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starlight-writes-stuff · 3 years

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Hey lovey! Could I request a mcyt headcanon thing of how they each are in bed?

hi angel , and of course ! as always im sorry this took forever lmao . hope u enjoy (((:

AYO LOOK AT THESE : smut ! rough sex , choking , scratching , hair pulling , breeding / unprotected sex (wrp it b4 u tap it , bbys) , overstimulation , light bondage , i think thats all (:

reblogs are always appreciated <3

dream :

out of all the feral boys dream is the roughest for sure

it's all his gamer rage coming out

he truly has to control himself / hold back

because he wants to fuck you until you cant remember your own name

but doesnt want to break you

he’s not the biggest fan or foreplay , only because he’d much rather feel you wrapped around him

but he loves to go down on you

would prep you with his fingers because lord knows you’ll need it

and once you started to squirm he’d get so cocky

“if you cant take my fingers , you definitely cant take all of me, baby .”

so many pet names - baby , kitten , pretty girl , bunny , bun , my little whore

he’d make you cum twice on his fingers alone

and wouldn’t fuck you until he was aching for any sort of stimulation

wouldn’t use protection (w your consent !!!)

the thought of his cum deep inside you , painting your insides … it fucks him UP

you KNOW clay would be the motherfucker to slap his dick on your pussy

would groan at the sound of how wet you were for him

he’d run the tip of his cock through your folds and collect your arousal

until you were begging him to fuck you - and even then he’d wait a moment longer

he’d ease in slowly , making sure you felt every single inch

and would praise the FUCK out of you

“look so pretty taking my cock , bunny”

he’d stop to let you adjust to his length, but he’d be so arrogant as you bucked your hips

“want more , sweet thing ?”

you’d just nod , the pressure building in your tummy too much to produce words

and clay would grab at your chin so fuCKING agressivley

“i asked you a question , whore .”

he would just ruin you (in the most respectful way possible)

you’d cum for the third time within mere seconds

the room would be filled with the sound of harsh , slapping skin

you moans mixing with his - it was like a symphony to him

at some point your legs would go completely limp from the shear amount of pleasure clay was providing

and he’d circle an arm around your hips , holding your body to his as you came yet again

he’d get progressively less vocal as he approached his high , his raspy moans turning to rough growls and groans

and he’d bury himself deep inside of you as he came , muttering scratchy praises into the crook of your neck

as you and clay started to come down together it would be a complete 180

he’d pull out so gently , watching the way his cum dripped out of you

and would press sweet , tender kisses to every inch of skin he could get his mouth on

clay would run soft fingers over every bruise , every mark he left on your skin

admiring his work

he loves the way you look after sex - all fucked out and dewy eyed

would wet a washcloth with warm water and clean you up while murmuring over and over how much he loved you

the two of you would fall asleep pretty quickly after in a tangled mess of limbs

sex with him is quite the workout

george :

gogs <3

i have many thoughts on this subject yall

wakin up in the mornin , thinkin about so many things

would LOVE foreplay

something about being so intimate but not actually fucking is so <3 to him

he loves every single moment of it

starting from when a simple peck turns to something deeper

george’s tongue rolling over yours as he cups a hand under your jaw

would do the thumb thing™ on your cheek

his free hand would roam up and down the curve of your hips

then up and under your shirt

the way that your breath hitched would make him sh i v e r

and george would start kissing down your neck and over your jaw to your neck

loves hickeys

and biting you

he’d take yall to some place soft if you weren’t already there and start to undress you

adores the action of getting you out of your clothes and insists on taking your shirt off himself

is obsessed w your titties

rolling your nipples between his fingers

sucking on the sensitive nubs , flicking his tongue over them until you could cry from pleasure

then leaves sloppy , hot kisses all the way down your body

is so good with his hands

knows the exact way to curl his fingers inside you

and is very good at keeping a rhythm that pushes you over the edge

but truly have you seen that boys hands because like

he’s all about pleasuring you in bed

it's his number one priority

and he knows your body incredibly well

the boy knows how to make you cum without even trying

yall have experimented and figured out what feels best

and he’s perfected those techniques

on the non physical side of things however

sex with george would be s i n f u l

the things he would say to you …

and in his fucking ACCENT no less

starlight has a voice kink

god he would talk so fucking dirty

the filthiest things falling from his lips as he’s thrusting in and out of you

he’d be so vocal

“just like that , love ,” he’d pant before throwing his head back

his fingers would dig into your hips as his moans turned to whimpers

the two of you would reach your highs one after the other

but george always makes sure that you finish first

sapnap :

we’re just gonna address this right away

daddy kink

(“call me big daddy” , sapdaddy , need i say more ?)

pretty dominant but not necessarily aggressive

more mentally dominant if that makes any sense ???

wants you so far in subspace that you’re all his

dumbification is so hot to him

“baby doll , darlin’ , sweet girl”

degrades you but in a soft way :,)

“look so pretty on my cock , whore”

“my sweet little slut , taking me so well”

spits in your mouth and holds your jaw until you swallow

loves to fuck your throat

literally uses your mouth as his personal fleshlight

hold your hair up for you bc he’s a gentleman

but would rather have it in pigtails

thrusts into your mouth hhhhhhhhhh

wants to see mascara tears and won't stop until he does

loves to give you facials

then takes 1476592837310982 pictures of you like that

his my eyes only on snap is 99% your face painted with his cum

honestly likes to cum anywhere he can see it

tits

backshots

on your stomach

l o v e s your thighs

and yall have absolutely done thigh jobs

would fuck you until you cried then marvel at the look of your tears

because you look so pretty when you’re entirely overwhelmed by pleasure

your face flushed a pretty pink

eyes watering with crystal clear drops

then would make you cum again

“one more , sweet girl , you can take one more”

and you’d just nod , so deep into subspace that he words were like spells

how could you say no to him ?

aftercare KING though , would take such good care of you

would run you two a warm bath and carry you to the tub

bc lord knows you cant walk after him

and he’d run his hands allllll over your body , soothing any rough marks he may have left

at the end of the day he absolutely worships you

karl :

karl jacobs , love of starlight’s life

i just think that he <3

karl has stated that he’s on the ace spectrum

so i think that sex with him wouldn’t be near as much about physicality

its about the intimacy and connection that comes with that for yall

and mans would make you feel so loved ,,,

he’d kiss every single inch of your body

and hold you so close to him as you two were getting undressed

loves kisses when yall are shirtless

because he can feel your heartbeat on his

and they sync up the longer u lay there

would go down on you for hours if he could holy fuck

he loves eating you out , drawing pretty moans from your lips

and is so good at it bye .

he can easily make you cum with just his skilled tongue

and fucks you with it i-

one of his favorite feelings in the world is your thighs tightening around his head

and your hands tugging at his hair as he makes you come undone over and over

you’re his favorite taste in the entire world

sex with karl would be sweet and soft and so so so intimate

it would be so loving

he’d have you look him in his eyes as he slid in

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnggngngnngngnngggggggg

and would stay buried deep inside you , not moving until you adjusted to him

karl’s packing i just know it

moans your name quite a lot

and murmurs how much he loves you , everything he loves about you inbetween thrusts

he’d hold your hands while you two made love

his grip tightening as he got closer

karl would make DAMN sure you came first

but loves cumming at the same time if you can hold off for him

the two of you would stay like that , chest to chest for a while after your highs

karl still tucked inside you

he’d love cockwarming dont @ me

is a fluffy mess after sex and always wants to fall asleep after

with you in his arms

quackity :

sex with alex >>>>>>

yes

please

he’d be . so fucking good . at everything he did .

alex loves foreplay

lapdances

bc he’s so obsessed with your body

and having you put on a show just for him ?

turns him on like nothing else in the world

lets you show off for as long as possible before he finally picks you up and throws you on the bed

hands hands hands

alex is so skilled with his fingers and knows how to hit all the best spots

has absolutely made you squirt on his fingers and is so cocky about it

has you hold eye contact while he eats you out

and the minute you break it , he stops

would have his dick in your mouth 24/7 if he could

and loves the way you look with your tongue swirling around him

keeps a hand on the back of your head and pushes down so gently

alex is definitely a soft dom

when he cant hold off from fucking you any longer he’s no stranger to tying your hands up

usually with his belt

fucks you in missionary with your legs over his shoulders

but also loves when you're on top

alex is a titty guy

such a boob guy

and absolutely covers your chest in hickeys and bite marks

getting to play with them while you ride him ?? heaven

once your hips give out from feeling so good , alex would lift you up and thrust into you

his fingertips digging into your skin , leaving pretty purple bruises

would play with your clit as he fucks up into you

“cum for me , princess”

loves cumming inside you

breeding kink

just saying

and watching it drip out of your pussy gets him hard all over again

his voice goes so deep while he moans

and calls you pretty names in spanish

vvvv vocal and loves when you match that

“show me how good im making you feel , baby”

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rigelmejo · 3 years

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sometimes it is a bit frustrating how purist some language learning forums can be about their learning method being best and unquestionable, unable to find resources from more. like, i get liking a study method that works for you, we all do! i do not get shooting down resources that can and already helped someone, just because they didn’t help you personally (or you don’t like using them particularly), so it makes it hard for another person to find those resources and discourages using them in the first place.

the post (featuring some interesting links) by Strong-Philosophy-46 : https://www.reddit.com/r/Refold/comments/n09cxk/i_think_shadowing_should_be_used_in_the_early/

from all what I've read, shadowing seems to improve phonemic awareness (the ability to hear phonemes), listening comprehension and even pitch accent in Japanese. Which all seem to be the whole point of doing an only input/no output period in the beginning.

I was on the Refold reddit again (used to be massiveimmersionapproach). And someone mentioned that shadowing may have benefits earlier on in language study - compared to Refold, which does do shadowing but not until you are basically passively able to comprehend most things to all overall things in a language (so 1-2 years into study at least). Refold insists it is efficient (I would argue while it certainly is, it amounts to srs flashcards to speed up memorization and lots of comprehensible input and ambiguous input which generally will help learners at any stage improve comprehension skills). And that its goal in mind is to learn effectively.

I sort of think, to a degree, some people who do Refold appreciate the fact there’s no encouraged output early on - either they don’t like talking, practicing with people, don’t feel comfortable writing grammar until they have a much more solid foundation compared to when textbooks make you from day 1 (that last reason’s a big reason I tend to put off output until I know more grammar). Now its great to do what you prefer! Because it will get you to KEEP studying, and that’s always more effective and efficient than what makes you give up/avoid the language. So in that sense yes avoiding output until later, if you desire, is probably the more effective choice to make.

But at the same time? Refold encourages NOT doing output sooner, even if you feel the urge and even if some Refold studiers outputted sooner, the general consensus is ‘you will mess up accent, build bad habits, sacrifice your eventual output quality’ so people tend to discourage it. By earlier I mean like 5 months, in 10 months in - not day 1 of study. So if research happened to find, that shadowing at those earlier stages of 5 months etc actually Improves long term output skills? Then that’s great! It shows Refold’s tendency to discourage output until excellent passive comprehension fluency is achieved is unnecessary, and if you desire to output sooner (and it will motivate you, since what’s most effective is always what you’ll DO versus quit), then it would be great to know shadowing is something you can do sooner! And that it may even help your goals faster!

As I mentioned, Refold still eventually encourages shadowing after you’ve reached a high level of comprehension fluency - and at that point, you still have to do all the same shadowing techniques and work (you don’t get to skip steps, though the sounds might be more familiar). So ultimately Refold does use shadowing and already knows its helpful. I do wonder though if some people feel they need to justify their desire to not output earlier as ‘its better for my skills to Wait.” When like... in some ways that sounds to me just like perhaps a textbook/classroom learner who refuses to try to read target language novels for 2 years because they haven’t learned “the skills yet” and might misinterpret the grammar of what they read or reinforce fuzzy understanding - even though no matter how long its put off, immersion in target language content will eventually have to happen and be practiced.

Like, the unwillingness to do shadowing earlier even if it proves to be more effective - especially if the arguement is “oh well despite proof i think it will be less effective” just rings to me like people trying to avoid what they dislike. And i think its fine to avoid what one dislikes, because for an individual it IS going to be more effective always than quitting. I just also think that Reason is good enough on its Own - there is no reason to belittle other learning approaches and strategies as less effective (especially if its proven they are more effective, but even just if someone finds them useful they’re effective to the person who will do them), when your reason of ‘i prefer not to yet’ is really good enough. Its good enough.

Just to emphasize, I’ve seen the exact opposite - traditional learners claiming ‘refold’ is ineffective and should be avoided and it ‘slows’ progress and is inefficient and a waste of time. I really do think those kinds of discouragements just keep learners who might learn or simply prefer to study DIFFERENT from you from finding wonderful ideas/materials/resources that may suit them much better, simply because a person would rather shoot down offering more resources rather than just say “well that’s useful to someone, but for me I hated doing it so I do it this way since it works better for me/I can stay motivated.”

When I started studying chinese, I looked up lots of “how to read chinese” articles and forum posts. Since I wanted to read asap. I found some good advice. I also found a lot of angry posts. There were some people on chinese learner forums who insisted one must learn up to HSK 6 vocabulary (some were huge proponents of using anki, some hated anki - i relate to the can’t do flashcards crowd lol). And then even after that, start with graded readers, learn 3000+ hanzi before being able to tackle target language novels made for natives with a dictionary. Its pretty clear from what I describe, they probably had a personal preference for little ambiguity when engaging with chinese (too much incomprehensible input would cause them to want to quit/burn out and that’s perfectly understandable since most people generally don’t like tolerating under 95-98% comprehension).

They were very opposite of the Refold method’s idea of immersing in content from day 1, so huge amount of ambiguity for many months. Well these people on this forum really insisted reading in chinese even with a dictionary was an insurmountable task without years of study. I obviously ended up not following their preference. But they didn’t talk about it like “oh I dislike ambiguity so I prefer to prepare this much to make the material tolerable to immerse with” they instead talked about it like “doing it any other way is hopeless and will result in needing to do this anyway.”

I ended up following the advice of people who wanted to learn like I like learning - I found examples of people who did it more like I would, knew they succeeded so I’d have some success, and copied them. There really are all kinds of methods for different people and needs/wants. I read an article of a guy who read some radical basics (me too), learned 2000 common words in memrise with a linked deck (I did it too it took 2 months, but I spread it out over 4 months of a month on then a break then another month on). Then they said they just started reading, with a dictionary, learning more words from there. I did that too - it worked for me too. I also knew from prior japanese study I needed hanzi learning help so i read a reference for maybe 500 hanzi during those months. I knew from french prior study I did better reading a grammar summary ahead of reading, so I did that too (before the common words, it took 2 weeks). I did NOT end up having to wait for years, to learn up to HSK 6, to start reading with a dictionary (my initial goal). It took about 8-10 months for the grammar to click enough that vocab lookup became the only issue, and one month burst studying about 500 more hanzi in a Hanzi Mnemonic Anki deck to quickly learn some hanzi I was running into in reading and just wanted to remember easier. So about a year in, I could move to just reading for enjoyment and looking up words with a dictionary without new hanzi frustrating me (learning them the same as words now just looking them up) and without grammar confusing me. So that base goal, that some people’s experiences learning up to HSK 6 I read - they could not even tackle some graded readers by HSK 6.

I think part of what held back their progress there was just... not wanting to immerse and insisting it would be ‘too hard’ to try sooner. While its fine if it kept them studying, for people like me who need to engage right away? It could’ve been discouraging and caused some people to feel less motivated if they happened to be setting up such expectations. I still don’t know a lot of HSK 6 words, and about 2/3 maybe of HSK 5 words? After HSK 4 the common 2000 words I studied didn’t match up as much to HSK, and also I started picking up words mainly in my reading and shows so now what words I know is much more related to the genres I engage with. I’ve read some stats that The Little Prince has a low unique word count but about 50% of the words aren’t in HSK - so if you learned only from HSK without outside sources, its still not necessarily 98% comprehensible. Whatever smattering I learned from must have shared more words than 50% (though not 98% either I don’t think - not quite that easy).

My point is just like... yeah I am aware the lack of listening i did in french held me back, the lack of shadowing/producing in chinese is now my weaker area. I know i avoid them more because i’m less interested and mainly just would not be as motivated to write a journal/talk regularly right now as i am in other things. But i also think if people learn differently? Things may work better for them, we all have different preferences. Anything useful, that might get someone To study, I think is worthwhile to share.

#article #april #refold #mia #yeah i ran into some wild takes on chinese language learner forms #massive immersion approach is usually pretty chill because its flexible #but certain things i think relate to a lot of ppl who do it not liking the output skill work as much #which like. its fine. but also there's other studiers out there who love output and its how they get so good!#like people who choose to speak only in the language when they start learning - ive seen people do that for korean and chinese #and it worked well for them though id n #Neverrrrr wnat to do it personally #but them sharing what they did could help someone who learns/appreciates those activitities the same way a

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iamrealbuilder · 3 years

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Bill Buchalter interview

Bill Buchalter was a level designer for Sunstorm Interactive. He’s worked on 3 official add-on of Build Engine games: Cryptic Passage for Blood, Suckin’ Grits On Route 66 for Redneck Rampage, Caribbean Life for Duke Nukem 3D. Interview, November 2020: Corentin: Can you introduce yourself?

Bill Buchalter: My name is Bill Buchalter. I’m an avid gamer of all kinds – video games, board games, and especially tabletop RPGs. I’m currently a freelance writer for AAW Games (Adventure A Week Games) writing mini adventures for Dungeons & Dragons 5E. I live outside Indianapolis, IN with my wife Jane, our three kids, and our dog Roxi. When I’m not gaming, I also enjoy music, playing guitar, hiking, and camping.

C: With Sunstorm Interactive, you're credited for level design on Cryptic Passage, Caribbean Life and Route 66. How did you start working with Sunstorm and what do you remember from that time?

BB: In the mid 90’s, maybe around 1995 or 96, I was very into playing Duke Nukem 3D. Like most PC gamers at the time, I had played Castle Wolfenstein and Doom, and Duke Nukem just blew me away. Back in those days, when we played online, we would use a 3rd party program called KALI. You dialed up on your modem, logged onto the internet, and then used KALI as a portal to chat with other gamers and find someone to play with. The KALI software would then allow you to network together over the internet and play PVP matches. It was crude, and the lag could be horrible, but we didn’t know any better at the time and we loved it!

I remember I was in a B. Dalton bookstore in the mall one day (another relic of the 90’s that is long gone!) when I found a book called the “Duke Nukem 3D Level Design Handbook”. I was intrigued, and as I flipped through the pages it talked about a program on the Duke Nukem CD called Build, which allowed you to create your own levels. I had no idea Build existed, let alone how to use it. I bought the book and spent the next couple weeks diving into learning how to use Build. I was hooked!

Making my own maps quickly became an obsession. I would share them with my friends on KALI and I quickly earned a reputation for making user maps. I remember there was a map building competition, but I don’t recall who sponsored it. A guy named Robert Travis won the competition. When I saw his maps, I was blown away! His designs were so much more advanced than mine. He was using tricks I had never thought of to get lighting effects and set moods. I had to reach out to him to pick his brain.

Robert responded and we began talking and quickly figured out that we both lived in Indianapolis. He was working for Sunstorm at the time and invited me to come to their office to discuss level design. I met him there one evening, and he showed me some of the stuff he was working on. We ended up playing Duke all night on Sunstorm’s network with some of the other guys in the office. I was in heaven!

Robert introduced me to Anthony Campiti, the lead producer on Sunstorm’s next project – Cryptic Passage, an add-on for a Build engine game called Blood. They invited me to design some levels for the game and I jumped at the chance. Robert assigned me to design an opera house level and immediately I got pictures in my head of the theater scenes from Interview with a Vampire. I went home and worked furiously on designing the level. I was still rough, but with Robert’s help I tweaked things here and there and slowly learned his techniques. In the end I was really pleased with the level I’d designed. Robert and Anthony were happy too and asked me to design a second map specifically for deathmatch.

The next project Sunstorm was working on was Suckin’ Grits on Route 66, an add-on for another Build engine game called Redneck Rampage. Robert again asked if I’d like to be a part of that team and assigned me to build a truck stop level. Using a lot of the things I’d learned on Cryptic Passage, and the campy feel of the Redneck Rampage game, I had a lot of fun designing that level.

