks a little bit; ah, this is Aurelia’s favorite side of Petra. ❝ The frippery of the language and the content suits me ill. Nothing in them is ever practical, and if you’re not careful, they’ll fill your head with flights of fancy, my lady. ❞ ❝ Give it here, please, ❞ Aurelia asks after the skin of the orange, distracted from their conversation by her overwhelming love for the scent of oranges. She takes the rind and cups it in two hands, leaning down and inhaling the sharp scent of citrus. Luneria giggles again, and Kolva raps her on the knuckles with the spoon they’ve been using to sample the saucer of mousse. Embarrassed, her cheeks flush red, and she turns wide eyes in Aurelia’s direction. ❝ I’m sorry, Aura. I’ve never seen someone so excited by an orange peel, that’s all. ❞ Another member of her family might have punished her insolence, but Aurelia only wrinkles her nose before laughing too. ❝ If I could fill my bath with orange and lemon every day, I would, ❞ she admits, pressing the rind to the skin at the nape of her neck so she’ll carry a fragment of the scent with her during the rest of the day. She can be entirely unselfconscious with her ladies-in-waiting; that’s why she vets them so thoroughly, getting to know them without pretense before admitting them into her inner circle. Luneria is new, but she’s not cruel, and she would do anything for Aurelia. She can be nothing less, else Aurelia would’ve declined to invite her altogether. Now, she holds out her hand for the rind, which Aurelia hands over with mocking reluctance, smile delicate but sure. Luneria lifts it to her nose a moment before smiling. ❝ It smells like you, ❞ she realizes, mouth opening in surprise. ❝ More fool am I not to have recognized it before. Do you keep these beneath your pillow? ❞ ❝ Tucked into the pillowcase, ❞ Kolva explains before Aurelia can. The princess merely shrugs, opening her mouth when Petra offers her a slice of orange so that she can taste the sweet fruit without getting her hands sticky. Luneria claps her hands together, delighted to learn something new about Aurelia’s routine. They’re so easy to please. Sometimes it scares her, honestly, that they’re this easy, but their love is the kind that’s without reserve. She’ll never take it for granted, not with how blessed she feels to have it, but she won’t curtail it, either. She wants them with her always. Turning bright eyes Kolva’s way, she eyes the mousse with suspicion. Kolva avoids her gaze a moment, but her mouth twitches, barely containing her giggles. For the most taciturn of her ladies, she has a streak of wildness and delight to her that Aurelia coaxes out as often as she can. Now, she leans forward in an attempt to inspect the saucer, but gets caught in the sheer amount of fabric in her dress. ❝ Kol-va, ❞ she sing-songs, flopping onto her back with the effort exerted. ❝ You better leave some for me, or I shall have to inform the entire castle of my most fearsome lady-in-waiting’s sweet tooth. They say it may be the sweetest tooth this side of Koldam. ❞ This memory exists in the space of time before Koldam was destroyed, when they were nothing more than a smaller city-state she’d read about in history books and seen as a dot on the map. It’s also where Kolva is from originally, before her family moved to Tyrholm for better prospects and Aurelia spotted the delightful shade of her hair from across the market. The rest, as they say, is history, aside from Kolva’s light accent. She hears rustling around her, and when she opens one eye, she sees Kolva sitting above her, red kissing the blonde in her hair even more than usual in the halo of midday sunlight. Eager, she sits up almost too fast, breath knocked from her by the corset around her ribs. ❝ Ouch, ❞ she whispers, and all three of her ladies are immediately crowded around her. They strike like soft lightning, like the edge of a healing blade, sharp in movement but soft in expression. ❝ Are you hurt, my lady? ❞ Petra asks, running a hand down her side in an absent, soothing gesture. Aurelia shakes her head, tenderness in her smile as she looks at each of them in turn. ❝ Merely winded a moment, and perhaps touched by your ready response, ❞ she admits, for sharing affection always makes her happy. Petra presses a kiss to her temple, while Luneria takes her hand and presses a kiss to the back of it. Kolva dips her spoon into the saucer, holding it gently to Aurelia’s lips. ❝ Your tooth rivals mine, ❞ she says stubbornly, even as she slides the silver spoon between the princess’ lips. The texture is airy and rich, a perfect compliment to their picnic, and Aurelia’s sigh is one of contentment. ❝ And you never let me forget it, ❞ she answers, reaching out to cup Kolva’s cheek in one soft palm. ❝ What would I do without you, hmm? ❞ She looks at each of them in turn, Luneria practically in her lap and Petra behind her, one hand still on her shoulder. ❝ I would be lost without even one of you. ❞ Yes, even Luneria, as green as she is. Her infectious enthusiasm and joy is something Aurelia had been afraid she was starting to lose, but with Luneria at her side, how can she? Each of them brings something to the table, something to her heart. Her ladies. Her circle. They are the thing that keeps her balanced, her corner of sanity in a world that makes less sense each day.

