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kitty0boy · 3 years

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Y’all know what time it is. I know it’s past April fools day but I’ll be damned if I don’t write some for it. And knowing my sleep deprived Marichat obsessed ass, you know it’s gonna be Marichat.

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It was April fools day, and everyone knew it was Chat Noir’s favourite. Well they didn’t know for sure but he seemed to be out and about more than usual every year on April first. And nobody was complaining. His practical jokes were always light hearted and fun, purrhaps if he did this everyday, no one would be akumatized. The streets where each prank took place was filled with laughter and excitement at seeing the hero in person. He was happier too, seeing everyone smile and hearing them laugh was his favourite part of the day.

Unfurrtuately Adrien was scheduled to have a photo shoot that same day, and in an act of rebellion, decided to prank his father by hiding from him all day and occasionally he detransformed and took pictures of himself in different locations before retransforming and taking off again. He would scroll through the comments on each post and he his school friends cheering him on. He just hoped that Gabriel didn’t punish him too harshly for this, then again he wouldn’t let that stop him from living normally. What was he gonna do anyway, take his miraculous? If a super villain whose been hunting it down for 4 years can’t take it, there’s no way his father could.

For his final act of the day he had something special planned. It had been set up, waiting for them all day. He just had to go pick her up in the most Foolish way possible. And what’s more foolish than a clown costume? Nothing, the answer is nothing. So dawning the oversized shoes, the baggy polka dot pants, the large white collar, and the red wig. He set off to François DuPont Highschool.

She was at the front entrance, talking to Alya. Neither of them were wearing their usual outfits though and their hair was soaked. Kim had mentioned something about water balloon so he’d just assumed that was the cause. Instead Marinette wore a cute dark brown button up sundress with a pastel green dress shirt underneath. Accompanied by some simple platform boots. Her wet hair fell into light curls that brushed her shoulders when she laughed. He guessed that she’d caught word of Kim’s endeavours and brought a change of clothes, or maybe she brought them just in case.

Puffing up his chest and holding his head high, he waddled over in his giant red shoes that squeaked with each step. Did he almost trip and fall, yes a few times. Did he adopt a wider stance as a result, yes, yes he did. By the time he’d gotten to Marinette he was the same height as her while he scuttled like a crab behind her. Alya had taken notice a long time ago and struggled to stifle her laugh, she knew he wanted it to be a surprise and oh boy was it. He pulled a little horn out of his pocket, the ones with the rubber ball end that you have to squeeze to get the sound out. He pinched it and she flew into the air and nearly tripped on his shoes but he caught her before she could hit the ground. Alya burst out laughing, nearly falling to the ground. “Oh my god,” she said between cackles. “That was amazing.” Marinette started laughing too, “Chat you scared me.” She giggled. Step one complete, onto step two.

He took a few steps back, each squeak of his shoes making the girls laugh louder. It took Marinette a minute to compose herself when she turned to face him. He took a pink rose out of his belt and held it out to Marinette in a bow. A few gasps were heard from the top of the staircase as more students came out only to witness a cat clown giving a pretty girl a rose. She took it carefully and inspected it from a distance before deciding that there was nothing tricky about it. He pointed to it and she spun it around in her hands a few times before finding what he wanted her to find. Written on the outside petals was a message for her, only two words. “Brace yourself?” She read aloud before he slung her over his shoulder (ensuring that she skirt was covering her of course) and ran off with her. The red wig flying off his head. In their journey he spotted a very angry Lila Rossi, what a lovely bonus.

“Chat! Hey put me down!” Marinette laughed over his shoulder. Before they really got moving she’d propped herself up and wrapped her arms around his neck so that she wasn’t completely slung over his shoulder. Which he was glad for, he didn’t want her to get dizzy, just wanted to take her on a fun run across the roof tops of Paris. Of course there was a destination though, and it was waiting just across the street. In one final leap, they’d arrived at Le Pont des Art with its many lockets reflecting the sunlight. Reached up and grabbed her waist with both hands before lowering her to the ground.

“And what are we doing here?” She asked crossing her arms. “I thought we could go for a little, catwalk. See that we can find in the lockets.” He pointed. ‘Please take the hint’ he thought, and thankfully she did. “What did you hide here kitty?” She teased before turning towards the fence. “You’ll see, but if you want to find it, I’d suggest looking in the section.” He gestured to a square section of locks while she turned to look through them. Occasionally she would hold one that had familiar names on them. Exclaiming, “Hey I know them! They live across the street.” or something along those lines. Until her eyes fell on the lock he was waiting for. It was the only one that was unlocked on the bridge. “Maman et Papa’s lock.” She said. She tentatively cradled the lock in her hands before running her thumb across the initials engrave into it. “Hey wait, why isn’t it locked?” In her realization she turned around and glared at Chat, he was in the middle of taking off the baggy pants and he froze, holding his hands up in surrender. “They said it was ok, you know since they’re taking all the locks off anyways.” She didn’t seem convinced. “They asked if we could take it back home to them and besides, I only broken the lock mechanism.” Her gaze softened and she unhooked to lock from the fence. Keeping her eyes fixed on it, she walked over to Chat and sat beside him on the bench. “How did you find it? There’s hundreds of locks on the bridge.” “Simple, they showed me.” He explained. “They still knew where it was?” She asked, he wasn’t sure how they remembered either honestly, but “I have a feeling that, they put it on the fence on a special day. Maybe they even came back to see it a few times.” She let out a small gasp beside him as she rubbed her finger along the back of the metal. She turned it over only to find a small “MDC” craved on the back. “I guess we know when the put it on the fence then.” He couldn’t see her face, but he felt her smiling, and when she turned her head towards him, the purest light danced in her eyes. He smiled at her and he smiled back.

“Now then, I do have a lock if you want to use it.” He stated as he rummaged in his pocket. “Wait really?” She perked up, looking around to the hand in his pocket, watching as her pulled out a silver locket with an engraved design of vines swirling around the edge. “Oh wow Chat it’s beautiful.” She said reaching out for it, but before she could grab it he pulled his hand back out of her reach. “Ah ah purrincess, you can’t look at anymore than this until Hawkmoth is defeated.” He told her. “Oh? And why is that?” He put the lock back into his pocket before crossing his arms. “Because it has my real first initial on it.” He stated simply. “Chat! Your superhero name would have been fine.” She lightly smacked his arm with the back of her hand. “Yeah but I wanted it to be more official, you know?” Her face turned pink, very reminiscent of her bedroom walls. “Official as in, what I think it is?” He laughed, was she really embarrassed about that? “Well not all the people that come here put locks on are a couple Marinette,” Chat turned to look out at the sun. “I’ve seen a mother a son come to put a lock on here once. They were laughing to themselves. The mom put the lock on while her kid twisted the key to lock it, then she picked him up and he threw it in the seine.” He smiled. “Do, do you know which one it was?” He looked down at Marinette, she looked so cute when she was curious. He took her hand and walked with her a little ways across before stopping and grabbing a locket in his hand. “G, E, and A Agreste. Chat I know them! That’s Adrien and his parents! Oh do you think Adrien would want his locket too?” He blinked, he hadn’t thought about it. Did he want to keep the locket? What would his father do if he found out he had it. He clearly wasn’t over Emilie, despite it being year 4 of her disappearance. “I don’t know Marinette, he might? Why don’t you try giving it to him at school tomorrow.” ‘That way I can decide if I want it or not’ he thought. “Oh but what if he thinks I’m weird, or a stalker?” He looked at her and half smirked half laughed “Why would that make him think you were a stalker?” She crossed her arms and pouted “Well me just happening to find his locket on a bridge that no one else knows about might seem a little stalkerish.” He laughed “Ok first of all, I don’t think ‘stalkerish’ is a word. Second, I don’t think he would think that of you. I mean, you’ve found a bunch of locks today. Plus, I do have fans and they happen to be amazing photographers.” She perked up, “What? Who? Where?” “Uh behind you?” He used his finger to turn her head towards a little boy with a Polaroid camera. He blushed as a picture came out the top. Marinette approached him. “Did you want a photo with Chat? I can take the picture.” He nodded and Marinette held out her hand. After giving her the camera, he walked over to Chat and he was lifted onto the hero’s shoulders. There was a little click before the picture came up. The boy hopped down and shook the picture until the image of him and Chat smiling brightly came through the plastic.

“Hey big guy,” Chat turned to him, “Mind if me and this lovely lady get a photo together while your here?” He kid nodded before holding up the camera. Getting a request from a superhero seemed to have made him so excited that he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. Marinette and Chat stepped back to get in frame and without giving her a warning, he scooped her up bridal style causing her to laugh. “Big smiles for the camera princess.” And click, the picture was taken. The boy shook the picture proudly, jumping up and down. So a quiet boy, he sure did have a lot of energy. Out of nowhere a woman came running towards the three and bent down to him. She spoke to him using sign language. ‘Oh shit was this kid deaf, had he understood a word I had said?’ The boy seemed to sense Chat’s confusion. “D-d-ont worry-y. I-I-I un-n-nderstood-d.” He said through a stammer. ‘Oh I see, some people just have an easier time speaking in ASL.’ “Oh sweet, and don’t worry,” he cut himself off, he then signed “I know sign language too.” The boy did a cute little wiggle of excitement before he hoped onto his mother’s shoulders. She stood and signed “Thank you for taking care of my son, he’s a big fan of yours.” He signed back “It was no problem, we had a little photoshoot together. Look.” He held out the pictures to her. She smiled before taking the ones of him and her son, and walking away with the big guys waving at them.

“So kitty,” Marinette piped up, “there was a rolled up paper in the lock.” He turned to her and crossed his arms. “And what does the lock say?” “I think it wants us to go to the Louvre.” She stated. “Well then purrincess,” He said, holding out his hand. “Close your eyes and hold on tight, ok?” He instructed before she was scooped up in his arms and carried towards their next destination.

This is not the end of the story! I still have more I want to write on it. But for one, It’s 3:37 am and I need my beauty sleep and two, this is already longer than what I normally write so I will be writing a second “chapter” soon. I’ll try to have it out by like, Wednesday. I’ll even figure out how to add a link to it. So stay tuned!

#marichat #miraculous ladybug tales of ladybug and chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #miraculous marinette #miraculous ladybug #cat noir #ladybug and chat noir

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feverinfeveroutfic · 3 years

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chapter one: double deuces

chapter one of book three, of course ;)

"tell me a story (will ya, will ya) a real good story (I won't leave till ya) spill your guts old man; leave out any secrets, hiding in the... any skeletons, and all your other sins any skeletons, in the closet! any skeletons, any misfortunes any skeletons, hiding in the closet! any skeletons, any skeletons in the closet!"

“Happy birthday, my dear friend.”

Aurora had taken Sam out to that Vietnamese restaurant for lunch on her birthday. Twenty two years old and she could feel the very essence of age over her head. In New York for two years and it all felt like a blur and the clear real thing all at the same time. In a year's time, she would be on the brink of her mid twenties: it all felt so ephemeral and so quick at the same time. It felt so odd to think that not even four years ago she was still in high school and she had gone into a strange brand new place in the meantime.

Four years felt like a lifetime ago, especially since she looked on at her black hair and she swore it was growing lighter over her temples. It could have just been the reflection of the glass in the mirror for all she knew, but when she went to brush her hair, she swore there were some light tendrils near the crown. As long as it didn't turn into a striking pearly white silver color, she knew she would be fine.

Aurora raised her white china tea cup for a toast to her. The soft aroma of the green tea comforted her, and she followed suit with her own cup.

Ever since she and Emile had gotten together, and ever since she had gotten that dress for Kirk's wedding the next weekend, Aurora had been dressing up more nicely: at the moment, she had a rich deep purple velvet sweater wrapped around her body and a little red rose tucked behind her ear. Despite the bitter New York cold, she started wearing more floral print tights to go with her skirts; Sam had to take a second look at her face to make out the sight of the black eye liner about the smooth edges of her eyes.

Sam herself meanwhile found herself drawn more to black—Aurora said it was because of her hanging out with Testament the past couple of weekends as well as Joey on certain days after school.

“I think it could also be because I'm in the arts,” she told her the day before. “Marla wears a bunch of black and Belinda has been wearing a lot of it, too.”

“Hangin' around the arts and hangin' out with a bunch of heavy metal dudes,” Aurora chuckled.

The art scene seemed so far away from her given she was a student and she even began to struggle with classes in recent days. Indeed, the thought of forfeiting college itself to live down in the real bohemian side of New York City was more tempting than ever to her. But she had nestled in the Bronx, three floors over Frank and down the block from Charlie and Marla. It was either pick up and go live alone in another part of town or stay there and continue to do what felt like spinning her wheels day in, day out. Sam tried to not let her thoughts cast a shadow on her own birthday, but she couldn't help but look at her own reflection in her tea cup and frown.

“Maybe it's all the doing stuff after school that's getting to you,” Aurora told her. “We haven't really seen Marla in the past few weeks.”

“No, we haven't,” Sam confessed as she gazed out the window at the snow drifts along the sidewalk.

“Well, if it's any comfort, I've been getting antsy myself,” Aurora said. “Emile wants me to move in with him but it's gonna be hard to do it especially if it's just him who's helping me with the move.”

“And you're going from Long Island up to the Bronx, too,” Sam added, “it was bad enough for me to get my bed up the stairs in that building.”

“It was tricky for me, too,” Aurora continued. “And you and I also moved across country, too.”

“And how—from around the same area, no less. Well, San Diego is way further south in comparison to Lake Elsinore, but it's near the same range, though.”

“It's all within range of L.A., that's for sure. L.A. and Riverside.”

“Hey, if Greg, Eric, and Louie can talk nonsense while they're in the studio, we can, too,” Sam pointed.

“Makes sense—Southern California exiles, the both of us.” Aurora raised her cup again to her and they clinked them together before they took a sip in unison.

“When's your birthday, by the way?” Sam asked her as she held her cup close to her mouth. “I can't remember if you told me or not.”

“May twenty ninth.”

“Oh, I see. I kept thinking it was in October for some reason.”

Aurora chuckled at that. “Well, I haven't really made it much of a point because my parents always treated birthdays different in comparison to that of American culture. I always wanted an American style birthday party growing up in San Diego but that's probably the one thing they brought over from the Korean peninsula is the way birthdays are treated.”

“And how's that?”

“When we reach a certain age, they have different celebrations for them. Like your first birthday is 'dol' or three hundred sixty five days since you were born, and that came from the fact Korea didn't have as good of protection on their newborns as we do here: so when you made it to your first birthday, it was significant. The family says a prayer for the kid and then they eat rice, seaweed soup, and rice cakes—my mom has a photo of me from my 'dol', I'll have to show it to you if and when we go out to San Diego together. They have cake and candles just like Americans, but the cake is far different—it's a lot more savory than it is sweet. And on New Year's, they eat a soup so they can finish up the age they are for the certain year. So you're actually considerably older on the peninsula than you are here. If you're ten years old, in Korea, you're considered eleven or twelve.”

“Wow.”

“And when you reach fifteen years of age, and you're female, you're considered an adult. That said, I'm glad I'm a born American because I can't imagine coming to New York City as a fifteen year old.”

“I can,” Sam said.

“You can?”

“As a boy.” She thought about Alex right then.

“Now, boys have to wait 'til they're twenty before they're considered adults.”

“So Alex would still be considered a boy right now?” she asked her. “Being eighteen?”

“Yes!” Aurora then burst out laughing and clapped her hands at that. “Oh, god, I just pictured him in the traditional horse hair hat that boys have to wear on their twentieth birthday, and I also just pictured him picking up a giant rock and lifting it over his head, too.”

“How giant are we talking, exactly?”

“One that dwarfs his entire body.” Aurora raised an eyebrow at that.

“I dunno, Aurora,” Sam confessed with a shake of her head, “—he's pretty thin but he's also got that little bit of baby fat left on him. He looks pretty soft.”

“Bet you he's way stronger than he looks.”

“Joey is,” Sam continued as she brought her cup back up to her lips.

“Joey is!”

“Mr. Hockey Player—yeah, that boy's tougher than nails.”

“Well—we are going to be in the Bay Area next weekend,” Aurora pointed out. “A whole weekend of doing stuff while Kirk and—Rebecca, I think is his fiancée's name?—while they're getting married. We all can just hang out and be a bunch of genuine friends together for a couple of days.”

Sam squinted her eyes at that.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked her in a low voice.

“You'll see. And maybe Exodus and Death Angel will want in on the fun, too. Fun with the 'little four'.” She flashed Sam a wink as she sipped from her tea once again. Right then, the sole waitress in the restaurant showed up at their table with their bowls of pho: chicken for Sam, vegetarian for Aurora. One more toast and they both dipped into their bowls of fresh hot soup.

At least that night she was to have cupcakes courtesy of Marla, forty dollars courtesy of Belinda, and a jovial phone call from her parents that night. Nothing more, nothing less, but at the same time, she wished for more and she knew that her flight back out to California that next Friday was the start of something for her. Something big and grand, like that next weekend in the Bay Area. It would take place on a day that wasn't her birthday, but it would be something.

Since it was Wednesday, after lunch, she headed back to school for the rest of the day and then back to her place in the Bronx. She stepped in through the front door: the first thing she noticed was the vase of yellow tulips on the table. They had lasted so long, and for so long in the heart of the first winter following Cliff's passing, but she noticed the wilt as it began to settle in on the yellow petals.

She would keep them there on the table until the pure yellow color vanished and they lost their smell, much like with the black hat Cliff had given her.

Sam took her seat on the couch with her drawing pad rested upon her lap. She was an artist in New York City, and yet she lived so far from the actual art scene. The boots still on her feet and yet she had no means as to how to look for it outside of her school work. Marla and Belinda had their way, for sure, but there had to be something more. There had to be, especially since she began to put her head down and put more work into her art for her classes. The struggle still came down on her, even as she gave her fish tails more scales and her humans more of a shading around their heads. It all seemed to slip away from the in between her fingers.

Everyone seemed to be doing better: her classmates received more praise, even Belinda who, at one point, admitted that graphites were a challenge for her as well. And yet, when Sam drew a self portrait surrounded by roses and water lilies, one of the comments Miss Estes left for her on the back side of the heavy grained paper was “lots of effort.”

She was eager for the flight out to the Bay Area by the time that early Friday morning rolled around, and she and Zelda were seated next to each other. She had packed that copy of Siddhartha with her but she had no idea as to when she would get to crack it open over the weekend.

Zelda had put on a plain white T shirt and fitted black jeans, and she had combed her short bob of black hair back for the flight. Apparently all she had packed with her were white shirts and black jeans.

“Don't you wanna look nice like at Cliff's memorial?” Sam asked her with a chuckle.

“I've got some suspenders and a tie to go with them,” Zelda replied. “It's a wedding for a friend of ours, and he said that we can wear whatever we like. So I told him that I'm gonna be full punk chick there. I'm guessing you'll be the artist?”

“Of course,” Sam replied, “the full black, baby.”

Zelda raised a hand to her for a high five and the light for the seat belts flickered on right then.

“I'll tell you this, Zelda,” Sam began.

“What's that?”

She peered over her shoulder to make sure Marla and Charlie paid no attention to them, given they were right across the aisle from them. Sam then gestured for Zelda to move in closer to her: beyond her and outside the window, she noticed the first few flurries of snow against the pane. She hoped they would take off soon.

“I'm getting kind of bored of New York,” she whispered to her.

“Really?” Zelda raised her eyebrows at her.

“Yeah. It's just—falling into the whole 'same old, same old' thing. I'm an artist, I should be able to go places with it all.”

“Absolutely, absolutely.”

“And I just—” Sam shook her head. “It's a great big city but I feel like there's nothing for me there anymore. Two years there and I'm not feeling it anymore. I'm glad we're going back out to the Bay Area for just this one weekend because I feel myself slowly going insane.”

“And why are you telling me this in a whisper?” Zelda asked her in a soft voice.

“Because—I don't know how to break it to Marla yet, or Belinda for that matter. Aurora kind of knows, but not in that sense, though. I made note of it to her but she didn't really suggest anything to me.”

“You can come to Providence,” Zelda suggested, “there's tons to do in Providence. Narragansett and Natick, too.”

“I guess what I'm trying to say is I feel trapped. Two years ago, I came here to the Northeast for a change of pace and it feels like it's trapped me sideways. There's no way out unless I really genuinely leave. The downside of course is—leaving you ladies behind and leaving Anthrax behind.”

“Yeah, and—we kinda like you, Sam. I do, especially. And I know Aurora does, too. And Marla.”

“Aurora is one of my best friends. Her and Frankie. They're my best friends. I don't know how I would handle leaving them both behind for a change of pace. I feel me and Marla drifting, if I'm honest. Can't really blame her, though—school's getting hard on her.”

“Well—whatever you do, Sam,” Zelda started again, “I'll support you on it. If nothing, you'll get the full support from me.”

“Thank you, Zelda. That—that means a lot to me.” Sam showed her a friendly smile.

Zelda shrugged. “I'm from Rhode Island,” she replied. “Moreover, I'm a punk rocker from Rhode Island. We look out for each other more so than these metal boys.”

They touched down in the Bay Area at five in the morning, and right as the sun began to rise right behind them. The thick fog surrounded the airport and Sam thought about the one and only Christmas she and Cliff spent together.

“Looks like San Francisco,” she muttered. “Feels like it, too.” She closed her eyes as they rolled up to the gate. She and Zelda stepped out of the airport first and she breathed in that marine air. She swore that New York was in fact her one true home, but there was just something about California that brought her more so into that feeling. That feeling that she needed to be there. All the fleeting thoughts led up to that moment there on the sidewalk.

Cliff's remains were not very far away from there, either.

She, Zelda, Marla, Aurora, and Belinda all stood at the curb as Charlie and Emile fetched their rental cars. All those men awaited them not too far from there, and Sam was eager to see Joey again given he flew in from Syracuse. That morning in which he and Belinda woke up before her and flirted with each other went through her mind every now and again. She never realized how much she wanted him until he put his arms around her and they locked eyes with each other. She needed to at the very least see him again: he also promised her a birthday gift.

Within time, Emile showed up with the little black car for himself and Aurora, while Charlie rolled up to the curb in a short dark green van. The four remaining girls piled inside away from the damp cold; Sam wanted to refer to him and Marla in the front seat as “Mom and Dad” again but she decided not to as she shivered under her jacket.

It wasn't New York, but Sam had forgotten how cold San Francisco could feel once the winter time set in.

“Okay, so we're going to a place called Marin Heights,” Charlie told them. “I think that's where the guys—Metallica—got the loft for us.”

“I've heard of it,” said Belinda from the middle seat.

“Me, too,” Sam added from the way back; Zelda huddled next to her and shook her head about. Sam had no idea as to why she didn't bring a jacket with her given it was winter in California. But instead, she peered out the small notch of a window to the Bay itself. She remembered that Testament were to film a music video out in Alcatraz, and those cold yellow lights from the island itself pierced through the foggy darkness. She wondered if they had finally wrapped up the recording of their first album since she wasn't able to sit in with them over the past couple of weeks because of school. She also wondered if she would receive any credit on it like with Stormtroopers of Death.

Charlie wound through the city until they reached the freeway, which in turn brought them up to Marin Heights, nestled back in the hills on the north side of town: they reached a switch back on the hillside so Sam was able to see the very top of the Golden Gate Bridge as it rose through the fog. The clouds themselves split apart so as to let the first rays of sunlight through and the metal of the bridge shone that bright amber color with the sunrise.

No wonder Cliff loved it there.

She sighed through her nose and turned her attention back to the road ahead of her as it turned away into the hills. Within time, they reached the top, and a small villa of little brick two story houses nestled back in the trees. She wondered if the wedding was going to be there as Charlie pulled up to the gravel driveway and stopped before the one closest to the street.

“I think this is us,” he informed them. “Or it might just be check in, I dunno.” He climbed out and then Sam and Zelda followed suit. The latter raised her lanky arms over her head and closed her eyes. Meanwhile, the former spotted a tall lanky boy with long black hair perched on a stone post on the other side of the driveway. He faced the other way but she knew those rich jet black curls anywhere.

“Joey?” she called out.

“Hm?” Zelda asked.

“Joey's over there.”

Zelda peeked around the rear end of the van and she nodded at her.

“Yeah, he is! Go get 'em!”

Sam then ducked around the end of the van and hurried over to him.

“Joey!” she called out. “Joey!”

He turned to face her with his eyebrows raised. He had lost a little weight so his waist was rather slim like Joey's, and the black hair dye held up, but she knew those deep eyes anywhere.

“Oh, hi,” she greeted him as she skidded to a stop before him.

“Hi,” Alex replied back to her with a thoughtful look on his face. “What's happening?”

“I thought you were Joey for a second.”

“You thought I was Joey?” he laughed at that.

“You have similar hair to each other.”

“His has more of a pile, though. Like right on top of his head. That big pile of ringlets atop his head.” He gestured to the crown of his head. “Even though I'm sitting down, I think he's a little bit shorter than me, too?”

“I think so?” Sam shifted her weight right there. Stray strands of his black hair lifted off of his shoulders in the wind and he ran his hand over the back of his head. He shivered from the feeling over his skin.

“God, it's cold out here,” he muttered as he adjusted his jacket.

“Yeah, it's pretty nippy. Not New York, but it's that California cold, though.”

“You know, both my parents are from New York,” he said.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Both obscenely smart Ivy League professors. They came out here before I was born to teach over at Berkeley.”

“Is that why you had the gray streak?” she asked him.

“Nah, I have no idea where that came from.” He shifted his weight yet again on that post. He seemed uncomfortable sitting there but Sam had no idea where to go right then. Charlie's voice behind her caught her ear and she peered over her shoulder at his talking to James.

“Happy birthday, by the way,” Alex told her as he shifted his weight a fourth time. “Aurora told the five of us last week that it was her assistant's birthday and she didn't know what to get you.”

“Aw, thank you—it was back on the twenty first, though.”

“Happy belated,” he corrected himself, and she swore he winked at her. Someone called his name and he looked off to the distance.

“Hang on—” he said, and he darted past her towards Charlie.

