#his head turns 360 degrees and freaks out everyone

[yurihollyleaf]

spreading the barn owl grian agenda

#his eys are like that because. WATCHER!!! and also his skin freaks me out #also owl eyes #his head turns 360 degrees and freaks out everyone #save me barn owl grian #save me..... #grian fanart #grian #hermitcraft #my art

[mjolnirswriststrap]

Haunted

“Oh, I'm holding my breath

Won't lose you again

Something's made your eyes go cold”

Masterlist

Bucky Barnes x F!Reader

Summary: Part 4/6, Bucky’s closer to figuring out the truth, and you haven’t thought about what’s his name in days.

Warnings: Nightmares and fluff.

Bucky watched as soft snores fell from your open mouth. Apparently today drained you, he understands, he feels like he just got hit by a truck. Everything is gone, everyone is gone, he doesn’t know how it happened. How did a lifetime disappear?

Bucky had plans, now there’s no chance they’ll ever happen. Him and Steve were gonna buy houses side by side when the war ended. Raise families together, bring up children together. But he doesn’t know if Steve even remembers him; he’ll find out tomorrow.

His eyes slowly drift closed, then he hears the front door swinging open. His body jerks, he looks left and right and you’re no where to be seen. Gusts of wind are blowing piles of snow through the door, he jumps up, looking up to the empty loft, the bathroom doors open and the lights off. You’re gone.

He feels a hand on his shoulder but when he turns around no one’s there. All of the blood in his body was now pounding through his ears, like a deafening throb. He runs outside, determined to find you. He quickly throws his right arm up, shielding his eyes from the shards of ice falling from the sky. The snow was relentless on the mountain.

Bucky squints into the dark woods, he swears he hears someone, but they’re too far away to make out what they’re saying. He bravely steps into the abyss in search. “Help, please, is anyone out there?”. The persons voice becomes clearer. Bucky is running through the woods, one boot in-front of the other. With the storm coming down it feels like that night he found the cabin.

A familiar pain of cold air stabbed at his lungs. He can’t see a thing, the moon bounces off some patches snow but the storm clouds make it an impossible labyrinth of trees. “Hello, can you hear me?” He bellows out, hopeful.

Bucky’s breaths sharpen, and for a second he hears someone else’s deeps breaths. He stops his trekking through the snow, turning his body in a full 360 degrees. Any moment now something would pop out at him. “Is there anyone out there? Where are you?” He tries one more time to make contact with whoever was calling out.

He hold his breath, and stands completely still, keeping the snow from crunching under his feet. He’s all alone, or so he thought. “Buck.” He whips his head around to see his friend reveal himself from behind a tree. “Steve?” Bucky can’t believe it, how did he get here so quick from New York? It couldn’t have been more than a few hours since the call with Darcy.

“How did you get here so fast? What is going on? I met this girl, she tried to convince me you were frozen in ice for 70 years.” Bucky starts rambling. Steve just stoically stands there, face devoid of any emotion. Bucky’s relief starts to fade “Steve? What’s wrong?”.

It was as if the man didn’t see Bucky. He was looking right at him, but he was unwavering in his stance. “How could you?” He finally speaks up, but it doesn’t sound like him. Bucky’s brows furrow, “How could I what?”. He takes a step back, distancing himself.

Steve drops his gaze, slowly shaking his head. “All those innocent people. Brutally killed in their homes, in their cars, in-front of the world, you’re have no shame.” Bucky’s face contorts in horror. He would never, he has never, and he could never do that. “Stop, I have no clue what you’re talking about. Steve, you’re starting to freak me out.”

Steve lunges forward, reaching out. Bucky doesn’t let him get close enough before he breaks out in a sprint. “Steve! Please, just tell me what’s going on.” Bucky runs faster than he ever had before. Steve is right on his heels. His feet stutter under him and it causes him to crash into the thick snow, spitting out chunks on snow and dirt.

He rolls over to his back, his chest rising and falling, causing cloud of fog to emit from his mouth. Steve stands over him, raising his shield above his head, “Why Buck? Why didn’t you just die?”.

Bucky’s eyes widen as he watches Steve release his weapon, letting it fall down to slice him. He feels the ground beneath him start to rumble and then everything goes black. He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes in this dark realm. When he opens them, he’s back in that cozy little cabin, you’re curled up under a heavy blanket. The golden lamplight made your skin glow. It was warm, and the tv quietly played the third Princess Diaries movie.

He reaches up with his right hand to wipe the sleep from his eyes, but he’s met with beads of sweat on his brow. That dream felt real, all of them till now felt like he was floating.

He stares out the window behind the tv. Watching as the snow rapidly falls; as the sun comes up and you start to rise. He’s in shock, why was Steve talking about innocent people? Why was Steve blaming him? That wasn’t the Steve he knows.

If he’s honest with himself, he was terrified. He didn’t see a soul behind his friends eyes. It was like Steve was a shark who just smelled blood. His heart continues to race as you rise from the couch, stretching your tired limbs. “Hey.” You say awkwardly. You don’t know what to say, you’d never had just a sleepover with a guy. Even under these circumstances you feel embarrassed by your puffy faced state.

Bucky looks up to your comforting presence, and he feels his nerves begin to relax. “Hey.” He replies. “Are you alright, you’re as pale as a ghost.” You say, waking into the kitchen to boil water for coffee. To you, the cabin was freezing, no golden warmth like how Bucky saw it.

He nods his head at your question. “Just a bad dream.”. Now it’s your turn to nod, “We still have a while until we hear any news from Darcy, it’s still night there.” You say, emptying left over grounds into the trash.

Bucky stands, holding his left arm close, “Anything I could do for you?” He says yawning. “I wanna earn my keep, I feel like I’ve been intruding too much on your space, the least I could do is make myself useful.”

You stop mid pour, you’d never had a man be so thoughtful. Your ex just knew how to take and never give; it was exhausting. “Um, firstly, would you like a cup of coffee Sargent?” You smile, sliding a blue coffee cup across the counter.

Bucky sips the dark liquid, the roasted flavor reminding him of early mornings with his ma. He sucks on his teeth, “Sounds nice coming from you, if I’m honest.” Bucky liked the way Sargent rolled off your tongue, like it was meant to be patronizing, but it sounded genuine.

If your cheeks weren’t already pink from the cold, Bucky would definitely be able to see the blush that overtook your whole face. “Like I said, I appreciate and respect a man in uniform.” You flirt back, unashamedly.

Bucky chuckles, finishing off his mug. “Seriously though, anything I could do?”. You look past him into the living room. The black stove sat in the corner, unused. “We need wood if we’re gonna warm this place with something other than space heaters.”

“That is all you had to say.” Bucky walks back into the living room, and pulls his blue coat over his arms. “I think I seen an axe out there somewhere.” He smiles walking towards the door.

“Wait, your arm looks hurt, are you sure you should be chopping wood?” You say in concern. Bucky watches your worried eyes fall to the arm he cradled, he noticed the nervous pitch in your voice. “If I don’t, who will? Can’t let you go out and do it, not on my watch.” He says, letting you know he’s too much of a gentleman.

You’re starting to lose count on how many times this man had surpassed your expectations. You know he’s just being old fashioned, if anything you should be offended. A woman could chop wood just as good as a man. But you just knew Bucky meant it differently, like you shouldn’t have to break a sweat, chopping wood was beneath you. He’ll bare the cold for the both of you.

You watch through the kitchen window as Bucky swings the axe with one arm, he doesn’t miss once. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t like the way his hair fell in his face, making his perfect appearance look more disheveled.

Maybe you shouldn’t be checking him out, it’s not like you should be moving on so quickly. You need to find yourself before you get wrapped up in another person. You don’t even know your favorite flavor of ice cream, and there’s hundreds of flavors you haven’t even tried yet.

You want to help Bucky, but you’re putting yourself first, no matter what happens. If it gets too hairy or too serious, you’re out. You just want to be a good person, and good people don’t drool over their house guests. On that note, you walk over to the wood burning stove, opening the rusted door, you find a box of matches sitting on top. You light one and burn what dry wood was left from the previous owner. You needed hot coals to keep the fire going on the snow moistened wood Bucky was chopping.

You hold your cold fingers up to the cracking flames, it’s like blood was rushing back to the frost bitten tips. You close your eyes for a second to bask in the warmth you’d created for yourself, and then you hear a distant whooshing, you look out of the window to see the trees thrashing violently; snow blowing everywhere.

Bucky comes bursting through the door, axe in hand. “What is a helicopter doing all the way out here?”

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky x reader #bucky x y/n #mcu #avengers fanfiction #bucky barnes x y/n #avengers #fanfiction #fanfic #winter solider x reader #james bucky buchanan barnes #marvel #bucky fanfic #bucky x female reader #bucky x you #cabin #supernatural #the winter soldier

[solalunar-eclipse]

Sonic Boom - S3E1

Episode title: Friendship 101

Word count: about 3000 words

Author’s Note: I’m trying a rather new format for this fic, since it’s based on a TV show with various songs and camera angles. If you have any comments about whether it works well or not, please let me know!

(Also, the theme song choice is all thanks to khinesthetic, who used it here and inspired me to put it in this fic.)

Next

[cue Mr. Blue Sky by ELO (0:00-3:45)]

[The show opens on a zoomed-out view of Hedgehog Village from above. Stone walls separate the village from the wilderness outside. There are large spaces at several points throughout the structure for entry and exit. A large patch of grass with benches scattered about sits at one end of the village, and a marketplace made up of wood-and-cloth stalls runs along one of the walls. Houses are grouped in seemingly random clusters throughout the town, and the (in)famous Meh Burger stand sits all on its own, with picnic tables spread across its wooden flooring. As the music progresses, the camera begins to zoom in on the village- then on one of the streets in particular- and rotates down to eye level to face…]

Sonic the Hedgehog walked through the streets of Hedgehog Village with a bounce in his step, occasionally dancing to the music playing through his earbuds. As he wandered throughout the town, he passed the usual people running their stores, arguing over botched orders at Meh Burger, and, at one point, Aqua the Rabbit absolutely freaking out over the loss of a single follower on Angstagram (the latest social media network for moody teens).

He did a 360-degree spin before winking and pointing finger guns at Amy Rose when he spotted her haggling with the local grocery store owner. She paused briefly to wave at him with a smile. “Hi, Sonic!” she called, completely ignoring the irritated fennec in the process.

Then, the music froze and changed to something extremely ominous as she turned around to face the shopkeeper once more. A dangerous gleam appeared in her eyes as she pulled out her signature hammer. “Now then, about those prices you’ve been setting lately…”

The song cut back in as the view switched back to Sonic, who was now moving away from the scene at a slightly faster pace.

Really, though, he was more than happy to see his other friends not long after. Knuckles and Sticks were currently busy rummaging through the town’s garbage together, excitedly chatting about the latest piece of interesting junk they’d found, while Tails was fixing someone’s broken rain gutter (and attempting to ‘improve’ it in the process, which meant that it could now measure the amount and intensity of rainfall in a storm- a very useful, though unfortunately unwanted improvement).

Surprisingly enough, as he continued on his way through Hedgehog Village, he managed to get people from a few different places to wave back at him when he said hello. Although perhaps it wasn’t quite so surprising when one considered that this was one of the most cliched opening sequences that could possibly happen in any movie or TV show. Ever.

And of course, the only logical outcome of this scene led to everyone beginning to stop their usual activities and gather in one of the few open spaces in the town, clearly prepared to break into a fantastic musical dance number straight out of Broadway. Incredibly, this was one of the few moments in which everyone in the village seemed to be able to get along…

...until Eggman’s latest giant robot slammed feet-first into the ground, sending everyone off-kilter and scrambling for cover. Shrieks of panic rose in place of the music as the villagers fled the scene to hide in their houses. The dramatic entrance didn’t just ruin the mood, it absolutely crushed it with the sheer force of its impact.

And that was, obviously, when the show really began.

[cue In Your Face by Shockwave Sound (0:00-1:04)] 

[Each of the five members of Team Sonic appears on a black screen with their name spelled out in their signature colors (blue, yellow, red, pink, and green) and does a couple of cool fighting moves, followed by snippets of scenes featuring them from previous episodes of the show for about eight seconds each. All five of them then appear together in their usual fighting stances, emphasizing their status as a team.

The Eggman logo then appears in an ominous, glowing red, backlighting the doctor himself and all his creations- before the lights flick on to reveal him alone in his evil lair with a green screen behind him, at which point he shrieks and covers the camera with a hand. Then, neon blue electronic lines begin to appear across the screen and the camera spirals to follow them, selecting one particular line to trace. Not long after, said line ends at a circle which, with a flash, turns into the words ‘Sonic Boom’. Beneath the title, it says ‘Ancient Secrets’ in neon blue.]

[Then the music ends, at which point the episode title- “Friendship 101”- appears for a few seconds in the same color before the show itself returns.]

Sonic scrambled to his feet and zipped over to Tails, pulling him up from where he’d fallen after the robot’s overdramatic arrival. Amy managed to do the same with both Knuckles and Sticks simultaneously, which let Sonic stare for a moment, startled, and then promptly resolve to remember not to get on her bad side anytime soon.

Soon enough, the team had scrambled into their usual positions, ready to fight. Amy and Sticks kicked the battle off by handling the various smaller robots that threatened to get too close to their team, never faltering (and in fact seeming a bit gleeful in the badger’s case) despite the sheer number of enemies. Knuckles, meanwhile, launched Sonic bodily into the air for Tails to catch, before picking up a boulder about the size of a house and lobbing it directly at the robot’s chest.

“Hey! Easy with the boulders- QuakeBot took a lot of effort to make, you know!” Eggman shrieked from above, hovering in the relative safety of his Eggmobile. 

(Relative, in this case, was of course in comparison to mixing absurdly volatile chemicals in a lab, bothering Shadow at any and/or all hours of the day, or being on Tails’s bad side when the fox had a glue gun. The doctor still remembered that situation all too well, and currently ranked it as far more terrifying than merely being punted into the stratosphere by kids under half his height and about a third his age.)

Sonic paused to stare at Eggman from where he was currently dangling in the air. A smirk began to spread slowly across his face. “…what did you just call it?”

“You heard me the first time!” the doctor roared, now incredibly embarrassed. “I named it that since it makes the ground shake when it moves, like an earthquake??”

General laughter came from the heroes assembled on the ground and in the sky.

“Argh! Nobody appreciates my genius around here! Now, QuakeBot, stop standing around and start attacking!”

“I suggested TerraBot, since it still has to do with earth and is a play on the word ‘terror’, but nobody ever listens to my ideas, now do they?” Orbot muttered irritably to himself, tucked inside the Eggmobile.

“I listen to all your ideas!” Cubot offered encouragingly.

Orbot’s mouth shifted into a small smile. “Thanks, Cubot.”

Meanwhile, Sonic had been pulled into a spin by Tails, who whirled the hedgehog around before letting him shoot downwards toward the robot in a spin dash- only for him to get caught and sent flying into the nearest house.

He shook off the surprise quickly (and apparently sustained absolutely zero damage despite having literally crashed through a house, because superpowered teenagers), darting back over to the group. “Well, uh, guess it’s time for Plan B then!”

Crickets chirped in the ensuing silence. Even the robot had stopped moving to hear what he had to say.

“And the plan is…?” Amy prompted.

Sonic folded his arms with a huff. “I dunno, I thought you guys would have one!?”

The pink hedgehog rolled her eyes at that. 

Tails piped up. “I have an idea! Sonic, you’re going to need to be curled up for this, okay?”

The hero promptly did just that, before emitting a muffled “mmhmm?” from inside his layers of quills.

“Alright then, Amy, I need you to hit Sonic with your hammer right at the side of this house.”

Sonic’s blood ran cold. “Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second can we maybe rethink thiaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

He ricocheted all over the palace like a pinball, slamming into several key points of the robot thanks to Tails’s rapid calculations. However, the robot was sadly unaffected by his screaming at a pitch that came dangerously close to shattering glass.

The robot was easily disabled and the attack overall quickly repelled after that. Thankfully, it took Sonic only a moment to recover from his impromptu stint as an out-of-control projectile and get back to fighting with the others…complete with a “Let’s do that AGAIN!” moment, which was met with a resounding no from both Amy and Tails. 

Their ears were both still rather sore from last time, after all.

After Eggman was punted all the way back to his island by a well-placed kick from Sticks, though, the crew was about to head over to Meh Burger for a post-battle meal when they discovered that they had an entirely different problem to take care of. The villagers, who were beginning to come out of hiding after the attack, were furious upon seeing the damage dealt to their homes and stores.