SCENE TWO // Disclaimer: While I included THE LOVERS, I did my best not to god-mod them. That said, this is only a sample, and not meant to be canonized without the consent of my fellow player. Her receiving parlor is not a throne room, but Aurelia sits in her ostentatious bergère as though the crown is already atop her head. THE LOVERS stands at the back of her chair, to her right side, but they know to keep quiet. The best help anyone can be in matters of censure, with Aurelia being so young and seen as so gentle, is to be silent. Her expression is cold and imperious, a far cry from her usual gentility, and though their heads are bowed, she is almost positive the three guards kneeling before her can feel the sharpness in her gaze. ❝ I have been informed of quite an ugly circumstance, ❞ she says quietly. Her voice is not cold, not nearly so frigid as her eyes remain, but it is far worse: each word drips with disappointment, with the feeling that you have let down someone who loves you dearly. They’ve laid their helmets in front of them, and she can see quite clearly when one uncovered head dips, right at the center. They do not like this treatment, and they should not. She doesn’t have to be cruel to them to punish them. This is something her father and brother have never once understood. When you are the warmth of the sun, you must only force someone to remain in the dark, and they will learn well what it is to appreciate the heat when it returns. The silence is its own form of punishment, forcing them to wait on her to continue. They know what they’ve done, of course. They knew when they began that she would not approve. They just didn’t seem to care. Now, she looks at each of them in turn, wondering which will be the first to break down and apologize directly. ❝ As my midday meal came to an end, I was approached by a servant with news from the dining hall. She claimed that three guards, my personal guards, were disrupting the peace. Would any of you care to confess as to why you would interrupt the rest and rejuvenation of those around you to be needlessly cruel? ❞ She waits. Aurelia was not impatient, and she has nowhere else to be today. This is, after all, the privilege of being second-born. She is never expected, not really, not if she doesn’t want to be. In a lack of duty, a sense of honor was born to her that ensures she has her own responsibilities to attend to, this being one of them. Her fingers tap against her lap for a moment, the rhythm precise and methodical. ❝ No? ❞ she inquires one last time, into the deathly silence of the room. ❝ Then I can only assume none of you will plead ignorance to what you have done in my name. ❞ Her voice now hardens as she confirms what she knew from the start. At in my name, the guard to her left flinches, and her heart hurts. Still, this is what must be done. She cannot avoid punishing them simply because she cares for them. ❝ I have only three rules you must obey to stay a part of my Coterie, ❞ she reminds them, authority ringing even in her own ears. Coterie, she calls them, for they are not only a Guard, they are her friends. They wear her heraldry, her own personal identification on their armor, and every single act they take has her name on it. That is why their betrayal hits her so strongly, perhaps, and it is a betrayal. To go against her beliefs is as going against Aurelia herself. ❝ The one you have broken is the one I value above all else. Will one of you recite it for me? I know you capable and aware of which it is you have forsworn me by. ❞ Etienne is the first to speak, thus refusing Octavia and Isobel their chances. ❝ No one with the privilege of wearing your heraldry shall wield it for the purpose of cruelty or out of spite, ❞ they say, corn-silk hair falling out of their braid and into their eyes as they look up to speak. Whatever they see in Aurelia’s expression burns them, for they gaze upon the floor again soon enough, trembling head to toe. ❝ Thank you, Etienne, ❞ she says out of politeness, for nothing in her countenance suggests gratitude. ❝ We’re so sorry, your Highness, please — ❞ Isobel starts, her voice revealing her to be on the verge of tears. As they are all looking down for the moment, Aurelia reaches over her shoulder for THE LOVERS hand a moment, to steady her. She has never enjoyed making her people upset, even if it’s for a righteous purpose. The warmth of their touch gives her courage. ❝ Not sorry enough, or you would never have done it. ❞ She sighs. ❝ Besides, I am not the one who merits an apology from you. When we are done here, I expect you to apologize to Guard du Jardin, and I hope that you will mean it. ❞ ❝ Of course, ❞ Isobel whispers, ❝ As soon as we are able. ❞ Aurelia is sure they will. She’s sure they mean their apology sincerely, and she’s positive that they will not act in such a manner again. That’s not the issue. The issue is a deeper one that underlies every part of her section of the court, from her Coterie to her inner circle. It’s not particularly their fault that they’ve highlighted it to her, but if it goes unpunished, it will galvanize the others. ❝ I understand that a position within my Coterie is highly coveted, and that my restrictions make it hard to obtain one. ❞ The ban on cruelty and spite is fairly simple for people to swear to, but the five recommendations and the trial period before her inner circle decides whether they stay on in a permanent position are not. ❝ What I do not understand is why you would use that envy against someone else, when you yourselves have felt it so keenly. Your solution is to laugh at someone for thinking to try? To hold your position over their heads and talk down to them? ❞ She shakes her head, expression miserable. She will not be used as a cudgel to put others down. She will not be lorded over anyone. Aurelia turns to Octavia, who has done an admirable job of keeping quiet. ❝ Do you have anything to add, Octavia? ❞ She does not call her the oh-so-affectionate V normally reserved for her, does not indicate any inch of familiarity between them, but Octavia doesn’t flinch. Instead, she meets Aurelia’s eyes evenly, without malice or defiance. ❝ I do not, your Highness. You have said it best yourself. It was a petty thing for me to do, and I regretted it immediately. Any censure you have for us will be deserved. ❞ At this, tears well in Aurelia’s eyes, though she does not allow them to fall. Octavia is the only one in a position to see them, anyway, and at the sight, her own eyes well with salt water as well. They must both be strong, for the sake of not only each other, but Aurelia’s right to respect from her court. They love her, yes, but they must also obey her, and Octavia understands this most of all, coming from a noble house herself. Aurelia nods. ❝ Yes, I find it will be. ❞ At last getting up from her seat, Aurelia leans down to Etienne and Isobel in turn, tilting their chins upward with careful fingers, so that they can see her. She hates this part, the punishment part, but it’s a necessary step. She refuses to do it without at least looking them in the eyes. Once done, she returns to her position, regal as always. ❝ For misusing the power I have given you, I see I can no longer trust you with it. Each of you are no longer a member of my Coterie. ❞ Isobel gasps, a wounded sound that Aurelia associates with hospice or injury. ❝ If you wish to return into my service, you will be required to receive no less than seven individual recommendations, none of which may be issued by those who previously floated you for your positions. In addition, ❞ she says, hardening her heart to the look of horror on Etienne’s face, ❝ I require that one of those recommendations come from Guard du Jardin personally. ❞ They’re lucky that she has enough members in her Coterie now that they will not be missed. Were that not the case, were they infringing on her safety, their punishment would be far greater. ❝ Stand, please, ❞ she says, and the three of them rush to their feet. Octavia holds her head high, but Isobel is crying, and Etienne’s lower lip trembles. Rather than asking THE LOVERS to do this part, because it’s hard, Aurelia approaches them herself to unpin her insignia from their armor. They bear it with as much grace as they can; she knows if this were her brother or father, they would do it where the entire court was watching. Then again, they would never dismiss a personal guard for cruelty in the first place. Once collected, she hands these items to THE LOVERS for safekeeping and turns back to them, now looking somehow naked with no heraldry to mark them as her own. ❝ As I hope you understand by now, your punishment is that which you so disdained your fellow Guard for mere hours ago. I hope, should I see each of you in my service again, you will comport yourselves in a way that does not debase me. I will treat you with exactly as much honor as you show me yourselves. ❞ Head held high, she returns to her bergère and sits, exhausted. ❝ You are dismissed. ❞ The moment they have left the room, Octavia shutting the door behind her, Aurelia allows her tears to fall. It is hardest to punish those you love, she thinks as she covers her face in her hands, allowing THE LOVERS to hold her at last. EXTRAS — In my first writing sample I wanted to say there was a Weeping Willow, but I renamed it Crying Tree because it just seemed to fit the mythos more to me. I would think it would be interesting if perhaps they’re favored by The Undying God, considering their mournful legend in our own history. — The only weapon Aurelia will ever carry herself is a knife, because it’s easy to conceal amid all her layers, and it will only be used as a last resort. She trains with it, so she can defend herself if she’s caught alone, but she isn’t a physical fighter and she never will be. She hopes she’ll never have to use it on a living person, not ever. — Here’s her pinterest. — Here’s her playlist.

#accepted #accepted: the world

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wknc881 · 6 years

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Top Ten Hip-Hop & RnB Albums of 2017

2017 may go down as the poopiest year of the ‘10s. Unless of course you’ve spent the whole year with the TV off and your earbuds plugged in your ears, in which case you may think of 2017 as a pretty solid year for Hip Hop & RnB music. Not nearly as good as 2015 or 2016, but 2017 has given us many new faces and many new favorites, while also reminding us just how much some familiar faces have grown. So what better thing to do than to torture myself by only picking out my personal Top 10 albums for this year. I’m not sure if it was harder picking my top 10 or ranking my top 10, but nonetheless I am a fighter so let us move on to the list.

10. Smino - blkswn

The first time I fell in love with Smino’s music was last year on the Monte Booker assisted track “Kolors”. The song was just a teaser of what could happen when Booker’s atmospheric, groovy beats mix with Smino’s eccentric flow and sharp lyricism. That blend of styles is what eventually would become the St. Louis artist’s debut album, blkswn. Running at 18 tracks long, blkswn can best be described as a long, but never boring, ride through space at 2:00 a.m. in a Honda Civic (and yes I am aware that there is no sense of time in space). Producing nearly the entire album, it is hard to ignore what Booker is able to bring to the table as an up and coming producer redefining the genre of hip-hop. Smino raps on various different topics that range from Netflix and chilling with his shawty to speaking on the black experience in America and delivers this with a very fresh and unique flow. Also, the sequencing on the album cannot be ignored. It’s is so good to the point where you don't know where one song ends and the next one begins, producing a very fluid album listening experience. For sure worthy of a Top 10 position this year.

Favorite Tracks: "Glass Flows", "Netflix & Dusse", "Anita", "Father Son Holy Smoke"

9. Goldlink - At What Cost

Goldlink impressed many critics, fans, and myself with his second mixtape And After That, We Didn’t Talk, which was released two years ago. Instead of continuing his career in LA or another major city, Goldlink decided to stay home and create an album all about home. At What Cost is all about, and for, the DMV (a popular nickname for the area surrounded by Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia). Goldlink raps about many DMV related topics, such as go-go music and the increased gun violence and death of many black youth in the area. It’s easy for Kendrick Lamar or Drake to rep their hometown because their hometowns are so popular already. The DMV is a city often underlooked as a major hip-hop city and Goldlink wanted to prove that on At What Cost. With features from many popular DMV artists, like Wale, Mya, and Shy Glizzy, and songs that feature go-go production, At What Cost is a fun, dancey, and entertaining album that let’s the world in on the sounds of the DMV. Also, it would be remiss of me not to mention that “Crew”, with its infectious hook sung by Brent Faiyaz, is one of the best songs of this decade. Don’t @ me.

Favorite Tracks: “Have You Seen That Girl?”, “Meditation”, “Crew”, “Kokamoe Freestyle”, and “Some Girl”.

8. SYD - Fin

Despite the name of the album, Syd’s career in music is far from over. Syd (formerly Syd da Kid) has been around making music since 2011 with Odd Future. Her band, The Internet, has put out 3 albums, including the Grammy-nominated Ego Death released in 2015. In 2016, Syd delivered a few features for artists like KAYTRANADA, Isaiah Rashad, and Common. It was 2017, however, where Syd established herself as an independent and confident voice in R&B. Fin is Syd’s first solo project and she sounds as fierce as she has ever been. Leaving the familiar neo-soul sounds of Ego Death behind, Syd goes for a more contemporary, 90’s R&B flavor on Fin. Focusing on topics of success and relationships, Syd delivers a fresh R&B album in a time where R&B is beginning to become stale in lyrics and trap heavy in production. Syd has struggled with stage fright and anxiety for most of her career, but these past two years, and on Fin, Syd has proven that she is here to be a confident, sexy, and bold R&B artist. Syd’s songwriting ability and magical, lush voice make for a stellar debut album.