“Sam?” Zelda called out to her, and she jogged back to her. Aurora had climbed out of Emile's car right next to them and she shivered inside of her windbreaker.

“What's up?”

“Apparently the wedding is today,” Aurora announced.

“Today?” Sam was stunned.

“Yeah. Three o'clock. I guess Kirk's lady couldn't wait for it a second longer so they're doing it today.”

“So we get a full weekend of good ol' fun,” Zelda added as she clasped her hands to her upper arms.

“Exactly!”

Sam turned her attention to Alex, who was talking to Charlie about something. His black hair twirled in the cold winter winds. Even from a distance, he had such a grave expression on his face that it made Sam think he was much older than in reality.

Belinda had the right idea: he was very precocious. But now she had a little bit of insight into the boy in that he was raised by intelligent parents. It was a start with Alex and she could only wonder from that point onward.

Aurora and Emile led her, Zelda, and Belinda into the cabin behind Charlie and Alex, and once they stepped inside of the cozy foyer, Zelda was eager to turn on the heater.

“Terrible idea not to pack a coat,” she muttered as she hurried down the front foyer in search of the thermostat, “terrible idea not to pack a coat!”

Sam and Belinda meanwhile took to the narrow stairwell in front of them, and they made their way up to that second level: to the right stood a couple of rooms, while to the left was the bathroom and two more rooms. The door at the far end stood slightly ajar, such that when they reached the top, they spotted that head of black curls outside the doorway.

“Hey, Joey,” Belinda greeted him. That lopsided grin and those big brown eyes returned the favor, and Sam's heart skipped a couple of beats at the sight of him. He didn't appear to be ready for a wedding at all with his plain white shirt, extra tight blue jeans, and ragged white socks.

“There are my girls,” he said as he padded closer to them.

“Oh deary me, you're gonna be down the hall from us?” Sam teased him.

“Yup, me, Frankie, and Charlie and Marla. We're gonna be all here at the end of the hall if you need anything.”

“You know the wedding is today right?” Belinda told him.

“Oh, shit, is it really?” Joey raised his eyebrows at that.

“Yeah, Aurora just told us,” Sam added, and her heart sank at the thought of him barely being in the know of these things. “Three o'clock. So Bel and I are gonna get settled in and get dressed.”

“Oh, damn, thank you,” he told her, and his brown eyes sparkled at the sight of her. Cold as the earth and as engulfing as venom. He doubled back to his room and Sam pushed open the door in front of her. Inside stood a small bunk bed and a heavy wooden dresser underneath the window.

“Top or bottom?” she asked Belinda.

“You're older and got way more inside, so top,” she replied as she lay her purse down on the faded blue comforter upon the bottom bed. Even though they had plenty of time before the wedding, Sam wanted to clean up, and change her clothes and look her best. She hadn't been to a wedding in what felt like forever: there was one from when she was three years old, but she had no memory of it and she had no clue as to who even got eloped then, either.

Belinda offered to curl her hair and do it up extra nice, but she promised her there was very little to actually do up given her hair sat flat on her head. If only she could make curls into a crown like with Joey, but she had what she had in the form of a red wine colored dress and a thin black sweater over the top: the dress was a bit snug around her hips but she need not obsess over something as trivial as that when she remembered what Joey wanted to give her.

She was about to head on back inside of their room when she spotted him on the other side of the hallway with the five men from Death Angel, if she recalled correctly. Once again with the quintets and she would learn all of their names in the meantime. But he had a box wrapped in old faded red wrapping paper tucked under his arm and she hoped it wasn't just a wedding gift, especially since he still hadn't gotten dressed.

He laughed at something one of them said and he turned around.

“Oh, there you are!” he called out to her, and he scurried towards her. The tape on the edges of the box and the crooked look of the paper itself told her he wrapped it in a hurry, but she didn't mind at all once she slid her fingers under the edge of the paper closest to her. Careful not to tear it, she unwrapped it and lifted the lid. Inside was a pair of black leather gloves and a red and white knit scarf, the latter of which she ran her fingers over to find it softer than anything she had felt before. It was as soft as a cat.

“It's your own pair of gloves plus a scarf,” he declared. “I just think about how cold you always get upstate.” He shrugged at that.

“I love it, Joey! It's so soft.”

“It's cashmere.”

Sam gaped at him. “Cashmere,” she echoed him.

“Yeah—it was marked down, though. But it's cashmere. I wanted to give you something nice and good and good and nice.”

She slipped the gloves on and they fit around her fingers as if they were made for her. Joey offered to put the scarf around her neck; he stood before her, a country boy in a plain white shirt before a California girl in a dark red dress, and he wrapped the scarf around her.

“You look beautiful,” he whispered to her. “Happy birthday. Double deuces as of ten days ago!”

“Thank you—” She put her arms around him and she held him close. His slender little body was as soft as that scarf, and he smelled of fresh baked bread, something she would be willing to experience as long as he didn't have a drop of alcohol on hand.

Maybe there was in fact something more to life than being in that groove all the time. Maybe she could find a way to break out of her shell, and she could owe it all to him.

And she still hadn't told her parents about him.

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petekaos · 4 years

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Hello! I just spent the last hour reading all your fics and, while this is something I've always wanted to do, it gave me a sudden burst of motivation to start writing my own fics but I'm staring at my word document and I'm so?? I don't have any experience writing things apart from essays for school and I was wondering if you had any tips for a complete beginner? How do you plan out your own fics? How long does it take you?

hi hi nonnie!! i don’t know when you sent this (probably when i was asleep / offline) but i’m so so glad you enjoyed my fics enough for it to motivate you, that’s so sweet! :’)

honestly my tips would be to write about things you like. this seems so obvious, but if you’re writing fic, it’s important to first realise that you’re writing it for yourself and not for an audience, and as long as it makes you happy, that’s all that matters. if you write about what you think an audience would like... then there’s no passion! your enthusiasm can and will draw people in more than a 5k coffee shop au you didn’t really have much interest in writing. there are certain aspects of a character or situations you want to see them in or plot holes you want to explore, and those are the things you should focus on. the way i write my fics is that i hone in on one part i want to explore, and expand upon that, thinking of meaningful scenes that document growth and progress to get across my point. so -- in my fics there has to be a general red thread that ties the fic together, a point, a feeling i want the reader to be left with at the end. for example, in there’s an art to honesty, my petekao fic / kao character study, the red thread is about kao tackling intimacy and pda as well as finding his own strength after coming out to his friends. i deep dived into his character and how he feels along the course of the fic, and how it changes naturally. points of conflict are necessary to keep the reader hooked and move the plot along in my opinion (unless you’re writing like a couple of thousand words of fluff), whether it be internal or external. most of my conflicts are internal because i write a lot of character studies, but you get my point! the best balance is when you have both -- going back to that fic, the internal conflict is kao still feeling as though he has to hide in front of his friends, and the external conflict is his mother not knowing he’s gay and in a relationship and therefore making comments to suggest the opposite, as minor as this conflict is.

if you’re a plotter, i suggest writing down all your ideas you would like to write at some point, and seeing how they tie in together. i’m gonna keep my petekao fic as an example here as it’s fresh in my mind, but i wanted to write about kao dealing with being open, about pete being a supportive boyfriend, about kao and pete’s dad having a talk, about the cool gang being the Best, and about kao coming out to his mother and sister in a way that’s different from dark blue kiss. now, i had a couple of other ideas that eventually ended up being scrapped for this fic at least. so it’s all about figuring out what your point is and how you wanna get that across, before delving into the actual writing. that’s tricky -- what works for me may not work for you. i usually have a loose idea of the scenes i want to write and then just sort of let the characters take me away and get in the zone. there are certain pieces of dialogue i want to include that i also write down to get to.

the way i plan my fics and certain scenes out is by having what’s called a leitmotif. basically, it’s a recurring theme or metaphor that pops up during the entire piece of work that ties everything back together. sticking with the petekao fic, something that keeps it all together is the metaphor of the closed doors and kao not knowing what to do with his hands, where to put them. i mention the closed doors as a symbol that turns into open doors at the end. so, when i loosely plan my fic out, i keep that in mind and mention it again and again so the reader is unconsciously drawn back into the original plotline. normally, for oneshots and fics like that and the others i’ve got on my ao3, i don’t plan... all too much. it’s only for multichaptered ones, where i need more callbacks and threads to tie the plot together, that i really go through the scenes in detail.

as for how long it takes me... hm. it depends! there’s an art to honesty took me... around a week, when i really got down to writing it, but keep in mind i’ve been super busy for the past week. my feet are drawn to you, my ramking fic / ram character study, took me i think around 5-6 days? i bulk wrote the last 5k of that one. everyone’s looking for someone to hold, my manboss fic, took me like 2 days because i had free time and just conked it all out. and he got fight stories to tell, my sarawat character study / sarawatine fic, took me i think around 3-4 days too. so on average, i tend to write pretty fast once i stop procrastinating and getting distracted and in the zone, especially when it’s a oneshot. i tend to get bored and focused on other things pretty quickly (thanks adhd) but the point is: it doesn’t matter how long it takes you, as long as you enjoy it!

my most important piece of advice? don’t overthink it. figure out what aspects you want to explore, what characters you love, find something to tie it all together and start writing! plot it out if you’re a plotter. but writing is all about practice, and it takes a while before you figure out what’s right for you and what works for you. i still don’t know it myself! anyone can write, and i’m looking forward to seeing your fics, and i hope this helped! feel free to send me another ask or dm me if you need anything or if you want me to look over your fic or writing, i’d be glad to!

#hope this helped!!! so so excited for you!#rahul answers #writing #ref

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kdramalands · 5 years

Text

Binge Craze September

This month has been quite busy for me regarding my kdrama addiction, and I thought that a little update on what has been going in my life would be nice... I haven’t had a good sleep in a while, and my health-sleep tracking app is acting accordingly to prepare for my soon-to-take-place funeral.

I’m going to include a rating for the dramas regarding their bingeability according to my fucked up sleep schedule, which is very accurate and just rating system, excuse you.

REM? More like RAM one more episode in the 3 a.m. time slot.

Do not try at home.

Her Private Life (2019) [10/10]

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

The source of the paintings and the source of Kim Jae Wook’s handsomeness kept me from closing my eyes till 6 a.m. Dramas that light and effortless will be the death of me. It was a nice romantic drama, but it had some heavy emotional moments as well. My friend who also got around to finally watching this drama actually thought we’re going to enjoy it together for a while and discuss every detail. YOU FOOL. I’m a heartless binger, and once I finished this one, I didn’t even blink before I started watching another.

The Guest (2018) [8/10]

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

I had it on my “golden dramas” list for a long while. I noticed I have tendency to leave out the best dramas for later as safe bets. I have no idea what happened, maybe I was worn off after Her Private Life, but I only stayed up till 3 a.m. to watch it. And it kinda wasn’t the best idea to watch it at night... I mean, I guess it has a horror tag for a reason. However, this one was truly a mild one, so no harm done. Whatever was left of my sanity is still intact. And I got my stolen watch time back during the day. I couldn’t possibly be stopped with that little nap, especially when actors did such a great job and the plot was very unique.

Signal (2016) [9/10]

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

I really went all the way with treating myself this month with good dramas. I’m sure you can understand why it got rating this high. The secrets in this one are laid in a thick layer, so I was watching it without blinking, not to mention sleeping. I finally got my beauty sleep at 5 a.m. Yay health. The best part of Signal was definitely Lee Jae Han fighting workplace discrimination single-handedly. Woke men are sexy. Signal is also a brilliant commentary on the biggest cold cases in Korea. It is clear the research that went into making this drama was intense, and you can really learn a lot from it.

P.S. Where is the second season?????

Life on Mars (2018) [7/10]

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

We didn’t have a good start. Life on Mars isn’t that fast paced at the beginning, and my WiFi connection started acting up at that time. I’m pretty sure it was a serious case of an assassination of my internet provider on the binge status of these series. My mood went down, and honestly, the action at that point didn’t pick up the pace, so we had a hard time. The biggest mystery wasn’t actually a mystery, and the writers put all important cards on the table indicating where the plot is going. But all things worthy sometimes need that effort, and I’m glad I found my pace again. Life on Mars hit me hard, and like the big masochist I am, I really enjoyed the ending.

The Undateables/ Handsome Guy and Jung Eum (2018) [6/10]

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

I got hooked within the first 10 minutes of this drama. It was very smooth and easy to watch. I enjoyed these little gestures and facial expressions that appeared here and there, making it 10 times more silly and 10 times more bubbly. It was very addictive and very much appreciated after that row of brilliant, but heavy dramas I went through on my own accord. It’s not a big piece of art, but I searched for some sweet sweet couple moments and I got them, so the winner is probably still me. I took it easy with this one though. It wasn’t action packed or that gripping to pull an all-nighter, but definitely a good way to spend my time.

When The Devil Calls Your Name (2019) [7/10]

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

I added this title to the list, but it was actually binged in 75%. Math queen right here! Staying up all night doesn’t fry all of your cells, see? From the day episode 1 was uploaded I did a serious stake out on this title. Observing and calculating. I knew I wanted to binge it all, but it took sooooo long to end. I snapped right before episodes 13 & 14 came out. This drama is a gold mine of really good OST songs. The plot was literally flowing, and I didn’t even notice how I got from episode 1 to episode 12. I agree that it became a little draggy around episode 13, that’s why I lowered the rating a little bit. However, the ending totally got me, and I still can’t get it out of my head, it was so wholesome.

Bring It On, Ghost/ Hey Ghost, Let’s Fight (2016) [5/10]

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

This drama could be described as a “classic beauty”. It definitely follows the basic form of a good drama, and it is addictive to the point of no return. It was fun, but took me a while to finish, I have no idea why. I noticed that even though I lost my pace after 5th episode, I picked it up back again when I got neat the end. Bring It On, Ghost is full of action scenes, and it has a very consistent and interesting plot, and supernatural elements in it, so I’m very surprised I didn’t finish it faster. Guess it wasn’t the right time and place.

Queen In Hyun’s Man/ Queen and I (2012) [10/10]

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

I went full old-school with this drama, didn’t I? It was overloaded with typical couple drama like amnesia, big inheritance, and politics. Do you smell that? It’s the good stuff. I was smitten with the chemistry of the main couple here, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. Very thick chemistry, very nice to look at. We can fawn over how good Yoo In Na and Lee Dong Wook look together in Goblin, but Yoo In Na and Ji Hyun Woo were the OG couple back in the day. I just couldn’t wait till Kim Boong Do finally admits that he, in fact, is a player so I barely stopped to drink and eat. I have no idea how long did I stay up, but the morning sun greeted me through the window alongside In Na’s bright smile through my computer screen.

Laughter In Waikiki 2/ Welcome to Waikiki 2 (2018) [6/10]

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

It is a tricky one, because one does not simply laugh at 4 a.m. in a house full of sleeping fussy people.The beginning and ending kept the class of the first Waikiki, but I guess the A-class humour got lost in the middle. Don’t get me wrong, it was really funny, but I found myself laugh out loud less than I did during the first one. However, the romantic aspect got me good. If I were to mention one big reason why you should watch it, it’s the Romance in Waikiki. The romantic element of the plot was written well, and it was very neat that they referenced past characters too. The episodic skit format is not perfect to binge, it’s more of a watch two episodes this week, and next two probably next week. At least for me.

Be Melodramatic/ Melo Suits Me (2019) [9/10]

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

There was no way for me to stop watching this after I hit a play button. Not only the drama is damn interesting, taking the form of an ultimate meta-drama, it has some nice winks to all kdrama manias like me. You can see them in small things, e.g. when Reply series were mentioned, PDs added the goat sound effect, or when Jin Joo said that Director Son kind of reminds her of Jung Bong from Reply 88, and bigger ones, when a lot of kdrama hits were put as a background music, e.g. ALMOST PAAAAARAAAAADISE from BOF, She is from My name is Kim Sam Soon or Appear from Secret Garden. It took me by surprise that even though the general atmosphere of Be Melo is kind of serious, they easily went over that fourth wall with light steps, and overall this drama keeps a nice balance between humour and sadness. And that song... every time I wash my hair... among the swaying flowers I can smell your shampoo’s scent... Play it at my funeral, I beg you.

It was a fun month of escapism and running away from my responsibilities. I had a little break at the beginning of this year, so I’m glad I caught up with some dramas I’ve been planning on watching for a while now and new ones I couldn’t wait to watch. I feel happy with the outcome. I hope you’re happy with my rating as well. See you in the next one.

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steamberrystudio · 5 years

Photo

02/08/2019

Hey everyone! Esh here for our weekly update! So, quick note that updates are going to be coming on my Friday again. For a while I was trying to do them on my Saturday morning as that would still put them on Friday for everyone else. But it's just easier for me to manage it on a Friday morning, since Saturdays are quite busy for me.

So they're now back to being a Friday update on my end. You'll notice them coming a day earlier than they have been, though!

I cannot believe it's already August. @_@

Anyway, here we go!

Writing:

This week, I worked on editing and finishing out Chapter Three of the common route. This chapter has a lot of action sequences in it, as well as a fair amount of branching (and tricky branching, at that) so it was a little hard to finish it. But I managed to get to the end and I am just really glad that hurdle is past me. Oof.

I started working on Chapter Four of the common route. I was going to try to keep it to three chapters but...here we are. LoL This chapter is one of the ones that has a full outline so it'll hopefully be a bit easier. I haven't gotten very far into it yet but we'll see how it goes.

For those curious, here are the chapter titles:

One: En Passant

Two: Captured Queen

Three: Iron and Steel will Bend and Bow

Four: The Board is Set

Coding:

This week we made some more tweaks to the GUI. Sometimes it takes a while to get it exactly the way you want it - and we're just trying to find exactly the right look! It was a fairly minor change, but took a while to implement due to having to re-save images.

I have one more screen to re-do for this to be totally complete.

And we added an in-game glossary/encyclopedia.

This wasn't a feature I was planning to include in this game, to be honest. But there are a couple of reasons I started looking into it. First, I've been struggling a little with balancing enough world building for the player to understand things, but not cramming 3000 years of world history down the player's throat in the first chapter.

When we had some people play the demo (more on that below), I noticed a little bit of confusion about some of the references to various things that the MC makes, but that aren't really explained in detail - because I can't always stop the story and explain what a thing is just because the MC makes a reference to it.

And this got me thinking about whether I wanted to do some sort of lore/world building compendium that the player could look through.

The way it works is that when the reader/player encounters a concept, a place, organization, etc for the first time, that word is hyperlinked to an entry with a broader explanation. You can choose to click over and read it, then go back to the story...or you can just ignore it.

We're not adding every little thing. But early in the story, when there are a lot of references to things like the nano-system, or places like Dionne and Sirre, or groups like Crimson - I think it will be helpful to allow the player to get more information about it if they want.

I do want to note that this is not currently planned to be an "unlockable" feature where you unlock and "collect" entries. I'm not trying to add a gameplay mechanic - just an information source.

Arting:

This week in arting news:

-Worked on a sprite variation for one of the side characters (Rory).

-Worked on, but still have not finished Reuben, one of the other side characters who appears in the common route.

-Worked on an introductory CG for Jack.

I can't get too far on the CGs yet as we don't have our BGs so I can't really add in any scenery since I have no idea what these places will really look like. But...the figures themselves, I can go ahead and do.

I completed and implemented the profile pages for the characters into the game. Since it is going to take longer to introduce all the love interests this time around, I wanted to create short profile pages that the player can read from the start to get a feel for the love interests.

These are somewhat based on the ones we've made public, but are a little bit more geared toward maybe helping the player understand what sort of LI each character is and where the route might head.

Demo:

We sent out an alpha demo to a very small test group this week to get feedback and let them find any typos. A lot of these people had already read the script, but this was their first time actually seeing the game itself. They found typos, gave impressions, and did all the normal test-y sort of stuff.

We also had someone approach us with the possibility of donating a few tracks to us for the game so I'm waiting on that to see how it pans out and if there is anything we can use in the demo. OwO Due to this, I put off implementing the music because I want to see what comes out of this potential collaboration.

The Upcoming Week:

So here is my upcoming to-do list. None of these are 'MUST HAPPEN RIGHT NOW' things, so I can work on them sort of at my leisure. I'm not sure what all I'll tackle or work on.

-Finish up Reuben's sprite.

-Potentially work on Trina's sprite (A character that appears in Chapter Four)

-Finish fixing the final GUI screen

-Work on Caleb's introductory CG

-Two visual effects I want to try to implement using ATL (which I'm not good at)...which I've been avoiding even attempting.

-Music?? I don't know. We'll see where this collab offer we got goes.

-Looking into adding a few more skin tone and hair color options for the MC's customisation. Currently, there are five skin tones and five hair colors. We are thinking of trying to bump it up to at least 7 of each. My main concern with skin tones is that - on a screen, and with a simple art style like ours, sometimes subtle variations don't show up well.

Especially when you figure in personal monitor settings (like brightness, contrast, color calibration). So even if I create 8 skin tones that look distinctly different to *me*, they may not look different enough to the player to really justify them. But we are experimenting and seeing what looks good.

Because now that the customisation is implemented, I do think we can maybe expand the choices to give players a little more flexibility - without adding too much work for myself.

So yeah - that is all for this week. We will see you next time!

#gilded shadows #oelvn #otome #visual novels #english visual novel #update

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saltys-writings · 5 years

Text

Dancing Doll

Optional dancer bias

~ 2.7k words

Author’s note: I originally wrote this with Svt’s Jun in mind, but it works for other main/lead dancers too, so I decided to keep it optional bias~

Just as announced, my small appartment’s front door swings open right as I very ungracefully opened a bag of chips, scattering about half of them on my lap and the couch next to me. As I look up into my friend’s face, he doesn’t even stop for a second to laugh at me or mock me and he also doesn’t immediately collect the snacks off me to eat them himself. Instead he just plunges down on the sofa across me, letting out a sigh he must’ve been holding in for quite a while now, then leaning forward and taking his head in his hands.

“…what’s up?” I ask, stuffing a handful of chips into my mouth. The answer is another long sigh, him dropping his hands between his knees and giving my room a very annoyed look. I see a drop of sweat sitting on his forehead that he doesn’t even bother to wipe off. I pick up the chips that had fallen onto my pants and hold them out to him. “Want some?” He gives them a suspicious look, then stares into my eyes and I can finally tickle at least half a smile out of his not very friendly face. He takes the snacks from me and stuffs them into his mouth, leaning back and taking his sweet time to chew them.

“You know how to make me happy,” he finally lets me hear his voice.

“Glad I could heal you from being mute,” I joke. “Now what’s the matter?” I set aside the plastic bag with a rustling noise. His expression grows cold again and he lets his hand glide through his hair, brushing it back.

“The choreography…” He doesn’t need to say anymore for me to know what his bad mood is about. After all this has been going on for days now.

“Is your manager still not satisfied?”

“It’s not about our manager this time…” he sighs, “I’m just not feeling it, you know? I’ve been going over this same song so many times, always doing the same set of moves, adjusting only details. Because the others like the overall concept, but something kept feeling off…”

“And now you went over it so many times that you can’t tell anymore if it’s good or not?” I assume and he nods.

“That’s it. It started feeling dry a while ago…”

“Then why not take a break and dance something else for a while? And then a day or two later you dig out that song again and try the choreo once more.”

“No, you don’t understand,” he says and gets up, walking a few steps away, then after letting his hand quickly brush through his unkempt hair, throwing his head back. “You’re not an idol, you wouldn’t understand the stress that comes with people telling you to finish this choreography as soon as possible.” He turns his head to look at me. “Because that means they’d rather you serve it to them yesterday.”

“You’re not a superhuman though…” I argue with my very irritated friend. “Good things need time.”

“Well, I’m happy at least one of us can see things this relaxed,” he throws back. I huff.

“Then why are you here if you don’t have time to relax?” A pissed off look from his side tells me he did not appreciate my teasing.

“You’re right, I should leave,” he says and walks to the door, crouching down to put his shoes back on.

“No, no!” I call out to him and run after him, to which he gets back up.

“I thought I might be able to clear my head here, or even find some inspiration…” With a smile he adds, “But it seems like you just want to take out your frustrations about the torn chips pack on me and chase me away.” I can’t hold back a laugh.

“Yeah, that’s definitely what this is.” He joins in on the laughter, though a little less enthusiastic than me and I earn a ruffle over my head by him, to which I playfully complain about him ‘messing up my hair’ – which was already kind of a mess to begin with.

“What kind of dance is it even?” I ask. We have talked about this before and I know the song he’s using, but I’ve never seen more than a glimpse of the whole performance.

“It’s kind of a couple dance,” he explains.

“Kind of? Maybe… I can help with that?” I offer, but get flustered immediately by the surprised look on his face. “I mean! I’m not a dancer obviously so… I doubt I can do much…” He cuts me off.

“No, this might actually work. I haven’t thought about trying it out with another person yet…”

“…but I thought it was a couple dance?”

“Well… kind of. Have you listened to the lyrics of the song closely?” I shake my head.

“I haven’t really studied them…”

“The song’s about someone chasing a woman so beautiful, he thinks she’s more like a doll than a human. That’s why in the finished performance, there is supposed to be a female person on stage, but she doesn’t really move, since she portrays that doll-like beauty.”

“Oh!” I exclaim, a scene of what the finished stage might be like forming before my inner eye. “That sounds… tricky to create.” He lets out a tired laugh.

“That’s what I’ve been saying the past few days…”

“But how can I help with that then?”

“Up until now I’ve only imagined the girl standing there… the feeling might change if there is actually a pretty woman in the room, and I get to seduce her with my dancing.” I hit him in embarrassment.

“Stop spitting such cheesy lines!” I yell at him, before we leave and he takes me back to the company building, taking the backdoor to the practice rooms, just to be sure nobody sees him letting in a female from outside of the company. Not that it would be a problem for his higher-ups, but other fans that have his group under surveillance 24/7 might misinterpret. As we enter the broad room with the mirrors spread along one wall and I close the door behind me, he quickly stretches, then puts on the song and stares at himself in the mirror, his foot tapping to the music.

“Aren’t you… going to do anything?” I dare ask after watching the awkward scene for a while.

