#edit: added the aurora borealis scene

[thegreatobsesso]

I LOVE CALLIE’S PRISON BREAK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GARBLE GERBLE YOU GUYS - I ~LOVE~ MY PRISON BREAK CHAPTER. I LOVE IT. I just finished editing it for draft two and you know what? Here it is. I have to share it. I must.

@diphthongsfordays: I want you to know I thought of you the whole time I was working on this because of how good your action scenes are. I tried to think, how would Diphthong do ?? Dedicating this bit to you because you inspire me.

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✨ taglist ✨

@avrablake @adie-dee @dontjudgemeimawriter @ryorine @thelaughingstag @winterandwords

Comment to be added or removed :)

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Callie POV

Hope was a bitch.

No, but she was, though. Because Callie’d finally gotten comfortable with how things were when hope swept in and started whispering lies: that things didn’t have to be this way. That they could be so, so different that Callie couldn’t even begin to imagine the glittering possibilities that still lay outside these walls, beyond the bird-shit-speckled steel.

It was easy here. She belonged here.

She made sense here.

But look at her now: fishing for her magic, poking the status quo with a stick, daring it to bite.

There was no point, before. So there was still some magic left in her - big whoop. The more she messed with it, the more they’d changed her meds. The more they changed her meds the worse she felt, and the more she got sick the weaker she appeared and that shit got you killed in here, so she left it alone. She let it go.

But she picked it back up, now. Beneath the blankets in the dead of night when no one and nothing else was awake but the sea, she reached for Peter’s magic.

Hello.

There it was again, just like back in the infirmary all those years ago. Magic didn’t talk, obviously, but that’s how it felt: a familiar little greeting. A tug at the edge of her clothes. She waited to see if anything turned yellow or red on her collar. Whether it made any warning noise.

It didn’t. So Callie sat still with Peter’s power and held it for just a moment. Admired it. Its vastness and depth, its utter undeniability.

Then she put it in a box. Taped it up. Buried the box in an unmarked grave and covered it with a shopping mall. Her own Eclectic abilities, as varied as they were weak in comparison. She grasped at them blindly, not using them, just pulling.

It hurt. She kept going, coiled up and trembling. Pulling different flavors of magic off the shelves and tossing them about. Breaking things. Remembering. The pale green light from her collar was an aurora borealis against the rippled grey sheets.

The next day at count, her readings were whack. The guard’s brow furrowed at the sight of the data displayed on her collar and the metal detector wand emitted beeps of distress.

The new meds made her muscles stiff and her tongue tingly. She kept it up. Dared to tug on her Eclectic abilities in plain sight, even. Invisible exercise. Magic Kegels.

They changed her meds again and again. Never speaking to her about it, no, prisoners didn’t get a say in their medicine but she didn’t have to be Riley to understand it: the more Eclectic she made herself, the more Eclectic the suppressants.

The entire system was built around one foundational truth as simple as it was wrong: that magic can only show in one way.

Speaking of Riley: she’d love this. The way Callie methodically tested her own hypothesis. Well, love was a strong word and she wasn’t sure Riley loved anything, but she’d be interested.

What would Riley do when she heard, anyway? When Callie was looking straight at her out of the TV and newspapers again? Would she be afraid?

What a gorgeous thought. Oh, if only there’d be time to pay her a visit.

Imagine: Riley coming home, turning on the light to find Callie in her armchair.

Or Callie turning on the light herself.

Evoking an involuntary gasp from Riley. Pure surprise! She’d rise from the chair and the other woman would be frozen in fear. Knowing there was no way she could overpower Callie.

How useless and sad, being a medium: to hear dead people running their dead mouths twenty-four seven and not be able to do one damn thing about it or anything else.

She found herself stifling a giggle about it as she went back to the shared cell after rec time and sat on her bed.

No. Not her bed.

To say it was her bed implied she’d be sleeping in it tonight, and she wouldn’t be.

Today was the day, she decided. There was no fantastic way to gage her own readiness. She’d do it today and it’d work, or it wouldn’t. Orblex or bust. Delaney or die. Better to go out spectacularly than grow old bored.