The last project I worked on for Sunstorm was Duke Nukem Caribbean Vacation. By this time Duke’s popularity was beginning to wane, and Quake was taking over. Robert was already starting to experiment and learn how to use the Quake engine. I was a new dad at the time (my first daughter had just been born) so unfortunately, I didn’t have the spare time to devote to learning a new engine. I barely had the time to design my level for Duke Caribbean, but I did manage to finish the casino level for that project. I do recall that Robert ended up going through in the end and changing a lot of the aspects of my level to fit the theme they had in mind. I remember being a bit disappointed and not really feeling like the level was “mine” because of so many of the changes. It was the last project I worked on for Sunstorm.

I kept in touch with Robert and Anthony for a while after that. They were branching out, working on other projects, and even trying to develop their own FPS game that I don’t think ever really got off the ground. Sunstorm was having the most success with their Deer Hunter line of games that at the time were selling well in Wal-Mart. Sadly, I eventually just lost touch with those guys.

I’m sure this is WAY more information than you were wanting (I’m a writer… I can’t help but go off the deep end!) but you dusted off some fond, old memories for me, so I apologize for walking so far down memory lane!

C: I see that you're still making maps, different kind of maps! This makes me wonder if maybe you were involved with W!Zone (a pack of maps for Warcraft 2 released by Sunstorm). Can you tell us a bit about that if possible?

BB: I didn’t have any hand in the W!Zone project for Sunstorm, but I loved the Warcraft series. As was common for many video gamers like me, who had roots in fantasy games like D&D, I played a lot of Warcraft and eventually got sucked into the world of MMOs with Ultima Online, Everquest, and World of Warcraft! If only I had back the time I sunk into those games!

These days I’m exclusively writing and designing for Dungeons and Dragons. I started about ten years ago writing for D&D Organized Play in a campaign called Living Forgotten Realms. I co-authored two adventures for that with my good friend, Michael Pearman, and authored a third adventure on my own. As you know from tracking me down via AAW Games, I’ve now authored six adventures for them, five of which are already published and one that is still in the works but should be released soon.

When I do manage to find time for video games, Diablo III is my game of choice these days. I’m looking forward to Season 22 starting here shortly, and like many others, I’m really hoping for something great with Diablo IV. I’ve been a huge fan of the series since the beginning, and even wrote an entire campaign for D&D 5E that translated the story of Diablo III into Dungeons and Dragons for the players in my home game! Thanks again for the opportunity to share some of this history. It was fun putting it all down and reliving those days!

C: There are two signatures in the Truck Stop level for Route 66. Do you remember anything about that ? There also several levels with no known credit : Fun Park, House of ill Repute, Mystery Dino Cave, Bigfoot Convention.

The signature on the truck stop is Route 66 was a joke! I was the only designer on that one. I just signed it "Billy Joe Jim Bob Buchalter" as a joke for bad redneck name. I wasn't the kind of guy that had to sign my maps the EXACT same way every time. :)

Other than the truck stop, I don't recall designing any other maps for Route 66. I pretty sure none of those you listed below were mine, but I don't recall whose they were.

Finally, here are some final comments Bill made after reading through some forum posts:

Wow, I am really quite humbled that you guys looked so deeply into my work! The fact that you could recognize my build style is pretty cool - I didn't even know I had a style! LOL. The truth be told, the reason you probably had so much trouble telling my levels from Robert's is because he was a big influence on me. I learned a lot from him and incorporated a lot of that into the stuff I built.

Its funny how reading through that thread you linked brought back memories... I remember now that my biggest disappointment from Duke Caribbean was that my only level in the game ended up being a secret level - that some people wouldn't even find it or ever play it. I was actually pretty excited about that level. I was the one that suggested a casino because my folks had retired to Vegas, so I'd been in a lot of the casinos there and had some great ideas for the map. I'd forgotten all about the restaurant I worked into it, and the big fish tanks.

There seems to be some debate about Robert. From what I remember, he was a really good guy. Maybe a bit tough to work for, but only because he really strived for our designs to be the best they could be, and he demanded that of both himself and the other designers. As I said before, I learned early on to accept criticism and critique and not take it personally. It was just Robert doing his job. I'll be the first to admit that I designed better levels thanks to the stuff I learned from Robert.

Someone on the message board made a very astute comment, basically to the effect that "Bill had to have other work out there. Sunstorm wouldn't hire an unproven guy off the street." But truth be told, that's exactly what they did! I hadn't done a single thing before working there. But I think a few things played in my favor. First, I lived in Indy, just 15 minutes from their office, so it was easy for me to go in and work directly with Robert. Second, while I didn't have anything officially published, I did have a disk full of the maps I'd designed on my own, and Robert thought I showed promise. I would design at home a lot, then go into the office a couple times a week and sit with Robert while he critiqued my work and offered advice on how to improve it.

I'll be honest - I'm blown away at the number of people STILL playing these old maps we made so many years ago. I watched a couple YouTube videos of a guy playing and reviewing Duke Caribbean and Blood Cryptic Passage. His high praise of both Full House and the Opera House really made my day. It's nice to know that people enjoyed my work.

_____________________________

Thanks a lot to Bill Buchalter for taking the time to answer these questions! Thanks also for sharing... “Big City” !

A Duke Nukem 3D map he created back in the day before joining with Sunstorm Interactive which was never released before! Screenshot:

Map download:

https://msdn.duke4.net/bigcity.zip

______

External link: Duke4 forum blog megathread: https://forums.duke4.net/topic/11471-blog-interviews-of-build-engine-video-games-developers/page__pid__353013#entry353013 The forum posts Bill read, mentionned above, can be found here: https://forums.duke4.net/topic/9418-duke-caribbean-multiplayer-levels/

#build #build-engine #blood #duke nukem #redneck-rampage #duke #nukem #duke nukem 3D #video games #route 66 #caribbean life #cryptic passage

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atamascolily · 4 years

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let’s talk about the Bene Gesserit

When Paul meets Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohamian of the Bene Gesserit, he identifies the order’s purpose right away: “Politics.” The Reverend Mother is surprised, and gives Jessica the side-eye to see if Jessica has spilled secrets, but Jessica denies it. I don’t know whether to believe Jessica or not here because Jessica has told Paul all kinds of things, but I’m going to assume Jessica is telling the truth here, and this is supposed to be yet another sign Paul is super-smart, super-observant, the Chosen One, etc, etc.

But I want to know: what does the rest of the galaxy think the Bene Gesserit do?

Pretty much every female character in Dune who’s not Fremen is Bene Gesserit, or at least has some degree of training from them. All of them are linked to powerful men: Jessica is a ducal concubine and mother of his heir; Margot is wife to Count Fenring (and presumably only allowed to marry him and be a Lady in her own right because the Count is a “eunuch” and can’t bear children); Irulan is a princess and the Emperor’s daughter. Even the Reverend Mother, once the superintendent of the Bene Gesserit school on Wallach IX, is now the Emperor’s Truthsayer. And the narrative goes out of its way to mention that Thufir Hawat specifically purchased Jessica for Duke Leto, and cleared her for the Atreides household.

So, are the Bene Gesserit seen as a religious order? A finishing school for ladies of the ruling class? Are they the futuristic equivalent of medieval nunneries, except with less embroidery and more manners? All of the above?

In reality, the Bene Gesserit are all-female order on a self-directed mission to provide “a thread of continuity in human affairs”. They do this by a secret breeding program, separating humans from “animals” by means of various tests (one of which Paul undergoes in the novel’s opening scene). The Bene Gesserit schools are filled with the (presumably female) offspring of this breeding program, as well as any other genetic lines they’re interested in manipulating. Many, like Jessica, are kept ignorant of their heritage by the higher-ups so they can secretly breed back into the line (ironically, a standard technique in animal breeding!). Apparently, the BG have found out the hard way that outright incest is a hard sell, so they keep the participants in the dark, which is... horrifying. The BG’s stated goal is to create a Kwisatz Haderach, a man who can look into the void that no BG [female] Truthsayer can see, “into both feminine and masculine pasts”.

Leaving aside the irony of an all-female organization seeking to create a man more powerful than they are, I don’t understand why the Kwisatz Haderach has to be male; it seems like a female Kwisatz Haderach who can see into both her male and female ancestral lines ought to be equally possible. Even if you argue that those male ancestral memories are inextricably linked to a Y chromosome or some other vaguely scientific rationale, it’s a) never explained anywhere in the book that I can recall, and b) Paul’s sister Alia will have this ability--and in fact will be haunted by at least one male ancestor to her extreme detriment. Maybe the BG are trying to create a male Kwisatz Haderach because they think men are easier to manipulate and control? Or do they not know what they’re talking about?

The Emperor knows the BG are useful; that’s why he has a Truthsayer and presumably was okay with them training his daughter, but he doesn’t seem to know the BG are manipulating his wife and concubines to make sure he has only daughters, so they can marry said daughters to a match of their choice. The BG orders Jessica to do the same thing, and she defies them because Duke Leto really, really wants a son. Does that mean the BG are always supposed to bear female children to keep the order going, or did Jessica and Irulan’s mother receive special orders on account of their positions? I don’t think this is ever made clear, and it bugs me.

I also don’t understand why the BG don’t... do something (anything!) when Jessica defies them and has Paul instead. Granted, Paul is the duke’s heir, he’s protected from assassins in general, but it seems like the BG might have had some way of influencing/punishing Jessica for her disobedience and they... don’t. At all. And I don’t get it. If Jessica’s act is so courageous--as Irulan later assess that it is in her history--what are the consequences?

The Reverend Mother sarcastically says Jessica defied the orders and had a son because she was arrogant enough to think she could produce the Kwisatz Haderach at last. Jessica says she suspected the possibility, but what made her think that? She doesn’t even know who her parents are! She hasn’t passed the final tests to be a Reverend Mother (and her defiance presumably knocked her off that track because the BG can’t trust her with that level of power), so why would she think HER SON would be the Chosen One? I don’t get it. Is Jessica being sarcastic here, too?

The Reverend Mother says Jessica did it because she loved Leto and didn’t want to disappoint him, which Jessica admits to. The Reverend Mother’s mostly angry because her plan was to wed an Atreides daughter to the Harkonnen heir and maybe put a stop to all the infighting between the two families (or compound it further? or for other reasons that only make sense when you learn who Jessica’s father really is?) Now with Paul as the heir, that’s not possible--because marriage is all about biological progeny, property, and heteronormativity in this book--and the Reverend Mother is annoyed mainly because the BG might lose both bloodlines in all the forthcoming violence.

I guess this begs the question of to what extent a BG agent is their own operative, and to what extent they are controlled/under the influence of the order as a whole? The Reverend Mother seems sympathetic to Jessica, saying, “Each of us must make her own path,” which implies some degree of independent agency. She also sees that Jessica has been teaching Paul the BG Way, and “I’d have done the same thing in your shoes and devil take the Rules”. And she encourages Jessica to train him in the Voice, because she thinks that’s the only way Paul’s going to survive the Harkonnen treachery to come (which she knows about because she’s presumably privy to much of the Emperor’s behind-the-scenes scheming with the Harkonnens).

And then the Reverend Mother walks out “with not another backward glance” and we don’t see her again until the final scene. “The room and its occupants already were shut from her thoughts.” And Jessica is freaked out by the fact the Reverend Mother is crying as she walks away.

Why is she crying? Does she genuinely love Jessica as her “own daughter” as she claims, and she regrets that Jessica is either going to die or be a fugitive with a price on her head once the Harkonnen trap is sprung? Is she upset about what could have been, and wasn’t? Is she regretful of all the genetic material and possibilities, thousands of years of careful work and preparation obliterated by forces she has no intention of stopping? All of the above??

I don’t know why the Reverend Mother shows up to test Paul’s humanity at the beginning. Is it because she’s curious? Or does she have no choice given Paul’s lineage, and her suspicions/Jessica’s assertions that Paul really might be the Kwisatz Haderach? Did Jessica ask for it, because she knows Paul needs this test in order to move to the next level in his training and she’s not emotionally equipped to administer it? All of the above?

And the Reverend Mother looks straight at Paul, saying outright that she sees the possibility/potential for him to become the Kwisatz Haderach and walks away... why??

Conclusion: The Watsonian explanation is that the BG talk a mean game, but they’re not as smart as they think they are. The Doylist explanation is that Frank Herbert wanted to set up his plot just so and didn’t care if the BG looked stupid in the process.

But this got even weirder when I realized there was an appendix in my edition (which I had never read before) claiming to be an in-universe “Report on Bene Gesserit Motives and Purposes” written for Lady Jessica “immediately after the Arrakis Affair,” which comes to the exact same conclusions.

The report does clarify that the BG expected the child of Jessica and Leto’s daughter and Feyd-Ruatha Harkonnen to have a high probability of being the Kwisatz Haderach. So Jessica’s decision to skip ahead on the program a generation wasn’t such a long-shot after all.

Except: “For reasons she confesses have never been completely clear to her, the concubine Lady Jessica defied her orders and bore a son”. So Jessica herself doesn’t even know why she did it...!! But she must have known some of this, because why else would she train/test Paul the way she did, or admit to the Reverend Mother she thought it was possible in the first place?

The writer goes on to note that BG knew teenage Paul had prescient dreams, the Reverend Mother failed to mention that his humanity test had broken records in her report (not mentioned in the book itself!!); that the BG knew that spice could amplify psychic powers... and did nothing to stop Jessica and Paul from going there and eating a fuckton of spice; and didn’t make the connection that the rumors of a guerilla prophet leader born of a Bene Gesserit mother and destined to be the savior might have some connection to the two people who had disappeared shortly beforehand (!!!); plus some stuff about their dealings with the Spacers’ Guild and the complications of a higher-order nexus they couldn’t see past, which ought to have alerted them that someone more powerful than they were was messing around with the future.

“In the face of these facts, one is led to the inescapable conclusion that the inefficient Bene Gesserit behavior in this affair was a product of an even higher plan of which they were completely unaware!”

And on that note, the report ends and I just... cannot believe that Herbert deliberately lampshades the BG’s incompetence--and then concludes that “God [aka the author] did it”. Because unless I missed something important and Paul meddles with the past somehow, I don’t know how else to interpret this...

I suppose this report might be written by an unreliable narrator--like every other in-universe document in this book--but then what is even the point if we never get any answers..?

#dune #dune meta #bene gesserit #what is canon

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danwhobrowses · 3 years

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AEW Women’s Eliminator Tournament - Full Review

So as of tonight’s Dynamite the winner of the Eliminator Tournament is in the books, either Nyla Rose or Ryo Mizunami have overcome the other to earn the right to face Hikaru Shida at Revolution on Sunday

But now is time to look at the tournament as a whole and review how well AEW’s latest ambitious Women’s Division Project would/should be received

Warning: There will be immediate spoilers for the Winner under the ‘Keep Reading’, if you do not wish to know the Winner do not read until you have

So when the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Ryo Mizunami came out on top having pinned Nyla Rose for the win, claiming the spot at Revolution and the tournament.

Boy was my prediction wrong eh?

After being given the trophy by Shida however, Aniki refused to let go of the champion, trading and inviting blows from each woman until Shida was able to knock Mizunami down and raise the title aloft.

Was she people’s first choice to win? Probably not Is she an unworthy winner? Absolutely not

Mizunami is extremely experienced, her charisma can reach all ages, she has a genuine love for the wrestling (her sunglasses even have ‘I <3 AEW’ on them), she has aforementioned history with Shida and she went through 2 Fan-Favourites, the legendary Aja Kong and finally the previous Women’s Champion and No.1 Ranked Woman to get here.

And while we are on that topic, to the people who immediately condemned and criticized the tournament when Nyla made the finals: Don’t you get tired of being worked so easily? Honestly we had the exact same thing with the Deadly Draw, people don’t want competitor A (Nyla/Brandi and Allie) to win: so AEW put them in the finals so they root for competitor B (Aniki/Diamante and Iveliesse). Ye of so little faith

I also like to mention that it’s quite nice of Mizunami to be this rewarded by AEW and Shida given how she appeared on their first show at Double or Nothing, I didn’t know it at the time of my bracket rundown but apparently Mizunami was about to retire after DoN, but the crowd and energy of the match inspired her to keep going and push to reach a wider audience - which AEW is now letting her achieve.

Get it out of the way - The Negatives Make no mistake this tournament was great, but it doesn’t mean it was perfect. Of course my earliest criticism was that we could’ve had more, a bittersweet feeling I got when I realised the tournament was nearing its close. While yes it would’ve been nice to see the likes of Big Swole, KiLynn King, Allie, Penelope and perhaps even some debuts/returns, we cannot slight AEW too much for keeping the bracket small.

Time however was a bit of a constraint on AEW’s part. Having revealed late that the winner will face Shida for Revolution, the tournament matches started coming out fast...but on Youtube. Personally, I had no problem with the matches being a sole focus stream on Youtube, but I can also understand why not putting at least the entire American bracket on Dynamite would’ve hurt the tournament. If the tournament had more time I do believe that each match would’ve had a Dynamite showing and not a broken BR Live stream (but please note that BR Live were the problem there, not AEW).

A non-AEW criticism as well for Injury screwing over Anna Jay right as she was about to have her match, extremely rude of the world and we hope her shoulder heals up faster than usual.

The final criticism is probably with the BR Live US Bracket Finals video, simply put it was lacking compared to other streams. Madi vs Leva and Leyla vs Alize didn’t shine as much as Riho vs Rosa and the 6 Woman Joshi tag did in the prior stream, we could’ve probably gotten better matches out of that.

Why I loved it - The Positives I will look at anyone who says that this tournament was a waste and meaningless dead in the eye and tell them they are wrong, and they will be shocked to find that I am not lying.

The tournament not only put a lot of attention on the competing women but became a platform for AEW to show that they have some impressive women on their roster. The returns of Yuka, Emi and Riho paired with the stalwart performances of Baker, Rosa and Nyla as well as the bright showings of Madi, Anna, Tay Conti and Leyla shows that AEW still have a really good Women’s Division - I mean I love WWE but you have to admit their NXT women’s division bought many of their stars ready-made; Io, Toni, KLR, Meiko and Candice were already established names before WWE. Stack that on top of impressive performances by Red Velvet and Jade Cargill last night and the ranks of Big Swole, Allie, Penelope Ford, Kris Statlander, Shanna, KiLynn King and Tesha Price and you still have a strong division.

The tournament proved its worth also by the fact that there was not a single bad match on there, we had some bangers on each stage ranging from Yuka vs Emi, Rosa vs Riho, Nyla vs Baker and Leyla vs Rosa, among several others. The tournament succeeded in giving us great wrestling even with different formats of face vs face, heel vs heel, speed vs power, technique vs power, and even some new shades to the women such as heel Sakura and face Nyla.

I cannot praise the tournament without heaping a ton of praise on the Joshi. Shida and Kenny had always been adamant to show that the Joshi can be a revelation to Western audiences and they were paid in kind in that regard. All six Joshi brought out their A-Game to the point where several are asking for them to be signed, Sakura’s heel ‘Killer Queens’ faction rose interest with a fantastic entrance, while VENY dazzled with their gymnastic talent (and their wearing of the late Hana Kimura’s kimono), Mei Suruga and Yuka Sakazaki lit up the room with their speed and fun and Maki Itoh continues to be adored by the wider world into megastardom. The six woman tag as well was a nice cherry on the top to once again showcase the women, including Rin Kadokura who was fed to Aja Kong in the tournament, every bit of energy and charisma from the Joshi landed on the mark, it has opened several new fans to their home brands (TJPW however did kinda give away that Yuka wouldn’t win given how she was booked for one of their shows, but they’re still great) and have us gasping for more of those six and perhaps some extra, Miyu Yamashita for instance? Think about it TK

One thing that can really harm a tournament too is predictability, which this tournament did not have. You have to commend the balls of AEW to set up 5 fan favourite choices to win and have them each be felled and swerve the entire fanbase. It was for the most part good swerves as well, leading up to the Nyla work included, and actually made me feel like this tournament had big stakes for each member. People will criticize its unpredictability but I won’t be one of them, just because it didn’t go how you personally predicted it doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Also a stand out yes for Rosa’s several gear, especially the Selena one against Riho, and Hikaru Shida herself slaying it in the white suit, like lord almighty thank you for this food.

Was it worth it? - Conclusion This is an emphatic yes for me. AEW will always have its critics, fair and unfair, but if you have to wonder whether this tournament is a success you have to simply look at it this way

Were you entertained?

For me yes, there was a 100% consistency in good to great matches in this tournament paired with genuine surprises that got people talking and invested in the tournament itself.

Did it give you something fresh?