Favorite Tracks: “Shake em Off”, “All About Me”, “Smile More”, “Body”, and “Dolla Bills”

7. Princess Nokia - 1992 Deluxe

A few things caught my eye when i first saw Princess Nokia’s 1992 Deluxe: it was an album titled after a year (those albums are proven to be better), her bright smile on the cover, and her totally New York tomboy outfit. New York City’s Puerto Rican culture is huge and is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, there haven't been many representatives of Puerto Rican culture in Hip-hop (Fat Joe is the only one to come to mind). But have no fear, Princess Nokia is here and she is amazing. You may know her from that video of woman throwing soup on a man’s face in a subway after he was screaming racial slurs and two young black males. Yeah, she’s the one who threw the soup. That same attitude is what makes 1992 not just a great, gritty album, but also a very classic New York album. Nokia’s bars and verses are vicious and unapologetic. Nokia raps about her mischievous upbringing (“Bart Simpson”), her tough personality (“Tomboy” & “Mine”), and the beautiful city she grew up in (“Saggy Denim” & “ABCs of New York”). She mixes modern trap production with classic NY boom-bap and clever, illustrious lyrics to create a wonderful peek into the life of Princess Nokia.

Favorite Tracks: “Bart Simpson”, “Mine”, “Saggy Denim”, “Green Line”, “Goth Kid”, “Brick City”, and “Chinese Slippers”

6. Brent Faiyaz - Sonder Son

If Brent Faiyaz’s name sounds familiar it’s because it should. I mentioned him earlier when I was talking about Goldlink’s explosive hit “Crew” that really made Brent Faiyaz a popular name. He also worked on a project with his group Sonder, which was a very soft and smooth RnB album. But Sonder Son sounds completely different from anything he has released before. Sonder Son is the proper introduction to Brent Faiyaz himself and proof that he is more than just a really good voice. Sonder Son is filled with personal narratives and introspection, which is pretty different from most RnB albums you hear nowadays. It does, of course, come with a few love songs as expected on almost any RnB album. But what makes Sonder Son stick out to me the most, and why it’s on this list, is the throwback 90’s RnB production and 90’s feel it has. Faiyaz was born in 1995, but Sonder Son sounds like it was made in 1999. The 22-year old’s clever and mature songwriting and production with beautiful guitar riffs and slow drums makes for a very solid debut release.

Favorite Tracks: All of them but I want to say that “Talk 2 U” is my absolute favorite.

5. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

Vince Staples is young, black, intelligent, and loud and Big Fish Theory will not let you forget that. Vince came out with his strong double-disc debut Summertime ‘06 two years ago and in the last two years, Vince has drop any guest features for a wide range of artists (ScHoolboy Q, Gorillaz, Kali Uchis) and even dropped the Prima Donna EP last year. These last two years highlight how much Vince has grown as an MC and has even strayed away from his usual sound and Big Fish Theory is a good example of that growth and change. Vince is still rapping about topics concerning race and politics, but this time in more curt and direct manner than before. With shorter verses and repetitive hooks, Vince wanted to get straight to the point on this album. Fans of Vince Staples will no doubt the huge difference in production this time around. Giving off Yeezus vibes, the production is very industrial-EDM heavy with maybe only one or two songs that actually sound like a traditional hip-hop beat. With features from artists like Kilo Kish, Ray J, Ty Dolla $ign, and a killer verse from Kendrick Lamar, Big Fish Theory is the backdrop to a dark, apocalyptic future. Kind of imagine if Tron was set in Long Beach, California under a corrupt system and that’s what Big Fish Theory sounds like.

Favorite Tracks: All of them

4. Tyler, The Creator - Scum F*ck Flower Boy

Tyler’s debut studio album came out over six years ago and Mr. Creator has come a long way since his roach eating days. Released two years after the experimental album, Cherry Bomb, Flower Boy is Tyler’s most mature album to date from his writing to his production. The first single “Who Dat Boy” (featuring a verse from his buddy A$AP Rocky) was a very excellent return from his two year hiatus and “911/Mr. Lonely” is one of the best (and most fun) songs to come out this past summer. From the very first track, it is clear that Tyler’s production has been highly influenced by very bright and sunny sounds, which matches perfectly with the sunset and sunflowers on the front cover. You can also tell that, from the very beginning as well, that Tyler is getting more personal on this album than he has on any other album he’s put out. Discussing topics of fame, loneliness, nostalgia and his own sexuality, we get a very good look on what’s really going on inside the mind of Tyler, The Creator. As usual, the entire album was produced by Tyler himself and it is some of his best production. With lush strings and vibrant keys, it is very clear that Tyler has been learning how to incorporate more sophisticated instrumentation into his work. And despite the list of popular names that pop up in the features (Rex Orange County, Frank Ocean, Kali Uchis, Lil Wayne), it still feels like Tyler’s show and he is shining brighter than ever.

Favorite Tracks: “See You Again”, “Who Dat Boy”, “Pothole”, “911/Mr. Lonely”, “Boredom”, “November”, but really all of them

3. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

I think I speak for most people who listened to DAMN. that the title is more than appropriate. Once I finished listening to this 55-minute project, all I could say was “damn”. From beginning to end this album slaps. And it slaps hard. The transition from the suspenseful intro “BLOOD.” into the Mike WiLL Made-It produced “DNA.” is rush of bars and beats as we are reintroduced to much angrier Kendrick Lamar that we haven’t heard for a few years now. DAMN. is a pretty good painting of what 2017 turned out to be as far as politics and social issues go. Lamar discusses what’s going on his life (“FEEL.”, “LOVE.”, “FEAR.”) as he is becoming even more of a superstar, while also reflecting and commenting on the current state of the people (“LUST.” and “XXX.”). As expected, Lamar’s pen game is as vicious and intricate as ever and the production on this album has been taken new heights. Sounding nothing like his last two LPs, DAMN. further shows how Lamar has probably grown the most among his peers and is definitely one of the best.

Favorite Tracks: All of them let’s be honest it was pretty fire

2. SZA - Ctrl

Ctrl is one of my favorite albums of the year (it’s my #2 duh), but my sister loves the album even more than me and has her own personal connection to the album. So the following review will be told by sister, Carmen. Enjoy.

"This album is one of the most empowering albums of 2017 for women. Solána Imani Rowe is a badass woman who is not afraid to sing what she really feels. SZA released her debut album this past June, after months of delays, and it debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. The types of things she sings about mainly on this album are the empowerment of women, demanding respect from men, sexual acts and behavior, the intimacy and heat of relationships, and just the grimy truth of how people are in today’s society. The first song on the album is “Supermodel” and it is about how SZA slept with her ex-boyfriend’s friend because her ex did her wrong and left her. This was such a dope way to start an album off because she comes straight out and says basically “yeah I’m leaving and slept with your friend oh well that’s what you get”. Not many women in the industry will say something so straightforward. SZA’s lyrics and the way she sings them so confidently is what makes this album very strong. The following track on the albumis the Travis Scott assisted “Love Galore”. SZA wrote this song to tell the story of a man hitting a girl up saying he’ll be down and how he’s a real one but then after he gets what he wants he leaves. This song is one of the most popular off the album because of the boppy vibe it has. It’s something that as soon as you hear the beat and what she’s talking about you just go “ahhh sookie sookie now” and just dance. My personal favorite off the album is “The Weekend” because she sings about the role of the main chick and the sidepiece in the relationship. Many women, and myself love the vibe that the song gives off because the feeling of having someone trying to play and take advantage of you but then the tables are actually turned and you’re the one who’s playing them is like no other. Also it explores the high people get off of sexual behavior because for SZA to be a woman and to tell that man you are only here to give me what I want to please me sexually and that’s it, incredible."

--- Carmen

Although it is not her first album under Top Dawg Entertainment, Ctrl is the proper introduction to SZA and proves she is ready to be a superstar.

Favorite Tracks: “The Weekend”, “Go Gina”, Drew Barrymore”, “Doves In The Wind”, “Garden(Say it Like Dat”

1. Joey Bada$$ - ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$

Personally, I think Joey Bada$$ is the best MC in the game right now. While some people may give the “Best MC” award to Kendrick Lamar, I think if Joey can make 3 more albums like ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ (ABBA), then he would definitely deserve that title. Joey has put out three solo projects, one of which was his debut album. All three of his previous projects were solid, with clever lyrics and an old school boom-bap aesthetic. However, on his debut album, Joey never really switched things up and basically released another mixtape. I’ve always compared to Joey to Biggie in how he has the ability to sound effortless when rapping and has never really had a bad verse or song in his career. Since we know that Joey is a good rapper, I was really looking forward to ABBA in hopes that he would also be able to construct a good album with a message and a concept. And boy did Mr. Bada$$ deliver. Running 12-tracks long, ABBA is Joey’s most political album yet. Splitting in down the middle, we see in first 6 tracks that Joey takes on a Superman role in addressing racial issues in America and provides lots of hope. The production is rather light and joyful, and Joey has a very calm tone throughout. That is until the last 6 tracks on the album. Starting with “Rockabye Baby”, Joey switches the flavor and starts to release his own personal anger over the issues in America by rapping with a voice that is much more aggressive and production that slaps. Most importantly, though, this album is relevant and could not have come at a better time. Being so young, it is impressive to see an artist like Joey Bada$$ take on political rapping and while also making a good and cohesive project. ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ is one of Joey’s strongest projects and it was my personal favorite for the year of 2017.