“How could you let this happen?” one shouted.

Before long, the villagers found themselves a more specific target when the owner of the house that Sonic had smashed into pointed her finger directly in his face. “This mess is awful!” she cried. “And it’s all his fault!”

Within seconds, a mob of people had descended upon the overtaxed teen.

“I’ve never known a hero so irresponsible.” one fumed.

“How dare you!” the fennec from earlier roared.

The elderly wolf of the village shook her cane at him. “Shame on you!”

Sonic could feel himself beginning to tense up as the villagers turned their ire on him. Whether or not he’d admit it to anyone, he needed two main things in order to be his usual heroic, cheerful self: open space and positive reinforcement. Right now, he was getting exactly the opposite of both of those.

And he was not feeling good about it.

He looked briefly over to his friends for help, but Sticks had already vanished, Knuckles and Tails looked more nervous than anything, and Amy was already walking towards him with that look in her eye…

“Sonic, next time you do need to work on making sure the robot doesn’t catch you, you know-”

A streak of blue shot out of the village, leaving nothing but a scorched trail of grass and the snap of a sonic boom behind.

Sonic didn’t slow down until he reached the mountains- which technically wasn’t very far from the town at all, so he ran quite a bit more after that until he ended up in the middle of the jungle. Then, he sat down with his back to a tree and his arms around his knees, feeling very unheroic and overall pretty lame.

The blue hedgehog frowned at the dirt. Honestly, some days it really did feel like nobody seemed to like him. The only person who ever even suggested he was important on a regular basis was Tails, and Sonic didn’t blame him at all for not jumping into the middle of that crowd. Tails was only thirteen to his seventeen and a half years old- not exactly an age when he should be expected to go toe-to-toe with a crowd of angry adults.

Still, though. When being a hero got him all risk (no matter how low) and no reward...it was difficult for him to keep hold of that core feeling of “I can make the world a better place to live in!”, which, despite all his other claims, was truly at the center of what had motivated him to start fighting against Eggman so long ago…

[The scene morphs in a manner which shows the lighting shifting so that the sun is overhead. A sound effect of birds chirping plays over the scene change. This implies that it’s been several hours since he first fled the village.]

Sonic was still lost in thought when the snap of a twig in the bushes made him jump to his feet in surprise. The surrounding vegetation rustled ominously for a moment...only to reveal the four members of his team in front of him. He watched them all cautiously, his expression tense. More than anything, he looked ready to run at a moment’s notice- something which only served to make his friends(?) seem a little more distressed. “Uh…hey, guys?” he began tentatively.

“Sonic, I…” Amy began forcefully, before stopping herself. At first, it looked like she was about to scold him again, but then suddenly her face fell. “Listen, Sonic, we’ve all been talking a lot about what happened back at the village…and there’s something I want to say.” She gave a slightly tired sigh. 

“I know we usually like to make jokes and witty commentary, but...sometimes, the world’s just a difficult place to be in.” she said. “...so we really do need to talk about serious stuff occasionally, even though I know it’s tough for you to even mention how you’re feeling. Unless, you know, it’s ‘great!’ or ‘cool!’ or something like that.”

Sonic cringed at the mere idea, looking more and more like he thought running away was the preferable option here.

“So what I wanted to say was that in a world where there are too many people trying to beat you down...what I was trying to do was tell you how to be more tolerant, because I thought that would help. I figured you can’t change how other people are going to be, just yourself, so I hoped that might make things better.

“But...I’m not actually a licensed therapist- yet, anyway. So I might have been wrong on how I went about that. Maybe...instead of telling you off for not being able to stop all those people...in the future I’ll pull out my hammer and tell them to knock it off already. Does that sound better to you?” she asked.

The blue hedgehog froze. “Ames…I...” he croaked, trying his best not to think about why exactly it felt like his throat was so tight all of a sudden.

Sticks folded her arms. “I like that plan! Those people are way too crazy sometimes…and you guys know I have a verrrrry high tolerance for crazy.”

“We can make the villagers quit bugging you together, just like how we fight Eggman!” Knuckles added encouragingly. “It’s always better that way, isn’t it?”

There was still one person who hadn’t spoken yet, though.

Suddenly, Tails crashed full-force into Sonic, squeezing him in a hug that for once he didn’t pretend to hate. “You know I’ve always, always, always got your back, right, Sonic? No matter what?” he asked, looking up at his older brother. “Even if I don’t always know how to do it right.”

The blue hedgehog simply nodded, not trusting his voice to help him maintain his ‘cool guy’ status.

“It’s okay if you don’t feel up to talking about it now, though.” the fox added understandingly, stepping back but still leaving a hand on his arm. 

“But!” Knuckles added. “We won’t tell anyone if you ever decide you do need to get some stress off your chest every once in a while!” He smacked his own chest with a fist for emphasis.

“Nobody needs to know.” Sticks growled, the camera suddenly showing a dramatic angle of her face as the lighting dropped noticeably.

“Uh…that’s kinda dark.” Sonic said, holding up a finger with a bit of a confused frown, which let the lighting and camera angle zip back to normal.

“Anyway!” The pink hedgehog clapped her hands together, turning to face the group as a whole. “What do you guys think about heading over to my house and watching some movies? I’ll even…” She sighed, her whole body slumping. “…make some messy, simple, unprofessional chili dogs. In my state-of-the art kitchen. I know Sonic probably could use a pick-me-up right now, after all.”

“Thanks, Ames! You’re the best!” the hedgehog in question said cheerfully, the promise of good food and great companionship boosting his mood significantly.

Then, his posture shifted once again into something a little more vulnerable. “And thanks to all you guys. For, y’know, everything.”

“Of course!” Amy chirped.

Tails smiled at him. “No problem, Sonic.”

Sticks folded her arms. “That’s what a team’s for, ain’t it?”

“Of course it is!” Knuckles said, in that rather confusing manner where nobody was actually sure if he understood anything about what had just happened.

The echidna actually walked over to Sonic after that particular declaration, though, placing a hand on his shoulder as his face became uncharacteristically serious for a second. “Really, Sonic, we can all help you out, alright? Nobody gets to yell at our leader without getting yelled at back!” he declared, punching a fist into his other hand.

The hedgehog blinked twice before looking up at his friend. “You…just called me the leader?”

“Well, duh! That’s why everyone calls it Team Sonic, right?” Knuckles asked with a smile, letting an awkward (but genuine) grin spread across Sonic’s face.

Within seconds, the hero found himself squeezed in a big hug from all sides by his friends- and then actually lifted off the floor through a joint effort from Knuckles and Amy. 

“Guys- come on! I can’t even move here!” he cried out, his legs flailing so quickly they made a vibrating noise in the air. “Guyyyyssss….” he whined, though nobody seemed to care much about his halfhearted complaints (judging by the happy expressions on their faces).

Then, the episode began to end, as evidenced by an iris out transition. The slowly shrinking circle paused for a moment on Sonic’s current expression, highlighting it against the otherwise black screen. He now sported a sheepish, if slightly pleased smile, complete with a faint pink blush on his face from all the positive attention. 

Clearly Sonic liked being, well, liked far more than he let on.

Then, the circle snapped closed with a pop, and the credits began to roll.

[Voice Actors: 

Roger Craig Smith

Colleen Villard

Travis Willingham

Cindy Robinson

Nika Futterman

Mike Pollock

Kirk Thornton

Wally Wingert

Bill Freiberger

Original creation by:

Evan Baily

Donna Friedman Meir 

Sandrine Nguyen

Bill Freiberger

Takashi Iizuka

Writer/editor:

Solalunar “Sol” Eclipse

Thank you for watching reading.]

#sonic boom #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #amy rose #sticks the badger #i really really hope this new format was a good idea #i just had some very clear ideas about this fic that couldn't be expressed in the usual medium of character actions and dialogue #because sonic boom is very different from the sonic games and often uses camera and music-based references #(i may not roll credits every time though- just thought i'd give it a shot haha) #anyway! #i also wanted to ask: is there a particular way people would like me to use for replying to the wonderful comments i get in the tags? #because i want to let the people who take the time to leave comments know how much i appreciate it #but i'm not sure how to go about that #any suggestions? #and finally: #next time...shadow's going to show up! i can't wait to write him #as always #thanks so much for reading! #:D #sol's fanfiction

[animeyanderelover]

Can I have number 29 to Keinz Drocell. Thank you :)

🤩.

Warnings: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, obsessiveness, possessiveness, mentions of kidnapping

Prompt 29: “Stop giving me that look! Stop looking at me as if I’m a monster!”

“Build it up with iron and steel, iron and steel, iron and steel. Build it up with iron and steel, my fair lady~.” You pressed your hands over your ears, trying to block his voice out, trying to block this horrific melody out, but you knew that it would be useless and would give you for sure another nightmare. How had it even come to this? What did you do so bad for god to hate you that much? You didn’t know. And that frustrated you more than anything. “You don’t even look.”, you suddenly heard his monotone voice saying. You flinched and looked up. Keinz was staring at you, no expression on his face as always. You gulped the lump you had in your throat back, your whole body trembled. He kept continuing to stare at you, waiting for an answer. But you couldn’t say anything, feeling frozen with fear. “Are you...scared?”, he asked after a few moments passed by. Was that even a question?! You were shaking here like a leaf and he was asking you whether you were scared or not?! You didn’t answer him and suddenly he stopped controlling his little “toys” and walked towards you. The next moment he bent down to you and tilted his head in a way that once more reminded you that he wasn’t human.

“I brought you here because I wanted to show you the new pieces, but you somehow don’t seem to enjoy them. Should I make new ones that you would like as well? You would just need to tell me how you want them to look.” You tensed up when he said, your eyes wandering behind him to look at the dolls. Each of them dressed in a pretty dress and you were sure that most little girls would love to have such a realistic and gorgeous doll. But you knew that they didn’t just look realistic, they had been once humans! Their eyes were empty and lifeless, but you still had the feeling that there was some sparkle in their eyes, a silent plea for help. “Well?”, you jumped startled away when you noticed how close his face was to yours. You were sure that if you would overlook the fact that he had kidnapped you and that he was a puppet you would find him very attractive. His emotionless amethyst eyes were watching you closely. It was almost funny that this guy had kidnapped you in the name of love or as he had described it to you back then ‘an unfamiliar burning desire’.

You still remembered how you had first ran into him, literally. Back then you hadn’t watched where you had been running to and like this you had doomed yourself pretty much. You had bumped into him and had landed on your ass whilst he hadn’t even budged. He had just looked at you and had tilted his head in a slightly irritated manner. You on the other hand had cursed at him for just standing there and not helping you. He had at first blinked before finally helping you up, but he hadn’t let go of your hand back then. Instead he had let his eyes wander up and down your body, not in a lustful way, but more in a fascinated way. But it had still been creepy and you had ended up slapping him on the face. Your intention back then had been to hurt him, but instead you were the one who had gotten hurt. Back then you had been shocked by how hard his skin was and how weird it had felt, almost like hard wood. He on the other hand had just continued to observe you in a fascinated way, not looking very impressed that you had just hit him with a lot of strength. This had continued for a few seconds, him just staring at you before you had gotten creeped out and had quickly walked away from him, not missing the chance to call him a jerk. After that you had never seen him again, but the feeling of being watched had followed you everywhere. At first you had brushed it off as simple paranoia, but when suddenly your friends and everyone you talked to had started to disappear you had gotten very anxious. And one night he had suddenly stood in your room, watching you with no emotion on his eyes. You had slept so safe and soundly and had nearly gotten a heart attack when you had woken up and had seen him staring at you. You had reacted like every normal human would, screaming, pushing him away and sprinting to the door. But you hadn’t come very far because suddenly something had wrapped around your body and had restrained you from running away any further. When you had looked down on your body you had discovered that it had been steel wire. He had told you that you shouldn’t run away from him and had them introduced himself and had explained to you that he had been watching you for those past few months, that you had stirred up something in him and that he felt a desperate need to keep you with him, also telling you that he had gotten rid of everyone who had come too close to you. He had sounded so calm whilst he had told you this what had freaked you out even more. How could he sound so calm and emotionless whilst telling you this?! The last thing you could remember from that night was how he suddenly had pressed some clothes in your face that had smelled weird. Shortly after you had passed out.

It had merely been a month since that night and you had found out things since then that you wish you didn’t. Starting with that your kidnapper was actually a puppet!! You had discovered this when he had turned his head once 360 degrees around what no human could have done! When you had asked him about this he had tilted his head, showing you his confusion. This guy didn’t even know that he was a puppet and you still weren’t sure if he had completely understood how inhuman he really was. The next and much more horrific thing that you had found out that Keinz had a truly terrible hobby. Making puppets out of real humans. When he had first shown you his collection you had actually been impressed with how perfect this puppets looked like. But he himself was a puppet so you just thought that it had been natural that he was talented with making puppets. When you had asked him how he made those, being sincerely interested in this he had started explaining to you. By the end of his speech all color had left your face and you had nearly collapsed on spot, not being able to handle the knowledge that this dolls had once been girls just like you. Up until this day you feared that he would turn you into one as well even though he had told you countless times that you were a masterpiece just as you were and that he didn’t have the intention of turning you, but you weren’t sure if you could trust him. The problem was that you never knew what he was thinking, his face and voice never giving away his feelings and to be honest you doubted that he even had them. After all he was a puppet.

Keinz seemed to understand that he wouldn’t get an answer from you and just stood up. “You look like you won’t be able to focus on anything today anymore. Go to your room.” He extended his hand, wanting to help you stand up, but you flinched back. You had seen what he did with those hands, you had seen how he created his puppets and these were pictures that you would never be able to get out of your head. Keinz blinked at your reaction and pulled his hand back, waiting for you to stand up on your own. You slowly stood up, your legs feeling very wobbly. You needed to support yourself on the wall to not fall back down. Once again Keinz wanted to offer you his hand, but as soon as he moved his arm you flinched again what caused him to return his hand once more. “Are you sure that you can walk on your own?” You nodded quickly, just wanting to get as fast as possible to your room. Somehow you managed to stumble your way through the house without your knees giving away under you. Keinz turned once in a while around to ensure that you wouldn’t collapse. As soon as he opened the door to your room you quickly ran inside and dived into your bed, grabbing the blanket and wrapped yourself in it so that you were completely hidden in it. You just hoped that you would be able to get at least a few hours where you would be able to sleep without having another nightmare or without waking up and finding Keinz just staring down at you like he often did.

You had expected Keinz to just leave you alone like he always did when he led you back to your room, but for some reason he continued to stay this time. You peeked confused from under your blanket at him. He had a...peculiar look on his face given the fact that he normally had never any kind of look on his face. “(y/n)!” You tensed up when you heard his voice which sounded very firm. “Y-yes?”, you stuttered out, feeling anxiously because he suddenly acted so out of character. “Stop giving me that look!” You felt confused. “P-pardon?” For a few moments it became awfully silent between the two of you and you noticed that Keinz looked confused as if not quite understanding himself what he just meant with this. But then a look of realization crossed his face, followed by a...what was that? A sad look? “Stop looking at me as if I’m a monster!” With these words he closed the door, his footsteps fading away. You on the other hand stared with wide eyes at the door, not having missed the almost hurt undertone in his voice. Did...did he just showed you that he had emotions? You weren’t sure about how to think about this. It was the first time Keinz had showed you that he wasn’t just a puppet without feelings. But you sure hoped that it wouldn’t be the last time that he would show you his emotions. It would probably be a bit more easier for you to live in here with the knowledge that Keinz wasn’t a complete emotionless creep. But only probably!

#yandere black butler #yandere kuroshitsuji #yandere keinz #yandere keinz drocell

[hollowlegend]

IzuOcha Week 2020 day 1

Our flight over from Japan to Hawaii wasn't as long as I was expecting, only 8 hours in total. After we got off the plane, Ochako’s parents were ecstatic to finally be here. It's hard getting any time off when you are The Symbol of Heroism itself. Ochako and I have been dating since our third year at UA high and got together when the Meta Liberation Army attacked UA and I saved her life knowing that if she died I couldn't go on. That was five years ago and I haven't told her the true meaning to our little vacation. As far as she's aware we are bringing her parents here to spend 3 months in a five star resort on the main island. Not to flex on anyone or seem ungrateful but when you're a top ten hero let alone the number one pro hero, money isn't an object anymore. I don't do my job for it's ridiculous 12 digit salary, I do it because it is the right thing to do. The real reason I brought Ochako’s family here, including her of course, is to propose to Ochako. 