Six years of going to sleep in this pathetic excuse for a bed: cement mattress and pancake pillows. She really should just take a giant shit right on it. Hell, that would almost suffice. But she couldn’t afford any almosts - not today. This’d take something bigger.

“Hey, mousey,” she whispered, and curled her finger playfully when Veronica’s eyes snapped up from her book. “C’mere.”

The girl was still too soft for this place but she’d learned enough to be suspicious. She complied anyway, dutifully settling herself into the empty space Callie patted with her hand.

This place made everyone hard eventually, even the mouse. Callie was grateful for that. She’d shown up here with some squishy remnants that defied every prior climate and she was free of them now.

“Do you wanna help me with a project?” she asked. “It’ll take, like, one minute. Maybe less.”

Two of their other cellmates sat on the floor playing some dice game. One more, curled up with a book on the bunk above and the last, not yet returned from rec time. “What do you want me to do?” Ronnie said.

Callie grinned. Oh, God, it was exciting, though. “Not much except stay still. And it won’t matter if you freak out, but it’ll be easier if you don’t.”

One swift, simple motion to turn Ronnie and crush her back against Callie’s own chest. Another to bring the tiny metal shank from her inventory to the little mouse’s bare neck.

“Hey, check it out, everybody!” she shouted. “I’ve gone insane, and I’m gonna kill this girl for no reason unless Warden Prescott jumps out of a cake and gives me a lap dance!”

Not that anybody was listening; she could have sung the national anthem to the same effect. Any sudden violent move would’ve shattered the perpetually tenuous calm, and her cellmates’ screams set off a predictable chain reaction down the entire block.

She pulled Veronica to a standing position to make sure the guards had a clear view but even that was hardly necessary. They impressed her with the efficiency of their onslaught; the girl was pulled from her in seconds and Callie was on the ground before she knew it, crushed by their weight.

This was the simple part - all she had to do now, and all she really could do, was breathe. Her arms held securely behind her back, her head pushed down, they pulled her from the cell, over the floor and down the stairs to the tune of hundreds of restless prisoners screaming from their cells, relishing the excuse to lose their damn minds.

She understood. She really did. If she could’ve she’d have blown them all a big kiss.

They dragged her down the corroded metal stairs into the open air and lashing rain. The ocean surged around them, choppy and threatening. A rough hand pushed her head to the side and a device at her neck deactivated the chip. They began undoing the series of locks on the hatch that led down, down, down to the place in her nightmares.

A final moment of stillness where she was exactly where she wanted to be. A silent goodbye to her old future.

All the noise fell away as she closed her eyes and plunged deep inside herself.

Peter’s power was waiting there, unmarred by suppressants after days of gently, steadily, carefully nudging her own magic to the surface. She took hold of it and turned herself inside-out.

Her collar screamed. Pain like she’d never known tore through her body. Nerves coming back to life, air burning through starved lungs. Raw magic ripping through her like wildfire.

Only one thing to do: let it out.

The guards flew from her, flung helplessly into the churning waters. The blast left firefly swarms of embers clinging to the support beams. Cuffs off, she thought simply, and marveled that she’d ever struggled with this power as she stood here at the stable center of her own tornado. The metal on her wrists splintered and deafening sirens began to wail. The guards tried to scream, flailing to keep their mouths above water.

She reached out to the ocean and told it to hold them back, and it did. She reached to the back of her neck, where the little bump lived.

Out, she told it.

The chip tore itself from her skin. Warm blood trickled down her back. A small irritation compared to the pain she was already ignoring. She considered the tiny thing for a moment, Downing Bay’s last-ditch failsafe, before flicking it into the sea.

As if on cue, gunfire split the air. Rapid, explosive, ear-shattering noise  from guards in black uniforms pouring out the bottoms of the surrounding blocks like ants. The bullets landed neatly in her shield, forming a pincushion of ammunition around where she stood, her arms stretched wide to welcome them.

Somebody realized what was happening when it was already too late. She knew it because she heard the call - hold fire. The shots tapered off, which was fine - she already had more than enough.

Bullets, she called alongside a practiced flick of her fingers: boats.

Downing Bay’s fleet blew to smithereens in an astonishing light show before being mostly swallowed by the ocean. A few chunks managed to stay afloat, dotting the sea in little bonfires.