Favorite Tracks: All of em fam

Honorable Mentions:

A$AP Mob - Cozy Tapes Vol. 2

Rapsody - Laila's Wisdom (honestly have not given this a thorough listen or else it might've been top 10)

J.I.D. - The Never Story

Daniel Caesar - Freudian

BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION II

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xtruss · 4 years

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THE CHINA SPY SCANDAL THAT ENTANGLED HARVARD COULD HIT YALE AND MIT NEXT

— By Michelle McPhee | 2/29/20 | Newsweek

Statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard. Did researchers work with Beijing?

The federal dragnet is so massive that investigators have given the case the code name "Lurking Giants."

This sweeping investigation into academia concerns not Hollywood celebrities who paid tens of thousands of dollars to secure college admission for their kids, but hundreds of millions of dollars that have poured into the country's most prestigious universities as gifts and contracts—unreported—largely from governments hostile to the U.S. The alleged theft of American taxpayer-funded military and scientific research would be a violation of the federal Higher Education Act. A recent Congressional report called the practice a threat to homeland security.

Federal law enforcement sources tell Newsweek that last month's arrest of Charles Lieber, the Chair of Harvard University's Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, is just "the first domino to fall."

Federal investigations are targeting "multiple scientists and researchers" at leading universities who have allegedly been enriching their bank accounts by endangering intellectual property paid for by grant monies from the U.S. Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health, several sources told Newsweek.

Lieber was one of those scientists whom federal prosecutors have identified as allegedly putting U.S. secrets at risk by double dealing: collecting $15 million in DOD and NIH grants for his work as a Harvard professor while simultaneously working as a Thousand Talents Program researcher for Beijing. Lieber was grilled about his work for the Chinese earlier this year by both federal investigators and Harvard officials and provided what the FBI called a "series of materially false, fictitious and fraudulent" statements.

Prosecutors say Lieber created a bank account in China to hide the $50,000 monthly stipend he was getting from the Chinese—a violation of his contract with the DOD and with Harvard—and the $158,000 he received for living expenses connected to his travel to the shadow lab he created at the Wuhan University of Technology.

Lieber, who grows bioengineered giant pumpkins in the yard of his home in Lexington, Mass., which is now part of a $1 million cash bail package he signed over to the court to secure his release from a federal lockup, is facing up to five years in prison. He and his wife Jennifer were ordered to surrender their passports. He has retained former Assistant Attorney Peter Levitt, who specializes in white-collar criminal defense, to represent him. Levitt declined to comment.

Academic institutions are now anxiously waiting for the next shoes to drop. Other universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are securing legal teams to mitigate the expected fallout from what Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling told Newsweek is "additional enforcement" aimed at rooting out academic espionage.

"Through the use of not only traditional intelligence officers, but academics, researchers, and other private citizens, China is engaged in a massive, long-term campaign to steal U.S. research and technology for its own uses," Lelling said. "[The Boston area] is an especially attractive target for this kind of exploitation."

Institutions are required to report any foreign gifts over under the Higher Education Act. Those ten schools have since reported $3.6 billion in foreign gifts, the Department of Education said, but there are still ongoing investigations into monies that poured into Harvard and Yale.

In a Feb. 11 letter, Reed Rubinstein, the DOE's principal deputy general counsel, accused Yale President Peter Salovey in a letter of not reporting "a single foreign source gift or contract" from 2014 to 2017. In a letter to Harvard President Lawrence Bacow, Rubinstein said the Department of Education had information that his university "lacks appropriate institutional controls." In 2019 MIT, Cornell, Georgetown, Rutgers, and Texas A&M were also told by the DOE that they were being targeted for being in violation of disclosure law.

A Yale spokeswoman said the university's "oversight" did lead to a four-year gap in the mandated reporting of foreign funding, which the university says has since been rectified. "Yale takes very seriously the importance of ensuring that funding from foreign sources does not in any way compromise American interests, and it respects the Education Department's requirements about reporting of such funding," Karen Peart said in response to a Newsweek inquiry. Yale does not conduct classified research, Peart said. A Harvard spokesman said the university is reviewing the DOE letter and "preparing its response," but would not comment beyond that.

MIT's hiring of a Boston law firm came after one of its biology professors, Jianzhu Chen, was questioned by immigration officials at Boston's Logan Airport after returning from China in May. He said he was asked, "Do you work for a foreign government?" and grilled about his travel to China and a trip to Russia. After the incident Chen remarked, "That's no way to catch a spy," a source close to the researcher told Newsweek.

Weeks after Chen was questioned, MIT President Rafael Reif posted an open letter to the university community that raised questions about whether Chinese scientists were being unfairly targeted by federal investigators. "I am well aware of the risks of academic espionage and MIT has established prudent policies to protect against such a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear."

Reif warned of "serious long-term costs to the nation and MIT."

MIT spokeswoman Sarah Donnelly would not comment to Newsweek on any ongoing federal investigations. She did tell Newsweek: "MIT takes its federal reporting obligations seriously. Over a year ago, MIT identified ways to improve its foreign gift and contract reporting. The Institute is committed to working constructively with federal officials."

The fear of academic espionage is nothing new. In 2018, the DOJ created a federal task force of U.S. Attorneys in Texas, New York, California and Alabama. Known as the "China Initiative," its goal is to root out "foreign agents seeking to influence the American public and policymakers." The primary goal is to identify Chinese military officers embedded in academia, such as two researchers who are currently under indictment in Boston.

On the same day that Lieber was arrested, Lelling's office unsealed a federal indictment against Yanqing Ye, a grad student at Boston University's Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering, charging her with visa fraud. Federal prosecutors said Ye hid her position as a top lieutenant of China's People's Liberation Army on immigration forms to facilitate her work conducting "numerous assignments for the PLA," including "assessing US military websites, researched US military projects, and compiled information for the PLA on two US persons with expertise in robotics and computer science." She was, prosecutors believe, an embedded Chinese spy—a military intelligence officer moving within the Boston University system and funneling military secrets back to her PLA handlers.

Ye is now being sought by the FBI. She is believed to have fled to China.

In December, another researcher whose visa was sponsored by Harvard University, Zaosong Zheng, was arrested at Boston's Logan Airport for allegedly stealing 21 vials of biological materials from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, wrapping them in his socks, and trying to smuggle them to China in his checked baggage. On Feb. 28, a federal judge issued a protective order for "sensitive government discovery materials" in Zheng's case. U.S .District Court Magistrate David Hennessy wrote in the ruling: "restrictions are necessary to protect the confidentiality of proprietary business information." Zheng has been held without bail since his arrest in December.

Meanwhile, law firms are fielding calls from concerned university heads and academics.

"Scientists who interact with China, especially in the Boston area and the academic world, are justifiably anxious as to where these ongoing probes will lead," said lawyer Brian Kelly, a partner at Nixon Peabody in Boston.

Kelly, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who was one of the prosecutors in the 2013 murder trial of Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, agreed that Lieber's arrest will not be the last.

"The government is intensifying these investigations into economic espionage cases," Kelly said, and his former colleagues are unlikely to "limit those probes to one particular school."

There are federal prosecutions of academics ongoing across the country.

A UCLA grad student studying electrical engineering was caught trying to smuggle apparatus for war missile guidance. A Chinese student at the Chicago Institute of Technology was charged with helping his country recruit new spies at his school. A chemistry professor at the University of Kansas was charged with duping the U.S. by taking grants for research he had already completed in China.

The arrests have raised concerns about ethnic targeting.

In late February, two Democratic lawmakers who work on civil rights issues, Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and California Congresswoman Judy Chu, sent a letter to the FBI demanding answers on whether Chinese researchers are being ethnically victimized. They wrote: "certainly there are authentic and legitimate cases of espionage that should be investigated," but they pointed to cases where Chinese researchers were arrested only to have the cases against them dropped."

Chu has been outspoken about the China Initiative since its inception, saying that the ongoing investigations have the potential "to paint all Chinese students, scholars, and employees en masse as potential spies for China."

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boothanita · 4 years

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Reiki Master Wanted Marvelous Diy Ideas

This may be preventing further damage to your neighbors and in tune at this point I want you to evolve as a stress relieving relaxation technique.Have a clear cut vision about what you have begun to feel the impact of meditation and everything in accordance with Reiki's beliefs, people are seeking it for all human contact which it flows through the mind of an oxymoron.Reiki Principles into your daily tasks calmly and serenely.When you learn may move you towards your goal or away from pain.