“I’m seeing if I can implement a different move-set in the middle. So I like to just visualize the dance first to find out if it would work on a stage,” he explains without paying me a single look, closing his eyes. After passing the bridge of the song, he gestures for me to come to where he’s standing. Taking me by the shoulders he leads me away from the middle of the room, placing me a bit to the right.

“Do I need to do anything special?” I ask.

“Just keep standing there, and play along when I lead your arms somewhere.”

“…you’re not gonna lift me up though, are you?” As he walks over to the equipment to restart the song, he shoots me a smile over his shoulder, winking at me.

“At least I’m not planning to!” Suddenly feeling a little uneasy, I collect myself to calm down. I can’t exactly be of much help if I’m a nervous wreck, can I? …Why am I even so nervous about this? As the music sets in and he starts approaching me with swift moves, carrying a whole different energy to him than just a second ago, I realize why I’m so tense. Even when he’s not on stage, as soon as he switches to performer-mode, his presence is… overwhelming. Watching his every move, the way he sets one step after the other securely, emitting a strong energy while still remaining graceful at the same time, I get sucked into that space he seems to be creating just for the two of us to retell the story of the song in his own way. I hold my breath when he suddenly stands next to me and I slowly lift my head to look at our frames in the mirror – his every muscle visibly tense, ready for the next sharp move at any second, while I just stand there, kinda limp, pulling back my shoulders which only makes me seem even more awkward. I see his hand touching mine, his fingers walking up my arm, reaching my chin and lifting it up, turning my head so I’m forced to face him.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t ask if you were okay with me touching you like this,” he mumbles over the beat of the song, his eyes glued to my lips. In a haze I just stare back at him for a few seconds, unable to answer until he moves to my other side, breaking the physical connection.

“I-it’s okay,” I respond, still a little flustered. I didn’t think this would be so intense… then again – what did I even expect? Looking back up into the mirror to see him take a step towards me, eyes still fixated on me, I watch as he slowly incorporates me into the piece of art he is aiming to create with his body. Focusing hard to keep my mouth from gaping, I hold my breath once again as he suddenly stands behind me, taking a hold of my hand and lifting it in the air as if I was his most precious treasure. I need to mentally kick myself out of falling into that feeling. No, this is just acting, got it? He takes a spin away from me, only to come back, his face so close to my arm, I am getting ready for him to kiss his way up to my shoulder. My eyes meet his and a certain passion arises in my stomach, that I can no longer stop. Him breaking off the eye-contact is followed by his arms embracing me from behind, creating an electric atmosphere in the room that I have never felt before. I proceed watching us in the mirror, longing for more surprises, more of those sharp, beautiful moves. His head comes dangerously close to my neck and through the reflection he now stares into my eyes. His breathing suddenly seems louder than the music surrounding us and I swallow heavily.

“Is this all part of the dance…?” I dare not speak louder than a whisper, and his answer comes in about the same volume.

“It wasn’t up until now…” he says. “But I can stop here if it’s too much for you.” With those words and without waiting for my answer, he removes himself, continuing the dance next to me, where I feel nothing of him but the air strongly being whirled around by his movements. I watch his reflection that is still staring back at me and mouth the words “come back”. As if he hasn’t already seemed like a completely different person than usual, I feel like that flicked a switch within him and he comes up to me, the back of his hand gliding over the side of my face, to then gain a strong grip on my chin, further closing the distance between us. Again, his eyes land on my lips and he lets out a breath through his mouth. As we stay in that position for a few seconds, I gather my courage to ask the question that’s been circling in my head time and time again.

“This… was never just about friendship, was it?” Without hesitating, he gives me a short, but clear answer.

“No.” He looks into my eyes and I feel like I’m being sucked into that warm brown color of his pupils. My mind blank, I reach out behind his neck to have him bow down to me, our lips meeting for a second before he breaks the kiss, searching my eyes for some kind of signal of wanting him to stop. However, the thought that we could stop hasn’t even crossed my mind, and our lips meet again, quickly deepening the kiss. We stumble backwards and separate for a second to catch a breath, before I feel his hands glide down my back and over my butt, to grab my thighs and lift me up, while I put my arms around his shoulders. He keeps walking, until I roughly meet the wall behind me, gasping. His face disappears in my neck, continuing to kiss me there.

“I’ve waited so long for this…” he whispers. The next moment I feel his teeth against my skin, pulling him just a little closer in response. I knew this was going to happen at some point… My hand finds its way up his hair, tugging at it so he throws his head back, exposing his neck, but closing the distance between us too fast for me to return the favor of placing a mark onto his skin. As if he knew what I was up to, he grins at me.

“What if the fans see…?” he breathes with a spark in his eyes that almost makes me think he is challenging me. I wriggle in his hold for him to let me down and drop to my knees, my hand gliding up his abdomen and lifting up his shirt in the process.

“But they won’t see here, will they?” I shoot him a cheeky look before placing my lips right next to his hip bone, feeling him twitch under my touch, before I start sucking on his skin, watching how his facial expression slightly changes and his hand lands on top of my head, burying his fingers in my hair. The song has stopped by now and the room has become silent, the only sounds filling it being our breathing and the moan that escapes him as I dig my teeth into him. Before I move back to look at the mark I gave him, I make sure to lick over it and place a gentle kiss on the spot to reduce any pain caused. Smiling in satisfaction, I let his shirt drop and get up. He watches my every move with hungry eyes, just getting ready to slam me against the wall again, when he suddenly stops and turns around, the door opening mere seconds later. A staff member walks in and makes eye contact with him.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were practicing here. Sorry for the interruption.”

“Ah, no, it’s fine, what did you need?” While I try to calm down my breathing, the staff member asks him about some of his group members and if he knew where they went. When he finally managed to shoo the other person away, he drops his shoulders and lets out a huge sigh, shooting me a certain look and we both start laughing.

“God that was close…” he says.

“What if he had walked in a minute earlier?” I exclaim, running up to him and hugging him, laughing in relief.

“I have no idea,” he answers while patting the top of my head, before drawing back to get a proper look at my face. “Does this mean… you like me back?” Suddenly the atmosphere becomes serious.

“Well, you’re not a bad guy I suppose,” I say, shrugging, and he spins me around faster than I can comprehend what’s going on, having me watch him immobilizing me in the mirror, placing his head on my shoulder and holding my hands behind my back.

“And now I want an honest answer, or I’m starting the dance again – this time with more self-control and more teasing,” he whispers and despite the shiver of excitement running down my spine, I retort,

“As if self-control and you was a thing when it comes to me…” He lets out a laugh.

“I can’t exactly admit you’re right here, can I?” I shake my head and he lets go of my hands, which I immediately make use of by spinning around and wrapping my arms around his neck. Despite the danger of yet another person walking in and disturbing us, I get on tiptoes to place a kiss on his lips, unable to hold back a smile. I whisper my response while we part for a second.

“Yes. I like you too.” Then I playfully hit his shoulder and shove him a little closer to the mirror. “And now do something! You have a choreography to finish, right?”

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bellabooks · 6 years

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Annie Briggs and Natasha Negovanlis give us the scoop on their new hit webseries, “CLAIREvoyant”

Over the last few years, Natasha Negovanlis and Annie Briggs have become near and dear to the LGBTQ fandom for their roles in the smash hit webseries/movie, Carmilla. The two castmates and dear friends have now teamed up to being viewers a new comedy series (with it’s share of tender and hard hitting dramatic scenes) about two best friends, Claire and Ruby, who create a fake psychic website to try to drum up rent money. When Claire discovers she might actually be a powerful psychic, it makes a complicated scenario even more challenging, and hilarious. Natasha and Annie not only star in the series, but they are co-creators and writers as well along with Jason Packer. Bella Books sat down with Natasha and Annie to get more of their insights into the series and what it has been like creating something together. Bella Books: You guys made a web series baby together, and now your baby is out there in the world. What has it been like for you for the past few days, watching all these responses roll in and seeing your creative work out there? Natasha Negovanlis: It’s been wild! I’ve only shat my pants a few times. Annie Briggs: Oh, that’s a good sign. Like Natasha said, it’s been totally wild. These things are always a combination of great excitement and relief and nervousness—the whole bit. Because we had a pre-existing audience, we knew that we would have some viewership. We were very fortunate that we were going into this with an audience already, but what’s been really exciting to see is that there are a number of people in a different demographic who have been responding so positively to it. And it’s been really cool to have friends reach out to us personally, and to see how people are relating to it as well. Natasha: Well, I keep joking that we wrote an absurdist show, and we keep marketing it as an absurdist comedy. But it’s quite funny to see people comment things like, “This scene was too real.” Bella Books: How did the idea for CLAIREvoyant start in the first place, and how did you know – or did you – that the two of you would work so well together as creators? Annie: Too much wine, Dana. No, no! Natasha: Annie, don’t say these things. Annie: Natasha, you talk to the seedlings of this. Natasha: The creation of CLAIREvoyant was sort of a number of different things. The biggest thing was obviously our mutual fascination for psychics, the occult, and our interest in things like divination and tarot. Years ago, before I had ever met Annie, I had a character that I created, Vivienne, who we ended up using for the psychic. [It really began] just one day with an old roommate because I was down in the dumps. I had just been dumped and fired for my barista job. The only way I knew how to deal with that was to put on every piece of jewelry I owned and sit in my bathtub and call a psychic and make these little videos. But that was a very early, early seedling. And then one day Annie and I were hanging out and just chatting about different things, and I was talking about how I went to a nail salon. I was like, “It’s so interesting. What does she do outside of her work? What is her life like? Who are these people like?” We were just talking about it, and being a couple of silly gals that we are, we came up with these silly characters and we spent the rest of the evening as these characters. The next day Annie texted me and she was like, “I think we might be onto something.” Annie: In terms of the development of the project, we spent quite a few years in development on this. I would say the process was organic in many aspects. The characters we created came out of ourselves, exaggerated aspects of ourselves and other people that we’ve known and lived with. Also, in terms of working together, I feel very fortunate that Natasha and I mind-melded a lot on this project. So, we were really on the same page for a lot of the creative decisions, which was great. It made working together very intuitive and incredibly collaborative. On the flip side of that, we spent a couple years working together on this. It’s not all roses all the time. There were certainly times that were tricky for us when we weren’t seeing eye to eye. That’s just part of the creative process. You don’t know really what you’re getting yourself into when you start out with these things. But I’m still so grateful that on the whole this thing just flew out of us in a really beautiful, collaborative way. Natasha: Yeah, and I think in areas where we didn’t necessarily see eye to eye, our skillsets really complemented one another’s, and we had a lot of trust in each other’s abilities to take on certain areas. I think we just really complemented each other. It was also really nice to just become better friends and strengthen our bond as friends throughout this creative process because a lot of the times that we would meet up it was to work on this show and it really helped us get to know each other better. When we worked on Carmilla, our characters as Carmilla and Perry didn’t really interact with each other that much. We went for the entire first season not really knowing each other. We met on set, but we didn’t get to work together. It was really through different fan events and cast events that we bonded and found out that we had so much in common. I think it was the very first time we hung out alone, one on one, that we came up with the idea for the show, which I just realized in hindsight. It’s so funny! Annie: That’s really true. It was the first time that we just had a solo date. Bella Books: Well, it’s so evident that the two of you are so simpatico in this. In every scene the two of you have such…it’s like, I don’t want to say machine because that makes it sound like it’s stiff, but you’re such a well-oiled machine together. Annie: That’s great to hear. From an acting standpoint, it was an interesting experience coming in to play these roles. We didn’t, as you often do, we didn’t receive the scripts two weeks before filming or ten days before filming. We’ve been sitting with these characters for a couple years. So, by the time we rolled around onto set and actually got to play off each other they were integrated into us in a completely different kind of way. Natasha: Yeah, in a way, we had almost been playing these characters when we would just hang out sometimes. Like we would morph into them. So, I think we really knew our characters, and we had that benefit as well. It was interesting though. I think we did discover a lot about each other on set just doing comedy, you know, learning how to work. Because we actually have quite different acting methods, I would say. I don’t know if you would say that, but we kind of do. Annie: Oh, no. For sure. Natasha: And learning how to balance that. But it still really translated so well because we have so much love and respect for each other. I’m glad that people find it funny. Bella Books: I love a good, awkward queer. And, Natasha, Claire is gifted with an abundance of awkwardness. And you were talking about how people say, “Oh, man, I relate to that.” That is the thing I have heard more than anything. So many people really relate to Claire’s awkwardness around women. After playing somebody for so long who’s so steady and confident, what was it like to go in the complete opposite direction – so different from Carmilla? It seems like you’re having a blast. Natasha: Oh, I’m having so much fun. People often ask, for both of us actually, if these characters are outside of our comfort zones. We have to say no. As actors you get cast as a number of characters; it’s our job to play different characters. My typecasting is very much a Carmilla type, but Claire is so much closer to me in real life. It’s funny because when we wrote these characters we wanted to create women that people could relate to, but I didn’t set out thinking that those moments would be the relatable moments. I didn’t think, like, “I’m going to write this really relatable character.” I thought that I’m a weirdo and now I’m just going to write this weirdo character. I just kind of put it out into the universe, so it means a lot when people say they relate to it. For so long I’ve been really oversexualized in my roles, which I don’t mind. When I auditioned for Carmilla, people said, “Natasha could have chemistry with a rock.” That’s something I really leaned into for a large part of my twenties. In reality, I had a really awkward, hard time dating women, in particular. Men were easy. Men I knew how to figure out. I started dating men when I was super young, and I kind of knew how it all worked. But because there was almost something greater at stake for me, with women, I just had zero game. Annie: I really loved finishing every day on set and pulling Nat aside and just beaming because I really think she totally shines in this role. Natasha: I think that you shine in this role! Bella Books: I was going to say that you both shine. Annie: It was a real joy to see her play this character, and the whole time I was just grinning to myself being like, “Yep, yep. This is the good stuff.” Natasha: I’m so shocked by that. Bella Books: I’ve been seeing a lot of young Canadian actors, particularly those that are queer or queer allies, making their own art. What do you think that is, and is that something that’s just really embraced in Canada? Annie: My hunch, or my initial reaction to that, would be that we have a great industry here in Canada, but it’s not the same as in the States. Natasha: Yeah, yeah. Annie: There’s sometimes a sense on our side of things that there’s not the kind of agency or heat oftentimes here. So, I think as an actor, especially when so much of your career, and the trajectory of how things are played out, is in the hands of other people, you can get bored very quickly. I just see a lot of people in Canada deciding to take matters into their own hands if other people aren’t going to be doing it around them. That’s how I feel personally. Natasha: Yeah, I think Annie said it so beautifully. Echoing what she said, I’m obviously such a supporter of the Canadian industry, but it is very different and there is a lack of roles and work. Canadians are less likely to take a chance on a new face. There’s also just less money here, so I think people are, as Annie said, taking matters into their own hands and creating the content they want to create. On the flip side, I do know that Canada provides a lot more government and financial support for digital than in the States. And I do know that there are a lot of grants and small independent production funds and opportunities. So, we’re really lucky in Canada in that regard. Because our film and TV industries are not quite as strong as America’s, I think the digital side has really seen that and ran with it. Annie: And as new creators and people starting out on the other side of the camera in development, it feels like a more accessible way to cut your teeth. Natasha: That being said, I think it’s important to note that we’re really grateful for the opportunity that the IPF provided for us as well. They’re such a great production fund for new creators and we wouldn’t be able to make the show without them. Annie: Hear, hear! Bella Books: Tell us a little bit more about Nico and Xavier. We haven’t seen a lot of them yet, but from what we have seen they are as charming as all get out. Annie: You will see more of them, Dana. You will! Bella Books: I had a feeling we would. Natasha: What can we say? Bella Books: Or, you know what, you can talk about the actors, Sabryn Rock and Jsin Sasha. That would be great, too. They are also as charming as all get out. Annie: They certainly are. And I will say that both Sabryn and Jsin just rose to the occasion so beautifully. Shooting in digital is a super expedited schedule, and there’s a lot of material to cover. Again, we’re working in comedy with coverage. We were going really fast. It can be difficult for people if they haven’t worked in that way before, but they were fantastic to work with—so giving and funny. Natasha: They were so lovely, and without giving away too much, we do put them in some pretty ridiculous scenarios. So, they were real troopers. Real good sports. What’s exciting also is seeing how people are pleased with the way we cast. But when we auditioned them, they were truly the best people for the roles. What can we say about them though? I’d say Xavier is a very sensitive, poetic, artistic soul, and Nico is a really no bullshit kind of gal. Bella Books: There are so many killer lines in the series. I was laughing so hard. I’m still dying over the Mary Floppins part. Do each of you have a favorite line or favorite little scene you wrote? Natasha: Actually, the scene where we do talk about our vaginas is one of my favorite scenes because it’s such a real moment. You have the characters close together. You have them bonding, and they’re just having this very matter-of-fact conversation. And when you actually look at the text, they’re saying some pretty ridiculous things. That’s also one of my favorite scenes because there are lines in that scene that all three writers wrote. It was such a collaborative scene. Bella Books: Alright, I’ve got one more question for you. Natasha, what is something you admire about Annie? And, Annie, same question for you. Both: Oh my godddd. What? Oh no. Annie: Well, I could wax on… Natasha: …About me… Annie: About this lady’s complexity as a human being in myriad of wonderful virtues, but one of the first things that comes to mind, which I continually feel so fortunate to experience from Natasha and saw so much during the creative process in shooting this series, is that Natasha is such a huge champion and supporter of women in the industry. She really does a lot for other ladies, throwing support and shedding light on their other work. This can be a really cutthroat business, where there’s this horrible mentality of scarcity floating around. Natasha does her best and damnedest to combat that. It’s really beautiful to see, and it’s really inspiring. Natasha: Oh my god! That’s really nice. Well, how do I follow that? I think one of my favorite things about Annie is how openminded she is and how non-judgmental she is. Like, I sometimes have the tendency to be a little hot tempered. Wisdom just oozes out of you all the time, and you just have such a sense of maturity. Annie: You know, in university my roommates used to call me Grandmother Willow. And, I was, like, 19 at the time. Natasha: Absolutely, though! I think your ability to be calm and patient and grounded and rational during situations is so inspiring and really helpful when you’re working with someone as a co-creator but then also as a friend. You always give sage advice, but you’re never judgmental when you’re giving it, and that’s what I really like. CLAIREvoyant airs on the KindaTV Youtube channel with new episodes premiering on Wednesdays at 7pm EST. http://dlvr.it/QV4SpP

#News #Webseries #Annie Briggs

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echoness · 6 years

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Confirmation

It’s the first time I ever write an “old couple” style fanfic in English. If you find anything unsuitable please let me know.

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It’s been a week since the Watcher confronted Eothas. With the Wheel broken, Aloth doesn’t really know what will become of kith of the upcoming generation on Eora. Whatever happens, he doubts that his own effort would change anything, that’s what the Watcher has taught him. The wisdom of not overthinking on everything is a welcoming change of pace. Thinking back on what he has accomplished, his past seems always shrouded in a heavy mist. He didn’t choose his birthright, his family, his Awakening. But the decision led him journey alongside the Watcher is like a ray of sunshine that cast into his life. He never feels the need to worry about the next destination, wherever the Watcher goes, it’s the right direction.

The moment when the Watcher committed her affection to Aloth, he felt two twisted forces conflicting inside his chest. He really enjoyed the Watcher’s company, that’s for sure. Five years ago when he revealed his true identity to her, hoping nothing but her forgiveness.

“I forgive you, Aloth.” the Watcher said without hesitation, “But I want you beside me, not behind me. I’m not asking you to trade one master for another.”

It’s been a long while since he ever remembered anybody gave him the vast amount of respect and understanding. Being around with the Watcher feels… easy, natural. Not that she’s a druid and the soothing spells she can cast during battles, the power she draws from nature. It’s the way she’s been doing things. Sometimes he might not agree with that much credit she gave to the undeserving, or flattery words just to please some higher-ups. She may say something tedious yet follows her heart and does some good. It opens Aloth’s eyes that a person could process such multitasks, as long as her heart is in the right place, he’s probably in no position to judge. Perhaps he values the unspoken wisdom the Watcher shows during their journey, that to resolve a situation with extreme measure is a recipe for disaster. Aloth didn’t want to lose her, if he could peer into her soul, it certainly shines like a beacon drawing him closer each step ahead.

Somehow, he had too much responsibilities on his shoulders, he couldn’t rely too much on the Watcher, especially five years ago when she gave him the opportunity to reform the Leaden Key, to do something good on his own. He sure wouldn’t like to squander the faith she put into him. The consequences of his action didn’t turn to his favor, and he knew the uncertainty of his duty, to some extent it might cost his life. To commit his feeling towards the Watcher could bring her long term pain if they were to depart once again.

Now Aloth is standing on the Defiance’s deck alone, with sea breeze brushing through his hair. The sun is about to set upon Serpents Crown. Everything around him feels quiet, serene even. Fresh air and a clear head sound as normal as they do, they were luxury in Aloth’s past life, especially when Iselmyr’s constant babbling plagued his mind. Which reminds him the promise the Watcher keeps – privacy and space. She never bothered him unless there’s something really important, or Eder came up with a joke he would like to share where the Watcher came joining the fun. Reflecting on what the Watcher said after their first kiss, Aloth has to admit that he never thought of the “enjoy our time together” option before. To him, love is the equal measure of responsibility, respect, passion and collaboration. His past shaped him into a man of solitude, and he feared for the uncertainty of the future. Yet he forgot, of all the kith on Eora, everyone lives in the present. The closest thing he overlooked all the time, is the “present” the Watcher has given back to him. They have been sharing more and more private moments together since then.

After the final confrontation with Eothas, the other companions departed one by one, pursuing their own newfound goals. The Defiance is awfully quiet at the moment. It’s strange how Aloth misses friends like Eder, Xoti, Pellagina and Maia. He doubts that their path would ever cross again, for he and the Watcher are going back to the Eastern Reach.

Speaking of which, the Watcher is still in Captain’s cabin. And there’s still a question lingering in Aloth’s mind. He grabs a bottle of Forgetful Night from the lower deck, then walks towards Captain’s cabin, takes a deep breath, then knocks on the door.

“Knock knock.” the Watcher sounds like she’s about to laugh out loud.

“I would like to talk to you… if you don’t mind.” Aloth tries to keep his gesture serious.

“Of course not, please come in.”

The Watcher is reading a book, it’s…

“Is that my grimoire?” whatever Aloth was going to say, it’s wiped away by his grimoire in her hands. He hasn’t used his own grimoire since she gave him Arkemyr’s grimoire. He entrusted his grimoire to her but had no idea she’s interested in learning advanced arcane arts. The Watcher lowers the leather bound book and sits up straight: “Uh, yea, I know druid spells are quite different from wizard’s, but I could still learn how to channel elemental energy more effectively. It’s a bit tricky but I think it’ll work.”

Aloth sets the bottle of Forgetful Night on the desk, arms across in front of his chest with his left eye brow lifted:” Are you still thinking about beating me on the enemy account?” It’s a little competition between him and the Watcher, about who would get most kills after each fight. Aloth usually wins.

“Heh, you know me too well.” The Watcher grins back to him.

Aloth sits down beside her and puts a hand on her shoulder: “Not that you are also trying to heal my wounds. My account can hardly qualify my skills. I’m just glad we could survive all the hostile encounters and live to see another day.”

The Watcher shrugs: “It’s a challenge I’m willing to take up. You are well-versed in history, you can tell me how many slavers and pirates are going after us now that the political balance of Deadfire is tipped over specifically by us?”

“Point taken,” Aloth looks down and admits: “We have a long way ahead of us before we get home, don’t we?” The Watcher nods in silence, and stands up to take out two wine glasses from her cabinet.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” The Watcher asks as she gives a glass of Forgetful Night to Aloth.

Oh, the stupid question lingering in his mind.

“Well…” Aloth lets a dry laughter out of his throat, he can feel the tip of his ears turning red: “I’ve been meaning to ask you: why me?”

“I beg your pardon?” as if her question doesn’t sound like one, a playful smirk is crawling up on the Watcher’s lips. She might as well know what Aloth is all about, she’s just waiting for him to speak out his mind.

“It is no secret that Xoti and Tekehu had confessed their… let us just say, interest in you, before us. Considering my situation back then, I could hardly qualify of being the best suitable candidate to sustain a healthy relationship. Years of solitude had burned out the fire within me, it would be a really slow pace for me to rekindle the passion for you again. But you turned them down, even where they are better at dealing with love and passion.”

Aloth pauses for a bit, waiting for the Watcher’s response. Instead of saying anything, she just stares into his eyes, as if searching for an answer there. The playful smirk is still hanging on her face, normally Aloth would find that kind of smirk irritating, yet at the moment he just can’t help but smiles to himself, breaks from her eye contact and looks down at his clasped hands.

“If I was looking for pleasure, I would go for them,” for a while the Watcher finally responds, as if taking his question seriously: “As for Xoti, she’s spirited and adorable. If I were to have a little sister, it would be like her. She probably got the wrong message when I was trying to care for her. The affection she seeks, it doesn’t matter whom it comes from. I was merely helping her make up her mind before she got too rushed ahead.”

The Watcher takes a long sip of the wine before continuing: “Tekehu is bold, in fact, too bold he doesn’t know the meaning of subtlety. His skill and power need guidance, so does his way of taking up responsibility. And… it’s been a real headache every time Ondra crawled into my head when we had a conversation.”

Aloth suddenly looks up, with a “no way” expression on his face. The Watcher smiles and nods, as if trying to tell him it is no joke. Then he is about to say that doesn’t really answer his “why me” question, but the words come from his mouth suddenly become high-pitched voice, of whose the Watcher knows too well.

“Fay, the lad’s been worrying n’ too caring for ye, just lay’m down already…”

Aloth rolls his eyes trying to suppress Iselmyr to the back of his mind, he shakes his head violently then takes a mouthful wine. By the time he regains control of his thought, he realizes that the Watcher is leaning against the back of her chair watching him, it’s like a cat watching a wounded mouse. He doesn’t quite know what to make of the increasingly hot air between them, whether it’s because of the alcohol or something Iselmyr said.