Sulfur in the air; panicked shouts, wailing alarms, flashing lights, but no more gunfire.

Come to think of it, just for good measure: no more guns.

She didn’t have to see the things crunch themselves useless to know it worked; didn’t need to hear the guards cry out in alarm and drop the neutered weapons.

She wasn’t just using the power now, she was the power.

Even the thunderstorm that wracked the ocean felt small. She’d have loved, in the middle of the chaos, in front of the hundred-odd guards who were powerless to stop her, to turn her face to the sky and laugh at God.

But all she could see when she looked up was the rusty underbelly of Spindle Block, so she hoisted her middle finger to Downing Bay instead before taking a running jump into the violent sea.

From down here, the burning boats painted a gorgeous watercolor, orange-on-blue. She called to the cold water that surrounded her: carry me.

It did, faster than anyone could follow.

When her burning lungs finally forced her up for air, Downing Bay was a cluster of twinkling fires on the horizon, smoke curling up into the purple sky. Red lights swirled and flashed; alarms screamed uselessly into the rain.

She filled her lungs with sweet, delicious, free air, and disappeared again.

#oc: callie #tw: prison #tw: violence #tw: language #writing #writeblr #writing excerpt #my wip

[jamie-tartt]

tarlos + holding hands 👬

#911lsedit #911 lone star #tarlos #tarlosedit #userkimmy #userpaige #mine #so many WIP gifs in my drafts wasting away #edit: added the aurora borealis scene #NO ONE WANTED TO TELL ME THAT I FORGOT ABOUT THAT ONE?! #thanks brian for mentioning it in the tags

[greatqueenanna]

A Grain of Salt: The Rumors Surrounding the Frozen Franchise

When a film releases, and becomes popular, its only natural for fans and others to try and dig deep to find out what the film could’ve been. Throughout the Frozen Franchise’s 6 year life, many people began to spread rumors of possible alternate versions of both Frozen and Frozen 2, with very shaky sources and claims. The following claims have been dis-proven and/or do not have physical, substantial proof other than a few empty claims.

Now let’s talk about a few of these rumors and have  good laugh.

The Aurora Princess Claim

The above is part of a concept art piece by Scott Watanabe. Someone started up a rumor, I believe here on Tumblr, that claimed that this art was supposed to be an early concept of Anna having powers over the Aurora Borealis. This was proven to be false, as both Jen Lee and Chris Buck have confirmed a few times that Anna’s only superpower was unconditional love. Thus, the above picture was simply misinterpreted by hopeful fans, when it was simply a visual concept art meant to invoke a feeling. On top of this, it was actually never confirmed who the girl in the drawing was, and if this girl was actually controlling the Northern lights or maybe just witnessing some strange phenomenon.

The Good Guy Claim

This one is a made up of two claims, but both with the same idea. Some fans could not accept that Hans was always a villainous character. Many tried to claim that Hans could’ve originally been a good guy, using the above concept art by Bill Schwab as proof of a previous version of Frozen where Hans and Elsa were meant to be a couple. Then of course, there was the popular rumor started here on tumblr and later picked up by popular you-tuber MattPatt, that the Troll’s were somehow involved in making Hans do the terrible things he did. All of these claims were proven false, as Jen Lee and Chris Buck talked about the troll theory in this interview, saying  “I have to say, we have to give Hans all the credit for what he did" . Jen Lee also confirmed this via twitter, stating that “He was never quite good, but for a while he was just sort of dumb. Sociopaths are more interesting.” As for the concept art, it was proven to be Anna, not Elsa. As we can see in this concept art, Anna is wearing the same outfit and has the same hairdo, only her braids are down. Thus, depicting the typical concept that Anna meets a dreamy guy and has a dance with him.