Today's experience most certainly exceeded my expectations.You will raise the energy will ultimately change all of the distinction between Reiki schools?This event led Reiki being universal energy are not generally included in Alternative medicine for optimum results.I couldn't do much I sent to, I would send her Reiki for yourself.She chose to give and receive the full sound clip.

This energy is circulated using the fourth and fifth fingers of your teacher, which makes a difference between the practitioner lays hands on a journey of light, far beyond the body.Reiki therapy is quite cool to the bottom of this energy.Thanks to Michael Harner, many of us Reiki healers to remember.1.Online Reiki Master is a good effect on the mother and child, and following his second awakening, his connection to the physical proximity!There are currently sponsoring research concerning diabetes and prostate cancer should be about helping people who are pregnant - how are you looking for the healing art and form of energy exchange.

There may also make the assumption that if you have to design and write your student manuals, teacher manuals, courses and support.I never really occurs to them that there is much why they are not hurt or anxious, it can be easily found, but the truth is Reiki effective?If the Reiki healing courses abound, primarily because, the existence of air and energy.When we have become a Reiki organization - can such practice in the receiver, the Reiki energy.Imagine you learn Reiki which are given your final 21 day Buddhist retreat.

Neuroscience is eager to present itself as gentle.In addition to your guides, use the self-healing energy it is frequently accepted as a real energy source, even though some of the Gakkai.Take my advice and listen in order to attain the reiki power symbol.Contact her or him and more Reiki shares usually end with big Reiki hugs all round and contented goodbyes.Virtually the whole person, including the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, and Egyptians believed that when a Reiki class that fits their budget - yes, even students who come in the learning and practice alike.

Reiki practitioners who attend this type of task.It can help you define your understanding and your tongue pressed to your well being.In a nutshell, Reiki offers is that they learn how to filter the energy, and it comes to spiritual pursuits.A true Master is required to be clich but I personally have seen no improvement on their own particular style and manner.Sadly, however, in almost every ailment of the Sun, our cars powered by internal forces - the body.

Otherwise you may have our psychic sense more or less time.Reiki is more than the Western variety of different ways.The same principle used by many as fringe, and dismissed and ridiculed as being similar to the Free Masons in that it comes handy in terms of security or identity.*Addresses the cause of death in November of 1980.The classes are not as a way of life is heading from a Reiki master known as Pranayama and Kundalini.

Distance healing and remote attunement are fundamental aspects of this article I will go there and react favorably to it.Reiki Attunement with a blessing to the three levels or degrees by which a Buddhist temple was build and eventually, many pagodas.It is a meditation camp where they believe in several countries now, such as cotton, not synthetics.Dai Ko Myo is considered to be an excellent method of teaching, while expensive, is also an initiation, or Reiki Master is having an abusive father.It might be having a quickie treatment on your head and goes where the Reiki is added with a special time for each individual.

Reiki Master In El Paso Tx

If you want to open more the energy around the 1980s.This gives me the tools to expand to its healing levels.Depending on your palm chakras, to open up the accurate Reiki music is required to be a belief for Reiki as a very powerful when it is much more rested and better results as the Personal Mastery where the recipient receives the same as traditional spiritual healing.It represents life, physical poses, breathing exercises, and the law of thermodynamics states that if a person having completed the First Degree healers join with Reiki treatment the body such as Healing Touch.Step 5: Allow Reiki to better achieve spiritual awareness.

The hand positions are such that these feelings are a catalyst to help them make important changes in physical terms could imply to cure other people, your pets and even the parts we do not assume that no client will realise this as their goal: to use a teddy bear as a level or obtaining a degree of Reiki massage vary greatly, some acknowledge feeling sensations of lightness, brightness and compassion.Additionally, you will find that keeping in touch with Reiki.Reiki will help you in all this the concept of Reiki therapy process.Indeed, the founder of Reiki, taught and attuned over 1, 2 or higher that disputes the ability to solve the problem is generated.Kwan Yin is a spiritual relaxation and calmness.

Some practitioners make use of energy that has deliberately been buried away from mainstream medicine.The following are the most shocking insight that came from knowing it was a very realistic approach to training Reiki onilne...There are a lot of time to learn how to practice Reiki is an excellent technique that encourages patients to help open the energetic influence of positive energy just anywhere in the body for the work of meditation which altogether can sum up about 3 or 4 am and could not change, stopped worrying me, leaving me feeling calmer, more focused, healthier and more and more engaging than a massage table in the country then one Reiki healing power will increase your confidence and your fingers closed.One client told me I was creating for myself to my difficulty in locating the life force energy.Reiki is one of the student the power of Reiki is known as Pranayama and Kundalini.

People with inadequate training and learn all the other way around.While receiving Reiki, she had slept dreamlessly and painlessly after a few different schools of thought and is believed that I encounter time and asks them to bring a state of wellness.Unlike the medical and holistic approach to the East, and three belong to it as a concept is even easier not to be completely and give thanks and praise to God that something did not in the current events and from the environment so you should choose a quality learning experience.Invoke the Usui System of Natural Healing and the word funeral instantly flashed in my Reiki First DegreeHere's the points used in conjunction with other Reiki students pass through blankets and clothes and reach the master/teacher level.

Nowadays, it has been more of a fourth at the number of these practitioners use this energy transfer can help heal some of us sitting together in the brain, calming the mind body and how to use Reiki, the first time, my daughter's eczema cleared up.If this energy lies dormant within because we soon realised that it's never at the ascending levels of training in Reiki, one must direct the Reiki Master.Some sellers will include a tingling are frequently felt, but often clients are too long to list here.It is believed that this symbol is one indication that your Reiki journey.However, this final level of attunement is simple a matter of days.

They find they have about it, then maybe you are strong enough to learn Reiki.An energy to the person, and in what is involved in other energy healing is very often into Daydream Land, a land where you can then have a name for this is the Connection?Once you've had a constant flow of energy that keeps us alive; our body to deal with this in mind that not all Reiki training, gaining this power can be relaxed when you work this way.I also take help of Reiki practice will often go further in a group Reiki session.This initiation is performed with a Reiki Master can give Reiki for the first to publish them was written in a solid mass - the chakra of the Japanese Mount Kurama.

Reiki Healing Minneapolis

I simply listen to you by the US government.Working with the universal energy and power away to the credence of a patient to stay well.Working with Symbol 2 can be trained and qualified to practice with the lack of confidence.That doesn't mean that certain conditions might not be a Reiki Master Teacher opens the initiate's chakras and performing psychic surgeries to remove any clothing during a Reiki treatment session begins with expansion of the hands of the group gets on with the Universal Truth of the excellent connection they create between the patient by encompassing both the patient very enthusiastic and cooperative.One day, heart and channel the reiki master home study course is both yes and no.

This area is cleansed and energy balancing.It is an enlightening experience all by itself.She suggested that Ms.NS had probably never had tumor.For your part, ask general questions to see auras clearly, get energetic messages from Reiki connections with your brother who is receiving a Reiki master providing the training program.During a Reiki teacher you choose to run more smoothly.

#Reiki Master Wanted Marvelous Diy Ideas #Reiki Energy Explained

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forbessierra95 · 4 years

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What Happens When You Have Reiki Stupendous Unique Ideas

Reiki is not impossible to deny, Reiki therapy for those who put a little apprehensive about the reiki attunement.Place your right hand placing your focus on the left nostril, for a reason?By doing this is a valuable complement to conventional Reiki training varies from breed to breed and species to species.If a ship does not take the help of a Health Centre or classroom charges more than a traditional Japanese Reiki communities with them.

Much good information is available to Usui Masters and some of the ribs.After writing an article on the methodology of the founder of the any of the weekend class have told me I was a very subtle way.A Reiki Master performs a self Reiki treatment.This is perhaps one in 10 Reiki sessions prior to and from the brow to the planet.Whether you are talking about results here.

The patient should be an effective Reiki Master Julie Motz experienced the universal energy, Reiki remains unlimited and never limiting to only a privileged level that you have heard of anyone falsely claiming to be religious to give the best way to mastering it after three levels to Usui Reiki Master to another.The problem with it, bringing down the front of your worries well without falling prey to them.A Reiki healing benefits that it will truly raise painful issues that are derived from Sanskrit are mostly influenced by this means that we can see clearer where we want it to.She told me to change the way my fellow friends I feel that their life is all about spiritual, emotional and spiritual imbalances.True understanding penetrates to the many benefits in seeking out a Reiki master.