    Once collecting our bags from the baggage claim we make our way to the rental car center and then freak out slightly because they don't drive on the same side of the road as we do in Japan. Once collecting our car from the rental office we leave the airport destined for the main resort on the Island. King Kamehameha’s Palace resort, sounds like something out of dragon ball but apparently he was an actual person. Unlike the resort because the Author couldn't be bothered to look up a resort in Hawaii and is now having me break the fourth wall to let you all know that it's fake as far as he is aware, and seriously stop with the comments about fixing the wall I'm just going to break it again because the Author wants me to. Anyways, the resort is absolutely massive and when we arrive both Ochako's Mother, Tousa, and my brunette lover herself, pass out from seeing the lavish building that looks like it's made of gold. We get separate rooms and make our way to the east penthouse suite and Ochako’s parents are in the west one. 

“I can't believe it Izuku! This is amazing! Everything is so nice! The soap looks like it costs 10,000,000 yen to hold! And the bed feels so soft! We need a bed like this in the house!” Ochako exclaims as she sets down her toiletry bag and flops on the massive bed. I smile at her reaction before unpacking my bag and putting it in the drawers by my side of the bed. 

“You say that but most nights you end up sleeping curled around me like our little Mochi and Udon. Speaking of, do you think they will be fine staying with Eri and my mom? She already has 5 cats so the two rowdy kittens might be a little bit of trouble.” I respond thinking of our twin tuxedo kittens whose coats are the inverse of the other. One being black on most of her belly aside from her stomach and her brother being the opposite.    

“Eri will probably be snuggling with them all day. For cats those two are surprisingly lazy. Izuku… I never got to thank you for everything. Saving my life, going out of your way to raise my self esteem, training with me when you unlocked float, everything you've done with me or for me.” She says hugging me and laying her head on my chest. I rub my arm along her shoulder and kiss the top of her head.       

“You don't need to thank me Ochako, everything I did, I did for you because it is the right thing to do. Out of everyone that I have saved during my hero career, you were the first one in real danger when no one else was going to help. Kacchan doesn't count since All Might was the one who dealt with the villain after I ran in there attempting to free him. Always remember you were the first I saved, and the first and last I will love. There will be no one else except for you my sweet mochi.” I respond pinching her chubby cheeks slightly which causes her to pout adorably in response.  

“What time is it Izuku?” She asks as I pull my other arm around her and look at the time. 

“Well we need to get ready because we are going to a Luau soon. Which one did you want to do?” I ask as she breaks our little embrace and walks over to the desk where she put the brochure. 

“Hmm… I don't want to go to the whole scripted one that the hotel is holding all that much. Sure it is fun but we don't get to meet anyone local who enjoys themself instead of working. Let's go to Germain’s luau instead of the King Kamehameha one that one kinda sounds lame.” She says causing me to laugh to myself a little bit. 

“I'll text Maruki and let him know which one we are doing. Now How about we go see what that 360 degree shower is all about shall we?” I say causing her to blush as I pick her up bridal style and we head into our bathroom to get ready.

After getting ready and making our way down stairs we meet Ochako’s parents on the way to the bottom floor. Once down there we head to the parking lot and await the arrival of the bus taking us to the luau. As we were waiting, I told Maruki of what I had planned for this evening to which he gives me a look I have never seen before in anyone, even my father All Might had never literally glowed with excitement at what I had said. Once the initial shock wore off he slapped me on the back and said that he better have grandkids very soon. Not long after the bus arrived and we along with several other people including a rather fluffy hisapnic man wearing a hawaiian shirt got on the bus. We sat towards the middle and talked amongst the other passengers including that fellow who is very very funny. Soon the man hosting the party gets on the intercom and addresses us.    

“Hel- turn that down bro. Ehem Hello everybody. Welcome to Germain’s luau my name is Rino and you can call me cousin Rino just don't ask for any money y’know what i'm sayin’.” He says in english and I translate to Ochako and her parents, I learned it from Dad-Might and David Shield. “Now do you all have any questions?” 

Several other passengers started asking questions about the weather and if and or when we would get anything to eat. He responded in a way I wasn't quite expecting which caused me to laugh a little bit. Soon he takes a seat next to the driver and we exit from the resort and head towards the Luau. As we were driving through the tropical island we admired the view from the windows as Ochako and her mother gabbed on about our homelife and why we haven't bought a massive estate like most heroes own. She goes on to tell her mother that most of my money I give to charity and keep more than enough in savings incase we get sick of our apartment or if we are going to have a baby and need another room. Eri would be ecstatic if we were having a son or daughter. Though she's only 11 right now I can definitely tell that she not only will be an amazing hero but end up getting married to Kota by the way the act around each other. We arrived at a private beach with a gazebo of palm tree leaves strung with lights with tables and an open bar nearby. It took us quote ‘Hawaiian time’ to arrive at this private beach and all being said it was very nice for a small venue. 

We got off the bus and made our way around the tables and chairs before getting served our dinner by a massive barbeque pit behind the bar. Along the beach there is flaming limbo, a flaming coal walk and fire spinners. For some reason they really really like fire. Ochako’s mother and father order a tropical hard drink in a coconut and I notice that Ochako turned down the chance to drink the alcoholic beverage they were serving. She's always been a lightweight when it comes to drinking and doesn't do it too often so it didn't surprise me all that much. As we make small talk the event starts and one by one people start doing the various activities they have planned here. Some people trying the limbo, others watching the fire twirlers and fire breathers while others took turns walking across the coals. Ochako’s parents did every single activity there was at this event. When Ochako leaves to use the bathroom I walk over to the DJ and hand him 20$ saying that I need to make an announcement and to let me use the mic. He agrees and says that he doesn't need the twenty so I put it back in my pocket and simply thank him as well as hand him an autograph for his son. After Ochako comes back from the bathroom Germain in the booth gather’s everyone’s attention. 

“I hope you guys have been having a good time but this Malou here has an announcement to make. Take it away Deku.” He says handing me the mic and causing several people to gasp and take out their phones to record and take pictures of me. 

“Thanks Germain, Now the first person I saved before becoming a hero is here tonight enjoying this Luau. Will the number 5 hero Uravity come up here please? I have a very important question to ask you.” I say and I can visibly see Ochako’s eyes widen to the size of grapefruits after registering what I had said. “Everyone here knows we have always been a couple from Day 1 of our hero career. They know that we've dated for a long time and I think it's finally time to tie the knot.” I say before getting down on one knee and pulling out a gold ring with a paragon pink diamond as the centerpiece. “My hero, My best friend and My love Ochako Uravity Uraraka, Will you make me the happiest hero alive and marry me?” I ask trying to keep my composure and not stutter. 

“Y-YES IZUKU!!!! I WILL MARRY YOU!!!” She shouts before tackling me into the sand and peppering my face in kisses repeatedly. Everyone in the audience claps seeing this and cheers as we kiss each other for the first time as an engaged couple. I slip the ring on her finger before She herself goes over and grabs the mic from the sand.

“Izuku there's also an important thing I need to tell you. My number one hero and soon to be husband… I'm pregnant.” She says then I immediately pass out.   

#IzuOcha #IzuOcha week #IzuOcha week2020

[newsflashbitch-blog1]

Basshead

Since I am a full blown Basshead, I will explain a little bit about that. A Basshead is a coined term for the fan base that follows the "DJ" Bassnectar. The first time I ever fell in love with the music scene, I was at the age of 15 while I was staying in Wildwood, New Jersey. I remember going to Beach Glow 2014 and not even knowing who we were seeing there- I simply went to have fun with my friends. I guess everything DOES happen for a reason, because I saw a DJ called DVBBS and immediately fell in love with the bass-y music, the crazy lights, and the amazing vibes.

So that was my introduction into the EDM scene. The first time I ever experienced Bassnectar was in 2015 when I went to Made in America. I got offered a ticket for free, so inevitably I could not pass up the experience. This was during my peak drug experimentation period (that you will learn about in other posts), so I packed "molly" or MDMA to fuel my experience.

I was still very mainstream back in 2015, so I went to Made in America for the rap acts and all that other jazz. However, when I was there, after I was ROLLING BALLS from popping molly, the general consensus throughout the entire Ben Franklin Parkway was that everyone was going to see someone called Bassnectar. I had never even heard of him before. I gave in to the peer pressure of the crowd, ditched a main act and headed towards the stage to have a Bassnectar experience.

When I was in the crowd waiting for Bassnectar to come out, I soaked up what was happening around me and I have never seen anything so insane. In front of me, there was a rather old father with his child- who looked about the age of 5- on his shoulders. When my head did a full 360 degree turn and took in the whole situation I saw a girl buy LITERAL heroin with a needle and everything directly in front of me. Behind me, there was a guy who was completely bald all over his head except for his cowlick and he grew that piece out to a samurai pony tail. This guy was sucking a pacifier and had his arms crossed with 2 halves of an open capsule of molly in his hands. He was feeding it to two Guatemalan guys next to him. Literally crossing his arms and pouring MDMA powder onto their tongues. I had given my best friend some of my molly and it was his first (not mine) time ever experimenting with this drug. This is all the one thing I low key love about Bassnectar shows; not even the drug aspect, but just being able to people watch around you and see the immense amount of character sprinkled throughout a sea of pashmina scarves.

Anyhoo, Bassnectar finally came on stage and played the first set I was ever exposed to.... and I was FUCKING BLEST TF UP. Rolling balls, with my homie who was actually drooling behind me staring at Nectars wicked visuals. I was 16 years old at the time?? This is what started my obsession for Bassnectar. It grew and grew the more DJs I saw after him too. Nobody fucking compares. Lorin Ashton is sinister on that fucking stage.

Since Made in America 2015, I have seen Bassnectar a total of 6 times and I have spent $2700 since I came back to school this semester to see him 6 more times. And just so my readers are aware as well, I am on the far end of the spectrum compared to most of his following. I never realized how cult-y it genuinely is, but literally in the best of ways. The crowd has a pulse and acts as one. If someone passes out, the crowd takes care of it. Bassnectar has a team of AmBASSadors whose sole intent is to make the show happen, and to take care of everyone there. Lorin is ANTI drug, anti mosh pit, anti hate, and PRO FUCKIN BASS BABY. OMG IM A PSYCHO. BUT I CAN NOT GET ENOUGH!! And neither does anyone else who falls in his trap.

There are groups on Facebook that have his whole fan base and everyone carries the same accepting and empathetic vibe. Every individual in those groups seems to make it to every set in a year. You see a lot of the same people at literally every show. And Bassnectar is having his own music festival in Cancun this freaking Spring and it's an all inclusive resort full of Bassheads. Shit sold out in like under a second. I had an anxiety attack because I seriously didn't think I was going to be able to get tickets in time. But of course... it worked out... I'm going! :) NEWSFLASH, BITCH. I LOVE BASSNECTAR <3.

#bassnectar #basshead #bassmusic #bass #wildstyle #hijinx #dejavoom #nye360 #electricforest #lorin #lorinashton

[djinmer4]

Untitled 4/? (Korra)

Of course, having gotten away from Amon, the next person Korra ran into would be Tarrlok (or Tarrkik or Tarlon or whatever that alias was).  He was outside of town, in the shallow plain before the hills started.  She could see some guards watching near the walls, but they were far enough away that the two of them couldn’t be heard.

He was practicing his Airbending.  She recognized those forms, mostly basic parrying and dodges designed to take advantage of the Airbenders greater mobility.  Even as she watched though, the katas changed.  From the evasive-heavy Airbending katas to the equally fluid, but more aggressive Waterbending forms.  As she continued to watch she saw more changes, like the way he shaved his hair on his right down to a few centimeters, to improve his senses on his blind, scarred side or combined the whirlwinds with the more static waterbending stance to give himself full 360 degree coverage even while missing a leg.

Korra felt a frisson of envy go through her.  Even now, her forms weren’t nearly so fluid and graceful.  And seeing the way he had merged the styles and compensated for his handicaps, it reminded her that Tarrlok was really a monstrously talented bender.  Amon’s statement that he was harmless was looking less and less like truth, and more like delusion.

She took a step forward, and he whipped around, using the air around him to speed up the turn, then cushion him when he stopped.  Carefully propping himself up on his prosthesis, he executed a stiff bow.  “Avatar.”

“Tar-Governor,” she replied, barely remembering the guards stationed only a few meters away.  They probably couldn’t hear them, but it was best not to take chances.

“And what may I do to assist you, Avatar?  I’m afraid the Wo family is still not back from their reunion.”

Korra went straight to the heart of the issue.  “I just spoke to your brother.”

“Ah, I see.”  He resumed his training, albeit at a slower pace.  “I take it he said something that disturbed you?”

“He asked . . .  he asked that I show mercy on you.  Leave you here to continue your work as governor and leader of these people.  He even offered to stand trial back in Republic City if that would get me to leave you alone.”  Korra never could resist pushing buttons.  “I’m considering accepting his offer.  You do seem to be popular around here.”

“Don’t.”

“Don’t take him back with us?  The hypocritical lying leader of the Equalists would be quite a prize.  And you could continue living here free of any punishment.”

“No, what I mean is, don’t just drag him back alone.  You’re the Avatar; you know very well that the right thing to do is to bring us both back to face the consequences.”  She was surprised by how even his voice was.

“Why not?  You seem do be doing well here.  Opal and Kai always had glowing reports about you.  Even Tenzin, before he realized you were . . . you.  Even he was defending you and the way you acted during Kuvira’s reign.  Why shouldn’t I take that into consideration?”

“Tenzin’s always been that way.  Did you know we were allies in the Council?”  Korra shook her head.  Tenzin had always called Tarrlok a snake.  She didn’t think they had gotten along at all.

“Indeed.  Oh, I’m not going to argue that he always loathed me in private, but when it came to policy and passing laws, we were usually on the same side.  You never saw that because the big issue when you arrived was the Equalist movement, which is one thing we disagreed on.”

“How?”

“Tenzin is skilled and compassionate.  He tries to see both sides of a problem, and prefers non-violent solutions so he makes an excellent diplomat.  However, he’s not so good at being a politician.  He has a hard time talking people around to his point of view.  Especially if it’s not someone who answers to his authority or if he can’t demonstrate the consequences of a decision immediately.”

Well that was . . . actually true.  His teaching methods certainly hadn’t done her any good when she was first trying to learn Airbending, he had gone completely control freak on Jinora when she started reaching beyond merely being an Airbender into communing with the Spirit World, not to mention how difficult it had been for him to attract and train new Airbenders.  Tenzin could be effective, but sometimes he was way over his head.

“Not to mention he never really got down that aspect of trading tit for tat in politics.  He never seemed to understand that most of the Councilors were prioritizing their people first.  The Earth Kingdom rep wanted what was best for the Earth Kingdom, Earthbenders, and non-benders of Earth Kingdom descent, in that order.  Same for the Fire Nation rep.  Tenzin’s ideas were for the benefit of everyone, but if the Council member couldn’t see how it would help their people, they wouldn’t vote for it.”

“And here I thought you just bribed them into doing your bidding.”  He smiled, the same oily grin she remembered from the Task Force.

“No matter what Tenzin thinks, the only thing I bribed anyone with is with votes.  If I wanted say, something like banning child labor to pass, I’d either have to sell it as a benefit to another councilor, such as convincing the Fire Nation rep that it would cause a wage increase for Firebenders or by by promising my vote in a future issue, like allowing tariffs to fall for Earth Kingdom imports.  That’s why the other Councilors were so willing to support my Task Force, under the assumption of future favors.  Not because I paid them to do what I wanted.”

She paused while he finished his final katas.  “Still, that doesn’t explain why you think I should expose both of you.  You’re still doing good here.  Doesn’t that mean you’ve reformed?”

“Do good actions wash out the harm or do bad actions wash out the good?  But no, it’s not the past that bothers me.  It’s the potential for the future-”

“You’re not a Bloodbender any longer.”

“And how did Zaheer kill Queen Hou-Ting?  I’m sure every aspect of bending has at least one technique that is equally monstrous as Bloodbending.  Besides that’s not what I’m talking about.  What’s the worst thing I’ve ever done?”

“Persecuting and locking up innocent non-benders, and stripping them of their rights and turning Republic City into a police state.”  Korra paused, and then thought of her kidnapping.  Then discarded that fact, against being de-powered by Noatak, having her connection to Raava attacked by Unalaq and Zaheer almost killing her, Tarrlok’s kidnapping was chump change.

“And what’s the worst thing Noatak’s ever done?”

“Take over Republic City.”