The Permanent Death Claim

This controversial claim is actually still widely believed, claiming that in Frozen 2 Elsa was meant to be killed off permanently, with no revival. The rumor states that this previous ending was seen at early showings with test audiences back in June-July, and that it was too sad for the audiences so the Disney executives demanded that it was changed. While the creators themselves have yet to outwardly disprove the claim, concept art and early scenes do disprove it. In the Art of Frozen 2, the last piece of art features the ending we see in the film with only slight differences. There are also a few designs and concepts of Elsa’s Fifth Spirit dress. Since it takes over six months to a year to write, edit, and publish a book, it is not possible that this ending was last minute. On top of that, a bit of personal jest, why would they design a new, marketable dress for Elsa if they planned on killing her off? Also, there is an earlier version of the ending released in Elsa Reveals the Truth. This proves that the intentions of the creators were always to have Elsa survive and live in the Enchanted Forest. For them to have a set ending, then change it to make Elsa’s death, then change it again to feature the current ending is very unlikely. To also accomplish all of this within 5 - 6 months is a bit much to accomplish in such a short amount of time.

*UPDATE 6/29/20*

Thanks to Into the Unknown: The Making of Frozen 2, we now have physical evidence of Elsa being alive since June in this incomplete version of Frozen 2 that was made for the June audience screening. We also now know that the supposed March audience screening did not happen, as it was for Disney professionals only. June was the first time the film was shown to a general audience. We also now know the reason for the serious delay in April and why the ending of the Frozen 2 books were so vague. It was due to issues with Show Yourself, because they couldn’t figure out who the voice was and how to make the scene visually make sense. It was not because they were redoing the ending to keep Elsa alive. Lastly, in the first episode, one of the directors that were criticizing the film asked “What does Elsa Become?” further showing that Elsa was alive. This was in late 2018.

The Redemption Story Claim

Ever since an interview with Santino Fontana, the voice actor of Hans, where he states that the creators of Frozen wanted to ‘redeem’ him, many Hans fans were anticipating that Hans would have a redemption arc. When it was hinted that this wasn’t going to happen, many fans clinged onto a claim by someone on Twitter. They stated that there was indeed an early version of Frozen 2 where it was centered on a Hans redemption, even releasing a full synopsis. This was supposedly supported by Disney releasing two doll sets with Hans and Elsa as a test, as this version of Frozen 2 featured the two becoming a couple. This one has also yet to be disproven by the creators, however this can also be disproven easily. The Hans and Elsa dolls were not meant to be shown as romantic, as they were a part of a Disney Fairytale Designer Collection featuring Heroes and Villains. Also, in the Podcast Inside Frozen 2, Robert and Kristen Lopez both state that All is Found and The Next Right Thing were the first songs written for Frozen 2. Official work on Frozen 2 did not begin until around 2017 - 2018, and this is when the songs were also starting to be written and recorded. Before this, the team took a trip to Norway where Jen Lee had journals for Elsa and Anna. It is not possible that with everything that they were doing to plan for this version of Frozen 2 and with other projects the creators were working on that there was another alternate version.

*UPDATE 6/29/20* 

Thanks to Into the Unknown: The Making of Frozen 2, we now know a bit more details on the timeline of Frozen 2′s development. 2015 is when Jen Lee and Chris Buck were brainstorming story concepts and writing/drawing journals for the sisters. This is also when they took their research trip with the whole crew to Scandinavian countries like Iceland. 2015 - 2016 is when the story started to form and 2017 - 2018, as I mentioned, was when the hardcore work began with scenes being made and thrown out, music being written, ext. 2019 - 2020 is when they had the story pretty much planned out the way it is now, just with some issues with some scenes (Like Show Yourself and See the Sky). Thus, we can conclude, that this Frozen 2 was the only version for the past 5 years of development.

These are all the claims for now, I will be adding more as I find them and updating these if new, valid information comes out.

#greatqueenanna/analysis #Frozen #Frozen 2 #Long post

[avhphoto]