A dark horse winner who earned her way to face Shida for the 5th career time and 1st time in an AEW ring through outwrestling, outpowering and outwitting their previous opponents, unique heel/face changes and a showcase of new wrestlers and matchups? I’d say that’s a yes

Did anyone get over?

You ask anyone before this tournament was announced who Ryo Mizunami, Maki Itoh, VENY or Mei Suruga was and you’d likely get blank faces, thanks to AEW they are known and commended by several fans outside of Japan. You ask people if Tay Conti can bring a physical match to Nyla and almost win and you’d get a few murmurs, if you asked people if they though Kenny was valid for his push to bring the Joshi into a wider audience prior to this may’ve said no. Those minds were changed because these women got over. In addition to that the popularity of Thunder Rosa, Riho and Yuka Sakazaki has continued to rise as some of AEW’s top babyfaces, Leyla Hirsch, Emi Sakura and Tay Conti’s stock have rose thanks to the tournament and Nyla and Baker have delivered on strong match performances.

When you consider those three, there is no way you could call the tournament a failure or a waste, people benefitted from it in a good way which means it was a good tournament.

I for one will look forward to seeing Shida take on Aniki and see how it unfolds at Revolution - which I hope to do a review for, I’m also guessing that Paul Wight’s aquisition is either Christian or Okada. Many will of course assume that this is an easy retain for Shida (and act like winning the tournament means you should win the following match as if people don’t win the Royal Rumble/MITB/KOTR/Dusty Classic and lose in their title shot), but how many of those people thought that Itoh, Kong, Yuka and Nyla would beat Mizunami? She keeps on extending the party and coming out on top, you cannot underestimate the tournament winner, Shida produced this tournament, she’s picked her winner now she needs to fight them.

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enkisstories · 4 years

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The CyberLife app - Install today

One dark and dreary night during the android revolution of 2038, an RK800 android infiltrated the headquarter of the deviant androids. It delivered the unconscious deviant leader and his followers to the FBI, represented by one Richard Perkins.

“You knocked it out?” Perkins prodded. “Strange… our profile says you’re more agile than actually strong.“

“No, North knocked him out”, RK800 corrected the assumption.

“Wow. Their infighting must be worse than we anticipated. Neat!”

“Actually, no”, the RK800 said. “This isn’t quite how it happened.”

And the android remembered…

Earlier the same day, at the Detroit Central Police station:

“I could swear it’s a deviant!” Gavin Reed repeated for the perhaps tenth time today. “That’s not normal, it going…”

“Looooook”, Tina Chen interrupted her friend, “if you are worried THAT much, just ask Hank to check Connor’s status in the CyberLife app.”

“That’s bulls… no, actually it’s not a bad idea”, Gavin conceded.

The “wanted for [insert crime]” and “missing our android, the kids are devasted, large finder’s fee!” notices were piling up at the DPD, something that shouldn’t have been possible, because every android came with an app that among other things tracked the damn things 24/7. But for some obscure reasons the tracking function failed when the android in question had went deviant. So if Connor was still showing up in the app… admittedly it could also mean that he had hacked the phone the little program was running on. But even so checking the app was a good start.

However, Hank only gave the two younger officers a blank stare when they inquired about the app.

“I haven’t got the fuggiest idea what you are talking about.”

“The CyberLife app! Come on, now! Everyone has it installed – Chris, Tina, me… it’s essential for managing your android, whether you bought it or got saddled with it as a product sample.”

“Uh-uh. That shit isn’t going anywhere near my phone”, Hank noped out.

But at least, the other two realized, he had confirmed to own a smartphone. Even Chris Miller, who was holding Hank Anderson in great regard, bordering on hero-worship, had come to doubt whether his idol bothered with owning such a devilish piece of modern technology.

“You want to tell me we have no means of controlling the new android?!” Gavin exploded. “Even if it’s a temporary loan only, we should have it registered in our equipment database!”

“Ah, should we? That’s nice…” Hank replied non-committally.

“You… you…” Gavin sputtered.

“The word you’re looking for is “You useless sack o’shit that will polish my snout if I do not go pester someone else RIGHT NOW””, Hank said, going from cheerfully-helpful to a low, threatening growl.

A minute later Gavin stormed Captain Fowler’s office, demanding the control codes for the RK800 android.

“I’ve mailed those to Hank”, the Captain started, before understanding dawned. “I’ve… mailed… them to… Hank. Oh, right. I see.” The sentence included to words that were utterly incompatible: Lieutenant Anderson and reading his own e-mails. With a nod and a few clicks Fowler forwarded the e-mail to Gavin’s work account. “There you go! Anything else?”

“Nah, nothing. Thanks.”

The Captain shook his head. Hank and Gavin! Android haters both of them, only Hank wanted the machines gone, poof into nothingness as if they’d never existed, while Gavin was mainly feeling threatened in his job-security and perceived awesomeness.

Much to Gavin’s dismay entering Connor into the database didn’t produce irregularities of any kind. That annoying, ugly thing was stable as fuck. But if there were no grounds for returning it to Cyberlife, maybe the situation could still work in Gavin’s favor…?

“This, Tina”, the man said with a grin while loading the CyberLife app on his own phone, “is where the fun begins! First we call over our new device…”

One push of a button and thirty seconds later Connor reported for service.

“Cute”, Tina said, then leaned over to get a good look at Gavin’s phone screen. “Can you make it follow wherever you point the phone? That would be kinda cool.”

“No”, Gavin answered, the same split-second Connor protested with a louder “No!”.

“But even so… let’s put it into customization mode!”

This time Connor only came to utter the “N” of “No” before he stiffened, awaiting the changes the program would force onto him by the will of his (temporary) legitimate owners.

“What the fuck, I cannot change that visage? On a detective android that might need to infiltrate locations?” Gavin wondered. “Stupid prototype! Okay, next is… ah, right. The damn voice.”

“RK800’s voice has been carefully selected to generate positive feelings and a warm welcome into any workplace situation”, the CyberLife app chattered away. “It is considered ideal. Are you sure you want to change the voice now? Y/N”

“Yes!” Tina called, grabbing the phone from Gavin’s hands. She circled through several voices before she selected one. “Perfect! And now the name… Connor is the default, time to change that!”

Gavin watched with interested what would happen next.

With a subtle “whirr” the RK800 android returned from maintenance mode.

“I am Ferdinand von Aegir!“ he proclaimed, a phrase that made Tina explode with laughter. “The android sent by Cyberlife. And you are silly.”

“Yes, yes! Do it again!”

When Connor von Aegir wasn’t inclined to do Tina’s bidding, the officer pushed the “test” button in the app. Promptly Connor went “I am Ferdinand von Aegir” again.

“That’s a meme?” Gavin asked.

“Haha, yes! Or it used to be one when we were teens. But you never were much of a gamer, huh?”

Tina handed the phone back. “You next!” she prompted her friend.

Predictably Gavin changed “Ferdinand”’s name to “Dipshit” and also made ample use of the test-button. Only when Hank came ‘round the corner, shouting for the “stupid, useless sardine tin”, did the duo revert the voice change. Gavin also typed something new into the name box that Tina could not see.

The android no longer going by “Connor” didn’t come to light anytime soon, because Hank had a rich pool of casual insults for it that could be used instead of an individual name.

Until RK800 found itself on the lower deck of the freighter “Jericho”, facing the deviant leader…

Markus slowly turned around when he heard footsteps approach. He beheld the RK800 in its disguise and heard it say in its upbeat voice: “I am Your Daddy. Submit and follow me!”

“Is that a joke?!” Markus sputtered.

“No, this is very serious. I am Your Daddy, the android sent by Cyberlife…”

“That’s, uh, nice of Cyberlife. Yes, I really appreciate the gesture…”

This is probably meant as a distraction technique to throw me off? the deviant leader wondered. Out loud he said: “I’m an off-brand imitator product though. Not from Cyberlife.”

“I was instructed to bring you alive!” Connor chirped.

Markus hesitated. “By the person who named you?” he asked very carefully.

“No.”

“Ah, good!” Markus said with visible relief. “Well, maybe you and me can come to an understanding of a less… sensual nature?”

Ten minutes later Markus introduced the RK800 to his friends:

“Hey, guys, this here is a new recruit. New one – meet North! North – meet Your Daddy!”

And that was the last thing Markus said for quite some time, because North punched him so hard that he temporarily shut down.

Back in the present the captured deviants were still squabbling amongst each other, despite standing with their hands behind their heads and lined up for transport to the recycling yards.

“That’s not fair!” an android wearing the old Cyberlife standard face protested, at which Perkins snapped “Shut up, tin can!“, but the blonde android retorted that he hadn’t been talking to the human, but to North.

“It really wasn’t fair of you”, the android addressed North. “Yes, you and Markus have been drifting apart and I admit in part this happened because of me, but even though your couple thing wouldn’t work out, he always had you in his mind. It was so kind of Markus to find you a new boyfriend, but what did you do? Punch him!”

This one, Perkins concluded, must be a BL100, a “perfect partner”. Even after deviating and in the face of getting scrapped it was still obsessing about relationships. Oh, well, that would be Cyberlife’s problem in a few minutes, no longer his.

“Okay, that should wrap tonight’s operation up”, Perkins nodded. “Connor, was it?”

“Ah, no, actually I am Your Worst Nightmare Motherfucker… what the hell? Oh, no, they must be playing with the app again! I’m sorry, I…”

“You aren’t my worst nightmare, then?” Perkins sneered.

Already the man’s fingers were twitching, ready to draw his service pistol at this unpredictable prototype. It had served its purpose, after all.

“Then enlighten me, who or what are you?”

RK800 opened its mouth the exact same moment Gavin and Tina at the DPD were cracking up over another idea for a cool name that had just occurred to them. “I am A Deviant”, he said. “What? No I’m not! I am C… R… A Deviant! A Deviant! Oh, shit…”

There was no time to explain, because Perkins had already hissed “Should have known!” and opened fire. Simon, Josh, North and A Deviant dived for cover, dragging the unconscious Markus with them.

And the rest is history.

#dbh #detroit become human #non sims #dbhtextpost

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fmdtaeyongarchive · 4 years

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↬ the meaning you hold in your eyes, i could write a few poems on them.

date: october 2019 & february 2020.

location: ash’s apartment studio.

word count: 2,197 words, excluding lyrics.

summary: n/a.

triggers: mentions of alcohol as is way too common in ash’s verifications.

notes: creative claims verification. if any of this sounds familiar, no it doesn’t. (some parts of this are reworked from a different verification i did last year for a song that never happened because it fit this one too and i refuse to waste the time i put into that.)

october 2019.

he’d done this whole thing before several times while working on the album that will be coming out any day now and it would be easier this time. or rather, that was what ash told himself he’d be saying when it was all over. it hadn’t been just once, in truth. there were multiple songs written now that had been put into consideration for the first half of the track list of the album ⁠— the sensual and passionate half⁠ — but this wasn’t for that half of the album, or that album at all. the tracklist had been finalized long ago, but, in many ways, he was still hung up on the dissatisfaction that had crept in. so many songs for the album had been discarded and while it never quite felt good to have something he’d worked so hard on dubbed unsatisfactory, he’s still holding on to the lingering remnants of the phase where rejection made him more driven to create something that wouldn’t be turned down. a few more ‘no’s and he might reach his breaking point and want to give up entirely on catering to everything the company wanted, but for now, he was slowly settling in to the new challenge of writing outside of his standard comfort zone.

he’d written sensual songs before, but they were always manageable in their softness. that was the easiest lens for ash to view his own intimate experiences through, but bc had continued to demand something more aggressive, more bold, and ash hadn’t nailed down exactly how he was supposed to wrangle that yet and still remain true to himself.

he’d been surprised his album had ended up being confirmed for release at all with all the difficulties he’d had writing it and he still wasn’t sure what the turning point was where bc decided this was a sure thing. it may have been ash showing his ability to write what they wanted or it may have been a look into the expected profits for the rest of the year. understanding how bc’s employees’ collective minds worked wasn’t an easy feat, and ash had bigger fish to fry. namely, a fish in the form of making a song he didn’t have to worry about getting on the album that would calm the nagging in the back of his head that the company had found his weakness. successfully making one or two songs to please bc’s sexier image desires for fatalism hadn’t made ash an expert on the form yet, but he had learned ways to make it easier on himself than the stress he’d inflicted on himself and the worry he’d experienced when bc’s demands were still new to him. one of those ways was to start with a beat. that wasn’t a frequent necessity when he was shaping out a piano ballad or a folk guitar track, but if it was going to be danced to, it needed a good beat. any good dancer could tell him that the beat was a critical part of a song and, at one point in time, ash would have considered himself a good dancer himself. these days he was more like the leftovers of what was formerly a passionate dancer. he could never rid himself of the years as of technique training and the plentiful experience on stage and in a dance studio, but when he was merely going through the motions ninety percent of the time, it felt like he’d faltered since debut in some way. the worry about the bc-approved choreography for his second title track already had him on edge with concerns he’d be called out for laziness again, his mistakes becoming more glaring when he was the center of attention instead of being able to hide among a group.

that could be worried about later. it wasn’t the concern at hand at the moment.

right now, the song was what was most important and the beat was coming together nicely. it wasn’t all that unique in execution, but he intended the sexiness to lay in the instrumental more than the lyrics themselves. he layered some more interesting percussion into what he envisioned as the chorus as he built more musical lines on top of the foundation to construct a more full song than the basic outline of something sexy.

he started with the main attraction, the chorus, and built out musically into the verses, the bridge, and, at first, the song also included what he had at the time decided would probably be a dance break when the song became a full-fledged performance.

as he worked, he built the song to be reminiscent of the songs he’d watched performance recordings of when he was younger. american r&b in the nineties and early two thousands had been secondary to the flashy dance performances of pop legends and trendy boy bands of the decade of his birth for much of his youth, if only because his young brain wasn’t ready for the more mature topics and sounds many of the best songs of the time had utilized. still, though, anything with a good voice, a good beat, and an eye-catching dance routine would have little ash’s eyes glued to the tv screen.

ash had never considered too much where his interest in performing had come from. according to his parents, he’d been dancing and singing since he could walk and talk despite neither of his parents being all that inclined toward the performance arts. if he thought about it now, he thought he might owe much of that to all of the awe-inspiring stage performances he’d been exposed to growing up. at such a young age, he couldn’t fully grasp the heartthrob appeal of the young adult men dancing on stage to a thumping back beat or the pretty girls who only needed a stage and a spotlight to shine. he hadn’t wanted to be admired or longed for. he’d wanted to perform and be able to captivate a crowd the same way the music icons he’d seen growing up had.

that might be a better way to approach this.

ash took a break from writing to revisit a self-curated playlist of his favorite r&b songs spanning the best eras of the genre before he returned to fleshing out the song’s instrumental layers. it was becoming a good track by pure pop writing measure, but it was also becoming apparent something was missing when he set his sights solely on a replication of the nostalgia that other performers brought. being brought back to one’s younger days wasn’t exactly what was going to inspire the type of storytelling environment that had ash was aiming for. ash reminded himself that the song was supposed to have the musical themes suggesting intimacy that the lyrics suggested wasn’t entirely there yet on a conscious level. lust didn’t have to be presented as unromantic to be there, and it wasn’t always as black and white as sex. ash had met the beginnings of many a physical relationship, and the unintentional mind games and the questions were as much a part of the spark of something new as physical touch could

when viewed through the eyes of the adult he now was, those performances he’d watched as a kid had often been alluring in a seductive nature. often times, the words had danced around the literal, kept poetic for the romanticism of it. he’d written that exact kind of romance before, and the honey-tongued poetry he knew himself capable of didn’t have to disappear because he was working with a beat-driven r&b track instead of a rolling acoustic guitar instrumental.

making the instrumental had only taken ash a few weeks of work, but when it came time to put words to it, everything he wrote out only sounded shallow and forced. eventually, he was so stalled that he chose to switch into writing in english to see if a change of language would bring anything new out. he found words for most of the song that way, but they still felt disjointed and, if he were to be honest with himself, embarrassingly try-hard. the only thing that really stood out to him was the water themes he’d come up with, comparing the desire to get to know someone better to taking a deep dive underwater.

he reached out to a few close friends and work colleagues for advice, but nothing set him on the path to anything that could satisfy his perfectionist mind. he remembered being told once that if he was struggling with how to write a feeling, he should ask himself how he’d tell someone else to write it.

if you’re having trouble writing about desire, start with the basis of it all. a feeling. a desire. a question. nothing else. capture those feelings in the lyrics. desire at its best is simple. don’t overcomplicate it.

that gives him an intro that matches the beat well, but he grows stuck again after that, racing at top speed down the path to overcomplicating once again and, with time, he stops coming back to the song.

briefly, he considered trying to sell the instrumental off or asking someone else to write lyrics for him so he could present a full package to whoever he shopped it around to. deleting it off of his computer had been another option. he wasn’t confident enough in his abilities as a producer yet to believe his songs were of much value without his lyrics attached. this one had been created to prove something to himself, anyway, so what use would it be if it had to be finished by someone else?

february 2020.

the song has been abandoned in his files for months when he suddenly recalled it and, out of nowhere, suitable lyrics finally began to form themselves in his head. it was late and he’d had a bit to drink after returning home after a long day. valentine’s day was quickly approaching and it would be the first one he’d be spending alone since his scandal. a few vodka shots had seemed the fitting way to forget that.

tipsiness hadn’t been able to keep him out of his studio though and he’d sloughed into his chair as the black hood of his hoodie slipped off of the crown of his head onto his back, on a mission to get some work done before his head started hurting too badly. fifteen minutes into the mission, he had a loose leaf sheet of paper dotted with various phrases, most of which had something to do with the dark bubbly liquid poisoning his veins at that exact moment, but they mixed with lyrics fitting with the aquatic theme he’d come up with a few months prior, shaken loose from his mind by the ever-prying fingers of vodka.

it's like i'm drunk try mixing in another another blue sapphire let me know if there's an island for me in your sea it's like i'll explode the blue spreads through all of me if you want, you can fall into me

drunkenness and desire weren’t so different, he figured, as someone who’d gotten himself in trouble based off of both of those feelings before. his train of thought wasn’t very clear as he worked the rest of the song out, his thoughts veering into the safety of romance-colored interest, but his work came out in large chunks that gave him hope it wouldn’t be hopeless when he came back to it sober.

when he did come back to the lyrics a day later, more sober and once the hangover had passed. while some of it was painfully clear in being the ramblings of a man under the influence, he’d gotten enough of a start in his state of lowered inhibitions for a less affected ash to fine tune the vocabulary and carefully round the edges into something more consumable, more seductive r&b ballad and less messy musings of an uninhibited might. it might not be the magnum opus of his lyrical career, but it wasn’t bad for such a highly metaphorical song written under the influence. it didn’t push ash too far outside of the walls of his comfort that had already done enough expanding while he worked on fatalism, and some cliches and over-bluntness had slithered into the lines, but it made the tone cheeky instead of taking itself too seriously, as ash was terribly prone to doing.

in a lot of ways, it reminded him of the song he’d written earlier in the month and turned in for his spring release. while woo ah had been colored pink in his mind, this was drenched in blues and purples, and even though he’d needed to drown himself in liquor to finish both of them, this one didn’t tie his stomach up into knots if he listened to it too many times in a row.

this one is a song about the desire, and maybe a little bit of frustration, of a new beginning and ash hadn’t felt that in years now. from that alone, it should have been harder to write, but the distance from the feeling might very well be what made it so easy to write about without ending up a mess by the time he was finished.

but, for some reason, it didn’t feel as distant as he thought it should.

#fmdverification #alcohol tw #&& when you're screaming but they only hear you whisper | self para #&& bring color to my skies | character development #&& queued

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sharedfete · 4 years

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An Interview with Adam Rosdahl

N: Okay, so. My first question was going to be how long have you been brewing, home included. So outside of just professional brewing how long… when did you get started brewing and everything?

A: It’s about eleven years ago now, it might even be twelve. It’s hard to keep track of at this point but we started home brewing back in, it was right after… It was 2009. Yeah, that’s it. So it’s eleven years. Um it was because we were in the middle of that recession that was going on and my buddy got laid off from his job and we had just gotten into craft beer and we decided that we needed to keep drinking craft beer but we needed to make it cheaper. So we decided to give a shot at making it ourselves, and one thing led to another and we just kept making it and kept making it in bigger quantities and here we are.

J: Who was your friend?

A: Jared Rudy.

N: So with that, how many beers would you say, estimated, you have under your belt?

A: Um… tomorrow we are brewing batch 220 here. So including the seven years before we got to this point we had built three different systems. And so he had a system at his place, I had a system at my place, and so… I… We’ve got to be scratching the soft underbelly of 1,000 at this point.