“Those actions weren’t caused by us being Bloodbenders, they were caused by us having power.  By being leaders and convincing people to follow us.  Without the Equalists, Noatak would have just been some vigilante assassin, taking out Triad bosses on his own.  If I hadn’t been a councilor I could never have been able to create the Task Force and get those anti-Equalist measures passed.”

“Our greatest ability was making people believe in us, making them willing to follow us.  And here we are again, doing the exact same thing all over again.  We were shipwrecked refugees, now Noatak’s the expert in civil engineering and water management for the region, and I’m the governor.  And we’ve done that in less than ten years.”

“It’s like we haven’t learned anything.”

“But you have!  I see none of the terror, none of the persecution or violence that dominated Republic City here-”

“Only because we’re not fighting each other.  How long do you think that will last?  Until Noatak takes up his goals for equality for all again or I decide I want to be more than just the regional governor for some backwater in the Earth Kingdom.  How long before we fall to temptation again?”

She had no answer for him.

“Did you know, when we escaped from Republic City, we took a boat?”

“Amon mentioned that.”

“That boat, it was filled with Equalist shock gloves and batons.  He took the blueprints for all of Hiroshi Sato’s designs.  Noatak hadn’t given up his dream for Equality, the loss of Republic City was a setback, not a failure, not for him.”

“That’s why I blew up the boat.  I hoped to take us both out.  But I failed.  Now it’s time for you to do your duty, Avatar, and clip away the hanging threads.  Don’t be like Avatar Aang.  Don’t let threats like us get away to  haunt your successor.”

#tarrlok #korra #legend of korra #why is this so long #it was only supposed to be one scene

[myprofessionalpractice]

speakers

Al Murphy

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The main point of his talk, Al said, was to reassure those who are nearly graduating, were nervous or worried about our degrees or life as an illustrator, as well as how to make the jump between having graduated and having a job. He shared that he was very scared in his final year, “freaking out” and wondering how or when he would get a job or be employed. Al said he now has an agent, that gets him jobs, and this is the best route to go down. Jobs take all sorts of different forms (such as the one below!). Many of his jobs now are editorial, promotional or for advertising, and he mentioned he would love to do more animation but so far his career hasn't taken that turn. 

His work, self-described, is usually character-based and humorous. Every aspect of his brand is bright, colourful and humorous too, including his website and his various social media. One quote from his solo show reads he’s been “described as the Ipswich Town FC of illustration”, in that “he’s been around for a long time but it’s hard to recall any of his major successes”, just an example of the kind of self-deprecating humour he uses in his work and his advertising. Another that also made me laugh was: “having spent ten years living in Berlin and New York he has recently returned to London where he spends his time telling disinterested others that he just spent the last ten years living in Berlin and New York”, which is relevant to our talk, and also funny. 

My own work rarely ever includes humour. It’s often character-based, however. I have never really thought about including humour in my work as it’s always been based on aesthetics for me, but it’s obvious that humour has a big hand in Al’s projects and how he gets employed for advertising. It could be worth trying this in future; seeing how humour can incorporate itself into my work.

Similar to Al’s work above, painted on a wall, is that of Sha’an D’Anthes. Although probably less about humour and focused more on ‘cute’ and aesthetically pleasing small illustrations, her work is similarly used below.

I have loved Sha’an’s work for years. I love the colourful nature of it - although the below illustrations on the glass are only in white, most of her work is bright and happy, like the first image. Personally I would love for my work to jump off the page in the same way, however the watercolours I mostly work with don't always allow this. I would like to work in more bright, colourful traditional ways and see how it translates. 

Sha’an posts vlogs on her YouTube channel and documents her process, talking about life as an illustrator. It’s a fascinating insight into her career and I would love to do the same with my practice eventually. 

Al spoke about his influences and how growing up, you don't always realise that something influences you as its happening. I thought this was an interesting reflection as I always find it quite funny to look back on my work from when I was younger and see how very similar it looked to a Disney Princess film! We collect plenty of influences over the years, all of which have an effect on our work.

Murphy’s work itself is very visually appealing; it’s easy to see why companies want to use it for advertising and promotions. It jumps out at you and is expressive and attention-grabbing. 

He described a few times about working with companies, big and small. Seeing as much of his work is advertising and promotions for companies, he has lots of experience with this. It’s always interesting to hear about working with brands and how the exchange works, especially as it’s likely I’ll experience this for myself after I graduate. I imagine it’s something you get better at through experiencing it for yourself, and you only really learn through doing, but it’s very useful to hear what companies expect from artists and the different ways they communicate it. 

Although not from the talk, an article about Murphy in Creative Boom reads “on the one hand, [advertising] has fed and clothed his family and led to award-winning success, while on the other, it has made him question his own morals as he takes the money to help sell brain-melting products to children”. I thought this was a very interesting point as it is always relevant to discuss what we want from our careers and how we feel our talents are best used to affect the world around us. It’s not necessarily something that’s brought up often, especially as commercial illustration is a very popular road to go down and can be the source of quite a lot of money and success. There’s many other paths in illustration, however, and it’s always worth considering which options make you happiest, which ones you can get the most out of, or which ones you can contribute the most to. At the end of the day, I think creating for a living is a great privilege, and if you don’t love what you’re doing, it’s going to be very difficult to do it. 

Simon Spilsbury

Website Instagram

A freelance illustrator, Simon Spilsbury’s philosophy is that drawing, and ideas, are central to process. His website says that his work is “spontaneous, energetic, quirky, inherently humorous, adaptable and elegant”. At first, he said that every day there will be a new image, one that’s never been seen before. I thought this was a wonderful thing to start the talk with - a comment on creativity, and how it’s never the same twice. 

He asked us, what sets you apart? In order to be creative, you must make collisions, and take your brain out of its comfort zone. I rarely do this; I’ve always stuck to what I know, especially as everyone says to be successful you need a specific style that people can recognise you by. In Simon’s words, however: “you never know where you're going to end up. If you do, you're not being creative.”

He stressed that your reaction to a brief only happens once. You should make a starting point, and the rest will follow. Personally this is something I struggle with; I find it really hard to bring myself to start something, as often the size of the task scares me. Usually once I’ve broken it down, it’s not so difficult. 

Simon also had some specific illustration advice, a lot of it on emotion and expression. He advised that if you want to draw someone performing a specific action, you should do it first. The action also informs the rest of the image. If you're drawing somebody pick up a rock, for example, you draw the rock first. 

Simon’s practice is centred on drawing. Most of his work is sketchy and illustrative in a way only achieved through pen on paper, or digital pen on digital paper. It kind of captures the way that many artists sit down and absently doodle on a page, a bit like a stream of creativity. 

I do most of my work through painting, or through digital software like Procreate. It’s very easy to capture the magic of drawing to Procreate now with very advanced software and plenty of traditional-style brushes. I don't think the emergence of this software changes the creativity that comes alongside drawing and art. Personally, in my head I separate quick, simple sketches on pieces of scrap paper from digital work or painted work as it might take less effort or time. Listening to Simon’s talk reminded me that maybe I shouldn't, seeing as both use lots of creativity. Arguably, quick sketches use more, seeing as they are thought up on the spot and require no planning, brainstorming or practice. 

You must understand what you’re drawing, Simon says, with no preconceived ideas. I liked his approach to illustration - it was inspiring to hear about his version of creativity, especially as I haven't felt that creative in a while. My process has become sort of robotic, always the same, often on a screen and through a computer and rarely just for myself. Although Simon didn't address this directly, his ideas about creativity and leaving your comfort zone really struck home with me. I left wanting to do it much more often. 

Neil Sheakey

Website Instagram

Neil is a design director at Uniform, in Liverpool, established in 1998, which he described as one of the few companies outside London with a wide variety of creatives. He completed his degree in graphic design at the University of Derby in 2004. He showed us work his company had done with brands like Mitre, Ideal Standard, Innocent and Encona. 

His personal creative process was broken down into stages: empathy, perspective, direction, creative and action. It’s always interesting to see or hear about other people’s creative processes, seeing how they differ to our own. Neil also introduced something else interesting, his idea of a 360 experience, also in stages. These were to see, hear, touch and feel, his way of trying out whether and how a brand connects to customers.

Most of Neil’s work is digital and for advertising. He placed a big focus on process, which I’ve not thought about for years. My A-Level Fine Art teacher drilled it into us that process is the most important part of a project. You need plenty of ideas and research to back up your work. I do this a lot for university projects, but not very often for personal projects. I would really like to try this for a personal project and are if it makes any difference to how much I like the finished product. 

Neil gave us some useful advice about presenting. If your audience is frowning, it means they are concentrating, which is not a negative reaction. Presenting, he said, means talking about yourself and your ideas comfortably. However, if your idea bombs or does badly, ask questions: why? What can be fixed? How can it be better? I think these questions apply themselves very well to presenting but also to personal work, especially when I have produced something I don’t like (which happens a lot more than I’d prefer).

Most useful was Neil’s 10 tips. He didn't specify them as such, but they certainly are useful tips.

1. Explore - being creative is all about exploration.  2. Find your voice - something that is always talked about in the community. 3. Collaborate - I’ve learnt a lot about collaborating with others this year; people on my course, my friends, etc. It makes me more creative! 4. Think, do, reflect - always look back on your work and see what you liked, what you didn’t, what you can take forward from it.  5. Craft your portfolio - something I forget about! Having one online means people can always look at it, or stumble upon it. 6. Give 100% - I’ve got worse at this. I find it very difficult to motivate myself, but I’m trying harder, because this is something I love to do! 7. Value your time - I’m bad at time management, but my time is also precious, and it does well to remember that. 8. Look after yourself - one of the most important things, if not the most important one. Being creative for a living can be draining and also a lot of pressure. Looking after yourself is essential. 9. Be yourself - your creativity is what can get you jobs, commissions, etc. It’s important that it’s your own! 10. Enjoy it! - of course. Being creative for a living is fun! I’m not as good at this any more, as my whole life is creative now - when I was still doing exams, it used to be my escape rather than my degree, my hobby and my dream career. Hopefully I can get better at enjoying it and appreciating it.

Other Speakers

Due to illness, I unfortunately missed a couple of the speakers we had visit the university, and another was cancelled to to the COVID-19 pandemic. To fill in the gaps, found and listened to some more talks online. 

Maria Kalman: The Illustrated Woman This talk was wonderfully random and eccentric. Kalman seemed to really run with the idea of thinking outside the box and almost trusting your first thoughts. She talks of being a dreamy child and dreaming her way though life, all the way until college. Interestingly, Kalman didn’t start drawing until after university. I often worry about where I’m at professionally but I often forget that in the grand scheme of things, I’m still very young. The landscape of illustration is different now than in the 80s, but I still have a lot of my life ahead of me. 

An interesting concept she mentioned was “if you know too much, you’re stymied”. This is the second talk this concept has appeared in: Simon Spilsbury also spoke about not knowing where you're going to end up, as if you do, it isn't creativity. Like I mentioned in his talk, this is something I am very bad at. I prefer knowing which direction I’m headed in and I’m often too nervous about a project and how it will turn out to even start it. This talk, and this point, was a brilliant reminder that you can’t plan everything, and sometimes your first thoughts are your best thoughts. 

Janet Echelman: Taking Imagination Seriously  This was one of those talks where you think it might have changed your life, or at least your outlook. Janet Echelman went to India for an art show and her paints got lost in shipping. As I was listening to this story my heart dropped -  I couldn't even imagine what I’d have done in this situation - but Echelman took it in her stride. On a walk, she saw the natives weaving nets on the beaches and  sat with them to learn how to do it. Since then, this way of working has become her best and favourite way of working. 

I was fascinated by this. As someone that is sometimes too intimidated to try a new type of paint, or to paint or draw a more difficult perspective of something, I found Echelman’s willingness to open herself up to new ideas inspiring. There have been plenty of obstacles in her creative life, but when those arise she simply found ways to solve them. There are often times when I find a challenge too hard, or too intimidating, to even start it. Deep down I know that if I attempt it, even if I fail, I will have learnt something from the experience, and you can only get better through trial and error. Even so, sometimes the nerves I feel about a new project or challenge can overwhelm this logic.

Echelman has carried out briefs for very important clients but despite this, her talk is still filled with the wonder and joy that sparked her creativity in the first place. She places great importance on how art should make you feel, and how you should strive to create things that make other people feel something too. It even made me tear up at the end.

Alexa Meade: Your Body is my Canvas  A reoccurring theme with these talks for me is how good these creatives are at simply new ideas. I think the idea of creativity has taken a back seat for me over the years, and I know at A Level and GCSE there was a big focus on technical precision and talent instead of just having a good idea, and running with it. Although my degree places importance on elements of this, in my work it seems to have disappeared. Maybe creativity comes quite easily to me, in that I’m given a brief and instantly have ideas to put down, or maybe I've forgotten about it altogether, and I’ve managed so far to work without much of it. It might be that creativity is different for all of us. This talk still serves as a reminder that we should always be trying to access our creativity in everything we do. 

Meade seems to have creativity down pat, however; if you could describe it, it would be this. Her work is fascinating in that she doesn't paint on canvas, but she actually paints on the subject she is painting. What comes from this is what looks like two dimensional paintings, but is all 3D. These talks are all inspiring, but Meade has taken an idea from the past and made it into a career that nobody else had done before. 

Jarrett J. Krosoczka: How a Boy Became an Artist  There is something so inspiring about holding art and creativity so close all your life, and Krosoczka’s story is this exactly. It places huge importance on using your imagination: “writing is using your imagination on paper”. It was another wake-up call to be reminded that at the basis of what we do as creatives, we’re always using our imaginations. 

“Celebrate your own style” is among the wisdom in this talk. Krosoczka had a turbulent life but recognises and passes on the importance of good stories, for children specifically. There is a confidence that is threaded throughout his talk and his life, almost like willing something into existence. Again, it’s inspiring to see someone with the confidence to know that whatever happens, it’s always possible to meet your goals and fulfil your dreams. In a creative career it’s easy to let adversity get you down, but it’s also amazing to look back on your life so far and celebrate the achievements you've made. 

What I took away from this talk is a reminder that even if I feel down about my art or my abilities, I always have the tools to get better and develop. I think this is something always worth remembering. 

A few other links to interesting talks/podcasts I found by artists:

Anthony Gormley in Conversation with Iwona Blazwick

Tracey Emin RA on her largest-ever text piece

Building a successful career as an illustrator with Furry Little Peach

RCA Talk with Subject Matter: Women Artists & A Brave New Art World

Béatrice Coron: Stories Cut From Paper

In Summary

All in all I enjoyed the talks. It was inspiring to get a fresh perspective on art, illustration and creativity, especially as we often seek out ideas similar to our own and flock to people that share them. Naturally it was useful and equally as interesting to hear from people established in their fields, how this came to be, and even how they felt - and now feel - about it. 

It was also a bit of a wake up call as I know plenty of people, me included, tend to stay focused on the present and the work they're involved in right now, instead of making plans for the future and looking ahead. I don't think it’s advisable to plan out every aspect of my future, but I rarely think about it. It was interesting, fun and quite daunting to sit on the train on the way home from some of the talks and imagine a career that spans as long as some of our speakers. Maybe one day I’ll give a talk of my own!

One criticism I have with the talks is the lack of diversity. I understand it is difficult to get people in to give talks, but one thing I noticed as soon as we got a list of who was visiting was the lack of women on it. I was hoping to get more of an insight into women in the industry. Instead, this was something I sought out myself; the extra talks I needed were mostly by women. Of course the women giving these talks were equally fascinating and knowledgable.

This concerns other aspects too, not only gender, as it would have been interesting to hear from people from different backgrounds and different ethnicities, as all of the speakers we had visit were very similar in that respect. It’s interesting to hear from anyone in the field, but I’m sure people from different walks of life would have something extra interesting to add to their talk or something different in their story to share. Not only for me, for my own curiosity, but also for other students that come from somewhere different to me, somebody that might appreciate a different insight that they can relate to. It would be easy to feature this in a range of visiting artists.

I felt there could have also bee variety in types of illustration, as the talks I heard were mostly from those in advertising and promotions (of course, the two I missed due to illness may have been different). I know Louise Lockhart, the final talk that was cancelled, is a children’s book illustrator, and gives me all the more reason to be disappointed about missing it! There are so many different ways to use skills and experience in illustration and although advertising is a very common one, it would have been useful to have more variety in this aspect.

Of course, it’s always encouraging and refreshing to hear from established artists and to take away something from a talk. There’s always something you can learn. Even with the extra talks I needed, I felt more and more interested with every one I listened to, and felt encouraged to find and learn more. It strikes me that with platforms like YouTube and Instagram, where we follow and subscribe to fellow artists and creatives, we are doing the same, always wanting to find out more and learn from people around us and people we admire. 