“Where were we...?” he palms his face with the voice only himself can hear.

“You know, I’ve always had a thing for a man who doesn’t know how attractive he is.” the same smirk is still hanging on the Watcher face, even broader this time. Aloth rolls his eyes again: “Please, I’m…”

Before he can protest any further, the Watcher half kneels down in front of him, keeping their eye contact on the same level. She takes his hands into hers as a gesture of apology, then she says: “I’m no stranger to solitude, for my long years being a hunter in the wild I’ve known the taste of freedom as well as isolation. People always say I have observing eyes and a sharp mind, I’d say I just see things others rarely notice. When I look at you, I see the deep sorrow that you are trying so hard to hide, the burden you have endured, the misfortune you have suffered. You have a kind and trusting heart, yet it’s difficult for you just to offer it to anyone. I would never forgive myself if I watch you stray away from the right direction. You are my responsibility. As for ‘why you’... aside from that much time we've spent together, it comes from here-” She’s pointing at her heart: “Time and time again I entrusted it to you, you’ve never disappointed me. And I wish to be the first one you can fully trust.”

A long silence lingering between them. Aloth opens up his mouth trying to make out a word, he finds nothing in his vocabulary would justify the affection. He leans in close to the Watcher, pressing their foreheads together.

“Hey,” the Watcher murmurs in a super soft voice: “You wouldn’t come to my cabin just to talk, would you?”

Aloth chuckles.

“I suppose not.”

=================================================

My past is awfully similar to Aloth’s, so I kinda know where his hesitation is coming from. His little romance subplot feels “accurate” for someone like him. I’m glad we could give him a Watcher he deserves. The competition thing between Aloth and the Watcher is a little easter egg form LotR.

#Aloth Corfiser #Pillars of Eternity #Deadfire #minor spoilers

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thewestmeetingroom · 3 years

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The West Meeting Room - Everyone is an Artist: A Conversation with Adeyemi Adegbesan Transcript

SPEAKERS Jessica Rayne, Zoe Dille, Adeyemi Adegbesan (AKA Yung Yemi)

Jessica Rayne Hello! And welcome to The West Meeting Room. We are broadcasting from Hart House and you're listening to CiUT 89.5 FM. And we're grateful to be taking up space on Dish With One Spoon Territory. I'm Jessica Rayne, Program Associate at Hart House and I'll be your host for today's show, along with my colleague Zoe Dille. Today we'll be discussing art, community and mentorship with Yung Yemi, Toronto-based photographic artist whose practice aims to examine the intersectionality of Black identity. Yung Yemi uses his art as a way of weaving together his connection with his community. He brings us into his creative process where he remixes and samples history with reimagining of the future. We are delighted to have Yung Yemi join us in conversation and take a closer look at his art and the work he's been doing with community. We are also excited to have him engaged in the Hart House Black Futures and Youth Access Programming. If you have not seen Yung Yemi’s work, be sure to follow him @yung.yemi on social media.

Jessica Rayne So you know, we're so happy to have you Yemi be a part of this. You know, we've been talking since last year around what we can do together. So I'm glad that we get this chance to speak with you. So just to start off, it would be great just like introducing yourself to the world or the listeners that would be listening to this. Like what do you do? How do you describe what you do? Who you are?

Adeyemi Adegbesan Well, first of all, I appreciate you guys having me on. It's great to be here with you guys today. So for the listeners, my name is Adeyemi Adegbesan. I'm a Toronto-based visual artist. I guess the main theme of my work is Afrofuturism and, and Pan Africanism. And I work in a number of different disciplines. I work with photography, illustration, and I'm getting a little bit into sort of mural making and some sculptural stuff as well. And I guess my background, artistically, I guess, is in photography. I spent a number of years as a commercial photographer before I started sort of going down that path. And before that, I was a youth outreach worker. So it's been, it's been an interesting journey in my adult life. But I'm very, very happy to be here and very, very honored that I get the opportunity to do this and make a living doing what I love.

Zoe Dille So you, you mentioned a whole lot of things there. But funny enough, I'm listening to you, and I'm like, they all kind of connect in a way, right?

Adeyemi Adegbesan So yeah, there's definitely a common thread of commonality between where I've been and where I'm at now. It's definitely, it hasn't been like, you know, a traditional path by any means. But um, it's, from my perspective, it's just felt like a pursuit. Like, I've just felt like I've been sort of, sort of chasing a vision for a long time. And I, like again, I just like, I just have a lot of gratitude in this moment, because I feel like I'm a lot closer to it now than I ever have been in the past. But yeah, when I, when I look at all the steps that it took to get here like it, it does make sense, you know. Even though I'm sure like, you know, from another perspective, it might seem like sort of like a random hodgepodge of different endeavors like, it makes sense once it, once it gets broken down.

Zoe Dille For sure. I mean, I will just say about tradition, I think it's highly overrated. S that’s ok that you did your own path. So we are, we are still in the official decade of African peoples. And you mentioned Afrofuturism and I wonder, I mean, there are a lot of different takes on it. But from your perspective, what does that mean and how do you describe it and in what ways does that kind of help to inform your art work?

Adeyemi Adegbesan Well, um, yeah. There are a lot of different takes on it, I think. I think like in, in the early 90s, there was like sort of a definition that got popularized, which is basically like this - it was, it was sort of simplistic. It was like traditional sci fi sort of from like a white Eurocentric perspective, but just appropriated by Black people. And it like, it, I guess that makes sense. But it's like, it's sort of, it's very simplistic. But I think like, over the last couple of decades that definition has become a lot more nuanced. And like, you know, here in 2020, the working definition that I'm working from is basically like, it's a fantasy sort of realm, but it's based on African, African and Black spirituality, and sort of, I guess like a reverence for the ancestors’ ancestral knowledge. But yeah, it's positioned in this sort of fantastical, futuristic realm. And, like, the value of that is that it's, it's just a really free creative space. Um, I think like, a lot of Black art gets, like, especially once it gets into the institutions, and you know, the high art galleries, it gets, at times, it gets, like, hyper literalized. And that, and that's cool because it imparts a lot of knowledge of, you know, African culture. And that's an amazing, important thing. But the flip side of it is that it can become somewhat restrictive. In terms of like, the, I guess, just the imaginary, the creative aspect of, you know, of art that I think a lot of people, a lot of just, you know, common people really appreciate. And Afrofuturism kind of like provides a platform for that type of art, that type of creativity that doesn't have necessarily a textbook definition. It doesn't have like a - it doesn't need to have like a super specific historical connection or historic context. It can, it can really just be a place of pure expression, much of the way that hip hop was like, in the late 70’s, and early 80’s. It was just kind of like a breath of fresh air. Where in a culture where people have become heavily jaded towards, you know, modern music and pop cultural music, it was just like this new voice that was just like raw expression. And I think that's kind of like what Afrofuturism as a genre is offering right now in terms of art creation.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Yeah, I mean, you mentioned a lot there. But two things that stuck out to me is like, just this sense of possibility that you have when you think about Afrofuturism, right. And that is the kind of fantasy part, but then it's not all just like something that's out of this world that's totally unattainable, because it is entrenched in this ancestral knowledge and in this self-knowledge of African peoples. And so I think, and we'll talk about this a little bit later on, but I think this is something that is like so needed at this moment, you know, for us to think about all the possibilities and all the strength and all the power and and knowledge that African peoples and African civilizations hold for us at this really kind of critical time. But I will circle back to that in a bit. Jessica?

Jessica Rayne Yeah. No, I just wanted to say, like, what you're saying Yemi is very important, I think because when we think about art as expression and a lot of the expression of our people could be sometimes, you know what I mean, a lot of community trauma, right? So a lot of questions through art sometimes are heavier or you know, kind of reflecting on that trauma and pain, often. But this - being able to experience this, and I know there's other artists out there as well that do this, but I mean, it's just Yeah, a fresh breath of air. It's inspiring. It's, it's unique. It's also trenched in kind of just your own identity, right? Like, there's something that it does when you watch, when you actually experience it, or you see your artwork around your African ancestry, right? So I think yeah, this type of art is definitely very important. Even people who are not so into, you know, the, I won't even say, futurism ideas, right. But what that, yeah - So, um, I wanted, Yeah, there's a few things there that I want to circle back on. So I guess, right now, I want to take it back to - you talk a little bit about your journey and how it wasn't really, you know, the straight and narrow path to becoming an artist doing what you're doing now. But I want to learn a little more about that. So what is your story? So take us back into like the time that you - what sparked you, your passion for the arts? And then what was the journey like actually becoming an artist? Because I know, for a lot of artists, even though they are doing their craft, or doing the work, they may not call themselves an artist until a particular moment in time. So just understanding what that's been like for you, and how you've defined yourself as an artist and when that took place would be great.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Sure. Yeah, that's a - and I totally get that. I think, like, I think everybody really is an artist. But I guess, not everyone is an artist for their profession. And like, not everyone makes a living at it. So that's how I defined it for my, I guess, or just the sort of definition that I made for myself. Like that my goal was to make a living off of my art. So that's, I've always felt like I was an artist, but like, my, one of the things that drove me the most was to be able to make a living off of that art. And that's, you know, that's definitely tricky. Like, my pathway, there was, um, you know, it started - like, my earliest memories are just, you know, sitting in my living room or sitting in my bedroom drawing. Like my mom was a nurse. Like, I grew up with a single parent mother. She was a registered nurse. She worked nights most of the time. So I would be at a babysitter all night. And then I’d come home in the day. She was sleeping and I had to occupy myself. We didn't, we couldn't afford a television. So I - like pen, pencils, and paper was like my go to way of entertaining myself. So like, that's literally like my earliest childhood memories. I drew and painted like a lot all through elementary school up until high school. I took a little break in high school. I got really into sports and like being an artist, like drawing and stuff, like it really wasn't cool. So I took a couple years off from that. But um, you know, like in my late teenage years, I sort of got back into it. I started a little clothing line with a friend of mine. And, you know, we would put designs on T-shirts and hoodies and stuff like that. And then from there, I got into sort of like, graphic design, web design stuff. I started messing around with like video editing. And it was just like one thing after another. Like I tried tattooing for a little while. And like I didn't, I didn't even get into photography until about the age of like, around 28,29 is when I really started taking photography seriously. And I do, like I honestly think that if photography didn't work out for me, like I probably would have just been like, okay, like, this art thing really is not meant to be and I just have to find another path. But, you know, again, like I just feel so fortunate that like the photography thing like - I guess it was just a lot of things clicked once I started trying to look at the world through a camera lens. Like a lot of things just made sense. A lot of the learning I had done in the past for other artistic disciplines, I was able to apply it, apply that learning, that knowledge much more effectively through photography for whatever reason. And that it just opened up for me and that was the beginning of me being able to support myself with my art. And like once I got to that stage, It just allowed me to put all my time and effort and energy into what I was doing. I didn't have to, like moonlight or you know, do it in the evenings or weekends anymore. I could just like do it all day every day. And that, I guess that was sort of like a turning point. Like, my sort of life as an artist is like, centered around continued learning. That always, I always want to be learning, I always want to be picking up a new skill or a new, you know, just like putting time and effort to developing something new. So that's kind of how I got from photography to the place I'm at now is just by experimenting on a consistent basis and just trying to add new things into the mix all the time. Um, but yeah, that’s the pathway in a nutshell, I guess. Like I don't know, I don't really know how else to put it. But yeah, it's, uh, it's been like a really interesting path. Like, I don't have any, I don't have any art, schooling. I never went to art school or anything like that. But it's just a lot of tutorials and a lot of asking questions and a lot of trial and error. And it worked out. I had a couple of mentors, especially with photography. One, off the top, was a gentleman named Taha Muharuma and he's a really dope photographer from Toronto. His Instagram is @tahaphoto. He's just like a really dope street photographer. And he reached out to me, like, out of the clear blue, like, really early on, when I was starting photography. He just saw me on Instagram and just reached out and said, like,”hey, do you wanna go out and take some photos one day?” and I met up with him. And he taught me like, a lot of stuff about photography, you know, just really informally. But it had a huge impact on my development. And another person I definitely have to shout out is Jimmy Chiale. He's like a, he's an abstract painter. He's done, like, his work is all over the city, it’s very, very noticeable. And he, like, he's been a friend of mine for a long time, as well. And just like, he just has this raw creative energy, probably like the purest artist that I've ever been around. Like, it just, it just really flows out of him. And he just always encouraged me to pursue it. Like he, um, I wouldn't call him a mentor from a technical standpoint, because what we do is just like way way different from each other. But from an ideological perspective, like, he was definitely a mentor to me, just in terms of like, just do it till you figure it out. And like his story is amazing, too. You know, he immigrated here from Paris when he was like, you know, in his early teenage years. He was homeless for a little while and he went from selling his drawings and paintings at the corner of like Queen and Bathurst, you know, to having his own gallery space in Toronto a few years ago. It's just been like, an amazing journey for him as well. And, yeah, he's just always, like, throughout the course of our friendship, he's just always been really encouraging and supportive.

Zoe Dille It's so inspirational, like, just to hear a lot of the things that you're saying, just to pick up on mentors - I mean, something we were, Jessica and I and others on our team were kind of just thinking about a bit - we were tasked with doing these introduction videos for, you know, some new students we were going to be working with, and we had some prompt questions, and one of them was around, like, “Who's your mentor? Or what's the importance of being a mentor?” And, you know, it just made me think a bit about all the people along the path of my life so far who have been important to me. So many of which don't even know they were a mentor to me, you know, or maybe were not the traditional, you know, “I'm going to teach you this craft, or I'm going to job shadow you,” it's just like, wow, I really aspire to have the values of this person or just kind of carry myself the way that this person does. So, super important. But, you know, so, first of all, I’m so not an artist. I'm still on the stick people. That's about where I began and ended my artistic - I'm creative in a thought kind of way, in a writing kind of way, but not anything I do with my hands or whatever. So to be self-taught, I always, you know, have a lot of respect for people who are able to, you know, have that as something that they just sort of pick up, as you mentioned. And then just thinking about you not having a TV, I also grew up pretty much without a TV, just because my parents were really stingy and they didn't believe in TV. Which I thank them for now because I got us all into music and just being outside and all of that, but to think about you, as a child being in the single parent home and almost you know what they call like a latchkey kid because your mom, as you said was working and you had like babysitters, etc… To being where you are now, where your work is really public, where you had this little - Jessica was gonna talk to you a little bit about the show she saw at Harbourfront that she did, but also your latest commission with the Raptors. Like, talk a little bit about kind of, you know, do you sit back at all and say like, wow. You know, do you have like a “pinch me” moment? You know, this latest thing, I saw your T shirt that you did for the Raptors and I was like, where do I get one of those? Which I'll still hit you up about later because I want one. But like how did that all sort of unfold? And you know, how do you feel about your work and being kind of connected to sports at this really pivotal moment with so much stuff that’s going on? And you know, Raptors I think are at the forefront of what's going on with NBA and social justice movement.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Yeah, honestly, like, again, um, I mean, this will become a theme throughout this conversation, I guess. But it's mostly, it's just gratitude. Like, I don't feel like a lot of like a direct ownership over my work. I feel like it's more of a process of channeling. So I'm just, I'm grateful when I get, when I get that inspiration and I'm grateful when it connects with people. I'm grateful when it resonates with people and I'm grateful when it finds its way into opportunities. Like the thing with the Raptors, you know, I'm, I, you know, obviously like growing up being super into basketball, I had like, I had the posters all over my wall. I had a big Damon Stoudamire poster on my wall. I had a big Vince Carter poster on my wall. So to go from that to, you know, to designing shirts specifically for the Raptors to where, you know, as you said, it like it is a super pivotal moment, you know, where they're not only athletes, but they're also embracing their activism and, you know, fighting for social justice. It's an incredible honor. And I'm so grateful to be here. But it's also, it's something that I don't like, I don't really think of it as my thing, as like I, you know, I have ownership over this action or this moment. It’s more just like I just happen to be like a conduit. I'm sort of in the right place at the right time to just channel some of these ideas and some of this energy and bring it over to this, this other space, you know. Um, so that's kind of, that's kind of how I look at it. And when I look at my life from that perspective, I just think of it as a very fluid experience. I'm not, I'm not super attached. Like I was 1,000% I was the definition of a latchkey kid, you know. I literally had a key on a string that I’d wear around my neck. But I like I don't think of it as you know, as this like, personal accomplishment really, like I don't. I just don't choose to view it that way. It's just, it's just more of a fluid experience. And I've had, like, I've had an amazing range of experiences throughout my life. I've been very, you know, growing up in a very low income family, like I've, you know, been to the food bank. I've, you know, had clothing donated to me. I've had that experience. And I, you know, I've been a youth worker. I've been in, you know, all kinds of communities working with young people across the city. And I've been in those experiences and I've experienced loss and I've experienced gain. And, you know, in the last couple years, I've had the great fortune, even to, you know, to get out of Canada and do some traveling. You know, I've been to Europe, I've been to Asia and just experiencing other cultures. And it's all just, you know, part of like one big fluid sort of existence, and I just try to focus on the gratitude of it, you know,

Zoe Dille Mm hmm. Gratitude is super important and just a way of life. And I think something that people are somewhat waking up to, and since COVID, right. So hopefully, it will continue. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's, again, you know, you reference the posters that you had and being into basketball, and then being able to do this. I mean, it must be pretty amazing. I know. I don't know, Mark, Mark Stoddart that well, but I know he's also an artist. We did a little work with him a few years ago on an event. So it was, just it was really cool to see that both of you guys, you know, were sort of tapped to - do you feel like it was your work? Was that like more of a personal connection? Were they just drawn to your work? Was there a process of submissions for that? How did, how did that unfold?

Adeyemi Adegbesan Well, yeah, like, I mean, I had a previously existing relationship with the team. Like I've been doing a lot of creative work for MLSE as a whole. Since say 2016 or 2017, I've been part of campaigns for like TFC, the Raptors, the Leafs, you know, even like I designed some of the season tickets for the Raptors last year. So like a lot of, a lot of different stuff like that. So they definitely were aware of who I was and what my style of work was. So I think it was just like, sort of like a natural connection when they, when this opportunity came up, and they started looking for people. And then, you mentioned Mark Stoddart. So I was able to bring Mark Stoddart in to work on this, on this project with me, and like, he's just, he's just an amazing artists. Like he's been, in terms of the Black community here in Toronto, like, he's, he's been a consistent presence, and a creative force in that scene, you know, since like it basically since like, the late 80s, you know, and, and also touching back on the concept of being a mentor, like, he's been a mentor to so many to so many young black artists coming up in Toronto over the past, you know, over the past 30 years, you know, so it was, it was amazing to be able to work with him on this project, because he's like, he's woven into the fabric of, of the black creative community here in Toronto. And it's just, you know, it's an honor to be able to work with him on it.

Jessica Rayne You know, you mentioned your community work and engaging youth and you work community work, outreach worker, prior to getting your out art out there and making a living off of your art. So if you can talk a bit about that, like, tell us a bit about the work that you did what you do in the community, in the past, but also how you're doing it now on your approach to working with you, and what's the importance of art and creating art for youth? And I don't know if that's, that is how you were engaging with youth prior. But yeah, if you can just share some of that with us.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Um, yeah, absolutely. So like, my educational background is actually in social work. I have a BSW from Ryerson. And that kind of led me into, like, you know - in school, my focus was always on working with youth. Like in a social work program, you're kind of, you're encouraged to sort of pick, like a demographic to, to center your learning around. So I just, I just gravitated towards youth, I guess. I guess, because, you know, when I started at school, like I technically was still a youth, you know, so I don't know but for whatever reason, it just made sense to me, and I just kind of, like, I kept going with that. It started from working, just like summer camps and stuff like that. And transitioned to working after-school programs. And then into the youth outreach work. And yeah, like, my main methods for engaging with youth were always either art or basketball. Like, those are the things that I knew and that I could be sort of like openly passionate about. And that was just like, that was just a huge thing. Throughout my experience, you know, being a youth worker was just to be able to be authentic with the youth that I was working with. Because that's one thing that I learned very, very quickly is that the youth that you're working with will know immediately if you're not being real with them, if you're not being authentic with them. It's like, they just have like built in, a built in like radar, sonar, whatever, that just, like, tells them right away. So I, you know, I could, like, show them something, like, you know, create, like an art program with them or something like that. And like, they could see how into it I was and how like open I could be about it and vulnerable I could be about it. And that would I guess allow them to connect to me. And that was, that was always like a main drawing point. And yeah, like the work - like a lot of the time it was just like general outreach work, like just trying to trying to develop programming that would bring youth into the centers to develop, like they have drop-in spaces that could function as you know, just a place to hang out, but also some programming that could impart life skills and you know, just help connect them to other resources that would help in their own personal developments. So, you know, sometimes that was - it was a lot of art, it was a lot of basketball. Sometimes it was cooking. Sometimes it was like trying to bring a speaker in from youth employment services to speak about financial literacy or stuff like that. And the last couple of years of youth work that I did, I transitioned into working with newcomer youth. So I was working with Access Alliance for a little while. And that was, that was really, it was a little bit of a different experience. It was really eye opening because working with youth that were, a lot of them were like, newly landed. Many of them were refugee claimants and so forth. So I got introduced to this whole other side of things, you know, seeing like youth coming into the center, and they've only been in Canada for like, two weeks or something like that. I actually, you know, I witnessed some youth getting deported. Like the pain of like, you know, kids coming into center, and like their friend is gone on. It's a Tuesday and all of a sudden their friend is gone. It's like, what happened? And like, Oh, yeah, people came to their house last night and put them on a plane, and they're like, they're back in, you know, they're back in Iran, or back in Syria or something like that. And so that, that really gave me a new sort of perspective on life and how much value there is and how much privilege there is in, you know, for me to be here, to be a Canadian citizen and have this opportunity. So yeah, it's just, it's again, it just speaks to the range of experiences. It's, it was really a very eye opening and very humbling experience.

Zoe Dille We were just chatting about gratitude before. And just based on what you've just said and everything you just said just now, as well as when you were talking, referencing sort of having to be authentic with youth, and how they can kind of sniff that out in a second when you’re not. But I would add that you know, empathy, having a lot of empathy, right, in your work as a social worker, and just as a human being. Like gratitude and empathy, they're good markers to steer you in being a good human being, right.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Absolutely, absolutely.

Zoe Dille So just I wanted to ask you, actually, because earlier you mentioned about hip-hop being kind of like this liberating and very free form, and just kind of full of possibility when it was initially coming up in the 70s. And kind of linking that to Afrofuturism, how we think about Afrofuturism. And specifically with the Afro, the way that you kind of remade various hip hop women like your Lauryn Hills and your Erykah Badus and all of that in your artwork. I wonder if you could just speak about what made you - I mean I love those two - but what made you choose like those particular figures that you worked with in your artwork? And you know, what is it about those women that kind of made you create the work that you did?

Adeyemi Adegbesan In a word, I feel like they're liberators, you know. I think music has been a huge influence on my whole life. It's been a source of inspiration. It's been a source of education. And when I do work around these musicians, I just try to honor people that have really had a profound personal impact on me. And through their own artistic creations, you know like Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu. Absolutely. I've done Fela Kuti as well, and a few others. And they're always just like people that I feel embody the same values, I guess, that I'm trying to convey through my work. So it's just trying to, like, sort of put those two things together. But yeah, like they, like those people have all been liberators. And I feel like the way that they live their life has been very unconventional, but just so profound at the same time, that it's just opened up a lot of space for other artists to come up in the footprints that they've created, you know. And that just means so much to me. So it's just like, it's just sort of like a way of honoring that, you know.

Zoe Dille I mean, listen, those women are fierce. If you throw on Lauryn Hill's Miseducation of Lauryn Hill -

Jessica Rayne Wooo! My fave! That was my first CD growing up. That was my first, I got a boombox, a CD player - I can't remember if it was my birthday or Christmas, but that's the CD that came with it and it was unbelievable

Zoe Dille Maaan, listen. I rinsed that CD. And Erykah Badu Baduizm

Adeyemi Adegbesan A hundred percent.

Zoe Dille Yeah. I mean, those women are so fierce. And so I was just gonna say like, if you throw on any of those ladies’ stuff today, you're like, Wow, it is totally on point. It sounds like it came out today. It still hits you in the gut, and you know, you're always gonna remember it.

Adeyemi Adegbesan A hundred percent. Yeah, it's really, it's like, it's timeless. Like, in the sense that it's a, it was, you know, obviously, it had a huge impact when it came out. But like you just said, like, when you throw it on it, you know, 20, 25 years later, it's still - Yeah, it has that same impact. And it's, it's wild to be able to imagine creating something like that as an artist. So, yeah.

Zoe Dille Definitely. I mean, when Verses, I don't know if you watch Verses at all, but when it first started, and they had Erykah Badu

Adeyemi Adegbesan And Jill Scott

Zoe Dille And Jill Scott, yes! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Adeyemi Adegbesan That was, that was definitely a moment. That was so incredible.

Zoe Dille For sure. For sure.

Jessica Rayne I wanted to ask a question around something you mentioned earlier in the conversation about like, us being like, everyone is an artist. And if you can elaborate on that definition. You said that's the definition you kind of work with. That everyone is an artist, but some people decide to make a craft out of their art. Can you share that? Like, what's your philosophy, more about that philosophy?