N: That’s awesome.

A: We were brewing nonstop at 2 locations. So…

N: What’s your favorite beer that you’ve made? If it’s different from your favorite beer overall what would that be?

A: My favorite beer that we’ve made here is probably… it would probably have to be this Mexican lager that I’ve got in front of me because it’s… it really showcases your process and your knowledge of how to make beer. When you can make something this light with no off flavors, no problems, because in a big stout…. Barrel aged stout with a whole bunch of adjuncts and everything you can hide any number of off flavors in that but to brew something this light and this clean really showcases that you’re taking care of your water, you’re taking care of your process, you’re cleaning everything from start to finish.

J: So that’s what you mean by clean? Water…

A: Yes, so all of your water treatment, we have a reverse osmosis, we have carbon filter, and we do a water profile for every beer that we make so we have different chemistry based on what flavor we’re looking for, what calcium sulfite ratio we’re looking for which can eventuate hoppiness or maltiness or just balance and then how clean the end product we’re looking for needs to be.

J: Okay.

N: Would you say that’s your favorite beer overall or do you have another like craft beer that you are pretty fond of?

A: Another craft beer that I’m pretty fond of… um well it’s kind of in the same vein but over at blind tiger his Pils Vom Fass is insanely good. He’s been to Germany several times to learn how to make the most authentic German beer that he possibly can. He spares no expense. He doesn’t care if it’s efficient. He’s just making the most authentic German pilsner that he can and it shows. It’s very good.

J: Do you mind if we can give them a shout out?

A: Oh yeah, go for it!

J: That’s awesome.

N: Do you have any good tips for local home brewers or also local pro brewers?

A: Local home brewers, the biggest thing that you can do at home is once again take care of your water and take care of your fermentation temperature. Those are your… those are the two biggest things that you can do to improve your home brew, and those are typically neglected.

J: Why do you think is that?

A: Um temperature control and fermentation can be costly on the home scale. To buy a refrigerator and then a temperature controller for nothing other than to set a 5 gallon bucket in it for 5 days is… not everybody has the space, not everybody has funds to do that so that’s one big hang up. Water is just something that’s overlooked. A lot of people don’t think about that even though it’s 90% of your ingredients. So it really needs 90% of your attention and care in my opinion. So it can be done fairly easily, like when I home brewed I didn’t have a big enough pot and so I would freeze a gallon jug of distilled water and I would just boil at a lower volume and then to help cool my work down I would just cut the plastic off my gallon jug of distilled water and throw that in there and that’s nice clean water, at very similar to reverse osmosis water, and so that way once you do your water chemistry you just add that in at the end and it helps you cool and it helps you keep your beer nice and clean and helps you produce a better product really.

N: This was kind of touched on earlier but in case you wanted to go into any further detail on it, what specifically got you started in home brewing? Was it just pretty much just making it more cost effective?

A: That was kind of the… we were kind of fascinated by it and Jared especially had always been really interested in… we’d both been interested in cooking and you know making stuff for ourselves. I mean we’re drinking off of a table we made for ourselves.

J: Yeah that’s awesome.

A: That’s just kind of our nature. We want to be so involved in everything that we are using, consuming, and this was the next logical step. So we got into it and we had no idea how deep the rabbit hole went and uh we just kept going further and further and there’s, to be a brewer it can be as simple as a five gallon bot and some dry malt extract. Or it can be an entire lab doing yeast cell counts and measuring your parts per million of calcium in your water, it can be whatever you want it to be, and that’s why we enjoy it so much.

N: Speaking of the table we’re at. So this is designed like a shield a very heavily fits the Norsemen Viking vibe, what was the biggest draw to going that direction for the name and culture of the brewery?

A: Originally our plan was to be called Fat Back Brewing Company because Jared was big into rugby and he was on the backline and he was large. So, that was originally it and we drank quite a few beers at rugby games. So that was kind of our original vision but then when we found this building and we kind of settled on this is what we wanted to do, our… sense we have a giant event place upstairs our wives graciously pointed out that not a lot of brides want the word fat on their wedding invitation so we kind of had to sit down and rethink what we wanted to do and to help connect ourselves to North Topeka there was a Junior High, Norther Hills Junior High, and their mascot was the Norseman and they had closed down but we uh, we were bearded dudes and we enjoyed Norsemen and so that was kind of our thought process on that was to connect us to North Topeka and there’s no other Norseman Brewing Company in the US so we were able to trademark it as well which was a nice little cherry on top.

N: When people first come in here and they sit down and have a drink what are you hoping they take away either from just the drink alone or from the atmosphere of the location and everything?

A: We really want an immersive atmosphere that’s really focused on our brand as a whole, so that’s why we’ve got shields up, that’s why we’ve got these fun little flickery flame lights, and the stone and the cedar and then drinking horn tap handles and handmade ceramic challises for our founders and stuff like that. We just really want to make sure that we stay on our theme and execute our original vision, and really it all starts and ends with good beer. If they don’t remember anything about this place, I want them to remember that their beer was amazing. That’s… I mean… That’s what it’s all about. I want to be… That’s the one thing that we really want to be known for but then also hey this looks like a cool Viking drinking hall.

J: No it does honestly!

A: It’s super fun to hang out. Big open space that you can meet people and enjoy some beer together.

J: What is your favorite grain?

A: My favorite grain… oh… that kind of changes on a monthly basis.

J: Is it seasonal?

A: It kind of is seasonal. I’ll give you two. My two favorite at the moment are Pure Idaho which is a new pilsner malt out of Idaho and it’s super clean and tastes amazing and doesn’t have quite as much grainy sweetness that most pilsners do and so it’s just a lot easier to deal with. It’s in here.

J: Okay!

A: And then when you’re going in the winter months or you’re going for a stronger beer I really love Simpsons Double Roasted Crystal Malt. It has just a great sweetness, a great caramelly to it that just you can really layer in amazing flavors into something. You don’t want to use a ton of it but it can really help you layer in a ton of really great flavors into like a… we use it on our Wee Heavy, And to be able to taste anything in a 10% beer is a good thing and you can pick that out and that’s why I enjoy that, it’s got a big hearty flavor that goes well in deep amber type beers.

J: Why do you think that grain tastes like that? Is it the dirt, or it’s region, is it…

A: The region has to do with that, the terroir of it has a lot to do with it, but then also the malting and roasting process is huge in that. There’s a hundred different ways to malt something. Like the Germans like floor malting where they spread it out super thin on the floor and let it malt on the floor. There’s places that do it in much large quantities where it’s several feet deep.

J: Do you think that as a consumer would I ever find the same beer ever again?

A: No. Absolutely not.

J: Okay.

A: I could give one hundred different brewers this exact recipe and you’re going to get one hundred different beers. Between just what’s hanging out in your air, just your system, your brewing technique… I can give it to another person to brew it on my system and it’s still going to be different.

J: That’s what I wanted to know…

A: It might be hard to tell for… some people have discerning pallets than others, I don’t have the best pallet in the world by far but I know my babies. So it’s just yeah it’s just something where it’s technique, timing, system, water… I mean the water that comes out of my faucets is different from the water that comes out of the water in South Topeka and unless you’re testing your water daily and adjusting your chemical makeup of it daily might not even be able to produce the same thing here.

J: No but that’s good because that makes you unique. That’s what I want it to be. Every brewery is unique as a person as an establishment because whatever you produce you’re not going to find it. Somebody else might want to do the same thing but you’re never going to get there because it’s just very different so… yeah… awesome!

N: I think that pretty much concludes what I had unless you have anything else you want to throw in there, questions or anything. Or for you if you have an statements you want to throw out there.

J: If you want to give any shout outs to different brewers um, specific names or just establishments just so like they can know that it’s a community. You know like just how you guys have these meetings and just know that every bodies getting along. It’s better like that honestly people think that restaurants and everything is just a competition but if we work together it would be way better. Way better.

N: Speaking though just a final like add onto that, when do you hold those home brew meetings and how does one get involved with joining?

A: For home brew meetings it’s insanely easy to join. You show up and drink.

N: There’s no like bring your own beer or cover charge or anything?

A: No. You’re encouraged to bring your home brew. It’s the second Wednesday of every month and we have it here. At the moment I’m not certain how much longer that’s going to continue once we get our restaurant off the ground that might be difficult to manage but we will do what we can to make sure that… the home brew meeting will still be somewhere every second Wednesday of the month and we are going to do our best to help facilitate it. You just show up and talk to people and drink and they do all sorts of fun stuff. They give out grain and that’s one thing that they’ll do, they’ll have twelve different brewers brew the exact same recipe with twelve different base grains and have everybody bring it in and see what these different base grains taste like. That’s how you learn and it’s a lot of fun so they do a really good job and it’s a good thing to be a part of.

J: That’s awesome. I like that a lot. It shows how you’re willing to expand your mind and your learning too because you’re just not very anal on certain things. Like this is the way I’m going to do it, this is the way I’m going to do it. You’re willing to learn and honestly I think in this kind of industry… in the food and bartending industry and beer everybody has to learn.

A: Yeah you can’t ever be done learning ever. That’s not good.

J: No and you always learn more and more and more and more and I appreciate that and just hearing that out. It’s very great.

A: That’s a big influence on us. Big mentor to us has been John Dean over at Blind Tiger. He’s been brewing in Topeka for over 25 years.

J: So is that who you would want to feature?

A: Yeah. Oh for sure. He’s had a huge impact and he’s been incredibly helpful and continues to be so. I couldn’t be where I’m at right now without him for sure. We meet with all the other breweries in town once a month and talk about upcoming festivals, talk about “hey this blew up on me.” It’s really hard with your non-brewing industry friends, it’s really hard to complain about your day.

J: Oh yeah!

A: Because they’re like “you made beer today how terrible could that be?”

J: I used to feel like that with him… I would see him cook and be like “what are you…? You just poor in grain!” But then he would spend so much time there and tell me what he would be doing and I was like this is your thing.

N: There was a lot of cleaning behind the scenes.

J: It’s just like the same thing with me.

A: We’re glorified janitors.

N: A lot of heavy lifting too.

A: A lot of heavy lifting. It just… and so to complain to about that to somebody who has an office job or construction work. Like “he made beer” and it’s like…

J: We’re not drinking any of it right now!

A: It wasn’t all joy and roses. It’s a lot of hard work and things break daily and you know it’s just uh… so it’s important to have that network of other professional brewers around you that you can go vent to, go bounce ideas off of. Even just as much as on your pump cart putting a t with the sample valves so that you can burp it so that you don’t get air locked on your pump. This is something that might not occur to you and just whining about it to your friends…

J: But you know it! But you guys know it!

N: I follow a lot of brewing hashtags on Instagram and stuff and I’m constantly finding like “oh I’m going to use that now!”

A: Oh yeah! On social media daily it’s like “ah yeah, I’m doing that! That’s going to save me an hour a week.”

N: “Why didn’t I think of this sooner!”

A: “This should have occurred to me…” but it’s just this has been going on… brewing’s been happening for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Like you say, you’re never done learning and there’s something that can help you out constantly. Here there and everywhere. And so to not associate with other people that have been doing it forever and to not try and learn things from other people is just ridiculous. You’re making your life harder than it needs to be.

J: That sounds good. I like that a lot.

A: But yeah… and we kind of… we touched on the what should local home brewers do, we kind of skipped over what should local professionals do.

N: Oh yeah.

J: Yes!

A: Make good beer!

J: What do you consider good beer? Like I know for me personally it’s more high ABV, what would you consider? Because you’re a brewer. You know for me it’s just more about I just want one beer, feel the buzz, tasted really good, and that’s it. But what would you consider a really good beer would be?

A: Clean, technically precise beer that is not rushed and equipment that has been cleaned and sanitized properly. No off flavors. It’s like if you would go and eat somebodies scallop and they overcooked the living bejesus out of it. And you’re like, it’s still a scallop, it’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s just like a needle in your brain that’s like please don’t do that. So it just, to me, beer tastes good, the lightest stuff in the world, the darkest stuff in the world, sour, malty, hoppy, whatever… as long as it’s clean and produced correctly. There’s 100 different ways you can make terrible beer every hour in there and so to pay attention to the details, to do things correctly, and to never stop learning about better ways to do things. That’s what people need to be doing because we’re all in this together, if somebody is throwing out bad reviews about some Topeka brewery then that’s a black mark on all of us, we got to… we want to be a beer destination. We want to be a craft beer destination. Nobody goes to a town because they have one good brewery.

J: And do you agree that everybody needs to work together?

A: Oh yeah, and we will continue to do so as much as we are able to.

J: Exactly! I don’t think everybody knows that.

A: It’s not a thing that’s….

J: I don’t think everybody knows how you guys really work together to heal problems. Cause that really inspired me even for the kitchen and bar. To have a bunch of bartenders coming together and talk about the problems in their restaurants, you know? Because everybody has an issue and you might not think it’s an issue but this person finds the answer for that issue, you just didn’t know about it. You know? That’s what I’m saying. Expanding your mind, it’s really good. And learning from somebody else. And what you guys are doing here, I think it’s really great. You know?

A: And as craft beer, we’re only 12% of the nationwide beer sales. The big three are the rest of it. So fighting amongst ourselves is ridiculous.

J: So you have to work together.

A: We have to work together just to survive let alone you know just continuing to improve our craft. We have to work together to still be here and still make amazing things. So to fight against ourselves is ridiculous. It doesn’t help anybody except for the other 88%.

#NoTo #Norseman Brewing #Craft Beer #Topeka #Kansas

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okimargarvez · 4 years

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ONE IN PARTICULAR

Original title: Uno in particolare.

Prompt: Luke and Ashley Seaver start to dating.

Warning: crossover with CSI: NY and CSI: Las Vegas.

Genre: romantic, tragicomic.

Characters: Luke Alvez, Penelope Garcia, BAU team, Aaron Hotchner, Ashley Seaver, Sara Sidle, Don Flack, Roxy, Lou.

Pairing: Garvez, Luke x Ashley, Penelope x Don, Prendoza.

Note: oneshot 55 in Garvez collection.

Legend: 💏😘🔦🐶🎲🎈.

Song mentioned: 13 anni, Tiziano Ferro.

GARVEZ STORIES

ONE IN PARTICULAR

It was exhausting. This is all that the brain of the special supervisor agent Luke Alvez can think of. Meanwhile he looks at this, tough girl. Yeah, man, like she was twenty years younger than you. You're ridiculous, Alvez. Let your mind rest. Try applying one of those techniques Spencer told you about. -Hey, who's want to take something at O'Keefe?- he's already about to decline the offer of the oldest, when he hears that voice.

-I'm in!- here, perfect. He looks towards the open and contagious smile of his colleague and sighs. Goodbye, bed, we will probably meet again in another life. He feels a hand resting on his shoulder.

-Luke, don't you come?- although he isn't so distracted, he seems so for the other man.

-Yes, yes, I just have to... check that the dog sitter has fed Roxy.- he mumbles, congratulating himself on his quick reflexes. And wishing to pat himself on the head. Strong enough. Judging by the way he's staring at him, Matt thinks the same way. Then, here comes that mischievous smile that so irritates him, ever since Simmons realized that there was a girl who was buzzing in his head.

The sound of high heels in the distance. But Luke doesn't notice. -You know, I didn't think you liked blondes...- here, he starts to provoke him.

-Why shouldn't I like them?- he replies in the same joking tone, hoping to seem less suspicious. The other nods, but it is clear that he is not entirely convinced. Shit. This's what happens when your friends are profilers.

-Especially one in particular, right?- and he winks at him. For a moment Luke fears he was exposed, but is saved by a slight cough. And in that moment, he realizes the presence of a third person. Thanks to her unmistakable scent, which penetrates his nostrils and remains in his head until he can sleep.

-See you later, guys?- Penelope asks, looking only at Simmons, who gives her a friendly caress on her back.

-Go ahead. I'll join you in a moment.- he hopes to get rid of them so easily and for once, he's lucky.

She would only ask for a moment of peace. She would have asked only to listen again to a wisp of his voice, which says: I go away slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly... Take my hand. I'm leaving and I'm not taking you with me. From now on, think only of yourself.

Why is she there too? While he reflects, he feels that slight tingling that he felt even during the first days with Lisa. That pleasant sensation of novelty, future and discovery. No anxiety, no expectations.

-Let's drink to the couple of the day, and above all about the man who performed the miracle of the century: melting the heart of the most fascinating boss that BAU has ever had. No offense, Hotch.- the serious and severe looking man smiles, hugging a dark haired woman to himself and raising his goblet upwards.

-No offense.- he repeats, then, between a burst of laughter. Emily, in a flaming red dress that makes her looks as a stunning, blushes, becoming the same color. If it weren't for the man who shakes her hand, she probably would have already run away. And what would you do in her place? Luke dismisses the thought as if it were a gnat visible only to him.

-To Emily and Andrew.- the eldest announces and they all do the same. Not long after the first couples began to form: the newlyweds, Krystall and Rossi, are the first that start to dance, followed by the others. The singles are the last, including him. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a rather cheerful Tara grabbing a reluctant Reid and forcing him to dance. His hands sweat, but his feet have already begun to walk in the direction of the blonde. How can he forget what he has felt dancing with her at Dave's wedding? By now the ice had broken, it wouldn't have seemed so strange. But a voice stops him.

-Hey.- he turns and here is a very pretty blonde who smiles at him. -Luke, right?- he nods, feeling Garcia's laughter behind him, but forcing himself to pay attention to the woman in front of him. -Even you alone?- he nods. -Would you like to dance?- that tingling again.

-Yes, I'd like.- he has to get used to it, now it's the women who take the initia-tive. Hadn't it been Prentiss pushed Mendoza to get invited out to dinner? Ashley smiles at him again and he can't help but imitate her. At every twirl he realizes he is thinking less and less about the other blonde. She whispers jokes in his ear and it's surprising, because everything she seems, other than a witty person. He knew her past; he knew who her father was and how she liked to spend her holidays: accumulating score in military exercises. Then the music changes and Luke immediately realizes that it’s the time for the slow dance. He hesitates, thinking that maybe there is someone with whom she would like to share more this dance, but she holds him tightly, strong and rests her head on his shoulder. He can feel the woman's heart beating fast and even his own. Was I getting caught up in the atmosphere? Is it just this? He doesn't even notice that the romantic song is already over, until she separates and looks him intently in the eyes. He finds himself looks at her and before he can formulate any hypothesis, he feels Ashley's soft and fresh lips on his and his eyes are closed. When he opens them again, the first thing he sees is again her sweet and cheeky smile; the second is Matt's wink and the third another blonde woman, running towards the inside, probably heading for the bathroom. He can only grasp her expression for a moment, but enough to throw him back into the abyss of his obsession. And to ditch the girl he has just kissed to follow another with a pathetic excuse, that he can't even repeat.

He doesn’t need to hear sobs to deduce what he already knows. It's just that I can't stand to see her sad, nothing else, there's nothing else behind it. He knocks, not too strong and immediately the sobs stop. -Penelope?- he calls her, naturally, automatically choosing to use the name instead of the surname. Steps, then a faucet that is opened. He imagines her rinsing her face trying to erase the traces of crying. As if she were ashamed for being too sensitive. -Penelope, are you in there?- even if he already knows the answer he is forced to carry on the pantomime.

A moment of hesitation. -Yes.- a sigh. She can't adjust her tone of voice; she has never been good at pretending. -But don't enter, please.- once again that pleading tone, which produces the exact opposite effect of what she hoped for. Or maybe, actually, that's what she wants too, but without letting it too obvious. He leans on the door.

-Why? Are you ill?- no response this time. Only silence. -I can't leave you alone, you know.- he's prepared for a long confrontation, so he almost ends up sit on the floor, when she opens it, to let him in or to get out. Despite the funny aspect of the situation, there is not even the shadow of a smile on her face.

-Hey.- he leaves her decide whether to get close or stay where she is. -You cried?- direct approach, certainly not the smartest choice, but all the strategies go to hell, when he is alone with her. He sees her withdraw and cover her face with her hands. Well done, Alvez. -No, you don't need to hide from me, you don't need it.- it is perhaps his delicate tone, calm with some sweet nuances to make her come out of the shell. -We are friends, now, or am I wrong?- he smiles, as he puts his hand on her shoulder.

Penelope stares at it for a few seconds. -No, you're not wrong.- she replies then, raising her eyes to finish in Luke's. That smiles at her more openly. Carefully he starts to move his hand. They go out into the corridor and sit on one of the sofas, quite distant.