#review

[babydarkstar]

A Total Eclipse…Of the Height?

This short is for @reylorobyn2011 and @shy2shot for the cute little idea! I hope you enjoy!

xx anya

“C’mon Kylo, we have to get to the dock or else we’ll miss it.” Rey was so excited for this day. It was the first time she would view an eclipse. She had researched every detail, looked at every page that NASA had written on solar eclipses, and was finally ready to see this beautiful beast for herself. And she had dragged her reluctant boyfriend along, too, seeing as the path of totality happened to fall right where his parents lived. So they had visited for the weekend and spent time with the notorious Skywalker/Solo couple who were known for leading groundbreaking research for NASA. Leia and Han found it amusing when Rey had said, “So, tell me about the aliens,” but Kylo? Not so much. She had been absolutely freaking out over the eclipse, and when a wedge of the moon began to peak out in front of the sun, she couldn’t help the squeal that escaped.

“I’ve already seen a thousand eclipses. And I don’t feel so well. Just go on without me, babe.”

Rey rolled her eyes and put her hand on her hip, standing in front of him where he sat sprawled back on the couch. “Oh, no. I didn’t drive our asses three hours up here just for you to sit inside of your parents’ house and mope. You’re coming with me.”

He groaned, but let her pull him up by his hands. When he stood to his full height, he stared down at her with a curious look in his eyes.

“Fine,” he huffed, putting a lazy hand on her head and patting her affectionately, “But only because I love you.”

They made their way to the edge of the lake, which was a short walk from the house, and staked their claim on the crowded dock in front of them, pushing past people to find a spot. It was only about ten minutes until totality and Rey had been shoved far into the crowd by people much taller than her, blocking her view of the sun almost completely and separating her from Kylo. She knew the temperature drop was from the coverage of the sun, but she felt a cold panic set in. She couldn’t miss what she had planned for so long. Stumbling and looking around for her now lost boyfriend, she clenched her eclipse glasses tightly in her hand.

Before she let herself think that she would have to sit through the eclipse without seeing it, she tried to remember where they were standing and retraced her steps. When Rey found him, she tugged on the sleeve of his leather jacket. Kylo turned, looking funny with his blacked-out glasses. He pushed them up into his hair and she hated that he still managed to look good with anything on.

“Up,” she said seriously but in a small voice, her arms held up to him like a toddler. His eyes glinted in amusement.

“Oh, is my baby too little for the crowd?” he asked in a good-natured but teasing tone, giving her tiny smooches on her temple, “C’mere, angel, let me hold you up.”

Her cheeks burned and she pouted as those around her gave them awkward glances, but she held her arms up still as he bent on his knees with his back facing her. She climbed onto his shoulders and felt a little thrill rush over her when he stood, as she was finally free of the fear of getting blocked. She sighed, allowing herself to giggle a little and run her fingers through his dark locks.

Safe at last. And taller than everyone.

“Better?” he asked, glancing up at her before sliding his glasses back on and looking up at the sun.

“Much.”

The sky had begun to noticeably darken, and Rey relished in the scene, glancing out at the water and how it appeared that the sun was setting in the middle of the day.

“You’ve been to an eclipse before?” Rey asked, and he nodded.

“Many of them.”

“How did they make you feel?” she asked, watching as the boats in the water anchored and people jumped in, everyone waiting for the moment.

“Make me feel?”

“Yeah.”

“They make me feel like I always do when I’m with you,” he replied, adjusting his grip on her ankles.

Her heart melted a little. “Happy?”

“No. Terrified,” he said, laughing as she swatted his forehead. “I’m kidding. No, they make me feel like love is possible. Like amazing, beautiful things can happen when two opposites collide.”

She didn’t get a chance to reply to him because the moon covered the sun at the exact moment, leaving them in a dreamy world of a 360 degree sunset that took her breath away. Rey whipped her glasses off to find exactly what she had seen in pictures, but even more glorious to her naked eyes. The sky was a heavenly shade of blue and she heard people shouting their encouragements. The energy in the area mixed with her own, and with her being atop Kylo’s shoulders, she felt unstoppable. Something about this phenomenon had her all light and bubbly inside.

“Holy shit! Do you see that Ren?!” she exclaimed, patting his head excitedly. “The moon—They’re—The sun is—Oh my god! There’s a halo around the moon!”

“I see it,” he chuckled, reaching up and squeezing her thigh. She grabbed his hand and entwined their fingers, so exhilarated by this gorgeous sight.

“It’s so beautiful I might cry,” she breathed.

“It’s great,” he said monotonously, but when she looked down at him, his lips were quirked up the slightest bit as he watched the dark sky around them slowly turn back to light. Rey smiled.

A sucker for the sky, just like his parents.

#reylo #reylo au #reylo mini fic #lol i liked writing this #some reylo to go with your recently viewed eclipse

[mingot-studios]

Invader Zim: GA83 ^3

PROF. MEMBRANE: (CALLING) Kids! Get ready. Prof. Neon and Dr. Cler will be here any minute!

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – FOYER – CONTINUOUS

A panicky Gabe looks for a hiding place. 

GA83: (PANICKED YELP) Oh no. Better ride this one out in the closet.

He OPENS the coat closet. Dib and Gaz are already huddled inside.

GAZ: Sorry, Gabe. This is our spot.

GA83: Oh yeah? Well, It’s my house too, so it’s also my spot.

DIB: Nu-uh because we called it.

GA83: (DEFIANT) Did not.

GAZ: Well, we’re calling it now.

GA83: (ALARMED) You are?

DIB: I’m afraid so.

GA83: (MOANS) They got me with their legal mumbo-jumbo.

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – A SECOND LATER

Gabe looks around desperately. He lifts up the rug but FOODIO 3000 and CLEMBRANE are there. They GROWL at him as he cautiously lowers the rug.

SFX: DOORBELL. 

PROF. MEMBRANE: (V.O.) Just a second!

GA83: (PANICKED SOUND)

Gabe sees a tall bookcase, pushes it out from the wall, and ducks behind it.

GA83:  Huh. I never looked behind this whatchamacallit case before.

Gabe CHUCKLES and leans cockily against the wall. Strangely, his elbow passes through the solid wall.

GA83: Huh? 

(Gabe stares in disbelief as he slides his arm in and out of the wall. The wall shimmers slightly and there are occasional blue sparks around his arm.)

GA83: It's like something out of that show where Mr. Membrane does weird experiments on stuff.

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – FOYER – CONTINUOUS

Prof. Membrane opens the door and DR. CLER and PROF. NEON barge in.

DR. CLER: How are you doing, Prof. Membrane, sir?

(Prof. Neon starts to take off his heavy overcoat. It’s raining outside.)

PROF. NEON: Ugh. I’m melting like a metamorphic geode under this wet wool.

He OPENS the closet door, revealing Dib and Gaz. They attempt to look casual. 

DIB: (COVERING) Uhh….May I take your coat, Prof. Neon?

GAZ: (STILTED) I...would..also like to take your coat.

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – A FEW SECONDS LATER

The morose-looking kids enter, followed by Prof. Membrane, Dr. Cler and Prof. Neon. Dr. Cler carries a large RATTLING sack.

PROF. NEON: Have we got a fun, sciencey activity for you!

DR. CLER: A pillowcase containing seashells from our expedition to Sulfur Bay.

PROF. NEON: You can help us clean, organize and label them.

DR. CLER: And remove all of the deceased crustaceans from within them. Go get a screwdriver.

Prof. Neon heads toward the bookcase where Gabe is hiding.

BEHIND THE MACHINE

Gabe's eyes widen in horror as Prof. Neon heads right toward him.

GA83: (STIFLED YELP) I’ll take my chances in the mystery wall.

Gabe steps through the wall and into… 

THE THIRD DIMENSION

We see a shimmering wall (a la Stargate). Gabe gradually emerges from it – first his groping hands, then his stomach, his face, and finally his entire body – all rendered in stunning 3-D COMPUTER GRAPHICS. Gabe steps toward the camera and looks around in awed disbelief at a wondrous landscape we can’t yet see.

GA83: (AWED) Holy macaroni! What is this place?

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – SAME TIME

Newspapers are spread out on the floor and the rest of the family sits glumly prying hermit crabs, etc., out of the shells.

DR. CLER: (SLURPING SOUND, FOLLOWED BY SPITTING SOUND) Hey! You can just suck ‘em out!

GA83: (ECHOEY) Hello? Can anybody hear me?

Everyone looks around in confusion. (Note: All of Gabe's voice-overs have an unearthly quality.)

DIB: Gabe? Gabe, Where are you?

GA83: (V.O.) I’m somewhere where I don’t know where I am. 

GAZ: Do you see beakers? If you see beakers, you’re probably in the chemical closet again.

GA83: (V.O.) Just a second…No, no, it’s a place I’ve never been before.

PROF. NEON: Ah, the shower! (LAUGHS)

GA83: (V.O.) Hey!

IN THE THIRD DIMENSION

Gabe stands on an endless grid of glowing green lines. In a sweeping 360-degree tracking shot around Gabe, we see a sparse landscape of standard 3-D shapes, columns and the like, in various colors and textures. [ANIMATORS NOTE: The following equations appear on background objects: 1 + 1 = 2, e(fi) = -1, P = NP, 1782(12) + 1841(12) = 1922(12), m0 > 3H0(2)/8piG, 46 72 69 6E 6B 20 72 75 6C 65 73 21] Gabe gropes around looking for the entrance he came through.

GA83: (NOT ECHOEY) I don't wanna freak you guys out, but I think I might be trapped in here.

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – SIMULTANEOUS

PROF. MEMBRANE: Son, you better call Ruby. She has a ladder.

IN THE THIRD DIMENSION

Gabe marvels at his three-dimensional body, running his hands over his bulging armor and his puffy limbs. 

GA83: What’s going on here? I’m so bulgy. My armor sticks way out in front and my…

He turns to see his rear end.

GA83: (SMALL SCREAM)

SCENE 8

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – A FEW MINUTES LATER

Ruby stands atop her stepladder in the middle of the living room looking all-around at the top of the room.

RUBY: Well, as the tree said to the lumberjack – I’m stumped.

PROF. CLER: Hmm. It's like he disintegrated into CARBON dioxide. (LAUGHS)

GA83: Hey! Quit it!

IN THE THIRD DIMENSION

Gabe begins exploring this strange new world. He strolls curiously past the marble temple from the game “MYST”, then kneels at a reflecting pool. As New Age MUSIC plays, a school of hauntingly beautiful golden fish swims by and leaps into the air. Gabe continues on, passing a three-way street sign marking the intersection of X, Y, and Z streets. The chrome sign gleams with the standard 3-D shimmer effect.

GA83: Man, this is a once in a lifetime thing. I feel like I'm wasting it just standing here. (STARTS HUMMING) Better make the most of it. (BEAT, THEN) (YAWN)

A cone comes rolling across the ground like a tumbleweed. It bounces and jabs Gabe in the butt.

GA83: (RUBBING BUTT) Ow! Watch it, coney!

Gabe hurls the cone, sending it spinning towards the camera. It flies through the air, falls, and TEARS a small “black hole” in the grid (where the lines bend down into darkness). We hear a faint WHOOSHING SUCTION sound.

GA83: Oops...

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – LATER

SARG. SLAB WRANKLE, MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES HOST, COUNTESS. VON VERMINSTRASSER, and ZIM have arrived to help.

MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES HOST: (CALLING OUT) Do you see a light, Gabe?

GA83: (V.O.) Yes. 

MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES HOST: Move into the light.

GA83: (SIZZLING SOUND) Ow!

COUNT. VON VERMINSTRASSER: Gabe, this is Countess von Verminstrasser. Can you tell us what it’s like in there?

IN THE THIRD DIMENSION

Gabe looks around at the glittering landscape. The black hole has gotten slightly larger.

GA83: Um, it’s like, ahm… did anyone see last night’s "Mysterious Mysteries"?

IN THE LIVING ROOM

COUNT. VON VERMINSTRASSER: No.

GAZ: No.

SARG. SLAB RANKLE: No.

PROF. MEMBRANE: No.

DIB: No. 

DR. CLER: No.

SARG. SLAB RANKLE: No.

RUBY: No.

PROF. NEON: No.

ZIM: No.

MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES HOST: No.

SARG. SLAB RANKLE: Yes. I mean no. No.

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – A LITTLE LATER

The machine has been moved aside. Zim has drawn a chalk circle around the dimensional door in the wall. 

PROF. MEMBRANE: Well, where’s my son’s metal friend? 

ZIM: Well, it should be obvious to even the most dimwitted human worm baby– who holds an advanced degree in hyperbolic topology – that Genocide Automata Unit 83 has stumbled into… (DRAMATICALLY) the Third Dimension. (LIGHTS GO OUT)

DIB: (TURNS LIGHTS BACK ON) Sorry.

PROF. MEMBRANE: So THAT’S where that went! I was wondering where that portal had gotten to.

ZIM: SILENCE WORM BABY! Zim shall explain.

Zim draws a square on a blackboard.

ZIM: Here is an ordinary square…

SARG. WRANKLE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Shorty!

ZIM: But suppose we extend the square beyond the two dimensions of our universe, along the hypothetical Z-axis there.

Zim extends his chalk square into a cube. The onlookers GASP in astonishment. 

ZIM: This forms a three-dimensional object known as a “cube” or a “Zimahedron”, in honor of its discoverer. (CHUCKLES)

GA83: (SCARED) Help me! Are you helping me, or are you going on and on!?

ZIM: (AFTERTHOUGHT) Oh, right, and of course, within we find the doomed automata.

He draws a crude picture of Gabe trapped within the cube. Gabe's expression is one of unmitigated horror.

SARG. SLAB RANKLE: Enough of your yappin’, Haffpint! A bot’s life is at stake! We need action!

Rankle draws his gun and FIRES six shots into the portal.

SARG. SLAB RANKLE: Take that, you lousy dimension!

IN THE THIRD DIMENSION SCENE 9

Gabe cowers as the bullets zoom at him. At the last second, however, the bullets are pulled off course by the black hole, which is growing larger by the second. The bullets orbit around a few times, then spiral down into oblivion. Gabe peers into the black hole, scared. 

GA83: Oh, there’s so much I don’t know about astrophysics. I wish I'd stayed awake for Mr. Membrane’s 9-hour lecture on it.

Suddenly, Gabe's face starts to stretch and twist down the hole, becoming many meters long.

GA83: (DISTORTED SHRIEK)

He quickly yanks his face back. He backs away from the hole as it continues to widen. The WHOOSHING suction increases, pulling in objects, including the MYST Temple and the golden fish. OMINOUS MUSIC BUILDS.

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS

The spectators mill about in consternation. Aikirita enters, wearing an old-fashioned deep-sea diving suit.

AKIRITA: I’ll save Gabe-san. All I need is four stout men to work the bellows.

Dib wheels out an old-timey hand-cranked generator, which is hooked up to Aikirita. Aikirita closes the porthole on her helmet and heads toward the wall. Membrane stops her.

PROF. MEMBRANE: No, Akirita, it’s too risky. For all we know, there could be cubes in there the size of gorillas and other large…

GA83: (V.O.) Help! I don’t have much time!

GAZ: That does it. I’m going in!

Gaz has tied a rope around her waist. She rushes toward the wall.

DIB: Gaz, no!

Before he can stop her, she vanishes into the wall.

IN THE THIRD DIMENSION

We see Gaz becoming three-dimensional as she steps through the portal. She looks around in wonder.

GAZ: Cool.

GAZ’S POV

The ROAR OF THE WIND is deafening as the black hole sucks in most of the remaining objects. Gaz sees a terrified Gabe on the far side of the vortex.

OVERHEAD SHOT

The black hole now takes up almost the entire universe. Gabe stands on a narrow ledge, trying not to fall in.

GA83:(CRAZED) IMGONNABESUCKEDINTOTHEBLACKHOLEIMGONNABESUCKEDINTOOBLIVIONIMGONNABENOTHINGANDWHATSWAITINGFORMEONWHENICOMEOUTTHEOTHERSIDE I DON’T KNOOOOW!

GAZ: I’ll save you, Gabe!

The sign for X, Y and Z streets is bent over the black hole like a palm tree in a hurricane. Gaz shimmies out to the end and extends her arm toward Gabe.

GAZ: Oh, I can’t get any closer! You’ll have to jump! 

GA83: (CONFIDENT) Piece of cake, Gaz!