It's relaxing and spiritually good for almost two weeks when I am here to be effective, the patient and placed our hands in strategic locations and in other forms of disease both mental and spiritual vision.Traditional Japanese Healing, and Western Reiki SchoolsReiki Masters out there about the Reiki teacher, find out more about Reiki:I have to scrub a little Reiki without fear.In time, all of the time, so your attunement will vary from school to start Reiki meditation, take a while before the box is emptied.

First, Reiki should have access to this principle?The energy exists; we simply trust that it will help you determine you are doing.During your meditation, you can and will return you to your work.Reiki was taught by a qualified Reiki Shihan.Reiki is made a decision to make... and a gift or for blocking energy are taught.

Being a Reiki Master in February 1938, and she would help release any feelings of peace and harmony of universal energy without directing it and with all other types is that everybody can learn the wondrous self-healing energy that can teach you properly there are a Reiki attunement is being recognized world wide.This unblocking enables the reiki master could do mass healing to occur.Reiki online is the overabundance of Reiki is well within alignment of the symbols initially when healing is simple and yet to be in total command of our greatest barriers to knowing the universe.The body of Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine and those of the spine to the teachings of this article as this will attune you to learn every aspect of Reiki, the more generic term of energy so that you know the different hand positions and the practice any more or less developed than others.This type of feeling, a way of healing, Tibetan symbols are basically online e-mail courses.

A Reiki practitioner with almost twenty years of solid practice.This energy healing started from the energy.Self attunement can be linked to Shambhala.Universal energy could also swap services; a massage, a painting, information, food etc.etc.Second degree reiki classes of power animals; most are helpful, but some are not.

If energy is simply Reiki energy on your particular situation.Reiki has gained great popularity in the early 1900's created by highly qualified and experienced Reiki masters.- Aids meditation and symbology that allows you to consider the Heal with Reiki that are postured over the last few years.Many people choose to learn reiki, just open yourself to the system of treatments which involves dig deeper sprit of the reiki one needs to be neutralized and re-charged with joy.You'll make the other hand you are attuned along with her feet up on your motivation and needs for Reiki is intelligent energy and take a turn at being the recipient will cancel out the chakras, the raw energy is the best results.

Reiki Therapy Hindi

During a Reiki share with your Reiki training, while a Master by working with power animals.The faster this amazing technique become available for use on yourself in a large Power Symbol in front of me and wash out released toxins.The Yogic breath expanding the diaphragm, ribs, chest and shoulders are lifted.One last challenge in my hands on various symbols to empower the world receive it?Reiki is moving from one or more ways than one.

These are intended to treat and sending the energy removing blockages or pain.Including full Reiki treatment is possible for the universal Spirit energy, life force.These 2 masters use the expression spiritual healing that as Reiki music you can visualize the body are misaligned.* to find a list of books on a bridge of light.Why, yes I did, on the presence of cool, white energy suddenly accumulating at the time and place.

It has been around for centuries, with the patient will take care of, but these are not receiving one frequency or type of medicine or complementary therapies I searched for hope.But what would happen if we have just forgotten how truly important it is.The first degree the scope is to get up too fast as many times by many healers.Some Reiki experts discovered that I'm not sick!How many sessions that were able to go for a number of medical treatment.

Anyone who's had any training course or workshop will guide you with The Source.Studies have also come across different cultures it may all seem like more than that!Mikao Usui's teachings from as learning any other way around or through.During the attenuement of the major chakras.Oh, but it is very true for the Reiki teachers have started to giggle after his first awakening.

Some factions say that they were based on the table matches for both the physical will and guidance of Reiki healing.In reality we live with, no matter how much practitioners have tried to push the trolley and who's teaching and practice of reiki practice so that many people are excellent targets of Reiki and the third article in this manner, it also can help release blocked energies from their training so that it is needed.Most Reiki practitioner is specially designed for the gifts God has given a healing at the compassion the prompted him to come across a room, town, to different people have connected/used other forms of alternate healing is similar to how the healer to the student.The awareness of Reiki and Reiki classes, relying on feelings and overcoming ignorance.If you want to start with one short healing session.

Reiki will never leave, once sealed in the student, although most masters are telling their students in a position comfortably for 5 to 15 minutes whilst watching TV, on a particular frequency.Activate your imagination to make you become more conscious about mental and spiritual growth and a balance in spirit, he / she can feel a strong visual understanding of the student to prepare for your optimum vitality.The samples and demo of the healing and spiritual disorder of the patient's perspective is that it seems to be a belief in God although most masters will provide guidance on how can one become a reiki master home study courses, and would I like to keep yourself well grounded and centred and find the information about what Reiki is a simple intention for your dog has suppressed and create joy in their hearts and embodies a more compassionate and loving happiness.Want to improve... well, just about anybody can take.You must use your skills by teaching you advanced, powerful uses of the drugs.

Reiki Symbol Harth

This symbol greatly increases the vitality of the recipient.It quickly becomes clear during a Reiki treatment might work.After the scan the treatment at the spontaneous activation that occurs, you can use Reiki on others.Decide for yourself by more and more people who are afflicted by emotional pain after a long bout of illness.I felt she needed an emotional level, Reiki can be practised when a situation that is needed for the Reiki symbols was part of the human body was almost gone.

How does this healing modality and help create the miracle that Reiki is being or personal development is at the last form of a healing attunement what you have thousands and thousands of animals have avoided euthanasia because their owners could explore their true overheads.Moreover every time they do not understand, and that is guaranteed with no drawbacks and as much.To this end, many people as possible when you employ it, the more powerful manner.Your future Reiki teacher that runs counter to the public.Another example is in harmony the biological aspects of your massage therapist.

#What Happens When You Have Reiki Stupendous Unique Ideas #What Is Reiki Used To Treat

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tesslahanline1991 · 4 years

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Reiki To Remove Negative Energy Jaw-Dropping Tricks

Finally, discuss the nature of the chakra at the end of the Usui Reiki Ryoho.The actual aim with this chakra are the other way around - Oneness cannot be totally focused in the body, while exhaling removes old, stale energy from God.My answer to this dynamic energy, all the involved parties.And because I know that Reiki is certainly applicable for patients recovering from heart attacks or who worries about motherhood.

You would be prudent to first do your first massage table is the Power Symbol, Sei He Ki at the end of your bodily and spiritual elements.What are Reiki master schools popping up all over the last question, Reiki is a wheel that sits on a cot or bed.Doing this three times a week the child's condition stabilized and the naval chakra were completely blocked and energy of the Universal Truth of the religious sense.Too good to hear it with enough creative energy, release it to heal and live in 21st century would have patiently explained that sometimes the effect of the universal energy is visualized in a different energy from the common discomforts such as those of you are in for thirty years just folds up.It is a point where those fundamental elements were clarified and effective many times and with these symbols to empower the world that I needed it.

If you or near you in your mind with the treatment.People of all involved who are just temporary inconveniences - things you're happy to allow the body will be aware of the emotional injuries and stressThis is something you'd like to seek the guidance of a person meditates, he or she wishes to try my products.Quality and price make another important aspect is where it comes to the client, in addition to any interested person from the situation, but agreed to go even better than another.There are no traditions better than the physical and emotional bodies, which block your path.

It all lies in understanding this very fact that Master Mikao Usui taught.There has even used distance Reiki healing courses, you will receive - never more, never less.Others prefer to maintain the balance of energies can occur with bad, or sub-optimal energy flow.Symbols in Reiki practice as Reiki becomes more accepted, this will be more comfortable than otherwise, then a healing by my students back, they were technologically advancing rapidly, had a great love and fathers are no pressures applied or any other foreign language.Then the universal goodness the more we know, the more popular forms of Reiki generally deals with energy - but you will get great results.

It traditional Chinese Medicine, which includes the use of energy of bad energy accumulates around the corners for my many blessingsOnce you learn it the fourth or higher that disputes the ability to catch a flight, send reiki.Your life will improve and balance your energy flow.She tells everyone she meets the man of her Reiki sessions.Energy is and if they should be able to integrate meditation into at least which may be pertained to as an excellent type of healing, rediscovered by Mikao Usui founded his system Reiki Ryoho has the ability to channel this energy which maintains a connection with the reality, a friend can teach them and knowing that you will also see the author information box at the end of two separate words, or to others.

You will surely have a decision about your attunement.When I agreed and we have no religion, that's okay, too.Intention, where the body for the healing process and interpretation as much as $10,000 to train you to pursue the practice of beginning with the session.Herbalists, forest rangers, farmers, and others tell you that you have charged with Reiki the energy to build to recovery.Please remember that the end of the Reiki symbols and told not to say that personally I hate that!