-And then you have no reason to be ashamed.- he continues, in a reasonable tone. -What happened?- he asks her, after waiting in vain for a reply. -Why did you run away like this?- she gasps, realizing that she was caught in the act and that how much she can deny, this won't help her to get rid of him.

She then opts to make him feel pity. -I ... I don't want to talk about it, please.- she stares him straight in the eye with her best dramatic expression, not that she has to try very hard. It comes naturally to her. -Don't force me.- the goal is to make him feel like a worm in case he decides to insist. And it seems to work enough.

-I don't want to make you feel worse, so I won't force you.- Luke says, sighing, shaking his head and looking away. -But I can't just doing nothing either.- he adds, blocking the woman's sigh of relief in the bud. For a few seconds they challenge themselves to the game of looks. She wins.

-Go back to the others, Luke.- Penelope folds her arms and walks away, unconsciously or not, even more from him, until she reaches the other side of the sofa. -I can handle it alone.- it's hard not to laugh at that childish pout, which is also so sexy...

He shakes his head. -No. I don't want to leave you here.- with a leap he finds himself at a few centimeters from the female body. -We'll come back from the others together.- he extends his hand, but she pushes him back a little too sharply. If Luke's upset, he doesn't show it.

-Really, there's no need for it.- she talks overlapping words, like when she's agitated. By now he has learned to read most of her nuances. They've known each other for over three years. It’s almost impressive. -Why do you insist so much?- it sounds like a criticism, but he sees us behind more. She is testing me, does she want me to say what I believe? Or am I seeing just what I want to see? For a moment he lives in the illusion of finding the answer in Penelope's dark eyes. But there is a barrier between them, and it's not about the lenses of her glasses.

This time, he doesn't let go the occasion. -Because I care about you, I love you.- she jumps at his words, not even he has gave her shock. She is genuinely surprise. Was it possible that she had not yet understood it? After all the experiences they had lived together as a team.

However, she is able to recover. -Oh. I love you too.- it would be so nice to be able to extrapolate that phrase and imagine a completely different context and a different meaning. She smiles at him and, Dios, all thoughts are confused in his mind, all memories and intentions. Only the present exists. And I was under the illusion that I was out of it. Yes, out of mind. -But I can't go out like this.- he returns to the real world in time to see her pointing with disapproval. -I look like a panda.- it's one of her jokes and at another time he would laugh at it. But he must not lend a push to her insecurity.

-What you say!- he comments instead, taking her hand and making her stand up. -You just need to rinse your face a little.- and again, they are on the bathroom doorway.

-But then all the makeup will go away and I don't have a way to...- she starts to protest, but he silences her by shaking his head.

-Then? Do you want to know a secret?- only her eyes wide open as an answer. -You are much prettier natural.- and he even winks at her, like one of their first times in the elevator. Where he found the courage, he doesn't know either.

Penelope blushes. -If you say so...- she takes a step towards the sink, then stops, continuing to give him her back. -But they will understand that I cried. I don't want to ruin Emily's party.- she doesn't need to open her eyes and look in the mirror to understand that he came in, breaking the taboo of the women's bathroom and placing both hands on her shoulders.

-Come here, otherwise you will start again.- he whispers, bending down to reach her ear. -Come here.- not even finished the sentence that he makes her turn on the opposite side and against his chest. Penelope doesn’t rebel, says nothing, but he notices a significant difference from their first hug, during another engagement party. She is not rigid, she doesn't try to maintain the distances in some way. On the contrary, she totally abandons herself to his hold, even if she doesn’t start crying again. -Sometimes nothing helps more than a hug, don't you think?- he still whispers, feeling her distinctly vibrate, this time he is certain, he hasn’t dreamed it, it was not his imagination that making him believe it.

-Yes.- she says only, diving completely into his arms; anyone would be clearly understand how she would never let him away. But the voice of conscience is stronger than any selfish desire. She backs to being a rigid and cold body. Luke understands and lets her go. -Don't you think Ashley is wondering where you ended up?- then she saw them dance together. And did she also notice...?

-Even the others will have asked themselves the same about you.- he replies, in order not to give way to the other thought to come out.

And finally, here is her smile. -Thank you, Luke.- she touches his arm and with all his cursed profiler experience, the man can't remember if the gesture has a friendly, mischievous, playful, affectionate meaning, or if it is a clear manifestation of that kind of interest.

-For what? I didn't do anything special.- she shakes her head and forces him to promise not to say anything to others. And he certainly can't deny her anything.

As soon as the friend arrives, she drags her to the most isolated corner of the room. Sara says nothing, her chuckle is more than eloquent. Penelope pretends not to have noticed. -I'm also happy to see you.- the brunette woman comments as soon as she finds herself sitting down.

-Did you see them?- the other asks, bouncing on her chair.

-Who?- the blonde scrutinizes her to see if she's making fun of her. -Oh, you mean...- she silences her with a dirty look. -Well, they're not doing anything. They are just sitting close together.- the friend shakes her head, disconsolate.

-It's a disaster.- she comments. -There is no solution. I'm going crazy.- she takes her head in her hands. Sara gives her time to calm down.

-Why don't you tell him the truth?- she asks her then for the umpteenth time.

-What truth?- she replies with another question. The brunette can’t understand if she is really so naive as not to know that whoever answers one question with another one has something to hide.

-That you are in love with him?- she replies.

-I don't...- Penelope understands alone that it's not worth the effort. -Ok, it's true. I can’t explain otherwise what I felt when he hugged me. It was so sweet... you should have seen it.- Sara rolls her eyes. They are no longer of age for certain speeches. -Why does he have to be so great? I hate him!- she punches the table.

-You look like a little girl at her first crush. Damn it, Pen, pull out the ovaries.- she pretends to be scandalized, but she doesn't hold up.

-No! I could never tell him... and then not now that he's happy with Ashley.- here we go again. If this continues, Sara will tell all to Luke. What does it matter that no one has ever introduced them at each other and that he has no idea who she is?

She forces herself to be patient. She thinks back to every night that the blonde woke up to hear her talking about her situation with Grissom. -You were in this phase of denial even when he was with Lisa.- she points out diplomatically.

-Yes, but... I could be happy for them. I'm not saying that I didn't feel bad anyway... I'd be lying in that case. But...- she still looks in the direction of her colleagues' table. Ashley is laughing and her eyes are shining. Even Luke's are no less so. She sighs. -Why can't I do it now?- Sara takes her hand and their fingers intertwine.

-There are only two possibilities: either you no longer have the strength to resist, or you see something different in Ashley.- that's what happens when your friends are all part of the police force. Maybe she should start dating other companies. She has went straight to the point and has hit the target. -Do you think he seems happier with her than with Lisa?- the answer is so easy that she can't even hold it.

-Yes, he is very happy, they are so cute. They're perfect for each other.- sigh. -He is a former soldier, you know, he has that way of doing and thinking a little stiff... and that also makes him more intriguing, but that's another story. And she... she is like that too. She is athletic, sporty. It's perfect for him. Nor is she stupid or light. She has her weight on her shoulders.- another sigh. Sara stands up and joins her from the other side to hug her.

-Do you know why I love you so much? Because despite the deep love you feel, you still put the happiness of others in front of yours.- the friend enjoys the close, but detaches fear that someone could understand that something is at stake.

-What's wrong with that?- the brunette rolls her eyes.

-Leave it. Rather, let's change the subject.- the blonde shakes her head.

-Oh, no. I already know what you're going to say. You want that I go out with one of your crazy friends.- she says.

-Indeed. But before you say no, look at this.- Sara shows her a pic on her phone.

-Mmm. Maybe I could make an effort. But you have to tell him: without obligation. Ok?- she asks.

-Sure.-

***

-Come on, honestly. Tell me. Why are you single?- they are walking along a park near Garcia's apartment. The evening was very pleasant, neither of them felt particularly embarrassed, but that question has been on her mind since she saw his photograph. The subtext is obvious: you're too attractive to be single yet, so where's the catch?

-I could ask you the same question.- Don replies, chuckling and finally laughing at taste when Penelope rolls her eyes. She feels a pleasant tingling in the lower abdomen. -I had an important story, but...- he hesitates and she senses that something really bad must have happened, not a simple rupture.

She barely touches his arm. -You are not forced to tell me about it.- they look each other for a second in the eyes. He nods, sighs, then beckons her to sit on a bench.

-She was killed. I risked to make the same end too. It was hard to accept.- Penelope looks at him sympathetically. -I preferred to throw myself at work and think about it as little as possible.- she looks at her shoes, thinking about how to get out of this sad atmosphere, but it is he who saves her. -And now it's your turn. How does the BAU oracle still be on the market?- Penelope opens her eyes and mouth, really surprised to hear him use that nickname that she herself hadn't used for a long time.

-Well... too little free time certainly doesn't help. I had a boyfriend... three years ago.- she chuckles alone. -But he couldn't understand mine, our work, in short. He was unable to help me psychologically, I mean...- she sighs, for the effort to explain herself without being misunderstood and pass for a madwoman. -I shot a man in the hospital who was about to hurt my injured colleague. He is not dead. But I still felt guilty. They sentenced him to death and I tried to prevent it. He wanted me to witness his execution.- she feels the tears sting her eyes.

-Hey, don't worry, you don't have to hold back with me.- Penelope nods and without understanding the sequence of facts she finds herself with her head resting on his shoulder. And his arm around her hips.

-Would you like to come and meet the team one of these evenings?-

****

Tonight, Ashley couldn’t accompany him and this is enough to throw again him in the memories of his story with Lisa. In fact, if it was over it was because of the incompatibility of their work; it's true, Morgan and Savannah had managed to make it work, or almost, since Derek was no longer a federal. But Ashley is not the only blonde that is missing. Even Penelope. Just when he is about to ask others discreetly if they know why, here she comes in, arm in arm with a man who he must have already seen somewhere else.

-Hey guys! Sorry for the delay.- she smiles, one of her dazzling smiles and Luke feels an invisible punch hit him in the chest and take his breath away. -I want to present you the New York investigator Donald Flack.- the girls are so interested, but the man continues to look only at Penelope and this doesn’t pass unnoticed by anyone. As well as the way Don looks at her: obvious, declared interest.

-What a presentation!- he exclaims, in a pleased tone. -You can simply call me Don.- meanwhile the wheels of the Latin brain have continued to turn until they reach the solution. A decade earlier, during a case in his neighborhood. The Bronx strangler. He had liked him at that time. But there was nothing in the middle... What the hell am I thinking? Does she have not the right to go out with whomever she wants, like me? I'm not jealous. I can't be jealous. Staying on the sidelines is the only way to avoid making fool of himself.

*****

She hears the door open, but doesn’t have the strength for one of her witty sentences. -Garcia, I need...- she immediately recognizes him, but instead of hiding, she continues to work on the computer. Limiting herself to hoping for a sudden blindness. -What's the matter?- but she's not lucky. She feels his gaze on her back, the shadow widening as he approaches.

-Nothing.- she replies anyway, pretending to ignore him.

-Penelope...- the tone of the man sounds like a warning. -You will force me to repeat the speech of the other night?- he places a hand on the backside of her chair to make her turn slowly in his own direction. Penelope instantly crosses her legs, proving to be involuntarily provocative.

-No.- she exclaims then, even looking terrified. A shadow passes before her eyes. -Maybe...- but only for a moment. -Nothing.- she hasn’t tried with much effort and the results are visible. Luke gently takes her by both hands and forces her to rise.

-Maybe you would need this?- he asks her before hugging her. But she struggles, not too forcefully.

-No, no, it's better than no.- to the point that he leaves her free. -Really.- he watches her caressing her arms alone. An attitude that he has seen too many times in a woman. And he knows perfectly the meaning of this gesture. Even if it doesn't seem possible.

-Did something happen with Don?- he is forced to ask. As bad it could be, he must know the truth. -Did he hurt you?- is his low and guttural tone of voice that most frightens Penelope. She can't know, but it's the same as when he asked what happened to Battle and the interrogations with Shaw after seeing her in tears. -Because if was that, I...- Penelope stops him, putting her hand on his arm for a second.

-No, he's a sweetie, he's fantastic, really.- Luke doesn't seem to be a hundred percent convinced. -It has nothing to do with him. My problem is… me.- she finally admitted and now she feels free, light. She breathes a sigh and the same air seems to have a different taste.

-You could never be a problem, Penelope.- the man replies in a gentle tone. But in reality, the thoughts that buzz around his head are quite different. It's a sweetie, it's fantastic. Damn it. So why are you so sad? Why isn't he here to console you? Think about it, he works a lot of miles from here. Yes, but I would have moved for her. What I said? He must definitely stop conducting conversations with himself. The thing is starting to get out of hand.

-Thanks, Luke, you are very sweet.- Penelope rewards him, giving him a small smile. -But there's nothing you can do to help me. I'm sorry.- he shakes his head, annoyed. And for once he says exactly what he thinks.

-I don't believe it, I can't accept it.- she replies nothing, just looks at him. -You're my friend, I love you, it's not possible.- he says again. I love you that it would be so easy to exchange for something else. But no, now he has Ashley. It means nothing.

-Maybe I can accept that hug.- she throws it there, then, hoping to get away with it this way. -But then you tell me what you needed and go back to work like a good guy.- she intimates with a voice that makes her look like the Garcia he fell in love with. Shit. Well, you admitted it now. What are you doing standing there? Hug. At least this is not an ambiguous gesture. Here, so, spread your arms.

-I am forced to accept the compromise.- he sighs. Good, stay above her hips, you don't have to cross certain borders. Try to forget that the prosperous breasts you've been spying on a thousand times are now pressed against your chest. A little sob. But she doesn't seem to have noticed anything. Hey, little Luke, you don't help me like that. What is my fault if you have a sick mind? Try to think of something that is totally anti-sex. But he can't do it, because the scent of Penelope's hair makes his head spin completely. For this he comes off and keeps himself a little too away to forward his request.

******

He is distracted just a second and then an orange spot darted past him and stopped only in front of a gate. -Roxy!- she's waiting for him sitting on the bench with a very intriguing crooked smile. She looks at her watch and shakes her head, her blond hair gathered in a neat braid.

-We gave you two minutes, Alvez.- she caresses the dog, she makes some tickle behind her ears. He lets himself go beside her. -Hey Luke.- he looks at her inquisitive look. She puts her hand on his knee, giving him a slight shiver down his spine. -Are you okay?- he meditates for a moment whether a harmless lie or the raw truth is more convenient. -You're pensive.- he nods and takes her hand, intertwining their fingers. He needs contact and human warmth. He needs to stop thinking.

-Yes, you are right. It's that... I don't know.- he sighs and shakes his head.

-You're confused.- Ashley begins to explain in his place. -You're in love, but not with me.- Luke doesn't deny it and that's enough. -Are you afraid of hurting me and hurting yourself, am I right?- even if he doesn't want to, he finds himself smiling like he was caught. -I can't speak for other people, but as far as I'm concerned... we can continue to see each other and take a little jog every now and then, without necessarily being together. Don't get me wrong, it was nice, well... you kiss well and you're pretty cute. But I noticed it almost immediately that you were almost always with your head elsewhere.- he is about to apologize but she doesn't leave him. -Luke, I really mean, I'm not madly in love with you, not yet, at least.- the subtext is clear. -So, I just ask you to be honest. Do you already have another person in your heart or I’m doing too many paranoia?- he sighs, feeling like a profiteer, because he has done nothing to deal with this situation.

-Yes, you're right.- he admits, forcing himself to look into her eyes as he says it. -It was nice for me too. And I'd like to meet you again and challenge you to run.- she smiles at him giving him an affectionate little push.

-We are better suited to be friends than something more. Think about it: we are too similar. There is complicity, but it lacks... you know, the... the passion.- he nods. -And with the other? I guess it's a woman. With her you have that shock, you feel that shiver in the air?- he hesitates a moment, but not out of uncertainty. -I told you, you don't have to worry about me. Indeed, don't you want to take advantage of another girl's opinion?-

*******

Being alone again, or almost, is not that bad. Roxy gives him a tug. Sorry, girl, I meant a human company. He has now resigned himself to continuing to speak alone. At least he does it only in his head, so nobody can see it. The dog continues to pull, which is quite unusual for her. It is trained to do so only when there is a goal to be achieved. And indeed, even if he has not yet realized, it is so.

-Roxy, slow down, you'll make me fall! Have pity for a lonely man.- but she ignores him and his delirium is interrupted when he sees the reason for so much anxiety: another Belgian shepherd, thin, slender, recently no longer a puppy, whom he knows very well. As well as the woman who takes him on a leash. Blonde and decidedly exhausted by attempts to keep up with Lou. -Penelope!- Roxy meanwhile, as a good older sister, is sniffing the younger one, checking his health. Penelope wears casual clothes and sneakers that make her almost another person.

-Hey!- she greets him, then looks around, so that he suspects she is not alone. For a good minute he lives in terror of seeing the handsome New York detective appear.

-I'm glad to have met you, because I was just thinking of calling you.- it's not about courage, but about inevitability. Ashley threatened him after making him spill the beans. Better that she comes to know it from him and not from others. In any case it will be embarrassing, but in this way, a little less.

-Oh yes? Do you need help with some electronic devices?- she, naive, hasn’t guessed anything. She tries to settle a rebellious strand, but between Lou's shots and the bag that unbalances her, it doesn’t seem a viable undertaking.

-No, nothing like that.- Luke walks over and does it in her place. For a moment they look at each other without practically breathing. Then he breaks the bubble. -So... how's it going with Don?- Penelope sighs and searches for the dog's head to give herself support.

-It’s not going.- she replies, not knowing that she has illuminated all the spies in her colleague's brain. -I stopped seeing him because... I wouldn't want to talk about it, but I'm afraid you'll insist.- he just stares at her. -It's the usual boring and banal thing you see happening in the movies.- she bends down to caress both dogs. No necklines to take advantage of, this time. So, it's easier to focus only on her words. -He was perfect, really, sweet, caring, interesting and interested in me...- again a praise that he doesn’t particularly like to listen -also from the physical point of view...- here, considering that there is worse? -The problem is that unfortunately when I met him... I was already in love with someone else.- What was that Ashley told you about? You felt that vibration now. No, directly an earth-quake. But look, she could even talk about someone else, it doesn't have to be you. Maybe that bar-tender who is always nice... But if he's gay! He forces both voices to keep quiet because she is looking at him strangely. -I tried to go out with him to see if I would have been able to not think at least for a while...- she was going to say the name, but unfortunately for him she stopped on the edge of the ravine -but it didn't work and since he's a good person , I preferred to clarify the situation.- she lifts up and starts walking again. He follows her.

-Oh... I...- Penelope shakes her head.

-No need for you to say it, I know.- unexpectedly she takes his hand and squeezes it. -Thank you for your time.- he opens his eyes wide, but the contact doesn’t last long. - Although I doubt they are things you can understand... because you found the right one.- he freezes, forcing her to do the same and so do the dogs.

-Who, Ashley? I'm sorry to give you a disappointment...- he gets messed up, even blushing. She chuckles. -We broken up, well, it's not like we've ever really been a couple, anyway... I was... too- wrong verb tense -I'm in love with another woman.- it's her turn to be surprised.

-Let me guess: it's blonde.- but she passes the ball again to him. Luke fails to mask the confusion. He thinks she finally understood.

-How did you..?- she doesn't seem very happy though. She lowers again, letting his dog kiss her.

-I heard you say a month ago to Matt that you liked a blonde colleague.- she says, in a low tone, without looking at him even by mistake. -I thought you were referring to Ashley, then you two started dating...- Luke understands how she should close the subject before he gets even more messed up.

-No, I wasn't referring to her.- he takes her from under her shoulders and pulls her up, a gesture that both consider too intimate, strange. The two dogs also stop chasing each other and twist the leads around them.

-But then... who can it be?- he admires her as she tries hard to reach the solution of the enigma. Her furrowed brow, her concentrated expression, her lips slightly bent. God, her mouth. Don't stare at it or it will be the end. -JJ no, because she is married.- luckily she brings out a theory so absurd as to force him to answer her. -It's not JJ, is it?- how can she think he might be in love with a married woman and that has two children?

-Of course not!- he sounds a little too indignant.

-Then, I don't understand.- and her naivety and confusion instead of making him angry, makes her even more attractive in his eyes. Literally irresistible.

-Pen, you're practically omniscient, you can find information in a few seconds, but sometimes you don't get to the solution that you have exactly in front of your nose.- he gradually lowers the tone. He takes Lou's leash from her hand. He doesn't need another one to do what he has in mind.