Gabe attempts to fly over to Gaz but his turbines give out and he falls straight down the wall of the vortex and disappears breaking up into his component spheres, cubes, etc. On the way.)

GA83: (AS HE DISAPPEARS) CRUDCRUDCRUDCRUDCRUDCRUDCRUDCRUD!

The CREAKING street sign reaches its breaking point. It SNAPS off and falls into the black hole.

GAZ: (SCREAM)

Gaz tumbles into the darkness but is suddenly yanked out of frame by the rope as the entire grid COLLAPSES in on itself.

INT. MEMBRANE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS

Wrankle, Verminstrasser, etc., jerk on the rope, pulling Gaz back in through the portal with an electric SPARK. There’s a beat of silence as Gaz shakily stands up and turns to Prof. Membrane.

PROF. MEMBRANE: Gazlene, what happened?!

GAZ: Well, we hit a little snag when the universe sorta collapsed on itself…. but Gabe seemed cautiously optimistic.

GA83: (DISTANT) CRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUD!

DIB: Oh, Gabe… 

MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES HOST: Be strong, Dib. I’m sure he’s gone to a better place.

EXT. All – LIVE ACTION

There is an electrical CRACKLE, and a live-action CGI Gabe falls from the sky and lands in a dumpster.

GA83: (FALLING NOISE, PUNCTUATED BY ANNOYED GRUNT)

He dusts himself off, climbs out of the dumpster, and looks around.

GA83: Aw! This place is even worse!

He cautiously begins making his way down the sidewalk. PEDESTRIANS (including our regular voice cast members) pass by gawking and pointing at Gabe.

GA83: Omigosh… (TERRIFIED WHISPERS)

Under the closing credits, a frightened Gabe lumbers down the street past more wary pedestrians – a stranger in a strange land. As the credits close, Gabe looks in a store window.

GA83: (HAPPILY) Ooh, 50% off on comics!

Gabe perks up and confidently strides into the store.

FADE OUT:

THE END

#izoc #Script #writing #invader zim

[nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany]

CalPERS General Counsel Matt Jacobs Violated “Zero Tolerance” Policy via Manhandling CEO Marcie Frost

Digital Elixir CalPERS General Counsel Matt Jacobs Violated “Zero Tolerance” Policy via Manhandling CEO Marcie Frost

As much as we enjoy mining the seemingly bottomless vein of misconduct at  CalPERS, we feel compelled to commemorate an incident from last week’s offsite because it so deeply offended the people who saw it live — many of them CalPERS beneficiaries who are retired after decades of honorable government service.

This incident, of General Counsel Matt Jacobs literally draping himself over CEO Marcie Frost’s shoulders for a long tete-a-tete, was a cut-and-dried violation of CalPERS’ Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation Prevention Policy. It epitomizes CalPERS’ hypocritical and two-faced posture toward board members and senior staff, by which members of the power faction are never held to account or even criticized. By contrast, those who are seeking to clean up CalPERS’ misconduct and incompetence are often severely sanctioned, in ways designed to interfere with the performance of their fiduciary duties.1

This misconduct was highly visible to everyone at the offsite on the Monday of the offsite, July 15. If you look at the YouTube videos of the event, the “grownup” tables were arrayed in a U shape, with the screen and the guest speakers seated on the open portion of the U. Frost and Board President Henry Jones were seated opposite the screen and speakers, with the audience seated in rows behind them. So an estimated 20 CalPERS employees plus beneficiaries and other participants were staring straight at this display.

Reports from a half dozen independent sources show that these witnesses were appalled. In fact, the degree of upset was what led one observer to take this picture, noting:

Matt

Marcie.  CalPERS Santa Rosa off-site.  I was a little slow with my camera, so I missed the minutes-long embrace from the other side — because I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening.

I was sitting with a woman from XXX and a woman from YYY who both attend SCORE. There was a third woman who I had just met that day who was a [former government job]. They were freaking-out.

It started looking like a casual huddle to whisper, but it lingered on-and-on to the point that the women were saying, “Somebody take a picture, this is completely inappropriate!”  Jacobs had draped himself over both of Frost’s shoulders with his left arm, his hand casually cupping one of them.  I couldn’t tell if it was a “power move” to dominate her or if there was some sort of creepy mutual cuddle-thing going on, because I couldn’t see their faces.

He’s huge and she’s tiny; which made the whole incident even creepier from the peanut gallery. Just a horrible “look” smack in front of a group of retired female shop-stewards. There’s also still a soupçon of salaciousness.

Other reactions, each from additional sources:

Audience Member 1: Attorney Mr Jacobs went to CEO Ms. Marcie Frost and proceeded to put his arm around her shoulders to have a private conversation, he then went to board President Mr. Jones and CEO Ms. Frost and repeated this act from the other side. During this interaction the previously mentioned board member [Theresa Taylor] glanced at this interaction and said nothing.

I found the interaction as unacceptable staff interaction and the non action of the board member as conflicting…Persons seated near me commented that the interaction appeared to be inappropriate contact between supervisor and subordinate.

Audience Member 2: His behavior was unsettling. I don’t know if he was being controlling or sexual towards little Marcie but it was unprofessional at best and sexual at worst.

Audience Member 3: It wasn’t appropriate For a staff member and his boss. It was sexual harassment.

Audience Member 4: It was gross. It looked like it could have been sexual but I doubt that. It reminded me more of a big dog we had. He’d put his paw on other dogs to show he was the boss.

It is noteworthy that most of the individuals above were older women. Generally speaking, older women grew up in an era where sexual banter and flirting in the workplace were seen as acceptable within bounds. The fact that women of this age group were deeply disturbed suggests that young women would have been even more upset. But as the last comment made explicit, they were disturbed by the power dynamic/ By putting his hands on Frost and keeping them there, Jacobs was making a big and very public display of his dominance.

One male observer spent a lot of energy wondering whether Jacobs could have executed his move without brushing against Frost’s breasts. This is not how you want the public to think about the head of a $360 billion fund.

Yet another observer speculated that perhaps Frost had gotten some bad news and Jacobs was trying to comfort her. One of the audience members in close range pooh-poohed that idea:

The body language was not consoling. It was conspiratorial. The female retirees in the seating area were appalled by the appearance being given off. Frost cynically projects sexual vulnerability in order to manipulate, while Jacobs bullies through physical intimidation. Not a good look, but readily apparent to the retirees.

I question whether Jacobs is Frost’s de facto subordinate. Jacobs was engaging in a domineering and paternalistic behavior toward both Frost and Jones. This was my take-away from the interaction.

According to CalPERS written policy, Jacobs’ conduct is clearly verboten and grounds for investigation and punishment:

CalPERS has zero tolerance for harassment and discrimination of any kind based on any protected characteristic. CalPERS expects its managers and supervisors to vigorously and visibly promote a harassment-free and discrimination-free work environment and expects its employees to read, understand and comply with this policy…

Common Forms of Prohibited Conduct

Unlawful harassment for the purposes of this policy includes, but is not limited to, the following….

• Physical touching or assault, as well as impeding or blocking movements….

All such conduct violates this policy and is unacceptable in the workplace and in any work-related settings, such as business trips and business-related social functions.

Moreover, as multiple CalPERS insiders pointed out, the standard is understood to be not simply if the conduct is unwelcome by the recipient, but if it makes the people who saw the conduct uncomfortable. One can imagine a superior and a subordinate openly having a consensual affair. Even though displays of affection would be consensual and even welcomed by the subordinated, they would send an inappropriate message that sexualized conduct in the office is OK and would also remind co-workers that the couple don’t have an arm’s length professional relationship. That makes it all too obvious that the boss is likely to favor his lover.

As a consequence, the policy obligates employees to report conduct that they think may be violations of policy. Specifically:

Employee Responsibilities

All employees are responsible for ensuring that violations of this policy do not occur by:..

• Reporting conduct that they reasonably believe violates this policy…

Manager and Supervisor Responsibilities

Managers and supervisors must take affirmative steps in regard to conduct that violates this policy. When managers and supervisors obtain information indicating that a violation of this policy may have occurred, even if not directly within their line of supervision or responsibility, they have an affirmative obligation to immediately inform their manager or supervisor immediately and concurrently report the matter to the EEO Officer, so CalPERS can try to resolve the claim internally.

Important! Failure to promptly report perceived violations of this policy may subject a manager or supervisor to disciplinary action

Here, the photo plus multiple eye-witness accounts is unambiguous evidence that Jacobs did violate the policy. Marcie Frost herself is therefore obligated to sanction Jacobs under the “zero tolerance” policy terms.

But we can also see from the section above that the policy is designed for selective enforcement. Reporting a violation by a boss, even to an “EEO officer” is career suicide if the object of the complaint is a direct report to the CEO and therefore senior to the EEO officer or is otherwise in an influential position.

If CalPERS wanted to look half-way serious, it would have an external hot line with the complaints investigated by a more-neutral-looking party, such as an outside law firm. Of course, with Jacobs sitting atop all compliance functions, there’s no such thing as an independent investigation.

But there is an important lesson in what on the surface seems to be merely yet another eye-rolling example of how CalPERS executives do the institution and themselves harm by acting as if they are above the law and good governance standards.

This incident proves that when CalPERS waves the “harassment” bloody flag, it’s a joke. The entire point of a policy with overreaching grounds for deeming an individual as a harasser and toothless enforcement (the “so CalPERS can try to resolve the complaint internally” says it all) is to pick and choose who gets charged. Those who have become inconvenient or demanding are accused on thin, subjective grounds, while the true members of protected classes, like Matt Jacobs, get away scot free.

_____

1 This is not an exaggeration. Readers may recall that then new board member Margaret Brown was sanctioned because a friend who was helping her perform CalPERS duties also, without Brown’s knowledge, scanned a few documents on a copier on CalPERS’ premises and e-mailed them to herself. Note that this involved no cost to beneficiaries or the state. CalPERS board president Priya Mathur denied Brown access to the CalPERS building by having her access card turned off, which resulted in Brown missing a board closed session. Brown was also denied access to her office for two months, preventing her from accessing board information such as closed session transcripts, documents on closed session agenda items, and official e-mails. Not only did this prevent Brown from meeting outside parties, but it also made it impossible for Brown to access

CalPERS General Counsel Matt Jacobs Violated “Zero Tolerance” Policy via Manhandling CEO Marcie Frost

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[la-appel-du-vide]

🧁✨🍦🌸BIRTHDAY🌸🍦✨🧁

07•14•19 - Day FIVE

Hey hey hey! My FAVORITE day of the year! This year was my fourth international birthday! First Cancun, then Paris, then Cabo, and this year Canada! I live for it. Banff National Park has been on my bucket list for awhile. The pictures looked absolutely beautiful, so I was excited to go! Despite the intense driving times. 😅

All things birthday this year have been great. First, the mini party with Kena and our friends. Beach decorated my room at home so adorably and made my actual birthday special by bringing silly string and confetti on our trip. And I’m still looking forward to celebrating with my family after this trip! 24 is looking pretttttty good!

So back to Banff. We got to our hotel at about 2 AM and slept for like three hours, since we’d read that Lake Morraine parking fills up before 8 AM, and we were still over an hour out. Getting up was rough, but we pushed through haha. We were a little later getting there than we wanted, and even though we got there by 7:30, parking was already full. We asked the attendant if there was any way of still getting to Morraine Lake, because that’s the most popular one and I really wanted to see it on my birthday. He told us there was a shuttle we could ride from a parking lot down the street. I told Beach to ask for clarification on where to go. She did and he responded with “The parking lot is 5 km down the road. Tip in the carrier.” And Beach apparently speaks Canadian cause she was all, “Tip in the carrier, great thanks!” And drove off like she knew exactly what he meant even though it made literally no sense. 😂

We drove down the road for a minute or two but realized we’d better go ask for help because we had no idea what we were doing. The second time I asked, his directions were a little better, because he explained to follow the OTHER road for 5 km, and then we’d see the parking overflow. “Can’t miss it,” he said. Spoiler alert: He lied. We followed the road for like forever, and ended up on a dirt mountain road. No freaking parking lot, no shuttle signs.... so back up to him we went. We were sort of hoping he’d have pity on us and let us up to the Moraine Lake parking to see if any spots had opened up, but yet again, he told us to head down the road 5 km and the parking overflow would be on our right.

We found what looked like a shuttle stop in the village, and when we asked a girl sitting nearby, she told us that it wasn’t the shuttle stop, but that if we went BACK UP the road a couple minutes we’d see it. (Are you getting how ridiculous this is 😂) We drive back up, but see literally nothing. We took a turn somewhere and ended up in a campground. The lady told us to head to the Trans-Canada highway and go down it 5 km and we’d see the overflow on our right. She must have seen the sheer confusion on our faces, because she ended up offering us a map. That helped. We don’t know which roads are what. 😂 Turns out you don’t just follow that road for 5 km... TURNS ARE INVOLVED. THANKS A LOT PARKING GUY.

With the map in hand, we figured out where to go. By the way, not obvious at all. Literally hidden by a row of pine trees.

Once we were there, things started looking up. We learned that you first take a shuttle to Lake Louise, and from there, take a shuttle to Lake Morraine. We happened to get there just as one was leaving, which was awesome timing. When we got to Lake Louise, we got in line for tickets for the shuttle to Lake Morraine. They’re timed tickets to Lake Morraine, and the next available time was in an hour. So we got them, and then went to check out Lake Louise. And W.O.W. Coming around the corner to get my first view of the gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains was pretty surreal. The water was a light turquoise, and you could see right through it. Unbelievable. We enjoyed that for a while. Just the vastness of the scenery. All the tourists seem to vanish because of the expanse of the view. Wow.

It was freezing though, so we decided to grab a hot chocolate before getting on the shuttle to Lake Morraine. And what a good choice that was. Some of the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. And helped us warm right up.

We took the shuttle to Lake Morraine, but as soon as we got there, it started to rain. And not just sprinkle.... torrential downpour. We were determined to make the most of it though, so we went and bought an umbrella from the gift shop for $28 (#swindled), and then we headed out to start the climb to the overlook. We were tramping through massive muddy rivers, dodging all of the smart people hiking the opposite direction down, and getting increasingly nervous about getting struck by lightning. The tour guides were telling everyone to get to lower ground, and here we are going higher and higher carrying a metal pole. Brilliant people, we are.

At the top, it was still a nice view, but it was very hard to soak it in while we were getting soaked ourselves. I tried to take a couple pictures, but just ended up sopping wet. Regrets.

We decided that it wasn’t even worth it to be up there, so we went back down and rearranged our plans a little. We decided to postpone Lake Morraine and canoeing until the next day, and do the Hot Springs today. (I’m not exaggerating, we were soaked to the bone. And freezing, holy ish.)

We took the shuttle back down to the car and drove over to Banff Town. It’s basically like a Canadian Park City. Super cute and gorgeous views. We had lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then had our first Beaver Tail! They are famous Canadian pastries in the shape of beaver tails of course. I got the original cinnamon sugar flavor, and Beach went with strawberry cheesecake. I was obsessed.

Next up was the Banff Hot Springs! Luckily, we had our suitcases with us so swimsuits weren’t a problem. We got changed and jumped in the lovely hot water. We warmed up real quick, and enjoyed a gorgeous view while we were at it. The rain had let up a little at this point, which was nice.

After that, we thought we’d go to dinner in Canmore at Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company on recommendation from Lindsay. We drove there, but there was an hour wait, and we had sunset plans. So that wasn’t going to work. Instead, we stopped at the Canadian staple Tim Horton’s for doughnuts and to try Poutine. (Poutine is like cheese fries with gravy.) It was kinda weird but kinda fine? Idk. 😂

For the last activity of the day, we headed to Sulphur Mountain, on recommendation from Mikayla who said that was the best view we could have and we wouldn’t regret spending the money to ride the gondola to the top. It started POURING rain again on our drive over there, and we were getting sad and disappointed, but just as we pulled into the parking lot, the rain broke and we got a beautiful birthday rainbow across the whole sky. It was the best present nature could have given me.

We went to buy our tickets, and Beach realized her debit card was missing. We retraced her steps and decided that if we couldn’t find it in the car, she must have left it at Tim Horton’s. We searched and couldn’t find it. Then we tried to call Tim’s, but it wouldn’t go through. That’s when it hit her that she’d put it in her phone case for safe keeping at the hot springs. Silly Beach.