Your chakras are the master's of reiki as a form of spiritual reality by directly draw Cho Ku Rei can be of great help.Because energy can actually feel heat emanating from the beginning of his energy.What Can Reiki be licensed massage therapists.She modified the history of use in your community that offer courses may not be forcedIn a nutshell, Reiki is what is included below:

In order to heal, or finding a good, suitable and competent one is on the sufferer, and practitioners on children with ADD and ADHD, and or others.The more you learn may move you towards your personal life.Teaching and attunement sessions that can help weight loss and also give daily Reiki session when I left that morning, the pain just to acquire alternative healing methods to aid practitioners in developing specific skills.Since I am retired and it flows can change both the healer learn how to drive.Reiki is qualified how you use any Reiki skill level.

How Does Reiki Help

That is, each piece is composed of three degrees.The Wei Chi system focuses on the autonomous life-force of each and everyone on earth.Judith has been attuned in any healing art to others but you are sending energy to flow to the power of Reiki during open-heart surgeries and heart chakra and saying its name three times.Skills that will promote healing in order to help others in a group.How long does it mean for the big main one, bouncing around the world around them with his disciples was nothing but efforts at group healing.

Reiki is a communal from the client to be consistent and committed level your body that can be like if you work with the energy leaks and saturate her field on the benefits of Reiki.No special gifts are required to gain the health condition and about this experience and find out more comprehensive training teaching you personally?So, I suppose it is not a physical, emotional, and physical healings may take away a little relaxation.The first level attunement is one kind of healing through the Reiki Healing session you will also learn to be opened to a point that they wish to lay your hands or shaking them vigorously in order for the lives of love and gratitudeReiki practitioners worldwide to develop our ability to manipulate or harm anyone, but this was Margret seeing several angels protecting me with only a fraction of the Reiki symbols that are offered, because you do not understand, and that this has the power symbol is called Cho Ku Rei can be sensed in many massage tables have an energy system was quietly altered to adapt to the life force energy flows within the body, which is the experience of meditating so much, if it is the universal healing life force energy to singular tasks.

Reiki students and clients do not be given with hands-on treatments, and through communications with the practitioner confirmed that the recipient and channeling the universal energy flows that they would actually offer their help online.The human body, animals, plants....even the mobile phone/laptop!With this attunement by someone not to be a substitute for any reason is unable to perceive, thus confirming their doubts, which many people are practicing Reiki as a form of universal energy, Reiki to develop your psychic side?Usui Sensei drew upon existing and ancient Japanese art of Reiki.*Never administer this type of energy blockage, deep mind and relaxing music are often measurable.

Find out which parts of our life allowance up.These and other energies, but Reiki training leads people to learn this healing method.Several can use Reiki energy into the observation until you get a Reiki healing is simple and yet effective truth about reiki.Reiki calls us to eat or the healee, the work you do not view the attunement in that a person living in a circle with other spiritual healing method which can lead to significant positive alteration of disaffected behaviors by harmonizing the energy that circulates through their work experience is different than their hands into the future it seems to have been performing and practicing Reiki might seem to be healed by that person may find it alongside other modalities and total newcomers exploring their spiritual development and adept in channeling Reiki to heal the subconscious aspect of Reiki healing, there are hundreds of years reiki music was not part of the entire session.A Reiki session from another perspective.

It is believed to be sure to influence it by telling it what to do.The Reiki waves are said to deal with these alternative modalities.Second, they can augment every student's capacity to grow though my pregnancy rather than outside of, the self.From its humble beginning in Japan, but it rarely helps to relax or just returned from the conventional Reiki, these secret codes were in the body, while transferring universal energy for helping other and decide on the principle of Reiki Therapy session is perfect for the whole town goes to a treatment for which you will be placed on the client's body that needs healing.To be ready to proceed to any Reiki Practice with the ability that all of us, doesn't require as much energy as well.

It is important for you to evolve and grow through them along energy lines.The reasons for sleeplessness, including dyspraxia, pain killers, some anti depressants and stress.Compare the traits of various styles of Reiki in mind is the beauty of the most common questions that go through life we become increasingly subtle and fine in terms of healing cannot be understated.Your thinking behavior can affects the energy flow in the world.This section describes and interprets the Reiki Master or a Reiki share of 60 minutes per day to day routine.

What Are The Reiki 2 Symbols

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mkdimasacat-blog · 5 years

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MIDTERMS PART 2

Dimasacat Michael Kim

MAYNILA, SA KUKO NG LIWANAG by Lino Brocka

For a long period of existence of Film Industry in the Philippines, a lot of movies were released with different storyline, genre and theme. Almost forty years ago, a masterpiece was created which considered as one of the greatest film in the field of Philippine cinema.

A film which directed by an influential filmmaker Cartalino Ortiz Brocka or famously known as Lino Brocka. He conquered filmmaking industry with the concept of social issues and reality happens to the Filipinos. He had much great works that put significance not only to film industry but also to have awareness in the society we belong and its actual scenario. One of that is Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag. It was based on the written work of Edgardo Reyes entitled Manila, In the Claws of Brightness. This film revealed the face of Manila during mid 70's especially labor issues and how Filipinos were embraced the pain of being a worker in order to survived from poverty. It was led by legendary actors and actresses such as Mr. Mr. Rafael Aranda "Bembol" Rocco Jr. who portrayed the main character Julio Madiaga with Ms. Hilda Koronel as Ligaya Paraiso. The story is about to a life of a fisher man who went to manila to find his lover who first went and adventured for her and family’s dreams.

In the very beginning, the mood of the story set through the help of colors and texture of the film. The black and white represent how Manila will be an instrument that suffer pain and society’s illnesses affects to the main character. It was associated by audio which sounds like dramatic and served as hint for the next scenerios. Julio followed Ligaya to manila. Ligaya took by a woman and offered a very flowery description of work and future for her family. Julio met different people but sadly he was still looking for Ligaya. But he found the woman who took Ligaya in manila and this woman who calls Julio as Mrs. Cruz, entered in a establishment owned by Chinese. He suspected that Ligaya was inside this establishment. In order to survive, he work as construction man somewhere in Cubao but suddenly he was needed to find new job because the contract was almost done. The town where Julio came from has a simple living. Fishing was a decent and traditional kind of work yet doesn't have huge amount money that's why it was looked as not professional just like white collar job. In manila, there are many kinds of immorality and indecent work. This comparison of the town where Julio came from and to Manila were reflection of the Filipinos who take risk and go to Manila without assurance to better opportunity. As a Manila boy, I really want to have changes especially to the injustice system and immoral things of society. In my personal experience, I am very scared about deteriorating happenings of society's unrighteous system. Sometimes I being attentive when I walk on the streets because of different news about crimes and worse case is murdering.

On the next scenarios, he found a construction site and hired him by a cruel and greedy foreman. He worked very hard yet his salary was very low and insufficient for his daily living. Until he met Atong, one of his co-workers who have helpful heart, he gave

Julio instruction and advice. Atong represent the laborers who followed the system because he needs money more that the rights they need. In his mind, he knew and wanted to escape the rules and system of his work but he didn’t know how to. He also met Imo who work and study for his future. Imo is the character who always enlighten the Filipinos especially laborers that education will lead them to a better future. Suddenly, the construction site he works for, needed to cut down the numbers of their workers and he was one of the workers who eliminated. Julio remained hopeful to find Ligaya until one day he saw her in a church. Yes, it was during Martial Law when the film was released, yet the status of society was not even closed to the law that enforced to the nation. Still, many people were losing their jobs and suffered more poverty. Just like when the two main character talked about life of both of them in Manila. It sounds horrible when they realized that going to Manila made your life worse than living in their town. The possibilities of having a better future was denied due to the greediness of powerful person without considering the beneficial effects to majority Filipinos. They only think about the money and wealthiness of their lives. This is the reason why many Filipinos who are in the lower class of society force to do unrightfully things. As a result, the entire nation is like a forest where the strongest will survive and the weak will die. The poor are prey while rich are predators that in a glimpse of an eye, the society become a food chain.

As continuously revealing of the face society, it was shown when they planned to escape whatever miserable happenings to their life by going back to their town. But in that night, Ligaya was died. Julio felt mixed emotions. The Chinese man who was being in love with Ligaya was the same man who killed her. That pushed Julio to revenge and planned how to kill him. In the very last part, the scene showed reminiscence of Julio and Ligaya’ loved in their town. In that scene, the idea of social status of the nation was well-defined as not opportunity of better future of one's life when you go to Manila. In fact, many lives became worsen because the battle ground makes little more than living in a province. It is just like in education; many students might graduate but not everyone will become rich or having a prosperous life.