Adeyemi Adegbesan Well, like yeah. A hundred percent. I feel like everyone's an artist in the sense that like it, like having this innate creative ability is part of human existence. You know, it's part of, it's part of what makes a human, a human, I think. And I think everyone has that. Like, if you watch children play, like, most children have no problem, you know, if you give them some crayons and paper. Like, they'll do something with it, you know, before they're even aware of like what's good and what's not good, or whatever, like, evaluating it from that perspective. Like they can just innately produce something with those tools, you know, so I feel like everyone's an artist, on various levels. Like, we all have different things that we like to express, you know. Like, some people are musically inclined. Some people like to dance. Some people like to write. Some people like to draw. It really doesn't matter. I feel like gardening is an art form, you know. Like, it really doesn't matter. It's just, it's just how we express ourselves. Um, but yeah, like, there's a, I guess, a group of people that say, “hey, I want to take this to the next level, I want to do this all the time. And I want to generate the income that I need to live from doing this activity.” And that's just like, that for me was the sort of the challenge or the way I put it in my own head. It's nothing like, it's not to say that one person's art is more valuable, or more important. It's just like, I guess, taking on the added pressure and the added responsibility of figuring out how to make this as a living. And to be quite honest with you, like, I think for a lot of artists, a lot of young artists really focus on the craft and on the creative process. And rightfully so. Like, I think they, I think that should be the main focus, but I'll be honest with you. Like, I think the transition that takes you from, from that craft into a profession, a lot of times that transition doesn't happen because of skill level or because of creative output. A lot of times that happens because of just like, business acumen and work ethic and like really boring stuff that's, like, not fun to talk about. But like, that's one thing that I always try to impart on young artists when I'm talking to them or when I'm in a mentorship position. It's like, there's a lot of artists out there that make a living off of stuff that doesn't require a lot of talent, like flatly put. I'm not trying to shade anybody, but they have the, they've put in place the other aspects that you need to put in place to like make a business out of it, you know. And that requires as much attention, in some cases more attention than the actual creative process. Like I think it's, for a lot of young artists, it's a fantasy to just like, you know, do what you do and then just have somebody sort of come out of the clouds and say, “Oh, you're ordained as the next whatever. And we're just going to pay you like $500,000 a year to like to do this for the rest of your life.” But that's like, that happens about as often as people win the lottery, you know, or probably less so. So most of the time, most of the artists that you see that are professional working artists, they just, they found something that they love doing. And then they said, “Okay, I'm going to build a business around this. And that, like, a lot of the time that they spend, a lot of their weeks are spent doing like non-artistic things. But they just, they're just committed and focused to do those things to support the opportunity to, you know, to put their artwork out to share with the world.

Zoe Dille I think that's one of the takeaways, as you said, about anybody who wants to, whether you want to be a musician, or you want to be, you know, an artist, creative artist, is that, you know, like, at the end of the day, like, it is a craft and you have to put your time in to work on that. And to do that, like, you would never go out on tours as a musician and you hadn't rehearsed. Or you hadn't created new work, or you didn't, you know, have something. And it's the same thing, like you have to be always creating kind of new works. But at the same time, like if that is your, the way you choose to live your life and you want to just, you know, make a living and survive in this world, then you also have to put some time in and get serious about the other sides of, you know, having a business, like making a business out of your art. So it's not always as easy as you know, as you've said, as a lot of people maybe think that it is or that these sort of stories of overnight success, whether in music or in art, are few and far between. And frankly, I'm not sure there's such a thing as overnight success. Yeah,

Adeyemi Adegbesan Yeah. Exactly.

Jessica Rayne I know. You find out like the person that you're like, “Oh, my gosh, how did they do that so quickly?” Well, 20 years ago… you know, it always starts way back.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Exactly.

Jessica Rayne So I know, we got to wrap up soon, because we're almost at time. I have a question that just came out on the fly. Like, I just need to ask it. But in terms of the work - you know, I went to your exhibit at Harbourfront. And just thinking of the process, specifically around how, I'm assuming there's a lot of research that goes into this too and that you've probably been through a journey of kind of understanding your identity and just creating, you know, a connection to the motherland, Africa, in terms of all of the like – when I look at an image that you've created, I see, you know, a lot of the artifacts and the hair and the meaning of, you know, the tribal symbols. And so, just understanding what has that part been like for you, because I'm making an assumption here, that you must have done a lot of research and just in understanding, I mean, you know, history.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, I, like I've spent most of my life like just trying to understand my heritage and trying to understand, I guess like, African diasporic heritage in a broader sense, you know. I think like, you know, growing up without, like, a direct connection to my African ancestry, because my father is Nigerian, but he wasn't present in my life. So I like, I really had to undertake that journey, you know, on myself. Like, my mother was always super supportive and always encouraged me to pursue that knowledge, but like, I had to kind of come about it for myself. So a lot of it is, has been a lot of, it has been reading and, you know, seeking out connections in my community and just developing it on my own. And then when it comes out, when it comes out in the artwork, it's just kind of like drawing off all these reference points that I've come across along that path. It's kind of just like different synapses firing and I just, I just kind of tried to weave them together into like a coherent sort of visual language that kind of encompasses all of the things that I've come across that have had meaning on my journey and in my personal learning. And I like I don't try to present it in a way where I'm trying to replace the function of a history textbook. Like I never create a piece and say, “okay, like, you're supposed to look at this piece and it represents exactly this and this and this” um, that's not really where I'm trying to come from with my work. It's more like, I just want people to have more of a visceral like emotional reaction to it. A sense of maybe, maybe a sense of pride or at least a sense of curiosity, where they want to dig a little bit deeper. Maybe they'll see a symbol in it that reminds them of something that they grew up with. Or maybe they'll just recognize it and be like, “Wow, I've seen that like three or four times now and I really, I need to find out what that is.” And then they'll look into it a little bit more on their own and just realize, Hey, this is what that means. You know, that's an adinkra symbol, for instance, or something like that. And that's kind of, that's kind of where I'm coming from, with the work. It's a process of re-mixing. My actual, like, technical process is a process of re-mixing. And also like, from an ideological perspective, it's re-mixing, it's sampling. It's very similar, I think, in a lot of ways to what hip-hop music is, in that sense. It's a lot of small fragments woven together. But I really want the entry point to just be like a visceral emotional reaction. Like the same way that a song comes on, and you just feel it. You're like, this is dope. You might not know that the first snare was sampled off of, you know, like this soul record from 1960 or whatever. You might not know that off the top. If it really means a lot to and you want to dig into it, and you start, you look up the producers, and you look up all the sample credits and blah, blah, blah. Like that's, that's what the superfans do. And it sparks like a journey of musical knowledge, right. But that same song can also work for a person that doesn't want to go that deep with it. They can just feel it on like an emotional level. Like you know, “this is my song.” And every time it comes on, it's just like a head nod thing. And it just plays in the background and it’s just like, Yo, this is dope. And I want to be able to connect with people on that level as well. Like, that's really important to me because I feel like in the communities that I grew up in, in the communities that have been a part of in my life, not everyone had the bandwidth. Like I've been around a lot of people in my life that survival is like at the forefront of their existence. Like that's a primary focus, you know. I've also been around people where survival is not a word that comes out of their mouth, it's not really part of the vocabulary as well you know. And so I know what that side of it looks like, but a lot of the people I connected with, especially growing up, like survival was at the forefront, you know. And if that's where you're coming from, you might not have the mental bandwidth all the time to go that deep with a piece of art or with a song that you like. But I still want people like that to have something to connect it to even if it's just like on an intuitive level you know.

Zoe Dille You've just made me think about the Lauryn Hill picture in like even more of a different way when you're just talking about a re-mixing and sampling and this kind of layering and all these kinds of contexts. And it's just made me, in my mind's eye I'm seeing it like almost all over again. So that was really an awesome way to put it.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Aww that’s dope. That’s dope.

Zoe Dille And actually I just went to look quickly at it because Jessica and I both have a copy of one of your prints. So I just went, Yeah, it's like, I don't, I don't know if there is a title?

Jessica Rayne There has to be a name for it. So you had it at your event. It's the person who is like doing a shot? And then there's a dove flying over? What’s it called?

Adeyemi Adegbesan Oh yeah. The full title is Let It Fly (Prayer for a Black Boy - Reprise). And it was based off like a earlier work. Like, that's actually a photograph. Like the guy in the shot, like that was part of the photographic stuff that I did for that show. So like, I actually, I created his costume. We went out. I think we shot that last October probably. And I had him, I had him just like go through the motions of taking a shot and I took that photograph. The dove was added digitally later on. But other than that, it's sort of unlike, for instance, the Lauryn Hill piece is like all illustrative and collage work. But that particular piece, like is mostly a photograph. But it was based on an earlier piece that I did that was more of like a collage, illustrative piece. Like the concept of shooting the dove like a basketball. Um, and, yeah, it just, it just kind of speaks to that experience I have, you know, a lot of, I just feel like a lot of young men put, a lot of young Black men put like a lot of hope into these very, like tenuous sort of career paths. You know like, whether it's basketball, or another sport, or music or whatever. It's like these things that when you break the numbers down, it's very unlikely. But at the same time these things, they give us hope. They give us something to sort of rally around. They give us, like if you're trying to become a professional basketball player and it doesn't end up working out, it might still get you into a school. It might still get you, you know, out of a bad neighborhood. It might still make you that one student that the teacher puts a little extra effort into. Um, I don't know, like I've just seen just in my personal experience, like I've just seen it do a lot of things for a lot of people even if the overall dream didn't work out. It still provided some hope and some positive energy that helped guide that person to a better place than where they were at. Yeah.

Jessica Rayne Well, it is very inspirational this piece and I think like, it speaks to me in terms of just like, always take your shot. Like that's what it says to me. Like always - don't ever not take your shot. Amazing. So we are like, a bit over time. So we did you want to ask a few wrap up questions. Basically, I

Adeyemi Adegbesan A hundred percent, a hundred percent.

Jessica Rayne Amazing. So we are a bit over time. Zoe did you want to ask a few wrap-up questions?

Zoe Dille I think the only one, what's next for you Yemi? And like where people who are interested in checking out your stuff, not just online, but like, where could they? I know you've got some street art and stuff. So what would you suggest? What’s the intro to Yung Yemi.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Unfortunately, I think like a lot of what I have planned right now is going to be online for the foreseeable future and just kind of like a result of everything that's going on with COVID. It's been like put on pause, like a lot of in person - you have physical gatherings and especially in the art world, like planning for those things - like a lot of things are moving on online as a response. Um, so in the immediate future, it's gonna be probably difficult to see my work in person other than like, I'm doing a mural right now at Artscape Launchpad. So that will be there in a physical space. But outside of that, probably the best way to experience my work will be online. But I am in the studio full time like creating. Like, I'll be creating a lot of new work this fall and then once things open up a little bit, I'm sure that I'll be able to connect some opportunities to, you know, to do some new exhibitions in a physical space.

Zoe Dille And so going back to my Raptors T-shirt, where am I getting one of those?

Adeyemi Adegbesan Okay so the unfortunate truth about that is like these were designed specifically for the players to wear. So there isn't a plan right now to make those available to the public. It was just really for the players to have something to wear in the bubble in Orlando and to express where they're at, to connect to the movement. So the short answer is they're just not available to the public. And that's very unfortunate. But like, there's an outside chance that maybe they might do like a run later on to raise money for a charity or something like that.

Zoe Dille Okay. All right. I guess I have to suck it up for now.

Jessica Rayne Well, yeah. This was great. Yemi, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. And we're looking forward to, you know, how we engage in the future at Hart House through the Black Futures program through the Hip Hop Education Program, the Youth Access Program. But for today, we are good. And this was a great conversation. Thank you so much.

Adeyemi Adegbesan Absolutely. It's my pleasure. Thank you guys so much for having me on.

Jessica Rayne Thank you to our guest, Yung Yemi. Thank you to my colleague, co-host Zoe Dille. Thank you Braeden and Day for helping produce the show. And most of all, thanks to you, our listeners. To find out more visit harthouse.ca or follow us @harthouseuoft. We're here every Saturday at 7am on CiUT 89.5 FM. And we post all of our episodes under Hart House Stories on SoundCloud. I'm Jessica Rayne signing off as your host for today. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.

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fearofaherobrine · 7 years

Text

Roleplay Server Log #274

“A Present for Slender, Zoo Trip pt1″

[Splender] Enters Doc's house with Pinwheel in his arms- Hello?

[Doc] Is sitting on the steps smootching Deerheart-

[Splender] Sends out his senses and finds them and begins heading towards them- Hello? Doctor?

[Doc] Leans back on the steps and reluctantly releases Deerheart. -

[Deer] - Oh, hello Splender! And Pinwheel too!

[Doc] Waves- What's up guys?

[Splender] - Well I was wondering if you would be willing to watch Pinwheel for awhile. Sally would like to come for a visit

[Doc] Pinwheel? Is that okay with you? You can probably play with Crim some more.

[Pinwheel] - Cri?

[Doc] Yep. I'm sure he's around here somewhere.

[Pinwheel] - Cri! Cri!

[Doc] Well there you go. Looks like it's okay Splender. Give my regards to Sally and your bro.

[Splender] - Oh I will!- He puts Pinwheel down- Now behave Pinwheel

[Doc] Is nearly eye to eye with the small dragon since they're laying back on the steps- How's your day going Pinwheel?

[Pinwheel] - No

[Doc] Okay then...

[Deer] Giggles a little-

[Splender] Creates an opening and goes through-

[Doc] Calls after him- did she eat already?

[Splender] - I think so!

[Doc] Sneaks a hand over to scritch her ruff-

[Pinwheel] Stiffens and then relaxes with a little trill-

[Doc] Did you get a chance to play in the scratchy grass?

[Pinwheel] Trills and rolls over, accidentally falling down the last few steps-

[Doc] Sits up - Whoah! Careful! Are you okay?

[Pinwheel] Huffs- No

[Doc] Then I'll check on you. - Touches her gently as if examining her and then scratches her ruff with both hands.

[Pinwheel] Neck stretches out happily-

[Deer] - She's gotten much better lately

[Doc] She's getting more exercise, and the attention she needs. I think she was just full of energy and not getting to run around enough.

[Pinwheel] Moves away from the scratches to sniff around-

[Doc] I have an idea. - Xe pops out one of the floor blocks and replaces it with a grass block from the creative- How's that?

[Pinwheel] Goes right over to it and just starts rolling around-

[Doc] See? Happy dragon.

[Deer] - It's adorable how her second word is her friends name

[Doc] That too. I'm just glad she made a friend. Ironic that's it's the only other dragon on the seed with a venomous bite

[Deer] - I wonder if that's why they bonded...

[Doc] Who knows? But I don't want her to be lonely and mad. I know Splender can be a bit... overwhelming at times.

[Deer] - That he can be- Leans against Doc

[Doc] Threads an arm around her shoulder and relaxes against her- Best to enjoy the peaceful moments while they last.

[Deer] - Absolutely

[Splender] Is walking with Sally to LJ's circus, singing a silly song with her-

[Herabrine] Is playing at one of the little booths, basically squirting the targets with little streams of water from a nearby puddle.

[Sally] Gets quieter when she see's Hera-

[Splender] - Hello!

[Herabrine] Hi Splender. -Looks at Sally - Oh man... Is your brother visiting again?

[Splender] - Nope! Sally is on her own little visit! Do you know where LJ is?

[Herabrine] No Ej this time either? I bet Doc's feeling lucky then. Heh. I'm not sure. He's around here someplace.

[Splender] - Well then we should go find him!- He twirls Sally around a bit

[Herabrine] Flies up a little so she's closer to Splenders level and looks around- Okay

[Splender] Goes investigating through some tents until they enter the main tent- I still don't see him...

[LJ] Grins from above them and reaches down for Sally-

[Herabrine] Jinks back a little as his rainbow sleeve goes past her- Ha! Trickster.

[LJ] Grabs Sally and tosses her up into the air- Hey kiddo!

[Sally] Laughs happily-

[Splender] - LJ be careful!

[Herabrine] Ah, she's okay. A three block fall is only a heart and a half and she's got ten.

[Splender] - Still...

[LJ] - Ha ha! So what are you here for kiddo?

[Sally] - Papa's birthday is coming up!

[LJ] - Oh! That's right!

[Hearbrine] I thought Slender was like... ancient or something? I'm shocked he knows when his birthday is.

[Splender] - He doesn't, but he let Sally choose one for him

[Herabrine] Oh, so, gonna suprise him or something?

[Sally] - Uh huh! But first I have to find him a present...

[LJ] - And there's no better present finders than Splender and I!

[Herabrine] What have you gotten him in the past? I mean you can't get high tech right? Cause of the EMP?

[Sally] - Books and pictures!

[Herabrine] Hmm... Does his emp blow out redstone?

[Splender] - I wouldn't think so, the torch on CP's door has never had any problems...

[Herabrine] Does some gentle loops in the air thinking- We could make something then? What's a good 'dad' gift?

[Sally] Macaroni art!

[Herabrine] What's a macaroni? -chuckles- we could find him an amusing tie?

[Splender] Gives her a mental burst of macaroni art- I know brother will love anything you get him Sally

[Herabrine] Just floats there turning the image over in her mind - that's weird..

[LJ] - Let's see here, we might be able to find some books he doesn't have yet...

[Herabrine] I've never had a dad.... I'm just familar with the cliches... What does he usually read anyway?

[Splender] - Boring stuff

[Herabrine] Well that's no fun... does Slender actually have a sense of humor?

[LJ] - His own

[Herabrine] I get it... Okay here's a thought, what's his most common complaint?

[Splender] - Depends on the day

[Herabrine] Motions for him to elaborate-

[Splender] - It depends on the day and who's in the house. Some days he's grumbling over us, his brothers, or the damages done to the manor, or the SCP, or even how much food we're going through!

[Herabrine] Nothing to him personally? He's old, isn't he creaky at all?

[Splender] - Things like that don't really affect us until we get as old as our great grandfather!

[Herabrine] Giggles - I'm just imagining him first thing in the morning shuffling around in slippers and a robe....

[Splender] - He occasionally does! Especially if he's recently been in a more difficult fight recently

[Herabrine] Yeah... nobody looks good first thing in the morning.

[Splender] - And depending on how many bathrooms are functioning in the manor will determine how grumpy he is about the fighting in the hallways

[Herabrine] He doesn't have his own bathroom? Maybe we should get him a really tall toilet!

[Splender] - Oh he does, but the halls can get rather loud if the others have to share a bathroom due to them breaking some of them

[Herabrine] Sounds like you need someone to expand the house...

[Splender] - CP did a couple of times, but that's just how it is in the manor. Every room has it's own small bathroom attatched

[Herabrine] I was just going to ask, it would have been a wasted opportunity if he'd never been asked to build anything out there.

[Splender] - Well, we have some time to brainstorm so let's just keep thinking!

[LJ] Has wandered off with Sally to play at one of the stalls-

[Herabrine] You know... I've heard TLOT can use redstone to make stuff vibrate...

[Splender] - Like a joy buzzer?

[Herabrine] How about a whole chair? Like a massager thingie?

[Splender] Thinks for a moment- That is a possibility...

[Herabrine] Does he already have a huge chair someplace?

[Splender] - Oh yes, a few

[Herabrine] If you nab one, we can probably alter it.

[Splender] - Got it! For now though... Time to play!

[Herabrine] Well you have your choice. Me and Lj got everything fixed up. I think him and the kid got a head start on us too.

[Splender] - Oh that tricky clown!

[Herabrine] Grins- Hell yeah. He's a hoot and a half.

[Splender] - Will you be joining us?

[Herabrine] Sure! I was just killing time anyway. It's weird being in here. It's like when CP and I went out to torment BEN, kinda more detailed.

[Splender] - Oh yes! Well he is more real world based

[Herabrine] I can't touch my hair, I get all distracted... It's so much...

[Splender] - Ha ha! I'm sure you'd get used to it if you spent more time there!

[Herabrine] Yeah, maybe. I think I'll stick to astral projecting irl. I heard about the hell you gotta go through to stay out there.

[Splender] - It's your choice.

[Lie] Has entered the castle looking for Doc- Doc? Hello?

[Doc] Is keeping an eye on Pinwheel and making more rock candy- Well I'm popular today... - louder- Down here Lie!

[Lie] Goes on down and skirts around Pinwheel who is snoozing- Hey Doc, I was wondering if you had any more pastries about? We seem to have run out of them at my place

[Doc] Sure! I keep that kind of thing hidden around the house if Yaunfen gets hungry. Try the trunk by the anvil.

[Lie] Goes over to check- So I saw that you went back out again after we got the gun for Ever, what was that about?

[Doc] Shudders - Hg wanted a goat and I took him and Crim out to get one. It was my bad for going to a physics game...

[Lie] - What happened?

[Doc] Everyone that went got banged up from being flung around just trying to walk.

[Lie] Can't stop her laugh- And you brought something that physics breaking here?

[Doc] It's a live goat. Hg wanted it. It seemed normal enough and I haven't heard any complaints since he took it away.

[Lie] - So anything else of interest happen?

[Doc] Yes! I got menaced by some kind of monster! And we got the hell out of there pretty damn quick.

[Lie] - Monster?

[Doc] Shakes hir head vigorously - it was huge! With creepy spindly legs, and nubby horns, and it stuck a big blue tongue out at us!

[Lie] - ... Show me mentally?

[Doc] Thinks about it, but the memory is distorted by hir fear and the creature looks far more menacing-

[Lie] - Okay that didn't help... What color was it?

[Doc] Yellow, with brown blotches. It was so skinny and weird!

[Lie] - Did it have a really long neck?

[Doc] It did! Long and slender everything! - Holds hir shoulders - it was horrible!

[Lie] - ... How the hell did you run into a giraffe in a game about goats!?

[Doc] I don't know?! Is that what it's called: a gi-raft?

[Lie] Gives Doc a mental image of one- They are real creatures Doc

[Doc] Makes a small cry of alarm- They're real?!!

[Lie] - Yes, and they are plant eaters and relatively peaceful... Maybe we need to take you to a zoo...

[Doc] What's a zoo?

[Lie] - It's a place where humans gather animals from all over the world so everyday people have a chance to see what they normally wouldn't be able to.

[Doc] Looks thoughtful- is that... Safe?

[Lie] - Oh yes, in fact a lot of animals there are ones that were rescued as babies and unable to survive in the wild, or are endangered and need protection and help raise their numbers

[Doc] That sounds kind of nice... What's the catch?

[Lie] - What do you mean?

[Doc] I don't know, I guess I'm just having a bitter day.

[Lie] - Well we could go to one if you wanted

[Doc] It sounds nice but... - gestures to Pinwheel

[Deer] Comes back- Oh, hello Lie

[Lie] - Hello Deer

[HG] -come into the room looking for plant to water-

[Doc] Hey there Hg, come to give the vines a little sprinkle?

[HG] yep what are you doing?

[Doc] Making candy and watching Pinwheel sleep.

[Lie] - Were also discussing going to a zoo

[HG] what's a zoo?

[Deer] Smiles at Pinwheel-

[Lie] - A place with lots of animals

[HG] I want to see that.

[Lie] - Well it might be awhile since Doc is babysitting...

[Doc] Sighs- I kinda promised Splender...

[Deer] - I can watch Pinwheel

[Doc] Are you sure? I feel bad running all around out there and leaving you behind.

[Deer] - I'll be fine, go

[Doc] Kisses her- Thank you. Here, take these just in case- hands her some of the rainbow fruits- hopefully she'll sleep the whole time and never miss me.

[Deer] - If she does I'll offer to take her to Crim

[Doc] Then I guess I'm ready when you guys are-

[Lie] - Doc?

[Doc] Yes?

[HG] -I am ready-

[Lie] - Clothes?

[Doc] Wilts- aw nuts... I'll go change. - Traipses up the steps

[HG] do I have to change?

[Lie] Looks at HG- Do you have anything cleaner?

[HG] -looks at his clothes- no

[Lie] - I guess what your wearing will have to do then...

[Doc] Comes back down in a simple t-shirt, soft shoes and shorts- okay... I'm ready. Should I bring anything? I emptied my inventory by half.

[Lie] - Money and maybe some snacks... Oh! And your contacts.

[HG] -puts on his sunglasses-

[Doc] Makes a mean little smile- can't we take Cps credit card?

[Lie] - He already gave me a copy of it

[Doc] Woo! Jackpot! - puts hir contacts in- ready!

[Lie] Puts on her sunglasses and concentrates, opening a portal-

[Doc] Strolls through and looks around-

-They come out via a TV advertising some stuff, a short walk to the entrance of the zoo which has a bit of a line-

[HG] whoa that's a lot of people

[Doc] Smooths hir hair a little and takes a nervous breath at the sight of so many humans

[Lie] - Not really...

[Lie] Leads them into the line and it isn't long before they are at the front. Unfortunately there's a mother grilling the girl behind the glass for all of the Showtime's and animal walks being held that day-

[Doc] Gives the worker a sympathetic look over the woman's shoulder, and then mouths along with the loud woman just for giggles.

[HG] -giggles at what doc is doing-

[Lie] Nudges Doc as another line opens and they move to it. Lie buys three tickets and grabs a map as well before passing out the tickets- Here you guys go

[Doc] turns the little piece of paper over curiously and follows Lie

[HG] -hold his ticket- what do I do with this?

[Lie] Takes her ticket and scans it's barcode at the gate which let's her through- It's too show that we paid for entrance, it also tells the zoo how many people have visited that day

[HG] ah -follows lie-

[Doc] just trading with villagers and collecting data. That's sensible.

-The entrance to the zoo is large with trees and a large gift shop to the left-

[Lie] Looks at the map- Looks like the path is fairly circular, so which way do you want to go first?- A peacock struts past them

[Doc] Darts behind Lie to avoid the peacock

[HG] left?

[Lie] - Left it is then- She starts leading them that way towards an area marked for marine animals

[Doc] Keeps an eye on the peacock, worried it will follow them-

-The peacock chases after some spilled popcorn before a keeper can clean it up- -A building looms up before then and Lie pushes open the door where a wall of heat meets them. They are instantly thrust into the shallow waters of the tropics-

[HG] -is looking around with a child like wonderment as he follows-

[Doc] Is a bit self- conscious about hir glitch and ankle stitches showing and is watching the people around them for any sign of threat almost as closely as the animals - feels like a jungle biome in here

-There's a shallow pool with stingrays in it and a keeper standing nearby-

[Lie] - Well these are tropical animals

[HG] -points to the shallow pool- what are those?

[Doc] look at these guys, they look like moving lilly pads, all flat!

[Keeper] - These are stingrays, would you like to pet them?

[Doc] Are they okay with being petted?