Northern Nights

There was a period of time where I didn't go home often. In ten years I had made two trips north. Over the last few years, I've been heading back to Yellowknife in September for some photography work. A family friend owns a salon, and she brings me up every year to shoot her staff headshots and her annual sale. The north in September is pretty awesome. There aren't that many bugs flying around and the weather can be relatively mild compared to the dead of winter. And then there are the lights. Having been in Yellowknife the last couple years in September, I've noticed one commonality: the Aurora is back and I don't have to wear a parka to shoot them. I started thinking of all the times I've been asked about the Northern Lights. I saw them when I was going to school. I saw them driving home from work. Gassing up my car. Eating a donair on Range Street. They were always just there and I definitely took them for granted. I had been to Blachford Lake when I was younger, probably 20 years ago. It was a summer camp with two friends, and although all our stories are different on what our time there was like, there was one common denominator: it was awesome. I started thinking that this would be a perfect place to host a photography workshop. The thrill of the float plane ride to the remote lodge. The sounds of a crackling fire which warms the cabins and lodge. The sauna and hot tub which can be accessed 24/7. The food, which is prepared using local ingredients whenever possible, including greens fresh out of the lodge's garden. The abundance of activities that you can participate in such as hiking, kayaking, canoeing, fishing etc all added to the allure of hosting a workshop here. Then, of course, is the pièce de résistance, the nightly Aurora Borealis shows. DAY ONE The float plane out of Yellowknife left shortly after noon. When we arrived at the lodge we were greeted by the staff and volunteers who keep the place going. After a short introduction and quick lunch, we continued on our tour of the resort grounds and were given a safety orientation. We checked into our cabins and planned to meet up in a few hours at the lodge for a presentation on night photography to get primed for shooting over the next three nights. While I set up and prepped for the presentation, Lys and Fern headed out and did some stand-up paddling while other guests sat in the lodge and made dream catchers.

                                      My cabin.

Before heading out for shooting, I made sure I came home to a hot cabin. After dinner, we headed back to our cabins to put on warmer clothes and we headed out down by the dock where we arrived earlier that day. There weren't too many clouds in the sky at this point, and we were just practicing some light painting and long exposures when I looked at the back of the LCD on one of the participant's cameras and saw the faint glow of Aurora. We stopped what we were shooting and focused more on compositions that were better suited for shooting the aurora. The lights were off in the distance, not the greatest show and it only lasted for about 30-45 minutes before the thick cloud cover rolled in, but we managed to get some shots and stayed out until about 2am playing in the dark.

DAY TWO The next day saw us meeting after breakfast for a little hike of the area to scout out some potential shooting locations for that evening. It was much colder this day than the previous, and the clouds overhead were thick with little sign of reprieve. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the alleged "clear" forecast would actually hold up. We headed back to the lodge for lunch and a couple hours of downtime before meeting up later in the afternoon for an editing session. We looked over the images we had taken the night before and how to process them and bring out the colours that can often be hidden amongst the darker parts in images of the Aurora.

After dinner, we suited up once again, this time with a little more clothing as it was COLD. The cloud cover hadn't dissipated at all, so we decided to stay closer to the lodge so we could have a fire while we practiced some light painting and multiple exposures. As we were shooting, the thick cloud cover overhead started to crack. We could see the Aurora through the clouds, and they were moving and dancing so fast and so bright. Little by little, the clouds went away and the sky opened right up. There wasn't a dull spot in the sky as the Aurora danced overhead, filling the darkness with beautiful movement and colours. We were joined by some other guests staying at the lodge as we all shared in the wonderment that was being gifted to us after what seemed like a no-show. After taking photos of the lights for a while, we decided to set up our cameras to take some star trails. This gave us a chance to sit around the fire and watch the lights whilst our cameras stayed working. I'm a firm believer in "the moment" and having photographs of this amazing event wouldn't mean anything if we didn't have our own memories and feelings to associate with the pictures.

Photo by participant Lys Olson DAY THREE Having finished shooting mere hours ago (around 3am), we opted to have a slow morning and meet up around lunch. I headed to the hot tub to soak and read while Lys and Fern went for a little walk and took some photos of the area. It was a perfect start to the day after two late nights. This day was much warmer than the day before, but again, a thick layer of clouds had rolled in and wasn't looking too promising. We had lunch and headed out on a little boat tour of Blachford Lake before heading back to the lodge for more editing, showcasing how to blend multiple exposures to create a single image. We all got such great photos from the night before, and my excitement was rampant. I so wanted to skies to clear up for our final night, although two of three was a blessing already.

After dinner, we headed to the tipi which had since had its cover put back on. We watched and listened as Randy, a Dene man and Blachford regular, performed songs in his language on his drum for us. It reminded me of a lot of cultural activities I took part in growing up in the north, and a feeling of nostalgia washed over me. It put me in a trance. I don't know what was being said, but I know that I felt it. When the drum circle ended, Lys, Fern, and I headed to our cabins once more to gear up for our final night.