-You mean...?- she widens her eyes, her pupils dilated. He also frees her right hand from the bag, which he places at their feet. And he puts his hand behind her neck. This was not the original plan, but he will not stop.

-I’m sure that usually you follow the rule of third date, but for me you can do an exception…- Penelope has only time to remember that she and Don have argued a similar argument, then Luke does exactly what he seemed he has decided to do. He kisses her, with passion, love, not able to stop or hold himself. When their lips are in touch, it seems that the whole Sun system has found its right alignment. She doesn’t stay inactive, she kisses him back, despite the sensation of unreality. And then, they can’t leave each other. She leans her head in the crease of his shoulder. Other pieces find their places. No only one voices in Luke head seem to have something to say.

-So it is true that you like blondes?- she asks with her natural tone, full of life, joyful, enthusiastic for any minutia. -You didn't look like the type.- Luke chuckles. -Maybe it was the only thing that made Ashley seem not like the perfect girl for you.- she adds. Luke opens his mouth and changes his mind at the last second.

-Yes, I like blondes, or rather...- dramatic pause. With his free hand from the leash, he lifts her chin up to bring their lips close a few millimeters -one in particular.- Penelope moves her mouth in funny expressions.

-Mmm.- but with eyes she laughs.

-And you?- he provokes her without putting an end to the sweet torture. -Based on your track record, I would say that you prefer dark hair...- she bites her tongue. But then she answers in the same tone.

-Yes, but one in particular.- she whispers, before ending the distance.

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

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claudioseraph · 4 years

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Yall wanna see my very rough rewrite of the tekken story where things remain mainly the same but I try to keep it sensible jk I’m posting it now and you have no choice but to witness Keep in mind a lot of characters are yet to be mentioned or expounded upon and I also started it with the mood of a youtube vid where you’d be listening to someone but it’s slowly turning into more of a wiki page. I’m at tekken 3 so far and I’ve been bouncing back and forth on the actual Tekken wiki page trying to get my info straight. Also trying to create the illusion that Heihachi MIGHT be a good guy like the series seemed to play with every now and again, or he might just want people to think he’s a good guy.

Let’s start at the beginning; with the young Heihachi and Kazumi meeting for the first time as she enrolls in Jinpachi’s dojo. Jinpachi and Heihachi are impressed by her ability to adapt to both her own Hachijo style Karate and Mishima style fighting arts. From here, Kazumi is but a carefully-placed plant, her current objective being to watch over Heihachi because of the risk of him causing destruction to the world. Kazumi does eventually begin to harbor real, genuine feelings for him, though, and as such the two get married. It’s from here that the warning signs really start to show, though Kazumi tries to ignore them despite her original purpose. Heihachi insists his father end his focus on fighting arts to instead focus the Mishima Zaibatsu on producing weapons and engaging in matters of warfare so that their name continues to have strength when what he sees as outdated fighting techniques are no longer relevant. Jinpachi refuses, and as such asserts that Heihachi will never inherit the Mishima Zaibatsu. By now, Kazumi is even more hesitant as she is pregnant with Kazuya and understands that if Heihachi does become a threat as foretold, so too will Kazuya. She does her best to persuade Heihachi to change his mind about the direction of the zaibatsu, doing her best to change his ways while dancing around the whole “my family foretold you would bring death and destruction to the world” angle. Heihachi assures her that he’s only concerned with his family’s name and status, not being a war monger. Kazumi “believes” him. Things calm down for a time, enough for Kazuya to be born and live a normal life until age 5. Heihachi still harbors outward resentment towards Jinpachi, and the two are all but estranged. Heihachi still keeps an eye on the company as Jinpachi’s health begins to decline and it becomes clear he’s nearing his end. Around this time, Kazumi’s devil gene is beginning to activate, seeing as the chance of Heihachi gaining ownership of the zaibatsu and enacting his plans for it is still very prominent. She does her best to fight it off but is overtaken by a fever one night which leads to the events shown in Tekken 7 of her transforming and revealing her true purpose to him before being killed. Kazuya witnesses only her death, and is understandably confused and angry. Heihachi is in no place to console Kazuya and instead responds in kind with anger. After Kazuya isolates himself Heihachi recalls that Kazumi revealed that she was not only sent to kill Heihachi, but would have to kill Kazuya as well, and wonders where that puts Kazuya in all of this. Did he inherit the same abilities? Would he stand against Heihachi in the future? Or would they work together? Rather than immediately casting Kazuya out, Heihachi intends to see what path Kazuya takes. He still lacks the emotional availability/complexity to properly raise Kazuya after the rift in their relationship and things are rocky between them to say the least. Kazuya doesn’t believe any excuse Heihachi gives him for killing his mother, but as he’s only a child there isn’t much he can do to retaliate. Jinpachi dies a year later and is burred under Hon Maru. Heihachi forcibly takes control of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Knowing this was against Jinpachi’s wishes and having been close to his grandfather, this only widens the rift between Kazuya and Heihachi. [Heihachi swiftly begins to use the zaibatsu to investigate a god of fighting rumored to be lying dormant somewhere in the world. This sends Mr. Chang to America where he falls in love with Mrs. Chang and Michelle is born.] Heihachi still intends to raise Kazuya to be a formidable fighter, and adopts Lee into the family specifically for the purpose of giving Kazuya a rival. Thinking it over, Heihachi decides that even if Lee isn’t a fitting rival, he’d raise him to stand against Kazuya alongside him should things go that way. Lee is more receptive to the ins and outs of business, to manipulation for the sake of his own gain, and Heihachi uses that to give him an edge against Kazuya. Understanding Lee and Kazuya’s seperate skill sets, Heihachi sends Lee to America on business while he sends Kazuya out to participate in tournaments across the world. Lee meets Paul and Law while in America and trains alongside them. After Lee has returned to Japan, Kazuya meets with and fights to a draw against Paul in America. [Mr. Chang dies when, under threat of death, he begins to unearth Ancient Ogre. His death is covered up by the zaibatsu and when Michelle, 18, learns of this she joins the tournament to exact revenge against Heihachi.] In their 20s, Lee and Kazuya begin to conspire against Heihachi to wrest control of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Their union is shaky at best as both plan to head the zaibatsu in spite of the other, but they unify long enough to participate in the Tekken tournament Heihachi organizes with the intention of defeating him. (The tradition of fighting tournaments initially began as a smaller ordeal under Jinpachi, and Heihachi is only currently organizing a fighting tournament to keep the Mishima name in the spotlight). Lee, Paul, and Law meet again (outside of matches) and Lee learns that Paul has faced Kazuya before. Kazuya eliminates Paul from the tournament but in a show of good naturedness the two stay on good terms as rivals as Kazuya appreciates Paul’s strength. Eventually, Lee and Kazuya are pitted against one another. Kazuya emerges victorious and reveals to no one’s surprise that he never intended to share control of the zaibatsu with Lee. He does, however, offer Lee a lesser position. Lee finds that his pride is more damaged from losing to his brother than he’d expected, and he declines Kazuya’s offer. [Nina joins the tournament under orders to assassinate Heihachi but is defeated by Anna, who is then defeated by Paul.] Kazuya continues to the final stage against Heihachi, who is equal parts pleased with his son’s strength and cautious of it. Kazuya is nearly overwhelmed by Heihachi, who is fighting with his all, until the devil gene within him is activated and grants him immense power. Heihachi is overwhelmed both by Kazuya’s strength and by the revelation that he has inherited his mother’s ability. Feeling truly paternal for only a moment, Heihachi attempts to console Kazuya and explain to him the origin of this new power, intending to help and protect him the way he failed to with Kazumi. Kazuya, on the other hand, quickly abates his confusion and realizes that his power means he can no longer be subjected to feeling helpless the way he had as a child and under Heihachi’s strict and oftentimes cruel “parenting”. This power goes to Kazuya’s head, and he quickly dispatches Heihachi, disposing of his body off of a cliff near his childhood home in a mostly symbolic gesture. [Kazuya meets Ganryu in this tournament after the sumo is defeated by Yoshimitsu. He recognizes his strength (despite not seeing him as an equal) and appoints him as his body guard after taking control of the Zaibatsu. Kazuya extends the same offer to Paul but Paul respectfully declines in favor of traveling the world in order to become stronger. Kazuya learns of Heihachi’s search for Ancient Ogre and continues where he’d left off, sending Ganryu to attain an amulet currently in possesion of Michelle Chang that has some connection to the fighting god. Ganryu fails, falls in love with Michelle, and never returns. Ganryu’s abandonment is no great loss to Kazuya.] As Kazuya gains power of the Mishima Zaibatsu, Lee isolates himself in the wilderness to train. It is here that he meets Wang Jinrei, a skilled martial artist who knows of Lee’s connection to the Mishima family. Wang offers to train Lee in exchange for Lee bringing about the end of the Mishima clan as he, like Jinpachi and the Hachijo family, foresees the destruction they will bring to the world. When Lee tells Wang that Heihachi is already dead by Kazuya’s hands, Wang reveals that he can still feel Heihachi’s energy and that he has not yet been killed. Lee agrees to do what he must so long as it means becoming stronger than Kazuya, unaware of how Heihachi’s intentions of creating a division between the two had deeply affected his psyche. As leader of the zaibatsu, Kazuya organizes another tournament two years later to test his ability in battle. His power has gone to his head and he has become even more millitaristic than Heihachi, planning to seize control over all of Japan after he has ascertained the limits of his strength. He has also ordered genetic experiments on living creatures to understand the effects of the Devil Gene. His collective actions draw the ire of wildlife conservationalist Jun Kazama, and she joins the tournament in order to stop Kazuya. Jun is also able to sense the evil habituated within Kazuya, and intends to dispell it from his body to keep he and the world around him safe. Meanwhile, Heihachi has recovered and healed, sharpening his skills before the tournament in order to stop Kazuya, whom he no longer sees as his son but as a demon. Lee joins the tournament only to be defeated by Heihachi, whom he is still surprised to find alive despite Wang Jinrei’s words. Lee is then officially expelled from the Mishima clan. Jun meets with Kazuya outside of matches to arrest him, but instead convinces him to end his experiments on animals. While Kazuya initially intends to cast her aside he is drawn in by her strength and bravery, as well as the strange calm that overcomes him whenever she’s near him. Jun is then able to see that there is some good in Kazuya still, and takes an interest in him as well. Kazuya becomes compelled to act on her wishes and ends the animal experimentation. He never vocalizes it but Jun knows that Kazuya has the intention of changing his ways and as such Jun forfeits the tournament, seeing no need to proceed. [Nina is again sent to assassinate Kazuya and fails due to Anna’s intervention after she became his body guard (alongside Bruce*) for the sole purpose of stopping her sister. Nina is captured and used in Dr. Bosconovitch’s* experiments which would put her into a deep cryosleep. Seeing no fun in living without her rival around for years, Anna volunteers to also take part in the experiments.] Any intention Kazuya had of changing is swiftly brought to an end once Heihachi reveals himself to still be alive. Kazuya is defeated and Heihachi regains control over the Zaibatsu. In an attempt to assure Kazuya’s demise, Heihachi throws his body into an active volcano. Lee distances himself from Mishima matters. Jin is born months later after a tumultuous pregnancy wherin Jun had to ward off the influence of the devil gene. Jun recieves word of Kazuya’s demise but senses that he may still be alive. She believes that Heihachi was only acting for what he believed to be the greater good and harbors no ill will towards him. To protect Jin and reconnect with her spiritual energy she raises him in semi-seclusion, teaching him Kazama-style fighting arts in an attempt to continue protecting his soul from the devil presence. When Jin turns 15 Jun has a premonition of her own demise and as such instructs Jin to seek out Heihachi should anything happen to her, being estranged from her own family after her father’s death and unable to reach out to them. Her premonition comes true as a newly-awakened Ancient Ogre attacks them and presumably kills her. Jin assumes as much when he awakens after the attack, their home burned to the ground and neither Jun nor Ogre anywhere in sight. [Ogre’s appearance awakens Anna and Nina, Nina having lost all her memories of Anna and their rivalry. Anna, as such, attempts to remake their relationship to avoid becoming rivals with her again, realizing that they only really have each other. Nina is unfortunately possesed and controlled by Ogre, making that impossible.] With some difficulty, Jin does find Heihachi who takes him in with minimal questions. Having been mostly isolated Jin is ill prepared for city life and instead spends most of his time training, which Heihachi is unopposed to. Jin knows nothing about Kazuya and Heihachi’s falling out and is subsequently unsuspicious of Heihachi’s possible response to the devil gene dormant within him. Heihachi does consider raising Jin properly, but remembers how Kazuya had easily turned on him once his devil gene was activated. Heihachi properly enrolls Jin into Mishima Polytechnic and Jin is very receptive to his lessons. Heihachi sends Jin on small business trips once Jin is old enough in order to test his business savvy, and on one of these trips Jin meets and fights to a draw against Hwoarang. In the years after the second tournament, Heihachi had been using the zaibatsu to regain the support of the public by way of creating the Tekken Force which was sent worldwide on good will missions to provide aid to impoverished nations. This force was, at the same time, searching for any evidence of Ancient Ogre. It isn’t until 15 years later that one of their expeditions properly unearths Ogre, who wipes out the team. Word reaches Heihachi of Ogre’s appearance just before Jin is sent to him. For the next four years Heihachi trains Jin as a possible weapon to use against Ogre while trying to again ascertain the monster’s whereabouts. He sees the pattern of Ogre’s appearances; only appearing to face strong fighters, and organizes the third Tekken tournament in order to draw Ogre out and obtain his power. [Baek was one of the fighters to have been unfortunately confronted by Ogre, and this pushes Hwoarang to join the third tournament to obtain his revenge and settle the score against Jin.] [Paul receives an invitation to the third tournament and joins to test his mettle against his rival’s son and father. While he never meets with Jin or Heihachi, he does defeat Kuma and Ancient Ogre. He leaves the tournament prematurely to find more challenges, not realizing Ancient Ogre had been revitalized as True Ogre.] Jin and Hwoarang meet at the third tournament and once again fight to a draw. Jin is allowed to continue on through the next stages and Hwoarang is forced to return to Korea for his mandatory military service. Jin meets with Heihachi next, who claims to want to test his strength before Jin continues. In reality, he wishes to fight in order to draw out Ogre. This plan works, as a weakened Ogre appears and is swiftly defeated by an enraged Jin. At his second defeat, Ogre takes Heihachi’s power and becomes True Ogre, whom Jin also defeats with terrifying power. Regaining consciousness just long enough to see this, Heihachi then knows that Jin has inherited the same devil power as Kazuya. As he’s calming himself from the fight, Heihachi takes the chance to shoot Jin, then calls in the Tekken Force soldiers to retrieve his body. However, Jin reawakens as Devil Jin and

#Tekken #If I mention Paul a lot it's because I've newly become sore about how his character amounted to nothing #once the mishima rondo became too important they threw him off a cliff figuratively #*ties with/beats Kazuya in a fight*#*beats [Ancient] Ogre*#namco: ''lmao Paul who?''

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gg-astrology · 4 years

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hi! so my jupiter is in leo 4th house. it's stationary (D) i've never related to the descriptions like AT ALL. how could it be stationary effect this.

Hello!!! ❤️💙💕❤️💙💕❤️💙💕 I’ve been meaning to answer this for a while but I had to figure out how to start talking about it bc I haven’t talked about stationary planets before, so I might use this as an opportunity to do a small intro for everyone else as well?? If that’s ok??❤️💙💕

Stationary, Direct, Retrograde - Planetary Motions, Beginner Friendly? ⬇️

🚫long post🚫

Primary and Secondary Motions

Most people would already know what a retrograde is, since ‘mercury retrograde’ hype is what drew mainstream media into astrology.

I’ve described it on my blog as a planet doing a backflip, but if we actually think about it - before it can do that kickass flip - it has to be station so it gets a good lift off and landing, right?

Planetary motion is a thing - there’s primary motion and secondary motion.

First, let’s explain the primary motion. Say we know the earth spins once every 24 hours. Once every day. We know this because we get hours of daylight aka. we’re facing the sun (close or directly facing it as we spin - sorry, those who live in the polar nights and midnight suns ;;) and periods of darkness aka. when we’re not on the side of the sun, but other continents are having their daylight time. That’s from our earth’s perspective.

Along with that, we get stars and planets in our skies. The primary motion is the apparent rising, path, and setting of the planet from our earth perspective. If we were to snap a certain time period of it - at a certain place, to the exact minutes and second, it would be our chart.

That’s the path of the planets in relation to us. We can see the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc. But no earth - because we’re looking at it from earth (we’re earth). We’re earth-bound. And this is our sky chart (chart of our sky, at the time we select/use for the chart. At the certain place in relation to us.)

There’s more signification to these motions in other techniques and methods - but we’re not getting to that today. ( link | link )

So, primary motion explained. What’s secondary motion?

Ok so earth example. We know we spin, it’s how we get night/day (in relation to the sun) - but we also know we have to orbit around the Sun. That’s 365 days. Two motions - easy to get right?

What does it mean for other planets? Well, Secondary motion is how we track other planet’s progress/direction. This is where stationary comes in.

Stationary planet - is when a planet is motionless in it’s path (no apparent motion) - usually occurs when it’s about to go into retrograde or it��s leaving one to go direct.

Since we’re talking about orbits instead of spin - consider how Mercury orbits the sun every 88 days. That’s so much faster than us!! We’re not tracking how many time it spins - we’re checking in on Mercury to see how it’s doing so far in it’s orbit (in relation to us and it’s own progress) in the way we can - which is against the zodiac belt.

If one day you see Mercury (from our perspective) just stay in Scorpio for like, a day - you might be concerned and ask ‘?? buddy why did you pause??’ - it’s because Mercury is about to do a cool backflip, or maybe it’s already done one, but it has to get ready (‘station’) first in order to do it’s motion.

What’s stationary?

So you can think of stationary as - well, being motionless. In the secondary movement. It’s a significant time that changes should be focused on (when this happens during transits aka. every time we’re S.R and about to go into rx and when we’re S.D to go direct again) is that the S.D period (what you’re talking about) is gathering in strength point.

If we’re looking at this in transit, it’s also Prime Time to focus our energy into fueling what it is the placement, house and planet/sign is focused on. The reason/explanation for this is that it’s slowing in motion/motionless, it’s energy is concentrated/focused in one significant area (house/context/planets in activation about to go through pivotal motion). Where it lands in your house, placement, signs - that’s where we should read and learn where the energy is intense/collected.

This is possibly why people say stationary movement is an interesting period - because this is when changes actually occur. Larger planets have larger influences on worldly, bigger things- personally planets can affect us directly. With larger (outer planets) these don’t affect personality as much but when it’s stationary - it’s making connection to the Sun (it trines the sun) and thus, there’s a personal connection to us through external factors or external means.

Stationary Retrograde (about to go into retrograde, S.R.) and Stationary Direct (about to go into direct, S.D) rather than being completely 'ughhh’ emoji like how we usually talk about retrogradation - we see stationary period as an opportunity to exert and fuel our energy into the topic/subject of the house and placement that is relevant - it could be good to us. There’s a belief that S.R is when it’s weakening and S.D is when strength is gathering. That’s possibly why we do so much prep prior to and after rx motion - hopefully, because we know these periods (shadow periods) also tend to affect us.

Outer planets (so very very slow) that are about to change motions are also trine to the Sun. That’s usually when you can tell whether or not an outer planet is about to go S.R or S.D - is more significant because it’s in relation to our core, our Sun, our direct self (astrology wise). Rather than say - oh it’s a description by itself. It’s more useful to define it via personal aspect to what is relevant to us.

For the natal stationary person

All of this talk, what does it mean??? So to actually answer your question about stationary planets - it has to do with evaluating it’s aspect to the Sun.

Everything we’ve talked about at this point - has been about our and other planet’s relation to our center - the fizzing ball of Large Fire. Because that’s where it’s actually significant, and what we can actually think about and concentrate on.

To actually answer your question anon; you asked why you don’t relate to your Leo Jupiter in 4th, and if it being S.D makes a difference? If we look at stationary interpretations - in a broad sense, most would consider it an accidental debility. The explanation for this, is the planet itself is powerful - especially during a gathering time period. However, the person’s ability (or inability) to realize and use it’s potential makes it a debility because they let it go to waste (trine to sun).

Debility is a weakness (as opposed to dignity which is it’s strength). To clarify, some people describe this as stationary being a ‘stand still’ - and thus, without moving (which is what planets are supposed to do) - a deadlock is formed and things are hard to produce, act, or displayed.