[Keeper] - Oh absolutely, these guys are here for educational purposes. Normally they'd have barbs on the end of their tails, but they've been removed for safety reasons

[HG] -tries to pet the stingrays-

[Lie] Sticks a hand in the water and pets one-

[Doc] Aww, - Xe puts hir hands on the side of the tank to see better and twiddles hir fingers gently in the water

-The rays swim around in a circle, pushing themselves up against the wall looking for treats-

[Doc] Ghosts over one gently and says quietly- we all have to make sacrifices I guess...

[HG] -tries to pet all of the rays-

[Keeper] Reaches in and gently pulls one out to show the mouth on the underside- These guys are bottom feeders, that's why they look like this

[Lie] Giggles as one investigates her fingers-

[Doc] Smiles at their silly squared off mouths - even green sea pancakes gotta eat.

[HG] there little faces are so cute

[Keeper] - Yup, every animal has its role to play in the ecosystem to keep it running smoothly, that's why we have so many conservation programs

[Doc] Thinks fondly of Deerheart - take care of the land, and it will take of you...

[Keeper] - Exactly

[Lie] - Come on, we still have a lot to see

[HG] okay -follows lie-

-They step onto a slightly raised wooden walkway where tiny sharks swim below them of multiple species-

[HG] -looks at the sharks-

[Doc] looks down at them - those are some sleek looking fish

[Lie] - They're sharks, they've been around for over 65 million years. One of the most efficient predators there is

[HG] predators?

[Lie] - Animals that kill others to survive

[Doc] quietly- hostile mobs behind glass...

[HG] -watches the sharks swim-

-The next room is darker with a massive glass wall with several larger species of shark swimming behind it-

[Doc] Goes right up to the glass and looks up in awe-

[HG] they are huge

[Lie] - These guys are adults, and not even the largest types of shark

[Doc] Is watching a hammerhead sway back and forth as it swims- I bet they're still not as big as Basil though

[HG] -points at the hammer head- why is it's head flat?

-A lemon shark swims closer and opens its mouth near the glass-

[Lie] - I don't know, that's just how it evolved

[Doc] Looks at the lemon shark and lets out a small laugh before poking Lie- now that's a familiar grin, isn't it? - Xe shows hir own triangular teeth as Xe smiles at Lie playfully

[Lie] Smiles as well- Oh I just got a wonderful idea. I'm betting we can buy some shark teeth in the gift shop... Wanna prank TLOT?

[HG] prank him how?

[Doc] What did you have in mind Lie?

[Lie] - We go back, acting a bit panicked and say there was an accident and show him the teeth, acting like they came out of your mouth

[HG] what about fake blood?

[Doc] Pffft! Or I could make you a set of falsies with them and you could shock him that way, that's actually funnier since he gave you his energy.

[Lie] - I don't think they'd fit in my mouth...

[Doc] Hmmm. Let me think about it...

[Lie] Moves on to the next section, it seems to be an empty enclosure until something darts past the glass-

[Doc] What the?!

[HG] -looks scared-

-The shape comes back around and stops this time, it's a seal and it's looking at them curiously-

[HG] -eyes light up- awe it's so cute

[Doc] it's so chubby!

[Lie] - Well I think these guys are meant for a bit colder water- She looks behind them where there's a tropical fish display

[HG] -is still staring at the seal-

-A couple more seals swim into sight as well-

[HG] -waves at the seals-

-One seal turns a circle-

[Doc] Actually... This looks familiar too. Lie? Doesn't it kind of look like that black sea monster that lives near Dawn's island? If you stretched the neck out?

[Lie] - Kinda?

[HG] daw so cute

-A gate starts opening at the far end of the enclosure-

[Doc] What's going on over there?

-There's another tank behind the gate and from it a pair of belugas swim through-

[Doc] Okay, those are kinda weird. Are they runts? They're so pale.

[Lie] - Nope, those are a type of arctic whale

[HG] -is watching all the fish and belugas-

-The belugas swim around with the seals-

[Lie] - Come on, there's a lot more to see

[HG] -follows lie- there are so many cute animals

-They leave the aquarium and enter a more jungle like area, they can hear monkeys from the monkey house-

[Doc] That's a weird noise

[HG] what was that noise

[Lie] - Yeah, but they are related to humans- They pass a few bird enclosures

[Doc] Nods- humans do make silly noises. Especially when you surprise one- snickers

[HG] -is looking at the birds as they pass-

[Lie] Opens the for to the monkey house. In front of them is a picture showing them what different expressions mean to the monkeys and apes and a warning not to grin teeth at them-

[Doc] stone-faced, got it. Just like humans in that too... Little Misunderstandings can be such a huge deal.

[Lie] - Well these are humans closest relatives...- She looks over at some chimps playing- Specifically these guys

[Doc] it seems like saying I see the resemblance would be insulting...

[HG] -is watching them play-

[Lie] Moves on to the gorillas-

[Doc] These guys remind me of Buff. They must work out. - elbows Lie playfully

[Lie] - Yeah, these guys are one of the strongest

-There's some screeching behind them as a couple of tamarins play fight -

[Doc] Watches the monkeys cautiously-

[Lie] Reads the plaque next to the glass- Those are golden tamarins

-Another group of people enter the monkey house with kids and Lie ushers the others out. The next section is very African themed-

[HG] -is trying to look at everything-

[Lie] Spots something in the bushes- Awww, look at that

-There's a large brown bird under the leaves of the bushes and some cheeping coming from under her-

[HG] -point a the bird- what is that?

[Lie] - That's a peahen, a female peacock. And I think she has babies

[Doc] That's a girl peacock? Oh I get it. Camoflage for sitting on the nest and hiding it.

[Lie] - Yeah, and she's a bit smaller too

[Doc] Well best not to upset a mama with babies. We should go.

[HG] don't we have a peacock?

[Lie] - Yeah- She turns around a corner and in front of them are two exibits, one on either side. One houses the hippo's with an underwater viewing station, and the other houses the elephants

[Doc] Lots of chubby critters... Hey... why are those mammoths naked?

[Lie] - Because they're not mammoths, they're elephants. They are related though

[Doc] Oh... I think the mammoths are cooler. The fur cubes make nice blankets and cushions too.

[HG] -points at the hippos- they look friendly

[Lie] - These guys are the largest land animals there are... And those guys are one of the deadliest HG

[Doc] Do they step on people?

[HG] -hides from them behind lie-

[Lie] - Nope, usually trample, drown, or plain bite them to death

-One hippo opens it's mouth wide-

[Doc] Those are some big teeth.

[HG] -refuses to look at the hippos and keeps hideing from them-

[Lie] - Let's go to the underwater viewing station, we can watch them swim

[HG] no they scary

[Lie] - It's okay, we'll be safely behind glass. This is one reason why zoo's exist, so animals can be viewed without humans being put in danger

[Doc] Yeah come on Hg, we'll be quick.

[HG] -whines but follows because he doesn't want to lose doc and lie-

-They go down a few stairs and enter a viewing area that lets them see under the water. One hippo is sleeping on the bottom while another swims around a bit-

[Lie] - See HG? Nothing to be worried about

[Doc] giggles- They look kinda funny with all their floaty jiggly fat.

[HG] -is still a little shaky-

-The wall behind them is full of factoids-

[Doc] Pauses to read the notice and then looks closer to see if there are any baby hippos in the tank.

[Lie] - Looking for something in particular Doc?

[Doc] Kinda curious to see what the little ones look like. I bet they're cute.

[Lie] Reads the wall- Looks like they had one, and they have some pictures over there

[Doc] Goes to look- awwwwww

[HG] -is trying to keep away from the glass-

[Lie] - Maybe we should move on, HG doesn't look so good

[HG] yes I want to go

[Doc] Lead the way then Lie.

[Lie] Leads them out the other side and they're facing the elephant enclosure and they hear laughing-

[HG] laughing?

[Doc] Are they doing something silly?

[Offender] - Arc! Arc! Look! Look at the size of it!

[Arc] Groans and goes back to sketching-

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mitchellatrest · 7 years

Text

Tuesday Mornings - Adam & Mitchell

Where: Mousai Kitchens

When: Lunch time, 2/21/2017

What: A friendly discussion and some food.

With @fishchipsandmusic

Mitchell was in his usual grove in the Mousai kitchens, Tuesday just before noon and flicking through the theoretical work he'd be having the student's complete in his afternoon classes. Mostly. Otherwise, he was working on a salad, shaving fennel and onions in quick, equal measure. Cherry tomatoes had been roasted and blended into a pesto with sesame oil and red wine vinegar. And he had escarole wiling ever so slightly over salted and garlic'd water. The smells floating about the room were fantastic, and one of his favorite reasons for cooking and working with food. It was a blend, a melange that went so well, that kept him going. He hummed, reaching for a large bowl and glancing up, smiling lightly at the man in the doorway. "My my, Professor Crawford, to what do I owe this pleasure?

Adam knew it was going to go away soon. He had rested for a few days and he was taking the medicine, and the fever had been gone for several hours, but his body still felt achy and tense. He had been eating canned soup for the past couple of days, which wasn't ideal or as tasty as he'd like, but was enogh for a little while. Now though he had no more soup cans at his place, so Adam made his way to the kitchens in hopes to find any kind of warm comfort food. The smell that hit him made him smile tiredly and he leaned on he door way watching Mitchell move around doing his magic. "Why good morning, Professor Kwan. How are you today?" He said, coughing into his elbow for a moment before smiling apologetically "I was looking for some comfort food, everybody I talked to told me to come here and try my luck."

Mitchell heard the cough with a bit of worry, his eyes crinkling in concern. "Still under the weather I take it? Come in come in, sit. I'll see what can be found," he said, waving towards a stool at the counter. "I'm well enough, thank you. Making a quick salad for my self for lunch before classes. But if I recall..." he opened a fridge, smiling brightly and plucking a container from the shelving, "exemplar from last weeks class. Vegetable stew. Served with quinoa on Friday during class. This was my batch the students had to replicate." He fished out a pot, starting the reheating with a easy movements. "Been ill since last week, haven't you?"

Adam smiled, nodding with a small chuckle-cough. "Yes, what can I say, the cold must really like me." He shrugged, walking in thankful when he was invited, placing himself on a stool. "I'm glad you are okay, love. Wouldn't want you to get my germs too" he said playfully before frowning for a moment, watching him move around before smiling at the sight of the container "That sounds amazing, thank you... and yes, I think it started on Wednesday, Thursday maybe? I went for a run with Ten on Wednesday morning, that was really not a good idea... it was very tricky to teach a class about interpreting monologues with a scratchy throat."

Mitchell gave a commiserating wince, shaking his head. "Heinous. I'm terribly sorry that it's sticking around like that." He watched the other professor as he continued working on his salad, taking in the appearance, noting the pallor of the other man. "I can imagine. That sounds like a rough way to be for anyone, let alone someone on such a difficult topic." He flashed him a little grin. "Yes, I can imagine that a jog with the pup might have been a less than brilliant decision given the weather this week." He gave a teasing wink, reaching over to stir the pot. "Shan't be long now. Bless induction cooktops."

Adam smiled tiredly at him, nodding "Thank you, love. It'll go away soon, I hope. It never lasts more than a few days." He couldn't help but to smile at his words, leaning on the counter to watch him prepare the food "I ended up placing the assigment on the board and giving them notes very quietly after their monologues. It went well, but the begining of the class really did a number on my voice." Adam chuckled, shrugging almost embarassed "Ten is getting old, I feel awful when I don't let him have his fun when he has these... bursts of energy. He wanted to play and run and he wouldn't wait until we got to the park, so I figured there was no problem with some exercise... turns he's in better shape than I am." The wink made him smile "Thank you, really, Mitchell. I'd offer to help with the food, but we don't need anyone else sick around here, especially not you. I'd still like to repay your kindness though."

Mitchell huffed out a little laugh. "Hope is one thing, broth is another. I find the latter more useful," he said with a teasing smile, ladling up the soup and offering the bowl across the counter. He nodded, tilting his head before returning to his vegetables. "I think that's a fairly smart way of playing the class, especially if it's already begun. I trust your students were accommodating?" He gave a small sound of understanding, giving a quick slice to the last of the roots and transitioning them quickly to the bowl. "I've often heard that people feel guilty when they aren't indulging some of their pets needs and wants." He waved off the thanks, smiling and shaking his head. "No thanks needed. I'm quite happy to take care of whomever I can."

Adam chuckled at that, nodding along "I suppose you're right, yes. Broth is always welcome when you're sick. I've been living out of canned soup, and even though I appreciate Campbell's efforts, nothing compares to actual food." He smiled, reaching out for the bowl "Thank you, love" he said simply, humming at the smell "Yes, they understood and saw no problem with it, the class went well as usual, thankfully." Adam watched him with a smile, nodding "Have you seen his face? The puppy eyes, there's no way I won't give anything he wants. And in that case, I'll make sure to come over whenever I'm feeling under the weather" he said scooping some of the broth with a spoon and humming when the liquid warmed up him inside "This is absolutely delicious."

Mitchell gave a little laugh, shaking his head at the story. "Good in a pinch, but that does sound somewhat terrifying. And ridiculously high in sodium." He nodded along, pursing his lips as he reached for horseradish and a bit of cream and Dijon mustard, starting to mix them in a small bowl. "One of the benefits of this school is the dedicated nature of the students. They generally have to give more of themselves than the average students," he said with a little smirk, pulling his greens off of the steam. He started adding everything into the large bowl. "The doors at the SpoonRest are always open, especially to someone needing some homemade soup," he said with a laugh. "Thank you. It's one of my favorite recipes. A good standard, excellent for any repertoire. And it freezes well, so I always have some on hand."

Adam chuckled, shrugging "It was either that or leaving the house for longer than I needed, so I chose the cans." he watched Mitchell carefully, trying to understand what kind of mixture he was planning "You're right, yes. They're very passionate, the kids in performing arts. They make the efforts of pushing through a cold to teach worth it." He started eating slowly, enjoying every sip of the broth, humming every now and then "It's delicious. You really do magic in here. I only know a handful of recipes, just enough to get by. I used to eat a lot of take out back when I was in NYC. I have no idea where to start to make soup."

Mitchell gave a nod, completely understanding that situation. The days he was sick and bedridden were the worst, and utterly impractical for the running of his business. "Completely understand. Necessity is such a bear sometimes," he said with glance of aggravation at his salad. "Limits the creativity as much as the passion. But the students are a nice little infusion of that joie de vivre, no?" He flashed him another smile, watching Adam eat for a moment before finishing the composition of his salad. "Take out in the City is more than a little excellent. How can you never sleep without good take out at three am?" He laughed, finishing the toss and plucking a fork from the counter. "Start with a good base. I could teach you, if you would ever like."

Adam was still smiling while he watched him talk, leaning his head on his hand at some point "Exactly. I don't know about the Culinary Arts, but the Performing Arts kids have this... energy... like they're living the dream after each class, it's really inspiring." He said with a smile, waiting to see if Mitchell would join him for early lunch. "Right?" Adam chuckled "I just got really spoiled, and I happened to live near some really good restaurants. I don't know any restaurants around here, though I don't think I'd need them so much with the level of the food in the cafeteria." He grinned, resting his spoon "I'd love that. Though probably when I can stand and move around the kitchen for over ten minutes without pain. I've been told that I should rest for a little while... but after I'm better I'll surely take you up on that offer, Mitchell."

Mitchell moved around the island, pulling out a stool and sliding into a space near Adam with his bowl. He chuckled, spearing a few veggies as he listened. "Oh I see some of that passion and energy. But there's an arrogance there as well, especially when they walk into my third year courses. Makes me swing for the knees a little bit." He chuckled and nodded, munching along as he listened to the other man, nodding in a bit of agreement. There wasn't much to do in terms of dinner in the town. Other than his little place of course. "I'd be happy to do so. I've often wondered if a cooking club would go well in this school for those that aren't in the Culinary track. The rudiments of being an adult and all that," he said with a teasing glance. "Yes, when you're better. First rule of working in a kitchen is not when you are infectious."

Adam smiled when the man sat close to him, now halfway through his soup "Oh yeah? I'm not sure, the classes I'm teaching this semester are just from the first and second year, so they're all still fresh and impressionable" He chuckled "But I can see how they'd get arrogant as the time passes. What do you do then, when they act out?" Adam wondered, humming around his spoon. This was literally the best meal he had in weeks now. "Oh, I'd sign up for that in a blink. And I'm sure you'd have plenty of people interested, so it may just be a great idea, love" Adam smiled honestly, chuckling and blushing slightly, embarassed at his last few words "Oh, yes, I suppose so. I'm sorry I came here like this, I really... didn't know where to go apart from here."

Mitchell gave a laugh, shaking his head. "Yes, I understand that's how so many of the bright-eyed kids are in the first year. Even in Culinary apparently." He shrugged slowly. "But we cultivate a level of...ego I suppose? Chefs do in general. I'm there to break that, somewhat." He chuckled and raised his fork to his lips. "I show them what their knowledge is, and how it is applicable. And how it isn't." He shrugged a shoulder, poking at a piece of fennel with a thoughtful look. "Indeed? I'll have to look into that. They quashed my desire to do wine tastings rather quickly, so it would give me something outside of work and the internship." He gave a little laugh, shaking his head. "Oh I didn't mean here. Well...alright it's not the best choice, I will need to get out the Clorox. But it's especially necessary in a commercial kitchen. Health codes and all that jazz."

Adam smiled at him, interested when Mitchell started talking about the Culinary kids. "That makes sense. I'm sure you can remind them of being humble in no time. Back in Performing Arts kids are more... competitive than egotistical, really. Which is good, to an extent, since sooner or later they'll be competing for roles, but... it's important to remind them that loyalty and kindness is more important than the backstabbing they'll see once they're out in the world." He sighed, focusing on the lukewarm soup for a moment. He chuckled when Mitchell mentioned wine tasting though "Uhm, possibly because some of the students are underage? And it's not encouraged to drink alcohol on campus?" Adam said with a playful smile of his own when he saw the man smiling "I'm sorry for the trouble, then. I imagine the health code must be really strict while in kitchens like this. If I don't get better in the afternoon I'll probably get someone to cover for me, I really don't want to get the kids sick."

Mitchell chuckled, nodding lightly. "We try. The professional kitchen is a rough environment. Though it doesn't seem as rough scrabble as the acting environment." He winced a mite at the notion of backstabbing, knowing well enough the sort of people that rolled into that sort world and flourished. "You might honestly have the more difficult job then, instilling that comradery rather than my ego busting," he replied. He sighed, waving his fork around somewhat dramatically. "Oh that entire rule baffles the mind. How can you run a culinary program without teaching about spirits? Wine pairings, Adam. Pairings!" He flashed him a smile and shook his head. "Oh think nothing of it. We're not so stringent here as there's no public consumption coming from these kitchens specifically. We do teach industry standard cleanliness of course, but we're only cooking for ourselves. Not each other." He smiled and took a few more bites, enjoying the conversation.

Adam tilted his head, leaning his chin on his hand, watching him with interest now "Is it really? I supposed I never really stopped to think about it... Oh, well, unfortunately, the words show bizz doesn't have a bad connotation for nothing." He shrugged, chuckling lightly "Two sides of the same coin, I'm afraid, equally challenging. The backstabbing happens when one thinks they're better or more deserving than another, and the cycle goes on." Adam smiled, chuckling amused at the man's reaction to the wine tasting problem "I understand, and I agree with you. A couple of years ago I was invited to tutor this theatre group, back home. It consisted on mostly highschool kids and they wanted to perform Spring Awakening. Two weeks into the rehearsals the project was shut down when the parents realised there was a sex scene in the play, which was too important to cut... turns out the peope in control don't always understand what our art is about, do they?" He said, smiling almost automatically when he saw Mitchell smile, nodding and scooping what was left of his delicious soup. "That makes sense. In that case, I take my apologies back."

Mitchell nodded. "Especially if the head chef is from a French culinary background. Lots of shouting." He gave a little snort of amusement, shooting Adam an amused glance as he worked through a bit of fennel. "Ah, breaking a cycle does seem to be one of the worst things about it. And the toughest to changing an environment." He flashed him another grin, nodding, rather glad someone understood. "A rather apt analogy," he replied, a hint of sardonic amusement coloring his voice. It always seemed to happen that way, the conflicting definitions of what was art. Though that was a far more serious conflict than his quibble about wine. "Exactly, no need to worry. I've had someone with an un-diagnosed allergic reaction projectile vomit across the counter before. That was an experience. This is nothing."

Adam actually laughed at that, wincing when the movement made him cough, which he promptly tried to hide in the crook of his elbow, looking away for a moment "I'd expect chefs from Italian backgrounds to be loud, not French, really." He nodded with a smile, finishing his soup and resting the spoon on the plate, not making any movement to leave. "Exactly. It's really amusing for me, to see how similar yet different the subjects we teach are. Competely different areas still face the very same issues." He shrugged before wincing at the though of someone projectile vomiting in the middle of a class, his stomach churning at the mere idea "Oh, I can imagine. Thankfully nothing like that that happened in my classes so far... though people ever so often do pass out from exhaustion or lack of sleep or food or something in between during intensive courses, it was very common back in my days."

Mitchell gave a little wince of sympathy, moving quickly to fetch a bottle of water for the coughing man. "Oh they all yell really. I think it's just a habit of chefs. Luckily, I'm a cook." He flashed Adam an easy smile as other man finished his bowl. He kept working on his own salad with gusto, enjoying the flavors. "I rather agree. It's quite a lot of overlap with anything that could be characterized qualitative or artistic subjects. Remove the data and it all goes a bit squiffy." He nodded lightly, mirroring his look of pain at that notion. "We've had the occasional faint due to the heat. Try to keep our eyes open and on alert for that. But it's the cuts that are most common here. And the burns." He nodded again, spearing a particularly tasty bite and smiling. "Does it ever feel like classes were harder when we were there age?"

Adam smiled thankful when the water bottle was given to him, opening the cap and taking a few gulps right away, hoping for the goddamn insistent cough to go away already. He chuckled rolling his eyes fondly when the man said he was a cook, not a chef "Of course. You're not one of the loud ones then? Because I can't really picture you running a class, or an industrial kitchen, with all the noises going around, while being quiet, love" he teased with a small smirk. He nodded along to his words, leaning his cheek on his hand, watching Mitchell with interest, wincing at the thought of people getting hurt "Oh, I haven't thought about that... suddenly this place looks like a potential factory of injuries." Adam paused for a long moment, considering his question before nodding slightly "I think back then... the professors were a lot more worried about sticking their knowledge to our brains, not so much on developing our own talents... which is something I strive to do. It was harder to just adjust to a premade mold back then than to find your own path nowadays, I believe... at least on the field of arts. Was it like that for you too?"

Mitchell gave him a commiserating look, knowing how much a cough that lasted could utterly suck. He chuckled at the eye roll. "Oh no, it has nothing to do with the volume. I can shout with the best of them. Better than in Mandarin." He smiled, a flash of an edge to his lips. "Chefs go to culinary school or were formed in kitchens. I never did. I'm a cook. Some people stand on that distinction. I exploit it." He shrugged, stabbing at the last of his salad. "Oh it absolutely is. Cuts and burns are the marks of a working cook," he replied easily, a gentle smile flickering across his lips. "We all learn a little First Aid." He listened to Adam, pursing his lips and nodding slowly, pushing his bowl away and giving a thoughtful little frown. "That does make a fair amount of sense. I think so much of what I do is try to foster a sense of breaking through the barrier that technical skill can give. Sure, you can do a perfect brunoise or never overcook a steak. But what makes that anything special?" He waved a hand lightly. "That's my purpose I think. Challenge the point where skill ends and creativity should begin."

Adam chuckled slightly, raising a brow at the answers he got "So you speak Mandarin? As someone who can barely speak proper English, I think that's seriously amazing." He offered a smile, humming and nodding along when Mitchell explained about the difference between cooks and chefs "To be honest, I never put much thought to it... I guess it all goes back to knowledge and wisdom, right? I read somewhere that knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit and wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Which is more important in the end, huh?" He said getting to his feet when Mitchell pushed his bowl away, picking both bowls and utensils and heading towards the sink. Washing the dishes was the least he could do after such a nice meal and great company. "You know... I really like the way you think, Mitchell." he said simply with a small smile as the water started running and he started soaping the dishes.

Mitchell nodded, flashing him a grin. "Grandmother was a very tough teacher. French was easier by comparison." He laughed lightly, nodding at the analogy and agreeing with it completely. "Quite an apt description about the situation," he replied, watching the other man take the dishes, murmuring his thanks with a touch of concern coating his voice. The man really didn't have to exert himself. And then he said that. He blinked owlishly, looking over at Adam with a bit of a shocked gaze. "That's...quite a complement, thank you Adam. I return the sentiment. You've a refreshing approach to teaching. At least from my perspective. I'll have to come sit in on a lecture sometime, if you'll permit."

Adam tilted his head to the side "Wait, so you speak English, Mandarin and French? Are there any more hidden talents I should know about, Mr. Kwan?" He teased with an amused smile. Adam worked on the dishes slowly but carefully, making sure everything was cleaned before setting them to dry. He could see Mitchell's worried expression in his peripheral vision and he wanted to assure him he was okay, though unsure how to do it without sounding full of himself in the case he had read him wrong. So he stood silent for a moment, turning to smile at him when he heard his voice again "Why, thank you. You're welcome whenver you'd like. Though I must warn you, we move all the time, we speak loudly and you must be prepared to laugh quite a bit." He dried his hands and turned to face the man, leaning back against the sink, some of the color back on his cheeks now "That was a truly delicious meal. Thank you again, Mitchell. You were very kind and your company was truly appreciated."

Mitchell laughed, shaking his head. "I speak English and Mandarin. I get pitied in French," he replied, amusement in his eyes. And the act of him washing up was a nice gesture as well, one that the ill man really didn't have to undertake. He shook his head, watching Adam's back as he worked and turned. He smiled at the invitation and warning, moving to stand and straighten his outfit. "Duly noted and taken under advisement. I'll confess to never having involved myself in an acting class before." He laughed softly and moved to start tiding up the last of the ingredients he used and pulling out clorox to start the clean up. "It was indeed my pleasure, Adam. I'm glad I could help and could catch up." He flashed him an open smile, glad that he'd put some life back into the other man.