We found ourselves by the tipi again, wanting to shoot it with the cover on while the red fire burned inside. This didn't last very long. The wind picked up and the rain started. The wind was so strong that it started to blow the fire throughout the tipi and really shaking the structure. A wind-turbine was howling, and I won't deny that it was a terrifying sound. A shrieking that masked any other sound and made it impossible to hear. As the rain continued to fall, we decided to head back into the lodge to practice more light painting and multiple exposures. It didn't look like the lights would come out to play that night.

Around 1130pm, Jacob, one of the lodge staff, came to inform us that the clouds had actually lifted and the stars were out. Oh goodie. I popped my head out and sure enough, the sky was darker than it had been the previous nights, and the stars were brighter than most skies I've seen. We were finishing our shooting inside before heading out, and not five minutes after the announcement of clear skies, Jacob came back to tell us that the Aurora was out and going crazy. We stopped what we were doing and headed outdoors right away. I could go into detail about the scenes that were unfolding in front of our eyes, but I won't. There are far too many adjectives to describe the skies that night. The abundance of stars, the Milky Way (which I had never seen before in the NWT and was SO happy to have), and of course, the dancing Aurora Borealis. Out of all three nights, the night that looked the least promising was by far the best night for shooting. The lights made arcs in the sky. The water a mirror, reflecting the lights on the lake. There was almost too much going on that it was overwhelming. You couldn't look around and not find something to shoot. I was absolutely ecstatic for my workshop participants. They had travelled so long and far to come north and got to experience these lights all three nights, but also for myself, who had spent so many years taking the lights for granted. I got to sit and watch and truly enjoy them, and the memories I have from those nights are far better than any of the pictures I took.

Day 4 I woke up this day having not slept well at all. It's not that I didn't sleep well. I should say that I didn't sleep much. I went to bed with a lot of adrenaline still pumping as I was quite excited about the shots we got and I had a hard time winding down. When I did wake up, I packed up my cabin, albeit quite reluctantly. I wasn't ready to go. I headed up to the lodge for a final breakfast before having to say goodbye to Lys. She was on the first float plane out of camp so she'd be able to make her flight out of Yellowknife on time. Fern and I lounged around the lodge waiting for our ride, as new guests were arriving. I was very envious of the experience I hoped they would have. When it was time for us to leave, the flight seemed surreal at first. Taxiing out on the lake, flying over the lodge, heading back to civilization. I didn't want to do any of it. I wanted to stay right where I was. I was happy there.

I really want people to come north. I really want people to understand and experience what a small town and a remote lifestyle is all about. An area where bush planes are the norm. Where snowmobiles make up for the lack of motorcycles. Most importantly, no matter how much a small town can feel overcrowded, there are so many opportunities to be alone. I realize our time in Yellowknife as a group was very limited, but I always love hearing of people going there for the first time and what their impressions are. Take that, and fly someone out to a remote place like Blachford, and it's even more exciting to have people be thrilled about things you might otherwise have overlooked. That is why I created this workshop, and want to continue to do it annually. You might night get to experience -40 Celsius and ice roads, but there are certain aspects of living in the north I don't miss. Ok, well, I do miss the ice roads. Those were always fun. Instead, you get to experience the north in its very short season of transition from summer to winter. We say fall is about two weeks long if you're lucky. In those two weeks, the temperatures are mild, the bugs are few, and the lights can be absolutely incredible. The "Northern Nights 2019" workshop launches Sunday, September 16th at 6pm PST. If you're interested in joining me next year on this excellent adventure, please sign up for my mailing list and you'll be informed of when registration begins, or to stay up to date with any other workshops or events. You can email me if you have any questions! IMAGES AND TESTIMONTIAL FROM PARTICIPANT LYS OLSON

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#aaronvonhagen #arctic #astrophotography #aurora #auroraborealis #blachfordlakelodge #canada #nightskies #northof60 #northernlightsphotographyworkshop #northernnights #northwestterritories #nwt #photographyworkshop #vancouverphotographer #yellowknife