After that minor scare we were ready to hit the slopes! We rode the gondola to the summit. Crazy how high we were. The view was breathtaking. We had a 360 degree view of mountain peaks all around, and we could look down on Banff Town in the valley way below. Unreal. On top of the world. We walked the boardwalk and ran into a big horn sheep just hanging out on the mountain. He was there the entire time we were on the summit, so he must know that people sometimes feed him? Either way, it was cool to see him up close!

We walked the entire boardwalk and by the end, we were frozen. Going back inside felt great. Perfect ending to my birthday.

We drove to Calgary for the night, because it is way cheaper there than in Banff or Canmore, and it’s only like 30 more minutes out. When we got there, we unloaded the car, and I finally had WiFi to check out all my birthday messages from all the cute people in my life. So that was fun. Then Beach came rushing out of the shower at 11:57 because we had forgotten to do my birthday popper and we only had three minutes of my birthday left! So we jumped in the car and drove down the road a ways so that we could do the confetti popper without leaving confetti all over the Airbnb property. (They are scary people 😂).

We did a quick countdown and ended my birthday with a bang, literally. (;

Super fun, super memorable.

We may have had to move things around because of weather, but it was still a day of gorgeous views and lots of fun.

Cheers to another great year of my happy lil life. ✨🧁🎉

[enstaries]

Shinobu admiring Mika for bravely showing his heterochromia eyes even if he's uncomfortable about them. Shinobu himself is too self-conscious to reveal his left eye even though there's nothing abnormal about it. These thoughts of mine lead to the creation of this ship. Can I get some headcanons for these two cuties?

im glad you thought of this rare pair aaa i really love it!!! i wrote hcs for them some time ago, but im building on your idea to write some shinomika fluff 

 Mika plays with his bangs. “Hmm, maybe I should grow it out, yeah?”

  "What do you want to grow out, de gozaru?“ As Shinobu walks beside his boyfriend, happily licking away at his soft ice cone, his head cocks with the question.

  "Huh? Ah, was just thinking about growing out my hair like yours, Shino-chan,” explains Mika. His fingers leave his hair, and reach over for Shinobu’s hand. “Shino-chan looks cute in that hairstyle, after all.”

  "Is that so? That makes me happy, de gozaru!“ Shinobu blushes a little. “But I think Mika-dono looks very cute in his current hairstyle too! It would be a shame to grow it out, de gozaru.”

  "Hmm…“

  The two walk in silence along the dimly-lit street. Shinobu continues enjoying his soft ice, not fully aware of how deep in thought Mika is.

  "Hey, hey, Shino-chan.” Mika drops Shinobu’s hand to cover his own eyes. “Which one looks better? Blue-” he lifts his left hand to reveal his startling blue eye “-or yellow?”

  He covers his eye again, but this time lifts his right hand to show off his bright yellow eye. Shinobu cocks his head.

  "What do you mean, de gozaru? Both of your eyes look great.“

  "Uh uh, that’s not true. Shino-chan, you have a complex about your eyes too, don’t ya? I thought you’d understand too.”

  Shinobu’s face warms. “T-that’s because my left eye is really ugly, de gozaru. A ninja shouldn’t reveal the entirety of his face too, nin nin.”

  “I don’t wanna reveal the entirety of my face too, Shino-chan.” Mika sighs. “Everyone looks at me like some kinda freak, ya know.”

  "What are you saying, de gozaru? That is far from the truth, Mika-dono! Your heterochromia is a very unique and beautiful part of you! I don’t know much about fashion, but I think asymmetry is very trendy now, de gozaru!“

  Mika shakes his head. “Even so, it’s weird. I don’t like it. Sometimes, I even wanna take Oshi-san’s scissors and stab right into one of my e-”

  "Eek! P-p-please don’t do that, Mika-dono!“ That one sentence alone terrifies Shinobu beyond reconciliation; tears well up and dribble down his cheeks. He flings himself at his boyfriend, and now Mika’s uniform is wet. "Don’t stab yourself, Mika-dono! D-don’t do it, I beg of you!”

  Now Mika feels guilty, and he awkwardly pats at Shinobu’s head. “Y-yeah, I’m sorry, I won’t do that.”

  Shinobu sniffs. “Promise?”

  "I promise.“

  Just like that, the terror seeps away from Shinobu, and he returns to licking his soft ice to pacify himself. "I’m relieved to hear that, de gozaru. I don’t want anything bad to happen to Mika-dono, de gozaru.”

  "Aw, Shino-chan, you’re too nice.“

  "No, no, not at all!” Shinobu propels himself into the air and does a 360 degree flip with his soft ice, and lands neatly on his two feet. He turns back and smiles at Mika, who claps in awe. “It is the duty of a ninja to protect the one they are loyal to. Therefore, do not fear, de gozaru. If anyone is mean to you because of your beautiful, beautiful asymmetrical eyes, I will be here to protect you. So call on me anytime, Mika-dono!”

  Shinobu smiles a smile brimming with life, and goes back to licking his soft ice again; as if he didn’t just make Mika fall for him ten times harder.

#pippiii its not like im falling for a new rare pair or anything #tsukki's scribblings #ensemble stars #enstars #sengoku shinobu #ryuuseitai #kagehira mika #valkyrie #pairings #shinomika #scenario #anon

[thedarkalleycat]

Originally, I created this tumblr with the notion of using it like an online diary. A place to anonymously talk about the things that affect me without having to then face the people who read them. However, it didn't really turn out that way, which is fine. The fact that I knew it was there in case I ever did need to talk was enough for me. I then fell out of tumblr, as I was in a better state of mind and honestly, I was just busy. But something happened on Monday that affected me more than I ever thought it would. To give background, I was driving the same car, my first car, for 6 years without an accident or a ticket (except that one time some lady's car rolled into mine down a hill, but both our cars were off, so I don't think that counts). Last August, it finally died, and I was forced to get a "new" car. I didn't really like my second car at first; it handled stiff and heavy, and was loud beyond belief. But earlier this year, I was rear ended at a red light by some jackass that wasn't paying attention (get this, not his car, car not insured, suspended license, and HAD JUST GOTTEN OUT OF JAIL THE DAY BEFORE) that cost me $1000 out of pocket because he fucked up my exhaust system. But that was it. My bumper wasn't even cracked! "His" car? Totaled. But after all that, I loved my car as much as my old one, cause I realized it was a TANK. Yea it was slow and heavy, but if it could survive a collision of about 25-30 mph without a crack (exhaust only got fucked up because his car was lower than mine and slid under it), I was happy. Monday, I was on my way to the vets to pick up some medicine for my cat. I stopped to wait for a car to pass so I could turn left into the vets office. I was stopped for a good 5-10 seconds, with my blinker on. I'd always been vigilant with my rear view mirror, but even more so after that first rear ending, so I checked my mirror as I stopped. Only car behind me was just coming over the hill about a quarter mile behind me. It was because he was so far behind me that I only checked my mirror again when I was about to turn left, at which point he was about 10 feet away, still going full speed (about 40 mph). I gunned it left, so he hit me at an angle instead of head on. I spun across the other lane 360 degrees and stopped with the big wooden sign for the vets pressed against my driver door. My trunk was completely crumpled and pushed into my back seat, rear windshield and back driver window shattered on impact, and I got to watch my driver side window shatter when I hit the sign. My seat was fully reclined, and my phone had been flung out of its dash carrier, as well as my sunglasses off my head (found my phone, never found my sunglasses). I was able to crawl out the passenger door, which thankfully still opened. I hit my head and jaw on the plastic divider between the side windows (where the seat belt goes in), and I was informed yesterday that a vertebrae in my lower neck had been pushed out of place. Now, I have scoliosis, so my back and neck already hurt on a regular basis, and now I have a slipped vertebrae? Fantastic. Just fantastic. Today I discovered the seatbelt bruised my ribs, so breathing is fun. The guy who hit me asked if I was ok, exchanged information with me (thank God this one had insurance!), and went back to his car that had managed to stop 50 yards up the road. No apology, no explanation, nothing. At the time, I was shaken and upset, so I didn't have any room for anger. But now I do. How the fuck didn't you see me? You had so much time! Even if you were on your goddamn phone, you had to have looked up at some point and noticed I was stopped! Did you drive for a full 10 seconds at 40 fucking mph without looking up once?! Why, in 6 years without incident, I get rear ended twice, and fucked over both times, in the span of 6 months? First one, had to pay for everything myself, second one, I lost my poor car and may have to add another permanent injury to my wonderful list of ailments. I have no idea how I'm even able to drive after that, but I am. I'm driving my mom's car while she's out of town. But my confidence is shot. Gone. I freak out everytime someone comes up behind me when I'm stopped or slowing down, even if it's obvious they're slowing down too. I'm paranoid that I'm going to get into another situation that I can't get out of. How do you stop yourself from getting rear ended?? I can't stop replaying it in my head. It won't stop. I get the pleasure of reliving it over and over. I was told that if he'd hit me head on instead of at an angle, I would be a lot worse off. That itself scares me. I came that close to hospitalization? Could I have died? Everyone who sees my car tells me I'm lucky. I am lucky. I know it could have been way worse. I walked away, took myself to the hospital (with a friend). And I know it's only been 2 days, but this constant replaying plus my physical limitations plus the knowledge that I should have been taken away in an ambulance is haunting me. And I just want it to stop. Thank you for listening

[trippinglynet]

Fucking Adjust | NRC Handelsblad (Dutch) | Coverage of Burning Man 1997

Fucking Adjust: Visiting Burning Man, a "temporary autonomous zone" in the desert.

Originally published as a nightly feature in Dutch by daily evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad as part of the Out of Control culture column.

by Sandra Küpfer 1 "Even eleven years ago they wanted to know what it meant."

In San Francisco at the end of August everyone wants to go to Nevada with ten thousand stoned people to burn a wooden statue and roll naked through the mud.

2 Sean Kirkpatrick (31), former drummer of the band Swell and art director for a snowboarding company, talked to us about Burning Man last year. Sitting on at the edge of the swimming pool in his apartment complex in the heart of Silicon Valley, fifteen kilometers from San Francisco he talked about the absolute nothing of the desert. The white, cracked sand face in all directions. It is "as if you were standing on the moon."

You could jump in a car, put a rock on the gas pedal, lock the steering wheel in a 360-degree arch, lie on the roof, and drive in loops while you look at the stars. "There is really nothing there man, it's not like you can hit something."

Big fires, whirlwinds everywhere with desert dust, the sound of pistols in the night. Two people were killed.

3 www.burningman.com [1997 archive]: A giant beehive of bulletin boards, meeting places, photo articles from newspapers and webzines, links to the underground of San Francisco, desert survival info, and the Burning Man mailing list: "for everyone who can handle the traffic"

4 A t-shirt reads: Burning Man 1996, Woodstock or Altamont - You decide!

5 In 1986, the first Man went wild. Larry Harvey burned him with eleven friends on San Francisco beach. For the sake of fun. In order not to get in trouble with the police, they had smuggled the thing into the rocks at night.

Larry Harvey from Wired on the 1990 gathering at Baker Beach: ”We needed forty people to drag the body parts around in rotating teams. It is difficult to keep a low profile with a four-story giant. And wonderfully absurd. … Even then, people wanted to know what it meant. We just did it. Once the thing was up, it really didn't have to mean anything.”

6 >Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 01:35:12 +0000 >From: Sandra Kupfer >To: [email protected] >Subject: a little info about me Hey there, I write a series of reports for a Dutch newspaper under the title OUT OF CONTROL. It's about chaos in pop culture at the end of the millennium. From the loose design of Ray Gun via the violence in LA to the chaotic world of the net. Chaos brings new possibilities, new liberties. We also get OUT OF CONTROL in that sense: pop culture is increasingly shrinking from mainstream, state, media and marketing control. Burning Man seems to be the embodiment of those trends. To participate, but by documenting without prejudice what happens. Respect, Sandra >Subject: Re: a little info about me >Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 16:42:57 -0700 (PDT) >From: Maid Marian >To: Sandra Kupfer Sandra, We are interested in your article, and in you. COME FIND ME, please!!! Marian Goodell (aka: Maid Marian) Manager of Communications

7 Every few minutes the envelope blinks on my screen: mail from the BM-list: Tent construction in the desert. How Burning Man is progressing with its BLM permit (it’s not). Soil conditions. And again, in the Nevada Black Rock Desert, desert resistance of pets (none). GET ME OFF THIS CRAZY THING ... WILMA!!!!

Desire for the playa: I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT 8 Giant Naked Twister in CYBERBUSS Camp

9 Dutch is the tenth nationality aboard the CYBERBUSS: American Canadian Brazilian English Swiss German Italian French Venezuelan 10 CybersAM (29), an online marketer and web designer from San Francisco, points to the old school bus.

”This was the first one we saw. I wanted to look further, but Yanick said: buy. No discussion possible. He has paid one half, all of us the other.”

Yanick (27), Canadian, nods.

Together they worked for months to make it into CYBERBUSS. Now they are on report for CYBERSPACE. Sam makes digital photos, which he sends to the world from the desert with a laptop and satellite phone www.cyberbuss.com:

Join the CYBERBUSS on a VIRTUAL TRIP to Burning Man! They arrived days ago. The content of the BUSS - wood, plastic, glitter, pieces of dust, stars, water guns, benches, tables, silver paint, drinks, drugs, food and friends - is scattered over CYBERBUSS CAMP.

Cyberbuss Camp.

Sam, bare-chested and wearing big black glasses on his shaved silver-painted head, speaks Portuguese with Baucho and Monica from Brazil, once stopped by and lingered.

Cathy (26) from San Francisco, long wavy copper blond hair, freckles, sparkling gaze, in black patent boots and a purple bra, paints silver stripes on Anton's face, a diplomat son raised in England with a boarding school accent and long dark hair. 

Kurt (28), Swiss, is a researcher for a web video company in SF. He plays in a woolly crawler suit and a hat with fur ears on a multicolored home-made piano. 

Yanick and Carlos from Venezuela, in shrieking dresses and pointed hats, exchange obscenities about attractive boys while Cody, a four-star chef in leather pants, bakes pizzas to eat later. Sam: We all work. But this - he points to the chaos around us - is what we live for 11 Money is useless in Black Rock City You bring everything yourself. Pancakes are bartered in exchange for a dance, bicycles for chocolate, beer for a joke.

There are no ties with the business world, the official art world or the authorities. There are no subsidies, sponsors, cola or hamburgers. Burning Man is run non-commercially from ten living rooms. It organizes itself. Via the site you arrange travel, camp, food and entertainment.

We ourselves are the biggest attraction 12 In the Blue Light District, after the nocturnal color fades, more email-names get faces. There are many theme camps from the BBS system the BM Org hosts. There are daily cocktail parties at Country Club Camp. Drinks are not for sale, but everyone hoists absinthe and tequila because the only house rule is DRINK OR MOVE ON!

Geekboy, a 28-year-old hacker, computer programmer and postmaster of the list, is talking to John, the Black Rock Desert Radio Pastor, who later will get married that week in Black Rock City - twice, because the in-laws get lost in the desert. The SPACE COW GIRLS of the SPACE COW GIRL CAMP further down stomp into cowboy pants of long-haired blue and orange fur that reveal their buttocks in shiny lycra, Stetsons on their Betty Page hairstyles, the lush necklines pressed into small lace tops. As a Black Rock City Fashion Patrol, they tirelessly pursue FASHION PERPETRATORS. I get a compliment for THE LARGEST HAIR PIN ON THE PLAYA We walk among the freaks on the cracked playa where in a pile of hay the sound of a generator sounds like a house: someone builds a huge statue of ice in the middle of the desert.

13 Pink Barbie Wedding 14 It's just like Beavis and Butthead. Massive MEDIA SMARTNESS. 

Everything is second hand under the motto better stolen well than badly conceived. Everything is taken for granted. Everyone has taken books, music, lyrics, letters, photos, television, film, news, animation, the web and advertising out of context and put them on the playa. We laugh all day long. The bright desert light makes all those media fragments just as meaningless as you often experience them yourself. Everyone here looks through your eyes.

15 The writer Douglas Rushkoff (Cyberia) mentions the Droste effect in his book Children of Chaos: that typical, distant view of media-wise young people. Douglas Rushkoff, October 9: Mirroring or repeating contains something on a new level. You get that with the mirrors of self-parables like Beavis and Butthead in front of the TV mirroring the experience of the person watching - it's just like a Shakespearean game-in-a-game. Mirrored insight is thinking: aha! 16 The sun disappears behind the mountains, the sky turns bright red. Cheering sounds from all over Black Rock City.

17 We see the procession of monks with lanterns moving through the streets to the double row of lights that stretches through desert to the purple and green skeleton of the Man. In Center Camp, dark under the clear sky, he stands out against the fires that flare up everywhere groups of people bask in the glow.