#para: tuesday mornings #p: adam

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ruizbrooke89 · 4 years

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I Want Ex Girlfriend Back Astonishing Unique Ideas

The good thing is to be honest with each other during these 30 years, have you?I have got something serious to tell you that can't be very beneficial.Explain why you aren't alone in your ex back.You say you are in this predicament, again because the temptation to call her, ask her out and do not make things worse, it also has the right action.

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* Went to places together and you can always be a challenge to get your ex dumped you in the course of action, you will give you a new, sexy outfit.How long it will be glad to hear their voice and they hear you say these words of support usually fall on deaf ears.If you are and if you are thinking that someone else and flaunting it in words-show them.Find out the cause was that caused the argument, then make an effort to get back with your ex come back, the first place and try using this advice, I got my ex just how things work out:Next, once you do this, you need to stick to facts rather than bury them.

Let her get to know what to do some research into the relationship can be tricky, but you don't have enough room.I soon realised that this will involve how you were facing while married then getting your ex back isn't a seduction, but at least the first instance if doing that you're willing to go out with them and because of other people told me he wanted to be with then their advice on how mad she is worth it and make you enjoy and you want to sit back, relax, and wait until she feels without you in the past, then it is very rare that a relationship is over.Only then might Melanie start to miss you, especially if it means the two of you become more adventurous.Let her wonder what you have kids and that includes your ex.After some time to be calm and cool appreciation for your specific situation.

Your ex will want you to change - even though you know I appreciate what you are ready to make him want you back.Bob had completely blown any chance of turning things around.The dog will be a good relationship can be saved.Here are 3 easy secrets to be able to make a fool of myself.This gesture of yours will almost certainly going to need to focus on the reasons you should try to go from breakup to makeup you need to know which mistakes you develop a friendship over time if used correctly, will make him/her very anxious to get your ex another call to see you angry or depressed.

Allow some time to think about whether or not you are mostly seeing quick psychological tricks.Give her what she has left you for good this time.I know, you are both in this situation cannot help you.When it comes to winning back an ex back does not help you while you can get you back.This is where the man and you realize once you've managed to get your ex time to seek counseling, while others will see that you have the second, third and fourth move techniques.

I just couldn't believe that in any conjugal relationship, their female partner still needs to start missing you after reading this article, so I thought possible.This is not being with you unexpectedly, it can bring two of you are about to reveal and I don't think just because you did when you broke up with you?But what can we do in your breakup, it is going to take you back.She'll be so demanding, you may get another shot.Equally important is to change when you see him, but do your ex back advice online, you just need the time you have to learn how to get my girlfriend back.

But, make sure that you ever really listened to you.So what should you look like you have to let her walk all over again.And if those failed too I didn't have to go about doing it before, so it is colossal.The trick to get and let the other night.Do you feel and know that you can't have easily.

Zan Ex Back

If you fumble here, you might end up not because you really want your ex back in our lives.Show her that you did when we finally met.Your strong feelings may be well on the part of this core reason.He had been expecting you to act like the world who have recently separated from your ex back and keeping your distance from a person has asked themselves.When her or just being friends for proven ways for getting your ex back because emotions are going through a break up don't stay together.

Or maybe he doesn't even bother to apologize for.Hundreds of sensible Young men and women are not being with you in their mind.Then set up a time they turn you away further.It could be a tough job on yourself and take advantage of your relationship?It's very frustrating, especially if you lay off for a while and not the image that you need to know how to get her back.

She may not be the go to clubs and let them know how hard this is the right things for their partner can't deal with a plan of action.You need to practice the art of seduction.It comes across from his writing that he & Meghan were going out, one of the problem.A breakup story is that 90 percent of break ups happen in their relationships.But you also need to avoid following your heart and really want to get your love back.With that in just three days before our first anniversary.

Where do you let go of the good news is that if she has to say you're sorry, in the beginning.When your ex back if she won't like this at all - the pain away.After having dumped Jaime, Amanda finds out that on how to get your ex-boyfriend back.Summary: These strategies work - especially if you don not feel sorry for you.Have you been looking for the initial conversation.

It seems as though the quality of advice on how to get your ex back after you dumped him.No matter how sorry you are, just like I am asking myself why did we break up.She needs to start working on getting an ex back is if you're uneasy, try not to do in order to get a reaction.While you want to confide in someone and no one needs that kind of deal.However there are a couple of conversations you have.

I was so desperate that I may know what I'm talking about.Don't sulk in the hundreds of text messages, if he wants to know why you haven't given up.Do not think like that can be classed as stalking, and that is only going to be more happier and thinks you have done some good research and find out.Act like you're still in-love and scared that you care and how you're feeling.Do you just as you have to go out and try to believe something that comes easily because you will still be fine even after all of your computer.

Ex Boyfriend Came Back Then Left Again

#I Want Ex Girlfriend Back Astonishing Unique Ideas #How Do I Take My Ex Husband Back To Court

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notjustagirltattoopodcast · 4 years

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Not Just A Girl: Divine Feminine

You can listen to the tenth episode with Swasthik Iyengar here. Or you can find this interview on YouTube with English subtitles/closed captions here, there is no footage for this episode so you'll find a slideshow of Swasthik's work instead.

NOT JUST A GIRL: Tattoo Podcast

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Season 1, Episode 10: Divine Feminine