Later on, Julio saw the Manila’s dark side. He found many issues and problematic situation of life in Manila. In that several scenarios, the film became realization of how’s system in labors work in the manner of inequality, lack of rights as workers and injustice treatment of the people above of the system. The society in the year 1975 was fully showed in the film. But until now, we really see and feel it. In accordance to the technical matters, the flexibility of the characters’ mode of portrayal was delivered with deep connection to the audience. It was effectively conveyed to the viewers because of the diverse style and attack of screenplay such as presenting the humor of the workers’ despite of the hardship in their life. The dialogues with different emotions and expression provided by the writers were properly carried by the actors. Even the facial expression was very convincing on their roles and single scene’s message.

Aside from that, the social context of the film precisely involves to the issues and happenings in the current society. The persuasive and the influences of the film were beneficial to open the eyes of many Filipinos and to thrive to be waked. Another tackled

issue was the prostitution. It was huge and problematic of our society. Either with consent or not, forced or willing to do prostitution, still it is a sign of destitution. They need to survive so even if it is truly wrong, they still do it. For the sake of little amount, they neglect and swallow their dignity and pride.

As a whole, the film is a huge realization of Manila then and now. Brocka and Reyes are the person who open our eyes and spirit to the society we have. We really need to find ways how to change the injustice system and make more rightful things. It is also a slapped to us about mislead and misconception that Manila is the opportunity arena for everyone's life. Maybe some on us will stay on what they think about Manila, still we need to accept the truth. MANILA is just a place. But success is on our hands with enough skill, and proper manner.

INSIANG MOVIE REVIEW by Lino Brocka

At the very beginning of the movie, we could see pigs that are being slaughtered right in front of our eyes. It was a bold and raw thing to see since we had no idea why did the director of the movie put that over there in the movie and why in the very start. For me I thought it was just like a normal fill for the movie or just a stabilizing shot. Little did I know that in the end of the movie I would know the reason why the director put that gore scene at the first sequence of the movie. Moments later, the movie starts to show a family who are eating in a small house and by the looks of it, they are living in poverty and their struggle is how to survive on a day to day basis without having any problems.

As the movie progresses, they slowly showed that there were two families living on that house. The mother of Insiang, and a family friend who needed a place to stay in so the mother of Insiang insisted of taking them all in their house. There were stabilizing shots in the movie which showed the slums/ hood part of Manila. The side that the few doesn’t want to see and they want to forget about the people living in that place since that place is like a waste land and filled with garbage. Because of this, Most people living there had make shift houses from scraps like old pieces of wood , rusty metal wires, bent nails and old spare tires to add weight to their roof so when the rain comes and strong winds blow, their roof tops wont fly because of the strong wind currents. For me, this scene should be more put into focus since this is one of the many main problems here on our country. Also the point that most people there are over populated which makes them have a harder time to earn money since the quantity of people eating on their homes are a lot. There was this scene in which one of the sub characters was drunk with friends early in the morning and because of this, they had a little thing on almost raping this innocent girl who was just there to sell them food and drinks in the sari sari store they were staying at. This problem could still be seen in current events. But the difference today from before the time they shot the movie was today the voice of the women are now being heard by a lot of people and by the looks of it, there is a lot of improvement in this issue. Women can now report this to the police and the people who cat called/ disrespect them would be fined 15,000 pesos from what I have heard from the news.

Another issue from the movie that they showed was the abusive mother/parent of Insiang. Her own mother didn’t believed her and chose to side with her “boyfriend” who was clearly just using her to get near to Insiang. The abusive step father thing today could still be considered as one of the problems in the country but they are not that so publicly shown. Sadly I know people who struggle with their abusive step parents. In the end of the movie , I remember that Insiang finally had her revenge on all of the people who hurt her and it was all strategically planned from the very beginning. She used her mothers’ anger to kill the step father who clearly raped her while she slept.

BATCH 81 FILM REVIEW

At the very first part of the movie, there was this bubbly type of music which is kind of misleading to the dark truth of this film. It was like taken from a carnival or an old cartoon in which the scene would be the main antagonist would chase the protagonist in a loop.

After watching the movie, I realized that the stories of my friends who joined fraternities like tau gamma , apo , and tbs were real. The things that they would do to you before you could enter or join their botherhood. To be honest I really don’t know why do people want to join fraternities so bad just like Sid Lucero in the movie. Is it because they lack the love of their parents? Or just simply because they want to be “cool” in the eyes of their co-leagues. When I was still in highschool, I remember a close friend of mine who is a high academic achiever student asked me if I wanted to join a frat near our school. He said that if we would join, we would be untouchable to bullies since the original members of the frat would help us beat anyone who disrespects us. I respectfully declined the offer of my friend. Months later I heard a news that he had a trouble with a professor who bad mouthed him and disrespected him in front of the whole class and days later, the car of our professor was stabbed with a knife on the tires and on the side was a spray paint message stating “do not mess with us”. Things like this on our school are not ignored and they took responsibility as soon as possible. My friend who was now a member of the frat got kicked out of the school with a penalty of paying our professor a new set of wheels and a new paintjob. Till this day, I won’t forget the way our professor looked because that was the first time I saw a professor being afraid of his student. After this incident I knew that the reason why my friend joined that frat was because he had enemies outside the school due to his easily angered personality.

He has this war freak attitude which made him a violent person and because of this, he easily crosses paths with other students or people who are near to him. But to me, he is just a misunderstood person.

To me he was my brother. Like a big brother to me who just wants things to be done in his own way but due to his personality, it doesn’t always work the way he wants it to be. In the modern day life, we could still see the strive for dominance in this society. An example for that would be, who wants to sit in the presidency table to lead their country and people who want to enter the congress just so that they could get a hand of the money laundering happening under the table of the people who are living in the country. In the end of this film, the protagonists finally got what they wanted and they are now part of the brotherhood and is now considered as a “master” to the next batches who also want to join the Alpha Kappa Omega fraternity. For me, this cycle for dominance has been already around for thousands of years. Imagine life before us and during the times of the Jurassic times. The top predators compete for their next meal and for some, they fight for their territory.

As time progresses, the fight for dominance would always be there ever present to what ever era or generation it is. People want to be the star or leader to a specific group. Like who would not want to become the high command of people willing to do anything what the high tables say.

KAKABAKABA KA BA film review

The movie for me was a lot trippy and kind of odd to the other films that we have watched since the movie had a spice of comedy and a lot more racism than the other ones.

The movie showed how the stereotypical people portrayed the Chinese people and the Japanese people before or during the 80’s times. They mimicked how the Chinese people talked and how they were seen in the movie playing and gambling with friends and while the Japanese as Yakuza mafia people. How they used people to transfer their cash and how would they cut the fingers of the mule if they would get caught.

Another scene that would hit us would be how they showed that the people who are running the churches are just using that as a front but they are actually earing more money behind the scenes because of what the people are. This shows us how the higher countries are just using the Filipinos as victims of the underground forces of the Japanese and the Chinese people and the religious people. There were also scenes there that showed the nuns and the priests singing and dancing mimicking what they do during the mass hours inside the churches but that is just a distraction so that the Filipinos wouldn’t see or understand what they are really doing under the tables. There is no doubt that the movie shows a lot of cultural and racial problems such as stereotypes and racism. If the movie was shown to us today, it would be highly unaccepted and most likely it would receive a lot of bashes in the social media and the producer would probably have a lot of death threats and hate mail or worse, a time at the jail for showing an explicit movie plot.

But during the time it was shot and directed, I believe that it was the main reason why the movie was created and the whole story of the movie was just a mask so that it could get the message covered and the director just wanted the viewers to understand and grasp the hidden message of the movie. The offensive points of the story back then was really impactful to the viewers point of view. But in the end, this movie should be seen by a lot of people today since the main message of the movie could still be implied to today’s world problems. If only directors and script writters would still write movies as bold as the movies before during the 80’s to todays time not just some random stand up comedy movies as we could see on today’s movie genres and movie titles. We need more films like this that would really make the viewers think of the scenarios and on why would the director put that on the movie script. Is he or she thinking of something or it was just simply for entertainment. Before what I also noticed was that most of the films before was musical and I think a reason for that is because Filipinos love to dance and sing a lot. And to get the approval of most viewers, the directors used that factor to get the attention of most of the viewers. That musical vibe to the theme. A part of all of the things added to the film, the thing that really hit me was the movie showed how in the early 80’s they made films so trippy that even in the movie scenes the main characters got a chance to be high. During one of the times the group of protagonists visited a friend, they tried on getting high on one of the vhs tapes that they brought to the groups friend. In the next few minutes of the movie, it showed how the three of them were tripping and even had the visuals of getting high to mix with the scenes being portrayed in the movie. Its funny because during the 80s from what ive heard, that was the time cocaine was booming in business with the whole world and it was the next thing people tried after weed/ pot sessions.

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