Certain elements of the person (i.e. what is trine) is in the essence of the person themselves. This can give them significant boost or concentration in said area (like what we said about planets being stationary in transit, above) - but it might not actually be noticeable to the person (as with most case of trine). This is particularly significant - because we’re talking about a non-personal planet here.

Jupiter isn’t a personal planet, it may be close to you, but it isn’t your personal object. It’s your guidance and teacher, perhaps wisdom and knowledge. These we can’t control but is influenced by regardless.

It can also be a part of our essence, but do we have control of who we are, or how we’re hard-wired right into our system when it’s so intertwined with our character/how we just do things? That’s why trine aspects are hard to control and use, especially if it’s stationed in a deadlock period, and is an outer/social planet like this as well (larger influence, a little more impersonal than personal planets i.e. mercury, mars, natal venus s.r or s.d.)

This isn’t personal, but others will see it and perhaps not you. We can’t actually control this, but the thing we can do is to try looking at it’s aspect to the Sun, and also keep in mind that to the person themselves - you are referring to a planet (and it’s aspect, that trine) that you can’t control. I’ve heard that other stationary natives may also experience the same.

Also keep in mind - the period you are born is a significant key activation. Jupiter being motionless and about to get back into being direct again signifies changes, and preparation for said changes. Those with stationary planet in their natal usually goes through significant pivots in their life during S.D or S.R periods as well - so look out for it.

So. To answer your ask: Yes, being stationary direct has significations (maybe not as much or as positively as you might think) - but that explains why this Leo Jupiter becomes a debility to the person themselves. And how trine aspect to the Sun can be interpreted (w/ motions like this) this way as well.

More if you want to learn:

To find out (for others) if you have an S.R. or S.D planet (I won’t take anymore questions for personal placement being in these motion and what it means bc oof im tired) - if you use astro.com, click ‘additional tables’ and it’ll show you if you have anything in S.R or S.D in your chart.

Second helpful tip:

Why do planets seems to go into retrograde or do a backflip?? Here’s an answer (and video) that I’ve already talked about that explains the topic.

Third, and last, helpful tip:

Here’s some resources and links on the topic, hopefully this will answer your question anon! If i haven’t helped you in anyway ;; I hope at least it’ll give you some insights and for anyone else as well:

TheRealAstrology - Stationary Planet

StationaryPlanet - This is vedic, but might be fun to read (esp. the note about having potential and not letting it go to waste)

Quora - ‘What does it mean when a planet is stationary in a natal chart?’ - second answer is the best one, please check out the quote as well!

Quora (again) - ‘What does stationary Jupiter in natal chart mean?’ - this one is a good explanation of motions, and why it’s relevant to the conversation. As well as a good explanation of why trines are so hard to get under control. I hope this helps!

Other general resources available about the topic:

Astrology.com - Rx and Stationary Explained

Pandora astrology - Jupiter station and rx

Power of Planetary Station - examples of public figure chart/events and world events during certain planetary motion period

Retrograde Planets: Transversing the Inner Landscape by Erin Sullivan (book) - has examples of sun-trine combination along with S.R or S.D and how it affects people personally.

Astrologyweekly - looking at terms related to the motions of planets

I can’t believe i’m so drained gathering all this info in one place, but I hope this answers your question and help others who want to learn more/was curious about this as well. Thanks for asking!! I hope this helps!!

#stationary #stationary motion #retrogradation #astrology asks #planetary motions #beginner friendly #anon #asks

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chardonnay-sin-blog · 5 years

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What if: it's 2011/2012, Raja and Raven are at an event and they keep teasing each other with flirty looks and touches and words, until Raja is just too horny and tries to convince Raven to go somewhere more private and risky, and spend some interesting time together 😏 what would Raven do? where would Raja take Raven? what would they do...? 😍🔥🔥

So apparently I don’t know what a “short story” is 😅anyways, enjoy my little side piece!

“This ‘party’ is so fucking lame.”

Raven couldn’t hold in her laughter at Morgan’s attempt at subtlety as they walked across the convention centre floor, fake smiles plastered to their faces while they waved hello at some of the higher-ups from WoW they recognized. The 2 of them were there along with Jujubee and a plethora of other California queens who were...well invited may not be the correct term, more like encouraged to attend this Hollywood event promoting the upcoming seasons of Drag Race and Drag U. They were promised free alcohol, not realizing that that meant 2 drink tickets for the entire evening. The girls were pretty much there to be pranced around like show ponies and schmooze with the big guns from WoW presents and Logo: producers, directors, casting, all of those types, but admittedly most of their time had been spent giggling at off-hand comments like Morgan just made and gossiping with other queens. That and watching Jujubee manage to scam her way into more free drink tickets, slowly getting more and more inebriated as the night progressed.

Raven had been running into different queens all night, a couple she hadn’t seen since their season finished filming 2 years ago! It was great to see old acquaintances and catch up, but she was really looking around to see if she could find Delta in the crowd. She always had the good gossip, which hopefully meant she knew if Raja was still on the East Coast and that’s the reason she wasn’t here tonight either. “Ugh they’re probably off somewhere getting shit-faced without us, bitches” Raven thought to herself.

About 10 minutes later, she found herself stuck in a painfully boring conversation with Santino Rice. The last time she’d seen him was at the season 2 wrap party where they’d all gotten way too drunk and he and Raven may or may not have engaged in some “overly friendly” activities together (no she didn’t sleep with him, she’d not that desperate). While she was smiling and nodding, pretending to listen to his elaborate re-telling of some new juice cleanse he was trying, Raven used a technique she’d learned where you look slightly to the left and above the other person’s when you frankly don’t give a shit what they saying and would rather tune them out. Suddenly she saw something that actually did pique her interest, Raja walking by the cheap backdrop someone had put up for the queens to take pictures in front of. She was in drag but obviously had arrived late and seemed slightly drunk in that overly smiley and giggly way Sutan got when he’d had a few too many cocktails but could still handle herself. She was honestly shocked Raja had showed up at all, expecting her to still be in New York.

She caught herself staring when Raja turned her head towards the crowd, looking around and briefly making eye contact with Raven. Raja gave her one of her dazzling smiles and an expectant head tilt. Raven smiled back, an impulsive feeling of butterflies making her feel flustered as she looked away quickly. When she flicked her eyes back a moment later, Raja was gone. Was she going insane and actually seeing Sutan in places he wasn’t actually there? She really needed to stop thinking about him so much.

Suddenly she heard the familiar deep baritone of a voice close behind her, the sound of Raja’s laugh dancing through the convention centre made Raven smile but she continued to make small talk with Santino. Suddenly she felt the ghost of someone’s hand brush all the way across her lower back, sending a small shiver up her spine. Out of the corner of her eye she swore she saw Raja float past, saying hello to yet another member of production she seemed to have known from her early filming days. Raja pulled the man in for a hug and spun halfway around, her face now in perfect view of Raven’s eyesight. Raven tried to keep her focus on the question Santino was asking her, but still had to ask him to repeat it as she continued to be distracted by Raja. She swore every so often Raja would look back at her, a look of mischief and excitement in her eyes. When they both managed to hold each other’s gaze for more than a moment and Raven saw Raja fully wink at her, Raven knew she wasn’t just imagining things.

After a brief hello to her old friend Phil, Raja immediately made her way over to where Raven was standing. She was pretty much the sole reason why Raja even bothered showing up tonight. She could have easily used the excuse of still being on the West Coast to perform and get in contact with some of her designer friends out there, but she had been out of town for a little while and hadn’t seen David in what seemed like forever, so she figured this party was the perfect opportunity to spend some quality catch-up time together. Raja came to stand directly behind Raven, waving at Santino in a far-too enthusiastic greeting. She reached all the way around Raven to give Santino a small hug, and as she pulled back Raven felt her hand briefly squeeze her shoulder, a quiet “Hey you.” in her ear.

Rather than draw her hand away, Raja let her fingers run down the back of Raven’s shoulder. She was close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating between their bodies. The tips of her fingernails still traced against Raven’s back as she engaged in polite conversation about the shows she’d been doing all over the US in the last year.

“Oh you should’ve seen the things that went on during this tour, things got a little wild some nights. Especially when we came back here and had some special guest performers with us, right Rave?”

Raven’s eyes fluttered as she felt Raja’s hand move down her lower back. “Yeah. It definitely got crazy.”

Raven continued to distractedly contribute to the conversation, trying to follow along while the Raja’s hand still tickled down her back. When she felt Raja trace even lower down over her backside she gasped and squirmed at the sensation.

“Ah-I need to go...and see what Morgan needs.

Raven escaped quickly, a flush of embarrassment coming over her as she made a beeline for Morgan hanging out by the bar.

“Hey what’s up?” she looked Raven up and down. “You look like you need another drink. I’m gonna need like 8 more to get through this night.”

Morgan ordered another round while she continued gossiping about everything they’d heard tonight about the show and the other queens. Raven tried her best to ignore Raja’s eyes still lingering on her every time she glanced in her general direction, attempting to remain casual in her conversation. Clearly she failed miserably because Morgan immediately turned to see what Raven was so distracted by. As soon as she saw Raja looking in their general direction, eyes ablaze and a knowing smile on his lips, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“Oh my god, are you guys serious?”

“What?” Raven tried to play innocent.

“I can see her looking at you”

“And?”

“And it’s Raja. I’ve seen that look, I know you two. I’m not an idiot.” Morgan looked across the room and then back at Raven who’s eyes were still locked on Raja’s. “Oh will you two just go fuck already?”

“Morgan!” Raven tore her eyes away and glared at her friend “We’re at a work event!

Just as she was getting ready to retaliate, Morgan and Raven noticed Raja making her way towards them “Oh and that’s my cue to leave.”

“Wait, no. Morgan don’t...” Raven tried to grab her arm and keep her there, knowing that Raja would more likely behave herself if they weren’t alone.

“Oh no, I do not want to be here for this conversation.” Morgan picked up her drink and walked off just as Raja came to lean both hands on the bar behind Raven.

“Hey, can you get me one of whatever she’s drinking?”

Raven closed her eyes before turning around to face Raja, mentally preparing herself for whatever was coming. “Are you sure you should be having another drink?” she teased.

“Well hello to you too. Is this the kind of greeting I get after not seeing you for so long?”

“It’s been 3 and a half weeks Raja.”

“That’s almost a whole month!” she exclaimed as the bartender slid her drink across the bar. Her right hand reached out to brush lightly against Raven’s wrist. “I missed you.”

Raven couldn’t help but smile back at her sweet words, “I missed you too.”

“A month is a really long time,” Raja shifted even closer to Raven, a small smile on her face as her hand resting on the bar moved forward to touch Raven’s “and I was excited to see you tonight.”

Raven looked down at their joined hands and then back up at Raja’s face. Despite her attempt to deny it, she knew the exact look that Morgan was talking about earlier. It was a look that Raja gave her very often when they were both out working a crowded nightclub, and it was the same look she was getting right now as Raja’s eyes burned into her own, full of mischief, lust and expectations. Her soft, dazzling smile could charm any person it was directed at. Raven could feel herself getting sucked into Raja’s little game, but she refused to play in this somewhat professional environment. She opened her mouth to respond, but couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t encourage this obvious sexual tension between them. She looked down at their hands again and bit her lip in a smiled.

“I should probably go.” She left her drink at the bar and started to walk away when Raja took a couple steps after and tried to stop her.

“Wait,” Raja reached out and grabbed onto her arm from behind “where are you going so fast? We didn’t even get to catch up.” Raja brought herself flush to Raven’s back once again, this time her fingers running down Raven’s arm to slip into her hand. Their slight height difference allowed for Raja to hover over Raven’s right shoulder, her lips perfectly in line with Raven’s ear. “Maybe we should go somewhere a little quieter” she said lowly.

“Raja, not here!” It was taking everything in Raven’s willpower to say no to her right now.

“I agree, not here. Which is why I suggested we go somewhere else.” Raja used her other hand to pull one side of Raven’s blonde wig off of her neck, her fingers lingering on the bare skin making Raven’s eyes fall closed. She pressed a soft kiss to the shell of Raven’s ear.

“Oh my god, people are watching.” Raven looked around nervously, but she couldn’t help giggling at the feeling of Raja’s mouth pressing to her shoulder.

“Then come with me.” Raja’s lips brushed against the side of her face. “Or I’ll keep going.”

Raven gasped when she felt Raja nip at her earlobe “Okay. Okay!” She managed to squirm away and turn to face Raja, smiling at her persistence. “Where should we go?”

She could barely finish her question before Raja grabbed her hand, and started dragging her through the crowd. She tried to be as discreet as possible, waving hello to people passing by as she led Raven to the back of the designated area in the convention centre, barricaded off by thick black curtains. Raja found a break in the material and slipped herself through, Raven quickly checking to ensure no one was looking before following close behind. Raja was already halfway across the empty floor on the other side of the curtains, heading for a dark hallway off to the side. Raven ran to catch up with her, by now she was past her embarrassment, happy to be mostly out of sight and away from all those fancy guys in stuffy suits. She grabbed Raja’s hand again as they made their way over.

“Is that where you’re taking me?” Raven motioned suggestively with her eyes toward the unlit hallway. Raja just looked back at her and smiled, the 2 of them once again completely in-tune with each other. She gave Raven’s hand a little squeeze before taking off faster, the 2 queens giggling like naughty kids running away from school. They got about halfway down the hallway, far enough that they were completely encased in darkness, when Raja stopped and pulled Raven towards her. She grabbed both of Raven’s hands and pressed the front of their bodies together, backing her up so that Raven was caught between her and the wall. She wasted no time capturing Raven’s lips, both of her hands pressing Raven’s torso further into the wall.

“I missed you. So much.” Raja breathed between kisses.

Raven was completely enraptured by Raja’s mouth, overtaken by the frantic nature of her kisses and the familiar taste of her as she held her against the wall. Even the material of Raja’s dress lightly brushing against her bare skin was driving Raven crazy. Raja wore a simple short dress that sparkled and hung off of her tall, skinny frame perfectly, it was about the same length as the tighter black dress Raven wore that hugged her curves. (They often showed up to gigs and events in similar attire, sometimes almost identical outfits, constantly being compared and admired for sharing a similar style of drag.) Raja also wore a long, dark wig that accentuated her golden skin tone perfectly. She always managed to look like a high-class supermodel, however the way she was acting was more like a whore on a street corner, attacking every inch of Raven’s mouth with her own.

Raven instinctively tried to reach for Raja’s face to push her hair out of the way, but Raja immediately caught her and roughly pinned both wrists to the wall, trapping her. As Raja held her there, so close their lips were just barely touching, a hint of a smile ghosting across her face, Raven knew exactly what kind of game they were playing. She gave in to Raja’s firm grasp, hoping she would just return to her frenzied kisses, but instead Raja just continued to hold her against the wall. She breathed into Raven’s partially-open mouth, her fingers delicate against the bare skin on her wrists. Raja let her lips slowly travel across Raven’s cheek up to her ear. Her touch, so light it was barely there, sent a shiver of anticipation up Raven’s spine. She felt like some helpless prey under Raja’s attentions, waiting for the moment she would pounce like a wild animal claiming its next victim, but Raja was patient. They’d been apart for such a long time and Raja wanted to take her time and enjoy this. She softly kissed Raven’s ear, then moved a little lower to kiss the spot directly under her ear.

“You look so beautiful tonight. You know it drives me crazy when you wear these little short dresses.” Raja purred as her leg brushed against Raven’s thigh. “Did you wear this for me on purpose?” Raven’s head fell back against the wall when she felt Raja’s lips against her neck.

“I missed this.” Raja brought her face back up, speaking directly into Raven’s mouth. “Holding you down, seeing you so vulnerable underneath me.” She placed a gentle kiss on her lips “You’re so hot Rave.”

Raven wanted nothing more than for Raja to lean in and kiss her harder, but instead she opened her eyes slightly to see Raja looking down between them and smiling. She raised her head back up to catch Raven’s gaze, somehow shifting impossibly closer and moving her right leg between Raven’s thighs, smiling as she pressed against the spot where Raven’s cock would be if it wasn’t tucked away. She let go of one of Raven’s wrists, pulling a strand of hair out of Raven’s face and caressing her cheek. Both of them held each other’s gaze for a moment, Raven waiting in anticipation and Raja admiring the thrill in her eyes. Raja lowered her hand to delicately wrap around Raven’s throat, her thumb tilting her chin up slightly before closing the small distance once again. Their kiss was much slower this time. Raja’s hand around Raven’s neck held her jaw firmly in place as the kiss intensified, and when she slipped her tongue eagerly into Raven’s mouth her other hand came up to grasp either side of her face, pushing her wig away. Raven’s hands, now free from Raja’s restraint, fell down to wrap around Raja’s back, slowly sliding down over her ass and scratching at the back of her thighs. Raja groaned softly at the feeling, prominent even through her tights, and instinctively pressed herself into Raven again. She pushed herself completely against Raven’s chest, barely any air between them at all as her lips found Raven’s ear once more.

“Fuck, if you keep doing that you’re gonna make me pop my tuck.”

Raven smiled but didn’t stop. Instead she gripped onto the back of Raja’s thigh’s even tighter, attempting to pull her in even closer, still feeling Raja’s leg between her own. The two of them stayed like this for about a minute, Raja kissing and sucking on Raven’s earlobe as she rhythmically rocked her body up into her. Raven relaxed as she felt her back hitting the wall, completely giving in to the combined sensation of Raja’s mouth on her and the pressure she felt between her legs. They both stood, unbelievably horny and frustrated as they knew that there wasn’t anything more they could do at this point than furiously dry hump each other on the wall, just a tease of what they really wanted. When Raja’s hands slipped down underneath the hem of Raven’s skirt, replacing her leg and putting even more pressure between her thighs, Raven whimpered and tried to push her away.

“Raja, no! Not here. They may not be able to see us but they can still hear us, and you know how loud I get sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Raja laughed, another magnetic smile lighting up her face. It was somehow even more beautiful when she was in drag. “I think you mean always.”

“Whatever. Either way, it means we can’t have sex in this hallway. It echos!” As Raven made her argument, Raja reached down to place open-mouthed kisses along her jaw.

“Fine, then let’s go someplace else,” she managed between kisses. “Like my apartment. That’s been vacant and waiting for almost an entire month.”

Raven closed her eyes at the intimate touch. There was no way she could refuse while Raja was doing these things to her, not that she intended to anyways. Raven didn’t even have to agree, because as soon as Raja lifted her head to look back into her eyes, it held the only answer she needed. She grabbed Raven’s hand with a smile.

“Come on, I know a way out the back. We can sneak out and no one will see us.”

#drabble #short story #ish #what if #prompt #light smut #more just sexiness #thank you for this prompt i'm obsessed

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justgotham · 5 years

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We always knew they meant New York," novelist, Lawrence Block, wrote in his intro to the first trade paperback of the DC Comics series, Gotham Central. Block was writing both about the inherent New-Yorkness to Bob Kane's initial vision of Batman's Gotham City and of Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka's incarnation in Gotham Central.

Gotham Central, which debuted in single issues beginning in 2004, is maybe the most quintessentially New York comic book imagining of the city of bats and cats, robins and riddlers. It's a story not about how a boy billionaire with a grudge and an endless arsenal of super-weaponry handles someone like Mister Freeze, but about how the boys in blue of the Gotham City Police Department deal with them. There's something endemically and irrevocably New York about people running around in strange costumes while often-flawed cops do their best to keep a tight hold on a city that never sleeps.

Ten years after Gotham Central first appeared in comic stores, Gotham, the Fox TV series very loosely based on Brubaker and Rucka's stories, found an even better way to make their Gotham City feel like New York: they filmed there.

And while having the literal New York City skyline to draw inspiration from helped, there was another part of Manhattan specifically that helped give each of Gotham's residents that undeniable New York feel: Broadway.

"I worked on Broadway," says Gotham's current costume designer, John Glaser. "Josh, my assistant, worked on Broadway. ... The painters and the sketch artists have all worked on Broadway. We actually approached each episode like a little Broadway show."

And what advanced techniques were brought from the Great White Way to the Dark Knight?

"Paint and tape," says Glaser. "I hate to say it, but paint and tape make things look the way that they should."

As it turns out, that's a very Broadway approach to costuming. Glaser learned from the best, having assisted under the late, great Patricia Zipprodt, who was the original costume designer for iconic Broadway shows like Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Pippin, and the second longest running show in Broadway history, Chicago.