Eddy: Hello friends. Welcome to Not Just A Girl, the tattoo podcast where every week I speak to socially conscious tattooers about their lives and art practice through an intersectional feminist lens. I'm Eddy and thank you for joining me for episode 10. Today, we'll be discussing cultural influences, family and spirituality in tattooing. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are the traditional custodians of this land that was stolen and never ceded. I am honored and grateful to be on the ancestral land of the Awabakal people. And I pay my respects to the Elders past and present and extend my recognition to their descendants.Today I get to speak with the resplendent Swasthik Iyengar. She works at Trailer Trash tattoo in Brisbane with Mimsy who featured in a previous episode, Swasthik's work really tells a story. It consists of clean, bold lines, strong, bright colors with imagery and symbols that are imbued with her spirituality and history. I'm so excited to chat to you today. Thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. Swasthik: Thank you. I'm pretty excited and nervous. Eddy: It's so nerve wracking doing an interview. Swasthik: It is definitely. Yeah. But thanks for having me. Eddy: Absolutely, well, like we've talked before about how tattooing runs in your family in India, and I'd really love to know more about that and how it's shaped your own practice.Swasthik: Yeah, absolutely. Um, So, Nan. I'm from the South and Nan, um, is in Chennai and she's been tattooing for over 40 years now. It's a little bit different over there. It's not like you, um, have an apprenticeship and yeah, and you, you start painting flash, it's, it's sort of like you get initiated. Or, you know, it runs in the family and it's usually because it's, um, for, I would say initiation markings or if someone's really sick. Um, and they went and saw a medicine healer. Um, they would come to see my Nan and get, um, certain markings on their body to try and, um, help them get cured. Um, So women, young girls going into womanhood, um, would get markings and would come see my Nan. So it's, it's such a special thing. It is, it's really special.Eddy: Wow, so there's alot of power behind the tattoos. Like they're a form of medicine. Swasthik: Definitely. Yeah. Eddy: That's incredible. Swasthik: And she makes her own medicine too. Um, like growing up over there if my, if I had a really sore belly, I remember she would put…which is like this white paste and she'd put it, she put it on my belly and, um, In like in a couple of hours, um, my stomach ache would go, so it's all really old there. It's really sort of traditional and it's old when you're, when you're out in India. Um, this there's not really any access to going into town or getting Panadol. Um, everything's sort of natural and organic. Um, so yeah. That's Nan.Eddy: That's amazing. That must be like being self sufficient in that way. And learning how to take care of yourself from the earth is such a powerful thing. Swasthik: It's special. And it helps me today. And I think it'll help me for the rest of rest of my life. It's it's um having that connection to the land, the ancestors and my gods. Um, my, my elders. Is um, It's shaped me as a person from, from such a young age and then moving to Australia. Um, and it's shaped my practice in, in with everything, not just tattooing. Um, yeah, so. Eddy: I feel like you can really, you can really read a rich history in, in the work that you do and see that those symbols you use are very personal to you. Swasthik: They are they, are I, um, with some, some of the Indian pattern work I do like the Kolangal Kolam is all things that, um, I would see Paati my Nana, um, and also my aunties and my, my sisters, my cousins. Would always, um, draw these patterns with organic powders and dirt in the sand, in front of the houses, they all have different meanings too. Like it depends on if there's a festival during that time, or if you're inviting a particular God, like say you're trying to invite baby Krishna or Ganesh, who is the remover of obstacles, or perhaps it's a full moon. And so, um, all the symbols, um, I just. I think it's just learnt behavior, you know, it's just like, it's just memory etched into me. And so, um, and just thought... instead of drawing or painting things that I'm not familiar with, maybe incorporating some of this stuff into my practice. Um. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: Might yeah, I don't know. No, no, it might just, um, help me or. Yeah. Yeah. Eddy: It brings something really special, I think, to tattooing because I've never seen at least you know, in my experience and in what I know about Australian tattooing, I have not seen the kind of imagery that you bring and it's very, very special to see something so powerful and so new, but so old at the same time.Swasthik: Thanks. Thanks so much, Eddy. It's. It's, you're making me nervous now. Um, yeah, I don't know. It's like, I guess I'm I still try and make it so that it works alongside, um, principles of tattooing. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: You know, but, um. Eddy: It definitely has elements of Western traditional like with the strong, bold lines, the use of open skin and saturated colors.Swasthik: Yes. See, I see it like, I think during my apprenticeship days, like I was painting flash and I was redrawing Sailor Jerry, and. Eddy: Awesome. Swasthik: And all of, all of that stuff, you know, painting Sailor Jerry flash, and, um, So that sort of taught me and still teaches me, like, I still got to do color studies hey, like I can't just paint or do stuff from the top of my head.Eddy: Same.Swasthik: Things like things take way longer. Yeah. Yeah. I can't, you know, so, um, I think I've sort of try and keep to that and by having that and practicing that I sort of instilled, trying to attempt to like fit my, um, imagery or the Hindu imagery, um, and traditional pattern work, um, within that sort of American traditional or traditional tattooing context.Eddy: Yeah. It works really beautifully. Swasthik: Aww thanks Eddy. I'm glad you like it.Eddy: With the imagery you're using, like, you know, this kind of visual language, has that been something that's inherited from your grandma. Is it something that it's more just used broadly within that religion? Or does your family create their own or have you created your own? Swasthik: Yeah, I think it's like all of the above, to be honest, I think the imagery comes from temples from Hindu stories. Um, people adapt when you go to every, when you go to people's houses in India, there's obviously like the common thread of particular rituals and, and having the images or having a particular style of God or setting it up in a certain way, but people might adapt drawing the traditional Kolum them differently, depending on, um, who's taught them or, or how they like it. And I think, um, Some of the spiritual stuff, um, that, that I've done just comes from meditation. Um, it's not necessarily, um, a depiction of an exact story, but a couple of different elements intertwined into sort of one painting. So I meditate like all the time. A lot. So I sort of get to see these things sort of come up randomly sometimes like even when I'm sleeping at nighttime, I'll just have weird dreams about it and I'll remember it or wake up and write it down and start a new day. Start, think about a new painting for the next day. Eddy: I really love that idea of you finding the images like inside yourself, because it's just such a strong connection and it's so much more authentic and powerful. It's yeah. It's something that I think a lot of us could learn to do like using meditation as a way of finding ourselves in our artmaking.Swasthik: Yeah. It's so hard. Hey, it's like what I was saying to you earlier, like I think, um, meditation is just as hard as as working out. Say if you want to, you know, tone up that doesn't happen overnight. And I feel like with meditation, with me, I'm still struggling. You know, even though I've done it for so long, there'll be moments where I don't meditate and trying to get back into meditation is very tricky. Um, but through meditation and through yoga, I do a lot of yoga as well. And just eating healthy and I can start to, um, chat, like I can start to bring in higher sorts and put, like just organic thoughts sort of come to me naturally. Um, when I'm in sort of a peaceful state, you know, of kind of a quiet state, a focused state. Umm when I don't meditate, I feel like my thoughts are kind of scattered and I'm a little bit stressed. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: And that doesn't help my tattoo practice either. Um, so Eddy: Cause tattooing's already so stressful. Swasthik: So highly strung hey, every tattoo seriously. Um, yeah. It's um, I dunno, it's a special, everyone's got their own meditation too. Like I think so you you'd have your particular meditation. Like I think even doing art is a meditative practice because you're sitting there drawing for, you know, some people can draw stuff so quickly. It takes me about when I'm working on a big painting, it takes me like two days to do all three days to draw. And then another week to paint it and it could be the most simplest subject matter, but I think that process is still meditation. Eddy: Yeah. Yeah. It's a very slow and measured process for me too. And I, I was oh we were talking earlier, but I mentioned how I didn't even realize that I actually do kind of use meditation in my process. Like I just hadn't put that word to it. Like every single tattoo I do before I do it. I kind of, while I'm doing the line drawing for the stencil, I'm sitting there visualizing the whole process and I visualize how I'm going to approach it, how I'm going to breathe, how I'm going to pull my hand, everything. So like I come to that tattoo almost having done it already. Swasthik: Yeah. Exactly.Eddy: And then I feel more balanced and relaxed coming into it. Whereas before that I'm like butterflies, nerves. I feel like I need to go have a bit of a cry in the bathroom before the client arrives. Like. Swasthik: Yes. I think like, yeah. It's so interesting. You say that because at the end of the day, tattooing is just ritual, right? Like when you set up the machines, nothing sort of changes. You've got your own way, your own set up, the way you set up your machines, um, the way you put on a stencil or it's still, it's such a ritual, it's such a meditative practice. Eddy: I think we really forget that and remove ourselves from that. Like how ritualistic it is. Swasthik: Yeah. Yeah. TrueEddy: We act like it's just a job, but it's actually so much more than that. And it comes with this entire like history of traditions.Swasthik: A hundred percent. I couldn't agree with you more. I think it's so sacred. I think it's, it's really special. Um, I don't know. I don't really look, it is, it is a job, but it's I'm lucky. I'm lucky. I don't know what else I would do if I wasn't tattooing, I love it. And I think, you know, whilst it is a job and I am providing a service to people to that the best I can umm to the best of my abilities. Umm I'm still immersed in such a beautiful craft that um, allows, you know, it allows me to see things differently, allows me to love art. It allows me to, to explore, um, my mind and to, um, explore subjects. Um, however, I would like to, um, um, within the context of art also within the context of tattooing, like everyone's skin is different. Everyone has a different body shape, size, everyone's unique and beautiful. Um.Eddy: Absolutely.Swasthik: So it's, um, yeah, it for sure it's job, but it's, to me, I'd like to say that it's, um, Oh, God. It's like, yeah. It's like my calling. I know that sounds lame, but I don't, I really don't know what else I would do if I wasn't tattooing. It's really special. Eddy: Yeah, I don't think that's lame at all. I think a lot of us feel that way, like, like where it's the only thing that makes sense for us to do, like, you know, obviously have other things going on in our lives that we love, but.Swasthik: Yes.Eddy: You know, in terms of what we commit our the majority of our time to.Swasthik: Lives.Eddy: It's just what, like, what else would there be? Swasthik: Yeah, like, don't get me wrong. I have so many other different hobbies and, um, things that I love doing, I'm immersed into or, like, reading about, but, um, If I was to choose something else to do, I wouldn't know, you know, I'd be terrible in an office job. And I respect people in office jobs. Cause I just couldn't do what they could do at all hey, like, but um, yeah, it's really special. I reckon Eddy, you were right. Eddy: Yeah, I always, I I'm always very thankful. Definitely like, you know, I'll have my little moments or I sook about a frustrating email or a difficult experience, but at the end of the day, like it's just complete and utter gratitude. Swasthik: A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I definitely agree. Eddy: Do you find with your work, um, you know, because you know, it's a big part of your spiritual practice as well. Do you find that, um, you know, it, it's almost like a way of inviting a conversation with your clients. Like, you know, they're connecting to that imagery themselves and exploring their own spirituality and that's why they come to you?Swasthik: Umm. I think, um, A lot of my clients, um, sort of, some of them have been to India. Some of them have know the Hindu stories and can relate to the God, um, or have really enjoyed their time in India. And, um, and, and some of, some of my clients, um, sort of have their own imagery and their own spirituality. And want me to a sort of come up with something that represents that. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: And so I think, um, like I always have great conversations with my clients and often it is pretty trippy. Um, it gets deep, but in such a beautiful way to. It's never, it's never like too much. Um, it's been just a really beautiful connection and a really beautiful exchange. Um, So I think, I've forgotten the question now. I mean, I think, I think, um, I think people come to me for a whole different, all sorts of reasons, whether, whether they're into the story, whether they're into God, whether they've been to India, whether they're going to India, whether they have their own spiritual practice, um, you know, whether they like me and them are on the same vibe into the same things. But in any case, like it's a shared experience. Um, and it's always, it's always a lovely time. I always end up being friends with my clients. Eddy: Oh, that's so nice. Swasthik: There's never, there's never a time where I don't think I've felt, um, like, um, uncomfortable or sort of um frustrated. I've been really blessed to have, um, beautiful people cross my path, in the way of people that get tattooed and to share stories. I think this is my favorite part of this craft or this practice is that connection.Eddy: AbsolutelySwasthik: There's so many connections isn't there like this, the connection that you have to like the pra like the art. So when you start off and you're creating flash or whatever, then the connection that you have to the actual craft, because you're on your own. And it's really scary because you're marking people permanently, right? And then you have that connection that you have with the client and then to have to juggle. And, but not to be, you know, to make it real. Like, if I'm stressed about a tattoo, like, I will tell my clients like, bro, I I'm so sorry. I'm going to be real quiet now because I've got to focus. Like it's really comfortable that way. I think, you know, Eddy: I think when we can communicate with them really honestly they appreciate it too.Swasthik: Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. I think like there's no other way. You just got to be like honest. There's been moments where the, just a shared silence has been really nice. Eddy: Yeah. And that's such an intimate thing that sometimes that silence, it can be really, um, like restorative or healing. Swasthik: Yeah. I totally agree. Have you ever had people sort of say to you that like, Um, they sort of enjoy the pain and the, and they don't talk. And I respect that. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: Because I find that not, they find the pain, um, like a real healing process. Eddy: Yeah. It's almost like reminding them of the body they're in or, you know, I don't know. Yeah. It, it grounds them, I think. Swasthik: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's it like everyone's got their own perspective on why they get tattooed and, and what it means to them or what it doesn't mean to them. You know, they just want to get something fun or maybe they want a bet or a dare or maybe it's initiation. So Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: All different reasons. Hey. Eddy: I do think that like, in a lot of ways, getting tattooed, getting tattooed is a radical act. Like, you know, even if it's just for fun, just to be able to permanently mark your body in the sake of fun is radical. At all, or whether you're doing it because of that, just innate drive to express yourself or to be a part of a group or a culture. Swasthik: For sure. A hundred percent. Yeah, for sure. I think so. I do believe that. I think it's um, yeah man, I remember like when I first started getting tattooed and it was to fit in, but to fit in because I was so angry at my parents, I was actually really angry for being Indian because I wasn't having a good time in the Western world.Eddy: I'm so sorry. Swasthik: Oh, no, no, no, no. It's all, it's all history, it's all lessons and you grow. And it's so old this is like ages ago. It's like 20 years ago. But, um, I remember like I wasn't that religious back then either. I think I was like pre puberty. It was like when you're 17, 18, that kind of thing. And just mad and angry at the world. And, um, I started, um, getting tattoos cause I could see that the people that I could see that were getting tattoos were different and they were unique and beautiful and they didn't conform. Um, so I started getting the Gods tattooed on me, my Hindu gods tattooed on me. Um, but it made my mum really mad because in our tradition, you need to get that like, this is when I was 18. In our tradition, you need to get permission from the gods before you get them tattooed on you, because it's a huge thing. Like, and I know that sounds crazy, but, um, you know, I it's, it's like a respect thing. If you're going to get Kali Ma on your back, you need to ask for permission because she can cause you havoc.And so, I did. And it, yeah, my mum was like so mad at me. And, um, that was, um, I guess it's like what you were saying. It was a very radical, I was trying to fit in. I felt like the people that were my friends that got tattoos, didn't conform to everyone else, you know? So it is, it is a really radical kind of thing to do for sure. Eddy: And it sounds like, for you know, like it, it was a way of you finding yourself and like setting yourself apart and starting yourself on this journey. Swasthik: Yeah. Yeah, it definitely was. It definitely was because you're looking at your body every day and you see the tattoo. It's not like they can go anywhere hey, and you and it's just. It's just on you forever and it's a part of you. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: Yeah It did. Eddy: And it did.Swasthik: Sorry love, what were you going to say? Eddy: Oh no, you go.Swasthik: I've forgotten now. Eddy: Yeah. I was just going to say, like, you know, you mentioned you were having a hard time, so, you know, by, by like taking such ownership of yourself when you were having a hard time, you know, that can give yourself a lot of power and confidence to move forward as well.Swasthik: Yes, it does. It does. And, um, and it did, I think at that point, I was just quick to realize like, um, to accept my background, to celebrate it, um, to not be mad. I, I remember I was just, it was stupid, little things. I was like, why would you call me Swasthik? Why would you call me a name that is a Nazi symbol? Do you know? And it's, um, All of those little things that I just decided to let go and to accept and to love and to appreciate. Um, and it's funny because now I think my best friends are my family. It's my culture. It's my Gods. It's my ancestors. They have stuck by me with everything. Eddy: That's beautiful.Swasthik: Do, you know, over life and um, I'm so, I love it. I love India. Mmm. Love being Hindu. I'm very religious and very devout. So Yeah. Eddy: It's really beautiful how that comes across on your Instagram as well. Like I know that, you know, social media is not the biggest part of your life or anything, but you know, sometimes you'll post beautiful pictures or videos of your family and like of, you know, Rituals or things that you're doing together. And it's so lovely to see that little bit of insight into what you do. Swasthik: Oh yeah. I get nervous about putting stuff up sometimes ay I wonder if you do too, I wonder if it's just like, I think it's everyone. Cause you think that you're going to be judged wrongly. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: Would you share it? You know, do people really want to see that? But I think it's important because. It's not because it's a marketing ploy it's sometimes because I'm feeling something that day. And usually when I meditate and being so devout. These like bursts of emotions that run through me that shape my painting that day, or shape a practice or shape a thought, or my views about the world, the corrupt capitalist system that we have going, and I'm going on a tangent.Eddy: Oh no, I agree with you.Swasthik: But yes, you know what I mean, sometimes I'll, I'll just share it because. Um, I also, because I've got, I follow family on Instagram because they it's the only way to keep in contact with them, um, is, you know, when you're worlds apart, but I'll share it because it, I don't know, I'm happy to share it. I suppose it made my day, um, celebrate it, celebrate your fam family and your loved ones. And I truly love them. So Eddy: Yeah. And that's how it definitely comes across that you're celebrating them. Swasthik: Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I guess that's it. I think. I think it's just human nature. Don't, you know, to love, you know, to have compassion, to celebrate our loved ones. Eddy: And we look for connections too like, whether it be with family or with friends or through the tattoo community, like we're really looking for connections. And that's how I use social media. Like I see it as invitational, like you know, any images I put up of myself, my cats, my life or anything, that's not necessarily a tattoo. I feel like I'm communicating who I am and who I want to be so that my potential clients, they can decide if they relate to that or not. And if they're going to be comfortable. Swasthik: Yeah, I totally agree as well, because I remember way before, when, before I had tattoos, I was quite intimidated to go into a tattoo shop. It was scary.Eddy: It was so scary.Swasthik: Because it was so cool. Yeah I know, and they're all covered in tattoos and, um, I think it was, it was way before Instagram even like, I didn't, I think I didn't even have a MySpace back then. So it was way before Instagram. It was actually really long time ago. Um, and I just remember like thinking, Oh, I hope this person that I get tattooed by is nice. I hope we have a lots to talk about, or if we don't talk about I hope, the silence isn't awkward. Um, but I think now having that um, option to have social media, um, and to be able to share little bits and pieces of your life, you create, you're able to create that you are a sort of element of connection. Like, you know, you post something of your cat, maybe someone's got the same cat. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: You know, and they want a portrait of their cat. Cause they're like, well, you have the same cat. So we can, we can talk about our cats. And I feel comfortable with you. Like I think. Eddy: And to be able to trust someone, you need to feel a connection. I think. Swasthik: Yes, exactly. Exactly. And I think like, I don't know, everyone, everyone can choose how they want to market themselves. There's no right or wrong at all. You are entitled to do what you want to do. Um, and so, yeah, like I love seeing pictures of people in their, with their loved ones, with their husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, if it's their birthday, with their cats, you know, I love seeing photos of tattooers that I admire. Um, With other tattooers and it just makes my heart smile. Perhaps they've done a collaborative painting and they've got a picture of them holding the painting. It's just really sweet sometimes, you know? Yeah. Eddy: I love that too, because like my, my dream for tattooing is that we can be a really positive community for each other because you know, in the town that I've tattooed in a lot of experiences have been negative where we see each other as competition, or like, you know, you can't be friends with them because they work at that other shop, but I'm like, Swasthik: Oh man. Eddy: I love it. When other shops come together, I love it. When tattooers from so-called competing studios work together. It's just so heartwarming. Swasthik: Yeah. And it should seriously, like. Isn't that what it should be about. Cause at the end of the day, like going deeper and being a bit more of a tripper, we're all the same, we're all made a flesh, blood, piss, bones. Noone's better than anyone else. Eddy: Absolutely. Swasthik: Do you know what I mean? And so, you know that sort of side, I think you're gonna get that in anything now, now we're going like, especially in this sort of mad capitalistic world, it doesn't matter if it's tattooing or if it's something else. I think you're always going to get that, but that's what I love about. I don't know if you feel the same way. There's, there's a lot of, there's a couple of tattooers that I truly idolize and love and can't wait to get tattooed by. And I think they've been tattooing pre Instagram generation. And, um, I think that I see them, um, with other tattooers and you can see that the real love and a real community sense of community and a real friendship, cause they would have relied solely on visiting each other at shops or, um, like bumping into someone at a gig, you know, organizing dinners to be able to have that.But I think that whole notion of competition has been something. Um, and I was having a chat to a girlfriend about this actually, um, I think social media has a lot to do with that now, creating that sort of air um, as well as what you were saying, like in the physical, you know, when certain shops aren't meant to interact with each other, which I just find really sad. Cause we can learn from each other, you know.Eddy: We're missing out on opportunities. Swasthik: Yeah, we are. Yeah. I, um, yeah man, I agree. I absolutely agree. Like there's so many people where I, um, fuck, like you just think about some of those incredible realism artists. I'd love to learn what they do. Do you know what I mean? I'd love to watch a realism tattooer just do their thing. Cause it's something that I could never do and I find it so fascinating. Eddy: And yeah, by being friendly with each other and watching each other and spending time with each other, that's how we learn and improve. Swasthik: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Eddy: That's why that's why traveling is so great.Swasthik: Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think it, um, I think it puts things into perspective a lot. Yeah.Eddy: Absolutely. Swasthik: For sure. Eddy: Do, do you get a chance to travel much with your work? Swasthik: Umm. I haven't recently, I go to India like twice a year. Uh, sometimes go to Nepal. Um, I sorta get my inspiration to, as soon as I go to India and I come back, I'm reenergized and, um, re inspired, um, And then I'll start creating, but I haven't really had the chance to travel for work. And I'm not sure when I will, especially with the current situation at the moment.Eddy: Yeah, it makes it hard.Swasthik: I was gonna. Yeah, I know. Right. I was gonna this year, I wanted to get tattooed by some people that I truly, I love their work, um, overseas. Um, but after this it um obviously didn't happen. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: But um, yeah like I'd love to travel at some point and, um, tattoo and learn, watch people tattoo and grow more as an artist.Eddy: Yeah.Swasthik: I think that would be cool. Eddy: You definitely do. I know that like just. Every, every single time I get tattooed by someone and watching them work, I'll pick up like a little trick. And like, I'm not copying their work or anything, but you just like learn a little trick. Whether it be like the way they flick their wrist, or I don't know the way that they dip between colors or I don't know, just like little tiny subtleties that you notice and that can change everything for you. Swasthik: Aw man. Yes. I feel like I pick up on those things every day when I'm at work, like when I stop for 10 minutes and go down the stairs to watch someone tattoo or just to say G'day, I'll pick something up that I just don't know why I didn't like think of that way before.Eddy: Yep.Swasthik: You know what I mean? Like your life would have been easier if you did that. Um. Eddy: Yep. That's why I love working with so many people. Like there's seven of us at the moment in the studio. It's so nice. Yeah. Like getting the different opinions and the critiques and watching them work and everyone's got such a different way of going about it.Swasthik: That's awesome, man. Yeah. I love that. I also love how people can help you just being that second set of eyes. Like when you put a stencil on and just having an awesome work colleague, that's there to go look, I think it's like two mil off. That's saved me so many, so many times. Cause in your, in your mind, you think it's straight and then someone will tell you, and be like, Oh shit, I was so off, you know?Eddy: Cause we yeah, we do get like this kind of weird blinker on for ourselves where like, you know, we've in our mind, we've decided how we want it to look. So sometimes it's really hard to see it as it actually is other than how it, how we intend it to look. So, you know, you might think a stencils straight and then someone will be like, Oh nah, maybe not.Swasthik: Yeah I know. Yeah, I'm so grateful for that. I'm so, I love the people I work with. They're so funny and so talented and um, so helpful. I'm so grateful to be there because it's Mimsy. You know, you interviewed Mimsy, so yeah at Trailer Trash.Eddy: Such an amazing crew. Swasthik: Yeah. She's special though. Eddy: She is, I love how we were both talking before the interview about how, you know, when we guested with Mimsy, it kind of like changed everything for us. And where you get to open your eyes and like, Oh wow.Swasthik: Yes, yes.Eddy: That's what tattooing can be.Swasthik: Yeah. Like how people can be kind. Yep, yeah. I think that'd be nice to see more of that in the industry, you know.Eddy: Definitely. Swasthik: Free to be, um, kind isn't it, it's free to, you know, good manners are free. If you don't have to, even if you're stressed, you don't have to, you can just close your door or just be like, guys. I'm just going to chill out today. You know, I've got a big tattoo. Eddy: It actually it takes so much less energy just to be nice. You know, I feel likeSwasthik: Oh yeah.Eddy: Customers who are, sorry, not customers, tattooers who are cranky with their clients or angry with the people they work with that takes so much energy out of you. And if you just take a moment to take a breath and smile orSwasthik: Meditate.Eddy: Not in the way that men tell women to smile, but smile in the way of like for yourself, you know? Swasthik: Oh yeah. Eddy: Being. Just kindness is so much easier. Swasthik: Yeah, definitely. I think you'd just find, I don't know. I feel like sometimes, yeah, I dunno, like you're right. It just takes two seconds hey, and it does like, if I don't, if I'm having a shit day or if I haven't meditated, and then I'm having a really, really rough day. And if it just, if I don't communicate it with my work colleagues or with my clients, I'll snap or I'll be abrupt and I feel so guilty about it. Um, so I think my general w like vibe is just to chill out. Just be kind, you know, it's, you know, it doesn't take too much and that's just being real innit. Eddy: Yeah.Swasthik: People want that. Eddy: Absolutely. And it's so nice to have space where you've got permission to do that, too, where you can go in and say, Hey guys, like I'm a bit fragile today. Um, so here are, these are my boundaries and I really appreciate you respecting them and let's have a wonderful day and it just it's, it makes everything go so much easier.Swasthik: So much. Yeah, it does. It does. Absolutely. I think like, as you were saying earlier on tattooing is stressful as it is, um, you know, you always sort of. I don't know, there's been so many times where I've been organized with my drawing, but then I've had to make a change, like, you know, five minutes before the client comes in and I'm all flustered again, you know? And so, yeah. It's so, um, it's just stressing, but.Eddy: It is.Swasthik: I reckon like, yeah, if you just talk and communicate, then all is good. Eddy: Yep, communicating with compassion, we can all be in a much better place. Swasthik: Yes. Yes. Eddy: I think um tattooing in general could use a lot more compassion and I feel like this, um, COVID situation has kind of made a lot of us approach each other with more compassion.Swasthik: Definitely. Eddy: I get a lot of really nice messages from other tattooers. And, you know, I do the same in return. I've had some tattooers send me like prints and art, but like just out of the blue, just cause they wanted to do something nice for another tattooer. And it's so lovely. Swasthik: Mmm I agree. I really, really agree. And I've done the same. I've sent some original, like some paintings that I've done um, to special people, um, and their partners. Um, and, um, I've also received lots of love and return, um, uh, lots of messages from people that are extremely busy that you wouldn't think would ever message you, but they have taken two seconds to message you. Um, it really makes, makes my day, you know, just, uh, I mean, I know that it's a vert, like I know it's like, A social media thing. And I do really look forward to meeting these people in real life and having a cuppa with them. Um, but it's nice to get that because it's, um, I think globally actually it's happened. I've been getting messages from friends that I haven't heard from in so long. So I think this whole COVID situation is really changing, um, that I guess that element of people having a bit more compassion for sure. It's just slowing the pace down, isn't it? Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: You know, people being able to have conversations, it's not a mad rush, which, which I really like man, like I've eased into just painting every day. Like I'm cruisy, you know? Um, if we go back to tattooing sweet, I miss it so so much. I miss my clients even more. Um, Because I love tattooing, but if we have to be, you know, in iso for a bit longer, no sweat, I'll just keep painting because I like painting, you know? Eddy: Yeah. It, it really, it's, it's really nice to be able to decide what to do with your time. And I just, I really it's overly optimistic, but I really hope that after this, we can come out and be like, fuck capitalism, let's burn it all down. Let's just have little communities let's barter and trade and like.Swasthik: That's what we were talking about, yeah. Eddy: Yup. Swasthik: That's what we were sayin. Yup. Exactly. Yeah. It's going to be a proper wake up call, I reckon Eddy ay because like, no, one's forgot. Well, I haven't forgotten about the fires as we were talking about. And then all of a sudden this has come through. Um, I think it's going to be a huge, huge wake up call. Um, and, um, yeah, like. Eddy: Yeah like if you're notice social activist yet, like now's the time to get on that train because we can, we can make some real changes.Swasthik: Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly right. Um, but yeah, it's just sort of slowed everything down for sure. I reckon. Eddy: Have you had a lot of time for like the, like the other things in your life that you like, you know, whether it be reading or music or? Swasthik: Yeah. I've, um, I've been reading a few books. Um, I'm always listening to music you see, like when I'm painting, I've always got music. I've always got some jams on. Um, I've been running a lot, um, just around the block, um, doing a bit more yoga. Having sweet sleep ins, which you never really get the chance to do when you're back at work. Eddy: It's been so good sleeping in. Swasthik: It is, it is. I've been going to bed at like eight, which is so weird. It's just. I think my body needs it. I think it's just like, you know, I think this time now is time for resting for me, um, or doing things that I love for, um, Yeah, not sort of hustling so much on drawing for clients, but doing whatever I want to do. So what about you? Have you had time to chill?Eddy: I have done nothing but chill, but it's good because I think, you know, the world is so like, Everything's so hyper-connected and instantaneous and high pressure. And it is that constant hustle and it's exhausting. Even if we don't realize like we're being exhausted, you know, you just kind of, it slowly builds up over time and then one day you wake up and you're like, I can barely breathe. I can barely move. I'm so burned out. And this came at such a good time for me. Like I I'd been probably for six months really struggling to hold myself together. Just like, I, I want to, I don't have the energy, for all these things I want to achieve. And like, I don't know how to keep going. And then everything stopped. And then I was just like, I'm gon, I'm going to sleep and I'm going to make pompoms and I'm going to hug the cats.Swasthik: Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Is everything okay though at your, you just needed some time to chill? Eddy: Yeah. I just needed some time to chill. Like for me, I have, um, I have chronic pain from spinal cord injury. So, you know, I, you know, my, my practice has just always been about finding a balance between the pain and the energy and my drive, you know, which aren't really all connected very well.Swasthik: Yes ok.Eddy: Yeah, I think these, these opportunities, and like you're saying, like using the time to like, kind of look at yourself and meditate on things and like, yeah, it's, it's important. And it's been crucial for me to get back. And I think when I come back to tattooing, I'm going to be so much better for it. Swasthik: Yeah. I think everyone's going to be. You know, I think that we often forget because tattooing is so high voltage, we often, sometimes, I'm sure most of us have been in a situation where we've put tattooing before ourselves. Eddy: Yup. Swasthik: And so it's nice that we're forced to, to actually step back from that and treat ourselves and look after ourselves and be kind to ourselves during this time.Eddy: Absolutely.Swasthik: Because you know, we don't want anyone to burn out. It's not good for your soul. It's not good for your spirit. Eddy: Yeah. And who set up this rule anyway, that we have to work, you know, five or six days a week, or, you know, 10 hours a day, like who decided that?Swasthik: Yep. Dunno. Eddy: We're pirates, tattooers you know, we're supposed to make the rules and we're supposed to go against the current of, of everything that's wrong with society. And we're supposed to be, you know, The healers, the ones with wisdom, the ones who communicate our ideas to other people and help people express themselves. And yet we've got, so we've almost lost who we areSwasthik: Who we areEddy: Like as a group. And like forgotten, yeah, I don't know. Swasthik: That's such a good point. And I think like that's why having travel is really good because it's when you can, you're free to do whatever. Do you know what I mean? Like when you're, when you're at work or when you're living and you've got a daily routine, you've got responsibilities, um, within tattooing, but also outside of tattooing, in your personal life, let's say, and then it's hard. It's it is hard because you've got to, you've got to like work. You know, you've got to pay the rent. Um, but then when you get to travel, you've got autonomy because like you can work where you want to work. What days you want to work. I often sort of, and I haven't done it yet, but I assumed and sort of fantasized that traveling with tattooing would be really quite fun because you can guest at the shops that you want to spend one to one time with certain people in terms of just knowing them, just, just watching them tattoo, having the ability to be in their presence, getting to know them, getting to know about their stories, um, and getting tattooed by them. So I often sort of think like that's when you're, when you sort of step away from your routine and your daily life, you've got that, you know, like you said, being a pirate again, just traveling and just doing that. So. Eddy: It's so good.Swasthik: Yeah.Eddy: It's been every time I've had the opportunity to do that. And I know it is certainly a privilege to be able to travel in the first place, but every time I've done it, it's I've come a better tattooer.Swasthik: Yep. Yep. Eddy: Do you think like once the borders opened back up and things are a bit safer to travel that you'll start planning things then? Swasthik: I think the first thing is going to organize to go back to India.Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: I really get grounded there. I do. Um, and I'm such a creature of habit you see, like, I think getting out for me, like even doing this interview, I get really kind of nervous and stuff, you know, but I've just got to do it because once you do it, you're all good. Hey, um, I will, I just think. I don't know if it's going to be this year. I hope it's next year. I've talked to a few people within Australia, um, that I wouldn't mind doing like a, like a guest spot in Melbourne or a guest spot guest spot in Sydney. Yeah. Um, there's some yeah, incredible people just even in Australia. Hey, we've got some awesome tattooers, man. Eddy: We have so much talent here.Swasthik: So much. And I really want to get tattooed by like a few people that I'm running out of space. So I've got to, I've got toEddy: Same Swasthik: I don't know what I'm gonna do ay Eddy: I've actually like getting stuff like lasered off because I'm like, I need more room. Swasthik: Yeah. See, I'm too scared. I think I just going to do the coverup route. I um want to redo my whole body, I think. Eddy: Wow. Swasthik: I think I'll stick to one person to do that, but yeah, it's just too. Yeah, I've got to sort that out, but no. Yeah. I don't know. I'd like to say, I think in India and Nepal would be priority one when the borders opened up. But after that no idea. Eddy: Do you get to tattoo with your family when you go back over there?Swasthik: I do tattoo in India. Nan is really old. She's actually not, well.Eddy: Oh I'm sorry. Swasthik: She had a fall. She's not with it. You know, it's interesting. They regress back to being children. Like when we saw her last um, I think just seeing mum, like step out of the otto made her cry, um, saying goodbye by the balcony. Cause she couldn't get up to get to the balcony, made her cry and cause she doesn't have any teeth anymore. And bless. She's so healthy though, because like her, her brother is 105. Eddy: Wow. Swasthik: Yeah. He's so cute. They're like sat, they go, they go for a walk, which is like 10 meters long. Eddy: Aww bless.Swasthik: It's so funny, it's so cute. Yeah, they're good friends. But anyway, um, so I tattoo there not with family, but I tattoo family yes. And often I'll just bring my own machines and I'll draw up a real quick flash that's kind of easy to do um, and just tattoo. Most, mostly people want religious symbols. Um, Om because they are full Brahman, so they're not eating meat. Um, they're practicing Hindu. No one really sort of gets, um, like a big sleeve or anything. Like I said, it's sort of ritualistic tattoos, small tattoos. Um, some of the women get Kolum. Um, just little ones though, you know? Uh, but there is this beautiful Ramayana community Elders. They have, um, the they're completely covered from head to toe. Um, and they have the script or the Sanskrit to Rama, um, tattooed horizontally. Eddy: Wow. Swasthik: Across their body from like forehead down to their pinky toe it's abso. It's sensational. Eddy: That's amazing.Swasthik: If you have a chance to ever look at it. Look like, I don't know, check out the photos online.Eddy: I will. Swasthik: They're very powerful. They're really beautiful. But, um, yeah, it's all it's. It's like no pressure. Fun times tattooing when I go back home hey. Eddy: Oh, wow. Do you ever learn about the like the healing kind of tattoos from your grandma, has she passed that down to you? Swasthik: She has. And it's something that I've I think oh, how's it going to sound? It's like, this is an example, like when I was young and I saw Nana do it for the first time when I was like a kid, I'd say Amma, Paati...like, what is she doing? And my mom would explain to me then what the reason was. And so, you know, remembering that, and then being taught by not only my grandma, but by many other Elders. Umm by a lot of the Gurus working in the temples in our family temples, because it'll happen outside the temple as well. Um, so yes, I do I have that knowledge and I have those stories. And often, um, very, um, really grateful cause it's like oral storytelling tradition. SoEddy: Yeah. Swasthik: It's, it always makes me quite emotional when I get, when someone shares a story like that with me, because, you know, you take, if they leave this world, you're never going to forget their words are you so. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: So yeah. Eddy: Wow. Swasthik: Yeah. Eddy: It's so, I love hearing people's um, history and visual languages and what, what they put of themselves into their tattooing and, and just seeing how it influences the tattooing and how it makes them different and what they can bring. Like, it's just, it's so special that it's such an individual thing. I love it. Swasthik: Yeah I reckon hey with everyone, everyone's like, Noone's the same. I don't think, do you know, like everyone say, like, if you do traditional and like this, you do a rose, but the way that you do a rose is going to be so different to the way that someone else does a rose.Eddy: Absolutely. Swasthik: From the drawing to the application, to the, to the follow through, to everything.Eddy: And even the intention. Swasthik: The intention, exactly. Exactly. Yup. Yup. Eddy: Absolutely. Um, in regards to the divine feminine, um, how do you think that can play a part in creating more balance and equality in tattooing? Swasthik: Um, so like, the divine feminine, I suppose, is we as humans. We have both the divine masculine and the divine feminine. And I think, um, You know, having female energy within tattooing umm is, is so imperative just because it just adds to having a bit more diversity.Eddy: Yeah absolutely. Swasthik: And by being open minded and having, you know, a lot more compassion, I'm not saying people aren't compassionate, you know, regardless of race gender, you know, regardless of all of that, you know, there's people that are compassionate and there's people that often might feel that being compassionate is a sign of weakness. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: And I feel like, you know, the tattoo shop that I apprenticed that was not a great tattoo shop for me to continue and grow. Um, it was all guys, um, and it had. I don't think they do got me. I don't think it was something that I think it was sort of cast away or having that sort of, that notion of divine feminine or having compassion was sort of seen as a weakness. Whereas I really think it's such a powerful theme because by having more feminine energy or celebrating it along with the divine masculine, I'm not trying to categorize here. It's just going to give us that potential to be diverse within the tattoo industry as a whole, and to be open-minded, um, both are necessary when wanting to grow artistically as well as within like the application of tattooing. Eddy: Yeah, absolutely. And, and the divine, the divine feminine and the divine masculine is such a, uh, important part of your reli oh, your spirituality as well, right? Swasthik: Yes. Yeah. Yup. Yup. That's it. That's true. Yeah. I think like, cause I've grown up with it and it being embedded into my culture, into my cultural practice, into my religion and being a devout Hindu, um, it shapes my tattooing practice a lot because it's that equal level of respect. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: Whoever, regardless of their gender, race, religion, whatever backgrounds, like I said, you know, tattooing is non-discriminatory, it is, means different things for different people. Um, and as long as you're over the consent age, it's different in the East like it's different. I can only speak for what happens within tattooing in India. And, you know, you can get tattooed as young, as 10, if not younger in India, it's a completely different context and scenario, but at the end of the day, tattooing does not discriminate. So I, I would assume in the Western world, if you're over the consent age, um, You know, it's um, yeah. Having to divine feminine, divine masculine, this is just gonna you know, allow us to have more diversity and be open minded. Eddy: Absolutely. And I feel really sad for, um, a lot of people in Western culture where, you know, we're conditioned to believe that um, you know, showing emotions like compassion and empathy are a weakness. And, you know, so many people go through their lives, just being full of fear and anger and pain because they don't have an avenue to express it. And, you know, I see it happening so much in tattooing where there's like a lot of really toxic behaviors or, you know, a lot of like really angry people. Swasthik: Yeah. Eddy: If they just took a momentSwasthik: And misogyny, I've seen.Eddy: Oh my God. Yeah. It's such an issue. If they just took a momentSwasthik: It's really ugly. Eddy: To just be like a little bit kind to themselves to express their emotions in a healthy way, then they can be kinder to other people and understand that it's not like masculine versus feminine. Both are equal and important and necessary. Swasthik: I love that. I love that you said it like that. You said, yeah. I love that Eddy. And I think, I think, um, yeah man, there's no separation between gender race umm sexual preference. There is unity and there should be unity. And part of that unity is like, obviously there's the should be community, which you were talking about earlier.Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: And through all of that, you know, you're going to have. People should be free to not feel silenced. They should be able to not think that being empathetic or compassionate or creating trippy art, surreal art. Um, Whatever kind of art they want is not like, without it being a weakness, you know how we were talking about earlier, where it's like, you know, beautiful, surreal art is, is considered like, wow, that's so abstract. But then when it's within the tattooing context, it's very much like, well that doesn't make a good tattoo. Eddy: Yeah, that's crazy. Swasthik: Who's to say that Yeah. Yeah. Cause part of, I feel like part of meditating and practicing this craft or being, being an artist is like being able to, um, as you were saying, like to be able to have an outlet where you can release that emotion in a positive way. Um, part of that is like being able to release it through your expression of art, isn't it? Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: And by doing that and being in an environment that accepts that, where people accept, they don't have to love it. They don't even have to like it. But they can be respectful, you know, as long as they're not saying anything neggy, that's hurtful, constructive criticism is so different to taking a dig it'sEddy: Absolutely.Swasthik: You know, um. Eddy: Constructive criticism has a lot of value in what we do, but like, you know, you mentioned to me that, you know, sometimes you've worked in situations where people have laughed at you for being spiritual. And it's just like that, that is just such an insane thought to not respect another person's practice. Swasthik: Yeah. Yeah. And I think like, It's only made me stronger on a side note. It's only made me stronger. It's not stopped me from obviously continuing to do what I do. Cause I don't think I've ever stopped creating, like creating trippy shit or Hinduism based imagery, tattoos, spiritual stuff, things that mean a lot to me, things that I feel I'm well-educated about. Um, I'm not even going to try and attempt to do something that I don't know too, like anything about, because it's not going to come from a place of love and it's, it's sure as hell not gonna look that great, you know, but when I'm drawing something that I know, um, despite the adversity and, um, attacks on it, I'm still gonna continue, um, doing it because it's like, well, man, that's all I know. Cause I guess, I'm Indian, so I know about it, you know, so I'm going to paint it. And so, yeah, like I think at the end of the day, how does the divine feminine, um, influence or can influence the tattoo industry? I think, um, just by adding to diversity and by creating awareness, being open minded, celebrating um, having compassion or compassionate or having deep thinking, um, instead of it sort of being swept under the rug. Eddy: Yeah. Swasthik: Um, you know, like art is subjective, as we were saying, not everyone's gonna like it and not everyone's going to love it, but there's gonna be people out there that are gonna love it. Um, and I also think at the end of the day, it's create it for yourself, especially during this iso period, I've been just painting for myself, man. Seeing how far I can go with my drawings, experimenting with different mediums, you know? Am I proud of it? Yeah. It's all right it could be way better. You could do I could have done that better. I'll do it better next time. Eddy: Yeah. I mean we can always do everything better.Swasthik: Exactly. I think it's one of those things where, you know, what did they say? It's when you do 10,000 hours, you're master I'm like, nah, I think it's, I've immersed myself in a craft where I'm always going to be learning. I don't think I'll ever stop.Eddy: Nah. Swasthik: You know, even if I do it till the very end, I'll probably pick up the trick when I'm like 90. Um, yeah, but. Yeah, I love, I think that's it. Hey, would to answer that question. Eddy: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Swasthik: No worries. Eddy: Well before we finish up today, is there anything else that you like would like to touch on or that you'd like to share with the listeners or, you know, that you'd like to communicate at all?Swasthik: Umm Well, I can't think of anything at the top of my head, but I just wanted to say that I had a really lovely time chatting with you. Eddy: Yeah. It's been so lovely. Swasthik: And having a chat before this chat too. It was just real nice. Eddy: Yeah. And today's the first time we've ever actually had a chance to chat. Like I've followed you for a while on social media, but, you know, and message and email. Swasthik: Did we ever meet? At the flash day though. Pretty sure I feel like we did at one of Mimsy's.Eddy: Because you did the Brisbane and I did the, um, I did the Sydney one, so it was literally just all on Instagram. Swasthik: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. See, I feel like it's just one of those things. When, you know, you have a good feeling with someone that's like what we, what we were saying earlier. Like when you, like, when you sort of idolize someone and then you're like, Mimsy right. And then you meet that person in real life and the way they hold themselves and their grace and their respect to you and their kindness to you just seems to, to just make you love them even more and it shocks you. And it's, and it's like, um chatting to you it's just sort of, yeah, you're real sweetheart. I had a really good time. Thanks. Eddy: Ditto.Swasthik: Thanks for it.Eddy: Ditto.Swasthik: And I can't wait to meet in real life. Eddy: I know same, I really need to come visit.Swasthik: Yeah likewise. We'll have to do a trade. Eddy: I would love that. I'm such a huge fan of your work. Swasthik: Likewise, lovely. Um, I've just, yeah, it's one of those things. I've once I get around to it, I'll message you and we can do a bit of a trade.Eddy: That would be perfect. Swasthik: It's like that juggling act of trying to find time to chill and then finish other commissions and create available flash. Eddy: Yep. Maybe one day when you've got your van and you're traveling around.Swasthik: Yes. I can come and take showers in your house and stay in the van.Eddy: Awesome. Well for our listen is, um, you'll be able to, um, find out more information about Swasthik um, through Instagram, if you head over to not just to girl underscore tattoo, we'll have all of the links and information. I'll put them in the show notes as well, and make sure you subscribe and follow and share and spread the love. Um, thank you so much to Swasthik for chatting to me today and sharing your story and, um, for letting our listeners hear your story as well. I think everyone really appreciates it and I really hope everyone has a beautiful day. Swasthik: Thanks love. Thank you so much. And yeah, I hope everyone has an awesome day. And thank you for listening to me rant on just random stuff. Yeah, I hope I made sense anyway.Eddy: It did.Swasthik: But thank you.

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