We stand on top of the CYBERBUSS to see the crowd proceed into the desert, their silhouettes black against the piles of fire in the distance around the Man. Jim Mason from San Francisco makes our silver-painted cheeks flicker in a meter-long blue fire tongue from the rusty barrel of the Veggiematic, a monstrous flame-thrower on man-sized wheels.

I run into the playa to take pictures. The colorful tribe travels through the flickering light to the grand arena on the playa, glittering waders and soft smooth boy faces, aliens, a snorkeler and girls in pink, shivering in the desert chill, to the arena with the towering Man, surrounded by naked bodies dancing around it in an ingenious choreography.

People jump back when a human torch pops out of the dark, the heaps of hay jumps around the Man and runs around the pedestal, arms, legs, head burning and waving in the dark, while the hay swells in bright flames that rise past the Man shoot into the sky.

When the Man catches fire the neon explodes and fire shoots in all directions. The dancers put their fists in the air. People push towards the fire and the circle starts to move around the Man, We walk in a large circle around the man Faster and Closer, while the dancers flee the inner ring, Increasingly smaller, Hotter and hotter The Man howls and we plunge into the scorching heat boys run laps as fast as they can in the hellish glow of the Man girls throw their clothes off while everyone sings and shouts and dances to the sound of percussion everywhere. A hippie is wearing a marquee on his head BURN BURN BURN and on the couch of the mobile living room a young couple makes love. 18 The first Man burned to forget a failed love. Larry Harvey: “If we had set fire to a wooden statue in a museum or gallery, it would have been a one-time thing. Then you repeat yourself and everyone thinks: you did it again, with that thing. But on the beach there were three times as many people around it than could have been in a gallery. Burning something together does something to you. That's why we still do it.”

At the last Burn on the beach a frightening herd of drunken pyromaniacs faced off with the police, with Harvey in between. So the event moved to the desert in Nevada, half a day's drive from San Francisco. “Now that it became difficult to get there, people had to work together, survive together. Everyone who made it automatically became a participant.”

The fire festival has grown in eleven years from a large campfire to an outrageous spectacle with ten thousand actors. According to Harvey, the party runs on "radical free expression" in addition to surviving together. It is a drama with ten thousand storylines, and even the catharsis is interactive.

Although he now finds the broken heart story somewhat embarrassing, he says in the Wired book: It is striking how many people you meet here are at a crossroads in their lives: either they are just alone again, or they are making a crisis by whether they are in love again. Nobody leaves as he arrived.

Someone said: Burning Man is an ideal opportunity to try out a new personality.

19 At four o'clock the playa is quiet except for some scattered techno parties and the Dead Kennedys in Pedal Camp, the Blade Runner-like camp of a circus of stray kids. Sam passes a joint. I lie in a chair in a bright pink lycra dress, gold foil from Cody's kitchen with silver tape from wrist to shoulder wrapped around my arms against the chilly desert air, black body painting, silver smudges on my face and chest. Baucho is sleeping on the couch.

Someone said Jim is going to burn the ice statue with the Veggiematic, Sam says: Is that possible? I say yes and Sam takes a sip and grins. He made it himself. Kurt shouts… He sees Jim. We run through the darkness, jump over tent lines, evade parts of artwork, past the luxury bus where Larry and Marian are sleeping, shouting at Pedal Camp. JIM'S BURNING THE ICE SCULPTURE and the stony punks immediately jump up to the edge of the playa where the spiny silhouettes of the hard core stand out against the monstrous beam of fire. Jim sits on top of the Veggiematic.

the grand Ice statue orange blue in the sea of ​​flames BURN THE FUCKER shouting bright blonde kids in Carhartts BURN THE BITCH and pierced girls grinning. A blond girl in a pink slip dress and someone in a rabbit suit stand mesmerized. A huge drill in front of the Veggiematic starts turning and creaking Jim pulls and slams the untouched Ice Statute kids screaming GET THE BITCH

Bunnie scurries towards Blondie, who is laughing with a smile. They exchange a first glance, grin, stand hand in hand. He takes her in his arms, they hug, kiss, cling to each other, breathe and kiss.

Broadway eat your heart out, someone says, teeth shimmering in the glow of the maniacal fire and Blondie and Bunnie look at each other and walk ecstatic glances over their shoulders into the desert.

20 People are fucking in the desert.

Geezers drive their hormonal shit to the limit and just don't fall dead. Girls are grinning at it. The girls are noisy, lush and in charge. No one is going to fuck with THEM. They walk half naked without bullshit. Boys burn the whole thing down without anyone nagging. The sexes get along well in the Black Rock Desert.

21 There is no Greenpeace. There is an Environmental Disaster Camp, a nuclear power plant run by guys in cool radiation suits. And the Authentic Meat Eaters Association. Shots are being fired. Big Rig Industries hands out badges:

EAT FUCK KILL

22 Little Burning Man: "screw up with that giant" PISS CLEAR: rebel-zine against the official Black Rock Gazette. Anti Burning Man Camp: FUCK BURNING MAN 23 Glen Ricci (27), a web designer from Capitol Hill in the Washington Post : It rises above the hippie idea of ​​peace, love and understanding. That is too simple. The point is that you realize that everyone is different, and that you find a place for all those differences. There is even room for hatred and destruction as long as you participate in the community and you follow a few simple rules. To me, that is more concrete than such an elusive concept as "peace."

24 Larry Harvey: "Burning Man says nothing ABOUT society. IT IS a society." 25 Brad Wieners, editor of WIRED, refers in Burning Man to Hakim Bey's concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone Bey: A Temporary Autonomous Zone is a revolt without direct confrontation with the State, a guerrilla operation covering an area (in country, time, or the imagination) and then dissolve itself again before the State can do its destructive work, to unfold somewhere else a little later. "

26 At dawn I walk through the motionless city to the edge of the playa. Public Enemy sounds from Pedal Camp. WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME

I walk between the rusty wheels, saws, bars, chains, gas cylinders and metallic residues to the corrugated iron roof where punks get Pedal Camp bikes apart drinking beer and the components welded together. The bikes are scattered on the sand like metal tramps in the pale pink morning light, some two or three storeys high, with twin or set saddles, and I find one that rides. If you have anything from a collateral, it's really cool, says a girl with a big tattoo. I take off my sweater and am in a purple slip dress in the pink-white morning. The girl says whatever. I take it off and put the sweater back on. I drive out of Pedal Camp into the desert. The ground is cracked into chunks that crackle under the tires. I drive into the void. The soft sun warms my face. After a while I step barefoot on the crackled salt bed of the playa, a prehistoric lake bottom, and I notice my feet sinking through the salty crust into a soft clay layer. I start running, plodding through the mud, to a shimmering lake on the horizon. For a while I run as fast as I can, pulling a wavy trail through nothing Then I walk slower and take off my clothes and stand still in the chilly desert air, the mirrored water is just as far away only in the void silence the rising sun on my stomach, legs and chest. 27 In Pedal Camp I put the bike back and the girl takes off the purple slip dress. 28 This year, for the first time, camera teams from CNN and NBC are taking over the playa. The media reception at Black Rock Gazette Camp is a busy gathering with its own tribal marks: pens, aftershave, watches. CNN cameramen and journalists in polo shirts are drinking green glass absinthe with plastic press cards around their necks: THIS PASS GIVES RIGHT TO NOTHING IN PARTICULAR Masked rebels shoot the press with water guns. A man with a beard paints a glittering rainbow in my neckline with purple and pink while a woman named Rainbow holds up his palette and smiles. 29 The highly educated people in their twenties and thirties, marketing statistics from birth, do not trust the media for a cent. They think the press is coming to look for monkeys, looking for sensational stories on behalf of the advertisers.

31 Anti-Burning Man column in PISS CLEAR: Burning Man is bigger than ever this year. There are cameras and press and lots of people we have never seen before. And there are farmers who only come for fun, and day-trippers, who will never understand. 32 What We Hate - A Summary 1) The Media, in general, because you can't trust them to show us our best side 2) Photographers, because they shoot our tits without asking 3) Pet-Brothers, because we said NO DOGS 4) Yahoo's, whatever that is, because they are stupid and indifferent and only want to party 33 In Black Rock City you laugh at politics. But whoever comes to the city comes to you. The whatever shruggers get excited about one thing: their own autonomy. 34 Not that it should be ideal immediately. Ideals are a waste of time. PISS CLEAR: No, it's not like five years ago when we were only a few hundred. And it will never be like that again. SO FUCKING ADJUST 35 All of Black Rock City is a work of art. Although the camp seems null and void in the immensity of the desert, the main street is a mile-long boulevard along more than two hundred theme camps - something in between architecture, installation, performance, theater, sculpture, opium kit, camping site and caravan camp. There are no limitations in form, material or disciplines, and the entire population is an artist. There is no difference between daily life and performance.  It is a mass creation of individuals who, while inventing an ideal city, an ideal art form and an ideal community, reinvent themselves. 36 Burning Man has as many meanings as visitors. And that is no wonder, because in the end it is a product of their imagination. If, like the writer William Gibson, you believe that we dream the whole reality together, you can see in Burning Man a good example of a virtual community that becomes reality, a society with its own model of reality. If you, like the highly-educated web twenties in Burning Man, believe that you can re-imagine yourself, create a community out of the blue, dream a city together, generate massive involvement in the survival of that city, adapt to reality such as who is able to make contact with like-minded souls around the world can work and live where you want Are you are free to do what you want 37 Burning Man is bankrupt Harvey: The police left yesterday with more than $120,000. The permit came one day before the event’s start. 

Last-minute condition: transfer the entire cash register for use by the police and fire brigade. The bill has not yet been specified. The debt is now around $60,000. How legal that is will be the judge. There were enough lawyers in Black Rock City. 38 Harvey: Everyone was wondering if we could continue to grow at this pace - passive spectators would smother creativity, restrict new rules of freedom, or everything would be disastrous. Of course there has been no fire, aggression or vandalism. In six days, two people have been arrested in a population of 10,000 - a possible low crime record for all of Nevada. This was the most vibrant, creative, connected Burning Man ever. Our website is red hot, money appears in the mailbox and people I have never seen spontaneously collect. Apparently everyone wants it to go on. We are not only going to pay off our debts, but build a fund for the future. If you think about it properly, the problem is only money.

And as important as it sometimes seems, money is ultimately our least valuable resource. 39 San Francisco, a restless colony of gold diggers, the last frontier on the west coast, the most densely populated place on earth, continues to expand. Thirty years after the Summer of Love, a new generation of flower children in Black Rock City dreams of having their own domain in MARKETING HELL. 40 The art itself. You must be able to laugh about it, participate in it, you must be able to dance to it or have sex with it and it must be able to break.

41 The first day in the desert you are miserable, the second even worse: headache, nausea, dehydration. After three bone-dry days and sleepless nights, your body will get the message. You fucking adjust.

The day after the burn, the desert is a horizonless chill out zone. Black Rock City is already fading in the wind. The organization is drinking with the fire brigade in Larry's camp. They will return next year, but then as a participant.

The street punks of Pedal Camp, across the dusty main street, are under the corrugated iron roof of food and drink. They stay a week to clean the grounds. "We do it every year," says an eighteen-year-old boy. We don't care. We received food, drinks and dope from everyone before they left. Tonight we will cook a six-course dinner. What ever.

The organization's inventory mail is also full of given away bags, tins and boxes of food. We pick out vegetables for Cody who wants to bake the pizzas as a gift for the wedding reception of Reverend John, Black Rock City radio minister. Back in CYBERBUSS CAMP we all eat bagels, muffins, blue corn chips at the big table in Cody's bar.

I fall down and grin when I think of the corporate credit card in my pocket and the anarchist energy on the playa.

#NRC Handelsblad #Sandra Küpfer #1997 #Burning Man 1997

[suzannejdubose1-blog]

Siargao – Surf’s Up but don’t drink the what? 

My flight left at 7:45 a.m. for Siargao so yet another 5:00 a.m. wake up call but fantastic choice as I had a really relaxing day on a very beautiful island. I splurged here spending $40 USD a night at Patrick’s on the Beach where I got an unbelievable private bungalow, my own shower, good food and my toes in the sand outside my front door not to mention an ocean of bath water temperature. Sheer perfection. Laid back.

A LESSON….

I did learn a lesson about purchases from street vendors so I’m passing it along. Everyone loves an adventure but not the kind this can bring!  BEWARE OF PURCHASING COCA COLA AND PEPSI PRODUCTS FROM A STAND ON THE STREETS. True story – what do you need to make a motorbike go? Easy: petrol. Guess how these guys store and sell petroleum products? In old plastic Coca Cola and Pepsi bottles. You just pull up to a wooden stand or shack, open the gas tank and dump it from the bottle into the tank. Take some to go for a long journey. Dare ya. In fact, forget to tell your friends that little tip I just gave you and take some “Cola” to go. (Don’t do that…I’m only joking.)  I’m certain this was not the marketing ploy both Coca Cola and Pepsi had in mind or paid billions for but could be effective depending on whether the regular or the premium gas is in your particular brand’s bottle.

A BLESSON….

My main goal in Siargao was to surf the famous Cloud 9. My first attempt was blocked by low tides so I spent a day at my bungalow where the French crepes were up there among the clouds but I was pretty bummed out. That carried over to the next day. I was having a ‘you need to ‘HALT’ sort of day i.e. when you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired, you had better HALT and take an inventory of yourself and address one or more of these issues. It happens in life and it certainly happens when you’re traveling given the pace, excitement, exposure to new foods and cultures and sometimes not so good sleeping conditions.

So, I got cranky (yes me!) due to probably all the above. When I couldn’t surf Cloud 9, when I learned it was an extra 300 pesos for an outrigger to Cemetery (another famous surf break in Siargao) and then I saw I had to walk about 3km barefoot knee deep in the water on painful rocks and coral, my feet all cut up, to get to the break at Cemetery, let’s just say I had a problem and it was ME!

Then, suddenly and embarrassingly, it hit me like a baseball bat to the head that I was “walking on water” both literally and metaphorically. I was actually walking out in the middle of the embracingly warm ocean in the beautiful Philippines at sunset preparing to try and surf the mother of all surfs. There were less than 8 people out there. Talk about a HALT! I stopped dead in my tracks, did a 360 degree turn to view my surroundings of the jungle covered lush green islands, white sands, water so clear I could see my red toenails, a cumulus cloud filled sky with God’s rays peeking through them to cast rays of light on the water and pink in the sky. A gentle breeze caressed my skin washing the ugliness inside me away. I was standing dead center in God’s paradise – a place that emanates God in his purest form – and all frustrations, fears, resentments, and stress melted away like magic and utter gratitude slipped in filling every pore of my skin. I apologized to God immediately for my reprehensible attitude and asked for his forgiveness and the forgiveness of all those less fortunate than I and in that moment that likely included everyone in the world.

Jacob, my instructor, and I then continued on our “walk on water” and the stones and coral beneath my feet no longer hurt. I slid onto the shortest surfboard of my short surfing career knowing and accepting the likelihood I would not be able to get up, given beginners generally do better on the long board. To my utter amazement, when the first wave came and each and every one thereafter, my body slid effortlessly from my tummy to my feet and my gaze shifted from the water directly before me to the incredulous sunset in the distance. I felt sheer joy and utter peace simultaneously. I was certain I had reached a new level of serenity and spirituality out there in the middle of that ocean. I could have stayed there forever – content and back to being the daughter God wishes me to be.

God continued to bless me (as always) as he filled my evening with great authentic Filipino food grilled right there on the street at Mama’s Grill, filled my evening with new friends, and then handed me a peaceful night ocean side under the third best starlit filled sky I’ve seen on my journey behind only Cabo Polonio, Uruguay and the Sahara desert in Merzouga, Morocco. With such a beautiful night, I was tempted to skinny dip – but I didn’t.  Modesty? Shyness? Nope – none of those. It was because of the cangrejos!! There were hundreds or more of those little bastards, a/k/a crabs, running around the beach and at a dizzying pace. It freaked me out! No midnight swims for this chica! 🦀

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  HANG TEN ON CLOUD NINE – SIARGAO ISLAND Siargao – Surf's Up but don't drink the what?  My flight left at 7:45 a.m. for Siargao so yet another 5:00 a.m.

#Accomodations #Beaches #Blesson #Blog #Bungalows #Cemetery #Cloud 9 #Cloud Nine #Crabs #Food #Lesson #Mama&039;s Grill #Ocean #Patricks on the Beach #Surf #Travel