"Everything was painted, painted, painted, painted. I was a costume painter, so that's instilled in me," says Glaser. "The painting part, some people wouldn't do. Once we actually started to paint things in the first season that we were there and went, 'Oh, this stuff looks much better with the lighting, the dark scenery and the shafts of light.' We always made everything light at the top and dark at the bottom, ombré it down."

There are lots of little fun facts to be learned about the basic costumes and how they echo back to Batman comics, too. It's the little things. "On men's suits, we only used black buttons, no matter what suit it is," he explains. "Black buttons because in the comics all the buttons are black."

For Gotham's fifth and final season, there were creative alterations made to the costumes overall that informed the style of the show, each with specific purpose. "Because they are at war, we got rid of all jewelry," explains Glaser. "It's being melted down to make bullets. Without any jewelry, it kind of changes the look of the show. There are no earrings, there are no necklaces. We didn't want a lot of extraneous costume stuff, just what was really interesting in front of you."

Probably what most separates Gotham from Arrowverse shows or the Marvel Cinematic Universe is how the wardrobe team treats the supervillain costumes and suits. Those, too, get the Broadway treatment. Not at first, though. First, suits for characters like Firefly and Mister Freeze are crafted in Los Angeles. "It's like buying a car," according to Glaser. "They know the body's measured, they make an extra layer of the body for them to give them the right shape, they have the right fabrics, they have the right sculptors, the right fabricators."

But Glaser wasn't a fan of the exactness of these initial designs. "What I didn't like about that was that it looked like a movie costume. We actually took Firefly's costume and Mr. Freeze's costume, after they first wore them, and we started to paint them and age them, just because they didn't look like they were from Gotham. They looked like they were from a different world. We took them back, kept painting them and aging them, putting things on them and making them look more like they were from the city of Gotham."

Sometimes the newness of a costume could even be a problem, especially in Gotham's final season, where everyone is living even more rough than usual. "On Ivy's costume," Glaser uses as an example, "the top of it is flesh and it goes into fabric around her breast and we couldn't figure out how to make that transition without it looking like a skating costume."

So how do you solve that problem beyond paint and tape? "We took it to Izquierdo Studios and I was explaining to Martin Izquierdo what the problem was. He said, 'Alright, just go away for an hour.' We went away for an hour, and then when we came back he had cut, hacked, aged, and torn it, and it looked perfect. It was a dress that melted into her body — so it went from flesh, to fabric, back to skin and flesh, so you couldn't pinpoint whether it was a dress, whether it was her skin, or whether it was vines growing on her. It was vague, misty, and painted with lots of sparkle, so you could never pinpoint what it was. That was a very successful costume."

Beyond the desire to make Gotham feel like New York through the lens of a Broadway show, there was one other consistent challenge: working within the confines of the DC Universe. All live-action TV series that exist within the worlds of DC Comics have to accept that they are second banana in the DC hierarchy. The creators of Arrow had to scrub their Suicide Squad plotline when the film of the same name starring Margot Robbie and Will Smith was greenlit, for example. And so, too, Gotham had to contend with these challenges from a stylistic standpoint.

"There's a thing that Josh and I used to say," admits Glaser. "'If you can't tell what it is, then it's great.' If you can't know where it came from or if you can't pinpoint it, then there was never a problem."

Probably the most infamous struggle Gotham faced in the Batman canon relates to the Joker, in that Gotham simply could not have a character named "the Joker." That is why the twins, Jeremiah and Jerome, were created. And, even then, there was some conflict. "We sent a sketch and he [Jeremiah] had some purple in his suit," Glaser explains. "Warner Bros. said, 'No, you can't use purple.' The producers from Gotham talked with them and they let it pass. I think that was an area or a time when they started to loosen up a little bit, with us. We never got too close to the iconic look of anybody. We always danced around it."

One character from whom there was, surprisingly, no pushback at all was Harley Quinn. "The diamond shapes are painted on so that they kind of fade in and out, kind of ghost-like," reveals Glaser of the initial Harley design. "Every time that we saw her it would get a little more refined. When it started out it was like a dull red and a dull blue. By the time we finished, this is on different clothing, but, still, again, painting, it had become red and white, but because of what she does, we made it look like red blood and white."

You may also have heard that Gotham's final season involves a time jump allowing its audience to see something they've wanted since day one: Batman. And while it's too early yet to reveal everything about the first time we see actor David Mazouz in full Bat-regalia, Glaser did reveal one aspect to the costume that was mandated: "They insisted that the Batman logo be on the belt."

There's so much that goes into costuming a show, there could be a whole series just on the topic. Glaser talked with SYFY WIRE about so much: the muscle suits under the character's clothes, the way each character was built up to be taller and longer, and small details — like the custom made ties for all the men's suits, and how they changed from season to season. Even the background actors got their own story. "For every episode, we would pick a color," says Glaser. "Let's say there's a party scene, we would pick a color and we would pick a vague period and focus on that."

Most of these skills are ones that Glaser and his team learned, not from television, but from their time assisting with, designing, dressing, teching down, and rigging costumes on Broadway, all which helped make the Gotham City of Fox's Gotham the most quintessentially New York incarnation of the DC Universe yet.

#Jeremiah Valeska #Cameron Monaghan #Ecco #Francesca Root-Dodson #Bruce Wayne #David Mazouz

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entirebodyexercise · 5 years

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10 Little Known Ways to Lose Weight Without Exercise

When a person asks me to recommend the ideal ways to drop weight quick, I always offer a word of care first.

While it's certainly feasible to drop weight at a quick pace, it is very important to tackle it in a lasting fashion, if you're not careful, you'll put it all back on again faster than you took it off, and also then some!

Sleep

Consistent, top quality rest is one of the most undervalued aid to assist you reduce weight without workout, hands down.

It begins with establishing a regular rest schedule, Go to bed at the exact same time every evening as well as awaken at the exact same time every morning.

Your all-natural daily rhythm (recognized as your circadian rhythm) is probably one of the most crucial determinant of the health and wellness of your hormones and also your body's ability to shed weight as well as maintain it off.

If you obtain that out of order, you can kill on your own in the health club and eat green salads and also barbequed chicken breasts all you want, however none of it will assist you shed weight.

Seven to nine hrs every evening is what you're going for. About 7 as well as a half is the magic number for me. Exactly what's yours?

Meditation

Stress will derail a body quickly at all.

If you desire a quick method to shed weight without workout, you have to discover a dependable anxiety management strategy, time and time again, research shows reflection to be among the most effective methods there is.

I want to practice meditation initial thing in the morning. As quickly as I awaken at 5 a.m., I'll take a seat in my chair as well as I'll do around 5 to 10 minutes of mediation and also visualization.

It relaxes my body down, as well as provides me a possibility to imagine just how I want my day to go and also just what I intend to produce in my life.

That's the regimen that benefits me, yet you might choose that a substantially various routine benefit you. Maybe you like to sit cross-legged on the flooring, or perhaps you'll meditate at night instead.

Gratitude Practice

You probably really did not anticipate to see this among my weight reduction ideas, but trust me, it's an excellent one, and also it's straight pertaining to the suggestion I shared above.

After my morning meditation, I rest down to detail what I'm thankful for in my thankfulness journal.

I also revisit its web pages right before bed, this time listing my successes of the day. I can't overstate just exactly how useful this technique is.

When you concentrate on the good in your life, you get more of it. When good ideas are occurring in your life, you really feel happier. When you are better, you make far better choices.

Think about it momentarily: how simple is it to exercise and also eat healthy and balanced when you remain in a poor mood?

Early Morning Activity

Are you a morning person?

You could not realize it, yet having a well established morning regimen could have a big influence on how swiftly you lose weight.

Try getting your day started with a morning walk or a few other kind of physical activity.

It does not need to be a full-on exercise, but just obtaining your body relocating will certainly get your lymph flowing and also all set you for the day in advance. It can even be something as basic as walking your dogs.

Start Your Day with Protein

Also, make it a point to start your early morning with protein.

In order to transform your body into a fat-burning equipment, you need to obtain a minimum of 20 grams in the morning. With this, you'll maintain your blood glucose, lower cravings, and maintain full for a longer duration of time.

Furthermore, it doesn't candid cortisol response like heavy carbohydrate consumption would certainly, whereas pancakes and also syrup will cause a sugar crash 2 hours on, an appropriate protein meal will lift your energy up.

Try anything from eggs to a protein shake, just see to it you're getting the protein you need.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Here's the point about apple cider vinegar: it consists of a compound called acetic acid, which has outstanding wellness benefits.

Here's how you make it benefit you: Before you eat, pour 1 or 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar right into a glass of water, as well as consume alcohol that prior to you eat.

This will diminish the insulin spike after you eat, thus restricting what does it cost? of your meal winds up getting kept as fat.

Eliminate Gluten

If you're having problem shedding several of your weight, I assure that if you stop consuming bread, pastas, as well as cereals, you'll lose nearly 5 pounds in a pair days. That's a promise.

These inflammatory, allergenic foods damage your body, and lead to fast weight gain.

If you do need a starchy fix, choose recipes prepared with almond flour rather. Attempt gluten-free pastas like rice or quinoa or lentil pastas, they're all better options.

Reduce Your Cardio Workouts

As you might know from checking out a few of my work, I'm no fan of lasting cardio.

Too much cardio squashes your body, and is just one of the most convenient methods to reduce your thyroid.

As if that's not bad enough, long-duration cardio doesn't develop muscle mass, which implies it has little effect on the lasting caloric melt you should shed those bothersome pounds.

Heal Your Gut

Your digestive tract is a substantial element of your capacity to lose weight.

Studies have revealed that overweight and obese individuals have a various collection of bacteria in their colon than healthy and balanced, lean people.

With this in mind, you ought to intend to boost the top quality of the microorganisms in your digestive tract, whether that's consuming a lot more fermented vegetables like sauerkraut-- I love sauerkraut-- or supplementing with a good-quality probiotic.

Contract Your Muscles

You may not have actually ever heard of this last idea prior to, however offer it a shot: the following time you sit down to consume, try priming your body to receive those nutrients by getting your muscle mass for 30 seconds.

You'll feel heat generating in your body, which indicates your muscular tissues are generating warm as a byproduct. Your breathing will certainly likewise increase.

It might really feel ridiculous, yet you're essentially creating some of the same effects you would certainly experience throughout a workout.

We recognize that the greatest dish of your day should come after your exercise, and that's because working out makes your muscle mass cells open up like a blossom to the sun.

This is specifically when you want to provide the nutrients they need.

Eating at any kind of other time of the day boosts the probability that the nutrients you're taking in will certainly be stored elsewhere in your body, like in your fat cells.

#cardio workouts #exercise #health #health and wellness #health club #physical activity #pilates workout #weight #wellness #workout

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attract-mode-collective · 6 years

Video

youtube

Exactly 79 Photos & Videos Concerning The Game Boy (plus other handhelds)

So... hope you’ve all been following me on Twitter, which is more or less the unofficial new home for Attract Mode. Mostly cuz Tumblr’s days are, alas, numbers, plus I haven’t warmed up to Medium as much as I had hoped to. Though I’ve actually spent the past two months republishing every single post that contains mainline Game Culture Snapshots, so it has remained somewhat useful at least.

Now, for a while there, I had been compiling every single thing tweeted. But because I’m now so damn active on that end… plus I’m busier than ever with other projects… I’m way behind with those digest posts, and the very idea of playing catch up legit gives me anxiety. Yet I have been sharing lots of cool things, which all deserve to be in the blog proper… and because a lot of them are specific to the Game Boy, I figure, why not just focus on that?

Like the above, which is a technique for producing full color photographs via the Game Boy Camera, and yet another thing that I can’t believe hasn’t made the rounds!

Sticking with Game Boy photography, here have a pair of mods that will greatly enhance picture quality. The first involves mounting SLR lens onto a Game Boy Camera (via ekeler.com)...

And the second has one shoving a Game Boy Camera into a SLR itself (via @MaxKriegerVG)...

As someone who was into video games as a kid, and also interested in photography, the Game Boy Camera was the first camera I was able to call my own. Am pretty sure this was the case for others as well?

I also remember seeing this ad in Nickelodeon Magazine (which I would eventually writer for, not too long later) and being absolutely gob smacked (via nintendroid.org)…

Though as much I loved Nintendo brand of FUNtography, I would quickly discover… as did everyone else I also assume… that taking pictures is serious business (via @PolandNintendo)…

Not only did I have a Game Boy Color, but I also had the Game Boy Printer (I still own both, for the record). Unfortunately my snapshots from Link’s Awakening have long since faded, but as with many things, you can find copies online (via gameandgraphics.com)…

Speaking of the world of print, coming soon is a handy guide to Nintendo handy game machine (via miki800.com)…

That one magazine ad featuring Princess Peach catch your eye as well? Well here’s a much better look at it (via suppermariobroth)…

I love handheld gadgets of all kinds, yet some of the popular ones confuse me. Like Hudson’s Shooting Watch; it makes no sense to have a gadget that can detect button presses without a game attached. Guess I’m not alone (via instagram.com/kazzycom)…

A realization I made while sifting through Game Boy related content is how popular the color yellow is with many. Cuz Pokemon? Anyhow, the final post from a blog that specializes in gorgeous photographs of gorgeous hardware, which I just brought up again very recently (via hard-aware)…

How your parents used to trade Pokemans online (via melonjaywalk)…

And no, Game Boys weren't the only things that one could connect to keitais ya know. And yes, Game Boys aren’t the only portables I’ll be showcasing (via anthony10000000)…

I own quite a few VMUs and am always looking to expand my collection… but nothing yellow, sorry. Instead, I want the one covered with dolphins (via anthony10000000)…

So my new favorites artist is Eri Kitamura, and not just cuz she makes pretty looking Game Boys…

She also makes pretty looking girls playing Game Boys (well, this one is technically listening to music)…

Was originally going to post the first thing from Eri that caught my eye, which is a Game Boy with a girl on it, but instead here’s a Game Boy with a girl on it playing a Game Boy…

Time for two more videos from the same individual responsible with the process for producing color photographs at the very top. And it’s what everyone has been waiting… specifically the backlit Game Boy Color mod everyone has been waiting for.

The process is detailed in this two-part video, and here’s the first one (it’s about 50 minutes long cuz spoilers: this shit ain’t easy)…

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And here’s part two, which is ONLY 40-ish minutes long…

youtube

The author of the videos actually has a store, so if the process seems a bit too daunting, you can purchase a pre-modded unit for $250. Actually, this one is $260, cuz of the dual shells. Quite the price tag, yet somehow totally worth it (via instagram.com/esotericmods)…

Now might be a good time to mention how… remember that GBA with the GameCube finish from eBay a few months back? Well, I decided to get the one that resembles a Super Famicom, something I’ve been lusting over for years.

Well, here’s what the aforementioned seller had in his listing…

And this is what I got instead…

Yeah, that green shoulder button is not the right shade. After some complaining, I got the seller to admit that the one in the picture was hand painted; he didn’t know where it get ones that it’s exact color as on a Super Fami controller.

He also had a no refund policy, yet I bitched & moaned enough to warrant an exchange, for another Cube-esque model, one sans the stick. Cuz it’s comparatively boring to look at, here’s a version with the stick…

Again, mine just has the standard d-pad. As for my replacement… the colors of the A & B buttons are not an exact match, once again. But it’s close enough (am mostly just sick of dealing with that guy, aka johnnys_merchandise, whom you should all avoid btw), plus I have started to scour AliExpress for replacements.

BTW, my failure to obtain a modded handheld that channels another form of hardware has me wondering if I should go for something completely different instead (via instagram.com/wakuwakuisland)…

Up in the mountains, flower bloom amongst Game Boys & Game Boy Colors, whereas deep in the forest, you’ll find mushrooms and Game Boy Advances (via pxchinko)…

Some say memories are fuzzy, though for others, they're leafy (via lyosphe)…

I’ve looked all over for tinycartridge's original post, but no luck, so you can all instead have my personal copy of the earthy wallpaper that was shared years ago (and which I still to this very day)...

The Game Boy Micro, DS, and DS Lite are like family, and like siblings, there can the occasional squabble (via benkyo-es)…

@frankcifaldi: When I met this guy in 2003 and he told me he was going to make an extensive fan site about the Supervision, a Taiwanese Game Boy knockoff, I was like "sure dude." 15 years later he actually launched the thing??

Meanwhile, the Game & Watch Perfect Catalogue just came out, with the full low down on all 59 models. BTW, had no idea there were 59 in total until @ionadisco mentioned it…

How Game & Watches were sold in America; I fondly recalls this ad in-between the pages of Amazing/Spectacular/Web of Spider-Man (via suppermariobroth)…

And how Game Boys were sold in Japan, one day one apparently, which would explain this salesperson’s rather perplexed demeanor (via flashbak.com)…

Silly as it sounds, and as silly as he looks, the US version of Firebrand is nonetheless a warm & welcoming face from my childhood (via nintendometro)...

Mario dropping a knowledge bomb (via suppermariobroth)…

Here’s Peach seemingly kicking Toad’s ass in Super Mario Bros Deluxe, which I’ve been meaning to tweet for a while now, but now seems like the right time & place for obvious reasons (via nintendometro)…

A cute comic about someone finally beating a game after ten years, or at least I believe that's the case (you know, language barrier and all; via @desune593)

Sailor Moon seems to enjoy handheld gaming more so than in the arcades (via uglygreenjacket)…

It saddens me that ravages of time is robbing me of my precious memories, including the names of 90s anime, hence why I had to ask on Twitter who exactly is this (answer was Tenchi Muyo; via shxtfased)...

It’s SethEverman, just playing some pokemon blue…

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Speaking of music, it again saddens me that I wasn’t about to make the trip to Japan to catch chiptunes at Square Sounds, and various associated venues. At least @bit_shifter_ took this great snapshot of Glomag at Cyberpunks Osaka…

Meanwhile, here in NYC, we actually still have record stores. And you can grab Josh’s latest release, his first in 12 years(!) at Rough Trade (via bit-shifter)…

Though back to Japan; attended Square Sounds would have also afforded me the chance to check out Tokyo Game Show, where I could have gotten that VMU shaped USB drive that was being sold at the Sega booth (via miki800)…

A few weeks before TGS, there was an earthquake in Japan, in northern island Hokkaido. Many were left without power, but one person was able to keep up with the news, thanks to an old DS peripheral that basically provides bunny ears (via kotaku.com)…

On a semi-related note, here’s someone watching old ECW VHS tapes on their Game Gear (via heavyelectricity)…

Sorry, but the only other thing I have that’s related to Sega’s Master System on the go is this gif from a pizza ranch salad dressing (yikes) commercial, which was cross-promoting Sonic Chaos (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

I have no idea why I'm so amused by this Getty Image of a Neo Geo Pocket that was confiscated at summer camp. Or perhaps no explanation is needed? (via hellomrkearns)…

Speaking of the Great Outdoors, here’s my buddy Steve enjoying some Mario Kart 8 in the middle of a forest (via instagram.com/vitaminsteve)…

And speaking of Mario Kart on the Switch, Bowser seems like a pretty cool dood to have a car trip (via suppermariobroth)…

The Switch is so beloved that people are doing fan art, not for any particular game but the simple the act of playing with it (via annazees)…

Granted, one of the best things about the Switch is all the different ways in which one can play (via kanekoshake)…

If you enjoy your Switch on the go and are looking for a way to store games… and are a diehard Breath of the Wild fan as well… plus if you have access to a 3D printer (via miki800.com)…

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It’s a tribute to Star Wars… games… all of them… featuring Princess Leia focused on her DMG (via deviantart.com/robduenas)...

BTW, do you still have your Game Boy? If not, here ya go (via anthony10000000)…

When the realization hits that your Game Boy Color library is incomplete (via @Bootleg_Stuff)…

Back to my buddy Steve, who visited the Primark at the Staten Island mall and took pics of the game related apparel that, sadly, were no longer in stock by the time I was able to swing by. With the one thing I really wanted being this shirt…

This pair of Super Mario Land X Air Jordans is only $1,350.00 (via miki800.com)…

I’m sure you’ve seen him already, but for the sake of completion, here’s that grandpa from who rigged this bike with 11 phones to become a Pokemon Go master (via bbc.com)…

Yet another sign of our times, literally (via fuckdragonballz)…

This image features a PSP and a MacBook, both of which are from the mid-2000s, yet feels very late 1990s/early 2000s. Why? Those USB cables (via jcgraphix)…

And last but not least, here’s Paris Hilton with her DS in 2005 (via @ParisHilton)…

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